South Africa: Bill marks turning point for youth development

The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) says the approval of the NYDA Amendment Bill will be marked as one of the important milestones for youth development in the country, as it showcases that the voice of the youth is taken seriously by government.

The NYDA has welcomed Cabinets approval to amend the NYDA Act 2008 (Act 54, 2008), following extensive consultations undertaken with various stakeholders across the country in May 2021 during an Integrated Youth Development Strategy Conference.

NYDA Executive Chairperson, Asanda Luwaca, said during the consultations, young people proposed that the NYDA Act 2008 needs to widely address challenges of young people in the country.

We are excited at the changes that have been made. The current Act provides a legislative framework for the provision of National Youth Service, support towards youth economic participation, youth advisory and information services, Luwaca said.

Luwaca said the agency would like to encourage all young people to be part of the consultative processes that influence policy changes in the country.

The proposed amendments strengthen the specific areas of interventions within the challenges faced by youths; clarifies the political reporting lines of the entity and proposes increasing the size of the NYDA Board from seven to 10 members.

It provides for the setting up of NYDA services at local level, especially for youths in rural areas, who are unable to easily access the services of the NYDA, said Luwaca.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-02-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Iran's FM says "good agreement" within reach in short term if West shows seriousness

Xinhua) 08:37, February 15, 2022

TEHRAN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran said Monday a "good agreement" will be within reach in the short term, if the United States and the E3 group of France, Britain and Germany show seriousness to fully honor their commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian made the remarks after meeting with his visiting Irish counterpart Simon Coveney in Tehran, according to official news agency IRNA.

Amir Abdollahian told reporters that "we are ready to reach a good agreement and do not welcome the Western side's shock-based approach."

"Instead of displaying a shock-based behavior and playing with time and text, the Western sides are required to prove their real intention for returning to their entire commitments under the JCPOA," formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he added.

Amir Abdollahian stressed that Iran seeks to reach a good agreement as soon as possible as it would be better for the country, noting that such an agreement must be reached within the framework of logical negotiations and safeguard the Iranian nation's interests and rights.

He said through the messages they sent to the Islamic republic through third countries and mediators, the Americans claim to have the goodwill to reach an agreement, but nothing tangible has happened yet on the ground proving the U.S. goodwill in practice.

Commenting on the deadlines set by some parties for the talks to produce results, Amir Abdollahian stressed that threats and warnings by the Western sides do not determine the ending point of the negotiations or the time for achieving a good agreement, but the realities of the negotiating table and extent of the Western sides' seriousness and efforts to return to their commitments.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in his meeting with Coveney later in the day that the real removal of the sanctions and respect for the rights of Iran's people are what the Islamic republic insists on in the Vienna talks.

Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments one year later and advance its halted nuclear programs.

Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties, namely Britain, China, France, Russia plus Germany, to revive the landmark deal, with the United States indirectly involved.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
The Annapolis City Council passed an amended emergency resolution Monday that calls for stricter enforcement for environmental violations of city and state sediment and erosion control standards.

The resolution, R-7-22, passed unanimously after a lengthy discussion of several amendments to the measure sponsored by Alderman Rob Savidge, a Ward 7 Democrat. Savidge had introduced the resolution late last month after new environmental violations were found by city inspectors at Parkside Preserve, a residential development currently under construction near Quiet Waters Park. After the violations were discovered, the city issued $3,000 in fines and briefly imposed a stop-work order while the contractor, Reliable Contracting Co., addressed a broken silt fence and sediment flows off site.

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Even before its final passage, the resolution accomplished the goal of getting the contractor to implement better sediment and erosion controls and signaling to city staff how the council would like them to apply environmental laws, Savidge said.

[The resolution] doesnt create new law. It just says, within our existing parameters, heres how the council thinks you should be using your discretion to help prevent pollution, Savidge said So, the fact that staff is already working on standard operating procedures and made all these improvements, I think does show that its worked.

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The incident has led to improvements to the Public Works Departments inspection process to look at what was working and what wasnt, including developing a formalized inspection report akin to a checklist, Public Works Director Michael Johnson said during Mondays meeting.

What weve given them, the inspections staff, is basically a checklist that they have to go through so that its very, very difficult, almost impossible, to miss anything on the site each time, Johnson said. The inspection is comprehensive, and thats why Im very comfortable with this approach.

For months, Savidge and residents who live near the construction site off Annapolis Neck Road have reported muddy and cloudy liquid discharges, failing sediment controls and other violations. The city has fined the contractors twice before and recently moved to tighten its violation enforcement.

In a series of amendments, the council changed some of the resolutions language, including parts that specifically mention Reliable Contracting or the worksite in favor of broader wording to encompass any contractor that could violate city code.

Savidge chose not to introduce an amendment that would have suspended the grading permit for Parkside Preserve because we have seen progress and an increased responsiveness from the contractor on most issues, he said.

Some residents remain skeptical that more violations wont occur.

Just to be frank, I think, just from hearing some of them, I think it is going to take time for them to rebuild trust with the city, Savidge said. I want to be, hopefully, a part of trying to restore that.

A quartet of amendments sponsored by Alderwoman Sheila Finlayson, a Ward 5 Democrat, all passed, further refining the resolutions language to conform with county inspection standards, specify when a stop-work order is necessary and ensure that city inspectors werent advising contractors on remedies to violations.

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Mayor Gavin Buckley sponsored a separate amendment intended to reach out to the Maryland Department of the Environment about finding ways to increase maximum fines for violations. Buckley called the move symbolic because the Maryland General Assembly would ultimately be responsible for hiking fines.

Savidge, the chair of the Environmental Matters standing committee, will now focus on introducing legislation to permanently change City Code to impose stricter inspection guidelines, he said, adding that he hopes to work with Johnson on the bill.

Garage rebuild spawns two transit bills

Members of the public weighed in during Mondays meeting on two separate but related bills, O-40-21 and O-7-22.

The former is Buckleys proposal to buy an electric ferry and several other electric vehicles in an effort to provide sustainable transit options while the Noah Hillman Garage is rebuilt. The latter is a bill introduced Monday and sponsored by Alderman Brooks Schandelmeier, D-Ward 5, to eliminate off-street parking requirements for bars, restaurants and taverns.

The Hillman parking garage on Gorman Street is near the Maryland Association of Counties offices. The rebuild is expected to continue to April 2023.

Bill Reichardt, president of the Eastport Civic Association, testified against amending the fiscal 2022 capital budget to include a down payment on an electric ferry and seeking county, state and federal funding for docking infrastructure.

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While he doesnt oppose amending the capital budget to improve mobility challenges and lessen paved parking, Reichardt said, the proposed electric ferry in Eastport will add even more visitor cars to the already stressed free, unlimited parking on Eastport residential streets.

Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. >

He recommended waiting to take further action on both bills until a joint task force of members from the civic association and the Eastport Business Association complete a study on the impact of both the transit plan and the elimination of parking requirements would have on Eastport.

This is a perfect opportunity for government and citizens and businesses to work together to develop problem-solving on issues that will affect many aspects of our community, Reichardt said. Meaningful community participation is essential for good governance and any successful collaboration between the citys elected officials and their constituents.

Jake Iversen, who recently acquired Watermark Cruises and Tours, also testified on the citys plans to buy an electric ferry that would run from Eastport to City Dock, asking that the ferry service be left to the professional mariners of the existing taxi fleet.

Last year, Watermark discussed plans with Buckley to modernize the fleet of the 50-year-old company to include batteries, Iversen said, and was then surprised to learn that the city was looking into getting into the water taxi business too.

Seventy percent of our water taxi business is from Eastport to Annapolis, he said. If the city were to add a free taxi, it would suppress Watermarks ability to operate our services to Back Creek, upper Spa Creek, and the mooring field including the anchorage.

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The electric ferry plan has the support of the entire council. The Finance Committee will begin to deliberate on the bill Wednesday.

The off-street parking bill has been referred to the Planning Commission.
Alexandria-based petrochemical giant Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company (Sidpec) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nigerias Rungas Group to assist in building a petrochemical complex in Africas most populated nation.

Per the deal, reports say, Sidpec will provide its experience and will be a partner in the new complex and will provide technical support through all phases of the project.

Established in 1997 and listed on EGX in 2005, Sidpec operates within the materials sector focusing on commodity chemicals. It has subsidiaries operating across Egypt, working on textiles and oil and gas refining.

The company in January posted 1,957.69% year-on-year (YoY) hike in net profit after tax for the year 2021. Net profit after tax reached EGP 535 million (around $34 million) in 2021, compared to a profit of EGP 26 million in 2020.

The companys revenue rose by 48.08% YoY to EGP 5.13 billion in 2021 from EGP 3.46 billion.
Rebels in the southern Senegalese town of Casamance freed seven Senegalese soldiers on Monday across the border from Gambia where they had been holding captive since a deadly clash on January 24.

The seven Senegalese soldiers, members of the West African military mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG), were taken by rebels to a location near the Gambian village of Bajagar, where representatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Gambian army, and an Italian Catholic mediator organization, SantEgidio, were waiting.

The Senegalese soldiers, apparently in good health, left in Red Cross vehicles.

They were captured in a January 24 clash with men from the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MDFC). Four Senegalese soldiers were killed, according to the Senegalese army.

The clash was one of the most serious events in the Casamance conflict in recent years.

Casamance has been the scene of one of the oldest conflicts in Africa since independence fighters went underground after a march was suppressed in December 1982.

After claiming thousands of lives and devastating the economy, the conflict has persisted at low intensity. Senegal is working to normalize the situation and has begun resettling displaced persons.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The Netherlands said Tuesday it will drop almost all coronavirus restrictions, the latest European country to try to return to normal despite still-high Omicron variant infections.

Dutch bars, restaurants and nightclubs will go back to pre-pandemic opening hours and health passes will be scrapped by February 25, the health minister said.

Social distancing and face masks will no longer be obligatory in most places, while the quarantine period for those with COVID-19 will be shortened to five days.

"The country will open again," Health Minister Ernst Kuipers told a press conference.

He warned however that while "we seem to be over the peak", the pandemic was "not over".

"We can be optimistic but we also have to be realistic," he said.

The Netherlands imposed some of Europe's toughest measures in December to curb a surge in Omicron infections but has phased some out in recent weeks.

It will now join countries including Denmark and Norway in dropping most restrictions.

The Netherlands, with a population of 17 million, recorded a huge 482,695 positive tests last week but the figure was down 22 percent on the previous week.

Seventy-eight people died and 88 were in intensive care.

Limits on the number of guests people can have at home will end immediately, while people will be advised to work from home for only half the week, Kuipers said.

Nightclubs and bars can open until 1am from this Friday, before all limits on opening hours are scrapped the following Friday.

"Young people should be able to unleash their wings," said Kuipers.

"We will go back to normal closing times we had before corona."

People will still need tests for events with more than 500 people.

From February 25, keeping 1.5 metres from other people and mask wearing will "remain sensible, but there is no obligation," with masks required only on public transport and in airports, he said.

Travel bans for several non-EU countries will also be dropped but travellers from EU nations must still show proof of vaccination or a negative test for now.

The health minister took office as part of Prime Minister Mark Rutte's new government in January and quickly signalled that he wanted to start getting society back to normal.

The Netherlands suffered two spates of rioting in 2021 over coronavirus restrictions, with police shooting and injuring several protesters in Rotterdam in November.

Explore further Dutch government eases lockdown despite soaring infections

 2022 AFP
This 2019 photo provided by the National Institutes of Health shows Dr. Bruce Tromberg. More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic the U.S. is still grappling with its coronavirus tests: how to improve them and how to make more of them. Tromberg is the top government scientist tasked with solving the nation's testing woes. Credit: Chia-Chi Charlie Chang/NIH via AP

More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic the U.S. is still grappling with its coronavirus tests: how to improve them and how to make more of them.

Dr. Bruce Tromberg of the National Institutes of Health is the top government scientist tasked with solving the nation's testing woes. He's in charge of $1.5 billion in congressional funding provided to scale up testing under the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, or RadX, initiative.

In addition to funding dozens of companies and researchers, the program is trying to answer knotty testing technology questions. One of the most pressing for employers is whether to require a negative test before infected staffers return to work.

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention faced criticism for not endorsing a negative rapid antigen test before people exit their five-day isolation period.

Tromberg says infectiousness is a complicated scientific question that goes beyond any single test result. His conversation with The Associated Press has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Why can't we assume a negative antigen test means you're no longer infectious?

A: If you get a positive antigen test, it's safe to assume you're infectious. But remember: Whether you actually infect someone is a two-body problem. You need a transmitter and a receiver.

So your chance of transmitting to larger numbers of people is going to depend on your immune status, your proximity to others, the air exchange and your behavior.

Q: What are the technological challenges to measuring infectiousness?

A: Let's do a little thought experiment: If you took a snapshot of everyone in the country who's got COVID and plotted their viral loads on a chart, it would range from about 10 virus copies per milliliter to one billion copies per milliliter. That's a huge range.

Q: Where do antigen tests fall on that range of detection?

A: Antigen tests can pick up from roughly a million copies to a billion. So that's pretty good. But how about if you're at five hundred thousand copies, will it pick you up? Probably.

The scary thing is that you could be at one hundred and still be infectious, especially if you and I are working out together in a gym and I'm constantly breathing on you and we're not wearing masks and you're not vaccinated. I would say it's super likely.

How do you intuit that? Well, look at the population curves. If we're in a phase of expansion of whatever the variant of the moment is where it goes up like a rocket ship, then that variant is pretty darn infectious. It's highly transmissible.

So it's a combination of a lot of things. It's the biology of the variant, but also the proximity and how it is transmitted.

I think it's unrealistic to think that tests are the final word. You have to really consider the totality of the countermeasures, especially when you're in a tidal wave of infections like omicron.

Explore further Rapid Covid tests not as accurate with Omicron: US regulator

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

You are just enjoying a nap on the sofa when your son suddenly turns up and asks you to help him with his math homework. This change from resting state to working mode is quite challenging for the brain. Based on the type of task, a specific neural network must be activated. Depending on the complexity of the task, different networks may have to interact. All this requires energy and strength.

A new study recently published in the journal Cerebral Cortex suggests that the higher a person's intelligence score, the easier it is for them to switch between resting state and different task states. This ability is based on certain neuronal networks and their communication structures. "The functional brain network architecture of individuals with higher test intelligence scores during resting state is more similar to the architecture as required for various cognitive tasks," says Dr. Kirsten Hilger.

Investigation the brain bases of human intelligence

Kirsten Hilger is the head of the "Networks of Behavior and Cognition" research group at the Department of Psychology I at the University of Wurzburg. Understanding the neural bases of human intelligence is one focus of her research. Her main interest is in the relationship between functional and structural brain networks and their significance for individual differences in intelligence. Together with the Ph.D. student Jonas A. Thiele and a team from Indiana University, Bloomington (U.S.), she conducted the project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Functional and structural brain networksto explain this difference, the neuroscientist uses a simple image: If you think of the information exchange between different regions of the brain as the transport of goods from London to Chicago, the highway would represent the structural brain connectionsthe better the highway infrastructure, the faster the traffic can flow. In contrast, the traffic would correspond to the functional connection of the brain. These functional connections were subject of the current study.

A study with more than 800 adults

For this purpose, the team used data from multi-center projects with more than 800 adults that were made available to researchers within the scope of international "Data Sharing" initiatives. Participants of the study were either resting or had to complete various tasks. During this time, the activity of their brain was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Seven types of tasks had to be completedeach representing a different cognitive process. To activate their working memory, participants had to decide, for example, whether the last image in a long series of images was identical to a previously shown image. To study language processing, they were told a story; then they had to choose between two alternatives to decide what the subject of the story was. To test social cognition, they watched video clips of moving geometric objects. They were then asked to decide whether these objects interacted with each other or not.

Each task triggers brain adaptions

"Magnetic resonance imaging enabled us to test our hypothesis that higher levels of general intelligence are associated with lower reconfiguration of brain networks," Hilger explains. Reconfiguration: This concept can also be illustrated using the road traffic metaphor.

"In the resting state, we measure the basic traffic, which is always flowing, so to speak," Hilger details. An external cognitive demand is then comparable to the rush hour or a holiday weekendtask-specific traffic comes on top of the baseline traffic, and depending on the task, different adjustmentsor reconfigurationsare necessary.

High intelligent people need fewer adaptations

Hilger and her team analyzed the processes both in the entire brain and in different functional brain networks that are known to be associated with specific brain functions. The results suggest that the functional networks of humans with higher intelligence scores require less adjustment when switching between different cognitive statestheir network architecture is designed to require less reconfiguration from resting state to working mode. Or figuratively speaking, their baseline traffic flows in a way that makes these adjustments less complex and does not cause congestions.

This effect occurred independently of the type of task to be completedthat is independently of the different cognitive demands to be processed. Their relative contribution to the observed effect was almost identical. According to the scientists, this result allows the conclusion that intelligence is a property of a widely distributed "multitask brain network" or in other words: "Intelligence is a phenomenon of the whole brain adapting to different requirements," Hilger says. The more intelligent an individual, the better their brain's network architecture is suited to perform various cognitive tasks.

Explore further Brain networks more stable in individuals with higher cognitive abilities

More information: Jonas A Thiele et al, Multitask Brain Network Reconfiguration Is Inversely Associated with Human Intelligence, Cerebral Cortex (2021). Journal information: Cerebral Cortex Jonas A Thiele et al, Multitask Brain Network Reconfiguration Is Inversely Associated with Human Intelligence,(2021). DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab473
(HealthDay)Edibles. In adults, they can be used recreationally or to help manage pain, nausea and anxiety. But these THC-loaded products, often sold as gummies, cookies and brownies, have fueled a four-year increase in the number of emergency calls for young children who mistakenly think they're yummy treats.

In 2021 alone, the New Jersey Poison Control Center assisted in the medical treatment of more than 150 children who ate cannabis edibles. Of these, nearly 100 were aged 5 or younger.

Nationally, there were 187 exposures to marijuana edibles among kids aged 12 and under in the United States in 2016, according to data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. By 2020, that number had risen to more than 3,100with a majority of the children aged 5 and under.

"Pediatric cannabis edible exposures are on the rise nationwide," said Dr. Diane Calello, executive and medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. "From 2019 to 2020, we observed a 370% increase in calls, and we received an all-time high of over 150 calls in 2021. So, it's clearly going up."

Another expert agreed the problem is worsening.

"We definitely have no shortage of children who get into parents' marijuana products. It's usually children 2 to 6 years old. It almost always involves edible products that are shaped like brownies or cookies or other things that children might reasonably think are good to eat," explained Dr. Eric Lavonas, toxicologist at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety in Denver.

"The children will come in very altered and unable to communicate with their environment, often throwing up," he said. "The biggest danger is to make sure it isn't something else and that the child doesn't become dehydrated."

There are common misconceptions that you can't overdose on THC and any amount is safe to consume. But too much cannabis can result in unwanted physical and mental side effects ranging in severity. And when compared to smoking cannabis, the effects of edibles are often delayed, which can lead to unintentional overconsumption, posing a real danger to children.

A study in the journal Pediatrics last October compared the incidence of children accidentally consuming cannabis edibles prior to and after cannabis products were legalized in 17 states across the United States and in Canada in October 2018. The researchers discovered a significant increase in the incidences of children under age 11 accidentally consuming cannabis edibles and requiring emergency medical attention during the post-legalization period.

Interestingly, the researchers also found that although ER visit rates increased from pre- to post-legalization of cannabis, the rate of change remained the same between the two periods. This indicates the incidences of children accidentally consuming edibles has continued at a steady rate, suggesting this problem existed even before cannabis was legalized.

Even in states that haven't legalized cannabis, the authors noted increased access to medicinal or illicit forms is widespread, which may factor into the rising numbers of kids ingesting edibles.

"These products have become more accessible and available as the majority of states have access to legal medical and/or recreational marijuana," said Kaitlyn Brown, clinical managing director at the American Association of Poison Control Centers. "Edible cannabis products can be very appealing to children due to the appearance and taste of the product. There has been a large increase in cases since 2016."

Unfortunately, children, unlike adults who consume edibles, are at a significantly higher risk for severe side effects from cannabis. These health effects can include difficulty breathing, loss of coordination, drowsiness and seizures. Children may even need to be admitted to an intensive care unit in extreme cases.

For example, a toxicology research report, published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine in November 2017, describes a group of birthday party attendees who unintentionally ate THC gummies. Of the 21 people, 12 were children who had to go to the hospital.

"While potentially deadly effects are fortunately very rare, they are also preventable," Calello said. "A visit to the [ER] can be frightening for children and parents. So, safe storage and packaging of these products is a small way to prevent a potentially big problem."

The experts at Rutgers offer these tips to help keep edibles secure and away from children:

Store edibles (or any cannabis products) the same way you would medicationin a secure/locked place out of sight and reach of children and pets.

Pay close attention to edible potency (THC concentration).

Limit the amount of edible products in the household at a given time.

Only purchase products containing cannabis from licensed, reputable sources.

Explore further Cannabis poisoning in young children increased nine times after legalization

More information: Sheryl A. Ryan, Unintended but Hardly Unexpected Consequences of Cannabis Legalization, Pediatrics (2021). Sheryl A. Ryan, Unintended but Hardly Unexpected Consequences of Cannabis Legalization,(2021). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2021-051426 Kathy T. Vo et al, Cannabis Intoxication Case Series: The Dangers of Edibles Containing Tetrahydrocannabinol, Annals of Emergency Medicine (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2017.09.008 Visit the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse for more on marijuana. Journal information: Pediatrics , Annals of Emergency Medicine

Copyright  2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Among the casualties of the COVID19 epidemic, one that's not immediately obvious is biomedical research not directly related to the pandemic and SARS-CoV-2.

This picture emerges in detail from a new study of researchers at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca on PLOS One. Analyzing the publications that appeared on PubMed between the beginning of 2018 and the end of 2020, the authors have shown that COVID-19 acted as a powerful and unpredictable shock, profoundly affecting and shifting priorities of the scientific production in the biomedical field. While publications related to all the aspects of the pandemic skyrocketedthanks to the commitment of the scientific community, which brought in a short period a surge of knowledge about the new coronaviruspublications, clinical trials, and grants in subjects not directly related to COVID decreased of up to 25 percent compared to the pre-COVID era, a fact non immediately evident and not without consequences.

To conduct their analysis, Massimo Riccaboni, professor of Economics at the IMT School, and Luca Verginer, now post-doc at the ETH Zurich, considered the PubMed repository, which contains more than 34 million biomedical citations annotated with the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terminology. MeSH are keywords manually assigned to the articles that allow to classify them based on their content. Then the authors introduced an index of relatedness to COVID-19 to measure how closely-related a term is to the pandemicfor example, "ageusia," loss of taste, a medical term existing since 1991, became known as a specific symptom of COVID-19, so it is highly relatedand compared scientific articles listing COVID-related Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and COVID-unrelated MeSH.

From this analysis, some data clearly emerged. First of all, as expected, it was evident that the scientific community immediately mobilized to produce research on COVID-19. In the first three months after the pandemic, the number of scientific papers about COVID-19 was fivefold the number of articles on H1N1 swine influenza. The term "Betacoronavirus' (SARS-CoV-2 is a species of the genus) skyrocketed from 2019 to 2020: the number of publications weighted by their impact factor increased by up to a factor of 100 compared to the previous. At the same time, the term "Alphacoronavirus'a different genusdid not experience any growth. For the period considered, all the research themes in some way related to COVIDeven those very rarely considered before, such as "quarantine" and "lockdown"exploded. The term "ageusia" was the subject of 176 articles in 2020. Similarly, the number of clinical trials related to COVID-19 prophylaxis and treatments significantly increased.

Much less noticeable and expected was what happened to the fields of biomedical research non-related to COVID-19. In this case, the authors observed a very significant reduction in publications, with medical terms not related to COVID appearing less and less frequently in the scientific literature. For the least related group, decreases in the number of publications was between 10 percent and 13 percent, and the drop in the impact factor weighted output reached almost 20 percent. The number of clinical trial publications in the least related group dropped by a staggering 24 percent. At the same time, publications on clinical trials for COVID-19-related MeSH increased by a factor of 2.1 Another effect emerged from the analysis: grants assigned in the pre-COVID era, already mentioned in 2018, were diverted to support COVID-19 related research, as it emerges from the number of publications linked to those grants.

This phenomenon, already shown by other studies, has been called "COVIDisation" of academic research. The IMT School analysis reveals the magnitude and proportions of this shift. "The overall picture that emerges is that there has been a profound realignment of priorities and research efforts, with the entire medicine focused on COVID-19," says Riccaboni. "While this effort and the mobilization of the scientific community brought us vaccines, this shift in fact also displaced biomedical research in the fields not related to COVID-19, bringing other undesired consequences." The phenomenon addressed in the study adds up to other relevant changes induced by the pandemic in the scientific research, such as the record number of studies suspended, the toll on women and early-career scientists, the questionable quality of methods and data gathered in clinical trials produced through fast-tracks. "It is important to point also these negative consequences, so to avoid for the future that research for diseases other than COVID-19, such as rare diseases, are further neglected," says Riccaboni.

Explore further How COVID-19 has affected cancer care

More information: Massimo Riccaboni et al, The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientific research in the life sciences, PLOS ONE (2022). Journal information: PLoS ONE Massimo Riccaboni et al, The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientific research in the life sciences,(2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263001

Provided by IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Young people were the hardest hit as the second COVID-19 lockdown took its toll on the mental health and wellbeing of the Welsh population, new research has revealed.

The studythe first to compare experiences during the first and second lockdowns of the pandemicdiscovered levels of wellbeing dropped significantly between the two periods with those aged between 16 and 24 and people living in deprived areas the most affected.

The Wales Wellbeing research groupa collaboration between Swansea University, Cardiff University, and the NHS in Waleswas set up to monitor just what issues most affected the population. It has carried out a series of surveys throughout the coronavirus crisis. asking the Welsh public how they have been coping.

Headed by Professor Nicola Gray, of Swansea University's School of Psychology and Professor Robert Snowden, from Cardiff University, it has now revealed:

Clinically significant levels of psychological distress in 40.4 percent of participants in the second survey, a 9.8 percent increase from the first survey;

Poorer mental health in women, younger adults, and those from deprived areas; and,

The greatest reduction in mental health in the youngest age group (1624 years old).

Its latest findings, based on surveys carried out by between June and July 2020 and January to March 2021, have just been published in online journal Advances in Mental Health.

The researchers examined the responses of 12,989 participants to the Wave 1 survey and 10,428 participants to the Wave 2 survey.

Their answers showed levels of wellbeing were lower in the second survey compared to the first, which were already low compared to pre-pandemic data from 2019.

Professor Gray said: "Of most note is that the decrease in mental health is greatest in younger people, exaggerating the existing imbalance in mental health for these younger people. Thus, 66.3 percent of the youngest group sampled were reporting moderate to severe psychological distress compared to 16.7 percent of those 75 and older.

"These results suggest that the presence of a second period of lockdown may be responsible for the present findings of a decline in mental health."

She said the data shows young people's mental health is especially vulnerable to lockdown restrictions: "There are many potential reasons. We know peer relationships play an especially important role in protecting adolescents against anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.

"So, any restrictions that limit peer contact are likely to be especially detrimental to younger people. Younger age groups also have lower resilience compared to older people and they have less financial and employment security."

Professor Bob Snowden added: "While there needs to be more research to understand the causal elements, our finding that younger individuals continue to be more adversely impacted by the pandemic must be considered by those responsible for planning wellbeing support for communities during the pandemic and beyond."

The team now hopes its findings will reinforce the need to consider wellbeing as we gradually move on from COVID-19.

Professor Gray said: "The virus has caused a global crisis with unprecedented impact. Continual monitoring of population wellbeing and psychological distress levels, alongside investigations into the causes of decreased mental wellbeing, is vital.

"Post-pandemic recovery programs must address the increase in mental health and wellbeing difficulties in young people, individuals from deprived areas, and women."

Explore further New survey reveals toll COVID-19 is taking on mental health in Wales

More information: James R. P. Knowles et al, Mental wellbeing and psychological distress in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparison across time, Advances in Mental Health (2022). James R. P. Knowles et al, Mental wellbeing and psychological distress in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparison across time,(2022). DOI: 10.1080/18387357.2022.2039072
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

During the first weeks of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in December 2020, Kathryn Freeman Anderson searched far and wide for places to get her parents, who are older than 65, vaccinated. The extensive search prompted the University of Houston associate professor of sociology to look at the map of Houston sites, and knowing the demographics of the city, she suspected there might be an association between segregation and vaccine allocations.

"I thought, 'we have a problem here,' and through our research, discovered that Black and Latino neighborhoods were less likely to get vaccines during the rollout because they already lack health care resources," said Anderson, whose teaching focus is on health and illness, racial ethnic relations and urban sociology.

The findings, published today in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, reveal a "clear issue of race and existing inequalities in health care" only exacerbated by the pandemic.

Anderson and co-author Darra Ray-Warren, a UH sociology student, examined how racial/ethnic residential segregation is associated with the distribution of vaccines sites and doses across the five largest urban counties in Texas: Bexar (San Antonio), Dallas (Dallas), Harris (Houston), Tarrant (Fort Worth) and Travis (Austin). They collected data from the Texas Department of State Health Services between weeks two and tenduring phases 1A and 1Bwhile supply and eligibility were still limited.

"We found that the racial/ethnic clustering scores have a significant relationship to the density of vaccine sites across these five counties," Anderson explained. "As clustering of Black and Latino groups increases, the number of vaccine sites per 100,000 people in a ZIP code decreases."

In other words, the greater percentage of a ZIP code that is Black or Latino, the fewer vaccine facilities the ZIP code is predicted to have based on the data. When the research team factored in the addition of hospitals and physicians' offices to certain ZIP codes, a higher number of vaccine distribution sites existed.

"This points to a much stronger race story than one about socio-economic dynamics, which is a prominent theme on resource allocation across neighborhoods," the study states. "Not having health care infrastructure in place means that when confronted with a public health catastrophe, the existing inequalities in our health care system are deepened. The COVID-19 pandemic is, for many people, one of the most disruptive and challenging public health events of our lifetimes. Vaccination in this context represents a lifeline to spare further human suffering, loss of life, and a potential return to normalcy. However, this valuable resource was not distributed evenly across urban areas, with limited access to populations already at risk for complications from the virus."

Anderson offers solutions to help alleviate this issue now and in future times of crisis.

"We need to be cognizant and make a more concerted effort to provide health care in underserved neighborhoods," she said. "One way is to educate more physicians of color because studies have shown they are far more likely to practice in minority neighborhoods."

More information: Kathryn Freeman Anderson et al, Racial-Ethnic Residential Clustering and Early COVID-19 Vaccine Allocations in Five Urban Texas Counties, Journal of Health and Social Behavior (2022). Journal information: Journal of Health and Social Behavior Kathryn Freeman Anderson et al, Racial-Ethnic Residential Clustering and Early COVID-19 Vaccine Allocations in Five Urban Texas Counties,(2022). DOI: 10.1177/00221465221074915
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

In a scientific first, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have discovered fundamental mechanisms by which the hippocampus region of the brain organizes memories into sequences and how this can be used to plan future behavior. The finding may be a critical early step toward understanding memory failures in cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

Combining electrophysiological recording techniques in rodents with a statistical machine learning analysis of huge troves of data, the UCI researchers uncovered evidence suggesting that the hippocampal network encodes and preserves progressions of experiences to aid in decision-making. The team's work is the subject of a paper published recently in Nature Communications.

"Our brain keeps a pretty good record of when specific experiences or events occur. This ability helps us function in our daily life, but before this study, we didn't have a clear idea of the neuronal mechanisms behind these processes," said corresponding author Norbert Fortin, UCI associate professor of neurobiology and behavior. "Where it connects with everybody is that this type of memory is strongly impaired in a variety of neurological disorders or simply with aging, so we really need to know how this brain function works."

The project, which took more than three years to complete, involved experimental and data analysis phases. The researchers monitored the firing of neurons in rats' brains as they underwent a series of odor identification tests. By presenting five different smells in various sequences, the scientists were able to measure the animals' memory of the correct sequence and detect how their brains captured these sequential relationships.

"The analogy I would think about is computing," Fortin said. "If I were to stick electrodes in your brainwe can't; that's why we use ratsI could see which cells are firing and which ones are not firing at any given moment. That provides us with some insight into how the brain represents and computes information. When we record activity patterns in a structure, it's like we're seeing zeros and ones in a computer."

Obtained in millisecond intervals over several minutes, neuronal activity and inactivity measurements present a dynamic picture of the brain's functioning. Fortin said that he and his colleagues were, in some ways, able to "read the minds" of their subjects by viewing the "coding" of the cellswhich ones were firing and which were notin rapid succession.

"When you're thinking about something, it moves quickly," he said. "You're not stuck on that memory for long. Right now, it's being represented, but we can see how that changes very quickly."

Fortin knew early on that the readings of hippocampal activity would result in enormous quantities of raw data. From the beginning stages of the project, he enlisted the participation of statisticians in the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences.

"The neuroscience questions we had at the time in my lab were way too advanced for the statistical knowledge we had. That's why we needed to involve partners with data science expertise," Fortin said.

"These emerging neuroscience studies rely on data science methods because of the complexity of their data," said senior co-author Babak Shahbaba, UCI Chancellor's Fellow and professor of statistics. "Brain activities are recorded at millisecond scale, and these experiments run for more than an hour, so you can imagine how fast the amount of data grows. It gets to a point that neuroscientists need more advanced techniques to accomplish what they had imagined but weren't able to implement."

He noted that when neurons encode information such as memories, scientists can get a glimpse of that process by examining the pattern of spiking activity across all recorded neurons, known collectively as an ensemble.

"We found that we could treat these neural patterns as images, and this unlocked our ability to apply deep machine learning methods," Shahbaba said. "We analyzed the data with a convolutional neural network, which is a methodology used frequently in image processing applications such as facial recognition."

This way, the researchers were able to decode the firing of neurons to retrieve information.

"We know what the signature for odor B looks like, just as we know the ones for A, C and D," Fortin said. "Because of that, you can see when those signatures reappear at a different moment in time, such as when our subjects are anticipating something that has yet to happen. We're seeing these signatures being quickly replayed as they're thinking about the future."

Shahbaba said that the tools and methodologies developed during this project can be applied to a wide range of problems, and Fortin may extend his line of inquiry into other brain regions.

The study is an example of the power of convergence research at institutions such as UCI, Shahbaba said: "I could directly see the difference this is making for our students. Researchers in Norbert's neuroscience group are taking data science classes and can now ask some really important scientific questions they could not investigate in the past, and my own students are thinking fundamentally about the scientific method in an unprecedented way."

He added, "Through this collaboration, we are training the next generation of scientists, who have the required skills to conduct interdisciplinary research."

Fortin and Shahbaba were joined on the project by Pierre Baldi, UCI Distinguished Professor of computer science; Lingge Li, who earned a Ph.D. in statistics at UCI in 2020; Forest Agostinelli, who earned a Ph.D. in computer science at UCI in 2019 and is now an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina; Mansi Saraf and Keiland Cooper, UCI Ph.D. students in neurobiology and behavior; Derenik Haghverdian, a UCI Ph.D. student in statistics; and Gabriel Elias, a postdoctoral project scientist at UCI.

Explore further Study suggests our brains use distinct firing patterns to store and replay memories

More information: Babak Shahbaba et al, Hippocampal ensembles represent sequential relationships among an extended sequence of nonspatial events, Nature Communications (2022). Journal information: Nature Communications Babak Shahbaba et al, Hippocampal ensembles represent sequential relationships among an extended sequence of nonspatial events,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28057-6
St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Church on Eastern Avenue across from Patterson Park. During Sunday mass Father Vasyl Sivinskiy urged the Ukrainian American congregation to pray for their homeland, which is facing a potential invasion from Russia. Feb. 13, 2022 p8 (Amy Davis/Amy Davis)

Before Sunday mornings service at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church in Baltimore, Stefania Gercthak said she set out a candle, as she prayed for peace in Ukraine.

The flame  flickering softly in a red jar between a pair of poinsettia plants  burned for her sisters, nieces and nephews who still live in Ukraine.

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Gercthak said her family members daily lives have so far remained largely unchanged by the rising tension along the nations border with Russia, but she fears for their safety.

Lately, members of Baltimores Ukrainian community have watched anxiously alongside the world, as Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on the nations eastern and southern borders, according to U.S. officials. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that he intends to invade, but the United States has ordered almost all of the staff from its embassy in Kyiv to evacuate amid mounting fears that war is imminent.

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During mass at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Church, Father Vasyl Sivinskiy prayed for peace for his homeland, Ukraine. He offers communion to parishioner Stefania Gercthak, who came to Baltimore in 1993. She is worried about her family in Ukraine because of the threat of invasion by Russia. (Amy Davis/Amy Davis)

Everybody is worried, said Gercthak, who came to Baltimore in 1993.

At first, she hoped that Putin was merely creating a show of force. But after hearing news reports about the American evacuation from Ukraine, she became increasingly alarmed, and started trying to reach her sister to make sure she was prepared.

Gercthak, whose husband died suddenly just a few months ago, said she considered returning to the former Soviet country to live close to her family, but the recent threat have led her to question that plan.

During his service at St. Michael, Father Vasyl Sivinskyi prayed for peace in his homeland, standing before an ornate archway brightly painted with figures like Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

In the church, whose golden domes overlook the southern edge of Patterson Park, he said Russias actions in recent weeks have been incredibly troubling.

All the time  aggression. All the time, he said after the service, which was held in Ukrainian. Why? Why go into Ukraine?

Russias actions could be its latest attempt to separate its neighbor from Western influence. Russia has demanded that Ukraine be prohibited from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which includes the United States and dozens of European countries, and that the military alliance pull back forces from Eastern Europe.

For some, Russias escalations have conjured up memories from 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, Ukraines southern peninsula, in an effort to continue asserting in its influence in the region. Ethnic Russians, a majority in Crimea, largely supported joining Russia, but the decision was not recognized by Ukraine, or most of the global political community. While in control, Russia has banned certain Crimean Tartar groups and imprisoned some Crimean Tartar activists it accused of terrorism.

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The annexation took place shortly after Ukrainian protesters took to the streets to oppose President Viktor Yanukovychs decision not to sign an association agreement with the European Union. After deadly clashes between demonstrators and police, Yanukovych fled the country. He later emerged in Russia.

Halyna Mudryi, a Baltimore-based Ukrainian artist, said shes been losing sleep over the Russian threat of invasion of her ancestral country.

Theyve been through so much since 2014, Mudryi said. For them, its just been ongoing and  theyve strengthened. Theyre willing to fight until the last man.

Many Ukrainians understand, she said, that its Putin and his government  and not the average Russian citizen  posing the threat.

Many Russian people dont want war, dont want to attack Ukraine. But theyve been silenced all these years. Ukrainians know that. They have no freedom of speech in Russia. I cant hold anything personally against the Russian people.

Tatyana Baytler, founder of the Russian Maryland Cultural Center, said she worries that events abroad could lead to anti-Russian sentiment here in the United States.

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We are a part of American society, she said, adding that she worries her Russian accent would make her susceptible to scrutiny.

Though she has not been in Russia for a long time, and no longer has family there, she said she can sympathize with those living on the borders, where violence could break out.

It should not be this way, said Baytler, who lives in Montgomery County. Ukrainian people and Russian people were always in partnership. They were brothers to each other, and now its like everyone is the enemy.

Peter Charchalis, the son of Ukrainian immigrants who married a woman from Ukraine, said he believes the Russian people have done too little to challenge Putin. Charchalis lived in Ukraine from 2000 through 2014 while working for an American company. He witnessed major political upheaval, including the revolution and ouster of Yanukovych in 2014.

My hope, said Charchalis, now a real estate agent who resides in Baltimore County, was that the economic and political pressure on Russia would make them relent, and that Russians themselves would hold their government accountable.

Western countries, Charchalis said, also share some of the blame for the threat to Ukraine.

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Im heartbroken, he said. The great powers fail to recognize Russia for what it is. Russia has been actively trying to annihilate Ukraine for the last 400 years, and I do not exaggerate. Theres been an active program of destruction of the Ukrainian ethos and national identity, and they havent succeeded.

Ukrainians are resilient, Charchalis said, and they continue to be resolute in the face of Russia.

Mudryi, who has relatives near Lviv, in western Ukraine, has the same impression.

Theyre not scared. Theyre prepared, she said. I feel that, after 30 years of independence, its about time that Ukraine feels they do have a little power, they do have a little muscle, and theyre going to show it. Theyre going to use it if they have to. Im hopeful.

Ukraine is important to Putin and Russia, she said, because so much of Russian history and culture emanates from the country.

Putin without Ukraine is not going to have his empire again, she said.

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Charchalis sees it differently. Putin, he said, has a lot to lose if Ukraine remains independent.

Russia cannot afford to see Ukraine succeed, he said. They cant afford to have a prosperous, independent, pluralistic society, that was a former Soviet republic, exist  because every Russian will question, Well, why cant I have that?

Charchalis said hes heartbroken at the prospect of an invasion.

Ukraine never attacked anyone. Ukraine never threatened anyone, he said.

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Its a very precarious situation, he said. The problem that most people dont realize is, this isnt going to go away. Theyll de-escalate, but they can re-escalate at any time.

His wife, Oksana, has family in Ukraine. What do Charchalis and his wife hear from them? Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

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Maria Yavorivskyy of Catonsville, said her father escaped Ukraine in the World War II era under the cover of darkness and fled to Germany before settling in Baltimores Fells Point. In recent days, the St. Michael parishioner said she and her family have been following updates coming out of Ukraine anxiously.

Her husband still has siblings and a daughter in the country, and has been glued to his phone for updates, Yavorivskyy said.

Because the family lives in the western part of Ukraine, they are less concerned that a Russian invasion would reach them, but the uncertainty is uneasy, she said.

Hes on pins and needles, and he said the minute war breaks out, hes going, she said. He wouldnt  I guess  be himself if they perish and he lives.

The Associated Press and Baltimore Sun staff contributed to this article.
The FASTEST trial will utilize UC Health's mobile stoke unit to deliver treatment within two hours of the onset of stroke. (Note: Photo taken prior to COVID-19 pandemic.). Credit: UC Health.

For decades, University of Cincinnati researchers have been pioneers in the field of stroke research.

Joseph Broderick, MD, was part of the UC team in the late '80s that conducted breakthrough studies that led to the use of a clot-busting drug as the first proven treatment for ischemic stroke, the most common form of stroke that occurs when a vessel supplying blood to the brain is obstructed.

Now, Broderick and his colleagues at UC are continuing to lead the field of research in an effort to find the first proven treatment for stroke due to intracerebral hemorrhage, when blood vessels in the brain rupture and cause bleeding in the brain. He is the contact principal investigator for a global trial called FASTEST.

A new treatment

The FASTEST trial will examine the effectiveness of a drug to help "plug the leak" of bleeding in the brain from intracerebral hemorrhage, Broderick said. The drug is a clotting protein our bodies naturally make to help seal leaks from blood vessels, for example when we get a cut on our skin.

The drug "is one of the important proteins our body uses to stop the bleeding," said Broderick, professor in UC's Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine in the College of Medicine, director of the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute and a UC Health physician. "The idea here is to give it in enough of a dose that it actually can stop the leaking from small arteries in the brain."

Time is of the essence for patients suffering hemorrhagic strokes, as Broderick said most of the leaking from the brain bleed occurs within the first couple of hours. Building off of trial data of other global trials where the drug was given up to four hours from onset, the FASTEST trial will administer the drug to patients within two hours of stroke onset.

To meet the two-hour time frame, Broderick said the trial will use mobile stroke units staffed with the needed professionals, brain imaging and medicine to deliver treatment to patients where they are having a stroke. Mobile stroke units are already deployed around Cincinnati to administer the drug effective for ischemic strokes and other treatments, but now hemorrhagic stroke patients may also be able to receive treatment.

"It's a whole team that's essentially bringing an emergency department to your doorstep, whether it's at work or home or wherever," Broderick said of mobile stroke units. "It really does decrease the time from onset of symptoms to when you're able to deliver treatment. I had a patient recently where we imaged the patient's brain in the mobile stroke unit and started treatment within 35 minutes from stroke onset. That's really fast."

Broderick said due to the time limitations, the trial will also engage in a practice known as "exception from informed consent."

"The FDA and the government gives permission for certain types of study where you have to give the treatment really, really fast, the patient is affected so severely they cannot provide consent, and you aren't able to contact a legally authorized representative of the patient to discuss consent," he said. "And if it's a drug that could benefit these patients and it meets some other criteria, we can enroll the patient in the study even if we can't initially find someone to provide consent. We then obtain consent as soon as such a person is identified."

For the "exception from informed consent" to work, Broderick said it takes a lot of effort in the community to spread the word about the trial. At UC and in the Cincinnati region, this has included small group discussions and other community education initiatives so potential patients and family members can provide input about the study and can obtain a card which allows them to opt out of the study if they do have a brain hemorrhage in the future.

The trial will enroll more than 800 patients in approximately 100 sites including UC and other parts of the U.S., Japan, Canada and Europe. Since hemorrhagic strokes are less common and the patient needs to be given the drug within two hours, Broderick estimated the trial will take about five years to recruit all of its patients. The first patient in the trial was enrolled this past weekend at Ottawa Hospital in Canada. Kyle Walsh, MD, associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, is local principal investigator for FASTEST at UC Medical Center.

Brett Kissela, MD, senior associate dean for clinical research in UC's College of Medicine, the Albert Barnes Voorheis professor and chair in the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine and chief of research services at UC Health, noted that while uncommon, intracerebral hemorrhage is the most fatal kind of stroke, with poor outcomes for patients who survive.

"The FASTEST trial will help us to find ways to minimize damage after a hemorrhage in the brain has occurred, thus leading to better outcomes for patients if they are unlucky enough to have an intracerebral hemorrhage," Kissela said.

National leadership

The FASTEST trial is funded through StrokeNet, a National Institutes of Health network of 27 regional centers and approximately 500 hospitals across the United States that serve as the infrastructure and pipeline for new potential treatments for stroke prevention, intervention and recovery research. About two-thirds of the U.S. population lives within a 65-mile radius of a StrokeNet site, Broderick said.

"The global aim of the network is to basically be a leading platform for stroke trials in the U.S. and globally," Broderick said.

Since StrokeNet was established in 2013, UC has served as the network's national coordinating center, with Broderick and Pooja Khatri, MD, professor of neurology in the Department of Neurology, currently serving as co-directors. UC was chosen based on its track record of leading and organizing innovative global stroke trials."For decades, the University of Cincinnati has been recognized as one of the international leaders in stroke care and stroke research, having defined new treatments to improve the care of stroke patients," Kissela said. "Being awarded the leadership of StrokeNet by the NIH here at UC and the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute recognizes this track record and demonstrates the importance of our department in the national and international landscape of stroke and neuroscience research more broadly."

Broderick said that sometimes the science is the "easy part" of studies, as the coordinating center is responsible for organizing the sites that host studies, procedures, clinical trial agreements and recruitment and enrollment of participants. Having the StrokeNet infrastructure in place allows new studies to hit the ground running rather than having to start from scratch each time, he said.

With StrokeNet's national coordinating center housed in Cincinnati, UC researchers have a hand in every large multicenter stroke study funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke that takes place across the country.

"If you really want to know what's going on in stroke in the United States, UC is the place to find out," Broderick said.

According to Broderick, an essential part of UC's success in stroke research has been its commitment to move research into the community so that trials and studies occur in community hospitals in addition to the UC Medical Center.

"Patients in our community have access to literally the best research for stroke prevention treatment and recovery that there is, and that's a huge add for our community," Broderick said. "We look upon ourselves as a community resource based at the university, and I think that's why we've been successful."

Kissela said UC was one of the first stroke teams to expand to multiple disciplines, as experts from neurology, emergency medicine, neurosurgery, neuroradiology and other disciplines all collaborate together.

"This multidisciplinary approach, with truly outstanding individuals collaborating from all of these areas, have made the UC stroke team the best in the world in my opinion," Kissela said. "If I or a loved one was ever to have a stroke, I would want to be cared for by our stroke team, as there simply is no better team in the world."

Explore further Study finds it safe to give clot-busting drug to stroke patients who took blood thinners
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The WHO's European office on Tuesday called for increased vaccination efforts in Eastern Europe, warning that the Omicron "tidal wave" was heading eastwards.

The World Health Organization's regional director, Hans Kluge, noted that in the last two weeks, COVID-19 cases had more than doubled in six countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine.

"As anticipated, the Omicron wave is moving east. Ten eastern member states have now detected this variant," Kluge said.

The WHO's European region comprises 53 countries, including several in central Asia.

Kluge lamented that vaccine uptake was still relatively slow in parts of the region.

Less than 40 percent of over-60s have complete their COVID-19 vaccine series in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

He added that in Bulgaria, Georgia and North Macedonia under 40 percent of health care workers had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

"I call on governments, health authorities and relevant partners to closely examine the local reasons influencing lower vaccine demand and acceptance, and devise tailored interventions to increase vaccination rates urgently, based on the context-specific evidence," Kluge said.

He stressed that in the face of an "Omicron tidal wave", and "with Delta still circulating widely in the east", now was "not the moment to lift measures that we know work in reducing the spread of COVID-19".

These measures include avoiding crowded locations, wearing masks indoors, improving ventilation and using rapid tests to identify cases early, Kluge added.

 2022 AFP
When researcher Kaitlyn Tsuruda asked women whether they had heard of overdiagnosis, half said yes. But only a few in fact ticked the right answers to the in-depth follow-up questions. Credit: Cecilie Bakken Hstmark, UiO

Women know less about the so-called overdiagnosis of breast cancer compared to other aspects of mammogram screening. Despite this, there are few indications that women drop out of mammogram screening programs after receiving more information.

Breast cancer affects every eleventh woman under the age of 75 in Norway. The Norwegian health authorities recommend screening by mammogram every other year for all women between the ages of 50 and 69. This mammogram screening program allows doctors to discover breast cancer at an early stage so that more women can receive a milder form of treatment and fewer will die from the disease.

Nevertheless, there are still advantages and disadvantages to a program of this kind. One disadvantage is that doctors may discover tumors which at the time of diagnosis are growing so slowly that the women involved could probably live symptom-free for the rest of their life. This is often called overdiagnosis and may lead to the overtreatment of some women.

There are currently no methods of determining whether a breast cancer will develop so slowly that it will not need treatment. Six of 1000 women examined under the mammogram screening program are diagnosed with breast cancer. The Cancer Registry of Norway estimates that of these six, one will be overdiagnosed. But this figure is the subject of a great deal of uncertainty.

Women probably do not read all the information they receive

The doctoral thesis of Kaitlyn Tsuruda at the Department of Biostatistics at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Oslo investigates both the overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis of breast cancer. In a study recently published in the BMJ Open, 1,900 Norwegian women were asked, amongst other things, what they knew on overdiagnosis relating to mammogram screening:

"The women were shown to know less about overdiagnosis than about other aspects of mammogram screening. For example, several of them answered correctly, in the affirmative, to the question about whether women who are screened are less likely to die of breast cancer than those who do not undergo screening," explains Tsuruda.

Most of the women who participated in the study also gave a correct answer to the question asking about the meaning of "false positive results."

"When the women were asked whether they had heard of overdiagnosis, half said yes. But in this case, only a few in fact ticked the right answers to the in-depth follow-up questions," says Tsuruda.

Since 2009, overdiagnosis has been mentioned in the information that the Cancer Registry sends out together with the invitation to attend mammogram screening.

"Many recipients probably read a part of the information they receive. But they have probably also already made up their minds in advance whether they will go to mammogram screening or not," says Tsuruda.

Will more women drop out of the mammogram screening program?

The Cancer Registry of Norway regularly reviews the information material it sends out in connection with the mammogram screening program. The last amendment was one year ago, when estimates of how many women are overdiagnosed and several new visual aids and diagrams were included. These new elements were adopted after Tsuruda had carried out the survey.

The scientist points out that the way information should be communicated poses a challenge because we still have no way of knowing which women will be overdiagnosed.

We also worry that information on overdiagnosis could influence the choice of women to attend mammogram screening or not. However, experience from the mammogram screening program and relevant literature would indicate that this information appears to have little influence on the rate of attendance, says Tsuruda.

The scientist recommends women to read the information about breast screening and overdiagnosis carefully and urges the Cancer Registry to continue to review its information material.

"New results from research studies are emerging all the time," she says.

Underdiagnosis was also examined

In another study, Tsuruda has also looked at underdiagnosis, defined as a situation where a patient is diagnosed with a cancer tumor that was not discovered in the previous screening.

Five radiologists were given the task of re-examining images revealing breast cancer and comparing these with the images generated in the previous session of screenings.

In some of the cases, they saw a tumor that was present in the previous screening but that had not led to a diagnosis, while a number of tumors had developed between the two screenings.

"Scientists previously assumed that tumors of this kind are more aggressive, but we found no statistical difference in how many of these women died, compared to mortality in the group who were classified in the re-examination as having tumors in the previous screening."

Tsuruda emphasizes that more studies are necessary in order to draw firm conclusions from these results.

More information: Kaitlyn M Tsuruda et al, Women's conceptual knowledge about breast cancer screening and overdiagnosis in Norway: a cross-sectional study, BMJ Open (2021). Journal information: BMJ Open Kaitlyn M Tsuruda et al, Women's conceptual knowledge about breast cancer screening and overdiagnosis in Norway: a cross-sectional study,(2021). DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052121
HIV-1 Virus. Credit: J Roberto Trujillo/Wikipedia

In the first HIV prevention study to incorporate the concept of informed choice into its design, nearly all of the adolescent girls and young women who took part in the study accepted one of the two prevention products that were offered: the monthly dapivirine vaginal ring and Truvada as daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Only 2 percent turned down both. And while for the majority, the dapivirine ring was the more popular of the twohaving been selected by two-thirds of the participantsmost of the young women were able to use their product of choice some or most of the time.

The study, known as REACH, was conducted by the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) at four clinical research sites in Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Results from the study's third period, during which participants were able to choose between the dapivirine ring and daily oral PrEP after having experienced using each product, were presented today during the Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022), which is taking place virtually February 12-16.

"We know that with contraceptives, having a range of options makes it more likely of there being one that will meet an individual's needs and preferences and that it can and will be used. Indeed, REACH is just a small example of what the potential impact could be in the realm of HIV prevention, simply by allowing young women and girls the ability to choose," said Kenneth Ngure, Ph.D., MPH, chair of the department of community health at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology in Nairobi, Kenya, and REACH protocol co-chair, who reported the study's latest results at CROI.

Of particular relevance are the study findings suggesting that the monthly dapivirine ring could be a viable option for those adolescent girls and young women who can't or don't want to take daily oral PrEP.

REACH (Reversing the Epidemic in Africa with Choices in HIV prevention), or MTN-034, was a Phase IIa open-label crossover study that was designed to fill important gaps in information about the safety and acceptability of the dapivirine ring and oral PrEP, especially in girls younger than 18. REACH also sought to understand what kind of support adolescent girls and young women need to use these products as best they can, and their preferences for each. The study, which took place between February 2019 and September 2021, was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

REACH enrolled 247 participants ages 16-21 who were assigned female at birth, 86 of whom were under age 18. All participants used both Truvada as oral PrEP and the dapivirine ring, each for six months, the order of which was determined by randomization. For the final six months of the study, participants were able to choose which of the two products to use, or could decide not to use either, and could change their minds at any time.

Of the 247 participants, 227 took part in the choice period. When asked which product they wanted to use, 152 participants (67 percent) chose the ring, 71 (31 percent) chose oral PrEP and only four participants (2 percent) opted to use neither. (Thirty switched products or changed their minds at least once during the six months, although this data was not presented at CROI; a qualitative analysis looking at the reasons participants selected one product over the other, as well as why some decided to switch or chose neither is underway.)

Interestingly, those participants who chose oral PrEP over the ring were among those who had used it most regularly during the six-month period when they were assigned to that regimen.

To determine adherence, or how well participants used each product, for oral PrEP, researchers looked at the levels of drug in blood samples taken at each monthly visit., and for the ring, at the amount of residual drug left in rings participants returned after a month of use.

During the first two periods of the study, when participants used each the ring and oral PrEP, adherence to both products was higher than what had been seen in previous trials involving young women, which the researchers reported at the 11th IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2021). Likewise, data reported at CROI from the study's choice period found participants had also used the ring or PrEP some or most of the time.

Truvada as oral PrEP (or its generic equivalent, emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) is approved in many countries and available to adolescent girls and young women. Although the number of young women adopting and staying on oral PrEP is lower than some would like, REACH has demonstrated that among those with a preference for oral PrEP, it's a method that can work very well.

The dapivirine ring is the first biomedical HIV prevention product designed specifically for women as well as the first long-acting method. In 2020, the ring received a positive scientific opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its use in developing countries among women at high risk for HIV who cannot or choose not to use daily oral PrEP, and in 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the ring as an additional prevention choice for women. The ring's developer, the nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), is seeking its approval in eastern and southern Africa, with approvals received in Zimbabwe and several other countries, and additional regulatory reviews underway.

Because the product's Phase III trials were conducted among women ages 18-45, additional safety data are needed to support the ring's use in women younger than 18. Interim results from the first two periods, also reported at IAS 2021, found both the dapivirine ring and Truvada as oral PrEP were well tolerated with no safety concerns. IPM intends to submit data from REACH, as well as from the MTN-023/IPM 030 study among adolescent girls ages 15 to 17 in the United States, to both the EMA and African regulators so that they may consider expanding the ring's use to include adolescent girls where the product is approved.

For its part, the WHO has expressed interest in seeing what kind of insight REACH can provide for helping to better understand how best to support consistent and persistent use of both oral PrEP and the ring by adolescent girls and young women.

As part of REACH, study participants received frequent support and counseling tailored to meet individual needs and focused on helping them to use their assigned or chosen product as best they could while also ensuring they made their own decisions.

"The approaches we used seemed to work well for the young women and girls in REACH. What may be feasible or scalable at the community level and by health systems is still to be determined, and will likely depend a lot on capacity. But if there's one thing that must be considered it's that young women need to be allowed to make their own informed decisions about what they feel is best for them," commented Gonasagrie (Lulu) Nair, MBChB, MPH, REACH protocol chair and senior lecturer, Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, Faculty of Medicine, at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

"It's not up to us to judge whether one product is better than another," added Connie Celum, M.D., M.P.H., professor of global health and medicine and director of the International Clinical Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle, and a REACH protocol co-chair. "Whether it's oral PrEP, the dapivirine ring or other methods, such as injectable cabotegravireach has its advantages and disadvantages, and what may seem to be negative for one person might actually be a plus for another."

Globally, more than half of all people living with HIV are women, and in sub-Saharan Africa, women account for more than 60 percent of adults with HIV. HIV rates are especially high among adolescent girls and young women. According to UNAIDS, in 2020, one in four new HIV diagnoses in sub-Saharan Africa were in young women ages 15-24, despite making up only 10 percent of the population.

The clinical research sites (CRSs) that conducted the REACH study were Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University CRS in Kampala, Uganda; the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences Clinical Trials Research Centre Spilhaus CRS, Harare; and in South Africa, the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute in Johannesburg and the Emavundleni CRS of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation in Cape Town.

Explore further Study finds adolescent girls and young women in Africa will use HIV prevention products

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ZAMBOANGA CITY  Eight villages in the southern Philippine province of Sulu are now free from the influence of the pro-ISIS group Abu Sayyaf...
Winslow H. Jay Parker Jr., former owner and president of the Parker Metal Decorating Co., a metal lithography and can-making business, died of complications of Parkinsons disease Jan. 25 at his Denver home. The former longtime Roland Park resident was 80.

Jay was quirky and funny, very smart and open-minded. He was always looking for the best in people, said Jennie Lee Fowlkes, a Somerset Road neighbor. He was never afraid of exploring new ideas and was just a fun guy.

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Winslow Harrison Parker Jr. was the son of Winslow H. Parker Sr., president of Parker Metal Decorating Co., and Dorothy Girdwood Parker, a homemaker. He was born in Baltimore and raised in Reisterstown.

Winslow H. "Jay" Parker, Jr. was a consultant who traveled the world advising printers in developing countries. (Handout / HANDOUT)

After graduating in 1959 from the McDonogh School, where he played drums in the school marching band, Mr. Parker began his college studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the first in his family to attend college.

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His father turned to college-educated friends and colleagues seeking advice to help his son plan for his college years.

I asked them whether I should study marketing or accounting or business ... two to one, they recommended that I study the classics, or history or English literature, Mr. Parker told the Brown Alumni Magazine in a 2011 interview. He decided to become a literature major, and one of his American literature teachers was the acclaimed American novelist John Hawkes.

Mr. Parker also played the organ and managed the Brown Community Orchestra while studying music with Erich Kunzel, who later became conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

During his senior year, he decided to withdraw from Brown.

I dont know what was going on in my mind then, he explained in the alumni magazine interview.

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)

Mr. Parker returned home to Baltimore in 1963 and went to work for the Parker Metal Decorating Co., which had been established by his paternal grandfather, Edwin Augustus Parker, in 1919. The company specialized in metal lithography where designs were printed directly onto metal sheets.

The elder Parker came from New York to Baltimores waterfront during the boom days of canning, where other lithographers had located. In 1921, he relocated the business to a building that occupied a trapezoidal site that was bounded by West Ostend Street and South Howard Street, and what is today CSXs mainline railroad tracks, according to a 1990 National Register of Historic Places appraisal.

Among other things, [Edwin A. Parker] invented a process that allowed lithographers to use more precise dimpled metal sheets (rather than the standard stone} to hold ink during the printing process, according to Baltimore Heritage.

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In addition to printing tin cans for oysters and crabmeat, candy tins, rum bottle tops and matching kitchen storage containers, the firm manufactured cans for Old Bay Spice and Twinings Tea. The company also had plants in New York, Cleveland, Chicago and Toronto.

After taking over the company and purchasing it from his father in 1970, Mr. Parker opened an additional plant, Parmeco, in Forest Hill, and a facility in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, to produce printed metal products.

Mr. Parker closed the business in 1994 after the U.S. demand for printed tin cans evaporated. His former plant is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been readopted as office space.

After closing his business, Mr. Parker became a consultant and traveled the world advising printers in developing countries.

In Baltimore, he had served for many years on the boards of the Byrn Mawr School, Harbor Hospital, the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation, and the alumni board of McDonogh School. Additionally, he served on the board of the United Way of the Eastern Shore and supported scholarships to the Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University and Towson University.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 60 Naomi Judd, the Kentucky-born matriarch of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds and mother of Wynonna and Ashley Judd, has died at the age of 76. Her family announced Judd's death on April 30, 2022. (Josh Anderson/AP)

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He and his wife, the former Deborah Scheidt, a former educator and Bryn Mawr School administrator, were longtime residents of Somerset Road in Roland Park, where he kept bees and conducted oyster roasts.

When I think of Jay, I think of him in the kitchen where he could make the thinnest Christmas cookies that were so thin you could see through them, Ms. Fowlkes said. He and his wife could put together a dinner party for 20 within a blink of an eye.

The couple moved to Princess Anne, where they opened a bed-and-breakfast in an 1854 house. They owned and operated the business for 13 years before moving in 1996 to the Hancock Park neighborhood in Los Angeles.

While in Princess Anne, Mr. Parker had served as the executive director of the Lower Shore Heritage Council, town manager, and was elected a town commissioner. He helped lead the way for a park and a youth community center in the historic Easton Shore town.

He particularly savored his part in the successful campaign by Eastern Shore civic leaders to convince the Maryland state legislature to adopt the Smith Island Cake as the official state cake, said a daughter, Xan Parker of New York City.

Mr. Parker and his wife maintained a rustic lodge near Thurmont in Frederick County, where they liked relaxing and entertaining family and friends.

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Jay liked roasting a pig and I remember the night before the roast, the slaughtered pig would spend the night in the bathtub, Ms. Fowlkes recalled with a laugh. It was a wonderful mountain retreat for them.

[ Paul D. Feldman, a retired Johns Hopkins professor who was an expert on comets, dies ]

Mr. Parker never forgot his years at Brown and was a volunteer with BASC, the alumni group that interviews applicants to the university.

He decided that hed like to take some courses, and after contacting Brown, he learned he needed to take three English courses to receive a degree in his former major.

You keep learning, you keep living, he explained in the 2011 alumni interview.

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On Memorial Day 2011, while his wife and three daughters looked on, he marched through the Van Wickle Gates and down College Hill with the Class of 2011 to formally receive his degree.

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At the time, he said he planned to return two years later to march with the Class of 1963 and participate in the celebration of their 50th reunion.

And he did, Ms. Parker said. He and my mother went to Providence.

In 2015, after being diagnosed with Parkinsons disease, Mr. Parker and his wife moved to Denver.

Funeral services were held Jan. 31 at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Denver, and he was interred at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Princess Anne.

In addition to his daughter and his wife of 54 years, he is survived by two other daughters, Dr. Antigone Parker Parrish and Zoe Parker Smith, both of Denver; and six grandchildren.
As New York City forges ahead with its recovery, the pandemic is leaving lasting imprints, especially on city roadways: less room for cars and more space for people. As the COVID-19 outbreak ravaged New York City two years ago, one of the worlds most congested and bustling metropolises found itself transformed into grids of mostly deserted streets and sidewalks as businesses shuttered and virus-wary denizens shut themselves in. Now the city is drafting new rules that would allow eateries to make outdoor dining permanent, although the policy is being challenged in court. The city is also announcing plans to close off even more streets to vehicles on Sundays so pedestrians have more room to roam in warmer months.
TUESDAY, Feb. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Many women with epilepsy have breakthrough seizures when they get pregnant, and researchers say they've figured out why.

Their new study shows that pregnancy can trigger steep drops in blood levels of certain antiepileptic drugs soon after conception.

"When it comes to epilepsy, maintaining a fine-tuned medication regimen is critical. Some people mistakenly believe that changes in the drugs' blood concentration won't occur until after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but our study shows how important it is to start monitoring and adjusting patients' medication dosages early on," said lead study author Dr. Page Pennell, chair of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, so it is important to ensure that doctors have a clear picture of each patient's baseline drug level even if they are not trying to conceive," Pennell said in a university news release.

For the study, Pennell and her colleagues analyzed blood concentrations of 10 commonly used antiseizure drugs in women with epilepsy at different stages of pregnancy and after childbirth.

There were dramatic declines in the levels of seven drugs, ranging from about 30% for lacosamide (Vimpat) to over 56% for lamotrigine (Lamictal), the investigators found.

The researchers also found that the declines in blood levels of the drugs occurred just days after conception.

"Identifying which antiseizure medications may have changes in concentrations and at what point in pregnancy those changes occur is important for determining which patients may need to be monitored more closely during pregnancy and after delivery," said study co-author Angela Birnbaum, a professor of experimental and clinical pharmacology at the University of Minnesota.

The findings highlight the need to increase doses of certain antiseizure drugs and closely monitor their levels in epilepsy patients when they're pregnant, the study authors concluded.

The findings were published online Feb. 14 in JAMA Neurology.

More information

There's more on epilepsy and pregnancy at the American Academy of Family Physicians.

SOURCE: University of Pittsburgh, news release, Feb. 14, 2022

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A man who shot several people in Missoula in 2019, killing two, has filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court.

Johnathan Bertsch, 30, pleaded guilty in 2020 to one count of deliberate homicide and three counts of attempted deliberate homicide for a 2019 shooting just west of Missoula that left two people dead and severely injured two others, including Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Wade Palmer.

Bertsch was sentenced in November in Missoula County District Court to four life sentences without the possibility of parole.

On March 14, 2019, Bertsch fired several shots at a pickup truck just west of Missoula that was carrying three people  Shelley Hays, Julie Blanchard and Casey Blanchard, Julies son. Shelley and Julie both died. While in pursuit, Palmer was shot in his face and neck by Bertsch. He ultimately survived his injuries, which were described as life-threatening.

Bertsch filed his appeal Jan. 25, though it is unclear on what grounds. Appellate Defender Chad Wright explained he did not have that information Monday. It could be several months before an opening brief is filed.

It's also possible that Bertsch may not follow through with the appeal, Wright said.

Missoula County District Judge Shane Vannatta delivered a scathing judgment to Bertsch at November's sentencing, calling Bertsch's actions cold-blooded and calculated.

Bertsch has shown little remorse throughout the criminal justice process for the harm he caused to all involved, which bodes ill for any ability to change, Vannatta said.

Loved ones of the victims resoundingly asked Bertsch be sentenced to life. Casey Blanchard, who survived his injuries, said he felt a sense of closure following the sentencing.

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A man is held on $250,000 bail after being arrested on suspicion of leading officials on a high-speed chase Saturday morning down Highway 93 and into Frenchtown.

Vincent J. Culp, 59, is charged with six felony counts of criminal endangerment and one count of a fourth driving under the influence offense. He is also accused of fleeing from or eluding a peace officer, a misdemeanor.

Missoula County Sheriffs deputies responded for a wrong-way driver on Highway 93 North traveling southbound from the Gray Wolf Peak Casino. Law enforcement was contacted by seven callers, six of whom were victims of the incident, about an erratic driver.

The started coming in around 10:30 a.m.  they described the suspect vehicle as a dark-colored Dodge pickup, operated by a single older man, according to charging documents.

While en route to the scene, deputies saw the suspect vehicle pulled over with its hazard lights on near Waldo Road and Highway 93 North. As officials tried to pull it over, the driver sped up to about 70 miles per hour and evaded being stopped.

During the pursuit, the driver, later identified through his driver's license as Culp, reached up to 100 miles per hour and threw items, including pill bottles, clothing items and a knife, out of the drivers window, according to charging documents. Deputies deployed spike strips near Cartage Road and Highway 93, but Culp turned into a Town Pump, avoiding the strips.

Culp eventually turned onto I-90 west traveling at speeds above 105 miles per hour. He swerved through both lanes of traffic and brake-checked law enforcement vehicles. He then took the Frenchtown exit and slowed to about 35 miles per hour but continued through a stop, nearly striking another driver.

Deputies were able to ram Culps pickup and block it in so he couldnt flee again. He was taken into custody. He denied having consumed alcohol, but showed signs of possible inebriation. Results from a blood test have not been returned yet. Culp has three prior DUI convictions in Montana dating back to 2004.

Deputies then contacted several witnesses who described Culps alleged behavior, many of whom corroborated seeing a large gray pickup driving erratically. Witnesses also said Culps actions ran them off the road and led them to feel scared about the possibility of being hit and seriously injured and/or killed.

One couple was driving with their son to Missoula from St. Ignatius when they saw a truck run a car off the highway. The witness followed Culp into the Outpost RV Park. The witness got out of his car, then watched as the truck looped around and floored it toward him, charging documents said. The witness said the truck was less than 5 feet from striking him, and that he feared for his life. The witness wife also reported almost being hit.

At Culp's initial appearance Monday afternoon in Missoula County Justice Court, state prosecutor Carrie Garber asked bond be set at $50,000, citing Culps numerous previous criminal convictions, many of which involved reckless driving and eluding law enforcement officers.

Justice of the Peace Alex Beal said the allegations in this case present a significant risk to public safety and set bond at $250,000, which includes a $30,000 bond for a separate case.

Culp's arraignment was set for Feb. 28 in Missoula County District Court. He is being represented by the public defender's office.

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The changes Missoula is grappling with as it grows and sees an influx of new residents were the topic Monday at the February forum hosted by the nonprofit City Club Missoula.

The panelists, all longtime Missoulians, talked about the dynamic economic forces that are shaping the community and how they affect people living here  the increasing housing prices, the labor shortage, a development boom and cultural shifts that have caused anxiety for many people who've seen the city rapidly change in the last decade.

Grant Kier, CEO of the Missoula Economic Partnership, served as moderator, joined by WGM Group principal planner Nicholas Kaufman, Sapphire Strategies owner Gwen Lankford, Mmassage owner Mariah Lara and Credit Key vice president of product Tung Pham.

Missoula will probably have to add high-density housing units all over the city and county in order to provide housing for workers who want to make a life here, Kier said.

"We're at a critical turning point for what this place looks like in 10 years," Kier said. "The extent that we keep making it look the same jeopardizes who gets to stay here and live here. If we want to create a place for people, we might need to make some compromises and sacrifices about the way the built environment looks to us."

Pham grew up in Missoula and talked about how it has changed over time. He left for college and work and then returned to a city that felt different.

"I grew up in a refugee family, and we were put here not necessarily by choice," he recalled. "I immediately felt welcomed and we had a tremendous amount of support from the community. The fact that an immigrant kid can go to one of the top colleges in America and work for some of the biggest tech companies, that's because of Missoula."

But when he returned to Missoula with California license plates, he got the sense that he was being treated as an outsider.

"I've always had the sense of being an outsider, but it was a lot more acute this time around, even though I grew up here," he said. "There was a little bit more resentment. It wasn't the same sense of welcoming."

That sense of resentment of outsiders is a theme he's heard from a lot of people in town, he said.

"I've noticed a little bit of an attitude change," he said. "There's a lot of talk about recreation and what they can do with the land. There's a lot of talk about what you can take from Missoula, but there isn't as much talk about what they can contribute. Maybe that's my own experience."

Lankford said Missoula has a rich history of being a working-class town, built by lumber and railroad workers.

"Missoula's backbone was blue-collar and that's not something we necessarily see today and that's a huge change," she said. "People were gracious with each other because it wasn't an easy place to be. Winters can be hard."

She's noticed now that there's a feeling among people that, if they've lived here for 20 years for example, they want to shut the doors and not let any more outsiders in.

A better solution would be to focus on helping people understand how special this place is and how to steward it going forward, she said.

Mariah Lara said it's tough to be a small business owner here because there's been an influx of wealth and rising property taxes.

"Most of our workforce is choosing to live outside Missoula," she said. "Can we continue to have people be sustained or are we going to see huge wage gaps and wealthy people coming in?"

Nick Kaufmann said about 60% of the workforce in the county lives outside the county limits.

"A lot of us can't afford to live here anymore," he said. "When we lose that, we lose the workforce, which is the lifeblood of our economic development."

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Austin Stoner of the Westminster Streets Department uses a blower to clear sidewalks along East Green Street after snow fell Monday morning, closing Carroll County Public Schools. (Dylan Slagle/Carroll County Times)

Though the Carroll County school board agreed last week to allow the option of virtual learning on days the public school system must unexpectedly close, that option was not used Monday, when all county public schools were closed due to snow.

The Virtual Inclement Weather Day Plan that the school board unanimously approved on Feb. 9 will not go into effect until after Feb. 21, to allow schools to fully prepare, according to Brenda Bowers, communications coordinator for Carroll County Public Schools.

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The Maryland State Department of Education recently opened up a pathway for local school systems to repurpose inclement weather days as virtual school days, and each district that intends to pursue this option must meet specific requirements and receive approval of their plan by the state.

Carroll County submitted an application to the state, which was approved for the 2021-2022 school year only.

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The plan would allow the school system to hold virtual instruction on snow days instead of tacking on days at the end of the school year, said Superintendent Steven Lockard.

We only had three snow days built in the calendar this year. The real idea here is providing synchronous instruction to students on those days  and for the purpose of not taking us too far in June or beyond, Lockard said.

Carroll County Chief of Schools Cindy McCabe said the plan is similar to what was done during hybrid learning school days in 2021. Schools would follow the regular two-hour delay schedule for a four-hour virtual school day that includes lunch time and other breaks. Instructional resources will be provided through Google Classroom and Schoology. Teachers will remain on Google Meet for the duration of a class for direct instruction, small group instruction and student support, the plan states.

The two-hour delay schedule would be communicated by the school and they would do that as soon as we knew that we were going to use an inclement weather day as a virtual learning day, McCabe said.

The plan would not necessarily be implemented every time theres inclement weather, however, it will allow for the option.

Our students are used to virtual learning now since theyve done it during the pandemic, McCabe said. Our middle school and high school students already have their devices that they take to and from school each day.  We are in the process of distributing the rest of the elementary school laptops.

The school system has surveyed elementary school parents to document how many students need laptops to accommodate the plan, according to McCabe.

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We have that information and every principal has that information and knows who they would need to give a laptop to and the process by which they would do that, McCabe said.

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The plan will also allow students to make up a snow day if they have connectivity issues on a virtual learning day, McCabe said.

To the best of our ability we would try to get out in front of [potential inclement weather days] to inform everybody, Lockard said.

School board member Donna Sivigny called the plan a really good idea that should be considered as a permanent addition in future years.

I think its good to do it this way because tacking on days at the end of the year just is relatively useless, Sivigny said, adding that she hoped to carry over the plan into future school years.

School board member Marsha Herbert also supported the idea, saying that one of the positives to come from the pandemic is the virtual learning option.

As a senior and a student I say the more snow days the better  but this makes sense from a practicality standpoint  I guess its OK, said student board member Devanshi Mistry.
" " An example of a Freedman's Savings passbook. People could open an account with as little as 5 cents. University of Georgia

During the American Civil War, nearly 180,000 Black Americans fought for the Union, many of them escaped former slaves. They were paid for their service, albeit less than white soldiers received. But there were few banks at the time that would let a Black person open an account and safeguard their money.

In 1865, after the war ended, a white abolitionist preacher from New York named John Alvord successfully lobbied Congress to create a bank to serve these deserving soldiers and millions of recently emancipated former slaves.

It was called the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company  or simply the Freedman's Savings Bank  and by the early 1870s it had received $3.7 million in deposits (worth over $85 million today) from Black account holders who believed that the government bank had their backs.

Tragically, it didn't.

By 1874, less than a decade after it was founded, the Freedman's Bank collapsed, a victim of mismanagement, corruption and a global financial crisis. But the real victims were its Black account holders, few of whom recovered a cent from the failed enterprise.

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Good Intentions, Bad Execution

Tim Todd is a historian with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and has written two books about the history of Black banking in America, most recently, "A Great Moral and Social Force: A History of Black Banks." Todd says that the "spirit" behind the Freedman's Bank was good, to "create a bank that was going to primarily serve formerly enslaved individuals in the South."

Frederick Douglass, the prominent abolitionist and statesman, was a fan. Douglass wrote in his autobiography that he believed the Freedman's Bank could "instill into the minds of the untutored Africans lessons of sobriety, wisdom, and economy, and to show them how to rise in the world."

More than 100,00 people opened accounts, which could be started with as little as 5 cents. Many customers were saving to buy homes, land or farm animals. About half the staff employed in the bank branches (there were 37 eventually) were African American, a great source of pride in the Black community.

Unfortunately, the people put in charge of the Freedman's Bank didn't know a whole lot about banking. Alvord, the first president of the bank, was a preacher and the bank's 50-member board of trustees included figures like William Cullen Bryant, a celebrated poet and editor, but also not a banker.

In the rush to create the Freedman's Bank, Congress made some other fateful errors. The worst was to put lawmakers in charge of checking the bank's books, instead of the usual auditors at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. So, if the bank's managers made mistakes or purposely fudged numbers (which they did), it was unlikely that Congress would catch them.

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Foolish Bets and Mounting Debts

" " The headquarters of the Freedman's Savings Bank was built in Washington D.C. at a cost of $4 million. National Archives/Wikimedia

The Freedman's Bank was supposed to be a simple, safe and secure institution. The bank wouldn't lend money, just hold savings accounts. Its operations would be funded by investing a percentage of those accounts in U.S. Treasury bonds, the safest security around.

But the Freedman's Bank's board of trustees was less careful with its finances. For example, they decided to move the bank's headquarters from New York City to Washington, D.C., where they built an ornate and expensive brownstone building just down the street from the White House for a price tag of $4 million in today's dollars.

It soon became clear that the Freedman's Bank wouldn't be able to balance its books by only investing in low-risk and low-yield securities like Treasury bonds. So, the board asked Congress to loosen its charter and allow the bank to make riskier bets on things like real estate.

Then came the Panic of 1873, a global economic collapse that briefly shuttered the New York Stock Exchange and bankrupted countless companies. All of those risky investments tanked and the Freedman's Bank was buried in debt. To make matters worse, some of the bank's own managers, like businessman Henry Cooke, had quietly funneled some of his company's debt onto the bank's books.

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The Failure of the Freedman's Bank

In a last-ditch effort to right the ship, the board of directors sacked Alvord and hired none other than Frederick Douglass to be the president of the Freedman's Bank. Douglass, who had invested $10,000 of his own money in the bank, marveled at the grandeur of the bank's D.C. headquarters before he discovered the rotten truth behind the gleaming facade.

" " Famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass (seen here circa 1879) was brought in at the last minute to rescue the bank and encourage African Americans not to abandon it. Wikimedia Commons

"They brought in Douglass well past the 11th hour," says Todd. "He took over unaware of the true condition of the bank until he sat down to work and realized, in his own words, that he 'was married to a corpse.'"

In June 1874, Congress voted to shutter the Freedman's Bank. Douglass led an effort to recover the squandered deposits of Black account holders, but most never saw a cent. Congress eventually authorized a program that would pay 62 cents for every dollar of deposits, but the application process was so arcane that most depositors walked away with little or nothing.

"In many cases, these were very small deposits, literally only a few dollars," says Todd. "It's even more tragic when you think that all you have is a few dollars, and now that's been lost."

In 1899, the Freedman's Bank headquarters was demolished. The location is now the site of the Treasury Annex building which was renamed the Freedman's Bank Building in 2016, to pay tribute to the bank and Black communities which supported it.

Now That's Cool Todd says that in the wake of the Freedman's Bank's failure, Black Americans took it upon themselves to safeguard their money. The U.S. had as many as 100 Black-owned banks by the turn of the 20th century.
U.S. Attorney's Office

Accused crypto scammer Ilya Dutch Lichtenstein was ordered held without bond following a bail hearing on Monday during which prosecutors laid out what could literally be called the electronic version of the smoking gun, Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the Washington, D.C. federal district court said Monday.

Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, 31-year-old tech entrepreneur and aspiring rapper Heather Rhiannon Morgan, are accused of attempting to launder billions of dollars in Bitcoin stolen in a 2016 hack. The cryptocurrency, worth about $71 million at the time, was worth $4.5 billion by the time they were arrested on Feb. 8. The feds have so far seized $3.6 billion of that total, which constitutes the largest financial seizure in U.S. history.

The couple had managed to liquidate roughly $2.9 million of the purloined Bitcoin before getting caught, according to prosecutors, who said the couple thought they had succeeded in outsmarting the feds up until they were taken into custody, Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Pelker said during todays three-hour-plus court session. Investigators have still not succeeded in cracking at least 24 accounts allegedly controlled by Lichtenstein that contain roughly $328 million in illicit crypto.

Lichtenstein and Morgan appeared in court wearing prison greens and face masks, with their parents observing the proceedings from the gallery. Prosecutors warned that Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia and grew up outside of Chicago, is a dual citizen of the United States and Russia, which does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. Further, the government said Lichtenstein and Morgan were in the planning stages of starting a new life as fugitives, using Ukraine or Russia as a launching point to go on the run elsewhere under false identities.

Hipster Rapper and Alleged Bitcoin Hacker Remade Herself in NYC

Arguing against allowing Morganwhom the couples shared defense lawyer, Samson Enzer, attempted to portray as significantly less culpable than Lichtensteinto remain free pending trial, prosecutors discounted this suggestion that Ms. Morgan is some sort of naive wife who may have been unwittingly co-opted into her husbands scheme here. (Enzers co-counsel, Anirudh Bansal, missed the hearing after getting stuck on a train from Connecticut to D.C. Howell recommended heading down the night before for future hearings.)

Story continues

It bears noting that Ms. Morgan is highly intelligent, with a graduate degree in economics, and has sufficient cryptocurrency and technical know-how such that if she were released, even if her husband burned the keys, she would absolutely have the ability and the connections to access the stolen crypto to purchase identities off of the dark net and disappear, they argued.

Further, prosecutors noted that Morgan, a West Coast native who headed up her own cold-email marketing company and has performed as a hip-hop artist under the name Razzlekhan, has very strong ties to Hong Kong, having lived there previously, having businesses set up there. It would also be very difficult for us to extradite. Its not impossible. but difficult.

Nevertheless, Howell said she believes Lichtenstein has more facility and skills than Morgan does when it comes to acquiring false identities, setting up pseudonymous accounts, and accessing and manipulating cryptocurrency. At the same time, the one-time Forbes contributor was fully aware and knowingly participated in the money laundering portion of the alleged scheme, Howell declared, ordering Morgan freed on $3 million bond, secured by her parents home in Northern California. She will now be placed under house arrest, with strict location monitoring and a raft of stringent conditions, said Howell.

Howell noted the strength of the allegations put forth by prosecutors this far, while at the same time criticizing Enzerwho, before entering private practice, helped lead the governments prosecution last year of fugitive software magnate and fringe political figure John McAfeefor obvious misdirection to draw attention away from the heavy weight of the evidence.

Prior to being placed in handcuffs by federal agents last week, the attention-grabbing duo were sure they had gotten away with the scheme, according to Pelker.

The two remained certain that even if we had been able to trace some transactions to their accounts, that they had laundered them well enough that they would have plausible deniabilitythat it just happened that some small subset of the [proceeds] from the hack went to their account, she said in court on Monday.

In walking Howell through a timeline of the investigation, prosecutors said Lichtenstein and Morgan got a notice from their internet service provider last November, informing them that the U.S. government had requested access to their online records. The move by the feds was meant to be kept secret, but the couple were tipped to the subpoena thanks to an administrative oversight, they explained.

On Jan. 5, 2022, federal agents executed a search warrant of the Wall Street apartment Morgan and Lichtenstein shared. About three weeks later, authorities began seizing the $3.6 billion in Bitcoin the pair are accused of attempting to launder, culminating in their Feb. 8 arrest.

Even though they ostensibly knew they were facing serious trouble, Morgan and Lichtenstein didnt skip town or try to liquidate any of the assets to which prosecutors think they still have access, said Enzer in arguing for both defendants to be released.

But prosecutors described what they called a fairly fundamental misunderstanding as far as what the defendants knew at the time of the search of their apartments, saying that Lichtenstein and Morgan still had no idea that investigators had gotten into a cloud storage account with strong evidence against both of them, as well as a folder controlled by Lichtenstein that contained the private keys to a digital wallet holding stolen Bitcoin.

During the next week, Morgan and Lichtenstein continued to hold, up until they were arrested, that they had succeeded in outsmarting us, they said. That even if we had been able to trace some transactions to their accounts, that they had laundered them well enough that they would have plausible deniabilitythat it just happened that some small subset of the [proceeds] from the hack went to their account.

Although friends and associates say Lichtenstein and Morgan did not spend wildly and seemed to be well-off but not ludicrously wealthy, there were occasional signs that something was slightly suspicious.

It never seemed like she really had a normal day job, a cousin of Morgans told The Daily Beast shortly after her arrest. At one point, about three years ago there was some mention of her being, like, a millionaire I always wondered how she had so much money, but damn.

Last week, after a New York City magistrates order for the release of both Lichtenstein and Morgan was temporarily put on hold pending todays decision by Howell, Lichtenstein and Morgans attorneys filed a brief claiming the two desperately want to become parents and previously harvested and froze several embryos now being stored at a hospital in New York City.

Bizarro Crypto Couple: We Wont Flee, Weve Got Frozen Embryos

In a letter to Howell, Enzer said Morgan can only conceive through in vitro fertilization because she suffers from endometriosis. The couple would never flee from the country at the risk of losing access to their ability to have children, which they were discussing having this year until their lives were disrupted by their arrests in this case.

Countering the defenses claims, prosecutors argued in a filing of their own that Lichtenstein and Morgan had long been gathering the necessary tools for a life on the run. In a section of the filing titled Suspicious Ukraine Activity, prosecutors shared details of a month-long trip the two took to Eastern Europe in 2019.

The couples activities in Ukraine at times appear pulled from the pages of a spy novel, it says, noting that agents searching the pairs New York City apartment discovered, among other things, two books with secret compartments made by hollowing out the pages.

After gaining access to Lichtensteins cloud storage account, investigators say they found numerous filesthat contained notes about money laundering and/or false identification documentation with Ukrainian connections. A folder they discovered was labeled personas, with subfolders containing Russian and Ukrainian identification documents in other peoples names, the filing says.

Along with the suspicious personas folder were notes and information about obtaining debit cards on the dark web, receiving packages anonymously in Ukraine, and avoiding security cameras in Ukrainian post offices.

I mean, weve got to admit it is not normal for law-abiding citizens to have access to accounts of vetted darknet vendors selling debit cards, false passports, and false personas, Howell said on Monday.

If convicted, the two face up to 20 years in prison.

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(Independent)

PJ ORourke, a celebrated satirist, journalist, and author, has died at the age of 74.

ORourke died on Tuesday morning according to Morgan Entrekin, the president and publisher of Grove Atlantic, which published ORourkes books. Entrekin did not cite a specific cause, but told The Associated Press that ORourke had been ill in recent months.

According to The New York Times, ORourke died at his home in Sharon, New Hampshire.

ORourke a native of Toledo, Ohio, began as an anti-war student activist before becoming a conservative, re-fashioning the irreverence of the 1960s counterculture into a distinctive brand of conservative and libertarian commentary.

His career extended from the early years of National Lampoon to a brief stint on 60 Minutes, in which he represented the conservative take on Point/Counterpoint, to frequent appearances on NPR's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

His writing style suggested a cross between the hedonism of Hunter S Thompson and the patrician mockery of Tom Wolfe. His greatest disdain was often for the government  not just a specific administration, but government itself and what he called the silken threads of entitlement spending.

ORourkes books included the best sellers Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, None of My Business, and A Cry from the Middle.

Entrekin told The Associated Press that ORourke had been working on a one-volume look at the United States, as seen from his hometown: A History of Toledo, Ohio: From the Beginning of Time Til the End of the Universe.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
HICKORY  Anita Isenhour is not subtle about her love of cats.

Along the sidewalk leading to the front door of her home in Hickory, a few cat statues and outdoor decor hint at it. Inside, theres a bigger collection.

In the entrance to her home, a lighted, mirrored china cabinet tells the full story. Its shelves are covered in tiny trinkets  from Christmas-themed cat knickknacks to a tiny book of cat poems. She has a tall cat statue in a tuxedo and a small candle in the shape of a cat, which she said she will never light.

She estimates her collection of cat decor reaches about 2,000 items. Its no wonder her former co-workers called her the cat lady. The 82-year-old retired from her job in advertising but hasnt stopped collecting.

Isenhours love for cats started when she was young. Growing up on a farm near Hickory, she used to play with the barn cats and dress one up in doll clothes, she said.

She moved into her current home in Hickory in 1971 with her husband, Dean. A few years later, a neighbor planned to get rid of a Siamese cat, so the Isenhours took it in. It was the first cat Isenhour had in the house.

When asked how many cats shes owned since then, all she can say is, Oh, gracious. She cant count.

My favorite sign is one that says, Cats are just little people with fur coats. Its true, Isenhour said.

Her last two cats, Motorboat and Snowflake, passed when they were 16 years old. Though she doesnt have cats she calls her own, she sometimes cares for neighborhood strays.

Isenhour also has her collection to keep her company.

It started in the 1970s, she thinks. When she and her husband went on trips, like a bus tour or a visit to their timeshare in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Isenhour bought a figurine, mug or trinket of a cat. It grew from there.

Her husband, an avid thrift-store shopper, started bringing home items he found in stores: cat pot holders, cat salt and pepper shakers, cat posters, cat mugs and cat planters.

Then, friends and family caught on.

Once people know you like something, theyll keep giving it to you, Isenhour said.

The collection took off from there. A neighbor gave her a concrete cat statue for her to paint, a family member made her a ceramic cat in a pottery class and friends picked souvenirs with cats on them.

It isnt limited to the china cabinet; in every nook and cranny, there is cat decor. Cat lace curtains shade a window in the bathroom, paintings hang in the hall, a fireplace mantle in a bedroom holds a dozen figurines. They all bring Isenhour joy.

One sign hanging in her kitchen seems to sum up Isenhours happiness succinctly: I love my life because it is littered with cats.

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Meritor Inc. has announced it will grow its Morganton operation, creating 25 new jobs and investing more than $4 million in the expansion.

Gov. Roy Cooper made the announcement Friday.

North Carolina has been intentional in our efforts to create a thriving manufacturing economy, Cooper said. Companies like Meritor know they can rely on our extensive transportation network, affordability and resilient workforce to execute their growth strategies.

A leading supplier of drivetrain, mobility, braking, aftermarket and powertrain solutions, Meritor has a portfolio including innovative products for commercial vehicle and industrial markets. As one of four operations in North Carolina, the Morganton expansion will increase its production capacity of axles and underframe components for the North American semi-trailer market.

Local officials have been referring to the project as Project Bravo. Its something local officials said they are excited to see progress over the next 18 months.

Landing this expansion project will highlight Burke Countys excellent location in North Carolina, which provides advantageous access to markets throughout the southeast, said Scott Mulwee, chairman of the Burke County Board of Commissioners. We appreciate Meritor choosing to expand in our community and contributing to the growth of Burke County.

Morganton Mayor Ronnie Thompson said the expansion will help the city meet its goals.

We are very delighted Meritor has chosen to expand their operation in our community, Thompson said. Morganton has always been committed to creating opportunities for everyone.

A Meritor official also expressed excitement for the expansion.

Meritor has a proud history in North Carolina, said John Nelligan, senior vice president and president, Truck, Americas, at Meritor. We look forward to further expanding our footprint with this important investment in Morganton.

N.C. Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders said this is an example of how the state supports all industries.

Growing manufacturers want to operate in places where they have access to a highly-skilled workforce for their present and future needs, Sanders said. North Carolinas First in Talent plan will engage workforce development partners and training systems that will meet employers needs.

The new positions will include engineers, technicians and trainers. Although the wages will vary for each position, the average annual salary for the new positions is $63,200 with the potential to create an annual payroll impact of more than $1.5 million. Burke Countys overall average annual wage is $39,499.

A performance-based grant of $75,000 from the One North Carolina Fund will help with Meritors expansion in North Carolina. The One NC Fund provides financial assistance to local governments to help attract economic investment and to create jobs. Companies receive no money upfront and must meet job creation and capital investment targets to qualify for payment. All One NC grants require matching participation from local governments and any award is contingent upon that condition being met.

This is great news for Burke County, said N.C. Sen. Warren Daniel. These highly skilled jobs and continued investment will make a positive impact on the people of our community.

Those thoughts were echoed by N.C. Rep. Hugh Blackwell.

Meritors expansion is a vote of confidence for our region, Blackwell said. It is particularly exciting to know that the projected average wage for the companys new employees is $63,200 per year. We look forward to supporting the companys continued success and contributions to our local economy.

In addition to the N.C. Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, other key partners in the project include the North Carolina General Assembly, North Carolina Community College System, Western Piedmont Community College, Western Piedmont Council of Governments, Burke County, Burke Development, Inc. and the city of Morganton.
Butte police reports

Window broken

An officer out on patrol near the intersection of Idaho and Aluminum streets late Monday night witnessed Andrew Joseph Darocha, 35, of Butte rifling through a white passenger car.

Stopping to see what the man was doing, the officer noticed broken glass on the floorboard and quickly ascertained that Darocha probably broke the window.

He was arrested for the misdemeanor offenses of criminal mischief and criminal trespass to a vehicle.

Second offense

Just before 10 p.m. Monday, several calls came in regarding a man driving his blue Ford onto oncoming traffic on Harrison Avenue.

Michael Ross Sorg, 35, of Butte was located near Amherst and Dahlgren and was pulled over on Cornell Avenue. The officer reported Sorgs speech was slurred and he failed field sobriety maneuvers.

He was jailed for misdemeanor driving under the influence (second offense) and careless driving.

Welfare check

A womans friend called the Butte Detention Center Monday night asking for a welfare check on her friend who lived in the 1800 block of Princeton Street.

When officers arrived they witnessed, through the window, Damien Lawrence Sullivan, 40, of Butte pushing the woman and throwing her cell phone.

He was arrested for the misdemeanor offenses of partner or family member assault with minor injuries and tampering with a communication device. He also had a misdemeanor warrant out for his arrest from the Montana Highway Patrol.

Unwanted woman

Several people living in the 1800 block of Whitman called Monday afternoon to complain about a woman in the neighborhood knocking on doors and trying to get in, and looking in garages, as well.

The woman turned out to be Ami Rochelle Ferda, 27, of Butte who was taken to jail for the misdemeanor offenses of disorderly conduct and obstructing a peace officer.

Aggravated DUI

Jacob Cyle Howery, 26, of Butte was booked into the jail at 4:15 a.m. Tuesday for misdemeanor aggravated driving under the influence.

Howery was observed by an officer driving erratically as he turned on to Chula Street. When stopped by the officer, he reportedly appeared to be intoxicated.

He took a Breathalyzer at the jail, which showed he was more than twice over the legal limit.

Being combative

At 8 p.m. Monday, James R. Wells, 73, of Butte was at the St. James Healthcare emergency room where he was yelling at people, being combative and going into other patients rooms.

He was jailed for misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

Two offenses

Also on Monday, Reece Jaren Wandler, 19, of Butte reportedly took a license plate from a vehicle at the Comfort Inn and a backpack from the Town Pump.

He was jailed for misdemeanor criminal trespass to a vehicle and cited for the backpack theft.

Miscellaneous reports

A garage was burglarized early Monday in the 1800 block of Texas Avenue.

Sometime early Monday two windows at Old Butte Historical Adventures, 117 N. Main St., were broken and someone reached in and took a sword that was in the window display.

A male student punched another male student late Monday morning at Butte High School. The simple assault is being handled by the school resource officer.

It was reported just after 5 p.m. that a license plate was stolen from a truck parked in the 100 block of Fox Run.

The police were called at around 8 p.m. Monday about an intoxicated person at the Town Pump, 531 S. Montana St. He was stopped by an officer and told not to return to the store and he said he wouldnt.

Early Tuesday morning, power tool batteries were reported taken from a building in the 600 block of South Wyoming Street.

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Butte police reports

Walking naked

A 35-year-old man from Trout Creek was taken in for a mental evaluation late Friday afternoon after officers found him walking naked on Elizabeth Warren Avenue. The man reportedly began removing his clothes while still on Harrison Avenue but by the time he was heading east on Elizabeth Warren, he was wearing nothing.

Engine out

Just after 5:30 p.m. Friday, a plane with one engine out had to make an emergency landing at the Bert Mooney Airport. The plane landed without any difficulties.

Daily constitutional

At around 4:20 a.m. Saturday, an officer noticed a car being driven in the 2200 block of Princeton had no headlights on. The car then stopped and parked in the 2200 block of Yale and Logan Scott Bergen, 39, homeless got out of the car and began walking.

When stopped by the officer, Bergen said he wasnt driving, just out for a walk, with no destination in mind. Turns out, he had a misdemeanor Montana Highway Patrol warrant out for his arrest and was also jailed for misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer.

Numerous offenses

A trooper with the Montana Highway Patrol arrested Gaven Lee Harrison, 31, of Butte at around 1 a.m. Saturday for numerous offenses, including felony unlawful possession of a firearm and the misdemeanor counts of operating a vehicle without current registration, habitual offender, driving with a suspended or revoked drivers license, reckless driving, improper color stop lamps, obstructing a peace officer and eluding police

Taken to jail

There was a verbal disturbance called in late Friday afternoon. Officers went to the 1900 block of Oregon to investigate and found Travis Thomas Surman, 32, of Butte, who had three warrants out for his arrest for misdemeanor theft and misdemeanor criminal contempt. He was taken to jail.

Men jailed

Two Butte men, Tyler Richard McLaughlin, 33, and Larry Michael Morris, 36, were arrested early Friday afternoon in the 1400 block of Harrison Avenue and taken to jail.

McLaughlin was jailed for felony motor vehicle theft and misdemeanor criminal trespass to property.

A woman living in the 2600 block of Silver Bow Boulevard reported that her car had been stolen and that the alleged culprit was McLaughlin. He told officers where the vehicle was parked. Officers found the car, which had a flat tire.

Morris had a warrant for his arrest out of Butte City Court for misdemeanor criminal contempt.

Intent to sell

On Friday, Jeremy Michael Adams, 32, of Butte was extradited from the Billings Detention Center to the Butte Detention Center for felony possession with intent to sell.

Friday arrest

Jon David Folland, 47, homeless was arrested early Friday morning in the 1400 block of Motor View for misdemeanor violation of a protection order.

Criminal contempt

Just after 9 a.m. Friday, an officer stopped to check a car that had broken down near the intersection of Oregon and Schley. Inside was Elijah Gabriel Nieto, 23, homeless.

Nieto had a misdemeanor criminal contempt warrant out for his arrest and was taken to jail.

Felony assault

Charles Lee Cabarett, 49, of Butte was booked into the jail just after 2 a.m. Sunday for felony partner or family member assault (minor injuries) and misdemeanor resisting arrest.

Police were called to a residence at the Silver Bow Homes where it was reported a woman had been allegedly assaulted by a man. When officers knocked on the door, Cabarett answered the door and then tried to slam the screen door on the police. He then ran back into the apartment and was reportedly non-compliant. He was then tased by an officer.

Granite County warrant

Ryan Kendall Lewis, 34, of Butte was arrested late Saturday afternoon on a Granite County city court warrant for misdemeanor partner or family member assault with serious bodily injuries.

Felony possession

Nesha Sue Hoffman, 39, of Butte was jailed at around 1:40 a.m. Monday. She was stopped by a Montana Highway Patrol trooper near the intersection of Arizona and Broadway and was arrested for felony possession of dangerous drugs and the misdemeanor offenses of driving under the influence (refusal), driving with a suspended or revoked license, no liability insurance in effect, failure to wear a seat belt, and operating a vehicle without current registration.

Suspicious activity

A call came in around 11 p.m. Sunday regarding suspicious activity in the 700 block of South Main Street.

Officers arrived to see a man and woman park their vehicle. The man, who was driving, took off running and the woman, Teresa Nichol Salcido, 35, of Butte began to walk away from the car. When stopped by an officer, she gave a false name but another officer recognized her and knew she had three misdemeanor warrants out for her arrest  two for criminal contempt and another from the Montana Highway Patrol.

At the Butte Detention Center, suspected drugs and drug paraphernalia were reportedly found in her purse and she was also jailed for felony possession of dangerous drugs and the misdemeanor offenses of obstructing a peace officer and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Yelling at people

On Friday afternoon, a man was yelling at people while inside the Glacier Bank, 3701 Harrison Ave. He was sent on his way.

Wrecked car

Also on Friday afternoon, a completely wrecked 1996 Ford car, four-door with no plates, was found near the World Museum of Mining.

Burnt food

Someone thought there was a fire burning at a residence in the 100 block of Cedar Lake Drive and called it in about 7 p.m. Friday. Turned out to be burnt food.

Wild party

There was a wild party going on late Friday night in the 900 block of West Copper Street and neighbors called to complain. Officers put a stop to the festivities.

Theft report

It was reported Saturday morning by a woman living in the 1100 block of West Mercury Street that her juvenile son took her medical marijuana.

Cushion stolen

Someone stole a wheelchair cushion Saturday afternoon from a car parked in the Homestake parking lot.

Gas gone

It was discovered Sunday morning that someone had drilled a hole in the gas tank of a Butte-Silver Bow County vehicle parked near the Butte Civic Center, 1340 Harrison Ave.

Wallet gone

A wallet was taken early Sunday from an unlocked vehicle parked in the 2700 block of Yale Avenue.

Burglarized home

A home being worked on in the 100 block of East Center Street was burglarized Sunday. Missing was a paint sprayer, impact drill, and a skill saw.

Man with gun

Just before 3 p.m., it was reported that a man was firing his gun out the window of his car while driving on the South Rocker Road. When police arrived, he was gone.

Intoxicated group

Police were called because there were some intoxicated people by the pool at Fairmont Hot Springs. When officers arrived at around 9 p.m. Sunday, all was quiet.

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MARTINSBURG, W.Va.  A former Navy nuclear engineer from Annapolis admitted in a West Virginia federal court Monday that he conspired to sell classified military information about nuclear submarines to a foreign government.

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, entered the guilty plea in the W. Craig Broadwater Federal Building and United States Courthouse, which is not far from where he and his wife, Diana, were arrested in October.

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Toebbe divulged thousands of pages of documents with schematic designs, operating parameters and performance characteristics about nuclear-powered cruise missile fast-attack submarines, known in the U.S. Navy as the Virginia-class of submarines, according to his plea.

The crime of conspiring to communicate restricted data to a person with the intent to injure the U.S. or provide an advantage to a foreign nation carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. However, Toebbes attorney and the government agreed as part of his plea to argue for a sentence between 12 1/2 and 17 1/2 years in prison. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled yet.

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Toebbe told U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Trumble that he was entering the plea willfully and that he was not doing it to protect anyone else. At the end of the plea hearing, Trumble remanded Toebbe to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

I conspired with Diana Toebbe to transmit restricted data to a foreign country, Toebbe told the judge.

These booking photos of Jonathan Toebbe and Diana Toebbe were released Oct. 9, 2021, by the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. (West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority via AP, File) (AP)

Its unclear what, if any, implications Jonathan Toebbes plea has on his wifes case.

The husband and wife have insisted Diana Toebbe is innocent. Her attorneys pushed for her release pending trial, arguing she wasnt privy to her husbands scheme to divulge classified information. A magistrate judge denied that request and she appealed.

The last sentence of Jonathan Toebbes plea agreement says in bold type the government has no agreements, understandings or promise with Toebbe other than those outlined in his plea, which explicitly names Diana Toebbe as his co-conspirator.

Her attorney, Barry Peck, did not respond to a request for comment Monday evening.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarod Douglas deferred questions to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of West Virginia, who declined to comment about the open case.

The office distributed a news release with statements from a range of Department of Justice officials touting the guilty plea was a result of a diligent investigation.

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The U.S. District Courthouse in Martinsburg, West Virginia, where Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer, pleaded guilty Monday to espionage for trying to pass information about the design of American nuclear-powered submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. (Alex Mann)

Among the secrets the U.S. government most zealously protects are those related to the design of its nuclear-powered warships, said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen for National Security. The defendant was entrusted with some of those secrets and instead of guarding them, he betrayed the trust placed in him and conspired to sell them to another country for personal profit.

Alan Kohler Jr., the assistant director of FBIs Counterintelligence Division, said in a statement that the plea should serve as a deterrent to similar offenses.

Theres a message here for anyone who would sell out Americas secrets. The FBI and its partners will use all our investigative techniques to bring you to justice, Kohler said.

In court, Toebbe wore an orange jumpsuit from the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His shaggy beard protruded from beneath a face mask and his hands were handcuffed and connected to a belly chain. He answered Trumbles questions clearly and asked no questions.

Douglas summarized the facts agreed to by Toebbe and the government as part of the plea agreement.

Having worked since 2012 on projects related to naval nuclear propulsion, Toebbe held a top-secret security clearance, according to federal investigators. They said its possible hed been collecting information related to the Navys nuclear endeavors throughout his tenure with the program and, at some point in 2020, sought out a foreign country to share it with.

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In April 2020, Toebbe sent a sample of restricted data to a country not identified in court records, asking the recipient to share it with their military intelligence agency and promising his information would be of great value to your nation, according to court records. Toebbes letter was shared with an FBI attache, prompting federal agents to launch an undercover operation.

Over more than a year, undercover agents communicated with Toebbe over an encrypted email service and facilitated the displaying of a discrete signal in Washington, D.C., as well as a series of four dead drops in 2021 in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The agents transferred cryptocurrency to Toebbe after picking up the SD cards he left in predetermined locations and Toebbe followed up with a key to decrypt the information.

Toebbe concealed the digital memory devices in a peanut butter sandwich, a Band-Aid wrapper and a chewing gum package.

In sum, the government paid Toebbe the equivalent of $100,000 in cryptocurrency. Federal authorities have not located the money it paid Toebbe, nor thousands of pages of additional documents Toebbe claimed to have had.

As part of his plea, Toebbe agreed to help federal agents find the money and classified records. If he fails to cooperate, the government can back out of its obligations under the plea, but Toebbe would not be able to withdraw his guilty plea.

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Toebbes attorney, federal public defender Nicholas Compton, declined to comment, citing his clients pending case.

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Federal court records offer few clues of the couples motivations but show how federal agents built a covert relationship with Jonathan Toebbe over time. With each exchange of information, agents gleaned more about the people they were dealing with: Jonathan, the nuclear engineer, and Diana, 46, a humanities teacher at the Key School in Annapolis.

The FBI followed the couple to the drop sites and watched them deposit the information, accusing Diana Toebbe of acting as a lookout on three occasions. Jonathan Toebbe wrote in an encrypted email only one other person I know is aware of our special relationship, which was his wife, according to the plea agreement.

A federal grand jury indicted the couple Oct. 19.

As part of his plea agreement, Toebbe also agreed to forfeit all documents, electronic devices and digital media seized from his home in Annapolis, vehicles and his Navy office. His plea says he is not allowed to communicate with foreign governments upon his release but for legal international travel.

Toebbe signed every encrypted email as Alice, describing the format of the information he provided and often expressing concerns about the possibility that he may be communicating with law enforcement, which he regularly referred to as adversaries.

Thank you for your partnership as well, my friend, Jonathan Toebbe wrote in an encrypted email to a federal agent. One day, when it is safe, perhaps two old friends will have a chance to stumble into each other at a cafe, share a bottle of wine and laugh over stories of their shared exploits.
A group of tenants hopes to join a state lawsuit alleging that money from the Legion Oasis apartment complex in Butte has been unlawfully used to pay for an American Legion Post hall and to subsidize post events and operations.

The tenants say the improper payments have been going on for eight years and exceed $900,000, and the money should go back to the complex for capital improvements benefiting renters. They are not seeking cash payouts.

Ten of the tenants filed a court motion last week seeking to join a civil suit the Montana Attorney Generals Office filed in September against Silver Bow American Legion Post #1 and the nonprofit Legion Oasis Inc. it formed in 1972 to run the apartment complex.

The AG says at least four of seven directors on a Legion Oasis board are also members of Legion Post #1, and alleges that since at least 2014, the board has improperly transferred money that Post #1 has used to build a social center, or hall, that opened in 2019.

The money is supposed to support the 160-unit complex and its mission to provide affordable housing to low- and middle-income people in Butte, the AGs civil complaint says, not to benefit Post #1 and its members.

The AGs lawsuit, filed in state District Court in Butte, asks the court to declare the actions unlawful and to stop money transfers that are being used to make mortgage payments on the social center and pay for other Post expenses.

The motion filed by tenants makes similar claims but also seeks a claw back of all wrongful payments over the years, an amount they say exceeds $900,000. It says money from the nonprofit Legion Oasis came from tenants rent so it should be returned for complex maintenance, repairs and improvements that benefit tenants.

The Legion Oasis and Post #1, via letters to media outlets from Oasis Board President Mike Lawson, say they have done nothing wrong. They are sister nonprofits that have faithfully served veterans and provided well-maintained, affordable housing in Butte, he has said.

As a legal matter, the AGs Office has never served the Post or the Legion Oasis with the lawsuit so there is no litigation at hand, said Liza Dennehy, an attorney representing Post #1.

They have been in contact with the AGs Office trying to address any concerns and rectify misconceptions, she told The Montana Standard, but theres nothing to respond to in court because they havent been formally served. Beyond that, she said, she did not want to comment.

The Standard asked the AGs office late last week where the matter stood.

Were pursuing mediation to find an outcome suitable for the Legion Oasis tenants and the public before taking further legal action, Kyler Nerison, communications director for the Montana Department of Justice, said in an email.

Larry Henke, an attorney for the tenants, said its possible the AGs Office and defendants will resolve any disputes privately. But he said the basic allegations are spelled out in the lawsuit, the tenants agree with them, and a court should now address their claims.

One of the reasons we intervened is to prevent the state and this compromised (Oasis) board of directors from cutting a back deal reminiscent of the smoke-filled rooms of Marcus Daly and brush this under the rug, Henke said.

From the time the state filed its suit, it had 180 days to issue summonses to the defendants to keep its claims moving publicly in court, Henke said. So there is still time to go that route.

But Henke said hes confident a judge will let the tenants join the case, and if so, their claims can go forward regardless of what the state does.

Many tenants are also upset at an Oasis board decision in December to replace a longtime manager at the complex with BlueLine Property Management based in Missoula, as well as suggested $15 to $30 a month rent increases.

Lawson has cited a toxic relationship the board had with the former complex manager and says the new management team can provide better oversight, knows about changing tax codes and housing laws, and will better represent tenants and the Post in Butte.

Several residents protested the move outside the apartments one day in late December, some holding signs, and there were at least three contentious meetings between residents and the board. Butte-Silver Bow Commissioner Jim Fisher was at the protest to support the tenants.

That dispute is still simmering, but nearly three months before it began in December, the AGs Office had filed its lawsuit against the Legion Oasis board and Post #1.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

According to a lengthy letter from Lawson that the Standard published on Dec. 27, American Legion Post #1 was approached by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1969 about a need for low- and middle-income housing in Butte.

The agency said if the Post would secure land, build affordable units and manage the complex, HUD would give it a low-interest loan to finance the project. Post members didnt know if they could pull it off, Lawson said in his letter.

With that said, there were members of the post, themselves unable to secure affordable, stable housing  and one didnt need to look very far to see that the need went well beyond veterans and their families, he wrote. So they got the loan and took on the project.

He said the Post was taking on all the financial risk and members were volunteering hundreds of hours to the project, so they created a seven-member board of directors to govern the complex and hire and oversee its management.

Four of the directors would be members of Post #1 and three would be qualified community members.

Obviously, the American Legion would have the majority vote to protect their interests, but it was also important to include community members that could bring a varied perspective, or expertise beyond that of the board members  Lawson wrote.

Over the years, he said, We continued to elect board members that insured bills were paid, made improvements to apartments, added playgrounds, paved the parking areas, upgraded windows, replaced roofs and the list goes on and on.

STATES CLAIMS

The state of Montana, through the office of Attorney General Austin Knudsen, filed suit against the Legion Oasis Inc. and Post #1 on Sept. 27.

According to its restated articles of incorporation, the suit says, the Legion Oasis is to be irrevocably dedicated to and operated exclusively for non-profit purposes and no part of the income or assets of the corporation shall be distributed to or inure to the benefit of its members, directors, officers or other persons.

But starting at least in 2014 and continuing to the present, the suit says, the board has given funds and real property to Post 1, which has been and is currently using such funds for its own purposes.

In a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, struck in 2014, the Legion Oasis agreed to make monthly deposits of $7,100 into an account set up by the Post that would be used to build a new Post social center, or hall.

The MOU said the new facility will also be used by Legion Oasis to support its mission of providing low- and middle-income housing and Legion Oasis will have access and use of the facility in a manner to be determined.

The Legion Oasis later obtained a construction loan for the new social center, the suit says, covered a $200,000 dispute the Post had with the construction company that built the new legion hall, and deeded over a 2.1-acre tract of land the hall was built on.

In 2018, the Oasis board agreed to increase its monthly payments to $8,000, the AGs suit says, for utility and mortgage costs and to support Post activities including its chosen charities, Veterans Council meetings and community fundraisers.

In April 2019, the Legion Oasis conveyed a warranty deed on the 2.1 acres, and on April 13 that year, Post #1 members formally ushered in their new building on Wynne Avenue across from the complex and also celebrated the Posts 100th birthday.

The AG said it was an unlawful conflict of interest for Legion Oasis directors who were also members of Post #1 to vote on matters benefiting the Post, even if the board had approved such conflicts.

It says other laws were broken, including one requiring that nonprofit directors maintain loyalty to the nonprofit. The board also made unauthorized distributions, the suit says, and had denied Legion Oasis access to and appropriate use of the social center to support housing for low and moderate-income families.

It asked the court to declare the acts unlawful, prohibit further violations, remove directors who have a conflict of interest and stop the Legion Oasis board from making any additional payments to cover mortgage payments or Post operational costs.

THE TENANT CLAIMS

The tenants agree with the states claims but say if they arent allowed to intervene in the case, the state and Legion Oasis could resolve the case without any recovery of the misdirected $900,000.

Legion Post No. 1 has used its majority control of the Legion Oasis Board to raid Legion Oasiss funds, funded directly by the tenants/intervenors, for Legion Post No. 1s benefit to the tune of more than $900,000, their court motion states.

Certainly it is no stretch of the imagination to see that the tenants would have an interest in how the funds they paid to Legion Oasis, intended for maintenance and upkeep of the property where they live, were otherwise being used in breach of the Legion Oasis Board duties  it says.

The tenants, like the state, want an independent board established, and as part of their motion, they are asking the court for class-action status so the relief is sought on behalf of all current tenants and past tenants from 2014 on.

And they want the $900,000 returned and put toward the complex. They are not seeking cash payments for themselves, Henke said.

These tenants are 100 percent interested in maintaining their homes, Henke said. They like it there. One guy was promised a carport four years ago. There is no carport. People using walkers are tripping over cracks in the sidewalk.

They want this (money) returned to Legion Oasis so an independent board can determine how best to invest in the facility, which they call their homes.

OASIS AND POST POSITIONS

Since the Legion Oasis and Post are conversing privately with the AGs office, Lawson said he did not want to comment directly for this story.

But he has addressed many of the claims in a letter that television station KTVM posted on its website in December and in a letter the Standard published on Dec. 27. Some of his points were covered previously in this story.

The Legion Oasis nonprofit was created, he said, to carry out the Posts charitable mission to veterans and members of the community by providing low- and middle-income utility paid housing in Butte.

It was done under the rules and regulations of HUD until 2014, when the loan was paid off and the complex solely belonged to Post members, he said. Thats when they started planning the long-anticipated new Legion hall.

When the board no longer had to make loan payments for the complex, it began making charitable donations to its parent nonprofit corporation  the Post  and to build the new Legion Hall.

This was done under the law that allows one nonprofit to make charitable donations to another nonprofit corporation to be used for charitable purposes, Lawson said in one letter, and those donations continue. They are less than 10 percent of Oasis revenue, he said.

Lawyers for the Oasis and the Post believe the AGs office is mistaken and they have sent letters to the AGs office in response to its claims, Lawson said.

The veterans of Legion Post #1 are respected members of the community, he said, and the complex was created as an outreach to low- and middle-income residents of Butte that continues today.

We have been proud to provide a development here in Butte that people can drive by and see green lawn, children playing outside, and well-maintained housing that tenants can feel is a step up for them and their families, Lawson wrote in the letter to the Standard.

Our organization has faithfully and dutifully served veterans and the people of Butte through our work establishing, maintaining and improving the Oasis Apartment Complex for 50 years and we intend to continue doing so for decades to come.

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Montanas Constitution contains two fundamental rights that are distinct, yet, are connected in an important way.

The first of these rights is Article II, section 7 titled Freedom of speech, expression and press. This provision states, in pertinent part: No law shall be passed impairing the freedom of speech or expression. Every person shall be free to speak or publish whatever he will on any subject, being responsible for all abuse of that liberty 

The second of these rights is Article II, section 9 titled Right to know. This provision states: No person shall be deprived of the right to examine documents or to observe the deliberations of all public bodies or agencies of state government and its subdivisions, except in cases in which the demand of individual privacy clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure.

The right to know is self-executing, meaning that it requires no implementing legislation; it stands on its own. Freedom of speech, expression and press, is likely self-executing, as well, given that the legislature is precluded from passing any law impairing this right.

But here is how the two rights are connected, why they complement each other.

While, theoretically, anyone can avail herself or himself personally of the right to know, as a practical matter, most of us rely on the pressnewspapers, television and radioto cover and report on public meetings, that is, the deliberations of public bodies. In short, We the People are able to exercise our right to know because the press is able to exercise its right of speech, expression and to publish.

If either side of this symbiotic relationship is unable to function, however, then to a great extent the fundamental rights on both sides are lost.

And, sadly, that is what is happening. Some examples make the point.

 Open meeting laws, enacted to, in theory, require transparency of public bodies and agencies and to facilitate the right to know, often are used to do just the opposite--close off from public scrutiny the very meetings which ought to be open. Hyper-technical laws and rules about what constitutes a meeting or a quorum, for example, can be and are used, especially by the Legislature, to effectively game the system and prevent the public and the press from observing, covering and reporting on the deliberations, that, by constitutional mandate, are required to be open. Politicians love to cut deals and corners in private  in opposition to the transparency the Constitution requires.

 Exorbitant fees to obtain public documents are charged by agencies, thus making the exercise of the rights to know and free speech, expression and press often just too costly to pursue.

 Agencies refuse to provide public documents to the press, or branches of government deny access by the press to public meetings or deliberations thus forcing the press to mount costly and time-consuming court challenges to obtain what the right to know guarantees. Effectively, the press has for decades subsidized the publics right to know  without any reimbursement from the agencies and government bodies that are wrongfully frustrating this right.

 High (tax-paid) agency spokespersons refuse to take phone calls from journalists  but are more than happy to grant interviews to partisan ideologues.

 And, as one press person told me, that countys commissioners dont talk during commission meetings. They just text each other to prevent the press from hearing their deliberations.

All of these practices frustrate the right to know and the right of speech, expression and the press. All of these deprive We the People of fundamental rights that are constitutionally guaranteed ours to exercise and enjoy and which state actors are constitutionally not permitted to deprive, impair or to legislate away. All of these shenanigans are antithetical to transparent government.

Worse, while unacceptable in their own right, these and other practices like these perpetrated by government employees, officials and actors represent an even greater evil. These people disrespect and disregard our Constitution and We the People-- in whom all political power is vested and from whom the power of governance is derived.

Two Rights; a multitude of wrongs. Things need to change.

James C. Nelson of Helena is a retired Montana Supreme Court justice.

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By Shawn Touney | Feb 15, 2022

The U.S. Department of Educations College Scorecard recently highlighted Murray State University for student retention and graduation rates, as well as for quality and value.

University ranks at the top for student retention and graduation rates, as well as for quality and value

MURRAY, Ky.  The U.S. Department of Educations College Scorecard recently highlighted Murray State University for student retention and graduation rates, as well as for quality and value.

Available at collegescorecard.ed.gov, Murray State compares favorably alongside its peer institutions in the state of Kentucky, with the following highlights in the scorecards comparative metrics.

Speaking to the ability of students who are on track to complete their degree and tend to lead to better affordability with their education, the percentage of Murray State undergraduate students who enroll full-time is the highest among the public, regional comprehensive universities in Kentucky and is in the top two across all public universities in Kentucky. The typical monthly loan payment for a student after attending Murray State is the lowest among the public, regional comprehensive universities in Kentucky and is second lowest among all public universities in Kentucky. The retention rate of first-time, full-time students at Murray State is the highest among the public, regional comprehensive universities in Kentucky. The graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is the highest among the public, regional comprehensive universities in Kentucky and is second among all public universities in Kentucky. Murray State is in the top two among public, regional comprehensive universities in Kentucky in median salary earnings among graduates who are more than ten years removed from post-secondary education, and who received federal financial aid while attending college.



Murray State continues to reinforce its high-quality, high-impact, nationally-recognized best value promise that has been identified by multiple publications within the past year. The University has been named a Best Bang for the Buck by Washington Monthly, one of Americas Best Colleges by Forbes, as well as a Top-Tier University by U.S. News & World Report for more than 30 consecutive years.

The University offers 146 academic programs and more than 170 student organizations, encompassing a variety of shared academic and personal interests.

Murray State continues to offer financial assistance to Racers and their families. Based on the Universitys most recent annual reports, more than $115 million was awarded in financial aid and scholarships, and 99 percent of Murray States freshman class received financial aid or a scholarship.

Prospective students who are interested in joining the Racer family can learn more, schedule a campus or virtual visit and apply for admission here - Apply for admissions.
WEST LIBERTY  As a group of about 30 immigrants gathered in front of the West Liberty City Hall they were asked to move to the side to not block foot traffic. They ended up standing around a bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty in front of the building.

Ruth Palma, an organizer for Escucha Mi Voz (Listen to my Voice), said if she received $1,400 from the Excluded Workers Fund in lieu of a stimulus check that most Americans received, it would go a long way to paying off debt she had incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. As an immigrant, she had filed her taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and as a result neither she nor her children, who are American citizens and serving the U.S. Army or attending the University of Iowa, received a stimulus check. For her individually the money would be nice, but, she says, for the Latino community of Eastern Iowa, the significance is much greater.

For the Latino community this would represent a change, she said, through a translater. The Latino community often feels excluded in the state of Iowa.

When asked how she felt that Escucha Mi Voz was the only organization of its kind in the country  immigrants standing up to ask local government for funds in the place of stimulus checks many people considered essential workers did not receive, she said in places like New York the workers didnt have to protest to get the funding.

The members of Escucha Mi Voz turned out to West Liberty City Hall as part of "A Day Without Immigrants"  a national day to demand immigration reform  and to deliver a letter to the City Council showing that American Rescue Plan funds can be given to Excluded Workers Funds. Many cars drove by and honked to support the rally. Earlier in the day, similar demonstrations were held in Iowa City and Columbus Junction.

For months, members of Escucha Mi Voz have been asking city and county governments to invest part or all of the money they received from the federal government as part of the American Rescue Plan to aid excluded and essential workers  workers who did not get stimulus who have faced health and economic impacts from the COVID_19 health crisis. So far, Johnson County and Iowa City have invested $3.5 million in a new Direct Assistance program, which has come under fire recently for rejecting applicants because of a lack of funding. Currently, West Liberty is considering a $261,000 donation and has promised an answer by the end of the month.

During the rally, Ricardo Rios brought an American flag to fly, commenting, We are all Americans. He said while we were all Americans now, all our ancestors were immigrants at one time. He had attended the Columbus Junction rally earlier in the day and said about 40 people there presented the letter to the city, despite the fact the City Council voted to spend the remainder of its rescue funds earlier this month.

Samuel Ango, a native of El Salvador, carried a sign supporting the immigration reform. He said he came to America because his mother worked with the police and if he returned to El Salvador his life would be in danger. He said he worked as a roofer and, motioning to several houses on the street, said I made all these houses look beautiful for these people.

He said that during the pandemic he recalled working in houses and seeing the owners treating the workers differently, he believes, because they were Latino.

We are here to make this country work now, he said. I am here to support these people. My wife is a U.S. citizen, and I work to make this country work.

He said that he was currently seeking U.S. citizenship.

Palma said the group would continue to contact members of local government for as long as it took to help excluded workers. On Tuesday the Washington County supervisors will discuss funding. Excluded workers will also meet with the city of Washington mayor and city administrator. In Des Moines and Davenport, similar organizations have turned out to demand pandemic relief for excluded workers.

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MUSCATINE  On February 22, 1732, George Washington, Americas first president, was born. Nearly 300 years later, the state is hoping that potential young voters take the occasion of his birth to ensure theyre able to vote for the countrys next president.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is encouraging county auditors and high schools from across the state to hold voter registration drives for students in what he is calling Two-sday  Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Not only does this date coincide with Washingtons birthday, but it is also shown as 2/22/22 on the numerical calendar. While two may be the number of the day, 17 will also be an important number that day, as 17 is the age where Iowa residents can register to vote. According to the state, there are only a little over 3,500 17 year olds currently registered.

Its crucial for young people to learn that registering to vote and participating in elections is the best way to make sure your voice his heard," Pate said in a news release."My office is working with schools across the state to help them register eligible students.

Governor Kim Reynolds will issue an official proclamation that day, officially declaring it as Iowa High School Voter Registration Day.

Muscatine County Auditor Tibe Vander Linden said the Muscatine County Auditors Office would participate and she had already reached out to the Muscatine High School regarding it.

All of our high schools (in the county) have done a good job of doing their own voter registration drive with their civics and government classes each semester, Linden said, adding that although she didnt know at the moment whether these schools would have a specific Twos-day drive this year, she expects that they will continue to give students good information and opportunities to register.

Linden said she saw Iowa High School Voter Registration Day as a good idea, and said the Auditors Office would allow 17 year olds to register with them that day, just as it does every day that the office is open.

I think its important that all people realize that residents can register to vote at age 17, so that if they turn 18 by Election Day, they can then be a part of the democratic process, she said. Every vote counts, and every votes important.

To register to vote, check or update registration status, visit VoterReady.Iowa.gov or muscatinecountyiowa.gov. Registering can also be done through the mail or in-person at the Auditors Office.

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On Monday, as part of the National Day Without Immigrants, members of Escucha Mi Voz presented letters from the U.S. Department of Treasury showing that American Rescue Plan funds can be given to the Excluded Worker Fund.

The U.S. Treasury letter was written by Namrata Mujumdar, Treasurys Lead for Policy Outreach, State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, Office of Recovery Programs. It is dated Feb. 10, 2022, and addressed to Johnson County Supervisor Jon Green.

Our guidance makes clear that responding to the needs of the most impacted communities should be a key priority of policymakers in allocating SLFRF funds.

Under the final rule, it is acceptable and appropriate to limit a cash assistance program to a subset of an eligible population that has been especially impacted by the pandemic or its negative economic effects, including prioritizing cash assistance for households that have not already received cash assistance to mitigate the hardship the pandemic has caused.

A recipient does not need to serve every household in the presumed eligible populations in order for a service to be eligible. Nothing in the statute or rule requires [a lottery] outcome. Eligible uses of funds must be related and reasonably proportional to the extent and type of harm experienced due to the pandemic.

It may be very challenging for some populations like low-income households or unstably housed households to document income or other eligibility characteristics, whereas other populations or classes may be able to provide this information easily. In some circumstances, use of self-attestation or streamlined documentation may be appropriate."

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Muscatines first Alexander Clark Day was proclaimed by Mayor Walter Conway in 1958. Sixty years later the City Council voted unanimously to honor the famous residents birthday in perpetuity.

August 1890: Alexander Clark, the new minister to Liberia, and who is known throughout the country as the colored orator of the West, was born in Washington county, Penn., February 25, 1826.

So begins the short biography published nationwide and surely authorized by Clark himself. In 1872 the media-savvy publisher-lawyer-churchman had turned down President Grants offer of appointment to Haiti, reportedly because the job didnt pay enough.

From the Des Moines Register (August 1882): Among the members of the State convention to-day will be Mr. Alexander Clark, of Muscatine, the noted colored orator and politician, who is also very prominent in York Masonry. Mr. Clark was the first colored man put on the political stump in the United States by any party.  He has done much for his race, and much for the Republican party, and it is to be hoped that some day a Republican administration will recognize him, his worth and his service, by appointing him to some responsible and honorable position. He would make a capital minister to Liberia.

President Benjamin Harrison did appoint Clark to Liberia, soon after appointing Frederick Douglass to Haiti. Douglass  The Colored Orator  with no regional qualifier on his title.

Although Douglass was indisputably more famous, there was a long, friendly relationship. In an exchange of complimentary letters in 1888, they address one another as old friends. Clark says near half a century and calls Douglass the greatest negro living on the earth.

From the 1890 newspaper bio: Mr. Clark was elected delegate from Iowa to the first national colored convention held in this country, which met at Rochester, N.Y., in 1853.

Its possible Clark and Douglass did meet in 1853, but theres no other record that young Clark actually attended. We do know he was listed as sole Iowa agent for Douglasss antislavery newspaper, The North Star, as early as 1850. And we do know the two men appeared together on various occasions including at least one Douglass speaking tour in Iowa.

Clarks Liberia service ended abruptly. From the Chicago Tribune (July 20, 1891): Memorial services were held yesterday afternoon for the late Alexander Clark, United States Minister to Liberia, who died May 31.  Mr. Clark was one of the most influential and well-known colored citizens of the United States, and during an eventful life of sixty-five years was actively engaged in the abolition movement, the underground railroad, the rebellion, and since the war had been foremost in the endeavor to elevate the African race.

Fast forward to Alexander Clark Day 1958 and the program organized by the Junior Mission of the African Methodist Episcopal congregation known as Bethel A.M.E.the church Clark helped found in 1848. A special guest, Adaline Clark of Oskaloosa, presented the eulogy booklet published following her father-in-laws interment at Greenwood Cemetery in 1892. It is now in the special collection at Musser Public Library.

In the mid-1970s the threatened demolition of Clarks once-handsome 1878 brick house at West 3rd and Chestnut streets spurred a public rediscovery of the familys story. The site had been chosen for a 10-story senior high-rise apartment, and federal funding was at stake.

Iowas Liberian connection shone again as Burtine Motley, a Black woman from Cedar Rapids, led a movement to save the ambassadors house. Newspapers and the Iowan magazine revisited the 1868 Iowa Supreme Court ruling for which Alexander and daughter Susan are best remembered.

Finally the house was saved and moved up the street. The high-rise arose and got christened Clark House.

That story is told in a 2012 documentary film Lost in History: Alexander Clark. In the film, constitutional-law historian Paul Finkelman says of the 1868 ruling: It is the first successful school desegregation case in the history of the United States. That makes the Clark case extremely important.

Finkelman was the keynote speaker at a Clark 150 symposium at Drake University in 2018. Alexander Clark is the greatest African American in American history that no one has ever heard of, he said.

The City of Muscatine created the Alexander Clark Heritage District in 2010. Clarks letter of appointment signed by President Harrison was acquired for the permanent collection of the Muscatine Art Center.

The State Historical Society of Iowa awarded a grant to the citys Historic Preservation Commission for the purpose of nominating the historic residence for federal recognition as a national historic landmark, but the initiative bogged down and has been revived only recently.

The sticking point? It turns out the original nomination to the National Register of Historic Places (a 1976 U.S. Bicentennial project) established state significance only.

Now a case must be made for Alexander Clarks national significance.

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A masked man is captured on home video surveillance before he broke in and stole jewelry from a home in Tamuning on Monday night.
Multiple calls were made to Annapolis police regarding harassment of a neighbor before two kids were shot Saturday evening, police said Monday.

At 6:07 p.m., officers responded to 140 Obery Court for a disorderly complaint from 41-year-old John Estep. He said a group of juveniles was banging on his door but left before officers arrived. Estep was given an incident number for the call, Annapolis Police Capt. Amy Miguez said.

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Slightly more than an hour later, around 7:12 p.m., officers received an anonymous call from a woman who said that a group of juveniles was kicking her neighbors door and harassing the neighbor, Miguez said.

Then, at 7:19 p.m., officers were called to the area for a possible home invasion, according to Annapolis police. After the initial calls, police said there were multiple calls reporting that two children had been shot.

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When officers arrived, they found a 14-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl suffering from gunshot wounds nearby, in the unit block of Monument Street. The boy was shot in his lower extremity and was later released from the hospital; the girl suffered a gunshot wound to the lower back. She is in the hospital in stable condition, police said Monday.

Estep said the juveniles were yelling threats at him and he feared for his safety, according to charging documents. Then an individual kicked his door down and entered his home. At that point, Estep fired shots at the boys lower extremities, according to charging documents. He said he also fired shots through his window at a group of subjects, left his home and fired warning shots into the ground as he got into his car and left.

Miguez said police found evidence consistent with breaking and entering on Esteps door. They also found 22 spent shell casings inside the home, along with one on the porch and one farther outside, but police are not sure if that was connected to this shooting.

Police believe Estep went beyond the protection of his home and that he is responsible for every shot that was fired, Miguez said.

The number of casings indicate that Estep had to reload his weapon and theres video surveillance we are still recovering that shows the juveniles immediately fled the area when the shots started, Miguez said. When people are fleeing there is no longer an imminent danger. The fact that there was damage to his walls and windows indicates he was shooting where he couldnt see, which is reckless endangerment.

Police are investigating the incident and have not decided whether charges will be brought against any juveniles in this case.

It is hard to say victim/suspect on both sides of this case. It seems like a chaotic situation that happened and was really unfortunate, Miguez said.

Since Jan. 1, one vacant unit in the neighborhood has been burglarized several times and neighbors have said juveniles were involved, Miguez said. Police are unsure if those incidents are related to the one that took place Saturday. .

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Annapolis Police said Sunday that Estep turned himself into police without incident. He also turned in the weapon used in this incident, a 9 mm handgun that was registered to him.

Estep is facing seven charges, including two counts of reckless endangerment, first-degree assault and intent to injure with a dangerous weapon. He also faces one charge for a loaded handgun.

Estep was released on his own recognizance, according to online court records. A public defender is listed for him online.

Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said he is counting on the police to conduct a thorough investigation into this incident.

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The investigation may take a little time, because there is both ballistics and video evidence to process, Buckley said. The suspect is participating with investigators and I am thankful for his cooperation.
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Sarah Palin, 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, exits the court during her defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, at the United States Courthouse in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Feb. 14, 2022.
Napa Countys largest public school system has hit pause on an impending requirement that its employees receive full vaccination against the coronavirus by the end of March.

Freezing a mandate it had passed last month, the Napa Valley Unified School District board on Thursday voted unanimously to suspend a vaccination requirement that would have applied to some 1,674 staff members starting March 31 at more than two dozen campuses across Napa and American Canyon. The suspension will continue until further information is available and discussion can take place, and no later than June 23, according to the motion.

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Before approving the requirement at the boards Jan. 20 meeting, trustees and NVUSD directors had said the deadline was based on Gov. Gavin Newsoms executive order in October barring unvaccinated staff and students from entering campuses for in-person learning. That order is expected to take force July 1, in time for the 2022-23 school year.

In an agenda published before Thursdays virtual board meeting, however, the Napa district stated that there has not been recent action or communication to indicate that there will be a July 1 mandate from the State of California.

The language of Newsom's order declares that COVID-19 vaccines would be added to California's existing list of required inoculations  including shots for diseases like rubella, mumps, and measles  "when the vaccine receives full approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for middle and high school grades."

The Napa school system was one of at least 40 other California school districts to pass worker or student vaccine mandates ahead of July 1, as the more contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 triggered the largest infection spike since the pandemics arrival in the U.S. in 2020.

Within the district, positive tests among students peaked at 570 during the week of Jan. 17, though they fell to 252 two weeks later. Infections among staff peaked at 48 for the week of Jan. 24 and dropped to 21 the following week.

NVUSD officials last month described turning to substitute teachers and other district workers to fill the classroom gaps left by as many as 85 teacher absences a day, and trustee David Gracia predicted that waiting until July to require inoculation would hinder the districts ability to fully staff itself in the coming fall.

The first mandate of its kind in the U.S., Californias vaccination order  which applies to students and staff at public, private and charter schools from kindergarten to 12th grade  is set to take effect in the first semester after the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval of a coronavirus vaccine for each age group of children and teenagers.

Napa school district to require employees to receive COVID-19 vaccine by March 31 Napa Valley Unified School District joins some 40 other districts that have approved vaccine requirements for staff, students or both ahead before the state's July deadline.

The U.S. in November extended emergency authorization of the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in November for children as young as 5, the age of many kindergartners.

Emergency authorization from the FDA allows vaccines to be distributed to use while a longer, more detailed review continues. The two most widely used COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, entered the market under that arrangement before gaining full federal approval for adults, the Pfizer version in August and the Moderna alternative Jan. 31.

Thursday night, all seven NVUSD trustees approved delaying the vaccine requirement without comment  but also with several opponents still calling on the district to abandon the mandate entirely.

People should have the choice; there should be choice where there is risk, Sheri DeBow told trustees. This is insane, and you are forcing teachers with lifetime careers to choose to quit. I cant believe this is where we are, in California, a state that was once free.

I am saddened that I could lose my job simply because of a third (booster) shot that there is not much science behind, added a woman, identified only as ma on the Zoom teleconference, who said she has taught in the Napa district for six years. We need choice. I made a choice to teach students when no one else would during this crazy time, and now youre taking away my choice.

Napa County to relax mask requirement for vaccinated people Feb. 16 For now, the lone Bay Area holdout is Santa Clara County, where county health officials argue that lifting local indoor mask requirements would present an unnecessary risk to residents who are vulnerable to the virus.

NVUSDs policy, if and when enforced, would require workers to verify their vaccination in one of three ways. Staff members may show a copy of their vaccination record card, documentation from a health care provider, or a copy of a digital vaccination record, provided by the state Department of Health, that includes a scannable QR code.

The mandate also would let employees write applications to be exempted on religious or medical grounds, and states the district can accommodate workers in ways that dont threaten other peoples health or pose an undue hardship on NVUSDs finances or operation.

Those who are granted exceptions would be required to receive regular COVID-19 testing at least once a week and possibly as frequently as every workday. Non-exempted workers who decline the vaccine could be put on unpaid leave, terminated, or receive another outcome, based on existing labor union agreements.

NVUSD has not announced plans to require students to receive the coronavirus vaccine ahead before a state mandate takes effect.

Earlier in the meeting, the NVUSD board approved a 30-day extension of the virtual meetings it has held since Napa County imposed its first shelter-at-home order in March 2020 early in the pandemic  but also announced that in-person sessions could return next month. The district is working toward reopening its boardroom at NVUSDs Jefferson Street headquarters in Napa as early as the March 17 meeting in a hybrid of in-person and online participation, said Superintendent Rosanna Mucetti. (A state law that took effect Oct. 1 allows government bodies to continue to meet online at least through the end of 2023, so long as they vote to do so monthly.)

That possibility was less than welcome to one speaker who warned of possible threats and disruptions by vaccination foes.

These people are those who have been posting your names online, and posting some pretty disgusting things, Aisley Wallace Harper told trustees. Make sure you have some protection before you consider inviting a crowd of unvaccinated and pretty unruly people, she said.

You can reach Howard Yune at 530-763-2266 or hyune@napanews.com

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A coalition of 100-plus crisis intervention agencies is once again appealing to the California Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom to set aside funding in next year's budget to pay for programming found to prevent sexual and domestic violence prevention.

Although California has a budget surplus, Newsom did not set aside money for this work in his January budget proposal, something that did not sit well with coalition leaders.

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"Despite significant investments in policing and criminalization as a response to rising concerns about public safety, the governor's budget ignores promising strategies that address the root causes of violence, and fails to place any focus on preventing domestic and sexual violence before they occur entirely," they wrote in a statement criticizing the omission.

The governor's office did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

Legislators put $15 million in this year's budget to support the prevention programs, and Newsom signed approved it. The coalition of victim services providers requested that same amount this year but had asked that it be ongoing annual funding, saying a stable source of funding would allow community-based organizations to sustain and build their initiatives.

Prevention programs help youth understand how they can work to end sexual and intimate partner violence. In past initiatives, community groups have trained school-age youth in how to cultivate safe, healthy relationships; developed teen-led groups who set the tone for acceptable behavior and bring awareness to intimate partner violence; and engaged boys and young men as allies in prevention.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has provided states with detailed models of programming that work in a resource paper titled "Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Across the Lifespan: A Technical Package of Programs, Policies and Practices," and it includes evidence showing successful outcomes.

"Nothing undoes that pain and that trauma that you've experienced, even if you can heal from and move beyond it," Colon said, "and so...we feel it's incredibly important to begin to be able to focus on preventing any future generations from experiencing this type of abuse."

Though the coalition of groups has requested it, Newsom has not included ongoing funding for prevention when he's laid out his priorities for the budget, Colon said.

The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services is now weighing which prevention programs it will fund all around the state this year. The Legislature also set aside $10 million in prevention funding in 2018-19 and $5 million in 2019-20, and Newsom approved both appropriations.

California's lack of prevention funding is a significant gap when it comes to addressing homelessness and violent crime, according to a report from the Little Hoover Commission issued in January 2021. It noted that domestic violence poses a "heavy burden on taxpayers through medical, criminal justice, property damage, and other costs."

The watchdog agency urged California's leaders to place a strategic emphasis on prevention, pointing to a comprehensive study done by the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault that assessed both the tangible and intangible costs of sexual violence to California.

"The study found that the annual tangible cost for sexual assaults in California is $9 billion," the commission reported. "Tangible costs include health care, property damage, investigation and adjudication of the incident, and other costs resulting from the crime. $2.9 billion of that is funded by taxpayers to pay for police, courts, jails and prisons, sex offender management, and other public services  and this figure doesn't include other costs paid by society, such as increases in insurance premiums."

The intangible costs are even greater, the Little Hoover report stated, citing findings from the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. The coalition noted that intangible losses include the tax revenue lost during a victim's recovery and a batterer's imprisonment and the expenses an employer incurs to hire and train a temporary worker. The coalition's conservative estimate of these costs pegged them at $140 billion annually.

This violence, though typically occurring within a home, regularly spills into the broader community with disastrous results, according to the Little Hoover Commission's report. Some examples:

 40% of law enforcement officer homicides nationwide are associated with domestic violence calls.

 20% of deaths in intimate partner homicides are collateral victims, people who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, according to a 2014 study.

 More than 1 million women in the U.S. today have survived a shooting attempt by their partner.

 Roughly 4.5 million women in the U.S. report having been threatened by a partner wielding a firearm.

The Little Hoover Commission urged state leaders to "develop a comprehensive long-term intimate partner violence prevention and early intervention action plan," adding that "California must integrate its anti-violence initiative into every segment of society. The state must provide adequate funding to implement this plan."

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


Conference lifts the lid on modern slavery Conference lifts the lid on modern slavery

Mark Little MBE is organising a conference in Norwich Cathedral to shed light on the scourge of modern slavery.

The Queen awarded Mark an MBE for his anti-slavery work in the 2022 honours list. He has been a parishioner at Our Lady of the Annunciation, Poringland since 1978 and was financial adviser to the Diocese of East Anglia from 1992 to 2001.



Behind closed doors, writes Mark, in remote places and right under our noses in plain sight, some 40 million people are held in slavery and servitude worldwide and one in four of these are children. Even in the UK it is estimated that over 130,000 people are living in modern day slavery.



Mark became involved in 2001 after watching a documentary on modern slavery. Within a few months he had travelled to India to begin helping victims of trafficking, and he has since made visits to several other countries.



My visits to child slave rehabilitation centres in India, Nepal and Thailand these last 19 years have made me realise that one of the great crimes of slavery is that it goes beyond servitude, he writes. It goes to the point of eliminating the identity of the individual, and the younger someone is taken into slavery, the less likely they are able to repossess their own identity.



Mark is organising the Conference on Modern Slavery on behalf of the Rotary Club of Norwich St Edmund. It will take place from 2.15pm to 5pm on Wednesday March 23 in the Weston Room at the Hostry at Norwich Anglican Cathedral.



The speakers will include an anti-slavery activist and author on modern slavery from the USA, a survivor of commercial sexual exploitation, and a former officer of the Metropolitan Police who was part of an anti-trafficking group. He now runs Bakhita House, a safe house in London operated by Caritas Westminster which provides rehabilitation for women and girls rescued from sex slavery.



The conference will cover the nature of human trafficking and slavery, where and why it occurs, what motivates the slave masters and how it affects the victims. It will also highlight the role of the Rotary Action Group against Slavery in raising awareness of and taking action against modern slavery. It will provide guidance on how to spot victims and discuss what to do when victims are suspected.



Entrance will be limited to those purchasing tickets (price 10) from Leaping Hare, www.leapinghare.org 07802 701911. Proceeds and any donations will be shared between the Clewer Sisters (funders of the Clewer anti-slavery Initiative) and Bakhita House.



The conference is an integral part of an art exhibition whose main aim is to raise awareness of modern slavery. The exhibition, which is being curated by Rotarian Caroline Evans and Nicola Hockley, will be in the Hostry throughout the whole of Lent.



Further details can be obtained from Mark Little on littlebmark@gmail.com .



Pictured above is Mark Little with slavery survivors in Mumbai on a bus bought with help from his fundraising. Below is Mark at an ashram in India with slavery survivors.





















Eldred Willey, 08/02/2022
Pikeville, KY (41501)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms. Low 64F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD statement does not correspond to reality

Armenia defense minister receives Kansas National Guard delegation

Armenia Police: Yerevan-Sevan motorway reopened

Ned Price: Mirzoyan-Blinken meeting will launch US-Armenia strategic dialogue

Mirzoyan, Nuland discuss Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement process

Civil disobedience actions are carried out in some Armenia cities

Armenia 2nd-President Kocharyan, ex-deputy PM and now lawmaker Gevorgyan trial to resume

Pashinyan to Morawiecki: This year we mark 30th anniversary of Armenia-Poland diplomatic relations

No new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia Central Bank leaves refinancing rate unchanged at 9.25%

Demonstrators demanding PM Pashinyan's resignation block Sevan-Yerevan motorway

Police: 117 demonstrators apprehended in Yerevan

Kansas National Guard leadership visiting Armenia

Bloomberg: EU new gas partners

Armenian member of Turkey legislature says he was thrown at table of wolves

Italian PM slams Lavrov for his 'Hitler' statements in interview with local television

South Korea and US plan to start air force exercises on May 9

Police special forces apprehend Armenia ex-president Robert Kocharyans son

Police: 70 people apprehended from Yerevan streets

World Press Freedom Index 2022: Journalism as a profession is humiliated in Armenia

Newspaper: Armenia ruling party MPs are worried

Borrell speaks on possible disconnection from SWIFT of new Russian banks

Cyprus becomes first EU country with full 5G coverage

Police apprehending participants of civil disobedience actions in Yerevan

State Department: Deepening US-Armenia cooperation in nuclear energy will strengthen bilateral relations

Peaceful disobedience actions resume in Yerevan early morning

Mirzoyan: Armenia appreciates US support for developing energy sector

Blinken underscores US commitment to help Armenia, Azerbaijan find sustainable peace, prosperity

Eurozone economic sentiment falls much more than expected in April

Apple faces big fine

Armenia ex-president joins discussion in France Square

Poland wants the EU to set a clear date for stopping Russian oil imports

Armenia FM meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Armenia FM meets with Director of USAID Samantha Power

Ann Linde says Finland will almost certainly apply for NATO membership

Police beat reporters, obstruct their work in Yerevan

European Commission may relieve Hungary, Slovakia of embargo on Russian oil purchase

Resistance Movement to continue large-scale civil disobedience actions on 3 May in Yerevan and regions

EU countries to continue to pay in euros or dollars for Russian gas

Resistance Movement participants return to France Square

Russian and Turkish defense ministers discuss current situation in Ukraine

Ukrainian intelligence accuses Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan of helping Russia evade Western sanctions

NEWS.am digest: Turkey says they have agreements with Armenia on border clarification

Toivo Klaar informs about meeting of Armen Grigoryan and Hikmet Hajiyev in Brussels

PACE initiates resolution on threats to journalists and human rights defenders in Azerbaijan

Diplomat kidnapped in Haiti

Hungarian president asks Orban to form new government

Georgia PM hands over first part of questionnaire answers for accession to EU

Resistance Movement participants march in central Yerevan

Half of Japanese oppose change of peaceful constitution

Resistance movement rally on France Square in Yerevan

Blinken and Armenia FM sign memorandum on strategic cooperation in nuclear energy

Another earthquake registered on Armenian-Georgian border

FLYONE ARMENIA launches regular direct flights between Yerevan and Tbilisi

Georgia abolishes requirement to wear masks in closed spaces

One dollar drops below AMD 450, euro also falls in Armenia

Georgia PM receives Justice Minister of Armenia

Armenia MFA says there is no discussion, agreement on re-demarcating border with Turkey

Cavusoglu claims there is agreement to clarify Armenia-Turkey border

Azerbaijan president receives Brice Roquefeuil

Armenia ex-defense minister: These authorities are able to use force inside the country

Police: 244 people apprehended in Yerevan as of 2pm

Incident involving disobedience march participants occurs at Armenian State Pedagogical University

Yerevan Police apprehend opposition MP

Police: 199 people apprehended in Yerevan as of noon

Armenia defense ministry refutes Azerbaijan MOD statement

Resistance Movement coordinator says they will assemble at France Square in downtown Yerevan at 6pm

Armenia parliament opposition faction leader: More than 200 people apprehended

The Azeri Times: Azerbaijan closes airspace for Russia military aircraft to disrupt transportation to Armenia

Bill Gates warns of more fertile' COVID-19 variant

Police: 3 dozen intersections in Yerevan were closed off by citizens since morning

Armenia PM congratulates several Arab countries leaders on Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr

3 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Journalist falls ill during scuffle at civil disobedience action in Yerevan

Armenia ex-ruling party official: I assess these actions of disobedience very positively

Armenia FM to head for US, will meet with Blinken

Armenia Police: 189 people apprehended so far in Yerevan

UN announces blocking of millions of tons of grain in Ukraine ports

Small plane crashes in Canada, 4 dead

125 people taken to Yerevan police stations

Erdogan says will hold talks with Putin this week

Quake hits Armenia-Georgia border zone

One person falls ill during oppositions peaceful disobedience action in downtown Yerevan

Resistance Movement coordinator says 14 streets currently blocked by citizens in Yerevan

Peaceful civil disobedience actions kick off in Yerevan early morning

Hungary says 10 European countries opened bank accounts in Russia to pay for natural gas in rubles

Finland to build fences along Russia border

Armenia ex-President Serzh Sargsyan: For 10 years international community said Artsakh should self-determine

Putin signs decree on measures to ensure Russia information security

3rd President Serzh Sargsyan is at Yerevans France Square

Opposition continues to keep France Square in downtown Yerevan closed

Europe asks Russia natural gas giant to increase supplies

Clashes break out between police and anarchists in Paris

The Jerusalem Post: Time for Israel to not fear Turkey and to recognize Armenian Genocide

Armenia opposition lawmaker: People are constantly approaching ex-president Kocharyan (VIDEO)

Putin bans foreign investors from organizing regular transfers on public-private, city-private partnership basis

Ex-defense minister: Prior to 44-day war it was possible to negotiate in such way that Armenia will not be at war

Police dispatching additional forces to Yerevans France Square

Opposition to set up tents at France Square in downtown Yerevan (PHOTOS)

Armenia opposition MP: How did US, France, Russia talk about Karabakh status after war?
Maryland has a golden opportunity to retain many skilled, disciplined and experienced individuals  but only if our state legislators pass legislation as 35 other states have done. The required legislation would exempt military retiree pay from state income tax, enticing career military personnel to remain in the state and pursue second careers here.

This legislative action would make a significant contribution to the states economy, generating tax revenue from follow-on jobs by the military retirees who remain.

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The Towson University Regional Economic Studies Institute completed a study entitled, A Study of Employment in the States Defense Industry. The study was done at the direction of the state legislature.

The Towson study found that in the second quarter of 2019 alone, there were nearly 24,000 job postings for defense-related jobs. However, the defense industry, which represents 15.4% of the states gross domestic product, faced a shortage of 7,200 qualified workers  particularly for computer, engineering and science occupations. With the pandemic, these numbers are even higher, especially when coupled with state government vacancies that are at an all-time high.

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With so many military personnel assigned in the state, one would think that career military retirees would be ideal candidates for these 7,200 positions because of their technical knowledge and leadership experience, coupled with their security clearances.

Why the shortfall? According to the Towson study, while military retirees in Maryland have access to ample employment opportunities, several factors are considered when deciding where to live post-retirement. These factors include the tax burden and the overall cost of living. Maryland, when compared to 11 other states, has the second highest cost of living, effectively reducing the value of a salary earned by any member of a military household in the state. This is notable because the compensation for jobs requiring a security clearance in Maryland is lower than in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Another factor cited in the Towson study is the military pension exemption. While 35 states fully exempt military pensions from taxation and several others are moving toward it, including Delaware, Maryland exempts only a portion. This fact, combined with Marylands higher overall state tax burden, makes Maryland a less attractive place to live.

The Towson study reaffirms an earlier study that the General Assembly directed to study the financial impact of retired military service personnel on the Maryland economy. That report said:  if Maryland does not exempt military retirement pay from state and local income taxes  countless others [retired service members] will opt to move to military retiree-friendly states.

Marylands already high tax rate, and the growing number of higher income residents leaving the state to avoid these taxes, makes exempting military retirement pay a critical issue. Its an incentive for a military person to retire in a state and not have their military pension taxed.

Very few military personnel can live on their retirement income alone. Most require a second career that will generate income that will be  and is  appropriately taxed.

The Towson study said that when military retirees reenter the workforce, they obviously earn income and generate economic activity in addition to their military pensions. Military retiree household spending  on items such as groceries, rent, mortgage payments and recreation  benefits the economy. The study said that spending associated with one military retirees household sustains nearly $115,000 in economic activity and supports $7,550 in state and local tax revenue. These ripple effects are only felt if the household resides in the state.

Military retirees are higher wage earners and are the type of individuals Maryland should be trying to attract and retain.

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The bottom line is that immediate tax relief for military retirees in Maryland is a fiscally sound option to attract and retain valuable individuals  good neighbors who pay their bills, volunteer in the community and have an appreciable level of discretionary income. Other states have recently learned this and are catching on  losing a little in revenue but building a stronger fiscal base by increasing the number of state taxpayers.

The Maryland legislature has been provided a report on the issue of exempting military retirement pay from state taxes. Its now time for our state legislators to act. If action is not taken, Maryland will continue to be left further behind.

Tom Jurkowsky is a retired Navy rear admiral. He is on the board of the Military Officers Association of America, a military support organization that advocates for a strong defense and for all military personnel and their families. He lives in Annapolis.
One of the best snipers in the Taliban ranks has become mayor of a city, AFP reported.

Damullah Mohibullah Mowaffaq was appointed mayor of Maymana, the capital of Faryab province in northwestern Afghanistan, in November, three months after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government and seized power.

He rose to prominence as a fighter, but now his schedule is full with the daily tasks of local government -- unblocking sewers, planning roads, and smoothing over neighborhood quarrels.

"When I was fighting my objectives were very specific: to end the foreign occupation, discrimination and injustice," the 25-year-old told AFP.

"Now my goals are also clear: to fight corruption and make the country prosper," he added.

Strolling through the streets of Maymana, the new mayor talks to municipal workers clearing roadside drains. Residents of the city of a hundred thousand come forward with complaints and suggestions, which are added to the ever-growing to-do list.

"The new mayor is young, well-educated and, very importantly, from the city," says his non-Taliban deputy, Sayed Ahmad Shah Gheyasi.

Unlike the poor, madrassa-educated rural men who make up the Taliban rank and file, Mowaffaq comes from a family of wealthy traders and grew up in Maymana, where he excelled at school and in sport.

Memorabilia from his young age decorates his office including a certificate from a martial arts competition as well as his high school diploma.

After joining the insurgency at the age of 19, he was appointed commander of a small unit based in Faryab province.

He has been described as one of the Taliban's most talented snipers, though he seems reluctant to talk about the war.

But while walking with AFP, he stops in front of a house blemished with munition marks near the village of Doraye Khoija Qoshre, where his unit once held sway. Here he hid, watching the American troops with his rifle and earning himself a reputation as an excellent marksman.

"He killed an American with his rifle from this house, then a plane came and bombed him," said Saifaddin, a local farmer.

He witnessed the deaths of several comrades in action, but remains silent about the horrors he caused and endured. "I have had many ups and downs," he said.
The media outlet close to the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev administration demands the expulsion from Baku of the newly appointed UNDP Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, Ekaterina Paniklova, because of her contacts with Armenians.

The respective article, which is by no means the first in terms of various attacks on the UN recently, describes the "misdeeds" of the Armenian employees of this organization.

But this time the periodical went further, adding: "At the same time, we have several important questions for Mrs. Paniklova. For example, what interests link her with the press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry? And what about with the former minister of the Armenian Diaspora? And with a former security service employee who now works at a Regional Studies Center in Yerevan?

The vocabulary chosen to write this article deserves special attention. "And if Armenia, that poor and stagnant country with its negative demographics which are almost entirely dependent on the collective handouts of the diaspora and the help of foreign partners, has allowed itself to declare a UN employee persona non grata to it, then ten-million strong Azerbaijan, which is firmly defending its interests to the end, will definitely act very decisively and tough, if the need arises," the article notes, in particular.

To recall, this is more or less how the attacks had started, which ended with the expulsion of the OSCE Office from Baku, and later, due to the weak position of this organization, it was unable to resist the pressure from Azerbaijan, and the OSCE Office in Yerevan was also closed.

Of course, one could ignore this article with blunt expressions against a high-ranking UN representative, considering it the opinion of solely one media outlet. But being close to the Aliyev administration already directly indicates that the idea of discrediting Ekaterina Paniklova comes from there.

In the context of the declared "era of peace" and Aliyev's statements about being ready for peacealbeit on his own terms, such a publication in that source is a direct evidence of the fact that neither the Azerbaijani authorities nor the society are ready to peacefully coexist with Armenians.
The European Union's data protection watchdog (EDPS) has called for a ban on controversial Pegasus spyware developed by Israel's NSO Group, Reuters reports.

The EDPS said that the use of Pegasus could lead to an unprecedented level of intrusiveness capable of interfering with the most intimate aspects of our daily lives.

Israel has come under global pressure over allegations that Pegasus has been misused by some foreign governments to spy on human rights activists, journalists and politicians.

The NSO said it could not confirm or deny information about existing or potential Pegasus customers. The company stated that it does not operate the system after it is sold to government customers and is not involved in any way with its operation.

A ban on the development and deployment of Pegasus-capable spyware in the EU would be the most effective way to protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, the EDPS said.

An investigation released last year by 17 media organizations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, says spyware has been used to hack smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists on a global scale.
YEREVAN.  An Armenian delegation, led by the Deputy Chief of Police of Armenia Ara Fidanyan, visited the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) headquarters in The Hague, the Police of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The purpose of the visit was to discuss a number of matters related to cooperation between the Armenian Police and Europol.

The delegation was received by Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol. In his remarks, Fidanyan highlighted the cooperation agreement signed between the Armenian Police and Europol. Also, he presented the ongoing reforms in the Armenian law enforcement.

De Bolle, in her turn, expressed readiness to develop bilateral cooperation, emphasizing the importance of the joint fight against crime.

And in order to strengthen this collaboration, a number of agreements were reachedin particular, on organizing a visit of Catherine De Bolle to Armenia in the second half of the year.

During the Armenian delegations visit, several other meetings were held with Europol administration, as well as with liaison officers from Georgia, Ukraine, and Germany.
The prosecution is currently reading the indictment during 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 Armenia.

According to this indictment, in 2008, businesswoman Silva Hambardzumyan had petitionedthrough then-FM Vartan Oskanianto Armen Gevorgyan, then-head of staff of then-President Robert Kocharyan, and Gevorgyan had instructed the then-minister of nature protection to assist Hambardzumyan.

Hambardzumyan was issued a license to explore the subsoil. After that, according to the contract of March 25, 2008, all the shares of her company were sold for $40 million to a company registered in the UAE. But to get consent for this deal, at the end of January, she had petitionedthrough Oskanianto high-ranking Armenian officialsincluding then-President Robert Kocharyan, and agreed to transfer the respective bribe so that she would not be hindered in carrying out the aforesaid business deal.
The "Shushi Declaration" signed between Azerbaijan and Turkey on June 15, 2021 in occupied Shushi, and then ratified by their respective parliaments, is an undisguised threat to Armenia and Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)], which officially confirms and reaffirms a hostile policy against Armenia and Armenians and ensuing actions deriving as a result. The Country to Live party of Armenia has noted this in a statement it released Tuesday. The statement continues as follows: In particular, as before, the declaration now stipulates that the Artsakh issue is "resolved", despite the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries that the issue of a comprehensive settlement of the status of Artsakh remains on the agenda of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The agenda of forming a "one nation, two states" alliance of Turkic-speaking countries is enshrined as a strategic goal of Turkey and Azerbaijan, [and] moreover, the "Zangezur Corridor" is considered a priority in terms of achieving that goal, considered separate from the process of unblocking communications in the region. The recent working group set up by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, which aims to once again eliminate and distort the Armenian cultural heritage at the state level, once again proves that we are dealing with retaliatory steps by antagonist countries, whose long-term goal is to place the region under the sole Turkish sphere of influence.

At the same time, the Armenian government continues to push forward the agenda of opening an "era of peace" inadequate to these challenges, considering it exclusively a process of unblocking roads, when in fact we can only achieve peace after establishing the inadmissibility of the use of force, the threat of force, the exclusion of hatred, propaganda of hostility at the state level, and the way of achieving the solution of problems in a constructive atmosphere of negotiations without preconditions. In this context, the foreign policy agenda should continue to be dominated by the Artsakh status agenda as a real guarantee of security and long-term stability. At the same time, it is necessary to develop and implement a clear reform policy strategy in the field of army building.

The clearly destructive and presumptuous manner of conduct by Azerbaijan is not only left without an adequate response from the international community, but also indirectly is even "encouraged", especially when the international community seeks to equate the aggressor with the party affected by the aggression. The recent announcement of  2 billion in EU aid to the authoritarian Azerbaijan raises a number [of] questions, including the EU's commitment to democratic values and their promotion in the region. As the above-mentioned issues have strategic importance in the context of building a real and lasting peace in our region, the "Country to Live" party is going to present its circumstantial concerns to the ambassadors accredited to Armenia and international representations, as well as propose concrete actions against cultural vandalism.
The Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan has announced that it intends to "catch" and "bring to account" President Arayik Harutyunyan of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

"Arayik Harutyunyan, the leader of the so-called 'Nagorno-Karabakh,' will be arrested and interrogated in the near future," said Nemat Avazov, head of the investigation department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani media reported.

Harutyunyan is accused of "four terrorist acts committed in October 2020 against civilians in Ganja."

"The terrorist act was committed from the territory of Armenia. As a result, 26 [Azerbaijani] civilians were killed and 175 were injured. On his social media account on October 4, Arayik Harutyunyan took accountability for the terrorist act. A criminal caseunder various articles of the [Azerbaijani] Criminal Codehas been filed on the incident, and Arayik Harutyunyan has been declared wanted. The fact that he has not been called to account so far is temporary. I believe that under the international convention, Harutyunyan will be arrested by the investigative-operative team, and will be interrogated in a short time," Avazov said, according to Azerbaijani media.

To note, the matter is about the military operations which were provoked in the fall of 2020and due to the military aggression of Azerbaijan and Turkey against Artsakh and Armenia.
The second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, says that the actions of which he is accused are not clear. He stated about this at during Tuesdays Yerevan court hearing on the criminal case against him and former deputy prime minister Armen Gevorgyanwho is now an MP of the opposition Armenia Faction in the National Assembly of Armenia.

"I really do not understand the essence of the accusation. There are many episodes, the lawyer pointed out the most important ones. I need to understand once and for all what I did, what I should not have done, and what I did not do, though I should have done it. It is not described," the former president stated.

To note, the prosecution today read an excerpt from the final part of the indictment.

Subsequently, the defense demanded that the indictment be clarified, as it was too vague.

Kocharyan, for his part, noted that when the time comes to testify in court, he will have to stand at the tribune and ask what the court wants from him.

"They say not to hinder. Ultimately, show me what powers I could and did not hinder with. Some administrative and economic powers have been attributed to me. I do not know what it is about. The powers of the President are clearly defined by the Constitution. The content of the accusation is incomprehensible to me. Find a way to explain to me what they want from me, what I am accused of," the former president stated.

The court decided that everything was clear and that Kocharyan's words could be interpreted as a refusal to answer.

Defense lawyer Hayk Alumyan intervened, repeating the court's demand to clarify the indictment.

"We do not want anything fantastic," Robert Kocharyan added, for his part.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is still unable to provide a definitive timeline for the inclusion of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V in the Emergency Use Listing (EUL), Melita Vujnovic, the organization's representative in Russia said, TASS reported.

Her remarks came on Tuesday at an online briefing by the European Regional Office.

Vujnovic stressed that the vaccine registration process is the same for everyone according to a process of agreement between the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which provides the documents, and the WHO, which takes certain steps. The documents submitted last autumn and this winter are currently under review, and field inspections are planned at the end of this year.

In late December, Hans Kluge, head of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, said in an interview with TASS that he hoped for a speedy completion of the approval process for Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. Kluge denied that such a long approval process for the Russian vaccine was politicizing the issue. He noted that the vaccine approval process is the same for all manufacturers, who must meet the same criteria as everyone else.

The bureau chief explained that the WHO Emergency Use Listing Procedure (EUL) is a risk-based procedure for assessing and listing unlicensed vaccines, therapeutics and in vitro diagnostics with the ultimate aim of expediting the availability of these products to people affected by a public health emergency. The procedure is a key tool for companies wishing to submit their products for use during health emergencies. He added that WHO uses the same criteria to evaluate any given product, in this case the COVID-19 vaccine.
BILLINGS  U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland this week released the Justice Departments new National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking pursuant to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.

Rooted in the foundational pillars and priorities of the interagency National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, which President Biden released on Dec. 3, 2021, the Justice Departments National Strategy is expansive in scope. It aims to enhance the departments capacity to prevent human trafficking; to prosecute human trafficking cases; and to support and protect human trafficking victims and survivors.

Human trafficking is an insidious crime, said Attorney General Garland. Traffickers exploit and endanger some of the most vulnerable members of our society and cause their victims unimaginable harm. The Justice Departments new National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking will bring the full force of the Department to this fight.

Sex trafficking problem entrenched in MT, officials say The United States Department of State estimates that as many as 24.5 million people worldwide are the victims of trafficking at any time.

Montana, through the multi-agency Montana Human Trafficking Task Force, is bringing human traffickers to justice while assisting and supporting victims. Trafficking of individuals, whether for sex or labor, enslaves and exploits both adults and minors and is a scourge on society. I encourage anyone who suspects human trafficking may be occurring to report it immediately to law enforcement, U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson said.

In recent months, federal prosecutions in Montana have led to convictions of seven individuals charged in two large sex trafficking investigations. The U.S. Attorneys Office, in collaboration with its law enforcement partners, continues to investigate and prosecute human traffickers.

Among other things, the Justice Departments multi-year strategy to combat all forms of human trafficking will:

Strengthen engagement, coordination and joint efforts to combat human trafficking by prosecutors in all 94 U.S. Attorneys Offices and by federal law enforcement agents nationwide.

Establish federally-funded, locally-led anti-human trafficking task forces that support sustained state law enforcement leadership and comprehensive victim assistance.

Step up departmental efforts to end forced labor by increasing attention, resources and coordination in labor trafficking investigations and prosecutions.

Enhance initiatives to reduce vulnerability of American Indians and Alaska Natives to violent crime, including human trafficking, and to locate missing children.

Develop and implement new victim screening protocols to identify potential human trafficking victims during law enforcement operations and encourage victims to share important information.

Increase capacity to provide victim-centered assistance to trafficking survivors, including by supporting efforts to deliver financial restoration to victims.

Expand dissemination of federal human trafficking training, guidance and expertise.

Advance innovative demand-reduction strategies.

The departments strategy will be implemented under the direction of the National Human Trafficking Coordinator designated by the Attorney General in accordance with the Abolish Human Trafficking Act of 2017.

If you believe that you or someone you know may be a victim of human trafficking, please contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-373-7888, or Text 233733.
Friedrich takes slim lead in two-man bobsleigh at Beijing Winter Olympics

Xinhua) 09:04, February 15, 2022

YANQING, Beijing, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Francesco Friedrich of Germany built up a slim lead after Monday's first two heats of the two-man bobsleigh at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.

Friedrich, who partnered with Thorsten Margis, posted a new track record of 59.02 seconds in the first heat, but slowed down in the second to open an overnight lead of 0.15 seconds after the two runs.

Another German pair of Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer were 0.24 seconds behind in the first heat, but they narrowed the gap after the second heat.

Margis said they made some mistakes out of the sixth and 12th turn, which they will fix before the final two runs on Tuesday.

"I think Francesco will watch the video of the second run today. He will fix the problems and we will drive as good as the first run," he said.

"If he does that I am pretty confident that we will keep the (leading) position," he added.

Friedrich has aimed to win both the two-man and four-man bobsleigh golds in Beijing to repeat what he did at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

"Do you know what the ultimate coup would be? To repeat the double Olympic victory in Beijing. No pilot has ever done that either. That would be madness," he once said in 2018 December.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
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HK rivers among world's most drug polluted

Professor Kenneth Leung (right) says the pharmaceutical pollution of waterways in Hong Kong is quite bad. Photo courtesy of City University

Hong Kongs Kai Tak and Lam Tsuen rivers have been ranked the 29th and 70th most polluted rivers in the world, according to a global study on pharmaceutical pollution.



Scientists measured the concentration of 61 active pharmaceutical ingredients along 258 rivers across the globe, and found that more than a quarter of them contain potentially toxic levels of over-the-counter and prescription drugs.



Hotspots with very high levels of contaminants include Lahore in Pakistan, La Paz in Bolivia, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Indias Delhi.



Only two places were unpolluted  Iceland and a Venezuelan village where the indigenous people do not use modern medicines.



Kenneth Leung, the director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution at City University of Hong Kong, was one of the more than 100 researchers who contributed to the study.



He said the SAR needs to do more to clean up its waterways, with the Kai Tak and Lam Tsuen rivers being named the 29th and 70th most polluted.



Water samples from Kai Tak also contained 34 pharmaceutical ingredients  the most of any waterways studied.



Leung explained that these drug pollutants end up in rivers after being consumed by people and excreted into the sewage system.



Most importantly, the sewage treatment plant cannot remove all the chemicals in the sewage, so in our study many chemicals are actually very persistent in the sewage, he said



"This is telling us that we have to do something, we have to control the use of the pharmaceuticals and also enhance the treatment ability, capacity, in our sewage treatment plants.



Leung said these compounds do not just hurt the ecosystem, they also substantially drive up the risk of drug resistance and can lead to the creation of superbugs.



The professor urged people not to flush their expired medication down the toilet, saying they should send drugs back to clinics so they can be disposed of properly.



Leung added that he hopes the governments plan to upgrade the territorys sewage treatment plants will alleviate the pollution problem.
Indonesia reports record number of Covid cases

Vaccine rollout remains slow with only half of the 270 million population inoculated with two doses. Photo: AP

Indonesia reported a record number of new coronavirus cases on Tuesday as the Omicron variant spreads across the Southeast Asian archipelago.



The number of daily infections topped 57,000, according to the government's Covid-19 taskforce, surpassing the previous peak of 56,757 cases recorded in July last year during the country's Delta wave.



"The national figure for positive cases in this third wave increased sharply and faster compared to the second wave," taskforce spokesman Wiku Adisasmito told a press briefing.



But the death rate is far lower than during the Delta surge when Indonesia reported around 2,000 fatalities a day.



The country was severely impacted by the pandemic last year, with hospitals running out of beds and medical oxygen to treat patients.



Indonesia reported 134 new deaths from Covid on Tuesday, while the hospital bed occupancy rate is around 33 percent, compared to more than 77 percent during the Delta explosion.



The government this month imposed stricter restrictions on public facilities, offices, shopping malls and restaurants in several cities but has progressively shortened the quarantine period for vaccinated travellers coming in from abroad.



To date Indonesia has recorded 4.9 million infections with more than 145,000 deaths.



The rollout of vaccines remains slow with only half of the 270 million population inoculated with two doses as authorities struggle to procure enough shots. (AFP)
New Delhi/Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], February 15 (ANI/PR Newswire): UPES Dehradun, a NAAC 'A' accredited university, today announced the launch of its School of Liberal Studies and brought together renowned academicians from diverse fields to deliberate on the need to redefine liberal studies. The launch and the discussion was joined by Robert Lensink, Professor, Faculty of Economics and Business, Groningen University; Nawtej Dosanjh, President & CEO, MirraU, a start-up university in Florida, USA; Dipankar Gupta, Retd Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU; Nandini Chatterjee Singh, Cognitive neuroscientist and currently Senior Project Officer at UNESCO MGIEP; Narayanan Srinivasan, Professor and Head, Department of Cognitive Science, IIT Kanpur; Sanjay Mitra, Professor of Practice, School of Public Policy, IIT Delhi; Vijay Mahajan, CEO, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, and Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi and Sugata Marjit, Distinguished Professor, IIFT, and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. These distinguished personalities are also on the advisory board of the School. The discussion was moderated by Shubhashis Gangopadhyan, Dean of UPES School of Liberal Studies, an eminent economist and a well-known researcher in diverse fields including patent laws and digital preparedness. To redefine liberal studies for the 21st century and disrupt conventional learning, the pedagogy and curriculum of UPES School of Liberal Studies are based on a trans-disciplinary approach. It offers courses across multiple domains, including Economics, Political Science, Psychology, Literature, Applied Mathematics and Data Science. Students can design their own degree by combining School of Liberal Studies programs with various options of Electives, Minors, Signature and Life Skills courses available through other schools of UPES i.e Engineering, Computer Science, Business, Law, Design, Modern Media, Health Sciences & Technology and School for Life. The emphasis shall be on experiential learning through the application of theoretical knowledge in solving real-world problems. Speaking on the launch of the School of Liberal Studies, Dr Sunil Rai, Vice-Chancellor, UPES said, "School of Liberal Studies is a giant step forward in making UPES a truly trans-disciplinary university. The new school seeks to revolutionise the education process and further our vision as the 'University of Tomorrow' to create well-rounded individuals and leaders driven by excellence and empathy." Dr Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, Dean, UPES School of Liberal Studies added, "With the best of faculty, multiple clubs and chapters, a learner-centric approach and the robust eco-system being provided by UPES, we are confident that our students will be the drivers of change. The world needs change-makers who can provide plausible solutions by understanding a problem from diverse perspectives, initiating a dialogue, shaping policies, and propagating positivity". UPES School of Liberal Studies is now inviting applications from interested candidates for its five undergraduate degree programs- B.Sc. Economics with Data Science, B.Sc. Applied Mathematics & Statistics, B.Sc. Psychology & Behaviour, B.Sc. Politics, Economics and Society, and B.A. Literature. Established in 2003 through the UPES Act, 2003 of the State Legislature of Uttarakhand, UPES is a UGC-recognized university and has been accredited grade 'A' by NAAC. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Ministry of Education, has ranked UPES amongst the top 100 universities to study in India, School of Engineering at UPES has been ranked 91 among 300 institutions, School of Business is ranked 46 amongst 100 institutions and School of Law is amongst top 25 institutions in India. The university has received 5-Stars on Employability (placements), by globally acclaimed QS Rating, with 90 per cent-plus placements over the last few years. UPES offers graduate and postgraduate programs through its eight schools: School of Engineering, School of Computer Science, School of Design, School of Law, School of Business, School of Health Sciences & Technology, School of Modern Media and School of Liberal Studies. Website link - https://www.upes.ac.in/ Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1746117/SOLS_Launch_UPES.jpg This story is provided by PR Newswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 15 (ANI/PNN): Sagi Itcher, Head of Economic and Trade Mission, General Consulate of Israel, Mumbai, has lauded the effort of WPU RISE of Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) Pune in expanding cybersecurity education in India by partnering with ThriveDX of Israel which is known globally to offer quality cybersecurity education based on Israeli military methodologies. Israel and India have completed 30 years of partnership, and on occasion, a two-member delegation led by Gaurav Bhatia, Chief Business Officer, RISE WPU, met the Israeli Consulate in Mumbai. The interaction included key discussions around the India-Israel relationship, education and cybersecurity partnership and exploring synergies in other domains like Agritech, AI, Machine Learning and Robotics. In August 2021, MIT's RISE partnered with ThriveDX Impact to offer their Cybersecurity Bootcamp, which imparts job oriented cyber skills to students and working professionals with the aim of upskilling and reskilling the workforce. Commenting on the development, Sagi Itcher said, "More than one million IT and cybersecurity jobs are required in the Indian market. In practice, many workers do not get the professional training that employers seek. How do you bridge the gap? Targeted training. Or rather skills-based training with world-class Israeli companies. Happy to learn about the successful collaboration between Israel's ThriveDX SaaS and RISE (MIT World Peace University's online arm) working together to close the gap in Cyber Security training. The Israel Economic & Trade Mission to Mumbai is working to connect Israeli knowledge and training to quality manpower in India and provide the need for cyber security." Thanking the Israeli Consulate, Gaurav Bhatia, Chief Business Officer, RISE WPU, said, "We are excited to bring Israel's technical know-how to India through online learning. We believe that there are many areas for collaboration such as Cybersecurity, Deep Technology, Agritech and Entrepreneurship. We at RISE look forward to closely working with the Israeli Trade Council on these initiatives. We already work closely with our partner ThriveDX, a Global cyber education leader from Israel, to bring their programs to India and ensure we can create more opportunities for Indian talent to work in the growing domain of Cyber Security. We look forward to building more ties with the Israeli community and promoting economic growth in both countries." There is a global shortage of skilled cyber workforce, and as per a study by World Economic Forum, 59 per cent of the respondents find it challenging to respond to a cybersecurity incident due to the shortage of skills within their team. The situation is all the more challenging in nations like India, where digital literacy is low, and people are tricked via methods like social engineering. ThriveDX SaaS, formerly known as Cybint Solutions, is the software as a service arm of ThriveDX, the global education company committed to transforming lives through digital skills training and solutions. ThriveDX SaaS partners with universities to offer diverse learning solutions, including technical Bootcamps, custom and intro courses, and practical lab exercises. Our team comprises military-trained cyber experts, industry veterans, and educators united under the vision of creating a safer digital world through education, training, and collaboration. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 15 (ANI/NewsVoir): Premium men's fashion brand DaMENSCH is celebrating Valentine's Day with 'The Most Comfortable Date Ever', encouraging couples to have "uncomfortable" conversations. Real-life couples put their relationship under the spotlight in the latest video, encouraging couples to ask each-other questions that generally get ignored in a relationship, but may linger in their mind. The latest video featuring couples from varied walks of life, delivering a message that 'Comfortable relationships start with uncomfortable conversations'. DaMENSCH also partnered with travel influencers Savi and Vid from Bruised Passports to talk about the most comfortable date where Vid can be seen gearing up for a cosy late night date in DaMENSCH attire. With the campaign, the brand has also set up a Valentine's Day shop on its website where men can find everything from curated date-fashion and styling tips to dating advice. DaMENSCH has also started a Twitter thread with conversation starters and important questions to ask your partner. The collection is perfect for anyone on a first date to a date with your partner for years. DaMENSCH has also added a new flavour to the Valentine Day celebrations by making it easy for men to get the best looks for their date. Making shopping for men easier, the men's apparel brand is also inviting women to gift their men the most comfortable Valentine's with the most effortlessly stylish fashion. With the bandwagon live now, one can directly purchase the looks from DaMENSCH website and avail exclusive February 14 special discounts. The brand, which centralises around comfortable, stylish clothing for men, is also offering a wallet worth Rs 2299 from DailyObjects on purchases from its website, starting February 10. Links: youtu.be/kSE6csM7uDw, Know more at: www.damensch.com. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 15 (ANI/NewsVoir): National Human Resource Development Network (NHRDN) and Great Manager Institute have joined hands for the development and recognition of Great People Managers, and Companies that nurture the Greatness in People Management. In a recent announcement to the media, the flagship Great People Manager StudyTM, conducted by Great Manager Institute, shall now be presented in partnership with NHRDN. The study for 2021 had over ten thousand managers representing over four thousand organisations. The certification program by Great Manager Institute, for individual managers and leaders, shall also be jointly certified by NHRDN, which has more than 14,700 member entities representing multinationals, public and private organizations including governments, MSMEs, and NGOs across 30 chapters in India. SV Nathan, National President at NHRDN, said, "Our association with Great Manager Institute would be the anchor for managers across India to develop, grow and inculcate the right values of being a great manager today and a leader of tomorrow. Together, we will enhance the significance of people management for organizations and individuals." Prasenjit Bhattacharya, CEO of Great Manager Institute, added, "NHRD Network is India's foremost body of professionals committed to the development of human resources through education, training, research and experience sharing. Great Manager Institute is a pioneer in developing, certifying and recognising people managers. By joining hands, we will be able to combine the strengths of both organizations to offer practical inputs to practicing managers, in real-time, thereby benefiting them professionally and their organizations and the community of people managers. We are committed to growing this partnership." Dhananjay Singh, the Director General of NHRDN, further shared his views on the partnership during the announcement, "The new initiative reflects a transformation in the area of people management, identifying it as a key component of an individual's career or business growth." "National HRD Network is promoting an HRD movement across India, and Great Manager Institute is trying to redefine people management. This association allows us to join hands in revolutionising the significance of people relationships in businesses," affirmed by Ashwin Srivastava, Co-founder of Great Manager Institute. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Tuesday changed the requirements for listed companies to separate roles of chairperson and managing director (MD) or chief executive officer (CEO) to 'voluntary' from 'mandatory'. Earlier the market regulator had asked the top 500 listed companies to split the role of chairperson and MD or CEO before April 2022. Considering rather unsatisfactory level of compliance achieved so far, with respect to this corporate governance reform, various representations received, constraints posed by the prevailing pandemic situation, and with a view to enabling the companies to plan for a smoother transition, as a way forward, SEBI Board at this juncture decided that this provision may not be retained as a mandatory requirement and instead be made applicable to the listed entities on a "voluntary basis", SEBI said in a statement. The decision was taken at a SEBI board meeting on Tuesday. The deadline for separating the roles of chairperson and MD has been extended multiple times. The SEBI had earlier set a deadline of April 1, 2020, for splitting the role of chairperson and MD of the top 500 companies. It was later extended to April 1, 2022. SEBI had set up a committee on Corporate Governance in June 2017 under the Chairmanship of Uday Kotak (Kotak Committee) with a view to seeking recommendations to further enhance the Corporate Governance norms for the listed companies. The Committee was represented by diverse stakeholders including Large Listed Companies, Industry Bodies such as CII & FICCI, Professional Bodies like ICAI & ICSI, Proxy Advisory Firms, Global consultancy firms, Law firms, Stock Exchanges, Academicians, etc. One of the recommendations of the Committee was related to the separation of the role of chairperson and MD/CEO of listed companies. The main rationale for the recommendation was that separation of powers of the chairperson and MD/CEO may provide a better and more balanced governance structure by enabling more effective and objective supervision of the management. The SEBI Board, in its meeting of March 2018, had considered and approved the proposals including the one relating to separation of the role of Chairperson and MD/CEO of listed companies. In pursuance of SEBI Board's approval, vide SEBI (LODR) was amended in May 2018 mandating, with effect from April 1, 2020, top 500 listed entities to ensure that the Chairperson of the board shall be a non-executive director and not be related to the Managing Director or the Chief Executive Officer as per the definition of the term "relative" defined under the Companies Act, 2013. Thereafter, considering that the companies may need more time to prepare themselves for the transition and various other difficulties highlighted by the industry representatives, the deadline for compliance was extended by two years in January 2020. As things stand now, the provision for mandating Separation of the role of Chairperson and MD/CEO of listed companies will be applicable from April 01, 2022, for top 500 Companies. "As the revised deadline is less than two months away, on a review of the compliance status it is seen that the compliance level, which stood at 50.4 per cent amongst the top 500 Listed Companies as on September 2019, has progressed to only 54 per cent as on December 31, 2021," SEBI said. Thus there has been barely a 4 per cent incremental improvement in compliance by the top 500 listed companies over the last two years, hence, expecting the remaining about 46 per cent of the top 500 listed companies to comply with these norms by the target date would be a tall order, it said. "Meanwhile SEBI continues to receive representations from industry bodies and corporate expressing various compelling reasons, difficulties and challenges for not being able to comply with this regulatory mandate," SEBI noted in the statement. (ANI)
Surat (Gujarat) [India], February 15 (ANI/PNN): The martyrs of the Pulwama attack may have been forgotten in the rest of the country, but not in Surat. Veeral Desai, a textile entrepreneur known as the Greenman, celebrated Valentine's Day to pay homage to the martyrs of the Pulwama attack at the country's first green station of Udhana railway station. Desai has planted 40 trees to pay homage to the martyrs of the Pulwama attack at Udhana railway station. After the attack in Pulwama, Desai immediately set up a unique 'Shahid Smarak' at the green Udhana station, which is the first Smarak for the Pulwama martyrs in India. Now that the Shahid Smarak monument has been completed at Udhana Railway station, Viral Desai has come up with a unique practice. He remembers the martyrs by paying homage to the martyrs every year on February 14. "Who doesn't love the country and its martyrs? I love my country and the martyrs of the country very much. It was very unfortunate that our soldiers got martyred in the attack on Pulwama on February 14. However, I decided to express my love for the martyrs uniquely and dedicated the entire work of Green Udhana Station to them," said Veeral Desai. This unique love of greenman Viral Desai is very special when the whole country and the world celebrate love on February 14, where he spends the whole day in the remembrance of the martyrs of the country. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 15 (ANI/NewsVoir): The Chennai-based SIMS (SRM Institutes for Medical Science) Hospitals, Vadapalani, one of the leading super speciality quaternary care hospitals in Tamil Nadu, in a rare kind of clinical scenario, saved the life of a 9-year-old boy from a rare, but aggressively fatal bacterial infection, Necrotising Fasciitis. Necrotising Fasciitis is a rare medical condition and the complications are very serious. Characterized by a rapid destruction of the tissue, the diagnosis of the condition can be difficult due to lack of definitive signs & symptoms and acting fast is the key. With Biopsy, Blood tests and Medical Imaging being the modalities for diagnosis, Necrotising fasciitis, if diagnosed in early stages and treated well on time, can be arrested from progressing faster internally and save the patient from multiple organ failure. Typically, antibiotic IV and surgery are the first line of treatment in these cases and in more serious cases the patients may undergo blood transfusion too. The 9-year-old boy from Nellore presented with a huge swelling of the left leg, which had developed due to an unknown injury that he sustained, while playing in the backyard of his house. On initial evaluation the injury seemed like a normal wound, but gradually progressed into a swelling, going up to the knee causing a blackish discolouration. Moreover, the boy was not able to walk due to the debilitating pain inflicted by the injury and was taken to a nearby hospital for further investigation, and was provided some native treatment. With elapsing of time his condition became more critical and he was referred to SIMS Hospitals, Chennai. On admission to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and further examination, it was noticed that the boy's leg had a severe bacterial infection of tissue (Necrotising Fasciitis). Considering a possibility of snake bite, the doctors immediately administered him an ASV (Anti-snake venom). Owing to severe infection, the boy had also developed several other complications like rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown), haematuria (blood in urine), renal dysfunction and myocardial dysfunction. His third and fourth toes were also noticed to have developed gangrene. Speaking about the successful treatment, Dr Shrishu Kamath, Senior Consultant, Paediatric ICU, SIMS Hospital said, "The case was quite challenging considering the fact that the boy had to be treated immediately for compromised internal organs, along with saving his limb from amputation. A team of doctors consisting of plastic surgeons and a vascular surgeon, swung into action and intervened to carry out an emergency fasciotomy, following which the boy was put under observation of the Paediatric Intensive Care team for a period of over one week. After his internal health stabilized, a skin grafting was done on his leg, post which he healed well and was discharged after a few days. On reviewing after 21 days the boy has recovered well and is doing fine." Commenting on the case Dr Raju Sivasamy, Vice President, SIMS Hospital, said, "Superior Intensive care support is very critical when dealing with children with necrotising fasciitis. It requires special expertise and our Paediatric ICU prides of highly trained and well qualified paediatricians, nurses and technicians, who, ably supported by other multi-disciplinary team of specialists, provide the best care for children needing critical care support. Our six-bedded Paediatric ICU is one of the best in the city, and is equipped with the most modern technology, which can monitor both invasive and non-invasive parameters." 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 15 (ANI/NewsVoir): Three heads of State and government including the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Ministers for Environment from about a dozen countries, representatives from the United Nations, heads of inter-governmental organizations, and delegates from 131 countries will be a part of the deliberations on planetary resilience at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)'s latest edition of the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) beginning February 16. The three-day Summit, TERI's annual flagship event, is the only independently convened event of such scale in the developing world that brings together world leaders, thinkers, scientists, industry and government representatives and other stakeholders on a single platform to work towards long-term solutions for the planet's health. The Prime Minister Modi will deliver the inaugural address on Wednesday. Keynote addresses will be given by Dr Irfaan Ali, President of the Republic of Guyana, Luis Abinader, President of the Dominican Republic and Amina J Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations. Bhupender Yadav, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change will make the opening address. Hosted as it is on the back of extreme weather events across the globe in the recent years, the virtually held WSDS 2022 will focus on planetary well-being. Curated on the theme 'Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future' experts will deliberate on a range of pressing issues ranging from climate change, sustainable production, energy transitions, global commons and resource security. A high-profile ministerial session on sustainable consumption and production in developed countries will be attended by John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, United States, as well as Ministers of Environment from France, Canada, Norway, Finland, France, Spain and Germany. Other key speakers at the Summit that ends on February 18 include Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Dr Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, Egypt, Abdulla Shahid, Foreign Minister, Maldives, and President of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, and Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the European Commission. Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI, says, "The World Sustainable Summit 2022 will deliberate on planetary resilience, a theme of particular significance especially in the wake of the extreme weather events the world has been witnessing lately. The WSDS is the most important event on TERI's calendar; it is our conscious effort at creating a platform where stakeholders from across the world sit together to deliberate on solutions that are based on sustainability and green growth. TERI is a pioneer in these areas and WSDS 2022 will play a crucial part in accentuating our role in providing technological, policy as well as knowledge solutions as India works towards realizing the commitments made at COP26." The Sustainable Development Leadership Award introduced in 2005 to felicitate global leaders for their contributions to sustainable development and environment protection will be announced during the inaugural event on February 16. Special features at the Summit will include ministerial sessions, media colloquium, youth and women leadership plenary, and corporate plenary and thematic tracks. Two documents - 'Act4Earth Manifesto' and 'Act4Earth Strategy Paper' - will be launched at the Summit. The strategy paper will guide activities under WSDS such as the COP27 Compass and SDG Charter. By playing a constructivist role, the Summit will seek to reinforce commitment at all levels to enhance ambition and action to create a more sustainable and equitable world for present and future generations. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is an independent, multi-dimensional research organization, with capabilities in policy research, technology development, and implementation. Headquartered in New Delhi, TERI has regional centres and campuses in Gurugram, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Mumbai, Panaji, and Nainital, supported by a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, sociologists, economists, engineers, administrative professional and state-of-the-art infrastructure. For more information: P Anima - animap@teri.res.in Sumit Bansal - sumit.bansal@teri.res.in Important links: WSDS website: wsds.teriin.org/index.php YouTube Streaming Link for the Inaugural Session: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGAz16O1yXA This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Francis Almeda at his coffee shop, Side Practice Coffee, in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood on Feb. 3, 2022. Almeda was set to open his coffee shop in February 2020, until the pandemic waylaid his plans. When he did open in July 2020, he began bringing in products and foods made by small businesses, startups and other food-related entrepreneurs. As word spread, his coffee shop became known as a place where creators could gain some traction. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Side projects have always been Francis Almedas thing.

A graphic designer who worked at a number of advertising agencies, Almeda was always the offices go-to guy to discuss entrepreneurial dreams because hed find a way to help bring them to life. Now, hes continuing his passion of helping people with their side projects through Side Practice Coffee, his cafe in Ravenswood that showcases small businesses through pop-ups and collaborations.

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I didnt want to open up just any coffee shop, Almeda said. Side projects were a huge part of my life, and I owned a business already and created this community, so why not showcase the people I already had in my network and give them a place to share their work?

He wanted to own a place where people could dream up their next big idea. While riding high from a MasterClass on how to negotiate, he did a quick Google search on coffee shops for sale and found one just down the street from his home. He took the plunge.

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He got the keys to Side Practice Coffee in February 2020, a month before the city locked down in the face of the then-new COVID-19 pandemic. While some may have seen this as a stroke of bad luck, Almeda realized he was given a gift. He was new to coffee, and he could dedicate his time to learning everything he possibly could and renovate the space to look the way he wanted.

Side Practice Coffee in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood on Feb. 3, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

During lockdown, he reached out to coffee shop owners across the city and learned from anyone who would offer advice. Then, hed go home and make coffee in his basement with his wife, Ann Almeda, whom he credits with always pushing him to pursue his side projects. The two of them practiced roasting beans, steaming milk and creating menu items for when Side Practice Coffee eventually opened, in July 2020.

A normal person would think Im an idiot to open a business during quarantine, but the beauty of coffee is it allowed people to leave their homes, pick up a coffee or something they really loved and walk back home without having to spend time inside, Almeda said. A coffee shop was a perfect business to start in the pandemic.

He wanted to kick things off with a bang, something that would force people to notice the small cafe, so the couple decided to center the opening theme around ube, the purple yam found in many Filipino desserts. They served ube doughnuts, iced oat milk ube lattes and an ube matcha named Manila Matcha that became a permanent drink on their menu.

If you say ube, every Filipino will come by and support whatever it is, he said with a laugh. I remember opening the blinds that weekend, and there was already a line down the block. This was a point in our lives when no one went out to do anything anymore, so to see a line with everyone with masks on and social distancing was just incredible.

[ Filipino restaurants are thriving in Chicago, despite pandemic hardships: So many people of different colors are coming in. ]

That summer, every weekend featured a different maker. Word spread of the small coffee shop on the North Side that featured side projects and a person who offered advice and support, all at no charge. Almedas inbox started to overflow with emails from people who wanted in.

People just wanted to share their side projects with me, and its such a beautiful thing because I want to listen, Almeda said. This is what gets me excited, hearing peoples ideas and seeing whether or not I could help them execute it or launch it.

To find small businesses to feature, he tapped both his personal and his professional networks, leaning into the local creator community he joined through his other company, Reppin Pins, an enamel pin brand. His cousin was friends with Lily Wang, who not only worked in the beverage industry and gave him advice on developing coffee drinks, but also ran Nine Bar, an Asian-inspired food and beverage pop-up concept out of her parents restaurant, Moon Palace in Chinatown.

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Nine Bar popped up at Side Practice in August 2020, serving up dirty chai made with Chinese five-spice powder and hot dogs inspired by okonomiyaki, Japanese savory pancakes.

He really puts in 110% to lift up everyone around him and provide them with the tools that they need, Wang said. He wants to see everyone succeed and offers a space for people who have been working out of their houses. He really tries to do what he can in his capacity to help them have the best chance of success.

Almedas willingness to share expertise and knowledge is particularly noteworthy, adds Joe Briglio, beverage director of Nine Bar.

Francis has that magnetism and a way of pulling people in and trying to bring everyone else with him. Hes a force that fosters a sense of community, Briglio said. He wants to share what he knows, which I think is the opposite of how people operate. People like to guard knowledge, and hes an open book.

The works of local artists and designers are displayed at Side Practice Coffee in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Michael Williams II, owner of Indiana-based Salamat Cookies!, which he runs with his Filipino mother, said he felt the sense of inclusivity.

One of the most pivotal parts of a business is the start, Williams said. You dont know if people are going to come out, if youre doing it right. (Side Practice Coffee) really set it up so you feel no matter how scared you are or how nervous you are that you got some family here hosting you and supporting you in any way they can.

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When Filipino American History Month came around in October, Almeda exclusively featured Filipino makers and artists. Milky Milky, run by Jojo Ybe out of Ravenswood, was strictly an online business at that time, selling ice cream locally to friends and family. But after a pop-up at Side Practice, she started seeing orders come in from all over the city and suburbs. The pop-up gave her physical space to meet customers and make a connection, and blasted the doors open for folks to be familiar with Milky Milky.

It takes a village to get to where you want to go and where you want to be, and seeing his crew support him and him support other crews to do what they want to do is really awesome, Ybe said. Its really awesome to see that kind of connectivity and that kind of commitment. Im really proud of what Francis has created for his neighborhood and Chicago folks who just want to start something.

Start something is the motto of the shop, and Almeda hopes it will inspire people to pursue their own side projects, even if the projects are not perfect, because theres always the option to adjust along the way. He built this concept into staffing Side Practice Coffee, making sure each team member had their own side projects in addition to working at the shop. At the shop, you can find vegan baked goods from Gingham Baking, created by former barista-turned-food program manager Branden Leon, and ceramics for sale from art curator Emily Beck.

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I didnt want Side Practice to be another part-time job, Almeda said. I wanted it to be a place for them to grow their side passions and if I could help them, if the cafe could be the place to highlight them, I 100% supported them.

His connection to the Filipino community through his pop-ups and his personal life helped build bridges to other Asian American makers. At the shop, youll find local brands like Yishi Foods, which makes oatmeal cups with flavors inspired by its founders Chinese background like taro bubble tea and toasted black sesame, and national brands like Sanzo, which makes sparkling water inspired by Asian flavors like lychee, calamansi and mango.

Soap Dev soap, top, and artwork by Ash Miyagawa are on the shelves at Side Practice Coffee. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Representation is important, Almeda said. Theres a lot of folks out there not getting the attention they deserve, so using the cafe as a way to do that has been a rewarding experience for me  theres a little community of Asian makers and entrepreneurs and I love being a part of that network. I hope it continues to grow and more people get inspired to do their own thing.

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He briefly reflected on the rise of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, saying he hopes seeing these products stocked at a coffee shop can be a point of pride and a show of support for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

Its such an important time for us to showcase who we are and where we come from, Almeda said. Lets put it out there and not be shy about it.

Grace Wong is a freelance writer.

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 15 (ANI/TPT): After successfully organizing the seventh edition of UGJIS, B2B Stylus India LLP is now all set to ring in its eighth edition. With all the big names participating in the show, the stage is set for a windfall as far as the festive season is concerned and the jewellers from Maharashtra, North Karnataka and Goa can really look forward to a exclusive array of display so that the auspicious festivals of Gudi Padwa and Akshaya Tritiya can be celebrated with gusto. UGJIS has been acclaimed as one of the finest B2B Trade Show in India consistent in its endeavour to meet the expectations of both the participants and visitors. Like the previous seven editions, the eighth edition of UGJIS will showcase the latest designs and technology to the seeker. The eighth edition of UGJIS will held on March 12, 13 & 14, 2022 at The Orchid Hotel, Next to Balewadi Stadium, Mumbai-Bangalore Highway, Mhalunge-Balewadi, Pune. Shri Shreekumar KP Director, B2B Stylus India (Organizer UGJIS) said, "We will continue to work harder to ensure that we keep making it easier for all our stakeholders to engage in trade. This show is a result of the support and trust placed in us by the jewellery fraternity which we need to take forward." Shri Ranjeet Shinde Director, B2B Stylus India (Organizer UGJIS) said, "For the markets in Maharashtra, North Karnataka & Goa, UGJIS has become a landmark event that signifies healthy trade. Pune is slowly but surely inching towards becoming the jewellery hub we have dreamt off." Stylus India LLP has partnered with Sarafa Bazar India as ONLINE PARTNER for it's 8th edition of UGJIS, Pune. 'Sarafa Bazar India',( https://sarafabazar.in) is the leading and fastest growing online B2B Platform with 11,000+ app downloads and 15,000+ latest jewellery designs. To adapt to the fast-changing business pattern, 'SARAFA BAZAR INDIA' has been developed to help the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to come together online on a single platform. Sarafa Bazar India is also going to launch Gold and Silver live rates on their both Android & IOS mobile apps which makes it as one step solution for B2B jewellery industry. Sarafa Bazar India will bring a revolution in the Indian jewellery industry. They have manufacturers and wholesalers from almost every major city of the country. Using their platform, many jewellery manufacturers & wholesalers have been able to reach more potential and bigger markets. Their products are being purchased from different parts of the country with a collective business of 150+ crores. "Last year we participated in the 7th edition of UGJIS-2021 where we got an amazing response and now we are excited and positive for the 8th edition of UGJIS-2022.", said Archit Jain, founder of Sarafa Bazar India. This story is provided by TPT. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/TPT)
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 15 (ANI/NewsVoir): Kauvery Hospital Chennai, a unit of Kauvery Group of Hospitals, a leading multispecialty healthcare chain in Tamil Nadu, today announced the successful treatment of a unique case of dengue presenting with a stroke syndrome. The 42-year-old man was brought to the hospital with complaints of acute Speech Disturbance - Acute Dysphasia. Dysphasia is a speech disorder that affects a person's ability to speak. It can occur suddenly after a stroke or head injury or develop slowly from a growing brain tumour or other diseases of the brain. Speaking about the patient, Dr Sivarajan Thandeeswaran, Senior Consultant, Stroke & Neurovascular Medicine, Kauvery Hospital Chennai, said, "Before consulting us, the patient had fever with chills for 3-4 days which subsided with self-medication. He then developed speech difficulties - he could not articulate words properly. On further examination, we found that there was no specific body or limb weakness. In view of his younger age, we were wary about diagnosing a Stroke condition, which is generally a disease of older people." "An MRI scan however showed an infarct and hyperintense lesion in the Splenium of the Corpus Callosum. It has an interesting name - the Boomerang Sign; a boomerang is a curved piece of wood that returns to you when you throw it in a particular way! Only a handful of such cases are reported so far in the medical literature," added Senior Consultant. "We immediately started administering medications such as Aspirin and Statin to treat his condition. However, a routine blood check-up detected a decrease in his Blood Platelets count, which had dropped to 67,000. Hence, we tested the patient for both COVID-19 and Dengue as platelet count drop is highly likely in the latter. The COVID test turned out to be negative. In the Dengue test, the NS1 antigen tested negative as he was already on the 6th day of his illness. (NS1 tests detect the non-structural protein NS1 of dengue virus and would be positive during the first two-three days of the illness.) But Dengue IgM and IgG turned out to be positive, which indicated that recent exposure to Dengue infection was highly likely. The LFT (Liver Function Test) showed slight derangements in some enzymes which also supported the diagnosis of Dengue," said Dr Sivarajan. "He was treated for his dengue infection. He had no fever anymore, and his platelet count increased within two weeks to 1,13,000. Post-treatment MRI showed that the hyperintensity due to the infarct had reduced significantly, indicating good recovery," added the Kauvery Hospital Chennai, Senior Consultant. "The unique question with regard to this patient's evolution of illness was how did the Dengue Fever progress to Acute Stroke. We were initially not able to confirm Dengue as the patient did not exhibit any typical symptoms. The treatment part was also challenging as we had to treat dengue, and help the patient recover his platelet count, while stroke treatment called for medications such as Aspirin that has anti-platelet properties," added Dr Sivarajan. Commenting on the success of the treatment, Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, Co-founder & Executive Director, Kauvery Hospital, Chennai, said, "Unique cases like these provide great insights that shall guide care plans for patients who may present in future with similar challenges. The unexpected complication such as the dysarthria that developed in this patient is highly educative. We thoroughly study a patient's medical history before planning the most appropriate treatment. In this case, the patient had self-medicated himself for Dengue, which then progressed to Acute Stroke. Complications such as this can be easily avoided by seeking treatment early. It is always advisable to avoid self-medication and consult the physician for any serious illness. I congratulate Dr. Sivarajan and team for the accurate diagnosis and helping him get back to his normal state of health." This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 15 (ANI/Mediawire): Continuing with the commitment to support the Indian Armed Forces, India's leading consumer durable company LG Electronics pledged INR 1 Crore on Republic Day (Jan 26, 2022) to Armed Forces Flag day Fund. The 'LG Electronics Kar Salaam' initiative was launched in 2017. Earlier Mirchi partnered with LG Electronics in 2021 to create a public awareness drive, For second year in a row, Mirchi has robustly garnered widespread warmth across 37 cities and ensured a heartfelt gesture for the Indian Armed Forces veterans. SALUTE WITH GRATEFULNESS: Mirchi's RJs established a beautiful heartfelt connect with the viewers and listeners via TV, Radio, Digital and Gaana.com. Collectively, citizens rose to the occasion of Republic Day and generously donated to the Armed Forces Flag Day Fund (AFFDF) via the Kendriya Sainik Board www.ksb.gov.in website. Check out Mirchi RJ Naved video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZMA5vZod-l/ THE CORPORATE & ARMED FORCES VETERANS CONNECT: Commenting on the occasion Young Lak Kim, MD LG Electronics India said, "LG Electronics has been operating in India for the past 25 years and we have always been committed for welfare of society. Our Kar Salaam initiative underscores this philosophy and is a gratitude to the brave hearts who have selflessly contributed to the nation. We thank the Kendriya Sainik Board (KSB) for helping us implement this initiative and hope we would be able to support the families of thousands of ex-servicemen of the Defence Forces." Air Commodore B Ahluwalia, VSM , Secretary KSB said, "We would like to thank LG Electronics for their continued support and for inspiring others to come forward and contribute to the welfare of those who had dedicated their lives for the nation. The Kar Salaam initiative has over the years created a lot of awareness and helped generate funds. We are confident, this year more people come forward and contribute to the cause that helps us improve the lives of war widows, children of martyrs, war disabled soldiers and Ex-servicemen." SWEEPING THE NATION WITH NATIONAL FERVOUR: Everyone loves Mirchi RJs and their entertaining shows. Through the curated engagements for 'LG Electronics Kar Salaam' initiative, Mirchi reached audiences across Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Kozhikode, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Guwahati, Hubli-Dharwad, Hyderabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jammu, Jodhpur, Kochi, Kolhapur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Shimla, Surat, Varanasi, Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam and Warangal with the 'Kar Salaam' initiative and profoundly interesting content. Republic Day buzz was spread across a week on multimedia platforms of TV, Radio, digital and also Gaana.com. Donations from viewers and listeners naturally poured in on www.ksb.gov.in COME FORWARD COLLECTIVELY: Mirchi has successfully raised awareness for LG Electronics Kar Salaam since 2021. Mirchi spokesperson said that they were glad to create the core thought around LG Electronics Kar Salaam by paying tribute to the sacrifices made by the veterans of armed forces and their families for the nation. The RJs urged listeners and viewers to contribute to the cause by directing them towards donation for Armed Forces Flag Day Fund. In support to the cause of supporting Armed Forces veterans, LG Electronics conducted a public awareness drive to request and urge people to come forward and contribute to the Armed Forces Flag Day Fund. Mirchi ran the initiative from January 21 and January 26, 2022 to further amplify communication across the Indian citizens for the 'LG Electronics Kar Salaam' initiative. This hugely successful initiative became the voice of the nation with heartfelt gesture of donations and widespread cheers to thank Armed Forces veterans. Enjoy the beautifully rendered videos of the LG Electronics Kar Salaam initiative with Mirchi RJs on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZMEcefv03L/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CZL8R7tFcl6/ This story is provided by Mediawire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Mediawire)
Paparazzi clicked Alia and her sister Shaheen Bhatt at the Mumbai airport late night. Alia gave major airport look goals as she opted for an all-white attire. She wore a white turtle neck with matching trousers.

Later, Alia also dropped a sneak peek of her work trip on her Instagram Story.

Sharing a picture of her sister Shaheen, Alia captioned it as," Berlinale 2022."

For the unversed, 'Gangubai Kathiawadi', which is helmed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, revolves around a maiden sold by a suitor into prostitution and how she becomes a prominent, celebrated figure in the underworld and Kamathipua red-light district.

The film, which also stars Ajay Devgn, is scheduled to release in theatres on February 25. (ANI)
Actor-comedian Whoopi Goldberg returned to 'The View' on Monday following a two-week suspension stemming from her controversial remarks about the Holocaust on the ABC show. On Monday, Goldberg returned alongside Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and guest host Ana Navarro, reported People magazine. "Hello, hello, hello and welcome to The View. And yes, I am back," Goldberg said as Behar told her, "We missed you." "I missed you all too. I got to tell you, there's something kind of marvellous about being on a show like this because we are The View and this is what we do. Sometimes we don't do this as eloquently as we could," Goldberg said, though she did not mention the controversy that got her suspended. As per Variety, two weeks prior, on January 31, Goldberg inaccurately asserted that the "Holocaust isn't about race" on 'The View'. The comment came as she and her co-hosts discussed a Tennessee school board's ban of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book 'Maus', which tells the story of illustrator and author Art Spiegelman's Polish Jewish parents' experience during the Holocaust. The school board cited concerns about female nudity and profanity and removed the material from the eighth-grade curriculum. Goldberg, who faced criticism on social media for her remarks, shared a statement and apologised on the show on February 1. In Monday's opening, Goldberg also said, "It's five minutes to get in important information about topics and that's what we try to do every day. I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away. People reached out from places that made me go, 'Wait, what, what, really?' And it was amazing." Though she did not directly discuss the controversy, Goldberg told the camera that "we're going to keep having tough conversations." "I listened to everything everybody had to say and I was very grateful and I hope it keeps all the important conversations happening because we're going to keep having tough conversations. And in part, because this is what we were hired to do," she said. "It's not always pretty as I said and it's not always what other people would like to hear, but it is an honour to sit at the table and be able to have these conversations because they're important. They're Important to us as a nation and important to us more as a human entity," she added. Goldberg concluded, "So Happy Valentine's Day, y'all, and we're going to get started because that's what we do." The 66-year-old actor-comedian was suspended for two weeks over her "wrong and hurtful comments," ABC News President Kim Godwin said in a previous statement, which was obtained by People magazine. Godwin also said that Goldberg has been asked to "take time and reflect and learn about the impact of her comments." (ANI)
Actor Ajay Devgn's OTT debut 'Rudra-The Edge of Darkness' is all set to release on March 4, and he is super excited about that. According to him, the series, which is an Indian take on the successful British series, 'Luther', depicts a different kind of action and it would surely be a treat for his fans. "I can't say that Rudra - The Edge of Darkness will be at par with Luther. It could be better also! When action is concerned, this show depicts a very different kind of action - it has more drama, suspense, and thrill for the audience, making it very interesting. I hope it's better than the original," Ajay shared. He added, "My job is to entertain people. The platform doesn't matter at all. I definitely love the big screen. Now in my personal time, I watch a lot of OTT, and I love it. Post the pandemic also, it is multiplying much more. So it doesn't matter at all if you are in OTT, or on the big screen. There are so many new things to explore in both! Moreover, I had a lovely time with the entire team of Rudra. It was amazing to work with them." 'Rudra', which also features Esha Deol and Raashi Khanna, will be out on Disney+ Hotstar in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Bengali. (ANI)
Taking to her Instagram handle, Debina posted a video of herself, dancing with her husband on the hook steps of the song.

The 'Ramayan' actor, who recently announced her pregnancy, flaunted her baby bump in a white tee, paired with blue denim jeans. Gurmeet also dressed in a matching outfit.

Along with the fun dancing Reel, Debina wrote, "Happyyyyy anniversary to us. We have danced through our thick and thins holding each other's hands..... what better way of welcoming another beautiful year of our togetherness Than this cute trending dance reel. @guruchoudhary."

Meanwhile, on the work front, Gurmeet was recently seen in the music video of Jubin Nautiyal's song 'Tumse Pyaar Karke'. (ANI)
It's that time of the year again! VLCC presents Femina Miss India 2022 is all set to handpick the best talent from across the nation giving a once in a lifetime opportunity to all the participants. With its vision to empower the youth and represent the best of India's talent at international platforms, VLCC presents Femina Miss India 2022 is all set to scout the nation's talent yet again. Presented by VLCC and co-powered by Sephora with Rajnigandha Pearls as their sponsor, the pageant is going in its virtual format for the second time now. It has launched a nationwide hunt effective February 14, to select representatives each from the 28 states and a representative from Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir besides a collective representative from the Union Territories making for a total of 31 finalists. The selection process of the state representatives will entail an online registration process inviting specific audition video task submissions only via the Moj App (short video app). The participation criteria for any applicant includes, Height - 5'3" and above; Age: 18 - 25 (25 as per December 31, 2021). Age 26 and 27 are eligible for the runner up position only OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cardholders are also eligible for the 2nd runner up position. To participate, every applicant needs to download the Moj App, create a profile and upload three audition videos (introduction, talent and ramp walk). Once completed, the applicant needs to log onto (www.missindia.com) and fill in the requisite details. Registrations are open until March 15, 2022. Commenting on the collaboration, Ajit Varghese, Chief Commercial Officer, Moj said, "We at Moj are thrilled to be a part of the digital journey of aspirants to showcase the talent to enter and win Femina Miss India. We are sure to see high quality and calibre of short video entries from potential contestants on Moj using its high-end camera features." Applicants also have the option to visit their nearest VLCC centre for a free height and fitness certificate and in return get pampered with some amazing complimentary services. Commenting on the association, Vandana Luthra, Founder, VLCC Group said "I am delighted for VLCC to be the lead partner of Femina Miss India for the second year running. This collaboration is indeed a very apt one as it comes at a time when there is so much awareness about the need for individuals to invest in wellbeing and lead a healthy lifestyle to stay fit. This association of the two brands also seeks to underscore the fact that for any person to be successful in any sphere it is important to invest in feeling good and looking great and such platforms provide the inspiration to do so." An internal screening process, which will include experts and panellists, will select the 31 finalists. These shortlisted finalists will undergo rigorous training and grooming and be mentored by the former beauty queen and actor Neha Dhupia. Speaking about her association with the pageant, Neha said, "Each year in the journey of Femina Miss India, I feel a strong sense of nostalgia as it takes me back to all the learnings and experiences I've gained and will cherish lifelong. It's always endearing to see these young participants so full of enthusiasm and ready to take on the world. It's their willingness to succeed that leaves everyone feeling inspired." For the unversed, after the screening process, the participants will be further shortlisted and will arrive in Mumbai to compete for the coveted crown at the Grand Finale, later this year. The Grand Finale will air on Colors HD. Talking about the pageant, Rohit Gopakumar, COO, Miss India Organization said, "Miss India now is not just a beauty pageant. It has become an institution with over 57 years of successfully managing a life-changing platform for Indian women. We have been privy to a whole gamut of emotions, lots of glamour, immense talent and incredible competitive spirit. "This platform has transformed many deserving lives and opened avenues for the participants that have made their far-fetched dreams come true. It's what makes this pageant so extraordinary and special. In this forthcoming edition too, we are looking forward to an enthralling experience where a new winner will take centre stage and make the country proud at the Miss World Pageant," Rohit said adding, "This year too the show will provide an incredible opportunity for contestants and audience alike to be swayed by the true Spirit of Indian Women." Commenting on the association with the pageant Nitesh Kanchan, CEO, Sephora India, stated "Our objective at Sephora to always be a part of the evolving conversation on beauty in India. And no one exemplifies this like Femina Miss India. It provides a platform for women across socio-economic backgrounds in India to aspire, learn and participate in the dialogue to redefine the role of women in our society. Weare proud to be able to support the accomplishments of these women through our sustained partnership with Femina Miss India." The winner of VLCC Femina Miss India 2022 will represent India at the Miss World pageant. Former Indian Miss World winners include- Reita Faria (1966), Aishwarya Rai (1994), Diana Hayden (1997), Yukta Mookhey (1999), Priyanka Chopra (2000) and Manushi Chhillar (2017). For the unversed, The Grooming School- From The House of Miss India has launched a comprehensive training course conducted by experts who have been closely associated with the Miss India Organization, for participants to prepare themselves to win the Miss India crown. (ANI)
American TV host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel has honoured late director Ivan Reitman by sharing a photo of his dressed in 'Ghostbusters' costume. Taking to instagram, the 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' host shared a photo of his son, William "Billy" John, 4, wearing a costume from the movie Ghostbusters in honor of Reitman, who died on Saturday at the age of 75. "May the great #IvanReitman rest in peace. As long as little boys believe in ghosts, your work will never be forgotten," the comedian captioned the sweet tribute. Kimmel joined many celebrities who mourned the loss of the prominent producer and director, who died in his sleep over the weekend. Actor Mindy Kaling wrote on Twitter that he was "old school in the best way, and kind," adding, "I loved working with him. It's sad he's gone, it makes me feel older and like my childhood movies are more faraway than ever. RIP." Kumail Nanjiani called Reitman a "legend" in a tweet after learning about his passing, adding, "Ghostbuster is my first favorite movie ever." Paul Samuel Feig, who directed the comedy film 'Bridesmaids', tweeted about a memorable moment he shared with Reitman when they collaborated. Reitman, the driving force behind popular movies such as 'Animal House', 'Ghostbusters', and 'Stripes', died at his home in Montecito, California, as per People magazine. "Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life. We take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world," said his children, Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman and Caroline Reitman, in a joint statement. The statement continued, "While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through films will remember him always." Reitman's son Jason, who directed 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife', which was released last year, also posted a heartfelt tribute to his father following his passing. "I've lost my hero. All I want in the world is the chance to tell my father one more story. He came from a family of survivors and turned his legacy into laughter," Jason captioned a series of photos of himself with his dad on Instagram. (ANI)
It is natural for people to get stressed in their everyday work, but at times, this stress can lead to an increase in blood pressure. Recent research has revealed that minor everyday rises in blood pressure due to short-term stressors can be linked to a brain area that controls conscious and learned motor skills. This discovery, presented by University of Gothenburg researchers, paved the way for a chance to influence the rises in blood pressure and, in the long run, prevent hypertension. The study was published in 'Scientific Reports'. In roughly half of all people with hypertension -- persistently high blood pressure (BP) -- there is no known cause. One plausible theory is, however, that hypertension might be the result of a long period of many recurrent BP peaks. Hundreds or thousands of micro-stress events may occur daily -- the telephone ringing, a car horn sounding in the street -- with BP spiking every time as a result. For nearly 20 years now, a University of Gothenburg research group has been investigating how this kind of micro-stress affects nerve signals to our muscles and the throughput (perfusion) of blood in their vessels (muscle vasculature). In half of the over 150 men included in the group's studies to date, the pattern of their reaction system leads to BP peaks, while for the other half the reactions taking place in their bodies do not bring about any change in BP. For the study, 20 men aged 19-45 were examined. The experiment involved triggering a response in the nervous system with unexpected electric shocks that emulate the sudden and/or stressful stimuli to which we are exposed daily. The researchers combined two measurement methods. In one, a traditional research technique called microneurography, very thin needle electrodes are used to probe the signalling in nerve fibres (specifically, muscle sympathetic nerve activity, MSNA) directed to the vascular bed (blood vessels) of the muscles. The other was a modern brain-imaging technique known as magnetoencephalography (MEG). For the first time, the researchers could link the increased susceptibility to micro-stress to a reflex-like signal in the brain. The brain area (the "rolandic area") that activated the signal-controlled several conscious brain functions. This finding opened the question of whether the BP peaks may be learned and could therefore also, with training, be eliminated. "We see a surprisingly strong connection between the peripheral autonomic vascular reaction, which takes place subconsciously, and a reaction pattern -- one that was already previously well known -- in a part of the brain where emotional impressions and motor skills undergo conscious interpretation. This raises questions about how independently the 'autonomic nervous system', as it's called, really works," said Mikael Elam, Professor of Clinical Neurophysiology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. The idea that the discovery might come to be used to prevent hypertension was not unrealistic, but much research was needed. "If we can develop ways of boosting the signal-to-noise ratio, in the future, it may be possible to extract the relevant brain signals from a regular electroencephalogram [EEG], which is available in every Swedish hospital today. That would enable us, at an early stage, to identify people who react with BP spikes before they develop hypertension. Many other opportunities for preventive measures and research would then follow," said Justin Schneiderman, Senior Lecturer in experimental multimodal neuroimaging at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. Interestingly, our environment seemed to matter more than our genetic code when it came to which reaction pattern we developed, and thus whether we experience many daily BP spikes or not. An earlier study by the research group on identical twins showed that basic activity in the twins' blood-vessel-regulating autonomic nervous systems was very similar, while their stress-triggered reactions diverged. "One may speculate that today, many people have learned to suppress the primitive fight-or-flight response, since it's not that relevant in modern society. It's an impulse that prepares us for action, by reducing the vasoconstrictor nerve activity and thereby increase blood flow in the muscles. In terms of long-term health consequences, it might be beneficial to preserve the old flight-or-fight impulse in response to sudden stressors," Elam pondered. The research group hoped to be able to facilitate studies at the population level, monitoring large groups of people over a long period. This would enable investigation of, first, whether individuals with reaction patterns that cause many peaks in blood pressure during the day are indeed at increased risk of developing hypertension later in life and, second, whether influencing this reaction pattern is feasible. (ANI)
Under the name Ramon Novarro, the Mexican American actor Jose Ramon Gil Samaniego became one of Hollywoods biggest stars in the 1920s and early 1930s. After the famously handsome actors success in Ben Hur in 1925, he was widely seen as silent Tinseltowns leading Latin lover.

Around the same time, the actor William Haines was forging his own career as a leading man: in Haines case, as a wisecracking matinee idol. If Novarro was the studio-system prototype for Charlton Heston, Haines was a prototype for Cary Grant.

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The struggles of Novarro and Haines make up the main story of Sons of Hollywood, a world premiere play with music at the Windy City Playhouse on Chicagos North Side, penned by Barry Ball and Carl Menninger and expansively directed by David H. Bell. Trey DeLuna plays Novarro, Adam Jennings is Haines and the excellent Abby Lee plays Lucille LeSueur, better known as Joan Crawford, here an affirming, caustic friend of both men.

The work homes in on the homosexuality of Novarro and Haines and argues that once Hollywood adopted the Hays Production Code in 1930, their careers were essentially done in by the studios self-imposed homophobia. Gone was the relative tolerance of the prior, mostly silent years. Ball and Menninger cast their two heroes in different roles: Novarro as the deeply repressed Catholic, always praying after sex and peering around corners to see who might be watching, and Haines as a famously open gay man who refused to participate in some kind of sham lavender marriage, insisting on living life on his own terms. It eventually cost him his movie career. (He replaced that with a second act as a high-end interior designer).

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Adam Jennings, Trey DeLuna, Abby Lee and Kyle Patrick in "Sons of Hollywood" at Windy City Playhouse. (Michael Brosilow photo / HANDOUT)

Ball and Menningers play, which will be especially entertaining for those seduced by stories of the so-called golden age of Hollywood, takes us though this history, depicting characters living large in Hollywood only to find themselves progressively pushed ever more firmly back into the shadows by MGM and other studios, which were increasingly intrusive into the private lives of those under contract.

The show is billed as a play with music, which basically means songs between the scenes, some penned by Ball himself and some simpatico hits of the era, such as Masculine Women! Feminine Men! and Lets Misbehave.

I think this already quite engrossing piece could have a future: the first thing to be sorted out by the creative team is whether or not they want it to be a musical. Certainly, the imaginative Bell has directed it like one, with apt staging nods on Lauren Nigris backlot-like setting to classic Hollywood musicals, so thats probably the way to go. Thereafter, the piece could use much more urgency and pace and it also needs to lose some of the melodramatic paper-tiger villains in favor of the several well-rounded characters here, such as Haines partner Jimmie Shields, nicely played by Kyle Patrick.

Both DeLuna and Jennings are frequently poignant and they could give yet more, if the script allowed. The crew here has caught the expansiveness and fun of the era; if more time was spent on the raw pain in the shadows, the piece would yet further engage.

Review: Sons of Hollywood

When: Through April 16

Where: Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. Irving Park Road

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

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Tickets: $55-$75 at windycityplayhouse.com

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com
The replica of Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world, has been sculpted by members of the hotel Grand Mumtaz with an aim to make the tourist destination Gulmarg more appealing and memorable for the tourists. Gulmarg, which is already on the tourists'' top list of destinations of snow-lovers, earlier witnessed huge crowds gathering to experience dining in igloo cafe here. By building this new sculpture with zero material cost in 17 days, the locals have managed to not cease to excite the tourists from across the world. The sculpture reaching a height of 16 feet and covering an area of 24 feet x 24 feet, captivated the attention of many with people flocking to click pictures alongside it. "We wanted to create some resemblance with the name of the hotel keeping in mind to create something that can be talked about for a long time. We wanted to make it memorable for people. Approximately 100 hours of time has gone into this. This place has already become a centre of attraction for tourists," Satyajeet Gopal, General Manager of Grand Mumtaz Hotel said. Taj Mahal was built in Agra by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz. Yusuf Baba, head member of the team who made the sculpture said that a 4 member team was involved in the work and no other material besides snow has been used. He also said that it has become an attraction for several tourists already. Manzoor Ahmad, a local tour guide, who has been in the tourism sector for at least 10 years, said that such a thing has been built here for the first time. A tourist, who was charmed by the beauty of the sculpture, urged people to come and witness the scenic beauty of Gulmarg. "I urge people to come and experience the grandeur and beauty of this place. People have taken out time to showcase incredible India here. You will be mesmerized by it," said Rahul adding that it is safe for tourists as COVID-19 protocols are being followed. "I met people from across the country here, who have come to see this. Kashmiri kahwa was also being served here yesterday," said Anmol, another tourist who came from Jammu with friends. "This Taj Mahal is very beautiful. We will again come and see this in the evening with the lighting set up. It is a very unique thing," said Rashmi, a resident of Gurgaon, Haryana. (ANI)
With Goa reporting a high voter turnout in Assembly elections held on Monday, the Congress party in the state exuded confidence in forming the government with a full majority. According to official data of the Chief Electoral Officer, Goa achieved a voter turnout of 78.94 per cent in polling for the 40 assembly seats. The highest voter turnout was recorded in Sanquelim constituency with 89.61 per cent, while the lowest was in Benaulim with 70.2 per cent. Goa, which is the smallest state in the country, only has two districts --- North Goa and South Goa. North Goa registered a maximum turnout of 79 per cent, than South Goa at 78 per cent. With these numbers, the Congress party assessed the political situation and the results of the Assembly elections in the state, which are to be declared on March 10. Speaking to ANI, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Goa, Dinesh Gundu Rao said, "People have come up in large numbers to give a decisive vote and their expression will be seen in the results." Analysing that there in an "anti-incumbency" wave in the BJP-ruled state, the Congress leader said, "People want BJP out." "There is a huge anti-incumbency wave and that's the reason this high number of voting is taking place. I think it's going to be a very good result for Congress and we will get an absolute majority. This is what our people at the ground are also telling us," he added. He further reasoned that the highest voter turnout in Sanquelim, where BJP had fielded Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, is because the people's anger against him. "It shows that there is huge anger against the Chief Minister. In his constituency, we saw the Chief Minister becoming desperate and going door-to-door because he knew he was losing the elections. The high voter turnout in his constituency is a very good thing for us. Our Congress candidate will pull through in the contest," Rao said. Congress had fielded Dharmesh Saglani against Sawant. Notably, Sawant has won from the Sanquelim seat twice. While he lost the 2008 bypoll from Pale, Sawant went on to win from the Sanquelim or Sankhali seat in 2012 and 2017. Congress is fighting the Goa polls in alliance with the Goa Forward Party (GFP). Rao said that the alliance will turn out to be fruitful, resulting in an absolute majority. "People of Goa want a stable government and they want to give a clear mandate. This was building up a silent storm. They want to end the 'Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram' politics in the state. I am looking at 20 plus seats for us and BJP will find it very difficult to even cross a single-digit mark," Rao said. (ANI)
Alleging that his chopper was not allowed to fly to Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar as it was declared a no-fly zone because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Jalandhar, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said that he is not a terrorist and Punjab is safe in our hands, adding that using investigative agencies for the Opposition will not work. Consequently, he was unable to attend Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's election rally in Hoshiarpur. Speaking to media persons, the Chief Minister said, "I was in Una at 11 am but suddenly permission to fly (to Hoshiarpur) was denied due to PM Modi's movement, it was declared a no-fly zone. I was not able to attend Rahul Gandhi's rally in Hoshiarpur. I had permission to land," said Channi. "This is our Punjab and this is safe in our hands. Charanjit Channi is a Chief Minister, he's not a terrorist that you are stopping him from flying to Hoshiarpur. This is not the way," he added. "The elections should be conducted free and fair and using agencies (ED, CBI) against opposition will not work," he said. Earlier on Monday, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Sunil Kumar Jakhar had alleged that Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's scheduled visit to Hoshiarpur was cancelled by the Centre. Addressing a public gathering in Hoshiarpur, Jakhar said, "Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was scheduled to come to Hoshiarpur but it's shameful that the Central Government cancelled permission for him to come here." "If the Election Commission of India does not take cognisance of this, I will understand that these polls are a farce, sham," Jakhar said.The Congress leader said the Centre should shed some light on the incident. "A few days back, the Prime Minister said that when he came to Punjab, he wasn't allowed to visit Ferozepur and there was a threat to his life. Today, when Charanjit Singh Channi is being stopped from coming to Hoshiarpur, I request PM Modi Sahab to shed some light on it," he said. Prime Minister's Ferozepur rally earlier had to be cancelled after a major security breach with his convoy stuck on a flyover after the agitating farmers had blocked the road. The BJP is raising the issue of the security breach of the Prime Minister in the ongoing electioneering in the state.On January 5, Prime Minister's convoy was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes. Assembly polls for electing 117 assembly seats in Punjab will be held on February 20. The results will be declared on March 10. (ANI)
The Delhi police on Monday arrested a quack in the Seemapuri area for allegedly raping a girl under the pretext of curing her illness through black magic. The victim reported the incident to her mother on February 12, and an FIR under section 354 (assault with intent to outrage modesty), 376 (rape) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against the accused Yamin. The police subsequently arrested the accused within two days from Seemapuri, said a senior police official. The police further said that the incident took place on January 29 when the victim reached the accused's place in the Mangolpuri area with her sister to get cured of her illness. The accused asked the victim's sister to wait outside and the victim was then asked to remove her clothes so that soil from the burial ground can be rubbed on her body for curing the illness, the police official added. She was given some intoxicating substance and raped, added the police official. Further investigation into the matter is underway. (ANI)
Pakistan Army was involved directly in the 2019 Pulwama attack which was carried out by a suicide bomber resulting in the death of 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, said Lt Gen KJS Dhillon (Retd) on Monday who commanded 15 Corps in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, when the terror attack took place. He said that the evidence, documents, and weapons recovered by the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir police, and intelligence agencies during the investigation prove that the Pakistan army was involved in this terror attack. Speaking to ANI, Dhillon said, "The evidence, including weapons, and documents recovered by us during the investigation of the attack, is there. Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) is being run, funded, and equipped from Pakistan. Those terrorists came to the Kashmir valley and attacked the CRPF personnel and disturbed the peace in the union territory." He stated that the security forces eliminated the module behind the Pulwama attack led by a Pakistani national Kamran within 100 hours of the attack. "After security forces'' operations against JeM, their terrorists were so scared of dying that nobody wanted to take the leadership role," Dhillon added. Dhillon also said the intercepts of the calls from Pakistan revealed that the terrorists were asked to take a leadership role but they all would refuse. He also asserted that Pakistan Army, ISI, and terrorist organizations work in unison, so one can cross LoC without the active participation and guidance of the Pakistan Army. "Pakistan Army, ISI, and terrorist organizations work in unison. No one can cross LoC without active participation and guidance from the Pak Army. We apprehended Pak nationals on LoC in Gulmarg sector who were brought there by the Pakistani post opposite to ours," he added. On February 14, 2019, a terror attack was carried out in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir by a suicide bomber resulting in the death of 40 CRPF personnel. The suicide bomber, identified as JeM''s Adil Ahmed Dar, rammed his vehicle into a bus with the CRPF convoy. (ANI)
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Monday wrote to Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj, expressing condolences on the demise of his Padma Bhushan-awardee father Rahul Bajaj. In the letter, Gandhi said that she is grieved to learn of the passing away of Rahul Bajaj who "added a unique lustre to the world of the Indian industry". "The name of Bajaj stood for quality that one could trust, for fairness and honesty, for Indian manufacturing to be among the best in the world. Those were the principles and standards that Rahul Bajaj ji upheld, and the lasting legacy he leaves," the letter read. She also called Rahul Bajaj a "moral compass" for Indian industries and said that he must have taken great pride in Rajiv's achievements, "confident that you (Rajiv) would take forward his work with the same dedication and standards of excellence." The last rites of Industrialist and Padma Bhushan-awardee, Rahul Bajaj, were performed with full state honours at Vaikuntha crematorium in Pune. Bajaj breathed his last at Ruby Hall Hospital in Pune on February 12. He was under treatment for cardiac and lung-related problems last month. Born on June 10, 1938, Rahul Bajaj held a Bachelor's degree in economics, a law degree from Mumbai University and an MBA from Harvard University. Rahul Bajaj was a former member of the Rajya Sabha. Besides, he had been the chairman of the International Business Council at the World Economic Forum. He was one of the longest-serving chairmen of corporate India. He served as president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) twice. He also rendered his services as president of CII from 1979 to 1980 and again from 1999 to 2000. (ANI)
"With the administration of more than 44.68 lakh doses (44,68,365) vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 173.42 crores (1,73,42,62,440) as per provisional reports till 7 am today," the ministry said in a release.

According to the health ministry, a total of 39,15,704 precaution doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to healthcare workers, 54,69,127 doses to frontline workers, 82,58,894 doses to people over 60 years of age so far.

"In the age of 15-18 years old people, as many as 5,24,34,558 first dose of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered and 1,64,08,841 second dose," the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 tally in India dropped to below 30,000, as the country logged 27,409 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family welfare.

The daily positivity rate in the country has also dipped to 2.23 percent, while the weekly positivity rate has dropped to 3.63 percent, the Ministry informed. (ANI)
Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday led a delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Chief Election Commissioner in the national capital on Monday to complain against the Congress after one of its leaders claimed that a "Hindu can never become Chief Minister of Punjab. Naqvi said that a Congress leader recently said that a "Hindu can never become Chief Minister of Punjab". The Minister stated that the statement of the Congress leader amounted to giving communal colour to the Punjab elections. "Recently, a Congress leader said that a Hindu can never become CM of Punjab. It's an attempt to give a communal colour to the elections. We have filed a complaint in this regard," he said. He also alleged that in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party and Congress are trying not to let Muslim women vote. "In Uttar Pradesh, SP, BSP and Congress are trying not to let Muslim women vote. Women are being asked to go to booths in burkha and insist on voting without showing identity," said Naqvi. The Union Minister further said that they have briefed EC on this matter and have urged to take steps to stop fake voting. The polling in Punjab will take place in a single phase on February 20. The votes will be counted on March 10. (ANI)
Five people including four policemen have died when a vehicle of Gujarat Police carrying an accused from Delhi to Gujarat met with an accident in the Bhabroo area of Jaipur, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot informed on Tuesday. Gehlot extended condolences to the families, and tweeted, "It is sad to know about the death of five people including four policemen when a Gujarat Police vehicle carrying the accused from Delhi to Gujarat met with an accident in Bhabru area of Jaipur. My deepest condolences to the bereaved family, may God give them strength and may the soul of the departed rest in peace." Further details are awaited. (ANI)
The incident came to light when a video went viral on social media in which the mob was seen beating the police constable and smashing his car.

"He (police constable) was returning from election duty and his car collided with a bike. The person riding the bike was injured but he is fine and went back home. We are doing an investigation and trying to identify the people who attacked the police constable," Akhilesh Bhadauria, Superintendent of Police, Moradabad told ANI.

"If any complaint is received from the injured regarding the accident, then action will be taken against the policeman," he added. (ANI)
Inventing Anna on Netflix stars Anna Chlumsky as a pregnant magazine journalist obsessively investigating a con artist, with Anders Holm playing her patient husband, forever encouraging his spouse to find a better work-life balance.

Hes kind of the reality check for her, said Holm. Shes hyper-driven about this story and shes buried herself in it, and Im the guy whos like: Yes, I love that about you  but youre going to have this baby in two weeks and I want to make sure youre taking care of yourself as a person, as well as a journalist.

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An Evanston native who first gained fame as part of the central trio on Comedy Centrals Workaholics, Holm is just one of several cast members in Inventing Anna who has ties to the Chicago area, including Chlumsky, Steppenwolf Theater founders Jeff Perry and Terry Kinney, and Succession alum Arian Moayed.

When asked about a worst moment in his career, Holm didnt need to dig back too far: This is very recent and it was definitely a foot-in-mouth moment where I was like, youre an idiot! And it involves another Chicago person.

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Anna Chlumsky (left) and Anders Holm play a married couple expecting their first child in "Inventing Anna." (Nicole Rivelli/Netflix)

My worst moment 

I was filming in Mobile, Alabama on a forthcoming movie called About My Father with (Chicago native and comedian) Sebastian Maniscalco, who plays a guy whos going to propose to his blue-blood girlfriend. Robert De Niro plays his father and theyre both blue collar Chicago Italians, and they go to the country house of the girlfriends family, and I play the obnoxious brother-in-law-to-be, so I get to wear all sorts of insane blazers and say things about yachts and Jet Skis.

So were filming a scene and I improvised something about crypto currency. Thats just my guys speed, right? Im working with David Rasche, who is playing my father  David is also, incidentally, from Chicago and came up through Chicago theater (and currently plays Karl on Succession)  and the director says to him, Any maybe you should say ,  I forget the exact words, but it was some kind of affirmative thing that made it sound like he understood crypto currency.

And I said, Well, he could. But old people dont really know about crypto currency.

And the entire set went quiet (laughs). And my heart just sank.

And then David, who is hilarious, just goes: Old people? Are you talking about me? Im the old person? Hey Kim  Kim Cattrall plays my mom  were the old people. We dont know about crypto currency, were too old.

And I was like (long pause), Thats not what Im saying  it is what Im saying, but its not.

And I was like, oh man, why didnt I just say, Do we think Davids character would really know the ins and outs of crypto currency? instead of, old people dont know about crypto, you guys are old. (Laughs)

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So I was like: OK, let me formally apologize. I did not mean to call you guys old. And I didnt! I was talking about their characters, who are kind of fuddy-duddies, at least Davids character is this clueless old rich guy.

This was Day 1 or Day 2 and I was like, did I just set the worst tone for this movie shoot by calling the people who are playing my parents old? And Kim Cattrall, I love her too  I was bothering her way too much about (her 1986 movie) Big Trouble in Little China  they were both giving me grief. So after we did a few takes, I said: I want to apologize again, Im so sorry, I take it all back.

From left: Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson and Anders Holm in "Workaholics." (Comedy Central)

And then 10 more minutes went by and they were ribbing me a little more. They knew they had their boot on my neck at that point. So I said: Alright, (screw) it, do you know about crypto? (Laughs) And David goes, What if I do? And I said, I dont know! Do you know anything about it? And he goes, No, of course we dont! And I go, Thats kind of what I was saying!

Not that I know anything about crypto either, by the way (laughs), and I did say that: Im 40 and even Im too old to know about crypto.

According to Google, Rasche is 77. The connotation of old is always considered a negative rather than a neutral descriptor. So how does one appropriately describe a person who is in their late 70s?

I know! And I wasnt like, Hey, withered near-death people dont know about crypto.

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Luckily the tone was not set in a way that ended up ruining the shoot. I walked into this trap and they knew they could turn the screws a little and have some fun  and know that me, being a comedic actor, I could take it. If I lost my cool? Now, that would be insane, right?

So I won them back with my trademark buffoonery. I won them back because they realized I wasnt a (jerk), I was just a guy who misspoke and, for sure, will misspeak again. But Ill try to be more careful. It just highlights how important word choice is. I could have said, People of a certain age might not know about crypto, instead of Old people dont know about crypto and youre in that cage of old.

What might happen if and when Holm reaches 77 himself and a 40-year-old calls him old?

Ill let it slide and then later that day fake a heart attack in front of them and look into their eyes in a way that traumatizes them, and then go: Lifes too short. And I collapse and let it ride for a bit. And then I jump up and go, Acting!

The takeaway 

Be a little more thoughtful with your words. Especially on Day 1 (laughs). I was just too casual. I was too flippant about: These people are funny, they get it.

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Anders Holm in a scene from "Inventing Anna." The Evanston native Anders Holm co-stars in the new Netflix series from Shonda Rhimes. (Nicole Rivelli/Netflix)

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic

nmetz@chicagotribune.com

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A tempo traveller, taking 14 pilgrims from Hasan of Karnataka to the Sabarimala Temple, collided with a container lorry in Pooladikkinnu of Kozhikode at the NH bypass. Three pilgrims died on the spot in the accident and four are severely injured. They have been hospitalised at a Kozhikode.

As per sources, the dead were identified as Dinesh, Sivanna and Nagaraj. (ANI)
The Delhi High court has dismissed the petition moved by the Commonwealth Human Right Initiative (CHRI) against the suspension of its FCRA registration certificate by the Central government in 2021. Justice V Kameswar Rao observed, "I do not see any reason to interfere with the order dated 7 June 2021. The writ petition is dismissed." The bench observed that the order suspending the petitioner is in consonance with the object which the instant legislation/statute strives to achieve and has not gone in excess of that object. The petitioner had challenged the suspension order dated 7 June 2021 passed by the Ministry of Home Affairs under section 13 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010. The petition said the petitioner was granted FCRA Registration in September 1993. Thereafter, it was renewed in October 2026 with validity till October 2021. Petitioner further said the FCRA Registration was suspended on 7 June 2021 for 180 days. It was challenged and it was stated there was no violation of the FCRA 2010. The petitioner had requested urgent revocation of its FCRA registration. It was submitted that on December 1, 2022, the suspension order was extended for another period of 180 days. On December 7, 2021, a show-cause notice was served on the petitioner. According to the show-cause notice the central government had authorised the audit of the account books and activities for the first time. The said audit was conducted in August 2021. Upon the scrutiny of audited records, certain observations were drawn and shared with the petitioner through a letter. It was the case of the petitioner that the order of suspension was erroneous on various grounds. It was stated that details of activities/projects for which foreign contribution have been received and utilised have not been given at the prescribed point 3(a) in FC-4 form in AR for the Financial Year 2028-19. (ANI)
In a letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Kumar said, "Having given my thoughtful consideration to the matter, I have concluded that in the present circumstances and consistent with my dignity, I can best subserve larger national causes outside the party-fold."

He further said that he hopes to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters.

"I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years and hope to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters," he said.

"While paying my respectful regards, I thank you for the consideration extended to me in the past and wish you good health in the years ahead," he added. (ANI)
"The student who is in his first year of B.Com, a minor, shared the photos of all the 40 martyred Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the Pulwama attack, claiming it was a revenge for Babri Masjid Demolition," said Suraj Verma, Superintendent of Police, J&K.

A complaint was filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker against the accused and he was detained by Neemuch police.

It is to be noted that the accused is studying at the PG college in Neemuch and is also receiving the central government's scholarship.

Verma added, "An FIR has been registered against the accused under section 124 A (sedition), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code."

He further said, "The mobile phone and laptop of the accused have been seized and are being checked. It was also observed that the accused has been following Pakistani Army on various social media platforms."

The attack on the CRPF convoy took place in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14, 2019 in which 40 personnel had died.

A suicide bomber had rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the bus. The convoy had 78 buses in which around 2,500 personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar.

Days after the attack, the Indian Air Force on February 26 carried out multiple aerial strikes at JeM terror camps in Pakistan's Balakot, killing a "large number" of terrorists and destroying their infrastructure. (ANI)
Amid the ongoing Karnataka hijab controversy, some students were asked to sit in a separate room as they refused to appear for exams without wearing their headscarves in Shivmogga and Udupi cities of the state. Few students of Karnataka Public School in Nellihudikeri in Kodagu district staged a protest against the hijab ban Parents who were standing outside the schools informed that the school administration also asked students to appear for exams without hijab. Speaking to the media persons, Haseena, parent of a student said, "I'm not sending her to school after a ban on hijab in school. I have sent them to school for the past two days as they had preparatory exams for class 10. But some students were asked to sit in a separate room yesterday because they denied removing hijab." "Nothing like this happened earlier. Till now, many from our family have studied in this school wearing hijab. Why is there a sudden change in rules?," she said. A man whose niece is a student said, "I'll bring my niece to school only after the court verdict. Education is important but hijab is most important to us". Abdul, another parent also stated that students who came wearing hijab, are being asked to sit in a separate room in the school. "Teachers have asked students not to wear hijab in school. They also had a meeting on the subject with parents yesterday. Today, they have been asked to sit in a separate room. I don't understand why this has been created as such a big issue. Students have the right to study and appear for exams," Abdul added. "A meeting between parents and teachers is underway. The students (of Govt Urdu School, Pakirnagar) have not been made to sit in a separate room," said Tehsildar, Kapu Taluk, Udupi district. Meanwhile, Some students skipped exams as they were forced to enter the school premises without their traditional headscarves. "I will not remove the hijab. I used to attend school earlier with the hijab only. The School administration asked us to either remove the hijab or leave the place. They did not allow us to appear for exams wearing hijab," Hina, a student told ANI. Sabrin, another student said, "I am leaving the school and skipping my exam because I was asked to remove my hijab." The Hijab protests in Karnataka began in January this year when some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing hijab. Following this incident, students of different colleges arrived at Shanteshwar Education Trust in Vijayapura wearing saffron stoles. The situation was the same in several colleges in the Udupi district. The pre-University education board had released a circular stating that students can wear only the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious practices will be allowed in colleges. Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court also appealed to the student community and the public at large to maintain peace and tranquillity while hearing various pleas challenging a ban on hijab in the state. Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the petitioners, on Monday, told the Karnataka High Court that leaving it to the college committee to decide whether the hijab is allowed or not is totally illegal. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that once the party is re-elected to power, farmers in Uttar Pradesh will not have to pay electricity bills for the next five years. Addressing a public rally in Uttar Pradesh's Dibiyapur, Shah said, "Holi is on 18th (March), counting is on 10th, bring the BJP government to power on 10th, free gas cylinders will reach your house on 18th of March. No farmer will have to pay electricity bills for the next five years." Exuding confidence for the victory of the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Shah said that Samajwadi Party has been wiped out from the state after the first and second phases of elections. "The Samajwadi Party has been wiped out. Western Uttar Pradesh has done the work of laying the foundation of the BJP government with more than 300 seats. In the third phase, this majority has to be made grander," he said. Taking a jibe at the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Shah said, "Akhilesh (SP chief) asks what have we done? If someone has yellow-coloured glasses, they'll see everything in yellow only... guns and bullets used to be made under Akhilesh's government, now instead of 'goli', 'gole (ammunitions)' is made, to fire against Pakistan." Two phases of polls in Uttar Pradesh have concluded, while the state will have another five phases of polling. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
A day after polling for Assembly elections in Uttarakhand concluded, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat exuded confidence that his party will form the government in the hill state winning 48 seats and took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party saying Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami saved BJP's self-respect otherwise it would have suffered a massive defeat. Harish Rawat, who is also Chairman of Uttarkhand Congress' Campaign Committee, claimed there is a good fight in around six constituencies out of 70 seats. "I can clearly see the Congress is winning the polls with 48 seats. Although there is a good fight in around six assembly seats. I even appealed the people of Uttarakhand to vote for Congress this time so that a government can be formed here for the next five years," he told ANI. "I would like to congratulate Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for saving BJP's respect (ijjat) as the party is going to get less than 20 seats in the elections. I want to tell him that people's decision has gone against him this time but he does not need to worry because his elder brother, Harish Rawat's wishes are with him," he added. Speaking on Dhami, who took oath as chief minister in July last year after resignations of Tirath Singh Rawat and Trivendra Singh Rawat, the Congress veteran said that the BJP leader will prove to become a good competitor in the 2027 Assembly election. "In 2016, BJP's national leadership had committed a sin in Uttarakhand, so the time has come now to pay for that sin. As the polling ended in Uttarakhand, the voices of rebellion in Uttarakhand BJP started to emerge. Also, a big political disturbance will be witnessed here if PM Modi and Amit Shah's hold on Uttarakhand BJP end," he added. After the BJP formed the government in Uttarakhand after winning the 2017 Assembly elections, Trivendra Singh Rawat, an MLA from the Doiwala seat, was picked as its Chief Minister. However, after a rebellion by BJP MLAs against Trivendra, he was replaced by Tirath Singh Rawat in March 2021. Tirath Singh Rawat, a Lok Sabha MP, before the completion of six months from the date of taking the oath of the office, was replaced by Pushkar Singh Dhami, a sitting MLA as the CM of the state. Speaking about state Congress leader Yashpal Arya, who contested polls from the Bajpur Assembly seat, Rawat said, "My best wishes are for Yashpal Arya and I have never personally said anything for Yashpal Arya to become the Chief Minister. I have always extended my support for the entire Dalit society." The veteran leader said that a tradition started in Punjab was to make Dalit Chief Minister and he would like to see a day in his life when there is a "Dalit Chief Minister" in Uttarakhand. He said that the leaders will accept Congress' high command decision about the chief minister's position if the party voted to power. "Whatever will be the decision of the party high command for Uttarakhand, we will accept it. If Congress wins in Uttarakhand, the credit for the victory goes to Rahul Gandhi. I do not want to raise any question on Rahul Gandhi's decision," Rawat added. Harish Rawat contested Uttarakhand polls from the Lalkuan constituency and Dhami contested for the third time from the Khatima Assembly seat against the Congress nominee Bhuwan Chandra Kapri. Both the Congress and the BJP have battled political instability in the state in the last two decades after it was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000 during former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure. The BJP's task is twin-fold-- beat the anti-incumbency and also the electoral trend of the incumbent government voted out in the state. Uttarakhand, incidentally, has seen 11 Chief Ministers in the last two decades. Uttarakhand recorded 65.1 per cent of voter turnout when the polling in 70 Assembly constituencies concluded at 6 pm on Monday. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been found guilty of illegal withdrawals of Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury by a special CBI court in Jharkhand''s Ranchi. The hearing for the pronouncement of quantum of punishment for Yadav has been scheduled for February 21. Lalu Prasad has been sentenced in four fodder scam cases. This case (RC 47A/97) was the fifth and final one and the biggest of these pertaining to a fodder scam in which 139 crore 35 lakh was illegally withdrawn.The Rs 950-crore scam relates to the fraudulent withdrawal of public funds from government treasuries in various districts of undivided Bihar. Of the original 170 accused in the matter, 55 have died, 7 have become government witnesses, 2 have accepted the charges against them and six are absconding. 99 accused including Lalu Prasad Yadav are left against whom the court gave the verdict today. The scam comes into light after a raid conducted by Deputy Commissioner of Chaibasa Amit Khare at the Animal Husbandry Department in January 1996. CBI was roped in by the Patna High Court in March 1996 after increasing pressure to investigate the case. The CBI registers an FIR in the case at the time when both Bihar and Jharkhand were a unified state. In June 1997, Lalu Prasad was named an accused in the case for the first time in the chargesheet filed by the CBI. Following the chargesheet and mounting pressure from the Opposition, Lalu resigns as the chief minister after which he made his wife Rabri Devi the Chief Minister of the state and silently controlled the politics in Bihar in July 1997. Due to the bifurcation of Bihar and the formation of a new state, Jharkhand, the case is transferred to the Jharkhand High Court in October 2001. Special CBI court begins trial in the fodder scam case from February 2002.Prasad''s first conviction came in September 2013, in the Chaibasa treasury case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.70 crore. He was handed over five years in prison leading to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha membership. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in December that year. The RJD''s supremo''s trouble renewed again in 2017 when a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in December 2017, had convicted him in the second scam case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar treasury. Prasad was sentenced to 3.5 years of jail term in this case. He was, however, granted bail in July 2021 last year after completing half of the 3.5 years'' sentence. The former chief minister''s third conviction came in January 2018, in the Chaibasa treasury case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 33.13 crore. He was awarded five years of imprisonment in this case. Two months later, the special CBI court in March 2018, had held Prasad guilty under conspiracy and corruption charges in the scam case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.76 crore from Dumka treasury from December 1995, to January 1996. It had handed him 14 years in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 60 lakh on him. (ANI)
Lalu Prasad is reaping what he sowed, said Gopal Narayan Singh, the former BJP state president from Bihar, while hailing the conviction of Lalu in a fodder scam on Tuesday. "There is a proverb in Bhojpuri that 'Jaisi Karni Vaishi Bharni', Lalu Yadav is getting the reward for his misdeeds. When he was in power he did mistakes without fear," Singh told ANI. A special CBI court in Ranchi found RJD chief and ex-Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad guilty of illegal withdrawals of Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury while he was the Chief Minister of Bihar between 1991 and 1996. "The first mistake Lalu Yadav did was that he dashed Bihar's economy to the ground. Even at the social level, Bihar was destroyed badly, he divided people in the name of religion and caste. As a result, the political career of Lalu Yadav almost finished, and also the existence of RJD is in crisis," Singh, who is also the Rajya Sabha MP, told ANI. With today's verdict, Lalu Prasad stands convicted in all five fodder scam cases in which he was named as a conspirator. This case was the fifth and final one and the biggest of these pertaining to the fodder scam. The scam came into light after a raid conducted by Deputy Commissioner of Chaibasa Amit Khare at the Animal Husbandry Department in January 1996. Of the original 170 accused in the matter, 55 have died, seven became government witnesses, two persons accepted the charges against them and six are absconding. Nearly 100 accused, including Lalu Prasad, were left against whom the court gave the verdict today. The former BJP State President from Bihar said that Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is part of a party that was formed to counter Congress corruption is ironically himself serving jail in the biggest scam of the country. "Jayaprakash Narayan's movement was against the corruption of Congress and Lalu ji was born from it and the same man is serving jail in the biggest scam of the country," Singh stated. Lalu, along with 98 other accused, was present in the court on Tuesday when Judge CK Shashi read out the verdict. "I also believe that the officers who were ministers during the RJD era at that time have also played an active role in the fodder scam. If the Bharatiya Janata Party had not been active, this case would not have been exposed," Singh said. Earlier in April last year, the Jharkhand High Court granted bail to the RJD Supremo in the case of fraudulent withdrawal from Dumka Treasury, one of the cases related to the fodder scam for which he was convicted. He was granted bail in the Chaibasa Treasury Scam case in October 2020, and in the Deoghar Treasury Scam case in February 2020. BJP MP Singh also thanked Saryu Rai former BJP leader who took this issue to the court and saved Bihar from Lalu. (ANI)
BJP national president JP Nadda on Tuesday took a swipe at politicians while addressing an election rally at Punjab's Maur Mandi and said, "There are many people doing politics in the name of farmers but I can confidently say that no one else has ever done what Prime Minister Narendra Modi did for the welfare of the farmers." He added that under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Rs 2,000 is transferred to the account of 10.50 crore farmers every three months. "In Punjab also, about Rs 24,000 crore was transferred to the accounts of 23 lakh farmers. No one has ever worked for the Sikh brothers like PM Modi did, for the sake of Hindu-Sikh unity", added Nadda. He also slammed politicians for dynasty politics terming them 'parivarvad'. "All other political parties are Parivarvad. If their government comes to power in Punjab, then it will benefit their family only." He added, "BJP is the only party which works on the ideals of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas. BJP is committed to working for the poor, the deprived, the downtrodden of the society." "Our goal is to encourage youth, empower women." The BJP national president said that Harmandir Sahib was not approved by the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, but PM Modi gave approval for it and now, the devotees from all over the world participate. "Earlier, tax was levied on the Gurudwara langars. No one had ever demanded the removal of this tax. But the Prime Minister himself said that the tax on langar should be removed." Speaking on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, Nadda said, "During the 1984 riots when people of the Sikh community were killed, Congress said that when a big tree falls, the earth shakes." "There was violence all over but no one cared about the Sikhs. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, he formed an SIT and put the culprits behind the bars, wiping the victim's tears", added Nadda. Attacking the Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Nadda said, "Today sand mafias are roaming freely in the assembly constituency of the Punjab Chief Minister. The drug mafias are thriving in Punjab. Congress never did anything for the development of Punjab." He added, "The way PM Modi is working for the betterment of the country, Pakistan is not liking it. Anti-national forces in the country are also engaged in disturbing PM Modi's austerity for the advancement of the country." Addressing the people, Nadda said, "Will you strengthen such people who are creating troubles for the country? Punjab needs a new energy, a new force, a new way to get out of debt. A strong leader is needed to get Punjab out of the trouble it is in. That is why the Bharatiya Janata Party needs Punjab's support." Punjab will vote on February 20 while the counting will be on March 10. (ANI)
Dear Amy: My wife and I bought a house. Our intention was to sell it to my son and his wife for the same price that we paid for it.

We rented it out while getting their existing house ready to sell.

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We agreed to the stipulation that they need to improve how they handle their money. They both work, but live paycheck to paycheck. (My daughter-in-law is a spending machine.)

The new and bigger house has appreciated 20 percent since we purchased it and they both really want to move in, but they have not kept up their end of the bargain.

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If I cancel this deal or delay selling this house to them, she will go bonkers.

She is VERY headstrong. My son needs to stand up to her, but I am reluctant (I already tried) to put this on him because he is going through treatments for depression  this depression thing has really changed him.

He has mentioned failure and suicide.

I just cannot support a lifestyle that supplies 37 pair of underwear for their 4-year-old daughter.

His mother and I want to do the best thing.

What do you think?

 Concerned Father

Dear Father: You are attempting to control this couple, and this is the worst way to go about it.

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If they are so bad with money, then arent you setting them up for failure by putting them into a new and bigger house? How will they afford the upkeep and the taxes on this more valuable property?

And because you have such low regard for her and a lack of compassion for him, they should not be financially entangled with you.

Overall, if you are trying to inspire someone toward change, you need to agree to specific and achievable milestones. Improve how they handle their money is a vague stipulation. Are you in charge of deciding if they have improved?

This arrangement also has you believing that you have the right to count their young daughters underwear, which you dont. That is extremely disrespectful to everyone in the family.

This lack of respect is potentially disastrous for your relationship with this family. Your lack of boundaries and harsh judgment will have a negative impact on your sons mental health.

This depression thing is real. Depression is a serious illness, and your son should be focused on his health and treatment  not on pleasing you.

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Your son probably does need to stand up to someone, but in my opinion, you are the person he needs to stand up to. Unfortunately, his depression has likely robbed him of the strength to do that.

If you made an agreement, you should stick to your end of it. And then you should remove yourself from all financial control.

If you and your wife want to help them, you could put your extra money into a college fund for your granddaughter.

Dear Amy: My aunt suddenly lost her husband after more than 50 years of marriage.

My uncle was the last living member of that generation on my fathers side.

While we live states apart, my aunt and uncle were very kind to me when I was little.

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We reconnected when my father passed away several years ago and talked often.

I have tried to stay in fairly constant contact with my aunt since my uncles death.

While my uncle was kind to me, I am now learning that he was not a very good husband or father.

My aunt shares way more than I should know, but I want to be there for her.

How do I continue to support her, but spare myself the graphic details?

 Torn

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Dear Torn: You should continue to listen with compassion, while understanding that one way that (some) people express grief after a sudden death is through anger.

Let her let it out. Connect with her children to make sure they are offering emotional support to their mother.

Look up a grief group in her community and encourage her to attend meetings and connect with others.

Understand, too, that some people wear many masks.

Ask Amy Daily No-nonsense advice for better living delivered to your inbox every morning. For a limited time, sign up for the Ask Amy newsletter and get the book Ask Amy: Essential Wisdom from Americas Favorite Advice Columnist for $5. >

Dear Amy: I dont always agree with you, but I did agree with your response to Concerned Sister, who described a situation where she was housing her nieces boyfriend and keeping it a secret from her own sister.

Im glad you stood up for her need to be transparent about a situation which seems doomed to failure.

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 Been There

Dear Been There: This seemed like a situation where the adults needed to be in the know.

Got a question for Amy? Enter it here and well send it to her.

Sign up here to receive the Ask Amy newsletter to get advice e-mailed to your inbox every morning, and for a limited time  get the book "Ask Amy: Essential Wisdom from Americas Favorite Advice Columnist" for $5.

2021 Amy Dickinson.
According to an official note, the objective of the Orientation Programme is to familiarize the Members with the working of the Legislature and to promote profound knowledge and appreciation of the Legislature's constitutional role, and its position as the supreme representative institution.

"The Programme will also emphasize on acquainting the Members with the operational mechanisms, parliamentary traditions, conventions, and etiquette. The Members will be sensitized on several subjects including 'How to be an Effective Legislator, Privileges of Legislatures, Parliamentary Customs, Conventions and Etiquette, Legislative-Process, Budgetary Process," stated the official release.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Speaker of Bihar Legislative Assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha, Leader of Opposition of Bihar Legislative Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and several other dignitaries will also be present on the occasion.

The Orientation Programme will be organized by the Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE), Lok Sabha Secretariat, in coordination with the Bihar Legislative Assembly Secretariat for the Members of both Bihar Legislative Assembly and Bihar Legislative Council.

A total of 318 Members of the Bihar Legislature will be attending the Orientation Programme at the Central Hall of Bihar Legislature on February 17.

On this occasion, Lok Sabha Speaker will also launch Bihar Vidhan Sabha Digital TV and Bihar Vidhan Sabha Patrika. (ANI)
Election to the 108 municipal corporations across 20 districts in West Bengal is scheduled on February 27.

The BJP urged before the Calcutta HC chief justice to allow deployment of central paramilitary forces 72 hours before polling begins to ensure free and fair municipal elections.

Besides, paramilitary forces, the BJP has asked for effective CCTV surveillance and central monitoring of such surveillance by special officers appointed by the court. "Appoint independent, impartial general observer. Appointment impartial micro observers", stated the application letter.

BJP has also requested the deployment of central paramilitary jawans at the entry points to verify the EPIC cards (photo identities) of the voters.

The BJP in its application has sought re-polling in four municipalities. Party state president Sukanta Majumdar wrote a letter to the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) on Sunday, demanding the cancellation of polls in Bidhannagar and Asansol. The party on Monday had moved Calcutta HC alleging widespread rigging during the civic polls to four municipal corporations on February 12.

The matter is likely to be heard Wednesday (February 16). (ANI)
Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, who is an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, was released from jail here on Tuesday following Allahbad High Court granting from bail. The High Court had granted him bail on Thursday. Avdesh Kumar Singh, lawyer of Ashish Mishra, had said earlier in the day that Mishra will be released from the jail and there will be no restriction on his going out of the city. Eight people, including four farmers, had died in violence on October 3 in Lakhimpur Kheri. (ANI)
Amid the ongoing hijab row, senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the petitioners, on Tuesday told the Karnataka High Court that country follows positive secularism which ensures that everyone's religious rights are preserved. A bench of the three judges, comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice JM Khazi, was hearing various petitions challenging the ban on hijab in educational institutes in the state on Tuesday. Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat submitted that India's Constitution follows positive secularism, not like Turkish secularism, which is negative secularism. He said that our secularism ensures that everyone's religious rights are preserved. Urging the Court to allow the Muslim women to wear hijab in educational institutes, Advocate Kamat also referred to a judgment of a South African court where the issue was whether a Hindu girl with roots in South India could wear a nose ring in school. He quoted the judgment which said that this case is not about uniforms, but exemptions to existing uniforms. Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat also submitted that South Africa's judgment also said that if there are other learners who hitherto were afraid to express their religions or cultures and who will now be encouraged to do so, that is something to be celebrated, not feared. Advocate Kamat quoted the South African court judgment which said that "the display of religion and culture in public is not a 'parade of horribles' but a pageant of diversity which will enrich our schools and in turn our country." He also referred to Canadian Court's judgment relating to a Sikh student seeking to wear Kirpan. During the argument, Advocate Kamat also questioned government order and said that public order as per Constitution in Kannada is Saarvajanika Suvvyavasthe, which cannot have a different meaning. He also said that the essence of Article 25 is that it protects the practice of faith but not a mere display of religious identity or jingoism. The Karnataka High Court will continue hearing on Wednesday various petitions challenging the ban on headscarves in educational institutes. The Hijab protests in Karnataka began in January this year when some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing hijab. Following this incident, students of different colleges arrived at Shanteshwar Education Trust in Vijayapura wearing saffron stoles. The situation was the same in several colleges in the Udupi district. The pre-University education board had released a circular stating that students can wear only the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious practices will be allowed in colleges. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court will pass order on the petitions moved by real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal and others who sought a suspension of their seven-year jail term in the Uphaar cinema fire evidence tampering case on Wednesday. The bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad will pass the judgment on Wednesday. The court had kept the order reserved on January 27, 2022 after the conclusion of the submissions of all sides. The bench said, ''Will try to pronounce judgment on the petition before the date of hearing before the trial court. If, in any case, it is not pronounced by then, I will have one hearing to direct the trial court to continue the hearing on appeals." The Trial court had awarded them seven years imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 2.25 crore. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, counsel for Ansals, submitted before the bench that no judicial system considered the primary conviction as final. There is a need to adopt a larger view and not a tactical one. He further submitted that the allegations were related to continuing conspiracy of tampering with evidence. But there is no direct evidence of tempering the evidence. The only ground was that I would be the beneficiary of the delay. Advocate Singhvi argued, "Everything was based on the point of benefit from conspiracy. But there can not be an open-ended, continuing conspiracy. He said 95 per cent of documents were those whose author was not examined. In this situation, the admissibility of documents cannot go without the authenticity of the author." During the argument on petition Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam counsel on behalf of Sushil Ansal submitted that he was the licensee of the Uphar cinema hall. Senior Advocate N Hariharan had argued on behalf of the Gopal Ansal before the bench of Justice Subramanian Prasad on Tuesday. He said, ''Motive alone was not sufficient to prove conspiracy. There was an alleged motive of delaying the trial." He had argued, "There certain things to prove that there was a conspiracy. There should be a reason to believe that two or more persons conspired to commit and offence. Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa appeared for the Association of The Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) strongly apposed the petitions and submitted that the offence of tampering is extremely serious in nature, as it affects the entire criminal justice system. It is direct interference in the administration of justice and thus requires serious consideration while suspending the sentence of seven years and a fine of Rs 2.25 crores. Businessmen Gopal Ansal, Sushil Ansal and one other moved the Delhi High Court against the order of Session Court. The sessions court had not suspended their sentence. Earlier they moved Sessions Court against Magistrate Court order convicting and sentencing them to 7 years jail for tampering with evidence in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court on November 8 last year had sentenced seven-year imprisonment and imposed Rs 2.25-crore fine each on Sushil and Gopal Ansal for tampering with evidence CMM Dr Pankaj Sharma sentenced seven years jail terms to convict businessmen Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal and three others in the case related to tampering with the crucial evidence in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case. The Court also ordered to take them into custody. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court while passing the order also said "After thinking over nights and nights, I have come to the conclusion that they deserve punishment." In the matter, Court had earlier convicted businessmen Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal along with their two employees among others in the case related to tampering with the crucial evidence in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case. The Court had found all accused guilty under sections 409, 201, 120B of IPC and pronounced the order. Along with Ansal brothers, a court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and other individuals PP Batra, Har Swaroop Panwar, Anoop Singh, and Dharamvir Malhotra were booked in the tampering of evidence case. Out of seven accused, two accused Har Swaroop Panwar and Dharamvir Malhotra died during the course of the trial. At least 59 people died of asphyxia and over 100 others were injured in the stampede after fire broke out in Uphaar cinema on June 13, 1997, during the screening of JP Dutta's film 'Border'. (ANI)
Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court has granted bail to Abhishek Tiwari, former sub-inspector with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with an alleged corruption case for leaking information of a separate case against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal in an order passed on February 11 said, in view of detailed discussion, without commenting upon the nature and gravity of the accusations as stated in the charge-sheet filed by the investigating agency, lest it may prejudice the case of the prosecution/defense, later on, it is a fit case, where the accused deserves to be admitted to bail. The applicant Abhishek Tiwari is admitted to bail on his furnishing personal bonds in the sum of Rs 1,00,000 with one surety of the like amount, said the court. Further, the court while granted bail also noted that Tiwari is a former CBI official and therefore, has roots in the society. The allegations of the present case do not pertain to economic offenses of huge magnitude, therefore, it cannot perse be said to be falling under the category of grave offenses. Further, the other accused persons having almost similar roles have already been released on bail vide detailed order dated January 31. Therefore, on the grounds of parity, accused Abhishek Tiwari is also entitled to bail. Last month the same court had granted bail to Maharasthra's Ex-Home Minister Anil Deshmukh lawyer Anand Daga and his social media Manager Gajendra Tumane in the case CBI arrested its Sub Inspector Abhishek Tiwari last year, for his alleged role in the 'manipulation' of preliminary inquiry against Deshmukh in connection with the extortion case. The arrests came after the CBI registered an FIR against the sub-inspector, a Nagpur-based Advocate, and unknown persons on certain allegations, including illegal gratification. In August last year, a report that was allegedly part of a preliminary inquiry conducted by CBI got leaked in media. The report mentions that the agency had concluded that "no cognizable offense has been committed by Anil Deshmukh". The CBI in its internal inquiry found that Deshmukh's legal team tried to bribe some lower-ranked CBI officials in its preliminary inquiry. Strict action will be taken against the staff who were involved in the case. CBI in its charge sheet has named then CBI official Abhishek Tiwari, lawyer Anand Dilip Daga and Vaibhav Gajendra Tumane in the charge sheet. Abhishek Tiwari in conspiracy with a lawyer was accused of leaking sensitive documents to subvert investigation of the case against Deshmukh, said CBI. CBI said that the investigation has revealed that Abhishek Tiwari and Anand Dilip Daga met at Delhi, Mumbai and Pune physically and had been in regular touch through Whatsapp calls/messages and SMS after April 14 2021 and the probe revealed that Deshmukh's lawyer Anand Daga had bought an I-Phone worth Rs 95,000 for CBI official Abhishek Tiwari and given him as illegal gratification in lieu of sharing case sensitive and confidential documents. The CBI in its internal inquiry found that Deshmukh's legal team tried to bribe some lower-ranked CBI officials in its preliminary inquiry. Strict action will be taken against the staff who were involved in the case. The investigation is underway to find out if more people were involved in the conspiracy to manipulate the documents, CBI said. (ANI)
On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Sant Guru Ravidas on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi poured his greeting and remembered his words on Twitter. Prime Minister tweeted, "Tomorrow is the birth anniversary of the great saint Guru Ravidas. The way he dedicated his life to eliminating the evil practices like caste and untouchability from society, he is still inspiring for all of us." In a series of tweets, PM Modi also said that the work of Sant Guru Ravidas temple in Kashi is in full swing. PM further informed that he will be paying a visit to Sant Guru Ramdas Vishram Dham Temple in Karolbagh, Delhi. He tweeted, "Tomorrow at 9 am on the auspicious occasion of Ravidas Jayanti, I will go to Shri Guru Ravidas Vishram Dham Temple in Karolbagh, Delhi and pray for the welfare of the people there."(ANI)
Former Prime Minister HD Devegowda on Tuesday extended support to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao who is planning to meet his Maharashtra and West Bengal counterparts soon as part of efforts to bring various opposition parties together against the BJP. According to Telangana Chief Minister's Office, the Janata Dal-Secular leader spoke with K Chandrashekar Rao over the phone on Tuesday. "Congratulations, you have taken up big battle, we are with you, we will have to fight communal forces and save the country," Devegowda told Rao. Chandrashekar Rao had said on Sunday that he will soon meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to bring political parties together against the BJP. He had said that Mamata Banerjee had called him and they had a discussion over the phone. Chandrashekar Rao had also hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party and said that it should be "expelled" from the country or else the country will be "ruined". He called for political forces coming together to "oust" the BJP from power. "The whole country is silent on the hijab issue, What will happen if this type of hatred in Karnataka is spread across the nation? Hate politics should be avoided. All the political forces in the country should unite and oust the BJP," he had said. KCR had also said that he would play a major role in uniting political parties opposed to BJP. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin had said on Sunday that chief ministers of non-NDA-ruled states would soon hold a convention in Delhi. "Beloved Didi @MamataOfficial telephoned me to share her concern and anguish on the Constitutional overstepping and brazen misuse of power by the Governors of non-BJP ruled states. She suggested for a meeting of Opposition CMs. I assured her of DMK's commitment to uphold State autonomy. Convention of Opposition CMs will soon happen out of Delhi!" he said in tweets. (ANI)
ABVP Delhi State Secretary Siddharth while talking to ANI alleged that the accused in the case were welcomed by the ministers in the state government when they were released from jail.

"To ensure an independent investigation, the state government should distance itself from the probe," he said.

He also demanded that the members of ABVP who are arrested for protesting outside CM house over the same issue should be released immediately.

Meanwhile, ABVP joint secretary Shivangi who was also present in the protest made a personal attack on Tamil Nadu CM Stalin over his namesake Russian dictator.

"Stalin did not survive even during Soviet times, how will he survive now? If CM does not accept our demand we will intensify our protest across India," Shivangi said.

Tamil Nadu government has filled an appeal challenging order of Madurai bench of the Madras High Court transferring probe into the girl suicide case to CBI.

The case pertains to a 17-year old girl from a poor background, who studied in a Christian Missionary School in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district and was allegedly being forced to convert to Christianity by her school.

Allegations of torture after her refusal to convert were also raised by the girl. According to Police, the teenager had consumed poisonous material on January 9 and had succumbed ten days later. (ANI)
The bail petition is listed for hearing before the bench of Justice MK Ohri on Wednesday.

Last month the trial court had refused to grant bail to Kapoor. The same court earlier had also dismissed the bail petition of businessman Gautam Thapar, promoter of Avantha Group.

Thapar bail plea is presently examined by the Delhi High Court. Thapar was arrested by the ED in August last year and is currently in judicial custody.

The trial court in October last year, took cognizance of ED chargesheet (Prosecution Complaint) filed against Avantha group promoter Gautam Thapar involving Yes Bank's Rana Kapoor and several employees in connection with the money laundering case.

Court had said, "Hereby take cognizance of offence as there are sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused persons arraigned in the present complaint."

According to the ED, an FIR was registered against Gautam Thapar, Avantha Realty Ltd, Oyster Buildwell Pvt Ltd and others alleging criminal breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery for diversion or misappropriation of public money during the period 2017 to 2019.

Earlier, ED had told the Delhi Court that "Investigation revealed that approximately Rs 500.11 crores proceeds of crime, were laundered through Oyster Buildwell Pvt Ltd (OBPL), Jhabua Power Limited (JPL), Jhabua Power Investment Ltd. (JPIL), Avantha Power and Infrastructure Ltd (APIL), Avantha Realty Ltd (ARL), etc which are being controlled and beneficially owned directly or indirectly by Gautam Thapar. (ANI)
OTTAWA, Ontario  Ottawas police chief was ousted Tuesday amid criticism of his inaction against the trucker protests that have paralyzed Canadas capital for over two weeks, while the number of blockades maintained by demonstrators at the U.S. border dropped to just one.

The twin developments came a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked Canadas Emergencies Act and threatened to take tough legal and financial measures to end the unrest in Ottawa and beyond by protesters decrying the countrys COVID-19 restrictions and Trudeaus government.

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Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly lost his job after failing to move decisively against the bumper-to-bumper demonstration by hundreds of truck drivers. The protests by the so-called Freedom Convoy have infuriated many residents, who have complained of being harassed and intimidated on the streets.

Like other residents in Ottawa, I have watched in disbelief as this carnival chaos has been allowed to continue, Diane Deans, chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board, said in announcing Slolys departure. She added that the protesters had turned downtown into a street party with big screens, hot tubs and an outdoor gym.

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Sloly said in a statement that he did everything possible to keep the city safe, calling it an unprecedented and unforeseeable crisis.

Drivers have parked their trucks blocking lanes of traffic to protest against pandemic restrictions in Ottawa, Ontario, on Feb. 14, 2022. (Ted Shaffrey/AP)

Ottawas police board said 360 vehicles remained involved in the blockade in the citys core, down from a high of roughly 4,000. A command center was set up so that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Provincial Police could assume command over the situation, apparently relegating Ottawa police to a secondary role.

Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said he believes authorities have reached a turning point: I believe we now have the resources and partners to put a safe end to this occupation.

Meanwhile, trucks with horns blaring rolled out of the Alberta border town of Coutts, across from Montana, ending the siege that had disrupted trade for more than two weeks. Police earlier this week arrested 11 people at the site and seized guns and ammunition.

The end of the blockade there apparently left just one obstructed border crossing, at Emerson, Manitoba, opposite North Dakota, according to authorities. And the Mounties said they were confident the protesters there would soon would be leaving and would be gone by Wednesday.

Over the weekend, police broke the blockade at the busiest and most important crossing, the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, arresting dozens of demonstrators. The nearly week-long protest disrupted auto production in both countries, but it was returning to normal on Tuesday.

Authorities also said traffic was moving again at the Pacific Highway border crossing south of Vancouver, opposite Washington state. The Mounties said officers ordered demonstrators out late Monday, and several were arrested.

Protesters in the capital appeared to be more entrenched.

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Erik Mueller, a truck driver who quit his job to join the blockade in Ottawa, called the emergency measures targeting the drivers insane.

We are not backing off, he said. We have too much to lose.

Wayne Narvey said he took a leap of faith a week ago and drove his 30-year-old motor home from News Brunswick through a snowstorm to get to the capital.

They can take our bank accounts, they can freeze our assets, they can take the insurance off our vehicles, he said. They can play all the games they want. Were not leaving.

Canadas Emergencies Act allows the government to ban the blockades and begin towing away trucks. The government also announced plans to freeze truckers bank accounts and suspend their licenses, and target crowd-funding sites that are supporting the blockades.

Under the emergency provisions, the government can also force tow trucks to remove rigs. Up to now, some towing companies have been reluctant to cooperate out of sympathy with the truckers or fear of violence.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province includes both Ottawa and Windsor, said: Hopefully the police in the next few days, hopefully sooner, can move.

Trudeaus decision to invoke the Emergencies Act came amid growing frustration with government inaction and fears of violence.

The siege in Alberta, where guns were confiscated, showed that you got a very small, hardened core driven by ideology, Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said. We have been fortunate thus far there has not been mass violence.

Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Ted Shaffrey and Wilson Ring in Ottawa, Ontario and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.
Members from the Muslim Women Association on Tuesday participated in a silent protest at the city's Masab Tank in solidarity with women and girls against the Hijab ban in Karnataka. Dr. Asma Zehra, president of Sharia and Muslim Women Association speaking to ANI said, "We staged a silent protest at Masab Tank in solidarity with the girls in Karnataka over the Hijab ban. We believe in secularism but Hijab-clad Muslim women are not allowed inside classrooms, they are told to remove Hijab while entering classes, while teachers also asked to remove Hijab. We strongly condemn this act and appeal Karnataka court not to ban Hijab before the hearing is complete." "Hijab is our right. We have been practicing this since time immemorial. It is beyond our understanding the logic behind the ruling against the Muslims and Hijab", said a protesting woman. "Through this movement today we want to tell all the Muslims across the world to come out in support of us." Tabassum, who participated in the protest said, "We are wearing hijab since our birth and have been following this custom since the beginning." The Karnataka High Court will continue hearing the Hijab case on Wednesday with various petitions challenging the ban on headscarves in educational institutes. The Hijab protests in Karnataka began in January this year when some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing hijab. (ANI)
Attacking Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday said Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is ruling the state like Nizam and intends to bring the same rule in the country. Speaking to ANI, the Union Minister said, "KCR has all the rights to go across the country and fight against BJP. TRS is a family party, where his son KTR is working president, the son-in-law is minister, another son-in-law is MP and his daughter is MLC. They are running the State like a Nizam Raj and want to bring the same rule in the country. For that reason, he gave a statement that Babasaheb Ambedkar's constitution should be changed." Reddy said the BJP does not need Rao's certificate about governance. He said the people of the country are with BJP and the party does not need to fear. "We have people's mandate with us. We will not be scared," he said. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party and said that it should be "expelled" from the country or else the country will be "ruined" and called for a united Opposition. Chandrashekar Rao had said that he will soon meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to bring political parties together against the BJP. KCR had also said that he would play a major role in uniting political parties opposed to BJP. G Kishan Reddy further criticized Telangana chief minister's remarks seeking proof for the surgical strike by the Indian Army. "I request Telangana Chief Minister KCR to keep the army out of politics. They fight for the country and should not be disrespected. Our army destroyed the enemy base camps. The entire nation knows about that. The Pakistan army accepted and as well as the entire world." Telangana Chief Minister on Sunday sought proof from the Central government over surgical strikes carried out in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in September 2016. Asked about the hijab issue, Reddy said, "This is an internal matter of the Karnataka college. The college management wants to implement that everybody including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or Christians are equal. Some people are trying to give it a religious colour. The matter is in the High Court and sub judice. So religious fabric should not be brought in the school colleges." (ANI)
With an incident of violence reported during the second phase of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur, Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna on Tuesday said that Samajwadi Party wants to do "politics while BJP's message is that of love". Reacting to the alleged violence by workers of SP candidate Roshan Lal Verma during the voting in the Tilhar assembly, Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said, "We (BJP) are defensive while they were offensive. Our people have not done anything wrong." "Woh (SP) siyassat chahte hai apna paagam mohabbat ka hai (SP wants politics, our message is love). And this is absolutely true. The basic character of a person depends on his own self. That's what he (Verma) is doing," Khanna said. Tilhar assembly seat of Shahjahanpur on Monday witnessed tension between workers of the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Tilhar BJP candidate Salona Kushwaha registered an FIR against the Samajwadi Party workers accusing them of firing and indulging in a scuffle with the BJP workers. The BJP also protested outside the Nigohi police station demanding the arrest of all the accused. The protest ended after the senior police officials assured the BJP of action against the people found guilty. Salona Kushwaha, while speaking to ANI after the violence, said, "I am getting majority support from the entire Tilhar Vidhan Sabha constituency and we are winning by around 80 per cent in each booth. Seeing all this, Roshan Lal Verma, who has been a former BJP MLA, is furious." The BJP candidate alleged that "SP sent their goons from place to place and heckled the BJP workers". "The police station in-charge is also guilty. Our (BJP) workers were lathicharged. Some of them suffered injuries on hands and legs," Kushwaha added. The BJP candidate accused the SP candidate of being responsible for the violence. "I believe in the law and order. The police administration has assured cooperation. Many FIRs have been lodged against Roshan Lal Verma. I was also manhandled," Kushwaha said. The BJP candidate alleged that an attempt was made to get fake votes cast at Hathras Inter College. Shahjahanpur's Tilhar assembly seat has become a matter of prestige for the BJP and the SP. The BSP has fielded Nawab Faizan Ali Khan and the Congress Rajnish Gupta. (ANI)
Odisha Police on Tuesday arrested a man for duping 14 women across India after marrying them posing as a senior government official. The accused Ramesh Swain, a native of Odisha's Kendrapara was arrested by Commissionerate Police in Bhubaneswar. "Swain was first married in 1982 and then again in 2002. He has five children from these two marriages. Between 2002 and 2019, he had been targeting middle-aged single women through matrimonial sites. He used to emotionally exploit the women and gain their trust by posing as a senior government official," Umashankar Dash, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Bhubaneswar told ANI. DCP Dash further said Swain targetted highly-educated women working at senior positions at various government and private organizations from various matrimonial published in newspapers. According to Police, Swain had married a woman in Punjab in 2018 who was at a senior position in the Central Armed Police Forces and duped her of around Rs 10 lakh. Swain had also duped Rs 11 lakh from the Gurudwara where the marriage was held on the promise of sanctioning permission for establishing a hospital. DCP said that a Delhi-based woman had filed a complaint against Swain. Bhubaneswar police has already established contact with nine of the 14 women Swain had cheated. During the search at his rented house in Bhubaneswar, 11 ATM cards, four Aadhaar cards, a school Certificate and other incriminating documents were seized. Police said they will further investigate his financial transactions. "Commissionerate Police is to seek remand of Swain and if needed an all-women team will be formed for further probe. A professional counselor will also be included in the team for counseling of his victims," the DCP added. According to police, In 2006, Swain had been held in Kochi for taking a loan over Rs 1 crore from a bank with forged documents. He was also arrested by Hyderabad Police for duping unemployed youngsters on the pretext of providing jobs and cheating students in the name of providing admissions in MBBS courses. He had collected more than Rs 2 crore from several persons across several States. (ANI)
The Tilak Nagar police and Operation Cell of West District arrested one person for sexually assaulting an 87-year-old lady on Tuesday. Speaking to ANI, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police of the west district, New Delhi, Prashant Gautam said, "The accused was identified as Ankit Jhandal Mogli, 30, resident of Harijan Colony, Tilak Nagar Delhi. He has been arrested with the mobile phone of the victim." He further added that several teams of West District police staff under a 'Special Investigation Team' worked overnight to identify and nab the culprit, in an almost no clue case. According to the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, the prosecutrix, 87, resident of Tilak Nagar, Delhi, resides with her daughter aged 65 years. On Sunday, in a daily routine, the daughter went to a park nearby at midday. She had not locked the main door and just bolted the latch (Kundi). When she came back after one hour or so, she found the main door of the house opened. Prashant also said that the victim was mentally disturbed and could only tell about her missing phone. The Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police further added, "When police reached, the daughter of the victim gave a handwritten complaint wherein she alleged that an unknown person entered her house on the pretext of checking gas connection. The victim gave her phone to him to call her daughter but the unknown person fled with her mobile phone." The Additional Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police also stated, "Accordingly, an FIR under 380 IPC was registered at PS Tilak Nagar and investigations were carried out." Prashant further added that the next morning, the family made an allegation of sexual assault on the 87 yrs old lady on 13 February by the same unknown person. The Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police said that "Keeping in view the gravity of the offence, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the undersigned was constituted by the additional commissioner of Police of Western Range." The Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police said that "A massive manhunt was launched to identify and arrest the accused. Sources for ground intelligence were activated and hundreds of police staff were deployed only to identify and arrest the accused. The help of technical data analysis and the help of CCTV was also taken to identify the accused." Prashant further stated that 19 different teams of police personnel were formed under the supervision of either Inspector or Sub-Inspector besides the SIT. Prashant also said that during the overnight, sleepless, pain taking efforts, the team managed to zero down on the suspect Ankit Jhandal Mogli. According to the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, the accused accepted his crime and also revealed that while roaming in the area, he went upstairs with intent to commit theft and he found the door without a lock. He opened the latch and went inside where he found the prosecutrix alone in a room. The prosecutrix asked him about the reason for his presence to which he replied that he came there for gas repair. Finding her alone, the accused bolted the door from inside and told the prosecutrix that by mistake the door was closed and not opening, on which the prosecutrix gave her phone to call her daughter who can help in opening the door. But instead of dialling, the accused forcibly committed sexual assault. The Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police further added that the cursory search of the house resulted in the recovery of the stolen mobile phone and clothes of the accused worn at the time of the incident. He was arrested for the same. (ANI)
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday emphasised India's tough position against terrorism in poll-bound Punjab and said the aerial strike following terror attacks had sent a clear message that "if anyone tries to harm us, India won't leave them, and if needed, we will cross the boundary to kill them". "After Pulwama (terror attack), our soldiers conducted airstrikes at terror camp in Pakistan. We sent out a clear message that if anyone tries to harm us, India won't leave them, and if needed, we will cross the boundary to kill them," he said. He took a dig at Aam Aadmi Party over the issue of drugs abuse in Punjab and referred to to the new excise policy in Delhi. "AAP leaders from Delhi come to Punjab and say they will ensure drug-free state if come to power. You allowed delivery of alcohol to every single house in Delhi and dare to say Punjab will be made drug free," he said. "Let BJP form government in Punjab, we will see 'kisne maa ka doodh piya hai' (how one dares) to engage in drugs business in Punjab," he said. Polling in Punjab will take place in a single phase on February 20. The votes will be counted on March 10. (ANI)
Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday announced Rs 25 crore for dredging in the river Gomati for setting up altogether 10 jetties for better inland waterways connectivity. The Union Minister said that these new initiatives will boost international transportation between India and Bangladesh in the form of cargo vessel, passenger vessel and river cruise movement between the neighboring countries. "A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Tripura government, Inland Waterways Authority (IWT) and Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) for maintenance and development of Inland Waterways Terminal near Srimantapur. A total of ten jetties will be set up in the river Gomati under this project. Rs 25 crore has been sanctioned for the ambitious project that will facilitate movement of passenger vessels, cargo vessels and river cruises that has immense potential in terms of the tourism prospects", said the Union Minister. Apart from that, the Union Minister who also holds the AYUSH ministry said that a total of 50 Health and Wellness Centers have been sanctioned and a 50 bedded integrated AYUSH hospital would be also opened here in Tripura. Sonowal also informed the reporters that hydraulic surveys would be conducted in other rivers to assess the feasibility of introducing waterway facilities in the state. Briefing the media persons later, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said, "We have a 40 kms route starting from Sonamura to Udaipur where one the river Gomati where jetties will be set up in ten selected spots. On the other hand, the Indian government has agreed to release money for dredging another 40 kms route out of the total 90 kms that connects Sonamura with Daudkandi in Bangladesh". According to Deb, the central government will also assess feasibility of introducing waterway transportation in rivers like Deo and Howrah. "We have also discussed the possibilities of carrying out permanent dredging in rivers like Howrah and Deo to put a permanent end to the flood situation that emerges in the rainy season", he added. On the impact, Deb said, "If international waterway connectivity begins in full fledged, Tripura will be able to import transport materials like steel and cement at a very cheap price and in return export huge quantities of wheat to Bangladesh". Earlier, the Union Minister addressed a public meeting at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan on the Budget 2022-23 and addressed a press conference at BJP state headquarters. In both the events, Sonowal highlighted how PM Modi laid special emphasis on the long-neglected North Eastern region and accorded respect to each and every North Eastern. He appreciated Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for his efforts to bring a visible change in Tripura. (ANI)
On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Sant Guru Ravidas on Wednesday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and party's General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will visit Ravidas Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The Congress leader will pay obeisance at Seer Goverdhanpur on Wednesday morning. Notably, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had postponed Punjab Assembly elections in view of Guru Ravidas birth anniversary. The State was scheduled to go for polls on February 14 earlier. The political parties including BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party requested the poll panel to change the date as the Guru Ravidas followers would not be able to vote if elections were held two days before the festival as they embark on an annual pilgrimage to Varanasi on the Guru's birth anniversary. Moreover, Assembly elections are also being held in Uttar Pradesh. Priyanka Gandhi, during her visit to Uttar Pradesh today, will also campaign in the poll-bound state. She will conduct a door-to-door campaign in Kanpur cantt and Kidwai Nagar. This will be followed by a door-to-door campaign at Sisamau and Arya Nagar. She will then participate in Mahila Shakti Garjana at Govindnagar, Kanpur. The seven-phased Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh commenced on February 10. Two phases of the election have been completed. The third phase of UP polls will be held on February 20. Meanwhile, on the occasion of Ravidas Jayanti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Guru Ravidas Vishram Dham temple in Delhi's Karol Bagh on Wednesday. Sant Ravidas belonged to the bhakti movement during the 15th to 16th century and his hymns are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. He is considered the founder of the 21st-century Ravidassia religion. Ravidas Jayanti is celebrated on Magh Purnima, which is the full moon day of the Magh month as per the Hindu calendar. (ANI)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday (local time) invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in 50 years to give the federal government extra powers to handle ongoing truckers blockades and protests against the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. At a news conference on Parliament Hill, Trudeau said, "It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law." Trudeau said the measures will be geographically targeted and "reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address." The unprecedented deployment of the Emergencies Act gives police more tools to restore order in places where public assemblies constitute illegal and dangerous activities, such as blockades and occupations, he said, reported CBC News. The government is also designating and securing critical areas such as border crossings and airports. Invoking the act will also allow the government to make sure that essential services -- such as towing services to remove trucks -- are rendered, said Trudeau. The act also permits the federal government to direct financial institutions to render essential services to address the situation, and to prohibit the use of the property to fund or support illegal blockades, reported CBC News. Trudeau said the act also will enable the RCMP to enforce municipal bylaws and provincial offences where required. "This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people's jobs and restoring confidence in our institutions," said Trudeau. The Emergencies Act, which replaced the War Measures Act in the 1980s, defines a national emergency as a temporary "urgent and critical situation" that "seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it." The Act gives special powers to respond to emergency scenarios affecting public welfare (natural disasters, disease outbreaks), public order (civil unrest), international emergencies or war emergencies, reported CBC news. It grants the cabinet the ability to "take special temporary measures that may not be appropriate in normal times" to cope with an "urgent and critical situation" and the resulting fallout. It is still subject to the protection of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ottawa police have said they are outnumbered by crowds protesting vaccine mandates in the capital. Despite a provincial state of emergency, protesters ignored the threat of arrest and jail time and flocked to the city's centre over the weekend, reported CBC News. Demonstrators have erected tents, a stage, a large video screen and even a hot tub on various streets -- including Wellington Street, which runs in front of the Parliament Buildings and the Prime Minister's Office. Ottawa police said "safety concerns" -- including "aggressive, illegal behaviour" by demonstrators -- are to blame for the "limited police enforcement capabilities." A blockade of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, a key supply link between Canada and the US, was dispersed by police earlier Sunday, with 12 arrests. The prime minister was joined by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland as well as ministers David Lametti (justice) Marco Mendicino (public safety) and Bill Blair (emergency preparedness) at the conference. (ANI)
The 1997 Ghulja massacre incident in Xinjiang is seen as a harbinger of the Chinese brutality against Uyghurs Muslims. Gulchehra Hoja, writing in Radio Free Asia (RFA) said that even after 25 years of the incidence, Uyghurs are still pushing for accountability. Young Uyghurs on that day staged a protest to call for an end to religious repression and ethnic discrimination resulting in the death of many people. As many as 200 hundred people may have been killed in the massacre -- one report said thousands may have died -- but it received little international attention at the time, said Hoja. Uyghurs are now using used 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing opportunity in order to draw the world's attention towards the massacre. They are using the anniversary of Ghulja to press for an international investigation into what transpired that day and to seek accountability for those behind the bloodshed, reported RFA. "Twenty-five years ago, the Ghulja massacre was exemplary of the treatment of the Uyghur people by the Chinese authorities and its crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly," said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), in a statement issued February 4. "Now, the Chinese government's genocidal policies are ensuring to prevent the Uyghur people from ever speaking out again," added Dolkun Isa. Today, nearly 2 million Uyghurs are thought to have been sent to mass internment camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) by a government desperately trying to maintain control of an ethnically and religiously diverse population. Meanwhile, China has continued to hunt down Uyghurs connected to the incident. Many arrested for participating in the protest and in other demonstrations ended up in China's "re-education" camps -- what Uyghurs say are concentration camps. China began its mass internment campaign in the region in 2017. An estimated 1.8 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are believed to have been detained in an extensive network of hundreds of camps since then. Witness testimonies and investigative reports have since alleged that the Chinese government has tortured detainees, sterilized Uyghur women, and conscripted Uyghurs for work in factories. Behtiyar Shemshidin, who was a police officer during the Ghulja Massacre but later resigned and left Xinjiang, told the WUC and other rights groups that Chinese authorities opened fire on unarmed protesters, reported RFA. An Uyghur rights activist now in Canada, Behtiyar said the protesters were arrested and tortured. Many detainees, including the demonstration's leader, Abduhelil Abdulmejid, were tortured to death in prison, Behtiyar said. The violence continued for weeks, he said. Uyghur activist organizations remain steadfast in calling on the international community to hold China accountable for the massacre. "This year the commemoration coincides with Beijing Winter Olympic Games, so we have raised an awareness of the Ghulja Massacre along with our other activities on the international stage," said Gheyur Qurban, a WUC spokesman in Germany. "The incident is not only important in the recent history in East Turkistan but also important internationally to raise awareness of Uyghur rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese regime," added Gheyur Qurban. (ANI)
NEW YORK  Britains Prince Andrew has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, who said she was sexually trafficked to the British royal by the financier Jeffrey Epstein when she was 17.

The deal described in a court filing Tuesday in New York avoids a trial that would have brought further embarrassment to the monarchy. It calls for the prince to make a substantial donation to his accusers charity while saying he never meant to malign her character. It did not specify whether Giuffre would personally receive any money as part of the settlement.

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Attorney David Boies, representing Giuffre, informed the judge presiding over the case in New York that a settlement in principle has been reached and lawyers on both sides will request a dismissal of the lawsuit within a month.

A lawyer for Andrew did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

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The letter signed by Boies said all lawyers were asking the judge to suspend all deadlines in the case and put it on hold.

Giuffre sued Andrew in August. The American accused the British royal of sexually abusing her while she traveled with Epstein.

Andrew has strenuously denied Giuffres allegations and attempted to get the lawsuit tossed earlier this year.

Attached to the letter by Boies was a statement that read: Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms. Giuffres receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).

Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffres charity in support of victims rights. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffres character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court following the jailhouse death of Jeffrey Epstein, Aug. 27, 2019, in New York. (Bebeto Matthews/AP)

According to the statement, Prince Andrew acknowledged that Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years and said the prince regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.

He also pledged to support the victims of sex trafficking as part of demonstrating his regret.

The tentative settlement comes weeks after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan last month rejected the princes attempt to win an early dismissal of the lawsuit, meaning depositions and other evidence gathering could commence.

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After Kaplan ruled, Andrew  who had already stepped back from royal duties  was stripped of his honorary military titles and roles and leadership of various charities, known as royal patronages. He also can no longer use the title his royal highness in official settings.

The decision was an effort to insulate the House of Windsor from the fallout from potentially years of sordid headlines if the suit moved forward.

It came after more than 150 veterans and serving members of the armed forces asked the queen to strip her second son of his military titles, saying he had failed to live up to the very highest standards of probity, honesty and honorable conduct that are expected of British officers.

Mark Stephens, an international lawyer, said pressure from the royal family would have pushed Andrew to settle, particularly as Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Platinum Jubilee  or 70 years on the throne. The carefully worded settlement  in which Andrew admits only an unfortunate association with Epstein  allows him to save face, Stephens said.

Essentially, what hes done is throw himself on this judicial grenade to prevent wider damage to the royal family, Stephens told The Associated Press. And I think he had no alternative but to settle because otherwise this case would have really overshadowed the Queens Jubilee, and we would have been hearing details of what he was alleged to have done with Virginia Giuffre. And all of that would have really caused problems for the royal family more broadly.

Stephens estimated that Andrew paid around $10 million to settle, having gotten the cash after selling a ski chalet at a fire sale' price. He speculated that the cash would be split into three unequal portions  with Guiffre, her lawyers and charities taking a piece.

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Besides the settlement, Guiffre gets to champion her support of abuse victims, and avoid having to relive this whole experience in the public circus of a courtroom, he said.

Shes been vindicated in the sense that Prince Andrew acknowledges that shes a victim of sexual abuse, Stephens said.

Giuffre asserted that she met Andrew while she traveled frequently with Epstein between 2000 and 2002, when her lawyers maintain she was on call for Epstein for sexual purposes and was lent out to other powerful men, including Andrew. Her lawsuit said she still suffers significant emotional and psychological distress and harm.

Andrew repeatedly denied Giuffres allegations and has said he cant recall ever meeting her.

Andrew served in the Royal Navy for two decades, including as a helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War. The honorary military roles he lost included several overseas ones, such as his title as colonel-in-chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment.

He has spent years combatting concerns about his links with Epstein, the U.S. financier who took his life at age 66 in 2019 in a Manhattan federal lockup while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. Epsteins longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges last month.

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The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Giuffre has.

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Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka reported from London.
Radio Zrumbesh Urdu reported that gunship helicopters were also dispatched from Turbat to assist the Pakistani army after the clash.

The death of Hidayatullah was confirmed by his brother Kifayat Baloch who shared his picture on his Twitter account.

He tweeted, "Hon Plugdin Bachani Rich Ant. Gulzamin Banuri Stra Posh Ayat." It translates to "When the blood of the well-dressed children falls on the ground, Gulzamin covers herself like a bride."

Kifayatullah further told the staff reporter of Radio Zarmbash that he is proud of his brother. He said, "My brother was younger than me but he always encouraged me."

He said that suffering and hunger should be tolerated, this is a war in which everyone should make their own sacrifice, this is the duty of everyone. (ANI)
A Made in India perfume from Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj was launched in New York as part of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' programme on Valentine's Day. The launch of the perfume 'Vikas Khanna by Zighrana' was unveiled by the Consulate General of India in New York Randhir Jaiswal here. Perfume maker Zighrana said that it is delighted to work with an Indian cultural icon and intrepid entrepreneur Vikas Khanna for their first perfume. "This is possibly the first time that you have an Indian perfume from Kannauj (UP), that too, at a time when we are celebrating India's 75 years of Independence," said Randhir Jaiswal. Swapnil Pathak Sharma, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zighrana, said, "It is an honour to launch the product here in New York. Coming from a small town, it is a dream come true. Presenting my city on such a global platform is a pleasure." "The new perfume 'Vikas Khanna' by Zighrana is a unique blend of spices like cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, sandalwood, jasmine and rose which have come to define the unique smells of India for more than a millennia," the company wrote in its press release. The Zighrana CEO said that the company will also launch a perfume dedicated to her hometown, the "perfume capital of India", Kannuaj. "Hailing from Kannauj, the perfume capital of India, situated close to the cradle of our civilization the holy and pure mother river Ganga, this new product is our humble attempt to capture the essence of Incredible India. Incidentally, the parent company of Zighrana has a family history of creating fragrances since 1911," it added. The perfume maker said that they have used precious ingredients like pure rose oil which is both resource and labour intensive to generate and it takes nearly 100 kilograms of flowers to make as little as 20 grams of rose oil. The company has planned to come out with more distinct fragrances representing India's history and culture. Moreover, the brand wants to bring their traditional attars to the US market and explore opportunities in the scented candles market. (ANI)
"U.S. citizens may now enter Poland across the land border with Ukraine. No advanced approval is required. We encourage those travelling into Poland by land from Ukraine to cross at the Korczowa-Krakovets or Medyka-Shehyni border crossings," the embassy said.

"The U.S. Embassy has opened a Welcome Center near these border crossing points to provide assistance to U.S. citizens entering Poland from Ukraine," it said.

The mission also urged Americans to leave Ukraine as soon as possible.

"U.S. citizens in Ukraine should depart immediately using commercial or other privately available transportation options," it said. (ANI/Sputnik)
Hundreds of immigrants, including some Indian immigrants, held a nationwide "Day Without Immigrants" protest on Monday. The protest took off in cities like New York and San Fransisco including a large rally outside the White House, aimed at building pressure on US President Joe Biden to prioritise the protection of immigrants and bringing reforms for them. Advocates from different countries who have been residing in the US called on the Biden administration to offer a pathway to citizenship through the Build Back Better bill. Some families travelled to Washington D.C. to demand change and others chose to not go to work, send their children to school or purchase anything on Monday. The organizers say the point is to show the economic impact the immigrant community would have if they didn't spend their money or provide labour. The call for reform comes as about 11 million undocumented immigrants and many documented immigrants living in the United States. Advocates say that there is a lot of frustration being aimed at the Biden administration and Democratic congressional leaders for promising immigration reforms on the campaign trail, and not delivering. 24-year-old Sumana Kaluvai grew up in America as a de facto American, but she faces the prospect of self-deportation and family separation. Voicing the concerns of an estimated 200,000 young immigrants living legally in the US for years as dependents of their parents on temporary work visas, Sumana and her advocacy group The Hidden Dream joined the protest in the western city of San Fransisco. "There are thousands of engineers in companies like Google, Facebook, YouTube and others around the Bay Area, that keep these companies afloat. Companies hire our parents on various employment visas but then they don't support them when it comes to filing for green cards or supporting their families through the long and uncertain immigration journey. That's why I am here so that people like me of Indian origin come out and tell their stories," Sumana told ANI. After turning 21, many visa dreamers like Sumana abruptly lose legal immigration status and are forced to choose between returning to their native countries where they have spent little time, switching to an F-1 visa or continue to stay in the US illegally to stay with their families. Some families have experienced slow-rolling family separations under the legal framework. Vara Ramakrishnan, an Indian Immigrant and also a human rights activist, come out on a cold winter morning to support the "Day Without Immigrants". The strong-willed advocate underscores the visa caps and lengthy backlogs for green card applications -- especially for foreign nationals from India, who have to wait decades for permanent residency. Vara is clear-eyed about the long odds any immigration reform faces but also stresses that more Indian immigrants must come out and tell their stories. "Very few (Indian) immigrants are activists, Gandhi would be ashamed of us people! You need to be out on the streets." Many participants are planning another protest in Washington on February 28 to rally near the White House a day before President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. (ANI)
Reaffirming its strong commitment to the Ukrainian people, the Biden administration has offered a sovereign loan guarantee to Ukraine of up to USD 1 billion to support its economic reform agenda and continued engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) amid Russia's military buildup. Taking to Twitter, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "We are working closely with allies to mobilize robust international support for Ukraine, including a US-backed sovereign loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to support key reforms. This support will bolster Ukraine's ability to deliver prosperity for its people." "The United States is reaffirming our strong commitment to the Ukrainian people by joining with allies and partners to mobilize robust international support for Ukraine. The U.S. government is offering a sovereign loan guarantee to Ukraine of up to $1 billion to support its economic reform agenda and continued engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," State Department said. This offer - combined with the strong partnership between Ukraine, the IMF, other international financial institutions, the G7 and other bilateral donors - will bolster Ukraine's ability to ensure economic stability, growth, and prosperity for its people in the face of Russia's "destabilizing behaviour", according to the official statement. "This action builds on the support the United States, our allies, and partners, including the G7 and international financial institutions, have provided Ukraine to help protect its economy amid Russian pressure in recent years," it added. Blinken also highlighted that between 2014 and 2016, the United States issued three separate USD 1 billion sovereign loan guarantees to Ukraine which played a critical role in helping Ukraine successfully stabilize its economy amid previous Russian aggression. "The United States has provided over $2 billion in development assistance to Ukraine since 2014. The U.S. government has also worked to promote commercial participation by U.S. companies across the Ukrainian economy.", as per the press release. Furthermore, the Export-Import Bank of the United States intends to make available up to USD 3 billion to facilitate procurement of U.S. goods and services for projects in Ukraine, while the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation has a current investment portfolio in Ukraine of approximately USD 800 million across more than a dozen projects. Blinken said that the US is exploring additional ways to support Ukraine and its people and will continue to advance efforts. (ANI)
Imran Khan's recently concluded visit to China and his unconditional support to the country over One-China Policy, Taiwan, South China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet issues showed Pakistan's ever-increasing dependency and the priority it accords to anything asked for by Beijing, reported thinktank Policy Research Group (POREG). During his four-day visit to China, Imran Khan attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics and met with the top Chinese leadership. The primary objective of this visit was to get loans and assistance from China to save Pakistan's economy, which by the admission of the chief of the State Bank of Pakistan is 'bankrupt', reported the thinktank. The other geo-political plank was to cosy up to China by speaking its language on Xinjiang and Hong Kong and curry favour, it added. Khan's desperation could be clearly seen in his comments that the Pakistan-China relationship was the "cornerstone" of Islamabad's foreign policy and that both sides reiterated their support on issues "concerning each other's core interests". Imran Khan reiterated "Pakistan's full support to China on all issues of its core interest," and expressed "commitment to One-China Policy and support for China on Taiwan, South China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet", reported the thinktank adding that the visit showed Pakistan's ever-increasing dependency on China. Notably, the importance of this visit for Pakistan is demonstrated in the major shift in policy announced by the Imran Khan government immediately before the visit. In line with China's preconditions for a prime ministerial visit, Pakistan made a PKR 50 billion payment to nine Chinese independent power producers (IPPs) and the Pakistan Cabinet also approved the setting up of the revolving fund. As per The Dawn, Khalid Mansoor, Pakistan Prime Minister's Special Assistant China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Affairs revealed the extent to which Pakistan had bent to Chinese wishes, when he stated at a press conference, "We have taken a historic decision a few days ago to shift their (Chinese) investment proposals to compliance regime, instead of arrangement that required about 37 federal and provincial approvals". Mansoor claimed that China had promised to consider Pakistan's request for debt rollover, extension in currency swap and additional financial support. Mansoor revealed that Pakistan has requested China for a USD 4 billion debt rollover, extension in currency swap from USD 4.5 billion to USD 10 billion and additional financial support of USD 5.5 billion. He also said he would be unable to quantify the investment commitments for the second phase of CPEC but added that it would be safely in multi-billion dollars. Prime Minister Imran Khan made a personal commitment to China that he stood by these arrangements speaks volumes of Pakistan's total dependency on China. PM Khan made this commitment during his meeting with He Lifeng, Chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). During his visit, Imran Khan met with several representatives of Chinese companies and solicited their investment. Prior to his departure for China, the Pakistani government considered requesting China to approve another loan of USD 3 billion in China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE deposits), reported POREG. Pakistan also sought greater Chinese investment in virtually every sector of the economy, including textiles, footwear, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, automobiles, and information technology. At the end of the day, what the visit revealed was the complete dependency of Pakistan on China and that China is taking full advantage of this becomes evident from the steps taken by Pakistan to ensure that Imran Khan could enter Beijing, as per the thinktank. (ANI)
United Nations and other multilateral agencies can continue to send humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan but ending sanctions and offering recognition to Taliban as an incentive will do little to end the suffering of Afghans rather it will only end up funding a rogue regime and its terrorist allies, said Former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani. Taliban return to power has created a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan that is worsening by the day. Instead of acknowledging that the crisis has been created by its power grab, the Taliban is trying to use it to secure international recognition and legitimacy. There is also clamor for ending terrorism-related sanctions to save Afghan civilians from their effects," The Hill quoted Haqqani as saying. The United States and other democracies should not fall for the Taliban's ruses. The Taliban's conduct as Afghanistan's rulers so far has not earned it the right to international legitimacy or recognition. Unfreezing Afghanistan's assets or routing aid through the Taliban will only end up funding a rogue regime and its terrorist allies," Haqqani said. "Given that ideological predisposition, it is unlikely that unfreezing Afghanistan's assets or turning on the spigot of aid would have a moderating influence on the Taliban's behavior, towards its own people or in relation to international concerns about terrorism or drug-trafficking," he added. Many international institutions are continuously showing their support and solidarity for the Afghan people but the Taliban are using humanitarian as a tactic to ask for funds and international recognition. According to The Hill, the Taliban is likely to use international assistance to pay their troops, build effective machinery of repression and possibly support international terrorists currently brewing in its country. The author emphasized that the Taliban are unlikely to maintain control in the country if it cannot create a functioning economy. Until the collapse of the U.S.-backed Kabul government last August, 80 percent of Afghanistan's budget was provided by international donors. Even after many concessions made to the Taliban during the Doha talks, however, this has only led to the Taliban hardening its position, reported The Hill. The Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring team of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) also suggests that Afghanistan is, once again, becoming a haven for international terrorism. According to the U.N. report, released last Thursday, "There are no recent signs that the Taliban has taken steps to limit the activities of foreign terrorist fighters in the country. On the contrary, terrorist groups enjoy greater freedom there than at any time in recent history." Given the Taliban's links to international terrorism, granting it formal recognition and legitimacy due to concerns about its failure to feed and protect the people it governs does not make much sense as revealed by Taliban's acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund, declared in a speech that "the Taliban are not here to provide food for the people, but instead God will do that." Akhund said that the Taliban had only three major objectives -- "exit of the US and its allies from Afghanistan, provision of security, and paving the way for a real Islamic system in the country." Building a functioning economy and attending to it people's needs is not even a priority. (ANI)
Canada will donate over $7 million of lethal weapons and assorted support items to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Canadian government said in a statement on Monday. The weapons include machine guns, pistols, carbines, 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, sniper rifles, and various related equipment," the press release said. Canada has authorized the provision of additional military assistance to the government of Ukraine to further help the Ukrainian security forces defend against Russia's "unwanted and escalating aggression" against Ukraine. The press release said that Canada stands resolute in its support of Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence and continues to condemn Russian aggression as it builds up its military forces around Ukraine. "Canada remains committed to a diplomatic solution and continues to call on Russia to de-escalate and engage in meaningful dialogue. As previously stated, any further aggression on the part of Russia will be met with serious consequences, including through coordinated sanctions, and Canada continues to work with allies and partners on a coordinated response,", it added. This assistance, as well as earlier donations of non-lethal assistance, the press release said, represents a significant and coordinated response from Canada to the developing situation in Ukraine. "Canada, along with our allies and partners, remains committed to supporting Ukraine and its people as they continue to defend themselves against Russia's destabilizing actions," as per the press release. Minister of National Defence, Anita Anand said, "Canada is deeply concerned by Russia's military build-up in and around Ukraine, which presents a significant threat to the rules-based international order. Following conversations with our Ukrainian partners, including during my recent trip to Ukraine, Canada has authorized the provision of defensive weapons to assist Ukraine in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity. I remain in close contact with my Ukrainian counterpart, Minister Reznikov, and alongside our allies, we will continue to support Ukraine as it protects itself against Russia's unwarranted aggression." Today's donation adds to "the more than $23 million of military equipment - including communications gear, a mobile field hospital, explosive disposal equipment, and body armour - that Canada has already given to Ukraine since 2015," the press release said. (ANI)
Indian Embassy in Ukraine asked its citizens, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to leave Kiev temporarily amid the ongoing tension between Russian and Ukraine. In an advisory issued on Tuesday, India also requested its nationals to keep the Embassy informed about the status of their presence to enable the Embassy to reach them where required. "In view of the uncertainties of the current situation in Ukraine, Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, may consider leaving temporarily. Indian nationals are also advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine," the Indian Embassy in Ukraine said in an advisory. "Indian nationals are requested to keep the Embassy informed about the status of their presence in Ukraine to enable the Embassy to reach them where required. The Embassy continues to function normally to provide all services to Indian nationals in Ukraine," it further stated. On January 26, the Indian embassy in Kyiv had asked its citizens residing in Ukraine to register themselves in a bid to disseminate information in a swift manner. "With an intent to coordinate with Indian citizens effectively, and disseminate information in a swift manner, Embassy of India, Kyiv requests all Indian citizens, including students presently located in the territory of Ukraine, to fill up the below form. Those students presently pursuing online education from India are directed NOT to fill-up the form," the Indian embassy said in a release. Tensions over Ukraine have increased in recent months, with Russia and NATO accusing each other of amassing troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border. The United States and Ukraine accuse Russia of preparing to invade. Meanwhile, Moscow denies the claims and maintains that it has no intention of attacking any country. White House spokesperson had earlier said that the US would welcome any country's attempt to play a role in de-escalation of mounting tensions between Russia and Ukraine, including India. "We certainly welcome any efforts to de-escalate and we are in touch with a range of allies and partners on this, but I don't have any specific conversations to read out that relate to Indian officials," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki a press briefing. (ANI)
Acting Defense Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob Mujahid said that Afghanistan's previous government has allowed Pakistan to cross the Durand Line, said South Asia Media Research Institute, quoting the minister. Taking to Twitter, SAMRI said, "#Taliban's Defense Minister Mulla Yaqub: So far we have not allowed Pakistan to fence the Durand Line. It was the previous government that allowed them to do so. In future, we'll act as per the decision taken by our cabinet but we don't allow the border fencing for now. Meanwhile, the bilateral relations between Pakistan and the Taliban are turning hostile over the issue of Durand Line and cross-border "terror activities" of groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) against Islamabad. Taliban have not accepted the Durand Line as the 'official' boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan. There have been frequent skirmishes between Taliban and Pak security forces along the border after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. Also, Pakistan fears that the Taliban's inaction against anti-Pakistan militants in Afghanistan could prove fatal to the country's internal security and may also fuel the fire to secessionist sentiments among the Pashtun population. Furthermore, all the unresolved issues such as the border fencing, reconciliation process with TTP, and alleged cross-border terror attacks against Pakistan is negatively impacting the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan. (ANI)
The city of Chicago has increased its spending to support victims of domestic violence, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Monday.

Lightfoot made the announcement at a news conference aimed at highlighting the citys efforts to reduce domestic violence. As with several other categories of crime, the city experienced an increase in domestic violence. There were 56% more domestic violence-related nonfatal shootings in 2021 than in 2020 and 142% more than in 2019, Lightfoots office said.

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Lightfoot officials plan to spend an extra $25 million through the Department of Family and Support Services to help victims of domestic violence, the mayor said.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, shown Jan. 4, announced the city will spend an additional $25 million. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

That includes millions of dollars in emergency financial assistance, more rapid-rehousing units for people fleeing domestic violence and legal services for people who experienced domestic violence, the city said. More information is available on a city website, chi.gov/dvhelp.

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Every person, no matter their circumstances or how they identify, deserves to be respected and feel safe within their own homes, Lightfoot said in a statement. The unacceptable reality is that this isnt the case for all of our residents, as DFSS, (the Chicago Police Department) and the many other City departments and community organizations who see the damage domestic violence has done in our communities can attest to.
Even though the Taliban has not been recognized by Russia as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, it hopes to strengthen ties with the country, Sputnik News Agency quoted acting Afghan foreign minister as saying on Monday. "Russia has not named conditions for the recognition yet, but we have a good relationship. The Russian embassy is open in Kabul and the Afghan embassy is open in Moscow... We hope that this interaction will continue to grow," Amir Khan Muttaqi said. Meanwhile, on Monday, a Taliban delegation led by Amir Khan Muttaqi began talks with representatives of the Gulf states in Doha. "A high-level Afghan delegation led by Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in the capital of Qatar (Doha) and will discuss a range of issues with the envoys of the Gulf countries on Monday," said Zia Ahmad Takal, the deputy spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, reported Tolo News. The delegation arrived in Qatar on Sunday. According to the ministry, the delegation of the caretaker government is scheduled to hold talks with representatives of the European Union, the Union of Religious Scholars, and diplomatic missions operating from Qatar on behalf of Kabul. "The recent visit of the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate to Doha is in fact a follow-up to the continuation of diplomatic relations with foreign countries, which will provide the grounds for international recognition," said Nasir Ahmad Haidari, a political analyst. It has been nearly six months after the Taliban recaptured power in Afghanistan but they have not been recognized by any country yet. (ANI)
Iran will allow transit shipments of oil and gas to Afghanistan, Sputnik News Agency reported acting Afghan foreign minister as saying following his trip to Tehran in January. "Indeed, Afghanistan needs more oil and gas so we held meetings with Iran and the Iranian authorities told us that if we wanted to import from other countries through Iran, then Iran was ready to allow transit through its territory," Amir Khan Muttaqi said in an interview, according to the news agency. Muttaqi described the two days of meetings with Iranian officials as good and the state of Afghan-Iranian relations as satisfactory. He suggested that more meetings with Iran on fuel supplies would follow, the Sputnik reported. (ANI)
Taking to Twitter, the Additional Directorate General of Public Information of Indian Army, said, "Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair, Commander, Royal Saudi Land Forces, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia called on General MM Naravane #COAS & discussed ways to further enhance the bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries."

Earlier in the day, the commander received the Gaurd of Honour at the majestic South Block Lawns in New Delhi. "Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair, Commander, Royal Saudi Land Forces, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia received a Guard of Honour at the South Block, New Delhi," said ADG PI.

Furthermore, earlier, on February 9, Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane held a telephonic interaction with Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair and discussed aspects of bilateral defence cooperation. (ANI)
US State Department on Tuesday (local time) explained an executive order passed by President Joe Biden last week, relating to the people of Afghanistan, which was a step toward making USD 3.5 billion of funds accessible to the Afghan people. On Friday, Biden signed an executive order to free 7 billion US dollars out of more than 9 billion frozen Afghan assets, splitting the money between humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and a fund for 9/11 victims. "People of Afghanistan are facing numerous challenges including dependence on economic aid, severe droughts, COVID-19, internal corruptions and others. Afghan Central Bank reserves hold that federal reserves have been inaccessible for months imparts because of the uncertainty regarding who can authorise transactions on the account. But also due to pending litigations by 9/11 victims and other victims of terrorism," US State Department spokesperson New Price said. Lauding the Biden administration, the US spokesperson said: "This administration will continue to support that victim and families recognising the enduring pain they have suffered in the hand of terrorists including those who were operating from Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks." "We have no idea how long the allegation will take and in the meantime, the humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate by the debt. That is why President Biden signed the Executive Order on Friday to preserve and protect those reserves as part of an effort to make 3.5 billion dollars available for the Afghan people," he explained. He added that the objective is to make these funds available for the Afghan people without having to wait for the process to conclude. "No decision has been made about how this fund will alternately be used for the benefits of Afghan people. Many of them are also victims of terrorism. Whatever mechanism is established it will be designed to minimise the rest of the funds ending up in the hands of the Taliban or other sanctions on individuals. It is alternatively up to the courts to determine whether the remaining of these funds should get the victim of terrorism, who hold judgement against the Taliban," he added. Ned Price also reiterate Friday's executive order and said that "it was a step towards making a significant portion 3.5 billion dollars accessible to the Afghan people. This action demonstrates that America's ties to the people of Afghanistan, built working side-by-side, are steadfast & enduring. Afghanistan's banking system remains crippled after the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban in mid-August 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)
Hundreds of farmers gathered in Pakistan's Multan district and burnt an effigy of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and raised slogans against the provincial and the federal governments for not fulfilling the promises made to them. The Pakistan Kisan Ittehad has held a three-hour-long demonstration at Rangu Pull Khanewal-Multan Road to mobilise farmers for the wider agitation against the provincial government. A large number of farmers participated in the peaceful demonstration that is part of a series of protests being staged in different districts of Punjab before the final agitation planned for federal capital for the availability of fertilisers at a controlled rate and bringing down power tariff for farmers, Dawn reported. The PKI has yet to announce the date for its Islamabad protest. The farmers' agitation has been entitled "Bezuban Janwar and Bebas Kisan March". Chaudhry Rizwan, the PKI provincial president and Khalid Mahmood Khokar its central president, addressed the protesters, including farmers from different villages of Khanewal and Multan district. Quoting Khokar, Dawn reported that they would march on Islamabad along with farmers and demonstrations were being held in districts to mobilise the participants. He said the protesters were demanding that power tariff for agricultural use should be fixed at Rs 5.35 per unit, besides DAP rate between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000 and Urea fertiliser rate at Rs 1,768 per bag in the open market, according to Dawn. He lamented that fertilisers and pesticides were not being provided to the farmers at controlled rates. He said the farmers must also be provided agriculture machinery at subsidised prices. (ANI)
PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen said the group would continue to stage its protest sit-in till a notification for the release of the lawmaker was issued.

Dozens of PTM supporters demanded the provincial government to discard the FIRs lodged against Wazir and listen to the grievances of the Pashtuns residing in Karachi.

Ali Wazir has spent nearly 14 months in prison for allegedly delivering anti-state speeches in Karachi, The News International newspaper reported.

PTM leaders said the Pakistan Supreme Court had in November last year had allowed Wazir's appeal against the dismissal of his bail plea by the Sindh High Court and granted him post-arrest bail in the Sohrab Goth rally case. "Despite the apex court's orders, Wazir is in jail," said Pashteen.

Wazir was arrested in Peshawar on December 16, 2020, at the request of the Sindh police, and flew to Karachi. Wazir was arrested on the charges of making insulting and incendiary speeches against the state institutions at a PTM protest rally in Karachi on December 6, 2020, according to the newspaper.

The PTM leader was charged for treason and hate speech against the state. However, Wazir denied such allegations and blamed the state for a biased attitude towards minorities. (ANI)
Violence against the minorities in Pakistan is on the rise as in a fresh incident, a Christian man was stabbed to death by a mob of the majority community in Lahore, reported local media. "A 25-year-old Christian youth, the brother of seven sisters, was stabbed to death during a clash between the members of Muslim and Christian community over the construction of a wall in the neighbourhood in the Factory Area police limits on Monday," reported The News International. The incident is the latest attack against the minority community in Pakistan. The community members had scuffled a day earlier over the same issue in which the brother of the deceased was left injured. An FIR of that violent incident had also been registered, said the Pakistani publication. The Lahore police could not follow up the issue properly despite being a sensitive issue as they claim they are busy in the security of the PSL matches. According to the complainant of the FIR Akhtar Bhatti, the uncle of the deceased Pervaiz Maseeh, a group of around 200 people led by Sohni s/o Allah Ditta, Malik Billa, Sufiyan Butt and others had gathered in the street near his house in LDA quarters. They were hurling abusive language and making noise, reported The News International. It came after two Christian priests, Pastor Patrick and Pastor William Siraj, were shot dead by unknown bike-borne assailants on Sunday at Ring Road, Peshawar on January 31. The priests were returning from their Sunday prayers, reported local media. Pastor Anwar Fazl, Chairman Aijaq TV and Eternal Life Church condemned this heinous act and asked the authorities to arrest the accused otherwise large scale protests will be carried out by the Christian community in Pakistan. The recent attacks on Christian youth and priests are yet another example of continuing atrocities against minorities in Pakistan. In recent years, there has been a surge in attacks on minorities and also their places of worship in Pakistan. The country has been slammed by the international community for not safeguarding the interests of minorities. (ANI)
Dawn international reported the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cybercrime on Monday arrested the man, Sabir Mahmood, in Model Town for allegedly running a "propaganda campaign" against Bushra Bibi.

"More arrests are expected in this matter," Dawn quoting FIA official said.

Earlier, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib called out "certain quarters" for pushing "fake stories" about the PM's wife and asked them to stay away from cheap tactics such as dragging an apolitical woman into politics. (ANI)
Amid ongoing tension between Russia and Ukraine, Israeli envoy to India, Naor Gilon on Tuesday said that Tel Aviv has increased its diplomatic forces inside the embassy in Kiev to ensure the safety of around 15,000 Israeli and the Jewish living there. "We're leaving our embassies, have increased our diplomatic forces inside the embassy, have to ensure the safety of around 15,000 Israeli living in Ukraine and the Jewish community. We have encouraged everyone to leave but not everyone leaves," Naor Gilon said at an event in Pune. The Israeli envoy also hoped that the situation in Ukraine will be resolved without violence. "We have sent more consular workers there, while the families of the diplomats are home. I hope it (Ukraine crisis) will be resolved without violence, but we are preparing ourselves in case it erupts," he added. On February 12, the Israeli foreign ministry issued a travel warning for Ukraine, urging its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible. Tensions over Ukraine have increased in recent months, with Russia and NATO accusing each other of amassing troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border. The United States and Ukraine accuse Russia of preparing to invade. Meanwhile, Moscow denies the claims and maintains that it has no intention of attacking any country. White House spokesperson had earlier said that the US would welcome any country's attempt to play a role in de-escalation of mounting tensions between Russia and Ukraine, including India. "We certainly welcome any efforts to de-escalate and we are in touch with a range of allies and partners on this, but I don't have any specific conversations to read out that relate to Indian officials," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki a press briefing. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Tuesday concluded his Philippines visit, during which he reviewed bilateral relations as both sides agreed to further expand economic cooperation and reaffirmed their strong commitment to a multifaceted partnership. Jaishankar was in the Philippines from February 13-15, for his first visit as External Affairs Minister (EAM). The Minister held a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines. The two Ministers reviewed developments in bilateral relations since the meeting of the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation that they co-chaired in the virtual format in November 2020. They also discussed the future trajectory of the wide-ranging engagement between the two countries. The two Ministers also had an in-depth exchange of views on regional and international issues of mutual interest. The Ministers welcomed recent trends in bilateral ties that have contributed to the deepening of mutually beneficial cooperation and the expansion to newer areas based on shared interests in line with the vision of the leadership of both countries. They agreed to further work towards strengthening engagement in counter-terrorism and defence and maritime security, covering defence capabilities as well as military training and capacity building. "In light of the complementarities between the two countries as fast-growing market economies, and the shared interest in diversifying supply chains, they agreed to make efforts to further expand economic cooperation as well as trade and investment links in a range of areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, health and pharmaceuticals, tourism, ICT, and science and technology," the MEA release said. According to the MEA, the Ministers also noted with satisfaction recent initiatives to step up cooperation in emerging areas such as fintech, blue economy, renewable energy, space, cyber security and traditional medicine. "To expand business, tourism and student exchange between the two countries, both sides agreed on the need for a simplified visa regime between India and the Philippines. EAM also sought the attention of the Philippine government to facilitate the early return of Indian medical students to the Philippines," the release added. It further said both ministers agreed to coordinate closely at multilateral fora and reaffirmed their strong commitment to a multifaceted partnership that would facilitate the developmental aspirations and shared priorities of the two democracies in Indo-Pacific region. During the visit, EAM also interacted with Delfin Lorenzana, Secretary of Defence, Carlos Domineguez III, Secretary of Finance and Dr William Dar, Secretary of Agriculture to discuss issues strengthening cooperation in Defence, Finance and Agriculture sectors respectively. EAM interacted with a cross-section of the Indian Community in Manila. He appreciated their role in promoting friendship and amity between the people of the two countries and urged them to continue to be a bridge between the people of India and the Philippines. (ANI)
Chicago Public Schools leaders and elected officials unveiled new signage at Harriet Tubman Elementary School on Monday as the Lakeview school continues to distance itself from its prior namesake, the racist scientist Louis Agassiz.

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The Chicago Board of Education approved the name change in March 2021, months after the Chicago Sun-Times identified some 30 Chicago schools named for slaveholders and several other schools that bear the name of someone who held racist or misogynistic attitudes. CPS administrators have vowed to consider a change if a school is named after individuals who do not represent the values of our students, families, faculty and support staff.

Parents pick up students after an assembly to mark the schools official name change from Agassiz Elementary School to Harriet Tubman Elementary School on Feb. 14, 2022. (Raquel Zaldivar / Chicago Tribune)

In June 2021, the district celebrated ditching Agassiz in favor of Tubman, an abolitionist and human rights advocate whose 200th birthday is being commemorated this year.

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Other CPS schools are still waiting for their new names. At last months board meeting, a junior at John Hancock College Prep noted longtime, widespread student support to dump Hancock, who had slaves. The junior blamed the pace that CPS moves for the inaction.

We ask that you give all 35 schools, including ours, the opportunity to expedite the name-changing process and collaborate with our peers and community to declare a new name that better represents who we are and what we truly value, the student told the board.

After the student spoke, outgoing Interim Chief Education Officer Maurice Swinney said the proposed rules for changing a schools name are due to come before the board at its February meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 23.

We do have some schools that are doing the work (to change their name). What we wanted to do was center the voice of young people in the policy, Swinney said. Part of our work has been talking with young people, so that ... students who decide to participate in the name change process are the ones who can help lead it in their schools.

tswartz@tribpub.com
The recent suicide by two female students of a medical university in Sindh province past points to severe flaws regarding women's safety in several places including educational institutions and workplaces in Pakistan, underlining that the country has once again failed as a "safe nation" for women. The two students were forced to take the extreme step reportedly due to sexual harassment, according to The Express Tribune newspaper. According to the publication, such highly disgraceful incidents should attract the whole society's attention for the resolution of the very grave issue of women's harassment in educational institutions, workplaces and various other spaces. In November 2021, a fourth-year student of a medical university killed herself in her hostel room, and another student of the same university did the same. As per the media reports, both females found themselves so cornered by blackmail that they preferred to take the ultimate step. Apart from that, a member of the provincial assembly has lodged a written complaint against the vice-chancellor of another medical university in the province alleging harassment, The Express Tribune reported. The rising incidents of criminal assault on females indicate that they face hazards in the workplace, educational institutions, on roads and streets. Meanwhile, hundreds of people including journalists, writers and civil society activists held a sit-in protest outside the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) in Larkana city in Pakistan's Sindh province over the failure of police in arresting the blackmailers responsible for the death of two medical students. The incident comes amid the annual report of State of Human Rights in Pakistan released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) for the year 2020 that has set alarm bells ringing over the plight of women in the country. (ANI)
With Western powers and the Ukrainian Government voicing concern over the likelihood of a Russian invasion, which Moscow has repeatedly denied it is planning, much of the international media has kept its eye on the Ukraine border situation. Moscow has amassed over 100,000 troops stationed around Ukraine with US officials warning that Russia was ready for a full-scale invasion of the country. The United States and other western countries have sent arms and troops to Europe to support Kyiv. Kremlin says allegations about Russia's invasion of Ukraine are nothing but a campaign to trigger tensions and escalate the situation. "Indeed, the whole world is in disarray because of this, and, indeed, this is nothing but an absolutely unprecedented information campaign to provoke and escalate tension in Europe," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. At the heart of the military tensions are the draft agreements that encapsulate Moscow's security guarantees. Russia President Vladimir Putin has demanded legal guarantees that Ukraine will never join North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or host its missile strike systems. In response to Russian demands, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stressed that Washington and its allies would not agree to curb the NATO admissions process for new members, saying the military alliance's door "remains open". In its own written response to Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia once again to immediately de-escalate the situation. He called for re-establishing formal ties between Russia and NATO, and opening channels of communication to avoid escalation. Moscow-based American political analyst Andrew Korybko said if Russian national security red lines aren't respected, it will take action to defend its legitimate interests. According to the Moscow analyst, the situation can be successfully de-escalated through the US respecting all or most of Russia's security guarantee proposals - ideally in writing but possibly informally as a temporary measure to defuse the crisis. Against this backdrop, the US, Australia and several other countries have asked their citizens to leave Ukraine. Indian Embassy in Ukraine also asked its citizens, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to leave Kiev temporarily. India has also requested its nationals to keep the Embassy informed about the status of their presence to enable the Embassy to reach them where required. "In view of the uncertainties of the current situation in Ukraine, Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, may consider leaving temporarily. Indian nationals are also advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine," the Indian Embassy in Ukraine said in an advisory. An expert in international relations has said that escalation in tensions between Russia and the Western countries will put pressure on Indian foreign policy priorities and New Delhi will find it hard to balance all sides. Harsh V Pant, Head of the Strategic Studies Programme at Observer Research Foundation, said that India "had not really responded in the Crimea situation in 2014". "Many in the West had argued that India had taken the side of Russia. I think it's a similar policy that India might approach this year," he said. Amid increasing tension over Ukraine between Russia and Western countries of the NATO, the UN Secretary-General declared on Monday that "there is no alternative to diplomacy." "I am deeply worried by the heightened tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict in Europe", Antonio Guterres told journalists, in a statement at UN Headquarters in New York. The UN chief said that "the price in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate." (ANI)
Pakistan government fans toxicity and regressive narratives in the society which lead to extremism in the country and result in the surge of cases of lynching over blasphemy and similar incidents, reported local media. The recent lynching in Pakistan's Khanewal district over blasphemy and months back lynching of a Lankan man show that there is anger and toxicity in Pakistan's society that has been fed on flawed ideologies and regressive narratives fanned by the state, it is time to acknowledge that the damage done is more insidious and deep-rooted than we think. And it will be years before it can be reversed. Only when it realises the futility of resorting to quick fixes will the state be in a better position to fight extremism, reported Dawn. A day after the Khanewal lynching, the police did rescue a blasphemy suspect in Faisalabad from an angry mob that had surrounded his home. But their quick action here, and in some other cases, is overshadowed by a barbaric public mentality for which no law is a deterrent especially in matters of faith, said the Pakistani publication The governments in Pakistan had been taking steps that either promoted extremism or worked as catalysts for that. The removal of the proscribed group status from the hardline Pakistan Tehreek-i-Labbaik (TLP) party and Islamabad's failed talks with proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are such steps that fuel extremism in the country. Islamabad would swing into 'action' after Khanewal. Religious leaders condemned the incident and police rounded up suspects. And while there were no state honours for Mushtaq Rajput who was buried in the local cemetery, the prime minister pledged to crack down with the full force of the law. On what though? The issue goes well beyond the misuse of the blasphemy law, said Dawn. Certainly, Pakistan's parliamentarians and the ulema should discuss it and revisit it as if the steps that fume extremism and fanning of hatred in the society do not stop, Pakistan would witness the massive rise in such incidents in near future. (ANI)
The initiative proposed by the Polish Chairmanship is an attempt to resolve "growing tensions in the Euro-Atlantic area," the minister specified.

"We find this proposal interesting because it shows an understanding of existing problems and a willingness to do something to get these problems off the agenda," Lavrov said after talks with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, currently the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE.

The dialogue with NATO and the US nonetheless remains a priority for Russia in terms of security guarantees, he added. (ANI/Sputnik)
Pakistan should continue to be in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) "grey list" on the upcoming Plenary Session scheduled in Paris from 21 February to 4 March this year, according to a media report. Paris-based money-laundering watchdog, FATF placed Pakistan on the "grey list" in June 2018 for its failure to address the problem of terrorism financing. Since then, Pakistan's performance has been under periodic review. But every time, it is found to be deficient in its efforts, reported Islam Khabar. In the last meeting of the FATF in October 2021, Pakistan was once again retained on the "grey list" because it failed to prosecute and confiscate the assets of United Nations-designated terrorists. FATF officials had also noted that Pakistan was still failing to effectively implement the global FATF standard across several areas, creating a high risk of money laundering. Commenting on the action plan devised in 2018 which focused on terror financing, the FATF President had said that Pakistan was still assessed to have largely addressed 26 out of 27 items, Islam Khabar reported. "Pakistan has taken a number of important steps but needs to further demonstrate that investigations and prosecutions are being pursued against the senior leadership of UN-designated terror groups," he said. Given this situation, Pakistan will once again present its case before the FATF when the body holds its Plenary Session in Paris from 21 February to 4 March 2022. The main effort will be to convince the FATF that it has delivered on all the high-level commitments it had made, not just in terms of tightening the domestic laws and regulations but also in terms of successfully prosecuting and punishing people involved in money laundering and terror finance. There is a simple reason for Pakistan being in the "grey list" that Pakistan's deep state, led by the ISI and the Army, is at the forefront of carrying out illegal terrorist activities and promoting terror globally. The latest emerging news from the UK, which was published in Dawn on January 28, to know what Pakistan is up to. A British-Pakistani man, Mohammed Gohir Khan has been charged for trying to assassinate the dissident blogger, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, based in the Netherlands. This leads to the question of the reopening of enquiry into the death of Karima Baloch, an ardent campaigner for an independent Balochistan, whose body was found in a lake in Canada in December 2020. (ANI)
The Dawn newspaper reported that police foiled rescued a man from a mob over alleged blasphemy and shifted the man to an undisclosed location.

Reportedly, the complainant saw a man was burning pages of the Quran in front of a mosque in Alipur tehsil near the Jagmal area. According to the complainant, he said he locked the suspect in a room and called the police.

District Police took notice of the incident and ordered shifting of the suspect to some safe place, the newspaper added.

In a similar incident on Sunday, a violent mob in Punjab province attacked a man for allegedly burning the pages of the Quran.

The incident took place in the city of Faisalabad. However, the provincial police rescued the accused person and shifted him to an undisclosed location, Dawn reported.

These incidents of mob violence come as Punjab has seen a surge in mob lynching in the past two months. (ANI)
In recent months, people in China have started complaining about state surveillance methods, which were implemented after the COVID-19 to monitor spread of infections, being re-engineered to invade into their private lives for non-health, non-Covid purposes, according to a media report. In Hangzhou, for instance, the people protested when the officials wanted to use the surveillance app for post-pandemic activities like mapping people's lifestyles, reported The Hong Kong Post. The Communist regime's surveillance programme has become so massive that it is able to shape and even force behaviours en masse, concerning aspects of the new normal in China. China also has eight of the world's 10 most surveilled cities based on the number of cameras per 1,000 people, according to UK-based technology research firm Comparitech. But now the pandemic has brought surveillance cameras closer to people's private lives: from public spaces in the city right to the front doors of their homes -- and in some rare cases, surveillance cameras inside their apartments, according to The Hong Kong Post. The use of surveillance cameras for COVID-19 data began in China through a digital health code system. It was used to control people's movements and decide who should go into quarantine, enforce home quarantine, and identify violators, said the publication. However, the health codes have been hacked multiple times even the hackers have been targeting celebrities by publishing the photos and selfies they used for their biometric identity verification. In some cities, officials suggested turning the equipment into a security tool from a health service by searching for people who could not be found through traditional methods. (ANI)
The members of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) on Monday kept the entrance gates of the sessions court locked almost for the whole day, denying access to the judges, court staff and the litigants, Dawn reported.

According to the publication, police officers concerned reached the court and tried to negotiate with the protesting lawyers for opening the gates.

District and Sessions Judge Habibullah Amir held a dialogue with the bar leaders, but with no breakthrough. Later, the judge went to the Lahore High Court to take up the matter with the authorities concerned, it reported further.

The sessions judge recently issued a notification regarding the transfer of cases pending before civil courts at Aiwan-i-Adl to respective tehsils/sub-divisions the plaintiffs concerned belonged to. The decision was apparently taken in order to reduce the workload on the courts stationed at the Aiwan-i-Adl, the Dawn reported. (ANI)
A Washington based scholar has slammed the Biden administration's decision to divert the frozen Afghan assets for 9/11 victims. This comes as 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. On Friday, Biden signed an executive order to free 7 billion US dollars out of more than 9 billion frozen Afghan assets, splitting the money between humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and a fund for 9/11 victims. Writing for The Washington Examiner, Michael Rubin said victims of al Qaeda terrorism deserve compensation, but the Afghan reserves belong to the Afghans who fought with the U.S. and against al Qaeda and the Taliban. "Diverting $3.5 billion for 9/11 victims is theft. Certainly, the victims of al Qaeda terrorism deserve compensation, but the Afghan reserves belong to the Afghans who fought with the U.S. and against al Qaeda and the Taliban. Biden's willingness to paint all Afghans as responsible for 9/11 is factually wrong if not racist," said Rubin, who is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). "The trust fund may also sound noble, but it is problematic. The Taliban diverts aid to its supporters and uses it to pay Afghans for labour. In both cases, those who served the previous regime or helped Americans need not apply. Rather than condemn such diversions, the White House is silent," he added. According to Rubin, this decision should not come as surprise. "In 1994, Washington faced a similar problem in North Korea. To alleviate famine and facilitate diplomacy, President Bill Clinton agreed to provide both food aid and heavy fuel oil to the communist regime. Kim Jong-il's regime diverted it to fund the army while ordinary citizens starved." US State Department on Tuesday explained an executive order passed by President Joe Biden last week, relating to the people of Afghanistan, which was a step toward making USD 3.5 billion of funds accessible to the Afghan people. "People of Afghanistan are facing numerous challenges including dependence on economic aid, severe droughts, COVID-19, internal corruptions and others. Afghan Central Bank reserves hold that federal reserves have been inaccessible for months imparts because of the uncertainty regarding who can authorise transactions on the account. But also due to pending litigations by 9/11 victims and other victims of terrorism," US State Department spokesperson New Price said. Lauding the Biden administration, the US spokesperson said: "This administration will continue to support that victim and families recognising the enduring pain they have suffered in the hand of terrorists including those who were operating from Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks." "We have no idea how long the allegation will take and in the meantime, the humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate by the debt. That is why President Biden signed the Executive Order on Friday to preserve and protect those reserves as part of an effort to make 3.5 billion dollars available for the Afghan people," he explained. The State Department spokesperson said that the objective is to make these funds available for the Afghan people without having to wait for the process to conclude. Price also reiterate Friday's executive order and said that "it was a step towards making a significant portion 3.5 billion dollars accessible to the Afghan people. (ANI)
The Taliban's seizure of the power in Kabul could have been easy but retaining the power is far more challenging than the Afghan groups thought as an inter-faction rivalry is reemerging in the Taliban, underlining its influence over Afghanistan's northern provinces as Mullah Baradar-led Kandahar group has expressed reservations regarding Interior Minister and leader of the Haqqani Network (HQN) Sirajuddin Haqqani's conservative approach and overt pro-Pashtun stance in the ruling, according to a media report. The differences between the Baradar and Haqqani factions could lead to depletion in Taliban ranks, particularly in provinces dominated by non-Pashtun ethnic groups. Notwithstanding the fact that one of the factors behind the swift Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was its success in enrolling non-Pashtun cadres under its banner, thereby broadening its appeal beyond the majority Pashtun community, the Taliban are now facing a challenging situation in managing the aspirations of minority ethnic groups within their ranks. The scenario is growing particularly acute in northern provinces, which are dominated by non-Pashtun ethnic groups. In December last year, sporadic incidents of Tajik and Uzbek Taliban fighters attempting to disarm Pashtun cadres, while accusing them of having links with Da'esh (ISIS) were reported in the north, reported The Times of Israel. Last month on January 13, street protests erupted in Maimanah City of Faryab following the arrest of senior Uzbek Taliban Commander Makhdoom Alam Rabbani, highlighting simmering tensions among the Pashtun and non-Pashtun Taliban commanders/fighters, particularly in the northern provinces of Afghanistan. The Uzbek Commander is known to have influence in Faryab, Jowzjan, Sar-e-Pul and Samangan provinces. The demonstrations quickly acquired ethnic overtones with protesters airing grievances over the dominance of Pashtuns in the Taliban regime, said The Times of Israel. Makhdoom Alam was being investigated following intelligence inputs indicating his involvement in kidnappings, said the Taliban, adding that he was hiding a cache of arms and ammunition including more than 300 assault rifles and RPGs. Sirajuddin Haqqani announced that Makhdoom Alam would not be released and subsequent detention of Tajik Taliban Commander Qari Wakil on January 14 further complicated the situation, with Uzbek and Tajik Taliban fighters attempting to disarm the Pashtun fighters, said the report. The Taliban's leadership had to send reinforcements including armoured vehicles, Special Forces ('Badri' unit) and more than 300 men including suicide attackers from the 'Mansoori' Brigade to bring the situation under control. The leadership somehow controlled the situation successfully but the sense of betrayal amongst the non-Pashtun locals in the north remains palpable. Given the regime's failure in establishing an inclusive government, the nascent resistance led by Ahmad Massoud could attempt to exploit emerging ethnic fissures in order to pose a credible challenge to Kabul, said the Israeli publication. The Taliban's ability to deal with the challenges emerging in the northern provinces remains questionable as The Taliban regime's ability to effectively deal with the emerging situation in northern provinces remains questionable as they are yet to get past continuing intra-Pashtun power struggle. According to The Times of Israel, albeit these fault lines are unlikely to impair the regime's ability to govern in the short term, they could potentially become a source of fragmentation and instability in future for Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Taliban administration is busy globetrotting trying to get funds and assistance from the west. Will the Taliban survive the harsh Afghan winter as a united group, is what remains to be seen. (ANI)
The trial was already underway when the two sides  Chicago Public Schools and the family of a special education student who said he was sexually assaulted in a school bathroom  announced a tentative settlement in the lawsuit last week.

A day or so later, a judge in a different courtroom at the downtown Daley Center decided to allow a separate but similar lawsuit against the CPS board to move forward to trial.

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In both cases, CPS is accused of allowing attacks against the two students to happen because the district didnt follow their education plans, which required adult supervision outside the classroom.

I wish it hadnt come to this. I wish (CPS) had come to the table before that, before the years of litigation and before the expense and before putting the parents through this, attorney Rafael Lazaro said of the settlement for his client. At the end of the day, I think CPS must realize that things like this, when they happen at their school, theres a responsibility there. Theres an institutional responsibility.

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In the settled case, the boy was a student at Jordan Community Elementary School in the Rogers Park neighborhood in 2014. The boy is not identified by name in the suit, only that he was 12 years old at the time and communicated at a kindergarten level because he has severe physical, developmental and learning disabilities. His attorneys say he has an awkward gait because he suffers from dystonia, a disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions.

The boy reported to four staff members that he was being bullied by his classmates, according to the suit. His attorneys say his individualized education program called for adult supervision when he was in school hallways. An IEP describes the instruction, supports and services students with disabilities are legally entitled to receive.

The suit says on Sept. 16, 2014, the boy was not accompanied to the bathroom by an adult or paraprofessional, per his IEP, but by a student who ended up attacking him in the bathroom. The alleged attacker was an older child with a history of violence that was known to CPS, according to the suit.

Chicago Public Schools reached a tentative settlement in one case for an amount not yet disclosed. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Attorney Miguel Ruiz, who worked with Lazaro on this case, said it was CPS responsibility to make sure that a paraprofessional was present, but on the day of the reported attack, the boys teacher didnt have a paraprofessional to send with him to the bathroom. Ruiz said the teacher should have used the intercom system to request staff member assistance.

Others at the school testified that had he done so, somebody would have assisted him. But he didnt do that on this day. And that was, from our perspective, contrary to what the IEP required for this child, Ruiz said.

CPS failed to take reasonable and necessary action in response to the repeated complaints from the boy and his parents and showed an unequivocal utter disregard for the boys health and safety, according to the suit, which was initially filed in 2018 and which sought more than $50,000, plus costs.

A CPS spokesperson said the agreement is up for a vote at the Feb. 23 Chicago Board of Education meeting. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, except that both sides are responsible for their own legal expenses.

The boys attorneys say he is now a teenager who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder in addition to his other disabilities. He is especially triggered by public bathrooms, they said.

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Ruiz and Lazaro praised the boys parents for enduring such a long journey to justice. Despite all of the problems, all of the obstacles, all of the issues, years of litigation, they stood by their son, and they came to court and fought for him, Ruiz said.

A CPS spokesperson said the settlement resolves the matter in a way that is fair to the student and to the taxpayers who fund the district.

Chicago Public Schools firmly believes that students who are harmed as a result of a legally-recognized failure on the districts part should be compensated in a reasonable manner that will remedy injuries to the student, the district said in its statement.

Meanwhile, the district continues to fight a similar case that was detailed in the Chicago Tribunes Betrayed series, a wide-ranging investigation that found CPS failed to protect students from sexual abuse and assault.

A boy who was 16 and said to be significantly cognitively disabled told a classmate in June 2016 that he had been sexually assaulted by another special education student twice in a bathroom at Bogan Computer Technical High School on the Southwest Side. The alleged attacker had a history of making verbal threats, hitting, pushing and punching others, Carolyn Daley, the attorney for the alleged victim, said at a Daley Center hearing Wednesday.

One suit alleged a boy who is significantly cognitively disabled was sexually assaulted by another special education student twice in a bathroom at Bogan Computer Technical High School, shown here in 2018. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

According to the suit, which was filed in 2017, both Bogan students had IEPs that stated they needed to be supervised on trips to the bathroom.

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The plaintiffs IEP was clear, Daley said. He could not self-advocate. He was unaware of dangerous situations, and he needed supervision because of that. You cant let the most vulnerable population, cognitively disabled children who cant advocate for themselves, are unaware of dangerous situations, go into a bathroom and get sexually assaulted and claim we have no duty to even protect students from sexual assault at our schools.

At the hearing, an attorney hired by the Chicago Board of Education for this case called attention to the language of the IEPs for both students.

All of them make the distinction of supervision to the restroom and independence within, attorney Betsy Grover said.

Complicating matters is that the dates of the two reported bathroom attacks are not known. Grover said theres no way to check records to see who was supposed to be supervising the students at the time.

For a failure to supervise claim to go to a jury, there has to be willful and wanton conduct and without knowing when, and without knowing who, there cannot be a claim for willful and wanton supervision when nobody knows who didnt supervise on any particular date, Grover said.

June 13 was the first time anyone at the board knew of these allegations. And every single board member will testify  every single one  that they supervised at all times.

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Daley said her client cant tell the date or time. She pointed out that children who are sexually assaulted, especially cognitively impaired children, may have trouble verbalizing what happened.

Because a child cant tell us a date, so we cant go back to those records and define exactly that date, should the board be immune from that? Daley asked Judge Lorna Propes.

I dont know. I cant answer that question, Propes responded. You know whos going to have to decide that? The trial judge. Evidence will be produced or not, and the trial judge will or will not say is there something missing.

Propes declined to dismiss the case at a hearing last week, though she did strike portions of the complaint she found to be repetitive. The trial is scheduled to start Thursday, unless the two sides can reach an agreement before then. CPS said it would not comment on this case while the litigation is pending, including sharing how much it has spent to defend itself from this lawsuit.

The board of education recently authorized $225,000 for Grovers law firm  Nielsen, Zehe and Antas  to continue to provide services this year. The board approved similar expenditures for that firm in December 2020 for $250,000 and in August 2018 for $100,000, board records show.

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We are pleased with the courts ruling denying the boards motion, which would have permitted them to escape liability in this case. My client will finally have the chance to be heard, and we believe a jury will find the boards conduct in this case reckless and shocking, Daley said in a statement after Wednesdays hearing.

We hope that Chicago Public Schools will put the appropriate safeguards in place to protect students, especially disabled students, from being sexually assaulted in their schools to prevent this from happening to another child.

tswartz@tribpub.com
As of February 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping and six other members of the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) have not appeared in public for eight consecutive days which seems a bit unusual and has gathered attention by observers. Apart from Wang Qishan attending the "One Ocean" summit online while many other countries had their head of state attending it. Interestingly, Li Keqiang the second-ranking PBSC member made remarks in a national work conference on Spring agricultural production held in Dezhou, Shandong on Sunday. But Li Keqiang's remarks were in the form of written instructions and he was not present there. Both these incidents together show that the seven PBSC members are indeed collectively absent from public events. One possibility that comes to mind is, all of them going to undergo quarantine after Xi met world leaders during the winter Olympics and after that, he met might have met other PBSC members? Vice Premier Hu Chunhua attended the national work conference on Spring agricultural production and delivered a speech. Hu's speech referred to Xi Jinping 's important speeches and spirit of instructions and Li Keqiang's instructions and requirements to go all out to ensure "the production and supply of grain and important agricultural products" to "stabilize the overall situation of economic and social development." Last week, a state media outlet named "Jintai Information" published an 8,600 character long article that emphasizes that reform and opening up was a "great awakening" in the history of the CPC, which seems contrary to the line Xi tried to put forward in the third historical resolution. The article does not forget to repeatedly mention Xi Jinping and the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee, especially when it emphasizes the importance of reform and opening up. In the way of quoting Xi Jinping's speech, the article tries to make the point that "reform and opening up is the key move to determine the future and destiny of contemporary China". Since the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, there have been multiple signals that Xi Jinping has downplayed the political legacy of his predecessors. (ANI)
Rome [Italy], February 15 (ANI/Sputnik): All Italian citizens over 50 who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus or received a medical exemption from vaccination will not be allowed to access their workplaces starting Tuesday. The measure was adopted by the cabinet following the mandatory vaccination rule introduced in Italy for citizens over 50 in early January. Starting Tuesday, all employees in the aforementioned category will have to present a "reinforced" green pass proving a full vaccination course or recovery from COVID-19. Unvaccinated workers will thus face wage cuts for the period of absence, as well as fines of up to 1,500 euros ($1,700). According to the latest data from the office of the Commissioner for the COVID-19 Emergency, Italy currently has around 1.4 million unvaccinated citizens in this age category, of whom only 10% have medical exemption certificates. Up to 800,000 of them do not have a permanent job or are retired. Thus, the work ban may affect about half a million Italians. To date, over 90% of the Italian population have received at least one shot of a vaccine against COVID-19, and over 88% have been fully vaccinated. (ANI/Sputnik)
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Tuesday urged all states and actors to find ways to support the Afghan people during the latest crises. This comes after US President Joe Biden last week signed an executive order to free 7 billion US dollars out of more than 9 billion frozen Afghan assets, splitting the money between humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and a fund for 9/11 victims. "UNAMA has consistently urged all states and actors to find ways to support the Afghan people during the latest crises. Some very real progress has been made with concrete and meaningful assistance. We are working to help secure further support for the people of Afghanistan," the UNAMA tweeted. The UN mission in a subsequent tweet said it continues its longstanding call for ways to be found for the country's reserves to be made available to support the Afghan people at the earliest time. "We want to see as much money, Afghan money, as possible back in the Afghan economy and with the Afghan people." The UN mission also said they will do all they can in discussions with various interlocutors to help the Afghan people build economic stability and a society where authorities respect their human rights. This comes as 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. A Washington based scholar has slammed the Biden administration's decision to divert the frozen Afghan assets for 9/11 victims. Writing for The Washington Examiner, Michael Rubin said victims of al Qaeda terrorism deserve compensation, but the Afghan reserves belong to the Afghans who fought with the U.S. and against al Qaeda and the Taliban. "Diverting USD 3.5 billion for 9/11 victims is theft. Certainly, the victims of al Qaeda terrorism deserve compensation, but the Afghan reserves belong to the Afghans who fought with the U.S. and against al Qaeda and the Taliban. Biden's willingness to paint all Afghans as responsible for 9/11 is factually wrong if not racist," said Rubin, who is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). (ANI)
India on Tuesday termed the remarks made by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the Muslim community in the country as "misleading" and said that Islamic organisation continues to be hijacked by vested interests to further their nefarious propaganda against India. The statement was issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in response to media queries regarding the recent statement by the General Secretariat of the OIC. "We have noted yet another motivated and misleading statement from the General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on matters pertaining to India. Issues in India are considered and resolved in accordance with our constitutional framework and mechanisms, as well as democratic ethos and polity," the MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. Bagchi said the communal mindset of the OIC Secretariat does not allow for a proper appreciation of these realities. "OIC continues to be hijacked by vested interests to further their nefarious propaganda against India. As a result, it has only harmed its own reputation," it added. On Monday, OIC had issued a statement urging India to ensure the safety of the Muslim community. "The OIC General Secretariat further urges once again India to ensure the safety, security and wellbeing of the Muslim community while protecting the way of life of its members & to bring the instigators and perpetrators of acts of violence and hate crimes against them to justice," the OIC tweeted. Earlier, India had asked other countries to refrain from commenting on the issue of dress code in educational institutions in Karnataka, stating that "motivated comments on our internal issues aren't welcome." This comes amid the ongoing Hijab row in Karnataka which began in January this year. Some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. (ANI)
China has slammed the US for "willfully" disposing of assets that belong to the Afghan people without their consent, stating that the move was no different from the conduct of bandits. "Without the consent of the Afghan people, the US willfully disposes of assets that belong to the Afghan people, even keeping them as its own. This is no different from the conduct of bandits," said China Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Wang Wenbin's during a regular press conference in Beijing. "This latest example has once again laid bare that the rules-based order the US claims to champion is not the kind of rules and order to defend the weak and uphold justice, but to maintain its own hegemony," added Wang. Accusing the US of triggering the Afghan crisis, Wang said that the US should not exacerbate the suffering of the Afghan people. "It should unfreeze their assets, lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan as soon as possible, and assume its due responsibility to ease the humanitarian crisis in the country," he added. China's response came after US President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) signed an executive order to free 7 billion US dollars out of more than 9 billion frozen Afghan assets, splitting the money between humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and a fund for 9/11 victims. Afghanistan's banking system remains crippled after the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban in mid-August 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)
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that Russia came up with security guarantee proposals for the United States and NATO to head off a war in Europe. Putin made these remarks after hosting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow, Russian news agency Sputnik reported. "As for whether we want this, of course not. That is why we proposed negotiations that should result in an arrangement guaranteeing equal security for all, including our country," Putin told a news conference after he was asked whether a war was looming over Europe. German Chancellor said that negotiations on Ukraine should be held in the framework of a trilateral contact group. Scholz told a briefing after talks with the Russian President that the Minsk Protocol "is a good starting point for a peaceful solution to the situation in Ukraine, between Donbas and the Ukrainian government." He added that "negotiations should be held there specifically [in the framework] of the trilateral contact group." The chancellor noted that "in this sort of situation it is important to use every opportunity to take care that the peaceful development is possible." Amid increasing tension over Ukraine between Russia and Western countries of the NATO, the UN Secretary-General declared on Monday that "there is no alternative to diplomacy." "I am deeply worried by the heightened tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict in Europe", Antonio Guterres told journalists, in a statement at UN Headquarters in New York. The UN chief said that "the price in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate." (ANI)
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is wary of adverse international pressure if Pakistan becomes the first country in the world to recognise the Taliban's interim government in Afghanistan, stating that good ties with the global community are necessary for Islamabad to recover from financial challenges, a recent media report said. "If Pakistan is the first to grant recognition, the international pressure will become too much for us as we try to turn our economy around," said Imran Khan in an interview with French media outlet Le Figaro. The Pakistan Prime Minister also conveyed the country's inefficiency in paying back loans. "We could no longer pay our debts. We can only recover if we have good relations with the international community." "To be isolated by becoming the only state [to recognise the Taliban regime] would be the last thing we would want," he added. Imran Khan also referred to the international perspective over the recognition of the Taliban, saying the countries and global organisations have sought for an inclusive government in Kabul and demanded the Taliban to respect human rights and women rights, according to The Express Tribune. "As for the conditions for such recognition, there is an international consensus that there must be an inclusive government in Afghanistan. There is also the issue of human rights and women's rights. The Taliban government has made promises on these two issues. What more is needed to make the world satisfied? That is the question," said Pakistan PM. Imran also conveyed that the new rulers in Kabul did not give any concrete promises on the issue of women's rights during a Taliban delegation's visit in December. "There were no concrete answers. They gave an agreement in principle...You can not force them. There is a limit to what foreign pressure can do to a government like the Taliban. Afghans should not be expected to respect women's rights as Westerners understand them." The Pakistan Prime Minister also said that the Taliban have sought more times on the issue of girls education. Imran also stressed a more stable government in Kabul when asked about the consequences of the Taliban's return to power and impact on Pakistan as TTP scaled up attacks recently, according to The Express Tribune. "We believe that the more stable the Afghan government is, the less these groups can operate. That is why we are so concerned about the stability of Afghanistan," he said, adding that the Pakistani government trusted the Afghan Taliban "when they say they will not let militants strike from their territory." Imran also said that the Taliban will suffer if terrorists continue to operate from Afghan soil when asked about a UN report which underlines links between al Qaeda and the Taliban. "If terrorists operate from [the] Afghan soil, the Taliban will suffer. It is in their interest to stop international terrorism." (ANI)
Amid the ongoing military buildup at the Russian-Ukrainian border, China called on all sides to adopt an open attitude, and work for the earnest implementation of the Minsk-2 agreement through dialogue and negotiation. Speaking at the press conference, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, "We call on all sides to adopt an equal and open attitude, and work for the earnest implementation of the Minsk-2 agreement through dialogue and negotiation so as to create conditions for a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis." Answering the question on Pentagon's remark that China's tacit support for Russia on the Ukrainian issue was alarming, the Chinese spokesperson said, "Under the current circumstances, exaggerating and hyping up the possibility of warfare is not responsible behaviour." He added that resorting readily to sanctions and pressure won't help with deescalating the situation. "Clamoring for bloc confrontation will only lead to the old path of the Cold War." President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that Russia came up with security guarantee proposals for the United States and NATO to head off a war in Europe. Putin made these remarks after hosting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow, Russian news agency Sputnik reported. "As for whether we want this, of course not. That is why we proposed negotiations that should result in an arrangement guaranteeing equal security for all, including our country," Putin told a news conference after he was asked whether a war was looming over Europe. Amid increasing tension over Ukraine between Russia and Western countries of the NATO, the UN Secretary-General declared on Monday that "there is no alternative to diplomacy." "I am deeply worried by the heightened tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict in Europe", Antonio Guterres told journalists, in a statement at UN Headquarters in New York. (ANI)
The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) has found deficiencies in its Littoral Mission Ships supplied by China, which compromises mission objectives and forces the navy to look for new suppliers, according to a media report. It is now the turn of the Royal Malaysian Navy to rue its decision to buy ships from China. Many of these Littoral Mission Ships (LMS) supplied to the navy by China are showing early signs of wear and tear, compromising mission objectives. The Chinese, as in the past, are resisting attempts to take the blame for the deficiencies, forcing the Malaysian Navy to look for new suppliers, reported The Singapore Post. RMN bought four Keris-class littoral mission ships from China, the last one was commissioned as KD Rencong, on January 28 this year at the RMN's naval base in Kota Kinabalu. These four ships formed part of a contract signed between the Malaysian government and the trading subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in April 2017. The total cost of the contract was RM1.17 billion (approx. USD 265 million), said the Singapore-based publication. The 68.8-meter vessels are part of the RMN's critical transformation plan that aims to reduce the number of ship classes from 15 to 5. The RMN had compiled a list of deficiencies that were observed in the operation of the first Keris class ship, International defence journal, Janes had reported. The major issues in the ship revolve around its Chinese supplied sensors and combat systems and the list formed part of discussions the Navy has been having various Chinese contractors. The Naval shipyard has recently written to M/S China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co. Ltd (CSOC) on the issue listing the various defects and demanding their early resolution. According to The Singapore Post, the ships' defects range from leakages, paint, sensors and other defective parts. The negotiations with the Chinese suppliers seem to have run aground considering the navy's latest replacement of Chinese-supplied radios on its three Keris-class ships with those from German electronics manufacturer, Rohde & Schwarz. Information published on the Malaysian Finance Ministry's procurement website indicates that the contracts are worth USD 115000 each. (ANI)
Blinken also stated that Washington looks forward to receiving Russia's written response to the US and NATO papers shared with Moscow last month proposing concrete areas for discussion regarding European security in coordination with our Allies and partners, said US State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

He noted the (Russian) Foreign Minister's statement that it would be transmitted within the coming days.

Secretary Blinken reiterated our ongoing concerns that Russia has the capacity to launch an invasion of Ukraine at any moment and emphasized the need to see verifiable, credible, meaningful de-escalation, Price said in a readout of the leaders' call.

"He underscored that, while further Russian aggression against Ukraine would result in a swift, severe, and united Transatlantic response, we remain committed to the diplomatic path and believe that a window remains to resolve the crisis peacefully," added Price.

Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border. The troop build-up had raised concerns among the US and NATO allies that Russia is planning a military incursion.

However, Russia has continually denied having any such plans. (ANI)
China sees rapid development of internet hospitals

09:05, February 15, 2022 By Shen Shaotie, Chang Biluo ( People's Daily

Internet hospitals have been embracing rapid development in China over the recent years. Back in 2018, there were only about 100 such facilities across the country, while the figure now exceeds 1,600.

A medical worker from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Science and Technology instructs a senior citizen to use online hospital in Dongshan neighborhood, Tianjia'an district, Huainan, east China's Anhui province, Dec. 2, 2020. (People's Daily Online/ Chen Bin)

These online hospitals offer click-and-mortar medical services. Integrating subsequent visits, follow-up visits and medical consultation services, they allow patients to enjoy medical services without stepping out of their homes.

A man surnamed Li from Chaoyang district of Beijing always visits Xuanwu Hospital affiliated to the Capital Medical University via the hospital's mobile application, to have prescriptions refilled for his octogenarian father who suffers from cerebrovascular disease and has to take medicines regularly to prevent cerebral infarction.

According to Chen Fei, doctor-in-charge with Xuanwu Hospital's neurology department, he has given a dozen prescriptions to Li's father.

"I used to ask for a half-day leave before going to get the medicines prescribed for my father, which was both tiring and time-consuming," said Li, adding that the internet hospital is convenient as he can have the medicines prescribed through his mobile phone and delivered to him on the next day.

Doctors communicate with patients online via the Online Health Service of Henan Provincial People's Hospital, May 21, 2020. (People's Daily Online/ Zhang Tao)

As a specialist in carotid artery stenting, Chen is always on full schedule, which makes it hard for patients to see him in his office. Thanks to the online hospital, all patients now have the opportunity to make an appointment to meet him online.

"Most of my patients need subsequent visits and prescriptions on a regular basis, and they can keep in touch with me through the online hospital anytime and anywhere," he said.

Chen Qiulin, deputy director of the Health Industry Development Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told People's Daily that internet hospitals can improve the accessibility of medical services and lower the cost for patients.

To further exploit the advantages of online medical services and benefit more patients, Chongqing University Three Gorges Hospital (CUTGH) in southwest China's Chongqing municipality has connected village clinics to its internet hospital.

"Sometimes we would consult with the doctors from CUTGH on the cases we are unsure of," said Li Xiaojian, a doctor in the clinic of Guanba village, Chongqing's Wanzhou district, adding that such services have greatly facilitated the villagers.

CUTGH president Zhang Xianxiang told People's Daily that the hospital will keep extending the reach of its online medical services, so as to bring home health care services to more patients.

Doctor-in-charge Mao Liping (L) with the Sixth People's Hospital of Nantong, east China's Jiangsu province sees a patient on a telemedicine platform and checks the CT scan of the latter, May 8, 2020. The hospital is the first one in the city of Nantong to open an internet clinic. (People's Daily Online/ Xu Congjun)

Besides, the hospital will also collaborate more with pharmacies and village clinics and deploy more internet hospital terminals in neighboring districts and counties, Zhang added.

Internet hospitals are making medical services more accessible for patients in critical and complicated conditions.

For instance, Mr Wang in Jinzhai county, east China's Anhui province suffers from rheumatoid disease, and his condition got worse recently. The progression wasn't controlled even after he was hospitalized. In less than two days, Wang became unconscious and he refused to go through checkups.

To deal with the situation, Wang's doctor contacted Chen Xiaoping, deputy director of the endocrinology department of the Beijing-based China-Japan Friendship Hospital (CJFH), via a telemedicine platform. After Chen held a joint consultation with experts from his hospital, Wang was diagnosed with brain damage led by severe hyponatremia and mild infection in the lungs. Thanks to the joint consultation, Wang soon recovered after going through systematic treatment. He can even do farm work now.

Cui Yong, vice president of the CJFH introduced that combining telemedicine and internet-based medical consultation is a highlight of the CJFH's internet hospital, which can both improve medical capability at primary level and better facilitate the people.

Telemedicine is mainly for patients in critical and complicated conditions at primary-level medical institutions, while internet-based medical consultation is offered to patients on subsequent visits who could miss the prime time for treatment once their situations worsen if they can't make it to big hospitals in time.

The combination of telemedicine and internet-based medical consultation is able to timely detect and deal with new symptoms developed by patients and thus better guarantee their health.

So far, the CJFH has been connected to nearly 6,000 medical institutions across the country via its internet hospital system, including 580 offering integrated elderly care and medical services. A total of more than 13,000 remote consultations have been carried out.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
The Taliban on Tuesday warned that it will 'reconsider' policy towards the US if it does not receive full USD 7 billion frozen assets. US President Joe Biden on Friday decided to split USD 7 billion of the frozen Afghan assets to fund humanitarian relief in Afghanistan and compensate victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. A spokesman for the Taliban issued a statement on Monday saying that the September 11 attacks "had nothing to do with Afghanistan." The spokesman said if the United States "does not deviate from its position and continues its provocative actions, the Islamic Emirate will also be forced to reconsider its policy towards the country," referring to Afghanistan's official name, reported Voice of America (VOA). The Taliban ruled Afghanistan at the time of the September 11 attacks and harboured Osama bin Laden, the head of the Al-Qaida terrorist network and mastermind of the US attacks. A US-led invasion of Afghanistan weeks after the attacks overthrew the Taliban after they refused Washington's demands to surrender Bin Laden. The US withdrawal from Afghanistan last August ended the nearly 20-year war, but the United Nations and other international relief groups say Afghanistan faces one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, which stems from more than four decades of conflict and natural calamities, reported VOA. More than half of the country's poverty-stricken population, or an estimated 24 million Afghans, face an acute food shortage and some one million children under five years of age could die from hunger by the end of this year, according to UN estimates following the US withdrawal from the country. (ANI)
According to the statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Taliban delegates reassured the EU envoys that the new ruling government of Afghanistan is committed to upholding the legitimate rights of the society.

"The participants shared their plans, recommendations, and information on the humanitarian and health situation, the educational process, and the needs of Afghanistan," read MoFA statement.

"The EU representatives called the current educational process in Afghanistan and its progress promising, and reminded of allocation of USD 11 million in this sector, saying that given the situation, we want to increase humanitarian, educational, and health assistance in Afghanistan," added the statement.

The Taliban delegation called on the European Union to re-launch the suspended education process and to cooperate in the field of internet services for Afghan students to have access to online courses.

Responding to the EU representatives' concerns, the Taliban also reassured them that they were committed to the legitimate rights of the society, professional staff was being recruited, mistreatment of officials from previous administration was toxic propaganda, and that experiencing the conditions, Afghans living abroad are returning home where their skills are utilized for the development of the country.

Participants stressed the importance and continuation of such meetings.

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)
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain has been found not guilty of encouraging terrorism in Karachi from London. The jury at Kingston-upon-Thames crown court announced a majority verdict of 10-2 in MQM founder's favour on Wednesday, reported The Express Tribune. They declared that they found Hussain not to be in violation of the UK's anti-Terrorism laws on 22nd August 2016 when he made two speeches from London to his followers in Karachi. The MQM founder was facing two counts of charges related to encouraging terrorism, while delivering two speeches from London via telephone on August 22, 2016, reported The Express Tribune. The Scotland Yard had previously charged Hussain with terrorism offenses in October 2019. It claimed that the speech encouraged the incitement of violence and disorder. Hussain was arrested on June 11, 2019, under the pretense of having violated Section 44 of the Serious Crimes Act 2007. He was later released on bail. The arguments in the case concluded on Friday last week, after which the jury retired for deliberations, according to media reports. The judge, Justice May, told the jury that they might conclude that Hussain did not have an answer to the prosecution's case, but the jurors could not convict him just for his silence. Justice May told the jury that prosecution had to prove guilt. She also said that the prosecution did not have to prove that acts of terrorism actually occurred, though it was their submission, adding that the meaning of intention and reckless was for the jury to determine, reported The Express Tribune. The MQM founder has lived in self-imposed exile in London for more than two decades. He requested asylum in the 1990s and later gained UK citizenship. The Pakistani authorities have repeatedly demanded action be taken against him for inciting people in Pakistan to violence. (ANI)




A quarter of Democrats say that they don't think their party took advantage of having control of the White House and Congress in 2021, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

The poll shows that 28 percent of respondents who identified as Democrats said their party lacked resolve or was preoccupied with internal feuds. Nearly half, or 47 percent, of those surveyed blamed Republicans for thwarting Democrats' plans, and 25 percent said the party had, in large part, accomplished its goals.

A number of moderate Democrats in Congress have also voiced similar concerns, saying that the party has focused too much on its failures rather than its successes including the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed last year, Reuters reported.

Specifically, Democratic respondents in the poll said they were disappointed by notable failures like President Biden's $1.75 trillion "Build Back Better" social spending bill as well as the unsuccessful push for sweeping voter rights reform, both of which would have required Democrats to override Senate filibuster rules.

Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) both voted against changing the filibuster rules for the voting rights bill.

For the upcoming midterm elections in November, 55 percent of Democrats polled said they were certain to vote compared to 59 percent of Republicans who said the same.

The poll was conducted online between Jan. 31 and Feb. 8 and included responses from 4,404 adults including 2,015 who identified as Democrats, 1,663 who identified as Republicans and 510 who identified as independents. It has a margin of error of 2-5 percentage points.

Updated at 9:14 a.m.
One driver died and the other was seriously injured in a two-vehicle crash Monday evening in the Broome County Town of Maine.

The crash took place around 7:30 p.m. on state Route 26 southwest of Hardy Road, according to New York State Police.

The crash involved a Ford Focus and Honda Civic, and each vehicle had only one occupant, state police said.

Both drivers had to be extricated from their vehicles by fire personnel.

The driver of the Ford Focus, identified by state police as Alainna L. Stempel, 32, of Binghamton, was transported by Maine Ambulance to UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, and has since died.

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The operator of the Honda Civic, Nathan A. Baker, 19, of Glen Aubrey, New York, was airlifted by Guthrie Air to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. His condition isn't available.

The road was closed to traffic for at least four hours after the crash.

State police were assisted at the scene by the state Department of Transportation, by the Union and Maine ambulance services, and by the the Maine, Glen Aubrey, East Maine, West Corners, and Union Center fire departments.

The investigation into the crash is continuing.

Follow Jeff Murray on Twitter @SGJeffMurray. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Broome County car crash kills 1, sends another to hospital
PANAMA CITY  Brandon Young says he was both "humbled" and "thrilled" to learn he would be among two new judges added this year to the 14th Judicial Circuit of Florida.

While Young, a 44-year-old Bonifay resident, was technically sworn into the position on Jan. 1, a ceremony was held Friday at the Holmes County Courthouse for Gov. Ron DeSantis to formerly commission him as circuit judge.

"I just hope to live up to being a 14th Judicial Circuit Judge," Young said. "It's an honor ... and it's a tall task to be colleagues with the rest of the judges because we have some really, really good judges."

Judge Brandon Young of the 14th Judicial Circuit of Florida.

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Young noted that the he was appointed because the State Legislature funded two new judge positions in the 14th judicial circuit to handle growing case loads in the area.

His circuit covers all of Calhoun County, where his main office is located, along with 33% of the family law cases in Bay County.

"It's a big deal to me," Young said of becoming a judge. "It's just something that I've always aspired to and I think most attorneys feel the same way. It's just a honor to be a judge."

According to a press release from the 14th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Young graduated from Holmes County High School in 1995 before completing his undergraduate degree at the University of West Florida. He then attended law school at the University of Florida, where he graduated in 2001.

Young said he has about 17 years experience working for the State Attorney's Office, in addition to about four years spent as a private prosecutor. He was chief assistant state attorney for the majority of his time at the State Attorney's Office.

The press release also states he has worked as general counsel for Holmes County Board of County Commissioners and a member of the Board of Trustees for Chipola College.

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Young described himself as an avid fisherman, hunter and outdoorsman.

He and his wife, Sherry Young, will celebrate their 18th anniversary this year. They have two children, Madison White, 23 and Braydon Young, 16.

"I think ... what set me apart to get the appointment is that I have a lot of trial experience," Young said. "I've done a lot of jury trials and I have not just criminal experience or not civil experience, (but experience in) both.

"I'm very humbled and thrilled about the whole experience and I can't wait to get to work, do my best and make everybody proud."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay County gets new 14th Judicial Circuit of Florida judge seat filled
bear rescue

four paws

A global animal welfare organization's largest bear rescue to date saved the lives of nine Asiatic black bears.

According to a release from FOUR PAWS, the organization recently rescued the animals, picking up the nine bears from three different bear farms in the Binh Duong province of southern Vietnam.

Before their rescue, the bears were subjected to painful bile extractions, as bear bile is considered a remedy in traditional medicine, according to FOUR PAWS. The nonprofit knows the nine bears spent at least 17 years in the cramped, tiny cages rescuers found them in because, in 2005, the Vietnamese government banned the intake of new bears onto bear farms and had all the bears currently residing on farms microchipped.

While this ban prevented new bears from being taken to farms, bear farm owners were allowed to keep their microchipped animals, leaving bears like the nine recently rescued animals stuck in uncomfortable, unnatural conditions.

bear rescue

four paws

"All bears still kept on bear farms in Vietnam are suffering. They suffer from cruel keeping conditions and bile extraction, which is illegal, but still done. These bears are locked up in metal cages, often not much larger than the bear itself, lined up in dark sheds without any sunlight. Bears need to roam around, climb, dig, and swim. The remaining bears in Vietnam still have a chance at a better life, but only if all province authorities in Vietnam are fully committed to finally end bear farming in the country. To achieve this, especially Hanoi must step up its efforts," Magdalena Scherk-Trettin, who coordinates the FOUR PAWS bear projects, said in a statement.

RELATED: Bear Kept in Narrow Cage for 20 Years Moves to Spacious Sanctuary to 'Find Her Bear Friends'

Captive Asiatic black bear numbers are dropping across Vietnam, with 40 out of 63 provinces bear farming-free. Still, Vietnam's capital Hanoi remains a hotspot for bear farms, per FOUR PAWS' release, with 158 of the 317 captive Asiatic black bears left in Vietnam living on farms in Hanoi.

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FOUR PAWS is working to shut down all the remaining bear farms in Vietnam, offering to move bears surrendered by farmers to their bear sanctuary in Ninh Binh.

bear rescue

four paws

The nine bears recently rescued by FOUR PAWS  Vui, Nui, An, Teo, Tai, Tin, Khoi, Danh, and Thi  are at the sanctuary now after completing a 1,000-mile, 42-hour journey from their farms to their new home.

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"The rescue mission was a success, and everything went to plan, thanks to the hard work and dedication of our team. The journey back was long and obviously stressful for the bears although we try to make them as comfortable as possible. However, now they are safely at the sanctuary and already settling in, with soft beds, healthy food, enrichment, and medical treatment. They suffer from an extensive array of ailments found in former bile bears, so we have our work cut out. The first months of care will be very intensive, but soon hopefully they will be enjoying a more species-appropriate life alongside all our other rescued bears," Emily Lloyd, an animal manager at FOUR PAWS' bear sanctuary in Ninh Binh, said.
A Louisville activist has been identified as a suspect in the attempted shooting of mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg  a case that has drawn national attention and unproven accusations of radicalism amid a tense racial and political climate.

Quintez Brown, 21, was charged late Monday with attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment after Greenberg was shot at in his campaign headquarters that morning.

No one was injured in the shooting, but a bullet grazed Greenberg's sweater and shirt.

Brown, a former intern and editorial columnist for The Courier Journal, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday, where a judge set his bail at $100,000.

The latest: Louisville bail group posts bond for Quintez Brown, Craig Greenberg shooting case suspect

Police have not offered a motive for the shooting, but speculation quickly swirled on social media, linking Brown's arrest to his activism and affiliation with racial justice organizations.

Activist Quintez Brown

People who know Brown say jumping to conclusions without more information is "irresponsible," and they expressed concern about his mental state.

Brown disappeared for about two weeks last year. He was found on a park bench in New York, said Rob Eggert, his attorney.

"This is not a hate crime  it is a mental health case," Eggert told The Courier Journal on Tuesday.

Greenberg has not commented on Brown's arrest but said Tuesday that he had not met him before. At a press conference Monday, he called the experience "surreal" and said "more needs to be done to end the senseless gun violence" in Louisville.

"Too many local families have experienced the trauma of gun violence," the Democrats' frontrunner said. "Too many in Louisville were not as blessed as my team and I were today to survive."

Also: Mayor hopeful Greenberg doesn't want his shooting to divide Louisville. It's already begun

Craig Greenberg responds to shooting

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Greenberg and four members of his staff were at a meeting in his campaign office in the Butchertown Market building when a man entered the doorway about 10:15 a.m. and began shooting at him, the candidate said Monday.

Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg talks to the media, addressing the shooting at his campaign headquarters on Monday morning, saying: "I just want to get home to my wife and sons." Feb. 14

A staff member near the door managed to "bravely" get it shut, Greenberg said, and others moved tables in front of the door as the suspect fled.

"I'm very fortunate to have a great team of great people who responded in that way," Greenberg said.

A police report says a man later identified as Brown fired a 9mm Glock handgun in the office.

Craig Greenberg shooting: Mayoral candidate describes shooting at campaign office, 'shaken but safe'

Officers found a man matching the suspect's description less than half a mile away about 10 minutes later, carrying a loaded 9mm magazine in his pants pocket, according to the arrest report.

He also had a drawstring bag with a handgun, handgun case and additional magazines, the report said.

Surveillance video from the building showed the suspect wearing clothes matching Brown's and carrying a matching bag, the report said.

In his eight-minute press conference, Greenberg returned multiple times to gun violence that has plagued Louisville, leading to record numbers of homicides in the last two years.

"It's been the number one issue I've been talking about since I launched my campaign," he said Monday. The incident has "just given me even more resolve ... to work together with the community to end this senseless gun violence."

In an interview Tuesday afternoon with host Terry Meiners on 840-WHAS, Greenberg said he planned to see a mental health professional at some point to discuss the impact the shooting had on him, reiterating he and his campaign team were blessed to survive.

He avoided discussing whether he thought the $100,000 bail was an appropriate figure but noted he and his team would take extra precautions through the rest of the election season to emphasize safety.

Quintez Brown called 'brilliant' student

Brown's friends and mentors were shaken by his arrest, calling the situation a tragedy that can't be easily explained.

Eggert said Brown is a senior at the University of Louisville, where he is an MLK Scholar and has been opinion editor for the student newspaper, the Cardinal. He is the founder of From Fields to Arena, a group committed to providing political education and violence prevention training to youths engaged in hip-hop and athletics.

He recently announced he would run for Metro Council in District 5.

Quintez Brown, 21, is running to represent District 5 for Louisvilles Metro Council.



Frederick Douglass said that the youth should fight to be leaders today, because the men who run this country are sick. - Kwame Ture pic.twitter.com/tUCjXXG2hS  Quintez Brown - District 5 (@tez4liberation) December 15, 2021

U of L professor Ricky Jones called Brown "one of the most brilliant kids I've ever encountered."

"He seemed like a kid out of his time, who was misplaced, like he actually belonged to a different generation with his level of consciousness and concern," Jones said Tuesday. "I'd place him in the top five students that I've taught in my 26 years at this school."

Kentucky politicians: Attack on Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg 'terrifying'

Jones and others said they hadn't spoken with Brown much after he disappeared in 2021, and they worried he may need treatment for a mental illness.

"I think Quintez needs a lot of help," said Darryl Young, who knew Brown through the Muhammad Ali Center Council of Students. "... Mental health can be a talking point. I think what we have to realize is people are struggling, people are hurting, people are placed in situations where they do not feel like they have an out."

Rashaad Abdur-Rahman, founder of the Racial Healing Project, has known Brown since he was in high school and said he's struggling to process his arrest.

"I've seen very dangerous assertions being made about what the motives were," he said. "We just don't know. ... Everybody has a leadership opportunity here to really speak up and say we need to cool the rhetoric down and respect that we don't have all the facts.

"There's too much at stake not to be thoughtful and intentional here."

Metro Councilman Anthony Piagentini said people need to be careful about speculating on any motives until police finish their investigation.

However, he repeated comments on social media questioning if Brown could have been used as "a pawn."

"I have questions about whether or not those around him were giving him the proper advice," Piagentini said.

Khalilah Collins, who met Brown at racial justice protests in 2020, said associations between Brown's activism and arrest are reckless without more facts.

"It says anyone associated with Black Lives Matter is now a threat," she said. "It's just very irresponsible to do that when we have no information on what happened or why it happened."

How to get help

If you or someone you know may be struggling with mental illness, you can seek treatment referrals through SAMHSA's National Helpline by calling 800-662-4357 or texting 43578 (HELP4U). You can also get information in English and Spanish by calling 800-487-4889 any time day or night.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson. Reporters Bailey Loosemore, Krista Johnson and Lucas Aulbach contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville mayor candidate shot at: Quintez Brown accused of shooting
Feb. 15Alaska on Monday reported 1,822 new COVID-19 cases in residents and a slight drop in the number of COVID-positive people hospitalized as the ongoing decline in the omicron variant surge continues.

The state on Friday reported about 1,800 new cases  over a two-day period, rather than three  and 105 COVID-positive patients hospitalized around Alaska. On Monday, the state reported 103 hospitalized COVID-positive patients.

The state now reports COVID-related deaths only on Wednesday. Since the pandemic began, a total of 1,081 Alaskans and another 33 nonresidents have died from the virus.

Generally, new case data does not reflect the number of people testing positive using at-home tests, which are increasingly popular as health officials encourage frequent testing as a way to prevent viral spread.

The 10,902 cases reported in Alaskans the first week in February marked a roughly 30% decrease from the week before, according to an Alaska Department of Health and Social Services weekly report.

Despite reporting fewer cases week by week, Alaska's seven-day new case rate continues to lead other U.S. states, according to a CDC tracker.

State health officials last week also confirmed they are monitoring the BA.2, the new "stealth" omicron subvariant, which first arrived in Alaska last month but does not appear to cause more severe illness than other strains.

[Boosters wane in effectiveness after 4 months but show sturdy protection against hospitalization, CDC study shows]

Data shows vaccines appear to work well against symptomatic infection, especially for people who have received boosters.

Unvaccinated Alaskans are more than nine times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than Alaskans who are fully vaccinated, including boosters, according to the state's weekly report. Unvaccinated Alaskans are about two and a half times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than Alaskans who completed their primary vaccination series only.

As of Monday, 62.1% of eligible Alaskans had completed their primary vaccine series. Just 26.4% had received a booster.
The grandson and nephew of Chicago's two longest serving mayors is now a felon.

A federal jury on Monday took less than five hours to convict Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson of lying about bank loans and filing fraudulent tax returns.

State law requires Thompson to immediately resign as 11th Ward alderman.

Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson Convicted Of Federal Income Tax Fraud

Patrick Daley Thompson. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo, File)

Defrosting. High: 39 Low: 36.



Mayor Lori Lightfoot isn't ready to pick a date for lifting the city's mask and proof-of-vaccination mandates. Daily coronavirus case numbers remain more than 500 a day. "I don't want to put an artificial date on when this is going to happen when we still see some danger signs in the data," Lightfoot said. (NBC)

Chicago Public Schools have seen a slowdown in pediatric coronavirus vaccination rates. Vaccine uptake among 5- to 11-year-olds has only slightly increased, with less than a quarter of Chicago Public Schools students fully vaccinated. (Chalkbeat)

An SUV left running with a 4-year-old boy inside was stolen on the South Side Monday afternoon. Thankfully, police found the Range Rover a short time later with the boy inside, authorities said. (WGN)

The owner of Poppin' Dough, a Longwood Manor popcorn and donut shop, is hoping that his loyal customers will help pitch in to help the store reopen. Richard Gray launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to fix a busted pipe that his insurance policy won't cover the $42,000 repair, and he can't afford to fix. (CBS2)

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 Mark Konkol

About me: Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."

This article originally appeared on the Chicago Patch
The wind driven Sycamore fire destroyed two homes and damaged others off Banyon Rim Drive on Feb. 10 in Whittier. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

A Whittier man has been charged with starting a fire that destroyed two homes and damaged four others in a canyon neighborhood last week, authorities said.

Kevin Whitlock, 54, was charged with six counts of arson of an inhabited structure or property and one count each of arson of property of another and arson of a structure or forest, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

The Sycamore fire began shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday and burned about seven acres near the 4800 block of Cinco View Drive, officials said.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Whitlock after he was found in the canyon with burns, officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Friday. He was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, authorities said.

Whitlock, who is still recovering from his wounds, was unable on Tuesday to attend his arraignment, and it was rescheduled for next week.

Prosecutors allege that Whitlock set a fire among brush between a small trail and several houses sitting at the edge of Sycamore Canyon. Whipped by Santa Ana winds and high temperatures amid an increasingly common winter dry spell, flames shot up the grassy hill and toward the Whittier suburb.

It took more than 200 firefighters to extinguish the blaze, but not before flames charred through several acres of brush, gutted two houses, damaged four others and marred parts of another home's backyard, prosecutors said.

Fire crews hauled out furniture, wall art and dishes from one of the smoldering houses, parking the salvaged valuables on a neighbor's driveway.

This fire could have had fatal consequences, and even though it didnt, there was tremendous loss for several families due to the unnecessary actions of one individual, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascon said.

Whitlock has not yet been assigned a defense attorney.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
(Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison may have thought strumming a ukulele version of a 1970s pop hit would be a light moment during a TV interview aired on Sunday as he prepares for national elections set to happen before May.

Instead, his 30-second take on the 1977 song "April Sun in Cuba" drew fire from the song's creators, New Zealand band Dragon, who issued a statement calling his efforts a "cynical move" to use music to "humanize" himself ahead of the polls.

In the interview with the 60 Minutes news programme, Morrison, sitting at the table having a meal with his family and the news presenter, strums through the first lines of the song's chorus, saying he did not remember all the words, while his wife Jenny and two daughters add some backing vocals and laughter.

Morrison's use of the four-stringed guitar popular in Hawaii did not help matters as critics of the interview recalled an ill-advised trip to the U.S. state in December 2019 that he had to return early from as bushfires raged across Australia.

"Maybe if his trip to Hawaii had not been cut short, he could have learnt the lyrics to the rest of the chorus," Dragon said in their statement.

The band posted on Instagram a TikTok video of Morrison playing the ukulele against a backdrop of burning forests with the caption, "Once again, Dragon are famous for all the wrong reasons."

Australia must hold federal elections before May 21 and Morrison's Liberal Party is under pressure for their handling of the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases and deaths soared.

Preliminary reports showed on Sunday the party had suffered an upset in by-elections in the state of New South Wales.

(Writing by Christian Schmollinger; Editing by Karishma Singh)
President Joe Biden speaks about the Ukraine crisis from the White House on February 15, 2022. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Biden appealed directly to Russians in a speech about Ukraine at the White House on Tuesday.

"To the citizens of Russia: You are not our enemy," Biden said.

Biden said the US has not verified Russia's claim that it's pulled some troops back from Ukraine's border.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday appealed directly to the Russian people in a speech on the Ukraine crisis, while underscoring that the US is prepared to handle the Russian government's actions concerning Ukraine "no matter what happens."

Biden insisted that the US is not seeking conflict with Russia and pushed against the notion that the West is to blame for the tensions over Ukraine.

"The United States and NATO are not a threat to Russia. Ukraine is not threatening Russia. Neither the US nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not have plans to put them there," Biden said.

"To the citizens of Russia: You are not our enemy, and I do not believe you want a bloody, destructive war against Ukraine  a country and people with whom you share such deep ties of family history and culture," the president added.

Biden also mentioned that Americans and Russians fought on the same side during World War II.

"77 years ago, our people fought and sacrificed side-by-side to end the worst war in history," Biden said. "World War II was a war of necessity. But if Russia attacks Ukraine, it would be a war of choice."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the West for the contentious dynamic concerning Ukraine, despite his history of aggression toward the former Soviet republic. Polling has shown that many Russians blame the US and NATO for the Ukraine crisis, suggesting Putin's propaganda is working. Russia in 2014 invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, and since that year has supported rebels in a war against Ukrainian forces.

Biden in his remarks also reiterated that he would not send troops into Ukraine if Russia invades, stating the US is "not seeking direct confrontation with Russia." But he warned Moscow that the US would "respond forcefully" if Russia attacks or targets Americans in Ukraine, while once again urging any US citizens in the country to leave as soon as possible.

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Russia on Tuesday said it was pulling back some of its troops from its border with Ukraine. Echoing the skepticism of other Western leaders and officials, Biden said the US had not yet verified whether Russia had withdrawn a portion of its troops.

"The fact remains right now, Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine," Biden said. "An invasion remains distinctly possible."

The president emphasized, however, that the US is still open to a diplomatic resolution to the crisis. Biden said the US would give diplomacy "every chance to succeed," while again warning Russia it would face major economic consequences if it invades.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said it has no plans to invade, while accusing the West of ignoring its security concerns. Russia has demanded that Ukraine and Georgia be permanently barred from NATO. But the alliance and Washington have consistently said that NATO's open door policy is non-negotiable.

Putin on Tuesday signaled that Russia was open to continuing negotiations, but accused the West of ignoring Moscow's primary concerns while baselessly suggesting a "genocide" of ethnic Russians was occurring in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Though Ukraine is not on track to become a member of NATO at any point in the near future, the Russian president demanded that the issue be addressed now, per BBC News.

Touching on these disagreements in his speech on Tuesday, Biden said the crisis is "about more than just Russia and Ukraine."

"It's about standing for what we believe in, for the future that we want for our world, for liberty...And the right of people to determine their own futures," Biden said. "If we do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today, we'll surely pay a steeper price tomorrow."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Profiled: The Black Man, a four-part OWN series on the Discovery+ network, debuted Saturday, featuring the companys owners and co-founders.

Profiled: The Black Man, a new four-part Discovery+ docuseries created by OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and executive produced by Tina Knowles-Lawson, kicked off Saturday with its first episode.

The Black Bread Company, based in Chicago, is one of the first Black male-owned businesses to be featured on the series, which is hosted by Tristan Mack Wilds. Its owners and founders, Charles Alexander, Mark Edmond and Jamel Lewis, are best friends, all from the South Side of Chi-Town, who partnered up to start the first-ever Black-owned sliced bread company in the world.

The Black Bread Company showcased on Profiled: The Black Man Saturday was founded by best friends (from left) Jamel Lewis, Charles Alexander and Mark Edmond. (Photo: Screenshot/blackbreadco.com)

According to their website, the three strive to inspire others to believe in the power of their own individual contributions to improve the world around them one great idea at a time.

The trio was featured on the first Discovery+ episode of Profiled: The Black Man, titled Black Men are Dangerous, on which Alexander, Edmond and Lewis note that the founding and growth of their company was due in part to the global uprise that followed the police murder of George Floyd.

For us to be on the first episode, Alexander told The Chicago Tribune, it gives us a really unique opportunity to dismantle that stereotype, to talk about if were dangerous, were dangerous in a way of succeeding  dangerous in a way of overcoming stereotypes, overcoming obstacles in our current lived experiences. Its a chance to mix in our lived experiences, and were coupling it with how we created our company.

When we first started, Edmond added, we were told from a gentleman that was in this industry for over 40 years, that this was the first time his people were sitting down with Black people. To hear those statements, and realize the importance of African American business  our role is to say that all Black men are not dangerous. Just because were from Chicago, the South Side, young, Black males, we automatically have this stereotype, or stigma over us, which is not the case.

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The Black Bread Company  which sells a variety of sliced loaves and buns  ships its products nationwide, and its website contends the company has centered our efforts toward providing you with the freshest quality in premium sliced bread. The founders say they hope supporters join them in using our powers collectively to encourage creativity and ensure generational progression to sustain marginalized communities.

The mens baking business was also featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last spring, where the talk show host tasted their bread and presented them with a check for $20,000 from Shutterfly to help grow their efforts.

Per theGrios previous reporting, the Discovery+ series official synopsis, per the press release, reads: Through a powerful mixture of historical footage, real-life testimony, and commentary from an array of renowned thought leaders, Profiled: The Black Man aims to show the difficulties Black men have faced, both in the past and present-day, while also highlighting and celebrating the triumphs and resilience of countless extraordinary men. In addition, each episode will feature commentary from notable community members such as executive producer Tina Knowles-Lawson, civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson, activist Tamika Mallory, hip-hop culture icon Sway Calloway, the Grammy, Emmy and Tony award-winning Billy Porter and more.

TheGrio is now on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Black Bread Co. featured on Tina Knowles-Lawson docuseries appeared first on TheGrio.
The Boise Police Department has confirmed that a mans gunshot injury outside of Buffalo Wild Wings on The Grove plaza Saturday night was self-inflicted.

After further investigation into the shooting  evidence shows the man was injured after accidentally discharging his own firearm, spokesperson Haley Williams told the Idaho Statesman.

A police officer working at an Idaho Steelheads game exited Idaho Central Arena at around 9:25 p.m. and found a man on the plaza with a gunshot wound to the leg, Lt. Jim Quackenbush of the Boise Police Department said.

This set off an unsettling scene. Police and emergency vehicles descended on the plaza and its surrounding blocks. Police secured a perimeter, searched the area for a possible shooting suspect and put crime scene tape around the entire plaza. Some local businesses sheltered people inside, locking their doors and closing early in the process.

The man was found with a firearm in his possession, and he was conscious and speaking, Quackenbush said. He was transported to a hospital and remained there as of Tuesday afternoon with non-life-threatening injuries, Williams said.

Police did not immediately know the wound had been self-inflicted, which led to their response and reaction.

There was not information immediately after the shooting to know no one else was involved, and officers had to secure the area for the safety of everyone else nearby and to secure a possible crime scene, Williams said.

As the investigation went on, Williams said, there wasnt any evidence to indicate anyone else was involved. Police say they have now confirmed what happened through multiple sources.

When asked what the victim told police about how he received his injury, Williams said she could not get into specifics of the investigation or the mans statements because there could be charges pending against the individual.

Man with gunshot wound found on Grove plaza in crowded downtown Boise
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain said on Tuesday it would co-host an international aid conference with the United Nations next month to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger have spiralled since the Taliban took power last year.

The virtual pledging conference will aim to help the United Nations raise $4.4 billion for Afghanistan, the largest amount it has ever requested for a single country.

Most foreign aid was cut off after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in the summer. The United Nations estimates 98% of Afghans are not eating enough and hospitals and schools cannot afford to pay staff.

"The scale of need is unparalleled, and consequences of inaction will be devastating," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

"The UK is determined to lead the global effort. We will bring international allies together to raise vital aid to deliver food, shelter and health services, protect women and girls and support stability in the region."

A combination of the loss of foreign aid, a severe drought, and a currency crisis have left Afghanistan's economy on the brink of collapse with food prices rising rapidly and causing widespread hunger.

The donor conference comes as the international community continues to grapple with how to help Afghanistan without benefiting the country's Taliban rulers.

During its previous rule from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned women from leaving the house without a male relative and full face and head covering and girls from receiving education.

The Taliban initially promised to form a more inclusive government, but claims of summary executions and the curtailed the rights of women have been met with dismay by western governments.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)
USC's Drew Peterson shoots over Johnny Juzang, who along with his UCLA teammates has struggled on defense lately. (Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

A Mick Cronin tradition as familiar as outdressing his coaching counterpart could make a return this week inside Pauley Pavilion: the quick hook.

The UCLA basketball coach said Tuesday that lineup changes and extended benchings might be in store for his team to get back to playing the level of defense that made the Bruins look invincible the last time they were on their home court.

More recently, while losing three of their last four games, Bruin defenders have struggled to stay in front of their man or rotate properly to provide help.

Whatever has to happen will happen to improve those areas, Cronin said.

Cronin didnt specify any changes heading into the No. 13 Bruins game against Washington State on Thursday night, but perhaps no one on the team has made a stronger case for an expanded role than center Myles Johnson.

The graduate transfer has combined active interior defense with strong rebounding while providing quality minutes off the bench. He made two deflections quickly after entering the game against USC on Saturday and finished with 11 rebounds in 21 minutes.

Over his last three games, Johnson has averaged 9.3 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game. Over the same span, starting forward Cody Riley has averaged 4.7 rebounds in 26.3 minutes per game.

Johnson acknowledged the need to be more assertive at times, especially on offense, allowing him to live up to his nickname of Myles the Monster.

I've been told that forever  I've been a nice guy, I've got to be more aggressive and stuff like that, Johnson said. So it's definitely a challenge I'm facing, currently. Plus, we need it. I can help as much as I can, and being aggressive will obviously help the team a lot.

Why is channeling that mind-set still an issue in his fourth college season?

I honestly couldn't tell you, Johnson said. I guess I'm just more mild-natured than I thought, and I guess I just have to bring that [assertiveness] out of myself.

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The same goes for teammates who need to recapture the defensive intensity they displayed during their last homestand, when the Bruins held Arizona, California and Stanford below 60 points. Each of UCLAs last four opponents has topped 65 points, with three exceeding 75.

On-the-ball defense and weakside help arent the only issues.

I dont remember the last time we rotated and took a charge, Cronin said.

For a team thats dropped in the rankings, not to mention its projected NCAA tournament seedings, getting back on track could start with a winning effort.

You can't control whether the ball goes in or turnovers sometimes, point guard Tyger Campbell said, but we can control our energy and effort, so we've just got to start playing harder like we were.

Those who dont could find themselves sitting next to their coach on the bench.

Easing off

The Bruins are taking a less-is-more approach with guard Jaime Jaquez Jr.s practice workload, scaling it back in hopes of bolstering the health of his bothersome ankles.

On Monday, Jaquez completed some work on the exercise bike in addition to shooting drills. That was it.

Were limiting him as much as possible, Cronin said. Its a day-to-day decision with Jaime.

Jaquez wore ankle braces during UCLAs loss to USC and seemed to be moving at half-speed, missing two layups and finishing with five points. He sprained his right ankle earlier this season and disclosed last month that his left ankle was beset with synovitis, a condition that causes inflammation.

Ive been having issues with that ankle, so I think it was something that just happens over time, just always playing on it, Jaquez said at the time. I think people have it in their knees  they call it jumpers knee  I just have it in my ankle.

Jaquez said he underwent daily treatment to strength the ankle, help with his balance and support the other muscles in his leg.

While Jaquez will have to monitor the ankles for the rest of this season, there was no worry that the issues would linger for the balance of his career.

Hell get things rectified after the season, Cronin said. Hell be fine.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Quintez Browns attorney reportedly plans to have him evaluated as soon as possible and sought the courts recognition of his mental state.

Kentucky activist Quintez Brown, who is a candidate for the Louisville Metro Council, has been charged with attempted murder after he allegedly fired multiple rounds at the headquarters of Craig Greenberg, a mayoral candidate.

The shooting happened on Monday and, according to The Louisville Courier-Journal, Brown, 21, was identified by witnesses and apprehended less than a half-mile from Greenbergs campaign headquarters carrying a loaded 9mm magazine in his pocket. He was also arrested in possession of a handgun, a case and additional magazines.

Quintez Brown (Credit: Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections)

He has been charged with attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment. At his arraignment Tuesday, Brown pled not guilty. The independent candidates bond was set at $100,000.

Greenberg told ABC News that he was shaken but safe after being at his campaign office early Monday with four colleagues when a man, later identified as Brown, came to the doorway with a gun. When we greeted him, he pulled out a gun, aimed directly at me and began shooting, Greenberg said.

One immediately shut the door, and they barricaded it. Despite one bullet coming so close that it grazed my sweater and my shirt, according to the Democratic mayoral hopeful, no one was physically harmed.

Police are working to uncover Browns motive in the shooting. He is suspected of having acted alone.

The 21-year-old gained local notoriety after being active in protests in Louisville following the police killing of Breonna Taylor in March 2020. The Courier-Journal  for which Brown interned in 2019 and 2020 and penned occasional opinion pieces  says he is the founder of From Fields to Arena, a group committed to providing political education and violence prevention training to youths engaged in hip-hop and athletics.

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Brown, a senior at the University of Louisville, was reported missing last summer by his family after he disappeared for two weeks. His lawyer, Rob Eggert, reportedly plans to have Brown evaluated as soon as possible and sought the courts recognition of his clients mental state.

In a statement after he was found  reportedly on a Brooklyn park bench  his family said: We are asking for privacy and would appreciate everyones patience and support while we tend to the most immediate need, which is Quintezs physical, mental and spiritual needs.

After Mondays shooting, Greenberg, who is one of eight Democratic candidates for mayor of Louisville, said, Too many Louisville families have experienced the trauma of gun violence. Too many in Louisville were not as blessed as my team and I were today to survive.

Clearly, much more work needs to be done to end this senseless gun violence, he said, and make Louisville a safer place for everyone.

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The post Civil rights activist charged with attempted murder after attack of mayoral candidate appeared first on TheGrio.
Supreme Court precedents from 100 years ago, calling residents of U.S. territories

A group of 13 civil rights organizations sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week, calling on the Department of Justice to stop using a series of racist, century-old Supreme Court precedents in its court arguments.

The letter  signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Hispanic Federation, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, among other groups  targets a series of Supreme Court rulings from the early 20th century, known as the Insular Cases. These rulings denied the full benefits of citizenship to residents of Americas colonial territorial possessions, on the grounds that they were supposedly populated by savage tribes and alien and uncivilized race[s] who were absolutely unfit to receive them.

We call on the Justice Department to help dismantle this egregious example of systemic racism by publicly condemning the Insular Cases and bringing an end to any reliance on them in future court filings, the letter states.

Today, the Insular Cases still deprive the more than 3.5 million Americans living in Americas colonial territories of the right to vote in federal elections, equal application of the law and equal access to federal benefits and rights, despite those peoples claim to birthright citizenship as provided for in the 14th Amendment.

The civil rights groups want Garland and Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to make it the governments position that the courts should overturn the Insular Cases, much as the Department of Justice did in 2011 with regard to the Korematsu v. United States case that upheld the incarceration and removal of Japanese Americans during World War II. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the past decade, a series of cases have made their way through the courts seeking to challenge these 100-year-old precedents. So far, none has cracked the Insular Cases, although there is increasing pressure building against them.

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In 2015, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a case brought by an American Samoan man who was denied the ability to work as a police officer in California because of his status as a non-citizen national  a designation held solely by American Samoans. The courts 3-0 ruling in Tuaua v. United States relied heavily on the Insular Cases, which the Obama administrations Department of Justice urged them to do in an amicus brief filed with the court.

Puerto Rico is the U.S. territory with the largest population (more than 3 million) of Americans denied equal rights by the 100-year-old Insular Cases court precedents. (Photo: Spencer Platt via Getty Images)

The Supreme Court declined to overturn the Insular Cases precedents in its 2020 ruling in Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment, LLC, despite a request to do so by parties involved in the case. In the decision, written by Justice Stephen Breyer, that upheld the appointment of a financial stability board to oversee Puerto Ricos debt, the court did acknowledge that the Insular Cases are much-criticized.

A decision that could be relevant to the Insular Cases is currently pending from the Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Vaello-Madero.

In November, the court heard arguments in Vaello-Madero challenging the denial of Supplemental Security Income benefits to Puerto Ricans based solely on whether they currently reside on the island. Two justices pressed the Department of Justice to express an opinion on the Insular Cases.

When Chief Justice John Roberts asked whether the Insular Cases have anything to do with this litigation, Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon argued that the Vaello-Madero case did not implicate the Insular Cases because the plaintiffs had raised a challenge to the Fifth Amendment, not the 14th Amendment.

What is the governments position on the Insular Cases? Justice Neil Gorsuch asked.

The governments position on the Insular Cases is that some of the reasoning and rhetoric there is obviously anathema, has been for decades, if not from the outset, Gannon said  but he added that the court need not challenge or extend the Insular Cases precedents in the Vaello-Madero case.

Still, direct challenges to the Insular Cases are currently winding their way toward the court, and will likely make it harder to keep avoiding a ruling on the racist precedents.

The case of Fitisemanu v. United States raises another challenge to the designation of American Samoans as non-citizen nationals despite the 14th Amendments grant of birthright citizenship. In a 2019 ruling, a district court judge found that the 14th Amendment applies to residents of U.S. territories and that the Insular Cases should be overturned. A federal appeals court, however, reversed the district court decision in June 2021 and then denied an en banc hearing in December with two judges dissenting. The next step in this case would be an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Before that happens, civil rights groups want the Biden administrations DOJ to announce that it is now the governments position that the precedents set in the Insular Cases should be overturned. This would match President Joe Bidens pledge to eliminate systemic racism from governmental institutions and the law.

The letter from the civil rights groups states: DOJs continued embrace of the Insular Cases cannot be reconciled with this administrations pledge to affirmatively advance equity and racial justice.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
The New York Times

Oleg Y. Tinkov was worth more than $9 billion in November, renowned as one of Russias few self-made business tycoons after building his fortune outside the energy and minerals industries that were the playgrounds of Russian kleptocracy. Then, last month, Tinkov, the founder of one of Russias biggest banks, criticized the war in Ukraine in a post on Instagram. The next day, he said, President Vladimir Putins administration contacted his executives and threatened to nationalize his bank if it d
Dustin B. Thompson, 37, of Columbus, left, who is facing misdemeanor charges for entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and taking a wooden coat rack from the Senate side, arrives with his attorney, Sam Shamansky, to turn himself in on Jan. 25, 2021 at the Joseph P. Kinneary U.S. District Courthouse in Columbus.

The attorney for a Columbus man who faces misdemeanor charges for stealing a coat rack during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has asked a federal judge to allow him to subpoena former President Donald J. Trump as a witness at his client's trial.

Columbus attorney Sam Shamansky said he plans on using a "public authority defense" for his client, 37-year-old Dustin Byron Thompson, of the Iuka Ravine neighborhood in the city's University District.

"Trump and his co-conspirators concocted this ridiculous lie that our election was stolen and democracy was at stake," Shamansky told The Dispatch.

Attorney Sam Shamansky

U.S. Capitol riot: One year later, 6 of 38 Ohioans charged in U.S. Capitol insurrection have pleaded guilty

Trump supporters were led to believe that "the only way to engage was to fight like hell to disrupt the certification proceedings," he said.

Without that message, Shamansky said, his client wouldn't have been there.

"The proof was in the pudding. The crowd did precisely as they were instructed," Shamansky said.

A spokesperson for Trump did not return a message left by The Dispatch.

Sam Shamansky: Client joined U.S. Capitol riot prompted by Trump's words

Shamansky first suggested to The Dispatch shortly after Thompson was charged in the weeks after the insurrection that Trump's words had spurred his client to join the mob.

U.S. Capitol riot: Trump's words inspired Columbus man to join mob that breached Capitol, attorney says

According to the notice of public authority defense filed in court, Thompson said he was "directed to engage in the conduct set forth in the indictment by Donald J. Trump and his various conspirators. At the time, Mr. Trump was vested with the full authority of the Executive Branch as President of the United States of America and was acting under color of that authority."

Thompson and a co-defendent, Robert Anthony Lyon, who has had addresses in Columbus and Reynoldsburg, are both charged with federal misdemeanor counts of knowingly entering any restricted buildings or grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

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Thompson is also charged with theft of government property for taking a wooden coat rack from the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol. Both were released on their own recognizance pending trial after appearing in federal court. Shamansky only represents Thompson.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, U.S. Capitol Police found Thompson, wearing a Trump 2020 winter hat and a bulletproof vest, and Lyon, holding a Trump 2020 flag, sitting on the sidewalk near a street corner.

They told police they were waiting for an Uber to take them back to their Maryland hotel. Police directed them to a location where they could be picked up outside of the secure zone police were establishing, according to court records.

As Thompson and Lyon stood up to leave, Thompson picked up a wooden coat rack that was behind him. The coat rack appeared to have been taken from the inside of the Capitol, and a bar code on it later confirmed it was Senate property, the complaint said.

A photo from the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that the U.S. Department of Justice says shows Dustin B. Thompson of Columbus with a wooden coat rack he is accused of stealing from inside the Senate wing.

Agents told Thompson to put down the coat rack. He complied, but then immediately ran away. Lyon did not attempt to run, cooperated with the agents and gave them consent to search his bag for stolen property. Inside, they found marijuana, two pipes and an open bottle of bourbon that were confiscated, an FBI agent wrote in the statement of facts in the complaint.

The charges carry potential prison terms of up to one year and fines up to $100,000. A trial is scheduled for April, Shamansky said.

According to court documents, Thompson and Shamansky also intend to subpoena Donald Trump Jr., former Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, Trump-connected lawyers L. Lin Wood, John Eastman and Sidney Powell, and Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

"Our hit parade of co-conspirators," Shamansky said.

Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik

Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Lawyer Sam Shamansky seeks Trump subpoena over U.S. Capitol riots
Columbus police cruiser

A 15-year-old boy who was fatally shot on the last day of 2021 outside an apartment building on Columbus' East Side was attempting to rob three other teenagers before one of them fired the lethal rounds, city homicide detectives allege in court documents.

Columbus police issued arrest warrants on Monday for those three male teens, who they accuse of conspiring to hide the evidence of their involvement in the Dec. 31 death of Tyshawn A. Dickerson.

Homicide map: Here's an updated map of where homicides have occurred in Columbus

Oscar A. Soriano, 18; Christian A. Pedraza-Helber, 17; and Christopher B. Pedraza-Helber, 17, are all wanted on a single charge each of tampering with evidence.

Soriano, who is identified in a probable cause affidavit as the person who shot Dickerson, is also wanted on an additional weapons charge, police said. That charge of improperly handling a firearm is related to Soriano illegally carrying the handgun on his person as he was driving a vehicle, the affidavit states.

Homicides in Columbus: Manager, security chief found shot during fire at Far East Side strip club was a 'great guy'

In the probable cause affidavit, homicide detectives allege that Soriano shot and killed Dickerson as Dickerson attempted to rob Soriano and the Pedraza-Helbers on Dec. 31 in a neighborhood just east of James Road near Fairmoor Elementary School. The affidavit does not state how or even whether Soriano was armed during the attempted robbery, though presumably he was given he was dealing with three older teens.

*HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION UPDATE-2/14/22: Suspects have been identified in the death of 15yo Tyshawn Dickerson. Warrants have been filed for: 19yo Oscar Soriana, 17yo Christopher Pedraza-Helber & 17yo Christian Pedraza-Helber.



Info-CPD:614-645-4730 or cjourney@columbuspolice.org https://t.co/9yWnNdjgnP pic.twitter.com/NUuna9fHZn  Columbus Ohio Police (@ColumbusPolice) February 14, 2022

For subscribers: Community activists say Columbus needs to move faster on anti-violence strategy

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Columbus police were called at 8:09 a.m. Dec. 31 to the 3200 block of Mayfair Park Place on a report of an unresponsive person who appeared to have been shot, police said. Dickerson was found outside a nearby apartment building on the 400 block of South Ashburton Road, where he was pronounced dead at 8:20 a.m.

Police said Soriano and the Pedraza-Helbers fled from the scene in a vehicle after removing the firearm, bullet casings, glass and other forensic evidence that would tie them to the shooting, according to the affidavit.

For subscribers: Homicides have risen in Columbus and cities across the U.S. What are the causes?

Soriano's last-known address is listed in Franklin County court records as a house on Fullerton Drive, east of Noe Bixby Road, on Columbus' Southeast Side.

Dickerson was the 204th and last homicide victim in Columbus during 2021, a second consecutive record deadly year for the city.

Dickerson was a student at Walnut Ridge High School Ridge, where he aspired to graduate in the class of 2024. Known to family and friends as "Ty," he loved to spend time with them and to write rhymes, his family said in his obituary.

"He was so full of energy and life," his family said. Dickerson liked to clown and joke around all the time "'til he got on your last nerve sometimes," his obituary said. "Ty had an infectious laugh with a big personality that captured many hearts."

Dickerson is survived by his parents, Dawnetta Taylor and Tyshawn Dickerson; his sisters, Aniyah Taylor and Shada Dickerson, and other family members.

Anyone with information on Dickerson's death or any Columbus homicide can call the city police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or report an anonymous tip to the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.

Eric Lagatta is a reporter at the Columbus Dispatch covering public safety, breaking news and social justice issues. Reach him at elagatta@dispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricLagatta

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police want 3 teens for hiding evidence in robbery gone bad
TACOMA, WA  The omicron wave is firmly on the way out. As the state mulls the end of the mask mandate and other COVID-19 restrictions, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department says local case counts are "plummeting", and will likely to continue to improve over the coming weeks.

According to TPCHD's weekly case count report Tuesday, Pierce County saw a nearly 50 percent drop in cases week-over-week. The week before that, case counts dropped 30 percent. Last week, the health department reported a significant decline in COVID-19 outbreaks, and all signs are that the omicron wave is well past its prime.

Deaths and hospitalization improvements typically lag a few weeks behind case counts, which appears to be the case here. The county's hospitalization rate dipped by more than 20 percent, to 19.8 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents. And while hospitalizations and case counts dropped dramatically, Pierce County actually saw deaths increase from 31 to 43 confirmed fatalities last week. One of the victims was a 10-year-old Lakewood girl, the first and only minor to die of COVID-19 in the county.

Still, the pandemic is generally trending in the right direction, and it only appears that it will continue to improve, the health department said. As the pandemic wanes in Pierce County and across Washington, local and state health leaders say they're working on lifting select COVID-19 restrictions. Gov. Jay Inslee has promised to remove his mask rules for large outdoor events and end an emergency order restricting non-urgent surgeries by Feb. 18, Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal has also signalled that he is ready to drop mask mandates for students, and Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department Director Dr. Anthony L-T Chen says the county is ready as well.

"We will continue to monitor local COVID-19 data and CDC guidance, consult with other local health officers, and work with the State Department of Health to review indoor mask requirements," the health department said in a news release.

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While residents wait out the final weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen and other health leaders continue to urge those who are unvaccinated to consider seeking out vaccines or booster shots.

We continue to see outbreaks in schools, with 90% of classroom outbreaks this week happening in elementary schools, Dr. Chen said. Children 511 years old are by far the least-vaccinated age group in Pierce County, with 75% still not vaccinated. Improving that number will be vital to updating mask guidance in local schools.

>> Read more about mask requirements from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department

This article originally appeared on the Puyallup Patch
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to Europe on Tuesday for meetings with NATO leaders as Russia added more military forces around Ukraine's border for an invasion that is expected any day.

Austin will first meet with NATO defense ministers in Belgium, and then travel to Poland on the alliance's eastern flank, where he will meet with that country's president and visit with deployed U.S. forces at an air base, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a press conference Monday. The secretary will also go to Lithuania to meet with the prime minister and defense minister, and U.S. troops there.

The trip comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues training exercises and preparation of more than 100,000 troops encircling Ukraine, including the addition of more logistics and sustainment forces that could enable a long siege.

Read Next: In Russia's Ukraine Plans, How Much Does the Mud Matter?

"He is doing all the things you would expect him to do to make sure he's ready for that option," Kirby said.

Over the weekend, the U.S pulled 160 Florida National Guard soldiers out of Ukraine. The troops were assigned to the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team and were part of a previously planned training mission with Ukrainian forces. U.S. Embassy staff in the capital Kyiv were also ordered to evacuate.

Austin's visit to Brussels is partly meant to underscore the U.S. commitment to NATO's Article 5, which calls for collective defense if any member is attacked, on what could be the eve of the largest military action in Europe since World War II. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in its history after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

In Poland, he will go to Powidz air base, which is west of the capital Warsaw, to meet with U.S. and Polish troops. The centrally located Polish base is a hub for U.S. Army forces that rotate into the country for joint operations and exercises.

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A joint meeting is also planned between Austin and the defense leaders of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, three NATO members that border Russia who have been among the most anxious about Moscow aggression in recent years. Two of the three also share a border with Russia's close ally Belarus, where Putin has positioned thousands of troops in recent months.

"[Austin will] have a chance as well to visit with some U.S. service members that are there in Lithuania," Kirby said. The U.S. started rotational deployment of about 500 troops to that country in 2019.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Monday that Russia would invade on Wednesday, but Kirby said the Pentagon has no indication that Putin has made a final decision. Russia has denied it is planning an invasion, even as it has spent nearly a year massing forces.

Moscow has fueled an insurgency in eastern Ukraine for years following its annexation of Crimea in 2014. During the current invasion crisis, Russia has demanded that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO and that the alliance pull back from eastern Europe.

President Joe Biden has said the U.S. military will not deploy into Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO, and is instead prepared to protect alliance members. On Friday, he ordered an additional 3,000 soldiers from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to go to NATO member Poland after sending 1,700 earlier this month. A Stryker squadron from Germany is moving to Romania, which is also a member of the alliance.

-- Travis Tritten can be reached at travis.tritten@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten.

Related: US Soldiers in Ukraine Pulling Out Amid Warnings of Imminent Russian Invasion
(Reuters) - Disney World plans to make masks optional for fully vaccinated guests from Thursday, an update on its website showed, reversing a policy introduced in mid-2021.

The easing of the mask mandate comes after Universal Orlando Resort and cruise operator Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd also made face coverings optional for their guests.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida, operated by Walt Disney Co, said it expects guests who are not fully vaccinated to wear face coverings in all indoor locations, including theaters.

An update on Disneyland California's website showed masks were required for unvaccinated guests in all indoor locations, while face coverings were optional outdoors.

Disney World and Disneyland both said masks will still be required in certain indoor settings, including transportation.

Many major U.S. firms, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co, have also made masks optional for their workers, although President Joe Biden said last week dropping COVID-19 mask requirements entirely was "probably premature".

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)




A doctors group representing more than 17,000 physicians filed a complaint last week against the University of California, Davis for violating animal protection laws and conducting harmful research on monkeys in a program funded by Neuralink, a company co-founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine announced on Feb. 10 that it filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture because the university's Primate Center conducted "invasive and deadly brain experiments" on 23 monkeys and "failed to provide dying monkeys with adequate veterinary care."

Neuralink, a neurotechnology company developing brain-machine interfaces, poured $1.4 million into the project, according to the committee, which won a lawsuit last year to obtain roughly 600 public records and documents from the university.

Jeremy Beckham, a research advocacy coordinator for the Physicians Committee, said the documents "reveal that monkeys had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die."

"UC Davis may have handed over its publicly-funded facilities to a billionaire, but that doesn't mean it can evade transparency requirements and violate federal animal welfare laws," Beckham said in a statement.

UC Davis said the collaboration with Neuralink ended in 2020 and all experiments were approved by an oversight committee, with "round-the-clock" veterinary care.

"We strive to provide the best possible care to animals in our charge. Animal research is strictly regulated and UC Davis follows all applicable laws and regulations including those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which makes regular inspections, and the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare," the university said in a statement.

Neuralink, headed by Musk, said in a blog post that the company began working with UC Davis in 2017 on research that lasted 2  years. During that time, researchers experimented with implants on macaques consistent with federal laws and "in the most humane and ethical way possible."

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"At Neuralink, we are never satisfied with the current standards for animal well being and we will always push ourselves to do more for the animals that are contributing so much to humanity," the company wrote.

The Physicians Committee has filed another public records lawsuit to obtain video and photographic evidence documenting how the monkeys were treated, according to last week's news release.

Committee doctors also allege the university removed portions of the monkeys' skulls to implant electrodes in their brains - and used a substance called "Bioglue" that destroyed portions of the animals' brains.

Neuralink said two animals were euthanized at planned end dates and six were euthanized at medical advice from staff for reasons including complications with Bioglue, device failure and device-related infections.

The company noted it was working to correct issues that occurred in the research process.

"We also look forward to a day where animals are no longer necessary for medical research," the company wrote in the blog post. "Yet our society currently relies on medical breakthroughs to cure diseases, prevent the spread of viruses, and create technology that can change how people are able to interact with the world."

- Updated at 5:23 p.m.
Two sisters were sentenced Monday after pleading no contest to charges related to stealing more than $272,000 from an elderly resident of a care facility in Escalon, the California Attorney Generals Office said.

Lesley Danielle Pinola, a facility administrator at a Place Called Home II, convinced a 66-year-old woman to hand over her money to Pinola through a series of checks, the office said in a release. Rita Ann Tiffany Martinez assisted by allowing large amounts of the money to be deposited into accounts belonging to her, the release also said.

The victim later died from serious health issues, and her will stated that she wanted to split the proceeds of her state equally between Doctors Without Borders USA and Shriners Hospital for Children - Northern California.

The defendants fraudulent actions significantly deprived the victim of these final wishes, the release said.

The theft appears to have taken place between August and December 2019, according to a criminal complaint attached to the press release.

Pinola was sentenced to 180 days in jail and two years of felony probation after pleading no contest in San Joaquin County Superior Court to one felony count of theft from an elder or dependent adult. Rita Ann Tiffany Martinez was sentenced to 90 days in jail and one year probation after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of receiving stolen property.

As part of their sentencing, Pinola and Martinez were required to pay $240,000 immediately back into the victims estate, and Martinezs lawyer said that money was paid in December. Pinola is required to pay back the remaining amount while serving probation.

The total original amount is expected to be paid back to the estate and distributed to the two charities it was intended for.

Two sisters decided to take advantage of an elderly resident for their own personal gain, and now they are facing the consequences of their actions, Attorney General Bonta said in the release. The stolen money that has been returned will be donated towards its intended purpose, fulfilling the last wishes of a resident who wanted to do good for others.

According to the criminal complaint documents, Pinola also stole money from a man in Stanislaus County between May 2020 and May 2021.

An earlier version of the story incorrectly identified the type and duration of Martinezs probation.
ELMHURST, IL  State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, an Elmhurst Republican, is distancing herself from conservative media's claims that a Democratic lawmaker is pushing a bill that could result in "concentration camps."



Mazzochi is critical of the bill by Rep. Deb Conroy, D-Villa Park, but Mazzochi's spokeswoman said the lawmaker has not ever made or shared claims similar to those spread by the Illinois Review, a conservative website.

Conroy has received death threats in relation to the bill. She called Illinois Review's story a "flagrantly false post."

Earlier this month, Illinois Review, a conservative website, reported Conroy's bill would allow government to create concentration camps to quarantine people.

But the website cited language that had been in state law for years, not provisions that Conroy proposed.

Conroy's amendment would give local health departments the right to access data from the state Department of Public Health. The language would be incorporated into an old law that deals with quarantines, including references to tuberculosis patients.

In an email, Mazzochi's spokeswoman, Amy Shanks, said the legislator is focused on flaws in the bill, not the old language.

Mazzochi declined to answer questions about the issue when Patch approached her before a Hinsdale High School District 86 board meeting last week.

In a Feb. 2 statement on Facebook, Mazzochi said Conroy "has no answer to the fact that HB 4640 lets a public health authority demand any doctor turn over private medical records without consent, without any oversight, and without a court order, so long as they slap the phrase 'research purposes' on it, because that is exactly what her legislation says  and that is what we the people do not want."

The phrase, "research purposes," is contained in the existing law, not what Conroy introduced.

Mazzochi also said the bill would let local health departments "pursue an incredible amount of sensitive data from your medical records, including pregnancy, cancer treatments or prescription drug habits."

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Mazzochi was responding to Conroy's statement on Facebook that she introduced the bill at the request of the DuPage County Health Department and other local health agencies.

In that post, Conroy said local health agencies need timely access to health data. And she said those departments have a long history of protecting the privacy of people's health information.



Conroy also said the legislation does not provide any local government unit any more powers over people or reduce privacy.

Besides the Illinois Review, the conservative DuPage Policy Journal also has made claims about Conroy's proposed language. It said Democratic DuPage County Board members are supporting a bill that would enable health officials to create "Australia- and China-style concentration camps for Illinoisans refusing to take COVID-19 jabs."

The website referred to Conroy's bill as the "concentration camp measure."

Neither the Illinois Review nor the DuPage Policy Journal has returned Patch's messages.

This article originally appeared on the Elmhurst Patch
On the afternoon of February 5, 2022, Premier Li Keqiang met with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, who came to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

Li Keqiang said that China and Mongolia are good neighbors, good friends and good partners. China always views the China-Mongolia relationship from a strategic and long-term perspective. President Xi Jinping maintains frequent communication with President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh. China will intensify high-level exchanges with Mongolia to enhance political mutual trust, deepen win-win cooperation, strengthen communication and coordination regarding international and regional affairs, and continuously push the China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership to new development stages.

Li Keqiang pointed out that China attaches great importance to the cargo clearance in border ports, and will prioritize the smooth operation of the ports on both sides to help increase bilateral economic and trade cooperation. China will advance the progress of railway, highway, energy and other projects and carry out cooperation in the spirit of China-Mongolia friendship and in compliance with market principles and business rules. China will continue to support and help Mongolia within its capacity to combat the pandemic, and will enhance exchanges of personnel such as foreign students, so that China-Mongolia cooperation will create more benefits for the peoples of both countries.

Oyun-Erdene congratulated on China's successful hosting of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 as scheduled in a pandemic backdrop, and thanked China for supporting his country's combat against the pandemic. He said that he was delighted to first visit China after he took the Prime Minister's office. Mongolia will work with China to fight the pandemic and maintain the border ports' smooth operation. Mongolia will further align the two countries' development strategies, deepen cooperation in such fields as energy, mining, transportation infrastructure and desertification prevention and control, strengthen communication between young people, and bring bilateral relations to a new level.

After the meeting, both sides issued the Joint Statement Between the Governments of the People's Republic of China and the Mongolia.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated over 5 million Tesla shares worth about $5.7 billion in November. Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images

New SEC filing revealed Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated more than 5 million Tesla shares worth about $5.7 billion to charity.

The donations made in November came days after the UN gave Musk details of its plan to fight world hunger.

The filing did not specify which charity Musk donated to but noted that a trust was involved in the transactions.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated more than 5 million Tesla shares in November, just days after the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) gave details of a plan on how $6 billion could help fight world hunger.

Musk's charitable donation was disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission made public on Monday. It showed Musk gifted a total of 5.044 million Tesla shares from November 19 to November 29. The filing did not specify which charity Musk donated to but noted that a trust was involved in the transactions.

Based on the average prices of the Tesla shares on the days Musk sold them, the donations were worth $5.7 billion in total, according to a Bloomberg calculation.

Musk made the donations just as he was in the process of selling shares to cover taxes on the exercise of options set to expire in August this year.

Around the time, Musk was involved in a Twitter exchange with WFP executive director David Beasley, who told CNN's "Connect the World" on October 26 that a $6 billion donation from billionaires such as Musk and Jeff Bezos could help 42 million people who he said were "literally going to die if we don't reach them."

On October 31, Musk challenged the claim that the specific amount will solve the hunger crisis, saying on Twitter that if the WFP could show its math, then he would "sell Tesla stock right now and do it."

Beasley got back with a plan to Musk on November 16, detailing how WFP would use $6.6 billion to combat famine.

Tesla did not respond to Insider's requests for comment on where the donations went. MarketWatch noted that Musk runs his own philanthropic organization, the Musk Foundation, which offers grants for renewable energy research and advocacy work, among other causes.

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"There are millions of people around the world on the brink of starvation. Whether WFP receives any of this money is yet to be seen, but I am excited to hear that Elon is engaged," WFP executive director Beasley said in a statement to Insider. "This is an amazing and great first step," he added.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is the world's richest man with a current net worth of $227 billion.

Read the original article on Business Insider
An engaged couple who worked at Papa Johns were found shot and killed after they closed the restaurant last weekend in Indiana, according to prosecutors and media reports.

The bodies of Haley Smith, 22, and Dustin Carr, 37, were discovered the morning of Sunday, Feb. 13, when a coworker arrived at the Elkhart, Indiana, business, according to the prosecuting attorney. They were killed the night before when a former coworker, 19-year-old Jose Benitez-Tilley, was inside the store around closing time, officials say.

Benitez-Tilley was at the Papa Johns two times during the night  the first time being around 10 p.m. when he came trying to get his job back, according to court documents obtained by WNDU. A worker at the restaurant told police the store has had issues with Benitez-Tilley previously.

The former coworker left the store but returned, a Papa Johns employee said. When that employee left, according to court documents, it was just Smith, Carr and Benitez-Tilley inside the restaurant, WNDU reported.

A vehicle driven by Benitez-Tilley left Papa Johns for the second time around 11:30 p.m. that night, driving behind the restaurant without its lights on, WBND reported.

Elkhart police were called to the restaurant the next morning and began a homicide investigation.

Surveillance footage obtained by police shows the killings, and Benitez-Tilley was taken into custody Sunday, according to WBND.

Benitez-Tilley also stole Smiths purse, Carrs jewelry and cash from the Papa Johns office, WNDU reported.

Formal charges are expected on Wednesday, Feb. 16, according to the prosecuting attorney.

The prosecuting attorney said Smith and Carr were targeted in the killings and the public is not at risk.

Friends of Carr and Smith sent their condolences on social media. Smith was described by one friend as a generous soul.

Elkhart is in northern Indiana about 110 miles southeast of Chicago.
By Dawit Endeshaw

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Ethiopia's parliament on Tuesday voted for an early end to a six-month state of emergency, effective immediately, adding to signs that a bloody conflict between the government and rebellious Tigrayan forces could be easing.

The war in Africa's second-largest nation has largely ground to a stalemate, and diplomats helping to mediate between the two sides are cautiously optimistic that progress towards peace is being made.

The state of emergency gave the government power to detain citizens without charge and search homes without a warrant. Thousands of Tigrayan civilians were rounded up and held in prisons and warehouses.

Ethiopia imposed the order in November after Tigrayan forces invaded two other regions, threatening the capital.

But a government offensive in December pushed the Tigrayans back, although fighting continues in the region of Afar, and Tigray - where millions depend on food aid - remains cut off with no food arriving since mid-December.

Parliament's decision to lift the state of emergency came three weeks after cabinet approval.

The move was welcomed by the U.S. State Department as an "important step". It called for the immediate release of all those arrested or detained without charge under the state of emergency.

The vote was not a rubber stamp, underscoring political divisions that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed must manage. Of 312 lawmakers voting, 63 opposed the motion, while 21 abstained.

Tesfaye Beljige, chief government whip, told lawmakers the state of emergency was "causing more damage that its benefits", saying the law was restricting tourism and economic activities.

But Desalegn Chanie, of the opposition National Movement of Amhara party, who voted against, said lifting it now "in order to please the diplomatic community without ensuring the safety of fellow citizens" was premature.

RIGHTS CONCERNS

Ethiopia's state-appointed rights commission said some human rights were not being upheld after the order was imposed.

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Thousands of ethnic Tigrayans were detained, including very elderly people, nursing mothers and children, the commission said. Police denied targeting any ethnic group, saying they targeted suspected supporters of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) political party.

The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics before Abiy came to power in 2018. Afterwards, relations between the two sides nosedived, and war erupted in November 2020.

Normally, Ethiopian law demands prisoners are either charged or released. Attorney General Gedion Temothewos and his spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But Lemma Tesema, chairman of the state of emergency inquiry board, told lawmakers on Tuesday that those who were detained under the state of emergency "will be treated by the regular legal system".

The United Nations has said it believes international mediators are making progress.

"Talks continue and there is certainly less hostility than there was a few months ago. We are in a much better place," Amina Mohammed, the U.N. deputy secretary-general, said last week after visiting Ethiopia.

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in WashingtonWriting by Maggie FickEditing by Katharine Houreld, Frank Jack Daniel and John Stonestreet)
TAVARES  Belina Wright is February's featured artist at the AdventHealth Care Center.

Wright, of Eustis, is showcasing her Haitian and African-American-style art in honor of Black History Month. This initiative is very close to Wright's heart as well as to Activity Director Dawn Forde, who coordinated the gallery.

The residents here at ACC Waterman have a great appreciation for all things art, Forde said. When I thought about what I could do to celebrate Black History Month, this organic idea of doing an art gallery just naturally came to mind. It was important to give the residents an opportunity to experience several pieces of African culture in a way that they could connect with. Because COVID has limited the residents ability to go to an actual art museum, I thought I could create and bring an actual art museum to them.

'The children are the future': Youth pageant marks beginning of Black History Month

The long trek home: In 2019, USA TODAY took me to Angola. Last year, I went back 'home' with my family

Black History Month commentary: In the crucible of historic change, I grew up Black and proud

Forde reached out to Wright with the idea of doing a rotating art museum for the residents and guests. She enthusiastically accepted.

Its important to highlight Black History Month and art because it is a part of history, Wright said. Its a way to remember the past and make strides toward improving the future. I am very honored that AdventHealth chose my work to celebrate Black History Month, celebrate my culture through my work and continue conversations with people from all walks of life. They can look at the work, share their thoughts as well as experiences and come together as a community.

Belina Wright began painting as a hobby 19 years ago

Wright began as a hobby painter at 19 years after seeing a painting program on PBS. She immediately went out and bought art supplies and technique books to practice. For years, her work sat in a corner of her home until a friend suggested she sell some on Facebook.

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I got such a positive response that I continued to do more work, Wright said. Eventually they turned into sales and I have been since selling my work online since 2012. My work has themes of community, family, and cultural appreciation.

Her inspiration comes from her Haitian and African-American heritage and her own experiences as a Black woman.

I am also inspired by God because He gave me this gift to of painting to share my cultures and experiences with others, Wright said. It starts conversations about our differences and how as the human race, we are alike in many ways.

See the gallery

Wrights work can be seen at the AdventHealth Care Center, 4501 Waterman Way, in Tavares or visit Facebook.com/BelinaWrightArt.

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Eustis artist's work on display at AdventHealth for Black History Month
Brothers George and Henry Graham are extending their U.S. retail footprint, opening Wolf & Badger in West Hollywood this spring-summer.

Los Angeles is the multibrand business biggest market in the U.S., revealed Henry Graham. The two first opened shop in their home base of London in 2010 (originally in Notting Hill before relocating to Kings Cross), then New York in 2017. Wolf & Badger had already established a strong e-commerce presence at that point, selling globally as an online marketplace  which launched in 2015.

More from WWD

Southern California is where we sell the most in California, and California is our biggest sales market, continued Graham, creative director at Wolf & Badger (George is chief executive officer). We sell more to California than we do to New York, despite having no physical presence. And the U.S., by the way, has just overtaken the U.K. as our biggest market.

Wolf & Badger saw 225 percent year-over-year online sales grow to $27.7 million in the U.S. last year, according to the company.

Because were a reasonably small business and entrepreneurial in the way that we look at things, we actually really doubled down on our online marketing quite early, Graham said of shifts amid COVID-19. And as a result of that, we had a really strong year and grew faster than we had previously anticipated, despite having issues with the stores being temporarily closed.

Instead of party dresses, typically a hot category, consumers purchased loungewear, robes, slippers and blankets, as well as furnishings while home during the pandemic. Along with womenswear, accessories and home, Wolf & Badger offers mens and beauty  all sourced sustainably and ethically produced with quality and design in mind.

The business model lends itself quite well to that rapid shift in consumer sentiment, Graham said.

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Shoppers are about 70 percent female and 30 percent male, age 25 to 45, worldwide.

But we dont really cater our marketing on that, said Graham. We focus on marketing more on communicating the brand values and the attributesThe aspiration of the business is to be a global business and to present brands, the best independent brands, from all around the world, to customers that are conscious and considerate and aware of what theyre purchasing from an environmental perspective  and connecting the two.

The shops design  as imagined in partnership with longtime collaborator and architect Augustus Brown  will reflect the uplifting mood of L.A. and its new neighborhood. Located at 8500 Melrose Avenue, the brick-and-mortar store is in a vibrant and walkable area of Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood (between La Cienega Boulevard and North West Knoll Drive, across from the new Glossier, by Rag & Bone, Alice + Olivia and The Real Real).

Next, Wolf & Badger is likely to head south, either to Texas or Florida.

We would like to open a couple more stores in the States, said Graham, noting the value of in-person shopping, ability for shoppers to feel and try on goods, do physical returns, attend in-store events and experience the company culture IRL.
The claim: An image of a solar eclipse was taken from the International Space Station

A years-old, digitally created image of a solar eclipse has resurfaced on social media.

"Solar eclipse as seen from the International Space Station," reads a Feb. 7 Facebook post, which was shared more than 1,000 times in a week.

The claim has been circulating on social media since at least 2013. However, the image is not from the International Space Station.

As Discover magazine reported in 2012, the photo appears to be digital art published in 2009. A NASA spokesperson confirmed the image did not originate on the International Space Station.

USA TODAY reached out to social media users who shared the post for comment.

Image not from International Space Station

The image in the Facebook post comes from Deviant Art, a digital art sharing platform that has previously been the target of online misinformation. User A4size-ska posted the image in 2009.

The posting indicates the image was created with Terragen software. The program is used for "building, rendering and animating realistic natural environments," according to developer Planetside Software.

The Deviant Art posting includes a statement noting the unauthorized use of the image on Facebook. The posting also includes a link to a European Southern Observatory photo of the Milky Way, which appears to be the background of the eclipse image.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

NASA spokesperson Dan Huot confirmed the image did not come from the International Space Station.

"It looks like a composite of several images or was digitally rendered," he told USA TODAY in an email. "The station has never flown in the path of totality during a total solar eclipse."

USA TODAY has previously debunked a claim that an image showed the Earth and sun in the same frame. The image was not a photo, but, instead an artist's rendering of exoplanet, Kepler-186f.

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USA TODAY reached out to A4size-ska for comment.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that an image of a solar eclipse was taken from the International Space Station. The image is digitally generated artwork. A NASA spokesperson said the photo was not taken from the International Space Station.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Solar eclipse image not from International Space Station
FALL RIVER  For the second time in a little more than two months, a city police officer was arraigned in Fall River District Court, with the latest criminal counts including allegations of strangulation, assault with a dangerous weapon while on duty and later destroying evidence.

Police officer Bryan Custadio, 30, was released on personal recognizance on the latest charges against him after pleading not guilty during a Feb. 8 arraignment.

Fall River police conducted the investigation against Custadio that led to the criminal charges.

The allegations against Custadio are the latest black mark against the Fall River Police Department, which has been rocked in recent months by scandals, pending lawsuits and payouts for bad acts by city law enforcement, including the pending criminal trial of former officer Michael Pessoa, who is accused of civil rights violations and excessive force.

A Fall River police cruiser is parked at a crime scene.

Custadio on leave after alleged assault

Custadio was placed on leave Nov. 28 after he was arraigned in connection to an assault case in which allegedly he assaulted a family member in three incidents along with a charge of threatening to commit a crime.

The alleged victim in the latest case against Custadio is not being identified. A police report and court records indicate that Fall River police were called to a residence on Nov. 28, which started the investigation.

Evidence breach: Two Fall River detectives were booted from the vice unit and suspended without pay

Custadio had reportedly gone to the residence in uniform and in his marked patrol car, and allegedly attacked the person outside the residence. He reportedly then forced the resident into the house, pushed the alleged victim to the ground, stepped on the alleged victim, and pulled the alleged victim by the hair in an attempt to take the person's cell phone.

The alleged victim was able to get the phone away from Custadio and call 911.

Fall River police cruisers.

An alleged assault in October

The criminal cases against Custadio also include alleged assaults in October. In one incident, the off-duty police officer attacked an alleged victim by grabbing the person by the neck, performing a sweeping kick used by law enforcement to take down a suspect to the ground and then attempting to choke the person.

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Another incident: A Fall River police officer at the center of a $34M civil suit is being investigated for excessive force

In another incident, Custadio is alleged to have retrieved an ax in a residence during a dispute and threatened to destroy kitchen equipment.

Custadio accused of wiping out electronic evidence

According to the police report by investigating Fall River police Sgt. John McDonald, the alleged victim told officers a surveillance camera captured the alleged assault outside the residence on Nov. 28 and that the person had sent the video clip to their cell phone and to a relative.

However, the report indicates Custadio allegedly wiped out the images from the surveillance device remotely.

Legal issues: Larry Ruiz-Barreto's family files lawsuit against Fall River Police Department

Custadio is also alleged to have removed data remotely after police issued a search warrant to seize his personal cell phone.

After his suspension from the police department in November, Custadio reported to his superiors that hed lost his cell phone and had a new number.

'Denials ... are disingenuous': Family of Fall River man killed by police sues for report

McDonald reported that he obtained a search warrant, which he served to Custadio on Dec. 16. Initially Custadio told the investigating police officer that hed lost the phone the night before, but eventually gave the cell phone to McDonald.

After the cell phone was delivered to a State Police forensic investigator, it was discovered that the data on the cell phone was wiped clean and reset to the factory setting, according to police reports.

McDonald reported that two days later, the State Police investigator was able to identify that Custadio deleted the information just minutes after police left his residence with the cell phone.

Custadio is due back in Fall River District Court on April 5.

Jo C. Goode may be reached at jgoode@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism and subscribe to The Herald News today!

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Fall River police officer facing felony charges in abuse case
Two years into the pandemic, Floridas monitoring system for COVID has left the public blind to the arrival of highly contagious variants.

Florida sends only a tiny fraction of all positive COVID tests to labs for genetic sequencing to learn their strain of coronavirus  only 1% over the entire pandemic.

Some states, such as Washington, are sequencing up to 20% of all cases. With so few samples sequenced in Florida, health officials lack the ability to track variants and their prevalence across the state until cases surge.

The delta wave showed just how vulnerable Florida is to mutations that arrive undetected. Floridians learned of the first confirmed case of delta in the state in mid-June when the new variant was reported on a federal COVID tracker. By then, the number of cases had begun to soar, followed by hospitalizations, and then record deaths.

What we have in Florida is inadequate, said Dr. Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida. What we really need is a system that looks at selected strains across the state, does sequencing and puts it in a model to understand what strains are present and how they may be moving throughout different parts of the state.

While hospitals, universities, public and private health labs sequence samples from patients to learn which variants are present, Florida lacks a comprehensive and cohesive system to analyze and share data. The Florida Department of Health documents the number of COVID cases, vaccinations and deaths weekly on its website, but does not publicly release the variants identified in the state or their proportion.

Scientists say sequencing alone wont stop the arrival or spread of more variants, but better detection and communication would give Floridas counties a chance to act as highly infectious strains becomes more prevalent.

Even now, as Florida emerges from the omicron wave, infections arent falling as fast as experts had forecasted. Could a subvariant known as stealth omicron, or BA.2, be spreading far more widely than detected? Florida so far has recorded 15 cases of the BA.2 omicron variant. Given how quickly the new subvariant has spread elsewhere, researchers believe it likely accounts for more.

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BA.2 probably was first introduced in Florida in early January, so its been here about a month, said Thomas Hladish, a research scientist at the University of Florida. Florida has always had problems with detection. Our surveillance system in Florida is not good.

My spitball estimate: I would guess 50% of cases now are BA.2 or something on that order.

With infection numbers still hovering around 10,000 a day in Florida, COVID-19 will continue to sicken more people and strain health care resources for longer than expected.

Morris said the best example of the need for early detection of new variants is what happened with monoclonal antibodies, the COVID treatment Floridas governor has promoted during the past few months.

As the new omicron wave of COVID swept across Florida, clinics continued to use two monoclonal-antibodies treatments that worked against delta, including one made by Regeneron. Federal health officials warned those two treatments did not work against omicron.

What we needed to know is where omicron was and in what areas it would still make sense to be using Regeneron and in which sections of the state it didnt make sense at all, Morris said. When the state was transitioning from one variant to another that was the point where it would have been useful to know.

Researchers are asking for better surveillance not just in Florida but throughout the United States, concerned because the coronavirus, like all viruses, mutates as it moves through large groups of people.

If a new highly contagious mutation emerges like omicron did in South Africa, it could move through the population quickly, causing harm before detected.

Dr. Jason Lane, chief medical officer for ChenMed, primary medical care centers for seniors, worries about that scenario. If a variant is homegrown and turns out as devastating as delta, or evolves in the U.S. and we miss it, thats what worries me about our deficiencies. Hopefully, there is a lot being done to beef it up.

When asked if Florida has made any advancements in surveillance of variants or has improvements underway, Department of Health spokesman Jeremy Redfern responded:

The Department of Health operates three laboratories capable of genomic sequencing, but our labs are just part of a larger picture. We work alongside multiple partners, like laboratories contracted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and academic institutions, that are capable of genomic sequencing. The CDC is the primary agency for all public health-related genomic surveillance in the United States. It is best to think of Florida as a puzzle piece that is part of the overall surveillance puzzle.

The private sector jumps in

Seeing a need for real-time data, Walgreens has launched its own COVID-19 Index for the public to help identify the spread of virus variants across the U.S.

Its monitoring index will be updated using PCR tests administered by Walgreens and analyzed by its laboratory testing partner, Aegis Sciences.

The PCR tests come from patients at 5,000 Walgreens pharmacies, including 800 in Florida. The drugstore has one of the largest databases of COVID samples in the country.

Walgreens Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Ball said Aegis is able to identify whether a sample is omicron in 24 hours. The Walgreens COVID-19 tracker shows 100% of its COVID samples in Florida are omicron.

Ball said the scope and timeliness of Walgreens national surveillance system should help catch future variants early and curb their spread. Eventually, he would like the tracker to reflect the makeup of cases within communities as well as provide a statewide overview.

We would like to get to the geo-level. This is a process we are trying to get towards so we can identify an outbreak as it is occurring, what variant is driving it and offer guidance on what to do in those moments, he said.

Floridas universities and hospitals also are sequencing positive test samples, mostly to learn what strains are appearing in students or patients.

And while anyone who does sequencing reports findings into a global database, Florida lacks an infrastructure to extract and share that same data on a statewide scale  to catch a new variant early on.

What one needs is to look statewide and get a sense of patterns emerging at a statewide level, said Morris at UF. We have the capacity to sequence and we have utilized it, but we are limited. We are looking at samples from within Alachua County primarily. We dont know exactly whats going on in other parts of Florida so we cant create a unified picture of whats happening.

Morris said UF and other universities have specialized researchers who could interpret the data and detect mutation strains within the state. Having this information could guide public health response, he said. There is not a statewide system in Florida which has fully pulled in the capacity present in the state.

Wastewater may be the answer

Wastewater monitoring could be the way to find rapidly spreading variants faster.

Wastewater monitoring has been used during the omicron surge by scientists in New York City, Boston and Miami and at universities such as the University of Miami to identify surges of cases in certain neighborhoods or dorms even before a variant has been identified from test swabs.

People infected with the coronavirus shed it in their feces so a high level may show that a variant is at work, warranting a closer look.

In Florida, only Pinellas and Brevard counties participate in the CDCs national wastewater surveillance and show COVID in 100% of their water samples submitted. Some states, such as North Carolina, have half their counties, or more, participating. The CDC dashboard provides a color-coded view of virus levels in wastewater in participating communities.

Miami-Dade does its own wastewater surveillance and updates a county website weekly.

Already, the monitoring has proved useful, said Raghavender Joshi, assistant director of wastewater operations for Miami-Dade Water & Sewer. When the wastewater showed a spike in cases in December, the findings gave the county hospitals a few extra days to prepare for the omicron surge.

Biobot, which does the sequencing and analysis of the sewage for Miami-Dade and counties in 35 states, said one county in Delaware used sewage analysis to more strategically place mobile testing centers and another in Massachusetts used the information to guide its schools policies.

CDC spokesman Brian Katzowitz said the agency is adding 400 new sites to the national wastewater surveillance system in the coming weeks and it is possible some will be in Florida.
When the Lantern Festival is approaching, some Chinese students in the Australian capital Canberra celebrated with dances and performances of traditional musical instruments.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, they were not able to get together. Instead, they launched the online gala so that more students could watch.

"The lingering pandemic has prevented students here from going back to China. We planned for this online gala so that they had something to do, not feeling lonely on such a festive occasion," said Li Meng, founder of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Overseas Chinese Students Care Center Inc., the organizer of the event.

In the 40-minute video clip, students not only sang and danced, but also recited classic Chinese poems and filmed a show wearing traditional consumes.

One of the highlights was a concert of music from the TV drama Dream of the Red Chamber. Eight students dressed as characters in the story played different traditional musical instruments.

The Lantern Festival, on Tuesday, coincides with the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games. The Chinese embassy in Australia has provided gifts for 10 audiences, who will be selected randomly from those who left comments.

"The ACT Overseas Chinese Students Care Center last year organized a range of events, promoting Chinese culture while demonstrating the spirit of our young people," said Song Yanqun, minister-counselor for culture at the embassy, in the video, who also wished the students "happy Chinese New Year."

According to the 59-year-old Li Meng, the inspiration for founding such a center came from her son, who arrived in Australia 15 years ago as a middle school student.

The man later became a college teacher and met many overseas students, some of whom were Chinese.

"He told me that he felt sorry for those overseas students, who were so young but away from their families," Li said in an interview with Xinhua. "'Mom, do you remember how hard I was,' he asked me."

The center was registered three years ago and founded last year.

"There are many overseas students who couldn't travel back to China during the pandemic. Thus I would like to provide a place where they could get together, meeting new friends while doing activities with their own culture," she said.

There were regular lectures, usually about how to stay healthy and prevent coronavirus infection. They also set up a traditional costume society. The center attracts more than 100 students so far, according to Li.

Zhan Ziying is a student from the Australian National University, who became a member of the center following the introduction by a friend.

"I love the traditional costumes," she said. "At the center, I enjoy performing with other people. The center broadened my horizon, where we feel less lonely."

"During the pandemic, the center offers us a shelter, where we feel at home," said Liu Yize from the University of Canberra. "The lectures are helpful, and the speakers, who are consultants of the center, could help us resolve real problems."

"It is my wish that more students could come to the center and pass on love," he said.
The residence of Jonathan and Diana Toebbe in Annapolis, Md., after neighbors say the house was searched by FBI agents.

A former Navy engineer, accused with his wife in a scheme to sell design data related to nuclear submarines, pleaded guilty Monday and is expected to serve just more than 12 years in prison, according to terms of a federal plea agreement.

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, of Annapolis, Maryland who had been assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, was arrested in October along with Diana Toebbe, 45 in the plot to provide classified information to an undisclosed foreign nation.

Jonathan Toebbe

At the time of their arrests, the couple was communicating with an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign operative.

The plea agreement does not extend to Diana Toebbe, accused of serving as a lookout during clandestine drops of data cards concealed in a peanut butter sandwich and a chewing gum wrapper.

Among the secrets the U.S. government most zealously protects are those related to the design of its nuclear-powered warships," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, chief of the Justice Department's National Security Division. "The defendant was entrusted with some of those secrets and instead of guarding them, he betrayed the trust placed in him and conspired to sell them to another country for personal profit."

More: FBI: Navy engineer, wife sought $5 million, had 'go bag' packed in nuclear submarine espionage case

More: They were amateurs with gum wrappers and peanut butter. And they nearly sold US military secrets.

The scheme was detailed in an initial government affidavit in which the contacts between agent and engineer were carried out under the respective pseudonyms of "Bob" and "Alice."

I apologize for this poor translation into your language," Alice wrote in the initial solicitation. "Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax.

According to the plea agreement, Jonathan Toebbe began corresponding in April 2020 by encrypted email with the undercover agent who Toebbe believed to be a representative of the foreign government.

"Today, Jonathan Toebbe admitted that he violated federal law when he conspired with his wife to sell sensitive government information to a foreign power, said Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung. My office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to identify and hold accountable those who would pursue financial gain at the expense of their solemn duty to protect our countrys closely held secrets.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-Navy engineer pleads guilty to espionage-related charge
A George Floyd rally





One of three former Minneapolis police officers currently facing charges in connection with the death of George Floyd testified on Tuesday that he did not realize Floyd was dying when he was at the scene, The Associated Press reported.

Floyd, a Black man, was killed in May 2020 after police responded to a call from a Minneapolis store owner, who alleged that Floyd used a counterfeit $20 bill.

Tou Thao testified that after arriving on the scene he served as "a human traffic cone" on a roadway for crowd control while other police officers were engaged with Floyd, the AP reported.

Thao said that he presumed Floyd was not in cardiac arrest while he was being held down because he said he had not seen any officers try to perform CPR on him, though he noted that some onlookers wanted Floyd's pulse to be checked by officers and were concerned about his condition.

He acknowledged that he had heard Floyd say "I can't breathe," but he said that from his vantage point he could not see anything that would have blocked Floyd physically from breathing, according to the AP.

The former officer also testified that he believed it was clear "that [Floyd] was under the influence of some type of drugs" while officers tried to put him in a squad car, the AP reported.

Thao is among three police officers who face federal charges for allegedly denying medical care to Floyd and violating his civil rights. The other two charged are former Minneapolis officers J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane.

Floyd died after another former Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. His killing reignited a national reckoning over criminal justice and the treatment of Black Americans in the United States.

Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison last year after being convicted by a jury of second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder.
The Republican National Committees attempt to unwind the controversy over its characterization of Jan. 6, 2021, as legitimate political discourse may have given investigators of the Capitol riot an underappreciated piece of the puzzle theyre assembling.

According to RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, the phrase legitimate political discourse  part of a resolution censuring Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for participating in the select committee probing Donald Trumps role in Jan. 6  was a reference to a set of nonviolent GOP activists with close ties to the national party.

Those activists were relatively small in number compared with the thousands who breached the Capitol: They were dozens of state and local GOP leaders who agreed to serve as electors for Trump and signed false documents claiming the former president had prevailed in at least five states that Joe Biden won. In McDaniels telling, those Republican activists were engaging in legitimate discourse by signing the false certificates and sending them to Washington, a crucial facet of Trumps last-ditch plan to subvert the 2020 election.

Those same signatures are now being reviewed by federal prosecutors for potential crimes, senior Justice Department officials say  though its unclear if the individual false electors knew about Trumps broader plan. That question is very much on the minds of the Jan. 6 select committee, which subpoenaed 14 of the false electors even before the RNC approved censure language that notably defends their actions.

Heres a look at how the false electors figured into Trumps effort and why the national Republican Partys claim that they were engaging in legitimate political discourse is more eye-opening than it initially appears.

Who are the GOP 'false electors'?



Before every presidential-election November, both parties spend the spring and summer appointing slates of electors in all 50 states and D.C. The winner of each states popular vote on Election Day determines which electors will later gather to formally choose the president, as required by the Constitution.

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In 2020, the GOP's electors were a mishmash of state and local party leaders, prominent activists, state lawmakers and close allies of Donald Trump. The party paid more attention than ever to its electors after a chaotic 2016, when anti-Trump activists held many of the often-overlooked posts.

One Michigan Republican elector in particular, Kathy Berden, is at the forefront of the RNC's attempt to define legitimate political discourse after it had become a national controversy. McDaniel has referenced Berden's case  the latter woman was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 select committee for her role as a false elector for Trump  in explaining the rationale behind the choice of the "legitimate" phrasing in the party's resolution.

Berden, a longtime McDaniel ally and RNC member, served as an "alternate elector ... with clear legal precedent," the party chair said in an op-ed last week as the Cheney-Kinzinger censure furor flared. "Now she could face costly legal bills even though she was nowhere near the Capitol on January 6th and had nothing to do with the violence that occurred."



On Dec. 14, 2020, Berden oversaw a meeting of illegitimate Trump electors in Michigan despite its certification for Biden the previous month. She also signed documents attesting that Trump had won the state which were delivered to Congress, the National Archives and a federal judge.

McDaniel has avowed, per the Washington Post, that the recently widowed Berden is a victim of an overzealous select committee investigation targeting ordinary citizens who were doing what the Trump campaign asked.

Several other RNC members have also been subpoenaed by the select committee for leading meetings of Trump electors who claimed to represent states Biden won, including Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald, Georgia GOP chair David Shafer and Nevada RNC committee member Jim DeGraffenreid.

Another RNC member who signed false elector certificates is Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward, whose phone records have been sought by the Jan. 6 committee, though she has not been directly subpoenaed.

Asked for comment, an RNC spokesperson pointed to McDaniels public comments on the episode, including last week's op-ed.

What did the false electors do?



The federal law known as the Electoral Count Act requires legitimate electors to meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December in each states capital, as well as in D.C. That date, in 2020, was Dec. 14  the same day that Trump's losing GOP slates of electors also gathered in five states won by Biden  Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.

The illegitimate electors acted as if Trump had been victorious in their states, signing certificates claiming to be duly elected and qualified to represent their home areas.

This, they noted at the time, had some precedent. In 1960, Hawaii Democrats made a similar decision in a close race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Nixon had been certified the state's winner, but amid an ongoing recount, its three Democratic electors met and signed certificates that went to Washington. The recount later backed them up.

Republican leaders today are relying on the Hawaii precedent to say their actions in 2020 were reasonable.

The larger plot



Unlike 1960, the Trump electors attempted to overturn races that werent particularly close by modern standards. Biden was ahead of Trump by tens of thousands of votes in each of the contested states, and the legal system had thrown out nearly every attempt by the defeated president and his allies to reverse the outcome.

But Trump still needed his allies to cast their false electoral votes for a different reason: They preserved his last-ditch attempt to overturn the election on Jan. 6, 2021. Thats the day that Congress met and counted electoral votes submitted by the states, as required by law.

The law also requires that when states submit multiple slates of electors, Congress chooses which ones to count  if any. In Trumps view, a position rejected by most historians and legal scholars, Vice President Mike Pence (who presided over the count) had the authority to refuse to tally Bidens electors in the disputed states. Part of that rationale relied on the existence of the false elector slates, including Berdens.

John Eastman, an attorney advising Trump on this strategy, laid it out in a two-page memo that specifically cited the existence of multiple slates of electors.

That scenario depended on creating a false conflict for Pence, who as the presiding officer could have attempted to recognize the illegitimate electors. Pence of course, decided to ignore that effort and recognize only the legitimate Biden electors as approved by a state government authority.



In the year since Pence's move, the Trump campaigns outsize role in crafting the legal strategy behind the false elector gambit has become clearer to the select committee. State parties at the time cited the Trump campaign as the source of the decision to hold illegitimate elector meetings in states Biden won.

And Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani publicly pressed state legislatures to certify the false elector slates to give them more legal weight.

Electoral College dropouts



When the Trump electors met on Dec. 14, 2020, 15 of the GOP's original elector picks were absent from the proceedings. That required those who remained to appoint replacements.

Among the absent Trump electors: Terri Lynn Land, the former Michigan secretary of state; former Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino; and John Isakson, son of the late senator from Georgia.

POLITICO reached out at the time to a dozen of the dropouts to ask why they didnt participate in the Trump-backed effort. Marino declined to comment. Another, Patrick Gartland of Georgia, said his absence was the result of a personal matter as well as a recent appointment to a local election board that presented a conflict of interest. The rest did not respond to requests for comment about the reason they declined to back Trumps plan.

Marinos replacement, GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Gerow, said it was his idea  devised along with several other lawyers involved in the process  to include Pennsylvanias caveat that the Trump electors would only be counted if courts ruled in their favor.

We put in the contingent language, quite bluntly, because I and several others in the room who were lawyers insisted upon it, said Gerow.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Black college students once marched downtown from the north Nashville neighborhood where Aaron Marble preaches, sitting at whites-only lunch counters to fight for civil rights. Soon, his historically Black community will fold into a mostly rural, white 14-county territory, and he'll likely have a Republican congressman.

Reality set in for Marble when longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, a white moderate Democrat, said he wouldn't run again because even he couldn't win any of the three new Nashville seats drawn by Republicans during the once-a-decade redistricting process.

The new maps will amount to a stark shift for Nashville, which encompasses Davidson County. As one of three Tennessee counties that backed President Joe Biden in 2020, it's home to the type of coalition of younger progressives, white moderates and African Americans that Democrats have increasingly relied on.

Now, voters there face the potential of representation mostly at odds with their political views, including broad-based support for greater health care access and immigrant rights. Theres particular concern that the new lawmakers will be hostile to protecting voting rights, an issue especially resonant in the city where John Lewis, Diane Nash and other civil rights leaders got their start.

Black Nashvillians have been feeling the weight of living in a red state for quite some time. But I think this redistricting will have deep and lasting adverse impacts on some of Tennessees most vulnerable populations," said Marble, Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Churchs senior pastor.

The once sleepy Southern city has fueled much of Tennessee's population growth through thriving health care and tech industries. Construction cranes hover over new steel-and-glass structures that sprout up into a Nashville skyline that looks dramatically different from the one Bob Dylan turned into an album title in 1969. The cost of living has skyrocketed.

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Navigating that will be a challenge for lawmakers who will also represent rural and suburban communities, where the prevailing politics range from moderate to conservative Republican.

I think that Nashvillians are going to get more whiplash, culture shock, regret than the residents of almost any city in America, because to go from 100 years of Democratic representation to three varieties of Trump representation is going to be quite a shock, Cooper said in an interview.

What Tennessee Republicans did in Nashville is a standard gerrymandering technique known as cracking, which dilutes a party's power by spreading its voters among multiple districts. The prototype for this approach last decade was Austin, which Texas Republicans split into six congressional districts.

This cycle, Republicans attempts to crack Democratic cities like Charlotte and Cincinnati have run afoul of anti-gerrymandering laws in North Carolina and Ohio, leading the states' supreme courts to reject their maps. Tennessee, however, lacks similar provisions.

The pattern works in Democrats' favor sometimes, too. Portland, Oregon, is divided four ways in the new, Democratic-drawn map to create as many liberal-leaning districts as possible.

This time around, Republicans control the line-drawing process in states representing 187 House seats compared with 75 for Democrats. Others use independent commissions, have split government control or have only one congressional seat.

Tennessee Democrats plan to challenge the maps but face significant hurdles. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that federal courts won't referee partisan gerrymandering.

Additionally, Nashville likely doesn't have enough minority voters to make up a district's majority, a key argument under federal voting rights protections. A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Alabama further dampens Nashville's prospects in court, with justices deciding that elections were too imminent to consider changes to the state's congressional map.

So far for Nashville, the two GOP congressmen and the open-seat Republican candidates haven't struck more moderate tones.

Republican Rep. Mark Green, from the Clarksville area about 50 miles from Nashville, will draw Marble's majority-Black north Nashville neighborhood, plus downtown and elsewhere. In an interview, Green said Democratic policies are not serving anyone in the state of Tennessee" and conservative principles are just better.

He sought to counter criticisms that Republican representation within meandering new districts could short Nashville's needs. Its unclear which Democrats might seek the Nashville seats.

What Ive got to do is get in and listen to people and understand the challenges, and then Ill put my brain to it, Green said. "I mean, Im a smart guy. If I look at the problem and see the problem, Ill help find a solution to it.

Republican Rep. John Rose will inherit part of Nashville as well. Hes from Cookeville, some 80 miles east.

The crowded-and-growing field for the recast version of Cooper's seat includes Morgan Ortagus, a Nashville resident and former State Department spokesperson under President Donald Trump, who has endorsed her. Her first video attacks the media, Sleepy Joe Biden and radical socialists.

There may be some people that have differing opinions. Thats OK, Ortagus told The Associated Press. I want to meet them. I want to knock on their door. I want to talk to them. ... I really think you can have common ground with people.

Green's and Rose's records, and the rhetoric of those seeking Cooper's seat, make any relationship with Nashville complicated.

Both support Trump's tough tone on immigration, including building out the U.S.-Mexico border wall. They'll represent a growing Nashville immigrant community  it has the nation's largest Kurdish population  and will be asked to help people navigate immigration services.

Lisa Sherman Luna, of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Votes group, said immigrant advocates are accustomed to building political influence in tough territory.

I think that the price is going to be much higher for cheap nativist tactics for some of these folks, she said. "They could rise to the occasion, truly representing a district that is going to be increasingly diverse.

Green and Rose voted against Biden's infrastructure law. Green contended that vote doesn't mean he's opposed to spending on infrastructure, which Nashville officials say is sorely needed.

Were fiscally challenged with our debt right now. Its part of the problem, Green said. "We just have to be smart about it. But yeah, if theres an infrastructure need, we go find the money and we build it.

Cooper, leaning more fiscally conservative than his party, has spent years navigating Nashville's political complexities. A 2022 challenge from the left was awaiting him if the district wasn't severed. He also shifted some policy positions leftward over the years, following his city. He was vocal about the need to shore up voting rights protections.

Cooper predicted that Republicans aren't prepared for what awaits them representing Nashville.

Theyll pay lip service. Theyll engage in tokenism. Theyll try to put oil on the waters," Cooper said. But they wont be able to hide their voting records, current, past or future. And those will not go down well.

___

Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.




Senate Republicans on Tuesday unveiled their own Russia sanctions legislation after bipartisan talks to slap financial penalties on Moscow hit a wall.

The legislation - spearheaded by Sen. James Risch (Idaho), the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee - would slap sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will carry gas from Russia to Germany, and would nix President Biden's ability to waive the penalties if Russia invades Ukraine.

It would also slap immediate sanctions on Russian banks and Russian officials, includes new financial assistance for Ukraine, speeds up arms sales to Ukraine, gives the Pentagon new funding for military exercises in Europe and boosts funding for combatting Russian disinformation.

"While a 'military' invasion has not yet occurred, there are other ways Russia can attack Ukraine that would be debilitating for Ukrainians and European security more generally," Risch said in a statement.

Risch's legislation - known as the Never Yielding Europe's Territory, or NYET, Act - comes as the Senate is struggling to reach an agreement on bipartisan sanctions legislation. In addition to Risch, approximately 30 GOP senators are backing the bill.

Risch and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, have been swapping offers, but senators acknowledged that the talks are running out of time as the Senate prepares to leave for a one-week break. The House, which would also need to pass any legislation, left town last week until Feb. 28.

There are growing fears that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday that the U.S. is shuttering its embassy in Kyiv ahead of a possible invasion, which U.S. officials are warning could happen as soon as this week.

The Pentagon is looking at getting military aid to Ukrainians via ground delivery to help Kyiv, and the Biden administration announced on Monday that it would offer Ukraine up to $1 billion in loan guarantees.

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But Congress had hoped to pass sanctions legislation before an invasion to try to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he weighs invading Ukraine.

Menendez previously released a Democratic-only sanctions bill that tied sanctions to an invasion by Russia into Ukraine. But Republicans wanted some of the penalties to be felt immediately, with sanctions related to cyberattacks or efforts to undermine Ukraine as two areas where sanctions could be applied before an invasion.

Senators have been stuck on disagreements related to secondary sanctions on Russia's banks, which could have broader impacts across Europe, and what to do about Nord Stream 2.

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, questioned if the White House was pulling Menendez back from the negotiations.

"The sanctions package, at least the one that was being contemplated by Menendez and Risch, doesn't look like it is coming together," Thune said. "It sounds like the White House has sort of pulled Menendez back."

Senators could try to pass sanctions legislation once they return to Washington, D.C., after an invasion.

"If they invade when we're out [of town], my bill is going to be very, very popular on both sides," Risch said.

In addition to sanctions legislation, senators are also working on a non-binding resolution to offer support for Ukraine, which would need buy-in from all 100 senators, or a joint statement from Senate leadership and committee leadership.

"We are right now in the process of trying to put a bipartisan statement together. [Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] and I are working on this with the chairs and ranking members of relevant committees. And we hope to have that statement very soon, as soon as today," Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters.
Feb. 15TERRE HAUTE & BLOOMINGTON  Hallador Energy Company, through its new subsidiary Hallador Power Company, LLC, will acquire Hoosier Energy's 1-Gigawatt Merom Generating Station, located in Sullivan County, Indiana, in return for assuming certain decommissioning costs and environmental responsibilities.

The transaction, which includes a 3.5-year power purchase agreement (PPA), is scheduled to close in mid-July 2022 upon obtaining required governmental and financial approvals.

Per the agreement, Hoosier will purchase 100% of the plant's energy and capacity through May 2023, reducing purchases to 22% of energy output and 32% of its capacity beginning in June 2023 and through 2025. The companies' existing renewable PPA  signed in May 2021 and representing 150 MW of solar generation and 50 MW of battery storage  will be retained, with its start date delayed until Merom's eventual retirement.

"As the future owner and operator of Merom, Hallador secures demand for up to half of its coal production for years to come," said Hallador Energy CEO Brent Bilsland. "With current and anticipated market power and fuel prices, we're confident this investment will provide value to our shareholders. In addition, the parties will be keeping their existing solar/battery storage PPA in place providing a path for Merom's transition to renewable energy when the coal plant is eventually retired. This transaction is an example of how Hallador intends to help the market transition from coal to renewable energy by providing base load capacity in the near term utilizing existing coal-fired power generation while transitioning to renewables in the longer term. It's a great transaction for all involved parties."

"This is a big win for everyone. We've been working on this deal for some time and are excited to be able to announce it today. The acquisition of Merom by Hallador will ultimately benefit our members," Decatur County CEO Brett Abplanalp said.

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In January 2020, Hoosier Energy announced a new Long Range Resource Plan, which included the expected retirement of Merom in May 2023. Hoosier said at the time it would sell the plant if the right deal came to fruition. After entertaining interest from a number of different parties, the company found a unique partner in Hallador, which is able to operate the plant at a much lower cost given ownership and control of fuel supply.

"This is an ideal outcome for Hoosier Energy and its member distribution cooperatives, continuing our commitment to provide reliable, affordable and sustainable power," said Hoosier Energy President & CEO Donna Walker. "It's a positive development for current Merom employees and Sullivan County as well, preserving more than 100 jobs and a major economic driver for the area. Several milestones must still be achieved prior to completing the transaction, and we will remain diligent as this process continues to progress."

Hoosier will retain approximately 5,760 acres of land, which has potential for diverse economic redevelopment. Other benefits include elimination of millions of dollars in costs for plant decommissioning and long-term grounds maintenance. The new PPA provides additional capacity to Hoosier as well, another important element of the deal.

"Our 2020 Long Range Resource Plan was the right plan for Hoosier Energy and its members, and it still is," said Walker. "This agreement creates a win-win dynamic, providing short- and long-term cost savings and continued stability during the transition of our resource portfolio, all while allowing Hoosier to remain on course with the Long Range Resource Plan."  Information provided
February 2022 marks the start of a new year according to the Chinese lunar calendar and the beginning of the Year of the Tiger. The Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University (AADTHU) celebrated the event with a range of new artistic creations. At the same time, the academy also celebrated tiger-themed designs from the past.

A blessing gift box for the Year of the Tiger



Professor Wang Hongwei from the Department of Visual Communication Design of AADTHU led a team and designed a blessing gift box for the Year of the Tiger named "the Spirit of Chinese New Year."

Designing zodiac signs is a tradition of the team. Every year, Wang leads the team members to design zodiac patterns and develop cultural and creative products. Wang named this year's zodiac design "the Earnest Tiger."

The pattern adopts a concise modeling manner and combines a tiger head design with a copper coin pattern. Four tiger heads are presented in a connected form, each occupying one corner of the square, respectively. The negative space looks like a coin eyelet, implying that wealth and good fortune are coming from all directions. The tiger's eyes are wide open, and the design is domineering and cute, adding a bit of childishness and playfulness to the pattern. The design boldly chooses the interaction of red and green integrated with gold, featuring a classic and modest style.
Feb. 15Hawaii Police Department is asking for help in locating a missing 16-year-old boy.

Kula Ahuna is described as 5-foot-6 Hawaiian with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen at Hawaiian Paradise Park in Puna Jan. 8 and was last living with a relative who has since died.

If you have information that might help in locating the boy, call 911 or contact the police dispatch at (808 ) 935-3311.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) arrives to the Senate Chamber for a series of votes regarding nominations on Tuesday, February 1, 2022.





Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is defending merchandise that his campaign is selling that depicts his now-infamous Jan. 6, 2021 raised fist to the pro-Trump mob that went on to ransack the Capitol.

Hawley's campaign is selling a $20 mug that shows a black and white graphic of Hawley with his fist raised outside the Capitol and with the words "Josh Hawley" and "SHOW-ME STRONG!" in red- and blue-colored letters. In an interview with HuffPost published Tuesday, he insisted he was not supporting the attack that took place that day.

"It is not a pro-riot mug," Hawley said, adding that he was not encouraging those who participated in the riot.

The senator pointed out to HuffPost that rioting at Capitol had not yet taken place when he made the gesture, and that he does not tolerate violence against law enforcement.

"At the time that we were out there, folks were gathered peacefully to protest, and they have a right to do that," the Missouri Republican said. "They do not have a right to assault cops."

Hawley was among a group of Republicans who supported challenges to the certification of votes following now-President Biden's victory in the 2020 election. He supported challenges specifically for Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Hawley has previously defended his clenched fist at the Capitol that day, saying last year it is a "slur" to conflate the rioters who ransacked the Capitol with those who were demonstrating.

He echoed a similar sentiment while speaking to HuffPost.

"They've been treated as if, if you were here, if you were in Washington, if you went to the Capitol, 'You're a thug. You're a criminal.' I disagree with that really strongly," he said.

The Hill has reached out to Hawley's campaign for comment.
On Secrets of Playboy, Monday, Hugh Hefners ex-girlfriend of five years, Sondra Theodore, opened up about their sex life.

He would tell the public even good girls enjoy sex, healthy sex. And there was nothing healthy about the sex with Hefner because he took it too far.

Last week, Theodore claimed that Hefner would make her get him drugs, and this week. (pic) she alleged that the Playboy founder required her to have sex with other women and men while he filmed and directed them.

I felt so violated having a man that I did not want to be forced upon me, Theodore recalled.

One of Theodores more shocking claims involved the Playboy Magazine founders alleged fondness for beastiality.

I walked in once, and he was with our dog, Theodore said. And I said, What are you doing?" He says, Well, dogs have needs. And I went, Stop that, just stop that! And I never left them alone with the dog again. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Viewers found the claims, many of which were corroborated by Hefners former employees, to be upsetting, like this person who tweeted, This information is so disturbing and so disgusting. Im sick to my stomach and could cry hearing about this stuff.. Hugh Hefner was a disgusting and TERRIBLE person. I will never think otherwise.

Theodore alleged that it was when Hefner became infatuated with blood and snuff films, that she finally gathered the courage to get away from him.

What kind of mind is so far gone that it takes killing somebody to get them excited for that big release? Theodore asked. He was opening my eyes to this monster. I mean, really, he was a monster.

Video Transcript

SONDRA THEODORE: He was like a vampire. He was sucking the life out of. Really, he was a monster. The things that he got turned on by. Nothing was enough, nothing.

KYLIE MAR: On "Secrets of Playboy" Monday, Hugh Hefner's ex-girlfriend of five years, Sondra Theodore, opened up about their sex life.

SONDRA THEODORE: He would tell the public, even good girls enjoy sex, healthy sex, and there was nothing healthy about the sex with Hefner, because he took it too far.

Story continues

KYLIE MAR: Last week, Theodore claimed that Hefner would make her get him drugs, and this week, she alleged that the Playboy founder required her to have sex with other women and men while he filmed and directed them.

SONDRA THEODORE: I felt so violated having a man that I did not want to be with forced upon me.

KYLIE MAR: One of Theodore's more shocking claims involved the Playboy magazine founder's alleged fondness for bestiality.

SONDRA THEODORE: I walked in and he was to my dog, our dog, and I said, what are you doing. He said, well, dogs have needs. I went, stop that, just stop that. I never left him alone with the dog again. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I could not believe what I was seeing.

KYLIE MAR: Viewers found the claims, many of which were corroborated by Hefner's former employees, to be upsetting, like this person who tweeted, this information is so disturbing and so disgusting. I'm sick to my stomach and could cry hearing about this stuff.

Hugh Hefner was a disgusting and terrible person. I will never think otherwise. And Sondra alleged that it was when Hefner became infatuated with blood and snuff films that she finally gathered the courage to get away from him.

SONDRA THEODORE: What kind of a mind is so far gone that it takes killing somebody to get them excited for that big release? He was opening my eyes to this monster. I mean, really, he was a monster.
File photo: Afghan women march as they chant slogans and hold banners during a womens rights protest in Kabul on 16 January 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

Hundreds of Afghan women's rights campaigners have urged US President Joe Biden to take action over the killing and forced disappearance of Afghan women since the Taliban rose to power.

Writing a letter, seen by The Independent, exactly six months after the American embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul was evacuated and the Taliban seized power, activists urged Mr Biden to pledge to safeguard women and girls from violence around the world by way of a global treaty.

The letter, which was signed by more than 220 Afghan womens rights defenders, as well as ex-members of the Afghan parliament, detailed how the Taliban attacked a women's march in Mazar-e-Sharif, a large city in northern Afghanistan, back in September.

Women protestors they took into custody were reportedly severely tortured and repeatedly gang-raped, the letter states.

The letter also refers to foreigners coming to Afghanistan to have women as property, and young women being sent to neighbouring countries to be used as sex slaves, without providing any further details.

In the face of this staggering violence, Afghan activists continue to take to the streets and call on the Taliban to respect womens rights. This bravery is breathtaking. An international framework drawing a clear line on violence against women and girls will provide activists with critical support, the letter says.

The Taliban has launched a grave crackdown on womens basic rights since seizing power of Kabul in mid-August as the US and British forces withdrew. The hardline Islamist group has blocked women from the workplace and secondary education, as well as barring them from taking part in all sports.

A global agreement or treaty tackling violence against women and girls is the best chance to ensure safety for Afghan women and girls, according to the letter to Mr Biden, which will be delivered on Tuesday.

As you know, many Afghan activists were forced to flee the country last summer after the US withdrawal for fear of retribution, the letter says. Scores of advocates have been forcibly disappeared or killed, wiping out a generation of leadership in six short months.

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The letter adds: We have lost loved ones, our homeland, and fellow womens rights activists. Our wish is for you to champion the campaign for a new global agreement on violence against women and girls.

Judge Najla Ayoubi, who was the first female judge in her province in Afghanistan, told The Independent: As long as the Afghan women and girls are used as bargain chips for the Taliban to fulfil their demands, the conscience of the world should not sleep soundly. We all have a collective duty to respond to this scourge. A global problem merits a global solution.

Signatories argued Mr Biden is uniquely placed to lend his backing to a treaty helping women - adding that the president was previously fighting for the US Violence Against Women Act.

Your subsequent work on the International Violence Against Women Act speaks to your understanding of the distinctly global nature of this issue, the letter adds.

Presently, the campaign for a global agreement on violence against women is gaining momentum. As the treaty-making process progresses, the Taliban will face increased international shaming, ostracisation, and pariahdom if they resist recognising womens right to be free from violence.

The letter is signed by men and women, with signatories including Fawzia Kofi, the first woman to be Vice President of the Afghan Parliament, Spozhmai Wardak, Former Deputy Minister of Womens Affairs, as well as others who previously served as senior Afghan officials.

Signatories include Afghans residing in 20 different nations - living in the UK, America, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Australia, India and Pakistan.

Campaigners noted around 15 per cent of the signatories chose to not reveal their identity due to the immense security risks faced by Afghan activists.

Since coming to power in mid-August, the Taliban have imposed widespread restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan.

They have been banned from many jobs, ordered to wear the hijab, and had their education largely restricted beyond the age of 12.

Womens rights activists in Kabul have staged a series of protests against their rights rollback under the Taliban, and reports have suggested that dozens of Afghan women and their families have been detained in recent weeks.

The Taliban have repeatedly denied arresting and detaining women, but say authorities have the right to arrest and detain dissidents or those who break the law.
WISCONSIN  A bill allowing workers to submit proof of a previous COVID-19 infection in place of getting vaccinated passed the Wisconsin State Senate on Tuesday.

If the bill is signed into law, employers who require proof of vaccination or regular COVID-19 tests would have to accept "natural immunity" through an employee's previous infection. Employees would have to show a positive COVID-19 test to their employer or a serology test that shows naturally occurring antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in their blood.



The bill passed the Assembly Jan. 25. It will head to Gov. Tony Evers' desk next. Evers, a Democrat, isn't expected to sign the bill into law.

Passing the legislation would "coddle" people who avoided getting the shot and those who spread rhetoric against getting vaccinated, state Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said in a hearing Tuesday.

"The majority of Wisconsin, who are vaccinated, would like you guys to move on so we can open up again," Larson said.

Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) said that "natural immunity" had been "saving generations for centuries," and accused her opponents of forcing vaccinations.

The senator also shared that she had been infected with both the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19. Larson said that she wouldn't have been infected twice had she been vaccinated.

People who aren't fully vaccinated are three times more likely to get infected, 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and 14 times more likely to die than those who are, data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services showed.

"We don't know how long that immunity lasts," Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) told the Wisconsin Examiner. Medical groups like the American Cancer Society and the Medical College of Wisconsin have also registered against the bill, Subeck added.

"We don't know how that immunity changes from variant to variant. We do not know what level of immunity is provided in the long term," Subeck said. "What we do know is that individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 frequently get it again."

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Among Wisconsinites, 63.6 percent of residents in the state have completed their vaccine series, health services data showed. Of those people who were vaccinated, 1.8 million have received a booster dose.

Health experts agree that getting vaccinated is still the No. 1 way to fight the spread of coronavirus.

"If you have family, neighbors, friends, acquaintances, anyone, anyone, anyone who is over 70 and not yet vaccinated, talk to them," Dr. Ben Weston, the City of Milwaukee's chief medical adviser, said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on the Milwaukee Patch
BANDUNG, Indonesia (Reuters) - An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced an Islamic school teacher to life in prison for raping 13 students in a case that has spotlighted the need to protect children from sexual violence in the country's religious boarding schools.

Judge Yohannes Purnomo Suryo Adi said that teacher Herry Wirawan had sexually groomed the 13 girls, who were between 12 and 16 years old, and impregnated eight of his victims, some of whom suffered injuries from the rapes.

"Wirawan was proven guilty...of the crimes of purposely committing violence, forcing intercourse on more than one victim repeatedly," the judge told the court in the city of Bandung in West Java.

Herry's lawyer, Ira Mambo, said he would speak to his client about whether to appeal the verdict.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty or chemical castration for the teacher, citing the severity of the crimes, which occurred between 2016 and 2021.

Indonesian officials, including the country's child protection minister, backed calls for the death penalty, though the country's human rights commission, which opposes the death penalty, said it was not appropriate.

In 2016, an Indonesian court sentenced to death the leader of a gang of men and boys who raped and murdered a schoolgirl in a case that prompted President Joko Widodo to impose harsher punishments for attacks on children.

This included a regulation to allow for chemical castration of child offenders that the president signed into law in 2020, despite opposition from rights activists.

Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim majority country, has tens of thousands of Islamic boarding schools and other religious schools that often provide the only way for the children of poorer families to get an education.

Dedeh Marlina, a 42-year-old housewife living near the school where Herry taught, said she was relieved the perpetrator had been stopped but that the damage had been done.

"I know most of them came from poor families in remote areas...unfortunately they are now carrying the burden of what happened," she said.

(Reporting by Heru Asprihanto in Bandung and Stanley Widianto in Jakarta; Editing by Ed Davies and Christian Schmollinger)
You are here: Business

Oil prices advanced on Monday as investors monitor geopolitical tensions.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March delivery added 2.36 U.S. dollars, or 2.5 percent, to settle at 95.46 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for April delivery increased 2.04 dollars, or 2.2 percent, to close at 96.48 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Concerns about an escalation of Russia-Ukraine tensions are driving oil prices up noticeably, Carsten Fritsch, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said Monday in a note.

Traders also digested a closely-watched report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

In its monthly report released on Friday, the IEA revised its forecast for global oil demand this year considerably upwards.

The Paris-based energy watchdog also warned that the gap between OPEC+ output and its target levels swelled in January.

"That shortfall is expected to deepen as some OPEC+ members struggle with production constraints, exacerbating market tightness," said the IEA.

For the week ending Friday, the U.S. crude benchmark rose 0.9 percent, while Brent advanced 1.3 percent, based on the front-month contracts.
Jacksonville's ICARE program tried to schedule a sit-down meeting and deliver a written statement to Sheriff Mike Williams. When told the sheriff was not in and failing to get his aide by phone, the Rev. Tan Moss (right), co-president of ICARE, presented Sgt. Mark Mason with letters of support for an adult civil citation program.

A local group of ministers and faith leaders who have tried since August to meet with Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams to discuss an adult civil citation program for lesser, non-violent offenses tried the personal touch this week.

But ICARE  the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment made up of hundreds of members of the city's faith community, got no further than the Sheriff's Office's front door at 501 E. Bay St.

Twenty-seven leaders and members of ICARE, a nonprofit group working to address citywide concerns on issues of justice and fairness, took their request to the Sheriff's Office public entrance at 3 p.m. Monday. The Rev Tan Moss, ICARE co-president, asked security officers at the entrance if he could give 200 letters of support for adult civil citations to the sheriff and was told he was not in.

Handling cases: State attorney candidates differ in their approaches to juvenile offenders

Sheriff agreed to juvenile citations in 2015: Sheriffs Office pledges to expand use of juvenile civil citations at ICARE assembly

He was told to call the sheriff's aide to schedule an appointment, but repeated calls went to voicemail.

"I have called this number probably 10 times in the past five to six months and I have not received any return calls," Moss said in one message to the aide. "If you get this message, if you can come down so we can converse with you, then hopefully call the sheriff and put a date on the calendar."

Moss and ICARE officials waited 10 minutes in the hope that someone would come down to take the letters, then asked if he could be taken to the aide to present them.

"If you have anything for the sheriff, I will be glad to take it for you and make sure she [his aide] gets it," Sgt. Mark Mason responded. "I will take it to his office."

The Rev. Tan Moss (right), co-president of Jacksonville's ICARE, tries to get Sheriff Mike Williams' aide on the phone after being told he is not available. ICARE sought a meeting with Williams to discuss an adult civil citation program for minor offenses and had letters of support.

ICARE is pressing police to stop arresting people for minor offenses, which can leave them with a lifetime criminal record for minor, non-violent offenses. Moss, also pastor at Greater Grant Memorial AME Church, said all those arrests are undermining public trust in law enforcement and not making the city safer.

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Members said the Sheriff's Office knew they were coming Monday, adding that State Attorney Melissa Nelson had already indicated support of an adult civil citation program 10 months ago. So Moss expressed discouragement to their public appeal being rebuffed after previous attempts in recent months were never answered.

"Disappointment for the fact that we were unable to meet and disappointment for the thousands of people who continue to be arrested for minor offenses ... and have a criminal record that follows them for the rest of their lives," Moss said. "It complicates their lives so unnecessarily, without making our community safer. Most of these are people who have no criminal record and are not a threat to society."

Support from the SAO, but little trust in police

Clergy and staff at 38 Jacksonville churches, synagogues and other congregations in Duval County make up ICARE. They use what they call their "collective people power" to push the city's elected officials to find county-wide solutions to problems like crime, low graduation rates and homelessness.

With the number of shootings and homicides decreasing last year over previous highs, ICARE officials said they were pleased that Williams had fulfilled his commitment to pursue a contract with the National Network for Safe Communities. That allows local police to work with experts on violence reduction in Jacksonville.

But ICARE leaders say the number of homicides is still too high, and the Sheriff's Office's efforts to build trust in the community and reduce violence are being "undermined by over-policing."

Editorial: Where in criminal justice can you find a 96 percent success rate?

ICARE: Faith leaders meet to push law enforcement to start adult misdemeanor diversion programs

That includes arresting 32,000 people last year for minor issues such as driving with a suspended license, a cost for taxpayers as officers could be using that time to solve serious crimes, Moss said. And many of those arrests leave the community untrusting of police because those arrested end up with criminal records that cause problems with future employment, ICARE said.

In April ICARE conducted a 90-minute virtual meeting with members, pushing for adult civil citations for nonviolent crimes. That meeting was joined by hundreds of residents, clergy and the heads of many statewide denominations. The idea of adult civil citations received endorsements from men and women of the cloth, as well as support from Nelson and the State Attorney's Office.

Bill Hoff, a retired Presbyterian clergy member, speaks Monday at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office before he and members of the local community-based ICARE program tried to get a sit-down meeting with Sheriff Mike Williams about starting an adult civil citation program.

Asked if she would work with ICARE and Williams to develop the program, Nelson said in that April conference that her office is committed to working on alternatives to arrests. The State Attorney's Office has already started one for driver's license suspensions and another for juvenile civil citations.

"We have already had meetings with JSO about creating an adult civil citation program and I absolutely support the notion of a pre-arrest diversion program," Nelson said at the time. But an adult citation program "has to be led by law enforcement" since the Sheriff's Office handles all cases before her office reviews them, Nelson added.

Angela Corey, Wes White, Melissa Nelson: State attorney candidates differ in their approaches to juvenile offenders

Williams did not attend April's ICARE online conference, the Sheriff's Office saying then that he had an unexpected scheduling conflict come up and was forced to cancel. As far as the possibility of an adult civil citation program, the sheriff "would be open to conversations about the idea," a spokesman said. But that hasn't happened, Moss said.

"We will continue to press for a meeting on this very critical issue with our sheriff," he said.

The Sheriff's Office did not respond to an initial request for comment on Monday's developments.

Report: Duval poised to be a leader in civil citation use

In 2017 Nelson implemented a program to allow first-time youths committing nonviolent misdemeanors to enter a diversion program instead of the criminal legal system. If they successfully complete the program, processed through Teen Court, they have no arrest record.

"They are given training and counseling if necessary, with community service when they complete the program," Moss said. "About 98 percent-plus of those kids never offend again. They go on to b productive citizens, so I know this civil citation program works."

And in 2018 ICARE worked with other organizations to get a criminal justice reform bill passed in the Florida Legislature. Part of the bill required each judicial circuit to create a civil citation or pre-arrest diversion program for minors and pushes for communities and educational institutions to implement pre-arrest diversion programs for adults.

dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville's ICARE seeks meeting with the sheriff but gets rebuffed
NEW YORK (AP)  Julia Fox, fresh from her breakup with the artist formerly known as Kanye West, opened LaQuan Smith's New York Fashion Week show in black as the designer honored his beloved late mentor, Andre Leon Talley, with a moment of silence Monday night inside a century-old private club.

His guests scattered around rooms at the Down Town Association, among the city's oldest private clubs, Smith put out a refined yet still signature sexy collection full of sparkle in gold, blue and red, and tiny minis with carved out cutouts in all the right places.

After the show, Fox told The Associated Press of her split with Ye: I love Kanye. We're still very good friends and I wish him nothing but the best.

The breakup with Fox after six weeks of dating came as Ye has ranted on social media about his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian West, and new beau Pete Davidson. On Sunday night, Valentine's Day, he posted a truckload of red roses he had delivered to the Hidden Hills, California, mansion where Kim lives with their four children. It's a home they once shared.

To open Smith's show, Fox wore a high-neck, long-sleeve black evening dress with cutouts at the midriff, chest and back that hugged her body at the 163-year-old club in the Financial District. Like other clubs of the times, the Down Town Association  filled with marble and deep-stained wood  was once male only but began admitting women in 1985. Its walls remain adorned with painted portraits of white men.

Smith, a rare Black designer to establish himself at New York Fashion Week, remains a go-to for the young and party happy. He told the AP in a backstage interview that he chose the club because he was looking for a change in mood after taking over the observation deck of the Empire State Building last September for his fashion week show.

I'm excited about this space, he said. I wanted to do something that felt sort of romantic in a way. This show and this season is really about the revival of New York City, celebrating New York designers, celebrating American designers.

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The women who buy his clothes, Smith said, are all about being the center of attention. They won't be disappointed with his bold use of color and sequins, or his sparkly leotards worn with low-slung pants, back thong out. But this season, it wasn't just about baring skin.

Smith put out some classics in camel coats and day dresses trimmed in fur worthy of the ladies who lunch rather than the party 'til dawn set. One coat came in luscious moss green leather with a soft cozy lapel and lining. He put the Smith twist on the ensemble by showing it over a tiny leo, his model in dark shades with a statement necklace as a finish.

His latest collection remained mostly about the va-va-voom upon which Smith has built his reputation.

Women are shopping and that is even more of an incentive, he said. It's about giving people a sense of hope. People want to celebrate. People want to get dressed up.

Of Talley, who died on Jan. 18, Smith said he took some time to mourn. The legendary Vogue editor took Smith under his wing when the designer was just 21. He was more than a mentor, Smith said. He nourished him when he needed it the most.

He changed my life. Andre gave me money to go to Paris. I had never been to Paris before. Andre said you take this check and you go to Paris and you just sit down at a cafe. You go to the Champs-Elysees. He really believed in me at the age of 21."

The 33-year-old Smith, a Queens native, established his namesake brand in 2013. He has dressed Beyonce, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Kardashian West and Hailey Bieber. But he's never notched a win at the Academy Awards, which this year will be held on March 27. Smith is mostly cocktail and evening focused, rather than statement ball gowns, but he's hoping to remain in building mode.

I haven't had that opportunity as of yet, Smith said of the Oscars. I really look forward to the future. I'm very optimistic."

___

Associated Press writers Aron Ranen and John Carucci in New York contributed to this story.
Jim Kolovos along with his wife, Lauren, his daughter Elena, 11 and his son, Demetrios, 8, before he caught COVID-19.

Nearly two months after Jim Kolovos was put on a ventilator, his wife and doctors tried to help him regain consciousness so they could ask him a question: Was he ready to give up, or did he want to try for a lung transplant and keep fighting for his life?

No one was sure whether Kolovos could make that decision after being sedated for so long. It's not unusual for people who spend extended time in intensive care to become delirious or struggle to think clearly.

But for him, "there was never a chance I would say no." There was his wife, and 11-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. "I would not leave those kids at home alone without a dad. I will do anything I can to be there."

Now, Kolovos, 46, is in rehab, slowly teaching himself to walk again on legs weakened by almost a year of being bedridden. He's advanced from a full harness to just leg braces, with only one therapist walking next to him.

Although extreme, Kolovos' experience  weeks of sedation, months of rehab, years, perhaps of lingering symptoms  is common for people who have ended up in an intensive care unit because of COVID-19.

Most people who die of COVID-19 first spend time in an ICU.

Early in the pandemic, about one-third of COVID-19 patients treated in intensive care died. Those figures are far better now, though precise numbers aren't available. Most of the survivors, like Kolovos, don't bounce back quickly.

A study published in late January in JAMA found that among Dutch people treated for COVID-19 in an ICU, 74% still had physical symptoms a year later, including weakness and muscle and joint pain. More than a quarter reported lingering mental symptoms and 16% had cognitive problems.

COVID-19 patients who end up in intensive care have a rougher road than those with other respiratory illnesses, often suffering long-term organ damage, said Amit Gaggar, an attending physician in ICUs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Birmingham VA Medical Center.

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After being released, many have lingering shortness of breath, new or exacerbated heart failure, kidney problems and lung scarring  all conditions that are possible after an ICU stay without COVID-19. But Gaggar said, "the degree is a lot more severe with the COVID population."

Though many people with respiratory illnesses might need two to three days in intensive care, patients with COVID-19 often spend two to three weeks or more, said Dr. Wes Ely, an ICU specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Those who survive ICUs may end up with what he calls post-intensive care syndrome, The condition can cause "neck up" problems, like dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, he said, and "neck down" problems, like muscle and nerve damage that can make it hard to walk or hold a pen.

"It can be permanent in up to two-thirds of people to some degree," Ely said. "Or it even gets worse."

The longer people remain in the ICU, the more symptoms patients are likely to get and have long-term, said Dr. Margaret Herridge, director of Critical Care Research at the University of Toronto, who co-leads a national study of ICU patients in Canada. "There's a real cost to being in the ICU for a long period of time."

The sheer number of people who've been in ICUs during the COVID-19 pandemic means far more people will be suffering these lingering symptoms, said Dr. Abhijit Duggal, vice chair for the department of critical care at the Cleveland Clinic.

"COVID has brought it front-and-center that when someone stays in the ICU for a long period of time, the struggle is not done once they leave the hospital," Duggal said.

Life in a COVID-19 ICU

Daily life in an ICU is far more miserable than most people realize, particularly for COVID-19 patients because of their long stays, said Ely, author of a book about the ICU experience, "Every Deep Drawn Breath." Most in the general public "have no concept at all of the amount of suffering these people go through," he said.

Dr. Wes Ely, an ICU specialist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Ely described a downward cycle that starts with feeling poorly and testing positive on a COVID-19 test. Today, some people can get monoclonal antibodies or antiviral pills that can often prevent hospitalization, but they're currently in short supply. (Kolovos got infected before vaccines became widely available.)

By the time a pulse oximeter measures a drop in oxygen level below the mid-90s, the person has started to feel sicker, dizzy, lightheaded and maybe isn't thinking clearly, said Ely, co-director of Vanderbilt's Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, Survivorship Center. They are admitted to the hospital and given extra oxygen, while starting to feel claustrophobic and out of breath.

Then, nine or 10 days after they started feeling ill, their oxygen levels might dip down again, he said, and they need high-flow oxygen.

Their lung X-rays look whiter, indicating more damage. "You're heaving," Ely said, mimicking the sound of someone trying to catch his breath. "You're scared out of your mind, suffocating before your very eyes."

This can last several days, he said.

If the person doesn't improve, they're then put on a Bi-Level Positive Airway Pressure or BiPAP mask to help with breathing. But the BiPAP can't be used continuously because its pressure causes ulcers on the face. So the mask has to be taken off periodically to restore blood flow to the cheeks and chin.

After catching COVID-19, Jim Kolovos spent mid-March through September in intensive care in Pittsburgh before being transferred to Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, where he received a double-lung transplant.

Without the mask, "your oxygen plummets, which is really scary," Ely said. This "cat and mouse game" can continue for days, while the patient is pumped full of steroids, blood thinners and a drug called baricitinib, normally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

"We're just praying that the clock will go long enough without you having to be on a ventilator," Ely said.

If a patient's oxygen levels drop further, they have to be immobilized, sedated and intubated  put on a ventilator that will breathe for them. Many people later remember feeling like they were drowning.

"Now, you're starting to develop other diseases," Ely said. Muscle and nerve damage and delirium and thinking problems that may or may not lift if the person survives the ventilator. "We're still trying to keep you alive."

Jim Kolovos greets his children, Elena, 11 and Demetrios, 8, after receiving a double-lung transplant.

People either recover from this situation, perhaps, like Kolovos, with the help of a lung transplant. Or they don't.

Ely remembered one patient, a cardiothoracic surgeon in perfect health before catching COVID-19 too early in the pandemic to get vaccines or medications. He went through the full downward cycle until finally Ely and his family decided to withdraw life support.

He struggled to breathe for hours, Ely said, and was given narcotics to blunt the pain and fear of suffocation at the end: "That is the typical course of someone who dies."

What's different about COVID-19

Once they end up in an ICU, COVID-19 patients tend to stay longer than those with pneumonia or flu, said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine, who performed Kolovos' transplant.

If COVID-19 patients go on a ventilator, they need it longer than other patients. If they require a heart-lung bypass machine, called ECMO, they also need it for longer.

Their care is more complicated, too, Bharat said, because of the duration of their illness and the problems that come with it.

They get malnourished, "their lungs certainly take a beating," they develop COVID-associated damage and related infections.

"It's a very tough road for them," Bharat said.

Though most ventilated patients remain intubated for about four days, those with COVID-19 need nine to 11 days on average, Duggal said.

Patients who spend a long time in an ICU often need continued assistance with tasks such as walking, dressing, bathing and eating, which has an impact on family members and communities, Duggal said.

"A lot of these people who have struggled through severe illness are going to continue needing a lot of support," he said.

Herridge, a professor of medicine and senior scientist at the University Health Network in Toronto, said many family members suffer post-traumatic stress symptoms after watching a loved one endure an extended ICU stay. COVID-19, she said, has made the situation much worse.

Symptoms can be reduced for both patients and family members by having loved ones at the bedside  but for most of the pandemic, family visits have been severely limited by COVID-19 safety precautions. Heavy sedation and restraints, which were also used on many COVID-19 ICU patients, have also been shown to increase delirium, she said.

Patients who stay the longest are those who receive ECMO, the heart-lung bypass machine, she said. The median time on ECMO for her Toronto cohort of patients is about a month.

Of those who end up on ECMO, 50% to 60% recover spontaneously and survive to discharge despite their lung damage. Their likelihood of ever getting off ECMO goes down with time. If they need it for a month or longer, Bharat said, "their likelihood of getting better without a transplant is about 5%."

Many ICU patients end up with neuropsychiatric problems like nightmares, memory loss and forgetfulness, said Gaggar, chief medical officer of ResBiotic, a company that sells probiotics.

As patients stay longer in the ICU, "all the effects we would see with non-COVID patients are magnified," he said. "All of these things kind of conspire together and make for a poor outcome for some of these individuals."

Herridge said there hasn't been much societal support for patients and their families who endure long ICU stays. "Post-ICU patients and their families really need a lot of help and that help really doesn't exist in a systematic way," she said. "Hopefully, there's an opportunity here to rectify that."

Still battling

Kolovos said he got great care at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for several months, but he was rejected for a lung transplant, judged too weak to survive. His cousin's husband, a doctor, had worked with Bharat, who offered to help.

Jim Kolovos and his son, Demetrios, 8 and daughter, Elena, 11. Jim is currently recovering from a months-long stay in a intensive care unit and later a double lung transplant after an infection with COVID-19.

Kolovos was flown to Chicago on Sept. 22, still on ECMO, and went straight into Northwestern's ICU. On Oct. 5, a donor became available, with lungs suitable for his 6-foot, 3-inch frame.

He came off ECMO on Oct. 7 and a ventilator on Oct. 16. A few days later, desperately thirsty, he was allowed his first sip of water in 7.5 months. He's been working on his recovery ever since.

Bharat warned him that rehabbing after surgery would take a year or more, "and it's going to be the hardest thing you're ever going to experience," Kolovos said.

He doesn't know how much of the damage he sustained will be permanent.

Kolovos has very little movement in three fingers on his right hand, but "within the last 3 to 4 weeks, I was able to see my three fingers flicker a little bit." A lefty, he has more mobility on his dominant hand but still can't make a fist.

He can't dress himself because his grip and strength "just isn't there yet" to pull up his clothes. With a little assistance, he can almost get food up to his mouth, and someone can push his hand the rest of the way. "I'm really close to being able to do it on my own."

Living in a hotel a few blocks from his Chicago rehab center, Kolovos remains mostly upbeat. An extended visit from his kids, the first time he's seen them since September, was a big boost.

"I'm not going to say there haven't been down days or tough days, but they've been few and far between," he said.

His wife, Lauren, can't believe how Kolovos manages to remain so optimistic.

"I always refer to him as Guy Smiley," she said. "He still has that smile on his face. I told him many times, if I was in your position, I would not be smiling."

Despite everything he's been through since he caught COVID almost a year ago, Jim Kolovos is still all smiles.

Kolovos said he's not doing much planning these days, just focusing on making the most out of every rehab session.

"I don't know what the future holds," he said. "All I can control is working hard and doing the best I can, and we'll manage whatever comes out of this."

Contact Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lengthy ICU stays add to misery for COVID-19 patients
A Kansas man on probation is accused of burning down a house with an infant inside, officials said.

Nicholas Ecker, 28, is charged with felony murder and aggravated arson in connection with Sunday's blaze in Shawnee, according to the Johnson County District Attorneys Office.

NBC affiliate KSHB of Kansas City, Missouri, reported that a baby boy died in the fire.

Police and the district attorney's office both declined to comment on the relationship, if any, between the baby and the suspect.

Our hearts go out to the family, Shawnee Deputy Fire Chief Corey Sands said. Shawnee is a tight-knit community. Our hearts go out to everyone.

Ecker was being held on $1 million bond and was expected in court Tuesday.

A fire at a home in Shawnee, Kan., on Feb. 13, 2022, claimed the life of an infant. (KSHB.com)

Court records show Ecker was charged with aggravated domestic battery and firearm possession by a felon in 2019. The battery charge was dropped; he was sentenced to a year and a half in prison and a year and a half of probation on the firearm charge.

Ecker was again charged with aggravated domestic battery last month. He was charged earlier this month with violation of a protection order, which was amended to a stalking charge Monday.

Ecker's attorney, who has represented him before, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
After a series of Valentines Day posts, Kanye West has now shared screenshots of his private conversation with estranged wife Kim Kardashian.

The 44-year-old rapper shared screenshots of messages where the Skims founder calls out his actions and says that hes creating a dangerous and scary environment for her boyfriend and SNL star Pete Davidson.

Someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault, Kardashian wrote.

West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, captioned his post in capital letters: Upon my wifes request please nobody do anything physical to Skete. Im going to handle the situation myself.

Last week, Davidson made his relationship with Kardashian public by referring to the KKW Beauty owner as his girlfriend.

The couple first met on the set of Saturday Night Live in October 2021 and have since been spotted together a number of times, going on dates and holidaying together.

Someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault, wrote Kim Kardashian in one of her texts to her ex-husband (Kanye West/Instagram)

Ye shared more screenshots of his conversation with Kardashian where he tells her that he will do everything to protect our family.

I listened to you and told everyone that nothing happens to Skete, he added.

Skete seems to be Yes nickname for Davidson.

When Kardashian asks why Ye cant keep their conversation private, the Donda rapper replies saying: Cause I got a text from my favourite person in the world.

Im your number one fan, he adds. Why Wouldnt I tell everyone!!!!

(Kanye West/Instagram)

In his most recent post, Ye also revealed that he sent a truckload of roses to Kardashian on Valentines Day.

Amid all this, Yes partner Julia Fox confirmed her split with the Follow God rapper.

Speaking to Fox News Digital on Monday (14 February), a representative for the 32-year-old actor said: Julia and Kanye remain good friends and collaborators but they are no longer together.

Fox and Ye had been dating since New Years Eve.

Julia Fox and Kanye West arrive at Schiaparelli show (David Fisher/Shutterstock)

They spent a whirlwind month going out for lavish dinners, shopping sprees and attended Paris Fashion Week, all of which was documented on Foxs social media.

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However, things changed last week after Kardashian featured on the March cover of American Vogue.

Following the release of the images, Ye posted the picture of his ex-wife and four children to Instagram with the caption: God please bring our family back together.

Ye later spent the weekend posting various images to Instagram, including what appeared to be a screenshot of a text from Davidson. In the now-deleted post, West used the caption to say he didnt want Davidson to see his children.

Fox has since deleted all images of her and West from her Instagram account and West does not appear to be following Fox on the social media platform.

Last week, E! reported that Fox and Wests relationship had evolved and that Fox no longer had the energy to keep up with the relationship.

The publication reported that Ye had asked the actor, who has a one-year-old son called Valentino, to move to Los Angeles. But because her work and family were in New York, she wasnt able to.
A locally-known Louisville activist and columnist has been detained and accused of trying to kill a Louisville mayoral candidate, according to Louisville Metro police and court records.

Quintez Brown, an activist and former intern and editorial columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, was accused of shooting at Craig Greenberg in his office on Monday, per court records. He has been charged with attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment.

Police officers were dispatched to the 1200 block of Story Avenue at approximately 10:15 a.m. Monday for a report of an active aggressor, police said. According to an arrest citation, 911 callers reported a male had entered Greenbergs campaign office and fired several gunshots.

Greenberg has a campaign office in the Butchertown Market, which is at 1201 Story Ave., according to multiple reports.

Greenberg and four staff members were in the office at the time of the shooting, per Browns arrest citation. No one was hurt but police say an article of Greenbergs clothing was struck.

Greenberg is an attorney and he helped build 21c Hotels, according to his campaign website.

Police obtained a suspect description and located Brown less than a half-mile away from the scene shortly after the shooting, according to court documents. Brown was found wearing the same clothing as the shooter observed on surveillance footage from the office.

Brown was also carrying a drawstring bag, which contained a 9 mm Glock handgun, a Glock handgun case and additional handgun magazines, per court documents. The bag could also be seen on surveillance footage.

Browns activism has included involvement in racial justice protests in 2020 and youth violence prevention advocacy, according to multiple reports.

Brown went missing last summer but was found safe about two weeks later, per multiple reports. Brown had planned to run for Louisville Metro Council in District 5, according to his Twitter page.
Kirsty Muir finished eighth in the ski slopestyle in Beijing (Andrew Milligan/PA) (PA Wire)

Kirsty Muir will head back to school next week with two Olympic finals in her locker after ending her Beijing campaign with an eighth place finish in the womens ski-slopestyle competition.

The 17-year-old, who put the final year of her Highers on hold to target the Games, scored 71.30 on her second run to finish one place in front of her team-mate Katie Summerhayes in the 11-athlete final.

And it is a mark of Muirs swift emergence following her fifth place in last weeks Big Air final that she admitted being a little disappointed that she failed to threaten the podium on her final jump.

Gold medallist Mathilde Gremaud took a photo of Britains Kirsty Muir (Andrew Milligan/PA) (PA Wire)

Overall I was happy to be in the final but I am little disappointed that I made a couple of mistakes, said Muir. All the girls have been smashing it but I would have hoped to be in the running, maybe.

Muir came off a rail early and briefly touched down during her final run to effectively sink her hopes of becoming the first medallist of an increasingly disappointing Games for Team GB.

Switzerlands Mathilde Gremaud denied Eileen Gu her second gold of the Games as she did enough to take the medal with a second run score of 86.56. Gus 86.23 in the final round was not quite enough to top the podium again.

Eileen Gu just missed out on a second gold medal (Andrew Milligan/PA) (PA Wire)

Having emerged as a genuine contender, Muir will hope to challenge her sports biggest names in the years to come, but first she has more pressing concerns as she prepares to return to school next week.

As soon as I get home, I should be in school, she said. I fly home on Thursday, so definitely the Monday if not even Friday. I dont know  Ive just got to catch up!

This is my last year in school. Im thinking either a gap year or head to uni this year. If I take a gap year Im just going to go and focus on skiing and then maybe go to uni as well alongside.
China and France have recently signed a document on the list of the fourth-round demonstration projects of developing third-party market cooperation, marking the latest step in Beijing's bid to strengthen international cooperation.



The list includes seven projects worth over $1.7 billion, covering infrastructure, environmental protection, new energy and others. Many Chinese and French enterprises and financial institutions will participate in the projects in areas including Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on Monday.

The country's top economic regulator said the forms of cooperation will include joint investment, as well as Chinese engineering procurement and general construction contracting and French investment and development, which will have a positive effect on economic and social development in third-party markets.

The commission said companies from both sides are highly complementary, showing great potential and broad prospects.

"French enterprises have unique advantages in fields including advanced manufacturing, environmental protection and engineering construction while Chinese companies have rich experience in fields such as infrastructure construction, energy, equipment manufacturing and the internet," the NDRC said in the statement.

In the next step, the NDRC said it will work closely with the Treasury of France to actively build platforms and create favorable conditions for third-party market cooperation between enterprises from both sides.

France is the first country to establish a third-party market cooperation mechanism with China. During Premier Li Keqiang's visit to France in June 2015, the two countries issued a Sino-French joint statement on third-party market cooperation.

Experts said third-party market cooperation effectively integrates China's competitive production capacity and developed countries' advanced technologies with the rising development demand of developing countries, which has become a key part of the Belt and Road Initiative and will further strengthen international cooperation.

As of January, China had signed more than 200 cooperation documents with 147 countries and 32 international organizations to jointly enhance Belt and Road cooperation, and it has been actively promoting the third-party cooperation model, the NDRC said.

So far, China has signed documents on third-party market cooperation with several countries including France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Under the innovative third-party market cooperation model, Chinese enterprises and their peers in related countries could jointly develop projects in a third country involved in the BRI, said Liu Huaqin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Liu said in an article published in China Forex that the model can connect China's advantage in manufacturing and developed countries' technological and financial advantages with the third-party's vast development demand.

To better promote the third-party market cooperation model, Liu said more efforts are needed to promote both project cooperation and investment mechanisms, which will help offer a favorable institutional environment for enterprises participating in the cooperation arrangement.

Liu suggests while Chinese enterprises should have a better understanding of local rules, the government should establish an effective investment dispute-resolution mechanism and build a multilevel outbound investment information service platform.
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's antitrust regulator is considering imposing penalties against U.S. electric car maker Tesla Inc over its findings the company exaggerated the specifications of its batteries, an official said on Wednesday.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) had sent a report to the electric vehicle (EV) maker stating that it had exaggerated the mileage of some of its models, including Model 3, in violation of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising, the official said.

"We plan to hold a general meeting to review and determine the extent to which the automaker has violated the law and decide the level of sanctions," an official at the KFTC told Reuters, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Tesla, on its website, says its Model 3 can travel 528 km (328 miles) on a single charge. The KFTC says however that the range may fall short of that should the temperature drop below freezing.

Analysts said most electric vehicles could generally experience some loss of driving range in cold weather.

Separately, the KFTC is also weighing whether to impose penalties against Tesla for not refunding deposits to customers who cancelled online purchases before their vehicle orders were put in place for release.

In South Korea, Tesla requires customers to pay a deposit of 100,000 won ($84) when purchasing Tesla cars online, but deposits were not refunded upon customers' order cancellations, according to Yonhap news agency.

Tesla was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.

($1 = 1,197.0900 won)

(Reporting by Joori Roh, Heekyong Yang; Editing by Stephen Coates)
John Bel Edwards did not tell the media Monday if he will veto the bills, saying, The simple answer: I havent made a decision.

John Bel Edwards, the governor of Louisiana, has acknowledged that several Republican-backed proposals to redraw the states congressional map are very problematic.

The Louisiana GOP has proposed new maps without creating an additional majority-Black district in the Bayou State. At a press conference on Monday, the Democratic governor did not tell the media if he will veto the bills, saying, The simple answer: I havent made a decision, according to The Advocate.

Louisiana Gov. Jon Bel Edwards has acknowledged that several GOP-backed proposals to redraw the states congressional map are very problematic. (Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times/Pool/Getty Images)

The bills, which passed both the Louisiana House of Representatives and State Senate, will rework the boundaries of all six of the states six congressional districts, ensuring only one representative of a majority-Black district in Congress.

Edwards said that given the state is one-third Black, Louisianas African American voters should have the opportunity to choose two of its six representatives. We can all do math, he said Monday. One-third of six is two. Can two be drawn? Yes. In any number of ways.

In addition to Edwards objection, The Advocate notes that a coalition of civil rights groups has called the Republican-led bills a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act for diluting minority voting power.

The proposals would cram Black voting power into the Second District, which would stretch from New Orleans East to north Baton Rouge. State Democrats have proposed bills that would include a second congressional district that could also include majority Black voters, but none of those bills have made it out of committee.

Edwards also said one thing to consider as it relates to a veto is if he will be overridden by the state legislature, which is highly probable, given Louisianas Republican-led House and Senate. In Kentucky and Kansas, Democratic governors Andy Beshear and Laura Kelly have had their respective vetoes overturned as related to the issue.

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Edwards maintains that a more equitable map will come to his desk in the coming months.

According to The Washington Post, new congressional maps in 28 states have added more majority-white districts, despite their shrinking population of whites.

Most folks have already evaluated the partisan implications of the maps passed to date as not being overly bad for the Democrats, or at least not compared to expectations, Adam Podowitz-Thomas, senior legal strategist at the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, told The Post.

However, the bigger story that we are noting is the aggressive approach to the redistricting of racial minorities, where populations that historically resided in districts that provided an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice are losing their say, said Podowitz-Thomas, and that despite driving a disproportionate amount of population growth in many states, minority populations are not seeing their representational opportunities increase in tandem.

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The ceremonies, common across Latin American cities, joined brides and grooms of all ages as they declared their love to each other and made their marriage official in front of local authorities.

Among them, some couples cited the pandemic-induced restrictions as their reason to get married in public ceremonies.

A similar sight brought brides and grooms together in Venezuela's capital for a celebration among flowers, bouquets, and wine glasses.

"It is a special day, and now it is even more special because it is an experience," said bride Caliane Ortiz. It is a unique moment in life.

Colorful dresses lined row after row of soon-to-be married couples as they waited for their turn to sign the dotted line and begin their new lives together.




A lawyer who was indicted in September as part of special counsel John Durham's long-running investigation into the FBI's probe of the 2016 Trump campaign accused Durham of using the case to fuel right-wing media narratives claiming political persecution of former President Trump.

Lawyers for Michael Sussman, an attorney facing a single charge of making a false statement to the FBI, responded late Monday night to Durham's surprise allegations last week that Sussman's clients had organized a conspiracy to spy on the Trump White House. In a court filing, Sussman's lawyers said the information Durham's office submitted to the court was misleading and unnecessary, and could only be intended to stir up media and jury bias against their client.

"Given the Special Counsel's pattern of including unnecessary prejudicial material in public filings, there can be no doubt that the superfluous 'Factual Background' in the Special Counsel's motion is intended to further politicize this case, inflame media coverage, and taint the jury pool," they wrote in their brief Monday night.

The defense lawyers asked a federal judge to strike the portion of Durham's Friday brief from the court record, a procedural move to rid the record of filings that are irrelevant or inappropriate.

Durham's prosecutors allege Sussmann lied when he told the FBI general counsel during a 2016 meeting that he was not representing any client when he presented findings from cybersecurity researchers that suggested links between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank. The special counsel's office has accused Sussmann of hiding that he was working for the Clinton campaign when he met with the FBI.

Sussmann has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

Durham's court filing Friday that contained the allegations stirred up a conservative media frenzy.

Ostensibly raising issues about conflicts of interest for Sussmann's defense counsel, the brief digressed into details that had not been raised in the indictment.

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Attorneys with the special counsel's office wrote that Rodney Joffe, a cybersecurity consultant referred to in court filings as "Tech Executive-1," exploited nonpublic White House data from his former company's pending government contract in order to find damning information about Trump.

"Tech Executive-1's employer, Internet Company-1, had come to access and maintain dedicated servers for the EOP as part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services to the EOP," the brief reads, using an acronym to refer to the White House's Executive Office of the President.

"Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOP's DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump."

Sussmann's defense lawyers called the details misleading and inaccurate, pointing out that neither their client nor any other defendant has been charged with any type of conspiracy or fraud as part of the Durham investigation.

"To make this case a partisan affair and to inflame media coverage, the Special Counsel chose to include allegations that Mr. Sussmann was part of a wide-ranging scheme involving a number of uncharged parties including the Clinton Campaign, Law Firm-1, Campaign Lawyer-1, a U.S. Investigative Firm, Tech-Executive-1, and a number of computer data researchers who all worked together to unfairly influence the 2016 election," the defense lawyers said in their filing on Monday. "In so doing, the Special Counsel featured grossly misleading excerpts of emails among Tech-Executive-1 and other researchers, omitting statements that showed the researchers agreed with the findings and otherwise operated in good faith."
The Lexington Police Department has charged a suspect in connection to a shooting on Glen Arvin Avenue last month which left one person injured.

Bruce Benton, 29, has been charged with first degree assault, three counts of first degree wanton endangerment and possessing a gun as a convicted felon, police said. Benton is in a detention center in Hamilton County, Ohio, on unrelated charges, police said.

The shooting happened around 3:22 p.m. on Jan. 23 in the 300 block of Glen Arvin Avenue, according to Lt. Dillan Taylor. Officers responded and found a man with a gunshot wound who was suffering non-life-threatening injuries, Taylor said.

An ambulance took him to a local hospital, police said.

There were additional reports of shots fired on Jan. 23 following the shooting on Glen Arvin Avenue, but police didnt know if any of the incidents were connected, Taylor said. No one was injured in the additional shots fired reports, Taylor said.

An investigation into the shooting was still ongoing after Benton was charged, police said.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact Lexington investigators by calling (859) 258-3600. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Bluegrass Crime Stoppers by calling (859) 253-2020, online at www.bluegrasscrimestoppers.com or through the P3 tips app available at www.p3tips.com.

Jeremy Chisenhall contributed to this article.
Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), has said that the HKSAR government will leverage the central authorities' support and spare no effort to combat COVID-19.

Lam said in a statement on Sunday that assuming the primary responsibility for the fight against the epidemic, the HKSAR government will implement the strategy of "preventing the importation of cases and the spread of the virus in the community" in pursuit of "dynamic zero infection".

The HKSAR government will leverage the central authorities' guidance based on their experience in fighting the epidemic, as well as their manpower and resource support, to further boost Hong Kong's capability of "early identification, early isolation and early treatment" of the infected, she said.

Lam expressed gratitude to the central authorities that have all along been providing their strongest support for the HKSAR. She said that since the onset of the fifth wave of the epidemic, the central authorities have conveyed to her on various occasions their care for the people of Hong Kong and their full support for the city's anti-epidemic efforts.

Promptly following up on consensus and achievements from the second Mainland-Hong Kong thematic meeting on COVID-19 epidemic on Feb. 12, Lam held an internal high-level meeting on Feb. 13 and appointed convenors from the HKSAR government for five task forces.

The convenors will coordinate with representatives of relevant ministries and commissions of the central authorities, as well as the Guangdong provincial government, to press ahead with the implementation work to tackle the aggravating situation of the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong.

In view of the rapid development of the fifth wave of the epidemic, the HKSAR government has taken immediate actions and, with its own continuous efforts, striven to contain the virus by a multi-pronged approach, including boosting the capacities of community testing and sewage surveillance, and strengthening contact tracing.

At the same time, the HKSAR government has adjusted its quarantine and isolation strategies in a timely manner, including the launch of the "StayHomeSafe" scheme on Feb. 8 to arrange close contacts and household contacts of close contacts who are deemed appropriate after assessment to undergo home quarantine for 14 days and four days respectively.

As of Sunday noon, over 4,000 people were subjected to home quarantine under the scheme, which has been operating generally smoothly thus far.

Lam said that the onslaught of the fifth wave of the epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to Hong Kong and overwhelmed the city's capacity of handling, and the tremendous surge in the number of confirmed cases in recent days has lengthened the lead time for admitting people who test positive to isolation facilities, adding that the situation is highly undesirable and the HKSAR government feels worried and sorry about it.

She said the HKSAR government will start working through the task force with the Mainland as soon as possible to enhance Hong Kong's capabilities of testing and isolation facilities by all means.

Meanwhile, the HKSAR government will implement measures to alleviate the anxieties of those members of the public waiting at home for isolation, including the distribution of information kits, setting up of a designated enquiry hotline, and provision of online diagnostic services, she said.

Lam said that in the face of such a challenging epidemic situation, the HKSAR government fully understands the anxieties of the public and will work as a team and do its best to implement and strengthen at full steam the various existing anti-epidemic measures.

"With the full support to Hong Kong by the central authorities together with the governments of Guangdong province and Shenzhen through the above-mentioned task forces, I believe that our measures will give their full play to curb the epidemic," she said.

Boosting the local vaccination rate as soon as possible is top priority and the HKSAR government will continue to increase vaccination venues, recruit more medical staff to administer vaccination for residents of elderly homes, lower the minimum age for receiving the Sinovac vaccine to three years old, and implement the "vaccine pass" initiative with a view to achieving a vaccination rate of over 90 percent to strengthen Hong Kong's immune barrier against the epidemic, she said.

As regards the sixth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund, the HKSAR government will provide the Legislative Council (LegCo) of the HKSAR with a detailed document to apply for an injection of 27 billion HK dollars (about 3.46 billion U.S. dollars) into the Anti-epidemic Fund for scrutiny by the LegCo, she said.

She stressed the HKSAR government is confident that it will receive the support of LegCo members for the early approval of the funding, so as to implement the various support measures as early as possible.
The National College Resources Foundation organized a caravan of college recruiters at Lynwood Unified high schools. "I was just crying in the corner, crying happy tears," said Ryan Emanuels, who was accepted to Philander Smith College.
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian teenager accused of killing her newborn baby she says was conceived of rape was charged on Tuesday with murder, her lawyer said, as activists called for her to be released on bail.

The 15-year-old, whose identity has been withheld by authorities, was detained last week after a baby boy was found with stab wounds to his chest in a house in the eastern state of Terengganu, according to police.

The charge of murder carries the death penalty in Malaysia, but minors found guilty of capital offences may instead serve a life sentence at the discretion of the country's king.

The girl has alleged she was raped last year by a man in his 20s whose whereabouts remain unknown, according to authorities. Police have launched a separate investigation into the alleged assault and called for the man to turn himself in.

Her lawyer, Nurainie Haziqah Shafii, said she sought bail on the grounds that she is a minor, female, and ill, but the court denied the request without giving a reason.

The Attorney-General's Office did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Malaysia's Human Rights Commission, known as Suhakam, said it was disappointed by the court's decision to remand the girl in custody.

"(The court) should consider the girl's state of mind and ensure she is detained in hospital," Suhakam commissioner, Noor Aziah Mohamad Awal told Reuters.

A Malaysian parliamentary committee on children and women's affairs on Saturday expressed concern about classifying the case as murder, saying the killing of a baby by its mother within 24 hours of birth should be considered infanticide, an offence where the defendant qualifies for bail.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)
Justin Duesenberry pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter, illegal conveyance of drugs and trafficking in the overdose death of Andrew Chandler.

ZANESVILLE  Accused of supplying a fellow inmate a lethal dose of narcotics, a local man will spend more than a dozen years in prison.

Justin Duesenberry, 29, was sentenced Monday to between 13 and 18 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to five charges last month related to the incident. One was involuntary manslaughter.

Duesenberry plea: Man accused of distributing drugs inside jail pleads guilty for inmate's fatal overdose

He was found responsible for providing fentanyl to a fellow Zanesville City Jail inmate, Andrew Chandler, on Nov. 12. The dose resulted in his death.

Duesenberry was sentenced on the following charges in connection to Chandler's death:

One first-degree felony count of involuntary manslaughter.

One third-degree felony count of illegal conveyance of drugs, fentanyl-related compound.

Two fifth-degree felony counts of trafficking in drugs, fentanyl-related compound.

He was also sentenced concurrently on two separate drug possession cases.

He said he took the fentanyl into the jail with him the day he was arrested on a warrant. Multiple inmates were given drugs, but only Chandler overdosed and died.

A toxicology report found more than three times the lethal dose of fentanyl in Chandler's blood.

Chandler's friend Tammy Clark, founder of Homeless Hands of Zanesville, spoke in court Monday to call for accountability for drugs being smuggled into the jail.

Andrew Chandler

"Of all the homeless, Andrew tried the hardest," Clark told the Times Recorder. "He wasn't perfect and he had faults, but he was trying harder than anyone has every tried."

She said he was kind to everybody, and loved to work and save his money.

"We miss Drew. (The Homeless Hands Stepping Stone house) is not the same without him," Clark said.

Zanesville Police Chief Tony Coury could not be reached for comment.

ecouch@gannett.com

740-450-6752

Twitter: @couchreporting

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Man sentenced to prison in overdose death of fellow city jail inmate
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA  As Riverside County's hospitalizations dramatically drop, the county will follow the state's lead this week on eliminating the indoor face mask mandate  for most people, but not all.

Effective at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, masks will no longer be required in indoor spaces for fully vaccinated individuals in Riverside County, according to the California Department of Public Health. Unvaccinated people will still need to mask up, however.

"Unvaccinated people will still need to wear masks indoors," Gov. Gavin Newsom said.



There are exceptions. Regardless of vaccination status, masks will still be required for all people in K-12 schools; on public transit; in healthcare settings (including long term care facilities); in adult and senior care facilities; in childcare and other youth settings; in state and local correctional facilities and detention centers; and in homeless shelters, emergency shelters, and cooling centers, according to the state.

Masks are recommended for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, in places of worship, according to state officials.

Additionally, face masks will still be required indoors in the city of Palm Springs.

K-12 Schools Update

On Monday, California's Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the mask requirement for everyone in K-12 schools will remain in place pending a Feb. 28 reassessment of COVID-19 case rates and other pandemic metrics.



Riverside County's public schools have maintained since the pandemic's beginning that they will follow state and local health mandates.

Ghaly said a lifting of the mandate is inevitable, saying it is just "a question of when." He expressed confidence that the mandate would be lifted sometime after that Feb. 28 reassessment, barring another sudden spike in virus infection rates and hospitalizations.

He noted that if the Feb. 28 assessment supports lifting the mandate, it would not happen immediately on March 1. He said the state would set a date that gives school districts, staff and parents time to prepare for the change.

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Ghaly gave a lengthy presentation noting significant downward trends over the past month statewide in COVID case rates, hospitalizations and testing positivity rates. But he said as far as schools are concerned, the state is only "close to a point" where it could lift the mask mandate for students and staff, so no immediate change will be made.

He said he respects that many parents who have been calling for a lifting of the mandate will be upset by the decision, but he insisted there are others who maintain uncertainty about whether lifting the requirement in schools is safe for students and staff.

"I know and hear and listen to the frustration from many California parents and I would say the message today, which I hope is clear, is today a change isn't being made. But in two weeks, confirming that the data continues to be where it is, taking the time to prepare and work with the school community and communities at large, that we anticipate making the change at that point," Ghaly said. "And that change is going to be one that I think will be met with a lot of excitement in some and a lot of fear in other circles."

Ghaly noted that even when the state lifts its requirement for masks in schools, individual counties or school districts could still require them.

"Parents should not hear that we aren't making a move," Ghaly continued. "We are taking a little bit more time to consider the information, work with our partners across the state to make sure when the move is made that we are doing it successfully with communities empowered to continue to be safe."

Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed a desire to ease up on the school masking mandate, although he noted last week there has been some resistance from teachers' unions who still have safety concerns.

Despite the lifting of the mask-wearing for vaccinated people, Los Angeles County will continue to require face coverings indoors for everyone.

COVID Cases Update

The number of COVID-positive patients in Riverside County hospitals dropped to 490 on Monday, a decrease of 196 people over the last week, according to the latest county numbers.

Of those total patients, 95 were in intensive care on Monday, a drop of 27 compared to a week ago, according to the Riverside University Health System.

Meanwhile, local health officials Monday reported 95 additional COVID- 19 deaths over the last week, bringing the county's virus-related death toll to 6,052 since the pandemic began.

Fatalities are considered trailing indicators because of delays processing death certificates, meaning some deaths may have actually occurred weeks ago, according to health officials.

The total number of COVID-19 cases recorded in the county since the pandemic began in March 2020 stood at 583,393 on Monday, an increase of 118,895 new cases over the last week.

According to RUHS data, 60.7 percent of county residents 5 and older are fully vaccinated against COVID 19, while 29.1 percent of residents 16 and older have received a booster.













This article originally appeared on the Temecula Patch
Now that South Carolina lawmakers have even more money to allocate than originally expected as they put together their budget for the upcoming fiscal year, House Republican leadership and the governor want to push a larger tax cut than originally planned.

Gov. Henry McMaster, along with House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, Ways and Means Chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, and House Majority Leader Gary Simrill, R-York, are now calling for a tax cut that includes going to two main tax brackets, 3% and 6.5%, down from six tax brackets.

Over five subsequent years, the maximum rate would be reduced by a tenth of a percentage point a year until the maximum rate reaches 6%. The tax cut for each year would only take place if general fund revenue grows by at least 5%.

The current maximum income tax rate is 7%.

Its a plan that in five years could result in $1 billion being kept out of the states coffers annually, according to estimates from the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office.

It is a basic Republicans principle that we keep taxes low, and I believe that when theres a surplus of money flowing in our coffers that needs to be returned to the people, Lucas said.

The proposal follows new estimates from the Board of Economic Advisors that say lawmakers have nearly $4.6 billion in additional money to allocate this year. The previous estimate was $3 billion in additional money.

McMasters latest push for the tax cut comes as he and the entire House are up for reelection.

This is going to happen, and it will start an avalanche of change and prosperity unlike anything weve seen, McMaster said in his office, surrounded by Republican House members.

The normal trend is theres going to be an increase. We are confident were on the way up, McMaster said. The federal money did help, but the conservative policies that we had in this state are what have allowed this this to occur.

The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday lauded the tax cut proposal.

Story continues

Many states around the country have already seized the opportunity from robust revenues to reduce their tax burdens, so it is critically important that South Carolina take similar action this year to remain competitive, Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bob Morgan said in a statement.

Most recently, about 1.1 million tax returns paid the the 7% maximum tax rate, and more than 292,000 tax returns paid a tax rate between 4% and 6%.

Current tax brackets

 $0 to $3,200: 0%

 $3,200 to $6,410: 3%

 $6,410 to $9,620: 4%

 $9,620 to $12,820: 5%

 12,820 to $16,040: 6%

 More than $16,040: 7%

Proposed tax brackets for first year:

 $0 to $3,200: 0%

 $3,200 to $16,040: 3%

 More than $16,040: 6.5%

Senior Editor Maayan Schechter contributed to this article.
Alabama A&Ms University's 12th president, Dr. Daniel Wims, visited Gadsden on Feb. 10 to speak with members of the local alumni chapter.

Etowah County officially met the newest president of Alabama A&M University on Thursday, as Dr. Daniel Wims spoke with the Gadsden-Etowah alumni chapter during their regular meeting.

He outlined his priorities for the university, as far as its focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, infrastructure improvements and recruitment of students.

Wims in an interview said he has met with alumni at social events during his time at the university, but felt the need to meet with others and hear them.

I wanted to get to know Gadsden. This is a very nice town, he said. Ive only been here a couple of times, but I hope that I get to come in and visit at least twice a year from now on.

Wims was hired by the universitys trustees in October and began his presidency on Jan. 1, but his career with Alabama A&M really began 12 years ago when he was hired as provost and vice president for academic affairs. He later became vice president of research as well, and also was a professor of agricultural sciences.

He hopes to put emphasis on STEM projects, specifically those involving computer science, after seeing those efforts begin during his time at provost.

We have made every effort to recruit credential faculty with some expertise in cyber security. They also teach classes in artificial intelligence, he said. We also established a coding concentration so that students could get additional credentials in coding.

He said the university has added several other computer science concentrations, with two accompanying masters degree programs in mechanical and electrical engineering.

Were heavily invested in STEM, but its beyond engineering and computer sciences, Wims said. We also focus on our natural sciences and physical sciences, such as our Ph.D. program in physics, and other programs we offer.

Wims said another goal is enhancing and improving infrastructure on campus.

Were a very old campus, being here for almost 150 years, so some of our buildings are very dated. They need need major renovations and repairs, he said. Some of our buildings are going unused, so we want to bring them back into some sort of functionality.

Story continues

Winn wants to see the university take its local and Alabama brand and expand it from Alabama to a regional, national or even global level.

He added, Thats going to require us to do a major marketing and imaging brand campaign leading up to our 150th year. Were also going to have to increase our fundraising drive in collaboration with that in hopes (of getting) more corporate support as well as increasing alumni support.

Wims wants to provide a focus on curriculum by recruiting more and younger faculty that will be at the university for many years to come.

About 30% of our faculty could decide to walk out and retire tomorrow, he said. As they retire, we need more and younger faculty to replace them.

He said the university has struggled with making such hires because of ongoing labor shortages.

COVID-19 has affected our ability to recruit faculty and staff, because the on-campus search processes are harder to have, Wims said. Were having a real challenge maintaining employees, much like other industries, which is why were behind on some of our projects because theres not enough employees to take part in them.

Wims also wants to continue recruiting more students, citing the universitys hope to grow incrementally each year.

Thats going to force us not only to recruit, but to retain and interest those that we already have, he said. Increasing this rate is a major priority.

Wims reported a 5% uptick in spring enrollment rates compared from last year, which makes him hopeful that will carry over the fall.

However, he said COVID-19 also has been a challenge to recruitment and retention, citing the difficulty in virtual recruitment because of shared spaces being closed off.

We havent seen a significant increase or decrease in any direction enrollment wise, he said. Right now, were staying kind of flat.

Members of the Gadsden-Etowah Alabama A&M University alumni chapter are pictured with the university's 12th president, Dr. Daniel Wims.

Wims said that most of Alabama A&Ms priority areas havent been majorly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has challenged the universitys ability to improve or enhance student learning outcomes.

Our students need hands-on approaches and we need them in the classrooms and labs to interact with faculty and graduate students. Thats not been the case for the last two years, he said. Were trying to be normal, but theres not really been a normal.

Wims said he has a real fear that navigating the COVID-19 landscape will remain an issue. I fear that COVID, in different shapes and forms, will be with us for another five or more years, he said. My presidency could be one where we have to manage through COVID and with the different variants, it will be made difficult because we will be affected differently. Its something he feels he may have to continue wrestling with.

Still, Wims plans to keep the university on track with its master plan, and his sights set on program accreditations that are about to renew We will stay focused on those priorities and those goals, he said.

Wims hopes that the community will continue to invite the university in and get to know them, and let the university get to know you.

We need resources for our Alabama students, not only for aid but also to get internships and learning opportunities in-state, he said. Even Gadsdens area, with its economic development and infrastructure, can help our students.

This is an awesome experience for him to want to come visit, Gadsden-Etowah alumni chapter President Eloise Turk said of Wims. We felt so delighted for him to feel that he needed to meet personally with every chapter that wanted him to come.

Turk said the local chapter is very active, with the goal of supporting the university in any way they can.

We are the arm to the university. We try to get students who have graduated from high school to consider A&M, and we try to get the best students we can, she said, So our mission is to stay as active as possible so they know us and encourage them with scholarships.

Dr. Wayne Watts of Gadsden is a member of Alabama A&Ms board of trustees, and according to Watts is looking into serving his second six-year term.

Hes our vice chairman of our board, Wims said, We also have some donors here in the area we wanted to meet with and thank for their contributions.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Meet Alabama A&M's newest President
Good morning Boulder! Let's get you started off today with some news you can use.

Tuesday's weather: Sun and areas of high clouds. High: 55 Low: 29.

Are you a financial advisor? Attract clients in Boulder based on your expertise and local connection through our high-impact native ads. Click here to learn more.

Here are the top five stories in Boulder today:

Big outdoor brands threaten boycott if Outdoor Retailer returns to Utah. Big outdoor brands threaten boycott if Outdoor Retailer returns to Utah. The drama continues to unfold between the trade show operator and environmental conservation groups as dozens of outdoor companies, including Patagonia, REI and The North Face, announce they'll boycott the trade show if its moved away from Denver, back to Salt Lake City. (CO Sun) The West is suffering through the worst megadrought in over 1,200 years. According to a new study, the Western U.S. is experiencing the driest period in at least 1,200 years. The last one occurred in the 1500s, when it was still largely inhabited by Native American tribes. (NPR) Gas producer wants permission to drill closer to homes near Firestone. Occidental Petroleum's Kerr-McGee wants to drill next to homes inside of the currently allowed 2,000-foot buffer near Firestone, CO. Some say that would make the state's oil and gas rules useless. (CO Sun) City Council working on plan for funds from the American Rescue Plan. Will the city use the money on transformative goals they've defined in the past: public health and safety, affordability and service access and community and economic resiliency? (CO Daily) Environmental justice groups want the state to cut air toxins. Industrial toxins are in the air, and advocates are making it a top priority this year with a bill that would require a more stringent air monitoring program and rules that would cut hazards for neighborhoods. (CO Sun)

Today in Boulder:

Around the World Storytime: Holiday Park. (10:15 a.m.)

Screen Printing - Guided Access: Boulder Public Library. (1 p.m.)

Story continues

From my notebook:

BLDG 61's annual DIY Maker Made 2022 show at the Boulder Public Library includes art that fall outside of traditional painting and sculpture. Through March 28. (Reporting Lab)

Frozen Dead Guy Days Back From the Dead. After two-year hiatus, festival returns March 18-20 in Nederland. (CO Daily)

Camp Amache to be preserved as a place of reflection. It's not a pretty part of our past, but the Japanese internment camp in southeast Colorado will be added as a historic site as part of the U.S. National Park System. During World War II, more than 7,000 Japanese-Americans and non-citizen Japanese were relocated from the West Coast to the camp near Granada, CO. (CPR

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That's it for today! See you all Wednesday morning for another edition of the Boulder Daily  Brad K. Evans

This article originally appeared on the Boulder Patch
Photographs of Ee Lee are seen at the site of a candlelight vigil at Washington Park Lagoon on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. A crowd of about 50 wrote messages on balloons and lit candles to honor her memory.

A Milwaukee County circuit judge will not allow DNA evidence at trial that prosecutors argue links a 16-year-old to the fatal beating of a woman in Washington Park, saying a sheriff's detective made "monstrously false" statements to get the teen to surrender a sample.

Kevin T. Spencer Jr., 16, was charged as an adult in Milwaukee County Circuit Court in the death of Ee Lee, a 36-year-old woman who was found severely beaten, partially nude and unconscious at the edge of the pond in Washington Park on Sept. 16, 2020.

Lee died from her injuries Sept. 19, 2020, which included multiple brain and head injuries and injuries associated with rape, according to court records.

Nancy Lee, the older sister of Ee Lee, lights candles next to photographs of her sister at Washington Park Lagoon at 1859 N. 40th St. in Milwaukee on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, during a candlelight vigil. A crowd of about 50 wrote messages on balloons and lit candles to honor her memory.

Spencer is one of two teenagers charged with first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree sexual assault in Lee's homicide and rape. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

The evidence against Spencer includes DNA analysis. Spencers DNA was found in samples taken from Lees body during a sexual assault examination and on clothes of hers collected from the scene of the attack, according to court records.

Attorneys for Spencer argued that evidence should not be allowed at trial because Spencer's DNA was collected without a warrant and that when Spencer agreed to give his DNA, his consent was not "voluntarily and intelligently" given.

More: Two teens, 15 and 17, charged with homicide in beating, assault of woman in Washington Park

Spencer was in custody in January 2021 when detectives with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office tried to question him about the assault in Washington Park. By the time a detective asked to take a swab of Spencer's mouth for DNA, Spencer had already invoked his right to an attorney, defense attorney Jeffrey Jensen said. On top of that, the detective "misled" Spencer  who was 15 years old at the time  by telling him the swab had "nothing to do" with his constitutional rights, Jensen said.

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Circuit Judge David Borowski agreed and ruled in favor of the defense's motion to suppress the DNA evidence during a hearing Friday, in which he also sent a pointed message to law enforcement.

"There is no way in good conscience I, as a judge, could tolerate this," Borowski said during the hearing. "The detective needs to know better, law enforcement needs to know better."

Borowski pointed to an audio recording of the detective telling Spencer, "I want to ask you if we can take a swab of your mouth. ... It has nothing to do with testimony or your constitutional rights."

Borowski called the statement either an "utter lie" or "total ignorance" on the detective's part before saying he would grant the defense's motion.

Borowski said it would not have been difficult for law enforcement to seek a search warrant, and that court commissioners sign scores of them every year.

"I am, again, frustrated," he said.

County prosecutors argued law enforcement was allowed to ask for Spencer's consent and that Spencer did, in fact, consent to giving a DNA sample, court records indicate. According to court records filed by the defense, Spencer also signed a consent form.

County prosecutors have said they would seek a search warrant to obtain a new mouth swab from Spencer and re-do the DNA analysis, if Borowski invalidated the first one.

Borowski told prosecutors to submit the request for a search warrant to him by March 1. The defense, he said, would have an opportunity to object to that request.

Jensen has argued if law enforcement is allowed to get a warrant now, after violating his client's rights, it would do nothing to deter law enforcement from making illegal searches in the future.

DNA evidence is often "the most important evidence in a criminal case," especially sexual assault cases, Jensen said in a court filing. He characterized DNA evidence as "on the verge of being scientifically unassailable."

At the same time, the DNA evidence is not the only evidence against Spencer, according to court records. A few people who were present during the attack told investigators they witnessed Spencer and his co-defendant Kamare R. Lewis punch, kick and beat the victim with sticks, according to the complaint.

More: One teenager charged in Ee Lee homicide in Washington Park pleads not guilty

One witness alleged Spencer and Lewis pulled off her clothes and dragged her to the edge of the pond, where the assault continued.

Another said he witnessed part of the sexual assault. During questioning by law enforcement, Lewis downplayed his alleged involvement in the attack, but implicated Spencer in most of the attack and rape, according to the complaint.

Spencer is scheduled to have a final pretrial hearing on March 21. Trial is scheduled to begin May 9.

The headline of this story has been updated to clarify that it was a sheriff's deputy who made the statement.

Sarah Volpenhein is a Report for America corps reporter who focuses on news of value to underserved communities for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at svolpenhei@gannett.com. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a tax-deductible gift to this reporting effort at JSOnline.com/RFA.

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: Milwaukee judge blocks DNA evidence in Washington Park fatal beating
Smart retailing prospers in China

09:18, February 15, 2022 By Peng Xunwen ( People's Daily

China's retailing industry is becoming more and more digital and intelligent thanks to the rapid development of big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other frontier technologies. It is interacting with consumers in more diverse ways, such as 24/7 online services, unmanned delivery and smart lockers.

Couriers put food into a smart locker at the gate of a hospital in Jinhua, east China's Zhejiang province. (People's Daily Online/Hu Xiaofei)

A man surnamed Wang from Pingshan district, Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province recently placed an order on an online grocery platform after an unmanned delivery vehicle of the platform he ran into the other day aroused his interest.

On a mini program of the platform, the man bought fruits, fish, vegetables and edible oil, and these commodities were delivered to him by an unmanned vehicle soon the order was confirmed.

The vehicle is special in many aspects. Having a capacity of 500 kilograms and a range of 120 kilometers, it can deliver tonnes of products on a daily basis. The smart vehicle can also recognize traffic light and steer clear of obstacles on its way. Besides, it is also heat-insulated, which ensures that hot and frozen commodities are delivered to consumers in appropriate temperatures.

Gao Shulin, chairman of board of the company that owns the grocery platform, said that the company launched such vehicles to build a smart community delivery network.

The company's attempt is a miniature of Chinese retailers' efforts to make their businesses smart in recent years.

Citizens buy breakfast from an unattended vending vehicle on a sidewalk in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. (People's Daily Online/Chen Xiaogen)

Smart retailing is a service that can sense consumer habits, predict consumption trends, and guide production with the help of internet, internet of things and other frontier technologies. It provides diverse and individualized products and services for consumers.

Unattended convenient stores, stores on mini programs, virtual reality-powered fitting rooms, autopilot delivery vehicles and smart delivery are all within the scope of smart retailing.

"By using big data, smart retailing offers individualized services for consumers and gives data feedback to the purchasing and delivery sectors to make production and supply more efficient," said Peng Jianzhen, secretary general of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association.

Apart from unmanned delivery vehicles, smart lockers are also frequently seen today.

A woman surnamed Chen from Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu province recently found a new function of the smart lockers in her residential complex. Besides storing express delivery parcels and food delivered by couriers, these lockers can also be used as a temporary storage for chilled products.

A woman collects her express delivery parcel from a smart delivery vehicle in Suyu district, Suqian, east China's Jiangsu province. (People's Daily Online/Sun Dongcheng)

Emerging as a new form of contactless delivery service amid the pandemic, these lockers are able to recognize, store, monitor and manage the stuffs inside them based on cloud computing and internet of things technologies.

Cloud Box, the company that runs the lockers, has also launched e-commerce services to better satisfy the rising consumption demands for "stay-at-home economy." Residents can buy vegetables, fruits, seafood and ready-to-cook food on the company's e-commerce mini program, and fetch their orders from the lockers on the next day, or have the products delivered to their doorsteps by property management staffs.

In recent years, consumers have been enjoying increasingly more scenarios of contactless delivery thanks to the development in computer vision, big data, robotics, and voice recognition technologies.

Experts believe that the implementation of smart retailing is a test for the capability of internet infrastructure construction, such as popularization of 5G and large-scale connection of internet of things. Big data processing, Hash rate and algorithms need to be constantly enhanced to better match consumers and commodities. Besides, both hardware and software must be popularized.

As the factors of consumers, commodities and warehouses become more connected and integrated, smart retailing will only release more energy.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
You are here: China

China's State Council has issued a plan to advance the construction of its emergency management system over the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

The plan calls for deepening the modernization of the system and capability of China's emergency management and minimizing the losses from disasters and accidents to ensure the safety of people's lives and property.

By 2025, a unified, quick-response, and coordinated emergency management mechanism with higher levels of scientific and technological information and comprehensive support systems will be built.

The construction of emergency rescue forces will be fully enhanced, said the plan.

The plan also noted that an emergency response system with Chinese characteristics to achieve socialist modernization should be established by 2035.

Specifically, the preparedness system for emergency management will improve, with risk prevention and control mechanisms more efficient, measures against catastrophes more prepared, and the allocation of resources for emergency management optimized, the plan said.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - More than 100 Sudanese detainees, including high-profile politicians, began a hunger strike on Tuesday, allied lawyers and doctors said.

The detainees are part of the protest movement against an Oct. 25 army coup that ended a civilian-military power-sharing arrangement that followed the overthrow of long-ruling autocrat President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

The coup prompted mass protests during which 81 people have been killed, most recently two on Monday, and more than 2,000 injured, according to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors.

"More than 100 unlawful detainees in Soba prison entered today in an open hunger strike due to their unjustified and illegal detention," the Defence Committee for the Unlawfully Detained and Martyrs of Arbitrary Killings said in a statement.

The group said separately that one suspect in the killing of a police brigadier-general had been tortured while another was in solitary confinement. Reuters was trying to reach officials for comment on the allegation.

Civilian politicians Khalid Omer Yousif and Wagdi Salih were taking part in the hunger strike, said Abdelqayom Awad, a member of Yousif's Sudanese Congress Party.

Along with former Sovereign Council member Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman who was arrested on Sunday, the men face corruption charges apparently stemming from their work on a taskforce dismantling the network of Bashir.

The Sovereign Council was a body of civilian politicians and military men set up after Bashir's overthrow to lead a transition to democracy.

It was dissolved after the October coup, setting back those plans. Military leaders say the coup was necessary due to political infighting and for the country's security, but they say they are still committed to elections in mid-2023.

Military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said in an interview on Saturday he was not involved in the arrests of Yousif and Salih - who were also detained temporarily in the coup - but that their work on the committee had diverged from its aims.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Murder trial for Alex Wells continued after attorney Jack Blakeslee raises conflict of interest; granted permission to withdraw as legal counsel.

A two-week murder trial for a Cambridge man accused of killing his girlfriend's young son has been continued after an attorney appointed to represent him filed a motion to withdraw from the case due to a conflict of interest.

Caldwell-based attorney Jack Blakeslee filed the motion to withdraw in the Guernsey County Common Pleas Court last month, a little more than three months ahead of the previous trial start date of April 25.

The motion to withdraw was later granted by Judge Daniel G. Padden.

A new trial date is expected to be scheduled in the near future.

Blakeslee cited his prior representation of three potential witnesses as the conflict of interest, according to online court records. He also withdrew as counsel for Wells in a separate case.

Wells, 26, faces two counts of aggravated murder, unclassified felonies, with a specification of a murder victim under the age of 13 (a capital offense); one count of murder, an unclassified felony; and one count of involuntary manslaughter, a second-degree felony.

If convicted of the aggravated murder charge, Wells could face the death penalty.

More: Alexander Wells facing capital murder charge in death of 4-year-old boy

Wells is accused of causing serious physical injuries that claimed the life of 4-year-old Emrys Pyle. The boy died at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus less than 24 hours after the alleged assault.

He also faces two counts each of felonious assault and endangering children, second-degree felonies, and one count of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony.

Columbus attorney Kort Gatterdam agreed to accept appointment to the case and was then appointed by Padden to join Zanesville attorney Frederick Sealover as counsel for Wells.

On Feb. 7, Gatterdam requested the trial be continued and that request was also granted by the judge.

Blakeslee was ordered by Padden to forward all discovery to Gatterdam and new pretrial dates will also be scheduled by the court.

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The trial was previously continued from Oct. 19, 2021, to the April date.

More: Murder trial for Alexander Wells continued until April

Wells was indicted by a Guernsey County grand jury on June 1.

Pyle was reportedly assaulted at a Wheeling Avenue residence in Cambridge on March 7, 2021, and was taken to Southeastern Med for treatment prior to being transferred to the Columbus medical center where he later died.

Doctors described the injury as a result of "major blunt force trauma."

An autopsy was conducted at the Franklin County Coroner's Office, but the results have not been released by local authorities due to the pending trial.

Wells also currently faces an unrelated count of failure to provide notice of change of address, a third-degree felony, for reportedly violating his duties as a registered sex offender.

That charge was also returned by the grand jury on June 1.

Wells was previously convicted of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, a fourth-degree felony, and three counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, fifth-degree felonies, after he plead guilty to the charges in August 2015.

He was on parole at the time of Pyle's death.

The indictment against Wells states he is the "primary offender" in the death of Pyle or the murder was committed with prior calculation and deign.

The endangering children and felonious assault charges stem from incidents involving Pyle and a second, unidentified juvenile boy.

A $1 million bond covers both cases pending before the Guernsey County court. Wells remains incarcerated in the Guernsey County Jail.

Co-defendant, Shelby Stormes, identified as Pyle's mother, entered a negotiated plea agreement last October that requires her to testify against Wells during his trial.

More: Plea deal: Shelby Stormes to testify against man accused of killing her son

Stormes withdrew her not guilty pleas and plead guilty to two counts of endangering children, third-degree felonies, and one count of attempted tampering with evidence, a fourth-degree felony, before Judge Daniel G. Padden.

The judge cautioned Stormes in open court that untruthful testimony during the trial for Alexander Wells in April could negate the plea agreement.

A sentencing hearing for Stormes will be scheduled after the completion of the murder trial for Wells. Based on the plea and subsequent convictions, she faces a maximum of 7 1/2 years in the Ohio Reformatory for Women.

Stormes remains incarcerated in the county jail on a $500,000 bond.

The charged against Wells and Stormes allege the offenses occurred between Dec. 1, 2020, and March 7, 2021.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Murder trial for Alex Wells continued due to conflict of interest
Women walk along Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles in an area where prostitution-related arrests are common. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Authorities on Tuesday announced the results of a statewide crackdown on human trafficking that resulted in nearly 500 arrests and more than 80 sex workers being helped.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva detailed the results of the weeklong campaign, dubbed Operation Reclaim and Rebuild, which involved dozens of agencies around California. Villanueva said 34 people suspected of trafficking or exploiting sex workers were arrested, along with 201 people who were allegedly caught trying to buy sex. He did not account for the remaining arrests. About six dozen adults and eight minors were "rescued," the sheriff said.

"All across the state, law enforcement agencies joined us to send a message to pimps, exploiters and buyers that it is unacceptable to buy another human being for sexual purposes," Villanueva said.

In Pittsburg, a suburb in Contra Costa County, authorities caught a man who was allegedly running a prostitution ring nationwide. A search warrant turned up two handguns, an AR-15, a shotgun, body armor and 100 rounds of ammunition, Villanueva said.

In Costa Mesa, he said, officers scheduled a date online with a woman. Police conducted a traffic stop of the man who had been driving her, during which they found an unregistered loaded handgun. Villanueva said authorities determined the woman had been working for the man for two years, starting when she was a minor.

"That should kind of illustrate to you how pervasive this is, once they get their claws on someone, they're going to continue exploiting them from childhood into adulthood," Villanueva said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Robert Califf testifies during the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the nomination to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 14, 2021.

Robert Califf testifies during the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the nomination to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 14, 2021. Credit - Bill ClarkCQ-Roll Call/Getty Images

The Senate narrowly confirmed Dr. Robert Califf to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday afternoon, capping a fraught nomination process for President Joe Bidens pick to lead the agency, which has been without a permanent head for more than a year.

Califf, who previously led the FDA in 2016 and 2017, faced criticism from both the left and the right over his ties to the pharmaceutical industry, his response to the opioid epidemic during his previous tenure at the agency, and the FDAs handling of regulations around medication abortion pills. The final vote Tuesday was 50-46 in Califfs favor. Six Republican Senators voted for and five Democrats voted against confirming the new head of the agency responsible for reviewing new COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and medical devices and therapies.

The close vote highlights how health care issues overseen by the FDA have become increasingly politicized in recent years. When Califf, a cardiologist and clinical trial expert, led the agency near the end of President Barack Obamas second term, the Senate confirmed him with a vote of 89-4.

Califfs confirmation this week comes at a particularly critical time for the FDA, as it considers a number of high-profile topics, including COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 years old, whether e-cigarettes should be banned due to their appeal to teens, and the controversy over its approval of the divisive Alzheimers drug Aduhelm.

Califf has also said he will conduct a comprehensive review of opioids.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said Califf is a trusted hand as the nation faces a critical moment.

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A tight vote

While the FDA manages issues that affect large swaths of the U.S. health care system and economy, the close confirmation vote is unusual, experts say. Califf earned both support and criticismnearly in equal measuresfor his previous service in the same role. Some saw his experience as an advantage, while others argued that hed fumbled the ball while last in the top seat.

The wise Dr. Maya Angelou famously said, When someone shows you who they are, believe them, said Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia on the floor on Monday. Well, Dr. Califf has shown us who he is, and he has shown a complete lack of interest in actually making the difficult decisions that we need the leader of the FDA to make.

Manchin, who also voted against Califf in 2016, was a leading opponent of Califfs confirmation. As recently as Friday, he called for Biden to withdraw the nomination in an op-ed co-authored with Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, and continued to encourage his colleagues to vote no this week. During the final vote Tuesday, he said he had never been more profoundly confident in a vote than he was in opposing Califf.

Anti-abortion groups also opposed Califf to lead the FDA because the agency has relaxed some regulations around medication abortion in recent years. Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion, raised concerns about the FDA loosening restrictions on the abortion pills in 2016 when Califf was previously at the agency, and then stepped up its advocacy after the agency announced in December that people could receive the pills by mail. The group said it would score Califfs nomination on its pro-life scorecard and urged conservative lawmakers not to support Califf.

Califf comes after Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner under former President Donald Trump, was criticized for not pushing back enough when Trump promoted unproven COVID-19 treatments such as hydroxychloroquine. After Hahn left last January, Dr. Janet Woodcock, a longtime drug regulator, has served as acting director of the FDA. Many expected the Biden Administration to prioritize the choice of a new FDA chief, but it waited until close to its legal deadline in mid-November to nominate Califf.

Califf spent much of his career at Duke University, where he was a professor and founding director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Since heading the FDA, and he worked as an advisor to Verily Life Sciences and Google Health. He has a strong understanding of the clinical trial process, but critics have raised concerns about his close relationships to the drug industry.

Enough Republican support to cross the line

Six Republicans ultimately voted to confirm Califf: Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. I urge my colleagues to support Dr. Califfs nomination because he will provide the leadership needed to promote todays biomedical advancements and help to pave the way for tomorrows innovation, Burr said on Tuesday.

Ahead of the vote, the White House rallied support for Califf, emphasizing the steps he took to assuage lawmakers concerns. It is critically important to have confirmed leadership at the FDA in the midst of a pandemic, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House deputy press secretary, told reporters on Monday. As of Monday, he met with or was scheduled to meet with 47 Senators, among the highest numbers for any of Bidens nominees.

Other Democratic supporters touted Califfs previous experience, arguing that he will be able to hit the ground running once confirmed. Dr. Califfs previous service in this role, said Murray, his career as one of the Nations leading research scientists, give him the experience to take on this challenge.
SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ  One nursing home resident was found "visibly blue" and another was "unresponsive," yet the staff at the troubled center did nothing, according to a scathing report by state officials. Both of those residents later died without any attempt to use an automated external defibrillator, attempt CPR or call 911.

The list of troubling deaths and abuse at the facility, which was formerly known as Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation II, has prompted New Jersey's Department of Health to step in on Thursday.

The facility, since renamed Woodland Behavioral Health and Nursing Center, previously came under scrutiny and state monitoring after 17 bodies were discovered crammed into a makeshift morgue in April 2020 during the early portion of the COVID-19 pandemic.



One of the residents' deaths in the latest report occurred on New Years Day. The patient was found "unresponsive without a pulse or respirations" and was pronounced dead 10 minutes later. The 55-year-old resident had previously been alive an hour and 35 minutes before, the report said. Staff did not use an automated external defibrillator, attempt CPR or call 911.

The other resident was found dead on Oct. 8 after last being seen alive by staff 90 minutes earlier. The medical staff did not perform CPR because the resident appeared "visibly blue," "had a locked jaw" and was "far too expired," the report said.

This resident's family had requested "aggressive, life-saving treatment despite medical decline," according to the states findings.

State officials observed and reported other issues from a visit by the Health Facility Survey and Field Operations group between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2. The issues included the following, according to the report:

Two residents died in November after not receiving Regeneron monoclonal antibody infusions that had been ordered for them.

A phlebotomist verbally abused and cursed at a resident on Jan. 11. The director of nursing was aware of the incident on Jan. 21 but never reported the incident.

In January, a resident was left in soiled feces" for 10 hours, from 11 p.m. to 9 or 9:30 a.m. the following morning, "despite the resident having a pressure ulcer wound to the sacrum. The director of nursing was aware and continued to allow the certified nursing assistant who worked with the resident to work on 36 shifts in three different units through Jan. 31, the report stated.

A resident was ignored on Jan. 16 after calling for help because a catheter got stuck in a motorized wheelchair. The director of nursing was aware of the incident on Jan. 21 but did not initiate an investigation until 11 days later.

The state surveyor saw a certified nursing assistant verbally abuse a resident on Jan. 26, telling the resident they had "sneaky eyes." The employee told the resident they were going to quit their job because of them.

The facility was cited for not properly locking medications that were stored near the behavioral unit, where about 23 residents with a history of suicidal ideations were able to walk freely.

The facility did not use appropriate infection control after a COVID-19 outbreak between Dec. 23 and Jan. 1, with 102 new staff and 131 new resident cases.

There were deficiencies in certified nursing assistant staffing on all 14 day shifts observed, seven of 14 evening shifts and 10 of 14 overnight shifts.

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The state's Department of Health ordered that a management consulting firm "with expertise in nursing home administration, finance and clinical operations" monitor the facility for 90 days. The state has not appointed a monitor yet, according to Donna Leusner, a spokesperson for New Jerseys Department of Health.

If the facility does not comply with the state's corrective measures, which include notifying residents' families of the action, the facility could face other penalties, per the report.

The state Division of Certificate of Need and Licensing, Office of Program Compliance, sent the border to the facilitys administrator, Menachem Spiegel on Thursday.

Spiegel did not respond to Patch's request for comment.

New Jersey State Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Parsippany) and Nia H. Gill (D-Montclair) on Friday co-sponsored a bill, SR48, that called for the establishment of a New Jersey Nursing Home Pandemic Response Investigation Committee, according to a news release. Pennacchio previously called for an investigation into the executive branchs pandemic response in May 2020.



"The only way that we can ensure the public receives the answers they deserve is to have this committee in the legislature, Gill said. We must have a comprehensive report on how our system of care failed seniors and their families and how we can improve these systems going forward."

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.

This article originally appeared on the Hopatcong-Sparta Patch
Im a night owl. I do most of my writing between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., which means early-morning meetings cut into my sleep time and require a long ride on the struggle bus.

As I drove to an 8 a.m. interview with Julie Kennedy, owner of Stomping Grounds Coffee Co., I drew comfort in the fact that I was heading straight toward a source of much-needed caffeine. But as I listened to her talk about the business with an abundance of enthusiasm and passion, all thoughts and feelings of tiredness quickly subsided.

She told me about how she opened Stomping Grounds in April 2016 after her husband, David Kennedy, came home from work one day, handed her a manila folder, then said to get dressed so they could go celebrate. Confused, Julie asked what they were celebrating.

Louisville restaurants: This Old Louisville doughnut shop is opening a new location in the East End. What to know

His reply: We're going to celebrate the fact that you are an official business owner as of today.

David had acquired the necessary paperwork for Julie to become the sole proprietor of what would soon be Stomping Grounds Coffee Co., the first mom-and-pop coffee shop in Valley Station.

I dont just own Stomping Grounds, Julie said. I work every day, behind the bar.

Julie and David had left Louisville after they married, and David joined the military. The couple returned in 2000, putting down roots in Valley Station.

Bourbon caramel latte at Stomping Grounds Coffee Co. in Louisville.

(David) went on to become a minister, Julie said. We had six kids and I stayed at home. We had talked about opening up a small business  and we both have (a) love for coffee and community.

The business itself, as well as its name, reflect their fondness for both the area and a good cup of joe.

I was raised in Valley Village, Julie told the Courier Journal, adding that she lived across the street from David when she was 16 years old. These are literally our stomping grounds. The pun just happened to be there.

Once the stores name and concept were settled, Julie turned to another local business to get things up and running.

Story continues

When I opened Stomping Grounds, I knew who I was going to choose to be our roaster, she said. Sunergos roasts our beans. . I give love to (local) coffee shops  Bean is my favorite shop outside of here, and I like Quills, but nobody roasts a bean like Sunergos Coffee.

Cinnamon rolls at Stomping Grounds Coffee Co. in Louisville.

She adds that she isnt intimidated by coffee franchises that are popping up in the area, either.

Scooter's Coffee is opening (a location) up the street, but Im like, yeah? Bring it! she said with a laugh. Youre a Nebraska chain. Im a Valley girl, (and) my people will support me.

Though Stomping Grounds beans are roasted by Sunergos, Julie explains, their specific menu items are unique. In addition to a few standard flavor options, Julie offers new specials every month. The January menu boasted various cheesecake options, and February is all about love.

The Love Jones  based on raspberry cream chocolates from Valentines Day sampler boxes  is now a menu staple but originated as a February special a few years ago. March will highlight butter bean, butter pecan, and butter rum; Aprils flavors will emphasize all things banana; and of course, May will bring Kentucky Derby-inspired drinks.

(Changing flavors) builds buzz, Julie said. It keeps (us) fresh on (customers) minds.  lf I (offered the same thing) every day, it wouldnt be such a big deal.

Love Jones Latte and White Mocha Shake at Stomping Grounds Coffee Co. in Louisville.

Creating reasons for customers to keep coming back is top of mind, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

It was a very scary time. Were faith-filled people, so we did a lot of praying.  I mean, we can offer a good product at a fair price, and we can offer a really warm environment, but we cant make people come," she said.

Despite the challenges of losing a few employees who quit due to health concerns, as well as the rising costs and difficulty in obtaining supplies, the Kennedys tried as best they could to put smiles on customers faces.

Louisville bakery: Why this boutique bakery with artisan breads, European-style pastries is a must-visit

I think people (recognized) that, and they rallied around us, Julie said. People were lining up down the sidewalk.  It was a really good morale booster for everybody here.

As the business side of Stomping Grounds stabilized, Julie continued to focus some of her energy on bettering the community  specifically by addressing the large population of people in the area who are experiencing homelessness.

I was homeless when I was a kid, so homelessness is a very big thing for me, she said. We have a local organization here made up of a couple of churches (and they help) our friends without addresses.  We serve as a hub. Our customers bring in supplies, and people from (the organization) come and (pick it up). They are out every week, (making deliveries) and giving out food.

A White Mocha at Stomping Grounds Coffee Co. in Louisville.

Julie adds that she also offers coffee or a bite to eat to those in need whenever she can.

Im not going to let (someone) walk out of here without a hot cup of coffee or something in (their) stomach, she said. But its not just me  its my baristas, too. They do it all the time.  That is what life is supposed to be about. This is not just coffee. Theres so much more to us (than that), and Im very proud that I get to be a part of it. And I am just a part of it  Im not any more important or any less important than anyone else here.

Given the evolving nature of the coronavirus pandemic, our weekly restaurant review column's focus will shift for the foreseeable future. Each week, Lennie Omalza will interview restaurants that are fighting to adapt and survive while serving our community. Please send coverage suggestions to Lifestyle Editor Kathryn Gregory at kgregory@courier-journal.com.

Fante's Coffee: How 40+ years in the coffee industry set this man up to change Louisville's coffee scene

Stomping Grounds Coffee Co.

WHAT: This is a locally owned coffee shop in Valley Station that serves Sunergos-roasted coffee drinks and treats from Bobby Js Bakery.

WHERE: 10019 Dixie Hwy.

SERVICES: Indoor seating, curbside delivery, and carryout; 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday; 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

CONTACT: facebook.com/Stomping-Grounds-Coffee-Co; 502-996-7473

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville restaurant: Stomping Grounds Coffee Co. in Valley Station
Novak Djokovics latest comments on whether he would receive the Covid-19 vaccine have been mocked - by budget airline Ryanair.

It comes after Djokovic gave his first interview since being deported from Australia last month following a row over his medical exemption for the vaccine.

The mens world No 1 told the BBC that although he is keeping his mind open about getting a Covid vaccine in the future, he would be prepared to miss this years French Open and Wimbledon tournaments over his principles.

Djokovic insisted he is not part of the anti-vax movement and maintained he supports the freedom to choose what goes into his body.

In response, Ryanair quote-tweeted the BBCs interview with Djokovic alongside the comment: We're not an airline but we do fly planes.

The BBCs original tweet had paraphrased a section of Djokovics interview that said: Im not anti-vax but I will sacrifice trophies if told to get the jab.

Ryanairs tweet had been liked over 50,000 times by Tuesday afternoon.

We're not an airline but we do fly planes #Djokovic pic.twitter.com/wivO3L2dTp  Ryanair (@Ryanair) February 15, 2022

Djokovic was unable to play in the Australian Open last month after the Australian government cancelled his visa and deported him from the country on the eve of the tournament.

Djokovic was detained upon arriving in Australia after receiving a medical exemption for the vaccine from tournament organisers.

Australias immigration minister, Alex Hawke, opted to exercise his ministerial discretion and cancel the world No 1s visa.

The conclusion from the Australian governments perspective was that Djokovic may foster anti-vaccination sentiment and cause civil unrest.
 Flash

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday declared a public order emergency to support provinces in ending the ongoing blockades caused by truck convoy protests.

Trudeau said in a press conference that he invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada's history to give the federal government extra and "temporary" powers to handle the issue, adding the move targets to those areas in need, not the whole country.

"It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," Trudeau said. "This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people's jobs and restoring confidence in our institutions."

The act will ensure that essential services, such as towing services to remove trucks, are rendered, said Trudeau. It will also be used to protect critical infrastructure such as borders and airports from the blockades and the government will enable the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to enforce municipal bylaws, and he dismissed the involvement of military force.

As the truck convoy organizers have secured millions of dollars from crowdfunding sites, the measures also include giving banks the power to suspend or freeze accounts of blockade supporters without a court order, and force crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies to follow anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said at the same event that companies with trucks involved in the illegal blockades will have their corporate bank accounts frozen, and their insurance suspended.

She said that under the act, crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers must report large and suspicious transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, the national financial intelligence agency.

The Emergencies Act, which replaced the War Measures Act in the 1980s, provides special powers to respond to emergency scenarios affecting public welfare (natural disasters, disease outbreaks), public order (civil unrest), and international emergencies or war emergencies.
An 18-year-old man has been arrested in connection with last weeks shooting in a northwest Dillons parking lot that left two people wounded and police combing a nearby neighborhood after people involved in the shooting ran off.

Iman M. Foye, of Muskogee, Oklahoma, was arrested at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and booked into Sedgwick County Jail on Sunday, records show. He was released Monday on a $200,000 bond. Foye was booked on suspicion of aggravated robbery while armed with a dangerous weapon and criminal carrying of a weapon that had an automatic trigger, which is illegal for civilian use.

In his mugshot, Foye had a medical bandage over his right cheek.

Foyes arrest is in connection with Thursdays daytime shooting in the Dillons parking lot at 21st and Maize. Foye and a 21-year-old were critically injured in the shooting. The 21-year-old remains hospitalized. Police think the shooting was drug-related.

Firefighters at the Dillons gave medical care to both victims.

Police say the incident started just after 2 p.m. Thursday after the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the shooting backed into a parking space on the east side of the parking lot.

A male exited the vehicle, removed something from the trunk, then re-entered the car, Wichita spokesperson Trevor Macy said in a news release. Later, the other vehicle backed into a stall next to the first one. Shortly after that, gunfire was exchanged between the two vehicles.

Both vehicles appear to have bullet holes, Macy said. Police at the scene cordoned off an area that had a car with what appeared to be two bullet holes in the drivers side window and a shoe on top of the roof.

After the shooting, two men ran into the neighborhood to the east, Macy said. Police initially thought three people ran into the neighborhood.

The incident caused a scare as police fanned out into the neighborhood. There was also a false report of an active shooter that caused a scare at Maize school district, according to Wichita police Capt. Jason Cooley.

The 18-year-old who was critically injured was one of the three people who ran, but he returned to the parking lot and approached firefighters for help, police said. He also steered firefighters toward the other victim, who was found between two vehicles, shot multiple times.

The other suspect involved has since been identified as a 28-year-old male and WPD is actively working to locate him, Macy said in a news release.
US-HEALTH-VIRUS

People wear face masks as they wait in line to receive testing for both rapid antigen and PCR Covid-19 tests at a Reliant Health Services testing site in Hawthorne, California on January 18, 2022. Credit - Patrick T. Fallon-AFP)

The U.S. has experienced a brutal winter wave of COVID-19, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Daily deaths are higher today than they were during the peak of last falls Delta wave, and have plateaued at about 2,500 per day. Many hospitals are still under huge strain and are postponing elective surgeries to free up beds for patients with COVID-19. Daily cases have been higher than during the Delta surge, despite multiple eager predictions in the past that we had reached herd immunity and that the pandemic was over.

Nevertheless, there are promising signs that we are turning a corner. New daily cases are falling rapidlythey are down by over 75% from the peak of the Omicron wave. Hospitalizations are also falling. While we are not out in the clear yet, especially in poorly vaccinated regions of the U.S., the sharp downturn in cases is cause for optimism.

The fall in cases is also an opportunity for fundamental preparation, given the high chance of a future wave. To prevent being overwhelmed again, we should be proactive now in putting a preparedness system in place.

Instead, in the face of these receding cases, some pundits are calling for an end to pandemic control measures, such as indoor masking and testing of people with no symptoms. And several states have rolled back mask mandates, even though indoor masks mandates remain popular in public polling (the Biden Administration is being more cautious about easing masking). We fully understand the frustration and impatience behind these calls. Pandemic fatigue is real. Yet this yearning for normal ignores the reality that our society before COVID-19 was anything but normal. If it had been, we may not have suffered as devastating a pandemic as we have. Instead it was those very conditions that allowed for terrible inequities and outsized impacts on Americas poor, which still continue today.

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We are concerned that the Biden Administration is not taking preparedness seriously enough. It was a welcome step to see the Administration making 400 million N95 masks available for free at pharmacies and community health centers, and we are delighted that Americans can now go online and order four free rapid tests per household. But four rapid tests and a mask will not be enough to end the pandemic. These measures are not commensurate with the size of the problem, and they must be coupled with actual public health strategies for effective roll-out and sustained uptake.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that there is still a huge amount of viral transmission, with around 175,000 new daily cases. Less than two thirds of Americans are fully vaccinateddefined as two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or one dose of Johnson & Johnsonwhich does not provide as much protection as it did before Omicron. Only a quarter of Americans have received a booster dose, which provides the highest level of protection against infection, hospitalization, and death. There are ongoing inequities in vaccination, including racial inequities, with Black and Hispanic populations being vaccinated at a lower rate compared to white populations. Only 24% of children aged 5-11 and 57% of those aged 12-17 are fully vaccinated. Hospitalizations among the under 5 hit record levels during the Omicron surge, yet vaccines are not yet licensed for this age group.

Read More: Nasal Vaccines Could Help Stop COVID-19

There is also what the New York Times calls a pandemic of the forgotten. Around 7 million Americans have weakened immune systems from transplants, cancer treatment, rheumatoid arthritis medications, or other medical conditions, and they could get very ill if they get COVID-19. Yet this push toward returning to normal seems to matter-of-factly ignore them. And, there is the growing number of people who are suffering from long-term morbidity after surviving infectionthe condition now known as Long Covidwhich we are only just beginning to understand.

One recurring problem when it comes to pandemics is that we suffer from short term memory. We cross our fingers and hope that this wave is the last. Many of us were surprised when Vice President Kamala Harris said that the Biden Administration didnt see Delta coming.didnt see Omicron coming. Thats absurd. Viral mutations were entirely expected. There is a serious risk of further variants arising, especially with inequitable and low vaccination coverage in much of the world due to supply hoarding. Distributing a few rapid tests and masks and hoping that this wave disappears and will be the end of the U.S. pandemic is not a sound approach.

Even with the current variants in circulation, we could see further waves, such as was seen in the South in past summers, especially in poorly vaccinated states, and as people move indoors to escape the heat and humidity. We could similarly see future winter waves as we have witnessed in the northeast. With cases of Omicron receding, now is the time to put in place a proper infrastructure, resilient enough to handle further surges. Instead of declaring mission accomplished, we must declare a considerable effort toward true preparedness.

In addition to driving up vaccination coverage, what would true preparedness look like?

Instead of a one-off distribution of N95 masks, the government should replenish the stockpile enough to deploy them again in the face of future outbreaks. These should be ubiquitously available, and in different shapes and sizes, placed outside any high-risk venues including public transport or crowded indoor sites of congregation (grocery stores, malls, retail, movie theaters, gyms, offices) during surges.

Serial rapid tests are needed, and they need to reach those unable to order them online. A single test is a snapshot in timeso after a known exposure, having enough tests for daily testing prior to leaving the home is what would actually be needed for 5 to 7 days. Rapid tests identify contagious people before they get symptoms, allowing people to avoid spreading the infection, thus breaking the cycles of transmission. One of us presented similar arguments for both Ebola and Zika in the past. Such rapid tests for SARS-CoV-2 can help keep schools and workplaces open, and they can protect vulnerable people in nursing homes, jails, prisons, and other high-risk congregate settings. High quality masks and rapid tests are particularly critical for protecting front line workers.

With the arrival of new antiviral drugs, such as Paxlovid, and data showing early antiviral use with Remdesivir is more effective, universal access to free tests has become even more urgent. These medicines can reduce your chances of being hospitalized or dying if they are taken soon enough after symptoms begin, but this requires access to testing for early enough diagnosis. Greater access to testing needs to be combined with fair and equitable access to these medicationsespecially for communities that traditionally have low access to care.

A joined-up preparedness plan would also include paid sick leave. During the 2009 swine flu pandemic, an estimated 3 in 10 people with symptoms in the U.S. went to work, infecting up to 7 million others. The U.S. is the only high-income nation without mandatory federal sick pay, and this will continue to be a huge barrier to controlling COVID-19.

Another way to curb transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is to improve ventilation and air filtration in all buildings, including schools. Congress has allocated up to $170 billion for school infrastructure improvements, including improving air quality. Unfortunately, too much of this money has been left on the table. In some cases, as Joseph Allen and Celine Gounder note, some schools are already under attack by parents who are opposed to other pandemic-related public health measures, like masking. Other school districts lack the know-how to make the upgradesthey need better guidance and standards. Some schools say they struggle to pay for upgraded ventilation systems even with federal aid.

Instead of being caught flat-footed by the next wave or variant, we need more comprehensive data and surveillance systems, including wastewater sampling, as well genomic surveillance to identify and track new variants. With better data, we can know when to titrate public health protections up and down. As Megan Ranney, professor of emergency medicine and academic dean of public health at Brown University says, we need investments in better data systems, now, to signal when a surge is on its way and to provide clear metrics of when to increase protections (like masks)and clear lines about when these protections can be relaxed.

With so many people worldwide still unvaccinated, and many Americans without boosters, we should prepare ourselves for future pandemic ebbs and flows. To end the pandemic, the U.S. should do much more to boost global vaccine access including donating several-fold more doses, sharing vaccine technology more urgently, and funding massive global production. Domestically, an important guiding principle is that our policies should be driven by data and not datesfor example, we believe it is better to base the end of mask mandates on metrics such as vaccination coverage, hospitalization rates, and ICU capacity rather than picking an arbitrary end date. Unlike the start of the pandemic, we now have a remarkable array of science-based tools that can turn COVID-19 into something akin to a cold or flu, but to get there well need higher vaccination rates, better data and surveillance systems, data-driven policies on masks and rapid tests, improved ventilation in shared public spaces, and a more resilient preparedness system.
Deputies accused a Palm Coast father who was already on probation of beating his 9-year-old son because the boy and his little brother made purchases on their iPad, the Flagler County Sheriffs Office reported.

Andrew Wayne Atkerson, 33, was arrested on felony child abuse charges, according to a sheriffs office press release issued Monday. Atkerson was being held at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on a $12,500 bond.

The beating happened on Feb. 3, the release stated. Atkerson picked his son up several times and threw him into walls, closets and other things in the house, according to the release. The child suffered bruises in several spots on his body, including under both eyes, the release stated.

When the mother picked him up from school, she photographed the injuries, the release said.

When Florida Department of Children and Families Child Protection Team in Daytona Beach spoke to Atkerson about the case, Atkerson said I might have over-punished them a little bit, the release stated.

More crime news: Palm Coast man sentenced to 20 years prison for aggravated child abuse of his son

Meet Goose: Bow-tie-wearing French bulldog brings Flagler sheriff's office into comfort zone

Read more: Deltona couple who duct-taped child to stop her from moving around face neglect and abuse charges

Atkerson has a number of prior arrests, including a 2017 felony domestic battery charge in an attack on his wife, which his children witnessed, according to the release.

Atkerson has faced 20 different charges in California and Florida dating back to 2004, including six battery charges, the release stated.

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said in the release that Atkerson could have restricted the childs access to the iPad, but what he did instead crossed the line.

No child should ever have to endure what this man did to his child. It appears this man has no ability to control his rage, Staly stated. Parents have the right to discipline their children but cannot go overboard, which happened in this case."

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Staly said he was glad the mother sought help.

Im thankful the mother reported her observations and the work our detectives and DCF have done on this case to protect the children, according to Stalys statement. Child abuse victims often have to live with those scars forever.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida father accused of beating son over app purchases, deputies say
Support services found that connecting with and supporting new groups and communities was actually a huge benefit of lockdown (Getty/iStock)

Despite the UK being one of the most developed countries in the world, there are still thousands of people here who are not able to afford or access period products or menstrual health services  whats known as period poverty. The pandemic has only made this worse.

When the UK entered its first lockdown, all non-essential workplaces were closed, including many places that had been providing free period products, education and healthcare for those experiencing period poverty, such as schools.

Shortly afterwards, childrens charity Plan International UK released a report showing the impact this was having. It highlighted how the closure of support services and stockpiling was making it more difficult for people to find tampons, pads and other period products that were affordable.

Our team then conducted research to see how things evolved from this point. Over 18 months (July 2020 to December 2021), we collected data from 34 UK services providing period products, menstrual health education or menstrual health support to find out how they adapted. We also surveyed 240 people across the UK who had experienced period poverty during the pandemic to find out how they had been affected. Heres what we found.

Access to period products did indeed become more of a problem during lockdown. Of the people we surveyed, 85 per cent had experienced difficulties accessing products during lockdown. But this wasnt just because they couldnt afford them. The people we spoke to also couldnt find products in the places they usually got them from. Places that had provided free products, like schools, were closed, and shops and supermarkets were running out of affordable options.

As in times beforehand, period poverty has been about more than just period products themselves. Rather, it is a problem of unequal access to all aspects of period-related support

Period poverty services also told us of how new groups needing help getting products had appeared because of the pandemic. NHS staff were contacting services for products as their workplaces didnt provide them during long shifts. People who had lost their jobs or been furloughed now needed support because they couldnt afford products. And period products were often missing in packages provided by food banks or for clinically extremely vulnerable people that couldnt leave their houses.

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To meet this increase in demand, new ways of providing products appeared. Period poverty services created take what you need boxes, which offered products for free in public places. They also started doorstep deliveries or posting products to peoples home addresses, while social media and community groups communicated where people could get products from.

Support services found that connecting with and supporting new groups and communities was actually a huge benefit of lockdown, and many of the solutions they came up with during the restrictions were kept up after they lifted. Services supporting schools told us that a particular positive was the opportunity to promote reusable period products, with requests for these increasing during lockdown.

Services also told us that plenty of people contacted them for menstrual health advice during lockdown, in the absence of easily accessible healthcare. We were told how accessing GP appointments had become difficult and that people felt they shouldnt bother their doctors about their menstrual health, as it wasnt as important as Covid.

Of the people we spoke to who had experienced period poverty during lockdown, 75 per cent stated they had needed support or advice about their menstrual cycle while restrictions were in place. Yet only 20 per cent actually sought support from a medical professional. Some didnt have access to safe and private spaces to be able to attend online or telephone appointments with their GP but were offered no alternative form of consultation.

This highlights that during the pandemic, as in times beforehand, period poverty has been about more than just period products themselves. Rather, it is a problem of unequal access to all aspects of period-related support.

Should there be further lockdowns in this or a future pandemic, our research suggests that the need for support to deal with period poverty is likely to increase. This need will be there so long as there isnt a central strategy and policy to address period poverty across the UK.

Having a robust, consistent approach to tackling all elements of period poverty is the best way to make sure peoples needs are met. Its what the UK should be aiming for  pandemic or no pandemic.

Gemma Williams is a research fellow in gender inequality in health and menstruation at Birmingham City University. This article first appeared on The Conversation.
The South Dakota State Capitol stands on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, in Pierre.

The South Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill Monday that supporters say will shore up the rights of parents to make decisions for their children.

House Bill 1246 passed without floor debate, 63-5. The text of the bill as it was amended in a committee hearing is just one sentence: "The fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of a child rests with the parents or court appointed guardian."

But the bill is among those that other states are considering following controversies over education curricula and critical race theory, with some parents objecting to the teaching of certain materials.

Rep. Sue Peterson, the bill's sponsor, said the law would ensure that parents have a "fundamental" right that could not be demoted by the judiciary as an ordinary right.

"That has been done in 24 courts around the nation," said Peterson, a Sioux Falls Republican who serves on the House Education Committee.

More: House Judiciary committee passes bill protecting parents rights in education

Representatives Will Mortenson and Sue Peterson speak on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre.

While advocates for parental choice laws have framed them as transparency bills, education groups have expressed concern that curricula are being politicized.

Peterson said the bill would not conflict with laws preventing parental abuse or custody issues.

The bill must still pass through another committee meeting and floor vote in the Senate.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota lawmakers pass parental rights legislation
On Monday's fourth anniversary of the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting, during which his son was killed, Manuel Oliver climbed atop a construction crane near the White House and unfurled a banner calling on President Joe Biden to do more to get gun control legislation passed, police said.

PHOTO: Manuel Oliver displays a banner asking government to prioritize gun violence prevention from a construction crane near the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 14, 2022. Oliver's son Joaquin Oliver was killed in the Parkland School shooting. (ABC NEWS)

The large banner depicted an image of his son, Joaquin Oliver, who was one of 17 victims in the shooting at the high school in Parkland, Florida, and read "45K PEOPLE DIED FROM GUN VIOLENCE ON YOUR WATCH."

MORE: Parkland school shooting 4 years later: Remembering the 17 victims

Oliver climbed down the crane with another individual at approximately 10 a.m., and was met by officers who escorted him into an ambulance in handcuffs for a brief moment before he was led away, ABC affiliate WJLA reported and police later confirmed.

PHOTO: Manuel Oliver is escorted by DC Metro police after displaying a banner from a crane near the White House asking to prioritize gun violence prevention, in Washington, Feb. 14, 2022. Oliver's son Joaquin was killed in the Parkland School shooting (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In a video posted to Twitter early Monday morning, Oliver said he asked for a meeting with Biden a month ago that never happened. Oliver said he hopes the "whole world will listen to Joaquin."

PHOTO: Manuel Oliver displays a banner asking government to prioritize gun violence prevention from a construction crane near the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 14, 2022. Oliver's son Joaquin Oliver was killed in the Parkland School shooting. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

"Two other individuals were located on a crane near the location. At approximately 10:06 am, the two individuals located on the crane were taken into custody as well. Preliminarily, three individuals were arrested from the scene," D.C. police said.

MORE: Parkland mom pens heartbreaking letter to slain daughter 1 year after school massacre

In a statement marking the shooting's anniversary, Biden said his administration stands with the Parkland families, "Americans in every corner of our country who have lost loved ones to gun violence or had their lives forever altered by a shooting" and "those working to end this epidemic of gun violence."

PHOTO: Manuel Oliver comes down from a crane near the White House after displaying a banner asking government to prioritize gun violence prevention, in Washington, D.C., Feb. 14, 2022. Oliver's son Joaquin Oliver was killed in the Parkland School shooting (ABC NEWS)

"I have put forward a comprehensive plan to reduce gun crime that includes curbing the proliferation of "ghost" guns, cracking down on gun dealers who willfully violate the law, issuing model extreme risk protection order legislation for states, and promoting safe firearm storage, among other efforts," Biden wrote.

ABC News' Davone Morales contributed to this report.

Parkland father climbs crane near White House, demands Biden do more on gun control originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A pair of Peruvian brothers are going to spend several years in prison after admitting they shook down immigrants in the United States for more than $1 million by threatening that they would go to jail if they did not pay them for purportedly required English language classes.

Carlos Espinoza Huerta, 40, was sentenced Monday to eight and a half years in prison, while his brother, Josmell Espinoza Huerta, 32, was previously sentenced to seven years after both pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud.

U.S. District Judge Robert Scola imposed the prison terms, holding Carlos Espinoza responsible for $1.3 million in victims losses and Josmell Espinoza liable for $700,000.

According to court records, the Espinoza brothers owned several Peruvian call centers that targeted immigrants from Central America, Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. Over the past decade, the brothers and five others who worked in their call centers posed as lawyers, court officials and federal agents and lied to hundreds of immigrants that they were required to take English-language courses or risk arrest and deportation.

The brothers and their employees even claimed to be representatives of a minor crimes court, which does not exist in Florida or the United States, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Miami.

The callers falsely threatened victims with court proceedings, negative marks on their credit reports, imprisonment and immigration consequences if they did not immediately pay for the purported English-language courses, prosecutors said.

The five other defendants extradited from Peru also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to similar prison terms earlier this year, court records show.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Justice Departments Consumer Protection Branch investigated the case.
A private plane carrying 8 passengers, including 4 teenagers, crashed off the coast of North Carolina Sunday afternoon, likely leaving no survivors, officials said.

The aircraft, a single-engine turboprop passenger plane, "was seen behaving erratically on radar and then disappeared from the radar screen," according to the Coast Guard. "We have no indication that anyone survived the crash," Carteret County Sheriff Ada Buck said at a news conference Monday.

The Carteret County Sheriff's office released the names of the eight passengers Tuesday, including four teenagers.

The passengers are the plane's pilot, 67-year-old Ernest Durwood Rawls; Jeffrey Worthington Rawls, 28; Stephanie Ann McInnis Fulcher, 42; Douglas Hunter Parks, 45; Jonathan Kole McInnis, 15; Noah Lee Styron, 15; Michael Daily Shepard, 15; and Jacob Nolan Taylor, 16.

Four students from East Carteret High School were passengers on the plane, said Jennifer Johnson, chief communications officer for Carteret County Public Schools, in a statement Tuesday.

STAY IN THE KNOW: For more updates , sign up for Daily Briefing.

JUST THE FAQs: Why small planes are more likely to crash than commercial airlines

"The Carteret County Public School System was saddened by the confirmation from the Carteret County Sheriffs office this afternoon of the tragedy that has deeply affected several schools in our system," Johnson said.

"School counselors, school psychologists, and school crisis team members have responded from across the school system to serve and support the students, staff, and families in the impacted schools," the statement continued.

The plane crashed around 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the sheriff. It departed from the fishing community of Englehard, North Carolina, and was headed toward Beaufort, North Carolina, before crashing about four miles east of Drum Inlet, a strait off the coast of North Carolina's Outer Banks.

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Law enforcement officers prepare a search party after a small plane crash in Carteret County, North Carolina.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft crashed into the water approximately 18 miles northeast of Michael J. Smith Field in Beaufort. A preliminary accident notification on the FAAs website noted that the aircraft crashed into water under unknown circumstances.

Search crews found a debris field about three miles offshore after searching for plane wreckage throughout the night, the sheriff said. By morning, it had separated into three debris fields, which had been moving farther offshore into the Atlantic Ocean, Buck said.

Our prayers and deep concerns go to the families and loved ones of the passengers, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said on Twitter Monday. Were grateful for the people in our state and local agencies who are supporting the efforts of the Coast Guard and other first responders.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: North Carolina plane crash passengers likely didn't survive: Officials
 Flash

Greece's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday advised Greek citizens currently in Ukraine to "leave the country immediately."

Amidst escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the Greek ministry also "strongly discourages all travel in any part of Ukraine's territory," according to a press release.

Greek citizens who have not already left the country are advised to immediately register their contact details with the Greek Embassy in Kiev, said the ministry.

The staff levels at the Greek Embassy in Kiev have been reduced to "essential personnel only," it added.

Greece, like many countries, is closely monitoring the situation. On Monday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired a meeting of ministers and other officials on the developments in Ukraine, focusing on possible scenarios to ensure the security of Greece's natural gas supplies, according to an e-mailed press statement.
Feb. 14Oneonta Police said Monday an Oneonta man has been arrested and charged in connection with the Dec. 29 robbery of the NBT Bank branch on Wall Street in the city.

According to a media release, Elijah Vergari, 29, was indicted by an Otsego County Court grand jury on a charge of third-degree robbery.

Police said Vergari "was developed as a suspect" and the results of the police investigation were presented to the grand jury by the district attorney's office.

According to the release, Vergari was arraigned Monday in Otsego County Court. Because of pending felony charges in Delaware County, bail was set at $10,000 cash and Vergari was remanded to the custody of the Otsego County sheriff.

Oneonta Police said they worked with the State Police Forensic ID unit, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations and NBT bank security services in investigating the case.

Vergari had been charged in Delaware County in June 2021 with first-degree attempted robbery, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of second-degree attempted assault, attempted petit larceny and unlawful possession of a noxious material after an incident in the town of Davenport.
Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

San Francisco police used DNA collected as part of a rape exam to link a woman to a crime, possibly violating her constitutional rights, the citys district attorney alleged on Monday.

The departments crime lab entered the DNA profiles of potentially thousands of sexual assault victims over many years to a database that is used to identify suspects, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. District attorney Chesa Boudin, who said his office first learned of the practice last week, told the newspaper such use of victims DNA could violate the Californias Victims Bill of Rights as well as constitutional laws related to unreasonable searches and seizures.

Related: Two Connecticut officers put on leave over handling of Black womens deaths

The womans DNA, which was collected in a rape exam as part of a domestic violence and sexual abuse case several years ago, was used to link her to a felony property crime in the city. Police identified her in the crime based on evidence from the rape exam, Boudin said.

The district attorney expressed concerns the practice would deter victims of sexual assault, which is widely underreported in the US, from coming forward.

Law enforcement retaining and using DNA collected from survivors sexual assault exams to incriminate them hurts survivors, Boudin said on Twitter. Public safety demands that we support sexual assault survivors and end any practices that dissuade them from coming forward.

Law enforcement retaining and using DNA collected from survivors' sexual assault exams to incriminate them hurts survivors.



Public safety demands that we support sexual assault survivors and end any practices that dissuade them from coming forward.https://t.co/uBEz38MCT3  Chesa Boudin  (@chesaboudin) February 14, 2022

Bill Scott, the San Francisco police chief, told the Chronicle the woman could have been identified in the property crime via DNA found in a different database, rather than a profile collected from a rape exam. Scott also said the department would thoroughly review the matter and report back to him and the district attorneys office.

State senator Scott Wiener, who represents the city, said lawmakers were seeking to determine whether a change in state law was needed to prevent the practice. Getting a rape kit can be re-traumatizing. Having that DNA placed in a database for future use creates yet another incentive not to do it. Its unacceptable, he said on Twitter.
WARSAW (Reuters) - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) wants to create a platform for talks to prevent crises like the one in Ukraine, the Polish foreign minister said on Tuesday, as he called for further dialogue on the standoff.

"We would like to create an informal platform for open political discussion between OSCE nations, which would allow for the discussion of mechanisms for stopping crises like the present one," said Zbigniew Rau, who is serving as chairman of the OSCE, during a visit to Moscow.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz,; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Amy Jordan sweeps broken glass Dec. 3 outside her Burbank boutique Slone Vintage, which was damaged by burglars. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

Amid a recent uptick in some criminal activity, the majority of California voters in a new statewide poll reported concern over state crime rates and said they would support reinstating penalties for certain thefts that a 2014 ballot measure reduced.

Seventy-eight percent of voters surveyed in a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times said that crime has risen statewide over the last year, and 65% said it has increased locally. Most also said they would support changes to Proposition 47, which reduced some theft and drug felonies to misdemeanors as a way to reduce incarceration rates and save the state money.

The ballot measure raised the threshold for the value of goods stolen to trigger a felony from $400 to $950, and reclassified some offenses as misdemeanors. Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents said they would support amending Proposition 47 to let certain property crimes be prosecuted again as felonies, while 30% favor leaving the law unchanged.

The numbers follow a flurry of recent "smash-and-grab" robberies and rail thefts that critics of Proposition 47 say is evidence that brazen criminal activity is rampant in California and too few are being held accountable. Property and violent crime rates did increase in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco in 2021, though roughly to pre-pandemic levels, according to preliminary data analyzed by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Still, voters across the political spectrum support changing the law. According to the poll, 88% of "strongly conservative" voters said they want to amend Proposition 47, while 64% of "moderate" voters and 41% of "somewhat liberal" voters said the same. Those who identify as "strongly liberal" voters largely support Proposition 47, with 67% saying they'd rather keep it as is.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll, said crime is one of the issues of which California voters are "most critical."

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"It's not just an issue where conservatives and Republicans are chiming in," DiCamillo said.

DiCamillo said that as voters worry less about COVID-19, their attention leading up to the November election will turn to traditional issues such as crime in their communities, a trend that could benefit Republicans.

"It's an issue that has favored the Republicans traditionally, and I think the Democrats will likely be on the defensive," he said.

Legislators in both political parties, however, have already introduced a handful of bills to modify Proposition 47, including one that would lower the value of goods stolen back down to $400 to qualify a theft as a felony. Another proposal would allow prosecutors to pursue charges where stolen goods are recovered, even if the theft did not occur in that jurisdiction, and a third would repeal Proposition 47.

A proposed ballot measure would similarly permit prosecutors to pursue charges across jurisdictional lines and add sentence enhancements for significant property loss. It would also allow prosecutors to charge those with two or more prior theft convictions with a felony instead of a misdemeanor.

In December, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed $300 million in grants for law enforcement to prevent and prosecute organized retail theft rings. He traveled to Los Angeles the following month to help clean up debris scattered along railroad tracks where cargo cars had been ransacked.

Fifty-one percent of voters surveyed in the Berkeley IGS poll said they disapproved of Newsom's handling of crime and public safety, an increase of 16 percentage points since September 2020.

Lenore Anderson, president of Alliance for Safety and Justice, said that fear over crime and violence have increased nationally, not just in the Golden State. Although some concern is legitimate, Anderson said, much of it is political.

"There is also active effort on the part of people who oppose criminal justice reform to push a narrative that these crime shifts are related to criminal justice reform," Anderson said, adding that such messaging increases during election years.

Anderson also said that Proposition 47 helps reallocate funds into programs that "advance public safety without growing mass incarceration."

But Anne Hyde-Dunsmore, campaign manager for Rescue California, which led the unsuccessful effort to recall Newsom last fall, said that the timing "couldn't be better" for California to start strengthening criminal justice policies. She noted that the organization is now working with victims' groups to get the proposed initiative on the November ballot.

"Every candidate,  Democrat, independent, Republican,  every candidate has to be tough on crime," she said. "It is the top issue in the state."

The UC Berkeley IGS poll was conducted online in English and Spanish between Feb. 3 and 10. The estimated margin of error for the full sample of 8,937 voters used to evaluate Newsom's job performance is plus or minus 2 percentage points. For a smaller sample of 4,460 voters used in questions related to crime, the estimated margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A Portland man affiliated with two of the city's gangs pleaded guilty Monday in federal court of robbing the Green Therapy marijuana dispensary in Eugene.

The defendant, Timothy Christopher Gaines, also pleaded guilty to federal charges for using and carrying a gun in connection to the violent robbery, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Gaines and an accomplice robbed the dispensary of several jars of marijuana and $912 in cash, according to court documents. Gaines allegedly brandished a gun during the robbery and pointed it at an employee cowering on the floor, the DOJ said.

Gaines was first charged by a criminal complaint of robbery on June 25, 2020, and a federal grand jury in Portland returned an indictment with the same charge later that summer on July 23.

A superseding indictment Oct. 20, 2020, added a charge for using and carrying a gun during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Gaines is affiliated with the Hoover Criminal Gang and Unthank Park Hustlers, two allied Portland street gangs, the DOJ added.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with a seven-year minimum, a $250,000 fine and a five-year term for supervised release. He will be sentenced on April 26 before U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon.

The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from Eugene police and the Portland Police Bureau.

Louis Krauss covers breaking news for The Register-Guard. Contact him at lkrauss@registerguard.com, and follow him on Twitter @LouisKraussNews.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Portland man pleads guilty to robbing Eugene marijuana dispensary
Staunton High School received a possible bomb threat Monday. The Staunton Police Department is investigating.

STAUNTON  The Staunton Police Department received a report of a possible bomb threat at Staunton High School Monday, according to a press release.

The police department along with the Staunton Fire Marshals Office are conducting a joint investigation into the incident, the release said.

"There does not appear to be a credible threat," the release said, "However, the investigation is ongoing."

Per the release, the Staunton Police Department continues to work with Staunton City School officials to maintain safety at the high school.

The Staunton Police Department is asking anyone with information on the incident to contact them at (540) 332-3842 or call Crimestoppers at (800) 322-2017.

More: Masks or not? Staunton School Board meeting draws a lively crowd on Valentine's Day

More: Feds connect Weyers Cave man to suspect accused of training others to kill police

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: Possible bomb threat at Staunton High School being investigated by police
IC Kids claimed that a teacher had intended to celebrate Black History Month; she has since been fired.

IC Kids, a Montessori school in Massachusetts, is under fire after a teacher at the school instructed children to make and wear Blackface masks as part of a Black History Month project.

According to a report from NBC10 Boston, the incident occurred last Tuesday when the teacher had the children paint blackface masks on paper plates that they held over their faces.

This is unacceptable, Nadirah Pierce, a Black mother of two children at IC Kids, told NBC10 Boston. She has pulled her children out of school. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

Nadirah Pierce, who is a Black mother of two children at the school, has pulled them out of school.

This is unacceptable and [I] dont really understand the concept of this project, Pierce told NBC10 Boston. The mother told the news outlet that the school apologized to her in person and posted an apology on Facebook. However, the schools Facebook page has since been deactivated, per the report.

The apology received was empty and then to go onto Facebook and see that apology was disheartening. I hope this is a lesson to possibly really prepare to do projects on cultures before doing them to avoid a hurtful gesture to a group of people, Pierce said. Even if they werent trying to offend, they have.

In a letter posted on the door of IC Kids, the school wrote: To celebrate black history month, a teacher in toddler classroom at ICKids planned and carried out an activity that involved black masks blackface. One of the parents brought it to our attention and was offended. The teacher apologized to the parent.

Director was aware of said incident which occurred on Feb 8 and this was immediately addressed. The activity was removed from the classroom and the teacher reprimanded for such actions.

The school noted that while wording of Facebook apology was not the best statement, we were trying to send a message to say that research for toddler curriculum was not executed or completed in the manner that it should have been, so we apologize to every and anyone this may have offended. The staff member who planned and executed the activity has since been released from her employment at IC Kids.

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The post Preschool apologizes after toddlers wear blackface masks appeared first on TheGrio.
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The official presidential campaign period in South Korea kicked off on Tuesday for a 22-day run, according to Yonhap.

The candidates can now rally on streets and run ad campaigns in a final appeal to voters ahead of the election on March 9.
Prince Andrews out-of-court settlement agreed with Virginia Giuffre is likely to amount to a very large sum of money, a leading legal commentator has said.

The Duke of York has agreed to make a "substantial donation" to Virginia Giuffre's charity after the pair agreed an undisclosed out-of-court settlement in her civil sex claim against him.

Joshua Rozenberg QC told Sky News: Were looking at a very large sum of money, particularly when you add the legal costs involved.

The amount she got from Jeffrry Epstein was half a million dollars. I'm not saying that is a guide to this, but it is certainly a substantial sum of money which Prince Andrew will have to raise.

I suppose if it is being paid to a charity then at some point the amount may come out. The word substantial is used by lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic as a phrase that can mean a wide range of things. It can mean a large, very large, enormous, huge, it all depends where you start from.

The Duke of York has agreed to make a substantial donation to Virginia Giuffres charity (AP)

The legal expert added: It is not surprising that nobody wants to admit to it [the size of the settlement] because obviously it is in Virginia Giuffres interests to imply that it is a large as possible, and in Prince Andrews interest to imply it is as small as possible, and that is why it has not been disclosed.

Unconfirmed reports suggest the settlement could be in excess of 10m, though neither side has commented on the figure.

Although the parties have settled the case, the agreement is not an admission of guilt from the duke and he has always strenuously denied the allegations against him (Neil Hall/PA)

Whatever the sum, it is unclear how the prince will pay it or whether the taxpayer could foot any of the bill.

There was speculation last month that Andrew was putting his ski lodge in the Swiss resort of Verbier up for sale, which is valued at 17m.

Although the parties have settled the case, the agreement is not an admission of guilt from the duke and he has always strenuously denied the allegations against him.

Representatives of the duke said they would not be commenting further than what was said in the documents submitted to the court.

Andrew's representatives also declined to comment on how the substantial donation to Ms Giuffre's charity would be funded.

Buckingham Palace has also refused to comment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking to the media





Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow was prepared to speak with the U.S. and the NATO about potential missile deployment limits and increased transparency.

Following talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said Moscow would be willing to engage in discussions about confidence-building measures including limitations on intermediate range missiles in Europe and transparency surrounding military drills, according to The Associated Press.

But the Russian leader added that the West would need to meet some of Russia's demands.

Putin said that the U.S. and NATO have refused to pull back their forces in Eastern Europe, to agree to keep Ukraine and other former Soviet nations out of NATO and to stop deploying weapons near Russia's borders.

The news from Putin comes amid escalating tensions at the Russia-Ukraine border, where the Russian military had amassed more than 100,000 troops and conducted drills for weeks. The buildup of troops triggered international concern that Russia would invade the former Soviet state like it did in 2014, when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

The U.S., along with its allies in the area, have tried to resolve tensions diplomatically, but U.S. officials warned late last week that Russia could invade at any moment and urged Americans to leave Ukraine.

On Tuesday, however, the Kremlin announced that it would pull back some troops participating in military exercises from the border.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reportedly said that country's drills were held "on its own territory and according to its own plans, they start, go on and end as planned" no matter "who thinks what and who gets hysterical about it, who is deploying real informational terrorism."

But Ukrainian officials remained skeptical of the move.

"Russia constantly makes various statements," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. "That's why we have the rule: We won't believe when we hear, we'll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we'll believe in de-escalation."

In Tuesday's announcement, Russia did not specify how many troops would be pulled back or where they were going to be relocated.
(Reuters) - Federal investigators have launched a probe into block trading at Wall Street hedge funds and banks including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), along with the Department of Justice, is investigating whether bankers may have improperly tipped off hedge funds ahead of large share sales, the report said on Monday.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice declined to comment.

The SEC has sent subpoenas to several hedge funds and banks, demanding trading records and information about investors' communication with bankers, according to the WSJ report which also said regulators began looking into irregularities related to block trades since at least 2019.

Investigators are probing whether bankers improperly alerted favored clients ahead of public disclosure of trades and if such information benefited the funds, some of which act as "liquidity providers" to Wall Street firms, the report said.

(Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Chris Prentice and Matt Scuffham in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
Feb. 14A retired Beavercreek DARE police officer pleaded guilty Monday to two federal child pornography charges.

Kevin A. Kovacs, 60, of Fairborn, was arrested in April 2020 and indicted in June 2020 for possessing more than 780 images and 5,100 videos of child pornography as of December 2019, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Kovacs retired in August 2018 after 25 years with the Beavercreek Police Department. He worked as a patrol officer, crime prevention specialist and Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer with Beavercreek City Schools, according to a Beavercreek police Facebook post announcing his retirement.

Kovacs pleaded guilty to transporting and possessing child pornography. His sentencing date has not been set but his plea included an agreed upon sentencing range of 60 to 240 months (five to 20 years), in prison.

Kovacs uploaded more than 300 images and 2,200 videos depicting child pornography between April 2015 and July 2017 to his Dropbox account, according to the plea document. One video showed a toddler lying on a diaper whose arms and legs were bound by black tape, the release stated.

He also used online messenger, social media, cloud storage and email accounts to transport and possess child pornography, according to the DOJ.
Lady Victoria Hervey has said the disastrous Newsnight interview was evidence Prince Andrew has nothing to hide. (Getty)

Prince Andrew is struggling to cope with the long-running sex abuse allegations, a close friend has said.

Socialite Lady Victoria Hervey, who is an ex-girlfriend of the royal, told the i newspaper she was still in touch with his family and the case was taking its toll on him.

Virginia Giuffre is suing the duke in the US for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager.

Andrew has strenuously denied all allegations.

The case is set to go to trial after a judge threw out the duke's motion to dismiss it in January.

Speaking to The i, Lady Victoria Hervey said: "Obviously, something like this has been really hard for him.

"Imagine getting, you know, having this sort of situation. Its been going on, what, 10 years now."

Lady Victoria Hervey said she was still in touch with Andrew's family and the situation was taking its toll. (Getty)

Read more: Cost-of-living crisis: Britain risks 'sleepwalking into food banks becoming part of the welfare state'

She told the newspaper that while Andrew's infamous Newsnight appearance had "obviously backfired", the fact he was willing to do such an interview meant he was confident in his innocence.

"Theres just no way that someone like him would do an interview if there was any inkling that he was not innocent," she added. "Theres just no way and I remember seeing that on TV. I was like, just impossible."

Virginia Giuffre is suing the duke for damages in New York, claiming she was trafficked by infamous financier Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the royal when she was 17, a minor under US law, at the London home of disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in the early 2000s.

Prince Andrew has been stripped of his royal titles and patronages. (Getty)

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.

Following the ruling that Andrew's trial could go ahead, he was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages by the Queen.

At the time, Buckingham Palace said in a statement: "With the Queens approval and agreement, the Duke of Yorks military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.

Story continues

"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen."

Watch: Prince Andrew's birthday will still be marked by the flying of the Union flag
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Some troops in Russia's military districts adjacent to Ukraine are returning to their bases after completing drills, Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday, a move that could de-escalate frictions between Moscow and the West.

A ministry spokesman said in a video published online that while large-scale drills across the country continued, some units of the Southern and Western military districts have completed their exercises and started returning to base.

Video footage published by the defence ministry showed some tanks and other armoured vehicles being loaded onto railway flatcars.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would "believe in de-escalation" only after it sees Russia's pullout, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported.

"We continously hear different statements from the Russian federation, so we have a rule ... we believe what we see. If we see the pullout we will believe in deescalation," the report quoted Kuleba as saying.

Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders, prompting fears of an invasion, especially as Moscow's Feb. 10-20 joint drills with Belarus mean that Ukraine is almost encircled by the Russian military.

Russian markets reacted positively to the news and the rouble, which has been under pressure due to fears of fresh Western sanctions in the event of a war, gained 1.5% shortly after the defence ministry announcement.

Although Moscow has denied ever planning to attack Ukraine, it has demanded legally binding guarantees from the United States and NATO that Kyiv will not be allowed to join the military bloc. Washington and Brussels have so far refused to make such pledges.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was expected in Moscow later on Tuesday to meet President Vladimir Putin in a high stakes mission to avert war.

(Reporting by Anton KolodyazhnyyWriting by Olzhas Auyezov; Aleksandar Vasovic in KyivEditing by Andrew Cawthorne, Raju Gopalakrishnan, William Maclean)
Russia on Tuesday said it was pulling some troops from the Ukrainian border after military drills.

Ukraine and NATO cast doubt over whether Russia was really deescalating.

The US recently warned that Russia could invade Ukraine at any moment.

The Russian defense ministry on Tuesday said it was pulling some of its troops from Ukraine's border.

The announcement came after weeks of heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over fears that Russia might invade Ukraine.

"The units of the southern and western military districts, having completed their tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today," defense ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

Russian officials, however, left it unclear how many troops would be withdrawing. Their statements prompted skepticism from Western officials, some of whom noted they have yet to see signs of a significant pull-back.

Some of Russia's military exercises, including with its ally Belarus  which also shares a border with Ukraine  were still continuing as of Tuesday, the defense ministry said.

Konashenkov suggested that other troops stationed at Ukraine's border could follow suit. "As the combat training measures are completed, the troops, as always, will make marches in a combined way to the points of permanent deployment," he said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later confirmed the start of a withdrawal and slammed Western "hysteria" over the reality of an invasion.

'Don't believe what you hear  believe what you see'

Ukraine responded to Russia's announcement by urging it to pull back all its forces from the border.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a tweet said, "We in Ukraine have a rule: we don't believe what we hear, we believe what we see."

"If a real withdrawal follows these statements, we will believe in the beginning of a real de-escalation," Kuleba added.

Story continues

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also said Tuesday that the troop withdrawal did not equate to a "real deescalation."

"There are signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue. This gives grounds for cautious optimism," he said.

In remarks from the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Biden said the US has not yet "verified" Russia's claim that it's pulled some troops back.

"Our analyst indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position," Biden said. "An invasion remains distinctly possible."

'The day Western war propaganda failed'

Russia has in recent months amassed tens of thousands of troops near its border with Ukraine, with the Kremlin insisting that this is in response to Western aggression and to conduct military drills. Biden on Tuesday said Russia had gathered over 150,000 troops near Ukraine, which was up from the prior estimate of roughly 130,000.

Both the US and the UK warned this week that Russia could invade any day.

Following the defense ministry's announcement, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tuesday's date would "go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed."

"Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired," she said.

At a meeting on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was seen telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis was still on the table.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said the US Embassy in Kyiv was "temporarily relocating" to Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, "due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces."

After meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin said that Russia was ready to continue talks with the US and NATO on Moscow's security concerns, per the Associated Press. But Putin also accused the West of ignoring Russia's primary demands.

Among other things, Russia has insisted that Ukraine and Georgia be permanently banned from joining NATO. The alliance and Washington have repeatedly said this demand is a non-starter. NATO has not taken steps to make Ukraine a member at any point in the near future. But Putin on Tuesday said that he wanted the issue addressed "now" through negotiations.

Read the original article on Business Insider
MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he welcomed a security dialogue with the West, and his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine. But U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. had not verified Russias claim and that an invasion was still a distinct possibility.

Putin said he does not want war and would rely on negotiations in his efforts to eliminate any chance that Ukraine could one day join NATO. At the same time, he did not commit to a full pullback of troops, saying Russias next moves in the standoff will depend on how the situation evolves.

In remarks at the White House, Biden promised that the U.S. would continue to give diplomacy "every chance to prevent a Russian invasion, but he struck a skeptical tone about Moscow's intentions. Biden also insisted that the U.S. and its allies would not sacrifice basic principles respecting Ukraine sovereignty.

Two paths are still open," Biden said. "But let there be no doubt: If Russia commits this breach by invading Ukraine, responsible nations around the world will not hesitate to respond. If we do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today, well surely pay a steeper price tomorrow.

Putin's overtures soothed global markets that have been on edge amid the worst East-West tensions in decades. Washington and its European allies remained cautious, saying they want to see evidence of a Russian pullback. Biden said 150,000 Russian forces are now massed near Ukraine and in Belarus, an increase from an earlier U.S. estimate of 130,000 troops.

Russias claim that it pulled back troops "would be good, but we have not yet verified that, Biden said. Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position.

The U.S. and NATO, which continue to warn that Russia could invade at any time, have sent troops and military supplies to shore up alliance members in Eastern Europe. Russia has denied having such plans. It wants the West to keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of the alliance, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back forces from Eastern Europe.

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The U.S. and its allies have roundly rejected those demands, but offered to engage in talks with Russia on ways to bolster security in Europe.

Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures  issues that Moscow put on the table years ago.

He said Russia is open to discuss some of those elements," but added that it would do so only in combination "with the main issues that are of primary importance for us.

Asked if there could be a war in Europe, Putin said Russia doesnt want it but that Ukraines bid to join NATO posed a major security threat to his country.

While Scholz reiterated that NATO's eastward expansion is not on the agenda  everyone knows that very well, Putin retorted that Moscow will not be assuaged by such assurances.

They are telling us it won't happen tomorrow, Putin said. Well, when will it happen? The day after tomorrow? What does it change for us in the historic perspective? Nothing.

Scholz also said diplomatic options are far from exhausted, and he praised the announcement of a troop withdrawal as a good signal, adding: "We hope that more will follow.

The Russian Defense Ministry released images of tanks and howitzers rolling onto railway platforms and more tanks rolling across snowy fields. It did not disclose where or when the images were taken, or where the vehicles were headed, other than to places of permanent deployment.

Biden acknowledged the likelihood that sanctions imposed on Russia in retaliation for an invasion would have significant blowback on the American economy, including possible price hikes and disruption to the nations energy supply.

The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost, Biden said. I will not pretend this will be painless.

He said the administration was trying to preempt supply issues by working with energy producers and shippers on contingency plans. The president said he would work with Congress on unspecified additional measures to protect consumers and address the impact of prices at the pump.

Russian forces continue to threaten Ukraine along the eastern border and from the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula that Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014, the year when it also backed a separatist insurgency in the country's east. More Russian troops loom over Ukraine in Belarus, where they were deployed for sweeping joint drills.

Ukraine expressed skepticism about Russia's statements of a pullback.

We wont believe when we hear, well believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, well believe in de-escalation," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that so far, we have not seen ... any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine, adding that the alliance wants to see a significant and enduring withdrawal of forces, troops and heavy equipment.

Meanwhile, a series of cyberattacks on Tuesday knocked out the websites of the Ukrainian army, the defense ministry and major banks. There was no indication that the relatively low-level denial-of-service attacks might be a smokescreen for more serious cyber mischief. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. has not yet determined who was behind the attacks.

Few Russians expect a war, following the Kremlin's dismissal of Western warnings as hysteria and absurdity.

In a village in Russias Belgorod region, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ukraines border, residents carried on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets.

We are friends with Ukraine," villager Lyudmila Nechvolod said. "We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody there (on the Ukrainian side). No one wants war.

Diplomatic efforts continued Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday about the evolving crisis.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers urged Putin to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russias lower house, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect.

Putin said the request reflects the Russian public's sympathy for the suffering of people trapped in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed over 14,000 since 2014. He noted, however, that Russia continues to believe a 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany should serve as the main vehicle for a settlement of the separatist conflict.

Putin's statement signaled that he wasn't inclined to back the parliament proposal that would effectively invalidate the 2015 agreement, which marked a major diplomatic coup for Moscow and asked Kyiv to offer broad self-rule to the separatist territories. It has been resented by many in Ukraine, and its implementation has stalled.

___

Karmanau reported from Kyiv, Ukraine and Madhani from Washington. Dasha Litvinova in Moscow, Angela Charlton in Paris, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Robert Burns, Matthew Lee and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed.
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A Chinese naval fleet tasked with delivering relief supplies to Tonga arrived in capital Nuku'alofa on Tuesday.

More than 1,400 tons of relief supplies were delivered, mainly including mobile houses, tractors, generators, pumps, water purifiers, emergency food and medical and epidemic prevention equipment. Before loading, all the materials have completed several disinfection treatment and sampling quarantine.

As Tonga has been hit by COVID-19, the naval fleet equipped with professional medical personnel and equipment, which is capable of epidemic prevention and control and medical treatment, will provide assistance within its capacity to Tonga upon subsequent request.
Kamila Valieva's lawyers blamed her failed drug test on a mix-up with her grandfather's medicine, an IOC official said.

Valieva has been the center of a doping scandal after testing positive for a banned drug last year.

The skater has been cleared to compete, but will not be awarded medals if she wins, the IOC said.

Lawyers for Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva said that the teen athlete failed a doping test prior to the Beijing Olympics because of contamination with her grandfather's medicine, an Olympic official said Tuesday.

Part of Valieva's defense was that there had been a mix-up with "a product her grandfather was taking," said Denis Oswald, the International Olympic Committee's chair of the disciplinary commission, according to the Associated Press.

The teenage skating sensation tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine on December 25. Trimetazidine is typically used to prevent angina attacks but is taken by some athletes to boost their endurance.

The 15-year-old's defense was heard during a closed-door hearing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Sunday. The hearing was to determine whether Valieva would be allowed to continue competing at the Winter Games, Reuters reported.

Her lawyers did not specify how the alleged medicine mix-up happened.

Oswald, who previously led a commission investigating doping scandal cases in the Sochi 2014 Olympics, said Valieva's lawyers "presented elements that brought some doubts about her guilt," per The AP.

She clinched gold for Russia at the women's team event, but the IOC hasn't decided whether she'll be awarded the medal.

Valieva was cleared to skate in the women's individual event. However, the IOC said it would not give her any medals even if she secured a top 3 spot. The women's event concludes on Thursday with the free skate.

The decision to allow Valieva to continue competing has been condemned by several former Olympians, including figure skaters Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, who said it was like "a slap in the face to the Olympic Games," and sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, who was kicked off the US Olympic team last summer after testing positive for marijuana.

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Former US Olympic skater Adam Rippon expressed sympathy for Valieva, saying he doubted the teenager "knowingly doped" ahead of the games. Mirai Nagasu, a retired US Olympic skater, said she "felt a lot of empathy" for the young Valieva but said athletes should be kept accountable.

Valieva told Russian state media Channel One on Monday: "These days have been very difficult for me. I'm happy, but I'm tired emotionally," per Reuters.

Read the original article on Insider
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed the need to continue working together and called for pragmatic dialogue on security, in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Lavrov also told Blinken during the call that "aggressive rhetoric" inflated by Washington was unacceptable, the ministry added in a statement.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt and Tom Balmforth; Editing by Peter Graff)
The San Francisco Police Department is accused of using DNA from sexual assault victims to identify possible crime suspects in a practice that the citys district attorney called legally and ethically wrong.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in a statement Monday that his office had demanded an immediate end to the alleged practice, which he said treats victims like evidence, not human beings.

The DA's office that the police departments crime lab tried to identify suspects by searching a database with DNA collected from rape and sexual assault victims.

It isnt clear how long the practice is alleged to have been used or how many suspects are alleged to have been identified using it.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney did not immediately respond to a request for details about how the alleged practice was discovered. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Boudin said his office was made aware of it last week.

Chesa Boudin (Jeff Chiu / AP file)

Boudin said DNA collected from a rape exam years ago was used to link a woman to a recent property crime, the Chronicle reported.

He added that such a practice could violate the California Victims' Bill of Rights, according to the Chronicle.

The police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Associated Press reported that Chief Bill Scott said he had ordered an investigation.

We must never create disincentives for crime victims to cooperate with police, and if its true that DNA collected from a rape or sexual assault victim has been used by SFPD to identify and apprehend that person as a suspect in another crime, Im committed to ending the practice, Scott said, according to the AP.

In statements released by the district attorneys office, local and state officials also said they were working on possible legislation that would halt the use of victim databases to help identify crime suspects.
San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin, shown before his 2020 swearing-in ceremony, said Monday that San Francisco police have misused rape victims' DNA evidence. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

San Franciscos district attorney said police used a database with DNA collected from victims of rape and sexual assault to connect some of them to crimes.

Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin said Monday that the San Francisco Police Department crime lab had been using the database to "attempt to subsequently incriminate" victims of rape and sexual assault in connection with unrelated cases, a practice he called "legally and ethically wrong."

The district attorney called for an immediate end to the alleged practice, committed to working with police to address the allegations and urged changes to local and state laws, his office said in a statement.

"I am disturbed that victims who have the courage to undergo an invasive examination to help identify their perpetrators are being treated like criminals rather than supported as crime victims," Boudin said. "We should encourage survivors to come forward  not collect evidence to use against them in the future. This practice treats victims like evidence, not human beings."

Boudin alleged DNA evidence collected from a rape victim was later used to identify and arrest her as a suspect in an unrelated crime, according to a police statement Monday.

A source with knowledge of the case told The Times on Tuesday that Boudin dismissed it due to a possible violation of the 4th Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The case involved a recent property crime, according to the district attorney's office.

Police officials and Boudin's office have largely kept mum about the specifics.

Neither police nor prosecutors would provide further details about the alleged property crime, including what specific kind of crime is suspected to have occurred and when it occurred.

Police spokespeople provided a statement issued Monday by Chief Bill Scott but declined to answer questions.

The chief said that if DNA collected from a victim of rape or sexual assault was used to identify and arrest a person as a suspect in another crime, he was "committed to ending the practice."

Story continues

Existing DNA collection policies have been legally vetted and are in line with state and national forensic standards, Scott said.

"However, there are many important principles for which the San Francisco Police Department stands that go beyond state and national standards," he said. "We have long embraced sanctuary for our undocumented immigrant communities, for example, and we years ago ended the practice of using condoms as evidence in prostitution cases."

The chief said the department will immediately start reviewing DNA collection practices and policies and that he has consulted with San Francisco City Atty. David Chiu.

There is a possibility the suspect was identified through a DNA match to evidence in a "nonvictim DNA database," Scott said.

But Boudin's questions were "sufficiently concerning" that the chief said he asked his assistant chief of operations to conduct a thorough review.

"Whatever disagreements Dist. Atty. Boudin and I may have, we agree that this issue needs to be addressed," Scott said. "At the end of the day, our respective departments exist to do justice for victims of crime. The last thing we should ever do is discourage their cooperation with us to accomplish that."

State officials and organizations that work with victims of rape and sexual assault also spoke out Monday.

Pamela Tate, co-executive director of Black Women Revolt Against Domestic Violence, said the database cannot be considered a "blanket waiver" of victims' rights to not self-incriminate.

"This type of misrepresentation will have a chilling effect to Black women and women of color in reporting crimes of sexual assault," Tate said.

The legal system isn't designed to support survivors of sexual violence, said KellyLou Densmore, director of the San Francisco Office of Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention.

"Many survivors already choose not to share their experiences, particularly transgender people and cisgender women of color, LGBT people and other marginalized groups who may distrust police and face other significant barriers to receiving support after sexual assault," Densmore said.

Michael Risher, a civil rights attorney who works with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said the alleged practice violates victims' privacy.

Federal law prohibits law enforcement from uploading sexual assault victims' DNA samples into the national Combined DNA Index System, which is used to match DNA from crime scenes with samples taken from people convicted of or arrested for crimes, Risher said.

"Local agencies that maintain separate databases should follow this sensible rule to ensure that victims' DNA is not retained and used for unrelated purposes," he said. "This is especially important for California law enforcement agencies like SFPD because, unlike the federal Constitution, the California Constitution expressly protects privacy rights and victims' rights."

After a sexual assault is reported, victims are asked to undergo an examination in which evidence is collected from bodily fluids, fingernail scrapings, and any bite or scratch marks, Boudin's office said.

"The victim submits their own DNA sample in order to exclude DNA that comes from the victim, as opposed to the suspect," according to the statement.

But research shows only a small percentage of victims go through sexual assault testing, an invasive and traumatic process for many survivors, prosecutors said.

"Victims of sexual assault consent to their DNA collection for this purpose, not so that their DNA will be retained in a local law enforcement database permanently to be searched years later," prosecutors said. "Using victims DNA in order to potentially incriminate them in the future further dissuades sexual assault survivors from undergoing what is already a very difficult and emotional process."

State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen also condemned the alleged practice.

Wiener said he was working with Boudin's office to address the issue with state legislation "if needed."

Ronen said she asked Chiu to draft legislation to prevent any kind of evidence from a victim's rape kit, including DNA, from being used for anything other than investigating that case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Editors note: An earlier online version of this article gave the incorrect first name of the defendant. Charles Ugvine Coleman pleaded guilty in court Tuesday morning.

A South Carolina man charged in 2020 with the 1976 murder of a Chester woman has been sentenced to life in prison.

But Charles Ugvine Coleman will have the possibility of parole in less than nine years in the cold case that went unsolved for more than 45 years.

Coleman, 66, of Union, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to murder in the March 1976 death of Elizabeth Ann Howell Wilson, according to prosecutors and defense lawyers. Coleman pleaded guilty before his trial started at the Fairfield County Courthouse.

Coleman pleaded guilty under an Alford plea, where a defendant does not admit guilt but accepts the punishment of a guilty plea because it is likely he would be convicted, said Randy Newman, Sixth Circuit Solicitor.

A sexual assault charge against Coleman was dismissed as part of the negotiated plea, Colemans lawyer, Sixth Circuit Public Defender William Frick, said.

Because the crime happened in 1976, the court had to apply laws that were in place at the time of the crime, said Newman and Frick. South Carolina law in 1976 required that a person convicted of murder would have become parole eligible after 10 years in prison, the lawyers said.

Coleman received credit for 16 months jail time since his arrest and could be parole eligible in under nine years, Frick said.

Wilson, 45, was found beaten to death, sexually assaulted and strangled in Fairfield County just south of the Chester County line in March 1976 after she left her shift at a Chester textile plant, State Law Enforcement Division agents and prosecutors said.

Coleman has been jailed since his arrest on charges of murder and rape in October 2020. He was charged after DNA from a September 2020 conviction matched DNA from the crime scene in 1976.

Coleman has convictions dating back to 1975, according to SLED and court records. In 1977 Coleman was sentenced to 12 years in prison for Chester County convictions of assault and battery with intent to kill, larceny, and other charges, records show.
An Horry County woman who is accused of killing her step-son in Colorado has changed her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, according to WBTW-TV.

Letecia Stauch, who is accused of killing Gannon Stauch, 11, in 2020, was granted a change of plea, the TV station reported.

Letecia Stauch was arrested March 2, 2020 in Myrtle Beach and charged with killing her step-son in Colorado Springs, nearly two months after he was reported missing. Law enforcement found Gannon Stauchs body in Pace, Florida on March 18, 2020.

The trial, which was set for March 28, is expected to be pushed back for an expert evaluation of Letecia Stauch, WBTW-TV reported through their sister station, KXRM.

KXRM reporter Lauren Scharf reported that Letecia Stauch believes that the court wont find a fair jury pool due to pre-trial publicity, and has filed a motion to waive a jury, Scharf said in a tweet.

Jan. 27, 2020, Stauch called the El Paso County Sheriffs Office and reported Gannon Stauch left their home near Colorado Springs and never returned.

Stauch has been held in the El Paso County Jail since March 2020, according to the TV station. She faces more than a dozen charges, including first-degree murder, the network reported.
(Getty Images)

Naomi Campbell is opening up about her life as a new mom.

The 51-year-old model posed with her 9-month-old daughter for the cover of British Vogues March issue, where she revealed that her daughter is not adopted despite what critics say about Campbells age.

"She wasnt adopted  shes my child," Campbell told British Vogue. Not only has she kept the name of her baby private, but few people knew she was planning for parenthood. "I can count on one hand the number of people who knew that I was having her," she said. "But she is the biggest blessing I could ever imagine. Its the best thing Ive ever done."

Campbell shared that she always knew she would be a mother one day. Im lucky to have her and I know that, she said.

In May 2021, the supermodel announced the birth of her baby girl in an Instagram post. A beautiful little blessing has chosen me to be her mother, she wrote in the caption. So honoured to have this gentle soul in my life there are no words to describe the lifelong bond that I now share with you my angel.

Campbells baby news was also met with much criticism about her age, such as questions about the use of a surrogate, if she used her own eggs, or who the father was. However, according to British Vogue, Campbell is still encouraging all of her older friends to have babies. Im telling them all, do it! she said. Dont hesitate!

When asked how becoming a mother has changed her perspective on life, Campbell shared that she feels like a kid again now that she lives life through her daughters eyes. The supermodel noted that the biggest lesson shes learned from motherhood is that her daughter comes first. Everything I do, I do for her  thats it, Campbell said. Its so completely selfless, isnt it?
Happy Wednesday! Let's get to today's news for Minneapolis.

First, today's weather: Cloudy, breezy and colder. High: 23 Low: -2.

Here are the top 5 stories today in Minneapolis:

1. A man was shot and critically wounded Monday inside a West Broadway Walgreens, police said. No arrests have been made. (Paid source: Star Tribune)



2. Former Minneapolis Police Officer Tou Thao took the stand for 90 minutes Tuesday to testify about the events which led to George Floyd's death in 2020. Former officers J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are also on trial and are expected to testify. (CNN)

3. New state district maps were released Tuesday, "setting the political playing field for Minnesota for the next 10 years." The new districts were determined by a five-judge panel. (MPR News)

4. The community group "Stop the Violence" organized a rally Monday in remembrance of the lives lost to gun violence in north Minneapolis. A car caravan began at Zion Baptist Church and drove to the locations of several recent shootings. (CBS)



5. Minneapolis city employees returned to in-person work this week, with a hybrid schedule to slow the spread of COVID-19. Businesses including U.S. Bank, Target and Xcel Energy are also making plans to return to the office. (Paid source: Star Tribune)

From our sponsor:



Today's Minneapolis 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 Minneapolis:

JobFairX hosts a virtual job fair for Minneapolis workers. (11 a.m.)

Curly Girl Boutique has a Galentine's Day get-together. (6:30 p.m.)

Free Zumba Wednesday at the Cultural Wellness Center . (7 p.m.)

Bingo Night at Lakes & Legends Brewing Company . (7 p.m.)

Comedy night at Underground Music Cafe. (7 p.m.)

Story continues

From my notebook:

Minnesota COVID-19 hospitalizations dipped below 900 on Tuesday , for the first time since October. ( Pioneer Press )

All three "Jeopardy!" contestants failed to answer a question about a Minnesota city on Monday's episode. ( Bring Me The News )

The University of Minnesotas Vegetable Working Group is partnering with local farmers to grow vegetables. (Minnesota Daily)

More from our sponsors  thanks for supporting local news!

Events:

Learn How To Reduce Your Risk For Heart Disease During American Heart Month (February 28)

Add your event

Loving the Minneapolis 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 minneapolis@patch.com

Now you're in the loop and ready to start this Wednesday. I'll see you around!

 Georgi Presecky

About me: Georgi is a Chicago-based newsletter writer and partner content curator. She spent five years on the entertainment beat for FF2 Media covering film festivals across the U.S. Her feature articles have been recognized with awards from the Illinois Women's Press Association and National Federation of Press Women. As editor-in-chief of the Lewis University newspaper, she and her staff earned honors from the Associated Collegiate Press and American Scholastic Press Associations. She began working for Patch in 2019.

This article originally appeared on the Minneapolis Patch
PeopleImages / Getty Images

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are designed to help low-income families pay for food by providing money once a month. In most states, the benefits are deposited on the same day each month, based on factors such as your Social Security number, last name, case number or account number.

See: SNAP Benefits  These States Acknowledged Emergency COVID Allotments for February

Find: SNAP Benefits  How Is Eligibility Determined?

If you wonder when your SNAP benefits are deposited every month, the easiest option is to visit the Providers website and find your state in the EBT in My State dropdown tab.

In most states, SNAP benefits are transferred to recipients via a prepaid electronic benefit transfer card, which is a debit card with the specific benefit amounts already loaded onto the card. Some states call it an EBT card while others, such as Texas, customize the name (in Texas its called the Lone Star Card). Individual states are responsible for scheduling when SNAP payments go out.

The SNAP program is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and provides benefits to roughly 42 million people, NPR reported. Last year the Biden administration approved the largest increase in food stamp benefits in the programs history, upping the payment by an extra $36 a month.

See: SNAP Benefits Increase in 2022  What It Could Mean for the Immediate and Long-Term Future

Find: How Social Security, Wage Hikes and SNAP Will Alleviate Inflation in 2022

As previously reported by GOBankingRates, families of four will receive a maximum allotment of $835 if they are in the 48 contiguous states or Washington, D.C. Here are some of the other payment allotments:

A family of four will receive a maximum of $1,074-$1,667 in Alaska.

A family of four will receive a maximum of $1,573 in Hawaii.

A family of four will receive a maximum of $1,231 in Guam.

A family of four will receive a maximum of $1,074 in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

See: Claiming Social Security, SNAP and Medicare Is Now Easier Thanks to Executive Order  Whats Changing?

Find: Is Organic Produce Worth the Extra Cost?

Story continues

Following is a rundown of when SNAP benefits are reloaded in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, according to the AS.com website unless otherwise indicated:

Alabama : Between the 4th and 23rd of the month, depending on your case number

Alaska : First day of the month

Arizona : Between the 1st and 13th of the month, depending on the first letter of your last name

Arkansas: Between the 4th and the 13th of the month, based on the last digit of your Social Security number

See: 5 Things Americans Should Know About SNAP Benefits in 2022

Find: The 15 Best Things To Buy With SNAP at Costco

California : First 10 days of the month, depending on the last digit of your case number

Colorado : Between the 1st and 10th of the month, based on the last digit of your Social Security number

Connecticut . From the 1st to the 3rd of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

Delaware : Loaded over 23 days, beginning with the 2nd day of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

Florida . Between the 1st and 28th of the month, based on the 9th and 8th digits of your case number

Georgia : Between the 5th and 23rd of the month, based on the last two digits of your ID number

Guam : First day of the month

Hawaii : The 3rd and 5th of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

Idaho : During the first 10 days of the month, based on the last number of your birth year

Illinois : On the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 17th, and 20th of the month, based on a combination of the type of case and the case name

Indiana . From the 5th to the 23rd of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

Iowa: During the first 10 days of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

See: Social Security  Could the COLA Increase Reduce Your SNAP Benefits?

Find: Should You Buy Groceries at Walmart?

Kansas : During the first 10 days of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

Kentucky : During the first 19 days of the month, based on the last digit of your case number

Louisiana : Between the 1st and the 14th of the month, based on the last digit of your Social Security number

Maine : From the 10th to the 14th of the month, based on the last digit of your birthday

Maryland : From the 4th to the 23rd of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

Massachusetts . During the first 14 days of the month, based on the last digit of your Social Security number

Michigan . From the 3rd to the 21st of the month, based on the last two digits of your ID number

Minnesota : From the 4th to the 13th of the month, based on the last digit of your case number

Mississippi : From the 4th to the 21st of the month, based on the last digit of your case number

Missouri : During the first 22 days of the month, based on your birth month and last name

Montana : Between the 2nd and 6th of the month, based on the last digit of your case number

Nebraska : From the 1st to the 5th of the month, based on the last digit of your head of households Social Security number

Nevada : During the first 10 days of the month, based on the last number of your birth year

New Hampshire : The fifth day of the month.

New Jersey : During the first 5 calendar days of the month, based on the 7th digit of your case number.

New Mexico : During the first 20 days of the month, based on the last two digits of your Social Security number

New York: During the first 9 days of the month, based on the last digit of your case number, except in New York City, where benefits are loaded over 13 days that are not Sundays or holidays

See: SNAP Benefit Boost  New Yorkers Could Get a $95 Emergency Assistance Supplement This Month

Find: Stimulus Update  New York Will Give Out $64M to Struggling Families and Domestic Violence Survivors

North Carolina : From the 3rd to the 21st of the month, based on the last digit of your Social Security number

North Dakota : The first day of the month

Ohio : From the 2nd to the 20th of the month, based on the last digit of your case number

Oklahoma : From the 1st to the 10th of the month, based on the last digit of your case number

Oregon : From the 1st to the 9th of the month, based on the last digit of your Social Security number

Pennsylvania: During the first 10 business days of the month, based on the last digit of your case record number

Puerto Rico : Between the 4th and 22nd of the month, based on the last digit of your Social Security number

Rhode Island : The first day of the month

South Carolina : During the first 10 days of the month, based on Social Security number, for those whove received benefits continously since before Sept. 1, 2021; otherwise, from the 1st to the 19th of the month, based on the last digit of your case number, as per the Providers website

South Dakota : The 10 th of the month

Tennessee : From the 1st to the 20th of the month, based on the last two digits of your Social Security number

Texas: During the first 15 days of the month, based on the last digit of your Eligibility Determination Group, or EDG, number

See: Texas Lone Star SNAP Benefit Card  What Is It and How Can You Get One?

Find: Here Are the Income Limits for SNAP Benefits in Texas

Utah : On the 5th, 11th or 15th of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

Vermont : The first day of the month

Virginia : From the 1st to the 9th of the month, based on the last digit of your case number.

Washington: Staggered according to application date and application finalized period, as per the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services: Application date from the 1st through 15th of the month and finalized period from 1st through 15th of the month, paid on the 1st through the 10th of the month Application date from the 1st through 15th of the month and finalized period from 16th through 31st of the month, paid on the 11th through the 20th of the month Application date from the 16th through the 22nd of the month and finalized on any date, paid on the 1st through the 10th of the month Application date from the 23rd through the 31st of the month and finalized on any date, paid on the 11th through the 20th of the month



See: SNAP Benefits  Are There Home Delivery Services That Accept EBT Cards?

Find: Why Backward Budgeting Could Be Exactly What Your Wallet Needs

Washington, D.C. : From the 1st to the 10th of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

West Virginia : During the first nine days of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

Wisconsin : During the first 15 days of the month, based on the eighth digit of your SSN

Wyoming: From the 1st to the 4th of the month, based on the first letter of your last name

You can use your SNAP benefit card at any SNAP-authorized retailer. Authorized retailers include most supermarkets as well as some farmers markets, convenience stores and big-box stores like Walmart and Target. You can also use the card at some online grocery retailers.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: SNAP Benefits: When Will My Card Be Reloaded?
Feb. 14A health care staffing company based in southwest Ohio is being sued by workers it recruited from the Philippines, who are accusing the company of violating federal and state human trafficking laws.

Fast-growing Health Carousel is headquartered in Cincinnati, has an Austin Landing office, and in recent years has acquired other Dayton-area staffing firms. While they have different brands that do different types of staffing, this suit focuses on their international recruitment.

The latest updated complaint and was filed in December and says "Health Carousel's 'employment' is essentially indentured servitude."

A recent investigation by Bloomberg Businessweek featured a former contractor Novie Dale Carmen, recruited from the Philippines and placed in a nursing job near Philadelphia, who said she had to pay $20,000 to quit.

Health Carousel said in response to the Bloomberg investigation that "ensuring the health, safety and well-being of every one of our nurses is the core of our business. To imply otherwise, based on activists intent on exploiting and twisting the experiences of a few, is disheartening and damaging."

The former Health Carousel contract nurse told Bloomberg she was supposed to work 6,240 hours on her contract before quitting.

But she said the company kept adding reasons not to count hours such as not counting the first three months because they were considered orientation, and not counting overtime but she couldn't decline overtime.

The lawsuit also said there was an unexpected month delay between when she arrived in the U.S. and when she started work at the hospital, during which she had no income.

Contract workers with the company are not allowed to discuss pay or working conditions, which isolates them, the lawsuit states, and workers who leave before completing their contract commitment can be sued. Workers are required to inform Health Carousel if they travel out of the town or state in which they are living, the lawsuit states.

Story continues

Carmen told Bloomberg she was paid $25.50 an hour as an ER nurse, but later learned many local positions paid more, and the hospital system UPMC paid Health Carousel $52 or more for each hour she worked.

The lawsuit was first filed in March 2020 and is seeking class action status. Two other named plaintiffs have joined the suit, including a physical therapist who stated in the lawsuit that she was earning $45.56 per patient visit, while physical therapists who were hired directly by the facility were earning $105 per visit for start of care and $75 per visit for routine care.

The Dayton Daily News has previously reported about how health care companies are grappling with widespread job vacancies and burnout. Employees who are left are gaining new leverage to demand higher wages. Staffing agencies have also been gaining leverage, as demand for their services has soared.

Attorney David Seligman with Towards Justice, a member of the legal team representing the plaintiffs, said they do not think every company is engaging in conduct as serious as the conduct that their clients allege.

"But there is clearly a broader systemic issue surrounding strategies that employers may use in order to continue employ workers for less than market wages," Seligman said.

The plaintiffs are still working on getting certification for their proposed class action lawsuit.

Among Health Carousel's arguments, the company states that its contract terms, which it says are standard in employment contracts and that it uses contract terms that Ohio has long recognized and approved, including a liquidated damages clause and a non-compete covenant. The organization argues it hasn't violated any law, hasn't compelled labor, and hasn't misrepresented contract terms.

"One need only skim recent headlines about National Guard troops deployed in hospitals to relieve acute staffing shortages to understand how important businesses like Health Carousel are," the company said in a motion to dismiss filed in January. "Despite the invaluable service Health Carousel and its employees provide in helping address staffing shortages (especially during this time of national crisis), this lawsuit demonizes Health Carousel as a "human trafficker" and a "racketeer."

Along with trying to get the entire complaint dismissed, Health Carousel has argued that at least the class action proposal should be struck down and argued the different named workers don't have circumstances and claims that apply to each other.
Maria Hernandez (centre) hugs her daughter Michelle, while her son Maynor (second from right) is overcome with emotion during their reunion at Los Angeles international airport (Reuters)

Maria Hernandez, 54, was finally able to hug her daughters in January, four years after they were taken from her and she was deported to Honduras.

At Los Angeles international airport, Nicole, now seven, greeted her mother with a single red rose. Michelle, nearly a teenager, hung back with a bouquet of roses and sunflowers. When Hernandez turned towards her, Michelle rushed into her embrace, sobbing.

I was far away but always thinking of you, Hernandez whispered to her daughters.

The trio had crossed into the United States in search of asylum. Once apprehended, Hernandez said, she was given an impossible choice: leave the country, either with the girls or without them. Rattled by recent threats to Michelle from Honduran gangs, Hernandez decided the girls would be safer in the US, she said.

The sisters were sent to a childrens shelter in California and eventually released to live with their brother Maynor, now 34, who earns a living selling oranges in Los Angeles. Hernandez was deported, one of thousands of parents separated from their children under the controversial zero tolerance policy of the then president, Donald Trump, to deter illegal immigration. Reuters, which has followed the family since 2020, has referred to the girls by their middle names to protect their privacy.

Maria at her home in Honduras last year while waiting for her immigration case to be approved so that she could travel to Los Angeles (Reuters)

Maria on a video call with her youngest daughter, Nicole (Reuters)

Over the years, Hernandez tried to bridge the 2,800 mile (4,500 km) gap between them with near-daily video calls, studying her childrens faces on a smartphone screen and listening to their stories. Nicole reported losing a tooth; Michelle confessed her crushes.

On her first night in the US, Hernandez shared a bed with her daughters, gazing at them as they slept and marvelling at how much they had grown.

So many years without seeing them, she said, her voice shaky from crying. They are so big now.

A human tragedy

The Trump administration contended that allowing families to be released together in the US while they applied for asylum only encouraged illegal immigration. In response, the administration sought to prosecute and deport parents like Hernandez and place their children in US custody as unaccompanied minors.

Story continues

However, traumatic family separations, which began in 2017 before any official announcement, were captured in the media worldwide and caused an international outcry. Trump reversed course with an executive order ending the practice in June 2018.

Maria, accompanied by her grandson Aron, arrives to work at a banana plantation in Honduras (Reuters)

Maria helps Aron get dressed (Reuters)

Jeff Sessions, an attorney general under Trump and the force behind zero tolerance, defended the strategy in an interview with Reuters last March, saying a person crossing the border illegally with a child shouldnt be given immunity. However, he expressed regret for the separations.

As of 25 January, a taskforce set up by the current president, Joe Biden, had reunited 126 children with their parents or legal guardians. About 377 more  from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil, and Venezuela  have reunifications in progress, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

Setting up a process to bring back parents who were deported to countries across Latin America took months, in part because of the Trump administrations incomplete and shoddy record-keeping, the taskforce said. A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

To aid the taskforce, the Biden administration created the websites Together.gov and Juntos.gov, where families can register for reunification.

The administration is dedicated to finding every family and ensuring families have long-term stability in the United States, said Michelle Brane, the head of the taskforce, in a statement.

Maria checks her phone while waiting in Honduras (Reuters)

Local residents walk around an industrial area of northwest Honduras (Reuters)

Still, some families have been left frustrated, even distraught, at the slow pace of reunifications, according to migrant advocates.

We are talking about people who havent seen their kids in three or four years, said Hernandezs lawyer, Carol Anne Donohoe, who manages the family reunification project at Al Otro Lado, a non-profit immigrant advocacy group based at the US-Mexico border.

Why are you making them jump through these hoops? she said. Any question you ask these parents is extremely traumatising, because they are panicking and thinking, Oh, no, I am not going to get back.

Tips from taxi drivers

It fell to the Honduran lawyer Dora Melara to search for Hernandez.

Melara was enlisted in early 2020 by the New York-based advocacy organisation Justice in Motion, as part of the lawsuit against the US government brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Melara had only an incomplete name and location for Hernandez from a US government list of parents and guardians who had been separated from their children at the border. She had no contact information for Hernandezs daughters.

A friend of Maria embraces Hernandezs grandson Aron as they prepare to leave their home in Honduras (Reuters)

Maria embraces her friend as they say goodbye (Reuters)

The Honduran lawyer took three trips over weeks to a gang-ridden town in northern Honduras near the city of San Pedro Sula. She only travelled during the day for safety reasons.

Thanks in part to tips from local taxi drivers, she found Hernandez in March 2020. By the time she showed up on Hernandezs doorstep, manila folder in hand, the Honduran mother was so desperate to see her daughters that she was contemplating another attempt at crossing the border, this time with a migrant caravan.

When Hernandez found out she could apply to rejoin her girls after Biden took office, she was overjoyed  but what followed was months of delay.

I gave all the information I could, but then time just passed and I didnt get any messages. I felt like I was never going to see my daughters again, Hernandez said.

Complicating her case was her petition to travel with her now four-year-old grandson, Aron, who was in her care and would need his own passport and other permissions to leave Honduras.

Maria and her grandson wait at Houston international airport before travelling to Los Angeles (Reuters)

The family look out at the city of Los Angeles from an airplane window (Reuters)

By October 2021, she had filed applications for humanitarian parole for herself and her grandson to enter the US, her lawyers said. Approval came weeks later, in December. Then Aron came down with dengue fever, pushing back their travel date past Christmas.

Finally, in early January, Hernandez was told to pack her bags, take a Covid-19 test and head for the local airport with Aron.

A new start

After the two travellers landed in Los Angeles, the family made their way to Maynors one-bedroom apartment. The girls stayed out of school the next day to help their mum with the mundane tasks of building a new life in the US: getting a mobile phone, enrolling Aron in school, looking for a bigger place to live.

Under humanitarian parole in the US, Hernandez is entitled to a work permit and is protected from deportation for three years, but she has no clear path to a permanent legal status.

The Biden administration recently pulled out of settlement talks with hundreds of families who had sued the government seeking compensation for costs and suffering allegedly caused by separations. Some Republican lawmakers raised an outcry over the potential for high payouts.

Maria walks with Maynor, Aron, Nicole and Michelle along a street in Los Angeles (Reuters)

Maria serves dinner to Nicole and Aron as Michelle stands in the doorway (Reuters)

In 2019, however, a federal judge ruled that separated families are entitled to some mental health services at no cost.

A November 2021 study by the non-profit organisation Physicians for Human Rights found that parents and children forcibly separated at the border endured severe psychological trauma, including confusion and panic, depression, frequent crying and nightmares. Symptoms can linger even after reunification, the clinicians found.

For Michelle, it has been hard to talk to others about what shes gone through.

All the problems, I kept it to myself because its weird telling a teacher or a friend or somebody, because maybe they will not understand you or they will just feel bad about you, she said after spending her first day with her mother.

Speaking in fluent English, Michelle said she tried to be strong for her younger sister, Nicole, who became sad when she saw other schoolchildren with their mothers.

I said, Some day you will be like that. Some day you will be with your mom.

The past is the past, she added. Now that my mom is here, I want to make new memories.

Photography by Lucy Nicholson, Reuters
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  Sri Lankas top Roman Catholic bishop on Tuesday spoke out against what he said was the wrongful arrest of an activist, saying that the government was targeting those who criticized its failure to properly investigate the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.

Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith likened to an abduction the arrest of activist Shehan Malaka Gamage, who has publicly questioned whether politicians used the 2019 attacks to force a change of government later that year.

The bombings on April 21, 2019, killed 260 people after hitting three churches and three hotels. Local Islamist militants who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group were blamed for the six near-simultaneous suicide attacks.

Activist Gamage was forcibly taken away from his home by plain clothed men, who were later identified as police, on Monday evening. Gamage shared the incident live on Facebook which shows him asking the men for the reason for taking him.

A court in Colombo released him on bail Tuesday, hours after Cardinal Ranjith spoke from his residence.

Had he not confirmed his arrest to the country through a live video, we wouldn't know his whereabouts even now, said Ranjith. Fortunately he had the courage to show the country what was happening live.

Ranjith called the activists arrest an indecent and thuggish act that resembled an abduction.

In the Facebook video, Gamage says that he initially tried to escape from the men who arrived in a white van not knowing their identity.

Sri Lankan security forces were accused of abducting dissidents and rebel suspects often in unmarked white vans during the countrys long civil war. Some victims were never seen again.

Ranjith has said repeatedly that the country's top law enforcement officers had failed to arrest the true conspirators behind the bloody 2019 Easter bombings, despite filing charges against some of those directly involved. Instead they were arresting those who are demanding justice for the attacks, he said Tuesday.

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The archbishop suggested that the country's attorney general and police chief were acting on the whims of those in the political world.

There was no immediate comment from the attorney generals office, but police spokesman Nihal Talduwa claimed that normal procedures were followed in arresting Gamage.

Talduwa said Gamage was arrested on charges of attempting to excite disaffection toward the state.

In repeated media conferences, Gamage alleged there was a possibility that some politicians and officials had deliberately failed to act on intelligence ahead of the 2019 attacks as they looked ahead to that year's national elections.

Ranjith himself wrote a letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last year raising questions over allegations that some members of state intelligence knew and had met with at least one of the attackers.

In 2019, friction between the country's president and prime minister who belonged to different political parties were blamed for the governments failure to act on near-specific foreign intelligence warnings. That led to the election of Rajapaksa later in the year on a platform of national security.

The government has denied involvement of any state agency in the attacks.

A presidential commission recommended that then-President Maithripala Sirisena be prosecuted for negligence, along with other officials and police personnel. However, no charges have been brought against Sirisena, now a government ally, or police officials.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Starbucks is battling its second bout of public fury in China in less than three months, after an incident described by the U.S. coffee giant as a "misunderstanding" at one of its stores sparked criticism from online users and state media.

The company came under scrutiny on Monday after a user on Weibo said that a number of police officers had been eating outside a Starbucks store in the southwestern city of Chongqing before they were told by staff to move away.

The user's description of the incident quickly went viral on the Twitter-like platform, prompting the ruling Communist party's mouthpiece People's Daily newspaper to issue a commentary, in which it called Starbucks "arrogant".

Chinese consumers and media have become more aggressive about protecting customer rights and monitoring the behaviour of big brands, especially from overseas.

In December, Starbucks apologised and carried out inspections and staff training across all its roughly 5,400 stores in China after a state-backed newspaper said two of its outlets used expired ingredients.

Starbucks apologized on its Weibo account late on Monday for "inappropriate communications," saying the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

But it said staff had never chased away policemen or tried to file complaints against them.

It continued to face criticism online on Tuesday, with a few small companies announcing on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, that they would "boycott" Starbucks by forbidding employees from arranging meetings in or buying drinks from the shops of the coffee chain.

However, Hu Xijin, a prolific commentator in China who is the former editor-in-chief of the Global Times newspaper, urged his Weibo users to see the Starbucks Chongqing incident as an accident and not more, adding that Starbucks's status as a foreign brand should not subject it to more criticism.

"China is a country that is open to the world," he said. "To label a mistake as arrogance is not conducive to the bigger environment of opening-up."

(Reporting by Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
A Russian fighter prepares to take off from an airfield in Russia and fly to Belarus to attend a joint military drills.





The State Department on Monday warned Americans against traveling to Belarus due to the ongoing buildup of Russian military along the Eastern European country's border with Ukraine as U.S. officials continue to warn that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could occur as soon as this week.

"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 the advisory.

"Potential harassment targeted specifically at foreigners is also possible. Given the heightened volatility of the situation, U.S. citizens are strongly advised against traveling to Belarus," the department added.

The advisory warned that the U.S. government may be limited in its ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Belarus due to already being "severely limited due to Belarusian government limitations on U.S. Embassy staffing."

The advisory comes on the same day that the U.S. announced it was closing its embassy in Kyiv and moving operations more than 300 miles to the west to the city of Lviv.

"We are in the process of temporarily relocating our Embassy operations in Ukraine from our Embassy in Kyiv to Lviv due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"These prudent precautions in no way undermine our support for or our commitment to Ukraine. Our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering," he added.

The State Department also reissued a travel advisory for Moldova, which borders Ukraine to the west.

"Do not travel to Moldova due to COVID-19, the unusual and concerning Russian military activity around Ukraine, and the unresolved conflict between the breakaway region of Transnistria and the central government; U.S. citizens in Transnistria should depart immediately via commercial and private means," the department said.
TAIPEI (Reuters) -A small Chinese civilian aircraft flew very close to a remote Taiwanese-controlled island next to China's coast earlier this month, Taiwan's defence ministry said on Tuesday, adding China may be trying a new strategy to test its reactions.

Taiwan has complained for the last two years of repeated Chinese military activity near it, mostly China's air force flying into Taiwan's air defence zone off its southwestern and southern coasts though relatively far away from Taiwan itself.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and on which it has upped pressure to accept its sovereignty, has termed this "grey zone warfare" designed to wear out the island's air force and test its abilities.

The ministry said the aircraft flew very near to Dongyin, part of the Matsu archipelago off the coast of China's Fujian province, on Feb. 5.

Having previously not identified the aircraft, the ministry said they had confirmed it was a Chinese civilian Y-12, a light twin-engined aircraft.

"On the Dongyin incident, of course we have made a preliminary judgment, and we cannot rule out that they are using civilian aircraft to test the responses of our military," ministry spokesman Shih Shun-wen told reporters.

"The military will definitely take corresponding actions, but it will take various contingency actions without there being a minor incident which sets off a war."

The ministry said the aircraft entered its "defence reaction zone" but did not enter its territory in Matsu, which Taiwan defines as waters and air space extending six km (about 4 miles) out from the coastline. China does not officially recognise any claims of sovereignty by Taiwan.

Shih declined to give details on how Taiwan's forces reacted to the incident, citing military confidentiality.

China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taiwanese media have carried footage of the aircraft flying right next to Dongyin, and said residents could see and hear it clearly.

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The Matsu islands have been controlled by Taiwan since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists.

The Matsu islands are not as heavily defended as they were until the late 1970s when China often shelled them, but Taiwan still maintains military forces there.

Taiwan also controls the much larger Kinmen island and a few close by islets further down the Fujian coast across from China's Xiamen city, and the Pratas Islands at the northern end of the South China Sea.

Shih denied Taiwanese media reports that Chinese military aircraft last week entered Pratas airspace.

China could be trying to "create chaos" by circulating false information online, he said.

(Reporting by Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian in Beijing; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Kim Coghill)
Art Spiegelmans Pulitzer Price-winning novel "Maus" is one of the publications at the center of an ongoing surge to ban books in schools across the country.

The novel was banned last month by a school board in McMinn County, Tennessee, one of the most high-profile cases of legislation and other recent actions to pull books from school shelves.

"The book should be in the hands of anyone who wants to read it," said Justin Schroeder, comics manager at Sound Go Round, a comics/video games/music store on the Vestal Parkway.

The store had extra copies of the book available, and sent them across the street to the Vestal Public Library as a donation.

The reason why we made the donation was what is going on in Tennessee, with the school board removing it from the curriculum, Schroeder said. We did it because we are always trying to find a way to help our community."

The novel was banned in early January by a school board in McMinn County, Tennessee, where it was used in an eighth-grade English and language arts curriculum.

School officials cited concerns about profanity and nudity in its depiction of Polish Jews during the Holocaust.

Kelly Cargill, the library's marketing and outreach coordinator, said Sound Go Round contacted the library and said extra copies of "Maus" were available.

We were really grateful for the donation and support of freedom to read and express ideas, Cargill said. We actually were just about to order a new copy because our copy was looking a little tired. The donation came just in time.

Cargill said the book has been heavily used the past couple of weeks.

Banning books? Books are being banned from school libraries. Here's what that does to students.

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The American Library Association has documented a "dramatic uptick" in challenges to books in libraries' collections. According to the ALA, it received 330 reports of such challenges last fall, with most targeting books that deal with race, gender or sexuality.

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Sound Go Round's donation follows a trend of other comic book stores offering to donate the book directly to students.

The owner of a store in California said he would ship 100 copies to families in McMinn County, and a Tennessee store started a GoFundMe page to raise money to purchase and ship the book. As of Monday afternoon, it passed its goal of $20,000 and received more than $110,000.

What is really great is the library was so super receptive to the donation, Schroeder said. We got the idea after we saw other shops doing stuff like this across the country, so we figured we would do our part, too.

Reporting from USA TODAY was used in this story.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: NY comic book store donates 'Maus' books to library after ban
Feb. 14Do you dream of tapas, rioja, sangria and paella? How about seeing the beautiful place where all of the above originated?

Join me, Jess Fleming, for a 12-day trip through beautiful Spain in fall 2022. We will visit Madrid, Seville, Granada, Valencia and Barcelona, learning about the history, culture and cuisine of this breathtaking country.

We'll take in a flamenco show, be part of an authentic "paella experience," visit the Cathedral of Seville, explore famous museums, and see rustic mountains, sunny shores and more.

When it's all done, I'll publish a story about our experience, leaving you with a lovely keepsake from the trip, which runs Sept. 25-Oct. 6 2022.

If you sign up, we'll hold a meet-and-greet event  time and place to be determined  so you can get to know your fellow travelers (including me) before we go.

We are having a virtual presentation on Zoom at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2 about the trip. You have to register in advance for the meeting at www.tinyurl.com/pioneerpressspain.

If you want more information or would like to sign up for the trip, go to the trip website at gateway.gocollette.com/link/1087066.

And as always, if you have additional questions, feel free to contact me at eat@pioneerpress.com.

Salud!
Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau has invoked special emergency powers to confront the trucker convoy, which has been blockading major cities and highways in protest against the cross-border vaccine mandate imposed by the Canadian government.

The law, the Emergencies Act, written in 1988, has never before been used. It gives Trudeaus administration special authority for 30 days to restrict movement, freeze financial accounts (including personal bank accounts and cyptocurrency transactions), and direct citizens to certain actions, such as the forced towing of the trucks.

The government has invoked the Emergencies Act to supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades and occupations, Trudeau said at a press briefing Monday.

After rallying for what theyre calling medical freedom in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, the truckers expanded their demonstration to other locations while a cohort stayed behind to keep protesting in the city. Protestors have been erecting tents and camps and picketing with signs to pressure the government to acquiesce.

Some of the departed trucks caused traffic gridlock last week on a busy trade bridge connecting Windsor, Canada, to Detroit, Michigan. About a quarter of goods between the countries are transported over this bridge.

Canadas Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said Monday that the government could use the Emergencies Act to cut off the financial pipelines of those involved in the blockades.

As of today, a bank or other financial service provider will be able to immediately freeze or suspend an account without a court order. In doing so, they will be protected against civil liability for actions taken in good faith, Freeland said.

Convoy organizers first had their capital disrupted when crowdfunding platform GoFundMe booted them as a customer, claiming that the truckers had engaged in unruly behavior and violence that violated their terms of service. The protestors then switched to Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo.

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Freeland specified that crowdfunding sites and the payment service providers must be approved by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), the national financial intelligence agency. These companies are also required to report large and suspicious transactions to FINTRAC.

The illegal blockades have highlighted the fact that crowdfunding platforms, and some of the payment service providers they use, are not fully captured under the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act, Freeland said. We are making these changes because we know that these platforms are being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy.

Technically, the government can exercise the Emergencies Act only if there is a crisis that cannot adequately be solved by the local regions of the country or by any existing federal legislation.

It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcements ability to effectively enforce the law, Trudeau added. This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting peoples jobs, and restoring confidence in our institutions.

While it appears that the government is preparing to mobilize against the truckers through a variety of means, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre said Trudeau could kill two birds, the protests and blockades, with one stone by simply dropping the vaccine requirement.

You know how we can put an end to both of them? Real simple. Listen to the science, do what other provinces and countries are doing  that is to end the mandates and restrictions so protesters can get back to their lives and their jobs, Poilievre said Monday. The only emergency is the one that Justin Trudeau has deliberately created to divide the country and gain politically.

The current rule prohibits unvaccinated drivers of freight trucks traveling from Canada to deliver goods to the U.S., which trucking industry officials have argued will exacerbate supply-chain issues already strangling both economies.

More from National Review
Milwaukee voters will take the first step on Tuesday toward electing the city's first new mayor in nearly two decades.

The race is significant not only because it is the first without an incumbent since 2004 but also because of the range of challenges and opportunities facing the city's next executive.

On Tuesday's ballot will be former Ald. Bob Donovan, activist Ieshuh Griffin, businessman Michael Sampson, state Sen. Lena Taylor, Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas, Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic and current Acting Mayor Cavalier "Chevy" Johnson.

Several other campaigns have said Johnson is likely to make it through the primary, meaning the real question is who will take second place.

A total of $600,000 had been spent on television and radio in the race as of the end of last week, with two-thirds of that sum being spent by or for Johnson. This heavy media push has many, including some of his opponents, believing that Johnson enters Tuesday's election as the frontrunner. Beyond that, however, it is less clear how the candidates might line up.

More: Three Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors races to appear on Feb. 15 primary ballot

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Political Science Professor Mordecai Lee predicted that a close race between those who come in second through fourth will mean every vote will count.

"A lot of candidates have reasonable scenarios that they're going to do well tomorrow," he said.

They are running to fill the remaining two years on the term of former Mayor Tom Barrett, who resigned in December to become U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.

When Barrett stepped down, Johnson automatically assumed the position of acting mayor, in addition to his role as Common Council president. (He cannot vote on the council while holding both positions and has passed the duties of running council meetings to Ald. Michael Murphy, chair of the Finance and Personnel Committee.)

Barrett's departure in the middle of his fifth term opened a rare opportunity to select a new mayor in Wisconsin's largest city, which has tended to re-elect its mayors for long stretches of time.

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Barrett handily defeated his opponents as an incumbent, continuing that trend.

Voter turnout could be low

Without a similar election to compare to, it's difficult to know how many voters are likely to turn out Tuesday. It's expected to draw a relatively small number, possibly the size of a sellout crowd at Lambeau Field.

As of Tuesday, the city's Election Commission had sent 30,018 absentee ballots and 19,367 had been returned, according to data posted by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

The city will have 180 polling places Tuesday.

A perpetual question in politics is how legitimate election results are when only a minority of eligible voters actually cast ballots, said John D. Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University's Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education.

Still, he noted the variety of options that make voting easier in the city, including same-day registration at the polls and early in-person voting.

He said he was hearing that turnout of about 30% of eligible voters would be considered pretty solid for this election.

"I think the election reflects the views of those Milwaukeeans who believe that their vote and the choice of mayor actually matters for their lives," Johnson said. "And if we feel that turnout is lower than it should be, it will be up to the next mayor and the city government to convince people that their choice does matter."

The candidates spent the week leading up to the primary in a blitz of forums and other efforts to convince voters they're the best person to take on Milwaukee's top political job.

They have taken different approaches to reaching voters over the relatively short campaign, from streaming services and digital advertising to cable and more traditional efforts to turn out existing supporters.

Depending on which two candidates prevail Tuesday, the city could be on the road to electing its first mayor who is Black or female, or both.

Lee said while it's possible that another white man could be elected, he thought it was most likely that Barrett would be the last.

Whoever wins will face a host of challenges but also historic opportunities when he or she is sworn in. The next mayor will also have only half the time as a mayor elected under normal circumstances to show progress before going before voters again.

Among the top concerns are public safety, the looming spike in the city's annual pension contribution, and the effects of the pandemic. And despite the mayor historically having little control over schools, education is also likely to be at the top of residents' minds.

Specifically, the next mayor will come in on the heels of two years of record-high homicides and a violent start to 2022, including through gun violence and the ongoing challenge with reckless driving.

City officials this fall will also come face-to-face with the expected spike in the city's annual pension contribution that threatens city services.

The city's vaccination rate meanwhile has remained stubbornly around 60% for residents who are at least 16 years old, ticking up only slowly, according to Health Department data. More than 1,000 people in the city have died due to the virus, though case numbers have been trending down since the beginning of the year following the spike driven by the omicron variant.

Still, the mayor will have an unmatched opportunity to decide, along with the Common Council, how to spend the influx of federal dollars coming into the city via the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

Officials also expect federal infrastructure funds to boost the city's efforts to replace lead service lines and funding from a settlement to help it contend with the opioid epidemic.

"Two years from now people will say, 'Was this person who we elected in 2022 a good public administrator or not? Am I pleased with how the city is doing?'" Lee said.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.

MyVote.wi.gov.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee residents to vote for new mayor in nearly 20 years Tuesday
ANKARA (Reuters) - The COVID-19 related death toll in Turkey surged to 309 in the last 24 hours, the highest daily level in more than nine months, health ministry data showed on Tuesday, with new cases over that period at 94,730.

In late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000 but have since surged due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Daily infections peaked at 111,157 earlier this month.

The death toll reported on Tuesday was the highest since 356 on May 5. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca urged elderly citizens and those with chronic illnesses to exercise more caution after the data.

"The fact that infections due to Omicron are generally experienced lighter doesn't mean everything else is going fine. Let's first not forget that death figures are high," Koca said on Twitter.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; editing by David Evans)
ANKARA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A team of senior officials from Turkey will travel to Israel ahead of President Isaac Herzog's planned trip to Ankara, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, as the regional rivals work to repair ties after years of animosity.

President Tayyip Erdogan's chief foreign policy adviser Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, will lead a delegation on Feb. 16-17, the foreign ministry said, adding the officials would also meet Palestinian authorities.

Israel and Turkey expelled ambassadors in 2018 and relations have remained tense, but Ankara has since worked to mend strained ties with several regional countries in a charm offensive launched in 2020.

Ankara, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has condemned Israel's occupation of the West Bank and policy towards Palestinians. Israel has called on Turkey to drop support for the militant Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said Ankara would not turn back on support for Palestinians for the rapprochement.

Israel's presidency and foreign ministry said Kalin and Onal would visit to coordinate Herzog's planned visit and hold talks with officials following discussions in Turkey in December.

The delegation was also expected to meet Palestinian officials including President Mahmoud Abbas, the foreign ministry said.

Herzog will visit Turkey from March 9-10, Turkish media said on Tuesday.

The two countries are also at odds over policies in the east Mediterranean, namely over energy resources in the region. While often engaging in insults and accusations, trade and commercial ties between Turkey and Israel have remained intact.

Erdogan has said energy cooperation could be discussed during Herzog's visit.

Erdogan has spoken to Herzog before amid tensions, although the Israeli presidency is a largely ceremonial role. In November, he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the first such call in years.

As part of its charm offensive, Ankara has also made overtures to estranged rivals Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. While cooperation has picked up with the UAE, the Egypt and Saudi Arabia efforts have so far yielded little public improvement.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Daren Butler and Frank Jack Daniel)
DUBAI (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan touted his country's investment advantages to business people in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, after a flurry of economic agreements between the two countries seeking to end a period of animosity.

Erdogan, visiting for the first time since 2013, received a grand reception on Monday with UAE de facto ruler Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan meeting him on arrival and the world's tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, projecting Turkey's flag.

The move to rein in regional rivalry rooted in differences on the role of political Islam, comes after Ankara launched a charm offensive last year at a time of economic turmoil in Turkey and as the UAE turns towards soft power politics.

"Our mutual goal is to carry our bilateral relations to much higher levels in all areas," Erdogan told a business event. "Turkey provides very important advantages for investors looking for alternatives to Asia-centred production areas."

Later on Tuesday, Erdogan met with Dubai's ruler Mohammad bin Rashid at Dubai's Expo 2020, the first world fair to be held in the Middle East.

In brief remarks, Erdogan highlighted Turkey's steps to protect the environment.

The UAE and Turkey on Monday signed a joint statement on starting negotiations for a bilateral trade and investment deal as well as several agreements, including on defence, state media said. This follows investment accords worth billions of dollars signed in November when Sheikh Mohammed visited Turkey. [L1N2UP1HN]

The UAE, the region's trade and tourism hub, has said it wants to manage long-running differences with Turkey and Iran as it doubles down on economic growth after the pandemic.

"The UAE sees economic and developmental cooperation ... as a key tool in wisely managing various issues to rid our region of continuous escalation," Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said in a Twitter post on Erdogan's visit.

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The rift stems from the Arab uprisings, when Turkey backed the Muslim Brotherhood and their Islamist allies challenging entrenched autocrats from Tunisia to Syria - alarming the UAE's dynastic rulers, who see the Brotherhood as a political and security threat.

Separately, Turkey is seeking smoother relations with Israel and is sending a delegation there ahead of a planned trip to Ankhara by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen, Lisa Barrington and Alexander Cornwell; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous and Raya Jalabi; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
Kim Tae-ri as Na Hee-do and Nam Joo-hyuk as Back Yi-jin in Twenty Five Twenty One. (Screenshots: Netflix)

Twenty Five Twenty One is a romance drama about a hardworking young man who seeks to rebuild his life and a teen fencer who pursues big ambitions. They first meet when they are 22 and 18 years old, and fall in love when they meet again at age 25 and 21.

The first two episodes have recently been made available on Netflix. Here are four things to know about the 16-episode series.

1. The story is set during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Twenty Five Twenty One makes an eye-catching opening with a '90s filter and a retro-looking square aspect ratio, before the story flashbacks to a period during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The nostalgic setting sees not only historic events in Korea, such as the agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which will go on to affect the lives of the characters, and the gold-collecting campaign, but also old-fashioned gadgets and technology, like pagers and bulky computer monitors.

2. It follows the story of a high school fencing athlete Na Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri).

Kim Tae-ri, who played the badass Captain Jang in the Netflix film Space Sweepers, turns into a cheery and passionate fencer Na Hee-do in Twenty Five Twenty One.

She has an idol who she is excited to see (read: stalk) every Saturday: the national fencer from a neighbouring school Go Yu-rim (Bona).

However, the financial crisis has prompted her school to cut some budget and remove the fencing team, leaving her exasperated at the ruthless decision. Her dreams of becoming Yu-rims rival are dashed, but her never-say-die attitude leads to her joining the same school fencing team as Yu-rim.

3. It also stars Nam Joo-hyuk from Bae Suzys Start-Up.

Nam Joo-hyuk, who starred in Start-Up, portrays Back Yi-jin, the eldest son of a wealthy family. His life is turned upside down when his fathers business goes bankrupt during the financial crisis. Struggling to make ends meet, he takes up part-time jobs like delivering newspapers and manning a comic book store, which Hee-do frequents.

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After multiple encounters with the bubbly Hee-do, the troubled Yi-jin seems to brighten up a little and regain a little of his former self.

4. It illustrates the complex relationships among the five main characters.

As Twenty Five Twenty One has a slow start, it is still unclear where the story is headed. But it has carefully laid out the introductions to the five main characters. Apart from Hee-do, Yi-jin, and Yu-rim mentioned above, there are also Yu-rims classmate Moon Ji-woong (Choi Hyun-wook from Racket Boys) and Hee-dos class president Ji Seung-wan (Lee Joo-myung).

Ji-woong, known as the classs pretty boy, is interested in Yu-rim for her image as a pretty girl and befriends Hee-do, who is on the same fencing team as Yu-rim. On the other hand, Seung-wan shares the same house as Yi-jin, not knowing that he used to be the popular, handsome and rich senior in her school.

Judging from the current story development, the characters intricate relationships will possibly spin a youthful tale of laughter and tears, the moments in life that you will reminisce about fondly.

New episodes of Twenty Five Twenty One will be available every Saturday and Sunday on Netflix.

Get more TV and movie news from Yahoo Life on our Entertainment page.
By Gustavo Palencia and Marvin Valladares

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -Scores of Honduran police officers on Monday surrounded the house of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez after the United States asked the government to arrest and extradite Washington's key erstwhile ally in the region.

Speculation has been swirling for months that the United States was planning to extradite Hernandez when he left office amid accusations that he colluded with drug traffickers. Leftist leader Xiomara Castro replaced him as president last month.

Washington's request for extradition represents a major about-face by the U.S. government, which saw Hernandez as a vital ally in the volatile Central America region during his eight years in power.

The United States had already placed Hernandez on a blacklist, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this month said there were credible reports Hernandez "has engaged in significant corruption by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and narco-trafficking".

Hernandez could not be immediately reached for comment but he has always denied any links to drug traffickers.

A Reuters witness outside Hernandez's house said about 100 police officers were waiting outside.

Hernandez's lawyer, Hermes Ramirez, told Canal 5 television that the former president was holed up inside his home and that the arrest warrant for Hernandez is illegal because he has immunity as a member of the regional Central American parliament.

"They are trying to trample on the rights of President Hernandez," Ramirez said.

Hernandez formally joined the Guatemala-based regional body, called Parlacen, just a few hours after Castro's inauguration as president.

Parlacen affords members immunity from prosecution in Central America, though that immunity can be removed or suspended if a member's home country requests it.

Luis Javier Santos, Honduras' best known anti-corruption prosecutor, said on Twitter that "there is no impediment to his extradition".

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The Honduran Foreign Ministry earlier in the day said the U.S. Embassy had requested the arrest of a Honduran politician who is the subject of an extradition request to the United States, without naming him.

A senior Honduran official, speaking anonymously because they were not allowed to speak to media on the subject, told Reuters the United States "requested the provisional arrest of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez for extradition purposes".

Melvin Duarte, a spokesman for the Honduran judiciary, said the Supreme Court is due to meet at 9.30am on Tuesday to name a judge to oversee Hernandez' extradition case.

Throughout his time in power Hernandez, cultivated close ties to Washington and most notably won the support of former U.S. President Donald Trump, using Honduran security forces to help the Republican leader cut down on U.S.-bound land migration routes from Central America and further afield.

But allegations of links with drug traffickers dogged his time in power, which was also marred by corruption scandals.

Last year, a U.S. judge sentenced Hernandez's brother to life in prison plus 30 years for drug trafficking.

(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia and Marvin Valladares.Writing by Drazen JorgicEditing by Clarence Fernandez, Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle)
By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin heads to Brussels on Tuesday for talks with NATO allies and to visit U.S. troops in Poland as Washington remains focused on the risk of a large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Austin's departure came as Russia said some of its military units were returning to their bases after exercises near Ukraine. It was unclear how many units were being withdrawn, and by what distance.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not immediately comment on the Russian statements. Earlier they had reiterated their concerns over Moscow's buildup of an estimated 130,000 troops to the north, east and south of Ukraine.

"We have consistently presented a path of diplomacy and we have consistently been disappointed by Russia's interest in engaging substantively. So I will not tell you that I am optimistic at this point," a senior U.S. defense official said.

While it denies plans to invade Ukraine, Moscow has said it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless a series of demands are met, including promises from NATO never to admit Ukraine and to withdraw forces from Eastern Europe.

NATO MEETING

NATO defence ministers will meet on Wednesday and Thursday and are expected to set in motion a plan that could establish four multi-national battlegroups in southeastern Europe in response to Russia's military build-up in Ukraine, three diplomats told Reuters.

The move would be NATO's biggest shift in force posture since it set up its "Enhanced Forward Presence" battlegroups in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland - backed by tanks, air defences and intelligence and surveillance units - in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Ukraine is not a NATO member and the alliance is under no treaty obligation to defend it. President Joe Biden's administration has also stressed that U.S. troops will not fight nuclear-armed Russia and he has withdrawn U.S. military trainers from Ukraine.

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However, Biden is sending additional U.S. troops to Europe, including to Poland, where Austin is scheduled to meet Polish leaders. He will also meet U.S. and Polish forces at Powidz Air Base later this week.

Austin will also travel to Lithuania, which has supplied Ukraine with Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems and ammunition.

Ukraine has bolstered its armed forces with weapons from allies, including U.S. and British anti-tank systems and Turkish drones, but U.S. officials say Russia clearly retains "overwhelming" military superiority.

"The Ukrainians absolutely have the will to fight," the senior U.S. official said. "But at the same time, what the Russians could bring to bear is quite overwhelming."

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Dr. Robert Califf as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after some senators had argued his ties to the pharmaceutical industry or views on birth control made him unfit for the role.

Calif, 70, is a well-regarded cardiologist and researcher who takes the helm at the FDA for a second time 13 months after it last had a permanent leader.

His confirmation comes as the FDA reviews vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. The agency oversees everything from medicine and medical devices to food, tobacco and cosmetics.

Califf previously served as FDA commissioner from February 2016 until the end of President Barack Obama's second term in January 2017.

He will take over from longtime FDA veteran Janet Woodcock, who has been serving as acting commissioner. Woodcock congratulated Califf on Tuesday and said she would be staying on as principal deputy.

His nomination by President Joe Biden was opposed by five of Biden's fellow Democrats including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who said Califf's work with pharmaceutical companies made him unfit to regulate the industry impartially, and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who criticized how the agency handled the opioid crisis under Califf's leadership.

"Dr. Califf was there five years ago. He's coming back. Nothing's changed; 400,000 people have died (from opioids) since he was there," Manchin said before the vote.

Califf was confirmed by a narrow margin as six Republicans joined with the remaining Democrats, resulting in 50 votes in favor and 46 against. One senator voted present.

Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the health committee, urged members of his party to support Califf before the vote.

"He has the robust agency and private sector experience needed to help build on the success of the FDA in helping Americans get back to normal life," said Burr. "He's the leader we need today, but also for the future."

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The battle over Califf stood in stark contrast to the overwhelming bipartisan support he received ahead of his first time in the role, when 89 senators voted to confirm him.

Previous Republican backers said they withdrew their support after Califf told the Senate health committee in December that he trusted the FDA to make the right decision as it considered easing abortion pill restrictions, which it did two days later.

"It is clear that Dr. Califf will not fight for life, and I cannot support his nomination," Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, who voted in favor of Califf in 2016, said in a statement after the vote.

'EXCITING MOMENT FOR BIRTH CONTROL'

Reproductive rights advocates lobbying for FDA approval of over-the-counter oral contraceptives welcomed Califf's confirmation.

"I think it's a really exciting moment for birth control pills," Victoria Nichols, project director of the Free the Pill campaign, told Reuters.

Cardiology group the American Heart Association and patient advocates UsAgainstAlzheimer's both issued statements welcoming Califf's confirmation, as did PhRMA, the leading pharmaceutical industry trade group.

John Serio, partner at law firm Withersworldwide who focuses on the pharmaceutical industry, said Califf brings unique experience to the role.

"You have somebody now heading the agency that understands the drug discovery process in great detail and understands it not only from an industry standpoint, but also from the agency standpoint," he said.

Califf has co-authored papers with industry executives, served as a consultant for drugmakers, and following his first stint as FDA chief was hired by Google parent Alphabet Inc in 2019 as head of clinical policy and strategy across its Google Health and Verily Life Sciences enterprises.

Califf had previously advised Verily executives on clinical matters for potential products.

Califf has been on the board of drugmaker Cytokinetics Inc since February 2018, the company's website shows, and has received over $93,000 in consulting and other fees between 2014 and 2019 from nine drugmakers, government records show.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton and Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
ROZVADOV, Czech Republic (Reuters) - The first part of a planned contingent of 2,000 U.S. troops and hundreds of vehicles entered the Czech Republic from Germany on Tuesday en route eastwards to Slovakia for NATO's Saber Strike military drills, a Reuters witness said.

Slovakia borders Ukraine to the east but the bi-annual drills, spanning seven countries including the Baltics, Poland, Czech Republic and Germany, have long been planned and are not related to Ukraine's current stand-off with Russian armed forces massed near its borders, the Slovak Defence Ministry said.

It said around 2,000 U.S. troops with around 600 pieces of equipment would take part in the exercises along with nearly 1,300 Slovak soldiers in the first two weeks of March.

The Slovak part of the drills will be held around the city of Zvolen, in central Slovakia over 300 km (190 miles) by road from the Ukraine border, the ministry has said. The troops are to return to their German bases after completing the exercises.

Slovakia hosts no foreign NATO troops but Foreign Minister Jaroslav Nad said on Tuesday it has begun considering the possibility of stationing a NATO unit as part of efforts to strengthen NATO's eastern flank amidst the Ukraine crisis.

(Reporting by Jiri Skacel, writing by Jan Lopatka, editing by Mark Heinrich)
Ukraine is grappling with more cyberattacks as fears of an imminent Russian invasion reach their climax. Netblocks and Gizmodo report Ukraine's defense ministry and two state-owned banks, Oshchadbank and Privatbank, have suffered denial-of-service attacks flooding their sites with traffic. The country's armed forces website also appears to have suffered an attack. BuzzFeed's Christopher Miller described consequences for many Ukranians, including difficulties using some ATMs and other banking services.

The attacks weren't directly attributed to Russia, but they came a month after Ukraine blamed its neighbor for a campaign that played havoc with dozens of government websites. The perpetrators used purely destructive malware disguised as ransomware to inflict significant damage. Russia has previously been accused of relying on cyberwarfare to disrupt and influence political rivals like the European Union and the US, although it has repeatedly denied involvement.

The concern, as you might imagine, is that Russia might be using cyberattacks like these to cause havoc ahead of an invasion the US claimed could happen as soon as tomorrow (February 16th). In theory, it might be more difficult for Ukraine to mount an effective response. The January attacks came and went without military action, however, and these latest incidents wouldn't do much to thwart the Ukrainian military or its allies. If Russia is involved, the disruptions might represent pressure tactics to extract concessions, such as a promise not to join NATO.
I dont usually lie awake at night thinking about Ukraine and Russia, but thats been happening lately. Theres a highlights reel that inevitably unfolds.

In the opening scene: My maternal grandfather, one of my three grandparents of Russian descent, telling us about how his Jewish family hid soldiers under the bed and his mother escaped gunmen chasing her through the streets.

His mother and the three youngest of her five children, including my 10-year-old grandfather, fled to New York in 1905. The story goes that they were smuggled out in a hay wagon under a haystack. The 1910 Census lists their birthplaces as Russ Pol  as in, Russian-controlled Poland.

Their memories slide into my own: Decades later, the doomed attempt by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to hit the reset button and start fresh with Russia. GOP nominee Mitt Romney's assertion in a 2012 presidential debate that Russia was the nations No. 1 geopolitical foe. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's apology, years later, for criticizing his analysis. Then, by fall 2016, Obama telling Vladimir Putin and his election hackers to cut it out and Democratic nominee Clinton predicting that Donald Trump would be Putin's "puppet."

The flashbacks accelerate: Russia helping Trump win the presidency. Trump meeting with top Russians in the Oval Office. A photographer from the Russian-owned TASS news agency the only witness as the U.S. president spills sensitive intelligence to them and gloats about firing FBI Director James Comey. Special counsel Robert Mueller finding many contacts between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russians, and indicting multiple Russians and Russian companies. Trump taking Putin's word that Russia never disrupted U.S. elections, instead of crediting U.S. intelligence findings that it most certainly did.

Trump ignored Ukraine's dire straits

Then Trumps first impeachment, when Ukraine was hardly a household word in America. Congress had already tried to help by appropriating military aid to the former Soviet republic struggling to preserve its democracy despite Russian incursions and hostilities. But Trump was holding up the aid. First he wanted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the comedian-turned-politician, to dig for dirt on Joe Biden and his family.

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Hand it to Trump, even in July 2019, when he had his infamous conversation with Zelenskyy, he knew Biden would be hard to beat. But Ukraine was already in desperate straits back then, and Trump was either oblivious or surpassingly selfish. Or both.

Daily life in Kyiv? It feels a lot like if 'Stranger Things' had a Ukraine edition

A member of the Ukrainian border guard patrols a crossing with Russia and Belarus on Feb. 14, 2022.

Now, surrounded by Russian military might, unable to count on troops from other nations, its novice leader determined to avoid war and also to protect his countrys sovereignty, borders and independence, Ukraine is on the precipice of epic tragedy. Now, more Americans might recognize why Ukraine needed military aid in 2019 and why it was so tawdry (not to mention illegal) to delay it and try to extort a foreign leader for domestic political ammunition.

President Biden has inherited more than his share of trouble. It was past time to leave Afghanistan, though like so many, I wish the U.S. exit from a 20-year war had been planned and executed much, much better and less painfully. If that was even possible.

More from Jill Lawrence: Is this the beginning of the end for Trumpism or the Republican Party?

Columnist Connie Schultz: Why aren't all of us having nightmares about the next Jan. 6? Next time may succeed.

Ukraine is an even more excruciating dilemma. Russia expert Tom Nichols wrote in 2019 that Ukraine-Russia tensions could erupt into World War III. That is why Biden is so right to say it is not an option for U.S. troops to join the fight that may come.

Yet the idea of Ukraine taking on Russia by itself is terrifying. Its military is larger than in 2014 when Russia illegally annexed Crimea, in southern Ukraine, but Russias is still more than four times as big. And that's on top of Russia's cyberattack and electronic disruption capabilities. Meanwhile, as the Philadelphia Inquirer's Trudy Rubin reports, students, accountants, IT specialists, teachers, travel agents and other urban civilians in Ukraine have been training for war with cardboard guns.

Sanctions won't prevent lost lives

The Biden administration is supporting Ukraine with equipment and weapons, and Biden has vowed to impose harsh sanctions that will cripple the Russian economy and personally punish Putin and his circle. The problem is that first, before all that takes hold, there will be blood. Putin may lose money and power, but many others will lose their lives: civilians and soldiers in Ukraine, and Russian soldiers as well.

If there is no war, that will be a huge triumph  but probably not the kind that makes a presidency. Even in the midst of the Iraq War, which many view as the worst foreign policy disaster (catastrophe, failure, fiasco, choose your Google search) in U.S. history, President George W. Bush was reelected. The dramatic rally-round effect after the 9/11 attacks kept him above 50% approval in the Gallup Poll until he had already won the 2004 election and started his second term.

Bipartisan House Ukraine Caucus co-chairs: Putin plans to crush liberty in Ukraine. The Free World must unite to stop him.

Six weeks after the U.S. invasion, President George W. Bush prematurely declares the end of major combat in Iraq under a "Mission Accomplished" banner on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast on May 1, 2003.

So few actual wars end in ways that inspire pride. Declaring victory has been risky or impossible for many presidents, from Bush's massively premature mission accomplished boast six weeks after the Iraq invasion in 2003 that destabilized the Middle East, to the harrowing departure from Vietnam on Gerald Ford's watch, to Bidens helter-skelter rush out of Afghanistan.

Preventing something bad from happening is a hard sell on the campaign trail. If diplomacy prevails in the Russia-Ukraine standoff, Biden will deserve much credit and hopefully will get it. If there is a war and Biden keeps U.S. troops out of it, and despite knowing the agony in store for Ukraine, I hope he'll get credit for that, too.

Jill Lawrence is a columnist for USA TODAY and author of "The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock." Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine is painfully alone, but US troops could trigger Russia faceoff
By Dan Williams

MANAMA (Reuters) -Bahrain agreed to step up cooperation with Israel on Tuesday, hosting a first visit by its leader Naftali Bennett that highlighted an increasing Israeli presence in the Gulf amid high tensions with regional power Iran.

Bennett concluded a two-day visit to Manama, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and several international naval task forces, in a first by any Israeli leader following the 2020 normalisation of bilateral relations.

The two governments agreed on a process of building a bilateral plan dubbed the "Warm Peace Strategy" that would prioritize several sectors including food security, water, sustainable energy, trade and investment, a statement issued by Bennett's office said. The two countries also agreed to expedite negotiations on a joint tax treaty.

Bennett described his trip as a chance to forge a common stand against Iran and its allies including Yemen's Houthis, whose attacks on the United Arab Emirates this year jarred the oil-producing region.

"We are trying to form a new regional architecture of moderate countries (to) provide stability, economic prosperity and to be able to stand strong against enemies who are fomenting chaos and terror," Bennett told reporters.

The U.S. Navy is considering adding unmanned Israeli boats to its joint Middle East operations, a U.S. official said earlier in the day, a move that could deepen Israel's military involvement in the Gulf and further anger Tehran.

Israel is due to become the 29th country to post an attache to the Fifth Fleet's Manama headquarters, officials said, adding the as-yet unnamed envoy would likely be of navy captain or commander rank.

"It's about keeping the lines of communication open" bilaterally between Israel and the fleet, a U.S. official said, referring to the plan to station the envoy in the Gulf kingdom.

Israel has not formally confirmed the appointment.

Bennett told Fleet chief Vice Admiral Brad Cooper at a meeting on Tuesday that he expected "the cooperation among the region's countries and powerful ally the United States will keep getting closer", the prime minister's office said.

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The U.S. official said the Fifth Fleet was examining dozens of unmanned vessels as part of current Gulf exercises, and it was interested in Israeli-made surface drones as possible complements to flying and underwater drones.

"The Israelis are definitely vested in leveraging this technology," the official said, adding that a fleet commander had in recent weeks visited Haifa in Israel to study the surface drones.

An Israeli military spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

In November, forces from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Israel and the Bahrain-based U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) took part in a security exercise in the Red Sea, the first publicly acknowledged naval exercise between the United States, Israel and its two new Gulf friends.

PROTESTS

Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has accepted an invitation to visit Israel, the Gulf state's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani said, adding the trip should happen in "the near future".

"Iranian nuclear file and terrorism" were part of the discussions, Zayani told reporters.

Sunni Muslim-ruled Bahrain accuses Shi'ite Muslim Iran of stoking unrest in the kingdom, a charge Tehran denies.

Bahraini opposition activists said on Tuesday at least four people had been arrested during protests on Monday held in several Shi'ite villages to oppose Bennett's visit. Bahrain's government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bennett met with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, government ministers and members of Bahrain's Jewish community on Tuesday. In a town hall with Bahraini civil servants and journalists, Bennett stressed the need to increase trade and other links.

"We don't have enough trade, we don't have enough tourism - and that is what this visit is all about," Bennett said.

"I'm going to be your ambassador there (in Israel). I want to 'sell Bahrain'," he added.

Bahrain, a small island state striving to fix its heavily indebted finances, is a close ally of Saudi Arabia - with which Israel has no formal relationship.

(Reporting by Dan Williams with additional reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh Writing by Lisa Barrington and Raya JalabiEditing by William Maclean/Mark Heinrich)
WASHINGTON  The U.S. on Monday signed an agreement with the United Kingdom to assess the possibility of cooperation on future vertical lift programs.

Army leaders from both countries agreed to a Future Vertical Lift Cooperative Program Feasibility Assessment project arrangement to work together to ensure interoperability between the two nations future rotorcraft aviation forces, according to a statement from U.S. Army Futures Command, which is in charge of advancing Army modernization.

The U.S. Army has been aggressively pursuing FVL programs including a Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), a Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) and Air-Launched Effects (ALE) while also pursuing a modular open systems architecture.

The service is poised to choose between Bell and a team of Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky and Boeing to build FLRAA this year. And Bell and Lockheed are again competing to build FARA prototypes expected to fly in 2023.

The U.S. and U.K. have a long history of partnership and cooperation in Army aviation, and the FVL project arrangement is an important step in expanding that relationship into the next generation of vertical lift capability and employment in future coalition operations, the statement said.

Through the agreement, the countries will share future aircraft requirements and program plans and explore and analyze new concepts for the employment of coalition air power in the lower tier air domain, the air space where Army aviation typically operates, the statement added.

The analysis will include opportunities to reduce cost, schedule and performance risk of FVL programs and will identify and improve areas where U.S. and U.K. rotorcraft can be interoperable or integrated.

The two countries will also look for areas where cooperation could enhance research, development, test and evaluation; production; sustainment; and follow-on development efforts, according to the statement. The analysis will consider risks associated with working together across the life cycle of the aircraft.

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The information gathered will be part of the national decision-making process, the statement noted.

The agreement will also include development of plans for the U.K. to cooperate in future phases of the U.S. Defense Departments FVL program.

The U.S. Army has conducted two rounds of a campaign of learning dubbed Project Convergence at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, including a joint experiment last fall.

This year, the service plans to incorporate allied nations  including the U.K.  into the massive joint experiment with a major emphasis on future vertical lift capability.

Arrangements like these will ultimately improve our capabilities and strengthen our forces, focusing on joint lethality, survivability and reach, while ensuring affordability for both our countries U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Wally Rugen, who oversees Army FVL modernization, said in the statement.

Our deep science and technology collaboration is an important element of this and makes us both more competitive, Maj. Gen. James Bowder, the British Armys Futures director, said in the statement. Todays agreement formalizes our cooperation to help determine the future direction of aviation in competition and conflict.
Amanda Noverr, one of the two people accused of killing a New Hampshire couple and burying their bodies in a shallow grave on Padre Island in 2019, pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges, including first-degree murder, Tuesday after striking a deal with state prosecutors.

Noverr, 34, appeared before 105th District Judge Jack W. Pulcher masked and in a pink jumpsuit via Zoom from the Kleberg County Jail.

She stood calmly as Pulcher read aloud each of the four felony charges against her.

Amanda Noverr appears in court at Kleberg County Courthouse on Friday, Nov. 8, 2019.

Noverr went on to plead guilty to all of the charges, including tampering with evidence, theft and the unlawful possession of a firearm.

Pulcher, after asking for recommendations from prosecutors, sentenced Noverr to 20 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the murder of James and Michelle Butler.

This sentence, Pulcher said, would run concurrently with each of Noverr's 10-year sentences with TDCJ for the other three felony charges.

Prosecutors told the court their recommendations were influenced by their belief that Noverr was responsible for purchasing the weapon used to kill the Butlers, but that she did not pull the trigger.

Prosecutors also referenced Noverr's lack of prior criminal history in the decision.

By accepting the plea deal, Noverr agreed to waive her right to appeal the sentence and the completion of DNA and ballistic testing from evidence found at the crime scene.

Pulcher said Noverr will receive credit for the time she has spent incarcerated since first coming into custody on Nov. 5, 2019.

Noverr's plea hearing and sentencing came three months after her co-defendant, Adam C. Williams, pleaded guilty to the crime after striking his own deal with prosecutors.

More: 'Our lives are forever changed': Utah man gets life sentence in New Hampshire couple's killing

Williams, who has a criminal history, agreed to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison with no option for parole. In return, state prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, as they had previously said they would.

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Adam C. Williams, 35, listens to his sentencing by District Court Judge Jack Pulcher on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2021, at the Kleberg County Courthouse in Kingsville, Texas. Williams pleaded guilty to killing New Hampshire couple James and Michelle Butler and burying their bodies in a shallow grave on Padre Island in 2019.

Unlike Williams' plea hearing and sentencing, however, no victim impact statements were read aloud Tuesday.

Prosecutors said that while the family of the Butlers were aware of Noverr's plea deal offer, they decided not to attend the plea hearing.

Deborah Van Loon, James Butler's sister, previously told the court in a statement read aloud by state prosecutors after Williams' sentencing that their lives are "forever changed."

"They have destroyed so much more than they will ever know," Van Loon wrote.

Kailey E. Hunt covers breaking news and public safety in South Texas. Help support more local coverage with a subscription at caller.com/subscribe.

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Utah woman pleads guilty to 2019 murder of New Hampshire couple
(Nasa)

An astronomer at the Vatican Observatory has found a new body in the solar system.

The trans-Neptunian object (TNO) has been designated 2021 XD7 and was spotted by Richard Boyle using the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on 3 December.

Much like Pluto, the first trans-Neptunian object discovered, 2021 XD7 has a strange orbit that is considerably more tilted than the movements of Earth, Mars, and other planets.

The closest it gets to the Sun is still 30 times further than our own planet and extends twice as far outwards.

It takes 286 years for it to move around the Sun, and because of its great distance from Earth little is known about the planet  apart from that it is almost certainly smaller than even Pluto.

The exploration of TNOs could help scientists find the elusive ninth planet orbiting our closest star. Pluto, when it was discovered in 1930, was once considered the ninth, but it was eventually demoted to a dwarf planet.

The theory of Planet Nine was first proposed in 2015 after Caltech astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin had said they found evidence of a giant planet in the outer solar system.

The evidence for this was the orbits of five smaller objects in the same region  a configuration that has only a 0.007 per cent change of happening by chance.

Unfortunately, it is has been incredibly difficult to pin down the object with other astronomers claiming that there is no evidence of such a planet. They believe the apparent clustering is simply confirmation bias, discovered only because that is where telescopes were looking at the time, or due to other sensitivities in the equipment.

More TNOs are likely to be discovered next year with the construction of the survey telescope at the Vera Rubin Observatory in 2023.
Dee Tait, an RN in the ICU at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in Pontiac, tends to an intubated COVID patient on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022.

Utah reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, adding 12,633 new cases. That's down 45.1% from the previous week's tally of 23,016 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Utah ranked 23rd 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 41.5% from the week before, with 1,217,001 cases reported. With 0.96% of the country's population, Utah had 1.04% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, no states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Across Utah, cases fell in seven counties, with the best declines in Salt Lake County, with 4,536 cases from 7,375 a week earlier; in Utah County, with 2,324 cases from 4,349; and in Davis County, with 1,475 cases from 2,864.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

Utah ranked 28th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 70.7% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 75.9%, 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, Utah reported administering another 183,808 vaccine doses, including 30,517 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 10,151 vaccine doses, including 2,383 first doses. In all, Utah reported it has administered 4,983,057 total doses.

Within Utah, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Tooele County with 494 cases per 100,000 per week; San Juan County with 470; and Davis County with 415. 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 Salt Lake County, with 4,536 cases; Utah County, with 2,324 cases; and Davis County, with 1,475.

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In Utah, 88 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 66 people were reported dead.

A total of 910,900 people in Utah have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 4,261 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 77,739,880 people have tested positive and 919,696 people have died.

Note: For Utah, Johns Hopkins University reports data mostly by health department, such as the combined Weber-Morgan agency. Weber and Morgan counties may be marked as having no cases. The county-level data for Utah is considerably worse than it is for any other state, and county comparisons may be wildly misleading.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

Utah's COVID-19 hospital admissions falling

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, Feb. 13.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Last week: 801

The week before that: 985

Four weeks ago: 992

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Last week: 110,378

The week before that: 131,189

Four weeks ago: 197,960

Hospitals in zero states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in three states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in zero 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 St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Washington County reported no new cases this week
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Wayfair's Presidents' Day sale is packed with stylish steals. (Photos: Wayfair)

Bargain-hunters who live for super-sales on stylish furniture and high-quality housewares have Wayfair on their radar at all times. And the retail giant is making its vast online inventory even more appealing for Presidents' Day with discounts of up to 70 percent! Its a jaw-dropper across the board.

We cruised the virtual aisles and found the hands-down hottest deals, which include bestselling items Yahoo readers go crazy for year after year. Midcentury modern furnishings and name-brand kitchen essentials with thousands of five-star customer reviews dominate this list. If your home is in need of a refresh, this is the one Presidents' Day sale you cant miss.

Behold the 10 greatest deals at Wayfairs ultimate Presidents' Day savings event!

Zipcode Design 31.5'' Wide Barrel Chair  nearly 40 percent off

The perfect comfy chair. (Photo: Wayfair)

This made-in-the-USA cushy chair, wrapped in sleek faux leather, has a modern curved silhouette. Keep it by your bookshelves as a cozy spot to curl up with a new read. The assembly is so easy  just screw on the legs. Choose from black, shown, red and off-white  all $190 right now, down from $299; you can also snap it up in peacock for $195 (was $303).

"This is just what I need," one shopper noted. "There is plenty of room to sit comfortably in it. This chair has a firm yet soft cushion, which is removable for cleaning. Im thinking of ordering another one."

$190 $303 at Wayfair

Dotted Line 8 Pair Shoe Rack  just 56 bucks

A stylish way to tackle entryway clutter. (Photo: Wayfair)

Tired of constantly picking up shoes in your home's entryway? This sleek bamboo rack fits into small spaces and is the perfect place to keep up to eight pairs of sneakers, boots or sandals once the weather warms up. Bonus: It even has a nook to store an umbrella!

"I purchased this for my entryway and its perfect!" a shopper noted. "It was easy to assemble and is the perfect size for our small foyer."

$56 $85 at Wayfair

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Hoboken 38-inch Wide Tufted Armchair  nearly 50 percent off

This midcentury modern armchair is a customer favorite. (Photo: Wayfair)

Midcentury, Scandinavian-inspired design is a style we never get tired of, and neither do our readers. This comfy armchair  with its tufted back, angled arms and tapered wooden legs  is a prime example.

This chair is a clear winner at Wayfairs Presidents' Day sale when you take a few things into consideration: its sheer beauty, its thousands of five-star reviews and its discount: 46 percent off. Choose from a slew of sophisticated colors  light blue, charcoal, gray, pale green  to add a subtle pop of joy to your room.

$250 $459 at Wayfair

Lodge Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven  30 percent off

This gorgeous Lodge cast iron Dutch oven is just $65 for Presidents' Day. (Photo: Wayfair)

No surprise here: This stunning Dutch oven by iconic iron cookware brand Lodge has a near-perfect review from almost 1,800 Wayfair shoppers. Gorgeous piece. Cleans really easily. Retains heat and evenly distributes it, summed up one fan.

Grab it for 30 percent off in a rainbow of colors including red, blue and green, then rest assured this winner will get tons of action and last for many weekday dinners and holiday feasts to come.

$65 $93 at Wayfair

Henckels Solution 15-piece Knife Block Set  over 50 percent off

Henckels is one of the most trusted names in knives. (Photo: Wayfair)

If you need a new set of knives, you can never go wrong with Henckels. This 15-piece set that includes five chef-quality, ergonomic, lightweight stainless steel knives, a utility knife and kitchen shears in a sturdy wood block has had $160 chopped off.

"Very sharp, nicely weighted," wrote a fan. "These will last for years to come.

$140 $300 at Wayfair

Cambrie 2 Nesting Tables  nearly 50 percent off

Add an elegant touch to your living area. (Photo: Wayfair)

Modern glass-top tables are always a hit, and this set of two nesting tables fits the bill. These glamorous pieces come with scratch-resistant glass that one fan called really thick and durable, plus steel polished chrome bases, so the space-saving tables are both stylish and functional.

Theyre also 46 percent off.

$265 $492 at Wayfair

Billups Ergonomic Mesh Task Chair  a wild $335 off!

Save 65 percent! These task chairs come in 10 colors. (Photo: Wayfair)

Get your work done in style and comfort with this bestselling ergonomic desk chair thats up to 65 percent off. Lumbar support and adjustability make this one a life saver for your back. It even has an extra-cushiony seat.

"Working from home since early 2020, my back has bothered me a lot. This has saved my back at a reasonable price! wrote a fan of this chair that comes in10 fun colors, including blue, purple and lime green.

$179 $485 at Wayfair

Rachael Ray Create Delicious 13 Piece Aluminum Nonstick Cookware Set  $120 off

A set of candy-colored aluminum nonstick cookware is just what you need this Presidents' Day. (Photo: Wayfair)

Save 46 percent on one of your favorite cookware brands: Rachael Ray. These pieces truly perform. Their PlatinumShield Technology nonstick coating is reinforced to be nine times harder than titanium. They also look cute in your kitchen and come in several fun colors including purple and red. At $120 off, this 13-piece set is a no-brainer.

Love the set, wrote a five-star reviewer. Beautiful color, easy clean up, nice variety of sizes, love the see-through lids. Highly recommend them!

$140 $260 at Wayfair

Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven  over 50 percent off with code

Cuisinart is a household name you can trust. (Photo: Wayfair)

This ones the real deal with seven functions  convection bake, convection broil, air fry, bake, toast, bagel and warm  but its also compact enough to fit neatly on your countertop without hogging up space  and its on sale! Use code PROMO20 for an extra $20 off.

One fan wrote: This is the second one Ive owned. I wore the first one out!! I use this more than any appliance we have. Its so convenient.

$210 $425 at Wayfair

Mercury Row Imani 81.5'' Square Arm Sleeper  nearly 40 percent off

This retro sofa bed reclines! (Photo: Wayfair)

We might have saved the best for last: this regal sleeper sofa in luxurious tufted velvet. Get this: The back can be lowered into both a lounging and a sleeping position, so you can be a queen or king on your perch  watching Netflix! Oh, and it's a ridiculous $289 off right now in gorgeous rust.

Worried about it being too small? Dont be. My partner is 62 and can lay down without curling up, said one of 11,300-plus five-star reviewers.

$450 $739 at Wayfair

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By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will urge her G20 counterparts to work towards ending the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries and ensuring they have the resources needed to support an equitable recovery, a U.S. Treasury official said on Tuesday.

Yellen is due to participate virtually in the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 major economies on Thursday and Friday.

The U.S. Treasury official laid out U.S. priorities for the meeting, which comes as COVID-19 Omicron variant cases are receding in many wealthy countries but are still rising in many developing countries. Host country Indonesia reported a daily record 57,049 new cases on Tuesday.

Southeast Asia's most populous country had initially planned an in-person G20 finance meeting in Bali, but the venue was moved to Jakarta in January when it became a hybrid gathering with many officials participating virtually.

Yellen will urge the G20 to tailor their policies to individual country circumstances to secure an inclusive recovery and to close the gap in vaccine access for poorer countries, the official said.

This includes supporting efforts by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization to address global bottlenecks in the deployment of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, the official said.

Yellen also will urge G20 countries to support a proposed global fund housed at the World Bank to invest in pandemic prevention and preparedness, with its estimated $75 billion cost a "bargain" compared to COVID-19's global economic and human costs.

Yellen also will express confidence that momentum will be maintained among 136 countries to finalize an agreement for a 15% global minimum corporate tax this year, so that it can be put into force in 2023.

The official said Democrats in the U.S. Congress broadly support the international tax provisions.

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"Secretary Yellen expects they will be part of any Build Back Better bill passed," the official added, referring to U.S. President Joe Biden's social and climate investment bill, which is currently stalled in Congress.

Yellen also intends to make a pitch for more intensive climate action to meet carbon emissions reduction goals, including mobilizing more private capital to finance the transition away from fossil fuels. Public resources can help catalyze additional private financing for reducing emissions, the official said.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Andrea ShalalEditing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)
Screenshots of a video Greg Rubenacker posted from inside the Capitol building on January 6. The Department of Justice

A New York man pleaded guilty to 10 charges related to the Capitol riot despite having no plea deal in place.

Greg Rubenacker faces several years in prison after pleading guilty to 3 felonies and 7 misdemeanors.

Prosecutors say Rubenacker assaulted police officers with a water bottle while inside the Capitol.

A New York man who assaulted police officers inside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, pleaded guilty to 10 counts related to his participation in the insurrection.

Greg Rubenacker, 26, entered a guilty plea in court last Friday, despite having no plea agreement in place with federal prosecutors, according to the Justice Department. The charges against him include assaulting police officers, civil disorder, obstructing an official proceeding, and committing an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.

The DJ faces several years in prison after pleading guilty to seven misdemeanors and three felonies. The obstruction charge carries a possible 20-year maximum sentence, while the assault charge could tack on another eight years in addition to potential fines.

Prosecutors say Rubenacker entered the Capitol multiple times on January 6, 2021. According to court documents, he recorded a video of himself inside the building, in which he said, "This is history! We took the Capitol." After initially leaving the building, Rubenacker later returned through the Rotunda Doors, court records say.

While inside the Rotunda, prosecutors say Rubenacker smoked marijuana and recorded a video of himself, which he later posted to social media with the caption, "Smoke out the Capitol, baby."

Rubenacker was later part of a group that resisted police officers who were trying to remove people from the Capitol, according to charging documents. Prosecutors say he swung a plastic bottle at an officer's head and then sprayed water from the bottle across a line of law enforcement officers. Officers eventually deployed pepper spray against the rioters, including Rubenacker, according to court records.

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He was arrested in February 2021 in Famingdale, New York.

An attorney for Rubenacker told Chief Judge Beryl Howell on Friday that the legal team rejected a plea offer from the government for the two most serious counts  assaulting police and obstruction  because they believed the Department of Justice improperly enhanced one of the charges that would significantly increase his client's offense level, WUSA reported.

If Howell agrees with Rubenacker's legal team, his recommended sentencing range could be lowered from 41-51 months to 24-30 months, according to WUSA.

Rubenacker is set to be sentenced in May, and he is allowed to remain on release until sentencing.

An attorney for Rubenacker did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

More than 770 people have been arrested in connection with the riot and 212 people have pleaded guilty.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Praveen Menon

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's parliament on Tuesday near-unanimously passed a legislation that bans practices intended to forcibly change a person's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, known as conversion therapy.

The bill, which was introduced by the government last year, passed with 112 votes in favour and eight votes opposed.

This is a great day for New Zealands rainbow communities, Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi said.

Conversion practices have no place in modern New Zealand."

The government has said practices such as conversion therapy do not work, are widely discredited and cause harm.

The legislation also lays out what is not conversion practice and protects the right to express opinion, belief, religious belief or principle which is not intended to change or suppress a persons sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

The government said it had received nearly 107,000 public submissions on the bill, the highest number of public submissions ever received on any legislation.

Under the legislation, it will be an offence to perform conversion practices on a child or young person aged under 18, or on someone with impaired decision-making capacity. Such offences would be subject to up to three years imprisonment.

It will also be an offence to perform conversion practices on anyone  irrespective of age  where the practices have caused serious harm, and offenders can be subject to up to five years imprisonment.

Laws against conversion therapy have been gaining momentum around the world. Canada's parliament voted unanimously last year to ban LGBT conversion therapy.

The United States does not have a federal ban on conversion therapy, but several U.S. states, including California, Colorado, New York, Washington and Utah, prohibit the practice to some degree.

Aimed at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, conversion therapy can include talk therapy, hypnosis, electric shocks and fasting. In extreme cases, exorcism and "corrective rape" for lesbians, have been documented.

Ending conversion therapy was one New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's campaign promises when she was elected for a second term last year.

(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)




Conservative financial news outlet ZeroHedge is denying accusations it is spreading Russian propaganda amid geopolitical tensions over Moscow's potential invasion of Ukraine.

ZeroHedge responded on Tuesday to an Associated Press article in which unnamed U.S. intelligence officials said the website has pushed Russian propaganda by saying the U.S. and others were overhyping the potential of a Russian invasion.

"Well, now we've done it - we've angered the CIA, and for what? For publishing views that challenge the conventional narrative, such as disputing that an invasion of Ukraine is actually 'imminent' as the US State Department and its mainstream media conduits repeat day after day," the outlet said in response.

The response by ZeroHedge founder Daniel Ivandjiiski, who goes by Tyler Durden on the website, added, "What we have cared about since our first day, is to provide a platform, a voice to anyone who has a unique, a different, perspective from the one pushed by the mainstream media."

Some articles on the website were listed as being written by people with links to the Strategic Culture Foundation (SCF), the AP reported, a group that allegedly worked with Russia to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election and has been sanctioned by the Biden administration.

The outlet emphasized it has never worked with Russia and has no links to any of Russia's spy agencies, raising a speculative scenario of a contributor being a double agent.

"Perhaps. We don't know. What we do know is that Alastair Crooke, one of the most prolific writers on SCF website is a former high ranking MI6 figure and UK diplomat, i.e., a former British spook. Perhaps he is now a double agent working for Putin after spending decades spying for the UK?" the outlet wrote.

"That said, we do wish to thank the AP for bringing even more attention and focus to our contrarian, non-establishment views, views which we are confident the record number of Americans who have lost faith in such media outlets as, well, the Associated Press will find refreshing," the outlet said. "As for the CIA, no we are not going to date you. Ever."

The AP also cited intelligence officials warning of three other websites with links to the FSB, Russia's security service.

"These sites enable the Russian government to secure support among the Russian and Ukrainian populations," one official said, according to the AP. "This is the primary vector for how the Russian government will bolster support domestically for an invasion into Ukraine."
(PHOTO: Zoe Tay/Instagram; James Seah/Instagram; Liza Soberano/Instagram)

Love is in the air. Whether you like it or not, your social media feed is filled with Valentine's Day posts of lovey-dovey couple photos and dinner celebrations.

Celebrities are just like us, too! Scroll down to see some of the sweetest posts from regional celebrities that Yahoo Life SEA had rounded up and how they celebrated the lovely day with their other half.

1. Zoe Tay

"Ladies love sweet words, which you are not good at. Creating a romantic atmosphere isn't your forte either. Yet, two persons of different frequency walked together," Zoe Tay captioned her series of sweet photos with her husband, Philip Chionh. Married in 1995, the couple shares three children, and Chionh is usually shielded from the limelight despite Tay's immense popularity in Singapore. Playfully hashtagging "Out with Sir Chionh" and "Ditching kids for a date", the pair is definitely #CoupleGoals.

2. Henry Golding

British-Malaysian actor Henry Golding shared a beautiful photo of his wife, Liv Lo and daughter, Lyla Golding, captioning the post with "My forever-tines". The couple had earlier celebrated their first Lunar New Year with their daughter, who was born in March 2021.

3. Liza Soberano

Filipino-American actress Liza Soberano spent a love-filled dinner with her boyfriend, Enrique Gil, on Valentine's Day, sharing photos of the couple's delicious meal and treating fans to gorgeous photos of the couple. Gil also posted a photo of Soberano at the dinner, captioning, "To my gorgeous and only valentine. This is your night my love. Happy valentines day. I love you forever and always."

4. James Seah

Newly married couple James Seah and Nicole Chang Min shared a lovely Valentine's Day with their new chihuahua puppy, Moon. The lucky Seah even got kisses from Moon while his wife made a funny face at the mister.

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5. Nora Danish

Malaysian actress and businesswoman Nora Danish shared a series of photos, including roses from her husband, Nedim Sujak Nazri Aziz. The card accompanying the flowers wrote love declarations for Nora, starting with the sweet "I am not celebrating V-Day. I am just celebrating you."

6. Romeo Tan

No Valentine, no issue! Singapore actor Romeo Tan shared two photos, posing with a rose while wishing everyone a "Happy love day". His on-screen wife Denise Camillia jokingly commented in Mandarin, "Husband, where is my flower?", to which Tan replied, "I have already left it in the letterbox."

7. Chantalle Ng

For Mediacorp actress Chantalle Ng, Valentine's Day was spent with her good friend, Tasha Low. "Spending Valentine's Day with this lovely girl @tashaalow. Let's meet up again soon," she captioned the post, sharing photos of a lovely meal with Low.

Read more:

CNY 2022: How Asian celebrities and influencers ushered in the Year of Tiger

Soo Wincci celebrates CNY while studying in Spain

Watch more Lifestyle videos:
BEDFORD  A jury on Monday found a member of the MS-13 gang guilty of aggravated murder while committing abduction for financial benefit in the slaying of Raymond Wood, a Lynchburg teenager killed in Bedford County in March 2017.

Josue Moises Coreas-Ventura, 25, also was found of guilty of abducting Wood for financial gain. He faces life in prison and will be sentenced at a later date. On the fifth day of trial, the jury returned its verdicts after three hours of deliberation.

Bedford County Commonwealths Attorney Wes Nance, who embraced Woods mother in the courtroom shortly after the verdicts were read, said the commonwealth is appreciative of the jurys decision in a difficult case.

I know it sends a strong message that this community takes these crimes of violence seriously and we greatly appreciate their service and the response that they gave today, Nance said.

Wood, 17, was abducted from his front lawn in Lynchburg, beaten, choked unconscious and stabbed repeatedly, according to evidence in the case. His body was found on Roaring Run Road in Bedford County by a motorist who drove up on what Nance described as a scene of horror.

Wood was murdered at the hands of Coreas-Ventura and several other gang members because the teen was selling drugs in a territory the defendant wanted for himself, Nance told jurors in closing arguments Monday. The victim was a barrier to Coreas-Venturas goal, so the defendant contacted his gang superiors in Maryland to send a death squad to take out a rival, Nance said.

Nance said the group took Wood on a 25-minute ride of terror from Lynchburg and took their turns getting their licks in, stabbing the victim with a large knife that belonged to Coreas-Ventura.

Coreas-Ventura, known to fellow gang members as the condemner, showed premeditation in carrying out the murder, Nance told jurors.

The condemner planned to get his hands dirty that night, and thats exactly what he did, Nance said.

Defense attorney Chris Kowalczuk told jurors the only issue in deliberating the case is why Wood was killed. It is uncontroverted Wood was brutally murdered, Kowalczuk said, but he argued the commonwealth didnt prove the element of the aggravated murder charge being done for a financial reason.

Thats [Nances] narrative and its incorrect, Kowalczuk said of a financial benefit being the reason Wood was killed, later adding: ...Raymond Wood pissed them off, disrespected them.

Kowalczuk told jurors his client should be found guilty of a lesser charge of first-degree murder and abduction, hardly a slap on the wrist, he added. He said the financial gain argument doesnt make sense and is fiction to satisfy a more severe charge under the law.

Kowalczuk presented a string of text messages over the course of several months between Wood and Victor Arnoldo Rodas, who is serving a 55-year sentence for murder in the teens killing, and said the victim had no idea he was talking to an MS-13 gang member.

The gang felt Wood cheated them on quality and amount of marijuana, Kowalczuk said.

Its not some squabble to dismiss, he said of the text messages he argued were hard evidence of the motive. These guys, unfortunately, were the real deal.

Wood was taken by Coreas-Ventura and four other gang members after playing with the deadliest of fires, Kowalczuk said.

He had no chance and its horrible, Kowalczuk said. He was murdered because he threatened the wrong guy and thats it.

Kowalczuk said Michael Eduardo Contreras and Cristian Jose Sanchez-Gomez, two MS-13 gang members, were motivated by leniency from the government in testifying against his client and minimizing their roles in Woods death.

He asked jurors to put aside emotions and apply the law in deciding the case, saying the legal system should work for his client, an illegal immigrant and gang member, as with anyone else.

If we dont follow the rule of law for guys like that, were no better than they are, are we? Kowalczuk asked the jury.

Nance said gloves found on Coreas-Ventura when he was arrested had Woods blood on it, boots the teen wore and were so proud of were recovered in the vehicle that took him to his death, and the defendant flashed MS-13 signs while in police custody, showing pride in the murder.

Nance said any disrespect from Wood toward the gang only added to why he was killed but wasnt the sole cause. The game plan of MS-13 is control, power and money through extortion and drug dealings, and Coreas-Ventura wanted to establish himself in the Lynchburg area, Nance said.

This isnt just a squabble, Nance said. Its them setting up camp.

Coreas-Ventura has pleaded guilty to one count of gang participation in this case and awaits sentencing on that charge. He also faces another count of aggravated murder, alleging the killing of two persons within three years, but that charge has been separated and will be tried at a later date. In 2017, the Montgomery County, Maryland Police Department announced Coreas-Ventura was arrested and charged with murder, along with four other people, in connection with a 2016 homicide.

Nance described the jurys verdicts Monday as a day of justice for Wood.

He said it was important for the prosecution and Woods family to charge Coreas-Ventura to the fullest extent of the law, which is why the aggravated murder count was sought. He said it puts the commonwealth in a good place to ensure he never threatens another person as long as he lives.

This was a horrific crime, Nance said. It shocks the conscience of career lawmen and women. Were going to do everything we can to bring justice to Raymonds memory, to his friends and to his family. We will leave no stone unturned. We will pursue full justice and accountability for every person in connection with this crime.

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LOS ANGELES (AP)  The family of a cinematographer shot and killed on the set of the film "Rust" sued Alec Baldwin and the movie's producers Tuesday alleging their "callous" disregard in the face of safety complaints led directly to her death.

At a news conference announcing the lawsuit, attorneys for the husband and 9-year-old son of Halyna Hutchins said that Baldwin refused training for the type of "cross-draw" he was performing when he fired the shot that killed her.

Baldwin's attorney responded that any claim the actor was reckless is "entirely false."

The suit filed in New Mexico's Santa Fe County in the name of Matthew and Andros Hutchins shows a text message exchange between a camera operator and a producer in which a complaint over gun safety was met with what the suit calls "callous sarcasm."

The operator, Lane Luper, texted unit production manager Katherine Walters saying: "We've now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe."

Walters responds: "Accidental discharge on the firearm? Awesome. Sounds good."

At least four other lawsuits have been filed over the shooting, but this is the first directly tied to one of the two people shot.

The defendants' "reckless conduct and cost-cutting measures led to the death of Halyna Hutchins," attorney Brian Panish said.

Had proper protocols been followed, the suit says, "Halyna Hutchins would be alive and well, hugging her husband and 9-year-old son. "

Baldwin, who was also a producer on the film, was pointing a gun at Hutchins inside a small church during the setup for the filming of a scene for the Western in New Mexico on Oct. 21 when it went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza. The attorneys showed an animated recreation of the shooting at the news conference.

Baldwin has said he was pointing the gun at Hutchins at her instruction and it went off without him pulling the trigger.

The suit says industry standards call for using a rubber or similar prop gun during the setup, and there was no call for a real gun.

It also says that both Baldwin and assistant director David Halls, who handed him the gun, should have checked the revolver for live bullets.

The suit also names as defendants Halls, Walters, the film's armorer Hannah Guttierez Reed, and ammunition supplier Seth Kenney.

"Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false," Aaron Dyer, attorney for Baldwin and other producers, said in a statement Tuesday. "He, Halyna and the rest of the crew relied on the statement by the two professionals responsible for checking the gun that it was a 'cold gun'  meaning there is no possibility of a discharge."

He added that "actors should be able to rely on armorers and prop department professionals, as well as assistant directors, rather than deciding on their own when a gun is safe to use."

Last month Baldwin turned over his cellphone to investigators, and Dyer said he continues to cooperate fully with the investigation.

Authorities have described "some complacency" in how weapons were handled on the "Rust" set. They have said it is too soon to determine whether charges will be filed.

Baldwin said he does not believe he will be criminally charged in the shooting.

Several crew members have filed lawsuits, including Gutierrez Reed, who blamed Kenney for the shooting.

In an interview with ABC, Baldwin said Hutchins had asked him to point the gun just off camera and toward her armpit before it went off.

"I didn't pull the trigger," Baldwin said. "I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never."

Panish said Tuesday that the assertion was unrealistic.

"I think it's clear what happened," he said. "Alec had the gun in his hand, he shot it, Halyna was killed."

The complaint does not cite a dollar amount, but Panish said it would be considerable.

"A longtime marriage, a soulmate is lost, and a boy to be raised without a mother at a young age is a tremendous loss," he said. "And anyone who's even been close to that experience knows, that that goes on forever and ever and ever."
DES MOINES  Legislation to make sure Iowans receiving public assistance are the truly eligible was approved by the House Human Resources Committee on Tuesday over Democratic concerns that the cost of the bill would be more than the savings.

Theres a lot of good things in this bill, Rep. Tom Jeneary, R-Le Mars, said in explaining that House Study Bill 698 would codify practices for authenticating identity and eligibility of applicants for public assistance programs.

If enacted, applicants would have to complete an authentication process to confirm their identity through the use of a knowledge-based questionnaire consisting of financial and personal questions tailored to assist people without a bank account or those who have poor access to financial and banking services or who do not have an established credit history.

In addition, HSB 698 would require the Department of Human Services to cross-check, at least monthly, information about Iowans enrolled in a food assistance program or Medicaid using federal databases including Social Security, the departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development and the FBI. The eligibility of every member of a household would have to be verified using nationwide public records, including records of real property and automobiles, watercraft, aircraft, luxury vehicles and any other vehicles owned by the applicant. The bill would require anyone seeking food assistance to cooperate with the Child Support Recovery Unit.

Rep. Kristin Sunde, D-West Des Moines, questioned whether the investment would be worth it. Looking at the experiences of other states, the return on investment has been poor. Sunde also pointed out the committee doesnt know how many DHS staff members will be needed and at what cost.

I feel like its more hoops to jump through, Sunde said. Im just concerned that at a time when grocery costs are skyrocketing and we know that (food stamp) recipients are already having their benefits reduced, I just want to move forward with ultimate caution because, in the end, I dont want kids to be impacted adversely.

The committee voted 13-8 to move the bill to the full House.
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Moroccos Royal Armed Forces (FAR) on Sunday foiled an international drug trafficking attempt, at the level of Oum Dreiga, along the defense line in the Moroccan Sahara.

The trafficking attempt was foiled as part of the surveillance of Moroccos borders and during the patrols conducted by the FAR along the defense line at the level of Oum Dreiga, a military source said.

This operation led to the seizure of 4 off-road vehicles, loaded with 6 tons of cannabis resin, the military source said, adding that the vehicles occupants have fled.

The drug and the vehicles seized were handed over to the Royal Gendarmerie for the usual procedures.
Israel has agreed to sell Morocco the Barak MX air and missile defense system in a deal worth more than $500 million, Israeli media reported.

The deal was approved by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) after Morocco and Israel sealed a defense cooperation pact last November.

The Israeli air defense system protects against a range of missile threats and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), Israeli news portal Globes reported.

The system provides management of three types of interceptors from IAIs Barak family: Barak-MRAD is a single pulse rocket motor, which intercepts missiles up to ranges of 35 kilometers; Barak-LRAD is a dual pulse rocket motor, which intercepts missiles up to ranges of 70 kilometers; and Barak-ER dual pulse rocket motor and an additional booster for a range of 150 kilometers.

The website reported that IAIs new appointed chairman Amir Peretz, who is of Moroccan origins, has been deeply involved in the deal, adding that the order was raised during Israeli defense minister Gantz visit to Rabat.

Morocco has already indirectly purchased Heron UAVs from IAI and other UAVs from IAI unit Bluebird as well as robot patrol vehicle systems from Elbit Systems and drone interceptors from Skylock.

But the signing of the defense pact with Israel will enable transactions to be carried out directly.
The international community at Libyas bedside. The country has two Prime ministers. Abdelhamid Dbeibah, who has been in office for a year, and the former Minister of the Interior, Fathi Bachagha, chosen last Thursday by the Tobruk parliament. This is a worrying situation, as the transition is still ongoing and elections are still expected after the aborted December 2021 elections. Yesterday, February 13, Stephanie Williams, UN special advisor for Libya, met with the two men to avoid an escalation.

Stephanie Williams repeated the same message to the two Prime Ministers: it is necessary to preserve calm on the ground above all, in the interest of the unity and stability of the country. The diplomat was careful to maintain her neutrality. The UN says it continues to recognize Abdelhamid Dbeibah, while having taken note of the appointment of Fathi Bachagha.

To the UN special envoy, Abdelhamid Dbeibah said the need to complete the road map and create the conditions for elections and a constitutional referendum. The Tripoli-based Prime Minister thus shows that his position has not budged. He will only hand over power to an elected government.

Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers.
These statements, made last night on France 5, come a few hours after a video conference meeting of European foreign ministers and on the eve of a meeting between Emmanuel Macron and three of his Sahelian counterparts: Nigers Mohamed Bazoum, Chads Mahamat Idriss Deby and Mauritanias Mohamed Ould Ghazouani.

The President of the Republic wanted us to reorganize but we are not leaving, insisted Jean-Yves Le Drian. If the conditions are no longer met for us to be able to act in Mali, we will continue to fight terrorism on the side, with the other countries of the Sahel who are quite demanding, explained the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In the eyes of Paris, the conditions are no longer met for France to maintain its military action in Mali. Keeping the military junta in power and the arrival of Wagners Russian mercenaries, which Jean-Yves Le Drian estimates at 1,000 today, seem to constitute red lines that have been crossed.

The crisis with Mali is imposing a difficult balancing act on France. After a long diplomatic effort on the part of France, a dozen European countries are now mobilized in the Takuba task force, a group of special forces that was to take over from Barkhane. The announcement of a withdrawal from Mali would therefore put an end to a unique experience, which Paris boasted about.

A source close to the Elysee Palace affirms that the partner countries wish to continue this experiment.

Niger, which has been hosting a forward command post for Barkhane and its Sahelian partners since November 2020, is not very attracted to the idea. Mauritania has so far maintained a certain neutrality with regard to the Malian situation.

As for Burkina Faso, there has been a great deal of uncertainty since the coup detat of January 24. Although the French general staff has been making repeated appeals in recent weeks to communicate the military successes of the Burkinabe army, supported by Barkhane, the junta has not yet expressed its views. Lieutenant Colonel Damiba, recently promoted to president, was in any case not invited to todays meeting between Emmanuel Macron and three of his Sahelian counterparts.

Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers.
A decline in COVID-19 patients has given hospitals some relief, but staffing issues are still a cause for concern.

On Friday, the number of COVID-19 patients in Nebraska hospitals dropped to 469, the lowest level since just after Christmas. The number had risen to 496 by Sunday night, but that's still down more than 20% from a week ago.

"Numbers in the state are certainly headed in the right direction, and we remain hopeful that they will continue in that direction," said Jeremy Nordquist, president of the Nebraska Hospital Association.

The decline in hospitalizations has followed a sharp drop in COVID-19 cases as the surge caused by the omicron variant has eased over the past several weeks.

For the week ending Friday, statewide cases totaled 3,836, an average of 548 a day. That was almost half of the previous week's total of 7,535 cases. The statewide test positivity rate is now below 11%, down from 27% a month ago.

Cases in Lancaster County fell to 809 for the week that ended Saturday, the lowest weekly total since the week of Thanksgiving. The number of COVID-19 patients in Lincoln hospitals, which fell below 100 Friday for the first time in more than two months, was down to 87 on Monday.

Jim Ulrich, CEO of York General Hospital, said the Four Corners Health Department, where he's located, had 928 cases in a week three weeks ago but had just 106 over the past week.

"Certainly it's been welcome to see the downturn," he said.

The hospital now has no COVID-19 patients, after having as many as five in a day a month ago.

That may not sound like a lot, but York General only has 25 acute-care beds, and currently is only able to staff about 15 of them, Ulrich said. Even without the COVD-19 patients, the hospital is still within a patient or two of being full on a daily basis and is still seeing people who are very sick with other ailments such as influenza, he said.

Ulrich said the hospital has about 30 open positions, including 16 for nurses, making the problem more one of staffing availability than bed availability.

He said he's hoping to hire enough nurses in the coming weeks to get to 16-19 staffed beds.

"We'd love to get to all 25, but we're just not there in our staffing right now," Ulrich said.

He also said that it's not just a shortage of staff that's a problem but also the well-being of existing staff that is a concern.

"It's not the fear of the unknown that maybe we had at the beginning of the pandemic, it's just the wear and tear of that and a little bit of COVID fatigue," Ulrich said, although he noted that things appear to be getting better.

Mike Hansen, president and CEO of Columbus Community Hospital, said he could think of only one day through the pandemic where the hospital didn't have at least one COVID-19 patient, and that constant patient load has taken its toll.

"Staff are tired. Staff are fatigued," Hansen said. "What keeps me up at night is worrying about my staff's mental health."

Despite the steady decline in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, they are still taking up a significant number of staffed beds statewide. According to the Department of Health and Human Services' COVID-19 dashboard, 12% of adult hospital beds and 20% of intensive care beds in Nebraska are still occupied by someone with COVID-19.

"The general public doesn't recognize probably that we're still in this battle," Hansen said.

Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
China calls on all parties to avoid actions that would escalate tensions in Ukraine: FM spokesperson

Xinhua) 09:49, February 15, 2022

BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday called on all relevant parties to remain rational and avoid actions that would escalate tensions and impact the crisis in Ukraine.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily press briefing that China is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine, and the Chinese embassy and consulates in the country are operating as usual.

Wang said the Chinese embassy in Ukraine has issued a consular notice asking Chinese citizens to closely monitor the situation on the ground, and stating that it will provide consular protection.

Noting that China's position on Ukraine is consistent, clear and unchanged, Wang said that to solve the Ukrainian issue, it is necessary to return to the starting point of the Minsk-2 agreement, which is endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.

"All parties should push for a comprehensive settlement of the Ukrainian crisis and relevant issues through dialogue and negotiation," the spokesperson said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
A 34-year-old Hastings man was sentenced Monday to one to three years in state prison in connection with a incident near Lake Maloney nearly two years ago.

In Lincoln County District Court, James T. Mitchell received three years for assaulting an officer with an motor vehicle. He also was sentenced to two years for operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest.

Both sentences will run at the same time and he was credited with 45 days served. Mitchell will also have to serve 12 months of post-release supervision for the assault charge.

Two other charges  possession of 28 to 139 milligrams of methamphetamine and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony  were dismissed in the plea agreement.

Mitchell pleaded no contest to the two felonies Oct. 4. The charges are in connection to a Feb. 24, 2020, incident at Kansas Point Campground as officers attempted to detain him on an arrest warrant.

According to court records, Mitchell refused commands to exit the vehicle he was in. As a sheriffs deputy grabbed his arm through the drivers side window, he put the car in reverse and dragged and injured the officer.

Mitchell ultimately was shot while attempting to flee. He was transported to Great Plains Health and later moved to a hospital in Omaha for treatment of his injuries.

Mitchell addressed the court before he was sentenced Monday and said he couldnt apologize enough for his actions.

I never meant to hurt anybody, Mitchell said. Im not that (violent) person.

Law enforcement found a package on the floorboard of Mitchells vehicle that contained 135 grams of methamphetamine. Mitchells attorney, Marty J. Troshynski, said his client is awaiting sentencing on federal charges in connection with the incident. Those charges carry a potential prison term of 15 to 20 years.

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A 31-year-old man pleaded not guilty Monday to six charges connected to a liquor store robbery in North Platte on Christmas Eve.

Trevor L. Franklin, 31, pleaded not guilty to charges of robbery, use of a firearm to commit a felony, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, possession of methamphetamine, possession of heroin and being a habitual criminal.

An April 25 status hearing was scheduled.

The charges are linked to an armed robbery at Big Red Liquor just before 8 p.m. Dec. 24. According to court records, a man in a plain hoodie coat pointed a silver handgun at two store employees and took the cash box. He cut the stores power before entering and blacked out his face with makeup

He was arrested outside a skill game room about a block southeast of the store

In other cases Monday (defendants are from North Platte unless otherwise noted):

 Joseph A. Pittman, 32, pleaded guilty of making terroristic threats on June 6. A charge of using a firearm to commit a felony was dismissed in the plea agreement.

Pittman was sentenced to 364 days in jail and credited with 207 days served. He also received nine months of post-release supervision.

 Cynthia M. Canann, 45, pleaded guilty of possession of a methamphetamine on Sept. 24.

A misdemeanor count of false reporting was dismissed in the plea agreement.

Canann was sentenced to 270 days in jail and credited with 143 days served. She also received 12 months of post-release supervision.

Canann also pleaded guilty of possession of a hazardous drug with intent to distribute in a separate case that stems from a Dec. 28, 2020, incident. Her sentence was deferred with acceptance into the problem-solving court program.

Charges in a third case were dismissed.

 Joshua A. Richards, 33, pleaded no contest to third-degree domestic assault in an Aug. 6 incident.

A felony charge of making terroristic threats was dismissed in the plea agreement.

Richards was sentenced to 364 days in jail and credited with 191 days served.

 Irma A. Divas Donas, 22, of Lincoln, pleaded no contest to driving under the influence on April 18, 2020.

Two other charges from the incident were dismissed in the plea agreement.

Divas Donas was sentenced to 364 days of probation and fined $500, and her drivers license was revoked for 60 days.

 Kent A. Smith, 34, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine in three separate cases.

The possession charges stem from incidents on Dec. 10, 2019, and March 21 and March 25, 2020.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and 12 months of post-release supervision in all three cases.

The terms will run at the same time.

Smith was credited with 95 days, a combination of days spent in jail and in treatment.

 Derrick L. Carr, 47, pleaded no contest to an amended charge of attempted failure to report address charge as a registered sex offender.

Carr was sentenced to 90 days in jail and credited with two days served.

 Travis L. Brandt, 41, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of driving under the influence with one prior conviction.

A count of driving during revocation was dismissed in the plea agreement.

Brandt was sentenced to 132 days in jail and credited with 74 days served. He also was fined $1,000 and will have his license revoked for 24 months.

 David A. Plaster, 40, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of third-degree assault of an officer or health care professional on Dec. 7, 2020.

Four other charges in the case were dismissed in the plea agreement.

Plaster was sentenced to 24 months of specialized substance abuse supervision probation.

 Nicole Lytle, 41, of Hastings, received a 36-month probation term for a count of second-degree domestic assault on June 24, 2020.

 Jackson L. Seitz, 23, admitted violating conditions of his nine-month post-release supervision.

Seitz was sentenced to 150 days in jail and credited for 49 days served.

 Marcus M Nida, 25, pleaded guilty of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance on Oct. 15, 2020.

Nidas sentence was deferred with acceptance into the problem-solving court program.

 Brandon T. Goodall, 26, pleaded no contest to a charge of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute on Dec. 17.

Two other charges in the case were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Goodalls sentence was deferred with acceptance into the problem-solving court program.

 Scott L. Harbick, 37, pleaded no contest to a felony count of intentional child abuse with no injury on Aug. 4.

Harbick also admitted to probation violations in two other additional cases.

Charges in two additional separate cases were dismissed in the plea agreement.

Harbick is scheduled to be sentenced April 11.

 Wesley H. Hawkins. 53, pleaded not guilty to two charges of attempted first-degree assault of an officer or health care professional, three counts of use of a firearm to commit a felony, and a charge each of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a stolen firearm.

The charges all stem from a June 27, 2020, incident.

An April 25 status hearing was scheduled.

 Mark C. Matson, 43, pleaded not guilty to charges of use of a firearm to commit a felony, making terroristic threats, domestic assault intentionally causing bodily injury, and negligent child abuse with no injury.

An April 25 status hearing was scheduled.

 Luke C. Ressegieu, 32, pleaded not guilty of assault by strangulation or suffocation and assault causing bodily injury to a person. Both charges stem from a Dec. 21 incident.

An April 25 status hearing was set for the case as well as a separate one involving an alleged probation violation.

 Zachary R. OGwynn, 32, pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of third-degree domestic assault with a prior conviction and a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest.

A March 28 status hearing was scheduled.

 Cody R. Bayne pleaded guilty to charges of theft by shoplifting with a value of $500 or less and possession of Xanax and Klonopin. All three charges stem from a Jan. 2 incident.

Charges in two additional cases were dismissed in the plea agreement.

Bayne is scheduled to be sentenced April 11.

 Reid C. Corbett, 56, of Mankato, Minnesota, pleaded not guilty to a count of possession of 10-27 grams of methamphetamine on Jan. 5.

A March 28 status hearing was scheduled.

 Charles W. Lynch, 50, pleaded not guilty to three charges of possession of a controlled substance, as well as misdemeanor counts of second-offense driving under the influence, refusal to submit to test and no proof of insurance.

The six charges all stem from a Jan. 11 incident.

An April 11 status hearing was scheduled for the case and a separate one.

 Jad R. Hipple, 34, pleaded not guilty to possession of Adderall on Dec. 7.

An April 11 status hearing was scheduled,

 Christopher D. Bornschein, 32, pleaded not guilty to four counts of possession of a controlled substance on Dec. 17.

He also pleaded not guilty to counts of possession of a controlled substance and second-degree criminal trespass in a separate case for the same date.

A Feb. 28 status hearing was scheduled for both cases.

 Nichole E. Wright, 40, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree domestic assault, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, and two counts of negligent child abuse with no injury on Dec. 27.

Wright also pleaded not guilty to a count of intentional child abuse with no injury in a separate case for the same date.

An April 11 status hearing was scheduled for both cases.

 Rachel L. Humphrey, 41, denied violating conditions that led to her removal from the problem-solving court program.

A March 14 status hearing was scheduled.

 Amy Berenti, 39, of Omaha, denied violating conditions that led to her removal from the problem-solving court program.

A March 1 hearing was scheduled.

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What pandemic-scarred 2020 started, 2021 confirmed for North Plattes 1.5% city sales tax collection:

It didnt crash from COVID-19. It boomed.

An all-time net December take of $880,863 sealed a final 2021 sales-tax total of $9,674,076  15.7% above 2020s record of $8,359,969.

Decembers total broke that months one-year-old record of $762,433 by 15.5%, according to Nebraska Department of Revenue figures released Monday.

It gave North Platte its eighth $800,000-plus month during 2021 and marked the citys 10th straight record for a given month and 17th in the past 19 reported months.

It definitely shows a good trend moving forward, said Gary Person, president and CEO of the North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp.

Thats a pretty significant increase, as we all know  2020 was not a normal year, but it was fairly healthy from a sales-tax standpoint considering what was going on in the world.

Lincoln Countys 4% lodging tax collected a net $59,494 in December to close the book on its own record-smashing year in 2021.

The hotel-motel tax brought in $1,129,942, completing its first year in seven figures in online records dating to 2006.

Resurgent tourist traffic lifted 2021s lodging-tax figure 70.4% higher than in pandemic-ravaged 2020 but also 23.6% above 2019 and 17.6% more than the previous all-time record in 2015.

North Plattes sales-tax rally started with a bang in June 2020, breaking the $800,000 barrier for the first time after depressed net receipts for COVID-19s first three months.

The momentum first lifted 2020s total 0.8% over 2019s, then produced five $800,000-plus months in a row from May to September. June set the citys all-time record for any month with $895,814.

Person said his optimism about continued economic growth was buoyed by seeing 2021s year-end sales-tax total race past $9 million and toward $10 million.

With a good trend (that) were seeing in retail and continued local spending tied to construction projects, we should top that $10 million figure for sure, Person said.

He also welcomed last years strong recovery for the countys hotel-motel tax, though Decembers net intake fell just short of the months record of $61,443 in 2017.

That broke the lodging taxs own seven-month streak of setting monthly records, which included an all-time high for any month of $161,257 in July.

Both taxes totals are signs of a really healthy economy and the attractiveness of North Platte for the traveler, Person said. It bodes very well for our future.

More by Todd von Kampen

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Writer Beer & Society

There is nothing that cannot be discussed and worked out over a beer. Join me as I explore local beer, breweries and how they can civilize us.
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Beyond Identity Inc.

With the Great Resignation, Workers are Leaving in Record-Breaking Numbers and the Cybersecurity Threat to Employers is Very Real

NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a recent study, phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) provider Beyond Identity gathered responses from former employees across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland and found a vast majority of employees (83%) admitted to maintaining continued access to accounts from a previous employer. The cybersecurity threat this poses is coupled with the fact that more than half of these employees (56%) said they had used this continued digital access with the specific intent of harming their former employer.



Ongoing access to sensitive information paired with frequently malicious intent spelled disaster for these former employers. When the survey turned to focus specifically on responses from managers and business leaders, 74% admitted their company had been negatively impacted by a former employee breaching their cybersecurity.

The most common hacks and infractions included logging into corporate social media (36%), looking through company emails (32%), and taking company files and documents (31%). More than one in four former employees even went so far as to log in to the back end of the companys website.

Results were gathered from currently employed persons, all of whom had previously left a single position. Their locations varied, as did their industries, levels of employment, and genders. However, in spite of this variance, responses were alarmingly similar and revealed a risk to employers globally.

Fortunately, there was a saving grace for companies. According to the survey, a professional, detailed offboarding process could accomplish two important things: prevent unauthorized access by former employees by eliminating their passwords and other insecure authentication methods, and simultaneously generate goodwill, thereby lessening the motivation to harm a former employer. The study also revealed that the United States was much more likely to execute such an effective offboarding process, compared with companies based in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

Story continues

To read Beyond Identitys full findings and to hear steps on how to implement effective offboarding processes that protect your companys assets, please visit the survey.

About Beyond Identity

Beyond Identity is fundamentally changing how the world logs in with a groundbreaking invisible MFA platform that provides the most secure and frictionless authentication on the planet. We stop ransomware and account takeover attacks in their tracks and dramatically improve the user experience. Beyond Identitys state-of-the-art platform eliminates passwords and other phishable factors, enabling organizations to confidently validate users identities. The solution ensures users log in from authorized devices, and that the device meets the security policy requirements for the target application during login and continuously after that. Our revolutionary approach empowers zero trust by cryptographically binding the users identity to their device and analyzing hundreds of risk signals on an ongoing basis. The companys advanced risk policy engine enables organizations to shift left by adding completely secure authentication and utilizing risk signals for protection, rather than just for detection and response. For more information on why Snowflake, Unqork, and Roblox use Beyond Identity, please visit www.beyondidentity.com.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact:

Claire Mutty

CHEN PR for Beyond Identity

cmutty@chenpr.com

781-672-3113




Mayor Gary Fuller said the City of Opelika has had many successes in 2021 when he gave an annual review last week at the State of the City event.

With the completed projects and the ones still in process, Fuller said there is much to be proud of including the Sportsplex, becoming Alabamas first Gig City offering one-gigabit-per-second fiber optic service, opening a new library, having state-of-the-art pre-K classrooms, completing renovations at Opelika High School and getting new facilities for Opelika Power, the fire department and police and municipal court.

We cant rest, Fuller said. Theres much more to be done.

Fuller said Opelika has added 4,000 new jobs and more than 2,000 new single family homes and had a record-breaking year in all economic sectors.

Residential

Fuller said residential development has continued to grow and new residential housing permits reached high numbers that shattered records.

Residential development set an all-time record last year with 488 single family homes permits at $118 million, 168 multi-unit family permits at $23 million and 28 new commercial building permits at $20 million.

Opelika Planning Director Matt Mosley, his staff and the planning commission reviewed 27 conditional use cases and 11 rezoning projects, approved 20 preliminary subdivision plats with 1,375 lots and 20 final subdivision plats with 1,031 lots.

We are not near finished building houses, Fuller said. Were gonna keep building houses.

This past year, the city also adopted a rental registration and inspection ordinance that became effective Jan. 1.

We felt there was a need to protect the public health, safety and welfare of the occupants of residential rental dwellings in the city, Fuller said. It will insure that the 4,500 rental units in the city will meet minimum standards for dwelling units.

Fuller said the building inspectors follow a checklist that will insure building, electrical and life safety, and this checklist and other information about the ordinance can be found on the City of Opelika website.

Public safety

Fuller said the Opelika Police Department has continued to grow the Together, Opelika campaign, created to build relationships between OPD officers and Opelika citizens as well as decrease crime and increase community engagement.

During 2021, OPD officers participated in more than 200 community events, which encouraged other agencies to adopt similar practices and programs, Fuller said.

The OPD also responded to 79,401 calls for service, completed 10,709 certified training hours, had eight officer promotions and 11 police academy graduates.

Chief (Shane) Healey, Im proud of what you and your team are doing at Opelika Police Department and the culture that youre establishing, Fuller said.

The OPD app and ConnectOpelika, a text and web chat platform, have been great tools to get emergency and non-emergency information out to the public, Fuller said.

The Opelika Fire Department launched several social media platforms and participated in over 300 community outreach programs in 2021.

Chief (Shane) Boyd and the fire department have been making improvements whether it be new equipment, additional services, spending more time in the community and enhancing their training, Fuller said.

This past year, the OFD responded to 5,810 emergency calls, 605 pre-fire plans and 95 fire drills; completed 196 business inspections and 10,656 training hours; issued 442 burn permits; and tested and painted 11,000 fire hydrants.

Fuller said Opelika is looking to add an additional fire station by the summer of 2023, which will become the fifth station in the city.

The fire department had a lead role in the city wide automatic external defibrillator program and 114 new AEDs have been installed.

With assistance from the city council, Fuller said the fire department made improvements to the training facility and now has one of the premiere training facilities in the state.

The fire department also was awarded a partnership with the Alabama Fire College as the newest regional training center destination.

In 2021 Municipal Court Administrator Denise Rogers kicked off the citys first Court Forgiveness Program, which provides an opportunity for individuals with certain municipal court charges to clear their cases without concern of being arrested.

Playing and reading

The Opelika Parks and Recreation Department has made improvements including the addition of outdoor restrooms at the Sportsplex, a paved parking lot and walking track at Shady Park, renovations at the Covington Recreation Center and will soon have a total of 24 covered pickleball courts.

Fuller said the parks & rec department hosted 13 major pickleball tournaments involving several thousand players and spectators.

Not only does that give us great exposure, but it really is good for our restaurants, our hotels and our retail stores, Fuller said.

In October 2021, Opelika also celebrated the grand opening of the new public library.

Fuller said Opelika is fortunate to have library director Rosanna McGinnis, not only for the work shes done at the library but also for her work with the Victorian Front Porch Tour and for volunteering for the vaccination clinic.

Fuller said the community responded enthusiastically and there was a dramatic increase in foot traffic and use of materials at the library.

Since the doors opened there have been 57,349 visits, 951 new library cards, 14,272 digital materials used and 50,371 physical materials used, he said.

Infrastructure

Fuller said Opelika has been working diligently on infrastructure projects and will continue to design roads and intersections for the future.

The city is currently replacing the bridge on North Uniroyal Road and is making industrial road improvements at West Frazier and several other areas.

Weve been wearing it out on building sidewalks, Fuller said. We did all of South Fourth Street; were now over on North 10th street. Weve put down miles of sidewalks and we still have a lot more to do.

New roundabouts are scheduled to be installed at Sportsplex Parkway at Exit 64 and at Veterans Parkway/Academy Drive.

Another project in the works is the widening of I-85 at Exit 60, which Fuller said was the worst interchange in the state of Alabama and will take some time to finish improving.

The Opelika Planning Commission kicked off the Opelika 2040 Comprehensive Plan this past year, which will help guide the city over the next 20 years.

Fuller said the first phase included in-person meetings and questionnaires, and the final plan will be presented to the city council and the community sometime in the fall of 2022.
Washington, PA (15301)

Today

Overcast with showers at times. High around 75F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
His performative hatred of his own music is sf annoying. Sir you earned enough to move to Ibiza and party away. Show some gratitude, you posh prick. Get out of my face!!!!

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It's been 84 years.gif, sir is allowed to move on from this spiel.

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I adore James Blunt

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Erm, surely Nickelback is the correct answer?





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look at this photograph blasts over the loud speaker



protestors:



protestors:

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Oh jfc yep that one would do me. My heart will go on and others thar people find annoying are fine and Id probably just sing along to. Haha.

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Not in Canada lol

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I straight up got into one of the ugliest fights Ive ever been in because I put on Baby Shark once. Like, finger pointed in my face and threatening me, lmao.

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Baby Shark is a bop!

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Omg right

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Right? That's not a flash mob tbh.

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ngl, i love baby shark. catchy and very few lyrics to remember

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I listen to it every time I bath my baby haha. I think its cute

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it's also got a good beat for changing the words!

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Okay, my niece and I would be jamming.



But hopefully the people protesting against masks hate it and go home

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Baby shark is barter than anything James blunt put out. But he seems to be self aware about his awful so I cant hate too much

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All I can think of when I hear Goodbye My Lover is that office episode where Michael refuses to buy the full song and just plays the 30 second iTunes preview of it over and over

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Goodbye My Lover is annoying, I do love Same Mistake, tho

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this is just what i needed to start my day!

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Bb shark

Doo doo doo d-ugh fuck.



Use Daniel Prowter instead. He hates his most famous song. Or better yet have them both collab on an annoying song.

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I dread the day that my nephew learns about Baby Shark. I refuse to be around when it plays.

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give him ponytail before he gets to baby shark.



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Awww, this brought back memories of my now 6-year-old being obsessed with Badanamu. :')

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i'm having saturday morning vh1 flashbacks

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Slightly OT - I mentioned to a friend that Jamie Tartt's little idk theme song that they sing in the pubs or at the stadiums was cute (Ted Lasso.)



She laughed and said that was set to Baby Shark.



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neck tattoo removal for new signee  VinceMcMahonGoogling (@VinceGoogling) February 15, 2022



Kevins bit about how much he loves Texas was really funny



And then

Kevins bit about how much he loves Texas was really funnyAnd then

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Ive only ever been to Texas [Dallas] once, for two weeks with work and it was the most humid before 7a, traffic-fucked city I have ever visited in all of my days in the domestic United States [including NYC and California] 

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idk i can't see cody and brandi returning to wwe? what is there for them what's there for anyone tbh ? but wrestling is such a mess who knows. i hope they don't, every day i hate wwe more and more lol.



also ot but i really hope the kid who got excited during keith lee's debut got sent a t-shirt or something because that moment made me tear up lol.

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I can't imagine Cody going back to WWE but also money talks so idk if like Vince brought over a massive Brinks to his house.

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vince is petty enough i can def see him offering a ridiculous amount of money to poach people from aew lol



i can just see him and his stupid walk going up to cody with a giant briefcase.

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Vince is petty but Tony Khan is richer so idk wouldn't TK be able to outbid for Cody and Brandi.

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true! i do wonder if this is a work. cody has "left" aew before. so who knows? i won't be sad if he's gone tbh but i'd be bummed if he went back to wwe.

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sorry but i dont want stone cold having another match if it isnt the one against the rock and triple h that we NEVER got.

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Hulk Hogan is a POS but that tweet is iconic, I'm not surprised at all Cody is going back to WWE, they all do lol

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I havent outright watched pro wrestling in decades but I follow a shit ton of them on social media because of reasons [] so seeing how hard these two rode for AEW all of the time to them just randomly ! is concerning, but if they dont do anything but stay home and watch over their baby and that cute ass husky then I'm okay with that.



WWE IS . Always has been, always will be. ALSO, arent they about to release a lot more people in March from contracts?

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"WWE IS . Always has been, always will be"



Then. Now. Forever.

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How did vince treat cody when he had cody?

I don't see him or most others going back. WWE fucking sucks for 99% of the people on the roster. I just can't imagine Vince doing what it takes to get people back. Except someone like Jericho who I know people are predicting might come back for one last run for HOF.

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I have no idea what's going on with Cody & Brandi. The crowds hated both of them. It was so embarrassing when the crowd threw back Cody's belt lmao. I wish Cody would've stayed trying to build talent and introduce wrestlers (like he did with Darby Allin & Eddie Kingston). But no he kept trying to make himself the star and main event. Like that over the top entrance music with the choir and that bizarre time he set himself on fire like wtf.



This promo against Cody made me first notice Eddie Kingston (he's one of my favorites now):





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i looooooove eddie, so much

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I love Eddie! Cant wait for him to come back.

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Eddie is one of my favorites too. He's so good!





and i also think he's so fine too.

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Yes IA. He's got the prettiest eyes of a wrestler I've ever seen.

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Eddie is amazing. Dude could cut a promo about anything and Id be at the edge of my seat

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I can't even see Brandi's name without thinking about the "You're a black belt? Well, I'm a Black bitch!" promo 

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Please tell me this isn't serious lmaoooooo

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pic.twitter.com/lN6RvC8BU1  No Context Dr.Umar (@nocontextdrumar) December 30, 2021



I don't know how she managed to do one of the worst promos of the whole year AT THE END OF THE YEAR.

BAAAAYBEEEEE. Black Wrestling Twitter had the time of our lives with this shit lmaoI don't know how she managed to do one of the worst promos of the whole year AT THE END OF THE YEAR.

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this is so weird to me?? some people even think its all some sort of weird gimmick bc it's just so odd. dustin is staying with aew though.



i have to think its a money thing if he goes back to wwe, or maybe he's just taking a break/done with wrestling for now.



Edited at 2022-02-15 06:43 pm (UTC)

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lol i hate cody so much i dont even care no more. what was the point



i would lie if i said i wouldnt lose my shit if steve austin came back

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Ive never been a huge fan of Codys because everything he does comes across as so disingenuous, so naturally I have no idea what to make of this haha. I wont be upset if this really is a huge work, but AEWs roster has enough depth to make up for his absence if hes really outta there.

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Well, this is fucking bizarre.

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New California Bill Would Require Covid-19 Vaccinations for Employment

California Assembly Bill 1993 would require workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of their employment.

A new workplace mandate may be in the works if a newly introduced bill makes it past lawmakers in California. Assembly Bill 1993 seeks to require employers and independent contractors to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of their employment.

The bill, which was introduced by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) would allow for some exemptions, such as a medical condition, disability or religious beliefs but ultimately would put the responsibility of vaccination programs in the hands of employers.

Under the bill, employers would need to comply with the new mandate, having clear documentation of employee vaccination records and any vaccine exemptions to avoid penalties from Californias division of Occupational Safety and Health.

If passed, employers would have to notify the state that all employed workers are vaccinated against Covid-19 by Jan 1, 2023.

While some lawmakers applauded the bill expressing optimism in a new mandate that would increase worker health and safety, others were hesitant in having businesses police public health.

Small businesses dont want to be traffic cops in debates about public safety, said John Arensmeyer, chief operating officer for the advocacy group Small Business Majority, in a Los Angeles Times article. Theyre looking for a common statewide standard that disentangles them from politics and enables them to operate their businesses safely and predictably.
The climate summit in Glasgow in November coincided with the start of the winter heating season in the northern hemisphere. Just as global leaders were racing to pledge net-zero commitments and decisive action to address the worst impacts of climate change, Europe and Asia were starting to see first-hand what tight traditional energy markets looked like.

Despite the record rise in global investments in renewables and clean energy capacity installations in recent years, renewable energy was not enough to meet the rebound in electricity consumption. Power generation and energy-intensive industries found themselves low on the key fossil fuel commoditiescoal and natural gasas the economies recovered from the pandemic slump.

Government priorities turned from actions to reduce emissions in the long term to addressing the immediate energy crunch, soaring energy bills, and catering for the near-term energy security. Even countries that have pledged net-zero by 2050, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, saw coal consumption rise as natural gas became too expensive for some power generating units.

Emissions Soar As Fossil Fuels Stage A Comeback

For example, surging natural gas prices and low wind speeds in the autumn of 2021 forced the UK to fire up an old coal plant to meet electricity demand, despite the fact that the country had pledged to phase out coal-fired power generation by October 2024.

China, the world's largest polluter and top coal consumer, ordered a ramp-up of coal production, which hit record-highs for both December 2021 and the whole of 2021. China was looking to secure energy supply for the winter, cool the high coal prices, and avoid a repeat of the autumn 2021 power crisis.

In the United States, coal is making a transitory comeback as annual U.S. coal-fired electricity generation rose in 2021 for the first time since 2014 as high natural gas prices incentivize more coal use in electricity generation. U.S. coal production will increase by almost 5 percent in 2022 and then rise by another 3 percent in 2023, the EIA says.

As a result of surging coal-fired power generation in 2021, the progress in U.S. emission reduction was reversed last year, moving from 22.2 percent below 2005 levels in 2020 to only 17.4 percent in 2021, "putting the US even further off track from achieving its 2025 and 2030 climate targets," Rhodium Group said in an estimate last month.

The economic rebound from the pandemic took world coal power generation to a new record high last year, with global coal demand likely hitting another new high this year, undermining net-zero efforts, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its annual Coal 2021 report in December.

"The fast rebound in overall energy demand strained supply chains for coal and natural gas, pushing up wholesale electricity prices. Despite the impressive growth of renewable power, electricity generation from coal and gas hit record levels. As a result, the global electricity sector's annual carbon dioxide emissions leaped to a new all-time high after having decreased for the previous two years," the IEA said in its Electricity Market Report - January 2022 with 2021 data.

Moreover, coal met more than half of the increase in global electricity demand last year, the IEA said.

All these consequences of the post-COVID global economic rebound are raising emissions to records once again, after a record decline in 2020.

Energy Crisis Highlights High Cost Of Transition

Governments are still committed to their net-zero courses, but they have started to realize that net-zero would probably cost much more than they had imagined, including the social cost to push forward policies to decarbonize energy use.

"We're going to have a multi-year stress test of political will to impose costly transition policies," Bob McNally, president of U.S. consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official, told Bloomberg.

While still pushing for net-zero, governments right now are trying to contain the fallout from the energy crisis that led to skyrocketing energy bills for consumers.

In the United States, Democrats are desperately seeking to resurrect the Build Back Better bill, which one of their own, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, blocked in the Senate. Build Back Better contains billions of U.S. dollars of provisions to support the expansion of clean energy.

At the same time, the Biden Administration is desperate to see the high U.S. gasoline prices fall, especially in view of the midterm elections in November, when the Democrats could lose majority in Congress, which could stall further ambitious climate action policies from President Biden.

Referring to the global pace of transition needed to limit global warming, John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, said last month:

"We're in trouble. I hope everybody understands that. Not trouble we can't get out of, but we're not on a good track."

Most countries have the ability to deploy very significant additional amounts of renewables, yet they are choosing to go with gas, but gas without affordable 100-percent emission abatement is not helping climate goals, Kerry added.

"Unless we honour the promises made, to turn the commitments in the Glasgow Climate Pact into action, they will wither on the vine," the Glasgow Summit COP26 President, Alok Sharma, said at a Chatham House event last month.

The climate policy leaders in the U.S. and the UK are urging the world to keep the pledges from the latest climate summit. Yet, a large part of the world is now focused on securing immediate energy supply, which risks undermining emission reduction targets and net-zero commitments.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Oilprice Alert: InnerCircle members will receive the next private placement intelligence letter on Wednesday next week. Tap into a secret world of wealth and receive our 50-page whitepaper on Private Placements for free by signing up today.





Chart of the Week

- The price spread between spot Brent assessments such as Dated Brent and the exchange-traded ICE Brent rose to an all-time high of $5 per barrel amid ongoing geopolitical concerns.

- ICE Brent backwardation, too, is mirroring the unprecedented tightness in oil markets right now, with the M1-M3 spread between the March and May 22 contracts trading as wide as $4 per barrel.

- While refiners would naturally run down year-end stocks, the current levels of backwardation make it impossible to replenish inventories as storing inevitably triggers losses.

- As Russian benchmark Urals sank to its weakest level in more than a year on sanctions fears and weak desulphurization margins, premiums for North Sea grades Ekofisk and Forties soared.

Market Movers

- Global trader Glencore (LON:GLEN) will set aside $1.5 billion for investigations into bribery and market manipulation which it expects to resolve over the course of this year.

- US oil firm ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is reportedly considering a sale of its Permian Basin acreage located primarily in the Delaware region, worth more than $1 billion, as it seeks to trim down its assets after it had bought out Shells US assets.

- UK-based major Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) is preparing to launch the sale of its gas assets in the Southern North Sea, some of them under development since the 1960s, expecting to fetch $1 billion from the transaction.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Oil prices very nearly hit the $100 per barrel threshold on Monday as supply disruption fears spiked due to reports of Russia potentially invading Ukraine. At its peak, the backwardation in the futures market was so steep that the Brent M1-M2 spread surpassed $2 per barrel - the last time markets saw such a discrepancy between spot assessments and forwards was back in 1993. The end of Russias military drill next to the Ukrainian border eased concerns somewhat, nudging Brent back into the lower 90s. Yet the market is still struggling to find a good bearish story to believe in - OECD inventories remain unprecedentedly tight and OPEC+ seems reluctant to ramp up production, just as the windfall revenues started to flow in.

White House Mulls Gasoline Tax Pause. According to media reports, the White House is considering a temporary halt on federal taxes on gasoline - currently amounting to 18.4 cents per gallon - to help offset rising fuel prices at the pump.

India Faces Another Coal Shortage. With coal remaining the best performing hydrocarbon of 2022 so far, its prices might see another upswing as Indian smelters, textile mills, and fertilizer makers have all complained about a burning shortage of coal as power generators use the bulk of the supplies.

Totals $27 Billion Iraq Deal Stalled. The largest Iraqi energy deal of the past decade, TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) four major projects in oil, gas, and renewables totaling $27 billion, has reportedly stalled as the prolonged approval process across Iraqi ministries led to Baghdad reconsidering the deals terms.

EU Is Putting Gazprom Under Magnifying Glass. The European Unions antitrust regulators are expected to ramp up pressure on Russias Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) to see if the gas giant withheld extra gas supplies to send regional gas prices spiking.

China Increases Efficiency Targets. The Chinese authorities have raised the benchmark levels of energy efficiency for its most energy-intensive industries, tightening expectations for aluminum, copper, and zinc smelting plants as their power consumption took up almost 9% of the countrys total.

Exxon Starts Up Second Guyana Project. US oil major ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) started production at the second phase of the Liza deepwater field in offshore Guyana, bringing the countrys total production capacity to 340,000 b/d.

EIA Expects Permian Record in March. The US Energy Information Administration expects that oil production in the Permian Basin will rise 70,000 b/d to a record level of 5.2 million b/d in March, despite well productivity falling to its lowest since August 2020.

Alberta Wants to Tighten Oil Sands Emissions. The government of Alberta is working to tighten emission standards for oil sands mines, the most carbon-emitting upstream projects globally, as Canadian producers can up until now choose the benchmarking of their emissions.

Corn-based Ethanol Worse for Climate than Gasoline, Study Says. A recent US academic study found corn-based ethanol, a key fuel blending component, to be 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions coming from land-use changes to crow corn, provoking the ire of the ethanol trade lobby.

France Suffers Another Nuclear Setback. With Frances state-owned power group EDF (EDF) having arguably the worst winter this century so far, Paris has seen another nuclear  Bugey 3  go offline due to an overhearing connection, bringing the total capacity off to 15 GW, a quarter of the countrys output.

Exxon Might be Late to the Brazil Party. Despite 4 billion spent on drilling rights, allowing US oil major ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) to become the second-largest offshore acreage holder in Brazil, the company is yet to report a commercial oil discovery whilst it still sees the country as one of its highest-quality growth areas.

Platts Wants WTI Midland in Brent Valuations. S&P Global Platts indicated it would seek to add WTI Midland to its assessment of oil benchmark Dated Brent, converted into a virtual fob North Sea basis to keep the global benchmark in line with other BFOET grades, though the oil market is still split on the necessity to include non-North Sea crudes.

Metals Soar on Russia-Ukraine Fears. Alongside crude prices, aluminum and nickel prices rose towards multi-year highs amidst concerns that a potential conflict could reduce Russian supply and aggravate existing shortages, with the former trending around $3,340 per metric tonne, close to all-time highs.

By Josh Owens for Oilprice.com

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The price of global refined products are soaringeven more so than crude oil itself, as demand for those refined products is proving too much for refiners to keep up with, according to a new analysis by Vortexa.

Inventories of refined products are now near historic lowsand given the refining maintenance season that will soon be upon Asia and Europe, it doesn't look that those historical lows are going to ease substantially.

Most refiners in Asia and Europe enter their refining maintenance season in Q2. But so far, Vortexa says, there is no indication that those refineries have plans to ramp up production ahead of maintenance season to provide a cushion to survive turnaround.

What this means is that today's tightening may soon grow even tighter.

One might find it surprising that today's high global refined products prices aren't enticing refiners to up their runs. But higher costs for refiners as a result of higher natural gas prices, higher crude oil prices, and higher carbon tax costs in Europe are sucking up the extra cracks.

In the United States, gasoline supplies are also lowand falling--in part due to refinery and FCC maintenance in Q1.

Around the world, spare refining capacity is not widely available. According to Vortexa, Japan is one of the few countries with refining capacity to spare, but even Japan has, over the last two months, increased run rates by 40% compared to June 2021. Mexico has some spare capacity as well, but it hasn't tapped that capacity in years, and China has spare capacity, but China's spare capacity is tightly controlled by the Chinese government.

It's likely that only a greater increase in refined products prices could entice China and Mexico to bring some of that capacity back online.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Oil prices slumped early on Tuesday after Russia said some troops are returning to bases, which the market interpreted as a possible sign of de-escalation of the tension following several days of warnings that Russia would invade Ukraine "any day now."

Profit-taking also pushed oil prices lower as investors and speculators moved to cash in after oil prices hit $96 early on Monday.

As of 8:04 a.m. EST on Tuesday, WTI Crude was down by 3.31% at $92.44, and Brent Crude prices were falling by 3.03% to $93.71.

The geopolitical risk premium continues to drive the oil market, as evident in today's price move lower after Russia signaled it's pulling some of its troops and returning them to their permanent bases in Russia.

Units of Russia's military are heading back to base by rail and by truck at the conclusion of their drills, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, as quoted by news agency Interfax.

The Russian Defense Ministry has also released a video showing Russian armored vehicles returning to base from drills.

Russia has denied it has plans to invade Ukraine, while the U.S. and the West have said in recent days that an invasion could be imminent.

Following the news out of Russia today, Ukraine said, as carried by the BBC, that "when we see the withdrawal, then we'll believe the de-escalation."

The build-up of Russian military along the border with Ukraine has rattled energy markets, with oil prices spiking amid fears that a conflict could disrupt oil and gas supplies or lead to severe sanctions against Russia's industry, including the energy sector.

While some of the oil's recent rally is due to the geopolitical risk premium, the other part is due to the signs of tightening market with U.S. inventories falling. Crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahomathe designated delivery point for WTI Crude oil futures contractshave been falling in the past five weeks. The American Petroleum Institute's (API) inventory estimate later on Tuesday will shed light on the stockpiles as of the end of last week.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Oil workers threaten to shut down at the end of February an oil export terminal in eastern Libya, which typically ships out nearly 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude if workers pay demands are not met by a unit of the state oil corporation, Argus reported on Tuesday, quoting a shipping source.

The workers threaten to shut down crude oil exports from the Marsa el-Hariga oil terminal, which ships oil pumped by Agoco, a subsidiary of Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC).

Last year, Marsa el-Hariga exported on average 196,000 bpd, while crude shipments out of the oil port averaged 194,000 bpd in January 2022, Argus tracking data shows.

Demands for payment are often the cause of blockades in Libyas oil exports. The most recent blockade was by the Petroleum Facilities Guard and forced NOC to declare force majeure on exports from several ports at the end of December and early January. A pipeline shutdown for urgent repairs and the blockade of several fields, including the countrys largest oilfield, Sharara, plunged Libyas oil production to below 800,000 bpd in early January.

Libya has managed to restore its oil production to above 1 million bpd since January, but a renewed political crisis in the country could threaten production and exports again.

Libyas Parliament based in the east named last week a new prime minister, while the incumbent refuses to step down and was reportedly a target of an assassination attempt last Thursday, in yet another political rift in the OPEC oil producer.

The renewed political chaos, after a failed election scheduled for end-December 2021, threatens to bring back chaos to Libyas divided institutions and raises the prospect of renewed conflict and blockades of oil ports and other energy infrastructure.

The east-based Parliament on Thursday named former interior minister Fathi Bashagha to serve as a new interim prime minister. But Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, the prime minister leading the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNU), refuses to step down and recognize the Parliaments choice. Over the weekend, the crisis escalated as forces rallied in the capital Tripoli to defend al-Dbeibahs claim to legitimacy.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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While Ukraines economy, energy security, and sovereignty are under grave threat due to Russian political wrangling and military aggression, the Kremlin, too, could suffer under the weight of its own actions.

The state of affairs at the Ukrainian border is now being referred to as a crisis, with prominent news outlets such as the New York Times and CNN providing live updates on the rapidly developing tensions as Russian troops amass on the outskirts of the former soviet republic. According to CNN, US intelligence has indicated that Russia is currently "clearly advancing their ability to invade." European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson each made statements supporting Ukraine on Monday as serious conflict threatens to break out in the immediate term.

Geopolitical conflicts, especially with respect to energy and energy security, lie at the heart of Russias impending invasion of Ukraine. Russia has been trying to use its hefty natural gas supply amidst the European energy crunch as leverage to strong-arm the European Union into greenlighting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would allow the Kremlin to pump liquefied natural gas directly into Germany by way of the Baltic Sea, avoiding Ukraine entirely.

Although the construction of the pipeline is complete, it has not yet been greenlit to come online, as the project has faced major opposition in the west, where leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden have said that Nord Stream 2 will make the European continent energy insecure and dangerously dependent on Russia. On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with the global community to provide the embattled nation with energy security guarantees in light of the risks to the local energy economy posed by Nord Stream 2, which he says poses energy and security threats to us and to the region.

While Ukraines economy, energy security, and sovereignty are under grave threat due to Russian political wrangling and military aggression, the Kremlin, too, could suffer under the weight of its own actions. Last week, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that Putins threats to Ukraine could easily backfire and wreak havoc on the Russian economy. He cautioned that if current tensions continue to rise, we could see a seismic disruption to the EU energy market which would ultimately have more consequences for Russia than for any other involved state actor, as European nations would be forced to find new sources of energy.

Failure to maintain [supplies] would shatter Russias reputation as a reliable partner and that would be a tectonic shift. Russia would be seen as a threat and that would have far-reaching consequences for European economies, but even more consequences for Russia. Europe would choose a strategy to diverge from Russia, he was quoted by the Guardian.

In light of this uncertainty and the great risks posed on all sides by the pipeline and the potential invasion of Ukraine, the next two months will be critical, in Birols words, in seeing how Europes drawn-out energy crisis will continue to play out, and whether or not economic recovery or collapse is on the horizon. Of course, we do not know what will happen if this political tension goes beyond being tension, Birol continued. I hope there will be dialogue, and that there will be no major geopolitical distortions.

For now, although the situation at the border is dire and extremely precarious, Prime Minister Johnson and President Biden agreed in a phone call on Monday that there remained a crucial window for diplomacy and for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine," according to a Downing Street spokesperson, as reported by CNN. While world leaders remain hopeful about keeping the peace, the alternative is frightening, to say the least, and will have far broader implications than just disrupted energy markets. The recap of the phone call went on to say: The leaders emphasized that any further incursion into Ukraine would result in a protracted crisis for Russia, with far reaching damage for both Russia and the world.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

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The Iraqi Oil Ministry has denied that the $27-billion deal with Frances TotalEnergies has stalled, following media reports to that effect.

Citing sources from the ministry, Reuters reported earlier today that the deal between Iraq and TotalEnergies had stalled because of disputes about the terms and risks associated with the deal.

In its statement in response to the report, the oil ministry said it was astonished at the inaccurate information included in it.

The French supermajor signed the deal with the Iraqi government in September last year to develop four large-scale energy projects in southern Iraq.

One of the projects will involve injecting seawater into oil fields for enhanced oil recovery. Another would be a $2-billion gas processing plant for the gas from five big southern oil fields. The contract also includes another enhanced oil recovery project for the Ratawi oil field that should boost the fields output from 85,000 bpd to 210,000 bpd, and a solar farm.

According to the Reuters report from this week, the terms of the massive deals, which were not made public, caused concern among some Iraqi politicians. The report quoted unnamed sources as saying they were unprecedented for the country.

The concern led a group of Shiite members of parliament to write to the oil ministry last month and ask why the contract was signed without a tender and without transparency. Reuters reported that it had seen a copy of the letter.

Among the terms that have emerged since is a stipulation that the initial $10-billion investment in the projects would come from royalties due TotalEnergies from sales of oil produced at the Ratawi oil field. These royalties amount to 40 percent of the total revenues from Ratawi, according to the Reuters sources, which is much higher than the usual 10-15-percent royalty rate in traditional technical service contracts.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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The U.S. is exporting liquefied natural gas at a record pace these days, as gas prices and geopolitical tensions in Europe rise amid the energy crisis and the Russia-Ukraine standoff.

LNG tankers were loading or being docked at each of the seven LNG export facilities in the United States on Saturday, leading to a record 13.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas flows to U.S. LNG export terminals, Bloomberg reports.

This is the first time that all seven LNG export terminals have seen tankers loading or docked for loading gas at the same time, according to Bloomberg.

In addition, more than two-thirds of all LNG cargoes traveling out of the United States are headed to Europe, Bloombergs estimates show.

The record U.S. LNG exports are incentivized by high natural gas prices in Europe and the growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and the West and Russia over Ukraine.

The energy crisis in Europe with historically low inventories, lower-than-typical Gazprom supply, and the geopolitical tensions have made U.S. LNG profitable in Europe, where natural gas prices are now around six times higher than the U.S. benchmark Henry Hub prices.

U.S. LNG exports are soaring to record levels and are expected to continue to surge as more export capacity comes online. Thanks to a growing number of U.S. LNG export projects coming into service, by the end of 2022, U.S. nominal capacity will increase to 11.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) and peak capacity to 13.9 Bcf/d across 7 LNG export facilities and 44 liquefaction trains, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in December. That will be more than the respective capacities of Qatar and Australia, the other two major LNG exporters in the world.

While the U.S. is setting LNG export records, a group of Democratic Senators is urging the Energy Department to take steps to limit U.S. natural gas exports, the record volume of which leave Americans with higher energy bills this winter.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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A gun found in a vehicle used by an Omaha man was linked to five shell casings and a bullet that killed a 19-year-old woman in July, a prosecutor said.

A judge on Tuesday ordered Davelle Giles, 26, to be held without bail on charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm to commit a felony.

Giles is accused of fatally shooting Jazsmine Washington about 3:20 a.m. July 4 in a parking lot near 24th and Grant Streets. An autopsy found that Washington had been shot twice in her right side. Officials recovered one .45-caliber bullet from her body.

Omaha police also found five .45-caliber shell casings near 24th and Grant. Four other people were wounded by gunfire at the same location, but none of their injuries was life-threatening.

On July 20, officers pulled over Giles, who was driving a Dodge Challenger without a front license plate and because Giles was a suspended driver.

In a follow-up investigation, police searched a 2000 Honda Accord that was owned by Giles mother but used by Giles. Giles had the car key in his possession and items in the vehicle were linked to him, according to a police report.

Authorities found a Glock model 21 gun that uses .45-caliber bullets with its serial number defaced.

On Feb. 4, Giles was sentenced to four years probation on a charge of possessing the defaced firearm.

Prosecutor Michael McInerney said Tuesday in court that ballistics tests showed that gun matched the five shell casings and the bullet found in Washingtons body.

McInerney also said Giles DNA could not be excluded from the gun and a magazine that was found.

Photos and videos found on Giles cellphone showed him holding a Glock hours before the shooting occurred, McInerney said.

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A 27-year-old Omaha mother who gave birth to a baby boy outside on the sidewalk in 15-degree weather Sunday could face criminal charges.

The woman, who was found a block away, refused medical treatment just before the baby was born.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Monday his office plans to file a request in juvenile court to declare the newborn a ward of the state, pointing to the mothers alleged abandonment. Authorities are continuing to investigate from a criminal standpoint, he said.

Its not a safe haven case by any stretch, he said. Thankfully these witnesses were around and took care of the baby before medics arrived.

Nebraskas safe haven law allows parents to leave children at a hospital within 30 days of their birth without fear of prosecution.

Kleine said he is still gathering details about the babys health and how far along the mother was in her pregnancy. However, he said, the fact that the boy was left in extreme cold for about five minutes just after birth could lead to a child neglect or intentional abuse charge, he said.

A person with the mother called 911 about 30 minutes before the woman gave birth, reporting that the mother was having abdominal pain, Kleine said. The mother refused an ambulance transport from the Omaha Fire Department, and medics then left, he said.

The woman then delivered the baby near 24th and P Streets and left the infant on the sidewalk, Kleine said.

Sheila Allee was sitting nearby in a parked vehicle with her boyfriend having coffee and a cigarette when someone told her a baby was just born outside, she told The World-Herald.

Allee went to look and found two women sitting among a pile of blankets with a beautiful baby boy. Allee called 911 to report the birth and said the mother left the area before the ambulance arrived for a second time.

Kleine said witnesses came to cover and hold the baby.

Seven Omaha police officers arrived at the scene along with Omaha fire medics just after 10 a.m. and found the woman at the back of a house near 23rd and P Streets, according to a police report.

The woman and the baby were taken in critical condition to the Nebraska Medical Center. As of midday Monday, both were still patients in the hospital, but officials did not release their current conditions.

Kleine, who also oversees juvenile court prosecution, said prosecutors plan to file a petition that the woman is not fit to have custody of the baby, due to the alleged abandonment. The investigation will help determine which criminal charges may be filed.

World-Herald staff writer Kelsey Stewart contributed to this report.

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The Omaha woman who gave birth on a sidewalk has been released from the hospital and booked into jail.

Trinity Shakespeare, 27, was released from the Nebraska Medical Center and booked into the Douglas County Jail about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday on suspicion of felony child abuse, Omaha police said.

Shakespeare delivered a baby boy around 10 a.m. Sunday on a sidewalk near 24th and P Streets. When officers arrived, they found Shakespeare at the back of a home about a block away, according to a police report.

A person with Shakespeare called 911 at 9:15 a.m. to report that Shakespeare was having pain. That call was coded as someone with a maternity problem, said Omaha Fire Battalion Chief Scott Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the department.

Ambulance medics made contact with Shakespeare, who was adamant that we leave her alone and she did not need any medical help, Fitzpatrick said.

Shakespeare was walking around, alert and oriented and did not answer questions from the medics, other than to deny that she was injured or ill, Fitzpatrick said. She was wearing a baggy winter coat and therefore medics were unable to determine how far along she was in her pregnancy or whether she was in active labor. They only knew that the woman was possibly pregnant because of the call code, he said.

Fitzpatrick said adults are within their rights to refuse medical care, so long as they are alert and oriented.

Medics then told the person who called 911 to call back if Shakespeare changed her mind or if anything else happened.

The second 911 call came at 10 a.m.  45 minutes later.

At that point, another person called 911 to report that a baby had been born. Other people covered up the newborn to provide warmth in the 15-degree weather.

The mother left the area before the ambulance arrived for a second time, said Sheila Allee, who made the second 911 call.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Monday that he was gathering more information about the baby's current condition, but said because the mother is accused of leaving the child outside in the cold, some type of child abuse or neglect charge likely would be pending.

Kleine said that juvenile court prosecutors also would file a petition to deem the child a ward of the state and that Shakespeare was unfit to care for him because of the alleged abandonment.

Police said Tuesday that the baby is expected to survive the cold exposure. Authorities have not publicly identified the newborn's father.

Shakespeare gave birth to two other children, a boy in 2016 and a girl in 2017, although she lost custody of those children after leaving them with a man in August 2018.

According to juvenile court filings, Shakespeare had dropped off the two children with a man, who was not their father, near 24th and P Streets. She had known the man for about five years but hadn't seen him in the previous two years.

The man told police that Shakespeare said, "Here you go" and handed over the children, who were about 1 and 2 years old at the time. The man said Shakespeare appeared "buzzed," and the man told officers that he was "a drunk" so he couldn't care for the children, who appeared dirty, lacked proper clothing and had severe diaper rashes.

The children were placed in emergency protective custody. Shakespeare was booked into jail on suspicion of child abuse by neglect. She was sentenced to 200 days in jail in connection with that case  amounting to the most jail time she was given from more than a dozen misdemeanor charges she faced in the past seven years.

Prosecutors moved to remove Shakespeare and the father from having custody of the children because of a lack of proper parental care  Shakespeare because of alcohol and drug use and abandonment, and the father because of domestic violence, among other safety risks. A judge in May ruled that the children should remain with the third-party guardians who have looked after the children since August 2018.

Shakespeare's father, Edd Shakespeare, wrote a letter to the court seeking custody of the children, but his request was not granted. He, his daughter and the grandchildren are members or are eligible for membership in the Northern Arapaho Tribe. Edd Shakespeare lives on the reservation in Wyoming.

He said he spoke to his daughter on the phone Tuesday morning and that she sounded tired and was resting in the hospital.

He said his daughter told him the English name of the baby boy and that as the grandfather, he would give the child an Arapaho name.

Edd Shakespeare said he and other family members are concerned about Trinity and want more answers.

"She must have been scared," he said.

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A teacher who was injured during a fight at King Science and Technology Magnet Center on Friday was shoved to the ground by a student while barricading a doorway, according to a police report.

A large fight involving multiple students occurred about 2 p.m. in a hallway at the middle school, located at 3720 Florence Blvd. English learner teacher Chelsea Guruvaiya, 33, was in her classroom when she heard the commotion, according to a police report.

When she stepped out into the hallway, she found staff members trying to break up a fight. The report says one of them asked her to block a doorway to prevent interference from other students.

A male student approached Guruvaiya while she was blocking the door and tried to get past, saying he had to get his phone. After she told the student to leave, he told her to move b, I gotta get my fn phone and shoved her to the ground.

Guruvaiya hit her head on the tile floor when she fell. She was transported to the Nebraska Medical Center and later released without any serious injuries, according to the report.

The report said the King Science school resource officer will cite the student at a later date. Guruvaiya declined to comment about the incident.

In an email sent to King Science parents on Friday, Principal Jane Laughlin said several police officers responded to a fight at the school. A school resource officer sprayed mace while responding to the fight and students were checked out by health professionals.

Officer Phil Anson, spokesman for the Omaha Police Department, said numerous students will be cited on suspicion of either assault or disorderly conduct for being involved in the fight.

Robert Miller, president of the Omaha Education Association, said the teachers union is still getting information from the district about protocols being set in place to have that not happen again after Guruvaiya was injured.

He said the district had been communicating with King Science officials to create a plan to welcome students back on Monday after the incident.

Hearing from (OEA) members, it was a normal day on Monday, so that was promising, he said.

Earlier on Friday, another fight was reported about 11:30 a.m. at Benson High School, 5120 Maple St. The fight involved eight students and officers also used mace to break up the fight, Anson said. Both incidents are under investigation.

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BENSON, Minn. (AP)  The newspaper hit the front porches of the wind-scarred prairie town on a Thursday afternoon: Coronavirus numbers were spiking in the farming communities of western Minnesota.

"Covid-19 cases straining rural clinics, hospitals, staff," read the front-page headline. Vaccinate to protect yourselves, health officials urged.

But ask around Benson, stroll its three-block business district, and some would tell a different story: The Swift County Monitor-News, the tiny newspaper that's reported the news here since 1886, is not telling the truth. The vaccine is untested, they say, dangerous. And some will go further: People, they'll tell you, are being killed by COVID-19 vaccinations.

One little town. Three thousand people. Two starkly different realities.

It's another measure of how, in an America increasingly split by warring visions of itself, division doesn't just play out on cable television, or in mayhem at the U.S. Capitol.

It has seeped into the American fabric, all the way to Benson's 12th Street, where two neighbors -- each in his own well-kept, century-old home -- can live in different worlds.

In one house is Reed Anfinson, publisher, editor, photographer and reporter for the Monitor-News. Most weeks, he writes every story on the paper's front page. He wrote that story on clinics struggling with COVID-19.

He's not the most popular man in the county. Lots of people disagree with his politics. He deals with the occasional veiled threat. Sometimes, he grudgingly worries about his safety.

While his editorials lean left, he works hard to report the news straight. But in an America of competing visions, some here say he has taken sides.

Nowhere in the Monitor-News, for example, will you find reports that local people are dying because they've been inoculated.

"There are no alternative facts," Anfinson says. "There is just the truth."

But whose truth?

His neighbor, Jason Wolter, is a thoughtful, broad-shouldered Lutheran pastor who reads widely and measures his words carefully. He also suspects Democrats are using the coronavirus pandemic as a political tool, doubts President Joe Biden was legitimately elected and is certain that COVID-19 vaccines kill people.

He hasn't seen the death certificates and hasn't contacted health authorities, but he's sure the vaccine deaths occurred: "I just know that I'm doing their funerals."

He's also certain that information "will never make it into the newspaper."

Wolter's frustration boils over during a late breakfast in a town cafe. Seated with a reporter, he starts talking as if Anfinson is there.

"You're lying to people," he says. "You flat-out lie about things."

***

"In rural Minnesota we still have a work ethic, and I'll call them Christian values, and that's not reflected in our local newspaper," said Al Saunders, a farmer and friend of Wolter's who graduated from Benson High School a couple years after Anfinson.

"I just can't stomach it anymore," said Saunders, whose family settled on part of his sprawling farm more than a century ago, and who speaks almost lovingly about the rich brown soil. Anfinson's editorials on farm subsidies and politics leave him fuming. "Trash gets thrown at you so many times and eventually you just give up."

He grudgingly subscribes to the Monitor-News, which has a circulation of roughly 2,000. But just to follow local politics.

Anfinson does cover Swift County intensely -- the city council, the county commissioners, the school board and nearly every other gathering of consequence. He's there for school concerts, community fund-raisers, elections and livestock judging at the county fair. His white Jeep is often spattered with mud from the county's dirt roads.

He works relentlessly. Wednesday afternoons, after he gets that week's edition ready for printing the next morning, often count as his weekend.

Anfinson is 67 but looks at least a decade younger. A contemplative man who casually quotes Voltaire, he loves newspapers deeply, and mourns the hundreds of small-town papers that have gone under in recent years.

Still, Anfinson sometimes is surprised to find himself in Benson.

Family is a powerful force here, and this town is knitted together in ways that few Americans understand anymore. His grandfather, a poetry-loving plumber and child of Norwegian immigrants, came to Benson as a child. His father came home from World War II, became a reporter at the Monitor-News and eventually bought the newspaper with a partner.

Anfinson grew up planning on a journalism career somewhere beyond small-town Minnesota. But he found those plans upended when his father's health began declining in the late 1970s.

"I thought I'd come back here just for a little while," he said. "It turned into the rest of my life."

Not that he regrets it.

He's proud that his reporting means something here, whether it's a high-school student getting an award or an expensive building project the community rejected after he wrote about it.

Still, there are times when it's exhausting. And expensive. With declining circulation and ads, he estimates his three little local newspapers are worth at least $1 million less than a decade ago.

"The easy part is speaking truth to power. The hard part is speaking truth to your community. That can cost you advertisers. That can cost you subscribers," he said.

***

It can be easy, looking around Benson, to think it is a land that time forgot.

Bartenders often greet customers by name. The town's cafes feel like high school lunchrooms, with people wandering between tables to say hello. Those in search of solitude go to the Burger King, where they sit alone at plastic tables, staring out the windows.

Benson was built in the 1870s as railways reached this part of the prairies, and trains remain the town's background music. In the cafes, people barely look up when mile-long trains roar through downtown. Few people stop talking. They've been hearing those trains for generations.

Many farms and businesses have been owned by the same families for decades: through the droughts of the 1930s; through the thriving years around World War II; to the population decline that began in the 1950s.

But plenty has changed.

Stores closed. Little farms were bought up by more successful farmers. Families left. Swift County's population has dropped about 30 percent since 1960, and now has about 10,000 residents. Meanwhile, a county that was 98% white in 1990 has seen a stream of new minority residents, particularly Latinos. The county is now 87% white - far whiter than much of America, but far more diverse than a generation ago.

Today, longtime locals can sometimes feel unmoored.

"There are a lot of people coming through that I don't recognize," said Terri Collins, Benson's cheerful mayor, whose family has been in Benson for five generations. "I used to know all of my neighbors and now that's different. And I don't know what to blame for that."

Once, neighborliness and good manners were near-commandments here. Now anger is on the rise.

Neighborhood shouting matches are more common, a local official's car was vandalized, and a "F--- Biden" flag now flies along a school bus route. Collins and the town police chief both say they sometimes worry about Anfinson's safety.

"Ten years ago I don't think anything like this would happen," she said.

But that was then. Travel across the plains of western Minnesota and you'll find plenty of people who are bestirred by a new and often dark vision of America.

They are not on the fringes, at least by current standards. They are, for the most part, mainstream conservatives who see a nation that barely exists in traditional newspapers and mainstream TV news broadcasts.

People like the store manager, sitting at an American Legion bar drinking $3 cocktails, who calls the billionaire financier George Soros, a Jewish survivor of the Nazis and a powerful backer of liberal causes, "one of the most evil men I've ever heard of." And the semi-retired nurse who fears teams of sex traffickers she says operate freely in countless small towns.

But it would be a mistake to think they can be categorized easily.

Some desperately want Trump to run again; others pray he won't. One farmer quietly admits he worries about the growing numbers of racial minorities; another enjoys hearing new accents at the grocery store. Many are nearly as dismissive of conservative media as they are of traditional news outlets.

While social conservatism has long run deep in Swift County -- even the former, longtime Democratic congressman was anti-abortion and pro-gun rights -- many say the presidency of Barack Obama marked a change.

Gay marriage was legalized and identity politics took hold. Growing calls for transgender rights seemed like an issue from another planet. The sometimes-violent racial justice protests that followed police killings of Black men had some here stocking up on ammunition.

Trump's cries that he loved America resonated in an area where new approaches to teaching U.S. history, with an increased focus on race, were confounding.

So in a county where Obama won with 55% of the vote in 2008, Trump won with 64% percent in 2020.

"We've seen a shift here in Swift County," said Al Saunders. "But you won't see that in the newspaper."

***

Anfinson's weekly column, where he writes about everything from political divisions to rural housing shortages, is a local lightning rod.

He sighed: "That editorial page will have people hate me."

Across the U.S., many smaller newspapers, already facing economic decline with the rise of the internet, have cut back or completely stopped running editorials, trying to hold onto conservative readers who increasingly see them as local arms of a fake news universe.

But Anfinson won't consider that, even if sometimes he feels like he's tilting at angry, small-town windmills. He says it's his duty to expose people to new ideas, even unpopular ideas like stricter gun control.

The editorial page is, he says "the soul of a newspaper in a way."

"I would be a traitor to the cause of journalism, of community newspapers," by giving up on editorials, he said. "I would be cowardly."

Some would call him stubborn, and his wife and business partner, Shelly, would not disagree. It can be complicated being married to Reed Anfinson.

Like the day last spring, when Anfinson was in the bar next to the office and a man loudly told a friend that Anfinson was a communist and "somebody should do something about that guy."

Anfinson knows the man. So does Shelly. A longtime dental hygienist, she cleaned his teeth for 20 years. She still says hello when she passes the man on the street.

"I try not to create a bigger divide," said Shelly, who, after a series of intensive classes on the newspaper business, began running another of the couple's weekly papers two years ago.

"I've definitely lost sleep over some confrontations that he's had," she said. "But do you let that stand in the way of reporting the facts?"

Shelly is warm and gregarious and easy to like. And when it comes to politics, she's not who you'd expect to be married to the man often tagged as Benson's best-known liberal.

She's a pro-life Republican who voted for Trump, at least the first time. It annoys her when news outlets talk down to conservatives. She worries that there are too few Republican journalists.

She and Reed married 20 years ago, after both had been divorced. She moved in across the street and soon he was walking her home.

She is often torn between support for Reed and worries over subscriber loss.

Still, she's been pressing him to tone down the politics.

"It is a struggle. I can tell these things to my business partner. It's harder to tell them to my husband."

***

In the custom of small-town Minnesota, the Anfinson and Wolter families get along, at least outwardly. They wave when they see each other. When one family is out of town, the other will sometimes watch their home.

"We're still personable," Wolter says. "I just don't trust him."

"He's not going to come to church and I'm not going to buy his newspaper. But we can still treat each other as neighbors."

While he believes Anfinson is sincere in what he publishes, he does not believe his neighbor has a monopoly on truth.

Wolter also knows that plenty of people would write him off as just another conspiracy monger. But he's far more complicated.

He worries his conservative opinions color what he believes: "There are times when I've thought: 'Well, what if all my angst over this is misplaced?'" he said. "Maybe everyone else is right?"

But he worries more about America: "This is a dark time."

He criticizes conservative politicians for trying to make it illegal to burn the American flag, but worries about far-right accusations that that U.S. soldiers are hunting down American conservatives.

"Maybe five or 10 years ago, I would have said 'That's crazy!'" he said. "Now I acknowledge it might be possible. I'm not saying I think it's happening, but at least I don't dismiss it the way that I would have."

Wolter, whose home library includes everything from Sophocles to "The Grapes of Wrath," is a careful reader, in his own way. He's wary of conservative news sites like Breitbart, believing it shapes its reporting to please conservative readers. Instead, he finds his news farther off the beaten path, like on Gab, a Twitter-like social media platform that has become home to many on America's far right.

"For better or for worse I don't really trust anything I read," he says. The answer, he said, is research, probing the farthest corners of the internet.

The answers are not to be found, he insists, in the Swift Country Monitor-News.

Anfinson, for his part, doesn't want to talk about Wolter, at least not directly. He's watched Benson's fragile web of community fray too much.

Instead, he talks proudly about the Monitor-News: how it prints letters to the editor that are harshly critical of it; how he reports the truth even if it costs him; how his coverage of the pandemic goes to the heart of journalists' responsibility to keep their communities safe.

He mourns how some people see him as an enemy. His newspaper should bind people together, he says. Instead, America and Benson are growing angrier. Contentious midterm elections loom.

"It's kind of sad," he said. "But it would be foolish of me not to be aware of (my safety) with the sentiments out there."

Does he carry a weapon? This soft-spoken man says he does not.

"But I know where one is if I need it."
ST. LOUIS  The publisher of the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and other newspapers got a little help in its fight against a hostile takeover Tuesday.

A Delaware court ruled in favor of Iowa-based Lee Enterprises move in December to reject New York hedge fund Alden Global Capitals board nominees on procedural grounds.

Alden attempted to nominate new board members last year at the same time it was trying to get the board to accept its offer to buy the company at $24 per share. After Lee rejected both ideas, Alden sued, alleging its board nominees were illegally ignored.

Alden also brushed off Tuesdays decision, putting out a statement urging shareholders to block the reelection of the two top Lee board members it had hoped to replace. If the board members dont win approval of a majority of shareholders, they have to resign, Alden said.

Our Vote No campaign will act as a referendum on this entrenched duos many failures, the Alden statement read, and will act as a platform for stockholders to send a clear message that the corporate governance at Lee must be rectified.

Lees annual meeting is March 10.

Lee, which has called Alden a vulture hedge fund, publishes nearly every daily newspaper in Nebraska as well as others including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Buffalo News.

Alden, which is one of the nations largest newspaper owners, has developed a reputation for using extensive layoffs and severe cost cuts at the newspapers it owns.

Lees stock price closed at $36.94 on Tuesday, up 4% from the previous day.
LINCOLN  Nebraska lawmakers came close Tuesday to blowing up a bill that would allow workers to claim medical and religious exemptions from workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

But the compromise that got Legislative Bill 906 to the second round of debate survived after senators voted down one amendment and a second one was withdrawn. A vote on advancing the bill to the final stage of debate is expected on Wednesday.

Both amendments would have turned neutral parties into opponents of the measure, which threatened to kill the bill.

State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, who introduced LB 906, initially supported an amendment offered by Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte. Hansen said the proposed change would not alter the essence of the bill or take away an employer's rights.

The amendment would have eliminated language making clear that employers could require unvaccinated workers to be tested regularly and to wear masks or other protective equipment. However, it would not have barred employers from setting those requirements.

Groene said such testing and masking requirements would discriminate against unvaccinated people and subject them to shaming. He argued that the bill did not take into account immunity gained from COVID-19 infections or the potential for vaccinated people to transmit the virus.

His amendment also sought to hold federal contractors to the same standard as other employers. The compromise on LB 906 provides that federal requirements would trump the proposed Nebraska exemptions for federal contractors and for hospitals and other entities covered by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services standards.

Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg argued that the amendment would disturb the carefully crafted balance reached in negotiations with business and health care organizations. Those groups took neutral positions on the measure based on that balance.

He said the Nebraska Hospital Association would switch back to opposition if Groene's amendment were adopted.

Sen. John Arch of La Vista, the Health and Human Services Committee chairman, said the amendment could send the wrong message to employers and employees. He also said the debate could bolster a legal challenge to an employer's testing and masking requirements.

In the end, Hansen reversed course and declared the amendment to be unfriendly. He said he changed his views after talking more with Arch and with representatives of business and health care groups.

The amendment failed with 20 votes against it and 18 for it.

A second amendment was introduced, then withdrawn, by Sen. Curt Friesen of Henderson. It was aimed at addressing the situation of some college students who were forced out of Creighton University for refusing COVID-19 vaccination.

Friesen said he believes there is "more hysteria than facts" in the response to COVID-19, especially now.

"I know people died," he said. "But we have been through these things before and we will get through this."

As introduced, LB 906 would have allowed 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 current version 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.

It also 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.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal vaccine mandate for health care providers that participate in the federal Medicare or Medicaid programs. Nebraska was one of two dozen states that challenged the mandate, which effectively delayed the enforcement date. The deadline to receive the first dose of the vaccine in those states was Monday.

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Maureen Nickels said Tuesday she wont seek reelection to the Nebraska State Board of Education.

Nickels, a Chapman, Nebraska, resident who was first elected in 2014 in District 6, said she always planned to leave the board after two terms.

She said the controversy over the proposed health education standards for Nebraska schools didnt influence her decision.

She said its time for fresh blood on the board.

If you had talked to anybody four years ago, after I went my second round, I always said, Two terms and Im done. I always wanted two terms, and Ive stuck with it.

Nickels, as board president last year, presided over the meetings that drew large and passionate crowds for hours of testimony about draft standards proposed by the Nebraska Department of Education.

Facing overwhelming public opposition to the drafts, the board voted last September to postpone their development indefinitely.

Board members indicated they could revive the standards at some point, taking into account the state of the pandemic, the needs of children, schools and communities, and the readiness of local school stakeholders.

Nickels said that the controversy over the standards, instead of driving her off the board, made her consider staying to ensure what I believe to be the right things are being done for our kids.

She said she would like to see the health standards revived.

I hope that the health standards will come back, she said. I hope that they do. I dont want to see them thrown out.

When she leaves the board at the end of this term, she will have a total of 48 years in education roles, including 26 years as a teacher in the Grand Island Public Schools and 17 years working for the Nebraska State Education Association.

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The process has become frustratingly familiar to Vince Dugan.

Three times in the past two months, hes offered someone a job at Trego-Dugan, a national aviation company headquartered in North Platte for more than 50 years.

Three times, the potential aircraft maintenance manager or national safety director has accepted the high-skilled job, ready to move to town with a family.

And three times, Dugans potential hires backed out after looking at the North Platte housing market and failing to find a suitable home.

Even with competitive wages, were unable to get people to move here, Dugan said. Not because they are afraid of coming to rural America, but because they have nowhere to live.

Its a struggle familiar to nearly every mid-sized Nebraska city and small town. There simply arent enough houses. The few on the market are aging and often need repair.

At a time when remote work increasingly allows Americans to work from anywhere, the lack of rural Nebraska housing is a major barrier to towns trying to attract new families and new workers to fill frontline and managerial jobs.

Job creation is the easy part, said Dan Mauk, executive director of the Nebraska City Area Economic Development Corporation.

Without housing and child care, its nearly impossible to attract workers to Nebraskas smaller towns, he said.

Housing construction in Nebraska slowed after the Great Recession, when the sudden drop in homebuyers wounded the U.S. construction industry. From 2010 to 2019, only 46,096 homes were built in the state  less than half the number built in the decade before.

Everybody kind of panicked and said, Were not going to build anymore, said Cliff Mesner, co-owner of Mesner Development. A lot of the construction firms went out of business.

Those that did come back grew more cautious. Developers started opting for custom-built homes  with a guaranteed buyer  rather than speculative homes, where developers build and then sell.

That switch hurt small-town Nebraska.

In the Omahas, the Lincolns, the Grand Islands, (developers) can go put a subdivision in and know that theyll sell them as fast as they can build them, said Gary Person, president of the North Platte Area Chamber and Development Corporation. In rural America, there is a far greater  at least perceived  risk by developers.

Its also more expensive to build in small towns, costlier to bring in contractors and pricier to bring in supplies. Strains on the supply chain have further driven up costs.

Gov. Pete Ricketts recently proposed putting $50 million of the states American Rescue Plan Act dollars toward housing in rural communities. Since 2017, the states Rural Workforce Housing Fund has given grants to build new housing to local development corporations able to provide a funding match.

There are pockets of the state that have figured out creative ways to encourage rural development, said rural community development expert Don Macke.

In Hastings, downtown housing has been a key piece of revitalization. When downtown buildings are redeveloped, lower floors become restaurant or retail space. Upper floors are transformed into apartments and lofts.

Stuart, population 667, has figured out how a small town can prioritize rehabilitating aging homes. In the 1980s, the north-central Nebraska town received $350,000 in state grants that it has used to fund roughly $1.34 million in loans to rehab old homes, said Mark Stracke, Stuarts village clerk.

But even if they nab state and federal money, Nebraska towns still face a shortage of contractors and construction workers. Rural Nebraska towns are often left fighting for the same overbooked homebuilders.

Most of them are scheduled at least a year and a half out before they even think of starting a new house, Stracke said. Or theyre building in other towns.

Nearly half of the states housing stock was built before 1970, according to the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority. The share of older homes skyrockets in smaller cities and small towns.

In North Platte, 55% of housing units were built before 1970. In Nebraska City, 61%. Stuart: 68%.

There are some communities in rural Nebraska that havent built a new house in 15 or 20 years, said NIFA director Shannon Harner.

Nebraska City real estate agent Tammy Hoover sees the consequences on a daily basis.

There were only seven houses on the market there in early February. There are rarely mid-priced homes for sale, Hoover said.

When a house does go on the market, its snapped up instantly. Prices have jumped roughly 15% in the past two years, she said.

Chelsea Foust was hired as the assistant director at Nebraska Citys library in November. She spent a month looking for either a pet-friendly rental or small house to buy.

When she started work, she still hadnt found a place to live, even in neighboring Auburn and Syracuse. Shes still staying in someones basement while she looks for housing.

Ive been calling people, watching Facebook, emailing, Foust said. I have a Realtor out looking. Theres lots of people looking at the same rental, which is frustrating.

Stuart, which continues to use its successful loan program to rehab old homes, didnt see a new home built from 2010 to 2019.

In early February, there were no houses on the market. The village recently bought land to build a new subdivision. Infrastructure and utility costs stand in the way of preparing the land, Stracke said.

It isnt unheard of for Stuart business owners to immediately buy homes when they do pop onto the market, to ensure new hires have someplace to live.

We probably get one or two calls a week from people looking for housing in Stuart, and we basically have to tell them, Theres nothing available, Stracke said. We think weve been doing great, and then we find out were still behind the curve.

Many small and mid-sized communities now find themselves behind that curve.

North Platte currently has about 40 homes on the market, half of which need substantial work after being bought, the chambers Person said. A healthy market for the citys size would be nearly 150 homes, he said.

That is ridiculously low for a community our size, Person said. Its almost embarrassingly low.

In North Platte, the strain is likely to continue even as the city races to build new housing developments.

Trego-Dugan wants to hire more employees in North Platte. A new meatpacking plant could bring in 875 jobs. A proposed racetrack and casino would bring 180 more.

The housing shortage, which is difficult now, is going to become critical, Dugan said. I dont know where anybody is going to live.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.
The whole world is watching as Russian arms put a free peoples fate under siege. Here in the Midlands, its an appropriate moment to appreciate how, believe it or not, a statue in Algona, Iowa, has special relevance to the Ukraine crisis.

The statue, dedicated in 2001, provides an enduring message  on the importance of democratic rule, respect for national independence and the rule of law.

Algona City is the county seat of Kossuth County, and the life-size bronze statue standing in front of the courthouse is that of Lajos (Louis) Kossuth (1802-1894), honored, in his time as now, as the father of Hungarian independence.

But what is a statue of a 19th-century Hungarian doing in the middle of Iowa prairie country? And why is the county named after Kossuth?

The answer lies in the year 1848. That year triggered political earthquakes across Europe as working-class and middle-class residents sought to free themselves from the grip of kings and emperors and achieve long-overdue political reform. Hungarians, swept up in the spirit of the times, asserted their national independence against a Vienna-based Austrian emperor  and thrilled as they succeeded in breaking free of his control. Kossuth, who stood out for his inspiring rhetoric championing a Hungarian national spirit, headed the newly formed government.

But Hungarian independence was woefully short-lived. Brutal military action saw to that  thanks to an outside military intervention carried out by troops from Russia.

The Russians quick victory returned political control to the emperor in Vienna. The Russian czar, Nicholas I, used the force of arms to make his message clear: The spread of democratic reform would not be tolerated.

Sometimes historical patterns show themselves, and thats the case here: In 1956, Hungarians launched a new revolution for independence  only to see it choked off by Soviet military intervention.

In 1989, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, Hungary at last stepped into such freedom, fulfilling Kossuths dream.

Thats the background. Now here is why there is a Kossuth County, Iowa, and why its home to a statue of the Hungarian leader.

After the Russian military toppled his government in 1849, Kossuth fled and soon was hailed, here and abroad, as a statesman and international champion of vital principles. The inspiration from his example reached Iowa, where the state Legislature in 1851 was creating a new county in the north-central part of the state. Lawmakers decided to name it after Kossuth.

The Hungarian made his way to the United States in early 1852 and toured much of the country, receiving widespread praise for his eloquent defense of democracy against autocracy, and national sovereignty against foreign meddling.

Members from both houses of Congress honored Kossuth by hosting him at a banquet in Washington, D.C. In his remarks, Kossuth lamented that European autocrats had defeated the 1848 revolutions, one after another.

Kossuth said he had great confidence that the nations of Europe have a future. I am aware that this future is contradicted by bayonets of absolutism.

Hungary, he told the lawmakers, has a claim to protection because it has a claim to justice.

All are statements directly relevant now in the face of Vladimir Putins abuse of Ukraine.

In the wake of the Ukraine crisis, I contacted a friend, Creighton law professor Michael J. Kelly, internationally recognized for his expertise in global legal issues. I told him about how this column would focus on Kossuths stalwart defense of national sovereignty  a concept, Mike said, that is absolutely foundational to the system of international relations we currently have.

Respect for territorial integrity became anchored in international relations in the wake of Europes cataclysmic Thirty Years War (1618-48), Mike explained: Key to the system of states operating smoothly are some fundamental assumptions: equality of states, territorial inviolability, non-interference in the internal affairs of another states and the exclusion of external powers. Russias menacing of Ukraine over the past decade violates all of these principles.

Russia, he continued, doesnt consider Kyiv equal to it, has grabbed Crimea and the eastern provinces, interferes daily with Ukraines internal affairs via cyberattacks and misinformation, and seeks to exercise its external power inside Ukraine by politically and economically backing pro-Russian parties and candidates.

The larger issue, Mike said, is a global one, with rising tensions pitting authoritarianism against democracy. The number of genuine democracies has been on the decline. Russias shameless threatening of Ukraine will embolden China, with its fixation on Taiwan: If you dont think there is coordination on this effort, just read their joint communique from the Olympics in Beijing. Meanwhile, radicalism in recent years has undermined respect for democratic values in our own county, and the EU democracies dont have enough cohesion nor military weight to respond.

All of which circles back to a statement by Kossuth during his dinner with members of Congress. Rule by the people, he said, stirs immense concern among the worlds despots: To stop its moral influence abroad, and to check its spreading development at home, is what they wish.

Which is exactly what were seeing now with Russias threat to a free Ukraine.

Geitner Simmons, a longtime student of Nebraska government, is a writer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a former World-Herald editorial page editor. Views do not represent UNL. Twitter: @GeitnerSimmons. Write him at gcolumn100@gmail.com.
No doubt many Americans are war-fatigued from the casualties and huge costs of our long wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. They may well wonder why our country should be greatly concerned about the continuing Russian aggression against Ukraine and the overwhelming invasion forces it has placed on the borders and seacoast of that country.

Whether or not, and in what manner, Russia does invade or accelerate its aggression against Ukraine will be determined by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and we need to recognize that he remains in mindset and motivation the Cold War KGB officer he was when he scurried back to the Soviet Union from his post in Dresden, East Germany, as that satellite nation collapsed in the Gorbachev era.

He has frequently lamented the disintegration of the Soviet Union itself as the most catastrophic event of the 20th century, and seems driven to reconstitute much of the Soviet Empire or at least its sphere of influence. His prime target in that respect has always been Ukraine, second in importance to Russia in the Soviet Union, because of its vast areas of the best agricultural soil in Europe and its coast on the Black Sea.

American attention and that of our NATO allies, some of whose citizens lived under the harsh Soviet domination or that of their puppet regimes for decades after WWII, are now focused on the massive Russian military forces assembled on three sides of the Ukrainian border. Some Russian forces are even as close as eighty miles from Kyiv, the capital. If Russia attacks across the border or orchestrates a coup to install a pro-Russia government, it is really only a continuation of their attack on their neighbor.

We need to recognize that in 2014, through irregular warfare tactics, Putins little green men, mostly Russian military personnel who had removed their army insignias, brazenly seized their neighbors Crimean Peninsula. In the same year pro-Russian insurgents, backed by irregular Russian forces with Russian officers, seized the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine where fighting continues. Then there is another routine aspect of the Russian hybrid warfare  the cyberattacks that have frequently disabled the Ukrainian government and the nations electrical grid and natural gas supplies.

As outrageous as Putins military threats and continued acts of aggression against Ukraine are, however, something far more important than Ukrainian independence from Russian domination is at stake here. If Putin doesnt respect the boundaries of any European nation, like Ukraine, it threatens the whole international order that has freed the European continent from international conflict since 1945.

As President George H.W. Bush marshaled a broad international coalition to expel Saddam Hussein after the Iraqi strongman had seized Kuwait, it is likewise important that Putin not be allowed to seize Ukraine without broad international condemnation and the strongest economic sanctions. Failure to join in a strong international resistance to such naked aggression poses a very real threat of a return to the international warfare and instability that brought such tragic consequences to Europe and much of the world twice in the 20th Century.

Would Putin turn next to recapturing the three Baltic nations that were annexed by the Soviet Union and then subjugated again after Nazi occupation? While a very few Western academics and media critics have said that the membership expansion of NATO and the European Union into Eastern Europe was provocative, it is unthinkable that these organizations wouldnt welcome these countries that had overwhelmingly demonstrated their commitment to escape the stifling shackles of communism and dictatorships they had endured for decades. The prospects of membership in NATO and the European Union were actually crucial in encouraging their adoption of the internal reforms and policies necessary for joining the community of Western-style democracies and economies.

The NATO organization is a mutual defense pact and no offensive threat to Russia. Never has been. The threat to European peace and stability is only from a Putin-led Russia. He seems committed to weakening the community of democracies by destabilizing and dividing us while misleading and distracting his countrymen from the abuses and failures of his own regime.

The United States and its allies in NATO must steadfastly stand together against current and future Russian aggression. We should have learned by now that while we must be open to diplomatic solutions to conflict, when feasible, but also to remember that abandoning fundamental principles of sovereignty and appeasing international bullies, as with Hitler at Munich, is never the right course.

Douglas Bereuter was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska from 1979-2004 and was president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, 2003-04.
The $5 billion proposed Rivian plant is fast becoming the target of Republican congressional candidates critical of the private negotiations and public dollars involved in landing the largest economic development project in Georgia history.

A weekend event near the East Atlanta Mega Site where the massive plant would be built showcased the opposition, attracting hundreds of residents who rallied against the electric vehicle project.

"These are just everyday ordinary people, ordinary citizens who are standing up for their rights, standing up for their freedoms," said Republican Mike Collins, the GOP frontrunner for the 10th Congressional District, after signing a petition opposing what he called a "disastrous" deal.

Former Democrat Vernon Jones, an ex-DeKalb County legislator who entered the race for Congress last week, used more dramatic language.

"What Brian Kemp and others did to keep this a big secret has turned into a big lie!" he posted on Facebook. "The public trust has been violated with this Rivian deal."

The rivals for the deep-red U.S. House seat are tapping into the frustration of residents in this largely rural area about 45 miles east of Atlanta, where opponents are scrambling to stop the development or perhaps limit its scope in court.

A grassroots anti-Rivian campaign that sprouted includes a website that lists Kemp and "everybody else who has aided and abetted this outrageous back-door deal" as enemies. John Strickland, one of the leaders of the effort, has encouraged neighbors to quickly organize.

"We need to unify as a community like never before," he said at a recent meeting. "We need a tidal wave of opposition."

Some complain they were kept in the dark as local and state authorities negotiated in secret with Rivian, which plans to employ about 7,500 people on a roughly 2,000-acre site. Others have vented at the public dollars to subsidize the project.

The details of the incentive package are not yet clear, and Rivian executives recently told residents that the negotiations are still ongoing. But key details have already emerged.

Bloomington-Normal built electric cars long before Rivian The McLean County Museum of History writes a weekly feature on the people, places and artifacts that shaped our local history.

The state's spending plan includes $125 million for land and training costs, and tax breaks and abatements will account for hundreds of millions more. A proposal that would let the company sell its vehicle directly to Georgians is pending and infrastructure improvements are in the works.

The overall tally is expected to be the largest incentive package in state history.

Georgia economic development officials are pressing ahead. Kemp and other state leaders headlined a press conference in December to tout the promise of high-wage jobs and spinoff industries that Rivian's plant will spawn.

The automaker, meanwhile, said in a statement it will continue "introducing ourselves and working with the local communities to address their questions."

"We look forward to collaborating with state and local leaders who share our mission to bring good-paying jobs, innovation, and opportunity to Georgia, and building a better future for generations to come," the company said.

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BLOOMINGTON  A Bloomington woman has been arrested in connection with the 7-month-old girl who was reported missing Monday.

Kimberlee Burton, 29, was arrested Saturday afternoon on preliminary charges of retail theft in the 2200 block of West Market Street. She was formally charged Monday in McLean County court with a Class A misdemeanor for retail theft under $300.

After her arrest, the father of Burton's two children  ages 5 and 6  asked his mother to pick up the children. When they were picked up, the two children were alone in the residence, police said Tuesday.

At about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, officers were called to respond to a well-being check for 7-month-old Zaraz V. Walker  the infant Bloomington police asked for help locating on Monday.

The caller who requested the well-being check told police they were concerned for Walker, who lived with Burton and her two children, and could not locate anyone who was taking care of the infant, police said in a statement Tuesday.

Bloomington police said officers found evidence that an infant did live in the home and opened a missing child investigation. During their search, officers made calls to areas and police departments where the babys father may have lived in Illinois and Florida with negative results.

On Monday morning, officers began searching the neighborhood in the 300 block of East Wood Street for evidence that would lead to Walker. The search continued into the night, police said.

Officers arrested Burton while she was in the McLean County Jail. Her arrest was on preliminary charges of child endangerment, for the two young children who were left at her residence without supervision after her arrest, according to police.

Walker is still missing and is considered endangered. Anyone who has had recent contact with Walker or Burton is asked to contact Sgt. Detective Jared Bierbaum at 309-434-2807 or jbierbaum@cityblm.org.

"We implore members of the community to view at Zaraz's and Burton's photo and to please call us with any tips or information. We believe Zaraz was last seen 5 - 7 days ago, and could be anywhere, Chief Jamal Simington said.

Anonymous tips can be submitted by contacting the Crime & Intelligence Analysis Unit at 309-434-2963. The unit office is staffed on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. If no one is available to answer, BPD says to leave the information on the voicemail or send it by email.

Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.

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BLOOMINGTON  Fourteen jurors were selected Monday in the trial of a 22-year-old Bloomington man charged with murder.

Jordyn H. Thornton is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Oct. 30, 2018, shooting death of Trevonte Kirkwood, 27, of Bloomington.

The judge read 75 names of people who are listed as potential witnesses to be called for testimony throughout the trial, including at least 20 members of the Bloomington Police Department.

Another potential witness to testify is Quentin Jackson, 23, of Peoria, who was sentenced last year to 17 years in prison on a charge of aggravated discharge of a firearm for his role in the shooting. Three murder charges against Jackson were dismissed.

Judge Casey Costigan is presiding over the trial as of Monday after Judge Charles Feeney encountered a personal emergency.

Costigan estimated the trial to last at least one week.

Opening arguments are scheduled for Tuesday morning, when prosecutors are expected to lay out their details and accusations of what led up to the shooting in the 1300 block of North Oak Street in Bloomington.

Police were called there around 8:40 p.m. that night after neighbors heard about three gunshots outside in the area between West Seminary Street and Union Street, authorities have said.

Kirkwood was found lying unresponsive on the sidewalk, and he died at a nearby hospital. The coroner later said Kirkwood died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Thornton, dressed in a blue button-up shirt and a silver tie, sat throughout the jury selection process alongside his court-appointed attorneys, McLean County Public Defender Ron Lewis and Assistant Public Defender Matthew Koetters.

Assistant States Attorneys Ashley Scarborough and Mary Lawson are prosecuting the case.

Lawson said Monday that the states attorneys final plea offer to Thornton has been withdrawn.

Thornton had declined the prosecutors offer of a 63-year prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to one count of first-degree murder.

Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather

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BLOOMINGTON  Three Central Illinois school districts have been named in a lawsuit filed by parents opposing COVID-19 rules and protocols. The move comes as a legislative panel voted to suspend the latest version of coronavirus mitigations for public schools.

Parents from McLean County Unit 5, Bloomington District 87 and Pontiac Grade School District 429, represented by William Gerber of Fairbury, filed the complaint in Sangamon County. The Sangamon County Circuit Clerk's office confirmed it has received the lawsuit, but the documents were not available Tuesday afternoon.

Unit 5 attorney Curt Richardson said Tuesday the district received a courtesy copy of the complaint Monday night but has not yet been served.

The complaint includes similar allegations to a suit filed in Sangamon County by Thomas DeVore representing dozens of teachers across the state, Richardson said.

In DeVores case, Judge Raylene Grischow granted a temporary restraining order on Feb. 4 to halt Gov. J.B. Pritzkers executive orders on masking and exclusions for positive COVID cases and close contacts, finding the stage agencies and school districts lacked the legal ability to enforce the mandates without due process.

The temporary order, which was appealed by the Illinois Attorney Generals Office, voids certain emergency rules from the Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education and prevents the defendants from enforcing mask, vaccine or test requirements.

Richardson said Tuesday the new complaint from Gerber seeks similar relief from emergency orders and requests consolidation with DeVores case.

Were reviewing the complaint and relief requested and determining how to respond, Richardson said.

Unit 5 is not named in DeVores case, but there is another active lawsuit against the district by teachers opposed to the mandates.

District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly and Pontiac 429 Superintendent Brian Dukes also confirmed Tuesday their districts were named in the suit.

Reilly said the district's attorney has been informed but gave no further comment. Dukes said he had no comment at this time as we wait to see what happens with the request.

The lawsuit comes amid a confusing time for school masking requirements.

Also on Tuesday, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, the bipartisan, bicameral oversight committee, voted 9-0-2 against extending IDPH's emergency rule mandating masks in schools.

This means, in effect, there is currently no school mask mandate anywhere in the state.

We have an active court case on this matter, the outcome of which should provide clarity for what next steps are needed," said state Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Orland Park, a member of JCAR. "Acting now would be premature given that pending ruling and also given the fact that the previous rule amounted to guidance without any real enforcement.

The Fourth Appellate Court, which is hearing Pritzker's appeal of Grischow's decision, told the plaintiffs and defendants "to explain how this appeal is affected by" JCAR's vote today. Response are due by 1 p.m. tomorrow.

The court's decision is expected within days.

Special Unit 5 board meeting

This lawsuit comes on the heels of school board meetings at Unit 5 and District 87 last week wherein several parents and teachers spoke against the continued mask mandates at the districts.

The districts kept their mask policies in place despite Grischows ruling, waiting for a ruling in the appellate court to be made. Richardson said last week this was because as a circuit court judge, her ruling was binding only to the parties named in the case.

Before the Unit 5 administration received a copy of the lawsuit Monday, the district posted notice for a special school board meeting to be held at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Normal West High School.

A COVID-19 prevention policy change is on the agenda, and according to a message sent to Unit 5 staff, Superintendent Kristen Weikle is recommending the district moves to a mask recommended but not required policy for all students, staff and visitors.

If approved, the policy change would go into effect the week of Feb. 21.

I know this will raise questions, she wrote in the message. I will be meeting with the unions regarding potential changes and will continue to share information as it is available. I appreciate all that you have done to serve students over the past two years, as I know that the pandemic has created challenges for everyone. Thank you again for your tremendous efforts.

Pantagraph reporters Sierra Henry and Brenden Moore contributed to this report.

Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.

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President Joe Biden largely halted construction on his predecessors border wall, which Democrats decried as inhumane. But he never stopped the Department of Homeland Security from using the border as a testing ground for dystopian military and surveillance technologies  including, most recently, headless robot dogs.

This month, DHS pitched the robot dogs as fun, futuristic versions of mans best friend, meant to help Border Patrol agents navigate rough terrain and other threats. Critics argue that they look like the human-hunting ones in the Netflix series Black Mirror, and that theyd frighten families seeking refuge in this country. The company that makes them, Ghost Robotics, has showcased similar robot dogs equipped with firearms.

Whether you think these canines are creepy or cute, the fact is that the deployment of surveillance technologies at the border  including sensors, drones and camera-equipped towers  has historically pushed people seeking work or asylum in the U.S. into more dangerous remote crossing routes, where thousands have died.

These so-called smart technologies  which Biden touted from his first day in office  have also tended to spill from the border into the countrys interior. For example, in 2020, border drones and other aerial surveillance tools were used by DHS to monitor anti-racist protesters in more than 15 cities.

Similarly, license-plate-scanning technology that started at the border in the 1990s is now common across police departments.

The ACLU has raised concerns about these technologies, noting a vast potential for abuse, as law-abiding citizens in border areas may not be aware that they are being monitored.

Other groups have documented the proliferation of high-tech border infrastructure in marginalized communities and its disproportionate impact on Black and Indigenous people.

But the borderlands surveillance empire  which lacks oversight because of its largely rural nature  imperils everyone. Its driven by companies that deserve scrutiny.

For example, in 2019, the Tohono Oodham Nation became the designated site for surveillance towers built by Israels military company Elbit Systems, whose activities affecting Palestinians have triggered human rights concerns and divestment.

Instead of creating a humane immigration system that might begin to address the reality of migration, the Biden administration is continuing a bipartisan legacy of throwing insane amounts of money at military-style border technology.

These expenditures promote the fantasy of the border as a war zone overwhelmed by criminals and cartels, when the reality is that most people Border Patrol encounters are parents and children seeking asylum.

In promoting military and surveillance technologies, DHS conflates immigration with terrorism. The departments Science and Technology Directorate article about the robot dogs likened them to force multipliers and conjured the presence of WMD, or weapons of mass destruction.

Amid a surge in high-tech gadgets for use on people crossing the border, technology for detecting sophisticated cartel infrastructure  such as underground drug tunnels  flounders.

Given the global rise of authoritarianism, and the known use of surveillance technologies for oppression abroad, its imperative that the U.S. develop a bill of rights regulating their use here. In the meantime, lawmakers should slash DHS funding for these technologies, recognizing that they are just as deadly as then-President Trumps wall  with greater potential for abuse.

Jean Guerrero is an opinion columnist at the Los Angeles Times.

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Big Tech is an enemy of the American people.

The largest corporations of our information economy wield unparalleled power over Americans lives. They enjoy almost unfettered access to our personal information. And they exercise more immediate control over our speech and livelihoods than even the government itself.

Theyve had years to prove themselves responsible stewards of this power, by using it transparently and equitably, in the public interest and for the common good. Theyve chosen not to.

Internationally, Big Tech has partnered with the Chinese Communist Party, helping Beijings genocidal regime develop surveillance technologies to oppress its own people and military technologies that threaten ours. Domestically, they have colluded with government agencies and left-wing activists to silence conservative voices, de-platform conservative ideas or frankly any idea that challenges the opinions of our elites, and manipulate political discourse to undermine conservative candidates and causes.

These corporations, many valued at more than $1 trillion, have grown orders-of-magnitude more powerful and dangerous than anyone could ever dream of.

At this advanced stage, Big Tech barely tries to hide or justify its bullying abuses or totalitarian impulses. It is long past time for policymakers to protect the American people from both.

As The Heritage Foundations groundbreaking new report, Combating Big Techs Totalitarianism, makes clear, the tipping point in Big Techs evolution from potential danger to the republic to the clear-and-present one it now represents was when it collectively embraced the bigoted, bellicose progressivism now ascendant on the elite left. This recent merger of Big Tech and woke ideology has motivated the long train of abuses that now call us to action.

There is Twitter and Facebooks selective enforcement of standards that has censored Republican members of Congress at a rate of 53-to-1 compared to Democrats, and suspended Trump supporters 21 times as often as Clinton supporters.

There is the routine, partisan deplatforming of disinformation that often boils down to differences of opinion.

There is the discrimination against conservative books and media: Amazons ban on scholar Ryan T. Andersons book on gender dysphoria, or its unexplained removal of a documentary about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from its Prime Video streaming service.

There is the collusion between Big Tech and government officials to strangle dissent, in line with White House Press Secretary Jen Psakis chilling assertion that violators shouldnt be banned from one platform and not others. Spotify, MailChimp, GoDaddy, GoFundMe have now joined their trillion-dollar industry leaders in discriminating against customers and entrepreneurs who insist on thinking for themselves. Just ask Joe Rogan.

This is not fair market competition. It is systematic, collusive market capture. And its perpetrators, remember, are engaged in high-tech, misogynistic child abuse on a global scale. Its no coincidence that as Big Techs market capitalization has exploded in the smart-phone era, so has teen depression, with girls rates double those of boys.

Given the stakes, and the enemys resources, we must weigh every policy option. The time to act is now: We need to win the war Big Tech launched against us many years ago.

Federal antitrust law must be enforced, not simply to regulate future mergers, but to correct the monopolistic abuses Big Tech firms already commit  including its ad tech model. Antitrust law must also be enforced and modernized to account for the damage firms can do even with nominally free services. And the American people will be better off if Big Tech executives are held personally liable for their companies crimes.

If these proposals sound aggressive, thats the idea. Americans have underestimated the threat these firms pose. They are not competing within a market; they have become the market and are increasingly assuming the additional role of government resting atop the market.

Kevin Roberts is the president of The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org).

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A family member became seriously ill last year. After some initial tests, a malignancy was diagnosed. Surgery was scheduled, followed by chemotherapy. Everything proceeded mostly as planned, with no medical hiccups. We are both well-educated, with backgrounds in medicine, health economics and risk analysis, which should have prepared us to maneuver the requirements of our health insurance provider and ensure that copays and pre-authorizations were handled as necessary.

We were gravely mistaken.

We chose the providers, surgeon and facility so that they were all in-network. The problem is that some of these facilities use radiologists, pathologists and anesthesiologists who choose to be out-of-network.

Why is this done? These specialists receive higher payments when they are out-of-network than if they become in-network, where the reimbursement rates are lower. This means that patients are then liable for any charges for such services, even though they have no choice of such providers.

In Illinois, a law protects patients from such circumstances. Insurance policies must have what is termed a facility-based provider benefit, which means that if a patient is cared for in an in-network hospital and out-of-network radiologists, pathologists or anesthesiologists provide services, these services are considered in-network, and mostly billed at the providers designated rates.

Even with the facility-based provider benefit, insurance companies may add rules and limitations on such coverage that they do not communicate. For example, they may require that the pathology be billed on the same date as the in-network procedures. So if a pathologist bills for their work one day after the care was provided at an in-network facility, the insurance company may deny the charge, effectively moving the pathologist to bill you directly.

Another example occurs when a pathologist must use a specified number of units for the tissue analysis, yet the insurance company places an arbitrary limit on how many units can be billed per day. If this limit is exceeded, the insurance company denies all charges rather than paying up to their arbitrary limit.

The other problem with these unwritten rules is that the patient is responsible for figuring them out and communicating them to physicians billing offices. Otherwise, billing offices assume that the charges are denied, without determining why, and bill the patient directly.

Effective in 2022, the No Surprise Act provides blanket protection against such billing practices nationwide, offering patients financial protections that move beyond facility-based provider benefits.

The lessons learned from my family members illness is that there are a triumvirate of players that are out of sync with each other.

First, there are the in-network medical providers who deliver care and want to be paid for their services. Second, there are the insurance companies who have a vested interest to provide the minimum payments for services and keep a veil of uncertainty around their rules and policies.

Finally, there are the patients who work to stay in-network, yet find themselves liable for legitimate charges that are coverable by their health insurance policy, but require finesse and communication to facilitate their payment.

The best one can say about health insurance is that it is great when you do not need to use it. But once a major medical event demands extensive and complicated care and services, patients become innocent bystanders, stuck between the medical care provided and the insurance company that should be paying for it.

The current system is unsustainable. COVID-19 has further exposed the problems. Health care providers are overwhelmed by more patients than they have resources to treat.

.

Sheldon H. Jacobson is a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. should lift unilateral sanctions and the asset freeze against Afghanistan as soon as possible, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a press briefing.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
The Finance Ministry has re-clarified transactions that will be affected by the Electronic Transaction Levy which is expected to be tabled before Parliament this week.



It insists that only mobile money transactions above 100 will be taxed.



However, transfers between bank accounts owned by the same person will not attract any E-Levy.



Again, transfer from ones mobile money account (MTN) to another mobile money account (Airtel/Tigo of his/her) will not attract the tax.



Also, transfers for the payment of taxes, fees and charges to Ministries, Departments and Agencies or Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies via the Ghana.gov platform or other designated system will be exempted.



The Finance Ministry further pointed out that a transfer for payments made for a commercial establishments through a payment service (mobile money, bank application, financial technology firm etc.) to a person registered with for the purposes of income tax or value-added tax is exempted. This will apply to both online and physical sales.



There is also 0% E-Levy for salary and allowances of teachers with an average monthly incomes of Ghc1,500.



Workers with average monthly incomes of Ghc3,000 whose salary has mobile money linkage would also be exempted.



At the same time, farmers with average monthly incomes with 500 will also not be affected by the E-Levy. Their payment for farm inputs and medical bills would also not attract E-Levy.



The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, last week revised the rate of the E-Levy from 1.75% to 1.50%.



It is expected to be tabled before Parliament this week despite the stiff opposition from the Minority.















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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Lotto and Lotteries Company Limited owned by Dr. Frank Awuah Adjei has paid the sum of GHc2 million to the National Lottery Authority (NLA) as the license fees for the operation of lotto under Act 722 and Act 844.



Lotto and Lotteries Company Limited has fully paid GHc1.5 million to NLA as the required license fee to operate Lotto under Act 722.



Again, Lotto and Lotteries Company Limited has fully paid GHc500,000 to NLA as the required license fee for operating lotto under Act 844.



The initiative of licensing of Operators of Private Sector Lotto by the National Lottery Authority (NLA) was started by the previous Board of NLA under the leadership of Togbe Francis Seth Nyonyo as Board Chairman and Hon. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw as the Director-General.



The initiative became possible due to a five-year partnership agreement that was entered into between Veterans Administration, Ghana (VAG) and the National Lottery Authority (NLA) to generate revenue from the Banker-to-Banker Lotto Operators and their agents to support national development.



Lotto and Lotteries Company Limited is the biggest private-sector lotto operator having several Agents and Writers across the Country.



The headquarters of Lotto and Lotteries Company is in Kumasi, Ashanti Region.



According to Dr. Frank Awuah Adjei, his company and Agents will always support Government, the Board and the Management of the National Lottery Authority(NLA) to generate revenue for national development. Dr. Frank Adjei was grateful to the current Board and Management of the National Lottery Authority(NLA) for continuing the licensing of Private Sector Lotto Operators so that they can also contribute to jobs and wealth creation across the Country.



Dr. Frank Awuah Adjei encourages other Lotto Operators across the Country to pay their license fees so that individually and collectively they would be able to support the Board and current Management of the National Lottery Authority(NLA) under the leadership of Togbe Francis Seth Nyonyo(Board Chairman) and Mr. Samuel Awuku(Director-General) to generate revenue for Government, and for national development.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Tesla chief executive Elon Musk donated a total of 5,044,000 shares in the world's most valuable automaker to a charity from Nov. 19 to Nov. 29 last year, its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed on Monday.



The donation was worth $5.74 billion, based on the closing prices of Tesla shares on the five days that he donated the stock. The filing did not disclose the name of the charity.



The donation came as the billionaire sold $16.4 billion worth of shares after polling Twitter users about offloading 10% of his stake in the electric-car maker in early November.



He said on Twitter that he would pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021 due to his exercise of stock options set to expire this year.



He also traded barbs with politicians Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who called on wealthy people to pay more taxes.



Analysts have said there would be a tax benefit for Musk potentially gifting Tesla stock, since shares donated to charity are not subject to capital gains tax, as they would be if sold.



"His tax benefit would be huge," said Bob Lord, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies who studies tax policy.



"He'd save between 40% and 50% of the $5.7 billion in tax, depending on whether he could take the deduction against his California income and he'd avoid the gains tax he would have to pay if he sold the stock."



Lord added that Musk might have contributed the stock to intermediaries such as "donor-advised funds," not outright to charitable groups.



Tesla was not immediately available for comment.



MUSK FOUNDATION



The donation ranks Musk as America's second-biggest donor after Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates last year, data from the Chronicle of Philanthropy shows.



Musk's public philanthropy gestures have so far trailed other billionaires. Musk and Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos have donated less than 1% of their net worth, whereas Warren Buffett and George Soros had given away more than 20% by early September, according to business magazine Forbes.



Musk is president of the Musk Foundation, offering grants for the "development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity" among other causes, according to its website.



Last year, Musk and the foundation offered $100 million prizes to those who can come up with a technology to help remove carbon from the atmosphere.



Last year, he said he was donating $20 million to schools in Cameron County, Texas, the location of a Space X rocket launch site, and $10 million to the City of Brownsville.



Musk has also flirted with more ambitious philanthropy goals.



On Twitter last year he said, "If (the United Nations World Food Programme) can describe ... exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it."



He was responding to a plea for a donation from David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Programme.



In January last year, he asked Twitter users about "ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems.)"

Source: REUTERS









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Men and women who survived living under the rule of a Turkish televangelist-turned- cult leader have opened up about the abuse they suffered - often for years - before he was finally arrested.



In January, Adnan Oktar was jailed for 1,045 years in Turkey for a series of charges including rape, child abuse, espionage and blackmail. The 64-year-old denied all of the charges, and is expected to appeal.



At the height of his notoriety, the conservative Islamic preacher frequently broadcast his sermons surrounded by scantily-clad women.



Speaking to the Sunday Times, several of the women who lived with him, whom he called 'kittens', and some of the men who were under his rule, known as his 'lions', have now opened up about the terrible abuse he put them through.



Read Full Story .... dailymail.co.uk >>> :

















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We are proud to support diverse voices across our publishing. The 11th of February was International Day of Women and Girls in Science, established in 2015 by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly.



On this day and every day, we recognize that shining a spotlight on the representation of women in scientific fields particularly in the West African Region and applauding the gains that have been made in their fields, and amplifying the voices of women who have made a career in scientific research is crucial in the effort to creating a landscape that is inclusive.



Join us in recognizing and celebrating their contributions and achievements as women in science. These West African scientists have and continue to serve as role models, driving change and challenging societal barriers within the chemical sciences sector.

This compilation of West African scientists is supported by the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.



Professor Said



Professor Said is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Physics, Bayero University, Nigeria. She is currently one of very few scientists contributing and specializing in atmospheric physics and nuclear science. With family support, she was able to face up to the challenges of an early marriage and traditional and cultural roles she was expected to fill to make her mark as an acknowledged scientist.



Dr. Sylvia Anie



Dr. Sylvia Anie is a Ghanaian scientist (CSci, CChem FRSC, FRSM, Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, UK, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK) known for many notable contributions in science. In 2015, she was selected and honoured as an African Science Hero and had the opportunity of addressing the UN General Assembly, New York in 2011 on HIV and Health. With her team, she established the Ghana AIDS Commission and served as Deputy CEO at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. She holds a patent for research into Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the gastrointestinal tract and is currently working with the National Institute of Health Research, UK on Non-Communicable Diseases in low- and middle-income countries. She further served as the Director of Social Transformations  Health, Education and Gender at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London. Her hard work and perseverance is an inspiration to others.



Dr. Kouakou



Dr. Kouakou is a Lecturer at the Felix HouphouetBoigny University of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. She is leading research on the use of clay to treat diseases and purify polluted water. Dr Kouakou shares the pressure as one of the elders of her family, expected to pursue a less demanding carrier. She was not deterred and is currently recognised as a leading scientist.



Dr. Paye- McClain



Dr. Paye-McClain is an Assistant Professor and Chair, Department of Medicinal/Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, University of Liberia. She spent 10 years instead of 4 to complete her first degree due to shortage of instructors because of war and conflict in Liberia. Currently, she is helping with the production of WHO recommended hand sanitizers as part of preventive measures to control COVID-19.



Dr. Mante



Dr. Mante is a Lecturer and Neuropharmacologist at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. She is currently working towards producing a cure for epilepsy. In 2019, she received the LOreal- UNESCO Women in Science International Rising Talent Award. Her career journey in a male dominated field has nurtured her skills in perseverance.



Dr. Kolipha  Kamara



Dr. Kolipha-Kamara is the Resident Malaria Advisor for Chemonics International, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Dr. Kolipha-Kamara has been instrumental in the design and implementation of the pharmaceutical curriculum for a university in Freetown. For a who nearly missed out on tertiary education for lack of funds, she is a great inspiration for sailing through.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Strategic Communications Africa LTD. (Stratcomm Africa), Ghanas premier full service communication agency, won two awards at the Annual Public Relations Excellence Awards held at Dodi place in Akosombo on Friday 21st January 2022.



The multiple award winning agency was this time recognised as excelling in respect of communication content in its campaign delivery (Best content) and also for communication for nonprofit purposes (Best in Nonprofit communication). The citations accompanying the two awards said, Stratcomm Africa Provided regular, relatable and relevant content, packaged in engaging and easy to consume ways to key stakeholders. In respect of the award for best in nonprofit communication, which was in respect of communication about Covid -19, the citation said, Stratcomm Africa planned and executed an effective relationship, strengthening communication with a PR strategy, which yielded demonstrable results.



The Public Relations Excellence Awards, the flagship recognition activity of the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana, awards members for excellence in various aspects of public relations/communications delivery.



Mawuko Afadzinu, President of IPR Ghana says, Our Institute promotes excellence through constant learning and relearning and we honour and reward excellence as this contributes to the growth of our profession.



Esther A.N Cobbah, Founder of Stratcomm Africa said, Excellent content is critical for impactful communication and that is the trademark of Stratcomm Africa. We at Stratcomm Africa, also deploy the excellence in communication for non-profit purposes to benefit society, not just for commercial purposes. We are therefore delighted to receive this year, the awards for Best content and Best in Nonprofit communication.



Stratcomm Africa turns Twenty-Eight years this year. In this period, it has continued to provide professional support to individuals and organisations, public and private, local and international, in numerous industries including agriculture, aviation, finance, mining, oil and gas, telecommunications, manufacturing and fast moving consumer goods. Development related programming - health, gender, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), child and youth development issues etc. have also been among the areas that have been addressed effectively by Stratcomm Africa.



Stratcomm Africas professional excellence has been consistently recognised by the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana, in different award categories, including Outstanding PR Agency of the year. Stratcomm Africa also continues to be recognized internationally.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Demand for locally produced chocolate and other finished cocoa products has picked up significantly, as more people heed calls by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and other stakeholders to consume more Ghana cocoa.

The Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) and other major cocoa processors are now struggling to meet the demand for the products, especially in this month of February when more people patronise chocolate and other products in a symbolic gesture to show love, as is associated with Valentines Day.



From the sale of 187 tonnes of chocolate and other finished cocoa products in February 2018, sales at the CPC have almost doubled to 300 tonnes this month as a result of a steady rise in demand over the period.



The marked increase in patronage also follows the revamping of the National Chocolate Day celebration to create awareness of the benefits of cocoa and the need to make its consumption a routine, instead of an event.



Rising demand



The Managing Director of the CPC, Nana Agyenim Boateng I, told the Daily Graphic over the weekend that his outfit was overwhelmed by the rise in demand, but said it had strategically repositioned its operations to take full advantage of the demand.



He attributed the growing demand to the awareness created by COCOBOD, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) and other stakeholders of the need to consume more Ghana-made chocolate and cocoa due to its benefits.



The MD, who is the Chief of Amoaman in the Ashanti Region, added that apart from the month of February, Christmas and Easter were occasions people patronised CPCs products.



He said as a result of the high demand, the company was now sourcing funds to retool and expand its confectionery factory.



Activities



The National Chocolate Day was instituted in 2005 to coincide with Valentines Day, which falls on 14th February, every year, to boost the domestic consumption of chocolate and other cocoa-based products to promote domestic tourism.



This year, week-long activities for the celebration began on February 8 and climaxed yesterday. It was on the theme: Eat chocolate, stay healthy, grow Ghana, with the sub-theme: Our chocolate, our health, our earth.



The GTA also organised a float along some principal streets of Accra, ending at the Chocolate City, temporarily set up at the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange.



The float sensitised the public to the health and economic benefits of chocolate and other cocoa-based products.



Speaking at the end of the float, the acting Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GTA, Mr Ekow Sampson, gave an assurance that the authority would intensify its campaign to help increase the per capita consumption of cocoa from 0.5 to 1.5 kilogrammes by the close of this year.



We intend to intensify the promotion of local consumption of chocolate and other cocoa based-products and also extend the campaign to the rural communities to make it more effective to ensure that we achieve our target.



I am sure that if we sustain the momentum in the next couple of years, more people are going to consume chocolate to put us up the ranking, which is very low at the moment, Mr Sampson said.



According to him, cocoa products were capable of improving blood circulation, reducing blood pressure and providing energy and vitality.









Source: graphiconline.com









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A private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, has said that Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources deserves a lot of commendations for properly handling the Appiatse explosion.



According to him, the minister has justified the reason for having vibrant and energetic individuals occupying public offices.



Samoa Addo maintains that the minister has shown remarkable and exemplary leadership in dealing with the situation.



I believe that the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources has really impressed me. Honestly, Ive known Jinapor for a while and I think that he has made a very strong case for why you should have young, dynamic persons in government.



He added Because I havent come across any minister who has administratively been able to hold persons or companies who are violating the rules and regulations in their area and this act is one that sets a very good precedent.



For the minister himself to administratively take that decision, I think he deserves a lot of commendation and hell be my minister for the year because it was such a bold and decisive decision without prejudice to the civil actions that could take place, he noted.



Samoa Addos plea



He then appealed to the minister to ensure that the fine imposed on the company (Maxam) is put to good use.



What I am begging of him (Samuel Jinapor) is to ensure that the money is used for the purpose. That is always been our problem as Ghanaians. But with the US$5 million, we beg the parasites in our system not to come close to this money. Even if we dont get anything right in this country, for this project lets ensure we take the scares away from the people, he stated.



Maxam fined



The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has slapped a fine of US$1 million on Maxam Company Limited, the company at the centre of last months explosion at Appiatse in the Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality of the Western Region.



The fine came barely a week after the committee tasked to investigate the explosion submitted its report to the Lands and Natural Resources Minister Samuel Abu Jinapor.



The company has agreed to pay an additional US$5 million over a period of time to the government of Ghana.



At least 900 persons have so far been displaced and 13 confirmed dead, according to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).



A statement issued by the ministry on Tuesday (8 February) said the minister imposed the hefty fine due to the nature and the totality of the circumstance leading to this tragic incident.

Source: Asaaseradio









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The Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project (GLRSSP) has been launched by the Government to strengthen the integration of the country's natural resource management.



The World Bank approved $103.4 million in August last year to implement the project expected to benefit 250,000 youth, farmers, artisanal small-scale miners and women.



Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, on Tuesday, virtually launched the Project.



The Project is being implemented by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and coordinated by the Environmental Protection Agency.



Dr Afriyie said the project aimed at strengthening the integration of the countrys natural resources management and increasing the benefits to communities in targeted savannah and cocoa forest landscapes.



It would also support sustainable land use, water, and forest management initiatives in climate-vulnerable target landscapes and support the formalization of small-scale mining.



The project would geographically target two landscapes, the Northern Savannah Zone, including the Guinea Savannah ecological zone, the Sudan Savannah ecological zone, and the upper portions of the Transitional ecological zone; and the cocoa forest landscape, including parts of the Forest ecological zone and the Pra River Basin.



The financing of the project includes an International Development Association (IDA) credit of $75 million and $28.4 million in grants from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the Extractive Global Programmatic Support (EGPS) and the Global Partnership for Sustainable and Resilient Landscapes Multi-Donor Trust Fund.



The liberalization of Ghanas mining laws in 1989 legalized artisanal and small-scale mining with the fundamental goal of creating jobs and generating revenue.



However, the small-scale mining sector had created an array of challenges, including unsustainable and illegal use of lands for mining, destroying the country's lands, leading to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, accelerated soil erosion and sedimentation, water and air pollution, and degradation of productive agricultural lands, including cocoa farms, among other environmental damage.



These challenges have cost the nation over $6.3 billion annually, according to the World Banks Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) study conducted in 2017.



Dr Afriyie noted that if the natural resource extraction techniques and agricultural methods were not modified and landscape restored, the base of the country's rich natural resources would be destroyed without thoroughly exploring its benefits and render sustainable economic growth from the sector.



"Our current generation has a moral obligation to restore and sustainably manage the environment for the next generation.



"We may have wasted time, being selfish to an extent, but we can turn things around and strive to achieve a better, greener and healthier environment," Dr Afriyie stressed.







Source: GNA









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The Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua, is to undergo a facelift through a decongestion exercise to help make the movement of people, goods and services easy.



The Regional Minister, Mr Seth Kwame Acheampong, said the decongestion exercise is also to make movements safer for residents.



The exercise, he said, would commence at the end of February following a series of stakeholder engagement meetings with traditional leaders, assembly members, driver and vehicle unions, market women, agencies and departments and all necessary parties.



Speaking during a press briefing last Friday in his office in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Minister said the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) had expressed concerns over the encroachment of some reserved areas in the region and would, therefore, need a proper decongestion to regain the beautiful status of the affected areas and also to make people feel safer.



"We have realised that most of the reserved areas with respect to towns and cities have been encroached upon. It is appropriate that we realign. However, before we are able to realign positively, it is prudent we engage stakeholders. So we held joint assembly members and arbitrators meeting for New Juaben North and South assemblies. We engaged traditional leaders and gave orientation of the RCC. Thereafter, we followed up with a town hall meeting to deepen the engagement with market women, driver unions and those who ply their trades within the community," he said.



According to him, the exercise would commence from the Eastern Regional Capital, Koforidua, to set the pace for other parts of the region.



Inauguration of Committee



Mr Acheampong indicated that a "Facelift Committee" had been inaugurated to help in the decongestion exercise.



"We have inaugurated a committee for the facelift of the Greater Koforidua Municipality. It is going to be a joint operation with the Regional Metro, Transport and Travel Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) and other extended agencies and departments of the RCC.



We gave stakeholders heads up prior to the commencement of the exercise by the Facelift Committee chaired by the Eastern Regional MTTD Commander," he noted.



He has entreated the citizenry within the region to understand the position of the RCC and cooperate with persons who will be on the ground to lead the exercise to make movement and accessibility easier and not see it as a way of disadvantaging any citizen or group of people.



Nature of decongestion exercise



The Regional Minister said the principal streets and roads had been bedeviled with irresponsibility and indiscipline on the parts of traders and drivers especially, making movement difficult, while government had provided infrastructure to solve such situations.



He explained that refusal on the part of traders to use markets established by the government and drivers' preference to park by the road side and load their vehicles have made movement within parts of the regional capital and other areas across the region difficult, hence the exercise to correct such menace.



"We are driving all those selling on pavements to the market at the Zongo Area [Agatha Market] where government has invested in infrastructure and people are refusing to make use of. It is not proper; we need to ensure that people use the infrastructure that government has invested in as part of the exercise and encourage clients or buyers to enter into the markets and those using tricycles (popularly known as "pragia and aboboya"), taxis and trotro that always roam around and park anywhere are sent back to the various stations. We want movement within the community to be safe, with people freely going about their business. The exercise is not targeted at any particular group of people; it is just to sanitise the community," he added.



Observation



The Daily Graphic observed that parts of Koforidua, especially on market days (Mondays and Thursdays), become very congested and clumsy, with movements of vehicles and persons very slow.



The traffic situation worsens, especially around the Central Business District (CBD). The pavements are parked with goods by traders and roads are taken over by taxis, trotros, "pragia, and aboboya" as lorry stations and parking lots.



Noise pollution and other unfriendly environmental activities, including the dumping of refuse in gutters, are some prevalent norms at the CBD.





Source: graphiconline.com









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KABUL, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government Inamullah Samangani on Sunday criticized Washington's "unfair" decision to compensate the victims of 9/11 terrorist attacks with Afghanistan's assets.

Following the pullout of its troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, the United States has frozen nearly 10 billion U.S. dollars worth of assets of Afghanistan's central bank, which worsened the economic crisis and poverty in the war-torn Asian country.

In a decree issued on Friday, Biden reportedly ordered the allocation of 3.5 billion dollars from the assets as damage to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and diverted 3.5 billion more dollars to the Afghans as humanitarian aid, without the consent of the Taliban-run administration.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
43-year-old Kehinde Oladimeji and his 35-year-old wife Adejumoke Raji arrested over the weekend for being in possession of human parts at Leme area of Ogun State have confessed on how they killed their victim, his wife's friend.



While being paraded before newsmen on Monday, February 14, at the Ogun State Police Headquarters, the husband, Oladimeji, revealed that his wife singlehandedly killed her friend, who had paid them a visit.

He said it was the body parts of his wifes friend that the police saw in the bucket caught with them.



According to him, his wife butchered her friend and dismembered her body parts, after which they both sold the deceaseds head to someone in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital for N70,000.



There was a day my wife invited her friend, a lady, to our house for a visit. The first time she came was on a Tuesday, she came that particular day and went back home.



But the second day she came, it was a Thursday. That day, my wife cooked noodles and eggs for the lady, which she ate. Later, the lady went into the bathroom to shower.



But when it was getting dark that day, I inquired from my wife when her friend would go home, but my wife said she was weak and would need to lie down to regain her strength. I sat in the backyard, but when I returned to the room, I realized my wife had killed her friend and dismembered her body.



When I asked her why she did it, she told me that the lady had offended her a long time ago. The person who bought the head came from Ibadan. His name is Oluomo, the husband revealed

He explained further that his wife had overheard him on the phone when a friend from Ibadan called him to request a human head.



I have a friend in Ibadan, who is popularly known as Omo Baale. He told me he needed a human head, but I told him I didnt have such a connection or anybody who can help facilitate it.



My wife heard the discussion and asked me how much the man would pay for the human head. I told him he was ready to pay N70,000. I never knew my wife had made up her mind.



As you can see, Im not a strong person. When the incident happened, I had wanted to kill myself,  the husband said

Source: LIB









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General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party, John Boadu has questioned the Right Honourable Alban Kinsford Bagbin's frequent visits to the United Arab Emirates.



The Speaker of Parliament is currently on his third medical trip to Dubai and he's expected to return to the country on March 4.



Concerns have been raised about the Speakers medical review trips to Dubai.



Following Mr. Bagbin's sick leave to Dubai on Friday, 7th January, 2022, former General Secretary of the Convention People's Party (CPP), James Kwabena Bomfeh, popularly called Kabila, asked the Speaker to resign from his position.



He argued; ''If we need to save the Speaker, let save the Speaker by asking him to resign quietly so that somebody who is healthy and stronger can occupy the space. After all, when he resigns today, he's entitled to all the things that he is entitled to till he dies."



Speaking in a one-on-one interview on Peace FM's The platform program, the NPP General Secretary wondered if Babgin would often embarked on such trips were the payment coming from his own pocket.



"...I believe if the Speaker returns from his medical trip; we're expecting that this time when he returns he will stay for a long time because from what I have observed, he comes and goes very often. I've never seen this before maybe it's because the payment is coming from the government" he queried



Listen to him in the video below:





.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Member of Parliament (MP) for the Madina Constituency, Hon Francis Xavier Sosu, has hit back at the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), describing the association as a "monumental failure" which has been "reduced to yet another useless institution" by its current leadership.



To him, istead of the current GBA leadership "joining the clarion call to stop our judges from becoming political judges, in order to guarantee our democracy," they are rather more interested in "needlessly attacking the voice of conscience that speaks truth though it hurts badly."



"It is very sad that the leadership of the GBA....historically known to be champions of Rule of Law, Accountability and Social Justice, has reduced itself to yet another useless institution of our democratic process in these days and times," he said.



The Madina Constituency MP was reacting to the GBA's condemnation of certain comments he purportedly made last week.



Lawyer Sosu, is reported to have asserted during the Yentua demonstration last Thursday, February 10, 2022 that some judges have become political in the line of work and that such judges would be treated so.



He threatened those judges could lose their offices when the political regimes whose bidding such judges do are no longer in power.



What it means is that when you become partisan as a judge, remember that your tenure of office as a judge will run with the political party that you favour. Let that be clear because political power is very transient, positions are not possessions, so people will come, people will go, he said.



The NDC MP's remarks did not go down well with the GBA, who considered the former's words as implying that some judges are politically motivated in the discharge of their work.



Describing Mr Sosu's remarks as not only "unprofessional and unfortunate", but also "irresponsible and distasteful", the GBA, in a statement dated February 14, 2022, and jointly signed by the National President and National Secretary, Yaw Acheampong Boafo and Kwaku Gyau Baffour, said his statement smacks of deep-seated ignorance, as the tenure of judges per the Constitution, 1992, and other relevant laws, is never in any way whatsoever tied to the tenure of the political regime under which judges are appointed.



Judges, unlike political office holders, are not elected into office; hence it is reckless for anybody to give the slightest suggestion that the tenure of judges are linked to the tenure of the political regimes under which judges are appointed, the statement added.



It added that such attacks on judges have the potential of creating disaffection and ill-will for judges and for that matter the judiciary.



The GBA observes that such ignorant and deliberate misinformation is gradually but steadily casting a slur on the appreciable gains that have been made in our democratic experiment as a nation, it said.



But in a strongly-worded riposte hours after the GBA's official statement, Lawyer Sosu who is a Deputy Ranking Member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament, accused the GBA of seeking to create a "false impression by their misguided release asserting that judges will lose their jobs when the party that appointed them loses power."



He was, however, emphatic that he will not run away from his comments, though it "was a conditional statement."



"Let me be clear that i stand by my statement any day, any time. The statement was a conditional statement and no matter of twists and turns will extricate judicial officers and judges who would allow themselves to become agents of political partisan agenda," he stated.





More soon.....









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Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Dean of the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum has expressed his unhappiness over the recent arrest of some journalists and persons in the country.



A popular Ghanaian social activist who recently led a protest against President Nana Akufo-Addo's government has been arrested after declaring his support for a coup.



Oliver Barker-Vormawor, leader of the pressure group #FixTheCountry, was reportedly detained on his arrival from the UK at an airport on Friday.



Mr. Barker-Vormawor posted on social media that he will stage a coup should Parliament pass the contentious e-levy bill.



"If this E-Levy passes... I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!", he said in a series of posts on Facebook.



"The post contained a clear statement of intent with a possible will to execute a coup in his declaration of intent to subvert the constitution of the Republic of Ghana," a police statement read.



He is charged with treason felony.



Also, a journalist named Kwabena Bobie Ansah, host of ''the Citizen show'' on Accra FM, was arrested by persons purported to be National Security operatives after his show on Thursday, February 10, 2022.



His arrest was in connection with allegations he leveled against the First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo.



Bobie Ansah accused the First Lady of stealing some government lands and turning them into his private property.



Speaking on Peace FM's morning show ''Kokrokoo'', Prof. Kofi Agyekum, popularly called ''Opanyin Agyekum'' found the arrests inappropriate and advised the security agencies to sometimes use caution statements to admonish people who make uncouth and libelous statements.



''For me, it's not appropriate that today someone will say something, then gets arrested. Sometimes, I think they should be cautioned'', he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi.



Opanyin Agyekum also asked journalists to watch their tongues when speaking on air.



He further cautioned political parties to stop backing people arrested for slander or any other wrongdoing stressing such behavior by politicians ''doesn't inspire development''.



''So, when someone says something and is in favor of the NPP, the NPP doesn't usually find anything wrong with what the person says...The same way if it's an NDC sympathizer or member who's made a certain statement which we all in this country should accept it's inappropriate, you will get his or her party members defending him or her...This creates mayhem in the country. It ruins the freedom in the country'', he emphasized.





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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Chief Executive Officer of the State Transport Corportation (STC), Nana Akomea has backed the Police arrests of journalists and persons who make seditious or libelous comments.



On Thursday, February 10, 2022, a journalist named Kwabena Bobie Ansah, host of ''The Citizen Show'' on Accra FM, was arrested by persons purported to be National Security operatives for accusing the First and Second Ladies of stealing some government lands.



He also posted on social media saying ''this current judicial system is corrupt and made up of crooks and criminals, led by a corrupt Chief Justice who's struggling to purge himself from a $5 thievery allegations. Facts are sacred''.



Bobie Ansah was arrested after refusing to honor Police invites for interrogation into his allegations, a Police statement said.



He is being held on a charge of offensive conduct.



Also Onua TVs Morning Show host, Blessed Godsbrain Smart, popularly called ''Captain Smart'', was detained by National Security Operatives after he had been granted bail by the court following his arrest over extortion.



He was detained along with another staff, Eric Dadzie Copperfield, also called DJ GH Boy who is also facing charges of abetment to extort.



Furthermore, the leader of the pressure group #FixTheCountry, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, who recently led a protest against President Nana Akufo-Addo's government was on Friday arrested after making comments on social media about plotting a coup.



"If this E-Levy passes... I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!", he said in a series of posts on Facebook.



Following his post, a Police report read; "The post contained a clear statement of intent with a possible will to execute a coup in his declaration of intent to subvert the constitution of the Republic of Ghana.''



Mr. Barker-Vormawor is charged with treason felony.



Reacting to the issue during a panel discussion programme on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Nana Akomea noted that the arrests are a measure to sanitize the airwaves.



He supported the action by the security agencies saying ''I find it to be restoring sanity. We have free speech as we all know. We have media freedom but we also have laws. So, the fact that we have free speech doesn't mean I can say anything against my brother Kwesi Pratt and claim it's free speech. If I say something against Kwesi Pratt and it sullies his integrity while I have no evidence, I can't say it's free speech. If we do that, the whole society will collapse''.



To him, a lot of people have made similar statements and have been ignored for far too long, hence, it's about time the laws were exercised.



''Most times, we ignore but should we continue to ignore it, it will become worse'', he stressed.





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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STC CEO, Nana Akomea, has condemned the Police detention of the #FixTheCountry convener, Oliver Barker-Vormawor beyond the lawful 48 hours of arrest.



Oliver Barker-Vormawor arrested by the Police is said to have exceeded his 48-hour stay in Police custody under Police alibi that they couldn't find a court for him to be granted bail.



He is charged with treason felony for making comments on social media about plotting a coup.



"If this E-Levy passes... I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!", he posted on Facebook.



"The post contained a clear statement of intent with a possible will to execute a coup in his declaration of intent to subvert the constitution of the Republic of Ghana," a Police statement read following Mr. Barker-Vormawor's post.



Making submissions on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Nana Akomea expressed disgust over the conduct of the Police stressing, "two wrongs do not make a right''.



He rejected the Police alibi, maintaining they had no excuse to detain the Journalist for more than the specified period.



"There is no excuse. There is no excuse for breaking the law or else we will all break the law and give excuses. As for excuses, if you want some, you will get them," he said.



Nana Akomea also advised the Police not act in annoyance, hence slap people with extreme charges.











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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Staying scandal-free in an industry that thrives on controversies is probably an art which only a few artistes have mastered.



Although he hasnt been in the industry for too long, five years to be exact, Afrobeats artiste King Promise seems to be mastering the art of avoiding controversies.



He stays out of beefs involving artistes, doesnt post anything controversial on social media and in interviews tries hard to avoid stepping on toes. He rather prefers to channel his energy into churning out great songs.



In a recent interview with Graphic Showbiz, the musician revealed that he believed in letting his music speak for him instead of riding on controversies.



Riding on controversies to get the numbers is not my style. Id rather focus my energy on doing good music for the fans to enjoy. First of all, I am known as a musician and I want to be remembered for good music. I dont see the need to reply or respond to issues that do not relate to my music career, he stated.



According to King Promise, the reason for his popularity was his music, so he did not see the need to put his personal stuff out there or focus on any other thing that would distract him.



Some musicians are okay putting their personal stuff out there, be controversial and still be successful musicians but not me. I just dont want to be distracted from my aim of becoming that wonderful musician, he said.



Asked if he believed he had arrived, King Promise who has songs such as Abena, Selfish, CCTV, Oh Yeah, Sisa, Odo, Bra, Tokyo among others said he had so much more to learn.



There is so much to do and I will say I am just starting. I have a lot of collaborations to do and a lot of people to mentor. I want the world to hear of King Promise and I am gradually working towards that, he stated.



King Promise also thanked his management team for signing him on and always giving him the right gigs.



With the right management, making it to the top is quite easier and I must say my management team has been very helpful. The year 2022 is going to be a fantastic one for me because I have a lot to offer Ghanaians, he said.

Source: Graphic Showbiz









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Head regeneration of the hemichordates, Ptychodera flava. Uncut, intact animal through post-amputation and regenerated status, which showed a new head (G) approaching final size to match original body is attached to original anterior cut stump. Arrowheads showed the newly regenerated section. Credit: Frontiers, Ancestral stem cell reprogramming genes active in hemichordate regeneration, Humphreys et al., 2022

A group of Japanese and American researchers found that the Ptychodera flava, a worm-like marine organism capable of regenerating its entire head or body, draws on reprogramming-based mechanisms that help somatic cells in higher-order animals branch out into complete body parts. Commonly known as the acorn worm, the animal shares evolutionary roots with chordates and mammals that can be traced back from the most advanced vertebrates, including humans.

The acorn worms utilize pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) reprogramming factors to regenerate their head or body, according to lead author Kunifumi Tagawa, an associate professor and director with the Marine Biological Laboratory at Hiroshima University's Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life.

The team published their findings on February 15 in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

In biology, reprogramming factors refer to molecules or proteins that can trigger cells to become any type of cells.

Tagawa's team observed several unique genes expressed in the acorn worms during head regeneration not seen in chordates and other higher-order vertebrates. "Based on these results, we propose that hemichordates may have co-opted these reprogramming factors for their extensive regeneration, or that chordates may have lost the ability to mobilize these factors in response to damage," Tagawa said. "The robustness of these pluripotent gene circuits in formation of induced stem cells from mammalian somatic cells shows that these programs are intact in humans and other mammals, and that these circuits may respond to as yet unknown gene regulatory signals."

Transfections of the acorn worm reprogramming genes into mouse P19 EC cells. Note that the reprogramming factors show similar level of expression in the mouse EC cells. Credit: Tom Humphreys (University of Hawaii), Keith Weiser (University of Hawaii), Asuka Arimoto (Hiroshima University), Yusuke Marikawa (University of Hawaii), Kuni Tagawa (Hiroshima University)

Scientists have observed the capacity of hemichordates such as planaria and hydra to regenerate since the 19th century, but only recently have used them as a model for studying regenerative processes. Being the most advanced of animals observed with regeneration capacity and more closely related to humans than planaria and hydra, acorn worms still uniquely share the ability with lower-order organisms to regenerate, however, they lack "totipotent stem cells"individual cells from which the entire organism can completely regenerate. Hemichordates do have a reprogramming gene network that allows cells to become pluripotent state in order to recreate an injured structure or organ. "As such, this further illustrates how studying hemichordate regeneration is a promising new thread in the field of regeneration biology," Tagawa said.

The research team collected acorn worms from a flat shallow reef in Paiko, Oahu in Hawaii. They sampled worms ranged from 410cm in length. They then cut portions of the worms' bodies and observed them in clean glass bowls throughout 12 days of regeneration, at which point the animals regained their natural burrowing behavior and could crawl out of the bowls. In each experiment, the collected animals were cut at the posterior end of the branchial clefts. Reprogramming factors analogous to those released in vertebrates to signal tissue healing following an injury were found, usually first appearing in worm samples preserved 2448 hours after being cut.

This functional overlap with higher-order vertebrates sets the stage for further investigation into the exact mechanisms of hemichordate regeneration, according to Tagawa. Just why acorn worms can deploy their reprogramming factors to regenerate substantial parts of their bodies while vertebrates cannot remains a mystery. "We would like to address this question by continuing to study hemichordate regeneration and try to identify factors to reactivate pluripotent gene networks," Tagawa said. "This is a significant step toward future therapeutic and possibly lifesaving interventions in humans using stem cells."

Explore further Our closest worm kin regrow body parts, raising hopes of regeneration in humans

More information: Tom Humphreys et al, Ancestral Stem Cell Reprogramming Genes Active in Hemichordate Regeneration, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2022). Journal information: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution Tom Humphreys et al, Ancestral Stem Cell Reprogramming Genes Active in Hemichordate Regeneration,(2022). DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.769433
NASA's DC-8 arrives in Seoul, Korea for the Korean U.S. Air Quality mission, or KORUS-AQ. Credit: NASA

An international effort to measure air quality in South Korea, a region with complex sources of pollution, may provide new insights into the atmospheric chemistry that produces ozone pollution, according to a team of scientists.

"This study shows that observations of the hydroxyl radicalOHand hydroperoxyl radicalHO 2 provide valuable tests of the ability of our photochemical models to correctly represent atmospheric chemistry, especially in environments with high levels of pollution," said William H. Brune, distinguished professor of meteorology at Penn State.

The hydroxyl radical initiates important chemical reactions throughout the atmosphere, including in the troposphere, the lowest region reaching to the Earth's surface, where its reactions clean the air but also lead to ozone pollution in cities, the scientists said.

The team analyzed airborne measurements of the hydroxyl radical, hydroperoxyl radical and about a 100 other chemical species taken during flights over South Korea in 2016 as part of a joint field study between NASA and the Republic of Korea, called Korea-U.S. Air Quality (KORUS-AQ).

The airborne measurements of the hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl radicals agreed with values produced by separate models running at NASA Langley Research Center and Penn State when the uncertainties in the measurements and models are considered, the researchers said.

"One major finding iseven in a complex environment like thiswe have a good handle on the basic chemistry in our models," Brune said. "We can really say this chemistry is correct within the uncertainties, and that tells us something about ozone production."

Ozone forms when nitrogen oxideslike from vehicle and power plant emissionsand volatile organic compoundsproduced naturally by plants but also by solvents and other harsh man-made chemicalsmix in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight, the scientists said.

"But these elements can't do much themselves, they need something to make the chemistry active, and that is the hydroxyl radical," Brune said. "It drives the chemistry, kind of like a low-temperature version of the flame heating your house."

While the hydroxyl radical measured during the flights generally agreed with the models, the scientists found less agreement when they looked at their measurements of the radical's reactivity, which is the sum of reactions between the hydroxyl radical and all chemical species.

"It's really a key number because a very high hydroxyl radical reactivity means you're in a very polluted environment, or an environment that has a lot of things being emitted that are reacting with the hydroxyl radical," Brune said.

When the measured hydroxyl radical reactivity was compared to the hydroxyl radical reactivity calculated using all the other measurements, it was not possible to account for as much as half of the hydroxyl radical reactivity in some cases, said the scientists, who reported their findings in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

This missing hydroxyl radical reactivity originated primarily from the Korean peninsula, potentially helping to distinguish the sources between pollution emitted by industry in South Korea and older pollution that blows in from China, the scientists said.

"We invented this idea of measuring hydroxyl radical reactivity about 25 years ago and we've found missing reactivity in forests and all kinds of other places," Brune said. "And while we are now much better at closing the gap between measured and calculated hydroxyl radical reactivity, in South Korea we thought we were measuring everything, and we clearly weren't measuring everything."

Improving our understanding of this reactive chemistry is important, Brune said, because that information can inform regional and global air quality models.

"These models have a hard time predicting really harmful amounts of ozone," he said. "Hopefully our results will help them figure out the problem so that they can be used by policy makers to efficiently reduce ozone levels, not just in the U.S., but around the world."

Explore further Lightning and subvisible discharges produce molecules that clean the atmosphere

More information: William H. Brune et al, Observations of atmospheric oxidation and ozone production in South Korea, Atmospheric Environment (2021). Journal information: Atmospheric Environment William H. Brune et al, Observations of atmospheric oxidation and ozone production in South Korea,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118854
Looking at survey results, pediatric researcher Robert Sege said he was surprised to find that even people who say they are extremely stressed by the pandemic say theyre closer to their children. Credit: Shutterstock

Against the dismal health landscape of the pandemic, researchers have discovered some good news about family well-being. Physician Robert Sege, a Tufts University School of Medicine professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine at Tufts Medical Center, and his TMC colleague Allison Stephens found that three different statistical indicators of child abuseemergency department visits, abusive head trauma admissions, and reports to child welfare officesdropped sharply in the spring of 2020, precisely as the world shifted into lockdown. This surprised some experts, who feared child abuse would rise as familiesunder the duress of closed schools, job disruptions, and myriad other pandemic stressorstried to find their way through. Sege, whose research focuses on child abuse prevention, addressed the paradox in a recent interview.

Tufts Now: You and Allison Stephens recently wrote in JAMA Pediatrics about the "missing epidemic of child abuse," arguing that the latest data bucks the conventional wisdom that child abuse and neglect would increase during the pandemic. How do you explain this paradox of declining rates despite increased risk?

Robert Sege: I think it's good news in many ways. We know that many people had more time on their hands due to work disruptions or remote work. They were less rushed; their kids were less rushed. During that period, state, local, federal government and neighbors stepped in. So while unemployment skyrocketed, there was eviction protection, stimulus checks, direct supports for food and utility services, and increased unemployment insurance.

What people don't know about child abuse is that most children who are abused are abused by their parents or caretakers, not by strangers. The second thing is that most parents really love their children. When child abuse occurs, it's not because parents don't love their kids; it's because they've reached the end of their rope. It's because they're already under financial distress or relationship stress, or they're having mental health challenges or drug problems. Then children do child-like things; babies cry a lot and toddlers behave oppositionally and teenagers try to grow up. When parents' own problems and stresses have already pushed them to the edge, they cannot handle these normal problems and difficulties of raising children.

We think that during the pandemic families were given enough support that they never got to that edge.

How do you connect the dots between families getting support to meet day-to-day needs and less child abuse in the home?

We have known for a long time that supports for familiesfood benefits, utility assistance, all those thingsdecrease child abuse. And in particular, paid parental leave, which we just got in Massachusetts in 2021, decreases abusive head trauma in infants. All of these things point to these external social factors as crucial: If you give families enough to not be pushed over the edge, then they don't abuse their children. This is really important.

Wouldn't you expect there to be fewer people noticing and reporting abuse while schools were closed?

First, emergency department visits for child abuse and neglect dropped precipitously. Second, a group at Yale found that hospital admissions for abusive head trauma, a severe consequence of child abuse, also declined dramatically. So that's two medical indicators.

The third is the number of reports of child physical abuse. These happen when someone calls the state welfare officein Massachusetts, it would be the Department of Children and Familiesbecause they're concerned a child is being abused. Those reports declined up to 70 percent. Some experts said at the time that the reports had declined because the children weren't going to school or preschool, so maybe there was child abuse going on without being detected in the usual ways. So we looked at that. Before the pandemic, in 2019, educators made about 20 percent of all abuse reports, so the loss of educator reports alone cannot account for the 70 percent drop.

You've also been polling parents about their pandemic experiences, working with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC to survey 9,000 U.S. parents in 2020 and 2021. What surprised you?

They tell us that they feel closer to their children in general and closer to their children even when they're helping them with their remote learning. And what's interesting is that even people who say they are extremely stressed by the pandemic say they're closer to their children.

We know the human brain is capable of something called post-traumatic growth. If people suffer from psychological trauma and recover, one of the hallmarks of recovery is feeling closer to those people with whom you went through the traumatic experience. So we think that if parents and children go through an incredibly difficult stressful time together, many of them draw closer.

The key lesson here is that even though we professionals were worried that abuse would rise, we have found that families were resilient and the concrete supports for families protected children.

Explore further Pandemic lockdown increases child abuse risk

More information: Robert Sege et al, Child Physical Abuse Did Not Increase During the Pandemic, JAMA Pediatrics (2021). Journal information: JAMA Pediatrics Robert Sege et al, Child Physical Abuse Did Not Increase During the Pandemic,(2021). DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.5476
Passengers walk inside the departure hall of Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, Feb. 20, 2022. Kuwait decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the Kuwaiti government announced on Monday.

The government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem said at a press conference that the government decided to allow conferences, events, weddings, meetings, and concerts to be held whether in open or closed areas as of Feb. 20, while adhering to health requirements. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

KUWAIT CITY, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the Kuwaiti government announced on Monday.

The government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem said at a press conference that the government decided to allow conferences, events, weddings, meetings, and concerts to be held whether in open or closed areas as of Feb. 20, while adhering to health requirements.

Those unvaccinated people must provide a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours to enter malls, cinemas, and concerts, except for those under age 16, he added.

Regarding travel procedures, the government decided to cancel the requirement to obtain a negative PCR test result prior to and upon arrival in Kuwait for fully vaccinated citizens and residents, in addition to the cancellation of the home quarantine applied after arriving in the country, he noted.

For people with incomplete immunization, the government decided to cancel the PCR test before arriving, while being quarantined for 7 days with the possibility of ending the quarantine before that with a proof of negative PCR test, he said.

For unvaccinated people, a negative PCR test 72 hours before the flight is required, while home quarantine will be applied for 7 days after arrival and it will be ended on the seventh day with a negative PCR test, he added.

In addition, Kuwait's government departments will resume work at full capacity starting from March 13, he said. 

Passengers queue up to check in inside the departure hall of Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, Feb. 20, 2022. Kuwait decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the Kuwaiti government announced on Monday.

The government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem said at a press conference that the government decided to allow conferences, events, weddings, meetings, and concerts to be held whether in open or closed areas as of Feb. 20, while adhering to health requirements. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

Passengers walk inside the arrival hall of Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, Feb. 20, 2022. Kuwait decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the Kuwaiti government announced on Monday.

The government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem said at a press conference that the government decided to allow conferences, events, weddings, meetings, and concerts to be held whether in open or closed areas as of Feb. 20, while adhering to health requirements. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

Passengers check in inside the departure hall of Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, Feb. 20, 2022. Kuwait decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the Kuwaiti government announced on Monday.

The government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem said at a press conference that the government decided to allow conferences, events, weddings, meetings, and concerts to be held whether in open or closed areas as of Feb. 20, while adhering to health requirements. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

Passengers check in inside the departure hall of Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, Feb. 20, 2022. Kuwait decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the Kuwaiti government announced on Monday.

The government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem said at a press conference that the government decided to allow conferences, events, weddings, meetings, and concerts to be held whether in open or closed areas as of Feb. 20, while adhering to health requirements. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

People walk inside a shopping mall in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, Feb. 20, 2022. Kuwait decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the Kuwaiti government announced on Monday.

The government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem said at a press conference that the government decided to allow conferences, events, weddings, meetings, and concerts to be held whether in open or closed areas as of Feb. 20, while adhering to health requirements. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

Passengers queue up to check in inside the departure hall of Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, Feb. 20, 2022. Kuwait decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the Kuwaiti government announced on Monday.

The government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem said at a press conference that the government decided to allow conferences, events, weddings, meetings, and concerts to be held whether in open or closed areas as of Feb. 20, while adhering to health requirements. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)
Researchers found a forest on one side of a canal transitioned to ghost forest earlier than forest on the other side of the road. Credit: John King

By analyzing ancient wood buried in the soil of a forested wetland in eastern North Carolina, researchers from North Carolina State University have found that the coastal site was a forest almost 1,800 years ago.

Their findings, drawn from carbon dating of wood and organic matter in the soil, illustrate that the forest leaves, wood, roots and current organic wetland soils have stored vast quantities of carbon for thousands of years.

"These freshwater forested wetlands have been storing carbon for millennia," said study co-author John King, professor of forestry and environmental resources at NC State.

To their alarm, the researchers also found that the forest is now undergoing a rapid transition. In a study published in the journal Land, the researchers reported that pond pine forests of the region are experiencing suppressed growth and high mortality, leading to the formation of so-called "ghost forests." Further, they also saw that a drainage ditch installed next to a road accelerated the ecosystem transition by a factor of 10. The researchers said the ditch likely encouraged inland flooding and salinity during coastal storms.

The Abstract spoke with King and the study's lead author, Maricar Aguilos, postdoctoral research scholar at NC State, about the transition of freshwater forested wetlands into ghost forests.

The Abstract: How quickly is the forest transitioning, and how do you know?

John King: To give an idea of how fast the change is, if you go down there nowwe collected our data in 2014 and 2015and you look at what we considered a "healthy" forest then, it has almost completely transitioned to ghost forest now.

Maricar Aguilos: At the time of our measurements, 60 percent of the trees in the ghost forest were dead or dying. And, as of February 2022, it looks like mortality may be reaching that level in what was the healthy forest in 2015. Flooding and saltwater are invading the freshwater wetland, and we can see ghost forest formation as an indicator of the impact.

TA: Why did you sample the soil, and what did you find?

Aguilos: We wanted to quantify how much carbon was stored in the soil and see how it has changed over time. We found out that it has been there for a very long time, almost 1,800 years. But we also found that the rate of the soil accumulation cannot keep up with the pace of sea-level rise. It's being submerged.

King: We found pieces of wood distributed throughout the upper layer of organic soil. The deepest piece of wood came from a root system submerged within a layer of soil that has a profile indicating the site was formerly an upland forest. We believe the forest was there about 1,800 years ago, according to radioactive carbon isotope dating.

Also, the carbon dating of the woody debris indicated that the soil accumulation rate decreased the closer we got to modern times. Now, the fact that we're seeing these ghost forests form suggests the rate of sea-level rise is too fast for the forest to keep up. It's causing a drastic change. The trees are dying; it's converting into a shrub ecosystem in the near-term, but we think it's going to become too wet for the shrubs, and at that point, it will become a marsh.

TA: What should we take away from this?

King: As the ecosystem transitions, all of the carbon in the dead trees will decompose and return to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

But what's going to happen to the carbon stored in the organic soil? Some of it is probably going to decompose and be released to atmosphere as methane. That's where we start to talk about wetlands as big sources of carbon to the atmosphere.

Wetlands only comprise a small fraction of the global land surface area, but contain about 21 percent of terrestrial carbon. They're disproportionately important in storing carbon. But the issue now is as sea level rises, what's going to be the fate of the carbon that's contained there?

Aguilos: Rising sea levels are already eating up so much of the land from the freshwater wetland. The transition is moving inland. It is alarming. Can we mitigate the impact of this transition somehow using infrastructure or other interventions to gradually give time for the ecosystem to adapt?

More information: Maricar Aguilos et al, Millennial-Scale Carbon Storage in Natural Pine Forests of the North Carolina Lower Coastal Plain: Effects of Artificial Drainage in a Time of Rapid Sea Level Rise, Land (2021). Maricar Aguilos et al, Millennial-Scale Carbon Storage in Natural Pine Forests of the North Carolina Lower Coastal Plain: Effects of Artificial Drainage in a Time of Rapid Sea Level Rise,(2021). DOI: 10.3390/land10121294
Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

The drone whirs to life on a driveway in the Spanish Hills neighborhood of Boulder County. Its four spinning motors lift it to nearly 200 feet above the ground. Below, the cul-de-sac comes into view, revealing the stone chimneys and blackened foundations that dot the hillsidewhat remains of many of the houses in this neighborhood after flames swept through on Dec. 30 and into the morning of Dec. 31 during what would become known as the Marshall Fire.

Brad Wham trudges through the snow to join about a dozen other researchers who have gathered to watch the flight this morning. They're wearing hard hats and neon safety vests. As an engineer at CU Boulder, Wham studies how water pipelines and other "lifelines" can maintain their functionality during natural hazards, such as earthquakes and wildfires. He also lives in Louisville, Colorado, and had to evacuate his own home on that same day.

"I've deployed to Japan and New Zealand to study disasters very shortly after they occurred," said Wham, an assistant research professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (CEAE). "It has been a different experience to have them happen in my hometown."

The Marshall Fire, which spread throughout much of Boulder County including the towns of Superior and Louisville, became the most destructive fire in Colorado's history. More than 1,000 homes were lost, and approximately 6,000 acres burned. One person remains missing while another was confirmed dead.

In coordination with local officials, Wham and his colleagues from Oregon State and Purdue universities have been surveying the damage since first-responders extinguished the flames. The effort is part an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) called Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER), which deploys researchers to disaster sites around the world. The team hopes to better understand the disaster from a uniquely engineering perspective: Why did some houses burn, for example, while neighboring homes survived? How did critical services like water, gas and electricity hold up during one of the worst disasters in Boulder County's history?

Time is of the essence. Soon, bulldozers and excavators will crawl through the impacted areas to begin the slow process of rebuildingand much of that information will be gone forever.

"I think that what we're doing here is going to be beneficial in the future, especially with other communities that are going to have fires," said Jessica Ramos, a senior at CU Boulder who's working on Wham's research team.

Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

Heat map

Erica Fischer, a structural engineering professor at Oregon State University who leads the GEER team along with Wham, joined the researchers in Spanish Hills on this windy morning in January.

In many ways, the neighborhood shows why people have flocked to Boulder County in recent decades. Its rolling hills offer a startling view of the CU Boulder campus and the Flatirons beyond. But, Fischer notes, wildfires have been an inescapable part of these kinds of beautiful landscapes since long before humans settled hereand, as the climate warms in Colorado, they're likely to grow worse.

"I would love to have this view," she says, standing on a snowy hillside. "This is incredible, but beautiful scenery is created out of disaster. That's how mountains are formed. That's how lush forests are created. Understanding that is important."

She and her colleagues are hoping to help people to live more safely within this dynamic environment.

They're taking a multi-pronged approach to the research. They've utilized laser sensors to create 3D models of homes and retaining structures burned in the fire. They've also deployed flying vehicles like the quadcopter droneson loan from the NSF-funded RAPID facility at the University of Washington.

This kind of interdisciplinary reconnaissance related to a wildfire has never been done before by GEER," said Shideh Dashti, an associate professor in CEAE who leads an interdisciplinary research effort at CU Boulder called Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity. "The solutions we come up with need to be holistic."

The Marshall Fire swept through this cul-de-sac in the Spanish Hills neighborhood. Credit: Casey Cass/CU Boulder

As one part of that fast-moving effort, the group is working to recreate a heat map of the path the fire took through towns like Superior and Louisville.

Fischer explained that as concrete heats up, it changes color, turning pinker the warmer it becomes. Students from Oregon and CU Boulder are inspecting the foundations of homes in the region, using custom-made color swatches to try to estimate how hot the flames gotgiving them a better sense of what happened inside those homes as they burned.

The team plans to publish its initial findings through a publicly-available report in March.

Ultimately, the researchers hope to bring together lessons learned from the Marshall Fire for other communities across the West. Fischer noted that recommendations like the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code and the National Fire Protection Agency's FireWise Program have long laid out how homeowners can safeguard homes from wildfires. Building a gravel skirt around your house, for example, can help to buffer it from flames. But many of those recommendations are expensive to put into place, she said, and no one knows which ones give you the biggest bang for your buck.

"In 2018, there was a big hailstorm in Boulder County. A lot of people replaced their roofs. Did certain roofing materials help more than others? Did some siding materials help more than others?" Fischer said. "If homeowners have one dollar for rebuilding, where should they put it?"

Urgent response

Wham understands the urgency of the effort. At 2 p.m. on Dec. 30, he packed a bag and left his house in Louisville as flames licked the ground just a couple hundred yards away. His house made it through the night, but many others nearby didn't.

Members of the GEER team watch a drone take off from the Spanish Hills neighborhood. Credit: Casey Cass/CU Boulder

"The fire destroyed structures all around us, to the north, the west, the south," he said from Spanish Hills, a mile and a half from his home. "But the response is the same as if it were in another community. We want to help in any way that we can. We want to support the local institutions that are making decisions to get people back to their homes and recover from this as safely and as efficiently as possible."

As part of that, Wham and his colleagues are also striving to understand how humans responded to this unprecedented disaster. The team has interviewed emergency management personnel and other local leaders to learn more about the decisions they made during and after the firehow did residents evacuate neighborhoods, and how did cities and the county prioritize restoring vital services? In Louisville, for example, the local water treatment plant lost power, natural gas and communication services during the fire, severely limiting its capacity to get water to firefighters. Local officials trucked in natural gas from the surrounding area to restore the facility's critical water pressure demands.

Lori Peek is a sociologist who directs the Natural Hazards Center at CU Boulder and an associated NSF-funded effort called CONVERGE, which coordinates research on natural disasters. She has a lot of experience collecting perishable data in the immediate aftermath of events from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 BP oil spill.

"One of the keys to doing ethical disaster research is making sure that work is grounded in the local cultural context," Peek said. "This multi-disciplinary team of engineers had those deep ties and has the opportunity to do grounded research that makes a scientific contribution but is also immediately useful to local leaders."

Wham, for his part, has already taken one big lesson away from the Marshall Fire.

"People from all over the state and even from outside the state came in to fight the fires and help restore water service and power systems," he said. "Those are really important relationships and connections that support the recovery process."

He hopes that same wider community will help residents of the impacted neighborhoods as they begin the slow process of rebuilding their homes and their lives.

Explore further Heavy snows to hit Colorado after wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes
Detlef Weigel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tubingen. Credit: Max Planck Society

For many decades, evolutionary biologists assumed that the changes in DNA, known as mutations, occur irrespective of any consequences for the organism. A team led by Professor Detlef Weigel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tubingen, has disproved this long-standing doctrine in a study that has attracted attention around the world. In this interview, Weigel explains the implications for our understanding of evolution.

Professor Weigel, what is fundamentally new about your findings?

Detlef Weigel: What our study has revealed that mutations do not occur with the same frequency in important genes and in less vital genesthere is no even distribution of mutationsand why this is the case. We now know that non genetic segments in thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) DNA mutate twice as often as genetic segments and that the mutation rate of less important genes is almost 50 percent higher than that of those that are essential for the plant's survival. That may not sound like much, but the difference is actually huge.

This asymmetrical distribution is the result of chemical changes within the DNA and its associated proteins, which regulate the cell's natural repair mechanisms in such a way that any damage to particularly crucial segments of the DNA is repaired more frequently than in the rest of the genome. It's as if these genes say to the cell: "Hey, I'm really important, please take special care of me!"

Does this explain so-called fossil genes, by which I mean genes that have hardly changed over millions of years and are found in very similar forms in even the most diverse of organisms?

Weigel: It's at least part of it. We've known for years that certain segments of the genome seem to mutate less frequently than others, but we always assumed that it wasn't possible to observe many of the mutations in these segments because they were rapidly culled by natural selection processes. Mutations in some segments are so harmful, or even lethal, that the affected organisms quickly vanish from the population, which is enough in itself to explain the observable distribution of mutations.

But, we excluded natural selection as the sole influence in our study, because the plants in our laboratory were cultivated under ideal growing conditions, which enabled all of them, even the ones with harmful mutations, to survive. In spite of that, however, in many cases, mutations did not occur in the important DNA segments.

CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized genome editing. The genetic scissors can be used to cut and modify the genome at certain points. An RNA molecule directs the enzyme Cas9 to the interface on the DNA double strand, thus enabling genes to be switched on and off. Credit: MPG

What are the practical consequences of your findings?

Weigel: We now know why it is rather difficult to alter certain plant genes and, it might be possible in future to override the mutation protection mechanism, which would enable us to create new crops with improved properties. Our findings have also been cited in various papers as evidence of the ineffectiveness of so-called CRISPR-Cas gene scissors, although this is not quite true: the gene scissors are so effective that a mutation rate that is 30 percent lower is barely statistically significant.

In principle, it should even be possible to prevent human genes involved in the etiology of diseases from mutating, which would reduce the development of cancer and other gene-based diseases.

Your research was focused on thale cress, a popular plant model for molecular biology studies: is this an isolated case or have you discovered a widespread phenomenon?

Weigel: I assume that all organisms can protect particularly important areas of their genomes from mutations. A few years ago, various colleagues studied the distribution of mutations in a bacterium and made very similar findings, but were not able to explain them. Most evolutionary biologists doubted their results, as they appeared to be completely at odds with the prevailing doctrine.

The dogma in question being that mutations in the genome are totally random? Does this refute one of the fundamental tenets of Darwin's original theory of evolution?

A specimen of the herbarium Solanum tuberosum (potato) collected and preserved on the Chonos archipelago in Chile by Charles Darwin during his expedition on the HMS Beagle. Credit: Cambridge University Herbarium

Weigel: Not at all. Darwin left the question of the distribution of mutations open and it doesn't even matter for his theory of evolution, nor are we claiming that selection is superfluous. The assumption that mutations are distributed on a purely random basis was postulated by generations of later researchers, the so-called Neo-Darwinists, primarily because it gives the theory of evolution a particularly elegant slant.

So our findings do not change how evolution works, it just makes it more complex to deal with.

Was Darwin wrong about anything at all? Surely there was a lot he couldn't have known at that time?

Not really. He was an extremely meticulous observer of nature who relied on a great deal of intuition to come up with the correct explanations for his observations. Almost everything he postulated was later shown to be correct in principle, which is why his writings have become a kind of Bible of evolutionary biology. One of the potential results of this is that we might not always ask as many fresh questions as we really should.

How has your study been received within the scientific community?

Weigel: We were aware that our findings contradicted one of the key assumptions held by the overwhelming majority of evolutionary biologists for decades, so we braced ourselves for a fierce backlash, but our data is sound and others seem to be far less surprised and to have expected this result. That kind of thing does happen in science once in a while: a basic assumption is made in relation to a given subjectit's a kind of blind spot that nobody ever questions. In retrospect, you wonder why you didn't think of it much earlier.

Explore further Study challenges evolutionary theory that DNA mutations are random

More information: J. Grey Monroe et al, Mutation bias reflects natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana, Nature (2022). Journal information: Nature J. Grey Monroe et al, Mutation bias reflects natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04269-6
A depiction of the double helical structure of DNA. Its four coding units (A, T, C, G) are color-coded in pink, orange, purple and yellow. Credit: NHGRI

Using ancient and historical genetic data could help guide conservation actions, according to new research led by Newcastle University.

An international team of conservation experts has revealed how ancient and historical DNA (a/hDNA), such as genetic data from specimens stored in natural history museums, can be used to assess population genetic patterns and processes that are relevant for endangered species.

Publishing their findings in the journal Trends In Ecology and Evolution, the scientists show that a/hDNA can be compared with contemporary data to inform conservation efforts and policies. Given that many of the ancient and historic samples have been collected before the dramatic anthropogenic biodiversity loss, these data could be used to show how genetic diversity changed thought time, particularly in relation to human-related environmental changes.

Study lead, Dr. Evelyn Jensen, Lecturer in Molecular Ecology in Newcastle University's School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, said that "although genetic diversity has been recognized as a key component of biodiversity since the first Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1993, it has rarely been included in conservation policies and regulations. Even less appreciated is the role that ancient and historical DNA could play in unlocking the temporal dimension of genetic diversity, allowing key conservation issues to be resolved, including setting baselines for intra-species genetic diversity, estimating changes in effective population size, and identifying the genealogical continuity of populations."

"Our study shows that information from ancient and historical specimens can play a central role in preserving biodiversity and highlight specific conservation policies that could incorporate such data to help countries meet their CBD obligations."

The experts argue that genetic indicators must be explicitly included in conservation policies in order to increase the use and impact of a/hDNA research in preserving biodiversity. To be effective in conservation efforts, the role of a/hDNA must be clearly communicated to all actorsboth to the promote its benefits and to set reasonable expectations of its potential.

The authors also highlight that maximum benefit could only be achieved if the conservation community advocates for the use of genetic indicators in conservation policies.

Cristiano Vernesi from Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy, is the Chair of the COST Action G-BiKE and, together with Professor Tom Gilbert of Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, organized the workshop that led to the outcomes reported in this paper.

He said that "the current molecular tools allow to us to consider the countless historical and museum collections like ancient books that wait to be read. The content of these books is of direct interest for understanding the evolutionary trajectories of current organisms. By accessing the temporal dimension, we can estimate the direction and intensity of many important aspects such as gene flow, admixture and inbreeding."

"To preserve as much as possible the integrity of these books, molecular geneticists have to work in close collaboration with museum curators and local communities. In the end, the unique information embedded in a/hDNA reinforces the researchers' strong believe that any new policy and regulation targeting biodiversity resources management and conservation should include the genetic biodiversity component."

Explore further Genetic diversity gives wild populations their best chance at long-term survival
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The US Department of Agriculture said Monday it had detected bird flu in two more farms after a first case came to light last week, putting the industry on guard.

After having already detected the virus in wild birds on several occasions on the east coast in recent weeks, the department said on February 9 it had found the disease in birds on a farm in Indiana.

On Monday it reported that two more farms had been affected, in Kentucky and Virginia.

The authorities have placed the sites in quarantine and the birds will be slaughtered to avoid possible spread throughout the country, which according to the USDA is the largest producer of poultry in the world.

No cases have been detected in humans so far and the disease does not present an immediate public health threat, authorities said.

But the agricultural sector will remain vigilant to avoid a repeat of the 2015 avian flu outbreak, which affected 211 farms in 15 states, from California to Indiana.

During that flare-up, nearly 50 million birds were killed and their carcasses destroyed, and several countries suspended US imports. The department put total losses at about $3.3 billion.

After the first case was discovered in Indiana last week, Mexico and China moved quickly to limit imports from that state.

A spokesman for the National Chicken Council said in an email to AFP that any detection of the virus was "worrying" but said the control and monitoring program put in place by the authorities is "the most robust in the world."

Tyson Foods, one of the largest chicken producers in the United States, said when it released its results on February 7 that it had already increased preventative measures, in particular on the east coast of the United States.

The group has limited the number of visits to its farms and increased cleaning time for vehicles traveling to them.

Europe is already experiencing an avian flu outbreak, with more than 18 million birds slaughtered in Italy and around three million in France since the first cases detected in farms at the end of November.

 2022 AFP
The Faroe Islands' prime minister ordered a re-evaluation of its controversial dolphin hunt after the unusually large slaughter of more than 1,400 Atlantic white-sided dolphins sparked an outcry.

The Faroe Islands, a Danish autonomous territory, said Tuesday it had begun discussions about the future of its controversial dolphin hunt, with a decision expected in the coming weeks.

A petition with almost 1.3 million signatures calling for a ban on the traditional hunt was submitted to the Faroese government on Monday, the prime minister's office and whale conservation groups told AFP.

At a meeting on Tuesday in Torshavn, the government discussed the conclusions of a re-evaluation that Prime Minister Bardur a Steig Nielsen had ordered in September, after the unusually large slaughter of more than 1,400 Atlantic white-sided dolphins sparked an outcry.

"It was a first meeting. No decisions were taken," an official in the prime minister's office told AFP.

He added that a final decision was expected "in a few weeks", and "several options" were on the table.

In the Faroese tradition known as "grindadrap", or "grind" for short, hunters surround dolphins or pilot whales with a wide semi-circle of fishing boats and drive them into a shallow bay where they are beached.

Fishermen on shore slaughter them with knives.

Every summer, images of the bloody hunt make headlines around the world and spark outrage among animal rights defenders who consider the practice barbaric.

But the hunt still enjoys broad support in the Faroes, where supporters point out that the animals have fed the local population for centuries.

Normally, around 600 pilot whales are hunted every year in this way.

But the dolphin hunt on September 12, 2021 in the Skala fjord was much bigger, triggering an international outcry and pushing the government to reconsider the practice.

Only the dolphin hunt is currently being reviewed, not the entire "grind" tradition.

In the petition, handed over by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation organisation, signatories called for the end of the "cruel" practice.

Explore further Outcry as Faroe Islands slaughter 1,400 dolphins in a day

 2022 AFP
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

"Species go extinct twiceone time when the last individual stops breathing, and a second time when the collective memory about the species disappears."adapted from a quotation attributed to both Banksy and Irvin Yalom

New research involving researchers from the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology, published today in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, explores the phenomenon of societal extinction.

Societal extinction is the loss of species from our collective memory and attention. Species can disappear from our societies, cultures and discourses at the same time as, or even before, they are made biologically extinct by various human actions.

An international and interdisciplinary group of scientists found that whether a species will become societally extinct depends on many factors. These can include its charisma, its symbolic or cultural values, whether and how long ago it went extinct, and how distant and isolated its range is from humans.

Dr. Diogo Verissimo, Research Fellow, Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford and co-author of the study said:

"Societal extinction occurs not only in extinct species, but also in those species still living among us, often due to social or cultural changes, for example, the urbanization or digitization of society, which can radically change our relationship with nature, and lead to the collective loss of memory."

One example the researchers give is the replacement of traditional herbal medicine by modern medicine in Europe. This is believed to have degraded general knowledge of many medicinal plants, causing them to become societally extinct.

As more and more species are becoming threatened or extinct, they also become isolated from people. This leads to the extinction of experiencethe progressive loss of our daily interactions with nature. As time passes such species may fully fade from people's memory.

For example, studies conducted among communities in southwestern China and Indigenous people in Bolivia have shown loss of local knowledge and memory of extinct bird species.

The opposite, however, can also occur. "Species can also remain collectively known after they become extinct, or even become more popular," explained Dr. Uri Roll, co-author, and researcher at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

"However, our awareness and memory of such species gradually becomes transformed, and often becomes inaccurate, stylized, or simplified, and disassociated from the actual species."

For example, after the Spix's macaw became extinct in the wild, children from local communities within its former range incorrectly believed that this species resides in Rio de Janeiro, because of its appearance in the animated movie "Rio."

"It is important to note that the majority of species actually cannot become societally extinct, simply because they never had a societal presence to begin with," said Dr. Ivan Jaric, lead author of the study and researcher at the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

"This is common in uncharismatic, small, cryptic, or inaccessible species, especially among invertebrates, plants, fungi and microorganismsmany of which are not yet formally described by scientists or known by humankind. Their declines and extinctions remain silent and unseen by the people and societies," Dr. Jaric continued.

Dr. Josh Firth, co-author of the study and Research Fellow at Oxford's Department of Zoology said:

"Societal extinctions can affect conservation efforts aimed at protecting biodiversity because it can diminish our expectations of the environment and our perceptions of its natural state, such as what is the standard or relatively healthy."

Further research will now assess how societal extinctions can produce false perceptions of the severity of threats to biodiversity and true extinction rates, and diminish public support for conservation and restoration efforts, such as reintroductions of Eurasian beaver to the UK.

"Societal extinction can reduce our will to pursue ambitious conservation goals. For example, it could reduce public support for rewilding efforts, especially if such species are no longer present in our memory as natural parts of the ecosystem," added Dr. Jaric.
UTM sociology professor Neda Maghbouleh co-authored a recent study that focuses on how the U.S. Census classifies Americans of Middle Eastern and North African descent as white. Credit: Neda Maghbouleh

In the midst of growing white supremacy, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and, recently, public discussion about the whiteness of Jews following Whoopi Goldberg's arguably ignorant remarks about the Holocaust, we continue to grapple with how to understand and talk about race.

But we can gain some clarity on the complex, often-contentious subject of racial categories with a new U of T Mississauga study, "Middle Eastern and North African Americans may not be perceived, nor perceive themselves, to be white" (February 2022, Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences). Co-authored by sociologist Neda Maghbouleh, UTM's Canada Research Chair in Migration, Race, and Identity, it focuses on how the U.S. Census classifies Americans of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent as white.

Conducted with two sociology professors from Washington University and the University of Chicago, the study explores how the ethnoracial category of white does not reflect the lived experiences of Americans whose backgrounds are MENA, a region the United Nations says encompasses 19 countries and territories that share cultural, economic and environmental similarities. The researchers demonstrate that a lack of more granular census data about this population obscures the socioeconomic disparities or inequalities they may face, which prevents the U.S. government from creating targeted social programs and services.

"Without the numerical piece, inequities faced by this community cannot be addressed through customized resources and approaches," says Maghbouleh, who is currently on leave from UTM and serving as a Wall Scholar at the University of British Columbia's Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.

The team surveyed 662 people who identify as being MENA, asking: What is your race or origin? In the control group, the response options listed two MENA nationalities, Lebanese and Egyptian, as examples of white subgroups. In the treatment group, "Middle Eastern or North African" was included as a distinct identity category, with Lebanese and Egyptian falling under this category.

The researchers found that without the option to choose a MENA category, 80 percent of participants in the control group identified themselves as white. By contrast, 88 percent of those in the treatment group identified as MENA, or MENA and white. The takeaway is that a majority of individuals with MENA ancestry prefer to identify not as just white.

"If our goal is to have the most accurate measure of the population as possible, then we should have this separate box on the census," Maghbouleh says.

The study also involved presenting these participants, plus 421 people who self-identified as non-Hispanic whites, with randomized profiles of fictitious individuals who varied by name, religion, language, class, skin color and family ancestry. Their task was to classify the person in each profile as either MENA, white or Black. Among the noteworthy findings: Whites associated a medium skin tone with the MENA category, while MENA respondents viewed both light and medium skin colors as typical MENA traits.

Maghbouleh says better understanding perceptions of MENA individuals by those both in and out of this group can lead to more informed perspectives and better government decision-making.

"The past 40 or 50 years has been marked by a real uptick in anti-MENA discrimination, not just at the interpersonal level, but also at the level of policy and statecraft," she says. "The power of disaggregating the MENA category in the census is that we can bring more nuance to the conversation around whiteness, and improve public dialog about these issues."

Explore further Michigan's Middle Eastern and North African population face barriers to optimal health

More information: Neda Maghbouleh et al, Middle Eastern and North African Americans may not be perceived, nor perceive themselves, to be White, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Neda Maghbouleh et al, Middle Eastern and North African Americans may not be perceived, nor perceive themselves, to be White,(2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117940119
New Hipparion ambiguum fossil teeth discovered at Ain Boucherit Lower Archaeological Level. Credit: Jan van der Made et al

A paleontological study on the latest occurrences of the North African tree-toed horse (Hipparion) has been published in the German journal Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie, based on fossil materials discovered in the Plio-Pleistocene sites of Ain Boucherit and Ain Hanech in northeastern Algeria.

These sites are currently under investigation by a multidisciplinary team of scientists led by Mohamed Sahnouni, Coordinator of the Archaeology Program, at the Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana (CENIEH) (Burgos, Spain) and Associated Researcher at the Centre National de Recherches Prehistoriques Anthropologiques et Historiques (CNRPAH) (Algeria). The investigations focus on the tempo and character of the earliest human occupation in North Africa and their global paleobiological and behavioral implications.

The study, led by paleontologist Jan van der Made of the MNCN (Madrid) in which collaborated researchers from CENIEH, CNRPAH, and IPHES-URV (Tarragona) revealed the recovery of new material of the rare three-toed horse Hipparion ambiguum (Equidae) from its type locality Ain Boucherit and the dating of the youngest North African hipparion record at Ain Hanech around 1.7 Ma.

These findings confirm that hipparions became extinct following a North-South gradient. This pattern was first described by Georges Louis Leclerc (count of Buffon) in his book "Histoire naturelle in the 18th century" said Dr. Jan van der Made lead author of the study.

Hipparion is an extinct genus of the Equidae family, and it is more primitive than the modern horse and differs from it by the dentition morphology and the number of toes. Hipparions went extinct in Europe by 2.5 Ma, in China by 1.0 Ma, and in Sub-Saharan Africa between 0.6 and 0.4 Ma. Like in other groups of vertebrates, the North to South pattern of hipparions extinction seems to be related to the decrease in global temperatures that started in the Miocene.

In 2018, the discovery of the oldest stone tools at Ain Boucherit, dated to 2.4 Ma was announced in the journal Science, and in 2021 was published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews the oldest evidence of Acheulean artifacts in North Africa dated to 1.7 Ma.

"The unique succession of fossiliferous and archaeological deposits of Oued Boucherit valley continues to reveal pertinent discoveries of global impact on early human evolution in North Africa as well as shedding light on a number of related features pertaining to Plio-Pleistocene faunal paleoecology and paleobiogeography" states Mohamed Sahnouni from CENIEH and project Principal Investigator.

Explore further Study documents the first human occupation in North Africa

More information: Jan van der Made et al, The last North African hipparions  hipparion decline and extinction follows a common pattern. Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie, Abhandlungen, 303/1: 39-87. Journal information: Science , Quaternary Science Reviews Jan van der Made et al, The last North African hipparions  hipparion decline and extinction follows a common pattern., 303/1: 39-87. DOI: 10.1127/njgp

Provided by CENIEH
A male great-tailed grackle staring down the camera. Credit: Corina Logan

Researchers from Germany, the US, and the UK teamed up to understand the role of flexibility and inhibition in problem solving and how they relate to each other in a behaviorally flexible urban bird species, the great-tailed grackle. The researchers assessed the cognitive abilities of individuals using multiple tests, and found that self control, a form of inhibition, was linked with flexibility, the ability to change preferences when circumstances change.

Behavioral flexibility is linked with self control

Researchers found that grackles who were faster to reverse a color preference, a standard measure of flexibility, were also faster to inhibit their behavior in a 'go no-go' test where they touch one shape for a reward but not the other shape on a touchscreen computer. This suggests that inhibition is involved in learning to change a preference. "The grackles are likely inhibiting themselves from choosing the previously rewarded option so they can instead choose the other option, which is now the only option that has food in it," says Corina Logan, a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and lead author.

When using a newer measure of flexibilitythe time it takes to switch to trying to solve a new option on a puzzlebox after previously succeeding on a different optionthe relationship was the opposite: grackles who were faster to switch to a new option were slower to inhibit their behavior in the 'go no-go' test. The authors speculate that different birds might use different inhibitory strategies: those less inclined to inhibit might instead explore all options, which makes it more likely that they will make a correct solve on the puzzlebox, but this would not be a strategy they could use in situations where they need to stick with one option.

Kelsey McCune, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Santa Barbara, noted differences in the strategies used by the grackles in the 'go no-go' test on the computer: "It was clear that a few birds were content to be rewarded inconsistently and so they pecked at everything that came up on the screen. On the other hand, other birds clearly learned the task and would sit and stare at the screen until the correct shape showed up."

Burrito participates in an inhibition test on the computer. He should peck the screen only when the wavy lines are present and he should not touch the screen at all if a different shape is shown. If he makes the correct choice, food will move into an accessible position in the metal square below the screen. Credit: Corina Logan

Careful what you call it: flexibility is not linked with motor control

A different inhibition test, the 'detour' test, where one has to walk around to the side of a clear plastic tube to reach the food from the tube's opening rather than walking straight up to it and trying to get the food through the plastic, is commonly thought to measure self control. However, grackles that did better on 'detour' were not necessarily doing better on the 'go no-go' self control test. "Our results show that different tests, which are widely referred to as tests of self control actually assess different cognitive abilities," says co-author Claudia Wascher, an Associate Professor at Anglia Ruskin University.

The authors conclude that 'detour' measures motor inhibition, stopping a movement that won't be useful, and not self control, which is the ability to withhold a response toward something they see and instead wait for something that comes later.

Wild-caught birds use computers to participate in tests

For two of the tests, the researchers trained grackles to use computers. It turns out that training this species to use a computer is very different from training pigeons and ratsspecies that two of the authors, Benjamin Seitz, a doctoral student, and Aaron Blaisdell, a Professor at the University of California Los Angeles, already had extensive experience with.

Grackles seem to be more gentle when pecking the screen, and also less persistent at pecking the screen if something goes wrong. "That we were able to get birds caught in the wild to interact with these very artificial touchscreens is still amazing to me, but the birds were more apprehensive with using the touchscreen than other species we've tested," says lead author Seitz. This unexpected obstacle resulted in the team documenting their trials and tribulations and publishing a guide on how to train wild-caught birds to use touchscreens.

Cuervo (left), a juvenile male great-tailed grackle, attempts to get a piece of pita bread out of its package while defending it from another male. Credit: Corina Logan

Do they use causal cognition?

In another experiment, Blaisdell designed a touchscreen computer test to determine whether grackles use causal cognition. It is possible that a successful species such as the great-tailed grackle is so successful because they use causal cognition to solve their foraging problems. The ability to infer cause and effect could lead to learning how to solve problems faster and facilitate finding better alternatives. This could come in handy when they are opening packages that contain food, as well as a number of other problems that present themselves in an urban environment.

Results were inconclusive, potentially because the birds didn't understand the question. "The greatest challenge when studying a new species is to adapt a procedure that has worked on one species, such as a rat, to successfully get 'inside the head' of the new species, such as a grackle," notes Blaisdell. The experimental design would need to be adapted to determine what setup would make sense to the grackles.

Knowing more about how a flexible species reacts to a changing environment can help inform conservation management plans and facilitate learning how to promote flexibility in species that are struggling in this rapidly changing world. The authors continue to incorporate technology with wild bird behavior to investigate these questions in their long-term research on the grackle project.

The research was published in Peer Community Journal and Animal Behavior and Cognition.

Explore further Researcher studies behavioural flexibility in the great-tailed grackle

More information: Aaron Blaisdell et al, Do the more flexible individuals rely more on causal cognition? Observation versus intervention in causal inference in great-tailed grackles, Peer Community Journal (2021). Aaron Blaisdell et al, Do the more flexible individuals rely more on causal cognition? Observation versus intervention in causal inference in great-tailed grackles,(2021). DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.44 Corina Logan et al, Are the more flexible individuals also better at inhibition?, Animal Behavior and Cognition (2022). DOI: 10.26451/abc.09.01.03.2022 August Sevchik et al, Investigating sex differences in genetic relatedness in great-tailed grackles in Tempe, Arizona to infer potential sex biases in dispersal, Animal Behavior and Cognition (2022). DOI: 10.26451/abc.09.01.04.2022
TRIPOLI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General for Libya, Stephanie Williams, on Monday stressed the UN support for the reconciliation in Libya.

Williams made her remarks during a meeting with Mohamed Menfi, president of the Libyan Presidential Council, and Abdullah Allafi, deputy president of the council, on the latest developments in the region.

"We took note of the spirit of consensus exhibited by the HoR (House of Representatives) and HCS (High Council of State) and emphasized the importance of maintaining calm," the adviser tweeted.

The three reviewed the presidential council's efforts to activate the national reconciliation file, particularly the formation of specific committees and the redraft of the necessary legislation.

"I offered continued UN support for this vital national project," Williams said.

Libyan House of Representatives recently approved two votes to adopt a constitutional amendment and designate a new prime minister. 
Trinidadian guppies. Credit: Dr Tom Houslay

Families of fish tend to share similar reactions to stressful situations, new research shows.

University of Exeter scientists examined how Trinidadian guppies reacted to stressdid they freeze or flee?and also measured their hormonal responses.

The study found that some fish tend to produce more of the hormone cortisol, and that these fish are more likely to fleewhile others produce less cortisol and tend to freeze. This pattern runs in families.

The findings could help in the breeding of less-stressed fish for aquaculture (fish farming) and other captivity such as aquariums.

"In the wild, an instinct to flee can help a fish escape from danger, and a rush of cortisol helps them cope with that stress," said lead author Dr. Tom Houslay, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (CEC) on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"But in captivity, this reaction is unhelpfula chronic, high-cortisol stress response is harmful to health and welfare.

"Our finding of a genetic link between the hormonal (cortisol) and behavioral (freeze or flee) reactions suggests fish could be selected for breeding based on their freeze or flee response.

"By selecting fish that tend to freeze in a stressful situation, you create a genetic stock with a lower cortisol stress response."

This approach is simpler than other breeding methods, some of which depend on blood sampling to identify genetic patterns.

"We need to stop thinking of fish as being all the same," said Professor Alastair Wilson, also from the CEC at the University of Exeter.

"Individuals and groups of close genetic relatives vary, and by taking account of this we can selectively breed captive fish with lower stress and better health."

Biologists have long believed that this "integration" of behavioral and hormonal responses must exist, but few formal genetic tests have been carried out.

In this studyby a team including the University of Alabamaresearchers tested hormonal reactions by placing individual guppies in isolation for an hour. For a social fish like the guppy, the handling and isolation is likely to be a mild stressor.

During a stress response, elevated cortisol levels help to shift the body's energy balance in order to cope with the stressor. This aids recovery, and prepares the body for any further stressor. Cortisol is a necessary part of coping with stress, but if this response is used too frequently then it can lead to health problems.

Cortisol leaks out through guppies' gills, so their hormones were measured by testing the water after they returned to their usual tank.

Behavior was tested separately, also by placing each guppy in a new tank, and seeing whether they tended to stay still (freeze) or swim around trying to escape (flee).

Hundreds of fish were observed in the study, and researchers looked at the "family tree" of each to see how genetic relatedness correlated with behavioral and hormonal similarities.

The paper is published in the journal eLife.

Explore further Fish have complex personalities, research shows

More information: Thomas M Houslay et al, Genetic integration of behavioural and endocrine components of the stress response, eLife (2022). Journal information: eLife Thomas M Houslay et al, Genetic integration of behavioural and endocrine components of the stress response,(2022). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.67126
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new study has found that calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus"a term rejected by health officials and tied to antagonism against people of Asian descentdid affect views of Americans who saw the term in a news article.

But the effect was relatively small compared to the pre-existing attitudes of people who encountered the term.

Researchers at The Ohio State University found that people who read the term "Chinese virus" in a fabricated media report about the coronavirus were more likely to later blame China for the pandemic than people who read the same report that used the correct term, "COVID-19."

The effect was found in participants regardless of their political party and ideology, although the effect was modest.

"What we found is that the political views people brought to the study overwhelmed what we did in the study itself," said Lanier Frush Holt, lead author of the study and associate professor of communication at Ohio State.

Findings showed that Republicans and conservatives were more likely to blame China for the pandemic than were Democrats and liberals, regardless of which story they read.

"It's not surprising that people's pre-existing beliefs had such a huge impact compared to reading a single article," said study co-author Brad Bushman, professor of communication at Ohio State.

"But the fact that reading the article did have some effect on people's views, regardless of their pre-existing beliefs, is still troubling and shows the importance of how the media frames issues."

The findings were published recently in the journal Media Psychology. Sophie Kjaervik, a doctoral student in communication at Ohio State, was also a co-author.

The study involved 614 American adults who participated online from April 15 to May 21, 2020, when stay-at-home orders were in place in many U.S. states to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Participants were randomly assigned to read one of two fabricated news stories, supposedly from National Public Radio. Both articles discussed theories about the origins of the coronavirus, as well as the development of the vaccine. But one story used the term "COVID-19 virus" while the other used the term "Chinese virus."

After reading the article, participants rated how authoritative, believable, credible, informative and persuasive they thought the article waswhich the researchers combined into an overall favorability rating.

In the second part of the study, participants completed surveys measuring prejudice against Chinese- and Asian-Americans, their political party and ideology, and how much they blamed China for the pandemic.

Results showed that Democrats and liberals viewed the "Chinese virus" article more negatively than the "COVID-19 virus" article. In contrast, Republicans and conservatives rated the two articles about the same.

Which article the participants read was not related to measures of prejudice, but those who read the "Chinese virus" article were slightly more likely to blame China for the spread of the virus.

Overall, Republicans and conservatives scored higher than Democrats and liberals on measures of prejudiced attitudes against Chinese- and Asian-Americans, regardless of which story they read.

In addition, Republicans and conservatives were more likely than Democrats and liberals to blame China for the pandemic, regardless of which story they read.

The results suggest that the biggest impact of reading the story may have been how it triggered pre-existing partisan leanings, Holt said.

"We showed that just a tiny dose of reading one article activated what people already believed," he said.

"Those who were predisposed to believe that China was responsible for the virus liked the article that used "Chinese virus" and those who didn't have those pre-existing beliefs did not."

Bushman said the findings also underscore why the World Health Organization issued a statement in 2015 recommending that infectious diseases should not be named after geographic locations to "minimize unnecessary negative effects on nations, economies and people."

"How you frame a deadly virus is not a trivial point and can have effects in how people are viewed and treated in the real world," he said.

"That's what we found in this study and that's why the World Health Organization put out that statement."

Explore further Study reveals why some blame Asian Americans for COVID-19

More information: Lanier Frush Holt et al, Harm and Shaming through Naming: Examining Why Calling the Coronavirus the "COVID-19 Virus," Not the "Chinese Virus," Matters, Media Psychology (2022). Lanier Frush Holt et al, Harm and Shaming through Naming: Examining Why Calling the Coronavirus the "COVID-19 Virus," Not the "Chinese Virus," Matters,(2022). DOI: 10.1080/15213269.2022.2034021
Credit: fir0002 via Wikipedia

Robber flies snatch victims from the air using the same interception strategy as guided missiles and falcons, but how do they intercept airborne quarry when their view is obstructed by foliage and clutter? Researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK, and the University of Minnesota, U.S., report in Journal of Experimental Biology that Holcocephala fusca robber flies combine two strategies, one that allows them to swerve around obstructions, with their usual strategy to intercept prey.

While many flies are content to land on pieces of fruit or carrion, robber flies (Asilidae) engage in mortal combat. Intercepting smaller insects on the wing, robber flies dine on anything they can subdue. When the view is clear, the aerobatic insects maintain the same line of sightadjusting it as their target twists and turnsto intercept their quarry; and they do so at extraordinary speed with a brain the size of a grain of sand. Yet the dogged insects often have to seize prey in complex cluttered environments. "Navigating to targets and avoiding bumping into things along the way are tasks that we would hope to achieve in our everyday lives," says Samuel Fabian from Imperial College, London. So how do robber flies cope with clutter? Fabian, Trevor Wardill and Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido from the University of Minnesota, U.S., decided to find out how the predatory robber insects adjust their interception strategy to deal with distractions. They publish their discovery that the insects combine two strategiesone, that allows them to swerve around obstructions, with their conventional interception strategy, which they use when the view is clearin Journal of Experimental Biology.

"We used Holcocephala fusca because of its predictable interception path," says Fabian, who joined Mary Sumner from the University of Minnesota, in York County, PA, U.S., for four intensive weeks to film the determined flies in 3D while they hunted a tiny bead being pulled along a transparent fishing line. "Field experiments are a joy, because you get the most naturalistic behavior from free animals," says Fabian. Although this meant that the insects were free to move out of shot just when the cameras were ready to roll. Fortunately, they were also keen to intercept the moving bead; "if something is small enough, they generally seem to assume it's food," says Fabian. And when he and Sumner analyzed the insects intercepting the bead, the animals maintained the same line of sight to the target throughout their approach to successfully capture it. "The flies really didn't know it's not real prey, even when very close," chuckles Fabian.

However, when Fabian and Sumner partially obscured the flies' views, with either a wide (5 cm) or narrow (2.5 cm) bar of black acrylic, as they approached the moving bead, the flies took evasive action and even abandoned the interception when the broader band obscured their view for more than 0.1 s. Yet, when the bar blocked their line of sight for briefer periods, the flies veered away dramatically until they had passed it, before swerving back and resuming their interception course. On other occasions, when the visual obstacle remained in sight but did not obscure the fly's view, the insect still veered away from the bar as they approached the bead, even though there was no need to swerve as the bead remained in sight the entire time.

So how was the fly controlling its approach? Fabian, Gonzalez-Bellido and Wardill compared the robber flies' flight paths and the paths they would have taken if there was no obstacle, and realized that the flies were using a very simple obstacle avoidance strategy; 'the faster the obstacle is getting larger in their field of view the more they turn away from it," Fabian explains. However, once the fly has passed the obstacle and it begins to grow smaller, the fly is then drawn back toward it, resulting in the veering flight paths that Fabian and Sumner recorded, even when the fly's view wasn't obstructed.

The flies are simultaneously using a combination of the obstacle avoidance strategy and the conventional interception paths used when their view is unobstructed, resulting in a simple hybrid approach that allows them to intercept their prey while avoiding distractions and obstacles in their paths. "They are paying attention to their surroundings even when focused on the target," Fabian concludes, who hopes to inspire robotic designs that use simpler and more computationally lightweight solutions for complex navigation problems.

Explore further The remarkable hunting ability of the robber fly

More information: Fabian, S. T.et al, Avoiding obstacles while intercepting a moving target: a miniature fly's solution, J. Exp. Biol (2022) Journal information: Journal of Experimental Biology Fabian, S. T.et al, Avoiding obstacles while intercepting a moving target: a miniature fly's solution,(2022) DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243568
Detail of the UV-structures in the logarithmic layer, colored by their distance to the wall. Credit: Sergio Hoyas, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia

Despite being among the topics most researched on supercomputers, a fundamental understanding of the effects of turbulent motion on fluid flows still eludes scientists. A new approach developed at TU Darmstadt and running at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre aims to change that.

With such applications as designing new airplane wings and better understanding how fuel sprays ignite in a combustion engine, chaotic, the impact of turbulent motions on fluid flows under a variety of conditions is a subject of research interest. Despite decades of focused research on the topic, physicists still consider a fundamental understanding of turbulence statistics to be among the last major unsolved challenges in physics.

Due to its complexity, researchers have come to rely on a combination of experiments, semi-empirical turbulence models, and computer simulation to advance the field. Supercomputers have played an essential role in advancing researchers' understanding of turbulence physics, but even today's most computationally expensive approaches have limitations.

Recently, researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) led by Prof. Dr. Martin Oberlack and the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia headed by Prof. Dr. Sergio Hoyas started using a new approach for understanding turbulence, and with the help of supercomputing resources at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), the team was able to calculate the largest turbulence simulation of its kind. Specifically, the team generated turbulence statistics through this large simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations, which provided the critical data base for underpinning a new theory of turbulence.

"Turbulence is statistical, because of the random behavior we observe," Oberlack said. "We believe Navier-Stokes equations do a very good job of describing it, and with it we are able to study the entire range of scales down to the smallest scales, but that is also the problemall of these scales play a role in turbulent motion, so we have to resolve all of it in simulations. The biggest problem is resolving the smallest turbulent scales, which decrease inversely with Reynolds number (a number that indicates how turbulent a fluid is moving, based on a ratio of velocity, length scale, and viscosity). For airplanes like the Airbus A 380, the Reynolds number is so large and thus the smallest turbulent scales are so small that they cannot be represented even on the SuperMUC NG."

After the teams paper was published, Oberlack was invited to present the work as part of Physical Review Letters Journal Club series. Credit: APS Physics

In 2009, while visiting the University of Cambridge, Oberlack had an epiphanywhile thinking about turbulence, he thought about symmetry theory, a concept that forms the fundamental basis to all areas of physics research. In essence, the concept of symmetry in mathematics demonstrates that equations can equal the same result even when being done in different arrangements or operating conditions.

Oberlack realized that turbulence equations did, in fact, follow these same rules. With this in mind, researchers could theoretically forego using the extremely large, dense computational grids and measuring equations within each grid boxa common approach for turbulence simulationsand instead focus on defining accurate statistical mean values for air pressure, speed, and other characteristics. The problem is, by taking this averaging approach, researchers must "transform" the Navier-Stokes equations, and these changes unleash a never-ending chain of equations that even the world's fastest supercomputers would never be able to solve.

The team realized that the goal needed to be finding another accurate method that did not require such a computationally intensive grid full of equations, and instead developed a "symmetry-based turbulence theory" and solved the problem through mathematical analysis.

"When you think of computations and you see these nice pictures of flows around airplanes or cars, you often see grids," Oberlack said. "What people have done in the past is identify a volume element in each boxwhether it is velocity, temperature, pressure, or the likeso we have local information about the physics. The "symmetry-based turbulence theory" now allows to drastically reduce this extreme necessary resolution and at the same time it directly provides the sought-after mean values such as the mean velocity and the variance."

Using an almost 100-year-old mathematical turbulence law, the logarithmic law of the wall, the team was able to focus on a simple geometric shape to test the symmetry theory in this case, a flat surface. In this simplified shape, the team's theory proved successfulthe researchers found that this law served as a foundational solution for the first equation in the seemingly unending string of equations, and that it therefore served as the basis from which all subsequent equations in the chain could be solved.

Streamwise velocity in the XY plane. This visualization of turbulence has 12 million pixels. Credit: Sergio Hoyas, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia

This is significant, as researchers studying turbulence often must find a place to cut, or close, this infinite string of equations, introducing assumptions and potential inaccuracies into simulations. This is known as the closure problem of turbulence, and its solution has long eluded physicists and other researchers trying to better understand turbulent motion of fluids.

Of course, just like other mathematical theories, the researchers had to try and verify what they had found. To that end, the team needed to do computationally expensive direct numerical simulations (DNS) to compare its results with what most researchers consider the most accurate method for simulating turbulence. That said, DNS simulations for even simple geometries are only capable of running on world-leading computational resources, such as LRZ's SuperMUC-NG supercomputer, which Professor Oberlack's team has been using extensively for years.

"For us, we wanted to have the most reliable database for comparing our symmetry theory to data that is possible at the time," Oberlack said. "For that reason, we had no other choice than doing DNS, because we didn't want to have any effect of empirical influence other than the assumptions contained in the Navier-Stokes equations themselves."

The team found excellent agreement between the simulation results and its theories, demonstrating that its approach shows promise for helping fluid dynamics researchers solve the elusive closure problem of turbulence. It published the results in Physical Review Letters.

Oberlack indicated that the team was highly motivated to use its theory in other contexts, and as supercomputing resources continue to get faster, the team hopes to test this theory on more complex geometries.

Oberlack mentioned that he appreciated the role that LRZ played in the work. Several team members have participated in LRZ training courses, and while the team was overall very experienced using HPC resources, it got good, responsive support from LRZ user support staff. "It is really important to actually have humans behind these machines that are dedicated to helping users," he said.

Explore further Low-temperature physics gives insight into turbulence

More information: Martin Oberlack et al, Turbulence Statistics of Arbitrary Moments of Wall-Bounded Shear Flows: A Symmetry Approach, Physical Review Letters (2022). Journal information: Physical Review Letters Martin Oberlack et al, Turbulence Statistics of Arbitrary Moments of Wall-Bounded Shear Flows: A Symmetry Approach,(2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.024502

Provided by Gauss Centre for Supercomputing
BALLSTON SPA  A Saratoga Springs man has admitted to attacking a person with a machete and assaulting corrections officers in two separate incidents.

John J. Martino, 36, was arrested on Dec. 2, 2020 after police said he broke into a home in Wilton and attacked a person with the weapon. Martino also threatened two other people in the home.

The victim was treated by Wilton EMS and transported to Albany Medical Center with what police described as serious but not life-threatening injuries.

On Feb. 13, Martino got into a physical altercation with four correction officers at the Saratoga County Jail. Two officers were transported to Malta Medical Center for treatment of their injuries. A sergeant and an officer were treated at the jail, police said.

Martino had faced charges of second-degree attempted murder, assault, burglary and weapons possession and criminal contempt. He pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary for the machete attack and second-degree assault for the jail assaults in satisfaction of the indictment.

Martino is scheduled to be sentenced on April 5.

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SALEM  A student has been accepted onto the Salem Washington Academy Board of Education, a first for the school district.

After a rigorous application process, high school senior Cole Loveland was selected by the board to serve as the first-ever student representative.

He attended his first board meeting on Jan. 31 to get a feeling for what the board meetings are like.

This is a great pathway for direct communication, and for the board to get a gauge of the student climate, Loveland stated in a news release.

While Loveland will not have voting powers, his appointment is meant to foster a closer relationship between the administration and the student body.

In May 2021, the public voted to authorize the Board of Education to initiate the process.

While the school board for Salem Washington Academy (also known as Salem Central School District) is one of the few schools to do this in the area, they are not the only one. Dr. Robert Ceglowski, vice president of the school board, initially came up with the idea.

I heard it from my sister. She works with the Vermont State Board of Education, and she heard about different schools that do this there. So we looked into whether we could do it, legally speaking. The student will be part of all public discussions. But they dont vote and they dont go to executive sessions, Ceglowski said.

Despite Loveland not being able to vote on any issues, he will be able to act as a liaison between the student body, the administration and the school board.

The board feels really strongly that transparency is really important. Not only can the student representative bring information to the board, but the student can bring stuff back to his peers, Ceglowski stated. If people feel like their perspective in general got represented, even if their side doesnt win, it can generate healthy, robust discussion.

An example of such an issue is dress code. Its an issue that directly affects students in an obvious way and one that the school board would need student representation on.

Day-to-day stuff is in the administrations wheelhouse, but when you talk about policy thats in the boards lane, Ceglowski added.

Loveland has made it clear to his peers that he wants to be a voice for them.

Im honored that the student body and board have the confidence in me to represent and pave the way for future student board members, he said.

Loveland is also a member of the Salem-Cambridge wrestling team, and commented that this experience has helped shape him to confront new experiences and challenges head on.

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HAMILTON TOWNSHIP  Since he was a young child, TeJean Florestal has been interested in electronics and playing video games.

When he became aware in eighth grade that the Atlantic County Institute of Technology offered an Academy of Information Technology program he decided to apply, was accepted, and entered the program in September 2020. During his freshman year he learned how to create apps.

His career program choice was obviously a prudent one as TeJean, currently a sophomore, has been announced by Congressman Jeff Van Drew as the winner of the 2021 Congressional App Challenge for the 2nd District of New Jersey.

The App Challenge asks local middle and high school students to submit a developed application (app). The apps are judged based on impact, structure, function, technical capability of coding, and innovation. It is credited as being the most prestigious prize in student computer science.

TeJeans winning project is Mr. Homework-Helper. The app helps users calculate equations and convert Metric and Imperial units. It can convert temperature, time, length, mass and volume. It is specifically designed with students as the target audience to aid them in their schoolwork. This app speeds up the task of converting mathematical units, which is useful not only to students, but also professionals. TeJean coded Mr. Homework-Helper using JavaScript.

Once I created the app, I sent the code to my fellow students for them to use, he said.

I am very impressed with all of the app submissions this year and the ideas and innovation that went into their creation, Van Drew said. It is apparent through TeJeans app that a lot of time and effort was put into creating a tool for students to assist them with their schoolwork. Congratulations TeJean on receiving this prestigious award; I look forward to seeing you succeed in your future endeavors.

School officials were pleased to see TeJean earn the honor.

TeJean is a great kid who has a passion in computer science and is always willing to learn about any new technology, Principal Joseph Potkay said. His award is a prime example of how ACITs career and technical programs allow its students to showcase their talents. Our computer science program curriculum and our teachers are continually striving to ensure that the students of ACIT are prepared in the field they chose to study.

Paul Ellenberg is TeJeans information technology instructor. He has taught at the school since 2007.

Our sophomore class members enter this competition each year, Ellenberg said. They begin the three-week project near the start of the school year based on the knowledge they gathered as freshmen and then build on it. I am often amazed at what they come up with.

TeJean is a great student who generally comes up with his own way of doing things that work surprisingly well. And that is meant as a compliment. He was the only one of the 21 students who developed the app on his own, not as a member of a team.

Te Jean was excited to find out he won the award.

Im very grateful and my family is very happy for me, he said.

He lives in Atlantic City with his mother, Natasha, and sister, Madilynn. His goal is to go to college and work in the information technology field, likely developing apps. He already has plans for his next one.

I plan to develop Homework-Helper II to help students with reading and other subjects, he said.

The 2021 Congressional App Challenge ended on Nov. 1, yielding 2,101 fully functioning apps. A total of 7,174 students registering for this years competition. In all, 340 members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C.

Each participating member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and each winning team is invited to showcase their winning app to Congress during the annual #HouseOfCode festival.

This years event will take place in Washington D.C. April 20-22. TeJean plans to attend and to demonstrate his app to Van Drew.

Im a bit nervous because I am not an extraverted person, he said. But I am excited for the opportunity.
ATLANTIC CITY  The board of directors of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority on Tuesday pulled a resolution approving a deal to sell three vacant rooming houses for $150,000 as part of a redevelopment plan.

Board chairman Modia Butler said at the meeting that more information was needed before the board could vote on the proposal.

"We will not be voting on that resolution," he said, stating that the resolution would be back at a future meeting.

On the agenda was a plan to sell the properties to Liberty Hudson Holdings.

The properties are at 105 S. California Ave., 106 Albion Place and 108 Albion Place. Albion is a narrow road adjacent to California Avenue. The building at 106 Albion is directly behind 105 S. California.

The organization approved the purchase of the Albion Place properties in September, with the board approving spending almost $1.2 million for the two buildings, described at the time as dilapidated.

CRDA rooming house purchases criticized ATLANTIC CITY  A Casino Reinvestment Development Authority effort to buy problem rooming ho

Some board members at the September meeting raised questions about paying landlords for rundown properties and then passing them on to developers at a discount.

Matt Doherty, then the CRDAs executive director, said then the program was working well, tearing down abandoned properties and then getting those properties back on the tax rolls. Doherty stepped down as director early this year.

In September, he told the board the CRDA would likely not spend all of the money set aside for the purchases.

According to Doherty, the $600,000 for 106 Albion would be the worst case scenario. He said $395,000 would cover the purchase, with additional funds available for remediation, insurance and demolition if the property is ultimately torn down.

Any money not spent would stay with the CRDA, he said.

The meeting was held remotely on Tuesday.

Contact Bill Barlow: 609-272-7290 bbarlow@pressofac.com Twitter @jerseynews_bill

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Commentary: U.S. daylight robbery of Afghan assets tantamount to silent massacre

10:46, February 15, 2022 By Zheng Xin, Shi Xiantao ( Xinhua

KABUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Washington's latest decision to divert billions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets to the families of 9/11 victims is rubbing salt into the wounds of millions of suffering Afghan people.

Couching the theft as "aid" in a self-righteous statement, the White House claimed the haul is "to be used to benefit the Afghan people," and that the United States is "committed to supporting the Afghan people" and continues to "consider all options available to us to achieve that goal."

And even though the people of Afghanistan had nothing to do with the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Washington decided to withhold half of the roughly 7-billion-U.S. dollars in assets from Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) for alleged compensation for U.S. victims.

Following its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, the United States has frozen more than 9 billion dollars of DAB assets. The move is widely seen as the primary factor leading to the current economic crisis and humanitarian disaster in the war-torn Asian country of some 39 million people.

Mohammad Naeem, a spokesperson of the Taliban political office in Qatar, tweeted that "stealing the blocked funds of Afghan nation by the United States and its seizure is indicative of the lowest level of human and moral decay of a country and a nation."

The world's wealthiest superpower is stealing from the pockets of a poor country, repeating a history of theft that has trampled on legal, moral and humanistic principles.

In the military campaign that lasted 20 years, more than 30,000 civilians in Afghanistan were killed by U.S. forces or have died due to U.S.-led warfare, and some 11 million people have been displaced.

The day before the evacuation from Afghanistan, a U.S. drone strike on a Kabul home in August 2021 killed 10 civilians, including seven children.

The people of Afghanistan, who have been devastated and separated from their loved ones and their families, cannot hold the U.S. military accountable, let alone receive compensation.

As Afghan political analyst Nazari Pariani noted, in the so-called "war on terror" led by the United States, not only were a colossal number of Afghan civilians killed, the number of Afghanistan's terrorist organizations increased from a single-digit number to more than 20 during the U.S. military presence. Instead of uprooting terrorism, the United States had been fanning it.

A report released in August 2021 by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said that the United States had invested 145 billion dollars in Afghanistan's reconstruction. But after 20 years, Afghanistan is left with a depleted economy, crumbling infrastructure, backward industry and a worsening crisis.

Before the troop withdrawal in 2021, statistics showed that 72 percent of the Afghan population lived below the poverty line, unemployment was 38 percent and 3.5 million children were out of school.

The reason why the United States had so little success in rebuilding Afghanistan is simple: the funds deployed were not used to improve the livelihoods of the Afghan people. According to a New York Times report, about 12 percent of U.S. reconstruction aid to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2021 had gone to the Afghan government, with most of the rest going into the pockets of U.S. companies.

Afghanistan is facing "an avalanche of hunger and poverty." The latest statistics from the United Nations World Food Program show that 22.8 million Afghans face acute food insecurity, and many families can not survive.

From casualties and inflicting trauma to fanning terrorism and looting the country's assets, Washington seems utterly oblivious to the suffering of the Afghan people, taking on a "moral high ground" and once again plundering the starving Afghan people of live-saving cash without a tinge of guilt.

It is the latest episode in yet another season of the U.S. wrecking havoc on Afghanistan, a tragedy that is truly a silent massacre.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
KABUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Afghans came to the street in the capital Kabul on Tuesday, condemning the recent U.S. decision regarding the frozen Afghan assets as unjust and open stealing, and calling on Washington to return the assets of more than 9 billion U.S. dollars to the war-torn country.

With people carrying banners and placards with slogans reading "Biden the World Thief of 2022", "U.S. destroyed Afghanistan" and "America should return Afghanistan's assets", the demonstration march started from the main money exchange market Sarai Shahzada and ended peacefully in front of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) office.

The demonstrators demanded the return without any condition of all the assets of the Afghan central bank that have been frozen by the United States following the Taliban's takeover of the Central Asian country in mid-August 2021.

The protest came in response to an executive order signed recently by U.S. President Joe Biden for diverting 3.5 billion U.S. dollars from the frozen Afghan assets to compensating the families of 9/11 terror attacks' victims.

At the end of the demonstration, the protestors issued a declaration terming the U.S. decision as a breach of international law and vowed to continue the protest until its revocation.

Hajj Mir Afghan Safi, head of Sarai Shahzada money changers union, said that Afghan people demonstrated in almost all big cities on Tuesday demanding the return of Afghanistan's assets.

Nasir Ahmad, a money changer said, "The money belongs to the hungry people of Afghanistan and should be returned to Afghans. And President Biden's decree with regard to the assets is unjust."

The U.S. freezing of the Afghan central bank's assets is widely seen as the primary factor leading to the current economic crisis and humanitarian disaster in the war-torn country of some 39 million people.

Deputy spokesman of the Taliban-led administration Inammullah Samangani and former Afghan president Hamid Karzai have both recently denounced Biden's decision as unjust and demanded the return of the frozen assets to Afghanistan. 
A Mays Landing man on Monday admitted to trying to lure a teen girl for sex in Ocean County in 2018, authorities said.

Richard Hoffman, 26, pleaded guilty to luring before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said Tuesday in a news release.

Hoffman was arrested as part of an undercover operation targeting men who were using social media applications, specifically Whisper and Kik, to lure underage individuals for sexual activities.

The operation was led by the Ocean County Prosecutors Office, state Division of Criminal Justice and state Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Lacey Township man pleads guilty to drug charges A Lacey Township man pleaded guilty Friday to running a drug production facility out of a ho

Hoffman believed he was chatting with a 14-year-old girl when in actuality, he was chatting with an undercover detective from the Camden County Prosecutors Office, and arranged to meet his prospective victim for sexual activities at a residence in Toms River.

When Hoffman arrived at the prearranged location Sept. 5, 2018, he was taken into custody.

Hoffman is scheduled to be sentenced April 29. The state will seek a term of five years in prison, Billhimer said.

He also will be required to register as a sex offender under Megans Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life.

Contact Selena Vazquez: 609-272-7225 svazquez@pressofac.com

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HAMILTON TOWNSHIP  Since he was a child, TeJean Florestal has been interested in electronics and video games.

When he became aware in eighth grade that the Atlantic County Institute of Technology offered an Academy of Information Technology program, he decided to apply, was accepted and entered the program in September 2020.

During his freshman year, he learned how to create apps.

His career program choice was a prudent one as TeJean, now a sophomore, has been announced by U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew as the winner of the 2021 Congressional App Challenge for the 2nd District of New Jersey.

The App Challenge asks local middle and high school students to submit a developed app. Apps are judged based on impact, structure, function, technical capability of coding and innovation. It is credited as being the most prestigious prize in student computer science.

TeJeans winning project is Mr. Homework-Helper. The app helps users calculate equations and convert metric and imperial units. It can convert temperature, time, length, mass and volume. It is specifically designed to help students with their schoolwork. The app speeds up the task of converting mathematical units, which is useful not only to students but also professionals.

TeJean coded Mr. Homework-Helper using JavaScript.

Once I created the app, I sent the code to my fellow students for them to use, he said.

It is apparent through TeJeans app that a lot of time and effort was put into creating a tool for students to assist them with their schoolwork, Van Drew said.

School officials were pleased to see TeJean earn the honor.

TeJean is a great kid who has a passion in computer science and is always willing to learn about any new technology, Principal Joseph Potkay said. His award is a prime example of how ACITs career and technical programs allow its students to showcase their talents. Our computer science program curriculum and our teachers are continually striving to ensure that the students of ACIT are prepared in the field they chose to study.

Paul Ellenberg, TeJeans information technology instructor, has taught at the school since 2007.

$40M in state funding for ACIT expansion signed into law TRENTON  Atlantic County Institute of Technology will receive $40 million in state funding 

Our sophomore class members enter this competition each year, Ellenberg said. They begin the three-week project near the start of the school year based on the knowledge they gathered as freshmen and then build on it. I am often amazed at what they come up with.

TeJean is a great student who generally comes up with his own way of doing things that work surprisingly well. And that is meant as a compliment. He was the only one of the 21 students who developed the app on his own, not as a member of a team.

Te Jean was excited to find out he won the award.

Im very grateful, and my family is very happy for me, he said.

He lives in Atlantic City with his mother, Natasha, and sister, Madilynn. His goal is to go to college and work in IT, likely developing apps. He already has plans for his next one.

I plan to develop Homework-Helper II to help students with reading and other subjects, he said.

Assembly measure would fund ACIT expansion Legislators in the Assembly on Friday sponsored a measure that would provide grants to the s

The 2021 Congressional App Challenge ended Nov. 1, yielding 2,101 fully functioning apps. A total of 7,174 students registered for this years competition. In all, 340 members of Congress hosted App Challenges in their districts across 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C.

Each participating member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and each winning team is invited to showcase their app to Congress during the annual #HouseOfCode festival.

This years event will take place April 20 to 22 in Washington. TeJean plans to attend and to demonstrate his app to Van Drew.

Im a bit nervous because I am not an extroverted person, he said. But I am excited for the opportunity.
ATLANTIC CITY  In the latest change in leadership at the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, Deputy Executive Director Rosa Farias plans to step down.

CRDA Executive Director Monica de los Rios made the announcement at the start of Tuesdays meeting of the authoritys board of directors. She said Farias will return to the state Senate, to serve as a senior adviser to the Senate leadership. Her salary at the CRDA was $150,000.

Her contributions to Atlantic City have been profound, de los Rios said. Board President Modia Butler also praised Farias work, saying they previously worked together in Newark.

Butler was named chairman of the CRDA board last year, and de los Rios was appointed interim executive director at the last meeting, replacing Matt Doherty, whose departure was announced in January.

Members praised Farias work in Atlantic City, citing her efforts to improve the quality of life in the city.

I know her as a consummate professional and a person who cares deeply about the folks in marginalized communities, Butler said. He said she improved the grant-making process, and that her impact cannot be understated.

CRDA counsel advanced to interim director ATLANTIC CITY  Monica de los Rios is set to lead the Casino Reinvestment Development Author

Im excited for her. Our loss is the New Jersey Senates gain, he said. She has been praised by members of the public and community organizations at previous meetings, and by city residents who have worked with her.

Farias said she has spent three years in Atlantic City, starting when Jim Johnson, Gov. Phil Murphys former special counsel for the resort, contacted her. He left the job in 2019 to become corporate counsel in New York. As she described it, Johnson asked her to join him on a mission to change lives in Atlantic City.

He challenged us collectively as stakeholders to invest, not only financially, but to commit ourselves to the investment of helping this community in Atlantic City, she said. That has been the mission that Ive carried in everything that Ive done, especially here at CRDA.

She also spoke of the work done during the pandemic in service to the community.

Out of that, we planted so many seeds that bore such amazing fruit, she said.

That included the Feed AC initiative, which she said fed 90,000 families over a year and a half. She also spoke about work to reduce infant mortality in the city and efforts to address human trafficking.

$250,000 offered to help fight hunger in Atlantic City Nonprofits that are helping distribute food in Atlantic City will have access to a $250,000 

She also cited funding for the Boys & Girls Club, projects aimed at improving mental health and the Leaders in Training program, among other efforts.

Both Farias and de los Rios honored former CRDA Chairman Bob Mulcahy, who died this month after a long illness. It was Mulcahy who challenged the CRDA to find the need during the worst of the pandemic and to address it, Farias said.

Mulcahy served as president of the CRDA board from 2014 until June of last year.

Farias implored the board to continue investing in community organizations in the city. She also praised de los Rios, describing her as a sister from another mother.

You are the right person to lead this ship, she told de los Rios.

Farias was the director of urban policy for the state Senate Majority Office before coming to Atlantic City. Raised in Wildwood, she also was appointed to Gov. Phil Murphys transition team, where she was the lead in drafting Murphys higher education policy platform.

Contact Bill Barlow: 609-272-7290 bbarlow@pressofac.com Twitter @jerseynews_bill

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NORTHFIELD  The Atlantic County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday night asking the state to investigate how its Division of Child Protection and Permanency hired Kayan Frazier after Frazier was fired by Atlantic City schools for inappropriate behavior with students.

Frazier, then 28, pleaded guilty in February 2021 to one federal count of child exploitation involving sexual abuse and child pornography, and was sentenced to 20 years and one month in federal prison.

A group of mostly Atlantic City residents has been attending commissioner meetings recently, asking the board to pass an even stronger resolution. Among other things, the group wanted the county to demand state charges be brought against Frazier to keep him in prison longer.

About a dozen people who attended Tuesday night to advocate for the resolution expressed their thanks, even if it didnt go as far as they would have liked.

I have sincere gratitude for Resolution 81, especially the mention of our concerns about how Kayan Frazier became employed by DCP&P, said Tracey Thompson, of Mays Landing, a licensed foster mother.

Thompson, like many others speaking, however, said she will still work to have state charges brought against Frazier.

Him being released before hes 50 years old is a concern for me, Thompson said.

Commissioner Jim Bertino said copies of the resolution will be sent to the Attorney Generals Office, the Governors Office and to the state legislators who represent Atlantic County. State officials would need to make a decision about pursuing further charges, he said.

Commission Chairwoman Maureen Kern said a copy will also go to the county prosecutor.

The unnamed child involved in the case was an Atlantic City elementary school student Frazier met while a substitute teacher in the city. The mother of the child, whose identity has also not been made public, is suing the Atlantic City Board of Education, Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, LaQuetta Small (who was principal of the school where Frazier met his victim), and other school officials over the abuse.

Frazier worked as a substitute teacher in Atlantic City schools, including at the Pennsylvania Avenue School, between 2015 and 2017. He was dismissed for inappropriate behavior after LaQuetta Small found out the child had stayed overnight in his apartment.

But Frazier was later hired by the Division of Child Protection and Permanency to work with children in foster care.

Included in the group asking for the resolution is Craig Callaway, a longtime political foe of Marty Small who is involved in lawsuits over the Frazier case.

Last March, Small filed a legal complaint against Callaway, accusing him of making untrue statements claiming Small and his wife allowed children to be raped by Frazier in their home.

Frazier is the cousin of LaQuetta Small, and for a time up until 2015, Frazier lived with the Smalls.

LaQuetta Small is now the superintendent of Atlantic City schools.

The commissioner vote was unanimous, but Commissioner Ernest Coursey, of Atlantic City, recused himself on the advice of counsel.

Coursey is the chief of staff for Mayor Small.

REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti Post 609-841-2895 mpost@pressofac.com

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Chris Wimberg woke up to the sound of fireworks after his kidney transplant procedure at New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York on July 4, 2007.

I woke up to fireworks over the Hudson River for the Fourth of July, the 58-year-old Cape May Point resident recalled with a chuckle.

I got back one week later, feeling like Superman, he said. You dont realize how sick you are.

Wimbergs story reflects that of many transplant patients, who find themselves in life-or-death situations as they await an organ they desperately require.

One organization seeking to help their cause is the nonprofit Gift of Life Donor Program, a federally designated organ procurement organization (OPO) that is based in Philadelphia and covers South Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

According to a recent release from Gift of Life, it has led the nation for the past 14 years in organ donors, and the region's annual donation rate  62 organ donors-per-million-population  is among the highest in the world.

The national average is about 40 (donors per million), and this region is at 62, said Rick Hasz, president and CEO of Gift of Life.

Gift of Life had more achievements in 2021. The organization reached the highest number of organ donors ever recorded for a United States-based program: 705 organ donors led to 1,732 life-saving transplants, the most in the country; and 1,007 kidney transplants were coordinated, the most ever by a U.S. program.

Despite those high numbers, Hasz said there are still individuals waiting for organs.

There are 100,000 people right now in the country, and over 5,000 right now here in our (coverage) area, that are waiting for organs, he said, adding that the majority are kidney patients but that a substantial need exists for other organs, too.

A long journey

Wimbergs transplant story began in 1996, when he was diagnosed with amyloid A amyloidosis, a kidney disease caused by chronic inflammation or infection that causes deposits of proteins to build up in the kidney. He was told that he would need a new kidney in 10 years.

Wimberg said he felt cloudy-headed and often had headaches and nausea. Even before eventually receiving dialysis, it was evident he needed a kidney transplant. In 2005, his name was added to waiting lists for future transplant patients offered through multiple health care systems.

And then, the waiting game began, Wimberg said.

For individuals like Wimberg, organ procurement programs such as Gift of Life are the beginning of the transplant process. The organization assists 129 acute care hospitals and 14 transplant centers in providing patients like Wimberg with the organs they need.

All of the local Gift of Lifes donors are deceased individuals from South Jersey and the surrounding coverage area, but recipients can be national. Hasz said each organ donor has the potential to save eight lives, and tissue donors can save up to 75 individuals.

When someone dies in (a participating) hospital, the hospital gives us a call to travel to the hospital to evaluate that persons opportunity to donate, Hasz said. We do a medical evaluation, and if theyre suitable, then were going to sit down and work with that family, letting them know what opportunities to help other people there might be.

They then run a match of all the people waiting in the national hospital system, called the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Hasz explained that once a match is found based on qualifications such as donor characteristics and blood type, they call the necessary hospital system and potential recipients to make a match, which the recipient can either accept or decline.

When Wimberg received his first call from one of the hospital systems, he turned down the opportunity, expecting to get another call soon.

They actually called me right away, like two weeks after I listed, Wimberg recalled. I wasnt ready for it, I just didnt have my act together yet. And then it was another year before they called again.

Wimberg went on to learn that finding an organ match is like hitting the lottery, something he didnt realize at the time.

According to Hasz, the average waiting time for a kidney is more than five years.

Even after receiving additional calls a year later about potential matches, Wimberg turned down opportunities based on factors such as the age of the donor or the cause of death.

But in July 2007, he received the call that Columbia University Hospital had a definitive match and to prepare to come in for surgery. So on July 4, he woke up to fireworks over the Hudson River, feeling immediately better.

Since learning about the work of Gift of Life, Wimberg has hosted the organizations information tables at local events such as Somers Points Bayfest and Good Ol Days festivals. He also has visited the Gift of Life Family House in Philadelphia, a place for families and transplant patients to stay as they await surgery.

Theyre great. We actually have done walkways and pavers up there for members (of our support group) that have passed, Wimberg recalled.

Why South Jersey?

So what makes South Jersey and the surrounding region tops in the nation for organ donors?

Theres a combination of factors, Hasz said, mentioning the community and how giving they are, starting with the donor families.

We also know that about 48% of residents in South Jersey have that donor designation on their license, Hasz said, so not everybody has it. We need to get more public education because we want everyone to have that.

If an individual dies without that designation on his or her license, Hasz said, the hospital then discusses organ donation options with the deceaseds legal next of kin.

Hasz wants to debunk the myth that hospitals will allow patients to die because they have the organ designation on their license, emphasizing, only after "all efforts failed, and youve died will an individuals donor status even be considered.

Hasz is proud of the work that Gift of Life did in 2021, mentioning its staff, the hospitals and the families of donors in the community who made it possible to save so many lives.

But more donors are needed.

I really think its one of the most important and selfless decisions youll ever make, and its a great legacy for you to leave in this world  knowing that you can provide somebody else with life, Hasz said. I mean, what other greater legacy is there? It doesnt cost you anything, it happens after youve died, and it can be so powerful, not only for you knowing that, but for your family to know, and how proud they are.

Contact Jacklyn McQuarrie: 609-272-7415 jmcquarrie@pressofac.com

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The Delaware Chancery Court has upheld the decision by Lee Enterprises' Board of Directors to reject the director nomination notice submitted by Alden Global Capital.

The vice chancellor wrote in the decision Tuesday that Lees Board of Directors acted reasonably in enforcing a validly adopted bylaw with a legitimate corporate purpose and that Alden could easily have met the bylaws record holder andby extension  form requirements had it not delayed in preparing its nomination notice.

We are pleased that the Delaware Court of Chancery has affirmed the importance of orderly annual shareholder meetings and confirmed the decision by the Lee Board of Directors to reject as invalid the notice of nominations delivered by Alden," Lee's Board of Directors said in a statement.

Lee officials said in a statement that Aldens director nominations would not be recognized and any votes for them would not be tabulated at Lees 2022 annual meeting March 10. Lee has nominated three directors for reelection: Lee's former CEO Mary E. Junck, Herbert W. Moloney III and current CEO Kevin D. Mowbray. Alden had proposed two directors to replace Junck and Moloney, but Lee maintained Alden didn't properly nominate the board members. Alden sued in the Delaware court.

Following the ruling, Alden officials said it plans a "Vote No" campaign in an attempt to force the resignations of Junck and Moloney.

Now that the Delaware Court of Chancery has confirmed what we knew all along  that the Lee Board made a proper decision in rejecting Aldens attempted nominations  Alden has invented entirely new, hollow governance complaints in its continuing and transparent attempt to destabilize the Board and the Companys leadership to help advance its grossly undervalued hostile offer for Lee," Lee officials said in response. "We have confidence that Lees shareholders will see through these disingenuous arguments and support Lees Board.

Davenport-based Lee Enterprises is publisher of the Quad-City Times, Moline Dispatch-Argus, Muscatine Journal and dozens of other newspapers nationwide. It's the third-largest owner of newspapers in the United States. Alden Global Capital is a privately held New York City-based investment firm founded in 2007. Through acquisitions, it is now the second-largest owner of newspapers, behind Gannett.

Lee previously fought off a takeover bid from Alden, saying it wasn't in the best interest of the company. Alden is widely known in the newspaper industry for cost-cutting beyond norms.

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Angela Siebke never publicly said if she gave her first born a name.

Moline Police investigators and people throughout the Quad-Cities called the newborn girl "Baby April"  named for the month in 1992 she was found floating in a trash bag along the shores of the Mississippi River near Moline's old 17th Street Park.

The legal portion of a story that echoed for years and haunted a number of investigators came to a close Tuesday inside a Rock Island County Justice Center courtroom after 14th Circuit Chief Judge Frank Fuhr sentenced Siebke to two years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Fuhr credited her with day-for-day time served in the Rock Island County jail and granted defense attorney Steve Hanna's request for immediate furlough.

Originally charged with first-degree murder, Siebke formally entered an open plea of guilty to one count of endangering the life of a child resulting in death, a Class 3 felony, on Nov. 22, 2021. After sentencing, Hanna said Siebke planned "  to head home to Ohio as soon as tonight."

A mother of six, Siebke spoke briefly on her own behalf during the sentencing hearing. She said she was "sorry" and the day she disposed of her daughter "  was the worst day of my life."

Hanna and Siebke insisted Baby April was stillborn, not killed by her mother.

"Angela Siebke was a 17-year-old girl, living alone in an apartment, abandoned and afraid because she was having a mixed-race baby and her family was racist," Hanna explained after the sentencing. "She had no medical care, somehow concealed her pregnancy and gave birth to a stillborn child all alone.

"I truly believe Angela is sorry for what she did. Not because she was caught  but because of what happened."

After her sentence was read, Siebke broke down in tears and turned to family members who packed the viewing area behind the defense table. Some of the family cried after the sentence was announced, while others smiled. All declined to comment on the case.

Baby April's case seemed cold until Dec. 17, 2020, when the Moline Police Department announced the arrest of Siebke, who lived in Whitehall, Ohio. At that time, Moline Police Chief Darren Gault said the diligence of detectives and advancements in the use of DNA led to her arrest.

Questions about exactly how Baby April died swirled around the case. An autopsy performed in 1992 indicated Baby April died as a result of "exposure to cold/asphyxia," resulting from "infanticide"  the killing of a newborn. The autopsy also found the presence of air in the baby girl's lungs during a float test, which suggested live birth, prosecutors said.

However, the state also acknowledged the mastoid bone  part of the skull  required examination to determine whether the baby was born alive, and the doctor performing the autopsy concluded the case was "undetermined."

Hanna asserted the presence of air in the infant's lungs could be an indication someone tried to breathe for the baby after she was born.

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CHICAGO  The leader of a Chicago not-for-profit group has pleaded guilty to misusing more than $260,000 in state grant money intended to develop commercial properties and fund a job training program.

Yesse Yehudah, 73, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of wire fraud in federal court. Yehudah, who has already paid back $90,000, will have to pay back $170,000 under his plea, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 17 with federal prosecutors pushing for him to serve up to 33 months in prison.

Yehudah was initially charged in a 15-count federal indictment in 2020 that involved the not-for-profit Fulfilling Our Responsibilities Unto Mankind where he was the president and CEO.

The 14 other counts against Yehudah  who was from Chicago but now lives in Wisconsin  will be dropped at sentencing.

Prosecutors accused him of devising a scheme to cheat the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which had provided his organization with three grants that totaled $575,000.

The grant money was designated to help spur economic development in Dolton, a south Chicago suburb, and to create a jobs training program.

The grants had strict guidelines on how the money could be spent. Yehudah has admitted to submitting bogus documents like forging checks and falsifying invoices to make the work seem legitimate to the state commerce agency.

Prosecutors said he pocketed the money and even made a private loan to another individual.

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COLLINSVILLE  After hearing emotional comments from students, parents and teachers about whether face masks should be required in schools, the Collinsville school board voted Monday night to remove the district's mask mandate beginning Tuesday.

The vote comes in the wake of a Sangamon County judge issuing a temporary restraining order on Feb. 4 on mask mandates for plaintiffs in nearly 170 school districts statewide, including some students in Collinsville School District 10.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker had issued a mandate before the school year for all students and staff to wear a mask as part of an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. Pritzker last week said he would lift his mask mandate for most public indoor places as of Feb. 28, but that a decision on school mandates would be made separately.

Collinsville Superintendent Brad Skertich explained to the audience that the board changed its policy to say "masks will be strongly recommended in our schools."

Many in the crowd cheered the school board's decision to make masks optional. Crowd members who opposed the change remained quiet.

Before the vote, the board listened for nearly an hour as more than 20 people gave their opinions on whether students and the staff should have the right to decide to wear a mask.

Stephanie Biondi, a Collinsville School District teacher, tearfully urged the board to keep the mask mandate to help protect students such as her daughter Lela, who is in kindergarten and has leukemia.

Biondi was upset that "This community is comfortable with the risk of her life when it could be so easy for you to do something so small to protect her," she said.

Sophia Brissenden, a Collinsville High School student, told the board what happened when she didn't wear a mask at school last week: "I was bullied. I was harassed."

Brissenden urged the board to drop the mask mandate.

"We want to make this choice for ourselves," she said.

Board President Gary Peccola along with board members Jeree Bronnbauer, Dennis Craft, Vicki Reulecke and Michele Stutts unanimously voted to change the mask policy.

Two board members, Tim Hasamear and Jane Soehlke, were absent for the meeting conducted in the school auditorium to accommodate the crowd of about 175 people.

Masks will still be required on Collinsville buses based on federal guidelines, Skertich said.

Skertich said the school district has been in an "impossible situation" since it started dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

"Unfortunately there is a divide completely throughout our country right now as well as in our communities whether masks should be required or they should be recommended," Skertich said.

Before the board voted, Skertich said 87% of the staff has been vaccinated against the virus and that Madison County has had a declining number of children who have tested positive for coronavirus.

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ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 soldiers were killed on Tuesday in heavy fighting between pro-government Yemeni troops and Houthi militants in the southern province of Dhalea, a military officer told Xinhua.

The intense confrontations broke out after "scores of Houthi fighters launched an armed attack and attempted to advance into key areas in the province," said the source on condition of anonymity.

The Houthi attack was aborted by the government forces following hours of ferocious fighting near the Qatabah district in northern Dhalea, he added.

The fighting left at least 10 people killed from the two warring sides and nearly 14 others injured, according to the official.

Meanwhile, sporadic fighting continues between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in various areas of the war-ravaged Arab country.

The country's northern provinces witnessed the fiercest battles amid intensified airstrikes during the past 48 hours particularly in the oil-rich province of Marib.

The airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition have hit a number of Houthi-held sites in Yemen's capital Sanaa and neighboring areas.

Yemen has been plagued by a civil war since late 2014 when Houthi militias forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. 
The Easter Bunny was representing the prosecution in several hundred Polk County criminal cases.At least thats what Iowa Courts Online, the court systems official, statewide web-based repository of court records, indicated for most of April.On April 4, the online docket sheets for hundreds of Polk County cases  primarily misdemeanors and drunken-driving cases  were revised to indicate the prosecution of those cases had been transferred from one particular assistant county attorney, Kailey Gray, to another prosecutor in the county attorneys office by the name of Easter Santa Bunny.And thats where the cases remained as of Thursday morning.Bret Lucas, an assistant county attorney, said Thursday the situation stemmed from a recent realignment of cases within the county attorneys office. Gray took over a colleagues cases, and Iowa Courts Online accurately reflects the transfer of those cases. But Grays old cases, he said, were transferred to the Easter Bunny until all of the work on the digital case transfer could be completed.We had contacted the Judicial Branch and they worked with their information technology department to facilitate the mass transfer of cases, Lucas said. Apparently, the Judicial Branch and the IT department decided to put that placeholder in there because, obviously, no one else would have that name.  So they were all aware of that, and it sounds like they must still be in the middle of that transfer process.Stacy Curtis, a supervisor for the criminal division of the Polk County Clerk of Courts Office, said the references to the Easter Bunny should not be visible to the public either through a name search or in the docket sheets for the individual cases. She said the office took extra steps to make sure members of the public didnt see any reference to the Easter Bunny and only clerks, lawyers, judges and others with higher security clearance could see it. It appears that the opposite may have occurred, as the Easter Bunny references could be seen by members of the public who werent even logged into the site.This has been a nightmare for me, Curtis said. We moved everything from Kaylie to the Easter Bunny, and those should have all been cleaned up so you wouldnt be able to see that.Many of the cases that were publicly assigned to the Easter Bunny are open, active cases, but hundreds of others are dormant, though not technically closed because of probationary sentences that have yet to be completed or fines that have yet to be paid.The only practical effect of the Easter Bunny designation is that some defendants may see that information online and not know who to contact at the county attorneys office about their case.After being contacted by the Iowa Capital Dispatch on Thursday, court officials were working to erase from the website any mention of the Easter Bunny, and by late afternoon it appeared they had succeeded.Santa bailed out by RudolphThe Easter Bunny cases are not the only criminal matters listed on the court systems official website to have featured nonexistent lawyers or defendants. In what appear to be training exercises for clerical staff, fictitious test cases are sometimes created and then posted to the public website but never removed.For example, a December 1997 case shows Santa Claus being convicted of felony burglary and kidnapping, with a charge of assault on a peace officer dismissed by the court. The court records indicate a sentence of 999 years in prison was imposed.As part of that same test case, the court imposed a no-contact order prohibiting Santa from having any contact with Mickey Mouse. Santas bail  listed as one million bucks in a possible punning reference to Santas reindeer  is stated to have been posted by Rudolph.In 2014, Santa Claus was charged with second-degree robbery in Scott County, according to the Iowa Courts Online site. Although theres no record of a conviction in that case, Claus right to carry a gun was revoked.The court systems website also shows that in 2014, Mickey Mouse filed a small claims case against Donald Duck in Marion County.For more information, visit iowacapitaldispatch.com.
Chocolate is a delectable treat loved by many. To learn more about how this sweet indulgence is made, we traveled to the beautiful island of Kauai to visit to Lydgate Farms, a cacao farm that sits above the town of Kapaa.

Did you know that Hawaii is the only U.S. state with commercial cacao plantations? While there is quite a lot of chocolate produced domestically, most of it is made from imported cocoa beans. With the advantage of Kauais highly-developed soils and fertile growing conditions, Lydgate grows high-quality cacao to produce some of the richest and finest craft chocolate.

Chocolate labeling can be confusing, with terms like fair trade, direct trade and bean-to-bar. We explain what these designations mean and also take you through how chocolate does get from bean to bar. Plus, Hawaiian chef Brandon Baptiste gives us three amazing recipes. His tip? The better the quality of chocolate, the better the flavor and quality of the result.

Finally, we offer our suggestions for chocolate brands that are not only highly delicious but ethically-made and earth-friendly, too.

Meet the Hawaiian cacao farmer working to change the chocolate industry This fifth-generation Hawaiian farmer produces internationally award-winning cacao and chocolate right here in the U.S.

How your favorite chocolate gets from branch to bar Ever wonder how chocolate is made? Will Lydgate of Kauais Lydgate Farms gives us a breakdown of the process, from cacao branch to chocolate bar.

Chocolate unwrapped: What to know before you buy Semisweet versus bittersweet? Fairtrade versus Direct Trade? Read on for your key to decoding terms and certifications on chocolate packaging.

Need an excuse to eat more chocolate? Try these 3 recipes From breakfast to dessert, enjoy chocolate every meal of the day with these recipes from a Hawaiian chef.

Conscientious cocoa: 7 chocolate brands making a difference Who doesnt love a bar of quality chocolate? Unwrap our recommendations for ethical chocolate brands that are both tasty and eco-friendly.

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Teens and young adults will have a chance to meet potential employers in March at the QCA Young Adult Hiring Fair scheduled.

More than 30 businesses will be available with offers for part-time, full-time, seasonal and summer work, according to a news release from the Davenport Community School District. Interviews and offers of employment are possible on site.

The event is scheduled for noon to 5 p.m. March 2 at the TaxSlayer Center, 1201 River Drive, Moline. Teens and young adults from 16 years old to 24 years old are encouraged to attend.

The event is sponsored by the mayors of the Quad-Cities communities.

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WHAT WE KNOW: The state of Illinois is requiring municipalities to have their pension funds funded at 90% by the year 2040.

WHAT'S NEW: Colona's pension fund had a good year, with net income of $615,260 and a return on investment of 20.32%. Overall, the fund is at 57% compared with 53% the previous year, according to Treasurer Jen Legare, who gave the annual municipal compliance report at Monday's council meeting.

WHAT'S NEXT: Mayor Rich Holman appointed retired East Moline police officer Charles "Chuck" Barrett to replace 4th Ward alderman Brian Johnson, who moved out of state.

Since the city has reverted to having committees as well as a committee of the whole, Holman appointed the following committees:

Finance/administration  Amanda Stablein, chair; Debara Shady-Dahl, Larry Swemline.

Public works  Swemline, chair; Tom Feliksiak, Sarah Lack.

Public safety  Mick Painter, chair; Barrett, Jessica Hillman.

Economic development  Lack, chair; Painter, Stablein.

During the committee of the whole, Police Chief Mike Swemline announced Sgt. Clinton Powless had been named Officer of the Year for 2021 because of his leadership, commitment and going above and beyond what was required. Swemline also recognized Sgt. Anthony Armstrong and Officer Emily Duran for their efforts in a Jan. 16 structure fire and Officers Chris Lafriniere and Sarah VanHollebeke for an Aug. 5, 2021 vehicle pursuit in which a dangerous individual was placed under arrest. Swemline said the recent murder of a 14-month-old child was still under investigation with Rahsaan Strawder being charged with the crime.

"There is more to it, but I can't talk about it right now," he said, adding that a lot of overtime has been paid with respect to the case for investigations and follow-ups.

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An iconic landmark associated for decades with the city of Rock Island will soon be moved to Milan.

A statue of the Sauk warrior Black Hawk has stood at the vacant former Watch Tower Plaza strip mall site on 11th Street since the mid 1960s.

City Council members on Monday night declared the statue as "surplus property" and approved a request from Blackhawk Bank & Trust to donate the statue to the business, which will remove, restore and relocate it to the bank property at 301 W. 4th St., Milan.

"Miles, has this been run past the city's preservation commission?" 5th Ward Alderman Dylan Parker asked Miles Brainard, community development director.

"No, because it is not a locally designated landmark," Brainard said.

"It might be of interest but understood," Parker said.

"I wish they were putting it in Rock Island, but I get it," 7th Ward Alderman Bill Healy said.

Blackhawk Bank & Trust, whose slogan is "Choose the Chief" and whose logo is an image of the Native American leader, will place the statue on a stone pedestal amid landscaping and seating, according to renderings provided by Streamline Architects, the firm designing the space for the bank.

As part of the donation agreement, the bank must affix a plaque to the statue's base noting it was donated by the city of Rock Island.

Bank President James Huiskamp said the statue would enhance the Milan business corridor the bank has been helping to redevelop.

"It is something that we would certainly honor and care for hopefully, at least another 50 years going forward," Huiskamp said.

"If you look at the pictures," Mayor Mike Thoms said, "it does represent it well."

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Several horses and a donkey escaped a late-night barn fire Monday in East Moline.

The Silvis Fire Department was called around 11 p.m. to the 4600 block of Friendship Farm Road in East Moline for a report of a barn that was engulfed in flame, according to a news release on the department Facebook page. The report included that horses might be in the barn.

When they arrived, firefighters learned that a neighbor realized there was a fire and opened the barns gates so three horses and a donkey that were inside could escape, according to the release.

No injuries to people or animals were reported.

The barn was burning heavily and it took firefighters about an hour to get the flames under control. Crews also worked to keep the fire from spreading to a nearby home.

Firefighters remained at the site into the early morning to prevent the fire from rekindling. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The other firefighting agencies that participated in fighting the fire were the Hampton Fire Department, and the Carbon Cliff/Barstow, Hillsdale, Rapid City/Port Byron and Coal Valley fire protection districts.

They were in turn assisted by the Silvis Police Department, Rock Island County Sheriffs Office, the Illinois State Police, Genesis Ambulance and MidAmerican Energy.

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PIERRE | South Dakota Senate Republicans gave hearty support on Monday to Gov. Kristi Noem's proposal to allow employees to gain exemptions from their employers COVID-19 vaccine mandates, passing it with the two-thirds majority required if it is to be enacted immediately.

The bill drew just four nay votes in the 35-member Senate, sending it to the House. The proposal would allow employees to receive an exemption to their employers vaccine requirement by citing either a medical exemption certified by a medical professional, any religious grounds for refusal, or a test showing antibodies against COVID-19 in the last six months.

Noem is pushing for the bill to get two-thirds support from both chambers so that it can be enacted immediately.

The Republican governor has carved out a reputation nationwide among conservatives for taking a hands-off approach to the virus. But even Noem has seemingly changed her position on the issue of vaccine mandate exemptions in the last year.

In August, she said in a Twitter video that employers should at least allow religious exemptions from mandates, but added that I don't have the authority as governor to tell them what to do.

It is not conservative to grow government and to tell businesses what to do and how to treat their employees, Noem said at the time.

However, she has become a powerful proponent of the mandate exemption proposal in this year's legislative session and argued that her current proposal squares with her hands-off governing philosophy. Her office has cast it as a middle ground between health experts urging vaccines and those opposed to mandates altogether.

As senators debated Noem's proposal, several raised questions about how a religious exemption can be defined. The bill requires employees to sign on to a 30-word statement that they object to getting COVID-19 shots on religious grounds, but stipulates that those can't be "social, political, or economic philosophies or mere preference."

President Joe Bidens administration pushed last year to boost the nations COVID-19 vaccination rate and slow the spread of the coronavirus through mandates for employment. But the U.S. Supreme Court has stopped that effort.

However, Bidens requirement for millions of health care workers, issued through Medicare and Medicaid providers, has remained. Noems proposal also carves out an exemption for those health care providers, as well as National Guard troops.

Republican Sen. Erin Tobin, a certified nurse practitioner, argued for the exemptions and called vaccine requirements politically charged.

With the latest variant, its going to spread and really the immunization is your choice, she said.

Democrats, who hold just three seats in the Senate, offered opposition by arguing it undercuts efforts from both public health experts and businesses to get employees vaccinated.

Freedom from the virus, I think, is important, Democratic Sen. Reynold Nesiba said.

The proposal comes as South Dakotas rate of 59% of people fully vaccinated lags behind the nationwide rate of 64%. The state Department of Health reported 259 people hospitalized with COVID-19 Monday, marking a decline from last month when the number topped 400  the highest rate in over a year.

Ivermectin bill

Meanwhile, the House on Monday passed a bill to demand that medical practitioners may prescribe ivermectin, an unproven treatment for COVID-19. The drug, which is usually used for parasites, has been promoted by conservative commentators as a treatment despite a lack of conclusive evidence that it helps people with the virus.

Federal health officials saw a surge in prescriptions for the drug last year, accompanied by worrying increases in reported overdoses.

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If you want a shooting range, look to private enterprise or form a club and raise the money. Please save the $2.5 million of our tax dollars for schools and teachers.

I dont have a gun so I dont need a shooting range, but I like yoga. Senator Johnson, can you get the government to build a yoga studio and use tax dollars to man and maintain it for me?

Why is the state competing with private enterprise for a shooting range?

Do a Google map search for shooting range, SD. Of the 20 results across the state, 10 are clustered around the Black Hills. A state facility would better serve all, including youth, if more centrally located in the state.

Years ago, Grandpa said, "There will come a time when a million dollars isn't worth much." Looking at the price tag of a projected South Middle School in Rapid, he was wise beyond his years.

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A Hamilton Christian Academy senior is raising funds to purchase musical instruments for Ronald McDonald House residents in Missoula.

HCA Senior Lizzy Potts has stayed at a Ronald McDonald House and has organized an online fundraiser to benefit families who stay and hopefully play.

Potts said that she has a personal experience of her and her family staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Portland, Oregon.

While I was there, I enjoyed many different activities that the house hosted, Potts said. In addition to their main focus, which is to give families of sick children free accommodations, one of the main things I really enjoyed was their music program.

The RMH had musical instruments around the house and on Tuesdays and Thursdays brought in instructors with their ukuleles.

Theyd sit in the entryway and play while people were having dinner or cleaning up, Potts said. Guests were invited to join the instructors and contribute to making music.

Potts said she loved playing the ukulele with them.

It was a very nice time to get to relax and get the day out of your mind, she said. It was great to see peoples faces light up as different people were playing. Some of the kids werent adept but seeing them so excited after a hard day was really amazing.

She said that families bring their sick child and their other children.

It was great to see those kids who werent sick but had to pause their lives, have an outlet, Potts said. My fundraiser is intended to raise funds for Missoulas Ronald McDonald House so they can buy instruments and set up a little corner so kids, adults, children, staff, anyone can play.

In addition to raising funds for musical instruments like a ukulele, drums and shakers, Potts is raising funds to cover operating costs and additional expenses of the RMH.

It takes a lot to run a home which houses so many different families, who arent paying for their stay, she said.

The fundraiser went live on Valentines Day and the link can be found on the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Montana website or here: https://www.classy.org/campaign/Play-It-Forward/c382009. It is a donation site, with a photo of Potts with her ukulele, a video of her playing and singing and telling her personal story with the Ronald McDonald House.

In 2017, Potts was a 13-year-old who was introverted and unsure of herself. She shut herself away from the world, then was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder.

My Ronald McDonald House experience was absolutely exceptional, Potts said. They brought me out of my shell with wonderful activities from crafting classes to therapy animal visits to, probably my favorite, music nights.

Potts did play the ukulele before her RMH experience but appreciated them having a set time for playing music, improving her skills and learning new songs.

A lot of times you feel like your life is put on pause when youre going through something really stressful because youre away from home, youre away from school, she said. Being able to play my ukulele made me feel like I had an identity outside my illness, and I wasnt just stuck.

For her senior project, she selected Missoulas Ronald McDonald House to share her love for the charity, and help hurting families experience musics healing power, Potts said. Music says what words cant. Music brings us together.

Hamilton Christian Academy requires a senior service project that Head of School Matthew Zwicker said provides students the opportunity to practice Christ's service-oriented heart in creating a lasting impact for others.

Lizzy's senior project goes beyond benefiting a particular community, namely the Ronald McDonald House in Missoula, Zwicker said. Lizzy's campaign not only benefits those who are currently the Ronald McDonald House, but it leaves a legacy; setting the tone for those to get involved and setting the stage for those in the future to benefit from the healing sounds of her campaign's instruments.

Potts is the president of the Students Reaching Out and Volunteering (SRV) service club at HCA that organizes service projects.

Zwicker said Potts continually exhibits both compassion of character and enterprise of excellence.

Every teacher and staff who had her in the last three years finds Lizzy to be a diligent student and a kind soul with a profundity that lasts beyond her years, Zwicker said. Her anchored drive and consistent thoughtfulness 'gets things done' and 'gets done well. Thank you for being you, Lizzy. It's a blessing to have you at HCA.

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BAGHDAD, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Language Department of Salahaddin University held on Monday a "China Day" event in Erbil, the capital city of Iraq's Kurdistan region, to promote cultural exchanges.

Ni Ruchi, China's consul general in Erbil, attended the event and lauded the role of the department, established in 2019 as Iraq's first Chinese language institute for higher education, in promoting cultural and educational cooperation.

"Language is the bridge between nations, and we hope Kurdish students can be future economic, cultural and educational ambassadors," Ni said at the opening ceremony of the event.

The event kicked off with the theme song of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in the presence of local officials, students from the department, Chinese diplomats and business representatives.

Barzan Jaafar Ali, head of the department, said that by holding this event, "we are meant to make a bridge between the Chinese and Kurdish culture. We are trying to improve the relationship between the two cultures."

Atif Abdullah Farhadi, dean of the College of Languages to which the Chinese Language Department belongs, said, "We have a plan to extend the department and enroll a higher number of students, and we are planning to organize some special Chinese language courses for business people and traders."

Hiwa Xoshnaw, a junior student from the Chinese Language Department wearing a Chinese outfit, said that this kind of event "makes Chinese culture and language familiar to our people." 
The window is closing for the Montana Legislature to reconvene in Helena to redraw districts for the Public Service Commission, but the top two Republican leaders say they support a special session, while questioning an effort to add "election integrity" issues to the agenda.

Montanas five PSC districts havent been updated in nearly two decades, creating unconstitutional disparities between the number of voters that now reside in them. A federal court may soon step in to re-draw the district map, in response to a lawsuit filed by voters in January. The Legislature is saddled with the responsibility to redraw the districts after each census, but hasnt done so since 2003.

Lawmakers can call themselves back into session if enough of them support it through a legislative poll. But that could prove time-consuming, with lawmakers given 30 days to respond. Approaching deadlines may now leave the possibility of a special session in the hands of the governor, who can unilaterally call the Legislature back to Helena.

I would say that we remain very concerned about the courts overstepping their authority and inserting themselves into this map situation  thats not their purview, House Majority Leader Sue Vinton, R-Billings, said. Leadership from both the House and the Senate, weve been in discussions almost every single day in the last few weeks, so as far as that goes were still working on it and hoping that we can come up with a consensus amongst our caucus.

Federal judges overseeing the PSC map case have set a trial for March 4, and the candidate registration deadline is March 14. Adding to the time crunch, the Legislative Services Division ideally needs 14 days' notice to prepare for lawmakers to reconvene.

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has said he is willing to call a special session "for the sole purpose of PSC redistricting" if lawmakers can agree on a new map ahead of time.

To that end, Republicans have been circulating and debating a number of potential maps to equalize the PSC districts before it falls to a panel of federal judges.

Expanding the call

Rep. Derek Skees, a Kalispell Republican who has been an outspoken supporter of a special session, this week circulated a proposed map and a draft letter to the governor asking him to reconvene lawmakers to pass a new PSC map. He also asked that the session allow the Legislature to appoint and fund a special interim committee "created with investigatory powers and charged with confirming the election integrity of Montana."

The latter issue has been a goal of some GOP lawmakers who signed onto a letter asking for the committee last September. But many Republicans  including some who signed the September letter  have said they won't support a special session if it bleeds into other issues.

In his email, Skees asked fellow legislators to sign on in support of the letter, which he wrote will be sent to Gianforte on Friday. The letter asks the governor to convene lawmakers no later than Feb. 28 to beat the federal court's March 4 deadline.

Tuesday afternoon, Senate President Mark Blasdel and House Speaker Wylie Galt sent a letter to legislators supporting a special session to address the PSC districts, while questioning attempts to add election issues onto the agenda. Writing that cost estimates for the committee have ranged "from $50,000 to $500,000 according to different legislators," the two Republicans asked for clarity on the actual cost, how the money would be spent and what investigative powers aren't already provided to existing committees.

"What specifically will it be investigating and what does it seek to achieve?" they wrote. "Are there specific policy proposals that will be brought forward to the committee?"

They also cited a half-dozen bills passed by Republicans last year that they said "improve the integrity of Montana's elections."

"As you know, special sessions are very brief and require a lot of coordination to be successful," they continued. "... Legislators should have a clear and full understanding of the special select committee proposal prior to being expected to sign onto a letter calling for a special session addressing that topic."

Their comments appeared to echo concerns expressed by Democrats and some Republicans that calling lawmakers back to Helena is expensive. Legislative Services estimates a special session would cost $108,000 for the first day, plus $56,000 for each subsequent day.

And in a letter sent to House and Senate leaders Tuesday afternoon, Gianforte doubled down on his stance that hell only call a special session to address the PSC issue.

I take seriously our role as elected officials to be responsible stewards of taxpayer resources and also recognize, with a citizen legislature, the individual responsibilities of your members outside of regular legislative sessions, he wrote. For those reasons, I do not take calling a special session lightly.

The push for an expanded special session has a number of Republicans wary of agreeing to reconvene at all. Once a special session is underway, it's possible lawmakers could vote to expand the scope into other issues, like probing the state's election security. Sen. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, has remained staunchly opposed to calling a special session, and said such votes could provide fodder for primary opponents from the right wing to run attack ads and mailers against incumbents in the upcoming primary elections.

"The average person doesn't really understand what was discussed, what was said or why somebody thought it was a bad idea," he said. "... It's a postcard vote, they take them all the time, and you bet that is a big fear. There's some pretty hot races in June."

Included in Skees' email, which was sent to both Republicans and Democrats, was a link to a PSC map Skees is asking lawmakers to support. It would create one distinct district in northwestern Montana, anchored by Flathead County and including Missoula. The current PSC map has two districts running north-to-south in that fast-growing region.

While the current districts vary in population by as much as 53,000 residents, the proposed map would create a difference of 3,144 residents between the most populated and least populated districts.

That map would also draw Skees outside the district he's campaigning in this year, and place him inside the one held by Commissioner Jennifer Fielder, a Republican not up for reelection until 2024.

That political consideration surfaced publicly last month, when fellow Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, R-Great Falls, told the audience at a public meeting that party leadership had hammered out a deal in which Skees would support such a map if "election integrity" issues were also addressed in a special session. Skees has said it was only a suggestion, and his support isn't contingent upon the election committee.

Skees declined to comment for this story. In a Jan. 26 interview, he told the Montana State News Bureau he would be willing to throw his support behind a map that precluded him from running in 2022, if it creates a stronger district and allows for better representation for the constituents that I represent in the Flathead. As treasurer of the Montana GOP, Skees is one of the top officers in the state party leadership.

For their part, minority Democrats in the House and Senate have called the special session proposals a waste of time and money, and argued the 2023 legislative session would be the proper time to address new PSC districts.

Other maps in circulation

Four other maps, obtained through public records requests by the Montana State News Bureau, offer a glimpse into a process that has largely played out behind the scenes. Lawmakers contacted about those maps noted that debates over district lines have produced many iterations in recent weeks, and the proposals have likely shifted since January.

One, drafted on Jan. 18 by legislative staff at Ankney's request, draws similar lines to the map supported by Skees, but excludes Missoula from the northwestern district.

That proposed map also creates a single northwestern district with the Flathead as the main population center. Three districts would be anchored by the large population centers around Missoula, Bozeman and Billings, with vast, sparsely populated stretches of eastern and north-central Montana lumped in with Great Falls. Ankney said he requested it in the hopes that the courts might consider using it.

A map more closely resembling the one circulated by Skees was emailed Jan. 28 to legislators by Rep. Wendy McKamey, R-Ulm. It draws both Missoula and the Flathead into a single northwestern district, with a large southwestern district extending from just outside Missoula to the Gallatin County line. It has distinct eastern, south-central and north-central districts, with Billings in the east.

In an interview last week, McKamey said she didnt know the origin of her preferred map. And she added that shes seen scant evidence that lawmakers were anywhere near a consensus on any of the proposals in circulation.

On Jan. 18, Skees emailed a different PSC map proposal to Republican leaders in the House. It closely resembles the current PSC map, with an expanded footprint for District 1, which includes Great Falls and many of the states more rural counties in northeast and north-central Montana. In his email, Skees said it was created by Jeff Essman, a Republican member of the state Districting and Apportionment Commission.

That map would also preserve his ability to run in District 5 this year, as does a similar map submitted to Vinton on Jan. 20 by Terry Nelson, chair of the Montana GOPs redistricting committee. Neither Essman nor Nelson responded to requests for comment.

Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, said chatter about a special session had seemed to die down recently. That doesnt necessarily mean others arent closing in on a map that can unite enough Republicans to form majorities in both chambers, he added. But he said theres a reason PSC maps havent been updated in so long that the courts are now preparing to step in.

No one wants to agree on a map, he said. Thats why were in this quandary now.

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Employees at five more Starbucks coffee shops in Virginia  including four in the Richmond region  are seeking to unionize amidst a nationwide campaign to organize labor at one of the countrys biggest retail chains.

Workers at the stores filed petitions Monday with the National Labor Relations Board seeking union representation, according to Workers United, a Philadelphia-based union that represents workers in various service and warehouse industries.

That brings the number of Starbucks locations in Virginia where workers are trying to unionize to seven. Last month, employees at two Starbucks stores in the Richmond area were the first in the state to file petitions to unionize.

The latest stores in the Richmond region where workers are seeking union representation are at 1017 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. and in Carytown at 3555 W. Cary St., both in Richmond, and in the Huguenot Village Shopping Center at 2559 Huguenot Road and in Westchester Commons at 15605 WC Commons Way, both in Chesterfield County. The fifth store Virginia is in Roanoke.

The actions come a month after Starbucks workers at a Buffalo, N.Y., store voted to unionize. That was the first time workers had voted to unionize at a store operated by the 50-year-old coffee retailer, the worlds largest coffee chain with about 9,000 company-owned stores in the U.S.

The union said petitions now have been filed to unionize Starbucks stores in 86 locations in 24 states.

Starbucks has said it opposes unionization, saying the chain functions best when it can work directly with its employees.

What you are seeing in the Richmond area is certainly part of a national movement ever since the first Starbucks store organized in Buffalo, said Virginia Diamond, president of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation who is working with Workers United.

Theres been a wave of union-organizing going on throughout the country. This really is an uprising of this generation of workers who really see unions as the kind of pathway to having a better economic future, she said. It started with Starbucks, which you know they all love, they love the company and they love working there but they really feel that they should be able to have a voice and have a seat at the table.

Dillon Dix, 23, one of the employees at Westchester Commons store who signed the petition, agrees.

We believe that we deserve some accountability from Starbucks in their efforts to live up to their mission and values, said Dix, who has worked for Starbucks for four years, first as a barista for two years and now as a shift supervisor.

We think unionizing with our voices together to bring about what we think Starbucks should be held to the standard that they get from their image. Theres just better standards of conduct needed, he said. We think they could begin to do better for seniority pay, for mental health care access or better health care access in general.

National Labor Relations Board now will review the petitions from the five stores in Virginia, conduct a hearing to determine exactly who would be in the bargaining units, then set a date for a separate elections by employees at each of the stores, Diamond said.

The NLRB next week will hear the petitions from workers at the two Richmond area stores that filed documents last month seeking union representation. Those two stores are at 11136 Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield and at 6980 Forest Hill Ave. in Richmond.

If the board grants those requests, voting at those two stores could take place in March, Diamond said.

A NLRB hearing on the petitions filed Monday from the five locations in Virginia could take place next month.

ggilligan@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6379 Staff writer John Reid Blackwell contributed to this report.
The Hanover Fire/EMS recently paid tribute to long-serving Fire/EMS Lt. James M. Alexander, who died Wednesday, Feb. 9.

Alexander began his service in Hanover County as a volunteer for the Black Creek and East Hanover Fire companies. He served in numerous leadership roles during his tenure at those departments.

He joined Hanover as a career employee in July 2007, assigned to a variety of duties in operations. Prior to joining the Hanover Department, Alexander served in the Virginia Air National Guard Fire Department protecting F-16 jets stationed at Richmond International Airport.

Alexander was promoted to lieutenant in May 2012. In 2015, he was assigned to the logistics section, where he focused on facilities management for all of the departments stations and facilities.

The Hanover Sheriffs Office issued the following statement on Facebook regarding Alexanders passing. On behalf of Colonel Hines and the men and women of HCSO, we send our deepest condolences to Lieutenant Alexander's family, friends and co-workers. May he rest in peace.

County Administrator John Budesky noted Alexanders many years of service to Hanover County.

James Alexander  or Jimmy to all that knew him  was a fixture of the Hanover Fire and EMS service in Hanover County since 1980. In both his years as a volunteer and as a career member, he was a friend to so many and was always willing to help or go above and beyond in so many ways, Budesky said. He was a respected servant-leader and was a go-to resource for our entire system. His leadership, positive attitude and friendship will be missed by so many.

Budesky said Alexander set an example for all public servants in his dedication and commitment to Hanover County.

He has left a legacy of service within his family and will be truly missed by the Hanover County community. We ask that all our team and residents keep Jimmys family in your thoughts and prayers.

Hanover Fire Chief Jethro Piland III said Alexander was a valuable asset to his department, but also a dedicated member of the community.

Jimmy was a 43-year veteran of our department. He started in the early 80s as a volunteer for the Eastern Hanover Volunteer Fire Company, Piland said last week. He was hired as a full-time firefighter/medic in 2007 and promoted to the rank of lieutenant for the last six years he served in our logistics division.

Piland also said Alexander was known as a team player, always willing to support a colleague.

Jimmy enjoyed supporting his colleagues, keeping them mission ready. He was a caring, compassionate man with a high mechanical aptitude. He was talented in working on our facilities, and was always willing to offer a helping hand. He will truly be missed by us all, Piland concluded.
Richmond Public Schools officials say a custodial manager in charge of security at William Fox Elementary School was asleep Friday night as sirens blared in the school an hour before it was engulfed in a three-alarm fire.

Further complicating the school divisions response, a supervisor the manager tasked to monitor a two-way emergency radio and phone line that night wasnt listening when the first 911 call describing an alarm at the school arrived.

The school division and city fire department on Monday released timelines related to the fire , including details about a preliminary call regarding an alarm going off at the school Friday at around 9:30 p.m.

After waiting about 20 minutes for a response from school officials, firefighters manipulated a lock to get inside the school. The firefighters found no evidence of a fire hazard after searching the building twice and left, according to the fire department. Firefighters returned at 10:35 p.m. following a call describing flames and debris coming from the roof.

Richmond officials announced Monday afternoon that authorities are still investigating the cause of the conflagration that devastated the school, which was originally built in 1911. The fire department said investigators have found no reason to suspect arson.

My hope is that through the investigation of how this fire started, we will learn why the fire was not initially detectable, Richmond Fire Chief Melvin D. Carter said Monday.

The school division said a custodial supervisor was given a two-way emergency radio to take home in case of an emergency. The radio, however, was not fully monitored during this period, nor was the emergency phone line [separate from the radio] forwarded to the Custodial Supervisors phone, according to the RPS timeline.

The custodial manager received two texts and eventually woke up and was en route to the school as flames started to rise from the roof of the school at about 10:42 p.m. The manager was unsuccessful in reaching the RPS facilities director and the RPS chief operating officer.

RPS said a recent Verizon update that requires calls to include an area code meant the call from the alarm system to the alarm company didnt work because it hadnt been updated in response to the change. In both trips to Fox on Friday, firefighters were alerted by a witness calling 911, not by the schools alarm system.

At 10:49 p.m., the RPS security director texted other top RPS administration, including Superintendent Jason Kamras; however, all recipients were asleep at the time, according to the timeline.

One firefighter involved in the fire sought treatment for a non-life-threatening injury Monday. No other injuries or fatalities have been reported.

Richmond fire officials initially reported that crews responded to reports of a fire at approximately 10:40 p.m. Friday. But emergency call logs show firefighters had responded to a call about an alarm at the school an hour earlier.

Audio broadcasts of the emergency dispatch indicate the fire department could not reach school officials about alarms going off in the building.

Asleep Friday night, the custodial manager did not see a text about the alarms sent from the Department of Emergency Communications at 9:46 p.m., according to the school districts timeline . School officials said Fox Elementary was not staffed between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. because of a vacancy in the night security team.

RPS and the city fire department sent out separate timelines detailing the events of Fridays fire. The two timelines dont entirely match.

According to the fire department, the initial attempt to reach RPS went out at 9:33 p.m. on Friday, while RPS says the first text it received was at 9:46 p.m. Its unclear whether the initial attempt to contact RPS was made over the two-way radio or a call to the phone that wasnt being monitored. The fire department told the Richmond Alarm Company at 9:39 p.m. Friday that it had not made contact with a building key holder, seven minutes before RPS claims to have received a text.

According to RPS, the custodial manager received a second text from the city at 10:42 p.m. The fire departments timeline doesnt mention the second text.

Though our communication breakdown did not impact the outcome of the fire, its clear we need to tighten our night security protocols, and have already begun to do so, Kamras said in a statement Monday. Safety remains our number one priority and we are incredibly grateful that no one was seriously injured in this fire.

In response to questions about Kamras statement, Richmond Fire Department spokesperson Amy Vu said fire safety officials remain unsure whether an earlier response could have changed the outcome of the fire, which caused the roof of the building to collapse.

With the incident still under investigation, we cant be certain of what factors did or did not impact the outcome of the fire, Vu said.

Both Kamras and Carter, the citys fire chief, heaped praise on the 75 fire department personnel involved in the emergency response, commending them for their commitment and bravery in stopping the fire from spreading to nearby homes and businesses.

We are committed to partnering with Richmond Public Schools and the community to restore normalcy and promote healing, Carter said.

Photo and video gallery: Fire at Fox Elementary School A fire at Fox Elementary School Friday night caused major damage at the school, located in Richmond's Fan District.

Later Monday evening, Gov. Glenn Youngkin met with Kamras, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and other city and school district officials outside of the school.

With Fox students slated to resume classes virtually on Wednesday, Kamras said RPS is working to get the shuttered Clark Springs Elementary School ready as a possible temporary home. He said RPS has also received offers from churches, synagogues and other organizations to use their spaces, but that the district will assess those and share more information next week at a School Board meeting.

Youngkin said he was moved by how quickly the community had come together to support the school in the aftermath of the fire. He said the state and city need to marshal all the resources to support the school, its staff and students.

This is a big challenge, so its going to require coming together with a lot of folks, Youngkin said. I know the General Assembly is going to be reviewing things.

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Crystal Vanuch, chairman of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, has joined a crowded field of Republican contenders seeking the chance to challenge Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, in a dramatically different 7th Congressional District.

Vanuch is the ninth Republican to seek the nomination  Del. John McGuire, R-Goochland, has yet to publicly decide whether to continue a bid he launched when the district included his home in Goochland County.

She is looking to turn the new districts boundaries to her advantage as an elected official in Stafford County and native of neighboring Prince William County. The two counties hold the largest number of voters in a district anchored in Northern Virginia and the Fredericksburg area, instead of the Richmond suburbs, under a redistricting map the Virginia Supreme Court approved in late December.

I was born in Prince William County and raised in Stafford County, so I know firsthand the unique challenges facing our community, said Vanuch, who was first elected to the county board in 2019 after serving four years on the planning commission.

Vanuch owns a public affairs firm, but said she has spent her career in health care, helping people with terminal or chronic illnesses find affordable treatment.

In her campaign announcement on Tuesday, she assailed Spanberger  a two-term congresswoman from western Henrico County  as an ally of President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the radical Democrats in Washington whom she said are failing Virginia families, parents, law enforcement and businesses.

Enough is enough, she said. We need new leaders who will stand up for Virginia families and deliver results that improve our community and quality of life.

Vanuch cited her support as a supervisor for raising pay for law enforcement and other emergency workers, finding money for road projects and stopping the teaching of critical race theory, a doctrine that local Virginia education officials insist has not been taught in Virginia schools.

While most politicians just talk, I get the job done, she said.

Other contenders for the Republican nomination include: Prince William supervisor Yesli Vega; state Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania; Spotsylvania County supervisor David Ross; Derrick Anderson, a combat veteran from Spotsylvania; Prince William educator Gina Ciarcia; Spotsylvania businessman Michael Monteforte; and Gary Adkins, a retired U.S. Air Force officer in Stafford.
Thirteen Democratic state senators joined Republicans on Monday to pass a GOP bill that would strip three citizen environmental boards of their power to issue or deny permits, instead granting that authority to the Department of Environmental Quality.

The citizen boards only rarely deviate from the desire of Virginias DEQ on which permits to issue. But in December one of the boards turned down a permit connected to the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline, angering business groups.

The Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board voted to deny an air quality permit for a natural gas compressor station connected to the contentious pipeline, which would carry natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia but is facing lawsuits seeking to stop it. The vote in question related to a pipeline extension to North Carolina.

The legislation would affect the State Air Pollution Control Board, the State Water Control Board and the Virginia Waste Management Board.

Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, the bills patron, said the boards would remain focused on policy and regulations and still hold full hearings and hear public comment. But the legislation allows DEQ to decide on key environmental permits, not the citizens any longer.

The Republicans cant get anything through the Senate, which Democrats control 21-19, without some Democratic support. On Stuarts bill, Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, was among the 13 Democrats in support. The bill passed the Senate 32-8. Similar bills are pending in the House of Delegates.

Sen. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, was among Democrats who backed Stuarts bill.

I think its important to note that they [citizens] will still have policy and regulatory authority, Mason said in an interview. What this does is when it comes down to issuing the actual permit, that will be done by the professionals ... by DEQ.

He referenced the air board denying the Mountain Valley Pipeline compressor station permit, but said the bill was not a reaction to anything in particular.

Mason also said he holds no position on the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation said the legislation would be a major change in how Virginia issues significant environmental permits.

The air boards vote to deny a permit for the compressor station in December was the only time in 20 years the board he gone against DEQ, said Kenny Fletcher, the foundations Virginia communications coordinator.

Citizen boards ensure that Virginians have a meaningful voice in shaping the rules that are intended to protect our air, water, lands, and communities, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Virginia Executive Director Peggy Sanner said in a statement earlier this month.

The environmental group Wild Virginia also had tried to convince the Senate the civilian oversight boards have value.

Del. Rob Bloxom, R-Accomack, is sponsoring a bill in the House.

He said at a hearing earlier this month that because the citizens on the boards are appointed by the governor, they change philosophies probably more wildly than business likes and called the boards a stumbling block to the issuing of permits.
When David Bailey and Traci Mixson bought the bait and tackle shop on the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier last year, they were counting on staying awhile.

Now, theyre not sure what the future holds.

The 72-year-old pier on 15th Street could be under new ownership soon. An unidentified party is buying the structure.

A sale is in the works, said Bobby Lachman, pier manager and a member of one of three families that own it. He said its

not a done deal yet, but declined to provide details.

There have been several inquiries from developers about the pier and its adjacent parking lot through the years, but none have come to fruition.

The 650-foot wooden structure has been an iconic landmark of Virginia Beach for decades and a top spot for ocean fishing. TV commercials, movies and reality shows have been filmed on it.

The Lachman, Bonney and Murden families own the pier.

Reached by phone Monday, Betty Lachman said the pending sale is a possibility, but for now, nothing is changing.

Bailey and Mixson renovated the tackle shop last year and are

concerned about what could happen.
The Roanoke and Roanoke County school systems are offering cash incentives to try to fill bus driver vacancies.

The transportation contractor for Roanoke City Public Schools announced a hiring bonus of $4,000 and a job fair later this month to receive applications.

Theres another $4,000 payable to new employees who stay two years, says the offer from Durham School Services. Durham also pays the Roanoke Valleys highest starting wage of $18 hourly, up from $17, the company said in a news release.

Durham School Services, which has 126 drivers and needs about 35 more, also provides paid training, guaranteed work hours, summers off and insurance.

The city school districts transportation job fair is scheduled from 9 to 5 p.m. Feb. 25 at 5401 Barns Ave., Durhams base on operations.

Roanoke County Public Schools announced Tuesday that it is looking for drivers, a day after city schools Monday release saying the same thing.

The countys schools employ 142 bus drivers and need 13 more, spokesman Chuck Lionberger said.

Newly employed Roanoke County bus drivers are eligible for a starting wage of $16.96 hourly. The county also offers bonuses, training, guaranteed hours and fringe benefits.

The county school board has approved an incentive package for up to $1,500 in bonuses for newly hired school bus drivers this school year, according to a news release. The district also is looking to hire bus aides and substitute bus drivers.

According to the county release, any new driver who is hired and holds a current commercial drivers license will receive a $1,500 bonus after driving for 90 days; new drivers who are hired and do not have a CDL will receive a $1,000 bonus after completing their CDL training and driving for 90 days; new bus aides will receive a $500 bonus.

School bus drivers are a critical part of our operation, and we are looking for some great people to join our transportation family, Ken Nicely, Roanoke Countys superintendent, said.

Applicants interested in county positions can apply through the school system website.

Schools throughout Virginia reported that critical driver shortages made transportation a struggle during the 2020-21 school year, and filling driver seats remains an issue across the state.

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Once upon a time about a week ago, I wrote about all the exciting and hyperbolic events that might happen if a nascent movement toward local militias ever takes a firm hold through our region.

The unorganized private armies could come in real handy if an asteroid ever slammed into Smith Mountain Lake and caused a tsunami, right? Armed miltiamen might also be useful if Cahas Mountains volcano ever explodes violently, threatening Boones Mill with red-hot lava.

Apparently, those ruminations prompted tremors of laughter throughout Western Virginia. I know because Im still getting emails from readers who havent stopped howling. Lets take a look.

I am raising a musket to you to toast your latest explosive article, wrote Betty Mory of Clearbrook. The column noted it would be the first Roanoke County community hit if the Franklin Militia ever attacked Roanoke County to the north.

I hope that Cahas Mountain volcano explodes BEFORE the Franklin Militia arrives and the lava chunks rain down on the Trump-besotted town of Boones Mill, saving only the distillery and the liberal inhabitants, Mory added. But she wasnt through.

I would truly enjoy the sacking of Clearbrooks Walmart or Mall-Wart, as I call it, Mory wrote. Thats because, she added, the store has enough cigarette butts and trash decorating the front walk and parking lot to give cancer to an elephant.

Great piece on militias! wrote Fred Sachs of Roanoke. Gritting my teeth midst giggles and grins!

Great writing, Dan, wrote John Givens of Salem, a character well-known for his ripostes. But I would post extra sentries on the berm tonight, Givens added.

I believe my dog thinks Ive lost it, wrote Lori Ratcliffe, also of Salem. Todays column had me actually laughing out loud multiple times. Especially Floyds lone warplane [flying] strafing runs over Shawsvilles Tomato Festival. Keep up the good work and keep the laughs coming!

Curiously, Ratcliffes email didnt touch the Salem Militia, or my prediction it would easily bulldoze Roanoke under the leadership of Carey Harveycutter. But the Salem tourism directors name totally beguiled reader Sarah Pendergraph.

As someone who knows Carey Harveycutter, I had to giggle even more, she wrote.

When we first moved [from New Jersey] to Glenvar in 2017, we attended St. Pauls Episcopal Church. There we met Carey who immediately offered us tickets to a lacrosse tournament with a participating [New Jersey] college because we mentioned we had just left there and used to live around the corner from said college,

I dont know where that man gets his energy, Pendergraph added. But the welcome by Carey and his tribe of Salem acolytes does convince me that he would definitely win any militia battle just on his organizing skills alone.

Daniel McCulloch of Vinton wrote he believes the column was the greatest one youve written.

Do you actually think Salem would beat up on Roanoke? Maybe they would, they are the Spartans, McCulloch cracked. He offered his own prediction: Franklins militia will try to lay siege to [the] Vinton McDonalds.

That would be terrible. Where then would all the people of eastern Roanoke County get their Egg McMuffins? Would they have to drive to Bonsack? Some outcomes of war are just too awful to contemplate.

Nobody put more effort into his response than Anthony Zeljeznjak of Blacksburg. He wrote that the Franklin Militia is absolutely and positively justified because of the fear engendered around Franklin County by that island of socialistic communistic hoards in the City of Roanoke.

And local militias everywhere else are necessary, Zeljeznjak added, because of the dire threat posed by the dreaded Gazpacho Police.

That reference first arose  mistakenly  in remarks last week by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia. In criticizing the Biden administration, she meant to refer to Gestapo, the secret police force created by German dictator Adolph Hitler in the early 20th century.

But apparently Greene got Nazis confused with cold vegetable soup. Oops, that happens.

Anyway, we believe that we must form these independent militias for our sake as small business owners, Zeljeznjak wrote. Many of us own and operate restaurants and other eateries and with the new revelations of a secret police force that will monitor each and every one of us for our production of soups, both hot and COLD  well, need I say that we are afraid.

Now that we are all aware of this federal overreach by creating the Gazpacho Police  we fear for our business, our livelihood and our nation. Today they check soup, tomorrow pizza  what next, our BBQ? Before long we will have jackbooted thugs, smug in their aprons demanding recipes that families hold sacred!

For this we shall organize our militias! We will arm ourselves with the finest of Ginzu knives! We will shred our tormentors as cheese!

Mike Hutkin of Roanoke County said the column ought to be a potent warning signal to every homeowners association.

Having recently moved into an area that has a homeowners association, your article points out the need for us to add an HOA militia to our other committees  landscaping and social. My outdoor motion sensors are often picking up movement that is no doubt one of the neighboring militias doing reconnaissance.

Or it could be a squirrel, Hutkin added. We best be prepared. 

Not everyone laughed at that columns wild improbabilities. Some still remember the former nation of Yugoslavia, which broke up into separate countries in the 1990s, after various regions formed militias that started fighting each other, rather than outside enemies. That often happens with militias.

One was Ernie Bentley of Pilot.

Your scenario is realistic, Bentley wrote. Sadly, many many conflicts around the world occur in geographical areas the same size that you described in your militias story. They involve local communities fighting against each other. Sarajevo, Palestine, Northern Ireland, Sudan, Tigray in northern Ethiopia, the many war zones in the Middle East are recent and current examples.

His comments were echoed by Mary McCarthy of Roanoke County.

The world is a scary place at the moment, she wrote. Its distressing and discouraging to me that humanity seems to learn very little from history.

Thank you, readers, for sharing those thoughts. Please keep those emails, phone calls, letters and comments coming!

Contact metro columnist Dan Casey at 981-3423 or dan.casey@roanoke.com . Follow him on Twitter: @dancaseysblog

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Two former Rocky Mount police officers should not be allowed to cite their law enforcement or military backgrounds as character evidence when they go on trial for besieging the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors argue.

Thomas T.J. Robertson and Jacob Fracker are charged with joining a sea of rioters in a violent uprising that breached their positions of public trust, federal prosecutors said in a motion filed Monday.

None of the charges against the two  which include obstruction, disorderly conduct, entering a restricted building and impeding Capitol police during a civil disorder  relate to their previous police or military service.

Thus, evidence of the defendants specific good acts is inadmissible, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi wrote.

Robertson and Fracker contend they committed no crimes by peacefully walking into the Capitol and leaving a short time later while off-duty from their jobs with the Rocky Mount Police Department.

Should an April 4 trial go forward as scheduled, they would be among the first of more than 725 people charged in the insurrection to face a jury.

A suspension of jury trials caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was lifted Feb. 7, according to an order from the chief judge of Washington D.C.s federal court. Currently, the first jury trial for someone charged in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, is set for Feb. 28.

In the latest pretrial motion to be filed in Robertsons and Frackers case, prosecutors asked Judge Christopher Cooper to exclude, in advance of the trial, any detailed mention of the defendants good character by virtue of their roles in law enforcement or the military.

Normally, character evidence is limited to a witness giving a general description of the accuseds reputation for abiding by the law.

Specifics  such as awards, commendations, and commitment to public service  are not allowed unless they are an essential element of a charge or defense, which prosecutors say is not the case with Robertson and Fracker.

Robertson served in the U.S. Army from 1991 to 1994 and later joined the Reserves. He was deployed to Iraq in 2008 and was later seriously wounded during combat in Afghanistan, according to court records. As a Rocky Mount police sergeant, he received numerous awards, including a medal of valor in 2017.

Fracker served in Afghanistan after enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2010, and later joined the Virginia Army National Guard. He became a Rocky Mount police officer in 2017 and later worked as a K9 unit officer.

Both men, who were fired from their police jobs shortly after being charged, have maintained on social media and in court documents that they did nothing wrong when they entered the Capitol while it was being stormed by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

They described being waved inside by police officers who even gave them bottled water.

Once in the buildings vaulted Crypt, they posed for a selfie photograph that proved to be their undoing. The image, later posted to Facebook, shows Fracker and Robertson standing in front of a statue of John Stark, a Revolutionary War hero from New Hampshire.

While Fracker makes an obscene gesture, Robertson points to his friend while holding what appears to be a wooden object. Last month, prosecutors alleged in an updated indictment that Robertson was armed with a deadly weapon, that is, a large wooden stick.

The two mens protestations of innocence are challenged by the government.

In the motion filed Monday, prosecutors wrote that both Fracker and Robertson were wearing gas masks when they entered the Capitol. At one point, Robertson used his stick to block a line of Metropolitan Police Department officers who were attempting to defend the buildings lower west terrace from the advancing mob, the motion states.

Fracker also bragged on Facebook about urinating in Nancy Ps toilet, an apparent reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, prosecutors say.

Both Robertson and Fracker have asked that a felony charge brought against them last year be dismissed. Their attorneys argue that the charge is unconstitutionally vague as applied to them, and that prosecutors have improperly relied on comments the duo made on social media, both before and after the insurrection, in bringing charges.

Fracker is charged with obstruction of an official proceeding  a felony  and three misdemeanors: entering a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in such a place, and disorderly conduct in the Capitol.

Robertson had initially faced the same charges. Two of the misdemeanors were elevated to felonies, and a new felony charge of participating in a civil disorder was added last month along with the allegation that he was armed at the time.

More than 725 people  including three others from Western Virginia  have been charged with taking part in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

About 165 defendants had pleaded guilty through the end of last year, 20 of them to felonies, according to a summary posted on the U.S. Attorneys web page.

Of the 70-some people sentenced so far, 31 have received periods of incarceration, 18 got home detention and the rest were placed on probation, according to the summary.

The riots happened shortly after Trump urged a large crowd to fight like hell against an election he claims was stolen from him. Courts have found no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud.

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UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths speaks at a Security Council meeting on Yemen at the UN Headquarters in New York on Feb. 15, 2022. Martin Griffiths said Tuesday that the depletion of funds for humanitarian operations in Yemen will be a death sentence for those who rely on assistance for survival. (Loey Felipe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said Tuesday that the depletion of funds for humanitarian operations in Yemen will be a death sentence for those who rely on assistance for survival.

Apart from access and security impediments, the biggest challenge, by far, for aid agencies in Yemen is funding. The humanitarian operation, a lifeline for millions of people across Yemen and for these many years, is about to start doing a lot less, he told the Security Council in a briefing.

Aid agencies are quickly running out of money, forcing them to slash life-saving programs. By the end of January, nearly two-thirds of major UN aid programs had already scaled back or closed altogether. In December, the World Food Programme reduced food rations for 8 million people. Starting next month, those 8 million people may get no food at all, or just a reduced ration, said Griffiths.

In March, the United Nations may also have to cancel most humanitarian flights in Yemen due to a lack of funds. Such a move would cause enormous problems for the aid operation, and for the movement of UN staff, he warned.

Looming disruptions to water and sanitation services -- again for want of funds -- could soon deprive 3.6 million people of safe drinking water, putting them -- and especially children under 5 -- at greater risk of deadly diseases. Programs to combat gender-based violence and promote reproductive health are also on the chopping block, as are a range of critical activities in the health, shelter and other sectors, he said.

"This council has heard aid agencies warn about funding shortages in the past. I have listened to my predecessor in this council along these lines. But the scale of the current gaps is unprecedented in Yemen. We have never before contemplated giving millions of hungry people no food at all, or to suspend the flights that we need to get aid workers and supplies into, around and out of the country," said Griffiths.

"If these gaps aren't addressed, it will simply be a death sentence for people whose coping mechanisms in some cases are completely exhausted and who rely on assistance for their survival," he warned.

Griffiths said the governments of Sweden and Switzerland will co-host with the United Nations a high-level pledging event for Yemen on March 16. He implored all donors to use that opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to the people of Yemen.

People's survival cannot rely only on the ebbs and flows of humanitarian funding cycles. A more sustainable approach is both necessary and achievable. The international community must come together to address the underlying drivers of need in Yemen, especially the collapsing economy, he said.

The UN economic framework for Yemen offers a path forward on this. It brings together initiatives that could make an immediate difference in boosting incomes, reducing prices and enhancing macro-economic stability, he said.

This includes foreign-exchange injections, which the government of Yemen is working hard with its partners to secure, as well as policy changes, like resuming civilian flights through Sanaa airport, lifting restrictions on commercial imports and using import revenues to pay public sector salaries.

"It pains me to refer again to these measures, which we have been wanting for so long, and for which we still wait. Paying those salaries will also help preserve basic services. Finding your way out of a crisis is nearly impossible if you're too sick, too hungry or undereducated to make your way in the world. Like economic support, preserving basic services is key to reducing humanitarian needs," he said.

Griffiths stressed that the best thing anyone could do for the people of Yemen would be to find a just, lasting end to the war.

More than 650 civilian casualties were reported in January. That means, on average, 21 civilians killed or injured every day by airstrikes, shelling, small-arms fire and other violence. It is, by far, the highest toll in at least three years, he said.

The recent escalation is the latest turn in a conflict that has now dragged on for seven years. Yemen has become a protracted crisis. A generation of children is growing up with no thought of other than war, he said. 
RICHMOND  Midway through their first session in the Virginia House of Delegates, freshman Republican legislators from the New River and Roanoke valleys said they are acclimating to the pace and complexity of state politics.

Lawmaking in Richmond is a far cry from the typically rural, mountainous surroundings of first-year House members Del. Marie March, R-Floyd, Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick, and Del. Jason Ballard, R-Giles, they each said during interviews late last week.

Coming from the country, its overwhelming, March said. You come into a big city, theres skyscrapers, theres lots of money, and then you start thinking of all the needs in your district, and why that money kind of stops here, and doesnt trickle on down.

March said she has been unhappy watching studies approved for needs of the state bureaucracy, then turning around to see a panel of lawmakers kill a bill that would have allowed volunteer firefighters access to special lifetime hunting and fishing licenses, intended to incentivize declining volunteerism.

That was my first kind of big disappointment, March said, of fellow lawmakers turning down her House Bill 114. How do we get them to understand and care about what weve got going on in our district?

The answer to that question, she said, is to educate others  lobbyists, interest groups and fellow lawmakers  and to get them joined in on whatever cause a bill takes up. She hopes to try again next year on using hunting licenses to encourage volunteer firefighters.

Theres a learning curve for sure, March said. Youre kind of running around as a freshman delegate.

House delegates alone filed more than 1,300 bills during this 2022 session. March, who is a small business owner, said she takes the job of legislating one bill, one meeting and one day at a time, catching cups of coffee and perhaps a meal as time allows.

I will say, I have to give politicians some credit, March said. They work very hard. I never realized how many hours a day they put in.

Hours spent working at the Virginia Capitol are indeed prolonged, said Williams. Joining the General Assembly has been a bit like merging onto a busy highway where traffic is moving at 90 mph, he said.

Every day feels like a full week, Williams said. The system is set up so that we can be as efficient as possible, but it requires a lot of homework for the delegates and the elected members.

For a lawyer and a self-described policy nerd, Williams said the Virginia General Assembly is a spectacle. He recalled some extended debate that emerged among House members over one particular word in a bill about car part theft.

The car part theft discussion, according to Williams, dealt with wording about catalytic converter larceny: Final language specified about stealing a catalytic converter and any parts thereof, whereas the original wording was catalytic converter and the parts thereof.

So that discussion of the difference in meaning between any and the was cause for deliberation, Williams said.

These are real bills, these will have real impact, Williams said. Its just a really interesting process ... I think its a very good process for our legislation, because these bills are heavily vetted  the policies behind them and the wording.

Ballard, who is also a lawyer, agreed that he was not expecting the schedule required of lawmakers.

The one thing that surprised me, quite honestly, is the amount of hours involved. I dont think I appreciated just how hard our legislators work, Ballard said, describing days lasting from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. When most people think about the government, they think about this slow, huge bureaucracy, but actually during session when were discussing all these bills, it is a really fast-paced environment.

He said one positive takeaway from his experience thus far is seeing how many bills pass through the House of Delegates with broad bipartisan support. During its session on Tuesday, the House unanimously approved 104 bills for the Senate to consider.

I am very pleased to see that we agree on a lot of issues that affect Virginians, Ballard said, adding that its some of the hot-button issues that result in healthy debate. You have a lot of different viewpoints, and you have a lot of smart people in the room.

Ballard said he hopes to hear from more of his constituents. To find contact information for any lawmaker in the Virginia House of Delegates, go online to virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/members/members.php.

My only goal here is to represent the interest of people back home. Thats it. I have no other agenda, Ballard said. Its much easier for me to do that if I get the feedback from constituents and stakeholders.

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RICHMOND  Like the crumbling school buildings they occupy, Virginias students, teachers and staff also require increased support to meet modern learning needs, as state funding for public schools remains mired in outdated policy, according to a group of education advocates.

A coalition of education groups named Fund Our Schools is asking state lawmakers to approve budget measures that address student mental health challenges, retool spending standards, revisit staffing limits and boost inadequate pay, in addition to requesting help with billions worth of overdue school building modernization.

Taikein Cooper is executive director of Virginia Excels, and spoke on behalf of Fund Our Schools during a press conference at the Virginia Capitol on Monday.

We know too well the challenges that our schools have faced for far too long, Cooper said. We stand unified in our call to lawmakers to fund these investments.

Student mental health needs were increasing even before the time of the coronavirus, said Emily Griffey, chief policy officer of Voices for Virginias Children.

When we speak to students and parents right now, it is mental health that is often at the top of their mind when it comes not only to their education, but to their well-being, Griffey said. We have to meet this moment and invest in student mental health resources.

She said Fund Our Schools is supportive of lawmakers proposals to enact a process for student mental health screenings, and to create a $10 million fund for integrating mental health care contractors into schools.

A January survey of Virginia educators found that 90% of respondents reported symptoms of professional burnout, said Virginia Education Association Government Relations Director Shane Riddle.

Low pay in Virginia is contributing to teacher and other staff shortages, Riddle said. The staffing shortage is getting worse.

In the short term for Virginia, $51 million of federal funding is available to attract and retain key school positions including bus drivers and food service workers, he said. In the midterm, staffing shortages are unlikely to improve until significant pay raises are funded by the state.

"When compared to other professionals of similar education experience, Virginia's teachers are paid less than teachers in any state in the country. This is inexcusable, Riddle said. We support the 10% pay increase for educators and school staff in the proposed budget, and view this as the minimum needed to get us within sight of the national averages for teacher salaries.

Funding formulated during the Great Recession in 2009 and unchanged today sets an arbitrary cap on state aid for school support staff like guidance counselors, nurses and special education aides, said Jenna Alexander, president-elect of the Virginia Parent Teacher Association.

We know that building quality impacts student success. We know that a high-quality, respected workforce impacts student success. We know that differentiated instruction and low class sizes impact student success, Alexander said. Yet for the better part of the decade, there has been little to no investment in these basics that impact every school community across Virginia.

Between 2009 and 2020, support staffing in Virginia schools declined by 1,700 positions while enrollment increased by 63,000 students, said Ashley Kenneth, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Institute.

If were doing an honest accounting, so much of what ails us now traces back to decisions that were made more than a decade ago during the Great Recession, Kenneth said. Each year that we wait to fully fund our schools, the task becomes more difficult.

All of this comes on top of a $25 billion need for school building improvements in a state where more than half of all learning facilities have been in use for more than 50 years, said Peter Gretz, vice president for the Virginia Coalition of Small and Rural Schools.

Too many schools are in desperate need of attention: infrastructure upgrades, renovations, new construction, Gretz said. Theres been a tremendous amount of progress in that regard. Specifically, were so grateful for the work to establish $500 million in state support for school construction that is currently in the state budget.

That $500 million would represent the first investment the state has made to address school facilities since 2009, he said. It would be a small dent in the prevailing need, but a powerful first step for schools, he said.

The need for new school facilities is especially notable in places with smaller tax bases, as is the case for Brunswick County Schools Superintendent Kristy Somerville-Midgette, who said new school construction in her division is a major burden on local taxpayers.

We really need a greater level of state aid to fund construction and renovation costs, particularly in communities like ours, Somerville-Midgette said. We deserve that funding to make sure theres an ongoing commitment to providing better facilities for the children to come.

With an unprecedented state budget surplus this year, Virginia possesses resources to make these school investments, said The Commonwealth Institutes Kenneth. Lawmakers should be skeptical of tax proposals that would cut state resources, she said.

One basic idea unites all of the diverse organizations here today, she said. Its a conviction that if ever there was a time to redouble our commitment to public education, that time is now.

Cooper, with Virginia Excels, said he understands the need to be responsive to families growing financial needs, but schools need more than a bandage to fix their long-term challenges.

It really boils down to politics, Cooper said. We all wish that we could lower taxes, but what Ive seen  people are willing to pay more in taxes, despite a pandemic, to improve schools.

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A man who bit off part of his former girlfriends lip during an argument in late 2020 has been ordered to serve nearly 20 years in prison.

Lorenzo Dante Reynolds, 36, of Newport News, was sentenced Friday in Spotsylvania County Circuit Court to a total of 26 years, with six years and two months suspended. Judge William Glovers sentence was within the recommended state sentencing guidelines, which called for a sentence ranging from 10 years and eight months to just under 24 years.

Reynolds was convicted in December of aggravated malicious wounding, strangulation and assault and battery. He was acquitted of a breaking and entering charge.

According to court records, Reynolds was arrested as the result of a Dec. 10, 2020, altercation at the home of a Spotsylvania woman. Reynolds showed up at the womans home uninvited after she repeatedly ignored his attempts to reach her.

During the face-to-face argument, Reynolds bit off a chunk of the womans lip. The severed piece was retrieved from the floor and later sewn back on at a hospital.

Reynolds testified that he didnt have any malicious intent and that the incident just kind of happened.

While reporting that incident, the woman told police about an Oct. 28, 2019, incident in which she was strangled during another altercation with Reynolds.

Defense attorney John Mayoras said Reynolds, whose criminal record includes multiple theft-related convictions, plans to appeal his latest convictions. Reynolds has already been in custody for about a year.
MADISON  Voters will continue to cast their ballots at one of Virginias smaller voting precincts after a recent proposal to consolidate voting distincts in rural Madison County failed to garner support.

Citing less than 100 Graves Mill registered voters and potential cost savings, Madison County Registrar Lauren Eanes suggested consolidating the Graves Mill precinct with the Wolftown precinct.

Voters in W0lftown  located off U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville  cast their ballots at Rapidan Baptist Church, about six miles from Graves Chapel.

Eanes said consolidating the two precincts would save approximately $540 per election in officer fees and approximately $150 per election in facility rental fees. She also said the consolidation would allow the Graves Mill voting machine to be relocated to the registrars office, eliminating the need to purchase a new machine at a cost of approximately $10,000.

Currently, the office has one machine, but a second one is needed to allow for mandatory pre-processing of early voting results, which have to be reported separately. Eanes said she can use one of the countys two spares, but that would leave only one spare available if any of the precinct machines failed.

Eanes said the Graves Mill precinct has high voter turnout among its 88 registered voters and acknowledged that its a beautiful precinct, but said resources could be better used elsewhere.

She said the next largest precinct has more than 500 voters and at least 100 voters are required to create a precinct. She said the electoral board has spent lots of time discussing the consolidation proposal and two of the three members voted for it. New board member Dr. Leri Thomas did not vote.

At the recent Madison BOS meeting, Thomas said she disagreed with the proposal. She said she was appointed to the board only days before the vote was taken on the proposal and felt it was rushed.

She voiced her support for keeping the Graves Mill precinct, calling it a precious remnant of what it means to be American.

Madison County Republican Committee Chair Jim Smith also spoke in favor of keeping the precinct. He said some of the votes electing James Madison in 1789 were likely cast in the precinct. He also questioned the need for an additional voting machine, but said if necessary both of the Graves Mill machines can be relocated to the registrar and voters at Graves Chapel can use paper ballots.

We dont need another voting machine and we dont need to close Graves Mill, he said.

Graves Mill resident David Lewis said he would hate to see the precinct go and neighbor Doug Graves agreed, pointing to the historical significance of the polling location.

Pete Elliott, who owns property in the area, said getting rid of the precinct would be unethical because of its history. Resident Mitch Bernstein agreed.

Doing away with [the precinct] will be a strike to the heart of our community, he said.

Supervisors agreed. Charlotte Hoffman said she had talked to many residents of Graves Mill and while the precinct doesnt have huge numbers of registered voters, it does have a high voter turnout. She said the cost savings associated with the facility rental fees and election officers werent enough of a reason to consolidate the precinct, but acknowledged the purchase of a new voting machine could be different. She also questioned the perception of consolidating a precinct.

Republicans are always accused of making it hard to vote, she said. I dont care if youre Republican or Democrat; I dont want to make it hard to vote.

Supervisor Dustin Dawson said hed also heard from Graves Mill residents and was in favor of preserving the precincts history.

Supervisor Carty Yowell said he favored keeping the precinct, but wanted residents to realize the cause when the voting machine is added to the budget. Supervisor James Jewett said if election integrity was the worry, keep the precinct and purchase the machine.

The proposal to close the Graves Chapel site was rejected. No formal vote was taken.
WYTHEVILLE  Three people who died Friday when their van collided with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 81 and overturned were members of the same family, Virginia State Police said.

The crash, which occurred Friday afternoon, injured seven occupants of the 2017 Ford Transit E-350 van, all of whom were related.

State police said Monday that Christina E. Williams, 31, of Tunnel Hill, Ga., the vans driver, was hospitalized for serious injuries. Passengers Mark E. Williams, 52, and Brittany R. Puckett, 25, both of Tunnel Hill, Ga., died at the scene.

Additionally, another passenger, a 2-year-old boy, died at the scene. Three other van occupants, an 18-year-old woman, and two girls, ages 7 and 5, were hospitalized with injuries state police described as ranging from minor to serious to life-threatening.

According to police, traffic in the southbound I-81 lanes near Wytheville had slowed down when the passenger van collided with the tractor-trailer in the left lane. The van overturned and came to rest in the median.

The driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured.

State police said that the two adults who died in the wreck were not wearing seatbelts. The toddler who died and other occupants of the car who survived were wearing proper seat restraints.

The crash remains under investigation by Virginia State Police.
The Catholic Churchs sex-abuse scandals are back in the news again.

Back when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, retired Pope Benedict XVI allegedly discounted allegations of sexual abuse by four priests and shuffled them from parish to parish.

This is just the latest in a series of scandals that have cost the church millions of dollars in legal settlements and have highlighted a pervasive problem the church has finally had to acknowledge.

It is important to note, however, that most of the reported abuses have involved older priests, many of whom have since died. As a Catholic apostate of a certain age, I think I know why this is so.

Back at the Catholic grade school I attended  Holy Spirit School in New Castle, Delaware  our eighth-grade nun, Sister Mary Norberta, had us engage in a kind of meditation widely practiced by Catholic grade schoolers in those days.

We were told to put our heads down on our desks and to ask ourselves, Do I have a vocation? In other words, a calling for the priesthood or the convent. You will never be happy, Sister warned, if you have a vocation and are ignoring the call.

Sister was putting on the full-court press because, in those days, some of the major religious orders and the larger dioceses ran residential seminary and convent highs schools for kids who thought they had vocations.

The church wanted to put kids on track to the religious life after the eighth grade  when they were still young and impressionable and could be somewhat sheltered from the distractions and temptations of secular life.

Aside from pressuring kids to make a major life decision at too early an age, this system has always impressed me as the perfect plan for creating schools for scandal, especially for the boys.

The average eighth-grade boy is 13, the age at which most boys begin feeling the first full-flush and embarrassing stirrings of puberty. Its also the age at which most boys start having what the good sister used to call impure thoughts about girls.

Think about how easy it was for a boy who wasnt having those same thoughts to take that as a sign of special election  as proof that he was being called to the celibate life of the priesthood.

And then think about how many of these boys in later life, after being ordained, may have had to admit to themselves the reason they werent attracted to girls is because they were attracted to men or even to children.

The counter-argument, of course, is, wouldnt that sort of attraction be felt during puberty? Perhaps, but the church I grew up in seemed to hold the sort of pre-adolescent sexual experimentation often engaged in by boys to be not nearly as serious as the things bad girls tempt boys to do.

To its credit, the church no longer aggressively recruits seminarians and novices out of the eighth grade. Id like to think church officials finally realized how wrong this age-old system was. As Robert Brownings errant priest Fra Lippo Lippi complains, you should not take a young boy and make him swear to never kiss the girls.

There are only a few high-school level seminaries left in the United States. According to the Catholic Answers website, pragmatic concerns have forced most to close.

By the 1960s, the dropout rate was making these schools very expensive to maintain, and of the graduates who went on to be ordained, many left the priesthood to get married.

Also, the church found that isolation from normal high school was not conducive to forming mature pastoral relationships with women. I can understand that.

As for my eighth-grade class, no boys heard the call. Two girls did, but one left the convent short of taking her vows, and the other left in later life.

Sister Norberta tried, but it was 1961, and in the words of the bard of my generation, The times, they [were] a-changin.

A former enlisted Marine and a Vietnam veteran, Palm retired from the Marine Corps as a major and went on to an academic career. He lives in Forest and can be contacted at majorpalm@gmail.com.
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" " Thanks to COVID-19 social distancing signs, you may know that 2 meters is roughly the same as 6 feet. But what's the exact conversion? mixetto/Getty Images

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, people apparently used the metric system.

The climax of the original "Star Wars" movie hinges on a weak point in the evil Empire's greatest battle station: The Death Star. According to General Jan Dodonna of the Rebellion, all that's required to blow the whole thing up is a proton torpedo fired directly into "a small thermal exhaust port."

How small are we talking? "The target area," says Dodonna, "is only 2 meters wide."

That might be a little hard to visualize if you grew up measuring things in feet rather than meters.

As most of us know, the meter is a unit of length. Like the kilogram, it's part of the International System of Units (abbreviated as the "SI"). The metric system is another name that this goes by.

The foot is an alternative length unit. Used in the United States Customary system of measurement, it's decidedly less popular at the global level. But considering Uncle Sam's fondness for the foot, being able to convert feet into meters  and do the reverse  is an important skill.

Let's go off-world and return to the Death Star. If the previously mentioned exhaust port is "2 meters wide," how many feet is that?

There are two different ways to figure this out. The first one's a little bit easier, but it comes with an asterisk.

Here's a piece of information that's critical: 1 meter is equal to 3.28084 feet (for simplicity, we'll call it 3.28 feet).

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Converting Meters to Feet (Quick and Dirty)

Remember, the Death Star's exhaust port was 2 meters wide. To figure out what that means in terms of footage, we're going to multiply 3.28 by 2. Here's the calculation:

2 x 3.28 = 6.56

Boy, that's  not a lot. Evidently, the target General Dodonna wanted someone to hit was only 6.56 feet wide. Good thing Luke Skywalker had the force on his side.

If you're out in the real world and need to do a quick conversion, then multiplying the number of meters by 3.28 will give you the answer you're looking for.

You could make this process even easier by rounding 3.28084 up to 3.3.

So, in a pinch, all you'd need to remember is:

1 meter is about 3.3 feet.

Multiply the number of meters by 3.3 to get an approximate answer.

Therefore: 2 meters x 3.3 = 6.6 feet.

If you're trying to do this in your head, use a conversion of 3 and add 10 percent.

2 x 3 = 6

Add: 0.6 (10 percent of 6)

6 + 0.6 = 6.6

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Converting Meters to Feet (the Textbook Way)

Before we proceed any further, it's time to finally acknowledge the asterisk. If you're taking a math class and the teacher expects you to show your work, then the technique we outline above is a no-go.

Know why? Because strictly speaking, it doesn't change the units.

Remember, we started out with 2 meters. And multiplying 2 meters by the number 3.28 technically gives you 6.56 meters  and not 6.56 feet.

Here's the teacher-approved strategy for converting meters into feet.

Take the number of meters you wish to convert. Multiply that number by the following fraction (which you'll put in parentheses): 3.28 feet divided by 1 meter. Abbreviate the word "meter" as "m" and the word "feet" as "ft"

Time to write out the actual equation (for simplicity's sake, let's reuse the same "Death Star" example). Here she is:

2 m/1 x (3.28 ft/1 m) = 6.56 ft

The division by 1 might seem pointless. But we need it to do our conversion. Because of their placement within this equation, the two m's will cancel each other out. That leaves us with only one unit notation in the entire math problem: "ft" (i.e., "feet"). Therefore, our final answer will have to be written in feet, rather than meters. Which is exactly what we wanted.

Here is a converter to help you if you're in a hurry:

All right, now that we've figured out how to exchange meters for feet, let's do the exact opposite. Who's up for another pop culture memory jog?

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Converting Feet to Meters (Quickly)

The 2005 "King Kong" remake finds the giant ape on his native Skull Island, where he lives out his days behind an enormous wall. Lumpy (a ship's cook played by Andy Serkis) claims this structure is 100 feet high.

Tell us: What's the wall's height in meters? We've got to find out what poor Kong's up against here.

As you know by now, there are 3.28 feet in 1 meter.

Outside the classroom, the quick and painless method for converting meters into feet is as follows: Divide the relevant number of feet by 3.28. Or, if you're cool with rounding, divide it by 3.3.

Here's that formula:

(Number of Feet)  3.3 = (Number of Meters)

100  3.3 = 30.3

So, the hairy monster is confined by a 30.3-meter wall. That'd be a much bigger target for our buddy Luke Skywalker, but we digress.

Note: Once again, we've gotten the answer we sought  but neglected to change the units. So, now we're going to do it the way your math teacher would love.

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Converting Feet to Meters (the Textbook Way)

To cover your bases on a final exam and make your math professors happy, you'd have to execute something similar to the three-step process we outlined before. This time, your equation would look like so:

100 ft/1 x (1 m/3.28 ft) = 30.48 meters

In an inversion of what we saw last time, the "ft" unit appears twice, while the "m" shows up only once. Therefore, it's the ft's that will be canceled out.

Now That's Interesting Few units of measurement are as grisly as the micromort. This represents the odds of a person dying in a given situation. If the chances that you'll keel over while doing something are literally one in a million, that's the equivalent of one micromort.
Emmanuel Masaba fetches water from a new water well donated by the Overseas China Uganda Charity Foundation in Bukasa village, Wakiso district, central Uganda, Feb. 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

WAKISO, Uganda, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- For Betty Kyabajje, 28 years old, fetching water is an everyday struggle. Like in many African families, women are in charge of finding water, a resource their families need to survive -- for drinking, cooking, sanitation, and hygiene.

Kyabajje, who lives in Bukasa, a slum area neighboring the Ugandan capital Kampala, used to spend hours queuing for water at a hand dug well in her neighborhood.

She told Xinhua in a recent interview that the waiting was a burden as she had other house chores like washing clothes and preparing meals for her family of five.

The well, which is sometimes flooded with runoff rainwater, is a "death trap" as the water is contaminated that might transmit water-borne diseases, according Kyabajje.

"The water situation was bad, very bad. You walk a long distance to get water, sometimes as women we are carrying a child on the back. Then you also find a long queue at the well," said Kyabajje.

Bukasa slum, according to local leaders, has over 60,000 residents who all depend on such shallow wells, most of whom neighboring a swamp on the shores of Lake Victoria.

The Ugandan Ministry of Health figures show that the country loses 400 people daily from water-borne infections like diarrhea, dysentery, cholera and typhoid.

Kyabajje and her village mates are now better off because a new protected spring well has been constructed in their neighborhood.

Chinese families, who experienced such struggles when China faced extreme poverty, constructed the well, an addition to the over 20 others constructed elsewhere in Uganda.

"We are lucky because of our good government in China ... I think it is good that our Chinese families especially (those) living in Uganda will also give a hand to our Ugandan friends," said Zhong Shuangquan, a Chinese national who has been living in Uganda for over 23 years.

Zhong, who had come along with his family at the handover of the well to the community, invited other Chinese to join him in doing more things for the Ugandan families.

"Clean water is something that should be a fundamental basic of everyone's life, so I think by giving them a well, it should help everyone here to be able to drink clean water," said Zhong Manke, a Chinese student who studies in Uganda.

"You can make a difference in the world, you don't have to make something huge, but a small step, like coming here with my parents can also make a huge difference in the world," she added.

The Overseas China Uganda Charity Foundation, a Chinese charity, raised donations from Chinese families has constructed 25 such wells in rural Uganda and hopes to build up to 50 protected spring wells a year.

Emmanuel Masaba, a resident of Bukasa, said he will not suffer from waterborne diseases that have been eating up a chunk of his income now that he has access to clean water.

"Very many people have been going through the same situation like me. So I know we are not going to waste our money on buying medicine, instead we are going to educate our children," Masaba said.

"I want to thank the people who built the well," said Kyabajje, who was all smiles as she now has more time to do other things.

According to the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment, about 30 percent of the country's population does not have access to clean water. They get water from shallow wells, swamps, rivers and lakes. 

A woman carrying a baby fetches water from a new water well donated by the Overseas China Uganda Charity Foundation in Bukasa village, Wakiso district, central Uganda, Feb. 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

Betty Kyabajje carries water from a new water well donated by the Overseas China Uganda Charity Foundation in Bukasa village, Wakiso district, central Uganda, Feb. 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

The sponsor representative and initiator of Water Well Project Zhong Shuangquan (2nd R) attends the handover ceremony of the water well in Bukasa village, Wakiso district, central Uganda, Feb. 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

Villagers fetch water from a new water well donated by the Overseas China Uganda Charity Foundation in Bukasa village, Wakiso district, central Uganda, Feb. 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)
Gov. Pete Ricketts and a number of business spokesmen said Monday that pending legislation to reduce Nebraska's individual income tax rate is key to attracting and retaining workers, families and businesses in the state.

"We need to be competitive," Ricketts said during a news conference with Bryan Slone, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and representatives from one small and one large Lincoln business.

Nebraska's comparatively high state income tax rate currently is an incentive for families to leave the state, the governor said.

An income tax reduction bill (LB939), introduced by Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, is awaiting first-stage floor consideration in the Legislature, with a number of proposed amendments pending.

The proposal would incrementally reduce the top income tax rate for individuals from 6.84% to 5.84%, providing parity with the top corporate income tax rate.

The impact on state government revenue would rise incrementally from an initial reduction of $62 million in fiscal 2022-23 to $363 million in fiscal 2026-27, according to estimates.

"If we continue to control (state government) spending," Ricketts said, the state can continue to deliver tax relief.

Some $548 million in additional property tax relief is being provided now through a refundable income tax credit on property taxes paid to support public schools, the governor said.

And the Legislature, with his support, is now accelerating elimination of state income taxes applied to Social Security benefits, moving the timetable up from 10 years to five years, he noted.

Slone stressed that the proposed income tax reduction will affect teachers, farmers and young people.

"It's not just a tax break for the rich," he said.

Scott Gubbels, executive director of tax and renewable energy services for Nelnet, said the income tax reduction could be "a game-changing move" that would incentivize growth, investment and residency in Nebraska.

And that in turn, he said, would expand the tax base.

Adam Kavan, owner of Kavan Custom Construction, said the proposal represents "a big step in the right direction" in terms of incentivizing people to want to live in Nebraska and, in terms of his small business, "allowing us to make strategic investments."

The proposed tax reduction would assist more than 60% of Nebraska families, Ricketts said.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man has pleaded guilty of selling methamphetamine out of a Morningside restaurant.

William Thompson, 62, entered his plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. A sentencing date has yet to be set.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Thompson and others who worked at the Madonna Rose Cafe sold approximately 10 pounds of meth from 2019 through June 8. On four occasions in April and May, Thompson, the cafe's co-owner, sold meth out of the cafe to people who were cooperating with law enforcement. In June, authorities executed a search warrant at the cafe building at 4006 Morningside Ave. and seized approximately 1 pound of meth from Thompson.

According to a post on the cafe's Facebook page, Thompson has not been affiliated with the restaurant for some time, and the cafe is under new management and has new partners and staff.
SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa -- A Minnesota man accused of shooting the mother of his two children outside her workplace has been formally charged with murder.

Dickinson County Attorney Amy Zenor and Assistant Iowa Attorney General Susan Krisko on Monday filed a trial information charging Christian Goyne-Yarns with first-degree murder. His arraignment was scheduled for March 7 in Dickinson County District Court.

The charging document gave no details of the case, instead quoting Iowa code saying that Goyne-Yarns "... did having malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately and with premeditation kill Shelby Woizeschke ..."

If found guilty, Goyne-Yarns would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

According to police and court documents, Woizeschke, was shot at least twice in the parking lot at GrapeTree Medical Staffing in Milford shortly after 8 a.m. Feb. 3. She was flown to Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, where she died on Feb. 6.

Woizeschke called 911 after being shot and identified Goyne-Yarns as the person who shot her. He was arrested about an hour and a half after the shooting, court documents said.

Goyne-Yarns, 25, of Jackson, Minnesota, remains in the Dickinson County Jail on a $1 million bond.

Woizeschke, 24, of Spencer, Iowa, had two sons, ages 5 and 3, from a previous relationship with Goyne-Yarns.

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man is in custody on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman while threatening her with a gun.

Chandler Archer, 22, was arrested Sunday on charges of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. He is being held in the Woodbury County Jail on a $50,000 bond.

According to court documents, the alleged victim met Archer at his home between 6:37 p.m. and 7:55 p.m. Sunday. Shortly after she arrived, Archer began waving a pink handgun, putting it to his head and pulling the trigger, then putting it to the victim's head and throat and pulling the trigger numerous times.

Archer told the woman to perform a sex act with him or he would shoot her, and threatened to shoot her in the back if she left. When the victim exited the apartment, Archer pulled her by the hair, placed the gun against her throat, grabbed her by the chest and forcefully kissed her, court documents said.

The victim was able to escape and called police.

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LAGOS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Five kidnapped victims have been rescued in the northwestern state of Zamfara, Nigerian police said Monday.

Muhammad Shehu, a police spokesperson in Zamfara, said in a statement that all the victims were rescued on Sunday "by the police tactical operatives during an extensive search and rescue operation in a forest."

The joint police and state government medical teams are working in synergy to ensure that the rescued victims receive appropriate medical treatment, he added.

The northern part of Nigeria has witnessed a series of attacks by armed groups in recent months, with recurring incidents of livestock rustling and armed banditry. 
SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Police Department is investigating a report of shots being fired in Riverside on Monday afternoon.

Community Policing Sgt. Jeremy McClure said in an email that a call came in at 12:54 p.m. concerning shots being fired at West 19th Street and Riverside Boulevard. Responding officers did not locate any victims of a shooting when they arrived in the area, according to McClure.

Officers canvassed the area and were able to locate shell casings and security camera footage of the vehicles involved, McClure wrote in a subsequent press release.

According to the press release, the incident began in a parking lot in the 100 block of Riverside Boulevard when an unidentified subject possibly in a late-2000s Nissan Versa fired several shots at another unknown subject in a newer dark gray Ford Escape.

Both cars left that location and traveled south on Riverside when the Ford Escape stopped at the intersection with West 19th, exited his vehicle and fired shots at the Nissan. Both cars fled eastbound on West 19th before officers arrived.

No one has come forward as a victim of the shooting and officers were unable to locate any property that was struck by bullets.

Police are looking for a newer dark gray Ford Escape, driven by a white male who may have a beard, and a light gray or white 2000s Nissan Versa hatchback that is missing hubcaps on the passenger side.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the department at 712-279-6960.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story, based on a press release from the police department, named the business with the parking lot where the shots were fired. In an updated release, police changed the location where the incident began to a more generic address.

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Dolly Butz City Government & Features Reporter Butz, a Drake University graduate, has been at the Journal since 2005, covering a variety of beats, including public safety, health care and city government. She has won state and national awards, primarily for coverage of addiction and mental health. Follow Dolly Butz 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
PONCA, Neb. -- A man accused of sucking on the toes of several children and rubbing his penis on another child's feet has pleaded no contest to child pornography and six other charges.

Jose Fregoso, 27, of Wakefield, Nebraska, entered his plea Monday in Dixon County District Court to three counts of possession of a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct, five counts of felony child abuse and one count of sexual assault of a child. Sentencing was scheduled for May 9.

Fregoso was arrested July 29 after a Nebraska State Patrol investigator observed three photos of naked children on Fregoso's phone during a child welfare visit at his home.

According to court documents, Fregoso told investigators he has a foot fetish and had sucked on the feet of one child who is under age 12 almost every week for about four years and that he had touched his penis to the child's feet approximately once a month for the past two years.

Investigators found videos on his phone of an adult male rubbing his penis on a child's feet.

Fregoso told authorities he sucked on the toes of other children while they were sleeping during sleepovers at his house and that he took video of some of the encounters, court documents said.

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City woman pleaded guilty Monday to driving three gunmen to and from a Morningside home, where they fired numerous shots into the house, killing an 18-year-old girl.

According to terms of a plea agreement, she'll receive a seven-year prison term.

Liliana Gutierrez, 21, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of accessory after the fact, an aggravated misdemeanor reduced from an initial felony charge of intimidation with a dangerous weapon, and two felony counts of reckless use of a firearm.

Gutierrez admitted to driving Christopher Morales, Carlos Morales and Anthony Bauer on Jan. 1, 2021, to a house at 2637 Walker St., where dozens of people had gathered for a New Year's Eve party. The three men, one of whom Gutierrez was dating, exited the vehicle and fired at least 27 shots into the house, killing Mia Kritis and hurting three others.

The three shooters then ran back to the vehicle, got in, and Gutierrez drove away.

Gutierrez admitted that she knew the three, Bauer specifically, were going to commit a felony and, after the shooting, helped Bauer avoid arrest.

"I helped Anthony Bauer commit a felony," Gutierrez said during her plea hearing.

Gutierrez also said she aided and abetted the three shooters' firing of the weapons recklessly by driving them to the party. Police have said there is no evidence that Gutierrez fired any shots.

District Judge Roger Sailer approved Gutierrez' guilty pleas and the plea agreement, in which a third count of reckless use of a firearm will be dismissed.

Sailer scheduled sentencing for April 11 in Woodbury County District Court. Gutierrez remains free on bond.

Gutierrez is the last of the four people charged in the case to enter a plea agreement, plead guilty and avoid trial and potential longer prison sentences.

Christopher Morales admitted to firing the shots that killed Kritis and wounded the others. His brother, Carlos Morales, and Bauer admitted to aiding and abetting and also firing shots.

All three were charged with first-degree murder, three counts of reckless use of a firearm and one count of going armed with intent.

Each one pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder -- allowing them to avoid a mandatory lifetime prison sentence without parole if found guilty at trial -- and the three reckless use of a firearm charges.

Christopher Morales, 20, was sentenced to 55 years in prison, and Bauer, 19, received a 50-year prison sentence. Both must serve the mandatory minimum of 35 years before they're eligible for parole.

Carlos Morales, 19, was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Because he was a juvenile at the time of the shooting, he must serve only 15 years before he's eligible for parole.

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SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Community School District is moving forward, for the second time, with construction of a permanent space for the virtual academy.

The proposal presented to the school board Monday night estimated a cost of $1.59 million to remodel the second floor of the Educational Services Center for the VIBE Academy.

Tim Paul, the district's director of operations and maintenance, asked the board to approve the plans and set a public hearing to move forward with the project, which was approved unanimously. He said the completion date is now estimated for November 2022.

In January, the initial attempt was denied due to a low bid of $1.93 million from W.A. Klinger, $450,000 above the initial estimate of $1.48 million.

Matt Basye, of the Sioux City architectural firm FEH Design, said at the time there were a variety of factors that led to higher than expected bids, including the short project timeframe, the bid period being over the holidays, increased construction material costs, and the Davis-Bacon Act, a 1931 law regulating wages on public projects.

Paul said various items were removed from the project to slash the cost. These included removing a section of administrative space, removing a training room, modifying light fixtures and changing the layout of the space to reduce square footage.

Currently, the virtual academy teachers are housed on the fourth floor of the Ho-Chunk Centre on Fourth Street. To continue leasing that space for 10 years would cost the district $1.49 million, according to school board documents.

Elementary and secondary school emergency relief (ESSER) III funding will be used to construct the space. The ESSER funding is currently being used to pay for the present space and can only be used through 2024.

Paul said the current lease with the Ho-Chunk Centre may need to be extended due to this delay on the project.

Basye presented the layout plan to the board in November.

Around 14,000 square feet of the second floor of the Career Academy will be used for the VIBE Academy. The space will include training rooms, an open layout for around 40 instructors, specialty rooms  such as counseling, music, art and physical education - a break room and a work room.

In one of its final decisions prior to seating two newly-elected members, the board voted 4-3 to approve the remodeling project. Two of the four who voted yes, Jeremy Saint and Ron Colling, have since been replaced by Bob Michaelson and Jan George. Dan Greenwell, the new board president, and Taylor Goodvin both voted no.

Goodvin said the VIBE Academy ranks low in his priorities for the use of Education and Secondary School Relief, or ESSER, funds the federal government allocated to the district for COVID relief.

A survey done by board members, teachers and community members ranked construction of the space as a low priority, while Superintendent Paul Gausman's administration ranked it as the No. 1 priority.

Greenwell agreed with Goodvin, stating there other options for the VIBE Academy, including continuing to lease space in the Ho-Chunk Centre, until it's certain the online academy will continue on a long-term basis.

The ESSER funding set aside for the remodeling project, for instance, could have been used to address the ongoing substitute recruitment shortage, he said.

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LE MARS, Iowa -- Fire officials say a fire that broke out underneath a city-owned bridge in Le Mars on Saturday was accidental in nature and likely caused by an individual cooking food.

At 10:20 p.m. the Le Mars Fire-Rescue Department was called to a fire under the 24th Street S.W. bridge, which extends business Highway 75 in Le Mars to the Highway 75 bypass.

Upon arrival, firefighters encountered fire under the east end of the bridge and fire coming up through the bridge east expansion joint area, the department said in a statement released Monday. The fire spread from debris under the bridge to a rubber membrane in the expansion joint area.

Firefighters extinguished the fire under the bridge and put out the rubber membrane gutter that extends across all four lanes of the bridge. Due to the fire's extreme heat, the bridge was closed to traffic until it had a chance to cool down and an inspection of the bridge's structural integrity could be completed, according to the statement.

Firefighters were on scene for approximately 1  hours and used just under 2,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire in the debris and rubber membrane.

"The cause for the fire was determined to be accidental with the most probable cause being a fire that spread from an individual under the bridge attempting to cook some food and the fire got out of control and spread to nearby combustibles," the statement said.

Engineers inspected the bridge Monday and determined that damage was limited to the bridge's non-critical components. The bridge was slated to reopen at 1:30 p.m. Monday.

The bridge will have to be closed again at some point in the future to repair the non-critical items, such as the rubber rain gutter, and to complete some repair of cosmetic issues, according to the statement.

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SIOUX CITY -- Tim Savona, Spectra general manager, told the Sioux City Council Monday that nobody wants to see big shows at the Tyson Events Center more than the Philadelphia-based venue management company in charge of the Tyson.

"Nobody's trying harder than we are," Savona said during a quarterly presentation to the council, of efforts to book acts at the city-owned venue.

Spectra took over booking, marketing, staffing and food and beverage service at the Tyson and Orpheum Theatre on Jan. 1, 2018, after the council voted to privatize the Tyson's operations. In recent years, council members have questioned whether Spectra is fulfilling the promises that it made about bringing multiple concerts to the Tyson.

Savona said Professional Bull Riders Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour, last May, and Baby Shark Live!, last June, each drew around 2,000 people to the Tyson, while Cinch World's Toughest Rodeo, in January, brought in well over 4,000. Stand-up comic Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias, who performed at the Tyson on Feb. 5, sold nearly 5,500 tickets, according to Savona, who noted that Disney on Ice begins its four-day run Thursday.

"Exciting momentum. Exciting to see some new events and some nationally recognized events coming to market," said Savona, who praised the venue's staff for persevering during a "wild two years" amid the pandemic. "Since inception to date, we saved a taxpayer subsidy of about $800,000, pushing $820,000. Each year, it averages out to about $200,000 or so and counting, so positive momentum there."

Last spring, Savona said there was a "flurry of activity" concerning incoming club and theater content. But, then, the delta variant of the novel coronavirus hit in the summer and the industry experienced a pause. Now, he said "things are really picking up."

"That's what's impacting the January into April window on the concert scene on a bigger scale and, then, on those club and theater events," he said. "It's kind of been a pattern. You can kind of see it with what's happening in the news with COVID."

Councilwoman Julie Schoenherr asked Savona if Spectra is working with the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to land shows at the Tyson. He said they have collaborated on offers in the past and have a couple of offers pending right now.

"There might be something available that doesn't kind of check a box for them or it's outside of their season. So, instead of ignoring it, what they've been doing is they bring it to us and say, 'Hey, what about this? Is this exciting? How do you think this will do? What should we pay?'" Savona said. "And, then, we work together to put an offer in for that show at the Tyson."

Schoenherr followed up with, "Have we been successful with that in the past?"

"We have not been successful landing one," Savona said. "We were not successful working towards this goal for a while, but going into COVID, we had it all figured out."

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SIOUX CITY -- After a dozen years serving in the Iowa Legislature, Rep. Chris Hall, D-Sioux City, said Tuesday he will retire at the end of this year.

"It has been the honor of a lifetime to represent the people of Sioux City," Hall said in a press release. "For twelve years, I have sought to be a voice of reason and tireless advocate for our community. Ive sought to represent every voter in my district whether they supported me or not. Public service is not about grabbing a headline. Its about doing the right thing in the face of headwinds and living by your word."

Last week, Hall said he would pass on seeking the Democratic nomination for governor this year, citing concerns about being able to commit the necessary financial resources and saying he didn't believe he had enough name recognition in the state.

Hall won his first term in the House in 2010 against Republican Cate Bryan after five-term State Rep. Roger Wendt, D-Sioux City, opted to not run for re-election. He then won re-election five times. In his news release Tuesday, Hall noted he "consistently out-performing the top of the Democratic ticket by an average of 24.6 percent."

House District 13, which Hall currently represents, covers large chunks of Sioux City's west side. As part of statewide redistricting, the district he lives in has been redrawn and renumbered as District 1 beginning in the 2022 election.

While in the Legislature, Hall noted he pushed for localization of the Iowa Reinvestment Act to help redevelop downtown Sioux City, provided service-disabled veterans with additional support when starting or growing their small business, helped bring the ride-sharing services Lyft and Uber to Sioux City and kept the Targeted Jobs program authorized. The last of those is intended to help Iowa keep pace with neighboring states in the job market by letting businesses in border cities like Sioux City apply for tax credits to relocate or expand in Iowa.

"During his tenure, he has been a leading advocate for working families and taxpayer transparency," Democratic House Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights said in the release.

Hall's grandfather, the late Conny Bodine, was a former Sioux City mayor and city manager. His father, Linn Hall, served as director at the Department of Corrections office in Sioux City for 37 years and his mother, Tina, retired from the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court.

No candidates have formally announced for House District 1. The candidate filing period for the June 7 primary for state and federal offices begins Feb. 28 and end March 18, according to the Iowa Secretary of State.

Jared McNett is an online editor and reporter for the Sioux City Journal. You can reach him at 712-293-4234 and follow him on Twitter @TwoHeadedBoy98.

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CROFTON, Neb. -- Two Sioux City residents died Tuesday in a two-vehicle collision at a highway intersection in rural Cedar County.

The crash occurred at 12:03 p.m. at the junction of U.S. Highway 81 and Nebraska Highway 12, four miles east of Crofton, the Cedar County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

Neil Collins, of Orleans, Nebraska, was southbound on U.S. 81 in a Ford F550 truck and approaching the intersection when he was struck by an eastbound Chevrolet Malibu driven by William Koontz, of Sioux City.

Koontz, 74, was pronounced dead at the scene. His passenger, Anita Koontz, 71, of Sioux City, was transported to Avera Sacred Heart Hospital in Yankton, South Dakota, were she was pronounced dead. Neither of them was wearing a seat belt, according to the sheriff's office.

Collins, 90, was wearing a seat belt and was transported to the Yankton hospital with minor injuries.

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(CNN)  Tesla CEO Elon Musk has donated roughly $5.7 billion worth of the electric carmaker's shares to charity.

The donation of 5,044,000 shares was revealed Monday in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares were gifted last year between Nov. 19 and Nov. 29, according to the filing, which did not name the recipient or recipients of the shares.

Tesla's stock was trading above $1,000 per share at the time of the donations. The donated shares were worth $5.7 billion based on the average of the highest and lowest quoted price on the date of the transaction.

The charitable giving would make Musk the second biggest U.S. donor in 2021. Tesla's CEO trails only Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, who gave $15 billion last year, in an annual ranking by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Previous securities filings show that Musk sold Tesla shares worth over $16 billion in the final two months of 2021, with most of the proceeds going to pay an estimated $11 billion U.S. federal tax bill. Donated shares are not subject to capital gains tax and their value could be used as a deduction to help offset the tax bill.

Tesla did not immediately respond when asked for more details on the donated shares. Musk has established a foundation that makes grants in support of causes including pediatric research and science education, but there are few details available on its bare-bones website.

Musk, the world's richest man, was challenged last year by the director of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) to make a donation that would help solve world hunger.

"If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it," Musk wrote on Twitter in October.

The World Food Programme responded with a plan. It did not immediately reply Tuesday when asked whether Musk has made a donation to the organization.

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by Wang Aona, Hayati Nupus

JAKARTA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- In Bogor, about 50 km south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Lily Hambali's workshop makes traditional costumes for the Chinese lion dance, locally known as barongsai. His dancing lions can be seen all around Indonesia, and even overseas.

Craftsmen at the Lily Barongsai & Liong in are hard at work, while several finished barongsai costumes lurk by the walls, ready for shipment. The days before Cap Go Meh, the first full moon of the new lunar year, or Lantern Festival in China, are the workshop's busiest of the year. Hambali's four staff make a good living from the Chinese tradition.

"I was just a barongsai dancer more than 20 years ago. When there was damage to our costumes, we just fixed it by ourselves. I was good at it and I became a barongsai maker," Hambali told Xinhua.

A lot of the materials, nearly 70 percent, are hard to find in Indonesia. Sheepskin and rabbit pelts for making the lion's mane are imported from Guangzhou and Wuhan in China. The frames are made of rattan. These are the crucial parts of the lion and are fashioned with great precision.

"After we attach the fabric and paper, we paint them. Then we add the mane and some distinctive accessories," said Hambali.

It takes about a week to complete one costume, which can cost as much as 8 million rupiahs (about 560 U.S. dollars). This year, orders have come exclusively from within the archipelago. Demand at home means there is no need to look overseas. Orders for Cap Go Meh have been coming in since October 2021.

Before the pandemic, Hambali received up to 80 orders for Chinese New Year, and had to ask his neighbors for help. "With restrictions on gatherings, we stopped taking orders in January (this year), as we had already accepted more than enough. We have almost finished the 20 orders we took this year," he said.

Indonesians of Chinese descent enjoy the lion dance as a traditional part of their transplanted culture, while others are drawn to the spectacle of noise, flamboyant costumes and daring acrobatic feats. Over the years, the barongsai has become a fusion of Chinese costumes and movements, accompanied by Indonesian folk songs.

Hambali's own barongsai group performs in malls or hotels throughout the Chinese New Year season. At Cap Go Meh, they join parades in Jakarta and Bogor. They often perform at weddings and other celebrations, or take part in competitions. They have even taken part in a traditional Islamic New Year parade.

For Hambali, the barongsai is not just a way to make a living, but a way of life. He teaches students both the dance itself and passes on his skills as a costume designer. The lion dance, he says, has made him a lot of friends.

"I can see a promising future as both a craftsman and a dancer. I would love to see original Chinese performances and maybe to compete with Chinese dancers on the international stage," he said. 
SYDNEY, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Australia's national airline, Qantas, announced on Tuesday that it would continue to run its London service via Australia's northernmost state capital, Darwin, as uncertainty around Western Australia's (WA) border reopening remains.

Before the pandemic, the "Flying Kangaroo" airline ran its London service through WA capital, Perth.

In November of last year, when all states and territories apart from WA opened their borders to international travel, the airline opted to re-route the service via the capital of the Northern Territory (NT).

Now with WA's border reopening continuing to be plagued by uncertainty, Qantas announced that the re-routed service would be extended until "at least June 2022".

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the temporary measure would help revitalize the Northern Territory's tourism sector. "It's a great opportunity to encourage thousands of visitors to stop off in Darwin to see what the NT has to offer," said Joyce in the announcement.

As Australia is poised to open its international borders to tourists from next Monday, Feb. 21, the move is likely to bring in both domestic and international travelers to Australia's "Top End".

Qantas also announced on the same day the establishment of a new Embraer E190 jet base at the Darwin airport.

The fleet of four E190 jets would help better connect the NT to the rest of the nation while also providing some 90 new aviation jobs in the territory.

"As we prepare to welcome back international visitors, the E190s will make it easier to fly directly between Darwin and other popular tourist destinations including Alice Springs for central Australia, encouraging travelers to see more of Australia," said Joyce.

It would also open up more services to Australia's Capital, Canberra, Cairns and Townsville in Queensland, and to Timor-Leste capital, Dili. 
One teacher was sent to the hospital after a fight at King Science & Technology Magnet Center in Omaha on Friday.

A large fight occurred about 2 p.m. at the school, located at 3720 Florence Blvd., said Officer Phil Anson, a spokesman for the Omaha Police Department. The fight resulted in a teacher being assaulted and then transported to the Nebraska Medical Center with unknown injuries.

In an email sent to King Science parents, Principal Jane Laughlin said the fight occurred in a hallway, and several police officers responded to the middle school. A school resource officer sprayed mace while responding to the fight, and students were checked out by health professionals.

Please be assured that the safety of students and staff is our top priority, Laughlin said in the email.

Anson said numerous students will be cited on suspicion of either assault or disorderly conduct for being involved in the fight.

Earlier on Friday, another fight was reported about 11:30 a.m. at Benson High School, 5120 Maple St.

The fight involved eight students, and officers called to the scene were able to break it up, Anson said.

According to an email sent to Benson High School parents by district officials, the Benson High School resource officer also sprayed mace into the group of students to break up the fight at that school.

After the fight started, school administrators, school security officers and our school resource officer immediately began working to deescalate the situation, according to the email.

After multiple verbal warnings, the (security resource officer) administered mace to get the student altercation to stop, the email states. As a precaution, EMTs and the school nurse were called to look over any students who may have been maced.

School officials said in both emails that appropriate disciplinary action will be taken regarding the fights at Benson High and King Science.

Both incidents are under investigation.

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DES MOINES  Public K-12 schools in Iowa are in line for a 2.5 percent increase in state funding under a proposal that cleared the Iowa Legislature on Monday and is on its way to Gov. Kim Reynolds desk.

The proposal means roughly $172 million in new general state funding for the next K-12 school year, on top of the roughly $3.4 billion allocated for the current school year.

The funding proposal was proposed and passed by statehouse Republicans, who have majorities in both chambers.

Senate Republicans had pitched a 2.25 percent increase, but they came up and matched the 2.5 percent increase proposed by House Republicans and Reynolds.

Democrats proposed a 5 percent increase, which would have equated to almost $300 million in new funding, according to their staff analysis.

Democrats also proposed myriad additions to the K-12 public education funding proposal, including extra money for mental health care services and staff in schools, funding to reduce class sizes and retain and attract teachers, funding for expanding four- and five-year-old preschool, and allowing schools to use general funds to expand preschool.

Each proposal was rejected by majority Republicans.

A 2.5 percent increase will not be close to where we need to be. Not even close, said Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat from Windsor Heights.

Lets not do the least we can do. Lets do better.

Mike Beranek, president of the Iowa State Education Association, the states largest public educators union, said the state funding proposal will make it difficult for schools to retain and hire teachers and staff and reduce class sizes.

Setting (state funding) at 2.5 percent does not set Iowas public schools up for success, Beranek said in a news release.

Sen. Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton who chairs the Senate Education Committee, defended the proposal against Democrats charges that it is insufficient and will create financial stress on Iowas public schools.

Sinclair said Republicans proposal is reliable and sustainable within the states budget.

We can argue whether this is sufficient or not sufficient, Sinclair said. Nothing were doing here cuts education.  We keep the promises we make, and will continue to do so.

Over the first 38 years under Iowas current funding formula, general state funding to K-12 public schools increased by an annual average of 5 percent, according to data from the states nonpartisan fiscal analysis agency. Since 2011, when Republicans regained at least a portion of control over the lawmaking process, that average annual K-12 funding increase has been 1.9 percent.

Legislative Republicans proposal, House File 2316, now goes to Reynolds desk for her approval.

In an emailed statement, Reynolds said she is encouraged by the proposals passage and said her administration makes education a top priority.

But we cant rely on funding as the sole mechanism to improve our educational system, Reynolds said. That is why I continue to focus on STEM, work-based learning and registered apprenticeship programs to enhance the educational experiences for our children.

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When a heart attack killed Oscar Martin Carter in 1928, newspapers marked the millionaire's passing with pronouncements of his wonder.

Finance wizard. Banker. City builder. Gold miner. Inventor. Dakota Cattle King. Texas Money King.

Its been nearly a century since the savvy Nebraska businessman who dreamed up a Lone Star State utopia died. Nearly a century since he disappeared from the pages of Nebraskas newspapers so completely that he now scarcely earns a mention in the states history books.

But the novel suburb he envisioned, selling 10,000 lots on the installment plan  $5 down and $4.40 a month  lives on.

Houston Heights: Population 20,000, with a footprint just shy of 3 square miles. Its a neighborhood the size of Valentine  but with 10 times the people  now tucked right near the heart of Houston, Americas fourth-largest city.

These days, The Heights is on a run. Money Magazine called it a Top 10 Big City Neighborhood. The New York Times recommended its Mexican food in its 36 Hours in Houston travel primer. National Geographic touted its opera house and antiques shops, art galleries and eateries.

Its just a very unique neighborhood to Houston that has a tremendous amount of character, said Jordan Jones, one of a stampede of young professionals lured to the area.

Locals and visitors alike know the Gothic mansions straight out of a Charlotte Bronte novel that dot The Heights fanciest blocks.

But few know the story of the man who founded Houston Heights, a Nebraskan who lost two fingers, his company and his beloved son in pursuit of his dream.

* * *

In the years after the Civil War and Reconstruction, in the wide-open spaces of the Republic of Texas, men of means came calling.

Capitalists of commerce, the newspapers called them.

Nebraskan Oscar Martin Carter took his place in that narrative when he headed south with Daniel Denton Cooley, a cashier at the bank in Ashland, where Carter served as president.

Born outside Boston, Carter had headed west in an ox-drawn wagon in 1864. He stopped in Colorado and staked a gold mine near Gunnison, he segued to the Dakotas and raised cattle. Eventually, he hitched his team in Plattsmouth and got hitched there, too, later settling in Ashland with his bride Cinderella  yes, that was her real name  and their children.

He would serve as Saunders County treasurer, run hardware stores and open banks. He would build his reputation from a turreted castle at 35th and Farnam streets in Omaha.

By 1890, Carter left his castle with a half-million dollar pot from investors in his South Omaha and Texas Land Company, and was ready to build streets and alleys, utilities, schools, businesses and parks on 1,765 elevated acres 4 miles from downtown Houston.

He found enough investors to build up the streets in a community where he hadnt built a single home, said Mark Williamson, a director of the Houston Heights Association and longtime resident. It must have been such a major undertaking.

The land itself was a draw, 23 feet higher in elevation than the growing Houston proper, a city prone to floods and mosquitoes and outbreaks of yellow fever.

Carter installed his son Arthur as the head of the electric and water plants.

He made Cooley his general manager and built him a six-bedroom cypress mansion with marble tubs and inlaid wood floors.

More grand Victorians followed and so did a fancy hotel to lure prospective residents. But Carter wanted to attract the middle and working classes, too.

He ran ads in the Houston Chronicle with pencil drawings of his likeness in a bow tie and pin-striped suit, gesturing off the page as he made his pitch.

The One Hundred Per Cent Man is the man whose mind is not clogged with home worries.  Let us take you and your wife over (to) the Heights and show you these pretty homesites.  You will want to live in such a delightful community and be surprised the way is so easy.

And it was.

Affordable bungalow and cottage kits from Sears and Roebuck arrived on the railroad. An electric street car took workers south to Houston to work and home again.

Opinions differ, but it was probably the first street car suburb in Texas, Williamson said. And possibly the first west of the Mississippi.

Bigger houses lined the wide, tree-lined Heights Boulevard, trailed by smaller homes as you moved away from the center.

A commercial hub sprang up along 19th Street and Ashland Avenue. Ashland was joined by Waverly and Cortlandt, perhaps a misspelled nod to the Gage County village of Cortland.

It is a fine place, fine boulevards and streets, cut in the solid timber, and the street cars running, gushed the editor of the Wahoo New Era after touring Carters community.

What wasnt to love? Houston Heights was a modern wonder. Soon it would be a self-sustaining small town with its water and electric plants, iron works and oil mill, mattress factory and motor car company, saw mill and brick works, library and opera house.

Nebraskans kept up with Carter from afar.

When the Omaha and South Texas Land Company went bust in 1893, causing a run on a Carter-owned bank in Grafton, the Beatrice Daily Times called Houston Heights his pet scheme.

When Carter was ambushed by armed men in the office of his furniture factory in 1900, leaving him with a broken arm, scalp wounds and two missing fingers, the Ashland Gazette called it an exciting experience with robbers.

And when the Plattsmouth Journal reported on the accident that killed Carters son at the Houston Heights water works five years later, the paper conveyed the sadness. His sudden death yesterday was a great shock to his father and he was almost prostrated with grief.

But Carter went on. So did Houston Heights.

* * *

The Heights has had its lows.

It was annexed in 1918 by the city of Houston. It thrived through the 1930s, but faltered at the end of World War II. The street car disappeared. Cars and freeways lured workers away. Blight settled in.

And then came a serial killer, Dean Corll, whose mother had owned a candy store in the Heights. The 33-year-old kidnapped and murdered more than two dozen boys with the help of two accomplices in the early 1970s.

The New York Times described the crime spree  and the Heights  of that era. It is one of this new citys older neighborhoods and though there are still shopping centers and big churches left, the side streets are run down, given over to the white laboring class. There are pickup trucks up on blocks in the driveways, and tires on frayed ropes in the weedy backyards.

After the killings, business owners bonded together to form the Houston Heights Association, Williamson said. Residents joined the fledgling association and before long took it over.

They started saving houses and businesses, Queen Anne mansions and stylish Craftsman bungalows and cottages. Old tanks from the water works were transformed into restaurants and shops. They sought approval for three historic districts and landed more than 100 individual properties on the National Register of Historic Places.

They started a renaissance that led a new generation of residents to the Heights. Residents like Jones love the quick commute downtown. They love the crazy number of one-of-a-kind restaurants and great stretch of local bars, the 35-year-old native Texan says.

They are drawn by the old storefronts and vintage shops, the farmers markets and home tours and public art and music in the park. A refurbished running trail along the bayou.

The old library still stands, down the block from where Oscar Martin Carter lived his last years.

But his house? Long gone, Williamson said. Replaced by an apartment complex.

The Texas Money King died a wealthy man in Houston on Jan. 6, 1928  his estate estimated at $5 million; $75 million in todays dollars.

His death was sudden, the Omaha Bee reported. It cut short a career which has won him the title of financial wizard and which made him one of the best known of cattle operators, bankers and realtors in the West and Southwest.

* * *

Jordan Jones visited Nebraska as a boy on a hunting trip with his dad.

Honestly, I was young enough to where I dont remember it.

But he has flown into Eppley Airfield a dozen times in the past year on work-related trips. Hes ventured to Dundee and the Old Market for dinner.

He had no idea the Houston Heights neighborhood he loves was started by a Nebraska man with a grand vision for a 20th century town.

All he knew about Carter? His likeness on the sign for the Carter & Cooley Company Deli on Houstons 19th Street.

Last year, Jones sold his second house in the Heights and is renting as he prepares for a job-related move to the Midwest.

Destination: Omaha.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

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The University of Nebraska Board of Regents on Friday approved the demolition of the former Munroe-Meyer Institute complex on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus, clearing the way for what university officials have called another great set of opportunities.

The 7-acre site where the institute was situated for decades has been identified as a possible location for Project NExT. The project is a proposal by UNMC and Nebraska Medicine that would combine a state-of-the-art teaching hospital and federally funded spaces designed to enhance the nation's response to a host of different hazards.

Munroe-Meyer moved to a $91 million new home last year in Aksarben Village near 69th and Pine Streets. The institute provides a variety of services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as to those with behavioral and learning disorders such as autism.

The demolition proposal garnered no opposition from regents. NU President Ted Carter noted that the approximately $7 million cost of demolishing the complex and clearing the site would be covered entirely by philanthropic dollars. The work would be slated for completion next spring, depending on weather.

While university officials have stressed that much work remains before Project NExT could become reality, Dr. Jeffrey Gold, UNMC's chancellor, said recently that the demolition and two other initiatives signal that the university is shovel-ready and prepared to move ahead.

One of the other steps is the Saddle Creek Campus Public Improvements Project, which will launch improvements to roadways, utilities and other infrastructure for the planned expansion of UNMCs campus west of Saddle Creek Road. The regents also approved that project Friday.

Carter said the $18 million cost of the project would be covered by the City of Omaha. Construction is expected to start in September and wrap up in August 2025.

UNMC officials have been moving ahead on plans to create an innovation hub and a new administrative tower west of Saddle Creek. The tower, to be situated on the southwest corner of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street, is slated to begin rising this year. Not only will the tower allow the university to consolidate administrative offices that are scattered across campus, it also would be closely tied to Project NExT.

The $18 million for roads and utilities is part of the $93 million the city has pledged over the next decade to support the Saddle Creek expansion and Project NExT.

Gold said a parking structure proposed for the area and other projects tied to NExT are separate from the road and utility work.

Meanwhile, final relocations from the former Munroe-Meyer complex will be completed this spring, leaving the facility empty. The complex consists of four attached structures built in the late 1950s that previously housed Munroe-Meyer, the Hattie B. Munroe Home and J.P. Lord School, which relocated in 2018.

University officials recommended the complex be demolished because it has among the highest utility consumption on campus and contains asbestos.

The sites proximity to the cancer center, research towers and other facilities provides an opportunity for a large-scale replacement building connected to the core of campus, according to the regents documents.

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Rubi Quinones moved into the Vine Street Apartments a year ago with her husband as both worked to complete their Ph.D. programs in computer science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Many of the 52 units at Vine Street Apartments were occupied by other UNL graduate students and their families as one of three family designated complexes maintained by the flagship campus.

The space was larger, many of the utilities were covered as part of the monthly rent payments, and the location was close both to campus and to the UNL daycare, where Quinones and her husband, Ashraful Islam, send Camila, their one-year-old daughter.

Quinones and Islam recently notified UNLs housing office that they planned to stay in the apartment after graduation as they hunt for jobs, but on Friday learned the university will be discontinuing its family designated housing units by June 30.

In an email, Charlie Francis, UNLs director of University Housing and Dining Services, informed the residents the university had decided to sell two of the complexes  one at 33rd and Starr Streets, and the other at 2224 U Street  and repurpose the Vine Street Apartments near 23rd and Vine streets.

After careful consideration, Francis wrote, weve determined that the university is unable to make significant investments in infrastructure over the next few years, to keep the properties known as Colonial Terrace, U Street Apartments and Vine Street Apartments available to students.

The news left Quinones and others in the family designated housing  many of whom are international students limited to where they can work and with few connections to the community  feeling anxious and betrayed.

We moved here for the stuff (UNL) sold us, Quinones said Sunday. We uprooted everything to move here and now they are kicking us out.

On Sunday, in a common space between the twin Vine Street Apartments, residents from all three complexes gathered to organize their thoughts and make a plan of action ahead of a meeting scheduled Monday by UNL for the affected students.

Some suggested enlisting the help of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska, the student body, as well as the Graduate Student Assembly, or other student-led groups on campus that have the ear of the administration.

Others recommended asking for an extension on the June 30 move-out date to allow students time to finish their masters and Ph.D. programs, or to ask for compensation and help in finding new accommodations.

An ad hoc committee with leaders from each housing complex formed, gathering emails and other contact information to open up communication lines moving forward.

But the late notice and organizing for action left several residents feeling hopeless.

Oleksiy and Haifaa Al-Saadi, who have lived in the Vine Street Apartments for nearly a year with their two-year-old daughter, Aria, said Fridays notice left them feeling deflated.

Haifaa Al-Saadi is pursuing a masters degree in educational psychology; Oleksiy Al-Saadi is in the middle of a Ph.D. program in computer science. The couple is due to welcome their second child, a boy, in June  the same month UNL expects them to be out of their apartment.

They care so little about us that they are kicking us out in a few months, Haifaa Al-Saadi said. They didnt give us a solution, they didnt guide us anywhere. Its just, Sorry, this is hard to tell you. Thats it.

Working on a graduate student stipend, Oleksiy Al-Saadi said he makes just enough money to cover the couples rent and sending Aria to the UNL daycare at the former Whittier School.

Most of the people living here are doing their masters or Ph.D. he said. They dont party like undergrads. They need a safe place with a lot of kids.

In a statement, Francis said Lincolns rental market has expanded significantly since the family designated housing units were built more than 50 years ago.

While we remain committed to providing meaningful learning experiences in our residential communities, we are confident that there are a number of residential communities able to accommodate our students with families, Francis said.

Will Taylor, who lives in Colonia Terrace with his wife, Katie, and their two children  ages 2 years old and 8 months old  said the options are limited, however.

There are not very many places in town we can go, let alone in our price range, Taylor said in a phone interview on Sunday. That was one of the main draws to family housing  we could actually afford it.

For Brad LaMotte, a first-year graduate student in technical direction at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film who lives at Vine Street Apartments, the options away from campus are also limited by mobility.

We are a one-vehicle family. One income, LaMotte said. There are many factors of our current living situation that absolutely favored and met our needs.

After the news broke on Friday, Taylor said several families in the unit have gathered to talk about whats next. Most have expressed anger and frustration that they werent told about the potential for the complex to be sold earlier.

The NU Board of Regents approved a plan Friday morning to put Colonial Terrace, located near East Campus, up for public sale. A UNL spokeswoman said there are no hard plans for the other properties at this time.

Neither residents of Colonial Terrace, nor those at the Vine Street Apartments, said they were told any kind of sale was in the works. The first they heard of the plan was the email from UNL Friday afternoon.

There are students who have dissertations and theses to defend, some are supposed to have kids being born when theyre moving, said Taylor, an Idaho native who is enrolled at the College of Law and is also pursuing an MBA. This kind of throws everything into an unnecessary amount of difficulty.

The big question for Taylor is whether the buyer will let the current residents of Colonial Terrace stay put and at their current rental rates.

Hes not optimistic, however.

There are some rumors flying around that this unit, the whole street actually, is going to get torn down and a new unit is going to be built, he said. We just want to know if our building is going to exist in a few months.

LaMotte said his family has started looking for alternatives, but said the situation wasnt looking too promising.

And, of course, we will be in competition with our neighbors for the next budget-friendly place to stay, he said.

Quinones said she has familiarized herself with the contract she signed with UNL to live in the Vine Street Apartments. Most landlords only have to give their tenants 30 days notice; UNL provided the students three and a half months.

They are completely legal in what theyre doing and we get that, Quinones said. Its just very stressful when you dont have control over a situation.

She said shell push the university on the fate of their housing deposits, and for compensation for the time, trouble and expense of moving out before many had planned.

If they want us out, fine, help us move out, she said. Be the university we thought that they were.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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On a recent episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick asked professor Franita Tolson to clear up any confusion about the Supreme Courts shadow docket order in the case Merrill v. Milligan, which seems to have wiped out most remaining protections provided by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. As Tolson, who is vice dean for faculty and academic affairs and a professor of law at University of Southern California Gould School of Law, explains, Section 2 isnt really all that complicated to assess; the conservative justices are just muddying the waters to reach their desired outcome. A portion of their conversation, which has been condensed and edited for clarity, has been transcribed below.

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Dahlia Lithwick: Were going to turn to Merrill v. Milligan. This was a really crucial racial redistricting case under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, decided last week without much explanation on the courts shadow docket, and it is enormously consequential. And it sometimes gets obscured because its buried under a statute and a redistricting order, and then again, under just a lack of any reasoning provided by the court. So thank God Franita Tolson is here.

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I want to start by asking you to please explain literally decades of redistricting law and the Constitution standing on one foot. On the one hand, the Voting Rights Act requires states to draw districts where minority voters can elect their preferred candidates under certain conditions, but also, a jurisdiction cannot make race the predominant factor in redistricting without some compelling reason to do so.

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And I just want to hand this to you with the caveat that Chief Justice John Roberts, dissenting from this weeks order, described this case law as having engendered considerable disagreement and uncertainty regarding the nature and contours of vote dilution claims. It feels as though everybody has a really vested interest in saying this is too complicated to understand. So, it is not too complicated, can you give us a quickie tutorial on this body of law about race and redistricting?

Franita Tolson: I do think that theres this sense after the decision that Section 2 is so complicated that we need to revisit it. But keep in mind, courts have been doing Section 2 for decades. This is not something thats new. And in fact, the case itself involved a pretty clear Section 2 violation. This is not something that you had the lower court just offhandedly say, OK, this is a Section 2 violation, without putting in the due diligence.

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But lets take a step back. If you think about Section 2, its been in place since 1982, so thats almost 40 years of having this regime in which states are required to draw districts in which African Americans, Latinos, or any minority can be a majority in their own district, particularly if there is racially polarized votingwhich means that the majority, or in most cases, white people, votes for a different candidate than the ones minorities prefer. And so the idea is to put them in their own district so that they can elect their candidate of choice. So as long as they are geographically compact, courts have tended to find that Section 2 requires this, and this has been true since 1982.

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Prior to the 1982 amendments to Section 2, there was a case called City of Mobile v. Bolden. That case dealt with at-large elections. The entire governing body in Mobile was elected at-large. Minorities were not able to elect their candidate of choice despite being 40 percent of the population of Mobile. There was a question there as to whether Section 2 was violated. The Supreme Court held that Section 2 required discriminatory intent. Discriminatory intent is really, really hard to prove. So essentially, the plaintiffs would have to prove that the at-large structure was adopted for purposes of diluting the votes of minority voters. Its very hard to prove that in many cases, so in 1982, Congress changed the law in order to make it easier for plaintiffs to win under Section 2. So you just have to show discriminatory effect.

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We spend a lot of time talking about the remedy to a Section 2 violation. The remedy is to put minorities in their own district so that they can elect their candidate of choice, but you also have to show that the challenged rule or challenged plan has a discriminatory impact. So courts have been doing this. We have developed doctrines around Section 2. This is not hard. And I think part of it is that a lot of conservative justices and judges disagree with Section 2. They disagree with the use of race in redistricting. But just because you disagree does not mean that the doctrine is hard or muddled or unclear. The doctrine is clear.

That being said, doctrines have developed, really, as a response to Section 2 claims. Theres this notion that they cant rely on race too much in drawn districts. Some of that, from a line of cases starting with Shaw v. Reno, is a response to states drawing majority-minority districts in order to, in some cases, protect minority voters, but in some cases, states have drawn majority-minority districts in order to harm minority voters.

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So its taken on a life of its own, but courts have become equipped at distinguishing when majority-minority districts are needed and when theyre being used in order to pack minorities into districts and dilute their votes statewide. So Shaw v. Reno says, Look, you cannot use race too much in drawing these districts. These districts have to be needed. And compliance with Section 2i.e., Section 2 requires the state to draw this districthas long been a defense to a potential equal protection claim under the Shaw line of cases. So to the argument, Hey, state youve used race too much, the state can say Section 2 requires this.

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But keep in mind the fact that we have this line of cases under the equal protection clause, i.e., youve relied on race too much, shows you the disagreement with Section 2this notion that we dont want states drawing these districts too much, particularly if theyre not needed, because we dont like the idea of using race too much.

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So really, the Alabama case is a way to further undermine Section 2 because conservatives dont like it. They dont like statutes where, first of all, liability can be premised on effect. Think back to City of Mobile v. Bolden. This is why the Supreme Court said plaintiffs have to prove intent. Now, of course, that would limit the number of Section 2 claims. It also keeps the states from having too much liability in terms of having to draw these majority-minority districts. So in some ways, the Alabama case brings all of these criticisms that weve seen since the early 1980s about Section 2 to a head.

Even Chief Justice Roberts, this is why hes saying, Well, its confusing. Its almost like a two-sided coin. Its confusing, but the law is also settled such that theres a Section 2 violation here. Well, which is it?

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The lower court looked at the Alabama redistricting plan, and they realized that there could be a second majority-minority district drawn. Because keep in mind, under the new map, African Americans are only 14 percent of the districts despite being 27 percent of the population. Red flag. This is not hard.

So I think the chief justice, even though he sided with the four liberals, wants it both ways, but he would prefer to not do it on the shadow docket. He wants the case to be fully briefed, argued on the merits, and then hell probably vote with the conservatives to gut Section 2. Honestly, thats the world we live in right now.

First of all, that was the best mini-course on racial redistricting law that Ive ever had. And super clear, because this is, as you say, doctrinally not complicated. It is cognitively complicated because, as you say, youve got this pincer move of you can use race, but you cant use race too much. So it just seems as though this is insoluble, and yet, as you say, its been solved for a very long time.

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Before we turn to the way this particular decision came down, I also just want to go back and loop in one thing you said about the difference between these cases that challenge access and the cases that try to challenge redistricting and vote suppression through redistricting. Because Im aware of a conversation we had with Sherrilyn Ifill, where she was saying that her principal complaint about the shadow docket and the way in which the Supreme Court just wipes away a district court order is that all of those findings of facteverything that was done by litigators to build a case, to make visible, not just to the justices, but to the American people, what the burden is on racial minoritiesthat gets wiped away too. Its literally gone.

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And the reason it really stuck with me is that is an immense amount of erasure of actual lives, of an actual record. Redistricting is so freaking hard because it feels like its a formula on a computer. And you just dont have, correct me if Im wrong, that kind of, Here is a person who stood in line for 17 hours and couldnt get their records from the DMV. It just doesnt have that human sense that she was trying to paint. And that part of redistricting is really tricky. Its just that it can be so bloodless.

For some reason, as you were speaking, one thing that kept coming to mind is that the cruelty is the point. And it seems weird to describe it that way, but I actually think it fits here a little bit. During the Trump administration, there were a number of things that happened and I just didnt quite understand it. Hawaii v. Trump, which challenged the travel ban. There were various iterations of the travel ban and I remember reading those decisions and thinking in my head, Why are they going through all of this trouble? There are ways to do immigration policy that make more sense. And the cruelty is the point.

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And I think this is similar, if you think about itthis idea that the Supreme Court can swoop in and erase all of the work that voting rights advocacy groups, plaintiffs, people who are invested, people who understand this history where African Americans and other minorities, people with disabilities, language minorities, all these groups have been negatively impacted by voting laws throughout our history. They understand that history, and so theyre definitely coming to this with a lens of trying to fight. But part of it is taking the fight away. I know we hate to say it that way, but to me, thats the only way to explain what are clear inconsistencies in the court in this space versus other spaces.

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Because Im sure if you compare what the court has done in the context of the Alabama case with what the court did in the context of the Texas abortion law, we can have an entire conversation about the inconsistencies in which the court has approached these issues. But that being said, to some extent, the cruelty is the point. And I might sound extra for saying that, but part of this is to deter these types of lawsuits from being brought. There is no other way to explain it. Brnovich, this new five-part tests that Justice Sam Alito developed to try to rewrite Section 2, makes it harder to win. The Alabama case, you have these lawyers, these amazing lawyers who put all of this work in, you had this panel ofthese are not radical judges. Two Trump appointees found the Section 2 violation. So they did their job. They showed up, they understood the assignment, and then the Supreme Court comes in, and one order wipes it out.

To some extent, we have to acknowledge the cruelty is the point. This is about deterrence, its not just about getting to a certain endpoint. The endpoint is important; the endpoint is the complete invalidation of the Voting Rights Act. They want to neuter the statute, we know that. But they also want to deter these groups from bringing this type of litigation, because otherwise, why not wait for full briefing in an argument? So it may be an unpopular position, but I said what I said.

No, its hard to see it through any other lens. And its not just that the cruelty is the point, its that the bloodless cruelty is the pointthat if you cant tell this story in a way that folks can understand, then its a cherry on top of the sundae of cruelty. Weve made it so arcane that maybe nobody will react.

To hear their entire discussion, as well as Dahlias interview with Rep. Adam Schiff, listen below, or subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.
MANILA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,010 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,641,940.

The DOH said 52 more people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the country's death toll to 55,146. The number of active cases dropped to 72,305 as the country's positivity rate also decreased to 10.4 percent.

The Philippines is now classified as "low risk" for COVID-19, downgraded from "moderate risk" amid the continuing decline in new infections, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said late Monday.

However, the government is well prepared if a possible surge of COVID-19 infections appears, he added.

"Our health systems capacity is very much prepared for any eventuality and that in case of another surge in infections, we have a lot of excess available facilities," he said.

At least 319 areas are still under hard lockdown due to virus clusters, according to the national police.

The Philippines has seen four waves of COVID-19 infection since 2020. The country reported the highest single-day tally on Jan. 15 this year with 39,004 cases.

The Philippines, which has around 110 million population, has tested over 26 million people. 
Friday morning at 9:30 sharpwhich seems like years ago now, given all that had happened by Monday afternoonclosing statements began in Sarah Palins libel suit against the New York Times. Palin attorney Kenneth Turkel walked to the courtroom lectern, which, these days, is a plexiglass box fitted with a HEPA filter. He removed his mask to address the jury.

Over the next couple of hours, Turkel delivered a final pitch that framed Palin as a trod-upon victim who needed to draw a line because she couldnt take the abuse anymore. What this dispute is really about in its simplest form, he said in his opening paragraph, is power, and lack of power.

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The first item on Turkels to-do list was to heighten the contrast between these litigants. He reminded jurors that the Times is a publicly traded company employing reporters all over the globe, while his client is a mother and grandmother still living in the tiny Alaska town where she grew up. Sure, Palin ascended to nosebleed altitudes in politics, once upon a time more than a decade ago. But these days, said Turkel, there is no version of this that makes Gov. Palin as powerful a force as the New York Times.

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Once hed established that the Times, given its size and reach, had the opportunity to injure Palin, Turkels next move was to declare that the Times had a motive. A hefty portion of his speech dwelled on concepts like bias and ill will. The Gray Ladys severe anti-Palin bent, Turkel argued, was the only possible reason it would run an editorial falsely accusing Palin of inciting the 2011 Arizona shooting that killed six people and wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords. In Turkels telling, this trial was really about the Times feelings toward Palin. All they had to do was dislike her a little less, he said, and were not sitting here today.

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When David Axelrod (not that one) entered the plexiglass box after Turkel had exited it, the Times lead attorney didnt spend much time refuting Turkels claims about bias. I dont think hed have gotten much traction if he had. The key bits of evidence in this trial were subpoenaed emails from 2017 sent between Times editorial board members, and those emails made it pretty clear this was a group of left-leaning folks who mostly agreed with one another. I dont imagine it will shock you to learn that the team of writers and editors tasked with channeling the Times institutional voice wasnt a bunch of conservatives. No need for a federal trial to establish that. I do think its fair to argue that bias might have created the blind spot in which the Times factual error about Palin was allowed to sprout, and blossom, unnoticed. One might contend that if those editors had warmer feelings toward Palin, they might have thought a little harder before they casually tarred her with such a grave accusation.

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But the presence of ideological biasin the crafting of an opinion piece, no lessjust isnt enough to seal the deal when it comes to a libel case like this one. Bias can suggest a motive, or maybe help explain what happened. But bias doesnt qualify as proof of liability in this case.

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From day one, it seemed obvious that the outcome of this trial would hinge on Palin meeting the added burden of proof that comes into play when a libel plaintiff is, like her, a public figure. In Axelrods closing remarks, he spent a lot of time reminding the jury about this so-called actual malice standard, which famously arises from the 1964 Supreme Court ruling in the case of NYT v. Sullivan. The standard holds that its not enough for a public figure to prove that the Times published something about her that was untrue, or even that the untrue thing badly harmed her reputation. To meet the burden of proof, Palin needed to show that the Times knew it was writing something false but then went ahead and wrote it anyway, or that the paper acted with reckless disregard in ignoring the high probability that what it wrote was false. Palin needed to deliver clear and convincing evidence that the Times had intended to defame her, and that the Times false statement involved a conscious, deliberate attempt to avoid the truth. Mere negligencea failure to fact-check, for instancewouldnt suffice.

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Axelrod directed the jury to look at subpoenaed emails in which you can see the Times editorial board batting back and forth ideas, shaping the fateful pieces argument. Based on that evidence, Axelrod argued, there was just no way to conclude that some sort of intentionally villainous plot was going on here. Every indication suggested that Times journalists made a sloppy mistake while rushing to meet a deadline for the next mornings print edition.

Then Axelrod showed the jury emails that revealed how the board reacted after it discovered it had made an error. These journalists deeply regretted their mistakenot because the mistake might harm Palin, and certainly not because it might eventually expose the Times to a lawsuit, but simply because those journalists absolutely hated that they got something wrong. There was zero hint that any of them would purposefully introduce an error into a piece, for any reason.

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When both lawyers had finished their summations, Judge Jed S. Rakoff went to the plexiglass box and removed his mask, revealing to the jury his Santa Clausish visage. He read aloud the jury instructions, including a section about actual malice. And then, around 3:30 on Friday afternoon, the jury disappeared into its chamber to deliberate.

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They didnt reach a verdict. So they came back to the courthouse Monday morning and deliberated some more. They requested a transcript of one witnesss testimony, and then a different transcript of another witnesss testimony. It was clear they were taking their duty quite seriously.

As they deliberated, I thought about how, were I a juror, I might weigh the evidence. There were basically four things Palin needed to prove, so I went through them one by one:

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First, she needed to prove that the published words shes suing over were false. Given that the Times issued a correction and acknowledged it had made a factual error, this didnt seem in dispute to me.

Second, she needed to prove that those published words were of and concerning her, meaning that a reasonable reader would understand they referred to Palin personally. The Times tried to argue that its editorial referred to Sarah Palins political action committee, not to Sarah Palin. But since Palin was mentioned by name in the piece, and the PAC is essentially herher face, her voice, her notorietyI didnt think the Times had much of a leg to stand on.

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Third, Palin needed to prove that these words were defamatorymeaning they could expose her to contempt, ridicule, disgrace, and so forth. Given that the Times falsely blamed her for inciting murder, I was inclined to give her this one, too. As Turkel said in his closing, What worse could you say? It doesnt really get much worse.

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But the fourth element Palin needed to prove was actual malice. And that was an extremely high bar to jump over. It seemed obvious to me, having observed the trial, that Palins lawyers didnt clear it. But would the nine members of the juryincluding a refrigerator repair guy, a docent at the Met, and a receptionist at a fertility clinicsee things the same way I did? Or was I blinded by personal bias, as a journalist whos been known to make the occasional sloppy error when rushing to meet a deadline?

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Then a little before 3 p.m. on Monday, with the jury still deliberating in its chamber, Rakoff suddenly summoned the litigants to the courtroom. And he informed them that hed assessed the evidence the same way I had. I think this is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times, Rakoff said, but it just didnt meet the very high standard required to prove actual malice. Even if he viewed Palins claims in the most favorable light possible, he said, he couldnt imagine that a reasonable juror could find that Palin had met the actual malice burden. He said hed wait to see what this jury does. But if they came back with a verdict in favor of Palin, Rakoff promised, hed throw it out.

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The Times lawyers shook each others hands. Whatever the jury decided, the Times was now assured of a win. James Bennetthe man who wrote the passages Palin sued over, and the Times co-defendant in the trialseemed to exhale about four years worth of anxiety as the lawyers patted him on the back.

Palin and her lawyers went out to the lobby looking shell-shocked. One of her attorneys said he didnt fully understand what had happened. Its gonna take someone smarter than me to explain it, he said. Outside the courtroom, many smart people did try to explain why the judge would make this announcement as the jury still deliberated; the judge said he believed it was fairer to both parties to reveal the decision now, even as some legal experts puzzled over his timing. Still, that was that.

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Well, sort of. A little before 5 p.m., the jurywhich had not been told about Rakoffs ruling, and wont be until after the trial is overreturned to the courtroom to tell Rakoff that they hadnt yet reached a verdict, and thus would come back to the courthouse to keep deliberating tomorrow. Rakoff bid them adieu, said hed see them in the morning, and warned them not to look at any news reports. With good reason: If they did read the news about the trial, theyd see that the judge had taken it out of their hands.

Read more of Seth Stevensons coverage of the TimesSarah Palin trial.
At about 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon, after roughly a dozen hours of deliberation, a nine-person juryfeaturing, among others, a refrigerator repairman, a docent at the Met, a creative director, a hedge fund worker, and a receptionist at a fertility clinicfound that the New York Times Company, and its co-defendant James Bennet, did not libel Sarah Palin.

A day before, Judge Jed S. Rakoffout of earshot of the juryhad already ruled that no reasonable juror could possibly conclude Palin had met her burden of proof. Rakoff advised both sides that if the jury decided the Times had defamed Palin, hed reverse the outcome. Thus, the verdict from these (apparently reasonable) jurors was a second blowand a bit of salt in the wound for the former Alaska governor. Im tempted here to point Palin toward one of her trademark mottos, invoked by an opposing attorney at the trial: Suck it up, buttercup.

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It seems obvious to me that the jurys conclusion was sound, given the high hurdle Palin needed to clear as a public figure alleging libel. Palin failed to demonstrateas she was required to do, per the Supreme Courts 1964 ruling in New York Times v. Sullivanthat the Times acted with actual malice. She didnt prove that the Times published something false despite knowing it was false, or that the Times recklessly disregarded the high probability it was publishing something false, or that the Times intended to defame her and took conscious, deliberate steps to do so. What Palin instead showed was that Times journalists are, much like everyone else in the world, capable of making sloppy errors when they rush to meet a deadline. She also showed (and this didnt help her case) that those journalists really, really hate to make mistakes and try hard to correct them as quickly as possible.

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[Read: The Brutal Moment Sarah Palins Testimony Fell Apart in the New York Times Trial]

Sarah Palin has said and done many vile things during her years in public life. In the course of this trial I was reminded, for instance, that Palin campaigned in 2017 for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Mooreone of the more despicable figures in the political arena in recent memory. Palin has also, its worth noting, made lots of reprehensible comments about what she terms the lamestream media. Still, its important to acknowledge that no one deserves to be falsely accused of inciting murder. Even if the mistake was an honest one, and even if it was rapidly corrected, it was still a supremely awful error. I hope we can all agree on that, no matter our feelings about Palin. The real question is: Where does this leave us? Where do we go from here?

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Do we think that the very high standard (as Rakoff termed it) for proving actual malice is a fair one? Should public figures continue to suffer slings and arrowseven as sharp as the one the Times mistakenly hurled at Palinwith little hope of recourse beyond the press saying, Our bad? Does the freedom to write fearlessly about the famous and the powerful necessitate permitting even the gravest of errors? Or, as some on the right are suggestingincluding a former president and two current Supreme Court justicesshould we be taking another look at where we draw this line?

I know two things for sure. 1) If this lines going to be redrawn, I dont want Donald Trump, or Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, holding the pencil. 2) This is by no means the end of this battle. Palin will surely appeal this verdict, and if hers isnt the case that makes it all the way to the Supreme Court, people hoping to weaken New York Times v. Sullivan will look around for another vehicle.

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Sitting in the observer section at the trialalong with Sarah Palins boyfriend, James Bennets wife, a bunch of journalists, and a few curious members of the publicthere was one especially intriguing figure. Charles Harder was the lead attorney when Hulk Hogan sued Gawker out of existence. And Harder watched every minute of the testimony in this trial, taking copious notes on a legal pad. He wasnt working with Palins legal team (though hed worked with them before, in that Gawker case). He was just watching.

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During breaks in the proceedings, I peppered Harder with questions. How much did he think this trial was costing Palin? Answer: More than $1 million. How much would it cost to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court? Answer: $5 million, give or take. Was it possible Palins attorneys were working on a contingency basis, or maybe doing this just for the publicity? Answer: Basically, no.

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Hulk Hogan didnt pay his own legal costs (meaning, in part, Harders invoices) when he took Gawker to court. Silicon Valley grotesquerie Peter Thiel famously footed Hogans billsecretly at first, until he was outed as Hogans backer. When it comes to this trial, I just cant bring myself to believe that Palin paid for it out of pocket. If indeed she didnt, and someone else was funding this, I wondered where that money was coming from. I asked Harder if he knew. He said he didnt.

Then I asked Harder one last thing: Why exactly was he here? He was taking all those noteswas it for an article hes writing, or a book? No, he said, Im just here to observe and learn.

That was the most chilling thing I heard in that courtroom. What exactly did he learn from Sarah Palins (so far) failed effort to sink the Times? How exactly is he planning to apply those lessons? My fear is that, before long, well all find out.

Read more of Seth Stevensons coverage of the TimesSarah Palin trial.
The Supreme Courts decision last week to reverse the finding of a three-judge panel that Alabama must redraw its 2022 Congressional map after violating the Voting Rights Act  a ruling the Supreme Court reached without the benefit of full briefing and argumenthas raised again the question of what could be done about the courts use of the shadow docket. Heres one answer: Congress should give the justices a filibuster.

The Constitution establishes a Supreme Court. It gives Congress the power to make exceptions to the courts appellate review. Congress could use that power to give dissenting justices a way to block extraordinary action by the court without a super-majority concurring. The procedure would allow a justice to require that a super-majority agree on any decision affecting a lower court judgment taken outside of the ordinary process of full review  except the decision to grant review. Once invoked, the court would be blocked from staying or reversing a lower court decision, unless either a super-majority concurs, or a simple majority expressly affirms that under existing law, the lower court decision is clearly erroneous. Absent either vote, the case would be considered in the ordinary course. After briefing and argument, the court would then decide the case according to a simple majority vote.

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The super-majority threshold should be set according to a realistic assessment of the ideological division on the court. Its purpose would be to assure that the minority has the ability to check, and at least slow, the actions of an activist majority. The current court is divided 63. The super-majority threshold to empower the court to act in an extraordinary manner should therefore be seven justices. The rule should be rarely invoked, and would avoid its own abuse by allowing a simple majority to overrule any filibuster if they are willing to affirm that the decision below was clearly erroneous. But absent that affirmation, the effect of the rule would be to secure to the minority the power to assure that changes in Supreme Court doctrine be effected in the ordinary manner  after full briefing and argument, through an opinion issued by the court.

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Opponents to the filibuster in the Senate have no reason to oppose such a filibuster in the court. The virtue of a filibuster in both contexts is its ability to give a minority the chance to better be heard. The current Senate filibuster takes that good idea and perverts it, by giving a potentially tiny fraction of America the ability to completely block the actions of a majority. But the Supreme Court filibuster would not block change or evolution in the doctrine of the court. It would simply channel it to the ordinary process by which the court makes its decisions. This filibuster would not be a minority veto on the decision of a judicial majority. It would just give the minority a chance to assure that significant decisions follow regular order.

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It is unfortunate that we have been brought to a position to make such regulation necessary. It is the courts own behavior that has plausibly suggested non-judicial motivations. And the Senates gerrymandering of the confirmation rules has only increased the perception that the institution is now partisan rather than judicial. Were the court more judicious in its activism, the perception that the court needs restraining would be weaker. But a clear majority has signaled that it will use its power to effect substantial change in the courts jurisprudence, through any means possible. That behavior violates a fidelity to role. Congress can address that violation by at least channeling judicial activism to a more transparent and traditional context.
Is the Ukrainian war scare over? By several measures, it seems so.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that hes ready to discuss confidence-building measures on arms control, mutual inspections of military exercises, and other areas of East-West relationsthis, one day after his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov said the possibilities for diplomacy over the Ukraine crisis were far from exhausted.

Putin also announced that Russia has started withdrawing some of the tanks and soldiers it has sent to the Ukrainian border in recent weeks, saying that they are returning to their bases, and that the military exercises, which he claims motivated the deployments, will be finished on Sunday.

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Finally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly mused that his quest for membership in NATO might be a dream that he should stop pursuing for now.

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Each of these could be an important sign that the crisis is de-escalating. The troop movements have been the cause of Western warnings of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden proposed those confidence-building measures as a way to defuse the crisis. Finally, Putins main demand in this confrontation has been a guarantee that Ukraine never join NATO, and, while Biden has refused to go that far, Zelenskys hint that hell drop his active push for membershipcombined with many statements, by Biden and others, that, as a practical matter, Ukraine wont be let into the western military alliance any time soonmay sate Putins anxieties over losing control of what he sees as a vital security buffer on Russias western border.

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However, in a televised speech Tuesday afternoon, Biden said there is no evidence as yet that Russian troops actually are moving away from the Ukrainian borderconfirming earlier skepticism by NATO officials, who said that, just days ago, some troops were continuing to move toward the border. For that reason, Biden cautioned, invasion remains distinctly possible.

Also on Tuesday, Ukraine asked NATO for emergency items including medical supplies, field camps, bulldozers, and radiation and chemical reconnaissance gear.

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So who knows?

As has been the case from the start of this crisis, the question of war or peace depends, in large part, on the state of Putins mind. He seems to have gone into this crisis expecting that the thrust of 100,000 Russian troops, tanks, and warships, surrounding Ukraine on all sides, would trigger a splintered reaction from Kyivs Western allies, thus forcing an abandoned Zelensky to succumb to Putins pressure and stop his effort to join the Western camp.

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However, as it turned out, the Biden administration mounted an impressive display of diplomatic countermoves, a deft mix of sticks and carrots, while keeping the NATO alliesa disparate, sometimes-quarrelsome herd of 30 nationssurprisingly united in resisting Putins efforts to sow disunity. (Hungarys prime minister, Viktor Orban, has been the sole exception, predictably; Germans new chancellor, Olaf Shultze, seemed a holdout at first, but has since hewed the line.)

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Putins broad foreign-policy aim, in the last several years, has been to exploit fissures within the Western alliance and drive wedges between its European members and their American protectorin short, to strengthen Russia by weakening those who might thwart Putins ambitions.

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In that sense, his pressure campaign on Ukraine has been a disaster; it has unified the alliance and strengthened Americas leadership status more than any other event since the end of the Cold War.

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Putins pressure campaign has also loosened, rather than tightened, his hold on Ukraine, which he regards as an extension of Russia and a vital preserve for Russias sphere of influence on its western border. (He once told President George W. Bush, Ukraine is not a country.) By many accounts, his troop movements have sparked a rise in Ukrainian nationalism, anti-Russia sentiment, and good feelings toward the West, even in some cities that had long been firmly in Moscows orbit.

And so it could well be that Putin is looking for a face-saving way out of this confrontation, andin Bidens offer of confidence-building measures, as well as Zelenskys move toward laying off his talk of joining NATOhe may have found its main elements. (There is nothing wrong with letting an adversary save face, by the way; it can be dangerous to poke a cornered tyrant who still has the physical ability to lash out with great force.)

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Persuading Zelensky to quiet his NATO ambitions is key. Putins anxieties over the possibility that Ukraine might join the West are genuine and deep. Presidents George H.W. Bush and especially Bill Clinton mounted a campaign to enlarge NATOincorporating almost all of the countries that once belonged to the Soviet-led Warsaw Pactduring the early years of the post-Cold War age, when Russia was flat on its back, economically and militarily. Putin was a KGB agent in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down and Russian President Boris Yeltsins prime minister when most of the Soviet empires former subjects eagerly sought NATOs security blanket. This fueled his resentment, and since Russia has recovered at least some of its economic and military strength, he is aiming to recover some of Russias empire as wellor at least ensure more of it doesnt slip away.

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Ukraine is vital to that project. Even the Clinton administrations most ardent enthusiasts for NATO enlargement stopped short when it came to Ukraine, realizing its membership in NATO might humiliate Moscowand provoke a future Kremlin leadertoo much.

The biggest obstacle to declaring an end to this crisis may be that the Ukraine-in-NATO question is not yet settled. On Sunday, Ukraines ambassador to the United Kingdom, Vadym Prystako, said that Ukraine might contemplate not joining NATO if doing so would avert a Russian invasion.

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The ambassadors comment sparked enormous controversy back home, spurring Zelenskys spokesman, Oleg Nikolenko, to tweet on Monday that the remark was taken out of context, adding, Ukraines position remains unchanged. The goal of NATO membership is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine and no decision can contradict it. The matter of security guarantees for Ukraine is urgent.

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However, around the same time, Zelensky himself suggested that his ambassadors comments reflected his own thinking. He appeared at a joint press conference in Kyiv with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said that Ukraines membership in NATO was, for all practical terms, off the tableand Zelensky didnt disagree. Maybe the prospect of joining the Western military alliance was like a dream, the Ukrainian president mused, adding, How much should Ukraine go on that path? Who will support us? He acknowledged the stark reality that, with Russian troops surrounding his country, the U.S. and its allies have pledged support for Ukraine but have expressly said they would not send troops, as they would be required to do if Ukraine were a member of NATO.

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The question is whether Putin is satisfied with the fact that Ukraine will not join NATO anytime soon, or whether he still requires, as he has said in the past, a legal document that pledges Ukraine will never join.

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At a press conference with Scholz on Tuesday, Putin seemed unrelenting. They say [Ukrainian membership] wont happen tomorrow. But when? The day after tomorrow? So we want to resolve this issue now, he said. By peaceful means, he added. We proceed from this and very much hope that our concerns will be heard and taken seriously by our partners.

But if they dont, Putin said he is ready to pursue his security interests, as he sees them, through other means.

Is this bluster? Is Putin holding out for a few more concessions? If so, what precisely will be enough to pull back the troops and sit down at the negotiating table? Its not implausible that back-channel talks are going on between Putin and some U.S. emissary, as the rest of the world waits in suspense. If not, then were all flying a bit blind. As The Economist summed up the situation on Tuesday, Russia offers an olive branch, but still wields the sword.
This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

As Moscow threatens Ukraine to convince the United States and its European partners to abandon their postCold War policy of institutional creep to Russias borders, the U.S. foreign policy establishment has unleashed the (rhetorical) dogs of war. The joke among the troops of Gen. George Blood and Guts Patton was yeah, his guts; our blood. And just like Patton, some experts seem willing to fight to the last Ukrainian rather than give up the liberal hegemony project in Europe and treat Russia like a normal great power. Most great powers have a rule that they live by; political scientist Steve Van Evera calls it the NUPIMBY rule: no unfriendly powers in my backyard. The United States enforces this rule in its hemisphere; Russia is trying to establish it along its borders. An agreement among the United States, the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine itself that Ukraine would opt for neutrality rather than NATO membership would satisfy this principle, but so far Ukraine and its friends have rejected that solution.

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Because President Joe Biden explicitly has abjured any intention to send U.S. forces to fight in Ukraine and virtually no one believes that the outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian military could today mount a successful defense of the country, two nostrums have been commended by U.S. experts. Both encourage the Ukrainians to fight the Russians, but have little likelihood of producing military success.

The first is the panacea weapon solution. Advocates recommend showering the Ukrainian military with person-portable, precision-guided anti-tank (Javelin) and anti-aircraft (Stinger) weapons, though few say just how many of these expensive systems they would send. Given that Ukraine itself produces analogous weapons, it is surely the case that the Ukrainian army has trained some skilled operators, and could train more. The Javelins somewhat larger predecessor, the TOW, proved deadly in the hands of Syrian rebels versus Assads tanks. And early Stingers gave Afghan insurgents some leverage over Soviet attack helicopters. These are indeed excellent weapons.

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That said, they are not magical weapons in the large-scale, combined-arms, armored warfare that would likely characterize much if not most of the fighting in a Russian invasion. As demonstrated by the U.S. in two wars in Iraq, and by the Russians in recent fighting in the Donbas, well-armed, well-equipped, and determined attackers do everything they can to suppress infantry who may try to use these portable weapons. In particular, multiple rocket launchers firing large numbers of cluster munitions, with hundreds of bomblets per missile, supported by large amounts of more conventional artillery fire, make it quite challenging for missile gunners to engage the scores of armored fighting vehicles any one of them might encounter without getting killed.

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The implication for a battle in Ukraine is that where Russian armored units wish to succeed, they will pour vast firepower on defending Ukrainian troops, and then try to overwhelm them with superior numbers. This is how the Soviets planned to fight NATO, and this is how the Russians would likely attack the Ukrainians. Javelins and Stingers can certainly make the Russians pay, because they are indeed great weapons, but they are unlikely to change the operational outcomes. Ukrainian units would no doubt fight bravely, but given the geography of the country, the open topography of much of its landscape, and the overall numerical superiority that Russia enjoys, it is unlikely that Ukraine will be able to defend itself successfully.

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The second tool to shore up deterrence of a Russian attack is the threat to support a Ukrainian insurgency. Many Ukrainians are said to be rushing to the colors to demonstrate their willingness to defend the state. But insurgency is hard to organize and sustain in modern societies because the life of an insurgent is indescribably hard and an occupier can more readily monitor and control an urban than a rural population. The flat and open terrain in Ukraine is largely unfavorable to guerrilla warfare. This is particularly true in southeastern Ukraine, where Russian aggression seems most likely, given the lack of mountains, forests, or swamps for insurgents to use as base camps. Iraq did show that insurgencies can organize in urban and exurban environments, but it also showed that systematic repression can ultimately drive urban insurgents out of business. Counterinsurgency success depends greatly on intelligence. If the Russians were to confine their aggression to the area between their current bridgeheads in the Donbas and their 2014 conquest in Crimea, they may find a population that is more inclined to tolerate the occupation grudgingly than to fight it. There are many Russians and Russian speakers in this region, and though most would not welcome Russian troops, only a few need to prove cooperative for the Russians to collect sufficient intelligence to suppress urban insurgents.

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Russian occupiers might face a greater challenge were they to cross the Dnepr and attempt to conquer all of Ukraine. There they would encounter Ukrainian nationals and nationalists likely to contest a Russian occupation; collaborators might be scarce. The terrain, however, is only marginally better for an insurgency. There are forests and bogs along much of the Belarusian border where insurgents might shelter. But those who argue that the West could easily support them are probably wrong. With Belarusian help the Russians could surround this region. Insurgents might survive, but what else could they do? The Carpathian Mountains could offer a haven along the borders with Slovakia, Hungary, and Romaniaall NATO members. But insurgents in either stronghold probably could not strike widely or hard enough to eject the Russians from the rest of Ukraine. And if Russia puts troops on Ukraines borders, as they surely would, the West would be trying to support these insurgents with no direct undefended land route. To hold one open would require that the United States and its allies do what they manifestly do not wish to dofight the Russians.

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Advocates of arming the Ukrainians for a more robust conventional defense or for an insurgency implicitly acknowledge that U.S. forces either should not or for political reasons cannot help Ukraine defend itself. The solutions they recommend are unlikely to result in an autonomous, robust Ukrainian defensive capacity. Instead, these solutions simply would enable some heroic Ukrainians to kill and die more effectively for their country, while offering the promise of false hope that the West will come to its aid. And if Ukrainians believe that, then they also will continue to believe that they dont have to swallow the bitter pill of accepting armed neutrality between NATO and Russia, rather than NATO membership. Is opening the door to this kind of bloody but ultimately unsuccessful defense really more in NATOs interest and more in Ukraines interest than cutting a deal?

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Along a stretch of the Mississippi river, ash grey plumes of smoke stain a dusk-lit lavender skyline. Occasional fiery flares pulsate eerily. Cancer Alley, an 85-mile length of land flanked by New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is a pollution nerve center. Parishes in Cancer Alley once boasted more of the lush and magnificent swamplands native to the Mississippi corridor. Now, the region is blanketed by more than 150 oil refineries and chemical plants.

It is home, too, to 80-year-old Geraldine Watkins, a family matriarch and citizen of a small Louisiana town, LaPlace. The levels of cancer risk in LaPlace are staggering residents of a LaPlace census tract are about 50 times more likely than the average American to develop cancer from air pollution. Watkins tells me that when she opens her ranch homes back door at nightfall, she sometimes sees flarespropelled by plants burning off excess gasleaping from the stacks and casting a jaundiced glow on the town. The air smells like sulfur. She has seen, she says, multiple friends and family members die from cancer, or simply suffering from cancer. When you live in a community of this size, and you get to know the people of the community, she says, every day you get a notice either on the phone or in the newspaper  the schoolteacher, the preacher, the grocery store owner, the dress maker, the clerk in the storeone of them has died.

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(Watkins is a member of a local advocacy group, Concerned Citizens of St. John, that is represented by a nonprofit environmental law organization for which I previously worked.)

The Biden administration announced this month that it is renewing the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, a cancer-fighting enterprise that President Biden first championed in the Obama administration as vice president. The reignited program includes a formidable new goal to slash U.S. cancer deaths by half over 25 years. First inaugurated in 2016, the renewed program aims to complement current federal funding for cancer research by calling for increased screenings and detection efforts, and by promoting coordination among federal agencies and the private sector. Missing from the seven-page factsheet publicizing the relaunch, though: A new commitment to cutting air pollution.

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The aims of the presidents cancer moonshot are good. Its goals stretch over a multi-decade time horizon, well beyond the administrations tenure. Hopefully the program will see swifter gains, though advocates and experts lament that a fresh infusion of program funding has yet to materialize. Some medical and biostatistical experts also seriously doubt that the programs proposed actions, while desirable, will result in such a steep decline in deaths.

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Still, there are straightforward, uncomplicated actions that the government could takethat it is charged by law to take each day to protect public health. And each day, the government falls short of discharging that statutory and moral duty. A federal government that took seriously its responsibility to diminish the public health burden from pollutionby issuing strong regulations, by enforcing violations of existing pollution standardscould do so much good. Why not chase the clear, obvious wins in addition to the moonshots?

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Outdoor air pollution is estimated to kill as many as 8.7 million people per year globally. These deaths are attributable to not just various cancers, but also to heart disease, strokes, respiratory illnesses and other ailments. In America, air pollution is estimated to contribute to between 90,000 and 360,000 deaths each year.

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Those deaths persist despite the presence of the Clean Air Act, the nations flagship law dedicated to safeguarding communities from the devastating health harms caused by air pollution. In addition to regulating common criteria pollutants, such as particulate matter, the act requires the government to establish standards for major industrial sources of hazardous air pollutants, which principally affect communities near industrial pollution sources. According to the act, these standards must reflect effective technological performance for pollution control, prevent unacceptable health risks, and allow for an ample margin of safety to protect public health. The act also directs the government to periodically review and update pollution limits.

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But over the past several decades, the government has repeatedly set sub-par pollution standards, interpreting its obligations remarkably narrowly. The government has failed to update certain standards to match new technological capabilities. It has been laggard and unambitious in acting to protect communities from chemical disasters. It has often failed to require monitoring for pollution levels at facilities fence lines. It has entirely failed to set standards for some pollution sources. Gallingly, successive administrations have mostly faileddeliberatelyto sum cancer risks from multiple facilities and equipment when setting pollution limits. The result is that some of the most vulnerable people in the country face astronomically high cancer rates: A recent ProPublica investigation estimated that 256,000 people in America are exposed to cancer risks beyond the upper limit that EPA deems to be acceptablea limit that many experts justifiably think is too high.

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The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has occasionally rebuffed the governments efforts to underperform. But it has more often sanctioned the governments failure to set stronger pollution standards. Because court review of Clean Air Act regulations is confined in the first instance to the D.C. Circuit, that court is essentially the sole caretaker for a large body of jurisprudence about, well, breathing, that affects the entire nation. The courts permissive stance appears at odds with the purpose and vision of the statute. Its decisions have often consigned hundreds of thousands of Americans to live with preventable health harms. The upshot? It is often up to the government to do the right thing without being commanded.

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That has not yet happened in LaPlace, Louisiana, where Watkins lives. A majority-Black town in the heart of Cancer Alley, LaPlace hosts a neoprene rubber production plant that spits into the air vast quantities of a chemical called chloroprene. In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency classified chloroprene as a chemical likely to cause cancer. But the agency has neglected to update its regulations to account for that decade-old classification. The result is that the federal government does little to protect residents of LaPlace from plainly unacceptable levels of cancer risk. Watkins message to the government, meanwhile, is simple: Please set up a standard or regulation to stop these plants from killing us and our children, she pleads. Were dying from whats going on.

Astonishingly fast-paced treatment breakthroughs that halve total cancer deaths would be miraculousan unequivocal good. There are things the government can do to reduce deaths and improve public health, though, that arent miraculous at all. More attention to those more pedestrian items would serve us all well.
Recently I have found myself in several meetings where our university leaders have made pleas to the faculty: Students are going through a lot right now. Be patient. Be understanding. Be flexible. Be generous.

Even though these statements can ring a bit hollow coming from people who arent in the classroom regularly, I appreciate the directness. The past two years have been incredibly stressful and chaotic for our students as weve dealt with the COVID pandemic, its surges and variants, and all the abrupt adjustments to learning that have come in tow. Students are under a tremendous amount of pressure, not only to keep trudging on with their degree programs (not to mention if theyre undecided about their majors) but also to pivot and keep up with the changes they are presented with as this time bleeds on into an uncertain future.

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Before the pandemic, there were already multiple stressors at work on students: uncertain job markets, economic fluctuations, environmental disasters, and crushing student debt most obviously. A 2018 study found that from 2007 through 2017, mental health services utilized on college campuses increased by 15 percent. By fall 2019, more and more campus leaders were prioritizing mental health as a subject of concern and investment.

COVID triggered domino effects of isolation, heightened risk calculation, and constantly shifting safety measures that further disoriented students. Meanwhile, new if suddenly normalized digital media forms metastasized and promised more connection and consistency than ever before imaginable. The tension between these two vectorsless real community, more virtual connectivitycan be felt palpably in the classroom (remote and in-person) of late.

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My new book is called Pedagogy of the Depressedbut Im not sure anyone really needs to read it. Instead, I probably could have just made T-shirts with the title emblazoned on it. Most who have been in the classroom in recent years will know what Im talking about.

I asked a staff member at my universitys student counseling center about what particular pressures and stresses our students are dealing with, and they shared with me some aggregated anecdotes and trends that many of the clinicians had observed over the past several months.

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One of the more illuminating findings is almost too obvious, yet easy to overlook: Students who transitioned from high school to college during the first two years of the pandemic missed out on key developmental milestones and therefore have struggled with understanding (or being mentored through) the expectations that come with a baseline different modality of learning that college entails. In many cases, students havent been taught the skills that are cultivated during the final years of high school or in part-time or summer jobs during that timepersonal responsibility, punctuality, social cohesion in a professional setting. If they have, the lessons might not have had the reinforcement necessary to sink in. For instance, for students who have not been in a classroom in two years or havent had to go to a job (to show up on time and perform specific tasks like opening a counter or cash register), these sorts of basic experiences might have been missed out on.

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I asked the director of my universitys student success center about this phenomenon, and the findings were corroborated: What are called executive functioning and self-accountability skills appear to have plummeted among first- and second-year students, likely due to the recent gap in personal experiences in the world, as it were. So when it feels like students are overwhelmingly lacking skill sets that should be ingrained (or at least initiated) by the time they get to college, the lacuna of the pandemic years has most likely been a contributing factor. There is good reason to be patient with these students, then, because they are literally making up for lost time in their personal development.

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But problems of misidentifications can crop up here: Often what first appears as a simple time management issue or an academic challenge can end up being part of a deeper mental health concern. For example, an instance of a student not communicating with an instructor might be due to a lack of training or fluency with a schools messaging software, or to not understanding basic etiquette. But it could also be due to anxiety from cumulative time not communicating (or communicating in endlessly permutating ways) with others. Such cases can be incredibly difficult for both students and instructors to navigate, much less redress in real time.

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A particularly disturbing pattern appears around more first-year students with histories of suicidality as well as recent attempts, possibly attributable to long periods of time cut off from positive social contexts. And if it is not their own precarity, there are many cases where students are caring for friends or relatives who are on suicide watch. This can make certain humanities classes dicey. Reading poems about death, or learning about a particularly grisly period of history, or studying existentialismthese can turn from academic topics to triggering devices in an instant. There are entire novels and theoretical texts that I feel wary of teaching these days. For example, I used to regularly teach Gertrude Steins strange book Three Lives as an example of modernist experimentation with linguistic play, perspective, and cubistic representation. However, Steins characters deal bluntly and uncomfortably with matters of race, ethnicity, mixed identity, oppression, abuse, and painful deathissues that cant be easily bracketed in order to talk about formal aesthetics or historical context. The most subtle texts can be the most troubling: When we have to carefully distinguish between tone, style, and argument, a single offensive word or passage can trip us up and derail the lesson. I dont feel great about filtering my own syllabi in order to avoid potential emotional minefields. But I am realistic about the current conditions that many of my students are living through. Now I feel myself shying away from teaching the more complex, ambiguous texts that drew me into a life of critical inquiry in the first place. I just dont want to add unnecessary stress, at the moment.

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If much of the anxiety and insecurity that students feel can be traced to not being connected to their peers, and from an inability to build or feel community during lockdowns and quarantines, the tools for connection can contradictorily exacerbate the problems. As students have come to depend more on social media platforms for connections to their peers, a host of ill effects slip through these as-if straightforward interfaces. My universitys counseling center has noted a rise in body image issues and disordered eating; these may stem from the unrealistic and unhealthy expectations that proliferate across social media, including wellness trends of so-called self-optimization.

A thorny consequence of this pernicious media dynamic is that, as institutions respond by amplifying their own digital presence, students may develop an adverse or abject relationship to the very tools that are intended to help them. For instance, when social media and learning management software operate in formally similar ways on students personal smartphones, it may be no surprise that students may behave erratically toward their educational technologies.

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All of this often results in an underlying atmosphere of guilt and shame, and students at my university have expressed feeling overwhelmed, paralyzed, and isolated from what is supposed to be a collective experience. Clinicians at my university noted an increase in perceptions that life was meaningless, as well as senses of disillusionment with institutions and authority figures, and cynicism about what the future holds.

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These are extremely intimidating circumstances in which to teach difficult material. College is precisely about intellectual growth and being challenged to think new thoughtsoften involving rigorous workloads and finding oneself outside of ones comfort zone. When college students are already taxed by cultural pressures, personal afflictions, and a general sense of doom, it is not realistic to expect them to leave all this outside of the classroom and simply learn.

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I will readily admit that I feel less and less equipped to teach these days. I never know what supercharged issues are going to spring up in class, or even before we start. Viral news headlines can be triggeringtwice over in the aftermath of school shootings. A tense exchange or act of trolling on a students Twitter feed right before class can ripple through the classroom, present if inarticulable.

My colleagues and I often remark how the current demands of teaching exceed our paygrade. We are not trained therapists or counselors, even though our mentoring and advising increasingly bleed into these roles. I have had to stay with a suicidal student for multiple hours until we found them help. I receive emails from worried parents about their children who are my students, and then have to figure out whether or how to reply, and what other professionals on campus to loop in at the right moment. Students share in class or write about past and current traumas, requiring me to respondeven if to gently guide us back onto proper academic ground. But every day, this ground seems more like thin ice.

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I have resorted to teaching strategies like ungrading and open-ended final projects in order to depressurize the classroom and allow my students to relax and enjoy learning. I have attempted to make my classes a pause button on the noise beyondcultural and digital. I encourage collaboration, to get my students to create and think together.

But the truth is that I feel downtrodden by much of what counts as teaching these days. I know Im not alone in this feeling. And yet, the semesters trundle on.

Support from campus leadersencouraging flexibility and generosityis important. But these sentiments can also run into hard realities of curricular requirements and demonstrable knowledge acquisition. It gets complicated in the classroom, and over a whole semester.

There are not clear answers or quick solutions here, but I think we have to start by acknowledging the truly entangled situation that all of us are in. Mental health on campus cant be addressed through one centralized office, nor can it be dismissed as ancillary to academic learning. It gets into everything. And now its part of the topos of teaching, whether instructors are trained for it or not.

State of Mind is a partnership of Slate and Arizona State University that offers a practical look at our mental health systemand how to make it better.
This article originally appeared in Zocalo Public Square.

A friend recently reminded Kavita, a physician epidemiologist, about a text exchange the two had shared in February 2020. When he asked how worried he should be about SARS-CoV-2, then a novel coronavirus, Kavita had told him to get his flu vaccine, texting that influenza was the most important respiratory virus circulating in the U.S. at the time.

Today their conversation seems darkly humorous. Kavitas recommendation to get the flu shot held up. But as we all know now, SARS-CoV-2 rapidly became the most important pathogen of concern. The friend was absolutely right to have worried about ita lot.

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After two years of evolving science and persistent uncertainty, one thing has become clear: People increasingly mistrust public health agencies, and the scientists who inform these policies because our information cycles fundamentally are mismatched to the way the scientific community develops recommendations and guidance.

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The virus that unleashed COVID-19 did not arrive with an instruction manual, much less GoPro cameras to let us observe exactly how it affects individuals and populations. To learn how the virus behaves, scientists need to research and evaluate it, and to synthesize their findingsand to repeat the process every time a new variant emerges. Yes, the scientific community has mobilized to share information, lifting the paywalls that limit access to scholarly journals and innovating to ensure new studies are read broadly and quickly. But a significant gap remains between early research findings and implementable, science-based recommendations.

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The time it takes to bridge that gapoccasionally days but more often weeks or monthsis way too long for a world in which stories go viral in minutes, and content creators race for consumers eyes and ears.

A recent example is unfolding still. On Nov. 26, 2021, the World Health Organization announced the identification of omicron as a variant of concern. Scientists around the globe rapidly gathered, shared, and analyzed information, then began deliberating how this variant behaved among different groups (e.g., vaccinated versus unvaccinated, children versus adults, symptomatic versus asymptomatic, immunocompromised versus immunocompetent, in places where delta still predominated versus in places where it had abated, etc.). Then, they had to synthesize those conclusions into guidance. The general public heard and saw very little of this process, instead experiencing co-narration by a thousand voices, predicting what Omicron might mean, from thats the end of the pandemic! to it defeats the vaccine!

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At a White House press conference during omicrons peak, President Biden was asked why he hadnt changed leadership at the CDC. The question implied that since the CDCs advice continues to evolve, CDC leadership must be confused. The messages, to the extent theyve been confusingits because the scientists, theyre learning more, the president responded, underscoring our point.

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The public needs to remain aware that the messages were receiving through the media and others may reflect preliminary science. Having access to early information and competing points of view is part of being informed citizens. But what we do with such information matters. Here are a few ways we can gut check ourselves if (when) the next big sensational story happens: We can pause to acknowledge that headlines or social media posts, however definitively worded, may represent just one facet of early and incomplete findings. We can read further and seek other trusted sourcesnot to confirm our views, but to get more context to round out the picture. And we can try to remember that preliminary discoveries and varied interpretations are part of the process.

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While its true that many public health agencies have struggled to communicate succinctly and clearly, their job (arguably, the most important one) is to control and prevent communicable diseases and health threats. These agencies focus on protecting current and future populations. Their successful public health efforts are not always emphasized, and are often taken for granted, remaining relatively invisible.

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Consequentially, weve forgotten certain lessons from the past. After the 1918 and 1919 flu pandemic, public healths pandemic and epidemic prevention efforts ramped uponly to decline in recent decades as we all settled into an optimistic sense that we would never face a years-long pandemic with more than 900,000 national deaths and counting. Preventing disease has taken a back seat in the public consciousness. Instead of supporting and expanding public health infrastructure and personnel, congressional and state budgets have only temporarily increased. Our healthcare infrastructure runs really lean, forcing us to respond to dangers as they hit. Weve faced our most dramatic healthcare staffing shortages yet during the Omicron surge, even though weve already experienced crisis-level shortages at least twice before in the pandemic.

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Perhaps we also learned some wrong lessons from other recent, potentially pandemic-level pathogens. The rapid identification and successful control of coronaviruses SARS and MERS resulted in those epidemics going off the radar for most people in the U.S. in a matter of weeks to months. Public expectations of a quick resolution may have solidified around these successes.

They certainly affected public health officials expectations in late 2019 and early 2020. The successful strategies for containing SARS and MERS had relied on contract tracing and shutdownsnot masks. When SARS-CoV-2 emerged, epidemiologists applied the knowledge they had of these prior coronaviruses, while they worked to learn more. Unfortunately, this new virus turned out to be armed with an invisibility cloak of asymptomatic transmission, which called for different recommendations. Looking back now, we can see how expectations, early science, and public health messaging were out of sync from the start.

It is easy to point fingers at the health officials who told the public not to wear masks in March 2020. It is harder to live with todays firehose of information, and decide to read beyond the headlines. Innovations and advancements have sped up the development of evidence-based guidance, but the process will never catch up to todays information cycles. Perhaps one main lesson from the past 24 months is that the road goes both ways. As scientists are learning, the rest of us should be, too.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
ARCHIVED - Record-breaking temperatures expected across Spain: Weather forecast February 15-18



Thermometers could rise as high as 25 C across much of Spain this week

With an anticyclone bathing Spain in balmy temperatures since the beginning of 2022, the drought situation continues to worsen throughout the country, with many areas preparing for water restrictions and farmers fearing the worst with their upcoming harvests . Spain has just experienced the second driest January of the 21st century, according to Jose Antonio Maldonado of Meteored, and very little rain is expected in the coming weeks.

Although last weekend was particularly wet in northern parts of the country, the current dry spell is set to last all week and the scattered showers forecast will only reach the Cantabrian coast, the meteorologist has predicted. And while some rain will fall in Galicia and neighbouring provinces in the middle of next week, this scant amount of precipitation will be nowhere near enough to replete the diminishing reservoirs, which are now at less than half their capacity across Spain.

A subtropical air current is expected to bring decidedly toasty temperatures this week, and if the mercury doesnt reach record highs it will only be because there is a great thermal contrast between day and night-time temperatures, which overall balances the average.

See also: Ghost village emerges in Spain as drought empties reservoir

From Wednesday February 16, the thermometers are set to rise to as high as 25 C in some coastal and south-eastern areas, while on Thursday, the sunny Region of Murcia could even exceed this. Meanwhile, Sevilla , Granada and Valencia can expect the mercury to hover somewhere around 20C.

Friday is tipped to be the warmest day of the week, with extraordinary daytime temperatures for the time of year, more typical of mid or late spring, the experts predict.

The anticyclonic front will remain over the country, and some records could be broken in cities such as Teruel, Girona, Lleida or Granada .

Image: Aemet
The choir Devjatkakere Chave has put out its first music video.

Devjatkakere Chave, a Roma children's choir from Kosice, during a recording session at the Slovak Public Radio building in Bratislava in December 2021. (Source: Ludmila Podjavorinska Primary School Kosice)

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In their very first music video, Roma children let people know they love the world, and that it belongs to everyone regardless of their family background.

For the Slovak-Roma song Milujeme svet (We Love the World) about 40 children travelled to the High Tatras for the first time in late 2021 to shoot the video in cooperation with the private television channel Joj and with the support of an anonymous donor.

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This gave them the feeling that they meant something, and they were able to achieve something, Ludmila Podjavorinska Primary School Kosice Principal Iveta Roskova told Joj.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/018cEADqgZw

The production is set in the beautiful scenery near the popular mountain lake Skalnate pleso. Some scenes were also filmed in Lunik IX, where these children come from.

Sang for the pope

Growing up in this notorious Kosice neighbourhood, one of the most neglected parts of Slovakia, young talent have found refuge in music and their local primary school choir Devjatkakere Chave.

Formed in 2019, the ensemble at Ludmila Podjavorinska Primary School is led by choirmaster Ondrej Ferko.

We Love the World We love the world and we can prove everyone that the world belongs to us all. Your quarrels and afflictions hurt us, dear adults. We wish to live forever in peace with you. We ask you all to give yourself a break. After all, the world is big and everyone has a place in it. So lets be kind to one other.

Though it is a young choir, children were invited to perform for Pope Francis during his visit to Kosice and even appeared on Czechoslovakias Got Talent last September.

Not only Roma children from the school filmed a music video, though.

Teachers song

Their teachers haven't fallen behind.

In December 2021, they released the song Vzdy si vieme cestu k sebe najst (We Can Always Find Our Way to Each Other) in which they sing about the relationship between teachers and students impacted by the pandemic.

The song symbolises that even in difficult situations we can support each other and hold on, school principal Iveta Roskova said.
KABUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Following the U.S.-led forces withdrawal and Taliban's takeover of power in August 2021, the war in Afghanistan was over, a development that has been widely welcomed by Afghans.

However, an economic crisis has been worsened in Afghanistan, with the poverty hitting the country badly.

"To be frank, the country is peaceful over the past six months, as there is almost no fighting in Afghanistan. But unfortunately, some countrymen left the country mostly due to economic hardships," political analyst and former government employee Liluma Nuri observed.

Since the Taliban takeover of power in August last year, no major fighting has been reported in Afghanistan. The terror group Islamic State has since not launched any big attacks.

"We can go from one place to another even at midnight," Noor Aqa, a vegetable vendor in Kabul, told Xinhua.

Following the U.S. military withdrawal, Washington has slapped sanctions on the new Afghan administration, freezing Afghanistan's central bank assets worth more than 9 billion U.S. dollars and thus plunging the aid-dependent country into the economic crisis and poverty.

"We have security today but unfortunately we are struggling for naan ( traditional flat bread) as the economic problem has sandwiched everyone," Kabul resident Abdul Sami said.

Deputy spokesman for the Taliban administration Inammullah Samangani told Xinhua that the administration has been working hard to stabilize the economy.

Samangani blamed Washington for the dire economic situation in Afghanistan. He criticized the U.S. decision on allocating 3.5 billion dollars of Afghanistan's assets to the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks without consent of the Taliban administration.

Such a decision with regard to foreign exchange reserves of Afghanistan is hasty and unfair, demonstrating the U.S. immorality, Samangani told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Sunday.

In the post-war era, the Afghan people are hoping to see more investment for reconstruction. "Since the security has been ensured across Afghanistan, national and international companies could invest," economic expert Abdul Nasir Rushtia told Xinhua. 
The blockade starts on Tuesday evening and should continue on Wednesday.

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Hauliers are going on strike. On February 15 in the evening hours, they will block the border crossing with the Czech Republic, reported news website tvnoviny.sk. The strike should continue on February 16.

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Hauliers, after blocking traffic on Roznavska Street in Bratislava on February 14, said that the ministers did not react to their four demands and that they are not solving the situation.

A warning strike, when they blocked only one lane on Roznavska Street, is thus over.

They moved to the Kuty border crossing with the Czech Republic on the evening of February 15.

They also plan to block the border crossings in Trstena (towards Poland), Slovenske Darmoty, Sahy and Medvedov (all three of them towards Hungary). The blockade of the border crossings in Drietoma (towards the Czech Republic) and Milhost (towards Hungary) are in the works, too, as reported by the SITA newswire.

Organisers have announced that they are coordinating their steps with police.

The police have asked drivers to use alternative routes and avoid the blocked border crossings.

Why they are striking

Hauliers want to bring attention to the problems their sector faces. Among their demands is the adjustments of fuel prices, similarly to Poland and Hungary, a further decrease of the road toll, a refund of the consumption tax from fuels but also a lower price of toll payment.

The Transport Ministry denounced on Monday that the hauliers are taking decent people who need to go to work or to the doctor as hostages by blocking transport.

We denounce such pressure, moreover with the participation of fascists, and we consider it to be extremely unfortunate, spokesperson for the ministry Ivan Rudolf said on Monday, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

Stanislav Skala from the Union of Slovakias Road Hauliers (UNAS) said that the ministry does not want to solve the situation and they are only making excuses using supporters of the far-right LSNS, who are disturbing their protests, according to Skala.

We don't want to do it so as to turn people against us, Skala said for TASR.
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/australian-pm-accuses-labor-party-of-appeasing-ccp-as-china-takes-centre-stage-ahead-of-federal-1093048172.html

Australian PM Accuses Labor Party of Appeasing CCP as China Takes Centre Stage Ahead of Federal Vote

Australian PM Accuses Labor Party of Appeasing CCP as China Takes Centre Stage Ahead of Federal Vote

Australia's main opposition Labor Party says that the government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been whipping up fears over national security to prop up... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

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2022-02-15T13:22+0000

australia

china

communist party of china (cpc)

scott morrison

peter dutton

kevin rudd

labor party (australia)

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday accused the federal opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) of appeasing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as he launched another scathing political attack on what he described as Labor's "double-mindedness" on Beijing."[The Labor Party], want to appease when it comes to China - the Chinese Government, I should say ... Not the Chinese people, we love the Chinese people and particularly the Chinese Australians are the most patriotic," Morrison said during an interview with local Sydney radio station, 2SM.In the interview, Morrison also slammed Labors shadow home minister, Kristina Keneally, for stalling the governments Migration Amendment Character Test Bill from being cleared in the Parliament.What this does is, we're talking about serious offences and a serious offence that carries a potential penalty of two years or more. And what we're doing here is if the judge doesn't give that penalty, we're not letting that out. And that's why the law has to change and we want to change it, argued Morrison.The Labor Party, for its part, has claimed that the government has been trying to divert the voters focus from its shortcomings by accusing the opposition of being soft on Beijing and stalling the proposed Bill which is set to be voted on in the parliaments lower house on Wednesday.A popular opinion poll this month claimed that the Labor Party led the government by 56-44 in approval ratings and were an election to be held now, would win a landslide. This is the most popular the Labor Party has been since September 2018."You and your colleagues should be focused on the COVID recovery, not another desperate attempt to manufacture an argument with the opposition in the lead-up to an election," Keneally said in a series of tweets aimed at the Morrison government on Tuesday.The opposition politician further argued that rules at present already permit the immigration minister to deport violent offenders and no change of laws was needed.Kevin Rudd, Australias former Prime Minister from the Labor Party, also lambasted the Morrison government for bringing up China in a domestic political debate ahead of the election.Labor Has a Pattern of Beahviour on China, says Liberal MPSenator James Paterson, Morrisons colleague and chairman of the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, also joined his boss in slamming the Labor Party for its alleged soft stance on Beijing.Paterson also took pot shots at another Labor leader, the deputy opposition leader Richard Marles, for a 2019 speech in Beijing, in which the Australian politician called for closer military ties between China and Australia.These recent statements by Morrison and Paterson come after Australia's Defence Minister Peter Dutton claimed in Parliament last week that the Chinese Communist Party wanted Albanese to be the next Australian Prime Minister.We now see evidence, Mr Speaker, that the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government, has also made a decision about who theyre going to back in the next federal election... and that is open and that is obvious, and they have picked [Albanese] as that candidate, Dutton said.Last week, Australias director-general of security, Mike Burgess, also warned in a threat assessments speech that foreign governments could try to interfere in the upcoming election.He said that the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has already identified a puppeteer with links to a foreign government who could channel hundreds of thousands of dollars as political donations to sway the election outcome.The alleged puppeteer has reportedly been identified as billionaire businessman of Chinese origin, Chau Chak Wing, an Australian citizen and one of the countrys largest political donors.Burgess has claimed that his agency has already foiled a foreign interference plot in the domestic election process.

https://sputniknews.com/20220207/murdochs-first-warning-news-corp-columnist-calls-to-replace-australian-pm-with-defence-minister-1092816965.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211114/australia-vows-to-support-us-in-taiwan-in-event-of-confrontation-with-china-1090731296.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220215/biden-says-ready-for-diplomacy-with-moscow-but-will-respond-decisively-if-russia-invades-ukraine-1093065264.html

Biden Says Ready for Diplomacy With Moscow But Will Respond 'Decisively' If Russia 'Invades' Ukraine

Biden Says Ready for Diplomacy With Moscow But Will Respond 'Decisively' If Russia 'Invades' Ukraine

Washington announced earlier it was relocating some of its diplomatic personnel from the Ukrainian capital to the city of Lviv and is to pull out all the... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

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russia-nato row on european security

ukraine

russia

us

joe biden

crisis

diplomacy

vladimir putin

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Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the United States is ready to engage in diplomacy with Russia, but also to respond decisively if Moscow invades Ukraine, which he believes is still a possibility."The United States is prepared no matter what happens, to engage in diplomacy with Russia and our allies and partners to improve security and stability in Europe ... and we are ready to respond decisively to a Russian attack on Ukraine. It is still very much a possibility," Biden said."To be clear, if Russia decides to invade, that would also have consequences here at home, but the American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without costs," Biden said."We're proposing new arms control measures, new transparency measures, new strategic stability measures. These measures apply to all parties, NATO and Russia alike," Biden said. "We are willing to make practical result-oriented steps that can advance our common security. We will not sacrifice basic principles though.""The United States and NATO are not a threat to Russia. Ukraine is not threatening Russia, neither the US nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not have plans to put them there as well. We are not targeting the people of Russia. We do not seek to destabilize Russia. To the citizens of Russia: You are not our enemy," Biden added.Biden Believes in Leader-to-Leader Diplomacy, White House SaysWhite House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Tuesday that there is no information on a follow-up meeting between Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin to preview after their security talks during this past weekend.Western hysteria over an alleged preparation for an "invasion" of Ukraine has been going on for the past few months, which the US and its NATO allies have justified by what they call Russia's "military build-up" near the Ukrainian border. Moscow has repeatedly stated it is not threatening Ukraine, or any other state, while it has the right to move troops within its national territory.At the same time, Russia has expressed strong concerns over NATO's military activity near its own borders, which Moscow deems a threat to national security. Last week, a Virginia-class US submarine was spotted in the Russian territorial waters, the country's defense ministry said. The submarine first ignored the demand to come up to the surface, but then left the Russian waters.

https://sputniknews.com/20220215/can-they-be-more-specific-putin-chuckles-at-media-predictions-on-ukraine-invasion-start-date-1093055866.html

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ukraine, russia, us, joe biden, crisis, diplomacy, vladimir putin
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/blinken-tells-lavrov-us-looks-forward-to-receiving-russias-written-response-to-proposals-1093063619.html

Blinken Tells Lavrov US Looks Forward to Receiving Russia's Written Response to Proposals

Blinken Tells Lavrov US Looks Forward to Receiving Russia's Written Response to Proposals

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a phone call told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Washington looks forward to... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T19:26+0000

2022-02-15T19:26+0000

2022-02-15T19:26+0000

russia-nato row on european security

us

ukraine

russia

troops

antony blinken

sergei lavrov

diplomacy

crisis

nato

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"He stated that the United States looks forward to receiving Russias written response to the US and NATO papers shared with Moscow last month proposing concrete areas for discussion regarding European security in coordination with our Allies and partners," Price said. "He noted the [Russian] Foreign Ministers statement that it would be transmitted within the coming days.""The Secretary reiterated the US commitment to continue to pursue a diplomatic solution to the crisis Moscow has precipitated Secretary Blinken reiterated our ongoing concerns that Russia has the capacity to launch an invasion of Ukraine at any moment and emphasized the need to see verifiable, credible, meaningful de-escalation," Price said in a readout of the leaders call.Lavrov noted "the inadmissibility of the aggressive rhetoric whipped up by Washington and its closest allies", the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.During the conversation, Lavrov called on the United States and its allies "to engage in a pragmatic dialogue on the entire range of issues raised by Russia with an emphasis on the principle of indivisibility of security."Lavrov and Blinken also discussed a schedule of upcoming contacts at various levels. The conversation took place at the initiative of the US side, the ministry noted.In the past few months, the West and Ukraine have accused Russia of a troop build-up near the Ukrainian border in alleged preparation for an "invasion." Moscow has denied these accusations, repeatedly stating that it is not threatening anyone and at the same time expressing strong concerns over NATO's military activity near the Russian borders, which it deems a threat to its national security. Moscow has also said Russia has the right to move troops within its national territory.

https://sputniknews.com/20220215/putin-calls-ongoing-events-in-donbass-genocide-1093057321.html

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us, ukraine, russia, troops, antony blinken, sergei lavrov, diplomacy, crisis, nato, european security
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/canada-sends-machine-guns-and-sniper-rifles-worth-over-7-mln-to-ukraine-1093041760.html

Canada Sends Machine Guns and Sniper Rifles Worth Over $7 Mln to Ukraine

Canada Sends Machine Guns and Sniper Rifles Worth Over $7 Mln to Ukraine

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Canada's military assistance to Ukraine includes machine guns and sniper rifles, the Canadian Department of National Defence said in a... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T05:49+0000

2022-02-15T05:49+0000

2022-02-15T05:49+0000

canada

ukraine

russia

machine gun

machine guns

sniper rifle

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Kiev and Western states have recently expressed concern about the alleged increase in "aggressive actions" by Russia near the borders of Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly denied such accusations, 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 the country's borders.

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ukraine

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canada, ukraine, russia, machine gun, machine guns, sniper rifle
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/cryptocurrency-ban-advisable-as-its-worse-than-ponzi-schemes-top-indian-bank-official-says-1093041068.html

Cryptocurrency Ban Advisable as It's Worse Than Ponzi Schemes, Top Indian Bank Official Says

Cryptocurrency Ban Advisable as It's Worse Than Ponzi Schemes, Top Indian Bank Official Says

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech on 1 February announced a flat 30 percent tax on income from cryptocurrency. She had also... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T08:37+0000

2022-02-15T08:37+0000

2022-02-15T08:37+0000

india

india

crypto currency

crypto currency

cryptocurrency

reserve bank of india

reserve bank of india (rbi)

the reserve bank of india

business

business

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The Deputy Governor of India's central bank T. Rabi Sankar has called for an outright ban on cryptocurrencies in the country, saying that they are akin to Ponzi schemes and "may even be worse".Addressing an event organised by the Indian Banks Association, Sankar on Monday said that cryptocurrency "is underpinned by a philosophy to evade government controls", claiming that it was invented specifically to bypass the regulated financial system. He further said that banning cryptocurrency is perhaps the most advisable choice open to India and there are strong reasons to keep cryptocurrencies away from the formal financial system.A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from later investors. It has little or no legitimate earnings.The deputy chief of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also said that digital currencies can wreck the currency system, monetary authority, the banking system, and in general, the government's ability to control the economy.The statement from Shankar came after RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das reiterated his concerns over cryptocurrencies.While addressing a press conference after the latest RBI monetary policy review last week, Das had cautioned investors investing in cryptocurrencies.The RBI has been raising concerns over digital currencies. In April 2018, it banned banks from supporting crypto-transactions after cases of fraud involving virtual currencies were reported. However, the Supreme Court of India struck down the ban in March 2020.The RBI, however, has not yet granted legal tender status to any cryptocurrency.

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india, india, crypto currency, crypto currency, cryptocurrency, reserve bank of india, reserve bank of india (rbi), the reserve bank of india, business, business, finance, finance minister, economy, economy, economy
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/durham-probe-shows-power-elite-stoked-new-cold-war-with-russia-tulsi-gabbard-says-1093063821.html

Durham Probe Shows 'Power Elite' Stoked New Cold War With Russia, Tulsi Gabbard Says

Durham Probe Shows 'Power Elite' Stoked New Cold War With Russia, Tulsi Gabbard Says

Not even fellow-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard was spared Hillary Clinton's fall-back slur that all her opponents were 'Russian assets' when she opposed the former... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T21:37+0000

2022-02-15T21:37+0000

2022-02-15T23:47+0000

tulsi gabbard

hillary clinton

donald trump

us

russia

cold war

russiagate

john durham

federal bureau of investigation (fbi)

john brennan

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Former Democrat congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has accused Hillary Clinton of stoking the Cold War with Russia  while undermining US democracy.The Hawaiian US Army Iraq War veteran, who sought the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020, spoke out after Special Counsel John Durham revealed Clinton paid cyber-security experts to hack into Trump's election campaign and even White House computer servers.Durham said Clinton told the firm to help establish a "narrative" and "inference" to back her false claim that former president Donald Trump 'colluded' with Russia to defeat her in the 2016 election.Durham was appointed by the FBI in 2019 to probe the 'Russiagate' claims, but his investigations have turned the spotlight onto those who tried to accuse Trump.Among the revelations is an allegation by former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe that then-CIA director John Brennan was aware of Clinton's activities  and briefed outgoing president Barack Obama and his vice-president Joe Biden on them.On Monday night Fox News' Jesse Waters reminded Gabbard that Clinton had also tried to smear her fellow-Democrat  an outspoken opponent of Washington's aggressive foreign policy  as a "Russian asset"."Hillary Clinton and the power elite in this country manufactured the 'Russian collusion' lie, actively undermining our democracy, and stoking the fires, moving us into this new Cold War with Russia," Gabbard said."The damage that they did to the American people, our democracy and others around the world is immeasurable," she added. "It leads us to this point where we sit today, where we have people who were integral in making this happen, people like [National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan, shaping our country's foreign policy."Gabbard recalled that Sullivan was one of the "key voices" in "propagating this lie to the American people." Sullivan has been one the main sources for Washington's repeated unsubstantiated claims that Russia is preparing to invade US client state Ukraine "imminently".Another is Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who publicly justified his predecessor Clinton's push for the disastrous military intervention in Libya and help formulate her policy of fomenting the sectarian insurgency in Syria.Two-thirds of Democrat voters want Clinton investigated over her attempt to spy on a sitting president, a poll found.

https://sputniknews.com/20220215/probe-into-hillary-clinton-penetration-of-trump-2016-campaign-accelerating-reports-suggest-1093040772.html

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tulsi gabbard, hillary clinton, donald trump, us, russia, cold war, russiagate, john durham , federal bureau of investigation (fbi), john brennan, central intelligence agency (cia), fox news, jake sullivan, joe biden, barack obama, antony blinken
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/highly-likelyagain-uk-foreign-secretary-claims-kiev-is-certainly-target-for-russia-1093053546.html

'Highly Likely'...Again: UK Foreign Secretary Claims Kiev is 'Certainly' Target for Russia

'Highly Likely'...Again: UK Foreign Secretary Claims Kiev is 'Certainly' Target for Russia

For months nations in the West have been peddling allegations that Russia might invade Ukraine even as Moscow strongly denied planning any action and Kiev... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T13:24+0000

2022-02-15T13:24+0000

2022-02-15T13:24+0000

uk

russia

ukraine

invasion

allegations

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UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has claimed that Kiev is "certainly" a target for Russia. She added that London is "very fearful" of an attack on Ukraine's capital, noting that Russian troops can reach Kiev "very, very quickly".The foreign secretary went on to claim that in London's view the "invasion" was "imminent" and that it was "highly likely". She went on to repeat the unsubstantiated allegations by the US that Russia is likely to use a "false flag" operation as a pretext for the purported invasion.This is not the first time the UK has used the term "highly likely" when trying to describe Russia's alleged involvement in nefarious acts. London has systematically failed to provide a shred of hard evidence that would back up its allegations (or even the use of such strong language). In one of the last instances of it being used, then-UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab claimed that Russia "highly likely" tried to meddle in the 2019 General Election despite admitting that London had no specific evidence to prove it.Warmongering Continues Even as Russia Withdraws Portion of TroopsLiz Truss made her claims as Russia was withdrawing a portion of the nation's troops from the border with Ukraine after the end of military drills. Nations in the West previously cited the concentration of Russian forces, allegedly in quantities exceeding 100,000, as the main reason behind their fears of an alleged invasion of Ukraine.The Russian Defence Ministry announced the withdrawal of a part of these troops on 15 February, a day before the date that Western governments see as the possible date of the attack according to some media outlets. The West has repeatedly asked Moscow to pull out troops to ease the tensions around Ukraine.Yet, despite Russia effectively fulfilling the West's months-long requests by pulling out forces, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss insisted that London will believe that an invasion won't happen only after the Kremlin withdraws all of the country's troops from the border with Ukraine.Russia has repeatedly rejected attempts by foreign governments to force it to withdraw the nation's forces noting that it is Moscow's sovereign right to deploy troops as it sees fit. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also separately stated on 15 February that the withdrawal was not prompted by the Western hysteria or any foreign pressure, but was scheduled to happen after the end of the military drills.The Kremlin has on multiple occasions rejected claims by the US and other NATO countries that it plans to invade Ukraine. Furthermore, Kiev itself has questioned the intelligence on which the West has based its allegations. Still, the US and its allies continue to ramp up the hysteria around the allegedly planned "invasion", with American National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan recently claiming that a Russian attack on Ukraine could happen any day now. He, however, admitted that Washington has no way of knowing when exactly.

ukraine

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uk, russia, ukraine, invasion, allegations
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/historic-papal-seal-helps-locate-legendary-medieval-assembly-in-sweden-1093042644.html

Historic Papal Seal Helps Locate Legendary Medieval Assembly in Sweden

Historic Papal Seal Helps Locate Legendary Medieval Assembly in Sweden

The Baltic island of Gotland is Sweden's largest and is famed for its seafarers, commerce, and strong local identity, as well as a long tradition of medieval... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T06:22+0000

2022-02-15T06:22+0000

2022-02-15T06:22+0000

sweden

scandinavia

news

archaeology

history

middle ages

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A important medieval find, a papal bull seal from the year 1334, has been made in the village of Roma on the Swedish island of Gotland.The seal, which is about 4 centimetres long and made of lead, had been attached to a letter from Pope John XXII. On one side of the seal, the apostles Paul and Peter are depicted, with the name of the pope on the other. The seal is broken in half, probably from when the letter was opened, national broadcaster SVT reported.Pope John XXII is known to have sent a letter to Gotland on 28 April 1334, in which he let the Gotlanders avoid going to the mainland during the winter to testify in court. It showed the support they enjoyed from the pope who was a power factor in Europe. It is very likely that this seal was attached to that very letter.The Roma project is run by the Gotland Museum in collaboration with the universities of Stockholm and Uppsala. One of the goals of the project is to find the Gotland Thing, a governing assembly or folkmoot, in which elected "lawspeakers" gathered from the entire island and made laws and dispensed justice until the 17th century. Majvor Ostergren now believes the place has been found.At present, archaeologists are looking for additional funding to complete their research and admittedly are "chasing sponsors".Gotland is Sweden's largest island located in the Baltic Sea. With a population of some 59,000, it forms a province of its own with Visby being the local capital. Known as a major commercial centre from the Viking Age onwards, Visby became one of the key Hanseatic League cities in the Baltic Sea. Gotlanders, known historically as Gutes, are one of the progenitor groups of modern Swedes and retain a distinct local identity and strong dialect.In 1164, Sweden became an ecclesiastical province of the Catholic Church and Catholicism became firmly established. Sweden even contributed its fair share of saints, with Saint Bridget being the most famous. Under the banner of the Catholic Church Swedes even participated in their own versions of the crusades and launched a plethora of expeditions to Christianise Finland and the Baltic states. In the 1500s, though, the country switched to Protestantism and became a bastion of Lutheranism.

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sweden, scandinavia, news, archaeology, history, middle ages
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/kremlin-ironically-on-morning-invasion-ukrainians-should-set-alarms--see-if-anything-happens-1093065443.html

Kremlin Responds to 'Invasion' News: Ukrainians Should Set Alarms & See If Anything Happens

Kremlin Responds to 'Invasion' News: Ukrainians Should Set Alarms & See If Anything Happens

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Kremlin reacted ironically to the reports of a number of Western media about the Russian "invasion" of Ukraine next morning, with... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T21:11+0000

2022-02-15T21:11+0000

2022-02-15T21:22+0000

dmitry peskov

ukraine

russia

viral

nato

kremlin

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Earlier this week, UK tabloids announced the time of "Russia's invasion into Ukraine," scheduling it for 3 a.m. Wednesday local time (01:00 GMT). The Mirror wrote about this citing US intelligence sources, who allegedly reported this to the publication's employees in Kiev. The Sun also announced 3 a.m. as the most likely time for the invasion, citing US intelligence.Washington earlier announced it was relocating some of its diplomatic personnel from the Ukrainian capital to the city of Lviv amid security concerns. According to US State Secretary Antony Blinken, the departure of most of the American staff at the US embassy in Kiev was ordered because the "risk of Russian military action is high enough and the threat is imminent enough that this is the prudent thing to do."In the past few months, the West and Ukraine have accused Russia of a troop build-up near the Ukrainian border in alleged preparation for an "invasion." Moscow has denied these accusations, repeatedly stating that it is not threatening anyone and at the same time expressing strong concerns over NATO's military activity near the Russian borders, which it deems a threat to its national security. Moscow has also said Russia has the right to move troops within its national territory.

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dmitry peskov, ukraine, russia, viral, nato, kremlin
China's vaccine assistance "goodwill gesture": The Diplomat

Xinhua) 14:13, February 15, 2022

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's vaccine assistance is "winning the diplomacy race," which has generated favorable opinions of China in such nations as Brunei, which considered Beijing's move "a goodwill gesture," The Diplomat magazine has reported.

"While the distribution of vaccines to other countries may be motivated by economic and political interests," China's vaccine assistance "is currently winning the diplomacy race just by being able to promptly and efficiently provide vaccines to countries in need," Riyani Sidek and Nafisa Halim, research associates at the Global Awareness &Impact Alliance, wrote in an article published by The Diplomat on Jan. 28.

Brunei is one of the countries where China has successfully exercised vaccine assistance, said the article.

China's vaccine assistance to Brunei is "more of a boon than a bane," it said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
DUBLIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Ireland's goods imports and exports both hit a record high in 2021, according to the preliminary figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday.

In 2021, Ireland imported 102.57 billion euros (about 116 billion U.S. dollars) worth of goods, up 17.8 percent when compared with 2020, said the CSO, adding that this is the first time that Ireland's imports have exceeded 100 billion euros.

Last year Ireland's goods exports also reached a record high of 165.21 billion euros, which represented a year-on-year increase of 1.9 percent, it said.

Ireland's trade surplus for last year stood at 62.64 billion euros, down nearly 17 percent from 75.07 billion euros in 2020.

Goods imported by Ireland from the European Union (EU) increased by 13 percent year-on-year to 34.28 billion euros in 2021, accounting for one-third of the country's total imports, while imports from non-EU countries and regions totalled 68.29 billion euros, up 20 percent over 2020.

Goods exported by Ireland to the EU decreased by 4 percent year-on-year to 61.44 billion euros in 2021, accounting for 37 percent of the total exports while exports to the non-EU countries and regions increased by 6 percent year-on-year to 103.77 billion euros.

The United States was the largest export destination in 2021, accounting for 52.53 billion euros, or 32 percent of Ireland's total exports, said the CSO. (1 euro=1.134 U.S. dollars) 
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/lead-afghan-negotiator-says-secured-sanctions-easing-at-oslo-talks-1093043179.html

Lead Afghan Negotiator Says Secured Sanctions Easing at Oslo Talks

Lead Afghan Negotiator Says Secured Sanctions Easing at Oslo Talks

KABUL (Sputnik) - The interim Afghan government has agreed sanctions relief with Western envoys during January's talks in Oslo, the acting Afghan foreign... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T06:25+0000

2022-02-15T06:25+0000

2022-02-15T06:30+0000

afghanistan

taliban

norway

talks

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Amir Khan Muttaqi, who lead the delegation of the Taliban* to Oslo, met with EU, US and Norwegian officials from January 23-25. Cash-strapped Afghanistan has seen prices skyrocket since the Taliban takeover in August. Its interim administration has requested that the West unfreeze Afghan reserves abroad to lift the nation out of poverty.Muttaqi said Western diplomats had agreed to issue the Taliban with licenses that would bring some assets back to Afghanistan and pledged further humanitarian assistance.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 on 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. Muttaqi described the visit as successful, and the delegation thanked the Norwegian government for its hospitality and contribution to the strengthening of trust.The Taliban took control of the Afghan capital of Kabul on August 15, 2021, and established an interim government headed by Mohammad Hassan Akhund in September. Since then, international organizations have repeatedly warned of the worsening humanitarian situation in the country. While the government has not been internationally recognized, many countries have called on the movement to demonstrate respect for human rights and inclusivity.*The Taliban is an organisation under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.

afghanistan

norway

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afghanistan, taliban, norway, talks
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/met-police-federation-says-officers-have-no-faith-in-mayor-khan-after-cressida-dicks-resignation-1093051126.html

Met Police Federation Says 'Officers Have No Faith' in Mayor Khan After Cressida Dick's Resignation

Met Police Federation Says 'Officers Have No Faith' in Mayor Khan After Cressida Dick's Resignation

Last Thursday, Cressida Dick announced her resignation, claiming that London Mayor Sadiq Khan "had left" her "no choice but to step aside as Commissioner of... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T12:09+0000

2022-02-15T12:09+0000

2022-02-15T12:09+0000

uk

london

sadiq khan

cressida dick

metropolitan police

resignation

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Chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation Ken Marsh has claimed that Met Police chief Cressida Dick's resignation reflects politicians "trying to use policing and the career of the country's most senior police leader to deflect from their own failings". The federation is a staff association representing more than 31,000 rank-and-file police officers in London.Marsh told reporters that Dick had been reforming the culture of the police force before she was forced out of her job and that her resignation is "not a move we take lightly".He pledged that the Metropolitan Police Federation will "continue to speak up for these courageous colleagues", adding, "they are being forgotten about by our elected mayor. Enough is enough. Officers have no faith in [London Mayor] Sadiq Khan".Marsh underscored that the federation was "sickened" by the alleged incidents of racism, misogyny, and favouritism that have grabbed headlines over recent months, but that they were "not reflective of an entire workforce".A spokesperson for London Mayor Sadiq Khan was quick to lash out at Marsh's remarks, stressing that "it was the mayor's view that a change of leadership was the only way to address this crisis in trust"."The mayor has always made clear that there are thousands of incredibly brave and decent police officers at the Met who we owe a huge debt of gratitude. But the series of scandals seen in recent years has tarnished the reputation of the police, which is so crucial to policing by consent", the spokesperson added.They were apparently referring to the scandals related to the police's handling of the Sarah Everard case. The latter was murdered by a serving Met officer, and a report, which exposed racist, misogynist, and homophobic messages exchanged by officers based at the Charing Cross police station. Additionally, the Met was slammed for being slow to investigate the reports of COVID rule-breaking parties on Downing Street in 2020 and 2021.The spokesperson's comments followed Cressida Dick announcing in a memo last Thursday that she had decided to step down from her post after finding out that Mayor Khan, "no longer has sufficient confidence" in her leadership.UK media outlets have since quoted unnamed sources as saying that a new Met Police commissioner "probably won't be actually at their desk until the summer" because "this is not a quick process".Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for his part, praised Dick, stressing that he has known her "for many years" and that she "has played a remarkable role as the first female head of the Metropolitan Police".

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uk, london, sadiq khan, cressida dick, metropolitan police, resignation
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/nato-chief-stoltenberg-holds-press-event-ahead-of-blocs-defence-ministers-meeting-1093052365.html

NATO Chief Stoltenberg Holds Press Event Ahead of Bloc's Defence Ministers' Meeting

NATO Chief Stoltenberg Holds Press Event Ahead of Bloc's Defence Ministers' Meeting

The meeting comes amid the Ukrainian crisis, as the US and the UK claimed that Russia is planning to "invade" the country. Moscow slammed the allegations as... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T12:01+0000

2022-02-15T12:01+0000

2022-02-15T12:01+0000

nato

jens stoltenberg

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Sputnik is live from Brussels where NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is holding a presser before a meeting of NATO ministers of defence scheduled for 16-17 February. The ministers are expected to discuss security issues in Europe, including the tensions over Ukraine.Follow Sputnik's Live Feed to Find Out More!

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NATO Chief Stoltenberg Holds Press Event Ahead of Bloc's Defence Ministers' Meeting NATO Chief Stoltenberg Holds Press Event Ahead of Bloc's Defence Ministers' Meeting 2022-02-15T12:01+0000 true PT55M01S

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https://sputniknews.com/20220215/oic-is-harming-its-own-reputation-india-slams-islamic-bloc-for-wading-into-the-hijab-row-1093059156.html

OIC is Harming Its Own Reputation: India Slams Islamic Bloc for Wading Into the Hijab Row

OIC is Harming Its Own Reputation: India Slams Islamic Bloc for Wading Into the Hijab Row

The OICs criticism of India came amid an ongoing row over a ban on hijabs (Islamic face veil) at pre-university educational institutions in BJP-governed... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T16:29+0000

2022-02-15T16:29+0000

2022-02-15T16:29+0000

hijab

organization of islamic cooperation (oic)

karnataka

bharatiya janata party (bjp)

india

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The Indian foreign ministry on Tuesday slammed the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) after the group expressed deep concern over what it termed as a growing trend of Islamophobia in the South Asian nation under Prime Minister Narendra Modis government.The communal mindset of the OIC Secretariat does not allow for a proper appreciation of these realities. OIC continues to be hijacked by vested interests to further their nefarious propaganda against India, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a statement, while responding to queries for a reaction to the groupings statement.Bagchi also described the OICs criticism as motivated and misleading, as he underlined that the issues in the country are resolved in accordance with our constitutional framework and mechanisms.The Jeddah-headquartered OIC describes itself as the "collective voice of the Muslim world". Primarily backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the OIC also has Pakistan among its members. The OIC has in the past been critical of India's human rights track record in the Jammu and Kashmir region, thus attracting strong criticism from New Delhi.In its statement dated 14 February, the OIC urged international institutions such as the United Nations to take steps to check the alleged persecution of Muslims in India.The ongoing hijab row in India also attracted criticism from Rashad Hussain, the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom (IRF), who remarked in a social media post last week that the ban violates religious freedom.Pakistans Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also criticised the hijab ban, terming the decision as oppressive.Responding to these critical remarks, the Indian Foreign Ministry said on 12 February that motivated comments on our internal issues are not welcome.

https://sputniknews.com/20220208/hijab-row-turns-violent-clashes-stone-hurling-incidents-reported-in-indias-karnataka-1092848227.html

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hijab, organization of islamic cooperation (oic), karnataka, bharatiya janata party (bjp), india
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/on-israel-visit-us-sen-graham-claims-iran-close-to-nuclear-break-out-amid-jcpoa-talks-1093038262.html

On Israel Visit, US Sen. Graham Claims Iran Close to Nuclear 'Break Out' Amid JCPOA Talks

On Israel Visit, US Sen. Graham Claims Iran Close to Nuclear 'Break Out' Amid JCPOA Talks

As negotiations on reviving the Iran nuclear deal seem to be edging closer, some very anti-Iran figures and opponents of the deal in Washington have increased... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T01:02+0000

2022-02-15T01:02+0000

2022-02-15T04:45+0000

israel

iran

middle east

lindsey graham

nuclear program

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On Monday, US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem, where they discussed security issues. He also met with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Defence Minister Benny Gantz, and representatives from the Mossad intelligence agency, who briefed the US senator on intelligence relating to Iran, The Times of Israel reported.Graham has no administration appointment or role in the Senate that would necessitate such a trip."I mentioned the idea of formalising a mutual defence agreement, in very limited circumstances that would involve existential threats to the Jewish state", Graham told reporters at a press conference after.Graham spoke on a wide variety of topics, including Ukraine and Taiwan, saying the two places are at "important, consequential moments in history"."Russia and China are rational actors, even though their behaviour is thuggish", the US senator added. "Iran is a theocracy motivated by religion that compels them to purify their faith and have the world submit. The Nazis wanted a master race, and the Iranians want a master religion. People like that cannot be ignored".Graham said that if Iran did acquire a nuclear weapon, it would force rival Arab states to do so, many of which are scarcely any friendlier with Israel.Although the Iranian monarchy was very close to both Israel and the United States, the 1979 Islamic Revolution had very strong nationalist overtones and disagreed sharply with the existence of a Jewish-only state in the Middle East, severing relations with Israel and declaring its support for the Palestinians, Hezbollah, and other groups opposing Israel. Iranian leaders have strongly denounced Israel, calling for it to be erased from the map - although they have denied charges of advocating genocide or of being anti-Semitic, saying their issue is with Zionism, not Judaism.In the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, Iran formally renounced nuclear weapons in exchange for the removal of international economic sanctions. However, the US unilaterally pulled out of the deal three years later, with then-US President Donald Trump accusing Iran of secretly violating the deal and pursuing nuclear weapons again.When US President Joe Biden took office in early 2021, he opened negotiations with Iran to revive the deal, believing it was the best way to keep Iran's nuclear programme under control. Tel Aviv, which has never liked the JCPOA and approved of Trump's withdrawal from it, has cautiously approved of the talks, all the while emphasising it was preparing for a "Plan B" if the talks fail - a solo military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.However, those talks, presently in their eighth round and being conducted through intermediaries in Vienna, Austria, seem to be nearing a conclusion. Last week, the Biden administration issued a sanctions waiver for international cooperation with Iran on the country's civil nuclear programme, which includes partnerships to operate or refurbish several nuclear power plants in the country.

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israel, iran, middle east, lindsey graham, nuclear program
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/presidential-trolling-zelenskys-sarcasm-about-alleged-date-of-russian-invasion-crashes-markets-1093062696.html

Presidential Trolling: Zelensky's Sarcasm About Alleged Date of Russian Invasion Crashes Markets

Presidential Trolling: Zelensky's Sarcasm About Alleged Date of Russian Invasion Crashes Markets

Markets bounced back later during the day once the meaning of the presidential statement was clarified. However, some traders and investors may have lost a... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T18:52+0000

2022-02-15T18:52+0000

2022-02-15T19:00+0000

business

ukraine

stock market

russia

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The harsh reality of a stock trader in early 2022 includes being unaware of when and where new panic can hit markets. One day, they might remain stable amid negative COVID-19 news, but the next they could grow on a low-key US Federal Reserve meeting. However, what no trader expected this year was to be tricked by a sarcastic statement made by the Ukrainian president on 14 February.Addressing the ever-increasing hysteria in the media about an "imminent" Russian invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky attempted to calm down his compatriots by mocking unsubstantiated media reports of 16 February being the day Moscow would go through with its "invasion plans". What he probably did not expect was that his words would be wrongly (and too seriously) understood by investors.Because of how the presidents remarks were translated, investors apparently understood them as a sign that Kiev had received intelligence from its Western allies that an invasion would start on 16 February, Bloomberg reported, citing analysts.Soon after Zelensky's statement, the S&P 500 index took a dive at around 2pm (New York time), dropping by 1.2% and likely triggering a lot of stop-loss orders for traders. Oil, in turn, jumped, breaching the $95 per barrel ceiling over fears of fuel shipment disruptions and shortages.Zelensky's adviser Mykhailo Podolyak later clarified his remarks, stressing that the president had spoken ironically and remained sceptical about reports of "concrete dates" for a Russian invasion. Following his explanation, the S&P 500 bounced back, still closing in the red, but only by 0.4% compared to the previous day. Oil, in turn, fell back below $95 per barrel.Russia has repeatedly denied having plans to invade Ukraine, either now or in the future. Moscow defended its right to redeploy troops within its territory as it sees fit, as Western countries condemned the deployment of troops near Ukraine's border. According to the Kremlin, the troops were brought in for scheduled drills, and some of them will later return to their home bases.

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business, ukraine, stock market, russia
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/presidents-putin-and-biden-discuss-security-concerns-canada-truckers-convoy-goes-international-1093038107.html

Presidents Putin and Biden Discuss Security Concerns; Canada Truckers Convoy Goes International

Presidents Putin and Biden Discuss Security Concerns; Canada Truckers Convoy Goes International

Presidents Putin and Biden spoke by telephone Saturday to work on addressing the unprecedented hysteria that is being whipped up over the Eastern European... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T07:58+0000

2022-02-15T07:58+0000

2022-02-15T10:58+0000

the critical hour

nato

yemen

afghanistan

south korea

freedom

convoy

taiwan

ukraine

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https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/0f/1093038082_31:0:1275:700_1920x0_80_0_0_179954078420fcba93693d709715dc92.png

Presidents Putin and Biden Discuss Security Concerns; Canada Truckers Convoy Goes International Presidents Putin and Biden spoke by telephone Saturday to work on addressing the unprecedented hysteria that is being whipped up over the Eastern European security crisis.

Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss the NATO security crisis. Presidents Putin and Biden spoke by telephone Saturday to work on addressing the unprecedented hysteria that is being whipped up over the Eastern European security crisis. Also, we discuss the effect of Ukraine lobbyists on US foreign policy.Dr. Marvin Weinbaum, director for the Middle East Institute's Center for Pakistan and Afghanistan Studies, joins us to discuss Afghanistan. President Biden is getting significant pushback from anti-war activists and foreign policy experts regarding his decision to withhold billions of dollars from starving Afghan citizens and award it to surviving family members of 9/11 instead.Austin Pelli, co-host of Fault Lines, joins us to discuss the Canada truckers convoy. Austin is on the ground in Ottawa covering the protest against the vaccine mandates. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing major political pressure as he holds on to strict covid measures as other nations begin to go in the opposite direction.Dan Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "The Velvet Coup: The Constitution, the Supreme Court and the Decline of American Democracy," joins us to discuss the US-proposed sanctions against Russia. The proposed sanctions against Russia are almost certain to cause massive economic blowback on the US empire and its European vassal states.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss the Middle East. Israeli military personnel have renewed their assault on the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for a second night. Also, Yemen's Houthi movement has revealed why they attacked the UAE.George Koo, journalist, social activist and international business consultant, joins us to discuss China. China argues that the Ukraine crisis should serve as a lesson for secessionists in Taiwan. Also, we discuss the US-Indo Pacific strategy that includes tilting towards a number of Pacific islands.KJ Noh, activist, writer, and teacher, joins us to discuss South Korea. South Korean elections next year could have a significant effect on Asian security issues. The conservative candidate has called for a more hard-lined approach to his northern neighbor and this could raise the stakes on the peninsula.Scott Ritter, former UN weapon inspector in Iraq, joins us to discuss the potential disintegration of NATO. He argues that the current security crisis on the Russian border has set in motion a series of events that is almost sure to result in the disintegration of NATO.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

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the critical hour, nato, yemen, afghanistan, south korea, freedom, convoy, taiwan, ukraine, , radio
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/probe-into-hillary-clinton-penetration-of-trump-2016-campaign-accelerating-reports-suggest-1093040772.html

Probe Into Hillary Clinton Penetration of Trump 2016 Campaign 'Accelerating', Reports Suggest

Probe Into Hillary Clinton Penetration of Trump 2016 Campaign 'Accelerating', Reports Suggest

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Special Counsel John Durham's long-running probe into allegations that Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016 sought to fraudulently link... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T05:23+0000

2022-02-15T05:23+0000

2022-02-15T05:23+0000

hillary clinton

donald trump

2016 election

2016 us election

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More witnesses have emerged to cooperate with the investigation and testify before the federal grand jury considering the case than had previously been reported, the report said on Monday.On 25 January, Durhams investigators sent transcripts of testimony by several grand jury witnesses to defence lawyers representing Michael Sussman, a former lawyer for the 2016 Clinton campaign.Durham recently issued a new filing in which he alleges that the Clinton campaign paid an internet company to infiltrate servers at the Trump Tower in New York and the White House in Washington to try to make the invented Trump-Russia connection stick.Sussman has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent and has pleaded not guilty, the report said.The indictment against Sussmann, says he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September of 2016 that he was not working for any client when he had held a meeting in which he presented purported data that allegedly demonstrated a secret communications channel between the Trump Organisation and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin, the report added.Trump has repeatedly said the allegations against him by the Clinton campaign and the Democrats are the political equivalent of a witch hunt intending to delegitimise his victory in the 2016 election as well as obstruct the work of his administration.

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hillary clinton, donald trump, 2016 election, 2016 us election
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/putin-calls-ongoing-events-in-donbass-genocide-1093057321.html

Putin Calls Ongoing Events in Donbass Genocide

Putin Calls Ongoing Events in Donbass Genocide

Earlier in the day, the Russian parliament, the State Duma, issued a formal request to the president to recognise the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T14:28+0000

2022-02-15T14:28+0000

2022-02-15T15:19+0000

vladimir putin

donbass

russia

ukraine

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin has called the events taking place in the Donbass region of Ukraine "genocide", as he made comments after meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He added that Kiev systematically violates human rights, including by legalising the discrimination of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine.Putin also commented on the Russian State Duma's passing a motion requesting him to recognise the two self-proclaimed people's republics located in Donbass. He expressed the hope that the Minsk accords are still possible and that it is not too late to implement them.The Russian president went on to criticise Kiev's repeated refusal to implement the Minsk accords or follow the resolutions reached as part of the Normandy format with Germany and France.Commenting further on the Duma's request, Putin said that he will act in the interests of resolving the Donbass issues and keep in mind the unrealised potential of the Minsk agreements' implementation.The Ukrainian government, which came to power as the result of a West-backed coup, has been waging a war against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics since 2014. The Donbass region rebelled because of fears its Russian-speaking population's right to use whatever language they choose would be infringed by the new nationalist-minded authorities. Their fears proved to be correct several years later.Despite the truce being negotiated via international mediation back in 2015, little progress has been achieved so far. The authorities of the two republics regularly complain that Kiev has broken the ceasefire and is trying to resolve the conflict using military means.Moscow, in turn, repeatedly condemned Kiev's resistance to implementing the Minsk agreements for various reasons. In one of the latest examples, Kiev decided to introduce a bill in parliament that would deny amnesty to those who had fought for the self-proclaimed peoples republics once the conflict is over. The Minsk agreements state clearly that such an amnesty must be provided for all people living in the rebellious areas once peace is achieved.

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vladimir putin, donbass, russia, ukraine
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/ukraine-watch-ottawa-occupied-no-war-wing-of-the-gop-and-russiagate-1093034052.html

Ukraine Watch, Ottawa Occupied, No War Wing of the GOP and Russiagate

Ukraine Watch, Ottawa Occupied, No War Wing of the GOP and Russiagate

Today, John talks about the latest out of Ukraine, Austin Pelli calls from Ottawa where hes covering the Freedom Convoy, and then, breaking news about... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T07:48+0000

2022-02-15T07:48+0000

2022-02-15T10:48+0000

political misfits

ukraine

russiagate

freedom

convoy

no more war

gop

radio

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Ukraine Watch, Ottawa Occupied, No War Wing of the GOP and Russiagate Today, John talks about the latest out of the Ukraine, Austin Pelli calls from Ottawa where hes covering the Freedom Convoy, and then, breaking news about Russiagate.

Mark Sleboda, foreign affairs and policy analyst, joins the show at the top of the hour to break down the latest from diplomatic talks over the weekend. Today, President Putin met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and Defense Minister Shoygu to talk about de-escalation. Shoygu said that Russian troops are about to finish their military drills and will soon return to their permanent bases. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is asking the US for proof of Russian intentions because the US insistence that a Russian invasion is imminent is spreading panic in the country. Even airlines are canceling flights to Ukraine because they cant get insurance to operate them.Then, Austin Pelli, co-host of Fault Lines, which you can hear every day Monday through Friday, from 7:00a-10:00a ET here on Radio Sputnik, calls in from Ottawa, Canada, to give us an on-the-ground perspective covering the Freedom Convoy. Austin says that protesters are peaceful, keeping the streets clean and salted, contrary to media accounts of Confederate flags and trash.Leila Mechoui, journalist and co-host of the Red Star Radio podcast, also called in from Ottawa. Leila talks about who is supporting the protest and those who remain opposed. She says that the Trudeau administration is planning to lift pandemic-related mandates as soon as February 28, but Trudeau is not saying that it has anything to do with pressure from protesters. Truckers protested a specific issue, and now that issue may be resolved soon.Next, Daniel Mc Adams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, joins John to talk about the rising populist anti-war conservatism that is ascending within the GOP. John and Daniel discuss the primary season and the competitive Senate races. The redrawing of districts following the 2020 census and which senators are up for election will have an impact on how many and who turns out to vote this November.For the last segment, Kevin Gosztola, journalist, writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, joins the show. Remember Russiagate? John and Kevin discuss the recent news that Justice Department Special Prosecutor John Durham filed a motion on Friday related to potential conflicts of interest in connection with the case of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who has been charged with lying to the FBI. Sussman allegedly told the FBI that he was not acting on Hillary Clintons behalf when he gave the FBI documents that supposedly linked the Trump campaign to a Russian bank. But records show that he later billed the Clinton campaign for doing exactly that. The limited information that Durham has released so far indicates that nothing about Russiagate was true.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

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political misfits, ukraine, russiagate, freedom, convoy, no more war, gop, , radio
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/ukrainian-stance-doesnt-matter-bellicose-us-posture-makes-kiev-moscow-talks-harder-expert-says-1093064265.html

Ukrainian Stance Doesnt Matter: Bellicose US Posture Makes Kiev-Moscow Talks Harder, Expert Says

Ukrainian Stance Doesnt Matter: Bellicose US Posture Makes Kiev-Moscow Talks Harder, Expert Says

Any attempts by Ukraine to discuss de-escalation with Russia or to create an environment conducive to talks face a strong headwind from the US and UK, whose... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T20:03+0000

2022-02-15T20:03+0000

2022-02-15T20:04+0000

russia

ukraine

talks

europe

osce

nato

russia-nato row on european security

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The Ukrainian stance doesnt matter. As the last few days proved, neither President Biden or the mainstream media in the West care about the Ukrainian perspective, Adriel Kasonta, a London-based foreign affairs analyst and former chairman of the International Affairs Committee at the Bow Group think tank, said on Tuesday.Noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy contradicted Bidens claims about a potential Russian invasion in the coming days, Kasonta said that one seemed to pay much attention to what he was saying.Ukrainian hawks have acknowledged the reality long before the current standoff, but we have to understand that theyve never been true masters of their own fate. The fact that Ukraines ambassador in London has been forced to backtrack on his previous comments made to the BBC that his country is willing to be flexible on its ambition to join NATO proves my point. Kiev is just another pawn on the grand chessboard used by the US to advance their goals in Eastern Europe, the analyst said.Not Everything is Lost in NATO TalksOn Monday, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Vadym Prystaiko said Kiev "might agree" not to join NATO if it would help defuse the crisis with Russia.His words elicited approval from the Kremlin, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that if Kiev did write off joining NATO, it would be a step that would significantly contribute to formulating a more meaningful response to Russian concerns. However, Peskov noted that it was unlikely to change Kievs worldview by itself.However, Prystaikos words were quickly corrected by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, with spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko tweeting that Prystaikos words had been taken out of context.The goal of NATO membership is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine and no decisions can contradict it. The matter of security guarantees for Ukraine is urgent, Nikolenko added. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also said that the issue of Ukraines membership in NATO was up to Ukraine and the 30 NATO member states.Despite Kiev doubling down on NATO membership, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted on Tuesday that NATO had recently begun changing its positions and was taking Russian security concerns more seriously than it has in years.While the issue of NATOs so-called open door membership policy remains Russias primary concern, Lavrov noted other areas that NATO has reacted more favorably, including a moratorium on intermediate-range missiles in the region following Washingtons destruction of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. That deal had dramatically reduced tensions by banning missiles with dangerously short flight times, but the US withdrawal made it possible for US Aegis Ashore stations in Romania and Poland that Washington had declared purely defensive could be refitted to fire strike missiles with ranges reaching deep inside Russian territory.Lavrov also noted Poland's proposal to revive the informal dialogue on European security within the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), saying that such proposals show an "understanding of existing issues," as well as a "willingness" to deal with them.Posturing for PosterityHowever, NATO isnt the same thing as the United States. Kasonta told Sputnik that itll take some time until Washington starts taking Russias concerns seriously.The more they'll fear an assertive China, the more theyll try to pretend that they understand Russias concerns and accept [Russia] as an equal partner. Nevertheless, it will never be an honest admission. They need Moscow to help them balance Beijing. Its as simple as that.For Kasonta, Bidens posturing as strong against Moscow and Beijing is essential to keep his administration afloat.Biden is desperate to find his place in history, and this cheap chutzpah is how he is goingto be remembered beyond the so-called Western world, he added, noting the same applies to Boris Johnson in the UK.As an example, he predicted that Western leaders in general, but Biden in particular, would exploit military drills in Belarus to their advantage by ignoring Moscows transparency about the scheduling of those drills to score some easy political points both at home and on the international stage.As a result, Kasonta noted that the West cant be trusted because of how it views Russia and Russians.If they had been acting in good faith, we wouldn't see this dangerous, warmongering show. Its as simple as that. Moscow has to draw the correct conclusions and adjust its politics to the given circumstances. Being naive about the West and its ultimate intentions vis-a-vis Moscow can prove to be very dangerous for the future generations of Russians.

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russia, ukraine, talks, europe, osce, nato
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/us-nato-positively-responded-to-russian-initiatives-they-have-been-rejecting-for-years-lavrov-says-1093049875.html

US, NATO Positively Responded to Russian Initiatives They Have Been Rejecting for Years, Lavrov Says

US, NATO Positively Responded to Russian Initiatives They Have Been Rejecting for Years, Lavrov Says

The alliance and the US both rejected key security proposals forwarded by Moscow in December of last year to soothe the tensions around Ukraine. These... 15.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-15T10:37+0000

2022-02-15T10:37+0000

2022-02-15T12:27+0000

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us

nato

russia-nato row on european security

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated that in their response to Moscow's security proposals the US and NATO reacted positively to some of the initiatives that they have been rejecting for years. He namely referred to the bloc's readiness to discuss arms control treaties for Europe.The minister recalled Russia declaring a moratorium on deploying short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe, following the demise of the INF Treaty with the US (due to Washington's unilateral withdrawal from it) in 2019. However, no one wanted to "hear us out" back then, when we offered to discuss new arms control measures, Lavrov said.The foreign minister also expressed optimism regarding a planned dialogue with NATO on Moscow's less pressing security proposals, like the aforementioned arms control in Europe.Lavrov said that Russia will continue the dialogue with the West to find out how determined they are to reach real agreements on security. He specifically said that matters of indivisible security, short- and intermediate-range armaments, as well as reducing the risks of war will be discussed during these negotiations.The minister also noted Poland's proposal to revive the informal dialogue on European security within the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Lavrov said that such proposals show an "understanding of existing issues" as well as a "willingness" to deal with them.Western 'Info-Terrorism' on UkraineRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went on to comment about the continuing hysteria in the West regarding the alleged "invasion" of Ukraine that Moscow is purportedly planning. He slammed the constant hyping up of the topic by the media, as well as by Western politicians, calling it "info-terrorism".Lavrov went on to reject the foreign pressure on Moscow to withdraw its troops, once again stressing that redeployment of the armed forces is Russia's sovereign right, including to hold military drills. He added that the latter will be conducted as planned and that the recent withdrawal of a portion of the forces from the Ukrainian border following the end of war games was also scheduled.The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected allegations by the US and other NATO members about it purportedly planning an invasion of Ukraine. Western politicians cited the alleged massing of Russian troops at the border with Ukraine as the primary source of their concerns.Moscow stressed that it harbours no plans to attack its neighbours and never will. However, Russia warned that it might have to eventually respond to the growing number of NATO troops in the vicinity of its borders, as well as to the bloc's eastward expansion. The latter might involve Ukraine, which received a promise in 2008 that it would eventually be accepted into the bloc.In light of the growing tensions around Ukraine and NATO's continuing expansion in the direction of Russia's borders, Moscow forwarded its proposals on ensuring security and stability in the region to the US and NATO. Its key proposals included the refusal of the alliance to accept Ukraine's bid to join the bloc and return of the alliance's troops to its 1997 lines. Both the US and NATO rejected these key proposals, but expressed interest in discussing secondary issues, such as arms control treaties for Europe.

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russia, us, nato
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/us-suspends-mexican-avocado-imports-after-official-receives-threatening-phone-call-1093037503.html

US Suspends Mexican Avocado Imports After Official Receives Threatening Phone Call

US Suspends Mexican Avocado Imports After Official Receives Threatening Phone Call

US Imposes Ban on Mexican Avocado Supplies After Threatening Phone Call

2022-02-15T00:06+0000

2022-02-15T00:06+0000

2022-02-15T00:06+0000

latin america

us

avocado

cartels

supplies

super bowl

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The United States temporarily banned avocado imports from Michoacan, Mexico until further notice on Monday, just hours ahead of the 2022 Super Bowl, citing security issues.Mexicos agriculture department said that the decision was made after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone, the AP reported.The US Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was said to be investigating the incident and working out measures to ensure the security of its personnel.The ban did not affect the supply of avocados for the Super Bowl, as shipments had already been delivered. Meanwhile, Mexicos President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suggested on the same day that the suspension is part of a conspiracy against his country by political or economic interests.Michoacan has in recent years seen a sharp rise in the level of violence in areas with avocado plantations. According to data from OCCRP, criminal groups steal approximately 48 tons of avocado from Michoacan daily.

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Alexandra Kashirina

latin america, us, avocado, cartels, supplies, super bowl
The 6th Annual Night to Shine Friday night at Open Door Baptist Church shimmered with happiness and well-wishes for 30 attendees treated to an experience rooted in love.

A small army of volunteers led by church office administrator Michelle Hitt pulled off the memorable program on a clear and mild evening as part of yearly local participation in the global Valentines-inspired dance event sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation.

A prom for people 14 and older living with special needs, and their caretakers, Night to Shine the past two years of COVID has been a Shine Thru at Open Door. Prom goers remain in their vehicles and the fun come to them.

I just got off the phone with one of the caretakers of one of the attendees who said what a wonderful time he had, Hitt said in a phone call Monday morning. She said it was just the right amount of stimulation. He just loved everything he did and he especially liked the flower crowns with LED lights. He saw people lit up all over the place. He noticed that. And then when he came around the corner, he got to pet horses.

The night featured lit-up balloons, fresh fruit bags, music, Night to Shine ball caps, shimmering angels, a visit from Cinderella, video memories on a big screen, some young ROTC men in uniform and other goodies.

An estimated 75 percent of the 41 people who signed up showed up for the Shine Thru, Hitt said. One group had a COVID exposure and had to decline, she said. The illness is why Night to Shine became a Shine Thru.

Many people in the special needs population are immuno-compromised, the church administrator said, noting precautions were in place Friday night.

We were all happy with the way things went, Hitt said. With that phone call, it was nice to know they were happy, too having a little fun for a little while.

Many of the faces were familiar after so many years doing the prom, she added.

Everybody likes to be remembered, Hitt said.

Volunteers gave away 30 goodie bags of 55 made. The rest went to helpers. Hitt said she asks God every year for inspiration for the prom night event.

God spoke to us through a still, small voicehe said fruit baskets, she said.

The participant who called the church Monday said wasnt that nice they gave them fruit because not everyone can have candy. Hitt said they really, really, really hope they can hold the prom inside in 2023.

Because we missed that, she said.

Like everyone, the people Night to Shine reaches have been isolated the past two years with most special events cancelled or virtual.

Its been really tough on them, Hitt said. There hasnt been as much for them to do but with us doing this at least it just worked out really well. You know you are doing something when all you see is smiles.

On Friday, Feb. 11, the Tim Tebow Foundations 8th Annual Night to Shine spread to more international locations than ever before with over 450 host churches from coast to coast and 39 countries uniting to honor individuals with special needs via an unforgettable prom night experience, according to a Foundation news release.

Though the evening once again looked slightly different than previous years due to the ongoing pandemic, the event was no less unforgettable, as thousands of honored guests participated through a virtual experience, drive-thru adaptations, and other celebrations unique to their local communities.

Tebow and his wife Demi visited Night to Shine locations in Africa, including the first-ever held in Cape Town, South Africa.

As I reflect upon Night to Shine 2022, I am once again reminded of the goodness of God, Tebow said in a statement. Im amazed that even during an ongoing worldwide pandemic, kings and queens were honored in more countries around the world than ever before. I am so grateful that He let us be a part of it.

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Q. Someone visited my house while I was not home and I could see on my Ring camera that they were walking around my house, recording my property. They were wearing a safety vest, but on video, you could see them take it off and put it in their car. I checked with local utilities to see if they had sent anyone to my house. I have no idea who it is. Should I have reported this to police? I found it concerning.

A. When in doubt, I think its always better to err on the side of caution and make the report to law enforcement. There are various legitimate entities that may have employees out photographing or collecting information on properties but usually they are fairly easy to track down. Best case: you contact law enforcement, and they are able to determine the person was from a legitimate business and acting within the guidelines of their job. Worst case: law enforcement confirms the person has no affiliation with a legitimate business, provides extra patrol, and investigated the instance further.

In a previous column we discussed hesitation to file police reports if you are unsure of what the person is doing is illegal. If you feel like something is suspicious or concerning, I would encourage you to report it. Its then up to the officers to investigate and determine if a crime has actually been committed.

Q. Can you provide information to Crime Stoppers online?

A. Yes, you can provide information to Crime Stoppers online as well as by phone. The Crime Stoppers phone numbers (locally, on a state level, and national level) are all staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Scotts Bluff County Crime Stoppers: 308-632-7867

Nebraska Crime Stoppers: 1-800-422-1494

National Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-8477

In addition to providing information to Crime Stoppers, the City of Scottsbluff website has a lot of other helpful resources that many people may be unaware of.

Some of these resources include:

Filing an anonymous sexual assault report and information for free local services available to victims

Information regarding obtaining a Handgun Purchase Permit and the link to download and print the certificate application

Panhandle Alert (free notification system allowing customizable alerts)

Upcoming auctions

Information and Permits (ATV/UTV, Bicycle licensing, criminal history checks, electric personal assistive mobility device permits, block party permits, noise permits, parade permits, peddler permits, taxi cab permits, truck routes, and public safety building tour information)

Code compliance minders and contact information for questions or to report violations

All of the information mentioned above can be found at Scottsbluff.org/government/police

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In an increasingly competitive environment, an Omaha senator wants to give Nebraskas governor a new incentive to lure and retain businesses  a pot of money to use at his or her discretion.

State Sen. Brett Lindstrom introduced Legislative Bill 729, which would create a fund within the Department of Economic Development that could be used for economic or infrastructure development that would help land a high-impact business project or facility or to keep a business already located in the state. A high-impact business is one that is expected to create a net benefit to the state, through jobs and investments, compared with the cost of the incentive.

Assuming a project meets the necessary requirements, including thresholds for jobs and salaries, the governor would have the discretion to award the funding.

This is just another little extra thing that the governor can put on the table and say lets do the deal, Lindstrom told the Legislatures Revenue Committee last week.

Asked whether he would support the bill, a spokesperson for Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said the governor had no comment on the proposal. Ricketts is in his final year in office due to term limits.

LB 729 would create the fund  it wouldnt allocate any money into it. State dollars put into the fund would be at the discretion of the Legislature. Lindstrom also didnt put a cap on the amount of money the governor could award for individual projects.

Lindstrom, a two-term lawmaker who is also a Republican candidate for governor, said he was inspired by a similar program created in Oklahoma in 2011. Since then the program has awarded about $14 million to seven companies, according to Lindstrom. That resulted in the creation of 3,500 jobs and $3.4 billion in investments by those companies.

Most of those incentives went toward construction. For example, it awarded $3 million to General Electric for construction of a new facility in Oklahoma City. It also awarded $1.5 million to Macys for employee training.

While one of the investments led to the creation of jobs earning a salary bellow the average annual pay in the state, a 2018 report by a commission created to evaluate the program concluded it had a net positive return on investment for Oklahoma.

A 2018 study that looked at a similar program in Arkansas was less conclusive.

The study, published in Review of Regional Studies, found no evidence that the Arkansas program increased employment or business establishment in counties with a project that received subsidies.

Business incentive programs are not new in Nebraska. For more than a decade the state had the Nebraska Advantage Act, which provided tax credits and exemptions to companies that reached employment and investment thresholds.

Lawmakers eventually questioned the effectiveness of the program. In 2018, a committee of lawmakers called for ending the program a year earlier than its original expiration date in 2020.

Jennifer Creager with the Greater Omaha Chamber told the Revenue Committee this past week that there were discussions about creating a discretionary fund similar to Lindstroms proposal around the time the ImagiNE Act was drafted. However, given that governors have not historically requested the fund and concerns over transparency, it was taken off the table early in the process of crafting the act.

Creager, who also testified on behalf of the Lincoln and state chambers and Nebraska Bankers Association, spoke in support of Lindstroms bill, adding that it could allow the state to be more nimble when responding to economic development opportunities.

Lindstrom said that is the goal.

To me there is one extra step that other states have that we dont and thats a governors closing fund, he said, referencing a shortened version of the funds name.

Its ultimately something to make us competitive.

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State lawmakers and environmental advocates renewed their call to convene a special committee charged with investigating the AltEn ethanol plant, now a stockpile of tens of thousands of tons of pesticide-laden waste near Mead.

At the same time, work to cover the massive pile of wet distillers grains and sludge produced at the plant began almost a year to the day after the companies that formerly sent seed coated in pesticides arrived at the facility to participate in the cleanup.

Both the examination of what led to the environmental crisis, as well as a look at what's ahead, were the subject of a Stop the AltEn Cover-up rally in the Rotunda at the state Capitol on Monday.

Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, who introduced several bills this year addressing AltEn, told roughly 40 attendees that Nebraskans deserved answers about how the biofuel plant was allowed to manufacture pesticide-coated seed into ethanol, as well as why the state took so long to act.

A resolution (LR159) to create the committee, introduced by Blood late in last years legislative session, was introduced too late to get a hearing before the Executive Board, Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango said last year.

The resolution has not been scheduled for a hearing this year, either.

We want to protect our precious soil, our life-giving water, and the air we breathe, said Blood, who is also running for governor as a Democrat. Its time for public discourse so we can amplify our voices here today.

AltEn was ordered to shut down Feb. 4, 2021, after regulators told the company that it could no longer pump wastewater into a damaged lagoon system on the site.

Since then, six seed industry giants  Bayer, Syngenta, Corteva, AgReliant, Becks Superior Hybrids and WinField Solutions  that formerly sent their unused seed to AltEn have taken responsibility for the cleanup.

The seed companies' AltEn Facility Response Group and a pair of environmental contractors has submitted a plan to land-apply treated wastewater on surrounding fields, and to cover nearly 100,000 tons of wet cake and sludge consolidated into a single pile.

A coordinator on the project said work that began Monday to cover the pile with Posi-Shell, a combination of cement, clay and polyester fibers used in various environmental remediation projects, was expected to continue through the week.

The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, through documents made publicly available, has expressed concern about the plan, but is ultimately allowing work to proceed.

In a Jan. 11 letter, Thomas Buell, the administrator of the Monitoring and Remediation Division, wrote that the department does not see covering the wet cake as a long-term remedial action.

The plan submitted by the AltEn Facility Response Group does not specify what maintenance will be done to ensure the wet cake pile remains covered, leaving the department concerned that a shifting or shrinking pile could cause the shell to fail.

A compromised cover could lead to increased odors or generate potentially contaminated stormwater, the department wrote to the response group.

And nothing in the groups plan outlines the final actions that will be taken to dispose of the wet cake, which is classified as a solid waste by the Department of Environment and Energy, requiring disposal in a landfill.

The ethanol plant had previously disposed of tens of thousands of tons of wet distillers grains to Waste Connections-operated landfills near David City, Milford and Malvern, Iowa, before being cut off in 2020.

Last year, the facility response group explored options for transporting wet cake via train to incinerators around the country, but abandoned the effort to instead focus on covering the pile as a temporary solution.

The Department of Environment and Energy said it also has concerns about the undefined timeline for how long the covered pile may sit on top of the uncovered ground at AltEn, where it will still be able to leach to the water table below.

It instructed the response group to establish a baseline of potential pesticide-contaminant concentrations in the groundwater near the location.

There are a handful of groundwater monitoring wells located at AltEn, with measurable levels of neonicotinoid pesticides being discovered in one well downstream from the damaged lagoon system on the site.

Janece Mollhoff, a retired U.S. Army colonel from Ashland who is part of a watchdog group monitoring the cleanup, said the plan in motion allows the seed companies to cover up the issue.

They have not yet released a plan for ongoing maintenance of the shell or how they test groundwater under it for the next five to 10 years, Mollhoff said. The cover-up will fail all of us.

Questions about access

Speakers at Mondays rally at the Capitol said among the biggest concerns they have about AltEn is the unknowns about its future.

Former Sen. Al Davis said the decaying organic matter underneath the Posi-Shell could create explosive gases as it decays and suggested the pesticide compounds could degrade into potentially more dangerous chemicals under a hot summer sun.

Nobody knows the answer to that, but its the scariest question of all, said Davis, who is a lobbyist for the Nebraska Sierra Club.

To answer those questions, the watchdog group urged the Legislature to pass LB1048, which Blood introduced, to appropriate $10 million to the University of Nebraska for a long-term study on the ethanol plants impacts on the surrounding communities and the environment.

Blood also said efforts to gain access to AltEns facility to study the waste products and spread of the contamination have been stymied.

When the research team asks AltEn, the company defers to the Department of Environment and Energy, she said, but when the request is put to the state, the state refers the decision back to the ethanol plant.

Last fall, responding to a request from Blood, Jim Macy, the director of the state environmental department, said the agencys authority stemmed from its charge to enforce regulations, and it was unable to give permission to non-regulatory entities.

The AltEn facility is private property and access would be at the discretion and permission of the property owner for a third party to enter or gather material, Macy wrote to Blood on Oct. 1.

Dr. Ali Khan, dean of UNMCs College of Public Health, reached out to AltEn general manager Scott Tingelhoff directly March 29, 2021, offering to partner with the ethanol plant on the study, according to an email shared with the Journal Star.

I am glad to share our scientific approach if you would also like to collaborate in some aspects of this effort, Khan wrote.

Tingelhoff responded less than 15 minutes later, asking Khan to share what he had in mind and suggest a time to discuss the research project.

Khan said his executive assistant reached out to continue the conversation, but it never went any further.

In December, responding to a question at a panel on the AltEn study hosted by the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, Khan said the request was met with radio silence.

Lincoln attorney Stephen Mossman, who represents AltEn, said no formal request had been made for researchers to come onto the property until Monday afternoon, when he received a letter from Khan.

Mossman said he will coordinate with the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office and the Bruning Law Group, which represents the AltEn Facility Response Group, to coordinate access for the research team.

Those groups currently control the site, he explained. AltEn no longer has any employees working at the plant.

At his weekly news conference Monday, Gov. Pete Ricketts said AltEn was not required to let researchers onto the property, nor would the state force it to do so.

We cant go just tell any private property owner they have to allow some third party on their property, Ricketts said.

The governor said the state is working with the Environmental Protection Agency, which conducted air sampling last fall, and is keeping the federal agency informed of the work being done.

Ricketts said the state is also on site at AltEn three days a week doing inspections and coordinating the cleanup.

I understand peoples frustrations  its not a good situation  but were working through it as quickly as we can, he said.

Pledge to keep pressure on

Blood told the rally she believes the state doesnt want Nebraskans to know the full extent of the pesticide contamination stemming from AltEn.

She said conversations with her colleagues in the Legislature lead her to believe many are being misled about the cleanups progress.

We have a lot of senators who believe things are going well and theres no more contamination, she said. What we know is not what theyre being told.

Blood and others who spoke at the rally urged Nebraskans to reach out to their state senators and push to have the AltEn-related legislation  including the resolution to create a special committee  pushed to the floor for full debate.

Joslyn Stamp, 14, of Plattsmouth, said it was important for the state to act swiftly in order to keep Nebraska a safe, healthy place for future generations.

I think its perfect that we all gathered here on Valentines Day, because most of the places and people I love are right here in Nebraska, the eighth grader at Brownell Talbot College Preparatory School said. Thank you all for being here to protect that.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, the Legislature's leading advocate for prison and criminal justice reform, has decided to not seek reelection this year.

With the filing deadline for incumbents looming Tuesday, Lathrop said Monday he will not be a candidate for another four-year term.

"I've been doing this for 12 years and there are other things I want to do now and other ways I want to spend my time," Lathrop said during a brief conversation in his state Capitol office.

"It's been a great privilege to be here," he said.

Lathrop was first elected to the Legislature in 2006, serving two terms before he was term-limited out of office. After sitting out four years as required by the limitation of two consecutive terms, he chose to return to the Legislature and was elected in 2018.

As chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, Lathrop has spearheaded efforts to improve Nebraska's criminal justice system, reform sentencing by discouraging the use of mandatory minimum sentences, reduce the state's inmate population and lower recidivism rates.

Lathrop, a Democrat who is regarded as one of the nonpartisan Legislature's most effective speakers during floor debate, was urged to seek the governorship in 2014.

As of Friday, two candidates  Bryce Lukowski and Haile Kucera  had filed for the District 12 race. The Douglas County district covers the area south of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks generally between 72nd and 144th streets.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon

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My first question: What about the feces?

I dont mean figuratively, as in Wow, the Republican National Committee really stepped in (fill in the blank) or other colorful idioms.

I mean it literally, what about the poop?

I should back up. The RNC, the greatest agglomeration of hacks ever seen outside a lumberjack competition, voted to censure Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for serving on the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. This was dumb enough. But the stated case for censuring them is that talking about Jan.6 divides Republicans and takes the focus off attacking Democrats. Except the censure itself made Jan. 6 the dominant story for days, forcing Republican politicians to talk about the very thing they dont want to talk about.

But where the RNC leaders really stepped in it -- again, figuratively -- is that they wrote the censure resolution so stupidly, people stopped talking about Cheney and Kinzinger and started talking about how the Republican National Committee officially described the Jan. 6 riot as legitimate political discourse.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel insists that the resolution wasnt meant to describe the violent attack on the Capitol and capitol police as legitimate political discourse even though theres nothing in the resolutions text to support her claim. But lets give her the benefit of the doubt for a moment and chalk up the poor phrasing to McDaniels trademark incompetence instead of her patented Trump sycophancy (this is the woman who, after all, dropped the name Romney to placate the former president).

Which brings me back to my question. Does McDaniel think tracking and smearing human feces around the halls of Congress qualifies as legitimate political discourse? I mean, that wasnt technically speaking violent activity. Were the Capitol custodians tasked with cleaning up the foulness actually engaged in the rich conversation of American democracy? If someone does that at RNC headquarters, would McDaniel say, Good for you, exercising your First Amendment right to engage in legitimate political discourse?

And then theres the problem that the resolution is based on a lie. It states that the Jan. 6 committee is a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse. But thats the cowardly spin deployed by apparatchiks desperate to hide behind mythical ordinary citizens.

Thousands of people attended the pre-riot rally, and they arent being persecuted, never mind prosecuted. You can scroll through the Department of Justices list of 769 people criminally charged so far. If protesters didnt storm the Capitol, participate in violence, steal or destroy property, or conspire to do one of these things, they havent been charged.

More to the point, the Jan. 6 committee hasnt charged anybody because thats not what congressional committees do. The prosecutions have all come from the Justice Department. Yes, the committee has recommended contempt charges to the DOJ for people who refuse to comply with subpoenas. But none of them are ordinary citizens persecuted for engaging in legitimate discourse. Theyre Trump loyalists stonewalling a committee investigating an effort to overturn an election.

And that is what is so grotesque about this entire exercise.

The Republican National Committee has always largely been a holding pen for boosters, has-beens and other party strivers who need to be placated with a title but little power. It really only has one significant job to do -- draft a party platform. But, under Trump, committee members opted to skip that, issuing a brief resolution that basically said the media is bad and Trump is awesome.

Now they apparently think their job is to whitewash an attempted coup and provide fodder for Democratic ads showing cops getting beaten by American flag poles with the narrator saying: This is what Republicans officially describe as legitimate political discourse.  And then perhaps the ad will cut to Donald Trumps recent vow to pardon the goons and vandals, many of whom have argued in court that they were acting on Trumps wishes.

Traditionally, the RNC stable is cleaned out after a presidential defeat. But it is now so thoroughly infested with Trump loyalists that its impossible to get fresh blood in there. Most Republicans do not look favorably on Jan. 6, but the cabal running the party would rather endorse a fringe view, further dividing the party and defend an attempt to steal an election, all to protect a defeated president and his accomplices.

It will take years to clean the stain Trump has smeared on a party he never cared much about in the first place. And the Republican leaders have no one to blame but themselves.
Country

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Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, 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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Serving their patients as best as they can is the goal behind HealthReach Community Clinics desire to obtain a new EKG machine through the Love United Iredell campaign.

The clinic, located at 400 E. Statesville Ave., Suite 300, has been at this location since 2003, making sure that those individuals who need health care can receive it. As the only free medical clinic in Iredell County, Angela Holland, the clinics associate director, said they serve individuals who are at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level guidelines and then anyone who does not have any form of health insurance whatsoever. These individuals must reside in Iredell County, she said.

The clinic offers a variety of services including primary care, acute care, prescription medications for their patients, labs, social services through their social worker and mental health care.

We offer as much as we can for our patients at zero cost, Holland shared.

While the clinic does have an EKG machine, it was noted that the current one is old and, as Holland said, it doesnt interface with our electronic health records system. Many of the newer models of EKGs actually will communicate seamlessly with electronic medical records systems, so thats what we are hoping for. We are hoping to have something thats a bit more user friendly and something that is a better fit for our clinic and for all of our patients so we can serve them the best that we can.

This particular project for the Love United Iredell campaign was decided upon after the nurses at the clinic, who, as Holland said, are the ones who are dealing hand in hand with patients every single day. They are the ones conducting EKGs and scans, and it was brought to our attention that EKGs are expensive machines and being a free medical clinic, its sometimes hard to procure that expensive technology.

Claudia Moody, an RN at the clinic, shared that having a new EKG machine would be so much faster for patient time and noted that after doing an EKG they have to run it to the provider across the office and then back. It would just be so nice for the patients if it integrated and flowed, she said.

We would love to be able to link it up to our electronic medical records system that we use and the patients results as they are being taken will send directly into that system and be integrated into the patient chart, it will be sent directly to the physician while the nurses are taking the EKG, they will be able to get results directly to them in their offices, start developing care plans from that very moment and it just streamlines the process, shared Holland. With the click of a button on a new EKG machine, it goes to everybody that it needs to go to, it streamlines the process and it ensures we are staying as up to date as possible with the technology as we move forward through the future.

Therefore, the possibility of getting a new machine was posed to Dr. Sabrina Niggel, executive director of the clinic, and asked what avenues could be taken to get that new technology.

So the idea was a culmination of everyone coming together and saying this technology is lagging behind, lets see where we can improve it and ways we can improve it and get to that next level of technological advancements, said Holland. The better that we can streamline this process and do our jobs in the most effective way possible, we are ensuring that every single one of our patients is receiving that highest quality care that we can possibly provide.

With HealthReach Community Clinic being the only free medical clinic in the county and serving all of Iredell County, Holland said they want to make sure that everyone has access to the medical care they deserve, and thus would encourage folks to donate to their campaign through Love United Iredell so they are able to obtain a new EKG machine to help ensure that their neighbors in need are being served to the fullest extent and the best possible capacity, to make sure that their neighbors are living long, healthy, happy lives. Medical health care is critical.

Holland said she hopes people will see the importance of health and what a great time for this project to be happening as she pointed out with a big smile that February is Heart Health Month.

The project goal to get the new machine is $2,500, which could impact the 700 patients the clinic serves. However, Holland noted that in the past year, inquiries from people in the community about becoming patients have increased up to 50 percent, so this number that it impacts could be limitless, she said. We just want to be able to help as many people in Iredell County as we can. We want to get our name out there and want to make sure people know about us and see what we are doing and we want to help.

With many of their patients having issues that could make them likely to have heart conditions, Holland shared that they want to be able to detect those conditions as soon as possible, which is what an EKG machine can do.

It can detect numerous heart conditions. Heart disease, disease of the muscles surrounding the heart, heart attack, irregular heartbeat, it can detect that which are things nobody wants to be experiencing, and so with an EKG machine, we are able to ensure that we are catching these conditions as early as possible, Holland said.

At the present time, because of COVID, they are trying to keep people spread out and keep appointments spaced out as much as possible to help have some infection control and limit any unnecessary contact with anyone else the best that we can, said Holland.

Plastic shields are in place in the entry area, which pre-COVID was a packed waiting area. Housed in the clinic are multiple patient rooms. One they are especially proud of is self-contained with its own bathroom and equipment plus it has a negative pressure system built in so the air in the room is directed out of the building. Theres no chance of intermingling of potentially infected air, Holland said.

The clinic has office space for the director, nurse practitioner, nurses, a staff break room and more. They offer free lab work, which is sent to the local hospital and processed free for the clinic. We are super thankful for that partnership, and were able to offer such a wonderful service to our patients free of cost, Holland noted.

Another area that she said they are very proud of is the in-house pharmacy where the patient prescriptions are filled at no cost to the patients. She said that last year they were able to dispense more than $2 million worth of medications at absolutely no cost to our patients.

The clinic also has offices where their social worker can see people who need different social services, Holland shared. This area is also shared with their psychiatrist and clinical psychologist at HealthReach.

We are so thankful we have them here and can provide those integrative health services for our patients, and for our social worker, who is able to provide those social services to our patients as well, she said.

Holland also pointed out a special area complete with photos of their volunteers, corporate sponsors, and civic partners which serves as a way to thank everyone.

We wouldnt be here without the support of our community, so we just want to make sure that we are highlighting those who help us do all of the work that were able to do.

If anyone is interested in joining with HealthReach Community Clinic and signing up to become their official community partner, you may reach out via email to Sara Lewis, director of community engagement and foundation relations with United Way of Iredell County, at slewis@uwiredell.org.

To learn more about the campaign or to donate, visit www.LoveUnitedIredell.org.
In southeast Asia, Indonesia has embarked on a rebuilding and replacement plan for its navy that will spend $125 billion over the next 25 years. One reason is the increasing Chinese aggression in claiming offshore Indonesian waters. This is about the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) that extends 380 kilometers from all Indonesian territory. Within that EEZ Indonesia controls who can fish or explore for underwater oil or natural gas. Although China signed the treaty that established the EEZ system they have declared exceptions because of historical Chinese fishing waters and claimed ownership of small islands within some of the Indonesian EEZ. As a result, Indonesia has become part of a growing anti-China alliance that includes Australia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Since the United States already had military alliances with many of these nations, the Americans are part of the coalition as well.

In addition, Indonesia has been particularly aggressive in dealing with Chinese encroachment. This was demonstrated decisively in 2016 when an Indonesian warship intercepted a dozen Chinese fishing ships illegally operating off the Natuna islands. The Indonesians fired warning shots and seized one of the Chinese ships and its crew and charged them with poaching. This was the third such incident in 2016 and Indonesia accused China of deliberately sending these fishing boats to poach in order to establish a claim that some of the Natunas belonged to China. The Natunas are 3,000 kilometers from China and within the Indonesian EEZ. In the past China has escorted Chinese fishing boats that were illegally fishing near Indonesia and several times used the threat of force to prevent the arrest of the Chinese fishing boats. In response to this Indonesia began sending enough warships to make arrests. There were no Chinese warships in the area this time. China justified their armed intervention but eventually backed because Indonesia responded with its own warships and demonstrated a willingness to use force to defend its EEZ.

China unofficially backed off on the illegal fishing but in 2021 tried to halt Indonesian exploratory oil drilling in the Natunas. These natural gas deposits were first discovered in the 1970s but until recently they could not be exploited because of low-natural gas prices and the lack of tech that enabled the gas to be extracted and delivered to customers. At this point the Natuna natural gas is worth half a trillion dollars to Indonesia and will cost over $20 billion to build the infrastructure to pump and ship the natural gas. The 2021 standoff saw China accepting defeat, but not giving up. A Chinese maritime survey ship spent several months in the area moving methodically as if surveying for the location of the natural gas deposits. This was legal in an EEZ and did not trigger an armed confrontation. If China attempts to do exploratory drilling, that is another matter. The Indonesian response was a major effort to increase the quantity and quality of its warships and combat aircraft capable of operating over the Indonesian EEZ.

The Indonesian fleet is old and long overdue for new ships. Part of the problem was that Indonesia never had a naval threat until China came along. In the 1990s Indonesia did refresh its fleet by buying most of the ships belonging to the East German fleet. The two Germanies had reunited in 1990 and that made East Germany part of NATO and most of its warships did not meet NATO standards. United Germany sold Indonesia most of these still-operational ships at bargain prices. Three decades later those ships, all of them Cold War Russian designs although many were built in East Germany or Poland. Upgrades to some of them and light use, mainly for patrolling coastal areas and fishing grounds helped but now replacements are needed. Indonesia has developed its own ship building industry, initially for commercial ships. These yards are able to build smaller foreign warships under license and this lowers the cost of obtaining new ships. Currently Indonesia has ordered ten frigates, mostly from Italian firms, and many if not most of these will be built in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Air Force is an important component of naval power and problems with Russian warplanes, plus sanctions on Russian weapons exports, has Indonesia seeking American and French fighters to upgrade their air force.
Current Affairs

D r. Raven Saunders has been appointed to the post of Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Human Services, the Office of the Deputy Governor announced.



Commenting on her appointment Dr. Saunders said: Words cannot describe the feelings invoked within when you are able to provide appropriate and adequate medical care to the community that once supported you throughout your career journey. From the late great Maya Angelou are these inspiring words to live by: You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, and how you can still come out of it. With that being said, I thank God for this opportunity of allowing me to return home to contribute to the development of my country."



She added: "I am humbled, delighted and excited about my role at the Primary Health Care Department. I will perform my duties to the best of my abilities, with zeal and grace and look forward to serving the community of Grand Turk and the wider Turks and Caicos Islands as we seek to promote health, wellness and appropriate medical care here in these islands.



Deputy Governor and Head of the Public Service Her Excellency Anya Williams in extending congratulatory remarks to Dr. Raven Saunders said: I am elated to congratulate Dr. Raven Saunders on her appointment as a Medical Officer with the Turks and Caicos Government and to officially welcome her as a part of our civil service team. Dr. Saunders is a national scholar in these islands who has performed exceptionally well throughout her entire educational journey. She joined our health team in a temporary capacity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and has done a stellar job. A knowledgeable, caring and compassionate medical professional, we are so pleased to have her as a part of our team in the Ministry of Health.

Congratulations Dr. Saunders and thank you for taking on the mantle of providing a much needed service to the government and people of the Turks and Caicos Islands.



Dr. Saunders a native of Grand Turk and former Valedictorian of the H.J. Robinson High School Class of 2007 and the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College Class of 2009; holds an Associate Degree in General Studies (Science) from the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College; a Bachelor of Science Degree (Magna Cum Laude) in Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery Degree M.BB.S. from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.



Dr. Saunders during her training in Jamaica was able to garner a wealth of medical experience as a Medical Intern at the St. Anns Bay Hospital, where she was trained in multiple disciplines and was later able to further enhance her skills by working as a Senior Health Officer in multiple clinics throughout the North East Regional Health Authority in Jamaica.



In 2020 she returned to the Turks and Caicos Islands and took up employment in the private sector as the Clinic Manager and Family Doctor on the island of Ambergris Cay for Omnicare and as the Family Doctor in Providenciales with ACCU Diagnostics.



In February 2021, Dr. Saunders joined the Ministry of Health team as a member of the COVID-19 Response team taking up an appointment at the Primary Health Care Clinic in Grand Turk. She is now being officially appointed as a Medical Officer in that department.






Business

H yundai and Kia have advised owners of over 485,000 cars to park outdoors due to fire risk.



The two manufacturers made the recommendation in safety recall reports over risk of an internal electrical short sparking a fire, potentially involving 357,830 Hyundai cars and 126,747 Kia cars.



Both companies recommended that owners park outdoors until the recall is remedied, according to documents provided to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.



The recalled Hyundai models include 2016-2018 Santa Fe, 2017-2018 Santa Fe Sport, 2019 Santa Fe XL, and 2014-2015 Tucson.



"The subject vehicles are equipped with Anti-Lock Brake System modules that could malfunction internally and cause an electrical short over time," the recall report said. "An electrical short could result in significant overcurrent in the ABS module increasing risk of an engine compartment fire while parked or driving."



"Owners may continue driving these vehicles; however, Hyundai recommends parking their vehicles outside and away from structures until a remedy is completed," according to the remedy description in the recall report.



For Kia, the recalled vehicles include the 2016-2018 K900 sedans and 2014-2016 Sportage SUVs.



"An engine compartment fire may occur in the area where the Hydraulic Electronic Control Unit is located," according to the recall report. "The exact cause of the fire remains unknown. However, it is believed that the HECU may experience an internal electrical short circuit."



Similar to the Hyundai recall, the short circuit could increase of engine compartment fire, prompting Kia to also make the recommendation for owners to similarly park outside.



Hyundai and Kia told the NHTSA drivers may notice warning signs including illumination of ABS warning light, burning or melting smell, and smoke from the engine department.



Hyundai's logo is displayed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan.






Caribbean

M IAMI  A court in Venezuela has upheld long prison sentences for six American oil executives detained in the South American country on corruption charges for more than four years.



Venezuelas supreme court announced the ruling late Friday, disappointing family members who had hoped the surprise decision last fall to hear the appeal, and a recent jailhouse visit by a top State Department official, signified President Nicolas Maduros government was looking to release the men as part of a gesture to engage the Biden administration in talks over U.S. sanctions.



The court didnt provide any information on its decision, and the order itself was not immediately available. Venezuelas judicial system is stacked with pro-Maduro officials who routinely issue decrees in accordance with the presidents viewpoints.



The men known as the Citgo 6  for the Houston oil company where they worked  were lured to Caracas around Thanksgiving in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Citgos parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA.



Once there, heavily armed masked security officers stormed the conference room where they were gathered and hauled them away. Later they were charged with corruption in connection to a never-executed plan to refinance billions in bonds.



The executives appeared in November before a three-judge appeals panel in the same week as the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention took up the case of Tomeu Vadell, one of the six detainees. Five of the men are dual Venezuelan-American nationals who had lived in the U.S. for many years, while one, former Citgo president Jose Pereira, is a permanent U.S. resident.



We are deeply saddened with the continued violation of Tomeus human rights, the Vadell family said in a statement.



The men are being held at Caracas Helicoide jail alongside some of Maduros top opponents. The U.S. has repeatedly called for their release and harshly criticized their detention and conviction as lacking all semblance of due process.



Seen by many as political pawns in hostilities between the U.S. and Venezuela, the men have twice before been granted house arrest.

But they were thrown back into jail hours after then President Donald Trump welcomed opposition leader Juan Guaido to the White House in February 2020.



They were granted house arrest again last April, but that arrangement ended Oct. 16, the same day that a close ally of Maduro was extradited by the African nation of Cape Verde to the U.S. to face money laundering charges.






Marion officials have decided to spend $525,000 of its federal pandemic relief money to transform the towns pool into a waterpark.

Marion received the first half of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation last summer. The second half of that $5.7 million is expected to be awarded in June 2022. Localities have until the end of 2024 to commit the money and through 2025 to spend it.

The towns leaders have maintained that they want to use the rare, once-in-a-lifetime infusion of cash for legacy projects. Last June, Town Manager Bill Rush asked the town council to consider a question when deciding how to use the money: When someone looks back in 15 years, will they be happy with how it was spent?

Rush urged his department heads and the council members to propose lasting generational projects.

In January, the council approved two proposals that will use about $1,025,000 of the ARPA funds.

Read more about the second proposal here.

In May, the Marion council OKd spending $300,000 to renovate and upgrade the pool, adding amenities such as a beach-entry, also known as a zero-entry pool, on the shallow end. Beach-entry pools are designed so that at least one side gradually slopes toward the water, allowing users to walk into the pool. These entries make pools much more accessible for young children, elderly individuals, and people with disabilities.

In the beach-entry pool area, the water would stay shallow and would be surrounded by an elevated splash pad and sitting wall.

The proposal also called for the addition of a water slide in the deeper end and a splash pad. As the work got underway last fall, Rush said that crews discovered more needed renovations, including the roof and restrooms. As well, he said, ideas came forward to add an elevated playground and a pergola with tables and chairs to provide shaded seating and renovate the pool house to create a party/event room.

In a later interview, Rush said the waterpark would include slides, diving boards, background music and shaded seating. While it might not be on par with Splash Country, an outdoor waterpark at Dollywood, the town manager said it would be akin to those at certain Marriott resorts.

While the waterpark may have a resort feel, Rush also acknowledged that officials are aware that many youngsters from limited income families often spend entire days at the pool but cant afford to even eat out of the vending machines or from the nearby food truck vendors. Hes hoping Marion can partner with the school system to provide meals for low-income youngsters during the summer.

Rather than borrowing the $300,000 originally approved for the pool, the council followed Rushs recommendation to add that amount to the estimated costs for the new additions to the project and OKd funds not to exceed $525,000 from the ARPA allocation. Congress adopted the rescue plan last spring to help individuals and communities recover from the financial losses associated with the pandemic.

Last year, Rush cautioned the council that even with the new features the pool likely wont make money but would be expected to increase the number of users. As a municipal pool, the town works to keep access fees affordable and unpredictable factors like weather often impact revenue.

This is a project that would reap benefits over time, he said.

Rush anticipates that the pool work will be complete before its traditional Memorial Day weekend opening.
A high demand and low number of local speech specialists convinced Amber Humphrey to open her own speech therapy office in Longview at the end of 2021.

Humphrey said she left PeaceHealth after four years and opened Articulate Brain, LLC in December in The Merk to help kids and adults with communication problems like stuttering or comprehending language.

The Kelso High School graduate said in her almost eight years in the industry, she has seen the need for more local speech therapists first hand.

All the speech services in town have incredibly long wait lists, she said.

High demand

At Articulate Brain, Humphrey said patients 3 years old and older can be seen within a month after receiving a referral from a primary physician.

Other facilities have longer wait times. The owner of a child therapy clinic in Longview called Kidspace Therapy, LLC said speech therapy patients waited six months to see a specialist when the company was fully staffed.

However, the business has not been able to hire speech pathologists since at least August, said owner Leslie Wolff. She said she has spent thousands of dollars recruiting potential employees for three open positions over the last eight months and has not received any applications.

Articulate Brain, LLC Address: The Merk, 1339 Commerce Ave., Suite 105A, Longview. Hours: By appointment between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays. Info: 360-967-8548 or articulatebrain.com.

She said the labor pool shortage may force Kidspace Therapy to stop offering speech therapy altogether.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says speech-language pathologists are one of the highest demand jobs in the country. The bureau projects employment in the sector will grow 29% in the next eight years, much faster than the average for all occupations.

Health experts attribute the increased need to a growing aging population, as well as earlier detection of childhood speech problems.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association reports roughly half of Washingtons speech-language pathologists work at education facilities and half at health-care organizations. Humphrey said children who see a speech therapist at school may benefit from more individualized, longer sessions at her office as well.

Articulate Brain

Articulate Brain accepts insurance through Medicaid, Medicare and Premera Blue Cross. Humphrey said she is applying to accept insurance from additional companies like Regence.

Humphrey is the sole employee at Articulate Brain, so there is no receptionist or billing department and patients enter the office one at a time to maintain privacy.

Inside the roughly 275 square-foot-space, Humphrey has a play area for children including a trampoline, board games and toys kids can use to practice articulating and understanding words.

Toys can elicit a lot of language through play because thats how we naturally learn, Humphrey said.

She also works with adults with cognitive and memory issues from the effects of strokes, brain injuries or long-term COVID to strategize how to remember certain words, she added.

Humphrey said she sees other local speech therapy clinics as a source of collaboration, not competition, and receives referrals from Kidspace Therapy while they are in search for new hires. Wolff also said another speech pathology office is a win for the community.

The need for services is so great in this area, she said.

Talking Business is a series featuring local new or expanded businesses and prints every Tuesday. The series was suspended during the pandemic and recently restarted. Contact Daily News reporter Hayley Day at 360-577-2541 or hday@tdn.com for possible inclusion in the series.

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A chapter of the Longview Public Librarys history ended earlier this year when longtime director Chris Skaugset stepped down.

City Manager Kurt Sacha said the city had amicably agreed with Skaugset for him to leave near the beginning of the year. The library is being led in the interim by Keith Larson, a retired former director of human resources for the city.

He was maybe looking to do something different and refresh himself and see what that might bring, Sacha said.

Originally from Oregon, Skaugset joined the Longview Public Library in 1996 as an assistant librarian. Skaugset eventually became the adult services and reference librarian and chaired the planning committee for the librarys 75th anniversary.

In January 2003, he was selected to become the new director after previous library leader Marion Otteraaen stepped down. Otteraaen served as the library director for nearly 29 years. In an interview with The Daily News shortly after being announced as the new director, Skaugset said he planned to stay at the Longview Public Library until he retired.

Its not a short-term decision, he said at the time. This library, staff and community are extremely important to me.

Larson said he was approached because of his city government experience and his availability to step in while the city went through a hiring search. He also has familiarity with some of the librarys programs through his wife, who has been involved with Project Read for several years.

Longview city officials made a public posting for the library director job Feb. 9. The posting advertises a minimum salary of $83,304 annually and asks for experienced managers with a Washington drivers license and library certification. The post says the first review of applications will happen the week of March 14.

Building improvements under way at library

One of the main projects Larson is overseeing during his interim run is a set of library improvements.

Longview used a portion of the federal funds it received from the American Rescue Plan Act for maintenance work at the library, with a focus on the outside. The Longview City Council set aside $1.8 million in ARPA funds as revenue replacement while the city took on some long-delayed building projects.

Since the beginning of the year, the library received a deep cleaning and restoration to the roof and the brick exterior. Inside the building, the overhead lighting on the main floor is being replaced.

Larson said the restoration work is expected to be done around the middle of March. Window replacements and improvements could come in the second phase of improvement work.

The place is getting lighter and brighter and it looks good, Larson said. We will continue making incremental improvements to the exterior and the interior.

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The Wahkiakum School Districts replacement levy is holding onto a narrow lead as the election results are set to be certified by the end of the week.

The second round of results released Friday counted 725 votes in support of the levy and 670 votes against. Wahkiakum had a high turnout rate for the levy, with 49% of eligible voters coming out for the vote.

The educational programs and operations replacement levy will last for four years beginning in 2023 and provide the school district with $997,000 per year. The levy is used to pay for staffing, maintenance and technology needs that arent covered with state funding.

Updated results released in Cowlitz County on Monday showed the Castle Rock School Districts replacement levy also was positioned to pass. The new numbers showed 1,606 votes in favor of the levy and 1,404 votes against, for a total approval rate of 53.4%.

The Castle Rock educational programs and operations levy will maintain the current tax rate of $1.98 per $1,000 in assessed home value. The levy is expected to provide the district with $8.92 million over the next three years.

No more results are expected to come in from Lewis County residents in the school district. The Cowlitz County Elections Office is not set to release more ballots until the results are certified on Feb. 18.

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iPhone SE 3 has gone into production, suggests latest leaks. The cheapest 5G iPhone could go on sale starting mid-March.

iPhone SE 3 could only be a few weeks away! Based on the latest leak, the iPhone SE 3 has only gone into production in China and is said to hit the market in mid-to-late March. No other leaked information regarding the iPhone SE 3 yet but it is said to have the same Apple A15 chipset as the iPhone 13 generation. This one is also said to be getting 5G connectivity, which is an evolution of the 4G-only iPhone SE that is currently available in the market.

Foxconn in China is said to have begun the iPhone SE 3 production, hiring dedicated personnel for the same. Industry experts suggest that the 5G-enabled iPhone SE could eat into the share of the affordable 5G Android phones. That said, previous rumours have long suggested that the iPhone SE 3 will essentially be the same iPhone SE that launched in 2022, except for the chipset inside. This will be first time when Apples new iPhone SE does not bring a new design.

iPhone SE 3 goes into production

While some rumours suggest iPhone SE 3 to be called the iPhone SE 5G, other hint at the phone carrying the iPhone SE Plus. Apple is yet to comment anything on the iPhone SE 3 and its expected launch date. However, leaks have suggested a March 8 launch event that could foresee the launch of the iPhone SE 3, a new iPad Air, and a new MacBook Pro with Apples M2 chip.

The iPhone SE 3 is expected to retain the same 4.7-inch LCD display complete with its thick retro bezels and a Home button housing the Touch ID fingerprint scanner. The front camera is also said to be the same 7MP unit while the rear camera is expected to have a 12MP sensor. No change from the 2020 model.

What remains to be seen is whether Apple upgrades the battery capacity on the iPhone SE. The current-gen iPhone SE 2020 with 4G-only A13 chip barely manages to make it past an entire day with moderate usage. With a more powerful chip and battery draining 5G network, the iPhone SE 5G could be struggling on endurance.

However, leaks also suggest that Apple is planning a new completely new iPhone SE for 2023/2024. This one is expected to have a 5.7-inch display and is said to be based on the discontinued iPhone XR. Some also suggest it could be based on the iPhone 13 Mini, which is said to be discontinued with the iPhone 14 generation.
Strain gauges and optical Bragg gratings monitor damage in bending tests. Credit: Empa

The pressurized cabins of commercial aircraft, as well as their wings and tail units, are inspected for cracks and damage at regular intervals. Every six to ten years, each jet has to undergo a D-check in a hangar for one to two months. There, it is largely disassembled, even the paint is removed. Together with the lost operating time, such a D-check can easily cost several million Swiss francs.

Couldn't it be simpler? Couldn't the stressed parts of the aircraft structure also be monitored permanently, i.e. during the flight, and any damage that occurs be specifically monitored? As part of an EU-funded project called DIMES (Development of Integrated Measurement Systems), an international research consortium has been investigating this idea. Besides Empa, the project partners are Airbus, the University of Liverpool, the companies Strain Solutions Ltd. from Great Britain and Dantec Dynamics GmbH from Germany.

Where is it? How bad is it?

"We applied for the project in February 2018, which was launched as part of the EU's Clean Sky 2 program," explains Erwin Hack, the project manager at Empa. The question was an exciting one: Using components that were as robust and inexpensive as possible, the researchers were to monitor the metallic wing of an Airbus A320 and carbon fiber composites in the cabin panel of an Airbus A350. Hack: "The sensors were to answer several questions at the same time: Is there any damage? Where is the damage? What is the nature of the damage? How serious is the damage, and how long will the component last?"

The consortium was awarded the contract, and Empa played no small role: On the one hand, Hack is a specialist in optical monitoring of components, thermal imaging measurements and monitoring using strain gauges and Bragg gratings. All these methods were to be used on the aircraft parts at the same time. And secondly, Empa has the required infrastructure to clamp in the parts and selectively bent them thousands of times in succession. Hack developed his test strategy together with Silvain Michel from Empa's Mechanical Systems Engineering laboratory. Airbus supplied the approximately seven-meter-long wing segment of an Airbus A320-111 from Filton/UK, which had been damaged in a crash in 1988.

Four methods at once

In November 2019, the wing section was clamped in place at Empa, and the tests began. Hydraulic presses were used to bend the wing 70,000 times while the researchers collected data and analyzed the results. As expected, the bending tests enlarged the fractures the wing had suffered in the crash and led to new cracks.

The researchers "felt" the overall condition of the wing with strain gauges and fiber-optic Bragg sensors. They observed the immediate vicinity of the damage with cameras and infrared camerasbecause the bending tests generate heat in the damaged wing section. Where heat is generated, it's important to look particularly closely.

Pandemic as a challenge

The next step was to adapt the testing methods from metal wings to carbon fiber structures of an aircraft: Airbus in Toulouse provided the cockpit of an Airbus, and Empa received fuselage panels of an Airbus A350 from Hamburg. Both parts are stressed primarily by the cabin pressure, which is built up during each flight and released again during each landing.

But then came Corona. Now the research teams in Chesterfield and Liverpool, in Ulm and Dubendorf, could no longer meet or travel to their test objects, which were in the laboratories in Dubendorf, Toulouse and Filton. The researchers solved the problem by developing a special communication system for mechanics, consisting of a helmet camera, head- and microphone. Thus equipped, a specialist in Toulouse was able to mount the module in the cockpit structureguided remotely by experts in England, Germany and from Empa. The method worked so well that an aeronautics research laboratory in Ottawa, Canada, eventually joined the project. There, an aircraft wing was fitted with the monitoring module without the need for a single long-distance flight to the research object.

First use in structural tests

The result of the project is a small module made of commercially available, low-cost components that can simultaneously handle four monitoring methods: strain measurements with measuring strips and Bragg sensors, optical monitoring and thermoelastic stress analysis. The data from the sensors is collected in a minicomputer and can be read out remotely.

Initially, the module will not be allowed to fly in aircraft yet, but will prove what it can do during structural tests in Airbus development labs. As the technology matures, it could play a key role in improving aircraft safety while reducing maintenance costs. The next generation of airliners could also be built somewhat lighter and thus more fuel-efficient than today thanks to such structural monitoring.

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The Federal Aviation Administration plans to undertake final inspections on the Boeing 787 when it resumes deliveries.

US air safety regulators said Tuesday they will perform final inspections on new Boeing 787 planes, retaining an authority normally granted to jet manufacturers.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the policy was needed until the agency is "confident" Boeing has addressed issues that have led to the halting of deliveries of new 787 Dreamliner planes since May.

"The FAA today informed Boeing that the agency will retain the authority to issue airworthiness certificates for all Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft," the agency said.

"This will allow the agency to confirm the effectiveness of measures Boeing has undertaken to improve the 787 manufacturing process."

The policy will remain in place until Boeing meets the FAA's standards for quality and manufacturing processes, shows a "robust" plan for reworking 787 jets now in storage and demonstrates "stable" delivery processes, the FAA said.

The 787's current travails date to 2020, when the company uncovered manufacturing flaws with some jets. Boeing subsequently identified additional issues, including with the horizontal stabilizer.

Issuing airworthiness certificates has usually been handled by Boeing employees who inspect the planes under an agreement with the regulator.

But the FAA retained the authority with new 737 MAX planes when it reauthorized the aircraft to fly in November 2020 following a 20-month grounding due to two fatal crashes.

Now the agency has taken the same action with the 787.

Boeing has said that the timetable for resuming 787 deliveries depends on the FAA.

"We respect the FAA's role as our regulator and we will continue to work transparently through their detailed and rigorous processes," Boeing said Tuesday.

"Safety is the top priority for everyone in our industry. To that end, we will continue to engage with the FAA to ensure we meet their expectations and all applicable requirements."

With Boeing now having resumed deliveries of the 737 MAX after a long grounding, the limbo state of the 787 has emerged as the biggest drag on the company.

Last month, Boeing reported a $4.1 billion quarterly loss, due largely to expenses associated with compensating airlines for delayed deliveries of the 787 and more costly production processes.

Boeing shares rose 3.6 percent to $217.58 in early-afternoon trading.

Explore further Boeing deliveries rose in 2021 but still lag Airbus

 2022 AFP
Alexandre Bartel, Professor at the Department of Computing Science, have discovered a discovered a critical security weakness in the handling of COVID tests. Credit: Mattias Pettersson

Last year, over 14 million PCR tests were performed in Sweden. Researchers at Umea University have discovered that personal data has been exposed by a private company handling test certificates. "This is something that may have affected thousands of Swedes," says Alexandre Bartel, WASP professor and head of the Software Engineering and Security research group at the Department of Computer Science, Umea University.

In Sweden, when you take a PCR test to have a certificate issued, your personal data are handled by private companies. Alexandre Bartel and his research group have discovered a critical security weakness at such a company that handles these certificates in all major cities in Sweden.

"We were able to access personal information, ranging from names and social security numbers to where the test was performed and what the results were by forcing the server to run in an unexpected state," says Alexandre Bartel.

Since these private companies do not communicate on the number of tests they handle, it is still unclear how many persons could be affected by such a vulnerability.

"Nevertheless, we have been informed that it could have had impacted at least thousands of people" says Alexandre Bartel.

The problem is solved, for now

When Alexandre discovered the problem in July 2021, he immediately contacted the company. With his help, the companywhich does not want to be namedwas able to quickly find and fix the weakness within 24 hours. At the same time, the company was able to ensure that no one else had discovered and exploited this vulnerability.

"The company claims that it was able to verify that no leakage of data or personal information had occurred. They were very grateful, and at the same time they have now realized that although they know that a high level of security is essential to handle this kind of information, a thorough evaluation of the security of the entire software system is a must," says Alexandre Bartel. The company also says it welcomes future collaboration with Umea University on this topic.

Health related data still at risk?

For most people, it goes without saying that personal data, especially data related to health, is handled securely. In practice, data can be shared and/or stored between multiple institutions or companies which might increase the attack surface. From the point of view of an attacker finding one vulnerability in the weakest link allows to expose the data.

"One reason why data leakage problems can occur is because companies handling the data only have to comply with Swedish laws and meet a list of requirements," says Alexandre Bartel.

Unfortunately, being compliant to a list of requirements does not mean that a system is secure. Furthermore, no auditing of the real running system including its software stack is mandatory yet. Thus, configuration or implementation weaknesses can pass under the radar.

"All companies develop their own systems or purchase a license for one. This means that similar problems can be found in several other companies," continues Alexandre.

Security at an early stage

There are two main aspects to security problems. The first is data leakage, where an external party can see and gain access to personal data and the like. The second is when an external actor can get into a system and manipulate the data. By building the system with security in mind from the outset and allowing a third party to evaluate the system, leakage and other attacks can be minimized, which is particularly important when personal data is involved.

"Sadly, most people think about security far too late. It is seen primarily as a cost, and the benefits of high security are often invisible. To prevent problems, the system should be designed from a security perspective at an early stage and evaluated by a third party," says Alexandre Bartel.

Companies are encouraged to follow this process because if they are affected by a leak of personal data, they would be in violation of GDPR and could get fined up to 4% of their annual revenue.

Automated tool

Alexandre Bartel and his research team at the Department of Computer Science are working, among other things, on developing software tools that can detect weaknesses automatically, thus minimizing data leakage and the risk of attacks. One of the goals is to reduce the time and computational resources required.

"We are working to develop solutions that can efficiently find weaknesses in systems, making it easier to prevent them and manage them," says Alexandre Bartel.

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Ruidong Zhang, doctoral student in the field of information science, demonstrates the SpeeChin silent speech recognition device. Credit: Ryan Young/Cornell University

Speech recognition technology allows us to ask Siri to check the weather for tomorrow, or to ask Alexa to play our favorite song.

But those technologies require audible speech. What if a person can't speak, or if vocalized speech in a particular setting isn't appropriate?

Cheng Zhang, assistant professor of information science in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, and doctoral student Ruidong Zhang have an answer: SpeeChin, a silent-speech recognition (SSR) device that can identify silent commands using images of skin deformation in the neck and face captured by a neck-mounted infrared (IR) camera.

The technology is detailed in "SpeeChin: A Smart Necklace for Silent Speech Recognition," published Dec. 31 in Proceedings of the Association of Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.

Ruidong Zhang is also presenting the paper in October at the Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp 2022) conference.

Credit: Cornell University

"There are two questions: First, why a necklace? And second, why silent speech?" Zhang said. "We feel a necklace is a form factor that people are used to, as opposed to ear-mounted devices, which may not be as comfortable. As far as silent speech, people may think, 'I already have a speech recognition device on my phone.' But you need to vocalize sound for those, and that may not always be socially appropriate, or the person may not be able to vocalize speech."

"This device has the potential to learn a person's speech patterns, even with silent speech," he said.

"We're introducing an entirely new form factor, new hardware, into this field," said Ruidong Zhang, who built the original prototype in 2020 at his home in China, while completing the first year of his doctoral program remotely.

The device is similar in appearance to NeckFace, a technology Cheng Zhang and his SciFi Lab team members unveiled last year. NeckFace continuously tracks full facial expressions by using infrared cameras to capture images of the chin and face from beneath the neck.

Like NeckFace, SpeeChin features an IR camera mounted on a 3D-printed necklace case, which is hung on a silver chain with the camera pointing up at the wearer's chin. For increased stability, the developers designed a wing on each side, and placed a coin on the bottom.

Convenience and privacy, Cheng Zhang said, are two reasons that a necklace-mounted IR camera could be preferrable to a traditional camera in front of the face. "A camera in front of your face is taking pictures of what's behind you," he said, "and that raises privacy concerns."

For their initial experimentation, which featured 20 participants (10 speaking English, 10 Mandarin Chinese), measurements were taken to determine the baseline position of the chin, then differential images were used to train the device to recognize simple commands.

Ruidong Zhang had participants utter 54 commands in English, consisting of digits, interactive commands, voice assistant commands, punctuation commands and navigation commands. He then did the same with 44 simple Mandarin words or phrases.

SpeeChin recognized commands in English and Mandarin with an average accuracy of 90.5% and 91.6%, respectively. To further test its limits, the researchers conducted another study with 10 participants, all silently uttering a specially designed list of 72 one-syllable "nonwords" using phonemescombinations of 18 consonants and four vowels.

Finally, the researchers recruited six participants to utter 10 Mandarin and 10 English phrases while walking. Success rates were lower in this study, due in part to the variation in walking styles (more versus less head movement, for example) among the participants.

The project illustrates the power of determination: Ruidong Zhang built a lab in his home, complete with soldering station, and recruited people in his hometown as study participants.

"But because I live in a small city and it's hard to find people who speak English," he said, "we actually ended up in HangZhou, at Zhejiang University, to recruit English-speakers. It was an unforgettable experience for me."

Explore further Smart necklace could track your detailed facial expressions

More information: Ruidong Zhang et al, SpeeChin, Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (2021). Ruidong Zhang et al, SpeeChin,(2021). DOI: 10.1145/3494987
A new tensor language developed at MIT, with formally verified optimizations, could have benefits for high-performance computing. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

High-performance computing is needed for an ever-growing number of taskssuch as image processing or various deep learning applications on neural netswhere one must plow through immense piles of data, and do so reasonably quickly, or else it could take ridiculous amounts of time. It's widely believed that, in carrying out operations of this sort, there are unavoidable trade-offs between speed and reliability. If speed is the top priority, according to this view, then reliability will likely suffer, and vice versa.

However, a team of researchers, based mainly at MIT, is calling that notion into question, claiming that one can, in fact, have it all. With the new programming language, which they've written specifically for high-performance computing, says Amanda Liu, a second-year Ph.D. student at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), "speed and correctness do not have to compete. Instead, they can go together, hand-in-hand, in the programs we write."

Liualong with University of California at Berkeley postdoc Gilbert Louis Bernstein, MIT Associate Professor Adam Chlipala, and MIT Assistant Professor Jonathan Ragan-Kelleydescribed the potential of their recently developed creation, "A Tensor Language" (ATL), last month at the Principles of Programming Languages conference in Philadelphia.

"Everything in our language," Liu says, "is aimed at producing either a single number or a tensor." Tensors, in turn, are generalizations of vectors and matrices. Whereas vectors are one-dimensional objects (often represented by individual arrows) and matrices are familiar two-dimensional arrays of numbers, tensors are n-dimensional arrays, which could take the form of a 3x3x3 array, for instance, or something of even higher (or lower) dimensions.

The whole point of a computer algorithm or program is to initiate a particular computation. But there can be many different ways of writing that program"a bewildering variety of different code realizations," as Liu and her coauthors wrote in their soon-to-be published conference papersome considerably speedier than others. The primary rationale behind ATL is this, she explains: "Given that high-performance computing is so resource-intensive, you want to be able to modify, or rewrite, programs into an optimal form in order to speed things up. One often starts with a program that is easiest to write, but that may not be the fastest way to run it, so that further adjustments are still needed."

As an example, suppose an image is represented by a 100x100 array of numbers, each corresponding to a pixel, and you want to get an average value for these numbers. That could be done in a two-stage computation by first determining the average of each row and then getting the average of each column. ATL has an associated toolkitwhat computer scientists call a "framework"that might show how this two-step process could be converted into a faster one-step process.

"We can guarantee that this optimization is correct by using something called a proof assistant," Liu says. Toward this end, the team's new language builds upon an existing language, Coq, which contains a proof assistant. The proof assistant, in turn, has the inherent capacity to prove its assertions in a mathematically rigorous fashion.

Coq had another intrinsic feature that made it attractive to the MIT-based group: programs written in it, or adaptations of it, always terminate and cannot run forever on endless loops (as can happen with programs written in Java, for example). "We run a program to get a single answera number or a tensor," Liu maintains. "A program that never terminates would be useless to us, but termination is something we get for free by making use of Coq."

The ATL project combines two of the main research interests of Ragan-Kelley and Chlipala. Ragan-Kelley has long been concerned with the optimization of algorithms in the context of high-performance computing. Chlipala, meanwhile, has focused more on the formal (as in mathematically-based) verification of algorithmic optimizations. This represents their first collaboration. Bernstein and Liu were brought into the enterprise last year, and ATL is the result.

It now stands as the first, and so far the only, tensor language with formally verified optimizations. Liu cautions, however, that ATL is still just a prototypealbeit a promising onethat's been tested on a number of small programs. "One of our main goals, looking ahead, is to improve the scalability of ATL, so that it can be used for the larger programs we see in the real world," she says.

In the past, optimizations of these programs have typically been done by hand, on a much more ad hoc basis, which often involves trial and error, and sometimes a good deal of error. With ATL, Liu adds, "people will be able to follow a much more principled approach to rewriting these programsand do so with greater ease and greater assurance of correctness."

The research was published in Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages.

Explore further Researchers develop a new language for quantum computing

More information: Amanda Liu et al, Verified tensor-program optimization via high-level scheduling rewrites, Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages (2022). Amanda Liu et al, Verified tensor-program optimization via high-level scheduling rewrites,(2022). DOI: 10.1145/3498717

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.


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Texas A&M University President M. Katherine Banks has announced that representatives from The Battalion will be added to a working group that was formed earlier this year to develop recommendations for the future of A&Ms journalism department and degree.

Previously, the working group did not include members of The Battalion staff. The additions come after the news last week that Banks directed The Battalion to immediately cease its regular print edition and become a digital-only news outlet. After meeting with Battalion leadership Friday, Banks revised her decision and said The Battalion could print as scheduled through the spring semester.

The reaction to this plan makes it clear that I should seek additional community feedback on the role of The Battalion and the rebuilt Department of Journalism, while also getting feedback about industry trends and future workforce needs, Banks said in a statement.

New representatives of the journalism working group include Douglas Pils, general manager of A&Ms student media, senior Myranda Campanella, The Battalions current editor-in-chief, and senior Michaela Rush, The Battalions current co-news editor. The working group is scheduled to meet next Wednesday.

I think whats happening now is probably the path that it shouldve been on from the start, Pils said. A student voice and somebody with journalism expertise should have a say-so on what happens with The Battalion.

During an A&M Faculty Senate meeting on Monday, Dale Rice, speaker of the Faculty Senate who is also an instructional associate professor in A&Ms department of communication, addressed Banks decision last week. Rice called Banks decision an ultimatum [for The Battalion] to give up its student organization status and move under the auspices of the university or face dire fiscal consequences. Rice added he has heard from faculty colleagues that have emotions ranging from outrage to fear since the announcement.

One of the biggest concerns for me is the absence of a consultation process in decisions that affect students, staff and faculty, Rice said in the virtual meeting. Why are decisions repeatedly made unilaterally? Although some may be cheering a return to the General Rudder era, I do not believe that is the way to lead a university forward into greatness.

A&M Student Body President Natalie Parks was invited by Rice to speak during the Faculty Senate meeting and share a student perspective on The Battalions situation. Parks said this is one example of an overall lack of communication and collaboration from university officials with students when making decisions on student life and extracurricular activities. Parks said dialogue is important and added students value communication and transparency.

The Battalion is just one way that student voices are heard, Parks said. And while one may not always agree with what a journalist reports on or maybe whats being said in an opinion column, freedom of the press and freedom of speech is a First Amendment right. I personally pick up a physical copy of The Battalion every Thursday morning on my way to my communication class and I pass headlines of whats taking place on campus every time I enter a building. While its really easy to argue that maybe students just dont care or they dont pay attention, imagine how much that particular statement is going to stand true when they dont even have an opportunity to be physically informed of whats going on on campus by passing those headlines. And think about how easy it is to simply edit an article thats been posted online if someone doesnt like what it says. Print exists in history forever.(tncms-inline)1493433889347588096[0](/tncms-inline)

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A joint letter released Tuesday from the College Media Association, the Associated Collegiate Press, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Student Press Law Center and the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association addressed to Banks offered support for The Battalion to keep printing. The letter stated The Battalion has a strong reputation in the college media world and added that decisions about content and format of The Battalion should be made by students with support from professional staff.

The Battalion might be the oldest continuous Aggie tradition dating back to its first issue on Oct. 1, 1893, before A&Ms first football game and before the 12th Man. To unilaterally end that tradition without so much as a word of input from the students and adviser who work on the newspaper every week is alarming, the letter wrote. All of us are concerned that this undermines the ability of student journalists to maintain their editorial independence. College media organizations, just like professional media, only work when they have control over their product. These students are preparing for careers in media. Being responsible for their product and its operations teaches self-reliance that makes them better students as well as better future employees. This heavy-handed action sends a dangerous signal to them as well as to prospective students who want to learn journalism at A&M.

The Battalions next print edition will be released Thursday. The newspaper is printed weekly at The Eagles printing facility in Bryan.

Somebody asked me if I had hope even before everything happened yesterday and I said of course I have hope, Pils said. I feel like a lot of people who reached out both to us personally and people who have said theyve reached out to the presidents office, we were hopeful those voices made a difference and I feel like those voices did make a difference.

Editors note: Alex Miller was a staff member at The Battalion during his time as a student at Texas A&M from 2016-19.

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A meeting bringing together Fourth Street business and property owners about improving downtown Grand Island's Fourth Street is planned for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Entrepreneurship Center, 407 W. Third St.

The project is headed by a group of five, including University of Nebraska Extension Educator Sandra Barrera, Norma Hernandez and Rashad Moxey with the City of Grand Island Planning Department, Carlos Barcenas of iChoosePurple Consulting, and community member Herson Casteneda.

The first meeting was in January, Hernandez explained.

Sandra has been working on it and trying to get the Hispanic community more united, she said. Weve been working together. Its been a few years. Anytime they need any city-related things, she sends people my way, and vice-versa, if its anything to do with a business.

At Grand Islands Extension campus, Barrera connects the citys Spanish-speaking residents with the resources needed to start their own businesses. She has also conducted tours of Fourth Street business, which has more than 200 businesses east of Broadwell Avenue.

Greater opportunities are available for Fourth Streets businesses, Hernandez said.

A key thing is educating everyone on whats available and what can be done, as far as how to apply for certain things and going forward, she said, even if its something as simple as your street lights out or trash bins.

At Wednesdays meeting, Moxey will give a presentation on how a BID can be formed.

You would need to have property owners or users of space come together and request the formation of a district, Moxey said. You would have to have 30% of owners or users of space within the boundary of the district to request the formation of it.

The benefits of forming a BID are many, Moxey said.

It is a public/private partnership, where BID can partner with local government to do specific projects, he said. The other benefit is, owners in the area can take things in their own hands and there are times when they can do projects collectively, rather than on an individual basis.

As part of the effort, the committee visited each of Fourth Streets business owners.

It was really good to sit and listen to what their needs are, what their concerns are, and try to bridge that gap with the city and the community, and have them feel comfortable coming to the city for certain needs and to ask questions, Hernandez said.

Moxey said he has enjoyed being a part of the effort.

Its been great to walk the area and get to know the individuals Im here to serve, he said. Its a little challenging at times, but overall theres been a lot of positive feedback. You can tell that individuals on Fourth Street want things to be better. They want to be able to appeal better to the public and have individuals who live in Grand Island come out and support their businesses.

He added, Its been great to see people working together for one common goal.

For more information about the effort, visit https://4thstreetgi.com.

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One teacher was sent to the hospital after a fight at King Science & Technology Magnet Center in Omaha on Friday.

A large fight occurred about 2 p.m. at the school, located at 3720 Florence Blvd., said Officer Phil Anson, a spokesman for the Omaha Police Department. The fight resulted in a teacher being assaulted and then transported to the Nebraska Medical Center with unknown injuries.

In an email sent to King Science parents, Principal Jane Laughlin said the fight occurred in a hallway, and several police officers responded to the middle school. A school resource officer sprayed mace while responding to the fight, and students were checked out by health professionals.

Please be assured that the safety of students and staff is our top priority, Laughlin said in the email.

Anson said numerous students will be cited on suspicion of either assault or disorderly conduct for being involved in the fight.

Earlier on Friday, another fight was reported about 11:30 a.m. at Benson High School, 5120 Maple St.

The fight involved eight students, and officers called to the scene were able to break it up, Anson said.

According to an email sent to Benson High School parents by district officials, the Benson High School resource officer also sprayed mace into the group of students to break up the fight at that school.

After the fight started, school administrators, school security officers and our school resource officer immediately began working to deescalate the situation, according to the email.

After multiple verbal warnings, the (security resource officer) administered mace to get the student altercation to stop, the email states. As a precaution, EMTs and the school nurse were called to look over any students who may have been maced.

School officials said in both emails that appropriate disciplinary action will be taken regarding the fights at Benson High and King Science.

Both incidents are under investigation.
The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.
Illinois high schools use some interesting symbols to represent their schools and sports teams. Here are 17 obscure mascots and icons used by 
Southern Illinois University Carbondale leaders say efforts to put a stop to the slide in student enrollment numbers continue to pay dividends and spring enrollment is a testament to that.

According to data provided to The Southern, spring semester enrollment is down 1.16% compared to Spring semester 2021; results on pace with last falls decline in student numbers of less than 1% over the previous fall. Spring total enrollment at the university is 10,258 students.

Included in the figure are 42 new first-time undergraduate students and 308 new undergraduate transfer students.

The 1.16% decline compares to a 3.8% decline last year as well as 8.6% decrease in spring 2020 and 11.6% decline in 2019.

Other campuses in the state are reporting larger declines. The Decatur Herald & Review reports enrollment at Eastern Illinois University dropped 2.4% over past springs. This decline follows three years of spring semester growth, the newspaper reports. Student numbers at Northern Illinois University are down 4% according to the universitys student newspaper. Western Illinois University is up 15 students compared to last spring. Enrollment data for other Illinois public universities was not readily available at press time.

SIU officials also are pleased with retention rates.

Remember, we brought in the largest freshman class in the last five years this past fall, SIU Chancellor Austin A. Lane told the universitys Board of Trustees Thursday. Those students are being returned at an 84.1% retention rate. We are excited about that.

SIU Associate Chancellor for Enrollment Management Wendell Williams said the retention rate is a continuation of good news and is an indication of some personal outreach.

When we looked at our students who had not yet registered after we got back from break in January, we did an extensive outreach with them to connect with them, he explained, adding efforts were to connect those students with solutions to financial or academic problems that may have been preventing them from registering from spring classes. I think I personally sent out more than 1,200 emails. It was a lot of work, but taught me a lot, too.

Williams said retention has become a priority for SIU and said it should be.

Put it this way: if, for example, we have 8,000 currently enrolled students and 2,000 new students then we increase new students by 10%, thats 200 new students. However, if we increase our retention by 10%, thats 800 students, he said. The key is retention and providing adequate services to students to assist them.

Lane also said he was encouraged by efforts to recruit for fall 2022 and beyond.

Our applications are up 36.6%. Thats a very big number, but more importantly admissions are up 38%. As we continue to work on that number, weve also moved on to yielding events, Lane said, explaining efforts to bring admitted students to campus as enrolled students. Thats our goal over the next few months leading up to the beginning of the semester.

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SPRINGFIELD  A bill in the Illinois House would do away with the sub-minimum wage paid to waitresses, bartenders and other tipped service workers.

Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Chicago, introduced House Bill 5139 last month. If the bill becomes law, workers who supplement their wages with tips will receive the states minimum wage starting on Jan. 1, 2025, in addition to their tips.

Its passage may be a tall order, however, as the Illinois Restaurant Association successfully lobbied when lawmakers overhauled the minimum wage schedule in 2019 to allow businesses to continue to pay less than minimum wage to employees who earn tips.

Lillys bill has currently not received a full committee assignment and has no cosponsors.

In 2019, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation into law providing a path to increase Illinois' minimum wage rate to $15 per hour and $9 for tipped workers by 2025. Servers and bartenders who receive tips are currently subject to a $7.20 an hour minimum wage.

At a bill signing for that 2019 law, Sam Toia, president of the Restaurant Association, appeared alongside Pritzker and praised the law for maintaining the credit which allows employers to pay tipped workers 60 percent of the minimum wage if tips make up the other 40 percent.

The IRA did not respond to a request for comment as of this publication.

But Lilly, in a news conference Monday, noted that Valentines Day is the highest grossing day of the year for restaurants, making the announcement of the effort to eliminate the sub-minimum wage in Illinois poetic.

This work comes from the heart, Lilly said during a Monday news conference. This is the beginning of addressing poverty for each and every worker across the state of Illinois.

Two years ago, we raised the minimum wage, but we left tip workers out, Lilly said. This is a way to address that.

Since 2020, more than a million workers have left the hospitality industry nationwide. In Illinois, about 90,000 workers have left the industry since 2020, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The bureau reported that a record 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November, but the quit rate in the hospitality and leisure industry was 6.4 percent  more than double the average of all the combined industries.

The virtual news conference on Monday was hosted by the organization One Fair Wage, based in New York.

Attendees said the hot job market led many in the hospitality industry to find higher paying jobs in other sectors.

The added challenges for restaurant workers included enforcing COVID-19 mandates, as well as exposing themselves to the virus by those who refused to comply with mitigation efforts. Also, sexual harassment is often tolerated because waitresses and bartenders depend on tips to supplement their hourly income.

In 2019, women made up 51 percent of workforce in the hospitality industry.

Tabina Gibson, of Chicago, worked in the hospitality industry for 20 years. Gibson, who attended the news conference with Lilly, is the mother of five and grandmother to two.

When the pandemic hit and she was laid off, she said she found she made too little in wages to collect unemployment. She used a grant and started a small business with her daughter selling lip gloss and other personal care items.

Gibson isnt alone. In March 2020, one in four people in Illinois who lost their jobs was in the restaurant industry, but two-thirds of restaurant workers reported they couldnt access unemployment benefits because their subminimum wage was too low to qualify for benefits.

Victor Love owns Josephines Southern Cooking in Chicago. He said he has challenges. His restaurant survived the pandemic and the violence that occurs in the neighborhood. Despite the challenges, Love said he supports higher wages for his employees.

One of his employees has worked for his restaurant for 30 years, Love noted. That kind of loyalty, Love said, provides stability.

Give and it shall be given back to you, he said.

Loves daughter, Grace, is a waitress at her fathers restaurant. She currently gets paid $9 an hour plus tips.

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Lee Enterprises Inc. announced Tuesday that the Delaware Chancery Court has upheld the decision by Lees board of directors to reject the director nomination notice submitted by Alden Global Capital.

In the decision, the vice chancellor noted, among other things, that Lees board of directors acted reasonably in enforcing a validly adopted bylaw with a legitimate corporate purpose and that Alden could easily have met the bylaws record holder and  by extension  form requirements had it not delayed in preparing its nomination notice.

As a result of the courts ruling, Aldens director nominations will be disregarded, and no proxies or votes in favor of its purported nominees will be recognized or tabulated at Lees 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on March 10.

Lees board of directors issued the following statement:

We are pleased that the Delaware Court of Chancery has affirmed the importance of orderly annual shareholder meetings and confirmed the decision by the Lee Board of Directors to reject as invalid the notice of nominations delivered by Alden. Based on the ruling of the Vice Chancellor, Lee will not recognize Aldens nominations, and any proxies submitted, or votes cast, for the election of Aldens director candidates will be disregarded.

We urge shareholders to vote FOR all three of Lees proposed nominees  Mary E. Junck, Herbert W. Moloney and Kevin D. Mowbray  at our Annual Meeting to support the continued execution of Lees digital growth strategy.

Lee shareholders are encouraged to visit https://investors.lee.net/2022-annual-meeting to view Lees proxy materials and additional information regarding the 2022 Annual Meeting.

In response to the court's ruling, Alden issued the following statement in a news release:

Despite todays ruling from the Delaware Court, we remain steadfast in our commitment to provide Lee with competent leadership that will improve returns for shareholders and the quality of journalism for readers. Our affiliate will therefore be filing proxy materials for a Vote No campaign to compel the resignations of Board members who are prioritizing their own interests over what is best for the company. Holding entrenched Board members Mary Junck and Herbert Moloney accountable for their decades of destructive decision-making, value destruction and enrichment at shareholders expense is important especially given Lee's poor corporate governance practices and significant underperformance since the acquisition of Berkshire Hathaway's BH Media Group publications."

Lee Enterprises publishes The Times and Democrat and dozens of other newspapers around the country, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Buffalo News.

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The I.P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium at South Carolina State University will host a public Zoom conversation with nationally renowned photographer Cecil Williams beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17.

Civil Rights, Civic Duty, and Community: A Conversation with Cecil Williams, Nationally Noted Photographer is a component of the museums thematic discussion series, On Being a Citizen, with the museum's community partners, the South Carolina Progressive Network , and the Modjeska Simpkins School.

This program is free and available to SC State students, faculty and staff, as well as the public. Participants for the Zoom conversation must pre-register for this event.

Registration is required. Please use this Zoom link for registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqf-qgrz0tGNQviOZTa55Xo3bRZG79Xw4w.

This program will concentrate upon the extraordinary images by Williams documenting significant events, particularly those which occurred in South Carolina, in the history of Americas civil rights struggle.

The conversation is part of a series regarding the unveiling of the Smith Hammond Middleton Monument honoring the Orangeburg Massacre victims on the SC State grounds. Williams documented the Orangeburg Massacre events of February 1968 in photographs.

For additional information, contact Dr. Frank Martin, who will serve as program moderator, at fmartin@scsu.edu.

About Cecil Williams

Williams images of civil rights heroes have been widely published in books, newspapers, magazines, and numerous venues on the internet. They frequently have been featured in television films and documentary programs. An entrepreneur and designer as well as a photographer, Williams is a native of Orangeburg and a graduate of neighboring Claflin University.

Using his extensive collections of both photographic images and artifacts as a centerpiece, the Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum, which opened its doors in 2019, is considered one of the first institutions of its kind to have been established within the state of South Carolina. The 3,500-square-foot museum is housed in a building Williams designed himself in 1986 and offers an extensive collection of photographic images by Williams and his mentor E. C. Jones Jr. from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, extending into the present.

The museum houses what is considered the largest collection of photographs, artifacts, newspaper articles and materials pertaining to the tragic Orangeburg Massacre, a media and presentation center, community meeting room, a library and a memorabilia shop. In addition, visitors may view a civil rights movement timeline and a richly detailed collection of Briggs v. Elliot (South Carolina school desegregation suit) artifacts and documents.

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(TBTCO) - Thi truong chung khoan Viet Nam co ban van giu nhip on inh trong quy au nam nay, tuy nhien, thi truong chiu ap luc ieu chinh kha manh ke tu cuoi thang 3 en nay do tac ong tu cac yeu to ngoai bien va cac vu viec sai pham mang tinh on le cua mot so ca nhan, to chuc. Theo cac chuyen gia, nhung tac ong en tam ly ngan han cua nha au tu la kho tranh khoi, nhung ay la co hoi e huong dong tien i ung huong, giup thi truong gan uc, khoi trong e phat trien ben vung.
A bill that would have given $45 million in severance tax dollars to Wyomings education fund failed its introductory vote in the House of Representatives on Tuesday and will not advance during the 2022 budget session.

House Bill 36 was sponsored by the Joint Revenue Committee. It wouldve diverted a portion of mineral revenues to the states School Foundation Program account  and away from accounts used to cover other state expenditures  in order to lessen the $300-million-per-year deficit in education funding caused by the decline of the coal industry.

Bill that would give $45 million in mineral revenue to schools fails first vote The coal industrys decline has left the state with a $300 million annual hole in its education budget, and legislators are looking for other ways to keep schools funded.

The bill was an attempt by the committee to modernize school funding without reducing funds for state programs that already directly receive severance tax revenue, such as water development and road maintenance, Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Natrona County and House Revenue Committee chair, told the House ahead of the vote.

Were trying to get 45 million bucks to the school foundation to eliminate this paper deficit, so we can quit talking about it, Harshman said.

The bill received a vote of 31-29, falling short of the two-thirds majority vote required for introduction during budget sessions. It had previously been removed from the list of committee-sponsored bills approved by the House on Monday.

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A new way to crowdfund is coming to Wyoming, thanks to a new program funded by the Small Business Administration.

Businesses and organizations often turn to crowdfunding to get off the ground, expand or stay afloat during economic hardship  think GoFundMe or Kickstarter. But sometimes they need a little help getting the word out.

This year, community development agencies Advance Casper and Energy Capital Economic Development in Gillette will get training and resources totaling $25,000 to do just that.

The support comes from The Local Crowd, a Laramie-based organization that specializes in crowdfunding in small communities.

It can be especially challenging to start a business or organization in a rural area. Theres often less money and fewer resources to go around, said Diane Sontum, CEO of The Local Crowd.

The secret strength of small-town America, however, is that its tight-knit, Sontum said. If you get enough people to rally behind your cause, you can count on them to help spread the word.

So The Local Crowds teaches its clients  usually small businesses  to take a hands-on approach to fundraising, and get comfortable asking their communities for donations, Sontum said. They get software, consulting services and their own fundraising page on the organizations website.

Now, The Local Crowd wants to give communities a way to build up permanent fundraising networks. This year, its helping four Wyoming communities launch their own crowdfunding platforms.

Advance Casper and Energy Capital Economic Development have been selected to oversee the first two. Respectively, theyll serve Natrona County, Niobrara County and Converse County; and Campell, Crook, Johnson, Sheridan and Weston counties.

The Local Crowd received the money to back the platforms from The Community Navigator Pilot Program, a new effort to support underserved businesses in Wyoming. The Wyoming Small Business Development Center was awarded $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan COVID-19 relief money from the U.S. Small Business Administration to start the program.

In the coming months, Advance Casper and Energy Capital Economic Development will receive training from the Local Crowd, as well as websites and software, to get the ball rolling.

Garrett Goose Goosetree, equity analyst for Advance Casper, said the platform will be a welcome complement to the organizations current fundraising program, Invest307. Invest307, as its name implies, connects fledgling businesses with investors.

Community crowdfunding serves a different demographic. Imagine a small businesses owner looking to upgrade their shop or equipment, Sontum said. One business The Local Crowd worked with in 2017  a family farm in Keene, New Hampshire  raised $5,000 to buy a cart so they could sell their sausage at the local farmers market, for instance.

The platforms will be designed for rewards-based campaigns, Sontum said. That means people who donate to a fundraiser will usually get something in return  t-shirts, discounts or other perks.

Theyll also accommodate things like in-person fundraising events, contribution matching and sponsored rewards.

Goosetree said Advance Casper will start hosting campaigns after March of this year. Interested businesses and organizations can get in touch at 307-577-7012.

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CHEYENNE  A hearing panel convened by the Wyoming State Bar will recommend disbarment of Laramie County District Attorney Leigh Anne Manlove to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

The decision was read early Friday afternoon by hearing panel Chairman Christopher Hawks about two hours after he and the panel broke to deliberate.

Hawks, an attorney based in Jackson, was one of three panel members chosen from the Bars full Board of Professional Responsibility, the hearing body for attorney discipline in Wyoming.

This panel finds the injury caused by (Manloves) conduct is serious, Hawks said.

Following a seven-day hearing, the panel on Thursday found Manlove in violation of multiple rules of professional conduct that govern attorneys in the state. The violations included exaggerating the impact of budget restraints, failing to take prompt action to fill vacancies in her office, directing staff not to report overtime and filing improper motions to dismiss after judges warned her to stop.

Failure to file documents in a timely fashion in the Andrew Weaver case, which led to his release, and a misleading news release following the incident contributed to the panels findings. Within a few days of him leaving jail, Weaver had shot and killed two people, injuring two others.

Also noted was a repeated failure to access crime lab data in the case of an alleged child sex abuse victim, which was referred to the Wyoming Attorney Generals Office in January, and a failure to provide evidence in a 2019 case, resulting in the dismissal of a case against a man charged with multiple violent felonies.

The state Supreme Court will have the final say in any discipline.

Formal charges filed by the Office of Bar Counsel last year with the State Bar allege that Manlove mishandled the prosecution of cases in Laramie County and inappropriately dismissed certain cases, and that she created a hostile work environment for employees of the district attorneys office.

Until the Wyoming Supreme Court acts, Leigh Anne Manlove will continue to serve as the Laramie County district attorney, and shes committed to serving the citizens of Laramie County as long as she remains in office, said Stephen Melchior, Manloves attorney, following the announcement of the disbarment recommendation. We live in a nation, fortunately, that is governed by the rule of law. She respects and honors that very foundational important principle and trusts the process.

Manloves term will be up in January 2023, unless she is re-elected in November.

Special Bar Counsel Weston W. Reeves, who represented the Bar in the hearing, declined to comment.

If the Supreme Court decides to disbar or suspend Manlove from practicing law while she still holds the office of district attorney, she would not be able to appear in court, argue cases, do anything that a lawyer does, Bar Counsel Mark Gifford said in a Friday interview with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

The panel will now be responsible for writing a report and recommendation with its specific findings. This will likely be filed with the state Supreme Court within a couple of weeks, Gifford explained.

Manlove will have 30 days to respond with an objection. Reeves will then have 30 days from that filing to enter his response. The court may grant extensions to either party.

A decision by the state Supreme Court may take several months. The court could decide to set the case for oral arguments, Gifford said, which likely wouldnt happen until fall.

The court took close to nine months to decide on a punishment for Becket Hinckley, a former Teton County prosecutor who was suspended from practicing law in Wyoming for three years. A State Bar hearing panel had recommended Hinckley be disbarred after it found he violated seven rules of professional conduct in a 2015 aggravated assault trial, according to reporting by the Casper Star-Tribune.

The Manlove hearing was just the second of its kind, following a rule change in September 2019 that required documents and information related to Bar disciplinary proceedings be available to the public. Hinckleys May 2021 disciplinary hearing was the first conducted in public.

Gifford declined to comment on the outcome of the hearing or the hearing itself.

Manlove made a statement to the panel Friday before it broke to deliberate sanction recommendations. She thanked the panel for giving her the opportunity to express my contrition and my remorse and my regret.

When she was sworn into the Bar, she said, she took an oath that included the promise to demean myself uprightly.

I think Ive fallen short of that, Manlove said.

She said she was profoundly sorry for words she used that were hurtful to others, and said she plans to apologize in person to the appropriate people.

Manlove said she appreciated that the panel deliberated thoughtfully, and expressed that she does not take her job or the cases she handles lightly.

Friday morning, Reeves and Melchior each had an hour to argue aggravated and mitigating factors before the panel broke to deliberate.

Before he announced the panels disbarment recommendation, Hawks listed the aggravating factors it found in the case, or things that increased the severity of the violations. These included Manlove having a dishonest motive, a pattern of misconduct, refusing to acknowledge the wrongfulness of her actions, having substantial experience in the practice of law, and the vulnerability of the victim, which Hawks said are the people of Laramie County.

Mitigating factors found by the panel included personal or emotional problems, the COVID-19 pandemic and the state budget crisis.

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The push for Medicaid expansion in Wyoming trudged on Monday with a rally on the Capitol steps as state lawmakers gathered for the budget session.

Dozens of people wore yellow T-shirts over their regular clothing to show their support for adopting Medicaid expansion in the state. State leaders have discussed the program for more than a decade, but every attempt to implement it has failed in the Wyoming Legislature.

The Legislature is once again considering a bill that would expand Medicaid coverage to more Wyomingites. The Equality State is one of only 12 states that have not yet expanded the program, which dates to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

As it stands, Medicaid covers pregnant women and low-income kids in Wyoming. Expansion would open it up to adults who less than a certain income, thereby providing health care to roughly 18,000 to 25,000 Wyomingites, multiple parties have estimated.

Advocates for the program say it would help the working poor and the states hospitals, which provide care to those who cannot pay for it. Some of those costs are passed along to those with insurance, meaning employers and people with coverage also feel the effect.

Critics of the program worry about its cost and sustainability.

While the debate is old, the state of Medicaid expansion in Wyoming looks a little different this time around.

Since the last legislative session, multiple surveys have been conducted that show that there is widespread support among Wyomingites for expanding Medicaid. Additionally, a new federal bonus would save the state $34 million over the next two years, a development that swayed some longtime opponents.

A Medicaid expansion bill made it through the House last session, and thats the farthest its gotten. But it faces a tough road, especially as the Legislature moves farther to the right.

Jan Cartwright, deputy director of Healthy Wyoming, said proponents of expanding the program are eternally optimistic.

From conversations with lawmakers, Cartwright said she expects some friendly amendments to the draft in committee, but nothing substantial.

While other states have expanded Medicaid via ballot initiatives, Wyoming must take a legislative approach. The crowd and speakers consisted of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

No longer will a few people keep us from having Medicaid expansion in Wyoming, Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, said to the crowd.

If the Medicaid expansion bills prospects are not good, backers may be able to expand it via the budget bill, Case said. They also tried to do that during the last budget session.

Opponents worry that the savings from the federal government wont last after two years and have their concerns over socialized medicine.

Another concern is the idea that these funds could be used for elective abortions, but federal law and state law currently state one cant use Medicaid for elective abortions.

But opponents retort by saying that this could change under the liberal, pro-choice Biden administration.

Advocates say the state should still move forward.

If were created in the likeness of God, then this is necessary, said Rob Spaulding, a pro-life priest from Laramie. I think its a basic human right. Its along with every other life issue.

To remedy the abortion concern, the expansion draft may be amended to restate the Hyde Amendment, a legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions.

The fear of what might happen should not prevent what we do today, Spaulding said.

Correction: This article previously misstated Cartwright's title. She is the deputy director of Healthy Wyoming.

Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis

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The Wyoming Legislature convened Monday for the start of its budget session, which takes place every two years. Along with adopting a new budget, lawmakers this year must decide how to spend a half billion dollars in relief aid. They're also required to redraw the state's legislative districts in light of population changes.

Here's the latest from the Star-Tribune's team of reporters:

11:10 a.m.

A bill restricting vaccination rules that originated in the special session made it past the introductory vote Tuesday.

The measure is a less severe version of House Bill 1006, which failed in last years special session and was intended to fight back against federal vaccine mandates.

The bill was reworked in an attempt to comply with federal law following developments that happened after the special session.

House Bill 32 would require health care facilities, governmental entities and providers of essential services to offer accommodations to people who are unable or unwilling to provide proof of immunization. It would also outlaw COVID-19 vaccine requirements in Wyoming schools for the next five years and make requiring immunization as a condition of employment a discriminatory or unfair employment practice.

For starters, the bill requires health care facilities to provide a reasonable accommodation to any person seeking to visit a patient or resident of the health care facility if the person is unable or unwilling to provide proof of immunization, the bill reads. Reasonable accommodations are often associated with protections for people with disabilities. For example, an employer might have to provide a desk that a worker who uses a wheelchair could use to perform their job.

The prime sponsor of the bill Rep. Sue Wilson, R-Evanston, argued on the House floor that this bill would handle disease vaccination "broadly now, as opposed to holding a special session for the disease of the year."

Rep. Cathy Connolly, D-Laramie, spoke in opposition to the bill, stating that it's anti-business, "upends decades" of vaccination public health policy and may still violate federal law.

I not trying to put employers in a nutcracker between state law and federal law, Wilson previously told the Star-Tribune. She reiterated that point Tuesday on the House floor.

The bill passed the two-thirds introduction vote 45-15. All seven Democrats voted against it.

9 a.m.

The Senate Appropriations Committee met Tuesday morning to discuss three budget bills, and the lack of funding to build out the states suicide hotline came up once again.

Gov. Mark Gordon recommended $7 million be appropriated towards staffing Wyomings two suicide hotlines 24/7, but the Joint Appropriations Committee axed that recommendation entirely.

Wyoming had the highest suicide rate in the nation in 2019 (2020 numbers have not been released yet) and is the only state left without a fully staffed hotline.

Gordon advisor Renny MacKay spoke before the committee for a few minutes Tuesday, and he dedicated that time to reiterating that the governor cares a lot about funding the hotline, adding that he hopes the committee will reconsider their decision to cut the allocation.

Gordon also mentioned the importance of this money in his State of State address Monday.

Suicide sadly remains an all too frequent event, especially for our veterans, Gordon said. I ask you to consider using American Rescue Plan dollars to do more in our fight against suicide.

The governors office is not the only group pushing the Appropriations Committee to reconsider.

Some may argue the hotline is not effective or not worth a $7 million investment, but Andi Summerville, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers, disagrees.

Its a really important piece in the mental health continuum, she told the Star-Tribune.

In mid-July, people in all states will be able to call the number 9-8-8 as a suicide hotline, much like calling 911. Without a fully staffed center and the money to educate the population, Wyoming wont be able to fully utilize the number, Summerville said.

Fifty percent of the calls come in during off hours and the hotlines get 350 to 400 calls per month. Since the hotlines were launched in 2020, 16 lives have been saved while people were in the process of the act, Summerville testified.

The Appropriations Committee acknowledged the severity of the issue, but theyre still skeptical that $7 million towards the hotline is the best use of the funds.

I get emails that state outright that I dont care about suicide, said Sen. Dave Kinskey, R-Sheridan, adding that his family has personally been touched by suicide. I appreciate the seriousness of the issue, I was just given zero guidance as to what $7 million would do.

Summerville said she would have more information in the next 24 hours.

What's at stake?

For a detailed analysis of this year's legislative session, including the major bills and issues, click here.

What's being discussed?

For a full list of bills, click here.

Recent coverage

Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis

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The Wyoming House rejected an attempt Tuesday to convene a special committee to investigate claims Rep. Dan Zwonitzer does not live in his Cheyenne district.

Following the vote, Speaker of the House Eric Barlow said he considered the matter resolved.

The vote came after leaders within the Wyoming Republican Party sought an investigation into Zwonitzers residency.

Rep. Tim Hallinan, R-Gillette, brought a motion to convene a committee of five members to investigate the claims, which surfaced publicly last month. Only 24 of 60 members voted in support of the move.

Im happy we can move on to the business of the Legislature, Zwonitzer said following the vote.

Allegations that Zwonitzer no longer lives in the district he represents have been swirling since January. The lawmaker maintained his residency situation is within the rules of the Legislature.

Some suspected politics were at play, and that the residency allegations from his own party stem from the fact that Zwonitzer is considered a moderate.

Im grateful the House of Representatives affirmed my legitimacy to serve as a Representative for House District 43, he said in a statement. Voters of District 43 voted me as their Representative, and I consider it a privilege to continue to serve them.

Zwonitzer vote The following representatives voted in favor of the committee: Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie;

Mark Baker, R-Green River;

John Bear, R-Gillette;

Jim Blackburn, R-Cheyenne;

John Eklund, R-Cheyenne

Bill Fortner, R-Gillette;

Chuck Gray, R-Casper;

Mike Greear, R-Worland;

Tim Hallinan, R-Gillette;

Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland;

Scott Heiner, R-Green River;

Mark Jeninngs, R-Sheridan;

Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette;

Dan Laursen, R-Powell;

Chip Neiman, R-Hullett;

Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton;

Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody;

Evan Simpson, R-Afton;

Clarence Styvar, R-Cheyenne;

Art Washut, R-Casper;

Robert Wharf, R-Evanston;

J.D. Williams, R-Lusk;

Sue Wilson, R-Cheyenne;

John Winter, R-Thermopolis.

Hallinan proposed that the committee consist of five people, not exceed four days and be held confidentially under oath.

Its not because I have any animosity towards Zwonitzer, the representative added.

He went on to frame the committee as a fact-finding endeavor.

I know many of you have already made their minds up, but I have not.

The vote comes one day after a small group of Republicans living in Zwonitzers district sued him over the matter.

The residency allegations, lawsuit and eventual motion have taken a circuitous path. After concerns were raised at a Republican State Central Committee meeting in January, GOP chairman Frank Eathorne sent a letter and some residency materials to Secretary of State Ed Buchanan. Buchanan then forwarded all the materials to the entire House of Representatives, as determining eligibility to hold office is under the Legislatures purview.

Our legal counsel through the attorney general and per the Constitution said that [the Legislature] was the proper place to send it, Buchanan said.

In Zwonitzers letter to the Speaker and in conversations with the Star-Tribune, he explained that he sold a longtime home in his district at the beginning of 2021 and moved his in-district residency to a rental apartment. He conceded that he spends significant time outside his district at a farm on the east side of town.

I am well within the law to maintain multiple properties and divide my time as I see fit in order to manage responsibilities and duties of my daily life, he wrote to the Speaker.

Zwontizer is not the only lawmaker who spends significant time outside his district. Other lawmakers are known to have properties outside of their district and even overseas. There is no statutory requirement on how much time a lawmaker must spend at their district property.

Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis

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Experts estimate that well over 80 percent of people will experience back pain at some point in their lives. Perhaps ten percent of adults experience it at any given moment. Back pain is extremely common, and people with back pain can be extremely miserable. It may hurt to move, sit, stand, lay, even breathe. No wonder back pain accounts for so many visits to the doctor!

When people with acute back pain come to see me, they often have a preconceived notion of what will happen. They anticipate I will talk with them, examine them, and many expect x-rays or an MRI. They are often surprised, and sometimes worried, when I stop short of ordering imaging.

My first goal when I see someone with acute back pain is to rule out rare conditions that threaten life and limb. Could this be a fracture? Cancer? Infection in the bone or spinal cord? Severe and rapidly progressing compression of the nerves? These conditions could require imaging for diagnosis and urgent treatment. However, they are uncommon, and unless specific red flags are revealed during the patient history and exam, it is extremely unlikely a rare condition is responsible for the pain.

Most acute back pain gets better in four to six weeks. Unwarranted imaging only increases medical costs and the likelihood of invasive treatment like surgery or injections but doesnt get people better any faster. For most people, the best approach for relieving back pain is to stay as active as you can, take an anti-inflammatory pain medicine if you dont have a reason to avoid them, use a heating pad, and perhaps have manipulation by a chiropractor, osteopathic doctor, or physical therapist.

When imaging is used, it is important to realize that something seen on an x-ray or MRI might not actually be responsible for the back pain. Indeed, it has been found that as we age, it becomes more likely that, even with no back symptoms, we will have abnormalities on imaging. This is true in about ten percent of people in their 30s; among the very old, the likelihood approaches 100 percent.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to chronic back pain. It takes a knowledgeable clinician to tease out what might be causing the problem and which treatment might help. I urge caution if anyone tries to sell you a treatment without careful analysis of your individual situation. Your money might be better spent on a heating pad, and a gym membership.

Debra Johnson, M.D. is part of The Prairie Doc team of physicians and currently practices family medicine in Brookings, South Dakota.

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NIDCO (the National Infrastructure Development Company) says it has not initiated any tender or award of contract process with regard to the Toco Port.

In a news release, the company said the issuance of any letters of award or contracts relating to the Toco Port project is fraudulent and not authorised by Nidco.
An increase in measles cases in January and February 2022 is a worrying sign of a heightened risk for the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases and could trigger larger outbreaks, particularly of measles affecting millions of children in 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF have warned.

Pandemic-related disruptions, increasing inequalities in access to vaccines, and the diversion of resources from routine immunisation are leaving too many children without protection against measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
19 YEARS AND STILL WAITING: Disgruntled 73-year-old Chano Mahabir, right, chants during a protest by former Caroni (1975) Ltd employees, who brandished placards during the demonstration yesterday morning at the opening of the Nutrimix Next Generation Hatchery in Couva. The ex-employees are asking the Government for Caroni lands owed to them for the past 19 years. Photo: DEXTER PHILIP
Many people are struggling during this Covid-19 pandemic as prices increase, while many are 
Those with authority over others often become wolves because the people under their charge 
PHOENIX  State lawmakers cant ignore open meeting laws by claiming the laws dont apply to them, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

In a split decision, the three-judge panel rejected the Legislatures arguments that it gets to set its own rules. Appellate Judge Jennifer Campbell, writing for the majority, said there is no evidence that lawmakers ever intended to exempt themselves when they approved the laws.

Potentially more significantly, Campbell tossed aside claims the constitutional provisions for separation of powers among the three branches of government preclude courts from deciding whether the Legislatures actions are legal.

By enacting a statute that expressly imposes open-meeting requirements on itself, the legislature implicitly and necessarily acceded to judicial enforcement of those requirements, she wrote, even if it did retain the authority to adopt other procedural rules.

There was no immediate response from House Speaker Russell Bowers, R-Mesa, and Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in 2020 by a coalition of advocacy groups. Those organizations contended there were 26 Republican lawmakers from Arizona  a quorum of at least five legislative committees  attending an annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council. The council, known as ALEC, funded largely by corporate interests, serves as a clearinghouse of sorts for proposed changes in state laws across the nation.

That process shuts the public out of the process at the earliest stages of amendments to state law, the lawsuit said. Having a quorum of a committee present means the first action on the legislation effectively occurs behind closed doors, it said.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Mikitish tossed the case.

He concluded it is legally irrelevant even if there is a quorum of any given committee, or enough people who then could formally approve a change in state law once they got back to the Capitol in Phoenix. Mikitish said thats not for courts to decide.

Campbell, however, said these are precisely the issues within purview of the judiciary.

She acknowledged an argument by lawmakers that there is an exception to the open meeting laws for a political caucus.

However, the judge said that is limited to things like considering party policy with respect to a particular legislative issue. Here, the challengers are saying the legislators met and collaborated in secret with scores of lawmakers from other states and hundreds of corporate lobbyists to draft model bills.

Campbell wasnt impressed by lawmakers arguments that they did not take any legal action during the ALEC meeting.

That phrase means not just a roll-call vote but any deliberations by a majority of a public body concerning any matter that foreseeably could come to a vote by that body, she said.

Thats important, Campbell said, because the challengers cited a history of what happens at ALEC meetings ending up being incorporated, verbatim, into legislation introduced and approved at the Arizona Capitol.

For example, Sandra Castro, an activist with the Puente Human Rights Movement, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit, said that SB 1070, the 2010 Arizona law aimed at illegal immigration, came directly from a draft crafted at an ALEC meeting.

Parts of that law have since been struck down by federal courts. There are provisions still intact, including a requirement for police, when reasonable, to check the immigration status of those they have stopped for any other reason.

An ALEC spokesman later told Capitol Media Services the challengers were incorrect, saying SB 1070 was already adopted in Arizona before it became part of the ALEC agenda as a model for other states. Anyway, he said, ALEC no longer is involved in immigration issues.

Other complaints included what the challengers said was ALEC-inspired legislation to increase criminal penalties and build more private prisons.

All that, Campbell said, entitles challengers to argue that it was reasonably foreseeable that model bills drafted during the (ALEC) summit ... would be brought to a vote in the legislature.

We conclude that the (challengers) alleged sufficient facts from which a reasonable inference could be drawn that the legislators violated the open meeting law, Campbell wrote.

Appellate Judge Samuel Thumma dissented, saying he accepted the arguments that attendance by the GOP lawmakers at the ALEC meeting fits within the definition of  and exception for  a political caucus.

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Tom and Edie Gustason are the definition of learn as you go winemaking.

The Army vets who met not long after leaving the service  she in 2007, he in 2010  had zero experience making wine when they bought their 36-acre spread 15 miles east of Tombstone in 2011.

But after meeting a local winemaker who greeted them in shorts and a T-shirt, Tom Gustason told his wife that that was how he wanted to spend his retirement.

He said, I want to do that, Edie Gustason recalled.

So the pair reached out to some neighboring vineyard operators for advice and planted a couple of acres of vines in 2014.

Thus was born High Lonesome Vineyard.

Their plan initially was to grow grapes to sell, and had it not been for Edie Gustasons stubborn streak, they might have carried on with that plan. Her first stab at winemaking was her 2016 vintages; she dumped them out and declared them not ready for primetime.

Its kind of trial and error, 100%, she explained. Ive made mistakes and Ive had to dump wine out, but you learn from it and you just continue.

Her first public vintages in 2017 were winners.

Our first vintages that came out we had 13 cases and it was gone in a week, she said.

In 2019, High Lonesomes Tannat won Best of Class in the AZcentral Grand Wine Awards and Judges Choice Bronze for its PicPoul Blanc. The following year, they added two more AZcentral contest medals as well as a trio of awards  two bronze, one silver from the Beverage Testing Institute.

Edie, a native of Richmond, Virginia, who grew up in Upstate New York, and Tom, who hails from Big Bear, California, have 2 acres under vine with plans to plant another 1,000 vines  about three-quarters of an acre  this year.

They mowed 12 acres of their land to create an area for so-called harvest guests, folks who pull up in their RVs to gaze at the dark skies. Last February they hosted 42 different guests, all of whom do a wine tasting as part of the visit.

Saturdays Off the Vine Wine Festival in Oro Valley is the first of several events that High Lonesome will participate in this spring. They also are set to pour at the Pecan and Wine Festival in Camp Verde March 19-20, the Tombstone Wine Festival April 2-3 and the Sierra Vista Wine, Beer and Spirits Festival on May 28 in Veterans Memorial Park.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch

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Ditmanson, Leonard Dr. Leonard Frederic Ditmanson Dr. Leonard Frederic Ditmanson passed away at the age of 63 in Oro Valley, Arizona on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. A Tucson resident and servant to the medical community for nearly four decades, "Lenn" was a family man and is survived by his loving .... Read more

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Tucson Symphony Orchestra is celebrating the legacy of one of Americas preemminent band leaders Duke Ellington and a renowned Tucson composer with Duke Ellington Harlem, a concert that focuses on the waltz in all its musical glory.

It is one of two classical music concerts downtown this week.

TSO Music Director Jose Luis Gomez will lead the orchestra in a program anchored by Ellingtons symphonic jazz piece Harlem. The work, originally commissioned by Arturo Toscanini as part of a larger New York-city inspired orchestra piece, opens with this distinctive trumpet solo in which the instrument sounds like its saying Harlem. The work has strong nods to jazz intertwined with infectious big band swing rhythms.

Gomez paired Harlem with Johann Strausss gloriously fun Die Fledermaus Overture and Richard Strausss Der Rosenkavalier Waltzes with that gorgeous passage in the middle of Sequence No. 1 that will have you swaying in your seat.

One of the highlights of the concert, which the orchestra will perform twice this weekend, is likely to be Tucson native Ulysses Kays Six Dances for string orchestra that showcases six distinct dance styles  the Bohemian Schottische, the European Waltz, the Native American Round Dance, the Eastern European Polka, the Promenade that shares history with Europe and America and the playful Hungarian Galop.

Kay grew up in Tucson and earned his bachelors degree in music before heading to the East Coast to earn advanced degrees from the Eastman School, Columbia and Yale University. He was the first African-American composer to win the Prix de Rome award that allowed him to study and travel in Italy beginning in 1946. The concert ends with Ravels La valse.

Gomez will be behind the podium for the concert, which the orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, at Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $17 to $83 through ticketmaster.com.

Arizona Friends host young Goldmund string quartet

Most classical music is old, dating back centuries not decades, but that doesnt mean it has to sound old.

Thats kind of the philosophy hanging over the 10-year-old Goldmund Quartet, which infuses a sense of newness to very old works with polished and convincing interpretations that are flawlessly precise down to the smallest detail. And in those small details listeners discover nuances that might have escaped them or that they had forgotten until it suddenly seems to pop out of the drawn bow or plucked string from the Munich-based Goldmund  four school friends (violinists Florian Schotz and Pinchas Adt, violist Christoph Vandory and cellist Raphael Paratore) who turned their love of music-making and camaraderie into a critically-acclaimed ensemble.

You can judge for yourself when the quartet plays its first ever Arizona Friends of Chamber Music concert on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

The concert opens with Schuberts energetic Quartettsatz in C minor and keeps up the tempo with Mozarts playful Divertimento in F major. Dvoraks spirited String Quartet No. 12 in F major (American) closes out the program.

Wednesdays concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $3 for adults, $10 for students through arizonachambermusic.org

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch

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Ditmanson, Leonard Dr. Leonard Frederic Ditmanson Dr. Leonard Frederic Ditmanson passed away at the age of 63 in Oro Valley, Arizona on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. A Tucson resident and servant to the medical community for nearly four decades, "Lenn" was a family man and is survived by his loving .... Read more

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Remember that old rocket booster we told you about, the one that is expected to crash into the moon on March 4?

It still is, but Elon Musk isnt the one to blame.

What scientists originally thought was part of a Falcon 9 rocket launched in 2015 by Musks SpaceX company is now believed to be a Chinese booster launched in 2014 as part of that countrys recent series of robotic missions to the moon.

Over the weekend, Bill Gray, the astronomer credited with tracking the wayward booster, posted a lengthy correction on his website at https://www.projectpluto.com/temp/correct.htm.

Gray said a question from an engineer at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory prompted him to reexamine his original calculations. He said the available evidence now shows that what he thought was the second stage of a Falcon 9 is really the rocket booster used to send Chinas Change 5-T1 mission to the moon in October 2014.

Researchers at the University of Arizonas Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have since confirmed Grays new findings, using data gathered when the booster tumbled past Earth  and through the sky above Tucson  in January and again early last week.

We took a spectrum, which can reveal the material makeup of an object, and compared it with Chinese and SpaceX rockets of similar types, and it matches the Chinese rocket, said UA associate professor Vishnu Reddy, who co-leads the UAs Space Domain Awareness lab with engineering professor Roberto Furfaro. This is the best match, and we have the best possible evidence at this point.

Reddy and a team of his students have been tracking the chunk of space debris and sharing their observations with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to help pinpoint where the booster will crash down.

The object is still expected to hit the moon at approximately 5:25 a.m. Tucson time on March 4, but dont bother going outside to watch the show. The booster is not visible with the naked eye, and its impact site will be somewhere in or near the Hertzsprung crater on the far side of the moon, permanently out of sight to us earthlings.

Plans are in the works to have NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter verify the crash site next month and collect some before and after pictures.

Arizona is the only public university with a dedicated academic program for Space Domain Awareness. Reddy said their work helps the U.S. Air Force track satellites and space junk, and Gray is a close collaborator for that effort.

In his explanation on the web, Gray said high-altitude junk like the Change 5-T1 rocket or the SpaceX booster isnt actively tracked by the U.S. Space Force or anyone else, because it is too far out to pose a risk to the satelites and space stations orbiting closer to the Earth.

Strange as it seems (to me, anyway), orbits are computed for objects of this sort only by me, in my spare time, he writes.

But Gray thinks it is time for the international community to rethink its approach to tracking and minimizing space junk, in light of this mix up and the overall increase in high-orbit missions.

He is advocating for a publicly available, central clearinghouse for launch vectors for high-orbit missions and observational data on any space junk they might create.

Soon, such junk will no longer be merely an annoyance to a small group of astronomers, he writes. Basically, Im asking for somebody to take over the job.

So if this isnt it, just where is that SpaceX rocket booster from 2015 that carried the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Deep Space Climate Observatory into space?

Thats a good question, Gray writes. I wish I had a good answer. But I strongly suspect that nobody does.

His best guess is that the second stage of the Falcon 9 flew along with NOAAs early-warning satellite for solar storms until the spacecraft maneuvered itself into position about 1 million miles from Earth. At that point, Elon Musks rocket booster sailed on by, eventually settling into its own distant orbit around the sun.

30 breathtaking images from NASA's public library 30 breathtaking images from NASA's public library The moon from Apollo 11 Earth from the International Space Station Hurricanes on Earth Shuttle space walk Shuttle in silhouette Eruption on the sun Raikoke volcano eruption Rover selfie Cargo craft docks John Young on the moon Canadian aurora Helix Nebula The cracking Brunt Ice Shelf Cassinis capture of Saturn The heart of Madagascar The last landing The eye of the hurricane International Space Station Watercolor of the sea The Great Red Spot of Jupiter Monument Valley Flying through an aurora Pillars of Creation Total eclipse of the sun Untethered in space Marbled Pluto The wild river Supermassive black hole The space selfie An SLS test article

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean

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A program designed to address the root cause of crime and violence in Tucson has made little headway toward actually achieving that goal, despite being a major talking point for officials over the past two years.

Mayor Regina Romero recently said the Community Safety, Health and Wellness Program had moved from an idea to a program we are ready to implement. Tucson has promised it will usher in reforms to tackle issues such as mental illness and poverty, including an alternative form of policing that could save lives.

But the city remains far from ready to make those promises a reality: There are few specific initiatives in the works, program leaders have not fully identified service gaps to fill, and city social workers  who will form the backbone of the community safety program  have yet to be hired.

We dont have all the answers to all of the resources that we need, said Liana Perez, Tucsons deputy city manager who has been at the helm of developing the program. We have our conceptual ideas, and we know what exists; we just dont know what doesnt exist that would be helpful as we move forward.

Officials just appointed former Ward 3 chief of staff Sarah Launius as the programs first director and set aside millions of dollars to help her develop new initiatives. With less than a month on the job, she is sorting out the basics  such as hiring office staff and overseeing public outreach efforts  as the program nears its second birthday.

Plans to help at-risk Tucsonans largely consist of general ideas to partner with unspecified community organizations and fill unidentified service gaps in existing city programs.

Tucson also doesnt have a strategy to kick-start one of the central pieces of the program  infusing social workers into the law enforcement system to aid families in crisis and individuals who are mentally ill.

Weve been talking about this for a year and a half. Weve gone through one-and-a-half budget cycles on it, Councilman Steve Kozachik said. We dont need people sitting around trying to create mission statements. We need to get them on the ground and get them out on the street.

No social workers

Tucson has devoted $1.7 million in general fund money to cover the community safety directors $100,000 salary and staff her office with eight yet-to-be-hired social workers, or navigators, who are expected to be the driving force behind many initiatives.

That includes the alternative form of policing thats been a core promise of the program since its inception. The idea is that unwell or otherwise vulnerable suspects will be less likely to contribute to Tucsons soaring crime rate down the line if they have resources, experts and treatment available.

If some guy is strung out on opioids, that may manifest itself as a law enforcement issue when he burglarizes a house and steals your computer, but really the underlying cause is what were trying to get to, Kozachik said. So, (the goal is) mainly treating the cause instead of criminalizing the person for something that is really treatable.

Navigators will help at-risk residents get resources like drug treatment for someone who overdosed in a park, for example, and then follow up with them to make sure their needs are being met.

It still might be some time until the staffers are ready to go, however. Tucson still needs to find, hire and train them  a process that could be lengthy because of the mental health know-how required for the role.

Even when thats done, the city will only have just started. Navigators dont respond to emergencies alongside police, so another large swath of front-line social workers will likely need to be hired before that effort can fully begin.

Officials admit they have yet to work out the details, and numerous questions remain as to how the staple initiative will work, though some said the city just needs to get the ball rolling and sort out the details as things progress.

How can we guarantee safety, and what are the protocols? Do we do an arrest and then some social worker comes out, or if someone agrees to talk with social workers do we (not do the arrest)? said Councilman Paul Cunningham, who used to do similar work as a juvenile probation officer. There are these nuanced questions and thats the stuff where Im like theres no right answer to that, we just have to put people in the field and do it. We just need to start doing it.

Launius said she is not sure what form the alternative policing effort will take and that she is still reviewing the options with public safety department officials.

First line or co-responding social workers may not even be included in the initiative when its finalized, for example. Meanwhile, city staff are mulling a third option that would require even more specialists before its ready to go.

A more specialized non-emergency case management option could be something like a behavioral health specialist unit that responds to high 911 utilizers with significant behavioral health challenges, Launius said. Anecdotal data suggests that more involved case management than what a navigator would typically provide is likely a better fit. This is just an example of one potential avenue.

Launius hopes to announce her plan for the initiative this summer. Its unclear if the needed mental health staff will be hired by that time.

Broad program, vague plans

Alternative policing is just one small piece of the programs overall goal to address the root causes of violence and crime. The mission is so broad that it could include anything from the creation of job opportunities in high-crime neighborhoods to partnering with a company that can repair out-of-code homes before the owner ends up on the street.

The program will have to work with at least seven city departments to launch the types of initiatives officials have in mind, ranging from the 911 call center to planning and development services to the housing department.

It is more expansive than any single city department or any single community organization, Launius said. The notion of community safety, health and wellness is intentionally broad to really help set the city up for improved coordination across departments and with strategic community partners to really focus tailored responses to the needs of our community.

That coordination includes expanding programs that already exist such as Tucson Collaborative Community Care, a partnership between the fire department and Tucson Medical Center that proactively helps residents who frequently call 911.

The partnership, also called TC-3, aims to reduce the number of fire or ambulance calls that dont require an emergency response. Staffers help residents with chronic illnesses get long-term disease management, for instance, something that mirrors community safetys policing goals.

We already do that really well through our TC-3 team, Launius said. What were looking to do is be able to expand that type of tailor-made response to a broader cross section of the community and not just folks who are necessarily high-call volume generators through the 911 system.

Launius didnt say how that cross section of the community will be identified if its not through the 911 system, but added that Place Network Investigations may also be expanded under the new program.

The investigations are part of a strategy adopted by the police department last year that involves using data to pinpoint where crimes take place. Police can then increase their presence in those areas, work with locals to figure out why crime is so high and team up with other city offices to tackle the core problems.

I think where we will be a critical partner is looking at not only how to support cross-departmental efforts in the PNI teams, because it will be focused in geographical areas where theres been historical high crime, but I think we will also be really critical in partnering with community partners that may not already have relationships with TPD or TFD that might be working in the area, Launius said.

The community safety programs role in bolstering those efforts is far from fleshed-out. Officials have not identified specific service gaps that need to be filled, let alone begun making plans to fill them.

Launius is in the process of hiring a 911 data analyst to remedy that issue. Tucson is also gathering information through a public survey, though its just the latest in a series of public outreach efforts conducted over the past year.

Were hitting the ground running as fast as we can because the need is significant, said Launius, who is only a few weeks into her new position. If I were to tell you that we have it all figured out right now, that would be premature because were continuing to really hear from the community and fine-tune some of our analyses both internally and externally to make sure we have the right approach across the board.

Promising developments, Housing First

The community safety program is set to partner with local organizations that will come under the umbrella of services coordinated by the program. Officials have not named any groups as of yet, but Tucson is preparing to dole out nearly $4 million in grants to fund the partnerships.

Tucson received a high volume of applicants for the federally funded grants, which were expected to be awarded about a week ago but are now delayed until Feb. 18.

Launius hopes some of the winners can provide money management training for underprivileged Tucsonans or behavioral health resources that her social worker staff could use to fill service gaps in other programs.

Deputy City Manager Perez described the community safety program as the dotted line that will connect all of the departments and local organizations participating in the efforts. The eight navigators who will staff Launius office will be the ones tasked with drawing that line, however, so its unclear who will pull the pieces together before they come on board.

The new director also has at least one shining example of success she can look toward as she builds her staff and crafts new program initiatives: Housing First.

The housing effort was launched under the banner of the community safety program in 2020 and has since found permanent housing for nearly 1,000 homeless Tucsonans.

More recently, Launius and Housing First director Brandi Champion announced efforts to open new shelters and create designated homeless encampments that can contain the growing crisis in the city. They also discussed plans to build a joint office with El Rio Community Health Group and the police department to centralize local homeless resources.

Launius said the success of that effort indicates what the community safety program can achieve once it has a more defined game plan and appropriate staff.

I think that looking at the build-out of the Housing First team is a great example in terms of the work that they have already accomplished, Launius said.

City officials are confident that Launius has the skills to pull the program together and are hopeful that her recent hiring is a big step in the right direction.

Still, they admit the new director is in uncharted waters and that structuring the massively complex community safety program will not be an easy task.

Theres no magic manual on how to roll out a community safety program  were really starting from scratch, Councilman Cunningham said. The hard part is, well how do you develop a standard operating procedure? How do you develop this manual and this program specifically? The answer truthfully is nobody knows. Nobody wants to admit that nobody knows, but nobody really knows.

Launius expects the program to be much expanded in about three months time. For now, she plans to continue working with city and community partners to figure out the best way forward.

Reporter Sam Kmack covers local government. Contact him at skmack@tucson.com.

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Vietnam imported 12.3 million tonnes of steel worth 11.52 billion USD in 2021, down 7 percent in volume and up 42.8 percent in value year-on-year, according to the General Department of Customs.

The country mainly bought steel from China, with 5 million tonnes valued at 4.38 billion USD, accounting for 40.3 percent and 38 percent of the total volume and turnover, respectively.

Japan was the second largest exporter of the product to Vietnam last year. The Southeast Asian nation imported 1.9 million tonnes totaling 1.73 billion USD from Japan, down 22.8 percent in volume and up 23.8 percent in value compared to 2020.

The Republic of Korea (RoK) ranked third among the biggest steel exporters to Vietnam in 2021, shipping 1.5 million tonnes worth 1.59 billion USD to the Southeast Asian nation, up 24.4 percent in value year-on-year./.

VNA
Stop us if you have heard this before, but Amity is the new No. 1 team in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll. The Spartans claim the top spot after previous No. 1 Warde dropped a 2-1 decision to...
PHOENIX  Republican state senators voted Tuesday to approve new restrictions on abortion that are, at least for now, unconstitutional.

Senate Bill 1164 would make it a crime for doctors to abort a fetus after the 15th week of pregnancy. Violators could end up in state prison for a year and lose their medical licenses.

The 16-13 party line vote, with all Democrats opposed, occurred after Sen. Raquel Teran, D-Phoenix, pointed out that there are no exceptions even in cases of rape or incest.

"Until we find a way to completely stop rape and incest, we cannot put barriers in place for those survivors to have the freedom to dictate their own futures,'' said Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix.

But Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, sponsor of the measure, said she sees no problem with the lack of examption.

"The baby inside of a woman is a separate life and needs to be protected,'' she said. "All life is sacred.''

Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, cited a series of court rulings, going all the way back to the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which say states cannot preclude abortions before a fetus is considered viable. That generally occurs in the area of about 22 to 24 weeks.

Barto, however, said she is counting on the U.S. Supreme Court using the challenge to a Mississippi law to overturn those precedents. That would leave the question of which abortions are legal up to individual states.

And if nothing else, she said, the justices could simply uphold the Mississippi law which, like her legislation, sets the limit at 15 weeks.

A ruling in that case is expected in June. This measure, Barto said, simply makes Arizona ready to enforce that law if and when that decision is made.

But Quezada said that the Senate, in counting on that ruling  and moving ahead now  is simply courting a lawsuit against the state.

There is some precedent for what he is saying. With Roe v. Wade still the law of the land, federal courts have struck down prior bids by Arizona lawmakers to curb abortion rights, including a 20-week ban approved a decade ago.

Tuesday's Senate debate centered on more than the legal questions.

Barto said the measure would bring Arizona into line with what she says is the view of most Americans that abortions at that point should be forbidden.

She said the science backs her contention that a fetus at 15 weeks is entitled to legal protections.

"Viability is an ongoing question,'' said Barto, who was the only senator to speak in favor of the measure.

"We know from looking inside the womb, technology has given us a great gift to see what we all know instinctively, that is, life begins at conception,'' she said. "And as it grows we can see more of the humanity of the unborn child.''

Barto also said she believes the Supreme Court will conclude it is no longer appropriate to use viability as a dividing line between legal and illegal abortions.

At least part of the debate came down to the question of exactly how the law would be enforced.

"Would law enforcement officers be placed in every OB/GYN's office to monitor doctors?'' Teran asked.

Barto said it would be no different than now, where most post-viability abortions are a state crime. "It will be reported and there will be criminal investigations and follow up,'' she said. "There will be arrests made. But it certainly won't be bursting in on an abortion clinic.''

She pointed out that nothing in the measure creates any criminal liability for a woman who terminates a pregnancy. "Women would not be prosecuted,'' Barto said.

"Doctors would be responsible,'' she continued. "They would know the law and they would have to abide by it.''

Teran, however, said that didn't make the measure  and the possibility of doctors being arrested  any more acceptable.

"There really is no medical way to tell the difference between an abortion and a miscarriage,'' she said, meaning the statute could end up dragging these women into criminal investigations even if they themselves could not be prosecuted.

Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales, D-Tucson, questioned the whole idea of Barto and supporters of the legislation trying to create a statute  and impose criminal penalties  based on their own ideas.

"It's really placing our own individual values and beliefs onto all the women of this state,'' Gonzales said. "We ought not be doing that.''

That also was the view of Sen. Rosanna Gabaldon, D-Green Valley.

"I want to live in a world where we respect other people's decisions,'' she said.

"I want to live in a state that can be proud of themselves by giving the opportunity for not only women but families to make a decision on what their families look like and who is going to be in their family,'' Gabaldon said. "I want to be able to give families the decision whether or not to give birth, to adopt, or have an abortion, or not to have children at all.''

There's also the question of whether an Arizona law banning abortion at 15 weeks effectively would create two classes of pregnant women.

That's because even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, some states like California and Nevada already have protections for abortion rights. And nothing in Barto's legislation bars women from traveling to other states for the procedure.

"This bill will not stop the ones with money from continuing to access that care,'' said Quezada.

"It will only add unnecessary financial obstacles to obtaining an abortion and therefore force those who do not have their funds to continue a government-mandated pregnancy against their will," he said.

Barto brushed aside complaints by some foes that while the state was restricting abortions, it was not putting more money into supporting the women who will be forced to carry their pregnancies to term.

"I don't see Planned Parenthood reaching out,'' she said. "With their billions in profits, they don't lift a finger.''

The measure now goes to the House where there are likely the votes for approval. And Gov. Doug Ducey, who has signed every abortion restriction that has reached his desk, already has made it clear he wants new limits, even to the point of signing on to a legal brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

There is separate legislation in both the House and Senate to impose a Texas-style ban on abortions after fetal cardiac activity, usually occurring around six weeks. But neither measure has been scheduled for a hearing.

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The following is the opinion and analysis of the writers. Lizette Trujillo is a mother of a transgender son in Tucson. Russell Toomey is a professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona:

It is easy to forget that policies have personal impacts, unless you are a transgender youth or parenting a transgender child whose life would be upended if any of the 10 anti-transgender bills being considered in our state Legislature were signed into law.

Lizette Trujillo: The legislative session has become such a disruption in my familys life ever since the first wave of anti-transgender legislation targeting transgender youth swept across the country in 2020. In Arizona, SB1130, SB1138, and HB2608 are unnecessary and harmful legislation that prevent transgender youth from receiving the medical care and treatment indicated by their medical providers.

Supportive, competent care for transgender youth is life saving and necessary. I have spent many nights worried and afraid about what this legislation will mean for my son. The discrimination my son has faced in his short life has been heartbreaking; we need our community members, family, and friends to really understand what is at stake.

Russell Toomey: Writing as a private citizen, rather than as a representative of the state or university, Id like to share next why these bills harm kids.

What does science say about these bills?

SB1130, SB1138, and HB2608 seek to penalize medical providers who follow the well-established standard of care when treating transgender youth. Research and personal stories are consistent and clear: those treatments are medically necessary, developmentally appropriate, and save lives. All major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, back the use of this care when indicated by the criteria outlined in the standards of care.

Notably, and inconsistent with the language in SB1130, SB1138, and HB2608, it is never appropriate for a transgender minor to undergo any surgical or pharmaceutical intervention, such as pubertal blockers or hormones, prior to puberty. The inclusion of these procedures for children in these proposed bills seeks to create unjustified fear.

However, when medical care consistent with the standards of care is indicated and provided by licensed medical providers, transgender youths depression and suicidality levels drop to levels found among the general youth population, and their anxiety is also reduced. Importantly, these positive effects last into adulthood.

The beneficial effects of supportive medical care for transgender youth are critically important when understood in the following context: According to research I published in the journal Pediatrics in 2018, nearly 1 in 3 transgender girls and 1 in 2 transgender boys and nonbinary youth have attempted suicide; these rates are 3 to 5 times the suicide attempt rates found among non-transgender boys and girls.

These alarming differences do not have to be reality. Most research documents that these differences are created or widened by discrimination, including legislation that limits the rights of transgender youth like SB1130, SB1138, and HB2608. When youth receive the care and support that they need, these differences are nearly eliminated.

Allowing medical providers to continue providing this care  as they have for many years  will save lives and ensure that transgender youth can thrive. SB1130, SB1138, and HB2608 will undo this status quo based solely on fear and misinformation, harming transgender youth in the process.

Rather than criminalizing medical providers, we urge our state legislators to do the right thing: lead our communities by respecting the individual rights and liberties of all young people, their families, and their providers.

Lizette Trujillo: My son is proof that support and access to age-appropriate medical care drastically improves the quality-of-life transgender youth experience. He has a remarkable care team (clinical psychiatrist, and pediatrician), enjoys school, and has an incredible group of friends. He is like any other teen and is deserving of the rights other people are afforded. He and other transgender youth deserve to be able to think about school, friends, family, and sports, rather than harmful legislation.

Please let our Arizona lawmakers know that you dont support discriminatory bills in our state by sending emails or calling their office. Your allyship and support will save lives.

+1 +1

Lizette Trujillo is the mother of a 14-year-old transgender son, and advocate for transgender youth and their families. Russell Toomey is a professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona and an expert in discrimination, youth development, and mental health.

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Connecticut state police are investigating allegations of cheating among current trooper trainees at the academy.

The facts and circumstances as presented by the academy staff are being reviewed, state police commander Col. Stavros Mellekas said in a prepared statement Tuesday.

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We take the integrity of our recruits very seriously, Mellekas said. Matters such as this require a careful review before reacting impulsively. Consultation with the Attorney Generals Office and human resources is also part of the review.

Among the class of 61 trainees set to graduate in late March, seven or eight are under investigation for allegedly cheating on a test. Details of the allegations were not available. If they are proved true, however, the agency has an obligation to dismiss those trainees, state police union executive director Andy Matthews said.

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If youre going to cheat on a test, what else would you cheat on? Matthews said. You cant really do the job of a state trooper.

Matthews said he agreed with Mellekas, however, that caution is vital when dealing with such serious, potentially career-ending allegations.

Requirements for state police trainees include excellent moral character. Trooper trainees are paid wages equivalent to $50,000 annually, and upon graduation, the salary jumps to $61,257, according to the agencys website.

Sworn state police personnel, not including the 61 trainees, now total 895, down from a peak of 1,283 in 2009, Matthews said.

Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com
Laissez les bons temps rouler is a French-Cajun expression used commonly around the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, specifically when referring to Mardi Gras, and translates to let the good times roll.

For the past eight years, Chris and Amanda West kept the spirit of New Orleans rolling in their popular downtown spot, Lassalles New Orleans Deli. They created a loyal customer base of folks who craved traditional and authentic Cajun and Creole food  muffulettas, poboy sandwiches, red beans and rice, jambalaya and seafood gumbo. Oh, that delicious seafood gumbo.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Wests to a temporary shutdown in 2020, they started thinking of ways to pivot to try to stay in business. Naturally, they turned to their Louisiana roots for inspiration.

Lassalles New Orleans Deli was more than just a way to make a living. It was our culture, lifestyle and identity, Chris West said.

Chris and Amanda used the pandemic downtime to start OklaNola Pepper Co., named for the West familys past and present, a name that Chris West has had trademarked for some time.

The fermented hot sauces, made from peppers grown by the Wests on their 25-acre farm in rural Rogers county, were available in limited quantity at Lassalles and through a few other outposts in the area. The bottles sold out almost instantly. However, as has been the case for many local businesses, the pandemic got the best of the Wests.

Chris shared on social media that they closed Lassalles for good on Dec. 23.

We tried everything we could to keep our doors open, Chris West said. But in the end, the pandemic has just outlasted our financial resources.

As I wrote in a past Tulsa World Magazine feature about Tulsa chefs with unique tattoos, Chris West wears his heart on his sleeve, and his heart bleeds New Orleans. Wests arms represent his life in New Orleans before arriving in Tulsa post-Hurricane Katrina, as they are inked with images of local musicians and local seafood.

Chris and Amanda West, both New Orleans-area natives, escaped to Tulsa after the hurricane decimated their apartment and most of the Gulf Coast. They chose Tulsa because Amandas mother, Charlotte, as well as other family members, lived in town.

We were New Orleanians, and we tried to represent that in everything we did in every way, West lamented in a lengthy social media post announcing the closing of their beloved restaurant.

In that same post, Chris shared that he and Amanda will be expanding OklaNola Pepper Co. and plan to be in several retail spaces and hopefully available for nationwide shipping in 2022.

We hope to have Lassalles products in a few of our friends restaurants, coffee shops and markets sometime soon, Chris West said.

The Meat & Cheese Show and Macs Barbecue are two of the local spots that currently stock OklaNola products, but they dont linger on shelves for long, so if you see a bottle or jar, be sure to grab one.

Adam Green, owner of Macs Barbecue in Skiatook, is a huge fan, as well as a friend.

Chris went from surviving Katrina to moving here and opening his dream, Green said. Then having to close it during the pandemic  I just want to support my buddy.

Green said he and West share a lot of the same customers, so selling Lassalles products at Macs was a natural fit.

I had to fight for a case of hot sauce to sell here, Green said. And I already have customers asking if were going to sell his soups.

The Wests have decided to refocus on the food  growing it and cooking it.

Chris and Amandas plan is to transition the Lassalles brand into a market farm. They will soon be approaching small restaurants and others in the community to try to supply them with responsibly grown produce. There will be an OklaNola booth at the Tulsa Farmers market on Saturday mornings selling produce, plants and seedlings, and quarts of the Cajun and Creole classics for which they are known.

Well continue to bring new classic Cajun and Creole dishes, meats and sausages to the market, West said. Well also have a variety of seedlings focusing on Louisiana tomato plants (Creole tomatoes), Louisiana okra and LSU purple figs all grown by us here in Green Country.

OklaNola will grow its own chili peppers at the farm to use in the sauces and grow extra chilis to bring to the market. Chris and Amanda also plan to produce spice mixes from ingredients grown and milled on the farm.

We realize this is a lot, and we expect to roll things out in phases and seasons, but this is our total vision, and we cant wait to get started, West said.

Green said that in the near future there could be a gumbo night at The Kitchen at Cains, Green and Hunter Gambills kitchen inside Cains Ballroom. Recently, Gambill hosted the Wests for a pop-up Lassalles lunch at Gambills Pastaria & Grocery restaurant. Word of the pop-up spread throughout social media like wildfire.

If the line out the door on that afternoon is any indication, the Wests future will be rolling along deliciously.

Judy Allen has been writing about food for more than 20 years, working as senior food editor for Martha Stewart Living and as a recipe contributor to other national publications. Allen has covered the Tulsa food scene since 2006, working with Tulsas top chefs to get the word out about restaurants, events, recipes and any other food news. She enjoys cooking almost anything but loves it even more when others cook for her.
A man who fell from an overpass and was paralyzed during a 2020 Black Lives Matter march in Tulsa is suing the city of Tulsa, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and others in a federal lawsuit.

Thomas Ryan Knight, 34, blames the city, the OHP, the unidentified driver of a pickup pulling a horse trailer and others for creating the situation that led to his injuries.

Knight was participating in a Black Lives Matter march on May 31, 2020, when he fell about 20 feet from an Interstate 244 overpass near downtown. Knight broke multiple spinal bones and is now paralyzed from the waist down, according to the lawsuit.

Knight, in his complaint filed Monday in Tulsa federal court, alleges actions taken by the Tulsa Police Department, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and employees of both agencies led to Knights fall.

But for the deliberate indifference of the TPD, OHP and their employees, plaintiff would have never been placed in the dangerous situation on I-244 and ultimately knocked off the overpass, Knights lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit also blames the negligence of an unidentified pickup driver for helping to cause the circumstances that led to Knights fall from the overpass.

Knight was among hundreds who marched during a Black Lives Matter rally in Tulsas Greenwood District following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer just days earlier.

As the father of a multiracial family, Knight was compelled to attend the rally, not only to stand up for what he believed in, but also to stand up for a better future for his children, according to the lawsuit.

The march was to start near Vernon AME Church and travel to John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park near Elgin Avenue and I-244.

But the lawsuit claims that as marchers approached the park, Tulsa police officers funneled the overflow crowd onto the nearby I-244 entrance ramp.

The lawsuit blames the Police Department for creating the situation that placed rally goers in direct and imminent danger by directing the crowd onto I-244.

Knight and others were on I-244 when a pickup pulling a horse trailer attempted to drive through the group.

The lawsuit blames the OHP for allowing the pickup to pass through a barricade on the highway and approach rallygoers.

As the truck approached the group, publicly available video taken of the scene shows the vehicle creeping slowly through the crowd on the highway after another vehicle is permitted to pass.

Moments later, the pickup came to a slow-roll stop as the front end bounced up and down, with protesters beating their fists on the vehicles windows.

Witnesses reported seeing the pickup driver placing a handgun on the dash of the vehicle as rallygoers began to throw objects at the pickup and trailer.

At that point, the crowd attempted to disperse, causing it to move away from the travel lanes, according to the complaint. As a result, Plaintiff was knocked off the overpass and fell more than 20 feet to a city street below.

After passing through the crowd, the pickup drove on toward another group of troopers who instructed the driver to meet them at another location to get him away from agitated protesters, an OHP spokesperson said at the time.

The civil complaint alleges that the pickup driver, who has yet to be publicly identified, was negligent when he brandished the firearm.

Knight claims that the OHP never responded to his request for copies of records related to the rally despite its spokespersons saying earlier that it investigated the incident involving the pickup and horse trailer.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit claims that TPDs policy and procedure manual is silent on how its officers should handle civil demonstrations.

Because there is no relevant policy, there is no possible way that TPD officers could receive appropriate training on these issues, the complaint says.

In addition to suing the city of Tulsa, the complaint is filed against TPD Chief Wendell Franklin and 15 unidentified TPD officers.

The lawsuit also names former Oklahoma Department of Highway Safety Commissioner John Skully, 15 unidentified OHP troopers and an OHP administrator.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages in excess of $75,000.

The city of Tulsa and Oklahoma Highway Patrol, through public information staff at both entities, declined to comment. A city spokeswoman said the city of Tulsa doesnt comment publicly on pending litigation, a practice also typical of the state agency.

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Two protesters have been charged in Muscogee Nation court in connection with injuries to a Tulsa police officer during a demonstration calling for the release of longtime federal prisoner and American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier.

The Muscogee Nations attorney general filed felony charges of assault and battery in a protected class (police officer) against Jacob Nokusece Wind and Sandy Redbear Williams on Wednesday, the nation said in a press release Monday.

The two had been arrested on federal complaints on Feb. 7, the day of the protest, and Tulsa police said they anticipated that charges would be filed in U.S. District Court.

The officer had asked the protesters to remove a car that was blocking Fourth Street during the demonstration outside the Page Belcher Federal Building, police said in a Facebook post.

The federal building is within the boundaries of the Muscogee Nations reservation, and Wind and Williams are Native Americans, thus allowing for federal or tribal jurisdiction.

Several protesters told the officer that he is not a Muscogee Nation Lighthorse police officer, video from the scene shows, and police said the protesters claimed that because of the U.S. Supreme Courts McGirt ruling on tribal jurisdiction, they didnt have to follow his instructions.

They were incorrect in this assumption and were, in fact, violating city of Tulsa ordinances by parking illegally and interfering with the flow of traffic, police said in the post.

Police said the officer was surrounded by several protesters and put his hand on one of them twice to create some distance between (himself) and the group, and a scuffle ensued.The video shows the officer putting his hand on a protester, but how the altercation started is unclear.

The officer ended up on the ground, the video shows, and police said he was injured, having a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his knee as well as a tibia fracture.

Peltier, an Anishinaabe and Dakota man who was convicted by a federal jury in 1977 in the shooting deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, has been in federal prison since his conviction.Many people consider Peltier a political prisoner and say he was wrongfully convicted.

Calls for Peltiers release or for the overturning of his conviction have been heard from Peltiers first appeal in 1978 through President Barack Obamas denial of his clemency request in 2017, but those calls for release have increased in urgency since Peltier, now 77, tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 28.

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Last year, as part of the centennial commemoration of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, city councilors and the mayor signed off on a nonbinding resolution recognizing and apologizing for the municipal governments role in that infamous chapter in the citys history.

Now comes the next step in the process: Beyond Apology: A collective action toward repair for the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Thats the name City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper and her partners have given to a proposed community-driven engagement process to determine what making amends for the devastation should include.

Councilors and the mayor committed to establishing such a process when they approved the resolution in June. On Wednesday, Hall-Harper will present the plan to her colleagues on the council.

The City of Tulsa has never had an organized, intentional conversation around what repair for the ongoing harms impacting quality of life of black Tulsans should look like, the plan states. With the Tulsa City Council 2021 resolution, an opportunity to chart a community informed pathway to healing has opened up.

The massacre of May 31-June 1, 1921, displaced thousands of people and left 35 blocks of the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood in ashes. Thirty-seven deaths from the violence have been confirmed, but the actual figure is widely believed to be much higher.

The proposed engagement process would be open to all Tulsans but would prioritize the voices of those most affected by the massacre, with a goal of reaching 2,500 people. The ultimate goal is to present a final report that includes community-endorsed action items that address the inequities and harms that were caused by the massacre.

Hall-Harper said those action items wont necessarily be targeted solely to city government but could also include corporations, philanthropies and other entities in the community.

Hopefully the leadership in the city would feel obligated to act upon them if we ever really, truly expect to move forward and progress on this issue, Hall-Harper said Monday. That is what it is going to take  a real commitment to repair, because it has never happened, and that is the whole point of this initiative.

Hall-Harper said she worked with Standpipe Hill Strategies LLC and World Won Development to create the proposed engagement process. Moving forward, she plans to work with a number of other entities, including the Historic Greenwood Mainstreet Program, the Greater Tulsa African American Affairs Commission, city councilors, and survivors and descendants of the massacre.

I hope that we can do a kickoff this month, Hall-Harper said. We want to be sure we have done proper additional engagement, and then hopefully well begin the community-led conversations.

The proposed process, which would extend no longer than a year from the time it begins, would include four phases: communal education and listening sessions; City Council working group research and recommendations; community feedback and prioritization; and a City Council working group report and recommendations.

Thats the proposal, but Hall-Harper stressed that ultimately it will be up to the community to determine how the process moves forward. As a starting point, though, the resolution states that the process would begin with an evaluation of the recommendations made two decades ago by the states 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission.

They included, in rank order: payments to living survivors; payments to descendants of those who had property damage during the violence; a scholarship fund; business tax incentives for the Greenwood District; and a memorial.

The proposed engagement plan is estimated to cost approximately $51,000, which would be funded with private dollars.

Hall-Harper said she prefers it that way.

I dont think we as a governmental body really understand what community-led means, she said. I believe that for the most part government operates in such a way that we tell you what to do; we tell you what you need; and we tell you when you are going to get it.

This is an attempt to do something different.

Featured video: Tulsa Race Massacre survivors attend the Black Wall Street Memorial March

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The three finalists to become the city of Tulsas next city attorney will be interviewed separately Tuesday by a panel of stakeholders.

They are Jack Blair, the citys chief operating officer; Pat Boulden, City Council administrator; and Municipal Court Judge Mitchell McCune.

Former City Attorney David OMeilia retired last month after 10 years on the job.

The city attorney oversees the citys legal team and is responsible for advising the Mayors Office and City Council on legal matters.

Blair was named the citys COO in 2020 by Mayor G.T. Bynum. During Bynums first term as mayor, from 2016-20, Blair was his chief of staff.

He was the City Councils director of research, policy and budget from 2004 to 2016. He has also worked for the Muscogee Nation and the Trust for Public Land.

Blair is a 1996 graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Boulden has been the Tulsa City Council administrator since 2018.

He began his service with the city in 1975 as a police patrol officer, a position he held for eight years. After graduating from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 1983, he went to work in the City Attorneys Office, where he served in multiple capacities until 2011.

He was the city attorney for Bixby from 2011 to 2017 and later worked as assistant city attorney and prosecutor in Jenks and special assistant city attorney in Stillwater.

McCune became a Municipal Court judge in 2009. His responsibilities on the court include supervising court officers and staff, conducting jury and nonjury trials, and drafting and publishing judicial opinions.

A 1993 graduate of the University of Tulsa College of Law, McCune was owner and senior partner of the McCune Law Firm from 1997 to 2009. His work there included trying civil and criminal cases and advising clients on legal and business transactions.

Six people, including internal and external candidates, applied for the job. One was not certified by the citys Human Resources Department to move forward in the evaluation process, according to the city.

The five certified candidates were interviewed last month by Bynum. Assisting in those interviews were Deputy Mayor Cassia Carr, Chief of Staff Kathryn Junk, Human Resources Director Erica Felix-Warwick and Chief Financial Officer James Wagner.

Bynum then selected Blair, Boulden and McCune to advance to stakeholder panel interviews, scheduled for Tuesday.

The stakeholder panel comprises Terry Ball, director of the Streets and Stormwater Department; Wendell Franklin, police chief; Michael Skates, Development Services director; Lori Decter Wright, City Council chairwoman; Crista Patrick, City Council vice chairwoman; Cheri Harvell, Municipal Court administrator; Trent Shores, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma; Teresa Nowlin, Jenks city attorney; Junk, Felix-Warwick; and Wagner.

Bynum said the stakeholders panel should not be mistaken for a selection committee.

One of the most important responsibilities I have as mayor is hiring great leaders for our team at the city, Bynum said. That is not a responsibility I outsource. This is an interview panel, selected to give me a broader range of perspectives before I make a selection.

I have used this same process several times, and it was useful in making a more informed decision.

Bynum said Tuesday afternoon that he had had a good round of interviews but gave no indication of when he would make his decision.

I have further discussions to hold and deliberation to go through before deciding if we have the best possible person for the job, he said. I do not have a time frame set. The process will take as long as it needs to take to reach the right hire.

Tulsa voters approved a City Charter amendment in 2020 making the mayors appointee subject to confirmation by a majority of the entire nine-member City Council.

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OWASSO  Residents and commuters will see a major road construction project, and perhaps significant travel delays, on U.S. 169 and 76th Street North in the coming months.

The Oklahoma Transportation Commission recently approved a $13.6 million contract with Becco Contractors to expand the U.S. 169 northbound and southbound bridges at the high-traffic area.

The project is to begin in the spring and should take about 18 months to complete. ODOT plans to maintain two lanes of traffic along the highway throughout the project.

The upgrades to the overpass, set to kick off this spring, come as part of the Oklahoma Department of Transportations eight-year Construction Work Plan, which contains $6 billion worth of projects on bridges and highways across the state.

The long-term proposal for U.S. 169 in Owasso  totaling more than $50 million  includes widening and resurfacing work spanning more than six miles between 66th and 116th Streets North, with 76th slated as the first phase.

Work at 66th-86th Streets North is set to start in August 2024, with the others following at different times and locations from 2025 through 2029.

ODOT is pleased to begin addressing the critical needs of the Owasso community with this project, said ODOT spokesman T.J. Gerlach.

The replacement of these bridges lays the foundation for the future widening of U.S. 169.  That will help relieve congestion at a busy interchange and improve safety for the traveling public, both on the highway and on the city street below.

Gerlach said the two two-lane bridges above 76th Street North cannot be easily expanded due to their design. As such, the overhaul will create a single bridge that is wide enough to accommodate the future six-lane expansion along the busy freeway, which sees around 50,000 vehicles per day.

ODOTs impending widening project comes about five years after the agency put the final touches on its $44 million expansion of U.S. 169 at Bird Creek, in which crews demolished the large bridge just south of Owasso to make room for six lanes.

Owasso values the relationship and communication we have with ODOT, Owasso City Manager Warren Lehr said previously. We appreciate the funding for these projects to continue to improve the quality of life for our community.

Owasso Chamber President Gary Akin added: The widening of U.S. 169 has been a top priority for the Owasso Chamber of Commerce for many years. Its something our Chambers been intimately involved with  advocating for prioritization for funding.

In addition to carrying out ongoing developments along U.S. 169, ODOT plans to invest $12.8 million to improve about five miles of U.S. 75 between 96th Street North and north of 156th Street North. An additional $1.4 million will go toward intersection upgrades along Oklahoma 20 at 145th East Place.

Featured video: U.S. 169 portion dedicated to TPD sergeant killed in line of duty

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Wildfires, severe storms and snow are all possible in parts of northeastern Oklahoma this week, forecasters said.

Strong south winds, with gusts to near 40 mph, are expected across portions of eastern Oklahoma on Tuesday. The strong winds, warm temperatures and dry conditions will yield elevated to near critical grassland fire spread rates, the National Weather Service in Tulsa said.

Areas of highest risk for wildfires include much of Osage and Pawnee counties, with critical fire spread rates, forecasters said.

Rising dewpoints will hold humidities up during the afternoon, limiting the overall (fire) threat in other areas.

Red Flag warnings were in effect for northwestern Oklahoma and southern Kansas counties bordering Oklahoma. The warning means any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly and become very difficult to control. Outdoor burning is not recommended.

Forecasters said thunderstorm potential increases Wednesday afternoon and especially into Wednesday night ahead of a storm system and cold front.

There is a limited threat of severe storms Wednesday night from southeast Oklahoma into northwest Arkansas, with large hail the main threat. There is a very low, but non-zero, threat of damaging winds or a tornado in far southeast Oklahoma.

Multiple rounds of showers and storms are possible across eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas Wednesday and Wednesday night, increasing the potential for locally heavy rainfall, forecasters said.

The overall flood threat will be limited by the recent drought conditions.

As colder temperatures filter into the region behind the cold front, a band of wintry precipitation, mainly in the form of snow, is forecast to affect portions of northeast Oklahoma and far northwest Arkansas on Thursday as the storm system moves overhead, the weather service said.

Snow accumulation potential will be highest north of I-44 and closer to the Kansas and Missouri borders. Some travel impact and minor disruption to daily life is possible. The snow will exit the region by Thursday night.

Air quality in eastern Oklahoma dipped into unhealthy levels in some areas after scattered fires overnight Sunday into Monday.

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality reported locally unhealthy smoke produced by blazes apparently near Pittsburg County.

The smoke will lift partially during the day but settle into the valleys and plains at night. Dry and windy conditions will support more prescribed and agricultural fires in eastern Oklahoma, and dry and windy conditions will contribute to very high fire danger in western Oklahoma, the DEQ statement read Monday morning.

After this weeks storm system moves through the area, strong south winds and warmer temperatures will return by the latter part of the weekend, once again raising fire weather concerns, forecasters said.

Watch Now: Time-lapse of snow covering downtown Tulsa
A group of Connecticut residents on Tuesday sued Hartford HealthCare, owner and operator of Hartford Hospital, accusing the states largest hospital network of driving up prices with anticompetitive practices. (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant)

A group of Connecticut residents has sued Hartford HealthCare, accusing the states largest hospital network of driving up prices with anticompetitive practices.

Six residents alleged in their lawsuit filed Monday in Hartford Superior Court that Hartford HealthCare for the past several years has sought to restrain trade, establish a monopoly in acute inpatient hospital services and abuse its market power to charge higher prices from insurers, employers and patients.

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[ Connecticut Gov. Lamont wants to put a cap on prescription drug prices, including those that can cost thousands a year ]

They claim they have been forced to pay higher insurance premiums and deductibles caused by the price increases Hartford HealthCares acts have caused.

The lawsuit accuses Hartford HealthCare of violating the Connecticut Antitrust Act and Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act.

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Hartford HealthCare said in an emailed statement that the lawsuit is without merit.

The allegations misrepresent the many ways Hartford HealthCare is working to transform health care, building a system of care that is more accessible, has lower-cost options, is a champion for equity and both attracts and delivers excellence, it said.

Its 27 urgent care centers offer a less expensive care than hospital emergency rooms and it has built Connecticuts most comprehensive networks of behavioral health, homecare and community-based services, Hartford HealthCare said.

The health care system also said it has moved most services such as colonoscopies to nonhospital outpatient settings, substantially lowering costs.

The lawsuit claims that in addition to its ownership of Hartford Hospital, Hartford HealthCare has a network of outpatient facilities and several must have hospitals in Connecticut that commercial health plans include in their networks for their insurance products to be commercially viable.

Hartford HealthCare of leveraging its monopoly power over those facilities to force insurers, employers and patients to pay unreasonably high prices for care, the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit also accuses Hartford HealthCare of using anticompetitive contracting and negotiating tactics to limit commercial health plans in their ability to provide truthful information and monetary incentives to encourage their members to obtain care from competitors that offer cheaper and higher quality alternative care choices.

The result, the lawsuit claims, are higher prices for routine services that are often available at other hospitals only minutes away for substantially less.

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Hartford HealthCares profit margin is projected to be more than 8% in the coming years, which will result in about $400 million a year, according to the lawsuit.

Last month, St. Francis Hospital sued Hartford Healthcare in federal court, accusing it of jeopardizing competition and limiting consumer choice by siphoning off doctors and seeking a monopoly of physician practices.

Over the last decade, Hartford Healthcare has grown into a statewide health system employing 33,000 people as it acquired medical practices and hospitals across Connecticut. It posted operating revenue of $5 billion.

It acquired the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain in 2011, Backus Hospital in Norwich in 2013 and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington in 2018. In 2019, it acquired St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport, challenging Yale New Haven Health System in southwest Connecticut. In recent years Hartford HealthCare also added the Southington Surgery Center, other Hartford and Waterford surgery centers, as well as Middlesex Cardiology and Soundview Medical Associates.

Yale New Haven Health and Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. announced last week they have signed an agreement for the Yale health system to acquire Manchester Memorial Hospital, Rockville General Hospital in Vernon and Waterbury Hospital.

Hospital consolidation in Connecticut will likely be the focus of legislation in the General Assembly.

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Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.
A Bartlesville ministry that assists persecuted Christians globally has collected more than 23,000 prayers from people in more than 150 countries for China, the host of this years winter Olympics.

During the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, the Bartlesville-based organization Voice of the Martyrs started a worldwide campaign called Pray for China 2022 that recognizes the Chinese Communist Party governments persecution of Chinese Christians.

The Voice of the Martyrs is a nonprofit interdenominational organization that serves persecuted Christians in more than 70 nations around the world.

The organization says Christians in China face dangers that include being harassed, imprisoned, killed or deprived because of their religion.

During these Olympic games, when we pray for China, were working alongside China, said Todd Nettleton, VOMs spokesperson.

In recent years Chinas government has forcibly closed hundreds of churches, arrested or detained hundreds of pastors and church members, and prohibited the online sale of Bibles, the organization says.

PrayforChina2022.com offers people the opportunities to receive prayer updates, invite others to pray through social media, add prayer reminders to their calendar and learn more about the persecution of Christians in China.

Its impactful because prayer is the first thing they ask us to do, Nettleton said. They see that it makes a difference.

As a result of persecution, Open Doors USA estimates that around 80% of Christian churches in China have fractured into small groups or have gone underground. Open Doors called on all American Christians to boycott the Beijing Olympic Games.

Voices of the Martyrs publishes a monthly magazine with more than 600,000 U.S. subscribers.

The organization moved in 2011 from downtown Bartlesville to a modern, spacious $28 million complex on 70 acres on the east side of town.

Voice of the Martyrs operates on a $40 million budget. It has a staff of 210 people with over 1,600 projects annually in more than 70 countries. More than 4 million persecuted Christians receive tangible benefits from VOMs ministry annually, the organization says.

Donors fund the entire operation.

Voice of the Martyrs was founded in 1967 by Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand in Glendale, California. The organization relocated to Oklahoma approximately 30 years ago.

Featured video: White House announces diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics

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Tulsa World Editorial Writer Bob Doucette, in his remarkable column about China (The complex challenge of China, Jan. 30) noted that he had visited China in 2006 and 2007 which, coincidentally, were the same two years that I visited Chinas most popular tourist attractions.

I found Mr. Doucettes piece to be accurate, based on what we mutually observed  and would like to add what follows to this discussion.

According to an official Chinese government newspaper  provided for tourists in English  in 2006 there were some 80,000 major street-protests, by workers kept from relocating to Chinas major cities. If China allowed all of those wanting to move to do so, the Chinese economy would grind to a halt, and its cities rendered ever closer to being uninhabitable.

Workers outside the major cities were earning about $100 monthly, lived in crowded dormitory conditions, without their families, just being exploited, in much the same way too many non-unionized U.S. hourly workers usually are.

Mr. Doucette closed with the following question: Do we try to make China more of a partner?  and my answer is a resounding yes. The U.S. should continue to partner with China, but only if Chinese workers were paid enough to live with their families, and all Chinese businesses were held to the same pollution controls as are their U.S. counterparts.

Hopefully this column was read as widely as possible.

Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to tulsaworld.com/opinion/submitletter.

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A Republican Oklahoma lawmaker, Sen. Rob Standridge, has filed Senate Bill 1470, titled the Students Religious Belief Protection Act.

It seeks to prohibit employment or contract with a person that promotes positions in the classroom or at any function of the public school that is in opposition to closely held religious beliefs of a student. In this state, that would be Christianity.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, in part, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... Congress in this case means the legislative bodies of federal, state, and local governments. So, that would include the Oklahoma Legislature.

Since the adoption of SB 1470 would have the effect of establishing a religion  Christianity  for public schools, it would be in clear violation of the First Amendments establishment clause, and therefore be wholly unconstitutional.

Perhaps the wisdom of the Legislature will prevail and let SB 1470, die quietly. Otherwise, we taxpayers are going to pay the states litigation costs to defend a lost cause.

In 1797, President John Adams, who signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which contained the phrase, The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion. Congress ratified the treaty unanimously.

Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to tulsaworld.com/opinion/submitletter.

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The Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has just proposed that the central government fully reopen international tourism in mid-March, instead of March 31 as previously suggested, after nearly two years of closure due to COVID-19 impacts.

The ministry said it is collecting feedback from other agencies for its proposal, applicable to air, sea and road travelers, before perfecting and submitting it to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh for approval.

The ministry had previously proposed the resumption date as March 31, the time when the country is expected to complete its third-dose COVID-19 vaccinations for the adult population, but it has recently chosen the earlier date after the government directed that international tourism should be resumed prior to March 30.

From now until March 14, the pilot tourism reopening program that has been conducted in several localities since late 2021 will continue as necessary preparations for the proposed full resumption, the ministry said.

In its latest proposition, the ministry suggested that international visitors be required to have health insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment at a minimum of US$20,000, instead of $50,000 as previously recommended.

They must get fully vaccinated for COVID-19, with the second dose administered at least 14 days and no longer than 12 months before their entry date, or have certificates of recovery from COVID-19 within six months prior to their time of entry.

In addition, they would be required to have a negative RT-PCR/RT-LAMP test certificate within 72 hours of departure, except for children under two years old, and a negative rapid test result for the coronavirus at their accommodation in Vietnam within 24 hours of entry.

Fully vaccinated guests have to participate in package tours provided by selected international travel firms for the first three days of their expected stay in Vietnam, and the required period will be seven days for those who have yet to be immunized or have not been fully inoculated.

After the compulsory three- or seven-day periods, visitors testing negative for the coronavirus will be qualified to join other tours or visit their relatives in Vietnam, the ministry said.

To facilitate foreigners entry into Vietnam, the Southeast Asian country has recognized vaccine passports, or full vaccination certificates, of 79 countries and territories, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As of Monday, the country, whose population is around 98 million, has given 79,216,176 first COVID-19 vaccine doses to people nationwide, while the numbers of second and third shots were 74,742,958 and 32,041,993, respectively, the Ministry of Health reported.

Health workers have administered the first vaccine shots to all eligible adults, and 53 out of 63 provinces and cities have reached a second-dose vaccination rate of over 90 percent.

Meanwhile, 8,469,132 first doses and 7,961,687 second shots have been provided to children aged 12 to 17, and 42 provinces and cities have achieved a 90 percent vaccine coverage rate.

Since erupting in Vietnam in early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has caused 2,540,273 infections, with 2,232,947 recoveries and 39,037 fatalities, the health ministry said.

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Here are todays leading news stories:

Politics

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received on Monday Alok Kumar Sharma, British Cabinet Minister and President for the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), who is on a working visit to Vietnam to promote the implementation of the conferences outcomes, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Society

-- Two children aged two and four were killed after a parked truck slid down a slope and crashed into a house in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong on Monday afternoon.

-- Police in Ho Chi Minh City are looking for a man to facilitate their probe into a case where a university freshman from south-central Binh Dinh Province has lost contact with his family for three days after arriving in the southern city.

-- Three COVID-19 cases were recorded on Monday after over one million kindergarten, elementary school, and sixth grade students in Ho Chi Minh City returned to school for the first time after about nine months.

-- Three-year-old D.N.A. from Thach That District, Hanoi is still in a coma nearly one month after she was admitted to the hospital with nine nail-like objects in her skull.

-- Authorities in Hanoi are expected to spend nearly VND1.9 trillion (US$83.5 million) on multiple programs aimed at reducing traffic congestion and ensuring traffic safety during the 2021-25 period.

-- Relic sites in Hanoi were allowed to welcome back visitors from Monday following a long period of temporary closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business

-- The Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam)s oil exploitation output in the first month of 2022 reached 0.93 million metric tons, exceeding its set target by 24.2 percent, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

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The city of Hartford will partner with a utility to bring high-speed internet to portion of the city's Northeast neighborhood. (John Hart)

Hartford  High-speed fiber internet lines  a critical building block for economic growth  is coming to a major business corridor in Hartfords Northeast neighborhood where business owners have long complained about spotty or even non-existent broadband access.

The city plans to partner with a utility on the project that will run a little over a mile from 2730 to 3054 Main St. and 555 to 847 Windsor St. Bids are now being sought, with the city matching up to $750,000, roughly half the projects cost. Construction could start in the spring.

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Stepped up internet speed cant come fast enough for Mark Brown, the owner of Dunns River Jamaican Restaurant at 2996 Main St.

With the volume of credit and debit card transactions increasing since Brown opened his restaurant in 2008, he saw a slowdown in processing times.

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Weve been going through all the struggle with the internet system, Brown said. Its so bad that I have to go and get a hotspot just to help with my internet here.

Brown said he needed seek the help of a hotspot to speed up internet service because hes only getting about a quarter of the access hes paying for.

More reliable, high-speed broadband would open up new opportunities for Brown, including the possibility of doubling the number of his processing terminals and expanding online ordering capabilities.

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This is going to be a blessing from the sky, Brown said.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said the lack of high-speed broadband access is a barrier to businesses that want to be competitive and grow.

This investment will support growth along a vital corridor in the Northeast neighborhood that has, for far too long, been held back by inadequate infrastructure and limited access to high-speed internet, Bronin said.

The Hartford City Council has given its support to the project, the councils majority leader TJ Clarke II noting that the upgrade has been past due for a decade.

Having access to information anywhere, anytime is a requirement to operate in any business environment, Councilwoman Shirley Surgeon said.

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The city said the project calls for the conduit carrying the fiber optic lines to be owned by the city with shared use by the utility.

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.
A three-year-old girl from Thach That District, Hanoi is still in a coma nearly one month after she was admitted to the hospital with nine nail-like objects in her skull.

Dr. Tran Lien Huong, deputy director of Hanoi-based Saint Paul General Hospital, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday that his medical staff at the pediatric emergency resuscitation department are still actively treating D.N.A., whom they had admitted on transfer from Thach That General Hospital in the namesake district last month.

Her response to treatment is poor, Dr. Huong said.

Currently, the girl is still in a deep coma while her prognosis is not good.

A. was first taken to Thach That General Hospital in a deep coma on the afternoon of January 17.

An X-ray scan of her head later showed nine objects that looked like nails in her skull.

Due to the patients severe condition, accompanied by abnormal signs, the hospital transferred the girl to Saint Paul General Hospital and reported the matter to police.

Police officers in Hanoi then arrested and initiated legal proceedings against Nguyen Trung Huyen, the 30-year-old unofficial husband of A.s 27-year-old mother, on charges of murder on January 20.

Huyen was determined to have severely brutalized A. by breaking her arm, forcing her to swallow screws and drink pesticides, and hammering nails in her head.

Meanwhile, the police have continued to clarify the role of A.s mother in relation to the case.

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It is still early to consider COVID-19 as seasonal influenza so local residents must continue complying with pandemic prevention and control measures, according to a health official in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City is providing treatment to 739 COVID-19 patients, of whom 38 are under 16 years old, 72 need breathing aid, and 12 require outside-the-body life support, Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, head of the municipal Department of Health Office, said at a meeting on Monday.

The number of coronavirus-related deaths in the metropolis has remained at a low level in the past seven days, Mai continued, adding that the death toll fell to zero on several days.

However, it is still early to see COVID-19 as seasonal influenza, the health official stressed.

We have yet to fully understand the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

Mai called on local residents to stick to pandemic prevention and control measures.

It is also too soon to conclude that the virus causes no serious symptoms in children, although no COVID-19 deaths among children have been documented in the city.

Parents and health workers have to pay closer attention to young patients with malnutrition, obesity, and serious underlying conditions, Mai underscored.

The health official also encouraged parents to vaccinate their kids and make sure they follow all pandemic response protocols.

Ho Chi Minh City has documented more than 516,000 local infections since the fourth virus wave hit Vietnam last April.

The city has recorded daily jumps of less than 300 cases over the past week.

Health workers in the city of nine million have administered 8.1 million first vaccine doses, nearly 7.3 million second shots, and 4.6 million third jabs.

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Two young children were killed after a parked truck slid down a slope and crashed into a house in Vietnams Central Highlands on Monday afternoon.

The accident took place in Dinh Trang Thuong Commune, Di Linh District, Lam Dong Province at around 4:20 pm on Monday, the district police unit confirmed later the same day.

A truck was parked along a local street when it slid down a slope and crashed into a wooden house on the side of the road.

The house completely collapsed, killing a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy.

The truck crashes into the house after sliding down a slope in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, February 14, 2022. Photo: P.Quan / Tuoi Tre

Their parents escaped death with minor injuries.

The truck driver, who has yet to be identified, was not in the vehicle at the time of the accident.

Officers arrived at the scene shortly after to deal with the accident.

Local authorities have offered necessary support for the family, which is classified as a poor household in the locality.

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The Peoples Committee of Lam Dong Province in Vietnams Central Highlands region is seeking approval for adjusting the use of 486 hectares of forest in its administrative area to facilitate the construction of an expressway.

The provincial governing body has appraised the current status of forest resources affected by the Bao Loc - Lien Khuong Expressway project, which is scheduled to start construction later this year.

The route is expected to be completed at the same time as the Long Thanh - Tan Phu and Tan Phu - Bao Loc Expressways, thereby thoroughly connecting Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai Province, and Da Lat City in Lam Dong.

Results of the appraisal, carried out by the Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Developments, showed that the 486 hectares of forest in question consists of 8.49 hectares planned for forestry production and 477.51 hectares for non-forestry activities, covering Bao Loc City, Bao Lam, Di Linh, and Duc Trong Districts.

An aerial view of the Lien Khuong - Prenn Expressway in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam. Photo: Duc Tho / Tuoi Tre

The Bao Loc - Lien Khuong Expressway will be more than 73 kilometers in length and have four lanes totaling 24.75 meters wide upon completion.

The total investment in the project is about VND11.3 trillion (US$497 million) and will come in the form of publicprivate partnership (PPP), including VND1.5 trillion ($68 million) from Lam Dong Provinces budget.

The construction period is estimated at 24 months, with authorities expected to open the route to traffic in 2025.

Its payback period is calculated at 20 years.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh had earlier urged the relevant ministries, agencies, and localities to implement legal procedures to ensure the construction progress of the expressway during a working session with Lam Dong leaders in December 2021.

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Tyler, TX (75702)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. High 76F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds light and variable.
By Dave Larsen

Federal home-ownership programs created as part of the 1930s-era New Deal used color-coded maps to delineate risk areas for government-backed mortgages in more than 200 U.S. cities and towns. Areas where property values were likely to go down  largely neighborhoods with Black residents  were outlined in red.

These so-called redlining maps barred many Black homeowners from qualifying for secure mortgages and loans, effectively embedding racial segregation and inequality into the development of American cities and suburbs.

They are still impacting communities because most of our cities were formed and grew over the 20th century, so the way our cities are now was essentially shaped by those redlining maps, including highway construction that was implemented alongside the redlining practices, said Nancy McHugh, executive director of the University of Dayton Fitz Center for Leadership in Community.

McHugh is one of many University faculty, staff and students taking part in a series of events this year that explore the impact of redlining on the Dayton region. The events include:

UnDesign the Redline , an interactive exhibit featuring Home Owners Loan Corporation maps and area descriptions of Dayton that is traveling throughout the region during 2021-22. It includes community stories gathered by University students about area residents affected by redlining.

, an interactive exhibit featuring Home Owners Loan Corporation maps and area descriptions of Dayton that is traveling throughout the region during 2021-22. It includes community stories gathered by University students about area residents affected by redlining. Redlining: Mapping Inequality in Dayton and Springfield , a one-hour public television documentary that premieres at 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 on ThinkTV 16. Featuring commentary from University faculty, it tells the story of local families who were impacted by redlining, and the lasting effects of this federal policy on the region.

, a one-hour public television documentary that premieres at 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 on ThinkTV 16. Featuring commentary from University faculty, it tells the story of local families who were impacted by redlining, and the lasting effects of this federal policy on the region. The Common Good in a Divided City: Racism, The Church and the Challenge of Regional Solidarity . The free public conference, April 1-3 in the University Science Center, will bring together faith leaders, activists, policy-makers, scholars, community organizers and others to discuss regional solidarity, and the histories and structures that divide the region, with particular attention to the roles of race and faith.

. The free public conference, April 1-3 in the University Science Center, will bring together faith leaders, activists, policy-makers, scholars, community organizers and others to discuss regional solidarity, and the histories and structures that divide the region, with particular attention to the roles of race and faith. Imagining Community: Shaping a More Equitable Dayton, a free public symposium, April 7-8, at the Hub Powered by PNC Bank at the Dayton Arcade. It brings together community partners to explore the history, legacy and impact of Daytons racial segregation, and how to move toward a more just, equitable, and inclusive Dayton.

Despite their common theme, the raft of redlining-related events was somewhat serendipitous.

McHugh, who joined the University faculty in August 2021, approached ThinkTV Chief Content Officer Gloria Skurski with the idea for a redlining documentary while working at nearby Wittenberg University. Skurski connected her with Leslie Picca, the University of Daytons Roesch Chair in the Social Sciences, who was working with faculty and students to organize the Imagining Community symposium.

McHugh and Picca served as consultants for the documentary, which was produced by ThinkTVs Richard Wonderling with associate producer Selena Burks-Rentschler. It features Picca among its interview subjects and promises some surprising discoveries.

Im not going to be a spoiler for it, but there are some really significant connections between our region and the government work with redlining that hasnt really come out before, McHugh said.

Picca and McHugh also served on the advisory team for the UnDesign the Redline exhibit, which was created by the New York-based organization Designing the WE. Local content was developed by community partners in Dayton, including students in Assistant Professor of English David Fines Literature and Ethics course, who gathered community stories.

The Undesign the Redline exhibit has expanded the conversation about systematic racism beyond the humanities classroom, said Kaitlin Hall, a junior sociology major from Nashville, Tennessee. It tells the larger story of how we as a community continue to intentionally or unintentionally further the long legacy of racism in our city. At the end of the exhibit, members of the community can make a commitment, big or small, in dismantling systems of oppression.

Hall, the Student Government Associations director of campus unity, spoke at the exhibits October 2021 opening in the Roesch Librarys Stuart and Mimi Rose Gallery. She also is part of the team coordinating the Imagining Community symposium, which Picca said was inspired by the exhibit.

In addition to Roesch Library, the exhibit has been shown at Dayton Metro Library, Sinclair Community College and the Trotwood-Madison City School District. Currently, it can be seen at Wright State University. In March, it moves to Corinthian Baptist Church in Dayton. It will be displayed in the Arcades rotunda April 7-8 during the Imagining Community symposium.

The exhibit is traveling around, its meant to be interactive, but we wanted to make sure that there was a space for these different conversations across the Miami Valley to come together, Picca said. Her symposium co-organizers are McHugh and Misty Thomas-Trout, assistant professor of graphic design.

The symposium offers more than 30 concurrent sessions featuring local artists, community organizers, faith communities and scholars. Keynote speaker ShaDawn Battle of Xavier University will speak about Chicago Footwork, an embodied street dance of resistance and liberation.

The Common Good in a Divided City conference is organized by Kelly Johnson, the Fr. Feree Chair of Social Justice, and Vince Miller, the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture. It will focus on the need for regional solidarity, an issue championed by former University president Bro. Raymond Fitz.

The goal of these events is to inform people about the history of inequities in the region, and to listen and respond to those experiences.

How do we make sure that community partners are talking with scholars, artists and other community residents, Picca said. We are intentionally creating space to ideally lay that foundation for enacting future change.

For more information or to register for the events, visit the Imagining Community and The Common Good in a Divided City websites.

Photo: (left to right): Nancy McHugh, Kaitlin Hall and Leslie Picca.
Two University of Dayton events will draw the public into discussion of how to create a more just, equitable and united community.

The Common Good in a Divided City, April 1-3, will focus on the need for regional solidarity  an issue championed by Bro. Raymond Fitz, a religious and community leader and the Universitys longest serving president.

Common good refers to Catholic belief that each persons fulfillment requires both contributing to the wellbeing of others and receiving from their flourishing. Our fulfillment is something we have together or we don't have it at all, said Kelly Johnson, the Universitys Fr. Ferree Chair of Social Justice and a conference organizer. The challenge is our cities, with structures like municipal boundaries and school districts, are set up so that we experience our good as divided, even in competition, not shared.

Bro. Ray has been making this crucial point that we need to work on regional solidarity and mutual belonging if we want to build up the common good and we want to continue his action.

The conference will bring together faith leaders, activists, policy-makers, scholars, community organizers and the general public. The goal is to foster relationships and inform a conversation about regional solidarity, acknowledging the histories and structures that divide the region, with particular attention to the roles of race and faith.

Imagining Community: Shaping a More Equitable Dayton, April 7-8 at the Dayton Arcade, was inspired by the UnDesign the Redline exhibit, which was on display at UD in October at Roesch Library. It will explore the history, legacy and impact of Daytons racial segregation, and how to move toward a more just, equitable and inclusive Dayton.

This will be an inclusive conversation, said Leslie Picca, Roesch Chair in the Social Sciences and a symposium organizer. Together we will look at problems of the past to find ways to organize for a better future.

Both events will feature noted speakers.

On regional solidarity: Korie Little Edwards, of The Ohio State University, will draw from her research on interracial religious congregations to consider the possibilities and challenges of religious responses to urban racial divides; Richard L. Woods, of University of New Mexico, will consider how church involvement in community organizing can transform attitudes and actions concerning race and racism; and Maureen OConnell, of LaSalle University, will trace her Catholic familys entanglements with race and racism from the time they immigrated to America to the present.

On an equitable Dayton, there will be more than 30 concurrent sessions featuring local artists, community organizers, faith communities and scholars. Keynote ShaDawn Battle, of Xavier University, will speak about Chicago Footwork, an embodied street dance of resistance and liberation. Plenary sessions will focus on resisting erasure in indigenous Ohio, and the history and context of community organizing.

Both events are free and open to the public. Registration information is available on the event websites.
Raytheon Technologies Corp. on Monday announced a new president of its jet engine subsidiary Pratt & Whitney as the current president takes on a newly established post of chief operating officer.

Shane G. Eddy, senior vice president and chief operations officer, on March 1 will succeed Christopher T. Calio.

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[ Pratt & Whitney is building a new version of its next-generation jet engine as Airbus looks beyond COVID-19 and ramps up production ]

Calio was appointed chief operating officer, a new position that will oversee Raytheons aerospace and military businesses.

Greg Hayes, chief executive officer of Raytheon Technologies, said Calio will help advance the companys growth initiatives as it executes its strategy that includes developing talent. He is credited with overseeing a significant ramp up and new product enhancements, including the introduction of a new version of its geared turbofan engine.

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Hayes hailed Eddys significant aerospace industry leadership experience and in-depth understanding of Pratt & Whitneys products and culture. Eddy previously worked at GE Aviation, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and Bell Textron.

Pratt & Whitney announced in December its launching a new version of its next-generation geared turbofan engine for Airbus, its largest commercial customer. The GTF Advantage builds on the geared turbofan engine thats been in service for five years and pushes up fuel savings by 1%, to a 17% reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions compared with earlier generation engines.

Raytheon Technologies disclosed Friday its the target of a federal probe into the hiring practices at Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace.

A federal grand jury in Bridgeport in December indicted five aerospace executives and a former Pratt & Whitney employee on charges of conspiring to limit workers professional advancement and compensation. The six men were accused of participating in a long-running conspiracy to restrict the hiring and recruiting of employees among their respective companies.

Pratt & Whitney, based in East Hartford, employs about 36,000 workers. It posted $18.2 billion in sales last year, up 8% from 2020 when commercial aviation was hit hard by COVID-19, which grounded many airline fleets.

Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.
ReportLinker

Major players in the cloud billing market are Aria System Inc. , Amdocs Inc, Oracle Corporation, NEC Corporation, Jamcracker, IBM Corporation, CGI Group Inc. , SAP SE, Zuora Inc. , BillingPlatform Corp. , Recurly, Cerillion, ConnectWise, AppDirect, Chargebee, RecVue, Chargify, Salesforce, Orbitera Inc.

New York, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Cloud Billing Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06229766/?utm_source=GNW

, and Amazon Web Service Inc.



The global cloud billing market is expected to grow from $5.92 billion in 2021 to $7.21 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.0%. The change in growth trend is mainly due to the growing demand for cloud billing owing to its lower operating costs. The market is expected to reach $15.21 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 20.5%.



The cloud billing market consists of sales of cloud billing services by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are engaged in the providing of cloud-based billing solutions.The term cloud billing refers to a combination of cloud computing and electronic billing.



Several firms are broadening their horizons by implementing an on-premises billing infrastructure. Cloud billing is transforming the computer system, allowing for greater billing flexibility and easier data access.



The main types of cloud billing are subscription billing, metered billing, cloud service billing, provisioning, and others.Subscription billing is a billing strategy that allows businesses to bill customers for a certain product or service on a set schedule.



The different deployment types include private cloud, public cloud and are employed in large enterprises, SMEs. It is used in account management, revenue management, customer management, others and is implemented in various verticals such as BFSI, telecommunications and ITES, consumer goods and retail, healthcare and life sciences, and others.



The rising need for lower capital and operating expenditure is expected to drive the growth of the cloud billing market in the forecast period.With the advent of the cloud, billing transitioned from a separate back-office product to an essential component of the entire quote-to-cash procedure.



Cloud billing allows businesses to save costs while also allowing them to give excellent customer service.For instance, according to a Flexera report published in 2021, 93% of companies are using some type of cloud-based system, and 73% preparing to optimize existing cloud usage for cost savings.



Therefore, the rising need for lower capital and operating expenditure fuels the growth of the cloud billing market.



Advancements in technology are shaping the cloud billing market.Major companies operating in the cloud billing sector are focused on developing technological solutions for cloud billing to accelerate business growth.



For instance, in November 2020, Salesforce, an American cloud-based software company launched Revenue Cloud, based on multi-cloud billing technology to help companies to track revenue lifecycle. Revenue Cloud, which is part of Salesforce Customer 360 platform, combines the existing partner relationship management (PRM), CPQ and Billing, and B2B commerce solutions into a single solution for the firm.



In February 2020, Salesforce, an American cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management service acquired Vlocity Inc. for $1.3 billion. With its acquisition of Vlocity Inc., Salesforce is taking ownership of the industry cloud. Vlocity Inc. is a US-based software company that offers cloud billing solutions.



North America was the largest region in the cloud billing market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



The countries covered in the cloud billing market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK and USA.





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06229766/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




Hartford HealthCare has been fined $65,000 as a penalty for ceasing labor and delivery services at Windham Hospital before filing the necessary documents with the state, Connecticuts Office of Health Strategy announced Monday.

In a letter sent to Hartford HealthCare on Monday, OHS alleged the health system had intentionally skirted rules requiring providers to seek approval before terminating services. The agency concluded that Hartford HealthCare had stopped delivering babies at Windham Hospital in June 2020, more than two months before filing a Certificate of Need application, as part of a plan to permanently close the maternity ward there.

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As a result, the system will be required to pay a $65,000 fine, equating to $1,000 for each day the certificate was overdue.

The fine comes amid a broader dispute over whether Hartford HealthCare will be permitted to permanently end labor and delivery services at Windham Hospital. The health system, which operates seven hospitals across the state, has proposed sending pregnant patients in northeast Connecticut to Backus Hospital in Norwich, about 30 minutes away from Windham.

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In a email Monday, Hartford HealthCare spokesperson Tina Varona said the health systems priority is receiving a ruling from OHS on whether it will be able to move forward with that plan.

While we disagree with the penalty, we are committed to working with OHS to bring our application to a decision in a timely manner, Varona said. We await OHSs determination of our CON application.

At an OHS hearing in November, Hartford HealthCare officials said births at Windham Hospital have dropped precipitously since Mansfield Ob/Gyn, a large local practice, opted to leave the hospital and deliver in Manchester instead. As a result, they said, it is not practical to continue providing labor and delivery services.

Patient volume has declined significantly over the past six years, making it impossible for the hospital to continue to provide these services in a safe manner, Dr. David Kalla told OHS.

[ Residents push back as Hartford HealthCare seeks to close maternity ward at Windham Hospital ]

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

The suggestion of closing the Windham Hospital maternity ward prompted outcry from locals, some of whom sought to block the plan, arguing it was unfair to ask people in Northeast Connecticut to travel so far to give birth.

This conglomeration has come into our community and taken over our community hospital and has begun to deplete services in our community hospital, Leah Ralls, president of the Willimantic chapter of the NAACP said in November. It feels very offensive.

At the OHS hearing, those who oppose closing the maternity ward in Windham blamed Hartford HealthCare for the decline in births there, claiming the health system drove away Mansfield Ob/Gyn.

This is how you break a small city, Rodney Alexander, a new Windham city councilor, testified. How can we expect young families to move here and raise a family and there are no OB-GYNs here?

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On Monday, Varona reiterated Hartford HealthCares position that the system has no choice but to permanently close the maternity ward in Windham.

As our CON application explained, and as experts testified, it had become impossible to provide a safe, quality childbirth experience at Windham Hospital due to departures of obstetricians and trained staff, she said.

Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com.
To Thi Thu Van

Graduating with a bachelors degree in trade in Vietnam in 2011, To Thi Thu Van, born in 1989, set a new goal in her life: obtaining a good job overseas with high income working eight hours a day.

At first, Van found a job as recruitment assistant at a company in Vietnam.

It was the time for me to learn and accumulate experience, so I tried my best to do whatever I was told to do. Sometimes I stayed working at the office until 8-9pm, she recalled.

Admiring the perseverance and hard work of the new graduate, the manager of the company introduced Van to a position as worker assistant at Intel Malaysia.

After many years, when meeting the manager again, she asked him why he decided to help a new inexperienced officer like her. He told her: When seeing you dedicate yourself and learn at work, I could see how you will be three or five years later.

In 2012, after celebrating Tet in Vietnam, Van left for Malaysia to take the job at Intel, where she spent the next four years. Thanks to her great efforts, Van became the leader of a team.

I continued to dedicate myself without asking for salary increase, because I considered this an opportunity to learn and accumulate more experience, she said.

Thanks to her contributions, the company decided to grant her a scholarship to fund her masters degree in business administration at University of Science, Malaysia. It took her two years to fulfill the study.

In late 2015, Van married and decided to settle down in the US and work at Intel USA. One year later, she moved to another place of residence and decided to find a new job to challenge herself.

Within three months, I sent nearly 1,000 job applications, but I was rejected, she said. They thought that the skills I got from my previous jobs at supporting centers were not enough to take other jobs.

Van only had opportunities to go to the interview round for 2 percent of her applications.

I talked to the employers about the projects I did to improve work performance. These were the things other officers hesitated to do, but I could do more things that I was assigned to do and I always did my best to fulfill tasks, she said.

Van was rejected after the interviews, but she doesnt think this was failure but luck.

After the interviews, I discovered my strong and weak points and improved myself for the next time, she said.

At Amazon, Van applied for 250 positions and was accepted for some positions, including employee support, business analyst and project management. Finally, she decided to try a job supporting employees online, her first job at Amazon.

After a short time, Vans leader acknowledged that she had been right choosing Van for the post. She even promised to offer her a higher salary.

After 1.5 years, she took another job at Amazon as an analyst of business systems.

Thanks to her hard work and dedication, in 2020, Van was appointed senior program manager at Amazons head office.

Van said she has no degrees from schools in the US, but degrees and exam scores are not always essential in the labor market. Instead, candidates need to focus on accumulating experience and improve their professional skills.

The most important thing is to be persistent, not afraid of difficulties. Do not hesitate to knock on every window. There must be one of 300 or 1,000 windows you knock on before one opens for you, she said.

And even if you are refused hundred times, you should not consider this a failure. The rejection just means that you have not found a suitable job, she said.

Thuy Nga

Phu Tho student wins gold medal at international physics competition Tran Duong Chinh, a 12th grader majoring in physics of the Hung Vuong High School for the Gifted, has become the first student from Phu Tho province to win a gold medal at the European Physics Olympiad (EuPhO).
City of Waco officials say they are more prepared for the kind of generational winter storm a year ago that shut down a water treatment plant and pushed municipal services to the brink.

They have improved emergency communications, weather-proofed city vehicles and registered key city infrastructure for a designation that could protect it from blackouts.

But they say it will take longer to implement some recommended fixes, including a backup generator that could prevent a repeat of a daylong outage at the Riverside Treatment Plant beginning Feb. 15, 2021. City officials have estimated that the generator and associated fuel storage could cost $8 million to $10 million.

An after-action review of what went right and wrong during last years winter storm ranging from creating a collection of spare keys for all city facilities and equipment to making sure workers are equipped to work from home on short notice, to help city departments through another natural disaster.

Last year, workers had to improvise to find solutions to problems no one in Texas ever expected to face. The citys two fuel stations, one at Fourth Street and Colcord Avenue, and another near the landfill, were cut off by ice that prevented city vehicles from fueling up and delayed gas deliveries to the stations. Assistant Solid Waste Manager Kody Petillo said fleet and streets department workers got around it by attaching a fuel trailer to a truck from another department.

It was a lot of departments working together, Petillo said.

Freeze lessons learned: 1 year later This series examines the fallout from the February 2021 freeze a year later and what we have learned from it. What started as an icy cold fron

Assistant City Manager Ryan Holt said the cold winter weather earlier this month was the first test of some of those changes. As of about three weeks ago, the city now uses a platform called Everbridge for internal communications, especially during emergency situations.

This was a really big deal to us, Holt said.

The platform is mostly used for public emergency announcements, like tornado warnings, but now Wacos human resources, information technology and communications departments will use it to send messages to more than 1,500 city employees.

There are now 16 city buildings on Oncors list of critical load infrastructure, meaning the electric distribution company will try to avoid cutting power to the transformers that serve those sites. Before last year, no city buildings were on the list.

Relatively quick fixes the city has already moved on include buying fuel stabilizers that can be poured into diesel fuel tanks to prevent gelling in below-freezing conditions, adding more all-wheel drive vehicles to the citys fleets and creating a specific protocol for deploying staff during emergencies.

Other strategies are going to take much longer. The city plans to use grant funding through the Texas Division of Emergency Management to buy generators for Cameron Park Zoo, the utilities department and emergency operations.

The outage at Riverside Treatment Plant took an estimated 25 million gallons of capacity offline, contributing to a near-crisis with the city water system on Feb. 16, 2021, combined with numerous leaks and high water usage. City officials that evening drafted a boil water notice, and Mayor Dillon Meek warned residents not to hoard water in bathtubs. Waco narrowly avoided a boil-water notice that other cities across the state had to adopt because of low water pressure.

In addition to the Riverside generator, the city is also looking at additional generation capacity at the Mt. Carmel treatment plant and at Waco Metropolitan Area Regional Sewerage Systems main plant.

The city also plans to buy smaller generators for three community centers that would serve as warming stations during another freeze, but the smaller generators are in short supply not just in Texas, but worldwide, because of supply chain issues.

Water department spokesman Jonathan Echols said the department has smaller generators on hand to run some equipment in an emergency, but those couldnt power an entire facility during a blackout. He said it will be at least a year before theyll receive larger custom generators.

However, the water department is still in a better position than last year. The smart water meters the department has been installing over the last several years will help workers detect leaks much earlier, and leak-detection devices attached to water pipes underground will alert the department of leaks in most parts of the city.

In advance of the winter storm earlier this month, city departments worked together on emergency planning, Assistant City Manager Deidra Emerson said. They booked hotel rooms for staff in case of an emergency and added more insulation around crucial utility infrastructure.

Thats the beauty of having done it and documented what we felt like we did right, and what we knew we had opportunity for, Emerson said. In preparation for this year, we were able to move a lot more quickly.

Emerson said the relatively empty roads in this years freeze helped prevent accidents, which shows Wacos residents took the storm just as seriously.

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AUSTIN  Texas began early voting Monday in 2022s first primary following a rushed rollout of tougher restrictions and the return of hundreds of mail ballots, dealing Republicans a clumsy debut of voting rules they tightened across the U.S. over the past year in the name of election security.

Monday is going to be a big day for all of us to see how this plays out, said Isabel Longoria, the elections administrator for Harris County, which includes Houston and more than 2 million voters.

I think for all of us there is just a sense of uncertainty, she said.

Election officials in Republican-leaning counties have also expressed frustration  and confusion  over changes they say they have scrambled to implement since Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in September signed a sweeping law that he said would make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. For hundreds of Texas voters whose mail ballots and ballot applications have been rejected in recent weeks, that is not the case.

Harris County election officials announced just days before the first votes were cast in person that 40% of mail ballots received so far had already been sent back, mostly because they did not include required identification and signatures now mandated under Texas law.

Texas is among at least 18 states that will hold elections this year with heightened restrictions  an outgrowth of former President Donald Trumps repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Republicans have rejected Democrats protests that the changes would disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities.

But Texas had far less time than any other state to complete the work of changing how elections are run because of its especially early primary March 1  two months before the next states, Indiana and Ohio, go to the polls in May.

In McLennan County, early voting got off to a fairly crisp start, with 805 ballots cast Monday on the Republican side and 438 cast in the Democratic primary.

Locally, the Republican primary race for McLennan County district attorney has garnered the most attention, with first-term incumbent Barry Johnson facing off with Waco attorney Josh Tetens.

In the Republican primary race for Congressional District 17, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions is being challenged by Paulette Carson, Jason Stormchaser Nelson and Rob Rosenberger.

Republicans Angelia Orr and Dennis Wilson are seeking the newly created Texas House District 13 seat, while 54th State District Judge Susan Kelly is being challenged by prosecutor Christi Hunting Horse and McLennan County County Court-at-Law No. 3 Judge Ryan Luna faces a challenge from prosecutor Kristi DeCluitt.

Early voting runs through Feb. 25, but there is no early voting on Presidents Day, Feb. 21.

Voters can cast early ballots at the McLennan County Elections Administration Office, 214 N. Fourth St., Suite 300; Waco Multipurpose Center, 1020 Elm Ave.; Hewitt City Hall and Library, 200 Patriot Court; Robinson Community Center, 106 W. Lyndale Ave.; and First Assembly of God Church, 6701 Bosque Blvd.

How smoothly Texas primary goes in the coming weeks will be as closely watched as the actual races, few of which are high-profile. For Republicans, Abbott is heavily favored over a crop of far right challengers in his campaign for a third term, but Attorney General Ken Paxton is fighting a tougher primary under the cloud of an FBI investigation.

Democrat Beto ORourke has an almost clear path for his partys nomination for governor. One of the biggest races in South Texas, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar is in a rematch against a progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros, weeks after FBI agents searched his home.

Its the first primary for new Texas Secretary of State John Scott, an Abbott appointee, who in an interview described the returned ballots and applications as voters adapting to the new rules.

He anticipates the May runoffs and November elections will run smoother, and said he does not think the issues so far and concerns expressed by local officials amount to a failure by the state.

I dont know how more time  I dont want to say it wouldnt have been helpful, because it would have been helpful, Scott said. But I dont know that more time fixes that issue, because its a new process. And I think new processes, especially to those voters who were used to the old process, that absolutely is a friction point.

But the issues have extended beyond voters navigating new requirements. When the League of Women Voters last month requested thousands of voter registration applications for new U.S. citizens, the state said it could not fulfill the request because of paper supply chain shortages after the new law required the forms to be updated and reprinted.

Then, county election offices reported they were having to send back an unusually high number of mail ballot applications for not including required identification such as a drivers license or Social Security number. Now, counties say they are sending back completed ballots for the same reason.

Voters have a chance to correct the ballot as long as it is returned by Election Day, which has left officials waiting to see how many come back.

Scott said the number of rejected mail ballot applications had fallen to below 5 percent by this month.

He took the job as Texas chief election officer after serving previous roles under Abbott, but his appointment raised alarms among voting rights groups over his brief stint with Trumps legal team that challenged the 2020 election results. Scott withdrew from the case after only a few days and said he does not dispute that President Joe Biden won the election.

Outside San Antonio, Kendall County Elections Administrator Staci Decker said mail ballot applications are at a low ahead of the primary in her overwhelmingly Republican county that voted for Trump by a margin of 3-to-1 in 2020.

The mostly rural county has for years kept a list of about 400 voters who are sent mail ballot applications. But Texas Republicans added a prohibition this year on government officials proactively sending out mail ballots, under the threat of felony charges and six months in jail.

Late Friday night, a federal judge issued a narrow order that blocked the state from enforcing that portion of the law around Houston and Austin. But the order had no bearing on 251 of Texas 254 counties, including Kendall.

We had 400 people that just sat there waiting for their application to come and they never did, said Decker. She said her office has sent about 500 ballots to voters this year, down from the 700 to 900 they normally mail.

Tribune-Herald staff writer Tommy Witherspoon contributed to this story.
SEATTLE  A metallurgist in Washington state was sentenced to 2 years in prison and a $50,000 fine Monday after she spent decades faking the results of strength tests on steel that was being used to make U.S. Navy submarines.

Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, Washington, was the director of metallurgy at a foundry in Tacoma that supplied steel castings used by Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to make submarine hulls.

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From 1985 through 2017, Thomas falsified the results of strength and toughness tests for about half the steel the foundry produced for the Navy. The tests were intended to show that the steel would not fail in a collision or in certain wartime scenarios, the Justice Department said.

Thomas pleaded guilty to fraud last November. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle sentenced her in Tacoma, calling her actions a crime of pride and ego, that in some way she knew better than those who set the standards, according to a news release from Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.

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The sentence was less than half the nearly six years sought by prosecutors.

Our Sailors and Marines depend upon high quality products and services from our contractors to safely and effectively meet the worldwide mission of the Department of the Navy, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said. We will continue to insist that our contractors must meet these high standards.

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

There was no allegation that any submarine hulls failed. But authorities said the Navy has spent nearly $14 million, including 50,000 hours of engineering work, to assess the parts and risk to the 30 submarines affected. The Navy says it will incur further costs as it continues monitoring the subs.

Thomas conduct came to light in 2017, when a metallurgist being groomed to replace her noticed suspicious test results and alerted their company, Kansas City-based Bradken Inc., which acquired the foundry in 2008.

Bradken fired Thomas and initially disclosed its findings to the Navy, but the company then wrongfully suggested that the discrepancies were not the result of fraud. That hindered the Navys investigation into the scope of the problem as well as its efforts to remediate the risks to its sailors, prosecutors said.

In June 2020, the company agreed to pay $10.9 million in a deferred-prosecution agreement.

When confronted with the doctored results, Thomas told investigators, Yeah, that looks bad, the Justice Department said. She suggested that in some cases she changed the tests to passing grades because she thought it was stupid that the Navy required the tests to be conducted at negative-100 degrees Fahrenheit (negative-73.3 degrees Celsius).

In a letter to the court, Thomas said she was mortified at what she had done. Her attorney, John Carpenter, noted in a sentencing memorandum that she did not gain financially by faking the test results. He asked for a sentence of probation.

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Ms. Thomas is good person who let a number of work pressures cause her to make bad decisions, he wrote. Ms. Thomas never intended to place any sailor at risk and is gratified that the Navys testing compels the conclusion that she has not.
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Rep. Don Bacon rebutted claims that the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was legitimate political discourse, saying on Friday that violent protest is never legitimate.

His remarks, made during a legislative update with reporters, came a week after the Republican National Committee censured Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the two Republicans serving on the Democratic-led House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

The RNC resolution accused the committee of leading a persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse  words that drew outrage from Democrats and firm pushback from several GOP senators. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the resolution, saying the RNC should not single out members of the party who hold different views from the majority.

Bacon, a three-term Republican congressman whose House district includes Omaha, agreed.

I believe that the RNC comment was unwise, Bacon said. We should be a big-tent party. The statement surely suggested that what happened on Jan. 6 was legitimate discourse, and its not. Violence and violent protest is never legitimate.

Bacons sentiments echo those of some Republican senators who have said the RNC resolution creates further division within the party. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said the RNC has said that it wants the party to be unified, but that was not a unifying action. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said the GOP should be a big tent.

(The resolution) makes us look backwards, Bacon said. The merits are wrong, and its not sound politics, either.

Bacon, a retired brigadier general, also spoke on the rapidly evolving tensions between Ukraine and Russia. The Biden administration on Friday escalated its dire warnings about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying it could take place within days.

Our intelligence folks have briefed us, and they are pretty convinced Russia has made the decision to invade, Bacon said. We could see the largest ground war in Europe since World War II. As a person who studied war for most of my life, Im very concerned of what the future could be here.

The U.S. will not send troops to Ukraine for any purpose, including to evacuate Americans who remain in the country, President Joe Biden said. In a Thursday interview with NBC News, Biden urged U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately and said there is no scenario in which he would send troops to help Americans escape the country because of the potential for conflict.

Bacon agrees that troops should not be sent to fight the Russians if they invade, but he is not opposed to bringing in an airlift to evacuate U.S. citizens if the military decided that it was appropriate.

Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraines Kremlin-friendly leader was driven from office by a popular uprising. Moscow responded by annexing Crimea, then backing a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed over 14,000 people.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.
WATERLOO  Conservation Corps Minnesota and Iowa is establishing a presence in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area.

It recently opened an office at 1346 W. Airline Highway in Waterloo in an effort to recruit 18- to 25-year-old individuals for upcoming conservation projects in Northeast Iowa and Linn County.

The environmental nonprofit started in the Twin Cities. Before its newest space, it had spread its headquarters throughout Minnesota, and later into the greater Des Moines area.

Brad Lathrop, eastern Iowa field coordinator, describes this part of the state as a hidden gem in the Midwest, with the Driftless Area, Effigy Mounds National Monument, woodlands and remnant prairie.

After working with the universities and the young people in the area, I think there is an excitement surrounding the environmental field, said Lathrop. Being from Illinois and the Midwest, I dont think there are a ton of people who tell you that you can do conservation work in the Midwest. When people think about working in conservation, they think about going out West, or even out East, in these big, huge open landscapes.

But the reality is we dont have a lot of that in the Midwest, which to me, makes it all the more urgent to protect and conserve the really cool things that we do have here. Specifically for us in Northeast Iowa, I think we can be that voice in Iowa, telling people that you can do conservation work and do really cool things in your own backyard.

Their crews are AmeriCorps members/volunteers who get a living stipend and an education award after completing a term of service.

Conservation Corps also trains young adults to go into careers in conservation. Thats what it takes pride in, says Lathrop.

We have a lot of members who come in and either have a degree or are in the process of getting a degree, or who are maybe taking a gap year between high school and college or college and something else, he said.

Simcox family legacy continues with new barber shop on West First Street in Cedar Falls Simcox & Co. is a new barbershop. But it comes with a name known to many in the Cedar Valley who've had their hair cut over the decades.

Id say the perfect member for us is not necessarily someone who has a ton of experience, although thats a huge plus if they do, but it might be someone who has this idea in their head that they want to go into conservation or have a career working outdoors and doing cool stuff, he added.

Membership numbers vary year to year. He noted its been a tough year for recruitment, but not because of a lack of interest, and attributed it to being a weird year.

We always have work to do, Lathrop said. Even when were hurting for members, we always have more work to do. These projects need to get done. At the end of the day, we need to get people out there, and thats what Im passionate about. Thats a big part of my job. Its telling people about what we do. I think its exciting and fun.

He pointed to one exciting April project.

Crews will replace an old fence in Palisades-Kepler State Park in Linn County, a huge project because of the bluffs and topography.

Were using all Iowa-sourced wood, and our crews will be building the whole thing, he said.

Open positions can be found at: conservationcorps.org/join. By signing up, a person commits to three, six or nine months of service, he said.

To ask questions, email Lathrop at brad.lathrop@conservationcorps.org or call him at 815-641-8951.

Hes in and out of the office. If wanting to meet face-to-face, itd be best for a person to reach out beforehand.

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WATERLOO  The bullet that killed Terrell Rello Flowers likely came from a 9 mm SCCY pistol that Stephen Devon Phillips tossed down a hotel hallway after the fatal shooting.

Phillips, 29, is charged with first-degree murder in Flowers death, which witnesses said happened following a heated argument in a Crescent Place home May 15, 2020.

Testimony resumed Monday with Criminalist Michael Tate of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation testifying that he concluded with practical certainty the fatal bullet was fired by the SCCY handgun.

He compared markings on the bullet doctors recovered from Flowers body with markings left by the barrel in a bullet test fired through the pistol.

Tate also testified gunpowder residue on a Flowers clothing indicate the shot came from a distance of 6 to 18 inches. A medical examiner earlier testified that it was possible a single bullet had entered Flowers forearm, passed through the limb and entered his chest, striking his heart.

Tate testified he found the residue near a hole on the shirts right arm sleeve. There was a second hole on the sleeve, likely an exit hole, and a hole in the chest area of the shirt.

The pistol failed to fire at the first pull of the trigger during the DCI test firing, Tate said. He said the failure was caused a light strike of the firing pin, likely because the weapon hadnt been cleaned regularly, and he found a dent in the primer of the round he tried to fire.

Witnesses said Phillips had tried throw the gun down the hallway after police chased him into the Motel 6 on LaPorte Road in the early morning hours of May 16, 2020.

When police seized the gun it didnt have a magazine in the grip, and the chamber was empty. Officers found the magazine containing six rounds at the Crescent Place home where the shooting happened, along with live rounds loose on the floor.

Tate also examined a .40-caliber Glock pistol that belonged to Flowers. The weapon was recovered on Linwood Avenue where relatives of Flowers had taken it following the shooting.

Also on Monday, the defense outlined part of its case during a hearing outside the presence of the jury during an argument over admissibility of evidence.

During cross-examination of state witnesses, the defense has been trying to explore possible links between the slaying and two earlier shootings in Waterloo two days prior.

A home in the 200 block of Logan Avenue had been the hit by bullets fired around 11:05 p.m. May 13, 2020. And Tremane Meakens had been injured in a shooting near Allen and West Sixth streets at about 7:20 p.m. that same night.

Ballistics tests showed the SCCY likely had been involved in another shooting, according to statements in court.

And Meakens  his shoulder still bandaged and partially clothed in hospital garb - was at the Crescent Place home on the day Flowers was shot and killed.

Witnesses earlier had testified Flowers, his brothers and friends had met, in part, because Meakens had been shot and also to belatedly celebrate Flowers birthday while he was in town for a doctors appointment.

On Monday, defense attorney Matthew Hoffey said the defense is pursuing a theory that Flowers  who had recently moved from Waterloo to Sioux City  was town for retaliation.

So far, they jury hasnt been able to hear that police searched Flowers Volkswagen following the fatal shooting and, according to the defense, found a semi-automatic rifle with a magazine containing 20 rounds, a loaded 9 mm Ruger pistol in the glovebox and camouflage body armor.

He came to Waterloo with this weaponry as well as a bullet-proof vest in retaliation for these previous shootings, Hoffey said. He said Phillips was present at the Meakens shooting.

Terrell Flowers came to Waterloo not knowing if Mr. Phillips was on the side of his brothers or was somehow involved with the people that were shooting at his brothers. That is the theory of the defense, Hoffey said.

During the hearing, prosecutors said the defense was grasping at straws, and there were no charges in the May 13, 2020, shootings because of a lack of cooperation. They said there was no evidence Terrell Flowers was in town to retaliate.

In turning down the defenses request to disclose the Volkswagen guns, Judge Linda Fangman said there was no evidence the shooting are connected.

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WATERLOO -- Girl Scouts in eastern Iowa and western Illinois are celebrating National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend Feb. 18-20 with the launch of cookie booths. The event highlights Girl Scout entrepreneurs across the United States who sell cookies to their families, friends, and communities via in-person booths, door-to-door activity, and the Digital Cookie platform online.

Every cookie purchase helps girls learn important entrepreneurial skills and powers amazing adventures for them. Girl Scouts use their cookie earnings to better their communities, explore new things in STEM and the outdoors, plan exciting travel adventures, have fun experiences with their friends, and so much more.

If you know a Girl Scout, ask how shes selling cookies. Or, visit www.GirlScoutsToday.org. A digital map is available for customers to select a nearby troop to order cookies online or find upcoming Cookie Booth details.

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DES MOINES -- Iowas beef producers are asking their fellow Iowans to help find Iowas Best Burger in 2022. The Iowa Beef Industry Council and the Iowa Cattlemens Association are encouraging you to nominate your favorite burger.

This is the 13th year the two groups are holding the annual Iowas Best Burger contest. Iowans are encouraged to nominate their favorite burger before March 14.

To qualify, the burger must be a 100% real beef patty and served on a bun or bread product. The more nominations a restaurant receives, the better the chances are for that burger to make it on the Top Ten list announced March 18 on WHO Radios The Big Show. Finalists will receive a certificate and be eligible for the secret taste-test of contest judges. The 2022 Best Burger in Iowa will be announced May 2 with the kick-off of May Beef Month in Iowa.

Details about the contest, rules, and the voting form are available on the Iowa Beef Industry Council website, www.iabeef.org. Burger lovers can also find a link to the online nomination form at the Iowa Beef Council Facebook page; or by texting BEEF to (515) 337-8924.

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Anastasia Diamantis, the daughter of former state deputy budget director Kosta Diamantis, has been placed on administrative leave following an investigation into her hiring at the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice.

A letter obtained by the CT Mirror through the states Freedom of Information Act shows that Anastasia Diamantis was placed on paid leave on Feb. 4, two days after state officials released a report that raised questions about how she obtained her position as an assistant with the states top prosecutor.

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That report, which was assembled by former U.S. Attorney Stanley Twardy Jr., found that Richard Colangelo Jr., Connecticuts Chief States Attorney, hired Anastasia Diamantis at the same time that he was pushing her father for pay increases within the Division of Criminal Justice.

Twardys team of investigators questioned the circumstances in which Colangelo first met Anastasia Diamantis, and the report said the explanations that Colangelo, Anastasia Diamantis and Kosta Diamantis gave to investigators were not seen as credible.

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Anastasia Diamantis was informed in the letter on Feb. 4 that she would remain on administrative leave until the Division of Criminal Justice can fully review the allegations included in Twardys report.

Following that review, officials at the Division of Criminal Justice explained that she could be removed from her state job, which pays roughly $99,000 per year.

Its unclear how long it will take for the Division of Criminal Justice to review Anastasia Diamantiss actions and decide whether she remains on the state payroll.

Alaine Griffin, the spokeswoman for the Division of Criminal Justice, said the division did not have any further comment on the employment matter.

Anastasia Diamantis is not the only person whose job prospects have been affected by the investigation, which began last year.

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

Kosta Diamantis stepped down from his government job as the states second-highest budget official in October 2021 after Gov. Ned Lamont placed him on administrative leave.

That decision was made after Lamonts administration was subpoenaed by a federal grant jury for records related to Kosta Diamantis and his oversight of school construction projects and the State Pier project in New London.

Colangelo, who served as a prosecutor with the Division of Criminal Justice for 29 years, also sent a letter to the states Criminal Justice Commission last week announcing that he would retire in order to avoid a highly publicized hearing into his alleged actions.

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FILE - State prosecutor Richard Colangelo speaks during a hearing at Connecticut Superior Court in Stamford, Conn., March 3, 2020. An independent investigation is questioning the "integrity" of Colangelo hiring a state budget official's daughter in 2020 while lobbying for pay raises for staff. (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File) (Tyler Sizemore/AP)

In that case, Colangelo maintained that he did nothing wrong by hiring Anastasia Diamantis, but he said he would step down at the end of March in order to prevent the Division of Criminal Justice from being further entangled in the imbroglio.

As part of his retirement, Colangelo will be eligible for two state pension plans that will pay him a combined $93,720 annually, according to state records.

A federal grand jury is also investigating how Anastasia Diamantis was hired by a construction management firm that received two no-bid state contracts in a process overseen by Kosta Diamantis.

Andrew Brown is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2022  The Connecticut Mirror.
DES MOINES  Public K-12 schools in Iowa are in line for a 2.5% increase in state funding under a proposal that cleared the Legislature on Monday and is on its way to Gov. Kim Reynolds desk.

The proposal means roughly $172 million in new general state funding for the next K-12 school year, on top of the roughly $3.4 billion allocated for the current school year.

The funding was proposed and passed by statehouse Republicans, who have majorities in both chambers.

Senate Republicans had pitched a 2.25% increase, but came up and matched the 2.5% increase proposed by House Republicans and Reynolds.

Democrats proposed a 5% increase, which would have equated to almost $300 million in new funding, according to their staff analysis.

Democrats also proposed myriad additions to the K-12 public education funding proposal, including extra money for mental health care services and staff in schools, funding to reduce class sizes and retain and attract teachers, funding for expanding four- and five-year-old preschool, and allowing schools to use general funds to expand preschool.

Each proposal was rejected by majority Republicans.

A 2.5% increase will not be close to where we need to be. Not even close, said Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat from Windsor Heights.

Lets not do the least we can do. Lets do better.

Mike Beranek, president of the Iowa State Education Association, the states largest public educators union, said the funding proposal will make it difficult for schools to retain and hire teachers and staff and reduce class sizes.

Setting (state funding) at 2.5% does not set Iowas public schools up for success, Beranek said in a news release.

Sen. Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton who chairs the Senate Education Committee, defended the proposal against Democrats charges that it is insufficient and will create financial stress on Iowas public schools.

Sinclair said Republicans proposal is reliable and sustainable within the states budget.

We can argue whether this is sufficient or not sufficient, Sinclair said. Nothing were doing here cuts education.  We keep the promises we make, and will continue to do so.

Over the first 38 years under Iowas current funding formula, general state funding to K-12 public schools increased by an annual average of 5%, according to data from the states nonpartisan fiscal analysis agency. Since 2011, when Republicans regained at least a portion of control over the lawmaking process, that average annual K-12 funding increase has been 1.9%.

The Republican plan, House File 2316, now goes to Reynolds desk for her approval.

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Janelle Riedl, Tax-Aide Volunteer

Janelle Riedl is deeply integrated into her community of Prescott, Arizona, where shes lived for 25 years. My husband says we cant go anywhere without talking to 15 people, she admits, but I wouldnt have it any other way.

Janelle has been a volunteer tax preparer with AARP Foundation Tax-Aide for 39 tax seasons in total  more than enough time to get to know the taxpayers who come to her for help. You hear about the birth of all the kids, and you hear about the death of a spouse, and the loss of a child. When you see these people year after year after year, you get to know them.

Janelle worked at the IRS for a time while living in New Orleans. Thats where she learned about Tax-Aide, a program that provides tax preparation help to anyone, free of charge, with a special focus on taxpayers who are over 50 and have low to moderate income. Shes currently the District Coordinator for District 3 in Prescott, managing 62 volunteers, many of whom have participated in the program for decades. Together, they prepare about 5,000 returns a year  a number that actually increased in 2021 despite coronavirus restrictions.

Her team works out of a suite in a local mall, the space donated as an in-kind exchange for the foot traffic the program brings into the stores. Internet and phone service, and even tax preparation and training software, are all donated by the community. In the early days of the pandemic, after an initial shutdown, Janelle was able to reopen the site safely thanks to community donations of PPE products, easy-to-clean furnishings and, she says, enough hand sanitizer to fill a bathtub.

A Community Partnership

Although taxes are the programs main focus, Janelle has found a way to expand and streamline community services, allowing them to reach as many people as possible.



We have a partnership going in our community, she says. Our program works with the volunteer program at the local hospital, and we give out the magnetic medical records that you put on your refrigerator. They provide them to us, and then we provide them to the community. A local organization, Real Hope, brings food boxes to the Tax-Aide site and distributes them to food-insecure community members who are there to get help with their taxes.



During tax season, Janelle and her team open early on certain days to residents of assisted living facilities in town. Its a community effort, says Janelle. We all kind of try to help out our seniors and to help out our low-income people who are struggling.



Janelle sees that struggle daily through her work. We have people who worry about how theyre going to pay their rent, how theyre going to pay for food, get the medical care that they need, she says. You can tell the difference between the ones who worry about it versus those who have the means not to; you can tell the difference in their demeanor. You can hear it in their voice. You sit at home every evening being extremely humbled for what you have. Because you see so many that you just dont know how they make it.

Going Above and Beyond

Staying on top of their training allows Tax-Aide volunteers to deliver good news, however. Everybody in our office is advanced certified. We work with our volunteers to make sure that they get trained on all the new tax law, Janelle explains, adding, We have people who burst into tears when they find that they get a refund that they werent anticipating. Theyre thrilled that we had the knowledge, because if theyd done it on their own, they would not have known that.

She says Tax-Aide is hands down the best thing out there for seniors and people with low income in her area because of the way the program works cooperatively with other organizations. The city, it seems, agrees. Prescotts mayor declared August 24, 2021, to be AARP Foundation Tax-Aide Appreciation Day, recognizing Janelle and her volunteers for providing free services annually and going above and beyond.

About the relationships shes built with taxpayers over the years, Janelle says, They dont forget you. They dont forget what you did for them, and theyll come up and say, I cant tell you what this program means to me. Im not capable of doing it, but Im so appreciative that you do.

Tax-Aide Volunteer Opportunities

Read more stories about how our programs have helped people find hope, and about the volunteers who give so much of themselves to help others.


A construction management firm at the center of a federal grand jury probe into school construction grants got two no-bid contracts worth a combined $530,000 to oversee the building of a new elementary school in Tolland  during the same period of time it hired the daughter of Konstantinos Diamantis.

The elder Diamantis had been the director of the state Office of School Construction Grants and Review until he resigned Oct. 28.

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Tolland officials hired Construction Advocacy Professionals, or CAP, based in Plainfield, to first oversee installation of portable classrooms at the Birch Grove Primary School on June 20, 2019, according to contracts obtained by the Connecticut Mirror. They were paid $70,000 for the work.

Then, in July 2019, CAP hired Diamantis daughter Anastasia, documents state.

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Weeks later, a contract amendment, giving CAP another $460,000 worth of work, was signed on Sept. 18, 2019 for the construction of a new Birch Grove school. The old school needed to be replaced immediately because the foundation was crumbling.

The initial contract was signed by Tolland Superintendent of Schools Walter Willett and Antonietta DiBenedetto, one of the owners of CAP, while the second was signed by then-Town Manager Michael Rosen and DiBenedetto, records show.

Willett and Rosen did not respond to numerous phone calls to their offices on Friday, but Willett issued a written statement to The Hartford Courant.

[ Construction records show how a former Connecticut official directed a school building project thats now part of a federal investigation ]

In his statement, Willett alleged that local officials in Tolland were pressured by Diamantis to choose CAP and another contractor, DAmato Construction, for the school construction project.

Representatives of the town and the board felt they had no real choice as to CAP and DAmato because Mr. Diamantis routinely emphasized there would be detrimental effects to the project if Tolland chose contractors or consultants other than CAP or DAmato, he said, according to the statement provided to The Courant.

Kosta Diamantis daughter, Anastasia, could not be reached for comment.

Norm Pattis, who is representing Kosta Diamantis, said Friday night that Were anxious to talk to federal authorities about all of this, but they havent contacted us, and we dont know why.

West Hartford Attorney Craig Raabe of Izard, Kindall & Raabe said Friday he is representing CAP and DiBenedetto and that they would not comment.

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According to statements included in a recent report compiled by former U.S. Attorney Stanley Twardy Jr., Anastasia Diamantis told investigators that the owner of CAP called her out of the blue and offered her the job.

She described CAP as a Rhode Island-based company. But she also acknowledged that she did work on school projects in Connecticut for CAP. Anastasia Diamantis said she worked on spreadsheets and did filings for CAP, according to the investigation report.

Under investigation

Anastasia Diamantis employment at CAP was not the only position she held that was of interest to investigators.

Twardy was hired by Gov. Ned Lamont to conduct an independent review of how Anastasia Diamantis came to get an executive assistant position at Chief States Attorney Richard Colangelos office  at the same time Colangelo was lobbying Kosta Diamantis to help him get pay raises for staff in Colangelos office.

Kosta Diamantis also was an undersecretary at the Office of Policy and Management, the agency that could approve such pay raises.

On Oct. 28, Diamantis was removed from the OPM position by the governors office and suspended with pay from the school construction post. Rather than accept the suspension, Diamantis retired. He has since filed a grievance with the state Employee Review Board alleging he was targeted by the administration after he complained that two of Lamonts top aides, Joshua Geballe and Paul Mounds, had been disrespectful to OPM Secretary Melissa McCaw.

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Meanwhile, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena to the state Department of Administrative Services on Oct. 20 for all emails, text messages and attachments involving Kosta Diamantis and a broad range of construction projects.

Federal authorities sent an addendum to that subpoena eight days later asking the state to prioritize 19 search terms  among them Anastasia, Antoinetta, DiBenedetto-Roy, Construction Advocacy Professionals and Birch Grove.

Emergency contract

The Birch Grove school project was considered an emergency by state legislators in January 2019 after tests revealed that the foundation of the school was cracking because the concrete used to build the foundation contained pyrrhotite, a mineral that was causing cement to deteriorate in foundations and houses and buildings all over Eastern Connecticut.

The state initially agreed to pay 89% of the costs for the project and waived normal bidding procedures because of the emergency.

The state funded two contracts  the first for about $9 million to build portable classrooms at the site so students could go to school while the old school was demolished and replaced. The state also agreed to a $46 million contract to build the new school at the same site on Rhodes Road.

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The time frame was tight, as officials wanted the new school open in time for the first day of school in 2021.

The Tolland Board of Education established the Birch Grove Building Committee, which began meeting in May of 2019.

Diamantis appeared at the committee several times in person and later by Zoom during the pandemic to discuss everything from the design of the new school, to timely submissions of change orders, to questions about budget increases  at one point admonishing the group when a $2 million add-on occurred because of soil issues, according to minutes of the meeting.

He first appeared at a June 18, 2019 meeting to address questions from the committee about the cost of the portables, the availability of design options and overall costs. Tony DAmato, the owner of DAmato Construction, which had just been named the builder, also attended the meeting, according to the minutes.

Two days after that meeting, Construction Advocacy Professionals was hired as construction manager for the Birch Grove project.

The minutes show that Diamantis attended an October meeting to make sure the committee was submitting change orders to the state on a timely basis so they could be reviewed by his 16-member team.

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Mr. Diamantis explained that the purpose of the building committee is to keep the project moving forward and on schedule as well as ensuring it is an amenable design. In regard to the latter, the school will need to be somewhat similar to the original building. Based on the recognition that additional space is needed, an exception has been made and an agreement is in place that states that the space standard is not involved, the minutes from the Oct. 1 meeting state.

$2 million soil

After the old school was demolished, contractors ran into a serious problem almost immediately: The soil could not bear the weight of the new school and needed to be replaced.

The cost would be nearly $2 million, significantly increasing the total budget, but since the town had approved a $46 million budget at a referendum, the committee couldnt exceed that amount without special approval.

Diamantis attended the May 19, 2020 committee meeting to discuss the soil issue and the budget implications, according to the minutes.

Diamantis addressed the unsuitable soil situation and expressed concern that the town did not have a record of this. He is a bit shocked in regard to the degree of unsuitable soil, $1M+, that is being removed and cuts need to be made to trim the project to $46M if the town is not in a position to provide additional funding, the minutes state.

Because the town had approved spending no more than $46 million, committee members started discussing what could be cut from the project to bring the budget back in range.

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Mr. Kosta noted that cuts can be made but they must keep the building healthy and provide an adequate educational experience. He would like to keep the project to $46M unless the overage is needed, the minutes state.

The committees budget concerns were alleviated a week later when DAmato made a surprise announcement that the state had agreed to cover the $2 million cost to dispose of and replace the soil.

The legislature eventually not only approved the extra $2 million for soil but also agreed to fund the entire project  all $57 million.

The project stayed within its $46 million budget, and the school opened on time for the 2021 school year, even as contractors finished small items throughout the building into October.


Battery Materials Pilot Plant Engineer Appointed

Perth, Feb 15, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Altech Chemicals Limited ( ASX:ATC ) ( FRA:A3Y ) is pleased to announce that German engineering firm Kuttner GmbH & Co. KG (Kuttner) has been awarded the contract for final plant engineering of the battery materials coating pilot plant to be constructed in Saxony, Germany by Altech Industries Germany GmbH (AIG). Kuttner will immediately commence engineering work, with procurement and construction of the pilot plant to follow. The pilot plant is designed to produce 120kg per day of coated battery anode material, which will be made available to selected European battery manufacturers and automakers.Kuttner is a German-based industrial plant engineering, and engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contractor with strong experience in design, procurement, project and construction management, and plant commissioning across a range of industries. Kuttner have previously completed metallurgical plant, water and off-gas treatment projects in Germany, and bring valuable local knowledge to the execution of the pilot plant project.As announced by Altech on 1 February 2022, preliminary design of the battery materials coating pilot plant is now complete. The appointment of Kuttner as the pilot plant engineering contractor is the next step in the development of the plant at the Dock3 facility, in Saxony Germany, and to progress the Company's groundbreaking technology to produce alumina coated battery anode materials.About Altech Chemicals Ltd

Altech Chemicals Limited (ASX:ATC) (FRA:A3Y) is aiming to become one of the world's leading suppliers of 99.99% (4N) high purity alumina (Al2O3) through the construction and operation of a 4,500tpa high purity alumina (HPA) processing plant at Johor, Malaysia. Feedstock for the plant will be sourced from the Company's 100%-owned kaolin deposit at Meckering, Western Australia and shipped to Malaysia.



HPA is a high-value, high margin and highly demanded product as it is the critical ingredient required for the production of synthetic sapphire. Synthetic sapphire is used in the manufacture of substrates for LED lights, semiconductor wafers used in the electronics industry, and scratch-resistant sapphire glass used for wristwatch faces, optical windows and smartphone components. Increasingly HPA is used by lithium-ion battery manufacturers as the coating on the battery's separator, which improves performance, longevity and safety of the battery. With global HPA demand approximately 19,000t (2018), it is estimated that this demand will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% (2018-2028); by 2028 HPA market demand will be approximately 272,000t, driven by the increasing adoption of LEDs worldwide as well as the demand for HPA by lithium-ion battery manufacturers to serve the surging electric vehicle market.


Initial Results Show Multi-Commodity Potential at Yarmany

Perth, Feb 15, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Minerals Limited ( ASX:HRZ ) is pleased to announce first pass drilling results from the Yarmany project area located 25km northwest of Coolgardie and 65km west of Kalgoorlie - Boulder in Western Australia (Figure 1*).Commenting on the first pass results at Yarmany, Horizon Managing Director Mr Jon Price said:"While the Company remains focussed on growing our gold business, these first pass results have highlighted the potential for the discovery of new base and energy metals deposits as well as gold in a relatively unexplored region in the Goldfields.""The Company has over 50km of the highly prospective Mt Ida fault at Yarmany and we look forward to the release of further results and the commencement of the large-scale multi-commodity exploration program in coming months."The drilling forms part of the CY21 and CY22 programs testing new discovery targets for multiple commodities across the 1,100km2 portfolio with a focus on the Yarmany, Greater Boorara and Lakewood project area. Since the granting of the main Yarmany tenements in 2020, the Company has completed extensive geophysical / geochemistry, soil and rock chip sampling and field reconnaissance that identified prospectivity for multiple commodities with all assays being analysed for gold, silver, nickel, cobalt, copper, lead, zinc and PGEs.RC Drilling and Gold Exploration SummaryThe Yarmany drilling campaign was the Company's first program at this underexplored project. The drilling was completed in two phases, namely reverse circulation (RC) and Air Core drilling. Air Core drilling is typically used as a lower cost alternative to RC drilling, especially during the early exploration stage while covering a larger testing area. It is, however, often limited to drilling within the softer, more weathered rocks. A total of 47 RC holes for 4,413m and 72 Air Core holes for 2,617m were completed.Two small historic prospects along the Reptile shear, that had reported high grade gold mineralisation (up to 14.5g/t Au), were tested by six RC holes with no significant results. Better results were achieved in areas where there was only minimal historic RAB drilling.The best Reptile shear results obtained to date was in a quartz stockwork zone where 19 scout RC holes discovered at least two new gold systems (Figure 2*). Significant results included:o 2m @ 4.95g/t Au from 86m (YMRC21044)o 2m @ 3.58g/t Au from 66m and 2m @ 1.25g/t Au from 78m (YMRC21040)o 1m @ 1.27g/t Au from 54m and 2m @ 1.41g/t Au from 59m (YMRC21043)o 2m @ 1.33g/t Au from 63m (YMRC21041)o 1m @ 1.81g/t Au from 111m (YMRC21015)A further 1km to the south-east, another emerging prospect at Wotan included:o 1m @ 1.61g/t Au from 48m (YMRC21009)o 1m @ 1.81g/t Au from 111m (YMRC21015, note bottom of hole terminated at 114m assayed 0.34g/t Au)Typically, the oxide weathering profile around the Reptile shear has a variable depth but extended to over 100m in depth in some areas.Further encouraging gold mineralisation was observed at the Big Red prospect where historic auger sampling had outlined a 3.5km x 2km soil anomaly with a peak value of 75ppb Au with 6,500m of RAB drilling delineated six anomalous areas that recorded bottom of the hole results >1.0g/t Au.Four diamond drillholes that followed up the better prospects returned modest levels of gold (best result 12BRDDH004 1.1m @ 2.56g/t Au from 56.9m).Horizon drilled five RC holes into the main "Big Red prospect area" where old drill spoils showed strong alteration and pyrite mineralisation. Better results included:o 1m @ 2.91g/t Au from 39m, 2m @ 2.94g/t Au from 82m and 2m @ 2.37g/t Au from 86m (YMRC21019)o 6m @ 1.14g/t Au from 66m (YMRC21021, note bottom of hole assay was 1.69g/t Au from 71m-72m).These results are highly encouraging and provide a solid lead in progressing Big Red.During routine logging at Big Red, it was noted that there were some trace occurrences of sphalerite (Zn) and possibly galena (Pb) in the fresh chips. As a result, all composite samples were then tested for multi-element analysis with YMRC21022 returning 4m @ 5.2g/t Ag, 498ppm Pb and 202ppm Zn from 20m. These results were all 5-10x higher than the background values and within a clay zone. No other assays here registered anomalous levels. The four single samples from YMRC21022 20m-24m have since been collected and submitted to a laboratory to verify the composite result.Nickel and Lithium Exploration SummaryThe Air Core program comprised 72 shallow holes and was drilled along existing tracks. The drilling was designed to test some magnetic highs for nickel and follow up on the pegmatite outcrops observed in October 2021.Drilling across the many magnetic highs (mapped by the GSWA as being an ultramafic rock) outlined a regolith with anomalous Ni-Cr-Co and sometimes Cu, geochemistry consistent with nickel laterite mineralisation that typically occur over ultramafic rocks in Western Australia. Bulked results from the Air Core drilling include:o 27m @ 0.42% Ni and 299ppm Co from 4m including 4m @ 0.71% Ni and 767ppm Co from 20m and 3m @ 0.58% Ni and 412ppm Co from 28m (YMAC21007)o 16m @ 0.33% Ni and 344ppm Co from 4m (YMAC21011)o 30m @ 0.26% Ni and 130ppm Co from surface including 2m @ 0.67% Ni and 136ppm Co from 28m (YMAC21006)The results confirm the nickel prospectivity of this 1.6km long magnetic ultramafic unit (talc-chlorite schist). Although there are low grade laterites and clays in the Yarmany regolith, Horizon is focussed on locating nickel sulphides that could be located beneath this laterite mineralisation. Horizon notes there is very little historic, or recent drilling, targeting nickel sulphides along this or any of the other mapped ultramafics of magnetic highs within the 50km long tenure.The bulk of the Air Core drilling was directed to locating and testing pegmatites, in particular lithium rich pegmatites. Lithium pegmatites have been well documented in this region with several nearby companies progressing their projects (refer to Red Dirt Metal Limited, Ora Band Mining Limited and Wildcat Resources Limited websites). Access around Yarmany was hampered by POW approval delays and lack of any access tracks. The pegmatite outcrop discovered in October gave Horizon a starting point as very few pegmatites had been documented at Yarmany.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Horizon Minerals Limited

Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.

Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.

Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.
The Texas Attorney General is suing Facebook parent Meta, saying the company has unlawfully collected biometric data on Texans for commercial purposes, without their informed consent.

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit Monday a state district court claiming Meta has been storing millions of biometric identifiers  identified as retina or iris scans, voice prints, or a record of hand and face geometry  contained in photos and videos people upload to its services, including Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of ones safety and well-being, Paxton said in a statement. This is yet another example of Big Techs deceitful business practices and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans privacy and security.

The filing of the lawsuit coincided with the first day of early voting in a primary election in Texas, where Paxton faces several GOP challengers in the wake of his top deputies reporting him to the FBI for alleged corruption.

Paxton has been going up against Big Tech  a common foe for both Republicans and Democrats even if their criticisms dont always align. He earlier launched an investigation of Twitter over its ban of former President Donald Trump and filed several lawsuits against Google.

Under Texas law, the lawsuit says, companies must obtain informed consent from people to use their biometric data. This means people have to be informed before their biometric data is captured and it can only be done if they agree to it. Such data also cannot be disclosed for anyone else, although there are some exceptions, such as law enforcement subpoenas

In a statement, Meta Platforms Inc., which is based in Melo Park, California, called the lawsuit without merit.

The company said in November that it was shutting down its facial recognition program and deleting its data.

Texas is asking the court to fine Meta $25,000 for each violation of the informed consent rule and $10,000 for each violation of the states deceptive trade practices act.

Meta, then called Facebook, paid $650 million to settle a similar lawsuit over photo the use of photo face-tagging and other biometric data in Illinois last year.
Estevan Rael-Galvez knows the importance of recording history.

Its been his lifes work.

On Monday, the digital project, Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Americans Enslaved, was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Rael-Galvez created the three-year project, which begins this month.

The project will create a digital database and centralized repository centered on the experiences and histories of millions of enslaved Indigenous Americans.

The goal of Native Bound-Unbound is to gather data, records, and stories, and in time, to transform that content into digital exhibitions, chronologies, and new types of cartographies into a single, public website, Rael-Galvez said. When it is completed, the repository will offer a distinct source of materials that have never been organized into a single collection and will provide a major source for educators, scholars, storytellers, artists, and most critically, descendants.

Slavery was experienced by millions of Indigenous people beginning in 1492 and including regions of the United States.

Rael-Galvez said these stories are often left out of the national narrative. He said the histories are reflected in records that exist in archival repositories around the country and the globe, and include legal cases, censuses, letters, last wills, newspapers, photographs, and church records for baptisms, marriages, and burials.

Families also hold personal records, objects, photographs, and stories about their ancestors.

I have imagined and been developing this project for decades. Collectively, these archival imprints encompass the indelible stories of people, places, and moments in time, and when drawn together, promise to deepen the national narrative and consciousness, he said. Above all, this project holds the potential for understanding, transcendence, and healing

in descendant communities.

Rael-Galvez also descends from enslaved people.

It is crucial to better research, archive, and share with wider audiences the people who have been left out of or diminished in our historical and cultural narratives and understanding, said Justin Garrett Moore, Mellon Humanities in Place Program Officer.  Native Bound-Unbound has the potential to amplify and expand knowledge about Indigenous American slavery and serve as a tool for descendants of enslaved Indigenous Americans to access generational memory and see themselves reflected in history and in the public sphere.

The Mellon Foundation is providing the funding through the School for Advanced Research, based in Santa Fe.

We are excited to collaborate in this innovative, groundbreaking initiative, which is wholly aligned with our institutions efforts to advance an understanding of humanity through a combination of creative practice and scholarly research in Native American arts, anthropology, and related disciplines, said Michael F. Brown, School for Advanced Research president.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A man suspected of stabbing up to 11 people as he bicycled around Albuquerque on Sunday has a history of drug and burglary convictions that sent him to prison in 2008.

Tobias Gutierrez, 42, was charged Monday with two counts of aggravated battery for two of those stabbings, including one near the University of New Mexico. Police said the other stabbings require further investigation.

In a criminal complaint, police described a chaotic series of reports of a man riding a small BMX bicycle and armed with a large knife stabbing people at seven locations around Albuquerque.

The sequence of reports suggests the attacker rode his bicycle eastbound on Central, stabbing random victims he encountered over a period of several hours. At least four of the victims required treatment for their wounds at a hospital.

Police first responded to a report at 11:15 a.m. of a man stabbed in the hand outside Sister Bar near Central and Fifth.

About an hour later, a man was slashed on the arm outside The Zone Smoke Shop near Central and Yale, across from UNM.

Witnesses said the attacker had been acting strangely in the parking lot, asking people for money and cigarettes minutes before the attack.

At about 1 p.m., a man was stabbed in the face near the Sundowner Apartments in the 6100 Central NE and transported to UNM Hospital, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

At 1:54 p.m., a man was stabbed in the neck near the spine close to Central and Pennsylvania, and was transported to UNMH, the complaint said.

Minutes later, two people were stabbed in the neck at a Circle K store in the 8600 block of Central NE. Both were taken to UNMH.

Other stabbings and attempts were reported at Central and Wyoming, Central and Vermont, and Wyoming and Domingo NE.

Gutierrez has a lengthy criminal history that includes terms in prison for burglary and drug possession convictions.

He pleaded guilty in April 2008 to possession of heroin and auto burglary, and was sentenced to four years in prison, according to 2nd Judicial District Court records.

In January 2011, Gutierrez was released on parole to the Mens Recovery Academy in Los Lunas from which he escaped after one day, said Eric Harrison, spokesman for the New Mexico Corrections Department. Gutierrez returned to prison following his arrest in February 2011.

He was released on probation in April 2011, but arrested on a drug possession charge the following month, court records show.

Gutierrez returned to prison in July 2011 after a judge revoked his probation. He remained in prison until his discharge in September 2013.

His only violent arrest was dismissed by a judge in 2014.

In that case, Gutierrez was charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault, felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a firearm into a liquor establishment.
The current booming oil and gas revenues flowing to the state are almost enough to make New Mexicans forget the massive budget cuts we experienced just a few short years ago. As a legislator who had to make tough decisions then, I recognize that long-term diversification of state revenues remains a critical priority for our kids and grandkids futures. Thats why Sen. Benny Shendo, D-Jemez Pueblo, and I have introduced Senate Bill 155, which would create the Economic Diversification and Climate Resilience fund using 50% of the oil and gas production tax revenue that would otherwise flow into the general fund.

These taxes include the oil and gas emergency school tax and the oil and gas conservation tax. Our bill would essentially treat half of those production tax collections as nonrecurring dollars, diverting those revenues into a separate fund that would be appropriated by the Legislature for important investments in diversifying the economy.

By diverting half of the production tax revenue, our bill would immediately reduce general fund recurring budgetary reliance on oil and gas revenues. Additionally, this would set up a funding stream for nonrecurring appropriations dedicated to diversifying the state economy and growing key industries within the state, as well as making investments in workforce training and development, infrastructure improvements to attract business development and improve supply chains, and projects that support the conservation and restoration of public lands, forests, watersheds, parks and trails.

The mining and oil and gas industries make up about 14% of New Mexicos gross state product, but revenues related to these industries make up over 30% of our general fund state budget. Although the oil and gas industry is important to New Mexicos economy, revenues from this industry make up a disproportionate amount of our general fund budget. This disproportionate budgetary reliance indicates that diversifying our economy alone will not be enough to end the boom-and-bust cycles in the general fund.

A recent Legislative Finance Committee report showed us exactly how to do this: For fiscal 2023, LFC staff estimated general fund revenues dependent on the oil and gas industry will be 31%, down from the 38% it would otherwise be if those excess oil and gas dollars were not swept into other funds, reducing our reliance on the general fund.

Some may claim we are hurting general fund projects by diverting funds; however, even after distributing the excess above the five-year average, the consensus estimate projects production tax revenue to the general fund will be $795 million in fiscal 23, up from the $474 million received in fiscal 18, which is the year before the Legislature began the practice of diverting the excess revenue to reserve funds.

If we continue to grow recurring budgets using this historic growth in oil and gas revenue, the general fund reliance on oil and gas will only continue to increase, and important state services provided through recurring agency budgets will continue to be subjected to the boom-and-bust cycles of the industry.

We have a historic opportunity this session to transform the way we think about and appropriate oil and gas revenues. With significant changes to global energy demand expected to occur in the coming decades, we need to act now to reduce our state budget dependence on oil and gas revenue. We need to use those funds to make significant, thoughtful and targeted investments in diversifying our state economy and protecting our public lands. Our kids and grandkids deserve nothing less.
New Mexico State Police are investigating a fatal shooting involving the Torrance County Sheriffs Office on the 200 block of Skyline in Edgewood.

State Police posted about the shooting on Twitter and said the Deputies are Okay, the suspect is deceased.

It did not say what led up to the shooting but did say the scene is active and more information will be released when its available.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  With New Mexicos 30-day legislative session nearing its end, lawmakers pushed forward a $380 million tax package that includes a veritable buffet of tax relief for state residents.

A bill unveiled Monday by a House committee and then approved late in the day by the full House includes a gross receipts tax reduction, a Social Security tax exemption up to a certain income amount and a new child tax credit that would provide New Mexico residents with up to $175 per child.

In addition, the tax legislation, House Bill 163, would include a tax rebate of $1,000 for New Mexico nurses who worked in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its a proposal that serves a large and diverse number of New Mexicans, said Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, during Mondays meeting of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee.

A state revenue bonanza driven by surging oil production levels and increased consumer activity has sparked this years debate at the Roundhouse over tax changes, with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and many legislators calling for some of the windfall to be used to benefit taxpayers.

A House-approved $8.5 billion budget plan leaves about $400 million available for tax code changes during this years session.

However, lawmakers have disagreed over what should  and should not  be included in the tax package, with some calling for one-time tax rebates and others favoring more lasting tax code changes.

Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, said Monday some Republican-backed provisions were included in the House tax package proposal, but described himself as not happy with everything in the bill.

In my view, this legislation is more of a governor pre-election giveaway than a legit tax reform bill, Harper said.

He ultimately joined several other GOP lawmakers in voting for the tax measure, which passed the committee on a 11-3 vote with all Democratic lawmakers present voting in favor.

The bill was then passed by the full House on a 59-9 vote just before midnight Monday evening, after majority Democrats rejected several proposed amendments during a three-hour debate  including a GOP-backed plan calling for bigger tax cuts.

The vote sent the bill on to the Senate with just over two days remaining in the 30-day session.

Governors support

The bill approved Monday includes two provisions supported by Lujan Grisham  a reduction in the states gross receipts tax rate and exempting Social Security retirement income from taxation.

However, single individuals making more than $100,000 per year would not qualify for the tax exemption on Social Security income. For married couples filing jointly, the income threshold would be set at $150,000 annually.

New Mexicos personal income tax was not levied on Social Security benefits until the early 1990s, when a provision buried in a tax bill triggered the change.

As for the gross receipts tax cut, it would lower the states rate by 0.25 percentage points  from 5.125% to 4.875%  in a move projected to generate roughly $191 million in savings for New Mexico.

The current tax rate would be restored, however, if gross receipts tax revenue dips below 95% of its current level over the next five years.

Backers of the plan said that would ensure New Mexico lawmakers would not have to find new ways to generate revenue if the states budget situation deteriorates.

In a statement, Lujan Grisham lauded the bipartisan vote in favor of the tax package and said it would help keep money in the pockets of New Mexicans. While all Democrats present voted in favor of the bill, 15 GOP representatives cast yes votes and nine Republicans voted in opposition.

I thank the House for their commitment to key tools that will support financial and economic success all across the state, the Democratic governor said.

In addition, state Taxation and Revenue Secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke said the tax reduction would mark the first time in 40 years New Mexico has lowered its gross receipts tax rate.

Tax policy tells us to tax everything at a broad base and a low rate and thats what wed be doing here, Schardin Clarke told lawmakers.

But cities and counties, who impose local taxes on top of the states rate, would still be able to raise tax rates under the plan, as a proposed five-year moratorium on such action was stripped out of the bill.

Provisions removed

While the tax package contains numerous provisions, some proposals were still left out.

For instance, a proposed four-month tax holiday for New Mexico restaurants and breweries was not included in the bill after appearing in an initial version of the legislation.

That prompted concern from some restaurant owners and lobbyists, who had sought to be included in the tax relief omnibus bill.

The pandemic is not over for our industry, said Carol Wight, of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, adding that many eateries are still struggling with staffing shortages and other issues.

But Chandler said a similar tax holiday for restaurants approved last year by legislators was not widely utilized.

She also said in an interview that she and other bill sponsors ultimately decided on tax changes that would benefit the greatest number of New Mexico residents as possible.

Specifically, she cited the potential impact of the proposed child tax credit that would provide residents with a yearly tax break for each child they claim on their tax returns. The amount of the credit would depend on income levels, with lower-income residents eligible for a larger tax credit.

We were looking at tax proposals that support individuals and also advance policy issues were trying to support, Chandler said.
New Mexico has an incredible opportunity to preserve our states critical water resources and address other climate-related concerns. The time is now for the state to act as it relates to the condition of our forests and the health of our water reserves.

This legislative session, Ive sponsored Senate Bill 162 for strategic water reserves and Senate Bill 145 to create the New Mexico Reforestation Center. These legislative initiatives represent important and proactive steps to protect our natural resources for future generations.

SB 162, cosponsored by my colleague Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerillos, budgets $15 million to fund the strategic water reserve, a repository for ground water, leased water and water rights. We are pursuing this funding for compliance purposes relating to interstate compacts and, perhaps more critically, to safeguard and benefit protected and endangered species.

While the water reserve has existed for many years, it has not been funded consistently, making it difficult for the state to meet its obligations as part of interstate river compacts. Securing dedicated funding of the strategic reserve reflects New Mexicos recognition of and commitment to conserve fish and wildlife in our important river basins, and demonstrates leadership for drought mitigation. Water is among the most precious of our natural resources and, as a citizen legislator who has grown up in New Mexico, I believe we must protect it on behalf of our children and grandchildren.

Senate Bill 145 establishes a reforestation center to address the states current and future reforestation needs. The legislation is a critical step in mitigating the impacts of catastrophic wildfires and a changing climate on our states forests, and includes seedling and planting programs which, if passed, will be carried out by the Forestry Division of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department in partnership with the John T. Harrington Research Center, the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University.

SB 145 would appropriate over $4 million in funding to accomplish many valuable benefits for forest health, water quality and quantity, wildlife habitats and recreational purposes. The center will accomplish its mission for healthier forests through the production of five million seedlings annually, climate-smart tree planting, and enhanced programming for forest-based economic growth. New Mexicos investment in the design and construction of the center would allow the state to leverage millions of dollars for reforestation, including $200 million in rePlant funding and $250 million in Build Back Better funds, creating valuable jobs in our rural communities.

New Mexicos forests account for over half of all water used by municipalities and agricultural entities in our state. Unfortunately, for many reasons, including historic fire suppression and drought, forest health is declining in New Mexico and the southwestern United States. The proposed provisions of SB 145 will help to mitigate these trends, restore New Mexicos forests and ecosystems, and provide water security for our communities and businesses.

As a public official who has served for several decades, I believe it is my purpose to ensure the health, safety and well-being of my constituents and all our states residents. Pursuing these critical environmental objectives is consistent with that goal and I look forward to passage of these important pieces of legislation.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  With bipartisan support, legislators adopted a revised budget proposal Monday that would grow state spending by 14% as New Mexico enjoys a revenue boom, allowing new investments in education and public safety.

The Senate voted 37-3 in favor of the plan, sending it back to the House.

Under the proposal, New Mexicos budget would grow to almost $8.5 billion, or about $1 billion more than this years spending plan.

The legislation includes especially healthy raises for educators and State Police, in addition to retention stipends for experienced law enforcement officers throughout the state.

Teachers and school staff are set to get raises averaging 7%, or 10% if their school participates in programs that extend the school year or learning time.

Minimum salaries for each of the three tiers in the teacher licensing system would also climb by $10,000 each, ensuring, for example, that any Level 3 teacher would get at least $70,000 a year.

State Police officers could get 16% raises. The budget also includes funding for separate legislation that calls for law enforcement officers throughout the state to get retention bonuses at certain stages of their career.

For other employees, the budget has enough funding for raises averaging 7% for state employees and institutions of higher education.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman George Munoz, D-Gallup, ticked off a list of other initiatives funded in the budget plan, ranging from $50 million for local economic development projects to $10 million for housing programs for homeless people.

The budget also leaves room for $400 million in tax cuts that would be determined in separate legislation.

We have an opportunity in New Mexico like weve never had, Munoz said of the increased revenue.

Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, said the proposal deserved more scrutiny than it was getting.

Im torn here, he said during the debate. I know theres some very good things in here. Also, theres some things in here that are absolute trash.

In the end, he didnt oppose the bill, which won bipartisan support. Just three Republicans voted no.

The budget legislation, House Bill 2, was already approved by the House, but it must go back to that chamber for consideration of the changes made by the Senate. House agreement on the amended version would send it to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The spending increase is made possible by strong growth in oil and gas revenue, among other sources of state income.

About $2.6 billion would remain in reserves. Legislators estimated the financial reserves would equal 29% to 31% of spending, with the exact figure hinging on the accuracy of revenue estimates and other factors.
WASHINGTON  U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies.

The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia.

Zero Hedge denied the claims and said it tries to publish a wide spectrum of views that cover both sides of a given story. In a response posted online Tuesday morning, the website said it has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with Russia, nor are there any links to spy agencies.

The officials briefed The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence sources. It was the latest effort by President Joe Bidens administration to release U.S. intelligence findings about Russian activity involving Ukraine as part of a concerted push to expose and influence the moves of Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. officials previously accused Putin of planning a false-flag operation to create a pretext for a new invasion of Ukraine and detailed what they believe are final-stage Russian preparations for an assault.

Its unclear whether U.S. efforts are changing Putins behavior. And without releasing more proof of its findings, Washington has been criticized and reminded of past intelligence failures such as the debunked allegations that pre-war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Zero Hedge has been sharply critical of Biden and posted stories about allegations of wrongdoing by his son Hunter. While perhaps best known for its coverage of markets and finance, the website also covers politics with a conservative bent.

In its response online, the website accused the AP of publishing a bizarre hit piece and said government officials were trying to distract from our views of the current dismal US economic situation.

The bottom line is that such hit piece accusations that we somehow work with or for the Kremlin are nothing new: we have repeatedly faced similar allegations over the years, and we can absolutely confirm that all of them are errors,' the website said.

In recent months, Zero Hedge has published numerous articles that accused the U.S. of fomenting panic about Ukraine, which now faces the possibility of an invasion by more than 130,000 Russian troops massed on several sides of the country. Some of those articles are listed as being written by people affiliated with the Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Biden administration sanctioned the foundation last year for allegedly taking part in Russias interference in the 2020 U.S. election. U.S. intelligence officials allege the foundations leaders ultimately take direction from the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service.

Recent articles listed as authored by the foundation and published by Zero Hedge include those with the headlines: NATO Sliding Towards War Against Russia In Ukraine, Americans Need A Conspiracy Theory They Can All Agree On and Theater Of Absurd Pentagon Demands Russia Explain Troops On Russian Soil.

In an email sent prior to its online response, the website said there is no relationship between Strategic Cultural Foundation (or the SVR) and Zero Hedge, and furthermore this is the first time we hear someone allege that the Foundation is linked to Russian propaganda.

They are one of our hundreds of contributors  unlike Mainstream Media, we try to publish a wide spectrum of views that cover both sides of a given story, the website said.

Disinformation has long been used by Putin against adversaries, including the United States, and as one tool in regional conflicts to accompany cyberattacks and the movement of military forces. Washington and Kyiv have for months highlighted the issue of Russian influence in Ukrainian media.

Intelligence officials on Monday named two websites they said were directed by the Strategic Culture Foundation. Three other websites are alleged to have ties to the FSB, Russias federal security service.

These sites enable the Russian government to secure support among the Russian and Ukrainian populations, one official said. This is the primary vector for how the Russian government will bolster support domestically for an invasion into Ukraine.

Officials described for the first time what they say are direct communications between Russian spies and the editors or directors of the media outlets. They did not release records of the communications.

FSB officers had directed Konstantin Knyrik, the head of NewsFront, to write stories specifically damaging to Ukraines image, U.S. officials alleged. They said Knyrik has been praised by senior FSB officers for his work and requested derogatory information that he could use against the Caucasian Knot, a website that covers news in the mostly Muslim republics of southern Russia and neighboring countries such as Georgia.

The editor of PolitNavigator sent reports of published articles to the FSB, an official said. And the managing editor of Antifashist allegedly was directed at least once by the FSB to delete material from the site.

PolitNavigators editor, Sergey Stepanov, said Washington turns a blind eye to what he says are Ukraines anti-democratic actions and instead labels those who point them out anti-Ukrainian propagandists and agents of the FSB.

I would like to believe that American journalism will rise above the hysteria provoked by officials, he added.

The Strategic Culture Foundation is accused of controlling the websites Odna Rodyna and Fondsk. The foundations director, Vladimir Maximenko, has met with SVR handlers multiple times since 2014, officials alleged.

Several of the sites have small social media followings and may not appear influential at first glance, noted Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Funds Alliance for Securing Democracy. But falsehoods or propaganda narratives often start small before theyre amplified by larger actors, he said.

You see the narrative enter the information space, and its very hard to see where it goes from there, he said.

A manifesto published on Zero Hedges site defends its use of anonymous authors and proclaims its goal is to liberate oppressed knowledge. Many articles are published under the name Tyler Durden, also a character in the movie Fight Club.

The website was an early amplifier of conspiracy theories and misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. An Associated Press investigation determined the site played a pivotal role in advancing the unproven theory that China engineered the virus as a bioweapon. Its also posted articles touting natural immunity to COVID-19 and unproven treatments.

Zero Hedge was also cited in a recent report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue that examined how far-right extremists are harnessing COVID-19 misinformation to expand their reach. Twitter briefly suspended Zero Hedges account in 2020 but reinstated it a few months later, saying it made an error in our enforcement action in this case.

The U.S. moving to name the website could inform some people who come across its content online, Schafer said.

My guess is that most of the people who are loyal Zero Hedge followers naturally are inclined to mistrust the U.S. government anyway, he said, and so this announcement is probably not going to undermine most of Zero Hedges core support.

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Associated Press journalists Lynn Berry in Washington, Angela Charlton in Paris and David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
OTTAWA, Ontario  Ottawas police chief was ousted Tuesday amid criticism of his inaction against the trucker protests that have paralyzed Canadas capital for over two weeks, while the number of blockades maintained by demonstrators at the U.S. border dropped to just one.

The twin developments came a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked Canadas Emergencies Act and threatened to take tough legal and financial measures to end the unrest in Ottawa and beyond by protesters decrying the countrys COVID-19 restrictions and Trudeaus government.

Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly lost his job after failing to move decisively against the bumper-to-bumper demonstration by hundreds of truck drivers. The protests by the so-called Freedom Convoy have infuriated many residents, who have complained of being harassed and intimidated on the streets.

Like other residents in Ottawa, I have watched in disbelief as this carnival chaos has been allowed to continue, Diane Deans, chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board, said in announcing Slolys departure. She added that the protesters had turned downtown into a street party with big screens, hot tubs and an outdoor gym.

Sloly said in a statement that he did everything possible to keep the city safe, calling it an unprecedented and unforeseeable crisis.

Ottawas police board said 360 vehicles remained involved in the blockade in the citys core, down from a high of roughly 4,000. A command center was set up so that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Provincial Police could assume command over the situation, apparently relegating Ottawa police to a secondary role.

Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said he believes authorities have reached a turning point: I believe we now have the resources and partners to put a safe end to this occupation.

Meanwhile, trucks with horns blaring rolled out of the Alberta border town of Coutts, across from Montana, ending the siege that had disrupted trade for more than two weeks. Police earlier this week arrested 13 people at the site and seized guns and ammunition. Four men also faces a charge of conspiracy to murder RCMP officers.

The end of the blockade there apparently left just one obstructed border crossing, at Emerson, Manitoba, opposite North Dakota, according to authorities. And the Mounties said they were confident the protesters there soon would be leaving and gone by Wednesday.

Over the weekend, police broke the blockade at the busiest and most important crossing, the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, arresting dozens of demonstrators. The nearly week-long protest disrupted auto production in both countries, but it was returning to normal on Tuesday.

Authorities also said traffic was moving again at the Pacific Highway border crossing south of Vancouver, opposite Washington state. The Mounties said officers ordered demonstrators out late Monday, and several were arrested.

Protesters in the capital appeared to be more entrenched.

Erik Mueller, a truck driver who quit his job to join the blockade in Ottawa, called the emergency measures targeting the drivers insane.

We are not backing off, he said. We have too much to lose.

Wayne Narvey said he took a leap of faith a week ago and drove his 30-year-old motor home from New Brunswick through a snowstorm to get to the capital.

They can take our bank accounts, they can freeze our assets, they can take the insurance off our vehicles, he said. They can play all the games they want. Were not leaving.

Canadas Emergencies Act allows the government to ban the blockades and begin towing away trucks. Officials said it forbids bringing children to illegal protest sites. Authorities have said the faceoff in Ottawa has posed problems because of the presence of children.

The government can also freeze truckers bank accounts and suspend their licenses, and target crowd-funding sites that are supporting the blockades. And officials

Under the emergency provisions, the government can also force tow trucks to remove rigs. Up to now, some towing companies have been reluctant to cooperate out of sympathy with the truckers or fear of violence.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province includes both Ottawa and Windsor, said: Hopefully the police in the next few days, hopefully sooner, can move.

Trudeaus decision to invoke the Emergencies Act came amid growing frustration with government inaction and fears of violence.

The siege in Alberta, where guns were confiscated, showed that you got a very small, hardened core driven by ideology, Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said. We have been fortunate thus far there has not been mass violence.

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Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Ted Shaffrey and Wilson Ring in Ottawa, Ontario and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.
RAMALLAH, West Bank  Ramy Shaath, who was released from an Egyptian jail last month, is an outspoken opponent of Arab dictatorships and Israeli rule over the Palestinians, and is part of a generation of activists who see them as two sides of the same coin.

He was never told why exactly Egyptian authorities confined him to a packed and filthy cell for over two and a half years. But he believes his brand of rights-based activism is clearly seen as a threat by both Israel and its growing roster of autocratic Arab allies.

Its also a major departure from the approach of the Palestinian leadership, which includes his father, Nabil Shaath, an 83-year-old veteran peace negotiator.

Shaath, 50, who is Egyptian and Palestinian by birth, took part in the 2011 pro-democracy uprising in Egypt, something he mentions in the same breath as his role in founding the Egyptian branch of the Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel.

It is all civil, nonviolent action against injustice, against inhumane treatment and against occupation as well as dictatorship, he told The Associated Press in a video interview from France. For me thats the same cause and I will continue doing that.

Hes part of a new generation of activists, forged by the harsh repression of the 2011 uprisings and the failure of the Mideast peace process, and more focused on human rights than on the ideological and territorial disputes of their parents generation.

In Egypt, it means campaigning for basic freedoms and the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners. For Palestinians, its embracing a rights-based approach in opposition to both Israel and the increasingly autocratic Palestinian Authority.

The most visible activists hail from the educated elite, but they give voice to a pervasive sense of injustice that is felt and communicated in different ways by ordinary people across the Arab world. It animated protests against both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a self-rule government in autonomous West Bank enclaves, over the past year.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which enjoys near-unanimous support among Palestinian civil society groups, holds that any solution has to be based on granting Palestinians equal rights  in one state or two  rather than bargaining over territory.

The Palestinian leadership, which is still dominated by the elder Shaaths generation, seeks a state alongside Israel in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, territories Israel captured in the 1967 war.

Around 60% of Palestinians are younger than 30, with little memory of the peace process launched by the 1993 Oslo accords. The negotiations repeatedly stumbled before grounding to a halt over a decade ago.

Ramy Shaath participated in the early rounds of talks but gave up on the process and returned to Egypt in 1998, convinced that Israel and the U.S. were not serious and that the Palestinian leadership had no backup plan.

He said he and his father definitely argued, but not on principle. I have all the respect and admiration for my father and his work all through his life. But for me, I am not seeing that this is going anywhere, Shaath said.

Nabil Shaath, who recently contracted COVID-19, could not be reached for comment.

The younger Shaath supported BDS from the time of its establishment in 2005, believing that a South African model of international boycotts would bring more effective pressure on Israel. He founded the Egyptian chapter in 2014.

Israel says the BDS movement has little to do with human rights. Instead, it sees it as an assault on its very existence, in part because it calls for the return of millions of Palestinian refugees. Israel says that would mean the end of the worlds only Jewish state, once again condemning Jews to being an embattled minority in a hostile region.

Israel passed a law in 2017 barring entry to foreigners who advocate boycotts. It also has rallied anti-BDS opposition in the U.S. Congress and state legislatures, some of which has been challenged by courts.

Yossi Beilin, 73, a former senior Israeli official and peace negotiator, said he understands the deep frustrations on both sides. But he insists that creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel  perhaps as part of a confederation  is the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.

Israel is not an apartheid state. It is an occupier for too long, and that is bad enough, he said. He called utopian visions of a single state of Israelis and Palestinians unrealistic.

Polls show dwindling support for a two-state solution among Israelis and Palestinians, but support for one state is even lower, and the idea is roundly rejected by leaders on both sides.

The Trump administration also soured on the Oslo paradigm, instead adopting an approach that radically favored Israel.

Ramy Shaath, like nearly all Palestinians, was deeply opposed to Trumps Mideast plan. He was arrested in the summer of 2019, just weeks after the U.S. held a conference in the Gulf country of Bahrain aimed at rallying Arab support. Egypt, which developed strong security ties with Israel and actively courted Trumps support, might have seen his activism as a threat.

My very vocal opposition to Donald Trumps deal of the century in Palestine, I think, was the detrimental factor in the Egyptian authorities decision to arrest me, he said.

Egypt accused him of being a member of an outlawed group, without saying which one, and he was never formally charged. Egyptian officials have declined to comment on his case.

Tahani Mustafa, an analyst with the Crisis Group, an international think tank, says the BDS movements calls for freedom and equality transcend the Palestinian context and threaten Arab rulers.

These are very threatening concepts for these sorts of regimes, where subjects like human rights are severely repressed, she said.

The Biden administration has meanwhile swung back toward a more traditional approach, urging both sides to avoid steps that would hinder an eventual two-state solution.

Shaath spent two-and-a-half years in a bug-infested cell with exposed wiring in which 18 to 32 prisoners shared a space the size of a living room. Their one, shared bathroom consisted of a hole in the ground with a cold-water shower above it, he said.

Shaath says the suffering he and other prisoners endured only reinforced his commitment to political activism.

He said one of his worst experiences came near the end, when he was placed alone in a windowless room, with lights and cameras on 24 hours. He could hear a woman with three small children a few cells over, calling out for help.

For me that was horrific, and I wanted to signal her somehow, that I know youre there, he said.
NEW YORK  Britains Prince Andrew, accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to his accusers charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character, a court filing revealed Tuesday.

The deal avoids a trial that would have brought further embarrassment to the monarchy. Besides the undisclosed donation to Virginia Giuffres charity, it says Andrew acknowledges she has suffered as an abuse victim. It did not specify whether Giuffre would personally receive money as part of the settlement.

Attorney David Boies, representing Giuffre, told the New York federal judge overseeing the case in a letter that a settlement in principle had been reached and lawyers on both sides would request a dismissal of the lawsuit within a month.

Andrews lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said he would suspend the case until March 17, when he might set a trial date if the lawyers dont ask for a dismissal by then.

Giuffre, 38, sued Andrew in August. The American accused the British royal of sexually abusing her while she traveled with Epstein.

Andrew strenuously denied Giuffres allegations and attempted to get the lawsuit tossed earlier this year.

Attached to the letter from Boies was a statement that read: Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms. Giuffres receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).

Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffres charity in support of victims rights. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffres character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.

According to the statement, Prince Andrew acknowledged that Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years and said the prince regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.

He also pledged to support the victims of sex trafficking as part of demonstrating his regret.

The tentative settlement comes weeks after Kaplan last month rejected the princes attempt to win an early dismissal of the lawsuit, meaning depositions and other evidence gathering could commence.

After Kaplan ruled, Andrew  who had already stepped back from royal duties  was stripped of his honorary military titles and roles and leadership of various charities, known as royal patronages. He also can no longer use the title his royal highness in official settings.

The decision was an effort to insulate the House of Windsor from the fallout from potentially years of sordid headlines if the lawsuit moved forward.

It came after more than 150 veterans and serving members of the armed forces asked the queen to strip her second son of his military titles, saying he had failed to live up to the very highest standards of probity, honesty and honorable conduct that are expected of British officers.

Mark Stephens, an international lawyer, said pressure from the royal family would have pushed Andrew to settle, particularly as Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Platinum Jubilee  or 70 years on the throne. The carefully worded settlement  in which Andrew admits only an unfortunate association with Epstein  allows him to save face, Stephens said.

Essentially, what hes done is throw himself on this judicial grenade to prevent wider damage to the royal family, Stephens told The Associated Press. And I think he had no alternative but to settle because otherwise this case would have really overshadowed the Queens Jubilee, and we would have been hearing details of what he was alleged to have done with Virginia Giuffre. And all of that would have really caused problems for the royal family more broadly.

Stephens estimated that Andrew paid around $10 million to settle, having gotten the cash after selling a ski chalet at a fire sale price. He speculated that the cash would be split into three unequal portions  with Guiffre, her lawyers and charities taking a piece.

Besides the settlement, Giuffre gets to champion her support of abuse victims, and avoid having to relive this whole experience in the public circus of a courtroom, he said.

Shes been vindicated in the sense that Prince Andrew acknowledges that shes a victim of sexual abuse, Stephens said.

Giuffre asserted that she met Andrew while she traveled frequently with Epstein between 2000 and 2002, when her lawyers maintain she was on call for Epstein for sexual purposes and was lent out to other powerful men, including Andrew.

Her lawsuit said she still suffers significant emotional and psychological distress and harm. She has alleged she had sex with Andrew three times: in London during a 2001 trip, at Epsteins New York mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18.

Andrew repeatedly denied Giuffres allegations and has said he cant recall ever meeting her, although a photograph of Giuffre and Andrew together in a London townhouse, his arm around her bare midriff, was included in Giuffres lawsuit against him.

Inconsistencies in her statements over the years that would have been highlighted by Andrews attorneys at trial may have motivated her, in part, to settle, though she has explained them as innocent mistakes that occur when recalling traumatic events years later.

The settlement may be a relief to others beyond the prince and Giuffre because of the names that might have arisen at trial.

Besides Andrew, Giuffre has said she was sexually trafficked to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz, French modeling scout Jean Luc Brunel and billionaire Glenn Dubin, among others. All have said her accounts are fabricated.

Andrew served in the Royal Navy for two decades, including as a helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War. The honorary military roles he lost included several overseas ones, such as his title as colonel-in-chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment.

He has spent years combatting concerns about his links with Epstein, the U.S. financier who took his life at age 66 in 2019 in a Manhattan federal lockup while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. Epsteins longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges last month.

A settlement of the Andrew lawsuit would follow deals reached by Giuffre years ago to resolve separate lawsuits against Maxwell and Epstein. It was recently revealed that Epstein settled for $500,000.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Giuffre has.

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Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka reported from London.
SANTA FE  Lawmakers granted final legislative approval Tuesday to a bill that would sharply boost the salaries of New Mexico judges and justices.

The legislation, Senate Bill 2, heads next to the desk of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The bill calls for a state Supreme Court justice to be paid in line with federal magistrates, or about $205,000 a year, a 33% raise of what justices make now.

Appeals and District Court judges would see similar increases because their salaries are set as percentages of what higher-ranking justices or judges make.

Supporters of the bill said the changes would help New Mexico recruit and retain judges and justices.

It passed the House on an 58-6 vote Tuesday.
AUSTIN, Texas  A district attorney says Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton violated the states open records laws by withholding or failing to retain his communications relating to his appearance at a pro-Donald Trump rally that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last year.

The Austin-based Travis County district attorneys office told the Republican attorney general in a letter Thursday that he had four days to remedy the issue or face a lawsuit. Paxtons office has not returned a message seeking comment on the letter Friday.

Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, appeared at the Jan. 6, 2021, event in Washington, D.C., where the attorney general gave a speech touting his failed legal push to overturn Joe Bidens victory in the presidential election.

Several news organizations have requested Paxtons communications from around that time under the Texas Public Information Act. Last March, six news outlets jointly published a story raising questions about whether Paxton was breaking open records laws.

Earlier this month, top editors at five Texas newspapers  the Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News  filed a complaint asking the district attorney to investigate the alleged violations .

Anyone who believes a public agency is withholding information in violation of the Public Information Act can file a complaint with the local prosecutor.

Paxton faces several GOP challengers in his reelection bid this year.

In 2020, eight of Paxtons top deputies accused him of bribery, abuse of office and other crimes in the service of another supporter, an Austin real estate developer who employs a woman with whom the attorney general allegedly had an extra-marital affair. The FBI is investigating those allegations.

The attorney general has also spent most of his time in office under a separate felony indictment. He pleaded not guilty in 2015 to three state securities fraud charges but is yet to face trial.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Paxtons top deputies accused him of corruption in 2020, not last fall.
AUSTIN, Texas  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has tested positive for COVID-19, the Republicans office confirmed Wednesday.

In a statement, Paxtons staff confirmed reports that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and has been isolated at home, where he continues to work.

The statement did not respond to questions about when Paxton learned of the positive test result or his vaccination status.

Social media posts showed Paxton attended a weekend Donald Trump #Save America rally in Arizona.

Paxton faces several GOP challengers in his reelection bid this year.

In 2020, eight of Paxtons top deputies accused him of bribery, abuse of office and other crimes in the service of another supporter, an Austin real estate developer who employs a woman with whom the attorney general allegedly had an extra-marital affair. The FBI is investigating those allegations.

The attorney general has also spent most of his time in office under a separate felony indictment. He pleaded not guilty in 2015 to three state securities fraud charges but has yet to face trial.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Paxtons top deputies accused him of corruption in 2020, not last fall.
WASHINGTON  The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection subpoenaed six more people Tuesday, including former Trump campaign members and state lawmakers, as it further expands its review into efforts to falsely declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election in several swing states.

The panel is seeking testimony and records from individuals who it says had knowledge of or participated in efforts to send false alternate electors from seven of the states President Joe Biden rightfully won.

The Select Committee is seeking information about efforts to send false slates of electors to Washington and change the outcome of the 2020 election, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committees Democratic chairman, said in a statement. Were seeking records and testimony from former campaign officials and other individuals in various states who we believe have relevant information about the planning and implementation of those plans.

The individuals subpoenaed include Michael Roman and Gary Michael Brown, who served as directors for Trumps 2020 reelection campaign. The committee believes the two men reportedly promoted allegations of election fraud as well as encouraged state legislators to appoint false slates of electors.

The other four individuals are Pennsylvania State Sen. Douglas Mastriano, Laura Cox, the former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem and Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward.

Messages requesting comment from Ward, Mastriano, Roman and Finchem were not immediately returned.

Two weeks ago, Ward and her husband filed a lawsuit against the House committee seeking to block a subpoena of their phone records. They were presidential electors who would have voted for Trump in the Electoral College had he won Arizona. Both signed a document falsely claiming they were Arizonas true electors, despite Democrat Bidens victory in the state. No decisions have been issued in the case.

Mastriano, a former Army officer currently seeking Pennsylvanias Republican gubernatorial nomination, was among Trumps most dedicated supporters during the 2020 campaign, helping organize and host a four-hour hearing post-election that was attended by Rudy Giuliani and that Trump addressed remotely.

Finchem was on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, although he did not enter the building. He has been a vocal critic of the election results in Arizona, contending despite evidence to the contrary that Trump won in Arizona.

He is currently pushing a resolution in the state Legislature that seeks to overturn the states certification of the 2020 presidential election, listing a slew of debunked election fraud conspiracy theories. He is also seeking the Republican nomination to run for secretary of state, Arizonas chief election officer.

The latest subpoenas come more than a month after the committee issued subpoenas to 14 people over the submission of false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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This story has been corrected to identify Douglas Mastriano as a state senator.

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Associated Press writers Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Bob Christie and Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.
NEW YORK  For the first time in two years for many people, the American workplace is transforming into something that resembles pre-pandemic days.

Tyson Foods said Tuesday it was ending mask requirements for its vaccinated workers in some facilities. Walmart and Amazon  the nations No. 1 and 2 largest private employers respectively  will no longer require fully vaccinated workers to don masks in stores or warehouses unless required under local or state laws. Tech companies like Microsoft and Facebook that had allowed employees to work fully remote are now setting mandatory dates to return to the office after a series of fits and starts.

There has been a sharp decline in COVID-19 cases across the country over the past weeks, Amazon told workers in a memo. Along with increasing vaccination rates across the country, this is a positive sign we can return to the path to normal operations.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, on Monday announced plans to open its West Coast buildings on Feb. 28 with a hybrid mix of working in the office and home. Facebook parent Meta Platforms, which had planned to bring workers back to the office on Jan. 31, will now require them to return  with proof of a booster shot  on March 28.

Thats a stark reversal from just weeks ago when the omicron variant of COVID-19 was peaking, prompting companies to double-down on mask requirements and enforce daily health screenings while delaying return-to-office plans for remote workers.

The U.S. has since seen COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations plummet. Cases have plunged from 455,000 a day two weeks ago to 150,000 on Monday. COVID-19 hospitalizations have fallen 45% from the peak one month ago and are now at levels similar to when the country was coming out of the delta variant surge in September. And nearly 65% of Americans are fully vaccinated.

I think we are in a much better place than we were six months ago, or a year ago, said Jeff Levin-Scherz, an executive in the health practice of consulting firm Willis Towers Watson. We are somewhat better protected than we were at any point in the past. But the new normal isnt going to be the old normal. It will be somewhat different. 

Many office workers will still be required to wear masks in the office and get regularly tested. Front-line workers like store clerks and restaurant staff who were already physically going to work will have to adjust to maskless colleagues and customers  whether they like it or not.

Then there are the old realities of pre-pandemic routines for some: dealing with rush-hour commuter traffic, putting on dressier clothes again and working alongside co-workers for the first time in two years.

Megan Chichester, a 48-year-old graphic artist who works at a packaging company in De Soto, Kansas, received notice that she will have to return to the office in April. She has only stopped in the office a couple times since the pandemic began.

Im excited to see people in person because I have missed them, she said. But then on the other side, its also a little strange because Im so used to not being around people that theres a little bit of anxiety about it.

Adding to the anxiety is the fact that she has seen return-to-office dates scuttled repeatedly over the past couple years when cases surged.

Its kind of like youre getting whiplash because you dont know what month youre really returning, she said.

Several states, including New York and New Jersey, have retreated from some of their own restrictions as their case counts decline but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not yet ready to tell everyone to take off their masks.

Many businesses  small and large  are figuring out whats best for them based on the attitudes of their customers and workers.

JPMorgan, which started requiring workers to return to the office in some form in early February, said that masking is now voluntary for employees who are fully vaccinated, except for those in cities or localities that still require it; unvaccinated workers will still need to wear a mask. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley announced a similar policy in their U.S. offices.

Brian Anderson, marketing manager at a supplement store outside of Chicago, said theyve been under a state mask mandate since last August. But as soon as Illinois lifts the mandate Feb. 28, they wont require customers to wear masks.

Our customer base is more fitness-focused and definitely not mask wearers, he said. Store workers can wear a mask, but it wont be required.

By contrast, Jeff Moriarty, co-owner of Moriartys Gem Art in Indiana, says theyll continue to ask customers to wear masks even though there hasnt been a mandate in his state since 2021. His business provides masks and hand sanitizers at the entrance.

The reason behind this is because we do have older associates working in our store, and our owners are over the age of 65, he said. We understand that some customers will choose not to wear masks, but we will continue to have it as a recommendation option.

Companies that have imposed their own vaccination requirements for staff also must navigate the changing dynamics surrounding the virus.

The Supreme Court last month knocked down a federal nationwide workplace mandate but companies are allowed to maintain their own requirements and many are keeping them in place. Others, like Starbucks, have decided to eliminate their mandate in the aftermath of the high court ruling.

Peter Naughton, a 46-year-old who works at the Walmart in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, said most workers are worried about the mask requirement going away. He plans to keep wearing his mask because it protects him and other people.

Its not over. Its still here. Its going to be here for a while, Naughton said of the pandemic. So we need to, you know, take precautions You never know if another variant is coming, which is very possible.

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AP Writers Tali Arbel, Mae Anderson and Ken Sweet in New York; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Matt OBrien in Providence, Rhode Island, and Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.

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Follow Anne DInnocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  With little debate, lawmakers have pushed a bill boosting legislative pension benefit levels through both the House and Senate.

Specifically, the measure headed to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams desk after getting final approval Tuesday would increase the average annual pension benefit of ex-legislators who are at least 65 years old and who qualify for the pension plan by about 27%  from $11,000 to $14,000.

New Mexico is the only state that does not pay its legislators a salary, but lawmakers get per diem payments during legislative sessions intended to cover food and lodging expenses and can also decide whether to participate in the legislative pension plan.

If they opt in, they have to pay contributions into the plan, which also gets earmarked funding from certain tax revenues.

The legislative pension plan had a funded ratio of about 141% as of last summer, meaning its assets exceeded its current and future benefits owed by about $13.4 million, according to a financial analysis of this years bill.

Under the bill, Senate Bill 159, the funded ratio would go down to 129%  still significantly higher than the retirement plan for state workers  due to the beefed-up benefits.

The measure is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, and Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales.

It passed both legislative chambers by decisive margins  it passed the Senate on a 34-0 vote and cleared the House on a 61-5 vote  and with minimal debate.

It is a pittance of what time legislators spend, but it is well-earned, House Minority Leader James Townsend, R-Artesia, said of the pension benefits during a Monday evening House floor debate on the bill.

There are currently 114 active members in the legislative retirement plan, a figure that includes current and former lawmakers, according to the states Public Employees Retirement Association, which oversees the fund.

In addition, there are currently 204 retired legislators receiving pension benefits, according to the retirement system. The average age of those retired legislators is 77 and the average pension benefits for those individuals is $11,096 per year.

First-term lawmakers have 180 days to decide whether to join the retirement plan. The bill headed to the governors desk gives lawmakers who missed that cutoff the opportunity to participate if they pay a set contribution amount.
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The news is expected to be formally announced on 'Good Morning America' on Tuesday morning as the three comics are currently finalizing details of their deals.

Feb 15, 2022

AceShowbiz - The Academy has found the hosts for this year's Oscars. According to multiple reports, Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes are set to lead the telecast for the 94th annual Academy Awards.

Variety was the first to report that the trio is currently finalizing details of their deals. The news is expected to be formally announced on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday morning, February 15

The three comics are reportedly selected after weeks of meetings to find the best formula for this year's telecast. "Girls Trip" filmmaker Will Packer, who is producing the 2022 Oscars, has reportedly been toying with the idea to include three hosts for the telecast.

Before tapping Schumer, Hall and Sykes for the hosting gig, Packer had allegedly met a bunch of top talent over the past weeks. "Mad Men" alum Jon Hamm was said to be in talks for the hosting duty, but he withdrew over the weekend.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, each host will anchor a separate hour, with Schumer set to lead things off. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declines to comment on the reports, while reps for Schumer, Hall and Sykes also remain mum on the news.

On Sunday, February 13, Schumer teased "big fun news comin" on Instagram while posting photos and videos of some of her biggest career highlights.

It has been 35 years since as many as three people hosted the Oscars and the first time that many women held the emcee position in a single night. It is also the first time the show is returning to an emcee format since 2018.

The 2022 Academy Awards will be held on March 27 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
Instagram Celebrity

Taking to his social media platform, the 'Ice on My Baby' rapper reveals that his third child is on the way with an ultrasound picture of his heart-shaped unborn baby.

Feb 15, 2022

AceShowbiz - Rapper Yung Bleu is soon to be a father of three. On Valentine's Day, the "Ice on My Baby" spitter announced on his social media platform that he is expecting a baby with his girlfriend Tiemeria.

Making use of his Instagram account on Monday, February 14, the 27-year-old hip-hop star shared an ultrasound photo of his unborn baby. Along with the snap, he wrote, "It's [crazy] the day I found out I'm having my first little girl she was shaped exactly like a [heart]...This is my heart otw!"

"You gave me the best gift. My Baby girl is otw!" Bleu, whose real name is Jeremy Biddle, gushed over Tiemeria. The "Moon Boy" artist then concluded his post as saying, "So in return happy Valentine's Day @tiemeriad You know I love you with everything in me."

Fellow hip-hop artists and fans were quick to flood the post with congratulatory messages. Tokyo Jetz simply commented, "Congratulations," along with a red heart emoji, while Juicy J wrote, "Congrats," adding a fire emoji.

Fashion designer and Meek Mill's ex Milano Di Rouge also congratulated the pair, "Awww this is beautiful congrats." In the meantime, "Black Ink Crew: Chicago" star Charmaine Bey, who recently welcomed her second child, added, "Congrats fam [red heart emoji]."

In Bleu's post, it could also be seen that he and Tiemeria celebrated Valentine's Day together. Some videos from the special day saw the rapper showering his soon-to-be baby mama with surprises and romantic gifts.

Tiemeria also showed on Instagram that she arrived home on Valentine's Day and was surprised that the "Mine Still" crooner had decorated her house with flowers, rose petals, heart-shaped balloons and various gift baskets. Gushing over her man's gift-giving, she captioned her post, "I loveeeee Youuuuuuu [heart emoji]."

A few days earlier, Tiemeria announced her pregnancy on her Instagram page. The Dark Moon Cosmetics co-owner posted photos of her baby bump with a caption that read, "Being a boy mom is unmatched."

"Best feeling in the world my sons are unbelievably sweet and lord are they mamas boys lol but now I get to experience the best of both worlds Princess Milan will be making her entrance this summer," Tiemeria continued. "My mini me is going to be a Gemini like her mommy [laughing on the floor emoji]. Daddy finna be stressed."
Instagram Celebrity

The 'Tunnel Vision' spitter is seen slowly walking out of Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles with the help of a walker while being guarded by a ton of bodyguards.

Feb 15, 2022

AceShowbiz - Kodak Black has finally left the hospital after being shot during a scary fight outside Justin Bieber's afterparty in Los Angeles, California. The "ZEZE" rapper was seen leaving the medical center using a walker.

On Monday, February 14, TMZ obtained a video that saw the "Tunnel Vision" spitter leaving Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The hip-hop artist was back on his feet, although with the help of a walker. He also had a ton of bodyguards around him as he got into the back of a black SUV.

Kodak, born Bill Kahan Kapri, was among four people who got shot during an altercation outside The Nice Guy restaurant in West Hollywood on early Saturday. Kodak first went to Justin's party without any issues. At around 2:45 A.M., the Pompano Beach native, Gunna and Lil Baby were seen outside the building talking and smiling in a video that captured the incident.

Then Gunna was seen walking behind Kodak, whispering something in his ear. Kodak turned his head before the "Drip Too Hard" hitmaker got into his car. At that point, someone was heard saying off the camera, "Oh S**t. What?!?" Then the camera swung around and captured the chaotic scene as several people, including Kodak, raced toward someone.

Suddenly, gunfire was heard as Kodak turned and stumbled backward. One person was seen lying on the ground, but was able to move. The hip-hop star, a 19-year-old man, a 20-year-old man and a 60-year-old man were wounded. However, the shooter has not been arrested.

Just hours after getting shot, Kodak took to his Twitter account to tell his fans that he would attend the 2022 Super Bowl with Drake. "Drake Say Box Seats Wit 'Em @ Da SuperBowl. I Like Da Bengals BTW," he tweeted along with two orange and two black heart emojis.

Upon noticing Kodak's post, many concerned fans wondered about his well-being. "Didn't u like just get shot like u good?" one Twitter user asked while another questioned, "Heard you got shot, you ok?"

However, Kodak apparently didn't come to Sunday's big game at SoFi stadium in Inglewood, California as he was discharged from hospital on Monday afternoon. There's also no sign of his presence near the "Certified Lover Boy" artist, who came with his OVO team.
Instagram Celebrity

After the Roman Pearce in the 'Fast and Furious' franchise breaks the sad news on Instagram, fellow stars like Snoop Dogg and Dwayne Johnson show their support to the grieving son.

Feb 15, 2022

AceShowbiz - Tyrese Gibson is mourning the death of his loved one. More than a week after he first revealed his mother's hospitalization, the actor/rapper announced that his mother Priscilla Murray Gibson lost her battle with COVID-19 and pneumonia.

The Roman Pearce in the "Fast & Furious" franchise shared the sad news via Instagram on late Monday, February 14. "On behalf of my family and everyone who ever spent anytime praying tor my mother. This is the saddest moment of my life.," he wrote along with a video of his hand stroking his mother's while she's lying in hospital bed. "My sweet Valentine just passed away.."

The 43-year-old star continued, "May the lord Jesus Christ and his angels open the doors of heavens and embrace her. We as a family are broken and just can't believe this. May the lord Jesus Christ honor your walk with him and embrace you into the heavens. From here on I ask that you HOLD MY HAND MOTHER and never let my hand go. Like you held my hand as a child and a teen never let my hand go mother.."

The comment section was soon flooded with messages from his friends and fans offering their condolences. Snoop Dogg, whose mother Beverly Tate passed away last October, wrote, "Stay strong." He then offered to come to Tyrese's side, adding, "I'll come c u this week if u like to pray with u and hug u."

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson said, "So so sorry about this brother. She was so proud of all you are and have become. Deepest condolences & love sent your way to you and your family." Nicole Scherzinger added, "Omg my heart just cries for you and your family right now. Praying peace and strength and comfort for you dear friend and brother in Christ I'm so so so sorry. Our Heavenly Father has her now."

Tyrese first took to Instagram on February 5 to reveal his mother's hospitalization. Asking people to pray for his mother, he wrote, "My mother is in a coma, in ICU, with Pneumonia and she caught Covid they got her so sedated she can't breathe or even eat on her own. I need prayers the most sincere prayers from you prayer warriors."

Several days later, he shared an update on her condition. "The Doctor sat in this chair and just broke my heart by telling me there's pretty much nothing else that can be done to turn things around," he wrote. Remaining hopeful that his mother would pull through this, he added, "I paused, and in my most sincere voice I asked him. You ever heard of a man name Jesus Christ? Nothing is impossible for him. Ha paused and couldn't respond!!"
The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) is leading a delegation of CEO's from the marcom space to the Dubai Expo on February 23rd. 2022.

Says Megha Tata (President IAA India Chapter & Managing Director  South Asia, Discovery Communications India), "The IAA has organized similar CEO delegations to the USA and Israel on three earlier occasions. We have found them very fruitful. This one is special because we are also organizing an international symposium on the twin subjects of Sustainability and Creativity. This really resonates with IAA efforts to champion these subjects in India and globally. We will take this opportunity to showcase our most recent initiative to Save Soil, a matter of critical global urgency."

Adds Symposium Convenor Janak Sarda (Vice President Digital Innovation & Young Professional Growth, IAA Global & Managing Director, Deshdoot Media Group), "this effort to facilitate a trip to the Dubai Expo and take in the Symposium has gained significant traction globally. I am happy to announce that Joel Netty, Chairman & World President, IAA will be specially flying down for this.

There will also be the presence of IAA members from Serbia, Romania, Switzerland and of course Dubai. The inaugural session on the 24th.February will see Mr Aman Puri, Hon'ble Consul General of India, Dubai; Mr Joel Netty; Mr Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman-Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) among other senior local dignitaries.

The speakers at the symposium to be held at the India Pavilion in the Dubai Expo on 24th. February morning include:
From left are Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Portsmouth's Wanda Sykes, who are in final talks to host the 94th Academy Awards. (AP)

Portsmouth native Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall are finalizing details to host this years Academy Awards, multiple sources told Variety.

The three comic forces appear to be the only emcees in the mix for the March awards show, despite several scenarios that telecast creatives have been weighing. Producer Will Packer has been in meetings for weeks trying to find the right recipe for Hollywoods biggest night.

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Scenarios that Girls Trip filmmaker Packer had been toying with included a three-act structure, which would showcase a different pair of emcees every hour. A laundry list of top talent has met with Packer over the past weeks, including Mad Men star Jon Hamm who exited talks over the weekend, according to two additional sources.

ABC, which airs the annual show, declined to comment on the matter. The hosts will be formally announced on Good Morning America on Tuesday. Reps for Sykes, Schumer and Hall did not immediately offer comment. On Sunday, Schumer posted a lengthy Instagram slideshow with some of her biggest career highlights, with the ominous caption Big fun news comin.

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Packer has been tasked with bringing excitement back to the festivities and increasing viewership, which is part of the reason that the Oscars are looking to tap performers with some sizzle to keep viewers engaged after going host-less for two consecutive years. In Sykes, Hall and Schumer, Packer has selected an all-female team with broad appeal and comedic chops.

Schumer has received 12 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning in 2015 for outstanding variety sketch series for her hit Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer. This past year, Schumer had a role in A24s The Humans, the adaptation of Stephen Karams play, which he also directed. In 2022, Schumer will star in the 10 episode Hulu series Life & Beth.

Hall has appeared in the Scary Movie film series and The Best Man, Little and The Hate U Give. She also starred in Girls Trip, which Packer produced. Shes been enjoying a considerable resurgence since her indie Support the Girls was released in 2018. She bookended the Sundance Film Festival this year with performances in Master and Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul.

Sykes, a graduate of Hampton University, has starred on TV in The New Adventures of Old Christine, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Black-ish. She has also appeared in such films as Down to Earth, Rio and Bad Moms. She has 14 Emmy nominations and one win.
Federal Office for Spatial Development

Bern, 15.02.2022 - This year, Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein are holding the Constructive Alps international architecture competition for the sixth time. From 237 entries, the jury selected 31 outstanding examples of climate-conscious renovation and construction in the Alps.

For the sixth time, Constructive Alps will award prizes to renovations and new buildings in the Alps with particularly strong ecological, economic, social and aesthetic features. Climate-friendly buildings are a core focus of the Swiss presidency of the Alpine Convention 2021 and 2022. Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein want to implement an ambitious climate action plan with the support of the other member states of the Alpine Convention  Germany, France, Italy, Monaco, Austria and Slovenia.

High-quality renovations

The newly composed eight-member competition jury has shortlisted 31 projects from 237 buildings. These include residential buildings, commercial buildings, mountain huts, a chapel, schools and infrastructures, all of which incorporate the requirements for climate-friendly construction particularly well. 15 renovations, three new replacement buildings and 13 new buildings have been shortlisted for the second round. Jury president Kobi Gantenbein expressed his satisfaction: This year, all Alpine countries are well represented and there are many high-quality renovations in the nominations. For me, this is a sign that climate-conscious Alpine building is making progress.

Seven projects from Switzerland stood out in particular, including a depot for locomotives and two schools. The jury will visit the nominated buildings and hold discussions with building contractors, architectural firms and users. In addition to the climate compatibility of the buildings, the contribution that they can make to future-oriented living and working in the Alpine region will also be considered in the jury's final decision.

The jury will award the prizes to the winning projects most likely at the next meeting of the ministers responsible for the Alpine Convention, to be held in Brig in September. At the same time, a travelling exhibition on the nominated buildings is to be launched; it will showcase the best ideas on sustainable building and renovation throughout the Alpine region and beyond.

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Alton, IL (62002)

Today

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 65F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. Low 47F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
The 2022 Montana Agri Trade Exposition (MATE) will offer a little bit of something for everyone. From the biggest of tractors to the latest in technology, if it has something to do with agriculture, it can be found at the MATE. In addition to seeing all that agriculture has to offer, there will also be educational presentations at the MATE.

The classroom-style MATE Theater is a great place for producers to come and learn about a wide array of agriculture-related topics. The educational presentation this year will be approximately one-hour long and cover everything from prairie dog management to maximizing land investments. Additionally, this years MATE will offer several pest management topics taught by experts from Montana State University.

Most of these topics are likely going to be relevant to producers and growers in some way or another. The information presented is based on the most recent and unbiased research, stated Callie Cooley, MSU Extension agent for Yellowstone County.

The MATE tries to always incorporate a pesticide and pest management component to the MATE Theater as a means to offer private applicator credits. That way, individuals can obtain credits while also enjoying the MATE. Three pesticide applicator credits will each be available on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 17-18.

We try to develop a program each year that meets the credit approval criteria while also covering relevant and interesting topics, Cooley added.

On Thursday, Feb. 17, from 1-2 p.m., Cecil Tharp, MSU Extension pesticide education specialist, will discuss factors that can cause reduced pesticide efficacy. He will address the importance of calibration, use of surfactants, and reading the label. He will also highlight why timing of application and proper coverage are critical to mitigate pesticide resistance.

Following Tharps presentation, Hayes Goosey, MSU Extension forage specialist, will give a presentation on managing nitrates and alfalfa weevils from 2-3 p.m. This educational session will touch on when to control weevils, how to properly sample, and why insecticide rotation is important. Goosey will also discuss ways to manage nitrate accumulation in forages.

Also on Feb. 17, Eric Clanton, Montana Department of Agriculture plant science specialist, will talk to producers about important changes, updates, and requirements regarding agro-chemical usage in Montana. His presentation will run from 3-4 p.m.

On Friday, Feb. 18, from 1-2 p.m., Stephen Vantassel, Montana Department of Agriculture vertebrate pest specialist, will review different methods producers may use to control prairie dogs on their property.

From 2-3 p.m. on Friday, Mat Walter, MSU Extension agent in Lewis and Clark County, will present on weed management after and during a drought. Droughts make everything exceedingly more difficult, including the management of nuisance weeds. During his presentation, Walter will discuss how producers can overcome challenges associated with weeds and drought conditions.

Joe Lockwood, Yellowstone County weed coordinator, and Megan Hoyer, Yellowstone County weed district crew foreman and education specialist, will talk about weeds of interest in Yellowstone County during their presentation from 3-4 p.m. They will discuss how to identify new weeds and how best to manage troublesome ones that are already in the county.

Any of the classes provided by the MATE Theater are free of charge. Producers who want to attain all three pesticide applicator credits for the day must attend all three pesticide sessions on that respective day.

Please visit www.themateshow.com and click on the MATE Theater tab to see a complete list of educational presentations that will be happening at the 2022 MATE.

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It pays to spend some time choosing the right corn hybrids, especially in seasons like last year when dry weather was hard on the crop.

In general, plant full season hybrids if youre trying to maximize yield potential. Early season hybrids have a place if youre trying to max feed potential. Thats the advice of agronomist Jonathan Kleinjan with South Dakota State University Extension.

He and other extension experts have been sharing results of last seasons research during winter meetings and online Crop Hour sessions.

Kleinjan recounted how corn yields fared at SDSU test plots based on how much rain fell in that part of the state.

Right when we needed our most water is when we were very dry in South Dakota this summer, he said in a Jan. 12 webinar.

Corn needs the most water at the R4-5 growth stage, he said, and thats about when part of the state were reaching peak drought. Small rains kept crops limping along, he said. More moisture came in August and September, which Kleinjan said might have helped with kernel fill but was too late to boost yields.

That was the case at SDSU fields in Brookings where the yields were 199 bushels per acre, down from the five-year average of 227 bpa.

It was a different story in the northeastern corner of the state. That region wasnt hurting for water, and the yields showed it. The average at SDSUs South Shore research plot is 231 bpa, but last years crop yielded 269 bpa.

Over the last two seasons in Volga, Kleinjans team studied six hybrids for their maturity and planting dates. They didnt see a lot of difference between the corn planted April 30 and the May 15 planting date, he said, but the corn planted in June was hurting for water.

It hit a wall, Kleinjan said, noting the corn didnt get the 16 inches of water the corn needs to make it to 150 bpa.

Overall, the 95-and 101-day hybrids performed the best in the Brookings area in 2020 and 2021. The 95-day hybrid performed the best at 202 bpa.

Modern hybrids are resilient. Dont give up on them until after theyve tasseled, Kleinjan said.

He urges growers to spend some time studying seed guides for the best performing hybrids. Sometimes there is a 50-bushel difference between the highest and lowest yielding corn, he said, and that translates to $300 an acre when corn is selling for $6 a bushel.

He acknowledge that its difficult to get information to compare every brand. Some of the big companies opt not to participate in SDSUs trials. Company-funded tests arent always replicated, and FIRST trials dont report the bottom third of the performers.

To me theres a lot of value in finding the poor performers as well as the top performers, Kleinjan said.

Corn row spacing up for discussion

The optimal spacing between corn rows changes with industry trends. In early days, 40 inch rows were the standards because thats what horses can maneuver, noted SDSU Southeast Research Farm manager Pete Sexton during a Dakota Farm Show talk.

Modern equipment allows for narrower, 30 or 15-inch rows and more corn per acre, but some farmers are trying 60-inch spacing in order to let cover crops flourish between the corn stalks.

The world keeps changing, so we have to revisit things sometimes, Sexton said.

Over the last two growing seasons at the research farm in Beresford, hes studied different seeding rates with rows at 15-, 30-, 45- and 60-inch spacing. He found that you cant make up for wider rows by seeding at a higher rate, he said. Going with rows that are 10 inches wider, for example, would cost 5-6 bushels per acre in yield.

Those results are from two dry years, Sexton said, noting that there might be more of a difference in a wetter year. He plans to continue his studies.

While some who plant 60-inch rows aim to grow forage for post-harvest grazing, Sexton said it would probably be more economical to graze corn stalks and provide cattle with a protein supplement. The biggest value in planting cover crops between wide rows of corn, he said, is for soil health  building nutrients and reducing pest pressure.

SDSU working to update fertilizer recommendations

In recent years, North Dakota and Minnesota have come out with new recommendations for how much fertilizer a crop needs. Updating those standards is something that happens as crop technology and cropping practices change. South Dakotas recommendations havent seen an update since 2005, but work to do so is underway. Its a project of SDSU Extension soil fertility specialist Jason Clark.

For the last three and a half years, hes been studying soil test levels and tissue samples at 28 locations in eastern South Dakota for the three big nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Clark compares those with yield results and tries to find that spot where yields no longer benefit from higher nutrient levels.

Thats really the point where were saying, if youre there, youre good, Clark said, speaking to a small group of farmers who stole away from the booths at the Dakota Farm Show in Vermillion Jan. 4, to learn about SDSU research.

With fertilizer prices skyrocketing, its helpful to know whether its worth applying more for a yield response.

North Dakota and Minnesota have altered their potassium recommendations based on soil type. Clay soils tend to swell up when theyre wet and release potassium more easily. If theyre dry, they are dry, the hold on to K.

Its been difficult to find fields in South Dakota that are low in potassium to serve as test sites. Clark encourages farmers who find their soil tests lacking in K to contact him to participate in the research.

Sulfur is a tricky one to determine with soil tests, Clark said. A soil test at 0-6 inches doesnt help much in determining if more sulfur will help the crop. This winter, Clark is studying if a 24-inch test would help farmers learn more.

There are new biological tests that can help researchers learn how nutrients changed by different soil microbes. Clark is looking into whether the line for optimal fertilizer application changes with soil biology. At Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, for instance, Dwayne Beck has found that a diverse crop rotation can lower phosphorus needs some, Clark said.

For those worried about fertilizer prices this spring, Clark said testing is especially important.

Take your soil test and use it, he said.

He reminds farmers to watch for low nutrients that could be limiting the crops use of other nutrients.

If your K is limiting, it doesnt matter how much N you put on there, you will see zero yield increase, he said.

Janelle is editor of the Tri-State Neighbor, covering South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, northwestern Iowa and northeastern Nebraska. Reach her at jatyeo@tristateneighbor.com or follow on Twitter @JLNeighbor.

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Because of the huge demand, steamship lines have put all their emphasis and all of their available space on the inbound side, and theyre not always paying attention to the export side.
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Emergency contraception often not available in rural Georgia

Special Photo Persons looking for Plan B or emergency contraception products like ella in Georgia may have to call around to find it  particularly those who live in a small town.

ATHENS  If youre looking for Plan B in Georgia, you may have to call around to find it  particularly if you live in a small town.

Emergency contraception is a time-sensitive medication. The sooner a person takes the drug after having sex, the more likely it will work at preventing an unwanted pregnancy.

But new research from the University of Georgia found only 57% of Georgia pharmacies stocked Plan B, which is also known as levonorgestrel. And less than 1% reported stocking the more effective, prescription-only emergency contraceptive ulipristal acetate, known by the brand name ella.

Rural pharmacies were less likely to have Plan B than stores in metropolitan areas. Women in rural and low-income areas historically face challenges in accessing preventive care, including contraception. Published in the Journal of Pharmacy Practice, the study suggests that poor access to emergency contraception, a safe and effective contraceptive option, may exacerbate already high rates of unintended and teen pregnancies in those areas.

Reproductive care can sometimes be hard to access, particularly in the South, Rebecca Stone, lead author of the study and a clinical associate professor in the UGA College of Pharmacy, said. Georgia has poorer reproductive care outcomes than many other parts of the country, such as higher rates of unintended pregnancy and maternal mortality. Emergency contraception is like other reproductive health services: We need to take steps to ensure equal access for everybody in our state.

Pharmacists know about Plan B, but many dont have it in stock

Researchers contacted 518 pharmacies in both metropolitan and rural parts of Georgia for the study. Callers asked pharmacists whether the drugstore had something that [they could] use after sex to not get pregnant.

Most pharmacists discussed Plan B with the caller, regardless of whether it was in stock at their pharmacy. And more than 10% of those who did not have it stocked still provided counseling to the patient and offered to order the drug or referred them to another pharmacy that may have the medication.

But one out of every four pharmacists said emergency contraception was not available at the store and ended the call.

Of the pharmacists who discussed Plan B as an option with the caller, 80% said the drug wouldnt work or that they werent sure whether it would work after 72 hours.

This is in line with the package insert from the drug manufacturer. But its outdated.

Plan B is most effective in the first three days after sex. But it can still help prevent pregnancy for up to five days.

In our current environment, pharmacists are extremely busy and may be hard-pressed to spend a lot of time answering patient questions and still get their work done, Stone said. They often rely on the manufacturer package insert information to answer questions, and in this case it isnt fully accurate. I think that unfairly sets pharmacists up to provide inaccurate information.

In many European countries, ulipristal acetate is sold over the counter. But the U.S. is often slower to grant medications over-the-counter status. Reproductive health medications in particular receive an extra level of scrutiny other medications dont. As a result of its prescription-only status and early-on manufacturing issues, many health professionals arent even aware the Plan B alternative exists.

Less than 2% of pharmacists contacted for this study even mentioned ella as an option for emergency contraception, and only 0.4% told the caller it was in stock at their pharmacy. (A follow-up call by researchers showed that around 3% of the pharmacies actually did have the medication in stock.)

ella works better at preventing pregnancies than Plan B, particularly for women who are overweight or are using emergency contraception four to five days after sex, Stone said. But studies have shown that many physicians dont know this drug is available. Patients dont know about it. And our research showed that most Georgia pharmacists dont know about it either.

Stone has given talks at multiple pharmacy conferences on emergency contraception options and is working with industry partners to offer continuing education courses on the subject.

Im a strong advocate for pharmacist-prescribed contraception and emergency contraception because it expands patient access to these products, said Stone, referencing the 17 states where pharmacists can prescribe self-administered and emergency contraception. In states where pharmacists prescribe these products, pharmacists have more opportunities to keep their clinical skills fresh with continuing education courses that are developed as part of their state prescribing protocols. And if theyre prescribing it, they may be more likely to keep it in stock.
The Newport News City Council approved plans last week for how to spend $66.7 million in federal stimulus money despite objections from a handful of community members.

About half a dozen speakers asked the council to delay its vote to appropriate the American Rescue Plan Act dollars until after holding meetings for community input. The speakers told the council they wanted to see some of the funds used to address gun violence.

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Among the citys plans for its stimulus money: an early childhood education center, support for mental health services and additional money for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative  a project to transform the Marshall-Ridley neighborhood in Southeast Newport News.

None of funds are directly designated for fighting gun violence.

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The lack of transparency in the process of deciding how almost $67 million of taxpayer money is spent is appalling and deeply disturbing, said Ruth Winters, a resident of the citys central district.

An online petition calling for the City Council to designate some of the funds to address gun violence had garnered approximately 150 signatures before the councils vote.

The City Council has devoted several hours to discussing plans for the money at its informal work sessions before the council meetings. The meetings are open to the public, but citizens do not speak to the council during the work session. Newport News does not record the work sessions, which means the only way to view them is to be in the room.

In December, Councilman David Jenkins asked the City Council to allocate $200,000 of the ARPA dollars to community-based organizations fighting gun violence.

The request drew criticism from his fellow council members who have contended that Jenkins should bring his proposals up during the informal work sessions when there is more time to talk.

Mayor McKinley Price has said the city cant just hand over the funds to organizations because it has an obligation to handle the money responsibly.

I normally dont address comments that are given in a public session like this, but I feel it necessary to clarify some of the facts, Mayor Price said. Some of the statements are actually ill-informed and dont accurately reflect what we have done in the past and what we are doing.

Price presented a list of actions the city has taken  or is in the process of taking  to address gun violence, including devoting more than $9 million to the issue since 2015. The city is also conducting a survey to better understand concerns around safety, root causes and effects of violence in the community.

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The city also plans to give at least $125,000 from a state grant to qualified organizations with strategies to reduce gun violence. The city manager and city council have previously said they may be open to matching or exceeding that grant money.

The speakers referenced Richmond and Roanoke, which received the same state grant for addressing gun violence, but also chose to allocate an additional $1.5 million and $2 million, respectively, to anti-violence work. Both cities have also held meetings for citizen input on spending the ARPA funds.

Jenkins was the only council member to vote against appropriating the funds at the Tuesday meeting.

The citys allocation totals $66,794,246. Half the funds were given to the city in June 2021. The other half is expected this summer.

The city was given until December 2024 to commit to plans for spending the money.

In addition to several one-time project costs, the city also plans to use $7.4 million for renovations and repairs and $6.2 million for ongoing operating expenses during the pandemic.

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Jessica Nolte, 757-912-1675, jnolte@dailypress.com
When I wrote "Woke Hiring by Airlines is a Scary Business" for American Thinker on Feb. 8. I thought about the concept of merit in the U.S. and now want to expand further on the concept of woke quotas for any area of our society.

Almost since its inception as a nation, the United States of America has become synonymous with excellence in many areas. Our unique Constitution guarantees its citizens rights and privileges almost unknown elsewhere on the planet.

Among these are the freedom to practice any religion we choose. The right to express our personal beliefs, even if they are out of the mainstream. The right to bear arms for personal protection, and possibly most important, the right to peacefully assemble to redress our grievances with the government. Even today, you would be hard-pressed to name another country that grants its citizens such freedoms.

Not surprisingly, Americans have become known for the quality and quantity of products they grow or manufacture. The phrase Made in the U.S.A. almost guaranteed excellence. Our industries became second to none. Whether it was shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, automobile and truck production, pharmaceuticals, or electronics, this country produced the most innovative and diverse selections available anywhere.

Because of that fact, when the world was thrown into chaos by the actions of a trio of maniacal dictatorships at the beginning of World War Two, this country could and did become The Arsenal of Democracy. It quickly converted our factories from manufacturers of domestic products into producers of war materiel, such as aircraft, tanks, and cannons, on a scale heretofore unknown. Had Americans been unable to perform that Herculean task, the world would be a much different place today.

After winning that world war, much of Europe and the Far East were in ruins. Instead of punishing the aggressors, as the allies had done after the Armistice of 1918 ending World War One, which sowed the seeds of the greater conflict to come, the United States took a different tact. Called The Marshall Plan our nation embarked on a mission to rebuild the war-shattered economies of not only our allies but also our adversaries, thus preventing (so far) a Third World War.

Unfortunately, we then became, in effect, The Worlds Policeman, and were drawn into many other conflicts, in Korea, Viet Nam, and most recently, the Middle East and Afghanistan. Even a country as rich as ours couldnt maintain the level of expenditures required to accomplish these goals. Beginning with the war in Viet Nam in 1965, a segment of our population began to express disenchantment with our system of government.

Lulled by more than a decade of peace and prosperity, we had begun to look inward. The Civil Rights movement finally achieved justice for African-Americans in the southern states, who had suffered under the Jim Crow laws of racial discrimination almost since the end of the Civil War in 1865. In addition, our colleges and universities had begun to be dominated by very leftist professors, who spoke out vociferously against the growing conflicts in Southeast Asia, particularly in South Viet Nam.

Among their students were many individuals who became war protestors and were taught to hate, not love, what this country stood for. That cancerous concept has metastasized and spread, and unfortunately has come to dominate the policies of one of our two major political parties, the Democrats.

While all this was going on, many of those same students, particularly from the prestigious ivy league schools, rose to become leaders of our various corporations, and officials in our government. Looking down on national pride as being somehow xenophobic, they supported the moving of our essential industries offshore, where products could be manufactured more cheaply.

When Bill Clinton supported the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which was eventually enacted in 1994, third party presidential candidate Ross Perot at the time stated that it would be like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking American manufacturing jobs into Mexico, and to a lesser extent into Canada. Though scoffed at then as an alarmist, Perots assessment proved to be entirely correct.

Worse yet were the agreements which allowed formerly American corporations, which now considered themselves to be trans-national, to close manufacturing plants in this country and move them overseas, primarily to China and Southeast Asian countries. Again, this was started under the Clinton administration but continued under George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

How serious this has become was dramatically demonstrated by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Vital pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics and steroids, are no longer manufactured in this country. The same for surgical face masks, gowns, and gloves, among many other items. We had to depend on China, the source of the pandemic, and an obvious potential adversary, to supply our needs. This is obviously an unacceptable situation, but it is only the tip of a very large problem lurking below the surface. Because of the policies of a series of administrations from both major political parties, we have allowed ourselves to become dependent on offshore sources for vital materials, the lack of which threatens our very survival as a nation. We have allowed, no, virtually requested, that potential adversaries place their boots on the throat of our country.

A dictionary definition of the term woke reads:

Alert to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism.

Most Human Resources departments of corporations, whose minions are notoriously woke in their attitudes, have been given hiring and firing authority over a very large segment of employers in this country, both governmental and private. By developing quota systems that seek to correct supposed inequities, they are having a very serious negative effect on our workforce.

Age, race, sex or even sexual preference should have no place in determining who should be hired for a certain position, or indeed selected as a candidate for military service or educational opportunities. However, any honest assessment indicates that is exactly what is happening at present.

If we are not very careful, the inscription written on the historical tombstone of this nation will read:

The United States of America. Born with the concept of Liberty and Justice for all. Died from the effects of Woke inspired Political Correctness.

Captain D.A. Francis is a retired TWA commercial airline pilot. He can be reached at 2022captal@gmail.com and www.captain-al-speaking.com

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit the campaign trail in Texas over the weekend. The following is a key portion of her speech at San Antonio:

Texas turning blue is inevitable. It will happen, the only question is when, Texas. The only question is: When?

Texas is currently the most populous Republican-controlled state.



Ocasio-Cortez speaking in San Antonio (YouTube screen grab).

Texas has 38 Electoral College votes and 36 representatives in the U.S. House.

The Texas House is controlled by the Republicans and consists of 82 Republicans and 67 Democrats. The Texas Senate is also controlled by Republicans and constitutes 18 Republicans and 13 Democrats.

The governor of Texas is Republican.

In 2020, President Trump carried the state, winning 52.1% to Biden's 46.5%. In 2016, President Trump carried the state, winning 52.1% to Hillary's 43.5%.

Trump received 1.2 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, while Biden received 1.4 million votes more than Hillary.

What caused Biden's votes to grow? Perhaps he is more likable than Hillary? Perhaps independents voted for him? Perhaps there has been a demographic shift?

A 2020 Census shows that Texas has become more suburban and far more "diverse"  which is a code word for the Democrat base.

Also, urban constituencies in Texas are flipping Democrat, especially in areas like Austin, where the young are migrating from other states.

So what does one make of AOC's remarks?

Fostering a demographic shift across the U.S. has been a long-term Democrat project. The goal is to flood the Republican precincts with migrants and relax the voting laws to permit voting irrespective of citizenship or proof of identity, which will result in drowning the impact of Republican votes.

To facilitate this, they invite foreigners to the U.S., then they open up the borders to allow easy crossing and restrict the powers of border security agents. They surreptitiously transport these illegal migrants across the country via night charter flights.

All of this is being done under Biden.

Recently, U.S. officials recorded over 1.7 million illegal border crossings in the past year. This is the highest since tracking began.

Poor migrants will be dependent upon the government for their survival. This is the underclass that is likely to be the voter bank that the Democrats have always coveted. This plan has been successfully implemented in New York and California.

All through the 1900s, California elected Republican governors, including Ronald Reagan. But now, owing to the demographic shift and the ideological brainwashing in state-run schools, a poor performer and a hypocrite about COVID-19 rules, Gavin Newsom easily defeated a recall effort.

The other beneficiary of this power monopoly is AOC herself, who will most likely continue to be re-elected to Congress for a very long time and maybe someday become senator or even governor.

Back in 2019, Texas senator Ted Cruz rightly observed the following:

If we lose Texas, it's game over. I don't believe Texas will turn blue but central to that is we're going to have to work to communicate and turn people out.

The demographic shift in Texas and a few other states will impact the outcome of national-level electoral contests. It could lead the Democrats to have a permanent majority in the House and the Senate and a presence in the White House. It may take a few decades, but if left unchecked, it will occur.

Despite her claims of compassion, these migrants will never be settled anywhere near AOC's place of work or residence. Despite supporting the "defund the police" movement and open borders, AOC wants armed police protection and barricades in Washington when U.S. citizens stage protests. If she spots unvetted migrants lurking around her vicinity, expect draconian steps to be taken to keep her safe.

These migrants will be resettled in working-class localities. The impact of this exodus is a considerable burden on the infrastructure and resources such as schools, hospitals, roads, parks, and law enforcement.

These unvetted migrants from faraway lands will alter the social fabric considerably. There can be a spike in crime. Religious fundamentalists among migrants may commit brutal, heinous "honor" crimes in the name of fighting blasphemy.

But these crimes will not happen anywhere near AOC. She will continue to live comfortably and attend the MET Gala, where tickets are priced at $35,000 apiece, while tables range from $200,000 to $300,000.

These illegal migrants may work for meager wages. This will be a boon to corporations looking for cheap temporary labor to pick their fruit or do other seasonal menial jobs. These corporate houses are usually big donors for the Democrats. It will lead to a depression of wages and unemployment for local people.

Once upon a time, socialists described the idea of open borders as a "right-wing scheme" because it hurts the worker. But neo-socialist AOC knows that her employment will never be in peril. Illegal migrants will never be permitted to challenge AOC electorally and replace her in Congress. Their job is to merely vote for her and be subservient to her. The unemployment will occur only among the working class.

To sum it up, AOC and Democrats will reap the benefits from states such as Texas turning blue, but the working class will have to suffer the dire consequences.

However, the Democrats, as always, could be making a mistake by thinking of the migrants as a homogenous group.

Most migrants originate from theocratic or totalitarian or communist nations in South America, the Middle East, and Africa. They migrate to the U.S. looking for a quality life, which includes freedom. When they notice the totalitarian proclivities of the Democrats, they will vote against them.

Most of these migrants, who are religious, will be irked by fanatical Democrat advocacy on abortion, gay "marriage," transgenderism, etc.

So this plan could backfire.

Back to AOC's utterances on Texas. She may have blurted out the truth in a moment of hubris or excitement. But irrespective of her reasons, the Republicans would be wise to take AOC's boasts seriously.

Leaving matters unattended could result in the Californication of the U.S., and someday, there may be a President AOC. That would be most unfortunate.
We are closing in on 60 years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, and in that time, there have been endless independent investigations disputing, or occasionally endorsing, the conclusions of the Warren Commission. If I were reading instead of writing this blog post, at this point, I would be worrying that yet another boring recitation of arcana from the mountains of evidence was about to be presented to me.

But excerpts from a new book about to be published on the assassination blew my socks off. It contains what looks like solid evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone and that Kennedy was killed by a bullet fired from in front of his limousine, one that entered the car through the windshield. Lee Harvey Oswald's purported location in the Texas School Book Depository was to the side of and behind the car, so he could not have fired a bullet that entered the car through the windshield.

I am so old that I watched the assassination of Oswald on live television and heard him say, "I'm just a patsy" right before he died, words that have haunted me ever since. Those are not the words of an entirely innocent man, who would have said, "I didn't do it," or similar words of denial. No, Oswald's words suggested knowledge of larger forces that participated and his realization that he had been played. And a desire to tell his story. A desire that Jack Ruby thwarted seconds later.

Emerald Robinson has published on Substack a fascinating excerpt from a book manuscript titled The Oswald Letter, written by Thomas Lipscomb with Jerome Kroth. Full disclosure: I have been corresponding with Tom Lipscomb for many years, though we have never met. He has authored two articles for AT. But more importantly, Tom has shared his vast experience in journalism and publishing with me. So I am inclined to grant him the presumption of integrity.

But read the excerpt for yourself and see what you think of the testimonial and photographic evidence. It's not a very long read, and it is engaging.

What have you got to lose?

Click here.
Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared a "state of emergency" against his own citizens in what has become the latest fashionable trend to crush dissent and demand obedience to the state. The BBC reports:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken the unprecedented step of invoking the Emergencies Act to crack down on anti-vaccine mandate protests. Mr Trudeau said the scope of the measures would be "time-limited", "reasonable and proportionate" and would not see the military deployed. (snip) Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said at Monday's news conference that banks would be able freeze personal accounts of anyone linked with the protests without any need for a court order. Vehicle insurance of anyone involved with the demonstrations can also be suspended, she added. Ms Freeland said they were broadening Canada's "Terrorist Financing" rules to cover cryptocurrencies and crowdfunding platforms, as part of the effort.



Rumble video screen grab.

Such a declaration sets a dangerous precedent, whereby Charter Rights, the Canadian version of the U.S.'s Bill of Rights, can now be sidestepped at the whim of a single individual.

Is there any historical proposition more dangerous than a powerful apparatchik revoking your rights under the pretense of necessity? Have we learned nothing since the conception of the Twelve Tables and the Magna Carta?

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

William Pitt

Many of our Supreme Court justices have recognized that liberty is not absolute and that there are times when the exercise of one's liberty may infringe upon the liberty of another  for example, in the case of a truly deadly disease with an extraordinarily high fatality rate (Jacobson v. Massachusetts), or in the case of conscription, whereby a citizen is expected to defend and preserve the inalienable for all (Kneedler v. Lane). However, these prudent restrictions were invariably designed in good faith  that is, to protect the substructure of rights, not to violate them.

When courts state that "emergency powers" can be invoked to stop a tangible and "grave threat" to our way of life, or to what threatens the glue that binds our democracy, then it should be clear that the words "grave" and "threat" represent a significantly high threshold. None of the virtuous justices who thought long and hard about these exceptionally complicated cases ever imagined that a group of thugs  calling themselves representatives of the people  would seek to exploit legal opinions for personal machinations at the expense of liberty.



In many U.S. states, and now in Canada, politicians are invoking these powers to avoid negotiation with the people they serve. Should a democratic government violate the inviolable whenever a group of citizens protests draconian mandates? Should one individual have the power to freeze personal bank accounts or imprison you indefinitely because you ask, politely, not to be jabbed with an experimental vaccine? Are dancing, flag-waving truckers a grave danger to society? Are viruses with fatality rates lower than 2% a threat to our Constitution? If so, it would follow that our government has the right to declare an emergency over the common flu, heart disease, cancer, or a number of other ailments that cause more deaths than COVID-19. Grounded on this folly, the mayor would have the power to imprison New York taxi drivers for their incessant honking, or garnish wages from those who decide to forgo new heart medications. Is such a revocation in keeping with the spirit of the law?

"A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference."

Thomas Jefferson

The Libertarian and Republican view of government has always rested on the precept that individuals are rational beings, capable of self-expression and self-determination, best able to calculate their risk, and best able to choose how to exercise their liberty, provided that they don't destroy or diminish the rights of others. In other words, the sole purpose of government is to protect the inviolable, which exists outside the scope of influence and is rooted in the state of nature (Locke) or dignity (Kant).

The left likes to talk a great deal about obligations. But on the issue of societal rights and obligations, there is a significant difference between the two. A right is what the government owes me, whereas an obligation is based on what you think I owe the government. To force me to comply with your conception of "ought," and to bind me into an obligation to you, requires a great deal of coercion and force. And that abstractness should be left to the rational will of the people and their representatives, not dictated to them by the whims of an individual.

Justin Trudeau has no moral right to coerce millions of people to take a potentially fatal vaccine in lieu of taking their chances with a potentially fatal virus. Only arrogant fools, suffering from hubris, believe they are in a position to make that decision for someone else. A democratic government should not be in the business of using its citizenry as a means to an end.

"The individual is a repository of all value, and exists as an end in himself. If we value anything, we must value the existence and endeavors of rational beings."

Immanuel Kant
During the Obama administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was the primary weapon used against single-family zoning in the suburbs. The left is now leading the assault with state laws to supersede local zoning laws and force multi-family projects into suburban neighborhoods. Their efforts in New York could reverberate across the nation if successful.

Proposed New York State Senate S.4547 would override local zoning to permit the construction of accessory dwelling units as small as 550 square feet on residential property for the purposes of rental. Existing accessory dwelling ordinances, which have been adopted to accommodate family members living in these units, would be voided immediately, completely usurping municipal home rule powers for single-family zoning districts. Municipalities would be prevented from imposing barriers to the units, including parking requirements, setbacks, or allowable residential density. This is a legislative camel's nose into the tent to institutionalize state authority.

In a January 25 letter to the Westchester County Municipal Officials Association, primary legislative sponsor Senator Peter Harckham, a Democrat, wrote, "[W]e can move forward in our shared goal of fighting the housing affordability crisis. Moreover, I am thrilled [that] Governor Kathy Hochul agrees and has included our legislation in her Executive Budget proposal while earmarking $85 million to legalize these units and ensure they are safe."

Hochul's plan to expand "affordable housing" by fiat goes further in imposing mandates and eroding local zoning. Her executive budget allocates $25 billion over five years to create 100,000 affordable dwellings. In addition, once local zoning has been overridden for accessory dwellings, the governor plans to introduce legislation to force construction of multi-family residences in and around Metro-North train stations and bus stops.

Opposition to S.4547 and Hochul's longer-term proposal was swift and focused on the sanctity of home rule, which has fostered New York's economically heterogeneous suburbs and exurbs, and the imposition of heavy-handed one-size-fits-all state control.

"This is a sledgehammer to the suburbs," said Rob Astorino, the former Westchester County Executive and a leading Republican contender to challenge Governor Hochul in November. "Governor Hochul will abolish single-family residential zoning with this legislation and prohibit protections against overcrowding in our neighborhoods, schools, and streets. The power to plan a community must be with local elected officials, not dictated by Albany."

Strong objections were also voiced by the state's Association of Towns and the New York Conference of Mayors. "You're not really going to be able to control what's happening in your community," said Peter Baynes, director of the Conference of Mayors.

Exactly. Home rule is the key to the distinct individuality of New York's diverse municipalities, which gives New Yorkers a wide variety of choices of where to live.

The right of home rule played a major role in protecting New York's Westchester County from HUD's initial attempt eleven years ago to force the county's municipalities to build staggering amounts of affordable housing.

Some background is useful to parse the current political engagement. In 2009, Westchester County was slammed by a HUD settlement agreement to build 750 units of affordable housing to fulfill HUD's police to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH). By 2013, when the county was close to fulfilling its obligations under the settlement, HUD upped the ante to 10,768 units, a number derived from a 2004 Rutgers study. Despite HUD's best efforts, Westchester County executive Astorino refused to give an inch on the original agreement.

During the period, HUD sent a letter to every municipality in Westchester County demanding that the people running it satisfy HUD's specific assessment. Because of the protection of home rule, the municipalities were able to resist HUD's threats.

With the battle lines drawn, the fate of S.4547 is unclear, despite the Democrat supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly. Opposition to HUD's encroachments helped Astorino win two terms as County Executive in a 3-1 Democratic county. Politicians in New York's suburbs, who are predominately Democratic, aren't lining up behind S.4547.

Hochul is vulnerable, even in a bright blue state. She's unelected, having assumed office after Andrew Cuomo's forced exit, and in November 2022, she will face Mr. Astorino, Congressman Lee Zeldin, or Andrew Giuliani. She also faces a primary against Congressman Thomas Suozzi, who represents Nassau County on Long Island and has been vocal in his opposition to S.4547. She needs the suburban votes from Suffolk, Nassau, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester Counties. Why antagonize these voters with attacks on their property rights and home values?

Stranger is Harckham's sponsorship of S.4547 because he represents leafy, affluent suburbs in Westchester County  unless he is hoping to be Hochul's running mate as lieutenant governor.

The fate of S.4547 and Hochul's proposed executive budget has national implications. If they fail, there's hope for the blue states, because it means that people are waking up to the incursions against their liberties, freedoms, and property rights.

Linda R. Killian is a New York local Republican chairman and financial analyst.

Image: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page is up to its old tricks, giving aid and succor to the NeverTrump wing of conservatism in its never-ending quest to Get Trump.

On Feb. 11, they gave Republican turncoat Liz Cheney op-ed space, seemingly to intimidate Republicans into abandoning support for former president Donald J. Trump.

Proof of her aim was projected by the title: "The Jan. 6 Committee Won't Be Intimidated." She claimed that "many" Republicans, following "Mr. Trump," have abandoned "fidelity to the rule of law and the plan of the Constitution."

She began with this glurge, hearkening as usual to her bloodlines, which is how she got her powerful jobs at State and Congress in the first place.

I keep on my desk a copy of the oath my great-great-grandfather signed when he re-enlisted in the Union Army in 1863. Like the oath given by all those who serve in government and every member of our armed forces, Samuel Fletcher Cheney swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic." Generations of Americans have sworn that same oath and given their lives to defend the Constitution and our nation.

It's the old "right to rule" argument the Bush clique like to make when they run out of arguments:

After that, she made her usual claims that Joe Biden won the election because she says so. Curiously, Cheney went on to assure the Journal's readers, among other things, that "no foreign power corrupted America's voting machines." It had an odd clank. After all, wasn't the allegation of "foreign" (i.e., Russian) meddling made by Cheney's House Democrat collaborators prior to the former president's election, continuing throughout his presidency? As Andrea Widburg detailed at American Thinker on Feb. 13, that finally had been put to rest by special counsel John Durham, who put the blame for this baseless claim at the feet of Hillary Clinton, a lie too inconvenient to the dishonest media to report. So out trots Liz with her old arguments.

Cheney refrained from hurling the "i" word (insurrection) in her Journal op-ed, but this does not mean she refrained from blatant mendacity. Her concluding paragraph opened: "Those who do not wish the truth of Jan. 6 to come out have predictably resorted to attacking the process  claiming it is tainted and political. Our hearing will show this charge to be wrong. We are focused on facts, not rhetoric, and we will present those facts without exaggeration, no matter what criticism we face."

This remarkable statement, I submit, amounts to Cheney's high-handed hollering from the title of her piece, "The Jan. 6 Committee Won't Be Intimidated by the Truth."

The "process" she speaks of  which must include the resolution establishing this witch hunt panel  was nothing but "tainted and political." Cheney, along with her GOP turncoat sidekick Rep. Adam Kinzinger, was put on this partisan panel by Nancy Pelosi, the radical leftist House speaker, not by Kevin McCarthy, the House GOP leader, as is the norm for appointments to House committees  the House Democrat leaders names the Democrat committee members; the House GOP leader names the Republican committee members. What's more, several of her colleagues named by McCarthy, such as Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan, who might have asked tough questions on the panel, were excluded.

Cheney does not mention in her op-ed that leader McCarthy's Republican choices for what is, really, the Pelosi panel were vetoed by Pelosi  lending an aspect of irony to the panel as a "select committee, with all members "selected" by the radically partisan speaker. Cheney does not mention that Reps. Jordan and Banks, not Cheney and Kinzinger, were the Republicans that House GOP leader McCarthy wanted on this "select committee." That Cheney did not mention how Speaker Pelosi herself tainted the "process" creating the "Jan. 6" panel must reflect the highest form of political chutzpah  or, in a word, lying.

While Cheney, in her Journal op-ed, held herself back from calling "Jan. 6" an "insurrection," Peggy (I never missed an opportunity to slyly slam Trump) Noonan resorted to the "i" word in her Feb. 10 Journal column, with gusto.

Among other things, Noonan endorsed Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell's recent use of the invidious term  in an anti-Trumpian context.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has it right: It was a violent insurrection meant to stop a constitutionally mandated process. Investigate, air, absorb, understand, vow  and walk forward into better history.

The title of this Noonan op-ed was "Republicans, Stand against Excess," and she hectored mightily:

It is your job to see this moment for what it is and be serious. It is not your job to be extreme  to pose for Christmas photos with your family including little children fully armed with guns in order to troll the libs, as two members of Congress did. It is not your job to call the events of Jan. 6, the riot in the Capitol, "legitimate political discourse."

When it comes to an opportunity to derail another Trump presidential candidacy, Ms. Peggy is all for polemical excess.

Noonan continued her penchant for anti-Trumpian excess by going on to denounce the Republican Party led by the former president as "a cult," reasoning that "[c]ults are by definition marginal, not of the majority." Alas, Ms. Noonan got her comeuppance on this point by means of a poll reported the past weekend in the New York Post.

According to that poll, fifty percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents want the former president to run in 2024; forty-nine percent prefer that he not seek the presidency again. On the Democrat side, a CNN poll shows that 45 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents want Biden to run for a second term, but 51 percent want another candidate in 2024. By Noonan's measure, it would appear that Biden, not Trump, leads a political cult.

Caricature by DonkeyHotey via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
With revelations from the Durham special counsel's investigation that the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 paid tech executives to spy on the Trump campaign, the Trump residence, and then the Trump presidency, many political watchers think significant indictments are probably coming as a result of it. The tech executive, for one, has fired back at Durham, which, if nothing else, signals how big of trouble he might be in. John Ratcliffe, President Trump's former director of National Intelligence, thinks "significant" indictments are coming.

Adam Housley, a former Fox News correspondent who apparently still has some impressive contacts, tweeted out a couple of candidates, and boy, do they have...histories:

High level non political sources telling me that the Durham investigation has a lot of names being looked attwo names to keep an eye onJake Sullivan and Colin Kahl.. both being looked at very closelyboth of em nose deep.  Adam Housley (@adamhousley) February 14, 2022

Who is Kahl? He was Joe Biden's former "national security adviser" during the Obama years, a malevolent character who was known for his nasty tweets against Republicans. We thought he'd disappeared years ago into the swamps of academia. However, it appears he's still active in a non-stop bid to trash Republicans.

Kahl has since gotten himself a perch at the U.S. Department of Defense, in the number-three post. He has the same smug, smarmy expression on his face as his BFF, former Obama administration national security deputy secretary Ben Rhodes, a creative writing major who ended up in the national security establishment, too, and whose real value to Obama was in his capacity for lies and domestic political dirty tricks:

Housley is getting information that he was somehow involved in the campaign of spying against the Trump campaign and Trump administration and could be an indictment target for the Durham investigation presumably based on illegal activity.

Apparently, the Trump administration knew something was going on with these characters, who all seem to be interlinked, and it was on to them back in 2017.

This lip-curdling report from the New Yorker about the Trump administration suspecting something was written about by swamp writer Adam Entous this way, claiming it was all a conspiracy theory.

It was all in their heads:

In early 2017, some of Donald Trump's advisers concluded that they faced a sophisticated threat responsible for "coordinated attacks" on the new Administration. They circulated a memo, titled "The Echo Chamber," which read like a U.S. military-intelligence officer's analysis of a foreign-insurgent network. Instead of being about enemies in a distant war zone, however, the network described in the memo consisted of former aides to President Barack Obama. The memo claimed that the "communications infrastructure" that the Obama White House used to "sell Obamacare and the Iran Deal to the public" had been moved to the private sector, now that the former aides were out of government. It called the network the Echo Chamber and accused its members of mounting a coordinated effort "to undermine President Trump's foreign policy" through organized attacks in the press against Trump and his advisers. "These are the Obama loyalists who are probably among those coordinating the daily/weekly battle rhythm," the memo said, adding that they likely operated a "virtual war room." The memo lists Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national-security adviser to President Obama, as "likely the brain behind this operation" and Colin Kahl, Vice-President Joe Biden's former national-security adviser, as its "likely ops chief." Rhodes and Kahl both said in interviews that the allegations are false and no such organization exists.

Well.

It sounds as if maybe there was an "echo chamber" after all, and it kept busy.

Kahl and his sidekick, Jake Sullivan, currently in the national security adviser's slot in the Biden White House, both would have been in on this, and both have this history of dirty tricks against President Trump and his administration.

Kahl, for one, seemed to have been the mastermind behind the smear campaign directed at Sebastian Gorka, one of President Trump's top defense advisers and a man of impeccable integrity. They actually smeared him as a "Nazi," which was utterly false, and in the end, they managed to drive him on to other successful pursuits outside the White House, which deprived the U.S. of his significant talents.

Meanwhile, according to Townhall's Spencer Brown, Jake was up to no good whatsoever:

Well, here's what Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan  then Hillary for America's Senior Policy Advisor  said in reaction to a hit piece in Slate titled "Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia?" as he took a lead role in pushing the narrative. This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow. Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump's ties to Russia. It certainly seems the Trump Organization felt it had something to hide, given that it apparently took steps to conceal the link when it was discovered by journalists. This line of communication may help explain Trump's bizarre adoration of Vladimir Putin and endorsement of so many pro-Kremlin positions throughout this campaign. It raises even more troubling questions in light of Russia's masterminding of hacking efforts that are clearly intended to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign. We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia's meddling in our elections. Hillary's account then tweeted the statement and the hit job was complete.

Now, that's a loyal minion, someone who belongs out there with the ballot-harvesters and other slimy dirty-tricks political operatives who often get picked up by the state cops for stuffing ballot boxes. Instead, he got rewarded with the national security adviser's job.

Heckuva job, Jakey. Lucky America.

Like Sullivan, Kahl is also the sort of incompetent who ought never to have been brought near the levers of power in the Biden administration.

His appointment to the number-three spot in the Pentagon, responsible for military-civilian affairs, last year was approved in Congress with zero Republican votes.

He not only was rejected by the GOP House members because of his foul-tempered tweets, but had been the architect of the God-awful Obama-era Iran deal, which empowered the mullahs of Iran to pursue their nuclear weapons and made them cash-rich and happy. Like Joe Biden, whom he was "advising," Kahl had a horrible history of calling every foreign policy shot wrong, and he surpassed his record for that as he settled into his defense job. Kahl became the policy author of the Afghanistan pullout. He was the one who failed to plan for evacuating Americans (detailed here), leaving 9,000 Americans behind; he was the clod who ignored intelligence warnings of a mass casualty attack on one of the gates to Kabul Airport, which left 13 service members dead; and he may have been the bright bulb who decided to pull civilians out only after the military had departed the country.

The Washington Free Beacon details his incompetence here.

This exchange in Congress, shown on Twitter, shows what a cool liar he is  a man who could tell you black is white and keep at it against all evidence to the contrary:

.@ColinKahl is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the Biden regime. pic.twitter.com/lhJdAwzX0g  Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) October 26, 2021

What does this have to do with his domestic political dirty trickstering?

Probably a lot. Kahl was so incompetent and so damaging to the Biden administration that he tanked Biden's poll numbers to a point of no return with that Afghanistan pullout. He ought to have been fired on the spot, with a loud kick in the keister, if Joe wanted to save some remnant of his "legacy."

But he wasn't.

Might that be because of his political usefulness to Biden as a dirty trickster? Or that he knows where all the bodies are buried?

It's hard to explain why Biden has kept him on staff, given the damage he's done to not just America, but  important to Biden  Biden.

Biden still keeps him around despite all the damage he does.

Now we hear his name whispered in connection with political dirty tricks on a scale unknown in American politics.

Does this sound like someone who could be in Durham's spotlight? Hard to say.

The only thing we do know is that Biden isn't keeping this clown on staff for his talents. He obviously has some other purpose.

Image: Official photo.
America has a serious Russia-China issue if Russia-Ukraine tensions escalate into military operations. The reconnaissance hacking that has occurred for upwards of a decade has provided Russia and China  who recently struck an alliance declaring a "new era," where the United States will be challenged as a global power and NATO as the "cornerstone of international security"  the ability to remotely cause instantaneously destruction by ushering in a new era of cyber-warfare.

The territorial ambitions we see with both Russia, in its desire to reclaim a former Soviet territory that formally held the world's third-largest nuclear stockpile, and China, which has repeatedly tweaked the U.S. in the period after the Afghanistan debacle, show the potential to spiral into a global conflict. China has continually threatened Taiwan over the past several months as a result of what the Chinese perceive as American weakness and a lack of desire to protect longtime allies.

These developments have the world sitting at the edge of its collective seats to see if Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's prediction, given in a Monday speech, that Wednesday will be the "day of the attack" materializes.

Should Russian aggression prompt an international response, this potentially sets the world on a path to global war. As this new Russian-Chinese alliance looks toward reclaiming sovereign nations that offer strategic advantages to Western countries, the battle lines will be set, with the allies of the new alliance, which includes cyber-powers Iran and North Korea, contributing an element of explosive instability to an already dicey situation.

Although America finds itself outside the immediate line of fire, there are a number of dangers presented by the worst-case cyber-scenario. This is what the heads of agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) have long feared.

And that fear is justified, as for about a decade, both China's and Russia's militaries, alongside their intelligence agencies and sponsored hackers known as Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), have continually conducted cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure targets globally, with a particular concentration on American targets.

Most of these reconnaissance operations, including the wide-ranging SolarWinds attack, have been well documented. Despite this, it is still not fully known how far attacks against America using this ill-gotten intelligence can go.

The hackers behind SolarWinds, the Russian APT Group Nobelium, easily hacked private companies including cyber-security firm FireEye and U.S. government agencies that include DHS and the Treasury Department, in addition to thousands of other entities, including ones operating in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Although some important government officials, including then-president Donald Trump, initially suspected China of being behind SolarWinds, the fact that the hack closely resembled Russian cyber-attacks against Ukrainian targets in the Petya/NotPetya hacks of 20152016 led most experts to then identify Russia as the culprit. Those Russian attacks against Ukraine also saw hackers use an update to a popular software program as the vector to install malware.

Chinese government-backed hackers pose a similar, if not more dangerous threat to America. In just the past several years, a 2018 incident targeted a U.S. Navy contractor working with America's submarine and underwater programs project with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island. In addition, an NSA document obtained by NBC News in 2015 revealed "more than 600 corporate, private or government 'Victims of Chinese Cyber Espionage' that were attacked over a five-year period, with clusters in America's industrial centers," according to a report.

The report specifically cited instances of Chinese attacks against America's critical infrastructure. Should the intelligence collected previously be used today, it could easily have a devastating impact on the U.S. from half a world away.

In late January, as the tensions between Russia and Ukraine were heating up, DHS issued a warning regarding potential cyber-attacks. In the time since, many attacks have materialized, although they pale in comparison to what could occur should Russia launch an attack against Ukraine. Such an attack is sure to provoke a massive global response that could lead to a series of Russian, and potentially Chinese counterattacks in the cyber-sphere.

Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, the editorial director for Reactionary Times, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cyber-security and politics, has been published by numerous websites, and he is regularly seen on national and international news programming.

Image via Pixnio.
When French-born but London-based civil and electrical engineer, Jules Albert Berly, traveled to Paris for the 1881 International Exposition of Electricity, he saw many wonderous exhibits such as incandescent lamps, the Theatrophone, the electric tramway, Graham Bells telephone, an electrical distribution network, an electric boat and many more fascinating cutting-edge technology of the time. But the thing that captivated him the most did not run on electricity. It ran on air.

Berly was entranced by a system of clocks that stood on graceful light iron pillars in the squares, at the corners of streets, and in other conspicuous positions about the city, as well as those in hotels, each keepingwhat was unusual in that ageaccurate time. These remarkable timekeepers were not powered or regulated by electricity, but by compressed air that was sent from a central station through wrought iron pipes to all public clocks operated in this fashion.

A multiple-faced pneumatic clock in the Place de la Madeleine, Paris.

This network of pneumatic clocks was first installed in Vienna in 1877 as a demonstration by two Austrian engineers, Viktor Antoine Popp and his co-worker Resch. Popp and Resch installed a number of clocks in public buildings and on lamp-posts in public thoroughfares, and kept them working uninterruptedly for a whole year. Popp and Resch then exhibited their system at the Paris Exhibition in 1878, where it attracted much attention, and the jury awarded them a silver medal. That same year, Popp and Resch obtained from the Paris municipal authorities the authorization to install a compressed air network to drive both public and private clocks.

The pneumatic clock network was not a power distribution network but a time distribution network, which synchronized a large number public clocks by sending a pulse of air every minute. The pipes ran through the sewers of the city, and the tunnels of the Metro and the RER, a commuter rail network serving Paris and its suburbs. Each clock contained a metal bellows which advanced a 60-tooth wheel by one tooth per minute. Compressed air from the plant left at a pressure of 15 to 45 pounds per square inch (about 1 to 3 atmospheres) for storage in a high-pressure air tank. From there it travelled through a pressure regulator to a low-pressure storage tank or accumulator. Its release was controlled by a distributing clock. The driving weights were lifted by compressed air to keep the clock running and on time. An automatic timing mechanism opened a valve to release a 20-second pulse of air every minute and then the valve closed for 40 seconds. The 20-second-on, 40-second-off cycle was repeated every minute. The pulse of air travelled to every receiving clock, be it in a private home or office or in a street or public building, and advanced the minute hand by one minute. The system worked uninterrupted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

A pneumatic clock in Paris.

By the time Jules Berly visited Paris for the International Exposition, nearly 20 miles of main pipes and 177 miles of branch and sub branch pipes had been laid, serving 750 houses and over 4,000 pneumatic clock.

The clocks served Paris exceptionally well until the great flood of 1910, when the Seine rose high enough to flood the compressed air plant and on 21 January 1910 at 10:53 a.m., the thousands of clocks on the system stopped. However, the system was repaired and pneumatic clocks continued to work until 1927, when the invention of accurate mechanical and electric clocks made the need for a central synchronization clock obsolete, and the service was discontinued.

References:

# The Paris Pneumatic Clock Network, Museum of Retro Technology

# Norman Ball, A question of time, Parisian Fields

# Jules Albert Berly, The Distribution of Time by a System of Pneumatic Clocks, The American Architect and Building News
(Image source from: siasat.com)

TRS Chief and Telangana Chief Minister KCR is keen on a third national front to compete with BJP and Congress in the upcoming elections in 2024. KCR on Sunday made some sensational statements against the ruling BJP and asked the people to vote for the right one in the next elections. He also revealed that several regional leaders are keen to join hands with him for the third front in the country. As per the update, KCR is keen to arrange a meeting soon in Hyderabad with the Chief Ministers of the states that are ruled by the regional parties. KCR will soon meet Uddhav Thackeray, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. KCR also spoke to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin recently over the phone.

MK Stalin confirmed about joining the Chief Ministers meeting soon in Delhi arranged by Mamata Banerjee. She also called KCR over the phone and the meeting will take place soon. KCR said that there are several prominent political leaders who are keen to join the front. Mamata Banerjee also said that Congress has nothing to do with their new alliance and Congress can go on its way. Mamata says that the country's constitution is demolished and we all need to come together to protect it. KCR made some strong comments on BJP and Union Minister Kishan Reddy condemned them. "I strongly condemn the irresponsible statement made by KCR against the Armed Forces of the country" told Kishan Reddy.
(Image source from: timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

The entire Indian cinema is looking towards Tollywood and our actors, directors are in huge demand. The upcoming movies of all the stars will have a pan-Indian release. Ram Charan made his Hindi debut with Zanjeer years ago but the film's result made him quit his pan-Indian plans. Charan is now all set to test his luck with RRR and the film will get a wide release in Hindi. His next with Shankar and Gautam's time travel project too will head for a pan-Indian release next year

Charan and Upasana bought a lavish bungalow in Mumbai and the house warming ceremony took place recently. Charan during his breaks is spending time in Mumbai. The actor met several Bollywood filmmakers and is discussing scripts. He is also keen to make his debut into digital space and is in hunt for the right script. Top digital platform Netflix is keen to lock Ram Charan for an original and the actor is keen to take up the final call after hearing the script. Charan is also holding talks with some of the top Bollywood production houses for his future projects.
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Tunisia: Djerba to host aerospace and defense fair Second edition announced on May 11-15

(ANSAmed) -TUNIS, FEBRUARY 15 - The international airport of Djerba-Zarzis will host on May 11-15 the second edition of the International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition Iade Tunisia 2022.



Over 42 official delegations from different countries are expected to attend, the company organizing the event announced on its website. The company added that the event is mainly dedicated to investments and the development of the African market and vies to attract business-related tourism by sharing know-how and knowledge in innovation in aerospace and defense.



"Iade Tunisia will provide different opportunities to meet leading international actors in the aerospace and defense industry to expand networks and build new partnerships", a statement said.



"The event will present over 200 exhibitors from around the world and will host a great number of African delegations and decision-makers from Tunisia, Africa and the Middle East. This base of companies is part of development plans covering a wide range of aerospace and defense activities", the same source said.



The first edition of the fair was organized between March 4 and 8, 2020, also at the airport of Djerba-Zarzis, and it was a success at a professional level with the presence of the main actors of the aerospace industry, as well as the public, with the organization of various air-shows. (ANSAmed) (ANSA).




Bahrain: activists in Beirut commemorate 2011 crackdown Wifaq party hosted in stronghold of Lebanese Hezbollah

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 15 - Activists from Bahrain and members of the Shiite party Wifaq, which is considered illegal in Manama, met in the southern outskirts of Beirut, in the stronghold of the pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah, to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the anti-government mobilization in the small Gulf emirate allied to Saudi Arabia.



The protests erupted in 2011 in Manama's Pearl Square in the wake of anti-government demonstrations between 2010 and 2011 organized across various Arab countries, from the Atlantic to the Gulf. The mobilization in Pearl Square, however, was identified by many as hostile to the Khalifa Sunni royal family by Shiite groups of the population of Bahrain. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent troops to Manama to crack down on the protests, supported instead by neighbor Iran. Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government with a few ministers and leads the majority coalition in the Lebanese parliament, supports Wifaq's cause.



In the context of the ideological and political clash opposing Iran and its allies on one side, and Saudi Arabia with its allies on the other, Arab countries of the Gulf allied to Riyadh have intensified, over the past few months, pressure on Hezbollah and the Lebanese government. Over the past few weeks, Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, at Manama's request, ordered to expel members of Wifaq in Beirut, while he did not oppose the public commemoration organized yesterday by Wifaq in Beirut and supported by Hezbollah. (ANSAmed).




Caravaggio's Salome exhibited at Royal Palace in Madrid One of artist's four masterworks in Spain

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, FEBRUARY 15 - Caravaggio's Salome with the Head of John the Baptist will be exhibited starting on Tuesday at the Royal Palace in Madrid, the institution in charge of the country's heritage Patrimonio Nacional has announced. It is one of four masterworks universally attributed to Merisi that are currently in Spain.



The painting will have a dedicated space in the room called 'Gabinete de Estucos'. It will be on display for all tourists visiting the Royal Palace without an additional cost to the regular ticket.



Painted c. 1607 and associated to the last phase of Caravaggio's artistic production, the artwork became part of the collection of the Spanish royal family in the second half of the 17th century. It was restored twice.



The new exhibition of Caravaggio's painting is organized as Spain is studying another painting that is currently attributed to Merisi: it is an Ecce Homo initially put up for auction in April 2021 for 1,500 euros whose sale was blocked. It was declared artwork of cultural interest by Spanish authorities. It is now being evaluated by experts to ascertain its authenticity.



"We all know that Caravaggio is at the center of renewed interest", explained Leticia Ruiz, the director of collections of the Spanish crown. "Both the public and specialists were asking us to be able to see such an important painting with ease and permanently", she added, talking about the Salome. The new exhibition is organized under the patronage of the Foundation Tatiana Perez de Guzman el Bueno. (ANSAmed).




BELGRADE - Belgrade has firmly protested for the attack last night in Kosovo against two young Serbians. The incident, according to media reports, occurred in a village near Lipljan (center), where a teen and his friend, aged 16 and 17, were insulted and attacked by a man who spoke Albanian. The pair fled, followed by the man, until they reached the home of the young Serbian girl. The attacker tried to break into the house and police was alerted.

The Serbian government office for Kosovo, in a statement, denounced the umpteenth episode of ethnically-motivated aggression against Serbians of Kosovo, stating that EU special envoy Miroslav Lajcak will be informed. The population of Kosovo of about 2 million is mainly constituted of ethnic Albanians of Muslim religion while Serbians, Orthodox Christians, are just over 100,000, mainly in northern Kosovo and in enclaves in the country.

Serbia does not recognize the independence proclaimed by Pristina on February 17, 2008, and continues to consider Kosovo a part of its territory. A dialogue facilitated by the EU on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, which started in 2011, has stalled due to the distance of respective positions.
Lebanon: $10 mn for information on Hezbollah member, U.S. Salim Ayyash sentenced in absentia for Hariri's murder

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 15 - Ten million dollars have been offered to anyone providing information on Salim Ayyash, a leading member of Lebanese Shiite armed movement Hezbollah, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for killing in 2005in Beirut the former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, the US State Department has announced.



In Beirut, a commemoration was held yesterday for the 17th anniversary of the murder of Hariri and 21 others in a dynamite attack carried out on the waterfront of the Lebanese capital.



Washington considers pro-Iranian Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. After several years of trial, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), based in the Netherlands, sentenced in December 2020 in absential Salim Ayyash to life in prison after he was found guilty of taking part in a "plot" to kill the former Lebanese premier. The other four leading members of Hezbollah who were also tried in absentia by the tribunal were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The STL also could not establish ties between the leadership of Hezbollah and Ayyash.



(ANSAmed).




Serbia: in Belgrade new protest against lithium mine During solemn ceremony for Serbian national holiday

(ANSAmed) - BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 15 - A new demonstration by environmentalist groups opposing potential projects on a lithium mine in western Serbia was organized on Tuesday in Belgrade.



Demonstrators said they were still dissatisfied with the decision recently announced by authorities to set aside a project for the mine conceived by the industrial group Rio Tinto, and asked the government to prohibit by law and permanently any type of study, research and extraction in Serbia of lithium and other sensitive minerals.



Today's demonstration was held in front of Palace Serbia, while a solemn ceremony was ongoing. During the ceremony, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic - on a national holiday - gave dozens of honors to leading members of politics, the economy, culture, sport and performing arts.



The protest lasted about two hours and ended without reported incidents, except for protesters by drivers who were angry at road blocks imposed in the area. Some demonstrators have been protesting for days in front of the presidency in Belgrade, with tents set up in the park in front of the building. (ANSAmed).




BEIRUT - Activists from Bahrain and members of the Shiite party Wifaq, which is considered illegal in Manama, met in the southern outskirts of Beirut, in the stronghold of the pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah, to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the anti-government mobilization in the small Gulf emirate allied to Saudi Arabia.

The protests erupted in 2011 in Manama's Pearl Square in the wake of anti-government demonstrations between 2010 and 2011 organized across various Arab countries, from the Atlantic to the Gulf. The mobilization in Pearl Square, however, was identified by many as hostile to the Khalifa Sunni royal family by Shiite groups of the population of Bahrain. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent troops to Manama to crack down on the protests, supported instead by neighbor Iran. Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government with a few ministers and leads the majority coalition in the Lebanese parliament, supports Wifaq's cause.

In the context of the ideological and political clash opposing Iran and its allies on one side, and Saudi Arabia with its allies on the other, Arab countries of the Gulf allied to Riyadh have intensified, over the past few months, pressure on Hezbollah and the Lebanese government. Over the past few weeks, Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, at Manama's request, ordered to expel members of Wifaq in Beirut, while he did not oppose the public commemoration organized yesterday by Wifaq in Beirut and supported by Hezbollah.
Expo Dubai is invitation for future together, Erdogan Turkish president visits event

(ANSAmed) - DUBAI, FEBRUARY 15 - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the opening speech for Turkish national day at Expo 2020 Dubai said he considers "Expo Dubai as the first universal exhibition hosted by an Arab country, an invitation to build a new future together". He also congratulated the United Arab Emirates for the successful organization of the event, he said. "One of the jobs that reflects the exemplary progress of the Emirates is without a doubt Expo Dubai", he said. "I find the theme of the event, 'Connecting minds, creating the future' as extremely significant. We should think about a more luminous future together, acting together and uniting to reach it", said the Turkish president, stressing how "disasters and challenges confronted by the world, especially in the fields of the environment and health, bring us to look for solutions together to reach for sustainability in any field, from agriculture to energy, from the environment to the economy".



Erdogan's visit to Expo comes as part of a two-day trip to the United Arab Emirates. Before the ceremony, Erdogan met at Expo with the emir of Dubai and premier of the Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The emir tweeted that Erdogan's visit "established a new phase of cooperation and strategic partnership between the United Arab Emirates and Turkey", highlighting the "great perspectives" in economic relations and development between the two countries.



At the end of the opening ceremony of Turkey's day at Expo, Erdogan visited the pavilion of the United Arab Emirates.



The Turkish president visited the exhibition in the afternoon, after attending in the morning a business forum in Abu Dhabi, at which he urged Emirati entrepreneurs to invest in Turkey, as part of the historic visit to the Gulf country, the first after nearly 10 years. The trip marks the end of a long period of tension between Ankara and Abu Dhabi, which signed yesterday 13 agreements of cooperation, memoranda and protocols, including a letter of intent on cooperation in defense.



(ANSAmed).




Greece: authorities take legal action against Lesvos protestors Government accused of getting political over migrant camp unrest

(ANSA) - ATHENS, 15 FEB - Greece's opposition party Syriza accused the government of creating "a political and major constitutional issue" after police on Lesvos launched legal action against members of the local government and the local trade union organization for the protests against the construction of a new Closed Controlled Access Center for migrants on the island Four people were arrested on Lesvos last Friday after violence broke out during a protest against the plans to start the building work on the new migrant camp.



Following several peaceful marches to the site at Plati, which is 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the island's capital, Mytilene, a small group of protesters set fire to earth-moving machinery being used by a contractor who has started work on the 87.5 million-euro ($100 million) project, which is funded by the EU.



A police statement last week said the four suspects face charges including attempted grievous bodily harm, arson and property destruction. It said another six people who allegedly participated in the violence had also been identified.



The site is due to be completed by September and it will have capacity to house up to 3,000 migrants and asylum-seekers.



Three of the four arrested are community leaders who took part in the protests, while one is also a member of the Labor Center board who had initially called for a protest rally last Monday. The municipal councilor of the People's Rally of the coalition supported by the KKE party is also involved, according to local media..



In a joint statement, Olga Gerovasili, the minister of Administrative Reconstruction for SYRIZA, and the head of the party's Immigration Policy, George Psychogios, said: "These people are being prosecuted because they dared to stand tall against the plans of the Prime Minister [Kyriakos] Mitsotakis' government." Obviously acts of vandalism and arson cannot be condoned, and local media outlet 'Sto Nisi' reported that it was important to note that far right factions were present at the demonstration which took place, stating: "Elements of the far right, operating undisturbed in parallel with the main body of protesters, proceeded to arson and destruction." Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), a non-profit organization.operating in the region, said that the government was "ignoring the voices of the islanders and are proceeding with its plan for the construction of the two superstructures on both Chios and Lesvos".



This, RSA states, despite the fact that a large part of the land where the new structure is planned to be built has been designated as a forest area and is also close to a landfill site.



The local Fire Service of the island is also opposed to the construction of the new structure in this area due to the high risks of fire in the adjacent forest area, while a Forest Service opinion considered the construction of a new fire zone outside the new structure a prerequisite.



This is not the first time there has been trouble on Lesvos with the government facing very vocal and active local opposition. In the wake of this latest tussle, local authorities on Lesvos are backing the protests and have threatened to challenge the national Greek government in court to try to halt the project. (ANSA).




Malta endangers migrants' lives, Council of Europe Valletta must suspend cooperation with Libya, Mijatovic

(ANSAmed) - STRASBOURG, FEBRUARY 15 - The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic has said in a report that Malta's choices in managing migration flows "continue to constitute a major risk for the respect of human rights, including to life, of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the central Mediterranean". The report was drafted after a visit to Malta carried out last October.



Mijatovic also criticized Valletta's collaboration with Libya, stating that "Malta must suspend it until Libyan authorities will not be able to show that they respect the human rights of migrants". (ANSAmed)
Tunisia: U.S. concerned by Saied's dissolution Superior Council Says State Department spokesperson Ned Price

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, FEBRUARY 15 - US State Department spokesperson Ned Price spoke about the recent decision taken by Tunisian President Kais Saied to dissolve the Superior Council of the Judiciary expressing Washington's "deep concern". "Last week, we joined partners who think in the same way in stressing that an independent judiciary is a fundamental element of an effective and transparent democracy", he said.



A temporary council was set up during the phase of institutional emergency experienced by the North African country. Concern has also been expressed by European Union countries and the EU. (ANSAmed).




Turkey: 'Israeli president to visit Erdogan on March 9-10' Meeting part of normalization of relations

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 15 - Israeli President Isaac Herzog will travel to Turkey for an official visit on March 9-10 to meet with Turkish head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as part of the normalization process of relations between the two countries, according to independent Turkish website T24.



Herzog's visit has not been officially confirmed yet while several Turkish media outlets report that, as part of preparations for the meeting, Erdogan's spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, and deputy foreign minister, Sedat Onal, will travel tomorrow to Israel and Palestine, where a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been scheduled.



On January 18, Erdogan announced the intention of normalizing relations between Turkey and Israel, saying Herzog was planning a visit to Ankara. On that occasion, the Turkish president revealed that, in the past, talks were held for a collaboration between Israel and Turkey to bring gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe and that he would like to reopen dialogue on this cooperation, especially after Washington's withdrawal from a gas pipeline (EastMed) that was never built and on which an agreement was found between Greece, Cyprus and Israel.



Due to Ankara's firm support for the Palestinian cause, relations with Israel, especially with the administration of former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, were for over 10 years and brought to the reciprocal withdrawal of the countries' respective ambassadors on several occasions.



After President Herzog and Premier Naftali Bennett took office, Erdogan expressed willingness to establish a new relationship with the Israeli leadership. (ANSAmed).




A British scientist will collect her damehood for helping to create the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine credited with saving millions of lives around the world.

Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert will receive the honour for services to science and public health in Covid vaccine development at a ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.

The professor of vaccinology at Oxford University co-created the jab which has been used by more than 2.5 billion people in more than 170 countries.

Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, one of the creators of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine (Steve Parsons/PA)

The 59-year-old has previously received massive praise for her work, including being given an impromptu standing ovation from the crowd at Wimbledon when she attended the tournament last summer.

The mother of triplets was also honoured by toymaker Mattel which launched a Barbie doll in her image.

Classical pianist Dame Imogen Cooper will receive her damehood for services to music.

Dame Imogen was a recipient of the Queens Medal for Music in recognition of her major influence on the musical life of the nation. Through her Imogen Cooper Music Trust, she also gives scholarships to promising young musicians.

Dame Imogen Cooper at Buckingham Palace, where she was presented with the Queens Medal for Music (Aaron Chown/PA)

Conductor Daniel Harding and pianist and composer Eleanor Alberga are also to collect their honours.

Artist Michael Landy, of the Young British Artists movement, will receive a CBE for services to art.

Mr Landy is best known for Break Down, a piece of performance art in which he systematically destroyed all his belongings, and for Art Bin, in Camberwell, south London, where people could bring their artistic failures for assessment by Mr Landy and which were dumped in a vast skip if he deemed the pieces were not worth saving.

Sculptor Veronica Ryan will be given an OBE for services to art.

Ms Ryans work is exhibited in the Tate and she was commissioned by Hackney Council to make a public sculpture to celebrate the Windrush generation, unveiled in a Hackney street in October.

Motorcycle racer John McGuinness, who is hoping to win his 24th TT race in the Isle of Man in the summer, is due to collect his MBE for services to motorcycle racing.
Boris Johnson has said there are mixed signals coming out of Russia about the prospect of an invasion of Ukraine  but an avenue for diplomacy remains open.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also said he was prepared for further talks with the US and Nato to ease tensions in eastern Europe.

Following a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee, Mr Johnson suggested there is a diplomatic opening to resolve the crisis without a war.

But the Russians have the preparations in place to launch an invasion at virtually any time, he added, despite claims from Moscow that forces were being scaled down following the conclusion of military exercises near the Ukrainian border.

The Prime Minister said the intelligence he has received about Russian military activity is not encouraging, with the construction of field hospitals and the movement of extra forces closer to the border suggesting preparations are still being made for an invasion.

Soldiers practice at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground during the Union Courage-2022 military drills in Belarus (Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russias defence ministry said some troops and equipment were returning to base following military drills.

But Mr Johnson said intelligence suggests you have got more battalion tactical groups being brought closer to the border.

So, mixed signals, I think, at the moment, he said.

Responding to reports that US intelligence sources believe an invasion could commence at 3am local time  1am in the UK  on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said: We think they have a huge preparation ready to go at virtually any time  130,000 troops or more, a huge number of battalions  more than 90 battalion tactical groups  and they are stationed around the Ukrainian border.

There are signs of a diplomatic opening with Russia, but the intelligence we are seeing today is not encouraging. We have a tough package of sanctions ready if Russia chooses war. We maintain that diplomacy and de-escalation is the only way forward. pic.twitter.com/JHveOHxIko  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 15, 2022

He suggested Mr Putin could order a strike from Belarus, through eastern Ukraine or up from southern Ukraine through Odesa and Kherson.

There a lot of options that they have, he said.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss suggested a false flag operation could be launched within days to give Moscow the pretext to launch an offensive.

But Mr Johnson said the UKs embassy in Kyiv will remain open, despite the risk of an invasion and the decisions made by allies to close their diplomatic missions in the capital.

Still in Kyiv. Continuing to work at  Embassy to help British Nationals and support  pic.twitter.com/s0tjLixGW1  Melinda Simmons (@MelSimmonsFCDO) February 15, 2022

Mr Putin, speaking following talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow, said he was ready for negotiations with the US and the Nato alliance on limits for missile deployments and military transparency.

But he said Nato was rejecting Moscows demands to take membership of the alliance off the table for Ukraine and other former Soviet nations, halt weapons deployments near Russias borders and scale back force levels in eastern Europe.

Mr Putin said Russia did not want war, adding: This is exactly why we put forward the proposal to start the negotiation process, where the result should be an agreement of ensuring equal security of everyone, including our country.

Unfortunately there was no constructive response to this proposal.

But he said there are still elements that can be discussed.

Nato general secretary Jens Stoltenberg said the door remains open for Ukraine to join the alliance.

Mr Johnson called on Russia to withdraw its battalions away from the potential theatre of conflict and give a sense that things are being scaled back, scaled down, that the threat is over and that a conversation and negotiation is beginning.

He warned that if Russia does invade, a tough package of sanctions will target Russian money in the UK.

That means Russian banks, Russian companies and taking extra steps to unpeel the facade of Russian property holdings and corporate ownership in the UK.

It would also prevent Russian firms from raising capital on Londons financial markets.

(PA Graphics)

Mr Stoltenberg said there was cause for cautious optimism in resolving the Ukraine crisis peacefully.

But he also questioned Russias claims to have withdrawn troops, telling a press conference in Brussels: So far we have not seen any de-escalation on the ground  not seen any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said military drills are held on (Russias) own territory and according to its own plans  they start, go on and end as planned.

The exercises are held to a schedule regardless of who thinks what and who gets hysterical about it, who is deploying real informational terrorism, he said.

Ukraines foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said: When we see troops pulling out, well believe in de-escalation.
Puri: Keeping in view the declining trend of COVID-19 infections across the country, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has decided that from February 21 devotees will not be required to carry double-dose vaccination certificate to enter the 12th shrine, a top official of the SJTA said.

Based on the opinion of the Chhattisa Nijog (apex body of servitors) meeting, it has been decided to withdraw mandatory production of complete vaccination certificate or negative RT-PCRT test report by devotees from February 21 for entry into the Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri, SJTA chief Administrator Krishan Kumar said on Monday.

He said the decision is taken keeping in view the decline in the COVID-19 cases and peoples' sentiment. "Most of the people have been administered vaccine at least twice, the temple administration has decided to relax the curbs," Kumar said.

The temple was reopened for public on February 1 after a brief closure of 20 days. Now devotees were required to bring their photo ID card, along with final certificate for COVID-19 vaccination or negative RT-PCR test report within 98 hours prior to the visit to the temple.

The SJTA chief administrator said that devotees will not be required to carry double-dose vaccination certificate to visit the temple from February 21. Also devotes are not needed to take RT-PCR certificate to go inside the temple.

The decision has been taken at the Chhatisa Nijog meeting where Kumar was present to discuss the preparations for President Ram Nath Kovind's visit to the temple on February 19.

As most people have received the double dose of Covid vaccine, the Chhatisa Nijog decided to do away with the final vaccination certificate norm for the devotees. However, mask wearing is mandatory for devotees visiting the temple, Kumar added.

He said the shrine will remain closed for two hours on February 19 in view of President Ram Nath Kovind's visit to the Temple on February 19.

Kovind is scheduled to visit the temple from 5 pm to 5.45 pm on February 19. The temple will remain closed for the general public from 4 pm till 6 pm, the SJTA said in a statement.

Puri SP K V Singh said that around 40 platoons (1 platoon comprise 30 personnel) of force will be deployed during the President's visit to the pilgrim town.

Puri District Collector Samarth Verma said that elaborate measures have been taken for the President's visit on February 19.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has paid tribute to Ivan Reitman, describing him as comedy royalty, following the directors death age 75.

The former bodybuilder and actor said Reitman was a mensch  meaning a person of honour and integrity  and that he had a way of making himself a part of your story.

The director and producer behind the original Ghostbusters in 1984 died on Saturday at his home in Montecito, California.

Sharing several pictures of the pair on Instagram, Schwarzenegger wrote: Ivan Reitman is a legend. In Hollywood, he was bigger than life. He was comedy royalty.

In life, he was a mensch  a wonderful father and husband, a fantastic friend, a great human being. He was kind, he was generous, he was smart as hell, and he was always there for you.

If you knew him, Ivan had a way of making himself a part of your story, and he certainly wrote a chunk of mine.

Schwarzenegger, who starred in multiple films directed by Reitman including Twins, Junior and Kindergarten Cop, said he was indebted to the director for helping him launch his comedy career.

Ill always be grateful that he took a chance on this Austrian action-hero in a comedy during a time when the studios just wanted me to focus on finding new ways to kill bad guys, blow things up, and show off some muscles, he said.

I knew I could make it in comedy, but I needed someone else to know it to make it a reality.

He added: I cant believe I wont work with him again or hang out with him again or just schmooze about life again.

The director and producer behind the original Ghostbusters in 1984 died on Saturday at his home in Montecito, California (Evan Agostini/AP)

But I also know that Ivan isnt gone, hes still with us. Hes here, in so many pages of my story.

The Czechoslovakia-born filmmaker was best known for his comedy films and received his big break when he produced the college fraternity film National Lampoons Animal House in 1978.

Following his death tributes were paid by fellow members of the industry, including his filmmaker son Jason Reitman, who recently directed 2021s Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Sharing a black and white photo of himself and his father Mr Reitman said he had lost my hero and that all he wanted was the chance to tell my father one more story.

Reitman directed Bill Murray in his first starring role in the summer camp flick Meatballs in 1979, and then again in 1981s Stripes.

Ive lost my hero. All I want is the chance to tell my father one more story. He came from a family of survivors and turned his legacy into laughter. Thank you for the kind messages. Enjoy his movies and remember his storytelling gifts. Nothing would make him happier. pic.twitter.com/tSijfxSnLg  Jason Reitman (@JasonReitman) February 14, 2022

He was also known for directing Twins in 1988, Kindergarten Cop in 1990, Dave in 1993 and Junior in 1994, and produced numerous other films including Beethoven in 1992 and Space Jam in 1996.

Reitman was born in Komarno, Czechoslovakia in 1946 but later moved to Canada as a child with his family.

He studied music and drama at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and began making movie shorts.
A Florida deputy was fired and arrested after an investigation revealed his alleged role in an effort to frame an innocent man, authorities said.

Former Lee County Sheriff's Office deputy Niko Irizarry, 25, was arrested Friday on a charge of felony official misconduct. He was terminated that same day after being placed on leave, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said.

The charge against Irizarry stems from a Dec. 16 arrest when the deputy took a man into custody on narcotics charges, the sheriff said Friday at a news conference.

In early January, internal affairs received a complaint that led the sheriff's office to believe that the arrest was unlawful. An investigation found that Irizarry conspired with two other men, Charles Custodio and Scott Snider, to arrest the victim because Custodio "had a personal hatred" for the victim, Marceno said.

Custodio allegedly obtained a large number of drugs and gave them to Snider, the sheriff said. Snider then posed as a real estate client and met up with the victim, who worked as a real estate broker.

After Snider planted the drugs in the victim's car, Custodio contacted Irizarry and provided the victim's location so the deputy could make the arrest, the sheriff said.

The task force conducted a thorough investigation revealing an elaborate conspiracy to plant illegal drugs in the victims vehicle and arrange for a traffic stop on that vehicle after the drugs were planted," Marceno said. "The task force utilized state-of-the-art technology  to reveal the true names of those involved to identify and access bogus email accounts and text messages.

Irizarry and Custodio were arrested in Lee County and Snider was arrested in Texas.

Custodio and Snider were both charged with trafficking in fentanyl, possession of a controlled substance, and conspiracy, according to the sheriff.

Attorney information was not available for either of the men.

The union representing the sheriffs office declined to comment.

Marceno said Irizarry joined the office in 2018 and left briefly to go to another agency before returning in 2020. He did not have any previous disciplinary actions with the Lee County Sheriff's Office.
Mayor Adams is eyeing former City Councilman Fernando Cabrera for a faith-based position in his administration, the Daily News has learned, outraging LGBTQ advocates concerned about Cabreras history of anti-gay views.

Cabrera, a socially conservative Democrat who represented a section of the Bronx in the Council between 2010 and 2021, was initially considered by Adams to head the Mayors Office of Community Mental Health, which has an annual budget of more than $300 million. The mayor abandoned that plan, first reported by Politico, amid intense backlash from LGBTQ activists earlier this month.

But Adams divulged in a private meeting with state lawmakers Monday that hes moving ahead with potentially hiring Cabrera in another capacity, according to two people familiar with the matter.

He said that Fernando Cabrera has something to offer and mentioned faith-based initiatives as his new position, said one of the sources, who was in the room.

Adams made the revelation in response to a question about Cabrera from state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), according to the sources.

Hoylman, whos gay, in turn pushed back and told Adams that Cabrera is a bigot and has no place in City Hall, the sources said.

[Adams] basically responded that, We can agree to disagree, and that this is his administration and that he can do what he wants, the person who was in the room said.

Cabrera did not respond to phone calls or texts Tuesday, and an Adams spokesman declined to comment. Hoylman, who represents most of lower Manhattan and parts of Midtown, also declined to comment.

Former New York City Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx)





Former New York City Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx) (Angus Mordant/)

Word of Cabreras potential appointment comes on the heels of Adams launching the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnership, which will serve as a conduit between city government, the faith-based community throughout New York City and nonprofit organizations, according to a press release.

It was not immediately clear if Adams is considering Cabrera for a post in that office  but Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC President Rose Christ urged the mayor to not give the ex-councilman any sort of job.

It would be disappointing to see him in any role in city government. Our taxpayer dollars shouldnt go to cover the salary of a bigoted homophobe, said Christ, who served as an adviser on Adams transition team committee on equity.

Allen Roskoff, a longtime gay rights activist in the city and co-founder of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, said the idea of Cabrera in a faith-based position is equally as unacceptable as him running the mental health office.

Allen Roskoff, a gay rights advocate, speaks during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.





Allen Roskoff, a gay rights advocate, speaks during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin/)

How is he going to deal with LGBTQ people of faith? How is he going to deal with a gay synagogue? How is he going to deal with gay Catholics? Roskoff said. What is this mayor thinking? Has he no consideration for us? Its a big FU to the LGBTQ community.

Cabrera, a pastor at the New Life Outreach International church, has been a vocal opponent of gay and abortion rights for years.

He drew incredibly intense ire from LGBTQ people when he traveled to Uganda in 2014 and praised its notoriously homophobic government for not caving to U.S. economic pressure over its bans on gay marriage and abortion.

The United States of America has put pressure; It has told Uganda, We are not going to fund you anymore unless you allow gay marriage, and they have stood in their place. Why? Because the Christians have assumed the place of decision-making for the nation. Abortions are illegal here  things that Christians really stand for. Why? Because the Christians here took the opportunity to take their rightful place, Cabrera says in a video from his trip posted to YouTube.

During Cabreras visit, Ugandas government had passed a law that made homosexuality illegal and punishable by life in prison. The bill was infamously referred to as the Kill the Gays Act because it initially contained a clause making homosexuality a crime eligible for the death penalty.

Roskoff said its beyond the pale that Adams would even consider appointing Cabrera given his history.

Hes going to be remembered for this in the LGBTQ community, he said.
Boris Johnson has said there are mixed signals coming out of Russia about the prospect of an invasion of Ukraine after Moscow claimed to be withdrawing troops from near the border.

The Prime Minister said the intelligence he had received was not encouraging, with the construction of field hospitals and the movement of extra forces closer to the border with Ukraine suggesting preparations were being made for an invasion.

Following a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee, Mr Johnson suggested there was a diplomatic opening to resolve the crisis without a war.

But the Russians had the preparations in place to launch an invasion at virtually any time, he added.

A tank at the training ground during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus (Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP)

Speaking to reporters in Downing Street, Mr Johnson said: Last night going into today clearly there are signs of a diplomatic opening.

But he added that the intelligence that we are seeing today is still not encouraging, with Russian field hospitals being built close to Belaruss border with Ukraine.

That could only be construed as preparation for an invasion, the Prime Minister said.

Russias defence ministry said that some troops and equipment were returning to base from areas close to the border with Ukraine following the conclusion of military exercises.

But Mr Johnson said intelligence suggested you have got more battalion tactical groups being brought closer to the border.

So mixed signals, I think, at the moment, he said.
Demonstrators cook breakfast outside Canada's Parliament during a protest by truck drivers over pandemic health rules. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

Seated in an 18-wheeler, Tyler Armstrong vowed Monday that he would not vacate his coveted parking space in front of Canadas Parliament building until COVID-19 vaccination mandates and other pandemic restrictions were lifted.

His big rig is among scores of trucks and other vehicles that have been parked on Ottawas so-called Parliament Hill for more than two weeks as part of a protest against government measures meant to contain COVID-19.

Well stay here as long as we have to, said Armstrong, 25, as his girlfriend, Ashley Wapshaw, 26, nodded in agreement. This is about freedom.

The self-styled Freedom Convoy has largely paralyzed the Canadian capital and  along with allied blockades on Canadian border crossings to the United States  become a worldwide symbol of the backlash against pandemic constraints. Critics say the demonstrations disrupt commerce, ignore science and intimidate opponents.

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, under intense pressure to do something about the mounting crisis, invoked emergency powers in a bid to help dismantle the blockades. Among other steps, the federal Emergencies Act  invoked for the first time since its passage in 1988  could bolster police ranks and powers, compel towing firms to cooperate in removing vehicles, and facilitate the cancellation of licenses and insurance linked to trucks deployed in blockades.

We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue, Trudeau told reporters. These blockades are illegal and the time to go home is now.

The seeming ultimatum raises the stakes to new heights in what has become an increasingly tense standoff between the boisterous protest movement and the Trudeau government. Canada requires that unvaccinated Canadian truckers quarantine upon returning to Canada, and provinces across the country have varying rules in place mandating mask-wearing and showing proof of vaccination before entering restaurants and other venues.

A blockade of the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit and the Ontario city of Windsor was finally broken and traffic began flowing anew on the crucial commercial artery late Sunday after police moved in, arresting some demonstrators and towing away vehicles. President Biden had spoken to Trudeau two days earlier about the importance of reopening the Ambassador Bridge, a key span for auto manufacturers in both nations.

But Canada faces a much more daunting challenge in Ottawa, where hundreds of vehicles  many of them big rigs  anchor protests that sometimes include thousands of participants, dwarfing the gatherings along the border in Windsor, some 500 miles to the southwest.

The well-organized rallies in the capital feature stands offering free food and water, a stage where supporters extol the cause of freedom and regularly denounce Trudeaus Liberal government, and high-powered speakers blaring out rock and other music.

The capital protesters have vowed repeatedly not to leave until vaccine mandates, mask-wearing requirements and other rules are lifted permanently. Trudeau's tough talk did not seem to faze them.

Were not going anywhere until the mandates are gone and protections are in place so this kind of violation does not happen again, said Benita Pedersen, 43, a protest organizer. People have suffered for too long.

The demonstrators say they do not object to those who want to be vaccinated, wear masks or take other protective measures. But they assert that being forced to take such steps is coercive.

It should be up to the individual what they do, whether they get vaccinated or not, said Brooke West, 31, an office administrator who was among several hundred demonstrators gathered Monday outside Canadas ornate Parliament building. Thats our choice.

The protests have tapped into a worldwide fatigue with the restrictions meant to tame COVID-19.

Of course, people are tired, frustrated, sick of the pandemic, Trudeau said Monday. They want it to be over.

However, polls show that Canadians have generally supported restrictions meant to control COVID-19. About 85% of Canadians are fully vaccinated  compared with 65% in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins data  and Canada has about one-third the death rate of the United States from coronavirus.

While truckers have led the Canadian protests, participants have come to include people from a wide range of occupations and viewpoints. They have converged on Ottawa from throughout Canada, and include some U.S. citizens. Political views of the demonstrators seem to span the spectrum from far right to far left, with many in between. Others say they are apolitical except on the issue of freedom.

You really cant say its one political viewpoint, said David Paisley, 32, an organizer who spoke to a reporter in the Shack, a kind of control center built of plywood mountedatop a flatbed truck parked on Wellington Street, the main thoroughfare outside Parliament.

He and others say the convoy survives largely on donations and participants' funds and deny allegations that it is bank-rolled via right-wing groups in the United States. Conservatives such as former President Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have lauded the movement.

One aspect of new emergency authority would allow banks to freeze funds suspected of aiding the protests, an effort to thwart crowd-source financing. GoFundMe said it suspended forwarding money raised for the Canadian truckers because of police reports of violence.

Despite single-digit temperatures, many participants sleep in their trucks or in tents. Others stay at hotels or with friends or family.

People run jerry cans of diesel and gasoline to keep vehicles running. Participants seem to cooperate with police, who have made no concerted effort to evict them.

The overall mood is upbeat, something like an extended block party. Demonstrators dance to the music and tote signs with messages such as Facts Over Fear, No Vax Passports and End the Mandates.

But officials in the capital characterize the protests as a nightmare siege of the normally low-key city along the Ottawa River. Many downtown businesses have closed and the city feels quasi-deserted, except for the demonstrators wandering about on ice-and-snow-covered streets wavingCanadian flags and protest placards.

Residents have complained about harassment and noise. Frequenthorn-honking has continued despite an Ontario Superior Court judges issuing of an injunction to stop the practice.

The provincial government of Ontario has declared a state of emergency imposing new fines of up to $100,000 for blocking roads and sidewalks. Residents of neighborhoods near the Parliament have suffered, says Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson.

Those people need some kind of relief and reprieve from the horn-honking, the diesel spewing all night, catcalls and inappropriate behavior, Watson told Canadas CTV news.

The mayor has said he has requested 1,800 additional officers from federal and provincial authorities because the Ottawa police force is overwhelmed.

Canadian authorities have also seen evidence of intimidation, harassment and expressions of hate among the protesters, Marco Mendicino, Canadas minister of public safety, told reporters Monday.

Protest organizers call such allegations attempts to demonize a grass-roots movement that threatens a well-entrenched status quo.

This is really about love, Pedersen, one of the organizers, told a raucous crowd mid-day Monday from the stage in front of Parliament. Its cold out there. Reach out and cuddle someone.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The miniature boat built by junior high school students in Rye, N.H., sits on a dock, Oct. 9, 2020, in Woods Hole, Mass. The boat, containing photos, fall leaves, acorns and state quarters, was launched in the Gulf Stream in October 2020 by SSV Corwith Cramer and was eventually found by a Norwegian school student after it washed ashore in Norway on Feb. 1, 2022. (Sheila Adams via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

RYE, N.H. (AP)  A small boat launched in October 2020 by some New Hampshire middle school students and containing photos, fall leaves, acorns and state quarters has been found 462 days later  by a sixth grader in Norway.

The 6-foot-long (1.8-meter) Rye Riptides, decorated with artwork from the kids and equipped with a tracking device that went silent for parts of the journey, was found Feb. 1 in Smla, a small island near Dyrnes, Norway, the Portsmouth Herald reported Monday.

It had lost its hull and keel on the 8,300-mile journey and was covered in gooseneck barnacles, but the deck and cargo hold were still intact. The student who found it, Karel Nuncic, took the boat to his school, and he and his classmates eagerly opened it last week. The school in Norway plans a call with the Rye Junior High students soon.

When youre sending it out, you have no idea where its going to end up, how its going to get there, if it ends up (anywhere) at all, said Cassie Stymiest, executive director of Educational Passages, a Maine nonprofit that began working with the school on the project in 2018. But these kids, they put their hopes and dreams and wishes into it, and I tend to think sometimes that helps.

The students set the boat out in the Atlantic Ocean and followed its path. They dealt with the retirement of their teacher, Shelia Adams, and long periods when its GPS went quiet.

The boat came back online during hurricane season, registering plot points in August and September around the same latitude as Ireland. Then it vanished again. On Jan. 30, they learned the boat had appeared to hit land just west of a small island in Norway.

I was surprised the boat actually made it somewhere, seventh grader Molly Flynn said. I thought it was going to get stuck in some middle spot (on the map) and it actually made it, and it was really, really cool and surprising.
NEW YORK (AP)  New York City fired more than a thousand workers who failed to comply with the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the mayor's office said Monday.

The 1,430 workers who lost their jobs represent less than 1% of the 370,000-person city workforce and are far fewer terminations than expected before a Friday deadline to get the shots.

The city sent notices in late January to up to 4,000 workers, saying they had to show proof they got at least two doses of the vaccine or else they'd lose their jobs. Three-quarters of those workers had already been on leave without pay for months, having missed an earlier deadline for getting vaccinated in order to stay on the job.

Mayor Eric Adams' office said hundreds of workers produced proof of their vaccines or got the shots after being notified they would be fired.

City workers served on the front lines during the pandemic, and by getting vaccinated, they are, once again, showing how they are willing to do the right thing to protect themselves and all New Yorkers," Adams said in a statement. Our goal was always to vaccinate, not terminate, and city workers stepped up and met the goal placed before them.

Of the 1,430 fired workers, about 64% worked for the city's education department. The United Federation of Teachers, the public school teachers' union, said last week that about 700 of its members had been given notice they would be fired. The union joined with others to sue to block the firings, but a judge ruled in favor of the city on Thursday.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal from a group of Department of Education employees.

New York City has imposed some of the most sweeping vaccine mandates in the country, requiring almost all city workers to be vaccinated and requiring private employers to ensure their workers get vaccinated as well. Customers of restaurants, gym and entertainment venues also have to show proof of vaccine to enter.

The United Federation of Teachers had struck a deal with the city to allow its members to choose to stay on unpaid leave until September 5. But about 700 members opted not to extend their leave or provide proof of vaccine. The union contended that the workers deserved due process that involved a hearing before being fired.

The United Federation of Teachers did not immediately have a comment Monday on the numbers released by the city.

Last week, New York City averaged about 1,700 new cases of the virus per day, according to state statistics. Thats down from nearly 41,000 cases per day at the peak of the omicron wave in early January, but still about 56% higher than when the vaccine mandate was announced for city employees in October.

___

Follow Price on Twitter at twitter.com/michellelprice
Sarah Bloom Raskin, a nominee to be the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors vice chair for supervision, speaks during the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Washington. (Ken Cedeno/Pool via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

WASHINGTON (AP)  Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee boycotted a vote Tuesday on President Joe Biden's five nominees to the Federal Reserve, delaying indefinitely the confirmation of Chair Jerome Powell to a second four-year term.

Democrats control the committee, but because no Republican attended the session, votes couldn't take place under Senate rules.

The boycott by the Republican committee members focused on Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Fed governor and deputy Treasury secretary whom Biden picked to be the Fed's top banking regulator. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the committee, argued that Raskin had provided insufficient answers about her work as a board member for a fintech firm. Toomey and other some Republicans have asserted that Raskin inappropriately used her connections to the Fed to benefit the company.

Committee Republicans have also objected to Raskin's past statements on climate change, in which she urged the Fed to consider risks to the financial system from weather disasters and other impacts of rising temperatures in making its policy decisions. Toomey has charged that Raskin would use the Fed's tools to discourage banks from lending to oil and gas companies.

The delay in the committee's consideration of the nominees reflects an unusual degree of partisanship surrounding Raskin's nomination, a sign that the nation's political polarization is now engulfing the Fed, traditionally a nonpartisan institution. In 2010, when she was first appointed to the Fed's Board of Governors, Raskin was confirmed unanimously by the Senate.

Important questions about Ms. Raskins use of the revolving door remain unanswered largely because of her repeated disingenuousness, Toomey said in a statement Tuesday. Her fitness to serve, her judgment, and her probity are of utmost importance because Ms. Raskin is being considered for a 10-year term at the nations independent central bank and foremost financial regulator.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the committee, denounced his Republican colleagues for refusing to attend the committee meeting and vote.

Ms. Bloom Raskin has been the subject of an unrelenting smear campaign and fear mongering by (Toomey) and Republicans  something thats become all too common, Brown said.

The committee was scheduled to vote Tuesday on Powell, Raskin and Lael Brainard, a Fed board member whom Biden has nominated to the vice chair position. Votes on economists Lisa Cook, who would be the first Black woman to serve on the Fed's board, and Philip Jefferson, who would be just the fourth Black man, were also scheduled.

Brown said before the hearing that he would not separate out Raskin's nomination and vote on the four other nominees, a process that could allow them to proceed to the Senate floor for final approval.

We're not going to let them cherry-pick, Brown told reporters on Capitol Hill. We're not going to play that game.

Raskin joined the Reserve Trust, a fintech firm, after serving as a Fed governor and as deputy secretary of the Treasury. In 2016, the firm applied for a master account" at the Fed, which would enable it to transfer money using the Fed's payment systems without going through a bank. Reserve Trust's application was turned down in mid-2017.

But the company reapplied and won approval the next year from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Raskin had contacted the Kansas City Fed in 2017 after the company's application had been denied.

The Kansas City Fed, in a letter last week, said it had approved Reserve Trust's second application because the company changed its business model.

Raskin may still win approval by the broader Senate, along with Biden's four other nominees. Sen. Jon Tester, a committee Democrat from Montana, a state with oil and gas interests, told Yahoo Finance on Monday that he would vote for Raskin and predicted that she would eventually be confirmed to the position.
Kolkata: Having reached out to regional satraps M K Stalin and K Chandrasekhar Rao to push for an anti-BJP alliance a day before, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday sought to edge the Congress out of any such prospective formation, saying no regional outfit shares cordial relations with it and that the "Congress can go its own way".

Amid signs of increasing bonhomie between her and her Telangana and Tamil Nadu counterparts Rao and Stalin, Banerjee had approached the two on Sunday to set up meetings of opposition chief ministers.

"The country's federal structure has been bulldozed...the country's Constitution is being demolished. We all need to come together to protect it," she said on Monday after her party TMC swept the elections to four municipal corporations in West Bengal, dealing yet another body blow to the BJP after the saffron party's humiliation in the assembly elections in 2021.

"Together we are trying to protect the federal structure. All regional parties must come to an understanding," she said, referring to her telephone calls to Rao and Stalin.

Banerjee, who has intensified her efforts to form a coalition of opposition parties after she fell out with the Congress over cobbling together an alliance in Goa, claimed no regional outfit is on friendly terms with the main opposition party.

"The Congress can go its way, we will go ours," she asserted.

Interestingly, Congress is an alliance partner of the DMK in Tamil Nadu.

After a call from Banerjee, Rao said on Sunday he will soon meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the TMC supremo as part of the efforts to unite various political parties against the BJP.

"Mamata Behen ( Mamata Banerjee) called me. We had a discussion over phone. She invited me to Bengal or she'll come to Hyderabad. She said mujhe dosa khilao. I said most welcome. She may come any time. We are discussing. There are so many political leaders across the nation," Rao said when asked if he is still mooting the idea of a non-BJP, non-Congress Front.

Banerjee and Stalin, who share a common grouse over the actions of the governors of their respective states--Jagdeep Dhankhar and R N Ravi--also spoke on Sunday.

"Beloved Didi Mamata Banerjee telephoned me to share her concern and anguish on the Constitutional overstepping and brazen misuse of power by the Governors of non-BJP ruled states," Stalin tweeted after the call.

"She suggested for a meeting of Opposition CMs. I assured her of DMK's commitment to uphold State autonomy. Convention of Opposition CMs will soon happen out of Delhi!," he said.

Banerjee, who had visited Uttar Pradesh last week to campaign for the Samajwadi Party (SP), contended her TMC decided against contesting elections in that state in "the larger interest".

"The TMC did not field any candidate in UP as I did not want Akhilesh Yadav (SP chief) to get weak in any seat. In the first phase, I am hoping Akhilesh's party will win 37 of 57 seats," she told a news channel. Polling was held for 58 assembly seats in the first phase on Thursday.

The West Bengal chief minister also said she would again visit UP on March 3 to hold a rally in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency, to canvass for the Samajwadi Party.

"The country can be saved only if UP is protected (against the BJP). If we want to defeat Narendra Modi in 2024, big states like UP and Bengal will matter the most," she said.

Banerjee said she had asked the Congress and the Left to come together with other opposition parties against the BJP but they did not pay heed.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A commercial chicken flock in Kentucky with 240,000 birds tested positive for a highly lethal form of avian flu, officials said on Monday, widening an outbreak that threatens the U.S. poultry industry.

Infections in the chickens being raised for meat will likely trigger more restrictions on U.S. poultry exports, after buyers like China and Korea limited purchases from Indiana last week due to an outbreak at a commercial turkey farm there.

The broiler chickens in Fulton County, Kentucky, located near the border with Tennessee, were infected with the same H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian flu as the turkeys in Indiana, Kentucky officials said.

They said it is Kentucky's first-ever outbreak of the highly lethal bird flu, which killed more than 50 million U.S. chickens and turkeys in 2015.

Officials expect final test results on Tuesday for another suspected outbreak among turkeys in Webster County, Kentucky.

Birds from infected flocks will be culled to prevent the disease from spreading and will not enter the food system, state officials said. Authorities are testing commercial and backyard poultry flocks nearby in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The disease was also detected in a backyard flock of birds in Fauquier County, Virginia, that have already been culled, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. The cases do not present an immediate public health concern, the agency said.

Wild birds are thought to be spreading the virus, after dozens tested positive along the U.S. East Coast.

The United States is the world's largest producer and second-largest exporter of poultry meat, according to the U.S. government. Kentucky said it is the seventh biggest chicken-meat producing state. Almost 18% of U.S. poultry production is exported, and the industry is a major user of feed grains.

The disease is hitting the market as poultry supplies are down due to strong demand and labor shortages at meat plants during to the COVID-19 pandemic. Government data showed U.S. frozen chicken supplies were down 14% from a year ago at the end of December while turkey inventories were down 23%.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Aurora Ellis and David Gregorio)
FILE PHOTO: A pedestrian walks past the New Zealand parliament building known as the Beehive in central Wellington, New Zealand

By Praveen Menon

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's parliament on Tuesday near-unanimously passed a legislation that bans practices intended to forcibly change a person's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, known as conversion therapy.

The bill, which was introduced by the government last year, passed with 112 votes in favour and eight votes opposed.

This is a great day for New Zealands rainbow communities, Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi said.

Conversion practices have no place in modern New Zealand."

The government has said practices such as conversion therapy do not work, are widely discredited and cause harm.

The legislation also lays out what is not conversion practice and protects the right to express opinion, belief, religious belief or principle which is not intended to change or suppress a persons sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

The government said it had received nearly 107,000 public submissions on the bill, the highest number of public submissions ever received on any legislation.

Under the legislation, it will be an offence to perform conversion practices on a child or young person aged under 18, or on someone with impaired decision-making capacity. Such offences would be subject to up to three years imprisonment.

It will also be an offence to perform conversion practices on anyone  irrespective of age  where the practices have caused serious harm, and offenders can be subject to up to five years imprisonment.

Laws against conversion therapy have been gaining momentum around the world. Canada's parliament voted unanimously last year to ban LGBT conversion therapy.

The United States does not have a federal ban on conversion therapy, but several U.S. states, including California, Colorado, New York, Washington and Utah, prohibit the practice to some degree.

Aimed at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, conversion therapy can include talk therapy, hypnosis, electric shocks and fasting. In extreme cases, exorcism and "corrective rape" for lesbians, have been documented.

Ending conversion therapy was one New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's campaign promises when she was elected for a second term last year.

(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
A 16-year-old will attempt to become the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a bid to show that young people can do incredible things.

Mack Rutherford may still be in school, but the British-Belgian teenager is determined to follow in his trailblazing older sisters footsteps and soar into the record books himself.

Obsessed with being a pilot since the age of three, Mack will seek to highlight various stories of young people doing amazing feats during his months-long trip.

He is to announce his plans on Tuesday at Biggin Hill in Kent, the same airfield that hosted dozens of RAF pilots as they fought against horrific odds in the Battle of Britain 82 years ago.

Mack Rutherford sits in his Shark UL plane at Biggin Hill Airfield (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Mack aims to break the record for the youngest male to fly solo around the world, currently held by Briton Travis Ludlow, who completed the feat aged 18 years and 150 days.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Mack said he is nervous but excited about the round-the-world flight bid.

He said flying is a dream that has always been a part of his and his sisters lives, following in the footsteps of their mother and father, who are both talented pilots.

When you get in the air and you just see everything so small you can literally go wherever you want to go, Mack told PA.

Its just incredible, Ive always loved it.

Mack Rutherford sits on his plane accompanied by sister Zara, mother Beatrice De Smet and father Sam (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Mack qualified for his pilots licence in July 2020  the youngest pilot in the world at the age of 15 years and two weeks  and now has hundreds of flying hours under his belt.

His announcement comes a month after his sister, Zara, touched down in Belgium, breaking the record for the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

The 19-year-old, who said she became obsessed with flying at the age of eight, said she hoped to be an inspiration for girls wanting to be pilots or study science.

Mack insisted he is not trying to get one up on his sister and instead sees her as an inspiration.

He added: My sister really helped me see that I can do something like this.

Mack Rutherford is hoping to make history (Gareth Fuller/PA)



My parents have been incredibly supportive. I did two transatlantic flights with my dad, just so I could be completely ready.

Mack says he hopes his epic journey will show that young people can do incredible things, and he wants to meet people like him around the globe and highlight their achievements.

By showing all these other young people whove done incredible things, and by doing something that I think I would find quite incredible myself as well, I am hoping to show that you can actually do something which you didnt think was possible, he said.

On his flight round the world, Mack will be piloting a Shark ultralight, one of the worlds fastest microlight aircraft capable of cruising at speeds of up to 150knots/300km/186m/h.
The Russian Ambassador to Ireland has said that the idea his country will invade Ukraine is insane.

His comments come as Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said Moscow was ready for talks with the US and Nato on limits for missile deployments and military transparency.

It came after Russia announced it was pulling back some troops from exercises that have raised fears of a potential invasion of Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador Yury Filatov on Tuesday rejected the suggestion that any invasion was or had been imminent.

He said: We dont have any political, military, economic or whatever other reason to do that. The whole idea is insane.

In an interview with RTEs Prime Time programme, he indicated that Russian forces plan to withdraw from the Ukrainian border.

He added: I certainly cannot give you any figures because I dont have those figures. What I can tell to our viewers is within maybe 3-4 weeks, the configuration of the forces in the western region of Russia will resume its normal standard posture.

He was also asked if troops could return to the border in the future.

If there is a necessity to conduct exercises, they will. And nobody will teach us what to do or not to do on our own territory, lets not forget that, he said.

The ambassador would not be drawn on how many troops would be withdrawn.

He said: They will go exactly where they need to go. They are going in the Russian territory.

This is nobodys business at all.

He described recent international concern over tensions at the Ukrainian border as a case of collective insanity.

He said: Which in fact is made up of the, I would say, deliberate attempt by the US and the allies to inflate tensions anew.

These exercises are carried out almost yearly, and they involve moving the whole infrastructure, including hospitals, anti-aircraft, whatever they need to do.

Earlier, Irish citizens in Ukraine were told that they should still leave the country, despite hopes of an easing of tensions in the region.

Simon Coveney said that Irish Government advice had not changed, even if recent reports from Moscow were welcome.

While recent reports of a move towards de-escalation on the ground  if confirmed  are welcome, it is urgent that Russia de-escalate, abide by international law and engage constructively in dialogue, he said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

My departments advice in respect of Ukraine remains not to travel. I encourage any Irish citizen in Ukraine who has not already done so to register with the Embassy.

Citizens currently in the country should leave now using available commercial options.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that there are mixed signals coming out of Russia about the prospect of an invasion of Ukraine but said that an avenue for diplomacy remains open.

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said that it is in contact with 114 Irish citizens who have registered with the embassy in Kyiv.

In a statement, it said: The department is also in close contact with families who have surrogacy arrangements in Ukraine, and is continuing to provide support and assistance to them on an individual basis.

Any citizen who requires emergency consular assistance can contact the Department of Foreign Affairs at 01-4082000.

Earlier, the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland Larysa Gerasko urged Ireland and other allies to maintain continued pressure on Russia during an appearance at an Oireachtas committee.
The UK is to co-host a United Nations summit aimed at raising more than 3 billion to help fund humanitarian relief and put a stop to the misery in Afghanistan.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned that a failure to step in and help the Afghan people would be devastating with millions at risk of hunger following the Taliban takeover of Kabul in the summer.

The UK withdrew its diplomats from the capital last year amid a chaotic Western withdrawal from the central Asian country, but senior British diplomats  including Nick Dyer, the UKs special envoy for famine prevention  returned to Afghanistan for talks on Thursday.

Following the visit, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced on Tuesday that it will co-host a virtual pledging summit next month to support humanitarian efforts to abate the crisis.

The UNs World Food Programme has warned that 8.7 million people in Afghanistan are at risk of starvation, while the FCDO said half of the countrys population faces acute hunger.

The UN is seeking to raise 4.4 billion dollars to help more than 24.4 million Afghans needing urgent aid to survive, with the UK committing 286 million to support Afghans in the last year.

Funding is set to be channelled through trusted UN agencies and charities on the ground, with the Taliban regime that swept to power in August not recognised by the UK Government.

Ms Truss said: The conference is a critical moment for the international community to step up support in an effort to stop the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (Rob Pinney/PA)

The scale of need is unparalleled, and consequences of inaction will be devastating.

The UK is determined to lead the global effort. We will bring international allies together to raise vital aid to deliver food, shelter and health services, protect women and girls and support stability in the region.

Martin Griffiths, the UNs under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator, said: We are very grateful to the UK for co-hosting this important event to mobilise international support for the humanitarian needs of Afghanistan.

We welcome donors from around the globe to join together to save the lives and futures of Afghans.

Every day of delay means more misery for the Afghan people. They need a lifeline.

Pledges made at the summit will go towards the UNs biggest-ever appeal for a single country, which was launched last month.

The other co-hosts of the summit will be announced in due course, the FCDO said.
The Centre has offered to increase the FRMB limit to raise loans for states by 0.5 per cent of GSDP if states install meters for agriculture pump sets in five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25. (Photo: AP)

Hyderabad: Energy minister Jagadish Reddy admitted on Tuesday that the Telangana government miss the Rs 25,000 crore loan facility for five years due to its refusal to implement the Centre's power sector reforms.

The Centre has offered to increase the FRMB limit to raise loans for states by 0.5 per cent of GSDP if states install meters for agriculture pump sets in five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25. "The Telangana government can raise additional loans of Rs 5,000 crore every year, totalling Rs 25,000 crore in five years if it agrees to install meters to agriculture pump sets. But chief minister Chandrashekar Rao has rejected the offer in the interest of farmers as well as the marginalised sections of society, to whom the TRS government extends free power, the minister claimed.

The Andhra Pradesh government is installing meters to raise additional loans. Our CM decided to forego additional loans for the benefit of the farmers and the poor here," Reddy told the media here on Tuesday.

Reddy urged Union minister Kishan Reddy and BJP state president Bandi Sanjay to answer the questions raised by the CM at his press conference on Sunday.

"The CM has released proof to the media on how the Centre is forcing states to install meters to agriculture pump sets by linking the FRBM loan limit with the implementation of power sector reforms. Instead of answering them, Kishan and Sanjay are raising irrelevant issues like India-Pakistan tussle, surgical strikes etc," Reddy said.

Expressing confidence that CM will unite all parties in the country against BJP, Reddy said, "When KCR launched TRS to achieve statehood for Telangana in 2001, he was alone. But within ten years, he made all the parties including TDP and the Left, which all had opposed the creation of the Telangana state, to say "Jai Telangana" and achieved the aim of having a Telangana state. In a similar manner, KCR will be successful this time in uniting all parties against the BJP and bring down the BJP government at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," he hoped.
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BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday called on all relevant parties to remain rational and avoid actions that would escalate tensions and impact the crisis in Ukraine.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily press briefing that China is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine, and the Chinese embassy and consulates in the country are operating as usual.

Wang said the Chinese embassy in Ukraine has issued a consular notice asking Chinese citizens to closely monitor the situation on the ground, and stating that it will provide consular protection.

Noting that China's position on Ukraine is consistent, clear and unchanged, Wang said that to solve the Ukrainian issue, it is necessary to return to the starting point of the Minsk-2 agreement, which is endorsed by the UN Security Council.

"All parties should push for a comprehensive settlement of the Ukrainian crisis and relevant issues through dialogue and negotiation," the spokesperson said.
Visiting the Banaras Hindu University on February 4, 1916, Mahatma Gandhi in his address said: I visited the Vishvanath temple last evening. If a stranger dropped from above on to this great temple, would he not be justified in condemning us? Is it right that the lanes of our sacred temples should be as dirty as they are? If even our temples are not models of cleanliness, what can our self-government be? We do not know elementary laws of cleanliness. We spit everywhere. The result is indescribable filth.

In the hundred and six years since then, things have only worsened. We not only spit everywhere, we piss everywhere, we shit wherever and dump our garbage anywhere. India is easily the most dirty, unhygienic and filthy country in the world. Picking up from here, our Prime Minister had rightly launched the Swachh Bharat campaign in 2014 to clean up India.

He had announced an ambitious campaign to build home toilets for 12 million urban households, 25 million public toilets, and 30 million community toilets. In all, over 300 million will be helped with solid waste management practices and this is to be achieved by 2019 and will cost the nation Rs 62,009 crores. This is not a sum that we cannot afford. Has India become a cleaner, healthier and more hygienic nation, less offensive to sight and smell? I dont think so, and the Swachh Bharat campaign too has largely ended up as a failure.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be lauded for flagging this as a major priority. But more than intentions, he must now look at ways to implement his plans. His ambitions were huge eight years ago.

He also hoped to build 100 smart cities with 24x7 drinking water, zero garbage disposal and total solid waste management with full-scale drainage and sewage systems.

The BJPs manifesto did promise a hundred new cities. And rightly so, because new cities are imperative, as by 2050 India will almost double its present urban population by adding another 450 million. It is this urbanisation that will also be its major driver of economic growth. But we have not even begun it on paper.

The Andhra Pradesh government had estimated that a new capital will cost it Rs 1,00,000 crores. Projecting that, a hundred new cities with an average of a million people each will cost us Rs 100-120 lakh crores over the next 25-35 years. Its a huge sum, but the begging, borrowing and scrimping has to start now.

But even if we find the money, where is the public administration to do it?

We now have a highly centralised system that is more suitable to the task of governing India than serving India. The structure of our public administration, with its preponderance at the national and state capitals, and with a tiny fraction left to interface with citizens at the local level, and even these not being answerable to citizens is at the root of our inability to transform this country.

When India became independent, Jawaharlal Nehru advocated disbanding the civil service inherited from the British Raj and he wanted a new system of public administration that will not just preserve order to facilitate extraction, but will drive change and equitable development. Sardar Patel, however, was against such a radical transformation of the government, and preferred India to be administered by an elite civil service such as the ICS.

This led to the creation of the IAS and the IPS as the main instruments of administration. But the system remained as before, a system to maintain control rather than transform. The consequences of this are still apparent.

The three levels of government together employ about 185 lakh persons. The Central government employs 34 lakhs, all the state governments put together employ another 72.18 lakhs, quasi-government agencies account for a further 58.14 lakhs, and at the local government level, a tier with the most interface with ordinary citizens, we have only 20.53 lakh employees. This simply means that we have five persons ordering us about, for every one supposedly serving us. What this translates into is that if you build toilets, you wont have enough people to clean them. Ditto for sewage systems. As it is, garbage pickup is selective, tardy and the signs of failure can be seen in all our cities and villages.

Its not that an attempt was not made to change this centralised system. In 1952, the government launched the Community Development Programme hoping to transform rural India with the participation of the people. This programme was formulated to provide an administrative framework through which the government would reach down to the district, tehsil/taluka and village levels.

All the districts of the country were divided into Development Blocks; and a Block Development Officer (BDO) was put in charge of each block. Below the BDO were appointed the workers called Village Level Workers (VLW), who were to initiate change in the villages.

Thousands of BDOs and VLWs were trained for the job of delivering an array of government programmes and to take the government down to the villages. But this highly ambitious and idealistic restructure of government didnt exactly gel with the existing control mechanism of governance.

Before long, the two structures meshed and we were back to the old tried and tested system of government meant to rule India and not transform India.

The Prime Minister, however, has done well by impressing on people the need to keep their surroundings clean. While people must not litter and dispose them at conveniently appointed places, the job of lifting the garbage from there for disposal is that of the appropriate governmental tier. While people are expected not to defecate everywhere, the responsibility of providing sanitation is that of the State. Building toilets at public places and institutions and impressing on people to use them is laudable, but keeping them working and clean is the job of the State.

The condition of most public conveniences, including those at the Central Secretariat in New Delhi, will tell you that the government is not working.

In the time left for him, the Prime Minister should turn his focus on why the government fails to deliver services in India. Only then can he create a Swachh Bharat and a New India.
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Things changed dramatically for India on August 15, 2021 in Afghanistan with the Talibans capture of power

On the issue of a convergence of outlook regarding the Taliban, not all the Central Asian republics are on the same page as India. (Representational Image/ PTI)

Three major interactions in less than three months between India and five Central Asian republics should underline New Delhis seriousness about unveiling a major Connect Central Asia policy. With Afghanistan at the epicentre of its concerns, India is indeed making a serious attempt to regain its lost strategic space after Kabul fell to the Taliban. However, for the policy to take concrete shape, it needs to steer clear of several geopolitical and other obstacles, has to be comprehensive, and must be backed by a larger vision, resources and a long-term commitment.

Things changed dramatically for India on August 15, 2021 in Afghanistan with the Talibans capture of power. With the balance of power perceived to be shifting in favour of Pakistan, India lost one of its crucial rationale for its presence in Afghanistan  with the trade and connectivity projects with Central Asia. The neo-liberal agenda in New Delhis foreign policy faced a pushback, with the realist thinking of securitising Afghanistan taking precedence.

New Delhis dilemma of whether to do business with the Talibans Islamic emirate in Afghanistan remains unresolved. At the same time, it realises that for the fulfilment of a large number of strategic, geopolitical and geo-economic objectives in Afghanistan, New Delhi needs to reach out to a coalition of like-minded countries who have an abiding interest in the peace and stability of Kabul and a common outlook for economic development in the region. In this regard, Indias refocus on Central Asia is critical. This policys success will, however, be judged by stitching together a coalition of the willing on addressing key security, economic and trade and connectivity issues.

For the last two decades, Afghanistan was seen as a land bridge between India and Central Asia. However, amid the instability in Afghanistan, Pakistans intransigence and New Delhis own unimaginative policies, that has remained merely an aspiration. Not only have projects like Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline remained non-starters, Indias bilateral trade with Central Asia was only about $2 billion, mostly coming from energy imports from Kazakhstan. In comparison, the China-Central Asia trade is to the tune of $41 billion. Even the India-Afghanistan trade had to be routed through the circuitous and expensive route via Irans Chabahar port and the costly showpiece air corridor.

It now appears that India is trying to bypass Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and connect with Central Asia through Iran. Not surprisingly, barely a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modis summit with Central Asia, the Union Budget has allocated Rs 100 crores for the Chabahar project. Also not surprisingly, the International North South Transit Corridor (INSTC) and the Ashbagh Agreement were referred to by New Delhi both during the foreign minister-level meeting in December 2021 and the first India-Central Asia summit in January 2022. As a pressure tactic on the Taliban and Pakistan, and propounding of what is being referred to the new Act Central Asia Policy, this is an important step. However, the activation of the mechanism is riddled with serious challenges.

It is obvious that the multi-modal INSTC, set up in 2002, to connect India with Europe provides enormous primacy to Iran and Russia, which along with India are its founding members. The Ashbagh Agreement includes both Iran and Pakistan. India is its latest member, having joined it only in 2018. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which are the key Central Asian nations through which the projected trade route from India must pass, are not INTSC members. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are not signatories of the Ashbagh Agreement.

Both these agreements, in spite of the dry runs conducted in 2014, have remained mostly non-starters due to the sanctions by the United States and the West on Iran and Russia. Compared to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has progressed at a much faster pace, INSTC projects have suffered from funds crunch, and also the unenthusiastic response and implementation by member states. It will take a visionary leadership, resources, and adept diplomacy by New Delhi to navigate through these multiple challenges.

On the issue of a convergence of outlook regarding the Taliban, not all the Central Asian republics are on the same page as India. With the exception of Tajikistan, all have exchanged high-level diplomatic visits with Kabul. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have reopened their Afghanistan missions. Moreover, Indias aspirations are strongly resisted by an aggressive Chinese policy. All the Central Asian republics are a part of the Belt & Road Intitaive as well as a Quadrilateral Traffic-in-Trade Agreement that includes China. The first India-Central Asia summit was preceded by a similar summit with China. All the republics also have developed closer ties with Pakistan.

New Delhi is playing catch-up in its ties with Central Asia, by underlining its civilisational, cultural, trade and people-to-people connect. In todays complex and changing world order, such linkages need to be bolstered by resources and long-term commitment. Besides other factors, the Covid-19 pandemic-hit truncated MEA Budget allocation in 2022-23 does not allow much elbow room. Out of the total development assistance fund of Rs 6,292 crores, the Eurasian blocs quota is just Rs 140 crores. The Budget places a clear limit on Indias development engagement with the region.

Whether New Delhi has the appetite, resources and long-term vision to take this new policy forward, therefore, remains a key question. Central Asia is critical in its quest for regaining its lost ground in the evolving new Great Game in Afghanistan. As the great power competition and regional power play intensifies in Afghanistan, New Delhi needs a more imaginative policy to address the present disconnect in Central Asia.
Kendriya Vidyalayas permit girls to wear a headscarf of uniform colour

New Delhi: Challenging the government order restricting the use of any cloth that can disturb peace, harmony and, law and order, the girls who petitioned in favour of of hijab requested the Karnataka high court on Monday to allow them to wear Islamic headscarves of the colour of the school uniform. The girls made the plea to the full bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice J.M. Khazi and Justice Krishna M Dixit.

"I am not only challenging the government's order but also asking for a positive mandate for allowing me to wear a headscarf of the same colour of the uniform," advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing on behalf of the girls of the government pre-university college in Udupi, told the bench.

He also submitted that permitting Muslim girls to wear hijab and Sikh students' to wear head gear is a national practice in adherence to Article 25 of the Constitution. He mentioned that even Kendriya Vidyalayas permit hijab of the same uniform colour.

"Kendriya Vidyalayas even today permit by a notification, that even though they have a uniform, Muslim girls are permitted to wear a headscarf of the uniform colour, Mr Kamat argued said. The court adjourned further hearing of the case to Tuesday.

He argued that headscarves are an essential religious practice, and restricting its use was violating Article 25 of the Indian Constitution.

Amid caution and heavy security, high schools in Karnataka reopened on Monday. There were prohibitory orders in Udupi and sensitive areas of Dakshina Kannada and Bengaluru. In some places, Muslim girls reached schools in headscarves but removed them before entering the institutions. Examinations scheduled for the day also took place in the institutions.

While arguing for the petitioners, Mr Kamat submitted that the Government Order (ban on hijab) is a non-application of mind and against Article 25, hence, it is not legally sustainable. State is an outside authority, it cannot say that wearing a headscarf is essential practice or not. It has to be seen from the viewpoint of a believer," Kamat submitted.

Article 25 reads: "Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion."

The Article also says that nothing in it should affect the operation of any existing law or prevent the state from making any law regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice and regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice.

Mr Kamat argued where was the law as mandated under Article 25 regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity. The advocate for the Muslim girls also said the College Development Committee (CDC) comprising an MLA has been authorised by the government to decide the uniform. "A CDC comprising an MLA is an extra constitutional authority and a third party to decide what to wear. The government has assigned its responsibility to this third party," Mr Kamat argued.

Earlier, Karnataka Chief Justice urged the media to be more responsible and ensure that they make an effort to maintain peace and tranquility in the state.

requested the Karnataka high court on Monday to allow them to wear Islamic headscarves of the colour of the school uniform. The girls made the plea to the full bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice J.M. Khazi and Justice Krishna M Dixit.

"I am not only challenging the government's order but also asking for a positive mandate for allowing me to wear a headscarf of the same colour of the uniform," advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing on behalf of the girls of the government pre-university college in Udupi, told the bench.

He also submitted that permitting Muslim girls to wear hijab and Sikh students' to wear head gear is a national practice in adherence to Article 25 of the Constitution. He mentioned that even Kendriya Vidyalayas permit hijab of the same uniform colour.

"Kendriya Vidyalayas even today permit by a notification, that even though they have a uniform, Muslim girls are permitted to wear a headscarf of the uniform colour, Mr Kamat argued said. The court adjourned further hearing of the case to Tuesday.

He argued that headscarves are an essential religious practice, and restricting its use was violating Article 25 of the Indian Constitution.

Amid caution and heavy security, high schools in Karnataka reopened on Monday. There were prohibitory orders in Udupi and sensitive areas of Dakshina Kannada and Bengaluru. In some places, Muslim girls reached schools in headscarves but removed them before entering the institutions. Examinations scheduled for the day also took place in the institutions.

While arguing for the petitioners, Mr Kamat submitted that the Government Order (ban on hijab) is a non-application of mind and against Article 25, hence, it is not legally sustainable. State is an outside authority, it cannot say that wearing a headscarf is essential practice or not. It has to be seen from the viewpoint of a believer," Kamat submitted.

Article 25 reads: "Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion."

The Article also says that nothing in it should affect the operation of any existing law or prevent the state from making any law regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice and regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice.

Mr Kamat argued where was the law as mandated under Article 25 regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity. The advocate for the Muslim girls also said the College Development Committee (CDC) comprising an MLA has been authorised by the government to decide the uniform. "A CDC comprising an MLA is an extra constitutional authority and a third party to decide what to wear. The government has assigned its responsibility to this third party," Mr Kamat argued.

Earlier, Karnataka Chief Justice urged the media to be more responsible and ensure that they make an effort to maintain peace and tranquility in the state.
'Congress losing in Punjab to AAP'

New Delhi: In another blow to the Congress days before the Assembly elections in Punjab, former Union law minister and senior leader from the state Ashwani Kumar has quit the party. In a resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Mr Kumar said he could best serve the national interest outside the Congress fold. He wrote: Having given my thoughtful consideration to the matter, I have concluded that in the present circumstances and consistent with my dignity, I can best serve larger national causes outside the party fold. I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years and hope to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the dignitarian promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters.

A three-term parliamentarian, Mr Kumar was completely ignored in the management of the Punjab election. His name also did not make it to the star campaigners list. In the letter, he further said: There comes a time when you cant take any more. Hitting out at the Congress, he said: My sense of the ground situation in the Punjab election is that the Congress is losing the polls and the AAP is coming to power. He further added: I am not an astrologer, but I am saying what I am seeing on the ground. There is a wave for the AAP.

Responding to the G-23 letter writers, he went on to say: My opposition to the G-23 was that they only talked about an election. Did not they know that they stood no chance in any election against a member of the Gandhi family?

The former Union law minister claimed that the Congress was facing an existentialist challenge as a national party, and added that it had lost touch with the ground reality and no longer reflected the national mood. On the question of joining any other political party, he clarified that he had not thought of joining any other political party, but will remain active in the pursuit of public and national causes. He further lamented the partys treatment of former Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, and said: The manner in which Capt. Amarinder Singh was humiliated and forced to resign was an ominous signal. He deserved better. The dismal state of Punjabs economy demands an elevating and consensual politics and the shunning of narrow personal prejudices.

Mr Ashwani Kumar is one of the three former Central ministers to have left the Congress. Though Mr Kumar had not been a part of the G-23 grouping, he has mostly raised same issues regarding the running of the party. Mr Kumar has claimed that it is impossible to make changes in the party while staying within the organisation. The resignation of the veteran leader will also affect the Congress prospects in the upcoming February 20 elections in Punjab.
The elections were conducted for a single-phase election in 40 ACs in Goa, 70 ACs in Uttarakhand

omen holding their identification cards, stand in a queue to cast their votes, during the Uttarakhand Assembly polls, at a polling station, in Dehradun, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: Goa recorded a high voter turnout of 78.94 per cent in the single-phase Assembly election held on Monday while Uttarakhand recorded 62.5 per cent and the second phase in Uttar Pradesh saw a 61 per cent turnout as polling for 165 Assembly constituencies were held across the three states.

More than 2.95 crore electors were registered to vote in 165 Assembly constituencies. Polling was conducted peacefully in 36,823 polling stations spread across 165 Assembly constituencies, in Uttarakhand, Goa and for the second phase in Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission said. The elections were conducted for a single-phase election in 40 ACs in Goa, 70 ACs in Uttarakhand and for 55 ACs in Uttar Pradeshs second phase of the Assembly elections.

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said with confidence that all trends were showing that the ruling BJP will return to power in the hill state. People in Uttarakhand have created history by voting in huge numbers. I hope that the new government will work for a golden future of Uttarakhand I am content, there is no doubt that the BJP will return to power. We will impose the Uniform Civil Code and create jobs for the youth, Mr Dhami said.

The voting in Uttarakhand was largely peaceful, except for some minor scuffles between supporters of political parties reported in Haridwar and Nainital districts.

Goa used Artificial Intelligence tools at several polling booths. They helped us to keep a count of voters standing in the queues. We will be improvising the same in future elections to monitor booths, said Goas nodal IT officer Praveen Volvotkar. The highest voter turnout was in Sanquelim constituency, with 89.61 per cent, while the lowest was in Benaulim, with 70.2 per cent voting. North Goa recorded a voter turnout of 79.84 per cent and South Goa recorded 78.15 per cent.

The state saw a brief spell of tension in Benaulim after some supporters of sitting MLA Churchill Alemao tried to corner AAP candidate Venzy Viegas while Congress and BJP workers got into a verbal duel at a Vasco polling station, prompting the Goa police and the flying squad to intervene.

The Aam Aadmi Partys Goa CM candidate Amit Palekar said this was the moment to bring change. People are voting enthusiastically to defeat corruption and we will witness a sea change. Lets wait for the March 10 results, he said.

In UPs Sambhal, BJP candidate Rajesh Singhal sat on a protest alleging fake voting. Saharanpur had the highest polling percentage of 71 per cent among all districts in Phase 2 in Uttar Pradesh.

Claiming historic voting for SP-RLD candidates, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the people have subdued the garmi (haughtiness) of chief minister Yogi Adityanath in the first two phases in UP. Mr Yadav took on Mr Adityanath, saying he used to claim ahead of the elections that the khoon ki garmi (haughtiness, enthusiasm) of the SP and RLD leaders would be subdued after the elections.

After the first two phases, the people have pacified the garmi of those who were talking of curbing others enthusiasm (garmi nikal denge) after the elections, Mr Yadav said, while addressing an election rally in the Bundelkhand region. Now, after the third phase, the people of Bundelkhand will make him thanda (cool down), he said.
Sentencing by CBI court on February 21

Patna: A special CBI court on Tuesday convicted RJD chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in a fodder scam case. This is the fifth case in which Mr Yadav has been found guilty by the special CBI court. The case pertains to the illegal withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crores from the Doranda treasury in 1995-96 when he was the Bihar chief minister.

RJD sources in Patna said the courts order had come as a setback for the Lalu Yadav family and the party as they were expecting some leniency on grounds of his age and health. We have full faith in the judiciary and request the court to consider his age and health condition, RJD workers in Patna said after the court announced the conviction. Terming Lalu Yadav as a messiah of the poor, his son Tejashwi Yadav said we have full faith in the judiciary and hope that he will come out soon.

The judgment was pronounced by CBI special judge S.K. Shashi. After Mr Yadav was convicted, his lawyer said: The quantum of sentence in the case will be pronounced on February 21. A petition has been filed in the court to consider his age and health condition.

He was taken into judicial custody after the order was pronounced, and was later shifted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, on health grounds, RJD sources said. Besides Mr Yadav, the court has convicted 75 accused in the case, while 24 others were acquitted.

The money was illegally withdrawn through fake bills and vouchers in the name of arranging fodder and transporting animals. The lawyers said in the course of the investigation it was found that the vehicle numbers used in transporting animals including buffaloes were those of scooters, mopeds and motorcycles.

Mr Yadav was earlier granted bail in four fodder scam cases pertaining to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 900 crores from the Deoghar, Chaibasa and Dumka treasuries.

Mr Yadav was convicted in the first fodder scam case in 2013 and sent to five years in prison. The case was related to the illegal withdrawal of more than Rs 37 crores from the Chaibasa treasury. The conviction in the case barred him from contesting elections. Later that year, in December, he was granted bail in the case.

He was convicted in the second fodder scam case in December 2017 and awarded a prison term of three and a half years. This was related to the illegal withdrawal of funds from the Deoghar treasury. In this case, he secured bail in July 2021.

In January 2018 he was convicted for five years in the third case over the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 33.13 crores from the Chaibasa treasury. In March 2018, the special CBI court convicted Mr Yadav for the illegal withdrawal of Rs 3.76 crores from the Dumka treasury. He was given 14 years in prison as well as a fine of Rs 60 lakhs.
The comments seemed designed to send a message to the world about Putins own position and offered some hope that war could be averted

MOSCOW: The Kremlin and the West held out the possibility of a diplomatic path out of the Ukraine crisis, even as Russia appeared to continue preparations for a potential invasion, including moving troops and military hardware closer to its neighbor.

At a made-for-television meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signaled Monday that Russia was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that have led to the crisis.

The comments seemed designed to send a message to the world about Putins own position and offered some hope that war could be averted, even as Washington, London and other allies kept up their warnings that troops could move on Ukraine as soon as Wednesday.

The fears stem from the fact that Russia has massed more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraines borders to the north, south and east. It has also launched massive military drills in Belarus, an ally that also borders Ukraine.

Russia denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine, and Lavrov argued that Moscow should hold more talks, despite the Wests refusal to consider Russias main demands.

The talks cant go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage, Lavrov said, noting that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Moscow wants guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

Lavrov said possibilities for talks are far from being exhausted.

Putin noted that the West could try to draw Russia into endless talks and questioned whether there is still a chance to reach agreement. Lavrov replied that his ministry would not allow the U.S. and its allies to stonewall Russias main requests.

The U.S. reacted coolly.

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.

U.S. officials said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraines borders. A U.S. defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not publicly released. CBS News was first to report on the movement of the units.

Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup, reported increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations. The photos taken over a 48-hour period also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation.

Still, Ukrainian security and defense council chief Oleksiy Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of internal destabilization by unspecified forces.

Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th, he told reporters. We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.

As if to show defiance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday would be a day of national unity, calling on the country to display the blue-and-yellow flag and sing the national anthem in the face of hybrid threats.

It is not the first threat the strong Ukrainian people have faced, Zelenskyy said Monday evening in a video address to the nation. Were calm. Were strong. Were together.

The country is preparing nonetheless. Kyiv residents received letters from the mayor urging them to defend your city, and signs appeared in apartment buildings indicating the nearest bomb shelter. The capital has about 4,500 such sites, including underground parking garages, subway stations and basements, the mayor said.

Dr. Tamara Ugrich said she stocked up on grains and canned food and prepared an emergency suitcase.

I dont believe in war, but on TV the tension is growing every day, and its getting harder and harder to keep calm, she said. The more we are told not to panic, the more nervous people become.

In a last-ditch diplomatic effort German Chancellor Olaf Scholz planned to travel to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Putin.

One possible off-ramp emerged this week. Ukraines ambassador to the U.K., Vadym Prystaiko, pointed at a possibility of Ukraine shelving its NATO bid  an objective that is written into its constitution  if it would avert war with Russia.

Prystaiko later appeared to back away from the idea, but the fact that it was raised at all suggests it is being discussed behind closed doors.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

President Sarkisyan's resignation leaves the field open to Prime Minister Pushinyan. The prime minister has been accused of yielding to Azerbaijan and Turkey. Fears of an authoritarian drift in Yerevan.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The resignation at the end of January of President Armen Sarkisyan has further exacerbated political clashes in Armenia's young democracy. The former head of state explained in recent days that he had resigned due to a "lack of powers" attributed to his role, and moved to the Caribbean islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, where it was discovered he already held a third citizenship, in addition to the British one that was already known.

In Novaja Gazeta, Stepan Grigoryan, the former Armenian ambassador to Russia and now a political scientist, says that 'in certain countries like ours, in addition to written agreements, verbal ones are very important, as happened in the change of presidency between Serz Sargsyan and Armen Sarkisyan, who was promised that as president he would be responsible for attracting investment to Armenia and would play an important role in foreign policy'.

Sarkisyan was elected in 2018, and in recent years has had to find a way to work with Prime Minister Nikol Pasinyan, protagonist of the "velvet revolution" and then of the defeat with Azerbaijan in Nagorno Karabakh, then confirmed in the early elections of 2021. The Pasinyan government has blocked all of the president's initiatives, using the popular legitimacy it still enjoys despite many contradictions. However, Grigoryan warns that 'even a revolutionary government needs control by the other powers of the state'.

The Pasinyan administration is heavily criticised, among other things for the lack of competence of its members, chosen from 'civil society', who do not seem to be able to cope with the tremendous challenges of recent years.

"I spoke to an important member of the ruling party,' Grigoryan explains, 'and he said: if Azerbaijan has 1,000 tanks, Turkey 10,000 and we only have 300, we have to do what they want. I told him that Luxembourg doesn't have any, but lives in peace between France and Germany.

After Pasinyan's confirmation, the resigning president did not have the strength to continue the confrontation, and joined the destructive criticism of the opposition, together with the Armenian Church, the University of Yerevan and the Academy of Sciences. It is precisely the rigidity of the intellectual, cultural and political elite that has further strengthened popular support for the prime minister, whose resignation was all they were asking for, without proposing any alternatives or compromises.

Sarkisyan sent his resignation letter from London, before flying to the Caribbean, and this contemptuous attitude attracted even more discontent among the population. Pasinyan had good reason to exasperate the former president after his war defeat in 2020, when it became clear that he wanted to get rid of him, which he could not do through parliamentary channels where he would need 75% of the votes (he now controls 67% anyway).

Grigoryan and several other commentators maintain the crisis has deepened as Pushinyan is about to conclude new agreements on Nagorno Karabakh, giving in on many points in order to close the disputes with Azeris and Turks. Above all, it seems inevitable that Karabakh will be recognised as part of Azerbaijan, 'since the whole world now recognises it', as the Armenian Prime Minister himself recently stated, something that the opposition and Armenian high society are not prepared to accept.

With Turkey, the head of government would be willing to stop insisting on denouncing the genocide of the early 1900s, arguing that "the Armenian diaspora, rather than national institutions, must deal with this". Road accesses to Nakhicevan would be opened, allowing Turkey to communicate directly with Azerbaijan.

Finally, Pushinyan could try to replace Sarkisyan with a person loyal to him, making a democratic "short circuit" similar to those he denounced at the time of the "velvet revolution". In this way, Grigoryan concludes, "he too would turn into a kind of autocrat, and I do not think he would enjoy the current consensus for much longer".
Philippine Catholics are discussing Brother Mike Velardes endorsement of the son of the countrys former dictator for the upcoming presidential election. Bishop Teodoro Bacani, the charismatic movements spiritual adviser, is opposed to this choice.

Manila (AsiaNews)  Brother Mike Velarde, the founder of a popular Philippine Catholic charismatic group, El Shaddai, openly endorsed Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte who are running respectively for the posts of president and vice president of the Philippines.

The election is set for 9 May. The endorsement came last Saturday at a rally held in Paranaque in the presence of the two politicians.

In his address, Velarde, referring to their strong political positions, said: We are in one in mind and heart when it comes to voting. Thats for sure, Velarde told the crowd during the rally.

Honorable Brother Mike Velarde, your prayers and blessings  along with all the members of El Shaddai  is another weapon for us as we face the challenges that come with leading the country, said Sara Duterte.

Velardes endorsement is causing a stir within the Philippine Catholic Church and the charismatic movement itself.

Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani Jr of Novaliches, El Shaddais spiritual adviser, spoke out against Mike Velarde's stance.

In a video message posted on the website of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, the prelate said that Velardes choice was personal and very wrong.

Brother Mike is the founder and servant leader of El Shaddai but he is not the whole El Shaddai Fellowship International Inc., which is much bigger than him, Bacani said.

The bishop added that as a citizen and voter, Velarde has the freedom to endorse any candidate and same with the members of El Shaddai.

But of all the candidates a lay Catholic group can endorse in this election, Its definitely not Marcos because of Marcos Jrs and his familys refusal to apologise for the abuses of his father's administration.

Founded in 1978 after Velarde, now 82, recovered from heart disease, El Shaddai expanded thanks to his charismatic preaching via the media. It has also millions of followers among Philippine migrant communities around the world.

An official pronouncement from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines is expected in the coming weeks on the position Catholics must take with respect to the upcoming May elections.
by Shafique Khokhar

Pervez Masih, 25, was attacked after a row in his video game store. The victims uncle tried to intervene to save him. For the United Christian Council, In Pakistan the police are powerless and insecure.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  A 25-year-old Christian was killed yesterday in Lahore by a group of Muslims. Pervez Masih was attacked over a dispute that broke out in his video game store.

Based on preliminary findings, the night before the attack some young men entered the store. Masih refused to gamble with them and a row followed.

Akhtar Bhatti, Pervez's uncle, told AsiaNews that the next day a group of 150 to 200 Muslims came to the Christian area of Lahore, some with guns, and started insulting and beating people, including Pervez.

Despite his uncle's attempts to stop the beating, the attackers dragged Pervez away to torture him with sticks and bricks, threatening that they would not leave him alive.

Eventually one of the Muslims, named Sohni, son of Allah Ditta, hit the young Christian in the head. When the latter fell to the ground everyone fled the scene, firing into the air.

Later, High Court lawyer Javed Sul, who is also president of the Christian Lawyers Association of Pakistan, helped the family file a First Information Report (FIR) at a local police station.

Christians are very concerned about the escalating violence against the members of their community in Pakistan, especially in Punjab.

According to David King, a missionary with the United Christian Council, Pakistan is currently on the list of countries where the state and the police are helpless and insecure. Lawmakers have failed to control religious extremism.

For Davis, in light of the mistreatment of Christians, the federal government must set up a special task force and enact legislation to prevent attacks such as the one against Pervez.

Similarly, for Lahore-based human rights activist Waseem Yaqoob, it is a reality that in society people are killed and justice denied, despite police investigations.

It is very important to cure the diseased mentality of this society, Yaqoob explained. Certain elements should be arrested immediately and punished.
by Guido Alberto Casanova

Religious leaders accuse the government of "discriminatory policies" and of favouring the Christian religion. Democratic Party MP Jung Chung-rae was targeted. The controversy was sparked by accusations of fraud and exploitation of places of worship for money by the Order. In the background, the presidential elections and fears of repercussions on the vote.

Seoul (AsiaNews) - The last few months have been marked by a long period of turmoil for Buddhism in South Korea. The country's most important Buddhist movement, the Jogye Order, has been in open conflict with the government in Seoul, and for weeks has been mobilising to express its discontent. Although most of South Korea's religious population is Christian, according to a 2015 census, there are no less than 7.6 million followers of the Buddha.

Disagreements between the Jogye order and the government began in late 2021 when Jung Chung-rae, a ruling Democratic Party of Korea parliamentarian, criticised the religious order for its practice of charging visitors to enter its temples. Specifically, during a parliamentary inquiry in October, Jung (who sits on the Committee on Culture, Sport and Tourism) accused the Haein temple of also charging visitors to the surrounding park, comparing the site's administration to scams engineered by Korean folklore figure Kim Seon-dal.

The Order of Jogye, which manages the temple, part of the Unesco heritage, immediately rejected the accusations and demanded an apology from Jung. However, no apology was forthcoming.

The Buddhist monks then began to organise public demonstrations in front of the Democratic Party headquarters to demand Jung's resignation. In the meantime, new grounds for dissatisfaction were added when the government decided in December to allocate a sum to help small traders pay for the musical rights to Christmas songs, in an attempt to promote the spirit of the festivities. A spokesman for the Order said this was 'an explicit promotion of a specific religion by the government, pushing people towards a particular religious music'. The proposal to establish a Catholic pilgrimage in Korea also met with resistance, because of the inclusion of some sites also relevant to the Buddhist faith.

To show its displeasure at what was perceived as discriminatory policies, the Order of Jogye organised a demonstration in Seoul on 21st January, attended by 5,000 Buddhist monks. The protest took place in a decidedly hostile atmosphere towards the government: in the words of Wonhaeng, the Order's leader, in the current democratic executive 'opportunities have not been fair, the process has not been fair and the results have not been just', sarcastically quoting a piece from President Moon Jae-in's inaugural speech in 2017.

However, the upcoming presidential election, scheduled for 9 March, has given the story a great echo. According to Jung Chung-rae himself, a person close to Democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung approached him to convince him to resign from the party to prevent his controversial statements on the Buddhist temple from damaging the election campaign.

The Buddhist Order has already suggested that it may call for fresh protests by the end of the month if Jung is not ousted from the party. However, the Buddhist monks' stance has itself attracted criticism from South Korean society, especially regarding the organisation of such large gatherings of people despite the country's rapidly worsening pandemic situation. So much so that last week, Wonhaeng had to intervene personally, expressing understanding for the criticism but asking the public to understand the reasons for the protest.
by Arundathie Abeysinghe

Sri Lankas foreign minister told the Indian government that their bilateral relationship is strong. However, concerns are growing in Delhi over Chinese investments on the island. Control over Hambantota port boosts China's position in the Indian Ocean.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  During an official two-day visit to India, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris assured his Indian counterpart that Sri Lankan relations with China will not come at the expense of India.

Following the invitation by Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Peiris focused on a series of issues and mutual strategic interests at the meeting on 8 February.

Discussions centred on the state of bilateral relations, especially in defence matters, as well as priority areas for future cooperation.

Minister Peiris also met with Shri Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

Talks focused on the transformation of bilateral ties from a transactional relationship to a strategic partnership no longer focused on "this or that negotiation", but based on closer integration in key sectors of mutual interest, like economic cooperation, energy, tourism and production.

Contacts between people will also be encouraged while the relationship will become strategic in every field.

Speaking to AsiaNews, sources in Sri Lankas Foreign Ministry said that during the talks, Peiris acknowledged the rivalry between India and China, a factor Sri Lanka has had to live with.

Although India is concerned about Chinas growing influence in Sri Lanka, Peiris assured his counterparts that his countrys ties with China in no way undermine the special relationship between the island and its northern neighbour.

According to the foreign minister, India and Sri Lanka already have the best possible relations, so anxieties over Chinas presence must be consigned to the past".

For political analysts, the rivalry between India and China is not new, a fact that Sri Lanka has been accustomed to for a long time.

However, India's concerns over Chinas rising influence have been aggravated with the approval of controversial legislation governing the US$ 1.4 billion Chinese-funded project to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) next to Colombos main port.

The Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill was passed by the Sri Lankan parliament in 2021, empowering a seven-member body appointed by the president to exercise complete control over all decisions relating to the Colombo Port City area.

Under the approved legislation, the project will be administered with no parliamentary oversight, primarily in accordance with the wishes of the SEZ's main investor, CHECH Port City Colombo, which is part of the state-owned China Communications Construction Company.

Although Peiris tried to reassure his Indian hosts, critics note that Sino-Sri Lankan relations have intensified in recent years.

For China, Sri Lanka has become "an important hub on the maritime Silk Road with Chinese involvement ranging from infrastructure development and oil exploration to investments, trade and economic aid.

Despite Sri Lankas attempts to present Chinese involvement in Hambantota port as purely commercial, this facility could provide China a strong foothold to boost its position over a vast area in the Indian Ocean, from Australia in the east, to Africa in the west, all the way to Antarctica in the south.
by Fady Noun

Turnout, the Christian vote, Sunni choices, the "Shiite wall" and opposition are the key points around which the electoral contest revolves. The future of a country on the brink of collapse due to the economic and financial crisis is at stake. Saad Hariri's resignation and Hezbollah's aims.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - On May 15, just over 3.9 million voters will be called to the polls under the proportional system to elect the 128 members of the National Assembly, equally divided between Christians and Muslims, for a four-year term. In the tense political and economic climate that characterises the current situation in Lebanon, according to authoritative and unequivocal sources, these elections are characterised by five main factors: the rate of participation; the outcome of the internal Christian struggle; the occupation of Sunni land; the chances of the opposition asserting itself; and, finally, the possible cracks within the Shia electorate. In the meantime, the international community is closely following the preparations leading up to the vote and is insisting that it be held within the timeframe laid down by law, without further delays.

The five key elements of the vote are analysed below.

Voter turn-out

In the last elections, in 2018, the turnout figure was 49%. More than two years after the popular uprisings of October 2019, will the Lebanese - this time - mobilise en masse to go to the polls? The question is central, because as experts explain a large popular participation and a strong adherence to the vote should favour opposition movements. And this may well be the case, provided that the opposition forces manage to move and convince the hitherto undecided electorate. However, on the Sunni side there is a certain risk of abstentionism after the decision of the leader of the Future Current, Saad Hariri, to boycott the elections.

The only elements that can be relied on today are those related to the data on the registration of Lebanese abroad. The latter has almost tripled compared to 2018 (225,000 against 80,000), which suggests a more substantial mobilisation. Several commentators predict that the Lebanese vote abroad will go largely in favour of Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces, which have partly distanced themselves from the alignments linked to the system and which boast a large electoral basin in the areas where the diaspora is most present, especially in the United States.

The Christian battle

This will undoubtedly be the mother of all contests. The main challenge is to know which between the Lebanese Forces or the Free Patriotic Current (CPL) of Gebran Bassil, son-in-law of President Michel Aoun and declining in the polls, will come out on top. Currently, the Lebanese Forces can count on 15 MPs, compared to 24 for the "Aounist" parliamentary group.

However, the results of either side will largely depend on the alliance games. It should also not be forgotten that the Lebanese Forces have lost their ally in the country, Saad Hariri's Future Current, while this is not the case for the other faction linked to the CPL. The winning party will become essential in the choice of the future president, although the latter's appointment will most likely have to be the subject of a broader consensus at both the local and regional level.

The occupation of Sunni land

This is one of the main unknowns. The announcement of the withdrawal of the Future Current on 24 January took everyone by surprise and led to a reshuffling of the cards. While Saad Hariri has expressed the hope that members of his party will not take part in the electoral race, he will certainly not be able to prevent Sunni personalities such as former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora from entering the battle.

Moreover, the competition should certainly not be taken lightly. In addition to the independent Sunnis - who represent 30% of the electorate and have the support of Hezbollah - several competitors must be taken into consideration. First and foremost is Baha' Hariri. The eldest of the Hariri family has a powerful electoral machine and vast resources. However, doubts remain over his ability to mobilise the voters of the Future Current.

On the other hand, there is another Sunni tycoon who might be able to make a return by investing in the political arena. He is Fouad Makhzoumi, who has always been able to show himself firmly in the presence of Hezbollah and the banking circles. For his part, Joseph Bahout, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, says he fears that Saad Hariri's boycott of the elections will benefit Hezbollah, as well as favouring certain Sunni fundamentalist fringes.

The opposition's chances

Forecasts that give the opposition a high probability of breaking through because of popular anger and discontent should be taken with great caution. The ability of civil society actors to unite around a coherent programme will be decisive. An unity of intent that was absent in the 2018 vote. The divergences within the opposition are mainly crystallised around the alliance with traditional political actors, who say they are linked to the protest movements, such as Kataeb or those of former MPs Neemat Frem or Michel Moawad. If the opposition front manages to put aside differences and personality conflicts, and if it manages to present credible candidates, it could certainly benefit from the exasperation of popular circles, especially within Christian and Sunni circles.

The impermeability of the 'Shiite wall

In theory, this is one of the few certainties of the vote: the tandem formed by Hezbollah and Amal should obtain more or less the same number of deputies (27). For the Shiite front, whether the turnout is high or low makes little difference, because their electoral bloc is almost invariable, as expert Georgia Dagher notes. Nevertheless, some groups are emerging to represent the protest movements in the region with a strong Shia majority, hoping to break through this unshakable wall.

The popular Shia base has been affected like other communities by the economic and financial crisis, and may resort to voting to punish incumbents, especially among voters in the Amal movement, which experts say has been most affected by the economic collapse. According to political analyst Assem Chaaya, "we must not take for granted the strength of the two major Shiite actors at the ballot box. In his study, the specialist estimates that Hezbollah (343,000 votes) and Amal (204,199 votes) together obtained 547,199 votes out of a total of 1,068,274 Shiite voters in 2018, a figure that by no means represents an absolute majority as we tend to believe.
Qatar continues to act as the main mediator between the Afghan Emirate and the rest of the world. However, no country wants to grant international recognition. After the meeting, the communiques of the two sides diverge. India and Pakistan want to avoid a widening of the humanitarian crisis; an agreement has been reached on sending supplies.

Kabul (AsiaNews) - Six months have passed since the fall of Kabul and the tragic US withdrawal that left Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban. While the humanitarian situation continues to worsen (at least eight malnourished children arrive at the hospital in the capital every day, according to UNICEF), the Taliban are still seeking legitimacy on the international scene. Yesterday, a delegation led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi flew to Doha, Qatar, to meet with officials and representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

The two communiques issued after the meeting have a different tone: 'Participants expressed respect for Afghanistan's national sovereignty, independence, unity, territorial integrity and firm stance of non-interference in internal affairs,' reads the Taliban statement. In a more detailed document, the GCC recognises Afghanistan's independence and territorial integrity, but also stresses "the importance of national reconciliation and a consensual political solution that meets the aspirations of the Afghan people, takes into account the interests of all components of society and respects fundamental freedoms and rights, including the right of women to work and education". Diplomatic sentences of circumstance, but which did not appear in the Taliban's note.

Today and in the coming days, the self-proclaimed officials of the Taliban government will meet with representatives of the European Union and of the diplomatic missions that operate in Qatar on behalf of Afghanistan.

The role of Doha as mediator between the Koranic students and the rest of the world is thus confirmed. Observers say it is likely that the Taliban will ask Doha to intervene with the United States to get back the money from the previous Afghan government, which is still blocked in US banks. In recent days, Washington has announced that it will only hand over half of the 7 billion dollars frozen after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Before 15 August 2021, almost 80% of the country's budget depended on international contributions.

The basic problem has been the same for six months: how to help the Afghan population without directly financing the Taliban government, whose members are on the UN's list of the world's most wanted terrorists.

The other countries in the region, in a similar way to the Gulf monarchies, do not seem to want to recognise the Taliban government, but want to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe from spilling over onto their borders. According to a recent report by Save the Children, 18% of Afghan families are now forced to send their children to work. Nearly 23 million people are acutely food insecure and another 9 million are in a state of emergency, say the World Food Program (WFP) data; this means that almost 32 million people, out of a population of 41.7 suffer from hunger. In the last month, at least 95 children have died of measles and malnutrition in the northwestern province of Ghor alone.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a recent interview with CNN, reiterated that 'the only option the world has right now is to work with the Taliban to improve the situation'.

After a months-long standoff, Islamabad and Delhi have reached an agreement to send food to the Afghan population: within the next week 50,000 tons of wheat will be shipped on Afghan trucks across the Indo-Pakistani Wagah-Attari border and redistributed by the WFP, with which India has signed a memorandum of understanding. Initially, India and Pakistan wanted to ship the aid in their own vehicles.
Body Hair: Everything You Need to Know

Why Are Men Ditching Their Body Hair? Experts Weigh In the Latest Trend

Visions of the man of the far future often suggest some polished and perfected creature, as streamlined as a dolphin. Evolution has, like a GI Joe figure, apparently buffed away the obvious signs of sexual difference  and it has certainly got rid of anything as unsightly as body hair.

Theres an alien quality to the result. And yet, it seems, were well on our way to just that. A 2018 study by market research company Mintel found that 46 percent of men now remove at least some hair from their bodies  thats a 10 percent rise over just two years. And the drive to shave and trim is even more pronounced with men as young as 16-24. Some 57 percent remove hair from, you know, down there; and 42 percent even remove underarm hair.

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I think having less body hair is perceived as being more modern, cleaner and healthier, argues James Corner, founder of Nutcare, an Australian company that produces Barenuts  a depilatory cream for the pubic region  and launches in the US this month. Sports has driven a lot of the market too  runners and cyclists dont want the chafing. And sometimes its about spicing up time in the bedroom. Its not just younger men doing it. Actually, the demographic of customers is getting wider all the time.

The History of Body Hair

To say that male body hair has undergone a seismic shift over the last 15 years would be an understatement. Of course, hair removal is not something new: the men of Ancient Egypt enjoyed a primitive form of waxing using a blend of beeswax and sugar; and when the invention of the safety razor in 1903 meant that shaving at home was much less likely to cause injury, the archetypal Victorian bush was quickly pruned back. This however did not extend to body hair.

Indeed, for most of the 20th century body hair would be strongly equated with masculinity  and, as a counterpoint, the prevailing sentiment was that women should remove their body hair. The 1970s saw peak body hair, when going natural underscored its association with virility, at least in the west, and has been found to correlate with attractiveness to women, even if hairiness is actually no indicator of testosterone levels. Just check out Burt Reynolds on a bearskin for Cosmopolitan in 1972, man and rug seamlessly blended. Hairlessness was for pre-pubescent boys who welcomed their first sprouting as indicative of their move into manhood.

But then compare Sean Connery era James Bond to Daniel Craig era Bond, and that 2006 Casino Royale scene of him rising from the surf without a follicle on show. Think David Beckham. Think Cristiano Ronaldo. Think of countless ad campaigns with buff male models, their bodies as bare as the day they were born. And then, inevitably given popular cultures subliminal influence, think of reaching for the shaving foam.

Yeah, I do think you need some kind of balance with your body hair. You have to keep it all synchronized. It wouldnt make sense to have a hairy chest and no pubic hair either, advises Ben Rivers, founder of Baldape Parlour, a hair removal cream and applicator designed for those men who want to shed the back carpet affordably without assistance. Back hair has never been popular, but its interesting how the hair barrier between men and women has broken down  there arent such set ideas as to who should and who shouldnt be hairy.

Why Are Men Going Hairless?

Most of our earliest ancestors were covered in hair, for warmth, but lost that about three million years ago to adapt to warmer climates. There may still be some evolutionary drive towards yet more hairlessness at play  one study suggests that women are not so into male body hair when they are at their most fertile. According to other research, it seems that womens preference might be heritable from their mothers; other insights suggest that what is called sexual imprinting leads women to prefer men who remind them of their fathers. Freud loves that one.

Still, its surely fashion thats the real driver here. Body hair removal might be considered the inevitable next phase of the male grooming movement. The boom in body-consciousness and fitness has certainly been another factor  competing body-builders remove their body hair to better show off their physique. And while were on the subject of showing off, porn actors strip back the pubic hair to give the impression of a bigger eyeful. And much as porn is mis-shaping our perception of what sex should be like, its also shaping our ideas of how we should look while doing it.

I dont think hair is seen as a sign of maleness any more. Men just see other men in the gym with no hair and better definition and the idea of removing their own body hair takes hold. And really, everywhere you look in the media, men are hairless now, argues Jimmy Bodur, a London-based male hair removal specialist who coaxes anxious newbies though their first pubic preening  hes had his own chest and back lasered for permanent removal too.

Were finding younger customers dont want any hair at all now, and I think thats connected to some idea that its more hygienic.

Hair, and the scent it carried, used to be considered erotic. Now its not just a distraction, its considered dirty. Body hair has been tainted with the yuck factor. While theres scant research in male attitudes to this topic, a 2016 survey of US women found that 59 percent said they removed their pubic hair for hygiene reasons.

Theres no scientific underpinning to this spurious notion  in fact, pubic hair is there to protect the pubis; indeed, hairlessness can only be considered more hygienic if youre prone to pubic lice and need to make the critters homeless. No, its really about culture, not cleanliness. And that could prove problematic.

Theres a fine line between an industry that helps men to be hairless and one that aims to make men feel bad if they do have body hair, which I certainly wouldnt want, stresses Rivers. Personally, I like my chest hair. And Im keeping it.

What Is the Future of Body Hair?

The concern is that men will now fall foul of the same tyranny of the razor that women have labored under for at least a century; 90 percent of women aged 16 to 24 remove underarm and leg hair, and 75 percent from the pubic region, according to Mintel. Instances of eating disorders and steroid use among young men are reportedly seeing rapid increases. Is looking like a plucked chicken next?

There are already indicators that a self-consciousness about male body hair is on the rise. A 2017 survey suggests that 55 percent of men feel embarrassed about their body hair, with a third never going swimming as a consequence, and one in five saying their body hair has a negative impact on their sex life. So how long before men, like women, are expected to be hairless? How long before the man with armpit hair is, like his female counterpart, considered the weird, slightly grubby outlier?

I dont think that kind of social pressure on men to go hairless with their bodies is there  not yet anyway. For the moment men at least are choosing to do this, reckons James Corner.

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Normal people who are struggling to make their car payment consider options like selling their ride for something more affordable. Others would get a second job, sell some items, eliminate needless spending or something of that nature.

One woman in North Carolina decided the better idea was to steal her own Camaro, then have the insurance company pay off the loan.

According to an official release from North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, Tiffany Ann Littlejohn, 29, of Winston-Salem came up with what she no doubt thought was a brilliant scheme. However, shes hardly the first person to think up such an idea, so investigators were able to sniff out the truth.

Per the release, this scheme took place between Nov. 10, 2020 and Oct. 1, 2021. Surely Littlejohn decided at some point she had gotten away with the perfect crime and was feeling pretty smug. However, the gears of justice might turn slowly at times, but eventually when they do make their way around they can be crushing.

Now Littlejohn is facing one charge of insurance fraud and one charge of obtaining property by false pretense. Those are both felonies, so if shes convicted she wont be having a great time. Remember everyone, insurance fraud is not only wrong, it can come with some stiff penalties.

Considering insurance fraud can lead to increased premiums for those of us who carry insurance, it certainly isnt a victimless crime. The N.C. Department of Insurance Criminal Investigations Division used this case to remind everyone to report fraud, which can be done anonymously. That should be true no matter where you live.

We thank Motorious for reprint permission.
First of all, the Road Runner could be ordered with the 383 (6.2-liter) big-block developing 335 horsepower. Though this wasnt everybodys cup of tea, it was capable of impressive performance, as it used the heads and the exhaust manifolds from the more powerful Super Commando 440.But on the other hand, if you wanted the real deal, the second engine in the lineup was the best choice. It was the 426 (7.0-liter) Hemi rated at 425 horsepower, a unit whose legacy in the muscle culture is as solid as it gets.The Road Runner that we have here clearly doesnt come in its best shape, but this doesnt necessarily mean its the end of the world for it anyway. eBay seller chrisbenson2015 says the vehicle was born with a 383 under the hood, but as you could easily guess, considering its condition, the engine is no longer around.This is why going for a Hemi is exactly what this Road Runner needs to return to the road in style.It wouldnt be easy or affordable, theres no doubt about it, but its exactly what an iconic model needs if someone is willing to start a restoration project.The rust has obviously taken its toll on the car, especially as it looks like its been sitting for a while under the clear sky. We have absolutely no information in this regard, but its pretty clear the car has been struggling with poor conditions, and this is why it looks rough.We cant tell how many big parts are missing, but the owner says they have a lot of extras, and they all go with the Road Runner to whoever buys it.And speaking of the purchase, getting your hands on this Road Runner wouldnt be easy. The seller isnt willing to let it go for less than $10,500, and no other offers are accepted.
Tesla tried to persuade us their new 4680 cells are a game-changer once theyre rolling out anytime soon. Recent information points to the mass production starting no sooner than 2023 , showing that cracking the new cells takes more than just packing them in bigger rolls. Tesla battery R&D center in Kato Road is busy increasing the output, but with yields still low this risks affecting the quality of cells.A document leaked on the Tesla Motors Club forum shows the production yields and levels for January 22 at the Kato Road facility and these are not looking very good. Although the picture shared by user Olivers TMX is low resolution, he offers more insight, as the info comes from a relative who works at the facility.The document shows that 14 machines were in operation that day and 13 of them were producing good cells, with yields above 90%. One machine is the exception, producing only a limited number of good cells. According to Olivers relative, this machine was used that day to train employees from Giga Texas, which explains the high rate of rejects.Green represents good batteries and red is for rejects. As you can see, on that day they had 14 machines running and produced 92% good batteries, including the 82% bad batteries from Machine 212 which I believe was being used that day to train folks from Texas who will be producing them there in the future, he wrote.On the right side of the document, we see the most common causes of defects. Flap folding in  Cathode leads with 1.4%, followed closely by Single Wind Cut Position Recovery  Cathode at 1.2%. Even with Machine 212 ruining it, the overall yield for that day was at 92%, which may sound impressive but this still means 8% of the cells are thrown away.The production figure also shows around 6,250 cells were manufactured that day. Estimates indicate around 600 of them would be needed for a complete structural battery for the Model Y assembled in Texas. This should allow building some 10 Model Ys daily, which is far from the targeted Texas production. Tesla would need to ramp up 4680 cells production 100-fold just to feed Gigafactory Texas.As the 4680 cells will get into mass production, Giga Texas will be making them on site, just as Giga Berlin will have to do. Teslas battery partners like Panasonic, LG, and Samsung are also working to bring their 4680 line to production. Until then, we found out that Tesla started using the 2170 cells inside the structural batteries.
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SUV

The partnership marks Audi's first joint venture with a majority shareholder in China. Audi is looking to expand its brand presence in the Chinese market. The automaker is optimistic that the joint venture with the FAW group will help strengthen its position as a manufacturer of fully electric vehicles.Recent data findings reveal China is currently the largest automotive market globally in supply and demand. The Asian giant's vehicle registrations rose by 6.6% to 21.1 million in 2020.Audi isn't the only automotive leader rushing to China to secure a spot of its lucrativefuture. Tesla Motors set up a factory in Shanghai, and based on recent government records, the leading EV automaker is also setting up a design studio in Beijing According to China's planning regulator for the northeastern province of Jilin, the construction of the joint venture $3.3 billion plant will begin in April. It will start production in December 2024 and will have the capability of producing 150,000 electric vehicles a year.Based on the released statement, the approval came in on February 11, 2022, and the venture plant plans to produce three full-electric vehicle models, including the Audi e-Tron Reuters reported.Audi and FAW Group signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint venture in October 2021 during the German-Chinese Automotive Conference. Later, in November, Audi indicated plans on the facility had fallen behind schedule due to a delay in approval by relevant authorities.FAW Group isn't the only automaker working with Audi in China. The German automaker is also looking to develop electric vehicles with SAIC Motors to account for a third of EV sales in the world's largest auto market.
Now headquartered at the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, the 8th describes itself as a group tasked with conducting indefinite strategic deterrence operations, as it is on order [to] neutralize the enemy through global strike in order to protect the United States of America.Before getting here though, it managed to go down in history through several achievements. During the war years, it was the greatest air armada in history, with over 200,000 people enrolled. They tended to 2,000 four-engine bombers and 1,000 fighters, all of which could be deployed at once for a single mission, if need be.It is because of this massive punch it packed that the Eighth Air Force became known to the world as the Mighty Eighth. It was involved in all the major operations over Europe, and that had its toll: the Eight accounted for half of all the Air Forces casualties there, including 26,000 dead. It lost 5,100 aircraft, but also achieved a double number of victories.The valor of the airmen deployed with this unit was recognized with 17 Medals of Honor, 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 442,000 Air Medals. 566 aces served with it, fighting together with the others in a total of 440,000 bomber sorties.As it turned 80, the American and British Air Forces decided to honor the air army with a dedicated formation. The flight took place over Duxford, England, in early February, and it involved a B-1 Lancer , two F-15 Eagles, and an F-35B.The main photo of this piece, released by the USAF at the end of last week, shows the four planes during their Happy Birthday flight.
As it is getting ready to introduce the 777x airplane, American company Boeing is busy advertising it where ever it can. After taking the plane to the 2021 Dubai Airshow back in November, and having it perform unsettling maneuvers in the air there, its now time for people in Singapore to experience the awe of seeing what will become a passenger transporter behave like a stunt machine.In the video attached below, we get to see the airplane perform the usual steep takeoff, and then engage in all sorts of banks, twists and turns that would have certainly wreaked havoc on passengers' stomachs had there been any inside.The 777x is described by Boeing as the worlds largest and most efficient twin-engine jet. It is, in fact, the widebody variant of the 777, and will be offered at first in two versions, the 777-8 and 777-9. No matter which one were talking about, they should be 10 percent more fuel-efficient and 10 percent cheaper to operate than potential competitors.The 777-8 comes with a greater range, 16,170 km (a little over 10,000 miles), while the 777-9 has an immense seating capacity, being capable of carrying 426 people at the same time.The plane has been in the works since the 2010s, and its still not fully ready for deployment. Boeing is said to plan its introduction in 2024, so expect to see it perform at quite the number of air shows until then.
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The story is about the Range Rover Classic , the mid-size machine the guys from British Leylands Rover gave birth to at the end of the 1960s, at a time when the wordwas not even used to describe such a type of vehicle.On the market for close to 30 years and just a trio of generations, the Range Rover Classic proved just as successful among the truly passionate as any other large vehicle with the word Rover in its name. It only exited the scene after the Land Rover Discovery came under the spotlight, but in some circles, it survives to this day.It was so popular, in fact, that it was used not only as a civilian daily driver vehicle, but was also employed by police, fire and ambulance service. It even got converted to be used as popemobile by Pope John Paul II during his visit to the UK in 1982.Whats perhaps even more important is the fact the nameplate also gave birth to a number of racing variants, some of which are still doing the rounds today in extremely challenging competitions like the Dakar Classic.It was one of these Dakar-going beasts that served as inspiration for Hot Wheels to come up with a diecast replica of the iconic British off-roader. The toymaker introduced its variant to the world in 2021, and already we have a number of such toys modified by Hot Wheels customizers across the world.The latest example of modified Range Rover comes in the form of something that if looked at just right, can be mistaken for the real thing. Or a four-wheeled Hulk. It has no other name than Range Rover Classic, but it certainly looks like nothing weve seen before.The modified Range Rover is the work of a customizer weve talked about before here on autoevolution, one named Jakarta Diecast Project (JDP). Around for a number of years now, the shop cuts no corners when it comes to both remaking Hot Wheels cars, and advertising them through insane photography.For the Range Rover build, JDP went all in, and changed everything, from the color to the wheels, roll cage, and body height. The toy even received a wealth of hand-made parts, including the engine, mechanical steering, shock absorbers, four-link suspension, and a variety of body parts that werent there originally.You can see the result of all JDPs work in the over 17-minute clip below, or in the attached gallery.
Distances that are normally covered in an hour by car would become a short, 15-minute flight with Jobys eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft. The partnership that can make that happen was recently signed by the California-based transportation company and ANA, with the latter being the largest airline in Japan, one that has over 70 companies under its wing.Tantalized by the idea, Toyota seems to have also joined the partnership, with the intention of exploring opportunities such as integration with ground-based transportation, as reported by Joby. The automaker is currently Jobys largest outside investor , with approximately $400 million invested so far.The collaboration between ANA and Joby is meant to facilitate the development of infrastructure, pilot training, flight operations, and air traffic management.In addition to significantly reducing travel time, the aerial ridesharing service would also reduce Japans carbon footprint, with Tokyo alone being in the top 20 most congested cities in the world when it comes to traffic. According to data offered by The World Bank, as reported by Joby, 92 percent of Japans population lives in urban areas.Boasting of being the first eVTOL company to sign a G-1 (stage 4) Certification Basis for its aircraft with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), Joby is continuously working on improving its five-seat eVTOL, which is now 10 years in the making. The aircraft has a maximum range of 150 miles (241 km) and can reach a top speed of 200 mph (321 kph). Its low noise profile makes it suitable for operation in densely populated areas.A 31-mile (50 km) journey from the Osaka station to Kansai International Airport could take just 15 minutes with Jobys air taxi, while a car would require one hour to cover that distance. The aerial ridesharing service would be operated directly by Joby, with passengers being able to order the taxi via an app.We have no exact timeline regarding the newly formed partnership, but Japan is making serious efforts to bring the concept of aerial ridesharing to fruition as soon as possible. Part of the reason why is the 2025 World Expo, which is going to take place in the western capital of Osaka.
FSD

Teslas Autopilot is the marketing gimmick the American automaker uses to describe its advanced driver assisting systems that can together generate Full Self-Driving Capability ). This one, again, is an exaggerated truth. No matter how many cameras and sensors the cars have now or in the near future, complete road autonomous behavior is still a couple of years away. Not to mention the legal part of things that comes with this evolution. Lawmakers arent keen on deciding whos to blame in the case of self-driving accidents.Nonetheless, this doesnt mean we shouldnt be excited about progress. Tesla's Reverse Summon is about to be dropped on us.But, first, lets remember something. The whole Autopilot system comes with the Smart Summon feature too. This, again, is in the BETA stage of development, which means owners must pay close attention when using it and are fully responsible for whatever the car is doing. Using your phone to bring your vehicle closer when its raining or when the parking is too tight is one amazing option to have. It takes a lot off ones mind and increases comfort too.As a Tesla owner very recently confirmed , Elon Musks company is currently rolling out the Reverse Summon function for engineers. This means it will be tested out in the wild, not just behind closed doors.While the Smart Summon option brings your car to you, Reverse Summon takes it away. Youll park using your phone, if testing goes by the book and BETA stage can be enabled. As is the case now, youll also be responsible for what your Model S, 3, X or Y is doing.Reverse Summon will also have some new modes, like picking where the car will park itself. This doesnt mean you get to choose a parking spot, but different areas like close to the shopping center exit or at the end of the parking lot.Reverse Summon might end up being called Smart Park or Self-Parking, but nothing is confirmed as of now.
Yates Electrospace Corporation, operating under the name of Silent Arrow, was founded in 2012, and its autonomous cargo drone has received significant attention since its launch, including becoming a finalist for the Robert J. Collier Trophy as the "Greatest Achievement in Aeronautics or Astronautics in America," in 2021.The company was also awarded a Warfighter Lab Incentive Fund (WLIF) contract by the DoD, worth $2.2. million. Over a 12-month period, the companys flagship product, the GD-2000, will participate in a demonstration for the U.S. military. Two of the UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) will be delivered to Exercise Emerald Warrior at Hurlburt Field, two will be delivered to an undisclosed location for other demonstrations, and one will be used for non-flying purposes, including training.This autonomous guided delivery vehicle is also disposable, and it can be easily transported to any theater of operations, thanks to its special design that allows the spring-loaded wingspan (28 feet/8.5 meters) to fit inside the fuselage (8 feet/2.4 meters). The compact, tandem-wing vehicle can also be deployed from different types of aircraft, including via a helicopter sling. Theres also an electric, reusable version available (the ER-Series).The GD-2000 has a gross weight of 2,000 lbs (907 kg), and a speed of 62 knots (71 mph/115 kph) at 1,000 lbs (453 kg). It also claims a landing accuracy of 100 meters (328 feet). Due to the fact that it can be deployed without any additional risks for human operators, its an adequate choice for logistics operations in emergency scenarios, such as wildfires, hostage situations, or highly-contested combat environments.Through the completion of this DoD contract, the Silent Arrow cargo drone will confirm its compatibility with Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) systems and military aircraft.
In fact, the impression on American Air Force leader's faces when they first laid eyes on an unlicensed copycat of a Boeing B-29 was as if they'd just about soiled themselves in shock. The American-Soviet Lend-Lease program is one of the few well-understood and well-celebrated collaborations between the two rising superpowers during the Second World War.The Soviets were not the only nation to benefit from the industrial might of North America. China, Great Britain, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Mexico, and many other nations were also beneficiaries. It was America at the zenith of its manufacturing might, and it showed.Some of the more notable aircraft shipped in crates from America to the Eastern Front included some of the era's most iconic and celebrated warbirds. Fighters like the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt commonly and lovingly called the "Stalinbolt" in modern wargaming circles.But there were also P-40 Warhawks/Kittyhawks, Douglas A-20 Havocs an d C-47 Skytrains, Bell P-39/63 Cobras, and even a handful of Boeing B-17 Strategic Bombers and P-51 Mustangs. Not to mention a few battalions worth of Sherman tanks. Safe to say, there was plenty of metal to go around.But one not-so-little trinket the Americans never dared to put in Soviet hands was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. This greatly angered Joseph Stalin, but knowing the kind of short-tempered powder keg the Soviet Premiere was, this shocks about 0% of people. Especially during the Second World War.The Superfortress was never deployed to Europe in any significant capacity, save for one or two propaganda missions to scare the collective you-know-what out of the crumbling German Wermacht. But they did serve in the Pacific theater against Japan.It was during its time over the Pacific that a few B-29s encountered mechanical troubles and were forced to land directly in what was essentially Stalin's back porch. The pilots were returned to their units without incident. But the bombers themselves were a whole other matter.A convenient little non-interference clause with Imperial Japanese matters gave Stalin and Soviet High Command the perfect excuse to tell American military leadership to collectively "get bent" when they came asking for their shiny new bombers back.Stalin ordered the Tupolev Design Bureau to reverse engineer the Superfortress in a fashion that made them easier to build for the metric measurement-minded Soviet engineers to comprehend. Imperial measurements used by Boeing were gradually converted into metric units. In the end, it's said the Tu-4 was only 1% heavier overall than a genuine Superfortress. Not bad, considering the Soviet doctrine of simplifying and adding weight. So, the reverse of a Lotus, how hilarious.By 1947, the Tu-4 was taking to the skies over Soviet airspace, completely under the noses of American intelligence. Every alteration to the design had to be approved by Stalin himself. Funny, as Stalin was not an aerospace engineer. We can only assume you can pull such rabbits out of your hat when you're the most powerful man in any direction for thousands of miles.But in the end, it appears he just let the Tupolev Design Bureau do as it needed to make the project operational. Powering this Soviet leviathan were four Shvetsov ASh-73 18 cylinder radial twin-row engines. A decent counterpart to the famed Wright 3350 Duplex Cyclone radial units present on the American B-29. It also had a full array of defensive cannons and machine guns, as did the Superfortress.The aircraft was first displayed during a flyover on August third, 1947, at the Tushino Aviation Day parade on Soviet home soil. Here, American, Canadian, and British airmen got their first glimpses of what must have looked like some kind of nightmarish optical illusion, for the Americans especially. Sitting right in front of their faces was a true-to-life copycat of the airplane many define as having won the war in the Pacific. But this time, bearing the Soviet red star.The seething look of anger, outrage, and perhaps even a little jealousy on the faces of American personnel must have sustained Stalin for many days. At least up until his slow, debilitating, and agonizing death from a massive stroke a few years later. The Tu-4 would continue to serve communist nations right up until the fall of the Soviet Union in the Soviet Chinese air forces, retiring in 1988. Check back for more wacky airplane profiles and so much more here on autoevolution.
EV

According to their chief commercial officer, Christian Bauer, the company is well on track to finalize certification and get all the necessary operating licenses from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, as reported by FlightGlobal The company expects its Singapore business to generate nearly S$4.2 billion ($3.1 billion) in cumulative economic benefits by 2030, while also creating up to 1,300 jobs. Volocopter has already successfully completed its first mannedtake-off and landing (eVTOL) flight over downtown Singapore, which is why the latter was chosen as one of the first cities in which the air mobility firm will operate.Since that fortuitous flight, Volocopter has been working with Singapore authorities and other local partners in a bid to roll out the service commercially  both in downtown Singapore as well as in the tourist island of Sentosa.They will then focus on cross-border flights between Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia, with Bauer also mentioning the Malaysian city of Johor Bahru as a possible destination.In terms of logistics, Volocopter also want to use their VoloDrone to perform shore-to-ship parcel deliveries in Singapore, although this project still requires feasibility studies.The German company will join a growing list of urban air mobility developers, such as Singapores ST Engineering and Airbus, although Bauer isnt necessarily worried about the competition.I never speak... about competition, I speak about other market participants. [Firstly], if we [were] the only one, we would maybe do something wrong. So its good to have other players forming this new industry.A lot of players going into that space gives credibility to this ecosystem and urban air mobility space, concluded the CCO.
A Ford E-Transit van is seen on display at the Ford Halewood plant in Liverpool, north west England on October 18, 2021. (Photo : PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Ford's electric revolution continued to gain steam as the Detroit automaker finally started delivering its much-awaited E-Transit, as per CarScoops. The latest EV is to roll off Ford's production line with the electric vans now making their way to customers across the United States.

Kumar Galhotra, president of The Americas and International Markets Group for Ford, issued a statement regarding the company's electric van, saying, "E-Transit is a testament to the fact that an electric commercial fleet is no longer a vision of tomorrow, but a productivity-boosting modern reality."

The rollout of the all-electric 2022 E-Transit comes just days after news emerged that Ford had either paused or slowed down its vehicle production in numerous factories due to the ongoing global semiconductor shortage. Assembly plants in charge of building the Mustang Mach-E, Explorer, and Bronco were among those affected by the shortage of computer chips.

Ford reaps benefits of Kansas City Assembly Plant

Fortunately for Ford, those issues seem to be not affecting the production of the E-Transit in its Claycomo, Missouri plant as much, according to CarBuzz. That is a welcome development for Ford as the Transit is one of its most popular offerings.

The ICE-powered Transit was named the best-selling commercial van last year. Ford's Claycomo facility produces both versions of the Transit, and the automaker is looking to maintain its top standing in the commercial van segment.

Ford said that demand for the E-Transit is very high, with more than 300 commercial customers ordering over 10,000 electric vans. Ford made a huge investment to fulfill those orders, pouring in $100 million in its Kansas City Assembly Plant. That was a major boost to the Missouri economy as Ford's expansion helped create 150 new full-time jobs. The Claycomo plant is Ford's first facility to assemble both batteries and electric vehicles in-house.

There is more room for growth, though, when it comes to Ford's EV business, with demand soaring for its electric cars, SUVs, vans, and trucks. Ford expects by the end of the year 2023 that it will be able to produce 600,000 electric vehicles across the globe annually. That estimated figure includes 200,000 Mustang Mach-Es and 150,000 F-150 Lightnings.

Related Article: Ford Takes Inspiration From Tesla: 'On the Fly' Updates for Mustang Mach-e Helps Them Slash Costs

Price and specs of E-Transit

E-Transit is such a popular vehicle for customers because of its long list of benefits. Chief among those is the van's ability to use Ford's E-Telematics. That system will help commercial customers manage their fleets remotely, allowing owners to track the state of charge in their electric vans and maximize efficiency while minimizing downtime in those EVs. The E-Transit can also provide power at a worksite as it can function as a mobile generator, with Ford's electric van able to generate up to 2.4 kW with the Pro Power Onboard feature.

The E-Transit has a starting price of under $45,000 and is capable of traveling up to 126 miles on a charge (electric van set in low-roof cargo configuration). The E-Transit features a 57-kWh battery pack that powers a rear-mounted electric motor. It is capable of producing 266 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of twist.

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In this photograph taken on July 15, 2019, a sales executive speaks to a customer at a Jeep showroom in New Delhi. (Photo : MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images)

Jeep Meridian will be the name of the seven-seater SUV that Jeep India will launch in the middle of the year. Deccan Herald reported that Jeep India confirmed this when it made the huge announcement on Monday, February 14. The Meridian was selected from around 70 options considered by Jeep India, including some Jeep names from the global market.

Jeep India issued a press statement, saying that the company eventually picked the Meridian name as it is inspired by the line which connects "some of the most beautiful states and cultures" through the length of India.

The Meridian will be Jeep's first seven-seater SUV in India, with the vehicle being touted as a product that would further diversify the company's product lineup in the country. Nipun J Mahajan, the head of Jeep India, said that they tested the SUV on every kind of terrain India has to offer, taking the Meridian on a challenging journey from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

Jeep India delighted with Meridian's performance on Indian terrain

Mahajan was delighted with the results, saying, "We are proud to say, the Jeep Meridian performed flawlessly. We are delighted to deliver today a car that is both Made-in-India and Made-for-India for our customers anticipating the Meridian."

Jeep India also confirmed that the Meridian SUV would debut in the country this year, but the company did not provide an exact timeline on when that actual launch will be, as per Hindustan Times. Roland Bouchara, CEO & Managing Director of Stellantis India, did issue a statement, saying their product offensive for 2022 and beyond will continue to illustrate their commitment to India as they work towards strengthening their market presence in the region.

Related Article: Stellantis Recalls Nearly 20,000 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Minivans Due to Fire Risk, Cause Still Unknown

Specs, features, and price of Jeep Meridian

No official confirmation has been given by Jeep India regarding the specs of the Meridian SUV as well. However, several reports have suggested that a 2.0-liter petrol motor could power the Meridian and that a diesel unit may also be made available for the Indian-made SUV. According to AutoCar India, an eight-speed automatic transmission box will likely handle transmission duties for the Jeep Meridian, with select variants of the SUV likely to get 4WD as well.

Jeep also has not revealed much about the features of the Meridian, but the company did promise that the list will be extensive. The features likely to be found inside the cabin of the Jeep Meridian are a 10.25-inch main infotainment screen, four-zone climate control, front ventilated seats, and a panoramic sunroof.

Jeep India will place the Meridian above the Compass in its vehicle lineup, with the company expected to set a starting price of 35 lakh for the SUV when it launches in India sometime this year. Jeep has high hopes for the Meridian, which will face many formidable rivals in the SUV segment of the Indian auto market in 2022, including the MG Gloster, Skoda Kodiaq, and Toyota Fortuner.

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SHANGHAI,CHINA - An aerial view of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory on March 29, 2021 in Shanghai, China. Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory is reportedly producing vehicles at a rate of about 450,000 cars per year. (Photo : Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images)

Tesla China is off to a great start this year, with data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showing that its wholesale figures in January 2022 reached 59,845 vehicles, a 286.5 percent jump compared to its numbers during the same period the year before. Those figures, however, represent a 15.5 percent decline compared to the record-setting results posted by Tesla China in December 2021.

Interestingly, the bulk of those vehicles ended up as exports. A total of 40,499 Tesla vehicles made in China last month were exported to foreign countries. That accounts for 67.7 percent of the total number of Tesla vehicles produced in China last month. The remaining 19,346 vehicles were sold by Tesla China locally in January 2022.

Giga Shanghai may have become Tesla's primary vehicle export hub globally, but the company is still looking for ways to make this gargantuan facility even more productive in the future. Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn alluded to this during the firm's Q4 and FY 2021 earning call last month.

Tesla's Shanghai and Fremont factories running below capacity

According to Kirkhorn, the company's goals of achieving 50 percent growth year-over-year should be possible with just production from Gigafactory Shanghai in China and the Fremont Factory in California, though Tesla would still have to deal with supply chain issues.

Global Times reported that Kirkhorn added that these facilities have been "running below capacity due to macro challenges with supply and logistics." The Tesla executive also noted that based on what they are seeing right now, "the pace of growth in 2022 will again be determined by supply chain and logistics." Those factors, according to Kirkhorn, are quite difficult for them to forecast.

Expanding the production of Giga Shanghai is crucial for Tesla to meet the growing demands of consumers who want to buy their electric cars. According to local reports, Tesla's Shanghai facility had a capacity of about 450,000 vehicles last year. That number is expected to double in the next few years, with local estimates pointing to the idea of Gigafactory Shanghai hitting an annual production capacity of at least 1 million units soon.

Related Article: BMW-Brilliance Auto Group Joint Venture in China: German Automaker Pays $4.2 Billion to Take Majority Control

Expansion already underway at Giga Shanghai

Reports say expansion work started in December of last year, with Tesla already upgrading the production lines at Gigafactory Shanghai for higher capacity utilization. The amount of additional capacity is unknown at present, as per Electrive.

Renovation work has begun in the area where the Model 3 is being assembled. That has forced Tesla to produce the Model 3 and Model Y on the same line in the second hall, an area used exclusively for the latter's production before.

According to earlier statements, Tesla will invest up to 1.2 billion yuan (167 million euros) in the expansion of Giga Shanghai. The current work that is being done to upgrade the production lines is said to cost around 85 million yuan (11.7 million euros). That being the case, expect more work to be done in the Chinese factory as Tesla ramps up production of its famed electric vehicles.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Tuesday that he had decided to withdraw some troops from the border with Ukraine and was prepared to re-enter security negotiations with the U.S. and NATO.

Why it matters: The partial pullback marks the first sign of de-escalation since Russia began its massive military mobilization near Ukraine late last year, but Putin also made clear the threat is not over.

Asked if troops will continue to withdraw or could ultimately move into Ukraine, Putin said that would depend on "the development of the situation locally" and the steps other parties take.

Driving the news: Speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Schoz, Putin stressed that "of course" he does not want war to break out in Europe, but that this is why it is so important that Russia's security demands are accepted by the U.S. and NATO.

Close observers of Russia's military movements note that while a relatively small number of forces do appear to be moving back, those movements thus far pale in comparison to the arrivals of additional troops and equipment just in the past few days.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier on Tuesday welcomed Russia's signals that is prepared for additional diplomacy, but said he'd seen no signs of de-escalation on the military front.

The big picture: A day after Russia's foreign minister said diplomatic efforts with the West "are far from exhausted," Putin announced he was ready for new talks with the U.S. and NATO on missile deployments in Europe and military transparency.

The Western alliance last month proposed a narrow set of "confidence-building" measures that the two sides could work on to defuse tensions, but ruled out any freeze on NATO expansion  Russia's top demand.

Addressing Russia's concerns about Ukraine joining NATO, Scholz said he does not believe eastern expansion will be on the agenda for the duration that either he or Putin will be in office.

Putin did not appear reassured. "They say it won't happen tomorrow," he said of NATO expansion, "but what about the day after tomorrow?" He added that the talks must cover Russia's demands, not just the issues NATO put forward.

"We are afraid that the negotiations on the important matters to us, security matters, could be drawn out without [progress]," Putin said.

What to watch: A vote in the Russian Duma on Tuesday complicated the narrative that Putin was stepping back from the brink.

Russia's rubber-stamp parliament voted to ask Putin to recognize the two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine where separatists have been battling Ukrainian troops since 2014.

Because the separatists don't hold all of the territory they claim, recognizing them as sovereign states could suggest Russia is prepared to step up its military intervention.

Between the lines: Some experts are skeptical that Putin will act on the request. Scholz noted that doing so would be a death knell for the Minsk agreements, which call for Ukraine to grant the eastern territories a "special status" following a ceasefire.

Russia accuses Ukraine of failing to comply with those agreements, but Scholz said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told him in their meeting in Kyiv on Monday that he was prepared to proceed with implementation.

Putin replied skeptically, and even accused Ukraine of committing "genocide" against Russian speakers in the East, a claim that isn't supported by evidence. But he did say that not all opportunities to implement the agreement had been exhausted, and called on Germany and France to pressure Kyiv to comply.

Worth noting: Scholz condemned the new judicial proceedings against jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which began today and could see up to 15 years added to his sentence.
By dismissing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's lawsuit against The New York Times, a district judge kept one of the media's landmark legal protections in place  at least for now.

What they're saying: "I think a lot of media companies and lawyers representing media companies are probably breathing a big sigh of relief right now," said Christy Hull Eikhoff, a media and defamation lawyer at Alston & Bird.

The case, Eikhoff noted, "surprised a lot of media entities and lawyers who specialize in First Amendment jurisprudence," because it's "highly unusual for a public figure's defamation case to get as far as it did."

Catch up quick: Palin sued the The Times and its former editorial page editor, James Bennet, over an editorial that falsely linked her to a 2011 mass shooting.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff said Palin failed to prove that the paper acted with "actual malice" toward her  the standard the Supreme Court established in the landmark case New York Times v. Sullivan.

Rakoff noted that Bennet took actions to check the article before it was published, per NPRs David Folkenflik.

The judges rationale follows both the letter of the law and current precedent for the burden of proof and actual malice, reiterating how high a burden it is, said Roy Gutterman, professor at Syracuse Universitys Newhouse School and director of the Tully Center for Free Speech.

Rakoff previously dismissed this case back in 2017

The intrigue: The judge took the unusual step of throwing out the case while the jury  unaware of his decision  was still deliberating. He said he would allow the jury to keep deliberating so that its verdict can be part of the record when the case is appealed.

If the jury also sides with The Times, it will be a "very, very uphill battle" for Palin to win on appeal, Eikhoff said. But if it sided with Palin, it would strengthen her appeal.

What's next: Palin is expected to appeal the decision to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, so this litigation will probably keep going for months. Palin has suggested she ultimately wants to challenge the "actual malice" standard  which would have to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.
Bluefield, WV (24701)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun with a slight chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. High 79F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms during the evening. Cloudy skies after midnight. Low 62F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
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(Bloomberg) -- TikTok Inc. has signed a lease for more than 125,000 square feet of office space in Texass capital city, according to the Austin Business Journal.

The video platform, owned by ByteDance Ltd., will occupy the top six floors at 300 Colorado St. in downtown, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The company had 96 online job listings for Austin as of Feb. 11, the report said.
Southeast Texas could be hit with some severe weather this week as a cold front rolls into the region.

The National Weather Service Lake Charles office expects a strong disturbance and associated cold front to impact the region late Wednesday through Thursday. No freezing weather is expected with this cold front.

There is a slight risk for severe weather for parts of Southeast Texas ahead of the cold front. The strong to severe storms could bring hazards such as damaging wind gusts, large hail and tornadoes.

However, most of the severe weather is expected to occur more inland, National Weather Service Lake Charles meteorologist Alex Donato said on Tuesday. Weather forecasters anticipate up to 1/2 inch of rainfall.

There will certainly be some thunderstorms associated with this, Donato told The Enterprise on Tuesday. It is far enough out where there is a certainly a bit of uncertainty as far as the strength of these storms, but some strong thunderstorms will be possible Wednesday into Thursday.

The risk for severe weather will mainly be north of Woodville, NWS information said.

At this time, the main line of storms is expected to move into east Texas late Wednesday night, into western/central Louisiana Thursday morning and exit the area by early Thursday afternoon, NWS said.

The region will see an accompanying drop in temperatures, Donato said.

We are going to see a cool down. We are currently in the process of warming up after the previous cold front. So, by Thursday, we are going to have temperatures in the 70s. With that cold front coming through, we are going to see quite a bit of a cool down  probably a good 20 degrees or so from Thursday to Friday.

Friday through Monday, forecasters said the upper air pattern will generally be dominated by a predominate longwave trough over the Central U.S. on Friday, with cold surface high pressure building south.

This will continue the cold air advection over the region, with highs generally in the 50s along with decreasing cloudiness. For Friday night into Saturday morning, expect a light freeze, mainly along and north of the U.S. 190 corridor, the forecast said.

Forecasters expect Saturday afternoon highs in the low 60s. By Saturday night and Sunday morning, lows are expected to be in the mid 30s to lower 40s. Sunday will see afternoon highs warm up to high 60s.

By Sunday night into Monday, an upper level disturbance within the southwest flow aloft will likely bring increasing chances of showers and isolated thunderstorms, the forecast said. Much warmer temperatures expected by this time, with lows in the lower to mid 50s, and highs in the lower to mid 70s.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
,The Orange Police Department has identified the victim of a weekend homicide.

Lorenzo Junior Bias, 39, was found with a gunshot wound and taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont, where he died.

Around 3 p.m. Friday, Orange police were called to 106 Schley Ave. in reference to a shooting, according to a news release.

The suspect, Horace Morris Lassien, 64, initially fled the scene but was later arrested and taken to the Orange County Jail.

The investigation is ongoing.

olivia.malick@hearst.com

twitter.com/OliviaMalick
Dozens of community members gathered together this weekend to show support for a Southeast Texas winery owner battling for his life.

Artie Tucker and his wife Traci own Cotton Creek Winery located at 6755 Phelan Blvd. in Beaumont. A benefit was held at the winery on Saturday for Artie Tucker, who was diagnosed with cancer in December.

Its rare, there is no cure, and we are just praying for miracles, said Traci Tucker, a breast cancer survivor, herself.

Server and family friend Derek McWilliams, who has worked at the winery and known the family for about five years, helped coordinate the benefit to help with medical expenses.

McWilliams said everyone involved with the event volunteered their time and hoped to raise about $5,000 for the family described as giving and involved with the community.

He estimated that an unexpected 500 attendees raised at least $7,500 for the family as they overflowed into each room of the winery.

It sends chills all over you, McWilliams said. It just shows you really who Artie and Tracy are to the community and what they have done. To see Southeast Texas come together and come together and help support one in needit makes you proud to be from here. Were real big on supporting local.

Like many wineries and breweries, Cotton Creek felt the punch of the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down the business twice. The closures resulted in a loss of revenue for the winery, McWilliams said

After overcoming the challenge, the owners were dealt with another blow: the diagnosis.

Artie went in for a gall bladder scan, but there was an incidental finding.

Since the diagnoses, Traci said her husband has had his good days and his bad days as he undergoes chemotherapy and scans to assess treatment progress in the fight against a rare stage 4 lung cancer that has spread to his liver.

As he fights his battle at home, volunteers and family did not anticipate to be engulfed with a flood of support this weekend at his winery. Attendees said they observed the event grow from about 30 in the morning to dozens more, if not hundreds, throughout the day.

Overwhelmed and very humbled, Traci Tucker said struggling to find the words to say as tears swelled and McWilliams embraced her in a hug. Its just amazing. Its like having everybody in the world here at one time.

The event featured wine, a barbecue link sack lunch drive-thru, t-shirt sales, live music and a silent auction.

This has been the best thing to give back to them because they give so much to the community, said family friend and volunteer Jodi Barton as she helped with t-shirt and coaster sales. We are just glad we could help.

It also saw about 40 members of the National Corvette Museums TriCity Corvette Club. Club Member Glenn Johnson, who also serves as Port Neches mayor, said major sponsors and supporters, like the winery, help make it possible for the club, which Artie Tucker is involved in, to support various charities each year.

It was only fair that we come back and support the winery for this event, Johnson said.

The quiet boutique winery remains open with its normal hours Tuesday through Saturday. It offers wine tastings, pizza, appetizers, and more. It will continue to sell t-shirts and accept donations.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
Chris Sheffield has been promoted to e-Services Lending Supervisor at FivePoint Credit Union, President/CEO Erik M. Shaw has announced. Sheffield has been employed with FivePoint for three years as a Loan Officer and Member Solutions Specialist.

He has more than seven years in previous management roles in the financial industry. Sheffield is a graduate of Port Neches- Groves High School, and he currently lives in Groves with his wife and their daughter.

Mandee Tucker, MSN, has been promoted to Associate Dean of Nursing and Program Director of the Registered Nursing and Medical Assisting Programs at Lamar State College Orange.

Tucker began her nursing studies at LSCO, when it was Lamar University-Orange. She earned her Certified Nursing Assistant certificate in 1995 along with her Vocational Nursing degree in 1995. She earned her Associate Degree in Registered Nursing from Lamar University in 1997, her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Phoenix in 2014, and her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2019. She has taught as an instructor at Lamar State College Orange since 2008.

Mandee has passionately served our campus since she was a student here, said Lamar State College Orange Provost and Executive Vice President Dr. Wendy Elmore, and her desire for our students to succeed in the field of nursing is unmatched. Her clinical and academic expertise, coupled with her drive for making the LSCO Nursing Program the best it can be, is why she is the perfect person to lead our nursing programs into even greater depths of excellence,

Lamar State College Orange President Dr. Tom Johnson added, Mandees passion is apparent in every conversation she has about our nursing students and our nursing programs. Our students and their futures couldnt be in better hands.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar joined other unclaimed property administrators to celebrate the second annual national Unclaimed Property Day on Feb. 1.

For information about the unclaimed property program, or to search for unclaimed property and begin the claims process, readers can visit the unclaimed property website, ClaimItTexas.org, or call (800) 321-2274 (CASH). Texans are also encouraged to check MissingMoney.com or FindMyFunds.com to search for property that may belong to them in other states.

I am proud to have returned nearly $2 billion dollars to Texans since becoming comptroller, and we are continually looking for new ways to return even more, Hegar said. I am proud to have given back more money than any other Texas Comptroller since the Unclaimed Property program was launched in 1962. This effort is part of my continued commitment to focus on customer service and provide taxpayers with transparent and accountable government. The money belongs to the people of Texas, and I encourage everyone to visit ClaimItTexas.org

According to officials with the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, nearly 33 million people in the United States have unclaimed property. Unclaimed property includes things like forgotten utility deposits or other refunds, insurance proceeds, payroll checks, cashiers checks, dividends, mineral royalties, dormant bank accounts and abandoned safe-deposit box contents.

The Comptrollers office has returned more than $3 billion in unclaimed property since this program began in 1962. The state is holding more than $7 billion in cash and other valuables through the program. There is generally no statute of limitations for unclaimed property which the state holds.

Do you have a news item like this that your customers or clients need to hear about? A new manager or owner, a major change in your operations? Send it to Opinions@BeaumontEnterprise.com so we can spread the word!
Right now most Texans are probably hoping to get through these last few weeks of winter without another hard freeze that challenges our power grid as it was this time last year. But if we get through this and into spring weather, a new challenge would immediately present itself  flooding. And as a recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change indicates, this is something we are probably going to have to deal with for a long time.

The study forecast increased flood risks in Texas over the next 30 years as a result of climate change and increased development on floodplains due to a growing population. It also predicted a disproportionate impact on Black communities that are often located in flood-prone areas.

The study can seem grim, but its hard to dispute its two main factors  more housing and more risk of flood from climate change. When you put those two categories together, the result is often water creeping into homes and businesses.

The review was comprehensive too. It was led by a team of international flood risk scientists and it concluded that current flood risk mapping, which often relies on past observations, fails to account for the increasing threat from climate change.

And as if past floods werent costly enough, the study forecast even greater expenses in the future. It predicted that average annual flood losses in the country would increase by 26.4% from $32 billion now to $40.6 billion by 2050, from climate change alone. And because of population growth, it predicted that the number of people exposed to flood risk each year would increase from 3.63 million to 4.31 million, again just from climate change. Texas and Florida could see a 50% increase in flood exposure by 2050.

Studies like this and many others show that preparedness must become a priority for every government, business and family on the Gulf Coast. This is not something we worry about for a few weeks at the start of hurricane season and then put on the back burner for the rest of the year.

Drainage improvements and flood prevention have to be addressed in every annual budget for cities, counties and school districts. Residents and businesses must make their properties as flood-proof as possible  and be prepared to evacuate if necessary. New construction in vulnerable low-lying areas must end.

No study can accurately predict the future, and it doesnt necessarily mean that vulnerable areas like Southeast Texas will be struck every year. In 2021, this region was mostly spared from this threat, although in 2020 we were struck by not one but two hurricanes, something that almost never happened before. But area residents cannot dismiss the lessons of Harvey and Imelda in recent years  major floods that brought threats to areas that had not taken on water in decades.

A new hurricane season will begin in just a few months. We should take the implications of studies like this to heart, and be ready for whatever it brings.
No one is directly saying that Whitney Brewster was forced to resign as head of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles because of growing outrage over reports that criminals were able to create and sell hundreds of thousands of fake paper license plates  with impunity for years, we might add. But its a safe bet that the two are related, and they should be.

Officials like Brewster are paid a lot of money to run their agencies smoothly and professionally. When that doesnt happen, there must be consequences. And the scandal over the fake paper license plates was not a minor flap.

The temporary tags or paper license plates are supposed to be issued to drivers to use for a short period before they register their vehicles. Car dealerships also use them for loaner vehicles and demonstrations.

But television station NBC 5 in North Texas aired an investigative report in November showing how criminals exploited loopholes in the states system to create a $200 million enterprise selling fake paper license plates  not just in Texas but across the country.

The fake plates can allow criminals to remain anonymous from law enforcement or be used by people whose vehicles might not pass an inspection. These phony plates have been tied to offenses ranging from avoiding toll charges and selling damaged vehicles to robberies and carjackings.

Thats bad enough, but criminals also made a lot of money by selling the fake tags. Just one group of three people have been accused of using fake car dealerships to issue nearly 600,000 phony tags and sell them on the internet without selling any cars.

This is something that should have been detected long ago. DMV officials should have known or figured out that their system for temporary tags was ripe for exploitation.

At long last, the problem is being addressed. The Texas Legislature passed a bill in June that authorizes the state DMV to take swifter action when fraud is identified and to reduce the potential number of tags at risk for illegal use. The law allows officials to limit the number of temporary tags available to dealers and cut off access to temporary plates if the DMV discovers that licensed dealers are involved in any illegal activities.

These precautions are obvious and should have been in effect when the program began. Criminals schemes like this mock the actions of legitimate car dealers and car buyers. They deprive state government of tax revenue that can be used in many ways, such as improving the many substandard roads and highways that Texans have to drive on. And theres no telling how many dangerous criminals escaped detection and arrest because they were using fake paper license plates.

Every state agency should be able to quickly respond to problems like this and be aware of any vulnerabilities in its operations. The DMV failed that standard this time, and every state department head should learn from it.
Theo Wargo

Ivan Reitman, the influential filmmaker responsible for iconic comedies like Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Animal House, died peacefully in his sleep Saturday night, his family has told the Associated Press.

The father of filmmakers Catherine and Jason Reitman, the Czechoslovak-born Canadian filmmaker began his career producing two films for horror director David Cronenberg: Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977). His first forays into comedy came shortly after when he produced National Lampoons Animal House (1978), starring John Belushi, and Meatballs (1979), starring longtime collaborator Bill Murray.
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God, our Heavenly Father, has always desired to be close to us, to have a relationship with us. As Christians, we acknowledge that God exists and that Christ was resurrected. Despite knowing this, many of us have absolutely no idea what it means to have a relationship with God. What does it mean to trust God? What is expected of us and what should we expect from God? Should one pray despite the feeling that no one is listening? The problem for many Christians is that the beginning of our relationships with God is not motivated by love but by expectation. A lot of us grow up in churches that tell us that having a relationship with God comes with the territory of belief. We know we are expected to have a relationship with God, but dont otherwise feel led to cultivate a relationship with God. When we open our hearts to a real relationship with God through Christ, we discover Gods unconditional love for us and it stirs up a passion inside of us to love people. We dont have to struggle to do the things He calls us to do because we are secure in Him.

"God takes residence in us, invites us to die to ourselves and become a new creation in Him."

God is all about family. He designed our family model to mirror His. The Bible tells us, For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings (Hebrews 2:10). God wants to bring many children to His glory. The apostle John confirmed why God created mankind when He said, Behold the manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed when we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:1-3). God is our Father and wants a relationship with us based upon the family relationship He created. Because we are His children, we are to follow the example set by Christ. But because of mankinds rejection of God, the human family has become broken. We continue to struggle with this daily.

One of Gods key commandments is to honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you (Exodus 20:12). God has created a great relationship model for us but too few of us are actually experiencing this beautiful relationship. If you have had the experience of a loving father and mother who set examples of love and respect for each other and also showed you what it means to love unconditionally, you already have a solid understanding of the type of relationship God wants with you. However, if you come from a broken home, you may struggle with the loving Father concept.

The relationship that God wants to have with us is rooted in love. John 3:16 is the perfect example of Gods perfect love for you: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. No other verse in the Bible summarizes Gods relationship with humanity and His ultimate love for us. It tells us that the love God has for us and the extent of that love is so great that He sacrificed His only Son on our behalf. Gods love for us inspires our love for God.

Many of us have heard someone say I want to be close to God or I feel far from Jesus or have even said some of these things ourselves. We say these things because we have been led to believe our relationship with Jesus is based on proximity  a sliding scale of near and far based on faithfulness of our spiritual devotion. But a relationship with Jesus requires more than just being close with Him. Jesus longs to become perfectly one with you. God takes residence in us, invites us to die to ourselves and become a new creation in Him. He invites us into an intimate relationship with Him: union with Christ. Union with Christ refers to relationship between the believer and Jesus Christ. There are countless passages throughout the Bible that reveal that believers are joined in Christ: We are the branches and Jesus is the vine (John 15:5); Jesus is the head and we are His body (1 Corinthians 6:15019); Christ is the foundation and we are living stones in the foundation (1 Peter 2:4-5). Nothing is more basic or central to knowing and enjoying God than union with Christ. Its at the heart of our Christian faith. Jesus Christ is dwelling in us and because of this, Jesus is available to us anytime and in anyplace because we believe.

God desires to welcome you into His eternal family as His glorified child. Its important that you make it a priority to grow in your relationship with Him. Having a personal relationship with God begins the moment we realize our need for Him, admit that we fall short as sinners, and in faith receive Jesus Christ as Savior. As soon as we become children of God, we receive the Holy Spirit, who will begin to work on our hearts. Include God in your daily life. Pray to Him, read His Word daily and reflect on verses in Scripture in an effort to know Him better. Trusting in God to get us through each day and believing that He is the true sustainer of life is how we can not only begin, but also sustain a personal relationship with Him.

Lesli White is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth with a Bachelors degree in Mass Communications and a concentration in print and online journalism. In college, she took a number of religious studies courses and harnessed her talent for storytelling. White has a rich faith background. Her father, a Lutheran pastor and life coach was a big influence in her faith life, helping her to see the value of sharing the message of Christ with others. She has served in the church from an early age. Some of these roles include assisting ministry, mutual ministry, worship and music ministry and church council.
Herry Wirawan, 36, a former teacher and founder of an Islamic boarding school, who is accused of raping 13 school girls between 2016 and 2021, looks on from inside a waiting room before his verdict trial at the district court in Bandung, Indonesia, Feb. 15, 2022.

An Indonesian court convicted and sentenced a school principal to life in prison Tuesday for raping at least 13 students, including underage girls, in a case that rekindled public attention on sexual abuse at religious boarding schools in the country.

Defendant Herry Wirawan had destroyed the futures and mental health of the female students whom he victimized at the girls-only Islamic boarding school in Bandung, and whose ages ranged from 14 to 20 years old, a three-judge panel at a local district court ruled.

The defendant is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment, Chief Judge Yohannes Purnomo Suryo Adi said in handing down the verdict to the 36-year-old principal, adding that Herry was found to be guilty under Indonesias child protection law.

The defendant as an educator and caretaker of an Islamic boarding school should have protected and guided his underage students so that they could grow and develop, but instead set a bad example and destroyed the growth and future of the children, Yohanes said during the court session, which was broadcast via YouTube.

The panel also ruled that the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection pay a total of 331 million rupiah ($23,000) as restitution to Herrys victims and take temporary custody of nine children who were born to them as a result of his actions over a period of five years until 2021.

Prosecutors had sought the death sentence and chemical castration for Herry, saying the heaviest punishment was necessary to deter the recurrence of such crimes. But the judges ruled out castration, saying it was unnecessary because they were condemning the convict to spend the rest of his days behind bars.

The rapes at the boarding school in Bandung came to light last year after a victims parents filed a complaint with police against Herry upon finding out that their daughter was pregnant, authorities said. Herry was arrested in May.

The defendant, who wore a black Peci hat and a white short-sleeved shirt, kept silent throughout his sentencing.

Last month, Herry admitted wrongdoing and apologized to his victims as he pleaded for leniency, according to the head of West Java prosecutors office, Dodi Ghazali Emil.

As far as I can tell, he was remorseful, and apologized to the victims and their families and asked for a more lenient sentence, Dodi said at that time.

The trial was closed to the media.

An attorney for Herry, Ira Mambo, said her client had not yet decided whether to appeal.

We have seven days to think about it, she said after Tuesdays sentencing hearing.

A member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Beka Ulung Hapsara, welcomed the judges refusal to mete out the death penalty and said that the right to life is inalienable.

This is in line with human rights principles, Beka said.

The case about the rapes at the school in Bandung, the capital of West Java province, has prompted calls for the Indonesian government and the parliament to speed up passage of a bill for preventing sexual violence.

New cases of alleged sexual abuse at Islamic boarding schools have surfaced since Herrys arrest.

In the latest case, police last week arrested a 47-year-old teacher in Mamuju, a city in West Sulawesi province, for allegedly sexually assaulting seven female students, local media reported.

Police took the action after the students told their parents about the alleged abuse.

Last month, Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Zainut Tauhid Saadi said President Joko Jokowi Widodo was concerned about cases of sexual abuse in Islamic boarding schools, traditionally known here as pesantren.

Zainut called on parliament to review the law on pesantren, which was passed in 2019, to allow tighter monitoring.

We are evaluating existing regulations and, in the pesantren law, there are no provisions on supervision, local media reports quoted him as saying. Please review so that the government and the public have monitoring access to pesantren.

Police escort Herry Wirawan, a former teacher and founder of an Islamic boarding school, who is accused of raping 13 schoolgirls at his school, to the court room before the verdict in his trial at the district court in Bandung, Indonesia Feb. 15, 2022. [Antara Foto via REUTERS]

Activists have said that women are often blamed despite being victims of sexual violence. At least 8,800 cases of sexual violence occurred between January and November 2021, according to the Women Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry.

After a public outcry over a string of sexual attacks against minors in 2016, including the killing of a school student on Sumatra Island, Jokowi introduced an emergency decree in lieu of law on child protection. It allowed new punishments, including chemical castration and/or the death penalty, for child-sex offenses.

Deliberations on a separate bill on sexual violence have been delayed partly because of opposition from Islamic groups in the worlds largest Muslim-majority country who argue that it promotes promiscuity. Additionally, conservative lawmakers want the bill to include prohibitions on extramarital sex and homosexual relations.

In its latest form, the draft bill recognizes seven forms of sexual violence  forced sexual relations, sexual harassment, forced use of contraceptives, forced sterilization, forced marriage, sexual slavery and sexual torture, according to the Law and Human Rights Ministry.

It is clear than sexual violence against women and children is still high, Anak Bintang Puspayoga, the minister for womens empowerment and child protection said on Friday, according to the state-run Antara news agency.

We realize the urgency of legislation on sexual violence and therefore the bills passage should no longer be delayed, she said.

An official at the Office of the Presidential Staff said the draft bill would be submitted to the parliament for deliberations soon.

We have completed our part, Jaleswari Pramowardhani told BenarNews.

Meanwhile, a member of the House of Representatives, Willy Aditya, said lawmakers would immediately get down to work once the draft bill had been received.

Its crucial. There should be no more delays in deliberating the sexual violence bill, Willy was quoted as saying by the Media Indonesia news site.
Immigration detainees walk on the premises of the Temporary Immigration Depot in Beranang, in the Malaysian state of Selangor, June 3, 2021.

A Malaysian court on Tuesday temporarily stayed the deportation of a former Bangladeshi diplomat, pending a hearing of his applications for a permanent stay and challenging his arrest, which Dhaka says was carried out at its request.

Rieta Rahman, the wife of Md. Khairuzzaman, Bangaldeshs former high commissioner in Malaysia, filed applications with the court through a team of lawyers, attorney Edmund Bon said in a press statement. In her applications, Rahman said the arrest of her husband, who holds a United Nations refugee agency card, had been politically motivated, local media reported.

Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Zaini Mazlan ordered the government to abide by the courts ruling, which put Khairuzzamans deportation on hold pending a hearing on May 20, Bon said.

After hearing from the lawyers and since there is no objection from the respondent, a temporary stay is granted until the disposal of the application, said Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, according to a court brief.

The former ambassador was arrested from his home near Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 9 by immigration authorities, who said he had overstayed his visa. But Bangladeshs home minister said Dhaka had requested Malaysia to arrest Khairuzzaman, a former army officer, as he was involved in the jailhouse killing of former ministers in 1975.

The ex-envoy has yet to get access to a lawyer or be charged, Bon said.

However, we have written to the immigration authority for us to be given access to Khairuzzaman, Bon told BenarNews.

BenarNews tried to get a phone number for Rahman, who is said to be in Bangladesh, but was told that she did not wish to comment on the case for safety reasons.

The wife and family members have moved to a secure location, said a source who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the case.

She will not talk to media due to safety reasons, the source added.

Khairuzzaman and other military personnel were accused of killing four founding leaders of Bangladesh inside the Dhaka Central Jail in November 1975.

The four were ministers serving under the countrys founding leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the late father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who leads the Awami League party. Mujibur was assassinated in a military coup three months earlier.

In 2004, when Bangladesh was led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is now in the opposition, a court acquitted Khairuzzaman of involvement in the 1975 killings.

Khairuzzaman had been serving as a diplomat in Kuala Lumpur when Hasina returned to power in 2009. Ordered back to Dhaka, he chose to stay in Malaysia and received a refugee card from UNHCR.

Last week, authorities in Dhaka said that the current Awami League government would look into reviving the case against Khairuzzaman, were he to be deported home from Malaysia.

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, Shahriar Alam, the state minister for Foreign Affairs said Dhaka was willing to help the Malaysian government in the court case.

In this case, the Malaysian government will face the court, Alam told BenarNews.

If they need any cooperation to win this case successfully, the Bangladesh government will do it.

Jesmin Papri contributed to this report from Dhaka.
Palestinian workers use backhoes to break and remove parts of the Al-Jawhara building, which was damaged by Israeli airstrikes during Israel's war with Gaza's Hamas rulers in May 2021, in the central al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, Dec. 23, 2021.

Updated at 2:09 p.m. ET on 2022-02-15

Philippine police uncovered a plot by the Palestinian militant group Hamas to recruit Filipinos for attacks against foreign nationals in the Southeast Asian country, an official said Tuesday.

An unnamed Filipino informant revealed information about several meetings he had in Malaysia from 2016 to 2018 with a senior Hamas operative, where they discussed the possibility of attacking Israeli citizens in the Philippines, the director of the intelligence unit at the Philippine National Police said in a statement.

Our Filipino source identified the Hamas operative as Bashir who was reportedly attempting to establish a foothold in the Philippines with pledges of financial support to some local threat groups including militant extremists with links to the international terrorist organizations, Brig. Gen. Neil Alinsangan said.

Information sharing and coordination with foreign counterparts revealed that Bashir is Fares Al Shikli, allegedly the head of Hamas foreign liaison section, Alinsangan said.

Al Shikli is on the Interpols Red Notice list and has been charged with logistics support for terrorism, he said. A red notice means that Interpol has alerted law enforcement agencies worldwide about a wanted person.

The source told police he met with Al Shikli in Malaysia to discuss the possibility of mounting attacks against Israeli nationals in the country in exchange for financial assistance by Hamas, Alinsangan said, referring to attacks in the Philippines.

Fares Al Shikli started grooming the source in 2016 as a local contact in the Philippines and introduced to him theoretical bomb-making training in one of their meetings in Malaysia, he said.

The Malaysian government has maintained relationships with Hamas. In 2020, then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed welcomed Ismail Haniyeh to Putrajaya during the Hamas leaders first official trip to Malaysia since taking power in 2017.

Two years earlier, gunmen on a motorcycle killed a Palestinian engineer who held Malaysian permanent residence status as he walked to a mosque for dawn prayers. On its website, Hamas described him as a member. Media reports at the time said Hamas and the mans widow blamed Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, of being involved in the killing.

Recruitment efforts

Meanwhile, the Filipino source told investigators that Al Shikli told him about plans to recruit Filipino militants with links to terrorist organizations here for the purpose of targeting Jews in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic nation, the intelligence group said.

In January 2018, intelligence operatives in the Philippines arrested an Iraqi man identified as Taha Mohamed Al-Jabouri, a chemist and bomb maker who had eluded police in the past. Al-Jabouri confessed that he served as a consultant for the Hamas organization in Syria before relocating to Turkey sometime in 2012.

Previously, police said they foiled a potential attack in November 2016 after discovering an improvised bomb near the U.S. Embassy in Manila. The bomb plot was blamed on the Maute group, whose leaders would go on to help lead the siege of the southern city of Marawi by pro-Islamic State militants in May 2017.

The five-month siege and a battle with government forces that ensued, left 1,200 militants, government forces and civilians dead.

Also in May 2017, police placed the crowded Quiapo district in Manila under lockdown after two improvised bombs exploded within hours near the Muslim center, killing two people. It was not clear who was behind the attack and police have said little about the case.

While it remains unclear if the Hamas had connections with the groups behind the Marawi siege, foreign militants were involved and have established links with Filipino Muslim radicals, officials said.

It also was not immediately clear what happened after the 2018 meetings in Malaysia and whether the Hamas threat remains active in the Philippines.

This is a stern warning to all terroristic groups who plan to conduct recruitment and similar activities in the country, we have a way to know you and you cannot do your plans here because the police and military, through the active support of the community, are working together to pre-empt your devious plans, Alinsangan said.

Alinsangan did not offer additional comments when contacted by BenarNews. Military officials did not comment as well.
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Investigations editor

Larry Parnass joined The Eagle in 2016 from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where he was editor in chief. His freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, CommonWealth Magazine and with the Reuters news service.
Healthy and vaccinated? Massachusetts Department of Public Health says you can now shed that mask indoors  with some exceptions
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989.
PITTSFIELD  Getting to and from work, health care appointments or even just the grocery store without driving is a big ask in Berkshire County.

Berkshire Immigrant Center staff say that state laws, and the lack of public transportation options, force undocumented immigrants to drive unlicensed or miss out on basic needs.

Here in the Berkshires, theres really no other option, said Emma Lezberg, a caseworker for the Pittsfield nonprofit. If you have to go to work, you have to drive.

While 16 states, including neighbors Connecticut, New York and Vermont, allow all residents to apply for a drivers license, Massachusetts requires individuals to show proof of a Social Security number to obtain a license.

The Massachusetts House is expected to vote today on a proposal to make Massachusetts the 17th state to allow all drivers to obtain a license. Supporters of the bill, which was co-authored by state Rep. Tricia Farley- Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, believe that it will make roads safer by ensuring that all drivers are licensed, registered and insured, along with improving immigrants access to basic needs.

Its mind-boggling that its taken us so long to get to this point, said Michelle Lopez, executive director of the Berkshire Immigrant Center. This is another way for us to ensure safety for everybody ... to ensure everyone has insurance, ensure that we are all covered.

In states that have allowed undocumented immigrants to get a license, the number of hit-and-run crashes has decreased and insurance premiums have fallen.

But, Gov. Charlie Baker has voiced opposition to allowing licenses for undocumented drivers, questioning whether the change would conflict with federal Real ID guidelines and whether undocumented immigrants can verify that they are who they say they are.

Asked by reporters Monday, Baker maintained that he supports current laws that require proof of legal presence, although he stopped short of threatening a veto.

A redrafted version of the Farley-Bouvier bill requires applicants to show a valid and unexpired foreign passport or consular identification document, as well as a drivers license from another state or territory, a birth certificate, a foreign national identification card, a foreign drivers license or a Massachusetts marriage certificate or divorce decree.

The bill would allow undocumented immigrants to receive a standard drivers license, not a Real ID-compliant license.

The Massachusetts House will vote on Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier's 'driver's licenses for all' bill next week, speaker says The Massachusetts House appears set to vote next week on a proposal to allow residents to seek drivers licenses without being required to demonstrate legal immigration status. State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier first introduced that proposal in 2013.

Pittsfield Police Chief Michael Wynn said that his department shifted its approach to undocumented drivers from enforcement to education some time ago, in part because unlicensed-operation cases just didnt go anywhere in court.

It was much easier for us just to ask our community partners to educate the people they were assisting, said Wynn, who supports the Farley-Bouvier bill.

Lezberg said that a top priority is ensuring that undocumented immigrants know their rights. In general, law enforcement might not ask people about their immigration status, and people always have the right to remain silent.

We just tell them what to do if police stop them, understanding that we cant tell people not to drive, Lezberg said. People dont want to do something theyre not supposed to be doing, but they dont really have a choice.

Behind immigration status, driving is the second-greatest concern Lezberg hears from clients, she said.

I have clients who are certainly concerned about insurance, Lezberg said. If youre uninsured, theres a lot more concern about what happens if you do get into an accident, even if its something little.

In a November 2020 survey by the Berkshire Immigrant Center, 11 percent of the 114 clients who responded said that they did not have access to reliable transportation.

That would mean that they live too far off a bus route, or the bus route doesnt run when they need to get to and from work, or they dont have a drivers license or a car, Lopez said.

Respondents to that survey ranked only affordable housing and jobs above transportation as the most pressing challenges in Berkshire County.

Even residents with legal status have had difficulty renewing drivers licenses, Lezberg said. If a document such as a work permit or a green card expires at the same time as a drivers license, backlogs in those systems can force people to wait to renew their licenses.

An inability to drive not only hurts employment, Lopez said, but it also can pose an issue during medical emergencies.

I think people arent aware of the number of emergency situations that can pop up and put your family in danger because you cant legally drive, Lopez said.

What if your kid, in the middle of the night, comes down with something, or an infant who cant talk? And you dont live within a certain distance of a hospital, and youre too financially unstable or dont have health insurance to pay the ridiculous ambulance fee. How are you getting your child to the hospital?
PITTSFIELD  Fearing for her mothers safety, a woman last week asked police to help transfer her parent from a Pittsfield nursing home with a history of severe staffing shortages and neglect  a place also beset by a recent COVID-19 outbreak.

Quote It would be on for three hours. It was because she needed something. She had to go to the bathroom. She needed medicine. They would constantly turn it off. Molly Thomas, daughter of a resident who alleges severe neglect at Springside, speaking of unanswered call bells

Pittsfield Police confirmed that an officer went Thursday to Springside Rehabilitation and Skilled Care Center and arranged for the woman, 67, to be taken by ambulance to Berkshire Medical Center, where she was evaluated. Her condition is OK, according to her family. They asked that her name be withheld to protect her privacy.

Pittsfield police then called the nursing home twice about that transfer. No one picked up, the police report says.

Interviews with people familiar with care at Springside describe a chaotic scene over the last several weeks, as the facility confronted both the COVID-19 outbreak and whats believed to have been another widespread infection that caused constant diarrhea and vomiting, as well as multiple falls and broken bones. Nursing aides are going without breaks, they said.

To shore up care at the facility, the state Department of Public Health sent a rapid response team of health care workers to Springside, an agency spokesperson said. The team arrived Feb. 8 and is set to leave Tuesday, according family members of residents. The agency also has placed an admissions freeze on the facility, though Springside did not appear on the states list of facilities with freezes in place last week.

Springside also accepted the state DPHs offer to call in National Guard health care workers, as it did during a COVID-19 outbreak in January 2021.

The Guard has not been to the facility yet this year, but that is expected to change by the end of this week, according to a Guard spokesperson. There is no charge to the facility for the Guards assistance.

Other people with family staying at the facility, as well as health care workers familiar with the situation, continue to contact The Eagle to report perceived neglect due to understaffing, an assessment the nursing home disputes. They also say the facilitys main phone and administrator numbers mostly go unanswered.

Molly Thomas, who called police in order to help her mother, said she wanted to speak out about what she termed inhumane care of her mother, who has multiple health issues, including breathing problems. Her mother is one of dozens of residents and staff who tested positive for COVID-19 in the last several weeks, further depleting what workers say are already unsafe staffing levels.

Yet, the virus was not Thomas main concern: the level of care residents are receiving.

I dont want this to ever happen to anyone else, Thomas said of what she views as substandard care. The facility admitted her mother on Jan. 12 to recover from an injury caused by one of her illnesses, and to manage her pain. She planned to return home.

Springside owner and BaneCare President Kevin Morris declined to comment when asked how the company plans to augment staffing. A spokesperson for BaneCare told The Eagle in an email that medical privacy laws prevent the company from commenting on a specific situation, but nonetheless denied that Thomas mother had been neglected.

BaneCare and Springside are proud of the care being provided to this resident as well as all of the residents within this facility, wrote Emily Sugrue, the companys director of marketing and communications. Springside is sufficiently staffed at this time to meet the needs of our residents.

A recent analysis of federal data by The Eagle shows that Springside, like most nursing homes, has not maintained what the government considers to be adequate staffing levels before and during the pandemic. Federal regulators have fined and cited the company for medication errors and neglect, most notably in January 2021, when a COVID-19 outbreak reduced staffing to dangerous levels.

Springside has had 42 resident cases and 18 staff cases since Jan. 25 of this year, according to information on the facilitys website. As of its Feb. 10 report, one resident tested positive. Mondays report showed no new cases.

Carolyn Villanova, whose 99-year-old mother is at Springside, is one of several people who have contacted the paper to express concern about conditions there. Villanova said symptoms from the virus in residents have been mild.

In her familys case, she said she is more worried about neglect and her mothers end-of-life dignity. She says a number of other residents are afraid to speak up, worried about retaliation. She also said her mother has had some wonderful aides in her three years there.

The administrator calls and begs people not to come, Villanova said, noting she typically visits three times a week. They havent had any activities in at least six or seven weeks. So [they] sit there with nothing to do.

On the night shift, there is one nursing aide per 53 residents in the locked dementia unit as of Monday, according to someone familiar with the facility who fears retaliation for speaking out. The other unit has one aide for about the same number of residents. The two other shifts have two aides. The DPHs rapid response team added one registered nurse to the night shift over the past week, and two RNs to the two day shifts. They said it is standard policy for the facility to have only one RN on the night shift.

The outbreak made an existing problem worse.

We were extremely short-staffed before the outbreak, said the person familiar with care conditions. Now we have people that literally are so hard to control and [some are] falling and breaking bones.

Does not feel safe

Thomas, who is from Pittsfield and lives in North Carolina, said her mothers call bell would go unanswered for hours at a time. Her medications were late or forgotten, her blood pressure not taken daily, and she wasnt being helped to the bathroom or getting an important piece of medical equipment changed, Thomas said, based on what her mother reported to her. Her mother has lost about 10 pounds since she arrived there, and is down to 98 pounds, she added.

Thomas calls to the facility almost always went unanswered, she said; messages left for the administrator were not returned. The ombudsman at Elder Services of Berkshire County also did not return her call as of Friday, but has since responded, Thomas said.

Alarmed, Thomas booked a plane ticket and planned to have her mother discharged as of Tuesday. She decided not to wait when she got the urgent call of distress early Thursday.

The evening before, a staffer brought her mother her medicine and closed her door for the night.

Her door was shut and she had no water, Thomas said, noting that she has to stay hydrated for medical reasons. She called Thursday morning at 6 and said, Theyre trying to kill me.

The Elder Services ombudsman, Amanda Height, said she is unable to comment on any cases she may or may not be working on at the moment.

Height referred questions to Carolyn Fenn, director of the states Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. Fenn explained that the program advocates for residents but is not an emergency service.

We try to get back to people in a couple of business days, and we try to advise people up front when they call our line that if its an emergency of abuse, neglect or mistreatment to call the DPH, Fenn said. The program does not regulate nursing homes.

Fenn said the situation sounds familiar. There are many situations across Massachusetts as to what you describe, she said, speaking to poor staffing levels.

From the Department of Public Health If a resident, their representative, or their family members have complaints or concerns about the care they receive while in a long-term care facility, they may contact the facilitys Long Term Care Ombudsman to provide assistance or they may file a complaint with DPH by calling (800)-462-5540.

Though care for her mother began well, Thomas said it started to deteriorate to the point where nursing aides would ignore her requests for help, and told her to lay off the call bell.

It would be on for three hours, Thomas said, based on her mothers reports. It was because she needed something. She had to go to the bathroom. She needed medicine. They would constantly turn it off.

Her mother would call Thomas 10 to 12 times a day and say, Nobodys coming, nobodys coming. Im scared, Thomas said. Medication arrived late, or never came. One nurse starting her shift addressed the issue by saying to her mother, I dont know why she didnt give it to you.

The police officer arrived just after 7 a.m. Thursday and spoke with Thomas mother. He described her comments to him in his report.

Her needs are not being met, the officer writes. [Redacted] is not given on time. [H]er daughter is repeatedly hung up on. Her [redacted] does not taste right. Does not feel safe. Staff is unattentive.

The officer left her the police station number and said to call if she wasnt removed from Springside within an hour. When police twice called the facility to advise them of the request to move her to the hospital, both times no one answered.

Thomas says she cant understand how regulators can allow conditions such as those described by her mother, and why doctors going in and out of facilities appear to normalize it.

A nurse quit when mom was there and said, This has to stop,  Thomas said. I dont want anyone else to go through this.
BECKET  For more than a year, a Becket couple has been waiting for a retirement dream to come true.

A few things stand in the way.

And more than a few neighbors.

Quote I have to wonder at the motivation. Because there is a quality-of-life question here."  Adrienne K. Metcalf, co-owner of the site of a proposed cannabis farm in Becket

Next week, the Becket Planning Board will resume a hearing into whether a Connecticut company, TetraHydra AgTek LLC, should be granted a special permit for a cannabis farm on Quarry Road. Recent hearings have been long, with neighbors voicing urgent appeals to planners to deny the project, citing concerns about water quality and supply, odor and light pollution, among other things.

As the last two-hour session drew to a close, on Feb. 9, Adrienne K. Metcalf spoke up. She is the co-owner of property that would be leased for the farm.

Wheres our quality of life in this mix? Metcalf asked. She questioned the motives of people who have raised questions about marijuana odor, a concern she dismissed as unrealistic.

I have to wonder at the motivation. I just have to wonder. Because there is a quality-of-life question here, she said. When I find out that one of the main issues within some of the most fervent detractors [of] this project has been that ... I do not have the right to retire on money from our land.

Metcalfs frustration spilled forward. Oh, youre gonna have to see a greenhouse. Gee, really? Is that so horrible? Is that really so horrible? she asked.

The board plans to take up the application again at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The proposal first was aired in January 2021, then was withdrawn and resubmitted in June.

The application was taken up at a contentious Planning Board meeting in August, when the review was delayed by the discovery that applicants needed to have secured a host community agreement with Becket, a document now in hand.

A Pittsfield attorney representing more than three dozen people in the area of southeast Becket presented a list of perceived problems with the application to the board Feb. 9.

Mitchell I. Greenwald spoke, among other things, of changes to the application that resulted in improper notification of abutters. He said town bylaws require separate applications for indoor and outdoor marijuana cultivation, regardless of state rules.

None of them are resolved, Greenwald said Monday, speaking of those issues. And some, I dont think, are resolvable with the existing plan.

At its last session, Michael Goodenough, a TetraHydra AgTek partner, responded to issues raised by opponents. He said the project could drop the outdoor growing field that is included in the plan it submitted in late January.

Right now, that outdoor field is not a necessity; rather, it was a placeholder for us for the additional greenhouses, if that was ever going to be our future, he said via the Zoom connection. We can remove that from the plan if thats required, but I dont think it changes our plan in any way, shape or form.

Goodenough said Monday he plans to see if the board requests that the project drop the outdoor field as a condition of approval.

Its a question of whether we have to, he said. Well have to make a decision from there. All of the numbers are really built off of the greenhouse.

If the applicant provides new materials, Greenwald said he will request that his clients have a chance to speak again. My clients will be entitled to, and insist on, the right to comment on the new material.

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Karen Karlberg, of Becket West Road, told the board it should heed neighbors concerns and reflect the will of the community.

We want our voices heard, she said. You have got a community up on Quarry Road that is telling you something, and I dont think you have the right to just ignore them.

Michael Lavery, a Select Board member, spoke in support of the Quarry Road farm, noting that he made bringing the cannabis-cultivation industry to Becket one of this campaign goals.

It fits in with our rural, farming community, he said.

Lavery said the Select Boards host community agreement with TetraHydra AgTek will protect the community.

This is something weve taken seriously, he said.

Property owners appeal

Metcalf owns the Quarry Road land with Jerome H. Schwartzback, according to property records. She said she believes that TetraHydra AgTek has responded to concerns raised over the past year.

They researched, they found answers, Metcalf said. They changed things.  They found they needed to make changes in answer to your complaints. I just have to wonder who you all are, that this has been your lifes journey for the last year.

Earlier, neighbors opposed to the farm backed up and broadened points raised by Greenwald. The leaders of two local homeowners groups urged the board to deny the permit.

David Edell, who chairs the Skyline Ridge Property Owners Association, said members of his group are those who would be affected most.

Were closest  and have the greatest potential impact or are impacted, he said. We dont believe that we have the protections necessary in order to deal with worst-case situations as they arise once this begins.

The president of the Indian Lakes Association said she believes that the concerns spelled out amount to enough to prevent board approval.

Beverly Lambert, who lives on Quarry Road, said she thinks the farm is a mismatch for the area.

The proposal by TetraHydra AgTek is not in keeping with the character of our neighborhood, Lambert said.

Tess Lundberg, a year-round resident on Valley View Road, asked the board to press for more information on water supplies, and on how that will impact our neighbors wells and the aquifer in general.

Robert Alarie, of Andrews Road, said he, too, questioned whether the area can provide water for current users as well as a marijuana farm  and termed the project detrimental to the character of the neighborhood.

Goodenough, of TetraHydra AgTek, said during the meeting that the farm would not draw more groundwater than 4.5 households.

Our environmental footprint here is one of the greatest designs that exists in the cannabis industry right now, he said. We are using multiple technologies to reduce our impact and consumption on electricity.

You guys speak of quality of life, he said, addressing the projects opponents. I swear to you, we will do everything we can to improve all that we can, at every corner that we can. And I say that with my whole heart. 
About 537,000 staff and students from participating public schools and districts have opted in to the at-home COVID-19 testing program so far, according to the state education commissioner.

Massachusetts to provide at-home COVID tests for students, school staff Massachusetts schools this week will be able to sign up to receive at-home rapid COVID-19 tests for weekly use by their students and staff, an

In a memo thats on the agenda for Tuesdays Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting, Commissioner Jeff Riley said districts that applied by the priority deadline of Jan. 21 received their first set of at-home staff tests during the week of Jan. 24 and received their first set of at-home student tests last week.

Schools that opted for the at-home test are discontinuing contact tracing and test-and-stay protocols, which, based on test positivity rates, indicate that individuals identified as close contacts in school are very unlikely to contract or spread COVID-19, according to the commissioners memo.

The new option enables school health staff to focus more on identifying symptomatic individuals and other aspects of COVID-19 management. Schools must continue to participate in symptomatic and/or pooled testing in order to take part in the new at-home test program, Riley wrote.

A discussion of his memo and steps to help schools and families deal with COVID-19 is the first item on the boards agenda for its 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday in Malden.

In its Feb. 10 report, covering Feb. 3 through Feb. 9, the state said school districts reported 5,634 positive COVID-19 tests among students and 1,089 among staff.
South Africa: Corruption cases are a top priority

National Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Shamila Batohi, says fighting corruption is the top priority of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The NPA head was updating Parliaments Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on cases referred to the NPA by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

The work of the SIU is just a fraction of the work, even that relating to corruption that the NPA does with so many priorities. But we have decided that the top priority for the next six months is going to be focusing on corruption. The wheels of justice are beginning to turn with regard to corruption. We are beginning to move slightly more quickly, she said on Tuesday.

As a result of SIU referrals, the NPA currently has 41 cases on court rolls and there have been 41 guilty pleas. There are 23 other accused persons facing charges in courts, eight warrants of arrest have been authorised and there are a further two matters awaiting a decision.

Batohi reflected on her time in office saying it been an extremely challenging three years and acknowledged that the NPA would have preferred to have been more down the line when it comes to the number of successful prosecutions.

What is very clear is that even though were not where we want to be, we are far from where we were. Theres been a lot of work that has gone [on] in the past three years and theres still a lot of work to happen.

We have a full leadership team at the helm of the NPA and a leadership team that is strongly committed to the rule of law, to accountability and to make sure that we hold people accountable not just for corruption but for all of thedifferent crime types that the NPA has to deal with, she said.

Case referrals

The NPA head highlighted that although the SIU is mandated to refer cases to the NPA, the authority itself is not legally mandated to do investigations.

That is something that we need to look at changing in terms of legislation because the NPA does not do criminal investigations although now with the proclamation of the ID (Investigating Directorate) there are some matters that the SIU has been seized with that the ID is dealing with where they have a mandate to investigate criminally.

But most of the matters referred to the NPA creates the impression that they are ready for prosecutions and that the NPA must now take a decision to prosecute but that is not the case. As much as the work of the SIU is very important in terms of the link between the work that they did and the criminal investigations that must follow, basically what we do is forward these matters to the [Hawks] to investigate, she said.

Batohi told the committee that it is critically important for different role players within the criminal justice system  including the SIU, the NPA itself and the Hawks  to be pulling in the same direction in order to further entrench the rule of law.

We certainly need better coordination. We need better alignment of our performance indicators and various processes. We do need to all act with a joint sense of urgency.

The rule of law in South Africa, I think, is on life support at the moment and we need to address this now. In order to do this in the criminal justice system, we need to draw on each others strengths and we need to respect the legal mandates of all of us within the criminal justice system which are very different but complimentary, she said.

Turning to the NPAs Investigating Directorate, Batohi said the unit is heading into an exciting new era and will be ramping up the fight against corruption.

As the president said at SONA [State of the Nation Address], the ID is now poised to deliver on its mandate. It has been a very difficult and tough time trying to capacitate and set up the ID. But the fact that the Zondo Commission is now winding up its worka number of resources are being migrated to the ID which will certainly boost its capacity to be able to deal with these cases much more effectively, she said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-02-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Spearfish, SD (57783)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High around 60F. Winds ESE at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 42F. SE winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Praying through the Psalms is an incredibly powerful way to connect to God, no matter what circumstance youre going through. You certainly dont have to use the Psalms as a prayer prompt, but when you do, it opens the doors for authentic connection  not just to God, but to your emotions and to biblical heroes of the past, too.

When I am feeling overwhelmed by emotion, it brings me great comfort to know that even King David himself had moments where he just let God have it. He questioned God (Psalm 22), cried to God (Psalm 42), and asked God to kill his enemies (Psalm 109). No emotion was off limits for David to express to God.

When you read through the Psalms and the kinds of things the authors were dealing with, you realize that the people of the Bible really are just like us. Nothing about human nature has changed. We get stressed, fearful, and angry just like the Psalmists do. We dance, we sing, we celebrate together just like they did, too.

Lets learn how to use their profound words to help open a door into greater intimacy with God.

What Are the Psalms?

The Psalms are the 19th book of the Bible, comprised of 150 prayers and poems by at least seven different authors. Psalms means songs of praise, in Greek, and would have been called Tehillim in Hebrew, which also means songs of praise.

They were likely written over a long span of time, collected as a tool for corporate worship. Its a beautiful thing that we use them for the same thing today.

Why Should We Pray through the Psalms?

1. The Psalms Teach Us How to Pray

Something we can tend to assume about Christians is that once we come to know God, we should automatically know how to pray. But that is not true! In Matthew 6, we see Jesus himself teaching his disciples how to pray with the Lords Prayer.

Although prayer can be intuitive, there is also so much wisdom in learning how the ancients did it. Praying through the Psalms can teach you a cadence with God  a rhythm to a healthy relationship. The Psalms can teach you how to present your requests to God, how to bring your heartache to God, and how to surrender to him no matter the outcome.

Have you noticed how many Psalms have the words but or yet in them? This alone teaches us that our prayers shouldnt just end with our complaints or desires, but should end in praise and trust in God no matter what.

2. The Psalms Teach Us That God Can Handle Our Tough Emotions

This podcast, called Why Your Family of Origin Impacts Your Life More Than Anything Else, highlights the six relational needs every single soul comes into this world requiring. One of those six needs is the need for your parent to be able to handle your negative emotions.

In an ideal world, a young child is able to get upset about their parents decision, and yell at the top of their lungs I hate you!  and still be loved. Still be cared for. To have the safety to express negative emotions is one of the cruxes of a secure parent/child relationship.

And it is the exact same thing with God.

He is able to handle all of our anger, confusion, rage, disappointment, bitterness you name it. Im not recommending outright slandering God  we need to be respectful and reverent of course. But sometimes, life throws things at us that we dont know how to handle. And no matter how old we are, we always have the potential of throwing a hissy fit. But the beautiful thing about the Psalms is that it shows us that God can handle it.

He will still love us through any negative emotion we can throw at him. It is safe.

3. The Psalms Teach Us That We Are Not Alone

When expressing some sort of pain or even celebration, there is nothing more comforting than hearing the words me too, from the person you are telling. We are relational, communal beings. We need to know what we are feeling is valid and is an experience shared by those we love.

Because the Psalms share stories, circumstances, and thoughts from people thousands of years ago, but that are still universal to humanity today, they are able to bring us a level of comfort like little else can. Not only have people stayed the same at our core, but people have made it through the same kind of thing you are currently going through  and were victorious in it!

How to Pray through the Psalms

Weve established that praying through the Psalms can be powerful for our relationships with God. But how does one start to go about this?

1. Find a quiet, meditative place

Time with God needs to be special and sacred. Give yourself the time and space you will need in order to hear God and to be in tune with the prompting of his Spirit.

Especially if you are going into the Psalms to process some difficult emotions, you will want to be in a place that you can deeply process and let the emotions flow. If you need to be by yourself for this to happen, by all means, prioritize that!

2. Find an author with the same circumstance, problem, or emotion

There are many ways that you can do this. You can use previous knowledge about the authors life and find a Psalm that correlates with this circumstance. For example, maybe you already have a working knowledge of Davids life, and you know that he came to amazing repentance after killing Uriah and sleeping with Bathsheba. Because you are going through something in which you need your heart to be softened towards repentance, you search for Psalms that are from that time in his life, and find Psalm 51.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin (verses 1-2).

Or, maybe you are experiencing ridicule at the hands of someone in power above you, and you want to know how in the world to deal with that kind of betrayal. You could Google search Psalms about enemies and flip through to see which Psalm really speaks to your situation.

Or, lastly, maybe there isnt a particular circumstance or problem that a Psalmist could relate to exactly, since we are living in a different age. But surely, if its a profound emotion, there is a Psalm that can help you to express it.

You could Google search Psalms about joy, Psalms about sorrow, Psalms about anger, etc. and surely you will land on what that feels like it could have come from your own diary.

3. Imagine yourself speaking these words to God

Now that you are in a quiet, meditative place, and have found the Psalm that you would like to pray through, its time to turn your attention towards God and use your imagination.

Our imaginations are such a gift from God. In fact, our brains dont really know the difference between something we are powerfully imagining and something that is actually real! This unlocks a wonderful possibility for our relationship with God: being able to imagine ourselves with him so vividly that we experience him as if the experience is physically happening to us. That is the premise of an ancient practice called Lectio divina (literally, divine reading). In it, you imagine yourself in the actual events of the Scripture as if its unfolding in front of you. Hear the sounds, see the sights, imagine it like youre really there.

You can immerse yourself in this full experience when youre reading the Psalms, or you can simply start with praying the Psalm from the first person. The Psalms make this easy, as theyre usually written from the first personbut dont just read them, experience them!

Connect to each emotion, moment by moment that is being presented. You can go as slow as you need to. Connect with each word that speaks to your current situation. Pray through it as if these are your words to God, from your heart. Immerse yourself as deeply in the emotions as you do the great faith that the author lands on.

4. Borrow the faith of the biblical authors

Sometimes, we need other peoples faith in God that it really is going to be okay, that God really will come through and take care of us. Thats okay, thats natural. Thats why God created us to be in communities, so that we can lean on each other when we need to!

So it is perfectly alright if you need to borrow a Psalmists faith about your current situation. Maybe youre like David in Psalm 13, and youre questioning if God is really there for you:

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

These words you can relate to all too well. But you dont want to stay here, and neither did David! You keep reading:

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lords praise, for he has been good to me.

Maybe you can relate to these hopeful words much less than the first few verses. But thats okay. You know that David was brought through so many trials: being changed by Saul, fighting in battle, his own son turning against him, etc. So if David can trust God to bring him through his numerous and unfair trials, so can you.

Sometimes the Psalmist will share how they got there, like by remembering that God has been good to them, as in the above example. Or maybe by remembering specific events that God has brought his people through (Psalm 77). Sometimes they wont share what changed their heart, but it is obvious that their heart changed nonetheless.

In those Psalms, you can just know that it was God himself acting to change their heart, in real time, through this process of pouring their hearts out to him. And he can do the same for you, too!

An Example of How to Pray through a Psalm

Although we do not have space to go through the entire Psalm, lets briefly put this method into action with Psalm 73:1-4.

First, find a quiet space so that you can take a deep breath and hear how God might be speaking to your heart.

Second, find a Psalm that you can relate to. For the sake of example, lets say that you were searching for a Psalm to help you to process a circumstance of injustice.

Third, lets imagine that we are the ones speaking these words to God. We can add our own language to make it fully our own.

When my heart was grieved

and my spirit embittered,

God, my heart is so grieved by what is happening to me. It feels heavy, empty, and gray. I feel so angry and bitter about what is happening to me.

I was senseless and ignorant;

I was a brute beast before you.

God, I feel so upset that I feel like Ive lost my very sense of personhood. My sense of control. I feel blind because of my anger and sense of injustice. Its almost like Ive been reduced to an animal before you.

Now, we can take time to borrow the authors faith.

Yet I am always with you;

you hold me by my right hand.

And yet, God, youre here. You are with me. That doesnt immediately change anything about my situation, but somehow it helps. You hold me by my right hand. You know every little thing that is happening to me right now. Even though that is impossible to see right now, the author believes this. And I want to fight to know it too.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will take me into glory.

God, please guide me. I need you to counsel me. Please speak through your Scripture, your people, and any other thing that will push me in the direction that I need to go. Please be with me through this life. But even if nothing changes down here, I will be with you in heaven for eternity, and everything will be okay. Thank you for your Son and for your love that makes this possible. I am having trouble believing in that love, but I will keep fighting to trust you. If this author can trust you, so can I. Thank you for these ancient words to lend me faith.

I hope that this little exercise helps give you the start you need to start praying through the Psalms! It could be the next tool you need to take your relationship with God to the next level.

Related articles

6 Psalms to Give You Strength

5 Comforting Psalms for When We Worry

7 Psalms to Pray When You Feel Overwhelmed

Photo credit: Getty Images/Jantanee Rungpranomkorn

Kelly-Jayne McGlynn is a former editor at Crosswalk.com. She sees the act of expression, whether through writing or art, as a way to co-create with God and experience him deeper. Check out her handmade earring Instagram and Etsy for more of her thoughts on connecting with God through creative endeavors.
IDAHO FALLS - At approximately, 1:15 a.m. this past Saturday, Idaho Falls Police were performing a DUI traffic stop and investigation that, by necessity, blocked the roadway for a short time. While on this stop, an uninvolved vehicle driven drove down the street, which was clearly impassable, ultimately coming nose to nose with an Idaho Falls Police vehicle with their overhead red and blue lights activated.

The driver then abruptly, coming very close to officers and others in the roadway, performed a three-point turn and drove away at a high rate of speed in the direction he had come from.

Officers recognized the driver and vehicle as one that had fled from an Idaho Falls Police Officer earlier in the night, when an officer was patrolling in the area of E 17th Street and S. Holmes Avenue in Idaho Falls and observed the vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. The Officer attempted to perform a traffic stop by activating their overhead red and blue police lights. Officers observed the vehicle accelerate through multiple red lights, traveling at speeds near 100 miles per hour. The Officer discontinued attempts to pursue after losing sight of the vehicle, and for safety reasons. The Officer was able to collect a vehicle description, including a distinctive license plate, and began the process of locating the driver through other means.

When police encountered the car and driver again at 1:15 a.m., Officers attempted to perform a traffic stop on the vehicle. Officers now had probable cause to arrest the driver for Felony Eluding. Officers also observed behaviors indicating the driver was likely driving under the influence or otherwise impaired, supporting the need to stop the driver for their safety, and the safety of other motorists and members of the public.

Officers activated overhead lights and sirens, however, the driver did not yield and instead continued to flee. Officers initiated a vehicle pursuit during which Martinez was observed driving recklessly at speeds well over the posted limits, swerving into other lanes, and disregarding traffic control signs multiple times. Due to the late hour, roadways were largely clear of other motorists.

During the pursuit, Martinez left the Idaho Falls city limits driving into Bonneville County before ultimately leading officers into Jefferson County.

At one point during the pursuit, a Bonneville County Sheriffs Deputy placed a spike strip in the path of the pursuit in an attempt to disable the vehicle. The suspects vehicle incurred multiple flat tires, however, they continued to flee. The flat tires did prevent the vehicle from continuing to travel at high rates of speed.

An Idaho State Police Trooper performed a Pursuit Intervention Technique, or "PIT Maneuver" which successfully stopped the forward momentum of the vehicle. When the vehicle came to a stop, the suspect then attempted to flee from the vehicle on foot into a nearby snow-filled irrigation ditch.

Idaho Falls Police Officers, including an Idaho Falls Police K9 unit, and other assisting law enforcement officers exited their vehicles to pursue the suspect. The IFPD K9 Officer directed the man to stop or risk apprehension via K9. He then stopped running at that time and was taken into police custody.

While 22-year-old Christian Martinez was being detained, officers noted smoke billowing from the engine compartment of the suspect vehicle. Within a few moments, flames became visible and the vehicle was engulfed in flames. Multiple Officers attempted to utilize fire extinguishers to stop the blaze but were unsuccessful.

Before the flames overtook the vehicle, officers were able to locate a package of beer with multiple bottles missing and a near-empty bottle of whiskey within the vehicle. Officers noted that Martinez exhibited multiple signs of inebriation, including bloodshot glassy eyes, slow and slurred speech, and the smell of alcohol on his breath. Martinez later admitted to drinking too much to be driving, say police.

Idaho Falls Police Officers were assisted by Bonneville County Sheriffs Deputies, Jefferson County Sheriffs Deputies, and Idaho State Police Troopers at various points in the pursuit.

Martinez, a resident of Rigby, Idaho, was arrested for two counts Felony Eluding/Attempting to Elude a Police Officer in a Motor Vehicle, Felony Driving Under the Influence (Third or Subsequent Offense), Reckless Driving, Driving Without Privileges, Resisting and Obstructing Arrest, and a Felony Warrant, and was booked into the Bonneville County Jail.
GRANGEVILLE - On Sunday February 13, at around 10:15 p.m., Idaho County Dispatch received a call about two vehicles that were stuck in the snow on the 279 Road.

The caller, Justin Dreadfulwater, advised his uncle Charlie Dreadfulwater had gone out about three hours earlier and had not returned. He went looking for him and became stuck too.

Idaho County Posse members Larry McPherson, Mike McPherson, and Cecil Riley responded to the area with snowmobiles. They searched into the early morning hours and were able to locate both vehicles and get both drivers out safely.

The Idaho County Sheriff's Office thanked the Idaho County Posse for their quick response and dedication while volunteering their time for the citizens of Idaho County.
OLYMPIA - The Department of Labor & Industries is warning homeowners in Washington to beware of an unregistered contractor whos accused of using legitimate contractors credentials to scam customers.

Antonio Tony Gonzalez, 39, has been cited for 10 infractions alleging he used other contractors registration numbers to get construction jobs that he never finished and, in many cases, didnt even start.

Eleven customers have reported losing tens of thousands of dollars in deposits to Gonzalez, according to L&I construction compliance inspectors.

The victims range from the Tri-Cities region and Yakima to Seattle, Everett, and Olympia. Gonzalezs last known addresses are in Wapato and Union Gap.

L&I has cited Gonzalez for a total of 30 civil infractions from last July through January  13 for performing or offering to perform construction while unregistered,10 for falsely using another contractors registration, and seven for plumbing and electrical-related violations. The infractions carry fines totaling more than $110,000.

Many victims have filed reports with their local police. The Yakima County Prosecutors office is considering whether to file criminal charges in its jurisdiction.

Nearly all the victims whose cases L&I investigated found Gonzalez through Craigslist, the classified ad website. In most cases, he gave customers the registration number of a legitimate contractor, along with that businesss name or a similar name, according to L&I inspector statements.

But Gonzalez had customers write checks to his name, instead of to the construction business that he claimed was his. Since he generally required 50 percent down before starting work, customers in the L&I cases paid him $200 to $23,000 in deposits, depending on their project. For instance:

A Seattle woman wrote a $6,000 check to Gonzalez toward an attic remodel. He worked just one day, and dropped off a few pieces of lumber and electrical boxes.

A Richland couple paid Gonzalez $3,000 toward their bathroom remodel. A worker demolished drywall for a couple hours and Gonzalez showed up briefly one day, but neither ever returned. The wife and her husband, who is battling cancer, were left with an unfinished bathroom without a door.

A Yakima couple lost their $18,000 down payment to Gonzalez, who cashed their check then never even started to build their barn.

When Gonzalez wouldnt return their calls, upset customers went to L&Is website to find contact information for the contractor registration number he provided. They wound up talking to the contractors whose numbers were misused.

Some victims threatened legal action against the legitimate contractors until they learned that they, too, were victims of fraud.

L&I determined that Gonzalez used contractor registration numbers belonging to two active contractors and one inactive contractor, all of whom shared his last name. They had no idea who he was or that he was using their credentials.

The two actively registered contractors whose registration numbers were misused were:

Gonzalez Contractors LLC, in Everett, owned by Constantino Gonzalez.

Gonzalez & Sons Carpentry LLC, in Yakima, owned by Ernesto Gonzalez.

Both have cooperated with L&I inspectors, and informed the department when victims contacted them.

Seven victims reached Constantino Gonzalez, a registered painting contractor since 2009. He said hes concerned that when potential customers search his name online, theyll see complaints and incorrectly think hes Antonio Gonzalez.

Its ruined my reputation that I worked so hard for 20-plus years to build up. Its not easy to build a business being Hispanic, said Ernesto Gonzalez, whos been contacted by two victims.

This guy just decided to pick up my information and drag it through the mud.

State law requires construction contractors to register with L&I to protect consumers from fraud and abuse. The department verifies they have a bond, license, and liability insurance  requirements that give consumers financial recourse if something goes wrong.

A bond, for instance, represents funding set aside by the contractors insurer, and is available to consumers who obtain a court judgment against the contractor.

Consumers should always:
NATHEALTH and African Health Federation organised second India Africa Health Summit

NATHEALTH  Healthcare Federation of India in collaboration with the Africa Healthcare Federation organised the Indo-Africa Vaccine Summit virtually. The summit saw participation from key dignitaries from both India and Africa to deliberate and to offer a framework to build resilience towards future emergencies and pandemics.

Speakers from both countries reiterated how strengthening public-private partnerships can bring the best possible solutions to the existing challenges to ramp up vaccination drive especially in Africa.

The summit highlighted how technological inventions helped India to achieve target vaccination coverage. The speakers exchanged their views on how cross-sectoral collaboration can address the existing challenges in the supply chain, cold chain and logistical challenges. The summit brought forth how Africa can strengthen last-mile delivery of vaccines leveraging technology and with the execution of the PPP model.

The summit also provided an opportunity to strengthen and foster south to south collaboration and bring the much-required industry support behind making global vaccination programmes successful.
Mother City Pop Up Concerts will host a colourful concert to celebrate Summer, Love and Music on Saturday 26 February from 12.30pm - 6pm.

Image supplied: Amanda Tiffin

What is your job description?

What does music mean to you?

My music is about

Fame is about

Retirement will happen when

I don't do

I would love to co-write with

Where do you go for inspiration to create?

What is the most enjoyable aspect of your work?

The song you must do during every show?

Any funny moments on stage?

My heroes are

My style icon is

What is your most treasured possession?

It's your round; what are you drinking?

Dream gig to do?

What makes you stand out?

Any nicknames?

If you were not a musician, what would you do?

Pick five words to describe yourself?

What are you streaming?

Greatest movie ever made?

What book are you reading?

What song changed your life?

Who do you love?

What is your favourite word?

Top of your bucket list?

Your greatest achievement?

What do you complain about most often?

What is your biggest fear?

Happiness is

On stage, I tend to

The best life lesson you have learned?

What has been your favourite journey so far?

Do you do charity work, and if you do  what do you do?

Social media

The event takes place on Cullinan Square, just opposite the Cullinan Hotel in the CBD of Cape Town.The Lady Day Big Band, under the musical direction of Amanda Tiffin as music director with Monique Hellenberg, will headline the show which includes Cameron Ward and his band.Amanda Tiffin was born in Zimbabwe but has made her home and her name in Cape Town, South Africa, where she studied Jazz Composition and Performance at the University of Cape Town.She received her Master's Degree with distinction and has gone on to become one of Cape Towns best-loved vocalist-pianists, and a respected Musical director/arranger, orchestrator and composer.Amanda has recorded seven albums and her latest collaboration, Facing South, was awarded the prestigious UCT Creative Works Award in 2021. She is also Head of Jazz Studies at the University of Cape Town.I spoke to Amanda last week.Musical director, lecturer, composer, arranger, performer, general admin geek.Everything. It is my life force. It is my means of connecting with my inner self, and also with other creative people. It is community at the same time as being an inner journey.Joy, heartache, fun, pain - all of it. My music is an expression of emotions and reactions to the world around me, and sometimes it is an exploration of possibility.Fame is about illusion. Smoke and mirrors, not what is real.I die.Drama.Maria SchneiderThe beautiful wide-open countryside, and lovely country towns of the Western Cape.The exploration of my own creativity and hearing my compositions come to life when played by some wonderful musicians.For the Lady Day Big Band: Our signature song, Ayo Ayo.That time my guitar player forgot he had tuned his guitar down for a particular song, and then played the next song in a totally different key to everyone else. Took us a while to work out why the song sounded so terrible! That was interestingMy friends, who do so much for others and for me.I dont really have one. Should I?!Not really a possession, more like family, but my dogs.Hot chocolate.Carnegie Hall, New York with the Lady Day Big BandMy mop of curlsMiss A, Prof A, and Amands.Cook. I love to cook.Kind. Funny. Quirky. Introverted extrovert.The Good FightToo many great ones, I cant choose just one:Dead Poets Society (for Robin Williams and the poets)West Side Story (for the music)Shawshank Redemption (for Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins)Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo MbueNot a song but an album  Ella Fitzgerald Live at the Newport Jazz Festival.Friends and Family. My dogs.Discombobulated. Say that fastMore travelling! Id like to visit Spain and GreeceBeing part of the Lady Day Big Band!People who dont do their job.Snakes. I really really fear snakes after an encounter with a Cape Cobra.Home, chilling with my dogs, writing some new music.Talk a bit too much nonsenseTo listen.Still on it - the journey of life.I used to organise Jazz in the Park every year for Western Cape Centre For Persons With Disabilities, but it became too difficult to maintain due to bureaucracy with the venue. Now I just donate regularly and do youth development projects where I can.
Before delegates from around the world gathered in Glasgow, Scotland, in November for the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, (COP26), the event was being referred to as 'the last best chance' for resolving climate change.

1. With the right support Africa can deliver a green recovery

2. Upfront finance is key

3. Africas energy grid is the key to unlocking growth

4. Resilience through adaptation is critical for economic viability

In South Africa, a return of over 150% can be achieved by rehabilitation and investment in parks, while agroforestry and reforestation initiatives bring returns of over 100%.



In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a return of up to 450% is possible by investing in irrigation and associated adaptation measures.



In Kenya, a return of over 200% is possible from the use of resilient seeds in agriculture and similar returns are also possible by rehabilitating and investing in natural parks.

5. Africa should be rewarded for being net positive

Limitations of multilateralism

If we were to assess the Glasgow Climate Pact as a decisive turning point, then our assessment would be that of failure. However, that does not mean all is lost. Certain doors have been opened, even if we are yet to walk through them. The next COP will be held in Egypt in less than a year. This is the chance we must take. There is global momentum on climate action, even if political action is still lagging.The reality is that expectations were already subdued, even before delegates descended on Glasgow, because on the two main issues - progress on net zero commitments to slow global temperature rise, and the finance to support low carbon development in the developing world - the cards were already dealt by the G20, and key emitters, even before any delegate badges could be collected at the Scottish Exhibition Centre venue on the banks of the River Clyde.Besides all this, some significant milestones were reached.The first commitment to phase down coal and other fossil fuels; the acknowledgement of loss and damage; and the creation of technical steps to address it; doubling of adaptation finance; a commitment to halt deforestation; and the finalisation of the rulebook on Article 6 facilitating carbon trading, all represent long-standing technical issues that have moved forward tentatively.However, these technical advancements do not translate into climate action. Glasgow commitments still leave us on track for warming by 2.4C. The latest assessment on financing showed an ongoing gap of $20bn per annum to reach the $100bn target for climate finance.And for African countries, over 2C of warming means a loss of GDP of around 5% per annum by 2030, according to analysis by the African Climate Policy Centre.Glasgow reconfirmed the difficulty in making headway on finance, and the reality is that the $100bn unfulfilled promise represents only 0.4% of the total global finance mobilised to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic in less than two years.The biggest reason for pessimism after Glasgow is that the record on implementation is low. The Paris Agreement, ultimately, is built around commitments by individual states. Commitments have not been met. Thus, even as commitments in Glasgow fall short, the question is: will even these insufficient commitments be upheld?Pessimism is an important instrument for building realistic intervention. Therefore, despite the gaps of COP26, which are part of the struggle of multilateralism, here are five key considerations that can help us prepare for COP27 aimed at building practical climate resilience interventions for African countries:Africas rise and impressive growth at the turn of the century was built on the back of commodity exports and new global trading opportunities. However, this growth has not built sustainable and resilient value chains, and an urgent revamp is required for Africa to avoid a lost decade.Analysis by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has found a stronger correlation in jobs created and gross value addition in the economy by pursuing investment in green sectors as opposed to investment in fossil-fuel based sectors. Return on investment in case study countries showed up to 420% better returns in gross value addition and up to 250% better returns in job creation from investment in sectors such as renewable energy, climate smart agriculture and nature-based eco-tourism than in fossil fuel-based sectors.In renewable energy, African countries are both critical as opportunities for investment in access - with 24 out of 54 countries having less than half the population reliably connected to electricity - as well as essential actors in the value chain with many of the critical minerals essential for battery technology found on the continent.There will be no global green recovery unless Africa is part of the investment package.African countries need reliable financing options to be able to invest upfront to maximise return on investment. As demonstrated in the global study from Nick Stern in 2020, the multiplier effects are higher the sooner an intervention is put into place. ECA analysis also illustrates that Africa may have lost up to five percentage points in growth due to delayed investment of stimulus in 2020.Channelling investment into areas like renewables and transport infrastructure are further economic multipliers and can lead to a virtuous investment cycle.African countries are overly dependent on external financing - donor driven or from foreign direct investment. The lack of development of local capital markets means that this scenario is likely to continue, although a strategic injection of seed finance in the right sectors can be transformative.On the overall global finance goal, African negotiators called for an annual target of $700bn in Glasgow.The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates that African countries nationally determined contributions (NDCs) will represent an investment opportunity of over $3tn by 2030. It may be useful to have a goal that is specific to how much finance should be made available as grants and soft loans and more flexible targets (which should not be limited) for private finance goals.This is particularly relevant as the conversation on on-lending of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) gains momentum, as providing the right liquidity to Africa and the rest of the developing world will be key to Covid-19 recovery and resilience to climate change.For Africa, being able to effectively deliver private sector climate finance will be predicated on the right upfront support - whether through blending or partial guarantees.In any case, Africa is currently lagging in terms of access to private sector climate finance, attracting less than 3% of global private sector climate finance.Africa and the Middle East combined also issue less than 1% of the total number of green bonds globally. Further unlocking green and blue bond markets will be an important step for Africa.In terms of mitigation, Africa is already net positive, being home to 17% of the worlds population while being responsible for less than 4% of global emissions.Based on technologies currently available, and on Africas demography, emissions on the continent are bound to rise. This is why the Paris Agreement recognises that developing countries will take longer to peak emissions than developed countries, who must do their fair share to mitigate climate change.African resilience will be best achieved by adopting renewable energy pathways and developing national and regional value chains around the manufacturing and deployment of such technologies.Crucially, Africa has been affected in recent years by fluctuating fossil fuel prices - both producing countries and net importers. Coherent long-term investment in renewables can stave off these risks and allow more predictable costs of doing business. This is critical both for the industrialisation of the continent and to further unlock the potential of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).A just transition for Africa will also require recognition that some additional base generation will be required for rapidly upscaling investment in renewables. For example, if Africa was to double its electricity generation using only natural gas, that would allow a multiplication of solar and wind investments by 38 times, with only a 1% increase in global emissions.The transition deal concluded by South Africa at COP26 providing financing to help transition away from coal may also provide a framework example replicable in other countries, of how to use external support to re-orientate the energy sector and avoid getting trapped in stranded assets.Adaptation is chronically under-resourced in the fight against climate change, hence the commitment in Glasgow to double climate adaptation financing.Upfront adaptation investment reduces long-term investment costs. As illustrated in the Global Centre for Adaptations 2021 State and Trends report , the cost of intervening in adaptation through agriculture is estimated at $15bn per year, which represents less than 10% of the $201bn estimated annual cost of paying for disaster relief and recovery after floods, droughts, and similar environmental disasters.Case studies undertaken by ECA, which feature in the report, show clearly that investing in adaptation-related projects associated with critical sectors such as agriculture can bring fantastic returns on investment in terms of both value addition throughout the economy and job creation.COP26 also concluded the negotiations for carbon trading under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. While there are legitimate concerns raised about potential abuse, based on the lack of precision in some of the definitions, African countries have a good opportunity ahead of COP27 to leverage their considerable natural sequestration assets to be able to build resilience by protecting sensitive areas, while also raising much needed capital that can be invested in national priorities.The peatlands of the Congo Basin alone sequester the equivalent of three years-worth of global emissions.Meanwhile, seagrass meadows and mangroves, which feature on both Africas Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean coasts, are proven to sequester 2-3 times more carbon than tropical rain forests.The concern is that while Africa has some of the highest remaining forest cover, it also has the fastest rate of deforestation of all continents. Thus, without care and attention, Africas carbon sinks can become sources of emissions.Crucially, investing in protecting these carbon sinks can also be linked to opportunities to create sustainable livelihoods.Ethiopias Green Legacy tree planting programme is an interesting example of how environmental rehabilitation, which is aimed at reducing erosion and the impact of flooding, can also be used to generate livelihoods. For instance, planting fruit trees that bring returns for communities, while addressing energy needs, thus reducing the pressure for deforestation for firewood and creating new opportunities for value addition.Gabon is also ambitious in proposing increased value addition for its sustainable timber resources, providing protection for forests while also increasing livelihoods for communities.Assessments done by ECA in partnership with Dalberg have demonstrated potential financial flows of $15-30bn with carbon prices aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement.Several African countries have also spoken after COP26 of the desire to develop an African carbon market, allowing African countries to leverage their natural capital and channel flows into adaptation and resilience.In conclusion, the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as COP26, have underlined the limitations of multilateralism. We are limited by real political will, and we are condemned to move at the pace of the most recalcitrant.In response to both Covid-19 and climate change, multilateralism has reinforced the inequalities of the international development space.In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, G20 countries have mobilised over $11,000 per capita in response, while for low-income countries the spend per capita is on average only $57. In one African country, the spend is only $11 per capita.The compromise of Glasgow has been to keep the doors open, and ensure that the multilateral option remains viable, even if too slow to meet the real urgency demanded by the climate crisis.African countries should be lauded for their continued ambition, even while external financing has not been forthcoming. The African Unions Green Recovery Action Plan is an illustration of African countries agency in structuring a credible response. To galvanise real action at COP27, we must aim to build up from within African countries themselves.
Educating parents to understand warning signs can save lives.

An unusual lump or swelling



Unexplained paleness and loss of energy; associated failure to thrive



Easy bruising or bleeding



An ongoing pain in one area of the body; especially when present or worse at night



Limping without a history injury/trauma



Unexplained fever or illness that does not go away



Frequent headaches, often with vomiting



Any worsening visual, cognitive and/or hearing abnormalities



Unexplained weight loss  fits in with failure to thrive

Do not ignore persistent symptoms and make sure you visit your closest Department of Health Clinic or if you can afford it, a general practitioner in your area.





Come prepared with a list of the symptoms which concern you; point these out to the healthcare practitioner who examines your child.



Ask for a referral to a specialist at your closest provincial hospital and make an appointment to see them.



Most tertiary provincial hospitals will have paediatric and oncology specialists who can diagnose and treat childhood cancers.



Many private specialists work in multi-disciplinary teams with their government and academic colleagues at state/university hospitals. For example, Dr Riedemann has partnered with the paediatric oncology department at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. We meet regularly to discuss childhood cancer cases and to ensure we share knowledge and keep up to date with the latest developments in our field. South Africa boasts the highest level of care in public hospitals in Africa. We have centres of excellence like the Red Cross War Memorial Childrens Hospital in Cape Town, which is regarded as Africas learning centre for postgraduate specialist paediatric and surgical training. Children from all nine provinces are referred here by provincial clinics and hospitals, says Dr Riedemann. a previous member of this units paediatric brain tumour consortium.



There are also other resources and organisations who help parents of children with cancer. This includes arranging access to treatment, practical support such as transport and accommodation as well as emotional/psycho-spiritual support including counselling and psychosocial services. CHOC  Childhood Cancer Foundation South Africa

Little Fighters Cancer Trust

CANSA  Cancer Association of South Africa For more information visit www.iconsa.co.za OR www.cancercare.co.za.





There are also other resources and organisations who help parents of children with cancer. This includes arranging access to treatment, practical support such as transport and accommodation as well as emotional/psycho-spiritual support including counselling and psychosocial services. For more information visit www.iconsa.co.za OR www.cancercare.co.za.

On International Childhood Cancer Day Icon Oncology is joining the global oncology community to raise awareness about childhood cancers and to express support for children and teenagers with cancer, and their families.Every year more than 400,000 children and young people (below the age of 20) around the world are diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, survival rates depend on geographical location, with an 80% survival rate in most high-income countries, compared to rates as low as 20% in low- and middle-income countries.Unfortunately, despite being defined by the World Bank as a high-middle-income country, South Africa mirrors poor survival outcomes. We reside in a divided landscape, with access to first-world standard of care healthcare and treatment reserved for those who can afford private medical care. Sadly, the vast majority of our population faces socio-economic and geographical barriers to accessing life-saving treatment, explains Dr Johann Riedemann. a clinical and radiation oncologist with a special interest in childhood cancers.Dr Riedemann is part of a national network of more than 150 private oncologists who under the Icon Oncology banner, are championing better access to quality cancer treatment for all South Africans. One of the ways in which they are achieving this is to invest in state-of-the-art technology which can be used to treat cancer.In radiation oncology, specialist machines called linear accelerators (Linacs) are used to precision-target tumours, destroy cancer cells and limit unwanted toxicity to normal cells. Icon Oncology recently installed a new Linac at the Cape Gate Oncology Unit where Dr Riedemann and his colleagues from Cancercare work to treat cancer patients  including children who previously had to travel great distancesto receive treatment in Cape Town. Relieving this geographical barrier is a blessing to both parent and child amidst the challenge of cancer.Dr Riedemann explains that early detection and treatment for childhood cancers are important: If detected early,can be treated successfully. Research shows that the sooner a child is diagnosed the better the outcome for the patient. Parents can equip themselves with knowing the warning signs of childhood cancers and when to consult a doctor if these symptoms persist, says Dr Riedemann.Cancer in children is not common, but it is important to have your child checked by a doctor if they have unusual signs or symptoms that persist:(GP) or family doctorIf you are concerned about any persistent symptoms, or if your child is not responding to over-the-counter medication, make an appointment with your GP. Children are not mini-adults and if your GP finds reason for concern, they will refer you to a paediatrician.(a medical practitioner specialising in children and their diseases)Paediatricians are trained to identify cancer symptoms and will arrange for tests and scans to diagnose a potential cancer. They will also reach out to other specialists which will become your childs care team in case of a cancer diagnosis.In oncology multi-disciplinary teams work together to diagnose and treat our cancer patients. This means that your child will have a team of highly specialised doctors and supporting practitioners who will design a treatment plan which is tailored to the particular cancer and your child, explains Dr Riedemann.
Ghanian-British architect David Adjaye, the founder of Adjaye Associates, has been awarded the inaugural Charlotte Perriand Award, an award created by the Createurs Design Association & Awards (CDA).

Adjaye Associates is designing Edo Museum of West African Art in Nigeria. Image courtesy of Adjaye Associates

Dirty House completed in London in 2002. Adjaye converted a former warehouse into an art studio and apartment building. Image courtesy of Design Indaba

Adjaye Associates' new Barbados Heritage District in Newton Plantation. Image courtesy of Adjaye Associates

Adjaye Associates is designing Africa Institute campus in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Image  Adjaye Associates

Given in memory of the iconic French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand, Adjaye was awarded the prize for his buildings that "go beyond becoming city landmarks" and "creating a real dialogue taking place beyond time".The Charlotte Perriand Award will be awarded annually and be given to an influential figure who embraces Perriand's "vision and commitment to architecture, design and art"."This is the first time the Perriand family has allowed her name to be used beyond her immediate work," stated the organisers.Perriands daughter, Pernette Perriand-Barsac, said that, "When I read [Adjayes] words in the press or his approach that he describes on social networks, I see how great [his and my mothers] proximity is, to the point that a real dialogue takes place beyond time.""[Charlotte Perriand] was really expansive in thinking about what the profession could be and understood the role of designers in their responsibility toward making the 21st century as beautiful and as empowering and as edifying [as possible] for people of all races  and for our human civilisation to thrive," said Adjaye.Adjaye is one of the most influential names in contemporary architecture. His characteristic attributes in buildings, rich materials, artistic layers and strong tectonics in buildings trigger different emotional worlds of users."I'm very interested in the history of human activities, not in the history of computer activities. My buildings look like places that the humans want. Its very important to me," Adjaye told World Architecture Community in an exclusive interview in 2018.This is not the first prestigious award Adjaye has received. In 2021, he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He was also awarded the 2020 Isamu Noguchi Award by the Noguchi Museum. Adjaye was named as worlds most influential architect bymagazine in 2017. He received a knighthood as part of the Queens New Years Honours List in 2017.Sugar Hill Housing in Harlem, New York; Dirty House in Shoreditch; Moscow School of Management Skolkovo; the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which opened its doors in autumn 2016; Stephen Lawrence Centre in London are among his significant projects.His recent projects includes the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion, in collaboration with American artist Theaster Gates, the design of the new Barbados Heritage District in Newton Plantation, the Herry Groce Memorial Pavilion in Brixton, and the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also behind Agenda 111, a project transforming Ghanas 111 hospitals.The annual CDA awards celebrates achievements in architecture, interior design, product design, journalism, curation and photography. The programme also includes the Andree Putman Lifetime Achievement Award. This year, interior designer Iris Apfel was awarded the 2022 Andree Putman Lifetime Achievement Award.The awards gala will be held on 26 March in Paris, France.
As South African learners grapple with the new reality of schooling, the country celebrates a 2021 matric pass rate of 76.4%. Whether that pass rate is good enough to build a positive future for the country is a question that educators ask themselves every year.

Buffing up the pass rate and ensuring that more learners excel in school is of critical importance, and is, by and large, the role that educators are entrusted with in our society. The question remains: is our schooling system armed with appropriate and accessible tools for teaching and learning? Dr Benadette Aineamani, director of product and service at Pearson South Africa, believes that the answer to this question is "yes". Companies like Pearson provide the tools and learning experiences South African learners need to thrive in their education.Pearson is the home to two of the best-known names in South African publishing - Heinemann and Maskew Miller Longman. This company provides learning resources like the popular X-kit Achieve study guides to South African learners and educators.Of course, there are many gaps in our education system. We believe we can make a measurable impact on learning in South Africa through effective teaching and learning content and tools, digital solutions, and teacher training. Publishing these learning aids that are appropriate is our opportunity to help bridge some of the gaps, says Dr Aineamani.It is only through vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact and from a real-life point of view that we can make a tangible change. Today we are proud to say that, every day, all over South Africa, we are helping learning flourish. And wherever learning flourishes, so do people, says Dr Aineamani.The teaching and learning tools that we develop are designed to help South African learners succeed through a range of assessment types  the most important piece of the teaching and learning process. Academically, Dr Aineamani says there are three kinds of assessments that these tools help facilitate. These are:Enabling teachers to use information about students knowledge, understanding and skills to inform their teaching. Teachers provide feedback to students about their learning and how to improve. By implementing assessments early-on or frequently, teachers can identify at-risk learners quickly to ensure that they correctly analyse the root causes of the gaps in understanding.Assists teachers to use evidence of student learning to assess student achievement against learning goals and standards.Involves students in the learning process where they monitor their own progress, ask questions and practise skills. Students use self-assessment and teacher feedback to reflect on their learning, consolidate their understanding and work towards learning goals.Dr Aineamani says all the books published by Pearson are aligned to the National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) to assist with learning progression expected from the institution. For instance, all X-kit Achieve books are written by expert teachers to ensure that the materials contained within are exactly what students need according to the current curriculum.Dr Aineamani is confident that Pearsons efforts are going a long way to ensure that appropriate teaching and learning tools are developed and availed to learners. As educators at heart, the focus should be on our learners. If they are not getting the support they need, then we need to help them in any way we can. This is our contribution, she concludes.
Email marketing continues to be a popular communication channel in South Africa - particularly in the financial services space. This is due, in part, to its ability to reach a wide audience, while incorporating personalised content.

Financial services companies that use connection-based language (like your, you, we, and our) establish a better connection with their reader, resulting in boosted levels of engagement.



(like your, you, we, and our) establish a better connection with their reader, resulting in boosted levels of engagement. The most successful emails were sent on Wednesdays, towards the end of the working day.



were sent on Wednesdays, towards the end of the working day. Engagement levels increase based on personalisation elements . Most of the top 50 emails personalised at least one data field, including name, product type, and personalised attachments.



. Most of the top 50 emails personalised at least one data field, including name, product type, and personalised attachments. Simple, easy-to-understand content is directly linked to more persuasive communication and is more likely to result in the call to action being followed.



is directly linked to more persuasive communication and is more likely to result in the call to action being followed. Visual language, through imagery and colour psychology , plays a key part in ongoing engagement with communication.



, plays a key part in ongoing engagement with communication. Mailers that use navigation breadcrumbs like bullet points, infographics, text colour, and sub-headings receive better engagement rates.



like bullet points, infographics, text colour, and sub-headings receive better engagement rates. Linguistic tools like alliteration, rhyme and metaphors make brand writing more interesting and attractive. This helps to boost engagement and results in more persuasive copy.

According to the most recent Everlytic Email Marketing Benchmarks , email engagement rates are higher than ever. In the financial industry, 2020 data shows these rates at averages of 5% click-throughs and 21% click-to-open rates. In addition, unsubscribe rates went down by 28% and complaint rates by 100% from 2019 to 2020.The pandemic also saw desktop use dropping substantially while mobile and web became more popular options. This meant a move away from desktop computers, illustrating how flexible email is as a medium through responsive layouts that can tailor and display content for any device size. Everlytic , South Africas largest digital messaging platform partnered with behavioural communications firm BreadCrumbs Linguistics to analyse the top 50 mailers sent by financial services providers using the Everlytic platform in 2020.The report focuses on the linguistic elements that correlate with mailer engagement success using the framework of Behavioural Linguistics, a science that looks at how language influences action. In direct mailer marketing, the action wanted is for mailer recipients to a) open the mailer and b) engage with the communication by clicking at least one link in the mailer.The best 50 emails sent by nine of South Africas biggest financial service providers were analysed across semantics, phonetics, syntax and visuals to highlight language trends across the successful sends.The link between language, decision-making, and behaviour is powerful. Once a brand starts thinking about direct marketing communication in ways that are intrinsically linked to how people think and act, they will be far more likely to create content that engages and persuades.With our email inboxes filled to an all-time high, and multiple brands vying for consumer attention, its critical for brands to craft communications that stand out. These need to grab attention and engage an audience to achieve a successful call to action  which is where a behavioural communication approach proves useful.Get your copy here This report was compiled as part of an Everlytic and BreadCrumbs Linguistics partnership. Everlytic is South Africas largest digital messaging platform. It helps businesses communicate personally, reliably, and automatically via bulk email, SMS, voice broadcasting, and push notifications. BreadCrumbs Linguistics is an award-winning behavioural communications firm that uses Behavioural Linguistics to create marketing and communication that nudges action.
Emporia, KS (66801)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 62F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 46F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
The City of Cape Town has signed a financing agreement of R77m with German Development Bank, KfW, to support the implementation of its Water Strategy. The funding will be used in the appointment of expert services to help with institutional restructuring, resource management, water demand management and sustainable wastewater management.

KfW Development Bank sector coordinator for infrastructure and water Jessica De Bruin, Silke Stadtmann, Tanja Werheit, Cllr Zahid Badroodien, citys director for commercial services Siyabulela Bashe and Michael Webster

Safe access to water and sanitation;



Wise water use;



Sufficient, reliable water from diverse sources;



Shared benefits from regional water resources;



Becoming a water sensitive city.

The strategy includes five commitments:"The grand focus areas will additionally enable the city to achieve an internal vision to become the first African city to be a leading water provider of the world and in doing so, provide safe access to quality water and sanitation services, ensure water resilience and create a shared water future for all," said Zahid Badroodien, mayoral committee member for water and sanitation.Achievement of this will be measured by being admitted as a member of the Leading Utilities of the World within the next three years, which would make the city the first African utility to achieve this."Since July 2020, the City of Cape Town has conducted an internal consultative process to detail the scope of eight transversal programmes for KfW support. The programmes are designed to provide a set of practical, implementable and costed initiatives to embed the water strategy into the city, and fully achieve the water strategy commitments and achieve Leading Utility of the World status," said Badroodien.Some of the key programmes that this funding will be used for are water demand management, sewer spills reduction and waste water treatment, etc.
Nnenna Onyewuchi named FCLA dean for 2022

Pitcher Festival of Creativity has appointed Nnenna Onywuchi as the dean of its flagship Future Creative Leaders Academy for 2022.



Onyewuchi has been involved in marketing communications for over two decades. During her career at McCann Erickson, New York, she managed business development activities for the New York office and coordinated pitches across the network. She then moved into strategic planning, where she was promoted to vice president. At McCann, she developed a set of proprietary research tools along with a new way of branding. She also helped develop tag ideation, a lifestyle marketing practice group.



Onyewuchi has worked on over a hundred brands including Coca-Cola, Absolut, Kohl's Department Stores, Sharpie, Microsoft, Xbox, British American Tobacco, Dangote, Paga, BlackBerry, Jumia, Oando, Access Bank, FCMB, FirstBank, Canon, MTV Base, Celtel, Zain, Glo, MTN, Girl Effect and Unicef during her career.
Mikateko Chauke joins African Bank as head of strategic communications and PR

Mikateko Chauke has been appointed as the new head of strategic communications and public relations at African Bank.



Chauke is a seasoned professional who has been in communications, reputation management, stakeholder relations, marketing and advertising for more than 19 years.



Chauke has worked for organisations such as Sasol, FCB Johannesburg, and Ogilvy PR, and played a pivotal role in developing turnaround strategies for clients such as Absa, Capitec Bank, Shell, McDonald's, Siyanda Resources, Nokia Siemens Networks, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited and Anglo American. She will manage the bank's strategic communications around its new brand positioning, due to launch in February.
Every civilization is built upon layers of mythology. In his recently published book, The Great Narrative, the founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, promotes a new global mythos based on empathy and cooperation.

This is remarkable considering that five years ago, in The Fourth Industrial Revolution, he calmly explained that successful societies of the future would be smart termite colonies crawling with bipedal cyborgs. Then a year and a half ago, in The Great Reset, he declared that the COVID-19 pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine and reset our world, making way for a polycentric technocracypossibly run on a Chinese digital currency.

Because most of us dont want to become gene-edited, neuroenhanced, bionic welfare recipients put out of work by robots, and because his accent sounds like zee Stasi villain, Schwab has become a magnet for blame and popular hatreda fascist to some, a communist to others, a technocratic mastermind to most.

Now, as if we all forgot our suspicions, hes calling for a new narrative, a great narrative, where all you need is love:

This emerging narrative is most helpful because it shows that this capacity to carea prerequisite for successful collaborationis contingent upon sentiments, qualities and emotions that can be encouraged, promoted and even taught. Love and affection, while possessing a social dimension, are deeply personal and hard to emulate at the societal level, but other qualities can be more easily harnessed for social good. Empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another) is one of them.

Knowing that Klaus Schwab controls the premier globalist ideological hub, the World Economic Forumwhich exerts tremendous influence over our politics, especially through donors, and over corporate culture through boards of directorshis great narrative is a grave concern. It signals a strategic moral framework, meant to manipulate leaders and masses alike, wherein willingness to submit is good and refusal to comply is evil.

While Schwab (and his consistently ignored co-author, Thierry Malleret) act as if their message of empathy and cooperation is a radical new paradigm, theyre drawing from a deep well of evolutionary science and philosophy. The broad theory holds that Darwinian evolution has produced two general survival strategies: competition and cooperation. Both traits are expressed, in varying proportions, in pretty much every organism. The key to this theoretical framework is this: more cooperative organismssuch as wolves, ants, or humanswill out-compete more solitary, individualistic organisms.

The big fish eat the little ones, but a bigger school of fish will marginalize them both.

These metaphors reflect our human reality quite well, but the meaning shifts under the pen of a globalist technocrat whos hellbent on spreading hyperconnected public-private partnerships across the planeta blob-like, digitized superorganism that consumes everything in its path.

For those struggling against global technocracy, cooperation means capitulation and empathy means pathological altruism.

Herr Schwabs Transhuman Fantasy

The Great Narrative hinges on five core themes, all familiar from Schwabs previous bookseconomics, environment, geopolitics, and society, with a manic emphasis on technology:

Hope, and the possibility of optimism, stem from the following observation: we are at a juncture in history when new discoveries and new technologies do not follow linear growth rates but exponential ones, drastically accelerating innovation.  Peter Diamandis [co-founder of Singularity University] believes that, in the next 10 years, were going to reinvent every industry and well experience more progress than in the past 100 years.

Sounds great if you want a trode in your dome, but many of us arent too thrilled to fuse our bodies and brains with the machine.

To understand the deep mythos behind the Great Narrative, you have to look back to Schwabs thesis in The Fourth Industrial Revolution, published in 2016. He argues that innovations from the previous three industrial revolutionsthe mechanical (steam engine, railways), the electrical (lightbulbs, telephones), and the digital (computers)are culminating in a fourth that will transform humanity itself.

The convergence of the physical, digital and biological worlds, Schwab writes, is at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution.

What does this mean in practice? Despite the books calm, dispassionate toneone that suggests an AI simply scanned Schwabs brain and translated his thoughts into textfrom time to time the reader gets slapped with a jarring example. Schwab is particularly obsessed with synthetic biology, designer babies, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and most unsettling, the Internet of Bodies (IoB):

Consider remote monitoringa widespread application of the IoT. Any package, pallet or container can now be equipped with a sensor, transmitter or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that allows a company to track where it is as it moves through the supply chainhow it is performing, how it is being used.  In the near future, similar monitoring systems will also be applied to the movement and tracking of people.

Schwab writes about surveilling human movements with RFID chips as if he were predicting warm weather this summer. You see, zee forced industrial revolution is not only changing the what and the how of doing things but also who we are.  Simply put, major technological innovations are on the brink of fueling momentous change throughout the worldinevitably so.

What sort of changes? The 52-page appendix, comprising nearly a third of the book, gives us a good idea. Entitled Deep Shift, the section lists twenty-three technology tipping points and social impacts, drawing on a survey of 800 executivesaka, the managerial elite. The list begins with implantable technologies, then strolls cheerfully through driverless cars, designer beings, smart cities, AI and decision-making, and so on, with neurotechnologies tying a carbon-black bow at the end.

82% of respondents expected [by 2025] the first implantable mobile phone available commercially. The authors dont specify where surgeons will stick this device, but I have a suggestion. They go on to write:

People are becoming more and more connected to devices, and those devices are increasingly becoming connected to their bodies.  Smart tattoos and other unique chips could help with identification and location. Implanted devices will likely also help to communicate thoughts normally expressed verbally through a built-in smartphone, and potentially unexpressed thoughts or moods by reading brain waves or other signals.

In this cyborg scenario, the positive impacts of implants include a reduction in missing children. So if parents dont want to be negligent, they should chip their kids. Digital tattoos not only look cool but can perform useful tasks, like unlocking a car, entering mobile phone codesor tracking body processes.

Even though 2016 and the following year saw waves of transhumanism coverage, from The Guardian to National Geographic, the fact that the World Economic Forum had given their blessing to a sweeping transhumanist revolution sat silently in the background. Its as if no one was supposed to talk about it.

Then last summer, Schwab quickly penned COVID-19: The Great Resetso quickly, youd think he already had his outline ready to roll. In this slim volume, he openly declares a global initiation rite into the fourth industrial revolution:

Almost instantly, most things became e-things: e-learning, e-commerce, e-gaming, e-books, e-attendance.  With the pandemic, the digital transformation that so many analysts have been referring to for yearshas found its catalysts. One major effect of confinement will be the expansion and progression of the digital world in a decisive and often permanent manner.

While humans were robotized, the robots were humanized:

From the onset of the lockdowns, it became apparent that robots and AI were a natural alternative when human labour was not available.  Our lingering and possibly lasting fear of being infected with a virus (COVID-19 or another) will thus speed the relentless march of automation.  Those that adapt with agility and imagination will eventually turn the COVID-19 crisis to their advantage.

Without shame, The Great Reset celebrates this unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the convergence of the physical, digital and biological worlds. To the extent Schwab laments whats being lost, he does so like a grinning paleontologist digging through a pile of Triceratops bones.

Swindlin Schwab Is Lookin For Love

The term pathological altruism was coined by Barbara Oakley in a 2011 volume by the same name. The idea is that human kindness can veer toward the suicidalanything from becoming a love slave to serving dictators. In predatory relationships, your conscience can be weaponized against you.

Although The Great Narrative is allegedly based on conversations with 50 of the worlds foremost global thinkers and opinion-makers, its such a tone-deaf attempt at milking human kindness, I wonder if Klaus Schwab asked an AI text-generator how to make people stop hating him. In addition to conspiracy theories and job-killing automation, the books central concern is climate changean existential threat that only experts can detect, and only global compliance can fix.

How can we make these ideas palatable, Schwab asks, so that a large majority of citizens embrace them?

The key is to increase empathy and cooperation through story-telling. [N]arratives shape our perceptions, which in turn form our realities and end up influencing our choices and actions. They are how we find meaning in life. Schwab pays special attention to dystopian visions and implicit biases about out-of-control technology.

So the technocrat who infuriated half the planet by promoting brain chips and global governance is now urging his minions to spin cosmic propaganda. To be fair, Schwab does express concern about cybercrime, AI warfare, and misuse of synthetic biology. But his solution? More technology, stronger government, and tear-jerking stories.

The first critical step is to overturn the dominant narrativethat man is a wolf to another man. Anyone familiar with Big Tech surveillance or drug cartel murder porn would read this as utter nonsensebut only because they dont understand the wiring behind our empathic circuitry:

[S]ince our neural networks are set up to interact with the neural networks of others in order to perceive their emotions and to differentiate them from our own, a lack of empathy makes it much harder to live with one another without constantly fighting or feeling threatened by others.  A growing body of research, notably in neuroscience, shows that, If you change your mind, you can change the world.

Therefore in order to compel cooperation, authorities must trigger the publics empathy circuits through prosocial policies. If that doesnt warm your heart, nothing will.

One specific approach was formulated by Raghuram Rajan. His scheme consists of strengthening and empowering communities [because] global governance must coexist with local power in a way that makes it inclusive. Otherwise, you risk a populist backlash:

[T]heyll exclude global markets and become exclusionists, or theyll exclude immigrants, and it will be America for native-born Americans. What I have in mind is what I call inclusive localism.  Borders encircle your local community but theyre porous borders.  Anybody who wants to join can come in.

Something tells me that neither the World Economic Forum nor China will be adopting inclusive localism anytime soon. To understand the point of this rhetoric, just imagine a world where the populist West has dropped its defenses while elites spanning the globe strengthen theirs.

Ultimately, the idea of globalists manipulating empathy to weaken their opponents should be as infuriating as the desire to jab skulls with brain chips. Not that ol Klaus has forgotten about those:

[With technology] a sense of great optimism prevailsa sentiment expressed by all scientists whom we interviewed for this book. Michio Kaku went the furthest.  Brain-net (when the human mind is merged with computers) will take a few decades to get off the ground, but investors are already jumping into it.

According to Swindlin Schwab, The Future is an inevitable technocracy. After peeling away the absurd warm and fuzzies, his Great Narrative is the story of designer babies with antennas plugged into their heads wandering around hyperconnected smart cities while robots take over their jobs and immigrants flood across their bordersbecause climate change and inequality. Call me a cynic, but the final scene of his cosmic narrative doesnt look so great.

Read full story here
The Central Intelligence Agency has secretly been running mass surveillance operations to collect data on Americans, according to a newly published letter written by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.).

Wyden and Henrich, both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote the letter in April 2021, and the letter was partly declassified on Thursday.

In the letter, Wyden and Henrich called on the CIA to inform the public about the data collection program, calling for full transparency.

This declassification is urgent, the senators wrote.

The CIA responded to the allegations in a statement published by the Wall Street Journal.

CIA recognizes and takes very seriously our obligation to respect the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. persons in the conduct of our vital national security mission, and conducts our activities, including collection activities, in compliance with U.S. law, Executive Order 12333, and our Attorney General guidelines, said Kristi Scott, the agencys privacy and civil liberties officer. CIA is committed to transparency consistent with our obligation to protect intelligence sources and methods.

The allegations from Wyden and Heinrich are serious, but the extent of the danger and severity is clouded by several factors, not the least of which is the fact that the letter is highly redacted.

So Id encourage readers to review the redacted letter themselves, as well as the press release that accompanied its declassification. Nevertheless, here are a few important takeaways.

You may not have heard, but the CIA has been running a secret massive surveillance program for some time. pic.twitter.com/WSG9dtBY2V  Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) February 14, 2022

1. Laws Prohibit CIA Spying on Americans

As Politico noted, the CIA is largely prohibited by law from engaging in domestic spying, which makes the revelations troubling. But, as the Wall Street Journal reports, at times intelligence agencies have found ways to circumvent these prohibitions, noting that some U.S. intelligence programs collect broad streams of internet or telephone data in a way that can scoop up information on Americans, such as when someone is communicating with a target of surveillance who lives overseas.

This is known as incidental collection, and its an issue lawmakers in both parties have flagged as a violation of civil liberties and personal privacy.

2. The Nature of the Surveillance Is Unclear

Several publications have pointed out that the nature of the surveillance isnt really clear. Yet the language in the redacted letter suggests the program involves nontraditional surveillance, noting data collection is done in bulk and uses backdoor searches of Americans, the same issue that has generated bipartisan concern in the FISA context.

As the ACLU says, this implies the spy agency may be vacuuming up vast amounts of information to spy on Americans and storing it indefinitely.

These reports raise serious questions about what information of ours the CIA is vacuuming up in bulk and how the agency exploits that information to spy on Americans. This invasion of our privacy must stop.  ACLU (@ACLU) February 11, 2022

3. The Surveillance Is Warrantless

While the nature of the surveillance is murky, Sens. Wyden and Heinrich make one thing clear. The information being collected is warrantless, meaning the data are being scooped up without a warrant.

This directly violates the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, which states, The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

4. The Program Appears to Be Unlawful

While what constitutes spying is debatable, but Wyden and Henrich suggest that the program may have exceeded its lawful bounds.

While the Senators dont use the words unlawful or illegal, they suggest the program may be just that, noting it falls entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection .

What the precise statutory framework is isnt spelled out here, but its safe to say that Wyden believes the CIA is acting outside of that scope.

5. The CIA Is Acting Without Oversight

While there has been a great deal of discussion on the idea that the FBIs FISA warrant process is  broken , its worth noting that at least that program had some judicial oversight (weak as it often was).

Wyden and Henrich suggest this is not the case with the CIAs data collection program, which they say operates without any of the judicial, congressional or even executive branch oversight that comes from [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act].

6. This Isnt Wydens First Dustup With CIA

Finally, its worth noting that this is not the first time Wyden has clashed with the CIA over rogue operations.

In 2016, the Senator from Oregon had a heated exchanged with then-CIA Director John Brennan over the CIAs improper search of Senate files, including the unauthorized search of the emails of Senate staffers investigating the CIAs use of torture in the War on Terror. Brennan denied the CIAs actions were improper, even though both a CIA Inspector General and a review board appointed by Brennan himself conceded the search resulted in inappropriate access to the Senates work product, prompting a sharp rebuke from Wyden.

In 2013, Wyden also asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper if the NSA collected any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?

Clapper responded, No, sir  not wittingly.

It was later revealed the NSA was in fact collecting metadata on millions of law-abiding Americans without warrants.

The Rule of Nobody

Many thinkers have written about the dangers of bureaucracy, a system in which important decisions are made not by individuals or even elected representatives, but state officials.

The famed writer and traveler Alexis de Toqueville saw bureaucracy as the Achilles heel of modern democracy. A century later, the great economist Ludwig von Mises wrote an entire book about its nature and evils: Bureaucracy.

My personal favorite description comes from the philosopher Hannah Arendt, who described bureaucracy as the rule of Nobody, a tyranny without a tyrant, which she described as the most oppressive kind of government.

Indeed, if we identify tyranny as the government that is not held to give account of itself, rule by Nobody is clearly the most tyrannical of all, since there is no one left who could even be asked to answer for what is being done, Arendt wrote in On Violence. It is this state of affairs which is among the most potent causes for the current world-wide rebellious unrest.

The tentacles of the US bureaucratic state do not reach as far as those of socialist states in the 20th centurythe period in which Arendt wrotebut as early as the 1930s government reports have warned about a headless fourth branch of the Government, responsible to no one.

That was more than 80 years ago.

Now we have a secret CIA program that has been spying on Americans free from any kind of oversight for an undetermined length of time. This sounds just a bit like the terror Arendt described.

What happens next, however, is unclear.

The list of US intelligence scandals and improper programs has grown lengthy in recent years, but accountability has been elusive. Well see if this time is any different.

Source: FEE.org

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune.

Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.

Image Credit: Global Panorama-Flickr | CC BY-SA 2.0
A fortnight before the killing of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi in Syrias northwest Idlib enclave in a Delta Force raid on Feb. 3, hundreds of heavily armed ISIS militants allegedly attempted an audacious prison break in the Kurdish-held northeastern city al-Hasakah on Jan. 20, ferociously freeing hundreds of prisoners.

High-security al-Sinaa prison is one of several detention centers in Syrias northeast guarded by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The facility hosted 3,000 ISIS militants who were captured by the Kurds after the fall of the ISIS caliphate in 2019.

The ensuing ten-day manhunt to re-capture the escaped inmates and subdue the insurrection inside the prison lasted until Jan. 30, just two days before the killing of the ISIS leader. The death toll in the clearance operation was 500: 121 fatalities among the SDF, 374 suspected members of the Islamic State and four civilians, according to SDF sources.

Regarding the killing of the ISIS chief in the outskirts of Atmeh across the Turkish border, just 15 miles from Barisha village where his predecessor al-Baghdadi was killed in a similar Special Ops night raid in Oct. 2019, the Washington Post reported [1] on Feb. 10 that the hideout of the ISIS leader was disclosed on a tip-off from Kurdish sources of SDF, which President Biden effusively praised in the official announcement of the killing of al-Qurayshi following the raid.

The information regarding the whereabouts of the ISIS leader was obtained last fall, several months before the raid, the Delta Force commandos began preparing for the operation late Sept., and President Biden authorized the raid on Dec. 20.

The report notes: The officials said Qurayshi  distinctive because of the leg, which CIA analysts think was amputated after injuries suffered in a 2015 airstrike  was sometimes spotted outside the house, or when taking brief strolls through the olive trees.

Word eventually made its way to informants who work for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a mainly Kurdish militia group closely allied to the United States, current and former U.S. officials said. Intensive surveillance began immediately afterward, with Kurdish watchers following the arrivals and departures of armed men who trudged upstairs to meet with Qurayshi.

Thus, the Kurdish leadership of SDF was frequently consulted by the US forces in Syria during the months-long manhunt for the ISIS chief and was kept informed of the movements of al-Qurayshis couriers.

A glaring contradiction in the Kurdish account of the events leading to the jailbreak in al-Hasakah is that if the US claims the ISIS leader remained in operational command via a network of couriers who were closely monitored and their communications intercepted by the CIA, then how is it possible that the fugitive ISIS chief staged a brazen prison break at al-Hasakah, hundreds of miles from his northwestern Idlib hideout, without the knowledge of the US forces tracking him down?

The report adds: After a two-year manhunt, the elusive Qurayshi had been spotted, first by informants on the ground, and then that tip was confirmed by the drones telescopic lens. For U.S. officials involved in the search, two questions remained. One was how to kill or capture him while minimizing risk to U.S. forces and to the more than a dozen women and children who lived in the same building. The other: whether to strike quickly, or to wait and try to gather more information about Qurayshis far-flung network of underground terrorist cells.

The waiting, which ultimately stretched over several months, proved to be worthwhile [] There was foot traffic: couriers and communication between cells, said a former senior intelligence official briefed on the events. They milked it, to collect as much data as they could. They had to see who he was talking to.

The picture of Qurayshi that emerged from the surveillance is that of a hands-on commander who was firmly in charge of his organization and harbored ambitions for re-establishing the self-declared Islamist caliphate that once controlled a territory the size of England. His intensive involvement in operational planning made Qurayshi especially dangerous, officials said. But over time, it also made him more vulnerable.

He was very much in command, a senior Biden administration official said of Qurayshi, a 45-year-old Iraqi who was born Amir Mohammed al-Mawli al-Salbi [] His lieutenants and couriers were very active, the official said, in making sure that his commands and orders were known.

Clearly, either there are inaccuracies in the Washington Post report pieced together from insider accounts of the details of operational planning of the raid revealed to the paper by credible Biden administration officials on the condition of anonymity and the fugitive ISIS leader wasnt in command, or if he was actively directing the operational planning of the terrorist organization through a web of couriers tracked by the CIA, then how did the premier intelligence agency overlook his orders to mount an audacious jailbreak in al-Hasakah and didnt give forewarning to the Kurdish SDF allies of imminent storming of the detention center by hundreds of heavily armed ISIS militants?

According to Syrian sources who refused to divulge identities due to fear of repercussions, what really transpired at the high-security al-Sinaa prison was that the Kurdish guards of the penitentiary incited an insurrection on the night of Jan. 20 and let hundreds of prisoners escape. Then the SDF forces mounted a ten-day manhunt for the fugitives and killed hundreds of unarmed prisoners who were hiding in adjacent areas.

US air support was occasionally requested to mount random airstrikes on indiscriminate targets often hosting the escaped ISIS militants and sometimes civilians. The whole orchestrated show was led by irregular SDF militias while a handful Special Ops units assisting the Kurds were kept at safe distance to avoid unnecessary loss of precious American lives.

Although the SDF might have suffered negligible casualties in skirmishes with the fugitives, majority of the death toll was among the prisoners, which the SDF refused to host in the first place and was asking third countries for their repatriation.

Bidens abrupt withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan last August and consequent overrunning of the country by the Taliban is indicative of his inclination to disengage from myriad conflicts of the Middle East and bring troops back to the US.

The false-flag prison break by the SDF was a desperate attempt by the Kurds to keep the specter of the ISIS resurgence alive after the fall of the militant groups caliphate in 2019 and the killing of both the caliphs, and to keep the US forces engaged in the Syrian conflict, the Kurds only assurance against overrunning of their newly acquired territories in eastern Syria by organized and well-armed Turkish and Syrian security forces.

After the liberation of the ISIS-held territories in Mosul and Anbar in Iraq and Raqqa and Deir al-Zor in Syria in 2017 and the clearance operations at the Iraq-Syria border that lasted until 2019, the remnants of the militant group are on the run and the rest have already joined the ranks of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by al-Qaedas formidable Syrian franchise al-Nusra Front, in Syrias northwest Idlib enclave controlled by the regional US ally, Turkey.

Thus, the principal rationale for keeping the US forces in Syria is no longer valid. Biden wouldve withdrawn troops long ago, not only from Syria but also from Iraq, whose legislators passed a parliamentary resolution asking the US to withdraw its forces from the country following the killing of venerated commander of IRGCs Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani who was assassinated in an American airstrike on a tip-off from the Israeli intelligence at the Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.

Following the dismantling of the ISIS caliphate in 2019, Biden wouldve withdrawn US forces from Iraq, which have repeatedly come under rocket fire from Iran-backed Iraqi militias, as soon as he was inaugurated president in Jan. 2021. The only reason he cannot withdraw troops from Iraq is because the US forces in Iraq have been deployed in support of contingents of American troops stationed across the border in Kurdish-held regions in eastern Syria and at al-Tanf.

Al-Tanf military base is strategically located in southeastern Syria on the border between Syria, Iraq and Jordan, and straddles a critically important Damascus-Baghdad highway, which serves as a lifeline for Damascus. Washington has illegally occupied 55-kilometer area around al-Tanf since 2016, and several hundred US Marines have trained thousands of Syrian militants at the sprawling military base.

Rather than battling the Islamic State, the foremost purpose of continued presence of the US forces at al-Tanf military base is to address Israels security concerns regarding the expansion of Irans influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Nevertheless, its worth pointing out that the orchestrated jailbreak wasnt the only incident when the Kurdish-led SDF has shown utter disregard for civilian casualties in its all-out war on Syrian Arabs.

Five years following a potentially catastrophic incident that couldve inundated Islamic States former capital Raqqa and many towns downstream Euphrates River in eastern Syria and caused more deaths than the deployment of any weapon of mass destruction, the New York Times reported last month [2] that at the height of US-led international coalitions war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, US B-52 bombers struck Tabqa Dam with 2,000-pound bombs, including at least one bunker-busting bomb that fortunately didnt explode.

In March 2017, alternative media was abuzz with reports that the dam was about to collapse and entire civilian population downstream Euphrates River needed to be urgently evacuated to prevent the inevitable catastrophe. But Washington issued a gag order to the corporate media not to sensationalize the issue.

The explosive report noted that the dam was contested between the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the Syrian government and the Islamic State. A firefight broke out in which SDF incurred heavy casualties. It was then that a top secret US special operations unit Task Force 9 called for airstrikes on the dam after repeated requests from the Kurdish leadership of the SDF.

The explosions on March 26, 2017, knocked dam workers to the ground. A fire spread and crucial equipment failed. The flow of the Euphrates River suddenly had no way through, the reservoir began to rise and authorities used loudspeakers to warn people downstream to flee.

The Islamic State group, the Syrian government and Russia blamed the United States, but the dam was on the US militarys no-strike list of protected civilian sites, and the commander of the US offensive at the time, then-Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, said allegations of US involvement were based on crazy reporting.

Citations:

[1] With watchers on the ground and spy drones overhead, U.S. zeroed in on Islamic State leaders hideout:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/10/isis-qurayshi-raid/

[2] A dam in Syria was on a no-strike list. The US bombed it anyway:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/us/airstrike-us-isis-dam.html

About the author:

Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based geopolitical and national security analyst focused on geo-strategic affairs and hybrid warfare in the Af-Pak and Middle East regions. His domains of expertise include neocolonialism, military-industrial complex and petro-imperialism. He is a regular contributor of diligently researched investigative reports to alternative news media.
Britains Prince Andrew and his accuser Virginia Giuffre have settled a lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused her when she was a teenager at a time when she was being sexually trafficked by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a court filing has said.

Giuffres lawyers, writing on behalf of both parties, asked a US federal court in New York on Tuesday to suspend proceedings in the case until it is formally dismissed. They said the lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount.

In the statement to the court, the British royal expresses regret for associating with Epstein but does not confirm Giuffres accusations.

Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffres character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks, the statement said.

It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.
Many people in the United States start their retirement years with little or no money saved. As a result, their Social Security checks account for the majority, if not all, of their income.

According to the most recent data from the Social Security Administration, almost 12% of men and 15% of women rely on the benefit for 90% or more of their income. This can be difficult for a family to manage; in June 2021, the average monthly payment was merely $1,555.

Despite a higher-than-usual cost-of-living adjustment of about 6% this year, fast-rising housing and food prices have only added to retirees' anxieties about fulfilling their financial obligations and the future. Aside from Social Security benefit, there are a few other resources available to seniors:

1. Apply for Food Benefits

Many seniors aren't making use of all the food aid available to them. According to a 2015 survey, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, was used by less than half of eligible seniors.

For seniors on a fixed income, the extra money may make a big difference, wherein a single person's monthly benefit is $250. The money may be used in grocery shops, online stores, and farmers' markets.

SNAP has limits on how much you may have in assets and how much you can earn to qualify for assistance, and Social Security benefits are taken into account. However, some expenditures, such as rent and child care, maybe deducted, and anybody who thinks they could be eligible should apply, according to experts.

Certain low-income persons over the age of 60 are eligible for a monthly food package that includes fruits, vegetables, cheese, and other foods from the US Department of Agriculture's Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

2. Use Health Insurance And Drug Costs

The expense of health insurance and prescriptions may consume so much of a retiree's pocketbook. According to Caitlin Donovan, a spokeswoman for the National Patient Advocate Foundation, which helps people access and pay for health care, some may be qualified for assistance with monthly payments through the Medicare Savings Program.

Individuals with Medicare Part D, which covers medicines, should also check if they are eligible for Extra Help. Your prescription prices might be reduced as a result of this initiative. Donovan said the annual benefit may be worth more than $5,000.

Several non-profit groups help seniors pay for their medical expenses. You may apply for funding at Copays.org, for example, to help with copays, premiums, deductibles, and over-the-counter prescriptions.

You may use the National Patient Advocate Foundation's financial resource list to look for local assistance for everything from dental treatment to end-of-life care, CNBC reported.

Read Also: COVID-19 Cases Nearing End of "Full-Blown" Phase; But USA Still on Track To Reach 1 Million Deaths

3. Supplemental Security Income

Some retirees will be eligible for the Supplemental Security Income program, a means-tested program for individuals over the age of 65 or with a handicap, though they must be earning a very low income to qualify.

More than 2.5 million people received both Social Security and the supplementary benefit, which may be as much as $841 per month for a single person, in December 2021. You can apply online or by phoning the Social Security Administration at 1-800-325-0778.

You may learn about more than 2,000 options available to struggling seniors by ZIP code on the National Council on Aging's "benefits check-up" website. For more information on the most generous benefits that help older people with expenditures such as phone bills and property taxes, see the council's You Gave, Now Save guide.

4. Home Energy Assistance

The Home Energy Assistance Program is a government program that assists low-income seniors and residents pay for their cooling and heating expenses by providing utility assistance. The Home Energy Assistance Program is a federal program that provides utility assistance to low-income seniors and residents to help them pay for their cooling and heating costs.

5. Discounted Phone and Internet Service

This is a telecommunications subsidy program that makes it simpler for low-income seniors and families to purchase a landline phone, a bundled phone, internet, or even a mobile phone.

The Public Service Commission created it with the concept that families may benefit from a little more help connecting to a doctor, a school, or a community service lifeline. Depending on whose phone carrier the senior is using, this subsidy might be supported by the federal or state government, or a combination of federal and state subsidy.

There Are Various Benefits Seniors May Apply!

Even though Social Security and Medicare are the most popular programs, the Social Security Administration's entire aim is to make life simpler for seniors in retirement, and they provide a lot more than these two. Besides SSA, there are a number of other programs for low-income seniors run by the federal and state governments, as per Retire Fearless.

Related Article: Will You Get a Smaller Tax Refund for Claiming Child Tax Credit Payments in 2021?

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Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that "there's a very real risk: that there will no longer be democracy in the United States in the next ten years because the country will return to Jim Crow policies.

The lawmaker made her remarks during an interview and said that the nation was risking having a federal government that only pretended to be a democracy. The New York congresswoman, however, said that there was still hope to fix the situation but argued that the opening attacks on democracy in the region were already fired.

Threat to Democracy

Ocasio-Cortez said this was done with a "targeted, specific attack on the right to vote across the United States," particularly in regions where Republicans held power. She argued that GOP members threatened the country's democracy by changing electorates and demographics and embodied white-nationalist, reactionary politics.

The Democrat accused lawmakers of repeatedly conducting sophisticated takeovers of the nation's democratic systems. She argued they wanted to turn them into undemocratic systems to overturn the results that a party in power may not agree completely, as per Yahoo Sports.

The lawmaker made a specific prediction when she said that the United States is heading towards returning to the Jim Crow era of disenfranchisement and oppression of Black Americans and other minority groups. Ocasio-Cortez cited "Jim-Crow style" laws that are restricting voting access that many lawmakers have been proposing, primarily in Florida, Texas.

Read Also: Durham Report Says the Hillary Clinton Campaign Is Guilty of Looking For Dirt To Blame on Trump

The Democrat said that the efforts were slowly replacing history with institutionalized propaganda from white-nationalist perspectives in schools across the nation. Ocasio-Cortez said that the essence of the new regulations was exactly like the Jim Crow policies.

According to Business Insider, she said that while there were many others who compared the laws to something or someone else, history has shown the real basis of the legislation. The New York lawmaker said that the United States was now faced with the question of if the last five to six decades after the Civil Rights Act is going to go to waste.

Longstanding Feud

The situation comes as Ocasio-Cortez is butting heads with many Republican lawmakers over several issues rampaging across the nation. She continued her feud with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by posting a video on social media showing her dancing with the caption, "Ted Cruz could never."

The New York lawmakers posted the video on her social media accounts on Sunday after appearing at a Texas campaign event held for progressive candidates Greg Casar and Jessica Cisneros. Ocasio-Cortez could be seen dancing to cumbia-style music along with Texas Democrat campaigners and supporters.

Ocasio-Cortez and Crus have been in a longstanding feud after the former accused the latter of supporting people who were trying to get him killed during the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. Last year, the New York congresswoman said that the situation was not a joke and that people involved need to take responsibility for their actions and words. She told a crowd on Sunday that there was still a chance for Democrats to "flip" Texas thanks to the two candidates she supported, Independent reported.

Related Article: McConnell, Trump Butt Heads as Minority Leader Plans To Block Former President's Primaries

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Former United States President Donald Trump's business, the Trump Organization, is facing another hurdle after its accounting firm said last week that it could no longer vouch for the reliability of decade-old financial statements of the company.

In a letter sent to the Trump Organization chief legal officer, Mazars, an international audit, tax, and advisory firm, said they will no longer be the company's accountants, citing a conflict of interest. They said the decision was made in part due to the filings made by the New York Attorney General on Jan. 18, 2022.

Trump Org's Financial Statements

Mazars said that it was not concluding that all of the financial documents of the Trump Organization contained material discrepancies. However, the accounting firm said it was appropriate to no longer rely on those financial statements and not give advice to the former president's business.

Furthermore, the accounting firm also urged the Trump Organization to inform any recipients of the financial statements, including lenders or insurers, to not rely on the documents. On Monday, Mazars said the only work that was not finished was filing Trump and Melania Trump's tax returns, as per CNN.

The accounting firm's decision to cut ties with the Trump Organization could have severe consequences both for Trump's financial future and the legal probes that he and his family's business are now facing. Trump Organization spokesperson Kimberly Benza released a statement saying that the former president's company was "disappointed that Mazars has chosen to part ways."

Read Also: Durham Report Says the Hillary Clinton Campaign Is Guilty of Looking For Dirt To Blame on Trump

The Republican businessman has long accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of running a politically-motivated investigation into his business. However, the attorney general responded with a statement released on Monday, saying that there was evidence against the former president and his organization.

According to NPR, James accused the former president and his organization of using fraudulent and misleading financial statements to obtain economic benefit. The controversy with Mazars comes more than seven months after then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. charged the former president's company and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, in 2021 for crimes related to an alleged tax fraud scheme.

Fraudulent Deals

Former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lynn Turner, said that Mazars laid out details that were far from common in the accounting industry. He argued that getting such a letter from an accounting firm was a highly unusual case. Turner noted that it meant something significant within the contents of the financial statements that needed to be revised.

In a statement on Monday, another Trump Organization spokesperson said that the separation with Mazars was good news for the former president's company and bad news for James' civil probe. They said that despite several investigations, Mazars found no material discrepancies within the Trump Organization's financial statements.

The spokesperson said that the incident effectively rendered the investigations by the former District Attorney and Attorney General moot. James has been engaged in a yearslong investigation of the Trump Organization to show that the Republican businessman's company was fraudulently filing statements, NBC News reported.

Related Article: McConnell, Trump Butt Heads as Minority Leader Plans To Block Former President's Primaries

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For nearly a decade BHP has been single-mindedly focused on driving operational leverage into its portfolio through an intense focus on costs and productivity. Its efforts almost all came together in an exceptionally strong first-half result.

The headline increase of 57 per cent in underlying earnings to $US9.7 billion ($13.6 billion) and the latest cash deluge for shareholders distracted from two remarkable metrics that underscore how much leverage has been built into the groups performance by the years of grinding attention to detail.

BHP chief executive Mike Henry. Credit:Thomas Graham

BHP generated an extraordinary group EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin of 64 per cent in the half and an equally impressive return on capital employed of 43 per cent in a demonstration of that inherent leverage.

The result came despite the cost pressures that have resulted from the pandemic. BHP was able to get near-maximum value from a very favourable pricing environment for its key commodities  iron ore, copper, coal and oil and gas.
Loading In the early days ethical investors were acting purely on personal values. They were willing to pay a premium for a specialist stock picker to construct a portfolio that aligned with their moral compass. This included screening out companies considered to be harmful  fossil fuels, tobacco, weapons  while backing companies that made the world a better place. Not only were these investors paying more for the product, but their portfolios would often return less. Responsible Investment Association Australasia chief executive Simon OConnor says a key turning point came in 2010, when a BP-operated oil rig exploded and caused the largest marine oil spill in history. For days, television sets around the world showed footage of black oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

OConnor says in the post-event analysis, it became clear there were problems with BPs approach to well maintenance and quality assurance. That highlighted to investors we need to look for these signals because when its poorly managed, this can rapidly equate to an enormous financial loss. The concept of non-financial risk gained traction, where investors realised corporate governance failures can cause a material hit to profits. Since then, ESG investing has continued to evolve to a point at which KPMGs sustainability director Mark Spicer says it is now mainstream. Its gone from get me out of doing things that are bad because Im a nice person, to there is a value destruction associated with it, so invest well. As demand has increased, fees have fallen and returns have improved. The strategies have also become more cut-throat. Engagement has traditionally been the most widely adopted, in which a fund manager retains a stake in a dirty company to pressure it to do better.

Loading Divestment has been used to shame companies by refusing to invest or dumping a stock for its failure to meet a set of demands. Now, a strategy still in its infancy is emerging  short-selling dirty stocks. Those who green short, including Plato Investment Management, claim the reason for the tactic is three-fold. Firstly, the impact. Drastic problems, such as climate change, require drastic solutions and short-selling can terrify company directors. Second, a fund manager can build a net zero emissions portfolio through stock selection only up to a point before returns start to suffer. By avoiding certain industries, they could be forced to pile money into green companies with weak fundamentals, which is a long-term disaster.

Third, achieving net zero through carbon credits is increasingly a mugs game. As companies and governments commit to decarbonisation targets, the demand for carbon offsets has soared. In Australia, the voluntary carbon credit market is largely unregulated and the price is increasing exponentially. If a manager is buying carbon credits to fulfil an ESG investment mandate, it is a cost that is only going to grow. While Plato is the first large fund manager to admit to green shorting in Australia, US hedge fund giant AQR has said Australian investors with billions in funds under management, including superannuation funds, are now interested in the tactic. OConnor says it can be overwhelming for a retail investor to enter the ESG game with the variety of products on offer. He recommends visiting the Responsible Returns website, which showcases only credited fund managers. Beyond that, OConnor says transparency is key. If a fund manager does not fully disclose its investments, this is a red flag. The manager should also be able to articulate their strategy, and provide examples of where it has paid off.
The estranged wife of former special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has denied she is seeking revenge by giving evidence against him in his Federal Court defamation case, as a series of text messages she sent to her best friend were read in court.

Emma Roberts appeared in the witness box in Mr Roberts-Smiths defamation case for the first time on Monday and gave evidence that she discovered her husband was having an affair in April 2018 when his girlfriend turned up at the couples Sunshine Coast home with a black eye and told her she had been pregnant with his child.

Emma Roberts, the estranged wife of Ben Roberts-Smith, outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday. Credit:James Alcock

She told the court that Mr Roberts-Smiths former girlfriend, known as Person 17 in the proceedings to protect her identity, told her that the black eye was caused by falling down the stairs while drunk at an event in Canberra in March 2018.

Person 17 told her that she had been pregnant with Mr Roberts-Smiths child in the past, she said, but was no longer pregnant.
If Logan County in West Virginia is remembered in America at all, its as a battleground in the nations most infamous family feud, between the Hatfields and the McCoys.

It ran for nearly 30 years, from 1863, beginning with the murder of Asa McCoy by a Confederate guerrilla unit called the Logan Wildcats, led by William Anderson Devil Anse Hatfield.

Convoy to Canberra protesters march towards the parliamentary triangle in Canberra. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

I found a statue of Devil Anse standing over his grave in November 2016, tucked away in a river valley on the side of a steep hill. A Confederate flag fluttering nearby stood as testament that not all the rebels in the county had been buried.

The presidential campaign was nearing its end and I had come in search of Trump supporters. The mother lode was in Logan, where 79.6 per cent would go on to cast their vote for him.
For emergency department nurse Kelly Falconer the mass strike that drew about 5000 healthcare workers to Macquarie Street on Tuesday had been years in the making.

We were short-staffed well before the pandemic, but then Omicron hit and it became like a war zone, Ms Falconer said. We were forced to close part of our hospitals emergency department because we just did not have the nurses. At one point, just before Christmas, we were down 25 staff just in ED alone.

Thousands of nurses marched in Sydneys CBD on Tuesday to demand the implementation of staff-to-patient ratios in the states hospitals. Credit: Renee Nowytarger

Standing outside state parliament, she addressed thousands of nurses and midwives across NSW who walked off the job in the first statewide strike in a decade.

Wearing regulation navy-blue scrubs and surgical masks, health workers assembled at Hyde Park and marched down a closed-off Macquarie Street chanting and carrying signs that read Our ICU is on life support and Stop telling us we are coping.
A man has been charged with murder, arson and unlawful stalking after a body was found in a burnt house at the Gold Coast.

A body has been found after a fire inside a Coomera, Gold Coast home about 11pm on Wednesday night.

Police said the fire was deliberately lit at a Leichardt Street house, causing the death of a 21-year-old Coomera man on Thursday, February 9.

A 38-year-old man, also from Coomera, was allegedly found at a home in Sheldon, about a 40-minutes drive north, about one hour after the fire.

Police said that man was rushed to hospital with burns to his hands.
Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon has asked her department for immediate detailed advice on controversial locations proposed for cabins and campsites in the Queensland governments Cooloola Great Walk ecotourism project.

Conservation groups have raised concerns about campsites suggested for Poona Lake and on the Noosa River.

Conservationist Greg Wood is among many warning about the impact of private cabins beside Poona Lake in Cooloola. Credit:Tony Moore

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rejected sites between June 2019 and March 2021 because they were deemed ecologically sensitive.

On Tuesday morning Ms Scanlon said she had not been briefed on ecological concerns raised by her department in the March 2021 Cooloola Great Walk Ecotourism Trail Proposed Site Selection report.
Queensland has recorded 10 COVID-related deaths and a jump in cases, but health authorities say the trend is going down.

The downward trend could see mask mandates and other measures used to control the virus revisited by the end of this month, health authorities confirmed.

The state recorded 5286 cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, a significant jump from 3750 cases on Monday.

There were also 1587 cases in schoolchildren aged from five to 17, up from 963 yesterday.
Anti-vaccine demonstrators have brought swaths of the country to a halt, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has used emergency powers to repress them.

Even though the blockades are now in their third week, the Canadian Prime Minister's patience has finally run out as he unveils a harsh package of measures aimed at truckers who have occupied key cities and disrupted trade across the border with the United States.

What Is the National Emergency Act?

The Emergencies Act, which provides the Canadian government broad powers in the case of a danger to national security, contains the provisions. Invoking this act for just the second time since the war was a first for the United States government. After a series of terrorist assaults by Quebec separatists in 1970, Justin's father, Pierre Trudeau, employed the War Powers Act, as it was known at the time.

Police will be authorized to control public gatherings and blockades under the new law. Trucks that are part of the "freedom convoy" will be towed away by police. Other actions, including suspending their bank accounts and voiding their insurance, are being taken to stop the rebel truckers from receiving funds.

Large transfers of money to truckers will have to be reported to Canada's financial watchdog Fintrac by crowdfunding platforms that have routed millions of dollars to the truckers. A few hours after police in Alberta detained 11 people and confiscated a stash of guns near the US border, Trudeau announced the action.

The arrests raised suspicions that some Canadian engaging in the blockage was more concerned with driving Trudeau out of power than with his government's response to the pandemic. The law will be in effect for 30 days, but it might be revoked sooner, according to the Telegraph.

In times of national catastrophe, the Emergencies Act of 1988 gives the government additional authority. The issue must meet a high standard, namely an "urgent and critical crisis that poses a substantial threat to Canadians' lives, health, or safety." The laws can only be invoked by the Cabinet if the emergency is beyond the provinces' ability to manage it properly and cannot be handled by any existing federal law.

The Public Welfare, Public Order, International, and War Emergencies Acts define four categories of emergencies: public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies, and war emergencies. If the law is enacted this week, it will most certainly fall under the heading of "public order." Lawful demonstrations do not qualify, and the standards are severe.

Instead, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, the circumstance must be viewed as a danger to the country's security. In this law, there are four possibilities that can occur:

Espionage or sabotage

Foreign-influenced activities

Threats or use of acts of serious violence for political, religious or ideological objectives

Covert, unlawful acts intended to undermine or overthrow the constitutionally established government

None of these four eventualities have been evident in Ontario, thus it's unclear which scenario Mr. Trudeau would use to justify the deployment of the Emergency Act. Before presenting the proposal to Parliament, the prime minister must confer with the premiers of any affected provinces before enacting the law. The declaration will be repealed if the act does not pass a vote there, BBC News reported.

Read Also: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Uses Emergency Powers Against Canadian Truckers Protesting Over Vaccine Mandates

Canada Vows Support for Ottawa Businesses

Trudeau also promised to help companies in Ottawa that have been harmed by the ongoing downtown protests. Because of the protest's implications, the Rideau Center mall and several other small businesses have stayed closed.

More information on the money will be made available in the coming days, according to Trudeau. Meanwhile, Chrystia Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, promised a crackdown on the demonstrators' financing, including suspending the accounts of any firms whose vehicles are being utilized in the blockades and protests.

In an interview with reporters, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the incident on Wellington Street was more than a little disruption to people's lives, as per CTV News.

Related Article: Canada's Justin Trudeau Calls Truckers Protest "Unacceptable"; Protesters Vow To Stay Put Until Prime Minister Resigns

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In the looming election campaign well be hearing a lot of silly, scary and self-serving stuff. Whos better on the ukulele, ScoMo or Albo? Whos the more human? Which side won the week?

Well see the content of carefully compiled dirt files. Each side accusing the other of hypocrisy. The other sides policies have been/would be absolutely frightening.

Illustration: Dyson Credit:

Great. I cant wait. But last week I ran across the thoughts of someone whos had much experience in governance, but isnt running for office. He was on about education  a topic of direct or indirect relevance to us all  but one that wont be heard once all the shouting starts.

Hes Professor Peter Shergold, former head of the Prime Ministers Department under John Howard, but these days chancellor of the University of Western Sydney and writer of government reports.
At 40, Hanson-Young is the Greens longest serving MP with almost 15 years in public office. Meanwhile, Oquist is a former chief lieutenant to Greens founder Bob Brown and credits the policy boss as a core factor in the Greens becoming the third-largest party in Australian politics. Oquist has also worked with the European Greens and was once memorably ejected from a UN event by then US secretary of state Colin Powell for staging a protest mid-speech by unfurling an environmental banner. He joined the Australia Institute in 2014 and became its boss a year later. The pair have more to talk about than policy, Hanson-Young insists. Weve got a lot of shared values  we talk as much about cooking and the outdoors as we do about politics. Its a nice mix. Wedding Bells at Easter Evidently, a political pair who know how to get stuff done, Hanson-Young and Oquist arent waiting around to make their union official  even in an election year.

They have already set a date to get hitched over the Easter weekend. Hanson-Young is coy on the location, other than to confirm it will take place in her home state of South Australia, even though Oquist is from NSW. We really just wanted to not have it drag out and to just get it done as soon as we could and Easter seemed like a good time, she said. So were going ahead with it then, and it will just be a nice wedding with our closest friends and family. Hanson-Young is midway through her six-year term as a senator and is not up for re-election at the looming federal poll. However, that doesnt mean she wont be in the thick of it. Obviously Ill still be very active in the campaign, she said. And, in holy matrimony as in their professional lives, the couple are doing their best to decarbonise the planet. The senators sparkler is a white band, set with a repurposed carbon deposit, otherwise known as a diamond. Foreign exchange

Theres been some reshuffling in the Australian Broadcasting Corporations overseas bureaus. And its good news, thanks to extra resources. After less than a year, Middle East correspondent Tom Joyner is being relocated and replaced by Allyson Horn, the state political reporter for ABC News Queensland and, we note, a former Northern Territory news breaker of the year. Thanks to the new resources, Joyner is being moved on to a new pop-up bureau in Istanbul, Turkey, for one year, to open up a new region of storytelling for our audiences, as Aunty put it. Across the pond, Kathryn Diss has just finished up as a US correspondent and is heading back to Sydney. The new Washington bureau chief is Jade Macmillan and Carrington Clarke has also joined the bureau as a North America correspondent. Back in Jerusalem, its a case of dreams coming true for cameraman Haidarr Jones, who will join Horn in the bureau. Jones featured in an ABC report which detailed his path from homeless teenager to graduate of the ABC news production Indigenous traineeship and now to filling his dream position: an ABC international bureau cameraman. Hot under the collar

Just when we thought the Morrison government had maxed out on blaming our lot  the mainstream media  for unfavourable media coverage, Warringah independent Zali Steggall dialled up the delusion to near-amnesiac levels in a fiery interview with The Project on Monday night. Under fire over revelations published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that she failed to disclose a $100,000 donation from the family of coal baron John Kinghorn, Steggall claimed to be the victim of a political hit executed by an outlet known to be partial to the Coalition. Crossbench MP Zali Steggall at Parliament House on Tuesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The government  are under challenge for their climate record in a number of seats where independents are challenging them  so, they are challenging them, pulling out the dirty tricks and the misleading headlines with friendly papers, Steggall said on The Project in footage which ended up on the cutting room floor. How fortunate we at CBD are here to bring you other media outlets offcuts. And how very dare you, Zali.

Loading The claim left the production room and Project host Steve Price slack-jawed and incredulous. And true to form, the pugnacious Price  who also doubles as a Herald Sun columnist  wasnt prepared to let the claim go unchallenged. Friendly newspapers? he shot back. Youve got to be kidding. It was in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, who both supported you editorially at the last election against Tony Abbott. On Tuesday, Price still hadnt quite recovered from Steggalls breathtaking revisionist history. If she was accusing the Hun [Herald Sun] or the Tele [The Daily Telegraph] for being likely aligned [to the government] then I would have copped it, but I thought it was a bit rich she was suggesting The Age and the Herald were leaning more one way than another when the Herald had been reasonably supportive of her challenge against Abbott.
The first Immediate Response Team member to testify in Constable Zachary Rolfes murder trial has told the jury he cannot recall seeing a plan devised by superiors for the high-risk arrest of Kumanjayi Walker before the squad was deployed.

It was during this deployment, about 15 minutes after the IRT left the Yuendumu police station in the Northern Territory, that Constable Rolfe shot Mr Walker three times after the latter stabbed him in the shoulder with scissors.

Constable James Kirstenfeldt leaves court in Darwin on Tuesday. Credit:Zach Hope

The Warlpiri teenager died more than an hour later in the police station, as angry community members gathered outside the compound and threw stones, the Northern Territory Supreme Court heard on Monday.

Constable James Kirstenfeldt, who had been part of the IRT for more than a year in November 2019 when the shooting occurred, recalled it was suggested that Mr Walker would be arrested early the following morning, but believed this was because members would be clocking on for their shifts at that time.
The new science of pain We grow up with this idea that if my knee bleeds a little bit, Ill have a bit of pain. And if our body has been damaged more, well have more pain. We often grow up thinking pain is in proportion to damage, says Dr Joshua Pate, a pain scientist at the University of Technology Sydney. But the new science of pain says that is not true. Pain is a feeling from our brain, after it decides there is a threat, that we need to do something  pull our hand from the fire, run away from the tiger. Most surprisingly, there is little relationship between the amount of damage to the tissue and the amount of pain you feel  which explains both why people can be in pain without anything physical being wrong, and why paper cuts hurt so much. Pain is generated by the brain, the new science says, and is based on many different pieces of data, not just messages from the nerves.

Pain is a perception not a sensation, Professor Mick Thacker, a world-leading expert on pain at London Southbank University, told Dr Pate on his pain-science podcast. What were really saying is circumstances, expectation, anticipation, a threat which might not be physical, could be actually enough to set prediction that a set of circumstances are likely to result in this experience of this thing that we call pain. A bee sting, for example, can start off as an odd little pain  thats the information from the nerves  but then really kicks up when you look around and see the bee. The brain is integrating the two different types of data to make you go ouch. And its not just those two types of data that create pain. How we feel, how stressed we are, our memories of pain, all seem to play a role. People with back pain, for example, often think the pain is a sign their spines are crumbling, their discs slipping out like Jenga bricks. Those fears are integrated as information, and can prompt the brain to turn up the dial on pain even higher. The evidence I find most compelling comes from Lorimer Moseleys experiments. Moseley, a professor at the University of South Australia and himself a world-leading pain expert, gathered volunteers and placed a frozen rod on their hand for half a second  long enough to hurt, not long enough to damage anything. As they touched the rod, Moseley cued his volunteers with the colours red or blue.

People who got the red cue thought the rod was warm. Those who got the blue cue thought it was cold. And people who got the red cue found it substantially more painful. Pain, this experiment demonstrates, is the result of the integration of multiple different sources of information. Sole survivor The new science of pain, I think, is really hopeful because it suggests that by retraining our brain and nervous system, by thinking about pain differently, we can really change our pain experience. The best example Ive come across so far is Hayley Leake. Leake is a pain scientist at the University of South Australia. She is also the winner of Australian Survivor 2021.

Have a look at this  showing the final challenge for the contestants: basically a torture chamber set in the middle of the desert. To win, contestants had to stand on a series of 24 small pegs, some as tiny as a Coca-Cola bottle lid, while hanging from pegs on a raised platform  for hours. Leake won after her opponent dropped out five hours into the contest. Oh, and the longer it went on, the lower the top of the cage became, so by the end Leake was half-squatting on the pegs. Torture. But watching the clips of her win, it looked to me like she probably could have gone longer. Her secret (apart from tremendous mental and physical fortitude): pain science. Leake knew from her research that the pain she was enduring did not mean she was damaging her body in any permanent way. She was confident that when the challenge finished, shed be feeling fine again after about 10 minutes. The pain was just an unpleasant feeling  one she could safely ignore.
A lot of people are coming out of the woodwork claiming to be Aboriginal, Mr Caroll, a Wiradjuri man, said. I know of people here in Sydney who havent grown up Aboriginal and all of a sudden, their kids are identifying as Aboriginal. They are attending the schools, getting the jobs and taking away opportunities from people who have grown up Aboriginal ... Its a growing problem. It has to be about more than ticking a box on a form. Its about maintaining a pride in being Aboriginal and being a part of the community. Actor Luke Carroll Since the 1980s the federal government has used a three-part definition of Aboriginality that requires a person to be of Aboriginal descent, to identify as Aboriginal and to be accepted as such by the community in which they live. However, there is a divide among Aboriginal Australians about the importance of growing up in culture and identifying as Aboriginal early in life.

Mr Carroll acknowledged that the removal of Aboriginal children during the Stolen Generations meant some people only discover Aboriginal heritage later in life. He said he welcomed people connecting with their Aboriginality but added: It has to be about more than ticking a box on a form. Its about maintaining a pride in being Aboriginal and being a part of the community. We dont want you to find out youre Aboriginal then disappear again. Playwright Nathan Maynards latest production explores the vexed topic of Aboriginal identity. Mr Maynard, previously named Tasmanian Aboriginal Artist of the Year, said some people come to identify as Aboriginal because they genuinely believe they have Aboriginal ancestry while others base it on a feeling of connection to Aboriginal people. We are in vogue at the moment, Mr Maynard says. Were trendier than smashed avocado on toast. In this world, people want to have something special about them and they see being Aboriginal as a point of difference.

He said some people are motivated to claim Aboriginality for monetary reasons, including gaining access to Indigenous-specific scholarships and job opportunities. Another worrying trend weve encountered with the people who have recently identified without a proven connection is a desire to speak on our behalf, he said. This is dangerous for us as these people dont know our traumas, they dont know the issues we face, they dont know whats important to us and they dont have a connection to country like we do. Following the runaway success of his book Dark Emu, a debate erupted among Aboriginal leaders about whether author Bruce Pascoe could rightfully claim to be Aboriginal. Pascoe grew up as white but later said he had identified Aboriginal ancestors on both sides of his family. Michael Mansell, the chair of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, called on Pascoe to stop claiming Aboriginality while University of Melbourne academic Marcia Langton defended his right to identification.

The issue is especially intense in Tasmania, where the number of people self-identifying as Aboriginal has increased from just 36 in 1966 to an estimated 23, 572 last year. In a report last year commissioned by Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein on potential pathways to a treaty, professors Kate Warner and Tim McCormack said it was important to first clarify the vexed issue of who can claim Aboriginality. Indigenous leaders have disagreed about whether historian Bruce Pascoe can rightfully claim to be Aboriginal. Credit:Justin McManus There is palpable resentment, anger and frustration among many Aboriginal people about the burgeoning numbers of Tasmanians claiming Aboriginality and of allegations of government facilitation of this phenomenon, the report said. In 2016, the Tasmanian government made it easier for people to access Indigenous-specific services by removing a requirement for documentary evidence of Aboriginal descent, a move Mr Maynard and others strongly opposed.

This issue around identity is a result of the government not letting respective Aboriginal mobs determine who belongs to their communities, he said. When were distracted fighting for control of our identity, were not fighting for our other rights like land rights and treaties. Loading Victoria Grieve-Williams, an Aboriginal historian at RMIT University, described race shifting as an urban phenomenon to do with celebrity, promoted by the media, primarily happening in south-east Australia. Its an issue in universities, its an issue in the public service, she said. Its glamorous to be Aboriginal now, it opens doors for you and that wasnt the case when I was growing up. Dr Grieve-Williams, a Warraimay woman, said universities had a financial incentive to accept students claims of Aboriginality at face value given they receive extra funding for enrolling Indigenous students.
A man is dead and two police officers are seriously injured after a van, believed to have been travelling at high speed, and an unmarked police car collided in country Victoria.

Victoria Police said the vehicles crashed on the Murray Valley Highway at the intersection of Stokes Road at Strathmerton in the states far north about midday.

The driver of the van, who was its sole occupant, died at the scene and has not yet been formally identified.

Two police officers  a first constable and a detective sergeant from Cobram  were treated at the scene by Ambulance Victoria before being transported to hospital.
A woman has died in hospital after she was allegedly assaulted by two other women at a service station in Melbournes south-east last week.

Victoria Police were called to the 7-Eleven store at the corner of Hawthorn Road and Pyne Street in Caulfield about 10.15am last Thursday following reports of an assault.

Upon arrival, investigators were told a woman had poured coffee over a 52-year-old woman and assaulted her before fleeing the area.

Emergency services rushed to the scene about 10.20am and took the 52-year-old to the Alfred hospital, where she died from her injuries overnight on Tuesday.
The rules for international students trying to get into Western Australia have changed again with the state government announcing up to 6000 people enrolled to study will be allowed in to attend universities and other schools after being blocked previously due to COVID-19 restrictions.

An information sheet for international students was uploaded before an announcement was made later on Tuesday detailing their pathway into the state. The fact sheet says the change would come into effect on February 14.

More international students will be allowed back into WA with further changes to border controls. Credit:Erin Jonasson

Both new and returning students enrolled in primary school, secondary school, a university or college will be eligible under the scheme.

They will be able to enter WA either directly through Perth within the Australian governments capacity limits for international travellers or through another state.
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on September 18, 1945

The language and the manner of reporting in this article reflects prevailing attitudes of the media at the time, and it has not been edited or revised.

EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF MASSACRE

Nurses Horrible Experiences

From Our War Correspondents, T. L. Goodman and G. E. W. Harriott

SINGAPORE, Sept. 17.No story of Japanese atrocities could surpass in horror that which began with the massacre of 21 Australian nurses on the beach of Banka Island (near Java) on February 16, 1942, and ended with the rescue of 24 survivors from a prison camp in Sumatra yesterday.
Hope was raised in Moscow of avoiding conflict after Vladimir Putin appeared to consent to his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, continuing with diplomatic talks. Russia also said it was ending its military drills on the Ukrainian border. In what could be another sign that the Kremlin would like to lower the temperature, Russias Defence Ministry announced on Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases. It wasnt immediately clear where exactly these troops were deployed or how many were leaving  and the news came a day after Western officials said some forces and military hardware were moving toward the border, muddying the picture. NATO said it had yet to see any sign of de-escalation on the ground. In a televised meeting, Lavrov indicated his desire to press on with negotiations over security guarantees from the West. I believe that our possibilities are far from exhausted. I would propose continuing and intensifying them, he said. The President replied: Good.

Western officials believe Russia has now amassed 100 battalion tactical groups near Ukraines border, up from 83 last week, with another 14 on the way. More than 60 per cent of Russias ground combat power and half its air force has been mobilised, in the biggest buildup of military force in Europe since the end of the Cold War. It is sufficient military force to mount a large-scale operation at a moments notice, Western states believe. It is thought that if Putin launches an invasion, there would likely be multiple angles of attack. In addition to a potential assault on the capital, Russian forces would be expected to try to encircle Ukrainian troops based in the east of the country.

Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, was travelling to Moscow for talks with Putin on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT). Also heading to Moscow is Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro, although he wants to talk trade with Putin, not war. Zelenskys warning about an imminent Russian invasion was later said to be an attempt to mock Western intelligence briefings that had marked Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) as the day for an incursion. They are scaring us with a big war and once again setting the date for a military invasion ... We clearly know where the foreign army is near our borders, its numbers, its locations, its equipment and its plans. We have something to oppose. We have a wonderful army.

The Ukrainian President urged his countrymen who had left to return to their homeland within 24 hours and stand side by side with the Ukrainian army, diplomacy and people. Ending his statement with what appeared to be a rallying cry, he declared: We are calm. We are strong. We are together. Great people - a great country. Mykhailo Podoliak, a presidential adviser, later said that Zelensky was being ironic. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would offer a loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to Ukraine to help bolster its economic stability in the face of Russias destabilising behaviour. Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will go to the NATO defence ministerial in Brussels this week, and will also visit Poland and Lithuania, neighbours to Ukraine.

CBS News reported that Russia had moved some long-range artillery and rocket launchers into firing positions. Citing a US official, it said some Russian forces had moved from their assembly areas, and were beginning to head into attack positions. Asked about it, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said: I would like to refrain from getting into specific movements. He [Putin] is doing all the things you would expect him to do to be ready for that option, if one was planning on a major military action. He added: We still dont believe some final decision has been made. It is entirely possible he could move with little to no warning. Disclosing that the US was continuing to see indications in the intelligence that Moscow was considering a false flag operation to justify an invasion, the Pentagon spokesman also warned that Chinas tacit support for Russia over Ukraine was deeply alarming.
In Michigan, a mom has denied being responsible for the murder of her child, who was believed to have been starved to death in 2020, a plea deal that may have resulted in a 10-year term was rejected by the 29-year-old defendant, who subsequently fired her court-appointed lawyer after claiming innocence.

Shantavia Hayden pleaded not guilty to one count of second-degree murder in the death of her 3-month-old baby, Amira Hayden, in Macomb County Circuit Court on Thursday, according to the Macomb Daily.

Mom Rejects Guilty Plea in Daughter's Death

Hayden filed a not guilty plea during a pre-trial Zoom hearing before District Judge James Biernat, during which time she reportedly expressed her displeasure with Randy Rodnick, her court-appointed defense counsel. According to Rodnick, who stood in person for the hearing, attorneys from the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office had approached him with a possible plea deal in which Hayden would be sentenced to 10 years in prison if she pleaded guilty.

Hayden reportedly expressed her dissatisfaction with the offer, telling Judge Biernat that pleading guilty was "out of the question." Hayden's dissatisfaction with the prosecutors' proposed plea deal grew, and she eventually told the court that she wanted Rodnick fired and a new defense attorney assigned to her upcoming murder trial.

Judge Biernat allegedly "reluctantly" decided to allow Hayden to replace Rodnick with a public defender from the county office after meeting with Rodnick and Assistant Macomb County Prosecutor Colleen Warden. Judge Biernat also pushed up the start of the trial from March 1 to May 3 to give the potential substitute defense counsel time to brush up on the grisly specifics of Hayden's case.

Read Also: Australia: Lovable Koala Bears Now Endangered Because of Land Clearing, Bushfires, Drought

Another Michigan Mom Blames Spongebob for Urging Her To Kill Daughter

Meanwhile, a Michigan mom whose 3-year-old daughter was discovered dead in a garbage bag told authorities that Spongebob instructed her to murder the kid or face death herself. On Sept. 16, two days after the child's third birthday, Justine Johnson, 22, reportedly stabbed Sutton Mosser numerous times before placing her body into a black garbage bag because she was hallucinating due to weeks of heroin withdrawal and lack of sleep.

She's been charged with first-degree child abuse and criminal homicide. During the preliminary hearing into the case on Friday, Ryan Eberline, a Child Protective Services investigator, testified. On the day of Sutton's death, according to MLive, Johnson told Eberline that she had left her mother's Oscoda Township home and passed out in a graveyard on the day she was slain.

After that, she said, she went back to her mother's house and tried to commit herself before killing her daughter. MLive said that Johnson sobbed as she was carried into the courthouse in chains and cried throughout the proceedings. Knesley Johnson Jr., Johnson's brother, was brought to testify as to the prosecution's first witness.

Knesley Johnson stated that he had left for work about 2:30 p.m., on Sept. 16 and that he hadn't seen his sister or niece since he'd left. On Sept. 17, about 3:30 am, he asked his brother where his sister and Sutton were when he got home from work. Johnson said that when the 17-year-old brother walked to the rear of the house to look for them, he stated he spotted a human child's foot protruding out of a bag.

On Friday, the brother, who was not identified owing to his age, testified as well. In the toilet at 6 a.m., on Sept. 16, he bumped across his sister, whom he claimed appeared as if Johnson had been "doing lines" of cocaine, but he wasn't sure. According to the adolescent, he asked about Sutton's whereabouts. Justine Johnson left the house shortly after the incident to approach a red car that had stopped at a business across the street, according to the brother.

Afterward, he stated that she went out again but came home shortly after. In the evening, he went to the beach and came home at 10 p.m., saying that no one was home, Law & Crime reported.

Related Article: Minneapolis School Bus Driver Shot in Head in Front of Students While Driving Children Home

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London: It was not the most obvious place for a game-changing royal reunion. The all-American Super Bowl, with its celebrity spectators, eye-popping cheerleaders and half-time show of hip-hop anthems, is a world away from their usual family outings to church or to their grandmothers castle for tea.

Princess Eugenie and Prince Harry at the Super Bowl. Credit:Instagram

But there, in the VIP section, were Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie.

In face masks, lanyards and a baseball cap, they could at first glance have been anyone; picked up by the cameras as they stared straight ahead to speak casually and comfortably, as only cousins who have grown up together in their most unusual of circumstances can.

What they were talking about is anyones guess, but the message their surprise appearance sent to those back home was unmistakable.
Automaker Renault on Tuesday said its sub-four metre compact SUV Kiger has received four-star safety rating for adult occupant safety by Global NCAP, the foremost global car assessment programme.

Five stars indicates the highest score while zero star rating points to the minimum score during the vehicle crash test.

"Safety is of paramount importance for Renault and all our products meet and exceed the requisite safety standards set by Indian regulatory authorities.

"Kiger combines the best Renault has to offer: our expertise in innovative cars and in-depth knowledge of customer needs," Operations Country CEO and Managing Director Venkatram Mamillapalle said in a statement.

The four-star rating by GNCAP reiterates the company's commitment to bringing technologically advanced products which are safe yet trendy, he added.

"Our GNCAP achievements on both Kiger and Triber are a testament to our strong commitment towards offering products that can deliver the highest global standards of safety, accessible to Indian customers, Mamillapalle stated.

Following its successful global launch in early 2021 in India, has initiated Kiger exports to Nepal and South Africa.

As per Global NCAP, the Kiger was tested in its most basic safety spec fitted with two frontal airbags and ABS.

Last year, the company's Triber had received four-star adult safety rating.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
will set aside $1.5 billion for probes into bribery and market manipulation, which it expects to resolve in 2022, it said on Tuesday, as it announced record earnings from booming raw materials prices.

It also promised a $4-billion payout to its investors and said the trading division could benefit from further disruptions to commodity markets, including from tension between Russia and Ukraine.

The company, one of the worlds biggest miners and commodity traders, faces investigations in Brazil, Britain and the United States following corruption allegations relating to some of its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Venezuela since 2018.

We recognise there has been misconduct in this company historically. We've worked hard to correct that, CEO Gary Nagle told reporters. also faces separate corruption and bribery investigations by Swiss and Dutch authorities.

In preliminary 2021 results, said it cut net debt to $6 billion at the end of 2021 from $15.8 billion a year earlier.

The firm has sold out of Russneft, capping two decades of investments which saw the Swiss commodities firm trading millions of barrels of the Russian groups oil even as it witnessed some of Russias top corporate and political battles.

The sale, which has been years in the works since Glencore saw a top management reshuffle, was executed in December 2021 and will close in the first half of 2022 pending regulatory approvals.
Mexican consumer payments major UnDosTres emerged as the largest recruiter even as fintech firms rolled out maximum number of offers in cluster three of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A)'s final placement process.

Placing the PGP Class of 2022, the third cluster of the recruitment process comprised eight cohorts including analytics & IT consulting, banking insurance, consumer tech, core manufacturing & infrastructure, enterprises tech, financial services, fintech and government enterprises. follows a cluster system of final placements process where sectors are invited in cohorts at regular intervals.

The third and the last cluster of the process saw 50 per cent of offers being international even as many new recruiters participated this year including Garena, Eightfold.ai and H & R Johnson (Prism Johnson Limited).

In the previous two clusters, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Accenture Strategy Tata Administrative Services (TAS) and Emaar were the top recruiters in Cluster 1 and 2. In the first cluster, BCG made the highest number of offers (47) including pre-placement offers (PPOs), while Accenture Strategy was the largest recruiter with 32 offers across two roles.

Having concluded the placement process for its PGP and Post-Graduate Programme in Food & Agribusiness Management (PGP-FABM), IIM-A which follows the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS), will later release a detailed audited report.

The PGP-FABM program saw 46 students getting placed with roles from sectors like agri consulting, agro-chemicals, commodities, food supply chain, food industry, e-commerce, and FMCG retail, among others.

The placement process for PGP-FABM witnessed regular recruiters such as KPMG, PwC, Grant Thornton, Reliance Industries, P&G, RB, Nestle, Olam International, CavinCare, Yum brands, McCain, Amul, FMC, Udaan, Purplle, UPL, and ETG.

Meanwhile, new recruiters to participated in the process including Deloitte, Accenture, TVS Credit, Absolute foods, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Mitsui & Co. Ltd, Trident group, Zepto, Waycool, Justdial, Arya.Ag, and Thermo fisher, among others.
Any additional fund infusion by LIC in its associate, IDBI Bank, may have an adverse effect on the financial condition of the insurance behemoth, according to the recently filed draft prospectus.

LIC had infused Rs 4,743 crore into on October 23, 2019 using policyholders' funds while the bank further raised Rs 1,435.1 crore on December 19, 2020 by way of a qualified institutional placement (QIP).

has come out of the prompt corrective action framework since March 10, 2021, subject to compliance with certain conditions and continuous monitoring, as per the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) of state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

The government expects to mobilise about Rs 63,000 crore from the proposed Offer-for-Sale (OFS) to meet the lower disinvestment target of Rs 78,000 crore for the current financial year.

"In light of its financial condition and results of operations, we believe that does not need to raise further capital at this time. However, if IDBI Bank requires additional capital prior to the expiry of the applicable five-year period and it is unable to raise capital, we would be required to infuse additional funds into IDBI Bank, which may have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations," as per the DRHP.

The five-year period would end in November 2023, as LIC got the approval letter from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on November 2, 2018 to acquire the additional equity shares in IDBI Bank.

IDBI Bank became a subsidiary of LIC with effect from January 21, 2019 following the acquisition of an additional 827,590,885 equity shares in IDBI Bank, which resulted in the life insurer owning 51 per cent of the outstanding shares in the bank.

On December 19, 2020, IDBI Bank was reclassified as an associate company due to the reduction of LIC shareholding to 49.24 per cent following the issuance of additional equity shares by IDBI Bank in a qualified institutional placement.

"Additionally, the RBI in its Approval Letter has stipulated that either IDBI Bank or LIC Housing Finance Limited, our Associates, will have to cease conducting housing finance activity within a period of five years from the date of the Approval Letter and that housing finance activity shall be conducted only by one entity," it said.

The impact of complying with this requirement of the RBI may have an adverse effect on the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, it said.

With regard to surplus distribution, it said, the surplus in respect of the participating fund will be allocated between policyholders and shareholders in the ratio of 95:5 for fiscal 2022; 92.5:7.5 for each of fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024 and then 90:10 from fiscal 2025 onwards.

Till September 2021, surplus distribution for participating funds between policyholders and shareholders in the ratio of 95:5.

(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.)
IPO: In a breather to IPO-bound Oyo, the rejected Zostel's plea claiming 7 per cent shareholding in .

The Softbank-backed has been in a legal tussle with Zo Rooms after the latter filed a case in the Delhi HC last year to restrain Oyo from going for a listing. The root of the dispute between the two parties lies in a failed buyout deal 6 years ago, which Zostel claims was binding on Oyo.

Other than transfering 7 per cent shareholding to an escrow account, the HC also rejected the plea seeking Oyo altering shareholding pattern by IPO or other fundraise.

The court said there was 'no fruit' to protect under section 9. The HC also asked why Zostel had not focussed on taking steps towards 'specific performance' of term sheets as mentioned in the arbitration order.

In a statement Oyo said: "While we await for the full order, we believe that Zostel's demand for issuance of 7 per cent share of Oyo under the arbitration award has been rejected. This verdict vindicates our stand that Zostel has been trying to mislead the public at large."



Also read: IPO-bound OYO gets in-principle listing approval from BSE, NSE

Meanwhile, media reports said that Zostel will evaluate other legal options including filing an appeal before the division bench.

Oravel Stays, the parent company of Oyo, has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in September last year and has been in the process of responding to the questions and clarifications sought by the regulators.

It recently received in-principle approval from BSE and NSE to list on the respective bourses, said reports.
Ltds (RFL) debt restructuring has hit a hurdle after the Reserve Bank of India informed that the plan cant proceed with Ltd continuing as promoter since RFL exposure is treated as fraud.

in a filing with the BSE said that RFL had represented to RBI regarding wrongful classification of it's account as fraud. RFL is in the process of taking suitable measures in this regard.



ALSO READ: Religare Finvest debt recast at final stages; NBFC to reboot in January

According to India Ratings on RFL, there have been continued delays in debt servicing due to its stretched liquidity situation, along with a strained funding profile. Loans to RFL carry a D rating. The company is still under the corrective action plan as advised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since January 2018.

Rashmi Saluja Chairperson, REL and CMD, RFL in a statement said has itself been victim of fraud perpetuated by its erstwhile promoters and management.

The legal and corrective actions have already been initiated. RFL was hopeful that they would be able to get this fraud tagging by lenders removed at the earliest for successful implementation of Debt Restructuring Plan with REL continuing as its promoter, Saluja said.

Earlier, the debt resolution plan was proposed with TCG Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd. as the investor. However, the RBI did not approve of this request for a change in RFLs control in favour of TCG Advisory Services.

RFL is a non-bank finance company primarily providing loans to small and medium enterprises. RFL had total assets worth Rs 54.04 billion at end-March 2020.
The has granted the option to seek from the permission to continue proceedings at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on its deal with the Reliance Industries group.

It also asked the high court to give orders uninfluenced by any observations of the . Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli heard the case.

Meanwhile, the high court has listed the hearing of four cases in the legal battle between Future Group and e-commerce major Amazon on February 24. The court will hear Future Retails plea, along with four other cases.

The four are the Singapore International Arbitration Centres (SIACs) emergency award, which stalled Future Groups deal with Reliance Retail, and the SIACs tribunal order, which upheld the emergency award.

There is also Amazons case of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issuing summons to it on violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act while investing in Future Coupons in 2019. Also Amazon had challenged the high courts observations in its order in December 2020.

The direction of the to send the matter to the high court is based on the reasoning that principles of natural justice were not adhered to when the order was passed. Both parties will have to be heard and new orders are required to be passed after giving a proper opportunity of hearing. But the high court is free to decide the case on its own merit after considering the evidence and the legal principles, said Ashish K Singh, managing partner, Capstone Legal.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on February 25 will hear Amazons plea seeking an interim stay on the order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which suspended the more than two-year-old approval of its deal with Future Coupons (FCPL).

The legal battle between Future Group and Amazon started in October 2020 after the former decided to sell its retail, logistics, and warehousing businesses to Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. The move by Amazon comes because in August 2019, the US e-commerce major acquired a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons, the promoter entity of Future Retail, for about Rs 1,500 crore.

After the Future-Reliance deal, Amazon approached the SIAC in October 2020 and an emergency arbitration interim order was passed, upholding the position of Amazon. The order directed the Future Group entities not to proceed with the transactions with Reliance Retail.

In November 2020, Future Group challenged the SIACs interim order at the and in February 2021, a single-judge Bench order upheld the SIACs interim order. Future Group then filed an appeal at the before a Divisional Bench, challenging the single-judge Bench order. The Divisional Bench stayed the single-judge Benchs order.

In February 2021, Amazon moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Divisional Bench order, and Future Group moved the NCLT Mumbai to seek approvals to go ahead with its deal with Reliance Retail.

In March 2021, the Delhi High Court passed an order to attach Future Groups assets. A Divisional Bench stayed it.

In August 2021, the apex court had ruled in favour of Amazon, holding the SIACs arbitration award. In September 2021, in a major relief to Future Group, the Supreme Court stayed proceedings before Delhi High Court, ordering no coercive action against the Kishore Biyani-led group. The court also directed the NCLT, CCI, and Securities and Exchange Board of India not to pass any final order in relation to the dispute for four weeks.

In October 2021, the SIAC tribunal upheld the emergency arbitration interim order, thereby injuncting from taking any steps to merge itself with Reliance Retail. Future Group then approached the Delhi High Court but a single-judge Bench refused to stay the arbitral tribunal order.

In December 2021, the CCI suspended Amazons 2019 deal with Future Coupons and imposed a penalty of Rs 202 crore on it.

In January this year, a single-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court passed an order dismissing Future Groups plea to stop arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon in Singapore. But a Divisional Bench of the court ordered a stay on the Amazon-Future arbitration going on before a three-member arbitral tribunal.

In February, the Supreme Court set aside verdicts of a single-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court which ordered strong steps against Future Group and also the order which refused to stay the Singapore tribunals refusal to vacate the emergency award. The Supreme Court sent the matter to the Delhi High Court.

In February, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against its lenders, seeking to restrain them from classifying it as a non-performing asset. On February 4, Future Group sought two weeks to come up with a solution with the lenders.
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The crew of a Chinese naval formation delivering relief supplies to Tonga has expressed solidarity with the disaster-hit nation through good wishes and supporting messages as the ships came close to their destination.

Departing from a port in south China's Guangzhou on January 31, the two navy vessels  comprehensive supply ship Chaganhu and landing ship Wuzhishan, are taking over 1,400 tons of aid supplies, including mobile shelters, tractors, generators, water pumps and purifiers, emergency food and medical equipment to Tonga. The supplies will help with the country's recovery from the impact of the undersea volcano eruption that devastated the island in January.
The decision by President Joe Biden's administration to seize $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan funds and distribute it to legal proceedings pursued by relatives of those killed in the 9/11 attacks has sparked outrage across Afghan society, threatening to turn the country and its ruling Taliban-led government into enemies once more.

Unless Washington changes its decision to freeze some of Afghanistan's assets as compensation for victims of the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban have declared that Afghanistan would be compelled to reevaluate its attitude toward the US.

Biden Unfreezes Afghan Funds for In-Country Relief, 9/11 Victims

Last week, US President Joe Biden confiscated $7 billion in assets belonging to the former Afghan government, to divide the monies between victims of the 9/11 attacks on the US and badly needed help for Afghanistan's post-war reconstruction. The seizure sparked outrage among the country's new Taliban officials, who described it as a "theft" and a symbol of the United States' "moral degeneration."

Hundreds of millions of dollars were at risk in Biden's remarkable move, as the contradictory, highly sensitive concerns of a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the struggle for recognition by the Taliban, and the drive for justice by families affected by the 9/11 atrocities collided.

Since last year's Taliban takeover, the money has been stranded in the New York Federal Reserve, according to a US official, partly due to foreign funding provided to bolster the now-defunct Western-backed Afghan government. No other country has recognized the Taliban-appointed government, which fought US-led forces for 20 years and now controls the whole country, mostly due to its human rights record, SBS News reported.

Read Also: Putin Does Not Want Conflict as the US Will Only Benefit From It

Taliban Call on Biden To Reverse Move

Protests erupted in Kabul, where the Taliban has been leading an interim government since the United States ended its two-decade war in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks last year. Despite its tumultuous relationship with the United States, the newly constituted Islamic Emirate has sought international recognition and has so far signaled a desire for amicable relations with Washington.

According to Al-Hanafi Wardak, a well-known Taliban member, this might change. He refused to mention the victims of the 9/11 attacks carried out by non-Afghan members of the then-Afghanistan-based Al-Qaeda terrorist group "since it has nothing to do with Afghans," but expressed scorn for the choice by the United States.

Efforts are being made to ensure that "no benefit goes directly to the Taliban," and that a trust fund to handle the assets is being established, as well as discussions about which civil actors in Afghanistan will receive the funds in the end. Given the group's status as the country's de facto ruler, Wardak was outraged by the decision. Under the DAB, he said, these monies were "not for the everyday needs of Afghans," but rather for state-related activities.

While the United States has continued to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan's approximately 40 million people, Wardak believes the choice would only exacerbate the country's problems. The Taliban's economic crisis is deepening, exacerbated by a severe winter and a shortage of basic commodities, as per Newsweek via MSN.

If President Joe Biden does not alter his "unjustified" decision to return only half of Afghanistan's funds, the Taliban have threatened that they would reassess their approach toward the US. Mullah Yaqoob, the interim Afghan defense minister and son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, also called the decision "cruel" in an interview with RTA, the Afghan state media, The Straits Times reported.

Related Article: Biden Warns Putin of 'Swift and Severe" Consequences If Russia Attacks Ukraine; Moscow Still Open For Diplomacy

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The High Court, in its interim order last week restrained all the students from wearing saffron shawls, scarves, and any religious flag within the classroom.

High schools were reopened across the state on Monday, even as there were instances of students turning up in and burqa then, only to be denied entry or asked by officials to remove them, citing the High Court order.

On Tuesday, at a school in the district headquarters town of Shivamogga, a Burqa-wearing girl refused to write her exam when the school authorities asked her to remove her first.

"We have grown up wearing Hijab since our childhood and we cannot give it up. I will not write the exam and I will go home," the girl told reporters.

In a government school in Indavara village in Chikkamagaluru district, Muslim girls were not let inside the school and were asked to go back.

Soon, their parents reached the school and staged a protest. They barged into the campus, raised slogans and demanded that the order should be given to them in writing.

As the protest intensified, another student pulled out a saffron scarf from his school bag. On the direction of his teachers, he put it back inside.

Sensing the situation, the principal closed the school for the day.

Karnataka: Several students skip Class 10 preparatory exams at Public School in Shivamogga city



Hina Kausar, a student of the school, says, "I was asked to remove hijab before entering the school. I can't do it, so I chose not to appear in the exam." pic.twitter.com/T6oOPjpuYw  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

In another institution in Chikkamagaluru town, tension prevailed over denial of entry to the students with hijab. Parents swarmed the school and questioned the school authorities how their children were not allowed inside.

Policemen deployed there told the crowd that there was a High Court order not to let anyone wearing Hijab or saffron scarves but the parents were not ready to listen and insisted that their wards be allowed to write the exam.

In SVS School in the district headquarters town of Tumakuru, Muslim parents thronged its premises after their daughters were turned away for wearing hijab.

Subsequently, policemen rushed to the spot and made the parents and girls leave the school. They too cited the High Court order.

The full bench of the High Court, hearing the matter pertaining to the Hijab ban, had in its interim order restricted the entry of anyone wearing Hijab and saffron scarf till the final order.

Students from Udupi and Kundapura who had approached the court had said Hijab was an essential religious practice and questioned the government order of February 5 which prohibited any student from wearing cloth that can disturb peace, harmony and law and order.

The government order then came following tension in the schools and colleges over Hijab versus saffron scarves row.

On January 1, six girl students of a college in Udupi attended a press conference held by Campus Front of India (CFI) in the coastal town protesting against the college authorities denying them entry into the classroom wearing Hijab.

This was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear Hijabs in classes which was not allowed. Till then, students used to wear Hijab to the campus and entered the classroom after removing the scarves, the college principal Rudre Gowda had said.

"The institution did not have any rule on Hijab-wearing as such and no one used to wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the demand had the backing of outside forces," Gowda had said.

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A project to identify real-time sources of pollution in Delhi has moved one step closer towards operationalisation, Delhi Chief Minister said on Tuesday.

Control Committee (DPCC) and Environment Department of on Tuesday held the second review meeting of the project Real-time source apportionment study and pollution forecasting' with the team from and other partner organisations, the government said in a statement.

The project was approved by the Delhi cabinet and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in October last year.

A team of IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali will execute the study in the national capital. Delhi government's DPCC has been authorised to act as the nodal agency for executing the study with .

We are extremely glad that study is progressing well on time despite the occasional disruptions caused by Covid. I congratulate the team at IIT Kanpur and DPCC for setting up good programme management mechanisms to ensure timely progress, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said.

We look forward to receiving the results of the study in the next few months and Delhi becoming the first city to have a real time source apportionment of air pollution, he added.

The project will help understand the real-time impact of various pollution sources like vehicles, dust, biomass burning, stubble burning, and emissions from industries, according to the .

Based on the results obtained, the said it will be able to take necessary actions to curb the sources of pollution. This will go a long way in identifying the various factors contributing to Delhi's pollution and addressing those factors, it said.

According to Reena Gupta, advisor to the environment minister, the availability of pollution forecasting on an hourly basis for the next seven days will be extremely crucial for the government to take data-backed policy decisions around school closures, construction site ban, vehicular restrictions, among others.

Currently, due to the absence of a reliable forecasting system, we are bound to make decisions based on previous years' experience rather than the future forecast, Gupta said.

The key highlights presented by the IIT Kanpur team on Tuesday included successful contracting with IIT Delhi, TERI and other partners for their respective scope of work, the statement said.

Closure of tender process for purchase of equipment like real-time ambient air analyser and online particulate matter and ion analysis system, timely progress of global tender for purchase of advanced equipment, and progress on the development of the air pollution forecasting system to provide hourly, daily and weekly data on air pollution were among the highlights, it said.

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on Tuesday hit out at (OIC) for its "misleading" comments in the wake of the dress code row, and said issues are resolved in the country in accordance with its constitutional framework as well as democratic ethos.

External affairs ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said that the OIC continues to be "hijacked" by vested interests to further their nefarious propaganda against .

"Issues in are considered and resolved in accordance with our constitutional framework and mechanisms, as well as democratic ethos and polity," Bagchi said.

"The communal mindset of the OIC Secretariat does not allow for a proper appreciation of these realities. OIC continues to be hijacked by vested interests to further their nefarious propaganda against India," he added



"As a result, it has only harmed its own reputation," he said.

The spokesperson was replying to a query on the matter.

In the wake of the dress code row in certain schools in Karnataka, the OIC general secretariat asked India to ensure the safety, security and wellbeing of the Muslim community while protecting the way of life of its members.

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The High Court was on Wednesday urged to direct the government to allow students wearing the in classes as more students remained out in schools across the state, refusing to shun the head covering.

Teachers have also turned out students who came to attend classes with skull caps. Many students chose to be absent as hijab-wearing students were not allowed into schools.

A bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, and Justices Krishna S. Dixit and Khaji Jaibunnesa Mohiyuddin adjourned the hearing of petitions to Wednesday after hearing arguments and counter arguments for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Senior advocates Devdatt Kamat, Mohammad Tahir, and Ravi Varma Kumar presented their arguments in favor of girls demanding to wear hijab, while Advocate General Prabhuling Navadagi represented the government.

The petitioners submitted that since the colleges are being started from Wednesday, the bench must pass an order allowing Muslim students to wear while attending classes. They also quoted a judgment of the South African court, where a Tamil girl was not allowed to attend classes for wearing a nose ring. When it was questioned in the court, the student was allowed to attend classes, counsel submitted.

The petitioners also submitted that the government is yet to make guidelines on uniform, and without this, it is improper to make the uniform compulsory for students.

When one of the petitioners submitted that students with are not allowed in Urdu schools in the state, the Advocate General objected to lacing arguments without submitting an application before the court.

The bench asked counsel to submit an application in this regard.

The petitioners also argued that the government does not have supreme power of prohibition in the name of public order.

Meanwhile, 25 girl students of the Government School in Indavara of Chikkamaglur district boycotted exams as they were asked to take off their hijab. More than 20 students went back to home without attending school for the same reason in Nelya village of Madikeri district.

The school authorities of Sasvehalli near Honnali in Davanagere district had a difficult time as more than 20 boys came in skull caps to attend classes. The teachers had sent them back. They sat in front of the school along with girl students wearing hijab and demanded that they should be allowed inside classes with hijab and skull caps.

Majority of students at Urdu Girls School in Kalaburagi chose to remain absent from classes as the hijab was not allowed. Similar incidents have been reported from Gadag, Hassan, Yadgir, and Shivamogga districts.

Congress Deputy Leader in the Assembly U.T. Khader asked the state government to resolve the hijab issue as confusion continued in the state even after the intervention of the High Court and interim order on the matter was given.

"There is confusion regarding interim order. The primary and high school students think that the order is only for colleges. This will lead to ruining the education prospectus of students already hit by Covid crisis," he said.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy, meanwhile, said that the government would follow the high court orders in this regard.

This was the third day of hearing by the three-judge bench. Earlier, it was vehemently argued that the government can't deny fundamental rights of students in the pretext of managing law and order situations. Counsel for the petitioners also objected to the powers given to the College Development Committee to decide on uniforms.

The bench had also refused to restrain media from reporting the proceedings as one of the counsel demanded that it will have effect on the elections of other states.

The court had earlier given an interim order that no religious symbols are allowed for the students in schools and colleges until its final order, thus ruling out both hijab and saffron shawls in the school and college premises.

It did not accede to the vehement arguments of petitioners seeking orders to the government for allowing students to wear hijab of the colour of their uniform to classrooms.

The state government had resumed schools till Class 10 and Pre-University College (Classes 11 and 12) are opening from Wednesday.

The hijab row which started last month in Udupi Pre-University College by six girl students, has snowballed into a major crisis in the state and has been discussed at international levels too.

--IANS

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Ashish Mishra, son of union minister Ajay Mishra Teni, who was accused of mowing down four farmers in Lakhimpur on October 3 last year, following a protest by farmers, was released from Lakhimpur jail on Tuesday evening, after the corrected its order.

Ashish Mishra had moved the Lucknow bench of the High Court seeking insertion of sections 302 (murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC that were 'inadvertently' not mentioned in the high court order as the jail authorities would not release him due to the omission.

"It is a mere typographical error, while the court already considered the bail under these sections too and, as such, the same may be allowed making the addition of these sections in the order," said the application.

Ashish Mishra was arrested on October 9 last year by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing the incident.

"Ashish Mishra has been arrested as he was not cooperating during the interrogation and did not answer a few questions," DIG Upendra Agarwal had told reporters at the time of his arrest.

An FIR was registered against him and a few others over the incident, but the UP police did not move against him until the Supreme Court decided to take up the matter.

His arrest came a day after the apex court expressed its dissatisfaction with the UP government over the action taken in the case.

Ashish turned up for questioning the second time he was summoned, and after 12 hours the nine-member SIT headed by DIG Agarwal, arrested him.

It may be recalled that eight people were killed on October 3, 2021, after violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Four of the dead were farmers who were mowed down by a speeding SUV, belonging to Ashish Mishra. One journalist covering the incident was also killed in the incident.

MoS Home Ajay Mishra Teni arrives at the residence of his son Ashish Mishra to meet him.



Ashish walked out of jail today after being released on bail in connection with Lakhimpur Kheri violence case of . pic.twitter.com/M9azAOWuvW  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

Three BJP workers were killed in retaliatory violence.

The Special Investigation Team probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence incident has said that there was a planned conspiracy to murder protesting farmers.

Meanwhile, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesman, Rakesh Tikait, has said the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) will approach the Supreme Court over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence episode in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

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With an aim to further strengthen island and border security through space technology, the (MHA) is to soon hold a meeting with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to plug in gaps and to facilitate development of infrastructure in border island areas.

During the meeting, the MHA officials will discuss ways to have better border management to plug in security gaps by using at northern, eastern border and on island security as well, the sources further said.

There are several points on the border which is not fully fenced at northern border due to the hilly terrain and riverine belt in North and western border, while the 3,488 km long border with China is not properly demarcated and defined, the officials in the security set up said, adding that by using space technology, the security forces will have better eye on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

According to sources, high officials from border guarding forces such as BSF, ITBP and SSB will be participating in the meeting with the senior officials of the to explain the need for the required technology in border management.

Apart from keeping eyes on both hostile neighbours in the north and eastern theatres, the lack of a proper communication system in these difficult terrains, poses a challenge for the border guarding forces, the officials in the security forces said, adding that they are solely dependent on radio communication. The radio communication has its own limitations due to heights and inclement weather, however some forces use satellite telephones for communications but that also has chances of interception by the enemy forces.

On January 17, 2019, then Home Minister Rajnath Singh approved a report of a Task Force created by the MHA to identify areas for use of in improving Border Management. The Task Force headed by Joint Secretary (Border Management) and having members from BSF, Department of Space and Border Management Division consulted all stakeholders including Border Guarding Forces (BGFs), ISRO, National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) to finalise the report focusing on island development, border security, communication and navigation, GIS and Operational Planning System and the border infrastructure development.

The Task Force also recommended that the immediate need of the border guarding forces be met by procuring high resolution imagery and hiring of bandwidth for communications while would be launching a satellite for an exclusive use of the MHA.

The BSF was designated as lead agency for implementation of ground segment and network infrastructure including establishment of archival facilities. Deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in remote areas will also be coordinated by satellite communications, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)-based GPS will provide navigation facilities for operational parties in high altitude, remote and difficult borders and Maoist infested areas.

--IANS

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Chief Minister on Tuesday said he has tested positive for and has isolated himself.

The CM had contracted the viral infection earlier also in 2020 and he was then hospitalised for a few days.

On Tuesday, Chouhan in a Twitter post said, "I underwent the RT-PCR test for COVID-19 in which I tested positive. I have normal symptoms. I have isolated myself in accordance with the COVID-19 guidelines."



"I will carry out all upcoming works virtually. I will also participate virtually in a Ravidas Jayanti programme tomorrow, the CM tweeted in Hindi.

The government had last week withdrawn all COVID-19-related restrictions following a decline in cases of the viral infection in the state.

On Monday, the state reported 1,760 new cases of and four more fatalities, raising the infection tally to 10,27,651 and the death toll to 10,697, a health department official earlier said.

The COVID-19 positivity rate in MP dipped to 2.4 per cent on Monday from 2.9 per cent the previous day, the official said.

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Union Minister for tourism and culture G. Kishan Reddy on Tuesday challenged Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for a debate on the performance of the government during the last seven years.

Kishan Reddy said he was ready for an open debate with the chief minister at Gun Park in the presence of senior journalists.

Addressing a news conference here, the BJP leader took strong exception to KCR's allegation that the Modi government has done nothing in the last seven years. Claiming that the government has many achievements to its credit during the period, he said he was ready to prove this during the debate.

Kishan Reddy, who is a member of the Lok Sabha from Secunderabad, hit back at KCR for what he calls objectionable language against Prime Minister . He alleged that the Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief was spewing venom against the Prime Minister out of frustration. "The language used by KCR is unbecoming of a chief minister," he said.

On KCR's assertion that he will drive out the BJP from the country, the BJP leader remarked that no force on earth can do this. He said the BJP would continue to remain a strong political force even if it loses power tomorrow.

The central minister condemned KCR's statement demanding proof of surgical strikes carried out on Pakistan in 2016 after the terrorist attack on Army camp at Uri.

Kishan Reddy said the chief minister's remarks were detrimental to the security and integrity of the country. "He has insulted the martyrs, demoralized our brave Army and hurt the sentiments of families of those who made the supreme sacrifice," he said, adding that even Pakistan does not use such language.

He claimed that Pakistan and all the countries confirmed surgical strikes. He said even the terror group which was targetted admitted that they came under attack.

"We don't need KCR's certificate. There is no need to give proof to him. People know this," he said

The central minister dismissed KCR's allegation that there is communal disharmony in the country under Modi rule. He claimed that during the last seven years incidents of communal riots have come down while the activities of ISI and terror groups were under control.

Kishan Reddy alleged that KCR is frustrated due to the defeat of TRS in Huzurabad by-election and urged intellectuals and people to understand this. He said the TRS chief could not digest the defeat in the bypoll and hence was making baseless allegations against the BJP government.

The BJP leader said that the TRS leader does not like anybody criticising or questioning him. "He wants people to be his servants and continue his dynastic rule," Kishan Reddy said.

--IANS

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Farmer leader on Tuesday said the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) will approach the over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence episode in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra 'Teni', is a key accused in the case and the granted him bail on February 10. Ashish was expected to walk out of the jail on Tuesday.

Tikait, a prominent face of the farmers' stir and the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which is part of the SKM, also hit out at the BJP amid ongoing assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The whole country and whole world watched the most infamous Lakhimpur Kheri episode of Ajay Teni and Ashish Teni, who despite having committed a heinous crime gets bail within three months. Everybody is seeing that and he will walk out of jail today, Tikait told reporters, adding the SKM would approach the .

"So is such dictatorial government needed, or this type of system needed in which someone who mows down people under a vehicle walks out of jail within three months. How will they behave with the public in times to come? These are our issues that people need to understand, the farmer leader said.

He claimed there was a power outage during the online court hearing in the case when the prosecution was making its point but the whole point could not be kept before the court.

He further hit out at the BJP-led Centre and the UP government over issues related to the farming community and the youth while also slamming the saffron party for fighting the elections on communal agendas instead of working for development.

Lakhimpur Kheri, known for its sugarcane farming, has eight assembly constituencies of Gola Gokrannath, Dhaurahra, Sri Nagar, Lakhimpur, Mohammdi, Kasta, Palia and Nighasan.

All eight assembly seats, which were won by BJP candidates in 2017, will go to polls on February 23 in the fourth phase of assembly elections in UP.

Election results would be announced on March 10.

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Former Managing Director and CEO of moved a bail petition to on Tuesday in a Rs 466.51-crore money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The bail petition is listed for hearing before the bench of Justice MK Ohri on Wednesday.

Last month the trial court had refused to grant bail to Kapoor. The same court earlier had also dismissed the bail petition of businessman Gautam Thapar, promoter of Avantha Group.

Thapar bail plea is presently examined by the . Thapar was arrested by the ED in August last year and is currently in judicial custody.

The trial court in October last year, took cognizance of ED chargesheet (Prosecution Complaint) filed against Avantha group promoter Gautam Thapar involving Yes Bank's and several employees in connection with the money laundering case.

Court had said, "Hereby take cognizance of offence as there are sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused persons arraigned in the present complaint."

According to the ED, an FIR was registered against Gautam Thapar, Avantha Realty Ltd, Oyster Buildwell Pvt Ltd and others alleging criminal breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery for diversion or misappropriation of public money during the period 2017 to 2019.

Earlier, ED had told the Delhi Court that "Investigation revealed that approximately Rs 500.11 crores proceeds of crime, were laundered through Oyster Buildwell Pvt Ltd (OBPL), Jhabua Power Limited (JPL), Jhabua Power Investment Ltd. (JPIL), Avantha Power and Infrastructure Ltd (APIL), Avantha Realty Ltd (ARL), etc which are being controlled and beneficially owned directly or indirectly by Gautam Thapar.

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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made a historic visit to Bahrain on Monday evening in an attempt to promote cooperation and goodwill between the two nations.

Bennett's visit to the Western Asian country is scheduled to last 24 hours where he was greeted by Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani and Industry, Commerce, and Tourism Minister Zayed Rashid Al-Zayani.

Historic Visit

Furthermore, the Israeli prime minister was set to personally meet King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bahrain's ruler, and Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the country's crown prince and prime minister. During an interview on the tarmac before departing for Bahrain, Bennett said his visit was an "exciting event."

The two leaders met in November last year on the sidelines of the COP26 climate conference held in Glasgow, Scotland. It was there that the crown prince invited Prime Minister Bennett to visit his country to talk.

According to the Times of Israel, Bennett's office said that the prime minister's meeting with Bahraini officials on Tuesday will revolve around deepening the bilateral relationship between Israel and Bahrain. The talks come after the signature of a normalization agreement in September 2020 that was part of the Abraham Accords.

The Israeli prime minister's administration released a statement that said Bennett will discuss additional ways to forge stronger ties with Bahrain, especially with the advancement of diplomatic and economic issues. Officials are looking to put an emphasis on technology and innovation.

Read Also: What Justin Trudeau's National Emergency Powers Can Do Amid Ongoing Trucker Protests, Blockade Response in Canada?

Bennett's trip to Bahrain comes amid rising tensions after missile attacks targeting the neighboring United Arab Emirates by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The Israeli prime minister added that the visit was meant to be a message of goodwill and portray a shared stance against common threats.

Recently, Israel has increased its cooperation efforts with the Gulf states, with Manama, the capital of Bahrain, hosting Israel's defense minister on Feb. 2. Israeli officials said that a military officer from the country will be posted in Bahrain as part of the two nations' international coalition, as per Aljazeera.

International Relations

Bennett's visit underscores the continued shifting of geopolitical priorities of some Arab leaders who have growing concerns over Iran's nuclear program. They are more interested in addressing the issue instead of finding a conclusion to the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Bahrain wields much less regional influence than the Emirates and is primarily an oil-producing island nation with roughly 1.5 million citizens. On the other hand, Saudi officials said that Saudi Arabia will not work on normalizing ties with Israel until peace is found between Israelis and Palestinians. But analysts said that Bahraini leaders would never act against Saudi officials' wishes.

Troops from Saudi Arabia helped the Bahraini royal family to defeat and stop an uprising during the Arab Spring in 2011. The incident threatened the power of the royal family and ended with the Saudi military's support still being a crucial system for the country.

When oil prices plummeted in 2018, Saudi Arabia joined the Emirates and Kuwait in bailing out the Bahraini economy. The Western Asian nation is also an ally of the United States and is home to the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, the New York Times reported.



Related Article: Hong Kong Forced To Ask China for Testing, Treatment, Quarantine Capacity Aid Amid Surging COVID-19 Cases

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The chaired by Prime Minister on Tuesday approved the setting up of a Secretariat which will be responsible for implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements needed for steering Indias upcoming Presidency.

is the premier forum of the 20 largest economies of the world for international economic cooperation that plays an important role in global economic governance. India will hold the Presidency of the G20 for the first time from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023, culminating with the in India in 2023. The country has been a member of the G20 since its inception in 1999.

As per the practice, the government is establishing a G20 Secretariat to handle work relating to knowledge, technical, media, security and logistical aspects of Indias G20 Presidency. It will be manned by officers and staff from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and other relevant line Ministries/Departments and domain knowledge experts. The Secretariat will be functional till February 2024, the Cabinet Secretariat said in a statement.

The Secretariat will be guided by an apex committee headed by Prime Minister Modi with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and G20 Sherpa Piyush Goyal to provide overall guidance to Indias G20 Presidency. Further, a coordination committee will also be set up to oversee all G20 preparations and report to the apex committee. The G20 Secretariat will enable long term capacity building, including knowledge and expertise, for Indias leadership on global issues in multilateral fora, the statement added.

India in December last year joined the G20 Troika which consists of Indonesia, Italy, and India - the current, previous and incoming G20 Presidencies, respectively. Indonesia has assumed the G20 Presidency and will convene various G20 meetings throughout 2022 culminating with the G20 Leaders Summit on 30-31 October 2022 under the overall theme of "Recover Together Recover Stronger. As a Troika-member, India will work closely with Indonesia and Italy to ensure consistency and continuity of the G20s agenda.

The India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) is currently redeveloping Pragati Maidan for setting up of a world class Integrated Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) at a cost of Rs 2254 crore that will host the .
Prime Minister on Wednesday will inaugurate The Energy and Resources Institute's (TERI) latest edition of the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) that will deliberate on the planetary resilience in wake of the multitude of extreme weather events across the globe in the recent years.

Curated on the theme 'Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future', the experts at the Summit will confer on a range of pressing issues from climate change, sustainable production and energy transitions to global commons and resource security, among others.

Apart from Modi's inaugural address, the keynote addresses will be delivered by President of the Republic of Guyana Dr Irfaan Ali and Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed. India's Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav will make the opening address.

The Summit would also see participation of Ministers for Environment from about a dozen countries, representatives from the United Nations, heads of inter-governmental organizations, and delegates from 126 countries, a statement from said.

"It is our conscious effort at creating a platform where stakeholders from across the world sit together to deliberate on solutions that are based on and green growth. is a pioneer in these areas and WSDS 2022 will play a crucial part in accentuating our role in providing technological, policy as well as knowledge solutions as India works towards realising the commitments made at COP26," Director General, TERI, Dr Vibha Dhawan said.

A high-profile ministerial session on sustainable consumption and production in developed countries will be attended by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the US, John Kerry as well as Ministers of Environment from France, Canada, Norway, Finland, France, Spain, and Germany. Other key speakers at the Summit that ends on February 18 include Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa, and Egypt's Minister of Environment Dr Yasmine Fouad and Maldives' Foreign Minister, Abdulla Shahid.

--IANS

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sales in January this year suffered due to the restrictions imposed by states to curb the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Retailers Association of India (RAI) said on Tuesday.

In its latest business survey, RAI said sales last month were at 91 per cent of the pre-pandemic sales levels of January 2019, as well as that of January 2020.

In terms of region, East zone witnessed the biggest drop last month with a 13 per cent decline, as compared to January 2019, followed by West at 11 per cent decline and North with a drop of 8 per cent.

South zone was the least impacted registering a 2 per cent decline, as compared to January 2019, RAI said.

Category wise, beauty, wellness and personal care was the worst hit with a drop of 24 per cent as compared to January 2019, followed by furniture and furnishing with a drop of 12 per cent and apparel and clothing registering a decline of 7 per cent.

However, the jewellery segment grew 11 per cent in January this year, as compared to the same month in 2019 and quick-service restaurants also witnessed a growth of 9 per cent.

RAI CEO Kumar Rajagopalan said most of the states across the country have allowed businesses to be open till late hours, as COVID-19 cases and hospitalisation rates decline steadily across the country.

However, he said Delhi and Haryana are still not allowing stores to be open till late, which is creating a big impact on businesses while not helping solve the crowding issue.

"We do hope that Delhi and Haryana take a leaf from states like Maharashtra and allow all formats of retail to be open till late and be in consonance with practices across the country to accelerate the return to normalcy," Rajagopalan said.

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from (SEZs) grew at a slower pace as compared to the growth of overall outbound shipments from the country during the first eight months of the current fiscal year, government data showed.

India exported goods and services worth $418.56 billion during April-November, up nearly 36 per cent as compared to a year earlier, while from witnessed a 31 per cent rise to $87.95 billion.

This is a reversal in trend in at least six years. SEZ comprised a fifth of Indias total exports during the same time period.

Growth in outbound shipments since the beginning of the fiscal year indicates that impact of the first wave of the pandemic has waned, and demand from the external market has picked up due to opening up of economies, some of which can also be attributed to pent-up demand.

A look into the details of SEZ exports this year show that software and service exports account for the lions share at 64 per cent followed by merchandise exports that comprises manufacturing.





Software and service exports grew 17 per cent, to $51.46 billion, while merchandise exports grew 62 per cent on year to $31.61 billion, signalling a recovery in manufacturing after a pandemic-induced recovery and some impact of a low base as well as commodity price increase.

Share of manufacturing exports from such zones continued to remain low, while software and services exports continued to shine and did not decline sharply despite the outbreak of the pandemic. Even in manufacturing, petrochemicals and gems and jewellery comprised more than 60 per cent of exports, according to industry estimates.

Several direct tax benefits that were provided to were withdrawn over a period of time. As a result, investments got affected due to policy instability. No one thought over a period of time, there were huge policy changes and this shook the confidence of investors. Manufacturing (sector) requires long-term investment, which is not the same in case of services, which has more natural advantages of cheap labour cost and well-trained professionals in India, According to Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi, director general of Export Promotion Council of EOUs and (EPCES).

It is at this backdrop that the government is working towards rewriting the SEZ legislation. The government wants to go beyond the export-oriented approach and use SEZ infrastructure for domestic industrial activities as well. The idea is to utilise large amounts of vacant land in these SEZs to boost economic activity in the country.

The SEZ Act was passed by Parliament in 2005, with export promotion as its main objective. Along with that, the idea was also to develop these zones as strategic instruments to encourage investments, create employment opportunities and develop quality infrastructure.

Even as the contribution of exports from special services economic zones (SEZs) to a countrys overall exports have performed decently over the last decade, apart from lack of income tax benefits, industry officials and experts pointed out that such zones were losing their appeal also due to infrastructure bottlenecks such as connectivity issues. There is also a need for rules to be compliant with World Trade Organization (WTO) norms.

In spite of a rapid rise in the number of such areas, on the request of private SEZ developers, 101 cases of de-notification were approved between 2008 and 2020. The government had attributed the reason to poor market response, lack of demand for space and withdrawal of fiscal benefits. Only 268 entities were operational, as on January 27, government data showed.

Chaturvedi, however, said while new legislation on SEZ was a step in the right direction, lack of details on what it will entail can result in uncertainty. Investors will find it difficult to come in unless there is a clarification from the government regarding the details, unless it comes in the next six months, he said.
Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday welcomed the "superb" response from the industry for the government's manufacturing initiatives.

Speaking at the IT industry grouping Nassom's strategic review press conference, Vaishnaw also exhorted the industry to "double down" on its efforts.

The Union Cabinet had on December 15 approved a Rs 76,000-crore scheme for promoting and display manufacturing which focuses on giving capital support and production-linked incentives to the industry.

The decision had come amid growing realisation of the dependence of the country on imports from countries like China, and also amid disruptions in the global supply chain which have deeply impacted the auto industry.

Vaishnaw's comments came a day after the minerals and natural resources-focused Vedanta announced a pact with contract manufacturer Foxconn on the semiconductors front. In the past, the Tata Group has also evinced interest in the area.

"Very happy that within such a short time frame, superb response has been received from the industry participants," Vaishnaw said.

He added that there has been an "excellent response" from the industry in terms of fab or display fabrication, compound semiconductor and design ecosystem, which he said will create quality employment opportunities in the country.

"All these are new opportunities and I request industry participants to double down on your efforts, come up with more ideas, suggestions," he said, stressing that the government is keen for feedback and implementing the suggestions in policy for common good.

Vaishnaw also welcomed the IT industry adding 4.5 lakh new people in FY22 to take the direct employment to 50 lakh.

The USD 227-billion industry's focus on spreading out to newer centres like Kolkata and Nagpur for setting up offices was also welcomed by the minister.

The IT industry's resilience in the pandemic is proven by the growth numbers that it has shown, he said, pointing to the 15.5 per cent jump in revenues -- the fastest in over a decade.

Affirming the government's commitment to introduce more reforms, Vaishnaw said the introduction of 5G technology for the telecom sector presents an interesting opportunity to the industry.

He also mentioned the government initiatives on opening up the space technology sector, quantum computing and introducing a central bank digital currency as future areas of growth which the IT industry must seize.

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In a scathing attack on the Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Tuesday said while the believes in "development for all", "cares only about the development of the Saifai family".

Saifai is the native village of patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, the father of party chief .

At a public meeting here, Adityanath said, "The Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress were not there for you during the pandemic. But our government gave free vaccine to everyone and ensured that no one sleeps hungry."



He claimed the law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh has improved and lot and there is no place for anarchy in the state.

"Earlier, there was no security. The property of the poor was grabbed. But during our government, mafia and goons were sent to jail and sisters and daughters were protected," the chief minister said.

"No one is allowed to play with anyone's faith. Now, instead of being curfew imposed in the state, 'Kanwad Yatra' takes place."



He alleged that under the previous government, widow and handicapped pensions used to be looted and distributed among the "samajwadis". "Now the government is giving pension to one crore elderly and disabled people. Those who played with your life cannot be your well-wisher.""The believes in 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' whereas the chief's slogan is only the development of the Saifai family," Adityanath said.

He praised candidate of Kannauj Aseem Arun, a former IPS officer, and urged party ticket holders to win all assembly seats of the district.

Adityanath also spoke about the perfume of Kannauj and said the "socialist perfume has put a bad name of this place" in the world.

In November last year, has launched a specially made "Samajwadi perfume" hoping to spread the "scent of socialism" in the state.

Kannauj will go to the polls in the third phase on February 20.

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Union Home Minister on Tuesday accused the and the BSP of crumbling the economy of and credited Chief Minister with bringing a turnaround in five years in the state.

He also said the 2022 elections are for "strengthening Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hands and for making Yogi chief minister again".

"SP and BSP's 'babua and bua" both had crumbled the economy of such a big state as Uttar Pradesh, the economic system was on the seventh spot in the country which was brought to second spot by Yogiji in five years. Give another chance of five years and it will be taken to the first spot," Shah told an election meeting here.

Claiming success on the law and order front under the government, he asked, "Can any mafia trouble you anywhere, can anyone encroach your land, play with the honour of mothers and sisters? Yogi ji has ensured the migration of mafia from ."



"Akhilesh Yadav had asked what has happened (during the five years of BJP government), the one who has put yellow spectacles will see everything as pale," he said taking a swipe at the SP chief.

"Yogiji has brought down the dacoity in your time down by by 72 per cent, loot by 62 per cent, murder by 31 per cent and rape by 50 per cent," he said.

Continuing his attack, he said, "During the Akhilesh government, only 'kattas' and sharpnels were made in but now during the BJP government 'goley' (ammunition) are being made here which will be fired at Pakistan. This change has come in five years by the BJP government."



Praising Modi, he said that he has ensured the safety of the country.

"When the SP-BSP supported the Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh government, there was intrusion from Pakistan and our soldiers were beheaded but there was no reaction from our 'Mauni Baba', but Modi avenged such misadventures after coming to power, sending a strong message to the world, he asserted.

Exhorting the youths, whom he had earlier addressed as "jigar ke tukde jaiey yuva", he asked whether Kashmir is a part of India and Article 370 should have been abolished or not.

"Modi was made prime minister and a bill came in Parliament, all these SP-BSP and Congress collectively opposed it. Akhilesh had said it would lead to bloodbath but no one dared to do anything and it was removed," Shah said.

Speaking in Auraiya which will go to polls in the third phase of voting slated for February 20, he claimed that the SP and the BSP have been wiped out in the first two phases of polling and the BJP is fast approaching the mark of 300 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

"The BJP is all set to form its government with a massive majority," he asserted.

Claiming that the BJP is the only party which works for the poor, Shah said "When Modiji brought the Covid vaccine, Akhilesh termed it as Modi vaccine and asked people not to take it. But after tweeting against it for sometime he himself took it out of fear. If Modi had not given vaccines to the 130 crore people, then would we have been as safe during the third wave."



Elaborating on the BJP's schemes, he said, "Bua-bhatija ran their governments for 15 years but did any house get gas cylinders? Whereas 1.66 lakh mothers have got cylinders and stoves and we have decided to provide one free cylinder on Holi and Diwal," he said.

"It's Holi on March 20 and counting is on March 10. Allow BJP to form the government and one gas cylinder will reach you (on Holi)," 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.)
Attacking Samajwadi Party in its founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's parliamentary constituency Mainpuri, Union Home Minister on Tuesday said criminal' politicians like Azam Khan and Mukhtar Ansari will be out of jail again if that party comes to power in .

At another poll rally in Auraiya, he accused the previous governments led by SP's and Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati of crumbling the economy of and credited Chief Minister Adityanath with bringing a turnaround in five years.

Shah said the 2022 assembly polls are for strengthening the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and making Yogi Adityanath chief minister again.

He said earlier police used to flee on seeing members of the mafia. Now the mafias run after seeing the police. Where are Azam Khan, Atiq Ahmad and Mukhtar Ansari? They all are in jail. If comes to power, they will get bail and if there is Yogi's government they will remain in jail," he said.

Shah was in Mainpuri to muster support for BJP candidates Jaiveer Singh (Mainpuri Sadar), Ram Naresh Agnihotri (Bhongaon) Union Law Minister S P Singh Baghel (Karhal) and Priyaranjan Diwakar (Kishni).

is contesting his maiden assembly election from the Karhal seat here. Polling is in the third phase on February 20.

Shah targeted the former chief minister over his apparent reluctance to accept the ovid vaccine.

When Modi ji brought the Covid vaccine, Akhilesh termed it the Modi vaccine and asked people not to take it. But after speaking against it for some time he himself took it out of fear. Had Modi not given vaccines to 130 crore people, would we have been as safe during the third wave?"



He alleged that corruption was deeply rooted during the SP term in UP.

The desired development of the state was limited only to the family members of the Saifai parivar," Shah added, referring to Akhilesh Yadav's home town.

Earlier, in Auraiya he accused the previous UP governments of babua (Yadav) and bua (Mayawati) of bringing the state's economy to the seventh spot in the country.

He claimed it was brought up to the second spot by Adityanath in five years. Give another chance of five years and it will be taken to the first spot," he said.

Claiming success on the law and order front under the Adityanath government, he asked, "Can any mafia trouble you anywhere, can anyone encroach your land, play with the honour of mothers and sisters? Yogi ji has ensured the migration of the mafia from ."



He claimed that the Adityanath government had brought cases of dacoity in the state down by 72 per cent during the five-year term, robbery by 62 per cent, murder by 31 per cent and rape by 50 per cent.

Praising Modi, Shah said he has ensured the country's security.

"When the SP-BSP supported the Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh government, there was intrusion from Pakistan and our soldiers were beheaded but there was no reaction from our 'Mauni Baba'. But Modi avenged such misadventures after coming to power, sending a strong message to the world, he said.

He also recalled the abrogation of Article 370 that ensured special status to Jammu and Kashmir, saying Akhilesh Yadav had said this would lead to bloodbath.

He claimed that the SP and the BSP have been wiped out in the first two phases of polling in the state so far and the BJP is fast approaching the 300-seat mark in Uttar Pradesh.

"The BJP is all set to form its government with a massive majority," he said.

Shah referred to the Ujjwala scheme which provides free cooking gas connections to the poor.

Bua-bhatija ran their governments for 15 years but did any home get gas cylinders? Whereas 1.66 lakh mothers have got cylinders and stoves and we have decided to provide one free cylinder on Holi and Diwali," he said.

"It's Holi on March 20 and the counting is on March 10. Allow BJP to form the government and one gas cylinder will reach you (on Holi)," 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.)
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister on Tuesday said that once the party is re-elected to power, farmers will not have to pay electricity bills for the next five years.

Addressing a public rally in Uttar Pradesh's Dibiyapur, Shah said, "Holi is on 18th (March), counting is on 10th, bring the government to power on 10th, free gas cylinders will reach your house on 18th of March. No farmer will have to pay electricity bills for the next five years."

Exuding confidence for the victory of the in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Shah said that Samajwadi Party has been wiped out from the state after the first and second phases of elections.

"The Samajwadi Party has been wiped out. Western Uttar Pradesh has done the work of laying the foundation of the government with more than 300 seats. In the third phase, this majority has to be made grander," he said.

Taking a jibe at the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Shah said, "Akhilesh (SP chief) asks what have we done? If someone has yellow-coloured glasses, they'll see everything in yellow only... guns and bullets used to be made under Akhilesh's government, now instead of 'goli', 'gole (ammunitions)' is made, to fire against Pakistan."

The single-phase Assembly elections in phase two of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls concluded on Monday.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
on Tuesday targeted the Congress-led regime in over the issues of drug trade and illegal sand mining and dared the ruling party to reveal how many of its 2017 election promises has it fulfilled.

Singh also took on the AAP for its claims of ending the drug problem in the state, saying how could the party do so when it made liquor available door-to-door in Delhi.

Addressing a poll rally here, Singh raised the issue of last month's breach in the security of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in and said a state government, which could not ensure the security of the PM, has no moral right to remain in power.

I believe that the prime minister is not an individual. He is an institution. For a healthy democracy, institutions should be respected, said Singh.

He expressed surprise over the incident and said the chief minister in could not provide security to the prime minister.

I want to appeal that this is the chance to take revenge through votes for what the Congress people had done with our PM Modi ji, said Singh.

Modi had to return from Punjab without attending any event, including a public meeting, after his convoy got stuck on a flyover due to a blockade by protesters in Ferozepur on January 5.

Lashing out at the Congress, Singh said he had learnt about the drug trade and illegal sand mining in Punjab and asked people to bring the BJP-led alliance to power to end the menace.

They want Punjab's brave youth to get addicted to drugs and what crime can be bigger than this. Such people cannot be forgiven, said Singh as he attacked the Congress for the drug problem in the state.

Attacking the Congress over alleged unfulfilled poll promises, Singh challenged the ruling party in the state to tell people how many poll promises, made during the 2017 state assembly polls, has it honoured.

Taking a dig at the Congress over reports of infighting, the said, Congress leaders level allegations against each other and "there is no discipline in this Congress government.

"If you cannot stop your infighting then how will you end Punjab's problems, he asked as he targeted the Congress.

Hitting out at the Aam Aadmi Party, Singh said their leaders claimed that they will weed out drugs from Punjab but have ensured easy access to liquor in Delhi.

How could they stop drugs when they have made a system of making liquor available door-to-door in Delhi, said Singh.

He assured people to build a "new Punjab" if the BJP-led alliance comes to power and blamed the current regime for the state lagging behind.

Further, the minister accused the Congress government in Punjab of not implementing several schemes of the Centre.

He listed record purchase of foodgrain, payment going directly into the bank accounts of farmers in Punjab, building more than 1,000 km of highway in the state and giving Rs 6,000 per annum to farmers as 'PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana' as some of the steps taken by the central government for the welfare of the state. PTI CHS VSD



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On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Hawaii to discuss the threat posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea, which began the year with a series of missile launches.

North Korea was "in a phase of provocation," Blinken said at a press briefing following the talks, and the three countries denounced the latest missile tests.

US, Japan, South Korea Commit to Aligning Approach North Korea

The nations were "very closely conferring" on future actions they may take in response to North Korea after Blinken's discussions with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, but they didn't go into detail.

They issued a joint statement in which they urged North Korea to engage in discussion and stop its "unlawful acts." They also stated that they had no ill-will toward North Korea and were willing to meet with it without any preconditions. The three ministers held a "very good" conversation on the North, Hayashi subsequently told Japanese media. He was hesitant to go into detail about any extra precautions they might take.

North Korea has a lengthy history of seeking international concessions through provocations such as a missile or nuclear tests. In addition to decades of mismanagement and devastating US-led sanctions, the North's economy is being severely harmed by widespread border restrictions, according to NBC News.

To get international concessions, North Korea has used provocations such as a missile or nuclear tests for a long time. With the North's economy already devastated by decades of mismanagement and harsh US-led sanctions, the latest tests come as a result of a pandemic of border closures.

Many people believe the tests are a tactic to persuade President Joe Biden's administration to relax the sanctions. Without significant limitations to the North's nuclear program, the Biden administration has shown little readiness to do so, but it has promised open-ended negotiations.

North Korea has rejected US efforts to resume diplomatic negotiations, stating it will not return to discussions unless Washington changes its policies, which it claims are hostile. Both the sanctions and the US's regular military drills with South Korea have riled the North.

The tests have a technological component as well, helping North Korea to improve its stockpile of weapons. The Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which was recently tested, is capable of hitting the US island of Guam. Since 2017, it had become the North's longest-distance weapon, as per Hindustan Times.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin, Russia Invasion of Ukraine Could Start During Olympics; Americans Get Warning To Leave Now

South's Moon Jae-in Says Dialogue Can Solve North Korea Issues

The peace process between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North Korean Peninsula's denuclearization have de facto come to an end with no tangible outcomes. Moon's successor will be elected in March, and Moon's tenure will finish in May so any breakthroughs before then seemed improbable.

The only way to handle North Korea's difficulties, Moon said in a recent interview, is via discussion, and he hoped that his successor would continue his peace process to ensure that the Korean Peninsula remained peaceful and prosperous for the foreseeable future.

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party, and Yoon Suk-yeol, the leader of the People Power Party, are locked in a close contest for the presidency. In general, Yoon is slightly ahead of Lee in surveys although the gap is still within the margin of error.

If Lee wins the election, his administration will carry on Moon's North Korean peace initiative. Yoon's criticism of Moon's approach to North Korea and the need to deploy an additional battery of the anti-missile defense system Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on South Korean soil to deter North Korea's missile threats will change Seoul's approach to North Korea significantly if he wins the election.

Because of the low height of the missiles, South Korea would be unable to intercept North Korea's short-range missiles flying toward its country with THAAD. In order to get support from conservatives, Yoon has dug in his heels on North Korea matters, choosing a defense-oriented strategy, according to The Diplomat.

Related Article: Blinken Discusses With Japan, South Korean Officials About Possible Actions on North Korea's Missile Tests

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BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday urged people to bring the BJP-led alliance to power in to ensure that the border state remains strong and free of the mafia and drugs.

Addressing a poll rally in Bathinda's Maur assembly constituency, Nadda urged people to vote for the BJP-led alliance for putting on the fast-track of development.

" needs new energy and new power," he said, adding that only his party and alliance partners could take the state forward.

He targeted the Congress over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi and told people to ask the Congressmen with which face they were seeking for votes.

"On one side there was 'maut ka tandav' (dance of death), humanity was shamed, our Sikh brothers were killed. On the other side, Congress was saying when a big tree falls, earth shakes,' said Nadda.

He said nobody from the Congress cared about the families of victims.

It was only the BJP-led government at the Centre which put those who were involved in the riots behind bars, said Nadda.

He further took on the Congress over the issue of 'mafia raj' and drug problem in Punjab.

"Have they not brought mafia raj in Punjab? Has there not been a sand mafia here? Tell us whether the sand mafia is operating in the constituency of the current chief minister or not. Tell us whether there is a drug mafia or not here, he asked.

The BJP president said it was only the BJP-led alliance that could end the 'mafia raj' and make Punjab a drug-free state.

Stating that Punjab has a 600 km long border with Pakistan, Nadda said the way the Modi government was taking the country forward, it was neither liked by Pakistan nor by the anti-national forces in the country.

He asked the people not to strengthen the hands of those who are creating impediments in the efforts made by PM Modi for strengthening the nation.

"If you want that the border state remains strong, the youth remain drug free and they get employment, the only way for this is by strengthening the hands of Modi ji, he said.

Nadda also listed various steps taken by the Modi-led government for the welfare of various sections of the society.

He spoke about the Central government's decision to allow the Golden Temple in Amritsar to receive foreign funds and said it was the NDA government which waived goods and services tax on 'langar'.

He also spoke about opening of the Kartarpur corridor and the decision to set up a first-of-its-kind institute of Inter-Faith Studies in Punjab to promote brotherhood and diversity.

Anandpur Sahib, Fatehgarh Sahib, Chamkaur Sahib, Ferozepur-Amritsar, Khatkar Kalan and Patiala heritage circuit have been included under Swadesh Darshan scheme, he said.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given companies extra time till September 30, 2022 to have systems ready to implement rule wherein bad loans can be upgraded as standard asset only when entire arrears of interest and principal are paid. In November 2021, had given time till March 31, 2022 to implement the rule.

Mahesh Thakkar, director-general, Industry Development Council (FIDC) said, "This is good for the industry as companies had asked for additional time. The financial year closure was approaching (March 2022), so firms will not be adversely affected. will be able to provide, realign and also educate customers".

"There are issues like keeping small accounts out of this ambit of this rule which are yet to be addressed", he added.

Clarifying queries in asset recognition for lenders including banks and finance firms, in a notification said the definition of out of order will apply to all loans offered as an overdraft facility. This includes overdrafts not meant for business purposes and also those which entail interest repayments as the only credits.

The previous 90 days period for determining out of order status of a Cash Credit and Overdraft account will include the day for which the day-end process is being run.

Moreover, when borrowers have more than one credit facility with the lender, they have to repay the entire arrears of interest and principal for all the credit facilities to upgrade the account from non-performing asset to standard asset category.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz heads to on Tuesday to meet President in a high stakes mission to avert war, with Russia's largest trading partner in Europe warning of far-reaching sanctions if it attacks .

Scholz's one-day trip, after visiting Kyiv on Monday, is part of frantic Western diplomacy to try to stop a potential attack as more than 100,000 Russian troops mass on Ukraine's borders.

The chancellor has said he will hammer home the message from the West that they are open to dialogue about Russia's security concerns but will impose sanctions if it invades .

"We are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in coordination with our allies," he said in Kyiv on Monday before returning to Berlin.

Warnings of sanctions could hit home harder coming from Germany, Russia's number one trade partner in Europe and the biggest consumer of Russian natural gas - although that could also limit Scholz's room for manoeuvre.

He signalled last month "everything will have to be discussed should there be a military intervention" when asked about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from to Germany, which is intended to bring more Russian gas to Western Europe, bypassing traditional transit country .

But he has not vowed to end Nord Stream 2 or even named it in connection with sanctions, in contrast to U.S. President Joe Biden who said last Monday the pipeline would be halted if invaded.

denies planning to invade, accusing the West, which has sent a flurry of officials to and Kyiv, of hysteria.

Coalition Disagreements

Scholz, who took office in December, has faced criticism for his low profile during the crisis, contrasting with Angela Merkel's leadership during Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

French President has taken the lead in Europe, visiting a week ago and telephoning Putin regularly.

Merkel and Putin were able to speak in one another's native tongues. She became his key interlocutor in Europe during her 16 years in power. This will be Scholz's first meeting with Putin as chancellor, although he has met him in previous senior roles.

"Merkel had this special relationship with Putin - I think he respected her - and they had a long time to build their relationship," said Jana Puglierin, director of the Berlin office of the European Council of Foreign Relations. "For Scholz, it will be trickier."

Scholz's government has been accused of giving mixed signals on the crisis, with disagreements among the three parties making up the coalition as well as within his ruling Social Democrats (SPD).

Junior coalition party the Greens, which holds the foreign ministry, wants to axe Nord Stream 2. Former SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who took a job at Russian energy giant Gazprom after leaving office in 2005, continues to lobby for it.

The SPD's traditional desire for closer engagement with Russia could be an asset in the talks with Putin, said Puglierin. "But Scholz cannot afford to be the weak link in the Western alliance," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday suggested to Putin that Moscow continue along the diplomatic path in its efforts to extract security guarantees from the West.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh;Editing by Alison Williams)

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Airlines and the leasing companies that control billions of dolllars' worth of passenger jets are drawing up contingency plans for a freeze in business with if the standoff on Ukraine's border boils over into a military conflict.

U.S. officials have warned that Moscow could launch an attack on after amassing more than 100,000 troops close to its neighbour's border, with the West preparing heavy sanctions.

Aviation bosses are worried about the impact on dealings with Russian companies. Sanctions could disrupt payments to leasing firms, and any retaliatory move by Moscow to restrict access to Russian airspace might throw east-west trade into chaos.

"We are expecting an asymmetrical Russian response," said a Western source involved in drawing up scenarios, adding the West was unlikely to restrict its own airspace first.

Air corridors between parts of Europe or North America and Asia stretch across Russia, making its 26 million square km (10 million square miles) of airspace a vital trade intersection.

Cargo is particularly active. U.S. carrier FedEx said on Monday it was making unspecified contingency plans.

Without access to Russia's airways, experts say airlines face having to divert flights south while avoiding areas of tension in the Middle East - adding significant cost at a time when airlines are reeling from the pandemic.

According to some reports, the crisis has resurrected the Cold War prospect of European jets heading over North America to refuel in Anchorage, then dropping down to destinations such as Tokyo, pushing the economics of such flights to the limit.

So far, Alaska's largest airport has not been contacted by any airline exploring that option, which would require an increase in ground-handling capacity, a spokesperson said.

But the scenario is a reminder that Russia's size and position on the aviation map gives it leverage not available to the Soviet Union when economies were less integrated, according to Elisabeth Braw, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

"So far, Moscow hasn't threatened to revoke overflight rights, but knows it has a phenomenal weapon at its disposal," Braw wrote in a column in Defense One last month.

Even short of formal retaliation, experts say the impact on crucial Russian overflights is hard to predict.

"Every one of those operations requires advance clearance and that's not always routinely granted. And there's every reason to believe that if things got serious some of those requests could just go unanswered," analyst Robert Mann said.

Lessor Concerns

Russia's 8,000 air traffic controllers handled 194,296 transit flights, or 532 overflights a day, on average in 2021.

That's up 16% from coronavirus-depressed levels in 2020 but still 37% below pre-crisis traffic in 2019, according to the Federal Agency for Air Transport.

"It would be devastating in normal circumstances, but Asia traffic is lower than normal," the Western source said.

Analysts say earns significant fees from overflights.

As tensions rose in recent months, U.S. airlines raised concerns that could refuse to extend overflights, disrupting connections to Asia, India and the Middle East.

If there is an emergency, we have no choice but to avoid Russia and fly the southern route," said Yuji Hirako, president and chief executive of All Nippon Airways Co Ltd. "Since the demand for flights is so low due to the coronavirus pandemic, we may choose not to fly in the event of an emergency."

In October, U.S. carriers asked the State Department to "act urgently" to secure additional rights to overfly Russia, according to a trade group's letter seen by Reuters. U.S. officials are expected to meet the carriers within days.

For the aircraft leasing industry, Russia has until now been a relative bright spot, as airlines have largely kept up with payments during the pandemic, one leasing company executive said.

Even as some airlines began avoiding on Monday, leasing companies were eyeing larger risks in Russia.

Domhnal Slattery, chief executive of lessor Avolon, said his biggest concern was the potential for sanctions involving SWIFT, which would disrupt payment transfers.

"So we're focused on ensuring of how do we get around that from the payment of our rentals perspective," he said.

Russian companies have 980 passenger jets in service, of which 777 are leased, according to analytics firm Cirium.

Of these, two thirds, or 515 jets, with an estimated market value of about $10 billion, are rented from foreign firms.

"If there are sanctions on dealing with Russian companies, this could affect more than 500 aircraft if no exemptions are allowed," said Rob Morris, head consultant at Ascend by Cirium.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Allison Lampert in Montreal, David Shepardson in Washington, Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore, Jamie Freed in Sydney and Maki Shiraki in Tokyo. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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Canada, a country that relies heavily on immigration to grow its labor force, has set an ambitious plan to bring in more than 1.3 million newcomers over the next three years to support its post-pandemic growth.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government aims to add more than 431,000 permanent residents this year, 447,000 in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024, according to the 2022-24 Immigration Levels Plan released on Monday. Figures for this year and 2023 have been revised higher from earlier targets of 411,000 and 421,000, respectively.

Immigration has helped shape into the country it is today, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said in a statement. We are focused on economic recovery, and immigration is the key to getting there.

Immigration had been one of the main drivers of Canadas economy, and accounts for almost all of the nations employment growth. Last year, welcomed more than 405,000 newcomers, the largest single-year increase in its history.

Under the plan, overall admissions will amount to 1.14% of the Canadian population by 2024, and nearly 60% of newcomers will qualify as economic immigrants, selected on the basis of their skills and work experience.
Tesla chief executive donated a total of 5,044,000 shares in the world's most valuable automaker to a charity from Nov. 19 to Nov. 29 last year, its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed on Monday.

The donation was worth $5.74 billion, based on the closing prices of Tesla shares on the five days that he donated the stock. The filing did not disclose the name of the charity.

The donation came as the billionaire sold $16.4 billion worth of shares after polling Twitter users about offloading 10% of his stake in the electric-car maker in early November.

He said on Twitter that he would pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021 due to his exercise of stock options set to expire this year.

He also traded barbs with politicians Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who called on wealthy people to pay more taxes.

Analysts have said there would be a tax benefit for Musk potentially gifting Tesla stock, since shares donated to charity are not subject to capital gains tax, as they would be if sold.

"His tax benefit would be huge," said Bob Lord, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies who studies tax policy.

"He'd save between 40% and 50% of the $5.7 billion in tax, depending on whether he could take the deduction against his California income and he'd avoid the gains tax he would have to pay if he sold the stock."

Lord added that Musk might have contributed the stock to intermediaries such as "donor-advised funds," not outright to charitable groups.

Tesla was not immediately available for comment.

Musk Foundation

The donation ranks Musk as America's second-biggest donor after Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates last year, data from the Chronicle of Philanthropy shows.

Musk's public philanthropy gestures have so far trailed other billionaires. Musk and Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos have donated less than 1% of their net worth, whereas Warren Buffett and George Soros had given away more than 20% by early September, according to business magazine Forbes.

Musk is president of the Musk Foundation, offering grants for the "development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity" among other causes, according to its website.

Last year, Musk and the foundation offered $100 million prizes to those who can come up with a technology to help remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Last year, he said he was donating $20 million to schools in Cameron County, Texas, the location of a Space X rocket launch site, and $10 million to the City of Brownsville.

Musk has also flirted with more ambitious philanthropy goals.

On Twitter last year he said, "If (the United Nations World Food Programme) can describe ... exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it."

He was responding to a plea for a donation from David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Programme.

In January last year, he asked Twitter users about "ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems.)"

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco, Additional reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Clarence Fernandez)

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The chiefs of the and Royal Saudi Land Forces held discussions and briefings over areas of collaboration here on Tuesday, an official statement said.

In the first visit by the Royal Saudi Land Forces commander, making the deeping bilateral defence cooperation, Lt General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair, accompanied by other senior officers, arrived in India on a two-day tour.

Lt General Al-Mutair was received by chief, General M.M. Naravane on Tuesday at South Block and accorded a ceremonial Guard of Honour.

The two army chiefs then held significant bilateral discussions and were briefed on security aspects and about areas where engagements can be enlarged and deepened. The deliberations also aimed to increase bilateral courses.

During the meeting, the Army Design Bureau made a presentation which covered current capability and competencies within the Indian defence industry. It included systems developed indigenously which have been evaluated and inducted by the Indian Army, including artillery, specialist vehicles, drones, counter drones, helicopters and missiles.

officers apprised Saudi military officers about the policy initiatives and enabling provisions put out by the Indian government. They also informed how the start up ecosystem is being facilitated in conjunction with the industry in India. The visiting delegates were also informed that the Indian government is looking for major investment by the private sector and defence research and development has been opened up for industry, startups and academia with 25 per cent of defence research and development budget earmarked for the purpose.

The delegates were also apprised about various niche techniques being developed by armed forces in conjunction with start ups and incubating with academia. They discussed areas of collaboration feasible with the Indian industry to meet requirements of Saudi Land Forces. Other initiatives of the government for ease of doing business were also discussed, said a senior Indian Army officer.

Lt General Al-Mutair also visited the National Defence College where they met a Saudi student.

The Indian Army, in a statement, said: "The relationship between India and has grown owing to common interests in economic prosperity, eliminating the scourge of terrorism and mitigating the effects of climate change. Defence diplomacy forms one of the major tenets of the overall relationship."

General Naravane had visited in December 2020 in a historic visit which marked the first time that an Indian Army Chief had visited .

Lt General Al-Mutair will return on Wednesday.

--IANS

sk/vd

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Corp is close to buying Israeli firm Tower Semiconductor for about $6 billion, a source familiar with the matter said, as the U.S. company looks to advance its strategy of contract manufacturing chips for other businesses.

A deal could be unveiled as soon as this week, the person said on Monday, declining to be named as the matter was private.

The potential purchase would deepen Intel's presence in a space dominated by Taiwan-based TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker. It also comes at time when the global semiconductor shortage has hampered the production of everything from smartphones to cars.

Tower Semiconductor, whose U.S. shares surged 53% in extended trading, specializes in analog chips used in the automotive, mobile, medical and aerospace industries. It had a market capitalization of $3.6 billion as of Monday's close.

Both and Tower Semiconductor did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. chipmaker said last month it would invest up to $100 billion to build potentially the world's largest chip-making complex in Ohio. The move is aimed at restoring Intel's dominance in chip-making and reducing America's reliance on Asian manufacturing hubs.

was also looking to buy GlobalFoundries for about $30 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report in July, but the chipmaker went public a few months later.

Chipmaking is expensive and difficult, so most either design or produce. Intel has opened up its factories to rival semiconductor designers to spread costs.

Intel shares were up 0.4% after the news on the Tower Semiconductor deal, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

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Hundreds of channelled $1.5 trillion into the in loans and underwriting from January 2019 to November 2021, even though many have made net-zero pledges, a report by a group of 28 non-government organisations showed.

Reducing coal use is a key part of global efforts to slash climate-warming greenhouse gases and bring emissions down to "net zero" by the middle of the century, and governments, firms and across the world have pledged to take action.

But banks continue to fund 1,032 firms involved in the mining, trading, transportation and utilisation of coal, the research showed.

"Banks like to argue that they want to help their coal clients transition, but the reality is that almost none of these companies are transitioning," said Katrin Ganswind, head of financial research at German environmental group Urgewald, which led the research. "And they have little incentive to do so as long as bankers continue writing them blank checks." The study said banks from six countries - China, the United States, Japan, India, Britain and Canada - were responsible for 86% of global coal financing over the period.

Direct loans amounted to $373 billion, with Japanese investment banks Mizuho Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial - both members of the Net Zero Banking Alliance - identified as the two biggest lenders. Neither firm responded immediately to requests for comment.

Another $1.2 trillion was channelled to coal firms via underwriting. All of the top 10 underwriters were Chinese, with the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in first place, accounting for $57 billion. It did not respond to a request for comment.

Institutional investments in coal firms over the period amounted to $469 billion, with BlackRock at the top of the list with $34 billion. The U.S. asset manager did not respond to a request for comment.

Comparative figures for previous years were not immediately available. Other research studies, however, have shown that coal investment is on the decline.

The coal sector is responsible for nearly half of global greenhouse gas emissions. More than 40 countries pledged to end coal use following climate talks in Glasgow in November, though major consumers such as China, India and the United States did not sign up.

But more China-invested overseas coal-fired power capacity was cancelled than commissioned since 2017, according to research from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) last June.

Furthermore, nearly all internationally available development financing is now committed to reducing or ending investment in coal-fired power after moves by China and the G20 to stop supporting new projects overseas, research from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center showed in November.

(Additional reporting by Zoey Zhang; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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Air Lease Corp said on Monday it would lease 25 737 MAX jets to Malaysia Airlines' parent to be delivered between early 2023 and 2026 through the lessor's orderbook with the manufacturer.

Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) Chief Executive Izham Ismail said in a statement that the deal was tied to the restructured terms of the airline's existing orderbook with .

No further details were provided. He is due to speak at a Singapore Airshow forum on Tuesday.

MAG had previously placed an order of its own for 25 737 MAX jets that remains listed on Boeing's website. did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

MAG said last year it had agreed with Boeing to take delivery of the planes from 2024.

It was originally scheduled to take delivery in 2020, but the 737 MAX was grounded worldwide after two crashes, and several airlines and lessors cancelled orders of the jet.

MAG also has six Airbus A350-900 planes on long-term leases with Air Lease.

(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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A royal biography reveals that Camilla Parker Bowles called Meghan Markle "that minx" because she was "a self-seeking troublemaker."

The Duchess of Sussex, 40, who has stepped down from royal duties last year and lives in a $14 million property in California, never saw eye-to-eye with the Duchess of Cornwall.

Camilla Parker Bowles Has Been "Suspicious" About Meghan Markle

Camilla has always been "distrustful" of the Duchess' motives, according to the analyst, who is now writing on a biography of Meghan Markle. He did say, though, that the Duchess had kept her feelings for Meghan Markle tightly concealed.

After the Sussexes gave a series of heated interviews last year, Bower said Camilla acted as a comfort to Prince Charles. Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess' silence at the Queen's announcement that Camilla will one day be Queen Consort was "Meghan Markle's way of declaring war," according to a royal biographer.

Last week, Her Majesty expressed her earnest hope that the Duchess of Cornwall shall be recognized as Queen Consort rather than Princess Consort, as she was when she married the Prince of Wales, in a statement to honor the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

According to reports, Prince William was in favor of the relocation and understood the reasoning behind his grandmother's choice. Meanwhile, neither Prince Harry nor Meghan Markle has made any public statements. There was no mention of his stepmother or the intended change in her status when he finally broke his silence from California four days later.

She worked tirelessly to eradicate the stigma associated with the HIV/AIDS virus, and he felt compelled to carry on her legacy of eliminating the stigma associated with the virus. It's a marked departure from Prince Harry's past views on the Duchess of Cornwall's earlier statements, according to Daily Mail.

Read Also: Meghan Markle's Brother Predicts Duchess Will Split Up With Prince Harry, Says Money Changed His Sister

Duchess of Cornwall Tests Positive for COVID-19

The Duchess of Cornwall has recently been designated the Royal Patron of the National Theater, a position previously held by the Duchess of Sussex, which she previously held. Until she and Prince Harry stood down as working members of the royal family in 2019, Meghan Markle was granted the post by the Queen and stayed in it for two years.

Camilla will guest-edit an issue of Country Life magazine to commemorate her 75th birthday, which Meghan will do on a private basis in March 2020. The new job comes after Camilla was confirmed to guest-edit an issue of Country Life magazine to commemorate her 75th birthday.

Prince Charles' wife will be in charge of the July edition of the magazine, where she will share her favorite cuisine as well as her favorite view, a keen animal lover who is also a patron of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, as well as an equestrian and dog owner, will use the occasion to highlight animals in this edition, as per Independent.

This week, Camilla has tested positive for COVID-19 after her husband, Prince Charles, declared his second fight with the virus last week. After testing positive for the second time since March 2020, the 74-year-old duchess was diagnosed four days after her husband, heir to the throne since March 2020, tested positive for the second time.

According to the couple's office, Camilla kept her public schedule unchanged and conducted daily tests before Monday's announcement, but she is now self-isolating. With booster injections, Camilla and Charles are both completely immunized.

Meanwhile, after meeting with Prince Charles at Windsor Castle two days before his positive test, Queen Elizabeth II was being watched last week. She wasn't showing any signs of the infection, according to the palace. There was no word from Buckingham Palace about the Queen's health on Monday, New York Post reported.

Related Article: Prince Charles' 2nd Positive COVID-19 Test Raises Concerns for Queen Elizabeth II After 'Recent' Meeting

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has announced plans to fully reopen its offices in Washington State (its headquarters) on February 28, as Omicron-led Covid infections subside across the country.

The company said that based on improving local health metrics, its Washington state work sites will move to the sixth and final stage of the hybrid workplace model, effective February 28.

"From this date, employees will have 30 days to make adjustments to their routines and adopt the working preferences they've agreed upon with their managers," the company said in a statement late on Monday.

"Reaching this stage allows us to fully open our facilities to employees, visitors and guests. All campus services will return. Additionally, we're pleased to be joining other area businesses welcoming back more employees in the coming weeks," the tech giant added.

For nearly two years, Microsoft's hybrid workplace model has anchored each of its work sites to one of six defined stages, allowing the company to quickly adjust its guidance depending on health data, local government guidance, the availability of vaccines and vaccination rates and other considerations.

said that it will ensure that established local testing solutions are in place and that it is aligned to all government guidance for businesses like them.

Outside of Washington state, the Bay Area sites in California, including its new Silicon Valley Campus, will fully open on February 28.

Meta (formerly Facebook) is set to reopen its offices on March 28 and employees will need to get a Covid booster jab to return to the office.

Apple employees will also need to submit proof of a Covid booster or provide negative Covid-19 rapid antigen tests to enter the workplace.

Google in December said that it will wait for some more time before opening its offices.

On January 15, the US reported confirmed Covid cases at 806,175 a day (over a seven-day rolling average), the highest America has seen since the start of the pandemic.

The average is now down about 75 per cent, at around 180,711 confirmed cases over the last seven days, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

--IANS

na/dpb

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By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) -Oil dropped from a seven-year high to around $94 a barrel on Tuesday, pressured by a report that some troops in Russia's military districts adjacent to are returning to bases, a move that could de-escalate tension between Moscow and the West.

Russia's Interfax news agency cited the defence ministry as saying that while large-scale drills across the country continued, some units of the Southern and Western military districts have completed their exercises and started returning to base.

Brent crude fell $2.35, or 2.4%, to $94.13 by 0912 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped $2.00, or 2.1%, to $93.46.

"There are no prizes for guessing the driving force behind this bout of volatility," said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. "The Russia- crisis has put the energy market on high alert for possible disruptions of Russian energy supplies."

Both oil benchmarks hit their highest since September 2014 on Monday, with Brent touching $96.78 and WTI reaching $95.82. The price of Brent rose 50% in 2021 as a global recovery in demand from the COVID-19 pandemic strained supply.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Tuesday a Russian invasion of was highly likely, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in a call on Monday there was a crucial window for diplomacy.

Investors are also watching talks between the United States and Iran on reviving Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, which could potentially allow for higher Iranian oil exports.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday and they noted a "tangible move forward" in reviving the Iran nuclear deal, Russia's foreign ministry said.

In other developments, the latest weekly reports on U.S. inventories are expected to show a drop in crude stocks, underlining a tight supply and demand balance.

The first of this week's two reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is due at 2130 GMT.

(Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi; editing by Jason Neely)

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Oil prices surged over 2% on Monday to their highest in more than seven years as Ukraine's president declared a "day of unity" for Feb. 16, a date that some Western media have cited as a possible start of a Russian invasion.

is one of the world's largest oil and gas producers, and fears that it could invade have driven the rally in oil closer to $100 per barrel, a level not seen since 2014.

"The market remains hyper-sensitive to the developments over the Russian/ situation," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York. "This is now intensifying to a terrific degree. Right now, it's buy now, ask later."

Brent crude rose $2.04, or 2.2%, to settle at $96.48 a barrel, after touching its highest since September 2014 at $96.78.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $2.36, or 2.5%, to settle at $95.46 a barrel, after hitting $95.82, the loftiest since September 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to fly the country's flags from buildings and sing the national anthem in unison on Feb. 16.

Ukrainian officials stressed that Zelenskiy was not predicting an attack on that date, but responding with skepticism to foreign media reports. Several Western media organisations have quoted U.S. and other officials citing the date as when Russian forces would be ready for an attack.

The United States sees no "tangible sign" of de-escalation of Russian forces on the border, the U.S. State Department said. It remained unclear whether was interested in pursuing a diplomatic path, the State Department added.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was relocating its embassy operations in Ukraine from the capital Kyiv to the western city of Lviv, citing the "dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces."

has amassed thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders, but Moscow denies it plans to invade and has accused the West of hysteria. The United States warned on Sunday that Russia could invade Ukraine at any time and might create a surprise pretext for an attack. [MKTS/GLOB]

Russia is one of the largest crude oil producers, with a capacity of about 11.2 million barrels per day, said Nishant Bhushan, senior oil market analyst for Rystad Energy.

"Any disruption of oil flows from the region would send Brent and WTI prices skyrocketing higher far above $100, in a market struggling to supply the increased demand for crude as economies recover from the pandemic," Bhushan said.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, has struggled to deliver monthly pledges to increase output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) until March.

Energy Agency (IEA) chief Fatih Birol urged OPEC+ to close the gap between words and its actions.

The IEA has said the gap has widened between the OPEC+ target and actual output.

Investors are also watching talks between the United States and Iran. The Iranian foreign minister said Iran was "in a hurry" to reach a swift agreement in nuclear talks in Vienna, provided its national interests are protected.

"A nuclear deal between the United States and Iran could release 1.3 million barrels of supply, but this will not be sufficient to ease the supply constraints," said Pratibha Thaker, the Economist Intelligence Unit's editorial director for the Middle East and Africa.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Additional reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio and Marguerita Choy)

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should continue to be in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) "grey list" on the upcoming Plenary Session scheduled in Paris from 21 February to 4 March this year, according to a media report.

Paris-based money-laundering watchdog, placed on the "grey list" in June 2018 for its failure to address the problem of terrorism financing.

Since then, Pakistan's performance has been under periodic review. But every time, it is found to be deficient in its efforts, reported Islam Khabar.

In the last meeting of the in October 2021, was once again retained on the "grey list" because it failed to prosecute and confiscate the assets of United Nations-designated terrorists.

officials had also noted that Pakistan was still failing to effectively implement the global FATF standard across several areas, creating a high risk of money laundering.

Commenting on the action plan devised in 2018 which focused on terror financing, the FATF President had said that Pakistan was still assessed to have largely addressed 26 out of 27 items, Islam Khabar reported.

"Pakistan has taken a number of important steps but needs to further demonstrate that investigations and prosecutions are being pursued against the senior leadership of UN-designated terror groups," he said.

Given this situation, Pakistan will once again present its case before the FATF when the body holds its Plenary Session in Paris from 21 February to 4 March 2022.

The main effort will be to convince the FATF that it has delivered on all the high-level commitments it had made, not just in terms of tightening the domestic laws and regulations but also in terms of successfully prosecuting and punishing people involved in money laundering and terror finance.

There is a simple reason for Pakistan being in the "grey list" that Pakistan's deep state, led by the ISI and the Army, is at the forefront of carrying out illegal terrorist activities and promoting terror globally.

The latest emerging news from the UK, which was published in Dawn on January 28, to know what Pakistan is up to.

A British-Pakistani man, Mohammed Gohir Khan has been charged for trying to assassinate the dissident blogger, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, based in the Netherlands.

This leads to the question of the reopening of enquiry into the death of Karima Baloch, an ardent campaigner for an independent Balochistan, whose body was found in a lake in Canada in December 2020.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Some troops in Russia's military districts adjacent to are returning to their bases after completing drills, Russia's defence ministry was quoted as saying on Tuesday, a move that could de-escalate frictions between Moscow and the West.

Russia's Interfax news agency cited the ministry as saying that while large-scale drills across the country continued, some units of the Southern and Western military districts have completed their exercises and started returning to base.

has amassed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders, prompting fears of an invasion, especially as Moscow's Feb. 10-20 joint drills with Belarus mean that is almost encircled by the Russian military.

Russian markets reacted positively to the news and the rouble, which has been under pressure due to fears of fresh Western sanctions in the event of a war, gained 1.5% shortly after the defence ministry announcement.

Although Moscow has denied ever planning to attack Ukraine, it has demanded legally binding guarantees from the and that Kyiv will not be allowed to join the military bloc. Washington and Brussels have so far refused to make such pledges.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was expected in Moscow later on Tuesday to meet President Vladimir Putin in a high stakes mission to avert war.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
said on Tuesday some of its troops were returning to base after exercises near and it mocked repeated Western warnings about a looming invasion, but NATO said it had yet to see any evidence of de-escalation. did not say how many units were being withdrawn, and how far, after a build-up of some 130,000 Russian troops to the north, east and south of that has triggered one of the worst crises in relations with the West since the Cold War. The development drew a guarded response from and its Western allies, but prompted a rally on financial and oil markets. Western military analysts said it was too soon to be sure of the extent of any de-escalation. The Kremlin sought to portray the moves as proof that Western talk of war had been both false and hysterical. "February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. NATO's chief welcomed signals from in the past two days that it may be looking for a diplomatic solution but urged Moscow to demonstrate its will to act. "There are signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue. This gives grounds for cautious optimism. But so far we have not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. He said Russia often left military equipment behind after exercises, creating the potential for forces to regroup. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were signs of a diplomatic opening but "the intelligence that we're seeing today is still not encouraging". Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would only believe that Russia was moving to de-escalate the situation if it saw for itself that Russian troops were being pulled back. "If we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation," Interfax Ukraine quoted him as saying. Russia has always denied planning to invade, saying it can exercise troops on its own territory as it sees fit. It has been pressing for a set of security guarantees from the West, saying it fears NATO is encroaching on its Western flank. BREAKAWAY REGIONS In a separate development, Russia's lower house of parliament voted to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognise two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent, the house speaker said. Recognition of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics could kill off the Minsk peace process in east Ukraine, where a conflict between government forces and Moscow-backed separatists has killed 15,000 people. It was not clear how Putin would respond. NATO's Stoltenberg said such a move would be "a blatant violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty". Latvia said the European Union should impose sanctions on Russia if it recognised the separatists. "COULD BE IMMINENT" Russia's show of force near Ukraine's borders has prompted months of frantic Western diplomacy and drawn threats of severe sanctions if it invades, culminating in a crescendo of U. S. and British warnings in recent days that this could happen at any time. "In terms of the timing of an attack, it could be imminent," British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Tuesday. She said Russian troops could reach Ukraine's capital Kyiv "very, very quickly". France said it had yet to confirm the return of some troops to bases, though this would be a positive sign. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the latest Western diplomatic mission to defuse the crisis, met Putin in the Kremlin.

Russian shares, government bonds and the rouble, which have been hit by fears of impending conflict, rose sharply, and Ukrainian government bonds also rallied. Oil dropped more than 3% from a seven-year high reached on Monday.

CAUTIOUS RESPONSE

Video footage published by Russia's defence ministry showed some tanks and other armoured vehicles being loaded onto railway flatcars. But Western military analysts said they needed more information to judge the significance of the latest troop movements.

"One should maintain an air of cautious scepticism," said Henry Boyd of the Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "There have been past discrepancies between Russia's official announcements and its actions on the ground." Konrad Muzyka, director of the Poland-based Rochan consultancy, told Reuters it would take several days to verify the latest moves via satellite imagery.

"It should also be noted that new trains with equipment from Central Russia keep on arriving near the border and that Russian forces continue to move towards staging areas. The announcement stands in a direct opposition to what Russia has been doing for the past few days," he said.

Commercial satellite images taken on Sunday and Monday showed a flurry of Russian military activity at several locations near Ukraine, according to the private U. S. company that released the pictures.

US offers Ukraine $1-billion loan The United States is offering Ukraine a sovereign loan guarantee of upto $1 billion to help its economy amid pressure from Russia's military buildup, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday. This offer...will bolster Ukraines ability to ensure economic stability, growth, and prosperity for its people in the face of Russias destabilizing behavior,"Blinken said. Latest intel on military build-up not encouraging, says Johnson Britain sees signs of a diplomatic opening with Russia over Ukraine, but the latest intelligence is still not encouraging, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. Going into today clearly there are signs of a diplomatic opening. We are seeing Russian openness to conversations, Johnson said on Tuesday. On the other hand, the intelligence that we're seeing today is still not encouraging. U. S.-based Maxar Technologies pointed to the arrival of several large deployments of troops and attack helicopters as well as new deployments of ground attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets to forward locations.

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relies on Russias to help heat millions of homes, generate electricity and power factories. With Russian troops massed along Ukraines border, Europes heavy dependence on is limiting its diplomatic options and may throw its energy supplies into turmoil.

Analysts and industry executives are sceptical that Putin would cut off gas, in part because of how important gas exports are to his countrys .

In 2021, 38 per cent of the used by the EU came from Russia, according to Bruegel, a research organisation. Some countries, like Poland and Lithuania, have been gradually reducing their reliance on . For others, the dependency has been steadily growing.

Germany, which is at the centre of the diplomatic stand-off, is Moscows most important customer. The bulk of the gas to Germany flows directly from through a large pipeline in the Baltic Sea known as Nord Stream. A second pipeline, Nord Stream 2, was recently completed at a cost of $11 billion. Fuel has yet to flow through Nord Stream 2. Critics warn that the new pipeline could allow Moscow to wield greater influence over the continent and starve of transit fees through its existing pipeline network that are crucial to Kyivs .

2022 The New York Times News Service
will donate over $7 million of lethal weapons and assorted support items to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Canadian government said in a statement on Monday.

The weapons include machine guns, pistols, carbines, 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, sniper rifles, and various related equipment," the press release said.

has authorized the provision of additional military assistance to the government of to further help the Ukrainian security forces defend against Russia's "unwanted and escalating aggression" against .

The press release said that stands resolute in its support of Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence and continues to condemn Russian aggression as it builds up its military forces around .

"Canada remains committed to a diplomatic solution and continues to call on to de-escalate and engage in meaningful dialogue. As previously stated, any further aggression on the part of will be met with serious consequences, including through coordinated sanctions, and Canada continues to work with allies and partners on a coordinated response,", it added.

This assistance, as well as earlier donations of non-lethal assistance, the press release said, represents a significant and coordinated response from Canada to the developing situation in Ukraine.

"Canada, along with our allies and partners, remains committed to supporting Ukraine and its people as they continue to defend themselves against Russia's destabilizing actions," as per the press release.

Minister of National Defence, Anita Anand said, "Canada is deeply concerned by Russia's military build-up in and around Ukraine, which presents a significant threat to the rules-based order. Following conversations with our Ukrainian partners, including during my recent trip to Ukraine, Canada has authorized the provision of defensive weapons to assist Ukraine in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity. I remain in close contact with my Ukrainian counterpart, Minister Reznikov, and alongside our allies, we will continue to support Ukraine as it protects itself against Russia's unwarranted aggression."

Today's donation adds to "the more than $23 million of military equipment - including communications gear, a mobile field hospital, explosive disposal equipment, and body armour - that Canada has already given to Ukraine since 2015," the press release said.

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Reaffirming its strong commitment to the Ukrainian people, the Biden administration has offered a sovereign loan guarantee to of up to USD 1 billion to support its economic reform agenda and continued engagement with the Monetary Fund (IMF) amid Russia's military buildup.

Taking to Twitter, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "We are working closely with allies to mobilize robust support for Ukraine, including a US-backed sovereign loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to support key reforms. This support will bolster Ukraine's ability to deliver prosperity for its people."

"The is reaffirming our strong commitment to the Ukrainian people by joining with allies and partners to mobilize robust support for . The U.S. government is offering a sovereign loan guarantee to of up to $1 billion to support its economic reform agenda and continued engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," State Department said.

This offer - combined with the strong partnership between Ukraine, the IMF, other international financial institutions, the G7 and other bilateral donors - will bolster Ukraine's ability to ensure economic stability, growth, and prosperity for its people in the face of Russia's "destabilizing behaviour", according to the official statement.

"This action builds on the support the United States, our allies, and partners, including the G7 and international financial institutions, have provided Ukraine to help protect its economy amid Russian pressure in recent years," it added.

Blinken also highlighted that between 2014 and 2016, the issued three separate USD 1 billion sovereign loan guarantees to Ukraine which played a critical role in helping Ukraine successfully stabilize its economy amid previous Russian aggression.

"The has provided over $2 billion in development assistance to Ukraine since 2014. The U.S. government has also worked to promote commercial participation by U.S. companies across the Ukrainian economy.", as per the press release.

Furthermore, the Export-Import Bank of the United States intends to make available up to USD 3 billion to facilitate procurement of U.S. goods and services for projects in Ukraine, while the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation has a current investment portfolio in Ukraine of approximately USD 800 million across more than a dozen projects.

Blinken said that the US is exploring additional ways to support Ukraine and its people and will continue to advance efforts.

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A new trial against Russian opposition leader opened Tuesday at the penal colony where he faces another lengthy prison term, a further step in a yearlong, multi-pronged crackdown on Russia's most ardent critic, his allies and other dissenting voices.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's longtime foe, is charged with fraud and contempt of court.

His allies denounced the case as an effort by the to keep the politician in prison for as long as possible.

Authorities moved the trial to the prison colony hours away from Moscow, where Navalny is serving a sentence for parole violations. The move received criticism for effectively limiting access to the proceedings for the media and supporters.

Navalny, 45, appeared in the make-shift courtroom on Tuesday wearing a prison uniform.

It is just that these people, who ordered this trial, are really scared, he said during the hearing. (Scared) of what I say during this trial, of people seeing that the case is obviously fabricated.

The unusual trial got underway as world leaders are preoccupied with another round of tensions between and the West fuelled by fears that plans to invade its ex-Soviet neighbour.

Navalny can receive up to 15 years in prison, if convicted, his allies have said, on top of the time he was ordered to serve last year.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin, accusations officials denied.

Shortly after the arrest, a court sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison over the parole violations stemming from a 2014 suspended sentence in a fraud case Navalny insists was politically motivated.

Following Navalny's imprisonment, authorities unleashed a sweeping crackdown on his associates and supporters. His closest allies have left after facing multiple criminal charges, and his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of nearly 40 regional offices were outlawed as extremist a designation that exposes people involved to prosecution.

Earlier this month, Russian officials added Navalny and a number of his associates to a state registry of extremists and terrorists.

Several criminal cases have been launched against Navalny individually, leading his associates to suggest the intends to keep the politician behind bars for as long as possible.

Navalny is in prison as a politician. He spoke the truth, ran for president, and for that Putin tried to kill him and then sent him to prison," a close Navalny ally, Ivan Zhdanov, wrote on Facebook this month. "And there are no doubts that Putin will come up with more and more political cases.

The prosecution in the current trial accuses Navalny of embezzling money he and his foundation raised over the years and of insulting a judge during his trial last year for allegedly slandering a World War II veteran. The politician has rejected the allegations as bogus.

Members of Navalny's defense team complained they were not allowed to bring cellphones or laptops containing case files into the makeshift courtroom at the IK-2 penal colony.

The prison is located in the Vladimir region, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of .

Media access to the hearing, which was formally declared open to the press, was also severely restricted Tuesday.

Navalny's wife, Yulia, was allowed to attend the trial on Tuesday. Photos published by Russia's independent news site Mediazona showed the couple hugging and laughing during a haering recess.

In an emotional Instagram post on Monday, Yulia Navalnaya said she had a long family visit scheduled for Wednesday one of four Navalny is allowed to have in one year but the trial apparently would interfere with the visit.

They did it on purpose. You wanted a visit from your family? You're better off facing a farcical court right in prison, Navalnaya wrote.

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Judge Jed Rakoff, who is overseeing the defamation lawsuit of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin against the New York Times, sided with the media outlet, citing there was not enough evidence to prove a key element of the accuser's case.

The judge's ruling came while the jury was still deliberating over a verdict and Rakoff said that he will let the jury continue their discussions and will dismiss the case afterward. The judge presented his findings that set a path towards an inevitable appeals process.

The Times vs Palin

Rakoff said that Palin's team was not able to prove that there was actual malice, which is the standard that her legal counsel had to meet in her defamation case. The controversy, which began in 1964, specifies that public figures who sue for defamation must first prove that the offender knew the claim was false or showed "reckless disregard" for the truth.

Previously, the Times said that it had made an honest mistake involving Palin and immediately issued a correction. However, the former governor argued that the media outlet knew about the truth and used the publication to smear her on purpose, as per CNN.

The incident was caused by the Times allegedly unfairly linking Palin to the 2011 mass shooting that resulted in the death of six people and the injury of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords. While the judge will let the jury finish their deliberations, they will not be notified of his ruling to dismiss the case afterward.

Read Also: Joe Biden Angers Afghans, Makes Enemy of Taliban After Seizing $7 Billion Fund for 9/11 Victims

An attorney for the accuser, Palin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Judge Rakoff's ruling. The former Alaska governor sued the Times in 2017 for unspecified damages because their linking of her to the mass shooting damaged her career as a political commentator.

According to Fox News, the Times released an editorial that before the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona, Palin's political action committee had contributed to an atmosphere of violence. The media outlet said this was done by circulating a map of electoral districts that put Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.

Dismissed Case

But two days later after the publication of the editorial, the Times issued a correction, saying that it "incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting." The media outlet said that it had also "incorrectly described" the map.

Rakoff said that the law set a very high standard for actual malice but also argued that the Times made a series of poor decisions at the time. He added that the case was an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the media outlet. The judge said he was "hardly surprised" that Palin sued the Times.

However, he said that it was not the focus of the court to see if mistakes were made by the media outlet but to determine whether or not there was malice in the incident. The executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, George Freeman, said that while Rakoff had already made a decision based on the lack of evidence from Palin's team, he may have sown confusion in the case, the New York Times reported.



Related Article: McConnell, Trump Butt Heads as Minority Leader Plans To Block Former President's Primaries

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The signaled Monday it is ready to keep talking with the West about security grievances that led to the current crisis, offering hope that might not invade its beleaguered neighbor within days as the US and European allies increasingly fear.

Questions remain about Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions, however. And countries are evacuating diplomats and on alert for possible imminent war amid the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War.

On a last-ditch diplomatic trip, Germany's chancellor said there are no sensible reasons for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders to the north, south and east, and he urged more dialogue.

Britain's prime minister said Europe is on the edge of a precipice" but added, there is still time for President Putin to step back.

France's foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, told French television that all elements were in place for a strong Russian offensive, but nothing shows today that Putin has decided to launch one.

Despite warnings from Washington, London and elsewhere that Russian troops could move on as soon as Wednesday, Monday's meeting between Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested otherwise.

At the session with Putin, Lavrov argued that Moscow should hold more talks with the US and its allies despite their refusal to consider Russia's main security demands.

Moscow, which denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine, wants Western guarantees that NATO won't allow and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe demands flatly rejected by the West.

The talks can't go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage, Lavrov said, noting that Washington has offered to conduct dialogue on limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Lavrov said possibilities for talks are far from being exhausted."



His comments, at an appearance orchestrated for TV cameras, seemed designed to send a message to the world about Putin's own position: namely, that hopes for a diplomatic solution aren't yet dead.

Putin noted the West could try to draw into endless talks and questioned whether there is still a chance to reach agreement. Lavrov replied that his ministry wouldn't allow the US and its allies to stonewall Russia's main requests.

The US reacted coolly to Lavrov's comments.

The path for diplomacy remains available if chooses to engage constructively, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.

US officials said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders.

A US defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not publicly released. CBS News was first to report on the movement of the units.

In a phone call Sunday, US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to keep pushing both deterrence and diplomacy.

Zelenskyy's office also quoted him suggesting a quick Biden visit would help a possibility that was not mentioned in the White House summary of the call. Such a visit would be unlikely as the US is now operating with a skeleton diplomatic staff in the capital, Kyiv.

Ukrainian security and defense council chief Oleksiy Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of internal destabilization by unspecified forces.

Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th, he told reporters after meeting lawmakers.

We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.

As if to show defiance, Zelenskyy said Wednesday would be a "day of national unity," calling on the country to display the blue-and-yellow flags and sing the national anthem in the face of hybrid threats.

The country is preparing nonetheless.

Kyiv residents received letters from the mayor urging them to defend your city, and signs appeared in apartment buildings indicating the nearest bomb shelter.

The mayor says the capital has about 4,500 such sites, including underground parking garages, subway stations and basements.

Others heeded the advice of Ukraine's leaders not to panic. Street music flooded central Maidan Square on Sunday night and crowds danced. I feel calm. You should always be ready for everything, and then you will have nothing to be afraid of, said Alona Buznitskaya, a model.

During what could be a crucial week for Europe's security, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine on Monday before heading to Moscow for talks with Putin on a high-stakes diplomatic foray.

After meeting Zelenskyy, Scholz urged Russia to show signs of de-escalation, and reiterated unspecified threats to Russia's financial standing if it invades.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held talks with Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, underlining there is no alternative to diplomacy.

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Sri Lanka's Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa will visit India in a fortnight to formalise India's economic relief package for the island nation facing a serious forex crisis, Foreign Minister G L Peiris said on Tuesday.

In January, India announced a USD 900 million loan to to build up its depleted foreign reserves and for food imports, amid a shortage of almost all essential commodities in the country.

Peiris told reporters here that Rajapaksa's visit to India in December brought in many fruitful outcomes as we received USD 2.4 billion assistance from India as a result.

India's intervention in Sri Lanka's economic woes was much positive and significant, he said.

The close integration of our with India would be very beneficial, one third of our tourist arrivals are from India, the minister said.

Rajapaksa's next visit would be important for to clinch the USD 1 billion credit line meant for importing food and medicine, the foreign minister said.

India's economic relief package for Sri Lanka, announced in January, provided a lifeline to the island nation which was facing food shortages as the foreign reserves dropped to unprecedented levels, affecting the power supply and availability of fuel.

Earlier this month, an agreement to grant a credit line of USD 500 million for fuel purchases was sealed which was part of the immediate economic relief package.

Later, the Cabinet approved the move to purchase 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel and petrol each from the Indian Oil Corporation which the officials said was outside of this USD 500 million credit line.

The Lanka IOC, the Sri Lankan subsidiary of India's oil major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), has been in operation in Sri Lanka since 2002.

India's economic assistance package in January included a currency swap of USD 400 million to improve the depleted foreign reserves, deferred Asian Currency Union settlement of USD 515 million by USD 2 million along with another Indian credit line of USD 1.5 billion to ease shortages of essentials with imports from India.

The state fuel entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation said the 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel purchased from the Indian Oil Company was due. The IOC has allowed 60 days credit for the purchase, officials said.

The state energy entity Ceylon Electricity Board said a formal decision on power cuts extending through this month to April would be announced on Tuesday.

The hydro-electric capacity had halved due to a drop in the water levels in the reservoirs.

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Starlink, the satellite internet division of billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX, now has more than 2,50,000 users across 25 countries globally.

"Over 250k Starlink user terminals," Musk said in a tweet on Tuesday.

The terminals will keep on growing, and Musk said that in order to better internet connections, Starlink would need to upgrade its ground stations and other functions.

Until November 2021, had added roughly 11,000 users per month since beginning service in October 2020.

has about 1,800 Starlink in orbit.

Last year, Musk said at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) conference that Starlink should have roughly 500,000 users within the next 12 months.

He said Starlink is already running in 12 countries and expanding. "We're I think on our way to having a few hundred thousand users, possibly over 500,000 users within 12 months," he added.

Starlink shipped 100,000 terminals to customers recently. The project aims to provide global broadband connectivity via a constellation of .

began satellite launches in November 2019 and opened its $99 per month beta programme for select customers around a year later.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Bhargava, India Director for Starlink, recently stepped down amid the government pressure to get necessary permission for offering satellite-based Internet services.

His resignation comes after the Department of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Communications in December warned Starlink to get necessary permission required to offer satellite-based Internet services in India.

--IAN

wh/svn

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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday called on the country's people to fly flags and sing the national anthem in unison on Feb. 16, a date that some Western media say Russian could invade.

Ukrainian government officials stressed that Zelenskiy was not predicting an attack on Wednesday, but responding skeptically to the foreign media reports.

"They tell us Feb. 16 will be the day of the attack. We will make it a day of unity," Zelenskiy said in a video address to the nation.



"They are trying to frighten us by yet again naming a date for the start of military action," Zelenskiy said. "On that day, we will hang our national flags, wear yellow and blue banners, and show the whole world our unity."

Zelenskiy has long said that, while he believes is threatening to attack his country, the likelihood of an imminent invasion has been overstated by Western allies, responding to Moscow's efforts to intimidate and sow panic.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy's chief of staff, told Reuters the president was responding in part "with irony" to media reports of the potential date of the invasion.

"It is quite understandable why Ukrainians today are skeptical about various 'specific dates' of the so-called 'start of the invasion' announced in the media," he said. "When the 'start of the invasion' becomes some sort of rolling tour date, such media announcements can only be taken with irony." Zelenskiy's office released a decree calling for all villages and towns in to fly the country's flags on Wednesday, and for the entire nation to sing the national anthem at 10 a.m. It also called for an increase in salaries of soldiers and border guards.

U.S. officials said they were not predicting an assault ordered by Russian President on a specific day, but repeated warnings that it could come at any time.

"I won't get into a specific date, I don't think that would be smart. I would just tell you that it is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. Earlier, Kirby said Moscow was still adding to its military capabilities on the Ukrainian frontier.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington, which has already sent most of its diplomats home, was moving its remaining diplomatic mission in Ukraine from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv, much further from the Russian border. He cited a "dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces".

Blinken said Washington was offering Ukraine up to $1 billion in sovereign loan guarantees to calm markets.

The State Department issued a travel advisory recommending that U.S. citizens leave Belarus, which borders both and Ukraine.

has more than 100,000 troops massed near the border of Ukraine. Russian political leaders deny Western accusations that it is planning to invade, but say it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless a range of demands are met, including barring Kyiv from ever joining the NATO alliance.

Russia suggested on Monday that it would keep talking to the West to try to defuse the security crisis.

In a televised exchange, Putin was shown asking his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, whether there was a chance of an agreement to address Russia's security concerns, or whether it was just being dragged into tortuous negotiations.

Lavrov replied: "We have already warned more than once that we will not allow endless negotiations on questions that demand a solution today."

But he added: "It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted ... At this stage, I would suggest continuing and building them up."

Western countries have threatened unprecedented sanctions if Russia invades. The Group of Seven large economies (G7) warned on Monday of "economic and financial sanctions which will have massive and immediate consequences on the Russian economy".

After speaking with the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he still believed "from his own analysis, his own hopes" that there would not be a conflict, a U.N. spokesperson said.

Moscow says Ukraine's quest to join NATO poses a threat.

While NATO has no immediate plans to admit Ukraine, Western countries say they cannot negotiate over a sovereign country's right to form alliances.

Economic Damage

Ukraine has already suffered economic damage from the standoff. A surge in the price of 5-year credit default swaps on Ukrainian sovereign bonds suggested that markets gave Kyiv a 42% probability of defaulting.

Ukraine Airlines, the nation's biggest airline, said its insurers had terminated coverage for some of its aircraft.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held talks with Zelenskiy in Kyiv. Scholz is due to fly to Moscow on Tuesday, following visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and two British ministers went last week.

Scholz said he saw "no reasonable justification" for Russia's military activity on Ukraine's border, and that "we are ready for a serious dialogue with Russia on European security issues". He announced a credit of 150 million euros ($170 million) for Ukraine.

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya in Moscow and Natalia Zinets in Kyiv; additional reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Maria Kiselyova in Moscow, Guy Faulconbridge in London; Thomas Escritt in Berlin; Chen Lin in Singapore; Shreyashi Sanyal, Anisha Sircar and Muviya M in Bengaluru and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Kevin Liffey and Peter Graff; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Stephen Coates)

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Russian President is hosting Germany's chancellor on Tuesday after the signalled that it was still possible for diplomacy to head off what Western officials have said could be an imminent invasion of .

In another possible sign that the would like to lower the temperature, announced that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases.

But much remains unclear about Russia's intentions and how the crisis over will play out.

Here's a look at what is happening where and why:



What is the Russian government saying?



Russia's Defense Ministry announced that some units participating in exercises would begin returning to their bases. But it wasn't immediately clear where exactly these troops were deployed or how many were leaving.

The news came a day after Western officials said some forces and military hardware were moving toward the border, muddying the picture.

denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine, despite placing troops on Ukraine's borders to the north, south and east and launching massive military drills nearby.

has massed more than 130,000 troops near . While the US agreed that there was still a possibility of a diplomatic path out, Washington, London and other allies have kept up their warnings that those forces could move on Ukraine at any moment.

At a meeting with Putin on Monday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that Russia was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that have led to the crisis.

What is happening on the diplomatic front?



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is meeting Putin in Moscow, a day after he visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv in a show of solidarity.

On Monday, Scholz demanded clear steps to de-escalate the current tensions" from Russia.

And he underlined Western unity in preparing to impose tough sanctions if Russia does encroach further into Ukraine, though once again he didn't specify what exactly whose would be.

Scholz said that we are in a position any day to take the necessary decisions.

No one should doubt the determination and preparedness of the EU, NATO, Germany and the United States, for example, when it comes to what has to be done if there is military aggression against Ukraine, he added.

We will then act, and there will be very far-reaching measures that would have significant influence on Russia's possibilities of economic development.

Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau of Poland, one of Russia's most strident European critics but also currently the chair of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, was in Moscow to meet Lavrov.

Ukraine's foreign minister hosted his Italian counterpart.

What are Nato allies saying?



British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent, but there's still time for Putin to step away from the brink.

Truss said before Russia made its announcement about pulling back some military units that we believe that has not yet made a decision about whether to invade Ukraine. We think it's highly likely.

There are huge numbers of troops lined up on the border. We know that they're in a position to attack imminently, but he can still change his mind and that is why diplomacy is so vital, she told Sky News.

Truss said an invasion might involve an attack on Kyiv as well as an attack from the east.

What we do expect over the next few days is there could be an attempt of a false flag operation to create a pretext to claim the Ukrainians are attacking them, so that the Russians have a justification for invading Ukraine, she added.

In Oslo, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said that a Russian attack on Ukraine may be imminent.

Huitfeldt was speaking as Russia made its announcement that some units would be sent back to their bases.

Defense Minister Odd-Roger Enoksen said Norway is strengthening its contribution in Lithuania with 50-60 soldiers to strengthen the allied presence in the Baltic states.

The contingent will be sent there for a three-month period, with a possibility of extension.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between and .

In a press encounter, Guterres said he was deeply worried about the current tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The price in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate. We simply cannot accept even the possibility of such a disastrous confrontation," he said.

"There is no alternative to diplomacy. All issues, including the most intractable, can and must be addressed and resolved through diplomatic frameworks. It is my firm belief that this principle will prevail," said Guterres.

Earlier on Monday, the secretary-general held a virtual meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He also spoke separately with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Guterres said he will remain fully engaged in the hours and days to come.

He said, as secretary-general, it is his duty to appeal for the full respect of the UN Charter, a fundamental pillar of law.

He quoted part of Article 2 of the UN Charter: "All Members shall settle their disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the ."

The time is now to defuse tensions and de-escalate actions on the ground. There is no place for incendiary rhetoric. Public statements should aim to reduce tensions, not inflame them, he said.

Guterres welcomed the recent flurry of diplomatic contacts and engagements, including between heads of state, but said more needs to be done.

"I have made my good offices available and we will leave no stone unturned in the search for a peaceful solution. Abandoning diplomacy for confrontation is not a step over a line, it is a dive over a cliff," he said. "In short, my appeal is this: do not fail the cause of peace."

--IANS

int/shs

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The Biden administration has once again warned of severe consequences in case its forces invade and said that the path for diplomacy remains available if the Kremlin chooses to engage constructively.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that the US is actively working to reach a diplomatic solution to de-escalate the crisis.

Over the weekend, as you all know, the President (Joe Biden) spoke with President (Vladimir) Putin, and we remain engaged with the Russian government in full coordination with our allies and partners, she said.

has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops near the border with . The move has brought increasingly strong warnings from the West that Moscow intends to invade. However, has repeatedly denied that it plans to invade .

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively, Jean-Pierre said.

However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground, she said, as President Biden reached out to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss the situation.

The White House said in a readout that Biden and Johnson discussed their recent diplomatic engagements with Ukraine and Russia.

They also reviewed the ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russia's continued military build-up on Ukraine's borders and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, it said.

They discussed efforts to reinforce the defensive posture on NATO's eastern flank and underlined the continued close coordination among allies and partners, including on readiness to impose severe consequences on Russia should it choose further military escalation, the White House said.

During the White House news conference, Jean-Pierre said that they are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time.

We will not comment on any details of our intelligence information except that it could begin this week, despite a lot of speculation that it would happen after the Olympics. It remains unclear which path Russia will choose to take, she said.

The US is ready for any situation, Jean-Pierre asserted.

President Biden has made it very clear on his call with Putin this weekend that if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States, together with our allies and partners, will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia, she noted.

Biden reiterated that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia's standing, she said.

At a separate news conference, Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby announced that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is going to travel to Belgium, Poland and Lithuania.

He will meet with allied defence ministers and NATO leadership to discuss Russia's military build-up in and around Ukraine.

Russia has demanded guarantees that NATO will never admit Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations as members and that the military alliance will roll back troop deployments in former Soviet bloc nations. Some of these, like the membership pledge, are nonstarters for the US and its allies, creating a seemingly intractable stalemate that many fear can only end in a war.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied it has plans to attack Ukraine, but the US and NATO are worried about Russia amassing its troops near Ukraine and conducting a series of sweeping military manoeuvres.

As part of the drills, motorised infantry and artillery units in southwestern Russia recently practised firing live ammunition, warplanes in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea performed bombing runs, dozens of warships sailed for training exercises in the Black Sea and the Arctic, and Russian fighter jets and paratroopers arrived in Belarus for joint war games.

(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.)
producers will urge U.S. Congressional leaders on Tuesday to change the methodology used in the Build Back Better Act to account for life-cycle emissions in the production of lower-carbon aviation fuel.

Makers of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) are angling for tax credits to help boost production as the Biden administration aims to cut .

The existing text of the bill relies on parameters developed by the Civil Aviation Organization. But signatories of a letter from biofuels makers reviewed by Reuters want the legislation to use an accounting method known as the U.S. Department of Energy's GREET model, which they argue is updated to reflect innovations in production.

In the letter, dated Tuesday, producers argue the accounting method in the current proposal for the Build Back Better legislation, tabled last year, would disqualify a share of SAF from the tax credits.

Signatories to the letter include Darling Ingredients Inc , Gevo Inc and Marquis Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

SAF can be made using biomass including plant oils and animal fat. Numerous have signed on to making the fuel, and it is eligible for lucrative credits under programs such as California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

Last week, Marquis SAF and LanzaJet entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to construct a 120 million gallons-per-year facility in the United States to produce SAF and renewable diesel, another lower-carbon fuel.

In October, Gevo and Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, another signatory of the letter, signed an MOU to produce about 500 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel and other renewable hydrocarbons.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid heightened tension between and Ukraine, US Secretary of Defense will be travelling to European countries Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania.

"Austin will depart on an overseas trip February 15 to meet with senior military and government leaders in Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania," read the US Department of Defense release.

In Belgium, Secretary Austin will meet with Allied defense ministers and NATO leadership to discuss Russia's military buildup in and around Ukraine, reiterate the US commitment to Article 5, and continue the Alliance's progress on deterrence and defense while ensuring the Alliance is prepared to face tomorrow's challenges.

In Poland, he will meet with Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland, and Minister of National Defence of Poland Mariusz Blaszczak to enhance bilateral cooperation in security and deepen the Polish-American partnership, which is vital to addressing today's current threats and challenges, added the release.

Secretary Austin will also meet with US and Polish troops at Powidz Air Base to tour the facilities and observe the culture and conditions of our rotational presence there.

Secretary Austin will also travel to Lithuania to meet with Gitanas Nauseda, President of Lithuania, Ingrida Simonyte, Prime Minister of Lithuania, and Minister Arvydas Anusauskas, Minister for National Defence of Lithuania, to reaffirm that the United States stands with Lithuania, working together to strengthen the Lithuania armed forces and continuing to stand shoulder to shoulder against threats and adversaries to advance shared interests and values.

Secretary Austin will meet jointly with Minister Anusauskas, Kalle Laanet, Minister of Defense of Estonia, and Artis Pabriks, Minister of Defense of Latvia, and will visit with US Service members stationed in Lithuania, added the release.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday announced of Russian invasion on February 16 in his Facebook post.

has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border. The troop build-up had raised concerns among the US and NATO allies that is planning a military incursion.

However, Russia has continually denied having any such plans.

(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 Biden Administration has warned of severe consequences in case its forces invade and insisted on a diplomatic solution to the issue.

We are actively working to reach a diplomatic solution to de-escalate the crisis. Over the weekend, as you all know, the President spoke with President Putin, and we remain engaged with the Russian government in full coordination with our allies and partners, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

The path for diplomacy remains available if chooses to engage constructively, she said.

However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps is taking on the ground, she said, as President Joe Biden reached out to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss the situation.

The leaders discussed their recent diplomatic engagements with and Russia, said the White House in a readout.

They also reviewed ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russia's continued military build-up on Ukraine's borders and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, it said.

They discussed efforts to reinforce the defensive posture on NATO's eastern flank and underlined the continued close coordination among allies and partners, including on readiness to impose severe consequences on Russia should it choose further military escalation, the White House said.

During the White House news conference, Jean-Pierre said they are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time.

We will not comment on any details of our intelligence information except that it could begin this week, despite a lot of speculation that it would happen after the Olympic. It remains unclear which path Russia will choose to take, she said.

The US is ready for any situation, she asserted.

President Biden has made it very clear on his call with Putin this weekend that if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States, together with our allies and partners, will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia, she noted.

Biden reiterated that a further Russian invasion of would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia's standing, she said.

At a separate news conference, Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby announced that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is going to travel to Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania.

He will meet with allied defense ministers and NATO leadership to discuss Russia's military build-up in and around Ukraine.

(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 federal government has requested the arrest and extradition of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez after he allegedly took money from drug cartels.

American authorities sent the extradition request directly to the Honduran Foreign Ministry on Monday, said a ministry official. Hours after receiving the letter, police officers immediately surrounded the former Honduran president's home.

Arrest and Extradition

Hernandez left office in January after his entire political party was ousted in elections last year. However, whether or not the former president will be extradited to the United States is not yet a guarantee.

The Honduran Supreme Court, which is packed with loyalists to the former president, is responsible for implementing any extradition request. Last year, one witness said in a federal courtroom in New York that Hernandez bragged that he was "going to stuff the drugs up the gringos' noses, and they're never even going to know it."

Hernandez is facing accusations that have been made in at least two drug-trafficking cases that prosecutors from the Southern District of New York have been pursuing. But the former Honduran president has disputed the allegations in the past, as per the New York Times.

After the request for Hernandez's extradition, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice called an urgent court session scheduled for Tuesday morning. The meeting would be to discuss a potential judge who will consider the extradition request from the U.S. government.

Read Also: Joe Biden Angers Afghans, Makes Enemy of Taliban After Seizing $7 Billion Fund for 9/11 Victims

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, Nicole Navas, declined to comment regarding the issue. Additionally, the U.S. State Department referred requests for comment to the Justice Department.

NPR reported that Hermes Ramirez, Hernandez's attorney, accused authorities of being unfair to the former Honduran president. He argued that the suspect was inside his Tegucigalpa residence when he was arrested.

Corruption Accusations

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that Hernandez was part of a list of individuals who were allegedly involved in corruption or undermining democracy in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The American official said that the U.S. was advancing transparency and accountability in Central America by making public visa restrictions against Hernandez.

Blinken added that no one was above the law as the former Honduran president was accused of corrupt actions in a Twitter post. In a statement, the official said that the American government had credible media reports tying Hernandez to "significant corruption" by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and narco-trafficking.

Blinken said the former president used the money he got from drug cartels to facilitate political campaigns and further his ambitions. On top of that, Hernandez's brother, former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez, was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. judge last year for drug trafficking.

The judge said that the suspect had received millions in bribes that he used to support the ruling party's coffers for elections in 2009, 2013, and 2017. The money was later used to assist his brother and his agenda as the region's president, DW News reported.

Related Article: Judge Sides With NYT in Sarah Palin Defamation Case, Cites no Malice From Media Outlet

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Russian President said Tuesday that Moscow is ready for talks with the U.S. and on limits for missile deployments and military transparency.

Speaking after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the U.S. and rejected Moscow's demand to keep and other ex-Soviet nations out of NATO, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back alliance forces from Eastern Europe.

They agreed to discuss a range of security measures that had previously proposed.

Putin said that is ready to engage in talks on limits on the deployment of intermediate range missiles in Europe, transparency of drills and other confidence-building measures but emphasized the need for the West to heed Russia's main demands.

The statement followed the Russian Defense Ministry's announced a partial pullback of troops after military drills, adding to hopes that the Kremlin may not be planning to invade imminently. The Russian military gave no details on where the troops were pulling back from, or how many.

has denied any plans to invade .

(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 Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday made it voluntary for to have a separate chairperson and managing director (MD)/chief executive officer (CEO). The move comes weeks ahead of the April 1, 2022 deadline by which the top 500 listed companies by market value had to install two separate, and unrelated, persons as chairman and MD/CEO.

Considering rather unsatisfactory level of compliance achieved so far with respect to this reform, various representations received, constraints posed by the prevailing pandemic situation, and with a view to enabling the companies to plan for a smoother transition, as a way forward, the board at this juncture has decided that this provision may not be retained as a mandatory requirement and instead be made applicable to the listed entities on a voluntary basis, the market regulator said in a press release, issued after its board meeting in New Delhi.

The reprieve will benefit more than 150 companies, which currently have the same individual as chairperson and MD/CEO, according to Primeinfobase, a firm that maintains corporate information database.

Some of the top companies that will benefit from the move are Reliance Industries (where Mukesh Ambani holds both posts), Hindustan Unilever (Sanjiv Mehta), Bajaj Finserv (Sanjiv Bajaj), and Adani Ports (Gautam Adani).





The corporate sector has shown reluctance to comply with this governance requirement despite the rule being initially proposed five years ago, and approved by four years ago. The market regulator introduced the separation rule in March 2018 and gave time until April 2020 to comply. In 2020, the regulator extended the deadline by another two years.

There has been barely a 4 per cent incremental improvement in compliance by the top 500 listed companies over the last two years. Hence, expecting the remaining about 46 per cent of the top 500 listed companies to comply with these norms by the target date would be a tall order, said.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had urged Sebi to hear India Incs concerns about complying with the norm. Her comments came after Sanjiv Bajaj, CMD of Bajaj Finserv, urged the government to intervene in the issue and described it as regulatory overreach by Sebi, which would create problems for corporate India. Incidentally, Sitharaman addressed the Sebi board on Tuesday, a post-Budget custom.

A chairperson is the head of the board, while the MD/CEO is the head of management, who is supposed to report to the board. The rationale behind the separation of the two posts was to have a better and more balanced governance structure, the regulator said.

Gaurav Mistry, associate partner, DSK Legal, said that on the one hand, the rule would have ensured more effective and objective supervision of the management, on the other hand, it would have led to duplication of work, and some confusion in terms of authority.

Numerous studies have shown that companies with better standards tend to perform better at the bourses.

It will be interesting to see if listed and IPO-bound companies choose to comply with this higher, albeit voluntary governance benchmark, going forward, and the consequent impact on their valuations and performance, said Abhiroop Lahiri, partner at IndusLaw.

Industry bodies, however, welcomed the Sebi move.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said the CII had submitted that the amendment with regard to the separation of roles could lead to over-regulation and act as an impediment to a conducive business environment. The provision that chairman and MD/CEO should not be related could be onerous and may not be required, especially in the light of sufficient checks and balances present in the existing regulations to counter any potential ill-effects of such a situation, Banerjee said.

Arun Chawla, director general, FICCI, said the federation was grateful to the regulator for appreciating industrys issues. FICCI had highlighted this particular issue multiple times and true to the spirit of the current dispensation, Sebi has heeded to our suggestions and given a huge relief to industry, which is struggling to revive economic growth amidst multiple waves of the pandemic. Responsible self-regulation with adequate disclosures and accountability is the mantra, he said.
The key benchmark indices are likely to start trade with marginal gains following Mondays sharp sell-off. As of 07:40 AM, the SGX Nifty futures quoted at 16,940, indicating a gap-up of nearly 100 points at the opening bell for the Nifty 50 index. Meanwhile, here are the top for trade on Tuesday.

Earnings Watch: CRISIL and are the couple of prominent companies to announce December quarter results today.

Grasim: The Aditya Birla Group flagship company became a net debt free on a standalone basis after selling its fertiliser business. In its December quarter results, the company said its consolidated revenue was up 16 per cent YoY at Rs 24,402 crore while its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were Rs 4,107 crore. The company's profit after tax was Rs 1,746 crore, up 26 per cent on a YoY basis. READ MORE



Future Retail: The companys net loss widened by around 26 per cent YoY in Q3Fy22 to Rs 1,063.36 crore when compared with a loss of Rs 846.92 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. However, the Kishore Biyani-led retail company saw its revenue from operations increase by 87 per cent YoY to Rs 2,816 crore in the recently concluded quarter. READ MORE



The company registered a consolidated net loss of Rs 11.63 crore, attributable to owners of the company, for the third quarter ended December 31, 2021. The flagship company of the Adani Group, AEL had registered an attributable profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 296.81 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2020. AEL's consolidated revenues from operations surged 61.4 per cent YoY to Rs 18757.87 crore, due to improved realization on the back of higher index prices in the IRM segment. READ MORE The recently listed company reported an attributable net profit of Rs 211.41 crore for Q3FY22, up 66 per cent YoY from Rs 127.39 crore in Q3FY21. Total income surged 40.7 per cent YoY to Rs 14,405.82 crore from Rs 10,238.20 crore.

Coal India: The PSU majorsQ3 consolidated net jumped 47.7 per cent YoY to Rs 4,556.54 crore in the quarter ended December when compared with Rs 3,084.11 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income was up 19.5 per cent at Rs 29,086.35 crore from Rs 24,334.62 crore.

Dish Tv: The companys net profit plunged 80.8 per cent YoY to Rs 31.98 crore in Q3FY22 when compared with Rs 166.72 crore in Q3Fy21. Total income was down 12.6 per cent YoY to Rs 715.58 crore.

PC Jeweller: The company reported a net loss of Rs 75.47 crore in Q3FY22 as against a net profit of Rs 128.11 crore in Q3Fy21. Total income fell sharply by 58.3 per cent YoY to Rs 613.18 crore from Rs 1,470..29 crore.

Rajesh Exports: The company posted 59.9 per cent YoY surge in Q3 net profit to Rs 54.63 crore in the quarter ended December 2021 when compared with Rs 34.16 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income soared 255.7 per cent to Rs 1,576.22 crore.

Eicher Motors: The company reported 14.4 per cent YoY decline in Q3 net profit at Rs 456 crore for the quarter ended December 2021 when compared with Rs 533 crore in the year ago quarter. Total income was up marginally by 1.9 per cent YoY at Rs 2,881 crore.

Heath Services: The company reported a 25.4 per cent YoY decline in Q3FY22 net at Rs 16.97 crore when compared with Rs 22.76 crore in Q3FY21. Total income, however, surged 54.3 per cent to Rs 940.79 crore from Rs 609.77 crore in the same period.

Manappuram Finance: The companys consolidated net profit fell by 46 per cent YoY to Rs 261 crore in Q3FY22 from Rs 483 crore in the year-ago period. The net interest income (NII) for the reporting quarter declined by 12.3 per cent YoY at Rs 953 crore. READ MORE



Ashok Leyland: The company plans to raise around $200-300 million to fund the expansion and technology investments in its electric vehicle arm Switch Mobility. READ MORE



Jet Airways: The ailing airline which is working to restart operations that were grounded nearly three years ago, will receive Rs 50 crore as inter-corporate deposit from a company owned by Jalan group for certain expenses.

SpiceJet: In a fresh twist to the long-drawn share dispute between SpiceJet's Ajay Singh and the airline's former promoter Kalanithi Maran, Maran and his KAL Airways rejected a new settlement offer worth Rs 600 crore by in Supreme Court on Monday. The senior counsel of KAL Airways said that will have to pay them Rs 920 crore. READ MORE



Axis Bank: According to reports, the private lender is nearing a deal to buy Citigroup Inc.s India retail banking business in a transaction that could be valued at about $2.5 billion. READ MORE



Equitas Small Finance Bank: The companys has scheduled its board meeting on February 17 to consider the pricing, including discount if any, for the proposed QIP issue.

MTNL: The companys Q3 net loss widened to Rs 659.287 crore in the quarter ended December 2021 as against a net loss of Rs 637.78 crore in Q3FY21. Total income was down 11.7 per cent YoY to Rs 416.32 crore from Rs 471.41 crore.

Stocks in F&O ban: BHEL, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Punjab National Bank (PNB), SAIL and Tata Power are the stocks in the F&O ban period on Tuesday.




The debate on whether should be legalised continues to heat up with a key RBI official calling for a complete ban. Life Insurance Corp of India's next month is set to alter the pecking order of top listed companies in the country. Head further down for more on these stories as Business Standard brings you the top headlines this morning.



RBI's Rabi Sankar asks for ban on cryptocurrencies



Days after the Union Budget proposed taxing cryptocurrencies, which gave rise to apprehensions of legitimising them, an (RBI) official has asked for a complete ban on such virtual currencies citing threat to macroeconomic stability.

In a speech to bankers on Monday, RBI deputy governor T Rabi Sankar demolished all the arguments for allowing in India as none of them pass basic scrutiny. Read more



NITI seeks waiver for 'rights to use' transfers





To enable easier monetisation of assets, the may seek a waiver of goods and services tax (GST) on Rights to Use while transferring an asset to a new entity, following requests from power sector PSUs, officials in the know said.

At present, the transfer of Rights to Use is considered a supply under the regime, and attracts 18 per cent tax in the hands of the new entity or special purpose vehicle (SPV). For monetisation, assets are carved out into a separate entity or SPV by transferring rights. Such assets are housed in the parent entitys balance sheet, and need to be separated for monetisation. Read more



to welcome 1.3 mn immigrants





Canada, a country that relies heavily on to grow its labor force, has set an ambitious plan to bring in more than 1.3 million newcomers over the next three years to support its post-pandemic growth.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government aims to add more than 431,000 permanent residents this year, 447,000 in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024, according to the 2022-24 Levels Plan released on Monday. Figures for this year and 2023 have been revised higher from earlier targets of 411,000 and 421,000, respectively. Read more



IPO-bound LIC set to alter pecking order of top companies





Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), which is aiming to launch its next month, is set to alter the pecking order of top listed companies in the country. Depending upon where the government prices the IPO, the stock could end up becoming Indias most valuable company on the first day and even get fast-tracked into global benchmark indices given its sheer size. Read more



Top realtors getting into 'second homes'





Top property developers across western and northern India are getting into second homes concept at leisure destinations. A prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, the work from home (WFH) norm and a demand for such properties, being the main reasons.

Prominent names like New Delhi-based Eldeco, and Mumbai ones like Sunteck Realty, Rustomjee and Shree Naman group have taken a plunge into the segment while DLF, Tata Realty & Infrastructure, and Isprava are some of the established names. Read more
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is quoting at Rs 361.1, down 0.17% on the day as on 13:24 IST on the NSE. The stock tumbled 13.6% in last one year as compared to a 11.49% rally in NIFTY and a 32.13% spurt in the Nifty Energy index.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is down for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 361.1, down 0.17% on the day as on 13:24 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 1.37% on the day, quoting at 17073.25. The Sensex is at 57206.9, up 1.42%.Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd has lost around 9.85% in last one month.Meanwhile, Nifty Energy index of which Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is a constituent, has eased around 4.89% in last one month and is currently quoting at 23899.8, up 0.23% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 36.04 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 54.77 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark February futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 362.4, up 0.24% on the day. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd tumbled 13.6% in last one year as compared to a 11.49% rally in NIFTY and a 32.13% spurt in the Nifty Energy index.

The PE of the stock is 6.11 based on TTM earnings ending December 21.

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Hong Kong share market finished lower for second straight session on Tuesday, 15 February 2022, as risk aversion selloff continued on tracking negative lead from Wall Street overnight as well as concerns over the economic impact of a city-wide lockdown.

Sentiment also continued to be weighed down by worries about accelerated U. S. monetary tightening and the threat of Russia's possible invasion of Ukraine.

At closing bell, the benchmark Hang Seng Index declined 0.82%, or 200.86 points, to 24,355.71. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 1.05%, or 90.21 points, to 8,528.27.

Sentiment in the local equities market remained gloomy amid fears of a protracted economic recovery due to a worsening outbreak of the omicron variant of COVID-19. Hong Kong is struggling to contain its fifth wave of coronavirus infections as cases hit record highs in recent days, prompting calls for tougher measures to control the outbreak, such as a city-wide lockdown.

Compounding the downbeat mood were geopolitical tensions.

Investors in the region continued to monitor tensions between Russia and Ukraine amid fears of a Russian attack on Ukraine, with the U. S. closing its embassy in Kyiv.

Leading the upside were WuXi Biologics, up 10%, followed by Xinyi Solar, up 4.4%, and China Resources Beer, up 3.7%. On the downside were Bank of China HK, off 4.1% and China Petroleum & Chemical, off 3.6%.

Shares of oil producers and insurers were the worst performers. PetroChina and Sinopec dropped more than 3 per cent, surrendering some of their rallies on Monday on the back of crude oil rally. China Life Insurance and Ping An Insurance each sank 3.5 per cent.

MMG shares fell 4% after the miner said operations at its Las Bambas copper mine are set to return to "normal levels" in the coming days following a truce with Peruvian communities.

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Utilties stocks were trading with losses, with the S&P BSE Utilities index falling 5.7 points or 0.18% at 3205.9 at 13:52 IST.

Among the components of the S&P BSE Utilities index, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (down 9.98%), NLC India Ltd (down 7.7%),Reliance Power Ltd (down 4.94%),PTC India Ltd (down 4.17%),JSW Energy Ltd (down 3.53%), were the top losers. Among the other losers were RattanIndia Enterprises Ltd (down 2.18%), Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd (down 1.72%), Rattanindia Power Ltd (down 1.67%), Adani Green Energy Ltd (down 1.11%), and Va Tech Wabag Ltd (down 1.02%).

On the other hand, Tata Power Company Ltd (up 2.47%), BF Utilities Ltd (up 1.78%), and NHPC Ltd (up 1.7%) moved up.

At 13:52 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 1214.75 or 2.15% at 57620.59.

The Nifty 50 index was up 357.8 points or 2.12% at 17200.6.

The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 190.07 points or 0.69% at 27691.37.

The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was up 92.05 points or 1.11% at 8356.3.

On BSE,1596 shares were trading in green, 1699 were trading in red and 99 were unchanged.

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The majority of Democrats believe that special counsel John Durham should examine former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's suspected role in obtaining information tying former President Donald Trump to Russia.

According to a poll done last month by the TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (TIPP) in New Jersey, 66 percent of Democrats believe Clinton should be investigated.

Overwhelming Majority of Dems Want Hillary Clinton Investigated

That's up 22% from when TIPP asked the same question in October, indicating that Democrats are becoming increasingly concerned about Durham's investigation into the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The number of Republicans who believe Hillary Clinton should be investigated as a result of Durham's investigation has increased to 91 percent, up from 80% in October.

The number of independents has risen from 65 percent to 74 percent. Before Durham's shocking court filing this weekend, a poll of 1,308 Americans was conducted. One of the Clinton campaign's lawyers, Michael Sussmann, has already been charged with lying to the FBI.

In September, a grand jury indicted him, and he has pled not guilty. Sussmann reportedly supplied the FBI "data files" holding proof of a backchannel between the Trump campaign and Russia, as per Washington Times.

Durham indicted a cybersecurity lawyer at the powerful Democratic law firm Perkins Coie in September of last year on charges of making false statements to then-FBI general counsel James A. Baker about Sussmann's ties to the Clinton campaign while passing on information to Baker in September 2016 about the purported Trump-Alfa Bank link.

Sussmann repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the [Alfa-Bank] claims, according to prosecutors, even though he repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the allegations. The FBI looked into the rumored connection between the Trump Organization and Alfa-Bank and found no evidence to back it up.

The server in question was not owned or maintained by the Trump Organization. Instead, it was handled by a mass marketing email business that delivered advertising for Trump's properties and hundreds of other customers, according to the indictment. Sussmann is also accused of informing at least one New York Times writer about the Alfa-Bank idea in September's indictment.

"There might be an innocent explanation, like a commercial email or spam," the FBI said in an article released the same day as Clinton's tweets, but the FBI decided that the computer interactions could be a benign explanation, like a marketing email or spam, according to New York Post.

Read Also: Donald Trump-Stormy Daniels Issue: Secret Service Agent "Not Pleased" After Ex-POTUS Used Phone To Call Melania Trump

Hillary Clinton Pushed Trump-Russia Theory

Durham intended to try to defame Trump by tying him to Russia, according to a recently-released file. Although the accusation has never been verified, Hillary Clinton's team has frequently accused Trump of communicating with Russians via a hidden server.

In October 2020, while Trump was president, then-Attorney General William Barr named Durham to serve as the United States Department of Justice's Special Counsel. He's still looking into a matter that's bound to irritate the 45th president's supporters.

Sussman, who has been charged with giving a false statement to a federal investigator, was the subject of Durham's request, which was filed on Friday. In response to the charge, Sussman has pleaded not guilty.

Kash Patel, the House Intelligence Committee's former chief investigator on the Trump-Russia investigation, said Friday's filing "definitely showed the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers at Perkins Coie to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a link between President Trump and Russia," Daily Mail reported.

Related Article: Durham Report Says the Hillary Clinton Campaign Is Guilty of Looking For Dirt To Blame on Trump

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Vedanta rose 1.11% to Rs 365.45 after the company announced signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Foxconn to form a joint venture company that will manufacture semiconductors in India.

Taiwan-based Hon Hai Technology Group ("Foxconn") is the world's largest electronics manufacturing company.

According to the MOU signed between the two companies, Vedanta will hold the majority of the equity in the JV, while Foxconn will be the minority shareholder. Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal will be the chairman of the joint venture company.

The targeted project plans to invest for manufacturing semiconductors. It will provide a significant boost to domestic manufacturing of electronics in India. Discussions are currently ongoing with a few State Governments to finalize the location of the plant.

The collaboration between Vedanta and Foxconn follows the India Government's recent policy announcement for electronics manufacturing & PLI scheme for incentivizing organizations to contribute towards development of this sector. This will be the first joint venture in the electronics manufacturing space after the announcement of the policy.

This joint venture between the two companies will support Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to create an ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in India.

Vedanta Group is a global diversified group of companies with presence in metals, mining, oil & gas, power, telecom and glass. Vedanta Group has presence in electronics and technology business through group companies, Avanstrate Inc. and Sterlite Technologies.

On a consolidated basis, the diversified natural resources firm's net profit rose 26% to Rs 4,164 crore on 50% increase in net sales to Rs 33,697 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q3 December 2020.

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New Delhi [India], February 15 (ANI/Mediawire): The Ministry of Education of the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis says it is putting a lot of effort into the critical activities specified in the Education Section Plan for 2020-2021.

Last week, Dr Tricia Esdaille, Senior Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Education, (https://wicnews.com/caribbean/saint-kitts-nevis/st-kitts-and-nevis-working-to-improve-education-sector-534440198) stated that the ministry is working on modifying the education sector's career pathway and creating a framework for continuing professional development for everyone who works in the education sector.

St Kitts and Nevis is located in the West Indies and has become a beacon of education in the region. With the help of the (https://csglobalpartners.com/citizenship-investment/st-kitts-nevis) Citizenship by Investment Programme, the government continues to invest millions in the sector.

During the presentation of the budgetary proposals for 2022 in December 2021, Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris allocated (https://writeups24.com/read-here-budget-proposals-for-2022-of-st-kitts-and-nevis) $104M, more than ten per cent of the entire federal budget, to education. The sector received the third largest funding amount after The Ministry of Finance ($300M) and The Office of the Prime Minister ($110M).

While referring to the Citizenship by Investment Programme, the Prime Minister asserted, "We have transformed our CBI; we have come a long way from the difficult period in 2014. The robust procedures that are embedded in the program have enabled us to maintain our platinum brand and have ensured we take a significant share in the major markets around the world".

Education in St Kitts and Nevis

The nation's literacy rate is almost perfect at 98 per cent, as education in St Kitts and Nevis is free and mandatory for the first 12 years. The overall enrollment of students in primary school is 83 per cent and 91 per cent for secondary school.

St Kitts and Nevis is also home to some of the topmost sought-after medical institutions in the region:

* (https://www.umhs-sk.org) The University of Medicine and Health Sciences (also known as UMHS) is a for-profit Caribbean medical school located in Trinity, St Kitts. UMHS is accredited by the Accreditation Board of St Kitts and Nevis, a recognised accrediting agency listed in the FAIMER Directory of Organisations that Recognise/Accredit Medical Schools. It is also affiliated with over 20 hospitals in the USA, where graduates can do elective rotations across the country.

* (https://veterinary.rossu.edu) The Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine is located in Trinity, St Kitts. The institution is accredited by the Accreditation Board of St Kitts and Nevis and the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education.

* (https://www.mua.edu) Medical University of the Americas (MUA) is a Caribbean medical school located on the Island of Nevis. It is accredited by the St Kitts and Nevis Accreditation Board, and graduates are eligible for licensure within the Federation. MUA is also accredited by the Accreditation Commission on Colleges of Medicine.

* (https://www.windsor.edu) The Windsor University School of Medicine is located in St Kitts and confers the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree upon its graduates. It is currently accredited by the Accreditation Board of St Kitts and Nevis.

More investors are applying for second citizenship in St Kitts and Nevis

Paul Singh, director of leading government advisory and marketing firm (https://csglobalpartners.com) CS Global Partners, said that in 2020-2021, the firm received record inquiries about second citizenship from Indian investors.

Time constrained business people and high-net-worth individuals who want to provide their children with a world of educational opportunities often chose to invest in St Kitts and Nevis' Citizenship by Investment Programme, said Singh.

"Most applicants want a strong contingency option at this fragile time, one that can offer security and open academic and professional doors for their kids. With second citizenship for themselves and their families, they know their child can study in the best universities without a lot of hassle, whether that's in the Caribbean or the UK."

During the first official visit of the British High Commissioner this week, His Excellency Scott Furssedonn-Wood spoke to the Federation's officials about the various things the United Kingdom and St Kitts and Nevis can do in the future, and among the discussions were educational opportunities.

"There are other opportunities for our educational systems to work together...to do great work here in support of your government's ambitions, whether it is through developing capacity and content, or providing remote learning opportunities so that people in this country can study in British Universities for a degree from the comfort of their homes here," (https://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/visiting-british-envoy-discusses-trade-opportunities-security) said the Commissioner.

India and St Kitts and Nevis' long documented relationship

In celebration of India's 73rd Republic Anniversary this week, Prime Minister Harris hailed the contributions of the Republic of India and members of the Indian community to the development of the Federation.

Prime Minister Harris said the impact of the Indian community can be felt across every fabric of socioeconomic life in St Kitts and Nevis. Among industries like retail, tourism and hospitality, Prime Minister Harris noted that the two countries unite over their passion for education.

He (https://zizonline.com/pm-harris-praises-contributions-of-india-and-the-indian-community-to-the-development-of-st-kitts-and-nevis) said, "Indian entrepreneurs are there with us, and in the field of offshore education, your own Honorary Consul Ramesh [Mulkanoor] provided leadership at Windsor and brought a significant number of nationals and persons of Indian descent to St Kitts and Nevis, many of whom have made St Kitts and Nevis their home."

St Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment

(https://csglobalpartners.com/citizenship-investment/st-kitts-nevis) St Kitts and Nevis' Citizenship by Investment Programme has been pivotal in developing sectors like healthcare, business, and education in the nation. The Programme empowers wealthy foreign investors and their families to acquire second citizenship once contributing to a government fund.

After passing the necessary security checks and undergoing a stringent due diligence process, successful applicants gain a wealth of opportunities. These include increased travel freedom, the right to live, study and work in the country and the option to pass down citizenship for generations to come.

According to the (https://cbiindex.com) FT's PWM Magazine, St Kitts and Nevis' Citizenship by Investment Programme is the (https://csglobalpartners.com/news/ft-crowns-dominica-and-st-kitts-and-nevis-best-destinations-for-citizenship-by-investment) world's best and longest-standing and enjoys over three decades of experience within the industry, culminating in its recognition as a 'Platinum Standard' brand.

(https://csglobalpartners.com) CS Global Partners is a London-headquartered advisory firm with over a decade of experience in residence and citizenship by investment programmes. Our highly knowledgeable client advisors provide professional guidance towards the best strategic investments for global citizenships based on individual needs.

This story is provided by Mediawire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Mediawire)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dubbed as the countrys Aramco moment, the Initial Public Offering of of Corporation of India has moved a step The issue is set to dwarf the record $2.4 billion IPO of Paytm last year. Created by the merger and nationalisation of 245 Indian and foreign insurers and provident societies in 1956, LIC has been a household name in India for decades now. Here are key things you should know about the impending IPO Text on screen - How big is LIC LIC is Indias biggest life insurer with 286 million policies, 115,000 employees, 1.34 million individual agents and more than 2000 branches. It has a 64.1% market share in terms of premium and a 66.2% market share in terms of new business premium. It manages $528 billion of assets, more than the total size of Indias mutual fund industry and 3.3 times more than the total Assets Under Management of all 23 private companies. At about $130 billion, LICs investments in listed equity represents around 4% of the total market capitalisation of NSE. Text on screen - What is on offer? The government, which owns 100% of LIC, is selling 316 million shares, representing 5% of its equity stake through the IPO. The issue is a 100% offer-for-sale, meaning LIC will not receive any proceeds from it. 10% of the IPO size reserved for policyholders, while employee quota has been capped at 5%.9 LICs dominance is unparalleled globally with no other player in any country enjoying such high market share. LIC is ranked fifth globally in terms of life insurance premium and tenth in terms of total assets. It is the only Indian player among the top global insurers. The draft prospectus has put LICs embedded value at $71.3 billion. The embedded value is a measure of future cash flows in life insurance companies and a key financial metric for insurers. SBI Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance are the only listed life insurers in India. HDFC Life has a market cap of $15.6 billion, four times its embedded value while SBI Life and ICICI Prudential Life have a market cap to embedded value ratio of 3.3 times and 2.4 times respectively. If LIC is valued at 4 times its embedded value, its market cap could be $285 billion, making it Indias most valuable company. A 5% stake at that valuation will fetch the government $14.25 billion If ICICI Prudential Lifes multiple is taken, LIC could be valued at $171 .1 billion. That would make it Indias third biggest company by market capitalisation and fetch the government nearly $8.6 billion in the IPO.

LIC reported profit after tax of $199 million for the first six months of FY22. It collected premiums worth $24.6 billion during this period. Its gross and net non-performing asset ratios in the debt portfolio stand at 6.57% and 0.05%, respectively.

LIC faces significant competition from private players. As a result it has been losing market share although it continues to be the largest life insurer.

The gross written premiums for LIC increased by 6.30% in FY21, compared with 24% for SBI Life and 18% for HDFC Life. With the government raising the FDI limit in the insurance sector to 74% from 49% last year, there is an impending threat of foreign players entering the market and capturing market share.

LICs policies are primarily distributed through agents. In FY21, individual agents were responsible for 93.8% of new business premium compared to less than 30% for private peers.

LIC said it may be required to take certain actions to facilitate the governments economic or policy objectives and there can be no assurance that such actions would necessarily be beneficial to the company.

Further, LIC is involved in approximately 26,919 criminal, consumer, civil proceedings, tax proceedings and actions taken by statutory or regulatory authorities.

The IPO filing has come at a time when a sell-off has gripped the Indian markets. The benchmark Nifty 50 index is down almost 10% from record high set in October 2021 after falling 3% on Monday.

The current IPO record holder Paytm is trading 60% below its issue price. To drum up market participation amid tough conditions for an IPO of its size, LIC has embarked on an advertising blitz to encourage policyholders to open demat accounts.

While the IPO will be seen as a test of investors appetite, the government is banking on the insurers brand value as it hopes for the market will absorb the mega issue.

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The Suzhou Industrial Park is testing all of its residents and staff for Covid-19.

Taiwan contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) suspended production at its Suzhou factory after a worker tested positive for Covid-19, the company said Monday.

UMC said its unit Hejian Technology (Suzhou) Co. is assisting local authorities in screening all workers, after which full operations will resume.

Suzhou, in East Chinas Jiangsu Province, turned up eight Covid-19 cases Monday, all from the Suzhou Industrial Park, home to more than 1,800 high-tech companies. The Suzhou Industrial Park asked all of its residents and staff, involving some 1.1 million people, to take Covid tests, local health authorities said.
From the Greater Boston Association of REALTORS (GBAR): Greater Boston Housing Market Feels Effects of Low Inventory, Sales Soften and Price Appreciation Slows in January

Sales of single-family homes and condominiums declined from year ago levels for a second consecutive month in January as inventory levels waned and mortgage rates rose, which compounded seasonal softening in buyer activity. ...



Weve got very little to sell. In some communities, you can count on one or two hands the number of properties available for sale over the past month, stated GBAR President Melvin A. Vieira, Jr., an agent at RE/MAX Destiny in Cambridge. The appetite to buy is still quite strong, but the reality is it can be a lengthy process when there is little to choose from. The lack of listings remains the biggest drag on sales right now, but there is increasing anxiety over the rise in mortgage rates, and thats going to affect buying power and possibly the size of the buyer pool going forward, he noted.

This is a common complaint amoung agents. Inventory levels are near record lows almost everywhere.
New Zealand authorities have passed a bill that would ban conversion therapy in the country, a proposal that only eight National MPs opposed.

The conversion therapy process involves a "professional's" attempts to dissuade an individual from their sexual orientation or gender despite there being no scientific evidence. Furthermore, there is no proof that a person's sexual orientation or gender caused harm.

Overwhelming Political Support

In a statement to the House during the third reading, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said that the legislation was making rights wrong. The lawmaker said that banning conversion therapy corrected a "hurtful, insidious, destructive wrong."

Furthermore, Robertson said it sent a message of love, support, and affirmation to all people included in the rainbow communities. The deputy prime minister then shared his experience growing up gay in a religious household.

He said that he heard many negative messages at a time when he was grappling with his sexuality. Robertson noted that he faced the challenge of feeling different from everyone around him, even his family, as per RNZ News.

Authorities unanimously voted in support of the legislation on Tuesday inside New Zealand's parliament. Officials introduced the bill last year and received 112 votes in favor, prompting Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi to call it a "great day" for the country's rainbow communities. He also argued that there was no place for conversion practices in modern New Zealand.

The legislation also detailed what was not considered to be conversion practice. It will protect the right of a person to express their opinion, belief, religious belief, or principle, which is not intended to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

Read Also: Joe Biden Angers Afghans, Makes Enemy of Taliban After Seizing $7 Billion Fund for 9/11 Victims

US News reported that New Zealand's federal government said that it had received 107,000 public submissions on the bill, which is the highest number of public submissions ever received by any legislation in the country's history.

Banning Conversion Therapy

Authorities have argued that conversion therapy, on top of not being effective in changing an individual's sexual orientation or identity, was harmful to patients and was widely discredited. The legislation will make it an offense to perform conversion practices on a child or young person under 18 years old or on someone with impaired decision-making capacity. These types of offenses could give up to three years of imprisonment.

Furthermore, the legislation will make it illegal to perform conversion practices on any person regardless of their age where the practices caused serious harm. This type cites that offenders can be subject to up to five years of imprisonment.

In modern times, laws that ban practices such as conversion therapy have gained momentum worldwide. Last year, Canada's parliament unanimously voted to support banning LGBT conversion therapy.

While the United States as a whole does not have a federal ban on conversion therapy, there are some states, including California, Colorado, New York, Washington, and Utah, that ban the practice to some degree.

The conversion therapy process includes talk therapy, hypnosis, electric shocks, and fasting, while some severe cases can include exorcism and "corrective rape" for lesbians. The end of conversion therapy has been one of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's campaign promises when she got re-elected for a second term last year, Reuters reported.

Related Article: What Justin Trudeau's National Emergency Powers Can Do Amid Ongoing Trucker Protests, Blockade Response in Canada?

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Due to passenger problems on Sunday, two American Airlines planes were diverted. According to the airline, American Airlines flight 1775 from Los Angeles to Washington DC had to be redirected to Kansas City because of a belligerent passenger's unpredictable conduct.

According to CNN, citing an affidavit of the event, the guy told flight attendants that "someone was attempting to attack him, and they followed him on the plane." According to CNN, quoting the affidavit, he also informed them "he heard the individuals hurting his family over the phone."

Two American Airlines Flights Diverted

According to a news release from the Department of Justice (DOJ), the passenger was identified as 50-year-old Juan Remberto Rivas of Los Angeles, California. According to the DOJ, Rivas grabbed a tiny champagne bottle by the neck and tried to smash it on the service cart's counter before kicking and slamming the service cart towards one of the flight attendants at one point.

As stated in the report, he was restrained by several flight attendants and passengers while trying to unlock an exit door. The guy took some plastic silverware, withdrew the napkin, and "held it like a shank" in his shirt sleeve, according to a Justice Department news statement. The weapon posed a threat to a flight attendant, according to authorities.

The flight arrived safely in the afternoon at Kansas City International Airport and was welcomed by law officials, according to American Airlines.

Rivas has been charged with one count of interfering with the performance of a flight attendant's obligations by assaulting and threatening her, according to the Department of Justice. If he is found guilty, he may face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, Business Insider reported.

Read Also: First NASA James Webb Telescope Image Shows 1 Star 18 Times: Why Is the Photo Blurry?

Travelers Were Scared With The Incident

Several passengers and flight attendants sought to control the rowdy guest before a steward reportedly smacked the guy with a coffee pot. The lights on the plane suddenly turned on as "many males rose to hurry to first class," according to another passenger, who described the situation as "extremely alarming."

A flight attendant "racing full speed down the aisle," according to Jake Smith, as he was getting up to go to the restroom. According to him, the steward called for the lights to be turned on before the plane turned sharply to the left and accelerated in a matter of minutes. After the plane arrived, witnesses were interrogated, and the passenger was detained.

After the plane arrived, witnesses were interrogated, and the passenger was detained. According to Kansas City Aviation Department spokeswoman Joe McBride, the individual was being held for interfering with the aircraft crew, according to The Sun.

On Sunday, American Airlines flight 694 from Phoenix to Honolulu returned to Phoenix "due to a passenger disturbance," according to the airline. According to the airline, the flight landed safely in the evening and was met by law authorities upon arrival.

Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the situation, that major US airlines and unions are collaborating with the Biden administration on a statewide no-fly list.

In 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration stated it received 5,981 reports of disruptive passengers.

Related Article: Arkansas School Administrator Pleads Guilty to Stealing More Than $230,000 Funds To Spend in Personal Shopping

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The human eye can see many things, but still, it has limits that are why scientists have invented powerful vision enhancers to discover stuff that is invisible to the naked eye.

Telescopes have been helpful for humans to see distant things. Over the years, experts have developed sophisticated ones that can capture images from outer space.

This Valentines Day, NASA offers an out-of-this-world gift to the public. It recently posted on Twitter the first imaging data taken by its Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) observatory from the supernova Cassiopeia.- a remnant of a supernova with a distance of 11,000 light-years away from Earth.

Our #IXPE observatory sent back its first science image: Cassiopeia Athe remains of a star that exploded 11,000 light-years from Earth.



The supernova remnant is seen here in X-ray data from IXPE and @ChandraXray: https://t.co/Y9R8RPv2Pa pic.twitter.com/f0nj4BIEvn  NASA (@NASA) February 14, 2022

The amazing image was the first data delivered since completing a commissioning period of one month. As per NBC News, the IXPE was launched on Dec. 9, 2021.

IXPE first focused its X-ray vision on Cassiopeia A, remnants of a star that exploded in the 17th century. The explosion's shock waves swept up surrounding gas, heating it to high temperatures and accelerating cosmic ray particles to form an X-ray-emitting cloud. Other telescopes have previously studied Cassiopeia A, but IXPE will allow researchers to look at it from a better perspective.

All the equipment of the IXPE is operating properly and ready to collect data from some of the most mysterious and extreme objects in the universe.

Read Also: NASA Plans To Crash the ISS Into Point Nemo of the Pacific Ocean in 2031

NASA Releases Historic Images

When the Chandra X-ray telescope was launched in 1999, the first image it captured was also of Cassiopeia A. Chandra's X-ray photos revealed the presence of a compact object in the center of the supernova remnant that could be a black hole or neutron star.

According to Martin C. Weisskopf, principal investigator of the IXPE, based at NASA's Marchall Space Flight Center in Alabama, the image of Cassiopeia A taken by the IXPE is "as historic" as the image taken by Chandra of the same supernova remains. He added that the image "demonstrates the IXPEs potential to gain new, never-before-seen information about Cassiopeia A" that scientists are currently analyzing.

Polarization, or how X-ray light is oriented as it travels through space, is a key measurement that scientists will make with IXPE. The polarization of light contains information about the environment in which the light originated. According to NASA, the instruments at IXPE also measure the energy, time of arrival, and position in the sky of cosmic X-rays.

More Discoveries in the Near Future

Stanford University-based IXPE co-investigator Roger Romani said that the upcoming polarization images of the IXPE "should unveil the mechanisms at the heart" of the well-known cosmic accelerator. He added that his team has established a method to make the IXPEs measurements more precise "using machine learning techniques."

Romani said they are "looking forward" to analyzing the data that will be collected.

The IXPE was launched through a collaborated mission between NASA and the Italian Space Agency and partners in 12 nations. The observatory was launched via a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. It is orbiting 370 miles (600 kilometers) above the Earth's equator.

The operations of the spacecraft are being managed by Ball Aerospace, located at Broomfield, Colorado, according to NASA's website.

Related Article: Space Telescope Reaches Final Destination, Bringing NASA 'One Step Closer' To Unraveling the Universe's Secrets

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In what seems to be a regular occurrence at this point, Mazda has announced a product stoppage anew at their Japanese factories this May.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin Wall in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau removes his mask as he arrives at a news conference to announce the Emergencies Act will be invoked to deal with protests, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022 in Ottawa. Trudeau says he has invoked the act to bring to an end antigovernment blockades he describes as illegal. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)
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BUSY VOLUNTEENS: Junior Volunteens of St. Anthony Regional Hospital Auxillary were honored at the Auxillarys annual spring potluck Monday evening in the South Side Park shelter house. Three of the girls who had accumulated two and three hundred hours of service are, from left: Linda Frischm
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Dr. Kashef Ijaz

As the sole medical resident at a small health outpost in 1991 rural Pakistan, Kashef Ijaz did it all. He saw 50 to 100 patients a day from a neverending line outside his office. He sutured wounds, delivered babies, helped control malaria. He once helped an elderly man who was convinced that Ijazs stethoscope could cure his arthritis.

Today, Ijaz works on a larger scale, helping people around the world as the Carter Centers vice president for health programs. But hes never forgotten how the Pakistanis relying on him at that small clinic lived.

Ijaz jokes that as a young man in Pakistan he could hardly escape becoming a doctor. His father was a surgeon, his uncle was the chief of medicine for the Pakistan army, six of his cousins are doctors today.

He eventually settled in Arkansas as a medical epidemiologist after coming to the United States and earning a masters in public health from the University of Oklahoma. He had no idea he was moving to the epicenter of tuberculosis research in the United States, due to the states historical burden of the disease.

In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Dr. Kashef Ijaz, far left, visits the home of a community health worker in an area affected by a malaria outbreak. He is talking with representatives from the Ministry of Public Health and the Carter Centers local office.

With Ijazs background, the researchers were excited to involve him in their work. There was a dearth of people in Arkansas at that time who were trained in public health or qualified to be an epidemiologist, he said. Over time he became a tuberculosis expert and gained experience in other areas, working with marginalized rural populations in the state.

As lead epidemiologist for southeastern Arkansas, he faced public health challenges such as food-borne outbreaks, health disparities, and congenital syphilis. I remember walking into a high school and the ceiling was literally falling down in places, he said. There was poverty that you dont see portrayed on television or in the movies.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta eventually recruited him, and he began responding to tuberculosis outbreaks, traveling to places off the beaten path, such as Micronesia and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.

He also worked on developing the U.S. governments global health security agenda and helping countries better prepare for epidemics and pandemics.

After almost two decades at the CDC, Ijaz was ready for a new challenge and joined The Carter Center in 2020. He said he is still learning but can already see ways for the Center to expand its health programming into newer areas, such as strengthening the overall health systems in the countries where the Center works and collaborating more with the Centers peace programs.

Mental health and the peace programs

can go hand in glove.

Mental health is another area where The Carter Center has been influential and could make an even larger impact. Mental health and the peace programs can go hand in glove, he said. Think of refugees like the Afghan people coming to this country or internally displaced populations.

Ijaz believes climate change will likely play a role in the Centers work in the coming years, affecting the water sources communities rely on and famine that could cause people to migrate. Such changes may alter geographic spread of disease or disease vectors, such as flies and mosquitoes.

Ijazs broad experience with local communities and international programs has positioned him to respond to the global health landscape as it evolves. At The Carter Center, we talk about helping people at the end of the road, Ijaz said. I have lived at the end of the dusty road, he said. Its hard work, but its where you can find the majority of the population in this world.

Related Resources

Kashef Ijaz, vice president, Carter Center Health Programs 

Carter Center Health Programs 

Health Stories 
BEIJING, Feb. 14 -- A batch of PLA naval vessels was dispatched to deliver disaster relief supplies to Tonga on January 31. For COVID-19 protection and control, the task group was equipped with a mobile nucleic acid testing laboratory. The lab could complete the testing of more than 5,000 COVID-19 nucleic acid samples per day, and could also carry out the nucleic-acid testing for dozens of infectious diseases covering respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.
Marwan Kheireddine has never been one to shy away from a challenge. Growing up in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, which lasted from 1975 to 1990, Marwan Kheireddine learned early on the importance of education, hard work, and unity in his homeland.

Although his family was one of the fortunate ones who could escape the war-torn land due to a family business in Europe, Lebanon was never far from Marwan Kheireddine's mind.

Known for its rich archaeological history, resilient spirit, and glamorous nightlife culture, Lebanon's abundant mountainous terrain and lush Mediterranean waters have long been a favored hot spot for celebrities such as Ricky Martin, Angelina Jolie, Sir Richard Branson, and Shakira, who has Lebanese paternal roots. In 2020, actor Keanu Reeves - who was born in Beirut - was one of many celebrities who stepped up to support the Lebanese Red Cross after a blast of stored ammonium nitrate killed more than 217 people and injured 7,000 others.

Learning To Be a Leader in Lebanon

During his childhood days in Lebanon, Marwan Kheireddine was a nature-loving Boy Scout who craved adventure in the verdant countryside. He admits if he didn't go into finance, he would likely be growing olives in his hometown. Marwan Kheireddine honed some of his earliest leadership skills as a Boy Scout.

"I really learned my first leadership skills by being a Boy Scout," Marwan Kheireddine says. "When I was a kid, I was a Boy Scout for quite a number of years and I went up the ranks. I started as a Cub Scout and went all the way to a troop leader and then to the highest rank. So at a very young age, that instilled some leadership qualities in me on how to motivate a team, how to manage people, and to know how to talk to people."

Nurturing Marwan Kheireddine's Love for Nature

Ever since his years as a scout, Marwan Kheireddine still feels most comfortable immersed in nature. The avid hiker and hunter has been known to team up with a guide and walk in the wilderness for up to eight hours a day. "I absolutely love nature," he says. "I was introduced to hunting at around 7 or 8 years old and it was always in my background."

Hunting for the next big business endeavor also remains in Marwan Kheireddine's blood. In 2000, after the forward-thinking entrepreneur met with billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, at his London offices, the two teamed up; the next year, Marwan Kheireddine introduced Virgin Megastores to Lebanon. There was even talk at one point of collaborating on an airline in the region, but Kheireddine says the project never got off the ground due to geopolitical reasons.

"Launching Virgin created a lot of jobs in Lebanon," says Kheireddine, who helped alleviate unemployment throughout Lebanon. "This is something that has always been important to me." He made the leap from business magnate to politician look easy: From July 2011 to February 2014, he served as the Lebanese minister of state. Today, Kheireddine is the AM Bank chairman of the board and CEO.

Investing in Lebanon's Future

Kheireddine also played a key part in the passing of BDL Intermediary Circular 331, a regulation geared toward sustainable economic growth by backing entrepreneurs. AM Bank has since launched YOUTHinc., an initiative to help budding entrepreneurs in Lebanon. "We're determined to effectively contribute to the Lebanese economy, support the young generation and stimulate the establishment of startup companies, as they are the backbone of the economy and the main creators of jobs, all of which will positively limit and reverse the current brain drain that Lebanon is facing," Kheireddine stated in an AM Bank press release. "When these young minds have a solid platform and the appropriate support, they would be able to play and compete on a global level."

The Art of the Matter

In addition to expanding Lebanon's business economy, Kheireddine is an avid supporter of Lebanese art. He's a collector of Mustafa Farroukh's work, according to Executive magazine. He began collecting pieces from the Beirut-born artist more than 20 years ago. "Someone told me that he was the art teacher at my school, at International College [in Beirut], so I started buying some [of his works] here and there," says Kheireddine, who attended International College from 1981 to 1986. He then went on to collect war-themed pieces from Lebanese artists. Some Lebanese art, especially the vibrant works of Aref Rayess, remains underrated in the art world. "Some Lebanese painters have not yet achieved their worth," Kheireddine says. "Art is a safe investment, but liquid. So if you sell it quickly you will lose value. It is a good place to store your money over time, provided you can identify good art."

Marwan Kheireddine, the Educator

Outside of his business dealings, perhaps Kheireddine's most valuable investment remains in Lebanon's youth. The father of four spent 20 years teaching finance at the American University of Beirut. He's a founding member of the Young Arab Leaders and a major contributor to academic research in Lebanon. He's also led various leadership workshops for students. His adventure as a professor began serendipitously after he attempted to use the library at the American University of Beirut, but was initially denied access. A conversation with the dean of the business school led to him teaching an introductory course on finance. Kheireddine immediately found the experience gratifying and ended up designing a commercial banking course that is still taught today. Kheireddine walked away from his teaching gig but plans to return to it when he retires someday. "I'm sure I'll go back to teaching," he confides, "because I loved it."

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Photo: Jeremy Hainsworth Protesters gather outside the courthouse on Feb. 14, 2022.

Three women have gone to jail for 14 days after pleading guilty to criminal contempt of court for breaching a court injunction aimed at preventing disruption of work at the Burnaby Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX).

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick told Catherine Hembling, 79, Janette McIntosh, 58, and Ruth Walmsley, 61, that protests are part of a healthy democracy. However, criminal conduct  such as violating court injunctions  is not, she said.

"All were law-abiding citizens and felt compelled to act in a manner that is unacceptable in society," Fitzpatrick said.

The judge said they had been part of an organized group aiming at getting its way.

"That is unacceptable. For that, you must be punished."

The sentences were what Crown prosecutor Ellen Leno had sought.

The so-called "Brunette River 6" are members of a nondenominational, multi-faith prayer circle, residents of Burnaby and Vancouver, who came together to oppose tree cutting by TMX, as well as stream and urban salmon river degradation they believe is being caused by the company.

As the women entered the courthouse Monday, dozens showed up outside to support them.

The injunction, issued by Justice Kenneth Affleck in 2018, prohibits people from entering within five metres of worksites.

Leno said McIntosh was arrested on Sept. 8 after she and eight other protesters blocked machinery from entering a worksite. The lawyer noted injunction signs were visible nearby.

The court heard McIntosh and a man were approached by a police constable and told of the injunction. The man chose to leave while McIntosh elected to stay and was arrested. McIntosh did not dispute the facts.

In Walmsley's case, she was in a site where tree felling was being done on Sept. 27, the Crown told the judge. Leno said workers spotted people walking through the area without hardhats and stopped work.

The group of six knelt down and began singing. When approached by police, two protesters chose to stay. Walmsley was read the injunction and was subsequently arrested.

The court heard Hembling was arrested on Sept. 23 when four protesters were preventing a piece of machinery from cutting trees. Again, an officer read the injunction and all but Hembling elected to leave. She was arrested.

Each woman said she would abide by the sentence passed and would serve it peacefully.

The women gave passionate addresses to the court about protecting the land and the threat of climate change and perils the planet faces from continued fossil fuel use. Each said they had tried through letters to politicians, the National Energy Board (NEB) and engaging in rallies and public processes.

When none of those avenues worked, they moved to civil disobedience, the court heard.

Macintosh said she has dedicated 35 years of her life to ecological justice. She cited the International Panel on Climate Change report that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a code red for humanity and must sound a death knell for coal, oil and gas.

Macintosh explained her motivation.

I felt a deep moral and ethical responsibility, she said. My motivation was driven by faith, hope, compassion and love.

Walmsley, meanwhile, said "the destruction of Mother Earth must stop."

Climate change is threatening the survival of life on Earth. Greed and profit have taken precedence over people and planet. I will not sit back and do nothing while over one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, she told the judge.

Hembling called TMX a monstrous pipeline, saying this was the first time in her life she has broken the law.

I am not crazy. I am not malicious, she said. I am an old lady.

She said her decision to engage in civil disobedience stemmed from her Unitarian faith and belief in the interconnectedness of all things. She said all life is affected by human behaviour.

Another member of Brunette River 6  Tim Takaro, 64  will appear on Tuesday, but is not expected to enter a plea at that time.

Others who have been arrested at the project site include former federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and then-New Democrat MP, now Vancouver Mayor, Kennedy Stewart. They both pleaded guilty to breaking the injunction.

Leno told Fitzpatrick a range of sentencing options has been developed for those breaching the injunction  from seven to 28 days in jail. The aim, she said, is to deter further breaches.

She said that position on sentencing could increase in future.
Photo: Kristen Ostrowski/Everett Silvertips Fraser Minten celebrates a shootout goal Saturday in Everett. The forward will be one of three Blazers taking part in the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game next month.

For the first time in 20 years, three Kamloops Blazers have been selected to compete in the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game.

Matthew Seminoff, Fraser Minten and Mats Lindgren will compete in the showcase game, slated to be played on March 23 in Kitchener, Ont.

Seminoff, an 18-year-old forward from Coquitlam, has put up 19 goals and 25 assists for 44 points in 42 games this season. He is in his third year with the Blazers.

Minten, a 17-year-old forward from Vancouver, has tallied 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points in 45 games so far this season, his second with the club.

Lindgren, a 17-year-old D-man from North Vancouver, has 30 assists and 34 points in 46 games so far this season  tied for the team lead in points among blue liners. He is in his second year with the Blazers.

This is the first time the Blazers have had three participants in the prospects game since 2002, when Scottie Upshall, Erik Christensen and Paul Brown represented the Blue and Orange.

The Blazers begin a four-game homestand on Wednesday when the Victoria Royals visit Sandman Centre.
Re. Bernard Dumonts letter Opposition to towers grows (Castanet, Feb. 15)

I think the irony is lost on Mr. Dumont. Residents who don't live in the high-rises along the lake have been complaining for a long time about the loss of views.

Sorry if we don't feel his pain but it would appear from your letter the only signatories to his petition are other tower residents bemoaning the loss of their views.

Yes, there are more (towers) coming and thanks to him now others know the view they paid a premium for won't be there.

Take a look at the city plan that came out four years ago prior to the election, asking residents for their opinions on towers. There were four choices and none included "no towers.

If the current city council has its way, the drive from the bridge to Spall will look like downtown Torontoone big tunnel between towers.

M. Boyer, Kelowna
Photo: The Canadian Press A Royal Canadian Air Force Cormorant helicopter from 103 Search and Rescue Squadron based at 9 Wing Gander takes off from the airport in Deer Lake, N.L. on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. A Canadian rescue ship and aircraft are involved in the search for a Spanish fishing vessel that sank off Newfoundland with the loss of at least four crew members. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Search and rescue teams were expected to continue operating overnight Tuesday after seven members of a Spanish fishing boat died and 14 went missing in the icy waters of the North Atlantic east of Newfoundland.

The search will continue even after darkness descends in the area 460 kilometres east of St. John's, Lt.-Cmdr. Brian Owens, a spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax, said Tuesday in an interview.

"One of the advantages overnight is you can potentially spot flares or strobe lights," Owens said. "We will reassess as things go on, but the hope is we will be able to find the remaining 14 individuals."

He said seven bodies had been recovered since the first distress signal was received just after midnight. Three survivors were located in a life-raft by another Spanish fishing boat in the area.

Owens said it wasn't known whether the survivors would be taken to St. John's or back to Spain. He had no word on their condition.

Earlier in the day, he said a debris field had been located in the North Atlantic.

"It has allowed us to focus our efforts  and centralize our search," Owens said, adding that some life-jackets, fishing equipment, gear and an empty life-raft were found at the site.

Owens said the search teams were battling difficult sea conditions, adding that the region was experiencing 74-kilometre-per-hour winds and sea swells of 5.5 metres. "The visibility has decreased with fog so it is making it a little bit challenging on the water."

Conditions in that area of the North Atlantic, however, can be much worse, he said.

"Personally, I've seen 10- to 15-metre swells," he said. "Five- to five-and-a-half (metres) is still a bit of a rough ride, depending on the type of vessel you are in. The Spanish fishing vessels that are assisting in this search are designed for this weather."

Owens said three Cormorant helicopters were rotating in and out of the area and flying from St. John's to the Hibernia offshore oilfield and then out to the search site. He said a provincial airlines aircraft and a C130 Hercules out of Greenwood, N.S., were flying overhead doing sensor sweeps.

The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Cygnus was on route to the debris site, he said, where "a number" of Spanish fishing ships have been assisting.

Owens was unable to confirm the name of the missing ship, but authorities in Spain have said the 50-metre vessel Villa de Pitanxo sank at about 1 a.m. Eastern Time in rough seas. Spanish authorities said the ship operates out of Spain's northwestern Galicia region.

The news was a tragic blow to the port town of Marin in northwestern Galicia, where many make their living from the sea. Marin Mayor Maria Ramallo said the sinking of the boat was the biggest tragedy on record for the community.

"We can't remember anything worse than this,'' Ramallo told Spain's state news agency, EFE.

Those rescued were in one of the vessel's four lifeboats, while two other lifeboats were found empty and the fourth was unaccounted for.

Spanish officials said the sunken vessel's crew included 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three workers from Ghana. The owner of the fishing boat, Grupo Nores, wasn't immediately available for comment.

In a statement, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said that he spoke with Spain's ambassador to Canada, Alfredo Martinez, to convey condolences on behalf of the people of his province.

"Like the people of Spain, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have a historic attachment to the sea," he said. "An attachment that is fruitful, but which all too often results in tragedy."

The premier expressed hope that more of the crew would be found alive. "Our thoughts are with the families of the crew members and we share their grief."

The sinking comes on the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the Ocean Ranger oil rig on Newfoundland's Grand Banks, about 315 kilometres east of St. John's, on Feb. 15, 1982. The rig was demolished by high winds and massive waves, which led to the deaths of 84 men.
Photo: The Canadian Press Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly rises during Question Period on February 14, 2022 in Ottawa. Joly says the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remains high as cyberattacks on Ukraine undermined earlier optimism Tuesday that the Kremlin might be drawing down its military forces. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Canada's foreign affairs minister says the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remains high as cyberattacks undermined earlier optimism Tuesday that the Kremlin might be drawing down its military forces.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says in an interview that the threat of invasion remains real and imminent.

Joly says Canada and its NATO allies want to see actual proof that Russia has reduced its 130,000-strong troop deployment along Ukraine's borders beyond video imagery of Russian heavy artillery being loaded onto transports with no specific details about where that might be happening.

Joly spoke shortly after the prospect of a Russian invasion seemed to ease with President Vladimir Putin saying he didn't want a war and wants peaceful discussion with the West.

But then a series of cyberattacks hit Ukrainian government departments and banks, knocking them off-line.

Joly says she is extremely concerned by the cyberattacks and has spoken to her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, for more details.
Photo: CTV News Tyler Lagimodiere

Police say a man convicted in the random killing of an amateur photographer in Vancouver's Stanley Park five years ago has been sentenced to life in prison.

In a news release, police say 33-year-old Tyler Lagimodiere appeared in court to be sentenced Tuesday after earlier pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of Lubomir (Lubo) Kunik.

Police say the 61-year-old Kunik died in February 2017 after being stabbed repeatedly while he was alone on the Stanley Park seawall.

The department says Lagimodiere was arrested 11 months after the death.

The statement says he is eligible for parole in 14 years.

Police have previously said investigators were able to find a "forensic link" between Lagimodiere and evidence found at the crime scene.
Imran Khan's recently concluded visit to China and his unconditional support to the country over One-China Policy, Taiwan, South China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet issues showed Pakistan's ever-increasing dependency and the priority it accords to anything asked for by Beijing, reported thinktank Policy Research Group (POREG).

During his four-day visit to China, Imran Khan attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics and met with the top Chinese leadership.

The primary objective of this visit was to get loans and assistance from China to save Pakistan's economy, which by the admission of the chief of the State Bank of Pakistan is 'bankrupt', reported the thinktank.

The other geo-political plank was to cosy up to China by speaking its language on Xinjiang and Hong Kong and curry favour, it added.

Khan's desperation could be clearly seen in his comments that the Pakistan-China relationship was the "cornerstone" of Islamabad's foreign policy and that both sides reiterated their support on issues "concerning each other's core interests".

Imran Khan reiterated "Pakistan's full support to China on all issues of its core interest," and expressed "commitment to One-China Policy and support for China on Taiwan, South China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet", reported the thinktank adding that the visit showed Pakistan's ever-increasing dependency on China.

Notably, the importance of this visit for Pakistan is demonstrated in the major shift in policy announced by the Imran Khan government immediately before the visit.

In line with China's preconditions for a prime ministerial visit, Pakistan made a PKR 50 billion payment to nine Chinese independent power producers (IPPs) and the Pakistan Cabinet also approved the setting up of the revolving fund.

As per The Dawn, Khalid Mansoor, Pakistan Prime Minister's Special Assistant China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Affairs revealed the extent to which Pakistan had bent to Chinese wishes, when he stated at a press conference, "We have taken a historic decision a few days ago to shift their (Chinese) investment proposals to compliance regime, instead of arrangement that required about 37 federal and provincial approvals".

Mansoor claimed that China had promised to consider Pakistan's request for debt rollover, extension in currency swap and additional financial support. Mansoor revealed that Pakistan has requested China for a USD 4 billion debt rollover, extension in currency swap from USD 4.5 billion to USD 10 billion and additional financial support of USD 5.5 billion.

He also said he would be unable to quantify the investment commitments for the second phase of CPEC but added that it would be safely in multi-billion dollars. Prime Minister Imran Khan made a personal commitment to China that he stood by these arrangements speaks volumes of Pakistan's total dependency on China. PM Khan made this commitment during his meeting with He Lifeng, Chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

During his visit, Imran Khan met with several representatives of Chinese companies and solicited their investment. Prior to his departure for China, the Pakistani government considered requesting China to approve another loan of USD 3 billion in China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE deposits), reported POREG.

Pakistan also sought greater Chinese investment in virtually every sector of the economy, including textiles, footwear, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, automobiles, and information technology. At the end of the day, what the visit revealed was the complete dependency of Pakistan on China and that China is taking full advantage of this becomes evident from the steps taken by Pakistan to ensure that Imran Khan could enter Beijing, as per the thinktank.

(ANI)

Also Read: US offers Ukraine USD 1 billion loan guarantee
An astronomer discovered that a space junk will likely to have an unexpected crash on the moon.

Several reports have been blaming SpaceX for this, but the astronomer noted that the space junk actually came from a Chinese rocket.

Astronomer Discovers That A Space Junk Will Crash Into The Moon

According to CNET, in early February, amateur astronomer Bill Gray speculated that a space junk is on its way to crash on a crater into the lunar surface, adding that the said object was most likely a debris of a SpaceX rocket that had launched in 2015.

Space archaeologists were ecstatic, but others expressed concern about the expanding menace of space trash.

To further emphasize, the Catalina Sky Survey first found the rogue object on March 14, 2015, and classified it as a near-Earth asteroid. The study employs satellites based at Arizona's Steward Observatory to examine the sky for pebbles orbiting our planet, most of which would be dangerous.

"WE0913A" was the object's name according to the survey.

Gray soon recognized the object as the second stage of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCVR) satellite, which was sent into orbit by NASA and NOAA. So it remained for another seven years, until Gray released his initial post warning that the object was on its way to the moon.

Read Also: James Webb Space Telescope Capture Its First Star 18 Times Over Using Its Near Infrared Camera

For those unfamiliar, DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) is an American space weather station that studies solar wind variations and provides space weather alerts and predictions for geomagnetic storms that might impair power grids, satellites, telecommunications, aviation, and GPS.

DSCOVR is orbiting Earth approximately a million miles away in a unique place known as Lagrange point 1, which permits it to hang in between Sun and our planet.

Every two hours, the EPIC camera on board the spaceship captures a distinct picture of Earth, adding that the EPIC camera also records solar eclipses and the Moon when it passes across DSCOVR and the Earth.

Is SpaceX Rocket To Blame?

Despite the fact that some report stated that it is SpaceX to blame, Cnet clarified that Gray made an update on Feb. 12 after reviewing historical data, clarifying that the object is unlikely to be a SpaceX rocket. With the said update, the said space object appears to be a rocket stage from China's Chang'e 5-T1 moon mission, which was launched in 2014.

The goal of the mentioned mission was to orbit the moon, adding that the Chinese rocket closely resembles the data.

The booster is unaffected by Earth's sole natural satellite. It is projected to collide with Hertzsprung crater on the moon's far side. The celestial collision will not be visible, but moon-orbiting spacecraft may be able to see it in the future.

Gunter Space Page explained that Chang'e 5-T1 is a Chinese lunar sample return mission that is a forerunner to Chang'e 5. The purpose is to test the reentry vehicle's technology.

Experiments exposing microbes and plants to the radiation environment beyond low earth orbit are also carried aboard the spacecraft. In certain media outlets, its return capsule was dubbed "Xiaofei."

Related Article: #ThisWeekOnITP: Perseverance Rover's Photo of an Odd-Looking Rock, Amazon's Salary Increase, and MORE!
Operator:

Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode until the question and answer portion of todays call. During that time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Todays conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect this time. We now would like to turn the meeting over to Benjamin Haynes. You may now begin.

Benjamin Haynes:

Thank you, Brandon and thank you all for joining us for this briefing to discuss todays MMWR. We are joined by Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, Chief of Infant Outcomes Monitoring Research and Prevention Branch, who will provide opening remarks. Following her opening remarks, she and senior author, Dr. Manish Patel, will be available to take your questions. Ill now turn the call over to Dr. Meaney-Delman.

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to talk about a subject that is near and dear to me as a practicing obstetrician, gynecologist: vaccination during pregnancy. Todays news provides pregnant people and their families with critical information about COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy and the effects on young infants. A new study in MMWR adds to the growing evidence CDC has released on the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines during pregnancy. To date, what we know about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, has primarily focused on health outcomes for the pregnant person. Data have clearly shown that receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy reduces the risk for infection, severe illness and death from COVID-19 among people who are pregnant. For other diseases like flu and whooping cough, vaccination during pregnancy provides protection for infants during the first six months of their lives.

A period when infants are at high-risk for severe illness, but when theyre not yet old enough to get vaccinated. When people receive an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, their bodies build antibodies to protect against COVID-19 and these antibodies have been found in umbilical cord blood, indicating that the antibodies have transferred from the pregnant person to the developing infant. And while we know that these antibodies cross the placenta, until this study, we have not yet had data to demonstrate whether these antibodies might provide protection for the baby against COVID-19. The data CDC is publishing today provides real world evidence that getting a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy might help protect infants less than six months of age from hospitalization due to COVID-19. And these findings continue to emphasize the importance of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy to protect people who are pregnant and also to protect their babies from being hospitalized with COVID. Using data from the overcoming COVID-19 network of 20 childrens hospitals across 17 states from July 2021 through mid-January of this year, the authors examined the odds of COVID-19 vaccination, among mothers, whose babies were hospitalized with COVID-19 and compared that with the odds of COVID-19 vaccination among mother, whose babies were hospitalized for other reasons, and did not have COVID.

The study found that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy was 61% protective. Meaning that babies less than six months old, whose mothers were vaccinated, were 61% less like to be hospitalized with COVID-19. And in fact, the majority of babies, actually 84% who were hospitalized with COVID-19, were born to people who were not vaccinated during pregnancy. And most concerning, they found that among babies with COVID-19, who were admitted to the ICU, the sickest babies, 88% were born to mothers who were not vaccinated before or during pregnancy. And the one baby who died in the study was born to a mother who was not vaccinated. The bottom line is that maternal vaccination is a really important way to help protect these young infants. Todays news is highly welcome, particularly in the backdrop of the recent increase in hospitalizations among very young children. This has been the highest of the entire pandemic. Unfortunately, vaccination of infants younger than six months old is not currently on the horizon highlighting, while why vaccination during pregnancy is so important for young infant. COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy has been and continues to be strongly recommended by CDC and by many medical organizations serving pregnant people.

I personally counsel all my pregnant patients that they are more likely to get severely ill and experience pregnancy complications, such as preterm delivery, or even stillbirth from COVID-19 and I strongly encourage them to be vaccinated. They often ask me whether the vaccine protects the baby and this new study will undoubtedly factor into my future counseling sessions. I cannot emphasize enough how todays findings reinforce the importance of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, both to protect the people who are pregnant and to help protect their babies. CDC recommends that people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future, get vaccinated and stay up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines through recommended booster doses. Thank you for attention then I will turn it back to you so we can take questions.

Benjamin Haynes:

Thank you, Dr. Meaney-Delman. Brandon, we are ready for questions, please.

Operator:

Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Please unmute your phone and record your first and last name clearly when prompted your name is required to introduce your question. To withdraw your question, you may press star two. Once again, at this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star. One moment, please. For our first question, our first question is from Issam Ahmed with AFP, your line is open.

Issam Ahmed:

Thank you for doing this. I saw in the study that the vaccine efficacy appeared to be higher when it was carried out later in the course of the pregnancy might not form the basis for a recommendation for potentially a booster that might would benefit the newborn baby in the future. What are your thoughts on that?

Dr. Patel:

Hey, yes, Issam this is Manish Patel. I can take that question. Yeah. So I think, you know, thats a good observation. Yeah, first I think I would point out, you know, that the good news is protection was high throughout that vaccination throughout pregnancy at any point in pregnancy and we did look at it by early versus late. We were not able to look at it by trimesters per se, because the numbers were too small, but we did look at it early versus late and noted that point estimates were higher later in pregnancy versus early. And the reason we to do that was to test, you know, the strength of our findings in our study, as you note is an epidemiologic study. And so we try to take as many precautions as we can to reduce bias, but you never can be sure. So this is a good way to test the data. And we know you know, while we cant be about the biology of how protection happens. If you look at the antibody data, the higher antibody closer to delivery would theoretically lead to higher levels of protection to the baby as the antibody gets transferred from mother to baby. And thats consistent with what we found. Now I think back to your question of the timing of vaccination, I think that has broader considerations. One being the point you made about boosters, and Ill let Dr. Meaney-Delman comment on that.

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

So, as we talked about, when thinking about the timing of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, its really important that we remember that the benefits of vaccination are both to the mom and we know severe illness can occur with COVID as well as, based on this study to the baby. And while there are some vaccines that are given primarily to protect the baby, COVID-19 vaccines are critical to protect the pregnant individual, the pregnancy, and might actually help protect the baby as well. So we recommend, as do many other medical organizations, to give COVID vaccine at any point during pregnancy. But if we have a woman who comes in in the first trimester and is vaccinated, she can actually be eligible for a booster vaccine later in pregnancy. We still need to study that and how much antibody is conferred with a booster vaccination. And thats certainly something were looking into, but for right now, we want to that we are protecting both the mom and the infant. And so as soon as a pregnant woman is willing to be vaccinated we recommend that she go ahead and do so.

Issam Ahmed:

Thank you.

Benjamin Haynes:

Next question, please.

Operator:

Our next question is from Dennis Thompson with HealthDay, your line is open.

Dennis Thompson:

Yeah, I kind of wanted to follow up on that point regarding the protection apparently being stronger later in pregnancy. You know, I take it that at this point, you guys dont really want to put forth any recommendations on getting back vaccinated later in pregnancy, because theres a lot of other health risks that can crop up during pregnancy if you arent vaccinated. Is that right? Could you go into that a little bit more in detail?

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

Absolutely. So youre correct. We are not changing our recommendations to make a recommendation based on timing during pregnancy. And I want to call out, on our CDC data tracker, you can see that we had the highest number of deaths among pregnant people in August and September of 2021. So very recently we had pregnant people in the ICU, very, very sick. We have yet to see what will happen with Omicron and the reduction in cases, but right now we are not changing our recommendation, given that its really critically important that pregnant people are protected. So hopefully that clarifies for you.

Benjamin Haynes:

Next question.

Operator:

Next question is from Peter Sullivan with The Hill. Your line is open.

Peter Sullivan:

Hi, thanks. I just had two clarifying questions. First, I noticed the study phrases that as vaccination might help prevent COVID hospitalization and infants. I mean, are you saying its, theres still some uncertainty what that might language, or are you saying it full on does? And secondly, is this only for women who got vaccinated during pregnancy that these results are looking at? Or what if you were vaccinated before you became pregnant? Does that still confer protection to your baby? Thanks.

Dr. Patel:

Yeah. Hey Peter, I can take that question. This is Manish. So your first point on the use of the term, might, you know, its really a technical term. This is an epidemiologic study and these arent, this is not a clinical trial where you randomize mothers and then follow them and look at their babies, which allows the strongest evidence to say that vaccine is protecting the baby. So the technical jargon really an EPI data is that vaccination was associated with reduced risk of protection. And, you know, that gives us a really a truth check as these data are evolving. And its the full body of evidence on the EPI, you know, the biological science, and then of course all the data on protecting the mothers. So if that gives you some background on that question. The second question with regard to whether we looked at vaccination prior to pregnancy. We did not look at vaccination prior to pregnancy because we wanted to isolate the effects of vaccination during pregnancy. The completion of the series, a few mothers did get vaccinated with their first dose prior to pregnancy, but they finished their series with the second dose during pregnancy. But those were small.

Benjamin Haynes:

Next question, please.

Operator:

Our next question is from Amy Ducharme with Time Magazine, your line is open.

Amy Ducharme:

Hi, thank you. I wanted to ask about the historically or traditionally, fairly low vaccination rates against COVID among pregnant people in the U.S. And what the CDC is doing to try to get those rates up as the pandemic continues.

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

Thank you so much for that question. So some exciting news, and youll see again, on our data tracker pregnancy page, that in our vaccine safety data link analysis that is on our data tracker. We are seeing increases in vaccination among pregnant persons and persons prior to pregnancy as well. So the numbers are encouraging. Theyre not quite where we need them to be, and they do differ by race and ethnicity. We still see about a 53% vaccine coverage rate for non-Hispanic pregnant persons, whereas overall, for all race ethnicities, its about 67%. Now, I will say theres a caveat associated with that, which is this is not national but it is from seven participating academic institutions. So the trend is really, whats most important that the amount or the number of pregnant women who are being is increasing.

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

So thats positive. We still have a lot of work to do to get these numbers where wed like them to be. And there have been tremendous efforts with clinical professional organizations, with hospitals with community based organizations and I think were making a difference. I can say when the pandemic, early in the pandemic, I was having trouble convincing pregnant women of the benefits of vaccination. And I think its getting easier because theyre hearing it, not only from me, but from their family members who are encouraging them to be vaccinated as well. So really taking a whole of community approach and not just for vaccination during pregnancy, but taking advantage of any opportunity where an individual accesses the medical system, or even the pharmacies. So a whole of community approaches is how were approaching this.

Benjamin Haynes:

Next question, please.

Operator:

Our next question is from Lindsey Tanner with Associated Press, your line is open.

Lindsey Tanner:

Thank you. I just need some clarification on whether this data includes, whether this involves breakthrough infections or how these infants became infected.

Dr. Patel:

Hey, Lindsey. Yeah, so your point on breakthrough infections. So, you know, by definition, a breakthrough infection as you know, would be in a person whos vaccinated ends up getting infected. So here, or infants whose mothers were vaccinated during pregnancy, but did end up getting infected. And so thats why you get a point estimate of protection of 60%. So some proportion of infants did go on to get Infection and get hospitalized. Does that answer your question?

Lindsey Tanner:

Yes, I guess, I mean, is that how you presume all of them got infected?

Dr. Patel:

Well, some were fully protected and that would be the risk reduction of 60%. So another way to look at it is that 60% of the kids were never infected and hospitalized, 40%. Its not an easy way to explain that, but some percentage of those infants did get infected and get hospitalized. And that by definition is just a breakthrough infection. If you had a vaccine that protected a hundred percent of the infants, then you would have no breakthrough infections.

Lindsey Tanner:

Right. I meant among the hospitalized infants, Im wondering if it was the mothers who probably infected them.

Dr. Patel:

I see. Lindsey, we cannot be sure the source of the infection, sorry about that.

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

And Lindsey, this is Dana Meaney-Delman. We know that perinatal transmission is very rare with COVID. So we dont know how these particular infants were infected, but I will say perinatal transmission of the virus is very rare.

Benjamin Haynes:

Next question, please.

Operator:

Our next question is from Cheyenne Heslett with ABC news. Your line is now open.

Cheyenne Heslett:

Hi, thank you. I know this is a bit beyond the scope of the study, maybe, but Im curious what you would recommend. Once vaccines for kid over six months are authorized, how that would pair with a mother being vaccinated or boosted while pregnant? Would that play at all into the recommendations for an infant then getting vaccinated once they reach six months?

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

I think its, to really make any recommendations, we would need to really look at a lot of different elements of data before wed make any recommendations on that in general. With vaccinations, there isnt a relationship between maternal vaccination and vaccination of children. But again, wed need to look at the data since we follow the science.

Benjamin Haynes:

Brandon, we have time for two more questions.

Operator:

Sure. Our next question is from Lauren Gardner with Politico. Your line is open.

Lauren Gardner:

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Given the limitations in this study on looking at how boosters might have might affect vaccine effectiveness and also pregnant people who might have gotten Johnson and Johnson and then boosted with another vaccine, is that something CDC is planning to look at, or are the sample sizes on that too small? And kind of going off of that, what would you recommend at this moment to those mothers who or mothers to be who have been vaccinated but, you know, arent currently eligible for an additional dose because that hasnt been recommended yet? Like theyre already boosted, waiting to see what more recommendations for more boosters are going to come out.

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

So maybe Ill take the last question. Oh, sorry. Maybe Ill take the last question first. And maybe I can ask Dr. Patel if he has comments on the first, but I think its premature to, based on these data alone to indicate after someone is fully up to date on their vaccines, meaning theyve received the primary series and the booster, if theyre eligible, I think its premature to make any recommendations for an additional booster. But its certainly something were continuing to look at. There are large trials that are funded to look at these vaccines in pregnancy. So I do think we need to wait until we have additional data, but this is the first exciting news related to that. In terms of the J&J and the boosting with other vaccines, I mean, we are following up on women who voluntarily enroll in the V-Safe pregnancy registry, and that is a registry that allows women to enroll and then we follow them their infants through the first year of life. We have about 15, almost 16,000, enrolled in the V-Safe registry. And theyre of course other registries that exist. So I think that the issue of boosters is one that we do need more information about, and I think we will have more information upcoming months. I dont know, Dr. Patel, if you have more to add.

Dr. Patel:

I think I definitely agree with you on your comments. Laura, in terms of the sample size. Yes, youre absolutely right. I think we just did not have enough mothers with boosters. I think we had 10. We will continue to look at that as we accumulate and accrue the data on boosters. I think its fair to say from all of the evidence on boosters, increasing protection and antibody levels, that we should see higher protection, definitely not lower protection with boosters. In terms of J&J, we have too few to look at it. I think only four women had received J&J. So its tough to comment on that.

Benjamin Haynes:

Hi, Brandon, we can open it up for a few more questions.

Operator:

Sure. Our next question is from Eliana Block with WUSA9, your line is open.

Eliana Block:

Hello and thank you for taking my call. Yeah, so my question is about, do we know anything about pregnant women who had COVID-19 and recovered and whether or not any of their antibodies transferred to the fetus?

Dr. Patel:

Hey so in this study, we were unable to look at that because we were looking at infants who were hospitalized and did not have the data back on the mothers history of infections. I dont know if Dr. Meaney-Delman has other evidence from other places on that.

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

So I think its a really great question and its one where certain very interested in. We do have the surveillance of emerging threats to moms and babies network at CDC, which is a collaboration with jurisdictions that identify pregnant women who have COVID. And then we follow both the mothers and the infants out to see what happens in terms of health outcomes. So I think well have more data on this specific issue specifically around protection to the infant, but its premature at the moment. And as I said, there are some ongoing studies as well when they did compare some antibody levels, not protection, but when they did compare antibody levels in some studies they did show that there was higher antibody levels in when women who are vaccinated compared to women who had COVID. But again, whats the impact on the infant, we dont know yet.

Benjamin Haynes:

Next question, please.

Operator:

Our next question is from Brittany Shammas with Washington Post, your line is open.

Brittany Shammas:

Hi, thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to circle back on one thing. I know this particular study didnt look at people who were vaccinated before pregnancy, but Im just wondering, is there any other evidence out there to suggest that vaccination prior to pregnancy helps protect the infant? Just wondering if you could talk more about that and whether thats something the CDC is looking at or has looked at.

Dr. Patel:

So this is Manish. No, youre right. We, were unable to look at this and part of it is just timing. You know, we enrolled for six months and the vaccine was available prior to that for a few months. So most women were vaccinated during pregnancy in this cohort. I dont think theres other data that have looked at vaccination prior to pregnancy and their effects on infants. Dr. Meaney-Delman, are you aware of any?

Dr. Meaney-Delman:

So Im not aware of specifically immune protection of infants from women who are vaccinated prior to pregnancy, but I do want take this moment to emphasize one point, which is getting COVID during pregnancy is associated with severe illness. So theres a huge benefit to the pregnancy and to having a healthy mother of getting vaccinated prior to pregnancy. So I dont want us to lose sight of that piece. While we dont know that theres actual immune protection conferred, we know that might protect a mom from getting COVID during pregnancy, which is associated, as I mentioned, with preterm birth, with stillbirth with pregnancy complications. So its really a good idea.

Benjamin Haynes:

And our last question, please.

Operator:

Our last question is from Damian McNamara with WebMD and Medscape, your line is open.

Damian McNamara:

Yeah. My question is whether you were able to control for breastfeeding, which might offer some sort of protection during the first six months.

Dr. Patel:

Hey, Damien. So we did ask the question about breastfeeding in the paper itself. However, we did have a lot of non-responses. So a lot of what we call missing data to look at the issue of breastfeeding and its interaction with protection in this study.

Benjamin Haynes:

Thank you, Dr. Meaney-Delman and Dr. Patel, and thank you all for joining us today. If you have further questions, please contact the main media line at 404-639-3286 or email media@cdc.gov. Thank you.

Operator:

Thank you for participating in todays conference. All lines may disconnect at this time.
Afghanistan governments financial crunch eases

15 February 2022

Two top decisions announced in Washington, DC and Islamabad, respectively, would ease the Afghanistan governments financial crunch and supply of cement to Kabul last week. Economic experts believe it would help Afghanistan, which direly needs foreign exchange reserves to import items and overcome the financial problem in the short term.

After months of waiting, US President Joe Biden on 11 February signed an executive order giving half of the US$7bn in frozen Afghan assets to Afghanistan while keeping the other half for the 11 September terror attacks victims. The US administration blocked the assets belonging to Afghanistan's central bank, known as Da Afghan Bank or DABin August last year.

The move aimed to prevent the countrys new Taliban rulers, who seized Kabul on 15 August 2021, from accessing the funds. President Biden said the order to release funds was part of our ongoing world to address the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan. The money would be used to benefit the Afghan people.

Export to Afghanistan

Meanwhile, Pakistan has allowed the export settlement of 14 items to Afghanistan in local currency. The export of poultry and products, meat, cement, pharmaceutical, textiles, fruits, vegetables, salt, rice and surgical instruments to the crisis-hit neighbouring country can be settled in Pakistani rupees, Commerce Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood announced on his official Twitter account on 11 February.

According to AHL Research, Pakistan's total cement exports shrunk by 24 per cent YoY during January 2022 to 0.53Mt due to a 95 per cent YoY decline in North-based exports to Afghanistan to 0.01Mt. Only a few years ago, Pakistan was the biggest supplier of cement to Afghanistan. In 2013 export stood at over 4.5Mt, which declined to 2Mt in 2020. The share began to drop significantly when Iranian cement found its way into Afghan markets. The situation is direr given the ongoing political turmoil and lack of foreign exchange in that country, which has caused considerable uncertainty in how soon that market may recover.

Published under
Legacybox, a Chattanooga-based digitizing company, announced it hired Joe Marler to be its next production director. Mr. Marler comes to Legacybox with more than 20 years of production management experience.

Prior to joining, Mr. Maler was a plant manager at Novolex, a food packaging manufacturer. He was also an operations manager at InterConnect Wiring, a military aerospace electrical products company in Fort Worth, Tx. Mr. Marler is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

Adding a leader of Joes caliber to our team is an exciting milestone for Legacybox, said Legacybox Co-Founder Adam Boeselager. Joes leadership skills, management experience and depth of manufacturing knowledge will greatly benefit our employees and ultimately enhance our abilities to meet the needs of our customers on a greater scale.



As Legacyboxs production director, Mr. Marler will oversee all three production shifts, driving performance through developing, managing and leading the departments operational objectives at the companys five-acre, 110,000 sq. ft. production campus in Chattanooga.

"Mr. Marler will lead the team to provide exceptional customer experiences, and embody the companys value of 'always be improving,' by identifying root issues and instilling solution-oriented culture," officials said.



I feel so fortunate to have found Legacybox and joined their powerhouse of a team, said Mr. Marler. I love the mission. Its hard not to be passionate about helping customers relive what was once lost or forgotten babies first steps, your fathers voice, your wedding day. I'm eager to plug in and take things to the next level by leveraging my past work experience and Legacyboxs expertise doing meaningful work, digitally preserving 19 different types of media.



"Since its founding by Nick Macco and Adam Boeselager in 2007, Legacybox has grown to become the industry leader in digitizing home movies photos," officials said. "The company was the first to create a real-time tracking system so customers could follow their order through every step of the process. And the first to offer a shipping-protection package to give customers peace of mind when mailing their cherished recorded footage.



"Beyond the priceless personal moments customers have trusted Legacybox with, the company has been counted on to preserve footage of historical figures such as presidents, archived screen and pencil tests for the worlds largest animation studio. And this past March, it even digitized recordings for use by the Smithsonian."
Multi-platinum selling country rock group ALABAMA is bringing its 50th Anniversary Tour to Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, on Saturday, April 16. Tickets go on sale this Friday, Feb. 18, at 10 a.m. (ET).



Tickets and information are available by visiting www.tbarena.com or by visiting www.thealabamaband.com. The most-celebrated group in country music history will be joined for their Knoxville show by country-rock favorites EXILE.



In 1969, a trio of young musical cousins from Fort Payne, Al., journeyed to Myrtle Beach, S.C. to play their music at a bar called The Bowery. It took band members Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry and Randy Owen eight years of word-of-mouth and tip jars to earn the major label deal of which theyd been dreaming. ALABAMA would go on to change the face of country music.

Winning GRAMMY, CMA, ACM and more than 300 industry awards, the Country Music Hall of Fame, Musicians Hall of Fame, and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame band is the most celebrated group in country music history. This spring, their 50th Anniversary Tour rolls on, bringing decades of hit music to East Tennessee.


A home in Red Bank was damaged by fire Tuesday morning.

A Red Bank resident called 911 reporting a house fire at 37 Paulmar Drive. At 7:15 a.m., Red Bank firefighters responded and arrived on the scene reporting fire through the roof. Neighbors informed the firefighters that were not sure if anyone was inside the home.

The first team entered the home and conducted a quick search and rescue while the second team knocked the fire down around the chimney and attic area. The first team confirmed that no one was in the home.

No injuries reported but Hamilton County EMS was on the scene for any potential injuries to the firefighters.

Red Bank fire officials reported the fire started around the chimney but the cause will be under investigation by Red Bank Fire Department. Damages are unknown at this time.

The Red Bank Fire Department requested a mutual aid response for additional manpower from the Chattanooga Fire Department and Dallas Bay Volunteer Fire Department. The Signal Mountain Fire Department stood by at the Red Bank fire station for any additional emergency calls in its district.
I enjoyed reading Jerry Summers recent article on Ralph McGill and Col. John Popham. I didnt know Mr. McGill that well but did get to spend a lot of time with the Colonel. We both served on the Armed Forces Week Committee for many years. He would speak from time to time about his military experiences.

In 1985, Colonel Popham, State Rep. Bobby Wood and Rev. R.O. Stoner surprised me at WDOD with the Annual American Legion Post 14 Americanism Award. Col. Popham was Post 14 adjutant and Rev. Stoner was the post commander. Id never received an honor like this before.

I insisted my guests stay with me for an entire radio broadcast and we all enjoyed Col. Pophams stories. It was so interesting just to hear his use of the English language. I wish I could find a recording of that program. It was the best history lesson Id ever had.

Chattanooga Times employees told me on a slow news day theyd engage the Colonel, listening to his memories of World War II and the Korean War.

During that visit I got to know Rep. Wood, who became a regular guest on my talk shows. Mr. Wood served over 20 years in the Tennessee Legislature.

Mr. Wood recently posted on Facebook a thank you to his many friends for their prayers as he battles cancer:

The prayer bells of Heaven have surely been ringing. Over the last few days over 1,000 have either liked and expressed their intent to pray for me or offered uplifting reassurance that they are supporting me through this ordeal that has driven Jeanne and me to our knees. I feel the results of those prayers and grow stronger from the arms that have reached out, encouraged and lifted us up. With all my heart I believe that God is going to see me through this and you and I will celebrate and praise Him for it together. Bobby Wood

Ill never forget that beautiful fall afternoon these men surprised me. They are all our heroes.

* * *

Earl Freudenberg

HeyEarl1971@epbfi.com
Morning Pointe of Hardin Valley, a new senior living campus in northwest Knoxville offering assisted living and Alzheimers memory care, is now officially open and welcoming residents. This campus is Morning Pointes seventh building in the greater Knoxville area, complementing locations in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Powell and Clinton, and the 36th Morning Pointe

Senior Living community overall.

Founded in 1997 by Tennessee healthcare entrepreneurs Greg A. Vital and Franklin Farrow, Morning Pointe Senior Living operates assisted living, personal care, and Alzheimers memory care communities in five southeastern states.



The initial phase of the 20-acre campus, 2449 Reagan Road, features a single-story assisted

living and memory care community with 77 spacious apartments, including a secure wing specially

designed for residents with Alzheimers disease and other memory care needs. Morning Pointes

patented Meaningful Day programming features a strong focus on clinical care with physical and

occupational therapies, life enrichment and wellness offerings, including the Teepa Snow Positive

Approach to Care and Best Friends Approach. Farm-to-Table fresh dining and intergenerational

activities help residents live their best.



As of this week, our doors are officially open, and associates are hard at work preparing the community to welcome its first residents, said Mr. Vital. Nestled between Knoxville and Oak Ridge, Morning Pointe of Hardin Valley will be a wonderful community to call home. With access to healthcare resources, and the continued growth of Knoxville and the University of Tennessee, East Tennessee has certainly been an excellent place to expand our footprint of providing the highest level of senior resident care for generations to come.



Ben Stiefel, a graduate of Lee University, is the executive director at Morning Pointe of Hardin Valley, bringing over 14 years of experience in senior healthcare. I have a deeply-rooted desire to serve the seniors of my community. I find fulfillment in providing them with a comfortable and safe environment where they feel loved and valued, as well as having an active and engaged community, said Mr. Stiefel.



Morning Pointe of Hardin Valley will ultimately create 250 permanent healthcare positions with a positive economic impact of more than $30 million annually, considering payroll, property taxes and local purchase of goods and services.

A grand opening event will be planned for the spring.

For more information on Morning Pointe of Hardin Valley, call 877-776-4683 or visit morningpointe.com/hardin-valley.
East Ridge Police said a man was seen snorting heroin at a pharmacy drive-thru and he then passed out.

In the incident on Friday, police went to the Walgreens on Ringgold Road to respond to what they called suspicious activity. They said Walgreens staff had seen the man snorting white powder while he was trying to get medication.

The staff said the man, who had two children and a woman in the car with him, passed out after snorting the substance.

When police arrived, they saw a car running with a man passed out in the drivers seat.

Police said the suspect, Eric Lebron Jones, 29, admitted to snorting heroin and agreed to do a field sobriety test. After he struggled with the majority of the test, police took Jones into custody.

Police said the woman in the car told them he does this all the time and that he uses heroin and fentanyl regularly.

Police also interviewed the Walgreens staff member who witnessed Jones snorting heroin.

The woman and children were allowed to leave after this.

Jones was charged with second-offense DUI and two counts of child abuse and neglect.
After eight years as governor, Bill Haslam was able to claim for Tennessee the education title of fastest improving state in the country in academic achievement. Tennessee also experienced its highest graduation rate, highest ACT scores, and largest increases in career and technical education enrollment in the states history.

We had a new high score on the ACT (20.2) coupled with a new high participation rate (97 percent); more students took AP exams. Haslam pointed to growth in students literacy skills in the early grades  with success with the Read to Be Ready effort. Tennessee was the first state in the nation to offer high school graduates and adults two years of community or technical college free of tuition and mandatory fees.

How have we built on that progress? To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, the question every Tennessean must answer: Are we better off today than we were four years ago?

Compare differences in literacy for a moment. Educators have argued about multiple approaches to reading instruction since public education began. The politics over literacy will continue to be contentious and debated. However, low literacy is strongly related to crime. Low literacy is strongly related to unemployment. Illiteracy and crime are closely related. The Department of Justice states, The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure. Over 70 percent of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth-grade level. Reading is the key to academic success.

Governor Haslam recognized the reading issues facing the state. In 2016, he launched Read to Be Ready a strategy that approached literacy from multiple angles, including phonics. This included strengthening the training that our teachers receive, expanding community partnerships to provide support for students and families after school and during the summer, as well as preparing our youngest students with early literacy skills before they ever enter a classroom. It did take time for classroom teachers to find or create materials.

Governor Lee scrapped the Read to Be Ready program and launched his initiative Reading 360. To be fair, there are similarities between the two programs. Much of the criticism has focused on the increased price tag and choosing preferred vendors for state contracts. The textbook adoption process timeline, overreach of authority, and prior relationship with selected partners were denounced by many.

One vendor in particular The New Teacher Project, with ties to Penny Schwinn, Governor Lees Commissioner of Education, was awarded millions of dollars. The Tennessee Department of Education had partnered with TNTP on literacy as early as 2016. One curriculum Wit & Wisdom created by Great Minds received condemnation from some groups. We have not been able to measure how useful expenditures for things like materials for families, including a smartphone app, or if programming provided through PBS when students are in school benefits students.

In 2018, his final year in office, Bill Haslam proposed a $37.5 billion budget, which he said focused on jobs, education, and efficient and effective government. This year Governor Lee put forth a $52.6 billion budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, to be focused on freedom, innovation, exceptionalism, and optimism. This is an increase from the $41.8 billion budget in 2021. Policymakers must wonder if state government spending can continue this trajectory and maintain its core responsibilities moving forward.

The largest appropriation in the state budget is K-12 education, which has comprised 27 to 30 percent of all state spending for the last decade. Spending lags behind other states. In 2016, Haslam championed his plan to update the Basic Education Program. Governor Lee is now trying to change the 30-year state education funding formula. Policymakers are already asking questions about the $4.3 billion federal dollars brought into the state for education, and on what and where that money was spent.

To date, the legislation required to change the formula has not been released to lawmakers; only generalities with little specifics. The time for a thorough review of this legislative session is running out. Numerous schools or districts question if they will get more funding for all students under a new formula. Governor Lee has stated that his education funding proposal is not related to school vouchers.

In 2012, Haslam openly questioned what kind of return-on-investment vouchers would yield in the way of academic results. He said, In other words, whatever money is transferred with that child is enough to provide the education, but doesnt wreck the existing school system. Getting that balance right I think will be the biggest challenge. Haslam did try to tailor a statewide voucher plan - Tennessee Choice and Opportunity Scholarship Act - to target students in failing schools. The plan ultimately did not pass the legislature.

During his first year in office, Lee pushed through a voucher bill by a narrow margin. His educational savings accounts could be used to pay for private school tuition or other approved educational expenses that have thus far been ruled unconstitutional. The Tennessee Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal on whether the law violated the home rule provision of the Tennessee Constitution since the program only applied to Shelby County and Davidson County.

Lee has also recruited Hillsdale College, a small Christian liberal arts school in Michigan, into the state to launch classical charter schools statewide. While Hillsdale has a solid reputation, it was renowned for not taking government funds. This seemingly blurs that line. It seems unjust to use government control and tighten regulations on public education, then recruit an out-of-state institution to compete against public schools and other charter schools already within Tennessee. There are currently heightened cynicism and trust issues around proposed changes to the school funding formula. Still, the current formula does need modernization and we support updating it. However, it has to be implemented correctly, addressing many concerns raised by stakeholders.

Education stakeholders and policymakers must ask, Are we better today preparing students for success in and outside of the classroom than we were four years ago? You decide.

JC Bowman

Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee
Samsung is changing its default messaging system starting with its flagship Galaxy S22 Plus. Instead of Samsung messages, fans can look forward to the new Google Messages!

Sources from 9to5Google first noticed the change in rich communication services (RCS). They pointed out that while the Galaxy S21 lineup was shipped with Samsung Messages by default, the Galaxy S22 Plus featured Google Messages by default.

Note that Google Messages features enhanced RCS messaging. This implies a big boost for Samsung Galaxy users.

What is Google Messages: Is it Better Than Samsung Messages?

It is worth emphasizing that Google Messages has always been available for download on any Samsung device. This is an app that can handle short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), and RCS.

For reference, SMS stands for text-only messages up to 150 characters. MMS stands for text with a multimedia file like pictures, emojis, and website links. RCS stands for messages with in-call multimedia like video calls.

Since the Google Messages app supports all these functions, users will have more options to express their voice and messages.

Spokesperson Jordan Guthman told The Verge that "to create the best possible messaging experience for users - with a richer, more engaging communication experience that is consistent across platforms - Samsung is now making Messages the default messaging app for Galaxy S22 series users worldwide, giving them even better capabilities."

Read Also: Afraid Your Samsung Phone Is Infected With Virus? 4 Ways to Remove Malware From Your Device

Samsung Galaxy Google Messages New Features

YouTuber Jimmy is Promo explained some of the new features that users can expect when transferring over to Google Messages.



First, one of the biggest indicators between Google Messages users and Samsung Messages is their chatbox. The former will offer a "chat message" option, while the latter will offer a "text message." Note that this also serves as an indicator for the extent of available chat features.

A second feature to look forward to is the message reaction feature. Note that this is a feature popularly used in Facebook, WhatsApp, and other messaging platforms. This lets users react to one message through emojis like a smiley or thumbs up. Note that separate messages can get separate reactions.

The third feature is the smart reply, which creates intuitive replies to received messages. This should help users create their responses faster by simply choosing from a list of generated messages.

A fourth feature is the chat interface, which shows three small dots whenever a person is making their reply. This feature should make it easier for senders to determine if their recipient has already received the message.

Lastly, it is worth emphasizing that Google Messages offers a lot of customizable functions. This means users can choose the color of their chatbox, pick their favorite emojis and other related functions.

As previously mentioned, Google Messages is set by default on Galaxy S22 Plus. Other Samsung users have to wait for further updates or download the app version of Google Messages to test these new features.

Related Article: Samsung Galaxy S22 Preorder Deals: Is the Specs, Features, and Price Better than S21?
Restaurant owner Betty Kyriankidis was on national TV on Tuesday telling how her Acropolis Restaurant at Hamilton Place was able to survive tough times and is now thriving.

Appearing on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club, she said she had to take out loans, but those are now paid off.

Ms.

Kyriankidis said she watches the 700 Club every morning before heading into her 60-hour work week at the Greek restaurant she and her late husband opened 26 years ago.

She said, I think my desire to help people came when my mother and I, in the mountains of Kentucky, used to go into the coal mining camps and dress little children for church and take them to Sunday School. We just did a lot of ministries up there in the Appalachian and I learned about giving, and people really in need.

In 2012 following a long illness, her husband passed away. She found comfort through her prayer warriors at CBN. When I was going through some rough times I would call The 700 Club. And we would talk, and pray, and we would cry together and pray together, and it was very instrumental in helping me.

Several years later the restaurant faced tough times and she was advised to sell the business and cut back on her giving.

Thinking back she says, We've been through some difficult economic things that happened. And I always just say, 'Well, we'll get through it. With God's help, we'll get through it. I don't know how right now. We have to be faithful to Him and He's faithful to us.'"

She took out a personal loan against several rental properties and her son came on board with fresh menu ideas. Together they worked hard and the restaurant more than recovered.

With a smile she says, God is just blessing us, and especially during COVID and God, blessings come your way.

"Now, we're hitting numbers that we never hit before. And I think it's due to blessings that we're giving. And we're still giving, as a restaurant we do a lot of community, outreach, organization, helping people, and also it's our ministry.

Today the restaurants business has tripled since 2012 and Betty attributes it all to God, she said on the show.
Mary E. Reiter, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was received by the Lord on Thursday, February 10, 2022.

Proverbs 31:28 - 31 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Mary was born in Cambria Heights, Queens, New York on March 12, 1953. She was most proud of her role as wife to Steve, mother to David, (his beautiful wife Andi), Cheryl, (her beloved Matthew) and Tara. She was so proud to be Nana to Gage, Kailyn, Jacob, Hannah, Aiden, and Zachary. She moved around the country as her beloved husband transferred for various career moves and in each place she left the same impression; a woman who had a beautiful, authentic smile, a gift of hospitality and pure love for all. If we were to choose a single word to describe Mary, it would be a word we not often heard today- Piety. Above all she could not remember a time in her life, when she did not know Jesus. She was always in love with her Lord and Savior and because of that she blessed others, especially her husband.

Mary met Steve on April 26, 1968, at a dance at the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin School, located in Jamaica, NY. She and her Steve fell in love and became one on December 4, 1971. The love between Steve and Mary radiated to all those who met them. At a time when others decried her desire to be a stay-at-home mom, she relished that role, above all others. She dedicated her life to serve well in that capacity. As a teenager, she worked in a local grocery store. After marriage, she supported Steves college objective and worked at Lowell, Smith and Evers Mortgage Bankers. After the children were in school, Mary took a role in marketing for Hill-Rom, designing hospital bed tables. Later after moving to the Chicago area, she took a role as the receptionist at the United Methodist Board of Pensions and quickly moved up to work as the Executive Assistant for the head of operations. Several years later, that organization went through a major downsizing which left many of her friends to be forced out so she left to become a Project Manager for a Japanese pharmaceutical firm that made dermatological creams healing raw skin. She was so proud that these creams provided the ability for moms to hold their babies, when they previously has such bad, sensitive skin, any touch was painful.

In 2000 after moving to Dallas, we agreed Mary would not go back to work and instead would be Nana to our grandchildren therefore becoming the primary care giver for Steves aging parents. Mary loved to serve on adult renewal weekends called Tres Dias and Emmaus. She was also a leader for teen renewal weekends, called Chrysalis and Vida Nueva. Whether as a board member, rector, music leader, in the kitchen, or in the prayer chapel, Mary treated every opportunity to serve as a blessing from God. In fact, after we came to Chattanooga, as the wife of the Executive Director of Precept Ministries International, she was discouraged by others to let others serve in tasks such as cleaning tables, yet she acted as a servant of God just loving the Lords people. Mary has been active at Silverdale Baptist Church in bible studies, small groups, the nursery, as well other Christ centered encounters. Mary loved being an active member of Silverdale, our pastors, small group leader and so, so many others He brought into our lives.

To celebrate Marys life well lived, we have scheduled a time to receive friends this Thursday, from 4-8 p.m., at the Valley View Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home located at 7414 Old Lee Hwy, Chattanooga. On Friday, Feb. 18, at 1 PM, there will be a Church Service to Honor Mary Reiter at Silverdale Baptist Church 7236 Bonny Oaks Drive Chattanooga, TN. This will be followed by a procession and burial, after the Church Service at Chattanooga Memorial Park, located at 501 Memorial Drive, Chattanooga, TN.

The family appreciates condolences from friends and family during this time and asked that rather than flowers, donations can be made to honor Mary by sending contributions to Covenant Keypers (the spelling is correct) at P.O. Box 340, Hixson, TN 37343. Covenant Keypers has been such a wonderful outreach to touch lives through biblical marriage in our region. Mary and Steve have proudly served for the last 4 years as Board Members for this regional ministry supporting Gods design for lifetime marriage. Please share your thoughts and memories online at www. ChattanoogaValleyViewChapel. com Arrangements by Chattanooga Funeral Home, Valley View Chapel, 7414 Old Lee Highway, Chattanooga, TN 37421.




Taylor Sheridans 1883 Episode 8 showed Elsa Dutton getting even closer with Sam. After Enniss death, Elsa wasnt sure how shed move forward  but her new love life is blossoming. However, with only a few episodes left, viewers know Elsa gets shot with an arrow by Native Americans who live on the land she and her family are traveling through. Does the opening scene of the series point to Elsa ditching her parents to marry Sam, and is that how their travels go awry?

[Spoiler alert: 1883 Episode 8 spoilers ahead.]

Is Elsa Dead? The 1883 opening scene shows her getting shot with an arrow

Elsa Dutton in 1883 Episode 8 | Emerson Miller/Paramount+

The opening scene in 1883 Episode 1 shows everything going wrong for the Dutton family. The scene begins with Elsa Dutton on the ground seemingly waking up from an unconscious state. The wagons around her are on fire, and she witnesses the Native Americans around her shooting some of the immigrants she traveled with. She runs around the area until she comes face to face with one of the attackers as shes removing a gun from a dead body.

Will you let me go? Elsa asks the Native American.

I will sell you, or I will kill you, he answers.

You speak English, Elsa notes. How can you do this?

You speak English  and no, your people did this, the Native American answers.

Then, when Elsa draws the gun to shoot the man off of his horse, he shoots her in the stomach with his bow and arrow. Elsa then goes on to shoot others, but its clear she wont make it out alive.

Does Elsa ditch her parents, James and Margaret Dutton, to be with Sam? She discusses it in 1883 Episode 8

James Dutton and Margaret Dutton | Emerson Miller/Paramount+

The opening scene shows Elsa Dutton, but its missing James and Margaret Dutton, her parents. Given what happens in Yellowstone, we know James and Margaret Dutton dont die while traversing the Great Plains, so it seems theyre separate from Elsa during the opening scene. So, what happened?

In 1883 Episode 8, Elsa discussed the possibility of leaving her parents behind to stay with Sam. Elsa receives pushback from James and Margaret for this, of course. In an emotional scene between mother and daughter, Elsa reminds Margaret that shes woman enough to pick herself back up if she gets hurt  and this means her parents should let her go with Sam so they can complete their journey.

Ultimately, Elsa decides to ride with her parents and the rest of the crew all the way to Oregon. She then will return to stay with Sam once her parents arrive. Ill ride with you to Oregon, Elsa tells Margaret. Then, I know where to come if I ever need a place to start over.

With only two episodes left, its unlikely Elsa goes all the way to Oregon and then returns to be with Sam. Its more likely she begins the journey with her parents and then leaves them somewhere along the way. Perhaps she and a number of the immigrants make a diversion from James and Margaret and thats why a number of wagons surrounding Elsa are set aflame.

In the opening scene, Elsas wearing her traditional garb, too. She might make the decision to leave James and Margaret after getting back into the clothes they want her to wear. It could be then that she knows traveling to Oregon isnt the journey meant for her.

Isabel May talks violent end for her character

Elsa Dutton actor Isabel May talked about the violent ending fans see in 1883 Episode 1. During an interview, she couldnt say too much about how Elsa ends up where she ends up, or if it connects to 1883 Episode 8. But she mightve left a clue that only Elsa is the only Dutton who faces the Native American attackers.

Its a little bit up in the air about how we get to that place and what happens to get them to that place  or her to that place, May tells Jon Interviews. Its obviously very violent. What happens next is kind of the big question. So, I cant talk too much about it because I want it to be a surprise.

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While Ben and Mahogany have yet to meet in real life on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days, everyone is wondering what their relationship looks like in 2022. Are Mahogany and Ben still together? Heres everything we know.

Ben and Mahogany on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 5 |TLC

Ben and Mahoganys journey on 90 Day Fiance

52-year-old Ben is looking forward to finally meeting the love of his life, 24-year-old Mahogany, after leaving his wife and church. Despite the many red flags, Ben decides to take a chance at love and flies to Peru to meet Mahogany. However, Mahogany expressed to Ben that her father has concerns and wont be able to meet with him. Ben goes to Peru, regardless, hoping that she will see him.

However, after waiting at the airport in Lima, Peru, he realizes that shes not coming. He tries to convince her with his strange Runaway Train story and many texts, but still, no response. After a day, he decides to go to her hometown. He says, Ive decided to go to San Bartolo, which is where she lives with her parents.

Ben texts Mahogany the restaurants name, hoping that she will show up. Once there, over 45 minutes pass, and still, Mahogany doesnt show up.

Ben still hasnt met Mahogany in real life

One of the many red flags that have presented itself in the relationship so far is that Ben has yet to meet Mahogany in real life. Not only that but hes never even met her virtually, on a video call. His friends and family have expressed their concerns that hes being scammed, but Ben has no doubt shes who she says she is.

Mahogany, 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 5 | TLC

However, since shes yet to show up at the airport and now the restaurant, Ben is starting to lose hope that Mahogany is real. Some 90 Day Fiance fans did some digging on the internet and found out that Mahogany is a real woman from Peru. However, she may not look like the heavily filtered photos she sent Ben.

Are Ben and Mahogany still together in 2022?

So are Ben and Mahogany still together after Ben was stood up in Peru? Heres what we know so far based on the little bit of evidence revealed. One 90 Day Fiance fan spotted a clue from Bens Instagram that could prove that Ben and Mahogany at least meet this season (via Reddit).

The fan put a photo Ben took of his time in Peru with the promo photo for Mahogany, showing that its the same view in the background. They wrote, Ben and Mahogany: Either they met, or Ben is trolling. Check out the backgrounds of both pictures. The left is from Bens Facebook, and the right is the promo picture of Mahogany.

A fan also posted a Cameo (via Reddit) that Ben made. In the video, he says, I hope you guys have an amazing Valentines Day, almost as good as my Valentines Day is going to be. He was also drinking from a Peru cup. Could this mean that he and Mahogany are still together?

90 Day Fiance fans will have to wait and see what happens next with Ben and Mahogany. 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days airs Sundays on TLC and discovery+.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Spoilers: Are Memphis and Hamza Still Together in 2022?
90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days couple, Jasmine Pineda and Gino Palazzolo have had quite a journey so far. Is Jasmine back together with Gino in 2022? Heres what we know.

Gino and Jasmine | TLC

Gino and Jasmines journey on 90 Day Fiance

51-year-old automotive engineer, Gino left his home in Canton, Michigan, to meet the love of his life, Jasmine, in Panama City, Panama. Jasmine, a 34-year-old American literature teacher, is very different from Gino in many ways. Despite their lifestyles being completely opposite, they fell in love with each other through an international dating site.

Gino, recently divorced from his Brazillian ex-wife of seven years, is hoping he and Jasmine can be engaged by the end of the trip. However, the trip hasnt gone according to plan. Between communication problems, jealousy issues, and each others pasts coming back to haunt them, its unclear if Jasmine and Gino will make it work.

Jasmine breaks up with Gino

On the Feb. 6 episode of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days, Ginos ex-girlfriend texts Jasmine. She lets her know that Gino had sent her nude photos of Jasmine. She told the cameras, Not only did he betray my trust by texting my naked pictures to his ex-girlfriend, but his messages with ex reveal a part of Gino that I just find disgusting.

She revealed that his ex sent him screenshots of emails between that two that exposed that Gino was talking about paying for sugar babies.

Of course, Jasmine freaked out on Gino and confronted him about the betrayal. She packed up her belongings and left to stay in a separate hotel. She told Gino, You just lose [sic] the only person that truly loved you. She called him a fking depressing man before storming off an leaving.

Are Jasmine and Gino back together in 2022?

Its unclear if Jasmine and Gino ever got back together. While its clear that Jasmine was hurt by Ginos actions, she currently still has photos up on Gino on her Instagram. In fact, both of them have continued to post behind the scenes images and videos to their respective Instagram pages.

However, as of now, Gino is following Jamsine, but Jasmine doesnt follow him back. This could be an indication that it is now over between them.

However, many 90 Day Fiance fans believe that Jasmine and Gino are still together based on an interview in a recent interview Jasmine did (via ET). The fan wrote on Reddit, The way she talks about Gino makes it seem like they are still together.

Fans will have to keep watching 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 5 to find out if Gino will be able to win back Jasmine after betraying her. Before the 90 Days airs Sundays on TLC and discovery+.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Ginos Alleged Ex Exposes the Truth About Jasmines Nudes
Paige DeSorbo spilled on Summer House about a conversation Craig Conover and Kristin Cavallari had about whether or not they hooked up.

Conover and Cavallari both denied they hooked up prior to Summer House Season 6. But then Conover made the surprising admission on the show that not only did he hook up with Cavallari, but he also continued to hook up with her whenever he was in Nashville. When Conover said he and Cavallari hooked up, he and DeSorbo were casually dating and were not exclusive.

Kristin Cavallari did not want Craig Conover to make her look stupid on Summer House

Even though Conover did not appear in the latest Summer House episode, DeSorbo took a call from him early one morning, which is when he shared that he and Cavallari argued over the hookup.

Paige DeSorbo, Amanda Batula, Mya Allen | Eugene Gologursky/Bravo

So much has happened this morning to me, DeSorbo dished with Ciara Miller. Craig was calling me at like 8 am, and Im like what the f*** is going on? She said she was on the phone with Conover for about an hour about the Kristin stuff.

And I guess she texted him like You are not going to make me look like an idiot with her,' DeSorbo said. And like If you want her, like, go have her. Just dont make me look stupid.'

Craig Conover said Kristin Cavallari lied about their hookup

Conover said Cavallari lied about their hookup, DeSorbo shared on Summer House. And he was like, OK, but you went on Instagram and lied,' she continued. Like You cant say you were never going to date either of us. We f*****.' The other person Conover referred to was Austen Kroll, who some suspected was the one who hooked up with Cavallari.

Conover also wanted to return to the house for another visit. Meanwhile, in his absence, DeSorbo and Andrea Denver got even closer. And he was asking so much about Andrea, DeSorbo told Miller.

Later, DeSorbo told Amanda Batula she was getting exasperated with the Conover and Cavallari situation.

I was like whatever I dont give a f***, she said after sharing Conover called at 8 a.m. Im getting so over it. If hes with other girls then go be with other girls. Maybe Ill give Andrea another chance. Hes like all over me all the time. Maybe that is what I should do.

Paige DeSorbo from Summer House will have to make a choice

But during Conovers call, Conover wanted DeSorbo to know he really liked her. He also wanted to know what was happening with Denver. She added that he said, I dont love the thought of you guys flirting. Meanwhile, DeSorbo and Denver were doing a lot more than flirting.

So while DeSorbo was falling for Conover she said, But I also really like Andrea. Its like he gives me so much attention. And I gonna say dont give me attention? Im a human.

Denver seemed content keeping their relationship casual when they first started dating in Vermont. But now he seems to be falling for DeSorbo, even sharing that he could see her as his wife in a preview for an upcoming episode.

Fans know that DeSorbo ultimately chooses Conover. What is still unresolved is if Conover and Cavallari finally share if they did (or really didnt) hook up. She continues to insist they did not hook up.

Summer House is on Monday at 9/8c on Bravo.

RELATED: Summer House: Craig Conover and Kristin Cavallari Denied Hooking up in the Past  but He Just Admitted He Did to Paige DeSorbo
The Yellowstone prequel 1883 began in Fort Worth, Texas where the Dutton family arrive to begin their journey West. In order to film the scenes in Texas, the 1883 crew had to completely transform an area of Fort Worth to match the time period. This included designing the White Elephant Saloon and the Calhoun Hotel. One of the crews secret ingredients was lots and lots of dirt.

Tim McGraw as James of the Paramount+ original series 1883 | Emerson Miller/Paramount+

Heres how the 1883 crew transformed Fort Worth

1883 begins in Fort Worth, Texas, as the Duttons prepare for their journey West. In Fort Worth, they eventually join up with Shea Brennan and his group before departing. The 1883 crew transformed an area of Fort Worth back into the 1880s.

Authenticity was very important to Taylor Sheridan and the crew delivered on his vision. Its an amazing transformation, said set decorator Carla Curry in a YouTube video. And a lot went into it just to bring it to this level.

All of the buildings were painted appropriately and modern features were taken away. Art director Yvonne Boudreaux added, The whole thing tied together when we put the dirt in. It really just came alive.

The 1883 crew also had to design the Calhoun Hotel, where James and his family stay before leaving on their journey. We have the rooms are actually on a stage and the actual location has the lobby and a hallway, Curry shared.

Another important set was the Livery Stable, where James first arrives in town. Inside the Livery Stable, the 1883 crew hung up harness parts and pieces, horse collars, and other supplies that would have been essential to pull a team.

The 1883 crew recreated an old-fashioned saloon

One scene in 1883 takes place in the White Elephants Saloon, a bar that originally opened in the 1880s. One of the main things that we added in here was lighting, Curry said in the video. We brought back the grandeur of the old saloons with the crystal chandeliers and the oil-burning lamps. We brought in our own taxidermy.

The crew also touched up the large, beautiful bar that already existed in the building and added a few other touches. We brought in Pharoah tables. Pharoah was a very popular game that was played back then. And we brought in a period pool table, Curry explained. Then we have all of our card playing tables and our basic saloon gear.

So much work has gone into building the world of 1883. The cast and crew break it all down. #1883TV #ParamountPlus pic.twitter.com/eEXEF4hIVG  1883 Official (@1883Official) January 6, 2022

One Fort Worth restaurant kept its 1883 look

Hookers Grill, a restaurant in Stockyard, sits at the center of the road where scenes from 1883 were filmed. According to WFAA, the restaurants owner, Ruth Hooker, closed her business temporarily to make way for the Yellowstone prequel. Like many of the buildings in the area, Hookers exterior was transformed into a 19th-century saloon.

When filming ended and the restaurant reopened, Ruth decided she wanted her restaurant to keep its rustic look. The 1880s makeover is now an important part of her business. Its fun for the people that come, Hooker told WFAA. They can get a little bit of nostalgia through the building as well as the food.

Now, 1883 fans can enjoy onion burgers and traditional Native American fry bread in one of the very spots decorated by the 1883 crew.

New episodes of 1883 release Sundays on Paramount+.

RELATED: 1883: Marc Rissmann Explains Why Josef Took on the Leadership Role


The Bachelorette couple JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers are still planning to get married in May. Before the big day, theyve already hosted another relationship show. The Big D will air on TBS this summer. Since their own Bachelorette days, Fletcher and Rodgers have had to adjust to real life together.

Jordan Rodgers and JoJo Fletcher | TBS

Fletcher and Rodgers were on a Television Critics Association Zoom panel for The Big D on Feb. 14. The couple also filled reporters in on how their relationship has evolved off camera since The Bachelorette. Rodgers copped to one annoying habit hes trying to break.

Jordan Rodgers habit that annoys JoJo Fletcher

When they were on The Bachelorette, the show provided them with extravagant dates and a mansion to live in between them. Living at home together, eating cereal for breakfast is less peaceful.

I also learned that I cant clink the bowl as much when Im eating cereal because someone gets really annoyed, Rodgers said. Im like, Well, I got to get it all out of there. Im not wasting the milk, thats the best part, all the sugar is [dissolved].

Fletcher confirmed her disapproval.

Ugh, she said. So annoying when he does it.

Post The Bachelorette, Jordan Rodgers and JoJo Fletcher learned to communicate

Theres also a big difference between competing for roses and eliminating the competition vs. living together day to day. Fletcher said that was an adjustment after The Bachelorette too.

We have two completely different styles of communicating, Fletcher said. In that first year, because we couldnt figure it out, it led to resentment in a lot of situations and that was a huge hurdle that we had to learn how to overcome. And so a part of our relationship was obviously letting go of any of that resentment that occurred in that first year because we didnt have it figured out, because there was a lot of pressure, there was a lot of eyes on us to be perfect, this perfect couple. Thats not realistic. Thats not real life.

The Bachelorette couple is still learning

Between communicating and cereal, Rodgers and Fletcher still have a long way to go. Rodgers agreed the first year after The Bachelorette was the hardest.

Still working through it, but definitely that first year for sure, Rodgers said.

Jalapeno Green Tea Mule was https://t.co/mC2jpHtbJB  Jordan Rodgers (@JRodgers11) February 12, 2022

Fletcher said learning to compromise has been an ongoing process, but the wedding is still on. On The Big D, Fletcher and Rodgers host a dating show with divorced couples, but they are still in this together.

You just learn, you have to learn to compromise in relationships, Fletcher said. You have to obviously stay true to what is important to you and your values, but youve got to learn to compromise and I think thats something that we definitely learned.

RELATED: The Bachelor Peter Weber Reacts to Hannah Browns Shocking Return.
Get ready for more high-society drama. HBO has renewed The Gilded Age, the new series from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, for season 2.

HBO orders The Gilded Age Season 2

Audra McDonald and Denee Benton in The Gilded Age | Alison Cohen Rosa/HBO

RELATED: The Gilded Age: Does Downton Abbey Exist in the Same Universe as the HBO Series?

The Gilded Age follows a young woman named Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) who moves from Pennsylvania to New York to live with her old-money aunts, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon). Once there, she gets caught up in a social war between the citys established elite and relative newcomers George Russell (Morgan Spector), a railroad baron, and his ambitious wife Bertha (Carrie Coon). Marian also develops a friendship with an aspiring writer named Peggy Scott (Denee Benton).

The Jan. 24 debut of The Gilded Age was the most-watched Monday night premiere since Chernobyl in 2019, according to the network.

Julian Fellowes and the entire Gilded Age family have thoroughly captivated us with their tale of late 19th century New York City extravagance, said Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming. Along with our partners at Universal Television, we couldnt be prouder to embark on a season two journey with this extraordinarily talented team.

The first season of The Gilded Age is the beginning of an epic story that introduced a fascinating world full of intriguing characters, Universal Television president Erin Underhill said. The scope of Julians vision is ambitious, and were thrilled to continue to explore the depths of this fascinating era with HBO.

The Gilded Age cast react to renewal news

Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski in The Gilded Age | Alison Cohen Rosa/HBO

Several Gilded Age cast members reacted to the renewal news on social media.

You are cordially invited to join Mr. & Mrs. George and Bertha Russell for Season Two of #TheGildedAgeHBO, Coon tweeted.

Its official! #GildedAgeHBO will be back on your TV screens for season 2!! Nixon wrote on Instagram. We are tha-rilled!! Ive sooo loved reading your comments about how much you enjoy this show. Thank you!

TODAY IS A GOOD DAY, wrote Jacobson on Instagram.

The Gilded Age Season 1 finale airs March 21

So far, theres no word on when The Gilded Age Season 2 might arrive. The show is almost at the halfway point of its first season, with the finale set to air on Monday, March 21.

In the shows fourth episode, airing Feb. 14, the Russells brace for the fallout following the death of Patrick Morris (Michael Gill). Morris, a New York City alderman, died by suicide in the Feb. 7 episode, Face the Music, after an attempt to double-cross George Russell went sour, leaving him and his family penniless.

Theyll blame me, George says to Bertha.

You are strong. He was weak, she replies. Whos to blame for that?

Meanwhile, Marian gets to know the scandalous Mrs. Chamberlain (Criminal Minds alum Jeanne Tripplehorn), against the advice of her aunt Ada, while Peggy continues to clash with her father over her career choices and her future.

The Gilded Age airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. Episodes also stream on HBO Max.

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In the past four years scientists have discovered metals whose crystal structure mimics that of a traditional Japanese woven bamboo pattern: kagome metals. The international research activity in this new direction of quantum materials has recently reached a new climax: an international team of physicists has discovered that the underlying kagome lattice structure induces the joint appearance of intricate quantum phenomena which can lead to an unpredented type of superconductivity. Ronny Thomale, member of the Wurzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, had theoretically predicted related effects in kagome systems 10 years ago. His ideas have contributed to the foundation upon which contemporary experiments on kagome metals are understood and interpreted. A recent milestone in the experimental discovery of exotic superconductivity in kagome metals has now been published in the Nature magazine.

Atoms form a kagome pattern

A kagome pattern is composed of three shifted regular triangular lattices. As a result, the kagome lattice is a regular pattern composed of stars of David. It is a common Japanese basket pattern which is where its name derives from. In condensed matter physics, materials crystallizing in a kagome lattice have first gained significant attention in the early 90s. Until 2018, when FeSn as the first kagome metal was found, correlated electronic states in kagome materials had typically been conceived as being generically insulating, and triggered a predominant research focus on magnetic frustrations. That kagome metals could likewise bring about fascinating quantum effects had already been predicted in 2012 by Ronny Thomale, scientific member of the Wurzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat  Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter.

"From the moment of their experimental discovery, kagome metals have unleashed a tremendous amount of research activity. In all dedicated research groups worldwide, the search has begun to look out for kagome metals with exotic properties. Among other ambitions, one hope is to realize a new type of superconductor", explains Thomale who holds the chair for theoretical condensed matter physics at Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg, JMU.

Baffling results

A research team led by the Paul Scherrer Institute (Schweiz) has now achieved a new discoveryin kagome metals. In the compound KV3Sb5, they observed the simultaneous appearance of several intricate quantum phenomena, culminating in a superconducting phase with broken time reversal symmetry.

"Whenever there is an indication of time reversal symmetry breaking in a non-magnetic materialthere must be some exotic new mechanism behind it, says Thomale. Only a smallest fraction of known superconductors would allow a distinction between moving forward versus backward in time. What is particularly astounding is the comparably high temperature far above the superconducting transition temperature at which the experimentally detected signature of time reversal symmetry breaking sets in for KV3Sb5. This has its origin in the electronic charge density wave as the supposed parent state of the superconductor where time-reversal symmetry can already be broken through orbital currents. Their appearance is intricately connected to the kagome lattice effects on the electronic density of states. As soon as there are currents, forward and backward in time attain a concise distinguishable meaning, i.e., the direction of time becomes relevant. This is one central facet underlying the community's tremendous fascination for kagome metals."

The anticipated rise of a new research domain

After the discovery of magnetic Kagome metals in 2018, a non-magnetic kagome metal featuring both, charge density wave order and superconductivity, was first discovered in 2020. The present observation of broken time reversal symmetry within the superconducting phase and above represents a new breakthrough for kagome metals. In particular, these findings provide experimental evidence that an unprecedented type of unconventional superconductivity could be at play.

"The demonstration of this new type of superconductivity in the kagome metals will further fuel the worldwide research boom in quantum physics.", comments Matthias Vojta, the Dresden spokesperson of the research alliance ct.qmat. "The Wurzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat is one of the leading quantum materials research centers worldwide and ideally equipped to investigate kagome metals with a plethora of different experimental and theoretical techniques. We are particularly proud that our member Ronny Thomale has contributed groundbreaking work in this field."

Professor Ronny Thomale (39) has held the JMU Chair for Theoretical Physics I since October 2016 and is one of the 25 founding members of the ct.qmat Cluster of Excellence. In 2012, he developed  in parallel with the research group of Qianghua Wang of Nanjing University  a theory that is considered the crucial basis for understanding the new experimental results on Kagome metals.

Outlook

In demonstrating time-reversal symmetry breaking, the hope is to take this new principle of superconductivity possibly found in kagome metals and transcend it into the technologically interesting realm of high temperature superconductors for dissipationless transport of electricity. The recent discoveries in kagome metals will be an incentive for researchers worldwide to take a closer look at this new class of quantum materials. Despite all the excitement, the technically challenging direct measurement of orbital currents in kagome metals is still lacking. If accomplished, this would constitute yet another milestone towards a deeper understanding of the way electrons conspire on the kagome lattice to give rise to exotic quantum phenomena.
Actors Choi Min-sik, right and Kim Dong-hwi in a scene from the film "In Our Prime" / Courtesy of Showbox





By Kwak Yeon-soo







Actor Choi Min-sik, who is returning to the big screen three years after "Forbidden Dream," described his upcoming film "In Our Prime" as poignant, heartfelt and much like "Good Will Hunting."







Choi plays genius mathematician Lee Hak-sung, who defected from North Korea to the South and chooses to work as a janitor at a high school. There, he meets Han Ji-woo (Kim Dong-hwi), a student who has trouble fitting in due to social hierarchy.







When Hak-sung's talents are discovered, Ji-woo asks him to be his mentor. Through math lessons, the two social outcasts form a close bond. The events of the film unfold as Hak-sung becomes more and more involved with Ji-woo.







Director Park Dong-hoon explained that his first impression of the script was that it was an intriguing observation on human interaction.







"When I first went through the script, a scene came up to my mind where there's an adult who tries to console a child who failed to achieve his goal. The characters remain hopeful in the face of life's harsh realities," he said during a press conference for the film, Tuesday.







Choi praised the film's key message, which is about a person's desire not to be bound by the circumstances of one's birth.







"As soon as I read the script, I thought of its parallels with 'Good Will Hunting.' Every time I watched that film, I wished we could also have a movie that shows not only what education means but what life means. Then I came across this inspirational script," Choi said.







From left, actors Park Hae-joon, Choi Min-sik, Jo Yoon-seo, Kim Dong-hwi and Park Byung-eun pose during a press conference for the film "In Our Prime" in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Showbox





Director Park revealed that he is a long-time fan of Choi.







"I've been a fan of Choi since the 1990s. I still remember his brief appearance and lines in the 1999 film 'Happy End.' As I read the script, I imagined Choi wearing a janitor attire and solving advanced math problems. I was thrilled when he accepted my offer," he said.







Choi has starred in numerous hit films, including Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy," Kim Jee-woon's "I Saw the Devil" and Kim Han-min's "The Admiral: Roaring Currents."







Rookie actor Kim talked about playing Ji-woo, a student who has given up on math and is discontent with life.







"I was very thankful to be part of it and get the part. The audition was a difficult and nerve-wracking process because I had to perform in front of Choi, whom I look up to," he said.







The other cast members include Jo Yoon-seo of "Mine," Park Byung-eun of "Kingdom" and Pak Hae-joon of "The World of the Married."







"The title (original Korean title is 'Mathematician from Wonderland') provoked my interest. I wondered what it is about. What I loved about this film is that it uses math as a means to explore themes of love, loss and adventure," Park Byung-eun said.







Choi reassured moviegoers that the film is not simply about math or education. "It's a heartwarming story of two people who connect through math. It conveys something warm and kind to those going through difficult times in life."







"In Our Prime" will hit local theaters, March 9.


Many of the positions experiencing shortages in the labor market require skills in the trades, including jobs such as electricians, HVAC specialists, carpenters, plumbers, welders and automotive mechanics.
Michelle Catucci knows just how hard the last two years have been for students.

As the head of the Cheshire High School Counseling Department, Catucci has seen how the pandemic took issues of anxiety and uncertainty, already common amongst teens navigating high school, and just exacerbated everything.

Through it all, Catucci has maintained her devotion to ensuring that students have the best chance to succeed, and that means staying emotionally healthy while in school.

In order for a student to be able to learn, they have to be present, mentally, said Catucci. Ive always believed that. In order for a child to truly learn, there has to be that social and emotional learning.

Now, the CHS counselor is being recognized for her dedication. Catucci is a finalist for the LifeChanger of the Year Award, sponsored by the National Life Group Foundation.

I was so humbled by the nomination, said Catucci, who was attending a national conference for School Counselors in Washington, D.C., last week. The person who nominated me  it was really so wonderful of her to look for a way to acknowledge my work.

Catucci was nominated by Virginia DeLong, director of counseling and admissions at Norwich Technical High School, who has worked alongside Catucci at the state level for many years. DeLong had previously been named Counselor of the Year by the CT School Counselor Association, an award for which Catucci is not eligible seeing how she serves as the executive director of the group. So for DeLong, nominating Catucci for this national recognition was a way to ensure she received the proper acknowledgements.

Mrs. Catucci is one of the most caring and compassionate individuals. It comes through every day in the work she does with students and on behalf of them. No matter what she does, she always has the best interests of the students at heart, said DeLong.

Catuccis journey to being a school counselor was, as she admits, somewhat of a winding road. Having attended Villanova University for her undergraduate degree, and the Chatham University for her masters, Catucci originally began her career as a research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on addiction. But her desire to work with and help the younger generation was one born early on, as her mother likes to remind her.

(My mother) tells the story of how, in elementary school, I said I wanted to be a counselor and wanted to work with young children, she said, with a laugh. I am so grateful to have landed in the profession I want to be in for the rest of my life, and not only that, but work in the District I want to be in for the rest of my career.

Catucci credits Cheshire for her growth and success as a counselor, calling the District of educators in general, and the Counseling Department at CHS in particular, a close, wonderful team. Those bonds and support have been particularly important over the last two years as the world has dealt with the pandemic, and counselors have tended to students dealing with a whole range of emotions.

Its amazing how truly everything has changed during the pandemic, said Catucci. While students had already been dealing with stress and anxiety before the public health crisis began, the pandemic just exacerbated everything, she said, especially when the school community was forced into isolation due to the pandemic.

Last school year, CHS operated on a hybrid schedule, with cohorts of students attending classes twice a week and then doing online learning the other days. For the current school year, students have returned to in-person instruction, and Catucci, for one, believes it has made an immense difference.

I am so glad we are not (at home), she said. I dont know anyone who wants to go back to remote learning. Being able to be in the room with students, to read their body language, is so important.

Being at home (for remote learning), we lost so much of that humanness, she said.

The impacts have been obvious. Catucci states that, while junior and senior students dont seem to have been as impacted by the pandemic, its the students just now entering into the high school, who had their social and emotional growth interrupted at younger ages by the pandemic, and who appear to be struggling the most.

They were missing that human interaction, she said.

The way to fix that, Catucci said, is to first acknowledge that the issue exists so as to begin addressing it in the best manner. As a counselor, she is there for her students, to listen, to try and understand, and to offer advice, to not only them, but also, by extension, their parents.

Its important that we make sure parents know they are part of the team, too, she said. Thats been difficult given that many of the usual events or activities that would involve parents have had to be altered because of the pandemic, so reaching out to them has become all the more important.

I think parents have been very understanding, she said. Of course, if something is happening to your child, youre going to be advocating for him or her. I think thats one of my abilities  to stop, and listen. Even if someone is yelling, I know they are just upset, and not really yelling at me.

The pandemic has put everyone on edge, and it has been a stressful environment at the schools, but one the Counseling Department has dealt with together, whether that means supporting a colleague, offering a hug, or even relying on some other tactics to lighten the mood.

Im a big fan of chocolate problem solving, said Catucci, with a laugh.

As far as the LifeChanger Award is concerned, Catucci admits that winning would be overwhelming. I was so humbled just by the nomination, so I cant imagine how Ill feel if I win, she said.

A committee of former winners and professional educators will review the nominees and announce their decision sometime in the early part of this year. The Grand Prize winner will be awarded $10,000 for the District, however there are 18 overall winners named during the process, each one receiving a specific monetary prize.

For Catucci, winning would mean the ability to do something positive for her students, and the District overall, as the community moves, hopefully, past the pandemic.

Im an optimist, she said. Im optimistic that, because everyone has been so on edge, theyll want those connections and maybe not want to get into so many silly arguments we get into on social media.
Funeral Service will be 10:00 a.m. Saturday, April 30, 2022, at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church. Interment will be at Rose Hill Cemetery under the direction of Sevier Funeral Home. Elnora J Rock of Chickasha, OK, passed away on Thursday, April 21, 2022, at the age of 85. She was born Dece
gettyimagesbank



By Lee Min-hyung



The government is in an escalating dispute with retail investors over the complete resumption of short-selling here.



The controversy centers on whether financial authorities will allow short-selling in the local stock market by May, as the move will help Korea get its name on the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) watch list in June.



Placement on the watch list is the first step for the stock market to win the much-anticipated "developed market" status from MSCI, possibly as early as 2024.



But retail investors have for years cried foul over the trading practice, strongly denouncing the government's move to resume the short-selling of Korean shares. Individual investors argue that the short-selling resumption will only benefit institutional and foreign investors due to their dominant market influence here.



For now, the ban on short-selling has only been partially lifted on stocks in the KOSPI 200 and Kosdaq 150.



Short-selling was temporarily banned in March 2020 after the local stock market collapsed amid then-escalating fears of the COVID-19 outbreak. With the market bouncing back above its previous high, the government partially resumed short-selling in May 2021.



But as the MSCI urges the Korean government to resume shorting completely here, the government is in a growing dilemma over how to settle complaints from retail investors.



The issue is also a hot potato for the presidential candidates.



Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential contender of the main opposition People Power Party, pledged to step up monitoring for any illegal signs of short-selling.



"Any investors caught manipulating stock prices through short-selling will receive a criminal penalty," he said. "I will also set up an organization monitoring naked short-selling around the clock."



Ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung also promised to improve to protect retail investors even if short-selling is resumed.



"Abolishing short-selling is against the government's moves to help Korean stock markets get MSCI developed market status," Lee said. "Foreign investors will also leave local equity markets if the authorities bans shorting here."



Lee pledged to revise existing legal systems to enhance monitoring against price manipulation even after the complete resumption of short-selling.



Korea Exchange Chairman Sohn Byung-doo also shared his views that short-selling should be resumed to ensure timely inclusion in the MSCI.



"Other countries did not introduce any restriction on short-selling even after the pandemic began, but we did so," he said during a recent press conference. "It is hard for us to understand why we have to keep restricting short-selling even at a time when we seek to win the developed market status from the MSCI."


February 21, 2019, was a typical cold winter day in Chicago. I got home from work around 6:30 p.m. and felt ready for a break after a long day of doing social work at the hospital. I took the dog out for a short walk, came back home, turned on the TV, and started changing out of my work clothes. Then I heard an excruciating noisewhat sounded like a vehicle crashing into my building.

I was standing naked in my living room when police officers with guns, scopes, and lights broke down the door, rushed in, and started yelling at me to put my hands up. All I could think was, Please do not shoot me, please do not kill me.

I spent the next 40 minutes in a state of horrorcrying, begging, pleading with them to let me put on my clothes. With tears streaming down my face, I cried out over 40 times: You have the wrong place.

As a single woman living alone, I often prayed about safety both inside and outside my home. Asking for protection was a regular part of my prayer time with God. So after the police departed that night, I found myself asking the question people often do after a traumatic experience: Where was God? How could he allow this to happen to me?

I spent the next 13 months in legal battles with the city, all the while struggling with my mental health and questioning my faith. I was going to church every Sunday and serving in my same capacity, but during quiet times, I continued to question God.

When the death of Breonna Taylor made national news, the story shook me to my core because of its similarities with mine. Police officers had raided the home of an innocent Black woman. But in that case, theyd shot and killed her.

As I grieved for Taylor, my prayers shifted from Why did you allow this to happen to me? to Thank you for protecting my life.

The idea of thanking God for that night was not a new concept to me. The morning after the police raid, I had called my pastor, Charlie Dates, on the phone. He said to me, Anjanette, take comfort in knowing that God was with you and preserved your life. I knew what he meant. But it took well over a year before I was able to even think about gratitude to God.

By now, Im almost three years out from these events. I went through months and years of legal struggles, months and years of fighting against corrupt city policies. I made the tormented decision to release police bodycam footage of that night, which four months later led to a Twitter hashtag, a profile, and a national news story.

After all that, Im focusing on the healing process. I read my Bible and I pray often. I go to therapy and I go to church. My pastor often tells me I need to find a way to forgive everyone involved. My therapist often tells me I need to get to a place of acceptance. I am far from both and still struggling with anger and hurt. And yet: I have greater clarity about who am I and where I sit in Gods greater story.

A few months ago, a pastor from Louisville, Kentucky, guest preached at our church. At the end of the sermon, he said something that struck me as powerful: Do you know who you are?

Ive reflected often on that question, especially as I think about my experience of being traumatized, humiliated, and ignored by a Chicago Police Department raid team. During my legal battles with the city, I listened to friends describe me as strong and courageous. But all I could see was my pain and weakness. All I could think about were my many nights of silent tears.

Ive spent a great deal of time with my therapist, unpacking the reasons why I hide in the shadows of unworthiness, to use her words. But today, after so much time in therapy and so much time with God, I can say with confidence that I am a 52-year-old African American woman, a descendant of slaves, a follower of Christ, a social worker extraordinaire, a fighter for justice, a mother of one, and a friend and family member to many.

I have been shaped and molded by the red-clay dirt of the Mississippi Delta and by Gods spiritual breath of life, which guides my moral compass. That is who I am.

As I continue to reflect and seek God for healing, I am learning that my calls for help were silenced well before I even came into the world. I was born into an ancestry of slavery. The cries of my people were ignored.

So its no wonder that I, Anjanette Youngthe person who proudly owns my Southern heritage and my place in the family of God, the little country girl from Mississippi whose grandmother introduced her to Jesuswas used and trusted by the Lord on February 21, 2019, to lead such a tremendous battle against an unjust system.

Therein lies the answer to the question Why me, God? Why did I have this experience of being humiliated by the 12 men who stood in front of my naked body? Because my silent tears are a part of a larger planone that will have a loud, thunderous outcome.

Who is Anjanette Young? She is a woman of God who has learned to see all of lifes experiences through a spiritual lens, knowing that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

Anjanette Young lives in Chicago and serves at Progressive Baptist Church as the leader of its hospitality ministry. She speaks to social work students about how to fight for justice.
African Americans are among the most devout groups in religion research, often outranking other demographics in areas like religious practice, attendance, and belief.

As a result, some predicted that young Black adults would resist the moves away from faith seen among white millennials.

Even with all the shifts in the faith landscape over the past several years, Black Americans remain more religious than other groups and more likely than the average American to stay in the tradition they were raised in, according to a massive report released by Pew Research Center last year.

But black nones are growing. With 3 in 10 adults in the US claiming no religious affiliation on surveys, the rise of the nones has touched every corner of American society.

Over more than a decade, the share of Black Americans who say that they have no religious affiliation has risen more dramatically than whites, Hispanics, or Asians.

But looking beyond that statistic, we see a much more nuanced view of Black religion in the United States.

In 2008, 22 percent of all Americans who participated in the Cooperative Election Study indicated that they were atheist, agnostic, or described their religion as nothing in particular. Just 12 years later, the share of nones rose to just over 34 percent. When that rise is tracked across different racial groups, different patterns emerge.

For instance, white respondents tracked the national average nearly perfectly, with 23 percent nones in 2008, rising to 34 percent by 2020. Among Hispanic respondents. There was an increase of 11 percentage points, but for Asianswho already had the highest levels of religious unaffiliationit was much more modest at just about 5 percent.

Among African Americans, the increase in the share of the nones was much larger, more than 15 percentage points. In 2008, African Americans were the least likely to be nones (19.5%), but by 2020 they were more likely to say that they had no religious affiliation than white or Hispanic respondents (34.9%).

But beyond that top-level statistic, the story among African Americans is much more subtle and nuanced. As previously mentioned, three response options are combined to make up the nones: atheists, agnostics, and those who say that they have no religion in particular.

When the types of nones are calculated for each racial group, a much different picture emerges. While the nones have gained the most ground among African Americans, that does not mean that there are many more Black atheists and agnostics than there were in 2008.

In fact, among Black nones, just 6 percent of them identify as atheist and another 6 percent say that they are agnostic. That means that nearly 9 in 10 Black nones are nothing in particular. Thats much higher than any other racial group.

For instance, just 61 percent of white nones are nothing in particular, 63 percent of Asians, and 73 percent of Hispanics. Clearly, when African Americans leave religion behind, they are very reluctant to embrace the labels of atheist or agnostic.

Theres a chapter in my book about the religious unaffiliated titled All Nones Are Not Created Equal about how different those three groups are really based on a number of demographic factors, but one stands out. Among those who said that they were atheists in 2010, just 3 percent identified with a religion in 2014. Among agnostics, it was 6.5 percent who embraced a religious tradition. For nothing in particulars, it was nearly 25 percent.

Thus, the data indicates that Black nones have a stronger faith background and are much more likely to embrace religion in the future than nones of other racial groups.

Despite rise of religious unaffiliation, Black Americans who still identify with a religious tradition are staying faithful. They continue to report much higher levels of church attendance than other races.

For instance, in 2020, nearly 46 percent of religious Black people describe their church attendance as weekly or more than once per week. For white respondents, just 36 percent attended weekly or more. For Hispanics that percentage was 32 percent and for Asians it was 38 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, less than 30 percent of Black respondents said that they attended church less than once per year. Thats nearly 10 points lower than whites in the sample.

While the share of the nones has nearly doubled in the past 12 years among Black Americans, theres still plenty of evidence in the data that they are more open to religion than other racial groups.

In 2020, just 2 percent of all African Americans said that they were atheists, and another 2 percent were agnostics, compared to 31 percent who said that they had no religion in particular.

As previously mentioned, nothing in particulars are 4 to 8 times more likely to come back to religion over time compared to atheists and agnostics. That means that many of them may return to religion over time. And among those who still identify with a religious tradition, Black Americans are more active in their religious communities than any other racial group.

Even in an age of rapid secularization, the Black church still plays a crucial role in the lives of African Americans throughout the US. For Black pastors, the mission field is incredibly ripe, and many are heeding this call.

The North American Mission Board has worked in partnership with the SBCs National African American Fellowship with the SBCs National African American Fellowship to plant churches in underserved African American communities across the United States, and the first fruits of those efforts are already beginning to emerge. New efforts by Crete Collective and Dhati Lewiss forthcoming BLVD are also turning attention to such communities.

Jude 3 Project, an apologetics ministry among Black Christians led by Lisa Fields, has a discussion series called Why I Dont Go, engaging and listening to African Americans who have left the church.

Classical and traditional apologetics goes a lot to proving the existence of God. When you know the Black context, you realize most Black people believe that a God exists or a higher power exist, Fields said in a podcast interview last year.

Black atheism is growing, but its still a minority of Black people. So we have to figure out what black people are navigating, what are the challenges, and meet them there.
Pro-life group relaunches database for women facing unplanned pregnancies: 'You're not alone'

WASHINGTON  A pro-life group has unveiled the latest project in its strategic plan to prepare for a post-Roe America, which encourages women experiencing unexpected pregnancies to reject abortion while providing them with resources to ensure that they do not stand alone.

A group of pro-life activists held a press conference at the Heritage Foundations headquarters Monday to discuss their efforts to provide resources other than abortion to assist women experiencing unplanned pregnancies. The event comes as the United States Supreme Court is slated to rule on a case that could have the impact of reversing or weakening Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Students for Life of America co-hosted the press conference, along with Heritage Action and featured women who've had personal experiences deciding whether or not to have an abortion.

Every day, the pro-life community proves that we are here for women and their children, no matter how many times were accused of not caring, SFLA President Kristan Hawkins said in a statement about the event. "But as we get closer to a post-Roe America, were taking our message straight to women across the country so that they know we are standing with them so that they never have to stand alone.

Hawkins explained that the press conferences timing on Valentines Day was no coincidence:

On Valentines Day, we want women to know that they and their children  born and preborn  are loved. A predatory abortion industry making millions through ending young lives tells women that they are alone in the world and incapable of succeeding at home and work. They sell women short, and then they sell them an abortion, creating real fear in women. We want women to know that we are already working to help them and that no woman needs to stand alone.

The press conference also coincided with the relaunch of the SFLA project Standing With You, a website that includes a database of pregnancy and parenting resources across the U.S. SFLA described the database as part of a strategic plan to prepare for a post-Roe America.

Hawkins announced that SFLA was working with 41 universities to change their policies on campus so they no longer discriminate against pregnant and parenting women before unveiling changes to the Standing With You website. The website provides women with an opportunity to begin an immediate chat with a real person at Heartbeat International and make an appointment at a nearby pregnancy resource center.

Women can also type in their ZIP code and immediately obtain a list of all nearby pregnancy resource centers.

Mondays press conference took place on the same day as the publication of a letter on the Standing With You website that Hawkins encouraged pro-life advocates to sign. Addressed to the women of America, the letter laments that 72% of Americans cannot name their local pregnancy resource center.

The shared goal of the signers of this letter is to ensure that no woman in an unexpected pregnancy stands alone, and every woman in crisis is connected to the life-giving, non-violent alternatives to abortion available in her area. These alternatives to abortion have been operating in communities for decades, without government funding.

In addition to Hawkins and Janae Stracke of Heritage Action for America, speakers included Penny Young Nance of Concerned Women for America, Andrea Trudden of Heartbeat International, Emilie Kao of the religious liberty law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, Mrs. Virginia beauty pageant hopeful Kelly Dierberger and pro-life author Patrina Mosley.

In her remarks, Nance called on Congress to appropriate such funds necessary to instruct [the Department of Health and Human Services] to create a one-stop state-by-state online resource center complete with hotline and chat [features] that details all the many public and private  resources that are available to women experiencing unplanned pregnancies.

Nance discussed her effort further in an interview with The Christian Post. She acknowledged that the creation of her envisioned Life.gov was dependent upon a pro-life majority in Congress, where pro-abortion Democrats currently have majorities in both chambers. She expressed optimism that the 2022 midterms would result in the pro-life Republican Party regaining majorities in the House and Senate.

After the midterms, Ill feel much better about the ability for Congress [to] direct resources and specifically require HHS to provide the information and also require them to report back on what theyve done, she said. If you care about women, you should support the creation of Life.gov.

She also predicted that President Joe Biden would probably not veto an appropriations bill that included a provision calling for the creation of Life.gov.

Two of the speakers had personal experience with unplanned pregnancies, which frequently cause women to choose to terminate their pregnancies. Ruth Asmarzadeh, who decided not to abort her child after becoming pregnant in college unexpectedly, expressed praise for the Standing With You initiative. SFLA raised $6,000 for Asmarzadeh to finish her psychology degree after having a baby forced to drop out of college.

Asmarzadeh elaborated on her experience at the press conference: I thought abortion was my only option mainly because I did not think there were any others. I did not know that choosing life for my child as well as choosing my own dreams would be an option. I thought that it was either abortion or a life in a constant state of exhaustion or poverty.

While she initially felt hopelessly and indescribably alone, Asmarzadeh credited God for surrounding her with friends, family and my church who loved me and were excited for my new chapter of life. She also indicated that coming across Students for Life of America helped her tremendously throughout her post-pregnancy.

Asmarzadeh first encountered Students for Life of America after one of her friends had given her the contact information for the SFLA regional coordinator. After contacting her SFLA regional coordinator, she connected with the SFLA chapter on her campus. She reported that the pro-life group came around me and supported me and even threw a baby shower.

In an interview with CP, Asmarzadeh explained that she identified as pro-choice before becoming pregnant: When it happened to me, it just kind of changed because all of a sudden  this is happening to me and its different and its real.

Nearly six years after giving birth to her son, Eli, Asmarzadeh is finishing the last leg of her associates degree at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and has used the scholarship money raised by SFLA over the course of multiple semesters. She described her experience as a little difficult but a huge blessing because Im working full time and I work a lot. Because she's not a full-time student, it has taken the young mother longer than usual to complete her degree.

Asmarzadeh was a student at the same college in the spring of 2016, when her academic career involuntarily came to a halt. I had my son a week before finals, she recalled. When I went back to my classes, I wasnt able to take my finals because classes were already over, I just had my baby, so I wasnt able to go in because  I was still recovering physically from all that and then exhausted.

Asmarzadeh told CP that because my teachers never really coordinated with me what I was supposed to do, she ended up failing her classes, which caused her to lose her financial aid. She indicated that because of the efforts of SFLA, other pregnant students at Pikes Peak Community College would not find themselves in her situation: I think its changed its policies. I have seen nursing rooms, which is really cool because that wasnt there before I took my break from school.

While she felt an overall fear associated with being the pregnant girl on campus and how that would look, fear of my reputation, fear of my parents kicking me out, and as shallow as it may be, it was fear of what it could do to my body that caused her to contemplate abortion. Asmarzadeh chose not to give in to that fear and credited her parents with influencing her decision to have her child.

My parents were very supportive no matter what and they were one of the reasons  I decided I couldnt get an abortion and I couldnt give my kiddo up for adoption because it would devastate my parents and thats their legacy as well and I knew that they would be there to support me.

Asmarzadeh said her mother reminded her that she was going to be a grandma and she said this baby is a part of my heart as well. She concluded that even if I got an abortion or gave him up for adoption, I would be missing a part of myself.

She attributed her decision to choose life to research she did about the procedure: I researched the abortion process and every process. I became very familiar with some very disturbing words and animated videos that made me sick. And I was like nope, I cant do an abortion, especially knowing the initial side effects and the long-term effects that Planned Parenthood omits ... and they dont really tell you about.

The young mother also pointed to the experience of one of her friends as a motivating factor in her decision not to have an abortion. Asmarzadehs friend shared emotional testimony detailing that when she was in college, she had two abortions because she was pressured by her boyfriend at the time and later on down the road  the side effects of that [were] miscarriages and hemorrhages.

After encountering a woman at her church who gave her baby up for adoption rather than have an abortion, Asmarzadeh became grateful that God was at the center of that in leading me to these people and placing these people in my life so that I could hear their testimonies and so that I could make the decision.

In the future, Asmarzadeh hopes to continue her advocacy to help the pregnant mother whos afraid and scared and feels really alone and help her feel like youre not alone and let her know that there are people who want to help her.
Media ignores the cultural genocide of the American black family

As Black History Month continues, many on the left will push their narrative of eternal black victimhood and identity politics.

In his proclamation on National Black History Month, for example, President Joe Biden failed to acknowledge that we are living during the least racist period in American history. Instead, he said:

The long shadows of slavery, Jim Crow, and redlining  and the blight of systemic racism that still diminishes our Nation today  hold America back from reaching our full promise and potential."

And Black Lives Matter at School, a project that provides a controversial activist curriculum with lesson plans for K-12 schools, will teach children this week to be transgender and queer-affirming.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was a government-funded study conducted on black males to collect information on the progression of syphilis.

In 1932, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) engaged the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to conduct a clinical study on black male sharecroppers, most of whom were illiterate, in order to observe how untreated syphilis progresses until death.

As the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) timeline of the experiment notes, for 40 years no media reported on the study, during which participants were never informed of their diagnosis or asked to give informed consent. Meanwhile, all were told they were being treated for bad blood.

While the men received free medical examinations, meals, and burial insurance in exchange for their participation in the study, they were not offered any treatment for syphilis, for which penicillin had become the treatment of choice by the 1940s.

As ScienceDirect observed, part of the initial purpose of the Tuskegee study was to recognize the different stages of the disease to develop treatments adapted to each of those stages. The researchers, however, never offered to treat the subjects with penicillin when it became widely available.

According to the ScienceDirect report:

Instead of treating the subjects of the study with penicillin and concluding it or establishing a control group to study the drug, the scientists in charge of the Tuskegee experiment hid the information on penicillin from the subjects in order to continue studying how the disease spread and eventually led to death.

In 1972, the study was leaked to the press. Consequently, a federal health official ordered a review, one that concluded the research was ethically unjustified.

A year later, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the studys subjects and their families, which yielded a $10 million settlement in 1974.

The government, however, was not done with victimizing black Americans after the Tuskegee Experiment since, for over 50 years now, the Cultural Genocide of the American black family has been occurring in plain sight  with no horrified, frenzied media coverage at all.

In fact, the destruction of the American black family is part of the lefts weaponization plan to undermine the traditional nuclear family regardless of race.

As I have observed before, at the time of Martin Luther King, Jr.s assassination, nearly 80% of black children were born into two-parent families. Since that time, however, we have seen black families decline to 80% fatherless homes  without any national initiative or outcry from the media to reverse that trend.

As a result of this genocide of black families, entire black communities have been decimated from within, and we are worse off now than before the non-violent Civil Rights Era began.

Furthermore, critical race theory indoctrination and woke accusations of an America mired in eternal systemic racism are continuing to make things worse, not only for black but for all Americans.

Ironically, as many fatherless black families have grown increasingly dependent on the government for support, black political leaders  even members of the Congressional Black Caucus  have encouraged the same leftwing groups that call for the eternal victimhood of black people to ramp up their outrage. Many of them have grown wealthy while their communities have lingered in perpetual generational poverty when barriers of systemic racism have been removed. Living in the Jim Crow South, my parents and grandparents would have loved to have grown up in the America I grew up in.

I have been urging black Americans to return to their roots in faith, family, and the pursuit of a good education  which is where we were after the Civil Rights movement eliminated systemic racism and provided real opportunities for us.

Sadly, the federal government  LBJs social programs, in particular  started the black community down the path of government dependence and a huge cultural change.

Unwed women became financially incentivized to have children as long as they remained unmarried. As a result, in five decades weve seen the collapse of the black family, and the two-parent black family has become an endangered species.

Many black children, who were born into a situation not of their own making, continue to miss out on the opportunities America has to offer, and it is not because of systemic racism or white privilege. Instead, most of our children are growing up without the benefit of the best start in life  a loving family led by a father and a mother.

The one pathway out of poverty, a solid education has been denied to children living in major inner cities across the country. The lack of a solid education keeps these children and later young adults, in a cycle of poverty, anger, and hopelessness because school administrators and political leaders, all left-leaning, have allowed failing schools to exist for decades.

What makes this situation quite evil, is that these local leaders keep parents from having the option of sending children to better schools by restricting school choice, vouchers, and charter schools. The leaders in these communities are failing them while they become financially wealthy.

Sadly, black Americans that legally immigrate (non-refugees) from countries like Nigeria or the Caribbean islands have achieved the American dream. They achieve higher levels of education, earn significantly more than native-born black Americans, and have higher levels of two-parent families than descendants of American black slaves.

Indeed, the cultural genocide of the American black family is a tragedy yet untold by the press that is still waiting to be told with facts and candid truth.
Matt Chandler warns Christians: Avoid 'outrage of our day,' choose hope over anxiety

Matt Chandler, the pastor of The Village Church in Texas, cautioned his congregation against succumbing to the outrage of our day and urged them to instead choose the kind of hope only Christians can possess.

In a sermon titled Resurrection Hope, the 47-year-old pastor told those gathered at the church's Flower Mound campus that God designed humans as intellectual and psychological creatures that have the ability to choose what they give their thoughts over to.

Hope is a choice. Hope doesnt just happen to you. You dont just wake up one day and say: Gosh, I dont know what happened, I sure am hopeful today. No, you choose to hope, Chandler said.

You are choosing to fuel and feed and cultivate; anxiety, anger, depression, rage or youre choosing to cultivate hope and beauty and gratitude and gladness, he added.

Christians should be mindful of the thoughts that they dwell on, he said, because the way someone talks to themselves impacts the way they live their lives.

No one is as mean to you as you are. Nobody lies to you like you lie to you. Nobody has been crueler to you than you have been to you. You just dont even listen to what you say to yourself. If another person said to you what you say to you, my guess is you would punch them in the eye, Chandler said.

The pastor said that in his own life, he's had to become conscientious about what his mind dwells on  and this includes no longer watching the news and limiting those whom he follows on social media.

Im telling you, [watching the news] was just not good for my soul. I am naturally bent toward passion. You let me see a bunch of injustice and Im going to freak out.  And I needed to cut that out, Chandler described. I have trimmed who I follow on social media. I dont want people provoking me toward anger and toward anxiety and toward fear.

Chandler said that Christians should find their confidence in their eternal salvation and not in things that will create negative reactions in themselves. Believers should expose themselves to the kind of positivity that leads to joy.

I know how this story ends. I know who we are in Christ. Why wouldnt I just stir up every input possible to stir up faith and beauty and gladness and gratitude? Like why? Why give people an in to steal whats rightfully yours? he said.

When Christians allow negative thoughts to rule over their minds, Chandler said, it can potentially lead to them becoming overly fixated on themselves. This can lead to a lack of trust in God that can cause resentment.

Are you an expert on all thats wrong and calling it discernment?  Or are you just cynical, man?" Chandler asked.

Dont do that. [God] says, Listen, prepare your minds for action, be serious about this and put your hopefully in God, the pastor said, referencing Philippians 4:8.

Every week, the world is going to give you something to be angry about, something to be frustrated with and in some way youre losing or crazy for loving Jesus, he continued. And its just such a ploy of the enemy to take from you the gladness that is found in hope. We win. In fact  weve already won.

Christians are supposed to have hope in the Gospel, and confidence will come from that hope. This confidence and hope should involve obedience to God through transformational holiness, and a Christian becomes more like Christ as they continue to follow Him.

Jesus both confronts and comforts me because He does both, Chandler said. Jesus is going to bear weight on you because He is eternal and youre not.

Christians live in a world that strives to remove any and all friction from life, he said, yet "Jesus has claim over us."

He is King, not buddy. He is Lord and not just some kind of a genie in a lamp," Chandler stressed, later adding: If your God never disagrees with you, chances are, you are just worshiping yourself  but not the real you  but an idealized version of you."

God wants to give Christians joy through their obedience, Chandler noted, which he said means Christians should have fear or awe of God. Fear of God, he said, should not rob Christians of their confidence.

Every thou shalt and thou shalt not, in the Bible is about God leading you into joy, he said. Every thou shalt and thou shalt not in the Bible is not God trying to take something from you, but actually God trying to give you something thats underneath your  compulsion.  Its not always easy to obey Jesus, but its about you being led into the fullness of life.

Jesus aint your homeboy," he added. "Hes just not. Hes the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and we would do good to allow the Scriptures and what we see in the Scriptures of who Jesus is to create a deep reverence or what the Bible calls fear [of God]."
'Unsurvivable': Mother says faith kept her going after husband, son die in horrific accident

Sonya Hunter remembers the day  May 19, 2006. She had only one week left of work before she planned to leave her job to become a stay-at-home mother for her two boys.

She recalls going to work that day, as usual, but began to have a weird gut feeling that something wasnt right.

Hunter had been waiting at her job, Red River Rehab in Madill, Oklahoma, for her husband Kris  who was driving with their children to pick her up from work and take them to lunch.

The commute should have been 20 minutes. But Hunter grew worried after 30 minutes went by and her husband had not yet arrived. After she gave him a call and he didnt pick up, she became even more worried.

Eventually, two policemen arrived and told her that her husband and kids were involved in a car accident. She was told that her husband and one of her sons had been killed. The other son was rushed to a local hospital before being airlifted to a Dallas hospital as he clung to life in what turned out to be a monthslong ordeal.

During the latest episode of the Cancel This Podcast, Hunter shares her story, which is also featured in her book Unsurvivable: Even in the darkest storm, always find your rainbow! She opens up about how she relied on her relationship with Jesus Christ to help her cope with the insurmountable pain surrounding her grief.

Thats the worst feeling you could ever imagine. ... We had our whole life ahead of us, she said. You almost think youre invincible to a point. ... You just dont think things happen to you like that. ... It was beyond devastating.

Immediately after hearing the news of the death of her son and husband and life-threatening injuries to her other son, Hunter said her immediate reaction was to crumble to the ground in pain. She later found out that her 6-year-old son, Adam, had passed away while her 19-month-old son, Connor, was battling spinal injuries.

It was almost like a paralyzing feeling to me. At that moment, I was wishing it would have been me in the accident.  Its just a pain that you cant explain to somebody, Hunter said to the podcasts host, Jason Sautel.

Its bad enough to lose your spouse, whos your rock and the love of your life, but then  knowing that you lost a child and not sure if your other child is even going to make it, is just a [tough] feeling.

Hunter said if it wasnt for the Lord, she doesnt know how she would have continued forward in her life.

I really dont know how people can go through such a tragedy without God in their life, Hunter said.

When Hunter first arrived at the hospital, she was told doctors didnt expect Connor to survive through the night.

I had told all my friends and family that we need the whole world praying for Connor. We need a miracle, she said. Ill never truly know on this side of Heaven how many people were honestly praying for him to survive. Clearly, he did survive.

Hunter said one of her mottos is faith over fear.

When that fear starts creeping in, you got to dig deep and respond to your faith because God is the only One who can truly help you through a time like that, she said.

At the local hospital, Hunters father broke the news to her about which of her sons had died.

It was horrible. The worst thing ever.  It almost seemed like a dream, like this couldnt be real, she described. Ill never forget walking up to my dad and asking him, which one of my babies is alive? she continued.

And when he told me it was Connor, I just saw the reality hit me because at that moment I knew Adam, my 6-year-old, my fun-loving, spiderman-loving little boy was no longer here. ... I wasnt sure how I was going to navigate this.

When Hunter entered the hospital room where Conner was, she remembers seeing the toddler laying down completely lifeless as he was given oxygen.

She said a motivation for writing the book is that Connor was in an unsurvivable wreck, and she feels her emotional pain and agony should have been unsurvivable.

What I went through was unsurvivable, she said. Without God in my life and having Christian parents that raised us up knowing and loving God and they were right by my side through it all.

My mom used to whisper prayers in my ear at the hospital every time we were getting hit with something, she added. She was making sure she was right there pushing God back into me so that I didnt give up.

Hunter said having Christian friends to be active listeners by her side during times of sorrow and grief was a huge help.

I have a great group of friends, Hunter said. They would pray over me. It was never, Oh, I know how youre feeling, or OK, its going to get better. Because at that moment, I didnt want to hear those things.

You just want someone to kind of love on you and just listen, she added.

Connor remained hospitalized in the intensive care unit for 31 days and remained in the hospital for three months. The crash caused Connor to suffer an injury where his head connects to his spine. Today, Connor is 17 but is disabled from his injuries.

I lost my whole family that day because Connors not the same Connor he was, but God has blessed me tremendously through Connor, though, Hunter explained.

I would love for Connor to be up running around, and I know God could even reach down right now and completely 100% heal him, but  its hard to explain the connection that I have with Connor, that God has given me through his disability. ... Its just unbelievable.
Catholic schools rebounding from pandemic enrollment drop: report

Catholic school enrollment in the United States has slightly increased during the current school year compared to the previous academic year, marking a rebound from an enrollment decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent report.

The National Catholic Educational Association reported in a recently released data brief that there were approximately 1.69 million students in Catholic schools for the 2021-2022 school year, which was slightly higher than the 1.63 million reported for the 2020-2021 school year.

Enrollment at all types of schools  public, charter and private  were impacted last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Catholic schools had a decline in enrollment of 6.4% from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021, stated the NCEA.

Catholic schools dedication in safely opening classrooms and supporting their communities needs last year is demonstrated in the 3.8% increase in enrollment.

Despite the reported increase, total enrollment is still 2.7% lower than the 2019-2020 school year, before the coronavirus pandemic impacted the numbers.

It is promising that early childhood students have returned to Catholic schools but troubling that enrollment is still lower than pre-pandemic levels, stated the NCEA report.

Catholic schools innovated throughout the last two years to meet the needs of their communities. They need to continue to adapt to those needs and use the momentum to retain students and recruit new students in the upcoming years to stabilize or continue to increase enrollment.

Enrollment in Catholic schools was at its peak in the early 1960s when approximately 5.2 million students went to around 13,000 Catholic schools, according to NCEAs website.

The 1970s and 1980s saw a steep decline in both the number of schools and students. By 1990, there were approximately 2.5 million students in 8,719 schools, NCEAs website explains.

From the mid-1990s through 2000, there was a steady enrollment increase (1.3%) despite continued closings of schools. In the 10 years since the 2010 school year, 1,400 schools were reported closed or consolidated (19.7%), while 261 school openings were reported.

Since early 2020, there has been much upheaval in education in the U.S due to COVID-19 lockdowns, disputes over facemasks and high-profile debates over curriculum.

Last September, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released a report finding that approximately 1.4 million students were taken out of district public schools during the pandemic while enrollment at charter schools, which are also public, grew.

It is premature to draw any conclusions about why charter school enrollment grew while enrollment in district public schools declined. And yet the pattern among states in this report is undeniable, the National Alliance report stated, adding that the decline in public school enrollment had begun before the pandemic.

There is much to learn from families who made the switch, and perhaps the biggest lesson for everyone is how critically important charter schools are to public education.
GiveSendGo hacked, donors leaked amid fundraiser for Canadian trucker convoy protest

The Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo has been hacked and temporarily disabled after it facilitated the raising of nearly $9 million for the convoy of Canadian truckers who have been protesting vaccine mandates.

The Delaware-based organization, which hosted a crowdfunding effort for the Canadian truckers after crowdfunding site GoFundMe took down their initial fundraiser at the urging of the Canadian government, was disabled Sunday night. Visitors were redirected to the domain GiveSendGone[.]wtf.

The site had raised over $8.7 million in one week after the GoFundMe effort was taken down.

Hackers posted on GiveSendGo a scene from the Disney film Frozen as a backdrop along with a statement blasting the website and the protest movement known as the "Freedom Convoy," according to The Daily Dot's Mikael Thalen.

BREAKING: GiveSendGo, the crowdfunding website used by the Freedom Convoy, is now redirecting to the domain GiveSendGone[.]wtf.



A video from the Disney film Frozen now appears alongside a manifesto condemning the website and the Freedom Convoy. pic.twitter.com/3TLAwfvZ3w  Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) February 14, 2022

The statement alleged that those who had contributed to the fundraiser were the same ones who had helped fund the January 6 insurrection in the U.S. and had helped fund an insurrection in Ottawa.

On behalf of sane people worldwide who wish to continue living in a democracy, I am now telling you that GiveSendGo itself is frozen, the statement continued.

As of Monday, the GiveSendGo website yields a blank white page that reads, Application under maintenance we will be back very soon. Similarly, a 404 error message appears on the GiveSendGo Adopt a Trucker fundraising page.

GiveSendGos list of donors, approximately 92,000 of them, was also leaked and shared online.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an order last week halting access to funds that had been raised on the crowdfunding site.

The crowdfunding site tweeted Saturday: The funds from the Freedom Convoy are not frozen contrary to what you might be hearing on the news. GiveSendGo is working with many different campaign organizers to find the most effective legal ways to continue funds flowing.

The site stated on Feb. 10 in response to previous Canadian court efforts to halt the funds that the Canadian government has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here and that all the donations flow directly to the recipients of those campaigns, not least of which is The Freedom Convoy campaign.

The sites hacking and the judicial moves against the company came amid Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus convening with government officials to discuss how to deal with ongoing protests. The protests began in late January when thousands of truckers traversed across the country and descended on Ottawa, Canadas capital city.

Many truckers had previously stated that they would not leave until the countrys COVID-19 mandates are dropped or Trudeau resigns. The convoy in Canada has garnered worldwide attention, and similar convoys have been seen in Australia and throughout Europe.

Trudeau is expected to invoke the Emergencies Act to give the government additional powers, according to the CBC. Thus far, there are no plans to deploy the military.

Truckers have also protested at a number of border crossings, notably in Coutts, Alberta, and at the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. The Ambassador Bridge carries approximately 30% of the annual trade between Michigan and Canada.

According to the Michigan Department of Treasury, its estimated that around 10,000 commercial trucks and $325 million in goods cross the bridge every day. The bridge was fully reopened Sunday night after seven days of blockade.

Just before midnight Sunday, the Detroit International Bridge Company announced that the Ambassador Bridge was now fully open allowing the free flow of commerce between the Canada and US economies once again.

Due to the nationwide outcry, in the past week, some Canadian provinces have announced that they will set plans in motion to drop some or all of their COVID restrictions, among them Alberta, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island.
Internet preachers rise as more worshipers migrate online

With more than 800,000 followers on Facebook, Chicago-based internet preacher and U.S. Army veteran Marcus Rogers has an audience on social media that's much greater than popular established churches like Rick Warrens Saddleback Church, and is just about 300,000 shy of Joel Osteens Texas-based Lakewood Churchs 1.1 million followers.

I am just a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody! His name is Jesus, Rogers, who turns 33 next month, boldly declares in the introduction to his page, which you must follow in order to get the latest updates.

With one click, his latest words of wisdom for Christian living are delivered in written posts and videos, which often rack up millions of views.

People choose to follow people who are portraying the version of Christianity that they are comfortable with," he warned in a veiled shot perhaps about the growing and diverse industry of internet preachers and online ministries. "Everybody claiming to be a Christian isn't a Christian. Everyone claiming to have a word [from] God doesn't really have one. It's dangerous to just follow anybody claiming to be a Christian."

In recent years, various social platforms and other online technology amplified the voices of a variety of controversial internet preachers, ranging from more conservative ones like Rogers to the profane like The Cussing Pastor, Thaddeus Matthews. And as the population of the unchurched continues to grow, some church experts say their data reflect a growing engagement among the faithful with ministries online, with some even choosing to fellowship exclusively on the internet.

Lucinda Rojas Ross, central team leader of communications at the Craig Groeschel-led Life.Church, which spans 32 campuses in 10 states, says since starting their Church Online platform more than 10 years ago, engagement has grown exponentially.

Our decision to create Church Online in April 2006 was driven out of our heart to reach people where they are. At Life.Church, we believe God has called us to use the technology available to us today to spread the Gospel to as many people as we can. There are more than 7 billion people on this Earth, and as long as there is one hurting person who doesnt know Christ, we know our job isnt done, Ross shared with The Christian Post in a recent statement.

Life.Church Online has allowed us to reach people who likely would have never walked through the doors of a church building. Beyond what we ever could have hoped or imagined, lives are being transformed around the globe. And we continue to see that number increase over time. So far this year on average, were reaching more than 500,000 people each week through Church Online, which includes live.life.church, Facebook, YouTube and Twitch, she added.

She explained that Life.Churchs online community is made up of different types of people, including those who: are outside the physical reach of the church, prefer to explore their interest in spirituality in an online context, people who are a part of their church but are looking for another option to worship together because they are traveling or displaced, and people who prefer to experience much of their community in an online context.

Though community and fellowship looks different in an online environment, weve found that many people are more open and feel more comfortable sharing details that they might hesitate to share in face-to-face conversations, she said.

We dont expect Church Online to be the same thing for each person. For some, online ministry is a supplement to help them stay connected to their church when they cant attend in person for various reasons. For others, its where they find Christ. Some individuals see it as their mission field. For some new believers, it can serve as a front door of sorts which eventually helps them get connected to a local church. And for others, its a full-fledged church home, she explained.

A calling to the internet

Rogers says his messages resonate with his followers because, like their de facto spiritual leader, many have struggled to find their place in traditional churches.

Ive pretty much been in church my whole life, he told CP. My mother was a German woman, single woman, [with] four mixed kids. So everywhere we kind of went, we were kind of always the outsiders. In black churches they looked at us kind of funny, in white churches, she wasnt married, a single mom.

Without his father and the outsider status of his family, Rogers struggled to find his niche.

I didnt have people that were raised up in the church as friends that I could depend on. The Bible says there is safety in a multitude of counseling. So I kind of felt like I was just in a position where I had to learn everything the hard way," he said. "Marriage, relationships, I didnt know anything about women or anything.

"I was deployed to Iraq, deployed to Afghanistan, and went through just so much mess in my life. It was so bad at one point I wanted to kill myself because I was just like, my life is just not working and I have nobody I could talk to. I cant just call the pastor. I cant just call my dad."

Desperate for direction and not ready to die, Rogers, who is a father of five children, said he began calling on the Lord for help.

When the Lord began responding several years ago while he was on deployment in South Korea, he said, his life began to change.

Instead of trying to kill myself, what I would do, I would just fall on my faith and cry out to the Lord just for a word or something to keep me going, especially when I was in South Korea. And then the Lord just began to speak to me, you know. And He would download stuff to me and I would begin to open the Bible and He would give me revelations, and I was so desperate for it, he said.

Inspired, Rogers soon decided that he would start publicly sharing some of what God was revealing to him.

I realized there are people out there like me. They are outsiders. They might not have their dad, a pastor in their life that they can just call because they are not part of the in-clique or the in-crowd, he said. So I was like, Im going to share what God has given me to keep me going, with everybody else. And Im going to share the raw truth, whether its about my divorce or what I was going through. Im just going to be vulnerable with people and be real.

He quietly began posting his video messages on social media when about five years ago, in the fall of 2014, one of them billed I Will Drown Myself went viral.

Right before I left for Korea the Lord spoke something to me and you know, different Christians dont really agree with this, but I was leaving my military base and I felt the Lord leading me to go to my office, and I went to my office and I saw this trash can there and I felt led to just fill it up with water.

Immediately I started having these thoughts that people are going to think Im crazy, whatever  I felt led to put my head in the trash can and started recording whatever came to my mind and that was my first video, he said.

That took off and from there I kept making videos with the intent to just help people, motivate people, encourage people. And I didnt see anybody else doing that at the time.

Rogers had no plans to become famous.

I just wanted to help other people that I knew were just out there like me, he said.

The draw

The ministry is now so popular and lucrative, Rogers left the Army last fall to commit to his ministry full time.

Asked why he thinks his ministry became so popular, Rogers said his decision to be open and honest about his walk with Christ is what resonates with many of his followers.

People are tired of, and this is not all churches, but a lot of churches just fake it. They want to look like theyve got it all together, theyre not struggling, theyre holier than thou, they never have any carnal thoughts or anything like that, and so a lot of people are tired of that, you know, he said.

When I meet people face-to-face, thats the number one thing they always say. Because I was vulnerable, they were able to connect with me, the transparency. It was more authentic to them and then when they look at me they feel like, well, if he can make it, then I can make it.

Internet church?

Although he is aware that some of his followers have made him their unofficial pastor, Rogers said he still encourages them to find local church homes. He doesnt believe his ministry is enough for discipleship, so he has partnered with churches across the state and globally to help match his followers with congregations.

I tell people this does not replace church. You need to be in church. You need to have accountability in your life, he said.

I feel like its OK for you to get a word on the internet. But if Im just giving you a word and you get motivated to do your day-to-day business but if there is no transformation or change in your life, then whats the point? So I look at social media as nothing more than a hook.

Its like planting a seed but people still need to be discipled. So dont look at me as your pastor. Dont look at me as nothing more than you get a little word. You still need to go to church, he argued.

To support some of his followers locally, he holds monthly prayer meetings in gym space that he rents.

For his spiritual health and to ensure he is accountable, Rogers told CP that he attends a home church with a pastor that provides him with guidance.

Rogers is not yet ready to lead a traditional church, he said, because he is studying and working on a new relationship. He wants to make sure he is fully prepared for the demands of being an official pastor.

To me, the internet is just a fishing net. We used to door knock back in the day and I still do that.  I go downtown with the megaphone and I preach. But to me, so many people spend so much time on their phones, with so much garbage on the internet, why not put some word on there, some hope on there, some truth on there, he said.

Culture shift

Despite the success of his online ministry, Rogers said in the beginning he never had the support of more traditional pastors.

When I was in the military, the pastor I had over me, he wasnt a fan of the internet at first. People used to joke and laugh at me when I first started making the videos," he explained.

'Youre never gonna be nothing more than a Facebook evangelist and things like that. I had a lot of people in the church kind of mocking me. But once they started seeing people coming in and get baptized, and people repenting and people getting delivered from homosexuality and things like that, they started to look at it a different kind of way.

And now, he said, he's getting invitations to speak at churches.

Earlier this year, new research titled State of the Online Church, by Vanderbloemen, Pushpay, and Jay Kranda, reflected this initial wariness of online ministry but highlighted that a majority of churches are now slowly including it as a strategic part of the overall church ministry.

There wasnt any real study that existed," said Kranda, pastor of the online campus of Saddleback Church in California, explaining why he felt the study was necessary. "There was a lot of opinion on online ministry. There wasnt any type of data around really showing what has been happening. And online streaming, particularly at a scale, has really matured. And things like the Church Online platform was over 10 years old. Facebook streaming has really matured. Its been around three to four years.

I felt like there was enough data there to go, hey, have we learned anything from this? Is it working or not. When I started as an online pastor, really there were a lot of opinions. I really wanted to move from opinion to have some facts. Is this hurting churches? Is it helping churches? And because I have been in online ministry for just about 10 years, I knew all those opinions, he said.

What the study really shows is that churches, they know online is the front door now, he told CP.

Every year that passes, the percentage of unchurched keeps going up with people not being raised in church. Its so unfamiliar. It used to be people just come to church [because] maybe they were raised in a church home. They have some kids and realize, I want this for my family and they would come back to church. That correlation isnt happening because theyre not necessarily raised in that context so they dont have something to go back to in a season of transition or crisis, he explained.

In crisis or transition, people are most likely to come to faith because they are looking for stability. They are looking for some kind of salvation. That might be marriage, that might be having kids, that might be a loss, a new job. And so, I think historically in Christianity, specifically in America, in those transition points, thats when people come back to church. But they only come back to it if it was a base at some point, he continued.

Because that base isnt established anymore, I think what happens is people just arent coming back and this is where online is a great opportunity that we have to lean into members to evangelize, Kranda said.

Instead of them going hey to your co-worker, hey on Sunday, wake up early, get dressed, and come to this thing I call church, its hey, by the way, Facebook is a big part of my life, why dont you watch our online service to kind of see what were about. And I think most churches are leveraging that. It's good for people to kind of see what youre about by following you on Facebook or Instagram or watching something on YouTube.

A warning about wolves

Similar to more established churches, the online church space can be a dangerous market.

Rogers warned against some personalities, like self-styled Texas prophet Joshua Holmes, who went viral in recent months for his ministry theatrics that led to many of his female followers calling him Jesus in the flesh."

Holmes has also been captured in leaked video recordings indulging in explicit sexual activity with women who are not his wife.

I see a lot of other people and you can see that their heart isnt in it for the people. They do videos because either theyre trying to make money or because they want the likes or shares or validation and it doesnt come across as genuine, Rogers said.

My stuff is not politically correct  I dont care. If someones a false prophet and I know it, I make videos about people. Ive had Deitrick Haddon, Ive had Joshua Holmes write me. Ive had a lot of people write me that Ive talked about and even with Joshua Holmes, I told him, I said, You need to repent. You need to make a video saying you are not Jesus Christ in the flesh. And he didnt do it, Rogers continued.

And then I think it was a couple weeks after I talked to him and warned him, all those sex tapes came out with him. There is a big problem with social media because everybody thinks theyre a pastor, everybody thinks they have a word from God, everybody thinks theyre a prophet. And the problem is, most people, they dont have a real genuine relationship with God. They are just looking for the next high."
Jack Graham preaches Valentine's Day message on loving God above all, avoiding seductions of world

Just ahead of Valentines Day, Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church Plano, Texas, told his congregation how to become a Romans 12 kind of Christian and warned against conforming to the world.

In a Feb. 13 sermon titled Divine Direction, Graham told hundreds of churchgoers that when Christians do not surrender to God, their minds will not be transformed by God. Instead of letting Gods light shine through them, they cover Jesus, who is inside of them.

The world wants to seduce us, to squeeze us. Rather than becoming more and more like Jesus, we become more and more like the world, especially when we crawl off the altar, the 71-year-old pastor and former Southern Baptist Convention president said.

We are living off the altar as a sacrifice, and were on our own. Thats when the world begins to seduce us and squeeze us and cover our light. So, He says dont do that. Stop. Its an imperative.  Stop being conformed to this world right now. And instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Graham added.

When Christians allow worldly things to influence them and make compromises, they are no longer a Christ-like example, according to the pastor.

You are to be identified as a Christ-follower; a Christian because Christ is living in you. But, what happens is when we start conforming to the world and get into the worlds masquerade party, then it covers Christ, he explained.

You make compromises with your Christian faith. You cover who you really are.  Youre not showing Christ. Youre not lit up like Jesus around your friends or your coworkers, he stressed.

Earlier in the sermon, Graham referred to Valentines Day as a celebration of love. He said that to be transformed by Christ, Christians should put Jesus first in their lives.

The love of our life is Jesus.  We love our husbands and our wives more because we love Jesus most, Graham contended. Christ is first, and therefore those who are in our lives; we can love them well and love them better.

This is that lasting and living sacrifice. It is a logical sacrifice. In that, it is our reasonable service, he added.

Graham emphasized that Christians should remember to follow Jesus and not be conformed to the world but be transformed by God.

God has promised time and time again in the Bible that He will lead us. We are not left alone to figure it out by ourselves. God has a plan. God has a purpose even before you were born. These children, these babies; before they were born, God had a purpose and a plan for their lives.  God has a plan for every life and that includes your life, he preached.

And as a believer and follower of Jesus, He has promised to lead you throughout the days of your life. And in making those decisions, Gods guidance is promised, he said.

Carrying out the will of God is the only proper way to live, Graham said. He said Gods will should be sought by every Christian when making life decisions.

Your best life, your only life that is truly successful is a life given to following the Lord.  Your decisions determine your direction and your direction ultimately determines your destiny in life, Graham said.

And Im talking about the big decisions that we make: where we go to school, who we marry, and if we have children, job, career, calling  all of these things.  God has a plan and He will let you know. God is not hiding His will from you. He wants you to know His will even more than you want to know it, he added.

Being obedient to the word of God starts in a Christians mind, according to Graham, adding: Its the way you think and when you are presented to the Lord fully and completely.

And your mind is now transformed and youre not allowing the world to cover up [Jesus], the pastor said. You can see clearly the path.

Satan, who is the god of the world, Graham said, is anti-God and anti-Christ. The devil and those under his dominion want to lead Christians astray.

The world wants to con you. The world wants to confuse you. The world wants to conform you and the world wants to cover you, the Reignite author said. When you cover up your face, you cant shine. Dont let the world cover you up, con you, confuse you or conform you to fit into its own patterns and ways and principles and philosophies and values. The world has a view. This age has a worldview, and its not God.

Christians will make mistakes, but Graham said having a mind transformed by Christ allows Christians to remember repentance, Gods forgiveness and mercy.

When we fail, when we fall, when we stumble, we get back up and we keep going because our minds have been changed. We dont think the way we used to, he declared. We now make choices between right and wrong and what is good and what is best between truth and lies. We know the path that is to be taken or not taken because now our mind is renewed.
People wait for a COVID-19 test at a makeshift testing site in Seoul, Feb. 14. AP-Yonhap





The U.S. government advised its people against travel to South Korea, Monday, amid reports of widespread COVID-19 infections here.







The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added South Korea to the "very high" risk Level 4 category, along with five other countries and territories, including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Comoros, French Polynesia, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon







"If you must travel to South Korea, make sure you are vaccinated and up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines before travel," the CDC said on its website. "Even if you are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines, you may still be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19."






Pro-life activist at CPAC slams 'anti-woman culture' that encourages abortion

Pro-life activists slammed the anti-woman culture that causes women to believe that having a baby will prevent them from achieving their life and career goals during a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday.

Moderated by the New York Posts Kelly Jane Torrance, the "Hard Questions for the Hard Cases: How to Defend Life" panel included Emily Berning, the CEO of the nonprofit pro-life organization Let Them Live; Alison Centofante, the director of external affairs at the pro-life group Live Action; and Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn.

Torrance acted as devils advocate throughout the panel, asking the passionate pro-life activists to respond to some of the most common arguments from abortion supporters.

She acknowledged widespread opposition to third-term abortions among Americans who describe themselves as pro-choice but noted that tougher questions come at the beginning or when there are medical issues.

Responding to an inquiry about what to say to mothers who are seeking abortion because they find themselves in a difficult financial situation or think they are too young or because they are not in a relationship, Berning stressed that circumstances are temporary and abortion is permanent.

Berning also took issue with the anti-woman culture thats saying if you have a baby, you cant do anything. You cant do it. You have to kill your child to be successful. That is what the culture is telling women and we have to be so opposite of that.

She then described the work of her organization, Let Them Live, where she and her staff counsel pregnant women and explain that those temporary circumstances do not define you as a mother, they do not define you as a person, and we will help you get out of that so that you can make a life-affirming decision.

Politics is downstream from culture, so if we expect to change anything, we  need to change the culture and that starts with letting women know that we are here for them, she added.

Torrance also referenced comments made by actress Michelle Williams, who, at last years Golden Globe Awards, said she didn't think she would've had the career she had if she didn't have an abortion at a young age.

Berning rejected that argument: Its not one or the other.  Why does our society say it has to be one or the other? You either choose your education or your child. You either choose paying for your rent or you choose your child.

It does not have to be a one or the other situation, she asserted. Women are strong enough to do what they want to do in life and have a child if they choose.

Asked to weigh in on exceptions to abortion bans if the life of the mother is at risk, Centofante explained that we have done so much research talking to the worlds leading OB/GYNs who say that the goal is to always, should be, to save them both.

Centofante added, if that baby needs to be separated from that mother, the answer  is early delivery, early induction or C-section, not dismembering that child.

There is no need to go in and intentionally kill that child, she continued. An emergency C-section to help that mother can be done in under an hour or two, a third-trimester abortion that occurs after 24 weeks when these high-risk cases can develop takes two to three days. So you tell me whats safe.

When Torrance asked what should be done if a doctor informs a mother that her baby would be born with serious, serious disabilities or serious developmental issues where the child will either die very quickly or will have a horrible, burdensome life, Centofante maintained that the child is a human being worthy of our legal protection.

Torrance brought up a hypothetical situation in which a doctor says to a mother, this childs going to have a miserable life because of Down syndrome or another condition that will keep them from having a fulfilled life.

In response, Berning pushed back on that way of thinking: Its no one persons job to decide for another person if their life is fulfilled.

Health professionals need to speak up and speak out and be done with abortion, Centofante asserted as she recounted how during her pregnancy, a doctor asked her if she wanted to do prenatal testing to determine if her child had Down syndrome. She lamented that 90% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the United States are killed.

When a pregnant woman walks into Planned Parenthood, they see money, Centofante contended. When they walk into  Let Them Live, Live Action, a pregnancy resource center, were like, Lets just help you.

Centofante alleged that the reason abortion is so intertwined in politics and culture is because Planned Parenthood receives government funding. Pull their taxpayer funding and you will see the pro-life movement step in to take care of women and the abortion industry fade out. Its because were propping it up with our own money.

Torrance then asked the panelists how one can convince atheists or agnostics who don't have an easy in to being pro-life that results from practicing a religion to oppose abortion.

Science is showing us so much about the humanity of the unborn, Fischbach responded.

I have five grandchildren and another on the way and when my children were born, you had those little grainy ultrasounds, she recalled. Now youve got the 4D and you can see if the babys smiling.

The pro-life issue is not just a religious one, Berning added. It doesnt have to be religious, supporting women  supporting unborn children; its just something we should do as human beings.
Pro-life group calls for Fauci's firing over NIAID funding of barbaric experiments on aborted babies

A pro-life group held a rally outside the National Institutes of Health Thursday, calling for the firing of Dr. Anthony Fauci over the organizations role in funding experiments that use aborted babies.

Students for Life of America held a #FireFauci rally outside the National Institutes of Health headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, calling for the firing of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a branch of the NIH. While Fauci has received criticism from conservatives for his directives to combat the novel coronavirus, pro-lifers are seeking to hold him accountable for his role in providing funding to the University of Pittsburgh, which was used to perform experiments on aborted babies.

Attendees at the rally carried pink slips to show their support for Faucis firing. The pink slips contained phrases including Demand Fauci Resigns! Notice of Termination: Fire Fauci, as well as Notice of Termination accompanied by Name: Anthony Fauci and effective immediately, along with the hashtag #FireFauci.

The first speaker at the rally was Stephanie Stone, the Mid-East regional manager of Students for Life of America. We are here on this hot day, outside of the NIH today, to call for President Biden to fire Fauci, she said.

Dr. Fauci, as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the NIAID, has allowed federal tax dollars to fund what should be considered a criminal act that is currently  taking place at the University of Pittsburgh. Right now, medical researchers at Pitt are undergoing a series of tests, she added.

These tests involve taking the scalp of five-month-old aborted children and grafting them on the backs of lab mice. Researchers then observed as the rats and mice grew human baby hairs.

Stone described the grant used to conduct the research as an insane misuse of not only taxpayer dollars but an absolutely abhorrent waste of precious human lives. According to Stone, Its shameful that this office has seen fit to put their stamp of approval on this project, let alone using taxpayer money to do it. Taking the lives of five-month-old [aborted] babies to graft their scalps onto lab mice is absurd, immoral and disgraceful.

We want to see Dr. Fauci fired for not only being involved but essentially giving his stamp of approval and our taxpayer dollars to something that is unethical, Stone proclaimed. She called on the Biden administration to fire Dr. Fauci and anyone involved in this inhumane scheme.

Herb Geraghty, the executive director of Rehumanize International, which he said exists to promote the protection of every human life from conception to natural death, also addressed the crowd.

Geraghty, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, recalled how he attended a public hearing of the Pennsylvania House Health Committee on the experiments being done on aborted babies that caused him to feel shame about his alma mater: I learned that my beloved university was committing some of the most barbaric attacks against innocent human life that you could even possibly imagine.

He also lamented that the published report about the experiments involving aborted babies included photographs in which the hair of the poor innocent babies can be seen growing on the backs of rodents. He slammed the universitys experiments on babies up to 22 weeks gestation, noting that at that age, unborn babies have beating hearts and rapidly developing brains, they can respond to external stimuli, and they have all of their internal organs.

Under Pitts protocol for obtaining tissue from aborted babies, Geraghty noted that doctors conduct labor-induction abortions before immediately putting the fetal remains on ice to transport them to the laboratory where the bodies are dissected to harvest the liver. He maintained that it is possible that some of these fetuses dissected over the years were, in fact, infants who were born alive and died shortly after in transport to the research labs.

The final speaker, Alyssa Thoburn, serves as president of the Students for Life chapter in Fairfax, Virginia. Thoburn, a high school student who plans on attending college in the fall, agreed with the previous speakers that we need to fire Dr. Fauci.

Its one thing to accept whats going on. Its another entirely to know whats going on, approve of it and fund it. These taxpayer funds are responsible for the senseless deaths of five-month-old babies and the use of their bodies for nothing more than the grotesque curiosity of medical researchers, she added.

The event concluded as Stone read aloud a statement from Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins, who did not attend the event: Abusing anothers body who has given no consent and has no power to object is wrong. This is exactly why we must stand against this injustice and hold accountable those who have perpetuated and funded this inhumane practice. We call on President Biden to fire Anthony Fauci for being involved in this crime against humanity.

After urging pro-lifers to make noise about this unethical research and about Dr. Faucis involvement in it, Stone remarked that this injustice needs to stop.

The crowd chanted We are the pro-life generation while holding the pink slips and other signs expressing support for the pro-life movement and decrying medical research relying on the use of aborted babies.

The #FireFauci rally comes as the Biden administration has repeatedly expressed confidence in Fauci. At a press conference last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked if there was any circumstance under which Biden would fire Fauci. She bluntly responded with a No. Meanwhile, the president told a reporter that he was very confident in the head of NIAID.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Hawkins expressed hope that the event would add to the public pressure being put on NIH right now  including the Biden administration to  dramatically re-assess the role of Anthony Fauci in our government and his leadership.

While she acknowledged that the Biden administration is unlikely to fire Fauci, she stressed that the pro-life movement should not discount the effect of the grassroots movement of continuing to beat  the drum of whats happening with our government, making people aware of the ghastly research that were funding with our taxpayer dollars.

In addition to the #FireFauci rally, Students for Life is also circulating a petition asking Fauci to resign, citing the barbaric, taxpayer-funded research that has taken place at the University of Pittsburgh and the fact that Dr. Anthony Faucis office approved grants that funded it. As of Thursday afternoon, the petition had accumulated more than 1,600 signatures.

David Daleiden, the head of the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress, expanded on the research involving aborted babies' tissue conducted by the University of Pittsburgh using taxpayer dollars during his testimony before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in early May. His organization recorded undercover video of Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they supply the university with the body parts of aborted babies that they use to conduct the experiments.

Daleiden told lawmakers that in addition to the $500,000 grant used to conduct experiments grafting the hair of unborn babies onto mice, Pitt received a $1.4M grant from the NIH to become a distribution hub for aborted fetal kidneys and bladders and other organs in the NIHs genitourinary development mapping atlas program.

In his testimony, Daleiden noted that Pitts grant application for this grant application from the NIH states that the university has unique access to a large number of high-quality aborted fetuses and can ramp up delivery of aborted fetal body parts across the country.

Appearing on Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight last month, Daleiden suggested that the experiments conducted by the University of Pittsburgh using tissue from aborted babies might have broken the law: The fact that they were using scalps from five-month-old aborted babies, that means the heads of those children probably needed to be intact in order to get the scalps, which is an indication that those are either partial-birth abortion or even infants delivered alive and whole.

As Daleiden indicated, federal law currently prohibits the practice known as partial-birth abortion. The Partial-Birth Abortion Act was passed in 2003 and was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007.

For its part, the University of Pittsburgh has denied allegations of wrongdoing, with a spokesperson telling The College Fix that the University does not obtain fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood, does not use any of its state appropriation to fund fetal tissue research and follows all laws and regulations governing fetal tissue research.
'Genocide': The horrors of rape, torture and forced labor facing the Uyghurs in China

Who are the Uyghurs and what is their plight inside China?

Christian Post reporter Ryan Foley joins The Christian Post Podcast to break down the Uyghurs history, the horrors unfolding inside concentration camps and the reason so many international parties are accusing the Chinese Communist Party of committing genocide.

An estimated 1 to 3 million Uyghurs have been detained in concentration camps since 2016, Foley explained. While critics refer to them as reeducation camps ... the Chinese government contends that the camps are necessary to root out extremism.

He continued: Women in the camps are subject to rape, torture, and forced labor.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations have said genocide is unfolding in China. Listen to this episode to fully understand the issue:

The Christian Post Podcast takes you behind the headlines of the biggest faith, culture and political headlines of the week. In 15 minutes or less, Christian Post staff writers and editors will help you navigate and understand whats driving each story, the issues at play  and why it all matters.

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I have sinned: Gambling nun gets year in jail for $835K theft from school

An 80-year-old Catholic nun who stole $835,000 from the school where she served as principal and used the money for gambling, said she had sinned and would now try to follow more closely in Christs footsteps as she was sentenced to a year in federal prison.

Mary Margaret Kreuper, who was principal at St. James Catholic School in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, California, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II, who also ordered her to pay $825,338 in restitution, U.S. Attorneys Office of Central District of California announced.

Court documents say she diverted school funds into the St. James Convent Account and the St. James Savings Account and then used the funds to pay for expenses that the order would not have approved, much less paid for, including large gambling expenses incurred at casinos and certain credit card charges.

Announcing her sentencing, the judge said he struggled with weighing legal punishment against pleas for forgiveness from Catholic families whose children were taught at the school, the BBC reported, adding that she told the judge she was profoundly sorry and would spend the rest of her life trying to follow more closely in Christs footsteps.

I have sinned, Ive broken the law and I have no excuses, Kreuper said via teleconference, according to CBS News. My actions were in violation of my vows, my commandments, the law and, above all, the sacred trust that so many had placed in me. I was wrong and Im profoundly sorry for the pain and suffering Ive caused so many people.

The nun pleaded guilty last July to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

The nun  who was principal for 28 years and also responsible for the money the school received to pay for tuition and fees, as well as for charitable donations  embezzled money from the elementary school between 2008 and 2018.

These funds were intended to further the students education, not fund (Kreupers) lifestyle, prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. In their letters (to the court), several students and parents commented on how the school was lacking in resources.  Another parent discussed (in a letter to the court) how (Kreuper) said there was no money for an awning at school and no money for field trips.
School district apologizes for assignment asking students to list preferred sexual activities

The leadership of a Connecticut school district has issued an apology after parents expressed outrage over an assignment that asked students about their likes and dislikes when it comes to sexual activity.

Christopher Drezek, the superintendent of Enfield Public Schools in Enfield, Connecticut, apologized to parents at a school board meeting Tuesday night after eighth-grade students were asked to complete an activity called Pizza & Consent. The first page of the assignment, obtained by the advocacy group Parents Defending Education, explains the concept of consent, noting that We can use pizza as a metaphor for sex!

According to the document, When you order pizza with your friends, everyone checks in about each others preferences, right? Some people might be vegan, some might be gluten-free. Others might love pineapple, while others prefer pepperoni. Some might not like pizza at all. If youre a vegetarian, but your friend is a meat-lover, sharing a pizza is going to bring up a lot of issues. You dont know who you can share a pizza with unless you ask!

The same goes with sex! the worksheet adds. You have to check in with your partner(s) and ask for their preferences. Your partner(s) might be comfortable with one sexual activity, but not another. Maybe your partner(s) only want to be touched a certain way, or maybe your partner(s) prefer to use certain language. Or maybe they dont like or want sex at all. Youll never know if your wants, desires, and boundaries are compatible with theirs unless you ask.

The first page of the worksheet concludes by calling on students to start a conversation, contending that Its the only way sex (and pizza) can be comfortable and enjoyable for everyone. The second page of the worksheet caused particular concern for instructing students to explore their sexual preferences.

Draw and color your favorite type of pizza. Whats your favorite style of pizza? Your favorite toppings? What are your pizza no-nos? Now mirror these preferences in relation to sex!

In an example provided, a preference for cheese was used as a metaphor for kissing, while a dislike of olives was used as a metaphor for an aversion to oral sex. The worksheet included a blank circle where students were asked to color a pizza based on their favorite types of pizza and their preferred sexual activities. Twenty-two lines were drawn on the worksheet where students were to list their likes and dislikes.

At the Feb. 8 school board meeting, Drezek described the Pizza & Consent assignment as a mistake and inappropriate. He added: I know there are some who may not believe that, I know there are some who dont necessarily maybe want that answer.

Normally, I would take responsibility and I still do when  one of our staff members [makes] an inadvertent mistake, Drezek asserted. In this particular case, I didnt even get a chance to because the person who made the mistake jumped ahead of it before I was even notified that it had happened.

After reiterating that this was simply an error and defending the staff member responsible for the mistake, Drezek assured parents that there was no hidden agenda, there was no secret cabal to indoctrinate kids on something.

Drezeks remarks come after parents addressed their concerns about the assignment at a Jan. 27 school board meeting.

Since when  has it become acceptable for a teacher to ask a student what their sexual wants, desires and boundaries are? asked one parent, identified as Amanda. She took issue with the districts previous explanation that the incorrect version of this assignment was posted in the curriculum by mistake and inadvertently used for instruction in the classroom.

Why didnt the teachers that taught this assignment catch it and question it? Do they just teach the curriculum blindly, not questioning the morality of assignments required for the unit? Why didnt our curriculum committee catch this? What is their role, if not to oversee the curriculum and make sure that these types of mistakes dont end up as homework for our children?

The apology Amanda paraphrased was written by Brie Quartin, Enfield Public Schools Health and Physical Education Coordinator, in an email to parents obtained by Parents Defending Education. I caught the error after curriculum revision in June, but failed to post the intended version. I own that, and apologize for the error, she wrote.

The outrage over the distribution of the Pizza & Consent assignment comes at a time when parents across the U.S. are confronting their local school boards to express displeasure about the inclusion of sexually explicit material in school curriculums and in school libraries. The books Gender Queer and Lawn Boy, available in high school libraries in Fairfax County, Virginia, and other school districts, have caused particular concern for parents.

As Fairfax County parent Stacy Langton explained at a school board meeting last year, Both books describe different sex acts. Additionally, she lamented, both of these books include pedophilia, [and] sex between men and boys.

One book describes a fourth-grade boy performing oral sex on an adult male. The other book has detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy, Langton said. She elaborated on the contents of the graphic illustrations, which include fellatio, sex toys, masturbation and violent nudity.

While the books were removed from Fairfax County Public Schools high school libraries for a brief period of time, they were reinstated after an investigation. At around the same time that Langton was raising concerns about Gender Queer and Lawn Boy, the Mayor of Hudson, Ohio, appeared at a school board meeting in his city and called on the members of the school board to resign for allowing the use of a book with sexually explicit writing prompts in a college-level English class offered at the districts high school.
The New York Times' Evangelicals

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco regularly read The New York Times because he amusingly thought it the voice of international Freemasonry, historic nemesis to his preferred rightwing continental Catholicism. The Times has long had totemic status often beyond reality. So theres no surprise that David Brooks recent Times piece on reformers within Evangelicalism got a wide response. He spotlighted some Evangelical dissidents whom some conservative evangelicals disparage as panderers to the zeitgeist as embodied by the Times.

Evangelicals get lots of secular media attention because, in our ostensibly more secular age, they have significant political power as a fairly cohesive voting bloc that often goes 80% Republican. They are almost as cohesive as black Christians, who typically vote 90% Democrat, but white evangelicals are more numerous.

Coastal elites have disdained evangelicals and revivalists across 200 years, per John Adamss correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. They have long seen the backcountry unwashed as reactionary and unsophisticated. Contemporary evangelical traditionalist views on human sexuality and abortion make them especially disdained by liberal and secular elites.

Recent national polarization naturally has affected evangelicals as with all demographic groups, especially relating to Trump, January 6, Christian nationalism, the pandemic and vaccine, conspiracy theories, race and law enforcement, and populist politics. Some Evangelicals, including many leaders within academia and publishing, including persons whom Brooks spotlights, recoiled from the recent evangelical politics, which they saw as departing from traditional Christian public concerns during the Bush and Reagan eras. As Brooks noted, there is also distress about sexual abuse in the church, with some evangelicals blaming failures of accountability on excessive deference to authority and sometimes misogyny. According to Brooks:

"Power is the core problem here. First, the corruptions of personal power. Evangelicalism is a populist movement. It has no hierarchy or central authority, so you might think it would have avoided the abuses of power that have afflicted the Roman Catholic Church. But the paradox of decentralization is that it has often led to the concentration of power in the hands of highly charismatic men, who can attract enthusiastic followings. A certain percentage of these macho celebrities inflict their power on the vulnerable and especially on young women."

And also:

"Then there is the way partisan politics has swamped what is supposed to be a religious movement. Over the past couple of decades evangelical pastors have found that their 20-minute Sunday sermons could not outshine the hours and hours of Fox News their parishioners were mainlining every week. It wasnt only that the klieg light of Fox was so bright, but also that the flickering candle of Christian formation was so dim."

In 2020, roughly 40% of the people who called themselves evangelical attended church once a year or less, according to research by the political scientist Ryan Burge. Its just a political label for them. This politicization is one reason people have cited to explain why so many are leaving the faith.

Two important points here. First, non-evangelicals sometimes assume based on stereotypes that evangelical churches are hotbeds of political activism. But they very rarely are. Most evangelical preachers avoid detailed politics from their pulpits. Almost all evangelical activism originates outside the church. Second, evangelical has become a moniker for political and cultural identity rather than a theological description. Some non-Christians, including Hindus and Muslims, and non-religious people, now tell pollsters they are evangelical because they identify culturally and politically with the movement.

Brooks cites New York pastor and author Tim Kellers ideas for church renewal, which include a renewed emphasis on church planting and campus ministry, better catechesis, shaping intellectual leaders in academia, and creating a "Protestant social teaching," similar to Catholic public theology, but "Protestant versions might share 75% of its ideas, while being perhaps less hierarchical and more individualistic."

Kellers citing evangelism is most important. Christianity is demographically declining in America even as it grows globally. Every American church should be evangelistic, which is not only countercultural in society but increasingly countercultural within American Christianity. The word itself is often discomfiting. But winning lost souls is the churchs first goal in every time and place.

Also important is Kellers citation of catechesis. Evangelicals must, to survive, uphold sound doctrine. Mainline Protestantisms inexorable decline evinces the bitter and deathly fruits of theological liberalism. The New York Times rarely spotlights Mainline Protestants because they have made themselves societally irrelevant. Lest there be any doubt, recent Evangelical congregations that, with much ado, abandoned traditional Christian sexual teaching quickly imploded. Cleaving to historic Christian ethics is deeply controversial. But discarding them is disastrous for the Church.

To my knowledge, only one of the personalities whom Brooks cites has publicly indicated any move away from traditional Christian sexual teaching. If she follows that journey, she will have left Evangelicalism for liberal Protestantism. A renewed Evangelicalism must stick with universal Christianity on doctrine and ethics while stressing traditional Evangelical strengths of evangelism and pragmatic entrepreneurship. Evangelicalism is growing globally, and it is growing among immigrants in the U.S., by stressing personal dynamic faith in Christ with traditional doctrine.

New York Times and other secular coverage of Evangelicalism, favorable or not, recognizes that Evangelicalism remains a major dynamic force in even a less formally religious America. A robust, strong, and healthy Evangelicalism serves the interests of everyone who cares about a robust, strong, and healthy American democracy.

Originally published at Juicy Ecumenism.
Pastor Artur Pawlowski arrested before preaching at Canadian trucker convoy

Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who has butted heads with Canadian authorities throughout the pandemic, was arrested again just before he was set to address a group of Canadian truckers opposed to vaccine mandates.

Pawlowski of the Cave of Adallum Church and Street Church in Calgary, Alberta, was arrested at his home Tuesday as he was about to depart for a church service at a border blockade engineered by truckers protesting vaccine mandates and provincial leadership in Milk River, Alberta.

Pawlowski has gained notoriety in Canada and the United States for his outspoken opposition to coronavirus worship restrictions and has been arrested multiple times over the past year for holding a church service in violation of worship restrictions and protesting outside the home of Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping.

Videos documenting Pawlowskis tense exchanges with local law enforcement officials seeking to enforce coronavirus restrictions, where the pastor refers to them as Nazis and the Gestapo, have gone viral.

Video footage of Pawlowskis most recent arrest was posted to the pastors YouTube channel Tuesday.

A law enforcement official informed Pawlowski that he was under arrest for mischief. As with his previous arrests, Pawlowski refused to walk with law enforcement. The officers lamented that he refused to just stand up and elected to go dead fish before carrying him away to the police car.

While Pawlowski remained quiet throughout most of the video, his brother Dawid confronted the officers, repeatedly referring to them as Nazis and criminals before urging them to treat him with respect. Pastor Pawlowski told the officers, I do not cooperate with Nazis.

Ezra Levant of Rebel News, which has supported Pawlowski in his ongoing legal battles with local government, elaborated on the events leading up to the arrest based on information he received from the pastors son, Nathaniel.

There was an undercover police van staked out surveilling the family home, Levant reported.

They grabbed his dad, Artur Pawlowski, arrested him and took him off to jail, he added.

According to Levant, the officers were stopping him from going to speak to the trucker blockade down in Coutts, Alberta.

Levant cited the Calgary police literally arresting a Christian pastor who was planning on speaking to a peaceful protest as the latest example of how this is not the Canada that you thought that you were in. He contended that the country had transformed into an authoritarian Canada thats verging on a police state.

This was clearly an attempt to stop him from expressing himself politically to these truckers, Levant concluded. Members of Pawlowskis family reacted to his arrest in a subsequent interview with Rebel News.

Nathaniel Pawlowski told the news outlet that We were getting ready to head to Milk River; my dad was going to perform a church service for them there. Before they could depart, the pastor was arrested for causing mischief by blockading infrastructure in a previous appearance at the protest.

He recalled that they were staking out our home for hours, waiting for him to leave the house and then they grabbed him ... right before he could go perform his duties as a clergyman.

Dawid Pawlowski recounted that the arrest occurred after the pastors wife took their younger children to school.

Artur and Dawid Pawlowski emigrated to Canada from Poland. The pastor went viral last year when he compared the actions of the provincial authorities to what he saw growing up behind the Iron Curtain.

Pastor Pawlowski addressed his arrest in a phone call from prison, describing Calgary Chief of Police Mark Neufeld as a disgrace to the uniform and offering similar criticism of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Pawlowski accused Kenney of hypocrisy for not abiding by the coronavirus restrictions he imposed on the people of Alberta.

Nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic, outrage over coronavirus restrictions and mandates in Canada extends far beyond Pawlowski.

The Freedom Convoy, a group of truckers primarily concentrated in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, was established to protest the mandate requiring all truckers who travel across the U.S.-Canada border as part of their job to take the coronavirus vaccine or quarantine upon re-entry into the country. Truckers have walked off the job to participate in the weeks-long demonstration.

Many truckers descended on Ottawa in late January to protest Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about their concerns, but truckers have spread out all across the U.S.-Canada border, in some cases, blocking border crossings, occupying roadways and clogging Ottowas downtown for days. The protests have also spread to other cities.

Many Canadians and Americans donated to the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to help cover the costs of the truckers expenses.

However, the platform removed the fundraiser from its website because of multiple discussions with local law enforcement and police reports of violence and other unlawful activity. The Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo has become the new home for fundraising efforts on behalf of the truckers who are seeking donations to help with the cost of fuel first, and hopefully food and lodging to help ease the pressures of this arduous task.

As of Thursday morning, the GiveSendGo fundraiser has raised just over $8 million. Government opposition to the Freedom Convoy is not limited to Alberta.

Trudeau condemned the multiracial group of protesters for perpetuating antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, homophobia, and transphobia. Ottawa police officers and city officials have seized fuel from truckers and those seeking to provide fuel for the truckers because they believe it is helping contribute to the mischief the truckers are causing in the capital city.

The Justice Centre, a legal organization that supports the Freedom Convoy, has criticized the seizure of fuel as illegal and unjustified. Justice Centre Counsel Nicholas Wansbutter described taking fuel from Canadian citizens in the downtown Ottawa area as an illegal seizure in a context where no crimes are being committed, and no charges were laid against truckers or anyone else.

In my view, the truckers are not doing anything illegal by protesting peacefully against the 23 months of politicians restricting our Charter freedoms, he stated. Citizens have every right to bring food, water, fuel, and other necessities of life in the winter to other Canadians, including truckers.
Taliban detaining Westerners in Afghanistan, including 1 American: reports

The Taliban controlled-government of Afghanistan is holding at least nine foreign nationals in custody, including one United States citizen, according to various reports released Friday.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees took to Twitter on Friday to announce that two reporters working with their organization were being detained in that nation's capital.

Two journalists on assignment with UNHCR and Afghan nationals working with them have been detained in Kabul. We are doing our utmost to resolve the situation, in coordination with others. We will make no further comment given the nature of the situation, the UNHCR tweeted.

Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement that he considered the detaining of the journalists a sad reflection of the overall decline of press freedom and increasing attacks on journalists under Taliban rule.

Andrew North and the other, unidentified journalist should be freed immediately and allowed to continue their work, and the Taliban must halt its repeated attacks on and harassment of journalists, Butler said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that around nine people were being detained, which included the UNHCR workers, as well as seven westerners who had been in Afghanistan since last December.

The Wall Street Journal reported that around nine people were being detained, including the UNHCR workers and seven westerners who had been in Afghanistan since last December.

Most of them had worked in the security sector, according to people with knowledge of their activities in Afghanistan, the Journal reported on Friday.

Before their arrests, most were working openly in Afghanistan, with frequent official contact with the Taliban leadership, these people said. Some were helping facilitate the evacuation of at-risk Afghans from the country.

The Washington Post cited a member of a Taliban intelligence unit in Kabul who said that several foreign nationals had been arrested on charges of working for Western intelligence agencies.

The person familiar with the arrest said the two journalists and the Afghan nationals were detained earlier this week and days of negotiations have failed to secure their release, The Washington Post reported.

Over the past several years, the United States has gradually lowered its troop numbers in Afghanistan after removing the Taliban regime in 2001 after the 9/11 terror attacks.

In February 2020, then-President Donald Trump announced that he had made a deal with Taliban insurgents to end the war and withdraw the remaining U.S. troops in the Central Asian nation.

Last year, President Joe Biden withdrew the remaining troops without first evacuating military equipment and U.S. civilians who were in the country. In August, the Taliban retook most of the country with unexpected speed, prompting a major evacuation crisis. Several Americans reported being attacked and beaten by the Taliban as they attempted to reach Kabul airport.

In response to the crisis, the Biden administration sent approximately 6,000 troops to help evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghans. However, many Americans and Afghan allies were not evacuated and left behind.

Earlier this month, U.S. Senate Republicans released a report that said the Biden administration left hundreds or possibly thousands of Americans behind in Afghanistan, in contrast to the official statistics compiled by the U.S. State Department.

The failure of senior Biden Administration leadership to plan for this fateful day resulted in a rushed evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Americans, third-country nationals, and Afghans, the report said.

It left behind hundreds, possibly thousands, of American citizens, tens of thousands of Afghan partners, and a legacy of betrayal of American allies.

After the evacuation, Biden said the U.S. would "ensure that we will maintain the capability and the vigilance to address future terrorist threats from Afghanistan."

"America went to Afghanistan 20 years ago to defeat the forces that attacked this country on September 11th. That mission resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden over a decade ago and the degradation of al Qaeda," said Biden in an Aug. 14 statement.

"I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan  two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth."
Promote Within  The best way to build company culture is to promote within. By creating an ecosystem where upward mobility is attainable, every employee at fresh&co is encouraged to take pride in their work. Just the same, leadership can better relate to the rest of the team if theyve already thrived in the same position.

Have a Mentor  No one can do it on their own. Having a mentor  within your business or outside of it  provides the perspective and encouragement to overcome obstacles. Experience remains the best teacher, but the second best teacher is learning from the experience of someone close whos already lived more life.

Hospitality is a Labor of Love  Running a restaurant is not for the faint of heart. In order to thrive in the hospitality business, you have to love serving others. How much do you have to love serving others? To the point where you could be working 14-hour days. Do it only if you love it and hire people with the same passion.

***

Since starting in 2010, George Tenedios has taken Fresh & Co. to all corners of the East Coast.

With 12 locations in New York and spots in the likes of Connecticut and Florida, the lifestyle brand has made a name for itself by providing clean ingredients over a diverse menu thats approachable to all.

You can shop with us five or six days a week and have a different meal experience each time, smiles George Tenedios on the Restaurant Influencers podcast with host Shawn P. Walchef of Cali BBQ Media. Whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner, we have a diverse menu and we appeal to the masses.

While Georges customers had become accustomed to clean ingredients and diverse options, no one was prepared for what March 2020 had coming: a global pandemic.

Due to COVID-19, George and his Fresh & Co. company are still recovering from the labor shortage thats attacked the hospitality industry hard.

It's been tough getting our workers and new staff members to show up and return back to work, admits George. So, we're back on our regrowth path. We're trying to really move forward.

While the lingering effects of the pandemic have hurt staffing, George Tenedios has kept his Fresh & Co. business on the ascent by using restaurant technology like Toast POS.

By switching to the Toast point of sale system, Fresh & Co. has been able to quickly capture data and better serve a growing customer base.

Toast checks all the boxes, said George Tenedios while talking to fellow Toaster Shawn Walchef. Being in New York City, speed is the number one priority, especially during a busy lunch rush. But the data part was very important for us. Just being able to extract that data to pass it on to our store managers, unit managers and our team members to grow on and to further improve our operations.

The Importance of Mentorship:

New age innovations like Toast keep Fresh & Co. running and excelling.

Conversely, old school advice is also a piece of the puzzle as Georges trusted mentor is actually his father.

He's still involved, shares George. He's my location scout, my lease negotiator, but he's always been my mentor. He's been in the restaurant business for about 45 years now. He's my rock.

The family element of Fresh & Co. runs through the entire company.

Even employees that arent part of the Tenedios bloodline are treated as such, rewarded for their hard work through amazing access to upward mobility.

We're probably one of the more loyal brands in New York City, George says. I have team members that are district managers now that have started in our company as dishwashers. I have general managers that have started in the company as cashiers. I believe very much in growing within and spending the time, energy and our resources to train our own staff members. And as long as they want it and they're willing to learn and to grow, then we're willing to take the time and energy to get them there.

So, after absorbing a pandemic in a New York based restaurant with employees that exist as family, how does George continue to push in 2022 and beyond?

It's a tough business, acknowledges George Tenedios. Youve really got to love the business. You've got to love what you do. You've got to love serving people. It really comes down to hospitality. If you love hospitality and you love what you do, then by all means go for it. Run with it, you know, take a chance. Roll the dice. But if you're not into working 10, 12, 14 hours a day and rolling up your sleeves, then you know it's not the business for you.

***

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Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Predictions from Back to the Future II may have not entirely come true, but it looks like DeLorean will live on with a new electric vehicle and it will all start here in San Antonio.

DeLorean Motor Company, the maker of the iconic DMC DeLorean that was the centerpiece of the Back to the Future franchise, plans to zoom back onto the automotive scene by reestablishing its headquarters at Port San Antonio, near Lackland Air Force Base, according to a news release from economic development group greater: SATX.

You may have caught a tease of the gull wing door vehicle during last night's Super Bowl.

The company's new global headquarters and manufacturing hub will facilitate production of its new DeLorean electric vehicle, once "various incentive packages" are approved. Details on the incentive packages were not disclosed.

DeLorean's headquarters will bring approximately 450 jobs to San Antonio in executive, management and engineering roles.

Courtesy of Port San Antonio

"We are grateful for the tremendous support weve received from the community," says CEO Joost de Vries in the news release. "San Antonio boasts a growing component and vehicle manufacturing sector as well as a wide array of global advanced manufacturing operations."

DeLorean Motor Company was founded by John DeLorean in 1975 in Detroit and eventually shut down in 1985 after the technical snags in production led to the company being $17 million in debt. There was also the FBI sting to try an pin drug trafficking charges on DeLorean, but it was later decided that he was coerced because agents initially approached as investors amid his bankruptcy.

DeLorean Motor Company was reestablished in Humble, Texas in 1995, making sure to completely separate itself from DeLorean's company. It has since facilitated service for roughly 6,000 DMC DeLoreans.

"By planning to establish their global headquarters in San Antonio, DeLorean is validating the talent, strategic preparation, and adaptability our region provides for EV manufacturers to thrive," says Mayor Ron Nirenberg in the news release.

San Antonio is already a hub for vehicle manufacturers like Toyota, Navistar and Tesla. A vast network of suppliers spanning from the Austin region to Monterrey, Mexico travels through the Alamo City.

DeLorean plans to partner with regional colleges like Texas A&M University - San Antonio, The University of Texas at San Antonio, Trinity University and Texas State University to find experienced employees.
A medical worker takes a nasal swab sample from a woman at a makeshift COVID-19 testing site in Seoul, Feb. 14. AP-Yonhap





Daily COVID-19 infections rose sharply to hit another high of over 57,000, Monday, putting the health authorities on alert amid the fast spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant across the nation.







The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 57,177 cases, including 57,012 local ones, raising the total caseload to 1,462,421.






The Zacks Research Daily presents the best research output of our analyst team. Today's Research Daily features new research reports on 16 major stocks, including Alphabet Inc. ( GOOGL ), Texas Instruments Inc. ( TXN ), and Linde plc ( LIN ). These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.

You can see all of todays research reports here >>>

Shares of Alphabet have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year (+28.2% vs. +13.7%). The Zacks analyst believes that Alphabets dominant search market, an expanding cloud footprint and strengthening presence in the smart home market are the major catalysts for growth.

Solid momentum across search, advertising, cloud and YouTube businesses have also been supporting revenues. Major updates in its search segment are enhancing the search results and Googles mobile search is constantly gaining solid traction. Focus on artificial intelligence and the home automation space is likely to business growth in the long term. Growing litigation issues remain a concern for Alphabet, though.

(You can read the full research report on Alphabet here >>> )

Texas Instruments shares have lost -12.3% in the past six months against the Zacks General Semiconductor industrys rise of +6.3%, although things seem to be improving. The Zacks analyst believes that Texas Instruments continues to benefit from strong demand across high-margin auto and industrial verticals.

Solid investments in new growth avenues remain a tailwind. TXNs portfolio of long-lived products and efficient manufacturing strategies are other positives. Steadily rising demand for electronic components has also been supporting revenues. Pandemic-related uncertainties continue to stress margins, though.

(You can read the full research report on Texas Instruments here >>> )

Shares of Linde have lost -11.5% in the last three months against the Zacks Oil and Gas Field Services industrys gain of +0.5%. Increasing cost of sales have been hurting the Lindes bottom line. LIN has also been paying a lower dividend yield than the industry over the past two years.

The Zacks analyst, however, believes that with improving industrial productions worldwide, Linde is set to gain from recovering industrial gas demand. LIN recently reported strong fourth-quarter results owing to increased prices and volumes from electronics, energy and chemicals end markets.

(You can read the full research report on Linde here >>> )

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Deere & Co. ( DE ), The TJX Companies, Inc. ( TJX ) and MetLife, Inc. ( MET ).

Mark Vickery

Senior Editor

Note: Sheraz Mian heads the Zacks Equity Research department and is a well-regarded expert of aggregate earnings. He is frequently quoted in the print and electronic media and publishes the weekly Earnings Trends and Earnings Preview reports. If you want an email notification each time Sheraz publishes a new article, please click here>>>

Today's Must Read

Alphabet (GOOGL) Benefits From Cloud & Search Initiatives



Automotive & Industrial Growth Aids Texas Instruments (TXN)



Linde (LIN) Banks on its Secured Project Backlog of $13B



Featured Reports

Deere (DE) Rides on Farm Equipment Demand Amid Higher Costs

Per the Zacks analyst, Deere will gain from increased farm equipment demand driven by higher commodity prices despite escalating material and logistic costs.

The TJX Companies (TJX) Gains on Solid HomeGoods Category

Per the Zacks analyst, The TJX Companies is gaining on solid HomeGoods unit. During fiscal third-quarter open-only comp-store sales rose 34% in the HomeGoods (U.S.) unit from fiscal 2020's level.

MetLife's (MET) Cost-Cut Efforts & Strategic Buyouts Aid

Per the Zacks analyst, MetLife's cost-control measures are driving margins, while acquisitions are expanding its portfolio.

International Growth Aids Walgreens (WBA) Amid Margin Woes

The Zacks analyst is impressed with Walgreens' strong growth in the International segment aided by the company's joint venture in Germany.

Cost Management & High Margin Assets Aid Devon Energy (DVN)

Per the Zacks analyst, Devon's strong production from high margins assets and efficient cost management will drive its performance over the long run.

Robust Digital Sales Aid Yum! Brands (YUM), Debt High

Per the Zacks analyst, Yum! Brands benefit from robust digitalization. During fourth-quarter 2021, the company reported digital sales of over $6 billion.

Dividends & Buybacks Save Old Dominion (ODFL), Costs Sting

The Zacks analyst is impressed with the company's efforts to reward its shareholders. Escalated operating costs are, however, concerning.

New Upgrades

Strong Demand Levels & Investment to Drive AGCO (AGCO)

The Zacks analyst expects AGCO to gain from improving global farm equipment demand and focus on investments in precision farming technology, product innovations, smart-farming solutions.

Pilgrim's Pride (PPC) Gains From Robust U.S. Operations

Per the Zacks analyst, Pilgrim's Pride is gaining from higher sales in U.S. Operations for a while. During the fourth-quarter sales in the region surged 27.9% year over year.

Puma Biotech's Nerlynx Drives Growth, Lacks Strong Pipeline

While Puma Biotech's sole marketed drug, Nerlynx, holds potential, the Zacks analyst feels concerned since the company lacks any other strong candidates in its pipeline.

New Downgrades

Margin Pressure and Concentration Risk Hurt BNY Mellon (BK)

Per the Zacks analyst, BNY Mellon's concentration risk arising from significant dependence on fee-based revenues and margin pressure are concerns.

High Costs Hurt Moelis & Company (MC), Global Reach to Aid

Per the Zacks analyst, steadily rising operating expenses as Moelis & Company continues with its hiring spree is worrisome. However, global footprints and solid M&A activities offer some support.

Billing Inconsistencies, Debt Burden Deter Bandwidth (BAND)

Per the Zacks analyst, Bandwidth is likely to be weighed down by high debt burden and billing inconsistencies in the complex pricing and billing systems that are mostly developed by third parties.

Just Released: Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2022

In addition to the investment ideas discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 top buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2022?

Last year's 2021 Zacks Top 10 Stocks portfolio returned gains as high as +147.7%. Now a brand-new portfolio has been handpicked from over 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Dont miss your chance to get in on these long-term buys

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



Texas Instruments Incorporated (TXN): Free Stock Analysis Report



The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX): Free Stock Analysis Report



Deere & Company (DE): Free Stock Analysis Report



MetLife, Inc. (MET): Free Stock Analysis Report



Linde plc (LIN): Free Stock Analysis Report



Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



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Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
People stand in line waiting to receive a COVID-19 test at a screening center in Jung District, Seoul, Tuesday. Newsis



Daily infections hit fresh high of 57,117



By Lee Hyo-jin



The number of severely ill COVID-19 patients and deaths is feared to rise beginning this week, following the soaring number of infections spurred by the Omicron variant sweeping across the nation.



The coronavirus is showing no signs of abating here, with 57,117 new cases of infection added for Monday, yet another all-time high, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).



Despite record-high numbers of infections fueled by Omicron, the country has been seeing relatively less critical cases and deaths so far, as the variant appeared to be less lethal than its predecessors.



But a recent surge in infections among people aged 60 and over, who are at a higher risk of falling seriously ill, has prompted concerns that the rapidly increasing number of cases could lead to a spike in critical cases.



According to the KDCA, in the fourth week of January, the number of patients aged 60 and above stood at 6,655. The figure increased to 14,527 in the first week of February, which then more than doubled the next week to reach over 37,600.



A total of 187 COVID-19 deaths were reported last week, among which, 173 cases  or 92.5 percent  had occurred among patients aged 60 and over.



The total current number of critical cases for Monday stood at 314, and the health ministry predicts that this number will rise.




Courtney Sacco/Associated Press

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP)  One of two Utah residents charged with capital murder for killing a New Hampshire couple found buried on a South Texas beach in 2019 pleaded guilty Tuesday to a lesser murder charge.

Amanda Noverr, 34, of Logan, Utah, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple felonies, including murder, under a plea agreement with prosecutors, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported. Noverr, who remained in the Kleberg County Jail in Kingsville, entered her plea during a sentencing videoconference with state District Judge Jack Pulcher.




The South Korean government plans to call formally on the New York City authorities to step up actions to counter a surge in crimes there against Asians in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials here said Tuesday.







Chung Byung-hwa, South Korea's consul general in New York, will meet with Edward Mermelstein, New York City's commissioner for international affairs, on Friday to convey concerns over unprovoked attacks on Koreans and those of Korean descent.







"(Chung) will deliver the Korean American community's concerns over the surge in anti-Asian crimes and request that the New York City make proactive efforts to prevent the recurrence of such incidents," a foreign ministry official told reporters on the customary condition of anonymity.







A Korean American woman was stabbed to death in her Manhattan apartment on Sunday. Last week, a South Korean diplomat with the nation's diplomatic mission to the United Nations was punched in the face by an unknown assailant near Koreatown, and an investigation is currently under way. (Yonhap)


EDWARDSVILLE  A Granite City man was charged with burglary Monday after breaking into a church and a store.

Jason M. Gresham, 37, listed as homeless out of Granite City, was charged Feb. 14 with burglary, a Class 1 felony, and burglary, a Class 2 felony.

The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department.

According to court documents, on Feb. 10 Gresham allegedly entered the Faith Baptist Church, 2753 Myrtle Ave., and DSS Market, 2526 Nameoki Road, to commit theft.

Bail was set at $100,000.

In an unrelated case, Casey A. Matthews, 40, and William W. Dyer, 45, both of Hillsboro, were charged with attempted offenses relating to motor vehicles, a Class 3 felony. Dyer was also charged with possession of burglary tools, a Class A misdemeanor.

The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department.

On Feb. 12 the two allegedly attempted to take the catalytic converter from a 2013 Ford Escape, and Dyer allegedly had a reciprocating saw and additional saw blades.

Bail was set at $40,000 each.

Other property-related felony charges filed Feb. 14 include:

 Lee M. Swift, 47, of St. Charles, Missouri, was charged with retail theft over $300, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Feb. 11 Swift allegedly took multiple cordless drills valued in excess of $300 from Rural King in Collinsville. Bail was set at $40,000.

 Ramon M. Thomas, 45, of East St. Louis, was charged with retail theft over $300, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Feb. 13 Thomas allegedly took various electronics valued in excess of $300 from the Collinsville Walmart. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Stephen L. Rudd, 28, listed as homeless out of Collinsville, was charged with possession of burglary tools, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Feb. 12 Rudd allegedly had several tools suitable for use in breaking into a building with the intent to do so. Bail was set at $25,000.

 Kayliah S. Atkins, 20, of Chicago, was charged with two counts of forgery, both Class 3 felonies. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On Feb. 11 Atkins allegedly attempted to pass counterfeit $100 bills at Aldi and Walgreensin Glen Carbon. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Troy E. Chappell, 25, of Dorsey, was charged with aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, a Class 4 felony, and obstruction of identification, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department. On Feb. 12 Chappell allegedly was driving a 2017 Chrysler 300 when he attempted to flee from a Wood River police officer, reaching speeds in excess of 21 miles above the posted speed limit. He also allegedly furnished false information to a Wood River police officer. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Ryan J. Scroggins II, 21, of South Roxana, was charged with criminal damage to government supported property, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Feb. 11 Scroggins allegedly damaged property valued at less than $500 at the Madison County Jail. Bail was set at $25,000. Scroggins was charged Feb. 8 with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. According to court documents, on Feb. 8 he allegedly struck, a nurse at Gateway Regional Medical Center in the face twice with his fist.
3 1 of 3 Courtesy /U.S. Border Patrol Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy /U.S. Border Patrol Show More Show Less 3 of 3





A U.S. citizen and 14 other kidnapping victims were rescued in Nuevo Laredo, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

On Feb. 8, the Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted the Border Patrol Laredo Foreign Operations Branch concerning information they received about a U.S. citizen woman who had been kidnapped and was being held against her will at a location in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
This combined photo shows two elderly women smiling at Hyodol, an AI-driven robot provided by the local government office in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. Korea Times file photo by Lee Han-ho



By Bahk Eun-ji



Han Hyun-soon, 74, who lives in a rural area of Goesan, North Chungcheong Province, recently met a new friend.



Her new friend is a doll, which looks like an ordinary stuffed toy for kids. Han said she has been enjoying her companionship with the doll ever since she got it in January.



The doll gives her a wake-up call, and lets her know when it is time to have a meal.



"Grandma, when you're done with eating lunch, take your medicine. And when you've finished, please hold my hands."



When Han grabs the doll's hand, it praises her, "You did a good job."



The toy, a robot driven by artificial intelligence (AI) is also equipped with a function to send a notification message to Han's children, who live separately, in case she does not move for a certain period of time. It also has the ability to talk and sing when Han holds the robot's hands.



While the protracted COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult for the elderly to engage in outdoor activities, such AI care robots help the elderly take care of themselves and even give them a sense of security.





Seniors citizens learn how to use AI robots at a local senior center in Seocho District in Seoul, April 9, 2021. The district office said it provided AI robots for 50 of the elderly people living alone in the district. Courtesy of Seocho District Office



There are three main types of AI robots for elderly care used in Korea; stuffed toys, wearable devices, and AI speakers.



They have been found to help relieve depression among the elderly who live alone and rarely interact with others in their daily lives.



Among the various AI robots which can be found inside of stuffed toys, the most popular is "Hyodol," which was released by domestic AI robot manufacturer Hyodol in 2019.



So far, the product has been delivered to 96 out of 228 local municipalities across the country, including Jongno District in Seoul.



This product is equipped with touch and voice interaction; medication and meal management; conducting quizzes as a part of a dementia prevention program; giving notification to families or caregivers.



The touch and voice interaction is a function that makes it feel as if the user is communicating with the robot by recognizing it when the user touches the head, chest, hands and feet of the AI robot.



Like grandchildren, they can talk to the elderly and even sing songs to them.



The medication and meal management function helps the seniors manage their daily lives in accordance with the schedule set in advance.



If the robot does not detect the user's motion for a certain period, it immediately informs the guardian of an emergency through an associated application.



The Hydol robots' effect on emotional stability of the elderly people it provides companionship to and monitoring of is supported by collected data.



According to a study of 42 senior citizens aged from 67 to 98 in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, who used the Hydol for six months from December 2018, conducted by a research team led by Cho Hee-sook from the Graduate School of Medicine at Kangwon National University, robots helped ease the symptoms of elderly citizens suffering from depression to 4.69 points (out of 15 points) from 5.76 on average.



In particular, the proportion of those categorized as high-risk with a score of 11 or higher has decreased to 14.3 percent from 19.0 percent.



Cho said, "If the elderly sit still all day without talking to anyone, there is no stimulation of the brain, and hormones such as endorphins and serotonin, which are related to feeling happiness, are not sufficiently released."



"Further accurate hormone testing is required, but it can be seen that the feeling of happiness is increased while the feeling of depression is reduced through companionship with the care robot," Cho said.



Another AI driven wearable device "Soon-yi," was also found to help with the mental health of the elderly. Soon-yi is a wristwatch-type product made by DNX, a startup company in the Yongin City Digital Industry Promotion Agency.





This photo shows AI robots given to seniors who live alone in North Chungcheong Province. Newsis
Franchise-Industry Veteran Joins NuVinAir to Expand Company's Nationwide Footprint to Dallas-Fort Worth

DALLAS, Feb. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/- NuVinAir Global, which offers a suite of proprietary products that safely and effectively create healthy vehicle interiors, announced the company's expansion of its franchise program to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. John Patriarca, who has been a franchisee for nearly a decade with European Wax Center, another Plano-based franchisor, is the company's newest franchisee.

"I'm excited to bolster the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with the NuVinAir franchise, a company that has been at the forefront of industry-leading innovation for the past several years and further catapulted by the pandemic," said Patriarca. "I know firsthand that DFW is incredibly welcoming and supportive of small businesses, so I'm eager to embrace this new opportunity."

A veteran of franchise ownership, Patriarca became a NuVinAir franchisee in January 2022 when he purchased territories in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and founded NuVinAir DFW with his brother, Paul Sanchez, and his father, Richard Patriarca. He owns the exclusive rights to his territories and will implement NuVinAir's line of science-backed products and healthy vehicle programs across the region. Patriarca's team will support a wide range of enterprise opportunities in the transportation space, including rental-car companies, automotive dealerships, car washes, detail shops, RVs, trucking fleets, mobility companies, and other automotive businesses.

"Partnering with John further solidifies our home-base market positioning and strengthens our leadership in the DFW region, as well as across the country," said Kyle Bailey, CEO and founder of NuVinAir, who was recently quoted in Entrepreneur magazine on 10 Ways the Pandemic Transformed Franchising. "Today's younger generation of entrepreneurs doesn't necessarily want to find success in the same way their parents have, but rather carve their own path, and John's successful franchisee journey is a testament to that."

Prior to the past decade as a franchisee for European Wax Center, for which he owned and operated 15 locations across Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, Patriarca founded Genco Electrical & Solar, an electrical-construction company, where he managed all aspects of the business. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in management from Arizona State University in Phoenix, where he grew up and still resides.

Among NuVinAir's product offerings is its autonomous Cyclone treatment, which dispels a dry, hygienic vapor throughout the vehicle's ventilation system to quickly reduce pollutants and contaminants, while reaching places wipes and sprays cannot. The company's newest product, ReKlenz-X, is an EPA-approved, eco-friendly disinfectant that kills 99.9% of germs, bacteria, and viruses, without compromising a vehicle's interior or the safety of those applying it. As part of its product portfolio, ReNuSurface is an eco-friendly, safe, all-in-one cleaner that replaces multiple products and saves on supply costs.

Source: Press Release.
The Chinese naval amphibious dock landing ship Wuzhishan is seen berthing in the Nuku'alofa Port, Tonga on February 15, 2022. A Chinese naval fleet delivering relief supplies provided by China arrives in Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga on February 15, 2022. The fleet consists of PLA Navy's amphibious dock landing ship Wuzhishan and supply ship Chaganhu. (photo by CCTV-7 official WeChat account )

BEIJING, Feb. 15 -- A disaster relief supplies transportation fleet dispatched by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy arrived at the Nuku'alofa Port, Tonga, around 10:00 a.m. UTC+13, February 15, 2022.

The fleet consists of PLA Navy's amphibious dock landing ship Wuzhishan (Hull 987) and supply ship Chaganhu (Hull 967).

The two ships bring a total of 1400-odd tons of supplies including mobile houses, tractors, generators, pumps, water purifiers, emergency food and medical and epidemic prevention equipment. All the supplies had received disinfection processing and sampling inspection and quarantine for multiple times before loading.

The fleet departed from Guangzhou on January 31. After 16 days of non-stop sailing, the fleet completed a voyage of over 5,200 sea miles and arrived at Tonga on Tuesday. This relief mission follows China's delivery of multiple batches of emergency supplies to Tonga, which was hit by a massive volcano eruption in January and its ensuing tsunami.

At present, confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been found in Tonga. On the landing ship Wuzhishan there are medical professionals and equipment, which makes the Chinese naval transportation fleet capable of carrying out epidemic prevention and control and medical treatment. The fleet will also provide assistance within its capacity according to the follow-up request of the Tongan side.

In the dining room of the dock landing ship Wuzhishan, there is a "heart" shaped wishing wall decorated with paper cranes and red lanterns. In the middle of the wishing wall are the national flags of China and Tonga and dozens of cards on which the Chinese naval soldiers have written their best wishes to the Tongan people. (photo by CCTV-7 official WeChat account )
A man has his hair shaved during a rally of small business owners near Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, Tuesday, calling for government compensation for their financial losses stemming from prolonged social distancing rules against COVID-19. Yonhap



Hundreds of restaurant and other small business owners demonstrated in central Seoul on Tuesday, demanding the government lift business hour curfews and sufficiently compensate them for losses from the prolonged anti-virus restraints.



Some 200 members of the so-called emergency association of small business hit by COVID-19 gathered near Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul in a protest rally calling for the right to survival.



Under the current anti-COVID-19 measures, private gatherings of more than six people are banned nationwide, and cafes and restaurants are subject to a 9 p.m. curfew, while the operations of other businesses, such as cram schools, are prohibited after 10 p.m.



The protesters demanded those curfews be scrapped and operators of businesses with more than 1 billion won ($833,333 million) in sales be included in the government's upcoming compensation measures for those hit by COVID-19.



They also implored the government to compensate 100 percent of the losses from social distancing measures.



"We came out to the streets to safeguard our rights to survival. (After a long period of anti-virus restraints), we have been left with nothing, and the meager government compensations won't guarantee our survival," Oh Ho-seok, a co-head of the association said.



"We will continue to fight to the end until our damages are compensated 100 percent," he said.



Members of the association plan to launch a civil disobedience campaign against the curfews to run their businesses around the clock starting Monday if their demands are not accepted. They also plan to file a lawsuit against the state anti-virus measures imposed on private businesses.



The protesters later marched to Cheong Wa Dae and delivered a policy proposal outlining their demands to the presidential office.



An extra budget bill worth over 14 trillion won, primarily designed to compensate for business damages caused by anti-virus restrictions, is currently pending at the National Assembly.



The government is set to announce on Friday whether the current social distancing regime, including the business hour curfews and the private gathering cap, will be further extended or softened for the coming weeks. (Yonhap)


Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea talks about his real estate policies during a press conference at Uiwang City Poil Library in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, Jan. 23. On the podium where Lee stands, it is written, "Stabilize housing prices and living conditions." Newsis









By Ko Dong-hwan







Among the pledges made by the candidates for the March 9 presidential election, the ones that have been drawing the most attention have to do with real estate policies, as millions of Koreans are wishing to buy their own homes amid soaring prices.







The country's housing market has long been suffering a spike in housing prices, most noticeably in Seoul and the surrounding capital area in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon.







For people in their 20s or 30s, most of whom have barely accumulated enough money, as well as those with low incomes or living under the poverty line, having their own home is widely considered a far-fetched dream.







That's why real estate has been the country's barometer, showing who is moving from one home to another whenever their "jeonse" loan (a lump-sum deposit paid by tenants prior to moving in and returned to them in full at the end of the contract) or monthly rental contract expires, and who own their own homes and simply don't have those same worries and concerns.







While varying degrees of despondency among non-homeowners are clearly present in the country, Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) infuriated voters in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, with an inadvertent comment during the four leading candidates' second TV debate on Feb. 11. While discussing the country's current real estate environment, he said that prices of apartments (the most common housing type in Korea) "with an area under 99 square meters in places like Gimpo are only around 200 million won to 300 million won" ($166,000 to $250,000).







While the average apartment in Seoul costs 1.2 billion won now  a figure that the majority of low- to middle-income earners cannot afford  Lee's comment aroused objections that the range of 200 million won to 300 million won is way lower than what many members of the public thought. Lawmakers from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) questioned whether the candidate is even aware of the country's unstable housing market, which the current Moon Jae-in administration has been trying to control for so long.







The DPK election camp issued a statement on Feb. 12 explaining that what Lee meant was that he will be able to increase the supply of affordable housing in the city for singles living on low incomes.







Despite the explanation, these residents of Gimpo, west of Seoul, were still unsatisfied.






Harris County election officials are reporting 40 percent of mail-in ballots have been flagged for rejection with the deadline to apply to vote by mail in the March 1 primary quickly approaching. Early voting kicked off Monday as the state prepares for its first big election under a new controversial voting law.

Lawmakers enacted stricter voter ID rules under Senate Bill 1, which took effect in December. The law requires voters to include their driver's license number or the last four digits of their social security number on their mail-in voting applications and ballots. Those numbers must also match information on a voter's record to be accepted.

This requirement has already caused hundreds of mail-in ballot requests in the county to be rejected, often due to voters failing to provide any ID numbers. The county has sent back 14 percent of mail ballot applications for corrections, specifically failing to meet new ID requirements, according to Leah Shah, a spokesperson for the Harris County Elections Administrator's office. During the county's 2018 primary, only seven percent were rejected.

"Based on our historical data, this is specifically attributed to the new law and a lack of understanding or education around the new fields that are required," Shah says.

The county has received 7,243 mail-in ballots as of Monday and has rejected 2,722, or 38 percent, Shah says. Only eight were rejected for not including a signature while the rest were found lacking for not providing any form of ID. The county is still collecting data on how many were rejected for having mismatched ID information.

"Either they're not filling it out at all or because this ID information was not previously required, we don't have all of this ID information already in our system," Shah says. "So the challenge is, even if you provide us with a social security number and it is accurate, when we go into our system and you registered to vote with your Texas driver's license, we can't verify that your social security is accurate. So then we would have to reject it."

Those voting by mail must place their ballot into an envelope, seal it, and place it inside a carrier envelope. The carrier envelope has a flap that once more asks for a Texas driver's license number, last four of your social security number or to check a box stating you haven't been provided one. Shah says this can, and has been, often overlooked.

The county has been sending new applications or ballots with new envelopes to voters' whose mail-in applications were not accepted, along with a letter explaining the invalidation and how to fill out the required forms correctly. The county is also using contact information on file to reach out to individual voters who have had their applications or ballots rejected.

"We're basically doing everything we can to avoid delays," Shah says. "It's increasing the number of staff we have on the phone, 12-hour days, six days a week. Time is of the essence so it's important that people understand that there can be confusion, that there can be delays if they are not understanding fully what is required and getting the right information."

Local election officials are recommending voters provide both their Social Security and driver's license numbers  if they have them  on their application and return ballots in the hopes that at least one matches whats on file.

"When in doubt, fill both out has been our mantra," Shah says. "If you are not sure what ID is in our system, just put both to avoid delays. Call us if you're not sure. We also have a ballot tracker on our site to track progress."

Similar challenges are cropping up in other Texas counties, including in Travis County which last month rejected half of the mail-in ballot applications officials received, according to the Texas Tribune. Voters and election officials are short on time to sort out any of these ID issues.

"It's definitely a rushed process and we're doing our best to accommodate to make sure we're not losing people and losing votes in the process because people just kind of stopped trying or were too confused or frustrated to continue the process," Shah says.

During an appearance on CNN Monday, County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the ballot rejections are one of the results she feared would come from Senate Bill 1.

"We've been saying for a while that the new voter suppression laws in Texas are designed to do just that and now we've got the receipts, sadly," Hidalgo said. "It's terrible. It's throwing sand into the gears of democracy."

When asked about a Monmouth University poll conducted last year that found 80 percent support voter ID requirements, including 62 percent of Democrats, Hidalgo responded that the state's new voter ID laws were based on false claims about voter fraud.

"All of this is premised with the same idea that inspired people to storm the capitol on Jan. 6, that the election was stolen, that elections are rampant with fraud," Hidalgo said. "This has several different levels of hoops based on nothing because we still have strong voter ID laws and it panders to this idea that things are broken."
Marion, IN (46952)

Today

Light rain this morning with thunderstorms by evening. High 69F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Rain showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low 47F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Much time is often spent planning and preparing family meals, from choosing recipes to gathering ingredients and working in the kitchen. However, where that food actually comes from and how its made is an often- overlooked part of food preparation.

Next time you lay out a weekly menu that includes recipes like this Bone-In Prime Rib, keep sustainability in mind by considering practices put in place by Americas farmers.

As the largest sector in American agriculture, corn farmers impact hundreds of thousands of jobs, infuse billions of dollars into the economy and care for critical resources while overseeing substantial improvements in production.

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The family farm belonging to Nathan and Nicki Weathers in Yuma, Colorado, includes 3,000 acres of irrigated crops and 300 cows. They harvest grain corn, which goes to a feed yard, dairy or an ethanol plant, and silage, which is sold to local feed yards.

According to Nathan, corn is the best feed available for his farm and makes his beef production more sustainable.

They go hand in hand, Nathan said. To be able to drive the protein market and meet the demands of the future, we have to be sustainable in both. We need to have protein and be able to grow it and have a feed source for pork and poultry. Corn is an efficient and economic feed source for all our protein.

Consider these ways the corn industry is continuing its efforts toward sustainable practices, according to the National Corn Growers Associations Sustainability Report.

Soil conservation

Healthy soils are the foundation of agriculture production and why corn farmers are committed to leaving land in better shape than they found it. Adoptions in conservation tillage and other soil conservation strategies have contributed to a reduction in erosion.

Water stewardship

Farmers recognize the invaluable role water plays in raising crops each year. They also know they must actively protect this resource for the benefit of their crops, their communities and the planet.

Ecosystem resilience

With approximately 90 million acres planted annually, corn is grown in a variety of ecosystems. Supporting the health of those ecosystems requires active attention from farmers, who respond by using integrated pest management techniques, establishing wildlife habitats on their lands and more.

Energy efficiency

Technology that enhances farmers productivity also help reduce the amount of energy and emissions required for corn production. Farmers provide a carbon reduction strategy through the production of ethanol and the support of the Renewable Fuel Standard, a program created by Congress intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and expand the nations renewable fuels sector while reducing reliance on imported oil.

Minimal waste

Due to corns versatility, from animal feed to ethanol production and bioplastics, the components of each kernel find homes in a variety of uses, leaving little to go to waste.

Find information at ColoradoCorn.com.

Bone-In Prime Rib

Recipe courtesy of chef Jason K. Morse, C.E.C., 5280 Culinary, LLC, and Ace Hardware Grill Expert on behalf of the Colorado Corn Administrative Committee

1 bone-in prime rib roast (8 pounds)

Oil

5280 Culinary Rub-a-Dub seasoning, to taste

5280 Culinary Island Boys Coffee seasoning, to taste

Remove roast from packaging and place on large sheet pan. Drain juices and warm at room temperature 20 minutes. Starting at tail on bone side of roast, cut bone along ribs, between meat and ribs, to back side, separating bones from meat.

Rub prime rib with light coat of oil. Season on all sides and under bone with blend of seasonings. Return bones to bottom side and, using butcher twine, secure in 2-3 areas by tying bones to meat. Wrap in plastic wrap or place in pan and refrigerate 12-16 hours.

Preheat smoker or grill to 200 degrees and load with preferred smoking wood chunks, if desired.

Place prime rib on grill rib side down, fat side up, allowing drippings to collect in drip tray. Increase heat to 350 degrees. Close lid and cook, uncovered, until desired doneness.
Lee Jae-myung, right, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, and his rival Yoon Suk-yeol from the conservative opposition People Power Party / Yonhap



South Korea's presidential candidates formally began campaigning Tuesday in what is set to be the tightest race in 20 years between its two main parties, which being dominated by scandals have allowed a third challenger to potentially play the role of kingmaker.



Polls say voters are looking for a president who can clean up polarized politics and corruption, and tackle the runaway housing prices and deepening inequality that have dogged Asia's fourth-largest economy.



Curbing North Korea's weapons tests and resuming talks would be a plus, but even a record month of missile testing by Pyongyang in January hasn't made foreign policy a key issue for the March 9 vote in the South.



But the major issues named in the polls have been overshadowed by scandals and petty controversies, ranging from allegations of abuse of power to spats over one candidate's relationship with a shaman and an anal acupuncturist.



Fourteen candidates have signed up since official registration opened Sunday, with Lee Jae-myung, the flag-bearer of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), facing off against Yoon Suk-yeol from the conservative main opposition People Power Party.



Dubbed the "unlikeable election" due to high disapproval ratings and smear campaigns waged by both sides, Lee and Yoon are neck and neck in polls, although Yoon has maintained a slight lead in recent weeks.



A survey released Sunday by Realmeter showed 41.6 percent of respondents favored Yoon and 39.1 percent picked Lee, while Southern Post put Yoon just 0.5 percent ahead with 35.5 percent.



That would contrast with the last three presidential elections, which were largely predictable. The upcoming contest could be the closest since 2002 when an opposition challenger lost to former President Roh Moo-hyun by a 2.33 percent margin, or 570,980 votes.



"This is the foggiest election we've seen in a while, it's very rare that a likely winner had yet to emerge just three weeks before the vote," said Bae Jong-chan, a political analyst who runs the Insight K think tank.



A former governor of Gyeonggi Province, Lee shot to prominence through his aggressive handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his advocacy of a universal basic income.



Yoon is a political novice, but has gained popularity thanks to his image as a staunch prosecutor-general who steered high-profile investigations into corruption scandals engulfing aides to former President Park Geun-hye and current President Moon Jae-in.






Florida, US (34429)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 89F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds light and variable.
Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum presides over a relevant ministers' meeting to discuss a new government scheme for the upcoming presidential election to guarantee the right to vote to everyone, including those who test positive for COVID-19 after the early voting period ends, at the Government Complex Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap



PM vows all-out efforts to hold fair, transparent election



By Jung Da-min



People who test positive for COVID-19 after the early voting period for the upcoming presidential election will be able to cast their ballots on March 9, as the National Assembly passed a revision bill of the Public Official Election Law allowing COVID-19 patients to vote from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.



On Tuesday, the ministers of relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, met to discuss election-related affairs, and announced new government guidelines for the presidential election, which entail additional quarantine guidelines to guarantee COVID-19 patients' right to vote.



Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum presided over the meeting.



According to the government, COVID-19 patients will be able to cast their ballots between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on the election day, after the regular voting hours between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. COVID-19 patients who are willing to vote during the 90-minute period will need to get to a polling station on foot or by driving their own car or taking a quarantine taxi.



Kim said the government would do its utmost to ensure voters' rights as well as safety, as the election will be held at the height of the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.









"We will make sure that those who come under quarantine, including COVID-19 patients, will be able to cast their precious votes, while also taking thorough (disinfection and quarantine) measures to protect other voters," he said.





Officials of the Sejong branch of the National Election Commission (NEC) show specially packaged masks bearing slogans and characters of the NEC to encourage participation in the March 9 presidential election, at a mask production factory in Sejong, Monday. Yonhap
Future Canadian immigrants fear having to leave jobs as IRCC deals with backlog Foreign workers in Canada are losing legal status, as Immigration Canada delays invitation rounds to process backlogs.

Future Canadian immigrants fear having to leave jobs as IRCC deals with backlog Foreign workers in Canada are losing legal status, as Immigration Canada delays invitation rounds to process backlogs.

Future Canadian immigrants fear having to leave jobs as IRCC deals with backlog Foreign workers in Canada are losing legal status, as Immigration Canada delays invitation rounds to process backlogs. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)s pause on Express Entry invitations to Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates since September is forcing some to quit their jobs and even leave Canada.



These candidates have at least one year of Canadian work experience and about 90% are already in Canada. During the pandemic, IRCC issued more invitations to CEC candidates than any other Express Entry-managed program. IRCC invited CEC candidates to apply for Canadian immigration about every two weeks, and in large numbers. In early 2021, the department invited every single CEC candidate in the Express Entry pool to apply. This draw resulted in more than 27,000 invitations and was part of IRCCs effort to land a record 401,000 newcomers in 2021.

Sasha (last name withheld), a marketing professional in Toronto, said she felt certain she would receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) when she put her profile in the Express Entry pool in September. Express Entry works on a points system called the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). IRCC invites the top-scoring candidates to apply for Canadian immigration through bi-weekly Express Entry draws.

Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration

Sasha had a CRS score of 476, more than enough to receive an ITA in any CEC-specific draw held in 2021 before the pause.

I was 100% sure that in two weeks Im gonna get it, Sasha told CIC News, Then its not happening, and then its not happening againand every two weeks Im getting more and more disappointed.

Without the ITA, she cannot apply for permanent residence as an Express Entry applicant. After her work permit expires, she will lose the right to work in Canada, unless she can find another work permit or permanent residency pathway.

When Express Entry candidates get an ITA, they have 60 days to respond with their formal immigration application. Once they get an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR) from IRCC, if they are in Canada, they can use it to apply for a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP). They cannot get a BOWP if they are applying from outside Canada, even if they are applying as CEC candidates.

The BOWP allows them to keep working in Canada while they wait to receive a decision on their application. It is especially useful for temporary residents who are in Canada on work permits that cannot be renewed or extended like the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) or the Working Holiday Visa.

Like many CEC candidates, Sasha is in Canada on a PGWP. She worries that if her legal status runs out, she will be forced to leave her job and either have to stay in Canada on a visitors visa and live off her savings, or go back to Ukraine, which she does not want to do.

If Im here and Im getting the invitation I can apply for a bridging work permit and keep working, Sasha said. But if I am [in Ukraine] and I apply from there Im not able to come back. I will need to stay there for a year or so to wait for my PR card Its gonna be eight months, 12 months, maybe more, maybe lessIts the uncertainty that kind of scares me.

A recently-released internal memo from November suggested that IRCC would pause draws for CEC, Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) candidates until it could meet its processing standard of six months for all Express Entry-managed programs.

The memo said that since the Express Entry backlog was high enough to meet the immigration targets previously set for 2021-2023, IRCC would not need to hold a draw for CEC, FSWP, nor FSTP candidates for at least the first half of 2022. Express Entry draws would only continue for Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates.

CIC News spoke to two people for this story who requested to remain anonymous. Both are PGWP holders in Canada, one eligible for CEC, the other eligible for the FSWP. Canada has not held a FSWP draw since December 2020.

I am grateful to the people of Canada for allowing us to call this great nation our home and to the employers who let us work to fulfill our Canadian dream but no one understands how much it all takes a toll on a persons mental stability, the FSWP candidate, who works for a municipality in Saskatchewan, wrote in an email. How difficult is it for anyone to realize that we (FSW inland) are already here, same as CEC applicants, and are working and contributing towards the economy of Canada.

The CEC candidate says she and her husband do not know how they will manage expenses in Canada if their PGWP eligibility runs out and they are forced to quit their jobs. PGWP holders have all graduated from a Canadian post-secondary, meaning they have paid international student fees.

We have invested so much money thinking we would be a permanent resident here, the CEC candidate said in a phone interview. If you look until last year, CEC was the main option for the international students who can actually become a resident here.

How this happened

In 2020, the pandemic forced the border to close and IRCC operations to shut down. As a result, Canada only admitted 184,000 newcomers in 2020, far short of its immigration targets.

In order to make up for the lost year, Canada set an ambitious target in 2021 of admitting 401,000 new immigrants. Of these, 108,000 were expected to come through Express Entry.

To meet these targets amid travel restrictions, IRCC invited only CEC and PNP candidates in its Express Entry draws. No FSWP or FSTP candidates were invited in 2021, unless they had a provincial nomination.

Canada also created a new immigration pathway for essential workers and international student graduates, the Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR to PR) pathway. This would allow the government to land about 90,000 newcomers who had been working in Canada during the pandemic.

It was this strategy to land in-Canada applicants that led to the backlogs, according to another IRCC memo. It said that focusing on only inland applicants led to significant inventory growth, creating a backlog of applications, and processing times in excess of the service standards for all economic categories.

The initiative to resettle Afghanistan refugees also led IRCC resources away from processing economic and spousal sponsorship applicants. Even so, Canada continues to admit Afghan refugees at a trickle. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has said 7,000 Afghans have been resettled since the Taliban took over. Canada has promised to take in 40,000.

Canada did meet its target of 401,000 newcomers in 2021, but not without a backlog of about 1.8 million applicants. As of December, the Express Entry backlog was more than 119,000, down from nearly 138,000 in October.

Meeting the record-breaking target by prioritizing inland candidates came at a cost to outland candidates, some who had applied even before the pandemic. Canada closed the border to non-essential travel on March 18, 2020. Travelling for the purpose of activating permanent residency status was not considered essential travel at the time. As a result, people who were approved for permanent residence after March 18 from outside Canada and the U.S. were not allowed to cross the border and become permanent residents. This meant that from March 2020 until June 2021, overseas workers who got approved for permanent residence were not allowed to come to Canada. Many saw their travel documents expire in this time. To this day, IRCC has still not landed all of these people.

This closure of the border also contributed to inventory growth, IRCC said. FSWP candidates are largely outside of Canada when they apply, and before the pandemic they made up the largest share of Express Entry immigrants. By focusing on in-Canada applicants, and closing the border to skilled workers, the FSWP now has the largest backlog in the economic class.

Due to the backlog, the November briefing says CEC applicants could have to wait about eight months, and FSWP candidates 20 months or more to get a decision, contradicting the governments website, which still says estimated processing times are six months. To get back to the processing standard, IRCC says it will need to cut Express Entry backlogs by more than half before inviting new candidates to apply.

I just think that but because of what the government has done, the things they have implemented last year to fit their quota means they have messed things up for many people who have been working here and contributing to the economy during pandemic, Roxanne (last name removed), a CEC candidate, told CIC News.

Roxanne, who teaches English in Toronto, submitted her profile in November, and is sitting in the pool with a CRS score of 491. She says her score will drop five points after her birthday in March, and by then her non-renewable Working Holiday Visa will be expired. She is trying to apply for another temporary work permit to hopefully benefit from maintained status, but she says nothing is guaranteed.

We want answers so we can plan for our future, Roxanne said.

What IRCC is doing about it

In a January 20 conference call, Immigration Minister Fraser requested the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Immigration Sections input on creating a separate pathway for international graduates with Canadian work experience. The CBA Immigration Section is an association of immigration lawyers that consults with the government on how to improve the immigration system.

According to a CBA member, the minister is looking into tangible solutions outside of Express Entry for PGWP holders, given that many qualified CEC candidates will be unlikely to receive ITAs in the near future.

While there is still no information on when FSWP and CEC draws will resume, the minister is seeking consultation from the CBA on pathways to permanent residency for international student graduates with Canadian work experience. Members are also considering advocating for a temporary extension of the PGWP, similar to the one IRCC offered last year.

The ministers mandate letter calls for Fraser to expand pathways to permanent residence for international students and temporary foreign workers, suggesting that finding a solution is a priority for his term.

CBA consultations are expected to conclude mid-February.

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Effective February 28, travellers can come to Canada with an antigen test and unvaccinated children will no longer have to quarantine.

Canada to ease COVID-19 test requirements for travellers Effective February 28, travellers can come to Canada with an antigen test and unvaccinated children will no longer have to quarantine.

Canada to ease COVID-19 test requirements for travellers Effective February 28, travellers can come to Canada with an antigen test and unvaccinated children will no longer have to quarantine.

Canada to ease COVID-19 test requirements for travellers Effective February 28, travellers can come to Canada with an antigen test and unvaccinated children will no longer have to quarantine. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Fully vaccinated travellers will be able to enter Canada with a pre-arrival antigen test, unvaccinated children travellers will no longer have to isolate for 14 days, and international flights to all Canadian airports will resume starting February 28.

Also, if fully vaccinated travellers are selected for a random on-arrival test, they will no longer have to quarantine while waiting on results.

The pre-arrival antigen test must be approved by the country travellers are coming from, and taken no more than 24 hours before arriving at the border, or their scheduled flight. Taking a rapid antigen test at home is not sufficient to meet the pre-entry requirement. The test it must be administered by a laboratory, healthcare entity or telehealth service. Travellers can still use a PCR test within 72 hours before arrival. There were no changes to the previous guidelines on molecular tests.

Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration

Travellers will still need to upload documents via the ArriveCAN app before crossing the border.

Unvaccinated travellers will still need to be tested on arrival and quarantine for 14 days. They will also need to do a test on day eight of their quarantine.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos made the announcement on February 15 in Ottawa, the nations capital. He was joined by the ministers of transport, public safety, tourism, and intergovernmental affairs.

Travel Minister Omar Alghabra announced that international flights to all Canadian airports will resume at the end of the month. The notice to airmen that restricts international flights will expire at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, according to a media release.

Canada will adjust its travel advisory from a level 3 to a level 2. This means the government will no longer recommend that Canadians avoid travel for non-essential purposes. However, the minister still urged Canadians to understand the risks associated with international travel during the pandemic.

Duclos said these measures are transitory, and may be adjusted as the COVID-19 situation changes. He suggested that if hospitalization rates decline in the near future, further easing of restrictions may follow.

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Reduction of border measures anticipated

The health minister had signalled last week that changes were forthcoming, as Canadas chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said the country is seeking more sustainable plans to manage COVID-19.

Travellers to Canada currently must be fully vaccinated, with few exceptions. Unvaccinated travellers must quarantine. Vaccinated travellers need a pre-arrival COVID-19 PCR test taken at least 72 hours before crossing the border, and may be subject to a random on-arrival test.

Duclos said last week the worst of the Omicron wave is now behind Canada, and the government will continue to adjust measures accordingly.

Tam confirmed Canadas travel advisory against international travel is being assessed.

Meanwhile, provincial governments are rolling back COVID-19 measures, and doing away with vaccine passport requirements. Manitoba plans to lift COVID-19 restrictions by mid-March. Ontario moved up its timeline to lax public health measures. Quebec, Alberta, and Saskatchewan have also announced plans to roll back restrictions.

In recent weeks, Canada has also been facing pressure from health experts and the tourism industry to lift the COVID-19 test requirement.

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended countries lift international travel bans as they do not provide added value and contribute to economic and social stress. The spread of the Omicron variant has demonstrated that border measures are ineffective against the highly contagious variant. However, WHO also said travel measures like masking, testing, quarantine and vaccination should be based on risk assessment, and avoid placing the financial burden on international travellers.

WHO also said countries should not require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 as the only condition permitting international travel, given the limited global access and inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

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For a short period during the pandemic, Captain Sir Tom Moore was the most famous person in the country.

In fact, his public life can be split into three rough sections: his emergence as a fundraising hero at the start of Covid-19 (NHS charities are 30m richer thanks to his efforts); widespread sorrow when he passed away in February last year ; and a media scrum when information was published last week about the charitable foundation set up in his name.

So, why the fuss?

It is partly an effect of fame. I have sat in focus groups where people are asked to conjure up an image of the nation at its best. The same things always get mentioned: winning some wars; being stoical; the queen; generosity (but without shouting about it); and above all loving the NHS.

Shake those things together and you end up with someone looking a lot like Captain Tom. Thus a 99-year-old military veteran from Bedfordshire became a symbol of our collective quiet determination during the pandemic.

This also explains why the Foundation set up in his name received such negative attention last week. Captain Tom ended up representing the whole nation. This is a long way to fall if things go wrong  and the accounts suggest that it has.

Overheads? Meh. Call me in 2024

First, lets deal with the big red herring in all this.

Talking about overheads is a waste of time. The trustees decided to spend a lot of cash  over 160,000  on fundraising and consultancy fees. It is an eye-catching number, but it tells us almost nothing about how well the charity is being run.

If it turns out that Captain Toms name remains a totemic fundraising machine long into the future, funneling millions more to good causes, then early spending on getting the philanthropy and governance right will look like a smart decision. If progress stalls, and the fund struggles to attract more cash, it will look like a waste.

We can judge this spending two years from now. Until then, it is pure guesswork. The journalist Henry Hill wrote last week that such management expenditure was proof that the charity sector regularly squanders money meant for good causes. Total nonsense.

Regulators doing a lot of regulating

However, there are plenty of other things in the accounts which we can judge now, and most of them are worrying.

The vast majority of the countrys charities toddle along without ever attracting the attention of any regulators. It is rarely good news when a watchdog gets in touch. For the Captain Tom Foundation to end up liaising with three different regulators in its first year  the Information Commissioner, the Fundraising Regulator, and the Charity Commission  suggests there are some deeper problems.

This cant be shrugged off as the growing pains of setting up a new, high-profile funder, either. A quick visit to the charity's website suggests that it still may not be following all the GDPR rules, while the Charity Commission, already involved last year, is now having a second look at the Foundation, specifically based on the contents of its accounts.

Regulatory scrutiny has continued from year one into year two. This doesnt augur well.

Aint nothing but a family thing

All charity accounts devote a section to financial transactions with trustees. I read a lot of charity financial paperwork and these pages are generally very dull.

Not so in this case. Companies controlled by Captain Toms own family were reimbursed more than 50,000 from the charitys coffers, including to cover Captain Toms security when he travelled to promote his foundation (work undertaken by a firm called Club Nook, where his daughter and son-in-law are directors) and to pay for office space and phone lines (supplied by the Maytrix Group, where the Ingram-Moores are again directors).

According to The Independent newspaper over the weekend, Club Nook was only registered with Companies House a fortnight before the Captain Tom Foundation was founded.

There is plenty here for the Charity Commission to look at. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with trustees and others working with  and being reimbursed by  charities. But around 5% of all the foundations income in 2020-21 went back into family businesses, including a firm barely two weeks old, to cover costs only vaguely described in the accounts. If nothing else, it looks terrible.

Getting down to booze-ness

The third question mark over the accounts comes with the charitys opaque commercial partnerships.

Lets say you like gin and you like Captain Tom. Have I got an offer for you! Tom has an exclusive line of gin, sold by a small distillery and branded with his image and signature, with proceeds from the 35.95 price going to his foundation.

But then it gets trickier. There is no way of knowing how much of that cash has gone to the small distillery producing the gin and how much went to the charity. A penny per bottle? A tenner? Neither party would tell Civil Society News when we looked at this over a year ago . There is no figure in the accounts, either.

I spoke with the chair of trustees last week to try again. He was utterly charming  but beyond confirming that a donation from the gin company was included in the foundations overall income, he would not give me an actual figure. (I spoke to the gin company too. Lets just say they were underwhelmed by the chance to chat with a journalist).

Commercial partnerships can be great for charities. A consumer gets something they want, a business thrives, a charity gets a cut to do social good. But this cant work on good faith alone. The foundation hid the details of its gin deal when it was agreed, and it is still hidden now. This may be against Charity Commission rules  and even if it just about sticks to the spirit of those rules, the lack of transparency is not good enough.

Tick tock

The charity obviously knew there were some difficult truths contained in their financial report.

Presumably that is why the trustees decided to include some details of its charitable giving after the financial year 2020-21 ended (so-called post balance sheet events). It is good to see six more charities got donations from the Captain Tom Foundation after May 2021, with a focus on helping the incredible work done by hospices.

There is no obligation at all to share this information. Most foundations dont bother. The trustees decision to do so suggests they were aware of the need to promote the fact that, after a shaky start, money has continued to flow to good causes.

Whats next is anybodys guess. The recent media attention will have been bruising for the Captain Tom Foundation, and the trustees face more scrutiny from the Charity Commission. The publicity could even impact its ability to raise money  although the strength of Captain Toms brand may still trump everything else.

Plus, the board know that reporters will pore all over the charitys next accounts a year from now. Trustees need to address some of the questions raised in the last week, and the clock is already ticking.

Civil Society Voices is the place for informed opinion, and debate about the big issues affecting charities today. Were always keen to hear from anyone, working or volunteering at a charity, who has something to say. Find out more about contributing and how to get in touch. is the place for informed opinion, and debate about the big issues affecting charities today. Were always keen to hear from anyone, working or volunteering at a charity, who has something to say.
Battersea  Lonely Hearts Pup

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home are calling for a home for Luke, a Mongrel whos spending Valentines Day in the care of the charity.

Luke has been at Battersea for 200 days, which is over five times the average Battersea dog (35 days).

The charitys employees dressed Luke up in a handsome Free Kisses bandana in an effort to help him find The One, but nobody enquired about giving him a loving home.

Michelle Bevan, centre manager at Battersea Brands Hatch said: Valentines Day is a time to show your appreciation for those you care about, so its heartbreaking knowing that Luke will be spending the day without anybody to love after nobody came to meet him for a date. Thankfully, Battersea staff were on hand to show Luke plenty of love and affection instead.



Despite being a large dog, Luke is really just a big softie and enjoys nothing more than to cuddle up by a radiator with his favourite people and a cuddly toy. Were really hoping that someone will love him for the big lapdog that he truly is and give him the chance to be loved as he deserves.

Luke resides at Batterseas Kent branch. If you think you could give him the home he deserves, contact Battersea Brands Hatch on [email protected] or by calling 01474 874994.

The British Heart Foundation  Heart of Steel

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has raised 1.4m with its Valentines Day fundraiser, Heart of Steel. BHF is allowing the public to purchase a name engraving on the Heart of Steel, a sculpture located in Sheffields Meadowhall shopping centre.

Engravings cost 20 per name, with all the proceeds going to BHF. The sculpture can hold up to 150,000 names. Some 70,000 have been engraved upon it so far.

Victoria Truman, product manager of Heart of Steel, said: The Heart of Steel has taken pride of place in Sheffield's Meadowhall and been a momentous success for the British Heart Foundation since its launch in 2015.



Showing a little love this Valentines Day with an engravement on the Heart of Steel can not only make yours or someone else's day, but it will also help to fund research into heart and circulatory diseases.

Feedo Needo and Micro Rainbow  Love is Love

Birmingham-based homelessness charity Feedo Needo has partnered with LGBTQ+ non-profit Micro Rainbow this Valentines Day.

Last Friday, Feedo Needo and Micro Rainbow handed out food parcels to people sleeping rough in Birmingham from Arabica Cafe whilst spreading the message that 'love is love'.

During the event, the charity volunteers dressed in Valentines themed outfits. Service users received a goodie bag with a rose along with their usual food parcel.

Sebastian Rocca, founder and CEO at Micro Rainbow said: Our beneficiaries, LGBTQI refugees, have fled persecution because of who they are and love. They have left everyone behind, their families, friends, and partners. When they come to the UK, they can be extremely isolated.

Organisations like Feedo Needo offer our beneficiaries the opportunity not only to volunteer and learn new skills while they go through the painstaking process of claiming asylum, but also to be part of a community that loves and welcomes them. We are grateful to Feedo Needo for championing love over hate.

Shooting Star Childrens Hospices  All You Need is Love

Shooting Star Childrens Hospice celebrated the holiday with an event where the children in its care made Valentine's Day themed arts and crafts.

The Countess of Wessex, the charitys patron, visited the Hampton-based hospice to take part. She contributed to the hospices Wall of Love, which features crafts made by the children and their families.

Not only that, the children treated the countess to a Makaton version of All You Need is Love by The Beatles.

Thank you to our amazing Royal patron HRH The Countess of Wessex who joined us today at Shooting Star House to meet some of the children and families we support, so that they could share a little love at a special valentine-themed event.

@RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/CdaIaQVs2n  Shooting Star Children's Hospices (@SSChospices) February 10, 2022

Saving Wildcats and Highland Wildlife Park  Saving Wildcats Partnership Project

For its first breeding season Saving Wildcats conservation hopes 16 wildcats will find love this Valentines Day.

The partnership project is working to restore Scotlands endangered wildcat population by breeding and releasing them into the wild. Kittens from this season will be among the first to be released in 2023.

The Saving Wildcats project is led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland in collaboration with NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, The Cairngorms National Park Authority, Nordens Ark and Consejeria de Medio Ambiente y Ordenacion del Territorio de la Junta de Andalucia.

David Barclay, Saving Wildcats conservation manager, said It is fantastic to be getting ready for our first breeding season in the centre, just in time for Valentines Day. Several cats are now paired and settled and were already seeing really encouraging mating behaviours. Our expert keepers have done an amazing job at preparing our enclosures and introducing the cats, giving them the best chance at breeding success.

The Saving Wildcats partnership project is the last hope for this species in Scotland.

sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector,
Late last month, as groups of Canadian truckers and ideological allies started to converge on Ottawa in protest of vaccine mandates and an assortment of other grievances, reports started to filter through of hostile behavior, on the part of some participants, toward journalists covering the convoy. Dale Manucdoc, a reporter with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, texted the contact number of a local convoy representative to request an interview and received messages, from a different number, targeting him with a racial slur and telling him that he would swing as a traitor. Another journalist, Frank Gunn, reported being spat at by supporters of the convoy; Evan Solomon, of CTV, was about to film a live shot when a protester threw a beer can that narrowly missed his head. (I could use a drink, Solomon quipped, but not like this.)

As the days went by and the protests spread, the harassment of journalists intensified, both online and off. Canadian lawmakers passed a resolution deploring the intimidation. Some outlets assigned security guards to accompany their reporters in the streets, while other news crews took their logos off of equipment or downsized their cameras to make it harder for protesters to identify them. This week, Elizabeth Payne, a reporter at the Ottawa Citizen, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that shes avoided wearing a mask while covering the protests for fear of provoking backlash, and that downtown residents whose lives have been disrupted by the convoy have begged her not to identify them in her stories because theyre getting death threats. Last night, the Canadian Association of Journalists convened a Twitter Space to discuss the rising hostility toward reporters in the country, a trend that predates these protests and has been particularly acute for women and journalists of color. Its totally surreal to me to need security to report in my hometown, Raisa Patel, an Ottawa-based reporter for the Toronto Star, said of covering the protests, adding that harassment also follows her home. Newsroom managers, she said, dont seem to realize how much work were doing on our own personal time to keep each other safe.

ICYMI: Project Veritas pokes at the New York Times but loses a legal battle

From their early days, the protests have attracted intense interest from Canadian media. (Too much, some have argued.) Major US news organizations have increasingly grown interested, too, particularly after one group of protesters blocked a bridge at the Canadian border near Detroit that serves as a crucial trade artery. American outlets showing up was like oxygen to the protesters, Sean OShea, a journalist with the Canadian outlet Global News, wrote yesterday. Many in the group loved the attention. They especially doted on the Detroit Fox TV reporter. OShea added that his team at the bridge interviewed many people, and that they variously hated government, hated mandates, didnt believe there were any COVID-related deaths, repeated conspiracy theories, and kept asking us when the news media was going to start telling the truth. Late Sunday, the bridge reopened after police finally cleared the protesters. Portions of Ottawa and other locales, however, remained snarled up. Yesterday, Justin Trudeau, Canadas prime minister, declared a rare, nationwide state of emergency, saying that it would give law enforcement more leeway to deal with disruptive elements.

On the US side of the border, right-wing media figures, in particular, have gleefully flocked to the protesters cause. Tucker Carlsonwhose online store is selling I  Tucker t-shirts edited to say I  Truckershas called the convoy the single most successful human rights protest in a generation; according to Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group, Fox News had devoted nearly fifteen hours of airtime to the story by Sunday night, much of it on Carlsons and Sean Hannitys shows. This is unparalleled for a Canadian event, Alex Panetta, CBC Newss Washington correspondent, said last week, of the volume of coverage. You could not genetically engineer in a lab a storyline better scripted for conservative media in the US. An anonymous Canadian official told the AP that Fox has fanned the flames and contributed to misinformation. Last night, Carlson referred to Trudeaus emergency declaration as a defining moment in the history of the English-speaking West, and called Canada a dictatorship.

Its not just US mediasympathy for the Freedom Convoy movement, as supporters call it, has started to snake out globally. Sympathy demonstrationsalbeit often small oneshave already taken place in the UK, France, New Zealand, and elsewhere (with authorities in the latter country blasting Barry Manilow and Macarena in a bid to get protesters to disperse); theres been talk of a copycat convoy on US soil, too, with a ragtag coalition of organizers eyeing a possible March start date after plans to disrupt the Super Bowl on Sunday fizzled. In recent days, reporters who cover extremism and misinformation have worked to track the proliferation, and organic extent, of online convoy discourse in the US, tying some of it to scammy overseas content farms in Asia and Eastern Europe. The specter of foreign interference has shadowed Canadian convoy discourse, too, though some critics have cautioned against such narratives. This occupation movement is Canadian, made up of Canadians, a group called the Canadian Anti-Hate Network wrote last week. There may be boosting, bots, moneybut nothing concrete. Dont absolve responsibility. Canada did this.

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The true global reach, and backing, of the convoy movement remains somewhat murky and contested, and protesters who have latched onto it do not all share the same motives or aggressive behavior. As is increasingly the case in the right-wing culture wars, however, meaningful boundaries between countries are (perhaps somewhat ironically) starting to melt away here. Canada is in the import/export business, Panetta, of CBC News, said last week. Youre taking in American ideasand other countries ideasand youre propagating them out to the world. These ideas include disdain for the work of the mainstream media, a trend that is far from uniquely American but has, in the Trump era, taken on a form, rhetoric, and visibility that has bolstered anti-press rhetoric worldwide.

Nor can we draw clear boundaries between the internet and the offline world, and this, too, has direct consequences for members of the press, as they face sharply specific threats in both domains. There is not much thats new herereporters have long faced intimidation while covering protests, a trend that has already intensified across demonstrations against COVID measures in numerous countries. A month ago today, AFP journalists covering a far-right protest against vaccine passports in Paris were surrounded by dozens of people who assailed them with death threats and wounded the two security agents assigned for the journalists protection, with one taking a bottle to the head. The same day, Canadas convoy movement was officially born.

Below, more on the convoy protests:



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: The one person who knows what Putin is thinking

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Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
Prince Andrew has reached an agreement to settle claims that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl decades ago, his accusers lawyer said in a court filing.

Virginia Giuffre had claimed the British royal was one of several men to whom Jeffrey Epstein lent her for abuse. Andrew has consistently denied her claims.

The settlement was announced in a letter on Tuesday to the New York federal judge overseeing the case by Giuffres lawyer, David Boies, who said it was on behalf of both parties. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal requires Andrew to make a substantial donation to Giuffres charity that supports victims rights.

Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffres character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. the parties said in a joint statement filed with Boiess letter.

Supporting Victims

It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years, the statement continued. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.

A U.K.-based spokesperson for Prince Andrew declined to comment on the settlement beyond the court filing.

The settlement ends a case that had roiled the British royal family. Andrew was forced to step down from royal duties after a disastrous 2019 BBC interview in which he tried to downplay his friendship with Epstein and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in December of sex-trafficking underage girls for Epstein. He was further stripped of military ranks and royal patronages after a U.S. judge denied his motion to dismiss the case last month.

That ruling had meant Andrew would have to sit for depositions and turn over evidence in the case. Giuffres lawyers had already sought to subpoena his former personal assistant and a woman who claimed to have seen Andrew with Giuffre in a London nightclub in 2001.

Boies told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that they expect to file papers formalizing the settlement within 30 days. He asked the court to put the litigation on hold until then

With assistance from Jeremy Hodges

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.




As with many other international sporting events, the Beijing Winter Olympics has not been free from controversy.



Between Korea and China, such a dispute has materialized and has become a fierce war of words among the two countries' online users  a phenomenon that has been specifically witnessed on the social media accounts of various Korean athletes and stars.



Along with Korean athletes, K-pop celebrities and actors have also been the latest figures to face a deluge of online attacks from Chinese internet users.



Article by Park Han-sol




A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary came under attack in court on Monday for attempting to use the bankruptcy process to resolve tens of thousands of claims that its baby powder and other talc-based products caused cancer.

The subsidiary, LTL Management, is fighting to remain in bankruptcy, arguing that is the best way to reach an equitable, efficient, and consensual resolution of more than 38,000 claims alleging that J&Js talc-based products caused cancers including mesothelioma. J&J maintains that its consumer talc products are safe.

J&J used a legal maneuver known as the Texas two-step, which allows companies to split valuable assets from liabilities through a so-called divisive merger.

Lawyers representing cancer patients say that the bankruptcy case is meant to delay and frustrate lawsuits that would otherwise go to a jury trial against J&J directly.

At its core, this case is rotten, Jeffrey Jonas, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs committees said during Mondays opening arguments.

Robert Wuesthoff, president of LTL Management, testified that it would be impossible to take all of the cases to trial. Before LTL was formed, J&J had completed about 10 talc trials per year, Wuesthoff said.

Most of the cancer plaintiffs would be better off resolving their claims in a bankruptcy settlement than hoping to join the select few who won lottery-sized awards in jury trials, he added.

As Reuters has reported, J&J secretly launched Project Plato last year to shift liability from its pending talc lawsuits to the newly created subsidiary, which was then to be put into bankruptcy.

If J&J gets bankruptcy-court approval, such a strategy, while rarely used, could be adopted more widely by big companies facing liability, according to lawyers for talc plaintiffs, as well as some legal experts.

Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives in July 2021 proposed a bill that would block the maneuver.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in New Jersey has scheduled a five-day trial to consider a bid by committees representing the plaintiffs to dismiss the bankruptcy case. Kaplan has said he intends to rule before the end of the month.

No Financial Distress

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that allowing the LTL bankruptcy to proceed would unfairly cap the payout at the $2 billion that J&J has proposed to make available for people who have been harmed.

Brian Glasser, an attorney who represents mesothelioma claimants, said on Monday that J&J settled 6,846 talc cases for $966 million before deciding to push those legal risks into LTL.

If J&J reached comparable settlements in all of the 38,000 talc cases pending against it, the company would have about $5.5 billion inliability, which would not cause financial distress to a company of J&Js size, Glasser said.

Just because Johnson & Johnson is both rich, and fearful of reputational harmJohnson & Johnson, does not give it a right to opt out of the jury system, Glasser said.

Shares of J&J ended down 1.3% at $165.60.

The talc lawsuits have been temporarily halted while J&J, which has a market value exceeding $446 billion, awaits the outcome of the LTL bankruptcy proceedings.

A 2018 Reuters investigation found that J&J knew for decades that trace amounts of asbestos, which has been linked to mesothelioma, lurked in its baby powder and other cosmetic talc products.

The company stopped selling baby powder in the United States and Canada in May 2020, in part due to what it called misinformation and unfounded allegations about the talc-based product.
Beachwood, OH (44122)

Today

Rain likely. High 64F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 48F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
The International Friendship of Christians and Jews has announced a $1 million emergency aid package for the Jewish community of Ukraine, it said in a press release.

The assistance, which comes on top of its regular funding for the aging community, will address the needs of about 100,000 members of the Ukrainian Jewish community.

We are following with concern what is happening in Ukraine and hope that the situation will not deteriorate into general warfare, said Fellowship president Yael Eckstein.

Chabad couple putting community first amid Ukrainian crisis As citizens of Ukraine live in crisis due to the resurgence of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Jews in Odessa are standing their ground.

The assistance is designed to provide solutions for the lack of basic needs such as food, medicine, cash and transportation; as well as for security challenges; the need for evacuation, communications problems; mental and emotional support; and more. It is being donated to those in need through local organizations.

The aid will include the supply of dry food, medicines, blankets and items for heating that would last up to three months in the event of war. It could also arrange accommodations for refugees from battle zones, if necessary, and smartphones that could operate without the use of the Internet.

The Fellowship has been helping Jews from Ukraine make aliyah for the past decade with the organizations most recent flight in January.

The post Fellowship sends $1 million in aid to Ukrainian Jewry appeared first on JNS.org.
By Choe Chong-dae





Throughout the medieval period, the development of gunpowder played a pivotal role in wars all over the world and shaped what were to become modern states.



Matchlock guns were introduced to Japan when three Portuguese traders aboard a Chinese commercial vessel were shipwrecked off Tanegashima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture in 1543. During the ship's stay there, feudal lord Tokitaka Tanegashima (1528-79) invited the Portuguese to his residence. He was aware that the Portuguese possessed an oblong object that had special features.



Although Tokitaka was only 15 years old at that time, his keen mind could see the matchlock guns' immense potential to increase Japan's strength. He ordered Yaita Kinbe, an iron maker, to make a matchlock gun of the same type. To gain access to the technology, Yaita had his daughter Wakasa marry a Portuguese crewman. Finally, Tokitaka acquired the precious technological know-how for manufacturing the European portable matchlock.



Consequently, the development of the copied Portuguese guns transformed Japan's history and marked its opening up to the West. It had a significant impact during the Japanese civil wars and later bolstered Japan's military power. Ironically, it motivated Japan to invade the Joseon Kingdom of Korea in what's called the "Japanese Hideyoshi Invasions" starting in 1592.



In Korea, much earlier than Japan's development of Western guns, Choi Mu-seon invented and developed the "hwatong dogam," a type of ballistic weapon that fired shells toward targets. It was very effective at combating foreign pirates from 1374 to 1376 during the Goryeo Kingdom. Later, a kind of cannon named "cheonja chongtong" was produced in 1555 during the Joseon Kingdom. However, Korea failed to develop modern portable firearms until the 17th century.



After Japan's adoption of the Portuguese gun, Korea had the golden opportunity to develop its own modern gun, but the chance was lost mainly due to the ignorance and incompetence of Joseon aristocrats.



When a Chinese ship drifted ashore on Jeju Island in 1545, Korean officials discovered there was a Chinese sailor who knew how to make guns. Recognizing the value of guns, the Board of Defense Council petitioned King Myeongjong to produce guns in Korea. But the proposal was rejected. Afterwards, Harinaga Oya, a Japanese from Tsushima Island, proposed to Korea that he would provide the technology to produce gunpowder if Korea granted his intention to be naturalized to Korea. Although his request was approved, it is unknown how much he contributed to the development of guns in Korea.



Eventually, during the Japanese invasions of 1592-98, the modern portable Japanese guns that were markedly superior to those of China and Korea devastated Korea.



Furthermore, due to the gross incompetence of the Korean ruling elite at that time, King Injo of Joseon surrendered to the emperor of the Chinese Qing Dynasty in the war of the "Byeongja Horan" or the second Manchu invasion of Korea in 1636. It is one of the nation's most humiliating incidents. The invasion resulted from Korea's refusal to receive Qing's envoys who demanded the establishment of diplomatic ties with Joseon, which would have resulted in the acknowledgement by the Korean kingdom of their commonwealth status in relation to Qing. The refusal led to the invasion of Korea by the Qing military.



Japan's opening to the West has had a profound impact on me and should serve as a good roadmap showing how Korea will protect itself against the challenges posed by foreign powers and North Korea's nuclear weapons. North Korea's recent ballistic missile launches serve as a reminder that we should not repeat the tragic mistakes of the past.





Choe Chong-dae (choecd@naver.com) is a guest columnist of The Korea Times. He is president of Dae-kwang International Co., and director of the Korean-Swedish Association.


Alice Stuedemann, 89 of Camanche, formerly of Clinton, passed away April 30th at Mercy One Hospital. Visitation and services are being planned for Monday, May 9th at St. John Lutheran Church. Pape Funeral Home is assisting the family.
Columbia, SC (29201)

Today

Mixed clouds and sun this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 89F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Penn State faculty and staff who received a booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine are now able to upload that information to the Salesforce Health Cloud, according to a release Monday.

An image of a faculty or staff members Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Vaccination Record Card can be uploaded to the platform, and its strongly encouraged by the university, the release said.

The card must include dates and information about first and second doses of the coronavirus vaccine as well as the location the doses were administered.

Individuals with uploaded booster information will not be required to quarantine should they be contact traced for the coronavirus, according to the release.

Students can also upload their booster status via myUHS, the release said.

MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE
Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) introduced a resolution Monday that will designate the week of Feb. 14-20 as THON Week statewide.

The resolution "honors the work of the 16,500 Penn State student volunteers who make the fundraiser possible, according to the release.

The incredible work of dedicated THON volunteers makes a world of difference in the lives of young cancer warriors and their families, Corman said in the release. These students deserve our recognition and appreciation for their efforts to provide a ray of hope to Four Diamonds families during their darkest hour.

THON is the world's largest student-run philanthropy that aims to provide emotional and financial support to Four Diamonds families who have been impacted by childhood cancer, and this year is THON's 50th anniversary.

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.
Japan should face up to history squarely



The U.S. has called on South Korea and Japan to improve their ties in a move to beef up trilateral cooperation with its two main Asian allies. This call is part of the Biden administration's newly unveiled Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China's rise and cope with North Korea's military threats.



Stepping up three-way cooperation was included in the strategy's "Indo-Pacific Action Plan" to be pursued over the next 12 to 24 months. Last week, the White House released a 19-page document on the new strategy stressing the need for closer collaboration with regional allies and partners amid the escalating Sino-U.S. rivalry.



The idea of expanding trilateral cooperation between the U.S., South Korea and Japan is nothing new. The Trump administration had also floated the same idea to keep a more assertive China in check, but made little progress due to deteriorating ties between Seoul and Tokyo over thorny historical issues, including wartime forced labor and sex slavery.



Now the problem is that South Korea and Japan are still not ready to bury the hatchet and mend their ties anytime soon. The U.S. cannot galvanize trilateralism before the two Asian allies restore their estranged bilateral relationship. It is necessary for Washington to make efforts to help Seoul and Tokyo leave their historical disputes behind and move forward toward a future-oriented partnership.



In this context, the U.S. hosted a meeting of the top diplomats of the three countries in Hawaii, Saturday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, South Korea Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi showed their united front against North Korea which conducted seven rounds of missiles launches, including the test-firing of two hypersonic missiles, last month.



The ministers' meeting drew positive assessments from experts, in that the three counties agreed to deal with the North Korean provocations jointly. But the talks failed to make any progress in boosting trilateral collaboration in the Indo-Pacific region. Of course, it is hard to expect any breakthroughs from holding a one-time meeting. Yet it is disappointing to see South Korea and Japan only agree to disagree.



Minister Chung and his Japanese counterpart Hayashi discussed a set of bilateral pending issues. But they failed to narrow their differences over many historical issues, including Japan's push to submit the Sado mine to UNESCO's World Heritage List. South Korea is strongly opposing the push because about 2,000 Koreans were forced into hard labor at the mine during World War II.



As Chung said, Japan should have an accurate understanding of history. Seoul and Tokyo cannot reconcile and restore their friendship if Japan refuses to face up to history squarely. Japan should make a sincere apology for wartime forced labor and sex slavery and pay compensation to the victims. Tokyo should also lift its export restrictions on key industrial materials for Korean firms immediately. Otherwise, it is difficult to see any progress in bilateral relations and trilateral cooperation with the U.S.


The Kremlin is signaling it is ready to keep talking with the West about security grievances that led to the current Ukraine crisis, offering hope that Russia might not invade its beleaguered neighbor within days as the U.S. and Europe increasingly fear
As the Cubs were beating the Braves 6-3 Wednesday night Steve left to see the game with his mom and dad, Reva and Harold, brother Ron and baby niece Elizabeth Henney. He left behind to run the store his wife Kathleen (Knight), Amelia (27), Nathan (24) and his beloved cat Lewis Black. His sis
By Ahn Ho-young





Gen. John K. Singlaub passed away on Jan. 29 at the age of 100. For those of you who may not know him, Singlaub was a soldier of exceptional valor and commitment to his duties, who fought fascism in Europe during World War II and communism in the Korean and Vietnam wars before he retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of a Major General. Ironically, it was not so much for his valor and commitments, but the way he was sacked from the U.S. Army that made him "catapulted to the front page of the Washington Post" as a lengthy WP obituary described.



President Jimmy Carter made a campaign pledge in 1976 to bring home 32,000 U.S. ground troops stationed in Korea. Many diplomats and military officers in the U.S. had grave reservations about the pledge. Eventually, it was Singlaub who told a reporter that Carter's proposed retrenchment "will lead to war" as a previous drawdown of U.S. forces had done in 1950. Gen. Singlaub was ordered to Washington for a meeting with Carter, after which he was soon retired from the Army after 35 years of service.



He was later approached by an admirer, who told him that Singlaub could have been promoted with far more stars, had he kept quiet about Carter's plan. Gen. Singlaub is reputed to have said that if he could trade several of his stars for several millions of lives in Korea, he would do so again!



In fact, the 1970s was a time of high security concern on the Korean Peninsula. The East-West detente did not stop North Korea from strengthening its military, training special commando forces who actually came down to South Korea for a large number of attacks on civilian populations as well as the Blue House, and building underground tunnels wide enough and high enough to infiltrate division level soldiers into South Korea in a short period of time.



The animosity inculcated into North Korean troops boiled over in the form of the North's soldiers killing U.S. servicemen with axe in the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom in 1976. Given such a tense security environment of the time, Gen. Singlaub's reputed statement of "trading stars for the lives of people" was more than a pompous exaggeration.



Flash forward to today, I am afraid that the security environment on and around the Korean Peninsula has not much improved since the 1970s. The end of the Cold War and euphoric expectations about lasting peace are being replaced by concerns about a new Cold War. Northeast Asia is emerging as a region of particular security concern.



In the early post-Cold War years, there was in fact a rare and hard-won chance to build meaningful peace on the Korean Peninsula. Both Koreas joined the United Nations in 1991. High-level talks held at the prime ministerial level led to the conclusion of the Basic Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-Aggression and Exchanges between the two Koreas in December, 1991.



In the following year, two Koreas adopted the Declaration on a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula. They also set up three inter-Korean committees to implement the issues agreed upon through the Basic Agreement of the preceding year.



As a young diplomat working on politico-military issues at the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., I was following these developments with keen interest. I could not but be excited about the prospect of the Cold War conflicts finally coming to an end even on the Korean peninsula, North Korea coming out of its deep isolation and the two Koreas working together for peace and common prosperity.



All of these looked to be possible and within our reach in the post-Cold War world. Unfortunately, these dreams and plans came to a screeching halt when North Korea declared its withdrawal from the NPT in March, 1993.



That was a fatal decision at a critical fork in the road. It has taken North Korea down the road of the Arduous March, the complete failure of its economy, deeper isolation from the international community, and mounting security threats to South Korea and all of North Korea's neighbors.



North Korea's continued accumulation of nuclear materials is well documented. North Korea is showing amazing agility in developing missiles of various capabilities and distances, including KN-23s, KN-24s, and now HGVs. Entering this year alone, it conducted seven missile tests, the seventh test for an IRBM, which it suggested had already been produced in large numbers and deployed.



It is against such a background that I am concerned that the security environment has not improved since Singlaub's time. Fortunately, U.S. President Joe Biden seems to have a clear idea about how to deal with these security threats. As for the North Korean nuclear threat, he said it is to be dealt with "through diplomacy and stern deterrence." My hope is that the new Korean president will understand equally clearly the importance of deterrence, without which diplomacy does not have a chance.





Ahn Ho-young (hyahn78@mofa.or.kr) is president of the University of North Korean Studies. He served as Korean ambassador to the United States and first vice foreign minister.


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Barely a week goes by without news of yet another cyberattack and the subsequent theft of sensitive data. Todays cyberthreats have become increasingly sophisticated. Despite continued employee education around phishing emails, small businesses can never let their guard down.

For example, attackers are upping the ante around phishing. One technique being used is machine learning to quickly create and distribute realistic fake messages, in hopes of getting recipients to unwittingly compromise their organizations network and systems, according to Michelle Moore, PhD, academic director of the Master of Science in Cybersecurity Operations and Leadership program at the University of San Diego.

Phishing attacks are also becoming more automated. This is creating an opportunity for more unsophisticated and malicious cyber actors [to enter] into the cybercriminal ecosystem, as per Connecticuts Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, which says cyberthreats targeting utilities in the state are increasing and growing more sophisticated.

Similarly, ransomware has become more intricate. A relatively new trend: hackers demanding their ransoms be paid anonymously, thanks to the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

However, in many cases, its not that the methodology is new, but that attackers have adapted and improved their techniques, notes Candid Wuest, Vice President of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis.

For example, we have seen that phishing emails increasingly make use of trusted cloud services like Google Docs to send their spam messages, Wuest says. Personalizing the email with data from previous data breaches is also a common method to increase the click rate.

The hard reality, he continues, is that many small businesses only discover that they have been compromised when it is too late. By the time you receive a ransomware demand, or start getting customer complaints about strange malware-laden emails, the damage is already done.

Unfortunately, the majority of small companies do not have holistic monitoring in place, says Wuest. Even if they do have the visibility, they dont have the resources to manually analyze and follow up on each alert.

How small companies can respond

Small businesses have moved workloads and data to various cloud services during the pandemic, yet they often dont fully understand all the interactions and dependencies within these complex environments, Wuest says.

This is where its useful to find an external partner who specializes in cloud services. There are also some key steps small businesses can take to protect themselves from a cyberattack. First and foremost, data must be backed up, regardless of where it resides.

Secure your network and all the devices that connect to it. If youre not already using a firewall, consider installing one. Its also important to regularly update the software  anti-malware and otherwise  on each of your business computer systems.

Other steps include encrypting sensitive data, using multi-factor authentication, and systems monitoring. It is imperative that you train your staff on how to stay safe online. Dont think of it as a one-time occurrence. Training and conducting simulations should be ongoing.

This requires staying up to date on the latest cyberthreats. Small business can search online security vendor sites and trade publications to stay educated. Mitigating them is of course, another matter. If your business doesnt have internal security expertise, find a security-focused managed services provider that does. With the average cost of data breaches now in the millions of dollars, proactive protection is more than worth the investment.

Click here to discover how to protect your business against the top Cyberthreats with Acronis.
Google's Chrome OS platform has come a ridiculously long way in an incredibly short time.

Back when it launched in 2010, Chrome OS truly was just a browser in a box  a dead-simple operating system designed to act as a portal to the web and not much more. The software had no desktop, no task bar, and barely even anything in the way of settings. It was essentially just a full-screen browser window  and that's it.

Fast-forward to 2022, and Chrome OS is a fully featured and impressively polished computing solution. Between the platform's ongoing expansion and the rapid evolution in how we all use computers, Chromebooks are now a genuinely practical and often advantageous option for business, personal, and education-related use.

The trick now for Google, particularly on the business front, is getting companies to give up the Windows habit and actually give Chrome OS a try.

Part of that challenge is closing the gaps with how some companies still approach computing. Plain and simple, while Chrome OS might be able to handle 95% of a typical organization's needs, lots of places still rely on legacy programs that operate only in the Windows environment. So a little over a year ago, Google came up with a way to handle that and offer enterprises the ability to run Windows apps within Chrome OS with virtually no ongoing effort.

[Get fresh Googley insight in your inbox with my Android Intelligence newsletter. Three things to know and three things to try every Friday!]

But the other part of the challenge is simply the fact that making a leap to the whole other platform is a daunting and also costly change  especially when most companies have stockpiles of still-functioning old Windows systems sitting around and collecting dust.

That's exactly where a new effort called Chrome OS Flex comes into play. Chrome OS Flex is a wild new program that makes it almost laughably easy to convert any old Windows or Mac system into a fully functioning Chrome OS device  one that's updated every four weeks, just like a regular Chromebook, and always as secure as can be.

The craziest part of all? The software and everything around it is completely free and available for anyone  businesses, schools, and even individuals  to use.

The Chrome OS Flex muscle

If you've been reading this column and following the Chrome OS ecosystem for long, the concept behind Chrome OS Flex might sound familiar. And it should.

Chrome OS Flex is essentially an evolution of a third-party software setup called CloudReady. CloudReady used Google's open-source Chromium code to create a Chrome-OS-like environment that could be applied to any old computer and then updated regularly via CloudReady's own ongoing efforts.

It was a brilliant setup, but as an unofficial, non-Google-associated project, it came with some inevitable limitations. CloudReady couldn't play video from Netflix or certain other streaming services without fairly complex workarounds, for instance. Some Google services, such as Drive and Maps, didn't always work as expected in the CloudReady environment. The exceptionally effective Powerwash system for resetting a Chrome OS device wasn't available within CloudReady at all. And standard Google features like Google Assistant, which has become a core part of the Chromebook productivity package, were missing entirely on CloudReady-converted computers.

In December of 2020, though, Google bought the company behind CloudReady. Chrome OS Flex is the result of that purchase  a freshly Googleized version of the CloudReady concept, now featuring native integration with the rest of the Google ecosystem and with most of those old asterisks stripped away.

And starting today, anyone can download the new software, load it onto a USB drive, and have it up and running on any old Windows or Mac system in a matter of minutes.

"You get this [opportunity] to refresh your PCs and Macs with our fast and secure operating system," says Thomas Riedl, Google's director of enterprise and education products. "At the same time, you also get an opportunity to try new hardware that fits your needs."

Chrome OS Flex gives you almost all the benefits of a full-fledged Chromebook, in other words, without any of the associated costs or commitments. All you need is a Windows or Mac system and about five minutes to make the transition and give your existing device a whole new life.

And it's one that'll be immediately recognizable to anyone who's ever used a Chromebook.

Chrome OS Flex vs. the standard Chromebook experience

What's most fascinating about Chrome OS Flex, even more than its CloudReady predecessor, is how impossibly similar the experience is to the standard Chrome OS setup on the surface. At first glance in particular, most folks probably wouldn't notice any difference.

Here, for illustration, is a screenshot of the main Chrome OS Flex desktop interface:

Google Yes, this is Chrome OS Flex  but it could just as well be Chrome OS itself.

Even the most observant Chromebook aficionados among us would be hard-pressed to tell that apart from what you see on a native Chrome-OS-running Chromebook device.

Chrome OS Flex gets updated at the same cadence as the standard Chrome OS software, too, and any devices running Chrome OS Flex can be managed right alongside regular Chromebooks in the Google Workspace Admin tool.

"There are so many great benefits to effectively leverage a huge Windows fleet and bring it into the Chrome OS family without having to go through new hardware purchases first," Riedl says.

So what's the catch? Believe it or not, there really isn't one. From Google's perspective, anyone using Chrome OS Flex is clearly becoming more engaged with the overall Google ecosystem and all of the services around it. And while the software itself may be free, companies and schools are likely to continue investing in both Workspace and future Chromebook devices for the all-in-one managed experience Chrome OS Flex is a part of.

That being said, for all of its similarities, a converted Chrome OS Flex computer will lack some of the benefits you get with a full-fledged Chrome OS system. Foundationally, it isn't possible for a converted device to have the same end-to-end security model an actual Chromebook can provide, when the processor and verified hardware are all part of the single same package.

Beyond that, Chrome OS Flex computers won't currently be able to access the Google Play Store and enjoy the Android apps on Chrome OS advantage. That's something Google suggested could change eventually but wasn't possible in this current early version of the effort (which, by the way, is technically still in an "early access" state).

The aforementioned Windows-app compatibility setup also won't be available within the Chrome OS Flex environment, which might be a good thing  as we'd be facing some dizzying M.C. Escher-esque moments if we converted Windows computers to Chrome OS and then ran Windows within 'em (potentially even with Chrome running within the Windows window inside of the Chrome OS operating on the former Windows computer  yeesh! My head hurts).

But the core Chrome OS Flex experience genuinely is free and widely available, and updates for converted devices will continue more or less indefinitely  so long as the associated hardware is able to support it. (Officially, Chrome OS Flex will have a "certified device list" with dates for how long full support is guaranteed  just like CloudReady did  but you can install the software on any computer you want, even if it isn't on that list, and then continue to get updates without any real cutoff. Google just can't guarantee full compatibility outside of the devices and dates on that list.)

As for anyone who was already using CloudReady, once Chrome OS Flex moves out of its current testing phase and into a fully stable state, all existing customers will receive an over-the-air update that'll seamlessly shift them from the most recent CloudReady build to the latest Chrome OS Flex equivalent  a transition that was carefully planned to ensure "nobody feels punished or disincentivized," as former CloudReady product director Forrest Smith, who's now working as a Google product manager on the Chrome OS team, told me.

The other million-dollar question in my mind is if/when the same simple transition could work on existing Chromebooks as well. After all, a full-fledged Chromebook has a set amount of time in which it receives ongoing operating system updates  and while that window of support has been extended considerably in recent years, it still puts a firm end date on a Chrome OS device's lifespan and the time in which it's advisable to use.

CloudReady never supported that possibility, as the fully integrated nature of official Chromebook hardware made it difficult to override the default operating system and ensure full compatibility. Now that the software is an official part of Google, though, that could one day change  maybe.

As of now, Chrome OS Flex doesn't officially support installation on existing Chromebooks  only Windows and Mac computers. But broadly speaking, Smith tells me he thinks they can "shoot a lot higher on broad, solid hardware compatibility" as time goes on. And he and Riedl both emphasized that this is very early days for the program and that things will only grow from here.

In other words, time will tell. But the ambitions here are high, and pretty much anything's possible.

The bigger Chrome OS picture

So that's the practical side of this. From a bigger-picture perspective, though, the implications of Chrome OS Flex are enormous.

When Google first acquired CloudReady back at the end of 2020, I wrote that the company had "quietly set the stage for a Chrome OS explosion." Go, go, gadget time-machine:

The very definition of what a Chromebook is could expand exponentially. Instead of a Chromebook being a computer created and sold explicitly to run Chrome OS, a Chromebook could essentially become any computer on which Chrome OS is installed. Converting an old Windows or Mac system into a Chromebook ... should be almost the same as buying a new computer with Chrome OS, practically speaking. And that means people  and perhaps most critically, companies  could take an abandoned old Windows or Mac computer out of storage and turn it into a fully functional, official-update-receiving Chromebook, with minimal cost, ample advantages, and few to no asterisks attached.

Fourteen months later, and here we are. That's exactly what's happening.

Make no mistake about it: This is a massive leap forward for Chrome OS and its ability to invade the desktop computing domain  especially in the enterprise and education realms, where simple streamlined management is essential and dusty old computers are aplenty.

Big things are most certainly a-brewin' here in the land of Googley matters. And what we're seeing now could seriously shift the state of desktop computing  again.

Want even more Googley knowledge? Sign up for my weekly newsletter to get next-level tips and insight delivered directly to your inbox.
02/15/2022

Photo (c) Gerasimov174 - Getty Images Valentines Day is over, but law enforcement officials and consumer advocates say romance scams are still prevalent. In fact, many officials trace a large increase in these schemes to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The method of choice among these predators is to use one or more dating apps to search for victims. They create fake profiles and establish an online relationship before moving in for a payoff.

In many cases, the scammer will tell their victim that they have had a severe financial setback. Often, their victim volunteers to send money.

Huge losses in 2021

According to Statista, there were an estimated 44.2 million users of online dating services in the United States in 2020  26.6 million of which were on smartphone dating apps. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports that the 2021 losses linked to romance scams accounted for more than half a billion dollars, and the prevalence of romance scammers increased nearly 80% compared to 2020.

Patricia, of Harrison, Ark., tells us she had a close call with a romance scammer who asked her to cash a check and send the proceeds back in the form of an Apple gift card  a sure sign of a scam.

But I've read too many articles on this subject so I didn't send them a dime nor gift cards, Patricia wrote in a review of US Search, which she credits with helping her avoid the trap.

Devin, of Upper Darby, Pa., reported a similar experience on a dating site called Plenty Of Fish (POF). She noticed that a lot of the scammers pretended to be lonely U.S. soldiers.

Victims may encounter these romance scammers on a legitimate dating website or social media platform, but they are not U.S. soldiers, Devin wrote in a ConsumerAffairs review. To perpetrate this scam, the scammers take on the online persona of a current or former U.S. Soldier, and then, using photographs of a Soldier from the internet, build a false identity to begin prowling the web for victims.

Red flags

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has warned residents of her state to be careful when using online dating apps. She says there are several ways people can protect themselves. One way is to be mindful of common tactics that romance scammers use.

For example, be wary of anyone trying to establish a bond very quickly, even proposing marriage not long into a relationship. Scammers will also try to move the conversation to a direct-messaging app while revealing very little about themselves.

The biggest red flag, of course, is an appeal for money. Scammers may wait several weeks into the relationship before springing this on their victim. By then, Moody says the victim may be especially vulnerable.

It is pitiful that scammers prey on people searching for companionship  exploiting their emotions all in an effort to steal their money, Moody said. Be wary anytime you are interacting with someone online, to make sure that the person you are talking to is actually who they say they are and not a scammer."




South Korea's antitrust regulator said Tuesday it has raised the fine slapped on Google over alleged anti-competition practices by 17.5 billion won ($14.63 million) to 224.9 billion won.







In mid-September, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) decided to fine the global tech giant for forcing smartphone makers into only using its Android mobile operating system. The amount was provisionally set at 207.4 billion won.







The unfair practice, the regulator said, has helped Google cement its market dominance in the mobile platform market and undermined innovation in the development of new OS for smart devices.







The regulator said it had adjusted the penalty to 224.93 billion won before notifying Google of the decision at the end of last year.







The initial fine was calculated with the period of Google's law violations set from January 2011 to April 2021, the last month for which its sales data was available at that time.







The KFTC updated the data and included to the calculation Google's revenues from May 2021 to Sept. 10, 2021, when the KFTC's last review session on the issue was held.







The KFTC ordered Google LLC, Google Asia Pacific and Google Korea to share the fine.







Google filed a lawsuit last month to overturn the regulator's decision. The tech giant separately applied for an injunction with the Seoul High Court on the decision, of which the trial will begin on Feb. 25. (Yonhap)


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PAGE TITLE Ahi Evran Universitesi - Anasayfa DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS



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DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE Turkish (Turkey) UTF-8Turkish (Turkey) SERVER Apache/2.2.18 (FreeBSD) mod_ssl/2.2.18 OpenSSL/0.9.8q DAV/2 PHP/5.3.6 with Suhosin-Patch (PHP/5.3.6) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux

Type of server and offered services. Operative System running on the server. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) The language of ahievran.edu.tr as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Character set and language of the site.

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Zebra.sharepoint.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

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The statement from the G7 finance ministers indicates that they are prepared to impose collective economic and financial sanctions against Russia, February 14, 2021. /CFP

By Freddie Reidy

Finance ministers of the G7 on Monday issued a joint statement outlining the financial support Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States intend to offer Ukraine.

The statement of support, drafted to "underline our (the G7's) readiness to act swiftly and decisively to support the Ukrainian economy," was also coupled with a threat designed to counter hostilities.

"We are prepared to collectively impose economic and financial sanctions which will have massive and immediate consequences for the Russian economy."

Over the weekend, NATO leaders had warned that an incursion in the Donbas region in Ukraine was imminent, with the U.S. stating that aerial bombardments could commence "at any time." U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also announced the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Kyiv to Lviv toward Ukraine's western border due to the increased threat.

UK Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss also advised UK citizens in Ukraine to "leave now" while commercial flights were still in operation.

However, despite the presence of "130,000 Russian troops" on the border, as reported in some Western media, and increasing alarm among Western leaders, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed during a call on February 14 that not all diplomatic pathways had yet been exhausted.

These sentiments were echoed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said, "There's always a chance" when Russian President Vladimir Putin asked him about the prospect of securing a diplomatic agreement that would allay Russia's regional security concerns during a recent televised meeting.

If, as Lavrov says, "shaking up" the debate regarding Russia's concerns in the region has yielded "a willingness to enter into serious negations," Russia should embrace this "crucial window of opportunity as various parties are still striving for a diplomatic solution.

A failure to do so would indicate an inclination toward ulterior motives. Where Moscow has ratcheted up the pressure with troop deployments, NATO's economic package of sanctions also carries a significant threat.

Any sovereign state retains the right to challenge, through diplomatic means, military build-ups on their borders. That is true of Russian forces on Ukraine's border and NATOs deployed forces on Russia's. Moscow has the right to challenge such a presence but also the obligation to work within a diplomatic framework to come to a mutual understanding under international law.

The substance of such an undertaking will form the bedrock of what is widely seen as "final talks" against a febrile diplomatic backdrop.

With such tensions at the forefront of world leaders' minds, all efforts must be undertaken to ensure that sanctions, whether military or economic, are conveyed as deterrents to hostilities and not used as a diplomatic cudgel to secure concessions.

If economic and military security are the objectives, then all efforts must be undertaken to avoid open conflict that is bound to inflict the majority of suffering on ordinary Russian and Ukrainian citizens.

Conflicts begin quickly but are seldom resolved with any haste. For veterans of the Soviet Union and NATO, the shared experience of Afghanistan is a testament to that fact and should serve as a timely reminder of the grave risk and folly of conflict.

Editor's Note: Freddie Reidy is a freelance writer based in London. He studied history and history of art at the University of Kent, Canterbury, specializing in Russian history and international politics.
Thousands of Ukrainian citizens hold a rally in Kyiv, Saturday, to show their willingness to stand together against the threat from Russia. Reuters-Yonhap



All Korean businesspeople asked to finish evacuation by Tuesday



By Park Jae-hyuk



Samsung, LG and other Korean companies doing business in Ukraine will not halt their operations in the Eastern European country, as local employees will keep on working, even after the evacuation of Korean managers, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said Tuesday.



"Most Korean firms operating in Ukraine hired local employees," a KOTRA spokesman said in response to an email sent by The Korea Times to the agency's office in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. "The government has put in place travel ban in all parts of Ukraine, so all Korean nationals should leave the country as soon as possible. However, Korean companies will not close their subsidiaries and offices there, because local employees will manage their workplaces."



Last Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that all Korean nationals would be prohibited from traveling in all parts of Ukraine starting last Sunday. The travel ban took effect after foreign news outlets reported that U.S. President Joe Biden told leaders of the European Union that Russia could invade Ukraine on Wednesday this week.



Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics recently finished pulling their Korean employees out of Ukraine, following the evacuation of their families. Some of the employees were relocated to countries neighboring Ukraine. Other Korean firms in Ukraine, such as POSCO International, Hyundai Corporation and Hankook Tire & Technology, plan to take similar measures.



Until last month, the Korean conglomerates remained hesitant of taking emergency measures in accordance with their contingency plans, as there has yet to be any physical conflict, despite the escalating tensions.



"As far as our Kyiv office knows, there are 13 Korean firms in Ukraine, including 10 conglomerate affiliates, one local subsidiary of a medium-sized company and two small businesses. Korean residents running their own businesses in Ukraine are under the oversight of the embassy," the KOTRA spokesman said. "All 13 Korean firms under our supervision will finish the evacuation of their Korean employees by Tuesday."



Once the Korean companies finish withdrawing their Korean workers from Ukraine, KOTRA will immediately evacuate its employees there, including the head of its Kyiv office.



"The Kyiv office head will move to the Polish capital of Warsaw and work at an interim office there," the spokesman said.



The agency will also play a key role for the government to set up a hotline to contact Korean businesspeople in Ukraine, according to a government taskforce in charge of coping with the crisis.



The taskforce led by Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said in Tuesday's meeting that the government has come up with plans to protect the safety of Korean businesspeople there, providing them with various transportation options in case of emergency.



"If the geopolitical tensions escalate further, the entire Korean economy could face negative effects, caused by a setback in the supply of raw materials, limited macroeconomic improvement and increased uncertainty in the financial market," the taskforce said in a press release.



President Moon Jae-in also ordered the Cabinet on Monday to take all possible measures against the Ukraine crisis and brace for the worst-case scenario.


The Ritz Theatre will honor the legacy of beloved film legend Sidney Poitier with a series of film screenings and discussions. The films  Stir Crazy, In the Heat of the Night, and Raisin in the Sun  will be shown February 1719 at 7pm. Each event will also include an introduction or discussion by a local scholar or critic. Tickets are $10 each and are available at tennesseevalleyarts.org or at the door.
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There's a dark synchronicity to the fact that influential filmmaker (and one-time pornographer) Ivan Reitman passed away a couple of weeks before the release of a movie called The Batman, considering that Reitman spent a long time attached to a script of the same name that ended up languishing in development hell. There are a few differences between this '80s project and the new version, though: the main bad guy was the Joker instead of the Riddler, the love interest was dolphin-arouser Silver St. Cloud and not Catwoman, and instead of Robert Pattinson, Bruce Wayne would have been played by ... Bill Murray.

NBC That's range, baby.

Now, before you call BS on this whole idea, keep in mind that when this script was written, the only Batman in the general public's mind was jolly old Adam West. This was before Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns re-popularized the idea of a Dark Knight who is actually dark among casual fans -- and, more importantly, Hollywood producers. So, it made sense to make an action-comedy aimed at getting some nostalgia bucks from the 20- and 30-somethings who grew up watching West hanging over a vat of acid every other week.
Parcel delivery workers belonging to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions occupy CJ Logistics' headquarters building in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap



By Baek Byung-yeul





CJ Logistics CEO Kang Sin-ho
Sue B. Donnelly, 87, of Crossville, passed away at her home on April 26, 2022. She was born on May 18, 1934, in Crossville, Tennessee, daughter of the late James T. Brandon and Clara (Hamby) Brandon. Sue was the owner of Boats and Harbors and of the Baptist Faith. She is survived by her chil
Litchfield, MN (55355)

Today

Mostly cloudy early, then sunshine for the afternoon. High 57F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear skies this evening will give way to mostly cloudy skies overnight. Low 36F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
The ShadowPad malware came into the spotlight in 2017 when it was used in two software supply-chain attacks by a suspected Chinese state-sponsored hacker group. Since then it has become the tool of choice for several cyberespionage groups that are believed to be associated with China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

"The malware was likely developed by threat actors affiliated with Bronze Atlas and then shared with MSS and PLA threat groups around 2019," researchers from security firm Secureworks said in a new report. "Given the range of groups leveraging ShadowPad, all organizations that are likely targets for Chinese threat groups should monitor for TTPs associated with this malware."

Who is Bronze Atlas?

Bronze Atlas is the alias used by Secureworks for a Chinese cyberespionage group that has been active since at least 2007. This group is known under different names in the security industry: APT41, Axiom, Barium, Wicked Panda and sometimes Winnti, after a Trojan program that has long been in the group's arsenal.

APT41 has targeted a large variety of organizations during its 15-year history. Some of the targeting seemed to match China's geopolitical interests, while others seemed more like cybercrime attacks meant to steal money. This has prompted speculation that either APT41 is an external contractor that the Chinese agencies rely on for some operations, or that multiple smaller groups under the same umbrella are tasked with different goals.

Some of those assumptions were partly validated in September 2020, when the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed indictments against three Chinese and two Malaysian nationals in connection with APT41 attacks. Three of them were involved in the management of a company called Chengdu 404 Network Technology that was allegedly serving as a front company for the group's activities.

Another Chinese hacker named Tan Dailin, who was indicted in 2019 and is on the FBI's wanted list , is also believed to have worked with APT41, targeting high-tech and online gaming companies in attacks that were attributed to a cluster of APT41 activity tracked as Barium by security companies. These include the software supply chain attacks against NetSarang, CCleaner and ASUS LiveUpdate. Dailin, known online as Withered Rose, was named in past reports as a malware developer who collaborated with another hacker known as whg, who is believed one of the authors behind the PlugX Trojan.

PlugX dates back to 2008 and over the years has been one of the remote access trojans (RATs) most commonly used by Chinese hacker groups, including by APT41. According to Secureworks and other malware researchers, there is some code overlap between ShadowPad and PlugX, suggesting a possible collaboration between their creators.

What is ShadowPad?

Like PlugX, ShadowPad is a RAT that's used to maintain persistent access to compromised computers and allows hackers to execute shell commands and additional payloads. The Secureworks researchers have observed attacks where the ShadowPad process on an infected system was used to spawn multiple cmd.exe child processes, suggesting that hackers were manually interacting with the system.

ShadowPad is deployed through a technique known as DLL sideloading, where attackers deliver their malicious code as a DLL that has the same name as one of the libraries that a legitimate application searches for to load. This is possible with applications that don't perform additional checks on the DLL file, like digital signature, to ensure it hasn't been tampered.

The Secureworks researchers have seen ShadowPad being sideloaded by leveraging the legitimate executables AppLaunch.exe (Microsoft), hpqhvind.exe (Hewlett Packard), consent.exe (Microsoft), TosBtKbd.exe (Toshiba), BDReinit.exe (BitDefender) and Oleview.exe (Microsoft). Using this technique allows attackers to potentially evade detection because their malware is loaded into the memory of a process spawned by a legitimate application.

In some attacks, the rogue DLL planted by the attackers included the encrypted malicious ShadowPad payload that was then decrypted and executed in memory. In other attacks the payload was delivered a separate encrypted file that the DLL loaded as part of its routine. This keeps the rogue DLL slimmer and without encrypted code inside that would potentially trigger detection rules.

A typical ShadowPad deployment will create a new directory under C:\ProgramData, C:\Users\<username>\Roaming or C:\Program Files that will contain the legitimate executable being abused, the lightweight DLL loader and the encrypted ShadowPad payload file. After first execution, the payload file is deleted and its contents are moved to the system registry. A Windows service is then created to execute the whole ShadowPad infection chain on system restart.

The different APTs using ShadowPad

While ShadowPad seemed to be exclusively used by Bronze Atlas early on, in 2019 it started appearing in attack campaigns against transportation, natural resource, energy and non-governmental organizations that Secureworks attributes to a different group called Bronze University. The company suspects both Atlas and University have links to China's MSS based on the victim typology and the type of information targeted. Bronze University's campaigns overlap with the activity described by Trend Micro in a report covering a group the company dubbed Earth Lusca.





Attack campaigns using ShadowPad observed in 2021 targeted organizations in South Korea, Russia, Japan, and Mongolia. These were attributed by Secureworks to two groups dubbed Bronze Huntley (a.k.a. Karma Panda and Team Tonto) and Bronze Butler (a.k.a. Tick) that the company believes are associated with China's PLA, namely its Northern Theater Command.

Since 2015, the PLA has been reformed and its seven military regions have been replaced with five theater commands -- Eastern, Southern, Northern, Western and Central -- each responsible for handling specific threats in their particular regions and borders. According to Secureworks, this modernization included the establishment of the PLA Strategic Support Force (PLASSF or SSF), which focuses on modernizing the PLA's capabilities in the areas of space, cyberspace and the electromagnetic domain. The signals intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities previously associated with the Third Department of the PLA's General Staff (3PLA), which has been named as responsible for some of China's cyberespionage activities in the past, have now likely been brought under PLASSF and support the different theater commands.

Secureworks observed clusters of ShadowPad activity that shared DLL variants and infrastructure in campaigns against targets in India and Afghanistan.

"Third-party researchers linked some of these campaigns to an individual working on behalf of the Western Theater Command," the Secureworks CTU researchers said. "CTU analysis did not reveal sufficient evidence to corroborate these claims, but the locations and victimology are consistent with threat actors operating on behalf of the Western Theater Command."

Finally, a separate ShadowPad version was observed targeting organizations in the South China Sea. There is overlap between the command-and-control infrastructure used in this campaign and that used by the Nebulae malware family that's attributed to a Chinese APT group that Secureworks tracks as Bronze Geneva but is also known as APT30. This group is believed to match the targeting interests of the PLA's Southern Theater Command.

The Secureworks report includes indicators of compromise associated with all the ShadowPad versions, infrastructure and campaigns the company has tracked. Organizations can use them to build detection rules for their own environments.
While acknowledging there are not currently any specific credible threats to the U.S., Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber, continued how weve been working with the private sector, engaging, sharing specific information, requesting that they act to reduce the cybersecurity risk of their organization, and providing very focused advice on how to do so.

Neuberger was briefing the global media when she made this observation on February 2 as she spoke to the continued presence of Russian cyber threats to Ukraine and beyond. In her briefing, Neuberger, was unambiguous: Weve been warning for weeks and months, both publicly and privately, that cyberattacks could be part of a broad-based Russian effort to destabilize and further invade Ukraine. The Russians have used cyber as a key component of their force projection over the last decade, including previously in Ukraine, in the 2015 timeframe.

A sense of urgency to tighten cybersecurity posture

While one may posit Neuberger was sending a message from the Administration that, We see you, Russia, via the media, she was also hoping to instill a sense of urgency to CISOs to tighten up their cybersecurity posture. In other words, batten down the hatches.

As if on cue, the threat researchers at Unit 42 of Palo Alto Networks published information that they had uncovered targeting of a western government entity (not further identified) in Ukraine by Gamaredon (a.k.a. Armageddon, Primitive Bear, Shuckworm, and ACTINIUM). By way of background, Gamaredon was identified in November 2021, by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), as being led by five Russian Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, operating under the auspices of the FSB Center for Information Security from their offices located in Russia-occupied Crimea.

In November, the SSU highlighted how the 5,000 attacks by Gamaredon were initated with the goals of:

Garnering control over critical infrastructure facilities (power plants, heat and water supply systems)

Acquiring data to include theft and collection of intelligence, including information with restricted access (related to security and defense sector, government agencies)

Gaining informational and psychological influence

Blocking information systems

The SSUs technical report on Gamaredon details the creation of the group as well as its ascendancy from obscurity to a viable threat to national infrastructure and credible threat in the cyberintelligence offensive actions.

The Unit 42 report highlights the efforts by the Gamaredon group to leverage an outstanding personnel requirement within Ukraine by a Western government entity. The group uploaded an applicants resume in Word format. Gamaredons gamble was the payload-loaded resume coming in via an applicant would not receive the same level of scrutiny that the groups targeted phishing emails were receiving. The report also references Estonian CERT report of January 27, 2021, about Gamaredon, which notes that since 2020 the Gamaredon group has been targeting European Union countries using spear-phishing techniques.

Meanwhile, Symantecs Threat Hunter Team published its own research on January 31, 2022, which notes Shuckworm specializes in cyber-espionage, a finding consistent with the SSUs in November 2021. The Threat Hunter Teams report provides an interesting case study of the Gamaredons attack chain which began with a malicious document. The timeframe of the case study is July 14 through August 18, 2021.

This was followed shortly thereafter by Microsofts Threat Intelligence Center and Digital Security Unit on February 4, which shared information on the threat posed by the ACTINIUM group targeting of Ukraine for the past ten years. Their report highlights how this group targets government, military, non-governmental organizations, judiciary, law enforcement, and non-profits. The Microsoft findings mirror those of others, highlighting the groups efforts are focused on exfiltrating sensitive information, gaining a foothold for sustained access.

Neuberger concluded how the United States is collaborating with the EU and NATO to enhance national and alliance resilience in cyberspace. She emphasized that her efforts and those of the United States are to ensure cyber-related contingency plans are in place to coordinate and support Ukraine and each other in the event that such incidents occur. Weve been working with the private sector, engaging, sharing specific information, requesting that they act to reduce the cybersecurity risk of their organization, and providing very focused advice on how to do so.

On the heels of the above, and as tensions in Ukraine continue to rise, a joint advisory was issued on February 9 by the cybersecurity authorities in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom regarding the increased globalized threat of ransomware (Alert (AA22-040A)). The alert highlights the marked increase of ransomware incidents against 14 of 16 U.S. critical infrastructure sectors.

David Klein, cyber evangelist at Cymulate commented, This alert from the various cyber commands should be taken on board by CISOs as a realization that the U.S. offensive and disruptive activity against ransomware criminals has caused some criminal organizations to drift focus away from 'big game' targets and to go to easier mid-sized targets." In the current climate, it is clear, size is not a determinant to being targeted.
The first work the Yale Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art have ever acquired jointly is a larger than life portrait by Kehinde Wiley, best known outside the art world for his 2018 portrait of former President Barack Obama.

It goes on display Feb. 25, the top draw in a gallery exhibit of 50 works acquired during the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, though, Wileys subject is not a president, but of an artist almost as famous as himself.

She is Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, a young British artist short-listed for the Turner Prize who paints fictional portraits of Black people. In Wileys portrait, she is 10-feet tall, depicted as a to-the-manor-born hunter as she cradles a musket while five freshly killed hares lie at her feet.

 Kehinde Wiley/ Courtesy of Sean Kelly, New York

Keely Orgeman, the gallerys associate curator for modern and contemporary art who wrote the proposal to acquire the painting, said she first encountered it in 2019 when it was on temporary display at the Center for British Art in conjunction with an exhibit of Yiadom-Boakyes own work.

I walked over to see the Lynette exhibit and then I walked upstairs to see Wileys portrait of her. It really made a powerful statement, Orgeman said. She is posed with this confident gaze, which is the type you see in grand manner portraits (from the 1700s), but in which Black sitters and certainly not. Black women are featured as main actors, if they appear at all.

Wileys signature work involves substituting Black figures for white figures in historical oil paintings. Wiley said in a previous interview that even when he was at the Yale School of Art he had been drawn into the language and history of power and that Lynettes portrait takes its cues directly from the tradition of British hunting portraits.

Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Orgeman, however, said that with the Lynette portrait Wiley reversed his usual practice of erasing the background of the original portrait while keeping his sitter in the same pose as the original. This time he kept the background and is said to have painted Yiadom-Boakye in the clothes she showed up wearing: boots, a plaid skirt and tunic jacket.

The full title of the painting, done in 2017, is Portrait of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite. The original Jacob Morland, painted in 1763 by the British artist George Romney, is in the Tate Museum in London and is very different from Wileys Lynette.

Romneys Jacob is the very embodiment of privilege, a young gentleman in high white stockings, blue britches, brocade coat and tricorn hat. He has a hound at his feet and appears only poised to hunt. Of the two, as Orgeman points out, Lynette is by far the more powerful figure.

The Lynette portrait is part of a so-called Trickster series Wiley did featuring other artists including Kerry James Marshall and Carrie Mae Weems. The portrait is also the first Wiley painting owned by Yale. Orgeman said its price, paid by gift from several sources, cannot be disclosed.

The 50 works in the primary acquisitions are wide ranging, in century and genre. But Orgeman cited two others with special Yale connections. One is Time to Save, a still life by Audrey Flack, a pioneering photorealist who studied with Josef Albers and who remains active.

The other is Solitary Boat in Red and Blue, an oil painting by Ficre Ghebreyesus, who also studied at Yale, but rarely showed his paintings during his lifetime. In the New Haven area he was best known as an owner of Caffe Adulis and the husband of the poet Elizabeth Alexander. He died in 2012 at age 50.

The exhibit will run through June, for more information, visit artgallery.yale.edu.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau comments on the ongoing truckers vaccine mandate protest during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, Feb. 14. AFP-Yonhap





Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers Monday to quell the paralyzing protests by truckers and others angry over Canada's COVID-19 restrictions, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods.







''These blockades are illegal, and if you are still participating, the time to go home is now,'' he declared.







In invoking Canada's Emergencies Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order, Trudeau ruled out using the military.







His government instead threatened to tow away vehicles to keep essential services running; freeze truckers' personal and corporate bank accounts; and suspend the insurance on their rigs.







''Consider yourselves warned,'' Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said. ''Send your rigs home.''







Freeland, who is also the finance minister, said the government will also broaden its anti-money-laundering regulations to target crowd-funding sites that are being used to support the illegal blockades.







Trudeau did not indicate when the new crackdowns would begin. But he gave assurances the emergency measures ''will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.''







A truck passes Ontario Provincial Police officers and demonstrators in opposition to COVID-19 mandates on the Toronto-bound QEW highway after crossing the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, Ontario, Feb. 12. AP-Yonhap





For more than two weeks, hundreds and sometimes thousands of protesters in trucks and other vehicles have clogged the streets of Ottawa, the capital, and besieged Parliament Hill, railing against vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 precautions and condemning Trudeau's Liberal government.







Members of the self-styled Freedom Convoy have also blockaded various U.S.-Canadian border crossings, though the busiest and most important  the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit  was reopened Sunday after police arrested dozens of demonstrators and broke the nearly week-long siege that had disrupted auto production in both countries.







''This is the biggest, greatest, most severe test Trudeau has faced,'' said Wesley Wark, a University of Ottawa professor and national security expert.







Invoking the Emergencies Act would allow the government to declare the Ottawa protest illegal and clear it out by such means as towing vehicles, Wark said. It would also enable the government to make greater use of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the federal police agency.







One of the protest organizers in Ottawa vowed not to back down in the face of pressure from the government.







''There are no threats that will frighten us. We will hold the line,'' Tamara Lich said.







Cadalin Valcea, a truck driver from Montreal protesting for more than two weeks, said he will move only if forced: ''We want only one thing: to finish with this lockdown and these restrictions.''







Trudeau met virtually with leaders of the country's provinces before announcing the crackdown.







Doug Ford, the Conservative premier of Ontario, which is Canada's most populous province and includes Ottawa and Windsor, expressed support for emergency action, saying: ''We need law and order. Our country is at risk now.''







But the leaders of other provinces warned the prime minister against taking such a step, some of them cautioning it could inflame an already dangerous situation.







''At this point, it would not help the social climate. There is a lot of pressure, and I think we have to be careful,'' said Quebec Premier Francois Legault. ''It wouldn't help for the polarization.''







The protests have drawn support from right-wing extremists and armed citizens in Canada, and have been cheered on in the U.S. by Fox News personalities and conservatives such as Donald Trump.







Some conservatives pushed Trudeau to simply drop the pandemic mandates.







''He's got protests right around the country, and now he's dropping in the polls, desperately trying to save his political career. The solution is staring him in the face,'' said opposition Conservative lawmaker Pierre Poilievre, who is running for the party's leadership.







Millions in donations have poured in supporting the protests, including a big chunk from the U.S.







Hackers who apparently infiltrated one of fundraising websites, GiveSendGo.com, dumped a file online that showed a tally of nearly 93,000 donations totaling $8.4 million through Thursday, an Associated Press analysis of the data found.







Roughly 40 percent of the money raised came from the U.S. while slightly over half was from Canada.







Police officers walk away from demonstrators during a protest by truck drivers over pandemic health rules and the Trudeau government, outside the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa, Feb. 11. AFP-Yonhap





In other developments, the Mounties said they arrested 11 people at the blockaded border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, opposite Montana, after learning of a cache of guns and ammunition.







Police said a small group within the protest was said to have a ''willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade.'' Authorities seized long guns, handguns, body armor and a large quantity of ammunition.







Alberta Premier Jason Kenney also said protesters in a tractor and a heavy-duty truck tried to ram a police vehicle at Coutts on Sunday night and fled. He said some protesters want to ''take this in a very dangerous and dark direction.''







Over the past weeks, authorities have hesitated to move against the protesters. Local officials cited a lack of police manpower and fears of violence, while provincial and federal authorities disagreed over who had responsibility for quelling the unrest.







An earlier version of the Emergencies Act, called the War Measures Act, was used just once during peacetime, by Trudeau's late father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, to deal with a militant Quebec independence movement in 1970.







The demonstrations have inspired similar convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands. U.S. authorities have said that truck convoys may be in the works in the United States.







Invoking emergency powers would be a signal to Canadians and allies like the United States and around the world ''who are wondering what the hell has Canada been up to,'' Wark said.







Also Monday, Ontario's premier announced that from March 1, the province will lift its requirement that people show proof of vaccination to get into restaurants, restaurants, gyms and sporting events. The surge of cases caused by the Omicron variant has crested in Canada.







''We are moving in this direction because it is safe to do so. Today's announcement is not because of what's happening in Ottawa or Windsor but despite it,'' Ford said.







The Ambassador Bridge, which carries 25% of all trade between the two countries, reopened to traffic late Sunday night. The interruption forced General Motors, Ford, Toyota and other automakers to close plants or curtail production on both sides of the border. Some of them have yet to get back to full production.







The siege in Ottawa, about 470 miles (750 kilometers) away, has infuriated residents fed up with government inaction. They have complained of being harassed and intimidated by the protesters who have parked their rigs bumper to bumper on the streets.







''It's stressful. I feel angry at what's happening. This isn't Canada. This does not represent us,'' Colleen Sinclair, a counter-protester who lives in Ottawa.







Many of Canada's COVID-19 restrictions, such as mask rules and vaccine passports for getting into restaurants and theaters, are already falling away as the Omicron surge levels off.







Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the U.S., but Canadians have largely supported them. The vast majority of Canadians are vaccinated. (AP)


The rice crisp floated above my roasted mushroom soup ($11.50) like a swooping Frank Gehry roof. I snuck under the eaves to get a spoonful of the silky, flavorful soup. Breaking off a corner of the salty, vadouvan seasoned crisp revealed a dab of zippy herb salsa  the perfect foil to the rich liquid. The mix-and-match flavors made each bite an adventure.

The chefs art, at its essence, is the combining of flavors so that the sum of the whole is more than its parts. Chef Ashley Flagg at Millwrights in Simsbury (owned by Tyler Anderson) is a wizard at this. Her masterful cooking technique combined with a strong sense of color and texture elevate the intense flavors to create some pretty impressive food.

The seared scallops ($31.50) main course was just as inventive as the soup. Perfectly browned scallops sat in a puddle of thick potato-leek chowder. Spicy, crunchy chorizo hash was scattered around the scallops. Pepper stew was splashed here and there. The two joined in a salty-sweet dance with the scallops and chowder. A bite with this, a bite with that, each pairing brought out a different facet.

Frank Whitman / For Hearst Connecticut

Marsha couldnt resist one of the more fanciful adaptations of New England cuisine: tapioca custard with flavors of clam chowder ($14.50). The appetizer was an island of pearl tapioca topped with tender slices of celery and shucked baby clams surrounded by a briney cream. It was a hit.

Her chunk of boneless braised short rib ($36.50), looking at first glance like a center-cut filet mignon, was fork-tender and richly-flavored. It sat in a pool of light but robust arrabbiata sauce beside a mound of cavatelli. In another of Flaggs flavor twists, the beef was topped with a swirl of citrus ricotta that looked like it could be icing on a cupcake.

Since were both suckers for bread, we had to have the warm, flaky johnny cakes with honey, black sesame and sea salt butter. Our very professional waiter, Ron, offered seconds on butter before we had a chance to ask.

Millwrights pastry chef, Kristin Eddy, was named Pastry chef of the year at the 2021 CRAzies Awards, given annually by the Connecticut Restaurant Association, so of course we had to share a dessert. The chocolate cream puffs ($12) filled and topped with coffee ganache and decorated with hazelnuts, chocolate curls and orange slices was a winner. Did I mention that Millwrights was named Connecticut restaurant of the year at the CRAzies? Theyve all got game there.

Frank Whitman / For Hearst Connecticut

Fortunately, Flagg and Anderson have a fantastic showcase for their cuisine. The restaurant occupies an historic mill building in Simsbury where the Hop Brook slides over a waterfall as it rushes down to the Farmington River. The post and beam joinery, water views, and stylish decor are a comfortable blend of historic and contemporary elegance.

Simsbury is a colonial town (incorporated 1670) between Avon and the Massachusetts border on Rt. 202. Since it was about an hour and half from home, we decided to make a night of it and booked a room at the historic Simsbury 1820 House. Our large room held a high four-poster king bed, a full size couch and a gilt-framed mirror that took up a whole wall.

Frank Whitman / For Hearst Connecticut

Frank Whitman / For Hearst Connecticut

The Inn is filled with water color paintings of local scenes and furnished with antiques. In the charming parlor the next morning, we chatted with some visitors from Boston about places to eat and things to do in the area. Simsbury is dotted with traditional white-steepled churches and colonial homes. Metro Bis, a long-established destination restaurant, is catty-corner across the street if youre in town for more than just dinner.

We had been directed to Popovers Bistro and Bakery for their unique breakfast, lunch and brunch overstuffed popovers. Unfortunately they were taking a few days off, so we missed out.

After a walk around town, we headed north to Granby, then down to Bloomfield and finally through West Hartford. On the way home, we discussed possible dates for our next visit to Simsbury and more good eating.

Editor's note: This column has been updated to reflect that Ashley Flagg is the executive chef at Millwright's.

Frank Whitman writes a weekly food column called "Not Bread Alone." He can be reached at NotBreadAloneFW@gmail.com.
The Democrat-controlled Senate approved new rules for how Connecticut will live with COVID going forward, including continuing the school mask mandate to at least Feb. 28, over objections from Republicans who highlighted personal choice as a crucial but overlooked part of the debate.

The Senate also voted to declare a limited state of emergency to continue eligiblity for federal aid  a move that conflicted with the message that the pandemic is easing in Connecticut, the GOP said.

The votes in the Senate capped a contentious debate to start the 2022 legislative session that largely centered on masks in schools. That tension will likely spill over into board of education meetings and into political campaigns for this years mid-term elections.

The statewide school mask mandate will continue until at least Feb. 28  when Lamont administration officials say they plan to lift the requirement and leave that decision up to local school officials. Republicans said they are skeptical of that given the state departments of education and public health still retain the power to reinstate a mask mandate in schools until June 30.

There is a theme building in the debate on the legislation before us, and really its a question about trust and where you place that trust. Whether you place that trust in the parents to make decisions for their children or do you place trust in the government to make decisions for them, said Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, one of the fiercest advocates for parental choice in the General Assembly.

His comments dominated much of the nearly seven-hour debate Monday.

Chris Boyle, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health, said ending the school mask mandate would likely happen via order from DPH, which could come as soon as this week.

Gov. Ned Lamont and Dr. Manisha Juthani, the states top health official, have said several times that unless theres another major surge, the plan is to lift the mandate at the end of February and let local officials decide how to proceed.

The vote to extend the orders was approved 21-14 with just one Democrat, Sen. Cathy Osten, of Sprague, joining all Republicans in opposing the rules. Most of the orders will expire on April 15, assuming Lamont signs the bill, which hes expected to do.

Osten said she voted against the extension but supported the legislatures declaration of an emergency because I believe the legislature should act as a co-equal branch of government and be the one that stands up and does this.

By codifying the orders, the legislature is reclaiming its authority, Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, said, adding that if signed by the governor, Lamont would not have authority to amend any of these, to revoke any of these.

These would simply be the law of the land in Connecticut for varying periods of time, he said. Democrats added one notable change to the orders that Lamont did not request  preventing eviction proceedings from being started against renters, who have applied for federal rental assistance, until after their applications have been processed.

Sen. Mary Daughtery Abrams, D-Meriden, co-chair of legislative public health committee, was absent for both the vote on the orders and the emergency declaration. The latter passed by a vote of 21 to 13 with Abrams and Sen. Steven T. Cassano, D-Manchester, absent and does not require the governors approval.

Republicans argued that other states have found ways to still get federal pandemic relief for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program without being in a declared emergency. Democrats said access to $30 million in SNAP benefits wouldve been in jeopardy.

The State of New York has negotiated successfully to maintain the maximum amount of SNAP benefits, so you can negotiate. We have a Washington delegation who could negotiate that for us to make sure this funding stays in place, said Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford. In addition to New York, there is Utah, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansa and Minnesota continue to extend SNAP benefits without the declaration.

Democrats recognized during the debate that Connecticut is facing an improving situation, and the worst of the pandemic is likely over, but said there remains a need to respond to evolving threats as they happen.

Through the weekend, the state reported a COVID positivity rate of 3.32 percent  the lowest since Nov. 19. There were 61 fewer hospitalizations reported Monday, dropping the statewide total to 406, the lowest since Dec. 1.

As we move toward the endemic phase, lets stay the course, said Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, a doctor who specializes in pulmonary medicine. We are so close to victory, but we also have to have the humility to know that we dont know whats up ahead of us.

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said there have been other points at the pandemic, when it appeared Connecticut was out of the woods but that wasnt the case.

Just as back in July and just as back in September, the Republicans underplayed the possibility of a continuing emergency as if everything was back, as if everything was fine, Looney said. And that certainly proved not to be. So, no one can actually make a statement right now with any kind of authority that the crisis is passed.

Following the lead of their Republican colleagues in the House last week, GOP senators made a push for giving more power to individuals to decide how to keep themselves safe against COVID, including giving parents the ultimate say over whether their children should wear masks in schools or at child care facilities.

Losing that fight early in the debate Monday, Republican senators then pushed for giving local school boards, not the commissioners of the states education and public health departments, the authority to issue mask mandates, effective immediately.

They also proposed an amendment that wouldve essentially required automatic approval of any request for a religious exemption from state vaccine mandates.

All three amendments failed on party lines.

The Senate debate followed approval in the House last week, also largely along party lines.

Staff Writer Ken Dixon contributed to this report.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
Gee, what are lawmakers going to do in Hartford without recreational marijuana, tolls or sports gambling to argue about?

A lot of issues that languished for years are finally off the table, but there are plenty of big-ticket initiatives that demand focus from legislators.

Even in a short session (12 weeks compared with 22 last year) with part-time state lawmakers, there is always the danger of hours being squandered on proposals with as much chance of passage as making pizza the state food (which passed in the House last year before perishing on the Senate calendar).

We encourage lawmakers to resist returning to Hartford two years into the pandemic and hugging every pet cause they encounter. If you need a defining issue for the session, Gov. Ned Lamont cast four votes for a worthy matter Wednesday when he repeated Mental health, mental health, mental health, mental health.

Its a deserving theme because Connecticut families are still suffering from the fallout of COVID-19, and will be for some time. So legislators should consider ways they can make lives easier, which is not always about tax relief. Here are just a few suggestions:

Stopping fentanyl: Both parties should be able to get behind efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl into the state. One strategy wont do it, so there shouldnt be a tug-of-war over whether to invest in counseling and treatment vs crime and punishment. There were a reported 1,374 drug overdose deaths in Connecticut in 2020, and all but 16 percent of them were due to this synthetic opioid. Getting the antidote Narcan into schools along with appropriate training should be prioritized, especially at a time when the funding is available from the settlement with the opioid industry.

Low-hanging fruit flavors: Connecticut has struggled to put a stop to the sale of flavored vapes due to an outcry from the tobacco industry and conservative charges of violating personal freedoms. Reducing tobacco use has taken decades, but is an American success story. Even tobacco giant Philip Morris International claimed to be striving toward a smoke-free future when it moved to Stamford last year. Lawmakers need to get this done to shield the states youth.

Its always an election year: Politicians need to argue, and no word  not taxes, crime or regulations  provokes red vs. blue quicker these days than voting. Democrats want to extend the expansion of absentee balloting that took place in 2020-21. They will get pushback that conditions have changed. But the goal should always be to lure more voters. The old process is not aging well.

Prescription drugs: Reducing prices of prescription drugs is another cause that should draw bipartisan support, and could have a positive effect on many lives. Lamont has looked beyond state borders for help, collaborating with his counterpart in Massachusetts and seeking lower prices from Canada.

There will be a lot of distractions for lawmakers over the next three months, mostly from one another. But we challenge them to embrace measures with the most important of goals: quelling the suffering of constituents.
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Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition in Washington, March 9, 2020. AP-Yonhap





Tesla chief executive Elon Musk donated a total of 5,044,000 shares in the world's most valuable automaker to a charity from Nov. 19 to Nov. 29 last year, its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed Monday.







The donation was worth $5.74 billion, based on the closing prices of Tesla shares on the five days that he donated the stock. The filing did not disclose the name of the charity.







The donation came as the billionaire sold $16.4 billion worth of shares after polling Twitter users about offloading 10 percent of his stake in the electric-car maker in early November.







He said on Twitter that he would pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021 due to his exercise of stock options set to expire this year.







Musk also traded barbs with politicians Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who called on wealthy people to pay more taxes.







Analysts have said there would be a tax benefit for Musk potentially gifting Tesla stock, since shares donated to charity are not subject to capital gains tax, as they would be if sold.







"His tax benefit would be huge," said Bob Lord, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies who studies tax policy.







"He'd save between 40 percent and 50 percent of the $5.7 billion in tax, depending on whether he could take the deduction against his California income and he'd avoid the gains tax he would have to pay if he sold the stock."







Lord added that Musk might have contributed the stock to intermediaries such as "donor-advised funds," not outright to charitable groups.







Tesla was not immediately available for comment.







Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas, Feb. 10. AFP-Yonhap





The donation ranks Musk as America's second-biggest donor after Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates last year, data from the Chronicle of Philanthropy shows.







Musk's public philanthropy gestures have so far trailed other billionaires. Musk and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos have donated less than 1 percent of their net worth, whereas Warren Buffett and George Soros had given away more than 20 percent by early September, according to business magazine Forbes.







Musk is president of the Musk Foundation, offering grants for the "development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity" among other causes, according to its website.







Last year, Musk and the foundation offered $100 million prizes to those who can come up with a technology to help remove carbon from the atmosphere.







Last year, he said he was donating $20 million to schools in Cameron County, Texas, the location of a Space X rocket launch site, and $10 million to the City of Brownsville.







Musk has also flirted with more ambitious philanthropy goals.







On Twitter last year he said, "If (the United Nations World Food Program) can describe ... exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it."







He was responding to a plea for a donation from David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program.







In January last year, he asked Twitter users about "ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems.)" (Reuters)


The Senate will consider legislation to fund the federal government past Feb. 18 this week, while the House will hold a committee work week.

The House passed a continuing resolution last week to fund the government and the National Flood Insurance Program through March 11.

Other hearings CUNA is engaged with this week include:
Cullman, AL (35055)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 14. Reuters-Yonhap



Russia said Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases, adding to glimmers of hope that the Kremlin may not be planning to invade Ukraine imminently. But it gave no details on where the troops were pulling back from, or how many.



That muddied efforts to determine the significance of the announcement, which buoyed world financial markets and the long-suffering ruble after weeks of escalation in Europe's worst East-West standoff in decades. It came a day after Russia's foreign minister indicated the country was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that led to the Ukraine crisis  a gesture that changed the tenor after weeks of tensions.



Yet hours before the Russian Defense Ministry statement about the troops, a U.S. defense official said Russian units were moving closer to the Ukrainian border  not away from it. And Western officials continued to warn Tuesday that the Russian military could attack at any time, with some floating Wednesday as a possible invasion day.



The fears of an invasion grew from the fact that Russia has massed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine. Russia denies it has any such plans, despite placing troops on Ukraine's borders to the north, south and east and launching massive military drills nearby. U.S. and other NATO allies, meanwhile, have moved troops and military supplies toward Ukraine's western flank, and promised more financial aid to the ex-Soviet nation.



In announcing the pullback, the Russian Defense Ministry did not indicate where the troops had been deployed or how many were leaving.



Asked about the announcement, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that Russia holds military drills ''on its own territory and according to its own plans, they start, go on and end as planned.'' The minister said such drills always adhered to a schedule  regardless of ''who thinks what and who gets hysterical about it, who is deploying real informational terrorism.''



Ukraine's leaders expressed skepticism about the pullback.



''Russia constantly makes various statements,'' Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. ''That's why we have the rule: We won't believe when we hear, we'll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we'll believe in de-escalation.''



European leaders have been scrambling to try to head off a new war on their continent, after several tense weeks that have left Europeans feeling caught between Russia and the U.S., and further pushed up household energy prices because of Europe's dependence on Russian gas.



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a day after sitting down with Ukraine's leader in Kyiv. In his opening remarks in the Kremlin, Scholz addressed the Ukraine tensions but also noted Germany's economic ties with Russia  which complicate Western efforts to agree on how to punish Russia in case of an invasion.



Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau of Poland, one of Russia's most strident European critics, met in Moscow on Tuesday with Lavrov, and they discussed ways to use the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for more talks aimed at easing tensions around Ukraine.



The day before, Lavrov suggested more efforts at diplomacy in a made-for-TV meeting with Putin that seemed designed to send a message to the world about the Russian leader's position. The foreign minister argued that Moscow should hold more talks, despite the West's refusal to consider Russia's main demands.



Moscow wants guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.



Lavrov said possibilities for talks ''are far from being exhausted.''



The U.S. reacted coolly.



''The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,'' White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. ''However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.''



Ukraine's foreign minister, meanwhile, claimed credit for keeping the diplomatic path open  at least for now.



''We managed with our partners to restrain the Russian Federation from any further escalation. Today is already the middle of February and you can see that diplomacy continues to work,'' Kuleba said.



As if to show defiance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Wednesday would be a ''day of national unity,'' calling on the country to display the blue-and-yellow flag and sing the national anthem.



Even amid the hopeful signs, the U.S. and European countries kept up their warnings.



British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated Tuesday that the danger of an invasion still exists, telling Sky News that it ''could be imminent.'' Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt issued a similar warning.



U.S. officials have said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders. A U.S. defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.



The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not publicly released.



Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup, reported increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations. The photos taken over a 48-hour period also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation.



Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers called on Putin on Tuesday to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect.



Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the issue of recognizing the self-proclaimed republics is ''very, very relevant to the public.'' But it was unclear how he would respond or how this could influence Russia's actions in Ukraine.



While the U.S. warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, and Kyiv is alerting residents to locate their nearest bomb shelters, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Russia itself.



The Kremlin has cast the U.S. warnings of an imminent attack as ''hysteria'' and ''absurdity,'' and many Russians believe that Washington is deliberately stoking panic and fomenting tensions to trigger a conflict for domestic reasons.



Few expect a war.



In Russia's Belgorod region about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ukraine's border, residents carry on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets.



''Planes, helicopters just started flying, I guess, to patrol the border,'' said Vladimir Konovalenko.



Villager Lyudmila Nechvolod says she's not worried.



''We are friends with Ukraine. And we are not sure that Ukraine wants war with us. ... We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody there (on the Ukrainian side),'' she said. ''No one wants war.'' (AP)


Ms. Dorothy "Dot" McCrory age 88 of Dalton, Georgia, departed this life Monday, May 2, 2022 at the Regency Park Health Care Center. She was born May 15, 1933. Dot as she was known to friends, was preceded in death by her parents Elma McCrory and Boyd Hicks as well as a brother Jack Hicks. Sh
When UO freshman Makenna Ertell moved into Earl Hall on campus last fall, her cat Wyatt attracted some unexpected attention.

For the first two weeks of school, people would just stop in my window and stare at him, Ertell said. I had to make a little sign saying If the windows are shut, please dont peer in!

Its no surprise Wyatt was such a novelty to passing students. Wyatt is an emotional support animal (ESA), which makes him an exception to UOs no-pet policy for students living on campus. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines ESAs as animals that provide comfort just by being with a person, a growing category of at least 200,000 in the U.S. as of 2019.

Ertell has Tourettes syndrome and anxiety, and she experiences tic attacks and panic attacks. She said having Wyatt as a comforting presence helps minimize the frequency of her symptoms.

When Im having a tic attack, hell usually sit in my lap, or Ill go and hold him to calm myself down, Ertell said. If its an anxiety attack, hell come up and rub against my leg or something like that. Just keeping me company helps.

ESAs and service animals are not the same thing. Service animals are dogs trained to perform specific tasks for an individual with a disability, while ESAs are untrained; as such, the ADA does not require ESAs to be accommodated in most circumstances. However, the Fair Housing Act requires housing providers to allow the use of animals that provide emotional support, allowing for accommodation in apartment complexes or college dormitories.

According to Katie Wolf, assistant director of the Accessible Education Center, ESAs are generally more appropriate for students with mental health related disabilities. Typically they work with students who might have depression, anxiety, PTSD, Wolf said. Anyone who might have functional limitations that can rise to the level of disability.

Junior Annie Craven is another UO student whose ESA, her cat Milo, has helped her manage her symptoms. Craven, an RA in Global Scholars Hall, has social anxiety that sometimes makes it difficult for her to leave her room or get out of bed.

When Milo lays on top of me and purrs, he can help me calm down when Im feeling anxious, Craven said. Having a cat also forces you to get up and do something. They will not let you not do anything!

Students seeking accommodation for their ESA have to contact the Accessible Education Center, which begins the process of working with the student. Wolf said, while each request is evaluated on a case-by-case basis, students must provide detailed documentation from a mental healthcare practitioner advocating for the ESA, as well as their own personal summary of how the ESA might help mitigate their symptoms.

Its a lengthy process, but its worth it, Craven said.

From there, University Housing works out the specific details of the accommodation, including information about the specific animal and emergency contacts in the event of the owners absence.

In most cases, if its a small cat or something, thats pretty typical of ESAs, but there might be some more unusual animals where Housing would need to assess health and safety risks, Wolf said.

Craven couldnt decide whether to adopt a cat for a couple of years before meeting Milo. She encourages students to go with their gut  but also keep in mind the implications of adopting an ESA.

I think it can be really easy to view ESAs as just a tool to help with our mental illness, but youre also adopting an animal, Craven said. Before you decide to adopt an ESA, weigh out all the options And if your gut is thinking this would be helpful, dont be scared of that either.

While Ertell initially had misgivings about bringing her cat to college, she cant imagine her life without him  and urges students who feel they need ESAs to seek support. Shes even started an Instagram account for Wyatt: @wyattkittenman.

The first few weeks, I was like I dont know if this is such a good idea But now Im so happy I made this decision, Ertell said. It has saved my little depressed life.
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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida spoke Tuesday with Ukraine's president to back the country's territorial integrity in the face of a possible Russian invasion and urge a diplomatic resolution to the stand-off.







The call came as the Kremlin said it had pulled some forces back from Ukraine's borders, and President Vladimir Putin began talks in Moscow with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.







Kishida "reiterated my consistent support for the integrity of sovereignty and territory (of Ukraine)" in the conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky.







Japan is also ready to provide assistance to Ukraine in the form of loans of at least $100 million, Kishida told the Ukrainian leader.







The Japanese prime minister expressed "grave concern" about the situation and urged a diplomatic solution, while warning that if Russia invaded "we would respond appropriately, including sanctions, in cooperation with the G7 and the international community."







He declined to be drawn on what Zelensky had said during the call, which came as Ukraine's foreign minister said he believed a further Russian escalation had been prevented. (AFP)


Advertisement

A millionaire socialite with a 10million jewellery collection and bathroom fitted with 7,000 gold taps has been branded 'vile' and 'dreadful' for bragging about her wealth to a former homeless man.

One-time model Amanda Cronin, 45, who landed a multi-million pound settlement when she divorced Monaco energy mogul Mark Daeche in 2019, is one of the richest women in the UK.

She appeared in a new documentary The Millionairess and Me, which aired on Channel 4 last night, detailing her unlikely friendship with Martin Read, a filmmaker who has spent time in prison and homeless after leaving home at 16.

It showed the influencer, who boasts more than 60,000 followers on Instagram, showing Martin around her Mayfair home before flying him to Monaco and Switzerland for a charity ball.

But the flaunting of her wealth left a sour taste in many viewers' mouths with one writing: 'No class, no manners, no style, no real friends. Everything about Amanda is vile. Disconnected from all reality.'

The mother-of-one - who claims she has 'the longest legs in Belgravia' and describes herself as 'one of the most stylish women in the world' - also raised eyebrows by donating a Gucci voucher to a charity shop, and parking her 150,000 Bentley outside on Merthyr Tydfil high street.

Former model Amanda Cronin , 45, who landed a multi-million pound settlement when she divorced Monaco energy mogul Mark Daeche in 2019, is one of the richest women in the UK

The film, which aired on Channel 4 last night at 10pm, sees the socialite and influencer, who boasts more than 60,000 followers on Instagram, flaunt her wealth at her Mayfair home before flying the filmmaker to Monaco and Switzerland where she shows off her lavish lifestyle and takes him to a charity ball. Pictured: Amanda having her makeup done

The documentary begins with Amanda, who grew up in Southampton, showing Martin around her plush London home, including a huge collection of Gucci handbags - which are all one of a kind.

The mother-of-one explained that despite her wealth - she's often gifted designer goods by brands who want to see her promoting their products to her huge Instagram following.

'I get gifted, I get deliveries everyday. Everyday something arrives through the post, it's nice. It's like Christmas everyday', she said.

After showing off her 150,000 Bentley, Amanda revealed she had purchased another Mayfair mansion for 3million, which she's renovating in the hope of selling for 11million.

The pair visited a furniture store selling eye-wateringly expensive products including a 26,000 bath and bed costing 88,000.

Amanda lived in Monaco for ten years before her marriage fell apart, and while celebrating her 45th birthday, she opened up to Martin about life following her divorce.

While at a charity ball raising money for underprivileged children in Switzerland, Martin asks Amanda why the rich don't pay more taxes rather than spend thousands on charity auctions given the energy crisis, end of furlough and cost of living crisis in the UK

She appeared in a new documentary The Millionairess and Me after striking up an unlikely friendship with Martin Read, a filmmaker who has spent time in prison and homeless after leaving home at 16

'I'm so over people trying to hook me up and couple me up', she said. 'My daughter feels the same I know [my friends] feels the same. We're powerful intelligent and successful women on a trajectory.

'Of course we need love and lovers and we have this, but at the end of the day it's not us being defined by men anymore walking in the shadows of men.'

When asked whether her marriage had left her with some emotional scars, she said: 'I think it's definitely a fair comment yeah. But time heals and hearts heal.'

She added: 'I like being kissed goodbye in the morning. I'm very classic and old school, "I'll see you later my darling I love you I'm besotted with you".'

While she now enjoys a lavish lifestyle, Amanda opened up about her early life in Southampton, where she had an ordinary upbringing and dreamed of being an air hostess before being scouted as a model.

The mother-of-one explained that despite her wealth - she's often gifted designer goods by brands who want to see her promoting their products to her huge Instagram following. Pictured at the Eden Rock Hotel in St Barts

The pair visited a furniture store selling eye-wateringly expensive products including a 26,000 bath and bed costing 88,000

On a trip to Read's hometown of Cardiff, the pair visited a Red Cross charity shop, with Amanda putting together a shop display and parking her Bentley on the street. Amanda is pictured posting on Instagram

'I have been desperate and I have been in situations where I have been at the brink of disaster', she said. 'My whole world fell apart overnight in public, I don't think it's about being touch.

'That's not a problem, when you can't pay your rent you can't pay your bills that's a problem.

'People might think I'm in a gilded cage - I am, but I know what it's like to not be in a gilded cage, and I know what it's like to be in a gilded cage with the door locked which is not ideal either.'

On a trip to Read's hometown of Cardiff, the pair visited a Red Cross charity shop, with Amanda putting together a shop display and parking her Bentley on the street.

While there, Amanda donated a Gucci voucher and pair of Dior sunglasses before dubbing herself one of the 'most stylish women in the world' as she helped arrange the shop window.

The shop manager commented that she was 'unaware of how much power she had' because a 300 donation could run an an ambulance for a week.

The documentary begins with Amanda, who grew up in Southampton, showing Martin around her plush London home, including a huge collection of Gucci handbags - which are all one of a kind. She is pictured in London

When they were at the event, Martin quizzed Amanda on whether she felt the uber-wealthy should be paying more tax. Amanda is pictured in London

She later met with Shirley Debono, an activist campaigning against the use of Imprisonment for public protection (IPP), a 'tariff' meaning an a prisoner serves an unlimited time of detention until they can prove they are no longer a threat to the public.

Amanda was moved by the story of Shirley's son, Shaun who had served nine years in prison after stealing a mobile phone.

'I relate to Shirley as a mother as a woman', she said. 'We have a lot in common, fighting for your rights, justice, equality, justice truth, these are really hard battles to fight'

'I want to help her, I would like to add my voice to the story'.

After returning from Cardiff, the pair visited a black tie event in Switzerland, raising money for under privileged children around the world .

When they were at the event, Martin quizzed Amanda on whether she felt the uber-wealthy should be paying more tax.

It's an unlikely friendship across the class divide that is at the heart of a new Channel 4 documentary, in which Martin takes a voyage to the heart of Amanda's privileged world, and vice versa. Pictured: Martin and Amanda

Golden girl: Wealthy socialite Amanda Cronin is a former model and earned millions through divorce

Best buddy: 'Rough diamond' Martin Read has spent time in prison and was homeless

'It's a very basic question to just say', she said. 'Tax the rich I think it's more complicated than that, rich people contribute in other ways.

'The way that rich people don't contribute enough is when they're forced to leave the country because they feel their taxes are unacceptable. If you hike up taxes for rich people they're just going to leave and go to Monaco and the Bahamas'.

These comments irked viewers, with one writing: 'Christ, money cant buy class right enough. What an utterly shallow, materialistic person. Love yourself much? Wonder why shes single eh?'

Another added: 'What a disgusting woman that Amanda Cronin is looking down her nose at the rest of society. Dont mind the rich but never look down your nose at those less fortunate than yaself,'

These comments irked viewers, with one writing: 'Christ, money cant buy class right enough. What an utterly shallow, materialistic person. Love yourself much? Wonder why shes single eh?'

A third wrote: 'Yuk. This woman is horrible. So far up her own a***she can lick her own intestines'.

Another tweeted: 'Poor rich people. Being driven out of their country because of high taxes they find unacceptable. Life is better with a bag worth 200K. Better than paying taxes and it going on the NHS or schools.

However, many praised Martin Read for the documentary and said Amanda was giving back by helping out.

'There are film/documentary makers out there that are capable of more than a predictable scripted commentary. Martin Read kept me engaged and entertained in his production of #TheMillionairessandme. A slightly gauche format that could easily have been ruined by the usual suspect,' one said.

' That was an interesting take on the super rich and very well put together and narrated by Martin Read. Maybe a little bit of Merthyr Tydfil will remain embedded in Amanda Cronin.' added another.

The Millionairess and Me airs on Channel 4 on Monday at 10pm
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Fed up with your microfibre cloth and squeegee leaving streaks on your windows after cleaning? Well, you're in luck as Aldi is selling an Electric Window Cleaner for effortless glass, window and mirror cleaning.

Cleaning queen Mrs Hinch often reaches for her Vileda Window Vacuum, which costs 68.99, for cleaning her glass shower screen and windows, but Aldi's copycat version of the cleaning gadget comes with a budget-friendly price tag of 19.99 - that's less than half the price.

The new and affordable Easy Home Grey Electric Window Cleaner from Aldi is designed to suck up excess moisture whilst cleaning. Simply give the dirty surface a quick wipe over with a soapy solution before vacuuming the moisture away - it makes cleaning a breeze.

The new and affordable Easy Home Grey Electric Window Cleaner (19.99) from Aldi is designed to suck up excess moisture whilst cleaning

Simply give the dirty surface a quick wipe over with a soapy solution before vacuuming the moisture away - it makes cleaning a breeze

The brand description reads: 'The Easy Home Grey Electric Window Cleaner is convenient and adaptable, allowing you to quickly clean windows, mirrors and more with ease.'

Rechargeable, lightweight, and boasting a long-lasting battery life of 30 minutes with just one charge, you'll have sparkling clean windows inside and out in no time.

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Prince Felix of Denmark is the latest royal to try their hand at a modelling career, having quit his military training after just two months.

The Danish royal, 19, who is the younger son of Prince Joachim - Crown Prince Frederick's younger brother - has posed in a series of moody snaps for jeweller Georg Jensen's new Reflect collection.

The eight in line to the throne follows in the footsteps of his older brother, Prince Nikolai, 22, who posed for Vogue Scandinavia earlier this month.

At the end of last year, he started training at the Royal Danish Military Academy to become an Army Lieutenant, but in October it was announced that he'd quit after just two months because it 'wasn't for him'.

No further detail was given about his plans for the future, but it now seems the youngster is eyeing up a career in modelling.

Prince Felix of Denmark, 19, has made his modelling debut for jeweller Georg Jensen in their new Reflect collection, appearing in pictures and an advert promoting the new necklaces, earrings and rings, ranging from

When you open Georg Jensen's website, you are welcomed by the royal's face with parts of his video campaign promote the pieces

Prince Felix chose to make his modelling debut for jeweller Georg Jensen, appearing in pictures and an advert promoting the new Reflect collection of necklaces, earrings and rings.

Prince Felix wears two necklaces, a bracelet and a bangle which are ranging in price from 396 (330) and 920 (768).

Visitors to the brand's website will be welcomed by the royal's video campaign to promote the pieces.

Since the 19-year-old is further down the line of succession, pursuing his own career path rather than being a 'working royal' was expected choice for Felix, and modelling is certainly a popular choice for minor royals across the globe.

The Danish royal, 19, right, has mirrored his 22-year-old sibling Prince Nikolai (left) journey to becoming a star in front of the camera after interrupting his studies at the end of last year. Like Prince Nikolai, he decided to put his military career on pause to start a modelling career

The son of Prince Joachim, who is the youngest son of the Queen of Denmark, and his first wife, Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, Prince Felix is currently eighth in the line of succession to the Danish throne

Prince Felix wears two Georg Jensen necklaces, a bracelet and a bangle which are ranging in price from 396 (330) and 920 (768)

British royal Lady Amelia Windsor was the cover girl for Tatler twice and modelled for Dolce & Gabbana in 2017 and 2019.

The royal Monegasques, grandchildren of Princess Grace, Hollywood actress-turned-royalty Grace Kelly, all inherited her photogenic genetics, with Charlotte Casiraghi modelling for Gucci and Pierre Casiraghi for Dior Homme.

But Felix need look no further that his older brother Prince Nikolai for inspiration.

Now 22, he debuted his wavy chocolate locks down the Burberry runway at London Fashion Week in 2018, and has since gone on to grace the cover of Vogue Scandanavia.

Royal fans gushed over the 22-year-old Prince, who oozed charm in a pink Dior jacket on the cover, calling him a 'handsome' and 'stunning' model.

The prince appears on the cover for February-March 2022 issue of Vogue Scandinavia which celebrates the experience of growing up in a region with kings and queens, princes and princesses.

As the 19-year-old is further down the line of succession, pursuing his own career path rather than being a 'working royal' was an expected choice for Felix, with many young royals across the globe doing the same (pictured modelling for Georg Jensen)

Nikolai has charmed the fashion world, racking up runway appearances and magazine covers since his debut - after signing a modelling contract with Scoop Models in Denmark when aged 18.

Nikolai, who also has the title Count of Monpezat, made his modelling debut at Burberrys autumn-winter 2018 show.

He's walked alongside Cara Delevingne on the runway and strutted his stuff before a front row that included Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Michelle Dockery, Naomi Watts, Zendaya, and Idris Elba.

Speaking to the magazine, he recalled how his royal life had somewhat prepared him for the catwalk: 'Im used to the press and the cameras to being a public figure all my life.'

The prince - who also candidly admitted it is usually his own mother who cuts his stylish hair - currently studies at the Copenhagen Business School, but is on a semester abroad in Paris.

Recalling how his family reacted to his decision to model, he said: 'No one was against it. Of course, I had to explain myself  Id have to do that with whatever I do.
To celebrate National Tim Tam Day on February 16, Arnott's has released a range of Tim Tam merchandise inspired by the popular Aussie chocolate biscuit.

Customers can get their hands on three limited-edition products - the Tim Tam eau de parfum perfume that smells 'good enough to eat' as well as a Tim Tam mug and matching fluffy slippers.

But the products will only be available for one week until February 23, so customers will need to act swiftly.

From February 16 customers can get their hands on limited-edition Tim Tam merchandise, including the Tim Tam eau de parfum perfume that smells 'good enough to eat' as well as a Tim Tam mug and matching fluffy slippers

The 30mL limited-edition Tim Tam Eau de Parfum (pictured) features real cocoa with delectable notes inspired by the alluring aroma of a Tim Tam biscuit that will be sure to turn heads whenever you enter a room

The 30mL limited-edition Tim Tam Eau de Parfum features real cocoa with delectable notes inspired by the alluring aroma of a Tim Tam biscuit that will be sure to turn heads whenever you enter a room.

The fluffy Tim Tam slippers are made from natural sheepskin and leather in partnership with EMU Australia, and the Tim Tam mug is perfect to a Tim Tam slam.

10 per cent of proceeds from items purchased will be donated to the Arnott's Foundation to continue their incredible work supporting organisations such as Camp Quality, Driver Reviver and Princess Fairy Sparkle.

The Tim Tam mug retails for $25, the Sheepskin Slippers cost $60 and the perfume is priced at $90.

The fluffy Tim Tam slippers (pictured) are made from natural sheepskin and leather in partnership with EMU Australia

10 per cent of proceeds from items purchased will be donated to the Arnott's Foundation to continue their incredible work supporting organisations such as Camp Quality, Driver Reviver and Princess Fairy Sparkle

Rebecca Chan, Arnott's spokesperson, said: 'National Tim Tam Day gives Aussies the chance to celebrate their favourite chocolate biscuit and this year, we're so excited to launch our exclusive Tim Tam Gift Store.

'We know Aussies are mad to get their hands on exclusive Tim Tam merchandise. We've teased Aussies over the past few months with our #SorryNotARealProduct and thought we'd make their wishes come true by bringing to life their favourite ideas!'

The merchandise range follows off the back of previous Tim Tam Day surprises, including the 2021 Tim Tam Suite at the QT Sydney, where Aussies had the chance to stay a night in the Tim Tam-inspired hotel room.

Those keen to jump the queue, early access is available if you sign up to the Tim Tam Secret Society, a members only mailing list for Tim Tam loyalists.

Customers can also visit the Tim Tam website to find out more information.
A Woolworths store manager has issued a blistering response to a job applicant who lied about having a Covid medical exemption during an interview - with their confrontation played out in full public view on Facebook.

The prospective employee from Victoria, who is only identified as Alex on Facebook, claims to have told the manager he was exempt from getting the Covid jab and had proof of a medical certificate to justify his stance.

The prospective employee from Victoria, who is only identified as Alex on Facebook, claims to have told the manager he was exempt from getting the Covid jab and had proof of a medical certificate to justify his stance (stock image)

However soon after the interview, 'Alex' went on Facebook seeking help in finding a way to get a 'religious exemption'.

'Is there a priest in Mildura who can fill in a Covid vaccine religious exemption form for me so I can start work with Woolies?' Alex said.

'They will accept a signed form which I will provide. Thank you in advance.'

Unfortunately Alex's new employee was quick to spot the post and respond underneath.

'Hello Alex, I am the manager for Woolworths who interviewed you this morning,' the Facebook comment read.

Hours later 'Alex' shared an update on Facebook, saying he was looking for a priest to provide a 'religious exemption'

'You claimed you had a medical exemption, clearly this is not true. Consider the job offer withdrawn, we will contact you directly.'

The uncomfortable exchange is now being investigated by the supermarket giant but so far it has not been able to verify the individuals involved.

Woolworths announced last October that vaccines would be required for all team members across Australia unless there was a valid medical or religious exemption.

'We have a clear obligation to provide our team members with the safest possible work environment as we supply the food and essential needs our communities rely on,' a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

'Vaccination is one of the best ways to protect our team, customers, and communities and we're pleased by the large uptake of our team members who have chosen to be vaccinated.

'As part of our vaccine policy, a vaccine certificate or medical exemption is required for candidates wishing to join our team.'
A perfume that smells like French fries has proven to be as irresistible as the fast-food staple after selling out almost instantly.

The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) released the limited-edition fragrance  'Frites by Idaho'  just in time for Valentine's Day, and fans couldn't wait to get their hands on a bottle.

'Formulated from essential oils and distilled Idaho potatoes, this fragrance embodies the irresistible essence of potatoes from Idaho,' according to the description on the state agency's website.

The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) released a limited-edition fragrance, 'Frites by Idaho,' just in time for Valentine's Day

The 1.7-ounce crystalline bottles retailed for $1.89 apiece, roughly the price of a large order of French fries. The scent was 'formulated from essential oils and distilled Idaho potatoes'

The 1.7-ounce crystalline bottles retailed for $1.89 apiece  roughly the price of a large order of fries  and were sold out within hours.

The idea for the unique fragrance came about after a recent national survey conducted by Pollfish revealed that nearly 90 percent of Americans find the smell of French fries 'irresistible.'

'Whether youre at a drive through restaurant or dining in, its near impossible to not grab a fry and take a bite before you dive into your meal. The smell is too good to resist,' explained IPC President and CEO Jamey Higham

The idea for the unique fragrance came about after a recent national survey revealed that nearly 90 percent of Americans find the smell of French fries 'irresistible'

The fragrance sold out within hours and is listed as 'out of stock' on the agency's website

'This perfume is a great gift for anyone who cant refuse a French fry.'

Idaho leads the nation in potato production, growing nearly a third of U.S. potatoes thanks to its ideal climate and volcanic soil.

The IPC's foray into fragrance production has been a hit with French fry fans across the country, including the perfume's only reviewer.

'Close your eyes take a wiff potato farm take me away incredible,' the person wrote on the agency's website, where the fragrance is listed as 'out of stock.'
A PE teacher and mum-of-two says that becoming an early riser and adding morning cardio exercise to your life is her best tip for improving sleep and your metabolism this year.

Belinda Norton, a health and fitness education professional and certified trainer from the Gold Coast, explained in her most recent Facebook post that the benefits of morning exercise far out way the extra 45 minutes of sleep you might get by staying in bed.

'Morning exercise helps you avoid distractions and especially avoids the dreaded bed "phone scroll" routine,' the 45-year-old fit mum said.

'You'll also reap the mental benefits of exercise all day by beginning your day with a boost of vitamin D; mind freedom; and a more grateful attitude.'

'Morning exercise helps you avoid distractions and especially avoids the dreaded bed "phone scroll" routine,' the 45-year-old fit mum said

Another added bonus is the community interaction and 'hellos' to other early morning walkers, runners or positively geared healthy individuals you might run into while you're completing the task at hand, she said.

Morning exercise helps you make healthier food choices by feeling a desire to choose nourishing as opposed to fast fulfilment.

'You'll boost your metabolism with morning cardio by increasing your heart rate earlier enforcing an increase in clean blood cells saturations to major organs,' she said.

'You'll sleep better if you exercise in the morning as you've completed a fitness task and feel less compelled to self hate or mentally guilt one self.'

Belinda encourages all Australians to walk for 30 minutes a day each morning, and to take the kids along with you if that's a possibility.

Belinda encourages all Australians to walk for 30 minutes a day each morning, and to take the kids along with you if that's a possibility

'Encourage them to join you and get up earlier to help them understand this is a healthy motivated lifestyle,' she said.

'It also helps with before school organisation and increases our children's ability to listen and learn.'

In 2022 Belinda's major aim is to boost her intake of raw, wholesome foods, and to encourage others around her to do the same.

'It truly is the magic elixir to our bodies performance level. These earth-grown foods promote internal health from digestion to blood boosting components,' she wrote in January.

'I encourage you to eat raw vegetables daily and increase your consumption by adding vegetables to every meal including breakfast.'

A PE teacher and mum-of-two says 'real, whole grown foods' are the 'magic elixir' to good health in 2022

Belinda Norton, a health and fitness education professional and certified trainer from the Gold Coast, said her number one goal for 2022 is 'encouraging others' - and her first piece of advice is to boost raw, wholesome foods

Belinda recommends making simple tweaks like adding spinach to eggs, eating raw carrots as snacks, eating baby cucumbers, enjoying cauliflower raw with dips and adding vegetables to every dinner.

'The fact is food is more than just calories, its information that our cells need to function, it is the information that our metabolism can use to either run efficiently or sluggish,' the mum-of-two said.

'When we eat sugars, fruit juice or refined carbs, it goes right to the liver, where it starts manufacturing fat, triggering insulin resistance and causing chronically elevated blood insulin levels thus driving the body to store everything meaning it holds toxicity.'

She often eats meals like roasted garlic organic vegetables (left) and breakfast bagels made with a toasted seeded gluten free bagel, egg, spinach, purple cabbage and sweet chilli jam

'The fact is food is more than just calories, its information that our cells need to function, it is the information that our metabolism can use to either run efficiently or sluggish,' the mum-of-two said

She added that 'real' foods like vegetables and low glycemic fruits, healthy fats (nut seeds avocado and olives), gluten free whole grains, legumes and responsibility sourced proteins and seafood) give your cells the information they need to function at their very best.

'They improve skin, hair, brain function, mind clarity and immunity,' she said.

'Eating well should not only be about quantity but more imperative with quality.'

Belinda regularly shares her health tricks and tips on social media, and recently spilled her secret 'five step routine reboot' to encourage Aussies to overhaul their lifestyles.

So what are the five things you need to do for a 2022 'routine reboot'?

Belinda regularly shares her health tricks and tips on social media, and recently spilled her secret 'five step routine reboot' to encourage Aussies to overhaul their lifestyles

1. Write a to-do list every single day

'Having a daily routine is proven to reduce stress,' Belinda explained.

'We tend to fill our brains up with our 'to-do list', and this can be incredibly overwhelming when it repeats on a loop in our mind.'

When you write your list down, the PE teacher recommends sticking it in a visible place for your entire family to see, so everyone knows what needs to get done.

This should help to get the list out of your mind and mean everyone knows what needs to get done.

The second thing Belinda swears by is 30 minutes of morning cardio, which helps to get you ready to go every single day (pictured on a morning walk)

2. Start your day with some cardio

The second thing Belinda swears by is 30 minutes of morning cardio, which helps to get you ready to go.

'Start your morning every single day with some sunrise cardio (walk, run, skip or bike) 30 minutes before your breakfast,' she said.

'Research shows that disrupted body clocks are associated with many physical and mental health conditions, including depression, diabetes, obesity and cancers.

'A routine will ensure you are still feeling productive and fulfilled in your daily routine, even when it's unpredictable.'

Make this morning movement a non-negotiable part of your routine, and reap the health goals in as little as one week.

3. Journal any thoughts before bed

The third thing Belinda said she does religiously is journal her thoughts a little every evening before bed.

'Creating your goals and to-do list for the next day really helps you to get motivated,' she said.

'Write down both the moments from that day that you're grateful for and what you intend to do tomorrow.'

Then, make sure you get between seven and eight hours of sleep every night in order to maximise your rest.

Writing a weekly dinner menu is one of Belinda's favourite habits (one of her dinners pictured), and she recommends placing it in a visible place so that all can see

4. Write a weekly dinner menu

Writing a weekly dinner menu is one of Belinda's favourite habits.

'Place it in a visible place for all to see, and try keeping the menu for two weeks on a rotation to really save mental space, time and money,' she explained.

If you can, get into a good routine of pre-preparing a healthy snack, meal or muesli every Sunday.

This will mean you're far less likely to reach for something unhealthy when you're tired and time-poor during the week.

Finally, Belinda revealed that having an exercise or training regime locked in will keep you 'motivated, mobile and aligned'; she does 30 minutes of strength three times a week

5. Do 30 minutes of strength three times a week

Finally, Belinda revealed that having an exercise or training regime locked in will keep you 'motivated, mobile and aligned'.

'Our mobility is our health,' she said.

'Time is our most states barrier in exercise, yet we all need to prioritise moving our bodies for our health.'

Make sure you do 30 minutes of strength work three times a week, as well as your daily cardio for the best results.

'Add in stretching and some fun and passion-type fitness activities in the outdoors to create a really balanced body routine,' Belinda said.

You can follow Belinda Norton on Instagram here.
An Australian parenting guru has revealed why you shouldn't be saying 'be careful' to your child when they're doing something risky and what to say instead.

Nicole, from Perth, who is a baby, child and teen physiotherapist, advised her followers in a post to Instagram not to say 'be careful' to your child as it is 'meaningless' and 'not specific enough'.

'It might get them to stop, if it doesn't go over their heads, but it doesn't help them understand why or how they need to move safely,' she wrote.

Nicole, a baby, kid and teen physiotherapist from Perth, has revealed why saying 'be careful' to your kid when they are taking risks is not a good idea and shared some phrases to use instead

Nicole said saying 'be careful' could cause a child to get scared or ignore you.

'Most kids will either a) get scared, have totally no idea and avoid anything risky (not super for development) or b) just completely ignore you and may end up hurting themselves,' the physio said.

She suggested some alternative things to say to draw attention to the child's body, environment, potential risk and problem solving so they assess the situation appropriately and by themselves.

She said the phrase 'be careful' is 'meaningless' and 'not specific enough and can cause a child to get scared and be reluctant to take risks or ignore you and hurt themselves

Saying things like 'firm feet', 'strong legs' and 'slow and steady' can draw the child's attention to what to do with their body.

Asking what they can feel, hear or see can bring their focus to their environment and asses a potential risk.

To draw attention to problem solving, Nicole said to ask questions like 'what's your plan?' and 'are you feeling safe?'.

'Keep it short and simple,' she advised.

What to say to your child instead of 'Be careful' Draw their attention to their body 'Firm feet' 'Strong legs' 'Strong hands' 'Slow and steady' Draw their attention to their environment and possible risk 'Can you feel...' 'Can you see...' 'Can you hear...' Draw their attention to problem solving 'What's your plan here?' 'Are you feeling safe to...' 'Where will you...' 'How will you...' Reassure them you are here 'I'm here if you need help' Source: nicole_kidsphysio Advertisement

Parents in the comments were quick to praise Nicole's handy advice and said they will start adopting the strategy.

'This is so helpful, I automatically say 'be careful' but now I will make a conscious effort to change my language and communication,' one mum wrote.

'Im so guilty of this.. be careful is the first thing that roles off my tongue. Ive been trying to reframe my brain and anxiety,' said another.

'I am trying SO HARD to stop saying 'be careful' so my go to is now 'slow and steady' and it's pretty funny to see my toddler when I say it,' commented a third.

She suggested some alternative things to say like 'slow and steady' and 'I'm here if you need help' to draw attention to the child's body, environment, potential risk and problem solving

Previously, leading parenting educator, Maggie Dent shared her handy trick for calming a toddler having a tantrum and promises it works every time.

The Australian parenting expert said every time your toddler or child is having a tantrum, the best thing to do is ask them a question.

The reason why this works is because it distracts them and gets them to 'focus on you rather than what is making them angry'.

A leading parenting expert shared her simple two-second trick for calming down an angry child, and she promises it will work every time (expert Maggie Dent pictured)

Good examples of questions include: 'Was that daddy's car?', 'Do you want a drink?' and 'Should we go and play outside?'

The parenting expert said questions like these often work to distract them from what they were worried about, and help them move on to something different and more exciting.

When the trick was shared on Facebook, it wasn't long before dozens of parents were quick to praise it.

'Yes, it's good to try and change the subject and train of thought to something more familiar!' one mum posted.

'This is great,' another added.

Australian parenting educator and author Maggie Dent said every time your toddler or child is having a tantrum, the best thing to do is ask them a question (stock image)

Parenting expert and educator Sharon Witt also told FEMAIL that while it can feel difficult to help a child through a tantrum, distraction can be a useful technique.

'Sometimes, when our children are in the midst of a tantrum, it can be very difficult for them to control their emotions, much less, regulate their thoughts,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'This is when parents can step in and give a simple, calm distraction that can provide a short circuit distraction - giving our young people the change to stop, and calm themselves.'

But not every parent was on board with the idea, with some saying this is akin to 'gaslighting' children.

'Let them feel an emotion and process it,' one mum said.

'Or you could acknowledge that anger and sadness are valid emotions and not something to be scared of,' another added.

Parenting expert and educator Sharon Witt (pictured) also told FEMAIL that while it can feel difficult to help a child through a tantrum, distraction can be a useful technique

According to Australian parenting website Raising Children, distraction is a 'simple strategy that's good for situations when behaviour might be a problem'.

'Pointing out something interesting, starting a simple game or pulling funny faces is a great way to distract them when they are getting cranky, have been sitting still for a long time or are having trouble taking turns or sharing with others,' the website reads.

Good distraction techniques include giving children something else to do, whether it's a new toy or game or a change of scenery in a different room.

You could also change the activity or start singing a song to help to distract them, Raising Children advises.

However, their experts added that there are a few situations where distraction won't work.

This is typically when your child has hurt someone or is too upset to be calmed down.
A man wearing a protective mask takes a nap next to a sculpture on Valentine's Day, following new COVID-19 cases in Shanghai, China, Feb. 14. Reuters-Yonhap



Grappling with a population crisis and plunging birth rate, China is embracing a pro-natalist policy that could see it lift highly restrictive and controversial policies on women donating and freezing their eggs. Grappling with a population crisis and plunging birth rate, China is embracing a pro-natalist policy that could see it lift highly restrictive and controversial policies on women donating and freezing their eggs.

Public support has also been growing online in recent weeks, after the National Health Commission (NHC), China's top health authority, said in December that it had "started revising rules and standards relevant to assisted reproductive technology, based on wide consultations with experts."



The statement flew under the public radar until suddenly gaining traction on social media last month.



Additionally, the NHC said it would push for the legislation of assisted reproductive technology, strictly prohibiting its misuse, while stepping up the crackdown and prosecution of illegal activities, as part of its efforts to adapt to people's reproductive needs and rights.



The shift came as recent data on China's birthrate raised red flags about the nation's population growth.



Official figures show that China's overall population reached 1.4126 billion last year, while the number of new births fell for a fifth consecutive year to 10.62 million  an 11.5 percent drop from 2020, which contributed to an overall population increase of just 480,000.



And like in other countries with rapid economic development, Chinese women are embracing motherhood at an increasingly later age. About one in seven women gave birth at the age of 35 or above in 2017, according to the most recent available NHC data.



Meanwhile, the national infertility rate appears to be worsening in the world's most populous country.



Last year, the results of a national reproductive health survey led by Qiao Jie, a reproductive doctor and biologist, showed that China's infertility rate rose from 12 percent in 2007 to 18 percent in 2020, meaning that one out of every 5.6 couples of childbearing age were facing difficulties having a baby.



An increasing number of married couples are also turning to in vitro fertilization, whereby an egg is fertilized by sperm in a test tube or elsewhere outside the body.



According to a report published by Dongxing Securities in 2020, industries related to assisted reproductive technologies have a potential market value of US$321 billion in China.



But despite the massive potential market, as well as the presence of technology to perform such procedures, access is largely limited in China. Only married women with specific medical conditions, such as infertility or a tumor, are permitted to freeze their eggs, and any form of surrogacy is illegal.



Teresa Xu Zaozao, a 33-year-old unmarried woman, was thwarted in her attempt to freeze her eggs, and the potential institutional changes cannot happen soon enough for her.



In 2019, Xu, a prolific writer on gender issues, sued the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital for refusing to freeze her eggs because she could not provide a marriage certificate as required by law.



This kicked off the first legal battle of its kind in China, involving a single woman fighting for her right to reproduce, but the case remains unresolved following a court hearing in September.



She recently told the Post that she filed the lawsuit to secure the right to decide whether she wants to give birth.



"I don't want to be profiled as someone who thinks she must get married and have kids in the future, and who is only making this decision because she couldn't find a man to have a baby with," she said.



"I want people to see that I am holding a key of my own, and the fact that I can obtain and have ownership of the key itself is important."





Residents walk past the iconic Beijing headquarters of China Central TV in Beijing, Feb. 9. AP-Yonhap
A loved-up couple has told of how a hastily scribbled note passed on a bus led to them falling in love and getting married.

Julia Haylock, then Buckland, 31, was in her 'own little bubble' while catching the bus on the way to work one afternoon in Sydney back in 2012 when Tom Haylock, 34, slipped her a note.

Tom, originally from the UK, was in Australia on a working holiday visa but decided to take the plunge with the girl who caught his eye.

Couple, Tom and Julia Haylock (pictured) have told of how they fell in love after Tom slipped Julia a hastily scribbled note when they were both on the same bus ten years ago

Tom had noticed Julia when they were waiting for the same bus and hastily scribbled a message on a business card he had in his bag

'She was the most beautiful girl in the world. I completely forgot where I was . I didn't care about anything; I just couldn't let her go,' he said.

Tom had noticed Julia when they were waiting for the same bus and hastily scribbled a message on a business card he had in his bag.

'I think you're beautiful! Call Me! Tom xx' the note read with his mobile number.

'The bus was about to close the doors to leave my stop so I quickly tapped her on the shoulder and felt like I threw the card at her so I could rush to get off the bus,' Tom said.

Tom and Julia on their first date at Sydney's Opera Bar where they hung out until the wee hours of the morning

'Once I was off, with my heart racing, I thought what a stupid move I made and there was no way on earth she was going to call me.'

But, luckily, Tom was wrong because Julia thought the note was 'really sweet' and was convinced to message him after some strong encouragement from friends and co-workers.

'I messaged him and it took him 45 minutes to reply! I learned later it was because he had been so excited to get my message that he passed his response around to all his mates and they helped make edits,' Julia said.

Tom proposed to Julia in Fiji and the married in June last year after cancelling twice due to Covid

'We messaged constantly over the next two days.'

The couple arranged to meet for drinks where they hung out until the wee hours of the morning.

'Tom came straight up to me in the bar and introduced himself with a handshake, which I thought was hilarious - apparently, it's a British thing,' Julia said.

'I immediately felt a connection, plus a bonus that he was cute. We just hit it off straight away!'

They became official after seeing each other every day for weeks then at the three month mark made the bold decision to move to Darwin together and the rest is history.

'We've been living together ever since, we've flipped two apartments together and now have our dream home, we have two cats and two chickens, we've gone through career changes, and we've travelled the world together,' Julia said.

Tom proposed to Julia in Fiji and the married in June last year after cancelling twice due to Covid.

They even have the business card Tom gave Julia that day on the bus framed in their house.

'I'm not sure what made me hang on to the card to be honest,' Julia said.

'I just thought it was so cute and when we really hit it off, it quickly became extra special. I'm so glad I held on to that card because it's such a big part of our story now!'
A man has been praised for supporting a woman throughout the birth of her son despite having only been on four dates.

Pregnant Alyssa Hodges, 20, from Brisbane, was due to go on her fourth date with Max Silvy, 25, when she want into labour in September last year.

She had been due to pick up civil servant Max from the airport when her water broke at eight months and she had to meet him in the hospital instead.

Alyssa's contractions lasted for a week, but when she gave birth to her son, Ollie, Max was still by her side.

The couple claim the unlikely circumstances of their relationship has 'bonded' them because Max was supporting Alyssa during the early weeks of motherhood when she had the 'baby blues' - and they now plan to move in together.

Alyssa Hodges, 20, from Brisbane, and Max Silvy, 25, were only on their fourth date when Alyssa went into labour. Despite being such early days in their relationship, Max stayed by Alyssa's side as she gave birth to her son, Ollie

The couple, pictured with Ollie, said that the unusually intense start to their relationship brought them closer together, and they're planning to move in together

Although their families were initially apprehensive about the relationship developing at such an intense pace, both sides have now given their blessings to the couple.

Alyssa said: 'I was about six and a half months pregnant when I went on Tinder, and I clearly stated that on my bio.

'I didn't want to lead anyone on, so I was being open and honest. I wanted them to know what they were getting into right off the bat.

'Max travels a lot for work so we'd only seen each other three times before he ended up coming to my birth.

'On the day I went into labour, I was meant to be picking Max up from the airport as he was coming back from a work trip.

'That was the plan, but I ended up texting him, saying: "I'm so sorry, you'll have to get a taxi. I'm going into labour".

'He hopped into a taxi when he got off the plane and came to the hospital and was there for me.'

Alyssa's labour then went on for a week, with Max staying by her side the entire time.

'My mum was also there supporting me. But she had a holiday, so she was here and there. Max was there for me through the whole labour and birth.

Max (pictured) got into a taxi from the airport to meet Alyssa at the hospital then stayed with her throughout labour and birth

Alyssa (pictured) said she and Max both knew they liked each other, but the birth was the peaking point of their relationship

What are the stages of labour? The latent phase is when the cervix becomes soft and thin as it gets ready to open up for the baby to be born. According to the NHS, it can take many hours, or even days for established labour to start. The cervix has to dilate to about 4cm and regular contractions open the cervix for the mother to be considered in established labour. It usually takes eight to 12 hours from the start of established labour to being fully dilated. The cervix needs to open about 10cm for the baby to pass through it. Healthline adds that prodromal labour can cause many expectant mothers to go to hospital thinking that their labour has begun. It can begin days, weeks or even a month before active labour begins and isn't an indication for induction. The painful contractions usually come and go in regular intervals. Unlike Braxton-Hicks, the contractions can't be eased by drinking water, eating or relaxing. The cervix can also slowly dilate or efface during prodromal labour. Advertisement

'The labour lasted on and off for about a week. I'd be sent home and come back into the hospital for a period of four to five days.

'I was contracting for those days and Max was with me the whole time. The birth itself was about seven hours.'

To help Alyssa find her feet, Max took time off work to be with her as she cared for her newborn.

Alyssa said: 'He took the week off afterwards when I had no-one to help me look after Ollie.

'We both knew that we liked each other and had strong feelings for each other. But the birth was the peaking point of our relationship, it bonded us.

'Looking back, I know it was the best decision ever. I'm so glad he was there.

'Motherhood is a big adjustment for anybody, especially with me being younger. But Max taking a week off from work really helped.

Alyssa said Max (pictured together) set her up to succeed in motherhood as he carried her throughout a week of baby blues

'I had the baby blues. I was really upset and didn't know what I was doing.

'I felt alone and Max carried me through that week. Every time I couldn't do something, Max picked me up. He's set me up to succeed in motherhood.

'Even though I knew I liked him at the time, anything could have happened. I'd just been in a relationship where I thought it would last, and it didn't.

'So I did think 'What if this doesn't work out?', but it has and it was the best decision. I don't regret it.'

Alyssa's pregnancy was not an issue to Max, although he admits that being there for the birth made him 'anxious'.

Max said: 'There was something that caught my eye about Alyssa. Normally I wouldn't swipe right on a pregnant girl, but there was just something about her.

'I wouldn't say the experience was overwhelming but I was anxious. I hadn't prepared mentally the way Alyssa had, so coming in late [like I did] was a rapid process.

Alyssa (pictured) said her mother was 'very hesitant' about Max joining her at the birth of Ollie and told her to think carefully

'Anxiety was the biggest thing. There were so many unknowns, so many things that I didn't know about becoming a dad.

'There's a lot of learning that comes with being a new dad, but me and Ollie are bonding quite well.'

Alyssa says her mum was initially unsure about the idea of Max being with her while she was giving birth and urged her to think carefully about it.

Alyssa said: 'My family were taken aback by our relationship. When I told my mum that Max was with me at the hospital, she was very hesitant about it.

'She was saying 'What if you guys break up?'. She didn't understand why anybody would want to be with someone who was pregnant and take such a big responsibility on.

'She told me I needed to think carefully about it. But at the same time, she was saying Max was a lovely guy and she hoped it'd work out for us.'

Alyssa said social media users have been curious to know where she met Max and have asked if he has a brother. Pictured: Alyssa and Max with Ollie

Since sharing their story on TikTok, Alyssa has been inundated with comments from women demanding to know how she found a man like Max.

Alyssa said: 'On TikTok, everybody is asking if Max has a brother, calling him 'man of the year' and saying we were the cutest little family. It was a great reaction.

'These days, there are a lot of unfortunate stories about men who take off when the woman becomes pregnant.

'Then here's someone who comes in whilst you're pregnant and is very actively involved in raising the child. It's unheard of. I'm very lucky.'

Since having Ollie, the couple have been raising him together with plans to move in together in the near future.

Alyssa said: 'I think [being there for the birth] helped Max's relationship with Ollie too, as he was able to see him come into the world.

'He already plays such an important role in Ollie's life, but it really helps that he was there.

TikTok users have shown their support for the couple, with one writing: 'hope you have many years together'

'We're in the process of moving in together and we're very excited. We only lived 20 minutes apart so we'd take turns being at each other's houses.

'Ollie loves Max so much. There'll be times where he won't want me, he'll want Max. He'll be crying and the minute Max takes him, he's happy and smiling. Max is definitely the favourite.'

Alyssa uploaded a video telling the story of her labour and received hundreds of comments praising Max.

One TikTok user wrote: 'Does Max have a brother by any chance?'

Another commenter said: 'That's a man! What a keeper!! I hope you have many years together.'

A third user commented: 'So so special. What an amazing man. Wish he was my dad.'
James Middleton offered a candid glimpse into his romantic Valentine's celebration with his new wife Alizee Thevenet last night.

The 34-year-old, who swapped the buzz of London for the countryside when he started a new life with his glamorous bride, shared a clip as he fed Alizee cheese fondue baked over a roaring fire.

The Duchess of Cambridge's brother posted a video of the intimate evening out in an Instagram post with a candid caption, writing: 'The way to a French girl's heart. Happy Valentines Day.'

In one snap he posted, Alizee could be seen wrapped up as she sat outside a rustic wooden building alongside three of the couple's dogs.

James Middleton, 34, offered a candid glimpse into his romantic Valentine's celebration with his new wife Alizee Thevenet last night

The Duchess of Cambridge's brother shared snaps from the intimate day in an Instagram post wishing his new wife a happy Valentine's day

The 34-year-old entrepreneur said the romantic cheese fondue evening was 'the way to a French girl's heart'

In a short clip James shared online, he could be seen dipping a piece of bread into a pot of boiling cheese fondue, before leaning over to feed the snack to his wife.

The pair appeared to be snuggled up next to a roaring fire for the occasion alongside several of their dogs.

It comes weeks after James admitted he was finding January a 'difficult' month.

Sharing a post on Instagram last month, he said his canines have helped him to stop thinking about the next moment and to live in the present.

Having got engaged in September 2019, James and Alizee tied the knot last autumn in Bormes-les-Mimosas in Provence after having to delay their ceremony twice due to Covid (pictured last month)

Kate Middleton's younger brother shared a clip from his romantic evening with Alizee as he fed her cheese fondue

Having racked up almost 10,000 likes, many of James's followers commented that they had needed the reminder.

Animal lover James looked in good spirits as he posed for a photograph with four of his nine dogs.

In another sweet snap, Alizee is seen looking adoringly at James with her hair tied back and subtle pink lipstick to accentuate her natural features.

James wrote candidly in the caption of the post, saying: 'My thoughts on January

It comes weeks after James confessed he was finding January a difficult month as he shared candid snaps of the couple enjoying a countryside walk together

'Ive always found January a very difficult month, especially when I was suffering with clinical depression. When everyone is setting new goals, laying down new ground rules and striving to become a better version of themselves, while some of us are just about surviving

'I have, however, set myself a new mantra which was inspired by my dogs Dont spend every moment thinking of the one to come, or ones in the past.

'The past is imperfect, the future will be too, but now  we can do something about that. So right now Im going to take the dogs for a long walk hand in hand with my Wife.'

Having got engaged in September 2019, James and Alizee tied the knot last autumn in Bormes-les-Mimosas in Provence after having to delay their ceremony twice due to Covid.

They were later joined by 50 guests including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children at the Chateau Leoube, an exclusive vineyard in the village.

James and Alizee appeared more in love than ever when they made their first public appearance after getting married at the switch on of Bulgari's Serpenti Christmas lights at its flagship boutique in November.

Alizee (pictured) looked in good spirits, as she coordinated with James in a winter jacket and a cap for the walk

The couple bought a 1.45million mansion for their first home together after deciding to leave London for life in the country.

They had previously been living together in the capital for two years.

Photographs of their four-bedroom Grade II listed period farmhouse in Bucklebury show low ceilings, dark rustic beams and leaded windows.

Entrepreneur James is the youngest child of Carole and Michael Middleton who also have two daughters, Pippa Matthews, 38, and the Duchess of Cambridge, 40.

He spent lockdown at his parents' Berkshire home, often giving a glimpse into their 4.7million Georgian manor house on social media.
A mother who ended her 29-year-relationship for a con man she met on social media has issued a warning to others after sending more than 80,000 to a fraudster who used pictures of Latvia's silver fox defence minister to reel her in.

Sharon Bulmer, 51, from Manchester, spent more than two years speaking to a fraudster posing as 'Murphy Townsend', a US soldier who needed money to leave Syria and visit her.

She began speaking to the scammer, who used suave photos of Latvia's Minister of Defence, Artis Pabriks, when he sent her a message on Facebook in May 2020, claiming to be 'lonely'.

After he told her a string of lies about needing money for flights and hospital bills, the mother-of-two handed over around 43,000 from her own savings over a two-and-a-half year period, and is now 37,000 in debt after taking out loans.

Sharon Bulmer, 51, (pictured) from Manchester, sent nearly 80,000 to an individual who contacted her on Facebook posing as 'Murphy Townsend'

The Latvian Defence Office said it has reported more 100 fake profiles using images of Artis Pabriks and has been 'facing this situation for a long time'.

Sharon explained how she was duped, saying: 'He asked me to help him and I did, but over the time it's got me into huge debt and because I have fallen for this person.

'I just wanted to help him so much. I know I have been a fool but these are the things we do for love.'

The person behind the account claimed to be a 56-year-old man from Washington DC, with a 17-year-old daughter called Helen.

'Murphy' told Sharon he was serving with the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team at Base 29 in Raqqa, Syria.

But, when Sharon enquired with the US authorities, she was told there was no 'Murphy Townsend' on their records at all.

'He always kept things close to his chest. He didn't like me asking questions,' she said.

Sharon had ended her relationship with her partner of 29 years in order to 'start a new life' with 'Murphy'.

The account contacting Sharon used photographs of Latvia's Minister of Defence Artis Pabriks (pictured) for the scam

She then handed over nearly 80,000 over a two-and-a-half year period for various hospital bills and plane tickets - and is now in 37,000 of debt.

Sharon, who is a team leader at a Covid site, sent 'Murphy' the cash in Bitcoin.

The con artist avoided having a video call with her by claiming that he wasn't allowed to at his base.

The mother-of-two is hoping that sharing her story will stop other people from being tricked the way she was.

Sharon said: 'I wanted to take my children on holiday, I was going to take them to New York last year, but because he was constantly hammering for money I couldn't.'

'I want to help anyone out there to not be taken by these idiots and just try and get on with my life.

'Murphy' first got in touch with Sharon in May 2020 by sending her two Facebook messages.

She said: 'He said he was lonely, he's serving in Syria, his wife had passed away and he just wanted someone to speak to.

'He said he'd been watching me on Facebook, I don't know what that means.'

Despite having two children together, Sharon (pictured) split up with her partner of 29 years in the hopes of starting a 'new life' with 'Murphy'

After exchanging a few messages, Sharon gave Murphy her email address and they continued the chat on Google Hangouts.

She said: 'Murphy was sweet when I first met him, nothing at all made me think anything different about him.

'He was very interesting when I kept talking to him.

'I felt loved in a way, I felt cared for. I think it's because he's an older person, he had an older head.'

At the time Sharon was in a relationship with a man who'd she'd lived with for 29 years, and they had two children together.

She split up with him in August 2020.

'I fell out of love, I wanted more and that's where Murphy came in. He promised me the world and god knows what else,' Sharon said.

Murphy asked if he could visit Sharon in Manchester after speaking online every day.

Once she accepted, he asked to send 1,400 via Bitcoin to pay for his flight.

'He said it was the safest way to do it,' she said.

But after not hearing from Murphy for a few days, she received a message from a different email address, but also with the name Murphy Townsend.

They asked for another 15,000 for the plane ticket and, believing it was Murphy, Sharon paid up.

Sharon sent the con artist money via Bitcoin, including 1,400 for an initial flight and a further 15,000 for a plane ticket. Pictured: Artis Pabriks, whose photos were stolen for the scam

At the end of the month, she received a message from someone claiming to be a doctor who said that Murphy had been taken into hospital.

She said: 'He said, "He's unconscious but he's OK, everything is going according to plan and we're keeping him in hospital".'

Sharon didn't ask which hospital he was in but, believing Murphy was injured, she didn't contact him until he messaged her at the start of October.

She said: 'He wanted to know where I'd been when I'd not been in contact with him. That's when I told him I'd been scammed by someone else using his email address.

'He couldn't believe it.'

Murphy claimed that he'd been shot in the side on the way to the airport, and that he was due to stay in hospital for another six weeks.

He also said he was unable to return to the army base because he'd lied and told them he was leaving to back to his family in the States, rather than his British lover.

Sharon then twigged that the messages she got from the second email address was a scam.

She said: 'I said, "Have you lost anything?", and he said, "I lost my computer when I went down".

'So that's when I knew that's where the scammer came in, they would have had a look at the computer I think.'

Sharon (pictured) said she denied her children a trip to New York because the requests for money kept coming

Murphy then asked Sharon for 5,000 to help with his medical bills, which she paid, before announcing that he wanted to leave the army for good and move in with her in Manchester.

'When he gets out he's going back home, sorting a few things out, bringing his daughter over here, and we're all setting up a new life,' she said.

In October 2020, he started asking for weekly payments, between 600 and 1,000 to cover the cost of administration fees, airlifting fees and to 'buy him out of his contract'.

She said: 'The transactions were long as my arm. I've literally fallen in love with this person, I hope to God he is Murphy.'

The requests for cash kept coming, with Murphy asking for 5,000 in February 2021 for a trip to the UK.

But in the end he claimed he lost his plane ticket, so would still not be able to see her.

In August last year, when she asked for pictures of him, he sent her a screenshot of photos from the Facebook profile of 'Mike Douglas'.

Sharon said: 'I asked him, 'why don't you send some information to me?', some pictures in your uniform and stuff like that.

Sharon noticed that the scammer created a Facebook account using the photos with a new name, however she continued transferring money. Pictured: Artis Pabriks, whose photos were used for the con

'He sent me some pictures but he sent them through Mike Douglas, so when I questioned him, he said because we can't use Facebook when we're on a mission.'

He also claimed that his original Facebook page had been hacked by the men who stole his computer, and that is why a different name of 'Mofsjol Dukhan' has appeared on a page using his photo.

'He deleted his Murphy Townsend off Facebook, but now somebody's created another one again but it's an Asian name,' she said.

In November last year he asked for 2,000 to see his daughter in Washington, and then a further 5,000 for the medical assessment he needed to board the plane that she paid for late last month.

Up until a final 900 transferred last week, Sharon has paid over 80,000 towards what she believes is getting Murphy out of Syria and to see her.

Despite never having a video call, Sharon never questioned his intentions, up until asking for proof of his medical assessment from a doctor.

Murphy sent her a copy of a letter from 'Dr Abdulrahman Alomair', a Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon.

He sent a letter from Al Mouwasat University Hospital that said he was part of a a 'pedestrian-vehicle traffic accident' in September 2020 that he is currently in intensive care.

The letter was dated 24th January 2022.

She said: 'He is supposed to be in hospital with a serious condition from his accident, but why all of a sudden is he in hospital but never complained about any pain in the year we have been together?

Sharon (pictured), who chose not to tell her family about the scam, said the con artist asked 'are you dumb' when she questioned his claims of being in the Army Reserve

'The letter is signed by a doctor who treats children with special bones. I don't get it.'

Suspecting she has been scammed, Sharon then approached the US Army to ask whether there was anyone named Murphy Townsend serving.

They responded saying 'there is not anyone by the name of 'Murphy Townsend' currently serving in the Army Reserve' or as a General Officer.

They also said that the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team that he claims to be part of is from the Ohio National Guard and not the Army Reserve.

There are no LT Generals in that team.

She said: 'I questioned him on that and he turned round and sent to me are you dumb.'

She hasn't told her family but Sharon is in thousands of pounds of debt after sending the money to Murphy.

She said: 'My ex does slightly know of him, but he doesn't know all the ins and outs.

'No one else know, I want to keep my family out of it.

'They are starting to be suspicious though.'

Sharon wants to share her story to prevent others becoming victims of romance fraud.

She said: 'I want to help anyone out there to not be taken by these idiots and just try and get on with my life.'

The Latvian Defence Office confirmed it was aware of the continuing issue of identity theft involving the Defence Minister Artis Pabriks.

A spokesperson said: 'Unfortunately, we have been facing this situation for a long time.

'We receive information about the various fake profiles that use the name and images of Mr. Pabriks on Facebook and Instagram both from the users of the social networks themselves, and our partners and colleagues in other countries.

'We frequently receive screenshots from people who have been contacted by fraudsters and, recognizing the official accounts of the Defense Minister, choose to report them.

'So far, we have collected and reported to Facebook more than 100 fake accounts, but the response has been negative.

'We feel that the security of everyday users both on Facebook and Instagram needs to be strengthened and supported in situations like these, and we encourage Facebook to pay more attention to these kinds of cases.'
A woman has revealed her terror after waking up to find a man in her bedroom in the early hours of the morning.

Keyara Connolly, 21, recalled the horrifying experience on social media after being woken by an intruder on Friday while staying in her student accommodation in Shandon, Cork.

The student, originally from Clonmel, South Tipperary, took to Twitter to relay her frightening experience in a post that gained over 13,000 likes.

Explaining that her front door had been unlocked, Keyara revealed that she had been sound asleep until waking up in horror in the early hours of the morning.

Cork Beo confirmed local Gardai are searching the area and investigating a burglary that occurred on Friday the 11th at around 4:30 am

Keyara Connolly was left terrified after being woken up by a man in her room, only to face backlash from men on Twitter, later

Taking to twitter, the nightmarish situation quickly gained over 13,000 likes from concerned social media users

Keyara's tweet read: 'Friday at 4 a.m. I was woken up (home alone) to a man standing at the end of my bed in the pitch dark.

'Luckily he left after me continuously screaming. Still, it was a very traumatic experience. Please remember to lock your doors girls. Especially in the Cork City area!

'Nothing was stolen, but he was lurking around before entering my room, which makes it nearly more terrifying'.

Following up, she also revealed she would no longer be staying in her student house following the scare.

Despite having warned other women of the dangers of having an unlocked door, the student quickly found her replies were full of trolls blaming her for the incident, or claiming she made it up entirely.

One man said: 'This is seriously f*****d up and shouldnt happen to anyone, but I have to ask who the f*** doesnt lock their doors at night?? Doesnt matter where you live thats just stupidity surely?!'

Another insinuated that Keyara was under the influence, saying:' Whatever you do, dont take drugs.'

While a third man chided: 'Imagine not locking your doors and you go to bed. How thick can ya be?'

Some men had a hard time believing the incident had happened at all while others suggested it was her fault for having an unlocked door

Some people, however, flocked to Keyara's defence and shared their disdain for anyone saying the attack was her fault.

One woman said: 'Hi, Keyara! I am sorry for the victim-blaming responses you are getting from sharing your terrifying experience.

'I love in Cork and I cant get you out of my mind. Please keep safe and reach out anytime you need'.

While a man added: 'Everyone in the replies more concerned she never locked her door than the fact a man broke into her house and stood at the end of her bed at 4am???? right'.

Some people were outraged that anyone could try to pin the blame on Keyara and condemned the men who suggested it was

And a second woman contributed: 'I was literally gonna post some cynical impersonation of a man telling this sleeping woman that she was somehow to blame but then...I needn't have bothered...'

Keyara, not happy with the responses she's received from unsupportive men, decided to respond herself.

She said: 'We all forget to lock doors. Does that mean this man was entitled to come in and put me in a position where I screamed so hard for my my literal life??

'I fully prepared for being assaulted and or killed in my mind all in the matter of minutes. I would never wish I this on anyone.

'And the gaurds were contacted immediately after. Theres an investigation but no arrests meaning he is still walking around hence the tweet saying lock your doors ESPECIALLY around Cork, not just in Cork.

'I was trying to help other girls not have to go through what I am right now.

'And men in particular saying I was dreaming or I was on drugs??? Are you that in denial that there are men out there with the intent to seriously harm women??

'Why do you take someone with such a sick minds side? Thats even more worrying do you think like this man?

'Also asking why didnt I get up and throw something at him/attack? My whole body went into shock. It was pitch dark. I am tiny.

'I had no objects surrounding my bed that could injure him. He was standing at the end of my bed .. centimetres away from my door. He was blocking me in.'
Meghan Markle may never come back to the UK as she 'simply doesn't care' what the British public think, a royal biographer has claimed.

The Duchess of Sussex , 40, who lives in a $14 million mansion in Montecito, California having stepped back from royal duty in 2020, has 'no intention' of returning to London because she views Britain as a 'lost cause', according to Tom Bower.

The commentator, who is currently working on a biography of Meghan, told the Sun: 'Meghan's ultimate destination is unclear, but she certainly has the backing to make a bid to star as an American politician.

'In parallel, Britain is a lost cause for the Sussexes. In truth, I suspect Meghan no longer cares whether she is welcome in London. She has no intention of returning.'

Meghan Markle may never come back to the UK as she 'simply doesn't care' what the British public think, a royal biographer has claimed. The couple are pictured at Global Citizen in New York in September

He added that while her popularity has fallen in the UK since getting married, her three day visit to New York in September was a 'remarkable success' and she clearly enjoys support among 'Democrats, minorities and the young.'

It's the latest revelation released from the tell-all book and comes after he said Meghan was branded 'that minx' by the Duchess of Cornwall, who thought she was 'a self-seeking troublemaker'.

The royal biographer suggested the Duke and Duchess' silence over the Queen's declaration that Camilla would one day by Queen Consort was 'Meghans way of declaring war.'

Prince Harry is believed to have 'reached out to his father' to have 'friendly video calls' ahead of the Queen's Jubilee and is likely to return for celebrations this summer.

The Duke was expected to come to the UK for the for the Duke of Edinburgh's memorial service in the spring and the Queen's Jubilee in the summer.

However, a recent row over the Metropolitan Police providing their security has called their return into doubt.

The Duchess of Sussex , 40, who lives in a $14 million mansion in Montecito, California having stepped back from royal duty in 2020, has 'no intention' of returning to London because she views Britain as a 'lost cause', according to Tom Bower. The couple are pictured in New York in September

In an announcement to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee last week, Her Majesty spoke of her 'sincere wish' that when the time comes, the Duchess of Cornwall will be known as Queen Consort, not Princess Consort, as announced on her marriage to the Prince of Wales.

William was said to be 'supportive' of the move and 'respectful' of the logic behind his grandmother's decision.

Meanwhile Prince Harry and Meghan have not offered any public word. When he did break his silence four days later from California, there was no mention of his stepmother, or the proposed change to her status.

Instead, he paid a lavish tribute to Diana, praising her work on Aids and HIV and explaining that he felt an 'obligation' to continue his late mother's efforts to remove the stigma surrounding the virus. Pointedly, he said: 'I could never fill her shoes.'

It's a sharp change from Harry's previous comments on the Duchess of Cornwall.

Prince Harry attended the superbowl with his cousin Princess Eugenie - but there was no sign of his wife Meghan Markle. Eugenie's husband, Jack Brooksbank, wasn't in attendance either

During an interview to mark his 21st birthday in September 2005, he said he and William 'loved her to bits'.

He went on: 'She's a wonderful woman and she's made our father very, very happy, which is the most important thing.'

Warming to his theme, he added: 'Look at the position she's come into. Don't always feel sorry for me and William, feel sorry for her. We are grateful for her . . . we're very happy to have her around.'

Should there have been any lingering doubts about the brothers' feelings for the duchess, who had married their father five months earlier, Harry emphasised: 'To be honest, she's always been very close to me and William. But no, she's not the wicked stepmother, I'll say that right now.'
Prince William and Prince Harry will 'thrash out' their differences as they reunite for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this summer, a royal expert has claimed.

The Duke of Cambridge, 39, and Duke of Sussex, 38, are said to have barely spoken and had an 'incredibly strained' relationship after two years of rows over Harry's wife and her alleged treatment of staff, the couple's decision to emigrate to America and the tonnes of 'truth bombs' the Sussexes have dropped in TV interviews watched by tens of millions of people around the world.

However Vanity Fair's Katie Nicholl has now revealed how the brothers will come together for the Queen's celebratory weekend in June.

Speaking to BirminghamMail, she said the two would be 'required' to appear alongside one another, adding: 'Both brothers will have to make concessions. The Jubilee should give them more of a chance to thrash it out.'

Prince William, 39, and Prince Harry, 38, will 'thrash out' their differences as they reunite for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this summer, Vanity Fair's Katie Nicholl has claimed

The relationship between the two has been strained in recent years but sources recently claimed Prince Harry hoped to be 'back in the fold' in time for the Jubilee.

He is expected to return to the UK for the Platinum Jubilee, which will see the country enjoy a four day bank holiday from June 2 to 5.

It is not known if Meghan Markle, 40, and their children Archie, two, and eight-month-old Lilibet, will be joining him.

The royal is said to have contacted his father for 'friendly chats' and hopes to visit the UK later this year.

The Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex said the two would be 'required' to appear alongside one another at the Queen's celebration and would 'make concessions' (pictured, in 2018)

An insider said: 'There has been a definite thaw in relations between Harry and Charles. They are on much better terms and have been having friendly chats and video calls.'

It has been suggested to Harry he may live to regret any lingering family bitterness, and he has taken that on board.

'There is a feeling he is coming back more into the fold and wants to be closer to his family,' the source told the Sun.

It comes as Harry's refusal to return without a substantial level of security from the Met Police is said to have put the reunion in doubt.

Prince Harry faced outrage over his threat of legal action against Her Majesty's Government.

He is seeking a judicial review of the decision to strip him of his UK police protection team, claiming it is too dangerous to visit without Scotland Yard bodyguards.

A former head of royal protection warned the royal 'cannot pick and choose' when he wants to visit the UK and receive protection.

Sources recently claimed Prince Harry hoped to be 'back in the fold' in time for the Jubilee, while it is unknown if the Duchess will join him

Dai Davies pointed out Princess Anne was nearly kidnapped and her protection officer was shot - but she does not get full time protection.

His comments came as sources suggested the Queen will not help her grandson in his demand for security personnel when he comes to Britain.

The insiders claimed the Monarch has no intentions of 'caving into his demands' for protection from the Met and Home Office.

A source told the Mirror last month: 'The Prince of Wales has been saddened that he hasn't had the opportunity to spend time with his grandchildren, which he really does miss.

'He is a fantastic grandfather and loves playing the role immensely and it's certainly fair to say he feels there is something missing from his life without the ability to get to know Harry's children.

'This is something he is hoping to remedy which is why he made the gesture for Harry, Meghan and the children to stay with him if they wanted to, whenever they may come home for a period of time.
French fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus has said he 'doesn't want any homophobic customers' after he was flooded with abuse for sharing a photo of him and his husband kissing.

The 32-year-old founder of Paris-based brand Jacquemus, beloved of celebs like Megan Fox and Kendall Jenner, posted a picture with his husband Marco Maestri to the brand's 4.2million followers to mark February 14th.

But the post was quickly flooded with homophobic comments with many posting sickness emojis and one troll writing: 'I used to want your bag, now...' followed by two vomit emojis.

Simon replied writing: 'My bag doesn't want you. I don't need your homophobic point of view... And my bags don't need you.'

French fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus has said he 'doesn't want any homophobic customers' after he was flooded with abuse for sharing a photo of him and his husband kissing.

Simon and Marco married in June 2021, after four years of dating. The 32-year-old founder of Paris-based brand Jacquemus, beloved of celebs like Megan Fox and Kendall Jenner, posted a picture with his husband Marco Maestri to the brand's 4.2million followers to mark February 14th

He later took to his Instagram stories and shared a screenshot showing dozens of users had left vomiting emojis on his post. 'I'm happy we having somehow this painful conversation. I grew up without gay couple figure and I know how is important to be one of the example for the young kids out there,' he wrote.

The post was quickly flooded with homophobic comments with many posting sickness emojis and one troll writing: 'I used to want your bag, now...' followed by two vomit emojis

He later took to his Instagram stories and shared a screenshot showing dozens of users had left vomiting emojis on his post.

'I'm happy we having somehow this painful conversation. I grew up without gay couple figure and I know how is important to be one of the example for the young kids out there,' he wrote.

'We will fight for them, to show that love always wins. I will keep posting pictures of love. Always. You are beautiful never forget that.'

He added: 'If you know how many gay [sic] are working at Jacquemus. We don't want you as an [sic] homophobic potential clients.

In a series of Instagram stories he wrote 'I'm gay' and 'stop putting the vomit emoji' under the post, urging people to 'read a book' instead

Simon replied writing: 'My bag doesn't want you. I don't need your homophobic point of view... And my bags don't need you.'

'You don't deserve our products. Period.'

The brand - which is loved by the likes of Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Beyonce - celebrated LGBT+ couples in their Spring Summer 2021 campaign.

Simon and Marco married in June 2021, after four years of dating.

He regularly posts pictures from their life on his social media page, which doubles as his personal page.

The post saw support from many of his celebrity pals, with Bella and Gigi Hadid both leaving heart emojis.

The brand - which is loved by the likes of Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Beyonce - celebrated LGBT+ couples in their Spring Summer 2021 campaign. Today he posted a series of pro LGBT+ messages

The brand often shared LGBTQ+ imagery and messages in its campaigns

The post saw support from many of his celebrity pals, with Bella and Gigi Hadid both leaving heart emojis.

The brand has a big celebrity following with the likes of Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner modelling for them.

The brand, which is well known for its micro handbags which cost between 260 (and 600 and in 2019 sent models down the runway with the minuscule accessories hanging from a single finger.

Jacquemus seems to enjoy bucking conventional sizes for his clothing items, taking Instagram by storm last summer with a gigantic straw hat.

The headgear, which featured a two-foot wide brim, was seen on everyone from Rihanna to Emily Ratajkowski.

The buzz around Jacquemus' huge hat began to build in early summer, and kicked into high gear when the Danish actress and model Emma Leth chose to wear the dramatic accessory to walk down the aisle.

Hoping to build on his new-found cult status, Jacquemus then sent models down the runway holding enormous beach bags at Paris Fashion Week in September.

And since he sent his beach bags big enough to fit an entire family in down the runway, Vogue has already declared them 'the latest must have for the jet-set'
Royal experts have insisted the Duke of York's reputation can't be rebuilt - despite settling the sexual abuse lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre after he agreed an undisclosed deal with his accuser without admitting her accusations.

Court documents filed in New York this morning revealed Prince Andrew and Mrs Giuffre, who was previously known as Virginia Roberts, have reached a 'settlement in principle' in the civil sex claim.

However, while this has 'lifted a shadow from the Queen's Platinum Jubilee' and will leave the Royal Family 'tremendously relieved', it will not mean a 'return to the fold' for Andrew, royal commentators claim.

Royal expert Robert Jobson told FEMAIL: 'The fact that there's been a settlement doesn't necessarily mean that [Andrew's] reputation is rebuilt.

Elsewhere, Editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward added: 'The best thing he can do is disappear for a year. He must keep a very low profile, which I am sure Prince Charles will insist upon.'

A senior palace source told MailOnline today that the compensation figure is believed to be around $10million (7.5million) - and the deal might only be a 'settlement in principle' at the moment because the sale of Andrew's Swiss chalet has not yet gone through.

The source said the settlement will then likely be made when the property sale is completed - adding that he would expect Andrew to be at the Westminster Abbey service to remember the late Prince Philip on March 29.

Mrs Giuffre sued the Duke last August, alleging he sexually abused her more than two decades ago when she was 17, a minor under US law, while the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking her.

Royal experts have insisted the Duke of York's (pictured) reputation can't be rebuilt- despite settling the sexual abuse lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre after he agreed an undisclosed deal with his accuser without admitting her accusations

While this has 'lifted a shadow from the Queen's (pictured) Platinum Jubilee' and will leave the Royal Family 'tremendously relieved', according to commentators, it will not mean a 'return to the fold' for Andrew

Court documents filed in New York this morning revealed Prince Andrew and Mrs Giuffre (pictured), who was previously known as Virginia Roberts, have reached a 'settlement in principle' in the civil sex claim

Although the parties have settled, the agreement is not an admission of guilt from Andrew and he has always strenuously denied the allegations against him.

Speaking to FEMAIL about the settlement, royal expert Robert Jobson said: 'I think it was inevitable. I think it's the only thing that could possibly allow [Andrew] to come out of this with some degree of dignity.

'It would have been hugely embarrassing no matter what happened and I think that for the sake of the monarchy as well as his owner personal reputation he had little choice but to settle.'

Full statement from both parties in Andrew's case Here is the full text of the statement regarding the out of court settlement reached between the Duke of York and Virginia Giuffre. The statement was included in a letter submitted to US judge Lewis A Kaplan: 'Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms Giuffre's receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed). Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights. 'Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. 'Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.' Advertisement

Last month Andrew was stripped of his honorary military titles and charitable roles after New York Judge Lewis Kaplan denied his plea to dismiss Mrs Giuffre's case.

When asked if the tentative settlement paves the way for Andrew's return to public duties, Mr Jobson said: 'I don't think in any way this leads the way back to public duty.

'I'm sure he'll be at the service of thanksgiving for his father, but I really do not see him coming back into a public role going forward.

'Number one, simply because I think the long term future of the monarchy doesn't involve lots of extended members of the family and in Prince Charles' reign I would have thought that they would be reduced anyway, naturally.

'But equally there's too much water under the bridge here in terms of his associations with Epstein, his association with Maxwell and his lack of judgement that has been called into question.

'The fact that there's been a settlement doesn't necessarily mean that his reputation is rebuilt.'

'Amongst the family, I'm sure that they would want this to go away,' he added. 'It's been hugely embarrassing at the very beginning. But this is a lot more than just embarrassment.

'This is very serious legal issues, and questions of his judgement have all been brought into play, so, no, I don't think there's any way back for him.

'I think really, what he needs to probably do is to just keep a low profile for a while, and then gradually - like John Profumo did in the 60s after the Profumo affair - in the background carry out charity work and private work, but I don't think there's a way back in terms of a public role as he had before.'

Elsewhere, Editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward told FEMAIL: 'I would doubt if the Duke of York will return to royal duties as much as he might like to.

'I think he will however be happy to be present at his father's memorial as an innocent man. He made no admission of guilt and no apology.

'The best thing he can do is disappear for a year. I would hate to see him popping up doing TV interviews and good works. He must keep a very low profile, which I am sure Prince Charles will insist upon.'

Meanwhile, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said the news would come as an 'enormous relief to the Royal Family.'

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts stand together with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background in London on March 13, 2001

Prince Andrew is pictured driving in Windsor on November 6 last year

Virginia Giuffre, who used to be known as Virginia Roberts, is pictured in Perth, Australia, last week on February 8

He added: 'The royal family will be tremendously relieved. It lifts a shadow from the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and that is very significant.

Andrew's civil case: What was alleged and what has been agreed? The Duke of York and Virginia Giuffre have reached an out-of-court settlement in the civil case filed in the US. Here is what was alleged against Andrew and what has happened up until this point: - Who is Virginia Giuffre? Virginia Giuffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, alleges she was trafficked by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell to be molested by financier Jeffrey Epstein and his friends. - What case did Andrew face? Mrs Giuffre brought a case of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the duke. It was claimed she was trafficked by convicted sex offender Epstein and others to Andrew, who is alleged to have sexually abused her when she was under the age of 18. - How many allegations did the duke face? Court documents have referenced three separate occasions in which Mrs Giuffre accuses him of sexual misconduct. - Where is the alleged sexual abuse said to have taken place? Mrs Giuffre claimed Andrew had sex with her against her will at Maxwell's London home. She also alleged the royal forced her to engage in sex acts against her will at Epstein's mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The duke is also alleged to have sexually abused Mrs Giuffre on another occasion during a visit to Epstein's private island, Little St James. - What reasons has Andrew previously given for the case against him to be dismissed? In January, the duke submitted 11 reasons why the case should be dismissed, including that Mrs Giuffre's claims are 'barred by the doctrine of consent' and by 'her own wrongful conduct'. - Will Andrew have to face a civil trial? Now the case has settled out of court, the duke will not have to face a trial. - What happens now a settlement has been reached? The parties have said they will file a 'stipulation of dismissal' within 30 days, meaning they will file a notice to discontinue the case now it has been settled. Before the stipulation is filed, the parties have asked for all deadlines and court action to be suspended. - What do we know about the details of the agreement reached between Andrew and Mrs Giuffre? The sum of the settlement has not been disclosed but the duke will make a 'substantial donation' to Mrs Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights. He has also pledged to 'demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein' by supporting the 'fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.' - Will the substantial charity donation be made from Andrew's own private money? Representatives of the duke declined to comment on the source of funds for the donation. - What have both sides said about the settlement?Andrew's representatives said they would not be commenting further than what was said in the court documents. David Boies, the lawyer acting on behalf of Mrs Giuffre, said: 'I believe this event speaks for itself.' Advertisement

'It was always not going to go to trial He was going to be cross examined by the legal teams, which putting it mildly is something he would not have looked forward to and found very difficult.

'I see the next step for Prince Andrew - if he wants to have a public role of some sort at any time, I don't see it but he probably does - the next step is to speak with the FBI.'

Nigel Cawthorne, author of Prince Andrew: Epstein, Maxwell and the Palace, insisted a comeback for the prince remains impossible.

There are still legal clouds gathering over his head, said the royal expert. There is a US warrant for him as a material witness and he cannot visit the US without facing arrest.

'There is also his role in the perjury trial slated for June against Maxwell.

But most of all he continued his friendship with two underage-sex traffickers even after allegations were made against these friends.

It is impossible to see how he can ever return to public duty without those serious errors of judgement following him for the rest of his public life.

Crisis communications expert Andy Barr, meanwhile, said: 'I think we can safely say that Prince Andrew is forever destined for a life in the background.

'His image is in tatters and, unless there is a seismic turn of events, there is no way back into the public eye for him.'

Prince Andrew said in his statement today that he 'regrets his association with Epstein' and pledged to demonstrate this 'by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims'.

An attachment to the letter announcing the settlement to the public and the United States District Court gave brief details of the agreement between Andrew and Mrs Giuffre but indicated the sum would not be disclosed.

Attorney David Boies, who represents Mrs Giuffre, said in a filing that lawyers on both sides were telling the judge that a settlement in principle has been reached and they will request a dismissal of the lawsuit within a month.

The settlement means the civil case will not go to a jury trial, and also that Andrew will no longer be questioned under oath by Mrs Giuffre's lawyers - something that had been expected to take place in the coming weeks.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the development today, which comes ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this summer in May and June as well as a Westminster Abbey service to remember the late Prince Philip next month.

Royal sources told ITV News that the case was a matter for the Duke and his legal team.

But the news will no doubt have come as a relief to the Queen and other royal officials - and will also spare Andrew from a potentially embarrassing series of disclosures and accusations in the months ahead of and during a trial.

Royal author Penny Junor said the settlement is likely to come as a 'huge relief' to the rest of the Royal Family because a trial 'could have been very, very nasty' and 'humiliating'.

She added: 'It could have really taken the shine off the Queen's Platinum Jubilee year.'

Ms Junor also said there had been a 'complete change of tone' on Andrew's words on his links to Epstein, adding: 'At last, he's expressing some regret and some empathy for those girls.'

Ms Junor said the Duke's notorious BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 had been 'all about him' but that Andrew has 'got it right now'.

Ms Junor added: 'He's got it right now, it took him a long time to get there but I think he's got it right.' Asked if there is a way back to public royal life for Andrew, Ms Junor said: 'I think it's very, very unlikely.'

Lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents eight Epstein victims, said the news was a 'victory' for Mrs Giuffre, tweeting on behalf of the eight: 'We hail Virginia's victory today. She has accomplished what no one else could: getting Prince Andrew to stop his nonsense and side with sexual abuse victims. We salute Virginia's stunning courage.'

And Sigrid McCawley, one of Ms Giuffre's lawyers, said: 'As a managing partner at a firm that has from its beginning acted upon the belief that the law should be marshalled to bring justice to the most vulnerable, I can say, without hesitation, that our representation of survivors upholds that tradition. I am very pleased with the resolution of Virginia Giuffre's litigation against Prince Andrew.'

A joint statement issued today by Virginia Giuffre's lawyer, David Boies, and Prince Andrew's lawyer, Andrew Brettler

A letter addressed to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, who has been overseeing the case, from David Boies, Virginia Giuffre's lawyer

How Duke of York went from Falklands hero to being stripped of his honorary military titles Prince Andrew had been due to face a jury trial in the US following accusations of sexual assault by Virginia Giuffre, until their lawyers reached an agreement 'in principle' on Tuesday. But how did the claim come about, and what has Andrew been known for in the past? During his life, the 'Playboy Prince' earned high regard for his bravery during the Falklands War and served as a trade envoy, but he is best known as the man whose reputation was left in tatters amid the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal. As a young man, he was one of the world's most eligible bachelors and earned himself the nickname 'Randy Andy' after being linked to a string of beautiful women. But later in life his connections with controversial foreign figures raised concerns and he was dubbed 'Air Miles Andy' after being criticised for his globe-trotting, especially helicopter trips to pursue his passion for golf. At 22, Andrew saw active service in the Royal Navy as a Sea King helicopter pilot in the Falklands War. His service included flying his aircraft as a decoy target, trying to divert deadly Exocet missiles away from British ships. He later married and divorced the bubbly, flame-haired Sarah 'Fergie' Ferguson. When a bachelor for a second time, Andrew again made headlines, having been spotted cavorting with topless women on holiday in Thailand, and attending a 'hookers and pimps' party with Robert Maxwell's daughter, Ghislaine Maxwell, in the US. After serving for 22 years in the Royal Navy, the duke became the UK's special representative for international trade and investment, but his 10 years in the role generated a great deal of controversy. As a roving ambassador, one of his first tasks was a post-September 11 trip to New York, but he was criticised for attending a party during his stay. Andrew has faced questions over his connections to politicians in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Libya and Turkmenistan. His judgment was questioned after he held meetings with Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif, and when he entertained the son-in-law of Tunisia's ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at Buckingham Palace. His relations with Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of the then-president of Kazakhstan, were also scrutinised after Mr Kulibayev purchased the duke's Sunninghill Park home for 3 million more than its 12 million asking price in 2007. Simon Wilson, Britain's deputy head of mission in Bahrain from 2001 to 2005, wrote in the Daily Mail that the duke was 'more commonly known among the British diplomatic community in the Gulf as HBH: His Buffoon Highness'. In 2011, it emerged that Andrew was friends with American financier Epstein, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Photos surfaced of him with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, who claimed that Epstein employed her as a masseuse but exploited her while a teenage minor. The duke was also pictured walking in New York's Central Park with Epstein in December 2010, a year after Epstein's release from prison, and this led him to quit his role as a trade envoy. In 2013, Andrew was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, but Britain's pre-eminent scientific institution faced unprecedented dissent from members over the move, with one professor describing the duke as an 'unsavoury character'. Tech-savvy Andrew, who was the first member of the royal family to have an official Twitter account under his own name, focused on his Pitch@Palace work, bringing together industry experts with young entrepreneurs and technology start-ups. Then in 2015, while enjoying a New Year skiing holiday with his family, he was named in US court documents as having had sex a number of times with a teenage girl, a minor under US law. The woman alleged she was 'procured' for the duke by Epstein, whom she accused of using her as a 'sex slave'. She was identified in reports as Giuffre, the US teenager with whom Andrew had been pictured. The duke vehemently denied the allegation. In April 2015, a US federal judge ordered the claims to be struck from civil court records as the long-running lawsuit against Epstein continued. But Andrew's association with Epstein hit the headlines once again in 2019, amid ongoing investigations into the American, who killed himself in prison in August that year while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. The duke's appearance on the BBC's Newsnight programme later in November was intended to draw a line under the matter. But it was dubbed a 'car crash', with commentators questioning his responses and condemning his unsympathetic tone and lack of remorse over his friendship with the sex offender Epstein. During the interview, Andrew denied that he slept with Mrs Giuffre, saying one encounter in 2001 did not happen as he had spent the day with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party. The same alleged sexual liaison, which the American said began with the royal sweating heavily as they danced at London nightclub Tramp, was later branded factually wrong as the duke said he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat. And he twice stated that his relationship with sex offender Epstein had provided 'seriously beneficial outcomes', giving him the opportunity to meet people and prepare for his future role as a trade envoy. In January, Andrew's lawyers attempted to throw out the civil sex case brought by Mrs Giuffre, but a judge rejected this and ruled the case could go to trial. The Queen stripped Andrew of his honorary military roles in response, and he gave up his HRH style, before demanding a jury trial. But on February 15, their lawyers reached an out-of-court settlement in what appears to be a conclusion to the case. Court documents show the duke will make a 'substantial donation to Mrs Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights'. Advertisement

While the size of the settlement is not yet known, reports suggested last month Andrew could avoid a trial by using the sale of his 18million Swiss chalet to try to pay off Mrs Giuffre with at least 10million of the proceeds.

A senior palace source told MailOnline today that the compensation figure is believed to be slightly lower at around $10million (7.5million) - and the deal might only be a 'settlement in principle' at the moment because the sale of his Swiss chalet has not yet gone through.

The source said the settlement will then likely be made when the property sale is completed - adding that he would expect Andrew to be at the service for Philip on March 29.

On being pressured by Buckingham Palace, the source added: 'I'm sure that Charles has had enough and blown a gasket.

'Charles would have said to him that he needed to get this sorted out as soon as possible and before the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations begin. Charles did not want this hanging over the Royal Family this year.'

Emily Baker, former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, told MailOnline the settlement would be 'at least' seven-figures and 'sizeable'.

Meanwhile, London-based criminal lawyer Anna Rothwell said it was 'not surprising' Andrew had settled because the BBC interview had provided such a 'wealth of material to use in cross examination'.

The Queen's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter told MailOnline today: 'Where's the money coming from? Your guess is as good as mine. 'From the ''Bank of Mummy''? Pure speculation. It's not just the settlement but the legal fees as well.'

And MailOnline columnist Dan Wootton said: 'Hard to see how Prince Andrew will ever clear his name in the court of public opinion now he's settled - and presumably paid huge money - to Virginia Giuffre. He said he'd cooperate with the FBI. He didn't. He said he'd fight Virginia in court. He didn't. What's he hiding?'

Meanwhile royal author Angela Levin told GB News: 'I think it sounds remarkably humble, which is not something we expect from Prince Andrew. Now, why that is, I'm not sure.

'I wonder if the Queen, now she's well, gave him a b******ing and said 'you're not going to spoil my Platinum Jubilee.

'I'm the only person who's ever reached this and you just got to sort it out'. She's the only one I think who should really give him a telling off. She's very matronly with him and perhaps he decided that.

'But it is a great relief I think because it would have rumbled on and that would have taken the headlines all the time and goodness knows what could have come out the other end.'

Another expert, Joe Little of Majesty magazine, said: 'I just don't think he's ever likely to resume work as a working member of the royal family.

'I think that too much water has gone under the bridge for that and the institution of monarchy has been tainted by his association with Epstein and I just think that there's no going back on all that.'

Of the likely reaction of the rest of the Royal Family, Mr Little said: 'I'm sure that they're glad this (settlement agreement) has happened, but does it exonerate the prince who really has not been charged with anything criminal?

'He will, I think, forever be tainted by this scandal, for want of a better way of describing it.'

It follows reports overnight that Mrs Giuffre claims to have lost the original print of the famous photograph of her and Andrew taken in London in 2001, which could further the Duke's argument that the image was doctored.

The Metropolitan Police dropped their investigation into Andrew last October, saying they would take 'no further action' - but the latest development raises questions over whether he could still be quizzed in the future.

A document submitted to the court in New York today said: 'Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms Giuffre's receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).

'Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.

'It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.

'He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.'

A source close to Andrew told MailOnline that there would be no statement issued further to what was in the court document.

A second document, which was a letter addressed to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, who has been overseeing the case, said: 'We write jointly with counsel for defendant to advise the court that the parties reached a settlement in principle of the above-referenced action.'

It goes on to say the parties involved plan to file a 'stipulation of dismissal of the case' within 30 days. The letter, signed by Mr Boies, concludes: 'We appreciate the time and effort the court has devoted to this matter.'

The Queen stripped her second son of his prestigious honorary military titles and royal patronages in January, and he stopped using his HRH style, in a move that effectively cast him adrift from the institution.

It is understood that the statement released by the Palace on January 13, outlining the changes, still stands, with the Duke continuing not to undertake any public duties.

Mrs Giuffre, who is now 38, alleges that Andrew sexually assaulted her at the London home of socialite and Epstein's close friend Ghislaine Maxwell after a night out dancing in March 2001.

She sued the Prince last year for unspecified damages, alleging that she was trafficked to him by Epstein and Maxwell.

Last December, Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, exposing a murky world of sex trafficking among the rich and powerful.

As well as the London allegations, Mrs Giuffre also said Andrew assaulted her at Epstein's home in New York, and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands.

Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, withdrew from public life as a royal in 2019 after a widely ridiculed BBC interview where he sought to vindicate himself of the accusations.

Epstein killed himself aged 66 in a New York prison cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Zimmermann found inspiration in the stars for their fall 22 collection.

'Theres always been something so fun and intriguing to me about pop astrology and the idea that our personalities are influenced by our birth signs,' said Creative Director Nicky Zimmermann.

'We picked up the symbols and icons of the zodiac in our detailing and finishes and theres a conscious clash of fabric textures in each look. Its a collection thats high on finer details. Maybe thats a bit of the Virgo in me coming through!'

Zimmermann found inspiration in the stars for their fall 22 collection

'Theres always been something so fun and intriguing to me about pop astrology and the idea that our personalities are influenced by our birth signs,' said Creative Director Nicky Zimmermann

'We picked up the symbols and icons of the zodiac in our detailing and finishes and theres a conscious clash of fabric textures in each look'

It's not the first time astrology has served as inspiration for a collection but Zimmermann found a way to make a celestial sartorial statement in only a way the label could: sophisticated, feminine and cool.

The luxury Australian brand worked with Scottish artist Anita Inverarity on twelve key prints that represent each sign of the zodiac, Anita's stunning prints were then incorporated across the collection.

'We wanted it all to feel really eclectic with a sense of fun,' shared Nicky.

Playful proportions added to the drama of it all. Think double-flare pants, tiered crinoline ruffles in georgette, puff shoulders, floor-skimming dresses and oversize coats.

From zodiac motifs to crystal buttons and orbital jewelry, no galactic detail is spared!

Stargazer conjures a visually rich world of textures, prints and mythical motifs inspired by celestial folklore for Fall 2022

Silhouettes are nipped at the waist with strategic volume and bespoke craft trims and embroideries

The luxury Australian label worked with Scottish artist Anita Inverarity on twelve key prints that represent each sign of the zodiac

Stargazer conjures a visually rich world of textures, prints and mythical motifs inspired by celestial folklore for fall 2022

The highly intricate illustrations created by Anita Inverarity re-imagine the Zimmermann girl in imaginary scenes reflective of each star sign

Stylist Romy Frydman beautifully styled each look with clashing prints and statement outerwear.

It's not the first time astrology has served as inspiration for a collection but Nicky Zimmermann found a way to make a celestial sartorial statement in only a way she could
Afghan women hold signs as they march during a women's rights protest in central Kabul, Oct. 21, 2021. Reuters-Yonhap





One after the other, quickly, carefully, keeping their heads down, a group of Afghan women step into a small Kabul apartment block  risking their lives as a nascent resistance against the Taliban.







They come together to plan their next stand against the hardline Islamist regime, which took back power in Afghanistan in August and stripped them of their dreams.







At first, there were no more than 15 activists in this group, mostly women in their 20s who already knew each other.







Now there is a network of dozens of women  once students, teachers or NGO workers, as well as housewives  that have worked in secret to organize protests over the past six months.







"I asked myself why not join them instead of staying at home, depressed, thinking of all that we lost," a 20-year-old protester, who asked not to be named, tells AFP.







They know such a challenge to the new authorities may cost them everything.







Four of their colleagues were recently seized for weeks, until the U.N. confirmed their release Sunday.







When the Taliban first ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, they became notorious for human rights abuses, with women mostly confined to their homes.







Now back in government and despite promising a softer rule, they are cracking down on women's freedoms once again.







There is enforced segregation in most workplaces, leading many employers to fire female staff, and women are barred from key public sector jobs.







Many girls' secondary schools have closed, and university curriculums are being revised to reflect their hardline interpretation of Islam.







Haunted by memories of the last Taliban regime, some Afghan women are too frightened to venture out or are pressured by their families to remain at home.







For mother-of four Shala, who asked AFP to only use her first name, a return to such female confinement is her biggest fear.







A former government employee, her job has already been taken from her, so now she helps organize the resistance and sometimes sneaks out at night to paint graffiti slogans such as "Long Live Equality" across the walls of the nation's capital.







"I just want to be an example for young women, to show them that I will not give up the fight," she explains.







The Taliban could harm her family, but Shala says her husband supports what she is doing and her children are learning from her defiance  at home they practice chants demanding education.







Afghan women and activists hold a banner during a protest in Kabul, Jan. 12. The protesters demanded food, jobs and education for girls. EPA-Yonhap









AFP journalists attended two of the group's gatherings in January.







Despite the risk of being arrested and taken by the Taliban, or shunned by their families and society more than 40 women came to one event.







At another meeting, a few women were fervently preparing for their next protest.







One activist designed a banner demanding justice, a cellphone in one hand and her pen in the other.







"These are our only weapons," she says.







A 24-year-old, who asked not to be named, helped brainstorm ideas for attracting the world's attention.







"It's dangerous but we have no other way. We have to accept that our path is fraught with challenges," she insists.







Like others, she stood up to her conservative family, including an uncle who threw away her books to keep her from learning.







"I don't want to let fear control me and prevent me from speaking and telling the truth," she insists.







Allowing people to join their ranks is a meticulous process.







Hoda Khamosh, a published poet and former NGO worker who organized workshops to help empower women, is tasked with ensuring newcomers can be trusted.







One test she sets is to ask them to prepare banners or slogans at short notice  she can sense passion for the cause from women who deliver quickly.







Other tests yield even clearer results.







Hoda recounts the time they gave a potential activist a fake date and time for a demonstration.







The Taliban turned up ahead of the supposed protest, and all contact was cut with the woman suspected of tipping off officials.







A core group of the activists use a dedicated phone number to coordinate on the day of a protest. That number is later disconnected to ensure it is not being tracked.







"We usually carry an extra scarf or an extra dress. When the demonstration is over, we change our clothes so we cannot be recognized," Hoda explains.







She has changed her phone number several times and her husband has received threats.







"We could still be harmed, it's exhausting. But all we can do is persevere," she adds.






Bode and Morgan Miller have revealed that they still haven't agreed on a name for their nearly three-month-old daughter, but the former Olympic skier is dead set on calling her Olivia.

Morgan, 34, was hosting a Valentine's Day Q&A session on her Instagram Stories on Monday when a follower asked if they had settled on a moniker for their baby girl, who was born on November 26.

'Have we named the baby?' the former pro volleyball player asked Bode, 44, while he was sitting on the couch with their daughter.

'Yes,' he replied, seemingly catching Morgan by surprise.

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Bode and Morgan Miller have revealed they still haven't agreed on a name for their nearly three-month-old daughter, who was born on November 26

Morgan, 34, was hosting a Valentine's Day Q&A session on her Instagram Stories on Monday when a follower asked if they had settled on a name for their baby girl

'We have? What's her name?' she asked her husband, who didn't hesitate when he said: 'Olivia.'

Bode has been pushing for the name since they learned they were having a baby girl, but Morgan has yet to get on board with his pick.

'No, I'm not letting you say that because we don't know that,' Morgan responded. 'How do you know that?'

''Cause I just named her,' Bode explained.

The couple may not be ready to announce their daughter's name just yet, but they have plenty of nicknames for their family's newest addition.

Bode seemingly caught his wife by surprise when he announced that the baby's name is Olivia

'No, I'm not letting you say that because we don't know that,' Morgan told Bode after he shared his name choice

Earlier this month, Morgan shared on her Instagram Stories that she and Bode have been 'calling her "Nona" for no name,' adding that 'it's kind of sticking.'

After she was born, they also took to calling her Ocho  which is Spanish for 'eight'  because she is the eighth child in their family.

In January, Bode and Morgan made their first Today show appearance with their newborn baby girl, explaining that they were struggling to choose her name.

'Its hard because her personality is different, and I think were all trying to get used to it,' Bode told co-anchor Savannah Guthrie while joining the show via live video feed from their home in Montana.

'Shes stumped us on names so far. We have a lot that we like, but she hasnt smiled or high-fived or anything when we say them to her, and we say them to her all the time.'

The couple (pictured on the Today show in 2019) nicknamed their daughter Ocho, which is Spanish for 'eight,' because she is the eighth child in their family

Earlier this month, Morgan shared on her Instagram Stories that she and Bode have also been 'calling her "Nona" for no name,' adding that 'it's kind of sticking'

Bode has been pushing for the name Olivia since they learned they were having a baby girl, but Morgan has yet to get on board with his pick

Morgan previously shared that they were toying with the idea of incorporating a part of their late daughter Emmy's name  Emeline Grier Miller  into their newborn daughter's moniker.

'Our three front-runners are Skyler, Scarlett, and calling her Lettie, or Olivia, and calling her Liv,' she said while cradling their newborn.

'All kind of have a special meaning to it. So we may have to reach out to our social media followers and ask for some assistance because she has not really been giving us many answers.'

Bode, who is running a ski academy in Colorado, explained that Olivia was his personal favorite, but he was concerned it's too popular.

'Im a huge fan of Liv, Olivia,' he said. 'Its a little bit frustrating that its one of the most popular names this year because most of the names of our children arent terribly popular, but were not going to let that stand in the way, obviously.'

In January, Bode and Morgan made their first Today show appearance with their newborn baby girl, explaining that they were struggling to choose her name

Bode explained that they are having a hard time picking out a name 'because her personality is so different' and they are still getting used to it

Bode and Morgan are parents to sons Nash, Easton, and twins Asher and Aksel (pictured) and late daughter Emmy. He also has two older children from a previous relationship

The couple's daughter Emmy was 19 months old when she died in the hospital after drowning in a neighbor's swimming pool in June 2018

In addition to their newborn, they are parents to sons Nash, six, Easton, three, and twins Asher and Aksel, two, and late daughter Emmy.

Morgan shared in June that she wanted to honor her Emmy by incorporating her name into her new baby's moniker

Emmy was 19 months old when she drowned in a neighbor's swimming pool in June 2018. She was rescued from the water, but paramedics were unable to revive her, and she later died in hospital.

Since her death, the parents have dedicated themselves to raising awareness of infant drownings and advocating for all moms and dads to get their own children into swimming classes as early as possible.

Bode also has a daughter Dace, 13, and son Nate, eight, from a previous relationship.

The proud dad shared that his newborn baby girl is 'so similar' to her big sister Emmy but is also 'really unique as well.' He added that 'she just fits right in' with her big brothers.

'Emmy was such a great balance because she was such a powerhouse and then when she passed, it was shocking because you really felt this energetic shift in the house,' he recalled.

After their Today show appearance, Morgan took to Instagram Stories to share their name choices with her 165,000 followers and ask them to vote for one

Bode and Morgan are considering having Grier be their daughter's second middle name in honor of her late sister, whose full name was Emeline Grier Miller

The four possible combinations are Scarlet Olivia Khione, Skyler Olivia Khione, Scarlet Olivia Grier, or Skylar Olivia Grier

'Obviously, we were all suffering and everything, too, but there was this gap there for all the boys. And now they have this little girl. It just makes them gentle. You'd be blown away.'

After their Today show appearance, Morgan took to her Instagram Stories to share their name choices with her 165,000 followers and ask them to vote on their baby girl's first and middle names.

As she had explained earlier that morning, they liked either Scarlet or Skylar for a first name, and they were also considering calling her 'Liv' if she went by her middle name, which would be Olivia.

For her second middle name, they were between Khione, the Greek goddess of snow, or Grier, her late sister's middle name.

The four possible combinations were Scarlet Olivia Khione, Skyler Olivia Khione, Scarlet Olivia Grier, or Skylar Olivia Grier.

'She's perfect and bringing her into this world was a perfect way to close this chapter of growing our family,' they told People when they announced their newborn's birth in December

Bode and Morgan (pictured pregnant) have both insisted that this child would be their last, and they were overcome with emotion when they learned they were expecting a baby girl

They broke down in tears of joy when they popped pink confetti cannons with their friends and family during a celebratory gender reveal party

Bode and Morgan have both insisted that this child would be their last, and they were overcome with emotion when they learned last May they were expecting a baby girl.

They threw the fiesta-themed gender reveal at their California home days after announcing to the world that they were expecting another child following the birth of their twins in 2019.

They broke down in tears of joy when they popped pink confetti cannons with their friends and family during a celebratory gender reveal party.

'She's perfect and bringing her into this world was a perfect way to close this chapter of growing our family. Our hearts are so full,' they told People when they announced their daughter's birth in December.

'Bode told me the day after she was born that this is the happiest he thinks he's ever been in his whole life,' Morgan added.
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California's top health official says he 'anticipates' being able to drop the state's controversial school mask policy in as close as two weeks.

The move would make the Golden State join a growing list of blue states breaking ranks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC ) and Biden administration on masks - both of which are still yet to budge despite plummeting daily Covid infections nationwide.

'Masking requirements were never put in place to be there forever ... it's not a question of if. It's a question of when,' Dr Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Department of Health and Human Services.

Reports indicate that a decision could come soon. Many California schools districts have a week-long February break either this week - from the 14th to the 18th - or next from the 21st to 25th. It is a possibility that upon return from next week's break that mask mandates are lifted.

Covid cases in California have dropped 65 percent over the past few weeks, a steep drop that has been experienced by much of the nation over the past month.

Nationwide, cases are down 43 percent over the past week, and the 150,714 average daily infections are a far fall from the 800,000 per day reached at the Omicron surge's peak in mid-January.

Californian health officials indicated Monday that they are considering lifting the school mask mandate in the state. In doing so, the state would join a growing list of blue states to make the move. Pictured: Young children wear masks outside a school in New York City, New York, on December 21

Covid cases have plummeted in California over the past two weeks, down 65% over the past two weeks

Ghaly also notes that hospitalizations - which is generally an unreliable stat during Omicron - and the state's test positivity rate have cratered as well. Vaccine uptake is also trending upwards. These are all the ingredients of the end of a Covid surge.

California has already lifted its indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated residents, with the order being lifted Tuesday.

The Golden state was a part of a wave of blue states last week to lift or relax mandates in what was a partially-concentrated effort by the governors to move beyond the pandemic.

Masks in schools have become one of the most controversial remaining Covid policies in America, with parents and teachers largely divided on the issue.

Critics of the mandates fear that forcing children to wear masks in schools will hurt their ability to take part in key socialization at a young age.

Children also do not face much of a risk from the virus when compared to adults, and the CDC reports that less than 0.1 percent of U.S. Covid deaths were among children.

Growing indicators that children face little risk from the virus, combined with plummeting cases, has increased pressure on health officials nationwide to ditch masks.

Dr Scott Gottlieb, former director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and current board member at Pfizer, said last week that Americans are 'frayed' after nearly two years of Covid, and it is time to let them relax as the pandemic is showing signs of ending.

'I don't think it's imprudent that governors lean forward, anticipating that conditions are going to continue to improve, recognizing that people are frayed,' he told CNBC's Squawk Box last week.

'We have a narrow window of opportunity to restore some sense of normalcy to the schools.'

Even some Obama-era officials are beginning to chime in to support the lifting of these mandates.

Dr Kavita Patel, an MSNBC contributor who works as a primary care physician and director of policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement in the Obama administration told Squawk Box last week that the mandates should go, and parents should be able to choose for themselves whether they want to send their children to school every day with a face covering.

'If you told me there's a future where we're wearing masks in perpetuity I'd say that's ridiculous, the science doesn't support that if we see that cases are coming down,' Patel said.

Some states are starting to listen to those calls from parents and the larger community as well. Connecticut and Massachusetts both set plans in place to lift its school mask mandate on February 28 last week.

Nearby Delaware did the same last week. Ned Lamont, governor of Connecticut, told Squawk Box last week that the decision by the northeastern states was made in tandem.

Other states like Illinois, New Jersey and New York relaxed mask orders last week as well though did not remove face coverings from schools.

Covid cases are dropping in all 50 U.S. states over the past two weeks, and have slashed in half during the period in 46 of them.

Oklahoma in Nebraska are recording the sharpest drops, with both seeing daily infections drop over 80 percent in the last 14 days. Oklahoma was one of the final states in the U.S. to still be recording an upward trend during the Omicron surge.

In 17 states, cases have dropped more than 70 percent over the past two weeks. These astronomical figures will likely begin to shrink soon, as Covid cases begin to reach such low points that they will likely steady soon.

Deaths are finally beginning to trend in the right direction as well. The figure, which often lags behind cases by a few weeks, flattened recently and now is showing the first signs of a downward trend.

The U.S. is currently averaging 2,365 Covid deaths per day, a six percent decrease over the past week. The figure has hovered in the 2,400 to 2,500 range in recent weeks, and is now showing early signs that it will start to fall.

Only three U.S. states are still recording more than one daily Covid death per 100,000 residents. Each are southern state with low vaccination rates.

Mississippi is still the national leader in Covid mortality. The Magnolia state is recording 1.76 Covid deaths every day for every 100,000 residents - by far the highest rate of any state. It also has only vaccinated 51 percent of residents, one of the lowest rates in the country.

West Virginia, which has vaccinated only 56 percent of residents, and Arkansas, at a 53 percent vaccination rate, are both logging high Covid mortality rates as well.
As Covid cases are cratering across the U.S., so is the nation's booster rollout, per data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Around 193,000 Americans are receiving the additional shot every day, dropping over 70 percent over the past month from around 650,000 per day on January 15. The rollout peaked in early December with 1.1 million people receiving the additional shot every day.

This is the lowest daily booster uptake total since the extra shots were made available in late-September.

This matches the trends of the Delta variant surge, where vaccination rates in America began to rise when the variant first started to make its impact in August, before stagnating - and eventually dropping - as cases started to stagnate and Americans became indifferent to the shot.

COVID-19 booster shot uptake peaked in early December when Omicron first arrived in the U.S., but has since cratered are reached its lowest point since the additional shot first became available in late-September

Around 70% of Americans that are eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot have received it, along with 42% of the overall population. Pictured: A man in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, receives a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine

In early December, Americans were made aware of the new threat of the vaccine-resistant Omicron variant, spurring many that were either procrastinating with their booster or not planning on getting it all to get the shot.

That group of people has received the shot at this point, though, leaving a small group of people still lining up for the booster.

Indifference will begin to creep in as well, as Covid cases are sharply declining in the U.S. - down 43 percent over the past week to 150,714 cases per day - and have fallen far from the 800,000 case per day average from mid-January.

Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, cited by CDC and White House officials last week, finds that 70 percent of Americans eligible for a booster shot have received it.

Getting the remaining fully vaccinated yet unboosted population to get the next shot may be a challenge, though.

Covid vaccine uptake in the U.S. started to rise in late summer when the Delta variant took over as the dominant strain. Demand for the shots went up again this winter as Omicron began to take hold in the states

Of the 30 percent of vaccinated Americans that are unboosted, only 40 percent are planning to get the shot 'as soon as possible', with 30 percent saying they will 'definitely not' get boosted.

That figure has remained steady as well, signaling that those that have made the choice not to get boosted are likely steadfast in that belief.

Health officials are hoping these booster shot could spell the end of the pandemic, but cratering booster uptake could throw a wrench into that plan.

The increasing Covid vaccination rate combined, the highly infectious Omicron variant being more mild than other strains and how quickly the variant seemed to have run out of steam after erupting across American late last year has many hopeful the virus could soon reach an endemic state.

This is reliant on people getting vaccinated, though, and indifference could set in once cases get low enough - and it may take yet another surge to convince remaining stragglers to get the additional jab.

It also spells bad news for the future of the Covid vaccines going forward. It has already been hard enough for health officials to get people their first three shots - and a fourth may be around the corner.

According to official data from the CDC, 76 percent of Americans have received at least one shot of a vaccine, and 64 percent are fully vaccinated.

Only 42 percent of Americans in total have received a booster shot.

Fourth doses have already been made available to immunocompromised Americans, though, and countries like Israel have also started the process of getting the next shot into arms.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said in recent weeks that a fourth shot will likely be necessary in the future to shore up protection against Omicron.
For the first time ever, a woman has been cured of HIV.

A woman dubbed the 'New York patient' by scientists at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City has defeated the virus after receiving a rare, but dangerous, stem-cell treatment.

She is the fourth person to ever be cured of HIV - the previous three are all men - and experts have found two cases of women somehow beating the virus naturally.

The woman was also a cancer patient, and received a treatment meant to combat both diseases at once - but is also so risky that it has been deemed 'unethical' to use it on people who do not have a late-stage cancer diagnosis.

In order to perform this treatment, doctors must first find a donor who has a rare mutation that makes them resistant to the virus.

A woman dubbed the 'New York patient' has become the first woman to be functionally cured of HIV after receiving a rare. but dangerous, stem cell treatment four year ago (file photo)

Experts tell NBC that people who have this mutation are usually northern European, and even then only one percent of that population has it.

Doctors then perform a 'haploidentical cord transplantation' which uses umbilical cord blood and bone marrow from the donor.

The cord blood helps fight blood based cancers - like the leukemia the woman was suffering from, while the bone marrow provides stem cells to the body.

Because cord blood is usually not as effective for adults as it is children, the stem-cell transplantation can help boost its effectiveness.

'The role of the adult donor cells is to hasten the early engraftment process and render the transplant easier and safer,' Dr Koen van Besien, one of the lead doctors evaluating the New York patient, told NBC.

Because this stem cell treatment can often result in death for the patient, experts will not use it on a health person who can manage their HIV through normal methods.

Instead, they focus this treatment of people in the latter stages of a cancer diagnosis who are likely to die anyways unless a major medical intervention is made.

Researchers say that there are up to 50 patients who could receive the procedure every year, out of the over one million Americans battling HIV.

The woman in question was diagnosed with HIV in 2013 and leukemia in 2017, making her a potential candidate.

She received the treatment four years ago, and in the time since her cancer has gone into remission and and her HIV treatment was discontinued last winter.

The treatment is only recommended for people who are already suffering late stage cancer that will likely kill them anyways due to how risky it is. It also requires stem cells from northern European people with a very specific mutation that makes them resistant to HIV (file photo)

Her body reacted well to the treatment, the doctors report, and she quickly saw positive results.

Despite dropping HIV treatment over a year ago, the virus has not resurged in her. Repeated scans of her body show no HIV cells with the potential of replicating.

They also drew cells from her body and attempted to infect them in a laboratory, and failed.

If a few more years pass and doctors still fail to find any HIV in her body, and fail to infect her cells, then they will be comfortable in declaring her 'cured' of the virus.

Im excited that its turned out so well for her, Dr Yvonne Bryson told NBC.

She added that the New York patient's case has added more hope and more options for the future' of HIV treatment.
Smart meters were sold to the nation as a way of saving money on energy bills.

The gadgets automatically send readings and link to a display screen that shows exactly how much power is being used in real time  and how much it is costing.

Billions of pounds have been blown since the rollout began in 2009, with the deadline for completion pushed from 2020 to 2025.

Problem: Poor internet signal stops the smart meter working for John and Beverley Marchment

The cost of installing digital meters in every home has spiralled by 2.5 billion to 13.5 billion  and is being funded through hikes to household energy bills.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy says households will save an average of 175 by 2034.

So after a costly start, can smart meters really save us money as we face record high energy bills?

Regular rates and readings

Energy watchdog Ofgem last week paved the way for smart meters to send readings to suppliers every half hour.

The move will also let suppliers change rates throughout the day, and will take place before the end of 2025, and the regulator says it could save bill payers as much as 4.6 billion by 2045.

It is a major step towards enabling millions of homes to sign up to 'time of use' tariffs that give discounts for power use at off-peak times, but charge more for use when demand on the grid is higher.

Currently, smart meters send out readings every month, but households can opt in to send updates every day or half-hour.

Using data from half-hourly readings, energy suppliers will also be able to better manage supply and demand and make efficiency savings that, in theory, can be passed on to customers. But MPs have raised concerns that supplier savings might not be shared with households.

The 'time of use' tariffs will help households save when charging electric cars overnight or powering up heat pumps.

Industry insiders have told Money Mail this is the real benefit of smart meters  and the public should have been told that from the get-go.

After all, academic studies suggest display panels help homeowners to cut down on as little as 3 per cent of their energy.

Roll out: The cost of installing smart meters in every home has spiralled from 2.5bn to 13.5bn  and is being funded through hikes to household energy bills

Save while you sleep

Ofgem documents reveal that half-hour readings will save households as little as 2 a year, and no more than 9.

Research by the University of Reading also found time-of-use tariffs will cost high and middle income households extra if they do not change their habits.

Their figures show running a washing machine at off-peak times is more than three times cheaper than at peak time, and half the cost of standard tariffs.

Leaving an Xbox games console on standby for four hours during peak time also costs more than one hour of gaming at off-peak time. However, charging an electric car in off-peak hours is half the price compared to a standard tariff.

Anthony and Julie Hibbs from Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire have cut their bills by 240 a year with their smart meter. The retired water company employee says: 'When you see the little meter ticking away, it motivates you to save more money.'

Octopus Energy says customers on its half-hourly 'smart' Agile tariff have saved 676 over three years compared to a standard variable tariff or 251 compared to a fixed deal.

The supplier has capped peak prices at 35p/kWh, which is 23 per cent above the price cap. Yet if and when, wholesale prices plummet, electricity could be free for those on these tariffs.

Octopus says it has even paid households up to 10p per kWh to use electricity in 'price plunging events' when there is excess power on the grid. In May 2020, one driver was paid 4.51 for charging his Tesla when demand for power slumped.

Off peak: 'Time of use' tariffs will help households save when charging electric cars overnight or powering up heat pumps

Uncapped charges

Soaring energy prices are fuelling the worst cost of living crisis in Britain for 30 years.

The failure of more than 26 suppliers last year alone will add 68 to the nation's bills. Suppliers are not allowed to charge customers on standard variable tariffs higher rates than the price cap allows.

The current cap of 1,277 is to rise to 1,971 in April for the average household.

Rory Taylor, of trade body Energy UK, says homeowners on time of use tariffs could pay more than the price cap rate at peak times.

Experts are warning that the regulator needs to build in safeguards to stop struggling households from having to ration their power at peak times.

Greg Jackson, chief executive and founder of Octopus Energy, says: 'As tariffs like this grow, we need to ensure proper protection for consumers.

That's why Octopus calls on the regulator to ensure customers always have the choice of standard or smart tariffs, and that there's a sensible cap on peak prices for smart tariffs.'

Gillian Cooper, head of energy policy at charity Citizens Advice, says: 'Strong protections must be in place for those of us who can't be flexible with our use of electricity.'

Rising bills: The current energy cap of 1,277 is to rise to 1,971 in April for the average household

Still a long way to go

The latest figures show more than 26 million smart meters have been installed  which means fewer than half of all domestic meters have been upgraded. Yet around 4.8 million of the devices have stopped working when customers switch supplier  or turn them off.

Hundreds of thousands of households are unable to get a smart meter because they live in high-rise flats, old properties with thick walls, or remote regions with poor signal.

John and Beverley Marchment want to save money but their smart meter shows only their daily standing charge for gas and not their usage costs.

This is because of an internet connection issue, according to supplier EDF.

Smart Energy GB says a survey found 42 per cent of people said a smart meter had made a difference to their energy use.

A spokesman says: 'Using your smart meter's in-home display is a simple way to track and adjust your energy usage as the in-home display gives near-real time information in pounds and pence on gas and electricity use.

A Government spokesman adds: 'The replacement of traditional gas and electricity meters with smart meters is a national infrastructure upgrade that will make our energy system cheaper, cleaner and more efficient.'

A spokesman for the energy regulator says: 'Ofgem will work closely with industry to make sure it delivers this major upgrade while ensuring those in vulnerable circumstances remain protected.'

b.wilkinson@dailymail.co.uk
When it comes to investing, measuring your performance can be notoriously tricky. Of course, its easy enough to see whether your money has grown or not. But that isnt the whole story.

Most investors want to know how their portfolio - or fund manager - has performed compared with the wider market. Which isnt always so simple to work out.

This week, an influential report revealed a sharp surge in the number of underperforming funds  with more than 45 billion invested in funds that fall short of their peers.

Dog funds: This week, an influential report revealed a sharp surge in the number of underperforming funds - with more than 45bn invested in funds that fall short of their peers.

The report, compiled by financial planners Tilney, names and shames those investments it says consistently underperform in the market  or what it has dubbed dog funds.

This years list contains funds from the likes of wealth managers St Jamess Place, and investment companies Jupiter and abrdn. The number of duff funds has risen from 77 to 86.

Tilney Investment Management Services Jason Hollands warns that the past two years may have helped to mask underperformance.

With stock markets racing to new highs, many managers have made impressive gains without having to do much.

But now markets are in a trickier phase  with the giant U.S. market in correction territory  the importance of performance will become clearer.

Tilney sets strict criteria to identify dog funds, i.e. serial underperformers.

To take account of wider market performance, all funds are compared to their designated benchmark  an industry measure that looks at the average performance of a market.

A fund focused on U.S. or Asian equities, say, will be compared to the overall state of those markets, which may vary dramatically.

Measuring a managers performance against a benchmark should give a strong indication of the quality of their stock-picking.

Tilney defines a dog fund as one which has underperformed its respective benchmark for three consecutive years  with a total lag of at least 5 per cent. This may help you find the funds that are acting as a drag on your portfolio  but there are caveats.

Identifying reasons for underperformance is not always straightforward, says Paul Kearney from investment consultancy ARC. Investors may underperform because they have taken a contrarian investment position  and one which may take longer to come off.

When comparing a funds performance to its benchmark, he says its important to take into account its strategy, risk appetite and its fees.

Take JP Morgans U.S. Equity Income fund, with 3.92 billion under management. Though it has delivered a healthy return (10,000 into 15,600 over three years), it has still fallen 32 per cent short of the U.S. benchmark.

But as a dividend-focused fund it has chosen to stay away from the speculative tech sector that has driven the wider U.S. market.

There are fewer excuses for the Halifax UK Growth Fund. Having invested 3.79 billion of savers money into FTSE 100 companies, its fallen 10 per cent short of its benchmark.

It also charges an annual fee of 1.5 per cent  more than 15 times as much as a passive FTSE 100 tracker that backs many of the same companies.

The platform also highlighted some of its favourite funds, including green fund Impax Environmental Markets Trust

Usefully, Tilney also names some of its favourite funds. For investors looking for a globally-focused fund, Mr Hollands highlights Fundsmith Equity.

Over five years, it has turned 10,000 into 18,700  beating its benchmark by more than 50 per cent  thanks to winning picks including Estee Lauder and Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk.

Other picks include green-favourite Impax Environmental Markets Trust and the Dodge & Cox Worldwide U.S. Stock fund. Over five years, theyve turned 10,000 into 20,800 and 16,600 respectively.

But while investors should be alert to high-performing funds, its worth noting many experts caution against changing your positions too hastily.

Consistently outperforming the market, long term, is very difficult, says Vanguards James Norton.

By spreading money across a balanced and diversified portfolio, investors can reap the benefits of rising markets, and avoid the sharp edges.
Online trading platform Plus500 hailed a positive start to 2022 and announced a new share buyback programme, despite profits dropping by more than a quarter last year.

The latest annual results by the Israeli firm suggest that the meteoric rise in online trading, which began during the early days of the pandemic, is beginning to slow down.

Plus500 banked pre-tax profits of $387million for 2021, down 26 per cent from $523million in 2020, while revenues dropped 18 per cent to $718.7million.

Plus500 attracted fewer new clients in 2021, but active customer base is still double than 2019

However, its performance is still well ahead pre-pandemic levels, with revenues and profits before nasties more than double what it made in 2019.

Customer numbers show a similar picture, as new customers in 2021 declined by a third compared to 2020, while the number of active customers dropped slightly.

However, the group's active customer base remains at double its pre-pandemic levels.

Chief executive David Zruia hailed 'another excellent' performance and a 'positive start' to the new financial year as he announced a new share buyback programme worth $55million.

'The purpose of the new programme is to further emphasise the Board's confidence in the prospects of Plus500 and reflects the robust financial position of the Group, as highlighted by the Group's operational and financial performance in FY 2021,' the company said.

It will also pay out dividends worth $60million to shareholders in July.

But Plus500 shares tumbled today, and were down 4.1 per cent to 14.60 just after market close.

The stock has not risen much over the last year, just by around 4 per cent, but it's up 60 per cent compared to February 2020, just before the pandemic.

Richard Sloss, director at Edison Group, is positive about Plus500's outlook.

'While top-line figures for FY21 show a waning in financial performance compared to 2020, the group's enlarged customer base and substantial cash balance suggest a healthy outlook for Plus500.

'With its recent acquisitions ensuring further growth potential in the US futures and options market and extensive buyback programmes and dividend payouts in 2022, shareholders should remain upbeat.'

Plus500 lets investors trade on complex financial instruments such as contracts for difference through its website and mobile app.

It made its first move into the US futures and options market with the acquisition of Cunningham Commodities and Cunningham Trading Systems earlier in the year.

It has also benefited from recent favourable tax rate changes in Israel, that have boosted its coffers and left its with a cash balance of $749million, which according to analysts 'leaves the door open for further potential acquisitions in future'.
Dragons Den star and host of hit podcast The Diary of a CEO Steven Bartlett has launched a new tool to measure the impact of social media on markets, as part of his latest venture Flight Story.

Bartlett found success with social media content and marketing firm The Social Chain which he launched at the age of 21.

Within six years he had built it into an international agency which listed on the Dusseldorf Stock Exchange.

Alongside former Social Chain managing director Oliver Yonchev, Bartlett launched Flight Story at the end of 2021, capitalising on the intersection between social media and the rise in young DIY investors.

Steven Bartlett replaced Tej Lalvani in the newest series of Dragons' Den which started last month

It sets out to introduce companies which are looking to list or are already listed to the people and technology needed to increase retail investor interest.

Bartlett told This Is Money last year: 'It might sound crazy, but I had phone calls from family offices that were telling me they now believe a successful TikTok strategy could sway their market cap by billions.

'This is the world we're living in, if you're a public company and you don't understand the opportunity and value of these social media platforms, and how they're influencing - directly and indirectly the performance of your share price and of your public opinion, then you need to turn the lights on because you're driving in the dark, and sooner or later you're going to crash.'

Today the company launches Flight Deck, a tool that converts social media interactions, search data and paid media reach, which is cross-referenced with trading volume.

This allows companies to identify the channels, activity and interactions that moved the market.

Bartlett's new venture Flight Story will today launch an AI tool to help companies gauge how social media moves markets

Chief strategist Mike Blake-Crawford said: 'Multiple data points, including volume, topics, emotion and even demographics of those engaged with specific companies can be analysed, providing invaluable insight into the factors driving retail investor behaviour.

For companies going public, having access to this data is powerful, but the ability to understand it is invaluable, and that is where Flight Deck provides an incredible solution.

Bartlett added: Retail investors have taken control of the stock market and their influence is only going to grow. Over the last few years, weve seen time and time again how social media has driven share prices - for better, and sometimes for worse.

Public companies need to build resilient investor communities but before now understanding the impact of social chatter was impossible. Theres so much noise, conversation is moving at the speed of light and the consequences of that social noise are seemingly impossible to unpack, understand, and utilise.

'After hundreds of conversations with public market CEOs, from every corner of the world, we set out to create a world-leading tool to solve this problem and Flight Desk does just that.
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A third of recently registered Covid deaths in England and Wales were people who died primarily from another illness, official figures show.

A total of 1,242 people had the virus on their death certificates in the week ending February 4, according to latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. Of them, Covid was the underlying cause of death in just 817 cases (66 per cent), although it may have been a contributing factor in more.

The share of fatalities mainly caused by the disease has been trending downwards for weeks after the arrival of the milder Omicron variant and the accelerated booster vaccine programme.

Covid was the primary cause of more than 80 per cent of deaths at the end of November when Delta was the dominant strain.

The same trend has also emerged in hospitals, where up to two-third of inpatients with Covid in some regions are not primary being treated for the virus.

Latest NHS England data shows there were 10,689 patients in hospital with the virus across the country at the start of February, of whom just 48 per cent were mainly ill with Covid. In London, the share was just 33 per cent, while in the East of England it was 40 per cent and 49 per cent in the Midlands.

The lower severity of the fourth wave has given ministers the confidence that even the most fundamental Covid restrictions can be lifted in England, including compulsory self-isolation for those who test positive.

Ministers are using the Parliamentary recess to draft their living with Covid strategy, which is due to be unveiled on February 21.

Free lateral flow tests 'will be axed from next month under new Living With Covid Strategy' Free lateral flow tests are set to be scrapped in England from next month under the Government's plan to learn to live with Covid, it was claimed today. Leaked documents last month hinted that mass testing would stick around until at least July before being limited to care homes, hospitals and schools. But Whitehall sources say the scheme could be ditched months earlier because the Treasury wants to slash annual Covid spending by 90 per cent  from 15billion to 1.5bn. Free PCR tests could also be abandoned from March 31, but may remain available to more than a million extremely vulnerable patients, as well as in hospitals. Ministers are also considering scrapping routine contact tracing, according to the Guardian. Boris Johnson has vowed to make England the freest country in the world after fears about the Omicron wave never materialised. Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths have been trending downwards for weeks, with just 41,648 infections, 35 deaths and 1,413 admissions logged yesterday. Commenting on the reports, a No10 spokesperson said today that a 'final decision' on Covid testing has not been made. They added that it will come to an end 'at the right moment'. Advertisement

Overall, the ONS found there were 11,862 deaths registered in England and Wales in the most recent week, which is lower than normal at this time of year.

The 1,242 deaths with Covid mentioned on the certificate accounted for just 10 per cent of deaths from all causes, while underlying Covid accounted for fewer than 7 per cent.

Fatalities involving the virus were down for the second week in a row and fell in all regions in England, except for the South West and North East. Wales also saw a small rise.



Experts have called for the daily publication of Covid deaths to be scrapped now that Omicron is skewing the true number of people 'from' rather than 'with' the disease.

Since March 2020, the Government has released a daily fatality toll based on deaths within 28 days of a positive test to track the pandemic.

Critics have long complained it is a flawed dataset because it includes everyone who died in the weeks after they caught Covid, regardless of their cause of death  meaning theoretically even car crash victims can be included.

In the same week, to February 4, the Government's Covid dashboard reported 1,625 death across England and Wales  which is nearly double the true number of people who died primarily from Covid.

Professor Robert Dingwall, a former Government Covid adviser, has previously urged the Government to ditch the daily Covid statistics from the end of the month  when the remaining Covid laws are due to be abandoned.

Ministers are due to unveil their plan to live with Covid like flu on February 21 in the House of Commons after the recess.

Talks are ongoing between Cabinet ministers today, with the move to be put in front of Sir Chris Whitty tomorrow before being signed off.

According to reports this morning, mass testing, compulsory isolation and even routine contact tracing could all be gone by the end of March.

Commenting on the reports, a No10 spokesperson said today that a 'final decision' on Covid testing has not been made. They added that it will come to an end 'at the right moment'.

Boris Johnson told Parliament last week that the Government would press ahead with plans to live with Covid so long as the data continued to trend in the right direction.

Yesterday Covid cases dropped for the 13th day in a row, with 41,648 new positive tests recorded and there were a further 35 deaths, marking a 22 per cent fall in a week.

Latest hospital data also showed there were 1,413 admissions on February 8, down 17 per cent on the previous week.
Ousted CNN president Jeff Zucker was seen out and about in New York City for the first time since stepping down from the network after failing to disclose his affair with another executive.

DailyMail.com spotted Zucker, 56, making a hasty foray into Midtown Manhattan to pick up some pizza on Friday afternoon.

Dressed in a black puffer jacket and jeans, the former media executive appeared to be at pains to go unnoticed as he was driven from his address to the restaurant in a black SUV.

Zucker made a dash to pick up his order before quickly getting back into the vehicle. He was later seen again walking in the city.

Zucker, who had been president of CNN worldwide since 2013, left his $6million-a-year post on February 2 after admitting to employees that he violated the company's Standards of Business Conduct when he failed to disclose a 'consensual relationship' with Allison Gollust, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of the network.

He has not commented on his departure aside from his resignation announcement earlier this month in which he acknowledged he was 'wrong' to not disclose the relationship when it began.

Jeff Zucker was seen in New York for the first time since resigning from his position as head of CNN earlier this month after failing to disclose his romantic relationship with another staffer

The embattled media executive made a quick foray into town Friday afternoon to pick up a pizza before getting picked up by a car and returning straight home

Dressed in a black puffer jacket and jeans, the former media executive appeared to be at pains to go unnoticed as he was driven from his address to the restaurant in a black SUV

Zucker has not made any public appearances or comments on the scandal since his resignation announcement on February 2

Gollust was also spotted on Friday evening at her Upper East Side apartment.

She confirmed the couple's affair in a statement released to the New York Times earlier this month, saying she will continue to work at the network.

Zucker and Gollust, 49, had worked together for 20 years. They claim their relationship turned romantic during the pandemic but others say it far predates COVID.

Media sources have said the affair was an 'open secret' for more than 10 years - claiming even the doormen at their Manhattan apartment building tried to keep Allison and Zucker's now ex-wife from interacting.

Both Zucker and Gollust are divorced. Zucker and his wife, Caryn, split in 2018 and Gollust is understood to have separated from her husband, Billy, around the same time, if not earlier.

Zucker and Gollust lived in the same apartment building on the Upper East Side with their respective families until Jeff sold his in 2020, after he and his ex-wife Caryn Nathanson split.

He resided in apartment 3W, while Allison lived in the unit right above him - which she still owns.

Zucker was later seen again walking around the city

That Friday evening, Allison Gollust was also spotted at her Upper East Side apartment building

Zucker resigned two months after the scandal involving CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, which brought to light his relationship with fellow executive Allison Gollust (right in 2011) - apparently an 'open secret' at the network

Sources also pointed out that the pair were often seen out in public together - even as Gollust continued to deny they were in a relationship and would brand comments tot he contrary as 'sexist' and 'offensive.'

Their secret relationship emerged when Zucker was interviewed as part of an investigation into ousted CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who was fired as a primetime host in December.

Cuomo was sacked for inappropriately consulting his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, through accusations of sexual harassment.

It has since emerged that Cuomo was the one who raised the affair to executives.

Cuomo's attorneys are said to have told Jason Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia - which is CNN's parent company. He then informed AT&T boss John Stankey.

Cuomo, 51, meanwhile was snapped enjoying a break at a ritzy Palm Beach hotel over the weekend after CNN agreed to pay him half his $18million contract in the wake of his dismissal.

Cuomo had been fighting for the seven-figure payout that he claimed remained on his contract and has insisted he should not have been fired for any kind of conflict or breach of company protocols, when Zucker and Gollust were in a conflict of their own.

Zucker and Gollust, 49, claim their relationship turned romantic during the pandemic but others say it far predates COVID. They are pictured above at the Democratic Party Presidential Debate in 2019

Sources have pointed out that the pair were often seen out in public together - even as Gollust continued to deny they were in a relationship

Zucker with his ex-wife Caryn in 2011 (left) and Gollust with her ex-husband Billy Hult (right) in 2008. The pair have known each other and worked together for 20 years, starting at ABC, and media sources say their affair was an 'open secret'

Zucker's outing on Friday comes as the fallout over his departure and Cuomo's apparent involvement continues to rattle the network.

CNN's top stars Kaitlan Collins, Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, Jim Acosta and Alisyn Camerota are all furious that their beloved leader has been cast out.

Staffers have questioned why Zucker was forced out over the affair, which was an open-secret for years.

There was speculation from media insiders that the AT&T deal may have been one of the reasons he left.

Last week some of CNN's most well-known anchors grilled Kilar over the decision in a virtual meeting.

Richard Quest, host of the daily show Quest Means Business on CNN International, told Kilar on Monday: 'There was the possibility of a more imaginative result that wouldve allowed you to keep the captain, instead of throwing the captain overboard while the ship is about to go through icebergs.'

Meanwhile, hosts Don Lemon and Oliver Darcy questioned Kilar, 50, on whether former host Chris Cuomo would get a severance package from CNN.

'Did you think about what message it sends to the journalists in the company and also to the larger public that someone can be found to break with those journalistic standards and then get paid handsomely for it,' Lemon reportedly asked Kilar.

Zucker's indiscretion was revealed during an ongoing internal investigation into former CNN host Chris Cuomo, right, who was fired in December after it was revealed he helped coordinate the media strategy of his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after he was accused of sexual harassment by a report from New York's Attorney General

Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was spotted Sunday afternoon at a ritzy hotel in Palm Beach, Florida

The WarnerMedia CEO declined to answer questions about Cuomo's reported $9million severance package, though Zucker had previously said that Cuomo wouldn't get one.

AT&T, CNN's parent company, is said to be in negotiations to reach a deal that would see the fired anchor receive half of the $18million he had been vying for before Zucker's unexpected resignation, as first reported by the New York Post.

The fired CNN anchor, who was hoping to secure a lump sum payout following his departure last year, has reportedly been told to set his sights lower, with him unlikely to receive anything more than around $9million from the cable news network.

During Monday's meeting Kilar also declined to say whether he had requested Zucker's 'resignation,' according to Washington Post reporter Jeremy Barr.

There is also speculation growing over whether Zucker was forced out at CNN over his open-secret affair because the scandal of it and his ongoing war with Cuomo could have threatened AT&T's $43billion deal with Discovery.

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar was grilled by CNN's New York-based anchors during a virtual meeting on Monday to discuss the ouster of CNN president Jeff Zucker

Mutiny: Dana Bash told Kilar the 'punishment does not fit the crime' while Jake Tapper labeled Chris Cuomo a 'terrorist' who has been granted demands and Brian Stelter (right) penned an article vowing his loyalty to Zucker

AT&T bought WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner) in 2018 for $84billion. It was a disastrous deal that the telecoms giant has been trying to unwind for years.

It, finally, is now in the finalizing stage of a $43billion sale of WarnerMedia to Discovery.

According to Puck media reporter Dylan Byers, Zucker and Gollust were due to take on senior roles within the new company, under the leadership of Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Byers writes that it is likely Stankey insisted on Zucker's departure after learning of it. By getting rid of Cuomo, too, AT&T does not have to pay Chris Cuomo the $18million he claims he is entitled to.
A report card from 1939 shows how Australian schools forced left-handed children to use their right hand for writing.

The kindergarten report from Lawley Ladies' College, now known as Perth College, brought back panful memories when it was shared in a local Facebook group.

The young student scored 'very good' in most subjects except writing, where the teacher suggested she needed improvement as she adjusted to training her right hand.

'Fair,' the section reads. 'Marcia's writing is improving and muscular control of the right hand developing.'

A Perth woman has shared her mother's 1939 Kindergarten school report while attending Lawley's Ladies College in WA (pictured)

Marcia's daughter uncovered the preserved document and shared it as an example of shocking outdated schooling practices.

'When schools tried to "fix" left handed children. Mum went straight back to writing left handed when she could,' she wrote.

Many others shared similar experiences, even from decades later, with some detailing how they were 'smacked' or denounced for using their 'devil' hand.

'As a 1960 grade 1 student, with no ink pens being used in the state school at that time, I was forced to change hands,' one woman wrote.

'My mother was changed from left to right in the 1940s in either Victoria or here (in Perth), with her right hand tied behind her back,' another recalled.

'She has been left-right dysfunctional all her life and has to look at her feet to work out which way is left and right.'

One woman said her older sister was never harassed during the mid-1960s, but four years later when she started at the same school her 'witch' Year 1 teacher made her switch hands.

'She would crack me over the knuckles of my left hand with the edge of a ruler (with a metal insert), so hard that they often bruised or were sometimes cut and bled a little, to force me to use my right hand to write,' she said.

Many Australians reported having similar experiences in school decades later

One woman said her left-handed grandmother was punished by teachers if she did not use her right hand to write

'I am still left handed at some things but for my writing, I am right handed - not by choice - by force.'

A man recounted a similar punishment while he was in school during the same decade.

'The first time I picked up a crayon and started scribbling my teacher smacked me over the hand and called me "spawn of Satan" because I was left handed,' he wrote.

'I learned to write with my right hand from thereon in.'

One man said the Catholic Church considered left-handedness a 'sin'.

'You'd think their god would have told them it's ok, but it took actual secular education to achieve a positive outcome and parity,' he wrote.

A woman added that the church's attitude remained the same 'right up until the early 1970s'.

One woman said her mother's hands were tied behind her back in the 1940s

However, others said they had similar experiences while attending public schools.

'I went to a public primary school and they used a ruler across the knuckles whenever I used my left hand,' one person wrote.

The original author said the practice had associations with language, and beliefs that left was 'bad' and right was 'good'.

'If you remember your Latin, "sinister" is the word for on the left side, and of course in English it certainly has the connotation of something that is dark or evil,' she wrote in the comments.

'The Latin for right is "dexter", from which we derive dextrous and dexterity, meaning good with the hands or a clever thinker. Somebody who is equally good with right or left hands is ambidextrous.

One person said they were told their left hand was the 'devil' hand in school

'And in English "right" also means correct, true or ethically sound. So you can see that in language "right" is thought as good, while "left" is not so good, or even evil.'

Left-handedness became less stigmatised in the Western world during the latter part of the 20th Century, and children were no longer forced to use their right hands.

In a 2020 study, scientists found a fifth of all people could be left hand dominant, or as low as 9.34 per cent (only taking into consideration those who are lefties for manual tasks).
The defense, however, contends that Reeves, then 71, was in declining health and feared the 43-year-old, larger Oulson would punch or otherwise assault him

An off-duty officer attending a movie at the same Florida theater where a retired cop killed a man in front of his wife while texting testified about the confrontation that led to the shooting Tuesday.

Sumter County Deputy Alan Hamilton said Curtis Reeves barked at Chad Oulson to put away the phone before the dad of a two-year-old girl replied: 'I was just texting my f**cking daughter.'

Oulson was with his wife and checking in with a baby-sitter when Reeves, 79, shot him dead during a matinee screening of Lone Survivor at a Tampa-area theater in 2014.

Hamilton, who was off duty at the time, was in the theater with his wife, who told him 'you probably need to pay attention to this' when Oulson and Reeves were arguing, he testified.

He said he witnessed Oulsen propped up against his seat and tell Reeves 'I was just texting my f**cking daughter' before he flicked popcorn at Reeves and then saw a muzzle blast and a sound of a firearm.

Nicole Oulson testified on Monday about what it was like to watch her husband die. 'I see his eyes were just glazed over and I knew at that moment,' she said

Former Tampa Police Captain Curtis Reeves attends the first day of his second-degree murder trial on Monday

'I felt like my hand was blown off,' Nicole Oulson said, regarding the bullet that struck her and her husband. 'He took a couple of steps and then collapsed. I knew he was way worse than me.'

On Monday, Reeves' trial finally opened up after a series of delays over the years, much of which has been attributed to pre-trial hearings, various motions, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the court system.

Reeves is a U.S. Navy veteran and former Tampa police captain who helped launch and lead the agency's first SWAT team before retiring in 1993, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

He later worked as director of security for the Tampa Busch Gardens amusement park and was an active member of his neighborhood's Crime Stoppers organization.

The former cop claims he shot the unarmed Oulson with a .380-caliber handgun in self-defense because he feared for his life after the two argued over Oulson's cellphone use in the theater.

Nicole Oulson, wife of Chad Oulson, was struck in the hand by the same bullet that killed her husband.

She testified on Monday about what it was like to watch her husband die.

'I see his eyes were just glazed over and I knew at that moment,' she said. 'I told him, 'Chad, we need you, please hang in there, we need you.'

According to Oulson, the two men bickered over the cellphone dispute and at one point Chad Oulson stood up, causing her to put her left hand near his chest to guide him back to his seat.

That's when the shot was fired, she testified, nearly severing a finger.

'I felt like my hand was blown off,' Nicole Oulson said. 'He took a couple of steps and then collapsed. I knew he was way worse than me.'

Oulson was using his cellphone during previews before the movie began, prosecutors say, in part to check on his young daughter at a local daycare. Reeves demanded that Oulson stop using the phone and was met with a curse-filled response, Michaels told the jury.

'Chad Oulson was annoyed when Curtis Reeves tells him to put his phone away. He stays annoyed,' Michaels said.

Nicole Oulson testified she did not hear any profanity from her husband in the exchange.

'He said, 'What's your problem? The movie hasn't even started yet,'' she said, quoting her husband.

Reeves went to theater management about Oulson's phone use, returned to his seat and that's when the argument resumed, the popcorn was tossed and Reeves shot Oulson in the chest, according to trial evidence.

To prosecutors, the triggering event in the argument was Oulson's tossing of a bag of popcorn at Reeves - and that's not enough to claim self-defense.

'What the evidence will show you is that Chad Oulson was shot and killed over tossing popcorn,' Assistant State Attorney Scott Rosenwasser told jurors in an opening statement. 'That's no reason to kill another person.'

The defense, however, contends that Reeves, then 71, was in declining health and feared the 43-year-old, larger Oulson would punch or otherwise assault him - and may have thrown his cellphone at the older man.

Defense attorney Richard Escobar told the Tampa Bay Times he's confident a jury will acquit Reeves on all charges because the 79-year-old 'truly believed' he was in danger when he shot Oulson.

'It may not be what I would have done or what you would have done, but you have to realize how Mr. Reeves was at that time,' Escobar said. 'He was 71, in declining health and a decorated officer. He had all that body of knowledge to determine whether he was in a predicament that could have led to him being harmed. At that moment, his perception was that he was in serious danger.'

Chad Oulson was with his wife, Nicole, and texting his young daughter's baby-sitter before he was killed after argument with Reeves

'This isn't about popcorn,' Defense attorney Dino Michaels (pictured) told the jury. 'You're going to see there was an attack before the popcorn was thrown.'

Vivian Reeves leaves court with her husband Curtis Reeves at the conclusion of testimony on Monday

The trial of retired Florida cop Curtis Reeves (pictured in court in 2014) began on Monday

Defense attorney Dino Michaels said Reeves also understood risk and sensed danger from his 27 years with the Tampa Police Department.

'This isn't about popcorn,' Michaels told the jury. 'You're going to see there was an attack before the popcorn was thrown.'

But attorney T.J. Grimaldi, who represented Oulson's widow in a lawsuit against the cinema, said Reeves' history as an officer, which included SWAT training make his actions inexcusable.

'This man used to train SWAT teams, so he knows how to de-escalate a situation and he should have then,' Grimaldi told the Times.

'The claim that he was standing his ground is asinine, to say the least,' he said. 'Is there ever a good reason to shoot someone for popcorn being thrown in their face?'

Reeves is facing a potential life sentence if convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The trial, expected to last about three weeks, is being heard by a jury of four men and two women with four alternates.

The case has been delayed for years as Reeves sought protection under Florida's 'stand your ground' law that allows use of deadly force in the face of mortal danger or fear of serious injury. Reeves has been on house arrest during most of that time, tethered to a GPS-tracking ankle monitor.

A judge ruled against him, but Reeves appealed. Lawmakers meanwhile changed the law to shift the burden of proof to prosecutors, but the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the changes didnt affect cases such as Reeves' retroactively.

The shooting happened after Reeves and Oulson, and their wives, went to a matinee showing of the Mark Wahlberg film 'Lone Survivor' at a theater complex in Wesley Chapel, a suburb of Tampa.

Much of the confrontation was captured on grainy theater camera video, but it has no sound. Dozens of witnesses have been listed for trial but it's not clear how many will actually testify.

Rosenwasser, the prosecutor, said the evidence will prove that Reeves was incensed by Oulson's cellphone use and couldn't let it go.

'He appeared to be agitated and angry,' Rosenwasser said. 'This was an intentional and purposeful shooting.'

Transcripts of jailhouse phone calls between Reeves and his family released in 2014 revealed the retired Florida police captain was confident of his acquittal.

Other evidence that was made public by the Pinellas-Pasco attorneys office, including photographs taken from inside the Wesley Chapel movie theater where Reeves shot dead Oulson and injured his wife over a text messaging dispute shed light on the case.

'When all the facts come out, we all should be in good shape,' Reeves told his family on January 16 - three days after the shooting, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

In the recordings released by the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney's Office, he tells his wife Vivian and his son and daughter to sell his motorbike or kayak if they are in need of money.

'You all need to know that you're all the love of my life. And if it need be, y'all plan on me not being there so you plan whatever you have to do to make your life easy, okay,' he said.

'My life will be easy if your all's is. Plan the future and don't spend all the money on me.'

Photographs from the movie theater after the shooting show Curtis Reeves in handcuffs sitting in a theater seat, scattered popcorn, a dropped cell phone and a spent casing from the bullet that killed father-of-one Oulson.

They also show Nicole Oulson's badly injured hand after she was shot trying to deflect the bullet that killed her husband.

Video from the scene appears to show Oulson snatching Reeves' popcorn off his lap and throwing it at him. Reeves responds instantaneously with a single, fatal gunshot.

Reeves has claimed he shot the unarmed Oulson in self-defense because he feared for his life.

'Like I told everybody, I've spent 71 years doing the right thing and this guy just... anyway,' he said to his family over the phone.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams headed to Albany on Monday to try and crackdown on woke state bail reform laws as the shocking murder of a young Asian woman at the hands of a free-on-bail serial criminal sent shockwaves across his city.

Adams met with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on Monday morning to discuss removing the cash bail system as part of a crackdown down on crime, as he's been pushing for lawmakers to allow judges to consider the 'dangerousness' of defendants before deciding to release them.

It came after Sunday's murder of Christina Yuna Lee, 25, an advertising creative followed into her apartment building by a killer cops named as Assamad Nash, 35, who is said to have knifed her in her bathroom.

Nash was freed on bail at the time following an assault at Grand Central in September 2020, thanks to state bail laws aimed at lowering prison populations. Serious crime in NYC has spiked 40 per cent this year.

Taking a page out of President Joe Biden's book - who Adams, 61, met with earlier this month - the mayor hopped on an Amtrak train to get to the state capital yesterday, writing on Twitter: 'On my way to Albany to #GetStuffDone for New York City!'

New York City's new Mayor Eric Adams headed to Albany on Monday to discuss bail reforms with state legislators as crime surged 40 per cent this year with a murdered advertising executive became the latest victim

Mayor Adams, left, can be seen with New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Cousins, center, and Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Carl Heastie, right

Adams wants to see changes to bail reform laws and other criminal justice measures, saying they will bring down crime rates in the city and reduce gun violence.

The changes to such criminal justice laws are ones that Albany Democrats fought for for years before they could successfully change them.

In his first visit to the Albany since becoming mayor, Adams said we knew what needed to be done.

'We walked away saying were not going to fall into the trap of saying we cant have justice and safety. We can have the justice we need and the safety we deserve. Ive said this over and over again.

'Were in a unique place as black and brown leaders that we understand what the system has done to us and we understand what those guns are doing to us.

The Mayor took the train from Penn Station up to Albany, New York's state capital

'I've spent a lot of time in this building working side by side with leaders to solve problems facing New Yorkers in every corner of the state. Thank you to the @NYSA_Majority for making me feel right at home. #GetStuffDone,' Mayor Adams tweeted on Monday evening

Last week, Adams outlined his plans for tweaks to be made to the bail laws which allows suspects to roam the street often within hours of an arrest.

'Let's remove the cash bail system, because one should not be able to get out of jail just because you can pay bail. Let's take that away. Judges should look at the case in front of them and say, "This person has two gun arrests, and he's continually saying to the people of the city that I don't care about the safety of you." That judge should have the right to make the discretion that this person just be held.'

Many of New York City's most violent crimes have been from repeat offenders and after Manhattan's soft-on-crime District Attorney Alvin Bragg, 48, downgraded many crimes to misdemeanors.

In January, crime rose 38.5 per cent in the city, which has since jumped up to 41.65 per cent in February.

All categories of crime have also spiked, except murders. Felony assaults are up 13 percent, while shooting victims are up almost 30, and rape and robbery are also up around 35 per cent.

Assamad Nash, 25, had been arrested seven times since 2017 and currently has three open cases in the Manhattan Criminal Court

Assamad Nash, 25, is charged with murder of Christina Yuna Lee, who was stabbed to death in her 5th floor apartment

Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was stabbed to death in her New York City apartment 'by homeless serial criminal'

The mayor's visit to Albany came after advertising executive Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was stabbed to death in her apartment by homeless career criminal Assamad Nash, 25, who followed her upstairs.

She was found dead in her blood-soaked bathtub in Chinatown.

The mayor himself has attended many vigils and funerals for fallen New Yorkers, including the two NYPD officers Jason Rivera, 22, and his partner Wilbert Mora, 27, who were both shot dead in Central Harlem.

He also attended vigils for Yao Pan Ma, 61, who was left in a coma after being attacked collecting cans in East Harlem and Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, who was pushed onto the tracks at Times Square subway station.

Adams also called for the end of cash bails earlier this month, and said judges should consider the 'dangerousness' instead.

On Monday, Adams had been scheduled to appear before the Assembly Democratic Conference and the Senate Democratic Conference in the afternoon.
A Liberal MP has denied he supports an inheritance tax despite reports he argued that people who inherit wealth 'are not paying tax', in a stance at odds with his own party's position.

Jason Falinski, who chairs parliament's economics committee, was quoted as saying that large increases in the value of property and superannuation had created 'lazy capital' that avoided the tax system by being passed on through trust structures.

'Increasingly, the people who arent paying tax are the people inheriting their money, such as through trust structures,' Mr Falinski was reported as saying in the Australian Financial Review.

Mr Falinski argued the tax burden then fell disproportionately on entrepreneurs and ordinary workers.

'More and more money is being accumulated by lazy capital, and thats problematic,' he said.

'But if you have a go and it works, were going to tax the sh** out of you.'

The comments are in stark contrast to his party's claim that Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is set to introduce a 'death tax' after the next election.

Liberal MP Jason Falinski denied he supports an inheritance tax despite reported comments that those who inherit wealth 'aren't paying tax ... and that's problematic'

Mr Falinski then denied he supports an inheritance tax in a tweet sent on Tuesday morning

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese had been attacked by the Federal government, suggesting he wants to introduce a 'death tax'. Mr Albanese denies the proposal is part of his party's tax plans

In a tweet on Tuesday morning, Ms Falinski backed away from his earlier comments.

'Never have, never will support an inheritance tax,' he posted.

'And anyone who knows me knows that I am strongly in favour of lower taxes not higher taxes.

Mr Falinski's apparent earlier backing of inheritance taxes came despite recent claims by Treasurer John Frydenberg and Prime Minister Scott Morrison that Labor leader Anthony Albanese supports a 'death tax', similar to that which Mr Falinski appeared to be proposing.

The claims are based on Mr Albanese's support for such a tax when he was assistant general secretary of NSW Labor in the early 1990s.

'If you become a millionaire through hard work or investment you are taxed on it,' Mr Albanese said in 1991. 'If, however, you gain your wealth through the lottery of birth then theres no taxation and you achieve that economic influence in society through nothing other than sheer luck.'

Australia's Productivity Commission found that inheritances and gifts had more than doubled in Australia since 2002 and could rise another four-fold by 2050 as household wealth grows

In parliament Mr Frydenberg has attacked Mr Albanese as being 'a cheerleader for higher taxes' his whole career,

'The carbon tax, the mining tax, congestion tax, retirees tax, housing tax, family business tax, higher taxes on income and superannuation and, most damning of all, death duties,' he said.

Mr Albanese has denied Labor will be raising taxes if it wins the next election, including imposing death duties. It is considering changes to how multinational companies in Australia are taxed.

'It is a sign of the absolute desperation from a divided, dishonest and incompetent government that they are using taxpayer-funded staff to analyse debates which are more than three decades old,' he said.

Unlike many countries, inheritance and monetary gifts are usually tax-free in Australia. Tax of 17 per cent is applied on inheritance of superannuation.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has attacked Labor leader Mr Albanese as being 'a cheerleader for higher taxes' his whole career

In a research paper published last December, Australia's Productivity Commission found that inheritances and gifts had more than doubled in Australia since 2002 and could rise another four-fold by 2050 as household wealth grows.

'We found Australians give away tremendous sums of wealth during, and at the end of their lives. Over the past two decades, the total value of wealth transferred was about $1.5 trillion, and about 90 per cent of that was inheritances,' Productivity Commissioner Lisa Gropp said.

The commission also found that this wealth transfer can actually reduce wealth inequality in Australia.

'Wealthier people receive more inheritances and gifts on a dollar-for-dollar basis but less as a percentage of their existing wealth,' Commissioner Catherine de Fontenay said.

'When measured against the amount of wealth they already own, those with less wealth get a much bigger boost from inheritances on average, about 50 times larger for the poorest 20 per cent than the wealthiest 20 per cent.'
A leading forensics expert has revealed why it took over two months to identify the remains of 'secret lover' missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay.

Greg Kelly, the director of the GKA Investigations Group, told Today Show host Karl Stefanovic the lengthy identification process was to be expected.

Mr Kelly said the human remains could only be confirmed after forensic examiners had scoured the scene and decided which laboratories would be used for testing.

'It is common with what we expect particularly with the allegations and the concerns involved. The people had been missing for a lengthy period of time,' he explained.

On Monday, the Coroner confirmed human remains found at a remote campsite in Victoria's high country were those of Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73.

Forensics expert Greg Kelly, (pictured) said the 11-week wait for answers on the human remains was to be expected because the campers had been missing for 'a lengthy period of time'

'You go from pathology through the different areas of science and individual disciplines and the forensic examiners would have had to record at the scene and identify what laboratories needed to be used.

'Then of course the timing in regard to what exhibits and what order they could be examined in in order to obtain the best evidence that's available to then.'

Stefanovic asked the expert how important timing was in the identification process in making sure the evidence didn't erode any further.

'They're the things that have to be considered. Often in forensic investigation we have to look - they've got a multiplicity of opportunities to look at what exhibit and what the best way toss examine it,' Mr Kelly said.

'There could be different disciplines involved. You have to choose the best one where you might be destroying the exhibit as you check it.'

The forensics expert said the positive identification would give a 'degree of finality' to the case which has gripped Australia since the pair vanished in March 2020.

On Monday, the Coroner confirmed human remains found at a remote campsite in Victoria's high country were those of Russell Hill, 74, (left) and Carol Clay, 73 (right)

Campers found Mr Hill's car scorched by fire (pictured) at their campsite near Dry River Creek Track the day after the pair were last heard from on March 20, 2020

For over 20 months police have been investigating what happened to the two missing campers

The grieving families of the elderly campers have waited nearly 11 weeks to find out if the remains discovered in November last year were those of their loved ones.

Victoria Police announced the major development in the almost two-year-long investigation in a brief statement released on Monday afternoon.

'Victoria Police can confirm that forensic testing on human remains located near Dargo in November 2021 has now been completed,' the statement read.

'The Coroner has advised Victoria Police that the remains are that of Russell Hill and Carol Clay. As the matter is before the court, we will not be providing any further comment.'

Jetstar pilot Gregory Lynn, 55, was arrested in November and charged with the couple's murders, some 20 months after they vanished from a rural campsite while on a secret rendezvous in March 2020.

In the same month, forensic experts discovered remains off the Providence Spur Track north of Dargo in the state's east within dense bushland.

Jetstar pilot Gregory Lynn, 55, (pictured) was arrested in November and charged with the couple's murders, some 20 months after they vanished from a rural campsite

Forensic experts discovered remains off the Providence Spur Track north of Dargo in the state's east in November (pictured, detectives in Sale, Victoria in November 2021)

Footage of the search showed plain clothes officers sifting through dirt by hand as an excavator worked ahead turning the soil over and digging up the packed ground.

It is understood the remains were found not far below the surface after four days of extensive searching in the rugged bushland.

The breakthrough came just a few days after Lynn was arrested and his Nissan Patrol seized in dense scrub on November 22.

The Caroline Springs man was stood down from his job as a pilot on the same day.

Daily Mail Australia previously revealed the 55-year-old had been grounded long before special operations group officers took him into custody.

The experienced check pilot and accused double killer had been training up-and-coming pilots before his dramatic arrest.

Lynn allegedly murdered the slain campers on the day they arrived at the Wonnangatta Valley in the Victorian Alps.

It is understood the remains - later confirmed to be those of Carol Clay (left) and Russell Hill (right) were found not far below the surface after four days of extensive searching

Lynn allegedly murdered the slain campers on the day they arrived at the Wonnangatta Valley in the Victorian Alps (pictured, their scorched campsite near Dry River Creek Track)

Mr Hill and Ms Clay had travelled to the high country, more than 200km northeast of Melbourne, for a trip away - having spent decades engaged in a secret affair.

The elderly campers were last heard from on March 20, 2020 when Mr Hill, an experienced outdoorsman, made a call via high-frequency radio saying he was located in Wonnangatta Valley.

Campers found Mr Hill's car destroyed by fire at their campsite near Dry River Creek Track the following day.

Since the pair vanished, rumours have swirled about who may have been involved, including suggestions the couple may have been attacked by nefarious hunters, an 'oddball loner' called 'Button Man', or even a murder stalking the area.

Forensic experts discovered the remains off the Providence Spur Track north of Dargo in the state's east within dense bushland often frequented by deer hunters (pictured)

Lynn (pictured) faces life in prison should he be convicted of double murder and is due to return to court in Sale for a committal mention on May 31

Detectives had been on the lookout for a dark blue Nissan Patrol, but it's understood Lynn had painted his own car gold after the campers vanished.

A trailer being towed by an off-road vehicle - also captured on CCTV the night the lovers vanished, remains missing. Police believe it was likely sold on Gumtree.

In his first court appearance, Lynn's lawyer Chris McLennan did not make any application for bail on behalf of the alleged killer, who was remanded in custody by Magistrate Greg McNamara until his next court appearance.

He faces life in prison should he be convicted of double murder and is due to return to court in Sale for a committal mention on May 31.
An outraged driver allegedly attempted to hit four e-scooter riders at high speed along a major city road.

Four people were riding the scooters when a yellow Ford began speeding in their direction along St Kilda road, Melbourne, about midnight on Sunday.

The car narrowly avoided hitting the riders after they jumped out of the way.

Scroll down for the video.

Four people were riding e-scooters when a yellow Ford began speeding at them along St Kilda road, Melbourne, around midnight on Sunday

Three of the riders gave chase to the Ford while one ran around a nearby corner.

One of the riders yelled out 'get out of the car you f**king dog' to the driver while chasing the car.

The Ford performed three U-turns along the major road to go back to the abandoned e-scooters and run them over, even driving on the wrong side of the road.

Police believe the incident was caused by a confrontation an hour earlier in the night between the riders and an unknown woman

Police believe the road rage was caused by a confrontation an hour earlier between the riders and an unknown woman.

The woman entered the yellow Ford before the alleged attack began.

Police have not yet identified the driver of the Ford and asked anyone with information to come forward.
One of Australia's top doctors has called for face mask mandates to be ditched for children - especially in schools - as the Omicron wave of Covid quickly subsides.

On Tuesday, former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said 'the tide has turned on masks' now 94 per cent of Australia's over-16 population were vaccinated against the virus.

'People recognise they had a place at a time of uncertainty, but are appropriately re-assessing their value especially in schools,' Dr Coatsworth said.

Masks are compulsory for students in Year 3 and above in Victoria and highly recommended in NSW.

'It is a good time to re-evaluate primary and secondary school mask policy in all Australian jurisdictions,' Dr Coatsworth added.

Last month, the no-nonsense medical expert said the available data did not prove masks were particularly effective at protecting children under 11 against the virus.

His push for a significant shift in mask policy comes after NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet flagged that face-coverings will no longer be mandatory within a fortnight.

Dr Nick Coatsworth has called on Australians to ditch masks - especially in schools - now the 'uncertainty' surrounding masks has lifted. Pictured is a masked shopper in Queensland

Former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth (pictured) fronted the government's vaccine rollout campaign. He said the available data did not prove masks were particularly effective at protecting children under 11 against the virus

'People recognise they had a place at a time of uncertainty, but are appropriately re-assessing their value especially in schools,' Dr Coatsworth tweeted

Mr Perrottet said it was a 'civic duty' to bring workers back to the CBD and provide trade for suffering businesses, with office staff to return to their desks and mask rules scrapped from March 1.

Until the NSW government's rules on face coverings expire on February 27, masks must be worn in all indoor public venues including supermarkets, shopping centres, pubs and cafes.

The summer wave of the Omicron variant is quickly declining; Tuesday's figures showed there were 163,283 active Covid cases across the country - the lowest since New Year's Day and and 80.45 per cent down on the January 17 peak.

Dr Coatsworth - who was the face of Australia's vaccine rollout before resigning from the federal government role at the end of 2020 - also shared a message highlighting how Covid poses a higher risk to smokers.

'Nothing you will do in life will make you healthier than quitting smoking,' he wrote in a separate tweet.

He linked to a post by South Australia Health, which encouraged the state's residents to get vaccinated and quit smoking to best protect themselves against the virus.

The early morning posts came a day after the Novavax vaccine was finally made available in Australia on Monday.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the vaccine's protein-based formula could give hesitant Australians 'the extra push they need to get their first jab and kick start their protection against Covid-19'.

Novavax uses a traditional protein-based vaccine, whereas the likes of Pfizer and Moderna use the more novel mRNA technology.

Dr Coatsworth has been outspoken about Australia's route out of the pandemic since leaving the federal government.

The top doctor also highlighted how Covid poses a higher risk to smokers, and shared a tweet urging them to quit their habit

'Nothing you will do in life will make you healthier than quitting smoking,' Dr Coatsworth wrote in a separate tweet

Last week, he suggested there may be better options to manage coronavirus than half-yearly booster injections.

He retweeted an interview with Professor Sharon Lewin in which she said: 'Chasing variants and boosting people every six months is not a viable strategy for the world'.

Data shows effectiveness of Covid vaccines can wane quickly, with a study from the CDC finding over four months protection from hopitalisation with Pfizer's jab fell from 91 to 77 per cent, though Moderna's held steady.

'We won't be able to manufacture that amount [of boosters], and you'll never be able to keep up with the variance,' Professor Lewin, who leads the Doherty Institute, told the Australian Financial Review.

She said a better strategy would be to have what is called a 'pan-sarbecovirus' vaccine - a single vaccine that could prevent or weaken the effects of known and future variants of Covid, as well as any similar emergent virus.

Novavax uses a traditional protein-based vaccine, whereas the likes of Pfizer and Moderna use the more novel mRNA technology. Dr Coatsworth shared a tweet urging smokers to get vaccinated

While still in it's very early stages there is work being done on this by several laboratories around the world, with the World Health Organisation issuing a report outlining the state of current research on January 28.

'Structural similarity between sarbecoviruses should enable development of a pansarbecovirus vaccine ... Many approaches are highly promising and feasible,' Dr Phil Krause, chair of the WHO Covid vaccine research expert group, said.

Professor Lewin said this approach would be more sustainable than repeated mRNA vaccines.

'This is not wishful thinking. People are publishing capabilities to do this now. So, we might see them in clinical trials even as early as this year,' she said.

There is also a shift away from 'blunt, population based-blanket rules' to a strategy of managing disease, hospitalisation, and the specific features of variants, Professor Lewin said.

Booster vaccines for Covid every six months are not workable and there could be better solutions Professor Sharon Lewin (pictured) said

Dr Coastsworth retweeted and interview with Professor Lewin in which she said repeated booster were not 'viable'

She added there is also the chance another strain could emerge that is more dangerous than highly infectious but mild Omicron variant, triggering a ramping up of isolation and quarantine restrictions again.

But these could be more targeted because we now have tools for managing the disease than we did not two years ago, such as vaccines, anti-viral medications and better contact tracing procedures, she said.

Australia is cautiously reopening as Covid case numbers fall, with the federal government announcing last week the country's international border would open to tourists before March, students have also returned to classrooms, and Australians can freely travel across the country - with the exception of WA.

The nation seems to be following the lead of Britain and Denmark where almost all restrictions around coronavirus have been lifted, while the only country in the world appearing to be holding to a strict Covid-zero policy is China.

This shift requires Covid to be viewed as endemic - a permanent fixture much in the same way as influenza - manageable, though still dangerous.
Disgraced cybersecurity tycoon John McAfee died by suicide in a Spanish jail cell, a court has ruled - but his ex-wife has already mounted an appeal, insisting the death was murder.

McAfee, 75, was found hanging in his prison cell at Centre Penitenciari Brians 2 in Barcelona on June 23, just hours after his extradition to the US was approved.

Last week's court ruling confirmed the findings of the original autopsy that McAfee's death was a suicide, MarketWatch reported Monday.

Authorities in Spain had previously said everything at the scene in his cell indicated that the tech mogul did kill himself, but his ex-wife Janice disputes that.

An official source familiar with the investigation also told The Associated Press that a suicide note had been found in McAfee's pocket.

The tech entrepreneur, who founded the eponymous anti-virus software, but was just worth $4m at the time of his death wrote: 'I am a phantom parasite. I want to control my future, which does not exist.' Janice says she doesn't believe the note was in her late ex's handwriting.

And tweets he'd sent likening himself to Jeffrey Epstein - whose 2019 prison suicide fueled conspiracy theories - further raised suspicion about the nature of his death.

For seven months, McAfee's body has been held in the prison morgue's freezer since his death. Last year, McAfee's ex-wife, Janice McAfee, demanded a 'thorough investigation' of his death, saying her husband did not appear suicidal when they last spoke.

McAfee, who was found dead in his Spanish prison cell in June while awaiting extradition to the United States, died by suicide, a court ruled last week

'His last words to me were 'I love you and I will call you in the evening,' she told reporters outside the prison in Barcelona after collecting her husband's belongings back in June.

McAfee's body remained at the prison morgue for seven months during the ongoing cause-of-death investigation as his ex-wife and his daughter, named only as 'Jen' for her privacy, have been in a legal battle over his remains.

Following the ruling of McAfee's cause of death last week, it is unclear when his body might be moved from the prison morgue where it has been since his death.

Jen's lawyer, Joy Athanasiou, told MarketWatch that she hopes to meet with Javier Villalba, Janice's McAfee's lawyer, on Monday to discuss the case.

'At this point, we don't really know much aside from the ruling,' Athanasiou told MarketWatch. 'It's been a long, strange process.'

McAfee was arrested at the Barcelona airport in October 2020 on a warrant issued by prosecutors in Tennessee who were seeking up to three decades of imprisonment for allegedly evading more than $4 million in taxes.

The jail where he was found dead has housed other big-name inmates - including the mastermind behind one of Catalonia's biggest corruption schemes and a former Barcelona official.

McAfee had said it was like 'the Hilton' when comparing it to U.S. prisons.

McAfee appeared via videoconference during his extradition hearing at Audiencia Nacional court, in Madrid, Spain in June just before his death

It has also been reported that his daughter and his ex wife Janice (pictured with McAfee) are locked in a legal fight over the corpse, that has been held since McAfee was found hanging in a Spanish cell on June 23 last year - hours after his extradition to the US was approved

McAfee called the prison (pictured) a 'polite society,' where he said the cell is open twice a day for 30 minutes, but no one enters without invitation

John McAfee was found in his cell at the Centre Penitenciari Brians 2 in Barcelona

While in some countries, cause of death investigations are carried out and determined by coroners, in Spain death reports are issued under a court system that is presided over by a judge.

Meanwhile, McAfee's ex-wife his daughter continue their battle for possession of his remains.

Jen reportedly wanted the body of her father to be cremated and shipped to the U.S. but has since given up on her claim to prevent further delays to her father's burial.

It is not public knowledge exactly why Janice wishes to gain possession of the mogul's body, but a report in July 2021 from Money Trading Club claimed the dispute was related to inheritance.

In addition to authorities, the question of McAfee's estate is also of interest to his family, including Janice, who insists that his death may not have been a suicide, as Spanish authorities found.

The report also said that Janice McAfee at first claimed to be his wife, despite them being divorced, while the daughter - said to be from McAfee's first marriage and now in her 50s - claims to be his only biological daughter, despite McAfee previously claiming to have at least 47 descendants.

British-born McAfee - who put his name to the world's first commercial anti-virus software - had previously been dubbed 'the craziest man in tech'.

The body of tech mogul John McAfee (pictured in 2018) has been held in a Spanish morgue for seven months after his prison suicide

The prime minister of Belize, where McAfee became an international fugitive and built a fortress home, put it more bluntly, calling him 'bonkers'.

He revealed the extent to which he blew through his fortune in interviews with Mark Eglinton, an author who wrote a book about the eccentric millionaire's attempt to flee arrest by U.S. federal agents.

According to Eglinton's book, John McAfee blew his $100 million fortune on 'bizarre' mansions and really was broke when he died in the Spanish prison.

Eglinton, who collaborated with McAfee for six months while he was on the run from authorities, told DailyMail.com last year that he believed McAfee was indeed penniless, citing his personal experience with the outlaw and extensive interviews with him.

Eglinton, whose book No Domain: The John McAfee Tapes documents his extensive interviews with the outlaw, said McAfee was unable to pay what he requested for the planned collaboration, which will be authored by Eglinton solely.

'I don't doubt that if he could have helped he would have,' Eglinton said of the modest advance fee he requested. 'He said, 'I can't do it, my financial situation is worse than yours.''

Last month, a book detailing McAfee's almost fantastical globe-trotting exploits in his final years was released, with its contents being heavily denied by his family.

McAfee was arrested at the Barcelona airport in October 2020 on a warrant issued by prosecutors in Tennessee who were seeking up to three decades of imprisonment for allegedly evading more than $4 million in taxes.

The day before he was found dead, Spain's National Court had announced that it was agreeing to his extradition to the U.S. but the decision was not final.

'We had a plan of action already in place to appeal that decision,' Janice McAfee told reporters at the time. 'I blame the U.S. authorities for this tragedy: Because of these politically motivated charges against him my husband is now dead.

McAfee and his wife Janice were both active on social media while he was on the run. They are shown in one picture, which he described as showing them 'in their retreat'

'I don't believe he did this, I will get answers,' she said.

The couple met in 2012 in Miami and married the following year. John McAfee had several children from previous relationships, Janice McAfee said.

The entrepreneur had not been connected with the companies that took over the antivirus software he built after he sold his shares in the 1990s. That early success had made McAfee rich and followed him in his troubled biography.

In 2012, he was sought for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor in Belize, but was never charged with a crime. The controversy didn't stop him from making long-shot runs for the U.S. presidency starting in 2016.

But it was his more recent tax problems that kept him away from the U.S., the country where the British-born entrepreneur was raised and had built his early success.

The Tennessee prosecutors' indictments from 2020 showed that the tycoon allegedly failed to declare income made by promoting cryptocurrencies, attending speaking engagements and selling the rights for a documentary on his eventful life.

McAfee's social media postings indicated that he had chosen a northeastern Spanish coastal resort town as his base in Europe at least since late 2019.

The Brians 2 prison complex, viewed from above, also housed the mastermind behind one of the country's largest scheme as well as a former Barcelona president

The prison houses up to 1,500 inmates

John McAfee, before his death, said the Spanish prison where he was staying was like a luxury hotel compared to American prisons

This is inside the hallways of the Brians 2 prison complex in Barcelona

The National Court judge said John McAfee had provided no evidence to back his allegations that he was being politically persecuted.

Spanish authorities insist that there was no evidence of foul play, but McAfee's previous tweets that he would never take his own life 'a la Epstein' have fueled conspiracy theories.

'I am content in here. I have friends. The food is good. All is well. Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine,' McAfee tweeted on October 15.

Furthermore, just minutes after his death was reported, his official Instagram account posted an image of the letter 'Q' - in an apparent reference to QAnon.

Some wild conspiracy theories have since emerged including the idea the tech guru activated a so called 'dead man's switch' to expose the government.

The mysterious 'Q' post shared to McAfee's Instagram minutes after his death could indicate a hidden encryption, the theorists suggest.

A 'dead man's switch' is activated when the device's owner dies.

For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123, or go to samaritans.org. For confidential support in the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.
A new type of drive-thru scanner is to be installed at the busiest crossings at the United States' southern border in an effort to clamp down on the amount of drugs flowing into the country.

Known as 'multi-energy portals', and working along the same lines as X-rays, the cargo compartments of trucks will be zapped with high-energy waves allowing Customs & Border officials to see right inside.

A lower level of high-energy wave will be used to screen the cab in which the driver sits and allow them to stay inside while an inspection is carried out by the scanner.

It will speed up border crossing times markedly while also catching more of the illegal drugs such and fentanyl coming across the border from Mexico.

Currently, just one truck in 20 is scanned for drugs, with US officials pressed into action after drug deaths rocketed to 100,000 a year, many as the result of drugs smuggled from the south.

'Multi-energy portals' will zap the cargo areas with high-energy waves, but use safer low-energy screening for the cab, allowing the drivers to remain inside

Congress has directed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to come up with a plan to scan 100 percent of arriving vehicles at the southern border. Pictured, Aerial view of cars lining-up to cross the border at San Ysidro crossing port on the Mexico-United States border in Tijuana

At the busiest crossings, around 500 trucks an hour cross into the U.S. with drug smugglers essentially taking a gamble that their vehicle won't be searched.

Only around 25 vehicles (5 per cent of the 500) are able to be routinely searched due staffing levels and time constraints, but the new MEP's will help speed things along and should catch more contraband in the process.

The powerful high-energy scanners will be able to see deep inside cargo loads and detect 'anomalies', and will provide CBP staff with four images taken of the inside of each truck.

Those using the machines will be looking for strange patterns or densities that looks suspicious which could be illegal drugs, carefully hidden.

New computer software will also help decide which trucks clear inspection and which ones should be subjected to a more thorough review by officers or K-9s. Pictured, a CBP agent checks an automobile for contraband in the line to enter the United States

The high-energy scans are able to produce vivid 3D images of the vehicles' cargo.

The CBP is also adding a new software program called CertScan which aims to streamline the amount of data coming to inspectors' monitors.

The software will help decide which vehicles should be subjected to a search by officers or K-9's.

Well-known companies and shippers who have clean records are seen as lower risk. Trucks that are unfamiliar or containing random loads are examined more closely.

The system also uses license plate recognition software, with cameras linking Department of Homeland Security databases.

'Running them all within this platform allows you to increase your inspection percentage significantly without a major increase in staffing', said Jonathan Fleming to The Post whose company, S2 Global, created the software.

Smugglers transporting drugs across the border will often use false vehicle panels, hidden compartments and even carry bulk produce of other items to disguise and further hide drugs

'Are you going to catch everything? No. But I think you can do a very good job of significantly expanding your interdiction capability at a traditional port of entry with these technologies deployed.'

Eight times as many trucks per hour will be able to be scanned compared to the existing tech.

Railway cars carrying cargo are all scanned at 100 percent levels. The agency sees commercial trucks as the next phase and wants to ramp up inspection to similar figures.

Currently, such inspections on trucks require drivers to get out of their cabs slowing down the crossing overall because the energy levels used to scan could be potentially harmful to their health. With the new 'zapper' the drivers are able to stay put, while the machine does the work.

Smugglers transporting drugs across the border will often use false vehicle panels, hidden compartments and even carry bulk produce of other items to disguise and further hide the drugs.

New computer software will also help decide which trucks clear inspection and which ones should be subjected to a more thorough review by officers or K-9s (file photo)

Even gas tanks and engines can be adapted to incorporate secret compartments.

Some drivers will be unaware they are carrying drugs for someone else in their vehicle.

So far, the CBP has installed the multi-energy portals at the Brownsville, Texas and Laredo Texas ports of entry.

Drivers are being told about the new technology, assuring them that it is safe and allowing them to opt for a traditional inspection if they have concerns.

'It is a cat-and-mouse game,' said Flores. 'We will adjust with the cartels just as they adjust to the way we do inspections.'

'It's going to be a game changer for us,' said Alberto Flores, the CBP director for the port of entry in Laredo which seized 588 pounds of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl during the 2021 fiscal year.

Drivers are being told about the new technology, assuring them that it is safe and allowing them to opt for a traditional inspection, pictured above, if they have concerns

It was an eleven-fold increase over the 50 pounds of the drug detected in 2020.

Overdoses from fentanyl are the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

100,000 Americans are dying each year from drug overdoses, and most of those fatalities are linked to fentanyl.

'With the more scans we do, the probability of a seizure will increase,' Flores said to the Washington Post.

Congress is urging the CBP to ultimately be able to scan every single vehicle that comes into the U.S. and the introduction of such 'nonintrusive' inspection systems is part of the way to achieving that goal.
Canadian mounted police have shared a photo of the huge stash of weapons, ammo and body armor seized after they cleared Freedom Convoy protesters from a border area on Monday.

The stash, picked up from protesters in Coutts, along the Montana-Alberta crossing, includes multiple long guns, hundreds of bullets and body armor. Cops have not identified the owners', and it is unclear if the weapons seized were legally-held.

Eleven people connected to the anti-vaccine mandate protests which have halted cross-border travel in Canada were arrested in the Alberta village of Coutts, close to the Montana border, the Royal Canadian Mountain Police said on Monday.

Later Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers to quell the paralyzing protests by truckers, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods.

'These blockades are illegal, and if you are still participating, the time to go home is now,' he declared.

The PM is being blasted by Canadian officials, who called the plan a dangerous overreach his plan and accused of bringing 'martial law' to Canada.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson was among commentators saying Trudeau had gone too far Monday, during a slot with on-screen graphics saying: 'Trudeau's new move sounds like martial law.'

Canadian Mounties on Monday arrested 11 people and seized a cache (pictured) of guns, body armor, high-capacity magazines and a machete in connection to what they said was a plot to use force against police if they attempted to disperse the protest

On Monday, Trudeau invoked emergency powers to quell the paralyzing protests, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods

Trudeau threatened to tow away vehicles to keep essential services running; freeze truckers' personal and corporate bank accounts; and suspend the insurance on their rigs

Trudeau did not indicate when the new crackdowns would begin. But he gave assurances the emergency measures 'will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address'

In invoking Canada's Emergencies Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order, Trudeau ruled out using the military.

His government instead threatened to tow away vehicles to keep essential services running; freeze truckers' personal and corporate bank accounts; and suspend the insurance on their rigs.

'Consider yourselves warned,' Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said. 'Send your rigs home.'

Freeland, who is also the finance minister, said the government will also broaden its anti-money-laundering regulations to target crowd-funding sites that are being used to support the illegal blockades.

Trudeau did not indicate when the new crackdowns would begin. But he gave assurances the emergency measures 'will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.'

Those arrested earlier Monday were described by the police as 'a small organized group within the larger Coutts protest,' and had been blocking the crossing from Coutts, population 245 people, into Sweet Grass, Montana for a week.

A search of the trailers at the blockade resulted in the seizure of 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armor, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition and high capacity magazines.

Unlike the United States, where firearms are primarily regulated by the state, in Canada, firearms are federally regulated.

Some weapons, including automatic weapons, sawed-off shotguns and rifles, and switch blade knives, are 'prohibited weapons.'

Other firearms, such as handguns and semi-automatic weapons with short barrels (less than 18 1/2 inches), are 'restricted weapons.'

Anyone may possess a restricted firearm if they have obtained a 'registration certificate.'

Hunting rifles and shotguns are neither restricted nor prohibited, but it is illegal to possess them without a firearms acquisitions certificate.

The Coutts crossing sees $44 million ($35m) per day in two-way trade, said David MacLean, vice-president of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.

'The Alberta RCMP recently became aware of a small organized group within the larger Coutts protest,' they said in a statement.

'Information was received that this group had access to a cache of firearms with a large quantity of ammunition.

'The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade. This resulted in an immediate and complex investigation to determine the extent of the threat and criminal organization.'

Protesters are seen at the Coutts, Alberta crossing earlier in the blockade. The demonstrators have been removed and early on Monday 11 people were arrested after weapons were found

Police are seen standing close to the US-Canada border in Alberta, where protests have been staged for a week

Truckers are seen blocking the border between the US and Canada in Alberta

Three crossings are now blockaded, with the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit the most key for trade

Early on Monday morning, the RCMP, equipped with a search warrant, raided three trailers and arrested the 11.

The police found 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armor and a machete.

They said they seized a large quantity of ammunition and high capacity magazines.

Officers are now searching for the driver of the tractor trailer, who attempted to ram the police vehicle.

The RCMP said the attempted attack was 'an example of the militant mindset of a small segment of the protest'.

They said the protesters' vehicles involved were a large farm tractor and a semi truck, both involved in the blockade.

The driver of the police vehicle swerved to avoid the collision, and officers followed the suspects to a place where the protesters were gathering. The farm tractor and semi truck involved have been seized, and the driver identified as police search for him.

A Canadian trucker blocking the border near Coutts, Alberta

The Coutts protest, which lasted a week, was costing the country CA $48 million a day in lost trade, the finance minister said

The unrest in Alberta came as, 1,750 miles away in Ontario, police were also working to keep the Ambassador bridge between Windsor and Detroit, Michigan open.

On Monday afternoon, Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the border blockade in Coutts, is disrupting CA $48 million ($37m) daily in international trade.

The Emerson, Manitoba, border block costs CA $73 million a day, while the blockade at the Ambassador bridge costs CA $390 million a day.

Protesters there were removed on Saturday morning, and police are now patrolling the area to prevent the blockade reforming.

The Emerson bridge was also open, but with significant delays.
Bizarre footage has emerged showing the moment a group of anti-vaccination protesters whip themselves into a frenzy over an alleged 'hidden camera' in a tree.

The group had been part of the thousands who descended on Canberra to rally against vaccine mandates and Covid restrictions on Saturday.

The odd moment, which was uploaded to TikTok, begins with a man stating 'its a f***ing peephole camera, motion detected.'

A second man - who is recording - then makes his way to the tree as another person points to a 'tiny camera' in the bark.

The tree in Canberra which anti-vaccination protestors believe had a hidden camera wedged behind a piece of chewing gum (pictured)

On Saturday, a record 20,000 people marched through the nation's capital to Parliament House to demonstrate against the pandemic

Many fellow demonstrators were shocked at the scenes, with one woman declaring 'no way' at the development.

The video has since had almost 24,000 views on the video sharing platform with many amused by the footage.

Some thought the protesters were being paranoid, while others feared they may have actually found a hidden camera.

One man pointed out it was likely a treatment plug from a chemjet - a device used to distribute pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers to the areas where they are most effective without releasing any of these chemicals in the environment.

It comes as 20,000 anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy theorists and people from the sovereign citizen movement marched in the nation's capital this weekend.

Among the fired up crowd were people waving World War Two-era Croatian flags, Australia's Red Ensign and upside down Australian flags.

Alarmingly, numerous secret symbols, including flags associated with far-right fascist movements, were spotted.

The old Croatian flag is often associated with the the Ustase - an ultra-fascist political movement between 1929 and 1945, whose members murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews and ethnic minorities.

The Ustase were heavily influenced by Italian fascism and German Nazis, building their own concentration camps to carry out their abhorrent crimes.

Various extremist groups these days often adopt the WWII-era flag to show their support for far-right causes.

The Red Ensign flag was also on display at the protest.

Australia's maritime flag is used by the nation's merchant ships but has been adopted by Australia's 'Sovereign Citizen' - or SovCit - movement during the pandemic.

The bizarre conspiracy movement rejects the enforcement of laws and taxation, considering them to be illegitimate.

Another secret symbol at the demonstration was the upside down Australian flag.

Protesters used the Australian Red Ensign flag to demonstrate they are 'sovereign citizens' and do not abide by the Australian government's laws

The old Croatian flag - related to Nazi support - was spotted throughout Canberra's anti-vaccination mandate protests among other conspiracy-related flags

Several of the flags were spotted on Saturday's rally of some 20,000 demonstrators as they marched through Canberra to Parliament House

Pauline Hanson from the One Nation party joined the 'Convoy to Canberra' rally on Saturday

Globally, an upside down flag is recognised as a sign of distress.

Demonstrators have been using to the symbol as way to claim they are in 'distress' over mandatory vaccination requirements in some workplaces and venues.

Saturday's rally is understood to be the biggest public demonstration ever held in Canberra.

Among the crowd were men who appeared to be former Australian soldiers, tradies, truckers, motorcyclists, evangelical religious groups, a smattering of Indigenous protestors and some current politicians.

Several also flew the Eureka stockade flag which is considered a generic symbol of rebellion against authority.

Saturday's rally of up to 20,000 people is understood to be the biggest public demonstration ever held in Canberra

Several also flew the Eureka stockade flag (blue with a white cross) which is considered a generic symbol of rebellion against authority
More than 500,000 QR code check-in addresses across Australia were leaked in a 'massive and dangerous' data breach for which the NSW government is to blame.

The system designed to help the public through the Covid-19 pandemic could now be putting Australians in danger as the leak has revealed the locations of domestic violence shelters, Defence sites and even a missile maintenance unit.

The list, which NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said was 'uploaded in error' also included prisons, power stations and tunnel entry sites.

Though the leak happened last year, Mr Perrottet was only told about it on Monday.

The QR code system designed to help the public through the Covid-19 pandemic could instead be putting Australians in danger with the leaking of more than 500,000 addresses

Full Stop Australia CEO Hayley Foster (pictured) said the leaking of domestic violence shelter locations 'can have serious consequences'

In total, 566,318 location details collected by the NSW Customer Services Department through its QR code system were made public through a government website, 9News revealed.

Along with NSW locations, addresses in Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT were also included in the database, which registered businesses or organisations wanting to comply with Covid-Safe directions.

Registration was open to all businesses, including those in other states and territories which had interests in NSW.

'If there has been, as it appears on its face, to have been a significant breach, then (the) relevant state government department must be prosecuted,' lawyer and civil liberties advocate Terry O'Gorman said.

'Why did they make this information available in the first place? It just boggles the mind as to why there's even a necessity to publish this sort of information,' he said.

The leaking of the locations of dozens of crisis accommodation centres for women across NSW 'could be a matter of life and death', said a victims' support advocate.

'If government is really sharing information like this, it can have serious consequences,' Full Stop Australia chief executive Hayley Foster said.

Skeeve Stevens, a technology security specialist, saw the publicly available data in September and said he alerted cyber experts, who then told the NSW Government.

'If the wrong people got hold of this it could've been used for bad things,' he said.

566,318 location details collected by the NSW Customer Services Department through its QR code system were made public through a government website. Pictured is a man using a laptop computer to access the dark web

'Some of the scary things we were searching - firearms, armoury, federal police and where storage locations were - perhaps someone should've thought about what should and shouldn't have been disclosed.'

A notice on the NSW data website dated October 12, 2021 says: 'The Covid Safe Businesses and Organisations dataset has been discontinued. We have identified issues with integrity of the data.'

But there was no explanation as to what the 'integrity' issue was.

Though the NSW Government said it referred the matter to the Privacy Commissioner in October, Mr Perrottet said he was not told about what he called 'an issue' with the database until Monday.

Skeeve Stevens (pictured), a technology security specialist, saw the publicly available data in September and said he alerted cyber experts

The Premier said the data had been 'uploaded in error'.

'That was worked through Privacy Commissioner. My understanding is they were satisfied that the matter was resolved and that information was taken down. It shouldn't have happened,' Mr Perrottet said.

The NSW Government said the Privacy Commissioner told it 'the incident did not constitute a privacy breach'.

The state's Department of Customer Service said it classed less than one per cent of the 566,318 locations as sensitive. One per cent amounts to 5,663 addresses.

'These businesses were all contacted by telephone and letter. No issues of concern were raised by any recipients,' a department spokesperson said.
A Coalition senator has stood by a tweet encouraging a former Liberal staffer who accused a minister of bullying her during their affair to get 'lots of therapy'.

Hollie Hughes tweeted Rachelle Miller on Monday night in response to what she described as a series of messages on several social media platforms.

'Wow - you have some serious issues! Honey, lots of therapy,' she wrote.

Senator Hughes then went on to describe Ms Miller's abuse accusations against suspended education minister Alan Tudge as 'unfounded' and criticised her for not participating in a inquiry into the matter.

Former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller accused Alan Tudge MP (pictured together) of abusive affair. He denies all the allegations

Senator Hughes tweeted this response to Ms Miller on Monday night

'Stop making unfounded accusations then hiding behind false legal premises,' she wrote.

The NSW senator also accused Ms Miller - who has been supported by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young - of insulting various conservative women.

She urged her to speak out against Victoria premier Daniel Andrews who has denied bullying accusations from state Labor MP Kaushaliya Vaghela.

'But insulting women who you don't agree with - you'll fit right in with your new green mates. I notice silence about Chairman Dan as well,' Senator Hughes wrote.

Senator Hughes' tweet was a reply to a meme sent by Ms Miller which pictured Hyacinth Bucket from hit UK show Keeping Up Appearances. Ms Miller said Senator Hughes reminded her of the character

The tweet was immediately criticised by left-wing Twitter users but Senator Hughes did not delete it.

In a second tweet minutes later, she added: 'I also stand with Tudgey,' in reference to Mr Tudge who has strongly denied allegations he emotionally and on one occasion physically abused Ms Miller during their consensual affair while they were both married.

Senator Hughes' tweet was a reply to a meme sent by Ms Miller which pictured Hyacinth Bucket from hit UK show Keeping Up Appearances.

'Been bothering me for a while now who Hollie Hughes reminded me of! Finally got it,' Ms Miller wrote.

The ex-staffer sent the meme in response to a tweet by senator Hughes praising Jenny Morrison as 'all class' after her 60 Minutes interview on Sunday night.

The ex-staffer sent the meme in response to a tweet by senator Hughes praising Jenny Morrison as 'all class' after her 60 Minutes interview on Sunday night.

Senator Hughes said she has never met Ms Miller but the former staffer has 'consistently messaged' her on several platforms including LinkedIn.

'I'm a big supporter of people getting therapy and appreciate how beneficial it can be,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'I didn't mean to demean people who get therapy. I didn't mean any malice. It was a response to consistent messaging from her and the behaviour she has displayed towards me.

'I've never met the woman, she's very interested in what I have to say, she's messaging me on a variety of platforms.'

Senator Hughes said she was sick of the 'hypocrisy' of women on the left of politics who speak up for women's rights while simultaneously attacking conservative women such as Jenny Morrison on social media.

'It's the hypocrisy of it. Why is the absolute condemnation of women on the right 100 per cent acceptable?'

'Accusations that are made towards men of the right require no authentication.

'But when allegations are made towards Dan Andrews bullying women, these women are silent and through their silence condone the very behaviour they are trying to change.

'I'm tired of talking about this, I am so over this issue,' she said.
A pet snake worth a whopping $1,000 has been rescued from a street bin after it was abandoned in Sydney's CBD.

The diamond head python was spotted poking its way through a bin outside a Paddington barber shop on Sydney's busy Oxford Street on Monday morning.

Pictures show the two-metre long python, believed to have been dumped by its owner, slithering through the bin before a bystander places it in a leather bag.

A rare Diamond Head Python worth up to $1,000 has been spotted slithering through a street bin on Sydney's busy Oxford Street (pictured)

The unusual sighting in Sydney's inner-city has sparked concern from authorities and wildlife carers, as police investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Christian Parsa from Sydney Wildlife rescue said the snake would need to be taken to the vet and put on a course of anti-biotics before it is rehomed.

'He does have a couple of scratches and nicks, which do look like they were from the owner itself,' he told Nine News.

Sydney Wildlife Rescue said it was called to retrieve the snake on Monday morning after reports a diamond python had been dumped in a bin.

'Two of our rescuers arrived quickly but when they arrived the snake had been removed from the bin by a passer-by who retrieved the snake from the bin and placed in a hot leather bag,' it said.

'Several photos and videos later, the snake was taken away on his motorbike.'

'Police quickly tracked down the man and with their help, Sydney Wildlife Rescue have now taken the snake into care where it will be examined by a vet and treated accordingly.'

The two-metre long python believed to have been dumped by its owner, slithering through the bin before a bystander places it in a leather bag (pictured)

Sydney Wildlife rescue warned while the snake was non-venomous it can still bite and issued a reminder it is illegal to attempt to handle a snake in the wild.

'Over 80 per cent of snake bites in Australia occur when a person attempts to capture or harm a snake,' it said.

'If you have a wild animal in care that you can no longer care for there are better ways of disposing of them that ensure the welfare and safety of the animal and the public.'

Diamond head python's are native to Sydney and are usually found in coastal areas of New South Wales.

Under NSW law, it is illegal to keep the reptile's as pets without a valid licence issued by National Parks and Wildlife.
A toddler suffered horrific burns her toddler while playing on metal playground equipment in summer.

Vicki Butler and her daughter Lenny visited Milton Park Playground in Ingleburn, south-west Sydney, last month when her daughter suffered second degree burns.

Ms Butler was letting little Lenny 'explore on her own' in the playground when the toddler fell onto the metal carousel.

The worst of Lenny's burns were on her leg (above) and several weeks later she still needs frequent bandage changes

Unsheltered metal playground equipment can reach dangerously high temperatures as it retains heat.

'Due to the heat she received second degree burns on her leg, foot, fingers, opposite knee, and first degree burns on her arms,' Ms Butler wrote.

'She was only on there for a second before she pulled herself up.'

Ms Butler said the worst of Lenny's burns were on her leg and several weeks later she still needs frequent bandage changes.

'Besides when it first happened and at bandage changes, Lenny doesn't show any distress and is fine,' she said.

Vicki Butler and her daughter Lenny visited Milton Park Playground in Ingleburn when the toddler fell onto a metal carousel (above) and suffered second and first degree burns

Ms Butler said the incident was eye-opening and called for metal equipment to be removed from playgrounds in high temperature areas and for more shade to be provided.

'In our climate these materials should not be used in children's playgrounds,' she said.

'Furthermore, there should be more shade. The shade might not have prevented the injuries but it would have provided some relief.'

Ms Butler said she shared her daughter's story as a warning to other parents.

'I would hate for this to happen to another person especially if they are unable to get up as fast. It could have easily been so much worse,' she said.

'It's not something that even occurred to me to be careful of.'

Ms Butler's action led to a discussion with Campbelltown Council about how to improve the playground's safety.

'(They're) seeing what they can do to make sure this doesn't happen again,' she said.
A man who suffered horrific abuse at the hands of a Catholic religious order has secured a record 1.4million in compensation.

The 54-year-old, known only as AB, was sexually assaulted by religious brothers John Farrell, Paul Kelly and Gerard Ryan.

It occurred during a 14-month spell while he was boarding at St Ninians School in Falkland, Fife, which was run by the Christian Brothers  a religious teaching order within the Catholic Church.

AB was raped, molested and beaten by all three teachers. They would also frequently play the song Ashes to Ashes by David Bowie during their attacks. The Christian Brothers tried to have the legal case against them thrown out at the All Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court.

John Farrell, (left) and Paul Kelly, (right) were convicted of several charges against six former pupils of St Ninian's School in Falkland, Fife, after a long-running trial at the High Court in Glasgow

But Sheriff Christopher Dickson dismissed the attempt and ordered it to pay damages of 1.39million.

It is believed to be the highest sum ever awarded to a survivor of abuse.

In 2016 Farrell was convicted of four abuse charges and jailed for five years while Kelly was convicted of six and got ten years. Ryan died in 2013 before he could be investigated.

ABs evidence did not play a part in the convictions but Sheriff Dickson ruled the abuse did occur due to the volume of supporting evidence gathered.

The police investigation into St Ninian's began in 2013 after officers received three separate complaints of sexual abuse from former pupils. Pictured, the St Ninian's building, which closed in 1983

AB said: Finally, after 40 years, I have been acknowledged and those responsible can be exposed.

Describing speaking to the police, he said: It was terrifying but empowering. Exhausting but freeing. Painful but therapeutic. Ill always feel the pain. But at least now Im not alone. I am supported.

And I can now slowly look to the future instead of being chained to my past.

Last year the school was described as a place of abuse and deprivation by Judge Lady Smith in a ruling from the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. She ruled children had suffered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and said the evidence was distressing.

Kim Leslie, of law firm Digby Brown, said: Were not aware of any higher sums ever being awarded to a survivor so this settlement is truly a landmark one.
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Thousands of public hospital nurses are walking off the job in NSW, saying they are stretched too thin to give patients the care they deserve, especially in a pandemic.

Around 150 public hospitals will be affected by the action from 7am on Tuesday with a skeleton staff working to ensure patient safety.

Thousands of nurses will rally outside NSW Parliament House to take their message to MPs as they return to Macquarie Street for the first sitting day of the year.

The strike is in defiance of an 11th hour ruling by the state's Industrial Relations Commission which on Monday ordered the union to refrain from any industrial action.

Thousands of public hospital nurses have walked off the job in NSW to strike against Covid-induced staff shortages (pictured)

Nurses flocked to NSW Parliament House on Monday with banners to protest being 'stretched to thin' in the workplace (pictured)

One nurse donned her PPE equipment as part of the protest to demonstrate the tough working conditions faced by nurses amid the pandemic

Nurses have swarmed the streets with banners calling on politicians to act, with banners reading 'nurses save lives'

One nurse made reference to a long-held rumour that Scott Morrison soiled himself at a fast food restaurant in the 1990s

One person took aim at Scott Morrison, demanding he consult his wife Jenny about safe staffing levels

While the nurses say the burden of Covid is overwhelming, figures show the number of people with Covid in hospital statewide has fallen by 46 per cent in the past three weeks; from 2,932 on January 25 to 1,583 on Tuesday.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard met with the union on Monday in an attempt to avert the action over nurse-to-patient ratios and pay and says he's disappointed by the strike is proceeding.

'It's unfortunate ... there's been all sorts of efforts to try and work our way through their principal issues,' he told Sydney radio 2GB on Tuesday.

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association General Secretary Brett Holmes says nurses have made the 'difficult' decision to strike because they are stretched to the limit.

Many of the healthcare workers held signs reading 'ratios, it's a matter of life or death' while others claimed the government was 'heartless'

One woman said nurses are 'not coping', despite previous claims from the NSW government the health care system was able to manage the Omicron wave

Many protesters held placards denouncing the Perrottet government, with one nurse claiming healthworkers are 'sacrificial lambs'

One nurse attending the rally said the system is 'broken' and the conditions they are expected to work in are 'inhumane'

'They want significant change to occur and they need it to start happening now,' he said.

'They are so angry about what they've experienced and their fear for the future is it's not going to get better without significant change.'

Nurses want one nurse to every four patients on every shift and a pay increase above the government's prescribed public sector offer of 2.5 per cent.

Mr Holmes says any agreement would have to ensure 'that nurses and midwives can go to work every day, knowing that there will be enough of them to deliver safe patient care'.

Some nurses said the staff shortages were putting patients lives at risk while other signs said the job was the lowest paid but highest in demand

One placard said the health care system was already understaffed prior to the Covid-19 pandemic

One woman called on NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet to increase the workforce with the pun 'try giving a shift'

Four nurses wearing masks and sunglasses raise their banners as they march outside NSW Parliament house

Others said the praise nurses receive is not enough to compensate for their wages nor fund incoming bills

Mr Hazzard agrees there needs to be enough nurses to ensure patients are safely cared for but says the union's demands would cost around $1 billion.

'I still need to be able to manage taxpayers' dollars and make sure it works,' he said.

Nicole Richardson, a registered nurse and midwife who works at Gosford Hospital, on the Central Coast is joining the strike.

'It's inhumane what is expected of us,' she said.

'We are not cuddling babies. We are trained, professional nurses and midwives trying to work in a broken system.'

Premier Dominic Perrottet says the patient ratios the union wants aren't effective, and the system hadn't worked well in other states.

Health care workers called for the NSW Premier to walk a day in their shoes to understand the demands of their job

One cartoon suggested the healthcare system was burning while Dominic Perrottet and Scott Morrison ignore the situation

NSW nurses strike in defiance of Industrial Relations Commission ruling. The union says current staffing levels are inadequate, unsafe and putting patients at risk

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns (fourth left) poses for a photograph with nurses as they hold placards during a nurses' strike outsid

Some hospital workers, like those at Byron Central Hospital, support the strike but won't leave their nurses' stations over concerns they already don't have enough staff to provide the required care.

Liz McCall, a senior nurse at Byron Central and a union delegate, said the difficult work conditions had prompted many nurses to become politically active for the first time.

Many senior nurses had resigned or retired early during the Covid pandemic because of their workloads, leaving a major gap in nursing experience.

'We can't provide the care we want to give - it's really scary,' said Ms McCall, who has been a registered nurse for more than 40 years.

Nurses from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association hold up a placard to represent their workplace

Nurses want one nurse to every four patients on every shift and a pay increase above the government's prescribed public sector offer of 2.5 per cent
Free lateral flow tests are set to be scrapped in England from next month under the Government's plan to learn to live with Covid, it was claimed today.

Leaked documents last month hinted that mass testing would stick around until at least July before being limited to care homes, hospitals and schools.

But Whitehall sources say the scheme could be ditched months earlier because the Treasury wants to slash annual Covid spending by 90 per cent  from 15billion to 1.5bn.

Free PCR tests could also be abandoned from March 31, but may remain available to more than a million extremely vulnerable patients, as well as in hospitals.

Ministers are also considering scrapping routine contact tracing, according to the Guardian.

Ministers are using the Parliamentary recess to draft their living with Covid strategy and are due to unveil it on February 21 in the House of Commons.

Boris Johnson has vowed to make England the freest country in the world after fears about the Omicron wave never materialised.

Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths have been trending downwards for weeks, with just 41,648 infections, 35 deaths and 1,413 admissions logged yesterday.

Commenting on the reports, a No10 spokesperson said today that a 'final decision' on Covid testing has not been made. They added that it will come to an end 'at the right moment'.

The Government's 'Living Safely With Covid' strategy', due to be unveiled next week, will mean PCR testing will be limited to those who are most vulnerable or in high-risk settings. Pictured: People queue at at Covid testing site in London

Free Covid lateral flow tests will be scrapped under new plans being drafted by ministers. (Stock image)

Covid testing has formed the backbone of the UK's strategy for fighting the pandemic, allowing people to check whether they have the virus and if they need to self-isolate.

It was ramped up under 'Operation Moonshot', which saw ministers make swabs widely available across the country.

But it saw the UK spend in the region of 6billion on lateral flow tests alone  with a pack of seven swabs costing around 20.

It is not clear how much was spent on PCR swabs.

Daily Covid cases fall for 13th day in a row Britain's daily Covid cases fell for the 13th day in a row yesterday, while hospitalisations and deaths also continued to trend downwards as the Omicron wave subsides. Government dashboard data shows another 41,648 infections were officially recorded, down 28 per cent on last Monday. Cases have fallen week-on-week on every day since February 1. The UK is now recording about 55,500 Covid cases every day, on average, which is about the same level as in mid-December when Omicron was just starting to take off. There were also a further 35 deaths recorded, marking a 22 per cent fall in a week. But virus deaths are usually artificially lower on Mondays due to NHS recording lags. The seven-day average number of deaths now sits at 178  almost four times lower than this time last year, before vaccines were widely available. Latest hospital data also shows there were 1,413 admissions on February 8, down 17 per cent on a week beforehand. The tumbling statistics come as ministers use the Parliamentary recess to draft their strategy to learn to 'live with Covid' like flu, which is due to be unveiled on February 21. Advertisement

Under plans to 'live with' Covid, Whitehall sources told the Guardian that ministers are now looking to wind down systems set up at the height of the pandemic.

Advice to take a Covid test before going to a social event looks to be one of the first measures to be dropped, as well as the need to produce two negative tests to release from isolation early.

Senior cabinet ministers are set to attend a 'Quad' meeting today to discuss the proposals.

They will then be put to the UK's four chief medical officers tomorrow, and finalised on Friday.

A 'Covid-O' meeting, chaired by Michael Gove, will also take place on Sunday to make any final tweaks to the measures.

Mr Johnson said before Parliament broke up last week that the Government would press ahead with plans to live with Covid so long as the data continued to trend in the right direction.

Yesterday Covid cases dropped for the 13th day in a row, with 41,648 new positive tests recorded.

There were also a further 35 deaths, marking a 22 per cent fall in a week.

Latest hospital data also showed there were 1,413 admissions on February 8, down 17 per cent on a week beforehand.

Asked yesterday if he was planning to scrap free PCR tests, the Prime Minister said: 'We'll continue to work with our colleagues in Scotland but I believe the similarities in our approach vastly outweigh the differences'.

A No10 spokesman told the Guardian: 'We haven't made any final decisions on the future of testing.

'We have said free testing will come to an end at the right moment. Those decisions need to be made this week in terms of exactly when that time is, what comes to an end and what is retained.

'All of that will be considered and we will set it out in the strategy. We will retain the ability to monitor coronavirus as we do other viruses.'

Government health officials are concerned that dumping free Covid tests will undermine the UK's 'test to treat' strategy.

This sees the most vulnerable people who test positive for Covid offered antiviral drugs  molnupiravir and paxlovid  to kill off an infection.

A Whitehall source said Covid antivirals were one of the main tools for 'learning to live with' Covid.

They added: 'If [the Treasury] basically put this trial in the bin, it's very short-sighted.'

Contingency plans are also likely to be included to ensure testing can be ramped back up if a new Covid variant emerges.

However the plans are still in 'live discussion' among ministers and final decisions about the strategy are yet to be made, a source told The Times.

Last month Professor Iain Buchan, chair in public health at the University of Liverpool who led a trial of lateral flow tests in the city, said Britain's approach of making the tests freely available for months, unlike many other countries, had been a success, and cautioned against introducing charges for tests.

He warned: 'Viruses move quicker than free market economics.'

And Professor Jason Leitch, Scotland's national clinical director, said it is 'too early' to decide whether free lateral flow tests can come to an end.

Earlier this month Boris Johnson piled the pressure on Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford to scrap the last remaining Covid curbs after the Prime Minister dramatically announced his intention to axe all virus restrictions in England by the end of the month.
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny today goes on trial for embezzlement charges in what critics of Putin believe is a hearing specially scheduled to coincide with the furore surrounding Ukraine.

Navalny, 45, faces a special hearing inside a prison in Pokrov near Moscow where he is currently serving a two-and-a-half year sentence on fraud charges widely thought to be unfounded.

If he is ultimately found guilty of embezzlement, Putin's most prolific political opponent could be jailed until 2032.

Now supporters of Navalny are claiming the 'open' trial, which will see the dissident take the stand in prison, was deliberately organised at a time when most media attention is focused on the escalating tensions around Ukraine.

Maria Pevchikh, one of Navalny's closest supporters and head of the investigative unit of the Anti-Corruption Foundation he created in 2011, also speculated on Twitter that a long-term sentence may give rise to another attempt on his life.

'We should hope it's just the trial they are disguising and distracting us from, not something worse. Which, again, is not that crazy to expect,' Pevchikh wrote.

'Putin did order to kill Navalny once and managed to get away with it. The line has been crossed. Nothing stops Putin from doing it again.'

The fraud case which first landed Navalny in prison began in December 2020, while the 45-year-old was recovering in Germany after narrowly surviving a nerve agent poisoning likely orchestrated by Russian agents.

Russian dissident Alexei Navalny today goes on trial for embezzlement charges in what critics of Putin believe is a specially scheduled hearing to coincide with the furore surrounding Ukraine (Navalny pictured Feb. 20, 2021)

Navalny, 45, faces a special hearing inside the Pokrov prison where he is currently serving a two-and-a-half year sentence on fraud charges widely thought to be unfounded (Navalny pictured Feb 2021)

'We should hope it's just the trial they are disguising and distracting us from, not something worse. Which, again, is not that crazy to expect,' Navalny ally Maria Pevchikh wrote. 'Putin did order to kill Navalny once and managed to get away with it. The line has been crossed. Nothing stops Putin from doing it again' (Putin pictured Feb 7, 2022)

Maria Pevchikh, one of Navalny's closest supporters and head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation he created in 2011, speculated on Twitter that a long-term sentence may give rise to another attempt on his life

Investigators accuse Navalny of stealing for personal use more than $4.7 million (3.4 million) in donations to his political organisations.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, but Navalny also faces an extra six months for contempt of court during one of his hearings last year.

Most commentators however believe Navalny is innocent of the charges and accuse Russian authorities of manufacturing a case to silence the dissident's criticism of President Putin.

In an extensive Twitter threat, Pevchikh said Putin could use the Ukraine crisis to distract the world's media as he deals a major blow to Navalny, and in doing so, a major blow to the anti-Kremlin movement.

'The key to saving Navalnys life is constant uninterrupted attention. There isnt a better moment for Putin to get rid of his main enemy than the moment when the world is looking elsewhere, at something he is doing with his other hand,' she said.

The investigative journalist also described Navalny's charges as 'rubbish' and declared '[Russian authorities] can't even falsify charges because there's nothing to pin them on. Navalny is innocent.'

Meanwhile, Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya lashed out at Russian authorities yesterday on the eve of his trial after she learned she would not be able to attend.

'Listen you, cowards and scoundrels! I demand that I am allowed to attend my husband's trial,' Yulia, 45, said on Instagram.

Family and journalists have been barred from the trial.

Yulia said the new case is 'so pathetic they are afraid to hold the trial in Moscow'.

'My husband is an honest man. And they are keeping him in prison because he is not afraid of this government,' Yulia added.

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the Russian jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, attends an opposition rally in Moscow, Russia, 21 April 2021

Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya lashed out at Russian authorities yesterday on the eve of his trial after she learned she would not be able to attend. 'Listen you, cowards and scoundrels! I demand that I am allowed to attend my husband's trial,' Yulia, 45, said on Instagram. 'My husband is an honest man. And they are keeping him in prison because he is not afraid of this government' (Alexei and Yulia pictured September 2020)

Alexei and Yuliya have been married for more than 20 years and have two children together.

Navalny's poisoning and arrest sparked widespread condemnation abroad as well as sanctions from Western capitals.

Russian authorities last June branded Navalny's political organisations 'extremist', prompting his team to shut down the regional network that supported his political campaigns and corruption investigations.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was set up by Navalny in 2001 and whose investigations are overseen by Pevchikh, was officially liquidated by the Moscow City Court.
A protester who was arrested during anti-vaccination protests in Canberra on the weekend was found with a firearm, ammunition and a map of Parliament House.

Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw told a Senate estimates hearing there was significant concern about the arrest.

The arrest was made as more than 10,000 people descended on Parliament House on Saturday, shutting down major roads and causing widespread disruption across Canberra.

Another man was arrested at Saturday's protest after he rammed a barricade with a truck, with officers having to smash a window to get the man out of the vehicle.

An anti-vaccination rally in Canberra on Saturday where protesters held placards and waved flags associated with far-right groups (pictured)

Commissioner Kershaw said overall protesters were well behaved during the demonstration, but there a number of people were identified from police intelligence.

'We had specific information on some of those... and that was how we were able to work with the state police intelligence agencies as well who were able to help us with the numbers coming into Canberra,' he said.

'We were concerned when the number started to swell, and then some of the intentions were not clear, they were not a coordinated group, which actually presents a different challenge for us.'

The commissioner said about 200 AFP officers were involved in policing efforts during the protests.

The protesters were part of the Convoy to Canberra, which has been carrying out rallies and disruptions across the city for two weeks.

Saturday's protests were the largest involving the group.

Thousands had been staying on campgrounds in Canberra's north but were evicted on Sunday by police, due to the grounds being needed for the upcoming Canberra Show.
Photo taken on Feb. 10, 2022 shows a displaced person camp in Nahr Shahi district of Balkh province, southern Afghanistan. (Photo by Kawa Basharat/Xinhua)

by Xinhua writers Zheng Xin, Shi Xiantao

KABUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Washington's latest decision to divert billions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets to the families of 9/11 victims is rubbing salt into the wounds of millions of suffering Afghan people.

Couching the theft as "aid" in a self-righteous statement, the White House claimed the haul is "to be used to benefit the Afghan people," and that the United States is "committed to supporting the Afghan people" and continues to "consider all options available to us to achieve that goal."

And even though the people of Afghanistan had nothing to do with the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Washington decided to withhold half of the roughly 7-billion-U.S. dollars in assets from Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) for alleged compensation for U.S. victims.

Following its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, the United States has frozen more than 9 billion dollars of DAB assets. The move is widely seen as the primary factor leading to the current economic crisis and humanitarian disaster in the war-torn Asian country of some 39 million people.

Mohammad Naeem, a spokesperson of the Taliban political office in Qatar, tweeted that "stealing the blocked funds of Afghan nation by the United States and its seizure is indicative of the lowest level of human and moral decay of a country and a nation."

The world's wealthiest superpower is stealing from the pockets of a poor country, repeating a history of theft that has trampled on legal, moral and humanistic principles.

In the military campaign that lasted 20 years, more than 30,000 civilians in Afghanistan were killed by U.S. forces or have died due to U.S.-led warfare, and some 11 million people have been displaced.

The day before the evacuation from Afghanistan, a U.S. drone strike on a Kabul home in August 2021 killed 10 civilians, including seven children.

The people of Afghanistan, who have been devastated and separated from their loved ones and their families, cannot hold the U.S. military accountable, let alone receive compensation.

As Afghan political analyst Nazari Pariani noted, in the so-called "war on terror" led by the United States, not only were a colossal number of Afghan civilians killed, the number of Afghanistan's terrorist organizations increased from a single-digit number to more than 20 during the U.S. military presence. Instead of uprooting terrorism, the United States had been fanning it.

A report released in August 2021 by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said that the United States had invested 145 billion dollars in Afghanistan's reconstruction. But after 20 years, Afghanistan is left with a depleted economy, crumbling infrastructure, backward industry and a worsening crisis.

Before the troop withdrawal in 2021, statistics showed that 72 percent of the Afghan population lived below the poverty line, unemployment was 38 percent and 3.5 million children were out of school.

The reason why the United States had so little success in rebuilding Afghanistan is simple: the funds deployed were not used to improve the livelihoods of the Afghan people. According to a New York Times report, about 12 percent of U.S. reconstruction aid to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2021 had gone to the Afghan government, with most of the rest going into the pockets of U.S. companies.

Afghanistan is facing "an avalanche of hunger and poverty." The latest statistics from the United Nations World Food Program show that 22.8 million Afghans face acute food insecurity, and many families can not survive.

From casualties and inflicting trauma to fanning terrorism and looting the country's assets, Washington seems utterly oblivious to the suffering of the Afghan people, taking on a "moral high ground" and once again plundering the starving Afghan people of live-saving cash without a tinge of guilt.

It is the latest episode in yet another season of the U.S. wrecking havoc on Afghanistan, a tragedy that is truly a silent massacre. 
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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A disgraced former US Navy nuclear engineer has turned on his wife after admitting to selling classified information to a foreign country, and will now help prosecutors probing his spouse for the same offenses.

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, pleaded guilty in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to a single count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data over his attempts to sell the documents to a friendly foreign power, suspected to be France. The sentencing range agreed to by lawyers calls for a potential punishment between roughly 12 years and 17 years in prison.

Toebbe admitted that he 'conspired with Diana Toebbe' - his wife - in the scheme, despite the teacher's repeated denials that she was involved. He has also now agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, likely as part of the plea deal that resulted in his light sentence.

That will involve supplying details which could further incriminate Diana. It is unclear if the couple have spoken since being jailed, and whether their marriage remains intact.

Toebbe and his wife, Diana, of Annapolis Maryland, were arrested in October of last year after prosecutors said he abused his access to top-secret government information and repeatedly sold details about the design elements and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarines.

The foreign nation they'd contacted - believed to be France, but never confirmed - told FBI investigators of Toebbe's ploy. An undercover FBI agent then posed as an agent of the foreign country in an elaborate sting which ended with the couple's arrests.

Toebbe acknowledged during the plea hearing to conspiring to pass classified information to a foreign government in exchange for money with the intent to 'injure the United States.'

'Yes, your honor,' Toebbe said when asked if he considered himself guilty.

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. government in exchange for reduced time in prison after pleading guilty to a felony count in federal court on Monday for selling information about nuclear submarines to a foreign country in exchange for millions of dollars of cryptocurrency

Jonathan Toebbe, pictured in his boking photo at West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. Federal prosecutors accused him and his wife Diana Toebbe in a plot to sell sensitive U.S. submarine secrets to a foreign government

Diana Toebbe. is pictured in her booking photo at the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. A West Virginia judge granted a detention request from prosecutors Tuesday, meaning she and her husband will remain behind bars for now

The leaked secrets contained 'militarily sensitive design elements, operating parameters and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors,' according to a federal court affidavit

The FBI has said the scheme began in April 2020, when Jonathan Toebbe sent a package of Navy documents to a foreign government and wrote that he was interested in selling to that country operations manuals, performance reports and other sensitive information.

That package was obtained by the FBI last December through its legal attache office in the unspecified foreign country.

That set off a monthlong undercover operation in which an agent posing as a representative of a foreign country made contact with Toebbe and agreed to pay $100,000 in cryptocurrency for the information Toebbe was offering. Toebbe was already paid $70,000 before he was caught.

Diana Toebbe was accused of serving as an accomplice and a 'lookout' at several prearranged 'dead-drop' locations at which her husband deposited memory cards containing government secrets, concealing them in objects such as a chewing gum wrapper and a peanut butter sandwich.

She has pleaded not guilty and the case against her remains pending.

The country to which Jonathan Toebbe was looking to sell the information still has not been identified in court documents and was not disclosed in court during the plea hearing Monday.

Only six countries currently operate nuclear-powered submarines  China, France, India, Russia, the UK and the US. The US and UK are set to provide Australia with the technology to deploy nuclear-powered submarines, as part of the first initiative under the new trilateral security partnership AUKUS.

The Toebbes had discussed fleeing abroad, and mentioned practicing their foreign language skills in texts obtained by investigators. They speak French, further fueling speculation that they'd tried to sell the secrets to the European nation.

The unidentified foreign government sat on the documents before turning them over to the US in December 2020, after the election. The FBI then conducted a sting operation to catch the Toebbes attempting to spill more government secrets

The residence of Jonathan and Diana Toebbe is shown on Sunday in Annapolis, Maryland

A bird's eye show of Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory lab, where the FBI claims is the only place where Toebbe could have obtained the classified information on US nuclear subs. Toebbe has worked on naval nuclear propulsion since 2012, including a 15-month tenure in the office of the chief of naval operations

Prior to the new deal, which ignited a diplomatic row between Washington and Paris, the US had only shared the technology of its submarines with Britain. Each of these underwater craft costs an estimated $3billion to build.

The country the Toebbes were allegedly trying to sell the nuclear secrets to is not clear and neither are their motivations.

Some experts suggested that the Toebbes were trying to sell the information to France, but French officials said they were not involved in the incident, according to the New York Times.

However, court documents suggest that the country was most likely an ally or neutral government because it cooperated with the FBI during the sting operation to expose the Toebbes.

Toebbe, who as part of his job had a top-secret security clearance, agreed as part of the plea deal to help federal officials with locating all classified information in his possession, as well as the roughly $100,000 in cryptocurrency that was paid to him by the FBI.

FBI agents who searched the couple's Annapolis, Maryland, home found a trash bag of shredded documents, thousands of dollars in cash, valid children's passports and a 'go-bag' containing a USB flash drive and latex gloves.

Shocking emails exchanged between Jonathan Toebbe and undercover FBI agent reveal his plot to sell US nuclear secrets

On December 26, 2020, the FBI initiated the first of several emails to 'ALICE' on ProtonMail. The FBI utilized a ProtonMail account utilizing the pseudo name 'BOB.' The email stated, 'We received your letter. We want to work with you. It has been many months, so we need to know if you are still out there. Please respond to this message, then we will provide instructions on how to proceed.'

On February 10, 2021, 'ALICE' responded and stated, 'Thank you for contacting me. I am still here. The covid disease has made it more difficult to find chances to check this email. Let us discuss how to proceed.'

On February 24, 2021, an FBI agent acting in an undercover capacity ('the UC') responded and stated, 'We understand the delay and hope you are well. Our experts reviewed the information you provided. We would like to sample your [US. Navy Information  Specific Sections].' We have a trusted friend in your country who has a gift for you to compensate for your efforts...

On March 5, 2021, 'ALICE' replied with the following. ' I am uncomfortable with this arrangement. Face to face meetings are very risky for me, as I am sure you understand. I propose exchanging gifts electronically, for mutual safety. I can upload documents to a secure cloud storage account, encrypted with the key I have provided you. You can send me a suitable gift in Monero cryptocurrency to an address I will provide. 100,000 usd should be enough to prove to me that you are not an unwelcome third party looking to make trouble for me. When I have confirmed receipt of your gift, I will provide you with the download link. We are both protected. I understand this is a large request. However, please remember I am risking my life for your benefit and I have taken the first step. Please help me trust you fully.'

On March 18, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 wrote, 'We understand a face to face meeting would be uncomfortable. We suggest a neutral drop location. When you visit the location alone, you retrieve a g~fi and leave behind the sample we request. We hope to have a very long friendship that benefits mutually.'

On March 22, 2021, 'ALICE' replied. 'I understand your proposal to start a dead drop. I am concerned that using a dead drop location your friend prepares makes me very vulnerable. If other interested parties are observing the location, I will be unable to detect them. I am not a professional, and do not have a team supporting me. I am also concerned that a physical gift would be very difficult to explain if I am questioned. For now, I must consider the possibility that you are not the person I hope you are. It would be very easy for the serial numbers of bills to be recorded. Tracking devices and other nasty surprises must be considered as well. I propose to mod~ your plan in the following ways:

1. I will place the sample you requested on a memory card and place it in a drop location of my choosing... . I am not a professional and I am sure that publicly available information on this subject is incomplete.

2. The samples will be encrypted using GnuPG symmetric encryption with a randomly generated passphrase.

3. I will tell you the location and how to find the card. I will also give you a Monero address. This form of gift protects both of us very well. I am very aware of the risks of blockchain analysis of BitCoin and other cryptocurrencies, and believe Monero gives both of us excellent deniability.

4. Once I confirm receipt of my gift, I will give you the passphrase.

Your friend and I will never go to the same drop location twice. I will give you a new Monero address each time. The decryption key will be different each time. No patterns for third parties to observe. The only electronic footprints will be Proton to Proton, so there is less risk of encrypted traffic being collected for future analysis by third parties. That part is not perfect. Perhaps as our friendship develops we will change addresses periodically?'

On April 1, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 responded to 'ALICE' and stated, 'We understand your concern and appreciate the thoughtful plan... as a sign of good faith and trust we wish to pay you the equivalent of 10,000 USD immediately on Monero to address you provided.

Drop locations are safest and allow us to make exchanges without coming in contact and of course leave no electronic footprint... Your proposed method of memory card with encryption/passphrases is acceptable. For the small sample we requested you will receive another 20,000 USD. Once you confirm Monero address we will activate payment. Our next step will be information on the drop location we have selected. This method will build trust between usfor a larger transaction in future. Our experts are interested in the information you have but we insist on maintaining our discretion and security as a priority.'

On April 9, 2021, 'ALICE' wrote, 'I am sorry to be so stubborn and untrusting, but I can not agree to go to a location of your choosing. I must consider the possibility that l am communicating with an adversary who has intercepted my first message and is attempting to expose me. Would not such an adversary wish me to go to a place of his choosing, knowing that an amateur will be unlikely to detect his surveillance? If you insist on physically delivering the package, then it must be a place of my choosing.

I ask you to consider the viability of an electronic dead drop. I can establish an encrypted online storage account without providing any identifying information and without provoking any suspicion...Another possibility occurs to me: is there some physical signal you can make that proves your identity to me? I could plan to visit Washington D.C. over the Memorial Day weekend. I would just be another tourist in the crowd. Perhaps you could fly a signal flag on your roof? Something easily observable from the street, but nothing to arouse an adversary's suspicion?... '.

On April 23, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 emailed the following: 'You do not need to apologize. We appreciate you being careful. That is much better than someone reckless. Your thoughtful plans indicate you are not amateur. This relationship requires mutual comfort. There is risk on both sides and we understand your need for safety assurance of who you are communicating with. As you suggest we can accommodate a signal in Washington D.C. over the Memorial Day weekend. We will set a signal from our main building observable from the street. It will bring you comfort with signals on display from the area inside our property that we control and not a [sic] adversary. If you agree please acknowledge. We will then provide more instruction about the signal. We hope this plan will continue to build the necessary trust and comfort of our identity.'

On May 5, 2021 'ALICE' wrote, 'I will make plans to be in the capitol [sic] over the Memorial Day weekend. It would be best to leave the signal visible for the entire holiday weekend so I can plan to pass by in the natural course of my tourist day. I may be on foot or passing by in a bus or car or bicycle, so please plan for something easy to spot.

On May 17, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 responded and said, in part, 'We are happy to set a signal to bring you comfort and build necessary trust between us. The signal will be inside our main building from Saturday morning until Sunday evening Memorial Day weekend.'

During the weekend of May 29-30, 2021, the FBI conducted an operation in the Washington, D.C. area that involved placing a signal at a location associated with COUNTRY1 in an attempted effort to gain bona fides with 'ALICE.'

On May 31, 2021, the FBI received confirmation via the ProtonMail from 'ALICE' that the signal was received. 'ALICE' also wrote that, 'Now Jam comfortably telling you your assumption that Pittsburgh would be a convenient location for me is incorrect.. for now I can tell you I am located near Baltimore, Maryland. Please let me know when you are ready to proceed with our first exchange. Once you have dropped location details for me, I will give you the Monero address and prepare the sample you have requested.' 'ALICE' went on to request clarity of the U.S. Navy information requested by the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1.

On June 4, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 requested the Monero address to provide 'ALICE' a payment of $10,000 USD as a sign of good faith and trust. The UC also informed 'ALICE' that new communication instructions would be provided at the exchange location.

On June 8, 2021, 'ALICE' wrote that, 'For maximum security it is very important that you do not send Monero to the same address twice.' 'ALICE' then provided the FBI with a payment address. 'ALICE' then went on to state, 'I will place information you have requested~ encrypted, on a memory card along with the address for the second payment you offered in a plain text file. After I confirm the second payment I will provide you with the decryption passphrase using the new communication method. I am also excited to continue our relationship...'

On June 10, 2021, the FBI paid 'ALICE' approximately $10,000 USD in Monero cryptocurrency.

On June 17, 2021, 'ALICE' thanked the FBI for the first payment and stated that he/she was 'eagerly waiting for your instructions.'

On June 18, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 emailed 'ALICE' to provide detailed instructions on servicing a dead drop location in Jefferson County, West Virginia to occur on June 26, 2021.

The UC discussed instructions regarding the next payment to 'ALICE' as well as additional assurance that 'ALICE' would be paid $20,000 upon the sample verification and authenticity of the information provided at the drop location.

On June 23, 2021, 'ALICE' sent the FBI a confirmation email stating, 'I understand your instructions and am ready to move forward.'

On June 26, 2021, at approximately 10.41 a.m., the FBI observed Jonathan Toebbe physically service a dead drop location in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Records show that Jonathan Toebbe is a government employee working as a nuclear engineer for the United States Navy and holds an active Top Secret Security Clearance through the United States Department of Defense and an active Q clearance from the United States Department of Energy.
A former U.S. Marine captain who was convicted of traveling to Cambodia to have sex with children as young as nine has been sentenced to 210 years in federal prison.

Michael Pepe, 68, a former resident of Oxnard, California, was sentenced in Los Angeles federal court for sexually abusing and drugging his victims, who were under the age of 13 at the time.

Pepe was living and teaching English in Cambodia when he was arrested in 2006 and has been in federal custody since 2007.

He was convicted in August after eight women testified that Pepe sexually abused them when they were as young as nine.

Some said they were drugged, tied up, beaten and raped, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.

'What he did to those pre-teen girls...was torture,' the judge said.

Michael Pepe, a former U.S. Marine captain who was convicted of traveling to Cambodia to have sex with children as young as nine has been sentenced to 210 years in federal prison

Pepe was previously convicted in 2008 of a federal statute that punishes US citizens who travel overseas to engage in sex with minors after the victims were flown to the US and testified with the help of an interpreter.

Pepe was sentenced in 2014, six years later, because of a delay caused by the revelation that the interpreter Ann Luong Spiratos and Gary J. Phillips, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were in a relationship, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Defense attorneys argued the relationship impact the testimony of the victims but a judge concluded the trial was conducted fairly.

Then in 2018, Pepe's previous conviction and life sentence were overturned on appeal by the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals after it was found prosecutors did not show the ex-Marine was 'traveling' when he assaulted the girls, according to the New York Post.

Prosecutors retried the case in 2021 and charged Pepe with two counts of traveling in a foreign country with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.

He was convicted of these offences following the retrial in August last year and on Monday was sentenced to 210 years in a federal prison.
Jailed 'fake heiress' Anna Sorokin has revealed she's spent the $320,000 she was paid by Netflix to adapt her story on restitution and legal fees.

Sorokin, 31, says she handed over $198,000 of the 'consultation' cash for drama series Inventing Anna on fines to her victims, and blew the remainder on lawyers' fees, moments after telling the New York Times that crime did pay.

She spent two years behind bars for fraud, was released in February 2021, then re-arrested and jailed six weeks later for overstaying her visa.

Russian-born Sorokin, who also revealed her friendship with Kanye West's latest ex Julia Fox, was arrested in 2017 after defrauding banks and failing to pay Manhattan hotel bills.

In 2019 she was convicted on eight counts and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison; she was released in February 2021. After her ICE arrest, she was sent to a jail in New York, and is currently at the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen.

A Netflix show of her life, Inventing Anna, was released on Friday and is currently the most-viewed show in the U.S.

Anna Sorokin is seen in April 2019 in court in Manhattan, accused of grand larceny and theft

Sorokin is seen at her sentencing in April 2019, when a judge ruled she should serve four to 12 years in state prison. She served two, and was released in February 2021 - but jailed again by ICE six weeks later

Sorokin, who claimed to be a German heiress with a $67 million trust fund, told The New York Times that crime does pay, because Netflix paid her $320,000 for the rights to her story. She said the money went to restitution and paying her legal fees

Sorokin, who conned people out of $200,000 by claiming to be a German heiress, was asked on Monday about her $320,000 fee for the show.

'To reference that BBC interview where I was asked Does crime pay?, I could not honestly say no, in my situation, because I did get paid,' she told The New York Times.

Inventing Anna was released on Friday

'For me to say no would just be denying the obvious. I didnt say that crime pays in general.'

Sorokin wavered when asked if she was sorry for her financial fraud and lies, saying merely that she was sorry about how she was seen.

'I feel sorry for the way my case is being perceived. And I feel sorry that I resorted to these actions that people think Im glorifying now,' she said, adding that she was sorry for herself.

'I feel sorry for the choices Ive made. Definitely, I dont feel like the world would be a better place if people were just trying to be more like me.'

She added: 'With the benefit of hindsight, I would have changed lots of things, but this is just not how life works. So I am just building on my experiences and learning from them.'

Sorokin said that being in prison gave her a different perspective on life.

'I feel like I changed immensely just due to the fact that Ive been exposed to so many people and just seeing other peoples walks of life,' she said.

'Even though I thought I was so well traveled and I lived in Europe, lived in the States and lived in different countries, I was so sheltered.

'Having been to prison and having been through the criminal justice system, it just exposed me to a whole different kind of a person, and my problems before just seem ridiculous.'

Julia Garner is seen playing Sorokin in a scene from the new Netflix series

Inventing Anna (pictured) tells the story of Sorokin's jet-set, fraudulent life. Julia Garner stars as Sorokin

Sorokin, who lived a jet-set life pretending to be a German heiress with a $67 million trust fund, said she now spends her time reading, and trying to help others with their immigration cases.

And she said she thought prison did not work.

'I dont think this is such a controversial or radical thought: that prison is really a waste of time and its not efficient,' she said.

'Between my arrest and my release, the first officials who asked me any questions about my crime were the parole board.

'There are programs for people with drug addiction and people who are sexual offenders and programs for violent inmates. But theres absolutely nothing for financial crimes. I took a program for culinary arts. That has to say something about this system.'

Sorokin added: 'I have not heard of a single success story of someone being arrested and finding a good free immigration lawyer while in jail. The system is predatory: Youre set up for failure.'

While she fights deportation, Sorokin has been working with Fox on 'a little something'.

Julia Fox is seen with Kanye West in January in Paris, at the Schiaparelli fashion show

Sorokin said she and Fox - pictured on Thursday in LA - were working on a project together

Fox commented on one of Sorokin's Instagram photos that she was 'my dear sis' and said told her she was 'killing it from behind bars.'

Sorokin explained: 'We have some mutual friends  she is a girl about town.

'We actually connected on Instagram when I was out, and we DMd a bit, and then she jumped on my Clubhouse, which was really random. I was answering peoples questions about my experience, and she made the forum so much better. She asked all the right questions.

'We have a similar sense of humor. She was never judgmental, and weve stayed in touch ever since.

'She has lots of interesting creative projects going on, and I feel like the media is not doing her justice talking about her dating life. 'We are actually working on a little something together.'

Fox was the source of intense obsession after she and Kanye West met on New Year's Eve, embarking on a whirlwind relationship that saw him bringing her outlandish outfits to wear for their dates, flying her around the world, and showering her and her friends with gifts including five $10,000 Birkin handbags.

On Monday, Fox, 32, confirmed she and West had split up, after a weekend which saw the 44-year-old attend the Super Bowl and post a series of angry messages about his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her new boyfriend, Pete Davidson.

'Kanye and I are on good terms,' Fox posted on Instagram.

'I have love for him but I wasn't in love w the man.'

Sorokin continued: 'There is definitely a lot more to my story that Id like to share.

'With that in mind, Im working on multiple projects. Im working on a documentary project with Bunim Murray Productions in Los Angeles. Im also working on a book about my time in jail and working on a podcast as well.

'Im not trying to encourage people to commit crimes.

'Im just trying to shed light on how I made the best out of my situation, without trying to glorify it. This is what Im creating out of that story.'
It's the biggest and most heartbreaking miscarriage of justice in British legal history. Because of computer failings, more than 3,500 sub-postmasters and mistresses were wrongly accused of theft and false accounting.

Over a 15-year period, innocent and hardworking servants of the community were hounded, bankrupted and dragged through the courts because the Post Office refused to acknowledge their mistake.

With cynical  some would say criminal  disregard, they shattered the lives of their own workers. Some went to prison, many suffered breakdowns. At least four were driven to suicide. Yet no one has been properly held to account.

Not former Post Office boss Paula Vennells, not a single senior manager and not the software company that built and endorsed the fatally flawed system.

Even though the catastrophic error was finally admitted almost two years ago, just 900 out of 2,300 claimants have received compensation offers. The injustice goes on.

No one has been properly held to account. Not former Post Office boss Paula Vennells (pictured), not a single senior manager and not the software company that built and endorsed the fatally flawed system

The Post Office promises to pay out to all victims by the end of the year. But given their record on trust and integrity, can anyone believe a word they say?

A public inquiry into this Kafka-esque nightmare began yesterday, which may at last bring those responsible to book and give some closure to the men and women who were so cruelly persecuted.

For 33 former postmasters and their grieving families however, it's too late. That's how many have died since this outrage began  at least 14 of them since May 2020, when the current compensation scheme was launched.

Those deaths should hang heavy on the conscience of every Post Office executive, computer technician, adviser and consultant who could have blown the whistle on this appalling scandal much earlier  but chose to remain silent.

For this inquiry to achieve any measure of justice, the guilty must be named, shamed and  if there is prima facie evidence of criminal negligence  prosecuted.

Nato at the crossroads

Nothing emboldens a bully like Vladimir Putin more than weakness and division among his perceived enemies.

While Britain has remained commendably resolute in warning that a Russian invasion of Ukraine will bring instant and severe reprisals, other Western countries have sent out dangerously mixed messaging.

Germany, 'addicted' to Russian gas supplies, and French president Emmanuel Macron, desperate to be seen as a global player, have been guilty of sucking up to Putin in the most egregious way.

They say it's a search for honourable compromise. But it looks like appeasement.

Nothing emboldens a bully like Vladimir Putin more than weakness and division among his perceived enemies

If Ukraine is sold out, Putin's belligerent gaze will inevitably turn next to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania  all members of both Nato and the EU. Will Germany and France still preach compromise then?

The Western alliance is at a crossroads. And distracted by wokery and green agendas (and in Britain's case convulsed by Partygate), it is in danger of losing its compass. While we obsess about zero carbon and the historic evils of colonialism, dictatorships like Russia and China (which has designs on Taiwan) are on the march.

As Mr Johnson said after speaking with US President Joe Biden last night, Putin may yet be deterred from invading Ukraine. But only if the West stands firm and united against oppression.
An estranged couple's romantic Valentine's Day reunion at a posh resort ended in horror when the husband allegedly murdered his ex-wife, Vanessa Godfrey (pictured)

An estranged couple's romantic Valentine's Day reunion at a posh resort ended in horror when the husband allegedly murdered his ex-wife.

Jeff Godfrey, 50 - who owns Pack A Punch cleaning services - allegedly killed his wife Vanessa, 46, at Pelican Waters Resort on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on Monday.

Neighbours in the building reported hearing the pair arguing and singing love songs loudly to each other during an apparent boisterous two-day party in the room.

But when they failed to check out on Monday afternoon, staff went up to the room to check on them and found the gruesome scene.

The grandmother's blood-drenched corpse was discovered lying on the bed inside the room with her husband unconscious nearby, suffering minor injuries.

Vanessa Godfrey (pictured) is believed to have at least one grandchild, and was still living with her estranged husband until recently

Jeff Godfrey, 50 (pictured) - who owns Pack A Punch cleaning services - allegedly killed his wife Vanessa, 46, at Pelican Waters Resort on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on Monday

Staff raised the alarm but the husband had regained consciousness by the time paramedics arrived and police arrested him on the spot.

Detective Inspector Dave Drinnen said it was a traumatic crime scene for staff to discover.

'She was covered in blood and there were wounds to her arms,' he said. 'It was physically obvious that she was deceased.

'We suspect there was some sort of weapon that was used to make those wounds.'

He added: 'It was very horrific for the staff.

The couple are believed to have tried to have a romantic reunion at the $250-a-night Pelican Waters Resort (pictured) for Valentine's Day

Worried staff found the grandmother's bloodied lifeless body on the bed inside the room (pictured, a room at Pelican Waters Resort)

'We have a very unfortunate and very tragic incident in which there is a female deceased with blood, [and staff] not knowing what what's happened.

'It will be very traumatic for anyone attending.'

Detectives are conducting a forensic examination and an autopsy to establish the exact cause of death and any clues on the lead up to the alleged murder.

The couple are believed to have at least one grandchild, and were still living and working together in the Caloundra-based family cleaning business until recently.

Ms Godfrey celebrated the couple's 24th wedding anniversary in an online post to her husband in 2019.

Vanessa Godfrey celebrated the couple's 24th wedding anniversary in an online post to her husband Jeff Godfrey (pictured together) in 2019

'To the absolute love of my life, when I met you at 17 years old, I couldn't have imagined the life we would create and build together,' she wrote on Facebook.

'You are my best friend, my lover, my companion and my drinking buddy.

'I am so grateful to be sharing my life with you. I love you more than these words and life itself my beautiful hubby.'

Godfrey had recently changed his Facebook marital status to single but the couple had planned the reunion at the $250-a-night resort for Valentine's Day.

Godfrey described himself as single on social media but the couple had planned the reunion at the $250-a-night resort for Valentine's Day (pictured, the balcony view from a room at Pelican Waters Resort)

Police said they would be investigating the state of the relationship prior to the alleged murder and said they had been taking part in a 'social event' at the resort over the Valentine's Day weekend.

'We will look at both parties' family dynamics, what the situation is, but it's all part of the investigation that we are still working on and pulling together,' said Detective Inspector Drinnen.

'We have a woman who has lost her life, we have a male person who is now being charged in relation to a murder.

'There's going to be a lot of mourning. There needs to be support built around all family members in relation to this. It's just another tragic loss of life.'

When the couple failed to check out, staff went up to the room at Pelican Waters Resort (pictured) and found the gruesome scene

Police say thecouple had been at a social event being held at Pelican Waters Resort (pictured) over the Valentine's Day weekend

'Police will allege that around 3.35pm staff from the Mahogany Drive resort attended the room that the man and woman were staying in to conduct a welfare check,' a Queensland Police spokesman said.

'The body of the woman was located in the room, as was the man. Police were notified and attended soon after arresting the man at the scene.

'A 50-year-old Bli Bli man was charged this morning with murder (domestic violence offence).'

Godfrey was denied bail and will appear before Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
A young man accused of killing a mother-of-five could self-harm in jail, a court has heard.

Tia Minhinnick was scheduled to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, but was forced to phone-in due to technical difficulties with the Covid-hit court system.

The 20-year-old, who did not make an application for bail, faced a single charge of murder over the death of Angela Huata, 41.

Her body was found in a home on Glendale Road in Springvale, in the city's south-east, on Thursday afternoon.

Police say Ms Huata and Minhinnick were known to each other, but the nature of their relationship has not been disclosed.

Angela Huata (pictured) has four sons and a one-year-old daughter. She is originally from New Zealand

Ms Huata's body was found at a home on Glendale Road in Springvale, in Melbourne's south-east (pictured)

Magistrate Cecily Hollingworth heard the alleged killer suffered from an undisclosed mental illness.

'He's vulnerable due to his age and appearance. He's a young person,' she said.

Minhinnick's lawyer asked that her client be seen by a prison nurse before being taken to a remand facility, where he is expected to remain for at least the next 10 weeks.

The court heard prosecutors needed a longer than usual amount of time to prepare their brief of evidence against the alleged killer.

While the details of the Crown case remains a mystery, prosecutors have indicated biological evidence will be a key component.

He will return to court on June 7.

Police say Ms Huata (pictured) and Minhinnick were known to each other, but further details have not been released

A homicide investigation was launched last week after her body was found. Pictured: Police at the scene

Police also hope to obtain statements from a series of international witnesses in addition to interstate warrants in the hope of obtaining mobile phones from people they believe can assist in the prosecution.

Minhinnick was arrested in Melbourne's CBD on Monday - four days after Ms Huata's body was found - was later charged with murder.

Ms Huata's shattered mother said the family are still waiting on the coroner's report to confirm her cause of death.

'We are absolutely broken,' she wrote on social media.

The woman had four sons and a one-year-old daughter, and has been remembered as a kind and loving mum.

The woman was reportedly a mother-of-five who was new to the neighbourhood. Pictured: detectives at the home

'How could anyone hurt Ange, she's so harmless,' a friend wrote.

'Our poor Angie, who could do such a thing?,' someone else asked.

Another close friend said: 'RIP my dear old friend.'

'You we're definitely one of a kind, I'll never forget the laughs we all had, we were all so inseparable, you never failed to make us laugh.'

'Taken way too soon.'

Ms Huata's family plan to take her body back to New Zealand.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

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A rogue Labor MP has shared desperate text messages she sent to Daniel Andrews' chief of staff, claiming she was being 'bullied, harassed and intimidated' by unnamed men.

Rebel politician Kaushaliya Vaghela is poised to be expelled from the Victorian Labor Party after she crossed the floor during a critical vote to support a motion by disgraced MP Adem Somyurek.

In a series of tweets this week, Ms Vaghela shared a text message she claimed to have sent to top staffer Lissie Ratcliff in December 2019.

'I am sick and tired of these men trying to bully, harass and intimidate me in all the ways they can,' she wrote in the text.

'They are trying to defame me and malign my name.'

She then referenced one Labor member whose name was redacted, and claimed they 'actually want to hurt me and my family'.

'I am really scared for my safety,' she continued.

'I really need your help for my and my family's safety.'

Rogue Labor MP Kaushaliya Vaghela crossed the floor to vote against her own party in a parliamentary motion and has since claimed Premier Andrews made her 'feel unsafe'

'Before I speak to the Premier, as a last resort, I am seeking your help to look into this matter. Please take required action.'

Ms Vaghela also claimed the unnamed person who threatened her - presumably a party member - had 'physically assaulted' her husband at a public event.

The MP drew headlines after crossing the floor last week and has since made bombshell claims about her treatment by the Labor party.

Without her vote, the motion brought on by former Victorian Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek would have been defeated.

It called on Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass to reinvestigate the 2014 red shirts scandal and specifically any role Premier Andrews may have played in it.

During an interview with Melbourne's Herald-Sun, Ms Vaghela said that members within the party are 'scared of the Premier because they know he is so spiteful'.

'I'm scared of him and I'm scared about what he's going to do. I was scared before I crossed the floor. He will take revenge. Everybody's scared,' she told the Herald-Sun.

'That's why nobody says anything against him. And anyone, any woman that does, they disappear (from prominence), like Jenny Mikakos.'

Ms Vaghela shared a text she sent to the premier's Chief of Staff in 2019 where she claimed she was scared of her safety from another staffer

In May last year she raised a complaint to Mr Andrews about bullying within the party that saw one staff member removed.

Ms Vaghela also made the sensational claim she was afraid of being alone at events or in Parliament for fears of the Labor Party's 'gang'.

'The gang says if people do what they say, then in return the gang will advise the Premier or the relevant minister in deciding who should get such roles, in returning favours,' she wrote in the May letter.

Mr Andrews confirmed a government staffer had been sacked after a complaint was made but said Ms Vaghela's claims were 'fantasy'.

'Frankly, these claims are just fantasy, fantasy, and I'm not getting into that. No basis in fact,' the Victorian Premier said on Sunday.

'I won't dignify the stuff that's been said about me. I'm just not going to.

Mr Andrews confirmed a government staffer had been sacked after a complaint was made but said Ms Vaghela's claims were 'fantasy'

'To suggest that that's not dealing with matters promptly and appropriately, I can't think of a stronger rebuttal to that than the fact that it was taken very seriously, it was dealt with appropriately, and the person was essentially dismissed.'

Ms Vaghela shared a statement later on Sunday claiming she was never told the staff member had been sacked.

'Nor did I receive an apology from (the) Premier or his office, leaving (the staff member) in that position for years despite my complaints, thus perpetuating his bullying against me,' she said.

Victorian Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan lept to the defence of the premier, saying the allegations against him were not 'substantiated with any evidence'.

'My own working experience, my own personal experience of working alongside the Premier is that he is a very supportive Premier of men and women around the cabinet table, and around the caucus, and indeed across the public service,' she said on Tuesday.

Treasurer Tim Pallas had gone so far as to question Ms Varghela's health. 'It is worrying for me that she said that and it goes to the state of mind,' he said.

'I can assure her should she need assistance from the government in any way, to help with her state of mind, we will support her all the way.'

Ms Vaghela said she was 'sickened by the government's victim-blaming attitude' and the suggestion she'd made up her claims.

Labor have denied Ms Vaghela's claims. Pictured: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and wife Catherine Andrews pose for a photograph

'I have been bullied from the day I got elected because I dared to leave the Socialist Left faction,' she said in a statement.

'Four years of bullying and abuse has taken its toll, so I ask the Premier and his team to stop.'

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said she does not agree with Ms Vaghela's characterisation of the Premier but has offered the MP her support.

'I believe that I have been supported extremely well by the Premier and any suggestion that is made that he is in any way a misogynist, this I cannot say more strongly is untrue,' she said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews referred Daily Mail Australia to remarks made by the Premier at recent press conferences.
There has been an increase in the number of school-aged children with Covid-19 in Queensland as the state records another 10 virus deaths and 5,286 cases.

A total of 1,587 children aged between five and 17 recorded positive results in the past 24 hours, up from 963 the previous day.

Infected school kids were generally experiencing mild symptoms, and the state is looking to NSW for guidance on what to expect in coming weeks, Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said.

'I wouldn't read too much into a single day's reading,' he said on Tuesday.

There had not been 'any significant rise' in the number of children in hospital with Covid-19.

Queensland recorded another 10 virus deaths and 5,286 cases in the past 24 hours, as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said daily Covid updates will continue until the end of February

Students are seen entering school grounds in Brisbane. A total of 1,587 children aged between five and 17 recorded positive Covid-19 results in the past 24 hours, up from 963 the previous day

NSW students returned a week before their Queensland counterparts, and the southern state only experienced a 'slight blip' of increases, Dr Gerrard said.

The latest deaths recorded in Queensland were people aged between their 60s and 90s, and did not include any aged care residents.

Hospital numbers are continuing to drop in the state, sitting at 462 including 34 patients in intensive care.

There are another 29 virus cases in private hospitals.

Meanwhile, the state's remaining restrictions will be reviewed at the end of the month as case numbers from the Omicron wave continue to decline.

'We'll make make a call then and also see what other states are doing,' Dr Gerrard said.

Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said remaining pandemic restrictions will be reviewed at the end of February

Masks restrictions are still in place in Queensland, and there is a mandate barring those without at least two vaccine doses from entering pubs, restaurants and cafes.

'If some of these restrictions were to be withdrawn ... then that would be purely on the understanding that if there was a resurgence of infection, then masks would be reintroduced,' Dr Gerrard said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said daily press conferences in Queensland will likely continue until the end of this month.
Scott Morrison has admitted he is 'punching above his weight' with his wife Jen, hot on the heels of a Valentine's Day tribute.

Mr Morrison's confession came as he revealed how the couple deal with being trolled after online backlash to their 60 Minutes interview at the weekend.

During Sunday's segment, Mrs Morrison criticised campaigner Grace Tame for lacking manners when she refused to smile for pictures at The Lodge, sparking outrage.

Asked on Tuesday how she copes with the trolls, Mr Morrison said: 'Taylor Swift, the haters are gonna hate, shake it off. That's Jenny's approach.'

The Prime Minister claimed he is able to blank out criticism and focus on leading the country.

'There's always going to be those who have a crack at you and you just you just park that over there in the bin and you get on with the job that you have and do the best you possibly can for the people who elected you to do it,' he told radio 2SM.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison marked Valentine's Day by posting this photo to Facebook and adding: 'Happy Valentine's Day Jen. I'm so glad you didn't 'run' all those years ago. Have a great day'

Mr Morrison revealed how he and Jenny dealt with negative comments online after their joint 60 Minutes interview (pictured)

Mr Morrison said Jenny has been inundated with positive messages from supporters all over Australia since appearing on 60 Minutes.

'She's so grateful for the the overwhelming messages of support that she's received, from people right across the country,' he said.

In a gushing tribute to his wife of 32 years, the Prime Minister added: 'I've been punching above my weight for a very long time. There's no doubt about that. I am blessed.

Asked on Tuesday how Jenny copes with the online trolls, Mr Morrison said: 'Taylor Swift, the haters are gonna hate, shake it off. That's Jenny's approach.' Pictured: Pop star Taylor Swift who sang the hit Shake It Off

'She tells it pretty straight. She's always done that with me. She's strong and she's determined, but she's loving, caring and kind as well.'

Earlier on Tuesday Mr Morrison hit back at his 'sneering' critics who attacked him for washing a trainee's hair at a salon.

The prime minister massaged an apprentice's head two weeks ago while visiting Coco's salon on the Mornington Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne.

The photo op was blasted by both sides of politics with Labor calling it 'weird' and conservative commentator Andrew Bolt branding it a 'sad stunt'.

Scott Morrison has hit back at his 'sneering' critics who attacked him for washing a trainee's hair at a salon (pictured)

Mr Morrison was also criticised for his ukulele rendition of Dragon song April Sun in Cuba on Sunday night's 60 Minutes, with even the band calling it a 'cynical move' to 'humanise' himself ahead of the election.

But the prime minister hit back on Tuesday morning, accusing his critics of 'sneering' at millions of Australians.

'I remember people having a crack at me the other day because I went to a hairdressers,' he told Sydney radio 2GB.

'I go into workplaces all the time, people show me how to weld. People show me how to do other things in manufacturing plants.

'These were trainees and apprentices who wanted to show me what they're learning on the job.

'So if people want to sneer at me for that, for other things like playing the ukulele, fine, they're sneering at millions of Australians who just get on with their lives and do a great job.'

Mr Morrison was also criticised for his ukulele rendition of Dragon song April Sun in Cuba on Sunday night's 60 Minutes (pictured)

Mr Morrison said playing the ukulele for Karl Stefanovic was his idea, adding: 'They wanted to talk about how we live and what we do and, yeah, that's what I do.'

After the prime minister's salon visit, Labor frontbencher Penny Wong Tweeted: 'Weird from a bloke who reckons Australians want the government out of their hair. His stunts and distractions are getting pretty desperate.'

Labor MP Steven Jones said Mr Morrison should have visited an aged care home instead, writing: 'If the prime minister really had the urge to get a photo washing someone's hair he could have gone to an aged care home, taken a RAT, dressed in full PPE and helped the staff wash and dress the residents.'

The ACTU called on Mr Morrison to 'stop playing to the cameras and do his job'.
The BBC has insisted no subject is off limits as its declined calls to apologise over a joke about Ukraine made by chat show host Graham Norton.

The corporation received complaints from viewers this month after the Irish comic quipped that Ukraine could soon be southwest Russia on his show.

Norton cracked the joke during the opening segment of his show which aired on February 4, in which he typically pokes fun at current events, The Times reports.

Graham Norton quipped that Ukraine could soon be southwest Russia during a segment of his show which aired on February 4

While talking about Boris Johnsons trip to Kyiv, Norton said: This week, he flew off to Ukraine  or if youre watching on catchup TV, he flew off to southwest Russia.

A number of viewers criticised the jibe as insensitive towards Ukrainians who are under threat from a potential Russian invasion.

In a statement, the BBC rejected calls to apologise. A spokesman said: 'We appreciate the seriousness of the current situation there and can assure you there was no intention to cause any offence with these remarks.

'Comedy is one of the most subjective areas of programming and while no subject is off limits we appreciate that some jokes may resonate differently for those with personal experience of a particular situation.'

It follows a furore earlier this month over comedian Jimmy Carr's Neflix show His Dark Materials, in which the comedian joked about gypsies killed during the Holocaust.

In a widely-shared clip from the show, Carr joked about the horror of the Holocaust and 'six million Jewish lives being lost'.

As a punchline, the 49-year-old then made a disparaging remark about the deaths of thousands of gypsies at the hands of the Nazis.

'But they never mention the thousands of gypsies that were killed by the Nazis. No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives,' Carr quipped to a laughing audience.

The joke was later widely condemned by politicians and celebrities, including Jewish comedian David Baddiel and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Paddy Doherty.
Millions of New Zealanders are still living like they are in Covid lockdown as the country watches the spread of the Omicron variant.

A new survey from Research NZ revealed more than half of Kiwis are avoiding activities or going out despite no rules against it.

The survey conducted in the first week of February from a cross section of 1,001 residents found that 54 per cent stopped eating out at cafes and restaurants.

The same amount also stopped attending events at 54 per cent, while 50 per cent refused to use public facilities such as pools or libraries.

A new survey shows more than half of Kiwis are living like they're in lockdown and avoiding events or activities such as eating out amid an Omicron battle (pictured: Auckland residents)

Significant numbers - though less than half - also stopped going to the doctor at 29 per cent, and travelling on public transport at 27 per cent.

'What we are seeing is a form of polarisation,' Research New Zealand managing partner Emanuel Kalafatelis said.

'There's those who are concerned about personally catching Covid-19 or infecting others and those who are simply just trying to get on with life and return to normality.'

Mr Kalafatelis said the 'significant size' of the group of people who were consciously changing their behaviour had large 'social and economic implications'.

The research also showed their was another major camp who were determined to keep going out in an effort to return to normality (pictured: Auckland in December)

New Zealand is more than 77 per cent fully vaccinated and Covid cases compared to other countries are very low.

Residents of Auckland, where there has been the most cases in the country, were the most likely to report changing their behavior, Mr Kalafatelis said.

Those on the South Island were less likely to be going about things differently.

New Zealand is under a 'red' setting in its traffic light system with some restrictions but business can remain open, small gatherings can go ahead, and domestic travel is allowed.

Despite only 744 new cases in NZ on Tuesday. experts have warned to brace for an Omicron wave over the next few weeks as the variant hits the country later than most other regions.

New Zealand is not in lockdown but is under a 'red' setting in the traffic light system which involves restrictions though people can still do most activities (pictured: PM Jacinda Arden)
A man armed with a samurai sword begged officers to kill him before he was shot dead southwest of Brisbane, a Queensland coroner has been told.

Duy Linh Ho, 41, was high on meth when he barricaded himself in the bathroom of his family home at Doolandella, Brisbane, in July 2019.

A pre-inquest conference in Brisbane Coroners Court was told Mr Ho was depressed and struggled with opiate dependency.

Duy Linh Ho, 41, was high on meth when he barricaded himself in the bathroom of his family home with a samurai sword at Doolandella, Brisbane, in July 2019

Several members of Mr Ho's family were at the scene including his sister-in-law, partner and children who fled the home before police moved in

The father of four had also sought help for mental illness.

Hours before the shooting, a distressed Mr Ho locked himself in the bathroom screaming that he 'wanted to die'.

When he finally opened the door, partner Hong Luu called paramedics, telling them Mr Ho was violent and had tried to take his life by slashing his arm.

Police were also called when Mr Ho refused medical treatment and was 'agitated and verbally aggressive'.

'Mr Ho made a number of threats to commit suicide stating that he wanted to die,' counsel assisting Rhiannon Helsen told the court.

Mr Ho's partner Hong Luu had called paramedics, telling them Mr Ho was violent and had tried to take his life by slashing his arm

Mr Ho died at the scene after approaching police officers with the sword and a broken mirror

After a standoff with authorities, sister-in-law, partner and children safely fled the home before police moved in.

Mr Ho was armed with a samurai sword and a broken mirror as officers entered the home.

'Almost immediately, sounds of banging and breaking glass could be heard as Mr Ho, still armed with a sword and a mirror, rushed down the stairs,' Ms Helsen said.

Police drew their weapons, ordering Mr Ho to drop the sword.

Coroner Terry Ryan will examine the emergency response to determine if officers acted in accordance with policy guidelines at the scene

'He continued to approach the officer who subsequently discharged his firearm three times, with two of the bullets hitting Mr Ho.'

Despite the efforts of paramedics, Mr Ho died at the scene.

Coroner Terry Ryan will examine the emergency response to determine if officers acted in accordance with policy guidelines.

The coroner will also explore if sufficient training is given to police.

A three-day hearing has been set down for July.

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Housekeeper who watched a father-of-four get shot dead as he confronted police with a samurai sword after a siege says he was a 'kind and loving man' before his breakdown

Nic White for Daily Mail Australia

A young housekeeper who watched her father-of-four employer be gunned down by police after a siege insists he was a kind man and 'not the villain'.

Duylinh 'Louie' Ho, 41, was shot dead outside his home in Doolandella, Brisbane, on July 22 while confronting officers with a samurai sword.

Police said Mr Ho held his wife Nikki, their four children aged under 10, and another woman hostage inside the home before later releasing them.

Emily Ross watched father-of-four Duylinh 'Louie' Ho, for whom she worked as a housekeeper, be gunned down by police after a siege

But his housekeeper Emily Ross, who was the other woman involved, claims Mr Ho was suffering a mental breakdown and was no threat to them.

'I want to clear his name and make sure that everyone knows he is not the villain in this story,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'We weren't hostages. The kids, his wife and I were never in any harm from Louie. He was struggling with mental health issues.

'We called the ambulance for medical assistance as he had an injury and was threatening self harm.'

The family called an ambulance about 5.30am as Mr Ho began behaving erratically, including threatening to throw a mirror down a flight of stairs.

'I want to clear his name and make sure that everyone knows he is not the villain in this story,' Ms Ross (right) said

Ms Ross said he refused treatment when paramedics arrived at the Cassowary Street house and police were called to assist in getting him to go to hospital.

'The events that followed after have left the family and I completely shocked and heartbroken as Louie was very much loved by those who have ever met him,' she said.

Police said in a statement that the family and Ms Ross were 'released' from the 'siege situation' after police negotiated with Mr Ho.

However, Ms Ross said they were never hostages and were just trying to get Mr Ho the medical help he needed.

'Louie was a loving father and a beautiful soul. He was nothing but kind to me and loved his wife dearly,' she said.

'Not a day goes by that the children don't ask for their dad. One of his children said it was the worst day of their life because they will never see their dad again.'

Ms Ross said Mr Ho's family was distressed by how he was portrayed by police in the aftermath of the shooting and that friends and family were confused by suggestions he would do such 'terrible things'.

A neighbour who claimed to have witnessed the series of events also insisted there was 'no f**king siege'.

'I was there. The kids as they woke up he sent them down stairs to us,' he said, describing Mr Ho as a close friend.

'[At] 4am he was screaming for help... It was mental health not drugs, etc, and his four kids and wife I feel for.'

Police said seconds after the family was released, Mr Ho charged at officers brandishing the sword was shot about 7.45am.

Paramedics tried to save his life but he died of his wounds half an hour later.
Virginia Roberts claims to have lost the original print of the famous photo of her and Prince Andrew, which could further the disgraced royal's argument that the image was doctored.

'The picture is not in Virginias possession,' a source close to Roberts - who now goes by her married name of Giuffre - told the Daily Beast. It was taken by convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, with his friend - recently-convicted pedophile Ghislaine Maxwell, visible right behind them.

Another insider said they weren't even sure if the original of print of the picture 'still existed.' It was in one of a number of boxes shipped from Giuffre's former home in Colorado to Sydney, Australia, where she now lives, and where it has been mislaid.

Andrew's legal team requested the original in November 2021 but it has not yet been provided to them.

The notorious photograph was taken at Ghislaine Maxwell's London home in March 2001 and shows a smiling 41-year-old Prince Andrew with his arm around Giuffre's waist when she was 17 as Maxwell stands behind the pair in a doorway.

A photograph of the photo was taken by a professional photographer, with that reproduction first appearing in the Mail on Sunday in 2011. The same copy has been used ever since - but the original has now been misplaced.

Giuffre claims the picture - which has earned her $160,000 in media fees - was taken the same night the Duke of York allegedly sexually assaulted her the first time.

She said in a 2016 deposition in a defamation case brought against Maxwell that she gave the original to the FBI in 2011 when they visited her home in Australia.

According to documents released in the same case, two FBI agents collected 20 original photographs from Giuffre which are understood to include the one of her with Andrew.

They gave her a copy of the images on a CD and retained the originals, and they are still with the FBI, according to her lawyers, David Boies and Sigrid McCawley.

But there remains confusion about whether it was the original that was returned to Giuffre, who said in her 2016 deposition it could be in a storage box in Australia.

Prince Andrew and his legal team are contesting a civil case in New York launched by Giuffre last August, in which she alleges the royal assaulted her three times. He has vehemently denied the allegations since they were first made public.

A US lawyer working for the Duke has arranged for a photographic expert to study the original if they can access it. The attorney hopes the expert will cast doubt on the photograph's authenticity. Andrew himself denies ever meeting Giuffre, and says the photo may have been doctored. Bizarrely, his friend Lady Victoria Hervey claims an Irish man was used as a body double, with Andrew's head later superimposed.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre claims to have lost original print of the famous photo of her and Prince Andrew, which could further disgraced royal's argument that the image was doctored. The image, pictured, was taken at Ghislaine Maxwell's London home in March 2001

Giuffre's attorneys are reportedly unaware of the photograph's whereabouts and, according to the Daily Beast, no-one on her legal team has actually ever seen the original image.

The 'critical' piece of evidence is said to have gone missing sometime between 2011 and 2016 when Giuffre emigrated to Australia from Colorado.

Giuffre, speaking of the photo in 2016, said then that it could be in moving boxes at her in-laws' home in Sydney, full of 'nerf guns, kids' toys, photos.'

Andrew attorneys argue that without the hard copy original, there is no way to prove the image wasn't manipulated.

However, the Giuffre source noted that often times original photos are misplaced and only copies survive.

When asked if it was odd that Giuffre misplaced a picture that was of interest to the FBI, the source said: 'Remember at the time that she was being interviewed by the FBI she was not suing anybody.

'She was not getting legal advice. She has now been through six or seven years of litigation and has lawyers advising her and Im sure she would behave differently, but then she was just a young girl.'

The Giuffre source also said they don't believe failure to produce an original image will affect the admissibility of the picture as evidence.

They claimed the case does not rest on the image, which is 'a reason [her lawyer] David Boies is not worried' about producing the original.

The Daily Beast claims the source did not answer queries about what efforts were made to locate the original image or the boxes it is apparently stored in.

A source closed to Giuffre (pictured in August 2019) told the Daily Beast her attorneys are unaware of the photograph's whereabouts and that no-one on her legal team has actually ever seen the original image

Prince Andrew (pictured in November 2019) and his legal team are contesting a civil case in New York launched by Giuffre last August, in which she alleges the royal assaulted her three times. He has vehemently denied the allegations since they were first made public. His attorney has arranged for a photographic expert to study the original if they can access it and hopes the expert will cast doubt on the photograph's authenticity

The unidentified source did, however, claim it was 'productive' for Andrew to contest the picture's authenticity, saying: 'That would destroy their credibility. Even Andrew in that BBC interview did not say it was fake.'

They allege challenging the authenticity of the photo aims to support Andrew's 'I never met her' defense.

'The photo does not show them having sex. But it shows they were together. It shows they met,' the source argued.

'The more he fights about that photograph, the more he underscores the fact that the real credibility issue for him now is whether he ever met her. Thats a losing battle for him.'

The Duke of York's legal team has tried repeatedly to get the case thrown out before it reaches a courtroom, but have so far failed.

In the meantime, Andrew's position within the British royal family has deteriorated. He stepped down from royal duties in 2019, and returned his patronages and military titles earlier this year as the case reaching court became more likely.

The image, first released to the media in 2011, has gone on to become synonymous with the Duke, the accusations, his ongoing legal battle and questions over his relationship with the late billionaire pedophile Jefferey Epstein.

Giuffre claims she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell. The latter is facing up to 40 years in prison after she was convicted of a string of sex offenses in New York, although she has filed a request for a retrial.

The photo was reportedly taken in March 2001 at Maxwell's London apartment, and has been reproduced countless times around the world after Giuffre shared it with The Mail on Sunday.

Gaining access to the image has been an ambition of Andrew's lawyers ever since, but they are yet to provide any evidence themselves that it is not genuine.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre holds a photo of herself at age 16, when she says Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein began abusing her sexually

PICTURED: Prince Andrew attends the Sunday Service at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor, England on April 11, 2021 following the announcement of the death of Prince Philip

Earlier this month, interest in the theory that the image was fake was renewed when Lady Victoria Hervey - a British socialite and ex-girlfriend of Prince Andrew's - sensationally repeated claims that the infamous photo was indeed faked.

The 44-year-old socialite and former 'It Girl', who is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, doubled down on a claim she made earlier by identifying the set of images she says were used to create the doctored photo.

Hervey claimed the image has been pieced together using a photo taken at Naomi Campbell's birthday party on board a yacht in St. Tropez in May 2001, in which Virginia can be seen wearing the same white tank top with colorful patterned jeans.

Like Andrew's lawyers, Hervey does not have a copy of the exact photo from St. Tropez which she claims was used to fake the Prince Andrew image, and it has never been seen publicly. However, she did share a bizarre painted reproduction of the alleged image to Instagram earlier this week.

Lady Victoria added to her baffling claims by saying that an 'Irish guy' who was dating one of Epstein's victims in 2001 and also attended the boat party was used as a 'body double' for Prince Andrew in the 'fake' image.

In an exclusive interview, Lady Victoria told FEMAIL she has spoken to several victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who said they believe the image was edited by Giuffre and Maria Farmer, another victim who worked as an 'artist-in-residence' for Epstein.

Andrew's lawyers will hope that by getting their hands on the original, the photograph expert will be able to say conclusively if it is real or not.

Giuffre has previously said that she is not certain where the original copy of the photograph is. When she was deposed by lawyers for Maxwell, she said it was 'not in my possession right now,' according to the New Zealand Herald.

She said she suspects the photo is 'probably in some storage boxes' at her in-laws' home in Sydney, Australia, that were left there when she and her husband moved.

'I mean, there's seven boxes full of Nerf guns, my kids' toys, photos. I don't know what other documents would be in there,' she said at the time.

When contacted by, DailyMail.com the FBI declined to comment on whether it had seen the photograph, or on whether there was an active investigation on-going into Prince Andrew.

However, in January, the Daily Beast cited a 'source in Virginia Giuffre's camp' saying that 'they did not know whether Giuffre still has the original of the photo, or whether the original photograph even still existed.'

In November 2019, Andrew was asked about the photograph in a disastrous interview on BBC's Newsnight program.

Asked whether the photograph could have been faked, he said public displays of affection are 'not something he would do' but refused to reveal whether he thought the image was doctored.

He said: 'Oh it's definitely me, I mean that's a picture of me. I don't believe it's a picture of me in London because when I go out in London I wear a suit and a tie.

'That's what I would describe as my traveling clothes if I'm going to go overseas. There's plenty of photographs of me dressed in that sort of kit but not there.'

Lady Victoria claimed the image of Virginia was taken at the birthday boat party. The image has never been seen publicly but another of Epstein's victims has allegedly painted an image of what the original photograph would have looked like (pictured)

The 44-year-old socialite and former 'It Girl', who is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, repeated claims made by the Duke in his disastrous Newsnight interview that the image may have been doctored

Prince Andrew spoke about his links to Jeffrey Epstein in an interview with BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis in November 2019

The Prince called it a 'photograph of a photograph of a photograph', casting doubt over its veracity.

Sources close to Andrew have previously said there are questions over the veracity of the photo, amid claims the hand round his accuser's waist does 'not look right.'

In the interview, the Duke of York said: 'I'm terribly sorry but if I, as a member of the royal family, and I have a photograph taken and I take very, very few photographs, I am not one to, as it were, hug and public displays of affection are not something that I do.

'So that's the best explanation I can give you and I'm afraid to say that I don't believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested.'

He added that the photograph appeared as though it had been taken upstairs in Maxwell's house, and said that was somewhere he never went - in another questioning remark about the image.

'Listen, I don't remember, I don't remember that photograph ever being taken,' he said. 'I don't remember going upstairs in the house because that photograph was taken upstairs.'

And referring to his hand in the photograph, he said: 'From the investigations that we've done, you can't prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.

'So it's very difficult to be able to prove it but I don't remember that photograph ever being taken.'

The version of the image that has been reproduced multiple times and shared the world over - a photograph of the photograph - was taken in 2011 by a New Zealand-based photograph, Michael Thomas.

Speaking to New Zealand Herald this week, Thomas said he has no doubts over its authenticity.

'I have always believed it was real,' Thomas said. 'As I have said before it was just an ordinary photo you would have got from a chemist in the days of negatives. Surely if it was fake every media outlet in the world would be getting sued for using it. The fact that isn't happening, to me says everything.'

Speaking in 2019 about the picture, he said: 'It wasn't like she pulled the photo of Prince Andrew out, it was just in among the rest of them. They were just typical teenage snaps. There's no way that photo is fake.'
Western Australia is preparing to finally open up to the rest of Australia, with Premier Mark McGowan saying a new date for the border reopening will be announced 'this month'.

The hermit state has stubbornly stayed sealed off from the rest of Australia while the remainder of the country has re-opened and got back to business.

But with Covid cases having climbed this month in WA while falling elsewhere, Premier McGowan has again reversed course and will open the borders and allow interstate travellers back in once more.

It comes just three weeks after he dashed the hopes of families across the country when he did a U-turn on a previous commitment to open up.

He cancelled the planned February 5 date to re-open the state amid fears the Omicron strain of Covid would rip through Western Australia.

Western Australia will finally open up to the rest of Australia, with Premier Mark McGowan (pictured) saying a new date for the border reopening will be announced 'this month'

At the time of the U-turn on January 20, the rest of the country had just suffered 88 deaths in a day and the premier feared the impact opening up would have on WA.

Modelling predicted an influx of interstate travellers could see a sudden spike of Covid cases of up to 60,000 a day, which would overwhelm the state's health system.

But now, with the Omicron wave easing across the rest of the country, the Premier is finally reconsidering.

NSW and Victoria's active case numbers are down 85 per cent and 80 per cent since the mid-January peak, whereas WA's cases have climbed from double figures in late January to more than 500 on Monday.

He is understood to have had talks with Qantas about re-opening the flagship non-stop London-Perth flights which were put on hold by the latest shutdown.

But Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said it was unlikely to restart before April, despite the Premier's hint that the state could re-open soon.

'We have to make a decision to postpone now so that our passengers and crew have some level of certainty for the months ahead,' Mr Joyce told The West Australian.

Pemier Mark McGowan previously dashed the hopes of families across the country when he did a U-turn on a previous commitment to open up the state (pictured, loved ones reunite at Perth Airport)

The Premier however denied giving the airline any inside information and said the date will be revealed later this month.

The pledge comes as WA reported 62 new cases, including 14 from quarantined interstate or international travellers, and no-one currently hospitalised with Covid.

He said WA's low cases numbers compared to the rest of the country was a sign the state's isolation policy was a success.

'Whilst it is working we've also had around 25,000 people come in safely over the course of the last two weeks from the eastern states who are quarantining and being tested,' he said.

'Those 25,000 people have reunited with families, caught up with friends and what have you so that's been a good outcome in a safe way.

'The border arrangement we have in place allows for family members to come-in, subject to a week's quarantine, to being tested and secondly, it's in place to protect the health and lives of Western Australians.

'That's all we're trying to do, whilst we get our third dose vaccination rate up.

'We're around 51.5 per cent third dose vaccination. By the time we reopen the interstate and international borders, we will be one of the highest vaccinated places in the world and one of the safest populations in the world, which is great thing.'
A veteran commercial fisherman was left stunned after catching a shark with a noticeably deformed nose.

Professional angler Jason Moyce, 49, snared the unusual looking fish at 12 Mile Beach on the NSW south coast and was baffled by its mangled appearance.

He uploaded a short video of his prize on Facebook page Trapman Bermagui, with many fellow fishing enthusiasts equally unsure at how the shark came to be physically damaged.

Some even believed the injured shark now resembled a dolphin.

'It was definitely a blue shark, I know that for sure,' Mr Moyce told Daily Mail Australia.

Commercial fisherman Jason Moyce was left stunned after catching a blue shark with a noticeably deformed nose (pictured) on the NSW south coast

The veteran angler then uploaded a clip on Facebook in a bid to solver the mystery of how the shark was mangled

'I decided to throw it up online to see what other people thought about about its (busted) nose.'

Many were quick to attempt to solve the mystery on social media, with the majority believing the blue shark was injured by a boat.

'I think its mumma hit on a dolphin,' one joked with another stating 'maybe it got in a fight in a pub.'

A third also joked the shark had crossed paths with professional surfer Mick Fanning, who famously in 2015 survived a shark attack from a suspected great white during the J-Bay Open finals at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa.

With the world watching on in utter terror, Fanning bravely punched the shark as it lunged towards him.

He then tried to wedge his board between the feared ocean predator and his body.

The shark eventually bit off Fanning's leash, leaving the three-time world champion to frantically flee to safety.

Fanning later declared it 'wasn't his time' to die and was back surfing less than a week after the incident, which generated international headlines.
The ACT has recorded 455 new cases of Covid-19, as hospital restrictions in Canberra are set to ease.

Of the new cases, 218 were from PCR tests while there were 237 positive rapid antigen test results.

Hospitalisations have fallen slightly from 51 to 49 patients with Covid-19.

There remain four patients being treated in intensive care for the virus while two of those are on a ventilator.

The ACT has recorded 455 new cases of Covid-19, as hospital restrictions in Canberra are set to ease (pictured, residents wear face masks in Canberra)

Hospitalisations have fallen slightly from 51 to 49 patients with Covid-19 with four in ICU (pictured, a drive-through clinic in Canberra)

It comes as visitors will be allowed back into ACT hospitals from Wednesday, after previously being banned due to the Omicron wave.

Patients will be allowed two visitors per day, but only allowed one at a time.

For children in hospitals, two parents or carers can attend together, but only one will be allowed to stay overnight.

Patients who are giving birth can have two support people with them but only one may be in the operating room for caesarean sections.

Compassionate exceptions to the new visitor rules will be determine on a case-by-case basis.

Health officials have advised for children under five to not visit hospital.

It comes as visitors will be allowed back into ACT hospitals from Wednesday, after previously being banned due to the Omicron wave (pictured, a drive-through clinic in Canberra)

ACT Health said the decision to ease restrictions came after carefully considering the Covid-19 situation in the territory.

'Visitors to clinical areas where patients are at higher risk of severe disease will still need to apply directly to the health facility for an exemption,' a health spokesman said.

'The decision to restrict visitors to our health services is always a difficult one, but it ensures we can protect the health and safety of patients, staff and their loved ones.'

The latest vaccination data showed 61.4 per cent of those 16 and over have had booster shots while 76.2 per cent of five to 11-year-olds have had their first dose.
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Russia's announcement that it will withdraw some of its troops from the Ukrainian border was welcomed with cautious optimism by NATO and the West today - with observers warning that the apparent de-escalation is yet to be confirmed by movements on the ground.

Jens Stoltenburg, NATO chief executive, said there is room for 'cautious optimism' after weeks of escalating tensions - amid signs from Russia that the diplomatic route to ending the crisis has not yet been closed off.

But he also warned that Putin still maintains a large military presence near Ukraine, has the ability to attack at short notice, and that there has been no evidence yet of a drawn-down of forces - despite Moscow claiming some units are leaving after training exercises.

He remarks echo those of Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's defence minister, who said that Kiev and its Western allies have prevented any 'further escalation' of tensions but added: 'We have a rule: don't believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation.'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was equally skeptical, saying that Russia continues to build field hospitals which 'can only be construed as preparations' for an attack - urging Putin to stop sending 'mixed signals' while calling for Western allies to remain 'tough and united'.

News of the withdrawal came just hours after dire warnings out of Washington that Russian tanks and troops were being moved to final attack positions, and that rocket batteries and artillery units had been moved within range of their targets. One official event went so far as to suggest the invasion had been scheduled for 3am Wednesday.

Moscow attempted to dismiss those warnings as 'war propaganda' today, with a spokesman saying: 'February 15, 2022 will go into history as the day western war propaganda failed. They have been disgraced and destroyed without a single shot being fired'

Amid the standoff, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz became the latest world leader to visit Moscow on Tuesday - given the same 'long table treatment' as Emmanuel Macron received last week as he sat down for face-to-face talks with Putin aimed at resolving the crisis.

Russia has today claimed it is withdrawing some of its forces from Crimea and the Ukraine border region after training drills, in what could be the first sign of a climb-down by Vladimir Putin

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right) sits down with Putin (left) in the Kremlin - the latest foreign leader to be given the 'long table treatment' - for talks aimed at deescalating the crisis today

Video released by the Russian defence ministry early Tuesday showed columns of tanks being loaded on to train transports in Crimea, as the foreign ministry slammed what it called Western 'war propaganda' over an invasion

Tanks are pictured leaving a Russian base in the Ukraine border region, which it claims is part of a withdrawal from the region - despite Washington warning that troops are actually moving closer to the border

Ukraine today hailed Western efforts aimed at preventing a war, saying they appear to be working as Russian forces withdraw (pictured) while also cautioning that the 'withdrawal' might not be what it seems

Alexei Navalny, Putin's fiercest critic and political rival, appeared in court in Russia today for a 'show trial' that could see him locked up for a decade. His supporters say the Ukraine build-up has distracted from his fate

 Slide me  Russia has begun moving vehicles from assembly areas to forward staging points in what observers fear could be one of the last moves before an invasion of Ukraine. Left is an assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, filled with tanks on January 19 and right is the same area - empty of tanks - pictured on Sunday

 Slide me  One forward staging area appears to be Soloti, just 20 miles from the Ukraine border. Satellites show a camp of Russian troops in the region on January 12 (left) and the same camp but expanded with the arrival of new troops and vehicles on February 13 (right)

 Slide me  Satellite images show a Russian assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, on January 19 (left) and the same area on February 13 (right) with some tents removed and deep wheel ruts in the snow as men and vehicles are moved closer to the border

Don't believe your eyes: Russia's record of denying its military activities Syria Putin, who lent his backing to dictator Bashar al Assad during the Syrian civil war, claimed in 2016 that the conflict had been won and ordered his forces out. For several weeks some of Moscow's troops did indeed leave the country, but the bulk remained and in 2020 Putin ordered his generals to expand their bases at Tartus and Hmeimim. Thousands of troops backed by warships, submarines and helicopters are still deployed in Syria to this day, ostensibly to fight ISIS but in reality to boost Russia's military presence in the eastern Mediterranean. Crimea When the 2014 Euromaidan revolution ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych - a Moscow stooge - Putin quickly marched troops into the country and annexed Crimea, the site of important Russian bases. At the same time, Putin consistently denied he was doing anything of the sort - refusing to acknowledge any Russian troops were in the country and claiming they were 'self-defence units' created by locals instead. He even went so far as to order troops to remove the Russian insignia from their uniforms, which saw them dubbed 'little green men'. Only weeks later, after Crimea had voted in a referendum to become part of Russia, did Putin at last admit what the world already knew. Advertisement

The Kremlin said it expected the two to have 'prolonged' talks because there is 'lots to discuss'.

Meanwhile Putin's arch critic Alexei Navalny went on trial on charges of embezzlement at a penal colony in Moscow, facing up to 10 years behind bar if found guilty. The case has previously drawn the ire of Western leaders who say Navalny is being targeted for political reasons.

Navalny was pictured embracing his wife Yuliya Navalnaya inside a courtroom at the Moscow penal colony where he is being held - the first time he has been seen in public for months.

Supporters of Navalny - known as Putin's arch rival who was barred from running against him during the last election - claim his trial is being held during the Ukraine troop build-up in an effort to distract from it.

Videos released by Russian state media in the early hours did appear to show tanks being loaded on to train cars in Bakhchysarai, Crimea, and driving out of a base near the Ukraine border in what it said was a withdrawal.

Satellite images also revealed how some camps - such as one at Yelnya - have begun emptying, but that others such as the one at Soloti - closer to the Ukraine border - appears to have expanded. Newly-arrived helicopters and fighter jets were also seen at airbases close to the border in Crimea and Russia.

In a sign that the US still views the threat of a Russian attack as very real, the State Department ordered the temporary closure of its embassy in Kiev on Monday along with the destruction of its computers.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the embassy was being moved further to the west as part of a 'prudent' move to ensure it would not be at risk in the event that Russia attacked.

Meanwhile Russian lawmakers were today set to consider a resolution that would officially call on Putin to recognise two areas of Ukraine's Donbass region as independent states.

Moscow-backed rebel groups based in Donetsk and Luhansk declared themselves independent of Kiev's control in 2014, following Putin's invasion of Crimea, and have been fighting against government forces ever since.

As part of the resolution, Moscow would be instructed to negotiate with leaders of the regions on security and guarantee 'protection of their peoples from external threats and the implementation of policies of genocide.'

Some observers fear this could serve as a pre-text to invasion, after the Kremlin used a similar justification following its 2014 attack. Putin has not given any indication of how he would respond to such a demand.

Meanwhile Liz Truss, the UK defence secretary, continued to insist today that a Russian invasion appears to be imminent and that troops could reach Kiev 'very, very quickly'.

'This is ... about the wider stability of Europe,' she told Sky News. 'And it's about wider global stability, and the message that we give to aggressors and we have to give the message to Vladimir Putin that there can be no reward for aggression.'

Asked about reports that Russia is withdrawing forces from the border, she added that 'we will need to see a full scale removal of troops to show that is true.'

Truss echoed politicians in the United States who have warned that a so-called 'false flag' operation could be used by Moscow to trigger a conflict.

'It is still the case that an invasion could be imminent, and it is highly likely,' she said.

She spoke after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said late Monday that Europe is 'on the edge of a precipice'  but added, 'there is still time for President Putin to step back.'

Mr Johnson was due to chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee today to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine, as a Downing Street source said there was 'some hope' that diplomacy could work and Russia could step back.

Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne division walk across the tarmac at Green Ramp to deploy to Poland on February 14, 2022 at Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, North Carolina

 Slide me  Russian tanks and other vehicles are seen parked in an assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, in a satellite image taken on February 4 (left) and the same area is pictured empty of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they have been moved to staging areas closer to the Ukraine border

 Slide me  An assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, is seen filled with Russian military vehicles on February 4 (left) while the same area is pictured emptied of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they are being repositioned for an invasion

Train cars loaded with Russian artillery units are pictured at a station in Yelnya, Russia, as American officials warn they are being moved closer to Ukraine in what appears to be final preparations for an attack

Newly-arrived Russian Mil Mi-26 heavy lifting helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Machulishchy, Belarus, as American officials warn Putin could be just hours away from giving the order to attack

A newly-arrived unit of Russian attack helicopters is pictured at an airfield in Belgorod, Russia, in this satellite image taken on February 13

Russian transport and attack helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Lake Donuzlav, Crimea, on February 13 as Putin builds up his aerial forces ahead of an invasion that the US fears could come this week

Sukhoi Su-34 fighters are pictured at Primorsko-Akhtarsk airbase in Russia, having been newly deployed near the frontlines with Ukraine amid fears they will be used to assist an invasion of the country

A Russian troop garrison at Zyabrovka air base in Belarus with a field hospital set up (beige tents, bottom right) is seen in this satellite image taken on February 10

A Russian troop encampment at Novoozernoye, in occupied Crimea, is pictured on February 9 with a field hospital (cross-shaped tent, bottom right) set up nearby

France's foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, told French television that 'all elements' were in place for a strong Russian offensive, but 'nothing shows today' that Putin has decided to launch one.

Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was in Kiev on Monday - and flies to Moscow to meet Putin on Tuesday - and said that the Russian leader should not underestimate the resolve of Ukraine's allies.

'If Russia violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine again, we know what to do,' Scholz said.

'In the event of military escalation, we are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in coordination with our allies.'

He said there are 'no sensible reasons' for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders to the north, south and east, and he urged more dialogue.

In Moscow, Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, held a meeting for the cameras at which Lavrov appealed for more time for diplomacy.

The talks 'can't go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,' Lavrov said.

He noted that Washington has offered to conduct dialogue on limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Lavrov said possibilities for talks 'are far from being exhausted.'

'I would propose continuing and intensifying them,' he said.

Putin responded: 'Good.'

Lavrov then, front of the cameras, told Putin he had directed his diplomats to demand 'security guarantees' from the West, such as a legally binding pledge that Ukraine will never join the NATO alliance.

'Our initiative shook up our Western colleagues and became the reason they have no longer been able to ignore many of our previous appeals,' Lavrov told the Russian leader.

Lavrov also said that Russia had prepared a 10-page response in its written back-and-forth with NATO and the United States over the Kremlin's security demands.

The United States reacted coolly to Lavrov and Putin's show.

'The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,' said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House principal deputy press secretary.

'However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.'

U.S. officials said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders.

A U.S. defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

Satellite images taken over the last 48 hours show increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Kremlin on Tuesday, as he prepares for talks with Vladimir Putin

Scholz is in Moscow today for talks with Putin, with the Kremlin saying it expects 'prolonged' discussions between the two because they have 'a lot to discuss'

Russian troops form an honour guard at the Kremlin for German Chancellor Scholz as he arrives in Moscow to meet Putin

COVID-anxious Vladimir Putin again deployed an extremely long table to keep his distance as he took stock with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Monday

President Joe Biden, seen here with first lady Jill Biden, spoke with British PM Boris Johnson Monday. The U.S. is urging Russia to pursue diplomacy to avert a crisis over its possible invasion of Ukraine

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The photos also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation, according to Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup.

U.S. troops, meanwhile, flew from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to the region.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden formally approved the deployment of 3,000 US troops to Poland, Germany and Romania, to reassure U.S. allies.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the deployments included roughly 2,000 troops that would deploy from the United States to Poland and Germany.

In addition, approximately 1,000 troops currently based in Germany were moving to Romania.

Kirby said the moves were not permanent and emphasized: 'These forces are not going to fight in Ukraine.'

The Biden administration said Saturday that it was pulling 160 Florida National Guard members from Ukraine, where they have been advising the Ukrainian military since November, 'out of an abundance of caution.'

Kirby said Monday that 'we have said for a while now that military action now could happen any day.'

'It is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning,' Kirby said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

'It certainly could happen before the end of the Olympics - maybe even this week,' he said.

Biden has repeatedly stressed that U.S. troops will not be engaged in combat in Ukraine.

In an hour-long call with the Russian president on Saturday, Biden said the United States and its allies would 'respond decisively' to a Russian invasion of Ukraine. On Sunday, Biden spoke to Zelensky and stressed the United States' commitment to Ukraine.

Biden told Zelensky that the U.S. would respond aggressively to any attack, the White House said, through sanctions and other measures to level a high cost for Russia.

Zelensky asked Biden to visit Ukraine, but U.S. officials said a trip is 'highly unlikely.'

Ukrainian security and defense council chief Oleksiy Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of 'internal destabilization' by unspecified forces.

'Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th,' he told reporters after meeting lawmakers.

'We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.'

Members of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army prepare for deployment to Poland from Fort Bragg on Monday

The U.S. troops wait to board their flight in North Carolina on Monday, bound for Poland

Soldiers sleep as they wait to board their flight to Europe on Monday from North Carolina

The race to Kiev: Plans presented by Kremlin military chiefs show how 130,000 Russian forces will bid to topple Ukraine government in 'multi-axis' invasion from Belarus and Crimea

Russian troops will set off on a 'race to Kiev' to topple the Ukrainian government, according to plans presented by Kremlin military chiefs.

Tens of thousands of Putin's soldiers will push south into Ukraine to target the capital and install a pro-Russian regime, Western officials fear.

There will also be a 'multi-axis' invasion by Russian forces. Troops will enter the country from Belarus and Crimea before converging in eastern Ukraine.

Their mission will be to align themselves to prevent Ukrainian forces in the east of the country heading back to defend Kiev.

T-72B3 Main Battle Tanks of Russian Army take part in a military drill in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 14, 2022

With speed of movement being critical to Russia's strategy, lighter vehicles and weapons systems have apparently been selected for the ground offensive.

More Russian troops, possibly an extra 20,000, are being added to the invasion force which is currently 130,000-strong.

A source said: 'The build-up of soldiers and equipment is unprecedented and very alarming. This is a force built for the purpose of an invasion. It is estimated a further 14 Russian brigades are heading for the Ukrainian border.

'The logistics are also in place, the medical back-up as well as air and naval assets. We have seen the build-up of Russian vessels in the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Holidays have also been cancelled for many Russian units.

'In total you are looking at 60 per cent of Russia's overall combat power being engaged in this operation.

'The land threat has also been made more potent by the disposition of their attacking forces. Russia has basically traded mass for speed knowing they must get to Kiev as quickly as possible.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, soldiers practice at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus

'They must also rapidly get other units to eastern Ukraine to form a barrier stopping Ukrainian units pushing back west to save the capital city.'

According to sources, detailed invasion plans will be presented imminently to President Putin, who has still yet to make a final decision on the invasion.

Putin is expected to meet his defence minister Sergey Shoygu and the head of Russia's secret services Alexander Bortnikov before committing to war.

That's because the UK, the US and the EU will launch a blitzkrieg on Russia's banking system and financial services industry if Russia invades.

Kiev is lightly defended because most Ukrainian troops have been stationed in the east fighting Russian separatists since 2014.

The Ukrainian capital is only 150 miles via the E95 highway from Belarus's southern border  a journey Russian tanks could make in six hours.

A source added: 'Once they get to Kiev the Russians are reluctant to send their troops into situations where they could be fighting street by street. Such a close quarter battle would likely lead to heavy casualties, both military and civilian. The Russians don't want to get bogged down.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Russia February 14, 2022

'They're hoping for a 'bloodless coup', to oust the democratically elected government and put their people in without much of a struggle.

'They are probably underestimating the willingness of the Ukrainians to fight for their country, they are not just going to roll over. So it could get very bloody.'

While the state-controlled media claims the crisis is Nato's fault, there is little or no appetite within Russia for conflict with their neighbour.

'Russians see Ukrainians as being like themselves, many Russians also have Ukrainian relatives. There is little opposition to a possible war because of the Kremlin's control of the media.

'This could change quickly if a lot of people are killed,' a source said. 'An actual invasion would also prove expensive for Russia financially and politically as it would suffer heavy economic sanctions and become a pariah state.'
The Chinese-born property developer named as the 'puppeteer' behind a plan for foreign interference in the next election at a Senate Estimates hearing has a long history of influence in Australia.

Dr Chau Chak Wing, who was born in China's Guangdong Province but emigrated to Australia in the 1980s and later became an Australian citizen, has long boasted high-level political connections - and once even resided in James Packer's former six-storey Sydney mansion.

During a parliamentary hearing this week, the businessman was named by Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching as allegedly being involved in a plot in the lead-up to the this year's Federal election.

ASIO chief Michael Burgess declined to confirm Senator Kitching's allegation of who the said puppeteer was, only saying it was someone with 'direct and deep connections with a foreign government and its intelligence agencies'.

Mr Burgess last week claimed an alleged plan had come to light which involved identifying 'candidates likely to run in the election who either supported the interests of the foreign government or who were assessed as vulnerable to inducements and cultivation'.

On Tuesday, a furious Dr Chau hit back at Senator Kitching, threatening to sue her as he successfully did to the ABC and Nine News last year for $590,000 over a separate defamation matter.

Dr Chau Chak Wing, who was born in China's Guangdong Province but emigrated to Australia in the 1980s and later became an Australian citizen, was named under parliamentary privilege by Labor senator Kimberley Kitching as 'the puppeteer' in a plot to interfere in the next Federal election

Dr Chau pictured with former Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and former Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson

The Chinese billionaire pictured with former Prime Minster John Howard, who once said he had 'a very positive view of [Dr Chau's] contribution to the relationship [with China]'

In a scathing statement, he said: 'I'm shocked and disappointed at the baseless and reckless claim made by Senator Kimberley Kitching during a Senate estimates hearing on Monday.

'It is always unfortunate when elected representatives use the shield of parliamentary privilege to vilify and attack Australian citizens without producing a shred of evidence.

'I am a businessman and philanthropist, I have never had any involvement or interest in interfering with the democratic election process in Australia.'

DR CHAU'S HISTORY OF INFLUENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Dr Chau, the founder of Guangzhou-based property developer Kingold Group, has a long and controversial connection with Australia.

Worth more than $1billion, Dr Chau is known to have made political contributions of more than $4million to both of Australia's major political parties since 2004.

In the two years before the 2008 Federal election that brought Kevin Rudd to power, Dr Chau gave $980,000 to the Coalition and $402,000 to Labor.

The property developer was regularly photographed with Australian Federal politicians, including former Prime Minister John Howard and former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

'I had a very positive view of his contribution to the relationship [with China],' Mr Howard told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2009.

'He always struck me as a person interested in a genuine way in building relations between China and Australia. I never discussed donations with him  the access he had was not so frequent as to even justify that question.'

Dr Chau told the newspaper he was a 'small businessman' and 'a good and responsible citizen'.

'When I make those donations, I do not put any conditions on the contribution,' he said.

Dr Chau purchased La Mer La Mer in Sydney's exclusive suburb of Vaucluse from James Packer for a record $70million. The house had been intended as the matrimonial home of Mr Packer and his former wife Erica

The 3,300 square metre property included underground parking for 20 cars, vast entertaining spaces and two self-contained staff quarters under the rooftop lawn and lap pool

Senator Kitching's naming of Dr Chau was not the first time his name had been raised in parliament as an alleged agent of Chinese influence.

West Australian MP Andrew Hastie used parliamentary privilege in May 2018 to name Dr Chau as an agent for the Chinese Communist Party by linking him to a UN bribery scandal.

Mr Hastie claimed Mr Chau funded a $263,000 bribe to the former president of the UN general assembly, John Ashe, in 2013.

The bribe was said to have been made on behalf of United Front, which was alleged to be a propaganda wing of the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr Hastie made the claim despite Dr Chau earlier winning a number of defamation actions over the bribe claim.

Dr Chau with US architect Frank Gehry and then Governor-General Peter Cosgrove at the opening of the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building, UTS, Sydney in 2015

In 2016 he won damages of $65,000 from Nationwide and News Life over articles in 2015 conveying the imputation he had bribed Mr Ashe.

He was awarded a further $280,000 in damages from Fairfax Media after a 2015 article about the allegation, which Dr Chau donated to charity.

In February 2021 he was awarded $590,000 in damages after bringing defamation proceedings against ABCs Four Corners and Fairfax Media over a story that claimed he had been the subject of a briefing by ASIO warning of Chinese government influence over the Australian political system.

Dr Chau's influence in Australia extends to having buildings named after him in recognition of his financial contributions.

Dr Chau donated $20million to building the $150million Frank Gehry-designed business school at the University of Technology Sydney, now known as the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building

He has donated a massive $45 million to Australian universities, including a $20million contribution to building the $150million Frank Gehry-designed business school at the University of Technology Sydney, now known as the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building.

The businessman donated a further $15million in 2015 for the construction of the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, opened in 2020.

In 2015 Dr Chau purchased six-storey home La Mer in Sydney's exclusive suburb of Vaucluse from one of Australias richest men, James Packer.

The house had been intended as the matrimonial home of Mr Packer and his former wife Erica before their relationship ended.

The $70million sale was a then-record for an Australian home.

The 3,300 square metre property included underground parking for 20 cars, vast entertaining spaces and two self-contained staff quarters under the rooftop lawn and lap pool.

At the time, Dr Chau was ranked as Chinas 220th richest person by Forbes.
A man who sexted nuns at five different convents, including one as old as 84, and sent obscene images and videos will not stop offending, police believe.

Martin Thomas Bothwell, 53, was sentenced at Downing Centre Court on Tuesday to a two-and-a-half year community corrections order for a campaign of sexual harassment of nuns at Catholic orders in Sydney, Tasmania and Victoria.

Calling himself 'Danny Conner' and saying he possessed extremely large sized genitals, he made phone calls on which he grunted and breathed heavily and made vile sexual suggestions, some in the middle of the night.

In one call to the Sisters of St Joseph By The Sea, at Williamstown in Victoria, on June 20 last year, an 84-year-old sister answered and Bothwell said his name was Danny and made a sexual remark before she hung up.

He texted back six minutes later, sending an image of male genitalia and then texted the words 'Dearest Sr (her name) I'm Danny, I'm 17 years old and God has blessed with a' (obscene, graphic description of male manhood).

Martin Bothwell sexted nuns (generic image above) as old as 84, senidng obscene images and videos and making lewd suggestions, sometime in the middle of the night

In September 2020, Bothwell phoned a nun at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart convent in Kensington (above) around 2.35am and told her he was a 17-year-old male named Danny

Bothwell, who police arrested last August when he was staying at the Matthew Talbot homeless men's hostel (above), repeatedly texted or called nuns boasting about his genitals

Martin Bothwell called the Carmelite Monastery (above) in Launceston, Tasmania and told a 45-year-old nun 'Hi sister, it's Danny' and made an obscene request

Bothwell then made bizarre remarks, saying 'you know mum and I know you can call her. Say I'm sorry, I'll try very hard not to leave my door open...'

He then made further shocking sexual suggestions and asked the sister 'can I come and visit you'.

Another sexually explicit text followed and over the next 16 days, police say 20 phone calls were made with sexually explicit suggestions accompanied by heavy breathing.

The elderly sister said the texts and called made her feel 'stressed, upset, frustrated'.

In August last year, Bothwell called a 45-year-old religious sister at the Sisters of Carmelite Monastery in Launceston, Tasmania, saying 'Hi sister, it's Danny' and made an obscene request.

He breathed heavily and grunted before hanging up, leaving the nun 'very upset and offended'.

Bothwell was convicted of five counts of use carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

According to police facts seen by Daily Mail Australia, he used two different mobiles and emails to harass religious sisters.

In September 2020, he phoned a nun at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart convent in Kensington around 2.35am and told her he was a 17-year-old male named Danny, and made repeated references to the large size of his genitalia.

Bothwell emailed the editor of an online journal of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan Foundation at Glebe (above) and made lengthy suggestions in minute and obscene detail

When detectives traced Martin Bothwell to Matthew Talbot hostel (above) they were not confident he wouldn't offend again, saying he should be blocked from access to mobiles and religious oranisations

In one call to the Sisters of St Joseph By The Sea, at Williamstown in Victoria (above), on June 20 last year, an 84-year-old sister answered and Bothwell said his name was Danny and made a sexual remark before she hung up

The following month, Bothwell emailed the editor of an online journal of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan Foundation at Glebe and made lengthy suggestions in minute and obscene detail.

Less than half an hour later he called the same Glebe convent and gave another graphic account of his manhood to a different woman.

In December 2020, he made a similar phone call to a nun at the Sisters of St Joseph in Picton in western Sydney, and thereafter sent lewd text with obscene images to the same woman.

In one text he said, 'Dearest Sr, my name is Danny and I am 17 years old ...'

Between late September and early December 2020, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at Kensington received 74 calls, which were answered by three different religious sisters.

When police began investigating the calls the calls last year, they contacted Bothwell who did not have a permanent address at the time.

They subsequently arrested him at the Matthew Talbot hostel for homeless men last August and he later told them he was 'embarrassed and ashamed' about the calls.

However, when Bothwell was granted bail, police expressed their concern he would continue to commit similar offences.

Detectives wanted to mitigate that risk by his surrendering SIM cards and mobiles and not being allowed to contact any other religious organisation other than Matthew Talbot.

Magistrate Rodney Brender told Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday Bothwell had bipolar disorder suffered delusions and hallucinations.

He said the offences had been committed under heavy alcohol and drug use, 'including crystal meth' and had a criminal history of acts of violence and drugs.

But he said a treatment plan with psychotic medication was better for Bothwell, rather than jail and that he would be supervised with conditions on a community corrections order until 2024.
An alleged fraudster dubbed The Crocodile of Wall Street over claims she laundered $4.5 billion in Bitcoin has been freed on bail - but her husband has been ordered to stay in jail.

Heather Morgan was freed by a New York City judge Monday, pending trial by a federal court. But her husband Ilya Lichtenstein remains behind bars due to prosecutors' fears that he could seek immunity in Russia, where he is also a citizen.

Judge Beryl Howell said on Monday that 31-year-old Morgan, referred as 'Razzlekahn' due to her rapping background, was no longer held in custody after the government deemed that she wasn't as involved in the planning of the alleged crimes as her 34-year-ld husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, who was largely in control of the funds.

The judge also considered Morgan's health issues as a factor, after she had recently had surgery to remove a lump in her breast. With follow-up appointments expected, she will be closely monitored with an ankle bracelet GPS monitor while she is under house arrest.

Morgan has also been given restrictions on computer use, and a ban on carrying out cryptocurrency transactions.

The defense told the court that both defendants would guarantee to appear for all remaining court dates, and pointed out that both of their families, who were in court, were willing to bet their homes on it.

However, Howell finally ruled that there would be a significant 'flight risk' for Lichtenstein and agreed with federal prosecutors who insisted that just a portion of the millions in cryptocurrency that the couple stole could buy a new house or 'buy each of their parents a private island.'

The judge also shared her concerns that Lichtenstein, who is a dual citizen of the United States and Russia, could seek refuge in a eastern European country, where he could possibly be granted immunity.

In this courtroom sketch, attorney Sam Enzer, center, sits between Heather Morgan, left, and her husband, Ilya 'Dutch' Lichtenstein, in federal court on February 8, 2022, in New York. The couple are accused of conspiring to launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency stolen from the 2016 hack of a virtual currency exchange

This illustration photo shows Heather Morgan, also known as 'Razzlekhan,' on a phone in front of the Bitcoin logo displayed on a screen. Along with Lichtenstein, Morgan has been arrested for the couple's Bitcoin laundering scheme but has been freed after paying bail

Federal prosecutors also revealed that Lichtenstein had a file on his computer titled 'passport ideas,' which included several darknet vendors that sell passports, bank cards and other forms of identification.

The New York couple was arrested earlier in February after they conspired to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange platform, and currently estimated at $4.5 billion.

Both are accused of using several techniques to launder Bitcoin, including using fake identifies to create accounts; coding computer programs to execute fast, automated transactions; depositing stolen funds in several accounts across one crypto exchange to cover their previous transactions; converting Bitcoin to other forms of cryptocurrency; and creating U.S.-based business accounts to wire their funds and make them seem legitimate.

Over five years, a hacker allegedly laundered 119,754 bitcoin through 2,000 transactions on Bitfinex's website before transferring the crypto funds into Lichtenstein's digital wallet.

The couple could face up to 25 years years behind bars if found guilty.

Lichtenstein (back) has not been granted bail after prosecutors alerted the judge of his Russian citizenship, where he could seek immunity, if he were no longer held into custody

Morgan has been labelled as an 'integral player' in the cryptocurrency laundering scheme but prosecutors identified Lichtenstein as the 'brain' behind the scheme's operations

Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange registered in the British Virgin Islands. In August 2016, hackers were able to breach its security firewall before stealing about 120,000 bitcoin from its customers.

The amount that was stolen was worth roughly $70 million at the time, when the price of bitcoin was around $600.

At the time, Bitfinex announced to its customers that they would lose 36 percent of their funds to compensate for the losses from the incident. It also created special digital tokens that were able to keep track of customers' losses.

Some of the tokens could exchanged for shares of iFinex, the company that operates Bitfinex, while other tokens could be redeemed if the stolen bitcoins were recovered in the future.

The US Department of Justice announced that it would create a special judicial process for victims of the hack to reclaim their losses.

The hackers have never been identified.

Morgan and Lichtenstein were arrested by federal prosecutors of laundering the bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex, but they are not being accused for actually stealing the bitcoin in the hack.

Authorities were able to recover $3.6B after seizing couple's private keys to digital wallets after their arrest earlier this month.
Qantas will continue to use Darwin as the departure point for its direct flights to London amid ongoing uncertainty on when Western Australia will lift its COVID-19 border restrictions.

The airline temporarily re-routed its Perth to London service through the Territory capital, when international travel resumed in November last year,

The Perth service was scheduled to return in April, but with the WA government yet to confirm a reopening date for the state, Qantas says it will continue to operate out of Darwin until at least June this year.

The Qantas flight direct to London moved from Perth at the end of last year as the WA border remained shut whilst international travel resumed

Qantas flights from Sydney to London will also pass through Darwin instead of Singapore

The Sydney to London service will also transit through Darwin instead of Singapore.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the extension to the Darwin service provided the Territory with an opportunity to capitalise on pent-up international inbound travel demand.

'This extension through to at least mid-June means the Top End has several months to properly leverage the opening up of Australia's borders to all tourists,' Mr Joyce said in a statement on Tuesday.

'It's a great opportunity to encourage thousands of visitors to stop off in Darwin to see what the NT has to offer.'

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the government had also secured a deal with Qantas to establish a new base in Darwin for its 94-seat Embraer 190 aircraft.

Mr Gunner said up to 200 jobs were expected to be created under the 30-month agreement, including pilots, cabin crew and aircraft maintenance positions.

Michael Gunner said up to 200 jobs were expected to be created as Qantas makes a base for its 94-seat Embraer 190 aircraft

The Territory government will invest up to $3.6 million in training, marketing and promotion, as well as incentives to attract workers to be based in the area.

'We are working in partnership with Qantas to deliver more jobs, cheaper fares and more flight routes for Territorians,' Mr Gunner said.

Qantas has announced plans to launch E190 routes from Darwin to Adelaide, Canberra, Cairns and Townsville by the end of March.
Channel Ten commentator Peter van Onselen has warned he will reveal a third government leak tonight.

Van Onselen has recently exposed two government leaks including a cabinet argument and texts in which Gladys Berejiklian allegedly called the PM a 'horrible, horrible person'.

Urging Australians to tune in to his latest expose, the Network 10 reporter wrote: 'Another government leak tonight on @10NewsFirst tune in for the details.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday

Journalist Peter van Onselen has warned he will break a third government leak tonight

Last week Van Onselen reported that Mr Morrison was 'rolled' in a cabinet meeting where he proposed a controversial strategy to get enough support for his religious discrimination laws which were debated this week and held up in the senate.

Mr Morrison allegedly proposed allowing Parliament to debate a revamped national corruption watchdog proposal in exchange for support for his religion bill from moderate Liberals and independents.

There was apparently a heated debate in which several ministers including Communications Minister Paul Fletcher passionately spoke out against the plan.

Mr Morrison's friend Stuart Robert and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham were in favour but it was ultimately deemed too risky and scrapped in an embarrassing defeat for the PM.

Cabinet meetings are secretive and leaks are rare.

Van Onselen (left) quizzed minister Stuart Robert (right) about the cabinet meeting but he replied: 'I do not discuss matters of cabinet confidentiality'

Van Onselen does not reveal his source for the story, first published in The Australian, instead only quoting a mystery Liberal who said the PM's plan was 'too tricky by half' and a mystery minister who said the PM looked 'rattled'.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said his office does not comment on cabinet meetings.

Van Onselen - who contributes to The Australian and 10 News - quizzed Mr Robert about the cabinet meeting but the minister replied: 'I do not discuss matters of Cabinet confidentiality'.

Two weeks ago Mr Morrison said he is confident that no Cabinet minister tried to undermine him by leaking the Gladys texts.

Marise Payne, Greg Hunt, Karen Andrews, Paul Fletcher, Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor have publicly denied being the leaker.

The second leak came after a turbulent week in Parliament which saw Mr Morrison's Religious Discrimination Bill - designed to end discrimination on the basis of religion - pass the lower house with support from Labor but get delayed in the senate until March 29.

Last Wednesday Australian of the Year Grace Tame and former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins blasted the PM for a lack of action on women's safety.

The week before he failed to say the price of bread, was told about texts from Gladys Berejiklian which called him a 'horrible, horrible person' and was blasted for backing Mark McGowan's hard border in WA.

Three conservative commentators tore into Mr Morrison, with Andrew Bolt branding him 'finished' after his 'sad stunt' washing an apprentice's hair in a salon on February 4.

Bolt urged conservative favourite Peter Dutton to 'prepare to lead'.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian take a selfie after making an address to thousands of high school students in Sydney in 2019

When Van Onselen presented the texts between the former NSW Premier and a mystery Liberal cabinet minister at the National Press Club, he told the PM: 'I've got them right here.'

'In one, she (Gladys Berejiklian) 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.

Van Onselen refusal to name his source sparked a witch hunt, with various ministers blamed on social media.

The journalist later addressed criticism that he deliberately picked his moment to ambush the PM with the messages to inflict maximum political damage just months before an election.

'I was only authorised to use them recently, but I was made aware of them a while ago,' he wrote on Twitter.
A gay RAAF veteran was surveilled by the military before being forced out of the air force because of his sexuality, leaving him a 'wounded person', a royal commission has been told.

The commission in Sydney is investigating the issue of defence and veteran suicide, with the inquiry on Tuesday hearing evidence from Danny Liversidge, who was forced to discharge from the RAAF in 1991 for being gay.

When he joined up in the 1980s, Mr Liversidge thought he would be a '20-year man' in the air force until he was summoned to an interrogation with military police and shown photos, dates and times of his attendance at gay bars.

Danny Liversidge (above) was forced to discharge from the RAAF in 1991 for being gay when he was 23 after joining in the 1980s

He was 23 at the time and learned he had been been placed under surveillance with his movements tracked, with the veteran describing the two-hour ordeal as 'shaming and humiliating'.

He was asked more than 100 questions during the interrogation, including what type of company he kept and how many times he had had sex with men, before forcing him to say 'yes, I believe I'm a homosexual'.

'I'm sitting there terrified, absolutely terrified,' he said.

Because of his sexuality he was 'blackmailed' at the meeting into quietly leaving the air force, when faced with the prospect of either a dishonourable discharge or a stalled career.

After a two hour humiliating interrogation about his sexuality, Mr Liversidge (above) was blackmailed into leaving the RAF and was left a 'wounded person'

After leaving, Mr Liversidge said he was left a 'wounded person' and ended up homeless, sleeping in his car and experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Just 12 months after being discharged, the military's stance on homosexuality changed to a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy, but Mr Liversidge was never contacted to resume his career.

'I would have been back there in a flash,' said the veteran, who was considered by his superiors to be a loyal, committed and enthusiastic airman during his time in the RAAF.

Earlier, Glenda Weston, the mother of Bradley Carr, who died by suicide on Anzac Day 2019, aged 34, said she was 'horrified' at the amount of medication prescribed to her son on his return from Afghanistan.

Bradley Carr (above) died by suicide on Anzac Day 2019, aged 34, after suffering from PTSD since returning from an eight-month deployment in Afghanistan

Ms Weston told the inquiry her son suffered PTSD after returning from an eight-month deployment in Afghanistan, resulting in bouts of aggression, flashbacks and anxiety.

On one occasion, after being 'triggered', Mr Carr jumped out of a car travelling at around 80km/h on a highway in a bid to, in his mind, keep his mother safe.

Ms Weston said the army knew her son was struggling and gave him, in her opinion 'too much medication' as treatment.

He took medications from Veterans Affairs doctors that included: Endone, OxyContin, Diazepam, Panadeine, Panadol, Suboxone and Stilnox, and was given prescriptions both during his military service and after being discharged in 2012, she said.

His mother, Glenda Weston, said she was 'horrified' by the amount of medications her son had been prescribed and believed 'the human body couldn't take it'

'I was horrified with the medication that Brad was on, I just feel the human body couldn't take that.'

After being discharged, Mr Carr fought for years to get a gold card to help with payments for treatment at clinics before finally receiving the card in 2018, the inquiry was told.

Ms Weston said if he had been granted the card sooner 'it would have made a big difference'.

Experts on improvements to the coronial system will take the stand on Tuesday afternoon.

Later this week, the inquiry will hear from DVA staff, consulting firm McKinsey and medical experts.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Open Arms 1800 011 046
The former Director of National Intelligence under President Trump, John Ratcliffe, has accused Hillary Clinton of attempting to 'frame' Trump under a 'false Russian narrative' - as a lawyer charged in a special counsel probe claimed it was a witch hunt.

Ratcliffe went on Fox News on Monday night where he explained how, in his view, Clinton had been trying to drum up interest in possible links between President Trump and Russia in an effort to distract attention away from her own scandal over her deleted emails.

He spoke as special counsel John Durham - appointed by Trump AG Bill Barr in 2020 - continued probing Team Hillary's Kremlin smear campaign against their victorious 2016 rival Trump, with court filings shared over the weekend increasing pressure on Democrat operatives.

'When I became the DNI, the first thing I wanted to see was all of the intelligence we have on Trump-Russia collusion. The answer was, "well, we don't have any.",' Ratcliffe began.

Former Director of National Intelligence under President Trump, John Ratcliffe, has said Hillary Clinton tried to 'frame' Trump under a 'false Russian narrative'

Ratcliffe, right, told Fox News' Laura Ingraham how the 'Trump-Russian collusion' was dreamt up by Clinton in an attempt to divert attention away from her deleted email scandal in 2016

Some of former President Trump's greatest supporters appeared on Fox News on Monday night. From left, Senior Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway, former Trump campaign consultant Paul Manafort and Former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows

'That's why [Former FBI director] Jim Comey and [Former CIA director] John Brennan and [Former DNI director] James clapper when all pressed under oath, and asked if there was evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, they all said, "no there isn't."'

'What I found was interesting was that we had a lot of intelligence of fake Trump-Russia collusion. We had information that Hillary Clinton had a plan to create this narrative. John Brennan's handwritten notes showed he briefed President Obama and Vice-President Biden about that plan.

'The public found out about this when I declassified the information in John Brennan's hand written notes in September 2020. No member of congress was aware of this intelligence until I declassified it.'

Ratcliffe also said that then-Vice President Joe Biden and Barack Obama knew Hillary Clinton's campaign was trying to 'hack' into Trump's servers to try and find links to the Kremlin.

Durham's indictment made no specific claims of servers being 'infiltrated', but rather that DNS data from Trump Tower and Whitehouse servers was exploited in an attempt to document a link between Trump and Russian banks.'

On Monday night, former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, fought back against Special Counsel John Durham's allegations made in his probe

Sussman filed a cross-motion to strike wrote in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia

Sussman accused Durham's probe of making 'false allegations, politicizing the case, tainting the jury pool and inflaming media coverage'

On Monday night, former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, fought back against Special Counsel John Durham's allegations in his probe that accuse him of lying to the FBI during a September 2016 conversation, as he relayed concerns about potentially suspicious cyber contacts between a Trump Organization server and the server of a Russian bank.

When bringing the concerns to then-FBI general counsel James Baker, the indictment alleged that Sussmann lied and said he was not representing a client when he was actually hired by Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

Sussmann has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have claimed the case is driven by politics.

'Unfortunately, the Special Counsel has done more than simply file a document identifying potential conflicts of interest. Rather, the Special Counsel has again made a filing in this case that unnecessarily includes prejudicial and false allegations that are irrelevant to his Motion and to the charged offense, and are plainly intended to politicize this case, inflame media coverage, and taint the jury pool,' Sussman wrote in filing a cross-motion to strike with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The rant was akin to President Trump's rants about probes into his behavior - by special counsel Robert Mueller and impeachment committees - as witch hunts.

Ratcliffe claims that his revelations show there is 'enough evidence' to indict 'multiple people' in Durham's probe into the origins of the Russia investigation into ex-President Donald Trump.

Ratcliffe also blames long standing institutions as being 'dishonest' towards the American people.

'It's payback time,' said former Trump campaign consultant Paul Manafort. 'It's outrageous!'

'Unfortunately, what you have, there are a lot of bureaucrats that protect the CIA and FBI for the sake of protecting them even when they don't stand up for the values they are supposed to represent, instead of being clean and honest with the American people. That's what we should do. That's what I did. That's what good leadership demands. We don't have that right now and we didn't have it in 2016.

It follows Durham's bombshell claims in legal filings over the weekend that Clinton's campaign paid a firm to target servers in Trump Tower to create a 'fake scandal' while he was still in office.

Clinton allegedly approved in the 2016 election 'a plan concerning U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server,' according to a CIA Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) first revealed when a heavily-redacted version became declassified in October 2020.

The September 2016 memo was forwarded from the CIA to the FBI to the attention of then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok - the 'FBI lover' who had a relationship with Lisa Page.

Former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, said that he believed that Durham had uncovered 'one of the worst spying scandals of all time'

Trump sent a short statement Monday morning with feelings of vindication after Durham's filing revealed Clinton's plot to link him to Russia.

'I was proven right about the spying, and I will be proven right about 2020!' he wrote, insisting his claims of fraud and meddling in the 2020 presidential election will also be confirmed.

Earlier in the evening on Fox News Senior Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway, Former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows and former Trump campaign consultant Paul Manafort each gave their view of the weekend's findings.

'It's payback time,' said Manafort. 'What you see now with what Durham is doing, are the facts that Mueller couldn't find. He's got the evidence Mueller couldn't get to. He is proving the case that with the Democrats accused Republicans of is a good forecast of what they're doing. That's what you see. It's outrageous. It's outrageous.'

Next up was Mark Meadows who said that he believed that Durham had uncovered one of the worst spying scandals of all time.

'We know that when Donald Trump said that they were spying on his campaign, he got all kinds of pushback. When Jim Jordan [U.S. Rep for Ohio-R] and myself said that they were spying on his campaign, we were ridiculed. This particular allegation in the filings that have been made by the special prosecutor is really starting to connect the dots for the first time. I've never seen anything this bad in my entire life politically.'

Senior Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway said she was at the White House having lunch when the plan to smear Trump was made by President Obama and Joe Biden

Kellyanne Conway attempted to shed some light on the situation having been there during Trump's campaign and subsequent election win in 2016.

'It's really bad. I was there for all of it, on the campaign in Trump Tower and certainly the white house,' she began. 'I was at the White House, the Obama White House, for a transition lunch and while I was there, upstairs they were cooking this out. Biden, Suzanne rice and Barack Obama.

'They were being briefed on what was going to happen. Guess what I learned today. The Clinton people had no faith in her. No confidence in her competence. They had to cut corners and cheat and lie. They had to perfume the pig. They had to make the candidate something she is not. We had tremendous faith in our candidate to get the job done. To go out there and connect with people Let's at least have our due and dig a little bit deeper and see where this takes us.'

DailyMail.com reached out to an Obama spokesperson regarding the alleged briefing but did not get a response.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the Ratcliffe claims during Monday's briefing and referred reporters to the Justice Department for all questions related to the Durham report.

Former DNI John Ratcliffe told Fox News earlier in a Monday interview that former President Barack Obama and then-VP Joe Biden were briefed by then-CIA Director John Brennan in 2016 about allegations Hillary Clinton was trying to fabricate links between Trump to Russia

Ratcliffe told Special Counsel John Durham there is 'enough evidence' to indict 'multiple people' connected to the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. He pointed to a declassified memo from September 2016 that Clinton approved a plan looking into Trump colluding with Russian hackers to 'distract the public from her use of a private email server'

As developments in the case ensued Monday, Clinton posted an image of her young self with husband and former President Bill Clinton with the caption: 'Happy Valentine's Day!'

Brennan was questioned by Special Counsel John Durham's team for eight hours in August 2020 as part of the ongoing investigation, specifically focusing on whether the former CIA director pushed for a more blunt assessment of Russia's motivations

How the liberal media outlets that relentlessly pushed 'Russian collusion' smear have totally ignored Durham's revelation that Hillary SPIED on Trump The mainstream media is under fire again for ignoring the bombshell claims Hillary Clinton's campaign spied on Donald Trump while he was President - while they show no hesitation in heavy coverage of the discredited Steele dossier and allegations he was colluding with Russia, DailyMail.com found no links or references to the latest revelations by Special Counsel John Durham in his probe into the origins of the Russia investigation on the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS. The story has even been picked up global news organizations, including The Times of London, but has seen little in comparison to the wall-to-wall coverage of the so-called 'dirty dossier' that turned out to be Democrat-funded opposition research used as a basis for the FBI to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The authenticity of the Steele dossier crumbled when Russian-born analyst Igor Y. Danchenko was arrested and indicted in November for lying about his contact with a Bill and Hillary Clinton crony, who supplied some of the information. Even on Monday, days after the alleged scandal broke, CNN's top story on its digital site was about pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman handing nearly 8,000 documents over to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. At the time of Danchenko's arrest, it appeared that the same outlets giving the dossier oxygen before it could be further verified were poised to re-examine their coverage. However since the weekend they have also been silent about Durham's findings. A 2020 interview Trump sat for with CBS News host Lesley Stahl resurfaced amid the fallout, in which the veteran journalist dismissed claims that political opponents spied on Trump's campaign. His son Eric Trump called on Stahl to apologize. Trump himself previously called the heated October 2020 interview a 'vicious attempted takeout.' Trump jumped on the lack of stories published in outlets over the weekend, said it is proof the media is corrupt and claimed 'all hell would break loose' if Republicans faced the same accusations. Advertisement

A source familiar with the matter told Fox that Ratcliffe has privately raised concerns regarding the CIOL directing its memo specifically to Comey and Strzok.

Ratcliffe met with Durham more than once and shared his assessment that multiple people can be charged with a crime in the events that ultimately led to Trump's first impeachment, in which he was acquitted by the Senate.

Before becoming Trump's director of National Intelligence, Ratcliffe served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas and after that was a congressman for Texas' 4th congressional district.

A growing chorus of Democrats believe Clinton should be questioned by Durham for her alleged role in the Russian secret server scandal in a poll conducted before the bombshell revelations that her team spied on Trump's campaign.

In a poll last month, 66 percent of Democrats wanted Clinton questioned, a whopping 22 percentage points higher than how many in her party demanded a probe last October, according to TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (TIPP) research.

The amount of Republicans demanding answers is also swelling, rising to 91 percent in January from 80 percent last October. Among the independent crowd, those wanting the former secretary of state probed rose to 74 percent from 65 percent.

Both polls were completed before Special Counsel John Durham last week released a bombshell report that claimed Clinton's campaign team tried to spy on former president Trump's computer servers in a failed attempt to tie him to Russia.

The New Jersey-based polling company surveyed 1,308 Americans.

According to a recently-released filing from Durham, the aim was to try and smear Trump by linking him to Russia. Clinton's campaign repeatedly accused Trump of using a secret server to communicate with Russians, although the claim has never been proven.

Durham was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr to serve as the Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice in October 2020, while Trump was president.

He continues to investigate a case that is sure to anger supporters of the 45th president.

Tweets from the 2016 presidential campaign resurfaced Sunday and show how Clinton promoted unproven reports that Trump conspired with the Russians.

While running for the nation's highest office, Clinton pushed the narrative that Trump was secretly communicating with Russians via the country's Alfa Bank.

'Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,' she tweeted on October 31, 2016 while sharing a statement from her then-special policy advisor Jake Sullivan  who is now Biden's National Security adviser.

'This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump's ties to Russia,' the statement said. 'It certainly seems the Trump Organization felt it had something to hide, given that it apparently took steps to conceal the link when it was discovered by journalists.'

In another tweet, published the same day, Clinton said: 'It's time for Trump to answer serious questions about his ties to Russia'.

She also promoted a Slate article that questioned whether Trump was really using a secret server to communicate with allies abroad.

Clinton included in her tweet a box that reiterated claims that such a server existed, and that it was being used to 'communicate privately with a Putin-tied Russian bank called Alfa Bank.'

Democrats who want 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton questioned by Special Counsel John Durham over the Russia secret server scandal has jumped in recent months

'When a reporter asked about it, they shut it down,' the tweet said. 'One week later, they created a different server with a different name for the same purpose.

Special Counsel John Durham

Durham's motion filed on Friday looked at potential conflicts of interest with regard to former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The former chief investigator of the Trump-Russia probe for the House Intelligence Committee, Kash Patel, said Friday's filing 'definitively showed the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers at Perkins Coie to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia,' Fox News reported.

'Per Durham, this arrangement was put in motion in July of 2016, meaning the Hillary Clinton campaign and her lawyers masterminded the most intricate and coordinated conspiracy against Trump when he was both a candidate and later president of the United States while simultaneously perpetuating the bogus Steele Dossier hoax,' Patel told Fox.

Trump in a statement Sunday likened the alleged spying to the infamous Watergate scandal, which brought down Richard Nixon.

'What Hillary Clinton and the Radical Left Democrats did with respect to spying on a President of the United States, even while in office, is a far bigger crime than Watergate,' Trump said.

'It will be interesting to see how it was covered by the media and what Mitch McConnell and the RINOs will be doing about it. This is an insult to the Republican Party, but a far greater insult to our Nation.'

Trump on Saturday unleashed a furious broadside claiming that Team Clinton's behavior would once have merited execution, after Durham made a court filing explaining the alleged 'hack'.

He said: 'In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death. In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.'

The key passage of the Durham filing that led to the accusations against Clinton and her campaign Below is the key part of the legal filing made by Special Counsel John Durham on Friday February 11 that led to the firestorm of claims that Hillary Clinton and her campaign spied on Donald Trump. The documents were part of the case against Michael Sussman, a Clinton campaign lawyer charged with lying to a federal agent over work on links between Trump and Russia. The defendant (Michael Sussman) is charged in a one-count indictment with making a materially false statement to the FBI, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001 (the 'Indictment'). As set forth in the Indictment, on Sept. 19, 2016  less than two months before the 2016 U.S. Presidential election  the defendant, a lawyer at a large international law firm ('Law Firm-1') that was then serving as counsel to the Clinton Campaign, met with the FBI General Counsel (James Baker) at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The defendant provided the FBI General Counsel with purported data and 'white papers' that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel between the Trump Organization and a Russia-based bank ('Russian Bank-1'). The Indictment alleges that the defendant lied in that meeting, falsely stating to the General Counsel that he was not providing the allegations to the FBI on behalf of any client. In fact, the defendant had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including (i) a technology executive ('Tech Executive-1 - identified as Rodney Jeffe) at a U.S.-based Internet company ('Internet Company1'), and (ii) the Clinton Campaign. 3. The defendant's billing records reflect that the defendant repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the Russian Bank-1 allegations. In compiling and disseminating these allegations, the defendant and Tech Executive-1 also had met and communicated with another law partner at Law Firm-1 who was then serving as General Counsel to the Clinton Campaign ('Campaign Lawyer-1'). The Indictment also alleges that, beginning in approximately July 2016, Tech Executive-1 had worked with the defendant, a U.S. investigative firm retained by Law Firm-1 on behalf of the Clinton Campaign, numerous cyber researchers, and employees at multiple Internet companies to assemble the purported data and white papers. In connection with these efforts, Tech Executive-1 exploited his access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data. Tech Executive-1 also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract. Tech Executive-1 tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish 'an inference' and 'narrative' tying then-candidate Trump to Russia. In doing so, Tech Executive-1 indicated that he was seeking to please certain 'VIPs,' referring to individuals at Law Firm-1 and the Clinton Campaign. 5. The Government's evidence at trial will also establish that among the Internet data Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited was domain name system ('DNS') Internet traffic pertaining to (i) a particular healthcare provider, (ii) Trump Tower, (iii) Donald Trump's Central Park West apartment building, and (iv) the Executive Office of the President of the United States ('EOP'). (Tech Executive-1's employer, Internet Company-1, had come to access and maintain dedicated servers for the EOP as part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services to the EOP. Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOP's DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump.) 6. The Indictment further details that on February 9, 2017, the defendant provided an updated set of allegations  including the Russian Bank-1 data and additional allegations relating to Trump  to a second agency of the U.S. government ('Agency-2'). The Government's evidence at trial will establish that these additional allegations relied, in part, on the purported DNS traffic that Tech Executive-1 and others had assembled pertaining to Trump Tower, Donald Trump's New York City apartment building, the EOP, and the aforementioned healthcare provider. In his meeting with Agency-2, the defendant provided data which he claimed reflected purportedly suspicious DNS lookups by these entities of internet protocol ('IP') addresses affiliated with a Russian mobile phone provider ('Russian Phone Provider-1'). The defendant further claimed that these lookups demonstrated that Trump and/or his associates were using supposedly rare, Russian-made wireless phones in the vicinity of the White House and other locations. The Special Counsel's Office has identified no support for these allegations. Indeed, more complete DNS data that the Special Counsel's Office obtained from a company that assisted Tech Executive-1 in assembling these allegations reflects that such DNS lookups were far from rare in the United States. For example, the more complete data that Tech Executive-1 and his associates gathered  but did not provide to Agency-2  reflected that between approximately 2014 and 2017, there were a total of more than 3 million lookups of Russian Phone-Provider-1 IP addresses that originated with U.S.-based IP addresses. Fewer than 1,000 of these lookups originated with IP addresses affiliated with Trump Tower. In addition, the more complete data assembled by Tech Executive-1 and his associates reflected that DNS lookups involving the EOP and Russian Phone Provider-1 began at least as early 2014 (i.e., during the Obama administration and years before Trump took office)  another fact which the allegations omitted. 7. In his meeting with Agency-2 employees, the defendant also made a substantially similar false statement as he had made to the FBI General Counsel. In particular, the defendant asserted that he was not representing a particular client in conveying the above allegations. In truth and in fact, the defendant was representing Tech Executive-1  a fact the defendant subsequently acknowledged under oath in December 2017 testimony before Congress (without identifying the client by name). Advertisement

'Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,' she tweeted on October 31, 2016 while sharing a statement from her then-special policy advisor Jake Sullivan

In another tweet, Clinton said: 'It's time for Trump to answer serious questions about his ties to Russia'

Donald Trump said Sunday that the revelation is a bigger scandal and crime than Watergate, which saw the eventual resignation of then-President Richard Nixon
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A new chapter opens in the saga of San Franciscos scandal-plagued school board Tuesday as voters weigh in on whether to recall three members after a year of controversy that captured national attention.

For many parents, the special municipal election is a referendum on how the citys school board managed the pandemic.

The recall effort stemmed from frustration felt by parents who say the board wasted its time on matters unrelated to the coronavirus instead of focusing on reopening public schools. But organizers and many residents say the effort also tapped into a wider feeling of discontent in San Francisco, where rising crime and attacks on Asian Americans during the pandemic added to a perception of a city in turmoil.

"It seems to have catalyzed a broader general public awareness in San Francisco. Many people are seeing whats happening in the school board as a reflection of a broader failure," said Siva Raj, a father of two who helped launch the recall effort. "Here we are living in one of the wealthiest cities in the world and we are not getting the basics right."

The special election comes at a time of national unrest in public education as once sleepy school board races turn into heated, partisan debates that have become a rallying issue for Republicans in the 2022 midterms. In November, voters weighed in on dozens of school board races across the country that were dominated by debates over masks, vaccines, race and history.

In famously liberal San Francisco, the situation has been less partisan but is still being closely watched by Republicans. Some conservative media have cast the race as a clash of "liberals vs. the far left." While distance learning has been a national issue, the school board stumbled through self-inflicted controversies that were unique to San Francisco.

FILE - Alison Collins, right, speaks during a meeting in San Francisco, on Sept. 26, 2018. In a city with the lowest percentage of children of all major American cities, school board elections in San Francisco have often been an afterthought. A special election on Feb. 15, 2022, will decide the fate of three school board members, all Democrats, including Collins, in a vote that has divided the famously liberal city. (Liz Hafalia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

It drew national attention for an effort to rename 44 schools that was part of a racial reckoning critics said went too far. School board members said they focused on sites that honored public figures linked to racism, sexism and other injustices. On the list were names like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and trailblazing California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

The renaming effort was criticized for historical inaccuracies and shoddy research but also for its timing in January 2021, when all city schools were shut down and students were struggling with online learning. The plan was ultimately scrapped.

Most of the citys 115 schools, which serve 50,0000 students, were closed for over a year, from March 2020 to August 2021, even as nearby districts eventually reopened classrooms and private schools across the city held in-person classes.

"Sadly our school boards priorities have often been severely misplaced," Mayor London Breed said in her endorsement of the recall effort. "San Franciscos public school parents arent just voicing normal, commonplace frustrations."

After the renaming debacle, the board faced multiple lawsuits, including one from the city of San Francisco, which took the dramatic step of suing the school district and the board to pressure both to reopen classrooms more quickly.

Organizers say they would recall all seven board members if they could, but only three have served long enough to face a challenge: Board President Gabriela Lopez and two commissioners, Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga.

Collins came under fire for comments made on Twitter that appeared to be anti-Asian. The tweets, which dated to 2016 before her election to office, said Asian Americans used "white supremacist" thinking to get ahead and were racist toward Black students. Their emergence prompted the board to revoke her title of vice president. Collins apologized for the tweets and said they were taken out of context. She dismissed calls to resign.

Many Asian parents were already angered by the boards efforts to end merit-based admissions at the elite Lowell High School, where Asian students are the majority.

As a result, many Asian American residents have been motivated to vote for the first time in a municipal election. The grassroots Chinese/API Voter Outreach Task Force, which formed in mid-December, said it registered 560 new Asian American voters.

Ann Hsu, a mother of two who helped found the task force, said many Chinese voters saw the effort to change the Lowell admissions system as a direct attack.

"It is so blatantly discriminatory against Asians," she said. In the city's Chinese community, Lowell is viewed as a path children can take to success.

"It is ingrained in the culture: If you study hard and you do well academically, it doesn't matter if you're a new immigrant, it doesn't matter if you didn't speak English when you got here," said Hsu. "If you just put in the work and you do well, you can build a new life here. When Lowell exists, it is recognition of that."

If any of the three board members are recalled, Breed will appoint their interim replacements.

Critics say the recall effort is a waste of time and money, as the district faces a number of challenges including a $125 million budget deficit and the need to replace retiring Superintendent Vincent Matthews.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, left, waves next to Faauuga Moliga, who she appointed to the school board, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Francisco. In a city with the lowest percentage of children of all major American cities, school board elections in San Francisco have often been an afterthought. A special election on Feb. 15, 2022, will decide the fate of three school board members, all Democrats, including Moliga, in a vote that has divided the famously liberal city. (Jill Tucker/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

HOLD FOR STORY School Board Vice President Gabriela Lopez speaks during a news conference in San Francisco, March 12, 2020. In a city with the lowest percentage of children of all major American cities, school board elections in San Francisco have often been an afterthought. A special election on Feb. 15, 2022, will decide the fate of three school board members, all Democrats, including Lopez, in a vote that has divided the famously liberal city. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

FILE - A pedestrian walks below a sign for Dianne Feinstein Elementary School in San Francisco on Dec. 17, 2020. In a city with the lowest percentage of children of all major American cities, school board elections in San Francisco have often been an afterthought. One of the first issues to garner national attention was the board's decision to rename 44 of the city's public schools they said honored public figures linked to racism, sexism and injustice. On the list were names like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and trailblazing California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
A woman who was allegedly murdered by her husband in their luxury hotel suite had posted gushing tributes to him on social media.

Vanessa and Jeff Godfrey were found by horrified staff at the swanky Pelican Waters Resort on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on Valentine's Day.

Vanessa, 46, was discovered dead, drenched in her own blood on the bed, while estranged husband Jeff, 50, lay unconscious nearby.

On Tuesday, detectives revealed she had suffered multiple wounds to her arms, covering her in blood as she died.

Her husband suffered only minor injuries and regained consciousness by the time police arrived and put him under arrest.

Vanessa Godfrey, 46, (pictured right) was discovered dead, drenched in her own blood on the bed of the $250-a-night room, while husband Jeff, 50, (left) lay unconscious nearby

Ms Godfrey celebrated the couple's 24th wedding anniversary in an online post to her husband in 2019

The couple had chronicled 25 years of happy marriage in loved-up photos on social media (pictured, the Godfreys on their wedding day in 1995)

The couple spend the Valentine's Day weekend at the $250-a-night Pelican Waters Resort (pictured)

He has since been charged with his wife's murder as police await the results of forensic examinations and an autopsy to reveal the exact cause of death.

Neighbours in the building said the couple had been partying hard for two days prior to the alleged killing in their $250-night room, and reported hearing loud music and the couple singing love songs to each other.

But when they failed to check out on Monday afternoon, staff went to check on them and found the gruesome scene.

The pair were grandparents, and Jeff owns Pack A Punch Pressure Cleaning Services where Vanessa is understood to have worked.

In a series of social media posts, wife Vanessa had charted the long history of the couple, with throwback pictures to their wedding in 1995 after a two year romance.

The young couple looked like 90s movie stars, with Vanessa dressed like a starlet in a stunning white dress and spectacular headpiece, with three bridesmaids in ultraviolet blue gowns by her side.

Jeff played the handsome groom in a tuxedo and bow tie, flanked by his well-dressed groomsmen, and several motorbikes.

Ms Godfrey celebrated the couple's 24th wedding anniversary in an online post to her husband in 2019.

Neighbours in the upmarket building say the couple (pictured) had been partying hard for two days prior to the tragedy, with reports of loud music and the couple singing love songs to each other

Husband Jeff owned Pack A Punch cleaning services - changing his status on social media to single

Vanessa Godfrey celebrated the couple's 24th wedding anniversary in an online post to her husband Jeff Godfrey (pictured together) in 2019

The Godfreys (pcitured) posed for countless pics together as they holidayed overseas including Bali and as they grew older together and had kids Connor and Olivia, now in their 20s.

'To the absolute love of my life, when I met you at 17 years old, I couldn't have imagined the life we would create and build together,' she wrote on Facebook.

'You are my best friend, my lover, my companion and my drinking buddy.

'I am so grateful to be sharing my life with you. I love you more than these words and life itself my beautiful hubby.'

The tattooed pair posed for countless pics together as they holidayed overseas, including in Bali, and as they grew older together and had kids, now in their 20s.

Pictures reveal the inseparable couple standing together closely in almost every picture, cuddling, hugging and holding hands.

Pictures reveal the inseparable couple (pictured) standing together closely in almost every picture, cuddling, hugging and holding hands.

In August 2014, Vanessa Godfrey posted a picture of a bouquet of blood-red roses (pictured), with the caption: 'Special delivery from my gorgeous husband today xxoo'

The pair (pictured) are believed to have worked together on Jeff's pressure washer business, with many customers praising the couple's work

They holidayed together in Bali (pictured) and posted pictures of themselves together online

Ms Godfrey joked in one post: 'The Balinese women say I must have a great husband...Takes good care of me.'

In August 2014, she posted a picture of a bouquet of blood-red roses, with the caption: 'Special delivery from my gorgeous husband today.'

'Done pretty well I say. Got myself a good catch! Deserve 300 after 20+ years, or maybe he does!'

The pictures include the pair in fancy dress at a cruise ship-themed party on a boat, revealing their matching tattoos.

The pair are believed to have worked together on Jeff's pressure washer business, with many customers praising the couple's work.

Vanessa Godfrey (pictured) is believed to have at least one grandchild

Detective Inspector Dave Drinnen said it was a traumatic scene for staff to discover when they entered the room on Monday and were confronted by the grisly sight.

'She was covered in blood and there were wounds to her arms,' he said. 'It was physically obvious that she was deceased.'

Jeff Godfrey, 50 (pictured) - who owns Pack A Punch cleaning services - allegedly killed his wife Vanessa, 46, at Pelican Waters Resort on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on Monday

He added: 'It was very horrific for the staff.

'We have a very unfortunate and very tragic incident in which there is a female deceased with blood, [and staff] not knowing what what's happened.

'It will be very traumatic for anyone attending.'

Detectives are conducting a forensic examination and an autopsy to establish the exact cause of death and any clues on the lead up to the alleged murder.

Police said they would be investigating the state of the relationship prior to the alleged murder and said they had been taking part in a 'social event' at the resort over the Valentine's Day weekend.

'We will look at both parties' family dynamics, what the situation is, but it's all part of the investigation that we are still working on and pulling together,' said Detective Inspector Drinnen.

'We have a woman who has lost her life, we have a male person who is now being charged in relation to a murder.

'There's going to be a lot of mourning. There needs to be support built around all family members in relation to this. It's just another tragic loss of life.'

Godfrey was denied bail when his case was mentioned at Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
A billionaire Chinese-Australian businessman accused of being the 'puppeteer' behind a plot to interfere in elections has hit back hard.

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching alleged on Monday evening that influential property developer Chau Chak Wing is the man Australia's spy network claims is behind a plan to secretly bankroll and manipulate election candidates.

Mr Chau has previously been mentioned in parliament as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party.

The property developer retaliated by threatening to sue Senator Kitching, as he successfully did to ABC and Nine News last year, in a scathing statement.

'I'm shocked and disappointed at the baseless and reckless claim made by Senator Kimberley Kitching during a Senate estimates hearing on Monday,' he said.

Influential property developer Chau Chak Wing (pictured) has been named as the alleged man Australia's spy network claims is behind a plot to secretly bankroll election candidates

'It is always unfortunate when elected representatives use the shield of parliamentary privilege to vilify and attack Australian citizens without producing a shred of evidence.

'I am a businessman and philanthropist, I have never had any involvement or interest in interfering with the democratic election process in Australia.

'I invite Senator Kitching to show some courage and integrity by repeating her claim and revealing the sources she says she relied on outside the parliament.'

Mr Chau brought up his 2017 lawsuit against the ABC and Nine over a Four Corners report suggesting he paid bribes disguised as political donations.

The two news organisations were on February 2, 2021, ordered to pay him $590,000 after he won the defamation claim.

He also collected $247,672 in February 2019 from the Sydney Morning Herald over an ariticle linking him to a US bribery scandal.

Mr Chau has donated more than $4 million to political parties in Australia since 2004 and given away a further $45 million to Australian universities -

These include the University of Sydney, which has named a museum after him, and the University of Technology, Sydney, which has has named its business school after him.

The business school is housed in a Frank Gehry-designed building after the leading businessman donated $20 million.

During his annual threat assessment speech last week, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess revealed a plot by a foreign power to secretly fund political candidates to get them elected.

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching used Parliamentary privilege to name Chau Chak Wing as a the man allegedly behind a plot to interfere with Australian elections

Mr Burgess refused to name the foreign government or identify any individuals or the elections involved.

But when he was quizzed at a Senate estimates hearing last night, Senator Kitching used parliamentary privilege to claim Mr Chau was behind the plot.

'I am reliably informed that the puppeteer mentioned in your case study in your annual threat assessment speech given last week is Chau Chak Wing,' she said.

'I believe it to be Chau Chak Wing. Are you able to confirm that it is Chau Chak Wing?'

The spy chief refused to confirm the claim.

'I will not comment on speculation of who is and who isn't targets, in general or in specific, as you are asking me there,' he said.

Chinese-born Mr Chau has previously been named in parliament as an agent for the Chinese Communist Party when MP Andrew Hastie linked him to a UN bribery scandal.

Mr Hastie also used parliamentary privilege to claim Mr Chau funded a $263,000 bribe to the former president of the UN general assembly, John Ashe, in 2013.

The bribe was said to have been made on behalf of United Front, which is alleged to be a propaganda wing of the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr Burgess last week described the puppeteer as someone with 'direct and deep connections with a foreign government and its intelligence agencies'.

'I can confirm that ASIO recently detected and disrupted a foreign interference plot in the lead-up to an election in Australia,' he said last Wednesday.

'I'm not going to identify the jurisdiction because we are seeing attempts at foreign interference at all levels of government, in all states and territories.

'The puppeteer hired a person to enable foreign interference operations and used an offshore bank account to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars for operating expenses.

'Secretly shaping the jurisdiction's political scene to benefit the foreign power was considered a key performance indicator. It was like a foreign interference start-up.'

The landmark Frank Gehry-designed building at University of Technology Sydney is named after leading businessman Chau Chak Wing following a $20million donation

The employee identified candidates likely to run in the election who either supported the interests of the foreign government or who were assessed as vulnerable to inducement.

He was then said to have used relationships with politicians, staffers and journalists to select potential targets.

'The puppeteer and the employee plotted ways of advancing the candidates' political prospects through generous support, placing favourable stories in foreign language news platforms and providing other forms of assistance.'

The candidates had no knowledge of the plot.

'Our intervention ensured the plan was not executed, and harm was avoided,' Mr Burgess said.

Had some of the candidates been elected, he said, they would have been directed to hire particular staff who were agents of the foreign government, passing on information and potentially influencing the way the member voted.

On Monday night, Mr Burgess also confirmed that Labor candidates in the Federal election were not among those under investigation by ASIO.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese insisted he had no concerns and added: 'The Director-General of ASIO has never raised any concern about any of my candidates.'

Mr Burgess said Monday: 'Mr Albanese gave an accurate account of the conversation I had with him when he asked me that question.'
A former Goldman Sachs executive on trial for the multibillion-dollar ransacking of a Malaysian state investment fund is accused of using embezzled funds to purchase lavish jewels, art, luxury real estate, a superyacht and finance the hit Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street.

Federal prosecutors told the jury in court Monday that Roger Ng, Goldman's former head of investment banking in Malaysia, pocketed $35million in 'secret kickbacks' from the looting of $4.5billion from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

Timothy Leissner - the estranged husband of Kimora Lee Simmons - was part of the scam, and has agreed to testify against Ng in return for a lighter sentence over his involvement.

The prosecution accused Ng of playing a 'crucial' role in the massive money laundering and bribery scheme, which his own defense attorneys have called the 'single largest heist in the history of the world'.

'He saw an opportunity to make millions of dollars by cheating and he took it,' federal prosecutor Brent Wible said as the long-delayed corruption trial opened in Brooklyn, adding that Ng deleted personal email accounts to cover his tracks and 'used his own wife and mother-in-law as a front to hide his identity.'

Among Ng's purchases were a vast superyacht called Equanimity, jewels, and even financing for the hit 2013 movie The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The ex-banker's attorneys denied the allegations, arguing that US prosecutors scapegoated Ng for 'corporate-wide' failures at Goldman that enabled the colossal fraud.

'Roger is 100% innocent,' defense attorney Marc Agnifilo told the jury. 'We're about to actually have a trial of an innocent man.'

Ng, 49, is charged with conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts and his lawyer has said he is a 'fall guy' for one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history.

Former Goldman Sachs executive Roger Ng is accused of pocketing $35million in 'secret kickbacks' from the looting of $4.5billion from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund. Ng is pictured exiting a Brooklyn courthouse Monday after the first day of his federal trial

Federal prosecutors claim Ng helped two co-conspirators - his former boss, Timothy Leissner, and Malaysian intermediary Jho Low - launder funds embezzled from 1MDB and used some of the stolen money to bribe officials in the Southeast Asian country to win business for Goldman. They also accused Ng of conspiring to launder pilfered funds through the US financial system.

The prosecution argued a paper trail implicates Ng in a sprawling web of lies, offshore accounts and shell companies.

Agnifilo countered that Ng had no role in the scheme masterminded by the Malaysian socialite and his former boss, and focused his opening statement largely on undermining Leissner.

'They're not partners-in-crime. There's a gulf between these two men a mile wide,' Agnifilo told the jury.

'Leissner uses people. You will see this time and time again. He is trying to use my client ... to serve his jail time.'

The defense argued Ng's only role was introducing Low to 'far more involved' superiors at Goldman who escaped prosecution. The attorney also claimed his client warned company management not to trust Low.

'In perhaps the most amazing twist of the case, it was Roger Ng who as early as March 2010 specifically warned his superiors at Goldman that Low was a politically exposed person, that Low was not to be trusted, and that Goldman should use caution in dealing with Low,' Agnifilo wrote in a court filing.

Agnifilo also said the funds prosecutors called kickbacks in fact belonged to Ng's wife and were derived from a business venture she had with Leissner's ex-wife.



The prosecution accused Ng of using the embezzled funds to purchase lavish jewels, art, luxury real estate and a superyacht called Equanimity (pictured)

Federal prosecutors also claim Ng used the embezzled funds to finance the hit Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street, which was released in 2013. The film - starring Leonardo DiCaprio - is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort who pled guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation

The scandal stems from some $6.5billion in bonds that Goldman helped 1MDB, launched by former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to spur economic growth, sell from 2009 to 2014. Prosecutors allege Goldman earned $600million in fees from the deals, but that around $4.5billion of the funds raised was embezzled.

The bank in 2020 paid a $2.3billion fine, returned $600million in ill-gotten gains and agreed for its Malaysian subsidiary to plead guilty in US court as part of a deal known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA).

Jurors were urged by both sides to follow the money in a complex trial expected to last up to six weeks.

Ng is the only Goldman banker to stand trial in the 1MDB scandal.

However, Leissner - who is is now estranged from his model wife Kimora Lee Simmons - is expected to testify in Ng's trial.

Ng (pictured in 2019) is charged with conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts and his lawyer has said he is a 'fall guy' for one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history.

Kimora Lee Simmons' estranged husband, Timothy Leissner, is expected to testify in Ng's trial. The German-born banker pleaded guilty in 2018 to paying millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. He has not yet been sentenced and hopes his testimony will result in a lesser punishment. Simmons and Leissner are pictured together in January 2014

The German-born banker pleaded guilty in 2018 to paying millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. He has not yet been sentenced and is free on a $20million bond, the New York Post reported.

Leissner was also ordered to forfeit $43.7million as part of his guilty plea.

Last year, Leissner and Simmons were sued by the model's ex-husband, Russell Simmons, after Russell claimed the couple used his shares in a nutrition company as security for the banker's bond.

The now-estranged couple has denied the allegations.

Leissner and Simmons met in business class on a flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. Their initial encounter is said to have begun with an argument and ended in a marriage proposal.

They were wed in 2013 and share a son, Wolfe, who was born in 2015. The couple was living in an $11million Los Angeles mansion but sold the home last year.

Leissner still resides in the City of Angels.

Last year, Leissner and Simmons were sued by the model's ex-husband, Russell Simmons, after Russell claimed the couple used his shares in a nutrition company as security for the banker's bond. They deny the allegations (Pictured left to right: Aoki Lee Simmons, Ming Lee Simmons, Kenzo Lee Hounsou, Kimora Lee Simmons, Wolf Lee Leissner and Tim Leissner)

Malaysian socialite Jho Low (right) - the other key player in the scheme - remains at large and is believed to have been granted asylum abroad. In 2012, he threw a lavish 31st birthday bash attended by DiCaprio (left), Kim Kardashian and other celebrities. Low and DiCaprio are pictured at The Wolf of Wall Street World Premiere in Paris in December 2013

Both Ng and Leissner face decades in prison, however experts Leissner is reportedly hoping for a reduced sentence after his testimony in Ng's trial.

Low - the other key player in the scheme - remains at large. Officials believe he was granted asylum in an unknown foreign country.

The Malaysian socialite, who maintains his innocence, became well known in the New York City and Los Angeles club scenes.

In 2012, he threw a lavish 31st birthday bash attended by DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian and other celebrities - a fete described by The Wall Street Journal as the 'wildest party [Las] Vegas ever saw.' Pop star Britney Spears is said to have jumped out of a birthday cake to serenade Low.

Bond sales organized by Goldman Sachs for the 1MDB investment fund provided a way for associates of Najib Razak, the former prime minister of Malaysia, to steal and launder billions over several years.

Najib set up 1MDB when he took power in 2009, ostensibly to accelerate Malaysia's economic development. But the fund amassed billions in debts and, in 2018, ultimately brought down his government. In 2020, he was convicted in Malaysia of abuse of power and other charges and sentenced to 12 years in jail.

A message was sent to the financial firm seeking comment. A Goldman Sachs subsidiary admitted 'knowingly and willfully' conspiring to violate US anti-bribery laws, agreeing to pay more than $2.9billion. The penalties included roughly $600million in profits Goldman made off the 1MDB scandal. That came on top of $3.9billion Goldman paid Malaysia.
A service station customer who was allegedly doused in scalding hot coffee and assaulted in broad daylight in Melbourne has died.

The woman, 52, died from life-threatening injuries in hospital on Tuesday, a week after the alleged attack at a 7-Eleven service station in Caulfield in the city's south-east around 10.15am on February 8.

Witnesses told police a woman poured coffee over the victim and assaulted her before fleeing the scene on Hawthorn Road.

A woman who allegedly had coffee poured over her and was assaulted at this 7-Eleven service station in Caulfield (pictured) has died in hospital

Forensic officers are seen at the service station after the woman was allegedly assaulted

The service station was cordoned off following the incident as forensic officers scoured the scene for evidence and interviewed shocked witnesses.

'There were two staff on-site at the time and neither were injured,' a 7-Eleven spokesperson said.

'CCTV of the incident is being extracted and we will provide that to police, and provide investigators with any other assistance that we can.'

Two women aged in their 50s have since been charged with recklessly causing serious injury and were bailed to appear at Moorabbin Magistrates' Court in May.

Police are awaiting the results of a post mortem to determine the woman's cause of death.

'The exact circumstances of the assault are unknown and the investigation is ongoing,' a police spokeswoman said.

Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers.
Sajid Javid's Met Police chief brother has ruled himself out of the running to be next commissioner, in what would have been the latest achievement for the pair and their successful siblings.

Bas Javid, the Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner, said he would not put himself forward for the role and said it would be up to the home secretary and mayor to decide if the next commissioner should be someone from an ethnic minority.

Speaking to Newsnight, he also acknowledged 'people who have racist views and are racist' are among the force's staff.

When asked on BBC Newsnight if he accepted racism 'is a problem in the Metropolitan Police', Mr Javid replied: 'Yes, I do.'

The five Javid brothers achieved astonishing career feats - though not without tragedy - following the death of their eldest sibling Tariq.

Their father, Abdul, a bus driver, arrived in Britain from Pakistan in 1961, had just 1 in his pocket.

Now youngest brother Atif Javid is a multi-millionaire property investor and developer in Bristol, while Khalid Javid is a high flying financial adviser who set up his own company.

Sajid's fourth brother is Tariq Javid, who managed a supermarket chain, until his tragic death in 2018. He died at South Lodge Hotel in Horsham in July 2018, having been found drowned in the shower. An inquest later ruled his death a suicide.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Bas Javid (pictured) has admitted racism is a problem in the country's largest force

The Met Police Federation, a body representing more than 31,000 rank-and-file police officers, claimed Sadiq Khan's actions have 'undermined the professional, dedicated and incredibly difficult work of tens of thousands of hard-working and brave police officers from across the capital'

The Met Police Federation yesterday declared it has 'no faith' in London Mayor Sadiq Khan after his 'very public ousting' of Dame Cressida Dick (pictured) - as it warned morale among officers had hit 'rock bottom'

Bas and Sajid Javid seen together at an event. Bas's comments come as the Met Police Federation yesterday declared it has 'no faith' in London Mayor Sadiq Khan after his 'very public ousting' of Dame Cressida Dick - as it warned morale among officers had hit 'rock bottom'

Sajid Javid's band of brothers: How Health Secretary and his four siblings all achieved success Sajid Javid MP, cabinet minister, and one-time Tory leadership candidate. He was the first member of an ethnic minority to hold a Great Office of State, having been made Home Secretary in 2018. Sajid first entered the Commons as an MP in 2010, having had a stellar 18-year banking career which saw him rise to become a board member at Deutsche Bank. Basit Javid Currently an assistant commissioner in the Met Police. He was previously Chief Superintendent in West Midlands Police and the commander of the Solihull police division. At the age of 17, he joined the Royal Navy as a helicopter engineer, and stayed in the military for six years, including a stint on HMS Brilliant during the first Gulf War. Then, when he was 25, he joined Avon and Somerset Police, moving up the ranks before transferring to the West Midlands force in 2007. Atif Javid Atif Javid is a property investor and developer in Bristol. Atif became drawn to the property business while he was a corporate lawyer with Burges Salmon in Bristol. He now has a multimillion-pound buy-to-let property portfolio. Writing on a property blog in 2016 after the then Chancellor raised stamp duty on buy-to-let homes, Atif was critical of the government's policy on housing. He wrote: 'George Osborne has decided now is the time to milk the "Golden Cow" of the UKs private property landlords, with changes in taxation for buy-to-let property.' Khalid Javid Works in the financial services industry as an adviser. He began his career at AXA and then worked with an international bank and leading mortgage broker before setting up Bristol-based Blackstone Financial Solutions in 2014. In September 2015, he was featured in the Mail on Sunday's Guide to the UK Top Rated Professionals. Tariq Javid According to the Sunday Times, Tariq, the eldest of the brothers, is understood to have managed a supermarket chain. Sadly, he died at South Lodge Hotel in Horsham in July 2018, having been found drowned in the shower. In June, the month prior to Tariq's death, the inquest heard he had been signed off from work due to stress and anxiety. A post-mortem examination gave Tariq's cause of death as drowning, ethanol toxicity, heart disease and codeine toxicity. West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield described his death as an 'unnatural death' and rule it as a suicide. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, or see samaritans.org or details. Advertisement

Bas's comments come as the Met Police Federation yesterday declared it has 'no faith' in London Mayor Sadiq Khan after his 'very public ousting' of Dame Cressida Dick - as it warned morale among officers had hit 'rock bottom'.

Mr Javid, who has served in three police force areas over 28 years as an officer, added: 'Let me be really clear on this: There's absolutely no room for racism in policing, and especially here in the Metropolitan Police, we made that very, very clear to our people, anyone who works for us and demonstrates any type of racism or discrimination behaviour will be removed from the organisation.'

Mr Javid, the brother of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid, said he was 'extremely disappointed' to hear interviews on the programme with two black colleagues who said discrimination was getting worse.

'You know, we've done a huge amount of work over a long period of time to make it one absolutely clear stance for anti-racism, and zero tolerance on any form of discrimination,' the officer told Newsnight.

'And the fact that you've had officers or staff come to you to make allegations, what I'd like to see is an organisation where people feel comfortable to come forward, and report it and deal with it effectively.'

He said it would be 'wrong for me to stand here and say to you, I haven't seen examples of racism in my 28 years, absolutely, I have'.

'But my preferred place would be to be in the organisation doing everything I can to root out racism or any form of discrimination,' he said.

Mr Javid added: 'Now, what I would say is there are people who have racist views and are racist, and they are in the police.

'But what I won't do is describe all of the organisation as a racist organisation. I think that's extremely unfair to so many people who work extremely hard to do what I talked about today, which is rooting out racism and other forms of discrimination.'

Meanwhile, a former senior Metropolitan Police officer called for a 'consistent approach' in how racism is dealt with in the force.

Retired Detective Sergeant Janet Hills MBE, who was the first female chair of the Met Black Police Association, said that sanctions can differ depending on which officer is looking at the misconduct.

She told BBC 4's Today programme: 'I think what people and what officers would want, and what communities want, is for there to be a consistent approach to being dismissed or there being some kind of sanction.

'What you've got at the minute is if there is racism or discrimination then that sanction can differ, depending on what particular officer is looking at it - and that's what we don't want.

'We want a consistent approach and we want a zero-tolerance approach towards racism.'

Former Met Commissioner Dame Cressida denied the force was institutionally racist in August 2020, stating it adopts a zero tolerance approach to the issue.

On the issue of police stop and search, she said young black men were 'hugely disproportionately stabbed and killed' and 'hugely tangled up' in the criminal justice system.

Dame Cressida also told Channel 4 News at the time she regularly looked for signs of bias in the way the force operated, and was 'horrified' to discover black, Asian and minority ethnic staff in the Met were twice as likely to find themselves in a misconduct process.

The Met Police Federation, a body representing more than 31,000 rank-and-file police officers, claimed Mr Khan's actions have 'undermined the professional, dedicated and incredibly difficult work of tens of thousands of hard-working and brave police officers from across the capital'.

It came after scandal-hit Dame Cressida dramatically quit as commissioner on Thursday night after the mayor made clear he had no confidence in her plans to reform the service.

Accusing politicians of using 'policing and the career of the country's most senior police leader to deflect from their own failings', the organisation's chairman, Ken Marsh, said: 'This is not a move we take lightly.

'We have let the mayor's office know in no uncertain terms how our brave and diligent colleagues deserve better.

'The atmosphere amongst Metropolitan Police officers is horrendous - it's rock bottom.

'Officers in London feel saddened and angry that the commissioner Cressida Dick has been pushed out in the way she has.

Former Met Commissioner Dame Cressida (pictured) denied the force was institutionally racist in August 2020, stating it adopts a zero tolerance approach to the issue

'She was reforming. She was changing. The culture is changing. We are deeply disappointed with the actions of the mayor.'

'The Federation will continue to speak up for these courageous colleagues. They are being forgotten about by our elected mayor. Enough is enough. Officers have no faith in Sadiq Khan,' he added.

Last week Home Secretary Priti Patel warned the new Met chief must be prepared to tackle the 'policing culture' which has left the country's biggest force reeling from a series of scandals.

Mr Khan addressed the issue in the Observer, where he wrote: 'It has become crystal-clear that there are deep cultural issues within the Met.

'It's my job as mayor to hold the police to account on behalf of Londoners, so it was my duty to act decisively as soon as I concluded that the only way we were going to start seeing the level of change urgently required was with new leadership right at the top of the Met.'

Dame Cressida's departure - just months after Ms Patel agreed a two-year extension to her contract - followed a barrage of criticism about the force, including over its handling of the case of Sarah Everard who was murdered by a serving Met officer.

Last week Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured) warned the new Met chief must be prepared to tackle the 'policing culture' which has left the country's biggest force reeling from a series of scandals

A string of other scandals during her tenure ranged from the disastrous Operation Midland into fake VIP sex abuse claims to the jailing of two officers for taking pictures of the corpses of two murdered sisters.

The Met has also been criticised for being slow to investigate the reports of parties in Downing Street and Whitehall in breach of Covid restrictions.

The final straw, however, was a report by the police watchdog which exposed violently racist, misogynist and homophobic messages exchanged by officers based at Charing Cross police station.

Mr Marsh said the Metropolitan Police Federation was 'sickened' by incidents that have hit the headlines over recent months, but that they were 'not reflective of an entire workforce'.

'The atmosphere amongst Metropolitan Police officers is horrendous - it's rock bottom,' said Mr Marsh (pictured)

He added: 'We've got to put some context on what we are talking about. The incidents that have taken place are horrific. We do not want these individuals in the job.

'But the federation will continue to speak up for our good officers. We totally accept that we have to deliver for the public and work to improve confidence, but if you haven't got your workforce with you then you are not going to achieve what you're setting out to achieve.'

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson paid tribute to Dame Cressida's 'remarkable' career.

Asked for his view on Mr Khan's role in forcing her out, and for confirmation that - as a Prime Minister under investigation by the police - he would play no part in choosing her successor, Mr Johnson said: 'I think the best thing I can say about Cressida Dick is that I think over many, many years - I've known her for many years - she has played a remarkable role as the first female head of the Metropolitan Police.

'I thank her for all her service. It goes back a long time.

'I wouldn't want any other issues to cloud what I think, overall, is very considerable record of public service.'

A spokeswoman for the Mayor of London said: 'It is the mayor's job to stand up for Londoners and hold the police to account on their behalf, as well as to support the police in bearing down on crime.

'With trust in the police among Londoners shattered following a series of devastating scandals exposing evidence of racism, misogyny, homophobia, harassment and discrimination in the Met, it was the mayor's view that a change of leadership was the only way to address this crisis in trust.

'The mayor has always made clear that there are thousands of incredibly brave and decent police officers at the Met, who we owe a huge debt of gratitude. But the series of scandals seen in recent years has tarnished the reputation of the police, which is so crucial to policing by consent.

Now Priti's favourite eyes top job Priti Patel's favourite candidate for the Metropolitan Police top job could be back in the running as she considers her next moves after a cancer battle, it is understood. Dame Lynne Owens is widely regarded as a shoo-in for the commissioner role if she decides to throw her hat into the ring. The former director general of the National Crime Agency retired last September after being diagnosed with breast cancer. But last night friends said she was 'out the other side' and has 'started to think about what's next'. She is widely respected in the Home Office, where there was deep regret that her health had ruled her out from taking over the Met last year. The incumbent commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, was given a two-year contract extension in September despite a series of scandals  largely because of the lack of obvious successors. Advertisement

'Downplaying the scale of the change required is only going to hinder, not help, the vital process of restoring Londoners' trust in the Met.'

It came as reports suggested Dame Cressida could stay in charge of Scotland Yard until after the controversial Partygate inquiry is complete.

Haggling has been going on behind the scenes over her departure day and the terms of a pay-off.

Her ultimate leaving date could be as far as two months away, meaning she will be at the helm when decisions are made on whether to fine Boris Johnson and a host of other Downing Street staff for lockdown-busting 'parties'.

The PM is believed to have attended six events under investigation, and confirmed on Friday that he has received a legal questionnaire from the Met.

There are claims he has drafted in a lawyer to write his response and will argue that the gatherings were 'part of working life' in No10 during the frenzied Covid response.

Tories are increasingly alarmed that the Partygate inquiry will drag on to April, perilously close to crucial local elections the following month.

But a permanent Scotland Yard commissioner is unlikely to be in place before the summer, after a lengthy appointment process.

'We hope there will be a decision on Monday regarding the timescale of Cressida's departure, or certainly early in the week,' a Whitehall source said.

It is understood matters yet to be resolved include the size of Dame Cressida's payoff for leaving the job with more than two years left on her contract  a sum that could be more than 500,000  on top of her pension of around 160,000 a year.

'A new commissioner probably won't be actually at their desk until the summer. This is not a quick process,' the source added. An interim commissioner is likely to be appointed in the meantime.

It comes as Mr Khan indicated he would veto any candidate he felt was unsuitable.

He said he would only back a new commissioner who he felt had a proper grasp of the 'cultural problems' at the Met.

'As we start this important process, I make this commitment to Londoners  I will not support the appointment of a new commissioner unless they can clearly demonstrate that they understand the scale of the cultural problems within the Met and the urgency with which they must be addressed,' Mr Khan wrote in The Observer newspaper.

'In short, they need to get it, and they need to have a proper and robust plan to deal with it.'

Government sources said the Home Office was keen to work with Mr Khan to appoint the best candidate as soon as possible.

'The Home Secretary is required by the legislation to take the Mayor's views into account, and she will,' a source said.

'The view is that we simply want the best cop in this job.'

Rules changes in 2014 allow ministers to appoint a foreign police officer to the commissioner role and the job will be advertised internationally, with the Home Office expected to approach the embassies of the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia within days.

However, the most likely scenario is that the new commissioner will be British, sources have said.

Sajid Javid's band of brothers: How his four siblings have all achieved success in their fields - from a property investor with a multimillion-pound portfolio to a police chief

By Nick Enoch for MailOnline

When Sajid Javid's father - Abdul, a bus driver - arrived in Britain from Pakistan in 1961, he had just 1 in his pocket.

Abdul died of cancer, at the age of 74, in 2012 - two years before Sajid, then the MP for Bromsgrove, was promoted to the Cabinet as Culture Secretary.

But Sajid - the first member of an ethnic minority to hold a Great Office of State in his previous role as Home Secretary - is not the only one of Abdul's sons to have overcome odds to make a success of themselves.

He has four brothers who have excelled in the fields of finance, property, retail and the public sector - in the police force, the Sunday Times reported.

Bas Javid, 47, is Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police

Bas Javid, along with his siblings, was raised in a two-bed flat in Bristol and went to a state comprehensive school.

Today, Bas is Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police

At the age of 17, he joined the Royal Navy as a helicopter engineer, and stayed in the military for six years, including a stint on HMS Brilliant during the first Gulf War.

Then, when he was 25, he joined Avon and Somerset Police, moving up the ranks before transferring to the West Midlands force in 2007.

As well as his Chief Superintendent role, he is also a Tactical Firearms Commander, a Public Order Silver Commander and has led the forces academic research team.

Bas has spoken out about police cuts on Twitter and has also lamented the lack of Asian and Muslim officers in Britain - something he has continued to do as part of his new role with the Met.

Atif Javid is a property investor and developer in Bristol and has a multimillion-pound buy-to-let property portfolio

Meanwhile, youngest brother Atif Javid has more interest in former investment banker Sajid's old brief: he is a property investor and developer in Bristol.

Atif became drawn to the property business while he was a corporate lawyer with Burges Salmon in Bristol.

He now has a multimillion-pound buy-to-let property portfolio.

Writing on a property blog in 2016 after the then Chancellor raised stamp duty on buy-to-let homes, Atif was critical of the government's policy on housing.

He wrote: 'George Osborne has decided now is the time to milk the "Golden Cow" of the UKs private property landlords, with changes in taxation for buy-to-let property.'

Before his big brother was appointed Home Secretary, Sajid was, earlier this year, Secretary of State for Housing.

Writing on the same blog, in April 2016, Atif said: 'I was talking to my brother the other day at a family get together, and the subject of the Bristol Property Market came up in the conversation... after the weather and politics.

'My brother said it used to be that if you went out to work and did the right thing, you would expect that relatively quickly over the course of your career, you would be buying a house, you would go on holiday every year, and that youd save for a pension.

'I said that as a leading letting agent in Bristol, it now seems that things have changed.'

It is not known which brother he was referring to in the blog.

Khalid Javid began his career at AXA and then worked with an international bank and leading mortgage broker before setting up Bristol-based Blackstone Financial Solutions in 2014

When Sajid took over as Communities Secretary in July that year, policies on residential property appeared to soften.

In October 2017, he announced that the Government would publish legislation banning letting agents fees, and said it would be 'taking further steps to give tenants more security of tenure in their homes'.

Then there is Khalid Javid who works in the financial services industry as an adviser.

He began his career at AXA and then worked with an international bank and leading mortgage broker before setting up Bristol-based Blackstone Financial Solutions in 2014.

In September 2015, he was featured in the Mail on Sunday's Guide to the UK Top Rated Professionals.

The fourth brother is Tariq Javid, who, according to the Sunday Times, is understood to manage a supermarket chain.


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An experienced helicopter pilot who died in a crash while fighting bushfires in northeast Tasmania has been remembered as a great mate to many.

The 41-year-old man was killed on Monday afternoon when the water-bombing aircraft went down in a paddock.

He was the sole occupant and had been helping battle blazes in Lebrina across several days.

The helicopter crashed as its pilot Andrew Kerr attempted to battle the bushfire in northeast Tasmania on Monday afternoon

The 41-year-old hero pilot was attempting to put out the The Pipers Brook Bushfire (pictured) when his helicopter crashed

A tribute from Air Operations Unit - Tasmania, an online group of aerial firefighters, described him as an 'outstanding pilot and great mate to many'.

'He was highly respected within the aviation industry and the Tasmania Fire Service,' the Facebook post read.

'The Tasmania Fire Service Aerial Operations team are saddened by (the) loss and are proud to have worked alongside him and call him a mate.

'Our thoughts and condolences are with (his) family, friends and work colleagues.'

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating and a report is being prepared for the coroner.

Three ATSB specialist investigators arrived at the crash site on Tuesday and will gather evidence, map the scene and interview witnesses over coming days.

'As reported to us the helicopter jettisoned its water bucket and line before colliding with the ground in a paddock,' ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said.

A preliminary report is expected to be published in six to eight weeks.

'Should any critical safety issues be identified at any stage during the course of the investigation, the ATSB will immediately notify relevant parties so appropriate safety action can be taken,' Mr Mitchell said.

The Tasmania Fire Service has said all aerial assets would be assessed on Tuesday before being allowed to fly, after they were grounded in the aftermath of the crash.

The experienced pilot was the sole occupant of the aircraft when it went down (pictured, fire trucks at the scene)

The helicopter crashed into a paddock just after it released its water bucket and line as it battled the bushfire flames in northeast Tasmania (stock image)

The Railton Fire Brigade has also offered their condolences to family, friends, firefighters and support crew.

'Sometimes God takes heroes from us for unknown reasons to many,' an online post signed by brigade chief Ross Crack said.

Deputy Premier Jeremy Rockliff said it was a reminder of the risks taken by firefighters and pilots.

'My heart goes out to the family. This is a heartbreaking time for them,' he told reporters.

TFS acting deputy chief Jeff Harper has described the pilot as experienced and someone who had been involved in multiple previous incidents in Tasmania.

Mr Harper said he understood the man was working as a contractor, and was flying a heavy water bomber capable of carrying up to 3,000 litres.

The Lebrina fire, which has burned 1,660 hectares after sparking late last week when a burn-off on private land got out of hand, was at 'advice' level on Tuesday.

A number of forestry plantations have been impacted and one outbuilding has been destroyed.
New Zealand's notoriously lockdown-fixated prime minister Jacinda Ardern sparked a hypocrisy storm after it was revealed she'll address Harvard's graduates in May - two months before her hermit kingdom reopens to tourists.

Ardern, 41, will travel 9,100 miles from the Kiwi capital of Wellington to Massachusetts to speak at the prestigious Commencement on May 26, while Americans and other tourists remain barred from her island nation until July.

Her tough lockdown has undoubtedly saved many lives - the country has only seen 53 deaths in total from COVID - but now, with 94 percent of over 12s vaccinated, New Zealanders are anxious to return to the world.

Their prime minister will travel to the United States two months before Americans can visit her country, having infuriated many New Zealanders by banning them from returning home for more than two years under her draconian restrictions.

Jacinda Ardern will travel to the United States two months before Americans will be allowed to go to New Zealand

'Prime Minister Ardern is one of the most respected leaders on the world stage and we are delighted she will join us in May to celebrate the Class of 2022,' said Harvard President Larry Bacow.

'From climate change and gender equality to COVID-19, she has modeled compassionate leadership that has brought together empathy and science-based solutions to address the most challenging issues of our time.

'I very much look forward to her address.'

Harvard and other US colleges, many of them prestige Ivy League institutions, have come under fire for their own unending COVID rules, with Yale College banning students from eating outdoors at local restaurants.

Many of the colleges are stuffed with progressive students who back the measures, although anger over remote-only learning festered among many outraged by having to pay sky-high tuition fees for what they deemed inferior instruction.

Harvard will hold its graduation ceremony on May 26

On February 3, Arden announced a phased reopening of her country.

Vaccinated New Zealanders in Australia can travel home from February 27 without a requirement to stay at state-managed quarantine facilities, while New Zealand citizens in the rest of the world will be able to do so two weeks later.

Foreign vaccinated backpackers and some skilled workers can come to the country beginning March 13, while up to 5,000 international students will be allowed to enter from April 12.

Tourists from Australia and other visa-free countries - like the U.S. - will only be allowed in by July and travelers from the rest of the world will be kept out until October under the plan.

All travelers would still have to self-isolate for 10 days, Ardern said.
Horrified swimmers at a popular Australian beach looked on as a young woman's body was winched to shore after being swept off rocks.

The woman, 21, was retrieved by a jet ski near Bombo beach at Kiama, south of Sydney, on Tuesday before 3pm.

NSW Police confirmed emergency services rushed to the Boneyard beach at Kiama, just north of Bombo, but the young woman pulled from the water could not be revived.

'A 21-year-old woman was winched from the water and despite efforts, she was unable to be revived and died at the scene,' NSW police said in a statement.

Horrified swimmers at a popular Australian beach looked on as a young woman's body was winched to shore after being swept off rocks

NSW Police confirmed emergency services rushed to the Boneyard beach at Kiama but the young woman could not be revived

A report will be prepared for the information of the coroner.

NSW Ambulance confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that it sent five ambulance crews to Cliff Drive, Kiama and a rescue helicopter just before 3pm.

It is understood she and a 21-year-old male friend were washed off rocks into the ocean nearby and quickly became distressed.

'We winched a male believed to be in his 20s from the water and transported him to Wollongong Hospital in a serious but stable condition,' a NSW Ambulance statement said.

'Hell be ok,' an ambulance spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

Officers attached to Lake Illawarra Police District  along with PolAir, the Toll Rescue Helicopter Surf Lifesavers and NSW Ambulance Paramedics  attended.

The Boneyard Beach is known as a popular fishing and snorkelling spot and gets its name from bleached skeletons of oak trees along the sand.
The Manchester Arena bomber exchanged 1,300 texts with a terror suspect discussing martyrdom and calling non-Muslims 'dogs', an inquiry into the atrocity heard.

The messages sent by Salman Abedi, who blew himself up killing 22 people at the venue in May 2017, were seen by police three years before the attack.

But the information was not highlighted to an intelligence unit of counter-terror policing as 'with hindsight it should have been', a retired detective admitted.

Yesterday, the inquiry heard details of the exchange between Abedi and Abdalraouf Abdallah, who was under investigation and later jailed for arranging jihadists travel to fight for Islamic State.

The pair shared an 'extremist, Islamist mindset', the hearing was told, with Abedi telling his friend: 'By Allah... every day, on every kneeling I ask my Lord for martyrdom.'

The inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017 heard details yesterday of the exchange between Salman Abedi (left) and Abdalraouf Abdallah (right)

Abedi also described non-Muslims as 'dogs' and 'Khuffars' and shared an image of the currency used by so-called Islamic State in Syria, 'not under control of the West'.

In another message, on November 13, which Abdallah sent to 'Salman', he wrote: 'You know, I was listening to the description of hoor [maidens of paradise]. The hoor! Go, straight away. Oh my god, I ask Allah for shahada [martyrdom].'

Abedi - aged 22 when he committed his act of mass murder aided by brother Hashem - had also sent two photos of himself, his phone number was available and he had given his full name in the text exchanges.

The revelation comes as the inquiry will today hear a 'gist' of evidence from MI5 and counter-terror police which was discussed in closed hearings of the inquiry last year.

Abedi blew himself up killing 22 people at the venue in Manchester in May 2017 (pictured)

Police discovered the texts during a 2014 investigation, codenamed Operation Oliban, into four individuals who had travelled to Syria to join IS.

Officers raided Abdallah's Manchester home in November 2014 and seized his mobile phone.

The phone included 1,300 messages in a month that he had exchanged with a contact called 'Salman'.

Frank Morris, a former senior investigating officer at North West Counter Terrorism Policing, said: 'There's nothing extraordinary in these text exchanges that we did not see in other operations.

'It went to the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), they did not ask. Nobody ever asked who this Salman was.'

Mourners viewing tributes at St Ann's Square in Manchester one week after the attack in 2017

The inquiry was told 'modest policing efforts' would have identified 'Salman' and officers could have referred him for deradicalisation.

The 'Salman' exchanges were among 14,500 contacts on Abdallah's phone.

Mr Morris said that at that time in 2014 he was personally running 10 to 14 operations and the counter-terror unit had up to 110 separate investigations.

It was only after the bombing that officers realised that the contact was Salman Abedi.

Abdallah, now 28, was jailed for five and a half years in July 2016, after the court heard he had helped his brother and three other men acquire weapons and join the terrorist group in Syria.
If you see Robson, call 999 quoting the reference of incident 202 of February 13

Dominic Raab has revealed he will decide whether high-risk criminals are moved to open prisons as the manhunt for an 'extremely dangerous' fugitive sex abuser who crawled through a victim's cat flap continues today.

Paul Robson, 56, fled HMP North Sea Camp, an open prison in Boston, Lincolnshire, shortly before 7am on Sunday Morning.

Robson was given two life sentences in August 2000 after he broke into a 23-year-old woman's house in Oxford through a cat flap and sexually assaulted her while holding a knife to her throat.

Newcastle-born Robson was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court after he tied the woman up, put a pillowcase over her head and brutally assaulted her while holding a knife to her throat.

Raab will have more control over the transfer of prisoners in the most high-risk cases, the MoJ said, revealing the Secretary of State for Justice took the decision in December but only announced it last night.

Paul Robson, 56, (pictured) was jailed in 2000 and given two life sentences after he broke into a 23-year-old woman's house through a cat flap and brutally assaulted her while holding a knife to her throat

Robson, pictured as a younger man, was sentenced to a minimum of nine years but has spent 20 years behind bars and only moved to an open prison in February 2021 after five parole hearings

Dominic Raab (pictured) will have more control over the transfer of prisoners in the most high-risk cases, the MoJ said, revealing the Secretary of State for Justice took the decision in December but only announced it last night

He was sentenced to a minimum of nine years but has spent 20 years behind bars and only moved to an open prison in February 2021 after five parole hearings.

Robson has a history of sexually-motivated attacks, including assaults on women and girls as young as eight years old.

Police in charge of the manhunt said Robson risked causing 'significant harm' to the public and warned people not to approach him. They added he could be 'anywhere in the country'.

Robson was serving a life sentence for attempted rape and indecent assault.

Lincolnshire Police described him as a white male with a bald head, a long goatee beard and of slim build.

He may be wearing a black long-sleeved Berghaus top, a grey 'French' t-shirt, dark bottoms, a dark coloured woollen beanie and a light-grey donkey-style jacket with orange on the shoulder area.

HMP North Sea Camp is a category D men's open prison that holds a large proportion of sex offenders and those serving indeterminate sentences.

East Area Commander Chief Superintendent Kate Anderson (pictured) said: 'He poses a real risk to the public and we are doing everything in our power to find and arrest him'

Convict support and advice network the Prison Guide described Category D Prisons as 'like the heaven of prisons'.

The Government said: 'These prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend most of their day away from the prison on licence to carry out work, education or for other resettlement purposes.

'Open prisons only house prisoners that have been risk-assessed and deemed suitable for open conditions.'

Yet an inspector's report published in June last year said 70 per cent of prisoners were assessed as 'presenting a high risk of harm to others' and more than half were convicted of sex offences.

Paul Robson's history of attacks on women and children 1988: Robson was jailed for 42 months for assaulting a 12-year-old girl in Lancaster. He was in his early twenties at the time. 1990: After an early release, Robson abducted and assaulted an eight-year-old girl in Morecambe, for which he was jailed for eight years. 1995: Robson served just five years. While living in a hostel in Carlisle, Cumbria, he approached two nine-year-old girls on the street. The girls fled and he received a conditional discharge from magistrates after he admitted resisting a police officer and breaching the peace. Later in 1995 he attacked a 31-year-old woman in Reading, Berkshire, and was jailed for five years in 1996. 2000: Robson broke into a 23-year-old woman's house in Oxford through a cat flap and sexually assaulted her at knifepoint. He received two life sentences and was described by the judge as a 'menace to females'. Advertisement

A spokesman for the Parole Board said: 'The Parole Board refused the release of Paul Robson but recommended a move to an open conditions prison following an oral hearing in February 2021.

'This was a recommendation only and the Secretary of State for Justice considers the advice before making the final decision on whether a prisoner is suitable for open conditions.

'We will only make a recommendation for open conditions if a Parole Board panel is satisfied that the risk to the public has reduced sufficiently to be manageable in an open prison.

'A move to open conditions involves testing the prisoner's readiness for any potential return into the community in future. Prisoners moved to open conditions can be returned to closed conditions if there is concern about their behaviour.'

It came after the Conservative MP for Boston and Skegness, Matt Warman, called Robson's escape 'a failure of the system'.

He said: 'Any absconding from North Sea Camp is deeply worrying for local people, and it's a sign of a failure within the system that should be making sure only those suitable for open prisons are placed there.

'This is a matter I've raised repeatedly with the MoJ and others, and while it's welcome that numbers have fallen from previous levels, there is clearly more work to do.'

Police warned although Robson escaped near Boston, he could be 'anywhere in the country'. They asked people to call 999 but not to approach Robson if they see him

This morning Robson escaped from HMP North Sea Camp (pictured), an open prison in Boston, Lincolnshire, shortly before 7am

Lord Frost said he supported Mr Warman '100 per cent' and called on the Ministry of Justice to explain the situation.

He added: 'One has to ask why Paul Robson was in a Cat D open prison with "minimal security" in the first place.'

He said it was 'hard to understand' how the Parole Board had deemed Robson a lesser risk to the public when the police yesterday called him 'extremely dangerous'.

Police Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox said: 'This man is serving a life sentence and is extremely dangerous.

'I believe he poses a real risk of causing significant harm to members of the community.

'Whilst he absconded from a prison in Lincolnshire, by now he may be anywhere in the country'.

Lord Frost called on the Ministry of Justice to explain the situation and questioned why Robson was even in an open prison, which has been described as the 'heaven of all prisons'

East Area Commander Chief Superintendent Kate Anderson said: 'Our officers continue their work to locate and apprehend Paul Robson.

'We understand this news has caused some concern, not just for our local communities here in Lincolnshire, but across the country.

'We're still working through lines of enquiry and are working with partner agencies to find Robson.

'We are still appealing for members of the public to contact us if they have any information on this man's whereabouts by calling 999.

'If you do see him, please do not try to approach him, or try to apprehend him yourself.

'He poses a real risk to the public and we are doing everything in our power to find and arrest him.'

A Prison Service spokesperson said: 'The prison together with the police are working urgently to recapture the offender.'

If you see Robson, call 999 quoting the reference of incident 202 of February 13.
A former Australian diplomat writing for a Chinese government-controlled tabloid has attacked Scott Morrison and said Anthony Albanese 'shines' in comparison.

Writing for the Global Times, which has consistently bashed Australia in recent editorials, Bruce Haigh unloaded on the Prime Minister in an extraordinary column that also damned Anthony Albanese with faint praise.

The article's main point appeared to be that Australia's leadership was too 'weak' to resist American political pressure and 'reset' its worsening relationship with China.

The Global Times, widely understood to be a mouthpiece for the ruling Chinese Communist Party, has run a series of articles in recent years mocking, threatening and raging at Australia and Mr Morrison.

A former Australian diplomat writing for a Chinese government-controlled news agency has attacked Scott Morrison as 'a clown' and said Anthony Albanese 'shines' in comparison (pictured, the PM at Morrison at a meeting of Australian, US, India and Japan foreign ministers in February 2022)

The Global Times regularly draws inflammatory anti-Australia cartoons and its latest effort was a sleeping Kangaroo being dragged along by an American ship (pictured, the cartoon accompanying Bruce Haigh's column)

It consistently berates the Prime Minister as a 'lackey' for the United States and slammed him over the recent AUKUS deal to build nuclear Australian submarines in the US.

One of its favoured strategies is using inflammatory, anti-Australian cartoons and images in its latest broadside, with the column including what looked like a sleeping Kangaroo in a rowing boat being towed by an American ship.

Mr Haigh described Albanese as 'likely to win the election' but only because Morrison's Liberal-National coalition is 'imploding through corruption' and mismanagement of the pandemic, The Global Times reported.

Writing for the Global Times, Bruce Haigh unloaded on the Prime Minister in an extraordinary column that also damned Anthony Albanese with faint praise (pictured, Albanese during question time in February 2022)

The columnist said the Federal Labor leader lacks creativity and charisma, and is someone who wouldn't be trusted with planning if he was an army officer.

He also said the Labor leader believes the American view of the world 'without analysis', who 'is not a lateral thinker, he is not creative, he will not be a charismatic leader'.

'Nonetheless, in comparison to Morrison, he positively shines, such is the abysmal state of Australian politics,' wrote Mr Haigh, who was posted to South Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in various diplomatic roles between 1972 and 1994.

Former Australian diplomat and political commentator Bruce Haigh, who slammed 'weak' Australian leadership in a column in Chinese state media (pictured, Mr Haigh)

'Morrison is a clown. Fewer and fewer people in Australia are taking him seriously, which is a hopeful sign for the future.'

Among The Global Times' recent attacks on Australia have been several shocking cartoons and doctored images.

In December 2020, a cartoon by artist Chen Xia showed a kangaroo with bloody hands next to a knife soaked in blood and another fake image apparently showing a soldier holding a knife to a child's throat.

In November 2021, Global Times editor Hu Xijin said Australian forces would come under 'heavy attack' if they supported Taiwan in any regional conflict and in 2020 it claimed Australia could become the 'poor white trash of Asia'.

The Global Times also published a cartoon (pictured) by artist Chen Xia showing a kangaroo with bloody hands next to a knife soaked in blood

Australia's relationship with China has gradually worsened during Scott Morrison's leadership

Mr Haigh, now 76, is best known for supporting several anti-apartheid activists in the 1970s including Steve Biko.

He has been increasingly critical of current Australian leadership in his own writing.

He retired from public service in the mid-1990s and grew grapes and olives near Mudgee.

The latest Newspoll shows Mr Morrison has remained steady on 43 per cent on the question of who voters would prefer to have as prime minister, while Mr Albanese has fallen to 38 per cent from 41 per cent a fortnight ago on the same question.

On personal satisfaction with the leaders, the Prime Minister has increased his standing from an approval rating of 39 per cent to 40 per cent.

Mr Albanese's approval rating fell from 43 per cent to 40 cent.

The poll followed a horror fortnight for the Coalition which saw a Cabinet leak designed to damage Mr Morrison, the failure to pass the Religious Discrimination Bill and the revelation of texts insulting the Prime Minister.

The Global Times editor Hu Xijin (pictured) has consistently targeted Mr Morrison during his Prime Ministership
Hong Kong hit a record 4,500 Covid cases today as the Omicron wave ravages the city despite its zero Covid strategy.

The city is currently in a near total lockdown, with flights down around 90 per cent due to strict coronavirus regulations and schools, playgrounds, gyms as well as most other venues shut.

Restaurants close at 6pm, while most people, including the majority of civil servants, are working from home. And more than 2,000 hamsters and other animals have been culled to stop transmissions.

But despite the hardline approach the city reported a record 2,071 new cases in it 7.5million population yesterday, with that number more than doubling today.

At least two hospitals have placed patients in beds outside their entrances, with medical facilities beginning to buckle under the strain of rising infections.

The fifth wave of cases has extended beyond the city's capacity, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said today .

No place in the world has managed to return to zero Covid cases after such an outbreak except mainland China, which has imposed citywide lockdowns and mass stay-at-home orders when even a handful of cases are detected.

Lam ruled out that approach, saying: 'We have no plans whatsoever to impose a complete, wholesale lockdown.'

But she insisted the city would continue to follow the mainland zero Covid policy, despite the strain on the county's quarantine facilities.

Hong Kong has given up on its zero Covid strategy after hospitals in the city became overwhelmed with patients. Pictured: People lie in hospital beds outside Caritas Medical Centre in Hong Kong today

The fifth wave of cases in Hong Kong has extended beyond the city's capacity, according to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (pictured today)

Pictured; People queue for Covid testing in the Yuen Long district of Hong Kong today

Pictured: Police (right) wearing personal protective equipment stand as people wait outside the Pok Oi hospital in Hong Kong today

Previously, close contacts of virus cases in Hong Kong were being sent to Government quarantine camps. But beds quickly filled up, forcing the city to turn newly built public housing and 10,000 hotel rooms into quarantine accommodation.

Siddharth Sridhar, clinical assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong's Department of Microbiology, said 'a very practical adjustment in terms of our containment strategy' is needed.

Major Chinese industrial city steps up Covid control A major Chinese high-tech industry centre limited some highway access on Tuesday after detecting new Covid cases, while epidemic control measures, including mass testing, affected the local operations of overseas firms such as Robert Bosch GmbH. The city of Suzhou - a trading, commercial and industrial hub in the eastern province of Jiangsu - reported eight domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms for Monday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday. The highly transmissible Omicron variant was detected among the cases, a Suzhou official said on Monday, without specifying the number of Omicron cases. Despite the low caseload by global standards, Suzhou said on Monday it had suspended some long-distance bus services, locked down affected buildings and urged residents not to leave home or the city for nonessential reasons. On Tuesday it closed 15 highway entrances and required drivers and passengers leaving through others to have proof of negative test results within 48 hours. Suzhou Industrial Park  an important high-tech development zone that hosts about 100,000 companies and accommodates manufacturing facilities of foreign firms such as Samsung and Eli Lilly - started a round of mass testing on Monday. 'We expect a short-term impact on our manufacturing and logistics operations in Suzhou,' automotive supplier Robert Bosch said, adding that local office staffers were working from home. Advertisement

'This is not sustainable,' he said.

'Eventually we are going to see a very local protracted outbreak, likely to be worse than previous cases.'

But Lam insisted the city would continue to follow mainland China's approach, despite the toll on Hong Kong's economy.

She said: 'We have to continue to fight this anti-epidemic battle. Surrendering to the virus is not an option.

'So far, our measures to contain the spread of the disease remain legitimate and valid.

'The problem we are facing is given the magnitude, the pace of and the severity of this fifth wave. It has outgrown our capacity.'

Authorities will continue to use smaller-scale district lockdowns, with testing of all residents in housing blocks where cases are detected, she added.

Hong Kong has followed China's strategy, pursuing zero virus cases with largely closed borders, lengthy quarantines, contact tracing and stringent social distancing laws, for more than two years.

But the new wave fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron virus variant has battered the city's capacity for testing, quarantine and treatment, and is testing the policy like never before.

More than 2,000 new daily infections were reported Monday, and the figure hovered over 1,000 for much of the last week.

Local researchers have warned that new daily cases could exceed 28,000 a day by March.

Before this outbreak, Hong Kong treated all coronavirus patients in dedicated isolation wards, but beds at hospitals and a temporary mass treatment facility near the airport have quickly filled.

Close contacts of virus cases were earlier sent to a government quarantine camp, but many are now being told to isolate at home.

Lam said 3,000 flats in newly constructed public housing blocks will be converted for quarantine use and that officials are seeking 10,000 hotel rooms too.

Last week saw long queues of people waiting to get tested, and many who tested positive reported being turned away from hospitals.

Hong Kong has sourced 100 million rapid test kits and will distribute a million of them a day to high-risk individuals once they arrive, Lam said Tuesday.

Scenes from the city in recent days resembled the early phase of the pandemic, as shoppers cleared out supermarket shelves to stock up on food and essentials.

Hong Kong imports most of its fresh food and produce from mainland China, and vegetable prices spiked last week due to a virus-related supply disruption.

Lam on Tuesday said her administration was recruiting more cross-border drivers and will look into waterborne freight as an option.
The BBCs new flagship regional current affairs show is in crisis after the corporation was forced to pull a second episode in less than a week.

Just days after it axed a We Are England documentary about a multimillionaire cryptocurrency founder - amid claims he actually was running a scam - the corporation yesterday pulled another programme over editorial concerns.

The broadcaster admitted positive coverage of student wellbeing work at Caroline Flacks former dance school had overlooked a damning Ofsted report which included claims students had been fat shamed.

The BBC said it had now removed this second We Are England programme, which aired on January 26, from its online iPlayer and had removed a related article on its website as a result.

The BBC admitted positive coverage of student wellbeing work at Caroline Flacks former dance school had overlooked a damning Ofsted report which included claims students had been fat shamed

This latest incident, which aired on the debut episode of the east of England region at the end of January, is hugely embarrassing for the new programme which replaced long running regional show Inside Out on BBC1.

The online article made no mention of Ofsteds scathing criticism of the school, but instead highlighted its work in areas like mindfulness, yoga, talking therapy and coping techniques.

Ofsteds report, published last June, reported that students told inspectors that some staff at the Bodywork Company performing arts school in Cambridge made inappropriate comments to students in front of their peers.

It added that this has led to those students having negative images of themselves and developing behaviours that are harmful to their health and well-being.

The document said this included a few students choosing not to eat when they arrived home late from classes for fear that they will gain weight.

Ofsted said students had told inspectors that looking beautiful had been more valued by certain staff there than the students talent.

The inspection body said: There are incidents of some staff discouraging students from going to auditions for roles when they may not have the desired physique. It added governance arrangements there were inadequate.

The BBCs online article, linked to the programme, instead talked about how in 2020 weekly wellbeing sessions were added to the Bodywork timetable which allowed students the chance to take time out and talk openly about their anxieties.

Ofsteds report, published last June, reported that students told inspectors that some staff at the Bodywork Company performing arts school in Cambridge made inappropriate comments

The school has since been ranked Good and replaced its governing body.

It comes just days after the broadcaster dropped another We Are England show, for the Midlands region, about a supposedly philanthropic cryptocurrency founder. It had been due to air last week.

Concerns were raised in that instance after the BBC posted an online article about how successful trader Hanad Hassan, 20, had managed to turn an initial 37 investment into nearly 6million within a year.

Within hours it emerged that the charity-focused cryptocurrency had been discontinued in October and further searches on social media revealed that investors had been making accusations of fraud for months.

Hassan has denied being a fraudster and said the claims were motivated by racism.

Yesterday the BBC posted a statement on its corrections and clarifications page about the report about Caroline Flacks former dance school.

In recognition of the problems on the show, the BBC revealed yesterday that a senior leader at the corporation will now take on the role of series editor for We Are England. There are different regional versions of the programme which air each week.

It came after an earlier episode was axed about Hanad Hassan, 20, over suggestions he was liked to an alleged fraud. He has strenuously denied these claims and said they were motivated by racism

A BBC spokesman said: The We Are England programme focused on a school and its work on student wellbeing. It is no longer available to view online as the episode did not include relevant information and context about the school featured. We have also removed a related online article.

The BBC said there were no plans to scrap the new show as overall it had been happy with the response to the series.

But it added that it was looking carefully at how these editorial issues arose and had moved to increase editorial support and supervision for the programme.

Theresa Kerr, Principal of the Bodywork Company performing arts school, told the Daily Mail last night: In response to an Ofsted monitoring report - Bodywork recognises that all students should feel supported and part of the college community.

The report highlighted key areas that required immediate attention and that some students have had negative experiences during their time with us.

We have worked hard over the last year to rectify these areas and strengthen our wellbeing provision and feel this was reflected accurately in the documentary.
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Defiant Alexei Navalny today urged his supporters to fight on for Democracy in Russia as his show trial began inside the penal colony outside Moscow where he is being held, after being arrested upon his return to Russia in January 2021.

A video link showed Navalny in prison uniform embracing his wife Yuliya Navalnaya for the first time in five months - while guards stood on either side of them - after she demanded access to the closed-door proceedings a day earlier.

The hearing, that has been widely condemned as a show trial, took place as Russia announced it was pulling back some of its forces near the Ukrainian border to their bases, in what would be the first major step towards de-escalation in weeks of crisis with the West.

Navalny's supporters had claimed the trial was being held while attention was drawn by the growing crisis, which has seen Russia amass over 130,000 troops on its borders with Ukraine, and in Belarus.

At the hearing, Navalny said: 'It is just that these people, who ordered this trial, are really scared. Scared of what I say during this trial, of people seeing that the case is obviously fabricated.'

'You're going to increase my term indefinitely. What can we do about it?" Navalny said during the court hearing.

'The activities of people are more important than the fate of one individual. I'm not afraid.'

He is currently serving a two-and-a-half year sentence in a maximum-security prison near Moscow, where the conditions are said to be dire. The new charges could see his time behind bars significantly extended.

In August, the dissident went on hunger strike over the conditions he has been held in which have caused him health problems, including severe back pain.

He repeated claims that his requests for medical assistance were being ignored by prison guards and that he was being 'tortured' with sleep deprivation with guards waking him up eight times a night. He also said other prisoners are being intimidated into not helping clean areas around his bed.

Navalny also warned he potentially faces being locked in solitary confinement after being accused of numerous minor infractions in prison.

The Russian opposition leader, who has now spent a year behind bars after surviving a poison attack that he blames on the Kremlin, is accused of fresh fraud charges.

If he is ultimately found guilty of embezzlement, Putin's most prolific political opponent could be jailed until 2032.

A new trial against jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny began Tuesday inside the penal colony outside Moscow where he is being held, serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence. A video link showed Navalny (pictured centre with his wife Yuliya Navalnaya via video link) showed him in a prison uniform at the hearing

A video link showed Navalny in prison uniform embracing his wife Yuliya Navalnaya for the first time in five months - while guards stood on either side of them - after she demanded access to the closed-door proceedings a day earlier

Yulia Navalnaya, wife of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, leaves the IK-2 male correctional facility after a court hearing, in the town of Pokrov in Vladimir Region, Russia February 15, 2022

A photograph taken from a TV screen during live broadcast of the court hearing at the penal colony N2 shows Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny (left) speaking with his wife Yulia ahead of the court hearing

The video link also showed Navalny's wife Yuliya Navalnaya inside the room where the trial is heard, a day after she had demanded access to the proceedings (pictured)

Russian police officers guard the entrance to the penal colony N2, where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is being held, to serve a two-and-a-half year prison term for violating parole, in the town of Pokrov on April 6, 2021

The hearing of Moscow's Lefortovsky district court is taking place inside the maximum security prison where he is being held in Pokrov, 60 miles east of Moscow.

Yesterday, Yulia lashed out at Russian authorities on the eve of the trial after she learned she would not be able to attend.

'Listen you, cowards and scoundrels! I demand that I am allowed to attend my husband's trial,' Yulia, 45, said on Instagram.

Family and journalists had been barred from the trial. The couple have been married for 20 years and have two children together.

Yulia said the new case is 'so pathetic they are afraid to hold the trial in Moscow'. 'My husband is an honest man. And they are keeping him in prison because he is not afraid of this government,' Yulia added.

According to reports, Navalny and Yulia last saw each other in August, where they were permitted an extended visit for three days.

Amnesty International described the hearing as a 'sham trial, attended by prison guards rather than the media.'

'Aleksei Navalny was detained under politically motivated charges and should never have been imprisoned in the first place,' the human rights organisation said in a statement on Monday.

'Now, as the new trial starts, its obvious that the Russian authorities intend to ensure that Navalny doesnt leave prison any time soon. A closed-door trial without public access only makes one more suspicious about new human rights violations the Russian authorities are trying to hide,' the group said.

Amnesty also called on the trial to be made public.

The new fraud case against Navalny was launched in December 2020, while the 45-year-old was recovering in Germany after narrowly surviving a nerve agent poisoning while on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow that year.

While being treated in Berlin, Navalny was put into a coma. He came out of it on September 7, and once he had recovered, decided to return to Russia on January 17, 2021 despite knowing he would be arrested.

Investigators accuse Navalny of stealing for personal use more than $4.7 million of donations that were given to his political organisations. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

A new trial against jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny began Tuesday inside the penal colony outside Moscow where he is held. A video link showed Navalny (pictured centre with his wife Yuliya Navalnaya via video link) in a prison uniform at the hearing

Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya lashed out at Russian authorities yesterday on the eve of his trial after she learned she would not be able to attend. 'Listen you, cowards and scoundrels! I demand that I am allowed to attend my husband's trial,' Yulia, 45, said on Instagram. 'My husband is an honest man. And they are keeping him in prison because he is not afraid of this government' (Alexei and Yulia pictured September 2020)

Pictured: An Instagram post by Navalny showing the last time he saw his wife Yulia in August 2021

Russia returns some troops to base in areas near Ukraine Some troops in Russia's military districts adjacent to Ukraine are returning to their bases after completing drills, Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday. Russia's Interfax news agency cited the ministry as saying that while large-scale drills across the country continued, some units of the Southern and Western military districts had completed their exercises. The reported movements run counter to warnings from the United States and Britain that Russia may be poised to invade Ukraine at any time. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Britain would need to see a full-scale removal of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine to believe that Moscow has no plans for an invasion. Video footage provided by the defence ministry and published by the RIA news agency showed some tanks and other armoured vehicles being loaded onto railway flatcars. The ministry said it would use trucks to move some hardware while some troops would march to bases on their own. Russia has amassed over 130,000 troops near Ukraine's borders, including a large contingent on joint drills in Belarus until Feb. 20, meaning that Ukraine is almost encircled by the Russian military. Advertisement

The start of the trial comes as talks over Ukraine between Russia and the West intensified, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz the latest Western leader due in Moscow for talks with Putin.

Navalny allies have called on Scholz to bring up the fate of the politician in his talks with Putin later on Tuesday.

'Germany stands for peace and justice,' Navalny's spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter. 'And now its stance on this is more important than ever.'

'The trial directly in jail of the number one political prisoner says everything about the Putin regime and the prospects of negotiations with him,' she said.

Other supporters of Navalny have claimed the 'open' trial was deliberately organised at a time when most media attention is focused on the escalating tensions around Ukraine and amid fears of a Russian invasion.

The country has massed more than 130,000 troops on the borders with its neighbour, with Western intelligence warning an invasion could be ordered by Putin in the coming days. However, on Tuesday Russia announced that it would withdraw troops from the border in an apparent deescalation.

Maria Pevchikh, one of Navalny's closest supporters and head of the investigative unit of the Anti-Corruption Foundation he created in 2011, also speculated on Twitter that a long-term sentence may give rise to another attempt on his life.

'We should hope it's just the trial they are disguising and distracting us from, not something worse. Which, again, is not that crazy to expect,' Pevchikh wrote.

'Putin did order to kill Navalny once and managed to get away with it. The line has been crossed. Nothing stops Putin from doing it again.'

In an extensive Twitter threat on Monday, Pevchikh said Putin could use the Ukraine crisis to distract the world's media as he deals a major blow to Navalny, and in doing so, a major blow to the anti-Kremlin movement.

Navalny, 45, faces a special hearing inside the Pokrov prison where he is currently serving a two-and-a-half year sentence on fraud charges widely thought to be unfounded (Navalny pictured Feb 2021)

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the Russian jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, attends an opposition rally in Moscow, Russia, 21 April 2021

'The key to saving Navalny's life is constant uninterrupted attention. There isn't a better moment for Putin to get rid of his main enemy than the moment when the world is looking elsewhere, at something he is doing with his other hand,' she said.

The investigative journalist also described Navalny's charges as 'rubbish' and declared '[Russian authorities] can't even falsify charges because there's nothing to pin them on. Navalny is innocent.'

Navalny's poisoning and arrest sparked widespread condemnation abroad as well as sanctions from Western capitals.

Most commentators believe Navalny is innocent of the charges and accuse Russian authorities of manufacturing a case to silence the dissident's criticism of President Putin.



Russian authorities last June branded Navalny's political organisations 'extremist', prompting his team to shut down the regional network that supported his political campaigns and corruption investigations.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was set up by Navalny in 2001 and whose investigations are overseen by Pevchikh, was officially liquidated by the Moscow City Court.

In an interview with NBC News in June last year, Russian president Vladimir Putin refused guarantee Navalny will ever leave prison alive. He also said the opposition leader's continued detention was not his decision, and noted the poor state of medical care inside Russia's jails.

'Look  such decisions in this country are not made by the president. They're made by the court whether or not to set somebody free,' Putin responded when questioned about whether Navalny will ever go free.

'As far as the health, all individuals who are in prison, that is something that the administration of the specific prison or penitentiary establishment is responsible for,' he added.

Putin also said Navalny would not be treated any differently from other prisoners.

'He will not be treated any worse than anybody else. Nobody should be given any kind of special treatment,' Putin said of the opposition leader, whose name he has refused to say, referring to him as 'that person'.
A young woman has revealed how her father sexually abused her for much of her childhood, before she bravely recorded his admission in secret years later.

From the age of five, Jessica Gardiner lived in fear of being alone at home with her father Peter, who would take advantage of her brother's weekly karate lessons and wait until the family were asleep at night before sneaking into his little girl's bed.

Her mother initially didn't believe her when Jessica later opened up about the abuse, and it wasn't until she confronted Gardiner and got a confession years later that her quest for justice began.

The brave tradie can now share her heartbreaking story after Gardiner pleaded guilty to eight child abuse charges and was sentenced last week.

Jessica now refuses to refer him as her dad, and has issued a powerful message to her abuser: 'I won, you don't start a battle when you can't win a war.'

Jessica Gardiner was terrified of her father Peter Gardiner (pictured together), who sexually abused her from the age of five until she was 11

'I think the hardest part is the fact I was so innocent and I was so vulnerable,' she told A Current Affair.

'I don't know anything worse that anybody could do to a child.

'I had no idea, I just thought this is what happens between parents and children, I just thought that this was normal.'

Jessica was petrified of Gardiner growing up.

'He was always just abusing us, swearing at us, pushing us,' she recalled.

'My brother used to go to karate lessons, he used to do them once a week and mum would take him and I remember I was so scared for her to leave, because I knew what was coming.'

The abuse continued for six years until the age of 11, when Jessica started learning about sex education at school as she recalled the last time he tried to prey on her.

It was just like an epiphany moment. I just had to sit there in pure shock, putting the pieces together of what had happened over the past many years,' she said.

'I just remember I looked at him dead in the eyes and I said "no" and we were both just looking at each other in the eyes.'

She finally plucked up the courage to tell her mum a year later and was devastated when Gardiner's denials were believed.

Jessica (pictured) was able to publicly break her silence last Friday when Peter Gardiner was sentenced

'He said "that never happened", it never happened, never would he do that to me, he'd never touch me in that kind of way, we were just mucking around and I remembered it wrong,' she said.

'It was like an adult against a child. Who do you believe?'

Ten years later, Jessica, then 22, was visiting a friend who had recently had a baby when she realised she had to take action about her traumatic childhood.

Not long after she was contacted by police who had received an anonymous tip-off.

But Jessica knew her word against his wasn't enough and needed evidence so she confronted her father about his heinous crimes in a harrowing phone call that she recorded.

'I want to know what was going through your head when you did those things to me,' she's heard asking Gardiner.

'I've thought about it darling, I've though about it so much as to what would ******** make me do that,' he replied.

Jessica (pictured as a young girl) refuses to refer to Peter Gardiner (also pictured) as her dad

Jessica is heard pressing Gardiner to admit what he did as she demands an explanation and apology.

'Like, you were innocent one in it, I was supposed to be the one who knew better,' he said.

'I didn't even think of the consequences. I know that it all happened, and I'm not going to deny that time. I can't. I can't do that.

'I cannot apologise enough for it; I am so sorry  I don't know why I did it.'

Gardiner was arrested at his home in the NSW Southern Highlands south of Sydney in March 2021.

'I was broken but relieved at the same time,' Jessica said.

'I had literally sent my father to prison but it was also such a relief.'

Gardiner pleaded guilty to eight child abuse charges, including sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 10 and maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child.

Jessica now hopes to inspire other sexual abuse survivors to speak up and get justice

Jessica attended Goulburn Court House last Friday to recall the damage Gardiner has done to her, telling the court no child should want to die because of what a parent had done to them.

Gardiner appeared via videolink and showed no emotion as he was sentenced to least six years and three months behind bars.

With time already served in custody, Gardiner could be freed in just five years time.

Jessica broke her silence in a heartfelt and powerful Facebook post afterwards.

'You are not a father, you are a paedophile and you are are not my father you are my predator,' she wrote.

'Today is the day I fought for justice.

'Not just for me but for every sexual abuse victim.'

'On Tuesday my story will be told publicly for you all to hear and it will be the beginning of my plea for change in the system to help protect children's safety an innocence.'

While Jessica believes Gardiner should have received a longer sentence, she has put her past behind her and looking to the future.

Jessica Gardiner has put her traumatic childhood behind her and looks forward to the future

The apprentice carpenter hopes to one day use her skills to build a safe haven for women and young children who have escaped from traumatic home environments.

She also hopes sharing her story will inspire other sex abuse survivors to speak up and get get justice as she delivered one final powerful message to the man that robbed her of her childhood.

'I won, you don't start a battle when you can't win a war,' Jessica said.

'There was no way in hell he was going to win, he never really stood a chance against me.'

'He built me to take on the devil....and win.'

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
Merck Foundation empowers African Women in the areas of Science and Technology through providing scholarships to more than 550 female doctors out of 1200 scholarships. Merck Foundation launch annually MARS Best African Woman Researchers Awards to acknowledge women in science. Merck Foundation works closely with African policy makers to empower girls in education and women in STEM.

Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, marks International Day of Girls and Women in Science 2022 through their Merck Foundation STEM program and Educating Linda program.

Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation, Most Influential African (2019, 2020 & 2021) emphasized, We at Merck Foundation mark International Day of Girls and Women in Science 2022 by supporting and empowering women in the areas of Science and Technology. Under-representation of women still exists in these fields, even though women have made tremendous participation and progress in career. Every year, we conduct Merck Foundation Africa Research Summit in partnership with African Governments and African Union Scientific, Technical and Research Commission, MARS brings together researchers and policy makers from across Africa to prepare for the road ahead in Africas development as an international hub for excellence in scientific innovation and define interventions to empower women and youth through education in general and in STEM in particular.

We have also launched MARS Awards to appreciate and recognize Best African Women Researchers and Best Young African Researcher. Our aim is to empower women and young African researchers, advance their research capacity and promote their contribution to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Merck Foundation has announced the Call for Applications for their prestigious Merck Foundation Africa Research Summit (MARS) Awards 2022. The key focus for this year will be: The Role of Scientific Research in responding to Cancer and Vaccines Development  Two emerging challenges in Africa. Through this contest, Merck Foundation aims to empower young African researchers & women researchers to strengthen the important role research plays towards contributing to public health thus improving healthcare capacity in Africa.

Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej further emphasized, In partnership with the African First Ladies, we have been building healthcare capacity through providing training to healthcare providers in many medical specialties. More than 1200 medical graduates have benefitted from this program so far. I am very proud that out of these over 552 are female medical graduates. This is close to 50% of the total beneficiaries, which is a great milestone for us.

Merck Foundation strongly believes that Education is one of the most critical areas of women empowerment. Through their Educating Linda program, Merck Foundation has been supporting education of some of the unprivileged but brilliant girls by providing scholarship and grants that can cover school fees, school uniforms and other essentials including notebooks, pens and mathematical instruments, so they can reach their potential and pursue their dreams

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At Stockport Magistrates' Court Olivia Stokes admitted driving with excess alcohol

A nail technician who was caught drunk-driving home following a 2am pub lock-in has been banned from driving for more than two years.

Olivia Stokes, 23, was stopped by police after driving her Vauxhall Corsa less than a mile in Knutsford, Cheshire in the early hours of January 7 this year.

Officers saw her accelerate 'very quickly' along the 30mph Northwich Road, and after pulling Stokes over could smell alcohol on her breath and noticed two bottles of wine in the front passenger seat.

Stokes, who was driving to her home eight miles away in Northwich, Cheshire, said she had arranged to have a sleepover at a friend's home in Knutsford but her mobile phone 'died' and she could not remember where their house was.

Tests showed Stokes, who goes by the nickname 'Queenie', had 99 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - nearly triple the legal limit of 35mg.

At Stockport Magistrates' Court she admitted driving with excess alcohol and was disqualified from the roads for 26 months, and made the subject of a 7pm-to-7am curfew.

Olivia Stokes, 23, was stopped by police after driving her Vauxhall Corsa less than a mile in Knutsford, Cheshire in the early hours of January 7 this year

Stokes, who was driving to her home eight miles away in Northwich, Cheshire, said she had arranged to have a sleepover at a friend's home in Knutsford but her mobile phone 'died' and she could not remember where their house was

Prosecutor Robin Lynch had told the hearing: 'Just after 2am on January 7, police officers were on mobile patrol when they saw a Vauxhall Corsa driving on Northwich Road, away from Knutsford.

'The vehicle accelerated very quickly, so officers stopped the vehicle to speak to the driver. There were two bottles of wine in the front passenger seat and officers could smell intoxicant on her breath.

'She failed to give a breath test and was taken to the police station where her lowest reading was 99 mg. She is a lady of previous good character.'

In mitigation defence lawyer Victoria Thompson said Stokes was a nail technician who owns her own business but, because of Covid, she was not able to work for 'a long period of time'.

Ms Thompson added: 'Hers was one of the last professions to return to work which has had a significant financial impact for her. She was in a very difficult time in her life with her lack of work.

'She was struggling and was taking fluoxetine for depression and anxiety.'

Officers saw her accelerate 'very quickly' along the 30mph Northwich Road, and after pulling Stokes over could smell alcohol on her breath and noticed two bottles of wine in the front passenger seat

Stokes, who was driving to her home eight miles away in Northwich, Cheshire, said she had arranged to have a sleepover at a friend's home in Knutsford but her mobile phone 'died' and she could not remember where their house was

Ms Thompson told the court that Stokes had been in Knutsford to see a client and was invited out for a drink with friends who she had not seen in a long time because of the pandemic.

She added: 'She contacted her mum to arrange for her to pick her up but as the evening progressed, they went to a bar and had a lock-in after opening hours.

'She recognises she should not have been drinking and it caused her to panic about the situation. She had left equipment in the car and she thought it was not the best place to leave it.

'She was meant to stay at a friend's address overnight but as she began to walk to her car, her phone died and she was not able to make contact with her friend at the bar or with her mother.

'She then returned to the bar they had been in but she did not know where this particular friend lived and everything had closed at that point.

'She began to panic about how she was going to get home and she made the foolish decision to drive. She deeply regrets her actions.'

Ms Thompson added: 'This is a lady of previous good character. When she was stopped by the police she panicked. She was trying to give a sample but was not producing enough breath to get a reading.

Tests showed Stokes, who goes by the nickname 'Queenie', had 99 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - nearly triple the legal limit of 35mg

In mitigation defence lawyer Victoria Thompson said Stokes was a nail technician who owns her own business but, because of Covid, she was not able to work for 'a long period of time'

'The road she was driving on was a 30-mph limit which then leads to a national speed limit. She had accelerated too early, and that was what led the officers to stop her. There was no other evidence of bad driving.

'However it was a blessing that she was stopped, because if she had continued to drive, who knows what might have happened. She is horrified and deeply ashamed.'

Ms Thompson told the court Stokes is due to start at a new employment company in Jersey from March 1, and has accommodation 'sorted' and is going to pay '1000 per month including bills'.

She added: 'This is going to be a fresh start for her. This will see her begin employment and give her some security.

'She has family and friends in Jersey, and it is an opportunity for a clean break. This incident will not prevent her from moving to Jersey although her employment may be impacted depending on what the sentence is. There are no ongoing issues with alcohol and has support from her family.

'The car was on finance and her father is going to take over the finance of it. She would be suitable for a drink driving course. She has lost a lot of business because of the pandemic. There were two bottles of wine on the passenger seat but it is not suggested these were empty bottles.'

Stokes, who was also ordered to pay 180 in surcharges, was offered a place on a drink driver's rehabilitation course.
An Islamic boarding school teacher avoided the death penalty or chemical castration as he was jailed for life for raping thirteen pupils and impregnating nine of them in Indonesia.

The judge said that teacher Herry Wirawan had sexually groomed the 13 girls, who were between 12 and 16 years old, and impregnated at least nine of his victims, some of whom suffered injuries from the rapes.

The case, that concluded in court today with the man being sentenced, has spotlighted the need to protect children from sexual violence in the Indonesia's religious boarding schools.

An Islamic boarding school teacher Herry Wirawan (pictured being escorted in court prior to his trial on Tuesday) avoided the death penalty or chemical castration as he was jailed for life for raping thirteen pupils and impregnating nine of them in Indonesia

'Wirawan was proven guilty...of the crimes of purposely committing violence, forcing intercourse on more than one victim repeatedly,' Judge Yohannes Purnomo Suryo Adi told the court in the city of Bandung in West Java.

Wirawan pleaded guilty and apologized to his victims and their families during the trial. His lawyer, Ira Mambo, said he would speak to his client about whether to appeal the verdict.

The teacher was accused of raping at least 13 students between the ages of 11 and 14 from 2016 to 2021 at the school, in hotel rooms or at rented apartments, according to the indictment.

At least nine babies reportedly were born as the result of the rapes.

Indonesian officials, including the country's child protection minister, backed calls for the death penalty, though the country's human rights commission, which opposes the death penalty, said it was not appropriate.

Wirawan arrived in court in handcuffs and kept his head down as the judge sentenced him. The court said restitution for the victims will be paid by the government.

The chairman of Indonesia's Child Protection Commission said Tuesday's verdict meant 'justice for the victims has been served'.

But a family member of one of the victims told AFP news agency he was 'very disappointed' that Wirawan did not receive a harsher sentence and warned that leniency would embolden other abusers.

Wirawan pleaded guilty and apologized to his victims and their families during the trial. His lawyer, Ira Mambo, said he would speak to his client about whether to appeal the verdict

'This wound will never be healed as long as we live, maybe until we die. The pain we are feeling is indescribable. We don't feel heard,' said Hidmat Dijaya, an uncle of one of the 13 victims.

'If the sentence is lenient like this, there will be more Islamic teachers who will abuse children,' he added.

'We will let God as the highest judge punish him. We can only pray because those judges failed to represent our hurt and pain.'

Dedeh Marlina, a 42-year-old housewife living near the school where Herry taught, said she was relieved the perpetrator had been stopped but that the damage had been done.

'I know most of them came from poor families in remote areas...unfortunately they are now carrying the burden of what happened,' she said.

The case drew a public outcry over the number of rapes and the length of time they occurred.

Officials said many of the victims did not report their rapes for fear of having to relive the traumatic experience, and their parents had trusted that the boarding school was guiding their children to become good and religious people.

West Java police began to investigate the case and arrested Wirawan last May when parents of a victim went to the police after their daughter returned home on a holiday and admitted she had just given birth.

Herry Wirawan, the principal of a girls Islamic boarding school who is accused of raping his students, sits on the defendant's chair during his sentencing hearing at a district court in Bandung, West java, Indonesia, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022

The case didn't become public until November, when court proceedings began. Police said they waited to publicize it to prevent further psychological and social damage to the victims.

The three-judge panel at Bandung District Court convicted Wirawan of violating the Child Protection Law and Criminal Code.

They also ordered the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection to pay 331 million rupiah ($23,200) in combined compensation requested by the victims and between $600 and $6,000 for medical and psychological treatment for each girl.

'The defendant deliberately committed violence and obscene acts,' Presiding Judge Yohannes Purnomo Suryo Ali said. 'Instead of educating his students, he resorted to violence or threats of violence to force children to have sexual intercourse with him.'

The judges also ruled that nine children born to the victims should be handed over to the Children and Women Protection Agency with periodic evaluation 'until the victims are mentally ready to care for their children, and the situation allows for their children to be returned to the victims.'

Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim majority country, has tens of thousands of Islamic boarding schools and other religious schools that often provide the only way for the children of poorer families to get an education.

More than 25,000 Islamic boarding schools - known as 'pesantren' - are dotted across the country, with nearly five million students living and studying in the dorms.

Teaching is often regimented - students attend regular classes during the day and continue Koranic studies and Islamic teachings into the evening.

Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim majority country, has tens of thousands of Islamic boarding schools and other religious schools that often provide the only way for the children of poorer families to get an education. Pictured: Teachers and students attend a class at the Nurul Fattah Islamic Boarding School in Tangerang, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022 (file)

The Bandung rape case has shone a spotlight on the problem of sexual abuse in some of the schools, with 14 out of the 18 cases reported to the Child Protection Commission last year taking place in pesantren.

Last year two teachers at a boarding school in South Sumatra were arrested for sexually abusing 26 male students over the course of a year.

And in 2020, a boarding school teacher in East Java was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting 15 female students.

In 2016, an Indonesian court sentenced to death the leader of a gang of men and boys who raped and murdered a schoolgirl in a case that prompted President Joko Widodo to impose harsher punishments for attacks on children.

President Widodo last month called on parliament to approve a bill on the 'elimination of sexual violence', which seeks to combat sex crimes and provide justice to victims, including in cases of marital rape.

The bill included a regulation to allow for chemical castration of child offenders that the president signed into law in 2020, despite opposition from rights activists.

It was drafted in 2016 but has run into delays, with Islamic groups complaining it promoted promiscuity and conservative lawmakers calling for it to criminalise extramarital sex and LGBT relationships.
Tens of Honduran security forces surrounded former President Juan Orlando Hernandez's residence on Monday night after the United States demanded his arrest and extradition.

Police special forces were seen encircling Hernandez's residence in the capital city of Tegucigalpa on Monday evening after the US requested the former president's arrest less than three weeks after he left office.

The foreign affairs ministry tweeted on Monday night that it had notified Honduras's Supreme Court 'requesting the formal provisional arrest of a Honduran politician for the purpose of extradition to the United States of America'.

In a video released by Hernandez's legal team, claiming to be inside his home, attorney Felix Avila said that everything would have to wait until the Supreme Court designated a judge on Tuesday to consider the case.

He added: 'Meanwhile, it is understood that no arrest order exists.'

Hernandez has denied accusations made by federal prosecutors in New York, that he shielded drug lords, including Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, in exchange for bribes, and sought to flood the streets of the United States with drugs.

The former president, whose brother Juan Antonio 'Tony' Hernandez was convicted of drug trafficking in October 2019 in New York, was implicated when his name had come up in a previous investigation in the drug trafficking case of Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez.

Fuentes Ramirez, who was arrested while attempting to board a plane at Miami International Airport on March 1, 2020, is accused of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States and of killing several people to protect his business.

The specific charges Hernandez's faces are not known and he has long denied any wrongdoing.

Tens of Honduran security forces (pictured) surrounded former President Juan Orlando Hernandez's residence on Monday night after the United States demanded his arrest and extradition

Police special forces were seen encircling Hernandez's residence in the capital city of Tegucigalpa on Monday evening (pictured) after the US requested the former president's arrest less than three weeks after he left office

The foreign affairs ministry tweeted on Monday night that it had notified Honduras's Supreme Court 'requesting the formal provisional arrest of a Honduran politician for the purpose of extradition to the United States of America'

Hernandez (pictured) has denied accusations made by federal prosecutors in New York, that he shielded drug lords, including Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, in exchange for bribes, and sought to flood the streets of the United States with drugs

At a police barrier to the neighborhood, Rasel Tome, vice president of the newly elected National Congress, said that Hernandez had to turn himself in or he would be arrested at 6am Tuesday.

It was a long-awaited fall for a leader reviled in his home country, who enjoyed support from the Trump administration, but had been kept at arm's length by a Biden White House targeting Central America's endemic corruption as a root cause of migration.

Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, declined to comment.

Hernandez left office January 27 with the swearing in of President Xiomara Castro. The same day he was sworn in as Honduras' representative to the Central American Parliament.

His lawyer, Hermes Ramirez, told local media his client had immunity as a member of the regional parliament and said government forces were not following proper procedures. He said Hernandez was inside the home.

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's is being linked by federal prosecutors in New York to Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who received $1 million from the notorious drug lord ahead of his presidential campaign in 2013

Juan Antonio 'Tony' Hernandez (pictured in 2017) was convicted in a massive drug conspiracy case in a New York City federal court in October 2019. He is the brother of Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez

Various contingents of the National Police, including special forces, as well as military police were present around Hernandez's neighborhood Monday night. Barriers at all of the entrances kept out media and even residents.

Members of the security forces entered the area with weapons, wearing balaclavas and with handcuffs dangling from their ballistic vests. Some neighbors said the house had been dark and they believe unoccupied.

Hernandez often pointed to the fact that Honduras began allowing the extradition of Hondurans on drug trafficking charges while he was president of the congress as part of his defense.

But U.S. prosecutors have alleged that he was taking bribes from drug traffickers on the promise of protecting them once he was Honduras' president.

U.S. prosecutors in New York repeatedly implicated him in his brother's 2019 drug trafficking trial, alleging that his political rise was fueled by drug profits.

Various contingents of the National Police, including special forces, as well as military police were present around Hernandez's neighborhood Monday night. Barriers at all of the entrances kept out media and even residents

Juan Antonio 'Tony' Hernandez, himself a former Honduran congressman, was sentenced to life in prison on drug and weapons charges in March 2021. At his sentencing Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Laroche characterized the crimes as 'state-sponsored drug trafficking.'

Juan Orlando Hernandez took office in January 27, 2014. Hernandez used a friendly Supreme Court to overcome Honduras' constitutional ban on reelection and won a second term in 2017 in elections marred by irregularities.

Around midnight on Monday, 56-year-old Jorge Arturo Vega, a supporter of Castro's Liberty and Refoundation party, stood outside a police barricade at Hernandez's neighborhood celebrating.

'This is a party we've been waiting a long time for,' Vega said, thinking back over the dozen years since Hernandez came up in the congress. 'We couldn't stand this his drug trafficker, criminal, killer in the presidential house any longer.'

Hernandez has denied all charges and claims the accusations are a part of a revenge plot from the same drug lords that his government captured or extradited to the United States.
Republicans have slammed President Joe Biden for costing the military nearly six million man hours to implement his 'leftist social agenda' on diversity and extremism in the ranks instead of 'countering real threats like China, Russia and Iran'.

Joint Chief of Staffs Chairman General Mark Milley revealed that more than 5.3 million hours and $535,000 was spent on extremism 'stand downs' or discussions about extremism in the ranks.

In response, 12 Republican Senators on the Armed Services Committee accused the Biden administration of promoting a 'leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering China, Russia and Iran or creating an effective counterterrorism plan'.

In recent weeks, Russia has amassed troops on the Ukrainian border, China has built up military presence in the South China Sea and U.S. officials warned Iran was on the verge of building a nuclear bomb.

Republican Senators have slammed President Joe Biden for costing the military nearly six million man hours to implement his 'leftist social agenda' on diversity and extremism in the ranks instead of 'countering real threats like China, Russia and Iran'

Gen Milley made the revelation in response to Republican Senator James Inhofe, of Oklahoma, who had requested data on the amount of hours and money the Department of Defense spent on new training across the military.

This was regarding subjects including climate change, extremism and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Gen Milley outlined the hours and total cost in a letter, obtained by Fox News, sent to Inhofe on January 6 in which he wrote: 'This averages to just over 2 hours per Service member in a total force of 2.46 million members and is comparable to other Joint Force periodic training requirements.'

Gen Milley also said around 530,000 hours and $477,000 was spent on new diversity, equity and inclusion training and a further 1,000 hours and $5,000 on organizing the department's Climate Adoption Plan.

A letter, signed by the 12 Republican Senators, including Inhofe, said the U.S. face 'real threats across the world' and referred directly to deteriorating relations with Russia, China and Iran.

In recent weeks, more than 130,000 Russian troops have amassed on the border with Ukraine ahead of a potential invasion in the coming days.

The move prompted President Biden to tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a call on Sunday that the U.S. would respond 'swiftly and decisively' if Russia moves forward with an invasion on Ukraine.

U.S. officials warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen as early as this week  and likely before the end of the Beijing Olympics.

Last week, former national security adviser to Donald Trump, retired Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, accused Beijing of staging the 'biggest land grab in history' with its territorial encroachment on the South China Sea.

Beijing has laid claim to a vast majority of the waters there, and China's aggressive buildup in military presence and increased exercises in the region has served to alarm and anger U.S. allies there as well as American officials at home.

And at the start of the month, U.S. officials warned that Iran's nuclear program is on the verge of producing enough fuel for a nuclear bomb in just a matter of weeks and could have a device built in less than a year.

Russian armored vehicles move at the Gozhsky training ground near the border with Ukraine on Saturday during Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus. Russia has massed troops near the Ukraine border but denies invasion plans

U.S. carriers in South China Sea, Taiwan, have reported further Chinese incursion. Former national security adviser to Donald Trump, retired Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, accused Beijing of staging the 'biggest land grab in history' with its territorial encroachment on the South China Sea

Iranian satellite carrier rocket 'Simorgh' is seen in an unknown location in Iran, in this picture obtained on December 30, 2021

In their letter, the 12 Senators accused the Department of Defense of 'targeting' military members who they said were 'by and large all good people' and 'faithful patriots'.

They also referred to a Department of Defense reports which found 'fewer than 100' military members had engaged in prohibited extremist activity over the past year.

Fox News reported that these findings meant each incident of extremism found in the military saw service members spent around 54,000 hours in training on the subject.

The lawmakers said the Biden administration must make protecting Americans from foreign threats its priority or 'we will use all tools at our disposal, including the annual defense authorization bill, to ensure that it does'.

The letter was signed by Inhofe, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Rick Scott of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
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A backlash erupted today over plans to axe free lateral flow tests - as Scotland and Wales called on the policy to continue despite costing the NHS an estimated 9billion a year.

Sources have suggested free tests could be axed as early as next month, while the Department of Health confirmed the provision of free tests is being kept under review.

Nicola Sturgeon's health spokesman, Martyn Day, last night insisted Mr Johnson must not impose changes to 'appease Tory backbenchers' and any decisions should be backed by medical advice.

Meanwhile, Mark Drakeford has said his government is 'well placed' to continue to provide tests in Wales and demanded the four devolved nations be consulted before any decision is made in Westminster.

Today, social media users urged their fellow Brits to order the free tests 'while you still can'.

Meanwhile, the SNP's health spokesman, Martyn Day, said: 'The UK Government must confirm that it will continue to fund Covid-19 testing for devolved nations - after the confusion caused by Boris Johnson and his Tory ministers.

'Any changes to Covid testing must be guided by expert public health advice through the chief medical officers.'

The push comes as the Prime Minister and one of his ministers dodged questions on the issue.

During a visit to Scotland yesterday, Mr Johnson said: 'On testing, which is important, we'll make sure we continue to work with our colleagues in Scotland.'

When pushed, the Prime Minister added: 'We'll continue to work with our colleagues in Scotland but I believe the similarities in our approach vastly outweigh the differences.'

Nicola Sturgeon's health spokesman has urged Boris Johnson to continue funding for free lateral flow tests in Scotland

Daily Covid cases fall for 13th day in a row Britain's daily Covid cases fell for the 13th day in a row today, while hospitalisations and deaths also continued to trend downwards as the Omicron wave subsides. Government dashboard data shows another 41,648 infections were officially recorded over the last 24 hours, down 28 per cent on last Monday. Cases have fallen week-on-week on every day since February 1. The UK is now recording about 55,500 Covid cases every day, on average, which is about the same level as in mid-December when Omicron was just starting to take off. There were also a further 35 deaths recorded today, marking a 22 per cent fall in a week. But virus deaths are usually artificially lower on Mondays due to NHS recording lags. The seven-day average number of deaths now sits at 178  almost four times lower than this time last year, before vaccines were widely available. Latest hospital data also shows there were 1,413 admissions on February 8, down 17 per cent on a week beforehand. The tumbling statistics come as ministers use the Parliamentary recess to draft their strategy to learn to 'live with Covid' like flu, which is due to be unveiled on February 21. Advertisement

It came as Scotland Office minister, Iain Stewart, told the BBC: 'What we've said is that next week, if the figures and Covid continue the way they are, we'll be setting out a comprehensive plan on what living with Covid in a normal sense looks like, but I am not sighted on what might be in that.'

He added that there continue to be 'regular meetings several times a week' between the UK Government and the devolved administrations on the Covid response.

Sage, the independent group of advisers who have been counselling the Government throughout the pandemic, cautioned against removing free testing.

The group said getting rid of free testing would make it harder for people to take precautions and 'may also increase anxiety among those who have found testing reassuring after possible exposure, particularly those who are, or live with, someone who is clinically vulnerable'.

'Some people may also take the removal of free and accessible testing as a signal that they should continue to attend workplaces/social gatherings while showing Covid-19 symptoms, as these become conflated with other symptoms of respiratory illness such as influenza,' the group added.

Ministers had initially planned to keep handing out the swabs until July, before only making them available to care homes, the NHS and schools.

But Whitehall sources say they could now be dropped three months earlier amid a drive to slash Covid spending to a tenth of current levels.

In the first year of the Test and Trace programme, from April 2020 to April 2021, 9billion of the total 22billion spent went towards rapid lateral flow tests, according to calculations by the Financial Times.

Free PCR tests could also be abandoned from March 31, but will remain available in hospitals and to the country's 1million most vulnerable.

Contact tracing from Test and Trace asking contacts of a Covid case to self-isolate is also set to come to an end.

Mr Johnson is currently hammering out the UK's 'living with' the virus strategy, which is set to be announced next Monday on February 21.

Sources have suggested free tests could be axed by the PM as early as next month in a bid to save billions from the eye-watering NHS Test and Trace budget

Northern Ireland AXES all remaining Covid laws and will replace them with guidance from midnight By Olivia Devereux-Evans for MailOnline Northern Ireland has axed all remaining Covid laws and will replace them with 'guidance' from midnight, Health Minister Robin Swann announced. But he urged the public not to 'jump the gun', warning that the pandemic is 'not over. It comes after advice from the chief medical officer in Northern Ireland, Sir Michael McBride. Stormont ministers had earlier given their 'unanimous support' to Mr Swann to ease Covid restrictions in Northern Ireland, according to Michelle O'Neil, Sinn Fein's leader in Stormont. Last week Mr Swann, who has himself tested positive for Covid, was advised on the potential legal implications of him replacing regulations with guidance, without the wider endorsement of an executive. Mr Swann wrote to other ministers asking for their input and asked for them to respond by today. Present Covid-19 regulations in Northern Ireland were not due to expire until March 24 but were reviewed by the executive every three weeks previously. However, Northern Ireland currently has no functioning executive after the DUP removed Paul Givan as first minister, as part of a protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol. Mr Swann was considering whether removing restrictions in Northern Ireland would cut across the responsibilities of any other ministers. Advertisement

The Prime Minister has already announced the end of self-isolation, but other measures are also expected to go amid a drive to cut spending from 15billion to 1.5billion.

No10 sources said no 'final decision' on Covid testing has been made, and that it will come to an end 'at the right moment'.

Covid testing has formed the backbone of the UK's strategy for fighting the pandemic, allowing people to check whether they have the virus and if they need to self-isolate.

It was ramped up under 'Operation Moonshot', which saw ministers make swabs widely available across the country.

But it saw the UK spend more than 6billion on lateral flow tests alone  with a pack of seven swabs costing around 20.

It is not clear how much was spent on PCR swabs.

Under plans to 'live with' Covid, Whitehall sources told the Guardian that ministers are now looking to wind down systems set up at the height of the pandemic.

Advice to get Covid tests regularly for those who are asymptomatic is set to be dropped, they said.

The Prime Minister is set to attend a 'Quad' meeting today with senior Cabinet ministers to discuss the proposals.

They will then be put to the UK's four chief medical officers tomorrow, and finalised on Friday.

A 'Covid-O' operations committee meeting will also take place on Sunday to make any final tweaks to the measures.

Mr Johnson is expected to announce plans for 'living with' the virus on Monday  February 21  when Parliament returns from recess.

He has already announced plans to drop Covid self-isolation next week, a month earlier than the previous plan to let it lapse on March 24.

Buckingham Palace STILL refuses to say if the Queen has Covid amid mounting fears By Mark Duell for MailOnline Buckingham Palace again refused to say today whether the Queen has Covid amid mounting fears after Camilla joined Charles in testing positive for the virus. Royal sources said Camilla, 74, has been triple vaccinated, adding that Clarence House will continue to follow government guidelines and review her engagements. Camilla and Charles, 73, are both now self-isolating, but Buckingham Palace officials said they would 'not be providing a running commentary' on the Queen's health. Royal officials confirmed last week that the Queen had no symptoms, and told MailOnline today that they had 'nothing to add' to this after Camilla's positive test. Camilla has caught the virus for the first time but Charles contracted it for a second time. She carried out engagements last Thursday - the day Charles tested positive. A Clarence House spokesman said: 'The Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating. We continue to follow government guidelines.' Advertisement

And Mr Johnson said other measures could also be lifted should England's daily figures continue to head in the right direction.

Yesterday Covid cases dropped for the 13th day in a row, after 41,648 were recorded.

There were also a further 35 deaths recorded today, marking a 22 per cent fall in a week.

Latest hospital data also showed there were 1,413 admissions on February 8, down 17 per cent on a week beforehand.

Asked yesterday if he was planning to scrap free PCR tests, the Prime Minister said: 'We'll continue to work with our colleagues in Scotland but I believe the similarities in our approach vastly outweigh the differences'.

A No10 spokesman said: 'We haven't made any final decisions on the future of testing.

'We have said free testing will come to an end at the right moment.

'Those decisions need to be made this week in terms of exactly when that time is, what comes to an end and what is retained.

'All of that will be considered and we will set it out in the strategy. We will retain the ability to monitor coronavirus as we do other viruses.'

Government health officials are concerned that dumping free Covid tests will undermine the UK's 'test to treat' strategy.

This sees the most vulnerable people who test positive for Covid offered antiviral drugs  molnupiravir and paxlovid  to kill off an infection.

A Whitehall source said Covid antivirals were one of the main tools for 'learning to live with' Covid.

They added: 'If [the Treasury] basically put this trial in the bin, it's very short-sighted.'

Doubt over Covid jabs for primary school pupils as announcement over rollout is delayed again A decision over whether five to 11-year-olds will get the jab was mired in confusion last night as an announcement over the rollout was postponed again. Government advisers are said to have recommended offering the vaccine to all healthy children in this group on a non-urgent basis. The UK Health Security Agency was set to announce the decision last Friday but stalled at the last minute and rescheduled for yesterday. However, that also failed to go ahead amid growing speculation ministers may overrule the move. A decision could now be postponed until next Monday, when Boris Johnson is expected to outline his long-term strategy for Covid and end all restrictions. Sources said there was some concern that offering the jab to these ages could be seen to conflict with the wider message that the pandemic is over in England and it is safe to return to normal life. Advertisement

Contingency plans are also likely to be included to ensure testing can be ramped back up if a new Covid variant emerges, the Times reports.

However the plans are still in 'live discussion' among ministers and final decisions about the strategy are yet to be made, a source told The Times.

Last month Professor Iain Buchan, chair in public health at the University of Liverpool who led a trial of lateral flow tests in the city, said Britain's approach of making the tests freely available for months, unlike many other countries, had been a success, and cautioned against introducing charges for tests.

He warned: 'Viruses move quicker than free market economics.'

And Professor Jason Leitch, Scotland's national clinical director, said it is 'too early' to decide whether free lateral flow tests can come to an end.

Earlier this month Mr Johnson piled the pressure on Ms Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford to scrap the last remaining Covid curbs after the Prime Minister dramatically announced his intention to axe all virus restrictions in England by the end of the month.

Responding to the reports, a spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'We've previously set out that we'll keep the provision of free testing under review as the government's response to COVID-19 changes.

'No decisions have been made on the provision of free testing. Everyone can continue to get free tests and we are continuing to encourage people to use rapid tests when they need them.

'Testing continues to play an important role in helping people live their day to day lives, keep businesses running and keep young people in school.'
DC Comics as launched a High Court battle to stop its iconic Wonder Woman superhero from being 'tarnished' by Unilever's new cosmetics brand Wonder Mum.

UK-based manufacturing giant Unilever was granted permission to register the Wonder Mum line by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in June last year, despite DC's opposition over alleged copyright infringement.

The comic book giant insists that customers will assume the products, which will include soaps, perfumery and shampoos, are linked to its Wonder Woman superhero - created in 1941.

However, the IPO ruled that the Wonder Mum cosmetic line was not sufficiently similar to threaten the superheros unique copyright, nor would the products threaten Wonder Woman's global reputation.

Hearing Officer Judi Pike added that there were no confusing similarities since the Wonder Woman character is an all-action superhero, while Wonder Mum reflects a 'mainly British mother' who has simply raised her children well.

DC is now appealing the decision at the High Court in London, claiming the IPO's ruling was 'perverse and unreasonable'.

Lawyers for the comic also argue that the cosmetics line would have damaging consequences and would allow 'anyone to release a Wonder Woman movie or comic', claiming 'Mum' is a subset of the word 'Woman'.

Jonathan Moss, representing DC, told the High Court that Wonder Woman is 'one of the most famous comic book characters in the world' - with a distinct identity which consumers traced back to the original cartoon strip.

Lynda Carter played the title role in the television series of Wonder Woman, which ran from 1975 to 1979 following the success of an earlier television movie

DC argues the Wonder Mum cosmetics line (pictured) will be confused with its iconic superhero

Gal Gadot has played the comic book superhero in recent big screen hits Batman V Superman - Dawn Of Justice, Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984

Lawyers for DC Comics say the IPO's ruling in favour of Unilever in June last year was flawed due to legal and factual errors

The history of DC Comics' iconic Wonder Woman Wonder Woman first hit the shelves in 1941, carving out a distinctive comic book identity in her red, blue and gold outfit equipped with chunky boots. The superhero hails from the mythical island of Themyscira and blended into everyday society by posing as Diana Prince - all the while using her Amazonian strength and speed to tackle villains. She became a staple of the comic books alongside Superman, Batman, and Aquaman. Wonder Woman starred in her own eponymous TV movie in 1974, played by Cathy Lee Crosby, before the film was turned into a television series the following year. The series ran until 1979, with Lynda Carter playing the title role. The comic book character then reappeared on the big screen in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, before starring in her own Wonder Woman movie a year later - starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. Its success was followed by Wonder Woman 1984, released in 2020. Advertisement

Wonder Woman first hit the shelves in 1941, carving out a distinctive comic book identity in her red, blue and gold outfit equipped with chunky boots.

The superhero hails from the mythical island of Themyscira and blended into everyday society by posing as Diana Prince - all the while using her Amazonian strength and speed to tackle villains.

Wonder Woman starred in her own eponymous TV movie in 1974, played by Cathy Lee Crosby, before the film was turned into a television series the following year.

The series ran until 1979, with Lynda Carter playing the title role.

The comic book character then reappeared on the big screen in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, before starring in her own Wonder Woman movie a year later - starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine.

Its success was followed by Wonder Woman 1984, released in 2020.

DC Comics argues that she has become the most famous female superhero in the world since her inception.

Mr Moss attacked the IPO's ruling in favour of Unilever, which he argued is flawed due to legal and factual errors.

He added that the IPO should have found that Unilevers brand would chip away at the DC characters 'incredibly well-known' name, reputation and good will.

Denise McFarland, for Unilever, said there is no risk of the public muddling the two characters, particularly due to Wonder Woman's 'distinctive and unvarying features' - including her minimalistic' costume complete with high boots, a corset, and lasso and shield.

Ms McFarland added that, if DC's arguments about 'conceptual similarity' were correct, then using phases such as 'Wonder Aunt' and 'Wonder Niece' would also have to be banned.

Following a day in court, Mr Justice Green has reserved his ruling in the appeal.
Immigration rules for care workers were relaxed today because of crippling staffing shortages that have left the sector 'on its knees'.

More than 105,000 care jobs are currently going unfilled  equivalent to about one in 12 positions in the workforce. Vacancy rates spiralled when No10's 'no jab, no job' mandate kicked in last November.

Care bosses now say the crisis is so bad they are being 'held to ransom' by agencies charging 'extortionate' rates, and are struggling to fill gaps on their rotas.

In hope of fixing the crisis, ministers have said they will 'fast-track' visa applications from people looking to work in the sector.

Those applying will also be given the option to come to the UK with their partner and children, and later considered for settled status.

They will only need to earn 20,480 a year, compared to the threshold of 25,600 beforehand.

Home Secretary Priti Patel argued the relaxation  in place for at least 12 months  would help to 'bolster the workforce' and alleviate current pressures.

Care leaders today welcomed the move, saying that it would help bring more staff to the sector to help plug gaps.

But they said it did not go far enough to deliver the change 'everyone would like to see', and that homes were already facing delays with applications for the visas.

More than 105,000 care jobs are currently going unfilled  equivalent to about one in 12 positions in the workforce. Vacancy rates spiralled when No10's 'no jab, no job' mandate kicked in last November

The care sector has been struggling against a staffing crisis for years, with low pay leading to many employees being lured away by higher wages elsewhere.

It has always relied on foreign workers to help plug the gap, with about 16 per cent of staff currently from overseas (7 per cent EU nationals, and 9 per cent non-EU).

More than 40,000 workers were lost last November when the Government made it a requirement for all staff to be double-jabbed.

Although this rule is now set to be relaxed as in the NHS  where it was set to come in this April  care bosses say the damage has already been done.

Daily Covid cases fall for 13th day in a row Britain's daily Covid cases fell for the 13th day in a row yesterday, while hospitalisations and deaths also continued to trend downwards as the Omicron wave subsides. Government dashboard data shows another 41,648 infections were officially recorded, down 28 per cent on last Monday. Cases have fallen week-on-week on every day since February 1. The UK is now recording about 55,500 Covid cases every day, on average, which is about the same level as in mid-December when Omicron was just starting to take off. There were also a further 35 deaths recorded, marking a 22 per cent fall in a week. But virus deaths are usually artificially lower on Mondays due to NHS recording lags. The seven-day average number of deaths now sits at 178  almost four times lower than this time last year, before vaccines were widely available. Latest hospital data also shows there were 1,413 admissions on February 8, down 17 per cent on a week beforehand. The tumbling statistics come as ministers use the Parliamentary recess to draft their strategy to learn to 'live with Covid' like flu, which is due to be unveiled on February 21. Advertisement

Care workers were added to the shortage occupations list on Christmas Eve  which includes professions where the UK as too few staff.

The Migration Advisory Committee  which manages the list  said at the time that visa rules should be relaxed 'immediately' to help with 'severe and increasing difficulties' in the workforce.

Ms Patel said today: 'The changes weve made to the health and care visa will bolster the workforce and help alleviate some of the pressures currently being experienced.'

Announcing plans for the change in December, Mr Javid said: 'It is vital we continue to do all we can to protect the social care sector during the pandemic and beyond.

'These measures, together with the series of support packages announced since September, will help us ensure short term sustainability and success for our long-term vision to build social care back better.'

Nadra Ahmed, the chair of the National Care Association, said today homes were being over-charged by agencies as they tried to plug staffing gaps.

She said the relaxation would help to ease the crisis.

But warned homes were already facing delays in the application process.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We are being held to ransom by agencies at this time and they're charging extortionate rates, which providers (care homes) are having to pay.'

She added: 'I think this (the immigration rules easing) is a slightly easier way of doing it, but the process has not been simplified  which I hoped it would be.

'The Home Office isn't able to cope with the number of applications at this point in time.'

The Independent Care Group, which represents providers in York and north Yorkshire, also welcomed the move but said it was already plagued by bureaucracy.

Chairman Mike Padgham said providers are 'experiencing lengthy delays in getting the licences needed to recruit staff, which is the last thing we need'.

He continued: 'We need these staff to provide care today and tomorrow, not some time in the future when the bureaucracy is sorted out. The Government needs to streamline this process, or we will be no better off.

'This obstacle should never have been put in our way in the first place. But then once a decision had been taken to remove it, we should not have had to wait this long  it was announced on Christmas Eve after all.

'Now we are finding that there are further delays. It is simply not acceptable for a sector that is on its knees already.

'The people who need care and those providing it deserve better than this.'

Last years announcement came after campaigners accused the Government of excluding care workers from its new immigration system and ignoring the role they have played during the coronavirus pandemic.
Boris Johnson and Joe Biden have sparked renewed optimism of a strengthened special relationship between the UK and the US after they stepped up their efforts to solve the Ukraine crisis.

The Prime Minister and US President held a 40 minute phone call last night to discuss the situation.

Mr Biden is said to have told Mr Johnson at the end of the conversation that 'we're not going anywhere without you pal'.

The comment will boost hopes of a further improvement in relations between London and Washington DC after tensions over the withdrawal from Afghanistan and Brexit.

It comes days after a new book claimed that Mr Biden's mother hated England so much that she chose to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed at a hotel where the Queen once stayed.

Boris Johnson and Joe Biden have sparked renewed optimism of a strengthened special relationship between the UK and the US after they stepped up their efforts to solve the Ukraine crisis

Mr Biden is said to have told Mr Johnson at the end of their phone call last night that 'we're not going anywhere without you pal'

Joe Biden's mother who was of Irish descent 'hated' England so much that she chose to sleep on the FLOOR rather than in a bed where the Queen once stayed, new book reveals Joe Biden's mother hated England so much that she chose to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed where the Queen once stayed, according to a book. Georgia Pritchett was invited to meet Biden, then vice president, at the White House while carrying out research for the American comedy series Veep. She recalled in her autobiography that Biden initially spoke about Ukraine, from where he had just returned, but was advised to switch topics. Noting that the screenwriter was British, he discussed how much his mother Catherine Finnegan, known as Jean, 'hated the English', telling her she had written 'hundreds' of poems on the matter. Ms Pritchett wrote: 'He went off to find them and returned with hundreds of poems describing how God must smite the English and rain blood on our heads.' He went on to recollect the time his mother, who was of Irish descent, travelled to the UK and spent a night in a hotel where she was told the Queen had once visited. Referring to the hotel stay, Ms Pritchett wrote: 'She was so appalled that she slept on the floor all night, rather than risk sleeping on a bed that the Queen had slept on.' She added: 'I admire anyone whose principles come between them and a comfy bed.' The revelations were made in Ms Pritchett's autobiography My Mess is a Bit of a Life. Advertisement

Mr Johnson reportedly told Mr Biden during last night's call that the UK wanted to do everything it could to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Sources told ITV News that the US President responded by saying 'were not going anywhere without you pal'.

Downing Street said the two men had 'agreed to remain in close contact' as the situation in Ukraine continues to evolve.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: 'They agreed there remained a crucial window for diplomacy and for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine.'

The leaders also 'agreed that western allies must remain united in the face of Russian threats'.

The US-UK special relationship has been put under strain in recent years, most notably over the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Mr Johnson had asked Mr Biden to delay the US exit last August in order to provide more time for humanitarian airlifts.

But Mr Biden stuck to his hard deadline of August 31 as all remaining US forces left the country and the UK followed suit.

The fact that the UK's request was dismissed prompted some MPs to question whether British foreign policy was at a 'crossroads' after decades of being interwoven with that of the US.

There have also been tensions related to Brexit, with Mr Biden having been opposed to the UK leaving the EU.

A trade deal with the US had been held up by Brexiteers as one of the main prizes of Brexit but hopes of a pact being struck in the near future have faded.

Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, said in October last year that a trade deal with the US was not the 'be all and end all' as she refused to commit to an agreement being completed by 2030.

The White House has made clear a trade agreement with Britain is not an immediate priority for Mr Biden.

Mr Johnson met Mr Biden in person for the first time at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June last year.

The PM suggested at the time that the special relationship should be rebranded as the 'indestructible relationship'.

There had been fears the two men would not get along, with Mr Biden previously describing Mr Johnson as 'a physical and emotional clone' of Donald Trump.

Democratic sources had also questioned whether Mr Johnson was an 'ally' of Mr Biden after the latter was elected in November 2020.

A new book recently revealed that Mr Biden's mother hated England so much that she chose to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed at a hotel where the Queen once stayed.

Screenwriter Georgia Pritchett was invited to meet Mr Biden, then vice president, at the White House while carrying out research for the American TV comedy series Veep.

Mr Johnson met Mr Biden in person for the first time at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June last year

Joe Biden discussed how much his mother Catherine Finnegan (both pictured in 2008), known as Jean, 'hated the English', telling a British screenwriter she had written poems on the matter, according to a book

She recalled in her autobiography, My Mess is a Bit of a Life, that Mr Biden initially spoke about Ukraine, from where he had just returned, but was advised to switch topics.

Noting that the screenwriter was British, he discussed how much his mother Catherine Finnegan, known as Jean, 'hated the English', telling her she had written 'hundreds' of poems on the matter.

He went on to recollect the time his mother, who was of Irish descent, travelled to the UK and spent a night in a hotel where she was told the Queen had once visited.

Referring to the hotel stay, Ms Pritchett wrote: 'She was so appalled that she slept on the floor all night, rather than risk sleeping on a bed that the Queen had slept on.'

She added: 'I admire anyone whose principles come between them and a comfy bed.'

Mr Biden is known for playing up his Irish heritage, having once written a letter in which he described himself as a descendant of an 'Irish American family that imbued in me a sense of pride that spoke of both continents'.

US President Biden can trace his Irish roots back to both the Blewitts from Co Mayo and the Finnegans from Co Louth

In November 2020 when he was on the campaign trail Mr Biden was asked by a journalist for a 'quick word for the BBC'.

Mr Biden replied 'the BBC? I'm Irish' before smiling and moving away.

The TV clip prompted Nigel Farage, the former leader of the Brexit Party and a prominent ally of Mr Trump, to claim that 'Biden hates the UK'.
One man has died and eight have been hospitalised after a three-litre bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne was spiked with ecstasy at a restaurant in Germany.

The man, named locally as Harald Georg Z, had met with eight friends at the La Vita restaurant in Weiden, Germany when the group ordered a 430 bottle of Champagne.

One of those present had appeared as a contestant on the TV dating show Take Me Out and the group had decided to celebrate.

However, shortly after the bottle was 'opened at the table', all the guests - who are between age 33 and 52 - were experiencing extreme symptoms of poisoning by having 'seizures and foaming at the mouth'.

Georg Z died shortly after he was admitted to the hospital on Sunday night and the result of the toxicological-chemical investigation is currently pending.

A man, named locally as Harald Georg Z, had met with eight friends at the La Vita restaurant in Weiden, Germany (pictured) when the group ordered a 430 bottle of Champagne

One of those present had appeared as a contestant on the dating show Take Me Out and the group had decided to celebrate

Georg Z died shortly after he was admitted to the hospital on Sunday night and the result of the toxicological-chemical investigation is currently pending

Police have confirmed that once they arrived at the bar, they found people lying on the ground with cramps and eight of them had to be hospitalised.

Project manager Georg Z. took 'a large sip of the champagne' and 'collapsed whilst foaming at the mouth', according to witness statements seen by German news website Bild.

'There were things in it that normally are not in Champagne.' senior prosecutor Gerd Schaefer said. 'It had a toxic, a poisonous effect.'

Police reports have suggested that the three-litre bottle of Champagne contained 1,000 times the 'normal' dose of ecstasy and was believed to be drugged with a lethal amount of MDMA.

A restaurant manager told a local newspaper: 'The bottle was opened and uncorked in front of the guests at the table. This was also filmed' (stock image)

Schaefer said toxicological tests showed the poisonous substance 'in considerable concentration' in the Champagne was Ecstasy, but said it was not yet clear how the drug got into the bottle.

One of the hospitalized victims was able to go home on Monday, and police were able to question some of the others who were still at the hospital.

A restaurant manager reportedly told a local newspaper: 'The bottle was opened and uncorked in front of the guests at the table. This was also filmed'.

Schaefer said there was a suspicion of negligent homicide but it did not appear that the poisoning was a targeted attack. He did not elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation.

MDMA is a stimulant with minor hallucinogenic effects also called ecstasy. People often use MDMA and alcohol together to extend the good feelings of the drug but the two combined can be deadly and lead to serious side effects or stronger adverse reactions.
A 55 year old worker has won more than 20,000 in a race and age discrimination claim after a black colleague called him an 'old white guy'.

Barry Moore repeatedly told he was too old to do his job by younger fellow tyre firm employee Desmond Owusu, an employment tribunal heard.

A panel ruled the constant harassment Mr Moore received amounted to bullying, forcing him to resign after complaining he didn't come to work to be 'abused and victimised'.

He has now won 22,027 compensation after winning his claims for unfair dismissal and for race and age discrimination.

The tribunal held in Leeds was told Mr Moore worked as a tyre grader for Sean Pong Tyres Limited, a firm in Rotherham, South Yorks, which recycles and exports tyres.

The tribunal heard Mr Moore was one of two white workers while the owner Sean Frimpong, Desmond Owusu and another employee called Eric Barkoh were all of Ghanaian origin.

Barry Moore, who worked at Sean Pong Tyres (pictured), was awarded 22k in compensation after he told an employment panel he was 'victimised' by black colleague Desmond Owusu

Mr Moore and Mr Owusu had known each other for many years. In fact Mr Owusu had dated Mrs Moore's sister at one time and for a long time they were on good terms. They worked closely together every day and took their breaks together.

However, the tribunal heard their relationship 'went downhill fairly rapidly' towards the end of 2020 and start of 2021, when Mr Moore complained about Mr Owusu.

The company's case is that this was just banter and was reciprocated. Mr Owusu said they often swore at each other but insisted they never used any racist language.

Employment Judge Eoin Fowell said: '(Mr Moore) found it intimidating, and complained about it and tried to get Mr Frimpong to bring it to an end.

'There is no suggestion from Mr Owusu that he ever felt intimidated by Mr Moore. Indeed he accepted that he did enjoy winding Mr Moore up.'

In January 2020, Mr Moore filed a formal complaint and described Mr Owusu as shouting abuse at him, coming up into his face, taunting him, telling him he was too old and threatening to hit him.

The company, run by Sean Frimpong (pictured), told the panel the exchanged were just banter but Judge Fowell said the sort of language used 'was not banter' and there was no humour in it

He said he was called a 'gay white man', a lazy w****r, being too old to do his job, and on one occasion Mr Owusu being called him a c**t in Ghanaian.

This was in front of Mr Barkoh and Mr Frimpong, who had to translate, and then tell Mr Owusu to stop.

Judge Fowell added: 'Mr Moore's account that he was mainly on the receiving end of such language seems to us more plausible. This sort of thing is not banter. There is no element of humour in it.

'Although it is possible that two men in a robust working environment might use abusive language to each other without any bad feeling, there is a risk that it tips over into aggression. We conclude that that is what happened here.'

The pair were made to discuss their issues and shook hands at the end of a short talk about this in January 2021.

However, the tribunal heard the truce 'must have lasted only a few days', because Mr Moore soon after made a written complaint to his boss.

He wrote: 'Unfortunately I have no choice but to lodge a complaint. I have spoken to you on several occasions via phone and in person in regards to the racism slander, and discrimination of my character and a lot of abuse.

A panel at Leeds Employment Tribunal (pictured) found Mr Moore had been unfairly dismissed and discriminated against because of his age and race and awarded him compensation

'Since Desmond started at the company he has done nothing but single me out and slurring abuse at me causing a lot of stress and sleepless nights.

'I feel intimidated at times this isn't acceptable I am 55 years old and don't come to work to be abused and victimised.'

The next month, Mr Moore was signed off work by his GP for depression. after the initial two week sick note he was signed off again and in the end he decided he could not return.

In April, Mr Moore submitted his resignation, stating: 'The situation has gotten so bad causing me many days of stress, upset, and sleepless nights and loss of appetite.

'This situation has also affected my mental health and gave me no choice but to seek medical help.

'I feel for my own sanity I must move on.'

Judge Fowell concluded: 'It is clear that the abusive remarks were on a regular basis.

'In the claim form he referred to being called an old white guy.

'He may not have appreciated the effect he was having on Mr Moore but in our view it did create a hostile and intimidating working environment and amounted to bullying and harassment.

'Hence the resignation was in our view a constructive dismissal and an act of direct discrimination on grounds of age and race.'

The tribunal rejected an additional claim by Mr Moore that he had also been the victim of sex orientation discrimination as well.
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Boris Johnson today warned that Russia is still building field hospitals on the borders of Ukraine as he called on Vladimir Putin to pull back troops.

After chairing a Cobra emergency committee meeting, the PM voiced scepticism about claims that Moscow is pulling back from an invasion.

He said field hospitals 'can only be construed as preparations' for an attack, insisting the Russian president must stop giving 'mixed signals'.

Mr Johnson said the West must remain 'very tough and very united' until the situation becomes clear - as he announced that the UK embassy in Kiev will stay open, admitting it is a 'balanced' decision and a 'risk'.

The cautious stance came after the premier agreed with Joe Biden last night that there is a window of opportunity for a diplomatic resolution.

The PM could also travel to Europe soon as part of a push to stop the crisis boiling over into war.

Despite glimmers of hope that Moscow might be backing off, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - who is expected to visit Kiev on Friday - said earlier that actions rather than promises are needed.

And Mr Johnson said: 'Last night going into today, clearly there are signs of a diplomatic opening, there always has been an opportunity to talk.

'There are grounds for a conversation about Ukraine, with Ukraine, and that is good, we are seeing a Russian openness to conversations.

'On the other hand the intelligence we are seeing today is still not encouraging. We have got Russian field hospitals being constructed near the border with Ukraine in Belarus, only can be construed as a preparation for an invasion.

'You have got more battalion tactical groups actually being brought closer to the border with Ukraine, according to the intelligence that we are seeing, so mixed signals I think at the moment and all the more reason therefore for us to remain very tough and very united and particularly on the economic sanctions.'

Asked whether an invasion could still happen in the next 24 hours, Mr Johnson said: 'We think that they have a huge preparation ready to go at virtually any time, 130,000 troops or more with a huge number, more than 90 battalion tactical groups, and they are stationed around the Ukrainian border.

'Everybody can see what the potential routes in are, down to the south from Belarus, encircling the Ukrainian army in the east around the area, the enclave in Dombast, or even coming up from the south from the sea, taking Odessa, Kherson, that is the kind of thing they could do, there are a lot of options that they have.'

The PM went on: 'I think what everybody needs to see is a programme of de-escalation and that means withdrawing the battalion tactical groups away from the potential theatre of conflict, not constructing field hospitals on the border between Belarus and Ukraine, a sense that things are being scaled back, scaled down, that the threat is over and that a conversation and negotiation is beginning.'

Russia says some troops are being withdrawn from the Ukraine border and sent back to their home bases in what could be the first sign of a climbdown by Putin - or another of the strongman's deceptions ahead of an attack.

Moscow's defence ministry said units of the Southern and Western military command - which covers occupied Crimea and the Ukraine border region - are being loaded on to rail and road transports and moved away having 'completed their tasks' after training drills.

But that message stands at stark odds with briefings out of Washington overnight that Russian troops are actually being moved closer to the border - away from assembly areas and into 'attack positions' - with an order to invade likely 'by the end of the week'.

Jens Stoltenburg, NATO chief executive, said there is room for 'cautious optimism' after weeks of escalating tensions - amid signs from Russia that the diplomatic route to ending the crisis has not yet been closed off.

But he also warned that Putin still maintains a large military presence near Ukraine, has the ability to attack at short notice, and that there has been no evidence yet of a drawn-down of forces.

He remarks echo those of Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's defence minister, who said that Kiev and its Western allies have prevented any 'further escalation' of tensions but added: 'We have a rule: don't believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation.'

The cautious stance came after Boris Johnson (left) chaired a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee to discuss Vladimir Putin's (right) threats

Ukrainian serviceman walks by a cross in memory of a soldier who was killed in 2018 clashes in the Luhansk region

Russia has today claimed it is withdrawing some of its forces from Crimea and the Ukraine border region after training drills, in what could be the first sign of a climb-down by Vladimir Putin

Video released by the Russian defence ministry early Tuesday showed columns of tanks being loaded on to train transports in Crimea, as the foreign ministry slammed what it called Western 'war propaganda' over an invasion

Tanks are pictured leaving a Russian base in the Ukraine border region, which it claims is part of a withdrawal from the region - despite Washington warning that troops are actually moving closer to the border

Ukraine today hailed Western efforts aimed at preventing a war, saying they appear to be working as Russian forces withdraw (pictured) while also cautioning that the 'withdrawal' might not be what it seems

Alexei Navalny, Putin's fiercest critic and political rival, appeared in court in Russia today for a 'show trial' that could see him locked up for a decade. His supporters say the Ukraine build-up has distracted from his fate

 Slide me  Russia has begun moving vehicles from assembly areas to forward staging points in what observers fear could be one of the last moves before an invasion of Ukraine. Left is an assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, filled with tanks on January 19 and right is the same area - empty of tanks - pictured on Sunday

 Slide me  One forward staging area appears to be Soloti, just 20 miles from the Ukraine border. Satellites show a camp of Russian troops in the region on January 12 (left) and the same camp but expanded with the arrival of new troops and vehicles on February 13 (right)

 Slide me  Satellite images show a Russian assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, on January 19 (left) and the same area on February 13 (right) with some tents removed and deep wheel ruts in the snow as men and vehicles are moved closer to the border

Russia's foreign ministry sought to dismiss those warnings as 'war propaganda' today, saying Western allies who sounded the alarm over an invasion 'have been destroyed and disgraced without a single shot being fired'.

But Ukraine's defence minister Dmytro Kuleba said it was actually Ukrainian and Western efforts at avoiding a war that had forced Putin to back down, while also warning that the withdrawal might not be what it seems.

'We and our allies have managed to prevent Russia from any further escalation,' Kublea said Tuesday, but added 'we have a rule: don't believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation.'

Videos released by Russian state media in the early hours did appear to show tanks being loaded on to train cars in Bakhchysarai, Crimea, and driving out of a base near the Ukraine border in what it said was a withdrawal.

Satellite images also revealed how some camps - such as one at Yelnya - have begun emptying, but that another at Soloti - closer to the Ukraine border - appears to have expanded in recent days. Newly-arrived helicopters and fighter jets were also seen at airbases close to the border.

But in a round of interviews this morning as news of the alleged withdrawal emerged, Ms Truss told LBC: 'Certainly, our latest intelligence suggests that an invasion is imminent, that it's highly likely, and that we've seen 100,000 troops stationed around the border.

'Separately, the Russians have claimed that they have no plans for an invasion, but we will need to see a full-scale removal of troops to show that is true.'

When pressed further on the reports, Ms Truss added: 'I would need to see more details to understand if that has any major implications.'

Bob Seely, a Tory member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said reports of Russian troop withdrawals should not be seen as 'the end of the story' and Mr Putin could 'redeploy more at short notice'.

'In the next decade, Russia will continue to try to: collapse Ukraine, shatter the unity of Nato & EU, demand a sphere of influence & thru years of war propaganda, build the image of the West as the enemy, not ally, of Russia,' he said on Twitter.

'We need a long-term and coherent plan and a strategy to deal with a dangerous world.'

It came as Putin's chief critic Alexei Navalny appeared in court in Russia today for a 'show trial' on charges of embezzlement that could see him locked up for another 10 years, having survived what the West called a state-sponsored poisoning back in 2020.

Navalny was pictured embracing his wife Yuliya Navalnaya inside a courtroom at the Moscow penal colony where he is being held - the first time he has been seen in public for months.

Supporters of the Kremlin critic - known as Putin's arch rival who was barred from running against him during the last election - claim his trial is being held during the Ukraine troop build-up in an effort to distract from it.

In a sign that the US still views the threat of a Russian attack as very real, the State Department ordered the temporary closure of its embassy in Kiev on Monday along with the destruction of its computers.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the embassy was being moved further to the west as part of a 'prudent' move to ensure it would not be at risk in the event that Russia attacked.

Meanwhile Russian lawmakers were today set to consider a resolution that would officially call on Putin to recognise two areas of Ukraine's Donbass region as independent states.

Moscow-backed rebel groups based in Donetsk and Luhansk declared themselves independent of Kiev's control in 2014, following Putin's invasion of Crimea, and have been fighting against government forces ever since.

As part of the resolution, Moscow would be instructed to negotiate with leaders of the regions on security and guarantee 'protection of their peoples from external threats and the implementation of policies of genocide.'

Some observers fear this could serve as a pre-text to invasion, after the Kremlin used a similar justification following its 2014 attack. Putin has not given any indication of how he would respond to such a demand.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss continued to insist today that a Russian invasion appears to be imminent and that troops could reach Kiev 'very, very quickly'.

'This is ... about the wider stability of Europe,' she told Sky News. 'And it's about wider global stability, and the message that we give to aggressors and we have to give the message to Vladimir Putin that there can be no reward for aggression.'

Ms Truss echoed politicians in the United States who have warned that a so-called 'false flag' operation could be used by Moscow to trigger a conflict.

'It is still the case that an invasion could be imminent, and it is highly likely,' she said.

Despite glimmers of hope that Moscow might be pulling back from the brink, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the West will want to see actions rather than promises

 Slide me  Russian tanks and other vehicles are seen parked in an assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, in a satellite image taken on February 4 (left) and the same area is pictured empty of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they have been moved to staging areas closer to the Ukraine border

 Slide me  An assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, is seen filled with Russian military vehicles on February 4 (left) while the same area is pictured emptied of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they are being repositioned for an invasion

Train cars loaded with Russian artillery units are pictured at a station in Yelnya, Russia, as American officials warn they are being moved closer to Ukraine in what appears to be final preparations for an attack

Newly-arrived Russian Mil Mi-26 heavy lifting helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Machulishchy, Belarus, as American officials warn Putin could be just hours away from giving the order to attack

A newly-arrived unit of Russian attack helicopters is pictured at an airfield in Belgorod, Russia, in this satellite image taken on February 13

Russian transport and attack helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Lake Donuzlav, Crimea, on February 13 as Putin builds up his aerial forces ahead of an invasion that the US fears could come this week

Sukhoi Su-34 fighters are pictured at Primorsko-Akhtarsk airbase in Russia, having been newly deployed near the frontlines with Ukraine amid fears they will be used to assist an invasion of the country

A Russian troop garrison at Zyabrovka air base in Belarus with a field hospital set up (beige tents, bottom right) is seen in this satellite image taken on February 10

A Russian troop encampment at Novoozernoye, in occupied Crimea, is pictured on February 9 with a field hospital (cross-shaped tent, bottom right) set up nearby

France's foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, told French television that 'all elements' were in place for a strong Russian offensive, but 'nothing shows today' that Putin has decided to launch one.

Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was in Kiev on Monday - and flies to Moscow to meet Putin on Tuesday - and said that the Russian leader should not underestimate the resolve of Ukraine's allies.

'If Russia violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine again, we know what to do,' Scholz said.

'In the event of military escalation, we are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in coordination with our allies.'

He said there are 'no sensible reasons' for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders to the north, south and east, and he urged more dialogue.

In Moscow, Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, held a meeting for the cameras at which Lavrov appealed for more time for diplomacy.

The talks 'can't go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,' Lavrov said.

He noted that Washington has offered to conduct dialogue on limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Lavrov said possibilities for talks 'are far from being exhausted.'

'I would propose continuing and intensifying them,' he said.

Putin responded: 'Good.'

Lavrov then, front of the cameras, told Putin he had directed his diplomats to demand 'security guarantees' from the West, such as a legally binding pledge that Ukraine will never join the NATO alliance.

'Our initiative shook up our Western colleagues and became the reason they have no longer been able to ignore many of our previous appeals,' Lavrov told the Russian leader.

Lavrov also said that Russia had prepared a 10-page response in its written back-and-forth with NATO and the United States over the Kremlin's security demands.

The United States reacted coolly to Lavrov and Putin's show.

'The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,' said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House principal deputy press secretary.

'However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.'

U.S. officials said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders.

A U.S. defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

Satellite images taken over the last 48 hours show increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations.

Russia's defense ministry on Monday released photos of their tanks deploying in the Leningrad region

COVID-anxious Vladimir Putin again deployed an extremely long table to keep his distance as he took stock with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Monday

President Joe Biden, seen here with first lady Jill Biden, spoke with British PM Boris Johnson Monday. The U.S. is urging Russia to pursue diplomacy to avert a crisis over its possible invasion of Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) and German chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) met Monday at the Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine. Scholz visited Ukraine as part of a flurry of Western diplomacy aimed at deflecting Russian invasion

The photos also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation, according to Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup.

U.S. troops, meanwhile, flew from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to the region.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden formally approved the deployment of 3,000 US troops to Poland, Germany and Romania, to reassure U.S. allies.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the deployments included roughly 2,000 troops that would deploy from the United States to Poland and Germany.

In addition, approximately 1,000 troops currently based in Germany were moving to Romania.

Kirby said the moves were not permanent and emphasized: 'These forces are not going to fight in Ukraine.'

The Biden administration said Saturday that it was pulling 160 Florida National Guard members from Ukraine, where they have been advising the Ukrainian military since November, 'out of an abundance of caution.'

Kirby said Monday that 'we have said for a while now that military action now could happen any day.'

'It is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning,' Kirby said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

'It certainly could happen before the end of the Olympics - maybe even this week,' he said.

Biden has repeatedly stressed that U.S. troops will not be engaged in combat in Ukraine.

In an hour-long call with the Russian president on Saturday, Biden said the United States and its allies would 'respond decisively' to a Russian invasion of Ukraine. On Sunday, Biden spoke to Zelensky and stressed the United States' commitment to Ukraine.

Biden told Zelensky that the U.S. would respond aggressively to any attack, the White House said, through sanctions and other measures to level a high cost for Russia.

Zelensky asked Biden to visit Ukraine, but U.S. officials said a trip is 'highly unlikely.'

Ukrainian security and defense council chief Oleksiy Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of 'internal destabilization' by unspecified forces.

'Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th,' he told reporters after meeting lawmakers.

'We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.'

Members of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army prepare for deployment to Poland from Fort Bragg on Monday

The U.S. troops wait to board their flight in North Carolina on Monday, bound for Poland

Soldiers sleep as they wait to board their flight to Europe on Monday from North Carolina

The race to Kiev: Plans presented by Kremlin military chiefs show how 130,000 Russian forces will bid to topple Ukraine government in 'multi-axis' invasion from Belarus and Crimea

Russian troops will set off on a 'race to Kiev' to topple the Ukrainian government, according to plans presented by Kremlin military chiefs.

Tens of thousands of Putin's soldiers will push south into Ukraine to target the capital and install a pro-Russian regime, Western officials fear.

There will also be a 'multi-axis' invasion by Russian forces. Troops will enter the country from Belarus and Crimea before converging in eastern Ukraine.

Their mission will be to align themselves to prevent Ukrainian forces in the east of the country heading back to defend Kiev.

T-72B3 Main Battle Tanks of Russian Army take part in a military drill in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 14, 2022

With speed of movement being critical to Russia's strategy, lighter vehicles and weapons systems have apparently been selected for the ground offensive.

More Russian troops, possibly an extra 20,000, are being added to the invasion force which is currently 130,000-strong.

A source said: 'The build-up of soldiers and equipment is unprecedented and very alarming. This is a force built for the purpose of an invasion. It is estimated a further 14 Russian brigades are heading for the Ukrainian border.

'The logistics are also in place, the medical back-up as well as air and naval assets. We have seen the build-up of Russian vessels in the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Holidays have also been cancelled for many Russian units.

'In total you are looking at 60 per cent of Russia's overall combat power being engaged in this operation.

'The land threat has also been made more potent by the disposition of their attacking forces. Russia has basically traded mass for speed knowing they must get to Kiev as quickly as possible.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, soldiers practice at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus

'They must also rapidly get other units to eastern Ukraine to form a barrier stopping Ukrainian units pushing back west to save the capital city.'

According to sources, detailed invasion plans will be presented imminently to President Putin, who has still yet to make a final decision on the invasion.

Putin is expected to meet his defence minister Sergey Shoygu and the head of Russia's secret services Alexander Bortnikov before committing to war.

That's because the UK, the US and the EU will launch a blitzkrieg on Russia's banking system and financial services industry if Russia invades.

Kiev is lightly defended because most Ukrainian troops have been stationed in the east fighting Russian separatists since 2014.

The Ukrainian capital is only 150 miles via the E95 highway from Belarus's southern border  a journey Russian tanks could make in six hours.

A source added: 'Once they get to Kiev the Russians are reluctant to send their troops into situations where they could be fighting street by street. Such a close quarter battle would likely lead to heavy casualties, both military and civilian. The Russians don't want to get bogged down.

'They're hoping for a 'bloodless coup', to oust the democratically elected government and put their people in without much of a struggle.

'They are probably underestimating the willingness of the Ukrainians to fight for their country, they are not just going to roll over. So it could get very bloody.'

While the state-controlled media claims the crisis is Nato's fault, there is little or no appetite within Russia for conflict with their neighbour.

'Russians see Ukrainians as being like themselves, many Russians also have Ukrainian relatives. There is little opposition to a possible war because of the Kremlin's control of the media.

'This could change quickly if a lot of people are killed,' a source said. 'An actual invasion would also prove expensive for Russia financially and politically as it would suffer heavy economic sanctions and become a pariah state.'
Legal explainer: What does today's ruling mean for the government? Gabriel Tan, a public law caseworker, explains the significance of today's ruling: 'The Good Law Project and the Runnymede Trust challenged three appointments relating to two individuals (Baroness Harding and Mike Coupe) on three grounds. One was indirect discrimination on the grounds of race and disability; the other was apparent bias, colloquially known as 'jobs for your mates'; and the third was the public sector equality duty - which holds that public employers must adopt certain processes to ensure appointments are fair. 'The only ground that succeeded was the third one, and that did so only to the extent that the Runnymede Trust was found to have standing to follow up that claim in a judicial review while the Good Law Project did not. 'The public sector equality duty under the Equality Act is very much a procedural obligation to ensure that appointments are made in a way that are not discriminatory against certain minority groups. What you conclude about the significance of the ruling will be largely down to your point of view.' Advertisement

Matt Hancock broke equality rules over the way he appointed the Conservative peer Dido Harding as head of a new public health quango, the High Court ruled today.

The Runnymede Trust, an independent race equality think tank, won a High Court fight after complaining about Government appointments made during the pandemic.

Two judges ruled that Mr Hancock did not comply with a public sector equality duty during the process by which he appointed Conservative peer Baroness Dido Harding and Mike Coupe, a former colleague of Baroness Harding, to posts in 2020.

Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Swift granted a declaration to the Runnymede Trust today after considering arguments at a High Court hearing in December.

Judges concluded that Mr Hancock had not complied with 'the public sector equality duty' in relation to the decisions to appoint Baroness Harding as interim executive chairwoman of the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) in August 2020, and Mr Coupe as director of testing for NHS Test and Trace (NHSTT) in September 2020.

'The judgment handed down today by the High Court is incredibly significant to the British people,' said Dr Halima Begum, the trust's chief executive.

'It shows the importance of the public sector equality duty and its role in protecting the people of this nation from the closed shop of Government appointments, not least in a time of national crisis where people from our minority communities were dying from Covid in hugely disproportionate numbers.

'This case should never have required litigation given how self-evident it is that compliance with the law does not allow members of the executive to simply appoint their friends to senior public sector jobs without giving, at a bare minimum, due consideration to the Equality Act.'

Two judges ruled former health secretary Matt Hancock did not comply with a public sector equality duty when appointing Conservative peer Baroness Dido Harding and Mike Coupe

Baroness Harding (left) was appointed as interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) in August 2020 and Mr Coupe as director of testing for NHS Test and Trace (NHSTT) in September 2020

Campaign group the Good Law Project took legal action alongside the trust, against Mr Hancock and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

They complained about other appointments and argued that the Government had not adopted an 'open' process when making appointments to posts 'critical to the pandemic response'.

Judges dismissed the Good Law Project's claim.

They also accepted they 'were urgent recruitment processes which needed to find highly specialised, experienced and available candidates within a short space of time'.

Lawyers representing the two organisations suggested that people 'outside the tight circle' in which senior Conservative politicians and their friends moved were not being given opportunities.

Ministers disputed the claims against them.

Jo Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, said: 'Change doesn't happen, things don't get better for those who are disadvantaged, unless those in power care.

'That means making sure they ask themselves, 'how do I level society up for the disabled and ethnic minorities?'

'And it means taking the time to find the best people - not the best-connected people - for the job.'

Mr Hancock with his new partner Gina Coladangelo speaking to Steven Bartlett's The Diary Of A CEO podcast

A spokesman for Matt Hancock said: 'We're delighted the department has won yet another court case against the Good Law Project. Claims of ''apparent bias'' and ''indirect discrimination'' have been quashed and thrown out by the High Court.

'What the judgment does make clear is that 'the claim brought by Good Law Project fails in its entirety', therefore highlighting the fact this group continues to waste the court's time.

'The court judgment also states that 'the evidence provides no support ... at all' for the allegation that Dido Harding secured senior positions on the basis of 'personal or political connections' in the Government.

'They accept these 'were urgent recruitment processes which needed to find highly specialised, experienced and available candidates within a short space of time'.

'Let's not forget, we were dealing with an unprecedented global pandemic, where time was of the essence in order to protect and save lives.'
This is the dramatic moment when a top barrister was ordered off a British Airways flight by armed police - after a row broke out when the airline downgraded his family's nanny from business class to economy.

In the video, two police officers stand beside Charles Banner, QC, 41, as they demand that he leave BA flight 2578 which was bound for Turin.

Matters became heated after Mr Banner was informed that their nanny had only been allocated a seat in economy when he arrived at the boarding gate.

Mr Banner paid for business class tickets, but his nanny had been downgraded because BA oversold the flight.

He insisted that the nanny be allowed to join him and Tetyana in business class because they wanted to work during the two-hour flight and a furious row broke out.

Armed police boarded a BA flight to confront a barrister and his wife after their nanny was downgraded from business class to economy class after the airline oversold the flight

The barrister argued that he had paid for the family's nanny to sit in business class and that's where she should sit. The dispute broke out with cabin crew and police were called on-board

Mr Banner (left) says that after being forced off the flight he had to book a hotel room for his young children because it was getting late and catch another flight, which cost him 4,000. He and his wife (left) eventually flew to Italy with Easyjet after boarding a flight at Gatwick

In the video, an officer tells Mr Banner: 'Can we speak outside,' and then repeats: 'Can we speak outside.'

He then warns the high-flying barrister: 'The aircraft's not going anywhere until we've finished over conversation.'

The policeman's colleague adds: 'We've got a lot to discussThe quicker we get this done.'

As was first reported by Roll on Friday, Mr Banner was on the flight on February 3 from Heathrow Airport with his wife Tetyana Nesterchuk, their two children, aged one and four, and their nanny.

Tetyana, who is of Ukrainian origin is also a leading barrister, specialising in commercial and public law but enjoys pole dancing in her spare time, posting pictures of herself performing on social media.

Mr Banner is not visible in the video, as one of the policemen is crouching over him and much of what he says is not audible due to background noise on the plane.

But as he pleads with officers, he can be heard saying that he would prefer to 'discuss this here,' prompting one of the officers to insist: 'No you don't.'

His colleague then swings his fist, thumb sticking out, indicating the plane's front exit and reiterates: 'Can we go outside please.'

Mr Banner (pictured) paid for business class tickets, but his nanny had been downgraded because BA oversold the flight. He and his wife wanted to work so needed the nanny with them

As the other police officer appears to explain the situation, which is not clearly audible he can be heard saying: 'Put it this way, we can discuss it very, very nicely.'

Mr Banner's response is also not clearly audible either, but he can be heard pleading: 'This is unfair.'

As the conversation continues, one of the policemen tells him: 'Your familyyou're not going.'

Soon after, Mr Banner and his family, accompanied by their nanny left the plane.

During the interaction between Mr Banner and the officers, a young girl, believed to be his daughter is initially sitting next to him.

But as the heated conversation continues, she moves to the row in front where she is comforted by a woman in a red jumper, believed to be Tetyana, who can be heard saying: 'Don't worry.'

The debate over the nanny started upon boarding but continued as the plane started moving from the stand, prompting the pilot to turn it around and insist that he would not fly until Mr Banner and his family had been removed. The flight was delayed by 90 minutes.

Last week, Mr Banner told MailOnline that the presence of police as he left the plane was simply standard protocol and did not indicate that he had committed any crime.

He said: 'In accordance with standard protocol in a situation where passengers leave a plane and return landside, the police escorted our family back through immigration. They made clear that this was just standard protocol and that no offence had been alleged or committed.'

Recalling the incident, Mr Banner said: 'If BA had told me that the nanny could not sit with us in business then we would not have travelled and could have got a later flight. But they only told us that when we got to the boarding gate.

'I behaved perfectly but I was challenging the cabin crew because it was the right thing to do.

'The pettiness and vindictiveness of the staff caused this. I was being very polite about the whole thing.'

He added: 'It was a very upsetting event for all of the family and the way we were treated was appalling and in contrast to over 15 years of pleasant experiences on BA flights as a regular customer.'

Mr Banner claimed that even though there was a spare seat close to him in business class, cabin crew staff insisted that nanny could still not sit in it and help look after his children, prompting him to inform them that he had made an official complaint about their conduct while still on the plane.'

He revealed: 'This was unsurprisingly very upsetting and frustrating for us all, as it would have been for any family in this position.

'We kept asking for an explanation and the cabin crew kept telling us again and again in response that we would be compensated, repeatedly gaslighting us by ignoring our request for an explanation as to why the spare seat could not be used.'

He added: 'I indicated to the cabin crew that I had made a complaint about their behaviour to BA.

'Rather than apologise, the cabin crew then asked the pilot not to fly either the two kids aged 4 and 1, their mother, the nanny or myself, which was a gross over-reaction to our understandable upset at how we had been treated  most likely to provide the cabin crew with cover against the complaint that I indicated I had made about their behaviour.'

In the video (pictured above), an officer could be heard telling Mr Banner: 'Can we speak outside,' and then repeats: 'Can we speak outside.' He then warned the high-flying barrister: 'The aircraft's not going anywhere until we've finished over conversation.'

After leaving the plane, Mr Banner says that he was forced to book into a hotel close to Heathrow because of his young children, as it was getting late.

'The family then took a taxi to Gatwick Airport the following day and booked new flights to Turin with Easy Jet.

He estimates that whole incident has cost him almost 4,000 and is demanding financial compensation from BA as well as a full apology.

The initial cost of the BA business class flights to Turin was 1,250.

A spokesman for BA said: 'We do not tolerate disruptive behaviour and the safety of our customers and crew is our top priority.'

Mr Banner specialises in planning, commercial and public procurement and is considered one of the finest legal brains in these areas.

He was appointed a QC in 2019 at the age of 38, the youngest from that year's batch and is rated as one of Britain's top four planning QCs.
London Eye was today halted and four bridges across the River Thames closed as police investigated a suspicious package.

London's South Bank, an area which will be thronged with tourists on their half-term holidays, was also evacuated.

Westminster Bridge; Waterloo Bridge; Hungerford and Golden Jubilee footbridges were closed because of the package.

The roads have since reopened after the Metropolitan Police deemed the package to be non-suspicious. The London Eye reopened at 12.15pm.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'A number of bridges in central London have been closed as a precaution while officers assess an unattended item in the vicinity of South Bank. Please use alternative routes'.

London's South Bank, an area which will be thronged with tourists on their half-term holidays, was also evacuated

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'A number of bridges in central London have been closed as a precaution while officers assess an unattended item in the vicinity of South Bank. Please use alternative routes'

An update added: 'The unattended item has been assessed and was found not to be suspicious. Road closures will be lifted imminently. We thank the public for their cooperation.'

A London Eye Twitter statement read: 'We have temporarily paused boarding due to an ongoing police investigation nearby.

'Although the incident is not related to the London Eye we have paused operation as a safety precaution.'

The closed bridges were:

Westminster Bridge;

Waterloo Bridge;

Hungerford and Golden Jubilee footbridges.

The London Eye revealed it had 'temporarily paused boarding' because of the Police investigation in central London today

The roads have since reopened after the Metropolitan Police deemed the package to be non-suspicious

More to follow.
Fury has risen over a 'woke' call to cancel traditional terms like 'Sir' and 'Miss' in schools in favour of using gender-neutral terms such as 'teacher' instead.

In a session funded by the National Education Union (NEU), Dr Elly Barnes told teachers they ought to be moving towards a gender-free model in education.

Dr Barnes, chief executive of the Educate and Celebrate charity which spreads positive messaging about LGBT acceptance in schools, recommended dropping words such as boy, girl, son and mother and replacing them with gender-neutral phrases, The Telegraph reports.

But the charity's 'woke' guidance has been met with anger with social media users claiming 'the world is going mad'.

One tweeted: 'Dropping genders in school? Whatever next. Go see the headmaster. No go see the head him/they/them.'

Sheilagh O'Gorman added: 'No union should be spending members money on financing such wokery. If I were a member I would protest. And stop paying my subscription.'

Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, also said today: 'Teaching unions should confine themselves to fighting for better pay and conditions and stop promoting woke gobbledegook.

'Asking their members to tell children not to call them "Sir" or "Miss" is inappropriate and will make teachers lives harder, not easier.'

A tweet from the campaign group added: 'We can't get through a single week without somebody trying to police what language we can use'.

The new recommendations were also discussed in a segment on ITV's This Morning today.

LBC's Tom Swarbrick said the current 'Miss' and 'Sir' terms used in school should remain in place 'unless there's a good reason'.

He added: 'I'm going to be a bit old school about this, I quite like it. I think it's what has happened to date always and forever.

'Unless there's a good reason the teacher doesn't want to be known as Sir or Miss, but a blanket policy that says, no we're going to have gender neutral teachers. I just think, what age are we going to institute this?

Social media users have reacted with fury over the charity's recommendations, stating that the 'world has gone mad'

Dr Elly Barnes, chief executive of the charity Educate and Celebrate, hosted the training session for teachers funded by the National Education Union

'Is this going to happen to my four-year-old in her first year of school? It feels like it needs some explaining. Maybe at four or six years old, it's not the age to start to try to explain the difference between biological sex and gender.'

The show's presenter Dermot O'Leary added: 'The pressure is going to be on the kids to try to get their heads round this at an age when they should just be being children and not worry about it.'

And Vanessa Feltz said: 'I went to an old fashioned, bit posh, kind of school where you had to call the teacher by their name. It's the more polite thing to do - call the teacher by their name, Mr Smith, Miss Jones, it's the courteous thing to do. Just call them by their name, end of.

In the webinar, Getting the language right for 2022, Dr Barnes insisted that the gender-free model was a success in many of the schools her charity worked with.

In clips of the training, Dr Barnes was seen suggesting that male and female categories be removed from school application forms and that school uniforms could be gender-free.

One attendee questioned whether the phraseology would affect terms such as Sir or Miss, which pupils often to use to get the attention of their teachers.

A female teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, branded the session as propaganda for trans activists and told The Telegraph she thought it was against the Department for Education (DfE) guidelines.

She said: Teachers will take what this woman says as fact because the training was organised by the NEU and theyre not going to question their union.

Theyre trying to erase us by taking away our language, saying we should avoid words like mother and were paying for it essentially.

The NEU was criticised for using its members fees to fund the session by The Safe Schools Alliance, a group campaigning against gender ideology being taught as fact and not belief.

Vanessa Feltz (left) and LBC's Tom Swarbrick discussed the charity's guidance on ITV's This Morning today

This Morning presenter Dermot O'Leary said the kids 'should just be being children and not have worry about it'

The training session recommended that school pupils should refer to their tutors as teacher instead of gendered titles such as Mr and Mrs

Educate and Celebrate's website states that teachers and pupils respond well to its training, with 94 per cent of secondary students saying they 'felt more confident in expressing their views and be themselves' in a survey.

It comes after a Reverend Dr Bernard Randall, an ex-Cambridge college chaplain, recalled being deeply troubled by what he felt was revolutionary Marxist flavour of the language during session run by Dr Barnes at Trent College in 2019.

He said teachers were were asked to chant 'smash heteronormativity', adding: The chanting was frankly bizarre and I felt uncomfortable. It was all very cleverly put together though  her rhetorical skills were impressive.

She started off slowly with general things about anti bullying and diversity, which no one could object to. But then the focus moved to gender identity and an introduction to the language of trans.

And there seemed to be an emphasis on instruction rather than suggestion.

He also found it embarrassing that Dr Barnes was giving teachers stickers bearing her groups rainbow logo when they answered questions correctly.

The Educate and Celebrate charity has received funding from the DfE in the past and charges as much as 400 for a webinar with unions, as well as its award programme which costs 1,800.

Its website states: 'We provide LGBT+ inclusion training to ensure that you meet all of your Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) objectives for staff, support staff, leadership teams, governors, trainee teachers, student workshops, youth networks, CPD days and an Award Programme.'

The charity lists Durham County Council as a partner and has positive testimonials from a number of headteachers.

Educate and Celebrate and the NEU have both been approached for comment.
The judge presiding over the defamation trial between businessman Clive Palmer and WA Premier Mark McGowan says he's 'irritated' over the politician's conduct in the case.

Mr Palmer is suing Mr McGowan claiming public comments, including labelling him the 'enemy of West Australia', made in July 2020 had damaged the Queensland businessman's reputation.

The legal stoush over defamation claims got underway in the Federal Court on Monday.

The judge presiding over the trial has shared his irritation at McGowan's (pictured) failure to make any concessions

The premier has lodged a counter-claim, accusing the billionaire of defaming him in several interviews.

Lawyers have argued over the meaning implied by each of the statements in question after playing footage from media conferences Mr McGowan held in July and August 2020 and interviews Mr Palmer gave around the same time.

Justice Michael Lee was set to rule on the meanings at the end of proceedings on Tuesday, but delayed handing down his decision as Mr McGowan's lawyer Clarissa Amato had been unable to get instructions from her client on the draft order.

Mr Palmer (pictured) is suing Mr McGowan claiming public comments, including labelling him the 'enemy of West Australia', made in July 2020 had damaged the Queensland businessman's reputation

Justice Lee confirmed the ruling had been suggested by Mr McGowan's legal team and was something he had raised months ago.

'The respondent's conduct in this litigation in seeming incapable of making any concession whatsoever about anything is something I'm finding increasingly irritating,' Justice Lee said.

Mr Palmer will take the stand on Wednesday.

During earlier argument, Peter Gray SC told the court Mr McGowan used 'Churchillian language' when the premier said: 'Whatever the outcome of the Federal Court I want every West Australian to understand that whether the commonwealth government supports us or not Western Australia will keep fighting.'

Mr Palmer's (pictured) lawyers have accused Mr McGowan of regarding the contest between the two as 'not just a fight, not just a stoush, not just a battle but a "war"'

Mr Gray said Mr McGowan regarded the contest with Mr Palmer as at the level of a war, which he distinguished 'from a mere battle' by saying: 'It's not just a fight, it's not just a stoush, it's not just a battle; it's a war'.

One of Mr Palmer's complaints relates to Mr McGowan saying the businessman 'wanted to come to Western Australia to promote (anti-malarial drug) hydroxychloroquine to the people of the state as some sort of cure for COVID'.

The premier said he was pleased police rejected Mr Palmer's application to enter WA because Mr Palmer 'coming to Western Australia to promote a dangerous drug I don't think was a good thing for our state'.

Mr Palmer's lawyers have argued Mr McGowan's statements imply the businessman is seeking to harm the people of WA by providing them with a drug he knows is dangerous.

The court battle between the billionaire businessman and the 54 year-old WA Premier (pictured with his wife, Sarah) got underway in the Federal Court on Monday

But Ms Amato said the comment referred to the drug being dangerous for the treatment of COVID-19, not dangerous generally.

'And that's a very different distinction,' she added.

The complaints by Mr McGowan about statements Mr Palmer made relate to circumstances surrounding WA legislation which prevented Mr Palmer and Mineralogy from suing the state for billions of dollars over the Balmoral South iron ore project.

Ms Amato argued Mr Palmer had conveyed that the premier used his position to pass legislation to cover up criminal acts.

Mr Gray said Mr Palmer was referring to the law relating to the project having been drafted in secrecy for months before being passed.

But Ms Amato argued it was an allegation of corruption in the starkest terms.

She also argued Mr Palmer implied Mr McGowan was open to accepting multi-million dollar bribes during a media interview about the Australia-China relationship in September 2020.

Mr Palmer said Mr McGowan was 'very close to China' and the businessman had heard stories about 'a lot of heads of state' being offered a passbook with the Bank of China with $50 or $60 million in it.

Mr Gray argued Mr Palmer was talking about how the Chinese operate and the ordinary, reasonable person wouldn't think 'heads of state' referred to a premier.
The BBC is right not to apologise over a joke about Ukraine made by chat show host Graham Norton, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said today.

The corporation received a flurry of complaints from viewers this month after the Irish comic quipped that Ukraine could soon be 'southwest Russia'.

He made the comment during an opening segment of his star-studded weekly chat show, as Russia posted thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border.

However the BBC declined calls to apologise over the joke, instead insisting 'no subject is off limits'.

And today Ms Truss backed the BBC's decision. Speaking to LBC, the Foreign Secretary, who recently visited Moscow amid rising tensions with Russia, said: 'I'm a believer in free speech.

'I don't necessarily believe that every joke on the BBC is in good taste but I certainly don't support a censorship state that stops comedians making jokes.'

The BBC is right not to apologise over a joke about Ukraine made by chat show host Graham Norton, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said today

Graham Norton quipped that Ukraine could soon be 'southwest Russia' during a segment of his show which aired on February 4

Radio presenter Tom Swarbrick then asked: 'So, you don't particularly find it funny but you think the BBC are right not to apologise on free speech grounds?', to which Ms Truss replied 'Yes'.

Her comments come after the corporation received a flurry complaints from viewers this month after the Irish comic's quipp.

Norton cracked the joke during the opening segment of his show which aired on February 4, in which he typically pokes fun at current events.

While talking about Boris Johnson's trip to Kyiv, Norton said: 'This week, he flew off to Ukraine  or if you're watching on catch-up TV, he flew off to southwest Russia.'

A number of viewers criticised the jibe as insensitive towards Ukrainians who are under threat from a potential Russian invasion.

In a statement, the BBC rejected calls to apologise. A spokesman said: 'We appreciate the seriousness of the current situation there and can assure you there was no intention to cause any offence with these remarks.

'Comedy is one of the most subjective areas of programming and while no subject is off limits we appreciate that some jokes may resonate differently for those with personal experience of a particular situation.'

It follows a furore earlier this month over comedian Jimmy Carr's Neflix show His Dark Materials, in which the comedian joked about gypsies killed during the Holocaust.

It follows a furore earlier this month over comedian Jimmy Carr's Neflix show His Dark Materials, in which the comedian joked about gypsies killed during the Holocaust

In a widely-shared clip from the show, Carr joked about the horror of the Holocaust and 'six million Jewish lives being lost'.

As a punchline, the 49-year-old then made a disparaging remark about the deaths of thousands of gypsies at the hands of the Nazis.

'But they never mention the thousands of gypsies that were killed by the Nazis. No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives,' Carr quipped to a laughing audience.

The joke was later widely condemned by politicians and celebrities, including Jewish comedian David Baddiel and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Paddy Doherty.
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Leaders of the Freedom Convoy protests in Canada have alleged that 'nefarious elements' are plotting to plant stolen guns on demonstrators in Ottawa in a bid to 'discredit' their movement, a day after Mounties seized 15 guns and arrested 11 people thousands of miles away in Alberta.

Danny Bulford, the self-described head of security for the Freedom Convoy, made the allegation in a video address late Monday night, suggesting the plot is connected to a truck full of firearms that was stolen in Ontario on Sunday.

'We received information from multiple believed-reliable sources that firearms may be planted in Ottawa, specifically around the Freedom Convoy, to discredit the protest and to use as a pretext to forcibly remove peaceful protesters,' said Bulford, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.

'This private intelligence correlates with the approximately 2,000 firearms stolen in Peterborough, Ontario on Sunday morning,' he continued. 'Our sources have notified us that these weapons may be planted by nefarious elements, and at this point, we have no further knowledge about who is behind this act of sabotage.'

The small-caliber guns stolen on Sunday in Ontario were taken from a parked tractor belonging to gun maker Savage Arms, but police say that it was a crime of opportunity and unrelated to the protests.

Bulford did not allege that a separate cache of weapons, body armor and a machete seized on Monday from a border blockade in Alberta were planted, and protest leaders have so far declined to publicly address the Alberta arrests.

A senior official with the Mounties told DailyMail.com that there is no information linking the stolen gun shipment in Ontario with the firearms seized in Alberta.

It comes after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau activated rarely used emergency powers in an effort to crack down on the protests against vaccine mandates, which continue to paralyze the capital city of Ottawa and block several western border crossings.

Danny Bulford, the self-described head of security for the Freedom Convoy, alleged that 'nefarious elements' are plotting to plant stolen guns on demonstrators in Ottawa in a bid to 'discredit' their movement

Early on Sunday, thieves (left and right) stole a parked tractor trailer carrying some 2,000 small-caliber guns manufactured by Savage Arms, but police say that it was a crime of opportunity

Early on Sunday, thieves stole a parked tractor trailer carrying some 2,000 small-caliber guns manufactured by Savage Arms, but police say that it was a crime of opportunity carried out by crooks who first tried to gain access to several other trucks.

The brazen gun shipment heist occurred at about 3am at a trucking company on Parkhill Road East in Peterborough, a city of 81,000 about 85 miles northeast of Toronto.

'The investigation is leaning toward an isolated crime of opportunity, rather than a targeted incident,' said Peterborough Police Service Detective Staff Sergeant Michael Jackson in a briefing.

'It is believed that the suspects entered several other commercial yards in the city before this one, and they had attempted to take different trucks and trailers before leaving with the truck and trailer unit sought in this incident,' he added.

Police say that the thieves arrived at the scene in a four-door blue sedan, which then left together with the stolen truck.

Bulford, who resigned from the Mounties last year over their vaccine mandate, did not say in his statement did not say what evidence he had to support the theory that the stolen guns would be planted on demonstrators in Ottawa.

People walk past vehicles blocking a road during a protest by truck drivers over pandemic health rules and the Trudeau government, outside the parliament of Canada in Ottawa on Monday

Bulford alleged the stolen arms shipment in Peterborough could be connected to a plot to frame protesters in Ottawa

'As soon as we received this information, we notified the appropriate authorities with whom we are collaborating, including the Ottawa Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Parliamentary Protective Service,' said Bulford.

Bulford insisted that the Freedom Convoy protests were committed to pursuing change within the 'democratic process,' saying: 'We have never, nor do we every intend, to step outside of this democratic process.'

The gun shipment stolen in Peterborough appears to have absolutely no connection with the guns seized on Monday in Alberta, though that did not stop online conspiracy theorists from attempting to connect the two events.

Photos of the guns seized in Alberta do not match the description of the guns stolen in Peterborough, which is 2,000 miles and a 35-hour drive away.

A senior official with the Mounties told DailyMail.com in an interview that there was no reason to believe that the guns stolen in Ontario were linked to the cache seized in Alberta.

'The distance from Ontario to here would be prohibitive, so that is highly unlikely,' said RCMP Superintendent Roberta McKale. 'There's no reason to link the two.'

'We still have the matter of the firearms under investigation, and at this point there is no information to link the stolen firearms in Ontario to our situation in Alberta,' she added.

Eleven people connected to the anti-vaccine mandate protests were arrested in the Alberta village of Coutts, close to the Montana border, the Royal Canadian Mountain Police said on Monday.

Mounties also seized a cache of firearms including multiple long guns, hundreds of bullets and body armor. Cops have not identified the owners, and it is unclear if the weapons seized were legally held.

In Alberta, Mounties seized this cache of weapons on Monday morning. There is no suggestion that the seized weapons in Alberta are connected with the stolen arms shipment 2,000 miles away in Peterborough

'The Alberta RCMP recently became aware of a small organized group within the larger Coutts protest,' the Mounties said in a statement.

'Information was received that this group had access to a cache of firearms with a large quantity of ammunition.

'The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade. This resulted in an immediate and complex investigation to determine the extent of the threat and criminal organization.'

Early on Monday morning, the RCMP, equipped with a search warrant, raided three trailers and arrested the 11.

The police found 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armor and a machete. They said they seized a large quantity of ammunition and high capacity magazines.

Unlike the United States, where firearms are primarily regulated by the state, in Canada, firearms are federally regulated.

Some weapons, including automatic weapons, sawed-off shotguns and rifles, and switch blade knives, are 'prohibited weapons.'

Other firearms, such as handguns and semi-automatic weapons with short barrels (less than 18 1/2 inches), are 'restricted weapons.'

Anyone may possess a restricted firearm if they have obtained a 'registration certificate.'

Hunting rifles and shotguns are neither restricted nor prohibited, but it is illegal to possess them without a firearms acquisitions certificate.

On Monday, Trudeau invoked emergency powers to quell the paralyzing protests, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods

Messages and placards of support during a protest by truck drivers over pandemic health rules and the Trudeau government, outside the parliament of Canada in Ottawa on Monday

Drivers have parked their trucks blocking lanes of traffic to protest against pandemic restrictions in Ottawa on Monday

So far, Freedom Convoy leaders have not addressed the arrests in Alberta, and cut a press conference short on Monday when they were asked about the incident.

On Monday afternoon, Trudeau invoked emergency powers to quell the paralyzing protests by truckers, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods.

'These blockades are illegal, and if you are still participating, the time to go home is now,' he declared.

In invoking Canada's Emergencies Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order, Trudeau ruled out using the military.

His government instead threatened to tow away vehicles to keep essential services running; freeze truckers' personal and corporate bank accounts; and suspend the insurance on their rigs.

'Consider yourselves warned,' Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said. 'Send your rigs home.'

Freeland, who is also the finance minister, said the government will also broaden its anti-money-laundering regulations to target crowd-funding sites that are being used to support the illegal blockades.

Trudeau did not indicate when the new crackdowns would begin. But he gave assurances the emergency measures 'will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.'
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Villagers were woken by a 300ft wind turbine crashing down on a Welsh mountainside - after it was blown over during storms which brought 50pmh winds.

The 20million turbine - double the height of Nelson's Column - snapped apart and blades crumpled in raging wind.

Families in the nearby village of Gilfach Goch, near Bridgend, South Wales, told how it sounded like 'thunder and lightning'.

It woke them at around 6.50am on Monday morning and echoed around the valley below.

The 29-turbine Pant Y Wal wind farm opened in 2013 and makes enough power for 19,000 homes - until one was wrecked in the storm at the weekend.

Villagers are questioning how the turbine could have fallen apart during winds of around 50mph and demand officials check the status of neighbouring turbines.

Nordex - the company that manufactured the turbine - said an investigation is now underway to determine the cause of the collapse.

A renewable energy industry expert, who wanted to remain anonymous, told MailOnline that a collapsing turbine is a 'real rarity', adding there 'are more than 10,000 of them up and down the country'. He suggested the materials might have been faulty, but insisted it was 'very unlikely to be the local wind speed' that brought it down.

The 300ft turbine crashed into the ground on a Welsh mountainside after strong winds overnight on Monday (pictured)

Families in the nearby village of Gilfach Goch, near Bridgend, South Wales, told how it sounded like 'thunder and lightning'

The fallen turbine was one of 11 at Fforch Nest wind farm which opened in 2013 and makes enough power for 19,000 homes

Neighbour Lydia Stephens wrote: 'A wind turbine fell over in the wind farm on my village this morning and I thought it was thunder and lighting but how the hell does a wind turbine fall over?

'Apparently it was creaking and banging all night before it collapsed and one woman thought it was her neighbours tumble dryer.'

Fellow villagers Ricky Williams described it as 'a bang like thunder early hours.'

Other villagers said they were worried over the safety of the turbines following the collapse.

Sharon Westgate said: 'We need to start saying no to these surely? We don't get any thing from them! Thank God nobody was hurt!'

Labour Councillor Aurfron Roberts called on wind farm owners to carry out further checks on turbines.

She said: 'We have had some extreme weather here lately - some very strong winds and gales.

'It's a surprise because they are well maintained - there are always maintenance vehicles up there checking the turbines all through the night.

The incident has sparked calls for the remaining 10 (some pictured) to be inspected to make sure they are not at risk of falling

Councillor Aurfron Roberts called on wind farm owners to carry out further checks on turbines which surround the area

'The whole village is surrounded by turbines, we have so many projects going on in the hills around her. I'm just glad they are up on the hillside and away from people in case something like this happens.

'I hope this means owners will be extra vigilant and take care. It's probably just a really unfortunate accident but it's lucky no one was hurt.

'I'm not surprised the sound woke people. The village is surrounded by hills so the sound revs around and you would hear it crashing.'

Owners Pennant Walters said any questions relating to the wind turbine collapse should be directed to manufactures Nordex - who make and deliver turbines around the world.

A spokesman for Nordex told MailOnline: 'Unfortunately an incident occurred at the Pant Y Wal wind farm in Wales. On Monday February 14, 2022, a N90/2500 turbine collapsed. No persons were injured.

'The only material damage that has occurred as a result of the incident is to the turbine itself.

'All necessary safety measures have been implemented immediately after the incident.

'A team of local Nordex specialists with experts from Nordex main office are currently investigating the root cause of the incident together with the wind farm owner.

'As yet, no reliable statement can be made as to the underlying cause of the collapse.

'The Pant Y Wal wind farm is composed of 29 N90/2500 turbines, 21 of those have been in operation since end of 2013, including the collapsed turbine.'

A spokesman for Rhondda Cynon Taff Council: 'The Council is in contact with Penant Walters Ltd and the neighbouring local authority Bridgend CBC, where the majority of turbines constructed as part of this wind farm, including the one collapsed, are located on high ground.

'The Council is keen to ascertain what may have caused this failure and is seeking assurance, that all reasonable steps have been taken by the land owner, to secure access to this remote location, to reduce any potential risks to the public, utilising footpaths upon this remote hill-top location.'
A serving Metropolitan Police officer accused of taking a 15-year-old girls phone number and asking to meet her after school has insisted he just wanted to give her career advice.

PC Adnan Arib, 45, allegedly quizzed the teenager about her personal life and suggested they go for a drink during 2019.

The officer, who worked at Bethnal Green Police station, also told a 16-year-old runaway she was pretty and asked if she wanted to go out with him, Southwark Crown Court has heard.

Arib, of Barking, east London, denies two counts of misconduct in public office between March 31 and July 4, 2019.

Giving evidence he said he got the 15-year-old girls number when he was called to her house because of a family dispute.

He said he met the girl one afternoon in April 2019 after she had finished school and tried to convince her to join the police cadets.

My intention was to get our Borough Commander, who is a female, to convince her, he said.

It is a good thing for young people to attend before they leave school so they can get a certification.

PC Adnan Arib (pictured outside court), 45, denied two charges of misconduct in a public office at Southwark Crown Court, over his alleged behaviour towards the two teenagers he met while on duty

Arib said he had previously worked in the Job Centre and could provide good career advice

Jacqueline Carey, prosecuting, asked: You accept you didnt tell her mum,Why didnt you tell her you were meeting her daughter after school?

Arib replied: There was nothing formally arranged, I didnt think of that at the time.

He said he had previously worked in the Job Centre and could provide good career advice to young people.

The officer also claimed it would further his career if he was seen to be helping young people.

That would be a good example of me forwarding peoples progress, helping them out.

He said he never told his superiors in the police that he was helping this girl because he didnt think of it.

During his meeting with the girl he was dressed in plain clothes despite the record in his notebook showing him as on duty.

There was no mention in the park was there about giving her career advice or helping her become a cadet, said Ms Carey.

Arib is also accused of telling a second girl, 16, she was 'very pretty' and inviting her out while in Bethnal Green police station (pictured), east London, where he was based

Arib said: She wasnt listening to me, she was talking over me.

Ms Carey asked: Do you think she didnt hear you?

Arib said: I said come to the police station, its a two-minute walk from here. But it was clear that she wasnt listening and wasnt engaging.

Ms Carey asked: Why would you think this 15-year-old girl, who you say had told you that she doesnt like the feds, would be interested in going to the police station about joining the cadets?

I wasnt in uniform, Arib replied. It would be a good idea to go to the station, have a quick chat, show her the picture board. If the Borough Commander is available, have a quick chat with her.

Ms Carey: Do you agree that she was a vulnerable young woman? And there was concerns about her being sexually exploited?

Arib: Possibly.

Ms Carey: Did you not think that because she was vulnerable it would not be the best idea to meet her in the park without telling anyone?

Arib: She suggested the park, I didnt.

Arib had originally denied owning the phone that was used to text the girl.

He then admitted it was his two years later after colleagues found records of him topping up the credit and his handprint on the phone case, the court heard.

Arib said he was not thinking straight at the time and answered no comment to questions about the phone on the advice of his solicitor.

Why didnt you correct it? Ms Carey asked.

I was stressed and depressed, he replied.

Ms Carey: You know full well you shouldnt have been contacting her on that phone dont you?

Arib: What happened on that day made me realise it wasnt the right approach. I thought I was helping someone, helping someones life, but it wasnt the case.

She got the wrong end of the stick and got it all wrong.

The trial continues.
Police hunting for missing Leah Croucher have released new images to mark the third anniversary of her disappearance - as her family today revealed the 'torture' of still having 'no answers' on her whereabouts.

One image from Furzton Lake, near to Leah's home in Milton Keynes, shows the figure of a person dressed in black, who may or may not have been Leah, on the day she was reported missing.

Another shows a number of members of the public, who detectives would like to speak to, as they believe they might be able to help the investigation.

Leah, who was 19 years old at the time of her disappearance, was reported missing from Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, by her family on February 15, 2019. They last saw her at 10pm the day before, February 14 - Valentine's Day.

She was last seen on CCTV down Buzzacott Lane in Furzton, while on her way to work on the morning of February 15, before she 'effectively vanished into thin air'. The last activity on her phone was just after 8.30am that day.

Despite a wide-scale investigation in which police visited 4,000 properties and reviewed 1,200 hours of CCTV, no trace of her has been found and no one has been arrested in connection with the case.

Today Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Howard, from Thames Valley Police, said he hoped the new images would prompt more people to come forward with 'potentially vital' information.

It comes as Leah's family today issued an emotional statement to mark the third anniversary of her disappearance.

In a written statement, issued through Thames Valley Police, Leah's family said each day 'feels like an eternity of pain and despair', but said they remained hopeful she would one day be found.

'It is harder each day to tell ourselves that today will be the day that we get answers, today we find out what happened three years ago,' her parents John and Claire Croucher said in the statement.

Police have today marked the third anniversary of the disappearance of Leah Croucher (pictured) by releasing new images that may help to find out what has happened to her

One image from Furzton Lake, shows a figure of a person dressed in black, who may or may not have been Leah, on the day she disappeared

Police released these images of a bag and mobile phone, similar to the ones owned by Leah Croucher and which she is believed to have had with her prior to her disappearance

Another shows a number of members of the public (pictured), who detectives would like to speak to, as they might be able to help the investigation

Timeline of missing Leah Croucher's disappearance February 14, 2019 8am: Leah, 19, sets off for work as normal to her admin job with finance company in Milton Keynes. 5.45pm: Leah walks home from work. The location settings on her Samsung phone were switched off in the Furzton Lake area. 6pm: Leah arrives home from work. She changes into tracksuit bottoms and a long-sleeved top. She tells her mum she is going to visit a friend. 7.15pm: Leah arrives home again. Her behaviour that night was totally normal, say her parents. February 15 8am: Leah gets up and leaves for work. She sets off on her normal route, wearing a black coat, skinny black jeans, black Converse high top shoes and carrying a small black rucksack. Underneath her coat she wears a distinctive grey hoodie. 8.13am: CCTV footage shows her walking along Buzzacott Lane in Furzton. That was the last confirmed sighting of Leah. 8.34am: Leah's mobile phone is switched off. 9am: Leah fails to arrive at work. 9.30am - 11.15am: Three different witnesses report seeing a girl matching Leah's description walking by Furzton Lake. She was looking 'visibly upset' and crying while talking on the phone. Police have never been able to say definitely that this was Leah. 6pm: Leah fails to return home. She is reported missing. February 17 Police issue a press release saying Leah is missing. February 19 Police release the CCTV footage of Leah. They are becoming 'increasingly concerned' for her welfare. Her phone is switched off and cannot be traced and her bank account has not been touched. In the following weeks divers scour Furzton Lake and fingertip searches are carried out. Leah's family and friends put posters up appealing for information. September 25 BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow re-enacts Leah's disappearance and appeals for information. It shows the clothing Leah was wearing on the day she vanished. Viewer contacts the show saying she and remembers walking at the Blue Lagoon lake in Bletchley, Milton Keynes in February and seeing a grey hoodie just near the water, like the one Leah was wearing. October 9 Police launch a major search at the Blue Lagoon. Nothing of any significance is found. November 14-16 Leah's brother Haydon Croucher killed himself in his flat in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, and was found by his mother and sister. February 14, 2020 Leah's parents Claire and John Croucher issue a fresh appeal at a media conference at Milton Keynes Police Station a year after her disappearance. February 15, 2021 Her family issue a statement appealing for help to find her on the second anniversary of her disappearance. In an emotional statement they said: 'It's now been two years since our beautiful, wonderful daughter Leah, left for work and vanished without a trace. Missing. Gone. 'To say they have been a hard two years is an understatement. They have been the longest and toughest two years of our lives.' February 15, 2022 Police release a new image of a person dressed in black seen at Furzton Lake to mark the third year of her disappearance. In a written statement Leah's family said each day 'feels like an eternity of pain and despair', but said they remained hopeful she would one day be found. 'It is harder each day to tell ourselves that today will be the day that we get answers, today we find out what happened three years ago,' her parents said. Advertisement

'It is unimaginable to convince ourselves that this is not a lie we tell ourselves so that we get out of bed each day. Each day is torture.

'It is inconceivable not to worry every second of every single day. Sleep feels an elusive character each night, waking each morning we never feel rested and refreshed.

'Each time the phone rings or there is a knock at the front door, our hearts still leap in our chests.

'That familiar surge of hope springing up in our throats. That familiar wave of despair that crashes over our very souls each time

'It is not the police or Leah herself knocking at the door or calling on the phone.

'Again, we ask for the publics help. You have all been so wonderful so far, still helping us search every face in the streets to see if they are Leah, still sharing on social media, still reporting possible sightings to the police.'

The night before she went missing, Leah left her home in Milton Keynes between 6pm and 7.15pm. She told her mother Claire Croucher she was seeing a friend.

The police found out she never saw the friend and they do not know where she went or who she was with - or whether she met anyone that night.

Her parents last saw her when she went to bed, with her mother Claire previously saying it was 'the last time I got to say goodnight'.

Last year Claire and her husband John Croucher said they feared someone may have taken Leah as they questioned why she would 'just disappear'.

The search for Leah has seen officers visit more than 4,000 homes in Milton Keynes, while officers have deployed specialist search teams, drones and helicopters.

Marine units and dive teams have conducted searches of lakes across the town but police say they have found no items relating to the missing woman.

Police have also had no more confirmed sightings of Leah beyond the morning of February 15. However their investigation continues.

Alongside the latest released images, which show a black figure beside Furzton Lake, police have also released an image of a woman with a dog they would like to speak to as part of their investigation.

DCI Howard said: 'The image we are releasing today is not of a high quality, but I am hoping that somebody will recognise themselves as being in this picture.

'I am keen to hear from the group of people in this image; it may be that you regularly walk in this area and will recognise yourselves.

'I would also like to hear from the person in the image walking her dog.

'If you have not already got in touch with the police, I would urge you to do so, as you may have a vital piece of information that would be key to this investigation.

'I'm am particularly keen to identify the person seen in the image who is dressed in black.

'This photograph was taken at 10.51am on the morning of 15 February 2019.

'It is not possible from the image to say whether or not the person dressed in black is Leah but we have witnesses in the area of the lake at around this time who describe seeing a young female in black clothing who is described as appearing distracted or upset, and possibly using her phone.

'Despite previous appeals, we have so far been unable to establish the identity of this female and so if you believe this was you or you know who it is, please contact the police.'

'Were you in the area of Furzton Lake between 10.45am and 11.30am on that morning?

'I know this was three years ago, but this image was taken the day after Valentine's Day, and just prior to the school half-term break, and so it may be that you remember being in the area, or you walk in this area regularly.

'I am also aware of another image that has been circulated in the media and community groups suggesting a person being sighted in a barn at a property in Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire.

'We are also aware of other speculation on social media of Leah being linked to this property.

'We were passed this photograph which we investigated using specialist CCTV viewers who reviewed and analysed the image thoroughly.

'We also thoroughly investigated the location in question, and we can categorically rule out that this is Leah in the image.

'A detailed investigation of the property and the barn has provided no evidence of Leah being linked to or having been at that location.'

Leah, who was 19 years old at the time of her disappearance, was reported missing from Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes by her family on 15th February 2019. They last saw her at 10pm the day before, 14 February, St Valentine's Day. Pictured: The last known sighting of Leah on February 15

Leah Croucher seen on CCTV. She was last seen on CCTV down Buzzacott Lane in Furzton, Buckinghamshire while on her way to work on the morning of February 15, 2019 before she 'vanished into thin air'

The last confirmed sighting of Leah was at 8.16am on CCTV in Buzzacott Lane, Furzton, on the morning of 15 February, and the last activity on her phone was just after 8.30am that day. Pictured: Leah Croucher

Leach Croucher went missing from her home in Milton Keynes in February 2019. She was last seen on CCTV the following day near to her home but has not been seen or heard from since

Family of Leah Croucher issue statement on third anniversary of her disappearance The parents of Leah Croucher, John and Claire, have today released a statement on the third anniversary of her disappearance from Milton Keynes. It reads: 'It has been three long, desolate years since our beautiful and wonderful daughter Leah, vanished without a trace on her way to work. 'We still have no answers as to why. No clues as to what happened. No idea as to where or how she is. 'It is impossible to stay positive after all this time, it was difficult at the start of this, but now, the task is so futile, our lives are so bleak. It is harder each day to tell ourselves that today will be the day that we get answers, today we find out what happened three years ago. Today we get our treasured daughter back. 'It is unimaginable to convince ourselves that this is not a lie we tell ourselves so that we get out of bed each day. Each day is torture. Each day feels like an eternity of pain and despair. 'Our family read everything that is written about Leah, both in the press and on social media. We are aware of the fake profiles that have been made claiming that Leah was pregnant and has run away, aware of the speculation that she is buried on farmland on Eaton Bray, aware that people are saying that she ran after married, older Muslim men as she had a thing for them. 'We find this upsetting, hurtful and disrespectful. None of this is true, all of it is vicious rumour and speculation. 'We would appreciate that if people have nothing pleasant to say, that they say nothing at all. Our daughter has done nothing to deserve this and neither have her family who are forced to tolerate this vile behaviour. 'It is inconceivable not to worry every second of every single day. Sleep feels an elusive character each night, waking each morning we never feel rested and refreshed. 'Each time the phone rings or there is a knock at the front door, our hearts still leap in our chests. 'That familiar surge of hope springing up in our throats. That familiar wave of despair that crashes over our very souls each time 'It is not the police or Leah herself knocking at the door or calling on the phone. 'Again, we ask for the publics help. You have all been so wonderful so far, still helping us search every face in the streets to see if they are Leah, still sharing on social media, still reporting possible sightings to the police. 'We ask you to search your phones for pictures taken on the evening of 2 February 2019 outside the Jurys Inn/Travel Lodge and the morning of 15 February 2019, in the Furtzon area. 'Search your memories to see if you can remember one thing that may help the police in their search. 'Please contact the police with anything you know, even if it seems small and insignificant. You are our only hope, you always have been. 'Leah, we only want to know you are safe and well. All you have to do is walk into a police station and tell them who you are and ask them to pass the message onto us that you want to stay away, you choose to remain apart from all who love and cherish you, that you do not want to come home. 'Please, we miss you so much. We are so worried about you. If you left us all that day, please let us know that it was your choice, because until that day happens, we will not stop. 'We will continue with the social media posts, the TV, radio and press interviews, the begging for news and information. 'We love you too much to give up and stop looking for answers. '#comehomeLeah' Advertisement

The police say Leah's disappearance remains a mystery and they remain determined to seek the answers for her family and friends.

DCI Howard continued: 'I would again like to appeal directly to the people of Milton Keynes, particularly if you live, commute or exercise in the areas that Leah used on a regular basis.

'As we know, Leah walked to work in Knowlhill most mornings. On Friday 15 February she was seen on CCTV in Buzzacott Lane, Furzton at 8.16am, so we know for certain that she walked that way.

'We would expect her walking route to have taken her past Tellytubby Hill on Dulverton Drive.

'From that point we believe that Leah would have either taken a route north around Furzton Lake or along Loxbeare Drive into Shenley Lodge and north along Faraday Drive.

'This area is a well populated residential area with people commuting, doing the school run or exercising. Given how busy the area is I find it hard to believe that this CCTV clip of Leah at 8.16am is the last time that we know she was seen.

'At around this time a witness saw a female matching Leah's description walking past Tellytubby Hill, approximately 150 yards after the sighting in Buzzacott Lane.

'From the information the witness provided we believe it is likely that it is Leah, however as Leah is not known to the witness it is not possible to say with certainty.

'But this is a busy area and therefore it is highly likely that other people will have seen this same female and we are keen to hear from you.

'We know that the day before Leah's disappearance she took a route (to work?) which led her from Dulverton Drive and along Loxbeare Drive, under H7 Chaffron Way.

'She then took a combination of Faraday Drive and the adjacent redways through Shenley Lodge and into Knowlhill.

'However it appears that this was not the route Leah took to work on 15 February. It is for this reason we are appealing to the people who are local to these areas, and feel that there could still be someone out there with information we need.

'I genuinely believe that there are people in the area that morning who will have seen Leah and who can help the investigation.

'We also know that the evening before Leah went missing, having arrived home from work, she left her address in Emerson Valley between approximately 6pm and 7.15pm.

'We don't know where Leah went during that period and would ask people to think back to that evening in case they were in that area and saw or spoke to Leah. Where was she? Was she with anybody? What was she doing?

'It is three years since Leah went missing, but the fact that we are seeking information about her movements on Valentine's Day and 15 February, which was the last day before half-term, means that hopefully these are dates that people can more readily recall.

'The fact that images taken by Furzton Lake on 15 February have recently been provided to the investigation gives us real optimism that further information is out there that can assist in finding Leah.

'It's never too late to come forward with information to help our investigation, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you.

'The constant anguish that Leah's family have had to live with is never lost on me.

'I make this fresh appeal to the public, particularly the residents of Milton Keynes, to look at the images of Leah and cast your minds back to Friday 15 February 2019, and the evening before, and please get in touch if you have any information that could help us to find answers for Leah's family.

'I would again urge those seen in the new images we are releasing today to please get in touch if you believe any of these people are you.

'You could hold the key piece of information that can help us to locate Leah.

'The response from the public since Leah went missing has been excellent and I know that Leah's case remains very much at the forefront of the minds of the residents of Milton Keynes.

Leah Croucher's mother Claire speaking to media at Milton Keynes Police Station in 2020

John and Claire speaking to media at Milton Keynes Police Station in 2020, as they plead for information one year on from her disappearance

Pictured: Leah Croucher (right) with her sister Jade

Hayden Croucher, the brother of missing teenager Leah Croucher, killed himself after telling a therapist he was finding it difficult to cope and was fixated on hanging himself

'Members of the local community have generously offered a 20,000 reward for information that leads to Leah being found, and that reward is still available.'

Anyone who has information that could lead to the force locating Leah Croucher, is asked to contact 101 quoting reference number 43190049929, or Operation Dawlish.

Information can be left via our dedicated website for this investigation, which is https://mipp.police.uk/operation/43H218A55-PO1/.

Alongside the tragedy of Leah's disappearance, Leah's family also suffered the tragic death of her brother Haydon, who was found hanged in November 2019.

The 24-year-old hanged himself after telling a therapist he was finding it difficult to cope with his sister's disappearance.

Haydon was brought to Milton Keynes hospital for assessment for admission by his therapist Chantelle Tillison. But there were no beds available and he was sent home.

He was found hanging in his flat in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, nine months after Leah disappeared, by his mother Tracey Furness and sister Jade.

He was rushed to hospital where he died two days later on 16 November last year, Milton Keynes coroner's court heard in 2020.

After his inquest, his mother Claire warned there was 'still a lot to learn' from her son's suicide.

In a statement issued through her solicitors Mrs Furness in 2020, she said: 'The family considers the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust still have a lot to learn from the avoidable death of Haydon and others before him.'

The Trust said it had since changed its time-limited system to allow 24-hour access to Crisis Support, something the family praised.

Meanwhile, Leah's sister Jade Croucher, issued an appeal in July 2019, four months after her disappearance, for Leah to come home.

She said; 'It would be lovely if she messaged me on her birthday.

'Every day I wake up with the hope that we will get a little bit of a breakthrough that Leah is safe and well.

'I'm constantly checking my phone, but so far there has been nothing.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
New footage has emerged showing the aftermath of a road rage accident that saw a woman collide with an anti-vaxxer's car before starting an expletive-laden altercation in the middle of a busy road.

Furious Canberra local Chantal-Jasmin Fox, 26, went to drive off after an incident on with a Covid protester on Saturday morning following widespread demonstrations in the nation's capital.

An angry Ms Fox shouted at a protester who was checking her car for any damage.

But when Ms Fox went to drive off, her Holden Captiva collided with the demonstrator's parked vehicle - with vision of the accident going viral.

The newly-unearthed video captured by anti-vax protesters shows Ms Fox repeatedly screaming and swearing at them as she climbs in and out of her Holden Captiva propped up on two wheels, declaring that she's Canadian and they are 'un-Australian'.

'People are dying, they're dying in the street in America,' she can be heard screaming.

'Don't bring that f***ing ignorance here. F*** off back home, we're full b****, f*** off.'

New footage has emerged showing the aftermath of a road rage accident that saw Canberra woman Chantal-Jasmin Fox collide with an anti-vaxxer's car before starting an altercation in the middle of a busy road

Furious Canberra local Chantal-Jasmin Fox, 26, clashes with anti-vaxxers after colliding with one of their cars on Saturday morning

Ms Fox (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia her friends, family and workplace had been inundated with abuse and harassment since the incident

She posted a picture of her black 4WD mounted on the other woman's car saying she was a 'bit butthurt over an accident', adding 'anti-vaxxers = drama' (pictured)

The footage, which lasts nearly 20 minutes, shows the series of events immediately following the accidental collision which occurred in Canberra on Saturday after more than 20,000 turned up to protest vaccine mandates - the largest public demonstration ever held in the city.

Ms Fox can be seen screaming in the faces of several anti-vaxxers, with one woman bursting into tears saying she had been 'harassing our whole street'.

'Yeah, and you haven't been harassing anyone,' an older man replies to her.

Ms Fox continues to march up and down the median strip barking insults at anyone who stands in her way.

'You can stay but we're going to come for ya, you f***ing losers. You're not helping anyone, go home you old f***ing bag,' she says to an older woman.

'This is the most un-Australian s*** you've ever seen.'

She then walks over to the car she struck, ripping a Red Ensign flag from its window, a flag which has been co-opted by the anti-vaxx movement.

'What the f*** is that, that's not the Australian flag. That's not the Aboriginal flag. Get the f*** out of Canberra, no one wants you here,' she screams.

'Get out of our country girl, if you don't like it f*** off. Look at you, you f***ing Aryan b****, you look like a Hitler person,' she shouts before sitting on the bonnet of the Volkswagen stationwagon she collided with.

Ms Fox stands on the bonnet of the Volkswagen she struck before climbing into the front seat of her Holden Captiva which has been propped up on two wheels

'You can stay but we're going to come for ya, you f***ing losers. You're not helping anyone, go home you old f***ing bag,' she says to an older woman

She then continues to scream and rant on the median strip of the busy Canberra road, repeatedly climbing in and out of her car and standing on the front of the other vehicle.

'You're affecting our small businesses in Canberra. That is not OK, that is not protesting, for you to come and f*** with our businesses. The federal government doesn't care about you,' she said before she repeatedly yells 'who the f*** are you' to a man who joins the dispute.

She then climbs back onto the Volkswagen and in through the window of her Holden Capitva.

'You look like f***ing d***heads,' she says from her car which is wedged onto the stationwagon.

A woman replies that her husband and daughter have been vaccinated and that she is protesting for 'choices'.

'I'm not harassing anyone, I'm very loving and caring,' she says as the woman continues to yell from her Holden Captiva propped up on two wheels.

'I just don't want to vaccinate my children. That's all. Hands off my kids.'

Ms Fox then walks over to the car she struck, ripping a Red Ensign flag from its window. 'What the f*** is that, that's not the Australian flag. That's not the Aboriginal flag. Get the f*** out of Canberra, no one wants you here,' she screams

The woman continues to rant from the front seat of her car, revealing she was not born in Australia.

'Guess what, I'm f***ing Canadian, you look like d***heads to a f***ing Canadian,' she said, before claiming her mother is Aboriginal.

'You think this is oppression? You're invading our f***ing town.'

Some of the protesters continue to speak between themselves while filming the altercation, as the woman continues to scream at everyone standing nearby.

'Enjoy going home tomorrow when the AFP and SWAT teams kick you out,' she shouts.

'Do you know what country you're in?' a man replies.

The dispute lasts for several minutes as a protester gets increasingly aggressive in response to Ms Fox's ranting.

The footage ends with anti-vaxxers saying they need to leave but that police are arriving any minute.

'Guess what, I'm f***ing Canadian, you look like d***heads to a f***ing Canadian,' Ms Fox said, before claiming her mother is Aboriginal

The dispute lasts for several minutes as a protester gets increasingly aggressive in response to Ms Fox's ranting, before the footage ends with the protesters saying police are coming

It comes as thousands of anti-vaxxers descend on the nation's capital for days of protests against vaccine mandates and restrictions - much to the anger of locals.

Saturday's rally of up to 20,000 people is understood to be the biggest public demonstration ever held in Canberra.

Ms Fox on Sunday posted a picture of her black 4WD mounted on the other woman's car saying she was a 'bit butthurt over an accident', adding 'anti-vaxxers = drama'.

She told Daily Mail Australia the collision was 'just a common road accident blown out of proportion'.

She said police, firefighters and paramedics responded to the collision with officers leaving the scene without pressing charges.

In a statement, ACT Police confirmed Ms Fox will be hit with an infringement notice for negligent driving.

Of the damage to the vehicles Ms Fox said the woman's car had to be towed from the scene while her car requires a wheel alignment.

'I drove home from the accident, and didn't hear anything until Sunday morning when it was going viral,' she said.

Ms Fox is yet to respond to questions about the flag-waving incident.

The incredible road rage erupted after an anti-vaxxer allegedly rolled backwards into Chantal-Jasmine Fox (pictured) on a Canberra road

She said the backlash on social media was 'a last ditch effort by this movement to scare and pressure our government'.

Ms Fox shared a series of responses to the video to her Instagram stories, with one person describing her as 'shameful'.

'What do you have to say for yourself,' a person commented, to which Ms Fox replied: 'Suck my b***s'.

While some were shocked at the brutal rear-ending others sided with the Canberra local and said the protester should 'stay out'.

'No sympathy from me. Get out, stay out,' one woman wrote.

'Never seen such a huge crowd of victims in my life,' another wrote.

Ms Fox told Daily Mail Australia her friends, family and workplace have been inundated with abuse and harassment since the incident.

'I don't mind about myself, but my friends didn't deserve that,' she said.

'Get the f*** out of Canberra. Nobody wants you here,' she yells at the protester while waving the flags in her face in the aftermath of the collision (pictured)

The original video began with the other woman bending down to film the front of her to record any damage.

Ms Fox is then heard yelling at the other driver, 'what are you doing you f**king bogan?

'Get the f**k out of Canberra, go get a job and find something better to do with your f**king life,' she yells - as the protester asks her for her licence.

'You've reversed into me. Honey, you've just reversed into me,' Ms Fox repeats. 'Say whatever you want sweetheart. The media doesn't care about you.'

The woman filming tells the driver she is a 'maniac' who deftly responds: 'Yeah I am, so get out of Canberra because there are a lot of us.'

As she attempts to drive away from the scene her vehicle rams into the back of the protester's car with the impact launching the 4WD into the air.

Her tyres land on the roof of the hatchback with a loud crunch as the protester lets out a scream.

'How's that?' the woman calls to her from her window.

'You f**king idiot. You are f**ked,' the protestor screams back.

The infuriated local came to blows with the Covid protestor on a Canberra road after the woman claimed she had reversed into her at a traffic light (pictured is Ms Fox)

It comes as 20,000 anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy theorists and people from the sovereign citizen movement marched in the nation's capital last weekend.

Protesters have been making their presence known in the city since January, however record numbers gathered on the Parliament House lawns on Saturday.

Three people were arrested during the weekend's demonstrators including one man who allegedly drove his truck through a roadblock.

Some of the protester's caused damage to the EPIC show-ground forcing the cancellation of the Lifeline charity book fair.

Police said rising numbers of people at the rallies and campers placing tents in non-camping areas had left organisers with no choice but to cancel.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison asked the activists to protest 'peacefully and respectfully' and said state governments were responsible for mandates.

'I'm going to be very clear when it comes to the issue of vaccine mandates: The Commonwealth government has only ever supported mandates that relate to aged care workers, disability workers and those who are working in high-risk situations in the health system,' he said at a press conference.

Three people were arrested during the weekend's demonstrators including one man who allegedly drove his truck through a roadblock (pictured, protesters outside Parliament House)
An Army sergeant and Iraq veteran suffering from PTSD killed herself after being harassed by a military senior, a coroner has ruled.

Mother-of-three Sgt Lisa Bateman, 34, from Cleator Moor, Cumbria struggled trying to be 'the perfect daughter, soldier and mum' and suffered from PTSD and depression. She was found hanged at her home on July 7, 2020.

She served as an instructor of combat medics in York but a senior member of staff harassed, undermined and then assaulted her while she was there, an inquest heard.

Her father, Mark Bateman, told Cockermouth Coroner's Court that his daughter was 'a generous, sweet and well-meaning individual'.

However, he said the harassment and assault was a matter of 'huge distress' to her.

Sgt Lisa Bateman, 34, from Cleator Moor, Cumbria struggled trying to be 'the perfect daughter, soldier and mum'

He was close to his daughter and had been due to meet her in Whitehaven on the day of her death. When she failed to turn up he went to her home where he found her in the garage, unresponsive.

'During lockdown a long distance relationship came to an end. This hit her very hard, she felt she was always being rejected.'

'The world did her a disservice,' he said.

Her father told the inquest she was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

'She was one of three, a happy child, bit of a tomboy,' he said.

She rebelled a bit as a teenager, he said, but then went on to join the Army.

'She found her feet and made tremendous strides. She relished and excelled,' he said.

She was posted to Germany and 'was doing so well, she was very happy in the forces', said Mr Bateman. She was living with her partner and they had a son.

'This was the final building block and got her life in place,' he said.

The situation changed over the years.

'Unfortunately when her partner was posted elsewhere the relationship fell apart. Lisa became a single mum of three with a growing career.'

She moved to a posting in Harrogate, was promoted rapidly to sergeant and moved to York where she became an instructor of combat medics.

A senior member of staff harassed, undermined and then assaulted her, said Mr Bateman. She had also served time in Iraq.

'She was diagnosed with extreme PTSD and depression,' said Mr Bateman.

He and his partner, Sgt Bateman's step mother, had moved to New Zealand in 2008 but came home to support her.

They moved to Whitehaven in February 2020. Sgt Bateman moved to Cleator Moor the following month.

Her mother, Carol Scholes, told the inquest: 'She suffered from depression for many years. She felt she had to be the perfect daughter, soldier and mum.'

Area coroner Kirsty Gomersal heard that Sgt Bateman had been referred to the MoD's Department of Community Health in July 2019 and a multi-agency care plan was put in place.

The inquest heard from various mental health practitioners and key workers who had engaged regularly with Sgt Bateman. She was on medication.

She had overdosed previously and claimed she was not suicidal but had been struggling to sleep.

Sgt Bateman was due to be medically discharged from the Army in September 2020 and was being supported as she transitioned from military to civilian life.

The medical cause of death was hanging. She tested positive for Covid and had alcohol in her system, a toxicology report revealed.

The amount of alcohol 'would make her emotionally unstable and give loss of critical judgement', said Ms Gomersal.

There was no evidence of her prescribed medication in her system.

'Sgt Bateman was a beloved mother, daughter and sister,' said the coroner.

'She was a proud member of the British Army.

'Those who came to know her held her in high esteem. They found her engaging, polite and generous.

'She found her feet in the Army.'

Her father said she was subjected to harassment and assault, said Ms Gomersal. That was a matter of huge distress and she was diagnosed with depression and PTSD.

'She had been prescribed medication and was engaging with mental health services,' she said.

'There were a number of stresses in her life at the time of death, on balance of probability Lisa intended to take her own life.'

She offered 'my deepest condolences for their tragic loss' to her parents and family.

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
Convicted former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner left Fox News host Sean Hannity nearly speechless by showing little remorse in his first interview since being jailed for 18 months for sexting a minor.

Weiner, 57, appeared on Hannity on Monday night to plug his new radio show with Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa called 'The Left Versus The Right' as the disgraced Democrat tries to rehabilitate his tarnished image.

Hannity cut to the chase and asked Weiner if his time in prison has changed him for the better after pleading guilty to sending obscene materials to a 15-year-old North Carolina girl.

'You served jail time. Have you changed? Are you a different person?' Hannity asked

'Well, um, I think so,' Weiner answered awkwardly. 'I don't think anyone can go through that kind of experience, and I think this is probably true of people who have been through other types of adversity, I don't think you go through that type of experience and don't emerge changed.'

Hannity interrupted saying, 'Wait a minute. That's an obscure answer  ''I think so.'' Either you know in your heart if you changed or you know  if you didn't change.'

'Can you assure people, because you're gonna now try to draw in an audience, and they're gonna want to know if you've changed or not. Have you changed?' Hannity pressed.

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'You served jail time. Have you changed? Are you a different person?' Hannity (far right) asked Weiner,(far left) who responded 'I think so'

Caught: In 2016, DailyMail.com revealed that the disgraced congressman had an online sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl for months and sent her lewd messages and pictures

When asked by Hannity if he changed Weiner dodged taking accountability and told Hannity anyone who face adversary changes

'They can judge for themselves,' Weiner curtly responded.

'I'm not out to persuade you or anyone else that I've changed,' he added. 'I'm not trying to make someone like me, or someone be persuaded of any particular outlook on me. We're gonna have some conversations about things going on in New York City and other places, and hopefully people tune in to the show. But I'm not terribly interested in trying to make them feel any differently about me.'

The reply fell far short of Hannity's expectations.

'Well, that's your answer,' Hannity said, giving up on trying to get something out of Weiner. 'I would have expected a little more sincerity. A little more heartfelt. A little more repentant.'

Weiner shrugged and replied, 'I don't know what to tell you.'

The public appearance comes after Weiner' ex-wife Huma Abedin opened up about their split in her tell-all book Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds.

Abedin wrote in her memoir that while she knew her marriage to Weiner was over, 'my relationship with my childs father is not, and never will be.'

Weiner appeared on Hannity Monday night to promote his new radio show with Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa (right) called 'The Left Versus The Right'

Weiner's appearance comes after his ex-wife Huma Abedin (left) opened up about their split in her tell-all book Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds.

Weiner had been a congressman from New York when he and Abedin first met in 2007. The politician, 12 years her senior, pursued her for years, The Cut reported.

She was 32 when he proposed at the Gramercy Park Hotel, but she was admittedly inexperienced with men.

'As was expected of any girl with my background, I would lose my virginity to the man I would marry,' she said.

In an interview with the Associated Press, she explained: 'He was my first love. The first man I had ever been with.

'And once I had become a mother, it really did become about my child,' added Abedin, whose late father died before she started college.

'I didn't have a choice about not having my father in my life, and I wasn't going to do that to my kid.'

Just one year after they were married, Weiner was forced to resign in disgrace after a photo of him in his boxer briefs was posted on his personal Twitter account.

Breaking the law: In 2017, Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in prison for sending obscene material to a minor. He served 15 months in federal prison and three more in a halfway house

Abedin was newly pregnant with their son at the time and was traveling frequently with Clinton, then secretary of state.

Weiner accidentally posted the photograph on his feed instead of sending it as a direct message to a woman he'd been flirting with on Twitter.

He first told Abedin that it was 'the work of a hacker,' which she believed, then after a week told her what had really happened.

'"What's wrong?" I asked. And then, just like that, life as I knew it was officially over,' she wrote. "'It's true," he said. "I sent the picture."'

Weiner was ashamed of his actions and insisted it didn't mean anything.

'I was simultaneously filled with rage and stunned to my core,' Abedin recalled in her book. 'It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck me and run straight through my body.'

Journalists began to search for other illicit photos and messages Weiner sent, and by June 6, he held a press conference, confessing that he had sent sexual photos and messages to women online over the course of a few years.

He said at the time he 'deeply' regretted his actions, noting: 'I'm going to try to be a better husband.'

He resigned within a few weeks of the Twitter scandal, then ran unsuccessfully for New York City mayor in 2013.

As he was leading in the polls, a young woman from Indiana named Sydney Leathers shared explicit photos and messages he sent her using the alias 'Carlos Danger.'

Still, Abedin stood by his side, making a public appearance in a rare press conference on July 23, 2013, telling reporters: 'I have forgiven him, I believe in him... I made that decision. That was a decision I made for me, for our son, and for my family.'

Journalists began to search for other illicit photos and messages Weiner sent, and by June 6, he held a press conference, confessing that he had sent sexual photos and messages to women online over the course of a few years.

He said at the time he 'deeply' regretted his actions, noting: 'I'm going to try to be a better husband.'

He resigned within a few weeks of the Twitter scandal, then ran unsuccessfully for New York City mayor in 2013.

As he was leading in the polls, a young woman from Indiana named Sydney Leathers shared explicit photos and messages he sent her using the alias 'Carlos Danger.'

Still, Abedin stood by his side, making a public appearance in a rare press conference on July 23, 2013, telling reporters: 'I have forgiven him, I believe in him... I made that decision. That was a decision I made for me, for our son, and for my family.'
The Manhattan landlord of the 35-year-old Asian advertising creative who was knifed to death by a free-on-bail homeless career criminal has slammed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for pinning the crime surge on child tax credits expiring.

Brian Chin called the left-wing firebrand 'unbelievably naive and completely irresponsible' for comments she made the day after Christina Yuna Lee was stabbed 40 times in Manhattan's Chinatown.

Assamad Nash, 25, was arrested for the Sunday morning murder of Lee and was charged with sexually-motivated burglary by prosecutors Monday, as it was revealed Lee was found topless in the bathtub of her Chinatown apartment in the early hours of the morning. He is currently being held without bail.

My familys owned this since the 1970s, weve lived through the 70s, 80s, 90s, all the bad times in New York and nothings ever happened like this, Chin told Fox News on Tuesday.

So we are, as a community, not only shocked and grieving, but also very, very scared. And rightfully angry at our elected officials who have driven us to this point and put this criminal on the streets.

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Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by a 'homeless serial criminal' who was free on bail

Assamad Nash, 25, has been accused of murdering her in her Chinatown apartment while on bail for a prior assault

Lee's landlord Brian Chin slammed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (above) for pinning the crime surge on child tax credits expiring. The liberal firebrand made the comments to the New Yorker in a story published the day after the horrific crime

Chin told Fox News on Tuesday that the left-wing firebrand was 'unbelievably naive and completely irresponsible' for her comments

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the New Yorker in a story published Monday that the government was 'contributing' to the surge in crime by allowing the child tax credit to expire.

'We don't want to say some of the things that are obvious, like, gee, the child-tax credit just ran out, on December 31st, and now people are stealing baby formula,' Ocasio-Cortez said.

'We don't want to have that discussion. We want to say these people are criminals or we want to talk about "people who are violent," instead of "environments of violence," and what we're doing to either contribute to that or dismantle that.'

Asked for his opinion on her comments, Chine said: That is an unbelievably naive statement and completely irresponsible on behalf of her, but it also shows the amount of distance that our elected officials have from the community themselves.

He continued: All of the crimes he committed, including the assault in the subway station, were just steps away from the building. This man was a menace to the community. He was an outright danger.

But the police did their jobs excellently. They kept arresting him repeatedly. It was the politicians lax on crime policies that kept putting him on the street because the judges have to follow the rule of law, which the politicians have set in the city, Chin concluded.

Nash's charge of sexually-motivated burglary suggests a possible motive for the brutal murder, which shocked NYC and raised fresh questions about New York state's bail reforms.

Terrifying footage showed the man police say is Nash creep into the building behind Lee after she got out of a cab on Sunday

When she entered the building, she didn't realize that Nash - who did not appear to know her - had sneaked in behind her after watching her exit a taxi and was following her up six flights of stairs to her home

Chin said his other tenants are 'scared' and 'extremely angry' that Nash was on the streets given his past offenses. He and Eli Klein, Lee's former employer, shared their thoughts on the tragedy and the need to crack down on such horrific crimes in a Fox News interview Tuesday

Christina Yuna Lee was a freelance advertising creative from New Jersey who has spearheaded campaigns for brands including Equinox and Google.

Terrifying footage showed the man police say is Nash creep into the building behind Lee after she got out of a cab on Sunday.

When she entered the building, she didn't realize that Nash - who did not know her - had sneaked in behind her after watching her exit a taxi and was following her up six flights of stairs to her home.

Asked on Fox News how his other tenants are coping, Chin said: A lot of us still cant sleep, to be honest. Ive only slept about three hours in the last nearly three days now. The building is still an active crime scene, the police have still not released the building. It has been a nightmare.

But of course, our pain pales in comparison to that of the family. I just cannot imagine having a child taken away like this, he said.

Chin said his community is scared and extremely angry at the system that he says repeatedly failed us. He said that while he has high hopes in Mayor Eric Adams to right the ship, he already feels betrayed by District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his soft-on-crime policies.

Nash's charge of sexually-motivated burglary suggests a possible motive for the brutal murder, which shocked NYC and raised fresh questions about New York state's bail reforms. The body of Christina Yuna Lee was wheeled out of her apartment above

Nash, 25, has been arrested seven times since 2017 and currently has three open cases in the Manhattan Criminal

Nash was found bloodied under Lee's bed with a wound on to his torso and cuts to his hands and shoulder, prosecutors said

Nash was remanded in custody after the hearing, and is undergoing psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue hospital

Assamad Nash's lengthy criminal history Transportation fraud and drug charge Nash was arrested last September 23 for using an unlimited subway fair card to admit other riders through the turnstile for a fee. An arresting officer allegedly found synthetic cannabinoid in his pocket. He was charged with the unauthorized sale of certain transportation services, and possession of synthetic phenethylamines and synthetic cannabinoids. He was released on his own recognizance. Assault Nash was arrested last September 28 for punching a man with a closed fist, 'causing redness and swelling' to the victim's right eye and 'substantial pain'. He was charged with two counts of third-degree assault, one count of second-degree aggravated harassment, attempted assault, and harassment. He was released on his own recognizance. Criminal mischief Nash was arrested January 6 following a string of 27 MetroCard Vending Machine vandalisms between December 9 and December 31. He attempted to escape while being arrested and was charged with 27 counts of criminal mischief, one count of attempted escape, escape in the third degree, and resisting arrest. He was given supervised release. Advertisement

We are tired of hearing our officials utter empty platitudes while enacting none of the desperately needed reforms that need to take place, he said.

A Manhattan Criminal Court judge approved the district attorney's request on Monday to remand Nash, who was found bloodied under Lee's bed with a wound on to his torso and cuts to his hands and shoulder, prosecutors said. A yellow-handled knife was then found behind a dresser in the victim's bedroom.

'I didn't kill nobody,' Nash said while being led to his arraignment on Monday.

Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said Nash attempted to mislead police from breaking into Lee's apartment by imitating a woman's voice.

'We don't need the police here  go away,' Nash told police, according to Yoran, as he set up a blockade inside the apartment before NYPD's Emergency Service Unit busted the door down, half an hour later.

Once inside, police found Lee dead in her bathroom, naked from the waist up.

Eli Klein, Lees former employer, offered a touching tribute to her on Fox News on Tuesday, calling her one of the nicest, most genuine, hardest-working, sweetest, most independent people that Ive ever known.

Learning what happened to her was devastating and Im still reeling from this tragedy, he said. Many of us cant believe that this happened to Christina. It couldnt have happened to a nicer person. Its sickening how she was murdered and how brutal the crime was.

Were gonna have to live the rest of our lives knowing that this could have been preventable and this guy shouldnt have been on the streets for one reason or another.

Nash has three additional open criminal cases - one for assaulting a Brooklyn man, 63-year-old David Elliot, in a subway station.

He has been arrested multiple times for assault, possession of drugs and harassment over the last two years. He was due back in court for the Elliot case next month and is currently being held in Bellevue hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Elliot, who works at Rutgers University, told The New York Post he was shocked the 'clearly' mentally ill Nash was free to roam the streets after attacking him at Grand Central Station.

'I was watching the news at 5 o'clock, and I seen them taking him out of the apartment and I said, 'That's the guy that f***ing hit me!'' Elliot said.

'He shouldn't have been out on the streets  hell no.'

Elliot said he was swiping a friend into the subway when Nash approached him and told him not to do that. Elliot ignored him, and Nash punched him in the face.

'He came out of nowhere and just hit me,' Elliot told the paper.

'I used to box. I had four stitches from that punch. I feel he had something in his hand, like, between his knuckles, because for as many years as I boxed, you don't get split like that.'

Elliot chased Nash out of the station, and called police when he saw him darting between cars. He later identified him as his attacker.

Elliot said he feels terrible for Lee and her family.

'Lock these guys up and keep them there. This guy clearly has a lot of mental issues,' he said.

'We should just make sure he stays in jail.'

According to court records accessed by DailyMail.com, Nash has been arrested four times in the last year alone. His rap sheet included misdemeanor charges of assault, intentional damage to property, harassment, resisting arrest, both attempted and successful escape from police officers and selling a fare card.

Three of these cases remain open, and he has appeared in court on numerous occasions. He was set to appear again before a judge on March 9 on the assault, harassment and intentional damage to property charges.

'This all could have been avoided,' Chin told reporters Sunday night. 'This guy should never have been out of the street. And it's DA Alvin Bragg playing politics with people's lives and the Asian community has been hurt. To have a DA who has won those horrific crimes right on his doorstep. And he doesn't even bother to show up. It's disgraceful.'

Residents near the victim's building in Chinatown held a rally on Monday to decry violence against the Asian community

Chinatown community organizers held the rally on Monday to raise awareness to the open-air drug use, mental illness, homelessness and Anti-Asian violence that have plagued the neighborhood

Residents near the victim's building in Chinatown held a rally on Monday to decry violence against the Asian community.

Lee's apartment at 111 Chrystie Street is a block over from the Bowery, which is known for its cluster of food pantries and homeless shelters.

To highlight the trouble in the community, community organizers handing out maps showing the locations of five homeless shelters in the neighborhood with three more planned to be added to the area.

'Now all of a sudden on top of those five shelters they are dumping three more,' Chinatown activist Jackie Wong said at the rally.

'We're like enough is really enough. That's why we we are having problems.'

Across the street from her building Sara Roosevelt Park, has been a hot bed of street crime, homelessness and open-air drug use.

K. Webster, the president of the Sara Roosevelt Park Coalition, said that the homeless have been around the neighborhood for decades, but there has been an influx of mentally ill homeless that have created a new danger in the neighborhood.

'We have homeless people who help,' she said.

'We have homeless people who stopped a rape. We have homeless people who have who found the guy who assaulted a woman, who helped the police find the culprit.

'So we have had homeless people and that is one category and then we have people who are mentally ill. You can't have mentally ill people running around the streets.'

Chin told reporters that building has cameras on every floor, and that his family had installed steel doors on all the apartments.

Nearly every single police precinct in New York City has seen spikes in crime so far this year - including five in which the rate has doubled, new data from the NYPD shows

'We have such tight security in this building we have steel doors,' Chin said. 'It took a swat team over 10 minutes to gain access. These doors are designed to keep monsters out.'

But the suspect still found his way in.

'She got out of a cab right here and he followed her,' Chin said.

'He grabbed the front door just before it closed. He followed her all the way up, hanging back, staying one floor behind her all the way up to the sixth floor. Then, he waited until her door was just about closed and he went in.'

Chin described Lee as a 'wonderful human being' whose 'smile lit up the room.'

'She came to the city for the lure of New York, you know, like the Big Apple, the big city, you know, boundless opportunities,' he said.

'So much blood. My wife said I should call someone to clean all the blood but I'm going to clean it up myself. It's the least I can do for that poor girl,' the building's owner said.

'She's from New Jersey, been here less than a year,' Chin told The Post. 'Such a sweet girl.

Another neighbor, Zyana Salazar, 27, told DailyMail.com: 'I just feel like he shouldn't been out.

'He was been let out with no bail.

'You know, this is why that happened.'

New York Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted that she was in mourning.

'We have seen far too many acts of violence against AAPI New Yorkers in recent months. We must make sure every community is safe in our state.

'I join New Yorkers standing together in support of our AAPI friends & neighbors.'

New York Mayor Eric Adams similarly condemned the murder.

'I and New Yorkers across the city mourn for the innocent woman murdered in her home last night in Chinatown and stand with our Asian brothers and sisters today,' Adams said in a statement on Sunday.

'The NYPD is investigating this horrific incident, and I thank them for apprehending the suspect. While the suspect who committed this heinous act is now in custody, the conditions that created him remain. The mission of this administration is clear: We won't let this violence go unchecked.'

Crime in the city has continued to spike, with overall crime having increased 41.65 percent, robbery up nearly 35 percent, and violent felonies up 13.3 percent through February 6 from the same time last year.

Meanwhile, nearly every police precinct in New York City has reported spikes in crime this year - including five in which the rate has doubled, new data from the New York Police Department shows.

'No neighborhood is safe,' one Brooklyn cop told The New York Post on Tuesday, offering a grim forecast for the future of the crime-ravaged city.

'At this rate, we will lose the city by St. Patrick's Day.'
Two filmmakers are facing a retrial after being acquitted for capturing footage of the MS Estonia ferry wreck they claimed may have been sunk by Russian submarines.

The ferry sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994, killing 852 people in one of the 20th century's worst maritime disasters.

After deciding not to salvage the wreck, Sweden, Estonia and Finland agreed in 1995 to designate it a final resting place and make it illegal to disturb the site.

Britain was the only non-Baltic state to sign the 1995 Estonia Agreement, which designated the wreck a sea grave and banned anybody from approaching it.

In 2019, a film crew sent a remote-operated camera to the ship while filming a documentary that aired the following year, revealing a gaping 13ft hole in the ship's hull and casting doubt on the findings of an official investigation into the sinking.

The Gothenburg district court found in February 2021 that the documentary's director Henrik Evertsson and deep-sea analyst Linus Andersson  both Swedes  had committed actions punishable under the so-called 'Estonia Law'.

However, it ruled they could not be held accountable since they were on a German-flagged ship in international waters at the time.

While several countries have signed on to the 1995 accord, Germany has not. But the Gota Court of Appeal today sent the case back to the lower court for a retrial.

Two filmmakers are facing a retrial after being acquitted for capturing footage of the MS Estonia ferry wreck that showed a gaping 13ft hole may have caused it to sink. Pictured: the bow door of the ferry is lifted up from the bottom of the sea, off Uto Island, in the Baltic Sea, near Finland, in November 1994

The Gothenburg district court found in February 2021 that documentary director Henrik Evertsson (pictured) and deep-sea analyst Linus Andersson  both Swedes  had committed actions punishable under the so-called 'Estonia Law'

The passenger and car ferry in Finnish waters in the early hours of September 28, 1994, while en route from Tallinn to Stockholm in Europe's worst peacetime shipping disaster. The ship went down in just one hour, leaving only 137 survivors

The 'modern Titanic': What happened to the MS Estonia? The MS Estonia was some five hours into its overnight voyage from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, to Stockholm in Sweden when its captain, Arvo Andresson, noticed the first indications of trouble. The ship had begun to list to starboard and, as it ploughed on through waves whipped up by gale-force winds to a height of 20ft, it was getting progressively worse. By 1.50am on that September night in 1994, the 515ft ferry  the length of 12 double-decker buses parked end to end  was on its side and starting to turn turtle, and the crew had sent out the last of an increasingly frantic series of Mayday calls to other ships in the area. By the time the first rescuers arrived, however, the Estonia had sunk, stern-first, within just 25 minutes and was lying on the seabed some 280 ft below the cold waters of the Baltic. Of its 989 passengers and crew, just 137 survived, and the staggering scale of the death toll triggered headlines around the world. With 852 lives lost, it was the second deadliest peacetime sinking of a European ship after the Titanic. Advertisement

It argued that 'the Estonia Law does apply' because the filmmakers are Swedish, even though the dives were conducted from a German boat.

The two face a fine or up to two years in prison.

The original inquiry into the disaster concluded that it was caused by the bow door of the ship being wrenched open in heavy seas, allowing water to gush into the car deck.

Experts however told the filmmakers that only a massive external force would be strong enough to cause the rupture, raising questions about what really happened.

'I believe the truth is something other than what people have been told until now,' survivor Carl Eric Reintamm told the programme.

Survivors described hearing a loud bang and Reintamm said he saw a large white object in the water next to the ferry, testimony which experts interviewed in the programme said has not been taken into account before now.

The passenger and car ferry in Finnish waters in the early hours of September 28, 1994, while en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden, in Europe's worst peacetime shipping disaster.

The ship went down in just one hour, leaving only 137 survivors.

Survivors and relatives of those killed have fought for over two decades for a fuller investigation, though the countries involved had been reluctant to re-examine the issue.

Some claimed that the opening of the bow visor would not have caused the vessel to sink as quickly as it did.

The documentary reveals that an official Swedish report admitted that the MS Estonia had been used by Swedish forces to smuggle Russian military technology out of the Estonian capital of Tallinn in the weeks before the sinking.

It also reports allegations made by Swedish customs boss Lennart Henriksson that MI6 had been involved in this highly sensitive and potentially very dangerous smuggling operation.

The television show names known MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson as confirming this story to investigative reporter Stephen Davis in 1998.

In the show, Tomlinsons evidence is backed up by another unidentified MI6 agent, who told Davis that the ferry was carrying information about a then cutting-edge Russian ballistic missile programme.

This agent also claimed that the Russians had warned the West to end its smuggling activities or face unspecified consequences.

The documentary-makers interviewed two witnesses who claim they saw military trucks and soldiers swarming around the Estonia on the day of its departure from Tallinn.

Following the documentary, the laws banning dives were amended in order to allow a re-examination of the wreck.

In July 2021, Sweden and Estonia opened a fresh investigation.
New Zealand have passed a law that will ban the cruel process of conversion therapy, under which gay people are pressured to be straight.

The Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill, which was introduced last year, was passed on Tuesday in Wellington after its third and final reading following the support of 112 MPs in parliament.

Only eight national MPs opposed the bill and it received nearly 107,000 public submissions - making it the highest number of public submissions ever received on any legislation.

The Minister of Justice, Kris Faafoi, said: 'This is a great day for New Zealand's rainbow communities.'

Under the bill, it will be an offence to perform medically illegitimate conversion practices on a child or young person aged under 18, or on someone with impaired decision making capacity.

Such offences would be subject to up to three years imprisonment and up to five years where it has caused serious harm, irrespective of the person's age.

The Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill, which was introduced last year, was passed on Tuesday after its third and final reading following the support of 112 MPs in parliament. Pictured: The parliament building in Wellington

Only eight national MPs opposed the bill and it received nearly 107,000 public submissions - making it the highest number of public submissions ever received on any legislation (file image)

Under the bill, it will be an offence to perform medically illegitimate conversion practices on a child or young person aged under 18, or on someone with impaired decision-making capacity (file image)

During the third reading, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, made an emotional speech about growing up in a 'churchgoing household'.

He said: 'When I finally gathered the courage to come out to my parents I was met with love'.

But he went on to talk about those who are most vulnerable in society - and recalled a friend he had called James, who ultimately took his own life because he was met with 'anger, rejection and derision'.

He added: 'In any law, there needs to be access to justice and appropriate penalties, but I believe the select committee has got the balance right here.

'To James and the many like him from all parts of rainbow community this legislation is for you.'

Such offences would be subject to up to three years imprisonment and up to five years where it has caused serious harm, irrespective of the person's age (file image)

During the third reading, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson (pictured), made an emotional speech about growing up in a 'churchgoing household'

'We cannot bring you back, we cannot undo all the hurt, but we can make sure for the generations to come we provide the support and love you did not get and protect you from the harm of those who seek to try to stop you from being who you are. We will never forget you.'

Conversion therapy has been banned in the Queensland, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory, with other countries seeking to change its laws to outlaw the archaic practice.

Labour MP Kiri Allan posted on Facebook this morning about how she went through conversion therapy at age 16 at her church.

She wrote: 'At 16, I went through conversion therapy (it wasnt called that, but thats what it was) through my church.

Fellow Labour MP and Minister of Conservation Kiri Allan (middle) with New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (left) and Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy (right)

'I desperately tried to "pray the gay away" - to be accepted by my family, community and church. My illness & weakness to temptation was etched as sin into my skin.

'It took a long time to shake that shame and trauma. Tonight our Parliament will ensure this practice is banned in our country for good. For our next generation of babies, I am so incredibly relieved. Thank you to everyone that championed this change.'

In October 2020, Jacinda Ardern's Labour party committed to banning gay conversion therapy if they were re-elected in New Zealand's October 17 election.

In an interview with Express magazine, the 41-year-old Labour leader said she was moved to oppose the practice after watching a Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie.

'I still remember watching the film Latter Days at the film festival in Wellington some years ago. That film never left me,' she said.

'It's one of the reasons I feel quite strongly about this policy.'
The Home Office has ordered 29 councils to take into their care migrant children who arrive to the UK without parents or guardians - adding to the 177 who are already mandated to do so.

It comes after a voluntary scheme to house the unaccompanied youngsters - including those making the perilous Channel crossing to England's southern coast - had to be made compulsory last year when too few local authorities opted-in.

This resulted in 'significant pressure on the few which did', the Home Office said, as Home Secretary Priti Patel insisted councils across the country needed to 'play their part'.

The more than two dozen newly selected councils have not been named, but they include 12 who said they were already caring for 'high numbers' of migrant children and 17 who applied to be exempt from the scheme.

Pressures on children's services and the current child populations were among the criteria used to select the 29 councils.

Any local authority caring for a child transferred through the mandatory scheme receives a funding contribution of 143 per child per night, according to the Home Office, after an extra 20 million of additional funding was made available to further support local authorities last June.

It comes after last year saw a record 28,395 migrants reach the UK, with numbers feared to increase yet again in 2022 following the chaotic fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

In November, Kevin Foster, one of the Government's immigration ministers, wrote to all 217 councils with children's services across the country, informing them of plans to 'temporarily mandate the National Transfer Scheme' and giving them two weeks to present reasons why they should not accept them.

Home Secretary Priti Patel insisted councils across the country needed to 'play their part' in taking in unaccompanied migrant children last year

A voluntary scheme to take in the unaccompanied youngsters - including those making the perilous Channel crossing from France to England's southern coast - had to be made compulsory last year when not enough local authorities opted-in (Pictured: Migrant toddler is helped to shore by Border Force in Dover, Kent, on January 24, 2022)

The legal notice to accept transfers of children into their care and to provide placements to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) was part of 'urgent steps' to ensure an 'immediate, fuller participation' which is fair for all local authorities involved, the Home Office said at the time.

A month later the Government directed 177 local authorities to take part in the scheme, which saw 'tangible improvements'.

On Tuesday, Mr Foster wrote to a further 29 councils to order them to take part.

This included 17 which made 'exemption requests' and 12 which were 'already caring for high numbers of UASC'.

Those 12 will be asked to take on more children once the number in their care falls below a certain level.

The Home Office refused to disclose the names of which councils it has now contacted.

Mr Foster said: 'I am grateful for the continued support of local authorities who have already stepped up to help more unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

A record 28,395 migrants reached the UK illegally last year by taking small boats across the Channel, a 200 per cent increase on 2020's tally

How many migrants reached Britain in 2021, by month? January 223 February 308 March 831 April 751 May 1,619 June 2,179 July 3,510 August 3,012 September 4,652 October 2,671 November 6,869 December 1,770 Total 28,395

'Mandating the scheme has already led to additional placements but we know there is more work to be done.'

Factors including the existing child population, pressures on children's services and the number of asylum seekers being supported in the area will all be considered, as well as the best interests of the child, the Home Office previously said.

Councils will not have to accept more unaccompanied child migrants if they already make up 0.07 per cent or more of its general child population.

The plans will be kept under review and how long it remains mandatory will depend on factors including 'intake levels and how long it takes to end the use of hotels'.

Councils receive a higher rate of funding of 143 per child per night under the scheme.

More than 1,350 people have reached the UK in small boats so far in 2022, according to the latest data.

Rough weather and high winds have hindered crossing attempts in February, with only one boat believed to have succeeded in crossing so far this month.

It comes after it was revealed at the weekend that ministers have been warned by intelligence experts that more than half a million Afghan migrants have crossed the border since the fall of Kabul last year and are heading for Europe and the Channel coast.

Priti Patel last week held an emergency summit with her counterparts in the international Five Eyes intelligence alliance to discuss how to track the exodus.

The Home Secretary is also seeking to toughen the UK's response to migrants who cross the Channel, with Border Force teams moving between hotels in Britain to round up migrants and move them to holding centres on military bases.

The Five Eyes group  comprising the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand  combines the resources of MI6, GCHQ, the CIA and the other nations' domestic intelligence agencies, and can be traced back to the informal meetings between American and UK code-breakers during the Second World War.

The 500,000 migrants displaced by political turmoil arising from the Taliban takeover and a famine in Afghanistan this winter is in addition to the 2.6 million existing Afghan refugees around the world.

Of those, around 2.2 million are in Iran and Pakistan with a further 3.5 million people displaced within Afghanistan itself.

The United Nations last year said a worst-case scenario was that 500,000 refugees could flee Afghanistan following the US-led withdrawal from the country.

Around 12,000 Afghan refugees are currently living in UK hotels, with permanent homes so far found for more than 4,000.

The Government has faced acute embarrassment over its failure to stem illegal migration on small boats across the Channel.

More than 28,000 migrants used the route last year  triple the number recorded in 2020.

A further 1,341 successfully made the journey last month, and it was recently reported that the Army is to begin building camps on Ministry of Defence land to house up to 30,000 Channel migrants.
A British diplomat under 'extreme stress' from working on the Covid-19 Task Force when he vanished and died was never asked if he was coping, an inquest heard today.

Julia Longbottom, Richard Morris' boss in the Foreign Office Task Force, admitted she never checked in on the 52-year-old despite being a 'wellbeing champion' trained in mental health and him saying he was 'exhausted'.

Diplomat Ms Longbottom suggested her distinguished colleague - who complained of a 'punishing' workload - did not show signs of distress amid the intense schedule as the pandemic took hold.

Mr Morris, the ex-Ambassador to Nepal, was working 15 hour days six or seven days a week as a senior co-ordinator at the Foreign Office and couldn't take leave because he was always called in.

But Ms Longbottom, the current Ambassador to Japan, today told Mr Morris' inquest she believed he was willingly 'going the extra mile'.

She said she reassured him he was doing a good job but now feels 'incredibly sad' she and others were not able to help him.

The inquest has heard that on May 6, 2020, the diplomat of 30 years made his wife Alison a cup of tea at their 1 million home in Bentley, Hants, and at 10.15am went for a run.

The father of three never returned and almost four months later, on August 31, his decomposed body was found 2.5 miles away in Alice Holt Forest at the bottom of a tree.

Richard Morris, 52, was found dead on August 31 in woodland three months after he vanished

His widow Alison - seen today - said yesterday he was 'totally unprotected' from demands

Winchester Coroner's Court, Hants, heard after returning from Nepal Mr Morris was drafted in to lead a Foreign Office team in December 2019 on the controversial Harry Dunn case.

Dunn was the teenage motorcyclist killed in a crash outside US military base RAF Croughton in Northants, with chief suspect Anne Sacoolas fleeing to the USA and claiming diplomatic immunity.

In February 2020, Ms Longbottom brought Mr Morris in to establish the Foreign Office Covid-19 Task Force and he told her he was 'exhausted' from the Dunn case having had no time off.

From February, Mr Morris 'effectively' had no time away from work. He worked long days, weekends, went to meetings on days off, was called in during leave, and missed a family trip to Scotland due to work.

He was due to be preparing for his new role as British High Commissioner to Fiji, but was assigned to a 'high pressure' co-ordinator role which he had a 'strong aversion to'.

He was kept on in the role for longer than expected, with Ms Longbottom today saying it felt 'fair' to ask him to fill critical gaps rather than take leave.

Giving evidence to the inquest remotely from Japan, 58 year old Ms Longbottom - then director of the Task Force - admitted she never asked Mr Morris how he was coping.

She said: "What was evident from his work was that he was still high-performing... Fundamentally he was doing a great job.

Hampshire Constabulary's Detective Inspector Matthew Gillooly outside the inquest yesterday

Mr Morris was last seen running near his home in Hampshire on May 6, 2020, and his body was found three months later

"He was saying he was concerned the team didn't have capacity... I felt it was important to reassure him on that rather than go into questions about how he was doing or how he was personally feeling.

"There wasn't anything in his behaviour that indicated a significant change in the way he was or the way he was functioning or the way he was acting towards colleagues.

"What I noticed was a slightly more extreme or exaggerated Richard than I had worked with previously, who was somewhat prone to double checking things or question whether he was getting things right or how he was doing.

"My focus was reassuring him that he was doing a good job and the team were able to do things."

She suggested Mr Morris hid his stresses.

"There was a culture in the Task Force where people were supporting each other as Covid was taking off", she said.

"There was a lot of support and opportunities for Richard to talk about the help he needed if he needed to.

"I can't put myself in his shoes, my concern is that he was worried about doing what the organisation needed above all and not letting people down.

"It was one of the reasons that, from the beginning when he told me he was exhausted, I tried to make sure he didn't sacrifice his time any more than was reasonable.

"The world changed so dramatically so the context of [him taking leave] being the right thing for him to do was no longer possible.

"I didn't have a sense that he had gone beyond where he could cope, he was still functioning well and I can only feel incredibly sad that it was not something that was more obvious to us or that he allowed us to help him.

"It's incredibly tragic and I want to say to Alison and her children how sorry I am that they've lost Richard, who was such a wonderful person."

In late April, after Mr Morris had been kept on the Task Force longer than expected, Ms Longbottom said she 'had a sense that Richard was struggling and that his anxiety about getting things done was more extreme and different from before'.

She added: "When he called me first thing on April 30 it was very clear when he said 'I can't continue in this role' and I told him 'you must stop, don't think about work, take time out and don't think about this any more'."

A week before it was clear Mr Morris 'needed a break' but he was kept on.

She said: "It was clear that Richard wasn't keen to carry on in the role but he said he was willing to do it longer, it was characteristic of him to go the extra mile but it didn't feel like a signal that this was something he felt he couldn't do.

"It felt like a very strong preference but at the same he felt like he was prepared to continue if we needed him to."

Mr Morris would tell Ms Longbottom and other director Paul Johnston "I'd rather not do it but can if you need me to", the inquest heard.

On Monday Mr Morris' widow Alison said her husband was 'extremely stressed', would not 'switch off', started experiencing night sweats, and became 'withdrawn' in the days before his death.

Mr Morris died around the time he went missing, according to pathologists.

A 17 day search commenced after his disappearance, with police admitting an 'error' in not fully searching the area of woodland he was eventually found in on day two of the search.

The inquest continues.

For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.
A former senior civil servant has been convicted of stalking a former colleague after camping out in Whitehall with a 'waiting for my Wilko' placard.

Economist Ray Israel-Wilkinson, 33, declared her love for Alex Wilkinson after working with him at the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport.

Mr Wilkinson told a court he felt violated after he was stalked by the former colleague who camped out outside the Government department holding the sign as she hoped to meet him on May 27 last year, prosecutor Jennifer Gatland said.

Ms Gatland said: 'This caused significant distress for Mr Wilkinson who had to change his routine, entrances and so forth.'

She claimed online to be married to him and even changed her surname to his.

Economist Ray Israel-Wilkinson (pictured), 33, declared her love for Alex Wilkinson after working with him at the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport

Jennifer Gatland, prosecuting, said Israel-Wilkinson (pictured) sat outside the department's Parliament Street office on May 27 last year with a homemade placard which said: 'Waiting for my Wilko'

Ms Gatland said: 'The defendant has also created social media pages claiming they are married and declaring her love for him.

'It seems she has also changed her name from Rayner Sultan to Ray-Israel-Wilkinson to give the impression they are married.'

Israel-Wilkinson refers to herself as 'Wilko's Ray' on her Twitter profile and calls him her king: 'Alexander Wilkinson is my King ?? (Wilko's Ray)'

Mr Wilkinson told Westminster Magistrates' Court she began to contact him shortly after leaving the department and insisted on meeting with him face-to-face.

'I wasn't comfortable because we didn't have any meaningful relationship,' said Mr Wilkinson. 'She is a former colleague.

'I felt quite violated. She was writing about how she was in love with me and insinuating that we'd had some romantic connection when we hadn't.'

When Mr Wilkinson looked her up on social media, he found a Twitter page with 5,000 followers where she claimed GCHQ was trying to stop them from being together.

The bio on the account reads: 'Please help my @alexwilko85 contact me. He is forced by evil souls to ostracise me. He loves me as much as I love him. My Wilko is unhappy. Please.'

Israel-Wilkinson has a second Twitter account with a pinned tweet of 104 love songs dedicated to Mr Wilkinson.

When Mr Wilkinson (pictured) looked her up on social media, he found a Twitter page with 5,000 followers where she claimed GCHQ was trying to stop them from being together

Israel-Wilkinson (pictured) has a second Twitter account with a pinned tweet of 104 love songs dedicated to Mr Wilkinson, the court heard

There are also LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram accounts dedicated to her obsession.

'The LinkedIn account was a professional account but at some point she changed it to talk about me,' said Mr Wilkinson.

'She set up Twitter to talk about her conversion from Islam to Judaism. Facebook and Instagram I believe were set up solely to talk about me.'

At the time she began turning up at the Whitehall office she was also sending Mr Wilkinson emails saying that she was homeless and describing her experiences.

Israel-Wilkinson's Twitter account (above) is titled 'Alexander Wilkinson is my King' and begs followers to help her get in touch with Mr Wilkinson

It also features a pinned video message where she asks Mr Wilkinson to get in touch with her

'She talked about being assaulted in train stations, she talked about gangs that had been pursuing her doing weird stuff,' said Mr Wilkinson.

'There was a gang trying to turn people into cute dogs. I was increasingly worried. It was quite difficult because you could see she was clearly in a bad mental state.'

Mr Wilkinson paused at one point as he choked up, then sipped a glass of water and wiped his eyes with a tissue.

'It's difficult to see someone who is suffering and associating that with you and you can't really do anything to help them.'

Israel-Wilkinson was arrested for harassing Mr Wilkinson but continued to sit outside the office despite bail conditions prohibiting her with banners and placards saying: 'This is not a protest. Waiting for my Wilko.'

In August 2021 she was sectioned and taken to hospital where she continued to email Mr Wilkinson.

She accused the hospital of physically restraining her and injecting her with drugs because she is ex-Muslim and claimed the Met Police and the British Government were responsible.

Israel-Wilkinson's LinkedIn profile states: 'Alex Wilkinson is my King ? (Mrs. Wilkinson)

'Wife of Alex Wilkinson. Economist. The spooks spy on me as a person of "intelligence value" so I've stopped being intelligent until they return my husband to me. Until then, I'm offline so I will NOT READ your messages.'

Israel-Wilkinson, of Milton Keynes, denied stalking Mr Wilkinson, between 16 June 2021 and 20 October 2021.

In August 2021 Wilkinson (pictured) was sectioned and taken to hospital where she continued to email Mr Wilkinson

She did not attend her trial and was convicted in her absence by District Judge Timothy Godfrey who issued a warrant for her arrest.

He said: 'I have been presented with an over-abundance of evidence that the defendant stalked Alexander Wilkinson in the period identified in the charge.

'The defendant has chosen not to attend her trial today but it is apparent that she does not dispute the prosecution evidence nor could she realistically do so.

'Her case is that her actions were not unreasonable, not unwelcome and that Mr Wilkinson had complained about her actions only by pressure from the HR department at DCMS.

'I comprehensively reject that case.

'It is plain to me that Mr Wilkinson's reaction to the unwarranted attention has principally been concern for her welfare and mental health.

'It is also apparent that the defendant's stalking behaviour has ground Mr Wilkinson down and has had an impact on him emotionally.'
The bereaved mother of two murdered sisters whose bodies were photographed by Met Police officers at the scene of their brutal stabbing has today accused Cressida Dick of gaslighting her in order to protect the force's 'brand'.

Mina Smallman said the outgoing Met Commissioner implied that officers taking the harrowing images of her daughters, Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, had been an isolated issue.

However Ms Smallman said Dame Cressida 'must have known that it wasn't an isolated incident' because at the time officers at another London police station were being investigated over jokes about rape, killing black children and beating their wives.

Earlier this month, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) the published WhatsApp and Facebook messages exchanged by the group of officers mainly based at Charing Cross Police station between 2016 and 2018.

The publication of the report sparked a huge backlash against the force, which already faced accusations of harbouring a culture of misogyny following the killing of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer.

Dame Cressida, who initially refused to quit over the report, resigned on February 10, ending her five years as the Met's top boss.

Speaking on BBC Woman's Hour about her own experience with Dame Cressida, Ms Smallman said: 'People thought I was being overly emotional and criticising the police on an isolated incident, but my instincts told me that that just wasn't wasn't the case.

Mina Smallman said the outgoing Met Commissioner implied that officers taking the harrowing images of her daughters, Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, had been an isolated issue. However Ms Smallman said Dame Cressida 'must have known that it wasn't an isolated incident' because at the time officers at another London police station were being probed over jokes about rape, killing black children and beating their wives.

Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman taken from Bibaa's phone on the night the pair were murdered

'Now, if you remember, the photographs of our girls were taken in 2020 and Cressida Dick was on record and said: "If this is true, it's appalling". Blah, blah.

'She already knew that there was an investigation going on... started in 2017 about WhatsApp groups. So she would have known that this wasn't an isolated incident.'

Ms Smallman added: 'When this (Charing Cross) report came out, I thought: "You knew, you knew, and you were all about protecting the brand".

Asked if she felt misled by the Commissioner, she said: 'I think she was smokescreening.'

The IOPC report on the Charing Cross officers found that issues with such messages 'are not isolated or historic'.

Former archdeacon Ms Smallman met with Dame Cressida in the wake of the murders of Ms Smallman and Ms Henry, who were stabbed to death at a birthday celebration in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, north-west London in June 2020.

Danyal Hussain, 19, a stranger who stabbed the two sisters to death to 'fulfil a deal with the devil', was jailed for 35 years for murdering the pair.

Following the discovery of their bodies, two constables, Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis, had been assigned to guard the scene of the killing.

But instead moved from their posts to take photographs of the bodies, which were then shared with colleagues and friends on WhatsApp.

One was a 'selfie-style' image on which Lewis had superimposed his face, and the victims were described as 'dead birds'.

Following the discovery of their bodies, two constables, Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis, had been assigned to guard the scene of the killing. But instead moved from their posts to take photographs of the bodies, which were then shared with colleagues and friends on WhatsApp.

Initially, Ms Smallman had backed the Commissioner to stay in her job, but told the BBC she became disillusioned after the murder of Sarah Everard and failings being identified in how the Met had dealt with the missing persons report for her daughters.

She said: 'Gradually I just began to see and understand that, you know, she was completely ineffectual.

'As a woman, I don't want to focus on her in that way. It's the job, it could have been a man, but it happens to be a woman and there's lots to celebrate about her career.

'But she failed in the key elements of women's safety, race issues, homophobia - you name it, it's rife. And not just in the Met.

'So in the end, I think her position became untenable, completely.'

Dame Cressida resigned last week after London Mayor Sadiq Khan withdrew his support.

It followed a series of high profile scandals, including the Charing Cross report, the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, and a report into the handling of the killing of PI Daniel Morgan which found the Met to be 'institutionally corrupt'.

Yesterday it was revealed Dame Cressida could stay in charge of Scotland Yard until after the controversial Partygate inquiry is complete.

Haggling has been going on behind the scenes over her departure day and the terms of a pay-off.

Her ultimate leaving date could be as far as two months away, meaning she will be at the helm when decisions are made on whether to fine Boris Johnson and a host of other Downing Street staff for lockdown-busting 'parties'.

The PM is believed to have attended six events under investigation, and confirmed on Friday that he has received a legal questionnaire from the Met.

There are claims he has drafted in a lawyer to write his response and will argue that the gatherings were 'part of working life' in No10 during the frenzied Covid response.

Negotiations between Dame Cressida and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan's office over her departure are likely to be finalised soon, after he abruptly triggered her resignation last week

Tories are increasingly alarmed that the Partygate inquiry will drag on to April, perilously close to crucial local elections the following month.

But a permanent Scotland Yard commissioner is unlikely to be in place before the summer, after a lengthy appointment process.

'We hope there will be a decision on Monday regarding the timescale of Cressida's departure, or certainly early in the week,' a Whitehall source said.

It is understood matters yet to be resolved include the size of Dame Cressida's payoff for leaving the job with more than two years left on her contract  a sum that could be more than 500,000  on top of her pension of around 160,000 a year.

Now Priti's favourite eyes top job Priti Patel's favourite candidate for the Metropolitan Police top job could be back in the running as she considers her next moves after a cancer battle, it is understood. Dame Lynne Owens is widely regarded as a shoo-in for the commissioner role if she decides to throw her hat into the ring. The former director general of the National Crime Agency retired last September after being diagnosed with breast cancer. But last night friends said she was 'out the other side' and has 'started to think about what's next'. She is widely respected in the Home Office, where there was deep regret that her health had ruled her out from taking over the Met last year. The incumbent commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, was given a two-year contract extension in September despite a series of scandals  largely because of the lack of obvious successors. Advertisement

'A new commissioner probably won't be actually at their desk until the summer. This is not a quick process,' the source added. An interim commissioner is likely to be appointed in the meantime.

It comes as Mr Khan indicated he would veto any candidate he felt was unsuitable.

He said he would only back a new commissioner who he felt had a proper grasp of the 'cultural problems' at the Met.

'As we start this important process, I make this commitment to Londoners  I will not support the appointment of a new commissioner unless they can clearly demonstrate that they understand the scale of the cultural problems within the Met and the urgency with which they must be addressed,' Mr Khan wrote in The Observer newspaper.

'In short, they need to get it, and they need to have a proper and robust plan to deal with it.'

But the Metropolitan Police Federation said it has 'no faith' in London Mayor Mr Khan.

Ken Marsh, chairman of the Federation, said the atmosphere among officers was 'rock bottom'.

He said: 'This is not a move we take lightly.

'We have let the Mayor's office know in no uncertain terms how our brave and diligent colleagues deserve better.

'The atmosphere amongst Metropolitan Police officers is horrendous  it's rock bottom. Officers in London feel saddened and angry that the Commissioner Cressida Dick has been pushed out in the way she has. She was reforming. She was changing. The culture is changing. We are deeply disappointed with the actions of the Mayor.

'The hard work of our colleagues  and public trust in our colleagues  is being undermined by politicians. And by the Mayor of London in particular. The continuing scaremongering, sniping and sweeping statements are causing disaffection with the public not the thousands and thousands of hard-working officers who are out there keeping people safe.'

He added: 'The Federation will continue to speak up for these courageous colleagues. They are being forgotten about by our elected Mayor. Enough is enough. Officers have no faith in Sadiq Khan.'

Government sources said the Home Office was keen to work with Mr Khan to appoint the best candidate as soon as possible.

'The Home Secretary is required by the legislation to take the Mayor's views into account, and she will,' a source said.

'The view is that we simply want the best cop in this job.'

Rules changes in 2014 allow ministers to appoint a foreign police officer to the commissioner role and the job will be advertised internationally, with the Home Office expected to approach the embassies of the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia within days.

However, the most likely scenario is that the new commissioner will be British, sources have said.

Those who receive Partygate questionnaires from the police are given seven days to respond.

There are reports Mr Johnson will use call logs and his diary to show how he was at three leaving parties for only a brief period of time before carrying on with work.

And a source told The Times: 'Saying goodbye to staff is part of working life.'

The Metropolitan Police has begun sending forms to up to 50 people believed to have attended gatherings in Whitehall during lockdown, including the Prime Minister and reportedly his wife Carrie Johnson.

The move means Mr Johnson will have to provide a credible reason as to why he was at events held during coronavirus restrictions or face a fine.

Mr Johnson is believed to have attended as many as six of the parties being investigating by the Metropolitan Police.

One such party was allegedly organised by friends of Carrie Johnson in the official Downing Street residence on November 13, 2020 - although she has denied the claims.
Former Republican National Committee Chair Marc Racicot wrote an open letter to RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel saying that the party may come to regret the censure of GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

Racicot, a former Republican governor of Montana, published the letter Sunday in the Billings Gazette, and advised McDaniel to withdraw and dismiss the censure resolution, which was passed by RNC members earlier htis month during the party's winter meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.

'I must confess, it is difficult to even know where to begin,' wrote Racicot, who ran the party from 2002 to 2003, calling it a 'sad day, indeed.'

Former Republican National Committee Chair Marc Racicot wrote an open letter to RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel saying that the party may come to regret the censure of GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger

Reps. Adam Kinzinger (left) and Liz Cheney (right) were censured by the RNC's membership at the party's winter meeting earlier this month in Salt Lake City, Utah. The censure document blasted the duo for participating in the Democrat-led January 6 House select committee

Racicot suggested to RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel (pictured) that she withdraw and dismiss the censure resolution, which he said could backfire and hurt the GOP's prospects in the 2022 midterms

'Based on my decades of engagement in Republican politics, my intuition tells me that you and the other members of the RNC will come to regret, if you don't already, the passage of the RNC Resolution,' he said.

Racicot went through the language of both the House resolution setting up the January 6 select committee and the language used to censure Kinzinger and Cheney, the only two Republicans taking part in the 1/6 investigation.

The censure resolution states that Kinzinger and Cheney's involvement in the committee could help Democrats stay in the majority through 2022.

It also said that Cheney and Kinzinger are 'participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.'

That phrasing - despite McDaniel saying it was meant to reference those swept up in the 1/6 probe that weren't at the Capitol that day - has led to criticism from members of both political parties.

'It appears possible, and maybe even probably, that the RNC resolution, with its incendiary language and histrionics, has advanced the very threat that you accuse Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger of creating, namely the diminution of the chances for Republican electoral success in 2022,' Racicot pointed out.

Racicot criticized the party for forgetting the 'the Great Middle,' which he said is 'in the process of organizing itself with a higher goal,' which is a 'return to simple, timeless and enduring values.'

'In the Republican National Committee's search for power for its own sake and its obsession with winning at any cost, you have sacrificed, by your proclamation and its revelation of the presently existing soul of the party, the allegiance of a great many, and a growing number, of your most ardent and long-time supporters,' Racicot warned.

Racicot also called out the RNC for suggesting Cheney and Kinzinger's actions were an effort to hurt former President Donald Trump.

'All of the above is to say that I have discovered no facts nor evidence, anywhere, of the "sabotage" or "persecution" or efforts to "destroy" the former president that serve as the basis for the accusations cited in the RNC Resolution and lodged against Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger,' he wrote.

'Quite the opposite, the evidence reveals two Republican members of the House of Representatives honorably performing their investigative duties and searching for the truth as members of a duly constituted investigative committee,' he continued. 'In other words, they're doing their job with fidelity and loyalty to the Constitution.'

Racicot said the House Republican leadership made the 'wrong decision' in refusing to participate in the House select committee.

'Now, having forfeited their opportunity to provide input into the Select Committee's work and deliberations, they are left with only one available option, namely, to close their eyes to the truth and curse the darkness,' he wrote.

Racicot also poured water on Trump's bogus claims that he lost the election due to widespread fraud.

'Although it is ever so neat and tidy to blame the defeat of the former president on the existence of decisive and widespread fraud, there is not even a scintilla of evidence, anywhere, to support such piffle,' the former RNC chair said.

'The former president didn't experience defeat in 2020 because of fraud,' he continued. 'The truth is quite the opposite.'

'The defeat of the former president is explained by the fact that legions of responsible citizens, part of that Great Middle of America, voted the way they did because they embraced the very fidelity to their county and its Constitution that the RNC claims to embrace in its Party Platform,' he added.

Racicot said what the RNC must do now is dismiss the resolution 'rebuking and deserting' Cheney and Kinzinger.

'I urge the pursuit of this remedy with the understanding that we're human, that politics is a competitive enterprise and that sometimes we make mistakes,' he advised. 'But I also believe in such a situation the final measure of our character is whether we have the insight and courage to humbly and honestly correct them.'
The great-grandmother pictured wielding an AK-47 in preparation for an invasion from Russia yesterday was taught how to use the weapon by a militia that started as a far right organisation and is accused of being neo-Nazis.

Valentyna Konstantynovska, 79, became the face of a civilian combat drill in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, when she was photographed looking down the sight of the gun.

The training aimed to teach members of the public basic military techniques as tensions continued to mount with Russian troops at the border.

It was one of several drills that have been carried out across the country to build up a rag-tag army  which includes children and a 'babushka battalion' among its ranks.

But it has now emerged the training was organised by the far-right Azov battalion  which has been accused of neo-Nazism and attacking LBTQ and Roma communities.

The 79-year-old great-grandmother pictured wielding an AK-47 in preparation for an invasion from Russia was taught how to use the weapon by the far-right movement Azov  which has previously faced accusations that it is a neo-Nazi group. Circled: The group's logo features a Wolfsangel, one of the original symbols used by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich in WWII

Valentyna Konstantynovska became the face of a civilian combat drill Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, when she was seen looking down the sight of the gun yesterday

Servicemen of the Azov battalion attend an oath ceremony in Kyiv in 2014. its original commander Andriy Biletsky said Ukraine's mission was to 'lead the white races of the world in a final crusade  against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]'

The movement, named after the nearby sea, is a nationalist militia that has been fighting against separatist groups in eastern Ukraine for nearly a decade.

Formed in 2014, the group's logo features a Wolfsangel, one of the original symbols used by the Nazi 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich in WWII.

Members of the group deny its association with Nazism and claim the symbol is actually an abbreviation in Ukrainian for National Idea.

However, its original commander Andriy Biletsky  who ran the openly anti-semitic Patriot of Ukraine organisation that was Azov's precursor  is now the leader of the far-right ultranationalist National Corps party.

In 2010, he said Ukraine's mission was to 'lead the white races of the world in a final crusade  against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]'.

It was formed to fight separatists when Russia first annexed Crimea, but has now become a subdivision of Ukraine's National Guard, which takes its orders directly from the country's Ministry of Affairs.

New leadership has attempted to publicly de-politicise the group and move it away from its Nazi origins, although many members still hold openly anti-semitic beliefs and sport swastika tattoos.

The Azov movement, named after the nearby sea, is a nationalist militia that has been fighting against separatist groups in eastern Ukraine for nearly a decade. Pictured: An Azov battalion member takes out a gun at the event yesterday

And the group has openly assaulted feminist, LGBT, and leftist activists, and cleared a Roma camp with hammers and axes in recent years, according to Foreign Policy.

The battalion is still described as a 'nationalist hate group' by the US State Department has been banned on Facebook.

As such, the fact it was organising the event yesterday was kept hidden on social media, and many of those in attendance were unaware of its involvement.

Ms Konstantynovska said she does not share the political leanings of the battalion and, like many, simply wanted military training in an increasingly destabilised region.

It was the first time safety or awareness training had been offered in the city, which has been in conflict for eight years.

She told local media: 'I am ready to shoot if something happens. I will defend my home, my city, my children.

'I will do this because I think I'm ready for it. I don't want to lose my country, my city.'

But not all who attended share her reservations about showing support for the group.

A woman holds a weapon during a basic combat training for civilians, organised by the Azov movement in Mariupol yesterday

An Azov battalion member instructs a young woman on how to hold a Kalashnikov assault rifle

Liudmyla Smahlenko, 65  who lost a relative that was fighting separatists in 2015  said the militia have become like sons to her.

She told Al Jazeera: 'We are already a babushka battalion. In 2014, we dug trenches, set up field bases and since we donate our pillows and blankets, plates, mugs  we bring them everything we can.'

The volunteer militia are seen by many as the defenders of Mariupol, reclaiming the city after it was taken over by Russian-backed separatists in 2014.

Members of the group said it will continue to offer training and guidance as the country eagerly awaits an end to mounting tensions at the border.

An Azov commander, who asked for anonymity, told Al Jazeera: 'We can't stick our head in the sand because it's irresponsible at best, so we organised this event today specifically to take responsibility on our own shoulders.

'The civilans here are our responsibility and they need to know we will stand here to the last drop of blood. We will stand by our land until we die.'

Russia has today claimed it is withdrawing some of its forces from Crimea and the Ukraine border region after training drills, in what could be the first sign of a climb-down by Vladimir Putin

Russia announced that it will withdraw some of its troops from the Ukrainian border today.

The move was welcomed with cautious optimism by NATO and the West  with observers warning that the apparent de-escalation is yet to be confirmed by movements on the ground.

Jens Stoltenburg, NATO chief executive, said there is room for 'cautious optimism' after weeks of escalating tensions  amid signs from Russia that the diplomatic route to ending the crisis has not yet been closed off.

But he also warned that Putin still maintains a large military presence near Ukraine, has the ability to attack at short notice, and that there has been no evidence yet of a drawn-down of forces  despite Moscow claiming some units are leaving after training exercises.

He remarks echo those of Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's defence minister, who said that Kiev and its Western allies have prevented any 'further escalation' of tensions.

He added: 'We have a rule: don't believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation.'

Boris Johnson was equally skeptical, saying that Russia continues to build field hospitals which 'can only be construed as preparations' for an attack .

He urged Putin to stop sending 'mixed signals' while calling for Western allies to remain 'tough and united'.
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Vladimir Putin played magnanimous peacemaker today insisting that he 'of course' doesn't want war in Ukraine hours after announcing a theatrical 'withdrawal' of some of his forces while massing tens of thousands of troops along the border

The strongman, speaking at the Kremlin alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said he is 'ready to go down the negotiations track' and engage over issues such as arms control, transparency around military drills, and other measures aimed at reducing sky-high tensions between East and West.

Russia's apparent withdrawal is being treated with extreme scepticism in the West, where intelligence agencies suspect is could be part of a ruse to launch a smaller military operation in the regions of Eastern Ukraine where Russian separatists are fighting.

Putin also insisted that the fate of two breakaway Ukrainian regions - where Moscow-backed rebels are fighting the government - should form part of talks because 'genocide' is underway there. And he again accused the West of ignoring his demand that Ukraine is banned from NATO, underlining how far apart the two sides still are.

He said: 'Of course we don't want it [war],'

'This is exactly why we put forward the proposal to start the negotiation process where the result should be an agreement of ensuring equal security of everyone, including our country.

'Unfortunately there was no constructive response to this proposal.

'Nevertheless we come from a position that even in the documents that were forwarded to us from NATO and Washington there are elements that can be discussed.'

Hours before he spoke, Moscow announced that some troops and tanks stationed near Ukraine are being returned to their home bases - a move that was welcomed with cautious optimism by Western leaders who said it sends the right signal, but doesn't change the fact that Russia could still invade at short notice.

Boris Johnson accused Putin of sending 'mixed messages': Calling for negotiations on one hand while building field hospitals on the frontlines, a move he said 'can only be construed as preparations for an invasion.'

Jens Stoltenburg, NATO chief, said he has seen no evidence that Russia is drawing down its forces but that signals coming from the Kremlin give room for 'cautious optimism'.

Ukrainian defence minister Dmytro Kuleba credited Western efforts to avert war as the reason for Moscow's change of stance, but added: 'Don't believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a [Russian] withdrawal, we will believe [it.]'

Putin spoke at a joint press conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said West and East remain divided but it is up to leader to find solutions while avoiding conflict

Vladimir Putin has insisted that Russia is 'ready to go down the negotiations track' with the West - opening up the possibility of talks on arms control, military transparency and other measures aimed at reducing tensions

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right) sits down with Putin (left) in the Kremlin - the latest foreign leader to be given the 'long table treatment' - for talks aimed at deescalating the crisis today

Russia has today claimed it is withdrawing some of its forces from Crimea and the Ukraine border region after training drills, in what could be the first sign of a climb-down by Vladimir Putin

Video released by the Russian defence ministry early Tuesday showed columns of tanks being loaded on to train transports in Crimea, as the foreign ministry slammed what it called Western 'war propaganda' over an invasion

Tanks are pictured leaving a Russian base in the Ukraine border region, which it claims is part of a withdrawal from the region - despite Washington warning that troops are actually moving closer to the border

Ukraine today hailed Western efforts aimed at preventing a war, saying they appear to be working as Russian forces withdraw (pictured) while also cautioning that the 'withdrawal' might not be what it seems

The Kremlin announced that it was withdrawing a limited number of units from the borders of Ukraine

Alexei Navalny, Putin's fiercest critic and political rival, appeared in court in Russia today for a 'show trial' that could see him locked up for a decade. His supporters say the Ukraine build-up has distracted from his fate

 Slide me  Russia has begun moving vehicles from assembly areas to forward staging points in what observers fear could be one of the last moves before an invasion of Ukraine. Left is an assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, filled with tanks on January 19 and right is the same area - empty of tanks - pictured on Sunday

 Slide me  One forward staging area appears to be Soloti, just 20 miles from the Ukraine border. Satellites show a camp of Russian troops in the region on January 12 (left) and the same camp but expanded with the arrival of new troops and vehicles on February 13 (right)

 Slide me  Satellite images show a Russian assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, on January 19 (left) and the same area on February 13 (right) with some tents removed and deep wheel ruts in the snow as men and vehicles are moved closer to the border

Don't believe your eyes: Russia's record of denying its military activities Syria Putin, who lent his backing to dictator Bashar al Assad during the Syrian civil war, claimed in 2016 that the conflict had been won and ordered his forces out. For several weeks some of Moscow's troops did indeed leave the country, but the bulk remained and in 2020 Putin ordered his generals to expand their bases at Tartus and Hmeimim. Thousands of troops backed by warships, submarines and helicopters are still deployed in Syria to this day, ostensibly to fight ISIS but in reality to boost Russia's military presence in the eastern Mediterranean. Crimea When the 2014 Euromaidan revolution ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych - a Moscow stooge - Putin quickly marched troops into the country and annexed Crimea, the site of important Russian bases. At the same time, Putin consistently denied he was doing anything of the sort - refusing to acknowledge any Russian troops were in the country and claiming they were 'self-defence units' created by locals instead. He even went so far as to order troops to remove the Russian insignia from their uniforms, which saw them dubbed 'little green men'. Only weeks later, after Crimea had voted in a referendum to become part of Russia, did Putin at last admit what the world already knew. MH17 In July 2014, as fighting between Moscow-backed rebels and the Ukrainian government raged in the country's east, a Malaysia airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot out of the sky - killing all 298 people. The missile used to shoot it down was fired by a Russian BUK launcher supplied by Moscow's forces to rebel commanders - who opened fire after mistaking the passenger jet for a military aircraft. Despite years of investigations by state prosecutors and observer groups that has conclusively pointed the finger of blame at Russia, Moscow continues to deny that it had anything to do with the tragedy. Russia has also refused to extradite commanders blamed for organising the operation so they can face trial, which is currently underway at the Hague. Advertisement

In a sign of Moscow's likely demands during talks with the West, lawmakers in Russia's rubber-stamp parliament today voted on a resolution to officially recognise the breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine as independent republics.

The resolution calls on Putin to recognise the self-appointed governments in Donetsk and Luhansk - two regions that immediately border Russian and have large Russian-speaking minorities - as legitimate and to help with their security.

Should Putin sign off on the resolution, it would pave the way for over movement of Russian troops and military hardware into the regions.

The Kremlin has previously suggested it would not sign such a document, but the threat of doing so could provide useful leverage in negotiations.

Preparations for talks were laid weeks ago, when Russia sent a list of security demands to NATO and the US - including that Ukraine be banned from the alliance and all its forces withdrawn from ex-Soviet states.

Those demands have been dismissed, but both NATO and the US sent written responses back laying out other areas where they were willing to talk - such as expired Cold War arms treaties, transparency around missile placements in Europe, information sharing around military drills, and other measures.

In a meeting with Putin on Monday, Russia's chief negotiator Sergei Lavrov stressed that - while not perfect - there is enough on the table to pursue negotiations, to a nod of approval from his boss.

Lavrov said he has prepared a 10-page response to the US and NATO letters, which has yet to be delivered.

Delivery of that note will likely form the next step in reopening talks between the two side.

But in a sign that the US still views the threat of a Russian attack as very real, the State Department ordered the temporary closure of its embassy in Kiev on Monday along with the destruction of its computers.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the embassy was being moved further to the west as part of a 'prudent' move to ensure it would not be at risk in the event that Russia attacked.

Moscow-backed rebel groups based in Donetsk and Luhansk declared themselves independent of Kiev's control in 2014, following Putin's invasion of Crimea, and have been fighting against government forces ever since.

As part of the resolution, Moscow would be instructed to negotiate with leaders of the regions on security and guarantee 'protection of their peoples from external threats and the implementation of policies of genocide.'

Some observers fear this could serve as a pre-text to invasion, after the Kremlin used a similar justification following its 2014 attack. Putin has not given any indication of how he would respond to such a demand.

Meanwhile Liz Truss, the UK defence secretary, continued to insist today that a Russian invasion appears to be imminent and that troops could reach Kiev 'very, very quickly'.

'This is ... about the wider stability of Europe,' she told Sky News. 'And it's about wider global stability, and the message that we give to aggressors and we have to give the message to Vladimir Putin that there can be no reward for aggression.'

Asked about reports that Russia is withdrawing forces from the border, she added that 'we will need to see a full scale removal of troops to show that is true.'

Truss echoed politicians in the United States who have warned that a so-called 'false flag' operation could be used by Moscow to trigger a conflict.

'It is still the case that an invasion could be imminent, and it is highly likely,' she said.

She spoke after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said late Monday that Europe is 'on the edge of a precipice'  but added, 'there is still time for President Putin to step back.'

Mr Johnson was due to chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee today to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine, as a Downing Street source said there was 'some hope' that diplomacy could work and Russia could step back.

 Slide me  Russian tanks and other vehicles are seen parked in an assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, in a satellite image taken on February 4 (left) and the same area is pictured empty of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they have been moved to staging areas closer to the Ukraine border

 Slide me  An assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, is seen filled with Russian military vehicles on February 4 (left) while the same area is pictured emptied of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they are being repositioned for an invasion

Train cars loaded with Russian artillery units are pictured at a station in Yelnya, Russia, as American officials warn they are being moved closer to Ukraine in what appears to be final preparations for an attack

Newly-arrived Russian Mil Mi-26 heavy lifting helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Machulishchy, Belarus, as American officials warn Putin could be just hours away from giving the order to attack

A newly-arrived unit of Russian attack helicopters is pictured at an airfield in Belgorod, Russia, in this satellite image taken on February 13

Russian transport and attack helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Lake Donuzlav, Crimea, on February 13 as Putin builds up his aerial forces ahead of an invasion that the US fears could come this week

Sukhoi Su-34 fighters are pictured at Primorsko-Akhtarsk airbase in Russia, having been newly deployed near the frontlines with Ukraine amid fears they will be used to assist an invasion of the country

A Russian troop garrison at Zyabrovka air base in Belarus with a field hospital set up (beige tents, bottom right) is seen in this satellite image taken on February 10

A Russian troop encampment at Novoozernoye, in occupied Crimea, is pictured on February 9 with a field hospital (cross-shaped tent, bottom right) set up nearby

Russia deploys mine-laying system despite claims of withdrawal from Ukrainian border Russia has deployed a new remote mine-laying system to the eastern Ukrainian border, despite the Kremlin's claims that Russian troops are withdrawing. Western military analysts scepticism about the Russian withdrawal increased after intelligence sources indicated that the Zemledeliye system, which scatters mines to the flanks of advancing troops, was being deployed near Ukraine. With a range of more than 9 miles, the system effectively creates a safe path for its own troops by dropping mines to the right and left sides of the ongoing advance. Just one volley can instantly scatter mines over an area the size of several football pitches  creating ready-made protected corridors for friendly troops. Electronic sensors embedded in the munitions show the offensive troops where the danger area extends to. The system is now being distributed to engineer troops in the 8th, 49th and 58th combined arms armies in the strategic Southern Military District, according to military sources. The system is designed to operate alongside mobile groups of TOS-1A heavy flamethrower systems, cynically code-named by the Kremlin Sunburn or blazing sun. TOS-1A, mounted on a T-72 tank chassis, comprises a 220 mm multiple rocket launcher that fires thermobaric fuel-air incendiary missiles, which bring a fearsome fireball down on top of enemy troops hunkering down in trenches or in tunnels. TOS-1A can fire a salvo of up to 24 rockets at a time from a range of between 600m and 6km. Advertisement

France's foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, told French television that 'all elements' were in place for a strong Russian offensive, but 'nothing shows today' that Putin has decided to launch one.

Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was in Kiev on Monday - and flies to Moscow to meet Putin on Tuesday - and said that the Russian leader should not underestimate the resolve of Ukraine's allies.

'If Russia violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine again, we know what to do,' Scholz said.

'In the event of military escalation, we are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in coordination with our allies.'

He said there are 'no sensible reasons' for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders to the north, south and east, and he urged more dialogue.

In Moscow, Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, held a meeting for the cameras at which Lavrov appealed for more time for diplomacy.

The talks 'can't go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,' Lavrov said.

He noted that Washington has offered to conduct dialogue on limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Lavrov said possibilities for talks 'are far from being exhausted.'

'I would propose continuing and intensifying them,' he said.

Putin responded: 'Good.'

Lavrov then, front of the cameras, told Putin he had directed his diplomats to demand 'security guarantees' from the West, such as a legally binding pledge that Ukraine will never join the NATO alliance.

'Our initiative shook up our Western colleagues and became the reason they have no longer been able to ignore many of our previous appeals,' Lavrov told the Russian leader.

Lavrov also said that Russia had prepared a 10-page response in its written back-and-forth with NATO and the United States over the Kremlin's security demands.

The United States reacted coolly to Lavrov and Putin's show.

'The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,' said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House principal deputy press secretary.

'However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.'

U.S. officials said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders.

A U.S. defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

Satellite images taken over the last 48 hours show increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Kremlin on Tuesday, as he prepares for talks with Vladimir Putin

Scholz is in Moscow today for talks with Putin, with the Kremlin saying it expects 'prolonged' discussions between the two because they have 'a lot to discuss'

Russian troops form an honour guard at the Kremlin for German Chancellor Scholz as he arrives in Moscow to meet Putin

COVID-anxious Vladimir Putin again deployed an extremely long table to keep his distance as he took stock with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Monday

President Joe Biden, seen here with first lady Jill Biden, spoke with British PM Boris Johnson Monday. The U.S. is urging Russia to pursue diplomacy to avert a crisis over its possible invasion of Ukraine

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The photos also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation, according to Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup.

U.S. troops, meanwhile, flew from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to the region.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden formally approved the deployment of 3,000 US troops to Poland, Germany and Romania, to reassure U.S. allies.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the deployments included roughly 2,000 troops that would deploy from the United States to Poland and Germany.

In addition, approximately 1,000 troops currently based in Germany were moving to Romania.

Kirby said the moves were not permanent and emphasized: 'These forces are not going to fight in Ukraine.'

The Biden administration said Saturday that it was pulling 160 Florida National Guard members from Ukraine, where they have been advising the Ukrainian military since November, 'out of an abundance of caution.'

Kirby said Monday that 'we have said for a while now that military action now could happen any day.'

'It is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning,' Kirby said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

'It certainly could happen before the end of the Olympics - maybe even this week,' he said.

Biden has repeatedly stressed that U.S. troops will not be engaged in combat in Ukraine.

In an hour-long call with the Russian president on Saturday, Biden said the United States and its allies would 'respond decisively' to a Russian invasion of Ukraine. On Sunday, Biden spoke to Zelensky and stressed the United States' commitment to Ukraine.

Biden told Zelensky that the U.S. would respond aggressively to any attack, the White House said, through sanctions and other measures to level a high cost for Russia.

Zelensky asked Biden to visit Ukraine, but U.S. officials said a trip is 'highly unlikely.'

Ukrainian security and defense council chief Oleksiy Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of 'internal destabilization' by unspecified forces.

'Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th,' he told reporters after meeting lawmakers.

'We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.'

Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne division walk across the tarmac at Green Ramp to deploy to Poland on February 14, 2022 at Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, North Carolina

Members of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army prepare for deployment to Poland from Fort Bragg on Monday

The U.S. troops wait to board their flight in North Carolina on Monday, bound for Poland

Soldiers sleep as they wait to board their flight to Europe on Monday from North Carolina

The race to Kiev: Plans presented by Kremlin military chiefs show how 130,000 Russian forces will bid to topple Ukraine government in 'multi-axis' invasion from Belarus and Crimea

Russian troops will set off on a 'race to Kiev' to topple the Ukrainian government, according to plans presented by Kremlin military chiefs.

Tens of thousands of Putin's soldiers will push south into Ukraine to target the capital and install a pro-Russian regime, Western officials fear.

There will also be a 'multi-axis' invasion by Russian forces. Troops will enter the country from Belarus and Crimea before converging in eastern Ukraine.

Their mission will be to align themselves to prevent Ukrainian forces in the east of the country heading back to defend Kiev.

T-72B3 Main Battle Tanks of Russian Army take part in a military drill in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 14, 2022

With speed of movement being critical to Russia's strategy, lighter vehicles and weapons systems have apparently been selected for the ground offensive.

More Russian troops, possibly an extra 20,000, are being added to the invasion force which is currently 130,000-strong.

A source said: 'The build-up of soldiers and equipment is unprecedented and very alarming. This is a force built for the purpose of an invasion. It is estimated a further 14 Russian brigades are heading for the Ukrainian border.

'The logistics are also in place, the medical back-up as well as air and naval assets. We have seen the build-up of Russian vessels in the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Holidays have also been cancelled for many Russian units.

'In total you are looking at 60 per cent of Russia's overall combat power being engaged in this operation.

'The land threat has also been made more potent by the disposition of their attacking forces. Russia has basically traded mass for speed knowing they must get to Kiev as quickly as possible.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, soldiers practice at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus

'They must also rapidly get other units to eastern Ukraine to form a barrier stopping Ukrainian units pushing back west to save the capital city.'

According to sources, detailed invasion plans will be presented imminently to President Putin, who has still yet to make a final decision on the invasion.

Putin is expected to meet his defence minister Sergey Shoygu and the head of Russia's secret services Alexander Bortnikov before committing to war.

That's because the UK, the US and the EU will launch a blitzkrieg on Russia's banking system and financial services industry if Russia invades.

Kiev is lightly defended because most Ukrainian troops have been stationed in the east fighting Russian separatists since 2014.

The Ukrainian capital is only 150 miles via the E95 highway from Belarus's southern border  a journey Russian tanks could make in six hours.

A source added: 'Once they get to Kiev the Russians are reluctant to send their troops into situations where they could be fighting street by street. Such a close quarter battle would likely lead to heavy casualties, both military and civilian. The Russians don't want to get bogged down.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Russia February 14, 2022

'They're hoping for a 'bloodless coup', to oust the democratically elected government and put their people in without much of a struggle.

'They are probably underestimating the willingness of the Ukrainians to fight for their country, they are not just going to roll over. So it could get very bloody.'

While the state-controlled media claims the crisis is Nato's fault, there is little or no appetite within Russia for conflict with their neighbour.

'Russians see Ukrainians as being like themselves, many Russians also have Ukrainian relatives. There is little opposition to a possible war because of the Kremlin's control of the media.

'This could change quickly if a lot of people are killed,' a source said. 'An actual invasion would also prove expensive for Russia financially and politically as it would suffer heavy economic sanctions and become a pariah state.'
Mother-of-two Lisa Keogh, 29, was investigated by Abertay University in Dundee after saying 'women have vaginas'

A law student who is suing her university after being investigated for saying 'women have vaginas' is standing for Alex Salmond's Alba Party in the local elections.

Mother-of-two Lisa Keogh, 29, was probed by Abertay University last summer after classmates complained about her supposedly 'inappropriate' and 'discriminatory' remarks about biological sex during an online seminar on gender politics.

But following a two-month investigation, which took place in her final year, the university disciplinary board decided not to uphold the misconduct charge against her, finding no evidence Keogh had discriminated against anyone.

Speaking to MailOnline in November, Miss Keogh said the university's actions had amounted to 'a direct attack on my right to free speech', and she previously said she was the victim of a 'modern day witch-hunt'.

Keogh is seeking compensation for stress she claims was caused by the incident, and SNP MP for Edinburgh South West, Joanna Cherry QC, has been instructed to help with the legal action.

Now Keogh has revealed she will contest the Arbroath West, Letham and Friockheim ward in the May 5 local elections, seeking to be elected to one of four available seats.

The mother of two was hauled before a disciplinary panel after making her comments during a seminar on transgender issues

Mother-of-two Lisa Keogh, 29, was probed by Abertay University last summer after classmates complained about her 'inappropriate' and 'discriminatory' remarks about biological sex during an online seminar on gender politics

She said: 'I want to represent my local community. I want to be part of beneficial changes and I want to have a positive impact on my local area. I will listen to everyone and I will help where I can and I won't promise things I can't deliver.'

Keogh also stated she believed there was a 'threat' to women's rights in Scotland and she wanted to help struggling families out of poverty.

Her supporters passed on their good wishes online.

One said: 'Good luck Lisa. We need women who will defend women's rights and not give them away.'

Another added: 'Brilliant. They're lucky to have you and so are all the women and girls in Angus.'

A third posted: 'Thank goodness. I was worried I was going to have no one worthy enough to vote for. You have another vote in the bag lovely. Count me in.'

More than 14,700 has been raised by Keogh after she appealed for help funding her case online. She aims to raise a total of 25,000.

Speaking earlier, Keogh said: 'I believe that universities have an obligation to protect their students in exercising their academic freedom of speech.

'I believe that Abertay University acted unlawfully in pursuing this vexatious complaint against me and I believe Abertay University must protect all of their students, not just a select few.'

Abertay University had earlier confirmed they were aware of the action.

Former first minister Salmond launched Alba in March last year but failed to win any seats in the elections for the Scottish Parliament in May.
When I found out the Super Bowl was being held in Los Angeles my first thought was: What are they going to do about their mask mandates?

California's now infamously draconian Covid restrictions, led by one of the figureheads of the lockdown hysteria, Governor Gavin Newsom, have prompted push back and protest across the state.

Many blue states, such as California and New York, have become embodiments of the most extreme measures put into place in our country.

Both states have seen a mass exodus of citizens fleeing for the freedom of red states.

Now in many cases, while liberal governors and local officials have moved to relax some Covid rules, they've continued to double down on others.

California officials announced on Monday that they're keeping school mask mandates in place for at least two more weeks, even after indoor mask requirements for vaccinated adults were lifted.

These latest changes come despite the fact that over, and over, and over again science has shown children to be the least likely to be impacted by Covid-19.

It's only the adults who really matter.

The official rule was that all spectators were required to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status. Of course, no one actually did wear masks. (Above) Actress Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres at the Super Bowl

There is a picture that has since gone viral , which was tweeted by Arkansas Senate candidate Jake Bequette (above)

Nowhere was irrational Covid policy more obvious than at the Super Bowl.

The official rule was that all spectators were required to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status. Of course, no one actually did wear masks.

There was also a loophole for those 'actively eating or drinking,' though I'm pretty sure that Covid can still spread when you're chewing.

Prince Harry appeared to take full advantage of this clause.

In the stands, Harry wore a mask while sitting next to his cousin Princess Eugenie, but backstage while meeting Cedric the Entertainer and drinking he took his mask off.

There is another picture that has since gone viral, which was tweeted by Arkansas Senate candidate Jake Bequette.

The image shows comedian Ellen DeGeneres taking a selfie at the Super Bowl maskless, surrounded by people in the large arena.

Next to the picture of a maskless Ellen is a picture of a member of the Army National Guard in his uniform and wearing a mask outside.

The now infamous 'rules for thee but not for me' slogan was being showcased, live to the biggest television audience in America.

Was this allowed at the Super Bowl because we have collectively accepted -- that for all intents and purposes -- that we are going to have to live with Covid rather than completely upend every aspect of our lives for it?

Or was enforcement of the mask mandate less harsh because there were so many powerful people and celebrities attending?

Is it an implicit acknowledgement that if they don't live by their own rules, we shouldn't have to either?

My favorite new update on the double standard for celebrities is the recent announcement that you don't have to be vaccinated to attend the Oscars.

This seems to confirm the suspicions that there are a lot more hypocrites in Hollywood, who are unvaccinated.

Clearly, there are enough unvaccinated celebs to impact the estimated attendance of their awards ceremony.

But again, it's the bottom line that is important.

Nowhere was irrational Covid policy more obvious than at the Super Bowl. (Above) Cedric the Entertainer shared an image of his meeting with Prince Harry at the Super Bowl

Was enforcement of the mask mandate less harsh because there were so many powerful people and celebrities attending? (Above) Matt Damon and Charlize Theron

Was this allowed at the Super Bowl because we have collectively accepted -- that for all intents and purposes -- that we are going to have to live with Covid rather than completely upend every aspect of our lives for it? (Above) Actor Tracy Morgan and celebrity chef Martha Stewart

In Washington D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser just announced that she is lifting the official mask and vaccine mandate in the city, however children are still required to be masked in schools starting at two years old.

And a new council bill mandating that eligible students be vaccinated will go into effect by March.

Let's make this crystal clear, celebrities don't have to be masked at the Super Bowl or show proof of vaccination to go to the Academy Awards, but our children - at much lower risk! - will have to be masked with no end in sight and be vaccinated to be educated.

It all raises the question, what is the point of all of this?

These laws and rules are illogical, arbitrary, and completely politicized.

Newsom admitted that teachers unions in his state are influencing his decision to keep kids masked in schools.

'They just asked for a little bit more time, and I think that's responsible, and I respect that,' he reportedly said.

If I drive ten minutes over the bridge to Washington D.C. there is an entirely different set of rules than in the state of Virginia.

Nothing about any of this is 'following the science.'

Much has been made of blue state governors announcing recent rollbacks to their policies, but it seems to be driven by those who spend money and vote - adults - and not kids.

I don't understand why these politicians leading blue states continue to double down on these rules for kids, continuing to hurt the most vulnerable in our population, who cannot advocate for themselves and will certainly feel the most long-term damage.

I can go to a concert, the gym, a packed bar and restaurant without a mask but a two-year-old has to sit in a classroom for hours every day with a mask on?

Go to hell, all of you.

So why don't we all collectively come together and agree to live in reality.

The Super Bowl is what has finally killed the pandemic bogeyman once and for all.

The Super Bowl is what has finally killed the pandemic bogeyman once and for all. (Above) Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck

The now infamous 'rules for thee but not for me' slogan was being showcased, live to the biggest television audience in America. (Above) NBA player LeBron James attends Super Bowl LVI

How can anyone justify what has become extreme health theater and has done nothing to 'stop the spread' or prevent people from getting Covid.

To get into the Super Bowl you either needed to show proof of vaccination, or get tested 48 hours ahead of time.

Within the 48 hours of a person testing, they could have you can contracted Covid and brought it to the event.

The rules are completely devoid of all logic.

There is no rational person who could watch the Super Bowl on Sunday and not come to the conclusion that we are now living with Covid-19 and things have returned to as much normalcy as we are all capable of experiencing after going through so much collective trauma the past few years.

Admitting your opposition to a return to normalcy is admitting you're not living in reality any more.

So instead of shaming my Hollywood and liberal friends, why don't we ask them to -- at long last -- join the rest of us in living as things are instead of playing pretend?

As the other old adage goes, if you can't beat em', join 'em.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday marked Black History Month with a message repeating his promise to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court and calling for the end of 'systemic racism.'

The president has vowed to make his historic nomination to the high court by the end of the month.

'Very soon, I'll be honored to nominate the first black woman in American history to serve on the United States Supreme Court,' the president said in a video message posted to the White House's social media accounts.

In his remarks, he praised the contributions of African Americans throughout U.S. history and touted the accomplishments of his administration.

'We've worked hard to reverse decades of underinvestment in black communities, from vaccine shots in the arms, to checks in pockets, to tax cuts for working families or children, to landmark investment of $5.8 billion in historically black college university,' Biden said.

He ended with a call to dismantle systemic racism.

Systemic racism, also known as institutional racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. Advocates say one way to combat it is to elevate minorities to high-level positions, such as Biden is pledging to do by putting a black woman on the Supreme Court.

'And we're not going to rest until we protect the foundation of our democracy, the sacred right to vote as we celebrate Black History Month. Let's carry forward the work of our lives together to dismantle systemic racism in every part of our society - to fight for dignity and to fulfill America's promise for everyone,' Biden said in the two-minute video.

President Biden marked Black History Month with a message repeating his promise to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court and a call to dismantle systemic racism

The White House said President Biden is on track to name his pick for the Supreme Court by the en of the month

The White House has said President Biden is on track to make his Supreme Court nomination by the end of the month although spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday he has not begun in person interviews with his top contenders.

'No potential interviews,' she said at the daily press briefing.

Biden has given no indication of who he will name but Federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson; Leondra Kruger, a justice on California's Supreme Court; and Federal Judge J. Michelle Childs are all said to be high on the list of possiblities.

Kruger, a state judge, would likely face a longer confirmation process than Jackson or Childs. Kruger has never been through a federal confirmation process nor faced the Senate Judiciary Committee. Jackson and Childs, both of whom are federal judges, already have been voted on by the Senate for their current positions.

Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Politico that Kruger would take longer if that is who Biden nominates.

'The other two leading nominees have either been through the process or are in the process,' Durbin said.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accused Bidenof being 'offensive' by promising to nominate a black woman to the high court, arguing he should nominate the most qualified person.

'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.'

President Biden has said he has done a deep dive on 'four people' he is considering and that he wants someone in the mode of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

'I've taken about four people and done the deep dive on them - meaning this thorough background checks, and see if there's anything in the background that would make them not qualify,' he told NBC's Lester Holt.

Biden also said he thinks whomever he chooses can get the support of some Republican senators.

'I think we'll whomever I think we'll get a vote from the Republican side for the following reason - I'm not looking to make an ideological choice,' Biden said.

'I'm looking for someone that plays Judge Breyer with the same kind of capacity Judge Breyer had with an open mind, who understands it constitution interprets it in a way that is consistent with the mainstream interpretation of the Constitution.'

Biden met with Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee at the White House late last week.

The president has reached out to some Republicans, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Mitt Romney.

Biden has given no indication of who he will name but Federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (left), Leondra Kruger, a justice on California's Supreme Court (center), and Federal Judge J. Michelle Childs (right) are all said to be possiblities

Breyer announced at the end of January he will retire at the end of the court's term, which is usually around late June.

His decision to retire after more than 27 years on the court allows Biden to appoint a successor who could serve for several decades. Biden's appointee should keep the court's current 6-3 split between conservative and liberal justices.

Senate Democrats are promising a swift vote in order to get the nominee confirmed.

Biden only needs 51 votes to get his nominee confirmed. If all Democrats vote with him in the 50-50 Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris could be the tie breaker.

Complicating matters slightly is the fact that Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan is out after suffering from a stroke. He's at home recovering in New Mexico.

Lujan released a video update this week saying he was doing well and would return to his Senate duties in a 'few short weeks.' He noted that he would be voting on the next Supreme Court justice.
Staff at one of Britain's top universities have passed a motion of no-confidence in its 519,000 President and her chief financial officer.

Imperial College London president Professor Alice Gast had refused to step down despite a report finding she contributed to a culture of bullying.

An inquiry in 2020 said she presided over a toxic workplace where staff were treated like naughty little children.

She had bullied one colleague by undermining her both personally and professionally, damaging the victims self-esteem and self-confidence and leading to lack of sleep and weight loss.

Imperial College London president Professor Alice Gast  who earns 519,000 a year  presides over a toxic workplace where staff are treated like naughty little children, witnesses told a secret bullying and harassment inquiry in 2020

College chief financial officer Muir Sanderson also came under heavy criticism in the report

The internal report also found apparent mockery of ethnic minorities. Professor Gasts close associate, college chief financial officer Muir Sanderson, made what appears to have been a racially-charged remark about someone [leaving] the plantation, independent investigator Jane McNeill, QC, wrote.

He regarded a comment by a former senior employee about a one-armed black lesbian as a joke and had bullied two colleagues, calling one woman young lady and telling her to watch her tone.

Some of his behaviour was abhorrent, the report said. Professor Gast was aware he was regarded as a bully, but tackling it was not high on her list of priorities.

While the investigation did not identify systemic bullying across the college, the pair created or contributed to a culture which involves and tolerates favouritism, exclusion, the making of disparaging comments about others and at times a lack of respect for others.

Imperial College London, pictured, president Professor Alice Gast earns 519,000 a year

Both issued grovelling apologies earlier this month, with Professor Gast saying in an email she had found the process personally devastating.

Professor Gast said: 'I am very sorry that I bullied someone. I have offered full apologies to colleagues who have been personally affected.'

Mr Sanderson said: 'The bullying was during a three-week period this year when I was under significant pressure. However, that is no excuse.'

Earlier Barry Jones, of the UCU, said: It is shameful that president Alice Gast and CFO Muir Sanderson still remain in post after being found to have bullied staff and treated them with such disrespect.

One whistleblower said: I am appalled [they] continue to brazen this out. They have been found guilty of bullying, which the college says is gross misconduct.

University watchdog the Office for Students is conducting its own probe over allegations of a vipers nest environment under Professor Gast, which first emerged last year. The Department for Education said it could not comment while that investigation was ongoing.
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Full statement from both parties in Andrew's case Here is the full text of the statement regarding the out of court settlement reached between the Duke of York and Virginia Giuffre. The statement was included in a letter submitted to US judge Lewis A Kaplan: 'Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms Giuffre's receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed). Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights. 'Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. 'Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.' Advertisement

The Queen is to foot part of the bill for Prince Andrew's sexual abuse lawsuit, which could end up costing some 12 million, reports claimed tonight.

The humiliated Duke of York's mother is said to be set to help fund the settlement, which was agreed between lawyers in a sensational development on Tuesday.

The move is understood to be a bid to draw a line under the scandal before her much-anticipated Jubilee celebrations latter this year, which he will apparently be banned from attending.

It comes just weeks after Andrew vowed to contest Virginia Roberts' rape claims at a public trial. Miss Roberts had alleged she was forced to have sex with the duke three times when she was 17 under the orders of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Only last month, she was given the go-ahead to sue Andrew, 61, for unspecified damages in a New York civil court.

But despite vowing to fight the allegations and repeatedly protesting his innocence, the prince yesterday agreed to pay a huge sum to settle the case before it ever reaches a jury.

It comes as reports suggest the Queen herself will provide money to pay for the settlement, according to the Telegraph.

The paper suggests the total amount that the victim and her charity will receive will actually exceed 12m, with the funds coming from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate, which recently increased by 1.5m to more than 23m.

Although the agreement contained no formal admission of liability from Andrew, or an apology, it said he now accepted Miss Roberts was a 'victim of abuse' and that he regretted his association with Epstein, the disgraced financier who trafficked countless young girls.

It also said the prince accepted that Miss Roberts, now 38, had been subjected to 'unfair public attacks' and that he had never intended to 'malign her character'.

This is despite a string of recent aggressive accusations made by his legal team that included referencing a story which branded Miss Roberts a 'money-hungry sex kitten'.

It is understood that Andrew will now hand a large sum of cash to Miss Roberts and he has also agreed to make a 'substantial donation' to her charity in support of victims' rights.

Although the terms of the deal remain a closely guarded secret, sources indicated the settlement itself could cost Andrew as much as 7.5 million ($10 million)  with several million pounds worth of legal fees taking the potential cost of the case to the prince to around the 10 million mark.

Miss Roberts  who brought the lawsuit under her married name Virginia Giuffre  launched her legal action against Andrew in August, seeking unspecified damages for battery, including rape, and the infliction of emotional distress. The Daily Mail can reveal that negotiations on a settlement have secretly been taking place since last month when a US judge refused to throw Miss Roberts' case out.

But her legal team were said to be surprised at the suddenness of Andrew's capitulation, with things taking a dramatic turn in recent days.

The prince, who was stripped of his remaining patronages earlier this year, has faced pressure from senior royals to resolve the lawsuit ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee later this year. And while last night Buckingham Palace was said to be breathing a sigh of relief that the case will not go to trial, senior royal sources indicated there was now no way back to public life for the disgraced duke.

One said: 'Regardless of the outcome, he has ruled himself out of any public role by virtue of his appalling lack of judgment and poor choice of friends and associates.'

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts stand together with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background in London on March 13, 2001

Prince Andrew is pictured driving in Windsor on November 6 last year

Virginia Giuffre, who used to be known as Virginia Roberts, is pictured in Perth, Australia, last week on February 8

Andrew's civil case: What was alleged and what has been agreed? The Duke of York and Virginia Giuffre have reached an out-of-court settlement in the civil case filed in the US. Here is what was alleged against Andrew and what has happened up until this point: - Who is Virginia Giuffre? Virginia Giuffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, alleges she was trafficked by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell to be molested by financier Jeffrey Epstein and his friends. - What case did Andrew face? Mrs Giuffre brought a case of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the duke. It was claimed she was trafficked by convicted sex offender Epstein and others to Andrew, who is alleged to have sexually abused her when she was under the age of 18. - How many allegations did the duke face? Court documents have referenced three separate occasions in which Mrs Giuffre accuses him of sexual misconduct. - Where is the alleged sexual abuse said to have taken place? Mrs Giuffre claimed Andrew had sex with her against her will at Maxwell's London home. She also alleged the royal forced her to engage in sex acts against her will at Epstein's mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The duke is also alleged to have sexually abused Mrs Giuffre on another occasion during a visit to Epstein's private island, Little St James. - What reasons has Andrew previously given for the case against him to be dismissed? In January, the duke submitted 11 reasons why the case should be dismissed, including that Mrs Giuffre's claims are 'barred by the doctrine of consent' and by 'her own wrongful conduct'. - Will Andrew have to face a civil trial? Now the case has settled out of court, the duke will not have to face a trial. - What happens now a settlement has been reached? The parties have said they will file a 'stipulation of dismissal' within 30 days, meaning they will file a notice to discontinue the case now it has been settled. Before the stipulation is filed, the parties have asked for all deadlines and court action to be suspended. - What do we know about the details of the agreement reached between Andrew and Mrs Giuffre? The sum of the settlement has not been disclosed but the duke will make a 'substantial donation' to Mrs Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights. He has also pledged to 'demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein' by supporting the 'fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.' - Will the substantial charity donation be made from Andrew's own private money? Representatives of the duke declined to comment on the source of funds for the donation. - What have both sides said about the settlement?Andrew's representatives said they would not be commenting further than what was said in the court documents. David Boies, the lawyer acting on behalf of Mrs Giuffre, said: 'I believe this event speaks for itself.' Advertisement

Significantly, the agreement contained no restatement of Andrew's previous denials of having had sex with Miss Roberts and the settlement means the prince will not have the chance to disprove her claims in court.

It comes just over a month after another of Epstein's victims exclusively told the Mail that Miss Roberts had admitted to her that she had slept with the prince in London in 2001.

Last night, Miss Roberts' lawyer David Boies said: 'It's a really great day. Virginia was thrilled when we told her the terms. This has all come about over the past couple of days, it's been quite quick. I am not sure what changed from his side. I thought that this should have been settled when we brought the lawsuit.

'That's basically the end of the case. She will get paid the money in 30 days' time. I cannot comment on the amount or the terms, but it's a good day.'

Mr Boies had agreed to take on the case pro bono but it is unclear if he will still seek to recoup some of his legal costs from the duke.

A source who is familiar with the case said: 'Andrew moved so far, so fast from his position of deny, deny, deny. There were a lot of things looming for him.

'Things were starting to come out and Andrew knew what the case was against him.

'It's a princely amount, a very, very substantial amount of money split into two buckets: the settlement itself and the donation.'

Rachel Fiset, a senior partner at law firm Zweiback, Fiset & Coleman who specialises in defending white collar crime cases, suggested the total figure could be even higher than many others predict.

'A settlement that would cover Andrew's legal fees to take this case to trial alone, would be well into the millions,' she said.

'When you couple the price of litigation on both sides with the risk of embarrassing facts coming out for Andrew and a potential jury loss relating to the sexual assault of a minor by a Prince, the settlement amount is likely very high. My best guess puts the settlement amount somewhere between 20 and 30 million dollars.'

Meanwhile, a royal source told the Mail that the prince was guilty of 'inexcusably bad judgment' in both his association with Epstein and the way the allegations against him  which first surfaced more than seven years ago  were handled. One source added: 'There is huge relief in the royal household. This has been a very difficult time for everyone involved, not least because of the issues involved and that the allegations had been made by an acknowledged victim of Jeffrey Epstein. The feeling is that the situation was badly  inexcusably badly  managed by Andrew and his advisers from the start. It was as if they thought they could close their eyes and put their fingers in their ears and it would all go away.'

One source said they believed the settlement would pave the way for Andrew to attend his late-father's memorial service at the end of March as a member of the Royal Family in a private capacity. But it was unlikely he would be able to attend any of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. A Palace spokesman said firmly last night: 'It is a matter for the duke and his legal team.'

Royal sources said the case and its ongoing 'attritional' effect on the Royal Family had been 'widely discussed' among senior royals, but there was deep concern not to be seen meddling in issues.

The Prince of Wales also spoke to his brother on several occasions and was instinctively keen to avoid the horror of a public trial. But sources said he accepted the legal process needed to take its natural course and, as a matter of instinct, the heir to the throne shies away from 'mandating' on issues when it comes to his family.

Another well-placed royal insider said that 'no one had much sympathy for Andrew'. Last month, the Queen decided to strip her son of his remaining military affiliations and patronages and force him to stop using the His Royal Highness title in any official capacity.

And last night, an MP for the city of York called on the duke to withdraw his title to show 'respect' for people living there. Labour's Rachael Maskell said he has caused 'deep hurt and embarrassment' to residents of the city.

Virginia Giuffre 'to be banned from speaking publicly about Prince Andrew sex claims until after the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations under terms of settlement with Duke' Virginia Giuffre will be banned from speaking publicly about her claims against Prince Andrew until after the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations under the terms of her settlement with the Duke of York. Miss Giuffre, now known by her married name, Roberts, had alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times when she was 17 under the orders of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Only last month, she was given the go-ahead to sue the 61-year-old royal for unspecified damages in a New York civil court. But despite vowing to fight the allegations and repeatedly protesting his innocence, the prince yesterday agreed to pay a huge sum to settle the case before it ever reaches a jury. Now further details of the deal have emerged, including claims it has been agreed that Miss Giuffre will continue to tell her story publicly - but not until later in the year, so as not to add further damage to the Royal Family during events to commemorate the monarch's 70 years on the throne, the Times reports. Sources told the newspaper there would be a 'period of silence' when both parties would have to stick to the terms of a carefully worded statement. Beyond the Jubilee celebrations however, Miss Giuffre is expected to be allowed to public a book telling her story at the end of the year. 'Ordinarily, you would have a complete non-disclosure [agreement] on both sides,' lawyer Mitchell Epner told the Times. He added: 'Since it's a settlement in the context of, on its face, an apology from Prince Andrew,' [he believes Miss Giuffre] 'has agreed not to say anything [but] she will be in a position to write a book, probably for this Christmas season'. Advertisement

It leaves Andrew's claims of a trip to Pizza Express in Woking and that he cannot sweat, both of which he used as an alibi against Miss Roberts' accusations, unresolved. The deal comes just weeks before he was set to sit down for a deposition, an interview under oath, in what would have been an uncomfortable grilling by Miss Roberts' lawyers

Nick Goldstone, head of dispute resolution at London-based international law firm Ince, said: 'Clearly this is a settlement in principle on very generous financial terms for the complainant and a degree of backpedalling by the defendant.

'In terms of 'the court of public opinion' this looks like an admission of bad conduct on the part of Andrew and I suspect he will remain 'off-stage' from the Royal Family for the rest of his life. It's a good day for the Royal Family. A huge relief for that institution. Probably a good day for Miss Roberts and a recognition of the impossible position Prince Andrew was in and the cessation of hostilities'.

Lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents eight victims of Epstein, welcomed the settlement. She said: 'We hail Virginia's victory today. She has accomplished what no one else could: getting Prince Andrew to stop his nonsense and side with sexual abuse victims. We salute Virginia's stunning courage.'

Royal author Penny Junor said the settlement made is likely to come as a 'huge relief' to the rest of the royal family but that the damage to Andrew is irreparable.

She said: 'Going to trial, it could have been very, very nasty. It could have been embarrassing, humiliating, and it would have been huge fodder for the tabloid press. It could have really taken the shine off the Queen's Platinum Jubilee year.'

She added: 'It does of course, I assume, mean we will never know whether Andrew was innocent or guilty. And that, I think, in itself means that he will never be able to go back to any kind of royal work. I think his reputation will never recover.'

Amber Melville-Brown, a partner at the New York office of the London law firm Withers, told the Times the settlement would be 'worth its weight in gold to the Queen as she celebrates her Platinum Jubilee'.

Ann Olivarius, the senior partner of McAllister Olivarius law firm who has acted in cases on both sides of the Atlantic, told the Guardian: 'The size of the compensation is probably massive by any British standards, and it's probably very substantial by American standards  and American standards are very high.'

While the Duke continues to strongly deny the claims made against him, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams questioned why such a payment was agreed if he was so sure of his innocence.

He told the Sun: 'Essentially has he admitted that he has done any wrong at all? No. Regretting his association with Epstein doesn't count. He claimed innocence, but he has settled and many would regard this as an admission of guilt. If he was innocent then why did he pay?'

A joint statement issued today by Virginia Giuffre's lawyer, David Boies, and Prince Andrew's lawyer, Andrew Brettler

A letter addressed to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, who has been overseeing the case, from David Boies, Virginia Giuffre's lawyer

Did emails about Ghislaine Maxwell picture sink Andrew's case EXCLUSIVE by Daniel Bates in New York for the Daily Mail Before he settled out of court last night, Prince Andrew was set to be dealt a major blow in his US sex case thanks to Ghislaine Maxwell. A leaked email from the prince's friend and now convicted sex trafficker appeared to confirm the authenticity of an infamous picture of the duke standing with his arm around his accuser, Virginia Roberts. The photograph, said to be taken in Maxwell's London townhouse in 2001, had been questioned by Andrew and just this week his legal team had demanded Miss Roberts turn over the original. The duke's legal team had claimed it might be a fake, but an email obtained by the Daily Mail shows that even Maxwell, who appears in the background of the photo, believes it to be real. In the message, sent in 2015, Maxwell says: 'It looks real. I think it is.' On a dramatic day of developments yesterday, it was claimed that Miss Roberts had lost the original copy of the image. But that was disputed by her legal team, who said the hard copy was with the FBI and that Miss Roberts misplaced a CD containing a copy of the image. The photo was set to be a key piece of evidence in her claims for battery and infliction of emotional distress against Andrew, 61, which he had denied. The duke's lawyers had lined up an image expert to cast doubt on the veracity of the photo. If Miss Roberts had not produced the original, Andrew's team could have argued copies could not be admitted as evidence as they could not be properly tested. Not being able to rely on the photograph as proof they met would have put a sizeable dint in his accuser's case. But in an email exchange seen by the Mail, the picture was discussed by Maxwell and Epstein's former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz. On January 10, 2015, Mr Dershowitz wrote: 'Dear G. Do you know whether the photo of Andrew and virginia is real? You are in the background.' Eleven minutes later, Maxwell replied: 'It looks real. I think it is.' The timing of the exchange is significant because days earlier Miss Roberts claimed for the first time in court papers that she had been forced to have sex with both Andrew and Mr Dershowitz. The allegation was struck out by a judge who branded it 'impertinent'. But it caused panic for Andrew and in emails previously reported by the BBC, he contacted Maxwell at 5.50am on January 3, 2015. The duke wrote: 'Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts.' Maxwell replied: 'Have some info. Call me when you have a moment.' Mr Dershowitz has vehemently denied having sex with Miss Roberts. Last year she dropped a battery allegation she filed against him after he claimed a civil settlement she signed with Epstein in 2009 gave him immunity. Miss Roberts is currently suing Mr Dershowitz for defamation, a case he is fighting. His lawyers did not respond to requests asking for comment. Advertisement

Speaking to MailOnline, he added: 'The relief at the Palace will be almost tangible now the threat of further public humiliation of Andrew in this civil case has been lifted after this settlement was announced. This was always pretty certain as 97 per cent are settled in this way in the US.

'He has simultaneously, over two and a quarter years, managed to become a serious embarrassment, a national joke and a symbol of entitlement of the worst sort. If it had ever got to court, his humiliation would have been an international cause celebre. The questioning he was shortly facing as part of the legal process by Virginia Roberts Giuffre's legal team, would have been devastating too.

'Although it would not have overshadowed the actual Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June, this scandal would have cast a cloud over this unique royal year. That will now not occur and he has continued to deny the charges against him, but the public will not forget the Newsnight interview, the unexplained photograph and his disastrous friendships with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

'There is therefore no future royal role, other than possibly helping to manage the royal estates, at any time in the future for him.'

Another source told MailOnline: 'I'm sure that Charles has had enough of the situation. Charles would have said to Andrew that he needed to get this sorted out as soon as possible and before the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations begin. Charles did not want this hanging over the Royal Family this year.'

While the size of the settlement is not yet known, reports suggested last month Andrew could avoid a trial by using the sale of his 18million Swiss chalet to try to pay off Mrs Giuffre with at least 10million of the proceeds.

Meanwhile, a former Royal protection officer told the Sun his dramatic U-turn was likely ordered by his mother.

'This wasn't his decision, this was the Queen's,' said Paul Page. He added that Andrew's story was 'full of holes' and the Duke 'would have been slaughtered' in his deposition.

Mr Fitzwilliams added: 'The amount he has paid Virginia Roberts Giuffre in settlement has not been disclosed but it is likely to be huge. He has a naval pension and gets an allowance from the Queen. He has also reportedly found a buyer for his chalet, the ownership of which he shares with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson with whom he cohabits, which was on the market for 18 million, having paid a debt to its former owner.

'We will probably never know how Andrew raised the money for this settlement. However one thing is crystal clear, this was an emergency and this scandal was deeply destructive for the monarchy. The royal family have numerous wealthy friends and it may well be that it was thought necessary to bail out the Queen's second son in a year that was truly unique for her and for the royal family.

'Andrew will remain in disgrace, he strongly denies the charges, but the court of public opinion as represented in opinion polls is totally hostile as is the press and Prince Charles and Prince William have made clear there is no future role for him as a senior working royal.

'This settlement enlists him as promising to join in the fight against sex trafficking. It therefore remains imperative that he assist the FBI in their attempts to trace Epstein's accomplices, as he previously promised to do and has not. This is a dreadful scandal and it may not all be over yet.'

And MailOnline columnist Dan Wootton said: 'Hard to see how Prince Andrew will ever clear his name in the court of public opinion now he's settled - and presumably paid huge money - to Virginia Giuffre. He said he'd cooperate with the FBI. He didn't. He said he'd fight Virginia in court. He didn't. What's he hiding?'

Meanwhile royal author Angela Levin told GB News: 'I think it sounds remarkably humble, which is not something we expect from Prince Andrew. Now, why that is, I'm not sure. I wonder if the Queen, now she's well, gave him a b******ing and said 'you're not going to spoil my Platinum Jubilee. I'm the only person who's ever reached this and you just got to sort it out'. She's the only one I think who should really give him a telling off. She's very matronly with him and perhaps he decided that. But it is a great relief I think because it would have rumbled on and that would have taken the headlines all the time and goodness knows what could have come out the other end.'

Lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents eight victims of Jeffrey Epstein, welcomed the news as a 'victory' for Virginia Giuffre

Prince Andrew's daughter Princess Eugenie attended the Super Bowl in Los Angeles with Prince Harry on Sunday

Former royal butler Grant Harrold told the broadcaster: 'I believed there was going to be a court case and I thought it was a great opportunity for the prince who's always said he's innocent for him to prove his innocence, but obviously an out-of-court settlement puts an end to the whole thing.

'I can only assume it's because the Queen's got her Platinum Jubilee this year and maybe they were worried this would overshadow that, that's the only reason I can assume this has happened.'

Solicitor Joshua Rozenberg added: 'There is nothing in this agreement in which he admits to any misbehaviour with Virginia Giuffre. He accepts she has suffered as an established victim of abuse, but he doesn't say that he abused her.

'He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Jeffrey Epstein but he doesn't say he had any association with Ms Giuffre. There are all sorts of reason why people settle, there are all sorts of reasons why people bring claims. The fact that this has settled doesn't mean any more than it says. On the other hand, you don't pay a lot of money unless you want a case to go away.'

Another expert, Joe Little of Majesty magazine, said: 'I just don't think he's ever likely to resume work as a working member of the royal family. I think that too much water has gone under the bridge for that and the institution of monarchy has been tainted by his association with Epstein and I just think that there's no going back on all that.'

Of the likely reaction of the rest of the Royal Family, Mr Little said: 'I'm sure that they're glad this (settlement agreement) has happened, but does it exonerate the prince who really has not been charged with anything criminal? He will, I think, forever be tainted by this scandal, for want of a better way of describing it.'

It follows reports overnight that Mrs Giuffre claims to have lost the original print of the famous photograph of her and Andrew taken in London in 2001, which could further the Duke's argument that the image was doctored.

The Metropolitan Police dropped their investigation into Andrew last October, saying they would take 'no further action' - but the latest development raises questions over whether he could still be quizzed in the future.

A document submitted to the court in New York today said: 'Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms Giuffre's receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).

'Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.

'It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.

'He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.'

A second document, which was a letter addressed to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, who has been overseeing the case, said: 'We write jointly with counsel for defendant to advise the court that the parties reached a settlement in principle of the above-referenced action.'

It goes on to say the parties involved plan to file a 'stipulation of dismissal of the case' within 30 days. The letter, signed by Mr Boies, concludes: 'We appreciate the time and effort the court has devoted to this matter.'

And when asked for comment by DailyMail.com today, Mr Boies said: 'This event speaks for itself.'

The Duke of York is 'reputationally toast' after his US civil case settlement, but the legal development has protected the wider royal family from the damage of a public trial, a lawyer has said.

Media lawyer Mark Stephens said: 'With this settlement, he has prevented this court case overshadowing the tributes and acknowledgement of the Queen's 70 years of selfless sacrifice and service to the country.

'And whilst he is reputationally toast and will never appear on a royal balcony ever again and has effectively been airbrushed from polite society and the royal family, he does prevent wider problems for the royal family by ensuring this settlement goes away.

'And he has protected his children and their reputations, and he has protected the wider royal family.'

Mr Stephens added: 'I think there will be a big, deep sigh of relief in the palace tonight.'

Commenting on today's development, royal expert Omid Scobie, who was also Harry and Meghan's biographer, tweeted: 'There will no doubt be plenty of speculation about both parties over the days ahead.

'Worth noting that this deal comes just weeks before Andrew was scheduled to sit for an intense deposition, in which he would have been questioned under oath by Giuffre's lawyers.

'Today's news won't change Andrew's royal status  the honours he was stripped of won't be returned and he's still prohibited from using HRH.

'It does, however, remain to be seen whether the institution will play any role in helping the disgraced royal rehabilitate his image.'

And ITV royal editor Chris Ship added: 'It does seem that the stripping of Prince Andrew's royal patronages and military titles in January - and the removal from use of his HRH title, all remains in place despite today's settlement news. '

Last month Andrew was stripped of his honorary military titles and charitable roles after New York Judge Lewis Kaplan denied his plea to dismiss Mrs Giuffre's case.

The judge also said it was premature to decide whether Mrs Giuffre's 2009 civil settlement with Epstein also shielded Andrew.

Andrew's mother the Queen held virtual audiences from Windsor Castle with the Estonian and Spanish ambassadors today

Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson leave Royal Lodge in Windsor in a Range Rover with their dog on January 30

The Queen stripped her second son of his prestigious honorary military titles and royal patronages in January, and he stopped using his HRH style, in a move that effectively cast him adrift from the institution. It is understood that the statement released by the Palace on January 13, outlining the changes, still stands, with the Duke continuing not to undertake any public duties.

Mrs Giuffre, who is now 38, alleges that Andrew sexually assaulted her at the London home of socialite and Epstein's close friend Ghislaine Maxwell after a night out dancing in March 2001.

She sued the Prince last year for unspecified damages, alleging that she was trafficked to him by Epstein and Maxwell.

Last December, Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, exposing a murky world of sex trafficking among the rich and powerful.

As well as the London allegations, Mrs Giuffre also said Andrew assaulted her at Epstein's home in New York, and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands.

Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, withdrew from public life as a royal in 2019 after a widely ridiculed BBC interview where he sought to vindicate himself of the accusations.

Epstein killed himself aged 66 in a New York prison cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Asked about the size of the settlement, Andrew Ford, director at Holborn Adams criminal defence solicitors in London, told MailOnline today: 'The settlement will be pitched as a 'commercial decision' and will not include any admission of criminal wrongdoing or a civil tort.

'A settlement figure is designed to compensate an individual for their losses. Physical or mental harm in a case like this. This would potentially be a five-figure sum.

'What is worth more than that in high profile case settlements - of which I have done many - is the NDA which preserves the PR.'

And Leigh Day partner and abuse claims specialist Dino Nocivelli, who is also based in London, said: 'The figures awarded for damages for sexual abuse in America tend to be significantly higher than those ordered in England and Wales, and this is an out-of-court settlement.

'We don't know if the agreement included any admissions or apologies and if there are any non-disclosure agreements involved. For all those reasons we couldn't hazard a guess at what the settlement figure might be.

'However this is an important conclusion for the claimant and I hope it brings an element of closure and justice for her.'

Emily Baker, former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, told MailOnline that the settlement would be 'at least' seven-figures and 'sizeable'.

She said: 'I was very surprised that he agreed to settle for an undisclosed sum given that he's been vehemently denying it. They were just about to get into discovery which could have been a lot more damaging to Prince Andrew than her.

'It's hard to speculate but at least seven figures would be appropriate. There's no benefit to her otherwise. She doesn't have that much to lose, she's already gone through the media gauntlet.

'It would have to be a number that made it worth it for her.'

The settlement will never be made public in court filings but the payment to Mrs Giuffre's charity may, she added.

Ms Baker said: 'They have filed a notice that they're settling. Once the money hits her account, they will then file a notice that it has been dismissed but that is all we will see.'

'When you have a royal involved in the US justice system, I can't think of any other case comparable but we do have the other Epstein victim funds and they were multi-million dollar settlements.'

Anna Rothwell, a lawyer at criminal law firm Corker Binning in London, said: 'It is not surprising that Prince Andrew has settled Ms Giuffre's civil claim in light of his disastrous Newsnight interview.

'That interview alone would have given Ms Giuffre's lawyers a wealth of material to use in cross examination. It would have proven a painful deposition for the Prince, and this time his cross examination would have been under oath.'

There remain 'a lot of serious questions' after the Duke of York's settlement of the civil sex assault claim against him, anti-monarchy group Republic said.

Graham Smith from the campaign group said: 'I'm pleased Virginia Giuffre has achieved a settlement in this case, but there remain a lot of serious questions to which the public deserve answers.' He said taxpayers 'deserve to know where the money is coming from for a settlement, which we must assume is in the millions, if not tens of millions'.

He said: 'So much public money ends up in royal pockets one way or another. Are the British public ultimately paying for Andrew to avoid appearing in court? This scandal has done significant damage to the monarchy, and these questions aren't going away.'

Another spokesman for the group added: 'It's been more than 11 years since this came to light. It's good that Virginia Giuffre has achieved a favourable outcome. However, this leaves a lot of questions that the British public deserve answers to, such as: has Andrew admitted guilt to a criminal offence? Will he now cooperate with the FBI?'

Grant Harrold, a former royal butler, told GBNews: 'This is the problem, we've never had a situation with a member of the Royal Family that's gone through this. I don't think people would want to see him taking up an active public role again. Especially with an out-of-court settlement I'm assuming he will almost retire, which is kind of what's already happened as he's stood back.

'I don't quite know what will happen going forward, it's possible he could spend time in other countries, in other parts of the world but for the last couple of years he's been over at Windsor and out of public sight and it's possible that's what he'll continue to do.

'I think we'll still see him on different family occasions, very much in the background, and it's going to be interesting with the Platinum Jubilee, if he's involved in that - not taking part but if he's there, with the family or if you don't even see him. Hopefully we'll get the answers in the near future.

'I think this has been quite a stressful time for all of them, particularly the Queen. It's less than a year since she lost her husband. Everybody is always talking about Prince Andrew being her favourite son. I've been asked if that's true and I don't actually know the exact answer, I think she's close with all her children. But there's parts of Prince Andrew that reminded her of her late husband so there is a closeness and it's very upsetting for the Queen. It would be upsetting for any parent who has a child going through this.

'She will be glad that this hopefully comes to an end, but she might be wondering what is the future for him, where does he go from this point onwards?'

Royal author Angela Levin added: 'It's good on both sides because Virginia has got what she wanted really, she wanted to be paid properly, but we hear it's going to a charity of her choice so she can't be thought of as someone who's just after the money for herself, I think that's quite significant.

'Hopefully at the end of the month this will all go away. It does not mean, however, he will be embraced by the royal family and we will see him during the Jubilee celebrations. I think he's going to have to learn to live quietly and modestly, but that's better than going to court.'
At least seven people are dead after a Spanish fishing boat carrying 24 people sank in rough seas off Newfoundland in eastern Canada on Tuesday morning.

An international operation is currently under way to locate the 50-meter long fishing boat named Villa de Pitanxo after it sank 280 miles off the island of Newfoundland early on Tuesday, Spain's regional representative, Maica Larriba, told Spanish public radio.

A rescue center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, operated by Canada's air force and coast guard, dispatched a helicopter, a Hercules-type aircraft and a rescue vessel to the area.

This undated photo provided by the Spanish government ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Food shows the Spanish `Villa de Pitanxo fishing boat which sunk on Tuesday

'The fishing vessel has not been found,' the rescue center wrote on Twitter. 'The search continues for the remaining crew and we hold out hope that we will find them.'

Earlier, three crew members were saved from a lifeboat after a Spanish fishing boat working not far from the site of the sinking arrived and found three survivors and four bodies in one of the fishing boat's four lifeboats, officials said.

Two of the emergency boats were empty and the fourth was reportedly unaccounted for.

The survivors included the vessel's 53-year-old skipper and his 42-year-old nephew, according to La Voz de Galicia newspaper. The two men contacted their families by phone, the paper reported.

'The fishing vessel has not been found,' the rescue centre wrote on Twitter. 'The search continues for the remaining crew and we hold out hope that we will find them.'

The 24-member crew of the sunken vessel, which operated out of north-west Spain's Galicia region, included 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three workers from Ghana, Spain's maritime rescue service said.

The head of Galicia's regional government, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, said the Spanish ambassador to Canada told him that seven bodies had been found.

'The sea was very bad,' he told reporters.

A maritime search has been launched for the 14 other crew members still missing in heavy seas that include a plane, two helicopters and four boats.

Canadian rescuers said they were optimistic, despite the bad weather, the Guardian reported.

'The fact that we have already found three survivors in a life raft gives us that hope that others were able to either get into their survival suits, get into life rafts and get off the vessel,' Brian Owens, of Canada's Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, told AFP.

The center added: 'The search continues for the remaining crew and we hold out hope that we will find them. We will update as soon as more information becomes available.'

The signal from the vessel's on-board data recorder, used to track vessels, stopped transmitting around 6 am GMT, a government official in Galicia, Maica Larriba, told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.

Spain's maritime rescue centre in the Spanish capital of Madrid received the first alert from the beacon on the Villa de Pitanxo and coordinated the early response with the Halifax rescue centre, a spokeswoman with the service said.

The boat's owner, Grupo Nores, did not immediately reply to calls or written questions. According to its website, the group operates fishing fleets in waters off Argentina, Canada, Morocco, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal as well as in the North Sea.

The news was a tragic blow to the port town of Marin in north-western Galicia, where many make their livings from the sea.

Marin Mayor Maria Ramallo said the sinking of the boat was the biggest tragedy on record for the community.

'We can't remember anything worse than this,' Ms Ramallo told Spain's state news agency, EFE.
San Francisco police have been accused of using DNA from a sexual assault victim's rape kit to link her to an unrelated property crime.

The city's District Attorney Chesa Boudin said he had learned that DNA samples collected from rape victims were included in a suspects database.

It is not clear whether the woman was convicted on the basis of the DNA.

Boutin, and multiple local legislators, slammed the 'legally and ethically wrong' practice and warned it would stop future victims coming forward.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott has since launched an investigation into the allegations and pledged to put an end to the practice.

'Whatever disagreements District Attorney Boudin and I may have, we agree that this issue needs to be addressed,' he said in a statement. 'At the end of the day, our respective departments exist to do justice for victims of crime. The last thing we should ever do is discourage their cooperation with us to accomplish that.'

It's possible the suspect Boudin was referring to was identified through DNA being kept in a non-victim database, Scott added.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott (right) said that if Boudin's (left) claims are true, he's committed to putting an end to the practice

Boudin said he's calling for an end of the practice, which is being investigated by legislatures and police

Boutin, who has been criticized for his 'woke' and 'soft-on-crime' approach, said he had been 'disturbed' to learn victims were allegedly being treated as potential suspects.

'Rapes and sexual assault are violent, dehumanizing, and traumatic,' he said in a news release Monday. 'I am disturbed that victims who have the courage to undergo an invasive examination to help identify their perpetrators are being treated like criminals rather than supported as crime victims.

'We should encourage survivors to come forward - not collect evidence to use against them in the future. This practice treats victims like evidence, not human beings.'

Sexual assault victims who file police reports are often asked to undergo an exam so that investigators can retrieve evidence. The victim submits her own DNA so that it can be excluded as evidence when the samples are analyzed.

Using their DNA to incriminate them in future crimes could prevent future victims from coming forward, Boudin's office said.

Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener said he's working with the DA's office to address the situation.

Rapes in San Francisco have dropped dramatically within the past five years; 207 were reported in 2021, compared with the 446 rapes investigated in 2017

Ronen is drafting legislation to prevent the practice in San Francisco, and said victims' rape kit evidence should be used exclusively to investigate sexual assaults

'Coming forward after a sexual assault to provide a rape kit can be re-traumatizing,' he said in a release. 'Too many people decide not to take that step, given the trauma. Yet survivors can at least be assured - or so they thought - that the sample they provide for a rape kit will only be used for the sexual assault investigation and not misused for other purposes.

'If survivors believe their DNA may end up being used against them in the future, theyll have one more reason not to participate in the rape kit process.'

District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen said she's asked the city attorney to draft legislation to prevent rape kit evidence from being used for any other purpose than investigating the rape.

'There are already enormous barriers for victims of rape to come forward to report the crime,' Ronen said.

'Rape victims DNA should be protected at all levels of government, anywhere.'

Rape cases are down in San Francisco, police data shows. There were 207 cases reported in 2021, compared to 449 rapes investigated in 2018.

However, other violent crimes are up in the Northern California city, and Boudin has been widely criticized for enabling criminals with his criminal reform policies.

The city's police chief has publicly criticized Boudin for showing leniency toward criminals, and earlier this month accused him of concealing evidence in officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.
Boris Johnson today promised to strengthen the Government's crackdown on 'dirty' Russian cash as MPs said more action should have been taken long before the current Ukraine crisis.

The Prime Minister rejected claims that the Government had not done enough to address the issue in the past and said the UK has 'done a huge amount on dirty money'.

But he said 'what we want to do is strengthen now the package that we have, strengthen the measures we have, against potential ill-gotten Russian money'.

Mr Johnson confirmed that the Government will bring forward a new Economic Crime Bill to toughen the UK's response.

MPs said stricter rules should have been put in place before the Ukraine crisis to protect the UK against a 'potential tsunami of questionable money'.

The Prime Minister rejected claims that the Government had not done enough to address the issue in the past and said the UK has 'done a huge amount on dirty money'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of plotting an invasion of Ukraine. He is pictured today in Moscow

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced earlier this month that the UK was extending its sanctions regime in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

A tougher package of sanctions has been prepared which would be rolled out if Russian President Vladimir Putin goes ahead with a feared invasion.

Currently the UK can only sanction people specifically linked to the destabilisation of Ukraine but the new approach will allow a broader range of individuals and businesses to be targeted.

Mr Johnson today vowed to bring forward a new Economic Crime Bill to further strengthen rules and to tackle 'dirty' money invested in the UK.

He promised to 'open up the Matryoshka doll' to find out who owns companies and properties operating domestically.

Mr Johnson was told following a COBRA meeting, held to discuss the Ukraine crisis, that some Tory MPs believe the Government has not done enough to stop the flow of 'dirty' money into the UK.

Asked if the Economic Crime Bill will be included in the next Queen's Speech, Mr Johnson said: 'I don't think that it's fair to say the UK hasn't done a huge amount on dirty money, whether it is from Russia or anywhere else.

'Actually globally we have been out in the lead in tackling global corruption in tracing the sources of ill-gotten gains.'

He continued: 'But what we want to do is strengthen now the package that we have, strengthen the measures we have against potential ill-gotten Russian money, whether here or anywhere for which we have responsibility, with new measures that will hit the companies and concerns that I have talked about.

'But also open up the Matryoshka doll, if you like, so that we see who really owns the companies that we are talking about, who really owns the properties that we are talking about.

'Those measures, yes, we will be bringing forward from the Economic Crime Bill.'

The PM signalled that the Bill would be included in the next Queen's Speech.

Tory MP Bob Seely, a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (FAC), said Britain was 'a decade behind the times' on the threat posed by Russian financial influence.

He welcomed Mr Johnson's announcement and said the move could act as a 'subtle containment policy' when it came to dealing with Moscow.

The Isle of Wight MP said: 'On Russia, we have known about this problem for years.

'The problem is that the front line with Ukraine is the border, the front line with Germany is the gas pipeline  and the front line with the UK is the City of London.

'We need to be wiser about how the Putin regime acts and the potential threat to our institutions and values, and how we can protect them against a potential tsunami of questionable money.'

Tom Tugendhat, the Tory chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said it was time to clean out money from British politics that had originated in Russia.

'Frankly, get it out and get it out now,' he told Times Radio.

MPs on both sides of the House of Commons agreed that the changes being proposed in the Government's economic crime legislation had been needed well before the crisis with Ukraine developed.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, who is also a member of the committee, said: 'This should have been in place before this whole saga, not after. Talk about the horse having bolted.'
Covid fatalities dropped 25.5 per cent on last week, with 234 registered within a month of testing positive

Daily virus hospital admissions fell by 17.4 per cent to 1,100, the lowest figure since December 19

UK's daily Covid cases fell 30.2 per cent week-on-week, making the 15th day in a row of tumbling infections

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Britain's Covid outbreak shrank on all fronts again today, as cases, hospitalisations and deaths continue to trend downwards.

Official Government data shows 46,186 positive tests were logged over the last 24 hours, a 30.2 per cent drop on last Tuesday. Cases have now been tumbling week-on-week for over a fortnight.

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-infected patients admitted to hospital fell by nearly a fifth to 1,100  the lowest figure seen since December 19.

And Covid fatalities are down 25.5 per cent on last week. Meanwhile, separate data today showed a third of virus deaths recorded in England and Wales are among people who primarily died from another illness.

The share of fatalities mainly caused by the disease has been trending downwards for weeks after the arrival of the milder Omicron variant and the accelerated booster vaccine programme.

The lower severity of the fourth wave has given ministers the confidence that even the most fundamental Covid restrictions can be lifted in England, including compulsory self-isolation for those who test positive. Ministers are using the Parliamentary recess to draft their living with Covid strategy, which is due to be unveiled on February 21.

Free lateral flow tests 'will be axed from next month under new Living With Covid Strategy' Free lateral flow tests are set to be scrapped in England from next month under the Government's plan to learn to live with Covid, it was claimed today. Leaked documents last month hinted that mass testing would stick around until at least July before being limited to care homes, hospitals and schools. But Whitehall sources say the scheme could be ditched months earlier because the Treasury wants to slash annual Covid spending by 90 per cent  from 15billion to 1.5bn. Free PCR tests could also be abandoned from March 31, but may remain available to more than a million extremely vulnerable patients, as well as in hospitals. Ministers are also considering scrapping routine contact tracing, according to the Guardian. Boris Johnson has vowed to make England the freest country in the world after fears about the Omicron wave never materialised. Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths have been trending downwards for weeks, with just 41,648 infections, 35 deaths and 1,413 admissions logged yesterday. Commenting on the reports, a No10 spokesperson said today that a 'final decision' on Covid testing has not been made. They added that it will come to an end 'at the right moment'. Advertisement

Data from the UK Health Security Agency shows of the new cases, 36,471 were in England, while 5,805 were in Scotland, 2,987 in Northern Ireland and 923 in Wales.

Testing across the UK has fallen a fifth in a week across all nations, contributing to the downward trend in each country.

Meanwhile, 1,100 Covid-infected people were admitted to hospitals in the UK on Friday. The figure, which is down 17.4 per cent week-on-week, is the lowest seen in two months.

And 12,304 virus patients were in hospitals yesterday, dropping 11.9 per cent on last Monday.

A further 8,107 first doses of Covid jabs were dished out yesterday, while 18,172 people received a second dose and 32,050 were boosted.

Nine in 10 over-12s across the UK have now had at least one dose, while 84.8 per cent are double-jabbed and 65.8 per cent are boosted.

Meanwhile, the number of Britons dying within 28 days of a positive test fell 25.5 per cent week-on-week.

It comes as data from the Office for National Statistics today showed a third of recently registered Covid deaths in England and Wales were people who died primarily from another illness.

A total of 1,242 people had the virus on their death certificates in the week ending February 4, according to latest ONS figures. Of them, Covid was the underlying cause of death in just 817 cases (66 per cent), although it may have been a contributing factor in more.

Covid was the primary cause of more than 80 per cent of deaths at the end of November when Delta was the dominant strain.

The same trend has also emerged in hospitals, where up to two-third of inpatients with Covid in some regions are not primary being treated for the virus.

Latest NHS England data shows there were 10,689 patients in hospital with the virus across the country at the start of February, of whom just 48 per cent were mainly ill with Covid. In London, the share was just 33 per cent, while in the East of England it was 40 per cent and 49 per cent in the Midlands.

Overall, the ONS found there were 11,862 deaths registered in England and Wales in the most recent week, which is lower than normal at this time of year.

The 1,242 deaths with Covid mentioned on the certificate accounted for just 10 per cent of deaths from all causes, while underlying Covid accounted for fewer than 7 per cent.

Fatalities involving the virus were down for the second week in a row and fell in all regions in England, except for the South West and North East. Wales also saw a small rise.

Experts have called for the daily publication of Covid deaths to be scrapped now that Omicron is skewing the true number of people 'from' rather than 'with' the disease.

Since March 2020, the Government has released a daily fatality toll based on deaths within 28 days of a positive test to track the pandemic.

Critics have long complained it is a flawed dataset because it includes everyone who died in the weeks after they caught Covid, regardless of their cause of death  meaning theoretically even car crash victims can be included.

In the same week, to February 4, the Government's Covid dashboard reported 1,625 death across England and Wales  which is nearly double the true number of people who died primarily from Covid.

Professor Robert Dingwall, a former Government Covid adviser, has previously urged the Government to ditch the daily Covid statistics from the end of the month  when the remaining Covid laws are due to be abandoned.

Ministers are due to unveil their plan to live with Covid like flu on February 21 in the House of Commons after the recess.

Talks are ongoing between Cabinet ministers today, with the move to be put in front of Sir Chris Whitty tomorrow before being signed off.

According to reports this morning, mass testing, compulsory isolation and even routine contact tracing could all be gone by the end of March.

Commenting on the reports, a No10 spokesperson said today that a 'final decision' on Covid testing has not been made. They added that it will come to an end 'at the right moment'.

Boris Johnson told Parliament last week that the Government would press ahead with plans to live with Covid so long as the data continued to trend in the right direction
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President Joe Biden delivered his sternest warning yet to Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, saying that the U.S. was not seeking confrontation with Russia but would respond 'forcefully' if American citizens were targeted in Ukraine.

At the same time he appealed to the people of Russia, saying they were not America's enemy.

'We are not seeking direct confrontation with Russia though I've been clear if Russia targets Americans in Ukraine, we will respond forcefully,' he said.

Biden delivered an update on developments from the White House after a busy morning of phone diplomacy, saying an invasion was still possible and that Russia had 150,000 troops in a threatening posture.

The White House upended the president's schedule to add the speech in response to the pace of developments.

Biden spoke with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron while Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a call with the Russian foreign minister.

Earlier, Putin claimed he was ready for new security talks and was pulling back some Russian troops.

'We have not yet verified the Russian military units are returning to their home bases,' Biden said in the East Room.

'Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position.

'And the fact remains right now Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine and Belarus and along Ukraine's border, and invasion remains distinctly possible.

'That's why I've asked several times that all Americans in Ukraine leave now before it's too late to leave safely.'

And he delivered a messaged directly to the people of Russia, saying the world had no quarrel with them.

'The citizens of Russia, you are not our enemy. I do not believe you want a bloody destructive war against Ukraine, a country of people with whom you share such deep ties of family history and culture.

'Seventy-seven years ago, our people fought and sacrificed side by side in the worst war in history,' he said.

'World War Two was a war of necessity. But if Russia attacks Ukraine it would be a war of choice or a war without cause or reason.'

The speech came after Biden spoke to his French counterpart for 49 minutes on Tuesday morning, and his secretary of state called the Russian foreign minister.

Russia announced some of its troops were returning to base after exercises near Ukraine and mocked Western warnings about an imminent invasion of Ukraine.

It could suggest Moscow is looking for a way out of a crisis that has taken Europe to the brink of war, but NATO said it had yet to see evidence of the sort of de-escalation that could avert conflict.

President Joe Biden said the U.S. did not want a confrontation with Russia but that he would respond 'forcefully' if

Russia has today claimed it is withdrawing some of its forces from Crimea and the Ukraine border region after training drills, in what could be the first sign of a climb-down by Vladimir Putin. Western leaders say they want verification

This handout video grab released by the Russian Defence Ministry on February 15, 2022, shows Russian tanks leaving for Russia after joint exercises with Belarus, at a firing range near Brest

The White House said President Joe Biden (right) spoke with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday morning as they mull Putin's latest move. The US had previously warned that Russia could invade Moscow at any time

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday, as Moscow's claims that it was withdrawing troops triggered a fresh round of discussions and a push to verify the possible deescalation

Soon after, the White House said Biden was talking to Emmanuel Macron of France, who has maintained a softer line on Russia throughout.

They discussed diplomatic efforts to avert conflict but also impose 'their readiness severe consequences,' the White House said afterwards.

At about the same time Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on a secure call with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

In his address Biden promised to 'give the diplomacy every chance' to prevent a Russian invasion.

But he set limits, saying he would not 'sacrifice basic principles' affording countries a right to determine their own borders and alliances.

There was also a message for American consumers, who have seen gas prices rise by a dollar in the past year. Defending democracy in the event of a Russian invasion will come at a cost, said Biden.

'I will not pretend this will be painless but could be impact on our energy prices,' he said.

'So we are taking active steps to alleviate the pressure on our own energy markets and offset raising prices.

'We're coordinating with major energy, energy consumers and producers are prepared to deploy all the tools and authority at our disposal to provide relief at the gas pump.'

Ambassador Julianne Smith, US permanent representative to NATO, said: 'What's important is that we try to verify based on the fact that we've seen other instances in the past where Russia has claimed to be de-escalating and in fact, facts on the ground didn't prove that to be true.'

Russia has repeatedly denied claims that its build-up of troops around Ukraine was the first step in invasion.

Tensions escalated in recent days after the US said an attack was imminent and could come at any time.

But on Tuesday Putin said he was ready for for talks with the US and NATO over European security, insisting that he 'of course' doesn't want war in Ukraine.

Putin, speaking at the Kremlin alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after three hours of talks, said he was 'ready to go down the negotiations track' and engage over issues such as arms control, transparency around military drills, and other measures aimed at reducing sky-high tensions between East and West.

But he also insisted that the fate of two breakaway Ukrainian regions - where Moscow-backed rebels are fighting the government - should form part of talks because 'genocide' is underway there. And he again accused the West of ignoring his demand that Ukraine is banned from NATO, underlining how far apart the two sides still are.

Hours before he spoke, Moscow announced that some troops and tanks stationed near Ukraine are being returned to their home bases - a move that was welcomed with cautious optimism by Western leaders who said it sends the right signal, but doesn't change the fact that Russia could still invade at short notice.

Boris Johnson accused Putin of sending 'mixed messages': Calling for negotiations on one hand while building field hospitals on the frontlines, a move he said 'can only be construed as preparations for an invasion.'

Jens Stoltenburg, NATO chief, said he has seen no evidence that Russia is drawing down its forces but that signals coming from the Kremlin give room for 'cautious optimism'.

The Neo-Nazis training Ukrainian woman, 79, to fight off Putin The great-grandmother pictured wielding an AK-47 in preparation for an invasion from Russia yesterday was taught how to use the weapon by a militia that started as a far right organisation and is accused of being neo-Nazis. Valentyna Konstantynovska, 79, became the face of a civilian combat drill in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, when she was photographed looking down the sight of the gun. The training aimed to teach members of the public basic military techniques as tensions continued to mount with Russian troops at the border. It was one of several drills that have been carried out across the country to build up a rag-tag army  which includes children and a 'babushka battalion' among its ranks. But it has now emerged the training was organised by the far-right Azov battalion  which has been accused of neo-Nazism and attacking LBTQ and Roma communities. The 79-year-old great-grandmother pictured wielding an AK-47 in preparation for an invasion from Russia was taught how to use the weapon by the far-right movement Azov  which has previously faced accusations that it is a neo-Nazi group. Circled: The group's logo features a Wolfsangel, one of the original symbols used by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich in WWII Valentyna Konstantynovska became the face of a civilian combat drill Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, when she was seen looking down the sight of the gun yesterday Servicemen of the Azov battalion attend an oath ceremony in Kyiv in 2014. its original commander Andriy Biletsky said Ukraine's mission was to 'lead the white races of the world in a final crusade  against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]' The movement, named after the nearby sea, is a nationalist militia that has been fighting against separatist groups in eastern Ukraine for nearly a decade. Formed in 2014, the group's logo features a Wolfsangel, one of the original symbols used by the Nazi 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich in WWII. Members of the group deny its association with Nazism and claim the symbol is actually an abbreviation in Ukrainian for National Idea. However, its original commander Andriy Biletsky  who ran the openly anti-semitic Patriot of Ukraine organisation that was Azov's precursor  is now the leader of the far-right ultranationalist National Corps party. In 2010, he said Ukraine's mission was to 'lead the white races of the world in a final crusade  against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]'. It was formed to fight separatists when Russia first annexed Crimea, but has now become a subdivision of Ukraine's National Guard, which takes its orders directly from the country's Ministry of Affairs. New leadership has attempted to publicly de-politicise the group and move it away from its Nazi origins, although many members still hold openly anti-semitic beliefs and sport swastika tattoos. Advertisement

Vladimir Putin has insisted that Russia is 'ready to go down the negotiations track' with the West - opening up the possibility of talks on arms control, military transparency and other measures aimed at reducing tensions

Putin spoke at a joint press conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said West and East remain divided but it is up to leader to find solutions while avoiding conflict

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right) sits down with Putin (left) in the Kremlin - the latest foreign leader to be given the 'long table treatment' - for talks aimed at deescalating the crisis today

Video released by the Russian defence ministry early Tuesday showed columns of tanks being loaded on to train transports in Crimea, as the foreign ministry slammed what it called Western 'war propaganda' over an invasion

Tanks are pictured leaving a Russian base in the Ukraine border region, which it claims is part of a withdrawal from the region - despite Washington warning that troops are actually moving closer to the border

Ukraine today hailed Western efforts aimed at preventing a war, saying they appear to be working as Russian forces withdraw (pictured) while also cautioning that the 'withdrawal' might not be what it seems

Alexei Navalny, Putin's fiercest critic and political rival, appeared in court in Russia today for a 'show trial' that could see him locked up for a decade. His supporters say the Ukraine build-up has distracted from his fate

 Slide me  Russia has begun moving vehicles from assembly areas to forward staging points in what observers fear could be one of the last moves before an invasion of Ukraine. Left is an assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, filled with tanks on January 19 and right is the same area - empty of tanks - pictured on Sunday

 Slide me  One forward staging area appears to be Soloti, just 20 miles from the Ukraine border. Satellites show a camp of Russian troops in the region on January 12 (left) and the same camp but expanded with the arrival of new troops and vehicles on February 13 (right)

 Slide me  Satellite images show a Russian assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, on January 19 (left) and the same area on February 13 (right) with some tents removed and deep wheel ruts in the snow as men and vehicles are moved closer to the border

Don't believe your eyes: Russia's record of denying its military activities Syria Putin, who lent his backing to dictator Bashar al Assad during the Syrian civil war, claimed in 2016 that the conflict had been won and ordered his forces out. For several weeks some of Moscow's troops did indeed leave the country, but the bulk remained and in 2020 Putin ordered his generals to expand their bases at Tartus and Hmeimim. Thousands of troops backed by warships, submarines and helicopters are still deployed in Syria to this day, ostensibly to fight ISIS but in reality to boost Russia's military presence in the eastern Mediterranean. Crimea When the 2014 Euromaidan revolution ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych - a Moscow stooge - Putin quickly marched troops into the country and annexed Crimea, the site of important Russian bases. At the same time, Putin consistently denied he was doing anything of the sort - refusing to acknowledge any Russian troops were in the country and claiming they were 'self-defence units' created by locals instead. He even went so far as to order troops to remove the Russian insignia from their uniforms, which saw them dubbed 'little green men'. Only weeks later, after Crimea had voted in a referendum to become part of Russia, did Putin at last admit what the world already knew. MH17 In July 2014, as fighting between Moscow-backed rebels and the Ukrainian government raged in the country's east, a Malaysia airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot out of the sky - killing all 298 people. The missile used to shoot it down was fired by a Russian BUK launcher supplied by Moscow's forces to rebel commanders - who opened fire after mistaking the passenger jet for a military aircraft. Despite years of investigations by state prosecutors and observer groups that has conclusively pointed the finger of blame at Russia, Moscow continues to deny that it had anything to do with the tragedy. Russia has also refused to extradite commanders blamed for organising the operation so they can face trial, which is currently underway at the Hague. Advertisement

Ukrainian defence minister Dmytro Kuleba credited Western efforts to avert war as the reason for Moscow's change of stance, but added: 'Don't believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a [Russian] withdrawal, we will believe [it.]'

In a sign of Moscow's likely demands during talks with the West, lawmakers in Russia's rubber-stamp parliament today voted on a resolution to officially recognise the breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine as independent republics.

The resolution calls on Putin to recognise the self-appointed governments in Donetsk and Luhansk - two regions that immediately border Russian and have large Russian-speaking minorities - as legitimate and to help with their security.

Should Putin sign off on the resolution, it would pave the way for over movement of Russian troops and military hardware into the regions.

The Kremlin has previously suggested it would not sign such a document, but the threat of doing so could provide useful leverage in negotiations.

Preparations for talks were laid weeks ago, when Russia sent a list of security demands to NATO and the US - including that Ukraine be banned from the alliance and all its forces withdrawn from ex-Soviet states.

Those demands have been dismissed, but both NATO and the US sent written responses back laying out other areas where they were willing to talk - such as expired Cold War arms treaties, transparency around missile placements in Europe, information sharing around military drills, and other measures.

In a meeting with Putin on Monday, Russia's chief negotiator Sergei Lavrov stressed that - while not perfect - there is enough on the table to pursue negotiations, to a nod of approval from his boss.

Lavrov said he has prepared a 10-page response to the US and NATO letters, which has yet to be delivered.

Delivery of that note will likely form the next step in reopening talks between the two side.

But in a sign that the US still views the threat of a Russian attack as very real, the State Department ordered the temporary closure of its embassy in Kiev on Monday along with the destruction of its computers.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the embassy was being moved further to the west as part of a 'prudent' move to ensure it would not be at risk in the event that Russia attacked.

Moscow-backed rebel groups based in Donetsk and Luhansk declared themselves independent of Kiev's control in 2014, following Putin's invasion of Crimea, and have been fighting against government forces ever since.

As part of the resolution, Moscow would be instructed to negotiate with leaders of the regions on security and guarantee 'protection of their peoples from external threats and the implementation of policies of genocide.'

Some observers fear this could serve as a pre-text to invasion, after the Kremlin used a similar justification following its 2014 attack. Putin has not given any indication of how he would respond to such a demand.

Meanwhile Liz Truss, the UK defence secretary, continued to insist today that a Russian invasion appears to be imminent and that troops could reach Kiev 'very, very quickly'.

'This is ... about the wider stability of Europe,' she told Sky News. 'And it's about wider global stability, and the message that we give to aggressors and we have to give the message to Vladimir Putin that there can be no reward for aggression.'

Asked about reports that Russia is withdrawing forces from the border, she added that 'we will need to see a full scale removal of troops to show that is true.'

Truss echoed politicians in the United States who have warned that a so-called 'false flag' operation could be used by Moscow to trigger a conflict.

'It is still the case that an invasion could be imminent, and it is highly likely,' she said.

She spoke after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said late Monday that Europe is 'on the edge of a precipice'  but added, 'there is still time for President Putin to step back.'

Mr Johnson was due to chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee today to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine, as a Downing Street source said there was 'some hope' that diplomacy could work and Russia could step back.

 Slide me  Russian tanks and other vehicles are seen parked in an assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, in a satellite image taken on February 4 (left) and the same area is pictured empty of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they have been moved to staging areas closer to the Ukraine border

 Slide me  An assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, is seen filled with Russian military vehicles on February 4 (left) while the same area is pictured emptied of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they are being repositioned for an invasion

Train cars loaded with Russian artillery units are pictured at a station in Yelnya, Russia, as American officials warn they are being moved closer to Ukraine in what appears to be final preparations for an attack

Newly-arrived Russian Mil Mi-26 heavy lifting helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Machulishchy, Belarus, as American officials warn Putin could be just hours away from giving the order to attack

A newly-arrived unit of Russian attack helicopters is pictured at an airfield in Belgorod, Russia, in this satellite image taken on February 13

Russian transport and attack helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Lake Donuzlav, Crimea, on February 13 as Putin builds up his aerial forces ahead of an invasion that the US fears could come this week

Sukhoi Su-34 fighters are pictured at Primorsko-Akhtarsk airbase in Russia, having been newly deployed near the frontlines with Ukraine amid fears they will be used to assist an invasion of the country

A Russian troop garrison at Zyabrovka air base in Belarus with a field hospital set up (beige tents, bottom right) is seen in this satellite image taken on February 10

A Russian troop encampment at Novoozernoye, in occupied Crimea, is pictured on February 9 with a field hospital (cross-shaped tent, bottom right) set up nearby

France's foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, told French television that 'all elements' were in place for a strong Russian offensive, but 'nothing shows today' that Putin has decided to launch one.

Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was in Kiev on Monday - and flies to Moscow to meet Putin on Tuesday - and said that the Russian leader should not underestimate the resolve of Ukraine's allies.

'If Russia violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine again, we know what to do,' Scholz said.

'In the event of military escalation, we are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in coordination with our allies.'

He said there are 'no sensible reasons' for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders to the north, south and east, and he urged more dialogue.

In Moscow, Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, held a meeting for the cameras at which Lavrov appealed for more time for diplomacy.

The talks 'can't go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,' Lavrov said.

He noted that Washington has offered to conduct dialogue on limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Lavrov said possibilities for talks 'are far from being exhausted.'

'I would propose continuing and intensifying them,' he said.

Putin responded: 'Good.'

Lavrov then, front of the cameras, told Putin he had directed his diplomats to demand 'security guarantees' from the West, such as a legally binding pledge that Ukraine will never join the NATO alliance.

'Our initiative shook up our Western colleagues and became the reason they have no longer been able to ignore many of our previous appeals,' Lavrov told the Russian leader.

Lavrov also said that Russia had prepared a 10-page response in its written back-and-forth with NATO and the United States over the Kremlin's security demands.

The United States reacted coolly to Lavrov and Putin's show.

'The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,' said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House principal deputy press secretary.

'However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.'

U.S. officials said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders.

A U.S. defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

Satellite images taken over the last 48 hours show increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Kremlin on Tuesday, as he prepares for talks with Vladimir Putin

Scholz is in Moscow today for talks with Putin, with the Kremlin saying it expects 'prolonged' discussions between the two because they have 'a lot to discuss'

Russian troops form an honour guard at the Kremlin for German Chancellor Scholz as he arrives in Moscow to meet Putin

COVID-anxious Vladimir Putin again deployed an extremely long table to keep his distance as he took stock with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Monday

President Joe Biden, seen here with first lady Jill Biden, spoke with British PM Boris Johnson Monday. The U.S. is urging Russia to pursue diplomacy to avert a crisis over its possible invasion of Ukraine

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The photos also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation, according to Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup.

U.S. troops, meanwhile, flew from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to the region.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden formally approved the deployment of 3,000 US troops to Poland, Germany and Romania, to reassure U.S. allies.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the deployments included roughly 2,000 troops that would deploy from the United States to Poland and Germany.

In addition, approximately 1,000 troops currently based in Germany were moving to Romania.

Kirby said the moves were not permanent and emphasized: 'These forces are not going to fight in Ukraine.'

The Biden administration said Saturday that it was pulling 160 Florida National Guard members from Ukraine, where they have been advising the Ukrainian military since November, 'out of an abundance of caution.'

Kirby said Monday that 'we have said for a while now that military action now could happen any day.'

'It is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning,' Kirby said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

'It certainly could happen before the end of the Olympics - maybe even this week,' he said.

Biden has repeatedly stressed that U.S. troops will not be engaged in combat in Ukraine.

In an hour-long call with the Russian president on Saturday, Biden said the United States and its allies would 'respond decisively' to a Russian invasion of Ukraine. On Sunday, Biden spoke to Zelensky and stressed the United States' commitment to Ukraine.

Biden told Zelensky that the U.S. would respond aggressively to any attack, the White House said, through sanctions and other measures to level a high cost for Russia.

Zelensky asked Biden to visit Ukraine, but U.S. officials said a trip is 'highly unlikely.'

Ukrainian security and defense council chief Oleksiy Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of 'internal destabilization' by unspecified forces.

'Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th,' he told reporters after meeting lawmakers.

'We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.'

Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne division walk across the tarmac at Green Ramp to deploy to Poland on February 14, 2022 at Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, North Carolina

Members of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army prepare for deployment to Poland from Fort Bragg on Monday

The U.S. troops wait to board their flight in North Carolina on Monday, bound for Poland

Soldiers sleep as they wait to board their flight to Europe on Monday from North Carolina

The race to Kiev: Plans presented by Kremlin military chiefs show how 130,000 Russian forces will bid to topple Ukraine government in 'multi-axis' invasion from Belarus and Crimea

Russian troops will set off on a 'race to Kiev' to topple the Ukrainian government, according to plans presented by Kremlin military chiefs.

Tens of thousands of Putin's soldiers will push south into Ukraine to target the capital and install a pro-Russian regime, Western officials fear.

There will also be a 'multi-axis' invasion by Russian forces. Troops will enter the country from Belarus and Crimea before converging in eastern Ukraine.

Their mission will be to align themselves to prevent Ukrainian forces in the east of the country heading back to defend Kiev.

T-72B3 Main Battle Tanks of Russian Army take part in a military drill in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 14, 2022

With speed of movement being critical to Russia's strategy, lighter vehicles and weapons systems have apparently been selected for the ground offensive.

More Russian troops, possibly an extra 20,000, are being added to the invasion force which is currently 130,000-strong.

A source said: 'The build-up of soldiers and equipment is unprecedented and very alarming. This is a force built for the purpose of an invasion. It is estimated a further 14 Russian brigades are heading for the Ukrainian border.

'The logistics are also in place, the medical back-up as well as air and naval assets. We have seen the build-up of Russian vessels in the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Holidays have also been cancelled for many Russian units.

'In total you are looking at 60 per cent of Russia's overall combat power being engaged in this operation.

'The land threat has also been made more potent by the disposition of their attacking forces. Russia has basically traded mass for speed knowing they must get to Kiev as quickly as possible.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, soldiers practice at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus

'They must also rapidly get other units to eastern Ukraine to form a barrier stopping Ukrainian units pushing back west to save the capital city.'

According to sources, detailed invasion plans will be presented imminently to President Putin, who has still yet to make a final decision on the invasion.

Putin is expected to meet his defence minister Sergey Shoygu and the head of Russia's secret services Alexander Bortnikov before committing to war.

That's because the UK, the US and the EU will launch a blitzkrieg on Russia's banking system and financial services industry if Russia invades.

Kiev is lightly defended because most Ukrainian troops have been stationed in the east fighting Russian separatists since 2014.

The Ukrainian capital is only 150 miles via the E95 highway from Belarus's southern border  a journey Russian tanks could make in six hours.

A source added: 'Once they get to Kiev the Russians are reluctant to send their troops into situations where they could be fighting street by street. Such a close quarter battle would likely lead to heavy casualties, both military and civilian. The Russians don't want to get bogged down.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Russia February 14, 2022

'They're hoping for a 'bloodless coup', to oust the democratically elected government and put their people in without much of a struggle.

'They are probably underestimating the willingness of the Ukrainians to fight for their country, they are not just going to roll over. So it could get very bloody.'

While the state-controlled media claims the crisis is Nato's fault, there is little or no appetite within Russia for conflict with their neighbour.

'Russians see Ukrainians as being like themselves, many Russians also have Ukrainian relatives. There is little opposition to a possible war because of the Kremlin's control of the media.

'This could change quickly if a lot of people are killed,' a source said. 'An actual invasion would also prove expensive for Russia financially and politically as it would suffer heavy economic sanctions and become a pariah state.'
A former Post Office has told an inquiry how she was left homeless and attempted an overdose after she was wrongly convicted of the theft of just over 3,000 due to an IT glitch.

Lisa Brennan, is among more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses (SPMs) who were wrongly accused of theft due to a flaw in the computer system Horizon, installed and maintained by Fujitsu, between 2000 and 2014.

In December 2019 a High Court judge ruled that Horizon contained a number of 'bugs, errors and defects' and there was a 'material risk' that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.

Ms Brennan, who was a counter clerk at a Post Office in Huyton, near Liverpool, was wrongly convicted of the theft of just over 3,000 in 2003 despite pleading not guilty.

Although she avoided jail, Ms Brennan said it was the 'end' of her world, leading to financial difficulty and the end of her marriage.

Lisa Brennan, who was a counter clerk at a Post Office in Huyton, near Liverpool, was wrongly convicted of the theft of just over 3,000 in 2003. She is among more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses who were wrongly accused of theft due to a flaw in the computer system Horizon. (Stock image)

She said: 'All I'd ever known from the age of 16 was the Post Office and then just to be told ''you're a thief'' is horrible.'

After the conviction, Ms Brennan attempted to take an overdose but said 'nobody really cared' or reached out because of her criminal record.

She also became homeless with her young daughter and had to rely on family members for food.

Ms Brennan said: 'I had to sell the house, I couldn't afford the mortgage.

'I stayed at my mum's on the couch and my daughter Jess just had the spare room - I was sofa surfing.'

Talking about her ordeal, Ms Brennan added: 'It's scandalous, it should never have happened.

'I wasn't the only one but that's what I was told: ''It's only you, you're the only one.''

'I remember them (Post Office investigators) saying that: ''It's only you.'''

Mother-of-three Janine Powell, 50, a former subpostmistress in Tiverton in Devon, was in tears during the inquiry as she recounted her ordeal after being accused of stealing around 71,000.

Ms Powell said she felt 'broken' after being sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 as she would have to leave her children aged 10 to 18.

She said she spent around 23 hours a day in prison due to short staffing.

Ms Powell continued: 'It had a big impact. You have to declare obviously that you've got a criminal record.

'When you try to explain (to employers) it's a ''no'' straight away, so I couldn't work.'

She self-harmed and had suicidal thoughts and her relationship with her children became strained, the probe heard.

The inquiry, which is expected to run for the rest of this year, is looking into whether the Post Office knew about faults in the IT system and will also ask how staff were made to take the blame.

Jason Beer QC, counsel to the inquiry, said during his opening that the ordeal of those affected could be concluded as 'the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history'.

The inquiry also heard from Damian Owen, from Anglesey in Wales, who was the manager of a post office, was audited in 2010 and later jailed for eight months after being accused of stealing 25,000.

Mr Owen said he sought help for his mental wellbeing and began working 'bottom of the rung' jobs because of his criminal record.

Asked what he now wanted from the Post Office, the witness said: 'I want some decent money, a decent apology and I want there to be convictions for the people who have perpetuated the whole conspiracy inside the Post Office.

'You know everyone from the top down knew and were pushing the charges.'

Also giving evidence was mother-of-one Margery Lorraine Williams, 55, from Anglesey, Wales, who tearfully said she was left to pick up a bill of just over 14,000 because of the system fault.

She had owned her post office in Llanddaniel Fab near Llangefni since 2009, but in 2011 auditors suspended her licence before she was convicted of four counts of fraud.

Ms Williams told the inquiry she had pleaded guilty because she did not want to go to jail and leave behind her daughter, who was 10 at the time.

Baljit Sethi, 69, and his wife Anjana, 67, described how they 'lost everything' after the system fault affected them

Josephine Hamilton was given a one-year supervision order in 2008 after being wrongly convicted of false accounting

Noel Thomas (centre with his children), 74, who was wrongly accused of false accounting, worked as a postman from 1965 and became a subpostmaster in 1994

She spoke of being 'humiliated' after receiving a 52-week prison term suspended for 18 months.

Ms Williams said: 'It was horrendous because it was like a little village for us and my daughter had grown up there from one to the age of nearly 11.'

Asked what she wanted from the Post Office, Ms Williams added: 'I want them to go to jail for what they've done, but then that would be an easy life for them. They'd come out and still have their money.

'I want them to feel the way I felt and the way I have struggled financially.'

Yesterday Baljit Sethi, 69, and his wife Anjana, 67, who have three children together, described how they 'lost everything' after a system fault affected them.

What was the Horizon computer system and how did it go wrong? Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters were sacked or prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from their branch accounts (file image) Horizon, an IT system developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was rolled out by the Post Office from 1999. The system was used for tasks such as transactions, accounting and stocktaking. However, subpostmasters complained about defects after it reported shortfalls - some of which amounted to thousands of pounds. Some subpostmasters attempted to plug the gap with their own money, even remortgaging their homes, in an attempt to correct an error. Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of subpostmasters were sacked or prosecuted due to the glitches. The ex-workers blamed flaws in the IT system, Horizon, but the Post Office denied there was a problem. In case after case the Post Office bullied postmasters into pleading guilty to crimes they knew they had not committed. Many others who were not convicted were hounded out of their jobs or forced to pay back thousands of pounds of 'missing' money. The Post Office spent 32million to deny any fault in their IT system, before capitulating. However, the postmasters and postmistresses said the scandal ruined their lives as they had to cope with the impact of a conviction and imprisonment, some while they had been pregnant or had young children. Marriages broke down, and courts have heard how some families believe the stress led to health conditions, addiction and premature deaths. Advertisement

The couple said they had the 'best time' of their lives running a branch near Romford, in Essex, from 1983, as they were popular in the local community.

Mr Sethi told the inquiry: 'We didn't take a single penny from the Post Office our entire life.'

The inquiry heard that in 2001, Mr Sethi took on another branch in Brentwood, Essex, which after one year showed a hole in the accounts of 17,000, which the couple were asked to cover out of their own pocket.

Mr Sethi, who was never charged, told the inquiry he tried to communicate with the head office in Chelmsford, Essex, after noticing a problem with the system.

He went on to say: 'I was the only man who ran the Post Office seven days a week.

'I used to open it at 8am and shut at 8pm. I was the only Post Office in the country running all seven days.'

Mr Sethi, whose contract was terminated because of the shortfall, said: 'I knew there was something wrong with the system but no-one wanted to know that.'

Asked about his life afterwards, Mr Sethi said: 'We lost everything we ever had after 20-25 years and this was all thanks to the Post Office.

'I was down and out, I contemplated suicide, but I thought no, that's the easy way out, what about my family and my children?'

Mr Sethi described working late shifts as a security guard on minimum wage to help fund a quality education and lifestyle for his children.

He went on to say: 'People in our community believed we had been robbing from the Post Office.

'It all had a bad impact on us psychologically, financially and reputation-wise.'

Noel Thomas, 74, worked as a postman from 1965 and became a subpostmaster in 1994, taking over from his wife, with whom he had run a post office branch since 1979.

He was jailed for nine months in November 2006 after being wrongly accused of false accounting.

He told the inquiry of his 'hell' behind bars, including the 'indignity' of showering in front of a prison warden and only being allowed out of his cell for food.

Mr Thomas was in tears as he said: 'I felt awful because I didn't expect it, I'd never been a criminal in my life.'

After his sentence his sleep was 'terrible' because of his fear of confined spaces, he said.

He also lost his position as a councillor and was declared bankrupt in 2008, the inquiry was told.

Mr Thomas called for the inquiry to achieve 'justice' for the others wrongly accused.

The inquiry also heard from Josephine Hamilton, who was given a one-year supervision order in 2008 after being wrongly convicted of false accounting.

Ms Hamilton, a former sub postmistress from South Warnborough, in Hampshire, was accused of stealing 36,000 from her branch.

The inquiry heard that she was forced to remortgage her house and borrow money from friends, and that people in her village donated money to help.

She told reporters on Monday she wanted 'some people to face the consequences for what they've done'.

Ms Hamilton told the inquiry: 'I'm so angry. I'm so angry about the group that they're (Post Office) refusing to compensate.'
Wales looks set to overtake England in offering Covid jabs to healthy children as young as five.

The country's health minister said it is ready to 'commence the rollout' after receiving advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Eluned Morgan did not reveal a timetable when she announced the direction of travel to the Welsh parliament.

But she said it will not be done 'as a matter of urgency' due to the low risk Covid poses to the age group.

The JCVI was due to publish its official recommendation to offer vaccines to young children last week but it was delayed on Friday and again on Monday.

It is understood to have been delayed by No10 amid suggestions Downing Street wants to announce it as part of a 'living with Covid' package on February 21.

Ms Morgan said it is 'a shame and perplexing to understand why that [JCVI advice] has not been published yet'.

'But I have seen a copy of that advice and we will be commencing the roll-out of vaccinations for five to 11-year-olds,' she said.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have also not yet announced plans for vaccinating healthy five to 11-year-olds.

Eluned Morgan (pictured) told the Welsh parliament that the Government is working with health boards to 'commence the rollout' of vaccines for five to 11-year-olds after receiving advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI)

Ms Morgan said parents will have to give consent and all jabs to the age group will be dished out at health centres rather than schools.

Under current guidelines across the UK, only those who have a weakened immune system, or live with those who do, are eligible for a single dose.

Britain's daily Covid cases plummet by another 30% to 46,186 Britain's Covid outbreak shrank on all fronts again today, as cases, hospitalisations and deaths continue to trend downwards. Official Government data shows 46,186 positive tests were logged over the last 24 hours, a 30.2 per cent drop on last Tuesday. Cases have now been tumbling week-on-week for over a fortnight. Meanwhile, the number of Covid-infected patients admitted to hospital fell by nearly a fifth to 1,100  the lowest figure seen since December 19. And Covid fatalities are down 25.5 per cent on last week. Meanwhile, separate data today showed a third of virus deaths recorded in England and Wales are among people who primarily died from another illness. The share of fatalities mainly caused by the disease has been trending downwards for weeks after the arrival of the milder Omicron variant and the accelerated booster vaccine programme. Advertisement

But unveiling advice to the Senedd today, Ms Morgan said: 'I have received JCVI advice regarding the vaccination of all five to 11-year-olds. I have agreed it, and we are working with health boards on implementing the offer.

'We await advice about whether the most vulnerable cohorts should have a further booster to protect them over the spring and summer months.

'We are working with health boards to plan for various scenarios to ensure we are agile and ready to implement any advice once I have considered this carefully.'

She acknowledged the low risk Covid poses to children. Data for England shows there is around one death within 28 days of testing positive per 200,000 five to nine-year-olds.

Ms Morgan added: 'Of course, it's likely to have been a very difficult decision for the JCVI, because generally, children have a milder illness and fewer hospitalisations, but, of course, they have to balance that against the prospect of missing school.

'So, we have to consider very different issues when it comes to the vaccination of children as young as five years old.'

She said children are expected to be accompanied by an adult who will need to provide informed consent for their vaccination.

Siblings will be able to get vaccinated 'at the same time' and all of the jabs will be administered in health centres, rather than schools, she said.

But the health minister said the rollout to the age group will not be 'as a matter of urgency, as we did over the Christmas period'.

She said: 'That's partly because the risk isn't as great to that cohort.

'And we're also waiting to hear from the JCVI to see whether they'll need a booster on top of the booster for older age groups in the spring.

'So, we certainly would want to consider which of those has to be prioritised.

'So, we just need to consider and weigh up amongst all of the other things that we need to consider, when it comes to making a decision on vaccination and what we need to do in that regard.'

The JCVI was understood to have green-lit the move earlier this month but the guidance is still being reviewed by Downing Street.

A JCVI source told MailOnline that opening the jabs to the age group will appease 'parents who are desperate to have the choice', but added that nobody on the committee was 'particularly vocal' about wanting to jab young children.

Only 20 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds have been double-vaccinated in England and little over half have received one jab  raising questions about whether there is public demand for jabbing even younger children.

Ms Morgan said: 'In terms of the timetable for five to 11-year-olds, we're obviously waiting for that formal advice to come from the JCVI. I'm not quite sure what's holding it up.

'We know that it's available, and it's important that we are able to forge ahead with our plans.

'Obviously, we thought that this might be coming our way, so a huge amount of preparation work has already been undertaken, but we can't really press the button finally on it until we have that final JCVI publication that we're hoping to see imminently.'
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Russia has started a 'hybrid war', it was feared tonight, as several key Ukrainian websites, including banks, government departments and the ministry of defence, were hit by a massive cyber attack.

Ukraine has been under constant attack from Russian and Kremlin-backed hackers since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Cyber espionage, damage to databases and servers, disruption to power and communications and disinformation are all now routine weapons in the Russian armoury.

Tonight, several major Ukrainian banks, including PrivatBank, Oschad and the State Savings Bank of Ukraine, experienced issues with transactions and mobile apps, along with other outages at the Ministry of defence and armed services websites.

Vladimir Putin has insisted that Russia is 'ready to go down the negotiations track' with the West - opening up the possibility of talks on arms control, military transparency and other measures aimed at reducing tensions

Several major Ukrainian banks, including PrivatBank, Oschad and the State Savings Bank of Ukraine, experienced issues with transactions and mobile apps, along with other outages at the Ministry of defence and armed services websites. Pictured: A branch of the Privatbank is seen in central Kyiv (File image)

A BM-27 Uragan self-propelled multiple rocket launcher system during a live firing drill at the 'Opuk' interspecific training ground in Crimea on Tuesday

Ukrainian media reported that customers were finding that their banking apps were not working and people could not pay for goods with cards.

A statement from the ministry of defence in Kyiv, released on Facebook, said they had suffered a probable DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack - a malicious attempt to disrupt a server or network by overwhelming the target with a flood of internet traffic.

The statement added: 'Scheduled technical work is currently underway on the restoration of the regular functioning of the web portal of the ministry.'

The government agency defending Ukraine against cyber wars, the Centre for Strategic Innovation and Information Security, tried to calm fears.

Russia has today claimed it is withdrawing some of its forces from Crimea and the Ukraine border region after training drills, in what could be the first sign of a climb-down by Vladimir Putin

Video released by the Russian defence ministry early Tuesday showed columns of tanks being loaded on to train transports in Crimea, as the foreign ministry slammed what it called Western 'war propaganda' over an invasion

Tanks are pictured leaving a Russian base in the Ukraine border region, which it claims is part of a withdrawal from the region - despite Washington warning that troops are actually moving closer to the border

Ukraine today hailed Western efforts aimed at preventing a war, saying they appear to be working as Russian forces withdraw (pictured) while also cautioning that the 'withdrawal' might not be what it seems

In a statement on its Facebook page it said: 'ATTENTION: THERE IS NO THREAT FOR PRIVATBANK'S DEPOSITORS 'FUNDS.

'For the last few hours, Privatbank has been under a massive DDoS attack. Privat24 users report problems with payments and the application in general. Some users do not manage to log in to Privat24 at all, others do not display the balance and recent transactions.

'Privat assures that there is no threat to depositors' funds. The cyberattack concerns only the Privat24 application. The rest of the financial transactions are performed normally.

'Oschadbank also has failures, and Internet banking is down.

'The websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also attacked. It is possible that the aggressor resorted to the tactics of petty mischief, because by and large his aggressive plans do not work.'

With Russia massing more than 130,000 troops on the Ukraine border and western powers expecting a full-blown invasion, the Kyiv government and independent experts have always expected hostile cyber activity to increase in an effort to destabilise the country before or during any attack.

The news came after a day of mixed messages from the Kremlin with claims that their forces on the borders of Ukraine were being withdrawn after 'military exercises' were met with scepticism by NATO and western observers who said they had seen no signs of de-escalation.

 Slide me  Russia has begun moving vehicles from assembly areas to forward staging points in what observers fear could be one of the last moves before an invasion of Ukraine. Left is an assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, filled with tanks on January 19 and right is the same area - empty of tanks - pictured on Sunday

 Slide me  One forward staging area appears to be Soloti, just 20 miles from the Ukraine border. Satellites show a camp of Russian troops in the region on January 12 (left) and the same camp but expanded with the arrival of new troops and vehicles on February 13 (right)

 Slide me  Satellite images show a Russian assembly area in Yelnya, Russia, on January 19 (left) and the same area on February 13 (right) with some tents removed and deep wheel ruts in the snow as men and vehicles are moved closer to the border

Russia's apparent withdrawal is being treated with extreme scepticism in the West, where intelligence agencies suspect is could be part of a ruse to launch a smaller military operation in the regions of Eastern Ukraine where Russian separatists are fighting.

Putin also insisted that the fate of two breakaway Ukrainian regions - where Moscow-backed rebels are fighting the government - should form part of talks because 'genocide' is underway there. And he again accused the West of ignoring his demand that Ukraine is banned from NATO, underlining how far apart the two sides still are.

He said: 'Of course we don't want it [war]," Mr Putin said after his discussions with Mr Scholz in Moscow, according to one translation.

 Slide me  Russian tanks and other vehicles are seen parked in an assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, in a satellite image taken on February 4 (left) and the same area is pictured empty of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they have been moved to staging areas closer to the Ukraine border

 Slide me  An assembly area in Rechista, Belarus, is seen filled with Russian military vehicles on February 4 (left) while the same area is pictured emptied of vehicles on Monday (right) amid fears they are being repositioned for an invasion

Train cars loaded with Russian artillery units are pictured at a station in Yelnya, Russia, as American officials warn they are being moved closer to Ukraine in what appears to be final preparations for an attack

Newly-arrived Russian Mil Mi-26 heavy lifting helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Machulishchy, Belarus, as American officials warn Putin could be just hours away from giving the order to attack

'This is exactly why we put forward the proposal to start the negotiation process where the result should be an agreement of ensuring equal security of everyone, including our country.

'Unfortunately there was no constructive response to this proposal.

'Nevertheless we come from a position that even in the documents that were forwarded to us from NATO and Washington there are elements that can be discussed.'

Hours before he spoke, Moscow announced that some troops and tanks stationed near Ukraine are being returned to their home bases - a move that was welcomed with cautious optimism by Western leaders who said it sends the right signal, but doesn't change the fact that Russia could still invade at short notice.

Boris Johnson accused Putin of sending 'mixed messages': Calling for negotiations on one hand while building field hospitals on the frontlines, a move he said 'can only be construed as preparations for an invasion.'

A newly-arrived unit of Russian attack helicopters is pictured at an airfield in Belgorod, Russia, in this satellite image taken on February 13

Russian transport and attack helicopters are pictured at an airfield in Lake Donuzlav, Crimea, on February 13 as Putin builds up his aerial forces ahead of an invasion that the US fears could come this week

Sukhoi Su-34 fighters are pictured at Primorsko-Akhtarsk airbase in Russia, having been newly deployed near the frontlines with Ukraine amid fears they will be used to assist an invasion of the country

A Russian troop garrison at Zyabrovka air base in Belarus with a field hospital set up (beige tents, bottom right) is seen in this satellite image taken on February 10

A Russian troop encampment at Novoozernoye, in occupied Crimea, is pictured on February 9 with a field hospital (cross-shaped tent, bottom right) set up nearby

Jens Stoltenburg, NATO chief, said he has seen no evidence that Russia is drawing down its forces but that signals coming from the Kremlin give room for 'cautious optimism'.

Ukrainian defence minister Dmytro Kuleba credited Western efforts to avert war as the reason for Moscow's change of stance, but added: 'Don't believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a [Russian] withdrawal, we will believe [it.]'

In a sign of Moscow's likely demands during talks with the West, lawmakers in Russia's rubber-stamp parliament today voted on a resolution to officially recognise the breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine as independent republics.

President Joe Biden, seen here with first lady Jill Biden, spoke with British PM Boris Johnson on Monday. The U.S. is urging Russia to pursue diplomacy to avert a crisis over its possible invasion of Ukraine

The resolution calls on Putin to recognise the self-appointed governments in Donetsk and Luhansk - two regions that immediately border Russian and have large Russian-speaking minorities - as legitimate and to help with their security.

Should Putin sign off on the resolution, it would pave the way for over movement of Russian troops and military hardware into the regions.

The Kremlin has previously suggested it would not sign such a document, but the threat of doing so could provide useful leverage in negotiations.

Preparations for talks were laid weeks ago, when Russia sent a list of security demands to NATO and the US - including that Ukraine be banned from the alliance and all its forces withdrawn from ex-Soviet states.

Those demands have been dismissed, but both NATO and the US sent written responses back laying out other areas where they were willing to talk - such as expired Cold War arms treaties, transparency around missile placements in Europe, information sharing around military drills, and other measures.
Virginia's new Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears used her patent leather high heel to bring the state Senate to order Monday, after a prankster stole her gavel and hid it.

'One shoe can change your life. Just ask Cinderella,' Sears said as she banged the black heel on the podium.

Washington Post reporter Laura Vozzella tweeted a close-up photo of the shoe in question, with Sears responding, 'Resourcefulness- never underestimate it!'

Virginia's new Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears used her patent leather high heel to bring the state Senate to order Monday, after a prankster stole her gavel and hid it

'One shoe can change your life. Just ask Cinderella,' Sears said as she banged the black heel on the podium

Sears was sworn-in in January as lieutenant governor and made history as the first black woman to hold statewide office in Virginia, the commonwealth that once held the capital of the Confederacy.

Sears is Jamaican-born and ran on being pro-Second Amendment and against so-called 'critical race theory.'

She's a Marine Corps veteran and a former director of a homeless shelter.

She and the new GOP governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, were able to take advantage of the political trends in November's off-year election.

Before Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe won his race in 2013, Virginia had gone 36 years electing a governor who was in the opposing party of the occupant in the White House.

McAuliffe, the 2021 Democratic gubernatorial nominee, hoped to break that trend again, but lost to Youngkin and Sears by 2 points.

In Virginia, governors are barred from running for re-election after one term, but can run again afterward, like McAuliffe did.

He was trying to keep the governor's mansion blue after the scandal-ridden term of Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam.

Sears, like Vice President Kamala Harris, presides over the state Senate and, also like Harris, can cast a tie-breaking vote.

The Virginia state Senate consists of 40 members and Democrats hold a slim majority of 21 to 19.

Last week, Sears cast her first tie-breaking vote, on a bill that would allow a criminal defendant to appeal a judge's sentencing.

Sears voted no on the matter.
Artist Man Ray's iconic surrealist photograph titled 'Le Violon d'Ingres,' depicting a nude woman with f-shaped violin markings on her back, is bound for the auction block, with Christie's setting a record asking price of $5million.

The 1924 masterpiece, which is widely considered to be Man Ray's most famous work, will be sold to the highest bidder in May, alongside other artworks, photographs, jewelry and posters, which comprised a noteworthy Surrealist collection amassed over the decades by Rosalind Gersten Jacobs and Melvin Jacobs, a wealthy Manhattan couple who both worked in fashion.

If 'Le Violon d'Ingres' fetches its asking price or higher, it will be the most expensive photo ever sold at auction. The current record is held by Andreas Gurskys Rheine II, which was sold by Christie's for an eye-popping $4.3million in 2011.

Man Ray's iconic 'Le Violon d'Ingres' photo is headed for auction in May, with Christie's setting an unprecedented asking price of $5million. It depicts the artist's lover Kiki de Montparnasse

Man Ray is pictured in his Paris apartment in 1970. 'Le Violin d'Ingres' is considered his greatest masterpiece

American visual artist Man Ray taught himself photography in the 1920s and produced his most iconic work, Le Violon d'Ingres, in Paris Man Ray was born in Philadelphia in 1890 and spent his early life in New York, turning down a scholarship to study architecture in order to devote himself to painting. He initially taught himself photography in order to reproduce his works of art, but in 1920 he began to work as a portrait photographer to fund his artwork. In 1915, while at Ridgefield artist colony in New Jersey, he met the French artist Marcel Duchamp and together they tried to establish New York Dada. His friendship with Duchamp led to Man Rays move to Paris in 1921, where, as a contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, he revolved in the same circles as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, and created unforgettable photographs of many of his famous contemporaries. Following the outbreak of World War II, Man Ray left France for the US and took up residence in Hollywood. Returning to Paris in 1951 he again made the city his home until his death in 1976. In 1962, he sold 'Le Violon d'Ingres' to Rosalind Gersten Jacobs, a retail executive and fashion buyer for Macy's, who, along with her husband, chief executive of Saks Fifth Avenue Melvin Jacobs, befriended surrealist artists, among them Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte, Max Ernst, and purchased many of their important works. The black-and-white image depicts Man Ray's lover and muse, Kiki de Montparnasse, with her naked back facing the camera, and her head, crowned with a turban, slightly turned to the left. Advertisement

As Wall Street Journal first reported, paintings by Man Ray previously have been auctioned off for up to $5.8million, but none of his photographs have ever sold for more than $3.1million.

Darius Himes, Christies International Head of Photographs, explained that 'Le Violon d'Ingres' was created using a unique darkroom process.

The title of the photograph is translated as 'Ingres' violin,' and it is a widely used French idiom that means 'hobby.' It invokes the name of Jean-August Dominique Ingres, a 19th century artist who wished to be best known for his violin playing, rather than his painting.

The black-and-white image depicts Man Ray's lover and muse, Kiki de Montparnasse, with her naked back facing the camera, and her head, crowned with a turban, slightly turned to the left.

Two f-shaped violin markings are cleverly positioned in the middle of the model's back, giving her body the appearance of a string instrument.

Himes said that while the photograph has been reproduced 'countless times,' Man Ray held onto the original until 1962, when it ended up in the Jacobs family's collection.

'The reach and influence of the image, at once romantic, mysterious, roguish, and playful, has captured the minds of all for nearly 100 years,' Himes said of the famed artwork. 'As a photographic work, it is unprecedented in the marketplace. We are proud to handle it.'

Man Ray was born in Philadelphia in 1890 and spent his early life in New York, turning down a scholarship to study architecture in order to devote himself to painting.

He initially taught himself photography in order to reproduce his works of art, but in 1920 he began to work as a portrait photographer to fund his artwork. In 1915, while at Ridgefield artist colony in New Jersey, he met the French artist Marcel Duchamp and together they tried to establish New York Dada.

His friendship with Duchamp led to Man Rays move to Paris in 1921, where, as a contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, he revolved in the same circles as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, and created unforgettable photographs of many of his famous contemporaries.

Following the outbreak of World War II, Man Ray left France for the US and took up residence in Hollywood.

Returning to Paris in 1951 he again made the city his home until his death in 1976.

In 1962, he sold 'Le Violon d'Ingres' to Rosalind Gersten Jacobs, a retail executive and fashion buyer for Macy's, who, along with her husband, chief executive of Saks Fifth Avenue Melvin Jacobs, befriended surrealist artists, among them Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte, Max Ernst, and purchased many of their important works.

Retail executive Rosalind Gersten Jacobs (right), pictured with her daughter, Peggy, bought the photo from Man Ray, who was a friend, in 1962 to add to her Surrealist collection

Gersten Jacobs and her husband were friends with many Surrealist and Dada artists. From left, Max Ernst, M. Jean, Rosalind Gersten Jacobs, Juliet Man Ray (kneeling) and her husband Man Ray embraced by Ernst's wife Dorothea Tanning

According to Christie's, collection highlights also include Vija Celmins' Mars, with an estimated asking price of $1.8million, as well as Duchamps Feuille de vigne femelle - one of the artists erotic objects which Gersten Jacobs bought from Man Ray in Paris and took back home to New York.

Later on at a party in the Jacobs apartment, a guest mistook the sculpture for an ashtray. Rosalind called Duchamp to let him know, which amused the artist and he declared the work improved, according to Christie's.

The current auction record for a photo is held by Andreas Gurskys Rheine II, which was sold by Christie's for $4.3million in 2011

Melvin Jacobs died in 1993, followed by his wife in 2019. The collection then passed on to the couple's daughter, Peggy Jacobs Bader.

'The acquisition of nearly every piece has a unique and intimate story behind it,' she said of her parents' art treasures. 'The joyful spirit of my parents relationship with the artists is reflected in the works they amassed. In viewing the collection, one gets a visceral sense of my parents love of Surrealism, their discerning eye for great art, their playfulness and, at times, their mischievousness.'
Paislee Shultis was abducted aged four in 2019. She is now six

A four-year-old girl who was abducted by her parents after they lost custody of her in 2019 has been found alive in their home in a hovel-like makeshift room beneath the stairs.

Paislee Shultis was abducted from her guardians in 2019 when she was four, from the home of her legal guardian in Cayuga Heights, New York.

She had been removed from the care of her biological parents, Kim Cooper and Kirk Cultis.

It's unclear why they lost custody but they took her back and for the last three years, have been hiding from law enforcement.

But on Monday, police in Saugerties, upstate New York, received a tip that the girl was with the couple at a home.

She was found hiding in a dark, wet room underneath the staircase.

The house is 162 miles from where she was abducted in 2019.

This is the makeshift room under the stairs where Paislee Shultis was found living in her paternal grandfather's home on Monday night

Cops flashed a light over the staircase and were able to see a dirty blanket from behind the staircase

Kirk Shultis, left, and Kim Cooper, right, were taken into custody but Kirk has now been bonded out

Kirk Shultis Jr. is pictured on Tuesday at the home, after being released from jail on bond. He said: 'The truth will come out', but did not comment further

Cooper, Shultis and Shultis' father have been arrested but Shultis and his father were released on bond on Tuesday morning.

Cooper is still behind bars in the Ulster County Jail but the father and grandfather - who were charged with endangering the welfare of a child and custody interference - have been released.

Cooper is being held on an additional count from family court but it is unclear what that charge is.

None have been charged with kidnapping.

This is the family home in Saugerties, New York, where the family was living

There is a child's play structure on the property where the girl had been living in secret for three years

The home in Saugerties, New York, where the girl was found on Monday night after an anonymous tip

The Shultis family home in Saugerties, New York. The family has not commented publicly

It is unclear who the child was living with when she was abducted in 2019.

In a statement on Tuesday, it was revealed that Saugerties Detective Erik Thiele 'noticed something about the staircase leading from the back of the residence into the basement of the house that caught his attention'.

He shone a flashlight into the stairs and that is when detectives saw a pair of tiny feet.

'After removing several more steps, the child and her abductor were discovered within,' a police spokesperson said.

It's unclear who reported the family to the police, or how long they knew the child had been there.
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Alec Baldwin posted a video to Instagram Tuesday afternoon of a sign that read, 'Everything's going to be alright' just hours after the actor was sued by the family of slain Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins for wrongful death as her lawyers recreated the moment he accidentally shot and killed her with prop gun on a New Mexico set last October.

Baldwin was holding a Colt revolver during a rehearsal on set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe when he fired a live round on October 21, 2021, killing Hutchins.

He has maintained that it was Hutchins herself who asked him to point the gun just off camera and toward her armpit before it went off. Director Joel Souza also was wounded in the shooting.

The civil lawsuit, filed in New Mexico on Tuesday, is seeking unspecified but 'substantial' damages, including punitive damages.

Alec Baldwin posted a video to Instagram Tuesday afternoon of a sign that read, 'Everything's going to be alright' just hours after the actor was sued by the family of slain Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins for wrongful death

Attorney Brian Panish, representing Hutchins' husband, Matthew Hutchins, and their young son, Andros, held a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday to announce the lawsuit against Baldwin and 'others who are responsible for the safety on set, and whose reckless behavior and cost-cutting led to the senseless, tragic death of Halyna Hutchins,' he said.

According to Panish, his firm has conducted an independent investigation that he said uncovered 'numerous violations of industry standards' by Baldwin and the other defendants named in the complaint, among them Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, assistant director David Halls and several production companies attached to the project.

'There are many people culpable, but Mr. Baldwin was the person holding the weapon  that but for him shooting, she would not have died,' Panish said.

At least three other lawsuits have been filed over the shooting, but this is the first directly tied to one of the two people shot.

A 10-minute video created by the attorneys showed a 3D animated recreation of the shooting during a rehearsal in a church.

It shows a computer-generated avatar representing Baldwin accepting the Colt gun from Halls, pointing it in Hutchins' direction, and firing.

The animation shows that the bullet in the chamber was live and not a 'dummy' with a hole drilled into it. The round strikes Hutchins, who clutches her chest and collapses in the video.

The law firm handling the case produced this video that shows an animated recreation of the shooting, complete with a Baldwin avatar

In the video, Baldwin accepts the revolver and points it at Hutchins, who is standing next to the camera in a church set

Baldwin fires, and the round strikes Hutchins, 42, in the chest (left). Moments later Hutchins collapses on the floor after being shot (right)

The animation shows that the round in the gun was not a typical 'dummy' bullet with a hole drilled in the middle

The head electrician on Alec Baldwin's Rust shared the final photo of Halyna Hutchins (pictured holding the camera) on set in the church before she was shot dead

Three days after the shooting, Baldwin (right) was seen walking with Matthew and Andros Hutchins in Santa Fe just three days after he shot and killed Halyna on set. On Tuesday, Baldwin was spotted returning from an early morning shopping trip at a Walgreens in Manhattan, just hours before a wrongful death lawsuit against him was announced. He has not commented on the lawsuit

Baldwin claimed that he pointed the gun and pulled the hammer back at Hutchins' direction

The lawsuit filed was on behalf of Halyna Hutchins' widow and her son in New Mexico on Tuesday

It claims that the defendants, including Alec Baldwin, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and assistant director David Halls cut corners on safety procedures

Baldwin and the defendantsare accused of being aware that there were firearms safety issues on the set of Rust and did not take action to correct the situation and ensure that basic gun safety rules were followed

Baldwin is accused of refusing training for the kind of gun draw he acted out when he shot Hutchins

It also claimed that producers rushed shooting on the film to stay on schedule and ignored numerous complaints and safety violations

These included failure to use a prop gun rather than a live weapon, lack of individuals qualified to handle weapons on set at the time of the shooting and lack of protectic equipment for crew

A text message was produced raising the concern that there had been two accidental discharges on set and one explosive device was accidentally set off

There had been no safety meetings, as required, on the day Hutchins was shot dead

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday states: 'Halyna Hutchins deserved to live, and the Defendants had the power to prevent her death if they had only held sacrosanct their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present instead of cutting corners on safety procedures where human lives were at stake, rushing to stay on schedule and ignoring numerous complaints of safety violations.'

The attorneys said in the video presented on Tuesday that Baldwin had 'refused' training for the kind of gun draw he was doing when he shot Hutchins. The lawsuit also claims that Baldwin never checked the gun himself for ammunition before using it.

They also presented a list of 'at least 15 industry standards' Panish said the film producers had ignored on set.

These included failure to use a prop gun rather than a live weapon, a lack of individuals qualified to handle weapons on set at the time of the shooting, and lack of protective equipment for crew.

Panish also produced a copy of a text message where a local camera operator made safety complaints to producers that there had been three unsafe weapons discarges and that the set was 'super unsafe'.

The unit production manager responded 'with callous sarcasm', according to the lawsuit. He said in response that it was 'awesome' and 'sounds good'.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Baldwin, 62, has not commented on this latest lawsuit. He and wife Hilaria, 37, were seen in the West Village in Manhattan this morning, returning from a shopping trip to a Walgreens pharmacy.

Aaron Dyer, an attorney for Baldwin and other Rust producers, said, 'Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false.'

This protocol has worked on thousands of films, with millions of discharges, and there has never before been an incident on a set where an actual bullet harmed anyone,' Dyer said. 'Actors should be able to rely on armorers and prop department professionals, as well as assistant directors, rather than deciding on their own when a gun is safe to use.'

Baldwin has previously said that while on the set, at Hutchins' direction, he pulled the hammer back and that it fired when he let go. He has said he didn't know the gun contained a live round.

According to witnesses on-set, Baldwin was stunned after firing the fatal round and asked: 'Why was I handed a hot gun?'

Text messages from camera operator Lane Luper show that he complained to a Rust producer about three accidental gun discharges and said the conditions were 'super unsafe'

The mom-of-six looked a pained expression on her face while speaking on the phone

Wife Hilaria Baldwin accompanied her husband, holding a to-go cup of coffee

According to Panish, crew members had voiced complaints to producers about 'super unsafe' practices on the set of Rust - which had a budget of just over $7 million - including three accidental discharges preceding Hutchins' shooting.

Rust camera assistant Lane Luper, who made the 'super unsafe' comment and quit on the eve of the shooting, told Good Morning America that there were only two safety meetings on set and said production did not take gun safety seriously.

'I think with Rust, it was the perfect storm of the armorer, the assistant director, the culture that was on set, the rushing. It was everything,' he said.

In the days after Hutchins' death, her widow Matthew Hutchins was spotted being comforted by Baldwin in Santa Fe. 'I have spoken with Alec Baldwin and he is being very supportive,' Matthew Hutchins said at the time.

Law enforcement officials in New Mexico have described 'some complacency' in how weapons were handled on the set of Rust. They have yet to file any charges and have been working to determine where the live rounds found on set might have come from.

Attorneys for Hutchins' family allege in the complaint that Baldwin and others acted in a 'reckless' manner, leading to the cinematographer's death. Pictured: a visibly shaken Baldwin speaks on the phone just after the shooting

The shooting took place on location at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe. Hutchins, 42, is pictured center left in bobble hat next to purple dress

Panish is suing Baldwin and other producers of Rust on behalf of her widowed husband, Matthew (far left) and their son, Andros (center)

Last month, nearly three months after the shooting, Baldwin turned over his cellphone to authorities in his home state of New York. They gathered information from the phone and provided it to Santa Fe County investigators, who had obtained a warrant for it.

Baldwin said he does not believe he will be criminally charged in the shooting.

The film's script supervisor Mamie Mitchell and its lead camera operator, both of whom were standing a few feet away when Hutchins was shot, each filed a lawsuit over the trauma they went through.

Last month, lawyers for Baldwin appealed to have the second lawsuit thrown out. Representatives have said nothing in the allegations brought by Mitchell who suggested that anyone knew that the prop contained live ammunition leading up to the 'unprecedented' incident.

Mitchell's complaint includes claims of assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, allegedly Baldwin 'chose to play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun without checking it.'

In November, the low-budget movie's chief lighting technician Serge Svetnoy sued Baldwin for negligence.

And the film's armorer, Gutierrez Reed, who was named as a defendant in those lawsuits and blamed by some for the shooting, filed her own suit saying an ammunition supplier created dangerous conditions by including live ammunition in a box that was supposed to include only dummy rounds.

In an interview with ABC News in December, Baldwin said he felt incredible sadness over the the shooting, but not guilt.

'Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can't say who that is, but it's not me,' Baldwin said.

He said Hutchins had asked him to point the gun just off camera and toward her armpit before it went off.

'I didn't pull the trigger,' Baldwin said. 'I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.'

Hutchins, 42, was born in the Soviet Union and described herself as an 'adrenaline junkie'

He called Hutchins 'somebody who was loved by everybody and admired by everybody who worked with her.'

Hutchins, 42, grew up on a remote Soviet military base and worked on documentary films in Eastern Europe before studying film in Los Angeles and embarking on a promising movie-making career.

On her Instagram page, Hutchins identified herself as a 'restless dreamer' and 'adrenaline junkie.'

In a 2019 interview with American Cinematographer, which named her one of the year's rising stars, she described herself as an 'army brat' drawn to movies because 'there wasn't that much to do outside.' She would document herself parachuting and exploring caves, among other adventures, and through her work with British filmmakers, became 'fascinated with storytelling based on real characters.'
Social media has lit up with memes mocking Prince Andrew for reaching a settlement with Virginia Giuffre in her sexual abuse lawsuit against him filed in New York.

The royal agreed to an undisclosed deal said to be worth 7.5million, or $10million USD, with his sexual abuse accuser  despite not admitting to her allegations.

Many took aim at the Dukes previous claims that he never met Giuffre, arguing that agreeing to a hefty settlement with her clearly proves otherwise. He also claimed that on the night of the alleged assault he was at Pizza Express with his daughters.

'I'm waiting for a statement from Pizza Express,' reads a tweet from user Higgins Cartoons and another, shared by user Evan, says: 'Oh look at that ... Prince Andrew bought himself out of trouble.'

Others were more straightforward with their thoughts on the settlement, with a number sharing memes of television show characters saying, 'guilty.'

Court documents filed in New York this morning revealed the Duke of York and Giuffre have reached a 'settlement in principle' in the civil sex claim - but royal experts said it was 'very, very unlikely' that there was a way back to public royal life for the Queen's son.

Andrew will now make a 'substantial donation' to Giuffre's charity supporting victims' rights, and praised her 'bravery' and that of other trafficking victims, saying he has 'never intended' to malign her character.

Giuffre, previously known as Virginia Roberts, sued him last August, alleging he sexually abused her more than two decades ago when she was 17, a minor under US law, while the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking her.

Social media lit up with reactions to Prince Andrews settlement with Virginia Giuffre announced Tuesday The two stand together with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background in London on March 13, 2001

Although the parties have settled, the agreement is not an admission of guilt from Andrew and he has always strenuously denied the allegations against him.

Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks, reads a document submitted to the court in New York today.

'It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others, the document adds.

'He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims, it concludes.

An attachment to the letter announcing the settlement to the public and the United States District Court gave brief details of the agreement between Andrew and Giuffre but indicated the sum would not be disclosed.

Attorney David Boies, who represents Giuffre, said that lawyers on both sides were telling the judge that a settlement in principle has been reached and they will request a dismissal of the lawsuit within a month.

The settlement means the civil case will not go to a jury trial, and also that Andrew will no longer be questioned under oath by Giuffre's lawyers - something that had been expected to take place in the coming weeks.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the development today, which comes ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this summer in May and June as well as a Westminster Abbey service to remember the late Prince Philip next month. Royal sources told ITV News that the case was a matter for the Duke and his legal team.

Lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents eight Epstein victims, said the news was a 'victory' for Giuffre, tweeting on behalf of the eight: 'We hail Virginia's victory today. She has accomplished what no one else could: getting Prince Andrew to stop his nonsense and side with sexual abuse victims. We salute Virginia's stunning courage.'

Court papers show Prince Andrew will make 'substantial donation to Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights." He is above at the Francis Crick Institute in Central London in 2017

Virginia Giuffre, who used to be known as Virginia Roberts, is pictured in Perth, Australia, last week on February 8

A joint statement issued today by Virginia Giuffre's lawyer, David Boies, and Prince Andrew's lawyer, Andrew Brettler

A letter addressed to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, who has been overseeing the case, from David Boies, Virginia Giuffre's lawyer

While the size of the settlement is not yet known, reports suggested last month Andrew could avoid a trial by using the sale of his 18million Swiss chalet to try to pay off Giuffre with at least 10million of the proceeds.

A senior palace source told MailOnline today that the compensation figure is believed to be slightly lower at around 7.5million, or $10million - and the deal might only be a 'settlement in principle' at the moment because the sale of his Swiss chalet has not yet gone through. The source said the settlement will then likely be made when the property sale is completed - adding that he would expect Andrew to be at the service for Philip on March 29.

On being pressured by Buckingham Palace, the source added: 'I'm sure that Charles has had enough and blown a gasket. Charles would have said to him that he needed to get this sorted out as soon as possible and before the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations begin. Charles did not want this hanging over the Royal Family this year.'

Emily Baker, former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, told MailOnline the settlement would be 'at least' seven-figures and 'sizeable', while London-based criminal lawyer Anna Rothwell said it was 'not surprising' Andrew had settled because the BBC interview had provided such a 'wealth of material to use in cross examination'.

The Metropolitan Police dropped their investigation into Andrew last October, saying they would take 'no further action' - but the latest development raises questions over whether he could still be quizzed in the future.

Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, withdrew from public life as a royal in 2019 after a widely ridiculed BBC interview where he sought to vindicate himself of the accusations.

Epstein killed himself aged 66 in a New York prison cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
An international drug baron who was unmasked as a major player in Britains cocaine dealing market was jailed for ten years today following a police crackdown on messaging app Encrochat.

Albanian national Taulant Stoica, 35, used the secretive app to arrange deals worth millions of pounds in London and Bristol.

Stoica used the EncroChat handle Palefog to organise his team of Albanian runners including Muhamet Quosja, 30, and 39-year-old Eduard Hadjini.

Henchman Qosja stored the cocaine he would distribute to London street dealers beneath a childs cot at his home in Ilford, east London.

Undercover officers tailed Qosja through east London before encircling him in unmarked cars.

Drugs baron Taulant Stoica, 35, admitted three counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine and one count of money laundering at Woolwich Crown Court and was jailed for 10 years today

Taulant Stoica, 35, is accused of smuggling heroin from the Netherlands into Italy. Prosecutors claimed he set up Milano Cafe in Lea Bridge Road, Walthamstow, London, as a front to avoid arrest

Inside the vehicle National Crime Agency (NCA) officers found 23,000 in cash in a hidden compartment behind a dashboard.

Police raided Quosja's lair in October 2020 and found 11 kilos of high purity cocaine worth 1.1m - some of it under his child's cot, a handgun and 20 rounds of ammunition.

Qosja bragged to officers he sneaked into Britain illegally in 2014 and decided to deal drugs because it paid well and was jailed for ten years last June.

His boss, Stoica, of Bexleyheath, Kent, had faced an extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court early last year when he was accused of smuggling heroin from the Netherlands to Italy.

Stoica's runner Muhamet Qosja, 30, was jailed for ten years last June after he admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply, money laundering, owning a firearm without a certificate and possession of ammunition without a certificate.

Police raided Qosja's lair in Ilford, east London, in October 2020 and found 11 kilos of high purity cocaine worth 1.1m - some of it under his child's cot - a handgun and 20 rounds of ammunition

Stoica was accused of conspiring with 38 others to transport and distribute the Class A drugs into Italy between December 2015 and February 2016.

The Albanian father-of-four fled to the UK and set up a cafe in Walthamstow, east London, as a front to avoid arrest.

District Judge John Bristow had ordered Stoicas extradition to Italy last February but he was allowed bail pending an appeal and remained in the country, living in south London.

Stoica was arrested as part of Operation Venetic by officers from the Organised Crime Partnership - a joint NCA and Met Police unit - near his home in Bexleyheath on 30 June 2021.

He had three mobile phones and more than 4,000 in his possession. A further 12,000 was recovered from his house in Brampton Road.

Stoica admitted three counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine and one count of money laundering at Woolwich Crown Court and was jailed for 10 years today.

Stoica admitted three counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine and one count of money laundering at Woolwich Crown Court and was jailed for 10 years today

Hadjini, who lived near Stoica in Abbey Wood, was arrested with fellow dealer Sokol Ajazi, 36, after driving a car to Bristol containing one kilo of cocaine.

Hadjini was jailed for two years while Ajazi was locked up for five years in 2021.

EncroChat became a standard messaging platform for organised crime, where criminals talked about massive drug deals, laundering money, extortion, kidnapping, and even murder.

A joint operation between the UKs National Crime Agency, the French National Gendarmerie and Dutch police infiltrated the network in April 2020 after placing a malware on French EncroChat servers, allowing French police to read millions of messages between hardened organised criminals.

Andrew Tickner, from the Organised Crime Partnership, said: Stoica was pulling the strings behind these drugs deals which, had they not been prevented by OCP officers, would have resulted in cocaine flooding our streets.

Through this strong partnership between the NCA and the Met, were able to target those higher up the drug supply chain and having a significant impact at a local level.

This investigation demonstrates the commitment of the OCP to ensure drug dealers and money launderers like Stoica are brought to justice.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed over the weekend that children are being put in cages by Israelis in the West Bank, as she said the media 'censors' Palestinian concerns.

In Austin, Texas to rally support for progressive House candidates Greg Casar and Jessica Cisneros, the New York Democrat was heckled by a pro-Palestinian protester as she was promoting the Green New Deal.

'With media, with all this stuff, Palestine is basically a banned word. It's censored. We don't talk about it. No one knows about it,' she said. 'Thank you for bringing it up, honestly, because we shouldn't have to tiptoe around these things. We should be able to talk about it. And we shouldn't allow people's humanity to be censored.'

She pushed back on charges of anti-semitism leveled against some of Israel's biggest critics in the House, such as Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

'Believing in the basic human dignity and the ability for a person to not be jailed or beaten for who they are, it does not mean that you are bigoted against any other community,' she said, according to Jewish Insider. 'And we gotta call that for what it is.'

She compared the treatment of Palestinians by Israelis in the West Bank to treatment of migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Monitored by a caretaker young unaccompanied migrants, ages 3-9, watch TV inside a playpen at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley in Donna, Texas, USA, 30 March 2021.

Young migrants lie inside a pod at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention centre for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on March 30

More than 4,000 migrants are crammed into pods in the tent structure in Donna, Texas, which is said to be at 1,700 per cent capacity on March 30

Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli machinery demolish her house, in the West Bank city of Hebron, on Feb. 15

Israeli forces try to disperse Palestinian residents as a Palestinian building, located in Zif village, is demolished by Israel allegedly for being "unlicensed", in Hebron, West Bank on February 15,

Palestinians check the rubble after the Israeli Army demolishes a house that belongs to a Palestinian called Mahmoud Jaradat in the West Bank Village of Silat Al-Harithiya near Janin, 14 February

'I don't believe that a child should be in a cage on our border and I don't believe a child should be in a cage in the West Bank.'

Ocasio-Cortez did not provide examples of children being locked in cages in the West Bank.

Israel has, however, constructed a controversial wall in the West Bank that has cut into Palestinian territory and displaced Palestinians from the fertile land they used to grow crops on. Israel has said the wall is necessary for security, though encourages Israelis to settle on both sides of the wall.

In May the congresswoman made a similar comparison. Ocasio-Cortez said that Americans 'are scared to stand up to the incarceration of children in Palestine because maybe it'll force us to confront the incarceration of children here on our border,' she said on the House floor on May 14.

The area at the time was experiencing some of its worst violence since 2014, and Joe Biden had asserted Israel's right to defend itself.

'The president stated that Israel has a right to self-defense. Do Palestinians have a right to survive?' Ocasio-Cortez said.

Last fall the Biden administration issued its most forceful public condemnation of Israel's West Bank settlements yet on Tuesday, when State Department spokesman Ned Price compared them to 'illegal outposts' in remarks to reporters.

Price said the US government will 'strongly oppose' such expansion on occupied Palestinian land.

The Biden official's criticism was some of the strongest in years on Israel after previous leader Donald Trump gave his blessing to settlements and annexations.

'We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government's plan to advance thousands of settlement units,' Price said at a State Department briefing.

'We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution,' he said.

'We also view plans for the retroactive legalization of illegal outposts as unacceptable.

The housing and construction ministry under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a right-winger close to the settlement movement who leads a coalition with centrists, announced then tenders for 1,355 homes in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Authorities are also expected to discuss proposals for an additional 3,000 homes on land Palestinians have claimed for their future state, Reuters reported.

US-facilitated negotiations between Israel and Palestinian authorities fell apart in 2014.

In December, an Ocasio-Cortez staffer, legislative assistant Hussain Altamimi, came under fire for calling Israel a 'racist European ethnostate built on stolen land' in an Instagram story.

In September, the congresswoman dramatically burst into tears as she changed her vote from 'no' to 'present' to provide $1 billion in U.S. funding to replenish the Iron Dome.

She clarified that her vote did not mean she didn't approve funding for the Dome, but that 'opposing it would not defund U.S. financing of the system in any way, shape, or form.'

'I believe strongly that Congress should take greater scrutiny with all military funding across the world. I also believe that, for far too long, the U.S. has handed unconditional aid to the Israeli government while doing nothing to address or raise the persistent human rights abuses against the Palestinian people, and that this imbalance of power must be centered in any honest conversation about Israel and Palestine - in addition to the many other government we militarily fund with a pattern of human rights abuses...' she wrote.

She later apologized to her constituents for changing her vote.

'To those I have disappointed  I am deeply sorry,' she wrote to residents of New York's 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens. 'To those who believe this reasoning is insufficient or cowardice  I understand.'
Prominent D.C. lawyer George Conway is calling the decision by the Mazars accounting firm to part ways with the Trump Organization 'calamitous' for the former president's company.

The never-Trumper who is married to former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says the development effectively means the firm that did Trump's tax returns for a decade is now on 'team DA' - meaning Team District Attorney rather than on the side of the their now-former client.

Of particular interest to the legal community is a line in the letter from the firm released in a court finding Monday stating that there is a 'non-waivable conflict of interest' with the Trump organization.

That language seems to suggest the accounting firm and Trump's company could end up in an adverse legal position, as New York Attorney General Letitia James continues her probe of alleged financial fraud.

'They have a conflict of interest with him according to the letter, which means, as I interpreted under these circumstances, they're basically playing on Team AG and Team DA, and not on Team Trump anymore, and they are going to be pointing the fingers at the Trump Organization,' Conway told CNN.

Lawyer George Conway said the decision by the Mazars accounting firm to leave the Trump Organization and state that its financial statements cannot be relied on raised 'all sorts of potential collateral issues for the Trump Organization'

He said it raised 'all sorts of potential collateral issues for the Trump Organization'  including what kind of promises it made in writing in order to lending, as it did from Deutsche Bank.

Conway said it could include 'debt covenants,' whereby a borrow pledges to continue to provide reliable financial statements. 'And now he can't do that. They're all gone. All these all these financial statements are worthless to him,' Conway said.

Forbes reported during the 2020 campaign that Trump would have $900 million in loans coming due if he won reelection.

Conway also tweeted about the episode repeatedly after the news broke Monday.

'For any business (including a privately-held one) that has outside financing or investors, having your financial statements (let alone 10 years' worth!) pulled by your accountants is just about the most calamitous thing that could happen to it, other than perhaps being indicted.'

New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), whose panel subpoenaed Mazars for documents in 2019 and brought in former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen that year for testimony about allegedly 'inflated' asset valuations, blasted the development in a statement.

Conway, the husband of former Trump campaign manager and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, said the letter means the firm is 'basically playing on Team AG,' meaning prosecutors

Conway provided his own interpreted translations of the letter, saying it means the firm is 'not going to jail for you'

Conway said the letter signals Trump is facing an array of difficulties

The bottom of the letter may indicate the firm has produced more than 525,000 documents

'Mazars letter is further confirmation of what has long been suspected: former President Trumps claims about his shady financial dealings simply cannot be trusted,' she said. 'The decision by Mr. Trumps own accounting firm to fire him as a client and disavow a decade of his financial statements underscores the urgency of the Oversight Committees ongoing investigations into Trumps conflicts of interest, his D.C. hotel lease, and the emoluments he received while in office,' the Oversight Committee chairwoman added.

Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman also pointed to the language on an 'unwaivable conflict' between the firm and Trump.

'That means they have information that vitiates their duty of confidentiality, loyalty to him,' he told CNN Tuesday. 'That's obviously information of false statements by him. That's what they're saying: You gave us false information. So what came out was false, but don't blame us and yes  we may have to cooperate now,' he said.

Conway also pointed online to information at the very bottom of the Mazars letter to the Trump Organization.

It contains a Bates number of the kind common among court filings and law firm documents. The number  MARAS-NYAG-00525838  'suggests the accountants have produced at least 525,838 pages of material to prosecutors,' he wrote.

The longtime accounting for Trump has informed his company that a decade's worth of its financial statements 'should no longer be relied upon'  and asserts it now has a 'conflict of interest' with the company.

The letter from the firm cites in part its own investigation to say that while there are not 'as a whole, material discrepancies' in the documents, that it is their 'advice' to no longer 'rely' on them.

Included on the letter was what is referred to as a Bates Number which read 00525838, which means Mazars could have handed over at least 525,838 files to prosecutors.

Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, explained: 'That's a Bates Stampwhen documents are turned over in litigation each is assigned a sequential number to protect the integrity of the production. So Mazars has turned over at least this many pages of documents.'

New York AG Letitia James, who has cited the company's Statements of Financial Condition in her probe of the Trump Organization, included the letter in a filing Monday.

The withdrawal marks a stunning departure for the firm that has been the center of years worth of lawsuits regarding Trump's financial information, including a fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Adding to the sting, the firm noted that Donald and Melania Trump's returns are due Tuesday  and that they face a filing penalty of $10,000 per return if they miss the deadline.

'We are not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization,' the firm wrote in a Feb. 9 letter to the company's chief legal officer, Alan Garten.

The letter ending the long-term financial relationship comes amid an investigation where the AG is already accusing the company of using 'fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits.'

Former President Donald Trump's longtime accounting firm, Mazars, says company financial statements it prepared from 2001-2010 should not be 'relied upon'

It tells the company that its Statements of Financial Condition  which the Trump Organization in the past has provided to media members and lenders alike  can no longer be relied upon.

Lawyers for the AG's office submitted the letter in a court filing as they seek to compel Trump, the firm, and Trump family members to comply with subpoenas seeking documents and testimony.

'We write to advise that the Statements of Financial Condition for Donald J. Trump for the years ending June 30, 2011 - June 30, 2020 should no longer be relied upon and you should inform any recipients thereof who are currently relying upon one or more of those documents that those documents should not be relied upon,' according to the letter from Mazars, dated Feb. 9, 2022.

'We have come to this conclusion based, in part, upon the findings made by the New York Attorney General on January 18, 2022, our own investigation, and information received from internal and external sources. While we have not concluded that the various financial statements as a whole contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate,' the letter continues.

James released a letter from Mazars to the Trump Organization

Included on the letter was what is referred to as a Bates Number which read 00525838, which means Mazars could have handed over at least 525,838 files to prosecutors

Happy Valentine's Day: The letter tells the company to file return information Tuesday to avoid a $10,000 penalty

James' office has cited valuations on financial statements of Trump properties such as Seven Springs in New York

'As we have stated in the statements of financial condition Mazars performed his work in accordance with professional standards. His subsequent review of those work papers confirms this,' the company wrote.

'Due in part to our decision regarding the financial statements, as well as the totality of the circumstances, we have also reached the point such that there is a non-waivable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization,' the firm continued. 'As a result, we are not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization,' the letter said.

New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump of using 'fraudulent' asset valuations to get benefits

A prior filing accused Trump of claiming his Manhattan penthouse was 30,000 sq ft when it was only 11,000

It was not immediately clear what the firm meant when it referred to a conflict of interest.

The Trump Organization did not respond specifically to a question about whether the accounting firm concluded it could end up in legal conflict with its former client over past statements of financial condition, which have become a key area of James' investigation.

However, a Trump Organization spokesperson told DailyMail.com: 'While we are disappointed that Mazars has chosen to part ways, their February 9, 2022 letter confirms that after conducting a subsequent review of all prior statements of financial condition, Mazars' work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles and that such statements of financial condition do not contain any material discrepancies. This confirmation effectively renders the investigations by the DA and AG moot.'

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, and has called the probe a 'witch hunt.'

The letter also makes reference to the son of former Trump bodyguard Matthew Calamari, who federal prosecutors last year indicated they have no intention of charging.

It says only a 'limited number' of returns are yet to be filed, including 'those of Donald J. Trump and Melania Trump.' The due date is Feb. 15th. 'We believe the only information left to complete those returns is the information regarding the Matt Calimari Jr. apartment,' and that the return can be completed once it is provided.

NBC News reported in September that Matthew Calamari Jr., who also works for the company, was called to testify before a grand jury.

Trump's lawyers have been fighting James' demand for testimony.
The Government has come to the rescue of the English language as it confirmed it banning traditional terms such as 'Sir' and 'Miss' in UK classrooms was out of order.

There was widespread outrage after an LGBT charity boss said teachers should get rid of gendered language during a webinar branded 'propaganda for trans activists'.

Dr Elly Barnes, head of the Educate and Celebrate charity, told an NEU webinar teachers could be addressed as 'Teacher' followed by their surname rather than 'Mr', 'Miss' or 'Mrs'.

However, a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said that would be 'inappropriate and completely unnecessary'.

They added: 'It should not be happening in our classrooms.'

Dr Elly Barnes (pictured), head of the Educate and Celebrate charity, told an NEU webinar teachers could be addressed as 'Teacher' followed by their surname rather than 'Mr', 'Miss' or 'Mrs'. Yet a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said that would be 'inappropriate and completely unnecessary'

Although biological sex can't be altered, some people change genders from the ones there were assigned with at birth.

This sometimes means they ask to be called by pronouns for a gender that is not usually associated with their sex.

Dr Barnes advised teachers to use gender-neutral language, replacing words such as 'boy' and 'girl' with 'pupil' or 'student', a report in The Telegraph added.

One of the attendees raised concerns that this could also mean the banning of terms such as 'sir' or 'miss', which pupils often use to get the attention of their teacher.

In the webinar, Getting the language right for 2022, Dr Barnes insisted that the gender-free model was a success in many of the schools her charity worked with.

In clips of the training, Dr Barnes was seen suggesting that 'male' and 'female' categories be removed from school application forms and that school uniforms could be gender-free.

Social media users have reacted with fury over the charity's recommendations, stating that the 'world has gone mad'. Another mocked the charity for its alleged inclusiveness

Dr Elly Barnes hosted the training session for teachers funded by the National Education Union

One attendee questioned whether the phraseology would affect terms such as 'Sir' or 'Miss', which pupils often to use to get the attention of their teachers.

A female teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, branded the session as 'propaganda for trans activists' and told The Telegraph she thought it was against the Department for Education (DfE) guidelines.

She said: 'Teachers will take what this woman says as fact because the training was organised by the NEU and they're not going to question their union.

'They're trying to erase us by taking away our language, saying we should avoid words like mother and we're paying for it essentially.'

The NEU was criticised for using its members' fees to fund the session by The Safe Schools Alliance, a group campaigning against gender ideology being taught as fact and not belief.

The charity's guidance has been met with anger, with social media users claiming 'the world is going mad'.

One tweeted: 'Dropping genders in school? Whatever next. Go see the headmaster. No go see the head him/they/them.'

Sheilagh O'Gorman added: 'No union should be spending members money on financing such wokery.

'Gents' and 'ladies' toilets WILL be compulsory in all public buildings under new planning laws in blow for campaigners for gender-neutral facilities Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick will force public buildings to have separate male and female toilets under plans to target activists for 'gender-neutral' loos Public buildings will be forced to have separate male and female toilets under plans to target activists for 'gender-neutral' loos. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick is to rewrite planning regulations to enshrine separate stalls in new buildings and demand partitions be installed in current unisex facilities. The Telegraph reported that the move was in response to claims that women were finding it hard to find single-sex facilities. Under the changes, buildings will have to separate male and female facilities, and make sure women's cubicles are entirely self contained, with basins and hand dryers, for privacy. A source close to Mr Jenrick told the paper: 'It's a necessity for women to have access to their own provision of toilets, but too often separate sex toilets are being removed by stealth - causing great distress. 'We've listened to the concerns raised by women and the elderly about their security, dignity and safety and are going to maintain and improve safe guards by updating regulations in order to ensure that there is always the necessary provision of separate toilets for everyone in the community. 'These changes will help to maintain safeguards that protect women and the proper provision of separate toilets, which has long been a regulatory requirement, will be retained and improved.' Advertisement

'If I were a member I would protest. And stop paying my subscription.'

Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, also said today: 'Teaching unions should confine themselves to fighting for better pay and conditions and stop promoting woke gobbledegook.

'Asking their members to tell children not to call them 'Sir' or 'Miss' is inappropriate and will make teachers' lives harder, not easier.'

A tweet from the campaign group added: 'We can't get through a single week without somebody trying to police what language we can use'.

The new recommendations were also discussed in a segment on ITV's This Morning today.

LBC's Tom Swarbrick said the current 'Miss' and 'Sir' terms used in school should remain in place 'unless there's a good reason'.

He added: 'I'm going to be a bit old school about this, I quite like it. I think it's what has happened to date always and forever.

'Unless there's a good reason the teacher doesn't want to be known as Sir or Miss, but a blanket policy that says, no we're going to have gender neutral teachers. I just think, what age are we going to institute this?

'Is this going to happen to my four-year-old in her first year of school? It feels like it needs some explaining. Maybe at four or six years old, it's not the age to start to try to explain the difference between biological sex and gender.'

The show's presenter Dermot O'Leary added: 'The pressure is going to be on the kids to try to get their heads round this at an age when they should just be being children and not worry about it.'

And Vanessa Feltz said: 'I went to an old fashioned, bit posh, kind of school where you had to call the teacher by their name. It's the more polite thing to do - call the teacher by their name, Mr Smith, Miss Jones, it's the courteous thing to do. Just call them by their name, end of.

Reverend Dr Bernard Randall, an ex-Cambridge college chaplain, recalled being deeply troubled by what he felt was 'revolutionary Marxist' flavour of the language during session run by Dr Barnes at Trent College in 2019.

He said teachers were were asked to chant 'smash heteronormativity', adding: 'The chanting was frankly bizarre and I felt uncomfortable. It was all very cleverly put together though  her rhetorical skills were impressive.

'She started off slowly with general things about anti bullying and diversity, which no one could object to. But then the focus moved to gender identity and an introduction to the language of trans.

'And there seemed to be an emphasis on instruction rather than suggestion.'

He also found it embarrassing that Dr Barnes was giving teachers stickers bearing her group's rainbow logo when they answered questions correctly.

Vanessa Feltz (left) and LBC's Tom Swarbrick discussed the charity's guidance on ITV's This Morning today

This Morning presenter Dermot O'Leary said the kids 'should just be being children and not have worry about it'

The training session recommended that school pupils should refer to their tutors as 'teacher' instead of gendered titles such as 'Mr' and 'Mrs'

A teacher at the webinar said the suggestions made around language were examples to illustrate how schools could start a conversation about gender-neutral language, rather than policy directives.

He said: 'There are people who neither identify as male or female working in positions where the traditional Mr/Sir or Ms/Mrs/Miss no longer fit'.

He added the comments about pupils using an alternative to 'sir' or 'miss' were 'a question [that] came in from someone who was watching the webinar'.

He said he understood the response to the question as a suggestion for schools to think about alternative ways of addressing trans and non-binary pupils and members of staff.

'Historically, look at 'sir' and 'miss' in education,' he said.

'A married female teacher would be forced to leave being a teacher to become a family maker. So the use of the word 'miss' is really quite outdated.

'I tell the kids that I have not been knighted and don't deserve the title 'sir' yet.

'I identify as he/him and obviously Mr is my prefix, but for someone who is they/them they have the right to decide how they are addressed.'

The teacher said Dr Barnes had included a school overseas as an example of how schools might use more inclusive language where the prefix 'Teacher' was used instead of Mr, Mrs or Miss.

The DfE is due to publish guidance on political impartiality for schools this week, which is expected to include advice on teaching about gender identity. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi (pictured) said: 'The new guidance I will issue clarifies the requirement for teachers to make a balanced presentation of opposing views on political issues

'I have students who are 'they/them' and they should feel comfortable with the schools they attend,' he said.

'The webinar was about beginning a discussion about it, not a policy change for the whole education system.'

An NEU spokesman said: 'An increasing number of teenagers are identifying as non-binary, and education needs to respond to this - but the NEU does not believe that schools can or should adopt gender-neutral language across the board.

'This training came from an external provider and was organised locally. The NEU will review its contents to ensure it is consistent with our policies.'

Educate and Celebrate's website states teachers and pupils respond well to its training, with 94 per cent of secondary students saying they 'felt more confident in expressing their views and be themselves' in a survey.

The Educate and Celebrate charity has received funding from the DfE in the past and charges as much as 400 for a webinar with unions, as well as its award programme which costs 1,800.

Its website states: 'We provide LGBT+ inclusion training to ensure that you meet all of your Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) objectives for staff, support staff, leadership teams, governors, trainee teachers, student workshops, youth networks, CPD days and an Award Programme.'

The charity lists Durham County Council as a partner and has positive testimonials from a number of headteachers.

The DfE is due to publish guidance on political impartiality for schools this week, which is expected to include advice on teaching about gender identity.

On Sunday, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: 'The new guidance I will issue clarifies the requirement for teachers to make a balanced presentation of opposing views on political issues, so that the complexity of many of these important questions is understood.

'It is not for teachers to tell people what they should think on political issues or how they should vote.'

Educate and Celebrate and the NEU have both been approached for comment.
Washington fired another shot in the information war with Russia, it emerged on Tuesday, with American officials claiming the Kremlin wanted to install a little known former politician as part of a puppet regime in Ukraine.

Oleg Tsaryov, now a sanatorium director, laughed off the idea that he was a pawn in Vladimir Putin's grand plan, saying that he was simply not important enough.

But the episode offers an insight into the information war being waged between Washington and Russia over Ukraine.

It follows briefings by Biden administration officials dripping out scoops about Putin's plans: That he plans to invade on Wednesday; that Russia has already prepositioned special forces for a false-flag operation; and that it has picked the leaders it wants for a puppet regime.

Diplomatic and security sources told DailyMail.com the strategy was designed to deny Vladimir Putin, the former KGB officer-turned-president, the space to justify an invasion.

But it comes at a cost.

'These reports are coming out at the speed of relevance rather than at the speed of analysis because they're trying to keep up with a news cycle,' said a former senior government official.

'And when you do that, there's there's upsides but there's also some potential downsides.'

Oleg Tsaryov is a former pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker. He says he now runs wellness clinics on the Black Sea. Yet American officials believe he has been picked by Moscow to form a puppet regime in Ukraine as part of its plans for an invasion

Washington is trying to beat Vladimir Putin at his own game, dripping out intelligence in an effort to win the information war and stymie his efforts to control the narrative

Vladmir Putin on Tuesday said he was pulling back troops from the Ukrainian border, but President Joe Biden said 150,000 remained in a threatening position

White House and State Department briefings have turned combative, as skeptical journalists quiz press secretaries on why they should believe claims offered without evidence.

And they run the risk of burning intelligence sources and methods, said the former official.

The latest example concerns reports that U.S. intelligence officials believe the Kremlin could is preparing a puppet government in Ukraine, information they shared with allies in the 'five eyes' of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

A Western official told the Financial Times Moscow 'might position Oleg Tsaryov, and others, in leadership roles as part of this effort.'

The claim was received with a mix of incredulity and alarm in Ukraine.

Tsaryov, who said he abandoned his political career in 2015 and now runs three Soviet-style wellness clinics on the Black Sea, laughed off the idea.

'This is a pretty funny situation,' he told the newspaper.

'Look at me. I'm not even invited to speak on [Russian] state TV because Im not important enough. I'm a sanatorium director in Yalta.'

Some of the information is in plain sight, such as this satellite image released by Maxar Technologies showing the build up of forces at a battle group vehicle park in Yelnya, Russia

Tsaryov, 51, was a lawmaker with the Party of Regions, led by Viktor Yanukovych who fled to Russia in 2014 during a pro-Western uprising.

After Moscow annexed Crimea, he ran for president on a pro-Russian ticket. But he said his run had been so unpopular that he was chased out of television studio in Kiev.

'They ripped all my clothes off. I was totally naked,' he said.

Regional experts said his apparent unsuitability might make him perfect for Moscow's plans.

John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and senior director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, said Russia had form. In Crimea, the Kremlin picked little known Sergei Aksyonov to run its administration after annexing the territory in 2014.

'Putin has not distinguished himself in Ukraine over the last eight years and to name someone who has no stature is not implausible at all,' he said.

'As long as they feel they control them, that seems to be enough.'

The name was just the latest in a stream of intelligence to emerge about Putin's apparent intentions.

Last month, the UK named another pro-Russian figure that Moscow was apparently intent on elevating to a position of power.

Yevhen Murayev, 45, a former Ukrainian MP, similarly scoffed at the notion that he had been picked out by the Kremlin.

But Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary, said that the revelation 'shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine and is an insight into Kremlin thinking.'

Former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev is also being lined up to run the country as a satellite of Moscow, according to British intelligence services

At other times, officials in Washington have warned of a possible 'false flag' attack.

Last month, for example, officials in Washington said the US had collected intelligence about a Russian plan to fabricate an attack by the Ukrainian military, providing a pretext to launch an invasion.

Operatives had already been deployed, said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Jan. 14.

'The operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russias proxy forces,' she said.

Two weeks later the State Department went further, describing how Russia was planning to use 'crisis actors' to manufacture video propaganda of such an attack.

Andt the end of last week, several news organizations were briefed that Russia was planning to launch its invasion this Wednesday.

The White House and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to discuss matters of intelligence.

But Herbst said: 'It's a clever tactic on the part of the administration and I think they are trying to forestall a Russian action by suggesting they have prior knowledge.'

He added that it was 'unusual' but not 'unprecedented' for Washington to deploy so much intelligence in this way.

'As to how reliable the intelligence is, I imagine there has to be some basis in reality,' he said.

'A large basis? I just don't know.

'And the fact that they putting out so much suggests that, you know, maybe they're erring on the side of quantity, as opposed to quality.'
Prince Andrew is thought to be using cash from the sale of his beloved ski chalet to fund his out-of-court settlement in his sex abuse case.

The under fire prince was reported last month to have found a buyer for the luxury retreat in Verbier in a deal worth an estimated 18m.

Locals in the up-market Swiss resort are speculating that he had to dispose of the lodge to settle his case with Virginia Giuffre and avoid a court appearance.

A Buckingham Palace source suggested that Andrew's payout could have cost him in the region of 7.5m, although the actual figure is shrouded in secrecy.

One near neighbour in the Alpine village said: 'Andrew and his family loved their chalet  and he would never have wanted to sell it unless he was forced to.

'He obviously wanted to avoid going to court with all the shame that it would have heaped on him and members of the Royal family, no matter how much he protested his innocence.

'It looks like selling up was the only option for him to ensure he had the cash to pay his legal bills and fund a settlement.'

Prince Andrew bought the seven-bedroom Chalet Helora (pictured), in the luxury Swiss resort of Verbier with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson in 2014 for 16.6million

The seven bedroom chalet is in one of the most expensive areas of Switzerland's premier resort which is packed with celebrities and multi-millionaires during the ski season.

The hillside retreat is said to have a master bedroom draped in furs, a living room filled with antiques, a sauna, boot room, indoor pool, a writing room, a 5,600 ball chair and a terrace with stunning views.

Andrew and his former wife, the Duchess of York, are said to have bought the lodge called Chalet Helora from their French socialite friend Isabelle de Rouvre for 18m in 2014.

Ms De Rouvre, 74, agreed to receive some money immediately and more instalments due by December 2019 to allow the sale to proceed.

But she claimed that the Yorks failed to make the final instalment of 5m, forcing her to launch legal action against them in the Swiss courts two years ago.

Interest on the outstanding amount reportedly meant she ended up being owed 6.6m.

Ms De Rouvre confirmed today that she had agreed to receive a lesser amount from Andrew to settle the case last November, allowing him to put the chalet on the market.

She told MailOnline: 'I won't say how much he paid me because it's private. He paid me and I said: 'OK, everything is now finished.' We had an agreement. I won't say how much because it's private.'

Confirming he did not pay the full amount, she said: 'No, but that's life. That was months ago. I don't really know what's happened now. Really I don't care.'

The sale of the chalet to the mystery buyer is said to be at an advanced stage, but it has still not believed to have gone through, meaning that Andrew has not yet got his hands on the money.

It is believed that the delay in completion of the sale explains why he has so far only agreed a 'settlement in principle' with Virginia Giuffre who was known as Virginia Roberts when she allegedly had sex with Andrew.

The Buckingham Palace source suggested that Andrew would have been 'under pressure' from Prince Charles and other family members to settle the lawsuit against him to avoid the scandal tainting the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this year.

Andrew pictured in 2001 with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and the children in Verbier, Switzerland

It is believed that he wanted to reach a deal quickly to avoid the case overshadowing the service of thanksgiving for the life of Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey on March 29.

The source said: 'I'm sure that Charles has had enough and blown a gasket.

'Charles would have said to him that he needed to get this sorted out as soon as possible and before the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations begin.

'Charles did not want this hanging over the royal family this year.'

Following the duke's settlement, politicians and campaigners have called for transparency over how it will be funded.

Labour MP Nadia Whittome tweeted: 'This settlement isn't some act of philanthropy  it prevents this case going to court. We must also ask: where is the money coming from?'

Graham Smith, from campaign group Republic, said taxpayers 'deserve to know where the money is coming from for a settlement, which we must assume is in the millions, if not tens of millions'.

Before Andrew was engulfed by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, he appeared to enjoy the lifestyle of a multi-millionaire, complete with jetset holidays and luxury properties.

He received 249,000 a year from the Civil List before the arrangements changed in 1992.

He then received an annual allowance to fund his Buckingham Palace office while undertaking royal duties, paid by the Queen from the private income she received from the Duchy of Lancaster estate.

But Andrew was forced to step back from public life in 2019 after the furore over his disastrous Newsnight interview on his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein.

Since then it is not known what financial support he receives from his mother, leaving his modest pension from his time in the Royal Navy as his only visible income.

His previous official role as the UK Special Representative for Trade and Investment was unpaid, although taxpayers did fund his substantial travel costs and round-the-clock security.

He is believed to have relied on handouts from the Queen, personal investments and bequests from family members such as the Queen Mother.

It has been suggested that the Queen has used her private income to help her second son with his legal bills. But royal insiders said it would be 'inconceivable' for her to contribute to a payout to Miss Roberts to settle her sexual abuse claim.

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts stand together with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background in London on March 13, 2001

Andrew reportedly rented the 22,000-a-week Chalet Helora in 2013 for his annual family ski holiday to celebrate his 53rd birthday, nearly two years before he bought it.

Royal sources described the purchase at the time as 'a family investment', saying it was a nest egg for their daughters Eugenie and Beatrice.

Land Registry documents in Switzerland named the owners simply as Andrew York and Sarah Ferguson, and confirmed that it was bought with the aid of a mortgage.

Questions were raised at the time about how the couple could afford it, particularly as the Duchess had only just managed to clear 5million in debts she had run up.

Andrew is said to earn only around 270,000 per year, made up of a 249,000-a-year annual stipend from the Queen, topped up with 20,000 from his naval pension.

He did controversially sell his former marital home Sunninghill Park in Berkshire for 15m in 2007 after it languished on the market for five years

The house dubbed South York which was a gift from the Queen was sold for an estimated 3m over the asking price to Kazakh tycoon friend Timor Kulibayev, the son-in-law of the president of Kazakhstan.

Andrew reportedly went on to spend around 7.5m on improvements to 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, where he and his former wife continue to live together, despite their divorce.

He and Duchess of York were staying at Chalet Helora in January 2015 when claims first emerged that he had sex with a teenage Virgina Giuffre while she was being was kept as a 'sex slave' by his billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein.

She stated in court papers that she was 'forced' by Epstein to have sex with Andrew three times including once in London when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law.

Andrew has consistently denied her claims and his settlement with her contains no admission of guilt.

It was revealed in August 2015 that the Duchess of York was using Chalet Helora as her main residence, although she has spent most of her time at Royal Lodge in recent years.

The Duchess and daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, and their respective husbands Jack Brooksbank and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, enjoyed a New Year break at the chalet on a ski trip last month.

Andrew remained at home in Windsor to avoid being seen to be enjoying himself on the Alpine slopes while his sex abuse case was hanging over him.
The Senate on Tuesday narrowly confirmed Robert Califf as President Joe Biden's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration after some senators argued his ties to the pharmaceutical industry or views on birth control made him unfit for the role.

The 50-46 vote means Califf, 70, a cardiologist and prominent medical researcher, will again be the head of the powerful regulatory agency. He briefly headed the FDA during the end of President Barack Obama's administration.

The FDA hasn't had a permanent leader in more than a year even as it played a major role in the COVID pandemic - reviewing the vaccines, drugs and tests.

Califf needed Republican support to get confirmed after five of Biden's Democratic senators opposed him.

The Democratic opposition included New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan, who faces a tough re-election campaign and was critical of how the FDA, under Califf's tenure, handled the opioid crisis; Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who said Califf's work with pharmaceutical companies made him unfit to regulate the industry impartially; and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who also criticized how the FDA handled the opioid crisis in Califf's time.

Six Republican senators joined with the remaining Democrats, resulting in 50 votes in favor and 46 against.

Senate narrowly confirmed Robert Califf as President Joe Biden's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration

Republican Senator Mike Rounds voted present in what is called a 'Senate pairing.' Rounds paired with Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan, who is in New Mexico recovering from a stroke. Rounds' present vote offset the fact that Lujan, who would have voted yes, was not present to cast his vote.

The battle to confirm Califf this time was in stark contrast to his first confirmation vote, when 89 senators gave him their approval.

The White House long assumed enough Republicans would support Califf to easily overcome any Democratic defections, given his strong support from pharmaceutical companies and patient groups.

But several Republicans withdrew their support after Califf told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in a December confirmation hearing that he trusted the FDA to make the right decision as it considered easing abortion pill restrictions, which it did two days later.

More than a year after authorizing the first COVID-19 vaccines, the FDA still faces a string of key decisions, including whether to expand their use to children younger than 5. Last week the FDA unexpectedly delayed its timeline for reviewing Pfizers vaccine for that age group.

FDA commissioners arent typically involved in day-to-day scientific reviews, but they serve as the go-between for the agencys scientists and the White House. That relationship has strained over the past year as Bidens COVID-19 task force has repeatedly gotten out ahead of the FDAs methodical, scientific reviews.

Califf will also need to replace the head of the FDAs tobacco center, which is weighing whether to ban e-cigarettes from Juul, Reynolds American and other vaping companies due to their use by teens. FDA tobaccos longtime director, Mitch Zeller, is set to retire this spring.

The FDA is also crafting new regulations to ban menthol cigarettes, a long-sought goal for many Democratic lawmakers and public health advocates.

President Joe Biden nominated Dr. Robert Califf to lead FDA for a second time - Califf led agency during end of Obama administration

In 50-46 vote, Republican support was key as five Democrats were no votes

Califf has publicly championed the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives by embracing FDAs authority to ban certain tobacco products and ingredients. Though the FDA has had those powers for more than a decade, its efforts to regulate both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes have been stymied by industry lawsuits.

Califf first came to the FDA after more than 35 years at Duke University, where he founded a contract research organization that conducts studies for many of the worlds largest drugmakers.

He left the FDA in 2017 at the start of the Trump administration.

Since leaving government, Califf worked as a health policy adviser for Google and served as a board director or adviser to more than a half-dozen drug and biotech companies. In keeping with federal procedure, Califf agreed to resign from all of those positions and sell off several million dollars in investments in FDA-regulated companies, according to his ethics disclosures form.
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A launchpad destined to be used in the Scottish town of Sutherland's space port has finished construction, the firm behind the project has said.

Orbex has temporarily installed its launchpad at a test site near Kinloss, Moray, close to Orbex headquarters in Forres, Scotland.

The launchpad, known as Orbex LP1, is expected to be fully operational by early 2022 and is the first rocket launch platform to be built in the UK in over 50 years, weighing in excess of 40 tonnes,

It will support the testing of the firm's Prime rocket - a micro-launcher designed to transport small satellites weighing around 150kg into low Earth orbit.

Although actual launches of the Orbex Prime rocket will not take place at the Kinloss site, full dress rehearsals of launch procedures will go ahead there.

A video showed the launchpad travelling on two trucks to its destination at Kinloss on Saturday, February 5.

The 40-tonne launchpad was given a wide-load police escort on its 80-mile journey from Peterhead through Aberdeenshire and Moray

The launchpad made an 80-mile journey from Peterhead to the Orbex test site at Kinloss on February 5. Two large trucks transported the platform accompanied by a police escort

The platform can be seen transported on two trucks during its move to the testing site at Kinloss in Moray

A picture shows the new Prime Rocket unveiled by the British aerospace company Orbex in 2019. The Prime Rocket is designed to deliver small satellites into low Earths orbit

The 2,000 square metre headquarters is in Forres, in the north east of Scotland. The new base will bring more than 130 jobs to the region, combining rocket design and integration facility, an operations centre and executive offices

Last year, the space port cleared a major hurdle when Scotland's largest land owner lost a legal bid to halt the development of the site.

Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen, who owns the majority stake in the clothing website Asos, said the development could be damaging to local wildlife.

In a Court of Session judgment, Lord Doherty rejected the legal challenge brought by Mr Povlsen's company, Wildland Ltd, against Highland Council, saying he was 'not persuaded' the local authority had breached any law.

Lord Doherty considered that 'none of the grounds of challenge is well-founded'.

Orbex LP1 is the first launchpad of its kind to be built in the UK since the High Down Rocket Test Site facility on the Isle of Wight, which was decommissioned in the early 1970s.

Although actual launches of the Orbex Prime rocket will not take place at the Kinloss (pictured), full dress rehearsals of launch procedures will go ahead

A convoy transports the launchpad on a 50-mile journey through the Scottish countryside on February 5

Upon reaching the testing site in Kinloss, the launchpad was carefully reassembled ready for 'dress rehearsal' testing

British spaceflight company Orbex, plans to open their headquarters and rocket design facility in Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands. The 2,000 square metre HQ in Forres, in the north east of Scotland. The new base will bring more than 130 jobs to the region

Prime has been designed to take satellites into Earth's orbit to altitudes of up to 776 miles (1,250 km). The new headquarters in Forres will combine a rocket design and integration facility. Here, a rocket launches at the proposed Sutherland site

High Down was the test site for the Black Arrow rocket, the first  and so far only  British-made rocket to successfully deliver a satellite into Earth's orbit, launching from Woomera in Australia in October 1971.

The new Launch Platform in Kinloss will enable Orbex to accelerate plans to launch Prime from its home spaceport at Sutherland in the North of Scotland.

Space Hub Sutherland is the worlds first carbon neutral spaceport and the only spaceport in the UK to have received full planning permission.

Construction of the spaceport is due to begin early in 2022 ahead of the first expected launch of Orbex Prime later in the year.
He may have bought his way out the humiliation of being questioned about his connections to the sleazeball Jeffrey Epstein  and worse  but Prince Andrew will still die a disgraced royal outcast.

That much I am convinced of after today's bombshell settlement with Virginia Giuffre, which takes from the Duke of York his final chance of public redemption.

Don't forget, the bloke formerly known as Randy Andy had multiple opportunities to clear his name, to explain why he was BFFs for years with the prolific paedos and child sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and to refute the claims made by Giuffre.

He could have credibly explained himself during that car crash BBC interview with Emily Maitlis, where he appeared as guilty as sin, and unrepentant to boot.

He could have followed through on his promise to assist the FBI and authorities in the US investigating Epstein, with whom he remained close even after he was imprisoned.

He could have fulfilled his Pitbull-like lawyer's recent pledge to face down his long-time accuser in a jury trial.

DAN WOOTTON: Prince Andrew will still die a disgraced royal outcast. (Pictured: Prince Andrew at Sunday Service in Windsor following death of Prince Phillip in April 2021)

That was all just talk  Andrew has too much to be ashamed about and far too much to hide.

So instead, this pathetic, entitled, failed excuse for a public servant sat in his grace and favour mansion and wrote a big fat cheque  perhaps partly funded by his long-suffering mother who has sacrificed so much for the good of her people and should have expected more from her favourite son.

But in signing that cheque, Andrew has also written his public resignation letter  there is no way back now.

And, even though he's proven himself to be a stupid man, he must have known the consequences of today's decision, which makes me even more certain he is acutely aware the courtroom revelations would have heaped more shame on the Royal Family.

The legal discovery would have even seen his daughter Princess Beatrice quizzed on her dad's infamous alibi that he had taken her to a Pizza Express in Woking on the day he was alleged to have slept with Giuffre, who was 17 at the time and a minor under US law.

While Andrew doesn't admit guilt for obvious reasons given ongoing criminal investigations, today's 146-word joint statement is damning and highly embarrassing for the man who previously refused to admit to having met Giuffre.

In a letter to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, both parties say: 'Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights.

'Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years.

DAN WOOTTON: This pathetic, entitled, failed excuse for a public servant sat in his grace and favour mansion and wrote a big fat cheque  perhaps partly funded by his long-suffering mother who has sacrificed so much for the good of her people and should have expected more from her favourite son. (Pictured: The Queen and Prince Andrew at Trooping The Colour at Buckingham Palace on June 8, 2019)

'Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.'

We know that Andrew's regret is completely disingenuous and based solely on the metaphorical tornado that has been unleashed on his life.

I won't forget that when he sat down with Maitlis, he insisted he didn't regret his friendship with Epstein because 'the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful'.

I'll also never forget the day after the broadcast, being told by one of my close royal contacts that Andrew had gone to church with the Queen and declared the interview a 'great success'.

If he wasn't so ghastly, you could almost feel sorry for the man, who has clearly never lived in the real world.

DAN WOOTTON: Virginia won't go quietly and nor should she in the post #MeToo age, where confidentiality agreements are frowned upon. There will be big money TV interviews, a tell-all book, documentary series and maybe even a film deal. (Pictured: Virginia Giuffre leaves a New York hearing relating to Epstein's case in August 2019)

Virginia won't go quietly and nor should she in the post #MeToo age, where confidentiality agreements are frowned upon. There will be big money TV interviews, a tell-all book, documentary series and maybe even a film deal.

Is she telling the truth? Maybe, maybe not. But, despite the rhetoric, Andrew was not prepared to face her in court, so she will be given the benefit of the doubt.

Today's settlement, while devastating for Her Majesty, will at least save her from months of revelations about Andrew's sordid sex life, which risked overshadowing her Platinum Jubilee year.

But the public will rightly want to know whether the Queen helped finance today's settlement, which is expected to be worth around 7.5 million.

And, despite her old age and completely understandable desire to enjoy her twilight years, she must now stand firm against her son's inevitable attempts to make a return to public life.

Do not put it past Andrew, either, to try and manipulate his mother. After all, this is a man who used the death of his father Prince Philip to stage the first bid for a comeback, insisting he make a public tribute on camera and then demanding he wear military uniform at the funeral.

DAN WOOTTON: While Andrew doesn't admit guilt for obvious reasons given ongoing criminal investigations, today's 146-word joint statement is damning and highly embarrassing for the man who previously refused to admit to having met Giuffre. (Pictured: Ms Giuffre during a BBC Panorama interview in 2019)

Andrew is fully aware that when his mother passes away, a future King Charles wants to banish him and do whatever he can to erase him from royal life.

As I revealed last year, there are already long-term moves afoot to boot the Duke from Royal Lodge at Windsor, a mansion that he shares with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, an equally disgraced figure who is now his only public champion.

It's pitiful really.

The life of a royal war hero completely ruined by lust, greed and the inability to realise what's right and what's wrong.

Prince Andrew provides a stark warning of how easy it's going to be for the Royal Family to be seriously damaged in the post-Elizabethan era by a sole entitled oaf.

His younger relatives must take note  the very future of the monarchy is at stake.
Tou Thao testified in his own defense in a federal civil rights trial on Tuesday

Tou Thao, one of three former Minneapolis police officers on trial for violating George Floyd's civil rights, told a jury on Tuesday he did not realize the black man was being asphyxiated while a white officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes.

Taking the witness stand for the first time to testify in his own defense, Thao, 36, said he assumed Floyd's heart was still beating because he never saw the other officers attempt to revive him as they were trained to do.

Thao, 36, is on trial in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul alongside J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane. They face a potential life sentence if convicted.

All three are accused of violating Floyd's right to receive medical care as he lay dying, unable to properly breathe face down beneath the knee of their former colleague, Derek Chauvin.

The three ex-cops are also charged in state court with aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter, charges that carry a penalty of up to 40 years in prison.

Cellphone video of Floyd's murder on a Minneapolis road on May 25, 2020, led to protests against racism and police brutality in cities around the world. Chauvin was convicted last year at a separate state trial for the murder of Floyd, 46.

Federal prosecutors, who rested their case on Monday after about three weeks of witness testimony, have said the other officers at the scene had a duty to intervene to prevent Floyd's death.

In this image from police body camera video shown as evidence in court, Minneapolis police officers attempt to place George Floyd in a police vehicle, on May 25, 2020

Former Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are on trial in federal court accused of violating Floyd's civil rights by failing to get him medical aid

Thao took the stand to convince jurors that he handled a chaotic scene in accordance with his training and with concern for the well-being of Floyd and the officers arresting him. His testimony marks the first extensive public comment by any of the officers involved in the arrest.

He can be seen on videos a few steps away from Floyd, keeping back horrified onlookers, while Chauvin kneels on the handcuffed Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. The arrest occured outside a grocery store where Floyd was accused of using a fake $20 bill.

Under questioning by his defense lawyer Robert Paule, Thao said he believed that Chauvin and the other two officers on top of Floyd were checking his pulse. He said he was falsely reassured because none of them performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

'Logically, if they're not doing CPR, I assume he's still breathing and fine,' Thao testified, agreeing with his lawyer that police officers are trained to start CPR as soon as possible if they cannot find a pulse.

Floyd received no medical aid until after his limp body was lifted into an ambulance and driven a few blocks away, several minutes after he fell unresponsive.

Thao testified that he had confirmed with other officers that an ambulance had been called, and saw his role as a 'human traffic cone,' making sure oncoming traffic steered clear of the scene.

This image from surveillance video introduced into evidence during court shows Minneapolis police Officers Thomas Lane, left and J. Alexander Kueng, right, escorting George Floyd

Former Minneapolis Police Officer Tou Thao enters the Hennepin County Courthouse with his attorneys before a motions hearing in Minneapolis on July 21, 2020

In this courtroom sketch, from left, former Minneapolis police Officer Tou Thao, attorney Robert Paule, attorney Natalie Paule, attorney Tom Plunkett, former Minneapolis police Officer J. Alexander Kueng, former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane and attorney Earl Gray appear for opening statements for their trial last month

Jurors watched video taken by Thao's body-worn camera that shows Thao arriving to find Kueng and Lane struggling to get a handcuffed Floyd to stay in the back of a police car. Floyd screams repeatedly that he is claustrophobic and cannot breathe.

'Not to besmirch, but I've never seen this much of a struggle,' Thao testified, saying he had been an officer for eight years by that time. 'It was obvious that he was under the influence of some kind of drugs.'

He said Floyd was incoherent and impossible to calm, and he feared Floyd might be having a dangerous reaction to drugs. An autopsy later found fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and methamphetamine in Floyd's blood.

Thao said it was normal during training sessions to see an officer on top of a person being arrested while prone on the ground, using a knee near the neck to pin down the arrestee. Jurors were shown photographs of Thao and his classmates using such restraints.

'Were you ever instructed that using knees was improper technique?' Paule asked his client.

'No,' Thao replied.

Derick Chauvin, second from left, and J. Alexander Kueng restrain George Floyd in Minneapolis, on May 25, 2020

Thao told the jury his parents fled to the United States from Laos before he was born, refugees belonging to the Hmong ethnic group. He was the third of seven siblings, he said, and his parents could afford to feed them only one meal a day.

He said he was first inspired to become a police officer when, as a child, he helped Minneapolis police officers arrest his abusive father, who had threatened Thao and his mother with a gun.

'I think they were the two most peaceful days of my childhood,' Thao testified, on the verge of tears as he described the immediate aftermath of the arrest.

According to court filings based on police records, Thao was cited at least seven times while being trained in the field over several months in 2012 for shirking his duties, sometimes pretending not to see violations of the law in order to minimize his workload.

Chauvin, who is white, was also charged by federal officers of violating Floyd's civil rights, and changed his plea to guilty in December.

The two other co-defendants, Lane and Kueng, have also said they will testify. Thao, Lane and Kueng also face a separate state trial in June on charges they aided and abetted Floyd's murder.
Prominent Aboriginal Australians have hit out at the rising number of people who are falsely identifying as indigenous to cash in on benefits like scholarships and priority jobs.

They say there is a growing cohort of fraudsters growing up in a non-indigenous background but later making dubious claims to Aboriginal heritage.

Indigenous actor Luke Carroll, who stars in a play that explores the contentious issue, described such false identification as a 'growing problem'.

The number of Australians who identify as Aboriginal has skyrocketed as 'race shifters' look to cash in on benefits like scholarships and job opportunities (pictured, protestors on January 26)

'I know of people here in Sydney who haven't grown up Aboriginal and all of a sudden, their kids are identifying as Aboriginal,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'They are attending the schools, getting the jobs and taking away opportunities from people who have grown up Aboriginal.'

'Box-tickers' are appropriating a culture that is not theirs and taking jobs and resources meant to help Aboriginal Australians, he said.

The federal government since the 1980s has applied a three-part test of indigeneity, which requires a person be of Aboriginal descent, to identify as Aboriginal and be accepted in the community in which they live.

Thousands of Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families in 1910 to 1970 during the Stolen Generation, and their descendants - many with a mostly white phenotype and upbringing - only recognise their indigenous heritage decades later.

However, the community is divided over the importance of growing up within the culture when identifying as indigenous in later life.

Indigenous playwright Nathan Maynard (pictured) said some are motivated to falsely claim Aboriginality for better job opportunities or Indigenous-specific scholarships

Indigenous fraud terms Box-tickers: Australian term for those who falsely claim Aboriginality Pretendians: Those who falsely claim to be citizens of Native American tribal nations Race-shifters: Similar American term Nine-to-five blacks: Those who are Aboriginal at work and white at home Advertisement

Indigenous playwright Nathan Maynard - who delves into the contested issue in his play At What Cost - said Aboriginal Australians were 'trendier than smashed avocado on toast'.

'In this world, people want to have something special about them and they see being Aboriginal as a point of difference,' he said.

Until recently, the focus in Australia on box-tickers has been on outing individuals - in what some see as a witch hunt - but race-shifting is now recognised to be an international phenomenon.

Many 'box-tickers' are motivated by the promise of indigenous-specific scholarships and monetary benefits, as well as reserved jobs with large salaries.

Aboriginal historian Victoria Grieve-Williams said there was a growing number of Australians who claimed to be indigenous when they had no such ancestry.

Dr Grieve-Williams, a Warraimaay woman from the mid-north coast of NSW and now adjunct professor at RMIT University in Melbourne, described what they do as 'indigenous identify fraud'.

'Aboriginal people are actually very badly affected by this,' she told Daily Mail Australia in July of last year.

'Universities and governments are employing so-called Aboriginal people without due diligence.

Aboriginal historian Victoria Grieve-Williams (pictured) says some - particularly in academia and the public service - are 'box-tickers' who falsely claim Aboriginality for personal gain

Protesters are seen during an Invasion Day rally in Brisbane on January 26, 2021

A person's Indigenous status is determined by their response to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Standard Indigenous Question: 'Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?'

'High-level positions, huge salaries, great opportunities through Indigenous Business Australia, all of that's being gobbled up.

'There's no penalties, or checks and balances. These numbers are increasing.'

There is no way of knowing how many box-tickers there are in Australia but the practice seems particularly prevalent in academia and sectors of the public service where Aboriginality is sought for workplace diversity and sometimes rewarded.

'It's a huge problem but the figures are difficult to assess,' Dr Grieve-Williams said.

How the government accepts Aboriginality The federal government has applied a three-part test of Indigeneity since the 1980s. A person is considered Indigenous if he or she: a) Is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent b) Identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and c) Is accepted as such by the Indigenous community in which he or she resides or has resided. When accessing services intended to address the social, health and educational issues that Indigenous people often face, proof of Indigeneity is required to ensure the intention of the assistance is honoured. Most individuals seeking government assistance are required to provide a certified statement from an appropriately qualified individual or organisation (such as a local land council) to prove their identity and eligibility to receive services. Source: Office of the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt Advertisement

Dr Grieve-Williams said Australian universities employed bogus Aboriginal academics as professors, right up to pro and deputy vice-chancellors.

'The interesting thing I'm finding with my research is that Aboriginal people always recognise them, they always know they're not Aboriginal,' she said.

'Aboriginal people have been saying, "Hold on, that person isn't one of us" and nobody takes any notice.

'It's not only Aboriginal people who recognise it. It's non-Aboriginal people too.

'It's very surreal, particularly to a person my age because when I grew up the worst thing you could be was Aboriginal.

'Aboriginal people were so scorned and vilified. There were these nasty 'Abo' jokes. I couldn't begin to tell you the depths of racism that I experienced.

'We were always made to feel in deficit. And now the tables have turned right around but it's not the real Aboriginal people who are getting the benefit from all of this.'

There are particular benefits for box-tickers within academia who falsely claim to be Aboriginal.

'The benefits are to do with status, you have a certain status when you're a recognised Aboriginal person,' Dr Grieve-Williams said. 'But the main benefit is material.

'People get promoted very quickly. The interesting thing is box-tickers, or those committing identity fraud, seem to get the big jobs.

'They're promoted over other Aboriginal people. We joke and we say they're better at being Aboriginal people than we are.'

Dr Grieve-Williams said non-indigenous people taking public service jobs meant for Aboriginal applicants were known as 'nine-to-five blacks' and caused resentment.

'If you've got a person who comes in who calls themselves Aboriginal but who actually doesn't know anything about being Aboriginal then they rely on other people to inform them,' she said.

There are particular benefits for box-tickers within academia who falsely claim to be Aboriginal. 'The benefits are to do with status, you have a certain status when you're a recognised Aboriginal person,' Dr Grieve-Williams says. 'But the main benefit is material'

Box-tickers are taking jobs and resources meant for Aboriginal Australians. 'It's very surreal, particularly to a person my age because when I grew up the worst thing you could be was Aboriginal,' Dr Grieve-Williams says

How the Census counts Indigenous Australians A person's Indigenous status is determined by their response to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Standard Indigenous Question: 'Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?' There are three options to answer: 'No, 'Yes, Aboriginal' and 'Yes, Torres Strait Islander'. This question also allows respondents to report they are both 'Aboriginal' and 'Torres Strait Islander' if that is how they identify. The Standard Indigenous Question is based upon the federal government's definition of Indigenous status - two elements of self-identification - but does not include the third factor, that he or she is accepted as such by the community in which they live. The lack of that element is due to it being 'usually not practical to collect information on community acceptance in a survey or administrative data collection setting.' The Standard Indigenous Question is also asked in the health, education, and crime and justice sectors in most Australian state and territory government departments and agencies, and in many non-government sector collections. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics Advertisement

'They call them nine-to-five blacks because they're only black when they're in the office and then they go home to their white lives.'

Another term, 'black cladding', refers to a non-indigenous business masquerading as one by deceptive marketing which invents or exaggerates Aboriginal involvement in the enterprise.

Dr Grieve-Williams was frustrated the box-ticking problem was not taken more seriously by governments.

She said any debate was stifled by those with vested interests and that the fakes protested personal offence when their Aboriginality was challenged.

'The people who are committing this identify fraud, they cry lateral violence. They say, 'Are you questioning my Aboriginality? I'm getting traumatised by this'.'

The number of Australians who say they are Aboriginal has been increasing for decades at a rate far faster than the broader population, or that can be explained by births.

The last Census, conducted in 2016, estimated there were 798,400 Indigenous Australians - Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or both - making up 3.3 per cent of the citizenry.

That number was an increase of 128,500 or 19 per cent in just five years since the previous 2011 census.

During the same five-year period the whole Australian population grew by just 8.4 per cent.

Since the introduction of a Standard Indigenous Question in 1996 - 'Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?' - the Census count of indigenous Australians had increased by 83.9 per cent.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics cites several factors in this increase, including higher fertility rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Dr Grieve-Williams said programs meant to encourage Aboriginal students into university had been abused.'A lot of people came along and said, 'Well, I believe I'm Aboriginal'. And the universities accepted them'

However if that were the main factor, it would be expected such growth would largely be in rural and remote Aboriginal communities, and yet the Bureau of Statistics said the increase in the number of people identifying as indigenous was 'primarily occurring in major cities and on the eastern coast of Australia.'

Part of the increase can be attributed to Australians discovering a previously unknown forebear, or a late acceptance of a once-shunned Aboriginal ancestry.

Censuses record Australians in age brackets and there are not enough 'new' Indigenous individuals in the 0-4 years range each five years to account for the rise.

Between 2011 and 2016 almost every Indigenous age cohort under 70 increased in size.

Some box-tickers apparently believe being white in modern Australia is to be part of a colonial history associated with guilt. They may also think identifying as Aboriginal is more exotic or affords them some spurious sense of spirituality

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt (pictured) did not respond directly to a question about whether he thought Indigenous identity theft was a problem

The suggestion Aboriginal Australians build and maintain their own lists of groups - Wiradjuri people, Warraimaay people, and so forth - has been resisted.\

That would be similar to the way native North American people closely vet and limit who can identify as belonging to the various tribes, as growth in numbers dilutes each member's share of funds and revenues.

'It was howled down by not only the Aboriginal people but the identity fraud people and white people as something akin to Nazism,' Dr Grieve-Williams said.

'And that just takes away the opportunity for Aboriginal people to manage their own affairs the way they're able to do it in North America, in the US and Canada.

'There needs to be a realistic conversation about this but currently the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in Australia is saying it's not a problem.'
Washington, DC's non-voting delegate in Congress Eleanor Holmes-Norton tore into Republican lawmakers on Tuesday over what she calls a 'radical' plan to repeal the capital city's autonomy and put it under federal control.

Should Republicans take back the Congressional majority after November's midterm elections, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy signaled they would use their oversight powers to tackle rising crime and homelessness plaguing the city -- which he suggested Democrats in power have failed to do so far.

Another House lawmaker told the Daily Caller that he would go so far as to put DC under Congress' authority by introducing a bill to repeal a 1973 law that established the city's current local government.

'Its something to be extremely concerned about, because the District may well find itself in the minority next term,' Holmes-Watson, a Democrat, told the Washington Post of the threats.

'This is very radical, and I must say very unexpected. It will take every bit of energy I have to make sure it does not happen.'

The 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act established DC's government where previously residents had no local elected officials representing them. The act enabled DC dwellers to vote for a mayor and a 13-member district council.

Congress does have control over DC's budget and laws, because it's not a state -- something progressive activists and Holmes-Norton have been working to change.

DC's nonvoting delegate in Congress Eleanor Holmes-Norton said the possibility of Republicans stripping the city's Democrat local government of power is 'extremely concerning' given the possibility the GOP will win the majority in the midterms

Even if House Republicans once again becoming the majority next year, a bill repealing the DC government law would likely get stalled in the Senate.

The effort is nearly guaranteed to come up against a Democratic filibuster. Many of the same progressive activists who are fighting for DC statehood and would oppose cuts to its autonomy have previously called to abolish the Senate stalling tactic.

Asked about a DC push to restrict the local government -- and therefore her own powers -- DC Mayor Muriel Bowser shrugged off any potential concerns during a Monday press conference.

'Weve worked with Democrats and Republicans on a number of issues. That will be our approach regardless of whos in charge,' she said.

McCarthy's reaction to Bowser's handling of the city was notably more heated. He accused the Democrat mayor of fueling a crime crisis while being more interested in the superficial aspects of her job.

'The rise in armed carjackings, murders, tent cities, and rampant drug use in our nations capital is a result of Democrats failed policies. This is all taking place under the leadership of a mayor that seems more interested in attending social events, appearing at Starbucks grand openings, masking kids in schools, and crushing small businesses with mandates,' he told the Daily Caller.

The California Republican also claimed the local council was trying to 'defund the police while D.C. is going through one of the worst crime sprees in years.'

'These conditions are not sustainable -- both the citys residents and visitors, which include many of our constituents, deserve to be safe when living or visiting this city,' he said.

A 1973 law established the Washington, DC mayor's office as well as a 13-member district council

'If voters entrust Republicans with the majority, we will use our Congressional oversight powers to ensure that we work to restore the security and safety of this city.'

Among the most visible incidents amid DC's rising crime -- a disturbing trend currently plaguing cities around the country -- was a recent carjacking of city councilman Nate Fleming.

Fleming said he was 'shocked, angry, and a bit embarrassed' after the incident last month.

'To be threatened at gunpoint is extremely shocking, but sadly I am not surprised to have been attacked given the crisis we are facing with carjackings and violence in general in our city,' he said in a statement on January 15.

Meanwhile a growing number of Americans are believing that electing a Republican-dominated Congress is the right path forward in November.

Poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, which tracks nationwide generic ballot surveys ahead of the upcoming Congressional races, has shown the GOP overtaking Democrats in late November.

Currently, an average of 45.1 percent of voters prefer Republicans in Congress, compared to 42.6 percent who back Democrats.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said white reporters and editors were misinterpreting stories about his fight to crackdown on woke state bail reform laws after his trip to Albany on Monday.

Adams, 61, met with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to discuss removing the cash bail system as the city faces a 40 percent surge in crime this year.

Although Adams claimed that the meeting was constructive, his visit was described as unsuccessful by both New York City tabloids after Assembly members said they would 'hold the line' on the bail reforms and Hochul announced that revisiting the law would likely not be included in this year's annual budget.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post ran a Page 2 story headlined 'Reform rollback hits Albany speed bump.' The usually left-friendly Daily News devoted even more ink, spreading a story across Pages 4 and 5 headlined 'Eric strikes out with Albany pols' in all capital letters.

The former cop, who was endorsed by both papers in his run for mayor, said: 'I went to the Assembly conference. People raised the issues that they had and we talked. Black mayor, black Speaker, black majority leader, coming together and talking to each other.'

'And if you would have turned on the news this morning, you would have said, "It was all hell up there."'

Adams suggested the negative coverage was due to a disconnect between New York City's second black mayor and white reporters and editors, and he threatened to stop speaking to the press and no longer accept off-topic questions if the negative coverage persisted.

'I'm not saying it out of hate, I'm saying it out of love,' Adams told reporters Tuesday afternoon. 'Im a black man thats the mayor, but my story is being interpreted by people who dont look like me. We gotta be honest about that.'

New York Mayor Eric Adams blamed white reporters and editors for the negative press coverage over his fight on bail reform on Monday

Mayor Adams, left, can be seen with New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Cousins, center, and Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Carl Heastie, right. Although he called the talks constructive, they were ultimately unsuccessful

Despite Adams' trip (pictured) New York assembly members said they would 'hold the line' on the bail reforms and Hochul announced that bail reform law would likely not be included in this year's annual budget

He went on to question the racial composition of newsrooms.

'How many blacks are on editorial boards? How many blacks determine how these stories are being written?' he said.

'How many Asians? How many East Asians? How many South Asians? Everyone talks about my government being diversified, whats the diversification in the newsrooms?'

During the press conference, Adams said that the stories written about his trip to Albany weren't made for the New Yorkers he was fighting for.

'Youre not writing for people who were almost homeless like me,' he said. 'Youre not writing for people who were arrested or beaten by police officers. Youre not writing stories for those who are dealing with high crime.

'Youre writing things from your prisms. And Im not saying this to attack, but my administration is going to be about saying the obvious that other people are not comfortable saying.

'Discomfort is growth,' he added.

He also called on media outlets to diversify their newsrooms and have more reporters and editors of color so they would better tell his version.

'That's why I am covered the way I am covered,' he said. 'We really need to stop distorting the news.'

Adams has been pushing for lawmakers to allow judges to consider the 'dangerousness' of defendants before deciding to release them in order to tackled New York City's rising crime rate, with high profile cases involving repeat offenders.

In January, crime rose 38.5 percent in the city, which has since jumped up to 41.65 percent in February.

All categories of crime have also spiked, except murders. Felony assaults are up 13 percent, while shooting victims are up almost 30, and rape and robbery are also up around 35 percent.

Adam's plan comes as crime of nearly all types is on the rise in New York City

Last week, Adams outlined his plans for tweaks to be made to the bail laws which allows suspects to roam the street often within hours of an arrest.

'Let's remove the cash bail system, because one should not be able to get out of jail just because you can pay bail. Let's take that away. Judges should look at the case in front of them and say, "This person has two gun arrests, and he's continually saying to the people of the city that I don't care about the safety of you." That judge should have the right to make the discretion that this person just be held.'

Many of New York City's most violent crimes have been from repeat offenders and after Manhattan's soft-on-crime District Attorney Alvin Bragg, 48, downgraded many crimes to misdemeanors.

Assamad Nash, 25, had been arrested seven times since 2017 and currently has three open cases in the Manhattan Criminal Court

Assamad Nash, 25, is charged with murder of Christina Yuna Lee, who was stabbed to death in her 5th floor apartment

Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was stabbed to death in her New York City apartment 'by homeless serial criminal'

The mayor's visit to Albany came after advertising executive Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was stabbed to death in her apartment by homeless career criminal Assamad Nash, 25, who followed her upstairs.

She was found dead in her blood-soaked bathtub in Chinatown.

The mayor himself has attended many vigils and funerals for fallen New Yorkers, including the two NYPD officers Jason Rivera, 22, and his partner Wilbert Mora, 27, who were both shot dead in Central Harlem.

He also attended vigils for Yao Pan Ma, 61, who was left in a coma after being attacked collecting cans in East Harlem and Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, who was pushed onto the tracks at Times Square subway station.
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An Alberta man arrested during a weapons-cache bust near the Canadian border is an 'incredibly good human being' and a single father of two, a friend says.

Calgary resident Johnson Chichow Law, 39, was among 11 people charged Monday in the Village of Coutts, near the Montana border. Police seized multiple long guns, hundreds of bullets and body armor during their investigation.

Law, who was charged with mischief and possession of a weapon, looks after his two young daughters full-time and is a hard worker, a friend told DailyMail.com on Tuesday.

'I'm honestly shocked by this news,' said his friend, who requested to remain anonymous given the contentiousness of the protests.

The mayor of Coutts told DailyMail.com that those arrests were not members of the Freedom Convoy, despite them being initially tied to the ongoing anti-vaccine protests.

'The people who were actually involved in the arrests were not part of the blockade group,' he said. 'They were outsiders.'

The mayor described the individuals as outside agitators who came to town after the protest began.

As time went on, the protest began to attract people from the outside, he said. They were starting to attract the undesirable element. The people who were actually involved in the arrests were not part of the blockade group. They were outsiders.

The men arrested include Chris Carbert, 44; Christopher Lysak, 48; and Anthony Olienick, 39, of Claresholm, who face charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Lysak is also charged with uttering threats, the court docket obtained by DailyMail.com shows.

They are due in court Friday along with Evan Colenutt, 23, of Raymond.

Also charged with mischief and possession of a weapon were: Ursula Allred, 22, of Magrath; Colenutt, 23; Justin Martin, 22, of Raymond; Eastin Stewart Oler, 22, of Raymond; Joanne Person, 62, of Coutts, and Janx Zaremba, 18, of Raymond. They, along with Colenutt, were released pending court hearings on March 15.

Luke Berk, 62 of Red Deer, was charged with mischief.

Calgary resident Johnson Chichow Law, 39, was among 11 people charged Monday in the Village of Coutts, near the Montana border during a weapons cache bust

Mounties in Alberta seized this cache of weapons on Monday morning, but the mayor of the village where they were discovered claims the weapons weren't connected with the ongoing Freedom Convoy riots

A friend described Law as a single, full-time father of two young girls who is an 'incredibly good human being'

There's no indication the guns were connected to the theft early Sunday of a parked tractor-trailer carrying some 2,000 small-caliber guns manufactured by Savage Arms. Police said that case was a crime of opportunity carried out by crooks who first tried to gain access to several other trucks.

Seven of the 11 people arrested were released Tuesday without having to post bail following virtual hearings at a provincial court in Lethbridge, Alberta, while four facing more serious charges are being held pending bail hearings on Friday.

The people who werent charged with conspiracy to commit murder got released on consent, defense lawyer Yoav Niv, whose firm is representing several of the accused, told DailyMail.com

He wouldnt comment on specifics of the case, other than to say, Everyones presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Joanne Person posted about her ordeal on a Facebook chat group for the Coutts protesters.

Go help us, she wrote, omitting the last letter of God.

The full tactical is at my home and they are teloing (sic) us to leave the home and that they are entering. My god. Please help us.

They are threating (sic) me. I fear for our lives, she added.

Protests continued at the movement's Ottawa epicenter Tuesday, where a man was pictured blocking the city's Wellington Street

Bulford alleged the stolen arms shipment in Peterborough could be connected to a plot to frame protesters in Ottawa

Early on Sunday, thieves (left and right) stole a parked tractor trailer carrying some 2,000 small-caliber guns manufactured by Savage Arms, but police say that it was a crime of opportunity

The Freedom Convoy, a trucker-led movement calling on the government to lift vaccine mandates, is largely based in Ottawa, where parts of the country's capital city have been occupied by protestors since late January.

The convoy also blocked US border crossings, including a key trade route that was cleared by police last weekend.

Controversy surrounding how police have managed the protests prompted the abrupt resignation of Police Chief Peter Sloly on Tuesday.

He stepped down after being criticized for not doing enough to stop the unruly protests, which prompted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke emergency powers on Monday.

Ottawa police did not respond to a request for comment, and Trudeau's public safety minister said the government had no role in his decision to resign.

The Freedom Convoy, a trucker-led movement calling on the government to lift vaccine mandates, is largely based in Ottawa. A protestor is seen lifting a flag in the nation's capital on February 15, 2022

The convoy of trucks has jammed up city streets and paralyzed traffic. Transports are pictured blocking a road on February 15, 2022

Pictured: Protest supporters pull fuel cans in wagons in front of Parliament Hill on February 15, 2022

A trucker is pictured lifting weights in between instances of protesting against Covid-19 mandates on February 15, 2022

The protest has been going on since late January, prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday to invoke emergency powers

Meantime, leaders of the Freedom Convoy protests have alleged that 'nefarious elements' are plotting to plant stolen guns on demonstrators in Ottawa in a bid to 'discredit' their movement, a day after Mounties seized 15 guns and arrested 11 people thousands of miles away in Alberta.

Danny Bulford, the self-described head of security for the Freedom Convoy, made the allegation in a video address late Monday, suggesting the plot is connected to a truck full of firearms that was stolen in Ontario on Sunday.

'We received information from multiple believed-reliable sources that firearms may be planted in Ottawa, specifically around the Freedom Convoy, to discredit the protest and to use as a pretext to forcibly remove peaceful protesters,' said Bulford, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.

'This private intelligence correlates with the approximately 2,000 firearms stolen in Peterborough, Ontario on Sunday morning,' he continued. 'Our sources have notified us that these weapons may be planted by nefarious elements, and at this point, we have no further knowledge about who is behind this act of sabotage.'

Controversy surrounding how police have managed the protests prompted the abrupt resignation of Police Chief Peter Sloly on Tuesday. Two officers are pictured walking past illegally-parked vehicles on February 15, 2022

Lines of big rigs are pictured clogging Ottawa's downtown streets on February 15, 2022

Fed-up truckers launched their convoy over growing frustration with lockdowns, pandemic-related mandates, and vaccine requirements. They're pictured on February 15, 2022

A sign directs police to place parking tickets in a toilet on February 15, 2022

A trucker inspects the engine of his big rig in the snow-covered city on February 15, 2022

The small-caliber guns stolen on Sunday in Ontario were taken from a parked tractor belonging to gun maker Savage Arms, but police say that it was a crime of opportunity and unrelated to the protests.

Bulford did not allege that a separate cache of weapons, body armor and a machete seized on Monday from a border blockade in Alberta were planted, and protest leaders have so far declined to publicly address the Alberta arrests.

A senior official with the Mounties told DailyMail.com that there is no information linking the stolen gun shipment in Ontario with the firearms seized in Alberta.

It comes after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau activated rarely used emergency powers in an effort to crack down on the protests against vaccine mandates, which continue to paralyze the capital city of Ottawa and block several western border crossings.

Crowds of Canadians continue to put pressure on the government to lift mandates while protesting outside the parliament on February 15, 2022

Danny Bulford, the self-described head of security for the Freedom Convoy, alleged that 'nefarious elements' are plotting to plant stolen guns on demonstrators in Ottawa in a bid to 'discredit' their movement

Sunday's brazen gun shipment heist occurred at about 3am at a trucking company on Parkhill Road East in Peterborough, a city of 81,000 about 85 miles northeast of Toronto.

'The investigation is leaning toward an isolated crime of opportunity, rather than a targeted incident,' said Peterborough Police Service Detective Staff Sergeant Michael Jackson in a briefing.

'It is believed that the suspects entered several other commercial yards in the city before this one, and they had attempted to take different trucks and trailers before leaving with the truck and trailer unit sought in this incident,' he added.

Police say that the thieves arrived at the scene in a four-door blue sedan, which then left together with the stolen truck.

Bulford, who resigned from the Mounties last year over their vaccine mandate, did not say in his statement did not say what evidence he had to support the theory that the stolen guns would be planted on demonstrators in Ottawa.

People walk past vehicles blocking a road during a protest by truck drivers over pandemic health rules and the Trudeau government, outside the parliament of Canada in Ottawa on Monday

'As soon as we received this information, we notified the appropriate authorities with whom we are collaborating, including the Ottawa Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Parliamentary Protective Service,' said Bulford.

Bulford insisted that the Freedom Convoy protests were committed to pursuing change within the 'democratic process,' saying: 'We have never, nor do we every intend, to step outside of this democratic process.'

The gun shipment stolen in Peterborough appears to have absolutely no connection with the guns seized on Monday in Alberta, though that did not stop online conspiracy theorists from attempting to connect the two events.

Photos of the guns seized in Alberta do not match the description of the guns stolen in Peterborough, which is 2,000 miles and a 35-hour drive away.

A senior official with the Mounties told DailyMail.com in an interview that there was no reason to believe that the guns stolen in Ontario were linked to the cache seized in Alberta.

'The distance from Ontario to here would be prohibitive, so that is highly unlikely,' said RCMP Superintendent Roberta McKale. 'There's no reason to link the two.'

'We still have the matter of the firearms under investigation, and at this point there is no information to link the stolen firearms in Ontario to our situation in Alberta,' she added.

Eleven people connected to the anti-vaccine mandate protests were arrested in the Alberta village of Coutts, close to the Montana border, the Royal Canadian Mountain Police said on Monday.

Mounties also seized a cache of firearms including multiple long guns, hundreds of bullets and body armor. Cops have not identified the owners, and it is unclear if the weapons seized were legally held.

'The Alberta RCMP recently became aware of a small organized group within the larger Coutts protest,' the Mounties said in a statement.

'Information was received that this group had access to a cache of firearms with a large quantity of ammunition.

'The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade. This resulted in an immediate and complex investigation to determine the extent of the threat and criminal organization.'

Early on Monday morning, the RCMP, equipped with a search warrant, raided three trailers and arrested the 11.

The police found 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armor and a machete. They said they seized a large quantity of ammunition and high capacity magazines.

Unlike the United States, where firearms are primarily regulated by the state, in Canada, firearms are federally regulated.

Some weapons, including automatic weapons, sawed-off shotguns and rifles, and switch blade knives, are 'prohibited weapons.'

Other firearms, such as handguns and semi-automatic weapons with short barrels (less than 18 1/2 inches), are 'restricted weapons.'

Anyone may possess a restricted firearm if they have obtained a 'registration certificate.'

Hunting rifles and shotguns are neither restricted nor prohibited, but it is illegal to possess them without a firearms acquisitions certificate.

On Monday, Trudeau invoked emergency powers to quell the paralyzing protests, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods

Messages and placards of support during a protest by truck drivers over pandemic health rules and the Trudeau government, outside the parliament of Canada in Ottawa on Monday

Drivers have parked their trucks blocking lanes of traffic to protest against pandemic restrictions in Ottawa on Monday

So far, Freedom Convoy leaders have not addressed the arrests in Alberta, and cut a press conference short on Monday when they were asked about the incident.

On Monday afternoon, Trudeau invoked emergency powers to quell the paralyzing protests by truckers, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods.

'These blockades are illegal, and if you are still participating, the time to go home is now,' he declared.

In invoking Canada's Emergencies Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order, Trudeau ruled out using the military.

His government instead threatened to tow away vehicles to keep essential services running; freeze truckers' personal and corporate bank accounts; and suspend the insurance on their rigs.

'Consider yourselves warned,' Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said. 'Send your rigs home.'

Freeland, who is also the finance minister, said the government will also broaden its anti-money-laundering regulations to target crowd-funding sites that are being used to support the illegal blockades.

Trudeau did not indicate when the new crackdowns would begin. But he gave assurances the emergency measures 'will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.'
Before he settled out of court last night, Prince Andrew was set to be dealt a major blow in his US sex case thanks to Ghislaine Maxwell.

A leaked email from the prince's friend and now convicted sex trafficker appeared to confirm the authenticity of an infamous picture of the duke standing with his arm around his accuser, Virginia Roberts.

The photograph, said to be taken in Maxwell's London townhouse in 2001, had been questioned by Andrew and just this week his legal team had demanded Miss Roberts turn over the original.

A leaked email from the prince's friend and now convicted sex trafficker appeared to confirm the authenticity of an infamous picture of the duke standing with his arm around his accuser, Virginia Roberts

Alan Dershowitz, who was Jeffrey Epstein's friend and lawyer, emailed Maxwell to ask her about the photo - and Maxwell said she believed it was authentic

Epstein and Dershowitz are pictured together. The famed lawyer represented Epstein in 2008

The duke's legal team had claimed it might be a fake, but an email obtained by the Daily Mail shows that even Maxwell, who appears in the background of the photo, believes it to be real.

In the message, sent in 2015, Maxwell says: 'It looks real. I think it is.'

On a dramatic day of developments yesterday, it was claimed that Miss Roberts had lost the original copy of the image.

But that was disputed by her legal team, who said the hard copy was with the FBI and that Miss Roberts misplaced a CD containing a copy of the image.

The photo was set to be a key piece of evidence in her claims for battery and infliction of emotional distress against Andrew, 61, which he had denied.

In an email exchange seen by the Mail, the picture was discussed by Maxwell and Epstein's former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz

The duke's lawyers had lined up an image expert to cast doubt on the veracity of the photo.

If Miss Roberts had not produced the original, Andrew's team could have argued copies could not be admitted as evidence as they could not be properly tested.

Not being able to rely on the photograph as proof they met would have put a sizeable dint in his accuser's case.

But in an email exchange seen by the Mail, the picture was discussed by Maxwell and Epstein's former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz.

On January 10, 2015, Mr Dershowitz wrote: 'Dear G. Do you know whether the photo of Andrew and virginia is real? You are in the background.'

Prince Andrew pictured together with Ghislaine Maxwell at Ascot in 2000. The 2001 photograph is said to be taken in Maxwell's London townhouse

Eleven minutes later, Maxwell replied: 'It looks real. I think it is.'

The timing of the exchange is significant because days earlier Miss Roberts claimed for the first time in court papers that she had been forced to have sex with both Andrew and Mr Dershowitz.

The allegation was struck out by a judge who branded it 'impertinent'. But it caused panic for Andrew and in emails previously reported by the BBC, he contacted Maxwell at 5.50am on January 3, 2015.

The duke wrote: 'Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts.'

Maxwell replied: 'Have some info. Call me when you have a moment.'

Mr Dershowitz has vehemently denied having sex with Miss Roberts.

Last year she dropped a battery allegation she filed against him after he claimed a civil settlement she signed with Epstein in 2009 gave him immunity.

Miss Roberts is currently suing Mr Dershowitz for defamation, a case he is fighting.

His lawyers did not respond to requests asking for comment.
The government is facing the shock loss of the rock-solid Liberal seat formerly held by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in an incredible voter revolt.

The blue-ribbon NSW state seat of Willoughby on Sydney's north shore is hanging in the balance after a massive swing against Liberal Party candidate, Tim James.

Ms Berejiklian held the seat with what should have been an invincible 21 per cent margin when it went to the vote on Saturday.

But the poll to elect her replacement has seen a swing away from the Liberals of more than 19 per cent, and getting tighter as preference votes and postal ballots are counted.

The poll has boiled down to a battle between James - who turned up to cast his vote with him and his daughters dressed in Ralph Lauren-branded outfits - and independent Larissa Penn.

The poll has boiled down to a battle between Liberal candidate Tim James - who turned up to cast his vote with he and his daughters dressed in Ralph Lauren-branded outfits (pictured) - and independent Larissa Penn

Voters went to the polls on the weekend for the NSW Liberal seat of Willoughby which was held by former premier Gladys Berejiklian with a 21 per cent margin

With 32.7 per cent of votes counted, Mr James now holds a narrowing lead of 51.9 per cent to 48.1 per cent on a two-candidate preferred basis.

After preferences are factored in, fewer than 600 votes currently separate the two.

If the Liberals were to lose Willoughby, along with Bega which also held a by-election last weekend, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet's government would be reduced to 44 seats in the 93-seat lower house, and heavily dependent on the support of the crossbenches to get any legislation passed.

However Treasurer Matt Kean says he's confident postal and pre-poll votes will favour the Liberal Party as counting continues.

'I'm confident we will get over the line but we're not going to count our chickens yet,' he told Sydney radio 2GB on Wednesday.

'We will go through the process and see what the people of Willoughby decide.

Independent Willoughby candidate Larissa Penn (pictured) is less than 600 votes behind Liberal Tim James with almost a third of votes counted

The Willoughby poll has boiled down to a battle between Liberal Tim James and independent Larissa Penn as Mr James holds a lead of 51.9 per cent to 48.1 per cent

'When Gladys (Berejiklian) ran in 2003 she only won by 144 votes.'

ABC election analyst Antony Green said the seat remains in doubt after preference flows were released on Tuesday.

'Who would have thought of these four by-elections that Willoughby would be the close one,' he tweeted.

Mr James won a fiercely contested Liberal preselection battle to be the candidate in what was considered the safe seat of Willoughby, narrowly winning a poll among party members to defeat local mayor Gail Giles-Gidney and former news presenter Kellie Sloane.

Treasurer Matt Kean says he's confident postal votes will favour Dominic Perrottets Liberal Party as counting continues

Ms Berejiklian had anointed Ms Giles-Gidney as her preferred successor but Mr James won preselection with the support of the party's conservative base.

Labor did not run a candidate in the by-election, and much of the party's supporters voted for Ms Penn, who campaigned against over-development, action on climate change and respect for women, the indigenous and multicultural communities.

Mr Green said the outcome of the by-election had strong implications for the approaching federal poll in the area.

Candidate Tim James said his favourite supporters on election day were his two daughters adding 'nothing's more precious than family'

Willoughby overlaps the federal seat of North Sydney held by Liberal backbencher Trent Zimmerman, who if preselected will face a strong challenge from independent Kylea Tink.

Zimmerman rebelled against the government last week as one of the five Coalition MPs who crossed the floor to oppose PM Scott Morrison's religious discrimination bill.

On Saturday, NSW voters went to the polls in four by-elections in Strathfield, Monaro, Bega and Willoughby.

Labor candidate Michael Holland looks likely to have secured Bega for the party for the first time while the ALP retained Strathfield and the Nationals held Monaro.

The final results may not be known until March 11 due to a surge in postal votes, which the NSW Electoral Commission will begin processing on Wednesday.
Two things stand out from the grovelling legal statement that Prince Andrew issued last night.

One is the absence of any suggestion that he might be innocent of the very serious sexual offences that Virginia Roberts (now Mrs Giuffre) has been publicly accusing him of for seven long years.

Often, when vast sums of money are paid to settle a high-profile legal case, the person writing the cheque gets to insert a clause that might vaguely exonerate them. It tends to contain words to the effect that they deny wrongdoing.

Although there is no suggestion that Andrew is, in fact, guilty, that no such privilege was afforded to him reflects the degree to which he has been forced to concede defeat.

Put simply, his tin-eared response to this long-running scandal has seen him slowly, but surely, run out of options to avoid a costly and squalid court case that would further damage the British monarchy, perhaps irreparably.

The only option remaining was to accept this abject public humiliation.

Friends: The Duke even invited the American to social events Balmoral and Sandringham

The second curious line in Prince Andrew's legal statement came when he insisted that he had 'never intended to malign Ms Giuffre's character'. He expressed regret, indeed, that his accuser had 'suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks'.

What he didn't say  but perhaps should have  was that the lion's share of the unfair and sometimes vicious public attacks that the 38-year-old mother of three has been forced to endure in recent times have emanated squarely from Prince Andrew, his PR team, their lawyers and what remains of his circle of friends.

Only a few weeks ago, for example, the prince's attack-dog 2,000-an-hour attorneys were attempting to persuade a judge that an old newspaper article that had dubbed Miss Roberts a 'money hungry sex kitten' ought to be used as evidence in court.

The piece, published in 2015 by a New York tabloid, had made the disgraceful and factually untrue claim that this victim of child sex abuse was some sort of willing accomplice of Andrew's paedophile chum Jeffrey Epstein.

Cat and mouse: He kept avoiding being given legal papers

Specifically, it had quoted a discredited and estranged former boyfriend of Miss Roberts alleging that she'd acted as a sort of madam for the late financier, taking the role of 'head bitch' at his Palm Beach mansion, where she 'had nine or ten girls she used to bring to him'. This hurtful slur was unsupported by any credible evidence whatsoever.

It also had little relevance to the substance of her civil case for 'battery and infliction of emotional distress' which revolved around an entirely separate matter: Miss Roberts's claim that she was paid to sleep with Andrew on three occasions in 2001, when he was 41 and she was 17, just a few years older than his teenage daughter.

One of the alleged trysts, for which she claimed to have been paid $15,000 (at the time around 10,000) occurred first in the bathroom and then the bedroom of Ghislaine Maxwell's mews home in London's Belgravia. Another took place at Epstein's New York mansion. A third on his private island in the Caribbean.

Responding to such claims by calling your accuser a 'money hungry sex kitten' is, at best, distasteful and at worst downright offensive. It certainly won't de-escalate the problem. Indeed, when the judge (perhaps inevitably) told Prince Andrew to sling his hook, he witheringly observed that the nasty article had only been dragged into the litigation for 'public relations purposes'.

Back in October, to cite another example of misplaced aggression, the duke's lawyers had made similarly hurtful allegations via a 36-page legal memorandum accompanying a failed motion to dismiss the case.

Tieless: But he had said he always wore one when out in London

It alleged that Miss Roberts had spent a decade 'profiting' from 'lurid' sexual abuse claims, and accused her of now seeking to secure 'another payday at his expense'.

There was no acknowledgement whatsoever of the fact that, notwithstanding the specifics of her claim against the prince, she was already a court-certified victim of child sex abuse who had been paid compensation by Jeffrey Epstein in the mid-2000s.

Even in the final stages of litigation he sought to hide behind legal niceties, attempting to have the case dismissed because of an agreement Miss Roberts signed with Epstein about 15 years ago, and then to have it thrown out because she lived in Australia. Both failed.

Some might regard these manoeuvres as part of the inevitable back-and-forth of an adversarial court case. But while seeking to portray an abused woman as a cynical gold-digger might have worked half a century ago, when Prince Andrew's moral compass was perhaps formed, it was never likely to play well in today's court of public opinion. That the duke failed to realise this very basic truth speaks volumes about the pomposity and arrogance that got him into this whole mess in the first place.

Calamitous: With Emily Maitlis before the 2019 TV broadcast

Time and time again, as the long and ugly Epstein scandal has played out, he's been caught on the back foot by lawyers, PRs and his own reckless stupidity. His efforts to sweep the affair, which involves some of the most serious charges ever levelled against a British royal, under the carpet have betrayed consistent and at times dazzling ineptitude.

Think back, if you will, to the absurd saga that played out in August when lawyers for Miss Roberts spent the best part of a month attempting to serve legal papers at his home in Windsor.

Rather than simply accepting delivery, which was bound to eventually be made, the prince instead chose to cower from view, creating a bizarre media circus in which various couriers and private investigators were filmed fruitlessly ringing various royal doorbells.

On one occasion, an American private investigator named Cesar Sepulveda was pictured handing a business card to royal police officers. On another, a court hearing was shown a courier receipt that read: 'Hi. Your package was delivered Wed 08/18/2021 at 8.28am. Delivered to Royal Lodge at Windsor...Received by A POLICE OFFICER.'

Time and time again, as the long and ugly Epstein scandal has played out, he's been caught on the back foot by lawyers, PRs and his own reckless stupidity

Perhaps most famously of all, consider the historic PR disaster that was the prince's 2019 interview with Emily Maitlis.

Assuming, against all available evidence, that he'd be a convincing advocate, he failed to express even the vaguest sympathy for Jeffrey Epstein's hundreds of victims, and instead chose to go squarely on the offensive against Miss Roberts, casting her as a fantasist and saying: 'I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.'

When Miss Maitlis asked about the notorious photograph of them together, taken on the night in March 2001 Ms Guiffre alleges she first slept with Andrew, the prince proceeded to endorse a bizarre conspiracy theory positing that it was some sort of forgery.

'I have absolutely no memory of that photograph ever being taken,' he said. 'From the investigations that we've done, you can't prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph. So it's very difficult to be able to prove it but I don't remember that photograph ever being taken.'

Perhaps most famously of all, consider the historic PR disaster that was the prince's 2019 interview with Emily Maitlis

In an effort to convince viewers that the image had somehow been 'doctored', he then added: 'I don't believe it's a picture of me in London because when I would go out in London, I wear a suit and a tie.'

Unfortunately, it took less than 24 hours for pictures to emerge of him wearing the exact same outfit while leaving Chinawhite nightclub a couple of months earlier. The image also appeared to show the duke perspiring heavily, casting doubt on his bizarre insistence that Miss Roberts's recollection of an encounter at Tramp nightclub was unreliable because he's somehow unable to sweat.

Incredibly, Andrew is reported to have initially left the interview, filmed at Buckingham Palace, under the impression that it had been a staggering success. It was only when the footage aired, to public disbelief, that it slowly began to dawn on him that the opposite might be true.

It was, of course, a characteristic failure of judgment that allowed Andrew to be sucked into the vortex surrounding Jeffrey Epstein in the first place.

Seemingly blind to the dangers of consorting with ultra-wealthy foreigners, no matter how distasteful their lifestyle or opaque their sources of wealth, the man who would go on to hang out with an endless succession of corrupt dictators during his stint as British trade envoy decided to bring a rackety sex offender into the heart of the royal establishment.

Incredibly, Andrew is reported to have initially left the interview, filmed at Buckingham Palace, under the impression that it had been a staggering success

Epstein was invited to Balmoral and 'straightforward shooting weekends' at Sandringham.

He even turned up at the Queen's birthday party at Windsor Castle. And even after he'd been convicted and jailed for child sex offences, the prince saw fit to travel to New York, where he stayed at his house.

The duke attended dinner parties, and, in yet another PR disaster, was photographed walking with Epstein in Central Park.

Preposterously, he later sought to argue  during the notorious Maitlis interview  that the primary purpose of the 2011 trip was to end their friendship, and that this was the 'honourable and right thing to do.'

Andrew added: 'I admit fully my judgment was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honourable but that's just the way it is.'

The duke attended dinner parties, and, in yet another PR disaster, was photographed walking with Epstein in Central Park

By then, legal issues had begun to rear their ugly head.

But rather than seeking a resolution, he refused to engage even with the forces of law enforcement. Requests from the FBI to interview the duke as a witness were left to gather dust.

Meanwhile, compromising evidence, such as flight logs that put Miss Roberts in London on the weekend in 2001 when she claimed to have first slept with the duke, continued to drip into the public domain.

Perhaps his greatest mistake was to assume that throwing muck at Miss Roberts would make her go away. His PR men, lawyers and friends repeatedly sought to discredit the accuser, or besmirch her reputation, perhaps most fruitlessly when they endorsed the aforementioned conspiracy theory suggesting that the picture of them together was an elaborate fake.

'Look at his fingers in the photo. The duke has quite chubby fingers. They don't look right and nor does the height of the duke and the girl,' was how one briefed journalists, adding insultingly: 'Sadly  it seems to us  this girl is simply out to make a name for herself.'

If that was indeed Miss Roberts's intention, she has succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, thoroughly vindicating herself and earning millions of dollars in the process.

As for Prince Andrew, his greatest fear is that last night's settlement will trigger claims from other girls who may allege that they too were trafficked by Epstein.

But if this long legal nightmare does continue, he'll only have himself to blame.
A drunken New York woman barred from boarding a plane at Orlando International led police on a wild chase through the airport - on a motorized suitcase - before finally being arrested.

Newly released police bodycam footages shows 32-year-old Chelsea Alston being chased by the officer, who rode a bicycle during the not-so-high-speed pursuit in the halls of the Florida airport in April.

'We're going to have a bike pursuing a suitcase in a minute,' the Orlando officer can be heard saying in the clip, as he attempts to catch up with the passenger, who sat on the scooter-like electric suitcase during the chase.

Prior to the pursuit, footage shows the officer approaching the woman after receiving complaints from airport staff that a visibly intoxicated woman was causing a disturbance while waiting to board a flight from the Orlando airport to New York

'I don't want no beef. I'm just trying to go home and enjoy myself,' Alston told the officer while holding a beverage in a plastic cup and slurring her words, explaining that she had been drinking to pass the time before her flight, which had been delayed due to bad weather.

The woman claimed to have had just two drinks during the wait - which she languished took 'hours.'

In the footage, the cop, Orlando Police Officer Andrew Mamone, proceeds to notify Alston that she cannot board the plane due to her visible intoxication, spurring the woman to launch a profanity-laden tirade against the lawman.

'I'm not that intoxicated! Suck my d**k! Suck my d**k! All of you suck my d**k!' the woman screams in the clip, while taking a seat on her suitcase, which had a motorized attachment that allowed her to pilot it as if it were a scooter

'I'm not that intoxicated! Suck my d**k! Suck my d**k! All of you suck my d**k!' the woman screams in the clip, while taking a seat on her suitcase, which had a motorized attachment that allowed her to pilot it as if it were a scooter.

'F**k ya'll,' Aston can be heard saying in the footage, as she starts to slowly scoot away from Mamone.

Mamone, who had been cordial and patient with the woman during the encounter, watches her trudge off to the other side of the terminal, before begrudgingly deciding to give chase.

'Oh man, that thing kind of goes fast,' the officer can be heard saying in the clip, as Alston rides the suitcase through a hail of passengers - some of whom can be heard laughing at the absurdity of the spectacle.

Mamone then elects to get on a bike in an effort to catch up with Alston, who appeared to moving at no more than 10 miles per hour.

The cop eventually catches up to Alston, and tries to coax her into cooperating by moving to the main terminal, instead of the 'secure area' of the airport where the chase had taken place, politely telling her that he will leave her alone if she complies

'We're about to have a bike pursuing a suitcase in a minute,' the officer jokes in the footage as he pedals to catch up with the fleeing fugitive.

The cop eventually catches up to Alston, and tries to coax her into cooperating by moving to the main terminal, instead of the 'secure area' of the airport where the chase had taken place, politely telling her that he will leave her alone if she complies.

'Follow me,' he tells her, in a somewhat playful tone, still on the bike. 'Follow me! We'll roll out together.'

The footage shows Alston not too keen on the suggestion.

After repeated warnings from the officer - who was able to catch up with the suspect on a bike - Alston was arrested, but not before battering the officer and causing more than $1,000 in damage to his patrol car. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison for each offense

'Chelsea, I'll race you!' the officer adds - to no avail.

'Let's just let's just roll our little wheels to the other side of TSA OK, because this is the secured area.

'I gotta have you on the other side - then I promise you I will leave you alone.'

The clip then shows Alston still refusing to comply, cursing at the officer.

Mamone then warns her again: 'I'm a representative of the Orlando Police Bar and I have been nothing but polite and professional with you.

'Chelsea, if this continues you, you will be arrested.'

The words proved prophetic as Alston was arrested - but not before battering the officer and causing more than $1,000 in damage to his patrol car, court records show.

If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison for each offense.

Alston is among several dozen passengers who have been arrested at Orlando International Airport during the COVID-19 pandemic for unruly or violent behavior.
As the last jubilee reached its crescendo  with vast crowds packed around Buckingham Palace to see the Queen on her balcony at the end of a long weekend of festivities  everyone was enjoying the happy scene.

Well, almost everyone. The Duke of York was incandescent that the balcony was off-limits to all except the Queen, the Prince of Wales, his sons and the Duchesses of Cornwall and Cambridge (Prince Philip was in hospital).

The duke made his views very clear, confronting the Queens officials and arguing that it was a snub to himself and his daughters  but to no avail.

Come the Platinum Jubilee, Prince Andrew will not just be excluded from the balcony. It is questionable whether he will even be allowed inside the M25

Neither the Princess Royal nor the Earl of Wessex nor any other members of the family were included either.

The optics were very clear. This was not a family party but a clear statement about the importance of the direct line of succession. The duke, however, refused to see it that way.

Come the Platinum Jubilee, he will not just be excluded from the balcony. It is questionable whether he will even be allowed inside the M25, thanks to the fearful shadow he has cast over this summers celebrations through his catastrophic attachment to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at her townhouse in London in 2001

In as much as anything about this tawdry business could be said to be good news for the Queen, it is the first development in months which is not bad news.

However, tonight's out-of-court settlement does, at least, go some way to clearing the air around the jubilee, if not around the duke himself. It is the least-worst case scenario.

In as much as anything about this tawdry business could be said to be good news for the Queen, it is the first development in months which is not bad news.

The broader questions about the dukes links to Epstein and the more specific questions about his relationship with Virginia Roberts  now going by her married name Giuffre  will not go away.

Nor will the question of who will fund the very substantial pay-out by the duke to Miss Roberts.

Prince Andrew is pictured driving in Windsor on November 6 last year as he was facing a potential trial

Virginia Giuffre, who used to be known as Virginia Roberts, is pictured in Perth, Australia, last week on February 8

Or, indeed, of how he proposes to support victims of sex trafficking, as the court statement suggests.

The duke now remains indelibly tainted by association and it is very hard to see a way back to any sort of public role from here. Yet, this could have been very much worse for the monarchy.

Quite apart from the prospect of a vicious court case hanging over this summers jubilee celebrations, there would have been the relentless drip-drip of claim and counterclaim between now and then.

Andrew's mother the Queen held virtual audiences from Windsor Castle with the Estonian and Spanish ambassadors today

The rules which govern pre-trial arrangements in the UK would have been immaterial. In the last few days, an entire sub-plot has hit the headlines over the veracity  and whereabouts  of the notorious photograph at the heart of this case. We could have expected more of the same on a weekly basis for months.

So the Queen and the rest of her family will be feeling a sense of relief that this is likely not to happen  though they will be mindful that nothing involving Epstein seems to stay settled for long, with the exception of his demise.

In the last few months, the Royal Family has had to endure the excruciating details of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, followed by the toe-curling debacle of the dukes attempt to have the Roberts case thrown out by a New York judge  who was having none of it.

A joint statement issued today by Virginia Giuffre's lawyer, David Boies, and Prince Andrew's lawyer, Andrew Brettler

You can almost picture senior aides drawing lots in the Queens private office to decide whose turn it is to deliver that days dollop of abysmal tidings from America to our poor monarch. Well, for now, at least, that will no longer be necessary. No doubt, more lurid stories will continue to emerge  but the monarchy is well-used to dealing with unpleasant headlines and toxic media reports.

What makes it extremely nervous is anything with the imprimatur of a court of law. That this threat has now receded points very strongly to heavy pressure from the family and from the institution to come to this resolution.

The duke had recently made it clear, via intermediaries, that he was looking forward to clearing his name in court. That is, of course, what defendants are expected to say.

Yet, the merest possibility of that was anathema to the Queen and her officials  and also to the Prince of Wales who has played an important role in supporting his mother in this matter.

They could all well recall what happened the last time the duke tried to clear his name with that Newsnight interview  a catalogue of blunders on every possible level.

If the duke and his advisers thought that was a good idea, then perish the thought of him having his day in court. Amid the fallout from the Newsnight interview in 2019, the duke announced that he was stepping back from public duties, only to start making plans  within hours  to attend an engagement in the Middle East.

A letter addressed to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, who has been overseeing the case, from David Boies, Virginia Giuffre's lawyer

It was the Prince of Wales who stepped in very firmly to quash any attempt at backsliding. And he has been helping the Queen to hold the line ever since.

The Duke of Cambridge is known to be wholly supportive of his father on this point, too.

Another key player will have been the new Lord Chamberlain, Lord Parker of Minsmere.

Formerly Sir Andrew Parker, he was director-general of MI5 during the Cameron, May and Johnson premierships and joined the palace last year.

It falls to the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior figure in the Royal Household  and often likened to a non-executive chairman  to be the conduit between the monarch, the family and the Royal Household when matters of great sensitivity are involved.

He will doubtless have found his former security service training in furtive enforcement techniques invaluable in recent months.

It has, understandably, been immensely difficult and painful for the monarch to consign her second son to the royal Siberia where he must now reside indefinitely.

However, seventy years on the throne has left the Queen anything but complacent.

In the earlier stages of the Epstein debacle, she was content to see the duke and his public role, in effect, mothballed on the basis that nothing had been proved and there was no case to answer, beyond a disastrous lack of judgment.

Yet the Queen recognised that this position could not hold as the duke was being drawn ever deeper into the Epstein quagmire while still giving the impression  rightly or wrongly  of somehow hiding behind a royal shield.

He was no longer merely an embarrassment for the monarchy but a drag anchor.

That had to change, first in relieving him of his honorary positions and, latterly, in making this court case go away.

Doubtless the saddest moment for the Queen was having to decide it was time for the duke to go as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. It was her decision to appoint him following the Duke of Edinburghs retirement from public life in 2017.

This was a huge honour for Andrew, given that it was the very first public appointment which she herself enjoyed, shortly before her sixteenth birthday.

For that appointment to be returned to the Queen will have pained her as much as the duke himself. However, there had clearly been rumblings in the ranks.

Furthermore, it was another issue hanging over the Platinum Jubilee with endless speculation about who would represent the Grenadier Guards at the special Jubilee Trooping the Colour in June.

For now, the duke remains a vice admiral in the Royal Navy, a rank which he received automatically on his 55th birthday in 2015.

He was due to be upgraded to admiral on his 60th birthday in 2020, though that was plainly unthinkable in the wake of the Newsnight saga.

The wording of the official statement at the time presented it as his own decision: The Duke of York has asked the Ministry of Defence if this promotion might be deferred until such time as His Royal Highness returns to public duty.

That is one present he will not be receiving as he marks his 62nd birthday this Saturday. But he might be getting a slice of cake from the Queen up at the castle. He is still her son and she still loves him dearly, says a source.

However, it is safe to say that this deferral is now permanent.
'We've been very clear that we are not providing funding for crack pipes'

'What is happening here is the potential to hold up funding the government and important programs around an issue that is not an issue,' Psaki said

Blackburn placed a hold on a continuing resolution to fund the government until HHS agrees not to fund distribution of any drug paraphernalia

Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration will not be funding crack pipe distribution and that the matter is 'not an issue' after Sen. Marsha Blackburn said that she will hold up a bill to keep the government funded due to a harm reduction program.

Blackburn, R-Tenn., placed a hold on a continuing resolution to fund the government until Health and Human Services agrees to restructure its harm reduction program so it does not fund distribution of any drug paraphernalia.

'What is happening here is the potential to hold up funding the government and important programs around an issue that is not an issue. Because we've been very clear that we are not providing funding for crack pipes,' the White House press secretary said in her daily briefing on Tuesday.

The Senate is aiming to pass a three-week spending bill by Feb. 18, when the current funding bill expires, while lawmakers work on a full-year budget. While no single senator can stop legislation, one vote against cutting out the procedural hurdles could drag the process out beyond that date.

HHS is now considering applications from community groups to dole out the $30 million as part of its Harm Reduction Grant. The grant will fund programs that offer 'safe smoking kits' and materials for addicts to utilize when using to mitigate the spread of disease.

The Washington Free Beacon last week reported that HHS had confirmed to them the kits would include pipes used to smoke crack-cocaine or 'any illicit substance,' a claim which HHS later denied ever confirming.

'All we want to know is how much money they are using for safe-smoking kits? What is in the kits? Where is this money going?' Blackburn said to the Wall Street Journal. 'Once I get an answer, I will lift my hold. Im just waiting for an answer.'

But in a statement, the senator said that she would not lift her hold until HHS reissued its FY 2022 Harm Reduction Grant 'to assure the American people that U.S. taxpayer dollars will not be used to distribute drug paraphernalia.'

Blackburn said that Psaki and HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra's assertions that the money would not be used for crack pipes 'meant nothing' because the harm reduction grant specifically allowed for 'safe smoking kits.'

'We will not allow this administration to continue lying to the American people,' she said.

Last week Becerra said in a statement that no federal funding 'will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits.'

But even after the denial, Sen. Joe Manchin teamed up with Republicans last week to introduce a bill that would ban the distribution of drug paraphernalia, and two Republicans appalled by a viral report alleging that the Biden administration was going to fund handing out crack pipes to drug addicts have introduced the 'HUNTER Act' which would do the same.

Though HHS has denied that crack pipes were ever to be included in the 'safe smoking kits' they will fund, Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Dan Bishop of North Carolina told Fox News that the Biden administration got caught 'red-handed.'

The Republicans' bill, the Halting the Use of Narcotics Through Effective Recovery Act this week, dubbed the HUNTER Act, is named after President Biden's son Hunter who has struggled with drug addiction.

Blackburn placed a hold on a continuing resolution to fund the government until Health and Human Services agrees to restructure its harm reduction program until it does not distribute any drug paraphernalia

'What is happening here is the potential to hold up funding the government and important programs around an issue that is not an issue. Because we've been very clear that we are not providing funding for crack pipes,' Psaki said in her daily briefing on Tuesday

'I like the HUNTER Act,' Boebert said, 'because it was a better acronym than Stop Paying to Subsidize Biden's Son's Drug Addiction act. That didn't really flow. I think tax dollars have been on the hook for Hunter's addictions long enough.'

Bishop said the bill would take aim at the federal funding of safe injection sites, needle trade-ins, and safe smoking kits. He said such programs try to 'remove all stigma' from drug use, when 'actually stigma is not a bad thing.'

West Virginia Democrat Manchin joined in, introducing a bill with Sen. Marco Rubio to ban federal funding from being used to purchase illicit paraphernalia, such as pipes or needles. The bill is known as the PIPES Act, or Preventing Illicit Paraphernalia for Exchange Systems Act.

Rubio on Thursday introduced the CRACK Act, a separate but similar bill, along with 16 Republican co-sponsors, even after the Biden administration's denial that it would fund pipes.

'I am glad the Biden administration acknowledges sending crack pipes to our nation's addicts is a bad idea,' Rubio said in a statement. 'It is pure insanity to think the federal government would fund crack pipe distribution. This legislation will make certain the program can never pay for crack pipes, and given the Biden administration's position I look forward to their vigorous support.'

Rubio's bill would amend the American Rescue Plan to prohibit the use of federal funds to 'supply, or distribute pipes, cylindrical objects, or other paraphernalia that can be used to smoke, inhale, or ingest narcotics.'

While Republicans were almost universally appalled at the report on crack pipe distribution, many have already embraced needle exchange programs. Thirty-eight states currently allow programs to give out clean needles to addicts.

Two Republicans appalled by a viral report alleging that the Biden administration was going to fund handing out crack pipes to drug addicts have introduced the 'HUNTER Act' to ban the distribution of drug paraphernalia

View of a glass pipe used to smoke illegal drugs

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation in 2019 allowing syringe exchange programs, as did Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in 2021. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed legislation expanding his state's exchange program, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcombs administration was critical when one Indiana county planned to close its porgram.

'The HUNTER Act is a means of encapsulating how ridiculous public policy can become when it's in the hands of the woke,' Bishop said.

'I like the HUNTER Act,' Boebert said in an interview, 'because it was a better acronym than Stop Paying to Subsidize Biden's Son's Drug Addiction act. That didn't really flow. I think tax dollars have been on the hook for Hunter's addictions long enough.'

And while Republicans expressed dismay about a reported plan to include crack pipes in government-funded safe smoking kits, a liberal drug policy group criticized Health and Human Services (HHS) for leaving out the pipes.

The Drug Policy Alliance said the decision to 'remove pipes from safe smoking equipment is deeply disappointing.'

'This is a missed opportunity to be preventative of more deaths due to overdose,' the group wrote on Twitter. 'Giving clean drug-using equipment such as a pipe & syringe reduces transmission of disease including Hep. C & HIV.'

'Harm reduction works to meet people where they are at, and keep people free of diseases and alive so they have a chance of recovery and healing,' the group added.

'The program, which accepted applications from local nonprofits until this week, will fund 'safe smoking kits/supplies,' which White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday will include 'alcohol swabs, lip balm, other materials to promote hygiene and reduce the transmission of diseases like HIV and hepatitis.'

HHS could not be reached for comment on a comprehensive list of allowable items, but such kits also typically include a rubber mouthpiece to prevent cuts and burns, brass screens to filter contaminants and disinfectant wipes, according to Harm Reduction International.

Jamie Favaro, executive director of NEXT Distro, one of the groups that applied for the grants, told the Washington Post that such kits typically do not include glass pipes because it is far more expensive than just offering a mouthpiece, which can be affixed to any pipe to prevent spreading infection.

Clean pipes are intended to curb the injecting drugs with needles, which is far riskier. But the HHS grant will offer clean needles, too.

In pushing for the pipes to be included, the Drug Policy Alliance said: 'The US government has prioritized a criminalization approach for 50+ years & its failing. Overdose rates are at record highs.'

Also funded under the grant are harm reduction vending machines, including stock for the machines, medication to reverse a drug overdose, medication lock boxes, infectious disease testing kits, safe sex kits, medication and needle disposal kits, vaccination services and wound care supplies.

The $30 million Harm Reduction Program grant is funded through the 2021 American Rescue Plan, and therefore is 'not subject to the same syringe funding restrictions as other federal grants,' HHS says.

The grant program lasts three years and includes 25 awards of up to $400,000.

It is against the law to sell or distribute drug paraphernalia - including such pipes - unless authorized by state, local or federal law.

On Monday the Washington Free Beacon reported that an HHS spokesperson told them that included in these kits these kits could be pipes for users to smoke substances like crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, or 'any illicit substance.'

HHS on Wednesday put out a statement contradicting its previously reported remarks. 'No federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits. The goal of harm reduction is to save lives.'

Psaki said that the pipes were never expected to be included in the kits. 'They were never a part of the kit,' said Psaki. 'It was inaccurate reporting.'

In Hunter Biden's 2021 memoir 'Beautiful Things,' he admitted to buying crack on the streets of Washington, D.C. and having guns pointed in his face while he went searching for drugs

'I would note that what we're really talking about here is steps that we're taking as a federal government to address the opioid epidemic,' Psaki added.

The press secretary denied that HHS had changed its policy on the crack pipes after the story first came out. 'We don't support federal funding, indirect or direct, for pipes.'

In Hunter Biden's 2021 memoir 'Beautiful Things,' he admitted to buying crack on the streets of Washington, D.C. and having guns pointed in his face while he went searching for drugs.

Hunter reveals that at one point, he let a homeless crack addict who he bought drugs from move in with him.

'The relationship was symbiotic,' he writes. 'It was two crack addicts who couldn't find their way out of a paper bag. A one-act crack farce.'

'I spent more times on my hands and knees picking through rugs smoking anything that even remotely resembled crack cocaine. I probably smoked more parmesan cheese than anyone that you know,' the president's son said with a laugh, as he sat down with CBS Sunday Morning in April.
P.J. O'Rourke, the prolific author and satirist who re-fashioned the irreverence and 'Gonzo' journalism of the 1960s counterculture into a distinctive brand of conservative and libertarian commentary, has died aged 74.

O'Rourke passed away on Tuesday morning after battling lung cancer, according to his publisher Grove Atlantic Inc. He had been ill in recent months.

'Our dear friend and cherished Grove Atlantic author P. J. ORourke passed away this morning from complications of lung cancer,' Deb Seager, vice president and spokeswoman at the publishing company, said in statement provided to NBC News.

'A journalist and political satirist, ORourke wrote over twenty books on subjects as diverse as politics, cars, etiquette, and economics, including his two #1 New York Times Bestsellers, Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance.'

The author became known for his work as editor-in-chief of the National Lampoon in the 1970s, which included contributions to the 1973 stage show National Lampoon's Lemmings, which helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Christopher Guest and Chevy Chase.

He also served as a co-editor of the comedy book National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook Parody, which inspired the 1978 hit film Animal House.

P.J. O'Rourke, the prolific author and satirist who re-fashioned the irreverence and 'Gonzo' journalism of the 1960s counterculture into a distinctive brand of conservative and libertarian commentary, has died at age 74

ORourke wrote over twenty books on subjects as diverse as politics, cars, etiquette, and economics, including his two #1 New York Times Bestsellers, Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance. He is pictured in 1992 with his novel

O'Rourke (pictured in 1973) became known for his work as editor-in-chief of the National Lampoon in the 1970s, which included contributions to the 1973 stage show National Lampoon's Lemmings, which helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Christopher Guest and Chevy Chase

The Toledo, Ohio-born author first discussed being diagnosed with cancer in a 2008 op-ed titled Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, which was printed in several outlets including the Los Angeles Times.

'I looked death in the face. All right, I didnt. I glimpsed him in a crowd. Ive been diagnosed with cancer, of a very treatable kind. Im told I have a 95% chance of survival,' he wrote at the time.

'Come to think of it - as a drinking, smoking, saturated-fat hound - my chance of survival has been improved by cancer.'

The satirist shared how he 'cursed God' when he received the news he had been diagnosed with a malignant hemorrhoid and found himself contemplating death.

'Why cant death - if we must have it - be always glorious, as in The Iliad? Of course death continues to be so, sometimes, with heroes in Fallouja and Kandahar.

'But nowadays, death more often comes drooling on the toilet seat in the nursing home, or bleeding under the crushed roof of a teen-driven SUV, or breathless in a deluxe hotel suite filled with empty drug bottles and a minor public figure whose celebrity expiration date has passed,' he wrote.

'Death is so important that God visited death upon his own son, thereby helping us learn right from wrong well enough that we may escape death forever and live eternally in Gods grace.

'Thus, the next time I glimpse death ... well, Im not going over and introducing myself. Im not giving the grim reaper fist daps. But Ill remind myself to try, at least, to thank God for death. And then Ill thank God, with all my heart, for whiskey.'

It remains unclear when O'Rourke went into remission for his anal cancer and when he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

O'Rourke is pictured on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno in May 1993

O'Rourke's writing style suggested a cross between the hedonism of Hunter S. Thompson and the patrician mockery of Tom Wolfe: Self-importance was a reliable target. But his greatest disdain was often for the government  not just a specific administration, but government itself and what he called 'the silken threads of entitlement spending.'

His career otherwise extended from the early years of National Lampoon to a brief stint on 60 Minutes in which he represented the conservative take on Point/Counterpoint to frequent appearances on NPR's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He was also a longtime guest on MSNBC. He is pictured on MSNBC in September 2018

Michael Moore, PJ O'Rourke, Thom Hartmann, Catherine Rampell and Steve Hilton appear on Real Time with Bill Maher in September 2018

O'Rourke evolved from long-haired student activist to wavy-haired scourge of his old liberal ideals, with some of his more widely read take downs appearing in a founding counterculture publication, Rolling Stone.

His career otherwise extended from the early years of National Lampoon to a brief stint on 60 Minutes in which he represented the conservative take on Point/Counterpoint to frequent appearances on NPR's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He was also a longtime guest on MSNBC.

Over the course of his career O'Rourke penned more than 20 books covering topics such as politics, economics and automobiles.

In addition to Rolling Stone, he wrote for the Atlantic Monthly before contributing to the pages of Automobile Magazine, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Car and Driver, The Daily Beast and The Weekly Standard.

His writing style suggested a cross between the hedonism of Hunter S. Thompson and the patrician mockery of Tom Wolfe: Self-importance was a reliable target.

But his greatest disdain was often for the government  not just a specific administration, but government itself and what he called 'the silken threads of entitlement spending.'

In a 2018 column for a venerable conservative publication, The Weekly Standard, he looked on with scorn at Washington, D.C.'s gentrification.

'People are flocking to the seat of government power. One would say 'dogs returning to their vomit' except that's too hard on dogs. Too hard on people, also. They come to Washington because they have no choice  diligent working breeds compelled to eat their regurgitated tax dollars,' he wrote.

O'Rourke's books included the best sellers Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance, None of My Business and A Cry from the Middle.

Entrekin told The Associated Press that he had been working on a one-volume look at the United States, as seen from his hometown: A History of Toledo, Ohio: From the Beginning of Time Til the End of the Universe.

O'Rourke's death has left many journalists, writers and columnists with holes in their hearts.

The author - who is survived by his wife, Tina O'Rourke, and their three children: Olivia, Clifford and Elizabeth - was hailed as an inspiration and 'one of the greats' in tribute posts flooding social media.

'PJ O'Rourke was an incredible wordsmith, perhaps the funniest writer of the last forty years, and a good person, too. RIP,' political commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted.

'I hung out with PJ O'Rourke many times at conventions and other Serious Events populated by Serious Journalists; he was excellent company at those things, because he refused to take them seriously,' former journalist Dave Berry wrote. 'He was a joy to be around. I'll miss him, and I'll miss his voice.'

'Im devastated to hear that the brilliant PJ ORourkemy colleague for the last year and a halfhas just passed away. PJs humorous style was unrivaled. It was an honor to have work w/ him. He was truly one of the GREATS,' echoed television host Trish Regan. 'RIP PJ. You will be dearly missed.'

Washington Post columnist Sonny Bunch added: 'PJ ORourke was one of the nicest writers I ever had the pleasure of meeting and drinking and (very rarely) corresponding with. No reason whatsoever for him to be decent to some junior editor at one of the many outlets he wrote for, and yet. What a loss.'

The author - who is survived by his wife, Tina O'Rourke, and their three children: Olivia, Clifford and Elizabeth - was hailed as an inspiration and 'one of the greats' in tribute posts flooding social media

'P. J. O'Rourke always found a way to make people laugh while also making a valid point,' wrote author Brigitte Gabriel. 'He will be missed greatly. Rest in Peace.'

'PJ O'Rourke was a hero of mine. I read and re-read him. I was thrilled when a great friend of mine, John King, persuaded/coerced him to write this at a book signing. With a quizzical look, PJ O'Rourke took dictation exactly as the customer asked. RIP,' added comedian Raybon Kan.

Fellow NPR panelist Charles Pierce echoed: 'PJ ORourke, with whom I had many pleasant hours sharing a stage for NPR, has passed. He was a kind and gentlemanly soul. May his memory be a blessing.'

'So sad to hear of the death of PJ O'Rourke. Laugh-out-loud funny but also profound. Everyone in politics should read "Parliament of Whores". And today's earnest & humourless critics of Western achievements should take a look at his essay "Ship of Fools,"' wrote television host David Frost.

'I know it won't be a recommendation to many of my Twitter followers, but I don't think I would have ended up doing what I have in the last few years if I hadn't read PJ early on in life & been inspired. He showed why big government is not just wrong but in many ways comic.'

'RIP P.J. ORourke, 74,' wrote Piers Morgan. 'One of Americas smartest, funniest writers & the ultimate Gonzo journalist. Loved interviewing him, always so sharp & entertaining. Huge loss.'
A Thai model who was viciously assaulted on the New York subway has opened up about her traumatic attack as her lawyer said that there is 'something fundamentally wrong' to allow her attacker - who has 44 prior arrests - out on the streets to hurt an innocent woman.

Bew Jirajariywetch spoke about her assault on Tuesday, as crowds gathered for the vigil of another Asian woman, Christina Lee, who was murdered in her own New York apartment last week by a stranger, as crime and anti-Asian violence in the city soars.

Today, the horrific injuries Jirajariywetch suffered in the attack on November 22 have healed, but the mental scars remain.

The 23-year-old had only recently moved to the Big Apple from her native Thailand when she was attacked on the way home from a concert, on the subway, by Kevin Douglas.

'He hit me multiple times in my face to make sure I couldn't make any noise,' she told Fox News. 'And then touched me inappropriately. And then he took my purse before he was gone.'

Bew Jirajariyawetch appeared on Fox News (left) three months after the attack which left her bloodied and bruised (right)

Bew Jirajariywetch opened up about her assault on Tuesday, as crowds gathered for the vigil of another Asian woman, Christina Lee, who was murdered in her own New York apartment last week by a stranger, as crime and anti-Asian violence in the city soars

The 23-year-old had only recently moved to the Big Apple from her native Thailand when she was attacked on the way home from a concert, on the subway, by Kevin Douglas

Douglas, 40, was later charged with second-degree robbery, third-degree robbery and second-degree assault.

The prolific offender had been arrested for another assault on the same day so was already in jail when he was charged with attacking Jirajariywetch. He is due back in court April 1.

Douglas's record dates back to 1997 and has 44 arrests for crimes such as assault, drugs, criminal tampering and illegal possession of a weapon.

Jirajariywetch's attorney Eric Parnes said that Manhattan's soft-on-crime District Attorney Alvin Bragg must answer for why suspects like Douglas were allowed out on the streets.

'There is something fundamentally wrong when someone who has over a double-digit amount of priors is first able to be out of jail. That is a problem in itself,' Parnes said.

Jirajariywetch said she'd seen the 'worst side' of New York but still tried to see the city as 'beautiful.

She said she finally built up the courage to return to the subway line where she was attacked as she refuses to give up on a modeling career.

Moving to the New York City was a 'natural decision' for her, according to her attorney Eric Parnes.

'Bew does not want this negative experience to discourage her thoughts on New York,' Parnes told DailyMail.com.

Kevin Douglas, 40, was later charged with second-degree robbery, third-degree robbery and second-degree assault

The prolific offender had been arrested for another assault on the same day so was already in jail when he was charged with attacking Jirajariywetch. He is due back in court April 1

'Bew has been unquestionably traumatized. She has been struggling with a lack of appetite and persistent nightmares,' he said.

'Living in a foreign country without family is already a difficult situation let alone coping with such an unwarranted act of violence. However, Bew finds strength in speaking out about this and continues to push forward with her aspirations.'

He shared her story to 'put pressure on the NYPD,' 'get more tips leading to an arrest' and to 'put more focus on this disturbing trend of violence.'

The shocking assault on Jirajariyawetch was caught on video and saw her grabbed from behind in a chokehold, thrown to the ground, punched in the face and robbed of her purse at the 34th Street Herald Square station on November 22.

The mugger can be seen dragging Jirajariyawetch along the northbound platform servicing the D, F, N and Q lines before throwing her to the ground.

A photo taken by the model shortly after the assault shows her face bruised and swollen, with dried blood near her nose and a burst blood vessel in her left eye.

New York City saw a surge in violent assaults on the subway when she was attacked, with a 45 percent increase that month as compared to last year.

Anti-Asian violence has also plagued the city this year, with 127 attacks against Asians - a nearly five-fold increase from the 28 attacks in 2020.

'There were so many police officers at the subway after the attack but no one was there before. I don't want anyone else to go through this or be hurt by this person. This can not keep happening.'

Jirajariyawetch, an aspiring model, moved to New York City from Thailand over the summe

Jirajariyawetch, who lives in Queens, is enrolled at the Global ESL Academy

She moved to NYC to pursue a modeling career in the fashion industry

Jirajariyawetch said she finally built up the courage this week to return to the subway line where she was attacked

Jirajariyawetch, who moved from Thailand last summer to study at the Global ESL Academy, told DailyMail.com that she was returning to her home in Queens after she went to see Daboyway, a Thai-American rapper, in concert at S.O.B.'s in the West Village when the attack took place.

In the harrowing video, the mugger holds her down as he punches her in the head four times, sexually assaults her and snatches her purse, before briskly walking away.

Jirajariyawetch can be seen sitting up, dazed, and getting to her feet before the surveillance video cuts off.

She said he took all the money she had on her and her personal identification, but left her iPhone.

New York City Crime Stoppers released a short clip of the cold-hearted thief jumping a subway turnstile before the attack, and are offering a reward of $3,500 for information that leads to his arrest.

'There are so many cameras in the subway station to track but they don't seem to be working,' Jirajariyawetch told DailyMail.com.

Jirajariywetch opened up about her assault on Tuesday, as crowds gathered for the vigil of another Asian woman, Christina Lee, who was murdered in her own New York apartment last week by a strange
Back in June 1972, five men were arrested after breaking into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate offices in Washington.

When it emerged they had been bugging the offices for the Republicans, the resulting cover-up went all the way to the White House and brought down President Nixon.

Today the word 'Watergate' is once again echoing in the corridors of Washington DC, as Republicans brandish new claims that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign may have spied on Donald Trump.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump pictured together during the town hall debate at Washington University in 2016, in St Louis, Missouri

The shocking suggestion has been made by lawyer John Durham, a special counsel appointed in 2019 by Bill Barr, Mr Trump's Attorney General, to look into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the now widely debunked claims of Trump collusion with Russia.

Durham was also asked to determine whether intelligence on Trump collected by Democrats in both the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign in the run-up to the election was 'lawful and appropriate'.

His claims, as Trump has angrily pointed out, are barely being reported in a staunchly pro-Democrat U.S. media that for several years lapped up every lurid twist and turn of the Kremlin-connected allegations against him.

On the rare occasions they have mentioned the new controversy, pro-Democrat media outlets have said they won't fuel what they regard as an unsubstantiated anti-Clinton smear campaign  neglecting to mention they were perfectly happy to do that when the target was Trump.

Trump's indignation is shared by some fellow Republicans, who say Durham has indeed uncovered another Watergate.

And it's hardly surprising they are crowing, given that it was Mrs Clinton's supporters who so determinedly pushed the damning narrative that Trump was in the pocket of Vladimir Putin, commissioning the infamous Steele dossier compiled by ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele.

Nobody talks about it now because the jaw-dropping claims it contained  none worse than a story that Moscow knew Trump had once paid Russian hookers to urinate over a hotel bed used by Barack and Michelle Obama  have been widely debunked.

Former U. S. President Richard Nixon. In 1972, five men were arrested after breaking into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate offices in Washington

The dossier claimed a Russian strategy to 'exploit Trump's personal obsessions and sexual perversion' in order to obtain kompromat  compromising material  on him had 'borne fruit'.

Suffice to say, none of the allegations has ever been substantiated.

And so, not for the first time, there is more than a whiff of hypocrisy in the air.

U.S. news outlets now holding their noses piously over the claims against the Clinton campaign threw everything they had into confirming the Steele dossier and the general accusation that Trump was a puppet of the Kremlin.

And it's worth noting that the accusations against the Clinton campaign come not from an ex-spook hired by Clinton supporters to dredge for dirt, but a highly respected former prosecutor charged with getting to the bottom of the controversy.

The scandal now threatening 74-year-old Hillary Clinton  who, according to rumours, may decide to run in the 2024 White House race, very likely against Trump  relates to a court filing made on Friday by John Durham.

Trump's (pictured in 2018) indignation is shared by some fellow Republicans, who say Durham has indeed uncovered another Watergate

In it, he suggested that the 2016 Clinton campaign's effort to compile dirt on Trump extended to digital snooping on protected White House communications.

If that doesn't sound quite as serious as burglars breaking into an office and bugging the phones, some would say it amounts to the 21st-century digital equivalent.

Durham has indicated that the campaign paid an internet company to access computer servers at the White House and at Trump Tower in New York to hunt for Trump-Russia links.

This new filing relates to Durham's decision last September to charge Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer who represented the Clinton campaign, with lying to the FBI when he presented documents claiming to show secret internet communications between the Trump Organisation and the Russia-based Alfa-Bank. The information has since been discredited.

Sussmann, who insists he didn't lie, allegedly didn't admit he had ties to the Clinton campaign and instead insisted he was merely presenting the damaging evidence as a good citizen.

Durham also accused Sussmann of giving the CIA internet data in 2017 showing suspicious evidence of Russian-made mobile phones being used near the White House.

Although the special counsel says the information was bogus, it was part of a broader effort to raise suspicions about Trump.

The dossier claimed a Russian strategy to 'exploit Trump's personal obsessions and sexual perversion' in order to obtain kompromat. Pictured, Trump at a rally in 2016

In his indictment, Durham has laid out how Sussmann worked with someone referred to as 'Tech Executive-1'  whom he has now identified as cybersecurity expert Rodney Joffe  who used his companies, including researchers at a U.S. university, to access internet data which he used to gather information about Trump's communications.

Joffe's company, Durham alleges, had helped to maintain internet servers for the White House, and before Trump was elected he and his associates 'exploited this arrangement' by snooping on private internet traffic  including in the Executive Office of the President.

Joffe's 'goal', says Durham, was to create an 'inference' and 'narrative' about Trump that would 'please certain VIPs', including people at the Clinton campaign.

Durham claims the government can show that Joffe was able to see what websites were being viewed on computers at Trump Tower, Trump's apartment in Manhattan's Upper West Side and in the White House.

Joffe, who isn't charged with any crime, insists he hadn't been working for any political party and had a legitimate contract to analyse internet data for security breaches.

Durham believes this digital eavesdropping started in July 2016, when President Obama was still in office, and suggests it continued into the Trump presidency.

The Clinton family at the Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2016

The terrifying implications not only of the White House being eavesdropped so easily but its internet being in the hands of a company tied to a political party have prompted calls for a judicial investigation.

Among the most pressing questions that need to be answered, say conservatives, are: who approved Joffe's company getting access to White House internet data; who in the U.S. government and FBI knew about it; and who in the Clinton campaign knew it was happening.

Did Hillary herself know? (She certainly exploited Sussmann's flawed information, tweeting just days before the 2016 election that 'computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organisation to a Russian-based bank').

However, others counter that there isn't nearly enough evidence (at least, not yet) to start comparing this to the Watergate scandal.

The New York Times, which spent years trying to skewer Trump over Russia, has called claims about the Clinton campaign spying on Trump 'alarmist'.

The Clinton campaign has yet to comment, which can hardly be said of Trump, who, after long claiming he had been the target of a 'deep state' conspiracy that involved FBI and Justice Department monitoring of his campaign, insists John Durham has now vindicated him.

'This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution,' he said this week.

'In a stronger period of time in our country,' he added with typical understatement, 'this crime would have been punishable by death.'

Executions may not be on the cards but criminal charges are certainly possible.

It remains unclear where, ultimately, Durham's investigation will go. But so far it has suggested that if any party has a case to answer over the Russian collusion scandal, it may well be the Democrats, not the Republicans.
A former chief prosecutor launched an astonishing attack on Prince Andrew this evening, accusing him of paying blood money to his accuser.

Nazir Afzal said the Duke of York had tried every trick in the book to get the claims against him by Virginia Roberts thrown out.

The lawyer says the prince then changed tactics once he realised the allegations would be aired in court.

The ex-chief crown prosecutor for North West England, who initiated prosecutions in the high-profile Rochdale sex trafficking case, said he lost respect for the duke when he began victim blaming.

This is thought to be a reference to Andrews lawyers request for Miss Roberts medical records and suggestions she may have created false memories.

Former chief prosecutor for north west England, Nazir Afzal (pictured) said the Duke of York 'tried every trick in the book' to get Virginia Giuffre's case thrown out before reaching an out-of-court settlement

In a blistering series of tweets, Mr Afzal said: Each time he did that, a victim somewhere was re-traumatised.

They suffer indignities given them by their abusers and then further pain inflicted upon them by those who stood by and did nothing and then belittled their pain.

Just minutes after it was announced Andrew and Miss Roberts  who brought the case under her married name of Giuffre  had reached an out-of-court settlement, Mr Afzal accused the prince of doing so to avoid a trial.

He is willing to pay large sums of money to her for something he denies, he said.

Make of that what you will.

Mr Afzal, who was made an OBE in 2005, also said it was a credit to Miss Roberts that she had negotiated for Andrew to make a substantial donation to her sex abuse charity.

But he added: Before its spun to suggest Prince Andrew is giving a donation to charity, remember he could do that any time he wanted. This is no donation. This is blood money.

Mr Afzal continued: Prince Andrew says he regrets his association with [Jeffrey] Epstein and that he will now support victims of sex trafficking i.e. rape.

I am honoured to know a few and they wouldnt welcome him given what he has publicly said about them. Ill take him at his word and invite him to meet them.

The lawyer also questioned the alibi Prince Andrew gave Emily Maitlis during their infamous 2019 Newsnight interview.

The duke claimed he had been picking up his daughter Beatrice from a party at Pizza Express in Woking the night he was said to have slept with Miss Roberts.

Mr Afzal said: Something tells me that Prince Andrew never went for that pizza in Woking.

Andrew has always denied Miss Roberts allegations. When his team was asked about Mr Afzals comments, they declined to respond.
Ever found yourself wondering 'why am I alone?' or 'is there anyone out there for me?'. Well, a physicist and computer programmer has a tool that just might help.

Steven Wooding from Southampton combined a love of astrophysics and statistics to build a tool that calculates the odds of finding 'the one'.

It is based on the famous Drake Equation, which was formulated by American astrophysicist Dr Frank Drake in 1961 as a way to examine the likelihood of finding intelligent alien life somewhere in the known universe.

It looks at increasingly unlikely factors, from the average rate of star formation, through to the fraction of planets that go on to develop intelligent life.

Wooding and his colleague Rijk de Wet, a data scientist, applied this approach to the dating world, estimating the chance of love from a range of factors, including population growth rate, attractiveness, age range and education level.

It even compares the chance of finding love based on your own criteria, which includes your opinion of how good looking you are, to the chance of finding aliens.

'In my case, the odds of love are 2.1 times better than there being one 1,000 light-years away,' Mr Wooding told DailyMail.com.

Ever found yourself wondering 'why am I alone?' or 'Is there anyone out there for me?', well a physicist and computer programmer has a tool that might help. Stock image

When Frank Drake created his equation, it wasn't with the goal of finding aliens, or saying 'this is how we know if aliens exist', but rather to encourage debate.

Wooding says he took a similar approach, saying he wanted everyone to 'benefit from the equation and look at their chances of love with a scientific mindset'.

This isn't the first time the equation has been turned to the subject of finding love.

Peter Backus, currently a professor at the University of Manchester, used the Drake Equation in 2010 to predict that there were only 26 women in the entire UK that would be a good match for him - based on appearance, age and intellect.

Despite giving himself a one in 285,000 chance of finding 'the one', Backus met 'Rose' at a dinner with friends and they got married in 2013.

'As someone who loves the topic of aliens, I got really interested in the idea of adapting the Drake Equation into the dating world, as Peter Backus did in his darkly humorous study,' explained Wooding in an interview with DailyMail.com.

'I believe that adding the fun factor of comparing their chances to the likelihood of an alien civilisation somehow puts things into perspective and makes them realise whether there really aren't many options in their area or if their preferences are just too narrow.'

The Drake Equation reads: N = R* x Fp x Ne x Fi x Fc x L, and led to Professor Drake predicting that there could be 10,000 civilisations in our galaxy.

In the famous equation N is the number of civilizations in the galaxy we may be able to communicate with that are within our 'cone of light' from Earth.

In order the others look at: the rate of star formation; the fraction of stars with a planet; the average number of planets that could support life; the fraction of planets that develop life; the fraction of planets with a civilization; the fraction of civilizations with detectable technology; and the length of time they release signals into space.

When it comes to finding love, Wooding switched celestial measurements with those of the human scale.

It predicts the odds of being single on Valentines Day by applying the formula developed by Backus, off the back of the Drake Equation. It asks your location, your attractiveness, based on your own rating, and your rating of your own social skills.

Steven Wooding from Southampton, England, combined a love of astrophysics and statistics to build a tool that calculates the odds of finding 'the one'. Stock image

THE DRAKE EQUATION FOR LOVE Each variable whittles away at the population, to predict the chance of finding love. It uses the same maths as the Drake equation but with new variables. G = R . fG . fL . fA . fU . fB . L TABLE TITLE Variable Description G Your number of potential partners. R The UK's population growth. fG The fraction of the UK's population who are the appropriate gender. fL The fraction of men/women (as per your preference) living in your city. fA The fraction of men/women in your city who are in your preferred age range. fU The fraction of age-appropriate men/women in your city with a university education (optional). fB The fraction of university-educated, age-appropriate men/women in your city who you find physically attractive. L Your own age. Advertisement

It also asks details about a potential partner, including their gender, whether they are university education, age range you are looking for and attractiveness you'd expect.

'Once you've entered all the inputs of the calculator, it will show you the number of potential partners that are out there,' Wooding explained.

'It also tells you the percentage chance of finding love based on the number of people in your chosen city or the whole of the UK.'

It is currently only available for singletons in the UK, as it relies on data such as population statistics and the number of people in higher education.

Wooding said the chance of finding love is likely much higher than the chance of finding alien lift that we can have a conversation with.

'It would be great if we did, but the probability is quite low. Aliens should be out there somewhere though, given that we now find nearly every star has at least one planet,' Wooding told DailyMail.com.

'The main issue I think is that we currently rely on the technology of the alien civilisation being compatible with ours, which we might be overestimating.

'Our sensors are now getting to the point where we can detect what is in the atmosphere of exoplanets, so that might be another way to detect life.'
Elon Musk donated more than five million Tesla shares, worth $5.74 billion to charity last year, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The shares were donated to an unnamed charity between November 19 and November 29 last year, not long after Musk said he would sell stock and donate $6 billion to the U.N. World Food Program if it 'can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger.'

It isn't clear which charity the shares have been donated to, although one expert predicted that Musk might have contributed the stock to intermediaries such as 'donor-advised funds,' not outright to charitable groups.

World Food Program spokesman Steve Taravella, who had pushed Musk to make a donation, refused to disclose any information when contacted by MarketWatch, and didn't confirm whether it was the recipient of Musk's billions.

The donations began soon after Musk sold $16.5 billion of shares in the world's most valuable automobile manufacturer, likely from stock he vested in 2021, and to cover the cost of an $11 billion tax bill.

Tax experts say the donation of shares to a good cause may have helped Musk lower that tax burden by as much as 50 per cent of the value of the shares donated.

Elon Musk donated more than five million Tesla shares, worth $5.74 billion to charity last year, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said last year he would sell stock to provide $6billion to the World Food Programme is director David Beasley can prove that the funds will aid in solving world hunger

The donation ranks Musk as America's second-biggest donor after Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates last year, data from the Chronicle of Philanthropy shows.

The entrepreneur, worth an estimated $238.6 billion, doesn't take a cash salary for his role as Tesla CEO, and is instead paid in stock awards.

He has to option them after a certain period of time - roughly 22.9 million vested stock options were converted into shares for Musk last year, prompting him to announce his whopping $11 billion tax bill.

Bob Lord, from the Institute for Policy Studies, said gifting Tesla stock would be a tax benefit, as shares donated to charity are not subject to capital gains tax.

'He'd save between 40% and 50% of the $5.7 billion in tax, depending on whether he could take the deduction against his California income ,and he'd avoid the gains tax he would have to pay if he sold the stock,' Lord explained.

Musk's public philanthropy gestures have so far trailed other billionaires, giving less than 1 per cent of his wealth to good causes - the same figure as Jeff Bezos.

In contrast, Warren Buffett and George Soros had given away more than 20 per cent by early September, according to business magazine Forbes.

The shares were donated to an unnamed charity between November 19 and November 29 last year, not long after Musk said he would sell stock and donate $6 billion to the U.N. World Food Program if it 'can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger'

The World's Richest People These are the 10 richest people in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 1. Elon Musk: $227 billion 2. Jeff Bezos: $180 billion 3. Bernard Arnault: $157 billion 4. Bill Gates: $127 billion 5. Larry Page: $121 billion 6. Sergey Brin: $116 billion 7. Warren Buffett: $114 billion 8. Steve Ballmer: $106 billion 9. Larry Ellison: $97.3 billion 10. Mukesh Ambani: $87.5 billion Advertisement

Musk is president of the Musk Foundation, which offers grants for the 'development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity' among other causes.

Last year, Musk and the foundation offered $100 million prizes to those who can come up with a technology to help remove carbon from the atmosphere, and donated $20 million to schools in Cameron County, Texas, the location of a SpaceX rocket launch site, and $10 million to the City of Brownsville.

Musk has also flirted with more ambitious philanthropy goals, with most claims of donation happening on social media.

On Twitter last year he said, 'If (the United Nations World Food Programme) can describe ... exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.'

He was responding to a plea for a donation from David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Programme.

In January last year, he asked Twitter users about 'ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems.)'

Musk is often tight lipped about the exact scope of his philanthropy but does occasionally reveal details on social media. The last time he revealed a Tesla stock gift was in 2018, when he donated $100 million to charity.

A large portion of Musk's accessible wealth is linked to Tesla, which is now the world's most valuable automaker - beating out Toyota.

It is also one of a handful of firms with a trillion-dollar valuation, reaching that market capitalization in October - although it is now back to $905 billion.

Musk is the wealthiest man in the world, by some margin, currently beating the second-wealthiest person, Amazon found Jeff Bezos, by $47 billion.
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A mysterious hand that was created around 3,500 years ago and is believed to be Europe's oldest prosthetic limb will go on display in the UK for the first time this week.

The artefact, which experts think may also have doubled as a knife, was discovered in western Switzerland in 2017.

It is made from bronze with a gold cuff and dates to between 1,500 and 1,400 BC.

The hand has been on display only once before, making a brief appearance in Germany, but will now be part of the 'World of Stonehenge' exhibition at the British Museum.

Detectorists found the hand buried in a human grave near Lake Biel, along with a hair ornament, bronze dagger and cloak pin.

Neil Wilkin, curator at the British Museum, said it was most likely to have been used as a prosthetic limb, although some experts have disputed this because the human remains had decayed too much to confirm that it fitted the individual.

'Astonishing object': A mysterious hand that was created around 3,500 years ago and is believed to be Europe's oldest prosthetic limb will go on display in the UK for the first time this week

The artefact (pictured), which experts say may also have doubled as a knife, was discovered in western Switzerland in 2017

WHAT ARE THE KEY ARTEFACTS IN THE STONEHENGE EXHIBITION? Europe's oldest prosthetic limb The mysterious hand, which experts say may also have doubled as a knife, was discovered in western Switzerland in 2017. It is made from bronze with a gold cuff and dates to between 1,500 and 1,400 BC. World's oldest surviving sky map Unearthed by looters in Germany in 1999, the 3,600-year-old Nebra Sky Disc is inlaid with gold symbols that are believed to represent the moon, sun, solstices and stars. It was found near the town of Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt. Experts believe the sky disc was used as a calculator to help its Bronze Age owners predict the best times for sowing and harvesting in the spring and autumn. Burton Agnes chalk drum The 5,000-year-old chalk drum, which bears intricate circular etchings, was found alongside the ancient burial of three children near the village of Burton Agnes in East Yorkshire. It is decorated with symbols that are believed to represent the sun and is only the fourth surviving example of its kind. The drum is believed to have been placed in the grave during the first construction phase of Stonehenge. Advertisement

'It's a completely astonishing object  we've never seen anything like it,' Dr Wilkin told the Telegraph.

He said the hand may also have functioned as a weapon because of its sharp, flat fingers, while an alternative theory is that it could have been a drinking vessel inspired by Mesopotamian culture.

'The fingers have a sharpness to them and, curiously, it doesn't show a fist that's clenched,' Dr Wilkin added.

'It shows the fingers protruding and, even if they weren't used as blades, they have that appearance.'

He also believes the hand, with its gold cuff and detailed engraving, belonged to someone of high status, saying: 'It's so bespoke looking it suggests that someone's had the power or the status to commission something that is quite unique.'

Experts say the engraving appears to be solar artwork, which would place it within a broader, shared European culture that revered the sun.

The limb, which dates to a time in the Middle Bronze Age where an increase in continental trade  especially involving certain metals  led to huge cultural change, will go on display as part of an exhibition which focuses on the decline of Stonehenge as a significant monument.

During this period, greater emphasis was placed on material objects as a sign of social status, which shifted power away from ancestral monuments.

The public will be able to see the limb, along with the world's oldest surviving map of the sky and a 'talismanic' chalk drum, from Thursday.

The 3,600-year-old Nebra Sky Disc and the 5,000-year-old Burton Agnes chalk drum are just two of 430 objects and artefacts that will go display in the World of Stonehenge exhibition, which will run until July at the British Museum in London.

Others include two gold hats and an ancient wooden monument called 'Seahenge' dating back 4,000 years.

Unearthed by looters in Germany in 1999, the 12-inch sky disc is inlaid with gold symbols that are believed to represent the moon, sun, solstices and stars.

The chalk drum, which bears intricate circular etchings, was found alongside the ancient burial of three children near the village of Burton Agnes in East Yorkshire.

According to the British Museum, nearly two-thirds of the objects going on display in the exhibition will be loans, with artefacts coming from 35 lenders across the UK, the Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland.

The majority of the items have never been seen in the UK before.

The Nebra Sky Disc was found near the town of Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt, in the east of Germany, by looters Mario Renner and Henry Westphal.

The pair were treasure hunting without a license and ended up destroying parts of the archaeological site, as well as damaging the disc with their spade.

They sold the disc alongside bronze swords, hatchets, a chisel an bracelet fragments that they found with it to a dealer in Cologne for 31,000 Deutsche Mark (around 10,000).

The world's oldest surviving map of the sky and a 'talismanic' chalk drum have gone on display as part of a major new exhibition. Pictured: The 3,600-year-old Nebra Sky Disc, which is going on display at the British Museum

The 5,000-year-old Burton Agnes chalk drum is one of 430 objects and artefacts that are visible to the public from Thursday at the British Museum in London. They are part of the World of Stonehenge exhibition, which runs until July and tells the story of the famous Neolithic stone circle in Wiltshire

Seahenge was nicknamed the Stonehenge of the Sea after it re-emerged on a Norfolk beach in 1998. It consists of a large upturned tree stump surrounded by 54 wooden posts

The World of Stonehenge exhibition tells the story of the 3,500-year-old Neolithic stone circle in Wiltshire (pictured above)

The pair were arrested in the bar of the Hilton Hotel in Basel, Switzerland, after trying to sell the sky disc to the German state archaeologist for 700,000 DM (217,391).

Experts believe the sky disc was used as a calculator to help its Bronze Age owners predict the best times for sowing and harvesting in the spring and autumn.

This interpretation is supported by the presence of a cluster of seven stars, the Pleiades, which appear next to a full or new moon at these times.

The Burton Agnes drum is decorated with symbols that are believed to represent the sun, is only the fourth surviving example of its kind and is the most intricately decorated.

It was found buried above the head of the eldest child and is believed to have been placed in the grave during the first construction phase of Stonehenge  when the monument's bluestones were being moved from west Wales to Salisbury Plain.

It contains symbols similar to those found on pottery at the dwelling site of the builders who created Stonehenge, at Bulford, and could cast light on how communities lived at the time.

The headgear going on display includes the Schifferstadt gold hat (front) from Germany and the Avanton gold cone (back) from France

Seahenge's oak posts, some up to nine ft tall, form a 21ft-diameter circle around the upturned oak, creating a giant tree-like spectacle. A narrow entrance-way was built aligning to the rising midsummer sun and it is speculated the monument was used for ritual purposes

A member of staff observes a gold cape dating from 1600-1900 BC from Mold, Flintshire, Wales, during the press preview for the new The World of Stonehenge exhibition at London's British Museum

According to the British Museum, nearly two-thirds of the objects going on display in the exhibition will be loans, with artefacts coming from 35 lenders across the UK, the Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland. Pictured: A member of staff uses a brush whilst stood behind a standing stone carved in 2500 BC from Capo di Ponte, Italy

Animal bones in the form of a necklace found on Salisbury Plain, 2,100-1,900 BC. The World of Stonehenge exhibition runs until July

The British Museum already has three barrel-shaped cylinders made of solid chalk, dubbed the Folkton drums after their discovery in North Yorkshire in 1889.

Seahenge was nicknamed the Stonehenge of the Sea after it re-emerged on a Norfolk beach in 1998.

It consists of a large upturned tree stump surrounded by 54 wooden posts.

The oak posts, some up to nine ft tall, form a 21ft-diameter circle around the upturned oak, creating a giant tree-like spectacle.

A narrow entrance-way was built aligning to the rising midsummer sun and it is speculated the monument was used for ritual purposes.

Dr Jennifer Wexler, project curator of the World of Stonehenge at the British Museum, said: 'If Stonehenge is one of the world's most remarkable surviving ancient stone circles, then Seahenge is the equivalent in timber.'

The looters  who were treasure hunting without a license  destroyed parts of the archaeological site and damaged the disc with their spade. Pictured: the iconography of the Nebra Sun Disc. Some of the interpretations are uncertain. According to expert analysis, the disc was constructed in four stages, which saw some of the stars moved around the disc

A member of staff poses next to a gold broach from Shropshire, England which dates back to 1,000 BC. It is one of 430 objects that are now on display

Examples of tools carved by Neolithic Britons are seen on display at the British Museum on Monday, after the opening of the World of Stonehenge exhibition

A human skull showing healed blunt force trauma on the forehead. The skull is one of several examples of ancient human bones that are on display in the new exhibition

Wooden carvings dating back to 1,200 BC that were found in Yorkshire. Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, said: 'To understand the purpose of the great stone monument constructed on Salisbury Plain, it is essential to consider its contemporary world and the culture of its builders. We are delighted to be able to do this in this unprecedented exhibition'

The World of Stonehenge exhibition also features examples of ancient goldwork, such as the above gold bangles on display

The headgear going on display includes the Schifferstadt gold hat from Germany and the Avanton gold cone from France.

It is the first time that either have been seen in Britain.

They are decorated with elaborate solar motifs that reflect the religious importance of the sun during this era.

The Schifferstadt hat, which was found in the German town of the same name in 1835, dates back to between 1400 and 1300 BC, whilst the Avanton cone  discovered near Avanton, Poitiers in 1844 - dates to between 1000 and 900 BC.

Only two other examples of these hats are known to have survived.

They served as headgear during ceremonies or rituals, and experts theorised that the original wearers may have believed that they gave them divine or otherworldly status.

Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, said: 'To understand the purpose of the great stone monument constructed on Salisbury Plain, it is essential to consider its contemporary world and the culture of its builders.

'We are delighted to be able to do this in this unprecedented exhibition.

'Over 430 exceptional objects are being brought together, objects which are the last and only testament of sophisticated and ingenious people, and we are grateful to all of the lenders who have made it possible.'
An armless dinosaur may not sound too scary, but a new species that roamed Argentina 70 million years ago was likely a skilled predator  despite having front limbs even shorter than T.Rex.

The fossilised remains of the new species, named Guemesia ochoai, were discovered in Argentina by researchers from the Natural History Museum in London.

Their analysis suggests that Geumesia ochoai was a species of abelisaur  a clade of dinosaurs with tiny front limbs that had to rely on their powerful heads and jaws to capture prey.

Professor Anjali Goswami, Research Leader at the Museum and co-author of the study, said: 'This new dinosaur is quite unusual for its kind.

'It has several key characteristics that suggest that is a new species, providing important new information about an area of the world which we don't know a lot about.'

An armless dinosaur may not sound too scary, but a new species that roamed Argentina 70 million years ago was likely a skilled predator  despite having front limbs even shorter than T.Rex (artist's impression)

THE ABELISAURIDS Abelisauridae were a striking family of theropod dinosaurs averaging 16 to 30 feet long that prowled mainly in Patagonia and other areas of the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana. Gondwana is recognised today as Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula. While abelisaurids resembled T-Rex in general appearance with tiny stubby arms, they had unusually short, deep skulls which often bore crests, bumps, and horns. When Tyrannosaurus and its relatives roamed North America and Asia, the abelisaurids occupied a similar niche in Patagonia and other areas of South America. Abelisaurids had huge jaws. Just like T-Rex, they relied on them to crush and kill prey. Advertisement

Abelisauridae were a striking family of theropod dinosaurs averaging 16 to 30 feet long that prowled mainly in Patagonia and other areas of the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana.

Gondwana is recognised today as Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula.

While abelisaurids resembled T-Rex in general appearance with tiny stubby arms, they had unusually short, deep skulls which often bore crests, bumps, and horns.

Previous research suggests that abelisaurids fed on large dinosaurs such as titanosaurs, despite having tiny arms that were 'effectively useless.'

Instead, the dinosaurs relied on their powerful heads and jaws to capture unsuspecting prey.

Abelisaurid fossils have previously been found in rocks across Africa, South America, India and Europe, with 35 species already described from Argentina.

However, while most of these 35 species are from Patagonia, in the south of Argentina, the new species was discovered in the Los Blanquitos Formation near Amblayo, in the north of Argentina.

'The dinosaurs that live in this region were quite different from those in other parts of Argentina, supporting the idea of distinct provinces in the Cretaceous of South America,' Professor Goswami said.

While most abelisaurids had 'relatively small' braincases, Guemesia ochoai's skull was found to be 70 per cent smaller than its relatives.

The researchers are unclear whether this was because the new specimen was a juvenile, or if all members of the species had small skulls.

The new species was discovered in the Los Blanquitos Formation near Amblayo, in the north of Argentina

Abelisaurid fossils have previously been found in rocks across Africa, South America, India and Europe, with 35 species already described from Argentina. However, while most of these 35 species are from Patagonia, in the south of Argentina, the new species was discovered in the Los Blanquitos Formation near Amblayo, in the north of Argentina

The front of its skull was found to contain rows of small holes that may have helped the animal to stay cool, with blood pumped into the thin skin at the front of the head to release heat.

Meanwhile, unlike other abelisaurid species, this new species was found to lack horns.

According to the team, this suggests the new species was either near the bottom of the family tree, or closely related to the ancestors of the group.

While abelisaurids resembled T-Rex in general appearance with tiny stubby arms, they had unusually short, deep skulls which often bore crests, bumps, and horns

The team now hopes to uncover more specimans of Guemesia ochoai and its relatives to understand more about life in ancient Argentina.

Professor Goswami added: 'Understanding huge global events like a mass extinction requires global datasets, but there are lots of parts of the world that have not been studied in detail, and tonnes of fossils remaining to be discovered.

'We left some exciting fossils in the ground on our last trip, not knowing that it would be years before we could get back to our field sites.

'Now we are hoping that it won't be too much longer before we can finish digging them up and discovering many more species from this unique fauna.'
A 300-year-old bedsheet embroidered with a love message in human hair that was possibly taken from a severed head is to go on display at a London museum.

Anna Maria Radclyffe embellished the old linen in memory of her husband James, who was beheaded for treason in 1716.

The third Earl of Derwentwater and grandson of Charles II, he was 26 when he was executed for his involvement in the first Jacobite rebellion, a story which was immortalised in Sir Walter Scott's 1817 novel Rob Roy.

Intricately decorated with flowers, leaves and a large wreath in the shape of a heart, the bedsheet's inscription reads: 'The sheet OFF MY dear Lord's Bed in the wretched Tower of London February 1716 x Ann C of Darwent=Waters+.'

Experts believe the hair used by Anna could have come from herself or her husband, or she could have intertwined a combination of the two.

Creepy: A 300-year-old bedsheet embroidered with a love message in human hair that was possibly taken from a severed head is to go on display at a London museum

Anna Maria Radclyffe embellished the old linen in memory of her husband James, who was beheaded for treason in 1716

WHAT WERE THE JACOBITE RISINGS? The First Jacobite Rebellion is usually considered the 1715 Rising, but in fact the whole movement can be traced back to the deposition of Catholic King James II in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Worried about there being a Catholic dynasty, British Protestants turned to James' son-in-law William of Orange, who led a successful invasion of England. James panicked and fled to France, with the English Parliament replacing him with William and his wife Queen Mary, the Protestant daughter of James. James then tried to reclaim his throne, with what was effectively the first Jacobite rising in 1689. It led to violence in Ireland, where James' (largely Catholic) supporters were finally beaten at the Battle of the Boyne and in Scotland where, despite a victory at Killiecrankie, military conflict proved inconclusive. Further challenges to the British throne were mounted in 1708, 1715 and 1719. Recognised as the first Jacobite rebellion, 1715 was like no other rising since Killiecrankie. It was the only occasion when a sizeable rebellion also broke out in England  in heavily Catholic Lancashire  but again ended in failure for the movement. Upon the death of James II of England and VII of Scotland in 1701, the French king Louis XIV had recognised his son as James III and VIII, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. However, this was not a title King William acknowledged, and following the failure of the 1715 rebellion, James was obliged to leave France, settling in Rome in 1719. His son Charles Edward Stuart, nicknamed 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', was born there the following year. Bonnie Prince Charlie would go on to lead the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. Believing the British throne to be his birthright, he planned to invade Great Britain along with his Jacobite followers and remove the Hanoverian 'usurper' George II. Charles launched the rebellion on 19 August 1745 at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands and was successful in capturing Edinburgh. In November his army crossed the border and captured Carlisle, before marching south through Lancashire in the hope of attracting English support. Charles got to Derby but was forced into retreat. This ultimately led to the Battle of Culloden, which was the final confrontation in the Jacobite rising of 1745. More than 1,200 people were killed in just an hour as the Jacobite forces took their final stand in what would end as a brutal and bloody defeat. Charles was forced to make a dramatic escape to France but his fleeing soldiers were ruthlessly hunted down and killed. Advertisement

She was allowed to take charge of her husband's body, including his severed head, after his execution on February 24, 1716, providing her with the opportunity to cut locks of his hair as a keepsake.

'This embroidered bedsheet is an extraordinary item, which would have taken months or years to create,' said Beverley Cook, a curator at the Museum of London.

'The care and devotion speaks to Anna's personal devastation and remarkable character  determined to protect the memory of her husband long after his death.

'It is just one of the many personal stories in the exhibition that reveal the impact of public execution on the lives of Londoners over centuries  a city that witnessed the brutal death of so many, from ordinary Londoners to some of history's most high profile cases.'

The bedsheet passed through multiple generations of activists and supporters over the years before eventually falling into private collections.

It was acquired by the Museum of London in 1934 but has never before been on display.

Experts said it speaks not only to the personal grief and devotion of a young widow but her role in securing her husband's memory amongst Catholics who sought to restore the Stuart dynasty.

The First Jacobite Rebellion is usually considered the 1715 Rising, but in fact the whole movement can be traced back to the deposition of Catholic King James II in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Worried about there being a Catholic dynasty, British Protestants turned to James' son-in-law William of Orange, who led a successful invasion of England.

James panicked and fled to France, with the English Parliament replacing him with William and his wife Queen Mary, the Protestant daughter of James.

It was a landmark event in the Whig (those opposed to a Catholic succession) history of Britain.

James then tried to reclaim his throne, with what was effectively the first Jacobite rising in 1689.

It led to violence in Ireland, where James' (largely Catholic) supporters were finally beaten at the Battle of the Boyne and in Scotland where, despite a victory at Killiecrankie, military conflict proved inconclusive.

The Scottish Parliament agreed to adopt William as their king in favour of James.

Further challenges to the British throne were mounted in 1708, 1715 and 1719.

Recognised as the first Jacobite rebellion, 1715 was like no other rising since Killiecrankie.

It was the only occasion when a sizeable rebellion also broke out in England  in heavily Catholic Lancashire  but again ended in failure for the movement.

Upon the death of James II of England and VII of Scotland in 1701, the French king Louis XIV had recognised his son as James III and VIII, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

However, this was not a title King William acknowledged, and following the failure of the 1715 rebellion, the death of Louis XIV and the Treaty of Utrecht between Britain and France, James was obliged to leave France, settling in Rome in 1719.

His son Charles Edward Stuart, nicknamed 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', was born there the following year.

Bonnie Prince Charlie would go on to lead the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, which was a turning point in British history.

Believing the British throne to be his birthright, he planned to invade Great Britain along with his Jacobite followers and remove the Hanoverian 'usurper' George II.

Charles launched the rebellion on 19 August 1745 at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands and was successful in capturing Edinburgh.

In November Charles's army crossed the border and captured Carlisle, before marching south through Lancashire in the hope of attracting English support.

The third Earl of Derwentwater and grandson of Charles II, James Radclyffe (pictured with his wife Anna Maria) was executed for his involvement in the first Jacobite rebellion

The bedsheet will form part of the 'Executions' exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands (pictured), which is set to open in October

At the time, most of the British Army was fighting on the Continent in the War of the Austrian succession, so the government initially had to rely on inexperienced troops.

Charles got to Derby but many of the battle-hardened regiments were returned from the Continent to deal with the crisis, forcing him to eventually retreat.

This was in part because few Englishmen had joined him and the French invasion he had hoped for had not materialised.

The retreat ultimately led to the Battle of Culloden, which was the final confrontation in the Jacobite rising of 1745.

More than 1,200 people were killed in just an hour as the Jacobite forces took their final stand in what would end as a brutal and bloody defeat.

Charles was forced to make a dramatic escape to France but his fleeing soldiers were ruthlessly hunted down and killed.

He lived for another 42 years after the battle of Culloden of 1746 but was never able to muster support for any further attempts to claim the throne.

The bedsheet will form part of the 'Executions' exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, which is set to open in October.
Real Madrid target Endrick will be at the Parc des Princes for the LaLiga side's Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, according to reports.

The 15-year-old striker has been touted to be the future of the Brazilian national team and has been likened to Brazil legend Ronaldo.

Unsurprisingly, he has attracted the interest of Europe's elite with Real Madrid said to be at the front of the queue.

Real Madrid target Endrick will be at the LaLiga side's Champions League clash with PSG

The 15-year-old enjoyed a trip to Disneyland after jetting to Paris ahead of the clash

The Brazilian is in the French capital ahead of watching his suitors play in the first leg of their last-16 tie, according to Marca.

The first stop on the youngster's European trip was Madrid last Thursday, where he spent a few days enjoying the city's offerings of restaurants and shopping centres.

Endrick then flew to Paris where he took the chance to visit the FIA headquarters before posting a photo to his Instagram with his younger brother and parents at Disneyland.

Alongside the photo, he posted the caption: 'Happy family, nothing to complain about just thank god.'

The Brazilian posted a photo to Instagram with his younger brother and parents at Disneyland

Endrick has shone for Palmeiras's youth teams, netting 165 goals in 169 games since his debut in 2017.

The Brazilian side are understandably reluctant to let him leave and are reportedly considering inserting a 100million (83m) release clause into his contract.

Excelling in the recent Copinha de Sao Paulo, the most important junior tournament in Brazil, Endrick has been tipped to be the next big Brazilian product.

He scored six during the tournament, including during Palmeiras's 4-0 victory over Santos in the final.

Endrick has shone for Palmeiras's youth teams, netting 165 goals in 169 games since 2017

The Copinha has showcased some of the country's best young players, including Neymar and Vinicius Jr, and Endrick seems to be following in their footsteps.

Endrick recently revealed that he is a big fan of his compatriot Vinicius Jr, telling Marca: 'I support Vinicius a lot, also Real Madrid so that he wins another Champions League.'

He will surely be paying close attention to Madrid's Brazilian delegation, which also boats Rodrygo, Casemiro, Marcelo and Eder Militao on Tuesday night.
The Champions League is back and so is Manchester City's bid to finally win the competition that somehow keeps slipping through their fingers.

On Tuesday night Pep Guardiola's side help get the last-16 underway when they travel to Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon for the first leg of their tie.

The Premier League leaders will be favourites to progress, but there are a few familiar names who are looking to cause a surprise with a place in the quarter-finals on the line.

Here, Sportsmail looks at the Portuguese side's stars looking to take down Guardiola's men... including a player on loan from Manchester City.

Sporting Lisbon will be aiming to cause a shock when they face Manchester City in Europe

Marcus Edwards

It's taken Edwards around half-a-decade to get back on the big stage after one clumsy comment from his former Tottenham manager left him with near enough impossible standards to reach.

It was 2016 when Mauricio Pochettino compared his rising star to Lionel Messi, and even if he wasn't talking about ability and more about playing style, the Argentine should have known that such comparisons were always going to put needless pressure on the winger.

Marcus Edwards progressed through Tottenham's academy but failed to build on early hype

Three years later and without a first-team appearance in the top flight, Edwards departed for Vitoria Guimaraes where he then started to rebuild his reputation.

The Spurs fan memorably netted against the club's north London rivals Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium during a Europa League meeting.

Still only 23 years old, the winger was a 6.5million January arrival for Sporting Lisbon but will now be aiming to prove himself on the biggest stage yet and perhaps show that there is a little bit of Messi talent in him after all.

Edwards only joined Sporting in January and will be aiming to make his mark against City

Sebastian Coates

A name who should be very familiar to Liverpool supporters, if not only for being a centre-back who appeared to show more ability as a striker than for being able to actually defend.

After signing for 7million at Anfield 11 years ago, the now 31-year-old played just 13 league games in his four years on the club's book, and while his defending was often erratic he scored a sensational scissor kick from the edge of the penalty box during a 3-2 defeat at Queens Park Rangers a decade ago next month.

Liverpool fans will remember Sebastian Coates for a sensational scissor kick at QPR in 2012

The defender though largely struggled to make a first-team impact during his time at Anfield

While it never worked out for the defender at Anfield - or indeed at Sunderland who he joined after departing Merseyside - he moved to Sporting on loan at the start of 2016 before making the deal permanent a year later.

The Uruguay international, who has 43 caps, has since played well over 250 times for the club and has shown that he still has an eye for goal too with 28 to his name - not bad numbers at all for a defender.

Keeping goals out will be his main duty though when City roll into town and he will be keen to prove he can do that too following his disappointing time in England.

Coates has built on his career well after leaving England and is a Sporting stalwart in defence

Pedro Porro

There's not much to question about Manchester City's transfer strategy, especially as they have been arguably the best team in the Premier League across the last decade.

But maybe a route into the first-team wasn't quite what they had in mind for Pedro Porro when they signed him from Girona for 11million in 2019... only to immediately loan him out Real Valladolid with an option to buy.

With that option not taken up and arriving back at City in 2020, he went on loan again for two years to Sporting where again the option of a purchase is on the cards for 7million.

It could be a costly mistake for City, with the right-back becoming one of the leading players in the Portuguese top flight while also making his international debut with Spain last year.

Although on Manchester City's books Pedro Porro says he has never spoken to Pep Guardiola

The 22-year-old will finally have a chance to show his parent club what they have been ignoring for three years when he potentially lines up against them on Tuesday - and Pep Guardiola too, who Porro claims he had never spoken too as recently as last summer.

The City boss though claims, with some exaggeration in his numbers, that he is fully aware of the threat he is facing.

'I know him perfectly but we have 250 loan players and I cannot speak with them all,' Guardiola said. 'I'm happy its going well and of course I know him. I saw many games and sometimes he played and sometimes he doesnt.'

Porro claims he has never spoken to City manager Pep Guardiola in three years at the club

Pedro Goncalves

Arguably Sporting's biggest attacking threat will be a player who couldn't even make the grade at Wolverhampton Wanderers, having played just half-an-hour of a League Cup tie at Sheffield Wednesday before leaving in 2019.

A year later and at Sporting Lisbon he is now showing excellent form and not just in Portugal. He is the club's top scorer in the Champions League this term, netting four times in as many games including twice in a win over Borussia Dortmund, adding an assist too.

Despite his goal scoring prowess - his 13 goals for Sporting makes him their overall top scorer - he is more comfortable playing on the right side of the attack.

City might not need to stop him on Tuesday night though, with Goncalves a slight doubt due to a muscle injury.

Pedro Goncalves is Sporting's top scorer, and netted twice against Borussia Dortmund (above)

Islam Slimani

Another player who struggled to make the grade in England is Islam Slimani, who Leicester City fans might remember was bought by Claudio Ranieri to build on their title winning success of 2016.

While not a major flop, he certainly didn't take the Foxes to the next level and quickly fell out of favour as he netted a disappointing eight Premier League goals in 36 games in an injury-inflicted spell.

The Algerian striker was then offloaded to Lyon in the summer of 2020 via an even more forgettable loan spell at Newcastle United where he failed to score in four league games.

He was even poorer at the French club, scoring just four league goals in 30 games. Still, Sporting have seen something in him and after joining on a free transfer last month he may still have a chance to reward the faith put in him.

Islam Slimani struggled at Leicester City (left) and joined Sporting on a free back in January

Pablo Sarabia

As well as scoring goals, you need players to set them up - luckily for Sporting they have a player who can do both in Pablo Sarabia.

Struggling to make an impression under Pochettino at Paris-Saint-Germain, the winger is on loan at the Portuguese side this term.

He has struck 11 goals in all competitions making him one of the leading marksman for the club, but he also has nine assists, a tally matched only by Goncalves.

The 29-year-old, with 16 Spanish caps, tends to turn up in the big games too - helping Sporting come from behind by netting the winner in January's 2-1 League Cup final win against Benfica.

Pablo Sarabia celebrates scoring during the League Cup final victory over Benfica in January

Paulinho

As much as Sporting like to pick up a struggling former Premier League player, this isn't the one-time Spurs midfielder Paulinho - he's slightly better than that.

The striker will likely spearhead Sporting's attack against City and is the club's top league scorer this season with a respectable nine goals from 21 games.

Only Goncalves has netted more than his three Champions League strikes for the club this season too, and he also seems keen to find the net at international level, with two goals from just three caps - albeit both in a friendly win over minnows Andorra.

Still, the 29-year-old seems to have an eye for goal and will need to be tracked by Pep Guardiola's side on Tuesday night.

Sporting's top league goal scorer Paulinho celebrates netting against rivals Porto on Friday

How much of a threat are Sporting?

Having won the league for the first time in 19 years last summer, they have been impressive again this term - well up until January when they lost their first two games of the campaign.

Still 17 wins from 22 is title winning form... in most leagues. Now, they are struggling to hold on to their crown as they sit six points behind a Porto outfit who are unbeaten with 19 wins from 22.

They crucially threw away a 2-0 lead at Porto on Friday too to draw 2-2 as they missed an opportunity to narrow the gap at the top. For context that's a Porto side who on aggregate were slapped 7-1 by Liverpool during the Champions League group stage.

Still, Sporting deserve credit for reaching the last-16 having progressed as runners-up behind Ajax and knocking Borussia Dortmund out in the process.

In addition there were celebrations in January as they came from behind to beat Benfica 2-1 in the League Cup final.

Sporting Lisbon threw away a 2-0 lead at title rivals Porto to draw in their Friday clash

Any previous history with City?

Just the one European tie from 10 years ago in the Europa League last-16 - which Sporting progressed through on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate draw.

They won the first leg in Lisbon 1-0, before incredibly taking a 2-0 first half lead at the Etihad Stadium, leaving City needing four unanswered goals to progress.

Sergio Aguero started the comeback on the hour mark, with Mario Balotelli netting a penalty 15 minutes later. But despite Aguero scoring again to give City a 3-2 win on the night, Sporting held on to win the tie.

Sporting stunned City back in 2012 when they went 3-0 up on aggregate in the Europa League
Rio Ferdinand has revealed what the Everton camp are saying about Donny Van de Beek following his loan switch to Goodison Park.

The Netherlands international signed for the Toffees on deadline day of the January transfer window after struggling to break into the Manchester United first-team under both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.

Van de Beek made his first Premier League start under Frank Lampard against Leeds on Saturday and helped the Toffees boss record his first victory at the club.

Rio Ferdinand has revealed what the Everton camp are saying about Donny Van de Beek

Ferdinand spoke to 'a few people' in the Everton camp about Van de Beek's arrival at the club and they said they were impressed by his standard in training - claiming he had an immediate impact on the quality of the sessions.

Ive been speaking to a few people at the club and theyve said that hes gone in there and lifted the levels, training-wise, Ferdinand told Vibe with FIVE.

[Hes a] great lad, first and foremost, but you can see. A lot of them are going, Wow, hes this good, they must be unbelievable at Manchester United if he cant get in.

Ferdinand spoke to 'a few people' in the Everton camp and said that they were impressed by Van de Beek's standard in training - claiming he 'lifted the levels'

Van de Beek made his first start under Frank Lampard and the Toffees boss record his first victory at the club during Everton's Premier League clash with Leeds United on Saturday

Van de Beek signed for Manchester United in the summer of 2020 from Ajax. It was regarded as a high profile transfer given the fact Solskjaer paid 35million for his services.

DONNY VAN DE BEEK'S EVERTON FULL DEBUT Minutes played: 90 Chances created: 1 Touches: 53 Touches in the opposition Box: 1 Passes: 40 Passing completion rate: 87.5 per cent Tackles: 4 Interceptions: 1 Advertisement

However, he failed to cement a regular place in the Manchester United starting XI and found himself regularly warming the bench.

During Solskjaer's tenure, Van de Beek started just four Premier League games.

Things got even worse for the Dutchman when interim manager Rangnick joined as he did not start once in the English top-flight.

Jaap Stam felt Van de Beek's omission from the squad was due to the fact he 'couldn't get his head around the way Manchester United play'.

As a result, Van de Beek completed a loan switch to Goodison Park on deadline day of the January transfer window.

He made his first Premier League start against Leeds United, lining up in Lampard's 4-4-2 formation.

The Manchester United loanee excelled on his full debut - playing a key role in the opening goal of their 3-0 victory.

Speaking about Van de Beek's performance, Lampard said: 'I sort of expected that, because I knew Donny as a player from the outside, brought him here because of his talents in terms of he can play, his intelligence, his work ethic, really intelligent and technical player.

'He was part of a really strong work-ethic kind of performance, he matched the other players in that sense, he gave us a sense of calm, he linked the play, looks confident on the ball and that's exactly what I brought him here to do.'

Van de Beek was impressive playing alongside Allan (above) in Everton's 4-4-2 formation

Everton boss, Lampard, praised the Manchester United loanee after the fixture on Saturday

He added: 'I think he can do different roles, and that was the beauty and why I moved so quickly to try to get him when I came in.

'I'm a big admirer of his and I think he can do both roles for us - he played in the double six, or two midfield players (against Leeds) and I know he has the talent to link and get us through the lines with his passing, also the work ethic needed in that role.

'I know he can do higher and he's a goal threat too. That's one of the big pulls of me bringing him in, knowing he can bring different elements to help us in different ways, and when called upon to do that kind of disciplined role, I thought he did it really, really well.'
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The suffocating air of nights like these can choke even extraordinary players. Few have the skill and force of will to keep hold of the strings.

Take a bow, Kylian Mbappe. There have been so many crowning glories in the 23-year-old's young career. This has to sit near the top.

Ever since UEFA's dodgy computer coughed up such a mouthwatering clash, the spotlight has burned bright.

Kylian Mbappe produced a moment of magic in the final seconds in Paris to fire PSG to victory against Real Madrid

The French striker was a menace all evening and he got his rewards in the 94th minute when he found the bottom corner

There was huge emotion in the celebrations at the end as Mbappe raced over to mark his goal close to PSG's supporters

With Mbappe expected to soon tread the well-worn path between new money and old, this was his chance to dazzle current  and future? - employers.

And for 93 minutes, Mbappe rose above the noise, above a sea of superstars, to shine. Unfortunately, for 93 minutes, Real Madrid held firm. Dani Carvajal did his best to keep Mbappe out before the defender eventually fouled the Frenchman inside the area.

Thibaut Courtois did his best, making several crucial saves at the Parc des Princes.

Lionel Messi did his best, too, missing the penalty with half an hour left.

But even Madrid's old nemesis could not deny their heir apparent.

And so, in the final flash of this first leg, Mbappe skipped between Eder Militao and Lucas Vazquez and then, with the slightest deflection, slid a shot between Courtois' legs. The roar of celebration suggested his heart remains in Paris. For now.

Mbappe had been the one to watch all evening and he won PSG a penalty when he was brought down by Dani Carvajal

Lionel Messi stepped up and elected to shoot low to the left of Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois - only to see it saved

The Argentine superstar looked to the ground in disappointment having seen the key moment go against him and his side

Courtois produced an emphatic display on the night before the late goal as he celebrated saving Messi's penalty kick

MATCH FACTS AND PLAYER RATINGS PSG XI (4-3-3): Donnarumma 6; Hakimi 6.5, Marquinhos 6, Kimpembe 6, Nuno Mendes 6; Paredes 6.5, Danilo Pereira 6 (Gueye 87, 6), Verratti 7; Di Maria 6.5 (Neymar 73), Messi 6, Mbappe 8 Subs not used: Navas, Icardi, Dagba, Wijnaldum, Kurzawa, Herrera, Diallo, Draxler, Kehrer, Simons Goals: Mbappe (90+4) Booked: Kimpembe, Verratti, Danilo, Paredes Manager: Mauricio Pochettino 6.5 Real Madrid (4-3-3): Courtois 9; Carvajal 7 (Vazquez 72, 6), Militao 6.5, Alaba 6.5, Mendy 6.5; Casemiro 6.5, Kroos 6.5, Modric 7 (Valverde 82, 6); Asensio 5 (Rodrygo 72, 5), Benzema 6 (Bale 87, 6), Vinicius Jnr 6 (Hazard 82, 5) Subs not used: Nacho, Marcelo, Lunin, Jovic, Ceballos, Isco, Camavinga Booked: Militao, Mendy, Casemiro, Rodrygo Manager: Carlo Ancelotti 6.5 Referee: Daniele Orsato 7 Advertisement

On this evidence, though, Madrid can't lose - even if they succumb in the second leg.

If, as seems inevitable, Mbappe crosses this divide in the summer, then Carlo Ancelotti's side can look forward to years of his genius.

If Paris Saint-Germain finally achieve their European dreams this season, he will surely lead the way.

They hold the advantage for now.

'Hopefully Mbappe stays here for many years,' manager Mauricio Pochettino said.

Mbappe was more coy, insisting: 'Did this game influence my future? No - I've not decided, I give my best and then we will see what happens next season.'

Real were surrounded last night by familiar faces and former foes. This was, however, all about a symbol of their future and Mbappe's battle with Carvajal proved the funnel through which this game flowed.

It was a brilliant tussle. Carvajal was turned inside out when Mbappe created the first chance for Angel Di Maria.

The right back soon responded with a brilliant recovery tackle.

And whenever called upon, Courtois stood tall, too.

At times, the only solace for Ancelotti was that the returning Karim Benzema was unlikely to aggravate his hamstring problem while watching the action from afar.

Shortly after the break, Courtois made another sharp save to deny Mbappe.

Then, on the hour, the goalkeeper got down to keep out Messi's spot-kick. It would have been a crying shame had Messi's curious fallibility from 12 yards decided this game.

'I'd studied Messi's penalties a lot and I tried to play with him when I was on the line,' Courtois said.

'You've also got to have that little bit of luck.'

And, until the death, Madrid did. Messi, Neymar and Mbappe all went close before the Frenchman earned his own feather of good fortune.

Neymar (left) came off the bench to play for the first time since December 1 and he gave PSG an added dimension in attack

In the end it was Mbappe's goal that separated the sides and they will meet again in Madrid on March 9 for the second leg

Relive all the Champions League action with Sportsmail's NATHAN SALT's live blog.
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Early in the second half Manchester United's Luke Shaw ambled without purpose down the left and played an infield pass to nobody that almost went out of play on the other side of the pitch.

In the stands, they could hardly be bothered to complain.

By then the United support had been informed the local tram network was unable to get them home and were doubtless beginning to wonder, probably not for the first time, why on earth they had bothered to come in the first place.

Manchester United breathed a sigh of relief after scraping past Brighton - despite playing poorly throughout the encounter

Cristiano Ronaldo (centre left) fired United ahead with this brilliant right-footed finish on 51 minutes against the Seagulls

Ronaldo celebrates in front of the jubilant United supporters as they take the lead despite being second best beforehand

Bruno Fernandes sealed United's victory at Old Trafford that moved them back into fourth in the Premier League table

MATCH FACTS AND PLAYER RATINGS Manchester United (4-2-3-1): De Gea 7.5; Dalot 6, Maguire 5.5, Lindelof 6, Shaw 6; Fred 5.5 (Pogba 77, 6), McTominay 6; Elanga 6 (Telles 79, 6), Fernandes 7, Sancho 8 (Rashford 79, 6); Ronaldo 7. Booked: Shaw, Fernandes, McTominay Goals: Ronaldo 51, Fernandes 90+6 Manager: Ralf Rangnick - 6 Brighton (4-3-3): Sanchez 6; Veltman 6.5, Dunk 5.5, Webster 6.5, Cucurella 6.5; Bissouma 5.5; Gross 6.5 (Alzate 60, 6), Moder 7, Macallister 6.5; Trossard 6.5 (Lamptey 60, 6), Maupay 6 (Welbeck 69, 6). Booked: Mac Allister Sent off: Dunk Manager: Graham Potter - 6 Referee: Peter Bankes - 6 Advertisement

Ralf Rangnick's pedestrian United team had been dreadful in the first half. During their difficult recent run, United have tended to start games well and then fade to grey. Here, they hadn't even managed that. They started badly and seemed stubbornly destined to remain so.

Booed off at the interval, there seemed to be little chance of improvement against a Brighton team that had bettered them until that point.

But then Brighton simply imploded. In two quick acts of self-sabotage, they gave away the game.

First midfielder Yves Bissouma - fancied by so many of the bigger Premier League clubs - dallied on the ball to lose possession in the 51st minute. Cristiano Ronaldo, bristling with bottled up tension after a relatively lean time of late, strode forward to jink past a defender and bury a right foot shot with magnificent technique and certainty from 18 yards.

What a mess but what a goal. Ronaldo does not - and at 37 will not - provide all the answers for this United team. But in a situation like that, given an opening but still with work to do, there are still few more reliable in Europe.

Then, barely a minute later, Brighton blew off their remaining toes. Their most accomplished defender Lewis Dunk was robbed by Anthony Elanga 25 yards from goal and in a panic hauled his opponent to the ground.

There did seem to be a man on the cover and initially referee Peter Bankes seemed within his rights to show a yellow card. But when the official was advised to visit the screen by the dugouts, Dunk knew he was on the verge of receiving the kind of upgrade no footballer ever wants and within seconds he was walking down the tunnel.

Brighton like to play their football and it makes them easy to watch. Graham Potter's team do exist on the edge on occasion, though, and here they were undone by too strict an adhesion to their own modern principles.

United are a poor side under Rangnick. They have no identity. The things the German said he would do when he arrived have proved beyond him. But even his United side are not so bad that they cannot hold a lead at home against 10 men.

Earlier, they had been second best by a distance.

Alexis Mac Allister (right) runs with ball as Brighton started on the front foot at Old Trafford, impressing greatly on Tuesday

United only looked remotely threatening on the counter-attack and Jadon Sancho (right) had their best chance in the first half

Brighton looked like a team playing with a plan in the first period while United did not. Old Trafford was flat. They no longer come here in expectation, only in vague hope. That sense of resignation was not hard to detect.

Potter's team could have scored early as the fifth minute. United midfielder Fred gave the ball away 40 yards from goal and when Pascal Gross played Jakub Moder in on the overlap David de Gea was required to block at his near post.

United had been carved open far too easily and it is not uncommon. Equally they almost responded at the other end as Ronaldo's backheel played Jadon Sancho in and Robert Sanchez saved.

That was as close as United came before they scored while Brighton threatened regularly in between.

Alexis Mac Allister should have done better than scuff a shot straight at De Gea when in space in in the 13th minute while Gross volleyed wide from 18 yards on the half hour mark.

Then, as half-time neared, De Gea saved athletically from a Moder header after Veltman had advanced down the right to cross well again. That was a really good chance and within a minute Brighton had fashioned an even better one as three neat passes enabled Bissouma to ease clear only to shoot across goal and wide when really he should have found the corner.

Jakub Moder (left) thought he had given Brighton a deserved lead in the first half but was denied by this David de Gea save

After going behind, Brighton were down to 10 men just 81 seconds later when Lewis Dunk (centre right) was sent off

Referee Peter Bankes initially gave Dunk a yellow card but was asked to look at footage of the incident by the VAR

Bissouma's big moment was yet to come and undoubtedly it changed the course of the game. Then, missing Dunk, Brighton became vulnerable. Ronaldo had one header saved and directed another wide before another Brighton error - a misplaced clearance from Sanchez - allowed Ronaldo to feed Bruno Fernandes only for the goalkeeper to redeem himself and save.

There was hardly a flicker from Brighton as time wore on. Moder did hit the bar from distance out of nothing with 10 minutes left before substitute Danny Welbeck headed a good chance wide in the 90th minute.

Brighton also pressed in injury time - all teams do when behind - but still managed to give Fernandes a goal, conceding possession with bodies forward and allowing the Portuguese to race from his own half to score.

United are fourth now which begs a question. Just how ordinary are those immediately below?

In the dying embers of injury time, Bruno Fernandes (centre right) doubled United's advantage with this counter-attack finish

Re-live all the action as it happened at Old Trafford with Sportsmail's LUKE AUGUSTUS below.
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Its an idea with legs.

An amazing extension to a hotel in Italy has been built on three-metre-high (9.8ft) stilts.

The treehouse-style add-on contains an additional 10 suites for the Parc Hotel Florian in the Alpine village of Siusi allo Sciliar (also known, Germanically, as Seis am Schlern), with each suite boasting a hot tub, a sauna and magnificent views of South Tyrol.

The incredible extension to the Parc Hotel Florian in the Alpine village of Siusi allo Sciliar, which is built on stilts

The treehouse-style extension contains an additional 10 suites for the hotel, with each containing a hot tub, a sauna and magnificent views of South Tyrol

The design studio behind the new building is Italy-based Network of Architecture (Noa). It says: 'The idea was not just a row of rooms door to door, but an orderly grouping of intimate, self-contained treehouses elevated on three-metre-high supports, leaving the grounds fully accessible underneath'

According to Network of Architecture (Noa), the Italian-based studio behind the new building, the hotel is located in a 'magnificent park, where you are encouraged to linger among ancient trees, an idyllic pond and an outdoor pool'.

The idea of using stilts was 'in order to leave the grounds untouched and occupy as little space as possible'.

Noa continues: 'A building at ground level would have resulted in the loss of a sizeable portion of the grounds.

Inside one of the hotel suites. Network of Architecture also took charge of kitting out the interiors of the extension

Noa says: 'The central living area opens out onto a sheltered balcony overlooking the magnificent mountain scenery, a benefit also afforded to the glass bedroom'

There are five suites on each floor of the two-storey extension. Each suite is built at a slight angle 'creating the impression of a natural, grown structure while preserving the views'

Inside the suites, Noa says that 'guests have the sensation of being ensconced in their own little house'

The village of Siusi allo Sciliar, pictured, sits amid a truly breathtaking landscape

'But the idea was not just a row of rooms door to door, but an orderly grouping of intimate, self-contained treehouses elevated on three-metre-high supports, leaving the grounds fully accessible underneath.'

The two-storey extension, called the Floris Green Suites, comprises five suites on each floor with each one built at a slight angle 'creating the impression of a natural, grown structure while preserving the views'.

Noa adds: 'Guests have the sensation of being ensconced in their own little house.'

The design firm also took charge of kitting out the interiors of the suites and says the 'central living area opens out onto a sheltered balcony overlooking the magnificent mountain scenery, a benefit also afforded to the glass bedroom'.

Noa says: 'In addition to the many views and vistas, there is another highlight that makes a stay in one of the green suites irresistible: an open patio with an outdoor hot tub'

'Expansive horizons, casual openness and personal freedom are the defining undertones in this project - in every sense,' says Noa

The hotel, according to Noa, is located in a 'magnificent park, where you are encouraged to linger among ancient trees, an idyllic pond and an outdoor pool'

It continues: 'The most intimate area is located at the far end of the suite, where the entrance is: an open shower is elegantly flanked on one side by the self-contained toilet and bidet unit, and on the other by a small, private Finnish sauna, which guests can use whenever they wish.

'In addition to the many views and vistas, there is another highlight that makes a stay in one of the Green suites irresistible: an open patio with an outdoor hot tub, which complements the sauna offer in an exceptionally appealing way.

'The unhemmed patio provides a private, garment-free retreat, as does the external terrace area, which is bordered by apertures through which the newly planted tall trees grow and where you can sink back and relax in a hammock-like mesh.

'Expansive horizons, casual openness and personal freedom are the defining undertones in this project - in every sense.'
SAS Australia sent the celebrity contestants into the pits of hell for upcoming season three.

This time base camp for the grueling 14-day selection course is an eerie abandoned coal mine on the South Coast of New South Wales.

Located a few hours drive from Sydney, near Dapto, the hit reality show was filmed last October in often frigid conditions.

SAS Australia 2022's new grim reality: Inside the eerie new base camp on NSW south coast

The seventeen competitors made a temporary home in a scatter of shattered buildings, overgrown with weeds, without flushing toilets, running water, surviving on five hours sleep a night.

Photos reveal the sets features - dense bushland, gravel tarmac, rugged hills and treacherous cliffs.

Previews have already shown that the decrepit building interiors, especially the roofing, make for a dangerous obstacle.

House of horrors: This time base camp for the grueling 14-day selection course is an eerie abandoned coal mine on the South Coast of New South Wales

Tough: Located a few hours drive from Sydney, near Dapto, the hit reality show was filmed last October in often frigid conditions

Grim: The seventeen competitors made a temporary home in a scatter of shattered buildings, overgrown with weeds, without flushing toilets, running water, surviving on five hours sleep a night

No doubt these assets will provide plenty of opportunity for Course Director Ant Middleton to test the recruits, including The Bachelor's Anna Heinrich, 34, AFL great Barry Hall, 44, retired NRL star Darius Boyd, 34 and AFL commentator, Wayne Carey, 50.

Joining Middleton in his quest to find what the usually well fed celebs are made of will be Ollie Ollerton (Directing Staff) and for the first time Clint Emerson, retired Navy Seal and Dean Stott, Special Forces (Britain.)

Model Simone Holtznagel, 28, Richard Buttrose, 49 a convicted drug dealer, comic Pauly Fenech, 51, scandal prone Home and Away actor Orpheus Pledger, 28, Mille Boyle, 23, NRLW star, and two pro boxers Michael Zerafa, 29 and Ebannie Bridges, 35 have put themselves on the line.

Scary! What terrors lie inside for the new recruits of season 3?

Treacherous: Previews have already shown that the decrepit building interiors, especially the roofing, make for a dangerous obstacle.

New recruits: The Bachelor's Locky Gilbert shares a joke with fellow recruits in a preview for season three

They join Riana Crehan, 34, the Bachelor's Locky Gilbert, 34, Ellia Green, 28, Rugby 7 Olympian, pop star Melissa Tkautz, 47 and Olympic silver medal winner Melissa Wu, 29 and Geoff Huegell, 42 another Olympic legend.

The courage busting, body breaking begins 7.30 pm on Monday, 21st February on Channel 7 and 7plus.
Selin Mengu turned heads when she arrived for a night out with her Married At First Sight co-stars in a $1.2million Rolls-Royce on Saturday evening.

And after a wild night out celebrating the VIP opening of a trendy new hotspot Eros, Selin raised eyebrows when she was picked up in yet another fancy car.

The mother of one, 32, who hails from Sydney's western suburbs, couldn't hide her excitement as she hitched a ride in a white Mercedes G-Wagon worth $300,000.

Living the high life! Married At First Sight's Selin Mengu couldn't contain her excitement as she was picked up in a Mercedes G-Wagon on a night out with her co-stars in Sydney on Saturday

There was certainly no missing Selin, who commanded attention in a multi-coloured, '90s-inspired mini dress with matching gloves.

Selin rounded out her bold ensemble with a pair of black ankle boots and a Marc Jacobs satchel.

The executive assistant was out enjoying her newfound fame with her co-stars Jack Millar, Domenica Calarco and Al Perkins.

VIP service: Selin was out celebrating the VIP opening of Eros Sydney in Kings Cross

Fancy! Selin was the only participant to show up in a luxury ride, while her co-stars were seen getting out of taxis and Ubers

Fancy! At one stage Selin even stopped to take a photo of her ride by Prestige Hire Australia

Turning heads: There was certainly no missing Selin, who commanded attention in a multi-coloured, '90s-inspired mini dress with matching gloves

Also in attendance were Ella Ding and Brent Vitiello.

At one point, Selin was seen posing for photos alongside her co-stars and guests.

Earlier in the night, Selin had created quite the spectacle when she arrived for dinner in a white $1.2million Rolls-Royce only to be greeted by a frenzy of photographers.

Party! The executive assistant was out enjoying her newfound fame with her co-stars Jack Millar (centre) and Domenica Calarco (right)

Only the best! Earlier in the night, Selin had created quite the spectacle when she arrived for dinner in a white $1.2million Rolls-Royce only to be greeted by a frenzy of photographers

On Monday, Selin defied Channel Nine producers and called the Kyle and Jackie O show to vent about her TV spouse Anthony Cincotta.

She claimed producers and Anthony had pressured her into sleeping in the same bed as her 'husband' on their wedding night even after she'd said no.

'Some people understand, some people see the grey areas, but it's just not fair that I'm dealing with this backlash when I've said "no" to a few things and he persisted,' she said.

Claims: It comes after the Selin defied Channel Nine producers and called up The Kyle and Jackie O show to vent about her TV husband Anthony Cincotta

'Ive gone into protective mode and its really hard.'

'I'm actually going to lose it if I don't say these things,' she added, before claiming she'd asked producers and Anthony if they could sleep in separate beds, but they allegedly objected.

'I didn't want to. I'm not that type of person and It's okay for people to be like that. But I didn't feel comfortable and he [Anthony] persisted, they [producers] persisted.'

Rogue: Speaking on KIIS 106.5, Selin claimed that Anthony and producers had pressured her into sleeping in the same bed as her 'husband' on their wedding night - even after she'd said no

Selin alleged that despite telling both the producers and Anthony she wasn't comfortable with sharing a bed on the first night, she was pressured into it for filming.

When asked what Anthony's response was to her rejecting their offer, Selin said he replied 'we need to do it' and that it 'wasn't a big deal'.

Selin went on to claim she reluctantly agreed to sleep next to Anthony after they built a pillow fort, but said she would have preferred the couch option.

In response to Selin's allegations, a Nine spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'There is never any pressure put on participants in regards to sleeping arrangements.

'Nine and Endemol Shine takes their obligations in respect to the health and wellbeing of the participants of this program extremely seriously.

'All participants have access to the show psychologist during filming, during broadcast and once the program has ended.

'Nine also have an additional service for participants should they like or need further individual and confidential psychological support.

'This service gives participants access to clinicians who have been specifically engaged to support those involved in the program in relation to their experiences. This service is available to all participants for as long as they need it, it does not end.'
Wildlife Warrior Terri Irwin shared a sweet tribute to her late husband Steve on Valentine's Day on Monday.

The 57-year-old American personality shared a throwback picture of the couple sharing a kiss before Steve fed some crocodiles at Australia Zoo in the years before his tragic death.

Terri said that despite all their responsibilities at the zoo, the couple always found time for 'love'.

Sweet: Terri Irwin shared a sweet tribute to her late husband Steve on Valentine's Day on Monday. The 57-year-old shared a throwback picture of the couple sharing a kiss before Steve fed some crocodiles at Australia Zoo in the years before his tragic death

'Before feeding our beautiful crocodiles @AustraliaZoo, there was always a moment for love!' Terri wrote, adding the hashtag 'happy Valentine's Day'.

In the flashback image, the pair were both clad in their khaki Australia Zoo uniforms and kiss near the crocodile enclosure.

'So wholesome,' one fan wrote underneath Terri's post.

Looking back: It comes after Terri shared another tribute to Steve earlier this month as she marked their engagement anniversary

Another added: 'This is true love'.

It comes after Terri shared another tribute to Steve earlier this month as she marked their engagement anniversary.

She posted a never-before-seen image of the pair sitting on a lounge together on Twitter, and revealed it has been 30 years since he proposed.

'It was 30 years ago today that Steve proposed,' Terri began

Steve tragically died in September 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming a documentary on the Batt Reef in Queensland.

'It was 30 years ago today that Steve proposed,' Terri began.

'One word - Yes! - began our journey of love, adventure, travel, and filming in all the "glamorous" locations! Most of all, we had fun.'

Terri and Steve first met in Australia in 1991, and a year later they were engaged and married.

Their story: Terri and Steve first met in Australia in 1991, and a year later they were engaged and married. Steve tragically died in September 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming a documentary on the Batt Reef in Queensland

They tied the knot in 1991 in her home state of Oregon and went on to live in Australia and welcome children, Bindi and Robert.

Steve tragically died in 2006 while filming a documentary on the Batt Reef.

Since then, his family have vowed to carry on his legacy and conservation efforts at Australia Zoo.
Television presenter Grant Denyer has long denied false rumours he once suffered from an addiction to the drug methamphetamine.

So the Family Feud host, 44, was understandably upset when he saw an up-and-coming comedian joke about his so-called 'drug problem' during a stand-up routine.

Sydney funnyman Sam Taunton, 30, this week recalled the mortifying moment he was confronted by Denyer after telling the crass joke about him on stage.

'Nice set': Comedian Sam Taunton (right) has recalled the mortifying moment Grant Denyer (left) 'confronted' him after he joked on stage about rumours the TV star once had a 'drug issue'

'There's so many jokes I regret saying on stage, but I used to do a bit years ago about Grant Denyer when he was in the papers for, let's say, experimenting with drugs that keep you awake for long periods of time,' he told I've Got News For You podcast.

On one occasion, however, the joke spectacularly backfired when Taunton noticed Denyer was sitting in the audience.

He explained: 'I saw [Denyer] after the show, I had to look face to face with him, and he said, "Nice set mate. Maybe work on a few of those."'

Grant's not laughing: Taunton (right) said he 'regretted' joking about the false rumours Denyer (left) had 'experiment[ed] with drugs that keep you awake for long periods of time'

Denyer was forced to deny drug-use allegations in 2014 when Woman's Day magazine claimed he and wife Chezzi had checked into a Thai rehab facility to address a '$200,000-a-year meth addiction'.

The magazine's 'source' described Denyer as a 'mess' and went on to claim, 'He was 45 kilos, really drawn around his face and looked sick. It was a shocking sight.'

While Denyer admitted he and his wife did visit The Cabin in Thailand, he denied they were there to treat meth addictions and threatened to sue Woman's Day.

'I saw [Denyer] after the show, I had to look face to face with him': On one occasion, however, the joke spectacularly backfired when Taunton noticed Denyer was sitting in the audience

At the time, Denyer released a statement via his then-manager Titus Day denying the allegations.

'Claims that the couple have a drug addiction and that Grant recently lost his Channel Seven contract are both false,' the statement read.

'Grant and Chezzi Denyer are saddened by the highly defamatory article in this week's Woman's Day magazine.

'The couple have been under immense stress in recent months due to Grant dealing with chronic fatigue brought on by exhaustion and an ongoing unknown stomach illness.'

Claims: Denyer was forced to deny drug-use allegations in 2014 when Woman's Day claimed he and wife Chezzi (left) had checked into a Thai rehab facility to address a '$200,000-a-year meth addiction'

'Chezzi has also been dealing with PTSD and anxiety issues resulting from Grant's condition,' the statement concluded.

Denyer's threats to take legal action against Woman's Day never eventuated, however.

Just 18 months after the scandalous story hit newsstands, the publication and the couple seemed to have kissed and made up.

Denial: While Denyer admitted he and his wife did visit The Cabin in Thailand, he strongly denied they were there to treat meth addictions and threatened to sue Woman's Day

In October 2015, Grant and Cheryl took part in an exclusive photo shoot and interview to mark to arrival of their daughter Scout.

The Woman's Day saga came years after Denyer battled a highly publicised painkiller addiction, after breaking his back during a freak monster-truck accident in 2008.

The crash left Grant with a vertebrae that was shattered in 11 pieces, and doctors feared he might never walk again.

Scary time: The Woman's Day saga came years after Denyer battled a highly publicised painkiller addiction, after breaking his back during a freak monster-truck accident in 2008

However, the popular presenter made a remarkable recovery, triumphantly returning to TV screens and eventually winning a Gold Logie.

Denyer previously spoke about his painkiller addiction during a discussion with his campmates on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! last year.

He explained he'd once pelted eggs at his wife when he was hungry during his recovery.

Candid: Denyer previously spoke about his painkiller addiction during a discussion with his campmates on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! last year

'I decided to crash off it which was when I went missing' he told Abbie Chatfield, Alli Simpson and Toni Pearen.

'Mate, I pelted eggs at her [Chezzi] one night. I cracked it for some reason. I was hungry and was in pain and was confused and I just started throwing eggs at her.

'She doesn't deserve this, but you just can't stop.'
Gigi Hadid was spotted taking a walk in SoHo, New York City with Queer Eye stars Antoni Porowski and Tan France on Monday.

The 26-year-old supermodel wore a wool overcoat, brown blazer paired with leather pants and Doc Marten boots.

Tan, 38, was seen wearing a blue face mask and a brown leather jacket with blue jeans. He paired his look with a vibrant yellow sweater with a cactus on the front.

Out-and-about: Gigi Hadid was spotted taking a walk in SoHo, New York City with Queer Eye stars Antoni Porowski and Tan France on Monday

His co-star Antoni, 37, kept a low profile as he was seen with a large, black coat, blue jeans and tan boots.

Gigi and Tan, who have been friends for four years, are now teaming up for the second seasons of the reality show Next In Fashion.

The series was originally hosted by Alexa Chung and Tan France, with Gigi replacing Alexa for the second season.

Best friends: The 26-year-old supermodel wore a wool overcoat, brown blazer paired with leather pants and Doc Marten boots. She kept her hands warm in the cold weather with black gloves as she walked around the city maskless

Stylish friends: Gigi and Tan, who have been friends for four years, are now teaming up for the second series of the reality show Next In Fashion

Gigi, who has a 17-month-old daughter Khai with her ex Zayn Malik, recently said she is 'so excited' to be hosting alongside Tan.

Both Gigi and Tan confirmed the news on Instagram in late January, writing: 'Who would have thought when we met over Facetime 4 years ago that we'd be hosting NEXT IN FASHION TOGETHER!'

Series one of the fashion competition hit Netflix in January 2020 starring Tan and Alexa. Alexa has yet to comment on the news she has been replaced.

Close friends: Gigi and Tan, who have been friends for four years, are now teaming up for the second seasons of the reality show Next In Fashion

Co-stars: The series was originally hosted by Alexa Chung and Tan France, with Gigi replacing Alexa for the second season

Gigi is one of the world's best-paid models, but the catwalk star previously revealed that she doesn't like to give her own thoughts on the outfits she has to wear for work.

She explained: 'It's not my job to have an opinion on what I'm wearing [on set].

'It's my job to wear what I wear and have enough of a photographic mind to understand how to make that piece look good, sellable, and give the feeling that is wanted by the creative team.'
Nicky Hilton and Lo Bosworth showcased their front row fashion sense as they attended Markarian's NYFW show on Monday.

The heiress, 38, embraced her whimsical side in a floral lilac dress with mesh hairbow while Lo, 35, went for drama in a plunging black dress and opulent pair of twirled earrings.

Nicky looked exquisite with her blonde hair slicked back into a partial updo, a slick of pink lip gloss accentuating her pout, and a glittering pair of heels jazzing up the look.

Style darlings! Nicky Hilton and Lo Bosworth showcased their front row fashion sense as they attended Markarian's NYFW show on Monday

She draped a violet coat over her shoulders, fending off a chill in style as she watched models walk the runway from the front row.

Lo, meanwhile, wowed in a chic black dress adorned with tiny pearl beads and a plunging neckline.

The Hills vet traded in her SoCal fashion sense for a pair of strappy heels, gold bracelets, and a chic straight hairstyle.

Other big names attending the show included Saturday Night Live actress Heidi Gardner and Sex And The City author Candace Bushnell.

Rubbing elbows! Hilton watched the show beside Sex And The City author Candace Bushnell

Flower power! Heidi Gardner dazzled in a pretty lilac dress

Fashionistas! The superstars came to the show looking their best

Candace exuded glamour in a pink sequin mini dress, lilac footwear, and a teddy coat thrown over her shoulders.

And Heidi wowed in florals as she posed front row with her boxy clutch in hand.

Markarian was founded by Alexandra O'Neill in 2017.

Strike a pose: Hilton accentuated her stunning features with a tint of pink gloss and voluminous lashes

'Markarian came to life from Alexandras notion of designing clothing that is whimsical and playful yet wearable and beautifully made. Each special, romantic, and ethereal piece is thoughtfully made-to-order in an effort to reduce waste,' according to the label's website.

'Designed and produced in New York City, Markarian has a strong belief in supporting the fine craftsmanship that the New York Garment Center offers.'

True to its description, models walked the runway wearing an array of romantic, dreamy attire which included a vibrant lime green gown and flowing blue dress with a center split.
They're fast approaching their 16th wedding anniversary.

But the romance is clearly still alive and well for Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, who shared a sweet kiss on the beach on Valentine's Day.

In a Tuesday Instagram post, the 54-year-old actress smooched her 54-year-old husband while the sunbathed couple sat in the sand.

Smooch: The romance is clearly still alive and well for Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, who shared a sweet kiss on the beach on Valentine's Day

The Hours star Kidman captioned the loved-up post, 'Sending you all so much love for #ValentinesDay'.

Nicole and Keith tied the knot on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly.

The A-listers share two children together.

Long-time loves: Nicole and Keith tied the knot on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly. Pictured together last December

The cute couple display comes after Nicole revealed was in tears upon hearing the news of her Oscar nomination for portrayal of Lucille Ball in in Being the Ricardos.

However, not all of her family members were impressed by the news, said the star during an interview on the US talk show The View on Friday.

The Australian actress recalled the moment she began crying after getting a Facetime call informing her of the award nomination before her daughters Sunday Rose, 13, and Faith Margaret, 11, gave a less enthusiastic response to the news.

Reaction: Kidman has shared her kids' amusing reaction to her tearing up after finding out about her Oscar nomination. Pictured on the US talk show The View

'I'm like, whaaaat? I mean it's like there was so much emotion attached to it that I didn't realise I was carrying, and I just looked around, tears are coming down,' Nicole began.

'And my kids looked at me like, 'Wow, congrats mum, anyway we're going to be late, we gotta get going'.'

Nicole was nominated for best actress for her performance as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos - her fifth Oscar nomination overall and her first since 2016 when she was nominated for best supporting actress in Lion.

Family moment: The actress recalled the moment she began crying after getting thecall about the nomination before her daughters gave a less enthusiastic response to the news. Pictured with husband Keith Urban and daughters Sunday Rose, 13, and Faith Margaret, 11, at the Golden Globes

She told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday that she broke down in tears after receiving the news.

'I literally cried. I just can't believe it,' she said.

'This was the hardest thing I have ever done and so I didn't realise how much emotion I was holding on to.'

She added that: 'The older you get, the sweeter and the more intense it is I don't know about getting more mellow because that is so not the case. I am elated.'

'I just can't believe it': Nicole revealed on Wednesday she 'literally cried' after being nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos

Earlier on Wednesday, Nicole shared a lengthy Instagram post thanking the Academy for recognising her hard work.

Uploading a series of photos of herself in character as Lucille, Nicole wrote: 'WOW! I'm so overwhelmed... What a beautiful way to find out.

'This was the hardest role I've ever done and to be honoured this way is deeply appreciated.

Biopic: Being the Ricardos depicts the complicated relationship between real-life Hollywood power couple Lucille Ball, portrayed by Kidman (right), and Desi Arnaz, played by Javier Bardem (left), as they filmed their hit 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy

'Lucille Ball is one of Hollywood's greatest icons. She was ahead of her time. From actress to producer to studio head, mother and wife, she's an extraordinary inspiration! Thank you Lucille Ball.'

Nicole thanked the cast and crew on the film, as well as director Aaron Sorkin, and said they all deserve the Oscars recognition.

Nicole has previously won Best Actress for The Hours at the 2003 Academy Awards.
Alice Evans revealed she has given herself a 'horrible' black eye after 'running up the stairs in heels'.

The actress took to Instagram on Monday to reveal the extent of her injuries, but insisted she wouldn't remove her sunglasses as: 'You don't want to see what's underneath here.'

Alice, 53, explained to her 84,6000 Instagram followers that she has had to put 'a stack' of her Cameo requests on hold due to the incident.

Ouch: Alice Evans has revealed she has given herself a 'horrible' black eye after 'running up the stairs in heels'

Standing in the California sunshine in a stripey top and red sunglasses, the doting mother explained: 'Hi guys, quick update [gestures to bruising around her eye].

'If you requested me on Cameo and it's expired, please do it again. All I have to say to you is I tried to run up a couple of steps to pick up a dropped mask in heels on Thursday, just after I'd recorded my last Instagram.'

She added: 'And, you don't want to see what's underneath here, but it's horrible and I have a stack of requests that are piling up that I can't do because eye-hurty. I'm thinking about three or four days for this, sorry!'

Alice previously announced her decision to join Cameo, sharing an Instagram video captioned: 'I am on Cameo!! Watch this and PLEASE book me! I am a single mum and sadly need the money.

Looks sore: Alice, 53, explained to her 84,6000 Instagram followers that she has had to put 'a stack' of her Cameo requests on hold due to the incident

'But the good news is that I'm cheap as chips! So do one yourself and pass it on! I love you guys [sic].'

Alice is selling video messages for personal use priced at 30 and messages for businesses at 207.

In the clip, Alice stated: 'In case you didn't know, I'm on Cameo now and will do anything you want. No, I will not take my clothes off.

'No, I will not cut my hair off as there's nothing left of it anyway. No, I will not engage in sexual acts with other people... that's for the other site whatever it is.

Bargain: Alice is selling video messages for personal use priced at 30 and messages for businesses at 207

Former flame: The actress previously revealed she had signed up to Cameo in order to support her family as she 'sadly needs the money' amid her acrimonious divorce from Ioan Gruffudd

'But I will, any questions you have to ask me, any anniversaries, any birthdays, any anything. I am a little bit clumsy so sometimes I get it wrong but it's a little bit funny anyway.

'That's about it really. I just want you to know that I am fully, fully engaged in this and I will endeavor to do the best I can for anyone. And if you don't like it I will do another one for free, ok.

'Also, my husbands trying to take all the money away - I shouldn't say that, but I'm going to make sure I make more money than him, haha, love you.'

Alice, who shares daughters Ella, 12, and Elsie, eight, with husband of 13 years Ioan Gruffudd confirmed their split in a series of furious tweets posted in January 2021.

She has since documented every toxic turn in their subsequent divorce proceedings across social media, and repeatedly slated him for being in a relationship with Bianca Wallace.
Lucciana Beynon, the model daughter of Gold Coast tobacco tycoon Travers 'The Candyman' Beynon, is officially off the market.

The Venezuelan-Australian beauty, 20, went public with Love Island star Wes Nelson, 23, in a sweet Valentine's Day post on Monday.

She shared a photo on Instagram of herself kissing Wes' cheek on a balcony alongside the text 'mi amour', which translates to 'my love'.

It's love! The Candyman's model daughter Lucciana Beynon (right) has gone public with Love Island star Wes Nelson (left) in a romantic Valentine's Day post

The couple later went for dinner at Aqua Shard, on level 31 of The Shard in London.

Lucciana looked spectacular in a leopard-print dress, opted for a glossy makeup palette and styled her raven hair loosely.

The genetically blessed couple are rarely seen on social media together, and prefer to keep things private.

Low-key couple: Despite only going 'Instagram official' this week, the pair have actually been an item since April last year

Despite only going 'Instagram official' this week, the pair have actually been an item since April last year.

'Wes met Lucciana in Dubai and it wasn't long before they started spending more time together,' a source told MailOnline at the time.

'Friends say Wes and Lucciana really get on and something may progress between them, especially as they continue to hang out together in London.

Couple: Wes also wished his girlfriend happy Valentine's Day with this loved-up post

'Lucciana supports Wes' music career while she has ambitious plans with her modelling, they definitely inspire each other to do well.'

Lucciana promoted the release of Wes' single Nice To Meet Ya on her Instagram account last year.

Wes regularly likes Lucciana's sexy posts, including one recent snap of her wearing a red G-string along with the caption: 'Patient I'm not.'

Caught his eye: Wes regularly likes Lucciana's sexy posts, including this recent snap of her wearing a red G-string along with the caption: 'Patient I'm not'

Lucciana's father made his millions in the tobacco business, but is also well-known for his playboy ways and hosting extravagant parties at his lavish 15-bedroom mansion on Australia's Gold Coast.

Travers, a.k.a. The Candyman and Australia's answer to Hugh Hefner, engages in a 'polyamorous lifestyle' and despite being married also has a harem of live-in lovers he likes to 'spoil'.

In a recent interview, Lucciana said she will not be following in her father's footsteps by having multiple partners, but she doesn't find his relationship choices 'weird'.

Heating up: The Love Island star and Lucciana met in Dubai in 2019 but are now both in London

She said: 'People ask me all the time, "Isn't it weird that your dad has all these girlfriends?"

'To me, it's not weird. I love my dad no matter what and if he's happy then I'm happy and I think it's cool.

'I wouldn't do it; I wouldn't do that s**t because I'm crazy but if he's found a group of girls that can do it and he's happy, they're happy. And who wouldn't want to get spoilt like he spoils them?

'I would never, ever change him. I would never, ever want him to change.

'I'm grateful he is the way he is because I just learn so many things  with men and women and the way people work.

'I feel like it made me almost ready to be by myself out in the big world. Anything that happened, he would always give me a life lesson.'
Jessica Alba prepared for Super Bowl Sunday with a trip to the grocery store with husband Cash Warren and their son Hayes.

The actress-turned-businesswoman, 40, donned LA Rams colors as she dressed in a yellow button-up shirt and navy blue sweatpants.

Jessica, Cash, 43, and their tot, four, were seen with a cart full of snacks for the big game.

Getting ready: Jessica Alba prepared for Super Bowl Sunday with a trip to the grocery store with husband Cash Warren and their son Hayes

Underneath her unbuttoned shirt, the mom-of-three wore a white, cropped t-shirt that showed a slither of her flat stomach.

She completed the outfit with a pair of white Converse hi-top sneakers and a black purse worn across her torso.

The fashionista layered long necklaces and shielded her eyes in a pair of aviator sunglasses.

Jessica was seen with a black KN95 face mask over her mouth and nose while out and about.

LA Pride: The actress-turned-businesswoman, 40, donned LA Rams colors as she dressed in a yellow button-up shirt and navy blue sweatpants

Alba's bob haircut was parted down the center and worn straight, with the front pieces tucked behind her ears.

She added a pair of super sized hoop earrings, giving the look added flair.

The Fantastic Four star sported a short French manicure on her hands as she pushed a cart full of beverages and grocery bags.

Food items: Jessica, Cash, 43, and their tot, four, were seen with a cart full of snacks for the big game

Cash wore a short-sleeved white shirt, khakis, and New Balance sneakers as he loaded their vehicle with the purchased goods.

Their youngest child gave mom and dad a hand as he helped push the cart along.

Hayes wore a blue, white, and red tie-dye shirt with USA written across it and sported a multicolor face mask.

Later in the day, while watching the LA Rams against the Cincinnati Bengals, Jessica took to Instagram to share content.

Posting to her 19.5 million followers, the Honest Company founder uploaded a video of her father Mark Alba cheering on the Rams.

'My papasito,' she wrote in the caption, along with two crying laughing emojis and hashtags ' #ramshouse #la.'

The beauty also took to the app's Stories feature to share a selfie with her father as the two smiled.

Appearing to have made a wardrobe change from earlier in the day, she had on a yellow crewneck top.
Grey's Anatomy star Kate Walsh enjoyed a romantic boat trip in Perth with her boyfriend Andrew Nixon on Valentine's Day.

The American actress, 54, showed off her toned figure in a white bikini layered under a sheer pink dress as she boarded the boat for a fun day at sea.

Kate protected herself from the sun with a red cap and sunglasses as she walked on the wharf alongside her beau.

Bikini babe: Kate Walsh showed off her toned figure in a white bikini layered under a sheer pink dress as she embarked on a boat trip with boyfriend Andrew Nixon in Perth on Valentine's Day

Andrew, who is an Australian farmer, wore comfortable blue shorts and a patterned shirt as he carried the couple's belongings in a bag.

The couple were seen getting onto the boat before heading out to the ocean.

Kate and Andrew have been living together in Perth since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and he convinced her to relocate to WA, reports The West Australian.

Romantic day out: The 54-year-old was seen boarding the boat for a fun day at sea

Casual: Andrew, who is an Australian farmer, wore comfortable blue shorts and a patterned shirt as he carried the couple's belongings in a bag

Andrew is part of Nixon Farming, a family farming enterprise in the Moora region.

Kate previously told The Daily Telegraph she enjoyed living in Perth so much she didn't want to return to New York City, even when she was able to.

'I didn't really want to go back to New York in the middle of a pandemic when it was pretty gnarly to say the least,' she said.

Fun day at sea! The couple were seen getting onto the boat before heading out to the ocean

Keeping a low profile: Kate protected herself from the sun with a red cap and sunglasses

Holiday romance: Kate and Andrew have been living together in Perth since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and he convinced her to relocate to WA, reports The West Australian

Role: Andrew is part of Nixon Farming, a family farming enterprise in the Moora region

'I couldn't go home initially, and now that I can, I don't really fancy going back. When I have my own mother saying don't come home, my 86-year-old mum we are in a very challenging time!'

Kate jetted off to Paris last June, presumably to shoot the Netflix show Emily in Paris, but returned to Australia once production wrapped.

Though Andrew's relationship history is unclear, Kate was married to producer Alex Young from 2007 until their divorce in 2010.

New home: Kate previously told The Daily Telegraph she enjoyed living in Perth so much she didn't want to return to New York City, even when she was able to

She's back! Kate jetted off to Paris in June, presumably to shoot the Netflix show Emily in Paris, but returned to Australia once production wrapped
Harry Hamlin's historic 1982 film Making Love - the first mainstream Hollywood movie to address homosexuality - celebrated its 40th anniversary over the weekend, though Hamlin believes the film 'ended' his film career.

The 70-year-old actor played Bart, a gay novelist who falls for an L.A. doctor Zach (Michael Ontkean) whose marriage to a TV executive (Kate Jackson) starts crumbling as he confronts his repressed attraction to men.

While the film was groundbreaking for its portrayal of gay characters, Hamlin revealed in an interview with People that he thinks it ultimately ended his film career.

Historic: Harry Hamlin's historic 1982 film Making Love - the first mainstream Hollywood movie to address homosexuality - celebrated its 40th anniversary over the weekend, though Hamlin believes the film 'ended' his film career

Ended: While the film was groundbreaking for its portrayal of gay characters, Hamlin revealed in an interview with People that he thinks it ultimately ended his film career

'I was told by a lot of people, you can't do that movie. I think it had been offered to pretty much everybody in town and everyone had turned it down because they thought it might be damaging to their careers,' Hamlin revealed.

'I didn't see it that way. I was looking for something serious and something meaningful, rather than doing a movie about vampire bats invading a small town in in the Midwest, which is the type of fare I was being offered at the time,' he added.

He also called the film, 'way ahead of its time,' and while his friends were telling him not to take the role, his agent was supportive.

Offered: 'I was told by a lot of people, you can't do that movie. I think it had been offered to pretty much everybody in town and everyone had turned it down because they thought it might be damaging to their careers,' Hamlin revealed

Ahead of its time: He also called the film, 'way ahead of its time,' and while his friends were telling him not to take the role, his agent was supportive

'He said I was somewhat Teflon because I was out in the press having had a son with Ursula Andress,' he said of his now-41-year-old son Dmitri Hamlin.

The actor add that his agent said, 'Everyone knows you're straight so you're going to be okay,' though he, 'didn't really pay much attention to any of that noise.'

'I thought it was interesting and bold. I was attracted to that,' Hamlin said of the role.

Bold: 'I thought it was interesting and bold. I was attracted to that,' Hamlin said of the role

Still, he concedes that making the film and the response to it, 'ended my film career.'

'For years, I'd think was that the reason why I stopped getting calls? And finally realized that was the last time I ever did a movie for a studio,' Hamlin said.

He added that he's made independent films since Making Love, but never another studio film, which was all he was making before Making Love.

Ended: Still, he concedes that making the film and the response to it, 'ended my film career'

'I had been doing nothing but studio films and basically going out on all the castings for all the movies. That stopped completely,' he revealed.

As for the film itself, he explained, 'It never really got the attention that I think it probably deserves, given the time in which it was released.'

When the film was released on February 12, 1982, Hamlin said, 'the movie was panned and my performance was ignored.'

Panned and ignored: When the film was released on February 12, 1982, Hamlin said, 'the movie was panned and my performance was ignored'

He added that the film studios were a 'closed system' and that if they saw him playing a gay role there might be 'confusion' about his sexuality and, 'they didn't want to take the chance.'

'If they were contemplating having me be a love interest to a young female star, the thought was, "How is the audience going to react?" Even though I was straight, I think the perception at the time was that anybody who could play gay must be gay,' Hamlin said.

Still, despite Making Love ending his film career, Hamlin has no regrets and is proud of the work he did, before going on to becoming a household name with the hit NBC series L.A. Law.

Confusion: He added that the film studios were a 'closed system' and that if they saw him playing a gay role there might be 'confusion' about his sexuality and, 'they didn't want to take the chance'

Household name: Still, despite Making Love ending his film career, Hamlin has no regrets and is proud of the work he did, before going on to becoming a household name with the hit NBC series L.A. Law

'Regardless of the effect it had on my film career, I went on to have a great career  and I still do. I'm very proud of having done that movie,' Hamlin said.

'People come up and thank me for making the film and say they were affected by it and that it helped them come out or it helped them talk to their parents about their sexuality,' Hamlin added.

'Very rarely does one have an opportunity to have that kind of effect out there in the zeitgeist,' he noted.

The new Academy Museum in Los Angeles recently announced a 40th Anniversary screening of Making Love on June 23 with a Q&A to follow with Hamlin.

Proud: 'Regardless of the effect it had on my film career, I went on to have a great career  and I still do. I'm very proud of having done that movie,' Hamlin (with wife Lisa Rinna above) said
Jade Tuncdoruk is putting on a brave face in the midst of a string of scandals.

The 26-year-old influencer took to Instagram on Monday to show off her fancy Valentine's Day outing at Bert's Bar and Brasserie in Newport, Sydney.

The besieged social media star captioned the post: 'The most perfect surprise Valentines Day lunch, thank you my love @lachiebrycki.'

What maelstrom? Jade Tuncdoruk (pictured on Monday) is putting on a brave face in the midst of a string of scandals

Standing at the doors to the upscale eatery, Jade struck a pose while being photographed by her digital creator husband-to-be.

She seemed unbothered amidst a series of headline-making scandals last month.

It may be due in part to the fact Jade has found solace in fellow influencer Bella Varelis after the pair were spotted enjoying lunch together in Sydney on Sunday.

Putting her best foot forward for the outing, Jade was seen smiling as she posed across the table from Bella at an outdoor cafe.

Smiling through the pain: Standing at the doors to the upscale eatery, Jade struck a pose while being photographed by her digital creator husband-to-be

Her rock: Jade is being supported through the tough times by her fiance Lachie (pictured)

A shoulder to cry on? Jade caught up with fellow influencer Bella Varelis (right) on Sunday as they dined at a cafe in Sydney

Jade showcased her expensive taste in a Celine crop top and designer sunglasses, while Bachelor star Bella looked stylish in a striped crop top and leggings.

Both women wore unbuttoned white shirts - a fashion staple among Instagram 'It girls'.

Also attending the luncheon was Bella's adorable dog, who was pictured sitting on Jade's lap at the table.

Woof! Also attending the luncheon was Bella's adorable dog, who was pictured sitting on Jade's lap at the table

'Love you': Bella and Jade have been leaving supportive messages on each other's Instagram pages in recent days

While Bella made her allegiance to Jade clear, other influencers have chosen to condemn the controversy-stricken star over her recent actions.

Last month, Byron Bay influencer Ruby Tuesday Matthews shared an Instagram Stories post which appeared to refer to Jade's scandals.

She wrote: 'Sitting at home on a Friday sipping tea, watching the complete s**tstorm an influencer has created (yet again) having a little [giggle emoji].

'It's called owning it': While Bella made her allegiance to Jade clear, other influencers have chosen to condemn the controversy-stricken star over her recent actions. Last month, Byron Bay influencer Ruby Tuesday Matthews (pictured) shared an Instagram Stories post which appeared to refer to Jade's scandals

'Trust me I've had my fair share of f**k ups. But it's called owning it. PS. Sometimes apologising/ making good helps'.

Fellow influencer and MAFS star Martha Kalifatidis was meanwhile among those who 'liked' an Instagram post from the account Celeb Spellcheck, which documented Jade's demands for a refund from her honeymoon venue.

Martha and Jade were previously friendly, having shared a warm greeting when they attended a Charlotte Tilbury event together in November.

Liked: Fellow influencer and MAFS star Martha Kalifatidis was meanwhile among those who 'liked' an Instagram post from the account Celeb Spellcheck, which documented Jade's demands for a refund from her honeymoon venue

Jade sparked backlash last month after it emerged she'd demanded a small business refund her $2,000 honeymoon deposit after ignoring the terms and conditions.

Things went from bad to worse when Jade was forced to apologise for a racially insensitive Uber Eats Facebook post from 2017 which went viral.

Jade subsequently issued a grovelling apology to fans last month, writing on Instagram: 'Hey everyone. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for the way I've conducted myself recently.'

'I'm aware that my actions were poorly thought out and lack integrity. I want everyone to know that I hold myself to a higher standard than this. I've made it my priority to reevaluate the aspects of my life that have lead to the disconnect between my soul and my actions,' she continued.

Scandals: Jade sparked backlash last month after it emerged she'd demanded a small business refund her $2,000 honeymoon deposit after ignoring the terms and conditions. Things went from bad to worse when Jade was forced to apologise for a racially insensitive Uber Eats Facebook post from 2017 which went viral

Sorry: Jade subsequently issued a grovelling apology to fans last month, writing on Instagram: 'Hey everyone. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for the way I've conducted myself recently.

'The situation is under review': Her apology came amid fears Jade could be dropped by her management

To conclude, Jade wrote: 'I am sorry to anyone I've let down, including myself.'

Her post came amid fears Jade could be dropped by her management.

According to The Daily Telegraph's Confidential last month, when approached for comment regarding a week of bad press, talent agency MAXCONNECTORS said they are 'unable to comment as the situation is under review'.

Under review: According to The Daily Telegraph's Confidential, when approached for comment regarding a week of bad press, talent agency MAXCONNECTORS said they are 'unable to comment as the situation is under review'

Going under the radar: Amid the backlash, Jade - who boasts 484,000 followers on Instagram - went private on the social media app

Jade is currently still featured on the website for MAXCONNECTORS.

The brunette copped huge backlash in early January when a Facebook post showing her complaining to Uber Eats about their 'annoying non-English speaking delivery drivers' resurfaced.

The influencer apologised for her 'hurtful comments' after her Facebook post was uploaded by the Celeb Spellcheck Instagram page.

Apology: Late last month, Jade apologised for her racially insensitive Facebook post from back in 2017 where she complained to Uber Eats about their 'annoying non-English speaking delivery drivers'

Post: In the resurfaced post, Jade' wrote: 'I order off you guys all the time and I'm starting to find it really annoying that you have so many non English speaking delivery people who can't follow basic delivery instructions'

Cash clash: The influencer and model was also slammed for 'demanding' that a small business give her a refund for a deposit on her honeymoon - after she ignored the company's terms and conditions

The resurfaced post read: 'I order off you guys all the time and I'm starting to find it really annoying that you have so many non English speaking delivery people who can't follow basic delivery instructions.

'I got a notification today saying my food was arriving and it took the person a further 20 mins to get to my door because he didn't read my delivery instructions properly and when I called him to explain he didn't understand a word I was saying.'

She continued: 'Your GPS is consistently sending drivers to the wrong address which I've explained in my instructions which most people read and have no problem with but when foreigners are delivering it takes twice as long for me to receive my then cold food. Sort it out.'

'Incredibly poor form': She said she'd booked her stay with premium holiday rental company Weekenda last year, putting down a $2,000 deposit. After cancelling the booking due to Covid, she demanded that the company refund her deposit. Weekenda denied their request

In her apology, she wrote: 'I'm sorry to anyone I've hurt with my comments. I hold myself accountable for my actions.

'It doesn't excuse anything but know that I have grown immensely in the past several years. I always do my best to be someone others can look up to and I know I've let people down and for that I'm truly sorry.'

She was also slammed for 'demanding' that a small business give her a refund for a deposit on her honeymoon - after she ignored the company's terms and conditions.

She raised eyebrows by whingeing to her online fans about the financial woes of cancelling her lavish Hunter Valley honeymoon with fiance Lachie due to Covid.

Cash clash: The Instagram model was also slammed for 'demanding' that a small business give her a refund for a deposit on her honeymoon - after she ignored the company's terms and conditions

In her now-deleted post, Jade, who is frequently gifted with luxury designer handbags and clothing, explained that she'd booked her stay with premium holiday rental company Weekenda last year, putting down a $2,000 deposit.

She however decided to cancel her booking with the company Weekenda in August, after postponing her wedding due to Covid.

Jade demanded that the company refund her deposit - even though Weekenda's terms and conditions clearly states that customers aren't entitled to a refund of their deposit if they cancel.

'Incredibly poor form': She said she'd booked her stay with premium holiday rental company Weekenda last year, putting down a $2,000 deposit. After cancelling the booking due to Covid, she demanded that the company refund her deposit. Weekenda denied their request

'We requested a refund due to the pandemic, but they said the best they could do was put it back up on line to be booked by someone else,' Jade explained.

'Six weeks out of [sic] the booking and we've asked again for a refund which they've denied. They've had months to refund us for a booking that we don't need. They're taking our money just because they can,' she raged.

She added: 'It's just incredibly poor form and so disappointing that businesses are taking advantage of people in the middle of a pandemic.'

In black and white: Weekenda's terms and conditions (pictured) clearly states that customers aren't entitled to a refund of their deposit if they cancel

Jade included a link to Weekenda's Instagram page, and it didn't take long for her supporters to lash out at the company.

She later claimed she was surprised that her followers had begun contacting the company directly and demanding they refund her money.

'Not y'all following them,' she wrote, rolling her eyes.

Not long after, Jade shared another post announcing that Weekenda had agreed to refund her deposit.
Shanae Ankney was shocked when she was sent home after turning on the waterworks at the start of Monday's two-hour episode of The Bachelor on ABC.

She had concocted a plan that included her fake crying and telling Clayton Echard that Genevieve Parisi was just acting to ensure that she would be the one remaining after their two-on-one date.

'I'm not worried,' said Shanae in a confessional. 'I do have a plan and I got this.'

Overly confident: Shanae Ankney was shocked when she was sent home after turning on the waterworks at the start of Monday's two-hour episode of The Bachelor on ABC

Clayton, 28, knew at the start of his date with Shanae, 29, a recruiter from Sycamore, Ohio, and Genevieve, 26, a Los Angeles bartender, that he would be sending one of them home at the end.

After the trip to the falls, Clayton pulled Genevieve aside first to talk. She told him that this week had been particularly tough for her but that her feelings for him had been growing for him every day. Then she started to cry.

'It's really hard for me to be open and vulnerable but I have tried my absolute hardest even if it doesn't show,' Genevieve said. 'I am here to find love and I am trying my absolutely hardest.'

Clayton told her it felt good to hear that and then he reached over and they kissed.

Getting emotional: The 29-year-old recruiter from Sycamore, Ohio, got emotional after failing to get the date rose

Genevieve said in a confessional that she was going to focus on Clayton during the date and not on Shanae.

Shanae watched Clayton as he talked to Genevieve.

Clayton then pulled Shanae aside and told her that when they were together that they had a very good connection, but that obviously there had been some tension. He said he knew that she already apologized to the group and he thanked her for that.

Not worried: 'I'm not worried,' said Shanae in a confessional. 'I do have a plan and I got this.'

'I just want to know again since that point how things are going and how you are feeling,' said Clayton.

Shanae told him that everything was good, but that she still had a hard time trusting Genevieve.

'Last night I overheard her saying she was wanting to go home and wanting to pack her bags,' Shanae said. 'To see her here, I'm a little confused.'

Little confused: 'Last night I overheard her saying she was wanting to go home and wanting to pack her bags,' Shanae told Clayton. 'To see her here, I'm a little confused'

Shanae asked him if Genevieve mentioned to him that she wanted to go home. Clayton shook his head no.

'That's where the problem is she says one thing and does the other,' Shanae said. 'To me it's two-faced and it's a red flag.'

Shanae accused her of being dishonest, fake and giving off an 'actor's vibe'.

'Do you feel like she is acting?' asked Clayton.

Good question: 'Do you feel like she is acting?' asked Clayton

Shanae said yes. She said what Genevieve was doing was just sad.

'I feel butterflies all the time and in order to fall in love you have to be open and vulnerable,' said Shanae, who then took a breath and started to cry. 'That is something that I struggle with being single for five years, being in three long-term relationships that have been f***ed. I've never been in love. I'm 29 years old and it's sad.'

In a confessional, Shanae talked about how she made herself cry.

'I was like come on Shanae, cry,' she said. 'And I did.'

Fake crying: 'I was like come on Shanae, cry,' she said. 'And I did

Clayton told her that he did like her, which was why she was still here.

'There is a lot that I do see with you, absolutely,' said Clayton and then Shanae reached over and they kissed.

'I'm feeling on cloud nine again,' said Shanae in a confessional. 'I feel confident. I feel secure. I already imagine fantasy suites.getting this rose tonight is going to feel better than sex.'

Last kiss: 'There is a lot that I do see with you, absolutely,' said Clayton and then Shanae reached over and they kissed

Shanae and Genevieve sat on the bench waiting for Clayton. He walked over and sat down between them. He told them that he knew that the day had been awkward but that he learned a lot.

'Ultimately, I only have one rose to give,' said Clayton reaching for the rose. 'Genevieve, I think it helped tremendously to be able to understand a little more of where you were coming from, but you did ask me to be honest with you so I do have a question - are you an actress and are you lying to me?'

Genevieve looked confused and Shanae smiled.

'No, I'm not,' said Genevieve. 'I'm not an actress. I'm not faking anything. I think I've been as open as I can be and as honest as I can be.'

Totally shocked: 'No, I'm not,' said Genevieve. 'I'm not an actress. I'm not faking anything. I think I've been as open as I can be and as honest as I can be'

She asked him why he asked her that because it shocked her .

'I don't even know what to say,' said Clayton, who stood up and walked away.

'That little chihuahua has drowned,' said Shanae in a confessional. ,'The girls better be scared. Shanae sent three b****es home.'

Shanae then turned to Genevieve and said 'To be transparent I did tell Clayton that I overheard you yesterday.' Shanae said she seemed frantic and she thought she was going home.

'I think you are an actress and honestly I'm not engaging in this,' Genevieve said to her. 'That's absolutely f***ing insane.'

'Are you here for Clayton?,' Shanae asked.

Being transparent: Shanae then turned to Genevieve and said 'To be transparent I did tell Clayton that I overheard you yesterday.' Shanae said she seemed frantic and she thought she was going home

'Of course I am,' said Genevieve. 'Are you?'

Clayton then walked back over and sat back down between them. He told them that the rose was going to someone who helped him see the truth.

'Shanae, I just am so sorry but I cannot find it in my heart to give you this rose,' Clayton said. He then gave the rose to Genevieve leaving Shanae alone on the bench.

Date rose: Clayton gave the rose to Genevieve leaving Shanae alone on the bench

Back at the hotel, a woman came to collect Shanae's bag and the other contestants started clapping.

'We made it, we beat out evil,' said Gabriela 'Gabby' Windey, 30, an ICU nurse from O'Fallon, Illinois, in a confessional.

The other women then opened champagne bottles to celebrate and toasted the fact that Shanae was gone.

Good times: Back at the hotel, a woman came to collect Shanae's bag and the other contestants started clapping

'Shanae got what was coming to her,' said Sarah Hamrick, 23, a wealth management advisor from New York City. 'Karma's a b****.'

Meanwhile, Shanae walked off and said she was '100 percent shocked.'

'He chose an actress over me,' Shanae said. 'Weird. Like f*** that guy. I'm pissed. Literally blindsided.'

Totally shocked: Meanwhile, Shanae walked off and said she was '100 percent shocked'

Clayton said in a confessional that sending Shanae home did give him a brief sense of relief. The women gathered for a cocktail party before the rose ceremony. The women discussed how they also felt relieved that Shanae was gone.

'There's no drama,' said Mara Agrait, 32, an entrepreneur from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. 'There's no tension.'

'This has been a very eventful week,' said Clayton when he walked in. He said he was encouraged that Shanae was gone and that they had turned over a new leaf.

Getting closer: Genevieve and Clayton got closer once Shanae was gone

Sarah pulled him aside first to talk to him. Sarah told him that their connection was real. He told her he was glad that he wasn't the only one who was feeling that way. Clayton reached over and they kissed.

Rachel Recchia, 25, a flight instructor from Clermont, Florida, spoke to Clayton next and asked him if she could kiss him. She said in a confessional that she was really falling for him.

He took time to talk to all the other women. He played pool with Teddi Wright, 24, a surgical unit nurse from Redlands, California. Mara decided she would step it up and had a plate of poutine, Canadian smothered fries, that he fed to him with a fork. Serene Russell, 26, an elementary school teacher from Oklahoma City, walked in and interrupted them.

Falling hard: Rachel Recchia, 25, a flight instructor from Clermont, Florida, spoke to Clayton next and asked him if she could kiss him

Mara walked off upset and said 'when you are set up for failure you are going to fail.' She started to cry and said 'I just wanted to feel happiness.'

Host Jesse Palmer then announced the cocktail party was over. Hunter Haag, 28, an HR specialist from Lake Wylie, South Carolina, was nervous before the final rose ceremony.

'I'm not ready to go,' she said in a confessional.

Marlena Wesh, 30, a former Olympian from Virginia Beach, Virginia, also hoped that she would get a rose.

Clayton told them all he was just following his heart. He gave out roses to Sarah; Serene; Teddi; Susie Evans, 28, a wedding videographer from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Eliza Isichei, 25, a marketing manager from Berlin. He gave the final rose of the night to Mara.

Rose holder: Rachel held onto her date rose

Marlena and Hunter did not receive roses and were sent home.

Clayton then announced to the remaining women that they were going to leave Canada and go to Hvar, Croatia.

Mara said in a confessional she was so happy she was still there.

Clayton was excited to see the beautiful city with the remaining nine women. Serene said the city seemed absolutely magical. Sarah said she hoped to spend quality time with Clayton in Croatia. Clayton met the women at a bar and told them he had a one-on-one that was going to start right then. He then asked Teddi if she was ready to go explore Hvar.

'It's a bittersweet situation,' said Mara to the other women.. 'I hope they have a good time but not too great. But yeah, I would really love to get some one on one time.'

Clayton and Teddi walked around Hvar. They got ice cream and Teddi said in a confessional that their connection seemed so natural. Teddi said that Clayton made her feel special and that she had really strong feelings for him.

Date time: Clayton and Teddi walked around Hvar, Croatia

At their romantic dinner, Clayton asked her how she felt about their day and thanked her for being patient with him. Teddi said she had been antsy because she did have something she wanted to talk to him about.

'I'm all ears,' said Clayton.

'I am a virgin,' Teddi said. She said her mother had a baby at a young age, in high school, and growing up there was a lot of pressure on her to not make the same mistake. 'I am a sexual person and I enjoy that aspect of myself.'

She said she wanted to wait until the first time she was in love.

Candid conversation: 'I am a virgin,' Teddi said

Clayton said he would have never known. Teddi also told Clayton she had never been in love. He said he wanted to make sure that she was still fully vulnerable during this journey. Teddi told him that she felt really safe when she was with him. Clayton thanked her for sharing.

'It is exciting to know that I could be the first person that she falls in love with,' said Clayton in a confessional. 'I think I could be her first of many things. I think it would be very special but it carries a lot of weight especially now knowing all that. I really want to make sure with her that I'm 100 percent in.'

Clayton gave her the date rose. She accepted and they kissed.

Date rose: Clayton gave her the date rose

Clayton said he felt that there was something special with Teddi. Teddi said in a confessional that she was so hopeful and that she felt she could see herself falling in love with him.

Back at the hotel, the group date card came and it was for Serene, Rachel, Susie, Gabby, Genevieve, Eliza, and Mara.

The one and one date card was for Sarah and read 'it's an honor to fall in love with you. Love, Clayton.' Sarah started crying and said 'love.'

Sarah said in a confessional that she was so excited and was speechless. She said it was awkward finding out that she was getting her second one-on-one in front of the other women.

Very excited: Sarah said in a confessional that she was so excited and was speechless

'It's your moment,' Mara told her. 'Enjoy it.'

Mara started crying in a confessional and said, 'I have done so much and where has it gotten me.'

Clayton met the women the next day for the group date. There were two knights fighting with swords and they instructed the women to change into warrior armor outfits.

They tested their physical strength against each other. Then there was a table of pigs liver, pigs brain, and fish eyeballs.

Warrior princess: Susie and the other women tested their physical strength against each other

Mara said in a confessional there was a lot of vomiting and dry heaving.

Then the women had to kneel in the square in their knight's outfits and tell Clayton their deepest feelings for him. Mara made up a rhyme.

'I cook, I clean and I'm great in bed,' said Mara. 'Come on Clayton, use your head.'

Knight's tale: 'I cook, I clean and I'm great in bed,' said Mara. 'Come on Clayton, use your head'

In the end, Serene was crowned the true knight of the group. Clayton picked up Serene and carried her out. In the evening, the group met for an after party. He started talking with the women about hometowns.

'I am falling for you so hard,' Rachel told Clayton when he asked if she could see them going to hometowns. 'And I'm terrified because I don't know what is going to happen. I don't know if you are going to bring me next week.'

Rachel said she didn't have a doubt in her mind and would love to bring him to meet her family. Clayton said thank you.

True knight: In the end, Serene was crowned the true knight of the group

Mara said in a confessional that it was no secret that she was the oldest one in the house and ready to settle down.

'It's frustrating to see that some of the women that he is choosing to give attention to are younger,' she said. 'I just wish that he could see what I'm bringing to the table.'

Mara sat down with Clayton. She told him it was hard to keep giving when she hasn't gotten a one-on-one.

Tough time: Mara told him it was hard to keep giving when she hasn't gotten a one-on-one

'I'm just a little surprised,' said Mara. 'You have been adamant about saying that you are looking for a wife, for children, long term but the roses and one-on-one's don't reflect that.'

Clayton asked her what specifically about the women that makes her think they were not here for that. Mara said that some have been openly vocal and 'age.' She told him that someone said that they couldn't imagine themselves being engaged that young.

Clayton said he knew that Sarah was one of the youngest in the house and Mara said she was 'definitely one of the people who is not fully ready.'

Not ready: Clayton asked her what specifically about the women that makes her think they were not here for that

Clayton said it was scary to think that some people were not ready. He told her that he appreciated her honesty. In the end, Clayton said he was giving the rose to someone who had really opened his eyes and 'really left their mark on me.'

'Rachel will you accept this rose,' Clayton said. She said of course.

Clayton left and went back to his room. Later in the evening, there was a knock at his door and a note slipped under it that read 'Clayton meet me at the clocktower.'

Clayton went to the clocktower. Susie was waiting for him. He told her he was so happy to see her. They walked up the clocktower to the roof.

Clocktower meeting: Susie was waiting for him at the clocktower

Susie said in a confessional that she had to do something to let Clayton know how she felt. Susie told Clayton that she wanted to be more vulnerable with him and said, 'I do feel as though I'm falling in love with you.'

Clayton smiled and said, 'I can't believe you just said this.'

Clayton said in a confessional that he could see himself falling in love with Susie.

Back at the hotel, Mara said to Gabby that she didn't think that Sarah was in it for the long term. She said that she told Clayton and hoped that he heard her.

Both falling: Clayton said in a confessional that he could see himself falling in love with Susie

Clayton was walking around Croatia and Jesse asked him how he was feeling. He told her about his conversation with Mara. Jesse told him to trust his heart.

Sarah met up with Clayton for their one-on-one date. She toasted to their potential future. He told her that he planned to find his future wife on the show. He then told her that it was brought to his attention that she might not be ready to get engaged at the end of this.

Sarah said she was shocked. She said that was the opposite of what she said. She started crying.

Tears flowing: Sarah started crying when Clayton questioned if she was ready to get married

'I've told you since day one that I've been here because it was you,' Sarah said. 'There is something here that I've never felt.'

'I absolutely see myself being able to be engaged to you at the end of that,' said Sarah.

Clayton thanked her for being vulnerable. He told her he needed to step away and think this through leaving Sarah at the table crying.

Really upset: Clayton told her he needed to step away and think this through leaving Sarah at the table crying

'It's a b**** a** move,' said Sarah in a confessional of whoever talked about her to Clayton. 'It's complete bulls***.'

Mara was back at the hotel still talking to the other women about Sarah and how she didn't think she was ready to get engaged.

Clayton sat back down with Sarah and she told him she was trying not to be angry. She said she didn't want to blame anyone and just thought it was interesting timing for someone to bring this up.

'We have come so far,' said Sarah. 'I don't want to lose that over something that is so out of left field, so extreme and a blatant lie.'

Clayton said he knew that giving her a second one on-one would put a target on her back.

New target: Clayton said he knew that giving her a second one on-one would put a target on her back

'I don't question your sincerity, this is a strong connection,' said Clayton. 'I can tell you are here for me and you want what I'm after.'

He then gave her the date rose. They hugged and Sarah cried.

'I do believe Sarah,' said Clayton in a confessional. 'Just because an accusation is made doesn't mean that it's true.'

He said that Sarah and him were in a much stronger place and that they have something special.

Sarah walked back and said in a confessional that 'karma is a b****.' She said 'it was a b**** a** move but it was weak. At least try harder. At least make it more specific so it sounds believable.'

Still around: Sarah walked back and said in a confessional that 'karma is a b****'

'I'm just so thankful that the truth prevailed and the liars will go home,' said Sarah in a confessional. 'You can find a vase for my rose and you can book your ticket home.'

The show ended with a 'To Be Continued' message.

The Bachelor will return next Monday on ABC.
She's been in a relationship with Ercan Ramadan since February 2019.

And on Monday, Vicky Pattison stepped out with her boyfriend to celebrate Valentine's Day together in London.

The former Geordie Shore star, 34, looked sensational in a pale pink midi dress that showed off her ample cleavage.

Romance is in the air: On Monday, Vicky Pattison stepped out with her boyfriend to celebrate Valentine's Day together in London

Her outfit boasted a slit in the front, showing off her toned legs underneath and clear heels.

Keeping the cold at bay, she wrapped up in white coat, which she wore draped over her shoulders.

Her caramel coloured locks were left to tumble down her back, while opted for a full face of makeup to highlight her pretty features.

Flawless: The former Geordie Shore star, 34, looked sensational in a pale pink midi dress that showed off her ample cleavage

Ercan looked handsome as he posed beside her in black suit and matching shirt, with shiny shoes.

The date comes after on Sunday, Vicky took to Instagram to share sizzling snaps of herself in stunning lingerie as she prepared to celebrate Valentine's Day with her man.

She showed off her incredible physique as she posed in a sexy red lace bra, thong and suspenders set from Pour Moi.

Leggy display: Her outfit boasted a slit in the front, showing off her toned legs underneath and clear heels

Hot! The former Geordie Shore star showed off her incredible physique as she posed in a sexy red lace bra, thong and suspenders set from Pour Moi

Vicky wrote alongside: 'The ultimate Valentine's set up... I know it's cheesy... but I love Valentine's Day and can't wait to tell @ercan_ram how much I love him all day tomorrow.

'Hope you're all excited to spend it with your love, your gals, or even just embracing some self love.'

And while Vicky posted to her grid, Ercan shared a sweet couple's snap to his Instagram Story and wrote: 'Happy Valentine's my lovely.'

Back in February 2019, Vicky confirmed that she'd begun dating Ercan, three months after her split from her ex-fiance John Noble.

John cheated on her in December 2018 during a boys' holiday, just weeks before their wedding was due to take place.

Ercan briefly starred in TOWIE back in 2016 and remains friends with some of the ITVBe shows regulars including, James 'Diags' Bennewith, James Lock and Dan Edgar.
Just one day before she was set to receive the prestigious Honorary Golden Bear Award from the Berlin International Film Festival, Isabelle Huppert announced she can't receive the award in person after testing positive for COVID-19.

The 68-year-old French actress tested positive for COVID-19 in Paris on Monday, with Berlinale confirming she won't accept the award in person on Tuesday.

'Unfortunately, today Isabelle Huppert has been tested positive for the coronavirus in Paris and therefore she will not be able to attend the Berlin International Film Festival,' read a statement from Berlinale.

Prestigious: Just one day before she was set to receive the prestigious Honorary Golden Bear Award from the Berlin International Film Festival, Isabelle Huppert announced she can't receive the award in person after testing positive for COVID-19

Award: The 68-year-old French actress tested positive for COVID-19 in Paris on Monday, with Berlinale confirming she won't accept the award in person on Tuesday

Still, Huppert said she, 'doesn't feel sick,' according to Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian and they plan on holding the ceremony on Tuesday.

'While informing the festival, she emphasized that she feels very dedicated to the Berlinale and wants to participate in any possible way also to support her latest film A Propos de Joan,' the statement read.

Huppert will join in through a live videoconferencing link via Paris where she will accept the award, with a screening of A Propos de Joan to follow the ceremony.

Not sick: Still, Huppert said she, 'doesn't feel sick,' according to Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian and they plan on holding the ceremony on Tuesday

While the award ceremony will go on as planned, her absence did lead to the cancelation of another event, Berlinale Homage: In Conversation with Isabelle Huppert.

Huppert has had seven films in competition at Berlinale throughout her celebrated career, starting with Jacques Doillons La vengeance dune femme.

She was announced as the 2022 Honorary Golden Bear recipient in mid-December, joining other esteemed honorees such as Oliver Stone, Sophia Loren and the 2020 recipient, Helen Mirren.

Canceled: While the award ceremony will go on as planned, her absence did lead to the cancelation of another event, Berlinale Homage: In Conversation with Isabelle Huppert

'We are proud to welcome Isabelle Huppert back to the festival, said Berlinale directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian in a December statement.

'The Honorary Golden Bear may seem like a natural progression in a career without equal, since Isabelle Huppert is one of the few artists recognised with acting awards at all major film festivals,' the statement continued.

'But Isabelle Huppert is more than a celebrated actor  she is an uncompromising artist who doesnt hesitate to take risks and flout mainstream trends,' they continued.

Proud: 'We are proud to welcome Isabelle Huppert back to the festival, said Berlinale directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian in a December statement

Celebrated: 'But Isabelle Huppert is more than a celebrated actor  she is an uncompromising artist who doesnt hesitate to take risks and flout mainstream trends,' they continued

'Awarding her our most prestigious prize is to accentuate cinema as an art form, independent and unconditional,' they added.

'We often see actors as tools in the hands of filmmakers, but Isabelle Huppert is a clear example that the dynamic can be a true exchange. Actors can be the true engine of creating not only emotions, but also concepts of cinema,' the statement concluded.

Huppert will next be seen in Caravaggio's Shadow and Mrs. Harris Goes to Parris, and she's currently filming Sitting Duck.

Prize: 'Awarding her our most prestigious prize is to accentuate cinema as an art form, independent and unconditional,' they added
Paul Hollywood's ex-wife Alex hit out at the Great British Bake Off star at the weekend, claiming their marriage was 'over seasoned with extra marital affairs'.

The television show judge, 55, previously admitted to cheating on Alex, 57, with chef Marcela Valladolid, 43, in 2013, and Alex, who shares a teenage son with Paul, insists she is finally happy being single but says some people struggle to believe that's true.

She wrote on Instagram: 'Its taken me a while to get here and it hasnt been easy, but I love the woman I am now.

Honest: Paul Hollywood's ex-wife Alex, 57, hit out at the Great British Bake Off star, 55, at the weekend, claiming their marriage was 'over seasoned with extra marital affairs'

'I know only too well that not every marriage/partnership is a recipe for happiness and success.

'My own marriage was too over seasoned with extra marital affairs for my taste and so I opted out and chose the single menu instead. It wasnt easy and it took some getting used to.

'I wasnt even sure I liked it much at first, but as I regained my confidence, my freedom and myself after so long, I discovered that it really isnt a cliche to say happiness really does comes from within.'

In the past: The television show judge previously admitted to cheating on Alex and the former husband and wife went their separate ways in 2017

She added: 'I still get the occasional well-meaning comment  that Ill get "snapped up soon" rather like a supermarket meal deal. People dont like to believe that a woman can be happier single.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Paul for comment.

Alex split from Paul over his with Marcela who worked on the American version of Bake Off.

New beginnings: Alex insists she is finally happy single but people struggled to believe her (pictured with Paul in 2015)

They got back together but finally went their separate ways in 2017, with Alex citing infidelity as the reason for the split.

After their 20-year marriage ended, Paul began seeing barmaid Summer Monteys-Fullam until August 2019.

However, Alex later claimed Paul's relationship with Summer started before their split.

Moving on: Alex split from Paul over his with Marcela Valladolid, 43, who worked on the American version of Bake Off

Paul officially removed Alex from her positions as director and secretary of his multi-million-pound company in 2020.

Termination of appointment papers were posted to Companies House revealing that the former spouses have stepped away from each others businesses.

Two documents shared online revealed that Alex was no longer a director or secretary of the baker's company Paul Hollywood Limited.

While another paper for Alex's AKH Media Publications Ltd company showed a termination of appointment for Paul as a director had also been filed.

Paul was thought to be worth around 10million at the time and it was claimed cookery writer Alex was still raking in a five-figure sum from Paul's company due to her position there.
Rise of the Nazis: Dictators At War

Rating:

No Return

Rating:

Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, exudes a remarkable presence  with the intensity of an artist and the physical power of a Mafia boss.

I watched him play once, at the zenith of his reign in the 1990s. He annihilated his opponent and, whirling a camel overcoat across his shoulders, marched away from the board like a monarch. A lackey dashed to open the door for him.

Born in the former USSR republic of Azerbaijan, the 58-year-old appeared the ideal pundit to comment on Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin, in Rise Of The Nazis: Dictators At War (BBC2).

But in presenting Kasparov as a historian, the BBC failed to warn viewers he has, to say the least, some pretty odd views about the past. For more than 20 years, Kasparov has promoted a conspiracy theory known as the New Chronology, holding that Western history is much shorter than we think.

Born in the former USSR republic of Azerbaijan, the 58-year-old appeared the ideal pundit to comment on Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin (pictured), in Rise Of The Nazis: Dictators At War (BBC2)

He suggests Russian tsars falsified dates, to make the Roman Empire seem 1,000 years older than it really was. And last year, in an online interview, he compared conventional academic methods to 'fake news', adding: 'I am very sceptical about official history.'

None of this invalidates his comments about Stalin's psychological manipulation of Soviet ministers and generals during World War II. But his contributions should have come with a warning.

We deserved a warning, too, as modern-day reconstructions were shot and edited to be indistinguishable from archive footage.

One moment we were looking at colourised newsreel of Adolf Hitler in Paris after the conquest of France in June, 1940. The Fuhrer laughed and pointed at the Eiffel Tower like a tourist.

Seconds later, we were following his entourage up the steps to Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides. The boxy image flickered and the colours had a pastel glow, like 80-year-old cine film. We were left to work out for ourselves that these were actors.

Head-scratcher of the night Gyles Brandreth, who famously triumphed once before on Celebrity Eggheads (C5), matched the brainboxes question for question  until asked to name the show that made Fred Sirieix a star. It seems Gyles doesn't watch First Dates. Advertisement

Such flaws would overwhelm a lesser documentary. This three-part series rises above its faults, because the subject is so immense  Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, a conflict that cost 20 million lives or more.

Though the central focus was on Hitler and Stalin, and the global cost of their demonic megalomania, other characters were strongly sketched  such as the Soviet diplomat Vyacheslav Molotov, who found himself dodging RAF bombs in Berlin with Nazi foreign minister and braggart Joachim von Ribbentrop.

'If Britain is defeated,' Molotov asked sarcastically, 'why are we in this air raid shelter?'

The series marks the 80th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, which began in 1941 with more than three million German troops massing on the western border of Ukraine. As Russian troops gather on the country's Eastern border, the programme could not be better timed.

Turkey's tourist board will be feeling that the nightmarish holiday drama No Return (ITV), starring Sheridan Smith as a mother whose teenage boy is thrown into prison for an alleged sex assault, is very badly timed.

Turkey's Mediterranean hotels must be desperate for British visitors. The last thing they need is the spectre of hellhole jails awaiting travellers. To make it worse, the aerial shots of high-rise holiday apartments very clearly show a Spanish resort, more Benidorm than Bodrum.

The storyline is all too believable, though, and Louis Ashbourne Serkis  son of Andy Serkis  is excellent as the sullen teen forced to grow up quickly if he is to survive jail. If it can resist the temptation for too many plot twists, this will be a chilling, memorable drama.
Despite confirming her split from rapper Kanye West this morning, Julia Fox was all smiles as she took a stroll in Manhattan on Monday.

The Uncut Gems star, 32, showed there was no bad blood between her and the musician, 44, as she sported his $200 blue Gap jacket, from the Yeezy Gap collection.

The self-proclaimed '#1 hustler' also gave glimpse of her ample cleavage with a very tight-fitting denim corset, which she wore underneath the puffer coat.

No tears: Despite confirming her split from rapper Kanye West this morning, Julia Fox was all smiles as she took a stroll in Manhattan on Monday

The star paired her outfit of the day with chic denim floor-grazing pants that created an elongated silhouette, as well as black booties.

Going with an all-denim look, Kanye's ex-fling accessorized the fashion-forward ensemble with the Alexander Wang 5-Pocket Cotton Denim Shoulder Bag, which she casually toted on her forearm.

The dark-haired beauty's tresses were parted in the middle and worn down for the chilly outing.

Still a fan: The Uncut Gems star, 32, showed there was no bad blood between her and the musician, 44, as she sported his $200 blue Gap jacket, from the Yeezy Gap collection

Denim fit: The star also gave glimpse of her ample cleavage with a very tight-fitting denim corset, which she wore underneath the puffer coat

Ye's influence? She paired her outfit of the day with chic denim floor-grazing pants that created an elongated silhouette, as well as black booties

She appeared to go fresh-faced for the day, only wearing a touch of brown eyeshadow on her lids.

The star decided not to add any more drama to her eye-catching outfit, and opted to go without any jewelry.

In her hand she held a matching blue cellphone as well as a face mask. Sticking out of her purse was a white iPhone charger.

Edgy: Going with an all-denim look, Kanye's ex-fling accessorized the ensemble with a unique upside down denim-pant purse by Alexander Wang, which she casually toted on her forearm

Natural: The dark-haired beauty's tresses were parted in the middle and worn down for the chilly outing

Chilly weather: Though she cracked a smile when she saw the photographers, and gave a brief view of her full outfit, she later bundled up in the jacket as she braved the NY weather

Though she cracked a smile when she saw the photographers, and gave a brief view of her full outfit, she later bundled up in the jacket as she braved the NY weather.

Earlier in the morning Fox took to Instagram to deny that she was in tears following her split with West.

The star confirmed that she and Ye have called it quits, but admitted she was never 'in love' with the rapper.

Rather than be upset, rising star Julia referred to herself as a '#1 hustler' and hinted that she now plans to write a tell-all book about the short-lived romance.

Trendy: Sticking out of her fashion-forward purse was a white iPhone charger

Made it: The self-proclaimed #1 hustler made it to her destination and was pictured opening a car door

'Y'all would love if I was soooo upset! The media would love to paint a picture of me a sad lonely woman crying on a plane by myself but it's NOT TRUE!!' Julia told fans in a note.

'Why not see me for what I am which is a #1 hustler. I came up yall lol and not only that but Kanye and I are on good terms! I have love for him but I wasn't in love w the man Jesus Christ what do u guys think I am 12 years old?!'

Kanye and Julia met on New Year's Eve and then moved at warp speed into a full-blown relationship, with the actress even penning an essay about their romance.

Pictured: Fox had been seen looking downcast after splitting with Kanye West on Sunday, but the Uncut Gems star claims she is doing fine and is on 'good terms' with the rapper

Doubling down on her denial of being upset, Julia added: 'and for the record the only time I cried in 2022 was on Feb 6th on my dead BFF bday.'

Julia was referring to the tragic death of good friend and celebrity manager Chris Huvane.

She finished her statement by writing: 'Anyway If u want the full tea ur gonna have to buy the book when it comes out :)'

Telling all: On Monday, the Uncut Gems star took to social media to set the record straight, confirming she and Ye have called it quits

Following news of the split, eagle-eyed fans had spotted that Julia had 'liked' a post from Kanye's ex-wife on Sunday.

The 'like' came as Kanye - who suffers from bipolar disorder - shared a slew of Instagram posts declaring 'I wish my wife were with me' and pining for his family to be reunited.

Kim Kardashian, who has been publicly feuding with her ex husband for weeks, shared a snap of herself rocking a jumpsuit and Balenciaga shades with Julia's like standing out among the 1m others.

Meanwhile, all photos of Kanye have disappeared from Julia's page.

Julia had also spent her weekend with her son Valentino, 13 months, sharing videos of the toddler playing as she gushed 'I'm the luckiest mommy'.

The actress was seen out and about in LA on Friday amid early rumours that her hot-and-heavy romance with Kanye, which began on New Year's Eve, was cooling off.

Sources told E! News last week that Julia 'doesn't have the energy' to put more into a relationship with the rapper.

All over: Kanye and Julia met on New Year's Eve and then moved at warp speed into a full-blown relationship, with the actress even penning an essay about their romance

'Julia is a mom first and her family and work obligations are in New York,' the source said of the actress. 'Ye did express he wanted her in Los Angeles, but she couldn't take that on.'

The insider also noted: 'Although they remain close, their relationship has evolved.'

A second source told the gossip site: 'When she's not around, he reverts back to his old ways with social media outbursts and public antics.'

And while Julia had remained 'unbothered' by his recent pleas to estranged wife Kim to bring their family back together, she is 'focusing on her friends and family right now, and does not have the energy to put into a relationship.'

Another insider told previously Page Six that Julia and Kanye are in 'an open relationship' as he's been seen dating other women, most recently Chaney Jones.

Message: Kanye shared a post on Sunday from the Super Bowl where he wrote: 'I wish my wife was with me and our children sitting at the 50-yard line'

'Their bond transcends typical norms because theyre evolved beings who just want each other to be happy,' one insider close to Fox told the outlet. 'There is no jealousy or bad vibes.'

The 32-year-old actress discussed her romance with host Alex Cooper on the podcast Call Her Daddy Tuesday, revealing why she's not intimidated by the idea that he still longs for estranged wife.

'I'm sure there's still some residual feelings, and that's normal, it's human,' Fox said. 'I also know that he's with me now. And that's all that matters.'

The Milan, Italy-born beauty told that Cooper while they never have formally discussed their romantic status, 'I call him my boyfriend and he calls me his girlfriend.'

Fox, who appeared with Adam Sandler in 2019's Uncut Gems, described her romance with West as 'organic' and 'natural,' and off to a strong beginning.

'Time will tell, you'll just see,' she said. 'Obviously, it looks a certain way, but people don't know the conversations happening behind the scenes, and you know, I've been around.'

Fox said it was 'unfortunate' that people have compared her to Kardashian, saying their only similarities have been fashionable ones.
Dating guru Jana Hocking has been caught red-handed reading notes live on television.

The 36-year-old was appearing on Seven's The Morning Show on Sunday, where she discussed the five love languages in anticipation for Valentine's Day with co-hosts Michael Usher and Monique Wright.

While Jana was giving examples of people expressing their love languages, Usher noticed the columnist had notes scribbled on the palm of her hand.

Caught red-handed: Dating guru Jana Hocking (right) was busted reading her notes on her hand by Seven presenter Michael Usher (middle) during TV interview over the weekend

'You know what I love?' he told the podcaster as he pointed at her hand. 'You wrote your notes on your hand.'

The news presenter proceeded to burst into laughter as Jana embarrassingly responded: 'I did write my notes on my hand'.

Jana explained the reason why she wrote notes down was because she thought she might forget the five love languages during the interview.

Whoops: While Jana was giving examples of people expressing their love languages, Michael Usher noticed the columnist had notes scribbled on the palm of her hand

Whoops! Jana explained the reason why she wrote notes down was because she thought she might forget the five love languages during the interview

'I had a nightmare last night that I'd 'forgot the five love languages,' she revealed.

'Look at Jana, she's taking it seriously,' Monique Wright chimed in as Jana began laughing at the gaffe.

'And it's important to get this stuff right because it's all about communication.'

Jana regularly provides dating and relationship advice through her columns and her podcast Kinda Sorta Dating.

Advice from the love guru: The 36-year-old was caught out during an appearance on Seven's The Morning Show on Sunday, where she discussed the five love languages in anticipation for Valentine's Day with co-hosts Michael Usher and Monique Wright

Last August, Jana devised a simple trick to avoid being disappointed on first dates.

When Sydney's lockdown lifted last year, she said she plans to video call all potential suitors before meeting them in real life.

Tired of endless disappointment on the Harbour City dating scene, she hoped the calls will bring an end to being 'catfished' by men who look and act differently than they appear to in their online profiles.

Advice: Jana regularly provides dating and relationship advice through her columns and her podcast Kinda Sorta Dating

'Thats one of the things I am going to take out of the dating world after the pandemic,' she said on her podcast at the time.

Instead of heading out to a bar, the Triple M host said she will start with Skype dates to get a sense of who she has been speaking to.

'There's nothing worse then getting all dolled up, ready to go out, paying for your Uber, paying for your new outfit and sitting down, knowing in 30 seconds that this is not the person for you and he was nothing like he looked like on the app,' she added.
John Ibrahim and his model partner Sarah Budge welcomed their first child together, a baby boy named Elvis, in late August.

And while the Kings Cross identity, 53, is famously private when it comes to his family, he couldn't resist sharing a sweet photo of Elvis and Sarah on Valentine's Day.

Taking to Instagram, John posted an adorable close-up photo of Sarah, 31, smiling with their six-month-old sitting on her lap.

Family: Nightclub identity John Ibrahim, 53, shared this cute photo of his girlfriend Sarah Budge, 31, posing with their six-month-old son Elvis on Valentine's Day

Little Elvis curiously stared into the camera lens, poking out his tongue slightly.

John's fans were thrilled with the rare family snapshot, with one commenting: 'Sooo much gorgeousness!'

'Happy Valentine's Day All the sweeter with Master Elvis I bet,' another added.

Family: John has been dating model Sarah, whom he met after buying the Potts Point building where she operated a restaurant, since 2015

A friend of Sarah and John's confirmed Elvis' birth to Daily Mail Australia in early September, and it's understood the baby arrived on August 31.

John has two other children from past relationships, including 31-year-old son Daniel.

He also has a seven-year-old child whom he shares with his longtime friend.

Baby joy! A friend of Sarah and John's confirmed Elvis' birth to Daily Mail Australia in early September, and it's understood the baby arrived on August 31

John has been dating Sarah, whom he met after buying the Potts Point building where she operated a restaurant, since 2015.

She recently moved out of her flat in Leichhardt, in Sydney's inner west, and into John's Dover Heights clifftop mansion in the city's east.

Sarah launched Crane Bar in May 2013, which is known for its Japanese fusion food, cocktails and music.

Fatherhood: John has two other children from past relationships, including 31-year-old son Daniel. He also has a seven-year-old child whom he shares with his longtime friend

Last year, she was devastated by the realisation her business would not recover from the pandemic shutdown, which hit Australia's hospitality sector hard.

'Sarah's a bit heartbroken. she's disheartened at the moment,' a friend told Daily Mail Australia at the time.

John is often seen spending time with radio host Kyle Sandilands, who this week announced his own baby news with fiancee Tegan Kynaston.
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She recently shut down claims she was copying Kim Kardashian's style during her relationship with Kanye West.

But Julia Fox raised eyebrows once again as she walked the LaQuan Smith NYFW fashion show on Monday clad in a cleavage-baring black dress that was nearly identical to one Kim wore in 2019.

The Uncut Gems actress, 32, opened the show in the racy gown just moments after opening up on her split from West, admitting it was 'difficult' and 'hectic' dating the rapper during their two month romance.

Twinning! Julia Fox raised eyebrows once again as she walked the LaQuan Smith fashion show in New York on Monday wearing a dress that was nearly identical to one Kim Kardashian (pictured right 2019) previously wore

Much like Kardashian's, Fox's black dress was cut in a triangular shape at the front which flashed plenty of underboob. It cinched into her curves along the waist, skimmed the floor, and hugged her toned arms.

She rocked a slicked back hairstyle, an edgy swipe of violet eye shadow, and metallic earrings which cascaded in twirls. She added a splash of drama with her fire engine red nails and white Manolo Blahnik pumps.

There was certainly no missing Fox in her racy black dress as she opened the designer's Fall 2022 show.

There was also no missing the similarities to Kim, who modelled a vintage Thierry Mugler from the designer's Spring/Summer '98 collection at the Hollywood Beauty Awards in 2019.

All eyes on her: Fox took the runway by storm in her very racy ensemble

Working her angles: Fox looked like a supermodel as she strutted her stuff down the runway in her saucy ensemble

Making moves: Julia was also seen rehearsing for the show in her edgy yet sexy look

Julia's runway presentation comes after she confirmed that she had split from rapper Kanye, 44, following a six-week whirlwind romance.

The actress confirmed her separation from Kanye on Monday in a post denying she was in tears after their break-up, and admitted she was never 'in love' with the rapper.

Rather than be upset, rising star Julia referred to herself as a '#1 hustler' and hinted that she now plans to write a tell-all book about the short-lived romance.

'Y'all would love if I was soooo upset! The media would love to paint a picture of me a sad lonely woman crying on a plane by myself but it's NOT TRUE!!' Julia told fans in a note.

'Why not see me for what I am which is a #1 hustler. I came up yall lol and not only that but Kanye and I are on good terms! I have love for him but I wasn't in love w the man Jesus Christ what do u guys think I am 12 years old?!'

Leading the charge: Fox set the tone for the show as she led a parade of models down the runway

Working it! The actress strode down the runway before guests poured through the doors

Model behavior: The 32-year-old actress struck a pose backstage in her racy gown

Kanye and Julia met on New Year's Eve and then moved at warp speed into a full-blown relationship, with the actress even penning an essay about their romance.

Doubling down on her denial of being upset, Julia added: 'and for the record the only time I cried in 2022 was on Feb 6th on my dead BFF bday.'

Julia was referring to the tragic death of good friend and celebrity manager Chris Huvane.

She finished her statement by writing: 'Anyway If u want the full tea ur gonna have to buy the book when it comes out :)'

It's all over! The Uncut Gems actress, 32, opened the show in the racy gown just moments after opening up on her split from Kanye West, admitting it was 'difficult' and 'hectic' dating the rapper during their two month romance (pictured in January)

'FYI I wore this on Halloween 2021': The 31-year-old actress recently caught some flack after she appeared on Instagram in an oozing blue chest mold that looked nearly identical to one previously donned by Kardashian, 41

Julia later spoke out about their 'difficult' romance in more detail in an interview with The Cut.

She explained: 'When I'm with Ye. But even when I'm with my son, it's also very difficult. It feels like you're just going with the flow, but the flow is very hectic, if that makes sense.

'It's a lot of last-minute decisions or deciding to go somewhere at the last minute and activating when needed.'

Julia - who has 13-month-old son Valentino with her ex-husband Peter Artemiev - also suggested she wasn't a fan of being 'super-megafamous'.

Red-y or not! Amelia Hamlin dazzled in a sequined crimson top as she walk the LaQuan Smith show

Walk this way! Models worked an array of edgy styles as they took the LaQuan Smith runway by storm

She added: 'I've never been operating at the level that Ye is. I never wanted to be super-megafamous. It's a life-ender for some celebrities. They become reclusive and paranoid and hide. I refuse to not live authentically.'

Meanwhile, the actress and model revealed she wants to 'have a bunch of babies', while also revealing she's working on a book, a film and a TV show.

She said: 'Ultimately, what I would like to do in my life is have a bunch of babies and write and create content.

I actually just asked my ex-husband if he would want to lend me his sperm to make a sibling for Valentino. He left me on read!'

Strike a pose! La La Anthony and Jessica Wang were among the big names attending the LaQuan Smith fashion show

Fashionista! Nicole Ari Parker wowed in a fringe coat as she attended the show with her husband Boris Kodjoe

Top of the crops! Coi Leray put on a head-turning display in a beige bandeau top and matching underwear

Recently Julia swatted down claims she was copying Kim after she caught flack for wearing an oozing blue chest mold that looked nearly identical to one previously donned by Kim.

In a follow-up post, Fox insisted that the snap of her in the chest mold was taken in October 2021 and that it was part of her 'slutty Smurf' Halloween costume.

'FYI I wore this on Halloween 2021 and I was supposed to be a slutty Smurf. I forgot to post it. PS. The Breast Plate is by @JacqueLabel,' penned Julia.

Kardashian first appeared in her own chest mold top in early January 2022 as part of the latest campaign for her KKW Fragrance line.

Interestingly, Kardashian is actually a LaQuan Smith fan. Since the brand's formal debut in 2013, the label has garnered a cult following of high-profile celebs including Beyonce, Rihanna, Kim, Winnie Harlow, and more.

Meanwhile, as Julia walked the runway, Kardashian and West were involved in yet more drama as the rapper shared screenshots of a text messages sent to him by Kardashian, asking he stop putting her current beau Pete Davidson in danger with his numerous public shots at him over social media.

The Grammy-winning musical artist shared a shot from the 2001 film Baby Boy in which Ving Rhames put Tyrese Gibson in a chokehold, writing, 'UPON MY WIFES REQUEST PLEASE NOBODY DO ANYTHING PHYSICAL TO SKETE IM GOING TO HANDLE THE SITUATION MYSELF.'

He posted a series of screenshot of texts from Kardashian, 41, saying he was making things uncomfortable for the SNL star, 28.

In the texts, Kardashian said, West was 'creating a dangerous and scary environment and someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault,' later saying, 'There are dangerous people out there and this is scary and it doesn't have to be.'

Ouch: As Fox walked the runway, West shared a shot from the 2001 film Baby Boy in which Ving Rhames put Tyrese Gibson in a chokehold, writing, 'UPON MY WIFES REQUEST PLEASE NOBODY DO ANYTHING PHYSICAL TO SKETE IM GOING TO HANDLE THE SITUATION MYSELF'

The Can't Tell Me Nothing rapper replied to his estranged wife via text, 'I will always do everything to protect you and our family forever. And I listened to you and told everyone to make sure nothing physical happens to Skete.'

In a subsequent post, Kardashian asked the Heartless vocalist why he couldn't keep any of their conversations private, to which he responded, 'Cause I got a text from my favorite person in the world.'

The Bound 2 rapper continued to Kardashian, 'I'm your number one fan ... Why wouldn't I tell everyone!!!!'

In his attack on Sunday, West called Davidson a 'd***head' and shared a screengrab of his private text to him.

Feud: Kardashian and West were involved in yet more drama as the rapper shared screenshots of a text messages sent to him by Kardashian, asking he stop putting her current beau Pete Davidson in danger with his numerous public shots at him

Exchange: In the texts, Kardashian said, West was 'creating a dangerous and scary environment and someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault,' later saying, 'There are dangerous people out there and this is scary and it doesn't have to be'

The comedian had texted the rapper: '...you as a man I'd never get in the way of your children. That's a promise. How you guys go about raising your kids is your business and not mine. I do hope [some] day I can meet them and we can all be friends.'

West - who suffers from bipolar disorder - shared a pantsless snap of Pete with his friend Machine Gun Kelly captioned: 'No you will never meet my children.'

He had 'no comment' about a rumor that Ariana Grande ended her four-month engagement to Davidson over him allegedly sending intimate photos of the pair to her ex Mac Miller before his 2018 death.

West seemed especially outraged that the Staten Island native - who's in the process of lasering off all 100 of his tattoos - once had his 'hero' Hillary Clinton inked on his calf.

'When I tag people I'm just putting together the web. There are a group of people who run media and the election. Thank god for free speech.

'Look at this d***head. I wonder if Instagram gonna shut down my page for dissing [Hillary] Clinton's ex boyfriend.'

West added: 'Y'all seen that tattoo but if I speak up then I'm crazy. I told you not going to use that one no more when a garbage man goes to work he gonna smell like trash but it's time to take the trash out the house...You can Google the Hillary thing I'm not making this s*** up.'

West earlier Monday attempted to win back his ex Kardashian with a grand gesture on Valentine's Day amid their feud.

The rapper sent a massive arrangement of red roses to her house in a truck branded, 'MY VISION IS KRYSTAL KLEAR.'
Students wash their hands before entering classrooms at a primary school in Cao Lanh city, Vietnam's southern Dong Thap province, Feb. 14, 2022. Rapid vaccinations in people aged 12 and above have encouraged local authorities to reopen schools, and resume other socio-economic activities. (VNA via Xinhua)

HANOI, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- For college junior student Dao Quang Khai, Monday is a big day as it is his first day back in school after almost nine months of distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like many other educational institutions in Vietnam, the Vietnamese National Economics University based in the capital Hanoi, where Khai studies, had to switch to online teaching in May last year after the ongoing and most severe fourth wave of COVID-19 infections started in the country.

"I am so excited, and nervous too," the 21-year-old said, finding his way through a long line of students waiting for temperature checking and health declaration before entering the school on Monday morning.

Rapid vaccinations in people aged 12 and above have encouraged local authorities to reopen schools, and resume other socio-economic activities. At a recent cabinet meeting, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh ordered the resumption of classes in February.

As of Monday, all 63 localities in Vietnam have announced plans to welcome back students within this month, according to the education ministry. An estimated 17 million students are expected to return to their classrooms.

While Khai has wished long for classroom learning, he still has had worries that gatherings in school also mean higher risk of virus transmission.

"Everyone is getting bored of virtual classes, and face-to-face learning is without doubt so much more fun, and certainly more effective. But since COVID-19 can be rampant here at any time, we'll have to prepare for that," he said.

Like many of his friends, Khai has received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in order to better protect himself from the virus. Meanwhile, anti-epidemic measures including mask wearing, hand sanitizing and social distancing have been made mandatory by the school.

Over the past few days, prior to universities, elementary, middle and high schools across the Southeast Asian country had seen millions of students back.

To Hoang Xuan Lan, mother of a seventh-grader in Hanoi, the joy cannot be described by words upon hearing that her son can return to school after the longest holiday ever in life.

"My boy couldn't sleep before the coming-back day. He was so happy about seeing his friends and teachers for the first time in about nine months," Lan said.

For the Hanoi mother, the fear of social isolation and learning loss for her son somehow prevail over her concern over the pandemic. During the peak months of COVID-19, her son was almost never allowed to leave home and spent all day long glued to the computer or phone, in an apparently frustrated mood.

"Staying home for a long time denies children the opportunity to develop skills, and affects their personality and emotional development," Lan said.

Along with resuming classes, educational authorities have directed schools to identify students' possible psychological problems related with the pandemic time, and provide necessary counseling and support.

Lan is optimistic that with the strong measures at schools, children can be even safer at schools than at home.

In its released protocol, Hanoi requires local schools not to conduct day-boarding services or open canteens and only teach one session, either in the morning or afternoon, per day. The district authorities will assess and decide whether or not to continue in-person learning depending on the circumstances.

Unlike Lan, some of the parents whose kids have failed to get vaccinated have expressed their concerns over resuming classes.

"I don't know if it is the right time yet. The pandemic situation is still so complicated. I just don't want to risk my son's health," Vo Nguyet Anh, mother of an elementary school boy, told Xinhua.

Interruptions to in-person learning would be inevitable with infections detected in school, Anh said, adding, "that would cost us more than just returning to distance learning".

With around 3,000 new infections reported per day, Hanoi has remained Vietnam's COVID-19 hotspot. The capital still bans the reopening of preschools citywide and primary schools in the high-risk urban areas.

In replying to a recent poll, Anh said she would like to send her son back to class only after nationwide vaccine rollout is carried out for children aged 5 to 11.

Earlier this month, the Vietnamese government approved the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 in the country. However, the vaccination date remains unknown yet.

As of Monday, Vietnam has registered a total of 2,540,273 COVID-19 infections with 39,037 deaths, showed the health ministry data. 

Children wearing face masks play at a kindergarten in Rach Gia city, Vietnam's southern Kien Giang province, Feb. 14, 2022. Rapid vaccinations in people aged 12 and above have encouraged local authorities to reopen schools, and resume other socio-economic activities. (VNA via Xinhua)

A student wearing a face mask gets her temperature checked at a primary school in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 10, 2022. Rapid vaccinations in people aged 12 and above have encouraged local authorities to reopen schools, and resume other socio-economic activities. (VNA via Xinhua)

Students wearing face masks attend a class at a primary school in the city of Buon Ma Thuot in Vietnam's central highlands Dak Lak province, Feb. 14, 2022. Rapid vaccinations in people aged 12 and above have encouraged local authorities to reopen schools, and resume other socio-economic activities. (VNA via Xinhua)

Students wearing face masks attend a face-to-face class at a college in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 14, 2022. Rapid vaccinations in people aged 12 and above have encouraged local authorities to reopen schools, and resume other socio-economic activities. (VNA via Xinhua)

A teacher leads a first grader into the campus at a primary school in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 10, 2022. Rapid vaccinations in people aged 12 and above have encouraged local authorities to reopen schools, and resume other socio-economic activities. (VNA via Xinhua)
Nigella Lawson is reportedly at the centre of a tug-of-war between rival Australian television networks.

Both Network 10 and Channel Seven are keen to bag the British celebrity chef when she visits Australia next month, reports the Herald Sun.

While Nigella, 62, has made frequent appearances on 10's MasterChef in the past, Seven is now offering plenty of cash to entice her to change sides.

Cook-off: Nigella Lawson is reportedly at the centre of a tug-of-war between rival Australian television networks. Pictured on MasterChef Australia

Daily Mail Australia has contacted both Channel Seven and Network 10 for comment.

Despite Nigella's close ties to the MasterChef franchise, Seven is keen to lure an international star for its reboot of My Kitchen Rules.

The network will also be launching an Australian version of Kitchen Nightmares, which is helmed by Gordon Ramsay in the U.S. and Britain.

Bidding war: Both Network 10 and Channel Seven are keen to bag the British celebrity chef when she visits Australia next month, reports the Herald Sun. Pictured in London in June 2019

Both shows are currently casting, with Seven revealing it wants an international star to join longtime judge Manu Feildel on MKR.

In a recent interview, Seven's Director of Scheduling Brook Hall teased that Manu, 47, would be joined by 'some big international food stars'.

Filming of the rebooted reality series is set to take place from late April to late June.

Ties: While Nigella, 62, has made frequent appearances on 10's MasterChef (pictured) in the past, Seven is now offering plenty of cash to entice her to change sides

Meanwhile, Kitchen Nightmares has put a casting call out for a 'celebrity chef and restaurateur', with production scheduled from April until July.

On Monday, it was revealed that Nigella would be headlining the upcoming Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

The English food writer is due to fly to Australia for the event, which will run from March 25 until April 9.
Influencer couple Chloe Szepanowski and Mitchell Orval celebrated Valentine's Day and their six-year anniversary on Monday.

Chloe, 23, shared a photo to Instagram of her boyfriend, 25, cooking them a romantic dinner at home.

She also posted another image of herself and Mitchell posing in a backyard pool, alongside the caption: 'Six years with you.'

'Six years with you': Influencer couple Chloe Szepanowski and Mitchell Orval celebrated Valentine's Day and their six-year anniversary on Monday

It comes after Chloe and Mitchell sold their Gold Coast home three weeks before it was scheduled to go to auction.

The five-bedroom Broadbeach Waters property was set to go under the hammer on March 5, but Chloe announced on Friday afternoon it had sold to a mystery buyer.

It's unclear who bought the 267 Monaco Street address or how much they paid for it, but Chloe and Mitch had purchased the house just 12 months ago for $1.85million.

Night in: Chloe, 23, shared this photo to Instagram of her boyfriend, 25, cooking them a romantic dinner at home

Chloe confirmed the news by sharing a photo on Instagram of herself and property agent Mitch Lambert slapping a 'sold' sticker on the 'for sale' sign.

Mitchell watched on while carrying the couple's one-year-old son Arti.

The news comes a day after Mitchell told Realestate.com.au they were selling to take advantage of the booming property market.

That was quick! It comes after Chloe and Mitchell sold their Gold Coast home three weeks before it was scheduled to go to auction

'Sold': The five-bedroom Broadbeach Waters property (pictured) was set to go under the hammer on March 5, but Chloe announced on Friday afternoon it had sold to a mystery buyer

Done deal: Chloe (left) confirmed the news by sharing a photo on Instagram of herself and property agent Mitch Lambert (centre) slapping a 'sold' sticker on the 'for sale' sign. Mitchell (right) watched on while carrying the couple's one-year-old son Arti

The popular YouTuber also confirmed he and Chloe were looking for a new house together on the Coast.

'We've got our own personal lifestyle choices and have just decided to take advantage of the market and see what happens,' he said of the decision to sell.

Mitchell, who is the son of viral celebrity Mark 'Angry Dad' Orval, said he was first drawn to the home because of its 'old American style' and 'character'.

Renovation: Mitch said his pride and joy was the home cinema (pictured) - formerly an unused carport - which he renovated and fitted out with reclining chairs and rows of candy shelves

He revealed his pride and joy was the home cinema - formerly an unused carport - which he renovated and fitted out with reclining chairs and rows of candy shelves.

'It was actually my dream as a kid to have my own cinema in my house as I love watching movies,' he added.

Mr Lambert of Harcourts Coastal previously said of the listing: 'What better time than when the market is so buoyant for them to make a lifestyle change.'

'They are planning to stay local on the Gold Coast. They've got some really exciting projects coming up as a family,' he added.

He said Chloe and Mitchell extensively renovated the property while living there.

The two-storey house has five bedrooms, two of which are ensuite, four bathrooms and six toilets.

Entertaining guests is a breeze with spacious living areas, a gourmet kitchen with stone benchtops, and a sun-drenched outdoor area.

Delightful decor: Marketing agent Mitch Lambert previously revealed Chloe and Mitchell had extensively renovated the property while living there

From the loungeroom, French-style panelled doors open out to a poolside pavilion.

There is also a large balcony off the upstairs master suite, while another bedroom boasts views of the nearby park and skyline.

'It's a beautiful home in a very tightly-held enclave,' Mr Lambert said.

'The couple have stunning taste. They're quite young and their home presents in such a sophisticated style.'

Chloe has made headlines several times over the last year, mostly due to her controversial stance on Covid-19 vaccination.

Delightful: Entertaining guests is a breeze with spacious living areas, a gourmet kitchen with stone benchtops (pictured), and a sun-drenched outdoor area

Dream: The kitchen can be seen here from a different angle

Lovely: From the loungeroom, French-style panelled doors open out to a poolside pavilion

The Queensland model previously shared posts supporting the anti-lockdown 'Freedom rally' protests, and is also known to peddle vaccine misinformation and follows numerous anti-vax Instagram accounts.

There have also been unconfirmed reports in recent months that her relationship with Mitchell is on the rocks.

Chloe revealed in October they no longer sleep in the same bed.

Lavish: There is an outdoor entertaining area, plus a swimming pool (pictured)

'[Mitchell and I] sleep in separate rooms because we are around each other 24/7 and I like to sleep early,' the mother of one wrote on Instagram.

She continued: 'He likes to stay up late on crypto and watching YouTube, and it's good to have some space from each other when you both work from home.'

Chloe went on to defend their sleeping arrangement, saying: 'I don't think there needs to be a certain way relationships have to be.

'Everyone is different. It works the best for us.'

Speculation: There have been unconfirmed reports in recent months that Chloe's relationship with Mitchell is on the rocks. (The couple are pictured here with their son Arti)

Chloe's admission came weeks after the Outspoken podcast reported on growing speculation she and Mitchell had called time on their relationship.

Mitchell had sparked split rumours in September when he shared a cryptic quote on Instagram that read: 'Sometimes the universe's best way to add to your life is to subtract from it.'

He followed this with a photo of himself crying, which he captioned: 'You don't always have to be strong.

'Sometimes you need to scream, cuss, throw s**t or have a really good cry. But you always, always, always need to pull yourself back together, then go back to being the bada** you were meant to be.

'It's good to have some space': She raised eyebrows in October by confirming she and Mitchell sleep in separate rooms, but insisted it was due to their different sleep cycles

Speculating on the meaning behind this post, Outspoken co-host Amy Taeuber said: 'People are just jumping to assumptions that it is about his relationship with Chloe. I mean it really does seem like a cry for help.'

At the time, Chloe had also shared her own cryptic post, which read: 'Stop running away from yourself, as if being alone is the scariest thing that could happen.'

Amy pointed out that Chloe and Mitchell had been going through a 'tough time' after receiving backlash for their anti-vax views, which may have put a strain on their relationship.

'That can't have been good for them as a couple,' she said.

Cryptic: Mitchell had sparked split rumours in September when he shared a cryptic quote that read: 'Sometimes the universe's best way to add to your life is to subtract from it'

But on January 4, Chloe shared a defiant post confirming the duo were still together.

'Storms make trees take deeper roots,' she captioned a photo of the couple.

'We had some unexpected things take place to begin the year but all to make us root deeper and create stronger foundations for our lil family!

'Always a good mindset to have when you say its happening for you, not to you. Happy new year to all. I hope youve all been safe and well.'
An online petition to save long-running TV soap Neighbours from being cancelled has now surpassed 50,000 signatures.

It comes after British television network Channel 5, who foots most of the production bill, announced earlier this month it would no longer be funding the series - forcing production company Fremantle Media to find a new broadcaster.

Since then an online petition was created to save the series, calls have been made on the government to help fund the show, and fans have expressed their outrage at the axing on social media.

A hopeful sign: Petition to save beloved Aussie TV soap Neighbours from the axe has reached 50,000 signatures

'Our audience remains steady and Channel 10 would love the show to continue if we could find another broadcast partner to replace (Channel 5),' said executive producer Jason Herbison.

'These discussions are ongoing, however, there is no new broadcaster at the moment and production must end, effectively resting the show,' he continued.

The petition to save the soap was started only a week ago and has already passed 54,000 signatures at the time of this story being published.

Torn: Channel 10 has expressed its wish to continue airing the show in Australia, but Channel 5 has made it clear the series is not profitable and network bosses are no longer willing to fund it

Natalie Imbruglia is the latest in a long line of current of former Neighbours stars who have expressed their disappointment, concern, sadness and anger over the pending cancellation.

Speaking on Monday's Heart FM with Kelly Brook and JK, Natalie said: 'Oh I think its really sad! I mean, who wants life without Neighbours? Lets face it.'

Channel 5 only offered a one-year contract extension for Neighbours last year that will end mid-way through 2022.

The British network has made it clear the show is no longer profitable and network bosses are no longer willing to fund it.

Speaking out: Natalie Imbruglia is the latest in a long line of current of former Neighbours stars who have expressed their disappointment, concern, sadness and anger over the pending cancellation

It means Fremantle Media will now either have to make a new deal with Channel 5 that is more financially beneficial for the network or find a new broadcaster before the soap is dropped.

Channel 10 has still expressed its wish to continue airing the series in Australia, but without a UK broadcaster, the soap will likely be dropped.

The Neighbours production team is still on set and will be filming new episodes until June of this year.
Model Madeline Holtznagel has shared a sweet tribute to her billionaire boyfriend Justin Hemmes on Valentine's Day.

The 26-year-old star took to Instagram to share a rarely-seen photo of the pair looking loved-up on Monday.

A bikini-clad Madeline was seen kissing Justin in one photo, while in another the couple is pictured together on his seaplane.

Sweet: Model Madeline Holtznagel has shared rarely seen photos with billionaire boyfriend Justin Hemmes (both pictured) as she wished him a happy Valentine's Day on Monday

'Valentine's Day every day with you,' she captioned the photo.

The pair, who have been dating for some time, are notoriously private about their relationship.

The outing comes after Madeline received a stark warning over her relationship.

Warning: It comes after Madeline received a stark warning over her relationship. The couple are pictured together on May 13, 2021, in Sydney

Agents have reportedly been warning Madeline she could be missing important opportunities in the modelling industry because she is prioritising her relationship over her career.

'It's not like Madeline is going out with a Hemsworth,' one industry source told The Daily Telegraph.

'I don't think this relationship with Justin will have much of an impact on her career. If anything, she will be more known as a bit of a celebrity model as opposed to a fashion model.'

Loved-up: Madeline and Justin have been dating for some time, and she also spent lockdown at his Vaucluse mansion in 2020

Another source close to the couple said: 'It's all well and good now, but there might come a time when the relationship runs its course and she will need her modelling career, so she can support herself financially.'

Madeline and Justin have been dating for some time, and she also spent lockdown at his Vaucluse mansion in 2020.

She now reportedly lives in a Coogee penthouse he owns.

The couple have been spotted out and about in Sydney several times after confirming their romance.
Dr Chris Brown and Brooke Meredith appear to still be very much together.

The pair, who are rarely seen together, were spotted at Sydney Airport on Monday, with the television vet dropping his girlfriend off for a flight.

The 43-year-old helped the model, 29, unload the car as he parked alongside the curb at the drop off point.

Still on! Dr Chris Brown and Brooke Meredith appear to still be very much together. The pair, who are rarely seen together, were spotted at Sydney Airport on Monday, with the television vet dropping his girlfriend off for a flight. Both pictured

Brooke opted for a comfortably cool outfit consisting of white tank top that clung to her slender frame.

She paired it with pale blue jeans with frayed cuffs, as well as a pair of sneakers with white socks.

The beauty carried a designer handbag and shielded her face with sunglasses, while opting for minimal makeup.

Flight club: The 43-year-old helped the model, 29, unload the car as he parked alongside the curb at the drop off point

Looking good: Brooke opted for a comfortably cool outfit consisting of white tank top that clung to her slender frame

Brooke wore her brunette hair down around her face and appeared to have on minimal makeup.

Chris meanwhile chose a blue button-up shirt and dark skinny jeans, as well as a pair of boots.

He finished his look with sunglasses, and helpfully carried luggage for his love before getting back in the vehicle.

Details: She paired it with pale blue jeans with frayed cuffs, as well as a pair of sneakers with white socks. The beauty carried a designer handbag and shielded her face with sunglasses, while opting for minimal makeup

Romance: Reports surfaced Chris was dating leggy stunner Brooke in May 2020

Reports surfaced Chris was dating leggy stunner Brooke in May 2020.

According to Woman's Day magazine, the couple all-but-confirmed their romance when they were busted packing on the PDA while shopping for cleaning supplies at Bunnings Warehouse in Randwick, Sydney, in April.

'They looked very much like a couple,' an insider told the publication.

Chris and Brooke, who reportedly met through mutual celebrity friends, stayed in his Clovelly home during Sydney's lockdowns.

Success: Not only is Brooke a successful model, she is also the creator of health and wellness magazine, A Conscious Collection

It's not hard to see why Chris would be infatuated with the statuesque beauty.

Not only is Brooke a successful model, she is also the creator of health and wellness magazine, A Conscious Collection.

She also boasts more than a few celebrity pals, including Myer model Elyse Knowles, Nadia Bartel, Shanina Shaik and Rachael Finch.

Chris was previously in a relationship with Channel Ten personality, Liv Phyland.
Salma Hayek had a chic date night for Valentine's Day, enjoying a dinner at plush London restaurant Oswald's.

The actress, 55, was joined by her husband Francois-Henri Pinault, 59 for the cosy meal for two, which also marked their 13th wedding anniversary.

Salma looked gorgeous in a black leather skirt and red accessories as she was spotted leaving the date with her businessman husband.

Anniversary: Salma Hayek had a chic date night for Valentine's Day, enjoying a dinner at plush London restaurant Oswald's with her husband Francois-Henri Pinault

The star showed off her waist in the midi skirt which she teamed with a black collared jacket and a red silk scarf tied around her neck.

She added a slick of red lipstick to complete her Valentine's look.

Salma and Francois-Henri got engaged in 2007 and had their first daughter, Valentina, shortly afterwards. They married on Valentine's Day in 2009.

Stunning: Salma looked gorgeous in a black leather skirt and red accessories as she was spotted leaving the date with her businessman husband on their 13th wedding anniversary

Their marriage also made Hayek the step-mother of Pinault's three children which he has from three previous relationships.

24-year-old Francois, 21-year-old Mathilde and 15-year-old Augustin.

Salma came out with four movies last year titled House of Gucci, Eternals, Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard and Bliss.

Date night: The star showed off her waist in the midi skirt which she teamed with a black collared jacket and a red silk scarf tied around her neck

Salma and her husband recently returned from a tropical vacation, with the star sharing stunning selfies from the trip to her 20 million Instagram followers.

'#selfiesunday #nomakeup,' the Eternals actress captioned her bikini pic. Her skin looked ageless as she stared into the distance as the picture was taken.

The actress posted another shot of herself in the same bikini, leaning up against the rock behind her.

'If you forgot to make your new years resolutions, its still January. I made mine but Im adding to the list,' she captioned the post before repeating herself in Spanish.

Natural beauty: Salma and her husband recently returned from a tropical vacation, with the star sharing stunning selfies from the trip to her 20 million Instagram followers

Beautiful both ways! On the left she is seen with no makeup on and on the right the star is heavily made up for the 10th Annual LACMA Art + Film Gala 2021 held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in November 2021 in Los Angeles
Chloe Madeley is pregnant.

The model, 34, revealed she is expecting her first child - a baby girl - with her husband James Haskell in a sweet Instagram post on Tuesday.

In the announcement she shared a picture of her ultrasound as she posed with her mother Judy Finnigan, 73, and held up a pink onesie.

James also appeared on GMB - alongside Chloe's father Richard who was presenting - to make the announcement at the same time, where he joked he hopes the baby 'has her mother's looks' and said to Richard he would 'be a grandad once again'.

Happy news: Chloe Madeley is pregnant!

Family: In the announcement she shared a picture of her ultrasound as she posed with her mother Judy Finnigan, 73, and held up a pink onesie

Chloe looked thrilled in the snap posted to her social media while Judy beamed beside her.

In the slew of images uploaded she also shared an up close image of her ultrasound as well as a loved-up snap with former rugby union player James, 36, who she married in 2018.

She then showed off her growing bump in a series of selfies as she posed in grey underwear and a T-shirt at 11 weeks, before changing into a white flowery body suit for a snap taken at 14 weeks.

She captioned the images: 'Little one', and was quickly flooded with well-wishes and congratulations from her followers.

Exciting: The model, 34, revealed she is expecting her first child with her husband James Haskell with a sweet Instagram post on Tuesday

Bundle of joy: In the slew of snaps uploaded she also shared an up close image of her ultrasound

Growth: She then shared a series of images of her bump, and in one gave a glimpse at her changing shape as she posed in grey underwear and a T-shirt

James also appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday to announce the happy news, alongside Chloe's father James who was presenting.

He said: 'Chloe and I are expecting our first child, we're going to be having a little girl.'

He then turned to Richard, who is his father-in-law, and said, 'You are going to be a grandad once again.'

An image of the three-month scan then popped up on the screen and Richard added: 'That's the little girl. Looks like she's reading the paper!'

Yay! James also appeared on GMB to make the announcement at the same time, where he joked he hopes the baby 'has her mother's looks'

'Let's hope she has her mother's looks because if she looks anything like me, we're in a spot of bother.'

James and Chloe got married over the Christmas period in 2018.

They met in 2014 when James invited her to be the face of a female fitness supplement line and started dating shortly after.

They announced their engagement on April 8, 2018 - going public in a Hello! Magazine photoshoot.

Chloe revealed shortly afterwards that she was 'speechless' after he got down on one knee in Paris.

England and Wasps player Haskell revealed he designed the ring himself because he wanted it to be 'perfect and for her to love it'.

The couple have always been very open about their active sex life and last November James revealed he 'approaches sex like a competitive sport', despite being 'not sure [he's] very good at it.'

Love: James and Chloe got married over Christmas in 2018. They met in 2014 when James invited her to be the face of a female fitness supplement line and started dating shortly after

The retired sporting star said he's trying to improve on his bedroom skills with his wife Chloe having got some 'good reviews'.

He told The Sun: 'I end up taking everything very seriously. But I mean you want to be good at sex don't you?

'I'm not sure I'm very good at it, but I'm having a good go at trying to be better.'

James concluded: 'There's a lot of people out there having a lot of bad sex. I want to improve on it.'

Famous family: Chloe's father is TV presenter Richard Madeley (pictured together)

Writing in his new book Ruck Me, he asked: 'If you're lucky enough to see some progress in your performance and get some good reviews, why would you not carry on improving?'

Chloe has appeared on numerous shows including Big Brother's Big Mouth, Dancing on Ice and Channel 4's The Jump in 2016, where she finished in fifth place.

James is a former English Rugby Union player and has played for Maidenhead Rugby Club and Wasps RFC.

Last year James gushed in an interview about his wife, saying that she makes him a 'better person'.

'Chloe is amazing to me,' he said. 'I'm a much, much, much better person for being with her. She protects me from myself.

'She understands things and sees stuff in a different way and I think that's important because of all of our own personal experiences with the media and having the family that she has.

'Chloe's brilliant and intelligent, much more than I am.'

Fun: The couple have always been very open about their active sex life and last November James revealed he 'approaches sex like a competitive sport'

Chloe will no doubt seek some parenting advice from her father and mother.

The star revealed last year she gets advice from Richard if she's had a dispute with James.

She said: 'If I call my dad up and James and I have had an argument, he will counsel me through it.

Happy: Speaking on GMB with Chloe's father Richard, James said: 'Chloe and I are expecting our first child, we're going to be having a little girl'

'One of my biggest downfalls as a person is I find it hard to let things go and move on.

'So, my dad will always tell me, 'Let it go Chloe, this is ridiculous.' He'll put me in my place.

'But then at the same time, if he thinks James has done something wrong, he'll say, 'Stand your ground.' '
She recently compared herself to the late Princess Diana.

Yet Sharon Stone was spotted running some rather unroyal errands on Monday as she headed to pick up some new glasses.

The actress, 63, looked youthful as she was spotted paying a visit to optical retail chain Lens Crafters in Los Angeles.

Natural beauty: Sharon Stone, 63, looked youthful in distressed jeans as she paid a visit to optical retail chain Lens Crafters in Los Angeles on Monday

Sharon rocked a causal chic look donning a multi-coloured flower print shirt and some low-rise, baggy mom jeans with a wide turn up hem.

The screen star opted for a white relaxed fit T-shirt which she tugged neatly into her jeans showing off her svelte frame.

Making sure she was prepared for an afternoon on her feet, the former fashion model chose a pair of chunky white trainers to ensure comfort.

The blonde beauty, who is known for her striking pixie cut. styled her tresses softly on the day while wearing minimal makeup which drew attention to her youthful appearance.



Stylish: Sharon looked relaxed on the occasion, rocking a causal chic look donning a multi-coloured flower print shirt and some low-rise, baggy mom jeans with wide turn up hem

Sharon, who became one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the Nineties, recently revealed she has something in common with the late Princess Diana - who was the most famous woman in the world until her death in 1997.

The Basic Instinct actress told Rake magazine last week that the two were both hunted as they were followed by crowds of fans wherever they went.

'We got famous in the same generation,' said Sharon, who became a household name with 1992's film Basic Instinct. '

Anywhere one would go who was famous, like Diana, or me at that moment, is that hundreds if not thousands of people would show up everywhere you went.'

Comparison: Sharon, who became one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the Nineties, recently revealed she has something in common with the late Princess Diana (royal is pictured in 1995)

She added that fans came in person because it was before cell phones.

'So if I went to a restaurant, for example, by the time I was into the entree, there would be hundreds of people outside the restaurant,' added the Casino star.

The Playboy cover girl said this was the norm. 'Not sometimes, every time. Then it would take, like, an army of bodyguards to get me to the car to the point where this army of bodyguards is holding people back.

'I would have to let everybody else go for their own safety and be last so that I knew that no one was going to get hurt, and by the time I went I would have to dive headfirst through the small hole that was remaining to get into a car, and sometimes the bodyguard had to climb in through the window so as not to be sucked into a violent crowd.'

She continued: 'Sometimes crowds would pull the bumpers off the car, the rear-view mirrors, the license plates, sometimes the crowds would get on top of the car.

'And I would lay on the floor, and friends and a bodyguard would be on top of me, in the hope that the car wouldnt cave in,' added the mother of three.

In the same interview she talked about having to be obedient as a child.

Last year she revealed her harsh childhood in rural Pennsylvania where she was hit with a belt by her father and sexually assaulted by her grandfather in her bestselling book The Beauty Of Living Twice.

The blonde Hollywood bombshell explained more to writer Tom Chamberlin.

Struggles: In the same interview she talked about having to be obedient as a child and her tough upbringing in rural Pennsylvania

The looker shared that she was asked to be silent and be a good little girl even when things were terrible, and she felt that was far from healthy.

'To be expected to be the perfect one, the one that doesn't complain, the one that does everything exactly right all the time, and the one that will do it without any acknowledgement, is really boring,' she shared.

'To be the silent co-dependent shut-the-f**k-up girl is not a healthy role.

'All these I.Q. tests and all the stuff that I have done led [my father] to believe that I should be an architectural engineer. For him, for me to do something that relied on the way I looked or the way I presented myself was just appalling,' she noted.

In her book she noted that her father was crestfallen when she decided to become a model then actress, even though she was making far more money than her parents ever could.

Sharon has been working in movies since Woody Allen cast her in Stardust in 1980.
He recently welcomed his second child with Kylie Jenner.

Yet Travis Scott was enjoying a night off from daddy duties as he partied until the early hours at Dave and Busters in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

The rapper, 30, had started the evening at the screening of Kanye West's new documentary Jeen-Yuhs, and later attended a party that also saw Kim Kardashian lookalike Chaney Jones, Lil Baby, Gunna, Lil Kim and Swae Lee on the guest list.

Loving life: Travis Scott partied the night away at at Dave and Busters in Los Angeles on Sunday night while girlfriend Kylie Jenner stayed home with their newborn son Wolf

Chaney, who bears a striking resemblance to Kylie's elder sister Kim, wowed in a figure-hugging black jumpsuit with a low cut neckline that highlighted her ample cleavage.

The influencer donned a calf length wavy black wig and boosted her frame with a pair of towering stiletto boots.

Little is known about Kanye's new friend Chaney, aside from she is a model who boasts nearly 100k followers on Instagram, but she has been spotted hanging out with the likes of Kanye West and Kendall Jenner in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, Travis kept it casual in a graphic print T-shirt paired with green vinyl trousers.

Seeing double: Also at the party was Chaney Jones, who bears a striking resemblance to Kylie's elder sister Kim (pictured right in 2018) as she wowed in a figure-hugging black jumpsuit

Crew: The rapper, 30, had started the evening at the screening of Kanye West's Jeen-Yuhs, and kept the party going alongside the likes of Lil Baby, Gunna, Lil Kim and Swae Lee

Despite being out until 4am on Monday morning, the TKN hitmaker still showed up to shower Kylie with gifts for Valentine's Day.

The rapper doesn't live with his on/off girlfriend, but that didn't stop Kylie from decorating her lavish mansion.

Kylie shared a glimpse of her lavish Valentine's Day festivities which included a gingerbread house with a family of four.

Proud new parents: Travis welcomed his second child with on/off girlfriend Kylie earlier this month and the couple do not currently live together (pictured in 2021)

The sugary display featured a gingerbread family, standing proudly before their frosted house, with a 'Happy Valentines Day' banner decorating the front of their home.

The cookies obviously signified Kylie, Travis, their daughter Stormi, four, and the newest addition to their household, three-week-old son Wolf.

The house was surrounded by heart candies and decorated with frosted flowers, hearts, and a pink rooftop.

One of the photos showed a geometric pink teddy bear sitting upon a display of roses sent by her boyfriend.

Be mine! Kylie shared a glimpse of her lavish Valentine's Day festivities which included a gingerbread house of a family of four despite partner Travis not living with her

XOXO! Kylie was spreading the love around her home as she celebrated the special day with her family

Crazy for you! Kylie appeared to receive the floral display from Scott as she tagged him in a photo of the arrangement

Kylie and Travis welcomed the newest addition to their family three weeks ago, but are obviously in no hurry to cohabitate.

A source told PEOPLE: 'Kylie and Travis are happy together. He is working on new music, but is also around a lot. They still don't officially live together, but doing what works best for them.'

The insider added that the makeup mogul 'has help, but is also very hands-on' as a mother.
Brendan Cole is set to form Dancing On Ice's second same-sex partnership after his professional partner Vanessa Bauer tested positive for Covid.

As Vanessa, 25, is now unable to perform on Sunday's show, ex Strictly star Brendan, 45, picked male skater Brendyn Hatfield, 36, to step in and partner with him for Musicals Week.

It is the second time the show will see an all-male pairing after Steps' Ian 'H' Watkins and skater Matt Evers made history with their partnership in the 2020 series.

Brendyn was previously partnered with Rachel Stevens - but she was eliminated from the competition in week three.

Male partnership: Brendan Cole is set to form Dancing On Ice's second same-sex partnership and will skate with Brendyn Hatfield (right) after partner Vanessa Bauer tested positive for Covid

Isolation: Vanessa has been forced to withdraw from Sunday's Dancing On Ice while she isolates but said she is 'excited to see Brendan challenge himself with an incredible pro'

Vanessa's coronavirus scare is the latest in a string of setbacks for the show, after host Phillip Schofield and Bez also had to miss a week due to contracting the virus, while Rachel Stevens was absent from a show earlier on in the series due to a fractured wrist.

Vanessa said: 'I'm disappointed that I have tested positive for Covid and won't be able to perform with Brendan for Musicals Week.

'But I am excited that Brendan gets to skate and challenge himself with an incredible fellow pro and friend in Brendyn.

'I have no doubt they will absolutely smash this Sunday. I'm looking forward to returning to the competition to showcase more creative routines.'

Instead, Brendan will now perform Beggin' by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons from Jersey Boys with Brendyn.

Groundbreaking: It will be a poignant skate for the pair as they form an all male partnership, after Ian 'H' Watkins and Matt Evers made history in the 2020 series (pictured)

Skate: Brendan and Vanessa competed on Sunday's show, before she tested positive for Covid

Brendan said: 'I am absolutely gutted that Vanessa is unable to skate this weekend. I know she would have put together another fantastic routine.

'However, and with Vanessa's blessing I've been given an amazing opportunity to create something fantastic for Musicals Week with Brendyn.

'He's an exceptionally talented skater and I have no doubt we will be able to create something really special for the show! I can't thank him enough for stepping in.'

Meanwhile Brendyn said he is 'thrilled' to skate with the professional dancer.

He said: 'Vanessa is a brilliant choreographer and I've loved watching her and Brendan skate each week. I'm looking forward to putting together an exciting routine for this Sunday's show which I'm hoping will impress both the judges and viewers.'

Return: Brendyn, 36, was previously partnered with Rachel, who was sent home on February 6

Vanessa will return to the competition to skate with Brendan once she has completed her isolation period.

A Dancing On Ice spokesman said: 'Dancing On Ice has stringent protocols in place to ensure the health and safety of all our contributors and staff which are routinely monitored and updated to reflect the current guidelines.'

Last month, a show source said that the programme is open to same-sex pairings but base each year's decisions on discussions with the celebrities competing.

Their comments came after fans questioned why there weren't any same-sex pairings put together this year.

An insider revealed: 'As we showed last year, we do not restrict our cast pairings. We have discussions with all of the celebrities taking part, respecting each individual's decision on how they would like to participate on the show.'

Meanwhile, news of Vanessa's temporary replacement comes after host Phillip returned to the series on Sunday after completing his isolation.

Phillip shared a picture of him and Holly Willoughby together on his Instagram Stories ahead of the show, writing: 'Back together,' along with two heart emojis.

The star had been forced to watch Dancing On Ice from home the previous week and took to social media to cheer on Holly and replacement Stephen Mulhern, 44, who fronted the reality show in his absence.

Confessing he'd only just discovered the series is 'very good', he hilariously warned the In For A Penny star: 'Not too much fun Mulhern... I know where you live.'

Reunited: It comes after host Phillip returned to the series on Sunday after completing his isolation

Back in January, Bez (Mark Berry) also had to miss shows after he also tested positive for Covid-19.

He said at the time: 'I've had a positive test. I'm gutted because I'm going to be missing training but I'm looking forward to skating on the show again for Week Three and I'll be tuning at home and cheering on my mates who are skating this weekend.'

Meanwhile, Rachel was forced to miss a show after fracturing her wrist. She was later voted out of the competition.

Absent: Back in January, Bez (Mark Berry) had to miss shows after he also tested positive for Covid-19

On Sunday night, Love Island's Liberty Poole became the fourth celebrity to be sent home after taking a nasty tumble.

The Love Island star and her professional partner Joe faced off against Kye and and Tippy in Sunday's skate off, however three out of the show's four judges voted to send the latter through to week six.

However viewers were left unhappy that Liberty had been sent home over Bez - who performed a shaky routine and earned a score of just 19.5 - with one writing on social media: 'Absolutely ridiculous that Liberty left tonight. It's a popularity contest not based on skating.'
CANBERRA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- When the Lantern Festival is approaching, some Chinese students in the Australian capital Canberra celebrated with dances and performances of traditional musical instruments.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, they were not able to get together. Instead, they launched the online gala so that more students could watch.

"The lingering pandemic has prevented students here from going back to China. We planned for this online gala so that they had something to do, not feeling lonely on such a festive occasion," said Li Meng, founder of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Overseas Chinese Students Care Center Inc., the organizer of the event.

In the 40-minute video clip, students not only sang and danced, but also recited classic Chinese poems and filmed a show wearing traditional consumes.

One of the highlights was a concert of music from the TV drama Dream of the Red Chamber. Eight students dressed as characters in the story played different traditional musical instruments.

The Lantern Festival, on Tuesday, coincides with the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games. The Chinese embassy in Australia has provided gifts for 10 audiences, who will be selected randomly from those who left comments.

"The ACT Overseas Chinese Students Care Center last year organized a range of events, promoting Chinese culture while demonstrating the spirit of our young people," said Song Yanqun, minister-counselor for culture at the embassy, in the video, who also wished the students "happy Chinese New Year."

According to the 59-year-old Li Meng, the inspiration for founding such a center came from her son, who arrived in Australia 15 years ago as a middle school student.

The man later became a college teacher and met many overseas students, some of whom were Chinese.

"He told me that he felt sorry for those overseas students, who were so young but away from their families," Li said in an interview with Xinhua. "'Mom, do you remember how hard I was,' he asked me."

The center was registered three years ago and founded last year.

"There are many overseas students who couldn't travel back to China during the pandemic. Thus I would like to provide a place where they could get together, meeting new friends while doing activities with their own culture," she said.

There were regular lectures, usually about how to stay healthy and prevent coronavirus infection. They also set up a traditional costume society. The center attracts more than 100 students so far, according to Li.

Zhan Ziying is a student from the Australian National University, who became a member of the center following the introduction by a friend.

"I love the traditional costumes," she said. "At the center, I enjoy performing with other people. The center broadened my horizon, where we feel less lonely."

"During the pandemic, the center offers us a shelter, where we feel at home," said Liu Yize from the University of Canberra. "The lectures are helpful, and the speakers, who are consultants of the center, could help us resolve real problems."

"It is my wish that more students could come to the center and pass on love," he said. 
Kyle Sandilands revealed on Monday that he and fiancee Tegan Kynaston are expecting their first child.

Speaking on his KIIS FM radio show, the shock jock, 50, explained whether he would like a boy or girl.

He said he's hoping for 'either a girl or a little gay son', before praising his partner's 'beautiful, big, meaty t***ies' since becoming pregnant.

Baby love: Kyle Sandilands revealed on Monday that he and fiancee Tegan Kynaston are expecting their first child. Speaking on his KIIS FM radio show, the shock jock, 50, explained whether he would like a boy or girl. Both pictured

The couple learned Kynaston, 36, was expecting last week.

'We're having a baby!' Sandilands declared on his radio show, as the entire KIIS FM studio cheered.

Sandilands said his manager, Bruno Bouchet, had to deflect questions from reporters after Kynaston was seen sporting a slight bump in public on February 2.

Daddy dearest: He said he's hoping for 'either a girl or a little gay son', before praising his partner's 'beautiful, big, meaty t***ies' since becoming pregnant. The couple learned Kynaston, 36, was expecting last week

He then joked he plans to hire a 'dozen Fijian nannies' once the baby is born.

Kynaston, who is three months pregnant, also revealed her fiance had been busy preparing for their child's arrival, even helping pick out cribs.

Sandilands and Kynaston, who got engaged in Queensland over the Christmas holidays, began trying for a baby last year.

Happy engagement: Sandilands and Kynaston, who got engaged in Queensland over the Christmas holidays, began trying for a baby last year

The former Australian Idol judge confirmed in December he had been given the 'all-clear' after undergoing fertility testing.

He told Daily Mail Australia: 'I was really nervous [about the fertility test] until it came back saying, "Yep, it's all great, everything's fine."

'[Tegan] is all good, obviously. She's a young and healthy woman. So it's good to know that everything's fine in that area so it won't interfere with any future plans.'
She's known for being a body confidence advocate.

And on Monday, Hayley Hasselhoff, 29, looked red hot as she hosted a Galentine's dinner in Beverly Hills for some of her best friends to celebrate Valentine's Day.

The plus-size model, who's the daughter of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, 69, wore an elegant red one shoulder floor length gown which showcased her famous figure.

Wow: Hayley Hasselhoff, 29, looked red hot as she hosted a Galentine's dinner in Beverly Hills for some of her best friends in Los Angeles on Monday

She accessorised with some long elbow sheer red gloves that were an impeccable match for the stand out look.

The elegant number was neatly designed with some pockets which Hayley showed off in the stunning pictures.

Her blonde hair was styled poker straight which fell softly down onto her back.

Wow: Dressed to impress, the elegant number flowed flawlessly on the blonde beauty's figure while showcasing her killer waist

Going all out for the occasion, the American actress dazzled as she applied some rhinestones around her eyes which highlighted her flawless beauty.

Just last year Hayley revealed in an interview with You Magazine that her childhood was marred with mental health issues.

The Playboy cover star was born to David and his then-wife Pamela Bach, 57, while her father was at the height of his fame.

Despite a seemingly idyllic upbringing in the upscale Encino, LA, Hayley proves that money can't always buy happiness and, by the time she was 11, was being bullied because of her size.

I had social anxiety and it was physically paralysing to go to school,' she said.

'I started a new school and got the whole, Youre a fat girl," because I was developing a bust and wearing a bra at such an early age.'

Growing up in Hollywood, she said, made matters worse and forced her to form thick skin. It was an environment where everyone strove to fit in rather than stand out'.

Sparkling: Going all out for the occasion, the American actress dazzled as she applied some rhinestones around her eyes which highlighted her flawless beauty

'There were times in my life, dark days, where I would blame my body for my lack of love. I would say: Im not finding the right person because they dont want a plus-size girl,"' she recalled.

Body image and mental health go hand in hand. This past year has brought a lot of clarity and allowed me to speak about things Ive never spoken openly about, like anxiety, panic attacks and depression.

Theres no doubting that Hayley is in a much better place these days and has graced the cover of Playboy.
He was recently dubbed a 'feminist' by girlfriend Zoe Kravitz for his work on the Magic Mike film series.

And now Channing Tatum has insisted that the third movie in the installment will break away from any 'lame' and 'traditional' aspects with a brand new focus.

Appearing via video link on Tuesday's episode of Lorraine, the 41-year-old actor revealed the saucy movies will be getting a woke reboot - noting it was important to include a female in a lead role after the first two movies focused on men.

Now Magic Mike goes woke! Channing Tatum insisted the third film won't be a 'lame' stripper movie and will feature a female lead as he appeared on Tuesday's episode of Lorraine

He said of the upcoming Magic Mike's Last Dance: 'We are going global with this one. It is important for me to have a love story in it too.

'The first two movies are about men but are made for woman, but now we should have a central character in it that has an equal partner.'

He added: 'Look, I would not want to do this unless we can really want to take the gloves off. I didn't want to do a third movie unless we could truly break out of the traditional stuff of those movies. It doesn't have to be lame. It can be cool.'

Screen star: The 41-year-old actor revealed the saucy movies will be getting a woke reboot - noting it was important to include a female in a lead role (pictured in the 2015 sequel)

Channing will reprise his role as stripper Mike Lane and is reuniting with director Steven Soderbergh for Magic Mike's Last Dance.

The duo - who worked together on the original film in 2012 - will once again be joining forces with writer Reid Carolin for the film franchise loosely based on Channing's career as an 18-year-old stripper in Tampa, Florida.

The original 2012 film's all-star cast included Matthew McConaughey, Riley Keough, Joe Manganiello, Alex Pettyfer and Olivia Munn.

Its sequel, Magic Mike XXL, was released in 2015, and also featured Jada Pinkett Smith, Donald Glover, Andie MacDowell, Amber Heard and Elizabeth Banks.

Channing said: 'I didn't want to do a third movie unless we could truly break out of the traditional stuff of those movies. It doesn't have to be lame. It can be cool'

The two films were a smashing success as they grossed nearly $300million worldwide.

Fans obviously couldn't get enough as the films inspired live stage show Magic Mike Live which launched in Las Vegas before expanding internationally in London, Berlin, and Australia.

A plot synopsis and release date have yet to be announced for Magic Mike's Last Dance, although it has been confirmed that the movie will not be shown in theaters but instead on streaming platform HBO Max.

Iconic: Channing will reprise his role as stripper Mike Lane and is reuniting with director Steven Soderbergh for Magic Mike's Last Dance

Channing's interview comes after his girlfriend Zoe gushed about the actor in a chat with Elle magazine.

She said: 'Looking at his work and hearing him speak about Magic Mike and the live show, I'm like, I think he's a feminist.

'You need to be so far from who this is, where it's not scary. And I don't think we've ever seen him play someone dark. I'm excited to see him do that.'

Channing and Zoe have been dating since last summer and made their relationship public when they left the Met Gala together in September.

Channing was previously married to actress Jenna Dewan for nearly nine years before divorcing in 2019. They share a daughter; eight-year-old Everly.

Zoe has also been married, finalising her divorce from Karl Glusman last August after two years of marriage.
Molly-Mae Hague stars in a new glam shoot for PrettyLittleThing.

The creative director of the brand shows off her modelling skills for the London-set shoot, which sees her don a racy nude mini dress and sporty crop tops.

The shoot celebrates a new collection from the brand and Molly-Mae, who is coming into the final months of her year-long Creative Director contract. a title with a seven-figure salary.

Coming soon: Molly-Mae Hague wows in a new glam shoot for PrettyLittleThing. The creative director of the brand shows off her modelling skills for the London-set shoot

The new photos show the Love Island star, 22, posing in a chic bar, reclining on a velvet banquette in a stunning nude mini dress.

The dress shows off the blonde's incredible figure with its plunging neckline and high hemline.

Another shot shows Molly-Mae outside a London telephone booth, this time in a tiny blue crop top layered under a baby blue shirt and nude waistcoat and shorts.

Looking fab: The shoot celebrates both a new collection and a fresh initiative from the fast fashion brand to improve its sustainability

Style queen: Molly models her new collection in the images, with the garments to be revealed with a fashion show in central London on Wednesday night

Molly models her new collection in the images, with the garments to be revealed with a fashion show in central London on Wednesday night.

'It's really different,' the star said of her new line. 'It looks very high-end and I think we want to give our customer the opportunity to shop those looks  that London city girl wardrobe  on a budget, because obviously, our customer has a budget,' she added.

Molly-Mae's contract as EU Creative Director with PrettyLittleThing will expire in August, but the star doesn't see 'why it won't continue.'

'This fashion show is going to show everyone what we're doing in my role, which I'm really excited about. There's been a lot of unanswered questions, and this catwalk will display exactly what I've been doing the last six months because it's taken that long to plan it,' she said.

Selling off her wardrobe: The new shoot also coincides with a fresh direction for the brand, which is venturing into secondhand trading

Working hard: Molly-Mae's contract as EU Creative Director with PrettyLittleThing will expire in August, but the star doesn't see 'why it won't continue'

The new shoot also coincides with a fresh direction for the brand, which is venturing into secondhand trading with the launch of an online marketplace that allows users to sell used items from PrettyLittleThing and elsewhere later this year, with proceeds going to charity.

Molly-Mae revealed her excitement at the plan in an interview with WWD.

'There is so much in my wardrobe at home that I don't wear anymore. Stuff that people can't get hold of. I still get messages saying 'I'm desperate for this blazer.' People now will have the second opportunity to shop for those things that they can't get anymore,' she added.

Wow! Molly-Mae flashed her bronzed legs in a brown snakeskin shorts and an oversized blue shirt at the PrettyLittleThing fashion show rehearsals in London on Tuesday

Hot stuff: She continued her ensemble with an oversized baby blue shirt

The launch follows accusations of poor labor practices and lack of health and safety regulations, with both PrettyLittleThing and its parent company Boohoo Group are taking their steps toward transparency and more sustainable and ethical production.

Her new fashion ventures follows Molly-Mae's announcement last week that she has written an autobiography, despite being only 22 years old.

She took to Instagram on Thursday and revealed the book, priced at 20, is called 'Becoming Molly-Mae: My Story'.

Fashion forward: She layered the number beneath a grey trench coat while elevating her height with black lace-up heels

Sweet: Clutching a coordinating handbag, the influencer accessorised her look with a delicate silver chain necklace featuring her boyfriend Tommy Fury's first name

In a video message, Molly-Mae said she takes oversharing 'to a new extreme' in the book which features stories she has previously only told to close friends.

She said: 'I have been keeping a huge project, a little secret, from you guys for well over a year now...and today is finally the day that I can finally speak about what it is...

'I can't believe I am about to show this to you guys...so I have written my very own book. This is Becoming Molly-Mae, my first ever book.'

She continued: 'And it is literally, this is my baby, we have honestly put so many months of work into this book you have no idea and it's been such a journey and such an adventure, venturing into this whole new world of writing a book, it is something that I have always, always wanted to do.'
Tom Cruise lived up to his action man status as he piloted his own helicopter to touch down in South Africa on Monday.

The Hollywood heavyweight, 59, gave a friendly wave to cameras as he arrived to film scenes for Mission: Impossible 8 in Hoedspruit, Limpopo.

Work on the eighth instalment began last year, following a turbulent production for M:I 7, which has demanded an unprecedented $290million outlay.

Impression: Tom Cruise lived up to his action man status as he piloted his own helicopter to touch down in South Africa on Monday

It is thought Tom and the Mission Impossible crew will stay in the northernmost province of South Africa for the next two months, with Blyde River Canyon providing a beautiful backdrop for the film's setting.

Tom looked effortlessly cool in a navy polo neck and donned his signature pair of aviators.

After touching down, the Top Gun star headed over to his shuttle vehicle to take him to his lodgings.

Nerves of steel: Tom, who is famous for doing his own stunts, showed off his skill as he landed the helicopter

Thumbs up: The Hollywood heavyweight, 59, gave a friendly wave to cameras as he arrived in to film scenes for Mission: Impossible 8 in Hoedspruit in Limpopo

The production of the eighth installment so far has experienced a few difficulties during location shoots across England.

It has been reported two yellow biplanes arrived in the area last week. Tom practiced a death-defying jump at Duxford Airfield in Cambridge back in November.

Pictures taken at the time showed the actor hanging upside down from the wing of a World War II Boeing B75N1 Stearman biplane.

Tom had been taking flying lessons at the airfield in preparation for exhilarating scenes and was seen climbing out of the bright yellow biplane as it soared to 2000 feet.

Filming: It is thought Tom and the Mission Impossible crew will stay for the next two months, with Blyde River Canyon providing the perfect film backdrop

Delays: Mission: Impossible 7 is set for release on July 7, 2023, following a turbulent production which has demanded an $290million outlay, with the eighth installment due 2024

The Hollywood actor, dressed in a brown jumpsuit and helmet, was then seen bravely clinging onto the wing of the 80-year-old aircraft as it performed a nosedive and an array of aerobatics in a jaw-dropping stunt.

Mission: Impossible 7 is set for release on July 7, 2023, following a turbulent production which has demanded an unprecedented $290million outlay.

One notable factor in the film's enormous budget has been the global pandemic, which swept across mainland Europe shortly after principal photography got underway in Venice in February 2020.

Arrival: After touching down, the Top Gun star headed over to his shuttle vehicle to take him to his lodgings

Action man: It has been reported two yellow biplanes arrived in the area last week, with Tom practicing a death-defying jump at Duxford Airfield in Cambridge back in November

Lockdown and a desperate attempt to work around COVID-19 resulted in the production enduring an inauspicious start - with cast and crew forced to stop work after Northern Italy closed its doors.

Sources claim constant infections, coupled with national health restrictions and the pandemic's refusal to die down resulted in more costs, because crew members needed to be paid, given expenses and offered hotel accommodation during extended quarantine and lockdown periods.

Meanwhile the film's release date has been subject to change, with its original September 2021 launch pushed back to July 2022, with Paramount citing 'delays due to the ongoing pandemic.'

The wait adds interest to an already overblown budget while having a domino effect on work-in-progress Mission: Impossible 8, which is now expected to launch on July 24 2024 instead of its intended release date, July 7 2023.

Wow: The actor was seen filming the death-defying stunt at Duxford Airfield in Cambridge this week, with the 1941 Boeing B75N1 Stearman biplane performing a stomach-churching loop

The relentless pressure to finish the film may well have been the catalyst for Cruise's high-profile meltdown on set in December 2020 after a crew-member breached COVID protocol - putting the production in further jeopardy.

'We are the gold standard!' A frazzled Cruise is heard yelling in a recording of the incident. 'Theyre back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us!

'Im on the phone with every f***ing studio at night, insurance companies, producers, and theyre looking at us and using us to make their movies. We are creating thousands of jobs... we are not shutting this motherf***ing movie down. Is that understood?'

Sources claim there were further issues in 2021, when Paramount were confronted with a bill for $50million in overages, caused by co-producer Skydance declining to exceed their pre-agreed contractual requirement regarding financial contributions.
Blonde bombshell Scarlett Johansson has become a jewelry model this year.

The Marriage Story actress is the first female celebrity spokesperson for the high end jewelry company David Yurman that was launched in the 1980s and is best known for its signature twisted silver designs.

'Growing up in New York, I've always felt connected to David Yurman,' the Match Point star told People on Tuesday. 'The Yurmans and their designs always embodied New York for me  bold, fresh and just a bit of edge.'

New job: Blonde bombshell Scarlett Johansson has become a jewelry model this year. The Marriage Story actress is the first female celebrity spokesperson for the high end jewelry company David Yurman that was launched in the 1980s

New York state of mind: 'Growing up in New York, I've always felt connected to David Yurman,' the Match Point star told People on Tuesday. 'The Yurmans and their designs always embodied New York for me  bold, fresh and just a bit of edge

The Black Widow star added, 'When Evan [Yurman] approached me with this opportunity and shared his vision for the campaign, I already felt so linked to the brand that it was a natural fit.'

And she enjoyed shooting the commercial in NYC.

'New York is unstoppable. Being a New Yorker means knowing how to hail a taxi from the opposite side of the street,' Johansson told the site.

She is linked to the brand: The Black Widow star added, 'When Evan [Yurman] approached me with this opportunity and shared his vision for the campaign, I already felt so linked to the brand that it was a natural fit'

A go go go city: And she enjoyed shooting the commercial in NYC. 'New York is unstoppable. Being a New Yorker means knowing how to hail a taxi from the opposite side of the street,' Johansson told the site

Joining the 37-year-old beauty is 35-year-old Henry Golding who is best known for the film Crazy Rich Asians.

In the new commercial for David Yurman, Scarlett is seen as a movie star, being photographed in her black top and bold gold necklace as she leaves a New York City hotel.

Then she spends time in her hotel room as she wears various items from Yurman like bold necklaces and heavy bangle bracelets.

Closer look: In the new commercial for David Yurman, she is seen in a hotel room

The skyline says it all: And she wears white as she stands in the modern room

Casual but glam all at once: The Hollywood siren wore a lavender cap with a white T-shirt

She shines: And the star had on silver earrings with a matching necklace and four bracelets

She is seen dancing with a man in the hotel bar and then she flashes a big diamond engagement ring.

The cover girl goes casual as well in a light lavender cap and a crisp white shirt as she wears the baubles while dining al fresco with friends.

'Introducing our new campaign Come Closer with Scarlett Johansson, a born-and-bred New Yorker.

Fame game: Scarlett is seen as a movie star, being photographed in her black top and bold gold necklace as she leaves a New York City hotel

'Shot in our hometown of New York City, the campaign celebrates the joy of closeness and connectioncapturing the everyday beauty of the city we love,' says the caption to the commercial.

Scarlett told People that she loved shooting the commercial in Manhattan.

Henry was happy to work with Yurman as well.

Dance the night away: The Horse Whisperer actress is also seen dancing with a man

Hotel bar: And the red carpet favorite was also seen alone at the hotel bar

'Putting on a ring or a bracelet makes me feel unique, and is an expression of how I'm feeling that day,' he said. 'There's nothing better than getting ready for an evening out and putting on something that makes you feel like a million dollars.'

The shoot was by Lachlan Bailey.

The ad was overseen by company president, Evan Yurman, who is the son of DY creators David and Sybil Yurman.

In real life, Scarlett is wed to SNL star Colin Jost and together they have a child. She also has a daughter from a previous marriage.
Corrie star Sam Aston's wife Briony has revealed that she will still be breastfeeding her son Sonny at 21 months when her baby daughter is born in May.

The pregnant yoga teacher, 27, - who married Chesney Brown actor Sam in 2019 - told on Tuesday's Loose Women how their 'age gap will be closer than planned'.

The childhood sweethearts revealed during their pregnancy announcement last December that it was a surprise to find out they were expecting again so soon.

Parents: Corrie star Sam Aston's wife Briony has revealed that she will still be breastfeeding son Sonny at 21 months when her baby daughter is born in May

Speaking on daytime TV on Tuesday where she showed off her blossoming baby bump in a pink dress, Briony explained: 'I plan on breast feeding Sonny for as long as he wants. I might still be when I have the next one.

'I plan on just taking it as it comes, but I definitely don't want to put in place stopping breast feeding him before the baby comes or around when the baby comes. It's their mummy before anyone else's so it has to be like that.'

Their first child Sonny will be 21 months old by the time their baby daughter is born in late Spring.

Busy: The pregnant yoga teacher, 27, - who married Chesney Brown actor Sam in 2019 - told on Tuesday's Loose Women how their 'age gap will be closer than planned' (pictured shortly after Sonny was born)

During the TV appearance, Sam gushed about becoming a father for the second time.

He said: 'The new baby is due in May and it's a girl! We will have one of each, so it will be a bit of competition for Sonny. One day he will wake up and think 'oh there's a baby', he won't know what to do!'

'The pregnancy was a wonderful surprise, it was a closer age gap than we planned but we know lots of people who can't so we just thought let's do it.'

Mum: Speaking on daytime TV on Tuesday where she showed off her blossoming baby bump in a pink dress, Briony explained: 'I plan on breast feeding Sonny for as long as he wants'

During the chat Sam also addressed whether he has any plans to leave Coronation Street for a new challenge, after 19 years on the ITV soap.

He said: 'I've had so many storylines that have been so good, I'm not entertaining the idea of anything else right now.'

Last December the pair revealed they were expecting a baby girl.

Sam told OK! magazine: 'I could see us having another boy, so it was a really nice surprise. I was quite shocked.

Relaxed: She added: 'I plan on just taking it as it comes, but I definitely don't want to put in place stopping breast feeding him before the baby comes or around when the baby comes'

'I don't know why, because it's a 50/50 chance! We booked an early gender reveal 4D scan at a place called Instascan 4D Baby in Padiham.

'There are twins in Briony's family, so when we went in I was a bit nervous and said, "There's definitely only one in there, right?'" He said, "There's only one!" and then told us it was a girl!'

The couple hadn't been planning to have another child so soon but now they are happy to be having kids that will be close in age.

Briony said the couple were trying 'not' to get pregnant because Sonny was born premature and she worried there could be a risk of another premature birth so soon after having him.

Sam added that Sonny was planned while this pregnancy was a total surprise.

And while Sam thought their family would be 'complete' with a boy and a girl, his wife has other ideas.

Briony told how Sam tried to give her a fist bump for completing their family after they found out they were having a girl but she told him just because they'll have one of each, doesn't mean the family is done.

The couple previously revealed that it was 'a bit of a shock' and 'stressful' when their first little one arrived early.

Adorable: Last December the pair revealed they were expecting a baby girl with this sweet picture of their son Sonny

Speaking to OK! the pair told how the yoga instructor stayed in hospital for nine days after her labour while her little one was tube fed and recovered from jaundice.

Sam said: 'It was a bit of a shock for me. Everyone at work knew he wasn't due until September.'

Briony added: 'It was hard at the time but looking back now I'd do it all again tomorrow. It was so nice to get home though.'

Their situation was made even more difficult due to the fact that Sam was only allowed to visit the pair in hospital for one hour a day due to the pandemic.

Sam explained: 'An hour felt like 10 minutes, especially early on as Briony was emotional as I was trying to be there and spend time with Sonny.'

Briony added that having time constraints on their time together was the most 'stressful' part and that she would usually 'sob for an hour' and then Sam would have to leave.

The couple added that his development has caught up in the last year and his breathing has returned to normal.

Surprise: Briony has previously said the couple were trying 'not' to get pregnant because Sonny was born premature and she worried there could be a risk of another premature birth so soon after having him

Sam and Briony tied the knot in 2019, two years after the couple announced their engagement.

The couple first announced they were expecting a boy when speaking with OK! magazine, saying: 'We're having a boy!

'It was a massive surprise when we found out, as there are loads of girls in our families, so we were adamant we were having a girl.'

The new mother often shares insights into her life and how she is coping with the arrival of her son.
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Kanye West has admitted that his recent behavior towards estranged wife Kim Kardashian 'came off' as him 'harassing' the reality star.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, the 44-year-old rapper pledged to work on his communication after he posted a series of screenshots that contained threats directed at Kim's boyfriend Pete Davidson.

'I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability,' the rapper stated in a lengthy mea culpa.

Kanye also sparked concern when he posted an image of a truck full of roses arriving at Kim's house in LA, which many divorce experts on social media claimed was a sign of 'post-separation abuse.'

Kanye West admits to HARASSING ex Kim Kardashian: Rapper promises to 'work on his communication' after sending estranged wife roses and threatening her boyfriend Pete Davidson

The rapper wrote in his Instagram post: 'I've learned that using all caps makes people feel like I'm screaming at them. I'm working on my communication.'

'I can benefit from a team of creative professionals, organizers, mobilizers and community leaders. Thank everybody for supporting me.'

'I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability. I'm still learning in real time. I dont have all the answers. To be good leader is to be a good listener.'

Over: Kim filed for divorce from Kanye on February 19, 2021, after six years of marriage

The backtrack comes a day after he shared screenshots from Kim where she pleaded with him to stop putting her current beau Pete, 28, in danger.

It also follows him turning up at her home in Los Angeles with a truck full of red roses for Valentine's Day, despite Kim clearly moving on in a new relationship.

The Grammy-winning artist shared a shot from the 2001 film Baby Boy on Monday, in which Ving Rhames puts Tyrese Gibson in a violent chokehold, writing, 'UPON MY WIFES REQUEST PLEASE NOBODY DO ANYTHING PHYSICAL TO SKETE IM GOING TO HANDLE THE SITUATION MYSELF.'

He posted a series of screenshot of texts from Kim saying he was making things uncomfortable for the SNL star.

In the texts, Kardashian said, West was 'creating a dangerous and scary environment and someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault,' later saying, 'There are dangerous people out there and this is scary and it doesn't have to be.'

The Can't Tell Me Nothing rapper replied to his estranged wife via text, 'I will always do everything to protect you and our family forever. And I listened to you and told everyone to make sure nothing physical happens to Skete.'

In a subsequent post, Kardashian asked the Heartless vocalist why he couldn't keep any of their conversations private, to which he responded, 'Cause I got a text from my favorite person in the world.'

The Bound 2 rapper continued to Kardashian, 'I'm your number one fan ... Why wouldn't I tell everyone!!!!'

'MY VISION IS KRYSTAL KLEAR': Kanye West attempted to win back his ex Kim Kardashian with a grand gesture on Valentine's Day amid their feud

Attempting to win her over: The delivery came hours after the rapper declared his love for Kim and their four children following news of his split from girlfriend Julia Fox

In his attack on Sunday, West called Davidson a 'd***head' and shared a screengrab of his private text to him.

The comedian had texted the rapper: '...you as a man I'd never get in the way of your children. That's a promise. How you guys go about raising your kids is your business and not mine. I do hope [some] day I can meet them and we can all be friends.'

West - who suffers from bipolar disorder - shared a snap of Pete with his friend Machine Gun Kelly in their underwear captioned: 'No you will never meet my children.'

He had 'no comment' about a rumor that Ariana Grande ended her four-month engagement to Davidson over him allegedly sending intimate photos of the pair to her ex Mac Miller before his 2018 death.

Worrying: Kanye shared a shot from the 2001 film Baby Boy in which Ving Rhames put Tyrese Gibson in a chokehold, writing, 'UPON MY WIFES REQUEST PLEASE NOBODY DO ANYTHING PHYSICAL TO SKETE IM GOING TO HANDLE THE SITUATION MYSELF'

Damage control: Kanye then followed up his apology post with this comment about leading with 'love'

West seemed especially outraged that the Staten Island native - who's in the process of lasering off all 100 of his tattoos - once had his 'hero' Hillary Clinton inked on his calf.

'When I tag people I'm just putting together the web. There are a group of people who run media and the election. Thank god for free speech.

'Look at this d***head. I wonder if Instagram gonna shut down my page for dissing [Hillary] Clinton's ex boyfriend.'

Tense: Kim Kardashian was pictured in LA on Valentine's Day as her estranged husband Kanye West was causing her heartache and fear with unwanted romantic gestures and social media attacks

Heartache: The star was seen clutching her phone on the same day the rapper was posting 'scary' threats towards Pete Davidson and delivering an truckload of roses to her home

Focused on family: The reality star was joined by her daughter North, 7, who was dressed in matching pink in honor of the day

Carrying on regardless: Kim and North were seen going about their day amid the latest drama

Triple threat: Kim was seen showing off her latest eye-catching ensemble while out with her child

Family affair: Kim and North were accompanied by Kourtney's daughter Penelope

West added: 'Y'all seen that tattoo but if I speak up then I'm crazy. I told you not going to use that one no more when a garbage man goes to work he gonna smell like trash but it's time to take the trash out the house...You can Google the Hillary thing I'm not making this s*** up.'

West earlier Monday attempted to win back his ex Kardashian with a grand gesture on Valentine's Day amid their feud.

The rapper sent a massive arrangement of red roses to her house in a truck branded, 'MY VISION IS KRYSTAL KLEAR.'

Exchange: In the texts, Kardashian said, West was 'creating a dangerous and scary environment and someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault,' later saying, 'There are dangerous people out there and this is scary and it doesn't have to be'

The delivery came hours after the rapper declared his love for Kim and their four children following news of his split from girlfriend Julia Fox.

The rapper has previously threatened to 'beat Pete Davidson's a**' on a recent song from his upcoming album Donda 2.

His apology on Instagram comes as he received fierce backlash online from many divorce and relationship experts that claimed his behavior was a sign of 'abuse' towards Kim.

Private exchange: West called Davidson a 'd***head' and shared a screengrab of his private text to him during his social media tirade

Date night! The couple brushed off West's wild social media attacks as they enjoyed a night out on Sunday

Shocking: Kanye - who suffers from bipolar disorder - shared a pantsless snap of Pete (R) with his friend Machine Gun Kelly (L) captioned: 'No you will never meet my children'

Civil rights activist Shaun King posted a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday, claiming he believed West had 'crossed a line into abuse.'

Dr Charlotte Proudman, a Barrister, tweeted: 'This is what post-separation abuse looks like. Using children as a pawn to manipulate, control and threaten a parent.'

Child safety advocacy group Custody Peace also tweeted: 'Dear world. This is abuse. #KanyeWest continues to deliberately choose behaviors that have the potential to break the mental calm of the mother of his children & therefore the mental calm of his children. This should be unacceptable to EVERYONE.'

Backlash: Many took to social media to call out the rapper for his 'abusive' behaviour towards Kim

Hard feelings: Kid Cudi recently snapped at a photographer who asked him a question about West's behavior while leaving Super Bowl LVI on Sunday
Hilary Duff announced that How I Met Your Father had been renewed for a second season through a post that was shared to her Instagram account on Tuesday morning.

The 34-year-old performer was seen posing for a photo with several of her castmates, such as Christopher Lowell and Francia Raisa, while they worked on the program in the snap.

She also wrote a short message in the post's caption that partially read: 'You'll be seeing more great chapters in this love story because #HIMYF has been renewed for Season 2!'

Back for more! Hilary Duff announced that How I Met Your Father had been renewed for a second season through a post that was shared to her Instagram account on Tuesday morning

How I Met Your Father serves as a spinoff from the wildly popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which ran from 2005 until 2014.

The program, which starred performers such as Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel and was narrated by the late Bob Saget, was centered on a group of friends navigating their lives in New York City.

A pilot entitled How I Met Your Dad, which was co-written by and starred Greta Gerwig, was produced shortly after the original show ended, although it was ultimately not picked up by any network.

It was later reported that Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who co-created the new series, would be working on a new version of the spinoff.

Keeping it going: How I Met Your Father serves as a spinoff from the wildly popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which ran from 2005 until 2014

The original show's creators, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, gave their blessings to the project and signed on to work as executive producers.

Several new writers were brought on to work on the new version of the program, although production appeared to stall in 2017.

However, it was announced that Hulu had revived the show and gave the project a series order last year.

It was also made known to the public that Duff would both star in the show and serve as one of its producers.

Dual roles: It was also made known to the public that Duff would both star in the show and serve as one of its producers

Much of the program's cast, which also includes performers such as Suraj Sharma, and Tien Tran, was brought together that year.

It was announced that Kim Cattrall would serve as the show's narrator and that she would portray an older version of Duff's character, Sophie, that November.

Production on the show began in August of last year and continued for an extended period of time.

How I Met Your Father's pilot was released last month and new episodes are making their respective debuts on a weekly basis.

Going public: How I Met Your Father's pilot was released last month and new episodes are making their respective debuts on a weekly basis

The show has since received mixed reviews from audiences and currently holds a 35% rating with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

The news about the show's renewal was made known to the public on Tuesday, and Hulu Originals' Head of Scripted Content, Jordan Helman, issued a statement via Deadline where he praised the work of Aptaker and Berger.

'Isaac and Elizabeth's inspired vision for How I Met Your Father has proven to be true appointment viewing that fans cannot get enough of week to week,' he said.

Middling efforts: The show has since received mixed reviews from audiences and currently holds a 35% rating with critics on Rotten Tomatoes

He also applauded the work of the series' lead actress and expressed his enthusiasm for the forthcoming run of episodes.

'The lives of these characters, as portrayed by the immensely talented cast led by Hilary Duff, are just starting to unfold and we're thrilled to bring more of this group's journey to our viewers with a supersized second season,' he stated.

How I Met Your Father's second season currently does not have a set premiere date.
She's currently enjoying holidaying in Dubai.

And Georgia Steel took the opportunity to post another slew of sensational bikini pictures on Tuesday.

Oozing confidence, the former Love Island star, 23, posed up a storm in a miniscule red bikini that barely contained her ample assets.

Red hot: Georgia Steel took the opportunity to post another slew of sensational bikini pictures on Tuesday while on holiday in Dubai

Having a blast: As her famous friends and fans flooded the comments with praise, she cheekily captioned the snaps: 'Front to back'

For several shots she leant against a tree on the sand, and turned away from the camera to flaunt her peachy derriere in the thong bottoms.

Her sun-kissed glow, from soaking in the sun for the past several days, was on full display in the brightly coloured two-piece.

Georgia's brunette locks were styled in loose waves and tumbled down her back, while her fringe was swept to the side.

As her famous friends and fans flooded the comments with praise, she cheekily captioned the snaps: 'Front to back'.

Lady in red: Oozing confidence, the former Love Island star, 23, posed up a storm in a miniscule red bikini that barely contained her ample assets

Golden goddess: Her sun-kissed glow, from soaking in the sun for the past several days, was on full display in the brightly coloured two-piece

It comes after she joined by fellow Love Island bombshell Hayley Hughes for a bikini mirror selfie last week.

The girls aligned their swimwear style, both opting for white which drew out their sun-kissed skin.

The influencers also matched up on their accessories, slinging cross-body bags over their frames to carry their essentials.

Cheeky: For several shots she leant against a tree on the sand, and turned away from the camera to flaunt her peachy derriere in the thong bottoms

LYSM: Georgia was joined by fellow Love Island bombshell Hayley Hughes for a bikini mirror selfie on Friday

At the end of January, Georgia looked forward to her luxe Dubai getaway with a throwback holiday snap.

As always, the star looked sensational in a garish orange bandeau bikini, her taut physique on full display as she reclined on a sunbed.

Raising a glass to the camera, she penned: 'Cheers to being back in the sun in -6 days [sic]'.
TOKYO, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 patients recovering at home in Japan has topped 500,000 for the first time amid the recent surging infections due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant and continuous strain on the health care system across the country, the health ministry said Monday.

The number of people recuperating from COVID-19 at home stood at 543,045 as of last Wednesday, up 100,000 compared to a week earlier, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Authorities have been asking those with mild symptoms to stay at home for recuperation as high pressure on the medical system fuels concerns that hospitals may run out of beds for COVID-19 patients while Japan's booster shot program is still at an early stage.

The country logged 60,142 new infection cases on Monday, with Tokyo confirming 10,334 new cases.

The western prefecture of Osaka reported 7,997 new cases on Monday, down from 9,008 a week ago.

Amid the sixth wave of infections in the country, the occupancy rate of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients was above 50 percent as of last Wednesday in 20 prefectures across Japan including Tokyo, with Osaka topping the list with 81 percent of beds in use.

Osaka's occupancy rate of hospital beds secured for serious COVID-19 patients stood at 36.3 percent as of Sunday, which is close to the 40-percent threshold for the prefecture to request a state of emergency declaration.

Shigeru Omi, the Japanese government's top COVID-19 adviser, has said that the speed of the infection expansion across the country is slowing down but the number of new COVID-19 cases may stay high or decline only mildly. 
Chevy Chase broke his silence four years after Pete Davidson called him a 'bad person'.

The 78-year-old comedian said in a new interview with CBS The Morning that he doesn't pay any negative remarks attention.

'I guess you'd have to ask them,' before laughing and adding, 'I don't give a crap!'

Breaking his silence: Chevy Chase broke his silence four years after Pete Davidson called him a 'bad person'; seen in 2010

'I am who I am,' Chevy said. 'And I like... who I am. I don't care. And it's part of me that I don't care. And I've thought about that a lot. And I don't know what to tell you, man. I just don't care.'

Chevy's acknowledgment of Kim Kardashian's boyfriends comments comes four years after he bashed the comedian on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show in 2018.

'F*** Chevy Chase,' Pete said at the time. 'He's just a genuinely bad, racist person and I don't like him.'

In 2018: 'F*** Chevy Chase,' Pete said at the time. 'He's just a genuinely bad, racist person and I don't like him'

No cares: 'I am who I am,' Chevy said. 'And I like... who I am. I don't care. And it's part of me that I don't care. And I've thought about that a lot. And I don't know what to tell you, man. I just don't care'

The Saturday Night Live star went on to defend his boss, Lorne Michaels, who created the late-night talk show.

'It's disrespectful to Lorne, too, a guy who gave you a career,' Pete went on. 'No matter how big you get, you can't forget what that guy did for you.'

Pete and Chevy never shared the Saturday Night Live stage together.

Chase originally slammed the late-night talk show in an interview with the Washington Post in 2018.

2012: This is not the first time the comedian has been accused of being racist. He made headlines in 2012 after TMZ reported that he allegedly used the N-word during an argument with series creator/writer Dan Harmon

'I'm amazed that Lorne has gone so low,' Chevy said nearly four years ago. 'I had to watch a little of it, and I just couldn't f***ing believe it That means a whole generation of s***heads laughs at the worst f***ing humor in the world. You know what I mean? How could you dare give that generation worse s*** than they already have in their lives? It just drives me nuts.'

This is not the first time the comedian has been accused of being racist.

He made headlines in 2012 after TMZ reported that he allegedly used the N-word during an argument with series creator/writer Dan Harmon.

It was later revealed Chevy was forced to issue an apology.

In 2019: The 78-year-old comedian said in a new interview with CBS's The Morning that he doesn't pay any negative remarks attention

Pete has been staying busy with his new girlfriend, Kim Kardashian.

The two celebrated Valentine's Day together and he even sent her sister, Khloe Kardashian a beautiful bouquet of pink and purple blooms.

Davidson's kind gesture to Kim's younger sister follows a whirlwind weekend where Kanye West let it be known through repetitive Instagram posts that he was not happy about Pete's status in the Kardashian family.

Kim filed for divorce nearly a year ago to the day on Feb. 19, 2021, only to pursue becoming 'legally single' toward the end of the year as she said her marriage had been 'irremediably broken down.'
Sami Sheen seems to be celebrating her independence just days after her mother, actress Denise Richards, spoke about her heartache over their strained relationship.

The burgeoning model posted three bikini pictures on her Instagram page on Tuesday.

The 17-year-old beauty - whose father is Charlie Sheen - wore a green bikini with a straw hat as she sat on a beach in Malibu.

Life's a beach: Sami Sheen seems to be celebrating her independence just days after her mother, actress Denise Richards , spoke about her heartache over their strained relationship. The burgeoning model posted three bikini pictures on her Instagram page on Tuesday

This comes after the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star told Sirius XM's Jeff Lewis things have been 'difficult' between the two since Sami moved in with her father, actor Charlie Sheen, 56, and dropped out of school.'

'It's very difficult,' said Richards, 50, 'I know we'll get back to where we were eventually but right now, it is strained.'

The Killer Cheer Mom actress claimed it was Sami's rebellion against her house rules that led to the rift. 'There are certain rules and I enforce them. And [at Sheen's], there's different rules at that house and that's okay,' she said.

In September 2021, Sami, who is Richards' oldest daughter, posted an emotional TikTok video accusing her mother and stepfather, Aaron Phyphers, 49, of trapping her in an abusive household, saying, '1 year ago today: trapped in an abusive household, hated myself, would go days without eating or sleeping, insanely depressed, hated school, etc.'

On my own: The 17-year-old beauty - whose father is Charlie Sheen - wore a green bikini with a straw hat as she sat on a beach in Malibu

The video then cuts to Sami claiming 'Now: finally moved out of the hell house, had a spiritual awakening, own 2 cats, happy single, full of self love, and dropped out of high school :).'

The former Two and a Half Men actor has kept mostly silent over the mother-daughter rift, but did confirm to Us Weekly that Sami had moved in with him. 'We're having a ball. GED here we come.'

No word yet if the GED has been completed.

Bad past: In September 2021, Sami, who is Richards' oldest daughter, posted an emotional TikTok video accusing her mother and stepfather, Aaron Phyphers, 49, of trapping her in an abusive household

Richards' younger daughter, actress Lola Sheen, 16 reportedly still lives with her mom, step-dad and younger sister, Eloise Joni Richards, 10.

Richards and Sheen married June 15, 2002.

Sami was born in March 2004 and Lola in June 2005. Richards has said Sheen, who has a history of addiction, was sober when they married, but things turned 'dark' during her pregnancy with Lola. 'It was a very dark time, very toxic, and I filed for divorce when I was six months pregnant with her.'

In 2019, Sheen filed a petition to change his child support arrangement with Richards. The petition claimed Sheen had 'overpaid' Richards on his child support, but that he was not looking to receive repayment.

Mom and her three girls: Richards' with Sam, Lola Sheen, 16, who reportedly still lives with her mom and Eloise Joni Richards, 10

Thanks to Sami's move, Sheen's child support payments to Richards have now been adjusted to 'zero dollars a month' by LA judge Alexander Giza, it has been claimed.

California Law allows children age 14 and older to decide custodial preference unless a judge decides doing so would be detrimental.

Richards has said she was out of town working at the time of the hearing and unable to attend. Richards says daughter Lola Sheen, 16, still lives with her and therefore she should still receive child support.
Joe Gatto and his estranged wife Bessy sparked rumors of a potential reconciliation as they attended an Imagine Dragons concert with their six-year-old daughter Milana on Valentine's Day.

The former Impractical Jokers star, 45, beamed as he posed for a cozy snap with Bessy and Milana at the UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York.

'What an amazing night,' Joe wrote in the caption of the post that he shared with his 1.9million Instagram followers.

Back together?: Joe Gatto and his estranged wife Bessy sparked rumors of a potential reconciliation as they attended an Imagine Dragons concert with their six-year-old daughter Milana on Valentine's Day

He continued, 'Thanks to the Imagine Dragons for giving our daughter her first concert experience.

'She was absolutely over the moon. As were her mom and dad to be there to see her jump and sing along like the little super fan she is.

'Unfortunately there was no DRUM SOLOOOOO!!!! @imaginedragons.'

Fun: The comedian also added videos from the concert including one in which he was seen exuberantly picking up his daughter and giving her a hug as the band performed their hit It's Time

Family: Joe and Bessy share Milana and son Remington 'Remo' Joseph, four

The comedian also added videos from the concert including one in which he was seen exuberantly picking up his daughter and giving her a hug as the band performed their hit It's Time.

Meanwhile, on Valentine's Day, Bessy shared a sweet video of Joe bringing Milana and their four-year-old son Remington 'Remo' Joseph on stage during one of his stand-up shows.

Remo appeared to be enjoying his moment in the spotlight and had to be pulled off the stage by his big sister.

'That one time Remo did not want to get off the stage,' Bessy wrote in the caption.

Cute: Meanwhile, on Valentine's Day, Bessy shared a sweet video of Joe bringing Milana and their four-year-old son Remington 'Remo' Joseph on stage during one of his stand-up shows

Joe stunned fans last December when he took to social media to share a message announcing that he was leaving Impractical Jokers and also splitting from his wife of eight years amid 'some issues' in his personal life.

The remaining three stars of the joke show, Q, Murr and Sal shared a 'saddened' response to the announcement but vowed to keep the show going even without Gatto.

'Bessy and I have decided to amicably part ways, so now I need to focus on being the best father and co-parent to our two incredible kids,' he wrote.

'We ask that you please respect our privacy as we navigate this new chapter together,' she wrote. 'And of course we will still continue to help animals and rescue dogs, which is something we are both passionate about!'

'With love and respect, we have decided to separate,' she captioned a photo in her own break-up announcement. 'Although we will no longer be a couple, we will always be a family to our beautiful kids and we look forward to co-parenting together.

'We ask that you please respect our privacy as we navigate this new chapter together. And of course we will still continue to help animals and rescue dogs, which is something we are both passionate about!'

Gatto had co-hosted the hidden camera hijinks series alongside Brian Quinn, James Murray and Sal Vulcano since 2011.

In the past: Joe and Bessy tied the knot in 2013; seen in 2021

In a joint statement shared on Murray's Instagram, the three hosts vowed to keep things going for the fans despite Gatto's absence.

'After all these years, we never imagined making Impractical Jokers without Joe,' the statement read.

'While we are saddened to see him go, we want to keep making people laugh, keep our relationship with Impractical Jokers fans going, and keep working with members of our team that we consider family.'

Q, Murr and Sal added that as a trio they will get back to production sometime in January.

On February 14, Deadline reported that Impractical Jokers will air its first episode since Joe's departure on April 2.

Bad Trip star Eric Andre will join Q, Sal and Murr for a special that will be broadcast on TBS, TNT and truTV.
Ferne McCann put on a leggy display as she frolicked on the beach during her getaway to the Maldives with her daughter Sunday, in a Tuesday Instagram post.

The former TOWIE star, 31, who was whisked away to the sun-soaked destination by her boyfriend Lorri Haines for Valentine's Day, looked incredible in a cream bra top featuring orange tassels, which she teamed up with a skimpy beige sarong.

She recently checked into the swanky five-star The Standard hotel, where rooms can set guests back by up to an eye-popping 2,800 per night.

Hot stuff: Ferne McCann put on a leggy display as she frolicked on the beach during her getaway to the Maldives with her daughter Sunday, in a Tuesday Instagram post

The reality star went on to play with her little one, four, on the sand, who appeared to be in high spirits while donning a red dress featuring an adorable unicorn motif.

She lifted the tot by her hands and swung her around in circles before reclining into a comfy-looking bean bag, ready to sip her glass of red wine which sat in a cooler.

In her caption, the TV personality wrote: 'My soul thinks your soul is pure magic.

'Making the most wonderful memories at our favourite place in the world. Enjoying our stay booked through @trendingtravel.co.uk at @thestandardmaldives.'

She went pubic with her new romance during a romantic getaway to Dubai.

Doting mum: The reality star went on to play with her little one, four, on the sand

Looking good: The former TOWIE star, 31, looked incredible in a cream bra top featuring orange tassels, which she teamed up with a skimpy beige sarong

Having a blast! She lifted the tot by her hands and swung her around in circles

She went pubic with her new romance during a romantic getaway to Dubai.

And Ferne was off jet-setting with her new man again as she met up with her UAE based boyfriend Lorri in the Maldives on Monday.

The First Time Mum star shared a gushing Valentine's Day tribute as she thanked Lorri for his 'integrity and honesty' and showing her what 'true love' really meant, alongside a stunning loved-up video of them frolicking on the beach.

Alongside the drone filmed video she penned: 'Dont ever be afraid to show your vulnerability. Dont ever be afraid to share your past. Dont ever be afraid to be yourself.

Happy: Sunday appeared to be in high spirits while donning a red dress featuring an adorable unicorn motif

Jaw-dropping: She recently checked into the swanky five-star The Standard hotel, where rooms can set guests back by up to an eye-popping 2,800 per night

Getaway: In her caption, the TV personality began: 'My soul thinks your soul is pure magic'

'In my opinion, everything youve ever been afraid to share is actually the key to your happiness and future. Never give up on love .

'Thank you for showing up for me. Thankyou for showing me what a meaningful relationship looks like. Thankyou for showing me integrity and honesty. Most importantly Thankyou for showing me true love. I love you.'

Ferne jetted away to the sun soaked destination with her daughter Sunday, four, before announcing that she had bumped into her Valentine on the island.

Taking to her Story she showcased the incredible scenery as she boarded a boat with Sunday and Lorri to travel to their hotel.

'Thankyou for showing me true love': Ferne recently shared a gushing tribute to her new boyfriend Lorri during a Valentine's getaway in the Maldives

In an adorable photo, Sunday, who she shares with jailed acid attacker ex Arthur Collins, could be seen alongside Lorri as they arrived at their destination.

Turning to address her followers, Ferne later gave a few words of wisdom to those who might be celebrating Valentine's Day alone this year.

She began: 'So, despite now being in a relationship when I was single, I was sick of people being like 'why are you not in a relationship' like it was a problem or they couldn't understand why I wasn't in a relationship.

'It used to get to me because i used to be like 'why aren't I, what is wrong with me?' why am I still single' but ultimately happy Valentines Day to everyone today.

Sweet: In an adorable photo, Sunday, who she shares with jailed acid attacker ex Arthur Collins, could be seen alongside Lorri as they arrived at their destination

'Whether you are in a relationship or single, today is about embracing love and ultimately love means giving it yourself first, you can't step into anything until your fully in a relationship with yourself first.'

Ferne concluded: 'So, if anyone asks you or if you're sick of seeing all these Valentines Day pics, just have pride that you are taking your time, you're not rushing or settling and you are prioritizing yourself first.

'Have an amazing day and I am sending a lot of love and positivity.'

The post comes as Ferne is reportedly planning a part-time move to Dubai to make her romance work with Lorri.

Ferne and Lorri - who lives in Dubai working as an estate agent - went public with their hot new romance last week during her recent holiday to the UAE.

Ferne is reportedly 'head over heels' with the hunk and hopes they can both fly back and forth between the two countries to see each other.

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.'
Radio host Jackie 'O' Henderson has tested positive for Covid-19.

She broke the news shortly after 6am on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, saying she'd caught the virus from her 11-year-old daughter Kitty.

Jackie, 47, sounded a little croaky but was well enough to broadcast from home.

'Joined the Covid club': Radio host Jackie 'O' Henderson has tested positive for Covid-19

She explained coronavirus was 'rampant' in her daughter's school, so it was only a matter of time before she 'joined the Covid club'.

The mother of one descried her symptoms as 'somewhere between the flu and a cold'.

Jackie had been in the KIIS FM studio in Sydney on Monday when her co-host Kyle Sandilands and his fiancee Tegan Kynaston announced they were expecting a child.

'Running rampant': She caught the virus from her 11-year-old daughter Kitty (left)

However, there is no suggestion either of them is at risk. Kyle and other staffers present on Monday were in the studio on Wednesday and didn't seem worried.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted KIIS FM, Jackie's representative and Kyle's manager for comment.

It comes two days after Kyle, 50, and Tegan, 36, confirmed their baby news live on air.

Baby joy: Jackie had been in the KIIS FM studio on Monday when her co-host Kyle Sandilands (left) and his fiancee Tegan Kynaston (centre) announced they were expecting a child

The couple don't yet know the sex of the baby, which is due is August, but have already decided on boy's and girl's names.

'We're having a baby!' Kyle declared as the entire KIIS FM studio cheered.

He added that he was hoping for 'either a girl or a little gay son', before praising his partner's 'beautiful, big, meaty t***ies' since becoming pregnant.

No worries: However, there is no suggestion either of them is at risk. Kyle and other staffers present on Monday were in the studio on Wednesday and didn't seem worried

Jackie said she was 'so happy' for the pair and told them their lives were about to change forever.

The couple, who got engaged in Port Douglas over the Christmas holidays, learned Tegan was expecting last week.

She is three months pregnant.
Sunrise host Natalie Barr said the settlement of a civil suit between Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre left a burning question unanswered.

Barr asked why someone who protests his innocence - which the Duke of York has always done - would agree to pay such a substantial amount of money, believed to be in the region of 7.5million (AU$14.2million).

She posed the question on Wednesday during a discussion with journalist Russell Myers, the royal editor of Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper.

Barr asked if the settlement was tantamount to an admission of guilt, and Myers said there was no such admission and settling the case out of court may have been done to save the Royal Family from the embarrassment of a trial and make the negative headlines go away.

Sunrise host Natalie Barr (left, with British journalist Russell Myers) says there's still a burning question that needs to be answered after Prince Andrew reached a settlement on Tuesday with his longtime accuser Virginia Giuffre in her sexual assault lawsuit against him

Myers suspects the Royal Family is 'breathing a sigh of relief' now the matter won't be going to court in the United States.

Barr then asked the burning question: why agree to a payout if you're innocent?

'The obvious question is: if he didn't do anything, why is he paying any money? Would the palace have influenced the decision?' she asked.

Myers agreed the Royal Family likely pushed Andrew to settle, even after he had repeatedly protested his innocence and indicated he wanted a jury trial in New York.

She asked why someone who protests his innocence - which the Duke of York has always done - would agree to a substantial payout, believed to be in the region of AU$14.2million

'This had been an absolute stain on the monarchy for many months now, and with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee coming up... it would have been unthinkable for this to go to trial,' he added.

Myers went on to say: 'Many people will be hoping that he sort of fades into the background now.'

Andrew and Giuffre have settled a sexual assault lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, a U.S. court filing showed Tuesday, sparing the disgraced British royal the public humiliation of a civil trial.

Andrew (left in April 2021) and Giuffre (right October 2019) have settled a sexual assault lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, a U.S. court filing showed Tuesday, sparing the disgraced British royal the public humiliation of a civil trial

In a letter sent to a New York judge on behalf of both parties, Giuffre's lawyer David Boies wrote that they 'have reached an out of court settlement,' without revealing the financial terms.

However, it has since been reported the settlement is worth 7.5million (AU$14.2million or US$10.15million).

As part of the agreement, the royal will make a 'substantial donation' to a charity established by Giuffre that supports sex trafficking victims, Boies said.

Full statement from both parties in Andrew's case Here is the full text of the statement regarding the out of court settlement reached between the Duke of York and Virginia Giuffre. The statement was included in a letter submitted to US judge Lewis A Kaplan: 'Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms Giuffre's receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed). Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights. 'Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. 'Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.' Advertisement

Giuffre has said she had sex with Andrew when she was 17 and a minor under U.S. law after meeting him through the late U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial for sex crimes.

The prince has not been criminally charged and has denied the allegations.

The settlement means the civil case will not go to a jury trial. It also means Andrew, 61, will no longer be questioned under oath by Giuffre's lawyers, who had been due to travel to London next month.

Boies said in the document filed in a Manhattan court that the respective parties would file a stipulation dismissing the case within 30 days upon 'receipt of the settlement.'

The letter makes no mention of Giuffre's accusations. Neither does it admit any guilt on behalf of Andrew or refer to the repeated denials he has made.

It said that Andrew 'regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.'

'Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.

'He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims,' the letter added.

The controversy has embarrassed the British monarchy and overshadowed Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee year in which she marks 70 years on the throne.

Andrew was last month stripped of his honorary military titles and charitable roles after US judge Lewis Kaplan denied his plea to dismiss Giuffre's case.

Former prosecutor-turned law professor Bennett Gershman said the settlement was 'very good news' for Andrew because it gets him out of testifying while not having to acknowledge any improper conduct towards Giuffre.

'His relief must be palpable,' Gershman said.

Lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents eight of Epstein's victims, hailed the settlement as a 'victory' for Giuffre, however.

'She has accomplished what no one else could: getting Prince Andrew to stop his nonsense and side with sexual abuse victims,' Bloom tweeted.
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Kim Kardashian looked tense as she emerged on Valentine's Day while her ex Kanye West was causing her heartache and fear with social media attacks and the delivery of unwanted roses to her LA home.

The 41-year-old did her best to put on a brave face in Los Angeles on Monday while accompanied by her daughter North, 8, and niece Penelope, 9.

The mother-of-four was dressed in head-to-toe pink Balenciaga and her daughter wore the same color in honor of the day.

Kim had just jetted back from New York following a romantic weekend with her new boyfriend Pete Davidson.

Tense: Kim Kardashian was pictured in LA on Valentine's Day as her estranged husband Kanye West was causing her heartache and fear with unwanted romantic gestures and social media attacks

Heartache: The star was seen clutching her phone on the same day the rapper was posting 'scary' threats towards Pete Davidson and delivering an truckload of roses to her home

Focused on family: The reality star was joined by her daughter North, 7, who was dressed in matching pink in honor of the day

But she was showing the strain of a difficult few days with her ex which reached a new low on Monday when he sent her dozens of roses in a truck and posted threatening messages about Davidson.

On Tuesday Kanye admitted that his recent behavior towards estranged wife 'came off' as him 'harassing' the reality star.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, the 44-year-old rapper pledged to work on his communication after he posted a series of screenshots that contained threats directed at Kim's boyfriend.

Carrying on regardless: Kim and North were seen going about their day amid the latest drama

Triple threat: Kim was seen showing off her latest eye-catching ensemble while out with her child

Family affair: Kim and North were accompanied by Kourtney's daughter Penelope

Styling it out: Kim showed off her flair for fashion while out on Monday

Mom duty: Kim was seen doting over North while they ventured out with family member Penelope Disick

'I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability,' the rapper stated in a lengthy mea culpa.

Kanye also sparked concern when he posted an image of a truck full of roses arriving at Kim's house in LA, which many divorce experts on social media claimed was a sign of 'post-separation abuse.'

The rapper wrote in his Instagram post: 'I've learned that using all caps makes people feel like I'm screaming at them. I'm working on my communication.'

'I can benefit from a team of creative professionals, organizers, mobilizers and community leaders. Thank everybody for supporting me.'

'I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability. I'm still learning in real time. I dont have all the answers. To be good leader is to be a good listener.'

Kanye West admits to HARASSING ex Kim Kardashian: Rapper promises to 'work on his communication' after sending estranged wife roses and threatening her boyfriend Pete Davidson

The backtrack comes a day after he shared screenshots from Kim where she pleaded with him to stop putting her current beau Pete, 28, in danger.

It also follows him turning up at her home in Los Angeles with a truck full of red roses for Valentine's Day, despite Kim clearly moving on in a new relationship.

Over: Kim filed for divorce from Kanye on February 19, 2021, after six years of marriage

The Grammy-winning artist shared a shot from the 2001 film Baby Boy on Monday, in which Ving Rhames puts Tyrese Gibson in a violent chokehold, writing, 'UPON MY WIFES REQUEST PLEASE NOBODY DO ANYTHING PHYSICAL TO SKETE IM GOING TO HANDLE THE SITUATION MYSELF.'

He posted a series of screenshot of texts from Kim saying he was making things uncomfortable for the SNL star.

In the texts, Kardashian said, West was 'creating a dangerous and scary environment and someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault,' later saying, 'There are dangerous people out there and this is scary and it doesn't have to be.'

The Can't Tell Me Nothing rapper replied to his estranged wife via text, 'I will always do everything to protect you and our family forever. And I listened to you and told everyone to make sure nothing physical happens to Skete.'

In a subsequent post, Kardashian asked the Heartless vocalist why he couldn't keep any of their conversations private, to which he responded, 'Cause I got a text from my favorite person in the world.'

The Bound 2 rapper continued to Kardashian, 'I'm your number one fan ... Why wouldn't I tell everyone!!!!'

'MY VISION IS KRYSTAL KLEAR': Kanye West attempted to win back his ex Kim Kardashian with a grand gesture on Valentine's Day amid their feud

Attempting to win her over: The delivery came hours after the rapper declared his love for Kim and their four children following news of his split from girlfriend Julia Fox

In his attack on Sunday, West called Davidson a 'd***head' and shared a screengrab of his private text to him.

The comedian had texted the rapper: '...you as a man I'd never get in the way of your children. That's a promise. How you guys go about raising your kids is your business and not mine. I do hope [some] day I can meet them and we can all be friends.'

West - who suffers from bipolar disorder - shared a snap of Pete with his friend Machine Gun Kelly in their underwear captioned: 'No you will never meet my children.'

He had 'no comment' about a rumor that Ariana Grande ended her four-month engagement to Davidson over him allegedly sending intimate photos of the pair to her ex Mac Miller before his 2018 death.

Worrying: Kanye shared a shot from the 2001 film Baby Boy in which Ving Rhames put Tyrese Gibson in a chokehold, writing, 'UPON MY WIFES REQUEST PLEASE NOBODY DO ANYTHING PHYSICAL TO SKETE IM GOING TO HANDLE THE SITUATION MYSELF'

West seemed especially outraged that the Staten Island native - who's in the process of lasering off all 100 of his tattoos - once had his 'hero' Hillary Clinton inked on his calf.

'When I tag people I'm just putting together the web. There are a group of people who run media and the election. Thank god for free speech.

'Look at this d***head. I wonder if Instagram gonna shut down my page for dissing [Hillary] Clinton's ex boyfriend.'

Exchange: In the texts, Kardashian said, West was 'creating a dangerous and scary environment and someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault,' later saying, 'There are dangerous people out there and this is scary and it doesn't have to be'

West added: 'Y'all seen that tattoo but if I speak up then I'm crazy. I told you not going to use that one no more when a garbage man goes to work he gonna smell like trash but it's time to take the trash out the house...You can Google the Hillary thing I'm not making this s*** up.'

West earlier Monday attempted to win back his ex Kardashian with a grand gesture on Valentine's Day amid their feud.

The rapper sent a massive arrangement of red roses to her house in a truck branded, 'MY VISION IS KRYSTAL KLEAR.'

Private exchange: West called Davidson a 'd***head' and shared a screengrab of his private text to him during his social media tirade

Date night! The couple brushed off West's wild social media attacks as they enjoyed a night out on Sunday

Shocking: Kanye - who suffers from bipolar disorder - shared a pantsless snap of Pete (R) with his friend Machine Gun Kelly (L) captioned: 'No you will never meet my children'

The delivery came hours after the rapper declared his love for Kim and their four children following news of his split from girlfriend Julia Fox.

The rapper has previously threatened to 'beat Pete Davidson's a**' on a recent song from his upcoming album Donda 2.

His apology on Instagram comes as he received fierce backlash online from many divorce and relationship experts that claimed his behavior was a sign of 'abuse' towards Kim.

Civil rights activist Shaun King posted a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday, claiming he believed West had 'crossed a line into abuse.'

Dr Charlotte Proudman, a Barrister, tweeted: 'This is what post-separation abuse looks like. Using children as a pawn to manipulate, control and threaten a parent.'

Child safety advocacy group Custody Peace also tweeted: 'Dear world. This is abuse. #KanyeWest continues to deliberately choose behaviors that have the potential to break the mental calm of the mother of his children & therefore the mental calm of his children. This should be unacceptable to EVERYONE.'
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Jeff Lewis took a major cut on the Hollywood Hills home he listed for sale in August 2021 for $5.95million as property records show he accepted an offer and sold the modern mansion on Monday for $5,195,000.

The Flipping Out star is still making some money on the real estate, though, as he purchased the stunning property overlooking the famed Sunset Strip in 2016 for a cool $3.1million.

The 51-year-old reality star enlisted the help of Million Dollar Listing LA stars Josh and Matt Altman to unload the Southern California abode which Jeff personally designed.

Sold! Jeff Lewis took a major cut on the Hollywood Hills home he listed for sale in August 2021 for $5.95million as property records show he accepted an offer and finally sold the modern mansion on Monday for $5,195,000

Moving on: Lewis is seen at a filming of Watch What Happens Live in New York City in August 2017

Situated behind a gated courtyard, the three-bedroom, three and a half bathroom home features spacious terraces with panoramic city views across 3,947 square feet.

Custom double steel and glass front doors welcome guests in to the stunning mansion, which boasts an open floor plan with high ceilings.

An abundance of natural light beams throughout the house with massive floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors.

The oversized chef's kitchen exemplifies modern perfection with white oak cabinetry, marble countertops and top-of-the-line appliances.

Not too bad: The Flipping Out star is still making some money on the real estate, though, as he purchased the stunning property overlooking the famed Sunset Strip in 2016 for a cool $3.1million

Privacy: Situated behind a gated courtyard, the three-bedroom, three and a half bathroom home features spacious terraces with panoramic city views across 3,947 square feet

Bright: An abundance of natural light beams throughout the house with massive floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors

Quaint: The oversized chef's kitchen exemplifies modern perfection with white oak cabinetry, marble countertops and top-of-the-line appliances

A large wardrobe dressing room and stained rift white oak wall coverings make the primary room a sweet place to rest your head, which also includes a spa-like bathroom complete with an outdoor deck.

The outdoor deck showcases a pebble tech pool/spa overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, and parking for four cars is available in the driveway and garage.

Lewis initially listed the property in August for $5.79million and dropped the price a few hundred thousand dollars before removing the listing in November.

Dreamy: Gaze across the canyon and into the city from the comfort of your own bed

Impressive: A large wardrobe dressing room and stained rift white oak wall coverings make the primary room a sweet place to rest your head

Wash up: The main room also includes a spa-like bathroom complete with an outdoor deck

Take a dip: The outdoor deck showcases a pebble tech pool/spa overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, and parking for four cars is available in the driveway and garage

Jeff and his ex, Gage Edward, were locked in an intense, years-long legal battle and finally reached a custody agreement for their daughter Monroe in May 2021.

'I have some wonderful news,' Lewis shared on his show. 'After 26 months [of negotiations] with Gage Edward Fredenburg  most of it was contentious I would say  we have settled our custody agreement,' Lewis added.

In addition to dropping individual lawsuits against each other, they agreed to 50/50 physical and legal custody and also set a new visitation schedule which began in June.

Jeff admitted that he reconnected with Gage last year after splitting in 2019 and went on 12 dates before realizing they were better off as friends.

Choices, choices: Lewis initially listed the property in August for $5.79million and dropped the price a few hundred thousand dollars before removing the listing in November

In the past: Jeff and his ex, Gage Edward, were locked in an intense, years-long legal battle and finally reached a custody agreement for their daughter Monroe in May

But their war of words began again recently as Gage accused Jeff and SiriusXM of exploiting their child on Lewis' radio show.

In January, Gage, 36, posted on Instagram: 'As many people know, my preference has always been to not engage. For almost three years, Ive rarely commented on many mistruths said about me. For me to correct them, would be to put my ego above my daughter.

'What is unfair  and what I will speak about  is the continued exploitation of a minor for content. In the past and certainly recently, untrue and false stories have been told with an embellished narrative about my daughter.'

Edward said that 'the embellishments are likely because they are more interesting in the scheme of whats currently going on, its more jarring, more likely to be written about,' which brings attention to Lewis's radio show.

'In my view, its very calculated,' he said. 'Equally as disappointing as the person that continues to talk about her, is SiriusXM, the executives, producers, and people in charge of Radio Andy.'

Edward said that 'the PR machine of SiriusXM radio' often promotes clips of Lewis discussing details of their co-parenting issues for further exposure.

'In my opinion, SiriusXM is equally involved in whatever it is you want to call this,' Edward said. 'Its encouraging and rewarding exploitative behavior, which always leads to more of the same.'

Edwards' statement came a day after Lewis said on his show that Monroe said she 'was pretty mad' at him for speaking about her on his radio show, and that if he kept it up, 'she will not see me again until shes a grown up.'
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Drought in the Horn of Africa has killed more than 1.5 million livestock and drastically cut cereal production, "and we are most definitely now sitting on the brink of catastrophe," a senior official for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday.

Rein Paulsen, FAOs director of emergencies and resilience who returned from the region Friday, said a "very small window" exists for taking urgent action, and a key is whether the regions long rains between March and May are good -- and whether the agency gets the $130 million it needs until June.

The short rains in the region, which includes parts of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, were supposed to come between October and December but "were extremely poor," he said. "And this represents the third consecutive failed rainy season with lower average rans, all of which has a severe impact on vulnerable households."

The result of the drought meant that overall cereal production for the last rainy season in southern Somalia was estimated to be 58% lower than the long-term average, Paulsen said. In agricultural areas in marginal coastal zones in southeastern parts of Kenya, "were looking at crop production estimated to be 70% below average," he said.

In addition, most places for water that have usually been resilient to climate variability have dried up in Kenya, he said during a virtual news conference from Rome.

Paulsen said $130 million in funding is essential now to provide cash for people to buy food until production resumes, to keep livestock alive and to provide drought-resistant seeds for farmers to reap a harvest.

Drought affected livestock walk toward a river near Biyolow Kebele, in the Adadle woreda of the Somali region of Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. Drought conditions have left an estimated 13 million people facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa, according to the United Nations World Food Program. (Michael Tewelde/WFP via AP)

"We have a window to the middle of this year - to June, which is a very time sensitive, narrow window for urgent actions to scale up to prevent a worst-case scenario," Paulsen said. "Agriculture needs a lot more attention. Its central to the survival of drought affected communities."

During his visit to the region, Paulsen said: "We saw both livestock and wildlife carcasses by the side of the road as we were driving. We saw animals dying together with their farmers, and the numbers I think are quite shocking."

In Kenya alone, 1.4 million livestock died in the final part of last year as a result of drought, and in southern Ethiopia, about 240,000 livestock died as a result of drought, he said.

Paulsen said that "it was quite traumatic driving through communities and seeing farmers tending livestock as they were dying by the side of the roads."

Livestock are not only crucial to peoples livelihoods, he said, but they provide milk for children, and FAO is focused on providing urgent fodder and water to keep them alive.

The U.N. World Food Program said Feb. 8 that drought has left an estimated 13 million people in the Horn of Africa facing severe hunger amid the driest conditions since 1981. It is seeking $327 million to look after the urgent needs of 4.5 million people over the next six months.

Hussen Ahmed, 70, who says he lost 7 cows and hopes his remaining 16 will survive, herds his animals after taking them from a distance to a pond at Beda'as Kebele, Danan woreda in the Shabelle zone of the Somali region of Ethiopia Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. In Ethiopia's Somali region, people have seen the failures of what should have been three straight rainy seasons and Somalia, Kenya, and now Ethiopia have raised the alarm about the latest climate shock to a fragile region. (Mulugeta Ayene/UNICEF via AP)

Food supplies of wheat are distributed during a visit by World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director Michael Dunford to a camp for the internally-displaced in Adadle, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. Drought conditions have left an estimated 13 million people facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa, according to the United Nations World Food Program. (Claire Nevill/WFP via AP)

A woman follows drought affected livestock as they walk toward a river near Biyolow Kebele, in the Adadle woreda of the Somali region of Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. Drought conditions have left an estimated 13 million people facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa, according to the United Nations World Food Program. (Michael Tewelde/WFP via AP)

Animal carcasses are seen at Gabi'as village, northeast of the town of Gode, in the Shabelle zone of the Somali region of Ethiopia Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. In Ethiopia's Somali region, people have seen the failures of what should have been three straight rainy seasons and Somalia, Kenya, and now Ethiopia have raised the alarm about the latest climate shock to a fragile region. (Mulugeta Ayene/UNICEF via AP)

An Ethiopian woman sifts through distributed food supplies during a visit by World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director Michael Dunford to a camp for the internally-displaced in Adadle, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. Drought conditions have left an estimated 13 million people facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa, according to the United Nations World Food Program. (Claire Nevill/WFP via AP)

Donkey carts transport animal food to drought affected areas near Higlo Kebele, in the Adadle woreda of the Somali region of Ethiopia Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. Drought conditions have left an estimated 13 million people facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa, according to the United Nations World Food Program. (Michael Tewelde/WFP via AP)
JERUSALEM, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he will fly to Bahrain on Monday to meet with Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, in a first visit by an Israeli prime minister to the Gulf country.

The two leaders will discuss "additional ways to strengthen bilateral ties," the Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement, adding they will exchange views on "the importance of peace, advancement and prosperity in the region, and especially the advancement of diplomatic and economic issues, with an emphasis on technology and innovation."

Bennett has as well scheduled meetings with Bahraini ministers and representatives of the local Jewish community.

When meeting at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow last November, the Bahraini crown prince invited the Israeli prime minister for a first official visit.

In September 2020, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) agreed to normalize their ties with Israel under U.S.-brokered agreements, known as the Abraham Accords. In December 2021, Bennett visited the UAE for the first time. 
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan." He is the founder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter.
Afghanistan's former president Hamid Karzai on Sunday urged the U.S. administration to return his country's assets.

"Holding Afghanistan's money on any name is unfair and unjust. That money belongs to the people of Afghanistan ... I am calling on President Joe Biden to return the money to the people of Afghanistan," Karzai told a press conference here.

The United States, following its forces' exit from Afghanistan in August 2021, has frozen more than 9 billion U.S. dollars of assets of Afghanistan's central bank. The move is widely seen as the major factor leading to the current economic crisis in the war-torn Asian country.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday which seeks to split 7 billion U.S. dollars out of the Afghan assets between funding humanitarian aid for cash-strapped Afghanistan and creating a trust fund with 3.5 billion U.S. dollars to compensate the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Karzai said the Afghan people share the grief of the American people who have suffered due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, yet no Afghan was involved in the attack and therefore Biden has to reconsider his decision.

Criticizing Biden's decision as unjust, Karzai stressed that all Afghans including members of the present Taliban-led caretaker government take a united stand to get the Afghan money back to their country.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service


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Sankar said banning cryptocurrency is perhaps the most advisable choice open to India. (DC)

Mumbai: Close on the heels of RBI governor Shaktikanta Das stating that cryptocurrency is a big threat to macroeconomic stability, deputy governor T. Rabi Sankar on Monday said these have specifically been developed to bypass the regulated financial system and called for an outright ban on such instruments.

Addressing the Indian Banks Association, Sankar said banning cryptocurrency is perhaps the most advisable choice open to India.

We have examined the arguments proffered by those advocating that cryptocurrencies should be regulated and found that none of them stand up to basic scrutiny.

We have seen that crypto-technology is underpinned by a philosophy to evade government controls. Cryptocurrencies have specifically been developed to bypass the regulated financial system, said Sankar.

We have also seen that cryptocurrencies are not amenable to definition as a currency, asset or commodity; they have no underlying cash flows, they have no intrinsic value; that they are akin to ponzi schemes, and may even be worse, he added.
The Test and Go system of entry had been launched in Thailand on November 1 last year vis-a-vis 61 handpicked countries including India.

Thailand reopened for tourism again on February 1, and restarted its system of Test and Go entry. More than 2,500 passengers from 46 international flights poured into Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport on the first day.

According to Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand), more than 25,000 tourists applied for the Test and Go entry on the first day.

The Test and Go system of entry had been launched in Thailand on November 1 last year vis-a-vis 61 handpicked countries including India. But it was abruptly stopped on December 22 with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, leading to much confusion, disappointment and cancellations among many tourists, including Indians.

Resumption of the Test and Go is a positive sign which, I hope, will lead to the resumption of regular commercial travel in the 75th year of Indo-Thai relations, stated former Thai ambassador to India Chutintorn Gongsakdi.

Indeed, India and Thailand celebrate their 75th year of diplomatic relations this year and thats probably why the Thai government is seriously considering a travel bubble with India so that commercial flights would restart and bilateral tourism could be promoted.

Former Indian ambassador to Thailand and currently foreign secretary Harsh Shringla, too, expressed happiness at this development, which he felt would restore Indias vibrant cooperation with Thailand both at the business level and at the level of people. He was particularly proud of Indias phenomenal vaccination record.

While most people agree that the resumption of commercial flights between the two countries is vitally needed to improve bilateral tourism, the resumption of the Test and Go system of entry is seen as a positive beginning.

With Thailand moving up 18 places in Bloombergs latest Covid resiliency ranking, this is part of the Thai Prime Ministers strategy of Living with Covid, in order to rescue the countrys pandemic-battered economy. Thats why Thailand has now opened out to all the countries around the world, as long as the incoming tourists have a double vaccination certificate.

With India having completed more than 70 per cent of double vaccinations for their adults, some of the leading Indian travel agents feel that the boom for Thailand will start soon.

The influx to Thailand will increase in double quick time, said Atanu Das, of 5D Global Travel Solutions Pvt Ltd, who specialise in the MICE market (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions). He adds, Irrespective of Omicron, Indian tourists will always have an enormous urge to visit Thailand.

Agreeing with him was Kunal Sampat of Shree Siddhivinayak Travels & Tours Pvt Ltd, There will definitely be a high interest level from the Indian market for anything introduced by Thailand, as it has always been one of the most sought-after destinations by Indian travellers.

He described the land of smiles as a destination for the masses and the classes. This writer noticed during a flight from Delhi to Bangkok in January that the nearly full flight had many Indian tourists although Omicron was at its height in the Indian capital. With renewed interest in the Indian tourist market, the TAT offices in Mumbai and Delhi started an online Thailand specialist training programme to update the Indian travel agents on the latest rules and regulations to travel to Thailand as also the many new programmes and attractions in different parts of the country.

Thailand is one of the favourite destinations for Indian tourists, and through this programme, they can update themselves on both the popular and upcoming products and services in various destinations across the kingdom, said Vachirachai Sirisumpan, director of TATs New Delhi office.

The Thai Prime Minister has gone on record to promote soft culture after Covid. This includes health and wellness packages which is why beach-destinations like Huahin, three hours from Bangkok, have now come under the limelight.

Im sure the Indian tourists are waiting to travel again to Thailand, stated Cholada Siddhivarn, director of TATs Mumbai office. She informed that more than 5,000 Indian tourists had visited Thailand when Test and Go entry was first announced on November 1. Since then, the changing rules have really confused them, we got so many enquiries, and now we are happy to welcome them back to Thailand again! she declared.

So what are the new rules and regulations to enter Thailand? One finds that they are tourism-friendly, but also an amalgam of safety and caution. The Thailand pass is the most important certificate of entry into Thailand, and for this, the documents needed are a double-vaccination certificate, an insurance policy of $50,000, including Covid treatment, and a confirmed booking in a SHA+ hotel (there are several hundreds, as listed on their site) on the first and fifth days, when RTPCR tests should be done. That means two RTPCR tests should be done, on the first and fifth days, and the tourist must stay in a SHA+ hotel, until the result is known.

The hotels do not have to be the same, and need not be in the same city. Once they have all these documents, the tourist can apply for a Thailand pass (https://tp.consular.go.th). This will be issued in three to seven days. Its important that their date of travel must be at least seven days after applying for the Thailand pass, because they need to carry the document along with them.

As for the tourist visa, they could get an e-visa from VFS. Or, they could get a visa on arrival in Thailand (it costs 2,000 B).

In case the tourist stays fewer than five days, he needs to do only one RTPCR test on the first day, but needs to show his return ticket when he applies for the Thailand pass.

If the tourist tests positive, during any of the RTPCR tests, he needs to quarantine in the booked hotel or the hospital attached to it, the payment of which will be covered by his insurance policy.

Lastly, as for most international flights, an RTPCR test needs to be done 72 hours prior to their departure to Thailand.

Meanwhile, Phuket, and other beach destinations like Krabi, Samui and Chonburi, etc., are open to tourists both for the Test and Go, and sandbox entries.

By the sandbox rules, the tourist must stay seven days on the island, do an RTPCR test on the first and fifth days and then is free to travel to any other part of Thailand, or to return to their homeland.

But this only applies to tourists who fly directly to Phuket or book sealed flights from Bangkok to Phuket.

Indian tourists cant avail of this at the moment, as there are no direct flights to Phuket from India. But direct flights to Phuket are expected to start from Mumbai, shortly.

With the lack of tourists from China, the India tourist market has become very important to Thailand.

Indian visitors represent Thailands hope for the recovery of tourism, said Somsong Sachaphimukh, vice-president of the Tourism Council of Thailand and the Indo-Thai Chamber of Commerce. She also manages Express International Travels that handles the bulk of Indian tourist bookings.

She informed that when Test and Go entry was started in November, more than 40 per cent of the Indians who visited Thailand were tourists.

Its estimated that more than 1.9 million Indian tourists came to Thailand in 2019, generating 80 million baht.

Theyre a high-value tourism market, stated Somsong Sachaphimukh, simply.

For more info, please check https://www.tatnews.org.
Dr Burri added that approval for inoculating the 5-12 years age group may take some time, as not enough studies had been done in the area.  AFP

HYDERABAD: With the Centre expected to take a decision soon on extending vaccinations to minors below the age of 15 years, doctors advise a cautious approach, especially as the third wave is on the wane.

They say there is no immediate urgency for minors below the age of 15 to be inoculated, considering vaccines deemed safer or more effective, especially for minors, could become available soon.

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday that the decision to start vaccination for the 5-15 years age group would be taken based on experts recommendations, and until now they had not made any such recommendation.

The decision to begin vaccination for the 12-15 age group is under consideration by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), and they are expected to approve it soon. Speaking on the issue, president, Infection Control Academy of India, Dr Ranga Reddy Burri said, I am hoping Corbevax, a protein subunit vaccine, which in my opinion is much safer than mRNA and vector-based vaccines, can be made available for minors. Protein subunit vaccines are time tested, and safety is the prime concern for paediatric patients, he said.

Dr Burri added that approval for inoculating the 5-12 years age group may take some time, as not enough studies had been done in the area. About 99 per cent of children are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. For them, efficacy plays a secondary role, and safety a primary role. So, I think we should wait and see. We have to be absolutely sure of the long-term impact.

Dr Kiran Madhala, HoD, Critical Care Medicine, Nizamabad Medical College, also echoed similar views. He said as the third wave was on the wane and Indias vaccine supply was good, there was no immediate urgency to vaccinate minors aged below 15, especially as better options could be available soon.

We can wait for a nasal vaccine, as they provide better immunity and could be available in a couple of months, he said. He added that for minors below the age of 12, no country had started vaccinations yet due to lack of studies.

A total of 832 minors aged between 0 and 15 were infected with Covid-19 in Hyderabad from January 1 to 23 this year.
New Delhi: Former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, who resigned from the Congress on Tuesday in the midst of the election cycle, said the grand old party had lost touch with the ground reality and no longer reflected the national mood.

In a no-holds-barred interview to PTI after quitting the Congress, the 69-year-old former Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab said he had reached his limits of perseverance in the party, which, he said, lacked inspirational leadership and is facing an existential challenge.

He also accused the party of failing to reinvent itself despite its decline.

Expressing anguish over recent controversies over Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose' statue at India Gate and Padma Bhushan award to senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kumar said these events betrayed a narrowness of approach not expected of the Congress.

He also said the Congress should look inwards instead of finding fault with those quitting it.

Excerpts of the Interview with PTI:

Q. What prompted you to leave the Congress after decades of association with the party going back to your father's days?

A. Lack of inspirational leadership, absence of a sense of belonging and debilitating processes of internal functioning combined to make possible a painful decision to end a 46-year-long association with the Congress with which two earlier generations of my family were closely connected during the freedom struggle.

Needless controversy around Netaji's statute and Ghulam Nabi Azad's national award also upset me in as much as these betrayed a narrowness of approach not expected of the Congress.

As has been said, "Ideas wait upon events, which give them birth".

Absent an inspiring leadership and captive to its internal compulsions, the party has failed to reinvent itself despite unmistakable signs of decline over the years. I do not wish to criticise any individual but failings of those responsible cannot be brushed aside.

Q. Any special reason for quitting the party at this time on the eve of Punjab elections where you have been active?

A. In Punjab, the political discourse was never as low. The open fight over the office of chief minister showed Congress in poor light and diminished us all in the process. It showed that other than a few people no one else was relevant or entitled to respect.

Q. A section of Congress veterans was very upset at the way Capt Amarinder Singh was ousted in Punjab. Has your resignation anything to do with that issue?

A. The manner in which Capt Amarinder Singh was humiliated and forced to resign was an ominous signal. He deserved better.The dismal State of Punjab's economy demands an elevating and consensual politics and shunning of narrow personal prejudices.

Q. What is your future plan? Are you going to join any party?

A. I have not thought of joining any other political party yet but intend to remain active in pursuit of public and national causes as best as possible. What the future holds cannot be predicted today.

Q. What is your impression of Punjab elections?

A. Election results in Punjab will surprise many. Based on the groundswell of popular support, I feel that AAP will comfortably form the next Government in Punjab and Bhagwant Mann will be the state's next chief minister. Punjab is ready for a sensational political change.

Q. Is your decision to quit the Congress connected with the aspirations of G 23?

A. My decision has nothing to do with G23. I was never a part of that grouping.

Q. You have worked with many PMs and Congress presidents. What is different now that several leaders are leaving the party? Rahul Gandhi says those leaving the Congress are afraid of taking on the BJP and that the less brave are free to leave. Your take?

A. Several leaders leaving the party in quick succession tell us that something is very wrong with the oldest party. It is better for the leadership to look inwards rather than find fault with those who are compelled to leave the party.

Q. Do you think the existence of Congress as a national party is in danger considering only the regional players appear to be in a position to challenge the ruling BJP. Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are cases in point.

A. Congress is facing an existentialist challenge as a national party. The party has lost touch with the ground and no longer reflects that national mood.

Regional parties have caught the imagination of the people, particularly of the youth. Congress is virtually a three states party now. Regional parties could come together at a future date on the basis of a minimum common programme but none of them can individually challenge the BJP's dominant political position in the country. Ideological battles need transformative leadership that can rise above individual vanities and aspirations. This is not happening, unfortunately.

Q. Did you reach out to Sonia Gandhi with your grievances given your close association with her over the last several years?

A. Yes, but there is a limit to perseverance. Let me answer you in verse..."Chup si ho gayin dil ki dhadkane, so gayi kahin saari aahatein, charsoo yahaan sirf khamoshi, ab sadayein dein kya kisi ko hum, waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam... (There is silence/indifference all around. Who should I summon to my call. What a tragedy of our times.).

Q. Is the Congress in a position to fulfil aspirations of people nationally?

A. I don't think so. I see a further decline in its relevance as a national party in the future.
Burqa clad Muslim women take part in a demonstration in Hyderabad to protest after students at government-run high schools in India's Karnataka state were told not to wear hijabs in the premises of the institute. (Photo: AFP/File)

Bengaluru: A day ahead of reopening of pre-university colleges in Karnataka, which were shut due to protests over wearing of Hijab inside classrooms, state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Tuesday said authorities have been directed to identify and initiate legal action against religious organisations attempting to break the society and corrupt innocent students.

"Some religious organisations are using students to try to divide the society.. Instructions have been given to identify them and initiate appropriate legal action against them," the minister said in a statement.

He claimed that not all but a few students were insisting that they be allowed to go to the school wearing Hijab.

"In my view it is not their (students) natural view (insisting on wearing Hijab). We all must respect the interim order of the Karnataka High Court and act accordingly," Jnanendra said.

The Karnataka High Court in its interim order relating to the Hijab issue has restrained students from attending classes wearing headscarves or saffron scarves.

Jnanendra also noted that safety measures have been taken to ensure peace and order in the state so that students attend classes in without any hindrance.

He also requested the students to engage in their academic activities without any fear or feeling of insecurity.
Officials of China and Kenya sign documents during the handover ceremony of the eighth and last batch of 2018 Chinese Food Aid Program in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, Feb. 14, 2022. Kenya on Monday held handover ceremony of the eighth and last batch of 2018 Chinese Food Aid Program to boost the war against hunger and malnutrition in Kenya that has escalated amid recurrent droughts. (Photo by Charles Onyango/Xinhua)

NAIROBI, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Monday held handover ceremony of the eighth and last batch of 2018 Chinese Food Aid Program to boost the war against hunger and malnutrition in Kenya that has escalated amid recurrent droughts.

Margaret Kobia, the cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens Affairs and Special Programs said the eighth and last batch of 2018 Chinese Food Aid Program weighs 890 metric tons and the donation will enhance efforts to alleviate food insecurity in drought-stricken parts of the country.

"We thank China for complementing government efforts to alleviate hunger," Kobia remarked at the donation ceremony attended by senior government officials and Minister Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, Zhang Yijun.

According to Kobia, earlier rice donation from China has already been distributed to arid and semi-arid regions besides supporting school feeding programs in a bid to boost nutrition status among children.

She noted that the cordial bilateral relations that Kenya has forged with China in diverse fields like trade, finance and education have evolved to cover humanitarian support.

Kobia stressed that Kenya was keen to strengthen mutual collaboration with China and achieve positive outcomes, adding that humanitarian assistance from the Asian Nation had a profound impact on drought-stricken communities.

She said the government had proactively responded to the current drought through intensifying cash transfer, water trucking and emergency food aid to communities in the arid lands.

The official said the government had also prioritized action on the climate crisis to boost the resilience of local communities and their livelihoods.

Zhang Yijun, the Minister Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya said that Beijing has since 2018 donated 11,835 metric tons of rice worth 1.2 billion shillings (about 12 million U.S. dollars) as part of its humanitarian assistance to Kenya.

"Up to now, all the eight consignments of the rice donation have already been received and distributed to those in starvation," said Zhang.

He said that since 2011, the Chinese government has donated to Kenya emergency food aid worth 55 million dollars as the two countries elevate strategic cooperation in line with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Zhang added that Beijing will continue to provide humanitarian assistance including emergency food aid to African countries besides availing pesticides and irrigation technologies to help fight drought and locust plague in the continent. 
New Delhi: India on Tuesday advised its citizens in Ukraine to temporarily leave that country amid escalating tension between Russia and NATO countries over the eastern European nation.

In an advisory, the Indian embassy in Kyiv asked Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine.

"In view of the uncertainties of the current situation in Ukraine, Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, may consider leaving temporarily," it said.

"Indian nationals are also advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine," the embassy said.

The embassy also asked Indian nationals to keep it informed about their status in that country to enable the mission to reach out to them when required.

"Indian nationals are requested to keep the Embassy informed about the status of their presence in Ukraine to enable the Embassy to reach them where required," the embassy said.

It said the mission continues to function normally to provide all services to Indian nationals in Ukraine.

The US and its Western allies have been severely critical of Russia over its continuing build-up of forces near the Ukraine border.

The US has already sent extra troops to Europe to support its allies in the backdrop of fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel pay tribute to those who were killed in the 2019 suicide bombing attack by militants in Pulwama, at a memorial in Lethpora, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the attack. (PTI Photo/S. Irfan)

SRINAGAR: On the third anniversary of the Pulwama suicide attack, a series of functions were on Monday held in Jammu and Kashmir and at places elsewhere in the country to pay homage to the forty Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel slain in the terror act.

The main function was held at Lethapora along the Srinagar-Jammu highway and about 22-km south of capital Srinagar where a Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) cadre 22-year-old Adil Ahmed Dar alias Waqas commando had detonated the Maruti Suzuki Eeco with, at least, sixty kilograms of deadly RDX after driving it parallel to a fully occupied bus which was part of a large CRPF. The explosives blew up in a 150-metre radius and the CRPF bus was blasted open and reduced to ribbons of charred metal and the human remains scattered across a 100-metre stretch of the road.

Eight CRPF jawans were injured and several other vehicles and nearby shops and buildings also suffered damage in the impact of the massive blast, the deadliest carried out ever during the nearly three-decade old militancy in J&K. The attack was blamed by New Delhi on the Pakistan-based leadership of the JeM outfit and consequently the relations between the two South Asian neighbours went to the lowest ebb. On 26 February that year, Indian Airforce warplanes conducted air strikes on the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bringing India-Pakistan to the brink of war. The relations between the two countries continue to be strained.

On Monday, CRPF at the impressive function held at the war memorial at Lethpora paid tributes to the it's slain personnel. Additional Director General (ADG) of the CRPF, Daljit Singh Choudhary, speaking on the occasion said, While remembering our forty jawans who lost their lives in the Pulwama we aim to maintain peace and harmony in J&K and beyond and rededicate ourselves for the cause.

ADG Choudhary and other officers laid floral wreaths at the memorial to pay homage to the martyrs and saluted their sacrifices.

Later while speaking to reporters, he said, "Every year since 2019 we come together here on this day to remember the forty brave jawans who lost their lives in Pulwama (attack). We remember their sacrifice and pay tributes to them from the bottom of our hearts". He reiterated that the endeavour of the CRPF is to maintain peace in the Valley and not let the sacrifices of its jawans go in vain.

Earlier during the day on Monday, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, paid homage to Pulwama attack victims, saying their bravery and supreme sacrifice motivated every Indian to work towards a strong and prosperous country. He tweeted, "I pay homage to all those martyred in Pulwama on this day in 2019 and recall their outstanding service to our nation. Their bravery and supreme sacrifice motivate every Indian to work towards a strong and prosperous country.

J&Ks Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, also remembered the Pulwama martyrs and paid rich tributes to them. He said, The nation will forever be grateful to our brave soldiers of the CRPF and their families. He added, We are firmly resolved to eliminate the menace of (militancy).

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the sacrifice of the CRPF jawans martyred in the Pulwama terror attack will not go in vain and asserted that we will ensure answers are given. He tweeted, We can never forget the martyrs of Pulwama. Their sacrifice and that of their families will not go in vain  we will ensure answers are given. Jai Hind.
The government has taken up construction of three reservoirs as part of the Galeru-Nagari and Handri-Niva projects and informed the NGT that about the same but as part of extension of existing projects and had ruled out any impact on the environment.  PTI

VIJAYAWADA: The National Green Tribunal directed the state government to stop construction works on the three reservoirs in Chittoor district.

The NGT also questioned the government as to how it could take up works without obtaining environmental clearance and also by not carrying out out environment impact assessment.

It was of the opinion that just has how important it is to have drinking water, it is equally important to safeguard the environment.

The NGT asked the government to take up such works only after taking environmental clearance.

The government has taken up construction of three reservoirs as part of the Galeru-Nagari and Handri-Niva projects and informed the NGT that about the same but as part of extension of existing projects and had ruled out any impact on the environment.
Hassan: Three pilgrims from Karnataka died in an accident while heading to Sabarimala Temple in Kerala earlier today.

A tempo traveller, taking 14 pilgrims from Hasan of Karnataka to the Sabarimala Temple, collided with a container lorry in Pooladikkinnu of Kozhikode at the NH bypass. Three pilgrims died on the spot in the accident and four are severely injured. They have been hospitalised at a Kozhikode.

As per sources, the dead were identified as Dinesh, Sivanna and Nagaraj.
VIJAYAWADA: Telugu cine hero and Movie Artistes Association (MAA) president Manchu Vishnu met Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday at the CMs Camp office in Tadepalli.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Vishnu said he discussed with the Chief Minister various issues related to the film industry and the development of the cine field in Andhra Pradesh. The MAA president, however, said he would share details of the meeting from a different platform.

Vishnu maintained that Tuesdays meeting was purely personal during which he also had lunch with Jagan Mohan Reddy.

He, however, stated: We are happy to note that AP government is planning to give land to build film studios in AP. Visakhapatnam is an ideal destination for the film industry. We will build a film studio in Tirupati and will establish the best film institute of Asia there."

Speaking about the Tollywood celebrities meeting the Chief Minister recently without the presence of his father Mohan Babu, the MAA president said an invitation had been sent to Mohan Babu. There had been some miscommunication due to which Mohan Babu missed out the invitation. He said there is no need to make any issue out of it.

He observed that a decision regarding movie ticket rates will be made after discussions with members of the film chamber.

The MAA president said despite differences on some issues, the film industry members are like a single-family. We will resolve conflicts internally, he stated. He further said AP and Telangana states are the two eyes of the film industry. They are equal in all aspects and so are Telugu people, he added.

Vishnu clarified that a meeting between his family and AP cinematography minister Perni Nani has been completely blown out of proportion by a section of the media.
Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is understood to be keen to host the conclave of Chief Ministers of states ruled by regional parties in Hyderabad. Party sources said the Chief Minister is likely to visit Mumbai to meet his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray in a week to discuss the issue.

He already spoke to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in this regard as part of his efforts to bring regional parties together against the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Stalin has confirmed holding the conclave of Chief Ministers soon out of Delhi. Stalin took to Twitter on Sunday saying "Beloved Didi Mamata Banerjee telephoned me to share her concern and anguish on the Constitutional overstepping and brazen misuse of power by the Governors of non-BJP ruled states. She suggested a meeting of opposition CMs. I assured her of DMKs commitment to uphold State autonomy. Convention of Opposition CMs will soon happen out of Delhi!" (sic)

Rao also confirmed Mamata calling him over phone on Sunday. "Mamata Behen (Mamata Banerjee) called me. We had a discussion over phone. She invited me to Bengal or shell come to Hyderabad. She said mujhe dosa khilao. I said most welcome. She may come any time. We are discussing. There are so many political leaders across the nation," Rao said addressing a press conference on Sunday.

The idea of holding a conclave of Opposition parties was first mooted by Chandrashekar Rao in November 2020 ahead of the GHMC elections.

Addressing a joint meeting of TRS MLAs, MLCs and MPs, Rao said, "Very soon, I am going to hold a conclave of India's Opposition parties in Hyderabad. 100 per cent. We will initiate a fight. We will give the Hyderabad Declaration and blow the conch shell for battle in this country."

However, it did not materialise so far. With the Chief Minister launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led government at the Centre again since November 2021 and further upping the ante against the BJP since the Union Budget on February 1, the Chief Minister strongly feels that the time is apt to hold the conclave in Hyderabad.

Addressing a press conference in Pragathi Bhavan on Sunday, Rao said that he would play an important role in any front that was likely to be formed to fight against the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.

Party sources said Chandrashekar Rao strongly felt that the time was ripe to hold the conclave in Hyderabad since Chief Ministers of a few states were coming in support and it would also help him to play a key role in national politics and garner national attention.
Hyderabad: Former prime minister and Karnataka's Janata Dal (Secular) founder HD Deve Gowda spoke to Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao over the phone on Tuesday and offered his complete support to KCR in the fight against the communal and divisive politics of the BJP-led government at the Centre.

According to a media statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office, Deve Gowda telephoned Rao and congratulated him for taking up the huge battle against BJP. "Rao Saab, you are fighting very well. Everyone should fight against the communal elements. To protect our countrys secularism, culture and its diverse culture, we will be with you and support you. Continue your fight and our total support will be there for you, Gowda was quoted as saying.

The CM thanked Gowda for his support and told him that he would visit Bengaluru soon and meet him personally.

Rao recently stepped up the ante against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led government at the Centre, accusing it of violating the federal spirit of the Constitution and stealing the powers of states. He called for the unification of all like-minded forces in the country to oust the BJP from the Centre. This is receiving some response from regional parties.

West Bengals chief minister Mamata Banerjee leading the TMC and Tamil Nadus MK Stalin heading the DMK have emphasised the need for unification of like-minded political parties.

Banerjee telephoned Rao on Sunday and the two discussed holding a conclave of Opposition CMs to further their cause. Stalin said the conclave of CMs of non-BJP states will be held soon to discuss the threat posed by the Centre to the autonomy of states.

On Sunday, Rao said he would meet Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and the Bengal CM.
HYDERABAD: Union minister for tourism, culture and development of northeast region G. Kishan Reddy challenged Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for a debate on the performance of the Narendra Modi government during the last seven years. Kishan Reddy said he was ready for an open debate with the Chief Minister at Gun Park in the presence of senior journalists.

Addressing a press conference here at the BJP state office on Tuesday, Kishan Reddy took strong exception to Chandrashekar Raos allegation that the Modi government had done nothing in the last seven years. Claiming that the government had many achievements to its credit during the period, he said he was ready to prove this during the debate if Chandrashekar Rao used polite language.

Kishan Reddy alleged that the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief was spewing venom on the Prime Minister out of frustration. The union minister urged the people of Telangana state to observe the attitude of Chandrashekar Rao after the humiliating defeat of the TRS and victory of the BJP in the Huzurabad byelection.

On Chandrashekar Raos assertion that he would drive out the BJP from the country, Kishan Reddy said that no force on earth could do that. He said the BJP would continue to remain a strong political force even if it lost power tomorrow. After J. P. Nadda, who would become the BJP national president was not known, but after Chandrashekar Rao, his son Rama Rao would be the chief of the TRS, he said. The future of Telangana state will be decided at the dining table of Chandrashekar Rao, he said.

The union minister condemned Chandrashekar Raos statement demanding proof of surgical strikes carried out on Pakistan in 2016 after the terrorist attack on the Army camp at Uri.

Kishan Reddy said the Chief Minister's remarks were detrimental to the security and integrity of the country. "He has insulted the martyrs, demoralised our brave Army and hurt the sentiments of families of those who made supreme sacrifices," he said, adding that even Pakistan did not use such language.

He claimed that Pakistan and all the countries confirmed surgical strikes. He said even the terror group which was targeted admitted that they came under attack. "We don't need Chandrashekar Raos certificate. There is no need to give proof to him. People know this," he said.

The minister dismissed Chandrashekar Raos allegation that there was communal disharmony in the country under the Modi rule for the last seven years. He claimed that during the last seven years, incidents of communal riots had come down while the activities of terror groups were under control. Even life in northeast states became normal during the Modi rule, he said.

Kishan Reddy said Chandrashekar Rao and his family members were unable to digest criticism from any section of society. They want Ji Huzur like rule in Telangana state, he said. Dynastic rule is not possible in Telangana, he said.
The move to reduce primary schools was highly condemnable and TD strongly opposes merging classes 3, 4 and 5 with high schools. The introduction of CBSE syllabus from class 9 was yet another thoughtless action, the TD leader added.  Representational image/DC

Vijayawada: Telugu Desam former minister K.S. Jawahar on Monday said that the YSRC government was destroying the education system in the name of the new education policy based on the 'Kasturirangan' report.

Telugu Desam would launch a state-wide agitation to oppose and prevent the ruling YSRC from depriving the students of their educational opportunities, Jawahar asserted.

The move to reduce primary schools was highly condemnable and TD strongly opposes merging classes 3, 4 and 5 with high schools. The introduction of CBSE syllabus from class 9 was yet another thoughtless action, the TD leader added.

Jawahar called upon the general public to join hands and take part in the TD agitation so as to bring pressure on the YSRC government.
Yet another issue of the fundamental rights of individuals as opposed to the rights of the State has reached the Supreme Court. As is almost routine in our times, it concerns the minorities. It is a question of whether Article 25 (right to freedom of religion) allows the government some room to prohibit the wearing of a headscarf. The article reads: Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion.

The straightforward reading of this is that individual rights must be given primacy. The young women say that covering their head is a religious practice for them and the Constitution guarantees them this as a Fundamental Right.

But the State, as it has always done, insists that it has the greater say in what individuals can and cannot do. One only hopes that the judiciary sees otherwise, but the record has not been good about this, and more often than not the justice system backs the State. For this reason, Indians have freedoms on paper that they cannot really exercise in reality. Even the Fundamental Rights, which are supposed to enjoy a high degree of freedom from encroachment by the State, are undermined regularly. For instance, Indians have the right to freedom of expression but the State has multiple laws which criminalise free speech. There is no real freedom of peaceful assembly or freedom of association and both have been criminalised as well.

Constitutionally, the freedom of occupation and practising any profession exists but when butchers moved court against cow slaughter laws, the Supreme Court admitted it had to take religious sentiments into consideration and curtailed their rights.

Again, Christians asked for and were given the right to propagate their religion (the subcontinents Muslims do not proselytise, but Christians do). But this right was taken away from them through various laws and today propagation is a crime.

The hijab issue has again brought what India is doing to its minorities to the notice of the world. The United States ambassador at large for international religious freedom tweeted on Friday that: Religious freedom includes the ability to choose ones religious attire. The Indian state of Karnataka should not determine permissibility of religious clothing. Hijab bans in schools violate religious freedom and stigmatise and marginalise women and girls.

One hopes that this wise counsel is taken, but it is unlikely to be. The judiciary wants to determine whether the hijab is essential religious practice or not. It has previously told Indian Muslims, as part of the Ayodhya hearings, that mosques are not essential to their religion.

There is a political and social angle as well to the current matter, other than the religious one. I do not claim to speak for the young women but they are being bullied as part of a systematic campaign against Muslims in India. They are being blocked from praying at sites allocated to them by the government, are being blocked from cooking meat or sent to jail for selling bangles. The laws that have been passed against them on the issue of citizenship and in Jammu and Kashmir are all also recent. It is likely that the young women are standing up for more than just their own rights. They are standing up for their faith and their community and that is why that one young woman stood up to that ugly mob in those famous visuals that should shame all Indians, but will not.

So the question then is: if this is the motivation they are coming from, if they are asked to give up their scarves and hijab, what happens next. Already, the indication is clear. On Friday, CNN had a headline which said: Hijab protests spread in India as girls refuse to be told what not to wear. The women will continue to come wearing a headscarf and the State will then have to decide whether or not it wants to use force on them and whether it is sensible to deny them education and entry into examination halls.

It is not difficult to predict this and we have seen what happens when large numbers of citizens stand up to the laws that they think are unjust. The government has had to back down as it did in the matter of both the citizenship laws (which were passed but have not been implemented) and the farm laws, which were withdrawn. In both the instances, the courts were not sympathetic to the protesters, but that did not matter.

One suspects that something similar will happen here, and it is hard to see any other outcome except one in which the State again folds and lets the young women exercise their freedom.

I hope that this happens without friction and without a standoff. The best thing we can pray for is that the courts give a quick judgment in favour of fundamental rights so that the government can worry about other things than what it will not let young women wear.
Wang Xuguang (2nd L), counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Fiji, and Anirudha Bansod (R), CEO of Post Fiji, attend the launching ceremony for the Year of the Tiger stamps at the China Cultural Center in Fiji, in Suva, Fiji, on Feb. 15, 2022. The China Cultural Center in Fiji and Post Fiji jointly launched the Year of the Tiger stamps on Tuesday in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)

SUVA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The China Cultural Center in Fiji and Post Fiji jointly launched the Year of the Tiger stamps on Tuesday in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The stamps, designed by a team from Luxseven Art Museum in Qingdao, China, depict four tigers, namely the Fiji bula tiger (bula being the Fijian phrase of hello/welcome), Fiji rugby tiger, Fiji postal tiger and Fiji tourism tiger.

The Fijian tiger designed on the cover envelope wears a Fijian Bula shirt and holds a Fijian kava bowl in both hands (kava being the traditional national drink of Fiji). The design elements highlight the natural scenery of Fiji: the sea, traditional Fijian sailboats, and coconut trees.

Speaking at the launching ceremony in the China Cultural Center in Fiji, Wang Xuguang, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Fiji, said that in the Chinese culture, tiger symbolizes bravery, strength, courage, and ambition.

He believed that combined with Fiji's unique scenery, plants, traditional costumes, and intangible cultural heritage, the tigers will bring people peace, unity and resilience.

The cultural exchange and cooperation between China and Fiji has been flourishing in recent years and deepened the mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, he said, adding that with the joint efforts of both sides, they could expect more fruitful cultural exchanges in the years to come, which will bring the two peoples even closer.

For her part, Han Xiaoyan, director of the China Cultural Center in Fiji, said that the Year of the Tiger stamp is the seventh Zodiac stamp to be issued by the China Cultural Center in Fiji together with Post Fiji. It will help promote the cultural exchange and cooperation between China and Fiji.

Meanwhile, Anirudha Bansod, CEO of Post Fiji, said as longstanding business partners over the past years, Post Fiji and the China Cultural Center in Fiji have worked together to issue the Chinese Zodiac stamps since 2016, which is a true testimony of friendship between the two countries. 

Wang Xuguang, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Fiji, speaks at the launching ceremony for the Year of the Tiger stamps at the China Cultural Center in Fiji, in Suva, Fiji, on Feb. 15, 2022. The China Cultural Center in Fiji and Post Fiji jointly launched the Year of the Tiger stamps on Tuesday in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)

People learns about the design of the Year of the Tiger stamps at the China Cultural Center in Fiji, in Suva, Fiji, on Feb. 15, 2022. The China Cultural Center in Fiji and Post Fiji jointly launched the Year of the Tiger stamps on Tuesday in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)

Han Xiaoyan, director of the China Cultural Center in Fiji, speaks at the launching ceremony for the Year of the Tiger stamps at the China Cultural Center in Fiji, in Suva, Fiji, on Feb. 15, 2022. The China Cultural Center in Fiji and Post Fiji jointly launched the Year of the Tiger stamps on Tuesday in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)
On the issue of a convergence of outlook regarding the Taliban, not all the Central Asian republics are on the same page as India. (Representational Image/ ANI)

Three major interactions in less than three months between India and five Central Asian republics should underline New Delhis seriousness about unveiling a major Connect Central Asia policy. With Afghanistan at the epicentre of its concerns, India is indeed making a serious attempt to regain its lost strategic space after Kabul fell to the Taliban. However, for the policy to take concrete shape, it needs to steer clear of several geopolitical and other obstacles, has to be comprehensive, and must be backed by a larger vision, resources and a long-term commitment.

Things changed dramatically for India on August 15, 2021 in Afghanistan with the Talibans capture of power. With the balance of power perceived to be shifting in favour of Pakistan, India lost one of its crucial rationale for its presence in Afghanistan  with the trade and connectivity projects with Central Asia. The neo-liberal agenda in New Delhis foreign policy faced a pushback, with the realist thinking of securitising Afghanistan taking precedence.

New Delhis dilemma of whether to do business with the Talibans Islamic emirate in Afghanistan remains unresolved. At the same time, it realises that for the fulfilment of a large number of strategic, geopolitical and geo-economic objectives in Afghanistan, New Delhi needs to reach out to a coalition of like-minded countries who have an abiding interest in the peace and stability of Kabul and a common outlook for economic development in the region. In this regard, Indias refocus on Central Asia is critical. This policys success will, however, be judged by stitching together a coalition of the willing on addressing key security, economic and trade and connectivity issues.

For the last two decades, Afghanistan was seen as a land bridge between India and Central Asia. However, amid the instability in Afghanistan, Pakistans intransigence and New Delhis own unimaginative policies, that has remained merely an aspiration. Not only have projects like Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline remained non-starters, Indias bilateral trade with Central Asia was only about $2 billion, mostly coming from energy imports from Kazakhstan. In comparison, the China-Central Asia trade is to the tune of $41 billion. Even the India-Afghanistan trade had to be routed through the circuitous and expensive route via Irans Chabahar port and the costly showpiece air corridor.

It now appears that India is trying to bypass Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and connect with Central Asia through Iran. Not surprisingly, barely a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modis summit with Central Asia, the Union Budget has allocated Rs 100 crores for the Chabahar project. Also not surprisingly, the International North South Transit Corridor (INSTC) and the Ashbagh Agreement were referred to by New Delhi both during the foreign minister-level meeting in December 2021 and the first India-Central Asia summit in January 2022. As a pressure tactic on the Taliban and Pakistan, and propounding of what is being referred to the new Act Central Asia Policy, this is an important step. However, the activation of the mechanism is riddled with serious challenges.

It is obvious that the multi-modal INSTC, set up in 2002, to connect India with Europe provides enormous primacy to Iran and Russia, which along with India are its founding members. The Ashbagh Agreement includes both Iran and Pakistan. India is its latest member, having joined it only in 2018. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which are the key Central Asian nations through which the projected trade route from India must pass, are not INTSC members. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are not signatories of the Ashbagh Agreement.

Both these agreements, in spite of the dry runs conducted in 2014, have remained mostly non-starters due to the sanctions by the United States and the West on Iran and Russia. Compared to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has progressed at a much faster pace, INSTC projects have suffered from funds crunch, and also the unenthusiastic response and implementation by member states. It will take a visionary leadership, resources, and adept diplomacy by New Delhi to navigate through these multiple challenges.

On the issue of a convergence of outlook regarding the Taliban, not all the Central Asian republics are on the same page as India. With the exception of Tajikistan, all have exchanged high-level diplomatic visits with Kabul. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have reopened their Afghanistan missions. Moreover, Indias aspirations are strongly resisted by an aggressive Chinese policy. All the Central Asian republics are a part of the Belt & Road Intitaive as well as a Quadrilateral Traffic-in-Trade Agreement that includes China. The first India-Central Asia summit was preceded by a similar summit with China. All the republics also have developed closer ties with Pakistan.

New Delhi is playing catch-up in its ties with Central Asia, by underlining its civilisational, cultural, trade and people-to-people connect. In todays complex and changing world order, such linkages need to be bolstered by resources and long-term commitment. Besides other factors, the Covid-19 pandemic-hit truncated MEA Budget allocation in 2022-23 does not allow much elbow room. Out of the total development assistance fund of Rs 6,292 crores, the Eurasian blocs quota is just Rs 140 crores. The Budget places a clear limit on Indias development engagement with the region.

Whether New Delhi has the appetite, resources and long-term vision to take this new policy forward, therefore, remains a key question. Central Asia is critical in its quest for regaining its lost ground in the evolving new Great Game in Afghanistan. As the great power competition and regional power play intensifies in Afghanistan, New Delhi needs a more imaginative policy to address the present disconnect in Central Asia.
James Baldwin, the famous black American writer, once wrote that he would never know when the lift kept him waiting whether the white liftman was genuinely busy or prejudiced against coloured people. Indias 200 million Muslims might feel similarly bewildered about Hindu attitudes. Confusion can cut both ways as I realised on reading a 19-year-old Karnataka computer students comment that I was made to realise I am a Muslim when ordered to take off her hijab.

Surely, it was precisely because of a heightened awareness of her religious identity and determination to be counted as a Muslim that the young lady wore a hijab in the first place. She did not sport a Sikhs turban or iron kara. Nor did she tie a mask over her face like orthodox Jains. There was no vermillion in her hair parting or conch shell bangle on her wrist, both Hindu symbols. She did not wear a crucifix either to indicate Christianity. Instead, she wore a garment that the world -- including Muslims throughout the Ummah -- recognises as uniquely Islamic. It is sometimes said that there is no Quranic sanction for the hijab (or its full-fledged cousin, the burqa) and that the Prophet Mohammed never mentioned the veil. That is neither here nor there. What matters is that like the Karnataka student, many Muslim women regard hijabs as a token of their faith, and wearing it as making a statement. They see the ban as an attack on their religion and identity.

Ripples of that controversy have spread far and wide, with many liberals worldwide veering to the view that India is becoming a monocultural country like Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa or Zionist Israel. Mindful of this, the American philosopher Noam Chomsky warned recently that the pathology of Islamaphobia was taking its most lethal form in India where the Narendra Modi government was systematically dismantling Indian secular democracy and turning the country into a Hindu ethnocracy. There might be some reason to fear for the argumentative Indians inalienable right to dissent. Some might agree (on aesthetic grounds) with Boris Johnson that women in burqas look like letter-boxes. But even if wearing the hijab smacks of obscurantism, forbidding it cannot be justified.

However, what may have been acceptable in seventh century Arabia and might still be the preference in Saudi Arabia is not the model that todays India seeks or needs. At the same time, forcing modernity down the throats of those who languish psychologically and socially in another age cannot be a happy act, no matter how obnoxious the restrictive values and precepts of that age may be.

There is no alternative to social evolution in a free society that respects everyones right to choose his or her lifestyle. Just as it is wrong of governments to prevent people from converting to other religions or eat beef, it is equally wrong of governments to force people to convert (and the so-called ghar wapsi phenomenon is often no more than forced or induced conversion) to a certain faith or eat beef.

Free choice -- subject only to the requirements of law and order -- must remain supreme in any democracy. The concept that your right to swing your arm leaves off where my right not to have my nose struck begins implies a certain consideration for others which is especially important for multicultural harmony in a demographically diverse society.

If the Supreme Court does not want the quite unnecessary hijab dispute to be raised to a national level, turning it into a confrontation between Muslims and BJP supporters could lead to a dangerous polarisation. The young men in saffron scarves who yelled Jai Shri Ram! at girl students in hijabs were deliberately trying to foment serious political and religious conflict.

There are bound to be among the BJPs albeit few Muslim supporters some men whose wives and sisters wear the hijab or even the full burqa. Sadly, the second year B. Com. girl student in Karnataka who retaliated by chanting Allah-hu-Akbar treated taunts and gibes that may have had multiple meanings as a specifically anti-Muslim action like the murderous burst of firing that was opened on the politically contentious Asaduddin Owaisi, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president and a four-time Member of Parliament, as he travelled by car to New Delhi after a series of political rallies in and around Meerut during the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh elections.

Such a rejoinder at once raised the temperature of the exchange. While civil society calls for every attempt to keep temperatures down, such episodes might lead to a repetition of the horrendous religious killings of the pre-Partition days.

Perhaps some Muslims do feel uneasy in India. Even Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had confessed to a sense of shock at seeing the Indian tricolour fluttering above the Mughal Red Fort. I remember as a child hearing my grandmothers Muslim bearer, an uneducated Bihari villager, saying that the British had taken India from Muslims and should return the country to them. Those Muslims had the option of taking up Mohammed Ali Jinnahs offer of a homeland. Many did so in fact. The many who stayed back are certainly better off than the millions of Hindus stranded in Pakistan and Bangladesh. About the only instance of a relatively clean ethnic exchange was between Greece and Turkey, and that was manageable because the numbers were much smaller. On the whole, too, the people on both sides enjoyed a higher economic and educational standard.

Multiracial harmony is impossible without give and take by both sides. The Dharma Sansad that Yati Narsinghanand organised in Haridwar, Swami Anandswaroops Sant Sammelan in Allahabad, the UP chief ministers general campaign rhetoric, and a host of new laws, regulations and bureaucratic interpretations expose the BJPs hostility towards Muslims. At the same time, the Muslim response seems to be assertive to the point of defiance. Bushy beards, an abundance of muslin caps, mosques sprouting everywhere, and the muezzins noisy call to prayer can seem like unnecessary irritants. Those who patronise provocative politicians like Mr Owaisi dont help the Muslim cause; they only make things easier for the saffron lobby.
US service members walk on the tarmac as they deploy to Europe, February 14, 2021, in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. - US service members based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, are preparing deploy to Europe as the crisis between Russia and Ukraine escalates. (Allison Joyce / AFP)

WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday called China's "tacit support" for Moscow in the Ukrainian standoff "deeply alarming," as Western powers fear an imminent Russian invasion of the ex-Soviet state.

"Their tacit support, if you will, for Russia is deeply alarming and frankly even more destabilizing to the security situation in Europe," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Oil dropped from a seven-year high to around $94 a barrel on Tuesday, pressured by a report that some troops in Russia's military districts adjacent to Ukraine are returning to bases, a move that could de-escalate tension between Moscow and the West.

Russia's Interfax news agency cited the defence ministry as saying that while large-scale drills across the country continued, some units of the Southern and Western military districts have completed their exercises and started returning to base.

Brent crude fell $2.35, or 2.4 per cent, to $94.13 by 1442 IST. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped $2.00, or 2.1 per cent, to $93.46.

"There are no prizes for guessing the driving force behind this bout of volatility," said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. "The Russia-Ukraine crisis has put the energy market on high alert for possible disruptions of Russian energy supplies."

Both oil benchmarks hit their highest since September 2014 on Monday, with Brent touching $96.78 and WTI reaching $95.82. The price of Brent rose 50 per cent in 2021 as a global recovery in demand from the Covid-19 pandemic strained supply.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Tuesday a Russian invasion of Ukraine was highly likely, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden agreed in a call on Monday there was a crucial window for diplomacy.

Investors are also watching talks between the United States and Iran on reviving Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, which could potentially allow for higher Iranian oil exports.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday and they noted a "tangible move forward" in reviving the Iran nuclear deal, Russia's foreign ministry said.

In other developments, the latest weekly reports on U.S. inventories are expected to show a drop in crude stocks, underlining a tight supply and demand balance.

The first of this week's two reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is due at 0300 IST Wednesday.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Future Retail to move Delhi High Court to seek permission for the continuation of the proceedings in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) regarding the sanction for its Rs 27,513-crore transaction with Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana asked the high court to pass an appropriate order when an application is moved by Future Retail. The bench, also comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, also observed that the high court should decide the matter, without being influenced by any observations made in the top court order.

The top court noted that the proceedings before the NCLT are at stage 8, meeting of shareholders, and that there are 15 stages for the final approval of the scheme.

The top court granted liberty to Future Retail to move the high court seeking continuation of proceedings before NCLT beyond Stage 8. "Approach the Delhi High Court", the bench told the Future's counsel.

The detailed copy of the judgment will be uploaded later in the day.

The top court had reserved orders on Future's plea on the issue of whether NCLT proceedings in connection with its deal with Reliance can be permitted to continue and could it be allowed to go ahead with the steps of the scheme.

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Following the completion of the single-phase poll exercises in Goa and Uttarakhand on Monday, political parties are set to turn their focus to Uttar Pradesh, which still has five phases left, and Punjab, where the competition is fierce, among the ruling Congress, BJP-led alliance, farmer leaders and the AAP. Manipur is set for a competition between the Congress-led alliance and BJP. Catch all the live updates here.
A high voter turnout of nearly 79 per cent in Goa and moderate polling of 65.1 per cent in Uttarakhand was recorded on Monday during assembly elections in the two states that passed off peacefully.

Uttar Pradesh witnessed 60.44 per cent voting till 5 PM in the second phase of the state polls held amid tight security.

In all the three states, where the BJP is attempting to retain power, the voting percentage was marginally less than the last assembly polls in 2017, though election officials said the figures will be updated as the data was being compiled.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji, Goa's Chief Electoral Officer Kunal said the highest voting was registered in Sankhalim constituency in North Goa at 89.61 per cent, while the lowest voter turnout was 70.20 per cent at Benaulim in South Goa.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is contesting from Sankhalim segment.

The election official said the overall voting per centage in the election to 40 seats was 78.94 per cent

The turnout in the 2017 assembly election was 83 per cent.

In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 586 candidates were in the fray in this phase in 55 seats spread across Saharanpur, which recorded the highest voting, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Budaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur districts.

Also read: SP synonymous with 'corruption, commission and crime': Nadda

These districts had recorded an average turnout of 65.53 per cent in 2017 assembly polls and 63.13 per cent in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Leaders of both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party claimed fake voting at some booths and the SP also alleged EVM tampering but poll officials said the charges were not found to be true.

A turnout of 62.4 per cent was recorded in the first phase of the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on February 10. The state is witnessing a seven-phase election.

The third phase of polls will be held on February 20. Voting for all 117 seats in Punjab will also be held on that day.

"Polling was held peacefully at the 11,697 polling booths across Uttarkhand with 65.1 per cent of the electorate casting their votes till the close of polls in the 70 seats," state Chief Electoral Officer Saujanya said.

In 2017 assembly polls, Uttarakhand had recorded 65.56 per cent voting.

As many as 98 VVPATS, 30 Control units (CUs) and 31 Balloting Units (BUs) had to be replaced during polling while a total of 203 FIRs were lodged for Model Code of Conduct violations on Monday in Uttarkhand, Saujanya said.

Polled EVMs will be kept in strongrooms after scrutiny by general observers under round-the-clock surveillance of CCTV cameras till the day of counting to be carried out under a three-tier security cordon, she said.

Counting of votes will be held on March 10.

Officials said Covid-19 protocols were followed during polling.

Several centenarians cast their votes including Vishweshwri Devi Naudiyal in Kotdwar in Pauri district and Narayan Singh Kapkot in Kapkot in Bageshwar district in Uttarkhand.

There were also reports from Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag and Pithoragarh districts of around ten villages boycotting the polls due to non-construction of roads.

Long queues of voters were seen outside booths as polling began at 8 AM amid strict adherence to Covid protocols. People were allowed to cast their votes only after wearing gloves.

Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, former chief ministers Trivendra Singh Rawat and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, AAP's chief ministerial candidate Col (retd) Ajay Kothiyal, state Congress president Ganesh Godiyal and Yoga guru Ramdev were among the first to cast their votes.

This was the fifth assembly election held in the politically volatile hill state since its creation in 2000.

Traditionally Goa and Uttarakhand have seen bipolar politics, but they are witnessing a multi-cornered contest this time with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) throwing its hat in the ring.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other smaller parties are also vying to make a mark on Goa's electoral scene.

The ruling BJP is seeking a consecutive second term in office in Uttarkahand, while the Congress is trying to make a comeback after being routed at the hands of the BJP in the 2017 assembly polls.

For the first time, 101 all-women managed 'Sakhi' polling booths set up in the state to encourage the participation of women in the polling process and the response from voters was very enthusiastic, Saujanya said.

Similarly, public response to the six polling booths manned by differently-abled persons was also very good, she said.

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The 13th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES) will be held from March 3 to 10, the organisers announced in a press conference here on Tuesday. The annual event wasnt held last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The latest edition will be held in a hybrid format (offline and online). Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will inaugurate the festival at the GKVK auditorium on March 3, Sunil Kumar Puranik, chairman of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, told reporters. The three venues are: PVR Cinemas at Orion Mall, Suchitra Cine Academy, and Dr Rajkumar Bhavana (Kalavidara Sangha).

A total of 200 films from 55 countries under different categories will be screened across three venues in the city. Selections from 2020 and 2021 will be considered at the festival. As such, there is no theme this year but there will be films in line with the Azadi Ki Amrit Mahotsav, a government initiative to celebrate 75 years of Indian independence, Puranik told DH. The event is also set to celebrate 50 years of Tulu cinema.

Honour

BIFFES also received accreditation from the International Federation of Film Producers Association (FIAPF). Our festival is the fifth in India to receive the honour after IFFI (Goa), MAMI (Mumbai), Kolkata Film Festival and IFFK (Kerala). The recognition is given based on the selection of films and conducting of the event, said Puranik.

The organisers have zeroed in on a big Kannada star as one of the chief guests for the inauguration. We are planning to invite big names from other industries as well. The official announcement will be made soon, said Puranik.

The closing ceremony will be held on March 10 at the Tata Auditorium in the Indian Institute of Science (IISC).

Online platform

A set of films will be screened online. The organisers will launch a platform that can be downloaded as an app or accessed online and on television.

Other highlights: A retrospective on veteran actor Bharathi Vishnuvardhan and tributes to late actors Puneeth Rajkumar and Sanchari Vijay.

Registration: Rs 800 for the general public and Rs 400 for students, film society members and people from the industry. Registration begins from today and is likely to be closed on Feb 27. Book your passes at www.biffes.in.

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By Emily Palmer

The new Netflix series Inventing Anna, about con artist Anna Sorokin, better known as Anna Delvey, includes a playful disclaimer that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. This whole story is completely true, it reads. Except for all the parts that are totally made up.

But does the second half of the disclaimer refer to the stories Sorokin told her high-society marks? Or does it describe the story we see onscreen  the one behind Sorokins stories?

The answer, in short, is both: As Sorokin and the shows creator, Shonda Rhimes (Greys Anatomy, Scandal), would likely agree, theres no sense in letting facts get in the way of a good tale.

Over Sorokins monthlong trial, which I covered in 2019 for The New York Times, evidence showed she stole a private jet and bilked banks, hotels and associates out of about $200,000. She did all of this while attempting to secure a $25 million loan from a hedge fund to create an exclusive arts club. Swindling her way into a life of luxury, Sorokin deceived Manhattans elite into believing she was a German heiress worth 60 million euros.

In reality, she had no real wealth, college degree or business experience. She wasnt even German.

The thing is, Im not sorry, she told me at the Rikers Island jail complex, in New York City, the day after a judge sentenced her to 4 to 12 years behind bars for charges including second-degree grand larceny, theft of services and one count of first-degree attempted grand larceny. She added: I regret the way I went about certain things.

Inspired by a 2018 New York magazine article by Jessica Pressler (a producer of the series), Inventing Anna tells the story of Sorokins climb through the uppermost circles of New York City art, finance and fashion  and of her ultimate fall from grace. The series, all nine episodes of which debuted Friday, is the first show Rhimes has created for Netflix herself, and in true Shondaland tradition, the show luxuriates in a soapy mix of sex, power and intrigue.

It also, per tradition, puts ambitious and complex women at its center. Sorokin, played by Julia Garner (Ozark, The Assistant), is just one of them  and not the only one who is ethically challenged. The storys engine is Presslers fictional proxy, Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky), whose pursuit of the story becomes all consuming.

But how true to life is this telling? I took a look at what the series gets right and wrong, drawing from my own experience and research, which included conversations with Sorokins lawyer, Todd Spodek, and friend Neff Davis, and a series of recent phone interviews with Sorokin. (A few minor details here are based solely on Sorokins word, so given her history, use your own judgment.) She has served her minimum sentence and is now being held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a corrections facility in Goshen, New York. (She is facing deportation but has appealed the order.)

Turns out the truth is sometimes better than fiction.

The journalism

For a show that includes a reporter among its producers, the writers pay little attention to what true or at least ethical reporting looks like.

Yes, office politics can influence decisions and relationships within publications, as in most workplaces. And yes, good reporting can include flattering and even befriending sources only to air their dirty laundry. But the series hinges on a moment when Vivian convinces Anna to forgo a generous plea deal and go to trial against the advice of her lawyer, all so Vivian can score a career-redeeming article. In the real world  or at least in the journalism world  that could have been the storys biggest scandal.

In the series, Vivian is a disgraced journalist at the fictional Manhattan magazine who is looking for a big break. (She has been banished by her editors to Scriberia, the part of her newsroom where old writers are put out to pasture.) Seeing Annas story as her shot at redemption, Vivian curries Annas favour by bringing underwear to her at Rikers; by helping catalog evidence (Let me be part of the team! she says, also unethical); and by loaning Anna a white dress to wear during closing arguments, the better to project an image of innocence.

Portions of this are somewhat rooted in reality. Pressler came under scrutiny after reporting a fake claim in 2014 that a high school senior had made $72 million on the stock market. (New York magazine apologized for the article.) But by the time she met Sorokin in 2018, the writer had already bounced back at the magazine, publishing a December 2015 cover story about strippers who stole from (mostly) rich, (usually) disgusting men. That became the caper film Hustlers (2019), starring Jennifer Lopez.

But Sorokin said Pressler did not bring her underwear; according to Spodek, she also did not help catalog evidence. Sorokin confirmed that the decision to go to trial was her own  and made against the advice of confidants. As for the white dress, Sorokin wore it during jury deliberations. By the time the guilty verdict came in, she had switched to black. (Pressler declined to comment for this article.)

The VIP treatment at Rikers

Ive often interviewed inmates like Anna at Rikers and other jails, and the scenes of taking that Q100 bus offer a pretty accurate depiction of what family and friends (and eager reporters) go through to visit people behind bars.

But those authorised media visits  what the Netflix Anna refers to as the VIP visits  are from a Dream Rikers, based on my own experience. Sure, reporters get to skip a few buses when they schedule ahead, but that can take a month to finagle and theres nothing that feels very VIP at the jail itself.

Still, this was Sorokin, a woman who always manages to create an exception. So, I wondered: Did her jailers really serve tea to her and Pressler in a brightly furnished private room? Anna said that they did not.

Def no tea at rikers! Sorokin texted from her corrections facility. But, she added, visitors had access to a cash-only coffee machine while she was in prison upstate, though it doesnt come in porcelain cups, as the tea appears to in the show.

The courtroom drama

As in many Manhattan courtroom dramatisations, Inventing Anna features a different, more aesthetically pleasing courthouse from the one where the real trial took place. The one shown in the series is on Chambers Street, about a 10-minute walk from where Sorokin actually stood trial. But if you watch the first episode carefully, youll glimpse the much shabbier courthouse where the case played out, at 111 Centre St.

Far more precise: the drama inside the courthouse. Spodek, Sorokins lawyer (played in the series by Arian Moayed), delivered a made-for-TV opening statement, comparing Sorokins New York dreams to those of Frank Sinatra. Similarly, the re-creation of his heated cross-examination of Rachel DeLoache Williams, a former friend of Annas who got stuck with a $62,000 bill for a Marrakech trip, was a slightly shorter version of the rousing original.

Yes, Spodek even made Williams cry  tears lost on the jury when she proclaimed, This is the most traumatic experience Ive ever been through. American Express eventually forgave the debt, and Williams later profited from the experience thanks to deals for a book and with HBO.

As in the show, Sorokin sketched scenes from the courtroom throughout the trial, including a caricature of the lead prosecutor (published in The New York Times after the trial) delivering closing statements, head shrunken, shoulders squared and foot tapping while a juror dozes. In the distance: a brick castle labeled FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, decorated with a hypnotic swirl of dollar, euro and pound signs.

The outfits

Dont crowd my entrance, Anna instructs her lawyer in the finale before strutting into the courtroom. As depicted in the series, her courtroom outfits became a virtual runway show, acquiring an Instagram following and bolstering her image long after her Delvey days seemed over.

This is pretty accurate. Sorokin definitely worked it during the trial with the help of Anastasia Walker as her personal stylist. The Instagram account is real (@Annadelveycourtlooks). Several of her outfits are precisely re-created on the show. But as the weeks passed, Sorokin ran out of looks, she told me, and associates including Spodek and Pressler stepped in, as with the white dress.

Sometimes the outfits werent processed by Rikers in time for court, resulting in fashion meltdowns as she rejected subpar substitutes, one day delaying the court proceedings for almost an hour and a half. I once spotted a bag in the courtroom filled with wardrobe rejects, including a flurry of long sleeves and collared shirts, a light blue sleeveless dress (Ann Taylor, size 10), black pants (J. Crew, size 0) and a medium white button-down collared shirt from the Gap.

It all sounds very dramatic (and it was), but it wasnt entirely Sorokins fault. Several years before her case, a City Council bill banned Rikers jumpsuits from the courtroom as potentially biasing for juries. Even so, Justice Diane Kiesel, the presiding judge, clearly detested the catwalk entrances and the holdups that preceded them  she ultimately announced that if Sorokin did not arrive promptly in court (however dressed), the trial would go on without her.

The accent

Sorokins virtually untraceable accent is among her most distinguishing features. Born in a town 20 minutes outside Moscow, she moved to Germany when she was 15 but struck out on her own at 19, flitting from Paris to New York. Her accent is a melange of influences, from everywhere and nowhere at once.

So did Garner get it right? Ultimately, I found Netflix Anna too nasally, the words harshly diced, each syllable too carefully executed. While Garner has nailed the essence of the accents oddity, Sorokins actual voice is softer, the pronunciation subtler.

I wondered, too, what Sorokin thought of her TV character. Its really hard to tell where she would be from, she said. Garners version, like Annas, is a voice without a home, spanning several continents and eras of Sorokins life. She got it right in a way, Sorokin acknowledged.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The European Union's data protection watchdog called on Tuesday for a ban on the controversial spyware tool Pegasus, developed by Israeli-based NSO Group.

The EDPS said use of Pegasus might lead to an "unprecedented level of intrusiveness, able to interfere with the most intimate aspects of our daily lives."

Israel has come under global pressure over allegations that Pegasus has been abused by some foreign client governments to spy on human rights activists, journalists and politicians.

NSO has said it could not confirm or deny any existing or potential customers for Pegasus. It said it does not operate the system once sold to its governmental customers nor is it involved in any way in the systems operation.

Also read: Israeli inquiry checking NSO database over police wiretap allegations

"A ban on the development and the deployment of spyware with the capability of Pegasus in the EU would be the most effective option to protect our fundamental rights and freedoms", the EDPS said.

"At the centre of debate on tools like Pegasus should not only be the use of the technology, but the importance we attribute to the right to privacy."

An investigation published last year by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said the spyware had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists on a global scale.

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LANZHOU, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 871 whooper swans have been recorded during the ongoing wintering season in northwest China's Gansu Province, according to a recent survey.

Among the total, 157, or 18 percent, are adolescent swans, the highest ratio compared with that of three such surveys conducted from 2019-2021.

Since 2020, the number of wintering whooper swans in Gansu has exceeded 800 each year, said Zhang Lixun from the School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, who led the survey.

There are five major habitats in Gansu for the swans including two along the Yellow River, China's second-longest river, and the rest along three inland rivers.

According to Zhang, those wintering swans, mainly from Russia and Mongolia, gradually move southward to China every October and fly back to their original places in March of the following year.

"The number of wintering swans is directly related to the size of wetland in a region and the richness of edible grasses in the water," said Zhang.

More wintering whooper swans in Gansu indicates the continuous improvement of the ecological environment in west China, said Zhang.

The whopper swan is under second-class national protection. Gansu is one of the important habitats for the species, as well as a key monitoring region. 
India has advised its citizens, particularly students, to consider leaving Ukraine in view of Russias build-up around the East European nation.

On Tuesday, the Embassy of India in Kyiv issued a travel advisory asking Indians whose stay is not essential to consider leaving Ukraine temporarily in view of the uncertainties of the current situation. It also advised Indians to avoid all non-essential travels to and within Ukraine.

Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom and several other nations have already advised their citizens to leave Ukraine.

India had nearly 18,000 of its citizens in Ukraine before the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world - primarily students in several educational institutions. Many students had returned from Ukraine to India when the academic institutions were shut down, and other restrictions were imposed to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2. Some students, however, had later returned to Ukraine.

Read | Russia will retaliate if countrymen are killed in Ukraine: Report

The Embassy of India in Kyiv also asked Indians to keep it informed about the status of their presence in the country so that they could be contacted when required to do so, indicating that it might plan the evacuation of its citizens if the conflict could not be avoided. The embassy continues to function normally to provide all services to Indian nationals in Ukraine, it posted on its website as well as on social media platforms.

New Delhi had tacitly endorsed Moscows 2014 move leading to the annexation of Crimea, stating that Russia had legitimate interests in Ukraine. The Embassy of India in Kyiv had organised the evacuation of nearly 1000 Indian nationals, mostly students, following the escalation of the crisis in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in Ukraine.

India on January 31 avoided siding with the United States and refrained from supporting its move to hold a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Russias latest military build-up around Ukraine. T S Tirumurti, New Delhis envoy to the UN, told the Security Council that India was in favour of finding a solution that could provide for immediate de-escalation of tensions over Ukraine, taking into account the legitimate security interests of all countries and aimed towards securing long term peace and stability in the region and beyond.

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Myanmar will not participate in this week's meetings in Cambodia of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, spurning an invitation to send a non-political representative instead of its chief diplomat, its government said Monday.

Cambodia, the current ASEAN chair, said earlier this month that members of the regional group had failed to reach a consensus on inviting Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin to its meetings on Thursday and Friday in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

Wunna Maung Lwin was appointed foreign minister after the military seized power in Myanmar last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The decision to restrict Myanmar's participation reflected a disagreement over Myanmar's lack of cooperation in implementing measures agreed upon by the 10-member group last year to help ease that country's violent political crisis following the army's takeover.

Also Read  Foreign firms in Myanmar face tough choices after coup

The head of Myanmar's military government, Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, was not invited to last October's virtual meeting of ASEAN leaders because of the disagreement. That rebuke was issued shortly after Myanmar declined to let an ASEAN special envoy meet with Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since the military took power.

Despite the efforts made by the ASEAN chair and Myanmar to promote cooperation in ASEAN, it is regrettable to see the return of the decision made last year which Myanmar in principle is unable to accept, Myanmar's Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement Monday night.

In this regard, Myanmar's inability to participate or even designate a non-political representative... is inevitable since it contradicts the principles and practice of equal representation in ASEAN.

ASEAN was chaired by Brunei when it snubbed Min Aung Hlaing, but under its annual rotation system, Cambodia now heads the group. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he believes it is important that Myanmar attend the next summit meeting.

Hun Sen travelled to Myanmar in January, becoming the first foreign leader to visit since the military takeover. He has repeatedly declared his interest in resolving the impasse between ASEAN and Myanmar.

Also Read  UN Security Council urges 'immediate' end to Myanmar violence

Japan's foreign minister met in Tokyo on Monday with Hun Sen's son and agreed to cooperate in dealing with the situation in Myanmar. Hun Manet, who heads Cambodia's army and is Hun Sen's favoured successor, accompanied his father during his visit to Myanmar.

Japan has taken a softer line on Myanmar's military than Western nations that have sanctioned the generals. But in a sign that attitudes in Japan are mixed, Japanese brewery Kirin Holdings announced on Monday that it has decided to withdraw from its business in Myanmar and terminate its joint venture with a military-linked partner.

Cambodia's Chum Sounry said the failure to reach a consensus about inviting Myanmar to this week's foreign minister's meeting was due to little progress in carrying out the ASEAN's 5-Point Consensus, agreed to by all the group's members, including Myanmar.

ASEAN leaders at a special meeting last April issued a statement expressing a consensus calling for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties.

Myanmar has not rejected the consensus but has done little to implement it.

Myanmar's military council has also continued its harsh military actions against areas of the country where it faces a low-level insurgency, as well as its relentless effort to prosecute Suu Kyi to remove her from political life.

Also Read  Myanmar villagers say army troops burned 400 houses

Suu Kyi went on trial on Monday on election fraud charges, the latest in a series of criminal prosecutions by the military-run government in which she has already been sentenced to six years in prison.

The army said it seized power because of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 general election, an allegation not corroborated by independent election observers. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won the election by a landslide, while the military-backed party did poorly.

The military's takeover prompted widespread peaceful protests and civil disobedience that security forces suppressed with lethal force. About 1,500 civilians have been killed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Some opponents of the military have turned to armed resistance in response.

Suu Kyi, 76, has faced a raft of charges since she was taken into custody. Her supporters and human rights groups say the cases against her are baseless.

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Pakistan will allow India to use its territory to transport 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat and medicine to Afghanistan, beginning this month, Pakistani customs officials said on Tuesday.

The permission of such a convoy is rare by Pakistan, which has barred the entry of goods from India for years as the relationship between the two nuclear-armed nations has deteriorated.

It marks a response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger have spiralled since the Taliban took power last year.

The first convoy of 60 trucks will cross from India to Pakistan at the Wagah border - a key goods transit point between the two countries - on Feb. 22, Additional Director of Customs Beelam Ramzan told Reuters.

"The humanitarian assistance will be handed over to the World Food Program representative in Jalalabad," Ramzan said, referring to the eastern Afghan city.

A World Food Program spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment on distribution plans for the wheat.

The Taliban-led administration has been using wheat as payment for thousands of government workers, mostly labourers, as the country's financial crisis intensifies.

An Indian government source said India was committed to providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and the methods of delivering aid were being worked out with Pakistan. The source added that India had already sent Covid-19 vaccines and medicines to Afghanistan.

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Two Indian nationals were among eight people arrested here on Tuesday for possessing uranium-like substances, which were brought from India to be sold illegally in Nepal, police said.

Based on a tip-off, a team of police officers arrested the eight people after they recovered these substances from a car parked in the parking lot of a five-star hotel in Boudha, on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

The two Indian nationals were identified as Upendra Kumar Mishra and Raju Thakur, both natives of Bihar, while the six others were all Nepal nationals, police said.

The arrests were made as they were preparing to sell the valuable item for Rs. 350 million per kg.

The police arrested Bhupendra and Nawaraj from the parked car, where the substance was hidden and six others were arrested on the basis of information furnished by them.

The eight people have been arrested on charges of illegally trading in Uranium, according to Nepal Police headquarters sources.

Authorities have also seized nine mobile phones from them.

We have recovered some substances, which look like uranium. It will be sent to the laboratory to ascertain whether they are uranium, Dinesh Mainali, Superintendent of Police from the Metropolitan Police Range said.

The police have initiated further investigation into the matter after taking the eight people under detention.

In March, 2021, four Nepalese nationals were arrested here for possessing 2.5 kilogrammes of unprocessed uranium. One of the arrested claimed that her father-in-law brought it from India where he worked in a uranium mine some 20 years ago, police said.

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Airlines and the leasing companies that control billions of dolllars' worth of passenger jets are drawing up contingency plans for a freeze in business with Russia if the standoff on Ukraine's border boils over into a military conflict.

US officials have warned that Moscow could launch an attack on Ukraine after amassing more than 100,000 troops close to its neighbour's border, with the West preparing heavy sanctions.

Aviation bosses are worried about the impact on dealings with Russian companies. Sanctions could disrupt payments to leasing firms, and any retaliatory move by Moscow to restrict access to Russian airspace might throw east-west trade into chaos.

Also read: US, UK leaders agree 'window for diplomacy' remains over Ukraine

"We are expecting an asymmetrical Russian response," said a Western source involved in drawing up scenarios, adding the West was unlikely to restrict its own airspace first.

Air corridors between parts of Europe or North America and Asia stretch across Russia, making its 26 million square km (10 million square miles) of airspace a vital trade intersection.

Cargo is particularly active. US carrier FedEx said on Monday it was making unspecified contingency plans.

Without access to Russia's airways, experts say airlines face having to divert flights south while avoiding areas of tension in the Middle East - adding significant cost at a time when airlines are reeling from the pandemic.

According to some reports, the crisis has resurrected the Cold War prospect of European jets heading over North America to refuel in Anchorage, then dropping down to destinations such as Tokyo, pushing the economics of such flights to the limit.

So far, Alaska's largest airport has not been contacted by any airline exploring that option, which would require an increase in ground-handling capacity, a spokesperson said.

But the scenario is a reminder that Russia's size and position on the aviation map gives it leverage not available to the Soviet Union when economies were less integrated, according to Elisabeth Braw, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

"So far, Moscow hasn't threatened to revoke overflight rights, but knows it has a phenomenal weapon at its disposal," Braw wrote in a column in Defense One last month.

Even short of formal retaliation, experts say the impact on crucial Russian overflights is hard to predict.

"Every one of those operations requires advance clearance and that's not always routinely granted. And there's every reason to believe that if things got serious some of those requests could just go unanswered," analyst Robert Mann said.

Lessor concerns

Russia's 8,000 air traffic controllers handled 194,296 transit flights, or 532 overflights a day, on average in 2021.

That's up 16% from coronavirus-depressed levels in 2020 but still 37% below pre-crisis traffic in 2019, according to the Federal Agency for Air Transport.

"It would be devastating in normal circumstances, but Asia traffic is lower than normal," the Western source said.

Analysts say Russia earns significant fees from overflights.

Also read: Ukraine's Zelenskiy says he has heard invasion could be Feb 16, declares day of unity

As tensions rose in recent months, US airlines raised concerns that Russia could refuse to extend overflights, disrupting connections to Asia, India and the Middle East.

If there is an emergency, we have no choice but to avoid Russia and fly the southern route," said Yuji Hirako, president and chief executive of All Nippon Airways Co Ltd. "Since the demand for international flights is so low due to the coronavirus pandemic, we may choose not to fly in the event of an emergency."

In October, US carriers asked the State Department to "act urgently" to secure additional rights to overfly Russia, according to a trade group's letter seen by Reuters. US officials are expected to meet the carriers within days.

For the aircraft leasing industry, Russia has until now been a relative bright spot, as airlines have largely kept up with payments during the pandemic, one leasing company executive said.

Even as some airlines began avoiding Ukraine on Monday, leasing companies were eyeing larger risks in Russia.

Domhnal Slattery, chief executive of lessor Avolon, said his biggest concern was the potential for sanctions involving SWIFT, which would disrupt international payment transfers. "So we're focused on ensuring of how do we get around that from the payment of our rentals perspective," he said.

Russian companies have 980 passenger jets in service, of which 777 are leased, according to analytics firm Cirium.

Of these, two thirds, or 515 jets, with an estimated market value of about $10 billion, are rented from foreign firms.

"If there are sanctions on dealing with Russian companies, this could affect more than 500 aircraft if no exemptions are allowed," said Rob Morris, head consultant at Ascend by Cirium.
Greece's government is seeking parliamentary approval Tuesday for a 3 billion euro ($3.4 billion) agreement for three new French-made frigates that defense officials say are vital to address ongoing tension with neighbouring Turkey.

Lawmakers are also debating whether to add six new Rafale fighter jets to an existing order for 18 planes, six of them newly built and 12 that were previously in service in the French air force.

NATO members Greece and Turkey remain at odds over maritime boundaries and mineral exploitation rights in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean.

A Turkish oil and gas survey in 2020 resulted in a tense naval standoff between the two countries.

Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said the Greek military needs to modernise following repeated funding cuts during the country's acute 2010-18 financial crisis.

There is no armament program that is slightly necessary' or somewhat necessary', Panagiotopoulos told lawmakers Monday during a committee-level debate in parliament.

All of the armament programmes that we have submitted for approval, in one way or another, are absolutely necessary for the armed forces ? extremely necessary, urgently necessary.

Greece's centre-right government has 157 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament, and the proposed procurements are expected to be approved without dissent within the ruling party.

The left-wing main-opposition party opposes the additional purchase of French fighter jets.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron finalised the frigate deal last year along with an enhanced defense cooperation agreement between their countries.

Made by France's Naval Group, two warships are due to be delivered in 2025 and the third the following year, with an option to add a fourth frigate to be ready in 2027.

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Iran's top security official said Tuesday a "guarantee" and "verification" would be needed for Vienna talks to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, in apparent reference to any US commitments.

"Verification and providing a guarantee is an integral part of a good deal," the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, wrote in a Twitter post.

"Proven American malpractice is the most important threat to any agreement," he said, adding that "the real lifting of sanctions means that #Iran will enjoy credible and sustainable economic benefits".

The accord offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme, but the US unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and reimposed heavy economic sanctions, prompting Iran to begin rolling back on its commitments.

Also Read | Iran says nuclear deal 'at hand' but sanctions must be 'truly lifted'

The Vienna talks, which involve Iran as well as Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly and the United States indirectly, resumed in late November after a pause following the election of ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi in June.

Irish Foreign and Defence Minister Simon Coveney, whose country acts as facilitator for UN Resolution 2231 endorsing the 2015 deal, visited Tehran on Monday.

Coveney said he believed the Western parties to the accord are "deeply committed to making this work," while addressing reporters alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollhain.

The Iranian top diplomat said he believed an agreement was "at hand", provided the US and European parties "are serious" about returning to full compliance with the deal.

The Vienna talks aim to return the US to the nuclear deal, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and to ensure Tehran's full compliance with its commitments.

Raisi, who also discussed the progress of the talks with Coveney, said "sanctions must be truly lifted" and "the rights of the Iranian people must be respected" in any agreement.

Also on Monday, EU foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell tweeted that "I strongly believe an agreement is in sight," following a call with Iran's foreign minister.

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Iraq's top court on Tuesday ordered the autonomous Kurdistan region to deliver all oil produced there to the federal government in Baghdad -- a move that could reignite long-standing tensions.

A ruling by the federal Supreme Court stipulates that the Kurdistan Regional Government deliver "the entire production of oil fields in Kurdistan" to the federal government.

But Kurdish authorities are unlikely to comply with the ruling, given years of disputes over Baghdad's share of Kurdish petrol.

Iraq is the second largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The nearly 3.5 million barrels per day exported by the country account for more than 90 percent of Iraq's income.

The court's ruling, published on its website, also called on the Kurdish authorities to "review all oil contracts entered into by Kurdistan for the export and sale of oil and gas".

Iraq's federal government has long called for all oil exports in the country to go through it, having previously lashed out at Turkey in 2012 and 2014 for its role in refining and re-exporting oil produced in the Kurdistan region.

According to a deal struck between Baghdad and the Kurdish capital Arbil, the Kurdish region delivers 250,000 of its more than 400,000 barrels of oil per day to Baghdad, in return for its share of the federal budget.

The share is used to pay the salaries of Kurdish civil servants and peshmerga fighters.

The Kurdistan region, which has been autonomous since 1991, held a referendum on independence in 2017 that inflamed tensions with the federal government.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he was ready to continue working with the West on security issues to de-escalate tensions over Ukraine.

"We are ready to work further together. We are ready to go down the negotiations track," Putin told a press conference following talks in Moscow with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Putin said that "of course" Russia does not want war. But it "cannot turn a blind eye" to how Washington and NATO "freely interpret" the principle of the indivisibility of security -- that no country should strengthen its security at the expense of others.

Scholz's meeting with Putin comes a day after he travelled to Kyiv to shore up support for Ukraine during talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin confirmed a pullback of some forces from Ukraine's borders but said the move was planned and stressed Russia would continue to move troops across the country as it saw fit.

Also read: Poland says gap between Russia and West can be narrowed

Western countries for weeks have been sounding the alarm over a build-up of Russian troops around Ukraine and a potential invasion, saying any military action would be met with sweeping economic penalties.

Western countries warned Moscow they could impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 -- a pipeline set to double supplies of Russian gas to Europe -- if Russia attacks Ukraine.

The pipeline has been criticised by some Western countries as a geopolitical weapon, warnings it will increase Europe dependence on Russian gas.

The pipeline also diverts supplies from an existing route through Ukraine and is expected to deprive the EU's partner of crucial transit fees from Russia.

Putin said during Tuesday's press conference that Russia was ready to continue gas supplies via Ukraine "even after 2024", when the current contract expires.

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Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz began in Moscow Tuesday, the latest meeting in weeks of diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions over Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, we will devote a significant portion of our time to issues related to the situation in Europe and to security," including Ukraine, Putin said during opening remarks at the beginning of the talks.

Scholz's meeting with Putin comes a day after he travelled to Kyiv to shore up support for Ukraine during talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Read more: UK intel on Russia-Ukraine border crisis 'not encouraging'

The meeting also follows a visit to Russia from French President Emmanuel Macron last week.

"It's clear that we now have to talk about the difficult situation regarding security in Europe," the German leader said at the onset of talks with Putin.

The Russian president said that energy issues would also be on the agenda.

Western countries have warned Moscow that they could impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 -- a controversial pipeline set to double supplies of Russian gas to Europe -- if Russia attacks Ukraine.

The Kremlin earlier Tuesday confirmed a pullback of some Russian forces from Ukraine's borders but said the move was planned and stressed Russia would continue to move troops across the country as it saw fit.

Western countries for weeks have been sounding the alarm over a build-up of Russian troops around Ukraine and a potential invasion, saying any military action would be met with sweeping economic penalties.

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LANZHOU, China, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Yellow River from sky at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games shocked Ezenne Godwin Chukwuebuka, a Nigerian student at Lanzhou University in northwest China's Gansu Province.

"The Yellow River was quite a science-fictional scene at Beijing 2022" said Ezenne, who has studied in Lanzhou City near the Yellow River for a long time.

Beijing 2022 has won high praise from international students like Ezenne, who have watched the opening ceremony and different events since this February.

Ezenne was surprised to see that there was one athlete from Nigeria competing at Beijing 2022.

"Though my country never snows, different countries gathered with friendship at the Winter Olympics," said Ezenne, adding that China is a good place to help all countries and regions keep closer.

Mukhlisa Tukhtavulova, from Uzbekistan, is a classmate of Ezenne's at Lanzhou University. She mentioned that she was amazed by the giant Olympic rings rising from the ice at the opening ceremony.

"I think the technology of the Olympic rings is a symbol of winter sports," Mukhlisa said.

Before Beijing 2022, over a dozen international students from Belt and Road Initiative countries competed in a curling copmetition at Gansu University of Political Science and Law competed. All of them praised the Chinese elements, including mascot Bing Dwen Dwen, at the Winter Olympics.

Davlatov Shuhratjon, a Tajik student of business administration at Gansu University, said that Bing Dwen Dwen is a cute and friendly panda.

"The panda is China's national treasure, and I really love it," Davlatov said.

Mukhlisa added that when foreigners talk about China, pandas must be the first topic. Bing Dwen Dwen is one of the most important Chinese elements at Beijing 2022.

"Both Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon are my favorite mascots," said Mukhlisa, adding that she hoped that she could buy the mascots with good luck.

At the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, strong pandemic-prevention measures have been taken in different venues, residences, events and activities.

Davlatov believed that China's ability to host the Winter Olympics is the result of the joint efforts of many departments and tens of thousands of people.

"China did a very good job in epidemic prevention and control." Davlatov said.

"I'm sure that China's epidemic control is perfect. I want to give a thumbs-up to China," Mukhlisa said. 
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said his government will not recognise the Taliban regime in Afghanistan unilaterally and become isolated, hampering Pakistan's efforts for economic recovery, and stressed that its recognition has to be a "collective effort" by the countries in the region.

Since it seized power in Kabul in mid-August, the hardline Taliban has been urging the international community to recognise its Islamic Emirate as the official government of Afghanistan.

The US and other Western countries are pressing the Taliban to put the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan high on their agenda, along with the demand for the Taliban government to share power with the country's minority ethnic and religious groups.

If Pakistan is the first to grant recognition, the international pressure will become too much for us as we try to turn our economy around, Prime Minister Khan was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune, citing his interview with a French media outlet Le Figaro.

Also Read | Taliban declare Soviet exit holiday, six months after seizing power

We could no longer pay our debts. We can only recover if we have good relations with the international community. To be isolated by becoming the only state (to recognise the Taliban regime) would be the last thing we would want, the newspaper cited Khan as saying.

He said the Taliban's recognition has to be a "collective effort" by the countries in the region.

He said that as for the conditions for such recognition, there is an international consensus that there must be an inclusive government in Afghanistan. There is also the issue of human rights and womens rights.

"The Taliban government has made promises on these two issues. What more is needed to make the world satisfied? That is the question, he was quoted as saying in the report.

Read | Six months of Taliban: Afghans safer, poorer, less hopeful

However, he said that the Taliban delegation that visited Pakistan in December did not give any concrete answers about their commitment to abide by their promises to ensure basic rights for women and minorities.

`There were no concrete answers. They gave an agreement in principle You cant force them. There is a limit to what foreign pressure can do to a government like the Taliban. Afghans should not be expected to respect womens rights as Westerners understand them, he said.

On girls education, he recalled that the Taliban said they needed time.

In a question about the consequences of the Afghan Taliban's return to power and its impact on Pakistans national security, especially in the light of the recent spike in the attacks claimed by the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), he said a stable regime in Afghanistan will weed out terror groups.

Also Read | Afghan protesters call for release of female activists

We believe that the more stable the Afghan government is, the less these groups can operate. That is why we are so concerned about the stability of Afghanistan, he said, adding that the Pakistani government trusted the Afghan Taliban when they said they will not let militants strike from their territory.

It is in their interest that regional trade develops from Central Asia through their territory to the Indian Ocean, he said, adding that in the 90s, Pakistani transporters were operating freely in Afghanistan.

About a UN report on links between al Qaeda and the Taliban, he said, if terrorists operate from [the] Afghan soil, the Taliban will suffer. It is in their interest to stop international terrorism.

In response to a question over the US governments plan to strike terror groups in Afghanistan through an air corridor, the prime minister said, we will be partners with the US in peace, not in war.

Also Read | How the Taliban's return has changed Afghan women's lives

Speaking about a dialogue with India, he said Pakistan wants good ties with India but not without resolving the Kashmir issue.

He said that talks with India were at a "dead end" and blamed the RSS ideology for not making any headway in normalising bilateral ties.

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and shall forever" remain an integral part of the country.

India has told Pakistan that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Islamabad in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence. India has said the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment free of terror and hostility.

About Uyghurs treatment in China, Khan said, Xinjiang is part of China."

On relations with France, Khan said France was an important country for Pakistan as almost half of our exports go to the European Union and Islamabad was in the process of appointing an envoy in Paris.

To a question about visiting France, he said, not in the immediate future. With President (Emmanuel) Macron, we have spoken twice on the phone in the past and, of course, I want to come to France, he said.

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Some troops in Russia's military districts adjacent to Ukraine are returning to their bases after completing drills, Russia's defence ministry was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Russia's Interfax news agency cited the ministry as saying that while large-scale drills across the country continued, some units of the Southern and Western military districts had completed their exercises and started returning to base.

The reported movements run counter to warnings from the United States and Britain that Russia may be poised to invade Ukraine at any time.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Britain would need to see a full-scale removal of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine to believe that Moscow has no plans for an invasion.

Read | Russia will retaliate if countrymen are killed in Ukraine: Report

Video footage provided by the defence ministry and published by the RIA news agency showed some tanks and other armoured vehicles being loaded onto railway flatcars.

The ministry said it would use trucks to move some hardware while some troops would march to bases on their own.

Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders, including a large contingent on joint drills in Belarus until Feb. 20, meaning that Ukraine is almost encircled by the Russian military.

Russian markets reacted positively to the news and the rouble, which has been under pressure due to fears of fresh Western sanctions in the event of a war, gained 1.5% shortly after the defence ministry announcement.

Moscow has denied ever planning to attack Ukraine but is demanding legally binding guarantees from the United States and NATO that Kyiv will not be allowed to join the military bloc. Washington and Brussels have so far refused to make such pledges.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was expected nL8N2UP5M2 in Moscow later on Tuesday to meet President Vladimir Putin in a high stakes mission to avert war.

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Afghanistan has undergone a dramatic transformation in half a year of Taliban rule.

The country feels safer, less violent than it has in decades, but the once aid-fuelled economy is barreling toward collapse. Tens of thousands of Afghans have fled or have been evacuated, including large numbers of the educated elites. They either fear for their economic future or lack of freedom under a group that ascribes to a strict interpretation of Islam and during its previous rule in the late 1990s barred girls from school and women from work.

Tuesday marks six months since the Afghan capital of Kabul was ceded to the Taliban with the sudden and secret departure of the country's US-backed president. The takeover of Kabul had been preceded by a months-long Taliban military campaign to take control of provincial areas, many of which fell with hardly a fight.

Also Read | Afghan protesters call for release of female activists

Today, the sight of armed Taliban fighters roaming the street still jars and frightens residents. But women have returned to the streets, and many young men have put on Western clothes again after initially shedding them for the traditional shalwar kameez, the long shirt and baggy pants favoured by the Taliban.

Unlike in the 1990s, the Taliban are allowing some women to work. Women are back in their jobs in the health and education ministries, as well as at Kabul International airport, often next to men. But women are still waiting to return to work in other ministries. Thousands of jobs have been lost in the economic downward spiral, and women have been hit hardest.

The Taliban have cracked down on women's protests and harassed journalists, including briefly detaining two foreign journalists working with the UN refugee agency last week.

On Monday, the detention of some young men selling heart-shaped flowers in recognition of Valentine's Day was a stark reminder that the new all-male religion-driven administration has no tolerance for Western ideas of romance.

Girls in grades 1-6 have been going to school, but those in the higher grades are still locked out in most parts of the country. The Taliban promised all girls will be in school after the Afghan new year at the end of March. Universities are gradually reopening and private universities and schools never closed.

Also Read | How the Taliban's return has changed Afghan women's lives

Poverty is deepening. Even those who have money have a hard time accessing it. At banks, lines are long as residents wait for hours, sometimes even days, to withdraw a limit of $200 a week.

More than $9 billion in Afghanistan's foreign assets were frozen after the Taliban takeover. Last week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that promised USD 3.5 billion  out of $7 billion of Afghanistan's assets frozen in the United States  would be given to families of America's 9/11 victims. The other USD 3.5 billion would be freed for Afghan aid.

Afghans across the political spectrum have decried the order, accusing the US of taking money that belongs to Afghans.

The Taliban have campaigned for international recognition of their all-male, all-Taliban government, but they are being pressed to create an inclusive administration and guarantee the rights of women and religious minorities.

Also Read: Taliban reopen universities for Afghan women in 2 provinces

Graeme Smith, a senior consultant for the International Crisis Group's Asia Program, warned against using sanctions, saying that would backfire.

"Keeping economic pressure on the Taliban will not get rid of their regime, but a collapsing economy could lead to more people fleeing the country, sparking another migration crisis," he said.

He also noted that this round of Taliban rule probably ranks as the most peaceful six-month period that Afghanistan has enjoyed in four decades.

The Taliban have re-opened the country's passport office, which is clogged with thousands of people a day. The Taliban have promised Afghans they can travel but only with proper documents. Those trying to leave seem largely driven by fear of a failing economy or the desire for greater freedom in a more liberal society.

Several officials linked to the former US-backed government have returned. One of the returnees, former ambassador Omar Zakhilwal, said he encountered no rancour from the Taliban.

He said he hoped that the Taliban will find the courage to open their ranks, guarantee minorities a say in the government and go further to guarantee the rights of all Afghans.

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The tone of the crisis over Ukraine shifted Monday as Russias top diplomat endorsed more talks to resolve its stand-off with the West, and Ukrainian officials hinted at offering concessions to avert war, even as Russian warships massed off Ukraines Black Sea coast and Russian ground troops appeared poised to strike.

In stage-managed, televised meetings, the Kremlin sent its strongest signals yet that it would seek further negotiations with the West rather than launch immediate military action, with state television showing a feed of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov telling President Vladimir Putin there was still a diplomatic path ahead. Minutes later, it showed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu telling Putin that what he characterised as large-scale drills around Ukraine were coming to an end.

I believe that our possibilities are far from exhausted, Lavrov said, referring to Russias negotiations with the West. I would propose continuing and intensifying them.

Putin responded ambiguously: Good.

It was a sign that the Kremlin was still holding out the possibility that it could use its troop buildup to achieve key objectives without military action. The prospect for such a scenario was bolstered in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy left open the possibility of dropping his countrys ambition to join the NATO alliance  a move that would help fulfil one of Putins key demands.

Read | Sanctions will have huge impact on Russia, warns G7

At a news conference, Zelenskyy emphasized that NATO membership was for our security, with the goal of joining the alliance written into the countrys constitution. But he acknowledged the difficult place the country found itself in, nearly completely encircled by Russian forces and with partners like the United States insisting they will not send troops into Ukraine to repel a Russian invasion.

How much should Ukraine go on that path? Zelenskyy said of NATO membership. Who will support us? The prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, he posited, could be like a dream.

Zelenskyy spoke alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, the latest Western leader trying shuttle diplomacy to avert war. The flurry of diplomacy came as fears of war have caused oil prices to spike, pushing well past $90 a barrel.

If Russia violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine again, we know what to do, Scholz said. In the event of military escalation, we are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in coordination with our allies.

Scholz will fly to Moscow on Tuesday for crisis talks with Putin, following up on last weeks Kremlin visit by President Emmanuel Macron of France. Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau of Poland  a country that is one of Russias most vocal critics in Europe  was also scheduled to visit Moscow on Tuesday to meet with his Russian counterpart, Lavrov. And Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio of Italy prepared to depart for his own Eastern European tour, which will bring him to Kyiv on Tuesday and Moscow on Wednesday.

Because of the continuing crisis, the United States is temporarily closing its embassy in Kyiv and moving its operations to Lviv, a city much farther from Russian territory, the State Department said.

In his televised meeting with Putin, Lavrov highlighted the Wests diplomatic frenzy as a sign that the Kremlins strategy of pairing negotiations with military pressure was working. Putin laid out that strategy in an address to Russian diplomats in November: It was good that tensions were high with the West, the president told them, and it was important for them to remain in this state for as long as possible.

Also Read | Wall Street peters out on Ukraine tensions, Fed fears

And he directed his diplomats to demand security guarantees from the West, such as a legally binding pledge that Ukraine will never join the NATO alliance.

Our initiative, Lavrov told Putin, shook up our Western colleagues and became the reason they have no longer been able to ignore many of our previous appeals.

Lavrov also said that Russia had prepared a 10-page response in its written back-and-forth with NATO and the United States over the Kremlins security demands.

Ambiguity about what comes next has been central to Putins strategy in the crisis set off by his troop buildup. Western officials warn that an invasion remains a real possibility in the coming days.

In Mondays televised meetings, Putin did not state his own position, even after his defence minister told him that Russian military exercises were winding down. He did not specify which exercises were ending, but Russia has used the pretext of exercises to move troops and warships from across the country to within striking distance of Ukraine.

Some of the drills are already ending and some will end soon, Shoigu said.

Well speak in more detail now, Putin told him, before the Kremlins video feed ended.

The ambiguity over Russias intentions is forcing Ukraine and its Western partners to make hard decisions about what concessions to make to prevent an invasion  and causing discord over how seriously to take the threat.

The secretary of Ukraines security council, Oleksiy Danilov, reiterated the governments position Monday that an invasion is less likely than how the United States has portrayed it. Such comments are intended to prevent panic among Ukrainians but also might be aimed at easing negotiations with Russia, analysts have said.

We recognize the risks that exist on the territory of our country, Danilov said. But the situation is under complete control. Moreover, we, as of today, do not see that a full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation could happen on the 16th or 17th of this month.

Also Read | US, UK leaders agree 'window for diplomacy' remains over Ukraine

United States officials last week suggested Russian military action could begin within days. We dont see it, Danilov said.

On Monday, the State Department recommended that US citizens leave Belarus and Transnistria, a Russian-backed breakaway region in Moldova. Both Belarus and Transnistria neighbour Ukraine.

The outlines of a possible diplomatic resolution, though still highly ambiguous and with uncertain prospects, arose in media interviews by a senior diplomat and at Zelenskyys joint news conference with Scholz.

In a televised address to the nation Monday evening, Zelenskyy struck a tone that was less dismissive of the threat of Russian military action than his previous comments. Zelenskyy said he had declared Wednesday  the date US officials had suggested as a possible date for the start of a Russian incursion  as a day of national unity.

Zelenskyy said that previous predictions by Western governments of a possible start of war had proved wrong and said there was no reason to worry Wednesday.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the rare step of declaring a national public order emergency Monday in a push to end protests that have paralysed the center of the Canadian capital for more than two weeks and reverberated across the country.

Trudeau and several of his Cabinet ministers said the move would allow the government to take a variety of steps, including freezing bank accounts of protesters, to clear the blockade of about 400 trucks in Ottawa and smaller protests that have closed border points in Alberta and Manitoba.

Also Read  Trucker protests in Canada: What you need to know

We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue, the prime minister said in a speech to the nation, pointing to serious challenges to law enforcements ability to effectively enforce the law.

The invocation of the Emergencies Act confers enormous, if temporary, power on the federal government.

It allows authorities to move aggressively to restore public order, including banning public assembly and restricting travel to and from specific areas. But Trudeau and members of his Cabinet offered repeated assurance that the act would not be used to suspend fundamental rights.

It has been half a century since emergency powers were last invoked in Canada. Trudeaus father, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, imposed them during a terrorism crisis in Quebec. Monday was the first time that the 1988 Emergencies Act has been used.

The response by police and all levels of government to the crisis, which included an almost weeklong blockade of an economically critical border crossing with United States, has been widely criticised as inadequate. Justin Trudeau, some critics contend, should have intervened earlier and perhaps even deployed troops to break up the protest.

On Monday, Trudeau said he would not use his authority under the declaration, which will last for 30 days, to bring in the military, reiterating his previous position against intervention by the armed forces. But Canadas justice minister, David Lametti, outlined a wide array of special powers now at the governments disposal.

Police will now be able to seize trucks and other vehicles used in blockades. The measure will formally ban demonstrations that go beyond lawful protest, he said, and the government will formally ban blockades in designated areas like border crossings, airports and the city of Ottawa.

Tow-truck operators, who have been reluctant to cooperate with police, will now be compelled to work with law enforcement agencies to clear Ottawas streets and the border crossings at Coutts, Alberta; and Emerson, Manitoba.

While the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the national force, will not take over policing in Ottawa from that citys municipal service, its members will now be allowed to enforce provincial laws and local bylaws and carry out any federal orders made under the Emergencies Act.

Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, outlined several measures that include expanding anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorism powers to control the online crowdfunding platforms that have helped finance the protests. Credit card processors and fundraising services will be required to report any blockade-related campaigns to Canadas anti-money-laundering agency.

Police will be exchanging information with banks about protesters, and their personal and business accounts may be frozen. Insurance companies will be required to revoke insurance on any vehicles used in blockades.

Send your semitrailers home, Freeland told protesters.

Trudeau promised that the government would soon announce financial assistance for stores, restaurants and other business in Ottawa that have been forced to close because of the occupation.

On Monday morning, as Trudeau was outlining his decision with the premiers of Canadas 10 provinces, the Mounties said that a large cache of weapons, including guns, body armor and a machete, had been discovered in three trailers at the Coutts border blockade.

When the elder Trudeau declared an emergency nearly 52 years ago, he relied not on the law his son used Monday but on a predecessor, the War Measures Act, and his challenge was not civil unrest but terrorism. A group of Quebec separatists, who had conducted a bombing campaign in Montreal, had kidnapped Quebecs deputy premier and a British diplomat. Pierre Laporte, the deputy premier, was later assassinated.

On Monday, several national security experts praised the current prime ministers decision.

The Emergencies Act was necessary in the face of the breakdown of law and order in parts of Canada and the economic and reputational costs that Canada suffered with some of its allies, particularly the United States, said Wesley Wark, a national-security expert and a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a Canadian public policy group. I expect some stepped-up law enforcement in the next couple of days.

Leah West, a professor who studies national security law at Carleton University, said she believed some of the restrictions on rights introduced by the law, like those on movement, are acceptable under Canadas Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But she said the financial measures may be more problematic.

Many Canadians, and Ottawa residents in particular, have shown increasing impatience over what they view as an anemic police response to the protests, which began as a truck convoy in the western province of British Columbia and reached the capital January 29. While there has been little physical violence, lives in the areas surrounding the Parliament have been disrupted, and police are investigating several complaints of hate crimes and harassment.

Protesters, whose numbers swell on weekends, have desecrated the national war memorial, and legal violations like public drinking are widespread. An upscale shopping mall just blocks from Parliament is now into its third week of closure. Stores there have lost tens of millions of dollars in sales, and about 1,500 workers lost wages.

Peter Sloly, police chief of Ottawa, has repeatedly said that his force, which had jurisdiction over the protests until the emergency declaration, is outnumbered and asked for upward of 1,800 more officers. But Sunday, Bill Blair, the federal emergency preparedness minister and a former police chief of Toronto, said he found the lack by action by Ottawas force inexplicable.

As the law requires, Trudeau gathered Canadas 10 provincial premiers to inform them of his decision Monday, as well as his caucus and Cabinet. While the emergency declaration went into effect immediately, the House of Commons must approve it within seven days.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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Britain's package of sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine will target banks and firms' ability to raise capital in London and also expose property ownership in London and elsewhere, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.

Also Read | UK intel on Russia-Ukraine border crisis 'not encouraging'

"What we're doing is targeting particular Russian banks, Russian companies, and making sure that we take steps or take even more steps to unpeel the facade of Russian property holdings whether in this city or elsewhere ... unpeel the facade of Russian ownership of companies," Johnson told reporters.

"And also take steps to stop Russian companies from raising capital on London financial markets. So that is a very, very tough package."

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There are "signs of a diplomatic opening" with Russia over the Ukraine border crisis, but intelligence on a possible invasion was "still not encouraging," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday.

Moscow said Tuesday it was pulling back some of its forces near the Ukrainian border to their bases, but Johnson warned that Russian forces were still "ready to go at virtually any time".

"We are seeing Russian openness to conversations. On the other hand, the intelligence that we're seeing today is still not encouraging," Johnson told Sky News.

Also Read  India driving force of Quad, says White House

Moscow released few details and there was no immediate outside confirmation of the withdrawal, which the Kremlin said had always been planned despite Western "hysteria" over a feared invasion of Ukraine.

It would be the first major step towards de-escalation in weeks of crisis with the West, but Johnson said Russia needed to do more to convince the world that it was not about to invade.

"We need to see a programme of de-escalation, withdrawing battalion tactical groups away from potential theatres of conflict.

"A sense that things are being scaled back and the threat is over," he said.

But he did say that there were "clearly signs of a diplomatic opening".

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Eid Al-Fitr 2022: 5 desserts that you must try this Eid
He lured with love college teachers, even hard-boiled policewomen and captious lawyers, as he went about striking middle-aged women desperate for companionship with cupid's arrow, marrying 14 of them across seven states over 38 years before running out of luck on Monday.

Ramesh Chandra Swain, the 66-year-old from a coastal village in Odisha's Kendrapara district, is now cooling his heels in a jail in judicial custody.

Swain, according to police, posed as a doctor posted as a deputy director general under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. His victims failed to see through his fake identity and, as the adage goes, did just as the doctor ordered.

According to police, the sexagenarian duped his wives, three of whom live in Delhi, three in Odisha, two each in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Assam, and one each in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, of lakhs of rupees before moving on to greener pastures.

"The police have so far located 9 of the 14 wives of the man and urged others to come forward. We suspect many women who were cheated by him are not coming forward because of social stigma. We appeal them to contact Odisha police," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Bhubaneswar, U S Dash told reporters on Monday.

Swain was remanded in judicial custody by a local court, and the police are in the process of seeking his remand for further questioning.

Swain got married for the first time in 1982, and the last in 2020, 38 years apart. His last marriage to a teacher was solemnised at an Arya Samaj temple in Delhi.

He, however, rejected the accusations. "I have not married all these women and I am indeed a doctor," Swain asserted while being escorted to the court.

Ramesh Chandra Swain, who acquired different names like Dr Bibhu Prakash Swain and Dr Ramani Ranjan Swain, may not be a doctor but two of his three children with the first wife are doctors and settled abroad, while his second wife also is a medical practitioner. She currently lives in Prayag Raj.

According to Bhubaneswar Special Squad Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Sanjeev Satpathy, Swain cheated educated women looking for companionship. His victims include an assistant commandant of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, school and college teachers, and even a Delhi High Court lawyer.

Swain befriended women on matrimonial websites and deftly concealed his matrimonial status.

However, he ran out of luck while living in Bhubaneswar with his teacher wife from Delhi in a rented accomodation. The woman got a whiff of his first marriage and lodged an FIR at the Women's police station here on July 5, 2021.

He fled Bhubaneswar after his latest wife inquired about his first, who lives in Kendrapara. He lived in Assam with another of his wives for six months during which the complainant woman returned to Delhi. He returned to Bhubaneswar after confirming that his last wife had left the city.

However, before leaving, the complaint had arranged for people to track the man and informed police about his return to Bhubaneswar. He was promptly arrested.

Satpathy said Swain used to target middle-aged single women, mostly divorcees, who sought companionship on matrimonial websites. He was claimed to have cheated some of them of lakhs of rupees before deserting them.

He allegedly duped his wife from Punjab of Rs 10 lakh, and the Gurudwara, where his marriage was solemnised, of Rs 11 lakh with the promise of facilitating setting up a medical college.

Police seized 11 ATM cards, four Aadhaar cards and documents including Bihar School Certificates acquired under different identities.

He was earlier arrested twice for cheating unemployed youth and loan fraud in Hyderabad in 2010 and Ernakulam in 2006, police said.

Swain, officials claimed, passed ISc from Kendrapara College and pursued a course in medical laboratory technology from a college in Kochi and another in alternative medicine in Kolkata.

"His educational qualifications need to be verified, but he certainly is not an MBBS doctor," a police officer said.

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The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Tuesday alleged the Centre has not worked for fulfilling its promises towards farmers despite an announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as it appealed to people of Uttar Pradesh to "punish the BJP".

In a press conference of the SKM here, farmer leader Shivkumar Sharma 'Kakkaji' said the government had made several assurances, including over the issue of minimum support price (MSP) for crops, in the wake of the farmers' protest but failed to deliver.

Among the promises were that all cases lodged against protestors would be taken back, families of those who died during the agitation will get financial compensation, farmers will be kept out of the ambit of electricity bills, Sharma, flanked by BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, told reporters.

Also read: Rajbhar claims attempt on life, blames Yogi

There is also provision for punishment and penalty on stubble burning but assurance was given for removing the clause of punishment and the most important issue was a law to guarantee MSP but no committee has been formed yet for that also, he said.

Sharma said the prime minister had on November 19, 2021, announced that a committee would be formed for MSP but that has not happened yet.

Although Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar made a rhetorical remark in Parliament in the last session that the government is seeking permission for it from the Election Commission, he noted.

Also read: Dalit dynamics, shadow of farmers stir in border state Punjab

A committee could have been formed on the basis of the announcement by the prime minister and there would have been no effect on the Election Commission, he claimed.

Similarly, he said, work on all the five points was to be done by the government but has not been done because of which the SKM on January 31 observed 'betrayal day' across the country and after that it decided to go across poll-bound UP under its 'Mission UP'.

We do not ask anyone who to vote for but to punish the BJP. The farmer knows whom to vote for. This is not our work to decide who will form the government. We will support the government in the same ratio the government supports us, Sharma said.

The SKM's press conference in Lakhimpur Kheri comes close on heels of a high court order which has granted bail to Union Minister Ajay Mishra 'Teni's son Ashish Mishra, who is accused in the Tikunia violence in which eight people, including four farmers were killed in October 2021.

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met on Tuesday Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa after arriving for a first visit by an Israeli leader to the Gulf Arab country, the prime minister's office said.

"Prime Minister Bennett was received by an honor guard at the palace of Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain Al Khalifa," Bennett's office said in a statement.

Also on Tuesday, Bennett met with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed Rashid Al-Zayani and Transportation, Infrastructures and Agriculture Minister Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed.

"The prime minister and the ministers discussed strengthening cooperation as well as various ideas in the fields of innovation, economy and technology," Bennett's office said in a separate statement, adding they also discussed cooperation in transporting goods between Asia and Europe.

Bennett also met representatives of the Bahraini Jewish community. "I'm very delighted to be here in Bahrain, and I could think of no better way to kick off this visit than seeing my family here," he said.

In an interview published on Tuesday by a local newspaper in Bahrain, Bennett said his visit aimed at cementing ties between his country and Bahrain. "I see Israel and Bahrain as close partners in all areas," he told the Al-Ayyam daily in the interview, which was published in Arabic.

"The cooperation between us is natural," he said, adding he expected the volume of trade and tourism to increase significantly. "Most importantly, I wish that the two peoples will get to know each other better: in delegation visits, joint cultural activities, etc. We want a very warm peace with Bahrain."

Referring to the tensions in the Gulf, Bennett pointed to Iran as the source of security concerns to both Israel and Bahrain. "We will fight Iran and its followers in the region night and day. We will aid our friends in strengthening peace, security and stability, whenever we are asked to do so," he said.

Bennett landed in Bahrain's capital Manama on Monday, less than two weeks after Israel and Bahrain signed their first security cooperation deal that formalized mutual defense relations.

Bahrain normalized ties with Israel in September 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements between Israel and Arab states sponsored by the United States.

The visit also comes amid Israel's diplomatic efforts to halt the ongoing nuclear talks between world powers and Iran. 
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday took over the 17-year-old students suicide case by registering a First Information Report (FIR), following an order by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.

The FIR was filed a day after the Supreme Court allowed the CBI to begin the investigation in the case while hearing a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government seeking to quash the January 31 order passed by the High Court transferring the case to the central agency.

In the FIR, the CBI reproduced the brief of the original FIR filed by the Tirukkaatupalli police in which it is mentioned that she consumed pesticide on January 9, 2022, due to mental stress caused by the hostel wardens action of asking her to do work like removing grass from the ground and cleaning the rooms.

Also Read | DMK MLA welcomes 62-year-old warden arrested in girl suicide case

The FIR reproduced by the CBI does not make any mention of religious conversion for now. The 17-year-old girl, who was studying at the Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School and staying in the hostel, died on January 19, 2022, ten days after she attempted suicide.

The girl had named the warden in one of the videos shot by a BJP functionary before her death. The girl, responding to questions from the BJP functionary, had said the warden had attempted to convert her to Christianity two years ago.

The BJP took up the issue to allege forced conversion but the state police ruled out the angle. However, the girls father knocked at the doors of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court which transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

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Ashwani Kumar, a Gandhi loyalist and former Law Minister who was in the eye of a storm in 2013 for vetting a CBI status report on coal scam, quit the Congress which he joined 46 years ago, a week ahead of Punjab Assembly elections.

A former Rajya Sabha MP between 2002 and 2016, Kumar wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi saying he was quitting the party as he concluded that in the present circumstances and consistent with his dignity, he can subserve larger national causes outside the party fold.

I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years and hope to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the dignitarian promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters, he said in his short resignation letter.

Also read: To challenge Modi, Rahul should change the narrative

Kumar has not spelt out his future plans but said what the future holds cannot be predicted today. He said he has not thought of joining any other party.

He has been a staunch Gandhi family loyalist and known to be close to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Of late, he has been disgruntled over not being considered for assignments but has come out against the G-23 or change seekers when they sought clarity in party leadership.

An inkling of a change in Kumars mind could be seen in a recent tweet and TV appearances when he found fault with Rajya Sabha Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh for criticising Ghulam Nabi Azad for not declining Padma Bhushan by the Narendra Modi government.

However, the resignation has come as a surprise as it comes just days ahead of Punjab elections. Though he is not a mass leader in Punjab, the action is bound to create a flutter in political circles.

Kumar, who joined the Congress in 1976 in Jalandhar, had to resign from Manmohan Singh Cabinet in 2013 after it came to light that he vetted the CBI status report. However, he was soon rehabilitated as the Prime Ministers envoy to Japan in Cabinet rank.

Explaining his resignation, Kumar said the Congress has lost touch with the ground reality and no longer reflected the national mood. The party is facing an "existential" challenge, he said.

"Lack of inspirational leadership, absence of a sense of belonging and debilitating processes of internal functioning combined to make possible a painful decision to end a 46-year-long association with the Congress with which two earlier generations of my family were closely connected during the freedom struggle," Kumar was quoted by PTI as saying.

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An expert panel of India's central drug authority on Monday recommended granting restricted emergency use authorisation to Biological E's Covid-19 vaccine, Corbevax, for age group 12 to 18 years subject to certain conditions, official sources said.

The government has still not not taken a decision on vaccinating those aged below 15 years. NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul at a press conference recently said that the additional need for vaccination and inclusion of population for vaccination is examined constantly.

The Drugs Controller General Of India (DCGI) has already approved Corbevax, which is India's first indigenously developed RBD protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid-19, for restricted use in emergency situation in adults on December 28.

It has not been included in the country's vaccination drive.

"The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19 of the CDSCO which deliberated on the application recommended granting restricted emergency use authorisation to Biological E's Corbevax for the 12 to less than 18 years age group subject to certain conditions," a source said.

The recommendation has been sent to the DCGI for final approval.

Also read: Centre places order for pediatric vaccine despite doubts over efficacy

In an application sent to the DCGI on February 9, Srinivas Kosaraju, the head of Quality and Regulatory Affairs of Biological E Limited said the firm had received approval for conducting phase 2/3 clinical study of Corbevax among children and adolescents aged 5-18 years in September.

"Based on the no-objection certificate, Biological E has initiated the clinical study in October 2021 and has evaluated the available safety and immunogenicity results of the ongoing phase 2/3 study which indicated that the vaccine is safe and immunogenic.

"The proposed application is for obtaining permission for restricted use in an emergency situation in adolescents aged 12 to less than 18 years based on interim results (of the ongoing phase 2/3 clinical study) considering the current pandemic and widespread of Covid-19 vaccine in India," Kosaraju had said in the application.

The Corbevax vaccine is administered through intramuscular route with two doses scheduled 28 days apart and is stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius and presented as 0.5 ml (single dose) and 5 ml (10 doses) vial pack.

According to the Health Ministry, the company has conducted phase 1/2, 2/3 clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine in the country. Further, it has conducted a phase 3 active comparator clinical trial to evaluate superiority against Covishield vaccine, it said.

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In a new twist to the hijab row, National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights chairperson Priyank Kanungo has said that the 'Darul Uloom Deoband' is responsible for forcing young Muslim women to wear hijab.

The child rights body had already sent a notice to the Islamic seminary over the content on their website earlier.

Kanungo said that the notice was sent against content in some of the fatwas, which were infringing on the rights of children.

Also Read | Bommai govt committed to implementing HC interim order on Hijab row, Minister tells Assembly

One of their fatwas say that Muslim girls should be pulled out from schools where the hijab is not allowed. Another says that girls should not be allowed in classes after a certain age if the teacher is male. There is no doubt that Darul Uloom Deoband is orchestrating these hijab protests," Kanungo told DH.

The NCPCR has sent a notice to the Islamic seminary on January 15 this year, and a reply is due sometime this week.

In the notice, the NCPCR said that it received a complaint against Darul Uloom Deobands website, against the unlawful and misleading fatwas issued by them.

For latest updates on Hijab row in India, click here

In one of the fatwas, the child rights body said, the seminary said that an adopted child does not have equal rights to property, which, it noted, was in contravention to section 2(2) of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, and the Hague Convention on Adoption.

It is pertinent to mention here that such fatwas are not only misleading to the Law of the land but are also illegal in nature. There are similar fatwas provided in the links by the complainant which pertain to school book syllabus, college uniform, education of children in the un-Islamic atmosphere, girls' higher Madrasa education, corporal punishment, etc, the complaint read.

The Commission asked for a reply within 10 days, but due to the ongoing elections, the seminary has been given time till this week.

Read more: OIC 'deeply concerned' over 'continued attacks on Muslim in India'

They will either have to remove the content or take down the site, Kanungo told DH.

Ashraf Usmani, spokesperson of the Darul Uloom Deoband refuted Kanungos charge and said that his claim was part of a coordinated attack.

These fatwas have been on the site for eight to nine years, but the complaints were filed just now. The girl children in Karnataka have been wearing hijab for years but they needed to be stopped now. Islam certainly has such teachings, but are these new phenomena? This is coming from a malafide intention, Usmani told DH.

As the row intensified with children in several parts of the state not allowed inside the school with headscarves, the Karnataka High Court continued to hear the petitions challenging the hijab ban in educational institutions.

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The Supreme Court on Monday came across a Bollywood movie 'Munna Bhai MBBS' moment while dealing with a case of cancellation of permission for admission of additional students in a medical college, owing to surprise inspection on grounds that patients in the wards were "hale and hearty and no serious in-patient was found in paediatric ward.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) told the top court that permission for admission of additional students was cancelled as there were no operation theatre and no X-RAY machines in the college besides other deficiencies.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant said, It is shocking. It's like a Munna Bhai movie. All the patients in the ward were found to be hale and hearty. In the paediatric ward, there was no serious patient. We can't tell what else we found in the inspection report. We were surprised.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Annasaheb Chudaman Patil Memorial Medical College, said that the inspection was carried out by the NMC without any notice and that too on a public holiday that is on the day of the festival Makar Sankranti, which is prohibited.

The bench told Singhvi, Illness does not stop on Makar Sankranti. Your client (college) did not say that there were no patients.

The bench was hearing appeals filed by NMC and the medical college, which is situated in Dhule district of Maharashtra, against the Bombay High Court order, which had directed for fresh inspection of the college by the commission and allowed the admission of students.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and advocate Gaurav Sharma said that NMC can take surprise inspection under the law and what the High Court order did was that it allows 100 MBBS students, to take admissions "in this type of college", which was the initial capacity.

There is no operation theatre and no X-Ray machines, Mehta said, adding that students need not to be worried as they would be accommodated in other colleges after consultation with the government.

Mehta said, Only one thing I need to point out, 100 were given the permission and 50 was new and what this order does is that they continue with 100 but don't admit new so that new batch does not come in this kind of institution. Now, if we cancel their recognition, those students will not suffer, as in consultation with the government we will distribute them in other colleges. But they cannot now start adding new students in this kind of institution.

Singhvi said that this college has been running since 1992 with 100 MBBS seat capacity and therefore NMC has no power to withdraw the permission for admission to these seats.

He said that NMC did not give permission for additional 50 seats based on the inspection report.

Senior advocate Nidesh Gupta, also appearing for the college, said that the infrastructure which has been flagged in the inspection report by the NMC has been in existence for decades, and then there was no issue about it.

The bench set aside the orders of Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court and asked it to consider afresh saying the High Court having not dealt with the merits of the rival contention, we set aside the impugned order of the High Court dated January 25. 2022 and February 2, 2022, and restore admission before the High Court.

The bench said, as the record before this court stands, both the NMC as well as the medical college, are aggrieved by the orders of the High Court. The decision which was based on gross deficiency which was noted during the surprise inspection cannot be justified by simply ordering a fresh inspection without inquiring into the validity of inspection which has been already carried out.

It noted that the medical college, which was established in 1992, has an intake capacity of 100 seats for the MBBS course.

The medical college submitted an application on November 30, 2020, for an increase in intake capacity from 100 to 150 MBBS seats for the academic year 2021-22. On July 15, 2021, renewal of recognition was granted for the academic year 2021-22 on the condition that continuation of recognition would be in accordance with law, the bench noted.

The assessors appointed by the NMC conducted a physical inspection on September 8, 2021, and letter of intent was issued on November 16, 2021. The college submitted an undertaking on November 23, 2021, following which on November 25, 2021; permission was granted for the increase in capacity from 100 to 150 seats, it said.

The top court noted that on January 14, 2022, a surprise inspection was conducted, and based on the report of the inspection, on January 19, 2022, the NMC withdrew the letter of permission for an increase in the intake capacity and directed stoppage of admission for 2021-2022.

The order of the High Court was challenged by the NMC in the top court on the ground it was passed without noticing the provisions of the NMC Act. The medical college also challenged the High Court order.

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Over four months after he was arrested on charges of killing four farmers by running them over with his vehicle at Lakhimpur Kheri, Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra was on Tuesday released from jail.

Though Mishra, who was the main accused in the killing of the farmers, had been granted bail on Thursday by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court, his release was delayed as some sections of the IPC under which he was charged had not been mentioned in the bail order. The order was corrected on Monday.

Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said that his outfit would challenge the decision to grant bail to Mishra in the Supreme Court.

The BKU had earlier said that the police had weakened the case against Mishra under 'pressure' from the higher authorities. ''There was considerable pressure on the police,'' said a BKU leader.

The release of Mishra whose father Ajay Mishra was an MP from Lakhimpur Kheri, comes barely a week before the region goes to polls in the fourth phase of polling in the state.

While granting bail to Mishra, the court had said that no firearm injury had been found on the body of the deceased or any other person, except the injury from the hitting from the vehicle. It had also said that since thousands of protesters had gathered at the place of incident and there might be a possibility that the driver tried to speed up the vehicle to save himself, on account of which the incident had taken place.

Mishra was arrested by the special investigation team (SIT) probing the incident after his marathon grilling for over eleven hours a few days after the incident.

In its charge sheet filed in the district court, the SIT made Ashish Mishra a key accused and stated that the violence was part of a 'pre-planned conspiracy' and that the accused persons had perpetrated the crime deliberately and invoked sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons), 120B (Criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and some others in the case.

Eight people, including four farmers and a local scribe, were killed in the violence at Tikonia in the district in October when hundreds of farmers held protests against Ajay Mishra over the latter's remarks threatening them of dire consequences if they continued to oppose the farm laws.

While both Ashish and his father had claimed that the former was not present in any of the vehicles, one of which ran over a crowd of farmers killing four of them, the farmers claimed that the minister's son was in one of the SUVs with a friend of his.

The incident had triggered nationwide outrage and the opposition parties had demanded sacking of Ajay Mishra from the union cabinet. The BJP government, however, rejected the demand for sacking apparently fearing a backlash from the Brahmin community in the assembly polls in UP.

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The Congress has attacked the government questioning the silence of the Finance Minister on the issue of an alleged ghost baba giving directions to Chitra Ramkrishna, the former CEO and MD of the NSE.

"The NSE is India's largest stock exchange with a combined market capitalisation of close to $4 trillion (Rs 303 lakh crore), and was guided by a BABA residing in the Himalayas. BABA was appointing KMP's (Key Managerial Personnel), fixing salary and increments of executives of the NSE. Not only this, BABA was also deciding and appointing Public Interest Directors. Operating Margin of NSE was at 70 per cent (which is abnormal)," the Congress said.

Ramkrishna was ousted from NSE in 2016 for her role in the co-location and algo trading scam and abuse of power in the appointment of COO.

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh said, "The probe found that Ramkrishna ran NSE with impunity. No one from the senior management, board, or the promoters, which include big government institutions and banks, ever objected to her ways. Instead, Ramkrishna was given Rs 44 crore as pending dues and salary when she left NSE."

Also read: NSE CEO sought guidance from 'spiritual force' in running the exchange for 20 years

Vallabh questioned the silence of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister on India's biggest financial scam of all time. "Why an IP address of emails sent by BABA can't be traced till now? The entire world is laughing at us that a country known as the Tech powerhouse of the world can't trace a BABA who is sending emails from an IP Address," he said.

The party asked who all had invested in NSE in the last 7.5 years, complete details of the holding, price of acquisition, and date of investment should be made public. The NSE is planning for an IPO and immediately after an IPO, value of investment made in the last 7.5 years will increase by 10 times.

"What was SEBI doing from 2016 on Chitra Ramakrishna shenanigans when scandalous facts were reported? When SEBI is not having any expertise on search and seizure, why the case was not transferred to the CBI, SFIO, ED and IT for investigation in the last 6 years. Who is stopping SEBI from doing the same?" he asked.

The party asked since 2015 when co-location and algo trading scam was reported, what action was initiated by the Finance Ministry and SEBI against the NSE and alleged that instead of investigating co-location and algo trading scam on its own, asked NSE to undertake a forensic audit.

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A visual arts teacher at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi triggered a controversy after he superimposed his and his wife's face over a painting of Lord Rama and his consort Sita, which was put on display at an exhibition in the Varsity campus.

According to reports, the teacher, identified as Amaresh Kumar, an assistant professor at the Department of Visual Arts, earned the wrath of the students and others when the visitors at the exhibition saw the painting with the superimposed pictures and created a ruckus there.

Reports said that the paintings sought to depict the life and deeds of Lord Rama.

While the students demanded action against Kumar, the assistant professor said that there was nothing wrong with what he had done. ''Lord Rama belongs to everyone,'' he said when queried in this regard.

The students, however, said that it was an attempt to offend religious beliefs of Hindus and that the Varsity must take action against the teacher. BHU officials said that the matter had come to their notice and that they were looking into the same.

The University had hit the headlines recently after a video that had gone viral on social media showed a senior professor of the social teaching the students about making 'upala' (cow dung cakes). After receiving much criticism, the teacher said that dung cakes could be used for performing 'havans' (a ritual by fire), puja and also as a fuel for preparing food. He also urged the central government to make arrangements for selling products that could be prepared from cow dung. ''It will help in increasing the income of the farmers,'' he had said.

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An audio clip of BSP candidate from Kundarki Assembly segment and sitting MLA, Haji Rizwan, has gone viral, in which he can be heard appealing to his supporters to cast their votes in favour of BJP "to prevent Samajwadi Party's Zia-ur Rahman, the grandson of Sambhal MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq, from winning the seat."

Kundarki went to polls on Monday.

Rizwan, who had recently switched from the SP after being denied a ticket, was unfazed. He told reporters that "under no circumstances" should the SP candidate win. "So, I appealed to my voters. I said nothing wrong. What else should I have said? We have supported Dr Barq five times in the past, but this time, it's different," he said.

Also Read  UP Elections: Parties go all guns blazing in Bundelkhand

Rizwan, who was an SP member for over a decade, said, "Tickets were distributed by senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav. I don't know what their strategy is. My voters are with me and I am thankful to them. The audio clip was leaked by my rivals. I have no regrets. They (SP) have stabbed me in the back. Now, I won't let them take my seat. They will lose badly from here."

In the audio clip, Rizwan while speaking to Ajay Kumar Prajapati, a cousin of BJP candidate from the seat Kamal Prajapati, can be heard saying in Hindi, "If your people vote for me let them do so, but if they are planning to cast their vote for SP, it should not happen."

Slamming the BSP candidate, the SP candidate said, "My grandfather Dr Barq won because of the people of the constituency and not because of Rizwan. Now, he is asking voters to support BJP when the entire state wants to throw them out of power. I am sure voters of Kundarki will teach him a lesson for his shameful deed."

A local SP leader said, "We will now play the audio clip in a constituency where polling is not over and expose the nexus between BSP and BJP."

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XI'AN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A freight train carrying a total of 50 containers of solar panels and solar modules departed from the Xi'an international port station Monday, heading for the Huangdao Port in east China's coastal city Qingdao, and then transporting the goods to India by ferry.

This is the first Sino-Indian rail-sea freight train launched from northwest China's Shaanxi Province this year, according to the China Railway Xi'an Group Co., Ltd.

These solar products manufactured by a company in Shaanxi will mainly be used for the construction of local solar power stations in India. It will take about 20 days to transport the cargo to India via the rail-sea transport route.

The serious global epidemic situation still hinders the original transportation channels, therefore, the company chose the rail-sea combined mode to transport goods to destinations more efficiently, said Wang Yanli, marketing director of the company.

Bai Kuanfeng, director of the station, said that since the beginning of the year, the China Railway Xi'an Group Co., Ltd. has further strengthened the operation of trains in international freight transport to ensure efficient loading and transportation. 
The birth anniversary celebrations of Dalit icon Sant Ravidas at his birthplace in Varanasi on Wednesday is likely to witness participation of several top leaders, including PM Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi.

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has also been invited to attend the celebrations.

As thousands of disciples of Ravidas, known as Raidasis, from the Dalit community take part in the annual celebrations at Seergovardhanpur in Varanasi district, the participation of the political leaders, especially owing to the Assembly polls in UP and Punjab, in this year's program is likely to be significant, sources close to the organisers said in Varanasi on Tuesday.

The significance of event could be gauged from the fact the Election Commission (EC) had to change the schedule of Punjab Assembly polls after almost all political parties cited the birth anniversary celebrations and urged the EC to change the date of the polls. The EC had earlier scheduled the Punjab polls for February 14. They would now be held on February 20.

Priyanka has already confirmed her participation and the Congress leader is likely to arrive in Varanasi from Manipur on Wednesday morning, sources in the Congress Party here said. Priyanka had visited the place last year.

Sources said that Modi's participation was not yet confirmed as he would be visiting Punjab to address election rallies, but Adityanath and other senior saffron party leaders would be present at the functions. The prime minister had, however, visited Seergovardhanpur in 2016 and 2019 and paid obeisance there besides having langar.

Adityanath too had visited the place barely a few days before the model code of conduct kicked in last month.

Political analysts here say that this year's celebrations have assumed added significance in view of the ongoing polls. "A large number of Dalit community members from Punjab attend the celebrations. The place has been a centre of Dalit politics since almost three decades," said a Lucknow-based analyst. Train loads of Raidasis from Punjab have already arrived in the city, reports said.

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The general secretariat of the OIC issued a statement, expressing deep concern over recent public calls for genocide of Muslims by the Hindutva proponents in Haridwar in of Uttarakhand and reported incidents of harassment of Muslim women on social media sites as well as banning of Muslim girl students from wearing hijab in Karnataka.

New Delhi strongly reacted to the OICs statement, dismissing it as motivated and misleading.

Also Read  Will crack down on outfits disturbing peace, Karnataka home minister says on hijab row

Issues in India are considered and resolved in accordance with our constitutional framework and mechanisms, as well as democratic ethos and polity, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi. The communal mindset of the OIC secretariat does not allow for a proper appreciation of these realities.

New Delhi recently also dismissed a comment by Rashad Hussain, the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Hussain had argued in a tweet that the ban on Hijab in schools in Karnataka had violated religious freedom in India.

The OIC general secretariat stated that the continued attacks targeting Muslims and their places of worship, the recent trend of anti-Muslim legislations in different states and rising incidents of violence against Muslims on flimsy pretexts by the Hindutva groups with impunity were indicative of the growing trend of Islamophobia in India. It called upon the international community, especially the United Nations mechanisms and Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, to take necessary measures in this regard.

It also urged India to ensure the safety, security and well-being of the Muslim community while protecting the way of life of its members and to bring the instigators and perpetrators of acts of violence and hate crimes against them to justice.

The OICs statement prompted the Government of India to reiterate that the 57-nation-bloc continued to be hijacked by vested interests to further their nefarious propaganda against India. As a result, it has only harmed its own reputation, said the MEA spokesperson.

New Delhi has been accusing the OIC of allowing itself to be used by Pakistan to malign India.

India, unlike Pakistan, is not a member of the OIC, which calls itself the collective voice of 1.8 billion Muslims of the world. But, Sushma Swaraj, the then External Affairs Minister, had attended the 46th meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Abu Dhabi in March 2019 as a guest of honour on an invitation by the host of the conclave and her United Arab Emirates counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nayhan.

The invitation had been seen as a major diplomatic success for New Delhi as Pakistan had always used the OIC as a forum to slam India on the issue of Kashmir, particularly on the reported violations of human rights by security forces in Kashmir.

The UAE had paid no heed to the protest from Pakistan and had arranged for the External Affairs of India to address the conclave. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, had boycotted the OIC meet to protest the invitation to his counterpart in New Delhi.

But just a day after Swarajs address to the OIC Foreign Ministers, the bloc had again issued a statement, toeing Pakistans line and criticizing India on the issue of J&K.
Punjabi actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, accused of being the key conspirator of the Red Fort violence on Republic Day last year, died Tuesday evening after his car hit a truck on Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway in Haryana's Sonipat district, police said.

The 37-year-old actor was said to be travelling from Delhi to Punjab when the incident occurred near Pipli toll plaza in Kharkhoda.

The accident spot was around 25 km from Singhu border, the epicentre of last year's farmers' protest against farm laws.

Kharkhoda police station Inspector Jaspal Singh said, "Deep Sidhu died in the accident. A female friend accompanying him was taken to a hospital where her condition was stable."

An investigation to determine the exact cause of the accident was underway, he said.

According to the police, Sidhu had sustained serious head injuries in the accident. TV visuals showed the white SUV badly damaged on the driver's side after it rammed into the stationary truck.

Senior police officials from Sonipat district have reached the accident site.

Sidhu had participated in the farmers' agitation against the Centre's three farm laws at the Delhi borders.

He was arrested on February 9, 2021, in connection with the Red Fort violence on Republic Day during the farmers' tractor parade against the Centre's three agriculture laws. He was in jail for over two months before being released on bail.

The chief minister and several political leaders of poll-bound Punjab, expressed their grief over the incident.

Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi tweeted, "Deeply saddened to learn about the unfortunate demise of renowned actor and social activist Deep Sidhu. My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved family and his fans."

Deeply saddened to learn about the unfortunate demise of renowned actor and social activist, #DeepSidhu. My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved family and fans.  Charanjit S Channi (@CHARANJITCHANNI) February 15, 2022

Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the untimely death of the actor and activist Sidhu has come as a shock to his admirers and the entire film fraternity.

"The lawyer-turned-artiste from Muktsar was an inspiration for many. Sincere condolences to his family and prayers for the departed soul," Badal tweeted.

AAP's Punjab unit chief and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann also expressed grief over the death of Sidhu.

The actor, who hailed from Punjab's Muktsar district, was reportedly present at the Red Fort when a religious flag and a farmer flag were put at the flagpole at the historic monument.

Following a massive outrage, Sidhu had then defended the protester's action, saying they did not remove the national flag and had put up the 'Nishan Sahib' as a symbolic protest.

The 'Nishan Sahib', a symbol of Sikh religion, is seen at all gurdwara complexes.

At that time, Sidhu was accused by farm bodies of trying to defame their agitation and termed a "traitor". He had hit out at farm leaders for allegedly spreading propaganda and hatred against him.

Sidhu was also a close aide of BJP MP Sunny Deol, who contested from the Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He had remained with Deol during the poll campaigning.

Deol however had distanced himself from Sidhu after he joined the farmers' agitation.
Two boys suffered acid burns after one consumed "saline water" from a roadside shop selling cut fruits and vegetables at a beach in Kerala's Kozhikode district on Saturday.

Muahammed, 14, a native of Thrikarippur in Kasargod, and his friend Sabid were visiting the beach as part of a picnic team.

Mohammed felt a burning sensation after consuming mangoes and gooseberry kept in a 'saline water' in jars in the shop, which are very common in many parts of Kerala, his relatives informed the media. Mohammed drank the fluid assuming it was drinking water.

He suffered discomfort and vomited the water at once. The water fell over Sabid. The two were rushed to a hospital. Mohammed suffered burns in the mouth and internal organs, while Sabid suffered burns on his right shoulder.

As the incident came out on Tuesday, the Food Safety Authority officials carried out raids at the shops selling the cut fruits and vegetables and collected samples. The officials said that it was suspected that acetic acid was being illegally used by the shops to make vinegar for preserving the cut fruits and vegetables.

There have been allegations that even used acid mixed water from batteries were used by the wayside eateries selling cut vegetable and fruit shops.

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The Madras High court on Tuesday granted bail to Bishop Samuel Mar Irenios, head of the Syro-Malankara Diocese of Pathanamthitta, Kerala and five other priests in a case related to illegal sand mining at the Tirunelveli property of the diocese.

The Bishop and five priests, including the Vicar General, were arrested by the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch CB-CID on February 6.

While Bishop Irenios and Father Jose Chamkala were admitted to Tirunelveli Medical College after they complained of chest pain and giddiness, the rest of the priests were lodged in Nanguneri jail.

The CB-CID charged that the Pathanamthitta diocese has 300 acres of land at Pottal near Kallidakurichi in Tirunelveli district. The land was given on a five-year lease to one Manuel George of Kottayam from 2019 onwards.

The charge was that Manuel George obtained a license for manufacturing M-sand at the property but lifted sand from Vandal Odai that does not have a title deed and sold the sand with the connivance of officials of revenue and police. After environmentalists raised complaints, Cheranmahadevi Sub collector Pratik Tayal conducted an inspection and found that 27,774 cubic metres of river sand has been illegally lifted. A fine of Rs 9.57 crore was slapped against the Malankara diocese who are the owners of the property.

On February 9, the bail application of the Bishop and other priests was rejected by the Judicial Magistrate 1 (In-charge) Kadarkarai in Tirunelveli.

The Advocate for the diocese argued that the owners of the land, including Bishop Irenios and others, were not able to inspect the property near Pottal since March 2019 due to Covid -19. The advocate also argued that George seized this opportunity and illegally mined the sand.

The diocese also said that the lease agreement for the property with Manuel George will be terminated as he breached the terms of the lease agreement.

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Thirty-two ABVP functionaries, including national general secretary Nidhi Tripathi, have been sent to 14-day judicial custody for picketing the residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin demanding justice for the 17-year-old girl who died by suicide in Thanjavur last month.

The functionaries were detained on Monday afternoon after they arrived outside Stalins residence on the Chitaranjan Salai in upscale Alwarpet and attempted to hold a protest. They were bundled into police jeeps and were formally arrested on Tuesday morning following which they were sent to 14-day judicial custody.

The arrested include Tripathi, general secretary of ABVP the BJPs student wing, and her colleagues. Their protest outside the residence of the Chief Minister came on the day the Supreme Court allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to continue with its probe, on a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government opposing the move.

Also Read | Supreme Court allows CBI to probe Tamil Nadu teen suicide case

Police said that 35 functionaries were detained on Monday, but three were let off as they were minors. ABVP and BJP condemned the arrest of Tripathi and 31 others.

DMK Govt. of Tamil Nadu used police to arrest the National Gen. Secy. Nidhi Tripathi & other Karyakartas for demanding #JusticeForLavanya in Chennai. We condemn this attempt by DMK led Govt., You can't suppress our voice by using police. We will fight till Lavanya gets justice, the ABVP said.

The 17-year-old girl, who was studying at the Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School in Michaelpatti in Thanjavur district, consumed poison on January 9 and died 10 days later at a hospital. While the BJP alleged that the girl died by suicide due to attempts to convert her to Christianity, the state police refuted the claim.

The father of the girl filed the petition in the Madurai Bench on January 21 seeking a CB-CID probe but he changed his opinion and sought a probe by CBI during the last hearing on January 28. Accepting his plea, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court transferred the case to CBI on January 31.

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Union minister R K Singh on Tuesday dismissed a speech by Telangana Chief Minister and clarified that states are free to hold their own bids and buy renewable energy from any developer based on those bids.

He was referring to a speech by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on February 11 at Jangaon district headquarters where the latter stated that the central government forces states to buy renewable energy from particular developers.

"This is a lie," a Ministry of New and Renewable Energy statement quoted Singh as saying.

Also Read | Corrupt BJP now corrupting young minds in the name of god, says Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao

States are free to hold their own bids and buy renewable energy(RE) from any developer based on those bids, the statement said.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) also conducts open bids for RE from time to time, it added.

These bids are highly competitive, with numerous companies competing and the firms which offer the least tariff are selected transparently through the open bid.

Thereafter, states which desire to buy power from those bids do so, as per their requirement, it said.

Also Read | Telangana CM KCR seeks proof of surgical strikes

Whether they wish to purchase power at the rates finalized in the bids or not is entirely states' own decision, the statement stated.

"They can choose to have their own bids. Therefore, the statement by the chief minister was totally false," Singh said.

As far as Renewable Energy Purchase Obligation (RPO) is concerned, this is a part of an international commitment made by all major economies to carry out energy transition from fossil fuels to non-fossil fuel sources, it stated.

While developed countries have pledged to achieve net zero emission target by 2050, India has pledged to achieve it by 2070. The transition to non-fossil fuels -- renewable energy -- is part of that commitment.

"The Chief Minister has also talked about hydro power. Hydro power capacity he is talking about, have been and is being constructed because of loans given by PFC and REC; both of which are Government of India companies. PFC and REC have together lent Rs 55,000 crore for Kaleshwaram; Palamuru and other projects. He should be thankful to Government of India for these projects," the statement said.

The ministry also rejected the chief minister's statement stating that the Centre is pressuring states to meter electric connections to farmers.

"This statement is totally false  a lie. Such false and baseless statements do not behove a person who is occupying the august Office of the Chief Minister," it said.

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The BJP is misusing central agencies to topple the government in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Jharkhand, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said even as he launched a scathing attack against leaders of his partys former ally.

Raut specifically targeted BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and his son Neil Somaiya.

Also Read | Necessary for Maharashtra government to cooperate if ED raids linked to national security: Sanjay Raut

Raut also targeted BJP leader Mohit Kamboj alias Bharatiya saying that he was the blue-eyed boy of Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis.

He also refuted allegations that the Thackeray family owns 19 bungalows in Korlai in the Raigad district. If you can prove that the Thackeray family has bungalows in Korlai, I will quit politics, he said.

In the no-holds-barred news conference, Raut also named a milkman from Haryana, who owns properties to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore and wanted to know his links with Maharashtra.

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Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday said if the Enforcement Directorate (ED) searches in Mumbai are linked to national security, then it is necessary for the Maharashtra government to cooperate with the probe agency.

Raut, who is also the Sena's chief spokesperson, however, wondered whether the central probe agency would also look into the biggest bank fraud in Gujarat.

The ED on Tuesday conducted multiple searches in Mumbai as part of a money laundering probe linked to the operations of the underworld, illegal property deals and hawala transactions, official sources said. The action is based on a recent FIR filed recently by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against 1993 Mumbai blasts mastermind and fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and some independent intelligence inputs received by the former agency, they said, adding that some political links to these shady deals are also under the agency's radar.

Also Read  ED searches properties linked to Dawood Ibrahim in Mumbai

Talking to reporters, Raut said, If anything is related to national security, then it is necessary (for the state government) to cooperate with the central agencies. It is necessary for the Centre and the state to work (together on this)."

National and internal security is a very delicate issue. It is not proper to speak on this probe, the Rajya Sabha member said. If the ED is conducting a probe with inputs related to security, then it should be welcomed. It is for the country and not any political party, he added.

According to sources, about 10 locations are being covered by the ED in Maharashtra's capital city and the action is being conducted under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED's action is based on an FIR filed recently by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and some intelligence inputs received by the former agency, they said.

Notably, the CBI has booked ABG Shipyard Ltd and its former chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal along with others for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India of over Rs 22,842 crore. Reacting to it, Raut said, We also want to see what the ED is doing in the country's biggest bank fraud. Who were the people who tried to suppress the fraud for the last two yearswho did not even allow the FIR to be filed. How did the conspirators escape from the country?"

Raut is scheduled to hold a press conference later in the day.

On Monday, Raut said his party should not be threatened with the use of Central agencies and claimed that "three and a half" leaders of the BJP will be behind bars in the next few days. He also claimed that former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, arrested by the ED in a money laundering case in November last year, will be out of jail soon.

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The BJP has brushed aside allegations of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut describing it as baseless and need not be taken seriously.

The allegations are baseless... it is not based on facts, he had created a hype for the last few days and nothing came out, said Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council Pravin Darekar.

The trailer itself has flopped, he said.

Also read: BJP trying to topple Maharashtra govt, alleges Sanjay Raut

BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said that allegations need not be taken seriously.

On the allegations that were made against former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and himself, Mungantiwar said: There is a probe against Fadnavis vis-a-vis Jal Yukt Shivar abhiyan, there is a probe against me for the tree plantation drive... you (Shiv Sena) are in the governmentyou must probe and let the facts come out.

BJP leader Prasad Lad, who is a close aide of Fadnavis, said that nothing came out of the press conference. Khoda pahad, nikli chuhiya, he said.

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday called for the prioritization of four key issues related to poverty and hunger reduction: food security, protection of vulnerable groups, sustainable development, and social justice.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, made the appeal at the 60th session of the Commission for Social Development.

"Poverty is a deep-rooted problem of human society. The eradication of poverty and hunger is the dream of humankind, fundamental human rights, and the primary goal of the 2030 Agenda," said Zhang.

COVID-19 has eroded the gains in global poverty reduction, resulting in 140 million people falling back into poverty and about 800 million people suffering from hunger. Some developing countries have been driven back to poverty and instability by the pandemic, and face many challenges in post-pandemic reconstruction. In developed countries, vulnerable groups have also fallen into difficulties, with increasing demand for redressing social injustice, he said.

At present, the international community should focus on the four issues of food security, protection of vulnerable groups, sustainable development, and social justice, said Zhang.

As the global cause for development stands at a crossroads, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI) at the General Debate of the 76th Session of the General Assembly, focusing on eight major areas and putting forward cooperation proposals and plans, in a bid to translate development consensus into pragmatic actions and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for more robust, greener and more balanced global development, said Zhang.

In January 2022, China launched the Group of Friends of Global Development Initiative in New York, which was warmly received by more than 100 member states and international organizations. China welcomes more member states and international organizations to join the group so as to put the initiative into practice and help countries, especially developing ones, get rid of poverty, eradicate hunger, and achieve common, transformative and green development, he said.

"Looking ahead, China is ready to work with all parties to promote the GDI, contribute to the faster implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and make unremitting efforts to together build a bright future for international development cooperation and a community with a shared future for mankind," he said. 
Regional parties are again getting restive in the North East. One recalls the caustic remark of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) leading strategist of the last decade, the late Arun Jaitley, that regional parties are "tried, tested and failed" forces. Few would have disputed the assertion at the national level in 2014 and the subsequent Assembly polls to states such as Uttar Pradesh and even the 2019 parliamentary polls.

Yet, by 2021-22, India's democracy has again opened opportunities for these forces. Depending on what suits these regional entities, some would say it is yet another chance to play up their anti-BJP and anti-Congress politics on their sleeves.

Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress retaining power in West Bengal after a fiercely fought contest against the BJP, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) winning in Tamil Nadu in May 2021 has reinvigorated the process. It has come as the Congress continues to decline. For example, it scored zero in Bengal.

Regional parties, particularly those in the North Eastern states, believe the Congress cannot fight the robust electoral juggernaut of the BJP; hence, they need to strengthen their own hands.

Also read: To challenge Modi, Rahul should change the narrative

"The Congress would struggle to revive both in the North East and at the national level. As was seen in Manipur, the BJP is treading a path of use and throw of regional partners. The important point is that merely Narendra Modi's charisma cannot help the saffron outfit sail through any longer. Local candidates, local conditions, and regional issues and aspirations matter in states like Nagaland and Meghalaya," says Dilip Sharma, executive editor with the daily Nagaland Page.

The recent political developments in Nagaland bear out the aptness of Sharma's analysis. In Nagaland, the two regional parties in the state, the Nagaland Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and Naga People's Front (NPF), are inching closer towards merger.

"The BJP's Manipur strategy has irked its regional partner, the NDPP in Nagaland and the National People's Party (NPP) in Meghalaya. The two chief ministers, Neiphiu Rio (of Nagaland) and Conrad Sangma (of Meghalaya), now have to ensure their respective survival. The big brother approach of the Congress had its pitfalls, and now the BJP is going the same way," Ratnadeep Gupta, a Guwahati-based social worker, says.

'Anti-BJPism' and 'anti-Congressism' in Meghalaya

The effort to distance from the Congress pervades in several states. In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling YSR Congress Party baulks at aligning with its parent party. In Telangana, the regional Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is more than a potent challenger to the BJP and the Congress.

In Telangana, N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party gambled by aligning with the Congress to fight K Chandrasekhar Rao-led TRS. The voters did not favour the move. The Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal not aligning with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh has its echo in parts of the North East.

In Meghalaya, former Congress chief minister Mukul Sangma, a popular mass leader in the Tura Hills, quit the grand old party and joined Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress last year. Sources close to him say his feedback from the ground was that the Congress would be decimated in next year's Assembly polls, due in February 2023. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, also from the Tura region, leads the National People's Party (NPP). His sister Agatha Sangma is a Lok Sabha member from the area. In other words, the Tura region is all set for a fight between two Garo sons of the soil - regional heavyweights Mukul Sangma and Conrad Sangma.

That is not all. Five Congress legislators, all from the Khasi tribe from the Shillong region, have now deserted the Congress and decided to back Conrad Sangma's government. In effect, Conrad Sangma is preparing for a life without the BJP's patronage.

In Manipur, Conrad Sangma's party, the NPP, had backed the BJP in 2017 when the latter needed the support. It helped the BJP come to power. But now, the NPP and another regional party in Manipur, the Naga People's Front (NPF), have been shunned by the saffron outfit. Hence, Conrad Sangma is preparing to contest the polls either alone or with another regional party, the United Democratic Party (UDP).

In all likelihood, the NPP's alliance with the BJP could end sooner than later. Of the two BJP MLAs in Meghalaya, one is a minister in his government, and so the backing of five Congress deserters gives Conrad Sangma the elbow room to outmanoeuvre the BJP.

On the other hand, Meghalaya Congress says those who quit Congress will "regret" their decision. "This desertion is a blessing in disguise. The party is rid of the deadwood and will focus on fresh faces. We have some educated youngsters to join and work according to the Congress principles," Meghalaya Congress general secretary Sanjay Das said.

The regional identity politics in the North East has a history of survival of the fittest. But there have been a few instances of 'fair weather friends' too. In 1996, as the Congress lost power at the Centre to the United Front, a conglomeration of regional parties led by the Janata Dal, Congress veteran Gegong Apang quit the Congress and floated his regional party, the Arunachal Congress.

But in 1999, the Congress returned to power when Mukut Mithi split the Arunachal Congress and merged his party with the Congress. It was a grand show and a matter of immense personal satisfaction for Sonia Gandhi. She had deputed senior leaders such as S C Jamir, P A Sangma and Ambika Soni to attend the merger rally in Itanagar.

The case of Nagaland

The politics of regionalism will have more meaning in Nagaland than in other North Eastern states.

A key NDPP leader in Nagaland says the future of the NPF-NDPP merger is linked to the BJP's fate in the ongoing polls in Uttar Pradesh and, to an extent, in Manipur. "If the BJP does very well in UP and Manipur, the PM could be expected to push the Naga rebel groups to ink a final peace pact," says the NDPP leader.

The Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), led by former rebel leader N Kitovi Zhimomi, await a signing ceremony, which could change the dynamics of Nagaland politics. The BJP leaders in Delhi also feel if the peace deal is through, the saffron party will get significant mileage in Nagaland.

The Congress is already a marginalised force in Nagaland where it gave long-lasting veterans such as S C Jamir and Hokishe Sema. In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress could not get candidates for all 60 constituencies of the state, and now it has no presence in the state legislature.

The onus will be on current Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and T R Zeliang, his former compatriot and a former chief minister and NPF leader, to save Nagaland's regional identity. But we also need to remember that parochialism is often mistaken as a genuine crusade for upholding tribal pride.

(The writer is a New Delhi based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.

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By appointing Santishree D Pandit as the Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the government has made it clear that it will continue with the controversial policy it has adopted towards the university. This policy is to appoint as Vice-Chancellor a person who is not only at odds with, but would even be hostile to, the academic and intellectual culture and traditions of the university. This would ensure that there would always be some friction and conflict in the relations between the Vice-Chancellor on the one side and the students and faculty on the other.

JNU is Indias premier university, and one of the few from the country to figure in international rankings. But it is also a university that the present government sees as the bastion of left-liberal intellectual traditions in the country. The government has therefore tried to control the university by many means. The appointment of the Vice-Chancellor is one of them.

Santishree Pandit is ideally suited for the job the government has in mind as she has strong ideological and political credentials that meet its requirements. Her predecessor, M Jagadesh Kumar, had also tried to run the university as per the governments ideological bias and requirements and had several run-ins with students and faculty. His tenure saw many controversies, including the sedition row of 2016, the disappearance of a student, a mob attack on students on the campus, and callous handling of protests by students. He has been rewarded with an elevation to the University Grants Commission (UGC) chairmanship.

Also Read  Controversial JNU VC has a new home: UGC

Santishree Pandit may have even more extreme ideological credentials than him, having made them clear many times on social media. She is known to have taken extreme right-wing positions on Twitter, with descriptions of liberals and activists as mentally ill jihadists and JNUs left activists specifically as Naxal jihadists. She has condemned love jihad as terror by other means, supported calls for genocide, and even given an interpretation of Godses action as a solution for a united India. The tweets have been deleted now but her views are clear from them. She has also said that she would try to implement the Prime Ministers vision with a focus on Indo-centric studies.

It is the governments prerogative to appoint Vice-Chancellors of universities. But when important and iconic universities like JNU are helmed by ideological warriors, the idea is to control young minds. Vice-Chancellors once used to be eminent educationists and administrators or other distinguished persons who would not bring their politics into governance and strive for excellence of their campuses in academics and co-curricular fields. But there are other agendas and roadmaps now. Vice-Chancellors like Santishree Pandit are tasked to implement them.

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Sri Lanka, on February 7, auctioned 135 Indian fishing boats seized for encroaching Sri Lankan waters. Surprisingly, the auction took place while Sri Lankas Foreign Minister was on a three-day visit to India. The crucial question is: Can Sri Lanka auction Indian fishing boats?

The answer depends on where the Indian fishing boats were apprehended from. If they were seized in Sri Lankas exclusive economic zone (EEZ), according to Article 73(2) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Arrested vessels and their crews shall be promptly released upon the posting of a reasonable bond or other security.

But if they were apprehended from the territorial waters of Sri Lanka, as per Article 19(2) of UNCLOS, the intrusion shall be considered to be prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. The exact location of apprehension, therefore, needs to be ascertained before establishing the legality of detention and auction of Indian fishing vessels.

Sri Lanka justifies its decision to seize trawlers and mechanised boats caught violating the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) of Sri Lanka to discourage them (Indian fishermen) poaching into our waters Such methods, according to Sri Lanka, are required in order to protect Sri Lankas marine resources and local fishing industry. The island state perceives illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing) as a serious threat to the sustainability of the fisheries both in national jurisdictions and high seas, and agrees that such fishing has to be prevented, deterred and eliminated.

Section 28A of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act completely prohibits bottom trawling. Violators face two years imprisonment or a fine of 50,000 Sri Lankan rupees. Section 61 of Chank Fisheries Management Regulations stipulates that No person should engage in dredging operations or trawling operations for the purpose of taking chank; if found violating, a fine of up to 25,000 Sri Lankan rupees would be imposed.

Under the Fisheries (Regulation of Foreign Fishing Boats) Act, No. 59 of 1979, sanctions against IUU fishing in Sri Lanka waters by foreign fishing boats include heavy fines, a surcharge of repatriation costs of the crew, and forfeiture of the relevant fishing boat and fishing equipment, and the fish catch. Legality of auctioning of boats is covered under this Act, provided Indian fishing boats were involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Apart from the legality, the manner of discordance of seized boats is also being questioned. Tamil Nadu chief ministers letter to Indian prime minister dated January 25, 2022, calls for transparent disposal of these captured boats that include consultation with the concerned stakeholders.

The letter also expressed a deep sense of disappointment that Sri Lanka slated the auction at a time when the Indo-Sri Lankan Joint Working Group on Fisheries was scheduled to discuss the issue. The Tamil Nadu government had already issued orders for deputing officials and stakeholders from Tamil Nadu to inspect and oversee the disposal of fishing boats and to transfer the sale proceeds to the owners of these boats back in India.

In the process, one wonders what is being disposed of: the entire boat or just engines? If it is entire boats, what is the use when bottom trawling is banned in Sri Lanka? If it is engines alone, would they fetch a good price in Sri Lanka when the island is going through an unprecedented recession? One also wonders, why Sri Lanka has to detain boats for so long? To avoid damage to boats due to long berthing, captured boats can be released immediately with hefty fines. That way, deterrence value is not undermined apart from the proportion of wastages in every manner.

The issue has to be looked at in a holistic manner. Considering good bilateral ties and noting Indias huge economic assistance to Sri Lanka, Colombo could accommodate the formers difficulties in handling the fishermen issue. New Delhi has been trying its best to resolve the issue that is entangled with the politico-economic and socio-cultural vicissitudes of Tamil Nadu.

The main point of contention is Indian mechanised trawlers that indulge in pair, mid-water, pelagic, and bottom trawling, damaging marine resources and the sea bed. This unselective method of fishing has threatened marine ecology and is unsustainable in the long run. Encouraging trawlers to pursue deep-sea fishing and sensitising them on sustainable fishing within legal bounds are the options that need a greater push.

(The author is Director, Centre for East Asian Studies, Christ University, Bengaluru. He earlier served at the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), PMO.)
Campus Front of India (CFI), a student outfit of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), has been providing legal and moral support to the six Muslim students of Government Womens PU College, Udupi, whose objection to the restriction on wearing the hijab in the classroom has kicked up a massive political and religious row across the state. Both the BJP and the CFI have made charges against each other for fuelling the controversy to a point of no-return.

In an interview with DHs Naveen Menezes, CFI state president Athaulla Punjalakatte says the student body is planning to take up a legal fight against political leaders who are accusing the CFI of being an extremist organisation. Excerpts:

Q. When did you first learn about the differences over the dress code in the Udupi college?

A. We were aware of the differences in December itself and hoped that the matter would be settled amicably at the college level. They approached us only when the college administrative committee, headed by MLA Raghupathi Bhat, did not approve their request. Since students were not allowed inside the classroom and only two months were left for the exams, we advised them to hold a protest and seek the help of the media.

Also Read  Karnataka students, teachers made to remove hijab, burqa

Q. There are reports that Muslim students joining a protest rally called by the ABVP triggered the whole controversy. Is that true?

A. Not at all. The hijab-wearing students were rebuked constantly. There have been instances when lecturers tried to remove the hijab of these students by force. We have also got an audio (recording) of a lecturer, teaching in Government PU College, Udupi, who was heard badmouthing Muslim students.

The college committee says only eight Muslim students refused to adhere to the no-hijab-in-class rule while more than 75 other students do not have any issue with it.

Wearing hijab is a personal choice and it does not in any way violate the Constitution. I have women in my family who do not wear it. The CFI is nobody to dictate a dress code for students. Each family has a different point of view on the hijab. Some are orthodox and some are liberal. There should be no ban on wearing the hijab inside the classroom as it causes no problem to other students. If the hijab identifies oneself with a particular religion, then so do their names.

Q. A few private colleges in coastal Karnataka continue to ban the hijab inside the classroom.

A. A private college is within its right to prescribe such rules but that should be clearly mentioned during the admission process. If a Muslim family does not approve of it, they can stop sending their daughter to that particular college. But such a rule should not be prescribed in a government college run with public money. The college should be open to all.

Q. In response to the hijab row, some student groups are demanding the right to wear saffron shawls. What do you say about that?

A. This is being done to mislead the court. Muslim women have been wearing the hijab inside classrooms for many years. In some colleges, the headscarf is of the same colour as the uniform. Some outfits started distributing shawls to students to build a false narrative.

Q. There is also a proposal to ban namaz in school or college premises.

A. We have not made such requests. Muslim students do not necessarily have to offer namaz in school or college premises. It can be done at the nearest masjid, house or even on a ship. There have been instances where we have asked college managements to tweak class timings on Friday so that Muslim students can offer namaz without losing attendance.

Q. CFI is being called an extremist organisation. Are you?

A. We plan to take legal action against individuals and political leaders who are making defamatory and baseless allegations. We are a student body. A majority of our fights have been for non-Muslim causes. The BJP wants to gain political mileage by branding us as anti-India. They want to polarise voters as 2023 Assembly elections are approaching. The BJP has been successful politically but it has left the country divided over religion.

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A government led by the same leader at the helm should be changed at least after ten years, especially if its performance is below par. Or, like in the US, there is merit in the head of the executive retiring after two terms, if only to inject new blood and introduce fresher dynamics.

It is, however, safe to assume that Narendra Modi will seek a third term in 2024. So, it is incumbent upon Rahul Gandhi, the icon of the family-based Congress, to gear up to take charge of the Opposition camp and emerge as a more forceful leader. So far, he has failed to do so, and there are definite reasons for his failure.

It is not that someone hailing from a political dynasty will not succeed in the current phase of Indian politics. Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister and supreme leader of the Biju Janata Dal, is an apt example. Naveen Patnaik may lack the charisma of his legendary father, Biju Patnaik. While Naveen Patnaik has helmed Odisha for more than 21 years at a stretch, Biju babu could never record even two consecutive wins as the state's chief minister.

What could be the secret of Naveen Patnaik's success? Briefly, it is his pragmatism and ability to innovate a niche political line. In 2000, he came to power in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and later dumped the partner. He has steered clear of the Hindutva and 'secular' political camps, as both sides have their fault-lines. But he maintains a cordial working relationship with Modi to ensure the development of his state.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, however, has not learnt from such examples. The argument isn't that he should copy Naveen Patnaik's strategy. However, to fight Modi's agenda that combines Hindutva and development, the Congress leader needs to adopt a fair, prudent, political line that appeals to the people.

Instead, Rahul Gandhi has tried to force the same old issues that have not worked in the electoral arena. His raking up the alleged irregularities in the Rafale fighter jets deal did not help. The Rafale controversy was a feeble attempt to recreate the Bofors scandal and bound to fail. His opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) could not strike a chord. The CAA and NRC may work in a state like West Bengal, where 30 per cent of the voters are Muslims, also immigrants from Bangladesh living in India, but not at the pan-India level.

Rahul Gandhi's pet anti-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) rant does not help either. It shows he is perpetually in denial of reality. There are radicals among Hindus and Muslims. But like the Left, the Gandhis, both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, come across as vociferous against Hindu radicalism and silent about Islamic radicalism. It only helps the BJP to paint the Opposition anti-Hindu.

Such stances will not help in the current polity. The secularists have to be seen to fight all shades of fundamentalism. They cannot support hijab as personal freedom and criticise ghoonghat as regressive Hindu agenda. Progressive minds have criticised hijab and ghoonghat, or polygamy (both llegal and illegal), for a long time as expressions of male domination. Supporting hijab (by the Congress) or ghoonghat (by the BJP) will only take us back to the medieval age. There is no winner in this game.

The regressive sections of Hindutva can be successfully countered only through a truly secular and progressive agenda. But, only the Congress cannot build such a force that can take on the BJP's juggernaut. It will have to create a front consisting of all parties willing to defeat the BJP in 2024. So far, Rahul Gandhi has not taken any initiative to change the narrative by introducing a new agenda or forging opposition unity. He has rather been inclined to see the entire opposition space as his fiefdom.

This mindset was reflected in his party's attitude towards the Trinamool Congress (TMC) when the latter jumped into the fray in Goa. The Congress dubbed the TMC as a stooge of the BJP. But then what is the Congress doing in UP, where it is a straight fight between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP)? Off the record arguments like the intention being weaning certain anti-SP castes from the BJP do not hold water, for the voters are not ignorant anymore.

In other words, to emerge as a genuine challenger to Modi, Rahul Gandhi needs to armour himself both with a progressive agenda and an array of anti-BJP political parties led by the Congress. It is not an easy job, for it requires a changed mindset. But many in his party would help him chart out such a course if he is willing to listen to them.

But it appears Rahul Gandhi is inclined to wait for a day when the BJP will decay through a natural process. But, if the BJP wins the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it will have enough scope to rejuvenate itself by changing the leader, as the CPI(M) did by replacing Jyoti Basu with Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in Bengal during their 34-year-long stint. If it happens, Rahul Gandhi may lose the race.

(Diptendra Raychaudhuri is a journalist and an author based in Kolkata)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
Space tourists have flown to the International Space Station, and even orbited Earth in their own space capsule for three days. Now, a group of private astronauts wants to attempt a spacewalk, one of the most dangerous things people flying in space have ever done.

As soon as the end of this year, four private astronauts, including Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who chartered SpaceXs first space tourist mission last year, could launch to space aboard the companys Crew Dragon capsule. At some point during their five days circling Earth, at least one of the crew members will exit the spacecraft for what would be the first spacewalk conducted by a nongovernment astronaut.

Spacewalking is the riskiest thing that we do as astronauts, said Sandra Magnus, a retired NASA astronaut who operated the space stations robotic arm in 2002 while other astronauts completed extravehicular activities, NASAs term for spacewalks. Referring to the astronauts bulky protective spacesuits, she said, Youre in a one-person spaceship, attached by a wire to the outside of your vehicle.

Also Read  Billionaire ecommerce mogul partners with SpaceX for 3 more crewed flights

The mission is to be the first in a program called Polaris, announced Monday by SpaceX and Isaacman. The main goals of Polaris are to demonstrate new technologies and to conduct extensive research, according to a news release for the mission. Isaacman will also work with SpaceX on two future Polaris missions: a second in the coming years aboard Crew Dragon, which NASA relies on to transport its astronauts to the space station, and another which would use Starship, the gigantic next-generation rocket system that SpaceX is developing.

Isaacman, founder of Shift4, a payments processing system, declined to say how much he was paying for any of the flights, but he said the flights aimed to raise money for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, as with Inspiration4, the mission he chartered in September 2021.

Isaacman will fly with three other passengers: Scott Poteet, a retired Air Force pilot who was the mission director for the Inspiration4 mission; Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer overseeing the companys astronaut training program; and Anna Menon, another SpaceX engineer who works as a flight director in the companys mission control.

If the Polaris mission goes as planned, Menon will reach space before her husband, Anil Menon, SpaceXs former medical director who last year was picked by NASA as an astronaut candidate.

Astronauts put themselves at grave risk during spacewalks. On the space station, pairs of highly trained crew members periodically put on bulky white spacesuits before stepping outside the orbital laboratory to do maintenance and repairs on the exterior. They first go through an airlock  a small room that slowly depressurizes its atmosphere to the near vacuum of orbit  before exiting the relative safety of the station.

No astronaut has ever died during a spacewalk. But in 2013, a clogged filter caused water to enter the helmet of Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut for the European Space Agency, during a trip to the stations exterior.

The procedure for a spacewalk during Isaacmans proposed mission would differ from that of the space station. Unlike the orbiting outpost, the capsule has no airlock. Instead, the Crew Dragons entire cabin will depressurize before the spacewalk, akin to the first American spacewalks during Gemini, a pre-Apollo NASA human spaceflight program in the 1960s.

This will be no different for Dragon, Isaacman said, other than we benefit from 50-plus years of progression and technology.

Menon said at least one of the astronauts would participate in the spacewalk, but she did not say who. With no protective atmosphere in their capsule, all four would have to wear new SpaceX spacesuits, currently under development, to be protected from the near vacuum during the event. During SpaceXs astronaut missions, there have been no accidents requiring live-fire testing of its custom flight suits, which are designed to protect a person in space for a few hours in the event of an emergency.

Theres a fantastic team of brilliant engineers working on the spacesuit, and itll be really exciting to work together as their design unfolds, Isaacman said.

Adding a spacewalking capability for nongovernment astronauts underscores the immense degree of risk  and freedom  private space companies can take on in an industry that has no safety regulations once a vehicle carrying private astronauts reaches space.

Although the Federal Aviation Administration manages launch site safety, no agency on Earth oversees the safety of private endeavors such as SpaceXs spacewalking plans. In 2004, Congress passed a moratorium on spaceflight regulations that has been extended most recently to 2023. That halt on safety rules, intended by lawmakers to allow the nascent space industry to innovate, requires space tourists to sign informed consent forms to affirm their awareness of the risks.

We want the commercial industry to be successful, Magnus said. But we still have this gap in the US oversight role, and where are we going to resolve that? How far along are we going to get before that gets fixed?

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Congress MLA B.Z. Zameer Ahmad Khan, who stoked controversy by stating that without hijab Muslim women 'will get raped in India', while reacting on the hijab row, after being slammed from all corners, regretted his statements. While the case is still being heard at the Karnataka HC, colleges in the state are set to reopen on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said that the government's "patience" should not be considered as "weakness" and warned to take strict action against anyone creating trouble at the educational institutions.
As many as 23 students of Karnataka Public School in Nellyahudikeri in Kodagu district returned back home from school on Tuesday wearing headscarves .

On Monday, 32 students returned back after they were denied permission to wear hijab inside classrooms. When students arrived wearing headscarves, the principal asked them to remove them before entering the classrooms.

The students in turn had appealed to the school authorities to allow them to wear headscarves as they had been wearing in the past. However, the students were sent back citing High Court's interim order which has restrained all the students, regardless of their religion or faith, from wearing saffron stoles, scarves and religious flags within the classroom, until further orders.

The police had strengthened security near the school.

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Parents of students staged a protest on Tuesday to condemn the move of the Maulana Azad High School at Mallar Pakeeranakatte in Kaup, Udupi district, who made students wearing headscarves sit separately in a room on Monday.

The parents demanded to allow students wearing headscarves to sit inside the classrooms. They said that they would not send their children to schools if headscarves were not allowed.

As many as 20 students who had arrived at the school wearing headscarves on Monday remained absent on Tuesday.

On the other hand, students of Urdu Government Primary School at Mallar, who came wearing headscarves were allowed to write the exams. Tahsildar Srinivas Murthy, DDPI and others visited the school.

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The Karnataka government on Tuesday asserted that it was committed to implementing the High Court's interim order on the Hijab row. This was in response to the issue raised by Congress MLA and its deputy leader in the legislative assembly, U T Khader, during the zero hour, expressing concern over "confusion and interpretation" of the court order, during its implementation on ground.

"The Education Minister will give reply to the issue raised by Khader, but I want to assure that the government is committed to implement the court order," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said on behalf of the government.

Raising the issue, Khader said the situation at educational institutions these days is "painful", and as the matter is before the court he would not like to go into detail.

Read more: OIC 'deeply concerned' over 'continued attacks on Muslim in India'

He said, "but what makes me raise the issue, is after the court order (interim order), we have seen media reports that in some schools in Shivamogga district students were not allowed to write the class 10 preparatory exam (for wearing Hijab)."

Noting that there is confusion among people about the court order and what is being implemented on ground, the MLA citing the interim order said, "when the court order is regarding the colleges, it is being implemented at schools, even at the primary school level, so a confusion has been created."

He also said that, while the order is regarding students' dress code, it is being wrongly interpreted and even teachers and staff are not being permitted to wear headscarfs, creating confusion.

"The duty of the government is to provide education, and not to create hindrance in providing education. The Court order has to clearly be implemented at the ground level and it is the responsibility of the government to create a conducive environment for students to get education by clearing the confusion," he said, adding that, regarding the issues between constitutional rights, discipline and rules- the court will decide.

Some Congress legislators wanted to speak on the issue, but Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri did not allow them, stating that it cannot be permitted since the issue was raised during the zero hour.

As protests for and against the hijab intensified in different parts of Karnataka and turned violent in some places, the government had declared a holiday for all high schools and colleges in the state for three days, from February 9, and it was subsequently extended up to February 16. However, the Karnataka High Court, in its interim order pending consideration of all petitions related to the hijab row, last week had requested the state government to reopen educational institutions and restrained all the students from wearing saffron shawls, scarves, hijab and any religious flag within the classroom.

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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The United States seized Afghan assets without the consent of the Afghan people, which is tantamount to robbery, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday, urging the U.S. to lift the freeze.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing when asked to comment on the executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden regarding the 7 billion U.S. dollar frozen assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.

Without the consent of the Afghan people, the U.S. willfully disposes of assets that belong to the Afghan people, even keeping them as its own. "This is no different from the conduct of bandits," Wang said.

This latest example has once again laid bare that the "rules-based order" the U.S. claims to champion is not the kind of rules and order to defend the weak and uphold justice, but to maintain its own hegemony, Wang noted.

As the culprit of the Afghan crisis, the U.S. should not exacerbate the suffering of the Afghan people, he said.

It should unfreeze their assets, lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan as soon as possible, and assume its due responsibility to ease the humanitarian crisis in the country, said the spokesperson. 
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BJP and Congress legislators hurled charges against each other over Covid-19 vaccination and the sensational Bitcoin scam in the Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday.

Initiating the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governors address, Kudachi BJP MLA P Rajeev blamed the Congress for negative propaganda against Covid-19 vaccines when they were first rolled out in the country.

He also accused the grand old party of not apprehending notorious hacker Sriki alias Srikrishna Ramesh, the main accused in the Bitcoin hacks, when he was named in the 2018 assault case in which Congress leader Mohammed Haris Nalapad was arrested.

When the vaccines were introduced, there were statements by you calling it BJP vaccine and Modi vaccine. This misled many poor people of this country, Rajeev said.

Also Read | Road works only after utilities are laid: Bommai

Raising an objection to this, Deputy Leader of the Opposition UT Khader rose to say that no Congress leader had misled citizens on vaccines. He accused the BJP government of ill-treating vaccine makers. While Khader did not specify, he was referring to Serum Institute of Indias chief executive Adar Poonawalla moving to London. You should be ashamed, Khader said.

Congress MLA Priyank Kharge mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet colleagues for promoting "unscientific" thoughts and practises. People were asked to light a lamp and beat plates as if doing that would drive the coronavirus away, he said. To this, Kollegal MLA N Mahesh said those were management techniques that Modi used to instil a sense of unanimity among citizens.

Health Minister K Sudhakar pointed out that the 100 per cent coverage had been achieved in the first dose, whereas it is 90% for the second dose. This is an astonishing achievement when several nations have not managed even 10% vaccination, he said.

Raising the Bitcoin case, Rajeev read out Srikis voluntary statement to say that he evaded arrest in the 2018 assault case. An MLAs son (Nalapad) was arrested, but Sriki escaped in a chartered plane along with Nalapads brother. Who helped him escape, he asked. It was our government that finally arrested him in the case of hydro-ganja peddling. Instead of lauding our police, all kinds of allegations were made against them.

Congress MLAs opposed this narrative saying Nalapads arrest had nothing to do with the drugs or the Bitcoin case.

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A day ahead of reopening of pre-university colleges in Karnataka, which were shut due to protests over wearing of Hijab inside classrooms, state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Tuesday said authorities have been directed to identify and initiate legal action against religious organisations attempting to break the society and corrupt innocent students.

"Some religious organisations are using students to try to divide the society.. Instructions have been given to identify them and initiate appropriate legal action against them," the minister said in a statement.

Also Read | After being slammed, Karnataka Congress MLA regrets 'hijab prevents rape' comment

He claimed that not all but a few students were insisting that they be allowed to go to the school wearing Hijab. "In my view it is not their (students) natural view (insisting on wearing Hijab). We all must respect the interim order of the Karnataka High Court and act accordingly," Jnanendra said.

The Karnataka High Court in its interim order relating to the Hijab issue has restrained students from attending classes wearing headscarves or saffron scarves.

Jnanendra also noted that safety measures have been taken to ensure peace and order in the state so that students attend classes in peace, without any hindrance. He also requested the students to engage in their academic activities without any fear or feeling of insecurity.

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A proposal of friendship between Derry and Cork has been given a warm reception by Foyle SDLP MLA, Mark H Durkan.

Mr Durkan was speaking after Colm Burke, the TD for the Cork North Central constituency in the Republic of Ireland had recommended a formal Friendship Alliance between the two cities.

The Fine Gael member of the Dail in Dublin suggested that councils in both cities should establish a broad-based committee to begin the process of building an alliance as the work of reconciliation and peace building continues on the island of Ireland.

He also stated that such a bond for the two second cities of both the North and the South could have huge economic and social benefits for the two second cities.

A plan that Mr Durkan insisted was worth investigating given how much the government in the Republic of Ireland has done to promote regional economies compared to the lower levels of delivery of investment that the administration in Stormont has provided towards Derry and the North West.

As a city and a place, we always look to establish relationships and partnerships with other people and places, said Mr Durkan.

There are plenty of similarities between Derry and Cork  despite the geographical distance between them.

SDLP Foyle MLA, Mark H Durkan

I'm keen to explore any opportunities that exist for partnership and working with other places and seeing what benefits they can bring to Derry and the people here.

What we have seen in the Republic is that the government there has actually done a lot more in terms of trying to promote a regional economic balance compared to governments here in the North.

That's why I think it's important that we look at other areas and how they have used the tools available to their government to increase their attractiveness and prosperity.

We have to learn from other places. It seems, sadly, that in Northern Ireland, a historic neglect of the North West is undeniable. That's despite the best efforts of parties like the SDLP and others to address that.

We have seen some progress in recent years, which hasn't been helped by the stop-start nature of politics here. Over the past fifteen years, people on the ground have seen nowhere near enough in terms of delivery  be that in terms of infrastructure, the economy, education and the list goes on.

One thing that they do have in the south is that they have it in statute that foreign direct investment can be directed to places outside of Dublin  which has been transformational for the economies of some of the cities in the south.

Whereas, in Northern Ireland, sadly Invest NI promotes the Belfast and Greater Belfast areas. There really needs to be a change, in terms of how they do that work.

Invest NI needs to start looking at places where there are tremendous opportunities and Derry's a place that's very attractive for businesses in terms of the rich supply of talent that we have there.

We, as a border region, have been impacted particularly negatively by Brexit. However, through working across the island, there are still opportunities for us to benefit from European funding and they need to be explored and exploited to bring benefits to Derry.

I have to say that I don't know Mr Burke. But you can be sure if someone from Cork is spotting opportunities of partnership and of working with Derry, then we do have a product that's attractive to people. Any such arrangement would have to be mutually beneficial.

Mr Burke insisted that the initiative could be funded not only by the Shared Island Fund but, given the North's unique access to the EU via the post-Brexit Protocol, also by European Union funding as well.

He said: One hundred years on from partition and almost 25 years from the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, we need to realise that peace on our island must never be taken for granted.

Brexit has introduced a new element of instability into politics of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Each generation has a responsibility to continue the work of reconciliation and peace making between all people on this island.

On the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the ongoing trauma associated with that horrific event and the years of violence which followed, we in the Republic of Ireland have a responsibility to reach out the hand of friendship to the people of Northern Ireland.

Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central, Colm Burke

As part of a Shared Island approach I believe that Cork City Council should enter into discussions with Derry City & Strabane District Council with a view to establishing a Friendship Alliance between the two cities. Cork is the second city in the Republic and Derry is the second city in Northern Ireland; there is a certain symmetry about the two cities establishing a Friendship Alliance.

This should involve the full spectrum of political, business, social, cultural, educational and sporting organisations in both regions.

Funding to undertake the widest possible consultation across both regions could be provided by the Shared Island Fund.

A cross-border scheme of this nature would also attract EU funding and support. The consultation process should lead to a formal agreement between the two city regions on a shared programme of engagement and the establishment of an implementation and governance structure to make the Friendship Alliance a working and living reality.

If the Lord Mayor of Cork and Cork City Council took the initiative, I am sure the people of Cork would respond with enthusiasm and generosity to a proposal of this nature. I am also confident that Derry and its people would welcome such an initiative, as we continue the important work of peacebuilding on this island.

Derry City & Strabane District Council stated that while they have yet to receive any formal approach from anyone regarding a Friendship Alliance, having already engaged positively with Cork via the Learning Cities Network, they would be open to exploring any future opportunities.

A spokesperson for the Council said; Derry City and Strabane District Council promotes partnership working across a range of strategic areas including education, tourism and investment, and has established extremely positive working relationships with a number of cities with shared interests including Donegal, Dublin, London and Boston.

Through the Learning Cities Network we already engage with Cork, Dublin, Belfast and Limerick as part of an agreement to work together and provide mutual support to help deliver on the vision of a Learning City for all citizens.

While Council has not received any communications regarding a Friendship Alliance, we will continue with the positive work to share learnings and resources with all our partners and to explore future opportunities to engage on key issues.

However, Cork City Council said that the process of exploring a possible link-up with Derry was being explored with a report due out in a few weeks time due to be submitted to them.

A spokesperson said: Cork City Council are actively exploring the possible for a Friendship Alliance between our two cities.

We have much in common and a closer working relationship would be an excellent opportunity to exchange knowledge and to grow our mutual potential.

A motion was submitted to Council on the matter on Monday, February 14 and a report to Council is due in the coming weeks.
Yasmine Simonne Doherty, gave birth to her baby girl, Fianna, on August 31 2021, and has breastfed her little one since birth.

After hearing about the Western Health and Social Care Trust's plea for their human milk bank, a vital resource for feeding premature and sick babies across the island, Yasmin was eager to help.

Yasmin enquired and received her milk bank donor starter pack in October 2021 and donated in January 2022 after the WHSC's New Year appeal.

Yasmin said: "We have enough milk to have a happy healthy Fi, and milk to share, so donating means we can help other wee babies to grow strong too.

"Fi is our second baby, our little girl Saoirse is nearly two. I know so many comments painted me as a "supermum," but I fed Saoirse for a year too.

"She was born just as lockdown hit and I wasnt fully aware of the milk bank and the acceptance rules because all the usual support services had gone into lockdown too.

"So, when Fi was born in August, I already had knowledge of the milk bank and I knew Id have the supply to be able to help so I contacted them as soon as I could.

"To me, it just feels like the right thing to do for the tiniest of people who need all the help they can get.

Yasmin is aiming to donate again before Fianna turns six months as after the baby hits this age, new mums are no longer able to donate.

Yasmin explained: "New mums can only donate for six months following birth so, with everyones encouragement, we have decided to start on our second donation before Fianna's Happy Half Birthday.

"Weve just received more bottles today to donate a further two litres. We will be handing over that milk the weekend following her turning six months but must stop bottling the milk on the day she turns six months.

"Its really important to stick to the rules as the milk is always changing depending on the age of the baby. As the milk goes to premature and sick babies, it needs to be age appropriate."

Yasmin has been so overwhelmed with the positive response from everyone and hopes it encourages other new mums to consider donation.

"The response has been so lovely and I want to thank everyone for their kind words," she continued. "Awareness is so important and without realising, each and every like, comment and share has raised awareness of this life saving service for the tiniest of babies so thank you to everyone. This is such a lifesaving service for tiny babies."

The Western Health and Social Care Trust thanked Yasmin for her donation. They wrote: "A massive thank you to our amazing donor mum, Yasmin Simonne Doherty.

"We issued an appeal for new donor mums at the start of the New Year and Yasmin was delighted to be able to donate her breast milk to the milk bank.

"Yasmin posted a picture on her social media account to raise awareness of the milk bank and received lots of comments from other mums about how they could donate their milk.

"It is brilliant that our appeal has reached so many people and we would encourage people to keep sharing the importance of this life-saving service providing donor milk for premature and sick babies across Ireland.

"Fianna must be so proud of her mum. Thank you to all our donor mums. We are very grateful for your support."

You can find out more about how to become a donor via: https://westerntrust.hscni.net/service/human-milk-bank/
Derry Aontu councillor Emmet Doyle has has challenged Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey to publish her Department's legal advice on the shelving of the sub-regional stadia programme which was to complete the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium in Derry.

Cllr Doyle said: The news in the Assembly yesterday that the Minister was shelving a long awaited funding package that wouldve completed Phase 2 of the Brandywell was met with disbelief and rightly so.

This programme has been stuck in the mire for several years now with little progress and I recently had officials from the Department for Communities into council who confirmed the same.

If the Health Minister can unilaterally change Covid regulations with the permission of other Ministers then the Communities Minister should have no problem releasing funding earmarked by her own Department.

I dont buy the line that it was agreed to go back to the Executive.

Derry has waited long enough for this funding, it should be released immediately and I am demanding the Minister release her own Department's legal advice to her that states the programme cannot go forward without Executive approval.
Today we take a step back 20 years and an article which appeared in the Derry News, Thursday, 14th February, 2002

In a moving tribute in St Eugenes Cathedral, the Foyle Hospice founder Dr Tom McGinley dedicated his prestigious Papal Knighthood to his wife of thirty-nine years, Deirdre.

Well over a thousand people flocked to the Cathedral to watch one of Derrys most respected individuals receive the rare accolade, which was bestowed during a ceremony led by Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty.

On receipt of the traditional medal, sword and plaque, Dr McGinley informed the congregation of well-wishers that none of his achievements would have been possible if it had not been for the strength and support of his wife, who herself has battled with cancer over the last seven years.

Speaking to the Derry News at a reception held later at the Hospice, Dr Tom again voiced his appreciation.

My tribute to my wife is well deserved, and Im delighted to get the opportunity to do this  particularly because all the awards Ive received in the past I have dedicated to my parents and my teachers, he said.

And now I have the opportunity to pay tribute to the one person who has given me the time and support to do this. It has been an inspiration to me over the past seven years that she has come from cancer to treatment, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, recurring cancer, further chemotherapy.

Her motto is very much tomorrow is a mystery, and every day is precious, and she has really helped me cope.

Dr McGinley also paid tribute to all those who had been involved in the hospice over the years  and he had a special word of thanks for the Cathedral Choir, for making Monday nights ceremonies so special.

During the service, Bishop Hegarty paid tribute to the tireless work of Dr McGinley in the establishment of the hospice, and his invaluable role in the community.

And he condemned those who abuse and assault health professionals in the line of their duty.

These attacks on public service workers generally are a most worrying and concerning phenomenon, he said.

From this gathering here tonight we wish to express our support for and our solidarity with all who work for the common good of our community and especially for those in the caring/healing professions.

Hundreds of Derry people turned up at the service, including MEP John Hume, and Bishop Edward Daly who participated in the service along with representatives from across the diocese.

Also present was James Doherty the only other living recipient of the honour in the city.

Speaking afterwards John Hume remarked: I think that the huge turnout at the cathedral service, from all sections of our community in Derry, and from across the divide, gives a serious impression of the enormous respect for Dr Tom McGinley and for the great work he has done in the establishment of the Hospice.

And of course he has had great support from a wonderful team of such dedicated staff.

Mayoral praise

Speaking at a reception at the Foyle Hospice after the ceremonies, the Mayor of Derry Mildred Garfield congratulated Dr McGinley on behalf of Derry City Council.

Im delighted to be here to celebrate Dr McGinleys Papal Knighthood, I really think that he deserves it, she said.

He has worked extremely hard over the past number of years in developing the Foyle Hospice and Daycare Centre and Im delighted that he has been recognised for the work he has done on behalf of everyone in the city. I wish him all the best in the future.

Ciaran McGinley, fundraising manager for the Hospice, and Dr Toms son, spoke of the McGinley familys delight at the honour.

This has been a superb night, and a fantastic recognition of the work that my father has been doing for over the past thirty, forty years in the care of the sick, people with cancer and life threatening illness, he said.

But I would also like to congratulate the community, for without them this could not have happened. You can see from the response of the people here tonight just how caring they are.

Overwhelmed

Dr McGinley himself was overwhelmed by the attendance.

He commented: There were people from all sections of the community there, people who travelled from all parts of Ireland just to be here for the occasion, and I think it demonstrates the strength of the devotion that people have for the Hospice.

It has grown from within the community, they have felt part of it belongs to them, and their support has been incredible.

We wouldnt be here tonight except for the spontaneous response when we began the fundraising in 1993, and it has been a rollercoaster ever since. I thought the service was lovely, in particular the beautiful singing of the choir.

One man, who had more reason than most to laud the work of Dr Tom, was Andrew McClay, who attributes his life to the doctor for helping him through his own fight against prostate cancer.

I cannot put into words what he has done for me, he said. There is no one more deserving than Dr Tom for this award. I truly believe that some people come along at different times when they are needed and Dr McGinley is one of those people.

"I met him in my club a long number of years back and he has never failed to impress me with his strength, determination and courage. This is beyond tremendous.
Although Foxconn is known primarily as a lead iPhone manufacturer, it has been lately venturing into semiconductors for EVs to other electronic goods.

The Taiwanese iPhone maker Foxconn has joined hands with oil-to-metals group Vedanta to set up a semiconductor manufacturing unit in India. This new venture is worth $118.7 million and will leave Vedanta with a 60% share. It envisages "a significant boost to domestic manufacturing of electronics in India." A joint statement released stated, This first-of-its-kind joint venture between the two companies will support Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to create an ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in India,.

Foxconn Vedanta Semiconductor Manufacturing in India Deal Details

To reiterate, the new joint venture born out of this partnership between Taiwans Foxconn (also called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.) and Indias Vedanta Group aims to start manufacturing semiconductors in India. Although Foxconn is known primarily as a lead iPhone manufacturer, it has been lately venturing into semiconductors for EVs to other electronic goods. So, its not exactly clear what would be these utilized for.

Be that as it may, this could be a one of a kind setup that propels domestic manufacturing in the country. The deal is said to be worth $118.7 million with Vedanta as the majority shareholder at 60-per cent. The indigenous group had said back in December 2021, that it will invest up to 60,000 crores in the establishment of a chip and glass manufacturing ecosystem in the country over the coming three years.

Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwals efforts in this direction have finally seen some development. He has also been chaired as the chief of this new venture.

Further, the companies are apparently in talks with various state governments to finalize a location for this unit.

And as you may know, the Union Government is also promising support for such endeavours under its Electronics Manufacturing & Production Linked Incentive scheme. This would come in the form of not just infrastructure support but also speedy bureaucratic approval and clearances. This Foxconn Vedanta deal will thus be the first in the Governments plan of building at least two semiconductor and two display fabricators in the country. Lets see how it all comes to fruition.

We will keep you posted on related updates. And for other similar news, buying guides, feature stories, reviews, and everything else tech-related, follow Digit.in.
The first thing that comes to mind after reading cover photos is undoubtedly Facebook. Around a decade ago, Facebook added the cover photo update where users can add the photo of their choice to make their profile look interesting. After which, the cover photo further changed to cover photo/video option where one can also put up aesthetic videos as a cover.A month back, WhatsApp (Facebook/Meta owned platform) announced a feature for business accounts namely collections to gather all their offerings in one file. Following this update, WhatsApp is testing another feature that is yet to be released in the upcoming updates. The new feature is also for business accounts to help them create their cover photo.WhatsApp is currently working for this update and the development is still under progress that is why it's not even available to beta testers. But just to keep in mind, this feature will not be available to normal WhatsApp accounts; perhaps initially, only business WhatsApp users will be able to upload their cover photos.As soon as the feature is ready to use, beta testers will see a change in their business profiles. Previously, there used to be only a display picture but now the cover of the display picture will also show a camera sign. From that option, businesses can select any photo or capture photo at the moment to upload it as their cover photo. The cover photo will be public and the users will have the access to see it depending on the accounts privacy settings.The idea behind this update is to make the business profile look even more professional. It definitely does not affect the business growth but to make the profile a bit more appealing, visually. Cover photo can also include some key points about the brands products.The screenshots provided by WABetaInfo depicts that the feature is available for iOS users but we hope WhatsApp will provide the similar update for Android users as well. It is not clear when the feature will roll out for business accounts but whenever that happens, WABetaInfo will definitely inform the users.Read next: Cybercriminals finding new ways to loot you after impersonating your loved ones
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By BERNARD CONDON

Associated Press

Former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, once vilified by Donald Trump as a druggie and joke unworthy of wearing the pinstripes, is now a key part of an investment group seeking to buy the rights to the ex-president's marquee Washington, D.C., hotel, people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.

A-Rod's involvement in the $375 million deal, which could close within weeks, would make the athlete-turned-entrepreneur an unlikely financial savior for Trump, allowing him to recoup millions he invested and perhaps even emerge with a profit from his money-losing hotel.





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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cross-border e-commerce is gaining momentum in China against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic that severely impacted international trade, and the recent approval of more cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones has, undoubtedly, accelerated this trend.

Last week, China's State Council issued a statement, approving the establishment of more cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in 27 cities and regions, including Erdos in Inner Mongolia and Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province.

This now brings the overall tally of pilot zones to 132, covering almost all provincial-level regions in China from coastal industrial powerhouses such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong to inland areas.

"As a new form of foreign trade with great potential, cross-border e-commerce is still on its fast growth track," the Ministry of Commerce said.

Cross-border e-commerce, featuring online marketing, online transactions and contactless payment, has boomed in China over the past few years, particularly during the last two years when the pandemic impeded business travel and face-to-face contact.

According to official data, cross-border e-commerce volume soared tenfold over the past five years.

In 2021 alone, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports climbed 15 percent year on year to 1.98 trillion yuan (about 311 billion U.S. dollars), with related pilot zones playing a significant role in spurring the growth.

China began setting up cross-border e-commerce pilot zones as early as 2015 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, in a bid to trial the new business form and digitalize its trade channels.

In these pilot zones, local governments provide a variety of trade services ranging from logistics, payment, law, taxation and customs clearance to facilitate enterprises' cross-border e-commerce businesses.

"Our company has seen tangible benefits after the establishment of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones," said Wu Fan, head of the Asia-Pacific region of U-Play Corporation, an Anhui-based hygiene products manufacturer.

Currently, 90 percent of the company's products are sold overseas via cross-border e-commerce retail. The company's cross-border imports and exports soared 62.5 percent from 80 million yuan in 2020 to 130 million yuan in 2021, Wu said, attributing this growth to preferential tax policies.

The favorable policy environment for cross-border e-commerce has led to a continuous increase in the number of cross-border e-commerce companies.

So far, China has seen the establishment of more than 30,000 enterprises related to cross-border e-commerce, with the volume climbing every year.

Apart from benefitting market entities, cross-border e-commerce pilot zones also improve the shopping experience of consumers, said Xu Qing, director of public affairs department at Tmall Global, a leading online shopping platform where Chinese consumers hunt for overseas products.

"Thanks to the cross-border e-commerce boom, domestic consumers can choose from more overseas products with lower prices and faster delivery without leaving their homes," Xu said.

As one of the world's largest goods traders, China is expected to further enhance its competitive strengths in foreign trade through the expansion of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones.

Zhu Caihua, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said cities later designated as cross-border e-commerce pilot zones should leverage local development advantages and enhance institutional innovation to propel high-quality development of the new business form. 
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By MICHELLE L. PRICE

Associated Press

NEW YORK  New York City fired more than a thousand workers who failed to comply with the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the mayor's office said Monday.

The 1,430 workers who lost their jobs represent less than 1% of the 370,000-person city workforce and are far fewer terminations than expected before a Friday deadline to get the shots.





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SEATTLE  A postwar apartment building at 801 W. McGraw St. sold last week for over $2.3 million, according to King County records.

The seller was a local investor who acquired the property in 2015 for a little under $2 million.





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On 14 February, the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS), in cooperation with the Arab Center in Washington DC (ACW) and DeepRoot Consulting, launched the two-day academic conference, The Conflict in Yemen: Current Situation and Future Prospects. The public conference is being held on a virtual basis through Zoom and livestreamed through the organizations social media platforms. This conference reflects CHS, ACW, and DeepRoot Consultings shared commitments to serve as bridges between academia and practice and to examine the widest possible range of views in amongst key actors in conflict settings.

This conference serves as an opportunity for participants to better understand the conflict's dynamics and conceptualize more comprehensive and thoughtful solutions to the conflict. It also aims to attract the interest of donors and key actors in international mediation and reconciliation, recovery, reconstruction, and development to involve them in addressing Yemen's current struggles and promoting regional and international cooperation for addressing these critical challenges.

The conference opened with welcoming remarks jointly presented by Professor Sultan Barakat, the Founding Director of CHS, Professor Khalil Jahshan, the Executive Director of ACW, and Rafat Al-Akhali, Founding CEO of DeepRoot Consulting. Professor Barakat began by elucidating on the importance of conflict studies in the Arab world to promote peace, noting the successful partnership between CHS, ACW, and DeepRoot Consulting in hosting this conference to that end. Professor Jahshan underscored the timeliness of the conference in light of the protracted nature of the Yemen conflict  that has witnessed widespread famine and hunger, the resurgence of cholera, and produced more than 330,000 deaths  and the growing need for its peaceful resolution. Al-Akhali concluded these remarks by highlighting the uniqueness of the present conference for its diversity in perspectives and disciplines, its public and open nature, and its orientation towards the present and the future instead of the past.

Keynote remarks of the first day of the conference were delivered by the US Special Envoy for Yemen, HE Timothy Lenderking, who reaffirmed his and his governments commitment to bringing the Yemen conflict to an end as a US foreign policy priority. Lenderking relayed the US aid provisions to support Yemenis during the conflict, which include $214 million for the Covid-19 pandemic and more than 300,000 vaccine doses delivered through the COVAX initiative since December 2021. He urged all states to fulfill their funding commitments to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. He expressed concern over escalatory military action in Yemen, citing Houthi attacks against internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and other civilian infrastructures, and failed airport attack attempts in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, as clear violations of international humanitarian law, and the primary obstacle to peace. Lenderking emphasized that the US and its international partners do not support a military solution to the conflict. Instead, US diplomatic efforts have focused on growing international consensus for a ceasefire and a national solution to the conflict, along with supporting the development of an inclusive peace process.

Swedens Special Envoy for Yemen, HE Peter Semneby, also provided a critical analysis of the Stockholm Agreement and issues in ensuring Yemeni ownership and leadership of the peace process. He stated that whilst the agreement succeeded in creating a strong de-escalatory impact in Hudaida, Yemen  the key imperative at the time  further efforts could have bene concerted to enhance confidence building between conflict parties. He also stated that as external actors make space for Yemeni actors to resolve their issues, local actors must prioritize peace instead of gains on the battlefield to avoid further human suffering and deeper fragmentation.

The conferences opening session concluded with remarks delivered by Mohammad Al-Amrani, Director of the Technical Office for Consultations and Member of the Yemeni Government Negotiation Team, who offered the Yemeni governments perspective on the national peace process. Al-Amrani stated that the peace process has been at a standstill since the December 2018 Stockholm Agreement with talks between Yemens conflict parties becoming increasingly indirect. He cited Houthis intransigence towards being at the negotiating table without concessions or delays as the key obstacle. Al-Amrani argued that the international community incorrectly concerted its efforts towards applying pressure on Saudi Arabia instead of addressing the Houthis refusal to progress in the political process. He stated that Houthis seek to double the cost of peace by doubling the cost of war through their military escalations. Al-Amrani explained that for a national peace process to succeed, both conflict parties must be willing to engage with the other and offer concessions. He concluded by affirming that the costs of the Yemen conflict are not the cost of war, but the cost of a poorly managed peace process  a responsibility that also rests on the international community.

Moderated by CHS Research Fellow Mona Hedaya, the conferences first panel, Mapping the Conflict: Causes, Actors, and Dynamics, sought to present novel findings to enhance understandings of the Yemen conflict. Peter Salisbury, senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, outlined four key trends in Yemens civil war that will impact policymaking and

mediation options for the country. Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen, a senior researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, provided an overview of the Yemeni decentralization debate, highlighting its role in the ongoing civil war and its potential for realizing peace. Andrea Carboni, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex, explored the evolution and breakdown of the unlikely alliance in 2017 between the Houthis and the General Peoples Congress. The first panel concluded with a presentation by Ibrahim Jalal, a Non-resident Scholar in the Gulf and Yemen Programme at the Middle East Institute, who examined the implications of the institutional design of Yemens National Dialogue Conference on representation, negotiation dynamics, and the dialogues outcomes.

The conferences second panel, Evolving Gulf Interventions and Policies Towards the Conflict in Yemen, sought to advance understandings of Yemen-Gulf relations and was moderated by Al-Akhali. Nadwa Al-Dawsari, a Non-resident Fellow at the Middle East Institute, discussed the evolution of Houthis and their political ideology and its implications for regional security. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the ACW, offered insights into the evolution of Saudi and Emirati policies towards the conflict in Yemen, focusing on the impact of the two countries changing relationship on their Yemen policies and positions. Dania Thafer, the Executive Director of the Gulf International Forum, offered ideas on how the Saudi-Iranian detente could impact the war in Yemen, including a possible return to the Iran nuclear deal. The session concluded with a presentation by Majed Al-Ansari, Director of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies, who provided a critical overview of Gulf mediation efforts in Yemen and proposed an enhanced regional mediation initiative that would be locally-led and owned.

The second and final day of the conference will take place on Tuesday, 15 February 2022, and will continue to feature researchers and experts focused on the Yemen crisis and its prospects. Interested members of the public can register to attend the conference on Zoom, where they can ask questions during the designated Q&A sessions or follow its live broadcast on CHS social media platforms. Zoom participants or viewers of the livestream can tune into the conference in both English and Arabic languages.


Disability Minister Anne Rabbitte has said she is seeking an independent review into services provided by the Health Service Executive in the Northwest region.

She said there is a pattern of failure to protect residents with disabilities in Community Healthcare Organisation One (CHO1) in the region.

It comes after the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) raised concerns about a resident with intellectual disabilities who was found to be viewing online images of child sex abuse.

The health watchdog raised serious concerns about the management of the HSE services and said that HIQA inspectors were not provided with assurances that the incident was appropriately managed.

HIQA also said in a letter that the resident had been found to be viewing online images in 2016 and 2017, but that the HSE did not pass on this information.

It comes months after the publication of the Brandon Report, which was highly critical of the handling allegations of sexual abuse at an HSE disability centre in Donegal.

The report found that adults with learning disabilities were subjected to sustained sexual abuse by another resident at the HSE-run facility.

Ms Rabbitte said she became aware of the latest incident before Christmas through a letter raising very serious concerns about safeguarding issues in CHO1 in the Northwest region.

We are taking it very seriously, the junior minister told RTE Morning Ireland. I was really shocked with the contents of the letter from HIQA.

To me, whats concerning is that there appears to be a pattern emerging and its a safeguarding issue for the residents in the CHO1 Northwest.

Where we have repeated incidents and the development of a pattern, one has to question the staffs understanding and managements understanding about the roles and responsibilities around safeguarding.

And how to work with the various agencies, be it Tusla, An Garda Siochana, and HIQA itself, that they feel comfortable enough to be able to talk to an outside body to look for support if they arent able find the support within their own organisation.

She said she spoke to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly about the matter and is seeking to draw up terms of reference for an independent review on CHO1 Northwest.

Theres a worrying trend here in CHO1 Northwest that we need to get under the bonnet on it, Ms Rabbitte added.

We need to ensure that we have safeguarding first and foremost, and we also need to reassure the families.

So we need to actually deal with what is here at the moment and understand the pattern and, if theres faults or failings there, we need to support the HSE to address it and move on.

I am working with the department in rolling up terms of reference. I would like there to be an independent review to discuss the relationship piece.

She added: I would like to think that we need to deal with this continuous pattern.

Theres a pattern going on here since 2003.
There arent many novelists whose handling of dark subjects like addiction and depression can leave you feeling waves of compassion and empathy in one breath  and have you chuckling into your cocoa in another.

That is the genius of bright-as-a-button Irish writer, Marian Keyes, whose novels including Watermelon, This Charming Man, Grown Ups and The Break, have sold in their millions.

Lauded by contemporaries, including David Nicholls and Jo Jo Moyes, theres light and dark in all Keyes novels, equal measures of hilarity and heartbreak. She has explored hard-hitting issues, from addiction to cancer, via bereavement and domestic violence  but thanks to her huge gift for humour, they are not depressing books. Far from it.

Meanwhile, her combined 386k followers on Instagram and Twitter tap in to her witty asides about love, life, handbags, make-up and shoes, along with references to Mammy Keyes (her mum) and Himself (her husband). Yet life hasnt always been a laugh-a-minute for the 58-year-old publishing phenomenon.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marian Keyes (@marian_keyes)

The alcoholism of her wild 20s, which led to a spell in rehab, and a bout of depression little more than a decade ago, have been well-documented. She hasnt had a drink for 28 years.

I still go to meetings, she says candidly. Thats why I dont relapse.

And Keyes latest book sees her back in the thick of the subjects she knows so well  addiction, rehab, relationships and family.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marian Keyes (@marian_keyes)

Keyes vowed shed never write a sequel to Rachels Holiday, which centres on the eponymous heroine, a cocaine addict whose family pays for her to go to the Cloisters, Dublins answer to the Betty Ford Clinic, which she claims shes only agreed to because its time to have a holiday.

Back then, addiction was something regarded as very shameful in a woman, and that it should be kept secret, says the bubbly novelist, who made her own alcoholism public when her writing career took off in the mid-nineties.

I was so naive. And so grateful I was no longer in the prison of addiction. I never felt it was something to be ashamed of. It meant that when people read the book, they were able to be more compassionate with themselves. So many people have contacted me to say theyve got clean or sober from reading it, they stopped thinking of it as a moral failing and began to see it as it is, which is a condition that the person has no control over.

Maybe a lot of people were shocked, but I never shocked myself.

25 years after the iconic 1.5 million-copy bestseller #RachelsHoliday burst into our lives, Rachels BACK! Dont miss out on #AgainRachel, out next week. Dont forget you can get a SIGNED exclusive edition with @Waterstones -> https://t.co/knjXfIR9jD pic.twitter.com/Xhyawgwv32  Penguin Michael Joseph (@MichaelJBooks) February 9, 2022

A quarter of a decade on, recovering addict Rachel Walsh is back, in the sequel Again, Rachel, which finds her older and cleaner, working as an addiction therapist in the Cloisters, with a boyfriend, family and an enduring fondness for expensive trainers.

All is rosy, until her handsome ex-husband Luke arrives from America after his mother dies, and makes contact, upsetting the equilibrium of Rachels life.

There have been no such romantic complications for Keyes, who celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary to Tony Baines in 2020. They met at his 30th birthday party when he had a girlfriend and Keyes was mired in alcoholism. When she got out of rehab, they began seeing each other, initially as friends, but got engaged 11 months later.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marian Keyes (@marian_keyes)

He worked in IT and was the type of nice, kind man shed avoided during her wild booze-filled years, but who has clearly given her the support and stability she so needed.

By her third book, Keyes had become the breadwinner and Baines has long been her PA, handling her media requests, proofreading her books and sorting out contracts and taxes.

She suffered crippling depression in 2009, experiencing suicidal impulses which she has since spoken about.

In a recent BBC TV interview, Imagine she recalled how, when she told Baines she was ready to leave this world, he suggested they watch an episode of Come Dine With Me, and the diversion helped that moment to pass. The depression lifted around four years later, almost as quickly as it had arrived.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marian Keyes (@marian_keyes)

While she writes about other peoples romantic traumas and relationship problems, she and Baines rub along quite happily, she agrees. She cannot over-emphasise the difference he has made to her life.

I know people in awful American films say, Youve made me a better person, but he has made me a better person. He is very kind and non-judgmental, without being a doormat, and hes very calm. He loses his temper about once a decade and he wont have a shouting match with me.

Ive learned, in confrontation, to be more respectful. I catastrophise at the drop of the hat, he says Lets look at the facts. Hes been very good for me and hell always give people the benefit of the doubt.

Their Silver Wedding anniversary celebrations were curtailed by the pandemic, she recalls.

In the beginning, we planned a party, then we planned that the two of us would go for dinner and in the end, we celebrated by me putting on the lovely dress Id bought for the party and taking the bins out in it, she quips.

During lockdown they started cooking together in their home near Dublin, she recalls.

Wed do fancy things like Ottolenghi, and that was a lovely, uniting thing, which Id never have wanted to do before. Instead of having dinner on our laps in front of the news, we started sitting at the table looking at each other, which was very nice.

Keyes, who now co-hosts a podcast, Now Youre Asking, with Tara Flynn, believes she has changed in the 25 years since Rachel first came on the scene.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marian Keyes (@marian_keyes)

The lovely thing about getting older is that the things that used to bother me when I was younger dont so much any more, like an argument, or a snooty comment, or things that happen in traffic. Im better at standing my ground, which just comes with living through things.

Theres a big reveal in the latest book. Not to give anything away, but a particularly bleak event which might have you reaching for the tissues is tempered with Keyes trademark humour in other aspects of Rachels life, as she deals with her multi-faceted family, her loves past and present and an eclectic mix of patients.

The attitude to addiction now has changed since Keyes wrote Rachels Holiday, she agrees.

As a recovering addict, addiction is mainstream. Its not something that happens in the shadows, on the margins of life. The numbers of people addicted to alcohol, gambling, tablets, illegal drugs, food, whatever, theres an awful lot of it.

Unlike fellow authors David Nicholls and Jo Jo Moyes, Keyes work has not been adapted for the big screen, even though many of her books  Grown Ups, The Break, The Other Side Of The Story  have been optioned.

Over the years, people have asked about film or TV adaptations and its never really happened. I knew that if I started getting excited about it, Id end up disappointed. And I was right. All I can do is write my books and whatever happens happens.

Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes is published by Michael Joseph on February 17..
Former president of Ireland Mary Robinson said people don't talk about the climate crisis enough, and called for the Seanad to play a role in bringing the issues into communities.

The former senator said that the climate crisis needs to become part of peoples every day mainstream life.

She made the comments at an event to commemorate the centenary of Seanad Eireann.

The Seanad Cathaoirleach Mark Daly was joined by the former president and Senator David Norris to mark the event.

Ms Robinson was 25-years-old when she became a member of the Seanad and was one of only six women who sat in the House in 1969.

Ms Robinson, an advocate for human rights and climate justice, said the Seanad could do far more to engage climate crisis issues.

I think a minority issue in Ireland is the climate crisis. Its still a minority issue. People dont talk about it around the table, they dont talk about it enough, she added.

The Seanad could do far more to engage on all of the issues, including retrofitting of houses, energy issues and how to get clean energy.

We need transformative change in less than eight years to be in the right place for 2030 to have a safe world for the future.

Climate has become specialist subject for specialists, it isnt.

Its an issue for everyone.

The Seanad could play a real role in bringing it to communities.

It has to be far more part of our mainstream life in a crisis sense of needing to be transformative.

Mr Daly said the Seanad was set up in the middle in Irelands civil war and was established to ensure the unionist minority had a place in the new Republic.

The concept was to make sure that the new State established democratic principles and the Seanad was one of those, he added.

It was probably the most diverse group of politicians that we have ever had in that it had 20 Protestant members, as well as Jewish and Quaker members.

It was about making sure unionist minority had a place in the new State and those who found themselves on the southern side of the border and were members of that community, had a place so that their voices could be heard in the state.

That was one of the key elements around making sure the new Seanad was representative across the board and thats why it had such a diverse group.

That has transitioned now to other minority voices and communities.

Senator David Norris, who has the longest continuous service in the Seanad, was often a sole voice on the minority issues he championed.

Mr Norris said his most significant moment in his career is changing the law on homosexuality.

I think that increased the happiness for people and that is very important and people should be entitled to the enjoyment of life and not be restricted if they are not doing harm to other people, he added.

Ms Robinson campaigned on a range of liberal issues, including the right of women to sit on juries.

She was instrumental in changing the law on family planning and the right to the legal availability of contraception.

Within weeks of tabling a Bill to change the law in accessing contraception in 1973, she received hate letters and was denounced by various bishops.

There was a huge sense of somehow this was speaking about issue that no one wanted to talk about, she added.

Nobody wanted to talk about sex, no one wanted to talk about family planning.

I got hate letters and was really effected by the volume of hate letters I was getting.

I was denounced by various bishops and in particular by Archbishop McQuaid.

He wrote letter to every diocese in Dublin parish that this measure would remain a curse upon the country.

It wasnt against the law to use a condom, but it was against the criminal law to either buy and sell condoms.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday called for the further improvement of UN peacekeeping.

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on, unilateralism, the Cold War mentality and bullying are also on the rise, leading to more challenges in the field of international peace and security, said Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, adding that in this context, there is a need to continue to improve UN peacekeeping operations and better leverage their role.

At the General Debate of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, Dai stressed the need to optimize overall planning, better protect peacekeepers, improve peacekeeping performance, and build stronger partnerships.

Calling the peace operations led by the African Union (AU) a useful practice to solve African problems by Africans in African ways, Dai said they are an important supplement to UN peacekeeping operations.

According to the envoy, China supports the provision of sufficient, predictable and sustainable financial support to AU-led peace operations and backs continued discussions by relevant parties to find a viable funding solution.

He pointed out that main funding partners should continue and step up their level of support to avoid a reversal in achievements made by AU-led peace operations.

China is a major troop contributor and the second-largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, with an 8,000-strong standby force, said Dai.

Last year, China organized the "Shared Destiny-2021" international peacekeeping field exercise, launched the Group of Friends on the Safety and Security of UN Peacekeepers and donated 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to peacekeepers.

China will also hold an international forum on peacekeeping in due course to pool ideas and forge synergy, he added. 
ADA [ndash] Memorials services for Clifford Brent Hall, 63, of Ada are 10:00 A.M. Thursday, May 5, 2022 at Trinity Baptist Church, Doug Brewer will officiate. Mr. Hall passed away Monday, April 25, 2022 at a local nursing home surrounded by family. He was born August 8, 1958 in Shawnee, OK t
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Paula Lavin, Senior Manager of St Colmcilles Ladies GFC and teacher in Colaiste Ris, along with Cllr Maeve Yore and Garda Lisa Smith, are calling on the people of Louth and Meath to come out and climb the saddle of Slieve Foy for Sean Woods and Roy Taylor on Saturday 2 April.

Sean Woods and Roy Taylor are both living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and are well-known figures within the community of Louth and further afield. Sean Woods is known for his brilliance as a mechanic for over forty years and is much loved in motor racing circles. The Dundalk man is an accomplished racing driver and former team owner, a role in which he was equally as successful.

Roy Taylor is no stranger to the limelight either, having represented Ireland in the Eurovision song contest in 1988 with his band Jump the Gun. He also released the song, My New Dream with his son Terence, which reached number one in the iTunes charts in Ireland. The song was aimed at raising awareness for MND and funds to aid research into the condition.

On Saturday 12 February Sean, Roy and their families, gathered at St Josephs GFC in Louth, to meet the men from St Josephs GFC and the women from St Colmcilles in Meath, to come together in solidarity to support the climb for Sean and Roy.

Sean, a proud club man of St Josephs, both on and off the pitch, was delighted to be back at his old club where they have vowed, as a club, to come out and support him and Roy on the day.

Paula told the Dundalk Democrat that there are around 30 to 40 people in the Louth/Meath/North East with MND. She explains that funds raised from the climb will go to support Research Motor Neurone at Trinity College Dublin, where they are working on better understanding the causes of MND; finding better ways to diagnose patients more quickly, and more effectively; and delivering new effective treatments.

Paula says that a new, prestigious research programme called Precision  ALS, fronted by Professor Orla Hardiman at Trinity College, will now focus on delivering these goals as an end to MND is sought, once and for all. She adds that with the publics amazing support, we will be able to fund this world class research.

One day soon, we will be able to get the right drug to the right patient at the right time and give much needed hope to those suffering from MND and their families.

Lisa, wife of Roy Taylor says of MND that, its a life changing disease, it can only be described as a horror story from hell.

It changes life completely not only for the sufferer, but also for the entire family. Every minute of every day is consumed by the incredible pain and suffering it causes. For the sufferer there is unimaginable pain being trapped in a body that doesnt function anymore, and for their loved one the deepest sadness and stress knowing with all the help you can give, this disease keeps pushing you further, she adds

Paula says that it is Sean and Roys wish that all funds from this event go directly into research.

We hope we can achieve this by selling 500 tickets at 20 each, and raise 10k for Research Motor Neurone. All tickets are available online: sean-roy-climb-for-rmn.eventbrite.ie

A committee of Paula Lavin, Cllr Maeve Yore and Garda Lisa Mc Cabe has been set up to organise the event and Paula says that great work has been done already to ensure this day is a success for all involved.

Jock Mc Ardle has also got involved and is a great addition, for he is an experienced guide and will be out with all his crew on the day leading us in the right direction, says Paula. Thanks to all those who have registered and donated to the event so far, and to Seamus at Anchor Tours who will provide free shuttle buses on the day, and to Richard and Jamie at print express for their kind donations of free posters, she adds.

Cllr Maeve Yore also adds that the families want to thank the HSE for their ongoing support and are overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of their local community and friends. "They want to also acknowledge with gratitude the help of Garda Lisa McCabe, Carlingford Garda Station; Jock McArdle and his Leaders; Louth Civil Defence; and the Order of Malta in volunteering for this Research Motor Neurone Fundraising Walk on behalf of Sean and Roy.

Paula ends by asking that people and their communities sign up and register for the event. Whether you end up going on the day or not, please buy a ticket as we all can make a difference here, she asks. "This climb is about awareness of Research Motor Neurone, no level of fitness is required so lets come together on Saturday April 2nd and make this a memorable day for Sean, Roy and their families.
Three Louth schools will from today take part in a childhood reading initiative from Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Childrens Books Ireland.

The initiative will see more than 1,900 copies of Why the Moon Travels by Oein DeBhairduin donated to children at 64 schools across Ireland and was marked by an event in Tralee attended by Minister for Education Norma Foley.

In Louth, Saint Nicholas' Monastery National School, Aston Village Educate Together National School and Tullyallen National School are taking part.

The donation is part of Enterprises ROAD (Respect, Opportunity, Achievement and Diversity) Forward programme, which is a $55 million global initiative funded by Enterprises philanthropic arm, the Enterprise Holdings Foundation, to promote early childhood development, youth health and wellness, and career and college preparation.

Through the ROAD Forward initiative, more than 1,900 sixth class pupils from across Ireland will receive their own copy of Why the Moon Travels, a collection of folk tales rooted in the oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community collected by Oein DeBhairduin and beautifully illustrated by Leanne McDonagh.

Students at Caherleaheen National School in Tralee, Co Kerry were among the first pupils to receive copies of the book through the programme at a special event attended by Minister Foley.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Foley said:

I am delighted to be launching the ROAD Forward initiative here in Tralee.

Introducing children to reading at a young age is crucial and initiatives like this go a long way to fostering an appetite for reading in our schools.

It is said that books are uniquely portable magic and this initiative will transport a myriad of Irish children and young people into a world of Irish folk and fantasy through the power of reading.

Why the Moon Travels which preserves and showcases the wonderful oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community.

I hope all the pupils receiving a copy of this book enjoy it and share with their friends and families the unique tales it captures.

Elaina Ryan, CEO, Childrens Books Ireland said:

'What a gift the Enterprise ROAD Forward programme will be for almost 2,000 sixth class students all over Ireland.

Why The Moon Travels won the Judges Special Award and the Eilis Dillon Award at our 2021 KPMG Childrens Books Ireland Awards, and we are sure that it will captivate young readers attention as much as it did ours.

With Enterprises support, we will ensure that children have access to excellent stories from diverse perspectives and support wonderful Irish-published work in the process.

Enterprise Holdings first announced its ROAD Forward programme in November 2020 through its philanthropic arm, the Enterprise Holdings Foundation.

The $55 million, global initiative focuses on promoting Respect, Opportunity, Achievement and Diversity (ROAD) for youth and families by addressing three areas in need of urgent attention: early childhood development, youth health and wellness, and career and college preparation.
A dairy farmer from Tully, Co. Louth, has been re-elected as Chair of Irelands largest dairy co-operative, Lakeland Dairies.

Niall Matthews was returned as Chair of the co-operative at its Board meeting yesterday.

Mr. Matthews was first elected to his role as Chair in February 2021, and was first elected to the Board in 2017.

He farms at Tully, Co. Louth, in partnership with his wife Juana, with their son and two daughters.

Lakeland Dairies processes 2 billon litres of milk annually into a wide range of dairy food ingredients, foodservice and consumer products, collecting milk from over 3,200 family farms across 16 counties north and south.

The co-operative has 8 major processing facilities and exports over 240 products to 80 countries worldwide.

Board Member Keith Agnew has been elected Vice-Chair of the Co-operative.

Mr. Agnew is a dairy farmer in Newry, Co. Down, where he farms a Holstein-Friesian herd in partnership with his wife Ruth and three sons.

Niall Matthews, Chair of Lakeland Dairies, said:

I look forward to working with my colleague Keith and all Board members as we continue the strong progress of Lakeland Dairies.

"We are grateful to outgoing Vice-Chairs Alan McCay and Andrew McHugh, both of whom served as vice-chairs under the interim rules of the Society, following from the successful Lakeland and Lacpatrick merger completion and consequent Board reconfiguration.

"Both Alan and Andrew continue on the Board and we thank them for their contribution and commitment.
GOAL and AIB have thanked the hundreds of people in Louth who took part in the GOAL Mile over the Christmas period, with over 400,000 being donated to the humanitarian aid agency at fundraising events in Ireland and abroad.

The Christmas tradition of running, jogging or walking a Mile in support of GOALs work has taken place since the 1980s. With the support of AIB for the first time, this was the biggest event yet.

Funds raised at annual nationwide and international events support the agencys emergency response and humanitarian work in 14 countries in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

GOAL Miles were organised at five locations across the county over the Christmas period in Termonfeckin, Dundalk, Drogheda, Dunleer and Glenmore.

GOALs Chief Executive Officer, Siobhan Walsh, has thanked participants and highlights how the GOAL Mile is essential to GOALs mission to fight poverty.

This years GOAL Mile has been truly exceptional.

"It was inspiring to see how eager people were, not just to support GOALs work, but to get out and re-connect with each other. We want to thank everyone for organising, helping out and turning up to their local GOAL Mile this Christmas.

"There were events in 28 counties across Ireland, as well as GOAL Miles on every continent around the globe. By showing up and donating, you have made a difference in someones life.

She added: While normality is closer to being restored here in Ireland, the impact of Covid-19 in the global south is still profound.

"The support of thousands of people for the GOAL Mile helps us continue to work with vulnerable communities, to enable them to weather the impact of shocks like Covid, conflict and climate change.

AIB Chief Executive Colin Hunt said: We are thrilled to have been able to help make the GOAL Mile the biggest one yet and are looking forward to working with GOAL in 2022.

"Communities in Ireland stepped up to join us in supporting GOALs work to transform the lives of the some of the worlds most vulnerable people.

"On behalf of AIB, Id like to extend a big thank you, and well done to all who took part.
When Lisa Smith arrived back in Ireland from Syria in 2019 gardai had concerns for her safety due to comments on local media suggesting the Islamic convert "shouldn't be back in the country," the Special Criminal Court has heard.

Detective Garda James Kilgannon today (TUE) told Justin McQuade BL, for Ms Smith, that part of his duty when Ms Smith began living with her mother in Dundalk, Co Louth was to make sure she was safe.

There were concerns, he said, because of comments on local news websites.

The witness said Ms Smith has "reintegrated reasonably well" and he agreed with Mr McQuade that she has been accepted by the community in the housing estate where she lives, goes "out and about" locally and shops locally.

He said he speaks to the accused from time to time and finds her "very polite and easy to deal with".

He said she has adhered to all her bail conditions, including a curfew and a requirement to sign on twice daily at a garda station.

He described Ms Smith's family as "decent people" who have shown the natural concern for Ms Smith that any family would and have cooperated with gardai before and since her return to Ireland.

The detective also revealed that Ms Smith's family alerted him to three voice messages Ms Smith left on her father's phone and a number of texts she sent to her sister Laura while Lisa Smith was being held in the Ain Issa camp in Syria in mid-2019.

Det Gda Kilgannon said the texts indicated that Ms Smith was in "tough and dangerous conditions" and that her husband had most likely been killed in the war.

In June 2019 the detective recorded a voice message from Ms Smith's father's phone in which the accused said she was in Ain Issa.

She said she had been told two months earlier that she would be deported, adding: "We are still here with no money or anything and everything is expensive. I need money."

She said that she was making the call "secretly" as the use of phones was not allowed.

In a second message Ms Smith said that a previous number she had sent to the family was from the "military who run this camp".

She said she would go to a bigger prison if caught using a phone and asked her father only to send texts when she says it's okay.

She added: "Don't text to that phone or else I am in big trouble."

In the third message she said she was going to send a text from a number but he was not to text back.

She asked him to let the Irish government know she was in Ain Issa and to let her know what the government was saying. She added: "I don't know what's happening."

Ms Smith remained at Ain Issa until December 2019 when she was flown back to Dublin Airport where she was arrested on suspicion of membership of Isis.

Ms Smith (39) from Dundalk, Co Louth has pleaded not (NOT) guilty to membership of an unlawful terrorist group, Islamic State, between October 28th, 2015 and December 1st, 2019.

She has also pleaded not (NOT) guilty to financing terrorism by sending 800 in assistance, via a Western Union money transfer, to a named man on May 6th, 2015.

At the request of Ms Smith's defence lawyers, the court has been watching footage of interviews Ms Smith gave to gardai following her arrest. Transcripts of those interviews have already been read out in court.

The trial is continuing before Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, with Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Cormac Dunne at the non-jury court.
Bank of Ireland is advising businesses to be on increased alert against fraudsters during the current period of change, as many companies reopen their workplaces and employees adapt to new hybrid work practices.

Bank of Ireland has recorded a marked increase in reported cases of invoice redirection in the weeks since Government work from home advice was lifted, as fraudsters have used this period of change to capitalise on vulnerability.

Invoice redirection fraud is where fraudsters pretend to be a supplier or service provider in order to trick employees into changing bank account payee details. A common tactic is to tell the business that their bank account details have changed and for all payments to be sent to a new account, controlled by the fraudster.

What to look out for:

- Fraudsters may write to a companys finance or payments department either on forged headed paper or by email, pretending to be a supplier.

- Typically, they will say that their account details have changed.

- The payee account may be located either in Ireland or overseas.

- The fraudster may ask an employee to send a pending payment to the new account or to ensure that all future payments are sent to the new account.

Edel McDermott, Head of Fraud at Bank of Ireland commented:

We know that fraudsters thrive in periods of change or uncertainty for business, where attention may be focused on other priorities.

While the winding down of pandemic restrictions and the return to workplaces is positive news, after two years of remote working, this period will bring considerable change to many companies. Companies and their suppliers may be working in different ways, with team changes or the introduction of new processes and procedures.

Business email fraud at any time has the potential to have a devastating impact on business. Training staff on the warning signs and verbally checking requests with a known contact will help safeguard business against avoidable losses. We are urging businesses not to drop their guard against email scams.

Bank of Irelands advice to business:

- Be skeptical of urgent requests that do not follow typical company procedures and policies.

- Establish a documented internal process for requesting and authorising all payments.

- Consider how your business issues and accepts payment instructions. Email is NOT considered a secure means of communication unless encrypted.

- Always verify that the email is from the real sender before making any payment.

- Under no circumstances should contact details contained in the email or attachments be relied upon to verify the request.

- Notify the Bank immediately if you receive a suspicious email relating to payments or if you think you have been the victim of fraud.

- Visit /security-zone/protect-your- business/ for examples of business fraud and for advice on how to protect your business.

Bank of Ireland is committed to building awareness around fraud. Bank of Ireland will continue to focus on the issues around fraud, through the Banks own channels and by working collaboratively through the Bank and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) FraudSMART campaign www.fraudsmart.ie
ANKARA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish police on Monday detained at least 24 suspects over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016, state-run TRT broadcaster reported.

A police operation in southeast Sanliurfa city targeted 16 suspects, including doctors, teachers and policemen, who were allegedly linked to the Gulen movement, which the Turkish government accuses of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and then attempting a coup on July 15, 2016.

In a separate operation in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, the police detained at least eight suspects who were allegedly responsible for the group's structure in police college and police academy students.

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 Washington 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 in the aftermath of the coup attempt. 
North Andover, MA (01845)

Today

A shower or two possible this morning with partly cloudy skies for the afternoon. High 58F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 44F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
ZANU PF has claimed infiltration by the Nelson Chamisa-led Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).

Addressing a Press conference in Harare on Monday, Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa accused the opposition CCC party of working in cahoots with some MDC and Zanu PF members to create fake social media accounts that peddle lies about ruling party.

He was responding to a question from journalists who asked him to explain the Twitter accounts, @Zanu PF Patriots and @zanupf_patriots, which were used last week to announce that Zanu PF director of information Tafadzwa Mugwadi had been fired from his post.

I told you earlier, there is an unspoken alliance between CCC, some MDC elements and some people who may manifest themselves as Zanu PF and others who are on the grey line, Mutsvangwa said.

They never tire of trying to hijack Zanu PF. Some of my accounts have been hacked and there are some created in my name, but they are not mine, There is a constant effort of sowing discord within Zanu PF and they are trying to say because I am new, something may be happening between me and my director (Mugwadi). He enjoys full confidence of the party and the President. Those who are making false flag operations will not succeed, particularly because I have a lifelong experience in dealing with such kind of infiltration.

Mutsvangwa said Zanu PF would approach Twitter to have the social media account created under its name closed for peddling lies on party affairs.

It is just people trying to destabilise the party, but we are very vigilant. I want the Twitter page which moonlights as a Zanu PF page to be removed. You (Mugwadi) must tell Twitter to remove it. We cant have people pretending to be others on Twitter. Otherwise we will have to sue Twitter, but its a corporate company and it will behave responsibly, he said.

The Twitter account, @Zanu PF Patriots, which has over 51 000 followers, was established in June 2016.

The account is followed by Zanu PF supporters and State institutions such as the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and the Foreign Affairs ministry, among others. The account posts diversified information on Zanu PF affairs, including upcoming events and live updates on events happening within the party.

Yesterday, the social media handle announced that Mnangagwa would leave the country for Belgium to attend the European Union and African Union Summit.

Zanu PF insiders said the Twitter account was being run by members of the ruling party.

The account is run by insiders within the ruling party, one source said.

The account managers are usually at party events and they are part of us. The threat to have the Twitter account suspended is just a strategy aimed at controlling alternative voices and leaks of internal information.

Social media platforms, including Twitter, take many proactive measures to monitor content which promotes terrorism and child sexual abuse.

CCC national spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere rubbished Mutsvangwas claims.

This allegation is patently nonsensical. As usual the regime is in panic mode and scared stiff of the overwhelming support that CCC has garnered nationwide.

She said her party had no interest in Zanu PF petty squabbles as its sole focus was on winning elections. Newsday
Developer Richard Felker has a firm footing in a growing trend in new-home construction: building houses not to sell them but to rent them.
In todays highly competitive and demanding world, having children is a life changing event for all parents. But for young women especially, giving birth is a dramatically transformative experience that not only affects their personal growth but also their career and future prospects. So when Uyanga Amarsaikhan, a banking professional in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, found herself at home looking after her first child, she realised she did not want her professional ambitions to lapse.

Stress from giving birth combined with the pressures of social media takes a significant toll on womens mental health. I simply could not sit around, confined at home. So I began exploring business ventures that could be managed from home, says Uyanga, explaining the genesis of her childrens clothing brand, UR.mine, which translates from the Mongolian   to My Baby.

With advisory services provided by the EBRD and funded by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), Uyanga has propelled her start-up into a thriving business that not only addresses the challenges new mothers face, but also creates employment opportunities for them.

Opportunity in disguise

As Uyangas newborn grew into a healthy infant, finding suitable baby clothes became a constant challenge: quality materials, affordable prices and a good selection were never available at the same time on the Mongolian baby clothing market. So Uyanga sought to solve this, setting up a production facility in Mongolia and establishing her company in 2017. With slogans on products that translate to endearing phrases such as Boss of the household and Beloved by mummy and daddy, UR.mines first batch became a hit.

Uyangas second success came two years later, when she impressed investors on the Mongolian adaptation of Dragons Den and gained 71 million MNT (approx. 22,000) in funding, allowing her to establish a partnership with an organic cotton producer in Guangzhou, China, and launch the first official UR.mine brand store in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. Fast-forward to 2022 and Uyanga provides employment to 18 stay-at-home mothers and sells her merchandise through 7 domestic brand stores and 4 distributors internationally.

Room for further growth

Although UR.mine enjoyed considerable success, Uyanga knew that she needed professional assistance in order to improve her companys business processes and ensure the businesss strong performance in the future.

With other competing brands entering and growing in the baby clothes market, we started losing out on contracts and orders from our customers. We desperately needed professional guidance in brand management to make the business sustainable, explains Uyanga.

This was when she learned of the EBRDs Women in Business Programme, which aims to promote womens participation in business with advisory assistance specifically optimised for the needs of women entrepreneurs.

Under the programme, UR.mine received professional services from BrandArte Consulting Agency, which helped UR.mine relaunch under a new and exciting brand identity empahsising material quality, comfort, design and price. In a short time, this bold campaign increased the brands visibility in a market ripe with competition.

The advisory project had a deep impact on customer perception and retention. This joint action gave our company and our employees the push we desperately needed to get ahead of the competition. We now have more customers than we have ever had before, notes Uyanga.

An international future

Now, firmly rooted in the Mongolian market, UR.mine is keen to explore tailor-made baby clothing opportunities for Mongolians living in Japan and the United States. Furthermore, the revival of a cashmere collection under the advisory project has nurtured fresh demand among parents for soft and warm winter protection for their newborns.

Since the relaunch, our monthly sales have tripled. We are planning to export cashmere products by 2023, notes Uyanga, providing a glimpse of the UR.mine brands future. As the first ever childrens clothing brand using organic materials in Mongolia, we have an abundance of capacity for growth. But without the EBRDs support, none of our aspirations could have been realised.
After a day of protesting outside Dunnes Bishopstown, members of the IFA have agreed to stop an ongoing protest outside a Dunnes Stores in Cork after the retailer agreed to a meeting in relation to escalating costs.

An Irish Farmers Association (IFA) spokesperson said: Dunnes Stores has agreed to meet IFA to discuss price increases to suppliers to address rising costs at farm level.

IFA President Tim Cullinan said he would meet Dunnes Stores on the basis that they would engage in meaningful discussions.

Now that Dunnes have agreed to meet, farmers will move away from the protest locations in Bishopstown in Cork and Monaghan to allow the talks to take place.

Now that Dunnes have agreed to meet, farmers will move away from the protest locations in Bishopstown in Cork and Monaghan to allow the talks to take place.

Following a call from Dunnes Stores this morning, we have agreed to meet this afternoon to discuss what is needed to restore the viability of producers, he said.

IFA Poultry Chairman Nigel Sweetnam said that other retailers have met with IFA and acknowledged the issue of rising costs, but they too need to act.

We cannot survive at current prices. Farmers are looking for 15c a chicken and 2c an egg," he said.

Read More Attacks on gardai 'under-reported': 466 gardai recorded as being attacked on duty in two years

IFA Pigs Chairman Roy Gallie said that pig farmers also need retailers and the Government to step up.

Pig farmers are in a vice-like grip with feed price increases on one side and falling prices on the other," he said.
The U.S. and France have joined forces to call for an international treaty to control plastic pollution.

They issued their joint statement on the last day of the One Ocean Summit from February 9 to 11 convened by France in its port city of Brest.

The United States and France are committed to protecting our environment for future generations, the statement read. Recognizing the transboundary aspects of plastic pollution and the importance of curbing it at its source, the United States and France support launching negotiations at the upcoming 5th UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) on a global agreement to address the full lifecycle of plastics and promote a circular economy.

The treaty would be designed to limit the amount of plastic in the worlds oceans and would be modeled on the 2015 Paris agreement, CBS News reported. The United Nations also supports a new treaty, and staffing and an agenda for the deal will start being discussed at UNEA, which will take place in Nairobi from February 28 to March 2.

The agreement should include binding and non-binding commitments, call on countries to develop and implement ambitious national action plans, and foster robust engagement of stakeholders to contribute toward the agreements objectives while complementing national government contributions, France and the U.S. said.

Greenpeace responded positively to news of a potential treaty, but expressed concerns over some details of the statement.

The U.S. has come a long way. It is one of the worlds biggest plastic polluters and a major exporter of plastics to the Global South, Greenpeace USAs ocean campaign director John Hocevar said in response. After being one of a handful of countries actively opposing a plastic treaty under the Trump administration, it is very encouraging to see this turnaround. Though it is worrying to see the U.S. mention the inclusion of non-binding commitments in the treaty mandate. Binding commitments are needed in order to ensure government and corporate accountability.

2022 is emerging as an important year for the worlds oceans and the fight to preserve them. After UNEA, the U.S. and the Republic of Palau are hosting the coral-reef focused Our Ocean conference from April 13-14, while the UN Ocean Conference will take place in Lisbon, Portugal in late June and early July, CBS News reported.

The One Ocean Summit in France is the first in a series of ocean action meetings in 2022 that we hope will stop the decline in the oceans health this year urgent action is required, UN Secretary Generals Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson told CBS News.

The UN hopes the final plastics treaty will be negotiated within two years, which would be a record-breaking pace.

In addition to the call for a new treaty, other commitments emerged at the One Ocean Summit, The Guardian reported. These included:

Twenty-seven EU states and 16 other countries said they would reach an agreement by the end of the year for sustainable use of the high seas, which no country controls. Thirty more countries agreed to protect 30 percent of their land and sea by 2030. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the French, German, Italian and Spanish development banks pledged four billion euros by 2025 to decrease the nine million tonnes (approximately 9.9 million U.S. tons) of plastics that enter the oceans yearly. Six more countries joined the International Maritime Organizations Cape Town agreement to better regulate fishing boat safety standards and therefore reduce illegal fishing. Twenty-two European shipowners said they would reduce underwater noise and pollution.

[W]e should take here, in Brest, clear and firm commitments, French French president Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the summit, said Friday, as The Guardian reported.
The critically endangered vaquita porpoise  a beautiful dolphin about four to five feet long with dark circles around its eyes and an upturned, seemingly smiling mouth  is the smallest marine mammal in the world. Theyre also on the brink of extinction with an estimated fewer than ten vaquitas left in their small range in the Gulf of California.

The vaquita population has dropped 99 percent over the last decade due to being caught in the gillnets set to catch the totoaba fish, which is also endangered, and other marine species. The totoaba is hunted for its swim bladder, which sells for thousands of dollars on the black market in China to be used in traditional medicine.

Totoaba fishing and the use of gillnets in the area where the vaquitas live have been made illegal by Mexico, but few penalties have been enforced, The Guardian reported.

The U.S. Trade Representatives Office filed an environmental complaint this month against Mexico for failing to protect the vaquita, reported The Associated Press. Attempts to enforce a fishing-free zone surrounding the area where the vaquitas live have mostly been abandoned by Mexico. It is the first such case the office has filed under the free trade U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The first step is to have environmental consultations with Mexico. If those are not successful, trade sanctions could be imposed.

This is a big move that could save these little porpoises from extinction, said international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity Sarah Uhleman. Illegal fishing is out of control in Mexican waters, and the vaquita is paying the highest possible price. Were glad the U.S. government is taking Mexico to task for violating its environmental obligations and threatening the vaquitas existence.

After the announcement of the complaint, Mexicos Economy Department said that it reaffirmed its commitment to the USMCA, The Associated Press reported.

The legal and illegal trade in shrimp and fish from Mexico has been ravaging the vaquita porpoise for decades, said the director of NRDCs international wildlife conservation program Zak Smith, the Center for Biological Diversity reported. Its been made possible by the framework of poorly designed and enforced trade agreements. Todays action by the U.S. trade representative signals the possibility of a new approach to tackling environmental destruction caused by international trade. Its about time and the US should take strong actions against Mexico for pushing the vaquita to extinction.

Environmentalist group Sea Shepherd was relied upon by Mexico for years to remove illegal gillnets in the vaquitas range, but Sea Shepherds boats were subject to being violently attacked by poachers. In the past six years, Sea Shepherd estimated that it had removed about 1,000 gillnets.

After an attack in January of 2021, in which a Sea Shepherd boat was rammed by fishermen, members of the environmental group were forced to leave the area. It was reported that one of the fishermen died of injuries sustained during the attack. Since then, location and removal of the nets has been mostly the job of Mexicos navy.

We dont need foreigners telling us what to do or placing [sanctions] on our countrys fishermen, said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last June, The Associated Press reported. [W]e can reach an agreement that seeks an equilibrium between fishing and productive activities, and taking care of species.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, 117 boats were observed in a single day in November of 2021.

The lack of enforcement by Mexican authorities has allowed illegal fishing in the area to grow. The market for totoaba is backed by cartels and as the market for totoaba has expanded, vaquita numbers have fallen by about 50 percent per year, as The Guardian reported.

When we were out there the last three times it was gillnets everywhere, said marine conservation biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Barbara Taylor of survey trips taken earlier this year and in 2018 and 2019, as reported by The Guardian.

The issue, said senior fellow in the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Brookings Foreign Policy program Vanda Felbab-Brown, is how to make environmental conservation economically viable for communities reliant on fishing for their livelihoods.

The issue of how to fund conservation  paying communities not to poach  is something that we are really going to be confronting at a greater scale, Felbab-Brown said, as The Guardian reported.

Felbab-Brown said it is a decades-long struggle that was going on in the Gulf of California before the increase in demand for totoaba overseas.

The government still hasnt given us a solution or an effective way to support our families without going out to fish illegally, president of a federation of fishing cooperatives in San Felipe, Ramon Franco Diaz, told The New York Times last fall.

Community support is a much more effective way to protect the species, said Commissioner at the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission Francis Gulland, as reported by The Guardian.

The reason it really is not working is there isnt the governance to enforce another way of fishing and to support and compensate fishers who fish in a way that would allow vaquita to survive, Gulland said, The Guardian reported.

Marine conservation biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Barbara Taylor said the calls of the vaquitas and the clicks they use for echolocation recorded on monitoring equipment can still be heard by researchers.

We are looking for a needle in the haystack  but we know the needle is there, Taylor said, reported The Guardian.

Gulland said that efforts to protect the vaquita didnt really begin until there were only a few hundred left on Earth.

We tend to not pay attention until we are in total crisis mode, Gulland said, as The Guardian reported. An attempt was made to relocate vaquitas to protected areas, but after a vaquita died in the process the program was halted. If there had been 10 thousand animals we would have time to learn what to do to improve the techniques. They could have been moved to a protected area but it was all too late.

Gulland said there is still a small window of time to save the vaquita. According to NOAA Fisheries, the shy cetaceans are believed to give birth every other year and can live more than 21 years.

If we can prevent them from being caught in nets, Gulland said, they will survive, as The Guardian reported.




EU feed buyers turning more to wheat, away from corn

Animal feed buyers in the European Union have been gradually shifting from imports of corn, turning to feed wheat purchases, particularly from France, as corn has lost nearly all of its competitiveness with feed wheat amid tightening corn fundamentals globally.

Expectations of declining corn production in South America have supported crop prices in recent weeks, including in Ukraine  the EU's primary corn supplier this marketing season (July-June). The Argus-assessed Ukrainian spot corn contract last closed at $284.50/tonne on the free on board (FOB) market, up by $14.50/tonne since the start of this year.

In contrast, wheat prices  particularly of feed grade  have extended near-steady losses since December, as the gradual arrival of Australia and Argentina's bumper wheat harvests have provided downwards pressure. France's spot feed wheat was last seen at about $294/tonne on a FOB Creil basis, down by more than $15/tonne since January 1. This brought French feed wheat's premium to Ukrainian corn on a FOB basis to below $10/tonne, its narrowest since August.

Corn and wheat fundamentals were off to a mixed start earlier in 2021-22, when unfavourable weather conditions weighed on wheat quantity in Russia, the United States and Canada, while pressuring crop quality in France. In contrast, Ukraine's bumper corn harvest this year curbed price increases for crop. Wheat-corn spreads widened sharply at the time, with the French feed wheat premium to Ukrainian corn peaking at a record $60/tonne in late November.

Narrowing wheat-corn spreads since December have particularly boosted French wheat exports within the EU. The French harvest this year  low in quality but high in volumes  meant the country's product was less competitive globally, with higher-quality milling and feed grades coming out of the Black Sea, Australia, Argentina and India. This left the country with a sizeable export surplus that needed to be redirected to alternative destinations.

French wheat exports to the EU totaled nearly 600,000 tonnes in December, their highest for the month since 2006. This was as large corn buyers, including the Netherlands and Belgium, have turned to French wheat supply.

France's wheat exports to the EU have been strong since the start of this season, totalling 3.67 million tonnes in July-December, up from 2.63 million tonnes last year and their highest for the period since 2017-18. All key buyers in the EU, except for Italy, stepped up their purchases of French wheat on the year.

In comparison, France's non-EU exports have risen at a slower rate on the year, surpassing those to the EU by just 806,000 tonnes  the narrowest spread since 2017-18.

As the EU turns to feed wheat, its corn imports globally continue to decline, totaling 9.79 million tonnes so far in 2021-22, down from 10.28 million tonnes last year and their lowest for the period since 2016-17.

- Argus
SCHOOL heads yesterday said they had approached the High Court to challenge the suspension of all educators who have not been reporting for work citing incapacitation.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure said the challenge had already been filed at the High Court.

The matter will be heard tomorrow (today) before High Court judge Justice Fatima Chakapamambo Maxwell, Masaraure said.

Zimbabwe Union of School Heads secretary-general Munyaradzi Majoni told NewsDay that headmasters and teachers were also being constantly victimised by the Primary and Secondary Education ministry.

Majoni said five school heads in the Midlands and Mashonaland West provinces had been served with suspension letters.

Last week, Primary and Secondary Education minister Evelyn Ndlovu threatened to suspend all headmasters and teachers that were not reporting for duty.

This was after school heads joined teachers who declared incapacitation, while demanding pre-October 2018 salary of US$540.

We have received threats from the education ministry. This should not be the case since our grievances are directed to the Public Service ministry, who is our employer, Majoni said.

Even if they victimise school heads, it remains unfair because we are not the ones who instructed teachers to go on strike. We have received information to the effect that they have decided to suspend some of our members and we will be challenging this in court.

We are surprised at the lack of sincerity on the part of the employer because clearly these suspensions should not have been done at a time when salary negotiations are said to be in progress. We believe the suspensions are illegal and our competent courts will surely overturn them.

However, Primary and Secondary Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro denied allegations that the ministry was threatening school heads and teachers.

Our ministry provides inclusive, relevant and quality education for all Zimbabweans. We certainly do not provide threats, he said. Newsday




EIFAAC Symposium to be held in June in Killarney, Ireland

The 2022 European Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisory Commission (EIFAAC) Symposium will be hosted by Inland Fisheries Ireland and Ireland's Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in Killarney on June 20-21.

The rubric for the 31st symposium of the European Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisory Commission  the first since Dresden, Germany in September 2019  is "Advances in Technology, Stock Assessment and Citizen Science in an Era of Climate Change".

Four themes have been identified for the symposium relating to inland fish stock assessment, developments in freshwater fish monitoring technologies, assessing the impacts of climate change on freshwater fish and their habitats and the role of citizen science.

The fifth theme will focus on the pros and cons of traditional versus recirculation aquaculture systems.

Abstract submission is open for presenters until February 18. Notification of acceptance letters all be sent on March 25 and presenting authors will have until March 28 to register. The deadline for submission of manuscripts/presentations is June 13, one week before the symposium.

- Afloat




Thailand to assist swine farmers affected by African swine fever

Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives said it will propose business recovery plans to assist small-scale swine farmers affected by African swine fever (ASF), Pattaya Mail reported.

Chalermchai Sri-on, the Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister, assigned the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) to gather information about ASF outbreaks in the country.

The DLD is proposing the use of artificial insemination in swine production until the local swine industry stabilises and male breeder stocks recover.

The DLD is also planning to send "sentinel" piglets in areas where ASF have been detected to probe farm safety. The World Organization for Animal Health accepts the sentinel technique as a way to investigate of a contagion or condition is still prevalent in a given region.

The minister said Thailand does not need to import pork if prices remain at THB 180 (~US$5.57; THB 10 = US$0.31) per kg.

- Pattaya Mail




Bird flu detected among Tyson Foods' chickens

US government officials have detected highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu among 240,000 chickens at a farm in Fulton County, Kentucky state owned by Tyson Foods, Reuters reported.

China has imposed a ban on chicken imports from Kentucky. Last week, China and South Korea banned poultry purchases from Indiana state after bird flu was detected at a commercial turkey farm there.

Officials said it is Kentucky's first bird flu outbreak, adding that infected flock will be culled.

Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company is working with the government to prevent the disease from spreading and will increase safety measures at other local farms.

Mickelson said the outbreak will not lower Tyson Foods' chicken production levels.

Kentucky officials are awaiting test results for another suspected outbreak at a turkey farm in Webster County, Kentucky. The US Department of Agriculture said bird flu was detected among backyard flock of birds in Fauquier County, Virginia state, that have already been culled.

- Reuters
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, and U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline, detail $829 million in funding to upgrade a pair of locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi River during a January news conference from inside the lockhouse at the Peoria Lock and Dam on the Illinois River.
Elkhart, IN (46516)

Today

Thundershowers this afternoon following a period of morning rain. High 58F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low around 45F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Criticism has rained down on Catalan president Pere Aragones from different parts of the independence movement following the address he gave yesterday to assess the situation of the pro-independence cause, one year after the elections of February 14th, 2021. In response to the reproaches - which came from, among others, members of the government partner Junts, from leading pro-independence civil group, the ANC, as well as from exiled president Carles Puigdemont - the Catalan government spokeswoman Patricia Plaja noted today that criticisms were from political parties rather than from within the coalition government. However, she admitted that if the president was seeking to revive pro-independence unity and "the first reactions are criticism and reproaches" it is clear that "they are not contributing" and it shows the need to enter a new stage.

In Pere Aragones's speech from National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), he called on a frequently-divided independence movement to reestablish its unity and also spoke of last year's pardons of the pro-independence prisoners, not as a solution but as a first step in resolving the conflict. He demanded the state make proposals to move forward in the negotiations, including the withdrawal of the cases against Puigdemont and the other exiled politicians, in line with the ruling of the Council of Europe last June. In fact, among the first of the responses to the speech was a tweet from president Puigdemont, asking Aragones to show "respect for the political strategy of the exiles", referring to an op-ed article he wrote which was very forceful in this regard.

Specifically, in the article, the Catalan president in exile called for respect for all the defence strategies chosen by the various pro-independence politicians and demanded "equal respect for those who share the struggle for exile." Puigdemont wrote: "I ask that no one speaks for us, that they do not interfere in our strategy seeking shortcuts that we do not want. Four years of exile have strengthened us in the idea that the solution between Catalonia and Spain is political and is collective. That there are no personal solutions or solutions tailored to anyone". "Let my personal situation not be part of any agenda of the so-called dialogue table agreed by ERC and the Spanish government or any bilateral talks," wrote Puigdemont in the 2021 article. All this contrasts with the words spoken yesterday by president Aragones, who asserted that he would call on the Spanish state the withdraw the cases against the exiled politicians and the other pro-independence activists in exile.

"Lack of strong leadership"

In response to the Catalan president's speech, the secretary general of the Junts party, Jordi Sanchez, regretted that a year after the elections, Catalonia did not have a "strong leadership" nor a "government that sets a standard that allows the Catalan question to be on the table with the Spanish executive or in Europe". Interviewed on Catalunya Radio, he acknowledged that he shares the understanding of Aragones on the need to restore the unity of the pro-independence movement. However, he was critically of the absence of specifics in the Catalan president's proposal for unity of action to force the state to move, with no details given on how it should be done. "The most important thing is that he explains how he wants to do what he proposes," said Sanchez. He also took the opportunity to reiterate the need to find an alternative to the dialogue table, a year after the elections: "It is an obligation."

The strongest rejection of Pere Aragones's discourse came from the major pro-independence civil group, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), which stated in a press release it will not go along with the strategy proposed by the ERC lerader: "We will not take part in a unity of action and mobilization around the strategy proposed by the president of the Generalitat, which, moreover, has not been agreed via consensus process in any space. From the Assembly we totally disagree with asking for concessions from Spain at the dialogue table without preparing unilateral alternatives".

The organization chaired by Elisenda Paluzie believes that, on their own, the mobilization and unity of action which Aragones calls for will not be sufficient to force the state to agree on an independence referendum: "It is naive and takes us back to 2012." The ANC is angered that Aragones's speech also devalues everything that the 2017 referendum signified, which was held under a law passed by the Catalan Parliament: "The Catalan people have already voted and won unquestionably against the repressive force of an entire state," said the ANC.

Plaja: "They are not contributing"

Speaking after a meeting of the Catalan government this morning, spokesperson Patricia Plaja responded to these criticisms noting that they are limited to the parties and not the government, but she admitted that if the president called for unity and "the first reactions are criticism and reproaches" it is clear that there is a need to enter a new stage. However, Plaja denied that president Aragones was referring to any negotiations with the state on the situation of exiles, or on the pardons for the political prisoners in 2021.

As for Puigdemont's criticism, she clarified that Aragones in his address "defended the need to find a solution for the exiles"; she denied that there was any intention to negotiate on their behalf, and assured that the president had limited himself to saying that the prosecution of president Puigdemont and all the other exiles should be withdrawn. "The government wants an amnesty and is working to get it, it was not said that there would be negotiation or that there is negotiation. From here we express all respect to president Puigdemont from this Government", underlined Plaja.

"In time for dialogue"

The spokesperson insisted, in the line of president Aragones, in demanding that the Spanish government of Pedro Sanchez put forward specific political proposals. "When this government sat down at the negotiating table, it did so, making it very clear what the goals were," she stated, adding that the dialogue table must be isolated from the election calendar, given that the proximity of elections such as that held this weekend in Castilla y Leon has been a factor in delaying the meeting of the table. The government spokeswoman called on Spain to be courageous and to specify the date of the next meeting, which would be be the second to be held in a year since the Catalan elections. Plaja explained that there had been a commitment with the Spanish executive to call the dialogue table together at the beginning of the year, and she assured that the time frame still makes this possible: "February 15th is still the beginning of the year," she said.
Mr. Luke Avery Noblitt, 89 of Athens, AL Died Saturday, April 30, 2022 his Residence. He was born June 25, 1932 in Shelbyville, TN to Henry & Ruth Noblitt. He was a Member of Carriger Church of Christ, Retired from Northwest Airlines and a US Army Veteran. Graveside Services will be Mond
FILE - A woman dressed in period costume hands a trinket to a child during a parade dubbed "Tardy Gras," to compensate for a cancelled Mardi Gras due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Mobile, Ala., on May 21, 2021. Mobile, Alabamas first big parade of the Mardi Gras season is scheduled for Friday night.
Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) chief executive officer, Dr Tafataona Mahoso, who has served the organisation and its predecessor the Media and Information Commission (MIC) for almost two decades is set to retire at the end of March, CITE has established.

Described in some circles as Zimbabwes media hangman Mahoso (65) was unpopular with civic society and advocates for media freedom and plurality, who accused him of being used by the repressive Robert Mugabe regime to frustrate the growth of the media industry.

Mahoso was appointed chairman of the MIC in 2003 at the time the government was using the now-repealed draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) to silence private media and served until 2008 when he was removed from office following a court judgement that he was politically-biased.

He was later controversially reappointed to a Zimbabwe media board in October 2009.

During his tenure at MIC Mahoso was behind the closure of The Tribune and its sister newspaper The Weekend Tribune and was also accused of fighting to deny a licence to ANZ, publishers of the Daily News, which had been shut down by the government.

In 2010, during the coalition government era, the former Harare Polytechnic lecturer was controversially appointed ZMC chief executive.

ZMC, which has already started scouting for a new chief executive, confirmed Mahosos imminent exit from the commission.

Thats true, said ZMC chairperson, Professor Ruby Magosvongwe, adding Mahoso will be leaving in March month-end if all goes well.

Prof Magosvongwe said Mahoso who has been with the commission since its inception had already run his good race, adding it was time to inject new blood into the organisation considering the media industry keeps evolving.

Not that old people do not have what it takes, no, said Magosvongwe.

We are saying, we train, we develop, we pass on the baton and it carries on and on.

He is not being retired, he is going on retirement. He has always looked forward to retiring, even if you were to talk to him, he has always looked forward to it.

Magosvongwe added: We have engaged him on the subject from the time we got in as a board and he has always expressed willingness to go on retirement. Its only that the whole idea of institutional memory is critical. He has been at the helm which means he has been the one who holds the memory of the development of the entity from inception to where it is now.

In a recent vacancy notice, the ZMC board said it was seeking to recruit a holder of a Masters or Ph.D. degree in Journalism, Communication, or any other social science degree with at least 10 years of experience to lead the commission urging qualifying Zimbabweans to apply. Cite.org.zw
Following weeks of occupation that have paralyzed the nations capital and other cities throughout the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today invoked Canadas Emergencies Act to respond to the Freedom Convoy protests. The act grants the federal government additional temporary powers to deal with critical situations and has never been used since its creation in 1988. In a press conference Trudeau said he would use the Emergencies Act to reign in the protests through several methods  among which is an expansion of Canadas money-laundering laws to cover crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrency transactions.

Starting today, Canada will require that crowdfunding companies register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) and report suspicious payments. The government has also empowered banks to freeze funds they believe are being directed to "Freedom Convoy".

Were not using the Emergencies Act to call in the military, Trudeau said. His father, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, famously invoked the War Measures Act, the precursor to the Emergencies Act, to call in the Canadian Forces during the October Crisis in 1970.

The Guardian described convoy members' "trucks and cars [...] laying on their horns and snarling traffic" at all hours. Protesters have also been forcing their way into businesses while maskless despite mandates to the contrary. Outside of protesting in Ottawa and other cities throughout the country, the protestors have blocked critical border crossings between the US and Canada. The decision to invoke the Emergency Act comes shortly after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 11 people linked to the protest and seized their cache of guns and other weapons, according to the New York Times.

RCMP have provided a photo of their seizure. https://t.co/lL7QyqIrnN pic.twitter.com/AZZb5tr7CE  Anna Junker (@JunkerAnna) February 15, 2022

Funding for the protest has come from a variety of sources, including GoFundMe. Before the company suspended the Freedom Convoys campaign, it had raised more than $10 million CAD (approximately $7.88 million USD). GoFundMe refunded all donors after the company determined the campaign violated its terms of service. Since then, supporters of the Freedom Convoy have turned to other crowdfunding platforms, including GiveSendGo. On Sunday, the site was hacked and personal information of those who contributed to the campaign was leaked online. Analysis by extremism researcher Amarnath Amarasingam indicated that 56 percent of the donors who contributed to the campaign came from the US.

Once invoked, the Emergencies Act takes effect right away. However, the government must go to Parliament within seven days to obtain support for the action from both the House of Commons and Senate of Canada. If either body votes against the motion, the state of emergency is revoked. Trudeaus ruling Liberal Party does not control the majority of seats in the House of Commons and will need to obtain the support of at least one of the countrys other federal parties to pass the motion. The Emergencies Act also cannot be extended indefinitely.

Canada expanding anti-money laundering laws to capture crowdfunding platforms and crypto transactions. Freeland: "As of today, all crowdfunding platforms and the payment service systems they use must register with FINTRAC and they must report large and suspicious transactions."  Justin Ling (@Justin_Ling) February 14, 2022

I know people are frustrated. I hear it. You have the right to voice your frustration, even your anger at government policies, Trudeau said. But blocking streets and critical infrastructure, and depriving your neighbors of their freedom, is a totally different matter. Its time to stop.

In the more than two weeks since the Freedom Convoy descended on Ottawa, Canadas capital city has been blocked by trucks and cars that have made life for residents difficult. Those involved in the movement claim to be protesting vaccine passports and mandates, but theres those complaints have in many cases commingled with broadly anti-government sentiments.

James Bauder, the founder of Canada Unity, one of the organizations at the center of the protests, has said on Facebook that Justin Trudeau should be tried for treason. On its website, Canada Unity published a memorandum of understanding that demanded the Canadian government rescind all vaccine mandates or RESIGN their lawful positions of authority immediately. In a video he posted to social media, Bauder said it was his hope the MoU would persuade Canada's voting oversight agency to trigger an election  a power it constitutionally does not have. On February 8th, the group withdrew the document, stating at the time it did not want any unintended interpretations to continue.
Intel could soon announce a nearly $6 billion acquisition that would give its fledgling foundry business a boost, according to The Wall Street Journal. The chip giant is reportedly close to clinching a deal to purchase Israeli chip company Tower Semiconductor, and it could be announced sometime this week unless the talks suddenly fall apart.

Tower, which has a market value of around $3.6 billion, produces various types of chips for clients across industries, including automakers and medical and industrial equipment manufacturers. Its website shows that it has seven fabrication facilities located in Israel, Italy, the US and Japan making 6-inch, 8-inch and 12-inch chips. Tom's Hardware says the manufacturing processes it uses aren't cutting edge, but the chips it makes don't need the latest technologies anyway. Tower only needs to reliably and regularly generate large volumes of chips.

Before Tower, Intel was reported to be in talks to purchase the much larger chip manufacturer and AMD spinoff GlobalFoundries for around $30 billion. It didn't push through, however, and GlobalFoundries chose to pursue an initial public offering instead.

Intel launched its foundry services back in 2021 when it committed $20 billion to build two Arizona factories and explained that it will be run as its own business unit. Earlier this year, the company also revealed its plans to build a massive semiconductor facility in Ohio that it's hoping would become "the largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet." It will use the fabs in the complex to manufacture both its chips and chips for clients under its foundry services.

Update 02/15/22 4:13AM ET: Intel has announced that it has acquired Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion or $53 per share in cash. Company CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a statement: "Towers specialty technology portfolio, geographic reach, deep customer relationships and services-first operations will help scale Intel's foundry services and advance our goal of becoming a major provider of foundry capacity globally."
Uber and Lyft drivers in New York City are about to get a boost in their paychecks. Last week NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would increase its minimum driver pay rate for both Uber and Lyft, the second such move since 2018. Both ride hail apps will have to pay their NYC drivers a minimum of $1.161 per mile and $0.529 per minute, which amounts to roughly a 5.3 percent raise.

Its the first bit of good news for gig workers in one of the worlds most expensive cities in a while. NYC ride hail drivers have spent the past few years fighting for the right to unionize, which would allow them to bargain for better pay and workplace benefits. However, a union has yet to materialize despite numerous protests.

Uber, Lyft, and Via drivers are part of the largest private sector workforces in the state. They are the anchor in many neighborhoods and are majority immigrants of color working to transition out of poverty," said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a group that represents ride hail and taxi drivers in the city, in a statement . "We all know the price of basic needs, like bread and milk, have gone up, and, for drivers, so have operating costs, like fuel and repairs. This 5.3 percent raise will help thousands of families find security and give many the chance to live under better conditions.

The policy will go into effect on March 1, and impact an estimated 90,000 drivers in New York City, according to NY 1 .
OM Digital Solutions has unveiled the Micro Four Thirds OM-1, its first mirrorless camera since purchasing Olympus. It packs a new sensor and technology that gives it a big leap in performance over the last flagship Olympus models and could be the last Olympus-branded model you'll see.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the original OM film SLR, the OM-1 offers some big improvements over the E-M1 Mark III. That starts with the stacked, backside illuminate 20.4-megapixel Live MOS sensor with a "quad pixel" AF arrangement using four photodiodes per pixel. With the higher-speed readout and updated TruePic X processor, it can shoot RAW photos at speeds of up to 50 fps in electronic shutter mode with phase-detect autofocus enabled (with supported PRO series lenses), or 120 fps with AF locked.

OLYMPUS CORP.

With the stacked design, you'll also see far less rolling shutter when shooting in electronic mode. That's pretty important, because speeds go down considerably to 10 fps with the mechanical shutter. Unfortunately, you can only capture up to 139 RAW images at a time with the mechanical shutter, or just 96 RAW images in silent mode at 50 fps  less than 2 seconds of shooting. Those speeds are no doubt limited by OM's choice to use dual SD UHS-II card slots instead of something faster like CFexpress.

Though the OM-1 is mainly aimed at wildlife photographers, it can handle more detailed images as well with the High Res Shot mode. That allows you to capture 50-megapixel images handheld in just five seconds, or 80-megapixel images on a tripod. Other modes include live ND to simulate long exposures, HDR, and focus stacking, which delivers an image with everything in focus.

OLYMPUS CORP.

The AF is considerably improved in terms of AI smarts, as well. OM says that its latest face and eye-detect algorithms are much more responsive, and it now detects cars, airplane and trains on top of people, birds and animals. It also has a new subject tracking feature that's completely separate from face and eye detection.

The OM-1 looks to easily be OMD's best camera ever for video. You can now shoot 4K (UHD or DCI) at up to 60 fps, in either 8-bit H.264 or 10-bit H.265 modes (1080p at 240 fps). H.265 capture works either in OM-Log mode for improved dynamic range, or HLG mode for HDR work. Better still, the OM-1 can output 12-bit Apple ProRes RAW video at up to 60 fps to an Atomos Ninja V or Ninja V+ external recorder, supposedly without any subsampling (pixel binning).

OM Digital Systems

Other feature include 8 stops of in-body image stabilization with supported lenses (7 stops without), high-end build quality with an outstanding IP53 camera rating against dust, water, and freezing conditions, a redesigned menu system, 5.76 million dot 120 HZ electronic viewfinder and battery that delivers 520 shots on a charge (CIPA rated) and 90 minutes of video recording. It has a fully articulating 1.62 million dot rear display that should make this camera ideal for vlogging.

The OM-1 looks to be a strong rival to Panasonic's GH5-II Micro Four Thirds camera, offering faster shooting speeds and superior phase-detect autofocus, while even matching up well in terms of video for the first time. It remains to be seen how it will stack up against the upcoming Panasonic GH6, however, which is set to be launched on February 21st at 8PM ET.

The OM Digital's OM-1 is now available on pre-order for $2,200, with delivery set for early March. Olympus also unveiled a pair of new lenses, the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro II ($1,000) and the M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/4 PRO ($900).
San Francisco's wariness of Amazon might soon extend to the company's seemingly ubiquitous shipping network. Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton has introduced legislation that would impose an 18-month moratorium on new parcel delivery facilities in the city, whether from Amazon or others. Officials at the Board or the Planning Commission would use the pause to study the potential impact these locations have on the community, including health issues (like air pollution and traffic) and the overall public interest.

In a statement, the Teamsters and other unions backing the measure were concerned companies like Amazon would drag down pay, benefits and working conditions for the city. The proposed moratorium would help communities "set the standards" and decide if they want these facilities in the first place, Walton added.

The effort comes after San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development signed a January memorandum of understanding with Amazon to start negotiations for a Mission Creek delivery hub without informing or involving the community. These sorts of agreements are common, but Walton saw this as Amazon trying to enter the city without input from the very people its facility would affect.

There's no certainty the legislation will pass. It's also unclear how Walton and the Board would use any determination that Amazon and other delivery services' facilities would harm San Francisco residents.

We've asked Amazon for comment. The company has faced similar opposition in other parts of California, and backed out of plans for a second headquarters in New York City following criticism. Activists and politicians raised concerns about possible gentrification in New York, the city's $3 billion in proposed subsidies and Amazon's overall practices. Amazon has also been a staunch opponent of unionization, setting up a confrontation with increasingly pro-union workers and the politicians who support them.

Update 2/17 2:35PM ET: Amazon said it started engaging San Francisco in the delivery hub process with a town hall in November, and that more meetings are planned this year. It also promised to use the 18 to 24 months before construction to listen to the community, and maintained it was operating within the city's planning system. The company also touted its contributions to food security, anti-hate and arts groups. While the claims theoretically address transparency, they don't touch on some of the core concerns  that pay, health and working conditions would drop.
Because broad appeal movies the likes of Spider-Man: No Way Home didn't exactly fit the mold for what Hollywood deems an exceptional work of cinematic brilliance, people complained, as they often do. Director Kevin Smith, for example, took to one of his many podcasts, namely Fat Man on Batman, to unleash his ire on the Academy,

"What the f*ck? They got 10 slots, they can't give one to the biggest fucking movie of like the last three years? Man, and they're like, 'Why won't anyone watch this show?' Like fucking make a populist choice, f*ck, man. You got how many slots? Throw in Spider-Man for god's sakes. Let him swing in there. Fucking poor kid's always getting crapped on and shit, show Peter Parker some f*cking love. I'm not even being facetious, with as many movies as they have nominated for best picture..."

Mind you, Spider-Man did get a nomination for Best Visual Effects, a category relegated for big-budget flicks for the most part.

In a bid to appease the masses who might have felt snubbed by the Oscars when their favorite tentpole blockbuster movie didn't get a nod for this year's consideration, the Academy has decided to create a fan-favorite category which anyone with a Twitter account can participate in. From February 14th through March 3rd people will be allowed to vote on films they want to see win by simply Tweeting the film's title with #OscarsFanFavorite and #Sweepstakes. Fans are allowed to do this up to 20 times a day through Twitter or The Academy website. The winning picture will get announced during the show, and the winner of the sweepstakes will win an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to present the award next year at the show.

Maryl Johnson, the Academy's vice president of digital marketing said this about the change,

"We're thrilled to partner with Twitter to help build an engaged and excited digital audience leading up to this year's ceremony. The Oscars are an opportunity to bring people around the world together through their shared movie love, and through these activities social media users around the world now have more opportunities to engage with the show in real-time, find a community and be a part of the experience in ways they've never been able to before."

Or you just ripped off American Idol.

We have a solution, rather than sully a time-honored show, which, don't get us wrong, has its faults, create new categories such as Blockbluster, Comedy, Horror, ect... This Award is voted on by peers in the industry, not by the masses, and not for nothing, most of these actors, directors, and producers bridge the gap by, say, doing a quiet little think piece and immediately turn around to be in a slam bang Marvel flick.

(Also, the internet trolls are going to come out of the woodwork to try and sabotage this endeavor.)

The Oscars need to evolve away from the old boy network, recognize excellence where it exists, and grow with the public consciousness. But just try to keep it classy, Hollywood.
Money is edging toward its biggest reinvention in centuries. Modern technology and even the coronavirus pandemic are pushing consumers to go cashless, and with alternative concepts like Bitcoin taking hold, central banks are acting quickly to ensure they dont fall behind. Their promise is a payment system that is safer, more resilient and cheaper than private alternatives. The central banks of the Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union and Nigeria have already become pioneers in central bank digital currency, or CBDC, while China, the euro area and others are experimenting in the field. The U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of England, meanwhile, are proceeding far more cautiously.

1. What would central bank digital money be like?

Not so different, at least on the surface, from keeping electronic money in a bank account and using cards, smartphones or apps to send that bank money into the world. The key difference is that central bank-provided money -- like cash -- is a risk-free asset. For example, a physical dollar bill is always worth one dollar. A dollar in a commercial bank account, while in theory convertible into paper cash on demand, is subject to that banks solvency and liquidity risks, meaning consumers might not always be able to access it, or could even lose it on rare occasions. CBDCs, like banknotes and coins, would be the direct liability of the central bank.

2. How would this change payments?

CBDCs could come in more than one form, but one goal of all of them would be to make payments happen faster. In the current system, commercial banks settle their net payments with one another using central bank money, but this process is typically not instantaneous for technological and operational reasons, and therefore opens up a credit risk during the duration of the settlement.

3. What does this have to do with cryptocurrencies?

Aside from the potential technological design, not much. CBDCs are conceptually different from a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, which is too volatile to be a store of value and insufficiently widely accepted to be useful for payments. Bitcoin is more in the realm of a speculative asset. A key appeal among Bitcoins supporters is its decentralization, meaning theres no central party that controls it, with transactions recorded on a publicly distributed ledger. CBDCs are controlled by a central bank. While some countries are experimenting with either full or partial use of distributed ledger technology, known as blockchain, for their CBDCs, its not a given that they will ultimately use it. The European Central Bank, for instance, has raised concerns about the environmental footprint of running a parallel blockchain infrastructure, and already has another system which it launched in 2018 that could be more suitable.

4. What are the different kinds of CBDCs?

There are two main tracks: wholesale and retail. In retail projects, CBDCs would be issued through what would effectively be accounts at a central bank for the general public -- or accounts at commercial banks working with the central bank. A CBDC-based system has no credit risk: funds are not on the balance sheet of an intermediary, and transactions are settled directly and instantly on the central banks balance sheet. A retail approach could be particularly helpful for consumers who dont have access to traditional banking services. Some countries, such as Denmark, have ruled that out, however, as it could leave banks vulnerable to depositors potentially fleeing to central bank accounts. Other central banks have said they will impose upper limits on holdings to prevent such financial stability risks. In wholesale projects, access to the digital currency would be limited to banks and other institutions to make payment flows within the existing financial system faster and cheaper, but with less disruption to the sectors overall structure.

5. Whos trying this?

According to the IMF, some 100 countries are at varying stages of CBDC exploration. India surprised the payments world by announcing that its central bank will issue a digital rupee as early as the coming financial year, while China rolled out its digital yuan to athletes and spectators before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to test its appeal among foreigners. Some of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean that share a central bank have already launched their own digital currency, DCash. That was expanded to St. Vincent and the Grenadines last year after a volcano eruption forced thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes, and the roll-out was seen as an important part of rebuilding efforts.

6. Whos not?

The Fed, for one, has been slow to warm to the idea of a digital currency, but it recently took a key step by publishing a 35-page discussion paper in which it outlined a series of potential benefits. Still, it made no firm conclusions on whether issuing such a currency was prudent and in any case said it wouldnt proceed without support from the White House and Congress. The Bank of Canada has also not found a pressing case for a digital currency yet, but continues to build the technical capacity to issue a CBDC, and monitor developments that could increase its urgency.

7. What would the advantages be?

If central banks can surmount the technical difficulties, digital currencies could allow for faster and cheaper money transfers within economies and across borders. They could also improve access to legal tender in countries where cash supplies are dwindling. An IMF paper said the new currencies could boost financial inclusion in places where private financial institutions find it unprofitable to operate, and generate more resilience in regions prone to natural disasters. ECB President Christine Lagarde has argued that a digital euro could become particularly important amid a rise in protectionist policies if these led to a disruption of Europes predominantly foreign payment services. For China, a digital currency offers a possible way to keep up with and control a rapidly digitizing economy. On the other hand, it could also give the government an extra tool for surveillance.

8. What are other downsides?

The risks of getting this wrong are significant, which is why most central bankers have to date trod with caution. Depending on the model of CBDC, central banks risk either cutting out commercial banks, a vital funding source for the real economy, or assuming the direct risks and complications of banking for the masses. Problems in managing a business thats new to them could undermine the public trust that they count on to let them pursue occasionally unpopular actions like interest-rate hikes. Also, some researchers have expressed doubts about whether current blockchain technology would be able to support a large volume of simultaneous transactions. A Peoples Bank of China official said its research showed that Bitcoins blockchain capacity fell well below peak demand, on Chinas 2018 Singles Day shopping gala, of 92,771 transactions a second. Other studies have found that Ethereum handles an average of 15 transactions a second, while Visa Inc.s network can handle 24,000.

Carolynn Look

:bloomberg.com
Reigniting its travel recovery efforts in India, South African Tourism launched its More & More campaign today. Localized for Indian audiences, this campaign aims to highlight the variety and diversity of experiences that South Africa has to offer, ranging from 3000+ adventure activities to exciting culinary experiences and more, across its 9 provinces.

The campaign  that will be live until 31st March 2022  is slated to have multiple roll-out legs to it, starting with OOH advertising in Mumbai and Delhi. This will be complemented by digital activations across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, as well as on-ground physical consumer and corporate activations in Mumbai and Delhi.

South African Tourism, Hub Head  Middle East, India and South-East Asia, Neliswa Nkani said, Having a constant finger on the pulse of Indian travellers has made us sure of one thing  when on vacation, they want to experience it all! They could be wine connoisseurs one day, and history buffs the next. South Africa is a perfect match since we offer the best of the world in one place. From shark-cage diving and glamping to serene wellness retreats, we want Indian thrill-seekers to keep coming back for More & More.

As we re-initiate marketing efforts, we look forward to working more closely with our partners in India and South Africa, towards sustained growth and collaborative recovery, she continued.

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
Misra, who has steered MSL India for more than eight years, will now drive MSLs growth in the South East Asia markets

Publicis Groupe today announced the appointment of Amit Misra as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MSL South East Asia, in addition to his current role as CEO, MSL South Asia.

As part of his expanded responsibilities, Misra will drive MSLs growth in the South East Asia markets, leading a team of 100 colleagues across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, along with 450 colleagues across 8 offices in South Asia. The elevation is in line with Publicis Groupes vision of fostering entrepreneurship within Groupes strategic priorities.

Misra, who has steered MSL India for more than eight years, will work to drive Publicis Groupes Power of One solutions in the South East Asian markets.

Amit joined MSL India in 2013 and took over the India operations as CEO in 2015. Under his leadership, MSL India became a key contributor to Publicis South Asias growth, doubling revenues and emerging as the most awarded PR firm in India with 15 Agency of the Year wins. MSL Indias strong growth in recent years has been driven by its integrated communications offerings and it will continue to be the focus of the business under Amits leadership in South East Asia.

MSL Indias success story, helmed by Amit, has been given shape by a robust leadership team. The team was restructured recently, with a number of key promotions to reinforce MSLs commitment in strategic growth areas.

Tushar Bajaj  Managing Director, Organic by MSL, Nikhil Lodaya  COO, MSL India, Vaishnavi Murali  COO, PCA, Parveez Modak  Managing Director, Strategy Group, Glen DSouza  Managing Director, Media and Network Group, and Schubert Fernandes  Chief Client Officer. Amit will continue to work closely with the leadership team towards MSLs expansion in the South Asia markets.

Speaking on Amits appointment,Amrita Randhawa said, Amit has taken MSL to greater heights year on year in India and South Asia. Amit leading the mandate for two regions will further leverage the Publicis Groupes Power of One model, with MSL being a true powerhouse offering scale and depth of services to our clients. I have no doubt that MSL South East Asia will reach unprecedented heights with Amits leadership.

Margaret Key added, I am thrilled to have Amit join the APAC region in his expanded role. A respected industry leader, he has a deep understanding of these markets and has a proven track record of innovation and growth in the region. With his appointment, two strategic geographies in Asia have come together thereby unlocking incredible opportunities for MSL. I look forward to working closely with him.

Amit Misrasaid, At MSL, we get together the best of technology, content, creativity and digital prowess to deliver transformative ideas for our clients. MSLs journey in South Asia over the last few years has been enriching and exhilarating at the same time and I look forward to taking my learnings to the expanded role. This is a tremendous opportunity to create interesting synergies across geographies from the perspective of our clients and talent and I remain excited about our growth in Asia.

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday warned Cabinet ministers against globetrotting with no tangible results at a time when the country faces an economic meltdown, with millions swimming in deep poverty.

Mnangagwa, who was addressing ministers at the first 2022 Cabinet meeting at the State House yesterday, said endless foreign jaunts with a bloated entourage by his ministers had become a worrisome trend.

Last week, Mnangagwa forced Cabinet ministers, heads of State-owned entities and parastatals to sign performance contracts in a bid to enhance accountability and good governance.

Against the backdrop of the signing of performance contracts last week, let us increase our work rate towards being a more successful government. Individually and collectively, we have a sacred obligation to press on for more, better results, he said.

In the same vein, I hope that invitations for me to officiate at the various events of your ministries will, this year, be submitted in time. Lastly, I have observed a worrisome trend where, as ministers, you are now prone to foreign travel, along with your senior officials. This unbecoming culture should stop forthwith.

Mnangagwas government has, on several occasions, been criticised for living lavish lifestyles at a time when the majority of citizens are wallowing in poverty.

Despite the rhetoric on austerity, government has been spending millions of taxpayers money on controversial projects such as hiring four top-notch international public relations organisations to facelift the countrys battered image, in addition to numerous travels.

Last year, Mnangagwa made headlines after he took with him more than 100 people to the 26th edition of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, including family members, friends and Zanu PF youths on taxpayers funds.

Mnangagwa reportedly hired a private jet from former Soviet Republic Azerbaijan at a reported cost of US$1 million to travel to the summit, which critics described as unnecessary extravagance.

After coming to power on the back of a coup at the end of 2017, Mnangagwa has drawn public criticism over his love for foreign travel  all undertaken in luxury private jets.

A few months after he was elected into office, Mnangagwa blew millions of State funds on visits to Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Switzerland, among other countries.

Cabinets workflow should be more predictable so that we focus more on the implementation of policies and programmes. You are all required to ensure that your proposals are submitted in time to enable Cabinet to deliberate on the matter more robustly, he said as he presided over the ministers performance contracts last week.

Observers yesterday dismissed Mnangagwas statements on foreign travels as a bluff and a gimmick to hoodwink the unsuspecting public.

Former Finance minister and Citizens Coalition for Change vice-president Tendai Biti accused Mnangagwa of dishonesty.

It is deceit and lies. No Cabinet minister travels out of the country without Cabinet approval and its Mnangagwa who issues Cabinet approval. No minister travels out of the country without the approval of the President. This is just a statement full of dishonesty because Mnangagwa is the one who signs the approvals for the trip, he said.

Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development programmes manager John Maketo said citizens should be worried over ministers foreign jaunts with no return on investment.

It should not only worry the President, but all citizens when ministers are gallivanting and globe-trotting in huge numbers. Ministers should travel where necessary and there should be accountability on their travels, Maketo said.

There must be a return on investment on the travels. We want to see results that benefit the general public. It is very unfortunate that most of the travel is not bearing fruit when taxpayers money is spent.

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget and Finance chairperson Mathew Nyashanu said most foreign travel by government officials was unnecessary.

While foreign travel is necessary for appreciation of best practices across the globe through benchmarking exercises and for research and development, some of the travels by government officials is extremely wasteful and unnecessary, he said.

This is bleeding an already burdened fiscus. The Presidents comment is in line with the ongoing Public Finance Management reforms, where we are trying to tighten screws on public expenditure. We are in the process of strengthening our Public Finance Management in order to reduce such leakages. Newsday
Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Seek Out and Pitch to Book Clubs

Book clubs rarely pay top dollar, but they buy books (at a deep discount), pay you quickly, and dont return them. There are general interest, lifestyle, special interest, and professional clubs.

Savvy authors seek out book clubs. Your local bookstores often are suppliers of books for themdo the ask. Libraries are excellent resources to identify them as are Meetup groups.

Let the Internet do the walking for you. In the search box, start with online book clubs _________then add your city, or state, or you could add fiction or nonfiction. You could add childrens books or a genre. The key is to search  let your eyes and fingers do the walking for you. Here are a few you should explore:

OnlineBookClub.com

BookSpan.com

Dont forget companies. Dont be surprised to discover that departments within companies may have their own book clubs.

If you are doing any consulting or speaking, just ask your contact. A few years ago, I visited a friend at a Denver hospital. In just chatting with one of the nurses, I discovered that not only did the leadership team get together monthly to discuss a book  but guess what? My book, Stabotage! How to Deal with the Pit Bulls, Skunks, Snakes, Scorpions and Slugs in the Health Care Workplace, was featured the previous month, meaning that 43 copies were bought for participants! Where did they buy them? On Amazon. The manager had no idea I was a local author!

Many bookstores work with local book clubs. Identify who the contact person is at your local bookstore to determine if there are any clubs that might be a fit for your book and then reach out.

When at events, ask book buyers if they belong to any clubs. If yes, ask them to suggest you and your book as a monthly offering. Or, for the contact person that you could call. Let them know that you are available in-person and online to meet with the group.

HUGE TIP: Include a Book Club Discussion page at the end of your book and on your website. Include questions, dilemmas and situations to generate conversation. Invite the club members to set up a Zoom or Skype call with you. Make sure you include your contact information on the website Contact page as well as on your Speaking tab.

Dr. Judith Briles is a book publishing expert and coach. Often, she must roll up her writing sleeves and become a Book Doctor, juicing up storylines and author words. She empowers authors and works directly with authors who want to be seriously successful and has been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 37 books including Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms, Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers, and How to Create a $1,000,000 Speech. Her personal memoir When God Says NO-Revealing the YES When Adversity and Loss Are Present is a #1 bestseller on Amazon. Collectively, her books have earned over 45 book awards. Judith speaks throughout the year at publishing conferences.

Throughout the year, she holds Judith Briles Book Unplugged in-person and online experiences: Publishing, Speaking, Marketing, and Social Media. All are two-day intensives limited to a small group of authors who want to be seriously successful. Join Judith live for the AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast on the Toginet Radio Network HERE.

Follow @AuthorUYOUBooks and @MyBookShepherd on Twitter and do a Like at AuthorYOU, and join the Facebook group Book Publishing with The Book Shepherd. If you want to create a book that has no regrets, contact her.

2022 Judith Briles  The Book Shepherd All Rights Reserved.
Russian Blitzkrieg

From a military strategy perspective Russia is at the cusp of invading Ukraine in the near future. Present-day the Russian military mobilization encircling Ukraine is past the point of no return for demobilization with the date of invasion solely up to Vladimir Putin and his generals.

One possible invasion date is after the winter Olympics' closing ceremonies in China on February 20 so as not to "overshadow" Putin's newest "best friend" in President Xi. It's simply "professional courtesy" between the newly closely aligned autocrats.

Despite US and western defensive weaponry arriving in Ukraine, it's too little, too late to effectively defend against Russian might & firepower.

Because Putin needs a swift and decisive military victory, I expect an aggressive thrust from Belarus to Kyiv, the shortest route to the Ukrainian capital. The capture of the capital "decapitates" the ability Ukrainian government and military command to effectively coordinate the defense of other regions. Ironically this strategy may force the Ukrainian government to surrender far sooner than later to spare lives.

Escape From Kyiv

According to mainstream media and blogger articles Kyiv residents don't seem to have any departure plans in place as the Russian buildup continues. It seems as if they're far less prepared to evacuate present-day than those residents near Chernobyl in 1986 after the unexpectedly sudden nuclear accident.

For this reason the Russians might occupy the capital with most of its citizenry in situ. It remains to be seen whether the Russian military command has orders to allow civilians to flee west via a narrow escape corridor or under lockdown in the city until further notice.

The Russian decision will be political and strategic. Keeping Kyiv citizens means assuming a caretaker responsibility to feed those citizens. Allowing whoever wants to leave westward releases them from any humanitarian duties and deliberately floods European countries with refugees, specifically the bordering EU countries of Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

The link to the following chart entitled Ukraine: The Crisis on the Verge of Catastrophe provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, presents the grim humanitarian consequences of a conflict:

Contingent on the duration and intensity of the conflict this crisis could easily become far worse than the projected 3.45 million displaced Ukrainians. Furthermore, European countries beyond those bordering Ukraine are ill-equipped and stretched to provide adequate food and shelter.

European Socio-Political Firestorm

The political battle to establish priorities as to which refugees will receive care will be heated perhaps with the unofficial practice of a tiered ethnic/racial system based on Christian Europeans, Christian non-Europeans and then Muslims.

Unable to return to their homes because they were destroyed or fear political persecution, many Ukrainians might remain elsewhere in Europe for at least the medium term, perhaps longer. There might be enough political pressure to accept Ukrainian refugees elsewhere such as Canada and the US.

The shock to the system is the sudden displacement of upwards of 3.45 million Ukrainians already in Europe is considerably different than the piecemeal arrival of smaller groups of non-European refugees over many years.

The link to the following chart entitled The Biggest Humanitarian Crisis of 2021 provided by the United Nations represents the current state of affairs with respect to humanitarian assistance worldwide. This chart will undergo considerable revision once the Russians invade.

The Humanitarian Hellscape

Reports of the Russian military build-up does not mention any equipment or facilities beyond the mobile military hospitals that could assist internally displaced Ukrainian refugees, only to support Russian armed forces casualties. This seems to run counter to Putin's narrative of stating that Ukraine is an artificial country and for that reason that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. Yet through deliberate gross negligence the Russian government may fail to provide for their basic needs and human rights post-invasion and during occupation.

Although there has been discussion amongst EU countries with respect to handling a refugee crisis from Ukraine, there has been far less humanitarian mobilization than Russian war mobilization. This proportional lack of effort and preparation will only exacerbate a brutal problem.

With respect to the international donor community, the 2022 UN Refugee Agency (UN HCR) Refugee Global Appeal for Ukraine is $22.5 million as of 8 February 2022 with only 8% funded. Despite the looming conflict Ukraine donations are a tough sell because Ukraine is considered a middle-income country whose citizenry have more economic resources that those from Afghanistan and Yemen whose fund-raising targets are $5 billion and $1.7 billion respectfully.

The Viral Contagion

Throughout human history disease runs rampart during wartime regardless of medical advancements. The conflict in Ukraine is a matter of exceptionally bad timing because Ukraine and Russia have one of the lowest European vaccination rates hovering at 40%.

Imagine how those rates will explode and spiral out of control not only with the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing to nearby European countries and perhaps outside Europe like Canada and the US.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) neither Ukraine nor Russia is on track to reach the WHO's mid-2022 70% vaccination goal. The link to the following chart entitled 122 Countries on Track to Miss Covid-19 Vaccine Goal provided by Our World in Data indicates the global vaccination state of affairs.

Hijacking Human Rights

Conquests by dictatorships and autocratic governments do not work out well for the conquered who are always subject to the same or worse repressive treatment as the conqueror's own citizenry.

There have been numerous anecdotal stories of human rights abuses and political persecution in the pro-Russian Donbas region and targeted population in Crimea anecdotal. One released prisoner commented, "This is not the Soviet prisons of the 1950s and 1960s, rather of the 1930s and 1940s."

Jingoistic Justification | The Virtual Curtain

Russia's new Iron Curtain won't be the physically imposingly garish Soviet built wall, rather a Virtual Curtain. Putin's narrative will be disseminated by his sophisticated propaganda public relations hacker army based everywhere worldwide. This includes the unknowing cooperation of his Fifth Column, the woke group in western societies, to legally mute anti-Russian opinion and policies.

Putin is deploying on a large scale his array of poisons, literal and figurative, whether to targeted individuals or propaganda poisons domestically and internationally through the injection of noxious narratives.

Putin believes that a divisive and indecisive US and its allies do not represent an effective antidote. For this reason Putin is gambling that Russia is sufficiently "inoculated" against harsher and more comprehensive US sanctions should he invade Ukraine.

Notwithstanding autocracies are inherently brittle and those who engage in over-reach inevitably crumble in the worst way because their brief dominance is often driven by a strong man's greed and ego which have no checks & balances.

 Copyright 2022 Cerulean Council

The Cerulean Council is a NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarian perspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urban security.
Whether you grill, boil or roast, its really hard to mess up a hot dog. But bratwurst? This kind of sausage is trickier, and chances are, youre cooking your brats wrong.

Bratwurst is a sausage typically made with pork, or sometimes veal, or a combination of both, with roots in Germany. It is also the signature dish of Wisconsin. Brat translates as to go without waste in German, and, of course wurst means sausage.

Express Newsletters Get the latest news, sports and food features sent directly to your inbox.

Here in South Texas, were more familiar with other types of sausage that rely on mixtures that usually include grinds of pork shoulder loaded with spices and smoked, so theyre mostly, if not entirely, cooked. An hour or so of reheating and theyre done.

But the bratwurst requires a lot more love than its cousins because it doesnt go through that smoking process, meaning its up to you to actually cook it.

In the absence of experience, we often turn to the internet for information. But the internet is wrong. A lot. Ive cooked hundreds of brats, and heres how to get the best out of bratwurst.

On ExpressNews.com: Rising beef, meat prices could close small Texas barbecue restaurants

Donts

William Luther / Staff photographer]

Dont use seasoning: Bratwurst links are traditionally loaded with high-power flavors like nutmeg, ginger, caraway and plenty of salt. If you add anything else, its too much.

Dont cook in beer: Bratwursts are associated with beer the same way peanut butter is with jelly. But instead of cooking them in it, which is widely popular, youre best off simply drinking the beer. I have never eaten a brat that showcases any flavor of the beer.

Dont pierce the skin: A piping-hot brat is full of juice that can sting a bit if it hits your face. To avoid that, the internet recommends piercing the links before cooking to allow the grease and juice to drain. This is totally wrong. It creates brats as dry as the Sahara desert.

Dont buy precooked brats: Yes, you can buy precooked brats. You can also buy roast beef in a can. Precooked brats are rubbery and evil. Just say no.

Dos

William Luther / Staff photographer

Do flatten the curve: Brats typically come in a crescent moon-style shape, with a serious curve to them. Its fine, I guess, if you arent picky, but they dont work well in a bun. Flatten them before cooking by giving them a meat chiropractic adjustment with your hands or weighting them down with a heavy pan.

Upgrade your bread: You will be tempted to use a standard hot dog bun. Dont. Instead, get bigger buns, either from a local bakery or grocery store, that have a good, thick crust to it  often labeled as bolillos  and slice them yourself. It takes five seconds with a proper bread knife to cut them properly.

Sauerkraut: Going back to those German roots, I highly recommend sauerkraut as a topping for brats that have been grilled or smoked. I have tried multiple brands and found a winner in Libbys Crispy Sauerkraut. You can buy a 32-ounce jar for less than $2. Warm it in a saucepan for 15 minutes over high heat and youre ready to party.

Best way to cook brats

Brats are equally good grilled or smoked. Grilling gives them a nice char and some charcoal bite, while smoking brats will cook them more evenly and add that smoke flavor.

To grill brats: Load the grill with charcoal, and cook the brats directly over the hot coals once they burn down to orange and develop some ash. Cook them for about 10 minutes, rotating often.

To smoke brats: Use oak or pecan for a South Texas flavor. Get the temperature to about 250 degrees, and the brats should be ready in about two hours.

Wisconsin brat tub method: This is my favorite way to cook brats. Its an easy way to cook several brats at once, with the sausage and toppings stewing away in a sauce that delivers a punch of acidity.

Place the brats in a large aluminum foil pan with about 32 ounces of plain tomato sauce, 1 cup of water, two sliced bell peppers (I like a mix of red and green) and one sliced white onion. Add your brats (no more than 12). They should be mostly submerged.

Place the tub in an oven or smoker set to 300 degrees and for cook one hour, flipping the brats halfway through. At the end, youll have fully cooked brats and delicious toppings ready for eating.

cblount@express-news.net | Twitter: @chuck_blount | Instagram: @bbqdiver
Allora, the new upscale Italian restaurant at the Pearl, has set a March 2 opening date.

The latest project to emerge from the rattle and hum of restaurant construction at the Pearl, Allora will open exclusively with dinner service to begin with. Lunch and brunch hours will begin soon after.

The dinner menu from chef Robbie Nowlin encompasses antipasti and salad dishes, sashimi-grade seafood crudi options, handmade pastas and entrees including scampi, mussels, grilled swordfish, rabbit, quail and steak.

On ExpressNews.com: One of San Antonios most anticipated new Italian restaurants Arrosta near the Pearl sets opening date

The project from restaurateur Peter Selig (Maverick Texas Brasserie, Acenar, Biga on the Banks) also includes a full cocktail bar and a Europe-centric wine list.

Alloras debut will come just two weeks after its more casual sister concept Arrosta opened Monday just a block away at the Oxbow Building on Broadway. It is serving a casual breakfast and lunch menu of baked goods, roasted meats, quiches, salads, wine, beer and more.

Allora, 403 Pearl Parkway at the Credit Human Building at the Pearl, allorapearl.com. Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

On ExpressNews.com: Mike Sutters Top 10 most anticipated new San Antonio restaurant openings of 2022

msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking | Instagram: @fedmanwalking
An Austin home builder had only one suggestion when his friend Al Silva was considering buying a 1930s-era Atlee B. Ayres house in Terrell Hills several years ago: knock it down and start from scratch.

The home hadnt been updated in decades. Beside the linoleum floors and tiny, pink kitchen, it still had single-pane windows and drafty doors.

Worse, it relied on window air conditioning units  painted avocado green, no less  to cool things down. Renovating it, the friend warned, would be very costly.

None of that dissuaded Silva.

On ExpressNews.com: $2.1 million Texas Hill Country home has wine cellar, vineyard

I love its architecture, the way it flows, said Silva, a retired food distribution industry executive who lived across the house for years. It was just one of those feelings you get when you walk in.

Plus, it was an Atlee B. Ayres house. One of the most influential architects who ever worked in San Antonio, Ayres was involved in more than 500 projects over his 70-year career. These included the Atkinson-McNay House (which now houses the McNay Art Museum), Freeman Coliseum and the Smith-Young Tower (now the Tower Life Building) downtown.

Standing at the top of a crest off Canterbury Hill, the house is a handsome mix of classic Spanish/Mexican architecture with a white stucco exterior, a red clay tile roof, arched windows and a Juliet balcony off a second-floor window.

Rather than raze the house, Silva called in Lori Urbano, owner of San Antonio-based Urbano Design and Build, whose portfolio includes the former firehouse that is now Battalion Restaurant on South Alamo Street and Rebelle in the St. Anthony hotel downtown.

Urbano Design and Build

Together, Silva and Urbano set out to restore the four-bedroom, 3 -bath house to its former glory and beyond. The goal was to preserve and refresh original features, but also modernize the interior with elements that still looked historically appropriate. That entailed enlarging and updating the kitchen and building a completely new owners suite.

We tried to things the way we imagined Ayres would, Silva said. Lori told me, You need to become Ayres, Al. 

Silva declined to disclose the budget for the seven-month project, which was completed in November, and would only say that, once they decided to do things the Atlee B. Ayres way, his original estimate doubled.

Ayres love of Spanish and Mexican architecture is apparent throughout the house, beginning in the foyer where strikingly large wood beams trace the ceiling, each one bookended by decorative brackets. All original, the beams needed only to be cleaned and restained. Urbano complemented the look by adding similar beams in the dining room located to the left of the foyer.

Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer

On the other side of the foyer, the living room remains mostly the same, its tall cathedral ceiling and support beams requiring only to be restained and resealed. With a large, circular chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a fireplace decorated with handpainted tiles Urbano found in California, the room has the feel of a Spanish mission.

Initially, Silva and Urbano planned simply to remodel the existing house. But they soon realized that, since there were only three small upstairs bedrooms, they needed to build a new owners wing with a separate bathroom, bedroom and walk-in closet.

Al said, Design something that goes with the house. So I did.

Connected to the living room by a short, windowed hallway that on one side opens to the central courtyard, the bedroom has a 16-foot cathedral ceiling with heavy, custom wood beams and trusses that have the same distressed look as those in the foyer. Large windows on either side let in plenty of natural sunlight.

On ExpressNews.com: In a historic King William mansion renovation, couple tackles much of the labor themselves with new kitchen, resurfaced walls

The bathroom blends modern conveniences, such as a doorless walk-in shower, while adding to the homes historic charm. The ceilings are 10 feet high and the floor is made with antique tile.

There several other modern upgrades throughout the house. Urbano replaced about 30 original doors  while beautiful, they were warped, cracked and didnt seal properly  with reproductions. She also replaced 55 single-pane windows that rattled in the wind with more energy-efficient double-pane glass and took the detailed light fixture hanging outside the front door and had several new ones made that replicated it exactly. These now hang in the courtyard.

The kitchen was another big job. The room had been divided into several small spaces, so she removed the walls and pushed the space out about 8 feet to create a large, modern kitchen that still looks original.

Rather than install contemporary cabinets and appliances in bright whites and gleaming stainless steel, she instead used dark, raised-panel wood cabinets with custom turned metal hardware, a backsplash that mixes colorful tile both new and old and a huge, 8-by-5-foot island topped with quartzite stone in creamy tones held up by traditional carved posts.

Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer

I wanted the room to be warm and to tie in with the rest of the house, she said. I wanted everything to flow together.

The courtyard Urbano designed continues the Mexican influence, with herringbone patterned red brick patio, two dining tables and a seating area with an outdoor chiminea/fireplace. Then theres the central whirlpool bath.

I love the raised fountain Ayres designed for the central courtyard at the McNay, Silva said. So I told Lori I wanted something like that  only I wanted it to be a Jacuzzi instead.

Historically appropriate with a modern twist, just like the rest of the house.

rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini
John Moore/Getty Images

A Texas father and his daughter who were reported missing more than two weeks ago after hiking in Big Bend National Park have been found "alive and well," according to a release from the National Park Service.

Hector Flores, Jr. and his daughter Luna Flores, of Fort Stockton, were reported missing on Jan. 28. A few days later, Flores' blue 2005 Dodge 1500 truck was found abandoned in the park with their personal belongings inside it.
The joint city-county commission on domestic violence released a two-year progress summary Monday and used a news conference on the steps of City Hall to also call attention to National Teen Violence Awareness Month.

More than 40 community leaders took turns lauding the accomplishments of the Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence, which coordinates the efforts of San Antonio, Bexar County and nonprofit and private sector groups to reduce domestic violence  which the officials called a public health emergency.

One in three teens in the United States will experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse by someone they are in a relationship with before they become adults, they said, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg called on San Antonians to help stop the violence by coming up with long-term strategies, not quick fixes.

If there were a quick fix, wed take that, too, but we know domestic violence is deeply woven into our power systems, (is) multi-generational and requires complex, whole family solutions, Nirenberg said, adding its a challenge we all must bear as a community.

Who to call City of San Antonio Domestic Violence Hotline: 210-207-1878 Family Violence Prevention Services 24/7 Hotline: 210-733-8810 LGBT National Help Center: 1-800-246-7743 National Teen Dating Violence Hotline: 1-866-331-9474. Text LOVEIS to 2252. Chat at loveisrespect.org Source: City of San Antonio See More Collapse

Among the commissions highlights from the past two years were the establishment of a domestic violence referral and lethality screening hotline as a pilot program, the securing of funding for a compliance officer to keep firearms out of the hands of people who are under protective orders not to possess them, and increased training, education and awareness.

Leaders acknowledged that Bexar Countys justice system has struggled to cope with an increase in family violence.

In a recent series titled Nowhere to Hide, the San Antonio Express-News documented a surge in such killings since 2016 and showed that they grew not just in raw numbers but as a percentage of all homicides in the region  from 16 percent to 33 percent in 2020. It created a family violence database, a comprehensive list of 207 deaths from 2014 through 2020.

The papers analysis of state court data found that Bexar County had the lowest conviction rate and the highest dismissal rate for family violence assault cases among Texass five most populous counties. Using these findings, Bexar County commissioners in December approved $3.3 million in new funding to hire 14 more family violence prosecutors, investigators and victim advocates and create two new family violence courts.

Commission founder Peter Sakai, who has resigned from his 225th Civil District Court bench to run for county judge, traced the groups start to a town hall meeting in 2019 called by U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Lloyd Doggett. The commission is now co-chaired by state District Judge Monique Diaz and Deputy City Manager Maria Villagomez.

What I heard quite clearly that day was the voices of the victims, and they felt they had no voice, Sakai said. As a district judge at the time, I felt compelled to say, Lets do something.

He said it will take the entire community, led by the stakeholders represented on the commission, which also include the Metropolitan Health District, San Antonio Police Department, Bexar County Sheriffs Office, and judges who are training other jurists on ways to treat victims and perpetrators.

You dont change actions and behavior unless you change attitudes and beliefs, Sakai said. Child abuse and neglect comes out of domestic violence. We need to show the community that we care about the least of us.

Sakai and Marta Pelaez, president and CEO of Family Violence Prevention Services, both mentioned the deaths last week of Danilo Coles, 12, and Mercedes Losoya, 5, in separate domestic violence incidents.

Derrick Coles, 32, and his wife, Kapri Cheatom, 27, were arrested on suspicion of injury to a child resulting in serious bodily injury in Danilos death Feb. 6. One day later, Katrina Mendoza, 22, and her boyfriend, Jose Angel Ruiz, 25, were arrested, accused of beating and torturing Mercedes as form of punishment over several weeks, police said.

When domestic violence occurs in the presence of children, even if they are not touched, it traumatizes them in very unique, profound and lasting ways, Pelaez said. If that is not understood and addressed, we will never break the cycle of generational violence.

The city of San Antonio Domestic Violence Hotline number is 210-207-1878. Family Violence Prevention Services has a hotline that operates 24/7. That number is 210-733-8810. The LGBT National Help Center can be reached at 1-800-246-7743. The National Teen Dating Violence Hotline number is 1-866-331-9474. For phone support, text LOVEIS to 2252, or Chat at loveisrespect.org

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Deep in the Texas Hill Country, over the recharge zone in Comal County, roughly 15 cave climbers are pulling up century-old trash from a 40-foot-deep cave. Stretching below the landscape for more than 1,000 feet, the cave is a labyrinth of twists, turns and drops, reaching depths in other spots that equal a 10-story building.

The crew is only at the first drop, where a mass of trash has accumulated over decades.

Climbers at the bottom of the cave grab an assortment of waste  including tin cans, glass bottles and empty plastic containers that held rat poison  and throw it into small buckets. Climbers at the top haul the buckets to the surface with a rope-and-pulley system. There, they place the waste in tubs and eventually seal it in heavy-duty trash bags.

So far, the team has filled eight bags with trash  barely a dent in the problem. Theres still a lot of cleaning ahead.

The climbers are from Bexar Grotto, a chapter of the National Speleological Society, a group specializing in the exploration, surveying and conservation of caves. They are joined by the Underground Texas Grotto, a similar organization from Austin.

The cave, whose precise location the San Antonio Express-News is not disclosing because of the landowners concerns about trespassers, has been popular among cave climbers for decades due to its underground features and sites for exploration.

Todays climbers have a different mission in mind. From the late 1800s to the 1960s, before ranchers adopted environmentally friendly disposal techniques, the cave was a dump for waste that couldnt be burned. Generations of landowners tossed tins, glass and plastics into the caves opening, leaving piles of waste at the bottom.

Robin Jerstad /Contributor

When it rained, contaminants from these materials would enter the Edwards Aquifer, eventually ending up in San Marcos and Comal Springs.

This is just a really beautiful cave, said Mio Kitano, a four-year veteran of Bexar Grotto. A surgical oncologist at UT Health San Antonio, Kitano tries to go caving as often as possible.

We wanted to get it cleaned up because we know the impact the trash can have on both the water in the aquifer and the ecosystem in the cave.

Kitano asked the landowner, and they also wanted to see the cave cleaned up.

The trash is cemented into the wall. Its been there so long, Kitano said. It was about time.

Robin Jerstad /Contributor

Filtering trash

There are two major aquifers in the San Antonio area: the Edwards and the Carrizo.

The Carrizo, on the southern end of Bexar County, is a sandstone aquifer, which filters contaminants through its sand.

The Edwards is a limestone aquifer with tiny spaces and holes through which liquid and air can pass unfiltered. If rat poison enters the Edwards, there is no stopping it on its underground journey. The aquifers recharge zone, a 1,250-square-mile strip just north of San Antonio, is full of openings that lead straight to the citys water supply.

Its vital to rid the Edwards of hazardous contaminants, said George Veni, a hydrogeologist specializing in karst systems  a type of topography characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves  found in the Edwards Plateau.

Caves, such as the one the climbers are cleaning, refill the Edwards Aquifer when it rains.

This is a highly vulnerable system, the most vulnerable type of aquifer to contamination, Veni said. It moves quickly from point A to point B. The only thing going for us is dilution within the system because the Edwards holds a lot of water, but you cant always depend on that.

Small channels in the aquifer wont dilute chemicals as much as larger channels. If a landowner digs a well over a small channel, the chance of pumping contaminated water is far greater.

Vital supply

Robin Jerstad /Contributor

On average, 700 million people worldwide depend on karst aquifers such as the Edwards as their sole or primary water supply. In San Antonio, about 70 percent of the citys drinking water supply comes from the aquifer. Without an uncontaminated Edwards water supply, endangered animals, such as the Texas blind salamander and the Comal Springs riffle beetle, will lose their habitats.

Bats, which live in the aquifers caves, could lose their habitat because of trash contamination.

The climbers at the Comal County cave keep all of this in mind.

Robin Jerstad /Contributor

Only in the last 50 years have we associated land-use practices with the potential impact it could have on water quality, said Geary Schindel, president of the National Speleological Society and a member of Bexar Grotto. Hes been a practicing karst hydrogeologist for 40 years, scoping out caves around the world and discussing the importance of aquifers. Today is no different.

The idea is to move this stuff and get it out and get it into the proper landfill, where its safe.

So far, the team has found a mix of trash, some so antique that members took pieces home. In one bag, a rusted can, battered with time, says peaches on it. On another can, filled with rocks, an image of a field can be barely made out. Some of the bottles are saved and placed to the side because of their history  scraps from the 1940s that dont belong in the Edwards Aquifer but might look nice on a shelf.

Most people in the group have collected at least one or two pieces, including Kitano, who has been on the crew for four years.

My husband keeps saying, Can you stop bringing trash home? she said. But, I mean, there are some really pretty bottles down there.

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
Numerous San Antonio Fire Department employees were relieved of duty recently after arrests and infractions put them at odds with departmental standards of conduct.

Firefighter Casey Ross was indefinitely suspended without pay starting Dec. 20 after he was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated and possession of dangerous drugs, according to suspension records from the city.

Ross was arrested July 3 after being involved in an off-duty traffic accident in the drive-thru of an unnamed fast-food restaurant. Witnesses at the scene called 911 because Ross was unresponsive in the drivers seat of his vehicle with the keys in the ignition, according to the records.

Medics administered Narcan, which is used to treat narcotics overdoses.

When law enforcement officers searched Ross vehicle, they found a clear plastic bag with multiple small, blue pills that were later identified as opiates. In his system, officials found fentanyl  a synthetic opioid that is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration  along with a muscle relaxant, an antihistamine and a sedative.

The SAFD said Ross lacked moral character and violated the departments policies regarding conduct and behavior.

On ExpressNews.com: Arbitration begins for firefighter suspended indefinitely following domestic violence allegation

Another firefighter was suspended without pay after he was caught allegedly drunk driving.

Off-duty firefighter Nicholas De La Cruz was arrested July 30 after he was pulled over by San Antonio police in the 3000 block of North St. Marys Street.

Officials said De La Cruz was driving without headlights on and drove on top of a curb and came to a stop in a grassy area off the roadway, suspension records showed.

The firefighter smelled of alcohol, and he had bloodshot, glassy eyes and slurred speech. He also admitted to having three beers within the hour, records said. De La Cruzs blood alcohol level was 0.139 percent; a person with a level of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated.

Officials also indefinitely suspended engineer John Williams after he incurred multiple disciplinary infractions over three months.

Williams started his suspension Dec. 16.

Suspension records show that on July 2, Williams went AWOL  failing to report for duty and remaining absent for more than 18 days before providing leave notification.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio firefighter suspended after DWI arrest with blood alcohol three times limit

About two months later, Williams operated a department vehicle, despite a direct order prohibiting him from driving any SAFD or city vehicle.

Then on Sept. 27, Williams reported 45 minutes late for duty in the morning before immediately leaving and not returning for an hour, according to records.

And three days later, Williams failed to attend a mandatory training.

Williams disciplinary record shows that he had been suspended in March 2021 and April 2021 for 14 days and 90 days, respectively.

Officials said Williams violated several department orders, including conduct and behavior, insubordination, absence policies and obeying lawful orders.

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
Vicente Fernandezs music swelled on Monday as the bride stepped down from a gray pickup truck, took the arm of her tuxedoed groom and walked into the Bexar County Courthouse plaza as relatives waved nearby.

She was followed by another bride. And another. And another.

On ExpressNews.com: It's a match! The 10 most common wedding couple names of Bexar County

In all, 22 couples showed up to the courthouse at 10 a.m. to be married on Valentine's Day.

Traditionally, the county holds a free mass wedding on Feb. 14. On Monday, however, the courthouse is holding six separate ceremonies and capping each at 22 couples because of the pandemic, which also forced the cancelation of the 32-year-old tradition in 2021.

At the 10 a.m. ceremony, Bexar County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark spoke about the foundation and commitment of marriage and then declared all 22 couples married.

Unlike previous years, no one at Mondays mass wedding ceremony arrived dressed as a dinosaur or any other obscure costume. Few brides even wore wedding dresses, opting instead for a casual look.

A few dozen family members snapped photos on their cellphones or held hands as they watched.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonians paid to name cockroaches after their exes. These were the most popular names.

Ahead of the ceremony, couples spoke of chance encounters, second chances and new beginnings.

Wearing a white tuxedo T-shirt, Ray Cardenas, 55, stood next to his future husband Lucas Muniz, 50, and told him he had nothing to be nervous about. Cardenas, a father of three children, had been married before and was still close with his ex-wife.

Cardenas and Muniz had been dating for 13 years  dating and living together in sin, Cardenas joked. Cardenas said they couldnt let another holiday go by without getting married.

Today is a stepping stone, Cardenas said of his marriage. Weve been going uphill for so long and now I think weve reached a plateau.

Willie Brooks, 60, said his marriage to Saily Mendez, 41, on Monday wasnt his first wedding alongside other couples. Brooks first said "I do" in 1985 at a mass wedding similar to the one in front of the courthouse hosted at San Fernando Cathedral.

On ExpressNews.com: 10-year-old terminal cancer patient joins San Antonio police, more than 180 agencies

Amanda Laws, like many others on the courthouse steps, wiped away tears as she shouted I do in chorus with the other couples. She held her now-husband's hand as their three sons stood around them.

She said she felt overwhelmed, adding that the tears she wiped away were happy tears. The couple was also celebrating their 14th anniversary together on Monday.

It was about damn time they got married, Amanda Laws said.

Keeping it together for 14 years, you learn you have to fight to stay together, Matthan Laws said. You have to want to make it work and you have to work hard to make it work.

Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net
The niece of a woman found bludgeoned to death in the bathtub of her East Harlem apartment has been charged with the killing, police said Monday.

Kristie Miro, 30, allegedly used a hammer to rain blows on the head and chest of her aunt, 56-year-old Ana Nieves, in an apartment on E. 100th St. near Third Ave. just after 6 p.m. Friday.

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Im completely numb and Im hurting. I went to church today and cried it out because I just cant get in my mind why her. She would give you her last, said Lucy Nieves, 52, the slain womans sister.

Whats the worst thing about it? Its family. How do you swallow that pill?

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Ana Nieves (Courtesy of Family)

Lisa Fasasi, another of Nieves nieces, said when she saw Miro on Wednesday, she was angry about a break-up with a girlfriend.

She had a hammer in her hand, Fasasi said.

Miro also told a witness that Nieves was trying to get her out of the apartment, according to a criminal complaint.

Fasasi knew Miro had been living with the victim. When she didnt hear from Nieves on Thursday morning, she called Miro but said she got no answer.

She the visited the building Friday. When I came upstairs I saw her next to the door... looking around to see who was coming, Fasasi said, referring to Miro.

And when Fasasi tried to get in, Miro blocked her. She opens the door for me to come into the house... and about when Im gonna get into the house, she shuts the door and locks it in my face, Fasasi said.

Thats when I knew. I went back downstairs and I definitely called the cops again.

As the police arrived, Miro slipped into a neighbors apartment.

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She didnt seem like a psycho, she didnt ever seem crazy, Fasasi said. They keep saying she was on psychiatric meds. She would only go crazy if other stuff was going on.

When Officer Sheldon Elliot arrived at the third floor apartment on Friday evening, Miro at first claimed she was alone and then gave several names that turned out to be fake, court records show.

Elliot left and then returned when someone flagged him down. Emergency services was called and cops found Nieves fully clothed and covered in blood in the tub. Blood was also spattered on the bathroom walls.

Fasasi said she was able to watch police body cam video of an interview with Miro in which she first said she hadnt been home and then claimed she was home.

Police sources said Miro and Nieves had a turbulent relationship with multiple instances of domestic violence allegations between them.

I have messages that my aunt didnt even want her in the house, Fasasi said. They were always going back and forth arguing. She didnt respect the household, but my cousin didnt want to leave.

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But I never thought she would do something like this, I never thought Kristie would go out of her way to take her own aunts life, she said.

Miro was arraigned on murder charges Monday. She was also arraigned for a 2019 assault.

In that case, from Nov. 17, 2019, cops said Miro was one of three people who beat up a 24-year-old man sitting in a parked car on W. 21st St. and Sixth Ave.

Only Miro was arrested in that case for hitting the man with a glass bottle. It remained unclear why she had not previously been arraigned in the 2019 case.

Police found the body of Ana Nieves, 56, in the tub of her third-floor apartment at E. 100th St. near Third Ave. on Friday night. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Miro also has prior drug arrests and has been classified as an emotionally disturbed person by police in the past, police sources said.

In May 2009, Miro was arrested for assault for slashing one person in the back with a razor and slashing a second person in the face and stomach on Park Ave. near E. 109th St., court records show.

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Oh, b----, you get the police after me? Ill cut the other half of your face off! she allegedly screamed.

She pleaded guilty to assault in 2010, was sentenced to three years in prison and was released in 2012.

More recently, she was convicted in 2015 of filing a forged instrument, served under two years in state prison and was released in 2017.

In that case, she was arrested Jan. 10, 2015, at a building on E. 14th St. and accused of trying to buy a MacBook computer worth $1,150 using a forged New Jersey ID card and a Best Buy credit card she got using the forged ID.

Police found the body of Ana Nieves, 56, in the tub of her third-floor apartment at E. 100th St. near Third Ave. on Friday night. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Basically Im overwhelmed, said Miros father Alex Miro, referring to the charges. I dont live in New York, but Im gonna try to find out whats going on. Im devastated by just hearing that.

He said he and his daughter were estranged and hadnt spoken in years. Our relationship is missing-in-action type. Were not on good terms, he said.

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Police found the body of Ana Nieves, 56, in the tub of her third-floor apartment at E. 100th St. near Third Ave. on Friday night. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Lucy Nieves said her sister was genuine and caring. She was kind to their mother late in her life, using her skills as a home attendant and adored Lucys 13-year-old daughter.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

We always had a good time when we got together. When somebody needed her help she was there... she was there for me. She didnt deserve that, Lucy recalled.

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Ana Nieves, 56, was found slain in the tub of her third-floor apartment at E. 100th St. near Third Ave. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

The family is now facing the challenge of paying for the funeral and deciding whether Ana Nieves should be cremated.

I love her dearly. Now I only have two sisters left... now the funny one that I always had fun with [is gone], she said.
For all the national nonprofits founded or working in San Antonio, Endeavors may be the one whose name you might not immediately recognize.

It may be because it cares for young migrants in what allies would call a childrens shelter but critics would label a child detention center.

Like other agencies that perform such government contract work, Endeavors operates just under the radar.

No matter the administration in office, the work is controversial, even if a shelter is immaculate and well-run, the children well-cared for and their stays temporary.

Their stays havent always been temporary.

For Endeavors, says board chairwoman Berenice Villarreal, its work isnt political but humanitarian.

You dont know the groups name because it doesnt get out in public to raise awareness or money.

Endeavors doesnt need to put on a gala or mount a capital campaign.

In addition to government contracts, it operates with support from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, which has given more than $700 million to charity since 2001.

The Cohen Veterans Network and the state of Texas provided $7.2 million this fiscal year for Endeavors three Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinics in San Antonio, El Paso and Killeen.

Endeavors also does post-disaster federal relief work and provides other community-based services such as housing assistance.

In 1969, it was founded as the San Antonio Urban Council by five Presbyterian churches. It morphed into San Antonio Urban Ministries. Five churches grew to 35.

In 2007, Urban Ministries re-branded as San Antonio Family Endeavors. As it grew nationally, it became Family Endeavors. By 2018, it was Endeavors.

Villarreal, 44, is more than a year into a two-year term as board chair and brings to it her own migrant child experience.

It isnt too different than those who end up at a place where unaccompanied children  asylum-seekers  wait to be placed with sponsors, usually parents or other relatives.

Villarreal, however, arrived with her mother and sister after the family received kidnapping threats. Her stepfather was ultimately kidnapped and beaten.

In remission from cancer, he died shortly after arriving in San Antonio.

Her family was left to reapply for temporary residency each year with no sure path to citizenship.

Getting permanent status was difficult, she said. Youre just so afraid all the time about getting deported.

It came with an extra layer of fear, given her mothers birth in Ecuador, not Mexico, where they were living and Villarreal was born.

I would get deported to Mexico, and my mom would have been deported to Ecuador.

Her first employer helped her with her immigration case, as it did other immigrants with specialized education, she said.

A woman who interviewed her for that first job sits on the Endeavors board with her now.

It took about six years to get my permanent green card finalized, she said. She was 28.

Villarreal, a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio, is now senior vice president and chief risk officer at Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union.

She knows how afraid some of those migrant children are and how fraught their journeys will be.

Endeavors shelters 13- to 17-year-old migrant boys and girls seeking asylum in West Texas. Most are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

From June to November, it had 1,500 to 1,800 migrant teens in its care. Today, its closer to 550.

Villarreal says the word political has nothing to do with their work. Nothing.

Mike Oakes, who serves as the outreach minister for Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, visited the Pecos shelter and wrote about he saw. What Endeavors is doing isnt perfect, he said, but its making the most of an imperfect situation.

Temporary migrant shelters arent meant to be a long-term solution.

Villarreal says Endeavors leaders, many who are former military, run the nonprofit with the accountability required of shareholders. She admires their professionalism and for leading with hearts of service, she said.

Endeavors, which began its migrant work as a subcontractor, also operates a new Veterans Wellness Center on De Zavala Road.

It serves veterans and their families. The facility includes an auditorium, gym and juice bar. Villarreal calls it the first of its kind.

Shes a U.S. citizen now, married and has four children with her husband, whos also an accountant.

Two of their children were adopted out of foster care.

They have what she didnt, she says, an extended family that ranges from grandparents to third cousins.

Its beautiful, she said.

She has dug deep roots purposely. She gives back, Endeavors included.

Its what I hope for my children, she said. I hope one day they do the same.

eayala@express-news.net
The city rolled out its SA: Ready to Work job training program with much fanfare last week, and we remain convinced in the wisdom of investing in people.

Imagine how workforce training could allow people to change careers or start a new one. Imagine how it could change the trajectory of generations to come. For some, this program is a potential to learn new skills, find opportunity and, in turn, build savings and wealth. Tired of seeing jobs and business go to Austin? This could be the antidote. Imagine San Antonio as a national model for workforce development.

This will take a community effort. It takes the employers, it takes the government, it takes the citizens and community-based organizations to all link together to solve this issue, Michael Ramsey, executive director of the citys Workforce Development Office, told our Editorial Board.

On ExpressNews.com: City pushes for commitments from San Antonio employers to hire Ready to Work participants

SA: Ready to Work will fund case management, tuition, training and job placement provided by community organizations for San Antonio adults who are eligible to work in the United States and make less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $33,000 for an individual and about $69,000 for a family of four. Participants can pursue associate or bachelors degrees, or enter training for industry-recognized certificates.

The public believes in this mission and understands such an investment will take time. In the November 2020 election, 77 percent of voters recognized the need to fortify job training and dedicated a 1/8-cent sales tax to fund the $200 million, four-year program.

Now is the time to get behind this innovative and ambitious program. Because the training is long term, outcomes will take years, and there will be plenty of time to assess the program later.

The hope is to train about 28,000 participants and place them in a high-demand local jobs that pay at least $15 per hour for at least a year. Minimum targets call for a 70 percent completion rate  much higher than the 26 percent three-year graduation rates at community colleges, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Train for Jobs SA, the citys $60 million pandemic-relief job-training program, was criticized for a slow start. But that program taught the city valuable lessons, and it also has shown clear improvement. Although enrollment for Train for Jobs ended in December, training and placement are ongoing. More than 2,200 people have completed training, and more than half have found jobs. City officials said the new program  SA: Ready to Work  will have more marketing and outreach, a central data management system, and alignment and engagement with employers.

On ExpressNews.com: I have a career: After bumpy roll-out, over 1,100 San Antonians working through Train for Jobs

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: Citys workforce effort slow, but dont give up just yet.

It also has employer buy-in. A Feb. 7 news conference on the steps of City Hall featured Toyota, USAA, Frost Bank, H-E-B, Methodist Healthcare and Holt CAT as some of the more than 70 local businesses that signed the pledge to participate and provide the resources and information to help our residents gain the skills and jobs that will provide them economic mobility.

We encourage other eligible business to connect with the program. Its a no-brainer.

As Ramsey told us: There are a lot of jobs out there, but the people who need those jobs dont have the skills that are required to actually get those jobs.

During a Feb. 9 B-session, some City Council members offered praise and asked questions.

Even District 10 City Councilman Perry, an opponent of the program who questioned some of the metrics and why hospitality wasnt yet included, offered a dose of optimism. It looks like a great program, he said. But you know me, Im going to be looking at our return on investment.

We will be, too. So will employers. We have high expectations for SA: Ready to Work. Training begins in April, and with it comes the possibility of generational change. Time will tell.
The Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association wants to stay in City Council District 9, but some of its North Side neighbors would have to move if that happens.

The association proposed revisions to San Antonios City Council map to keep the neighborhood in District 9, represented by Councilman John Courage. But because of growth on the North Side over the last 10 years, the district must shrink to balance its population with the rest of the city.

That means somebody else would have to move out.

The associations revisions also would decrease the Hispanic population in District 1 in a way that a representative of that area called drastic.

This just feels like a significant dilution of Hispanic votes, said Jordan Ghawi of District 1.

San Antonios redistricting advisory committee rejected the associations proposal. But members of the committee began to draw new boundaries for the first time Monday, and they experienced firsthand the larger effects even small shifts can have on the whole city.

The committee is working on updating the borders of council districts based on recent population shifts seen in census data. The council appointed committee members to separate the process from elected officials  although the council still will grant or deny final approval of a new map. The council is scheduled to vote on the committees recommendation in June.

Generally, population has grown on the North Side and outer edges of San Antonio, while the population closer to downtown has declined.

The main responsibility in redistricting is to balance the population of each district. Thats meant to ensure every San Antonio resident has an equal chance for their vote to count toward the representation they want.

Committee members have said they want to keep neighborhoods together as much as possible.

But as the committee began to move district borders, many realized they cant make every neighborhood happy. The committee has to consider not just a balanced population, but how changes will affect voting power among racial and ethnic groups.

Were going to have to move some people, and its going to be difficult, committee co-chair Bonnie Prosser Elder said. Everyone will not be happy. Theres going to be some compromise.

District 9 representatives on the committee, Larry Lamborn and Hollis Grizzard Jr., agreed to take back the changes suggested by Greater Harmony Hills after seeing how they could dilute the Hispanic population elsewhere.

They didnt realize the repercussions until they took the first stab at using the software to adjust district borders that updates a chart in real time to reflect the new estimated population based on input.

The committee ended Monday with a map that more evenly distributed population across districts, but it isnt an official draft and wont be posted online. Members hit pause on the process until their next meeting.

Its important that each committee member brings to the table their districts opinion about what it holds dear, Prosser Elder said.

In District 7, committee members suggested boundary changes that would add an employment center, which it otherwise doesnt have, said Frances Gonzalez. It made sense to propose it from an equity standpoint to give those residents more power, she said.

We wanted to be more intentional about population migrating with other issues that are important to the district, Gonzalez said.

Everyone wants to stay in their current district, but not everyone can, said Carlton Soules, District 10 committee member and a former city councilman. Some neighborhood associations may have to accept that they will need to build a new relationship with another council office.

Soules was the District 10 councilman last decade when San Antonio handled redistricting after the 2010 census. The city didnt have a committee then. Instead, attorneys met one-on-one with council members to develop a new map, largely outside of public meetings.

Having a committee of residents draw maps this decade lengthens the process but allows for more input from neighbors than last time around, Soules said.

Now I see less concern with the politics of it, he said, comparing this cycle with the last.

Instead, the committee has focused on what to do with neighborhoods. The Oak Hills neighborhood currently is split between Districts 7 and 8, and representatives from both said they wanted to reunite the area under one council district.

Still, they proposed different ways to make that happen.

The main message today is that changes arent in isolation. They impact more than one district, City Attorney Andy Segovia said. Theyre trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together, and one piece doesnt solve it.

The redistricting advisory committee will meet next at 6 p.m. Feb. 28 at Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas, 10843 Gulfdale St. Presentations from past meetings and a full list of committee members can be found at www.sabexarcountmein.org/Committee/Redistricting.

megan.stringer@express-news.net
Gov. Greg Abbott and the other incumbent Republicans running for re-election have reason to be confident as early voting in the primaries gets underway in Texas.

Statewide incumbents rarely lose, in part because the March 1 primary election day is the earliest in the nation for a midterm election cycle  by a lot. Political experts say the Texas primaries sneak up on even the most plugged-in voters.

No other state in the U.S. holds a midterm primary election before May.

Its almost a surprise for voters, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor.

He said given that absentee ballots started going out on Jan. 15, voters have almost no time after the holidays to gear up for election season, resulting in some of the worst voter turnout in the nation.

KNOW THE CANDIDATES: Houston Chronicle 2022 primary voter guide / San Antonio Express-News 2022 primary voter guide

In 2018, Texas had just 17 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the primary election season. And its just 13 percent among the overall voting-age population, which includes people who should be eligible to vote but are not. The national average for voting-age population turnout was over 19 percent and states including Missouri, Oklahoma and Montana were all above 30 percent, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a good-government group in Washington, D.C. that tracks primary politics.

Its way too early and our politics are worse for it, said Ed Espinoza, president of Progress Texas, a left-leaning nonprofit.

Espinoza and Progress Texas has been arguing for years to move the midterm primaries back to April or May to give voters more time to meet candidates. He said he has no doubt voter turnout would improve even if the state pushed back the primary just six weeks.

For those challenging incumbents, the March 1 primary means a hurry-up schedule even as they try to overcome the financial advantages and stronger name recognition that favor their foes.

Theres less time to raise money, build name identification and put together an organization, Rottinghaus said.

Espinoza said the other problem is that the period to file to run for office in Texas ends on Dec. 13  almost a full year before the general election. That is way earlier than most states where candidates can get a sense of the electorate before running. In Florida, for instance, candidates have until June to decide if they want to run. Espinoza said that gives candidates more time to assess their chances.

May primaries drew 29% turnout in Texas

It wasnt always like this. Before 1990, Texas held its midterm primary election in May. In the three gubernatorial election cycles prior to the change, turnout among registered voters average 29 percent. And in 1978, nearly 40 percent of the states registered voters participated in the primary. But since 1990, the state has averaged just 14 percent turnout for the Democratic and Republican primaries combined.

That drop in turnout cant all be attributed to just the early primary date. Some cycles are more competitive up and down the ballot, which draws attention and boosts turnout. In 1990, the first year Texas had the March midterm primary, voter turnout hit 28 percent thanks to a hot governors race in which the incumbent Bill Clements opted not to seek re-election.

Those years before the change were dangerous times for incumbents. Twice in the 1970s, the incumbent governor failed to win his re-election in the primary. And in 1982 the incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Reagan Brown lost his Democratic primary to journalist Jim Hightower.

It wasnt long after that the Texas Legislature started pushing to move the primaries up. While the goal was initially to move the presidential primary up to March to give Texas more say in that process, lawmakers eventually agreed to also move the midterm primaries to March.

That is very different from other early voting states in the presidential cycle. While states such as Iowa and South Carolina vote early in the presidential cycle, in mid-term elections both vote in June.

Still, incumbents in Texas are not quite mailing it in this year. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton all have spirited challengers in the GOP primary and are all up on television with ads trying to drive up turnout.

But while challengers to incumbents rarely win statewide in Texas, Patrick has proven it can be done. In 2014, Patrick, then a State Senator, defeated Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a GOP primary that came just two years after Dewhurst was upset in his bid for the U.S. Senate by Houstons Ted Cruz.

Abbott on Monday kicked off the first day of early voting with rallies in Austin and Odessa trying to drive up turnout.

Yall about ready to go win an election? Abbott shouted into a microphone at a restaurant in Austin on Monday morning.

But during his 10-minute speech, Abbott didnt mention any of his seven Republican primary opponents. Instead, Abbott focused his comments at Democrat Beto ORourke, who he would face in November if both with their primary elections on March 1.

jeremy.wallace@chron.com
WASHINGTON  Texas Republicans are again threatening a government shutdown over President Joe Bidens vaccine mandates as the Senate works to pass a short-term funding bill by the end of the week.

Sen. Ted Cruz is among a group of four Senate Republicans who have signed a letter led by Rep. Chip Roy of Austin refusing to support any bills funding the federal government that include money for the enforcement of COVID-19 vaccine mandates at any level of government.

Cruz also signed a separate letter with six Senate Republicans demanding a vote on an amendment to strip funding from the mandates. The letter warns of unacceptably high risk of inaction and quotes a Frederick Douglass speech opposing slavery, saying the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

History will bear record of whether we chose to endure tyranny, or oppose it, in this pivotal moment, it says.

The House passed a short-term funding bill last week over the objections of Roy and 161 other Republicans. The bill must pass the Senate by Friday to avert a government shutdown.

FLASHBACK: Texas Republicans call for government shutdown over Bidens tyrannical vaccine mandate

Senate leaders appeared to throw water on the effort, however.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that he is hopeful Democrats and Republicans will reach an agreement to pass the bill this week, but he did not mention the demand for a vote on the vaccine mandates.

No one, and certainly not my Republican colleagues, want a Republican government shutdown, the New York Democrat said.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said he didnt believe there was any danger of a shutdown. McConnell, of Kentucky, said senators would process a few amendments before passing a spending bill, but he didnt say what amendments.

Roy, who has sought to keep pressure on other GOP senators to join the effort, responded on Twitter.

Process a few amendments? What the hell does that even mean? Roy tweeted. It sounds like more beltway (expletive) and not fighting for Americans.

Roy said in an interview with Hearst Newspapers that he believes Republicans need to oppose vaccine mandates more forcefully, especially as they seek to regain control of Congress in the midterm elections later this year.

Roy said he has met with multiple constituents who have either been fired or face losing their jobs for refusing to get vaccinated.

There are dozens or hundreds of constituents I represent who are facing  in the United States of America  getting fired for a health choice theyre making, Roy said. Not one Republican should be given a hall pass that theyre standing up for freedom or standing up against vaccine mandates if they support this garbage.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, joined Roys pressure campaign Tuesday, tweeting: Republicans in the Senate have the power to stop everything. But do they have the courage or even the will?

Its the second time the Texas Republicans have led efforts to derail a funding bill over the vaccine mandates. Cruz and Roy made a similar push in December, but the Senate shot down an amendment blocking funding for the mandates and passed a funding bill on a 69-28 vote.

The mandates, which have been challenged by Texas and other red states, have faced a string of setbacks in courts. The U.S. Supreme Court blocked a vaccine and testing mandate the Biden administration had sought to place on large businesses. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration later pulled the rule. However, mandates for medical workers, military personnel, federal employees and federal contractors remain in place.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

It so far appears unlikely that Roy and Cruz will garner much more support from Republicans this time, as many, including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, have yet to back their effort. Cornyn said in December that he doesnt think shutdowns ever work and that he believes that pushing for one over a short-term spending bill doesnt make sense because Bidens mandates are currently tied up in court anyway.

Some people want to send a message because they object to the vaccine mandate across the board, and theyre looking for another opportunity to express themselves, Cornyn said at the time.

ben.wermund@chron.com
BROOKFIELD  Maureen Ruby will step down as assistant superintendent after this school year to take on a new role with Sacred Heart University.

She will become the first Isabelle Farrington endowed chair of social, emotional and academic leadership at Sacred Heart University and will join the faculty as an associate professor in August.

This is a historic moment for Sacred Heart and another step in advancing our academic excellence, the university said in a press release. We are excited to see what Dr. Ruby will do in her new role here at SHU.

In her new position, Ruby will teach doctoral students in the social, emotional and academic leadership program while also conducting her own research.

The possibilities are really unlimited, she said. However far you can let your mind expand is as far as you can go, so its a very open field and the university is very supportive of their mission for social justice which is huge.

Rubys new position at the university will mirror similar efforts in Brookfield, where the assistant superintendent has been working with schools for the past five years implement the RULER approach a social-emotional learning technique developed at Yale. In 2017, Ruby also became a Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence Changemaker Fellow and spent 10 months working with educators and Yale Center faculty to implement an emotionally intelligent project for Brookfield schools.

After seven years with the district, Rudy said she is proud of staff professional development opportunities that the school board has supported and the recognition that standards-aligned instruction is just the first step in the educational process. And despite these new opportunities for professional development, Ruby said she will miss all the people that she works with in Brookfield. She will leave her job in Brookfield in August.

Ruby has already worked as an adjunct professor in Sacred Hearts leadership program, developing courses that she will continue to teach in her endowed chair role. She said that she is also really looking forward to working in classrooms again, since her job in Brookfield has kept her busy in the central office.

Her focus on research, training and advocacy in this area will elevate this trailblazing program, the press release said.
The feds have launched an investigation into how the NYPD treats moms nursing newborns on the force, the Daily News has learned.

Federal investigators want to question police officers who have given birth over the last 10 years and see if their stories jibe with allegations that nursing mothers were forced to express breast milk in dirty locker rooms, bathrooms, or on some occasions their own cars, an internal email acquired by The News reveals.

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The U.S. Department of Justice, through the United States Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York is conducting a civil investigation into the NYPDs lactation policy, the email read. DOJ is interested in speaking with individuals who have requested reasonable accommodations pursuant to that policy and who may have additional information regarding the NYPDs implementation of that policy.

Participation in the federal investigation is completely voluntary, and nursing moms dont have to participate in the probe, the email notes. The feds probe began last year.

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One of two Mamava pods installed at 1 Police Plaza. (Elizabeth Keogh)

The NYPD is complying with the investigation, supplying the Justice Department with a list of NYPD employees who enrolled in the policy over the last decade.

Ongoing complaints of nursing police officers not having a clean and private space to express breast milk were brought to light in 2018 when Officer Simone Teagle of the 113th Precinct in Jamaica, Queens, claimed her superiors refused to provide her with the time and a clean space to pump, in violation of department policy and state and federal law. When Teagle complained about the conditions she was transferred, she says.

A month later, Teagle, along with Officers Theresa Mahon, Melissa Soto-Germosen, Vivian Ayende and Elizabeth Ortiz, filed discrimination complaints against the NYPD, claiming they were forced to pump breast milk in locker rooms, cars or bathrooms.

The women claim the departments lack of sanitary pumping places caused several of them to develop mastitis, an inflammation of breast tissue that sometimes involves an infection. Some were put on punishment posts for asking for time to pump breast milk and were routinely forced to pump milk during their lunch break, the officers said.

Mayor Eric Adams (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Other cops claimed their superiors and other cops would walk in on them while expressing milk and, since there wasnt a private space to store the milk, it could be grabbed by anyone in the stationhouse.

In one sick incident, a male cop at Harlems 32nd Precinct dared a male detective to drink the express milk a sergeant had just pumped. The detective accepted the dare and gulped down the milk meant for the sergeants child, according to court papers.

NYPD policy states each precinct must provide a private room or an office for employees to express breast milk. The room should provide an employee with the requisite privacy and cannot be a bathroom.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

Teagle and the other officers are now part of a growing class action lawsuit that includes multiple city and state agencies, attorney Eric Sanders said.

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This firm has filed similar cases against the Fire Department, New York City Department of Education and the New York State Police, Sanders explained. We have been litigating this legal issue since Oct. 9, 2018, to cover the time periods of Aug. 15, 2007, though the present. Throughout this time period, the department disregarded the legal rights of nursing mothers.

Fortunately, these brave plaintiffs using the federal court are fighting to force the department to follow the law, he added. Hopefully, the DOJ decides to intervene and join the legal fight.

An NYPD officer claimed in a lawsuit she was forced to pump breast milk in this filthy locker room.

After Teagles complaints surfaced, the NYPD revised its lactation policy and began purchasing pumping pods to provide clean and safe spaces for nursing moms. In November 2018, a new law went into effect requiring the Police Department to provide employees with lactation rooms close to where they work and a refrigerator suitable for breast milk storage.

Last January, before being elected mayor, former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams requested the city comptrollers office conduct a comprehensive audit of NYPD facilities.

We cannot claim we are leading on gender equality when women cannot safely pump breast milk without facing ridicule or dangerous conditions, Adams said at the time. The boys club culture in our law enforcement must change to embrace and support mothers who are trying to balance the demands of work and family.

The feds declined to comment on the investigation when reached Tuesday. The NYPD did not immediately return a request for comment.
DANBURY  A handful of schools in the city were placed on lockdown Tuesday as police searched for an individual nearby who they believed had a weapon.

This was unrelated to our students and staff, Superintendent Kevin Walston said.

Several schools, including Broadview Middle School, Ellsworth Elementary School, Hayestown Avenue Elementary School, the Alternative Center for Excellence, the Danbury Early Childhood Center on Granville Avenue, were placed on lockdown in an abundance of caution, according to a message sent to families at those schools.

Once the person was found, students and staff temporarily sheltered in place before normal operations resumed, Walston said.

After consulting with the Danbury Police Department, it was deemed safe for students to move throughout the school building and students were moved to shelter in place, the school district said in a message before the shelter in place was lifted. At this time all students are safe and are resuming normal activities within school.

The shelter in place was lifted shortly after that, Walston said. It was about 30 to 40 minutes between when the lockdown started and when the shelter in place ended, he said.

It moved kind of fast, Walston said.

As officers searched the area, they located the person in question at a residence on Moran Ave. in Danbury, the department said in a Facebook post. Believing the person was armed with a handgun, the general area of Moran Ave. was closed off. Per department protocol, businesses and schools in the area were notified and secured until the person was contacted and provided with services.

A private Catholic school and Henry Abbott Technical High School were placed on lockdown, too, Walston said.

The incident ended peacefully when the person surrendered to officers on Moran Avenue around 12:30 p.m., the police department said.

All businesses and schools were later notified and have since resumed normal operation, police said.

Tuesdays lockdown didnt affect Danbury Public Schools already scheduled one-hour early dismissal for professional development, Walston said.

However, the district needed permission from police to dismiss high school students around 12:50 or 12:55 p.m., Walston said.

The high school wasnt one of the schools on lockdown, but the challenge was releasing kids into that zone once they got off the bus, he said.
TUESDAY, Feb. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- "The jab" might soon be replaced with something like "the huff" as slang for a COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Some experts believe that an inhaled vaccine could be a checkmate move in the world's ongoing chess match against COVID-19.

They argue that inhaled vaccines could not only deliver more effective protection, but could do it at a lower dosage and thus make vaccines available for more people around the globe.

"Targeting vaccines to specific anatomic areas of the body where immunity is most important, could provide more durable and extensive protection than injectable vaccines when it comes to respiratory viruses," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in Baltimore.

A newly developed inhaled COVID-19 vaccine just emerged out of Canada, where researchers at McMaster University completed a lab study showing that their new vaccine was safe in mice and produced a robust immune response.

The investigators have now moved their new vaccine to a phase 1 clinical trial, to see if it will boost immunity in healthy adults who've already had two shots of a COVID mRNA vaccine.

The Canadian researchers deliver their vaccine through a nebulizer, a device that turns liquid into an aerosol that's inhaled through the mouth and deep into the lungs.

"We know that when we stimulate immunity in the lung, the qualities of that immunity are intrinsically different than the types of responses that we stimulate when we inject someone with a vaccine the typical way, in their muscle," said study co-lead author Matthew Miller. He is an associate professor at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, in Ontario.

Inhaled vaccine more potent

Shots delivered in the arm have proven effective, but they produce an immune response that has to circulate throughout the body before antibodies wind up in the nose and the lungs  the place where you'd want the most powerful protection against a respiratory virus like COVID-19, Miller said.

The response prompted by an inhaled vaccine "is much more potent because it recruits cells that essentially live in the lung waiting for exposure to pathogen, in this case to SARS-CoV-2. Those cells are not present when we give vaccines intramuscularly," Miller said.

Inhaled vaccines also have a better chance to promote immunity in the deepest parts of the lungs, where COVID-19 can wreak the most damage, Miller added.

There's another benefit to that effectiveness, besides personal protection  you don't have to use as much vaccine to get the same response.

"By focusing that immune response in the lungs, we can use a lot less vaccine and it still goes a lot further," Miller said. "During this pandemic, we've experienced global shortages in the availability of vaccines. Having this dose-sparing effect means we could produce a hundred times more vaccine, or vaccinate a hundred times more people in the same amount of time with the same amount of material."

Inhaled vaccines also would be "greatly advantageous" in promoting COVID-19 vaccination around the world, Adalja said, "as they free vaccines from needles and syringes, which can be difficult to obtain in certain resource-poor settings, as well as opening up vaccination to needle-phobic individuals."

A vaccine for the needle-phobic should not be overlooked, said Dr. Corey Casper, CEO of the Infectious Disease Research Institute in Seattle.

In surveys, about 20% of individuals who are not vaccinated say they would take one if it were not delivered with a shot. Thats not a small fraction, and we need to focus on that, Casper said.

Miller and his colleagues aren't the only ones investigating the benefits of an inhaled vaccine.

The Indian firm Bharat Biotech has developed a COVID-19 vaccine that would be sprayed into the nose. The company received approval in January to begin phase 3 clinical trials in humans.

Respiratory viruses best match for nasal, lung delivery of vaccines

And a group of Yale University researchers recently issued a study of lab mice showing that a COVID-19 nasal spray vaccine could boost immune memory cells and antibodies in the nose and throat. The study appeared on bioRxiv, a pre-print site for cutting-edge science that has not yet been peer-reviewed.

"Improving upon current vaccine platforms to provide mucosal immunity is important to curb this current pandemic, and certainly will be important to combat the next," the Yale team wrote.

But the McMaster researchers think their vaccine has another added benefit: it promotes an antibody response against three different parts of the COVID coronavirus, making it more likely that immunity would be longer lasting than current vaccines that only target the virus' spike protein.

"While targeting the spike protein made a lot of sense for first-generation vaccines, that approach was going to be inherently limited because this was a virus that was going to continue to evolve. The spike protein was going to mutate and inevitably those vaccines were going to need to be updated," Miller said.

The Canadian vaccine targets the spike protein, which is the part of the virus that helps it infect cells. However, it also produces an immune response against parts of the virus that protect its genetics and help it replicate  targets that are hidden inside the virus until after it infects a cell, and therefore less likely to mutate away from a vaccine, Miller said.

Miller said his team is working to get their inhaled vaccine approved under an accelerated timeline, possibly within two years.

"I do think inhaled vaccines will be that next major innovation in vaccine design, and hold the promise of really improving the protectiveness of vaccines for respiratory pathogens, including things like influenza for which our current seasonal vaccines are far short of optimal in terms of the average vaccine effectiveness we see on a yearly basis," Miller said.

The McMaster vaccine research was published online Feb. 8 in the journal Cell.

Other research teams dont plan to stop with COVID.

Casper said inhaled vaccines make a lot of sense for other respiratory infections, including influenza, RSV and tuberculosis.

The number one infectious disease killer around the world is still tuberculosis -- not incredibly common in the United States, but more people are dying of tuberculosis than any other infectious disease on the planet, Casper said. Theres really good evidence to suggest that inhaled vaccines, whether it be in the lung or in the nose, would be highly effective against tuberculosis.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about COVID-19 vaccines.

SOURCES: Amesh Adalja, MD, senior scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Baltimore; Matthew Miller, PhD, associate professor, McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, Ontario, Canada; Corey Casper, MD, MPH, CEO, Infectious Disease Research Institute, Seattle; Cell, Feb. 8, 2022, online
With the exception of some occasional scrounging of equipment and parts for other newspapers in the Gannett media empire and the morning deliveries of the Tribune from the print site in Helena, the Great Falls Tribune building has not seen much activity of late.

Over the past couple of months, though, members of New City Church have been hauling off everything from computer servers and office equipment to the massive Goss Metroliner printing press that, from 1979 until July 12, 2020 produced the Great Falls Tribune.

When Gannett put the building up for sale, the presses  both the 3-story-tall Metroliner and a smaller Goss Community, along with a lot of junk, spare parts and other items accumulated over the years were left in place, all left for a new owner to contend with. That was not a good selling point, Pastor Nate told the Sun Times.

While theres not much going on from the street view, inside the building is undergoing a transformation for a second life as the new home for New City Church.

The church had already acquired 19 acres for future construction, and when the riverside location was suggested. It was Nates wife, Rachel, that expressed the first interest in the Trib building, six months prior to the acquisition of the building. At first, it didnt appear that the Trib building offered the parking space needed.

In the age of COVID, construction of a new church was too costly at this time, so refurbishing an existing building made more sense to the pastor and the congregation. And, as for the parking, a large undeveloped parcel of land came with the building that would allow plenty of space.

New City Church began as Great Falls Christian Center in 1981 when a small church in Alaska urged members Bob and Cindy Johnson to come to Montana and establish a new church. The Alaska church even provided some seed money to get the new church off the ground. Cindy is from Power, Montana.

Pastor Nate went on to marry Bob and Cindy Johnsons daughter, Rachel.

In September of 1999, Nate was attending Great Falls Christian Center when, as he put it, I saw what a healthy church could do God was calling me to stay.

Great Falls Christian Center later took on the name New City Church. According to Swanson, the name is derived from Isiah 61:4,  theyll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. Theyll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new.

- The Message paraphrase of the Bible.

Nate attended Full Bible Gospel Institute in Saskatchewan.

Pastoring runs in the family. Nates dad was pastor at Lighthouse Family Fellowship in Helena, and now serves as pastor at Mercy Springs Bible Church in Highwood.

Nate said that the family travelled quite a bit when he was growing up, as his dad was in the Army Guard. I grew up in the small towns. Great Falls is the largest town Ive lived in.

Technically, the Great Falls Tribune building was acquired by Theodore Mitchells TJM Holdings, LLC, according to public records reviewed by the Sun Times. For a period of time the building will be leased to the church and ownership will then transfer to the New City Church. Mitchell is a member of the New City congregation.

+4 Will Newspaper Production Return To The Electric City? As soon as the presses at The Great Falls Tribune and Rivers Edge Press went silent, the pu

When the pastor took his first look inside the building back on August 19 2021, he thought, we can make this work.

New City Church goes beyond the sanctuary walls to work in, and for, their community. They adopted a local elementary school. We found that there were kids who could not afford lunches, Pastor Nate told the Sun Times, and even though there were programs to help, the kids and their parents had to deal with paperwork. Some families would find that overwhelming.

So the church found a workaround, they volunteered to pay for the lunches for the kids whose family could not afford the meals, no strings attached. The church is also active with area nonprofits, such as Great Falls Rescue Mission.

The big Metroliner press has been sent to be recycled. Where the three-story tall press once was, there is now a gaping hole. The mail-room once housed an inserter, a machine that was used to assemble the different sections of the Tribune into a single newspaper. The inserter also added those weekly grocery store inserts into your Wednesday papers. The inserter has also gone to the scrapyard. The room next door is where the Rivers Edge printing press sits, collecting dust and cobwebs.

The mail-room and Rivers Edge pressroom will be combined into one large room. Since the mail-room roof is lower than the pressroom, the mail-room ceiling will be removed and a new ceiling, matching the height of the pressroom, will be constructed. This area will become the new sanctuary.

Where the Metroliner press was, that massive hole will be left open with railings installed, and that area will be the central entrance into the building. Pastor Nate hopes that they will be able to preserve the footprint in the concrete floor from the old Metroliner press as a nod to the past life of the 51,000 square foot building. This open space will have seating, and there will be a coffee shop. Upstairs, where the production offices and pre-press equipment once stood, those spaces will be converted into areas for adult education.

During our interview, the pastor and his dad spoke about the media in Great Falls, expressing some sadness that The Great Falls Tribune has faded from its former glory.

When the Tribune occupied the building the business and circulation offices were on the ground floor while the editorial and news offices were on the second floor. Some of those spaces will be used for the churchs administrative offices while other spaces will be used as a kids area.

There is also a plan to include a private area, accessible day and night via keycard, for local law enforcement. It will include a coffee maker, soft drinks and snacks for county deputies and officers. Pastor Nate said the area will also feature notes of encouragement from the congregation intended to lift the spirits of the officers.

Brett Doney, President and CEO of Great Falls Montana Development Authority, when asked about the new tennant at 205 Riverside Drive told the Sun Times, Anytime a vacant property gets put back into productive use is a positive step for the community and market.

Rick Tryon, Great Falls City Commissioner, when informed of the plans for the old Trib facility told the Sun Times, Thats great. Thats a nice building, and its always good news when an empty building is put to use.

Tryon recalled when the new building was completed. At the time, Tryon was on the Great Falls Tribunes Reader Panel. When the building was completed I was there for a panel meeting, which was held in the conference room. Rich Ecke was giving me a tour, and Rich pointed out a small cubicle across the hall from the conference room and thats where the Tribunes reporters and staff would get massages. The Tribune brought in a masseuse for massages.

Great Falls Mayor Bob Kelley, asked to comment on the sale of the property and New Citys plans, told the Sun Times, Were all for it! Thats a great location. The mayor added, No community wants to see a vacant building in their town. We really applaud the people involved for this.

The first time I met with Pastor Nate and his father, I asked them if, considering the beautiful view of the Missouri River, and now with a church soon to be on the banks of the Missouri, if they would be doing river Baptisms. The senior Pastor Swanson said that he had once done a Baptism in the Missouri, but that the gentleman found out that the water was colder than expected. When we sat down in the former Great Falls Tribune lunchroom for this interview, Pastor Nate said that they had been considering river Baptisms, but that the river temperatures would have to be taken into consideration.
Demand for Scottish land is anticipated to continue this year as its role in combatting climate change becomes increasingly valued by those striving to sequester carbon or offset unavoidable emissions, says Savills.

It estimates that a total of 28,500 acres, which were historically managed for and defined as traditional sporting estates, were sold last year as investments in natural capital.

This can be defined as the worlds stock of natural resources such as earth, air, water, soil and biodiversity to name just a few.

The number of estates sold for this stated purpose increased threefold from 2020 and accounted for over half of the total number of traditional sporting estates sold.

Evelyn Channing, Savills head of rural agency in Scotland, said the market for Scottish rural estates was always modest, in terms of transaction numbers, but it had been particularly active in recent months.

During the second half of 2021, some extraordinarily high prices had been reported, she said, including sales to well-funded parties buying primarily for environmental reasons.

What were now seeing is a pro-active and growing pool of investment funds, institutions and individuals in the market for large land holdings on which to carry out woodland creation, peatland restoration and ecological restoration schemes.

In addition, there are a growing number of existing Scottish landowners whose management objectives are environmentally or ecologically led," Ms Channing explained.

Such deals illustrate the commitment of investors to deliver their ESG agendas: while some purchasers primary motivation may be to generate validated carbon credits, many of our buyers also perceive value in the co-benefits of investing in nature.

"For example improving water quality, or creating enhanced biodiversity - as well providing societal benefits such as providing public access to landscapes or creating rural jobs.

According to Savills, the opportunity to create new woodlands on rural estates has proved to be the most significant factor in determining price.

Good quality land suited to commercial forestry planting now achieves 10,000 to 12,500/ha, and native woodlands from 4,000 to 7,000/ha.

The proportion of traditional sporting estate purchases among last years transactions may have reduced last year, but according to Savills, they remain an important element of the market.

Ms Channing explained that Scottish estates had long held appeal for the more traditional style of buyer.

"Whilst the purchase price of these may be considerably higher than a few years ago, the alternative longer term investment potential of some, given new and potentially growing environmental values, is providing greater comfort to such buyers.
The NFU has launched a new programme specifically focused on growing the understanding of British food and farming within secondary schools.

The union is extending its award-winning education portfolio with the launch of its new Farmers for Schools programme.

It will build on its work in primary schools with the successful Farmvention challenge and Farming STEMterprise project.

The new programme will see farmer ambassadors provide teenagers with first-hand experiences about how their food is produced, along ag career opportunities.

With Farmers for Schools originally due to start in 2020, the NFU Education team is now back working with schools and farmers o find ambassadors to get involved2

One current ambassador, Luke Abblitt, said the Farmers for Schools programme was "so important in bridging knowledge gaps".

"I truly believe that children need to learn where their food comes from, and who is better to explain this than the farmers and growers producing it?

"Ive done school talks in the past and have been concerned by how removed students are from the way food is produced and its role in nature.

"TV programmes have got people thinking and understanding more about agriculture, and now is the time to build on that and teach the next generation of workers and consumers about British food and farming.

NFU President Minette Batters said the new programme would give farmers the opportunity to pass on their knowledge and expertise to the next generation.

She said it would also allow producers to talk about farmings role in producing food for the nation and the role it plays in caring for the environment.

With the popularity of our Farmvention competition, we see year-on-year how much the nations students love to get involved with farming as part of their education.

"I would encourage anyone to sign up and join the 70 other Farmers for Schools ambassadors already involved.

The NFU says there will be seven training sessions for Farmers for Schools ambassadors located across the country, the first taking place on 27 April 2022.

This will be an ongoing rolling programme which farmers can join at any time.
Campaigners are calling on the NI government to scrap proposals for shortening the life of all beef cattle to a maximum of 24 months in a bid to slash emissions.

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) warns that the policy would be 'counter-productive' to the government's aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from beef production.

The proposal is included in Northern Ireland's most significant agricultural consultations in the last 50 years, which closed for responses today (15 February).

It set out 14 measures and initiatives which aim to address the four key outcomes of increased productivity, improved resilience, environmental sustainability and a responsive supply chain.

But the RBST warns the 24-month limit proposal would discourage farming with native cattle breeds, as they produced "high quality beef to high environmental standards".

This will, in turn, thwart the consumer trend towards supporting the environment by eating less but better meat, the charity says.

RBST chief executive, Christopher Price urged the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) to recognise the role native cattle breeds play.

Breeds such as the Irish Moiled were bred for these landscapes and they bring together commercial viability with environmental value, including their fantastic support for biodiversity through conservation grazing.

"They are slow-growing breeds and an obligatory slaughter limit of 24 months does not suit this type of farming.

"If we lose our native breeds, we lose all their genetic and natural capital value too."

In its consultation response, RBST also raises concerns about the welfare and ethical issues associated with high growth rates and early slaughter.

Mr Price added: "DAERA should encourage this direction of travel as a more effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, rather than blocking it with a one-size-fits-all 24 month rule.

In its consultation response, RBST also raises concerns about the welfare issues associated with high growth rates and early slaughter.
The pig sector has urged UK retailers to follow Waitrose after it made a fresh pledge to pay farmers a fair price during the backlog crisis.

Waitrose said it would be extending its commitment to pay a 'fair and sustainable' minimum price for pork to all of its pig producers.

The pledge has been made as prices continue to plummet, alongside record costs of production and an on-farm backlog of approximately 200,000 pigs.

The sector has faced a range of challenges, including the loss of exports to the Chinese market for certain pig processors, global disruption to CO2 supplies, and crippling labour shortages.

Waitrose's move extends its previous commitment announced in November 2021, which it agreed to review on a regular basis.

Announcing the price pledge, the retailer warned the pig sector was facing 'the biggest crisis in a generation', with 'falling prices impacting financial sustainability'.

Waitrose still remains the only UK supermarket chain to support the sector through direct payments to farmers.

Jake Pickering, the retailer's senior agriculture manager said: We need to support our farmers before its too late to save their bacon.

"They kept food on our tables through the pandemic, and we need to help them through their tough times too.

By guaranteeing a base price for pork, were protecting farmers for the months ahead and allowing them to plan for a long-term, sustainable future.

The National Pig Association (NPA) welcomed the retailer's renewed pledge, urging other supermarket chains to follow suit.

NPA chairman Rob Mutimer said: "The commitment made shows that there is a huge amount retailers can do in terms of the price and promotion of British pork.

"Only with their support can we plan for a sustainable future for our industry."

Mr Mutimer urged other retailers to follow, as did Mr Pickering, who said: Were urging other competitors to follow our lead, committing to 100% British pork and supporting farmers when it matters most.

Details of the support were shared at the recent pig crisis summit, chaired by Defra farming minister Victoria Prentis last week.

Following the summit, the government said it would launch a review of supply chain fairness in the pig sector.
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A homeless man charged with murdering a woman in her Chinatown apartment stabbed her more than 40 times during a sexually-motivated break-in, prosecutors said Monday.

Assamad Nash, 25, went into a heinous frenzy after stalking Christina Lee in her Chrystie St. building as she walked up to her sixth-floor apartment early Sunday, prosecutors revealed at Nashs arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

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He even tried to trick cops who responded into leaving  mimicking a womans voice and telling officers outside that he didnt need police, Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said.

Assamad Nash, center, being escorted by police officers from the 5th Precinct Monday after his arrest in the Sunday stabbing death of Christina Luna Lee. (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)

Nash, whos charged with murder, burglary, and sexually-motivated burglary, was ordered held without bail Monday night. He could face life without parole, Yoran said.

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According to a criminal complaint, about 4:20 a.m. Sunday, Nash pushed the door of Lees building open before it closed behind her, then kept a flight of stairs between them as she walked to her apartment, according to a criminal complaint.

When Lee, 35, got to her door, he ran toward it and pushed his way inside, the complaint alleges.

About two minutes later, a neighbor heard a womans screaming for help, and a mans voice, saying, Calm down, I have a gun, the complaint alleges.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

When police arrived, they couldnt get into the apartment, Yoran said. They heard Lees cries for help, but she soon went quiet.

Thats when Nash called out pretending to be a woman, Yoran said.

Nash tried to get out through the fire escape, but when he saw a cop on the roof, he climbed back inside, the complaint said.

Members of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit broke down the door and found Lee on the bathroom floor, naked from the waist up, covered with blood and stabbed more than 40 times, according to Yoran.

Nash was hiding under a bed, with a stab wound to his torso and cuts on his hands and torso.

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Yoran said prosecutors are still looking into whether racist hate motivated Nash. Lee was Asian, while Nash is Black.

Nash has eight prior arrests in New York City, mostly for low-level subway offenses. He was out on supervised release in three misdemeanor cases since September, including a Sept. 28 case in which hes accused of punching a man at a subway turnstile.
While Erling Haaland works to recover of his muscular problems, in Germany do not cease the rumours on the future of the '9' of the Borussia Dortmund. It is clear that the FC Barcelona and the Real Madrid are the most likely destinations for the Norwegian, and this Monday the newspaper 'Bild' encouraged to plant to the 'merengues' with advantage for fichar to the forward. "Haaland, to the Real Madrid... But when?", it titled the journalist Marcel Reif, ensuring that the 'killer' already has pactado his arrival to Santiago Bernabeu.

In this context, the Madrid does not contemplate the signing of Haaland for this summer. The 'white' have like priority close the arrival of Kylian Mbappe, by which would be impossible to close both signings in the next market. The plans of Florentino Perez go through to carry to the player of 21 years to Santiago Bernabeu in 2023, once Karim Benzema culminate his agreement. The president wants that Erling was the '9' of the new sportive project, sharing leadership with Mbappe in a similar forward to which does years conformed Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bleat and the same Benzema, the remembered 'BBC'.

For the 'killer', the attitude of the Dortmund in the last weeks has not been the correct. The directive of the 'BVB' want to that the forward define already his future, but the surroundings of the player has left clear that will not speak more until the summer. With agreement until June of 2024 and a clause liberatoria of 75 millions, in the Borussia understand is moment to sign a contractual extension that ensure to the institution a traspaso much more high, chord to the value of current market of the player, estimated in 150 million euros by the web 'Transfermarkt'.

By his part, in Catalonia trust that the agent of the player, Mino Raiola, play a transcendental paper in the decision of the centrodelantero. Joan Laporta promised the signing of the Norwegian and the directive trusts to obtain the resources to manage his arrival, in spite of the 'fair play' financial. The traspaso of Erling rondaria the 350 'kilos', including the traspaso, the wage of the player and the 'prime' that his agent and his father have ensured; a figure impagable in these moments for the cules.

In Manchester also can have fight by Haaland

In addition to Barca and Madrid, in Manchester also want to to the 'crack' of the Dortmund. City And United are had to negotiate with Raiola and the Borussia to carry to the player to the Premier League. In the City, Guardiola would have asked the arrival of a forward for the next season and the profile of the Norwegian is perfect for the aspirations of the club. In the United, by his part, the disappointing 2021-22 of the club supposes radical changes in summer, beginning by the arrival of the Argentinian Mauritius Pochettino to the bench of Old Trafford. Edison Cavani Will leave in June and, probably, Cristiano Ronaldo also, by which the 'network devils' will go by a '9' in summer. The fight by Haaland recently begins.
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Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 14, 2022) - High Fusion Inc. (CSE: FUZN) ("High Fusion" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it will complete a conversion of its second secured debentures and certain outstanding payables.

Holders of all the Company's 9% Subordinated Secured Convertible Debentures (the "Debentures") have approved an amendment to the conversion price from $4.00 to $0.06 and in connection there with have agreed to convert such indebtedness into subordinate voting shares of the Company ("Debenture Conversion"). Pursuant to the Debenture Conversion it is anticipated that High Fusion will issue 30,465,690 subordinate voting shares for settlement of the principal balance of $1,807,000 plus accrued interest to the date of conversion of $20,941.

In addition, the Company will settle outstanding loans and payables representing $1,962,605 for the conversion into subordinate voting shares of the Company at a price of $.06 ("Payables Conversion"). Pursuant to the Payables Conversion, it is anticipated that High Fusion will issue 32,710,087 subordinate voting shares on February 16, 2022.

Pursuant to the Payables Conversion, 22,433,569 subordinate voting shares will be issued to certain non-arm's length parties ("Insiders") to settle $1,346,014 of obligations of High Fusion to such Insiders. Pursuant to the Debenture Conversion, 5,900,936 subordinate voting shares will be issued to certain Insiders to settle $354,056 of High Fusion debenture principal and interest to such Insiders. Pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"), the Debt Settlement with Insiders constituted a "related party transaction" as certain transferees were considered to be related parties to High Fusion. The Company relied on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101 (pursuant to subsections 5.5(a) and 5.7(a)) as the fair market value of the securities transferred to, and the consideration received from, the Insiders did not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. The Debt Settlement has been approved by all of the independent directors of the Company. The Company did not file a material change report 21 days before the completion of the Debt Settlement as the participation of the Insiders had not been confirmed at that time.

Following the completion of the Debenture Conversion and Payable Conversion High Fusion will have 118,784,463 Subordinate Voting Shares and 6,307,561 Multiple Voting Shares.

About High Fusion Inc.

High Fusion Inc. (formerly Nutritional High International Inc.) is focused on developing and manufacturing branded products in the cannabis industry with a specific focus on flower, pro-rolls, vapes, edibles and oil extracts for medical and adult recreational use. The Company operates and controls licenses in California, Colorado and Oregon.

High Fusion has manufacturing, retail and grow operations in California through its acquisition of the business of OutCo and owns and operates oil extraction and edible manufacturing facilities in Colorado and Oregon. The Company's brand portfolio includes its award winning FLI edibles and vape product, along with a number of new brands including Red Octopus and Dubbi Brothers in addition to the OutCo and Thrive brands recently acquired.

For updates on the Company's activities and highlights of the Company's press releases and other media coverage, please visit www.high-fusion.com.

For further information, please contact:

High Fusion Inc.

Robert Wilson, Chief Financial Officer

416-666-4005

Email: rwilson@nutritionalhigh.com

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC., NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements include statements regarding: the timing of the issuance of the subordinate voting shares in connection with the Payables Conversion and Debenture Conversion and statements regarding the development of the Company's business . These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. This forward-looking information reflects the Company's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions the Company believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the ability of the Company to successfully execute its business plans; legal changes relating to the cannabis and psychedelic industries proceeding as anticipated; and the Company's continued response and ability to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic being consistent with, or better than, its ability and response to date.

The Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; the actual results of the Company's future operations; competition; changes in legislation affecting the Company; obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals including acquiring and renewing U.S. state, local or other licenses, the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution, regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, market and general economic conditions of the cannabis sector or otherwise; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals; risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, service disruptions, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; and a deterioration of financial markets that could limit the Company's ability to obtain external financing.

A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the Company's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

Forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this press release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this press release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. However, the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113793
All three defendants being tried for hate crimes in federal court used racial slurs to describe Black people, prosecutors of Ahmaud Arberys killers said on the first day of their trial.

In opening statements on Monday, the prosecution said they had proof that each defendant routinely made racist comments. On Tuesday, prosecutors began calling the witnesses to those comments to the stand.

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The first to be called included two neighbors of the accused who testified what they had seen that day, and one of the responding investigators, who described how a crime scene is processed and what her procedure had been that day, according to The Associated Press.

Even though the crimes are labeled hate crimes, the prosecution does not have to prove hate, just that the three men  father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William Roddie Bryan  chased the Black jogger down because of the color of his skin, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bobbi Bernstein told the jury.

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In this file photo, Defendant Gregory McMichael looks on during his trial along with and his son, Travis McMichael, and a neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan,on Nov. 19, 2021, at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga. (OCTAVIO JONES/AP)

Travis McMichael commonly referred to Black people as animals, criminals, monkeys, sub-human savages, the prosecution said, prefaced with an apology to those who might be harmed by hearing those and worse epithets.

Greg McMichael, for his part, expressed relief at the death of civil rights activist and former Georgia state representative in 2015, calling Blacks nothing but trouble, he allegedly told a witness during his tenure at a local district attorneys office. That witness will testify, The Daily Beast said.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

Bryan used a racial slur to describe his daughters boyfriend when she was dating a Black man, someone he also called a monkey.

In this file photo, William "Roddie" Bryan listens to opening statements at the Glynn County Courthouse, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, in Brunswick, Ga. (OCTAVIO JONES/AP)

Defense attorneys worked to distance their clients behavior from their language, saying that while the racist slurs were offensive and indefensible, it was Arberys actions, not his skin color, that caused them to assume he was exhibiting criminal behavior.

Greg and Travis followed Ahmaud Arbery not because he was a Black man, but because he was the man illegally entering the house, Greg McMichaels attorney, A.J. Balbo, told the jury, while allowing that his client used cringeworthy language.

The McMichaels grabbed guns and set off after Arbery in a pickup truck on Feb. 23, 2020, suspecting him of burglarizing a home under construction on their block  even though surveillance video had shown several people entering the windowless, doorless site. Joined by Bryan, they chased him down, cornered him and then Travis McMichael shot him in the scuffle that ensued. Bryan recorded it on his cellphone in video, and charges were not laid until after the video leaked online two months later.

All three men were convicted of murder in state court last fall and sentenced to life in prison. Their current trial is a separate case in U.S. District Court to address charges of violating Arberys civil rights and targeting him for being Black. They have pleaded not guilty.

They made assumptions about Ahmaud because of the color of his skin, and it would not have happened [if] he was white, Bernstein told jurors on Monday.

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 14, 2022) - Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc. (CSE: VEGI) (OTCQB: VGGIF) (FSE: 77I) ("Boosh" or the "Company") wishes to clarify its disclosures in its press release issued earlier today.

The Company clarifies that, as announced in its press release dated February 11, 2022, it has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Beanfields Inc. (the "Assets"). The acquisition of the Assets has not yet completed and is currently anticipated to close on Wednesday, February 16, 2022. As a result, the revenue base of Boosh is not yet impacted.

The Assets generated unaudited revenues of CA$14,599,920during the year ended December 31, 2021. These past results are not a guarantee of future performance nor can there be any certainty that the Assets will generate similar revenues under the operation of Boosh or that Boosh will successfully integrate the Asset's operations into its own. While Boosh anticipates operational savings in completing the acquisition, there can be no certainty that cost-saving measures will be effective. Beanfields' expenses historically exceeded its revenues, though it had recently begun significant re-structuring measures. Boosh has commenced the preparation of audited financial statements of the Assets for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 (the "Audited Statements").

As previously announced, as consideration for the Assets, Boosh will issue an aggregate of eight million common shares to the vendors of the assets. All of the payment shares will be subject to a six-month contractual hold period, in addition to resale restrictions required under applicable securities laws in Canada and the United States. Thereafter, the holders have agreed that not more than 4 per cent of the payment shares (or 320,000 payment shares) may be sold in any calendar month with certain exceptions. Boosh will also pay $400,000 (U.S.) through the issuance of a promissory note to the vendors bearing interest at a rate of 6 per cent per annum, with interest-only payments until the 18-month maturity of the note, which note may also be prepaid at any time without penalty. Finally, Boosh will also commit to providing Beanfields aggregate working capital financing of $1-million (U.S.), to be expended at the discretion of Boosh, of which $250,000 (U.S.) was financed upon the execution of the asset purchase agreement and the rest is to be financed on or before March 10, 2022. In the event that the Audited Statements demonstrate a variance of 20 per cent or greater of the representations made concerning the financial condition of the assets, Boosh may unwind the acquisition of the assets, cancel the note and return to treasury the payment shares within 120 days of closing.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Jim Pakulis

Chief Executive Officer

jpakulis@booshfood.com

Telephone: (833) 882-6674

www.Booshfood.com

About Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc.:

Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary, Boosh Food (www.booshfood.com), offers high quality, non-GMO, gluten free, 100% plant-based nutritional comfort foods for the whole family. We currently offer 24 plant-based SKU's ranging from frozen meals, to refrigerated entrees to shelf stable Mac & Cheezes, and are sold throughout Canada. Boosh, good for you and good for planet earth.

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. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, expectations, achievements or performance may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, the Company's plans in respect of the Assets, the potential revenues of the Assets and the Company's intention to complete the acquisition of the Assets.. Any number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as well as future results. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it 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 assumes 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.

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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113792
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Japan will on Tuesday release preliminary Q4 numbers for gross domestic product, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. GDP is expected to rise 1.4 percent on quarter and 5.8 percent on year after sinking 0.9 percent on quarter and 3.6 percent on year in the previous three months. Capex is tipped to add 0.5 percent on quarter after dropping 2.3 percent in Q3. Japan also will see final December figures for industrial production; in November, output was up 7.0 percent on month and 5.1 percent on year. The Reserve Bank of Australia will release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on February 1. At the meeting, the RBA decided to discontinue the bond purchase program and left its key rate unchanged at a record low of 0.10 percent. Indonesia will provide January numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to surged 52.66 percent on year, up from 47.93 percent in December. Exports are called higher by an annual 32.7 percent, slowing from 35.3 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $0.05 billion, down from $1.02 billion a month earlier. 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.
- Korea's first remittance service to connect with Weixin

- Partnership enables fast and convenient money transfers to Weixin users in China from WireBarley's 11 sending countries, including Korea, the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

- Customers can now enjoy an enhanced remittance experience by receiving funds through Weixin, the mainland Chinese version of WeChat.

- Through the end of February, WireBarley will offer a US$20 coupon (or its equivalent in local currency) for each new customer who completes a remittance to a Weixin user in China.

SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WireBarley today announced its partnership with Tencent Financial Technology for overseas remittance service, specifically for international money transfers to China through Weixin, the mainland Chinese version of WeChat.

WireBarley is the first Korean fintech company to partner with Tencent Financial Technology for inbound remittance service into China through Weixin. The partnership between the two tech companies is expected to further enhance the overall user convenience. When a WireBarley user sends money to China, a recipient can now easily receive the money through Weixin, which has gradually evolved from a social communication app to being a way of life in China.

Weixin will be added as an option and available between corridors from WireBarley's 11 sending countries, including Korea, the U.S., and Canada, to China.

"We're pleased to announce this partnership with WireBarley to further expand Tencent Financial Technology's global reach. The collaboration marks another important step towards enabling Chinese residing worldwide to send money more conveniently to Weixin users in China," said Wenhui Yang, General Manager, Tencent Financial Technology Asia Pacific.

"Our partnership with Tencent Financial Technology enables us to offer more convenient remittance service and delivery methods for customers sending funds to China. Together with our 50 partner companies, we plan to build a fintech ecosystem without borders. We aim to provide a convenient and safe cross-border remittance experience to our worldwide customers," said Joongwon John Yoo, CEO of WireBarley.

All new customers remitting funds to Weixin users in China will receive a US$20 WireBarley coupon (or its equivalent in local currency) when the transaction is successfully completed through the end of February. The promotion is applicable for all remittances made to China from WireBarley's 11 sending countries - Korea, Australia, the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Irelands, and more.

WireBarley

Established in 2016, WireBarley grew exponentially with a strong foothold in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore. Recently, the fintech has further strengthened its presence as a global brand with its expansion into the U.S. and Canada markets, for the first time as a Korean overseas remittance company. Headquartered in South Korea, it has multiple subsidiaries worldwide in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the U.S. WireBarley's FX and corporate treasury center in Hong Kong, which is one of the largest FX trading hubs in the world, plays a key role in enabling effective FX management and strong compliance practicality and formulating strategic partnerships with key banks and payment players in the Asia Pacific. With 12 outbound and 44 inbound countries, WireBarley currently offers over 520 corridors for personal remittance. The company recently expanded into providing B2B remittance and e-wallet services, as it seeks to be not only Asia's leading remittance company but to leap forward to become a global total payment platform.

www.wirebarley.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1743725/WireBarley_color_Logo.jpg
SANTA CLARA (dpa-AFX) - Chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC) is nearing a deal to buy Israeli chip company Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (TSEM) for about $6 billion, according to several reports citing people familiar with the matter. A deal could be announced as soon as this week, assuming the talks don't fall apart, the reports said. TSEM closed Monday regular trading at $33.13 down $0.67 or 1.98%. But in the after hours trading, the stock gained $15.92 or 48.05%. Last month, Intel announced plans for an initial investment of more than $20 billion to construct two new leading-edge chip factories in Ohio. Construction of the two Intel processor factories in Licking County, Ohio was expected to begin in late 2022, with production coming online at the end of 2025. 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.
Dallas, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - February 14, 2022) - The Essential Coin is proud to announce the first step toward a brand new cryptocurrency ecosystem.

What Is The Essential Coin (ESC)?

The Essential Coin is a utility ecosystem that is focused on continuous, sustainable and steady growth. The main objective of the project is to offer as much value and utility to the community members as possible. ESC's roadmap includes an advanced NFT Marketplace (named Epoch) where users can mint, trade, showcase, auction and stake their NFTs, a staking platform, farming tools and a swap platform, all of which will be centrally connected to the ESC token. The ESC project has also launched a set of unique physical coins which comes with a NFT. ESC aims to put its tokens to real life use to keep generating new revenue streams for the holders.





The Essential Coin

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8519/113743_essentialcoin1.jpg

The project was launched on Smart Chain in December 2021. The token contract address is 0x4c48cca6153Db911002F965D22fdeFcD95f33BE9.

The Essential Coin Team

The team behind The Essential Coin made it their mission on their very first day to publicly reveal themselves - and they made good on that promise. The team is doxxed and has been KYC'd with various organizations. The names and faces of the team are prominently featured on The Essential Coin website. In addition to that, the team regularly hosts AMA's on their Twitter Spaces and Telegram, where at times they have live video interactions with their holders on the latter platform.





Epoch

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8519/113743_essentialcoin2.jpg

The team is international, consisting of people with various expertise and proven track records. They have experienced developers, marketing and promotions managers, graphic designers and successful crypto traders.

The Essential Coin team has ambitions to make a coin with utility and real-world usefulness. Their roadmap has a consistent stream of goals to be accomplished in the months and years to come. ESC has delivered what has been said and described in the roadmap and promise to keep delivering.

About The Token Economics

The Essential Coin (ESC) launched with a total supply of 1 Quadrillion tokens and burnt 25% of total supply on launch, substantially cutting the total supply and raising the value of the ESC that remained. On top of that, an automatic buy-back-and-burn mechanism is integrated into the very code of The Essential Coin Smart Contract, meaning ESC becomes even more scarce with each buy and sell transaction. At the time of writing this article the burned percentage of ESC is 26.89 and the Circulating Supply stands at 73.11%.

The ESC contract includes reflections, meaning just by holding ESC tokens in your wallet you can earn more native tokens with every transaction. 5% of every transaction is offered as reflections to its holders.

What makes The Essential Coin unique?

The project has completed two audits by reputed firms, Certik and TechRate with no critical findings and passed those audits with flying colors. The ownership of the contract is renounced so no owner privileges are available to the team. The marketing wallet is a multi-sig Gnosis Safe which requires multiple approvals within the team to carry out any transaction. The liquidity (on PancakeSwap) is locked for two years. The team has taken great security measures to safeguard its investors. With many utilities planned, ESC's ultimate goal is to have their own BLOCKCHAIN and become one of the top ten altcoins.

The token is listed on PancakeSwap (DEX) and Lbank (CEX). The team also plans to list on many other centralized exchanges.

For more information contact info@theessentialcoin.com.

Useful Links

1. Website: https://theessentialcoin.org

2. PancakeSwap: https://pancakeswap.finance/swap?outputCurrency=0x4c48cca6153Db911002F965D22fdeFcD95f33BE9

3. Certik Audit: https://www.certik.com/projects/the-essential-coin

4. CoinmarketCap (Market Data): https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/the-essential-coin/

5. Twitter: https://twitter.com/essentialESC

6. Telegram: https://t.me/the_essential_coin

7. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Essential-Coin-108521301658681

8. Discord: https://discord.gg/unrRSQQcXY

9. Tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPd2UMrs6

10 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheEssentialCoin





The Essential Coin

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8519/113743_essentialcoin3.jpg

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113743
Paris, February 15, 2022 - 7:00 am

PRESS RELEASE

Eramet: SLN takes a major step forward in its plan

The Government of New Caledonia issued unanimouslythe export authorisations for Societe Le Nickel up to 2 million tons of nickel ore, which brings its annual export authorisation up to 6 million tons.

The announcement was made today in New Caledonia during a joint press conference between the New Caledonian Government and SLN.

Eramet welcomes this decision which gives SLN the framework for action it needs in order to implement the mining part of its rescue plan.

Since the arrival of low-cost producers a decade ago, SLN has had to adapt by rebalancing its mining and metallurgical activities in order to remain competitive.

In April 2019, SLN had obtained a first export authorisation of 4 million tons of ore which could not be transformed in New Caledonia. After 2.5 million tons in 2020, SLN has exported nearly 3 million tons in 2021, a year marked by the disruption of SLN's activities, notably link to the health crisis.

In 2022, the ramp-up should allow the company to exceed 4 million tons of exports. The ramp-up to 6 million tons will take place until 2024.

More than 300 people have been recruited, mainly in the Northern Province, in mining villages and their employment area, in order to support this program, and nearly 200 new recruitments are to be expected before 2024.

SLN's priority will still be to supply its Doniambo plant with suitable ore in order to transform it into ferronickel.

In line with Eramet's commitments, SLN supports the development of this strengthened societal and civic approach in favor of the environment and the populations living near the sites in both provinces.

The fulfilment of SLN's project for the future also relies on the significant reduction in energy costs for the Doniambo plant. Reflection on access to competitive electricity and the power plant project to supply Doniambo will have to be accelerated in 2022.

Christel Bories, CEO and Chair of Eramet, commented:

 I would like to thank the Government of New Caledonia as well as all stakeholders who contributed to this decision. We are attached, alongside with the New Caledonian authorities, to seeing SLN trace a new path. 

Calendar

2.23.2022: Publication of 2021 Group annual results

4.28.2022: Publication of 2022 Group first-quarter turnover

ABOUT ERAMET

Eramet transforms the Earth's mineral resources to provide sustainable and responsible solutions to the growth of the industry and to the challenges of the energy transition.

Its 13,000 employees are committed to this through their civic and contributory approach in all the countries where the mining and metallurgical group is present.

Manganese, nickel, mineral sands, lithium, and cobalt: Eramet recovers and develops metals that are essential to the construction of a more sustainable world.

As a privileged partner of its industrial clients, the Group contributes to making robust and resistant infrastructures and constructions, more efficient means of mobility, safer health tools and more efficient telecommunications devices.

Fully committed to the era of metals, Eramet's ambition is to become a reference for the responsible transformation of the Earth's mineral resources for living well together.

www. eramet .com

INVESTOR CONTACT



Director of Investor Relations



Sandrine Nourry-Dabi

T. +33 1 45 38 37 02

sandrine.nourrydabi@eramet.com (mailto:sandrine.nourrydabi@eramet.com)











PRESS CONTACT







Communications Director



Pauline Briand



pauline.briand@eramet.com (mailto:pauline.briand@eramet.com)







Image 7



Marie Artzner

T. +33 1 53 70 74 31 | M. +33 6 75 74 31 73

martzner@image7.fr (mailto:martzner@image7.fr)

Attachment


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Fresno, California -based Candies Tolteca is recalling certain TOLTECA brand Saladitos dried plums citing the potential to be contaminated with lead, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.



The recall involves 1.5 oz packages of 'Saladitos' salted dried plums and 1.5 oz packages of 'Saladitos con Chile y Limon' dried plums with chili & lemon.



Both Saladitos items are packaged in a clear cellophane bag. Saladitos salted dried plums can be identified with UPC Code 704927600694, while Saladitos con Chile y Limon can be identified with UPC Code 704927600700.



The lot number 21019 is stamped on the front of the package, along with the expiration dates of 05/20/2022 for the Saladitos and 01/20/2022 for the Saladitos Con Chile y Limon.



Independent distributors and company Route Sales Representatives sold and/or distributed the Saladito products in California, Nevada & Utah. They in turn sold the affected products to many retail stores, including supermarkets, gas stations and convenient stores.



The recall was initiated after the California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued the public notice, with the knowledge of the California Department of Public Health and the FDA.



According to the agency, lead is a toxic substance present in the environment in small amounts and everyone is exposed to some lead from daily actions.



However, exposure to larger amounts of lead can cause poisoning. Symptoms can include abdominal pain, vomiting, lethargy, irritability, weakness, behavior or mood changes, delirium, seizures, and coma. Further, heavy metal poisoning in children can cause learning disabilities, developmental delays, and lower IQ scores.



However, the company has not received any reports of illness related to the recalled products to date.



The company discontinued its sale of both affected products since on or about June 23, 2021 immediately after having received a Notice of Violation concerning the Prop 65 warning label.



In similar recalls, Los Angeles, California-based Rojas Inc. last week called back Plain Dried Salted Plums in 0.5oz packages citing the potential to have elevated levels of lead.



Brooklyn, New York-based Murray Int'l Trading in November last year called back Herbal Doctor Brand Angelicae Sinensis for the possible presence of elevated levels of lead and cadmium.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



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TOKYO, Feb 15, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu today announced that it has been recognized with the Mayor's Award as an "Osaka City Leading Company in Women's Participation" in the Large Enterprise category.Osaka City certifies companies that are making outstanding efforts in providing women with a comfortable work environment under its "Osaka City Leading Companies in Women's Participation and Advancement" scheme. Evaluation criteria include factors such as the ratio of female employees in managerial positions, measures to support work-life balance and measures to encourage male employees to take childcare leave. Fujitsu received a 2-star verification.The Mayor's Award is an annual award given to companies that have achieved 2-star verification and have made particularly outstanding efforts. Fujitsu was awarded the First Prize for its outstanding efforts to promote the empowerment of female employees in the Large Enterprise category in 2021.Fujitsu is promoting diversity and inclusion based on the Fujitsu Way(1) and has defined its vision, strategic goals, and priority areas to realize its goal of building an inclusive culture under the slogan "Be Completely You". As one of these priority areas, Fujitsu is promoting respect for diversity and gender equality by establishing an executive sponsor to support gender issues, holding events related to International Women's Day, supporting all employees in balancing childcare or nursing care, and holding career workshops for female members who aim to apply for managerial positions. Going forward, Fujitsu will continue to focus not only on gender issues, but also on a wide range of topics including LGBT+, health and disability, support of diverse cultures and ethnicity, as well as innovative work styles, diverse communication styles, multi-culturalism and will conduct various inclusion initiatives to harness individual diversity.Evaluation points (excerpt from Osaka City press release)In order to encourage the promotion of women in executive and managerial positions, Fujitsu has implemented training programs focused on cultivating a challenging mindset through dialogue with management and female leaders, and has achieved results in increasing the ratio of women in executive and managerial positions.To eliminate concerns and questions about childbirth and childcare leave for employees and to promote understanding among the people around them, Fujitsu is holding seminars to explain the support system to balance work with childcare to all employees as well as panel discussions for employees who have taken childcare leave. By fostering a corporate culture that promotes diverse working styles, the rate of men taking childcare leave has increased notably.To encourage men to participate in childcare, the number of days of "maternity and childcare support leave" that spouses and partners can take before and after childbirth with 100% wage compensation has been increased from 5 days to 20 days, contributing to an improvement in male employees' attitudes about playing an active role in childcare and alleviating the anxiety related to income and career development associated with taking childcare leave.(1) Fujitsu Way :Composed of three principles: the raison d'etre of the Fujitsu Group in society ("Purpose"), important values for the whole Fujitsu Group, and the principles of how each employee should behave in his or her daily activities (code of conduct).About FujitsuFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 126,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$34 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. For more information, please see www.fujitsu.com.Source: Fujitsu LtdCopyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Dal Lab, Europe's 1st and only Med Tech for giving up smoking, launches its series A 3 million  fundraiser

 A potential European pharmacy market estimated at between 1 and 1.5 billion .

 Dal Lab's pre-currency valuation is 25 million .

Dal Lab was created in 2019 by David Martin Diaz, Alexandre Lenormand and Leon Chen, whose first name initials are the source of the word Dal, all three of them businessmen in the world of e-cigarettes.

Given the issues arising from tobacco use and the needs that smoking cessation solutions have so far failed to address, Dal Lab, the Med Tech specialised in smoking cessation, has set itself the task of developing and marketing the first ever high-dose electronic nicotine substitute, available exclusively in pharmacies on the pharmacist's advice or on prescription, and delivering nicotine replacement without requiring smokers to change their habitual behaviour; a combination that increases the success of smoking cessation and therefore reduces tobacco-related morbidity/mortality.

Having in 2020 pursued a successful 915,000 fundraiser through private equity, Dal Lab, a non-listed company, is now launching a series A 3 million  fundraiser.

The new fundraiser is intended to cover its financial requirements until it obtains a marketing licence for its nicotine e-substitute. Dal Lab will thus be financing stability and CE certification trials, pharmacokinetic trials, filing of marketing licence applications and obtaining a refund price, plus setting up its production unit in France.

"We decided to invite new shareholders to join the company with an affordable entry ticket of 50,000 . This offer is associated with a not inconsiderable and rare opportunity, which is potential gain from an annual dividend of 30% of the net result", explains David Martin Diaz, Dal Lab's co-founder and CEO.

A potential European pharmacy market estimated at between 1 and 1,5 billion 

The European market for help to give up smoking, including e-cigarettes, should reach 18.63 billion US$ by 2028, against 7 billion US$ in 2021. It should expand 14.8% per year between 2021 and 2028 (1). E-cigarettes account for just over 50% of the market (2).

The pharmaceutical market for nicotine e-substitutes could capture 15% of the market for e-cigarettes used to give up smoking and thus reach 1 to 1.5 billion  in Europe", believes Alexandre Lenormand, Dal Lab's CEO.

Dal Lab's pre-currency valuation is 25 million 

"Our pre-currency value is now 25 million  . Being the first to enter the market, we believe that we will corner 20% of the market, or between 200 and 300 million  in annual income. Our business plan gives us a projection for the valuation of the company of over 500 million  within 7 years", anticipates David Martin Diaz.

The founders, since the beginning of the year in very high demand amongst investors, have already agreed a significant percentage of the funding.

Investors keen to find out more should contact David Martin Diaz. David@Dal-lab.tech

See this press release on our website at https://www.dal-lab.tech/communiques-de-presse/

1-https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/nicotine-replacement-therapy-market-analysis-by-industry-growth-size-share-demand-trends-and-research-report-2022-01-04?tesla=y

2- https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/nicotine-replacement-therapy-market

Contacts

DAL LAB

5 rue Bernard - 93 000 Bobigny

Contact@dal-lab.tech

+33.767.81.88.69

https://www.dal-lab.tech/

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A manhunt was underway in Mississippi for an injured inmate, who has now twice escaped prison since he was convicted of killing two people in 2014.

Michael Wilson seemingly scaled a 12-foot fence topped with more than 2 feet of razor wire and then fled from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility Sunday night. The 51-year-old inmate was left with substantial cuts and bruises from climbing the fence, state Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain told the Clarion Ledger.

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Despite their efforts to recapture Wilson, he was still able to seek out medical care on two separate occasions since his escape.

He is bandaged on his hands and arms and may have an injury to his right hip, Cain said. Please call 9-1-1 or local police if you see him.

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47-year-old Michael F. Wilson, known as "Pretty Boy Floyd." (Mississippi Department of Corrections)

Wilson first fled from the South Mississippi Correctional Institution on July 5, 2018, but authorities were able to recapture him two days later.

He is supposed to be serving a life sentence for a 2014 double murder in Harrison County in addition to sentences for burglary and possession of a firearm by a felon in Harrison and Jackson counties.

We are placing several employees on administrative leave pending disciplinary action including management as the investigation continues, Cain said.
Kerry Group acquires majority of the shares of c-LEcta GmbH. The previous management of c-LEcta remains on board.

Acquisition promotes c-LEcta's growth potential and allows access to new markets

c-LEcta thanks previous investors for their support and accompaniment on the shared path

c-LEcta, a leading biotechnology company in enzyme engineering and bioprocess development, has announced that it has reached an agreement with Kerry Group for it to acquire a majority shareholding of the company. Kerry is a world-leading taste and nutrition partner for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets. This strategically compelling combination will accelerate Kerry's innovation capabilities in enzyme engineering, fermentation and bio-process development while also enabling c-LEcta to fufill its long term growth potential.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005608/en/

Management c-LEcta: Dr. Marc Struhalla, CEO and Thomas Pfaadt, CFO (Photo: Business Wire)

Dr Marc Struhalla, founder and CEO of c-LEcta, comments: "We are very happy to join Kerry group and their global presence in the food and pharmaceutical sectors gives us access to additional markets. At the same time, their expertise in ingredient technologies and applications is a perfect fit as we continue to drive our growth potential in the future. We will continue to collaborate with our existing industry partners and will of course continue to produce and distribute our products for our valued customers."

Thomas Pfaadt, CFO of c-LEcta adds: "We want to thank our previous investors for the great cooperation over the past years. Without their contribution, such a development would not have been possible. Together, we have achieved a lot and we are thankful for their support."

Commenting on the agreement with c-LEcta, Dr Albert McQuaid, Chief Science and Technology Officer of Kerry, said: "The food and pharmaceutical industries are on the cusp of a new wave of innovation where new developments in biotechnology, synthetic biology and precision fermentation are radically transforming these sectors. c-LEcta is a leader in these new technologies, which includes fermentation-based products such as disruptive new enzymes, and the strategically compelling combination with Kerry will accelerate our innovation capabilities in enzyme engineering, fermentation and bio-process development. Our broad market reach across food and pharma markets, combined with our deep enzyme applications expertise and integrated ingredient technology design, will enable and accelerate the growth potential of c-LEcta's strong portfolio and technology capabilities while also supporting us in the creation of tastier, more sustainable and healthier products."

About c-LEcta

c-LEcta is a leading biotechnology company located in Leipzig, Germany. The company has established itself as a leading player in the realisation of high-value biotechnology products for regulated markets, either as in-house development or in close cooperation with the industry. c-LEcta innovation capability delivers cost-efficient and sustainable production processes, creating growth opportunities across existing and new markets.

About the Kerry Group

Kerry is a world-leading taste and nutrition partner for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets and with its broad portfolio of ingredient solutions reaches more than one billion customers worldwide. Together with their customers, Kerry develops innovative products with great taste, improved nutritional value, and higher functionality, while having a better impact on the environment. Thanks to their leading consumer knowledge, their global RD&A team with more than 1,100 food scientists, and their comprehensive, global presence, Kerry can overcome the complex challenges of their customers with differentiated solutions. Kerry is willing to be a valued partner for their customers and to create a world of sustainable nutrition. For more information, visit kerrygroup.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005608/en/

Contacts:

Kerry Group plc

James Dunny, External Communications Director

Phone: +353 45 930 188

Mobile: +353 86 388 3903

Email: james.dunny@kerry.com

cometis AG

Daniela Simonsen

Phone: +49 (0) 611 205855 35

Fax: +49 (0) 611 205855 66

E-Mail: simonsen@cometis.de
DGAP-News: Topas Therapeutics GmbH / Key word(s): Personnel

Topas Therapeutics Appoints Cristina de Min, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer



15.02.2022 / 09:00

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Topas Therapeutics Appoints Cristina de Min, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer Dr. de Min brings over 25 years' experience in drug development in both big pharma and biotech

She will drive the advancement of Topas' development programs, including lead clinical program TPM203 for treatment of pemphigus vulgaris and TPM502 for treatment of celiac disease Hamburg, February 15, 2022. Topas Therapeutics GmbH (Topas), a private biotechnology company developing immune tolerance-inducing drugs to treat and potentially cure a variety of autoimmune diseases, today announced the appointment of Cristina de Min, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer. In this position, she will be responsible for Topas' clinical development programs based on its proprietary Topas Particle Conjugates technology platform, with a focus on lead product candidate, TPM203, currently in clinical development for the treatment of pemphigus vulgaris, and TPM502 for the treatment of celiac disease, which is expected to enter the clinic in the coming months. Klaus Martin, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, said: "I am thrilled to welcome Cristina to Topas. She is a great addition to our team as she brings a wealth of experience from the translational stage of drug development through regulatory approval. Her strategic acumen combined with her hands-on approach will be invaluable as we move our programs through development and the regulatory process." Dr. de Min spent eleven years at Roche in various executive positions, including Life Cycle Leader for the development of the IL-6 receptor antagonist tocilizumab (Actemra) for rheumatic diseases. She also served as Medical Director of Roche's affiliate in Italy, where she set up the medical department. This included creating a new structure based on therapeutic areas and defining and implementing new processes. Following her years at Roche, she joined Novimmune, serving for nine years as Chief Medical Officer before the company was acquired by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (SOBI). At Novimmune, she set up the clinical development department and was responsible for the global development strategy for drug candidates from translational activities across all phases of clinical development and registration, as well as prioritizing the portfolio. Cristina de Min, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, said: "I am excited to join the Topas team. I have been very impressed with the data generated to date with the Topas Particle Conjugates technology platform, which show the potential of the platform and the opportunity to bring more effective, potentially curative therapies to patients who today have limited treatment options. I look forward to working with the team to advance the product candidates in pemphigus vulgaris and celiac disease, as well as other programs in earlier stages of development, such as in rheumatoid arthritis and Type I diabetes."

About Topas Therapeutics Topas Therapeutics GmbH is a clinical-stage, private biotechnology company, which focuses on developing nanoparticle-based therapeutics to address areas of major unmet need, including autoimmune diseases, allergies, and anti-drug immune responses. The Topas Particle Conjugates technology platform induces antigen-specific immune tolerance by harnessing the liver's natural tolerization capabilities. The Company has several proprietary programs; lead product candidate, TPM203, is in clinical testing for pemphigus vulgaris, an orphan disease. A second program, TPM 502, is being developed for the treatment of celiac disease and expected to enter the clinic in the coming months. Topas has several other proprietary programs, including in rheumatoid arthritis and Type I diabetes, in pre-clinical development. Other programs are in the area of anti-drug immune responses, such as in gene therapy and with anti-drug antibodies, and are available for partnering. Topas' investors are: BioMedPartners, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, EMBL Ventures, Epidarex Capital, Evotec, Gimv and Vesalius Biocapital III. For additional information, please visit www.topas-therapeutics.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

Contacts: Topas Therapeutics GmbH Media Relations Europe Dr. Klaus Martin MC Services AG CEO / Managing Director Anne Hennecke Falkenried 88 Tel: +49 211 529 252 22 20251 Hamburg Email anne.hennecke@mc-services.eu Media Relations U.S. Laurie Doyle Tel: +1 339 832 0752 Email info@topas-therapeutics.com Email laurie.doyle@mc-services.eu Web www.topas-therapeutics.com Web www.mc-services.eu

15.02.2022 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

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NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - Blackstone Inc. (BX), an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity etc. on Tuesday announced that existing investors in Mileway, its 14.7 million square meter pan-European last mile logistics company, have agreed to recapitalize the company for 21 billion euros alongside Blackstone's Core+ strategy, and to hold the business for the long term. Existing Mileway investors have been offered the opportunity to retain or increase their shareholding, or exit for cash. The large majority of capital for the recapitalization is coming from existing investors, demonstrating their strong conviction in Mileway and the sector. Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc has provided a fairness opinion with respect to the consideration to be received and Eastdil Secured International Limited has provided a real estate value fairness opinion, to the existing investors. To further confirm this transaction represents the best available outcome for the existing investors, Blackstone is commencing a 'go-shop' process on behalf of Mileway's current investors, which would be led by Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc and run up to 75 days. The 'go-shop' process would commence immediately. BofA Securities, Eastdil Secured International Limited, Goldman Sachs International, Jones Lang LaSalle Limited, JP Morgan Securities plc, Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, and Rothschild & Co are serving as financial advisors to the existing investors. Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP is serving as legal advisor to Blackstone. Shares of Blackstone Inc. closed Monday's trading at $121.20, down $2.37 or 1.92 percent from previous close. 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.
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Babcock International Group Plc (BAB.L) a British aerospace, defense, and nuclear engineering services provider, said on Tuesday that it has inked a deal to acquire the remaining 50 percent interest in its Australian Naval Ship Management or NSM joint venture or JV, from its partner in Australia, for a consideration of A$60 million, or around 32 million pounds. Founded in 2012, the NSM JV is aimed at to maintain of the Royal Australian Navy's ANZAC class frigates. However, today the business has evolved into a strategic maritime sustainment partner to Australia. For the year to March 31, 2021, NSM reported A$254 million in revenues. 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.
- Major autonomous bus market participants include Volkswagen AG, Continental AG, AB Volvo, Daimler AG, Tesla, Toyota Motor Corporation, Proterra, Navya SAS, Robert Bosch GmbH, Scania AB, and Hyundai Motor Company.

SELBYVILLE, Del., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The autonomous bus market is expected to surpass USD 4 billion by 2028, as reported in a research study by Global Market Insights Inc. Autonomous buses help in improving the road safety level as these vehicles possess the ability to navigate independently. These buses are integrated with sophisticated software, onboard sensors, radars, GPS, and evaluation equipment to generate a 360-degree view of their surroundings, preventing road accidents. Several advantages of autonomous buses such as curbing pollution levels and lower operation costs will support the industry growth.

The automobile industry has been severely impacted due to COVID-19 pandemic. Shortage of raw materials, electric components, and skilled labor force owing to travel restrictions have hampered the manufacturing capabilities of autonomous buses. However, the industry is anticipated to witness swift recovery owing to the development of smart cities and increasing government initiatives to automate transport systems to achieve sustainable economy.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/5105

The intercity applications of autonomous buses are expected to gain traction with the development of specially designed transport routes for these buses. Level 1 and level 2 autonomous buses with features such as cruise control, blind spot monitoring, and lane keeping assist are being used for intercity travel by private & public bus operators.

The North America autonomous bus market is anticipated to grow rapidly through 2028. The market growth can be attributed to increased investments by local government authorities to automate transport systems. The benefits of electric autonomous buses in reducing traffic congestion and environmental pollution are encouraging increased private and public investments in this industry.

Autonomous bus market players are partnering with technology companies to develop new models of autonomous buses. For instance, in January 2022, Gillig, a bus manufacturer, signed a partnership agreement with RR.AI, a developer of autonomous driving systems. The partnership will assist the companies to leverage mutual competencies for the development of passenger buses with self-driving technology and driver-assistance systems.

Some key findings in the autonomous bus market report include:

Rising internet connectivity, development of 5G technology, and rapid technological advancements in AI & IoT fields are anticipated to create lucrative opportunities in the autonomous bus industry.

Autonomous buses reduce incidents of road accidents and traffic jams on crowded streets. Furthermore, these buses possess the ability to reduce the fleet size of bus operators to an optimal level. The reduction in fleet size will lead to a lower operational & maintenance cost of fleet operators, driving the autonomous bus industry growth.

Increasing investments by private players along with supportive government policies to develop autonomous bus will drive the industry growth over the forecast timeframe. For instance, in November 2021, EasyMile, a French startup, developed its first driverless vehicle with level 4 automation. The company was granted approval by France's Ministry of Ecological Transition and Ministry of Transport.

The growing development of smart cities and increasing investments by government bodies to modernize transport systems will create robust market opportunities for industry participants.

Key players operating in the autonomous bus market include Volkswagen AG, Continental AG, AB Volvo, Daimler AG, Tesla, Toyota Motor Corporation, Proterra, Navya SAS, Robert Bosch GmbH, Scania AB, and Hyundai Motor Company.

Request for customization of this research report at https://www.gminsights.com/roc/5105

Partial chapters of report table of contents (TOC):

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

2.1 Autonomous bus industry 360 synopsis, 2018 - 2028

2.1.1 Business trends

2.1.2 Regional trends

2.1.3 Level of autonomy trends

2.1.4 Fuel trends

2.1.5 Application trends

Chapter 3 Industry Insights

3.1 Industry segmentation

3.2 Impact of COVID-19 on autonomous bus industry landscape

3.3 Industry ecosystem analysis

3.4 Technology & innovation landscape

3.5 Installed base of level 4 autonomous buses, by region, 2021

3.6 Investment landscape

3.7 Regulatory landscape

3.8 Industry impact forces

3.8.1 Growth drivers

3.8.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges

3.9 Growth potential analysis

3.10 Porter's analysis

3.11 PESTEL analysis

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.

Contact Us:

Arun Hegde

Corporate Sales, USA

Global Market Insights Inc.

Phone: 1-302-846-7766

Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688

Email: sales@gminsights.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1747009/Autonomous_bus_market.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661916/GMI.jpg
Elevated Collaboration between the Two Parties Reinforces Tencent Cloud's Dedication to Strengthen Global Partner and Developer Ecosystem

HONG KONG, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Roopu Cloud and Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, are pleased to announce that both parties have recently reached a partner agreement to certify Roopu Cloud as an Authorized Training Partner (ATP) of Tencent Cloud. With the increasing demand for cloud computing skills and the exponential growth of Tencent Cloud, Roopu Cloud is ready to equip professionals and developers across the globe with the cloud computing and cutting-edge technologies offered by Tencent Cloud.

Roopu Cloud has been a managed service provider and consulting partner of Tencent Cloud since 2020, enabling enterprises across all industries to leverage Tencent Cloud's technologies and offerings in order to reduce IT costs, boost scalability, ensure business continuity, and increase revenue. Riding on the success, the two parties now elevate the collaboration to training perspective. This is also a testimony to Tencent Cloud's commitment in building a strong and comprehensive ecosystem for partners and the developers' community globally.

As an ATP of Tencent Cloud, Roopu Cloud will deliver courses that ensure customers are receiving the highest-quality training under the Tencent Cloud Certification Programs, which are designed to provide cloud practitioners with access to insights and knowledge they can use to hone their craft. The training team of Roopu Cloud is formed by cloud certified and professional instructors with real hands-on experience working with the Tencent Cloud platform, which is a key contributor to Roopu Cloud's success.

Roopu Cloud delivers customized instructor-led training courses with practical exercises covering the complete Tencent Cloud training curriculum (including Practitioner, Solutions Architect, SysOps, and Developer). After completing the course, learners can also take exams on Kryterion and earn credentials in the forms of digital badges by Credly.

Pablo Puig, CEO and Founder of Roopu Cloud, said, "Becoming a Tencent Cloud's Authorized Training Partner provides a tremendous opportunity to leverage our extensive cloud training expertise to help address the growing demand for cloud skills in the market. Our proven ability to scale cutting-edge training will help customers accelerate their adoption to Tencent Cloud's offerings, become more agile and innovate faster."

Poshu Yeung, Senior Vice President of Tencent Cloud International, said, "We are delighted to strengthen our collaboration with Roopu Cloud as it now becomes our Authorized Training Partner. While we look forward to cultivating more tech talents across the globe in this highly digitalized world, we strive to make concerted efforts to establish an extensive and robust partner ecosystem worldwide where more enterprises can be benefited by our innovative and reliable cloud technologies."
Haikou, China--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - From January 25 to February 8, the pop-up shop with the theme of "Fenjiu, The Spirit of China, Enjoyed by The World" was firstly held by Shanxi Xinghuacun Fenjiu International Trade Co., Ltd. in Haikou Riyue Square Duty-Free Shop, Hainan Province of China.

Figure 1: Fenjiu International pop-up shop



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

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Figure 2: Fenjiu International product display



To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8457/113712_f9c8be04043f885a_002full.jpg

With elegant flavor, the host allowed Fenjiu to accurately communicate with consumers around the Spring Festival in the year of the Tiger, and promoted the booming sales of Fenjiu in the Spring Festival market. Explosive events, which presented a brand new experience full of ideas, let more people experience "International Fen" through the pop-up shop.

With the help of Hainan, a hot land for reform and innovation, Fenjiu has blossomed international strength and potential with its quality and cultural charm. The event let Fenjiu touch thousands of consumers, indicating that Fenjiu will create more beauty for people, and create a new brilliant future in the market in the new year.

Hainan welcomes the first Fenjiu International pop-up shop

Hainan is a special zone at the forefront of China's reform and opening-up. As the largest special economic zone in China presently, Hainan has the unique advantages of comprehensively deepening reform and experimenting with high-level opening-up policies. With rapid development and construction, Hainan attracts people from all over the country to travel, live and start businesses.

In 2021, Hainan Free Trade Port was established, which has become a new consumption landmark to promote better connectivity between domestic and international markets, two-way flow of commodity factors. New fashion and new life emanate from here and interact frequently with the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta. It not only affects China, but also radiates to a broader region. Hainan has become an important intersection of domestic and international circulation, and stimulates the market power of enterprise innovation and development.

Haikou Riyue Square Duty Free Shop covers an area of 22,000 square meters, and currently houses more than 100 famous international brands covering 38 categories of duty-free commodities such as perfume, cosmetics, fine goods, food and general merchandise, attracting many domestic and foreign consumers all the year round.

Figure 3: Fenjiu International pop-up shop night scene



To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8457/113712_f9c8be04043f885a_003full.jpg

The director of Shanxi Xinghuacun Fenjiu International Trade Co., Ltd. said that the event was launched in the form of pop-up shop in Riyue Square Duty Free Shop, taking Hainan as the link to further strengthen communication with consumers at home and abroad. So that more possibilities of Fenjiu will be explored, to make more Fenjiu drinking scenes, to let more domestic and foreign tourists understand Fenjiu, even become the disseminator of Fenjiu reputation.

When walking into this pop-up store, consumers could see the export products of Fenjiu over the years in the display area, expressing the continuous internationalization journey of Fenjiu in the past hundred years. And the hand-drawn illustration "Research Report on the History of Fenjiu Internationalization" cannot be missed, describing the wonderful and achievements of Fenjiu internationalization in the form of cartoon pictures and texts.

Figure 4: Consumer interaction



To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit:

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In addition to the areas displaying the internationalized products and achievements of Fenjiu, there was an area of "Fenxiang Cocktail" in the pop-up store discussing the innovative drinking ways of Fenjiu, breaking the boundary of international consumption, and also breaking the traditional impression of consumers on Baijiu.

Figure 5: Consumer interaction



To view an enhanced version of Figure 5, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8457/113712_f9c8be04043f885a_005full.jpg

For the international pop-up shop decoration, Shanxi Xinghuacun Fenjiu International Trade Co., Ltd. adopted Hollywood-style brand story narrative style, innovated and integrated tourism interactive scenes, and tried brand social interaction. Three punch points were set up in the shop, respectively "Fenxiang Cocktail", Research Institute (receive the research report on the internationalization history of Fenjiu Culture, then give the correct answer to the question, that is, punch in successfully), and 360 Shot area (with the topic Fenjiu, The Spirit of China, Enjoyed by The World to participate in the online lottery). Finish the collection of 3 stamps of 3 punch points, consumers can receive a cultural gift.

The reporter saw at the scene that since the pop-up store was opened, it has continuously attracted consumers to walk in for the experience. Many consumers expressed recognition of this refreshing brand experience and also actively participated in the punch points.

Industry insiders believe that Fenjiu pop-up stores made an amazing appearance during the Spring Festival, releasing the diverse charm of Fenjiu in the in-depth interaction with consumers, and showing the representative image of Fenjiu on behalf of Chinese liquor to the international through the international communication history of Fenjiu culture. It's a pioneering exploration of Baijiu internationalization in the new era.

In 2022, The internationalization of Fenjiu will continue

The collision, exchange and fusion of Hainan and Fenjiu have a special resonance.

From the Hainan Special Economic Zone to the Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone, Hainan has always been a pioneer and a leader in reform. While in Baijiu industry, Fenjiu is the pioneer of reform. From the first stock of Baijiu, to Shanxi Province state-owned enterprise reform pilot, Fenjiu has been flashing the glory of reform in its development.

In addition to the strong resonance on spirit and culture of reform, internationalization also closely links Hainan and Fenjiu.

Hainan was at the forefront of China's opening to the world. As early as the Han and Tang dynasties, Hainan was the only place on the Maritime Silk Road and played an important role in world trade. In the late Qing Dynasty, with the development of The Southern Ocean, Hainan developed rapidly with its special geographical position in Southeast Asia, and had close business contacts with Southeast Asia and many developed regions in the world. More than a dozen developed countries and regions set up consulates in Haikou.

Figure 6: Fenjiu international product display



To view an enhanced version of Figure 6, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8457/113712_f9c8be04043f885a_006full.jpg

Fenjiu, as a model of national industry, crossed the ocean in 1915 and won the highest honor of the Panama World Exposition Medallion, opening a century of international history and becoming an important representative of the connection between Baijiu and the world market.

In recent years, Fenjiu's national market has been opened, and the markets outside the Shanxi province represented by Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta have performed well. In 2021, Fenjiu's market in the south of the Yangtze River will grow by more than 60% on average. Yuan Qingmao, the party secretary and chairman of Fenjiu Group, pointed out that Fenjiu should move to a better structure, better efficiency, and higher quality, which should "focus on the optimization of market structure, seize the market heights of the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, and consider the internationalization and national layout of Fenjiu integrally".

Hainan is the highland that Fenjiu must seize for the Pearl River Delta market, and the bridgehead for Fenjiu to continue to develop overseas markets and continuously improve the international brand image of Fenjiu.

In 2021, Shanxi Xinghuacun Fenjiu International Trade Co., Ltd. set up an office in Hainan. This indicates that Fenjiu will have a greater breakthrough in the international market in 2022.

Figure 7: China Fenjiu enjoyed by the world



To view an enhanced version of Figure 7, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8457/113712_f9c8be04043f885a_007full.jpg

Company: Shanxi Xinghuacun Fenjiu International Trade Co., Ltd.

Contact: Echo Zhang

Tel: +86135 2154 0767

Publisher: TCB

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113712
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil dropped from a seven-year high on Tuesday after Russia signaled a de-escalation of tensions. Brent crude futures for April delivery fell $2.58, or 2.6%, to $93.90 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down $2.91, or a little over 3 percent, at $92.55. Both oil benchmarks hit their highest since September 2014 on Monday on fears of a possible disruptions of Russian energy supplies. The Russian military today said that some of its troops are expected to return to bases as a number of drills have finished. There is a certain relief in the Ukraine-Russian crisis as the two sides seem willing to continue their diplomatic efforts to avoid a military action. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the West is open to dialogue about Russia's security concerns, but will impose sanctions if it invades Ukraine. A Russian invasion of Ukraine remains highly likely, British foreign secretary Liz Truss has warned. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in a call on Monday there was a crucial window for diplomacy. Investors are also watching talks between the United States and Iran on reviving Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. After months of off and on negotiations, Iran said an agreement to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with the world powers was near. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday and they noted a 'tangible move forward' in reviving the Iran nuclear deal, according to Russia's foreign ministry. 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.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices fell on Tuesday after having hit a three-month peak on Monday amid heightened concerns about the possibility of Russia's invasion on Ukraine. Spot gold dipped 0.9 percent to $1,854.50 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were down 0.7 percent at $1,855.55. The Russian military today said that some of its troops are expected to return to bases as a number of drills have finished. There is a certain relief in the Ukraine-Russian crisis as the two sides seem willing to continue their diplomatic efforts to avoid a military action. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the West is open to dialogue about Russia's security concerns, but will impose sanctions if it invades Ukraine. A Russian invasion of Ukraine remains highly likely, British foreign secretary Liz Truss has warned. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in a call on Monday there was a crucial window for diplomacy. Investors were also reacting to comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard reiterating support for a faster removal of policy accommodation also weighed on the currency. 'I do think we need to front-load more of our planned removal of accommodation than we would have previously,' Bullard told in an interview with CNBC. In economic releases, U.S. PPI for January and New York Fed's empire manufacturing survey for February are set to be released in the New York session. 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.
Louisville, Ky. mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg described himself and staff as shaken but safe after a gunman shot at him Monday, grazing the Democrats shirt and sweater, before fleeing.

It was a surreal experience, he told the Louisville Courier Journal. And mostly right now, I just want to get home to my wife and sons and give them a hug. I havent been able to see them all day.

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A staff member bravely got the door shut, the Courier Journal reported, and others barricaded it with tables. The suspect fled and was later picked up by police, but not identified as of Monday evening.

Louisville Democratic mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg speaks during a news conference in Louisville, Ky., Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. (Timothy D. Easley/AP)

Despite one bullet coming so close that it grazed my sweater and my shirt, no one was physically harmed, and were extraordinarily grateful for our safety, Greenberg said at a press conference, the Courier Journal reported. We are shaken but safe.

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It was about 10:15 a.m. when Greenbergs meeting with four staff members was interrupted by a man who appeared in his office doorway, pulled out a gun and aimed directly at me, Greenberg told the Courier Journal.

Louisville Metro Police said in a statement that they had responded to reports of an active aggressor in the Butchertown neighborhood, clearing the building and determining that Greenberg had apparently been the intended target.

Multiple shots were fired within the location, police said. Responding officers were able to safely evacuate Mr. Greenberg and his staff, and no one sustained injuries; however, an article of Mr. Greenbergs clothing that he was wearing was struck.

Police said there was no known motive at this time, and that the suspect had acted alone. The investigation is ongoing. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on scene, the Courier Journal said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and others condemned the shooting, and Metro Council President David James called it an outright assassination attempt.

The news is scary and horrible, Beshear told WLKY-TV. I talked to him as soon as I got the news. He is at least physically ok. But were praying for him and his family and their safety. I know what its like to have the threats, but this is a step above and beyond that.
STOCKHOLM, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CosmenaGroup launches The Cosmetic Surgery website Cosmena.com, primarily targeting the UK market for hair transplants for both men and women. Cosmena.com is an in-depth guide to all things hair loss and the remedies for this very common malady in men and women.

CosmenaGroup launches The Cosmetic Surgery website Cosmena.com, primarily targeting the UK market for hair transplants in both men and women. Cosmena.com is an in-depth guide to all things hair loss and the remedies for this very common malady in men and women.

Finding help for hair loss can be a tedious process, and Cosmena.com:s services remedy this problem for the customer by providing not only reviews and comparisons of the hair loss market, but also doing these activities with a broader scope than the domestic market in order to be able to present the best offers for customers in the UK.

Not only will you find information regarding the types of hair loss that might have affected you, but also the techniques currently in use and variants you might want to consider. Cosmena.com are in the forefront of medical content and have collaborated with Medical doctors in creating both the topics and reviewing the content itself.

Wonder what type of hair loss you have and how much it might cost to remedy your specific ailment? Look no further, Cosmena has covered the 8 most common hair transplant areas and has calculated (Based on the average number of grafts) the typical cost for those transplants in both the UK and Turkey.

More markets and niches are planned for launching soon. The hair loss markets in the Swedish, German and French markets are currently considered or in production already.

The website is 100% free for the consumer and is financed by Display- and other types of digital advertising.

About Cosmenagroup:

https://cosmenagroup.com

Cosmenagroup is a Swedish marketing company founded in 2021 by a group of investors and professionals in the digital marketing space. With more than 100 years of collective experience of digital marketing in areas such as SEO, SEM, SoMe and sectors such as Casino, Finance and Insurance - the objective of the company is to make profit by digitalizing more conservative sectors of the European market.

The company is located in the town of Uppsala, Sweden.

About Cosmena

https://cosmena.com

Soft launched in December 2021, Cosmena is the world's newest Cosmetical Surgery resource focused on hair loss and hair transplants. The website connects consumers and clinics in Europe effortlessly and makes the information gap between clinics abroad and consumers in English speaking countries less prevalent.

Contact details:

Ollie Ekdahl

Olle@cosmenagroup.com

Tel: +46761888195

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- rePurpose Global, the world's leading Plastic Action Platform is now creating environmental impact in collaboration with 100 personal care brands based in over 15 countries. On behalf of this coalition, the social enterprise is removing 4127 tons of plastic waste every year, the equivalent of 208 million plastic bottles or 1.8 billion plastic bags in weight. The brands partnered with rePurpose Global are tackling the pressing issue of plastic pollution globally by going plastic neutral, plastic negative, or pledging waste removal through the organization's 14 impact projects.

One of rePurpose Global's most recent partners, Pley Beauty, is a clean beauty line founded by actress Peyton List that launched in January 2022. Pley Beauty is now a Certified Plastic Neutral brand with rePurpose Global, by committing to calculating its plastic use, reducing its packaging footprint, and financing the removal of at least as much plastic waste from nature as they use.

Peyton List, actress and founder of Pley Beauty, shared, "We took every step possible to first reduce plastic from our brand, and nearly all of Pley Beauty packaging is made from recycled materials. We wanted to ensure we were doing as much as possible to help the environment and are thrilled to be partnering with rePurpose Global in an effort to tackle the global issue of plastic pollution, in addition to providing a crucial income stream and a safe work environment for waste workers and their families."

The partnership not only keeps waste out of nature in Bogota, Colombia, but also creates a positive social impact by enabling the expansion of waste collection in a region where infrastructure is severely limited, and repurposes collected plastic waste into eco-wood for public utilities such as park benches and affordable housing for informal waste workers. The project also finances the collection of low-value plastic waste otherwise destined for landfills or the environment, thereby creating a crucial income stream for over 3000 waste workers in the city.

Statistics show that the personal care industry produces 120 billion units of packaging annually, with most being non-recyclable and ending up in landfills or oceans. This has encouraged many personal care brands to take action through accountability and transparency, as they have historically been key contributors to plastic waste in nature.

"Now, more than ever, there is a critical need for meaningful partnerships to tackle plastic pollution the world over." said Svanika Balasubramanian, CEO and Co-Founder of rePurpose Global. "Every piece of plastic we eliminate on behalf of our personal care partners acts as a reminder of both the industry's immense responsibility to our planet as well as its ability to unlock real, systemic change."

Another of rePurpose Global's partners, Alexandra Bede, Senior Manager of Sustainability at Grove Collaborative, shared, "Grove is proud to be a 100% plastic neutral retailer on our way to being plastic free by 2025, which means that for every ounce of plastic we ship to our customers, we collect the same amount of nature-bound plastic waste. We are proud to partner with rePurpose Global on all of our collections. Since 2020, Grove orders have removed over 10 million pounds of plastic from nature."

To date, 230 brands across 26 countries and 3 continents are working with rePurpose Global to measure, reduce, and offset their plastic footprint. For a full list of the organization's personal care brand partners, please see the end of this press release.

ABOUT REPURPOSE GLOBAL

rePurpose Global is the world's leading Plastic Action Platform dedicated to reducing waste, reviving lives, and restoring nature's balance. Through its pioneering ecosystem of solutions that span across advisory, action, and advocacy, the organization helps people and companies calculate, reduce, and offset their plastic footprint, while empowering grassroots innovators on the cutting edge of solving for the planet's future.

To date, rePurpose Global has created systemic change for individuals across 26 countries and hundreds of purposeful brands worldwide, such as Grove Collaborative, AB InBev, The Hut Group, Google, and Colgate. On behalf of its global coalition, the organization eliminates millions of pounds of plastic waste from nature every year, and in doing so, positively impacts the lives of 10,000+ marginalized waste workers and community members worldwide.

Learn more here: https://business.repurpose.global

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/repurposeglobal

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/repurpose_global/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rePurposeGlobal

100 Personal Care partners of rePurpose Global linked here

Contact information: Yulu PR, rePurpose@yulupr.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1746692/rePurpose_Global_rePurpose_Global_partners_with_100_personal_car.jpg
MILPITAS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Altigen Communications Inc. (OTCQB:ATGN), a Silicon Valley-based Microsoft ISV and Cloud Solutions provider, today announced it has enhanced its financial services solutions with voice print technology.

Preventing fraud is a major challenge for banks and credit unions. Criminals attempt to steal account information from contact center agents by pretending to be customers. According to Feedzai, the world's leading cloud-based financial crime management platform, in the past year alone there has been a 728% increase in business telephone banking fraud attacks.

In 2021 Altigen added call authentication technology from Neustar to block attempts to access banks and credit unions from spoofed phone numbers. Altigen has now further enhanced the call authentication process with voice biometrics technology. The integrated solution first validates the caller's phone number and device to ensure it is associated with the customer account for which access has been requested. Voice biometrics provides an additional layer of security by matching the caller's voice print to a previously authenticated recording. Callers who do not satisfy the combined requirements are denied access to the requested account.

The enhancement is a win-win for institutions and their customers. Agents are removed from the authentication process and customers can quickly and easily receive account information through the IVR or an agent.

Key benefits of the solution include:

Fraud reduction through the screening of both the calling device and voice print adds an extreme level of security.

Enhance self-service by automating authentication and encouraging customers to utilize the IVR for routine information such as account balance and recent transactions.

Reduce costs for the institution by shortening and reducing interaction times with agents.

Increase customer satisfaction by replacing traditional authentication methods, which can feel like an interrogation to customers, with self-authentication to improve the entire experience.

A cost effective and affordable, usage-based solution that pays for itself.

As fraud attempts became more common, Altigen began receiving requests from its banking customers to explore ways to minimize or block exposure through contact center agents. Since much of the information used in knowledge-based authentication such as mother's maiden name is easily obtained online by criminals, stopping a fraudulent caller has become extremely difficult for agents.

"Altigen has been building FinTech solutions for financial institutions for 16 years", said Mike Plumer, Altigen's VP of Sales. "Our IVR is sold by Fiserv and has been deployed at thousands of banks and credit unions. As the level of fraud attempts continue to rise, our team went to work evaluating technologies which could be implemented while leveraging our customer's existing investment. This is an exciting development that enhances security and the customer experience at the same time."

In addition to call authentication and biometrics, Altigen continues to incorporate other technologies to enhance the self-service experience for financial services customers.

"Over the years we've been able to develop significant knowledge and expertise in the FinTech market," said Altigen CEO Jerry Fleming. "We will continue to incorporate best of breed capabilities that enhance our solutions for our partners and customers. Our goal is to provide best in class solutions that continually evolve to meet the challenges our customers face."

Altigen call authentication with voice biometrics is available with ConvergeIT IVR and Contact Center Solutions from Fiserv.

About Altigen Communications

Altigen Communications, Inc. (OTCQB: ATGN), based in Silicon Valley, is a leading provider of Cloud-based Unified Communications solutions built on Microsoft technologies. Altigen's all software solutions include hosted PBX, enterprise routing and queuing, call recording and complete omni-channel contact center solutions. We also provide cost-effective integrated SIP communications services in conjunction with our solutions to deliver a complete end-to-end, fully managed cloud service for our customers and partners. Our solutions are available through our global network of certified resellers. For more information, call 1-888-ALTIGEN or visit our website at www.altigen.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information, including all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief, assumptions or current and future expectations of Altigen, its directors, officers or its partners with respect to the contents of this press release. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to: risks relating to privacy and fraud; potential liability related to privacy and security of personally identifiable information; our ability to maintain security levels and service performance meeting the expectations of our customers; our dependence on third parties; our ability to meet our customers challenges; innovate in a very competitive industry; our ability to release new products and services, and develop and release successful enhancements, features, and modifications to our existing products and services.

These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the events we discuss not to occur or to differ significantly from those anticipated or implied. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity or performance. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date that they were made. The Company undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

Company Contact:

Carolyn David

Vice President, Finance

Altigen Communications, Inc.

Phone: 408-597-9033

Investor Relations Contact:

Brian Siegel, IRC, MBA

Managing Director

Hayden IR

(346) 396-8696

brian@haydenir.com

SOURCE: Altigen Communications, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688794/Altigen-Enhances-its-FinTech-Solutions-with-Voice-Biometrics-Security-for-Banks-and-Credit-Unions
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Komo Plant Based Foods Inc. (CSE:YUM)(OTCQB:KOMOF)(FRA:9HB) ("Komo" or the "Company"), a premium plant-based food company, is proud to announce the launch of its retail Mac & Cheeze products. Komo is planning to launch its frozen Mac & Cheeze products for retail next month, building on the success of its previously launched ready-to-bake meals which include Lasagna, Chickenless Pot Pie and Shepherd's Pie.

Since December 2021, Komo's development team has been working on commercializing its Mac & Greens dish, which is one of it's most popular items on Uber Eats and SkipTheDishes. The Company aims to deliver two SKUs with two serving sizes as well as a family size as part of the Mac & Cheeze launch.

"Our innovation process of introducing ideas through Komo Eats has been a validating experience, allowing us to collect feedback from consumers and give us the data and insight necessary to move forward with a retail launch," states CEO, William White. "This has been an important building block in our success with our ready-to-bake meals and staying true to our mission to make eating plant-based foods easy, shareworthy and made with wholesome ingredients."

The new products will be available next month, with an initial local launch in Vancouver, British Columbia, through retail and Komo's direct-to-consumer website. The Company will gather consumer feedback as it works on large scale manufacturing of the new products with its co-manufacturing partner.

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.
DUBLIN (dpa-AFX) - Security products and solutions provider Allegion plc (ALLE), while announcing fourth-quarter results on Tuesday, said it expects fiscal 2022 earnings per share to be in the range of $5.50 to $5.70, and adjusted earnings per share in the $5.55 to $5.75 range. The company expects full-year 2022 revenues to increase 6 to 7.5 percent on a reported basis and increase 7 to 8.5 percent organically, when compared with 2021. In fiscal 2021, reported earnings were $5.34 per share and adjusted earnings were $5.19 per share on net revenues of $2.87 billion. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $5.72 per share on revenues of $3.05 billion for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company is targeting full-year available cash flow of approximately $465 to $485 million. David Petratis, Allegion chairman, president and CEO, said that he is confident Allegion is well-positioned to drive solid results in 2022 and beyond. Petratis said, 'We expect sequential improvements in revenue growth, EPS and operating margin performance throughout 2022 as we drive aggressive pricing and work to reduce elevated lead times. The continued strength in market demand, along with record backlog levels entering this year, support future growth well into 2023.' 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.
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Automated Visual Field Analyzer industry garnered revenue worth nearly US $ 177.3 million in 2021 and is anticipated to gain returns about US$ 266.4 million by 2028. Additionally, Automated Visual Field Analyzer market is prognosis to record CAGR of almost 6.1% in 2022-2028.

Market Segmentation & Coverage:

The static perimeters segment held the largest revenue share in 2021 owing to its extensive use in capturing large data points for automated visual field testing

The hospital segment held the largest revenue share in 2021 owing to the increasing number of hospitals in developing countries and growing competition in healthcare service providers

The ophthalmic clinics segment is expected to experience the fastest growth rate during the forecast period due to its convenience, proximity, and lower costs to patients and insurers

Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR of around 6.1% over the forecast period due to the presence of untapped opportunities in the emerging economies in China and India

Read Market Research Report "Automated Visual Field Analyzer Market- By Product (Kinetic And Static) And By End-User (Ophthalmic Clinics And Hospitals): Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, And Forecast, 2022-2028". By Zion Market Research

Expansion of automated visual field analyzer market over forecast timespan can be attributed to rise in cases of ocular ailments such as diabetes retinopathy, glaucoma, and cataract. In addition to this, rise in aging populace susceptible to eye disorders and use of automated visual field analyzers for diagnosing these disorders will proliferate size of automated visual field analyzer industry. Apparently, technological breakthroughs in automated visual field analyzers will pave a way for growth of automated visual field analyzer industry. However, high product prices and lack of availability of skilled ophthalmologists will put brakes on growth of automated visual field analyzer industry.

Moreover, launching of compact & portable analyzers will create new growth avenues for automated visual field analyzer market. Furthermore, favorable government norms pertaining to use of automated visual field analyzers in healthcare sector will drive business trends. Ongoing trends of product innovations have also impacted automated visual field analyzer business and firms are adopting new strategies to manufacture products with user friendly features. These moves have strongly leveraged growth of automated visual field analyzer market.

Report Scope:

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2020 USD 177.3 Million Revenue forecast in 2028 USD 266.4 Million Growth Rate CAGR of almost 6.1% 2022-2028 Base Year 2021 Historic Years 2016 - 2021 Forecast Years 2022 - 2028 Segments Covered By Product Type, By Application, and By End Use Forecast Units Value (USD Million), and Volume (Units) Quantitative Units Revenue in USD million/billion and CAGR from 2022 to 2028 Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and Rest of World Countries Covered U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, GCC Countries, and South Africa, among others Companies Covered Bausch Health Companies Inc., Topcon Corporation, MEDA Co., Ltd., Metrovision, OCULUS VR Company, Elektron Eye Technology Limited, OPTOPOL Technology Sp.z.o.o, Kowa Company, Ltd, Heidelberg Engineering, Inc., Elektron Eye Technology Limited, Haag-Streit AG, Medmont International Private Limited, and Carl Zeiss AG. Report Coverage Market growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, Porter's five forces analysis, PEST analysis, value chain analysis, regulatory landscape, market attractiveness analysis by segments and region, company market share analysis, and COVID-19 impact analysis.

The global Automated Visual Field Analyzer Market is segmented as follows:

Automated Visual Field Analyzer By Product Outlook (2022-2028)

Kinetic

Static

Automated Visual Field Analyzer By End-User Outlook (2022-2028)

Ophthalmic Clinics

Hospitals

Automated Visual Field Analyzer By Region Outlook (2022-2028)

North America

The U.S.

Canada

Europe

France

The UK

Spain

Germany

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Southeast Asia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

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List of Key Players of Automated Visual Field Analyzer Market

Bausch Health Companies Inc.

OPTOPOL Technology

Kowa Company Ltd

Topcon Corporation

MEDA Co.Ltd.

Metrovision

OCULUS VR Company

Elektron Eye Technology Limited

Heidelberg Engineering Inc.

Medmont International Private Limited

Haag-Streit AG

Carl Zeiss AG.

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Burnaby, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - Tantalus Systems (TSX: GRID) ("Tantalus" or the "Company"), a smart grid technology company focused on helping build sustainable utilities, is pleased to announce that the City of High Point, North Carolina (the "City" or "High Point"), has selected Tantalus to provide a purpose-built smart grid solution to digitize the City's electric and water distribution system consisting of 80,000 combined meters. The City's decision to upgrade the distribution grid is tied to enhancing system resiliency while laying the foundation to provide enhanced applications and services to its residents.

The utility will deploy the Tantalus Utility Network (TUNet) over the next two years and will incorporate Tantalus' TRUScan communications technology. TRUScan uniquely enables utilities to access and analyze data from a diverse set of endpoints that rely on different protocols across one smart grid network.

The City operates a large multi-commodity public power utility in the center of North Carolina's Piedmont Triad Region. By digitizing the distribution grid, the City will enhance its reliability and efficiency by automating the management of its electric and water meters, identifying water leaks and proactively addressing power quality and outage issues while simultaneously preparing for future adoption of electric vehicles and distributed energy resources.

"After an extensive competitive evaluation, Tantalus' commitment and focus on public power really stood out," said Eric Olmedo, Assistant City Manager, City of High Point. "Tantalus' unique ability to incorporate the City's prior investments in Itron's encoder receiver transmitter (ERT) technology will save our residents millions of dollars while laying the foundation for advanced applications."

A member of ElectriCities of North Carolina, a not-for-profit membership organization of municipally owned electric utilities, High Point joins a growing number of public power utilities in the region deploying Tantalus' technology.

"Tantalus is digitizing distribution grids and providing interoperability of a diverse set of devices to help utilities improve their operational efficiency and financial performance, reduce carbon emissions and ultimately provide enhanced services to their communities," said Peter Londa, President & CEO of Tantalus Systems. "We are delighted to further expand our presence with forward-thinking municipalities by working alongside High Point in support of their community."

About Tantalus Systems (TSX: GRID)

Tantalus is a smart grid technology company that transforms aging one-way grids into future-proofed multi-directional grids that improve the efficiency, reliability and sustainability of public power and electric cooperative utilities and the communities they serve. Our solutions are purpose-built to allow utilities to restore power quickly after major disruptions, adapt to rapidly shifting consumer expectations and population shifts, innovate new solutions based on the adoption of distributed energy resources and evolve their grid infrastructure at their own pace without needless cost or complexity. All this gives our user community the flexibility they need to get the most value from existing infrastructure investments while planning for future requirements. Learn more at www.tantalus.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes information, statements, beliefs and opinions which are forward-looking, and which reflect current estimates, expectations and projections about future events, including, but not limited to, the development, functionality, benefits and effectiveness of TUNet and TRUScan for the City and other Tantalus customers, and other statements that contain words such as "believe," "expect," "project," "should," "seek," "anticipate," "will," "intend," "positioned," "risk," "plan," "may," "estimate" or, in each case, their negative and words of similar meaning. By its nature, forward-looking information involves a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which is based on the information available as of the date of this news release and Tantalus disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information contained in this new release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable law. The forward-looking information included in this new release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement.

Contact Tantalus:

Jacquie Hudson

Marketing Communications Manager

613-552-4244 | jhudson@tantalus.com

Linda Armstrong

Investor Relations

647-456-9223 | larmstrong@tantalus.com

Website: www.tantalus.com

LinkedIn: LinkedIn/company/tantalus

Twitter: @TantalusCorp

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113803
Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - Kesselrun Resources Ltd. (TSXV: KES) (OTC Pink: KSSRF) ("Kesselrun" or the "Company") is pleased to provide further drilling results on its 100% owned Huronian Gold Project.

Continued drilling and modeling of the Fisher zone has identified multiple new, high-grade zones in both the footwall and hanging wall sides of the Fisher zone, all in close proximity.

Highlights

Multiple new zones identified in the Fisher Zone area

21HUR130 intercepted 33.9 g/t Au over 1.0 m within a 4.7 m wide zone which averaged 8.4 g/t Au in the newly named Fisher FW-A Zone

21HUR108 intercepted 24.3 g/t Au over 0.5 m in the newly named Fisher HW-B Zone





Figure 1: Schematic Plan Map - Fisher Area Zones

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4206/113809_6afb0d6fc4dc9b9e_001full.jpg





Ongoing modelling incorporating drill results from both Kesselrun and previous operators has interpreted multiple new zones in both the hangingwall and footwall to the Fisher Zone. These zones vary in thickness from 0.5-10m wide and are currently outlined up to 200m along strike. The recognition of these new zones points to the tremendous potential that remains in the area in and around the historic Huronian mine. Numerous historic drill intercepts and surface expressions of gold mineralization have yet to be incorporated into modelled zones.

Michael Thompson, P.Geo., President and CEO of the Company, commented, "As expected, multiple high-grade zones have been defined. As we progress with our drilling to greater depths on the Fisher Zone we recognized the step backs in drill locations would present the opportunity to test both the footwall and hanging wall sides of Fisher. Previous operators on the property intersected scattered high-grade intercepts on both sides of Fisher which presented an opportunity to integrate these intercepts into zones through targeted drilling and modeling."

Mr. Thompson remarked further, "Further drilling in the area, we believe, will not only further expand on these zones, but also yield future discoveries of new zones. The close proximity of all the zones in the Huronian Mine area will have positive implications on the goal of advancing this project."

2022 Huronian Exploration Program

The 2022 Huronian exploration program will consist of drilling as well as geophysics over selected target areas. Drilling will be targeting the Fisher, Fisher North, McKellar and Huronian zones, all in close proximity along an approximate 1500 m strike length in the area of the historic Huronian Mine. As well, the geology on strike to the southwest of Goldshore Resources' Moss Lake deposit will be targeted. A 2nd drill rig is currently in the process of being procured for the increased drilling activity anticipated in 2022.





Figure 2: Schematic Plan Map - Huronian Project

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4206/113809_6afb0d6fc4dc9b9e_002full.jpg

Table 1: Summary of Significant Drill Intercepts - Current News Release (1)

Hole ID Zone From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) 21HUR082 Fisher FW-B 38.2 54.0 15.8 0.9 including 39.0 40.0 1.0 5.5 including 42.0 43.0 1.0 6.3 21HUR108 Fisher HW-B 38.8 39.3 0.5 24.3 21HUR113 Fisher North 16.2 20.0 3.8 0.7 Fisher 135.0 147.0 12.0 1.4 including 142.6 143.7 1.1 9.2 21HUR114 Fisher North no significant values 21HUR115 Fisher North 46.6 50.1 3.5 0.4 Fisher 144.2 172.5 28.3 1.0 21HUR127 Fisher 153.0 200.2 47.2 0.3 21HUR128 Fisher 221.5 225.5 4.0 0.6 including 221.5 223.0 1.5 1.3 21HUR129 Fisher FW-A 76.5 107.3 30.8 0.5 including 77.9 78.8 0.9 2.8 including 88.2 89.1 0.9 2.9 Fisher FW-B 231.8 241.0 9.2 0.6 Fisher 339.0 346.0 7.0 0.7 21HUR130 Fisher FW-A 127.4 132.1 4.7 8.4 including 131.1 132.1 1.0 33.9

(1)Widths are drill indicated core length as insufficient drilling has been undertaken to determine true widths with at this time. Average grades are calculated with un-capped gold assays as insufficient drilling has been completed to determine capping levels for higher grade gold intercepts.

2021 Huronian Drilling

The 2021 Huronian drill program was completed with approximately 19,750 metres drilled of which the results from approximately 19,000 metres of drilling have been released.

About the Huronian Gold Project

The 100% owned Huronian Gold Project hosts the past producing Huronian Mine, Northwestern Ontario's first gold mine with an historic resource estimate of 44,592 oz Au at an average grade of 15.3 g/t Au in the indicated category and 501,377 oz Au at an average grade of 14.4 g/t Au in the inferred category. The resource estimate presented for the Huronian Project is historic in nature. Kesselrun Resources' qualified person has not completed sufficient work to confirm the results of the historical resource. Kesselrun Resources is not treating this as a current mineral resource but is considering it relevant as a guide to future exploration and includes it for reference purposes only. The historic resource was estimated by Minescape Exploration Inc. in 1998. Further drilling will be required by Kesselrun Resources to verify the historic estimate as current mineral resources.

As well, the Huronian Gold Project hosts the same lithological package of rocks, as interpreted from both Government of Ontario and Kesselrun Resources mapping, compilation and modelling, on strike from the adjacent Moss Lake Gold Deposit with an historic resource estimate of 1,377,300 oz Au at an average grade of 1.1 g/t Au in the indicated category and 1,751,600 oz Au at an average grade of 1.1 g/t Au in the inferred category as outlined in Wesdome Gold Mines' 2013 PEA (3) (4). Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on Kesselrun Resources' property.

(2) Moss Lake Gold Mines (a subsidiary of Wesdome Gold Mines at the time) news releases February 20, 2013 and September 9, 2013.

(3) On January 26, 2021, Wesdome Gold Mines announced that the Moss Lake Project would be purchased by Goldshore Resources Inc. (see Wesdome and Goldshore news releases dated January 26, 2021).

Qualified Person

Michael Thompson, P.Geo., President and CEO of Kesselrun, is the Qualified Person responsible for the project as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has approved the technical information in this news release.

QAQC

Kesselrun has implemented a quality control program to comply with industry best practices for sampling, chain of custody and analyses. Certified gold reference standards, blanks and duplicates are inserted at the core processing site as part of the QA/QC program in addition to the control samples inserted by the lab. Samples are prepared and analyzed by Activation Laboratories in Thunder Bay. Samples are analyzed for gold using Fire Assay-AA techniques. Samples returning over 10 g/t gold are analyzed using Fire Assay-Gravimetric methods. Selected samples are also analyzed with a standard 1 kg metallic screen fire assay. All results reported herein have passed QA/QC protocols.

Health and Safety

The health and safety of our personnel and contractors is always top priority for Kesselrun. The current situation presents new challenges above and beyond what we normally face while working in the field. Kesselrun has implemented further measures to ensure the health and safety of all working on the Company's projects.

Investor Relations Clarification

The following is clarification to the April 14, 2021 news release regarding investor relations contract for Mr. Larry Heuchert.

On April 12, 2021, the Company entered into a consulting agreement with Mr. Heuchert to provide investor relations services for the Company. The original agreement was for a four-month period with either party having the right to terminate the agreement with 30-day notice. Pursuant to the contract, Mr. Heuchert was compensated USD$2,500 per month.

On July 14, 2021, the Company granted to Mr. Heuchert an option to acquire up to 75,000 common shares of the Company at $0.40 per common share (the "Option"). The Option was granted as part of the Company's stock option plan and vested at the time of grant. As of the date of this news release Mr. Heuchert has not acquired any shares available to him pursuant to the Option.

On July 31, 2021, the Company entered into a revised consulting agreement with Mr. Heuchert which included the above-mentioned Option and extended the term of engagement for another four-month period. All other terms of the agreement remained the same.

As of the date of this news release, Mr. Heuchert continues to be engaged by the Company on a month-to-month basis under the terms and conditions of his July 31, 2021 consulting agreement and is compensated at USD$2,500 per month. Mr. Heuchert assists the Company in responding to investor inquiries as an independent contractor, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada and, in addition to the above Option, currently owns 83,991 common shares of the Company acquired in the open market.

About Kesselrun Resources Ltd.

Kesselrun Resources is a Thunder Bay, Ontario-based mineral exploration company focused on growth through property acquisitions and discoveries. Kesselrun's management team possesses strong geological and exploration expertise in Northwest Ontario. For more information about Kesselrun Resources, please visit www.kesselrunresources.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

For additional information please contact:

Kesselrun Resources Ltd.

Michael Thompson, P.Geo., President & CEO

807.285.3323

michaelt@kesselrunresources.com

Corporate Communications

1.866.416.7941

information@kesselrunresources.com

Forward Looking Statements - Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Kesselrun, including, but not limited to the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, dependence upon regulatory approvals, the execution of definitive documentation, the availability of financing and exploration risk. 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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113809
Recent Launches Bring Global Workplace Solutions to More than 200 Million Square Feet of Real Estate

BOSTON, Feb. 15, 2022, the industry-leading workplace experience technology platform that is revolutionizing how people connect with each other and the places they work, has launched 53 new customer properties in the last six months of 2021. With businesses eager to return to the office, landlords rely on HqO's award-winning app for its flexible and turnkey solutions that offer the fastest times to market and the ability to scale across multiple properties.



Properties can go live in just a few weeks, powered by HqO's dedicated and market-leading Product and Customer Success teams. Alongside the ease of use of the HqO platform, each customer receives dedicated and continuous support, from strategy and business metrics analysis, to implementation and adoption, to a long-term tenant engagement strategy that is continually optimized with HqO. Customers in 142 cities across 24 countries trust HqO's reputation to implement and deploy efficiently and thoroughly - and to do so at scale - as evidenced by its over 450 live assets. Nine customers utilize HqO across their entire portfolio of buildings.

Among the 53 most recent properties to launch HqO are Grosvenor's 25 EP in London, Lincoln Property Company's 1101 K St. NW in Washington, D.C., Gecina's 16 rue Capucines in Paris, New City Properties' 725 Ponce in Atlanta, Foxrock Properties' 176 Federal Street in Boston, and The Swig Company's 633 Folsom in San Francisco. This is in addition to the nearly 100 commercial real estate clients HqO services worldwide, including Jamestown, Cadillac Fairview, Columbia Property Trust, Nuveen Real Estate, Hines, Spear Street Capital, Legal & General Investment Management, and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Corporate customers include Blackstone, Colliers, Dell, and Finastra.

"Our team is deeply committed to transparent communication and continued engagement with our tenants," said Megan Calabrese, Director of Property Management at Foxrock Properties. "Through our partnership with HqO, we have enhanced these efforts and can now reach a broader audience within our buildings. It has been exciting to see how receptive our tenants have been to the technology and we look forward to launching new integrations that will support our flexible leasing offering in the coming months."

To support its growth and further optimize customer launch times, HqO recently expanded its executive team by bringing on veteran Customer Success leader, Larry Simmons - formerly with Tamr and Acquia - who is well-known and respected throughout the software industry for his approach to customer success and professional services.

"This recent wave of app deployments demonstrates that our customers and strategic partners value our commitment to customer success," said Larry Simmons, Vice President of Client Services and Support at HqO. "It also highlights the industry-leading speed and thoroughness with which we deliver our solution and get our customers up and running."

About HqO

As the leader in workplace experience technology, HqO is revolutionizing how people connect with each other and the places they work - right from the palm of their hands. Composed of an award-winning app, analytics suite, hybrid work tools, and a flex space management system, the HqO Workplace Experience Platform empowers top employers and commercial property teams to create personalized experiences that engage and delight the people at their properties and inform data-driven decision making. Active in over 200 million square feet and across 24 countries, 57% of the Fortune 100 rely on HqO to build meaningful relationships with the people in the workplace every day. For more information, visit www.hqo.com.

Primary Contact: Kristin Concannon

Phone: 833-225-5476

Email: kristin.concannon@hqo.co
Graphite One Material Being Assessed at Naval Research Lab and Joint DoD-DOE-EPA Strategic Research Center

Progress Comes as U.S. Law Requires Adoption of New Foam Fire Suppressant Cited as Part of a $18.3B Global Market Opportunity

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Graphite One Inc. (TSXV:GPH);(OTCQX:GPHOF) ("Graphite One" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a milestone in test work completed at the U.S. Navy's Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California ("NAWS China Lake"), to pursue the Pre-feasibility Study-level validation of technology using a biodegradable fire retardant foam made with a composite of materials from Graphite One in extinguishing Class B fuel fires. The foam was developed by Graphite One's technology development partner, American Energy Technologies Company of Arlington Heights, Illinois.

"While Graphite One's primary focus remains the production of lithium-ion battery anode grade material, our foam fire suppressant work is a prime example of the advanced graphite material opportunities in markets outside of the renewable energy sector," said Anthony Huston, President and CEO of Graphite One.

"New liquid foam fire suppressants are critical to saving lives and safeguarding the environment and we are honored by the interest shown in the Company's material by the U.S. Navy and other U.S Government departments and agencies." added Mr. Huston. "The global fire suppression market for systems and their related materials is expected to reach $18.3 billion by 2026[1], so this milestone represents an exciting opportunity for Graphite One to be part of this rapidly-expanding market."

With the U.S. 100% import-dependent for natural graphite, Graphite One is developing a complete U.S.-based, advanced graphite supply chain solution, anchored by the Company's Graphite Creek resource near Nome, Alaska, North America's largest known graphite deposit. The Graphite One Project plan includes an advanced graphite material and battery anode manufacturing plant to be sited in the continental U.S. with development of its Graphite Creek resource.

The Graphite One material tests were conducted by a team of firefighting professionals at the U.S. Navy's Fire Science and Technology Office, Combustion Sciences & Propulsion Branch at NAWS China Lake, north of Los Angeles, California. In the test work, a composite blend of material from Graphite One's Graphite Creek deposit (including +80-mesh fraction) was formulated into a pigment component of an innovative biodegradable fire retardant foam, intended to replace the current Military Specification (MilSpec) Aqueous Film Forming Foams (AFFF). Test results of experiments performed by the U.S. Government indicate that the foam formulation that contains Graphite Creek material can extinguish Class B fires and therefore could meet the firefighting standards defined in the MilSpec.

This development work is timely, given that the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) ordered that AFFF must be phased out of use by October 2024 due to the dangers the material poses to the environment and human health. As of the 2024 deadline, AFFF agents will not be available for use in the event of an aircraft emergency involving Class B fires at any military installations or airfields.

According to a recent report by Reportlinker.com1, the global market for fire suppression systems and their related materials is expected to reach $18.3 billion by 2026 with a compound annual growth rate of 4.4% from 2020 to 2026, driven by the increasing number of fire incidents, stricter fire safety regulations, and growth in the construction industry.

"Until now, there has been no viable solution to AFFF chemistry that is environmentally-benign," continued Mr. Huston, "which makes the potential of fluorine-free formulations containing expandable graphite from Graphite One such a promising alternative."

Following the test work with Graphite One's material at NAWS China Lake, Graphite One's foam fire suppressant material was submitted to the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), DoD's environmental science and technology program, executed in partnership with DOE and EPA. Additional Graphite One material was submitted for evaluation by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) at NRL's request.

Pre-Feasibility Update

Graphite One remains on track and anticipates publishing its Pre-Feasibility Study in Q1 2022.

The Company will report as warranted on results of the NAWS China Lake, NRL, and DoD-DOE-EPA test work and other demonstrations of advanced graphite material applications.

About Graphite One Inc.

GRAPHITE ONE INC. (TSXV:GPH);(OTCQX:GPHOF) continues to develop its Graphite One Project (the "Project"), whereby the Company could potentially become an American producer of high grade anode materials that is integrated with a domestic graphite resource. The Project is proposed as a vertically integrated enterprise to mine, process and manufacture high grade anode materials primarily for the lithium-ion electric vehicle battery market. As set forth in the Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment, potential graphite mineralization mined from the Company's Graphite Creek Property, is expected to be processed into concentrate at a graphite processing plant. The proposed processing plant would be located on the Graphite Creek Property situated on the Seward Peninsula about 60 kilometers north of Nome, Alaska. Graphite anodes and other value-added graphite products would be manufactured from the concentrate and other materials at the Company's proposed advanced graphite materials manufacturing facility, the location of which is the subject of further study and analysis. The Company intends to make a production decision on the Project once a feasibility study is completed.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Anthony Huston" (signed)

For more information on Graphite One Inc., please visit the Company's website, www.GraphiteOneInc.com or contact:

Anthony Huston

CEO, President & Director

Tel: (604) 889-4251

Email: AHuston@GraphiteOneInc.com

Investor Relations Contact

Tel: (604) 684-6730

GPH@kincommunications.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, including those related to the actual results of the test work conducted at NAWS China Lake and the outcome of the evaluation by NRL, timing and completion of the anticipated Pre-Feasibility Study, future production, establishment of a processing plant and a graphite manufacturing plant, and events or developments that the Company intends, expects, plans, or proposes are forward-looking statements Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "proposes", "expects", or "is expected", "scheduled", "estimates", "projects", "intends", "assumes", "believes", "indicates" or variations of such words and phrases that state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The Company cautions that there is no certainty that tests of the Company's material will be successful or that such tests will result in the development of successful products. 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 developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date it is expressed in this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable securities laws. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

[1] https://www.reportlinker.com/p06095157/Fire-Suppression-Market-Report-Trends-Forecast-and-Competitive-Analysis.html

SOURCE: Graphite One Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688724/Graphite-One-Advances-Foam-Fire-Suppression-Test-Work-at-the-US-Naval-Air-Warfare-Center
A man in New Mexico accused of riding his BMX bike through the city of Albuquerque and stabbing 11 people has been arrested.

The seemingly random violence kicked off Sunday around 11 a.m., when authorities discovered a man suffering an injury to the hand, the Albuquerque Police Department said. A second victim was attacked near the University of New Mexico around an hour later, where the suspect screamed obscenities and asked strangers for money, according to a criminal complaint.

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This photo released by the Albuquerque Police Department on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022 shows Tobias Gutierrez. He was arrested as a suspect in the stabbing of 11 people as he rode a bicycle around the city over the weekend, authorities said. (AP)

Officers responded to another pair of stabbings nearby about two hours later at a convenience store. Both victims were suffering from wounds to the neck when authorities arrived on the scene. Just 20 minutes later, police received two more stabbing reports and then a third and final call from a restaurant.

Officers are investigating 7 possible scenes  stretching from Downtown to Central and Wyoming  with reports of 11 stabbing victim, police said in a twee. The lone suspect is in custody.

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Some of the victims were taken to different hospitals and in stable condition. While two suffered critical injuries, some have also been treated for their injuries and released.

Tobias Gutierrez was arrested in connection to the stabbings. Hes been charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, police said. A knife was also recovered near the 43-year-old suspect upon his arrest.

New Mexico court records show Gutierrez has a lengthy criminal history that includes charges of drug possession and driving under the influence.

In 2014, Gutierrez failed to appear in court for driving on a revoked license, records show. In a handwritten note to the court, he said he was in federal custody and working to better himself while behind bars. That case involved an incident in which Gutierrez entered a tribal casino in Albuquerque with a firearm and ammunition and then got into a scuffle with a security guard.

According to court records, he was released from federal custody in 2020.

With News Wires Services
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Element79 Gold Corp. (CSE:ELEM) (OTC PINK:ELMGF) (FSE: 7YS) ("Element79 Gold", the "Company") is pleased to welcome Mr. Shane Williams, Chief Operation Officer of Skeena Resources Limited, as an Advisor to the Board of Directors.

Mr. Williams carries a history of significant value creation in both early-stage and operating companies, which includes senior executive and management roles overseeing and delivering world-class multi-billion dollar projects at highly prominent companies, such as:

Chief Operation Officer at Skeena Resources Limited (NYSE Listed), Eskay Creek Project

A key member of the Skeena Resources team as the company developed from explorer to becoming a leading tier-one developer, overseeing the flagship Eskay Creek project's advancement towards production and increasing shareholder value by +300%. The Eskay Creek project has been estimated to have an after-tax net present value of $1.4 billion.



Senior Vice President at Eldorado Gold Corporation (NYSE Listed), $2B Global Project Portfolio

Oversaw the transition of the Lamaque Project from exploration into a successful operation in a record 18-months, with first year ramp up resulting in an increase in company value by approximately $300 million (an increase of over +50% at the time). The Lamaque Mine continues to deliver significant value to the Eldorado Gold portfolio.



General Manager of Expansion Projects at Rio Tinto Group (NYSE Listed), $2.5B CAPEX

Managed a combined capital expenditure of $2.5 billion across a series of expansion projects and studies at its subsidiaries, including Alcan, which was acquired by Rio Tinto Group for $38 billion.



Vice President of Projects at Kaunis Iron AB, $800M Flagship Kaunisvarra Iron Ore Project

Led the $800 million flagship Kaunisvarra Iron Ore Project from initial study through to final commercial operation and successful ramp up, delivering the project on schedule and under budget.



"I believe the experience I've accumulated, will allow me to be a highly applicable asset to Element79 Gold as it drives development of its extensive early-stage gold portfolio," remarked Mr. Williams. "I look forward to working with and advising the Board of Directors to deliver greater value to Element79 Gold and its shareholders.

Mr. Williams completed his Master of Project Management degree at the University of Limerick in Ireland and his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering at Technological University Dublin. He brings with him nearly 20 years of experience in senior management and executive roles where he has delivered significant value to well-known companies in the mining and resources sectors.

"Given the similarities between Skeena Resources at its early stages and Element79 Gold today, including a large compliant resource and additional wide-open greenfield potential, the team is looking forward to creating value at Element79 Gold following a similar playbook," said James Tworek, President and CEO of the Company. "The Board is thrilled to work closely with an advisor like Mr. Williams who carries a breadth of experience applicable to the entire range of Element79 Gold's assets."

CEO Comments on Spin-out Potential

"As many stakeholders are aware, we recently updated our company description to include reference to spin-out potential. We wanted to take this opportunity to illuminate further details on what this entails and the strategy behind it," stated Mr. Tworek.

"While the flagship Maverick Springs Project remains the focal point of our Nevada assets, the Company has been analyzing the fifteen additional projects in the Battle Mountain Portfolio for opportunities to deliver additional value to our shareholders while potentially bringing in non-dilutive capital," remarked Mr. Tworek. "The Company believes that there is significant upside potential to be unlocked within the Battle Mountain Portfolio and we are assessing opportunities across all properties, including those that may not be core to the Element79 Gold corporate vision but hold value as the property of merit for a new stand-alone resource company, as well as those that may be suitable for joint ventures, or outright sale."

Qualified Person

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and verified by Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo., Director of Element79 Gold and a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Element79 Gold

Element79 Gold is a mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of mining properties for gold and associated metals. Element79 Gold has acquired its flagship Maverick Springs Project ("Maverick Springs") between the Elko and White Pine Counties in Nevada, USA and recently filed an updated National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on Maverick Springs dated February 4, 2022. The acquisition of Maverick Springs also included a portfolio of 15 properties along the Battle Mountain trend in Nevada, and the Company is completing analysis on these properties for further merit of exploration, along with the potential for sale or spin-out. In British Columbia, the Company has executed a Letter of Intent to acquire a private company which holds the option to 100% interest of the Snowbird High-Grade Gold Project, which consists of 10 mineral claims located in Central British Columbia, approximately 20km west of Fort St. James. The Company also has an option to acquire 100% interest in the Dale Property which consists of 90 unpatented mining claims located approximately 100 km southwest of Timmins, Ontario, Canada in the Timmins Mining Division, Dale Township. For more information about the Company, please visit www.element79.gold or www.element79gold.com

Contact Information

For corporate matters, please contact:

James C. Tworek, Chief Executive Officer

E-mail: jt@element79gold.com

For investor relations inquiries, please contact:

Investor Relations Department

Phone: +1 (604) 200-3608

E-mail: investors@element79gold.com

Sources

Element 79 Gold makes no warranty as to the completeness, accuracy, verifiability, or suitableness of any of the information contained on the following third-party links and expressly undertakes no obligation to update the following links.

(1) CV provided by Mr. Shane Williams

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Technical Disclaimer

This news release and related maps contain information about adjacent properties and properties with similar characteristics on which the Company has no right to explore or mine. Readers are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent properties or properties that share similar characteristics are not indicative of mineral deposits on the Company's properties. Readers are also cautioned that this news release contains historical technical information which is based on prior data prepared by previous property owners. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to confirm such information; significant data compilation, re-drilling, re-sampling and data verification may be required to do so.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" under applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These statements relate to future events or the Company's future performance, business prospects or opportunities that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management made in light of management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: anticipated benefits to Element79 Gold of the acquisitions of Maverick Springs and the Battle Mountain Portfolio; the Company's business strategy; future planning processes; exploration activities; the timing and result of exploration activities; capital projects and exploration activities and the possible results thereof; acquisition opportunities; and the impact of acquisitions, if any, on the Company. Assumptions may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Consequently, forward-looking statements cannot be guaranteed. As such, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, assumptions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "predict", "forecast", "potential", "target", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements".

Actual results may vary from forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to materially differ from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the duration and effects of the coronavirus and COVID-19; risks related to the integration of acquisitions; actual results of exploration activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; commodity prices; variations in ore reserves, grade or recovery rates; actual performance of plant, equipment or processes relative to specifications and expectations; accidents; labour relations; relations with local communities; changes in national or local governments; changes in applicable legislation or application thereof; delays in obtaining approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; exchange rate fluctuations; requirements for additional capital; government regulation; environmental risks; reclamation expenses; outcomes of pending litigation; limitations on insurance coverage as well as those factors discussed in the Company's other public disclosure documents, available on www.sedar.com . Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included herein should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date hereof. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The euro and the pound advanced against their key counterparts in European deals on Tuesday, as European stocks climbed following a report that some Russian troops near Ukraine have started returning to bases.



Military units from the Southern and Western districts of Russia are returning to permanent bases after completing the exercises, the Interfax news agency reported, quoting Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying.



The move helped ease worries about an imminent invasion of Ukraine, fueling a sharp rebound in stocks.



German chancellor Olaf Scholz is set to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.



Survey results from the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research showed that German economic confidence strengthened in February despite rising economic and political uncertainties.



The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment climbed 2.6 points to a seven-month high of 54.3 points in February from 51.7 in January. However, this was below the economists' forecast of 55.0.



The euro reversed from its prior lows of 130.43 against the yen and 1.1296 against the greenback, climbing to 131.25 and 1.1354, respectively. The next possible resistance for the euro is seen around 133.00 against the yen and 1.16 against the greenback.



Rebounding from its earlier lows of 1.0440 against the franc and 0.8347 against the pound, the euro edged higher to 1.0512 and 0.8375, respectively. The euro is seen finding resistance around 1.07 against the franc and 0.86 against the pound.



The euro reached as high as 1.7137 against the kiwi, up from a low of 1.7052 seen at 3 am ET. Next key resistance for the currency is likely seen near the 1.74 level.



The euro remained higher against the loonie, with the pair trading at 1.4422. On the upside, 1.46 is possibly seen as its next resistance level.



In contrast, the euro pulled back to 1.5846 against the aussie, from its previous session's high of 1.5933. If the currency falls further, it may challenge support around the 1.56 level.



The pound firmed to a 4-day high of 1.2558 against the franc, after a drop to 1.2490 at 5 pm ET. The pound may locate resistance near the 1.28 level.



The pound climbed to 156.82 against the yen and 1.3567 against the greenback, up from its previous lows of 155.97 and 1.3519, respectively. The pound is likely to find resistance around 160.00 against the yen and 1.37 against the greenback.



Looking ahead, Canada housing starts for January are scheduled for release at 8:15 am ET.



U.S. PPI for January and New York Fed's empire manufacturing survey for February are set to be released in the New York session.







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Professor Morgan, Awakn's Head of Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for Addiction, Named One Of The 16 Most Influential Women Shaping The Future Of Psychedelics By Insider

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - Awakn Life Sciences Corp. (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) (FSE: 954) ('Awakn'), a biotechnology company, researching, developing and delivering psychedelic therapeutics to treat addiction, announced that Professor Celia Morgan, the Company's Head of Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for Addiction, was named one of Insider's 16 most influential women shaping the future of psychedelics.

"We are excited to share this well-deserved recognition for Celia and congratulate her on her pioneering work, which is helping to shape the psychedelic industry. She truly is an industry leader in the field of Ketamine-assisted therapy," said Anthony Tennyson, Awakn Life Sciences CEO. "Celia's research showcases that Ketamine-assisted therapy can have a significant, positive impact on the millions of people currently suffering with Addiction and we're so proud to support her continued work."

Professor Celia Morgan added, "I am greatly honoured to be showcased amongst these incredible women shaping the future of psychedelics and look forward to all that we can accomplish together to help the millions of people that are suffering from various mental illnesses and behavioural disorders."

Professor Morgan recently published Phase II A/B trial data in the American Journal of Psychiatry showcasing the efficacy of Ketamine-assisted therapy for the treatment of alcohol use disorder. The findings showed that Ketamine-assisted therapy, resulted in total abstinence in 162 of 180 days in the following 6-month period, achieving an increase in abstinence from around 2% prior to the trial to 86% six-months post trial.

Professor Morgan is also leading the world's first ketamine treatment study for gambling addiction, which was previously announced in August 2021. This research is the first such study to look at psychedelics for the treatment of a behavioural addiction. The study was also approved last month to expand to other behavioural addictions such as Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Sexual Behavior and Internet Gaming Disorder.

Morgan's work has been supported with more than $8 million in grant funding from the UK government and beyond.

About Awakn Life Sciences Corp.

Awakn Life Sciences is a biotechnology company, researching, developing, and delivering psychedelic therapeutics to better treat addiction. Awakn's team consists of world leading chemists, scientists, psychiatrists, and psychologists who are advancing the next generation of psychedelic drugs and therapies to be used in combination.

www.awaknlifesciences.com | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

Investor Enquiries:

KCSA Strategic Communications

Valter Pinto / Tim Regan

Phone: +1 (212) 896-1254

Awakn@KCSA.com

Media Enquiries:

America and Canada: KCSA Strategic Communications

Anne Donohoe

Adonohoe@KCSA.com

Rest of World: ROAD Communications

Paul Jarman / Nora Popova

Awakn@roadcommunications.co.uk

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113828
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE: EWG) (US:EWGFF) (FSE: 6BC0) ("Eat Well" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed a strategic investment (the "Strategic Investment") from Nurture Healthy Food LLP ("Nurture Healthy Food" or "NHF") a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nurture Capital LLC ("Nurture Capital" or "NC") on a non-brokered private placement basis for gross proceeds of $5,017,999.50 (the "Offering"). Pursuant to the Strategic Investment, the Company issued 6,690,666 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.75 per Unit, with each unit being comprised of: (a) one common share of the company (the "Common Shares"); and (b) one half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant") at an exercise price of $1.00 per share that will be exercisable for a period of 36 months after closing of the Offering.

In connection with the Strategic Investment, Eat Well has entered into a purchase agreement (the "Purchase Agreement") with NHF, pursuant to which the Company has sold to NHF an economic interest (the "Amara Economic Interest") in the shares of PataFoods, Inc. (dba "Amara Organic Foods) ("Amara"), one of Eat Well's portfolio investments, that are owned from time to time by Eat Well (the "Amara Monetization Transaction"). The Amara Economic Interest provides NHF with the right to receive eight percent (8%) of the net proceeds or other property (after having deducted Eat Well's cost base for its equity interest in Amara) received by Eat Well upon the occurrence of (i) a liquidation event in respect of Amara (including a merger of Amara or any sale of all or a portion of the overall equity interest in Amara held by Eat Well); and (ii) an initial public offering of the shares of Amara or other public listing event in respect of Amara, all pursuant to the Purchase Agreement. In addition, NHF is entitled to 8% of any dividend declared and paid by Amara to Eat Well.

Nurture Capital is focused on human health, environmentally beneficial investing and portfolio company development, building profitable businesses that are good for people and the environment. Nurture Capital is a General Partnership between CFI Holdings ("CFI") based in Lima, Peru and Afina International ("Afina") based in Philadelphia, PA, bringing together a private, established, family-owned, sustainability-focused Latin American investment and business management firm with Afina's recognized international, ecocentric creative business-building team.

"Our partnerships form an integral component of our overall growth strategy, we are pleased to receive this strategic investment from Nurture Healthy Foods which helps accelerate our international growth and sets the stage for further collaboration," stated Marc Aneed, Chief Executive Officer Director, Eat Well Group. "Nurture Healthy Food shares our vision in driving forward sustainable and nutritious CPG products and brands that form the basis of the next generation of household names," continued Aneed.

Alfonso Bustamante, Chief Executive of CFI said, "CFI Holdings, through its subsidiary Cerro Prieto, supplies 35 countries in 5 continents with fresh produce achieving the highest standards of ESG Practices. We are looking forward to the future of our new relationship with EWG and its newest incorporation, Amara Organic Foods for we share the same values and vision to contribute to a healthier world. EWG's focus on healthy and sustainable food is a perfect match to our vertically integrated superfoods business." Alexander Ortiz, Afina's Chief Investment Officer added, "Eat Well Group and its team exemplify the health-committed, environment-sensitive and experienced business leaders who are demonstrating the power of human wellbeing-focused business strategies to which Afina is committed."

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offerings for M&A and general working capital.

In January 2022, the Company and Cortland Credit Lending Corporation (the "Lender") agreed to a three month extension of the revolving line of credit (the "Credit Facility") between the Company and the Lender. Accordingly, the maturity date of the Credit Facility has been extended from January 30, 2022 to April 30, 2022. All other material terms of the Credit Facility remain unchanged as of the date hereof. Details of the Credit Facility can be found in the Company's management discussion and analysis for the period ended August 31, 2021, which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

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.

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking information are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "likely" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may," "will," "should," "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the intended use of proceeds of the Offering. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions that may prove to be incorrect. The Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable in the circumstances. However, forward-looking information is subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. For more information on the Company, its investee companies and the risks and challenges of their businesses, investors should review their annual filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

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.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005517/en/

Contacts:

Eat Well Investment Group Inc.

Marc Aneed, CEO

ir@eatwellgroup.com

www.eatwellgroup.com
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (OTCQB:CLSH)(CSE:CLSH), the 'Company' or 'CLS', a diversified cannabis company operating as Cannabis Life Sciences, today announced the financial and operational results for its Nevada wholly owned subsidiaries for the month of January 2022 with net revenues of $1.75M and a gross margin of 55%, maintaining the Company's goal of achieving a greater than 50% gross margin. Net revenue for the Company's wholesale branded division at City Trees continued to rise with monthly net revenue growth of 127% year over year and 191% over 2020.

CLS Nevada January 2022 Financial and Operational Highlights

The Company's monthly net revenues grew year over year by 18% while achieving a gross margin of 55%

The Company's branded division, City Trees, continued to outperform the market and achieved a 127% increase in year-over-year net revenue and a 191% increase from 2020

City Trees continued to maintain its position as the number one selling tincture brand in the state of Nevada, as reported by BDS Analytics

BDS Analytics reported that City Trees was the number one brand for the entire concentrate category in units sold in the state of Nevada during December 2021, selling over 44,000 units

BDS Analytics reported that City Trees sold over $1M of concentrates at retail during December 2021

The Company signed 2 significant manufacturing deals in the month of January The Company began exclusively producing live resin concentrates for renowned brand Sauced in Nevada The Company signed on to produce live and cured resin concentrates, live resin vape cartridges and pods, distillate vape cartridges and pods and tinctures for a notable celebrity brand set to release in Nevada in April



"2022 is off to a great start," noted Company President & COO Andrew Glashow. "We are committed to reinvesting in our growth and made a number of significant hires to bolster our strong core team. Additionally, we are investing in our facility to ramp up greater production to keep up with our current sales trends. We are keenly aware of the opportunities in front of us and truly believe we are well positioned to be one of the predominant cannabis companies in the state of Nevada as consolidation continues and the cream rises to the top."
DENVER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Solitario Zinc Corp. ("Solitario") (NYSE American:XPL; TSX:SLR) is pleased to announce that it is participating in the John Tumazos, Very Independent Research Conference on Wednesday, February 16th, 2022.

Mr. Herald will deliver an online presentation at 4:00pm EST, featuring the Golden Crest project in South Dakota. For more information on the conference and to register for Solitario's presentation please use the following link:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6435948852278351883

President and CEO, Christopher Herald, stated, "I want to encourage Solitario shareholders and interested investors to join our webcast tomorrow as I'll take an in depth look at our Golden Crest project and the exceptional exploration results announced yesterday."

About Solitario

Solitario is a natural resource exploration and development company focusing on high-quality Tier 1 gold and zinc projects. The Company is traded on the NYSE American ("XPL") and on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("SLR"). In addition to its Golden Crest project, Solitario holds 50% joint venture interest (Teck Resources 50%) in the high-grade, open-pittable Lik zinc deposit in Alaska and a 39% joint venture interest (Nexa Resources holds the remaining 61% interest) on the high-grade Florida Canyon zinc project in Peru. Solitario's Management and Directors hold approximately 9.2% (excluding options) of the Company's 62.0 million shares outstanding. Additional information about Solitario is available online at www.solitariozinc.com.

Solitario has a long history of a commitment to Environmental, Social and Responsible Governance ("ESG") of its business. We realize ESG issues are also important to investors, employees and all stakeholders. We are pledged to operate our business in a manner that supports environmental and social initiatives and responsible corporate governance.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Middle-Market Investment Banking Firm Continues Growth into 2022

JUPITER, FL / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Boxwood Partners, a boutique investment banking firm based in Jupiter, FL, has announced the promotions of five members of its team.

Boxwood completed a record 13 transactions last year, advising companies in a wide range of industries, including home services, franchising, tech enabled services, industrial distribution, industrial products, and consumer/food & beverage. This marks the 3rd consecutive year of record growth.

"I'm happy to announce the promotions on the Boxwood team," said J. Patrick Galleher, Managing Partner of Boxwood Partners. "Each played a crucial role in the success of the firm over the past several years, including a record-setting 2021. The promotions for each are well deserved and I am proud of the contributions from our entire staff."

The promotions are as follows:

Robbie Nickle was promoted from Vice President to Director.

Since joining Boxwood in 2019, Nickle has been a leader in deal execution and client management while being responsible for managing all aspects of the firm's M&A transactions. He continues to gain valuable experience advising clients across numerous industry verticals, including industrial products and services, manufacturing, and distribution. Prior to Boxwood, Nickle was at Matrix Capital Markets Group, where he was a key member of the Consumer and Industrial Products team.

Associates Madison Day and Dan Martinson have each been promoted to Vice President.

Madison Day joined Boxwood as an Analyst in December 2017 after two summer internships. He has played an integral role in deal execution across multiple industries while continuing to expand Boxwood's buyer relationships within the private equity community.

Dan Martinson joined Boxwood as an Analyst in June 2019 and has played an important role for the firm over the last two years. He will continue to lead deal execution across Boxwood's franchising efforts in his new role. Prior to Boxwood, Martinson worked as an Audit Senior for Deloitte's Audit and Assurance Practice.

Analysts Kurtis Brown and John Atkinson have each been promoted to Associate.

Kurtis Brown joined Boxwood in July 2020 after beginning his career with The Vanguard Group, where he was a Senior Derivatives Analyst.

John Atkinson joined Boxwood in September 2020. Prior to Boxwood, Atkinson worked as a Financial Analyst at the Altria Group, supporting the portfolio companies of the parent company.

Boxwood's most recent promotions come as Boxwood continues to establish itself as one of the leading investment banks for founder and entrepreneur-owned businesses. "These are well deserved promotions as them team continues to execute across all of our industry verticals," added Brian Alas, Managing Director. "Our recent momentum has given us the opportunity to continue to invest in our people and promote from within to support future growth."

About Boxwood Partners

Boxwood Partners is a boutique investment bank based in Jupiter, FL with offices in Richmond, VA. Boxwood Partners combines a unique blend of senior-level transaction advisory, business operating experience, and proven process execution skills to give its clients a distinct advantage in the market. The firm's extensive relationships within the global capital and buyer communities (including U.S. and international private equity groups, corporations, and lenders) and other important transaction-related service providers such as consultants, attorneys, and accountants, ensure that the firm's clients receive the attention, service, and results they deserve.

For more information about Boxwood Partners, please visit www.boxwoodpartners.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:

Kevin Behan

kbehan@919marketing.com

919-459-3595

SOURCE: Boxwood Partners LLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688711/Boxwood-Partners-Announces-Recent-Promotions
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Gratomic Inc. ("Gratomic", "GRAT," or the "Company") (TSXV:GRAT)(OTCQX:CBULF)(FSE:CB82) announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with Millennium Metals LTD ("TM2") and an undisclosed 3rd party (the "Buyer"), to supply graphite over 60 consecutive months, to begin upon commencement of commercial production at its Aukam Graphite Project in Namibia. Gratomic and TM2 forged a strategic partnership with the intention of being the first to industrialize graphite as a commodity (as mentioned in the press release dated June 30, 2021), and signed an indicative term sheet on February 8, 2022 (see press release here) in order to set the groundwork for this MOU.

TM2 is the world's first spot market where direct investment in technology metals is possible. It is quickly becoming the one-stop-shop for electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturers and OEMs. The metals and minerals available on the TM2 platform are essential to EV batteries, aerospace, semiconductors, and many additional high-tech industries. TM2's innovative approach to commodities has created a global community within the electric vehicle space. Learn more about TM2 here.

The Parties have agreed to enter into a long form agreement within 6 months where Gratomic will commit to supplying 600 tons per month of graphite SG16 Uncoated or other grade in the initial 3 months of supply, and 1,200 tons per month of graphite SG16 Coated or Uncoated or other grade after the initial 3-month period, year over year for 60 consecutive months from the date that the Company's Aukam Graphite Plant officially enters commercial production. Commerical production is defined as an output of greater than 51% of total production, which is estimated for Q3 of 2022.

The prices should be discounted by 5% on FOB terms. As an indication, Gratomic and TM2 Indicative Term Sheet signed on February 8, 2022, defined a fixed price of $2,700 USD per ton for graphite grade SG16 uncoated, and $8,000 USD per ton for graphite grade SG16 coated.

A provisional payment of 70% in advance will be made quarterly to Gratomic for the upcoming 3-month delivery period based on planned production and prices on the date of payment. Final payment will be made 30 days after an inspection in a bonded warehouse. Payments will be made directly by the Buyer to Gratomic, and a shared profit contract will need to be established with TM2.

The processing plant at the Company's Aukam Graphite Project was built to accommodate an initial 20,000 tonnes per annum of output and was engineered in a modular design to accommodate rapid expansion over time. The over-engineering of the front and back end of the plant, allows the Company to quickly increase capacity up to 45,000 tonnes per year, to accommodate the market increase in demand. Some aspects of the plant have already been adapted to reflect the impending expansion efforts. Product output is intended to be supplemented through the development of Gratomic's Capim Grosso graphite project in the Bahia State of Brazil.

Armando Farhate, COO & Head of Graphite Marketing and Sales, says: "The TM2 partnership is bearing fruit at an incredible pace. We are thrilled to be working with such an effective company".

"Bringing a buyer into the partnership between Gratomic and TM2 continues to build our vision of creating opportunities and becoming a lead player in the electric vehicle battery sector, with the right partners" stated Arno Brand President & CEO.

Petur Georgesson, TM2's CEO, adds: "We intend on becoming the landmark market for technology metals globally, with full coverage of the periodic table and full transparency. We want more people to feel empowered by this new and unique opportunity to invest in metals. It's a new level of freedom and democracy both for investors and producers to get access to a direct trading market without any intermediaries and with the full transparency and accessible information regarding the sustainability requirements demanded by the public."

Gratomic emphasizes that no Preliminary Economic Analysis ("PEA"), Preliminary Feasibility Study or Feasibility Study has been completed to support any level of production. No mineral resources, or mineral reserves demonstrating economic viability and technical feasibility, have been delineated on the Aukam property.

Gratomic wishes to emphasize that the supply of graphite to trade on the TM2 metals exchange referred to in this Press Release is conditional on Gratomic being able to bring the Aukam project into a production phase, and for any graphite being produced to meet certain technical and mineralization requirements. Gratomic continues to move its business towards production and as part of its business plan, expects to obtain a National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects technical report to help it ascertain the economics of the Aukam project.

Risk Factors

No mineral resources, let alone mineral reserves demonstrating economic viability and technical feasibility, have been delineated on the Aukam Property. The Company is not in a position to demonstrate or disclose any capital and/or operating costs that may be associated with the processing plant.

The Company advises that it has not based its production decision on even the existence of mineral resources let alone on a feasibility study of mineral reserves, demonstrating economic and technical viability, and, as a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit.

Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic and technical failure. There is no guarantee that production will begin as anticipated or at all or that anticipated production costs will be achieved.

Failure to commence production would have a material adverse impact on the Company's ability to generate revenue and cash flow to fund operations. Failure to achieve the anticipated production costs would have a material adverse impact on the Company's cash flow and future profitability.

Steve Gray, P. Geo., technical advisor to the Company and a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this Press Release.

About TM2

Technology Metals Market (TM2) is a global exchange marketplace that enables investors to trade a new asset class of high-value technology metals critical to global technology industries.

Technology metals are irreplaceable inputs of the 21st Century supply chain. Critical to the future growth of Electric Vehicles, energy storage, data transfer, robotics, renewable energies, aerospace and defense. They're all around us, in everything we touch.

The metals traded on TM2 are 100% physically backed, allowing investors to have direct title to the underlying physical metal. Through TM2's expanding custodian network with over 100 locations worldwide, metals can be listed, traded, or redeemed directly.

TM2 took this opportunity to create the first transparent investment market in an ecosystem where direct investment opportunities are limited for some metals and non-existent for others, fully democratizing access to these metals around the world.

For more information on TM2 contact:

contact@tm2.com or ricardo@tm2.com

Visit our website: https://tm2.com/

About Gratomic

Gratomic is a multinational company with projects in Namibia, Brazil, and Canada. The Company is focused on becoming a leading global graphite supplier and aims to secure a strong position in the electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain. With the continued development of its flagship Aukam project and further exploration on the Company's Capim Grosso property, Gratomic sets itself apart by seeking out unique top-quality assets around the world. True to its roots, the Company will continue to explore graphite opportunities displaying potential for development.

Large quantities of high-quality vein graphite have been shipped for testing to confirm its viability as an anode material. Gratomic is confident that the test results will provide a unique competitive advantage in its desired target markets. The Company will continue to update the public on the status of these tests and will provide results as soon as they become available.

The Company has formed a collaboration agreement with Forge Nano. With its patented ALD coating, this cooperation with Forge Nano is a key element to support Gratomic's strategies towards the value-added phases of production of graphite for anode applications, namely micronization, spheronization and coating, making Gratomic graphite a preferred choice for use in lithium-ion batteries.

For more information: visit the website at www.gratomic.ca or contact:

Arno Brand at abrand@gratomic.ca or (416) 561- 4095

Subscribe at gratomic.ca/contact/ to be added to our email list.

For Marketing and Media information, please email: info@gratomic.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."

Forward Looking Statements:

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. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. 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. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com)

SOURCE: Gratomic Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688780/Gratomic-Announces-Memorandum-of-Understanding-with-Millennium-Metals--TM2
On Monday February 14, 2022 the German Federal Court of Justice decided on PEC's challenge of the award in the dispute between AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH and PharmaEssentia Corporation. The decision confirmed that PharmaEssentia's attempts to deprive AOP of its license rights in Ropeginterferon alpha-2b have failed. It upholds the award finding the License Agreement valid and PharmaEssentia liable for certain damages and dismissing all PharmaEssentia's claims against AOP. However, it finds procedural flaws with respect to product supply and damage quantification, impacting the damages awarded. AOP will continue BESREMi sales and claim all damages.

Since 2017, PharmaEssentia had repeatedly attempted to terminate the agreement with AOP concerning BESREMi (Ropeginterferon alfa-2b). In October 2020, after two and a half years of arbitral proceedings, the ICC Arbitral Tribunal issued its award in the matter. The award states that PharmaEssentia's multiple attempts to terminate the agreement were unjustified, and that AOP is entitled to damages of over EUR 143 million for project delays caused by PharmaEssentia. The award also dismissed all of PharmaEssentia's counterclaims against AOP.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005749/en/

Dr. Rudolf Widmann Founder and Board Member, AOP Health Group. Copyright Photographs: @studio koekart

In December 2020, PharmaEssentia filed an application with the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court to set aside this award, arguing that the award violated public order and PharmaEssentia's right to be heard. In March 2021, the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court dismissed this application and declared the award enforceable.

In March 2021, PharmaEssentia filed an appeal against this court decision with the German Federal Court of Justice, requesting again that the award be set aside. On February 14, 2022, the German Federal Court of Justice decided that the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court correctly upheld the award with respect to the validity of the agreements and the dismissal of PEC's counterclaims.

However, it found procedural flaws with respect to product supply and damage quantification. The decision has no implication regarding the merits of AOP's claims against PEC and will only result in protracted further proceedings.

"We are satisfied that the German Supreme Court confirmed the validity of our development and commercialization license. We are of course disappointed that the Court found flaws in the reasoning regarding damages. But we have no doubt that we will ultimately also recover these confirmed damages in further proceedings. We will take all necessary steps in due course to have this ultimately confirmed by an enforceable arbitral award. Having said that, we will continue supplying BESREMi to patients in Europe, the Middle East and territories where AOP is the holder of the developing and commercialization license rights" explains Dr. Rudolf Widmann, Founder and Board Member, AOP Health Group.

About BESREMi

BESREMi is a long-acting, mono-pegylated proline interferon (ATC L03AB15). Its unique pharmacokinetic properties offer a new level of tolerability. BESREMi is designed to be conveniently self-administered subcutaneously with a pen once every two weeks, or monthly after stabilization of hematological parameters. This treatment schedule is expected to lead to overall better safety, tolerability and adherence compared to conventional pegylated interferons. Ropeginterferon alfa-2b was discovered by PharmaEssentia, a long-term partner of AOP. In 2009, AOP in-licensed the exclusive rights for clinical development and commercialization of Ropeginterferon alfa-2b in PV and other MPNs for European, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and Middle Eastern markets. AOP has to date obtained regulatory approval for BESREMI in the EU, UK, Switzerland, and Israel.

For the EMA Summary of Product Characteristics please visit: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/besremi-epar-product-information_en.pdf

About AOP Health

AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH is a member of the AOP Health Group. The brand AOP Health incorporates several companies: The international Healthcare Group is the European pioneer for integrated therapies for rare diseases and in critical care. Over the past 25 years, the company has become an established provider of integrated therapy solutions from its headquarters in Vienna, its subsidiaries and representative offices throughout Europe and the Middle East, as well as through partners worldwide. This development has been made possible by a continually high level of investment in research and development on the one hand and a highly consistent and pragmatic orientation towards the needs of all our stakeholders on the other especially the patients and their families as well as also the doctors and care professionals treating them.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005749/en/

Contacts:

For more information, please contact:

Nina Roth, MAS

Head of Corporate Communications

+43 676 3131509

nina.roth@aoporphan.com
Cyber insurtech continues to scale with addition of Head of Reinsurance, Stephanie Lynch, and Head of Insurance Operations and Strategy, Adam Petrone

At-Bay, the cyber insurance provider for the digital age, today announced Stephanie Lynch and Adam Petrone joined the company as Head of Reinsurance and Head of Insurance Operations and Strategy, respectively. Following a monumental 2021, during which the company closed $205 million in funding on a $1.3 billion valuation, and launched new partnerships with Microsoft and Cloudflare, Lynch and Petrone will help the company scale reinsurance and operations to maintain upward momentum.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005257/en/

Adam Petrone, Head of Insurance Operations and Strategy, and Stephanie Lynch, Head of Reinsurance at At-Bay (Photo: Business Wire)

Lynch joins At-Bay to lead the company's reinsurance strategy and placements. In this role, she'll deepen and broaden the company's relationships with reinsurance partners to achieve capacity necessary for growth of the company. Lynch most recently served as Vice President at Safety National Re, where she was focused on underwriting the growing professional liability portfolio, and before that Arch Re, where she worked in an actuarial reserving and financial reporting capacity before transitioning to underwriting, focusing on professional liability.

"I'm thrilled to join the incredibly talented and innovative team at At-Bay, and look forward to growing relationships with our reinsurance partners," said Lynch. "At-Bay's ability to actively monitor the cyber risk and vulnerabilities of their insureds is a major advancement over what insurance has traditionally provided, the impact of which has been clearly demonstrated in how the company has been able to keep incredibly low loss ratios despite the volatile market."

In his new role, Petrone will oversee the strategic deployment of insurance operations and underwriting resources to drive scalable growth. Petrone most recently served as Senior Vice President at Hiscox, leading the Northeast region of the U.S. broker business. While there, he held P&L responsibility and owned business planning for 12 product lines and more than 20 underwriters.

"It can be tough to break through in insurance because your reputation is everything, yet At-Bay has quickly managed to do so and differentiate itself by providing superior risk assessment and prevention methods," said Petrone. "We are an external steward of business' security posture and provide regular feedback throughout the life of a policy very few insurance markets are doing that to keep businesses safe."

About At-Bay

At-Bay is the cyber insurance provider for the digital age. By combining world-class technology with industry-leading insurance expertise, At-Bay was designed from the ground up to empower businesses to thrive in the digital world. At-Bay is backed by Acrew Capital, Glilot Capital, the HSB fund of Munich Re, Icon Ventures, ION Crossover Partners, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, M12, entrepreneur Shlomo Kramer, and Qumra Capital. www.at-bay.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005257/en/

Contacts:

Jackie Gray

Jackieg@at-bay.com
A man arrested for killing his girlfriend with a lethal drug injection inside a Utah hotel room said her death was the result of a botched suicide pact that he managed to survive.

The 19-year-old victim, a Chinese student studying at the University of Utah, was found dead Friday morning by Salt Lake police at the Quality Inn, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. She has not been identified.

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Authorities at the time were investigating reports of a man who made threats to kill his girlfriend, according to a police press release. They also discovered Haoyu Wang, a 26-year-old student also from China, inside the room, but he did not require any medical attention.

The couple had been romantically involved and living together prior to the tragedy.

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According to a probable cause statement obtained by the Tribune, Wang sent an email to a university employee that revealed he had gave the victim drugs to relieve her from suffering. He also claimed in an interview with law enforcement that he and his girlfriend had agreed to kill themselves together and that he ordered the drugs needed online.

In a letter to students and faculty, University of Utah Chief Safety Officer Keith Squires and Vice President for Student Affairs Lori McDonald acknowledged the devastating news and urged those struggling to seek out counseling.

The death of any young person embarking on adult life is devastating, they wrote.

And, unfortunately, domestic violence is more prevalent than many of us are aware, even among college students. On behalf of the university, we extend our heartfelt grief and sympathy to the family, friends and classmates of the victim during this incredibly difficult time.
Increase in incidence of herpes zoster and enhanced healthcare infrastructure drive the growth of the global herpes zoster treatment market.

PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Herpes Zoster Treatment Market by Treatment Type (Antiviral Medications, Anti Inflammatory Medications, and Others) Route Administration (Oral, and Topical) and Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacies, Drug Stores & Retail Pharmacies, and Online Providers): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030." According to the report, the global herpes zoster treatment industry generated $217.09 million in 2020, and is estimated to reach $303.42 million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 3.4% from 2021 to 2030.

For Right Perspective and Competitive Insights, Get Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/13718

Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities

Increase in incidence of herpes zoster and enhanced healthcare infrastructure drive the growth of the global herpes zoster treatment market. However, scarcity of skilled professionals restrains the market growth. On the other hand, surge in drug development activities creates new opportunities in the coming years.

Covid-19 Scenario

There has been a fall in the number of surgeries and patient visits to hospitals to avoid cross-contamination. This impacted the herpes zoster treatment market negatively.

Moreover, the shift in healthcare staff to take care of Covid-19-infected patients led to reduced staff for taking care of patients undergoing the herpes zoster treatment. So, many hospitals and healthcare facilities postponed non-elective surgeries. However, the herpes zoster treatment market is expected to recover steadily post-pandemic.

The antiviral medications segment to continue its leadership status during the forecast period

Based on treatment type, the antiviral medications segment accounted for the highest share in 2020, contributing to nearly half of the global herpes zoster treatment market, and is expected to continue its leadership status during the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is expected to manifest the largest CAGR of 3.9% from 2021 to 2030. This is due to rise in demand for antiviral treatment for its high effectiveness and introduction of new drugs. The research also analyzes the segments including anti-inflammatory medications and others.

Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Industry Expert: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/13718

The drug stores and retail pharmacies segment to continue its dominant share during the forecast period

Based on distribution channel, the drug stores and retail pharmacies segment contributed to the highest share in 2020, accounting for nearly three-fifths of the global herpes zoster treatment market, and is estimated to continue its dominant share in terms of revenue during the forecast period. This is attributed to surge in the number of stores and its ease in availability. However, the online providers segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 5.4% from 2021 to 2030, owing to rise in preference for doorstep delivery of medicines with increased demand for convenience.

North America to continue its lead position in terms of revenue by 2030

Based on region, North America held the highest market share in 2020, accounting for around two-fifths of the global herpes zoster treatment market, and is expected to continue its lead position in terms of revenue by 2030. This is due to availability of advanced healthcare facilities with trained medical professionals and presence of key players across the region. However, Asia-Pacific is projected to portray the fastest CAGR of 4.7% during the forecast period, owing to rise in patient awareness toward treatment of herpes zoster and surge in demand for drug therapies.

Leading Market Players

Abbott Laboratory

Bausch Health

Cipla Inc.

Camber Pharmaceuticals.

GlaxoSmithKline plc

Merck

Novartis AG,

Pfizer Inc.

Eli Lilly and Co.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

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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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HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Camber Energy, Inc. (NYSE American:CEI) ("Camber" or the "Company, announced that on February 11, 2022 it received a letter from the NYSE American(the "Exchange") in response to the Company's request for an extension of the date by which the Company is to file outstanding financial reports.

The Company is not in compliance with the Exchange's continued listing standards as set forth in Section 1007 of the NYSE American Company Guide(the "Company Guide") given the Company failed to timely file (the "Filing Delinquency") the following reports (collectively, the "Delayed Reports"): (i) Form 10-K for the 9-month transition period ended December 31, 2020; (ii) Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2021; (iii) Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2021; and (iv) Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2021. The Filing Delinquency will be cured via the filing of the Delayed Reports.

The Company intended to remedy the Filing Delinquency on or before February 15, 2022, however due to certain circumstances requested the Exchange grant the Company a brief extension of time by which to file the Delayed Reports. The Exchange accepted the Company's request and has allowed the Company until April 1, 2022 to file the Delayed Reports.

If the Company is unable to cure the delinquency by April 1, 2022, the Company may request an additional extension up to the maximum cure period of May 20, 2022. NYSE Regulation staff will review the Company periodically for compliance with adherence to the milestones in the plan. In addition, if the Company does not make progress consistent with the plan during the plan period or if the Company does not complete its Delayed Filings and any subsequently delayed filings with the SEC by the end of the maximum12-month cure period on May 20, 2022, Exchange staff will initiate delisting proceedings as appropriate. The Company may appeal a staff delisting determination in accordance with Section 1010 and Part 12 of the Company Guide.

Receipt of the letter does not have any immediate effect on the listing of the Company's shares on the Exchange, except that until the Company regains compliance with the Exchange's listing standards, a "BC" indicator will be affixed to the Company's trading symbol. The Company's business operations and SEC reporting requirements are unaffected by the notification, provided that if the Filing Delinquency is not cured then the Company will be subject to the Exchange's delisting procedures.

The Company is committed to filing the Delayed Reports to achieve compliance with the Exchange's requirements, and, although there are no guarantees it will do so, the Company expects to file the Delayed Reports on or before April 1, 2022.

About Camber Energy, Inc.

Camber Energy, Inc. is a growth-oriented diversified energy company. Through its majority-owned subsidiary, Camber provides custom energy & power solutions to commercial and industrial clients in North America and owns interests in oil and natural gas assets in the United States The company's majority-owned subsidiary also holds an exclusive license in Canada to a patented carbon-capture system. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.camber.energy.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements", which statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "projects," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, involve known and unknown risks, a reliance on third parties for information, transactions that may be cancelled, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in our industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties related to the fluctuation of global economic conditions or economic conditions with respect to the oil and gas industry, the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance of management, actions of government regulators, vendors, and suppliers, our cash flows and ability to obtain financing, competition, general economic conditions and other factors that are detailed in Camber's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions.

Contact Information:

Investors and Media:

Tel. 281.404.4387 (ext.3)

SOURCE: Camber Energy, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688680/CamberEnergyDisclosesCommunicationFromNYSEAmerican
- Several government initiatives & supportive policies and increase in adoption of industry 4.0 & enabling technologies industries drive the growth of the global automation in combined heat and power market.

PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Automation in Combined Heat and Power Market by Component (Sensors, Controllers, Switches & Relays, Drives, and Others), Control and Safety System (Distributed Control System, Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition System, Systems Instrumented Systems, Programmable Logic Controller, and Human Machine Interface): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030." As per the report, the global automation in combined heat and power industry was accounted for $12.53 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $24.12 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 7.1% from 2021 to 2030.

Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities-

Several government initiatives & supportive policies and increase in adoption of industry 4.0 & enabling technologies industries drive the growth of the global automation in combined heat and power market. On the other hand, high initial investment restrains the growth to some extent. However, increased demand for safety compliance automation solutions is anticipated to create lucrative opportunities in the industry.

Download Sample Report (Get Full Insights in PDF - 240+ Pages) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/15981

Covid-19 Scenario-

The outbreak of the pandemic gave way to falling business confidence, massive slowing of supply chain, and increasing panic among customers, which impacted the global automation in combined heat and power market negatively.

However, the market is anticipated to get back on track soon.

The Controllers Segment Held the Lion's Share-

Based on component, the controllers segment held the major share in 2020, generating around one-third of the global automation in combined heat and power market. The heightened need for safe, reliable, and qualitative production is projected to increase the demand for controllers in the automation in combined heat and power market. The sensors segment, simultaneously, is projected to cite the fastest CAGR of 8.8% during the forecast period. Factors such as rise in need for automation across different industry verticals as well as technological advancements, availability of cheap labor, and low manufacturing cost drive the growth of the segment.

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The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (Scada) Segment Held The Highest Share In 2020-

Based on control and safety system, the supervisory control and data acquisition system (Scada) segment held the highest share in 2020, generating around one-fourth of the global automation in combined heat and power market. This is attributed to the fact that the demand for SCADA systems is increasing in the manufacturing, pipeline monitoring & control, water treatment centers & distribution, electrical power transmission & distribution, and other industries. The Programmable Logic Controller (Plc) segment, on the other hand, would cite the fastest CAGR of 9.4% from 2021 to 2030. This is due to the fact that the majority of the end users prefer PLCs to implement them as a major component in configuration of small control systems.

Europe, Followed by North America, Held the Major Share-

Based on region, Europe, followed by North America, accounted for the major share in 2020, contributing to more than one-third of the global automation in combined heat and power market. Increase in investments in the development of small-sized manufacturing units in the region has augmented the business opportunity, thereby propelling the market growth. Asia-Pacific, however, is expected to cite the fastest CAGR of 9.3% throughout the forecast period. Investments in large new gas-fired cogeneration plants and large coal-fired plants, along with rising demand for electricity, are expected to drive the growth of the market in this province.

Enquire for Customization with Detailed Analysis of COVID-19 Impact in Report @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/15981?reqfor=covid

Prominent Market Players-

Emerson Electric Co.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Yokogawa Electric Corporation

Omron Corporation

Rockwell Automation, Inc.

Honeywell International Inc.

Schneider Electric S.E.

ABB Ltd

Siemens AG

Valmet

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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.

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DGAP-News: Ameramex International

AmeraMex International Inks Orders Totaling Approximately $ 1.0 Million



15.02.2022 / 14:35

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





CHICO, CA February 15, 2022 - AmeraMex International, Inc. (OTCQB: AMMX), a provider of heavy equipment for logistics companies, infrastructure construction and forestry conservation, announced that it has received equipment orders totaling $1,065,000.

The new orders consisted of the following equipment:

* One Taylor TX330 Forklift

* One Taylor TX330 Forklift

* One Taylor TX250 Forklift

* Three Taylor THDC955 Loaded Container Handlers

The equipment, which expected to ship before the end of the first quarter, was purchased by five customers in California.

For more information and pricing of logistics, construction, and forestry equipment or to receive information and arrange for a demonstration of the Kovaco Electric's 100 percent electric skid steer loaders, the line of ASV Posti-Tract and Skid Steer Loaders or a Magni Telescopic Handler, contact the AmeraMex/Hamre Equipment sales team at 530.895.8955.

AmeraMex International

AmeraMex International sells, leases, and rents heavy equipment to companies within multiple industries including construction, logistics, mining, and lumber. The company has over 30 years of experience in heavy equipment sales and service. Follow AmeraMex on Twitter @ammx_intl and visit the AmeraMex website, www.AMMX.net or www.hamreequipment.com for additional information and equipment videos.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are encouraged to review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if added information becomes available in the future.

Investor and Media Relations

McCloud Communications, LLC

Marty Tullio, Managing Member

Office: 949.632.1900 or Marty@McCloudCommunications.com

About AmeraMex International

AmeraMex International sells, leases and rents heavy equipment to companies within multiple industries including construction, logistics, mining, and lumber. AmeraMex, with a US and international customer base, has over 30 years of experience in heavy equipment sales and service. Follow AmeraMex on Twitter @ammx_intl and visit the AmeraMex website, www.AMMX.net or www.hamreequipment.com for additional information and equipment videos.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are encouraged to review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if added information becomes available in the future.

AmeraMex International

Marty Tullio

+1 949-632-1900

marty@mccloudcommunications.com

https://www.ammx.net

15.02.2022 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



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Dieppe, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - Colibri Resource Corporation (TSXV: CBI) ("Colibri" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its partner on the Pilar Au-Ag Project ("(Pilar"), Tocvan Ventures Corp. ("Tocvan") has provided an exploration update. Based on reported core drilling, Tocvan interprets a broad breccia body hosting mineralization at the Main Zone and has added a second drill rig to accelerate exploration and delineation at Pilar.

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 Phase III drill program is currently underway following up on Main Zone expansion targets and new target areas identified in 2021. A second drill rig has been mobilized to increase productivity, a diamond drill rig will accompany RC drilling and assist in understanding the key geological and structural controls of mineralization.

Drilling Update

Core drilling (JES-22-59) has been successful in intersecting a heavily oxidized and fractured mineralized breccia in a twin hole of RC drill hole JES-20-32, completed in 2020 (94.6m at 1.6g/t Au). The strongest mineralization noted in JES-20-32, at 9.2m of 10.8 g/t Au and 38 g/t Ag correlates with a strongly oxidized, brecciated andesite bounded by a distinct fault gauge. Mineralization appears to be primarily hosted in an intensely silicified breccia with pyrite and in select areas copper sulphides (chalcopyrite and cuprite) (see Plates 1 & 2.). Assay results for JES-22-59 are pending. This information will be integral to the planning and design of future drill programs and will provide a more accurate account of the distribution of grade through the Main Zone, helping to define a reliable geological model and future resource estimate. At the Main Zone, four drill holes have been completed to date totalling 684 meters.

"Although the results of JES-22-59 are visual at this stage, the direct correlation with assays results in the twin RC hole JES-20-32, indicate our Main Zone is hosted within a mineralized breccia," commented CEO, Brodie Sutherland. "This is significant as it suggests that mineralization is not isolated to narrow veins but in places hosted in a broad breccia body that is much more attractive as a development target. Historically Pilar has seen over 22,200 meters of RC drilling and only 1,307 meters of core drilling leaving a lot unknown about the true style and host of mineralization. What we have been able to accomplish early on in this program will have a profound impact on how we explore Pilar moving forward. We are excited to apply this knowledge across the property as we drill target beyond our Main Zone."

Metallurgy Update

In addition, the Company would like to announce that it has entered a strategic arrangement with a local producer to assist in the advancement of metallurgical studies. A bulk sample from trench T-21-3 (Figure 1.) has been submitted to SGS (Durango) for column leach study. In tandem with the processing and evaluation of this material, the local producer has agreed to process additional samples to aid in the advancement and optimization of metallurgical work. These studies have the ultimate goal of preparing Pilar for a larger bulk test mine scenario.

Plate 1. Photos of Core from JES-22-59, twin of RC drillhole JES-20-32. 55m to 60m.

A. Major fault zone bounding mineralization.

B. Start of mineralized breccia zone.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/113853_colibri1.png

Plate 2. Photo of Core from JES-22-59, twin of RC drillhole JES-20-32.

C. 102m to 105m, silicified mineralized breccia

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/113853_colibri2.png

Figure 1. Cross-Section of Drillhole JES-20-32

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/113853_3455d1fd74c5f890_011full.jpg

Table 1. Recap of results from RC drillhole JES-20-32





To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/113853_3455d1fd74c5f890_012full.jpg

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 and drill core 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/113853
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After reporting a slight decrease in regional manufacturing activity in the previous month, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report on Tuesday showing a modest increase in activity in the month of February. The New York Fed said its general business conditions index rose to a positive 3.1 in February from a negative 0.7 in January. While a positive reading indicates growth in regional manufacturing activity, economists had expected the index to show a more significant rebound to a positive 12.2. Looking ahead, the New York Fed said firms were generally optimistic about the six-month outlook, although optimism waned from the previous month. 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.
SHERMAN OAKS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Petroteq Energy Inc. ("Petroteq" or the "Company") (TSXV:PQE) (OTC PINK:PQEFF) (FSE:PQCF), an oil company focused on the development and implementation of its proprietary oil extraction and remediation technologies, is pleased to announce the completion of a third-party economic evaluation report dated February 10, 2022 (the "Report") in relation to sands anticipated to be produced as by-products of petroleum products from oil sands at the Asphalt Ridge NW Leases in Uintah County, Utah. The Report was prepared by Broadlands Minerals Advisory Services Ltd. ("Broadlands"), a U.S. based, independent mineral advisory company, with input from Q4 Impact Group, LLC ("Q4 Impact"), under engagement to Broadlands, on markets and prices for the sand products.

The Report is premised on the completion by Petroteq of an extraction plant capable of producing 5,000 barrels of high-grade oil per day (bpd) on what is referred to in the Report as the "Indago Lease," which consists of approximately 3,458 acres of oil sands leases that the Company recently acquired from Valkor, LLC in exchange for the Company's Temple Mountain Leases. The assignment of the Indago Lease from Valkor to the Company (acting through its subsidiary TMC Capital, LLC) remains subject to final approval by the State of Utah's School and Institutional Trust Land Administration.

The Company believes that the sands are suitable for use as (a) silica flour, (b) fracking sand, and (c) bulk construction sands and aggregates (including road base). Accordingly, Broadlands economic analysis focused on the markets available for the sale of the three categories of by-product sands. Broadlands noted that an extraction plant producing 5,000 bpd is estimated by Petroteq to be capable of yielding 6,000 tons of sand per day or 1,860,000 tons per year (based on 310 operating days per year and operating 24 hours per day), and that silica flour is postulated to be 15 percent of the saleable product, fracking quality sand 55 percent, and bulk sand 30 percent. The economic forecast is based on 20 years of sales from such a 5,000 bpd operation, following two years for construction and start-up of the extraction plant and sands processing facility and related infrastructure.

The cash flow analysis was run on a pre-income tax basis, at discount rates of 0.0, 7.5 and 15 percent; the results show potential economic benefit in the base case of a Net Present Value (NPV) of $1,285, $602, and $341 million, respectively. The base case cash flow used a selling price of $40 per ton for the unprocessed dry, clean by-product sand. Q4 Impact provided market sale price analysis to arrive at a reasonable selling price for the cash flow forecast. Broadlands notes the economic model and base case numbers may not be realized due to market factors.

Broadlands based their economic analysis on information orally conveyed to them and no testing of sands from the Indago Lease has been performed by Broadland or by the Company. Broadlands confirmed that they performed their analysis in general accordance with acceptable mineral industry standards, and that technical issues discussed in the Report are in accordance with the standards of Subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K ("SEC S-K 1300") promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, Broadlands confirmed that they consider the sands at the Indago Lease to be Material of Economic Interest, as defined in SEC S-K 1300, and that Broadlands is required to expressly note that, as such, there is no assurance that the sands at the Indago Lease will be converted to saleable material.

Broadlands also indicated that they have relied on reports prepared for Petroteq by other parties, discussions with Petroteq and Valkor, LLC, reviews of publicly available information, and information gathered during a visit to the oil sands around Venal, Utah on December 21, 2021, which, due to illness of the party that Broadlands was to meet, was perfunctory and limited in scope. Broadlands also visited Petroteq's existing plant and examined stockpiles of raw material.

Independently, the Company has recently completed the evaluation of the clean sand tailings that are a byproduct of the oil extraction process. It was determined that 60-70% of the sand falls within a 40-140 mesh size range and has a crush strength exceeding 8,000 psi, giving the sand an 8K crush factor and confirming that the sand is suitable for use as a fracking sand. The 20% of tailings grading larger than 40 mesh can be used as an aggregate for concrete. The Company is now working to develop sales channels for the fracking sand and aggregate components of the tailings with a view towards maximizing the value of the clean sand tailings.

Petroteq's CTO and Interim CEO, Dr. Vladimir Podlipsky commented, "Broadlands evaluation report provides the potential economic benefit from the sale of sands is significant and provides an attractive enhancement to the value of the extraction process further enhances the forecast value of the Petroteq extraction technology. The Petroteq operation can produce "green" energy with high quality oil extraction, while also remediating the oily sand and turning it into a useable, marketable resource."

About Petroteq Energy Inc.

Petroteq is a clean technology company focused on the development, implementation, and licensing of a patented, environmentally safe and sustainable technology for the extraction and reclamation of heavy oil and bitumen from oil sands and mineable oil deposits. The versatile technology can be applied to both water-wet deposits and oil-wet deposits - outputting high-quality oil and clean sand.

Petroteq believes that its technology can produce a relatively sweet heavy crude oil from deposits of oil sands without requiring the use of water, and therefore without generating wastewater which would otherwise require the use of other treatment or disposal facilities which could be harmful to the environment. The Petroteq process is intended to be a more environmentally friendly extraction technology that leaves clean residual sand that can be sold or returned to the environment, without the use of tailings ponds or further remediation.

For more information, visit www.petroteq.energy.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. and Canadian securities laws. Words such as "may," "would," "could," "should," "potential," "will," "seek," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company are intended to identify forward-looking information, including: the plan to proceed with construction of a 5,000 bpd extraction plant, sands processing facilitaty and related infrastructure; the expectation that the plant, once completed would be capable of yielding 6,000 tons of sand per day or 1,860,000 tons per year; the expectation that the Company will be successful in developing sales channels for sand for as silica flour, fracking sand, and bulk and aggregate sand, with a view towards maximizing the value of the clean sand tailings; or that the projected prices for the sand by-products on which the economic analysis are premised are achievable and sustainable. Readers are cautioned that there is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of its resources, or that the sands at the Indago Lease will be converted to saleable material. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, based on information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, without limitation, receipt of director and Exchange approval for the debt conversion transaction. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. While forward-looking statements are based on data, assumptions and analyses that the Company believes are reasonable under the circumstances, whether actual results, performance or developments will meet the Company's expectations and predictions depends on a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results, performance and financial condition of the Company to differ materially from its expectations. Certain of the "risk factors" that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation: uncertainties inherent in the estimation of resources, including whether any reserves will ever be attributed to the Company's properties; since the Company's extraction technology is proprietary, is not widely used in the industry, and has not been used in consistent commercial production, the Company's bitumen resources are classified as a contingent resource because they are not currently considered to be commercially recoverable; full scale commercial production may engender public opposition; the Company cannot be certain that its bitumen resources will be economically producible and thus cannot be classified as proved or probable reserves in accordance with applicable securities laws; changes in laws or regulations; the ability to implement business strategies or to pursue business opportunities, whether for economic or other reasons; status of the world oil markets, oil prices and price volatility; oil pricing; state of capital markets and the ability of the Company to raise capital (which would be required for the Company to build a larger plant, including one that could produce up to 5,000 bpd; litigation; the commercial and economic viability of the Company's oil sands hydrocarbon extraction technology, and other proprietary technologies developed or licensed by the Company or its subsidiaries, which currently are of an experimental nature and have not been used at full capacity for an extended period of time; reliance on suppliers, contractors, consultants and key personnel; the ability of the Company to maintain its mineral lease holdings; potential failure of the Company's business plans or model; the nature of oil and gas production and oil sands mining, extraction and production; uncertainties in exploration and drilling for oil, gas and other hydrocarbon-bearing substances; unanticipated costs and expenses, availability of financing and other capital; potential damage to or destruction of property, loss of life and environmental damage; risks associated with compliance with environmental protection laws and regulations; uninsurable or uninsured risks; potential conflicts of interest of officers and directors; risks related to COVID-19 including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; and other general economic, market and business conditions and factors, including the risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's disclosure documents, filed with United States Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov (including, without limitation, its most recent annual report on Form 10-K under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended), and with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com.

Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward- looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law.

Unless otherwise specified, all dollar amounts in this press release are expressed in U.S. dollars.

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.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Petroteq Energy Inc.

Vladimir Podlipskiy

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (800) 979-1897

SOURCE: Petroteq Energy Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688795/Petroteq-Announces-Economic-Evaluation-of-Sands-By-Product-from-Oil-Extraction
The Company has completed the trademark registration filing process for India

MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Kisses from Italy Inc. (OTCQB:KITL) announced today that it has completed the trademark registration filing process for India with the Government of India's, Ministry of Commerce and Industry Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion which is the governing body responsible for the general control of patents design and trademarks. The Company has also resumed work with ExpanGlobal and the partnership agreement it had entered into in February of 2020. ExpanGlobal is a leading international market entry and expansion company headquartered in India and is representing Kisses from Italy across India. In late February of 2020, the Company's Co-Founder, President and Co-CEO, Michele Di Turi had attended the Global Franchise Show, in Mumbai, as the initial steps to promote and establish the brand in India.

Michele Di Turi, co-founder of Kisses from Italy, as well as its President and co-CEO, stated "It is truly a pleasure to be working with the team at ExpanGlobal again. In 2020, when we initially engaged with ExpanGlobal we entered into meaningful discussions about a major expansion of our brand in India. Unfortunately, India and its people, have gone through some difficult times filled with uncertainty with this global pandemic. Our teams maintained the relationship throughout this difficult time and continued on discussing potential strategies once things would start to normalize, to a certain extent. The strategies discussed included menu development and design based on demographic statistics provided by ExpanGlobal and potential store designs, with the respective market demand in India, kept in mind. Our Company has been working not only on our restaurant brand and franchise rollout but also strengthening our distribution relationships and channels around the globe." Di Turi added, "We believe that the Kisses From Italy brand and branded retail products can fair well in this emerging and developing country and having ExpanGlobal become another component of our already established alliances only strengthens Kisses From Italy as a Company."

Kisses from Italy's announcement of its expansion plans into India comes on the heels of one of the Company's recent announcements of a representation agreement it entered into with, Italy based, MediaCom SAS to strengthen manufacturing, brand and product presence in Europe. As well as another recent announcement where Kisses From Italy entered into an agreement with Cuisine Solutions, a world-renowned service provider to top brands and they are currently working together on future operational layouts in the continued effort to improve and develop operational efficiencies.

Trademark Reference:

https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx
HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / HungerRush today announced the appointment of three executives to its team: Bruce Wartell as Chief Information Officer (CIO); Jenna Eichberg as Chief People Officer (CPO) and Ted Trimble as Chief Development Officer (CDO) The addition of these roles to its executive line-up signifies the company's continued momentum to capture the $285 billion dollar restaurant technology market.

In his role as CIO, Bruce Wartell, an accomplished executive with over 30 years of experience in software and IT, will be responsible for enterprise applications, procurement, infrastructure, and cloud hosting.

Prior to joining HungerRush, Bruce spent more than 20 years as, CTO and CIO of Quorum. There, he led initiatives that scaled the systems and framework to help transform the company all the way from a startup software provider to the leading SaaS-based software platform.

Jenna Eichberg, HungerRush's new CPO, brings more than 10 years of HR leadership experience across multiple industries with a mix of Business Partner and HR Specialist roles.

She joins the company from Capital Group, where she held various roles in Human Resources. In this role, Jenna delivered strategic HR leadership to the global Information & Technology organization at Capital Group. Jenna's passion lies in developing talent focused on cultivating engaging and open cultures for employees.

As CDO, Ted Trimble brings more than 30 years of experience managing large enterprise software teams. In addition to being responsible for technology, engineering, and research and development across all software products, Ted will focus on HungerRush's speed of innovation in order to more expeditiously bring software products and features to market.

Ted joins HungerRush from Centrify, where he was responsible for product strategy, engineering, product management, cloud hosting and IT.

"I am extremely proud to welcome such talent to our executive team which we continue to build to support and grow HungerRush in 2022 and beyond," said Perry Turbes, HungerRush CEO. "Bruce, Jenna and Ted each bring strong industry experience and proven track records to HungerRush."

About HungerRush

HungerRush is a leading provider of integrated restaurant solutions. HungerRush 360 is our flagship cloud POS system that makes it easier to delight guests, drive loyalty, and manage restaurants from anywhere. The all-in-one system integrates digital ordering, delivery, customer engagement, restaurant management, and payment processing features with flexible software designed to give operators of all sizes more insight into their customers, more control over their operations, and more power to profitably grow their business. Visit HungerRush.com.

CONTACT:

Michelle Doss

HungerRush

512.365.9358

Michelle.Doss@hungerrush.com

Kelli Fletcher

PAN Communications

910.538.2183

Kfletcher@pancomm.com

SOURCE: HungerRush

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688689/HungerRush-Expands-Leadership-Team-to-Support-Recent-Company-Growth-and-Strategy-for-2022-Beyond
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - Los Andes Copper Ltd. (TSXV: LA) (OTCQX: LSANF) ("Los Andes" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Santiago Montt as Chief Operating Officer ("COO") of the Company and President of Compania Minera Vizcachitas Holding ("CMVH"), the Company's operating subsidiary in Chile. Mr Montt recently spent over a decade overseeing BHP's corporate and legal affairs in the Americas, serving in different roles in Chile, Brazil, and Australia. He is a lawyer with vast experience leading teams in multinational mining companies and will be based in Chile.

The arrival of Mr. Montt strengthens the Company for the coming phases of the Vizcachitas Project leading to permitting and construction. He is passionate for the development of a successful and responsible business and will drive the Company's mission to maximize the value of the Vizcachitas Project for all its stakeholders.

R. Michael Jones, P.Eng, CEO of Los Andes said: "The team at Los Andes is very honoured to have Mr. Montt, a senior, global mining executive, join us. As CEO I look forward to a highly collaborative environment in our Company since Santiago will be based in Chile and has a background in stakeholder engagement and law, and I am based in London and have an engineering and capital markets background. Together we will report to the Board with complimentary skills."

As an inducement to Mr. Montt to join the Company, 29,312 common shares will be issued to him, all of which will be placed in escrow pending the satisfaction of certain performance targets and time release criteria during his first year of employment. An additional 34,004 common shares will be issued to him and placed in escrow pending the satisfaction during his second year of employment of performance targets to be defined by the Board and a time release criteria.

About Los Andes Copper Ltd.

Los Andes Copper Ltd. is an exploration and development company with an 100% interest in the Vizcachitas Project in Chile. Los Andes Copper Ltd. is listed on the TSX-V under the ticker: LA. Los Andes recently announced a 732-meter intercept of 0.51 % Copper Equivalent (News February 10th, 2022) from an ongoing drilling program.

The Project is a copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit, located 120 kilometres north of Santiago, in an area of very good infrastructure. The Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment (the "PEA"), delivered in June 2019, highlights that the Project has a post tax NPV of $1.8 billion and an IRR of 20.77%, based on a $3 per pound copper price. It also has a Measured Resources of 254.4 million tonnes having a grade of 0.439% copper and Indicated Resource of approximately 1.03 billion tonnes having a grade of 0.385% copper. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Please refer to the technical report dated June 13, 2019, with an effective date of May 10, 2019 and titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Vizcachitas Project", prepared by Tetra Tech.

The PEA is preliminary in nature, it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

Qualified Person ("QP") and Quality Control and Assurance

Antony Amberg CGeol FGS, the Company's Chief Geologist, is the qualified person who has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release. The QP has validated the data by, supervising the sample collection process, through chain of custody records and inspecting the detailed technical data and quality control and assurance information.

For more information please contact:

R. Michael Jones , P.Eng CEO

rmj@losandescopper.com

Tel: +44 203 4407982

Blytheweigh, Financial PR

Megan Ray

Rachael Brooks

Tel: +44 207 138 3203

E-Mail: info@losandescopper.com or visit our website at: www.losandescopper.com.

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Certain of the information and statements contained herein that are not historical facts, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Securities Act (British Columbia), Securities Act (Ontario) and the Securities Act (Alberta) ("Forward-Looking Information"). Forward-Looking Information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend"; statements that an event or result is "due" on or "may", "will", "should", "could", or might" occur or be achieved; and, other similar expressions. More specifically, Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Information; including, without limitation, Spinnaker's ability to raise capital, target and attract institutional and retail investors and focus on developing and expanding the network of investors, analysts and financial intermediaries who are interested in Los Andes. Such Forward-Looking Information is based upon the Company's assumptions regarding global and Chilean economic, political and market conditions and the price of metals and energy, and the Company's production. Among the factors that have a direct bearing on the Company's future results of operations and financial conditions are changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, a change in government policies, competition, currency fluctuations and restrictions and technological changes, among other things. Should one or more of any of the aforementioned risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from any conclusions, forecasts or projections described in the Forward-Looking Information. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise Forward-Looking Information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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/113855
A Louisiana man who has proclaimed his innocence from behind bars for decades in the 1977 attempted rape of teen twins has been freed from prison.

Nearly 45 years after his conviction, Avoyelles Parish Judge Bill Bennett ordered a new trial in the case and all charges against Vincent Simmons have been dismissed. It took the jury, made up of 11 white men and one Black woman, just minutes to find him guilty for the attempted sexual assault of 14-year-old twin sisters, Karen and Sharon Sanders.

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Now nearly 70, Simmons left the Angola State Penitentiary a free man on Monday, according to his attorneys Justin Bonus and Malcolm Larvadain.

God kept hope alive in me, Simmons said as he walked through the Marksville courthouse, according to KALB. God did this for me today.

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Vincent Simmons is a free man Posted by Alex Orenczuk TV on Monday, February 14, 2022

District Attorney Charlie Riddle said even though he felt there was sufficient evidence to find Vincent Simmons guilty, he didnt want the victims to undergo the trauma of another trial or force them to relive the attack.

In wake of the decision, the Sanders sisters, now 59 years old, said that while they believe Simmons is guilty that he has spent enough time behind bars.

Because weve had enough, they said in a statement.

Weve fought for 44 years, weve had enough, weve got 44 years, were happy with that. Were tired. We want it behind us. He went in guilty, hes still guilty and hell die guilty. Weve got our 44 years, praise God!

Simmons attorneys have previously told CNN he was at a bar on May 9, 1977, around 9 p.m. getting in a fight  not kidnapping and attempting to rape the young girls.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Logistics real estate firm Prologis (PLD) announced Tuesday that Tim Arndt will be the company's new chief financial officer effective April 1, 2022. Arndt, who has been with Prologis since 2004, will succeed long-time CFO Tom Olinger, who plans to retire to focus full time on philanthropic causes. This change is the culmination of extensive preparation and a part of Prologis' ongoing leadership succession planning process. Olinger will remain with the company through the balance of the year as part of the transition plan. As the new CFO, Arndt will be responsible for the company's worldwide corporate finance. His areas of responsibility will include treasury, cash management, financial planning and reporting, accounting, tax, investor relations and internal audit. Arndt is a seasoned finance leader with Prologis, having joined AMB in 2004 in portfolio management for the company's Strategic Capital business. Over his tenure, he has worked in several capacities, including as corporate treasurer, head of corporate planning and in the company's global deployment team. Previously, Arndt worked in real estate strategy at Gap Inc. and in debt capital markets at Forest City Enterprises. 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.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / CMC Metals Ltd. (TSXV:CMB)(Frankfurt:ZM5P)(OTC PINK:CMCXF) ("CMC" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that ground magnetometer surveys have commenced on its Newfoundland properties in the Gander Zone. McKeown Exploration Services Ltd. of St. John's Newfoundland have been contracted to conduct approximately 210-line kilometers of ground magnetometer surveys on the Bridal Veil Property (approximately 155-line kilometers); Terra Nova (approximately 35-line kilometers) and Rodney Pond (approximately 20-line kilometers). Data will be collected over the next four weeks and then interpreted by Dr. Chris Hale and John Gilliatt of Intelligent Exploration Services. Dr Hale is on the advisory board of CMC Metals Ltd. and is responsible for the design and interpretation of all geophysical surveys completed by the Company.

Ground magnetic surveys can help provide detection of mineralization associated with large- and local-scale structures (faults, dykes, shear zone etc,). The survey data can provide information about variations in the near surface geology as well as at depth. Ground magnetic surveys are also used to identify demagnetised zones which are an indicator of areas that have been subjected to hydrothermal activity. The heat of hydrothermal activity and fluid movements often demagnetizes rocks. Another benefit of these surveys is that they can cover a lot of area in a relatively inexpensive manner.

Mr. John Bossio, Chairman noted, "Newfoundland is one of the best jurisdictions to be working in. The provincial regulators are easy to work with, permitting timelines are some of the best in Canada and the world, and the Newfoundland Geological Survey is very supportive of exploration efforts."

Mr. Kevin Brewer, President and CEO notes, "We continue to conduct early-stage exploration efforts on our Newfoundland properties. The properties have high grade copper-silver-lead occurrences in outcrops and these ground magnetometer surveys will result in enhancing our understanding of the mineralizing system(s) and determining the merit of conducting advanced exploration efforts on each of the properties. On Bridal Veil we also completed preliminary soil geochemical surveys and are continuing to wait for results from the assay lab."

Qualified Person

Kevin Brewer, a registered professional geoscientist, is the Company's President and CEO, and Qualified Person (as defined by National Instrument 43-101). He has given his approval of the technical information pertaining reported herein. The Company is committed to meeting the highest standards of integrity, transparency and consistency in reporting technical content, including geological reporting, geophysical investigations, environmental and baseline studies, engineering studies, metallurgical testing, assaying and all other technical data.

About CMC Metals Ltd.

CMC Metals Ltd. is a growth stage exploration company focused on opportunities for high grade polymetallic deposits in Yukon, British Columbia and Newfoundland. Our polymetallic silver-lead-zinc CRD prospects include the Silver Hart Deposit and Blue Heaven claims (the "Silver Hart Project") and Rancheria South, Amy and Silverknife claims (the "Rancheria South Project"). Our polymetallic projects with potential for copper-silver-gold and other metals include Logjam (Yukon), Bridal Veil, Terra Nova and Rodney Pond all of which are in Newfoundland.

On behalf of the Board:

"John Bossio"

John Bossio, Chairman

CMC METALS LTD.

For Further Information and Investor Inquiries:

Kevin Brewer, P. Geo., MBA, B.Sc. (Hons), Dip. Mine Eng.

President, CEO and Director

Tel: (604) 670-0019

kbrewer80@hotmail.com

Suite 615-800 West Pender St.

Vancouver, BC

V6C 2V6

To be added to CMC's news distribution list, please send an email to info@cmcmetals.ca or contact Mr. Kevin Brewer at 604-670-0019.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

"This news release may contain certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law, including without limitation, statements that address the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles and exploitation activities and developments. In this release disclosure regarding the potential to undertake future exploration work comprise forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks, including the ability of the Company to raise the funds necessary to fund its projects, to carry out the work and, accordingly, may not occur as described herein or at all. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, the impact of the constantly evolving COVID-19 pandemic crisis and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Readers are referred to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators for information on these and other risk factors, available at www.sedar.com. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation."

SOURCE: CMC Metals Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688789/CMC-Commences-Magnetometer-Surveys-on-its-Newfoundland-Properties
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Tego Cyber Inc. (OTCQB:TGCB), an emerging developer of proactive cyber threat intelligence applications and solutions, today provided a corporate update and a summary of the financial results for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2021.

Shannon Wilkinson, CEO of Tego Cyber, commented "We continue to execute on our go-to-market strategy, as illustrated by our growing sales pipeline. Major organizations have come to realize the true economic impact of cyber-crime and risk that it presents to companies. Global cyber-crime is expected to reach $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion USD in 2015, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. Despite these growing threats, current solutions may identify that something is 'malicious' but do not provide any additional information. In contrast, Tego Guardian provides an end user's cybersecurity team with data enrichment: a detailed 'who, what, when and where' of a potential threat, fully integrated into their SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) platform

"Based on positive feedback from the industry, we are expanding our inside sales team, including the recent hire of Brent Watkins. Brent brings extensive experience of the cybersecurity industry as well as vast connections within the government and private sectors which will prove to be invaluable as we enter the next phase of our growth and commercialization. Additionally, our recent partnership with Vation Ventures will assist with sales enablement and the acceleration of our channel sales program."

"On the technology front, we continue to invest in enhancements to our threat intelligence platform. During the fiscal second quarter of 2022, we completed development and testing of the first version of our threat intelligence application: Tego Guardian, which now integrates with the widely used Splunk SIEM platform - used by over 15,000 enterprise organizations and by 92 of the Fortune 100. We are also in the process of making the Tego Guardian app available on other SIEM platforms. Over the next few weeks, we expect to enter the beta testing phase of our application for the Elastic SIEM platform, which has over 16,000 paying subscribers, including 34% of the Fortune 2000. We continue to carefully manage our expenses and are well funded to execute on our business model. We are more encouraged than ever by the outlook for the business and look forward to providing additional near-term updates."

Results of Operations for the three months ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020

Revenues -Tego is a development stage company and generated $1,050 in consulting revenue for the three-month period ended December 31, 2021 compared to $900 in consulting revenue for the three month period ended December 31, 2020. Revenue generation from the Tego Guardian is anticipated to commence in the quarter ended March 31, 2022.

Operating Expenses - Tego incurred total operating expenses of $528,153 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2021 compared to $95,891 total operating expenses for the three month period ended December 31, 2020. These expenses relate to the ongoing development and commercialization of the threat intelligence application, administrative expenses, and public market fees.

Net Loss - Tego incurred a net loss of $564,020 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2021 compared to a net loss of $118,986 for the three month period ended December 31, 2020.

Liquidity and Capital Resources - As of December 31, 2021, Tego had a working capital surplus of $1,122,954 with $990,261 cash on hand and a burn rate of approximately $100,000 per month. All long term and convertible debt is settled. Only debt are trade payables which are current. Operations are being funded by funds raised through the sales of common stock. Management believes the current available capital resources are sufficient to sustain operations to until profitability.

Results of Operations for the six months ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020

Revenues - Tego generated $1,050 in consulting revenue for the six-month period ended December 31, 2021 compared to $3,800 consulting revenue for the six month period ended December 31, 2020.

Operating Expenses - Tego incurred total operating expenses of $970,100 for the six-month period ended December 31, 2021 compared to $172,751 total operating expenses for the six month period ended December 31, 2020. These expenses relate to the ongoing development and commercialization of the threat intelligence application, administrative expenses, and public market fees.

Net Loss - Tego incurred a net loss of $1,036,232 for the six-month period ended December 31, 2021 compared to a net loss of $196,746 for the six month period ended December 31, 2020.

Equity Securities - During the six-month period ended December 31, 2021, the Company completed various private placements whereby a total of 5,558,810 common shares were issued for a total value of $1,424,202. The Company also issued 68,673 restricted common shares for services valued at $51,289, issued 937,151 restricted common shares valued at $93,715 in settlement of debt and issued 134,899 restricted common shares valued at $103,961 for prepaid marketing and development costs. As of December 31, 2021, Tego had 24,996,044 issued and outstanding.

About Tego Cyber Inc.

Tego Cyber Inc. (OTCQB:TGCB, "the Company") was created to capitalize on the emerging cyber threat intelligence market. The Company has developed a cyber threat intelligence application that integrates with top end security platforms to gather, analyze, then proactively identify threats to an enterprise network. The Tego Guardian Threat Intelligence Platform takes in vetted and curated threat data and after utilizing a proprietary process, the platform compiles, analyzes, and then delivers that data to an enterprise network in a format that is timely, informative, and relevant. The threat data provides additional context including specific details needed to identify and counteract threats so that security teams can spend less time searching for disparate information. The first version of the application will integrate with the widely accepted Splunk SIEM to provide real-time threat intelligence to macro enterprises using the Splunk architecture. The Company plans on developing future versions of the Tego Guardian app for integration with other established SIEM systems and platforms including: Elastic, Devo, IBM QRadar, AT&T Cybersecurity, Exabeam, and Google Chronical. For more information, please visit www.tegocyber.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements contained in this press release, those which are not purely historical or which depend upon future events, may constitute 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. Statements regarding the Company's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future constitute forward-looking statements. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements because of various factors. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Prospective investors should also consult the risks factors described from time to time in the Company's Reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and Annual Reports to Shareholders.

Tego Contact:

Tego Cyber Inc.

8565 S Eastern Avenue, Suite 150

Las Vegas, Nevada 89123

USA

Tel: 855-939-0100 (North America)

Tel: 725-726-7840 (International)

Email: info@tegocyber.com

Web: tegocyber.com

Facebook: facebook.com/tegocyber

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/tegocyber

Twitter: twitter.com/tegocyber

Tego Investor Relations:

Crescendo Communications, LLC

Tel: 212-671-1020

Email: TGCB@crescendo-ir.com

SOURCE: Tego Cyber Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688798/Tego-Cyber-Inc-Provides-2022-Fiscal-Second-Quarter-Business-Update-and-Reports-on-Growing-Sales-Pipeline
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Supernova Energy, Inc. (OTC PINK:SPRN) ("SUPERNOVA" or the "Company") today, elaborates on its new subsidiary Klir Sky, Inc.

As announced in a previous release dated January 19, 2022- Supernova Energy, Inc. recently formed a majority owned subsidiary - Klir Sky, Inc. ("KLIR") (www.klirsky.com).

The entity was formed to enter the important space of greenhouse gas mitigation.

Mr. Nicholas Upchurch, CEO of Supernova Energy, Inc. and visionary founder of KLIR, Comments: "Greenhouse gas ("GHG") is a collection of natural elements and compounds such as nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and other volatile organic compounds ("VOCs"). We are developing a revolutionary Pollution Reduction as a Service ("PRaaS") that allows us to help known emitters of greenhouse gases lower their carbon footprint by destroying thousands of tons of emissions. We are committed to using our PRaaS to be a solution to the world's GHG emissions problem."

The US government has committed to a new target for the United States to achieve a 50-52 percent reduction from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution in 2030.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-union-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/

Our PRaaS uses revolutionary technology to collect, liquefy and process the harmful GHG's emitted by industrial smokestacks into usable forms. KLIR then sells the processed liquefied gas. The result is possible net zero emissions for our customers that can now claim carbon credits by reducing their carbon footprint while contributing to a future of clean air.

KLIR's PRaaS is powered by a revolutionary Gas Processing and Liquefaction System (GPLS) that we have the global exclusive rights to use for our purposes. KLIR is currently building our first GPL System to be deployed in the charcoal industry.

KLIR plans to service the following industries:

Charcoal Production (3.3% of 2019 greenhouse Gas emissions*) Estimated 71.2 million t for carbon dioxide and 1.3 million t for methane. This industry is a notoriously heavy emitter of GHG.

Electricity production (25 percent of 2019 greenhouse gas emissions*) - Electricity production generates the second largest share of greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 62 percent of our electricity comes from burning fossil fuels, mostly coal and natural gas.

Heavy Industry (23 percent of 2019 greenhouse gas emissions*) - Greenhouse gas emissions from industry primarily come from burning fossil fuels for energy, as well as greenhouse gas emissions from certain chemical reactions necessary to produce goods from raw materials.

Commercial And Residential (13 percent of 2019 greenhouse gas emissions*) - Greenhouse gas emissions from businesses and homes arise primarily from fossil fuels burned for heat, the use of certain products that contain greenhouse gases, and the handling of waste.

*US EPA estimates

Mr. Upchurch further Commented: "The opportunity for KLIR is tremendous. We allow industries to reduce pollution and increase profits, this is a massive ground-breaking service we are happy to be offering for the first time. We believe our solution to the smokestack GHG problem will provide strong value for our Company and its shareholders. We look forward to executing our plan and sharing results as they are realized."

About Supernova Energy, Inc.

Supernova Energy, Inc. (OTC PINK:SPRN) is an American-based oil and gas production and exploration company with key holdings in Kansas and Kentucky. The Company's goal is to acquire economical leases in known oil and gas formations with a low cost of recovery. The strategy is to specialize in wellbore completion, re-completion, and workovers on existing oil and gas production. The Company is also in the business of greenhouse gas exhaust mitigation through its majority owned subsidiary, KLIR Sky, Inc. (www.klirsky.com).

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The foregoing contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend for these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws relating to forward-looking statements. This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect Supernova Energy Inc., plans, and expectations. In this press release and related comments by Company management, words like "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "goal," and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements, representing management's current judgment and expectations about possible future events. Management believes these forward-looking statements and the judgments upon which they are based to be reasonable, but they are not guarantees of future performance and involve numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance, achievements, or financial position to be materially different from any expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements are outlined in our quarterly and annual reports.

Contact:

Nicholas Upchurch

Supernova Energy Inc.

Chief Executive Officer

info@snenergyinc.com

SOURCE: Supernova Energy, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688684/Supernova-Energy-Inc-Discusses-its-New-Subsidiary-Klir-Sky-Inc
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - Getchell Gold Corp. (CSE: GTCH) (OTCQB: GGLDF) ("Getchell" or the "Company") is pleased to provide the results for drill hole FCG21-16 that targeted the North Fork zone at the Fondaway Canyon gold project in Nevada.

Key Highlights - Hole FCG21-16

The highest 'grade x thickness' concentration of gold in the 40+ year history of the Fondaway Canyon gold project was encountered;

High-grade gold mineralization of 10.4 g/t Au over 25.0m within a broader zone grading 6.3 g/t Au over 50.7m was intersected;

within a broader zone grading was intersected; Additional significant gold intervals were intersected including 3.1 g/t Au over 33.4m, a previously unknown lower zone of gold, and 2.1 g/t Au over 14.1m, a newly modelled near surface lens.

"Drill hole FGC21-16, the last hole of the 2021 drill program, exceeded the results of any hole drilled in the greater than forty-year history of gold exploration and mining at the Project. The high concentration of gold is a clear testament to the intensity of the gold mineralizing system and raises the upside potential at Fondaway Canyon." states Mike Sieb, President, Getchell Gold Corp. "Obviously, further delineation of this high-grade gold zone at North Fork has been added to our priorities for the upcoming 2022 drill program."

Drill Hole FCG21-16

FCG21-16, stationed on the canyon floor at the junction of Fondaway Canyon and the North Fork branch, and drilling steeply to the northeast, was designed to further delineate the North Fork mineralized zone as a 30m step out to the northwest from holes FCG20-04, FCG21-09, and FCG21-10 (Figure 1).

FCG21-16 intersected a shallow lens grading 2.1 g/t Au over 14.1m, from 75.6 to 89.7 m down-hole depth, before encountering a high-grade gold interval grading 6.3 g/t Au over 50.7m (117.5-168.2m) that includes 10.4 g/t Au over 25.0m (139.9-164.9m). This latter interval contained 12 samples reporting >10 g/t Au revealing strong internal high-grade gold consistency (Figure 2). Marking how truly exceptional this is, the FCG21-16 interval returned the greatest 'gold grade x thickness' value in the 40+ year history of gold exploration and mining at the Project and likely represents a major conduit for the gold mineralizing system at Fondaway Canyon.

The high-grade FCG21-16 interval was intersected shallower than the North Fork zone's targeted depth and appears to correspond to an upper lens recently indicated by hole FCG21-09 (see news release dated Oct. 20, 2021). Additional drilling will be required to delineate this newly discovered zone of high-grade mineralization and will be a priority in the forthcoming 2022 drill program.

FCG21-16 intersected multiple notable gold intercepts further down hole (Table 1) highlighted by one interval grading 3.1 g/t Au over 33.4m from 265.0 to 298.4 m that included two internal zones grading 9.6 g/t Au over 3.0m and 6.1 g/t Au over 6.1m. This interval is situated below the previously modelled lower extent of the North Fork Zone and may represent a newly discovered zone. Additional drilling will be required to determine the extent and orientation of this mineralization.





Figure 1: Fondaway Canyon North Fork 3D section, 150m wide, looking northwest with an artificial -15 plunge applied, highlighting the 2020 and 2021 drilling.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/113834_9eea039ec46edb25_001full.jpg

Drill hole FCG21-16 is another prime example that an extensive mineralizing system is present at Fondaway Canyon. The mineralization delineated to date has been traced for 800 metres down dip from surface and remains open on strike and at depth.

"We are thrilled that Getchell's outstanding success in 2020, with the discovery of the Colorado SW, Juniper and North Fork gold zones, continued into our 2021 drill program. The 10 drill holes we completed in 2021, not only extended our discovery zones but also returned exceptional gold intercepts, notably FCG21-08 at Colorado SW and the stunning results of FCG21-16 at North Fork" added Mike Sieb, President, Getchell Gold Corp. "We are looking forward to 2022 to continue our track record of success and, with two drill rigs secured, an accelerated advancement of the Fondaway Canyon gold project".

To watch a new 3D video that provides a detailed look at these results, plus an overall summary of the recent exploration highlights at Fondaway Canyon, click here: https://youtu.be/q6Nebxwf1q0





Figure 2: FCG21-16 drill hole trace on section showing gold samples and significant intervals.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/113834_9eea039ec46edb25_002full.jpg

Table 1: Fondaway Canyon Central Area - Drill Hole FCG21-16 Notable Gold Intervals





To view an enhanced version of Table 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/113834_9eea039ec46edb25_003full.jpg

Ten drill holes, FCG21-07 through FCG21-16, totalling 3,874 metres were drilled last year at the Fondaway Canyon Gold Project. All ten holes are located in the Central Area and followed up on the 2020 discovery of the Colorado SW, the Juniper, and the North Fork gold zones.

Scott Frostad, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person (as defined in NI 43-101) who reviewed and approved the content and scientific and technical information in the news release.

The 2021 drill core is being processed using the same methods as the 2020 drill program. The core is cut at Bureau Veritas Laboratories' ("BVL") facilities in Sparks, Nevada, with the samples analyzed for gold and multi-element analysis in BVL's Sparks, Nevada and Vancouver, BC laboratories respectively. Gold values are produced by fire assay with an Atomic Absorption finish on a 30-gram sample (BV code FA430) with over limits re-analyzed using method FA530 (30g Fire Assay with gravimetric finish). The multi-element analyses are performed by ICP-MS following aqua regia digestion on a 30g sample (BV code AQ250). Quality control measures in the field include the systematic insertion of standards and blanks.

Highlighted drill intervals are based on a 0.25 g/t Au cut-off, minimum interval lengths of 3.3 metres (10 feet), and a maximum of 3.3 metres of internal dilution, with no top cut applied. All intervals are reported as downhole drill lengths and additional work is required to determine the true width.

Upcoming Webinar

Getchell Gold Corp. welcomes all interested media and investors to register for our next online webinar to discuss these 2021 exploration results, and the 2022 Nevada exploration plan, which will feature drill programs at both Fondaway Canyon and at the Copper-Gold-Silver Star project. The webinar will be hosted at 1pm PST Tuesday, March 8, 2021, and will feature a live Q+A session. Please register here:

https://app.livestorm.co/getchell-gold/getchell-gold-nevada-exploration-highlights?type=detailed

About Getchell Gold Corp.

The Company is a Nevada focused gold and copper exploration company trading on the CSE: GTCH and OTCQB: GGLDF. Getchell Gold is primarily directing its efforts on its most advanced stage asset, Fondaway Canyon, a past gold producer with a significant in-the-ground historic resource estimate. Complementing Getchell's asset portfolio is Dixie Comstock, a past gold producer with a historic resource and two earlier stage exploration projects, Star and Hot Springs Peak. Getchell has the option to acquire 100% of the Fondaway Canyon and Dixie Comstock properties, Churchill County, Nevada.

The Company reiterates that its near-term strategy to advance its assets is not impacted by the COVID-19 Corona virus. The Company continues to monitor the situation and is in compliance with all government guidelines.

For further information please visit the Company's website at www.getchellgold.com or contact the Company at info@getchellgold.com or at +1 647 249-4798.

Mr. William Wagener, Chairman & CEO

Getchell Gold Corp.



The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Not for distribution to U.S. news wire services or dissemination in the United States.

Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the private placement and the completion thereof and the use of proceeds. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, use of proceeds from the financing, capital expenditures and other costs, and financing and additional capital requirements. Although management of Getchell have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113834
Ireland's Leader in AI Builds U.S. Presence With San Francisco Location as Global Demand for Its Fintech, Travel/Security and Healthcare Solutions Grows

Altada Technology Solutions, a global provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that supercharge data-driven decision making in the financial services, travel/security and healthcare sectors, today announced its recent corporate accomplishments. The company that "brings AI to life" has achieved continued customer growth while undertaking an aggressive program of international expansion through offices in London and Malta, as well as new offices in the U.S., including a facility in San Francisco which opened today, February 15.

Altada's Data Intelligence Platform integrates the first AI engine that leverages optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data. The company's solution enables users to not only make sense of their information but to also gain meaningful market insights that drive competitive advantage. The comprehensive Altada platform addresses key market challenges in the areas of asset management, contract intelligence, due diligence for mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and safety and security for travel, as well as in healthcare sectors, in order to enable data-driven decisions.

Rapid customer and employee growth are facilitating Altada's expansion, and the company has been described as "a startup to watch," as well as the next unicorn, by the Irish technology media. From its founding in 2017, Altada has grown from just 15 to more than 100 employees, and its customers include Rocktop Partners. The company successfully raised $11.5 million in a venture funding round in Q3 of 2020 led by Rocktop Partners, with participation from Elkstone Partners and Enterprise Ireland.

Altada's strategic expansion to San Francisco places the company at the heart of the AI industry in the U.S. and uniquely makes Altada one of the few companies that is transplanting Irish technology and brainpower to the States. "We're a family-owned Irish company that is exporting our talents to the Bay Area because it is where the action is when it comes to AI," commented Allan Beechinor, Altada CEO. "As such, we plan to become a key player in the emerging software ecosystem that makes up the Bay Area's AI and fintech scene, and we are very excited about our growth potential moving forward."

The company's U.S. expansion will be driven by COO and Silicon Valley veteran Gabe Zingaretti, who will lead sales and operations efforts. Altada will have approximately 15% of its workforce in the Bay Area, given the region's deep talent pool. "I'm excited to join such a high-growth company and bring Altada to the West Coast," he commented. "This company has a powerful suite of AI-driven tools that deliver outstanding customer ROI. I know that we will be enthusiastically received by U.S. customers and the larger tech community."

The Altada Solution

The Altada AI Platform empowers user organizations to leverage their complete data fabric to achieve extraordinary outcomes in automation and data-driven decision making. Altada is the industry's first multi-AI fintech engine that leverages optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) in combination with best-in-class data engineering. The platform provides a complete view of the data supply chain through data ingestion, indexing, data remediations, and inference, which ultimately enables businesses to scale, increase profitability, and realize measurable business impact.

For customers in the financial services sector, Altada provides meaningful improvements in accuracy and speed. Rocktop Partners used Altada to reduce its processing time for financial loan file batches from four to six weeks to 48 hours and decreased the cost of processing its loan files by up to 90%.

According to Jason Pinson, CEO of Rocktop Partners, "Altada's AI solutions have given our business a competitive edge in the market, thanks to transformational operational and cost efficiencies provided by their platform."

About Altada

Founded in 2017, Altada is a global provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that supercharge data-driven decision making in financial services, travel/security and healthcare. The company's Data Intelligence Platform integrates the first AI engine that leverages optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data, enabling users to not only make sense of their information but to also gain meaningful market insights that drive competitive advantage. Altada is headquartered in Cork, Ireland, and operates in 11 offices, including Dublin, Malta, London, New York, and San Francisco. Privately-held, Altada is backed by venture investment from Rocktop Partners, Elkstone Partners and Enterprise Ireland. To learn more, please visit https://www.altada.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005578/en/

Contacts:

Miranda Honnoll

Bospar for Altada

miranda@bospar.com

(408)887-8486
Peter Virdee (Professor) of Mayfair, London brings light to impoverished areas in Punjab, India with another project by sponsoring the set up and running of World Cancer Care Camps through his charity, The Virdee Foundation. Although Peter Virdee is born and bred in the U.K., he has strong ties with his land of heritage Punjab, India with frequent visits for philanthropic, business, and personal matters. Having frequently visited Punjab, Peter Virdee has seen first-hand the disparity that lies between the healthcare system there and the healthcare system in the U.K. While the U.K. healthcare system, whether that be public or private, has seen a dip in standards during the Covid-19 pandemic this standard is still years ahead of the healthcare system in Punjab and across India which has not been sufficient in caring for such a large population. Some might see this as a big area to tackle, however Prof. Peter Virdee is keen to chip away at this immense task wherever he possibly can.

In November and December 2021, the World Cancer Care Camps were set up in three initial locations: Bathinda, Chamkaur Sahib and Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, India. All three camps are sponsored by The Virdee Foundation, founded by Peter Virdee and the Chamkaur Sahib site was inaugurated by the honourable Chief Minister of Punjab.

Across three locations, nearly 1% of their total population have been successfully examined so far using different methods. World Cancer Care Camps qualified team of Doctors and Nurses have used methods for testing patients such as Mammography, PAP Smear, Prostate Specific Antigen Tests, Oral examination, bone mineral density, ECG, BP and Sugar level tests. Looking at Cancer statistics in the U.K., almost 40% of all cancer cases were diagnosed through an urgent suspected cancer referral within a two-week waiting time in 2016.

Peter Virdee said, "Cancer is a serious and gruelling problem with an increase of incidence at an alarming rate in Punjab. Not only is it increasing mortality and morbidity, but it is also increasing the economic burden on a state already facing financial crisis. This is exactly why World Cancer Care Camps have been established. The support from The Virdee Foundation is paramount in these impoverished communities who need the access to healthcare."

The World Cancer Care Camps are not the first projects supported by Prof. Peter Virdee in Punjab. His previous projects include the most recent during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Oxygen for Punjab appeal. The Virdee Foundation pledged 200 clinical grade Oxygen Concentrators and raised funds in collaboration with Khalsa Jatha Gurdwara for 300 more machines to be distributed across Punjab's makeshift hospitals.

The World Cancer Care Camps aim to open a further two sites and more information will be shared on this soon. This is a project that will continue to be supported by The Virdee Foundation and Peter Virdee.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005711/en/

Contacts:

Sagar Shukla info@thevirdeefoundation.com
SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / TPT Global Tech, Inc. ("TPTW or the Company") (OTCQB:TPTW) announced today that the company Filed a 8k on February 14, 2021 disclosing authorization of an additional 1 billion common shares to be held in corporate treasury. The authorization of additional common shares puts the company in position for future funding as part of the Company's goal of uplisting onto a major US stock exchange and to meet warrant commitments. These newly authorized shares held in Treasury have not been issued to anyone.

About TPT Global Tech

TPT Global Tech Inc. (TPTW) based in San Diego, California, is a technology-based company with divisions providing telecommunications, medical technology and product distribution, media content for domestic and international syndication as well as technology solutions. TPT Global Tech offers Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology Platform as a Service (PAAS), Cloud-based Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS). It offers carrier-grade performance and support for businesses over its private IP MPLS fiber and wireless network in the United States. TPT's cloud-based UCaaS services allow businesses of any size to enjoy all the latest voice, data, media and collaboration features in today's global technology markets. TPT Global Tech also operates as a Master Distributor for Nationwide Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) and Independent Sales Organization (ISO) as a Master Distributor for Pre-Paid Cell phone services, Mobile phones Cell phone Accessories, and Global Roaming Cell phones.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of various provisions of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, commonly identified by such terms as "believes," "looking ahead," "anticipates," "estimates" and other terms with similar meaning. Specifically, statements about the Company's plans for accelerated growth, improved profitability, future business partners, M&A activity, new service offerings, and pursuit of new markets are forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that the assumptions upon which its forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these assumptions will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements should not be construed as fact. The information contained in such statements is beyond the ability of the Company to control, and in many cases, the Company cannot predict what factors would cause results to differ materially from those indicated in such statements. All forward-looking statements in the press release are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and by reference to the underlying assumptions.

PR-Shep Doniger

sdoniger@bdcginc.com

561-637-5750

IR-Frank Benedetto

619-915-9422

SOURCE: TPT Global Tech, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688845/TPT-Global-Tech-OTCQBTPTW-Files-8k-Disclosing-Authorization-of-Additional-Shares-In-Anticipation-of-Future-Funding-Round-for-Goal-of-Uplisting-to-Major-Exchange-and-to-Meet-Warrant-Commitments
SwissNeuroRehab, led by Lausanne University Hospital, to focus on developing a new model of neurorehabilitation treatment across continuum of care from hospital to home

MindMaze, a global leader in digital therapeutics for neurological recovery and care, is proud to announce that SwissNeuroRehab, an unprecedented collaboration in Swiss neurorehabilitation industry, has won the Innosuisse Flagship award. The SwissNeuroRehab group will leverage the over CHF11.2 million (USD12.2 million) award to build state-of-the-art, evidence-based, effective and efficient therapeutic programs integrating digital therapeutics and neurotechnology along the continuum of care. SwissNeuroRehab is the latest in MindMaze's ongoing efforts to participate in an integral way and support large projects in the brain technology field. To date, the company has participated in research and innovation projects budgeted at a total of over 90 million USD that span cross-industry to solve some of the most complex problems in neurology.

"With SwissNeuroRehab, we will set out to test novel digital therapeutic interventions for the treatment of neurological disease and neurological injury," said Dr. John Krakauer, MindMaze's Chief Medical and Scientific Advisor. "The model will offer a long-term solution for acquired neurological injuries in the Swiss health system first, but its innovative ambition can develop solutions that can apply universally. We look forward to piloting a model that will then generalize globally," said Andrea Serino, project coordinator of SwissNeuroRehab at the University Hospital of Lausanne.

The Innosuisse Flagship award is aimed at stimulating innovative transdisciplinary collaboration to solve challenges for the Swiss economy and society as a whole. The SwissNeuroRehab project is supported with the equivalent of over CHF11.2 million (USD12.2 million) over five years, 5.9 million provided by Innosuisse and the rest by the partners. The project will develop and validate an effective and efficient model of neurorehabilitation along the continuum of care focusing on stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and spinal cord injury (SCI) conditions which affect 15,000, 5,000, and 150 people, respectively, every year in Switzerland alone, and millions of people collectively each year worldwide.

SwissNeuroRehab will have a patient-centered model that will specify the clinical, operational and economic requirements needed to treat physical and cognitive deficits after a patient experiences a stroke, TBI, or SCI. The project will aim to develop paradigm-shifting therapeutic programs that integrate digital therapeutics and neurotechnology, validating and implementing them into clinical routine through interdisciplinary cooperation between researchers, clinicians and other industry leaders. In addition, economic analysis will propose a reimbursement system for the new model, and novel educational curricula will be created for healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers to implement in their respective disciplines.

Along with MindMaze as a key project partner for neuro-therapeutics, SwissNeuroRehab combines the expertise of four university hospitals (Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich); key rehabilitation clinics (the SUVA Bellikon, the SUVA Clinic romande de readapation Sion, Lavigny Hospital, Valens Clinics, and RehaKlinik Zihlschlacht); association of clinical institutions (Plateforme-reha); inpatients (Cereneo center for Neurology and Rehabilitation, in collaboration with Zurich University Hospital) and outpatient (Swiss Rehabilitation, Physio Clinics, and EMS Le Marronier) clinical providers; the two federal technical schools EPFL and ETHZ; the Universities of Lausanne, Geneva and Bern, the University of Applied Science of Western Switzerland (HES-SO) and the School of Engineering and Management of the Canton Vaud (HEIG-VD); Swiss companies active in neurorehabilitation (Hocoma, Lambda, MyoSwiss, ONWARD Medical); industrial partners working on digital solutions for data management and protection (CARA and Pryv); and educational providers for healthcare professionals (Espace Competences) and patients (Medicol).

About MindMaze

MindMaze is a global leader in digital neuro-therapeutics (DTx) solutions with a mission to accelerate the brain's ability to recover, learn and adapt. With over a decade of work at the intersection of neuroscience, bio-sensing, engineering, mixed reality and artificial intelligence, its healthcare division is addressing some of the most challenging problems in neurology, including stroke, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, by creating a universal platform for brain health and recovery and unique digital therapeutic interventions. MindMaze's pioneering FDA cleared and CE marked neuro-digital therapeutics accelerate patients' recovery from many critical neurological conditions. Founded in 2012 by CEO Dr Tej Tadi, MindMaze is the first Swiss Unicorn with offices in Lausanne, Baltimore, London, Paris and Mumbai.

For more information, please visit www.mindmaze.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220214005635/en/

Contacts:

Press enquiries:

MindMaze

Public Relations

E: pr@mindmaze.com

Investor Contact:

ICR Westwicke

Stephanie Carrington

E: ir@mindmaze.com

646-277-1282
Company to commercialize and create single-cell multi-omics products

Parse Biosciences, a company dedicated to providing scalable single-cell sequencing solutions, today announced $41.5M in Series B funding co-led by Marshall Wace and Janus Henderson Investors. Soleus Capital, Logos Capital and Bioeconomy Capital also participated in the round, bringing Parse Biosciences' total funding to date to over $50M.

The funding will be used to expand commercialization of Parse's Evercode Whole Transcriptome products, which empower researchers to profile cells at various levels of scale which they're able to tailor to their unique experiment needs. Evercode leverages a patented technique of combinatorial barcoding that improves sample resolution, increases transcript sensitivity, and simplifies workflow.

Parse's product portfolio includes the Evercode Whole Transcriptome Mega, which can profile up to 1,000,000 cells in parallel, and the Evercode Whole Transcriptome Mini, a kit used to profile up to 10,000 cells in parallel for studies of smaller scale. Following their fundraise, Parse will expand the Evercode platform beyond transcriptomics, enabling researchers to elevate single cell multi-omic measurements to unprecedented scale.

"Understanding and thoroughly profiling cells at scale is fundamental to the future of groundbreaking discoveries in fields like oncology, immunology, and neuroscience," said Alex Rosenberg, CEO and co-founder of Parse Biosciences. "Understanding the transcriptome is pivotal, but our expansion into multi-omics is a natural progression. We're excited to begin expanding our product portfolio, starting later this year."

The company's new products will support applications including:

Immune profiling that will allow researchers to combine gene expression and receptor profiling.

that will allow researchers to combine gene expression and receptor profiling. Chromatin profiling that will provide valuable insights into cell-specific gene regulatory mechanisms, allowing for greater understanding of the epigenome.

that will provide valuable insights into cell-specific gene regulatory mechanisms, allowing for greater understanding of the epigenome. High-throughput CRISPR screens that will enable monitoring of changes in gene expression based on genetic modulation in single cells.

that will enable monitoring of changes in gene expression based on genetic modulation in single cells. Targeted gene panels that will enrich a subset of specific genes relevant to researchers, allowing for more scalable studies while maintaining reasonable sequencing costs.

that will enrich a subset of specific genes relevant to researchers, allowing for more scalable studies while maintaining reasonable sequencing costs. Additional sensitivity of Evercode Whole Transcriptome kits, leading to a dramatic increase in transcript and gene detection.

Following the raise of their $7M Series A round in January 2021, Parse Biosciences extended its reach on a global scale. In October 2021, Parse partnered with Decode Sciences to provide its single-cell sequencing solution to Australia and New Zealand. Shortly afterwards, Parse announced a distribution agreement with Research Instruments Pte Ltd to expand its availability to Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

"Since our Series A close, Parse has experienced unprecedented growth," said Charlie Roco, CTO and co-founder of Parse Biosciences. "We're continuing to develop our platform based on the needs of our customers, who are using single-cell sequencing at scale in ways we've never seen before. We are incredibly thankful to our investors for sharing our vision, and proud to support researchers who are driving remarkable insights, drastically impacting precision medicine and drug therapies as a whole."

Parse Biosciences will be attending the annual Molecular and Precision Med Tri-Conference from February 21-23, 2022. In his session, "The Implications of Single-Cell Transcriptomics at Unprecedented Scale," Charlie Roco will explore the significant impact of profiling the transcriptome at scale in numerous therapeutic areas. Parse will also host a webinar alongside the American Society of Human Genetics showcasing new capabilities of the Evercode platform on March 17, 2022 at 10:00 AM PDT.

Parse is currently hiring for additional members to join the team. For more information, please visit www.parsebiosciences.com/careers.

About Parse Biosciences

Parse Biosciences is a Seattle-based company with the mission of accelerating progress in human health and scientific research.

At the core of our company is our pioneering approach for single cell sequencing. Single-cell sequencing has already enabled groundbreaking discoveries which have led to new understandings of cancer treatment, tissue repair, stem cell therapy, kidney and liver disease, brain development, and the immune system. At Parse Biosciences, we are providing researchers with the ability to perform single cell sequencing with unprecedented scale and ease.

To learn more, please visit: https://www.parsebiosciences.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005525/en/

Contacts:

Shannia Coley

shannia@jones-dilworth.com

443-471-6830
He was on thin ice.

An Ohio mayor resigned Monday after receiving derision for contending that ice fishing could start a path that leads to prostitution in the area.

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Craig Shubert, who was the mayor of Hudson, made the ice fishing remarks at a City Council meeting last week.

My attempt to inject a bit of dry humor to make a point about this, in the midst of a cold, snowy February, was grossly misunderstood, Shuberts resignation letter said.

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Mayor Craig Shubert in a City Council meeting, Feb. 8, 2022 in Hudson, Ohio. (AP)

During the meeting last week, Shuberts comments were met with silence.

If you open this up to ice fishing, while on the surface it sounds good, then what happens next year? Does someone come back and say, I want an ice shanty on Hudson Springs Park for X amount of time? Shubert said at the time.

And if you then allow ice fishing with shanties, then that leads to another problem: prostitution.

Shubert previously made headlines when he described giving books with writing prompts involving sex and alcohol to students as distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom, according to Cleveland news station WKYC.

The Hudson City Council said Tuesday that it plans to find Shuberts replacement in the coming weeks.

City Council appreciates the time and dedication that Mayor Shubert has put in to serving the citizens of Hudson, the councils president, Chris Foster, said in a statement. We respect his decision and wish him the best in the future.

With News Wire Services
BANGALORE, India, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Field Service Management Market is Segmented by Component (Software and Service), Deployment Mode (On-premise, Cloud), Organization Size (Large Enterprise, Small and Medium Size Enterprise), and Industry Vertical (IT & Telecom, Healthcare & life sciences, Manufacturing, BFSI, Transportation & Logistics, Energy & Utilities, Construction, Others). The report covers global opportunity analysis and industry forecasts from 2021 to 2030.

The demand of global field service management market size is expected to reach USD 24,294.00 Million by 2030 from USD 4,005.00 Million in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.7% during the forecast period 2021 to 2030.

Major Factors Driving The Growth Of Field Service Management Market :

The field services management market is expected to grow due to benefits such as access to customer information from any location, a reduction in operational overheads and fuel expenses, management of mobile workforce, increased productivity, and improved customer satisfaction provided by FSM.

Furthermore, the field service management market is fueled by the increased need to track activities in the field, the increased demand for mobility for real-time visibility, and the increased adoption of automation and digitalization in the field services industry.

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Trends Influencing The Growth Of The Field Service Management Market:

The increasing number of field technicians operating globally is expected to drive the growth of the field service management market growth. Field service companies are recognizing the importance of ensuring that all resources are used correctly for business purposes and that field workers/technicians are performing their assigned tasks efficiently. By implementing an appropriate field service management solution that can be integrated with ERP, CRM, and other relevant systems installed in the organization, it is possible to achieve maximum efficiency of business processes and improved productivity among field service providers.

Furthermore, the field service management market is driven by the adoption of field service management software, which allows for easier tracking of progress and ensures that allotted jobs are completed on time. In addition, the demand for field service organizations to adopt FSM solutions to improve customer satisfaction, differentiate services, reduce labor costs, and improve overall productivity is driving the global field service management market forward.

AR and VR technologies are used in the field service industry to create a simulated environment based on real-world scenarios. It allows service technicians to visualize and identify the problem in advance, allowing them to arrive at the client's location prepared with tools and essential spare parts, as well as connect with certified experts from remote locations for guidance and support.

While field service workers may not be able to go entirely virtual, there is a demand for virtual services where they are available. Customers are increasingly working from home offices, necessitating a reduction in the number of calls made on-site. One area where field service providers can go virtual is remote diagnostics. This benefits customer relationships while also saving time and money for the company.

Furthermore, increasing the use of AR & VR in FSM is expected to drive the field service management market. Using AR/VR in field service operations bridges the knowledge gap between newer and more experienced technicians or engineers, allowing for real-time knowledge transfer. Remote diagnosis and repair can be done with AR/VR devices, reducing travel costs and the need for skilled technicians to be present. AR and VR headsets with custom software can improve service operations by reducing technical response time and allowing for a quicker return to service.

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Field Service Management Market Share Analysis

In 2020, the large-scale enterprise segment dominated the overall field service management industry in terms of organizational size, and this trend is expected to continue throughout the forecast period. This is due to a rise in the use of field service management by businesses to gain a strategic and competitive edge over their rivals.

The on-premise segment captured the largest share in 2020, depending on the deployment model, and this trend is expected to continue throughout the forecast period. This is due to the numerous benefits that this on-premise deployment provides, such as increased data security and safety.

Due to strong economic growth and ongoing development in field service and inventory management, the field service management market in Asia-Pacific is expected to grow the most during the forecast period, driving organizations to invest heavily in the field service management market to sustain growth and improve productivity.

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List of Key Market Players

Comarch Sa

Ifs Ab

Infor

Microsoft Corporation

Oracle Corporation

Overit

Praxedo

Salesforce.Com, Inc

Sap Se

Others

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SIMILAR REPORTS

- Field Service Management (FSM) Software Market contains segmentation By Type (On-premises FSM software, Cloud-based FSM software), By Application (Energy & Utilities, Telecom, Manufacturing, Healthcare, BFSI, Transportation & Logistics, Retail) and Regional

- The global Field Service Management (FSM) Solution market size is projected to reach USD 3194 Million by 2027, from USD 1567.8 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 10.7% during 2021-2027

- The global Cloud Field Service Management market size is projected to reach USD 2265.1 Million by 2028, from USD 771.5 Million in 2021, at a CAGR of 16.4% during 2022-2028.

- The global Workforce Management market size is projected to reach USD 8726.7 Million by 2027, from USD 5458.4 Million in 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.5% during 2021-2027.

- Global Field Service Scheduling and Management (FSM) Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2021-2027

- Global Service Lifecycle Management Application Market Insights and Forecast to 2028

- Global Field Service Mobile Apps Market Size, Status and Forecast 2021-2027

- Global Mobile Field Service Solutions Market Size, Status and Forecast 2021-2027

- Global Construction Software Market Insights and Forecast to 2028

To see the full list of related reports on the Field Service Industry

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Expert in Chronic Pain Management Joins International Medical Cannabis Company

International medical cannabis company Akanda Corp. ("Akanda" or the "Company") today announced that it has named Dr. Sunny Nayee as its new UK Medical Director. The appointment of Dr. Nayee, a pain treatment expert with direct experience in cannabis therapies, builds upon the company's partnership with Cellen Life Sciences by combining one of the UK's top prescribing doctors of medical cannabis with one of the UK's first fully-digital pain clinics to greatly expand patient access. At Akanda, Dr. Nayee will be responsible for monitoring and improving the overall level of care provided to medical patients in the UK, as well as helping assess expansion into other international markets.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005890/en/

Dr Sunny Nayee newly appointed as UK medical director at Akanda Corp. (Photo: Business Wire)

Dr. Nayee joins Akanda from the Lyphe Group, a cannabis clinical telehealth and dispensing ecosystem, where he served as Medical Director. Dr. Nayee has been prescribing cannabis to his patients since 2019, and currently treats in excess of 1,000 patients. Under his leadership at Lyphe, The Medical Cannabis Clinics became the first ever cannabis clinic to receive a "good" rating from the Care Quality Commission.

"It is an honor to welcome Dr. Nayee to the Akanda team as we work to build the first seed-to-patient model, serving medical cannabis patients in the UK and Europe," commented Tej Virk, Akanda's CEO. "Dr. Nayee is a renowned pain treatment expert with direct experience in cannabis therapies. This makes him the ideal face of Akanda for patients. I'm looking forward to having Dr. Nayee by our side as we build a patient-oriented supply chain in the UK and eventually other international markets."

"My focus has always been on accurately diagnosing patients then giving them access to the best treatment options available," added Dr. Nayee. "I'm excited to join up with Akanda and Cellen to play a fundamental role in helping to democratize access to medical cannabis for patients in need."

Dr. Nayee's role comes at a pivotal time for the company as Akanda recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Cellen Life Sciences, a health tech company that provides treatment to chronic pain patients through its digital pain clinic, Leva Clinic. Sunny will be working closely with Cellen to enable Akanda to better address unmet healthcare needs of patients globally, starting with the UK. The MOU established a formal working relationship to optimize medical cannabis supply chain activities across Cellen and Akanda business interests, to increase supply and choice for patients in the UK.

Dr. Nayee has a distinguished and prize winning career. He trained at Cambridge University Medical School and is on staff at Imperial College Healthcare Trust, London's Leading University Hospital. Dr. Nayee has been awarded the Industry Leading Canex "Superdoc" Award for being a "been a true advocate for medical cannabis and an adamant educator." He also holds prizes from the NHS Strategic Health Authority's innovation committee and Royal College of General Practitioners for work related to patient safety. He presents widely and most recently published research reviewing the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis treatment for the treatment of chronic refractory pain, including presenting at the National Patient Safety Conference. He continues to work collaboratively with research teams at the University of Sydney Quest Research Group, Drug Science and BOD science. He plays an active role in multiple professional bodies including the British Pain Society, Spinal Interventional Society, World Institute of Pain and the European Pain Federation.

About Akanda Corp.

Akanda is an international medical cannabis and wellness platform company seeking to help people lead better lives through improved access to high quality and affordable products. The company is building a seed-to-patient supply chain, connecting patients in the UK and Europe with diverse products including cannabis products cultivated at its competitively advantaged grow operation in the Kingdom of Lesotho and with other trusted third-party brands. Akanda's initial portfolio includes Bophelo Bioscience Wellness, a GACP qualified cultivation campus in the Kingdom of Lesotho in Southern Africa, and CanMart, a UK-based fully licensed pharmaceutical importer and distributor which supplies pharmacies and clinics within the UK.

Connect with Akanda: Email Website |LinkedIn Twitter Instagram

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only Akanda's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Akanda's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". Forward-looking information may relate to anticipated events or results including, but not limited to business strategy, product development and sales and growth plans.

The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and Akanda does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005890/en/

Contacts:

Investor Contact

Matt Chesler, CFA

FNK IR

ir@akandacorp.com

Media Contact

United States:

Annie Grant

Allison Partners

akanda@allisonpr.com

Europe:

Imogen Saunders

Irvine Partners

imogen@irvinepartners.co.uk
BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Margulies Perruzzi (MP), one of New England's most innovative architectural and interior design firms, is proud to announce the promotion of Jason Costello, AIA, LEED AP to principal, Caitlin Greenwood, AIA, IIDA and Jenna Meyers, IIDA, NCIDQ, LEED AP to senior associate, and Brittany Page to associate.

"We are proud to promote a few very deserving leaders who make our firm a better place to work and provide exceptional service to our clients," said Daniel P. Perruzzi, Jr., AIA, LEED AP, principal and senior partner at Margulies Perruzzi. "Since joining the firm in 2015, Jason has demonstrated all of the important prerequisite skills and characteristics of a principal. We count on him for not only leading the healthcare studio but also for his wise guidance of the firm in general. Caitlin, Jenna, and Brittany continue to make great contributions to the firm in their own unique ways. We will all reap the benefits of leadership provided by these outstanding individuals."

Jason Costello, AIA, LEED AP ~ Promoted to Principal

Since joining Margulies Perruzzi in 2015, Jason has held a leadership role in the firm's healthcare studio which has tripled its client base and revenue during that time. He has managed the design and construction of large multi-phase healthcare projects totaling over two million SF, including projects for clients such as Southern Maine Health Care, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Cape Cod, and Mass General Brigham/Home Base. Jason has presented at national conferences such as ASHE PDC on behavioral healthcare and urgent care design and contributed articles on behavioral healthcare design to national publications such as Medical Construction + Design. Jason serves on the AIA/AAH Codes and Standards Committee with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the BOMA Boston Covid Task Force and Preparedness Committee. He is a member of the Boston Society of Architects (BSA).

Caitlin Greenwood, AIA, IIDA ~ Promoted to Senior Associate

As an architect and project manager, Caitlin brings extensive design experience to the MP team through all phases of design and construction. She is a member of the Workplace, Real Estate, and Science studios, spanning both architecture and interiors with a specialty in corporate re-stack. Caitlin particularly enjoys working closely with science clients to create a design that is both functional and truly unique to them. Several of her projects have focused on creating a rebranded space to attract young talent in the suburban market. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and a Master of Architecture from Roger Williams University.

Jenna Meyers, IIDA, NCIDQ, LEED AP ~ Promoted to Senior Associate

As a senior interior designer, Jenna brings 15 years of extensive design experience to the Margulies Perruzzi team, contributing her strengths in design development, programming, project management, and coordination. As a Workplace studio leader, she specializes in working closely with clients to create custom-designed spaces, reflecting their unique brand, mission, and culture.She has worked on projects for clients such as SGH, United Way, and Zipcar. Jenna has been influential in helping develop several workplace strategy reports for the firm. The most recent report focuses on Embracing the Hybrid Workspace. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Interior Design from Buffalo State College.

Brittany Page ~ Promoted to Associate

Brittany is an energetic and passionate designer with a human-centric design approach, focusing on creating not only functional spaces but elevated experiences. As a senior interior designer, Brittany has spent 10+ years taking projects from concept through completion, with an exceptional ability to understand concerns and anticipate need, and provide customized, client-focused solutions. Utilizing her diverse design background, Brittany offers unique ways of enhancing the user experience in healthcare and in workplace environments. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture & Design from the University of Massachusetts.

About Margulies Perruzzi

As one of New England's top architectural and interior design firms, Margulies Perruzzi (MP) designs Workplace, Health, Science, and Real Estate projects that inspire and nurture human endeavor. More information may be found at https://mparchitectsboston.com.

Media Contact:

Susan Shelby, FSMPS, CPSM

Rhino PR

978.985.4541

MPArchitects@rhinopr.com

SOURCE: Margulies Perruzzi
TYSONS CORNER, VA / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Sheeva.AI, a leading in-car payments and connected vehicle solutions provider, announced today that it has opened two new offices in Northern Virginia and the Detroit metro area to accommodate rapid growth and further establish their presence in strategic areas for the company. These offices are in addition to Sheeva.AI's operations in New Delhi, India and Turin, Italy.

In Fairfax County, Va., Sheeva.AI establishes its new corporate headquarters which will consolidate and support the company's product and strategic operations. The business will also be positioned to continue to tap into the highly educated and diverse workforce in the area as it continues to grow. The office in Sterling Heights, Mich., gives the company a fixed presence in the center of the automotive industry in North America.

"The decision to expand our office presence in Northern Virginia and Detroit regions was a logical next step for us," said Evgeny Klochikhin, Sheeva.AI's Founder and CEO. "A majority of our executive team was already based in Northern Virginia. The region has an excellent pool of talent across all of our business areas. Having made regular trips to Detroit almost every month for the last few years to deliver our vehicle-integrated services, it was also a natural step to open the second HQ in Detroit. It is a central hub for companies we do business with, and now we can continue to focus on our expansion with the right resources in the right places."

About Sheeva.AI

Sheeva.AI provides a flexible, low-cost platform that uses precise (< 2-meter accuracy) geolocation of connected vehicles - even in deep urban canyons - to enable contactless, automatic payments in the cloud.

Sheeva.AI's platform integrates via open APIs to enable payments and automation for services like fuel, charging, toll payment, parking, curbside pick-up, and more. Unlike most Vehicle Location-Based Services (VLBS) systems, Sheeva.AI provides a low-cost and highly flexible way to enable vehicle-based payments and services extensible to existing mobile apps, in-vehicle apps, and location-based services without the need for new architecture or expensive hardware deployments. (www.Sheeva.AI)

Contact:

Randy Brown, Sheeva.AI

Phone: 215-500-2938

Email: rbrown@sheeva.ai

SOURCE: Sheeva.AI

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688853/SheevaAI-Accelerates-Growth-with-New-Offices-in-Northern-Virginia-and-Detroit
WORCESTER, England, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Urovo Technology Co. Ltd, manufacturers of enterprise grade mobile computers and payment terminals, has appointed MobileWorxs as exclusive partner to expands its range of rugged mobile computing in the UK market.

MobileWorxs' Managing Director, Andrew Cahill said, "We are excited to begin this relationship representing Urovo in the UK. They have a long history of innovation and evidence of strong growth in other markets. Our role is to take the Urovo brand proposition to end users, channel partners and independent software vendors, as well as provide local stock holding, support and repair services."

The Urovo range of mobile handheld solutions comprises a broad range of quality products available in an array of configurations at cost effective prices. These enterprise-grade mobile devices are designed to enhance worker efficiency by creating solutions that combat daily challenges in the workplace.

Urovo Europe's Managing Director, Jeffrey Huang said: "We have teamed up with MobileWorxs as they have what we have been looking for in terms of a growing full service enterprise mobility partner with a highly experienced team with the ability to support to end users and channel partners and a focus on delivering our value proposition into key markets."

About?MobileWorxs?

MobileWorxs, based in the UK, provides enterprise grade mobile computing solutions that help customers and partners across the UK and EMEA improve the productivity, quality and responsiveness of their operations.

?MobileWorxs' solutions include the provision, assembly, staging, deployment, management and support of?mobile computers, tablets and accessories across?the?T&L, manufacturing, retail, government and health?sectors.?

Urovo

Urovo Technology Co. Ltd is a leading industry mobile application solution provider. Founded in 2006, it has exhibited exponential growth and now has more than 1200 employees and more than 10 subsidiaries with business covering more than 100 countries and regions. Urovo is quoted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange SHE: 300531.



The company designs and manufacturers a range of mobile handheld terminals and wearable computer devices for bar code scanning, warehousing, logistics, retail manufacturing & many other industry application sectors.

For more information contact Marianne Allies at MobileWorxs, marianne.allies@mobileworxs.com , +44 (0)1905 799555

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1747064/Mobileworxs_Urovo.jpg
New DRI and EAF installations at ArcelorMittal Dofasco in Hamilton, Ontario will reduce carbon emissions by approximately 60%



15 February2022, 16:30 CET



ArcelorMittal (the 'Company') has today confirmed with the Government of Ontario its plan for a c. CAD$1.8 billion investment in decarbonisation technologies at ArcelorMittal Dofasco's plant in Hamilton. As announced in July, 2021, the investment will reduce annual CO2?emissions at ArcelorMittal's Hamilton, Ontario operations by approximately 3 million tonnes, which represents approximately 60% of emissions. This means the Hamilton plant will transition away from the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace steelmaking production route to the Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) - Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) production route, which carries a significantly lower carbon footprint.

The project is scheduled to be complete by 2028, although the Company is looking for opportunities to accelerate the project timelines.

The new manufacturing processes contribute to a considerable reduction of CO2?emissions and deliver other positive environmental impacts including the elimination of emissions and flaring from coke making and ironmaking operations.

The investment was contingent on support from the governments of Canada and Ontario. In July 2021 the Government of Canada announced it will invest CAD$400 million in the project and today, the Government of Ontario announced it will invest CAD$500 million in the project. This secures project funding and firms up the investment.

Today's announcement was made at an event in ArcelorMittal Dofasco's plant in Hamilton, which was attended by ArcelorMittal North America CEO John Brett, ArcelorMittal Dofasco President and CEO Ron Bedard, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Economic Development Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli, Minister of Energy Todd Smith and MPP Donna Skelly.

At the heart of the plan is a 2.5 million tonne capacity DRI facility and an EAF facility capable of producing 2.4 million tonnes of high-quality steel through its existing secondary metallurgy and secondary casting facilities. Modification of the existing EAF facility and continuous casters will also be undertaken to align productivity, quality and energy capabilities between all assets in the new footprint.

This project contributes to the sustainability of well-paying skilled positions in advanced manufacturing and is also expected to support as many as 2,500 jobs during the engineering and construction phases. It will also support ArcelorMittal Dofasco's customers decarbonisation ambitions while further enhancing ArcelorMittal Dofasco's capability to support the most demanding product segments including automotive exposed, advanced high strength steels, and consumer packing.

This new production route for ArcelorMittal Dofasco will provide a technically advanced manufacturing environment for operations, maintenance, and technology staff to work in, with improved health and safety. New positions, training, and development will be provided for employees moving from existing business units to new assets, with approximately 160,000 training hours required to transition our workforce to the new footprint.

Announcing the investment, Vic Fedeli, Minster of Economic Development Job Creation and Trade said:

"From day one, our government's plan has been to unleash Ontario's economic potential by reducing the cost of doing business in Ontario by nearly $7 billion a year. This once-in-a-generation investment to transform the province into a world-leading producer of green steel is a major step forward as we strive for a full economic recovery and transform our auto supply chains to build the car of the future - right here in Ontario."



Speaking at the?announcement in Hamilton, John Brett, ArcelorMittal North America CEO, said:

"Reducing our CO2 emissions intensity worldwide by 25% by 2030 is an ambitious target for a steel and mining company; but we believe it is achievable and that it is our responsibility to invent or innovate the processes and technologies that will enable us to reach that goal. As part of that, we understand that in the coming years, the assets used to make steel will undergo a transformation on a scale not seen for many decades."



Highlighting the impact of the announcement, ArcelorMittal Dofasco President and CEO Ron Bedard said:

"This is the most significant construction project ever undertaken at Dofasco. And the most important achievement in the project timeline will be that everyone working on site is working safely and returning home to their family unharmed.

"All options for the newest, most advanced technology that achieves maximum carbon reduction for steelmaking, enhanced product capability and quality, and advanced manufacturing employment opportunities were explored. Extensive benchmarking and modelling were also completed in preparing the ultimate plan for the sustainability of the environment, the company, employees, customers, and the community."

In addition to Canada, the Company has also announced investments in decarbonisation technologies in Belgium, Franceand Spain. Combined investment for the four projects totals US$5.6 billion, with anticipated carbon emissions reduction totalling 19.5 million tonnes, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 4,240,858 cars being driven for a year1. These projects sit at the heart of the company's target to reduce its CO2e emissions intensity by 25% by 2030 group-wide, and in Europe by 35% by 2030.

ENDS

About ArcelorMittal

ArcelorMittal is the world's leading steel and mining company, with a presence in 60 countries and primary steelmaking facilities in 17 countries. In 2021, ArcelorMittal had revenues of $76.6 billion and crude steel production of 69.1 million metric tonnes, while iron ore production reached 50.9 million metric tonnes.

Our goal is to help build a better world with smarter steels. Steels made using innovative processes which use less energy, emit significantly less carbon and reduce costs. Steels that are cleaner, stronger and reusable. Steels for electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure that will support societies as they transform through this century. With steel at our core, our inventive people and an entrepreneurial culture at heart, we will support the world in making that change. This is what we believe it takes to be the steel company of the future.

ArcelorMittal is listed on the stock exchanges of New York (MT), Amsterdam (MT), Paris (MT), Luxembourg (MT) and on the Spanish stock exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia (MTS).

For more information about ArcelorMittal please visit: http://corporate.arcelormittal.com/

Contact information ArcelorMittal Investor Relations General +44 20 7543 1128 Retail +44 20 3214 2893 SRI +44 20 3214 2801 Bonds/Credit

E-mail +33 171 921 026

investor.relations@arcelormittal.com (mailto:investor.relations@arcelormittal.com) Contact information ArcelorMittal Corporate Communications



Paul Weigh

Tel:

E-mail:







+44 20 3214 2419

press@arcelormittal.com (mailto:press@arcelormittal.com)





1 Calculated using the US EPA greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator - https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO AUSTRALIA, CANADA, HONG KONG, JAPAN OR THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN.

Hexagon Purus ASA (the "Company") has engaged Carnegie AS and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) Oslofilialen as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners in the Private Placement (collectively the "Global Coordinators"), and Sparebank 1 Markets as Joint Bookrunner (together with Global Coordinators the "Managers") to advise on and effect a contemplated private placement of new ordinary shares in the Company (the "Offer Shares"), raising gross proceeds of approximately NOK 600 million (the "Private Placement"). The subscription price per New Share in the Private Placement (the "Subscription Price") will be set by the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board") on the basis of an accelerated book-building process conducted by the Managers.

The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for:

Cylinder and systems capacity expansion across geographies to meet customer demand;

Investments in automated manufacturing facility and technical center of excellence in Kelowna, Canada to support and increase production capacity for battery packs and hydrogen storage systems;

Investments in production capacity in China to serve the fast-growing Chinese market through the joint venture with CIMC Enric;

Organizational scale-up to support continued technological development and capacity expansion; and

Working capital as well as for general corporate purposes.



Hexagon Composites ASA (the Company's largest shareholder with an ownership interest of 73.29%) has undertaken to subscribe for, and will be allocated, their pro-rata share of the Offer Shares, equivalent to approximately NOK 440m, at the subscription price determined through the book building process.

Other primary insiders and employees, including CEO Morten Holum and Chair of the Board Jon Erik Engeset, have indicated an intention to subscribe for Offer Shares for an aggregate amount of approximately NOK 6-7 million.

The application period in the Private Placement will commence today, 15 February 2022 at 16:30 CET and close on 16 February 2022 at 08:00 CET. The Managers and the Company may, however, at any time resolve to close or extend the application period on short or without notice. If the application period is shortened or extended, any other dates referred to herein may be amended accordingly.

The Private Placement will be directed towards selected Norwegian and international investors (a) outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S under the U.S, Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), and (b) to investors in the United States who are "qualified institutional buyers" ("QIBs") as defined in Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act, and to major U.S. institutional investors under SEC Rule 15a-6 under the United States Exchange Act of 1934 in each case subject to an exemption being available from prospectus requirements and any other filing or registration requirements in the applicable jurisdictions and subject to other selling restrictions. The minimum application and allocation amount have been set to the NOK equivalent of EUR 100,000 per investor. The Company may, however, at its sole discretion, allocate an amount below EUR 100,000 to the extent applicable exemptions from the prospectus requirements pursuant to the Norwegian Securities Trading Act and ancillary regulations are available. Further selling restrictions and transaction terms will apply.

Allocation of Offer Shares will be determined at or about 16 February 2022, by the Board in consultation with the Managers, at its sole discretion. The Company may focus on allocation criteria such as (but not limited to) existing ownership in the Company, timeliness of the application, price leadership, relative order size, sector knowledge, investment history, perceived investor quality and investment horizon.

Settlement is expected to take place on or about 18 February 2022 on a delivery versus payment basis. Delivery of the Offer Shares allocated in the Private Placement will, in order to facilitate DVP settlement, be made by delivery of existing and unencumbered shares in the Company already admitted to trading on Euronext Growth Oslo, pursuant to a share lending agreement (the "Share Lending Agreement") to be entered into between the Company, the Managers and Hexagon Composites ASA. The Managers will settle the share loan with new shares in the Company to be issued by the Company's board of directors pursuant to an authorisation granted by the Company's general meeting held on 30 October 2020.

Completion of the Private Placement is subject to (i) all necessary corporate resolutions being validly made by the Company, including without limitation, the Board resolving to consummate the Private Placement and issue the Offer Shares and (ii) the Share Lending Agreement not being terminated prior to allocation.

The Company reserves the right, at any time and for any reason, to cancel, and/or modify the terms of, the Private Placement prior to completion. Neither the Company nor the Managers will be liable for any losses incurred by applicants if the Private Placement is cancelled, irrespective of the reason for such cancellation.

The Company has considered the Private Placement in light of the equal treatment obligations under the Norwegian Securities Trading Act and Oslo Brs' Circular no. 2/2014 and is of the opinion that the waiver of the preferential rights inherent in a private placement, taking into consideration the time, costs and risk of alternative methods of the securing the desired funding is in the common interest of the shareholders of the Company.

Hexagon Purus in brief

Hexagon Purus, a Hexagon Composites company, enables zero emission mobility for a cleaner energy future. Hexagon Purus is a world leading provider of hydrogen type 4 high-pressure cylinders, complete vehicle systems and battery packs for fuel cell electric and battery electric vehicles (FCEV and BEV) including hybrid mobility applications on light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles, transit buses, ground storage, distribution, maritime, rail, and aerospace applications.

For more information, please visit www.hexagonpurus.com and follow @HexagonPurus on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Advisors

Carnegie AS and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ), Oslofilialen as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners in the Private Placement, and Sparebank 1 Markets as Joint Bookrunner. Advokatfirmaet Schjdt AS is acting as the Company's legal advisor.

For more information, please contact:

Morten Holum, CEO, Hexagon Purus

Telephone: +47 995 09 930 | morten.holum@hexagonpurus.com

Dilip Warrier, CFO, Hexagon Purus

Telephone: +1 949-236-5528 | dilip.warrier@hexagonpurus.com

Salman Alam, Vice President, Corporate Development, Hexagon Purus

Telephone: +47 476 12 713 | salman.alam@hexagonpurus.com

Mathias Meidell, IR Director, Hexagon Purus

Telephone: +47 909 82 242 | mathias.meidell@hexagonpurus.com

This information is considered to be inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This stock exchange announcement was published by Dilip Warrier, CFO at Hexagon Purus ASA, on 15 February 2022 at 16:30 CET.

Important information:

The release is not for publication or distribution, in whole or in part directly or indirectly, in or into Australia, Canada, Japan Hong Kong or the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia). This release is an announcement issued pursuant to legal information obligations and is subject to the disclosure requirements of section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. It is issued for information purposes only and does not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities, in the United States or in any other jurisdiction. The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act"). The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act. The Company does not intend to register any portion of any offering of the securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of the securities in the United States. Copies of this announcement are not being made and may not be distributed or sent into Australia, Canada, Japan or the United States.

The issue, subscription or purchase of shares in the Company is subject to specific legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Neither the Company nor the Managers assume any responsibility in the event there is a violation by any person of such restrictions. The distribution of this release may in certain jurisdictions be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this release comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

The Managers are acting for the Company and no one else in connection with the Listing and potential Private Placement in Purus, and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company providing the protections afforded to their respective clients or for providing advice in relation to the Listing and Private Placement and/or any other matter referred to in this release.

Forward-looking statements: This release and any materials distributed in connection with this release may contain certain forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they reflect the Company's current expectations and assumptions as to future events and circumstances that may not prove accurate. A number of material factors could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

?This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act
Oligon Inc., an emerging biotechnology company developing a novel class of multimodal RNA therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other complex diseases, announced today that Dr. Spyro Mousses, Chief Executive Officer of Oligon, will be presenting at the 12th Annual Biocom Global Life Science Partnering Conference. This presentation will take place on February 22nd to the 24th 2022 at the Torrey Pines Lodge in San Diego.

Dr. Mousses will be presenting the SeekR platform, a disruptive new class of multitargeting RNA therapeutics. His presentation will highlight data demonstrating the SeekR's ability to self-deliver to any cell or tissue type, simultaneously silencing any combination of 3 or more gene targets. He will give specific pipeline examples to illustrate how the platform has the unique potential to overcome disease complexity and heterogeneity, and thereby achieve more durable and sustainable clinical responses in oncology, cardiovascular disease, and other indications. The Oligon team will also be setting up separate meetings with investors and strategic partners to explore collaborations for advancing specific next generation of RNA medicines.

About Oligon

Oligon Inc., a Systems Oncology company, is developing a new class of multimodal RNA therapeutics that can simultaneously silence numerous disease targets with a single RNA molecule to improve outcomes and combat emerging drug resistance. Our proprietary SeekR platform is used to digitally engineer and rapidly produce self-delivering therapeutics which target specific tissues with unprecedented precision and accuracy. We are focused on building a pipeline of products in oncology, yet our multimodal RNA platform can be harnessed to transform outcomes for any complex multigenic disease.

To schedule a meeting during this conference, please contact:

Katy Marhenke

Director of Business Development Operations

kmarhenke@oligon.com

www.oligon.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005342/en/

Contacts:

Katy Marhenke

Director of Business Development Operations

kmarhenke@oligon.com
Results Webcast and Conference Call to take place on Friday, 11 March 2022 at 15:00 CET / 14:00 GMT / 09:00 EST

Ghent, Belgium, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Press release

Ghent, BELGIUM- 15 February2022, 18:00 CET -Biotalys, an Agricultural Technology (AgTech) company protecting crops and food with protein-based biocontrol solutions, announces today that it will publish its consolidated results and business highlights for the full year ending December 31, 2021 on Friday, 11 March 2022 at 07:00 CET.



Webcast and Conference Call

In addition to the publication of its results, Patrice Selles, Chief Executive Officer, and Wim Ottevaere, Chief Financial Officer, will host a webcast and conference call followed by a Q&A session, conducted in English. The webcast will be held on Friday, 11 March 2022 at 15:00 CET / 14:00 GMT / 09:00 EST and can be accessed via the following link https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/vxozutog.

A recording of the webcast will be available after the event on the Biotalys' investor website: https://www.biotalys.com/investors/financial-information.

Dial-in details conference call:

Belgium: 027933847

France: 0170700781

Germany: 06922222625

Netherlands: 0207956614

Switzerland: 0445807145

UK/International: +44 (0) 2071 928338

United States: +1 646 741 3167

Passcode: 5116258

- ENDS -

For further information, please contact:

Toon Musschoot, Head of Investor Relations and Communications

T: +32 (0)9 274 54 00

E: Toon.Musschoot@biotalys.com

About Biotalys

Biotalys is an Agricultural Technology.

Attachments
TPII Announces Syncrude to Trial EEL Diesel Hybrid Genset Following Positive Independent Testing Results

Release summary:

Frontier Power Products concludes independent testing of EEL Diesel Hybrid Genset

Results show unit able to deliver combined fuel and maintenance cost savings of 90%

Syncrude to accept delivery of first test unit on March 1, 2022. TPII to attend

LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Triad Pro Innovators, Inc. (OTC PINK:TPII) is pleased to announce better-than-expected independent testing results for its EEL Diesel Hybrid Genset. The company will now conduct further demonstrations with the test ahead of delivery to Syncrude on March 1, 2022.

Better than Expected Test Results

Conducted by Frontier Power Products in Canada, independent testing of the company's EEL Diesel Hybrid Genset showed it could consistently sustain the test load for 16 hours from only one hour of diesel operation. The test load was representative of a typical load in many of the envisaged remote applications for the EEL Diesel Hybrid Genset.

Commenting on the test results, company CEO Murray Goldenberg stated, "We're extremely pleased with the outcomes of Frontier's testing. Our original estimates were that the unit would be capable of 12 hours of sustained operation from one hour of diesel operation. That it was able to achieve 16 hours came as a surprise to everyone, and has led us to increase our combined fuel and maintenance cost saving estimates up to 90% when compared to a standard diesel genset."

Syncrude to Accept Delivery of Test Unit

Following the test period, the company will now conduct further customer demonstrations using the test unit before delivering it to Syncrude.

Syncrude-Canada's largest producer of synthetic crude oil from oil sands-was amongst the earliest customers to attend EEL demonstrations. Representatives expressed a strong interest in the genset, particularly the unique ability of its eCell to operate at extreme temperatures well beyond the limits at which lithium-based battery technology degrades.

Syncrude will now accept delivery of the unit on March 1, 2022. TPII intends to attend delivery and observe the commencement of testing, which is expected to continue over a two-week period.

Syncrude's initial trial period will be limited to a single application. However, it has also expressed interest in taking delivery of further EEL genset units for testing in additional applications. TPII is currently working to provide Syncrude with units for a second application.

About Triad Pro Innovators, Inc. (OTC PINK: TPII):

Triad Pro Innovators, Inc. has developed a proprietary device to be utilized in a variety of circumstances to store electricity. The newly developed Triad Pro power supply provides our storage system with tremendous operational flexibility. Using our propriety hardware and software solution, our eCell can be configured to store energy at a rate limited only by the network providing it, and then release that energy in a regulated way based upon the application, which allows for flexibility unknown in current chemical battery-based storage systems. Triad Pro creates and designs renewable energy solutions including Co-Generation and the patent pending eCells that can be used stand alone or modular as energy demands increase.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "will," "could," "should," "expect," "plan," "project," "intend," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "pursuant," "target," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding TPII's plans, objectives, future opportunities for TPII's services and products, future financial performance and operating results and any other statements regarding TPII's future expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, financial conditions, assumptions or future events or performance that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, many of which are beyond TPII's control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, and include, without limitation, results of litigation, settlements and investigations; actions by third parties, including governmental agencies; volatility in customer spending; global economic conditions; ability to hire and retain personnel; loss of, or reduction in business with, key customers; difficulty with growth and integration of acquisitions; product liability; cybersecurity risk; anti-takeover measures in our charter documents; and, the uncertainties created by the ongoing outbreak of a respiratory illness caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus that was recently named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19. These and other important risk factors are described more fully in our reports and other documents filed with OTC Markets Group in satisfaction of the company's obligations as an alternative reporting company. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this press release, which are based on information available to us on the date hereof. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Investor Relations Contact:

info@triadpro.com

714.790.3662

SOURCE: Triad Pro Innovators, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688894/Results-Show-Unit-Able-to-Deliver-Combined-Fuel-and-Maintenance-Cost-Savings-of-90
The families of nine victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have agreed to a $73 million settlement with the manufacturer that built the Bushmaster rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012.

The families sued Remington in December 2014, arguing the company recklessly promoted the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle to young adults.

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The case was closely watched by gun control advocates as a legal test of whether gun makers could be held accountable for how their products are used. In an emotional press conference in Trumbull, Conn., the families said their focus was not on the money. Instead, they wanted to help prevent another mass shooting by forcing gun makers to be more responsible.

Today is not about honoring our son Benjamin. Today is about how and why Ben died. It is about what is right and what is wrong, said Francine Wheeler, whose son was killed in the shooting.

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Francine and David Wheeler, parents of Benjamin Wheeler, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, speak during a news conference in Trumbull, Conn., Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Our legal system has given us some justice today, but David and I will never have true justice. True justice would be our 15-year-old healthy and here with us. But Benny will never be 15. He will be 6 forever because he is gone forever. Today is about what is right and what is wrong, she said.

Remington, which is bankrupt, has maintained that theres no evidence linking its marketing strategy to the shooting. The payout will be covered by the gun manufacturers insurers.

As part of the deal, Remington also agreed to allow the relatives to release internal documents showing how the company marketed the gun.

People grieve outside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn, on Dec. 14, 2012. (Ted Shaffrey/AP)

This victory should serve as a wake-up call not only to the gun industry, but also the insurance and banking companies that prop it up, said Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the families. He hailed the settlement as a warning for gunmakers to stop recklessly marketing all guns to all people for all uses.

For the insurance and banking industries, its time to recognize the financial cost of underwriting companies that elevate profit by escalating risk. Our hope is that this victory will be the first boulder in the avalanche that forces that change, he said.

Attorney Josh Koskoff hailed the settlement as a step toward accountability for gun manufacturers. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Koskoff and his fellow attorneys argued that Remingtons aggressive and violence-glorifying marketing of its AR-15s was an unfair trade practice and violation of Connecticut law. The families lawyers focused on the marketing of the gun as a workaround of a broad federal law that shields gun makers from liability in most cases.

Remington touted the Bushmaster as the must-have weapon for any firefight, boasting that opponents were single-handedly outnumbered by a person armed with the gun, according to legal filings.

Other marketing lines included: Forces of opposition, bow down and consider your man card reissued.

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My beautiful butterfly, Dylan, is gone because Remington prioritized its profit over my sons safety. Marketing weapons of war directly to young people known to have a strong fascination with firearms is reckless and, as too many families know, deadly conduct, Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed in the shooting, said in a statement.

Nicole Hockley, mother of Dylan Hockley, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, speaks during a news conference in Trumbull, Conn., Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Using marketing to convey that a person is more powerful or more masculine by using a particular type or brand of firearm is deeply irresponsible, she added.

On Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his 55-year-old mother at their home in Newtown before storming into Sandy Hook Elementary School and committing one of the most horrific mass shootings in history.

Adam Lanza killed 20 first graders and six educators in 2012 at Sandy Hook. (HOGP)

Lanza killed himself after the massacre.

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 settlement is not the first between victims and a gun manufacturer. Families of eight victims of the Washington, D.C.-area snipers won a $2.5 million settlement in 2004, with $550,000 coming from Bushmaster Firearms and the rest from the gun dealer. But experts said the size of the new settlement could get gun makers attention.

Mayor Adams praised the deal.

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Gun manufacturers must be held accountable for their role in promoting dangerous weapons on our streets, which is why our gun licensing laws are necessary. This settlement is a step in the right direction, but we still must do more to end the alarming rise in gun violence in our city, he said.

Gov. Hochul tweeted that she hoped the settlement brings the families some measure of justice and accoutanbilty.

The families of Sandy Hook have bravely fought for gun violence prevention, and have inspired us all to take action to end the scourge of mass shootings, Hochul said.

More than 45,000 people died from gun-related injuries in 2020, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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STOCKHOLM, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Eurocine Vaccines AB ("Eurocine Vaccines" or "the Company") announces today that the Company has agreed to secure warrants of series TO 4 ("TO 4") with exercise period between 14 and 28 March 2022. Eurocine Vaccines has agreed to a guarantee commitment regarding TO 4 (so-called "top-down" or "top guarantee") from the Company's principal owner Flerie Invest AB ("Flerie Invest") of approximately 50 percent of the issue volume for TO 4. Furthermore, Eurocine Vaccines has entered a subscription commitment of approximately 11.4 percent with Flerie Invest. In total, the Company has thus agreed on subscription and guarantee commitments corresponding to approximately 61.4 percent of the issue volume for TO 4. In connection with the securing of TO 4, Flerie Invest has entered into lock-up-agreements regarding 100 percent of its shareholding (corresponding to approximately 13 percent of the total share capital and votes in the Company).

Thomas Eldered, CEO of Flerie Invest, comments

"We see great potential in the value that Eurocine Vaccines creates, with its chlamydia vaccine candidate and vaccine portfolio under development, which is well in line with Flerie Invest's investment strategy. Together, we contribute to advancing the development of medical innovations that meet important patient needs."

CEO Hans Arwidsson comments

"There is a strong need for a safe and effective chlamydia vaccine and the proceeds from TO 4 give us the opportunity to pursue the development of the chlamydia vaccine candidate and the portfolio towards several near-term goals. Flerie Invest's solid background in the life science sector further strengthens Eurocine Vaccines."

Briefly about warrants of series TO 4

The Board of Directors of Eurocine Vaccines decided on 26 May 2021 to issue warrants of series TO 4, with the support of authorization from the Annual General Meeting on 15 December 2020. Through the rights issue, 3,158,164 warrants of series TO 4 were issued. During the coming exercise period, holders of TO 4 have the opportunity, for each warrant, to subscribe for one new share in Eurocine Vaccines. Each share is subscribed for at a price that amounts to 70 percent of the average volume-weighted price for the share according to Spotlight Stock Market's official price statistics for a period of ten trading days ending 10 March 2022. The subscription price shall not exceed SEK 5.00 per new share and shall not be less than the quota value of the share. The subscription price must be rounded to the nearest whole number of ore. Warrant holders will have the opportunity to exercise TO 4 from 14 March 2022 to 28 March 2022, or sell them no later than 24 March 2022. TO 4 that has not been exercised by 28 March 2022 loses its value. The subscription price and information on how to exercise warrants of series TO 4 will be published in a press release on the Company's (www.eurocinevaccines.com) and Sedermera Corporate Finance (www.sedermera.se) websites before the exercise period begins.

Top-down guarantee and subscription commitment regarding TO 4

Eurocine Vaccines has received subscription- and guarantee commitment of a total of approximately 61.4 percent of the issue volume for TO 4 (corresponding to a maximum of 1,939,443 shares in the Company. The subscription commitment corresponds to approximately 11.4 percent (360,361 shares) and the guarantee commitment corresponds to approximately 50 percent (1,579,082 shares). The top-down guarantee and subscription commitment has been obtained from Flerie Invest. The guarantee commitment is a so-called "Top-down guarantee" or "top guarantee", which means that if the warrants of series TO 4 is exercised to approximately 50 percent, the guarantee commitment is executed up to a fully subscribed TO 4. The guarantee commitment is thus added to the current subscription level for TO 4 and intends to secure the last part of the subscription in the event that all TO 4 are not exercised by existing holders. For the guarantee commitment, a cash premium compensation of 7.5 percent of the guaranteed amount is paid. In the event that the guarantee is activated, subscription of shares from Flerie Invest will in practice take place through a directed share issue which is carried out after the exercise period of TO 4. Subscription in such a directed share issue shall take place at the set price for TO 4 and only to the extent TO 4 is not exercised within the size of the guarantee commitment (corresponding to a maximum of 1,579,082 shares in the Company).

Lock-up

Flerie Invest has entered into lock-up-agreement with Sedermera Corporate Finance. The agreement means that Flerie Invest may not, without the written consent from Sedermera Corporate Finance, sell shares up to and including 2022-09-28 (may be adjusted to 2022-10-01 if any guarantee is activated). The lock-up commitment relates to 100 percent of Flerie Invest's total shareholding in the Company (including shares and shares from any guarantee from TO 4). In total, the lock-up-agreement corresponds to approximately 13 percent of the share of votes and capital in the Company (calculated on the existing share of votes and capital before exercise of TO 4 and eventual guarantee). The commitments to Sedermera Corporate Finance include usual exceptions.

Financial advisor, issuing agent and legal advisor

Sedermera Corporate Finance is the financial advisor and Nordic Issuing is the issuing agent for Eurocine Vaccines in connection with the capitalization. Markets & Corporate Law acts as legal advisor.

This information is such information that Eurocine Vaccines AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, on 15 February 2022.

CONTACT:

Hans Arwidsson, Ph.D., MBA

CEO of Eurocine Vaccines AB

hans.arwidsson@eurocine-vaccines.com

+46 70 634 0171

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/eurocine-vaccines/r/eurocine-vaccines-enters-into-agreement-with-flerie-invest-to-secure-exercise-of-warrants-of-series-,c3507395

The following files are available for download:
Blue Star Gold (BAU) has provided all outstanding results from its 2021 exploration program at its Ulu Project. Blue Star successfully completed all phases of the 2021 program in September. Several unevaluated targets were evaluated and the company is reprioritizing targets for upcoming drill programs. Darren Lindsay, P. Geo. and Vice President Exploration for Blue Star sat down with Shoran Devi to discuss the drilling results.

For the full interview with Darren Lindsay and to learn more about Blue Star Gold's 2021 results, click here.

Affinor Growers (CSE:AFI) signs wholesale distribution agreement

Affinor Growers (AFI) has signed a non-exclusive agreement with Berrymobile Fruit Distribution Inc. Berrymobile is a Vancouver-based distribution company that partners with retailers across major grocery banners in the Lower Mainland. Affinor's vertical farming showcase located in Abbotsford, BC is now completely operational. The partnership with Berrymobile is expected to accelerate Affinor's production scaleup plan, spur vertical growing technology and increase greenhouse sales. Affinor CEO - Nick Brusatore sat down with Shoran Devi to discuss the agreement.

For the full interview with Nick Brusatore and to learn more about Affinor Growers wholesale distribution agreement, 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.

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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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themarketherald.ca

SOURCE: The Market Herald
Increased frequencies in Calgary

New Destination: 2x weekly service to Anchorage from Vancouver

New routes: Toronto to Halifax; and Ottawa to Charlottetown and Victoria

EDMONTON, AB / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Flair Airlines, Canada's everyday low fare airline, is looking forward to a busy summer season. Thanks to Calgary's positive response to Flair's low fares, the airline is increasing frequencies on many of its popular routes. The summer schedule will also include new service from Vancouver International Airport to Anchorage International Airport, and new routes from Ottawa International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport, in addition to increased frequencies across the country.

Committed to Calgary

Calgary is an important market for Flair, as the airline ramps up service before the summer.

"For too long, Calgarians have had to deal with high fares to travel and visit loved ones. Flair is excited to bring low fares to meet the pent-up demand for travel to and from Calgary," said Stephen Jones, President and CEO, Flair Airlines. "With this growth, we look forward to welcoming even more Canadians onboard Canada's greenest airline."

"We're always looking for opportunities to stimulate demand with low fares, particularly in geographies like Calgary that have minimal competition and historically high fares, said Garth Lund, Chief Commercial Officer, Flair Airlines. "We've had tremendous success with our routes to and from Calgary so far and look forward to continuing our growth in the market."

The increased frequencies in Calgary include the following adjustments:

Toronto: Up to 12x weekly

Montreal: Up to 6x weekly

Vancouver: Up to 19x weekly

Kelowna: Up to 4x weekly

Kitchener-Waterloo: Up to 5x weekly

Ottawa: Up to 3x weekly

One-way fares, including taxes and fees, begin at $49 to Kitchener-Waterloo, Kelowna, Vancouver, and Ottawa; $59 to Montreal; and $79 to Toronto. There are limited seats and availability for the fares. All routes are available for booking at https://www.flyflair.com.

Introducing Service to Alaska

Passengers can also enjoy an exciting new destination from Vancouver International Airport, with twice weekly service to Anchorage International Airport beginning on May 19.

"We are excited to welcome new airline Flair Airlines to Anchorage International Airport," said Trudy Wassel, Deputy Director, Anchorage Airport. "This is a great opportunity for Alaskans to fly direct to Vancouver, and our friends in Canada to fly direct to Anchorage. Looking forward to a great summer 2022 with Flair Airlines."

"New service to Anchorage from Vancouver International Airport on Flair Airlines is an exciting and welcome addition for our passengers," said Russell Atkinson, Director, Air Service Development, Vancouver Airport Authority. "This nonstop connection will benefit both ends of the route, offering convenient and affordable travel between our two communities. We continue to be impressed by Flair's growth and look forward to even more destinations in future."

One-way fares from Vancouver to Anchorage, including taxes and fees, begin at $99. There are limited seats and availability for the fares. The route is available for booking at https://www.flyflair.com.

Summer Schedule Expansion

The airline has also introduced three new routes: Daily service from Toronto Pearson International Airport to Halifax Stanfield International Airport, as well as Ottawa International Airport to Charlottetown International Airport and Victoria Airport, operating 3x weekly and 2x weekly, respectively.

"Flair's announcement of new service between Charlottetown and Ottawa is great news for Islanders wishing to visit our nation's capital and for tourists wanting to visit PEI to experience our fantastic tourism product," said Doug Newson, CEO, YYG Charlottetown Airport. "The Flair product has been well received on PEI and we are pleased to see them expand to new markets here at YYG."

Service from Ottawa to Charlottetown begins on July 6, with Toronto to Halifax beginning on May 1 and Ottawa to Victoria beginning on May 7.

Flair also continues to fill out its summer schedule by adding frequencies to markets that show positive booking trajectories. Among others, Flair is increasing frequencies in the following markets:

Toronto - Winnipeg: Up to 12x weekly

Toronto - Saint John: Up to 4x weekly

Ottawa - Winnipeg: Up to 4x weekly

Ottawa - Vancouver: Up to 5x weekly

Toronto - Victoria: Up to 2x weekly

Vancouver - Edmonton: Up to 17x weekly

One-way fares, including taxes and fees, begin at $49 for Toronto to Halifax, $49 for Ottawa to Charlottetown, and $59 for Ottawa to Victoria. There are limited seats and availability for the fares. All routes are available for booking at https://www.flyflair.com.

About Flair Airlines

Flair Airlines is on a mission to liberate the lives of Canadians by providing affordable air travel that connects them to the people and experiences they love. With an expanding fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft, Flair is growing to serve over 30 cities across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. For more information, please visit www.flyflair.com.

Media enquiries, please contact:

Jamina Kotak

780.887.9209

Jamina.kotak@flyflair.com

Calgary Growth

Toronto: Up to 12x weekly

Montreal: Up to 6x weekly

Vancouver: Up to 19x weekly

Kelowna: Up to 4x weekly

Kitchener-Waterloo: Up to 5x weekly

Ottawa: Up to 3x weekly

Summer Frequency Growth and New Markets

Toronto - Winnipeg: Up to 12x weekly

Toronto - Saint John: Up to 4x weekly

Ottawa - Winnipeg: Up to 4x weekly

Ottawa - Vancouver: Up to 5x weekly

Toronto - Victoria: Up to 2x weekly

Vancouver - Edmonton: Up to 17x weekly

Ottawa - Victoria: 2x weekly

Ottawa - Charlottetown: 3x weekly

Toronto - Halifax: Daily

Vancouver - Anchorage: 2x weekly

SOURCE: Flair Airlines

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/688920/Flair-Joins-Calgarians-in-their-Distaste-for-High-Fares-at-YYC-Increases-Schedule-by-Over-25-to-Give-Canadians-More-Options


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Meta Platforms Inc. (FB), the parent company of social media giant Facebook, has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a 2012 lawsuit that accuses the company of tracking users even after they logged out of their accounts.



A preliminary settlement proposal was filed on Monday night with the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. It requires approval from the federal judge. Plaintiffs affected by Facebook's improper data tracking will receive portions of the $90 million. Meta will also delete all of the data it wrongfully collected from those users.



The lawsuit was filed after it was found that Facebook tracked users even after they completely logged off the social network. Users, usually agree to being tracked while they are logged into Facebook, however, the tracking was supposed to end upon logout, according to the end-user licensing agreement.



If the settlement is approved, it would be one of the 10 largest penalties ever paid in the US for violating user privacy.



'Plaintiffs calculate that the Settlement Fund represents disgorgement of at least 100% of the additional net profits during the Settlement Class Period related to the data the Lead Plaintiffs alleged was wrongfully obtained,' the statement from the law firm of DiCello Levitt Gutzler reads.



The case was dismissed in June 2017, but was revived in April 2020 by a federal appeals court, which said users could try to prove that Facebook profited unjustly and violated their privacy. Facebook's further effort to get the case dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court was unsuccessful.







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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil prices plunged sharply on Tuesday as worries about supply disruptions eased amid de-escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Oil prices were under pressure as geopolitical tensions eased following news Russia is pulling back some troops from the Ukrainian border. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down by $3.39 or about 3.6% at $92.07 a barrel. Brent crude futures were down $3.31 or 3.47% at $93.17 a barrel a little while ago. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said units from Russia's southern and western military districts, which border Ukraine, have already begun returning to their bases after completing combat training. The news has helped ease concerns about a Russian invasion of Ukraine, and crude oil supply disruptions. Investors are also closely watching talks between the United States and Iran on reviving Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. Iran said an agreement to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with the world powers was near. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday and they noted a 'tangible move forward' in reviving the Iran nuclear deal, according to Russia's foreign ministry. Meanwhile, markets are looking ahead to weekly crude oil reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). 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.
Tamarack, Minnesota and Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - Talon Metals Corp. (TSX: TLO) (OTC Pink: TLOFF), through its U.S. subsidiary Talon Nickel (USA) LLC (collectively "Talon" or the "Company"), has entered into an amending agreement with TF R&S Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Triple Flag Precious Metals Corp. (with its subsidiaries, "Triple Flag"), to effect the early exercise of Talon's right to reduce an existing net smelter returns royalty on Talon's interest in the Tamarack Nickel Project from 3.5% to 1.85% in exchange for the payment by Talon of US$4.5 million to Triple Flag.

"Reducing the royalty held by Triple Flag is another important step towards taking Talon to the next level, following our recent supply agreement with Tesla, remarkable drill results and successful capital raise to strengthen our balance sheet. Paying US$4.5 million today to reduce our royalty from 3.5% to 1.85% is value accretive and preserves significant value for shareholders," said Sean Werger, President. "Shaun Usmar and the Triple Flag team were one of the first investors to recognize the world-class nature of the Tamarack Nickel Project when we struck the royalty agreement in 2019. Our agreement today demonstrates that they are not just good investors but true partners in the companies in which they invest."

"We are proud to have partnered with Talon at an early stage to enable them to acquire their interest in the Tamarack Nickel Project from Rio Tinto," said Shaun Usmar, Founder and CEO of Triple Flag. "Sean Werger and Henri van Rooyen and their team have been immensely impressive in continuously delivering on our investment thesis of a well-located, world-class nickel district play that could supply the growing need for battery metals in the North American market, which is underserved with opportunities of this quality. They have been remarkably successful in proving up the district scale potential of this world-class orebody with continuous discovery through the drill bit since we made the investment. We are grateful to their team and excited for our ongoing association and partnership with Talon."

Background

On March 7, 2019, Talon granted a 3.5% net smelter returns royalty to Triple Flag on Talon's interest in the Tamarack Nickel Project. The royalty was granted by Talon to Triple Flag in exchange for Triple Flag providing Talon with a portion of the initial funding required by Talon to secure the rights to earn a 60% interest in the Tamarack Nickel Project.

Subject to certain events occurring, Talon was provided with a one-time option, exercisable in or around March 2022, to reduce the percentage of the net smelter returns royalty from 3.5% to 1.85% in exchange for a cash payment to Triple Flag in the amount of US$4.5 million.

Triple Flag has agreed to allow Talon to accelerate its option to reduce the royalty to 1.85% in exchange for the payment of US$4.5 million.

ABOUT TALON

Talon is a TSX-listed base metals company in a joint venture with Rio Tinto on the high-grade Tamarack Nickel-Copper-Cobalt Project located in central Minnesota. Talon's shares are also traded in the US over the OTC market under the symbol TLOFF. The Tamarack Nickel Project comprises a large land position (18km of strike length) with high-grade intercepts outside the current resource area. Talon has an earn-in right to acquire up to 60% of the Tamarack Nickel Project, and currently owns 51%. Talon is focused on (i) expanding and infilling its current high-grade nickel mineralization resource prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 to shape a mine plan for submission to Minnesota regulators, (ii) following up on additional high-grade nickel mineralization in the Tamarack Intrusive Complex, and (iii) exploring the prospects for significant carbon storage in the ultra-mafic rocks that comprise the Tamarack Intrusive Complex through carbon mineralization. Talon has an agreement with Tesla Inc. to supply it with 75,000 metric tonnes (165 million lbs) of nickel in concentrate (and certain by-products, including cobalt and iron) from the Tamarack Nickel Project over an estimated six-year period once commercial production is achieved. Talon has well-qualified experienced exploration, mine development, external affairs and mine permitting teams.

For additional information on Talon, please visit the Company's website at www.talonmetals.com/

Media Contact:

Todd Malan

1 (202) 714-8187

malan@talonmetals.com

Investor Contact:

Sean Werger

1 (416) 500-9891

werger@talonmetals.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements". All statements, other than statements of historical fact that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Such forward-looking statements include statements relating to exploration and development of the Tamarack Project, including future supply from the Tamarack Project, and the future value of the royalty and its impact on shareholder value. Forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company.

Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

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(All amounts in US$ unless otherwise specified)

Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone" or the "Company") (TSX:CS) today announced production and financial results for the quarter ("Q4 2021") and full year ("FY 2021") ended December 31, 2021. Quarterly consolidated copper production totaled 51.6 million pounds at C1 cash costs1 of $1.72 per payable pound of copper produced. Annual consolidated copper production totaled 187.1 million pounds at C1 cash costs1 of $1.81 per payable pound of copper produced. Link HERE for Capstone's Q4 2021 management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") and financial statements and HERE for the webcast presentation.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215006115/en/

(Graphic: Business Wire)

Darren Pylot, CEO of Capstone, commented, "Our investments in optimization and expansion over the past two years have allowed us to take advantage of robust copper prices, positioning us now with a large net cash balance sheet ahead of a period of transformational growth." Mr. Pylot continued, "We announced the upcoming business combination with Mantos Copper on November 30th. After the special meeting of the shareholders on February 28th, we look forward to building on the strengths of both organizations as we create Capstone Copper, a Canadian copper champion that will deliver leading growth in our sector. We remain committed to strengthening communities and building resilient long-life operations."

Q4 2021 AND 2021 OPERATIONAL FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Record net income of $252.9 million, or $0.56 per share for 2021 and net income of $41.4 million, or $0.10 per share for Q4 2021. Adjusted net income 1 of $241.6 million or $0.60 per share for 2021, and $73.2 million or $0.18 per share for Q4 2021; main reconciling item for Q4 2021 was share based compensation expense.

Adjusted net income of $241.6 million or $0.60 per share for 2021, and $73.2 million or $0.18 per share for Q4 2021; main reconciling item for Q4 2021 was share based compensation expense. Record Adjusted EBITDA 1 of $432.2 million for 2021 and $113.3 million for Q4 2021. The increase in adjusted EBITDA 1 is reflective of Capstone's 19% growth in production and strong operational performance and financial leverage in a robust copper price environment.

The increase in adjusted EBITDA is reflective of Capstone's 19% growth in production and strong operational performance and financial leverage in a robust copper price environment. Record Operating cash flow before changes in working capital 1 of $556.3 million in 2021 and $104.9 million in Q4 2021 driven by strong revenue in a plus $4.40 price copper environment. Included in 2021 Operating cash flow is the receipt of the $150.0 million upfront payment for the Cozamin Silver Stream and $30.0 million upfront payment for the Santo Domingo Gold Stream Agreement.

driven by strong revenue in a plus $4.40 price copper environment. Included in 2021 Operating cash flow is the receipt of the $150.0 million upfront payment for the Cozamin Silver Stream and $30.0 million upfront payment for the Santo Domingo Gold Stream Agreement. Cash and short term investments grew by $56.2 million during the three months ending December 31, 2021 and by $389.3 million during 2021 to $264.4 million. The Company's total available liquidity 1 was $489.4 million with nil long term debt. The balance sheet was further enhanced by continued strong operating cash flow generation during Q4 2021.

The Company's total available liquidity was $489.4 million with nil long term debt. The balance sheet was further enhanced by continued strong operating cash flow generation during Q4 2021. Consolidated copper production of 51.6 million pounds at C1 cash costs 1 of $1.72 per payable pound of copper produced for Q4 2021. Full year guidance achieved with consolidated copper production for 2021 of 187.1 million pounds at C1 cash costs 1 of $1.81 per payable pound of copper produced.

Full year guidance achieved with consolidated copper production for 2021 of 187.1 million pounds at C1 cash costs of $1.81 per payable pound of copper produced. Cozamin Mine achieved another record quarterly copper production of 14.5 million pounds at $0.99 per payable pound of copper produced for Q4 2021. Q4 2021 production was 41% higher than in Q4 2020 following commissioning of the Calicanto one-way ramp in Q1 2021.

Q4 2021 production was 41% higher than in Q4 2020 following commissioning of the Calicanto one-way ramp in Q1 2021. Pinto Valley Mine produced 37.1 million pounds at $2.00 per payable pound of copper for Q4 2021. The mine's processing plant achieved rates of approximately 58,500 tonnes per day ("tpd") in Q4 2021 following completion of Phase 2 of PV3 Optimization.

The mine's processing plant achieved rates of approximately 58,500 tonnes per day ("tpd") in Q4 2021 following completion of Phase 2 of PV3 Optimization. Capstone announced the Transaction to combine with Mantos Copper (Bermuda) Limited ("Mantos") to create Capstone Copper Corp.The Transaction will establish Capstone Copper Corp. as a premier copper producer with a diversified portfolio of high-quality, long-life operating assets focused in the Americas with an extensive pipeline of near-term fully-permitted organic growth opportunities. Completion of the Transaction is expected in March or April 2022.

This is an alternative performance measure; please refer to the "Alternative Performance Measures" section of the Company's MD&A for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2021.

Operational Overview

Refer to Capstone's Q4 2021 and FY 2021 MD&A and Financial Statements for detailed operating results.

Q4 2021 Q4 2020 FY 2021 FY 2020 Copper production (million pounds) Pinto Valley 37.1 34.1 133.3 119.0 Cozamin 14.5 10.3 53.8 37.9 Total 51.6 44.4 187.1 156.9 Copper sales Copper sold (million pounds) 46.8 39.3 178.7 147.4 Realized copper price ($/pound) 4.61 3.64 4.42 2.99 C1 cash costs1($/pound) produced Pinto Valley 2.00 2.00 2.16 2.21 Cozamin 0.99 0.63 0.96 0.69 Consolidated 1.72 1.68 1.81 1.84

Consolidated

Q4 2021 production was 16% higher than Q4 2020 mainly as a result of higher mine grades at both mines plus record copper production at Cozamin driven by the mine expansion related to the completion of the new one-way ramp at the end of 2020.

2021 consolidated production of 187.1 million pounds of copper is at the upper end of the full year guidance of 175 to 190 million pounds of copper. The production results reflect a 19% increase compared to prior year, benefiting from Cozamin achieving the higher mill rates (3,800 tpd) and benefits of the PV3 Optimization projects at Pinto Valley. The increase in production was the main driver for the $0.03 per payable pound of copper decrease in C1 cash costs1 in 2021 compared to 2020, offset by $0.09/lb related to the Cozamin silver stream, thus overall pre-stream the C1 cash costs1 were $0.12/lb lower than 2020. 2021 YTD C1 cash costs1 are within annual guidance of $1.75 to $1.90 per payable pound of copper.

Pinto Valley Mine

Q4 2021 production was higher than the same period last year primarily on higher grades for Q4 2021 (0.37% versus 0.31% in Q4 2020) as a result of mine sequencing and an increase in cut off grade to the mill, sending the lower grade ore to leach, partially offset by lower recoveries in Q4 2021 compared to Q4 2020.

2021 production increased by 12% compared to the same period last year due to higher head grades for 2021 (0.35% versus 0.30% in 2020) and improved flotation plant recovery performance (85.7% versus 85.0% in 2020).

C1 cash costs1 of $2.00 per payable pound of copper in Q4 2021 were consistent with the same period last year. Lower capitalized stripping costs of $0.12 per pound during the quarter ($0.2 million versus $4.1 million in Q4 2020) were fully offset by higher Q4 2021 production compared to Q4 2020.

A decrease in 2021 C1 cash cost1 by $0.05 per payable pound of copper was primarily attributed to higher production compared to the same period last year.

Cozamin Mine

Production in Q4 2021 was 41% higher than the same period last year and another record production quarter for Cozamin. Higher copper production was primarily due to the successful utilization of the Calicanto one-way ramp which increased mill rates from 3,086 tpd in Q4 2020 to 3,863 tpd in Q4 2021. In addition, with the optimized technical report mine plan, the mine is delivering significantly higher mine grades (1.92% in Q4 2021 versus 1.72% in Q4 2020) from the copper rich San Jose and Calicanto zones.

2021 production increased by 42% compared to the same period last year mainly due to higher mill throughput (3,724 tpd versus 2,949 tpd in 2020 YTD) and head grades (1.86% versus 1.67% in 2020).

C1 cash costs1 in Q4 2021 were higher than the same period last year due to $0.29 per payable pound of copper impact of the Cozamin silver stream with Wheaton for 50% of the silver sales and higher production costs attributed to higher operating development meters executed.

C1 cash costs1 in 2021 were higher than the same period last year due to $0.30 per payable pound of copper impact of the Cozamin silver stream with Wheaton for 50% of the silver sales. The cost per payable pound impact of the Cozamin silver stream was partially offset by higher production.

Financial Overview

Refer to Capstone's Q4 2021 and FY 2021 MD&A and Financial Statements for detailed financial results.

Q4 2021 Q4 2020 FY 2021 FY 2020 Revenue($ millions) 215.9 148.1 794.8 453.8 Net income ($ millions) 41.4 27.6 252.9 12.4 Net income attributable to shareholders ($ millions) 41.4 27.6 226.8 12.6 Net income attributable to shareholders per common share basic ($) 0.10 0.07 0.56 0.03 Net income attributable to shareholders per common share diluted ($) 0.10 0.07 0.55 0.03 Adjusted net income1($ millions) 73.2 35.6 241.6 26.4 Adjusted net income attributable to shareholders1($ millions) 73.2 35.6 242.1 26.4 Adjusted net income attributable to shareholders per common share basic1 0.18 0.09 0.60 0.07 Adjusted net income attributable to shareholders per common share diluted1 0.18 0.09 0.58 0.07 Adjusted EBITDA1($ millions) 113.3 63.5 432.2 139.2 Cash flow from operating activities2($ millions) 94.5 67.4 553.3 147.2 Cash flow from operating activities per common share1 basic ($) 0.23 0.17 1.36 0.37 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital1,2($ millions) 104.9 65.3 556.3 131.2 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital per common share1 basic ($) 0.26 0.16 1.37 0.33 2 2021 includes $180.0 million silver and gold stream proceeds

December 31, 2021 December 31, 2020 Total assets ($ millions) 1,728.0 1,391.6 Long term debt (excluding financing fees) ($ millions) 184.9 Total non-current financial liabilities ($ millions) 38.4 183.6 Total non-current liabilities ($ millions) 481.3 408.5 Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments ($ millions) 264.4 60.0 Net cash/(debt)1 ($ millions) 264.4 (124.9)

CORPORATE UPDATE

Mantos Transaction

On November 30, 2021, the Company announced it had entered into a definitive agreement (the "Agreement") with Mantos to combine, pursuant to a plan of arrangement (the "Transaction"). Mantos is a copper-producing company that, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in the exploration, development, extraction, and processing of sulphide and oxide ores, and the production and sale of London Market Exchange Grade "A" copper cathodes and clean copper concentrates, with gold and silver by-products from its mining assets. Mantos Copper currently operates the open pit copper mines and processing plants of Mantos Blancos, located forty-five kilometers northeast of Antofagasta, and Mantoverde, located fifty kilometers southeast of Chanaral, in the region of Atacama.

The Transaction will require the approval of at least 66 2/3% of the votes cast by the shareholders of Capstone voting at a special meeting of shareholders to be held on February 28th, 2022. Officers and directors of Capstone, along with Capstone's largest shareholder, have entered into support and voting agreements, agreeing to vote their shares in favour of the Transaction (representing approximately 26.5% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Capstone). The management information circular dated January 27th, 2022 has been posted to the Company's website and filed on its profile on SEDAR.

Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") and Glass Lewis ("GL"), two leading independent third party proxy advisory firms, have recommended that shareholders vote FOR the proposed business combination with Mantos. ISS and GL, among other services, provide proxy-voting recommendations to pension funds, investment managers, mutual funds and other institutional shareholders.

In its report, ISS stated, "The arrangement makes strategic sense as the combined company will possess a diversified collection of long-life operating assets, planned and fully financed copper production growth of 45% by 2024, and material production growth opportunities represented by the Santo Domingo project as well as expansion projects across the combined company asset portfolio."

Glass Lewis' report noted, "We ultimately believe the board and special committee established a sound basis upon which to conclude the proposed transaction represents an attractive opportunity for the Company and its shareholders. The merger will result in a larger, more diversified copper producer with an opportunity to achieve meaningful synergies."

Upon completion of the Transaction, the combined company is expected to be renamed Capstone Copper Corp. ("Capstone Copper"). Capstone Copper will remain headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. and has received conditional approval to be listed on the TSX. Pursuant to the Agreement, each Capstone shareholder will receive 1 newly issued Capstone Copper share per Capstone share (the "Exchange Ratio") and the existing Mantos shareholders will continue to hold Capstone Copper shares. Upon completion of the Transaction, former Capstone and Mantos shareholders will collectively own approximately 60.75% and 39.25% of Capstone Copper, respectively, on a fully-diluted basis. The Transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals, consents from certain third parties and other customary closing conditions for a transaction of this nature, including approvals by the security holders, the TSX and the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The Agreement includes a non-solicitation provision, a right to match a superior proposal and a C$75 million termination fee payable in certain circumstances. Completion of the Transaction is expected in March or April 2022.

Subject to shareholder approval and the satisfaction of all other conditions, the Transaction is anticipated to close in March or April 2022.

PV3 Optimization Completed

PV3 Optimization work was completed in Q3 2021. The $31 million two year program involved investments in the fine crushing plant, two new ball mill shells, tailings thickeners, and tailings pumping upgrades. The optimization work has enabled the reliability of higher throughput rates at Pinto Valley from 51,000 tpd average in 2019 to over 58,000 tpd average in Q4 2021.

PV4 Study

During 2021, the study work progressed on the pre-feasibility study ("PFS") for PV4 which aims to maximize the conversion of approximately one billion tonnes of mineral resources to mineral reserves, significantly extending Pinto Valley's mine life and increasing the mine's copper production profile. The application of the following new technologies and innovation is being considered:

Expansion of the use of Jetti Catalytic Leach Technology which has the potential to increase mill cut-off-grades and increase tonnage available for leaching. Column leach testing is ongoing through H1 2022 and results will be included in the PV4 Study.

Pyrite Agglomeration has strong Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") implications as it will divert acid-generating minerals including pyrite and chalcopyrite from tailings to the dump leach operation. Additional copper recovery and lower costs via self-generation of free acid are also key economic drivers for this project. The project's initiation is targeted for H2 2022 subject to board approval. Based on preliminary study results, the project is expected to require a low capex with a short payback period.

Higher mill throughput will be considered targeting up to 65,000 to 70,000 tpd. Key areas of investment include upgrades to ball mill motors, grinding circuit cyclones, and improvements to the rougher flotation circuit and evaluation of coarse particle flotation. A low capital strategy is currently under review to improve coarse particle recovery with some modest investment in the current conventional flotation circuit. An expanded dump leach strategy would translate to higher grades sent to the mill for processing and increased copper cathode production by expanding dump leach tonnage.

Santo Domingo Project

Following consolidation of Capstone's 100% ownership of the Santo Domingo Project ("Santo Domingo" or "the Project") in Region III, Chile during Q1 2021, the Company continued to advance the Project on several fronts:

With respect to the reduced initial capital estimate, the Company and its port partner, Puerto Abierto, S.A., a subsidiary of Puerto Ventanas, S.A., are executing on early works in the framework agreement. In addition, the Company is advancing the analysis of the pipeline versus rail capital trade-off in which the proposals replace the pipeline capital to become a rail customer. This work is now being done in conjunction with the Mantoverde synergies analysis discussed below.

With respect to the proposed Transaction with Mantos, scoping level work is being performed by the Santo Domingo and Mantos teams starting in late Q4 2021 to identify and refine potential synergies between the Santo Domingo Project with the Mantoverde mine (owned 70% by Mantos). Santo Domingo is situated ~35 kilometres northeast of the Mantoverde mine; significant potential opportunities exist for: Infrastructure sharing (including power, water, pipelines, port), Transportation synergies for concentrates, Potential enabling of product lines (additional iron and cobalt production from Mantoverde, processing oxide ore from Santo Domingo), Potential integrated operating approach, and Construction synergies (including project teams and camp).

With respect to potential increases in the Chilean mining royalty tax, Santo Domingo is expected to be protected given the Company retains a foreign investment contract with the state of Chile, which fell under the provisions of DL600. One of the benefits to the Company of this agreement is a tax invariability system for a period of 15 years post commercial production.

Cobalt Feasibility Update: The drilling program from Q3 and Q4 of 2021 generated sufficient sample mass for 2022 pilot scale testing of the cobalt recovery process. The first of a total of two stages of the cobalt feasibility engineering work, covering pre-feasibility level activities, started in September 2021 and is expected to finalize in March 2022. The proposed cobalt recovery process takes advantage of a tailings side-stream containing pyrite laden with ~0.6% cobalt, which will be recovered through a conventional flowsheet. The concentrate will be sent to pyrite roasting and solvent extraction followed by crystallization to produce battery grade cobalt sulphate heptahydrate. At an expected 10.4 million pounds of cobalt production per year, this will be one of the largest and lowest cost cobalt producers in the world at C1 cash costs1 of minus $4 per pound. Additional benefits of this project include the production of by-product sulphuric acid from the pyrite roasting process, which can be used for heap or dump leaching to produce low-cost copper cathodes at Santo Domingo, Mantoverde, and elsewhere in the district.

Corporate Exploration Update

Cozamin exploration: The focus during Q4 2021 was on testing the Mala Noche Footwall Zone and Mala Noche Main Vein West Target with three surface rigs, along with the in-parallel development of the west exploration drift and crosscuts which will allow more efficient testing of the target from underground once completed in early 2022. One additional surface rig tested other brownfield targets on the property.

Copper Cities, Arizona: On January 20, 2022, Capstone announced that it had entered into an 18-month access agreement with BHP Copper Inc. ("BHP") to conduct drill and metallurgical test-work at BHP's Copper Cities project ("Copper Cities"), located ~10 km east of the Pinto Valley Mine. In 2022, Capstone plans to spend $6.7 million in a two-phase drill program aimed at twinning historical drill holes and to select a portion of these for metallurgical testing.

Planalto, Brazil: Step-out drilling at the Planalto Iron Ore-Copper-Gold prospect in Brazil, under Earn In agreement with Lara Exploration Ltd., commenced in Q4 2021 and will continue into 2022. Lara Exploration Ltd. is expected to report results when appropriate.

Capstone Copper 2022 Catalysts

The following chart demonstrates key catalysts this year and assumes the completion of the combination with Mantos Copper by the end of Q1 2022. Of note, Capstone Copper's ESG Vision and Objectives will be rolled out in Q2 2022. The Mantoverde-Santo Domingo synergies study integration plan is expected in September and will be followed by a site visit and investor day for institutional investors and analysts.

At Pinto Valley, the PV4 prefeasibility study is expected to be released by year-end and at Santo Domingo, the updated feasibility and mine plan including the cobalt feasibility study is also expected to be released in Q4 2022. At Cozamin, the paste backfill and dry stack tailings plant is expected to be commissioning by the end of 2022.

2022 PRODUCTION AND COST GUIDANCE

In 2022, Capstone Mining expects to produce between 82,000 and 90,000 tonnes of copper at C1 cash costs1 of between $1.85 and $2.00 per pound payable copper produced from the Pinto Valley and Cozamin mines.

Our cost control strategy included the following actions:

During 2020, financial hedges were executed on foreign exchange rates to protect approximately half of the Company's Mexican Peso exposure from August 2020 through December 2021. The realized gain on the Mexican Peso zero cost collars was $2.6 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021. In November 2021, additional financial hedges were executed for approximate 75% of the Mexican Peso and Chilean Peso operating and capital cost exposure at the Cozamin mine and at Santo Domingo, respectively. The Mexican Peso collars have a floor of 20 and a cap of 24.75 Mexican Pesos to the US dollar, and the Chilean Peso collars have a floor of 750 and a cap of 931 and 939 Chilean Pesos to the US dollar.

Pinto Valley fixed diesel prices with a supplier on its expected 2021 and 2022 diesel consumption at $1.76/gallon and $2.13/gallon, respectively. The fixed diesel prices have resulted in cost savings of $3.0 million and $6.3 million during the three months and year ended December 31, 2021, respectively. At current prices the price fixing is expected to yield additional savings of approximately $4.5 million during 2022.

CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST DETAILS

Capstone will host a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at 08:30 am PT/11:30 am ET.

Link to the audio webcast:

https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1524721&tp_key=1dedc36dcb

Dial-in numbers for the audio-only portion of the conference call are below. Due to an increase in call volume, please dial-in at least five minutes prior to the call to ensure placement into the conference line on time.

Toronto: (+1) 416-764-8650

Vancouver: (+1) 778-383-7413

North America toll free: 888-664-6383

Confirmation #50217755

A replay of the conference call will be available until March 2, 2022. Dial-in numbers for Toronto: (+1) 416-764-8677 and North American toll free: 888-390-0541. The replay code is 217755#. Following the replay, an audio file will be available on Capstone's website at: https://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

This release is not suitable on a standalone basis for readers unfamiliar with Capstone and should be read in conjunction with the Company's MD&A and Financial Statements for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2021, which are available on Capstone's website and on SEDAR, all of which have been reviewed and approved by Capstone's Board of Directors.

ABOUT CAPSTONE MINING CORP.

On November 30, 2021, Capstone Mining and Mantos Copper announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine pursuant to a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia). Upon completion of the Transaction, the new Company would be renamed Capstone Copper Corp. (Capstone Copper).

Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our two producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US and the Cozamin copper-silver mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico. In addition, Capstone owns 100% of Santo Domingo, a large scale, fully permitted, copper-iron-gold project in Region III, Chile, as well as a portfolio of exploration properties. Capstone's strategy is to focus on the optimization of operations and assets in politically stable, mining-friendly regions, centred in the Americas. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol CS. Further information is available at www.capstonemining.com.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect our expectations or beliefs regarding future events and the impacts of the ongoing and evolving COVID-19 pandemic. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, the success of the underground paste backfill and tailings filtration projects at Cozamin, the timing and cost of the construction of the paste backfill and dry stack tailings plant at Cozamin, the timing and results of the PV4 study, timing and success of the Jetti Technology, the successful execution of a port services agreement with Puerto Abierto S.A. and/or rail agreement with Sigdo Kopper's rail business, the expected reduction in capital requirements for the Santo Domingo project, the timing and success of the Cobalt Study for Santo Domingo, the success of the PV3 Optimization project, the realization of Mineral Reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the costs of production and capital expenditures and reclamation, the budgets for exploration at Cozamin, Santo Domingo, Pinto Valley and other exploration projects, the timing and success of the Copper Cities Project, the success of our mining operations, the continuing success of mineral exploration, the estimations for potential quantities and grade of inferred resources and exploration targets, our ability to fund future exploration activities, our ability to finance the Santo Domingo project, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses and title disputes, the consummation and timing of the transaction with Mantos Copper (Bermuda) Limited ("Mantos") (the "Transaction") and, if consummated, the success of the synergies and catalysts related to the Transaction for the combined entity, Capstone Copper Corp., and the anticipated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures and reclamation of Mantos Copper operations and development projects. The potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations are unknown at this time, including Capstone's ability to manage challenges and restrictions arising from COVID-19 in the communities in which Capstone operates and our ability to continue to safely operate and to safely return our business to normal operations. The impact of COVID-19 to Capstone is dependent on a number of factors outside of our control and knowledge, including the effectiveness of the measures taken by public health and governmental authorities to combat the spread of the disease, global economic uncertainties and outlook due to the disease, supply chain delays resulting in lack of availability of supplies, goods and equipment, and evolving restrictions relating to mining activities and to travel in certain jurisdictions in which we operate.

In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipates", "approximately", "believes", "budget", "estimates", expects", "forecasts", "guidance", intends", "plans", "scheduled", "target", or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "be achieved", "could", "may", "might", "occur", "should", "will be taken" or "would" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "anticipated", "expected", "guidance" and "plan". By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, amongst others, risks related to inherent hazards associated with mining operations and closure of mining projects, future prices of copper and other metals, compliance with financial covenants, surety bonding, our ability to raise capital, Capstone's ability to acquire properties for growth, counterparty risks associated with sales of our metals, use of financial derivative instruments and associated counterparty risks, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, market access restrictions or tariffs, changes in general economic conditions, availability and quality of water, accuracy of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates, operating in foreign jurisdictions with risk of changes to governmental regulation, compliance with governmental regulations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, reliance on approvals, licences and permits from governmental authorities and potential legal challenges to permit applications, contractual risks including but not limited to, our ability to meet the completion test requirements under the Cozamin Silver Stream Agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. ("Wheaton"), our ability to meet certain closing conditions under the Santo Domingo Gold Stream Agreement with Wheaton, acting as Indemnitor for Minto Metals Corp.'s surety bond obligations post divestiture, impact of climate change and changes to climatic conditions at our Pinto Valley and Cozamin operations and Santo Domingo project, changes in regulatory requirements and policy related to climate change and greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions, land reclamation and mine closure obligations, aboriginal title claims and rights to consultation and accommodation, risks relating to widespread epidemics or pandemic outbreak including the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact of COVID-19 on our workforce, risks related to construction activities at our operations and development projects, suppliers and other essential resources and what effect those impacts, if they occur, would have on our business, including our ability to access goods and supplies, the ability to transport our products and impacts on employee productivity, the risks in connection with the operations, cash flow and results of Capstone relating to the unknown duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainties and risks related to the potential development of the Santo Domingo project, increased operating and capital costs, increased cost of reclamation, challenges to title to our mineral properties, increased taxes in jurisdictions the Company operates or is subject to tax, changes in tax regimes we are subject to and any changes in law or interpretation of law may be difficult to react to in an efficient manner, maintaining ongoing social licence to operate, seismicity and its effects on our operations and communities in which we operate, dependence on key management personnel, potential conflicts of interest involving our directors and officers, corruption and bribery, limitations inherent in our insurance coverage, labour relations, increasing energy prices, competition in the mining industry including but not limited to competition for skilled labour, risks associated with joint venture partners, our ability to integrate new acquisitions and new technology into our operations, cybersecurity threats, legal proceedings, risks related to the consummation of the Transaction, including failure to receive shareholder and other necessary consents and approvals for the Transaction, the volatility of the price of the Common Shares, the uncertainty of maintaining a liquid trading market for the Common Shares, risks related to dilution to existing shareholders if stock options or other convertible securities are exercised, the history of Capstone with respect to not paying dividends and anticipation of not paying dividends in the foreseeable future and sales of Common Shares by existing shareholders can reduce trading prices, and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and MD&A of those statements and Annual Information Form, all of which are filed and available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause our results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

CAUTIONARY NOTE TO UNITED STATES INVESTORS REGARDING PRESENTATION OF MINERAL RESERVE AND MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATES

As a British Columbia corporation and a "reporting issuer" under Canadian securities laws, we are required to provide disclosure regarding our mineral properties in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. In accordance with NI 43-101, we use the terms mineral reserves and resources as they are defined in accordance with the CIM Definition Standards on mineral reserves and resources (the "CIM Definition Standards") adopted by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. In particular, the terms "mineral reserve", "proven mineral reserve", "probable mineral reserve", "mineral resource", "measured mineral resource", "indicated mineral resource" and "inferred mineral resource" used in this news release and the documents incorporated by reference herein and therein, are Canadian mining terms defined in accordance with CIM Definition Standards. These definitions differ from the definitions in the disclosure requirements promulgated by the SEC. Accordingly, information contained in this news release and the documents incorporated by reference herein may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies reporting pursuant to SEC disclosure requirements.

United States investors are also cautioned that while the SEC will now recognize "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources", investors should not assume that any part or all of the mineralization in these categories will ever be converted into a higher category of mineral resources or into mineral reserves. Mineralization described using these terms has a greater amount of uncertainty as to their existence and feasibility than mineralization that has been characterized as reserves. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to assume that any "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources", or "inferred mineral resources" that we report are or will be economically or legally mineable. Further, "inferred resources" have a greater amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. Therefore, United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of the inferred resources exist. In accordance with Canadian rules, estimates of "inferred mineral resources" cannot form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies, except in limited circumstances where permitted under NI 43-101.

NATIONAL INSTRUMENT 43-101 COMPLIANCE

Unless otherwise indicated, Capstone has prepared the technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") based on information contained in the technical reports, Annual Information Form and news releases (collectively the "Disclosure Documents") available under Capstone Mining Corp.'s company profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was prepared by or under the supervision of a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical Information. Readers are advised that Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.

Disclosure Documents include the National Instrument 43-101 compliant technical reports titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Cozamin Mine, Zacatecas, Mexico" effective October 23, 2020, "Pinto Valley Mine Life Extension Phase 3 (PV3) Pre-Feasibility Study" effective January 1, 2016 and "Santo Domingo Project, Region III, Chile, NI 43-101 Technical Report" effective February 19, 2020.

The disclosure of Scientific and Technical Information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Brad Mercer, P. Geol., Senior Vice President Exploration and Strategic Projects (technical information related to mineral exploration activities and to Mineral Resources at Cozamin), Clay Craig, P.Eng, Manager, Mining Evaluations (technical information related to Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources at Pinto Valley and Mineral Reserves at Cozamin) and Albert Garcia III, PE, Vice President, Projects (technical information related to project updates at Santo Domingo) all Qualified Persons under NI 43-101.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215006115/en/

Contacts:

Jerrold Annett, SVP, Strategy and Capital Markets

647-273-7351

jannett@capstonemining.com

Kettina Cordero, Director Investor Relations Communications

604-262-9794

kcordero@capstonemining.com
Capital increase of approximately 25 million, i.e. 100% of the initial objective, despite high market volatility

Size of the transaction which may be increased to approximately 25.55 million in the event the Over-Allotment Option is fully exercised

IPO price set at 14.02 per new share

Market capitalization of approximately 175 million at the end of the capital increase

Settlement-delivery expected on February 17, 2022

Start of trading on the regulated market of Euronext Paris expected on February 18, 2022 (ISIN: FR0014007ZB4 Mnemonic: AELIS)

Regulatory News:

Aelis Farma (Paris: AELIS),a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of treatments for brain diseases (the "Company")announces today the successful completion of its initial public offering on compartment B of the regulated market of Euronext Paris, by way of an open price offering (the "OPO") and a global offering (the "Global Offering", together with the OPO, the "Offering"

Aelis Farma, a pioneer of a new generation of drugs for the brain

Aelis Farma is developing a new class of drugs: Signaling Specific inhibitors of the CB1 receptor (CB1-SSi) of the endocannabinoid system that provide access to several therapeutic areas without available treatments.

These unique drug candidates, by reproducing a recently discovered natural defense mechanism of the brain1, appear to be able to treat various brain pathologies without disrupting normal behavior. A first in pharmacology.

Two initial drug candidates are already in clinical trials in indications with high unmet medical needs:

AEF0117, to treat disorders due to excessive cannabis use, has already provided evidence of efficacy in a phase 2a clinical study and will enter a phase 2b clinical trial in Q2 2022.

AEF0217, to treat various cognitive deficits, including those associated with Down syndrome (Trisomy 21), is currently being evaluated in phase 1 clinical trials, with no major adverse effects observed in the three patient cohorts treated to date. Phase 1/2 clinical studies with AEF0217 in Down syndrome subjects are expected to start in Q4 2022. These studies could provide initial efficacy results in H1 2023.

Given the involvement of the CB1 receptor in numerous pathologies, Aelis Farma is also developing several new CB1-SSi with differentiated pharmacological properties to target other brain pathologies.

Dr. Pier Vincenzo Piazza, co-founder and CEO of Aelis Farma, said: "We are delighted to announce the successful IPO of Aelis Farma on Euronext Paris. This is a major milestone not only for our Company, but also for many people suffering from central nervous system disorders. Thanks to the funds raised, Aelis Farma will be able to accelerate the development of its new generation of drugs, CB1-SSi, which have the potential to redefine how several brain diseases are managed. Our first two drug candidates, which are already in clinical trials, AEF0117 and AEF0217, target indications with a high societal impact and without treatment to date: disorders due to excessive cannabis use and various cognitive deficits, including those associated with Down syndrome. In addition, this funding will support the selection and development of other drug candidates through to the clinical stage from our innovative research platform for the treatment of some of the many brain disorders associated with dysregulation of the CB1 receptor's activity. We would like to thank our existing shareholders for their long-standing support as well as all of the new shareholders, including our partner Indivior, who have joined us during this transaction in order to establish Aelis Farma as a leading player in the field of brain diseases."

Price and size of the Offering

The price of the Offering has been set at 14.02 per new ordinary share corresponding to the low end of the range of the indicative price of the Offering, which was 14.02 to 16.82.

1,822,794 ordinary shares have been allocated under the Offering, representing an amount of 25.55 million.

The capital increase of an initial amount of 25 million, i.e. 1,783,167 new shares, may be increased to a maximum of approximately 25.55 million in the event the Over-Allotment Option is fully exercised by issuing a maximum of 39,627 additional new shares.

The 1,822,794 ordinary shares have been allocated in the framework of the Offering as follows:

Global Offering : 1,686,579 ordinary shares allocated to French and foreign institutional investors (accounting for approximately 23.65 million, i.e., 92.53% of the total number of new ordinary shares to be issued), and;

: 1,686,579 ordinary shares allocated to French and foreign institutional investors (accounting for approximately 23.65 million, i.e., 92.53% of the total number of new ordinary shares to be issued), and; OPO: 136,215 new ordinary shares allocated to the public (representing approximately 1.91 million euros, i.e., 7.47% of the total number of allocated ordinary shares).

Within the framework of the OPO, A1 orders (from 1 share up to 150 shares included) and A2 orders (above 150 shares) will be allocated 100%. The total demand received in the OPO was fully allocated.

Based on a price per share of 14.02, the capitalization of Aelis Farma will amount to approximately 175 million at the end of the capital increase2

The settlement-delivery of the OPO and the Global Offering is scheduled for February 17, 2022.

It is expected that Aelis Farma shares will be admitted to trading on the Euronext Paris regulated market on a listing line entitled "Aelis Farma" (ISIN code: FR0014007ZB4 and mnemonic: AELIS) and trading is expected to commence on February 18.

Subscription commitments as part of the Offering

As announced by the Company at the time of the launch of the Offering, certain current shareholders of the Company3 subscribed for a total of 392,293 new ordinary shares of the Company in the framework of the Offering, totalling approximately 5.5 million, i.e. 21.52% of the shares allocated in the framework of the Offering)2

As also previously announced:

Indivior subscribed in the framework of the Offering for 701,469 ordinary shares for a total amount of 9.8 million (i.e., 38.48% of the shares allocated in the framework of the Offering).

DNCA Finance, acting on behalf of the DNCA Actions Euro Micro Caps fund, has subscribed in the context of the Offering for 85,592 ordinary shares for a total amount of 1.2 million (i.e., 4.70% of the shares allocatedin the framework of the offering.

In addition, Madison Avenue Partners, LP and funds managed by Two Seas Capital, LP, two American institutional investors, have subscribed to the Offering.

Gross proceeds of the Offering

The gross proceeds of the issue of the 1,783,167 New Shares are approximately 25 million and the net proceeds for the Company are approximately 22.16 million.

The gross proceeds of the issue may be increased to a maximum of approximately 25.55 million, in the event the Over-Allotment Option is fully exercised.

Reminder of the reasons for the Offering

The net proceeds of the issuance of the New Shares will be allocated as follows:

approximately 25% for the development of the compound AEF0117 to treat disorders due to excessive cannabis use by undertaking complementary studies necessary to enter phase 3 clinical trials at the end of phase 2b; approximately 45% for the development of the compound AEF0217 to treat cognitive deficits (i) to undertake complementary studies necessary to enter phase 3 clinical trials at the end of the phase 2b and (ii) to explore the efficacy of AEF0217 for the treatment of other cognitive deficits; approximately 30% to develop and bring to the clinical stage other drug candidates currently at the research stage, in particular those from the Company's research platform.

Over-Allotment Option

The Company has granted Bryan Garnier Securities acting as stabilizing agent (the "Stabilizing Agent"), in the name and on behalf of the Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners, an option to subscribe for a number of shares in the Company up to a maximum of 39,627 additional new shares (the "Over-Allotment Option"). The Over-Allotment Option may be exercised by the Stabilizing Agent from the start of trading of the Company's shares on the regulated market of Euronext Paris, i.e. according to the indicative timetable, from February 18, 2022 until March 17, 2022 (inclusive). For the purposes of the stabilization operations, it is expected that Inserm Transfert Initiative grants today a securities loan for a maximum of 2.22% of the shares to be issued in the framework of the Offering to the Stabilizing Agent.

Liquidity contract

A liquidity contract to promote liquidity of transactions and regularity of trading in Aelis Farma shares and to avoid price shifts not justified by market trends was signed between the Company and Oddo BHF on February 15, 2022. Within the framework of this contract, which will be implemented at the end of the stabilization period, a sum of 500,000 in cash is to be allocated to the liquidity account.

The implementation of the liquidity contract will be the subject of a specific communication to the market at the due time, in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Reminder of the undertakings to refrain from issuing capital securities and lock-up commitments

The Company has undertaken to refrain from issuing capital securities for a period of 180 calendar days following the settlement date of the Offering, subject to certain usual exceptions.

The shareholders of the Company representing approximately 100% of the share capital of the Company prior to the Offering, as well as the executives and managers of the Company holding BSAs and BSPCEs, have undertaken to retain the shares of the Company that they hold or, in the event the BSPCEs or BSAs are exercised, that they would hold, for a period of 365 calendar days following the settlement date of the Offering, subject to certain usual exceptions.

It is specified that the Current Shareholders Having Subscribed have each undertaken to hold for 365 calendar days following the settlement date of the Offering both existing shares and Shares From the Conversion of Convertible Bonds subject to the written agreement of the Global Coordinators and Bookrunners and certain usual exceptions.

Indivior has undertaken to hold for 365 calendar days following the settlement date of the Offering the new shares it has subscribed for in the context of the Offering.

Breakdown of Aelis Farma's capital and voting rights after the IPO

Following the IPO and the completion of the concomitant capital increase, the share capital of Aelis Farma will break down as follows (on a non-diluted basis)(5)

Shareholders Breakdown of capital and voting rights on a

non-diluted basis before the IPO (5) Breakdown of capital and voting rights on a

non-diluted basis after the IPO (5) Number of shares of capital and

theoretical voting rights Number of shares of capital and

theoretical voting rights Pier Vincenzo Piazza, CEO 2,083,200 19.47% 2,083,200 16.69% Total executive directors who are natural persons 2,083,200 19.47% 2,083,200 16.69% Inserm Transfert Initiative 1,568,784 14.67% 1,604,447 12.86% Nouvelle Aquitaine Co-Investissement (1) (4) 924,432 8.64% 1,023,718 8.20% Aqui-Invest (1) (4) 302,400 2.83% 334,782 2.68% Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region (4) 1,174,872 10.98% 1,174,872 9.41% Aquitaine Creation Investissement (1) (4) 562,896 5.26% 645,206 5.17% Aelis Innovation (2) 745,680 6.97% 817,006 6.55% FPS Bpifrance Innovation I (3) 1,789,440 16.73% 1,860,766 14.91% Indivior UK Ltd. 701,469 5.62% Total Investors 7,068,504 66.08% 8,162,266 65.40% Founder-managers/managers who are not executive directors 616,800 5.77% 616,800 4.94% Total employees, consultants and non-executive directors who are natural persons 453,600 4.24% 453,600 3.63% Other founding shareholders who are natural persons 475,200 4.44% 475,200 3.81% Free float 689 405 5.52% Total 10,697,304 100.00 % 12,480,471 100.00%

(1) Aquiti Gestion has a management mandate for the Aquitaine Creation Investissement fund (a private investment structure in which the Nouvelle Aquitaine Region is a 30% shareholder) and an advisory mandate for the Aqui-Invest and the Nouvelle Aquitaine Co-Investissement funds.

(2) The Aelis Innovation fund is represented by the management company Irdi Capital Investissement.

(3) The FPS Bpifrance Innovation I fund is represented by the management company Bpifrance Financement.

(4) The total represented by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region and the Aquitaine regional funds amounts to 2,964,600 shares and 21.34% of the capital and voting rights on a non-diluted basis before the IPO, and 3,178,578 shares and 25.39% of the capital and voting rights after the IPO.

(5) Taking into account the 970,584 new shares to be issued on the Offering's settlement day on automatic conversion of the existing convertible bonds (OCA2017 and OCA2019) issued by Aelis Farma and the 133,968 new shares to be issued on the Offering's settlement day stemming from the exercise of Aelis Farma's BSA and BSPCE.

Free float

The shareholders representing less than 5% of the share capital and voting rights of the Company will represent approximately 20.59% of the Company's share capital on the first day of trading of the Company's shares4 and this percentage could be increased to approximately 20.84% of the Company's share capital, in the event the Over-Allotment Option is fully exercised.

Next steps

February 17, 2022 Settlement-delivery of the OPO and the Global Offering. February 18, 2022 Start of trading of the Company's shares on Euronext Paris on a listing line entitled "Aelis Farma". March 17, 2022 Deadline for the exercise of the Over-Allotment Option. End of the possible stabilization period.

Identification codes for Aelis Farma securities

Label: Aelis Farma

ISIN code: FR0014007ZB4

Mnemonic: AELIS

Listing market: Euronext Paris (compartment B)

ICB Classification: 20103010 Biotechnology

LEI: 8945008D5R6WV7EXRN47

Sector of activity ICB: Biotechnology 20103010

Eligibility for the PEA and PEA-PME schemes and 150-0 B ter of the French general tax code (reinvestment of gains from sale), and the Bpifrance innovative Company qualification5

Eligibility of the Offering for PEA and PEA-PME and "Innovative Company" label

Aelis Farma believes that it meets the eligibility criteria for the PEA PME-ETI scheme specified by the provisions of Articles L. 221-32-2 and D.221-113-5 onwards of the French Monetary and Financial Code. Consequently, Aelis Farma shares can be included in share savings plans (PEA) and PEA PME-ETI accounts, which benefit from the same tax advantages as the classic PEA.

Aelis Farma has also been labeled an "Innovative Company" by Bpifrance.

Financial intermediaries and advisors

BRYAN, GARNIER CO ODDO BHF McDermott Will Emery Joint Global Coordinator and Bookrunner Joint Global Coordinator and Bookrunner Legal advisor to the transaction

Availability of the Prospectus

Copies of the prospectus approved by the AMF on February 1st, 2022 under number 22-021, consisting of the registration document approved on January 14, 2022 under number I. 22-003, and an offering memorandum (including the summary of the prospectus), are available free of charge from Aelis Farma, as well as on Aelis Farma's website (www.aelis-finance.com) and the AMF's website (www.amf-france.org).

Aelis Farma draws the attention of the public to section 3 "Risk factors" of the registration document approved by the AMF and to chapter 2 "Risk factors" of the offering memorandum. The occurrence of one or more of these risks could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, reputation, financial situation, results or prospects, as well as the market price of Aelis Farma's shares.

About AELIS FARMA

Founded in 2013, Aelis Farma is a biopharmaceutical company that has developed a new class of drugs, the Signaling Specific inhibitors of the CB1 receptor of the endocannabinoid system (CB1-SSi). These new molecules hold great potential in the treatment of many brain diseases. CB1-SSi were developed by Aelis Farma on the basis of the discovery of a new natural defense mechanism of the brain made by the team of Dr. Pier Vincenzo Piazza, CEO of the Company, when he was Director of the Inserm Magendie Neurocentre in Bordeaux. For these discoveries, Dr. Piazza was awarded the Grand Prix of Inserm, and the Grand Prix of Neurology of the French Academy of Sciences, which are among the most prestigious French awards for medicine and neurology.

Aelis Farma is developing two first-in-class drug candidates that are at the clinical stage, AEF0117 and AEF0217, and has a portfolio of innovative CB1-SSi for the treatment of other diseases associated with dysregulation of CB1 receptor activity.

AEF0117, which targets disorders due to excessive cannabis use (addiction and psychosis), has demonstrated efficacy in a phase 2a clinical trial and will enter phase 2b clinical trial in the United States in 2022. Aelis Farma has an exclusive option license agreement with Indivior PLC, a leading pharmaceutical company in the treatment of addiction, for the development and commercialization of AEF0117 in disorders due to excessive cannabis use. As part of this collaboration, Aelis Farma received $30 million (option payment). If Indivior exercises the license option at the end of phase 2b, Aelis Farma will receive a $100 million license fee (potentially in 2024) and up to $340 million in additional payments contingent on the achievement of development, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as royalties on net sales of AEF0117 ranging from 12% to 20%.

AEF0217, which targets various cognitive disorders including those associated with Down syndrome, is progressing successfully in its phase 1/2 program and could provide the first proof of efficacy in early 2023. This compound has been the subject of extensive preclinical proof-of-concept studies using highly innovative and highly predictive tests to assess cognitive functions. In this context, AEF0217 has demonstrated its ability to completely reverse deficits in several models of cognitive disorders such as Down syndrome and Fragile X syndrome, as well as in certain cognitive deficits associated with aging.

Based in Bordeaux, within the Inserm Magendie Neurocentre, Aelis Farma has a team of 24 highly qualified employees and has benefited from investments from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, Inserm Transfert Initiative, Bpifrance, regional funds ACI, NACO and Aqui-invest and IRDI Capital Investissement.

For more information: www.aelisfarma.com

Prospective data

This announcement contains statements that are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including, but not limited to, the words "believe", "estimate", "anticipate", "expect"," "intend", "may", "plan", "continue", "ongoing", "possible", "predict", "plans", "objective", "seek", "should", "must", or the use of the future or conditional tense, and contain statements by the Company regarding the expected results of its strategy. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and readers are cautioned that none of these forward-looking statements guarantee future performance. The Company's actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or adjust any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Warning

This press release may not be distributed directly or indirectly in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Japan or South Africa.

The distribution of this document may, in some countries, be subject to specific regulations or constitute a violation of the legal provisions in force. Persons in possession of this document should inform themselves about and observe any local restrictions. The information contained in this release does not constitute an offering of securities in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Japan or South Africa.

No communication or information relating to the issuance, offering and distribution by the Company of its shares (the "Shares") may be disseminated to the public in any country in which registration or approval is required. No steps have been taken (or will be taken) outside France in any country in which such steps would be required. The issuance of or subscription for the Shares may be subject to specific legal or regulatory restrictions in certain countries. The Company assumes no liability for any violation by any person of such restrictions.

This information does not contain any solicitation of money, securities or other consideration and, in the event that consideration is sent in response to the information contained herein, it will not be accepted.

This release constitutes a promotional communication and does not constitute a prospectus within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017, as amended (the "Prospectus Regulation").

Securities may not be offered, purchased or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"). This press release must not be published, transmitted or distributed, directly or indirectly, in the United States.

The distribution of this press release in certain countries may constitute a violation of applicable laws and regulations. The information contained in this press release does not constitute an offering of securities in Canada, Australia, South Africa or Japan. This press release must not be published, transmitted or distributed, directly or indirectly, in Canada, Australia, South Africa or Japan.

With respect to Member States of the European Economic Area other than France (the "Member States"), no action has been or will be taken to permit an offering of the securities to the public that would require the publication of a prospectus in any of the Member States. Accordingly, the Shares may only be offered and will only be offered in the Member States (i) to qualified investors within the meaning of the Prospectus Regulation or (ii) in accordance with the other exemptions set forth in Article 1(4) of the Prospectus Regulation.

For the purposes of this paragraph, the notion of "offering of shares to the public" in each of the Member States shall be defined as any communication addressed in any form and by any means to persons and presenting sufficient information on the terms of the offering and on the shares to be offered, so as to enable an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe to such shares.

This investment restriction is in addition to other investment restrictions applicable in the Member States.

This release is a promotional communication and not a prospectus within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the European Council of June 14 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC, as amended (the "Prospectus Regulation"). Any decision to purchase or subscribe for shares in the Offering mentioned in this release should be made solely on the basis of all the information contained in the prospectus approved by the Autorite des marches financiers (the "AMF") on February 1 2022 under number 22-021 (the "Prospectus") consisting of a registration document registered by the AMF on January 14 2022 under number I.22-003(the "Registration Document"), an offering memorandum (the "Offering Memorandum") and a summary in French, and published by the Company in connection with the public offering of its securities, in order to fully understand the potential risks and rewards of the decision to invest in the securities. Potential investors must be able to bear the economic risk of an investment in the Company's securities and must be able to bear a partial or total loss of their investment. The approval of the Prospectus by the AMF should not be understood as an approval of the securities offered.

In the United Kingdom, this document is not an approved prospectus within the meaning of section 85 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 as amended (the "FSMA"). It has not been prepared in accordance with the Prospectus Rules issued by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA") pursuant to Section 73A of the FSMA and has not been approved by or filed with the FCA or any other competent authority. New or existing shares in the Company may not be offered or sold to the public in the United Kingdom, except in circumstances where it would be lawful to do so without making an approved prospectus (as defined in section 85 of the FSMA) available to the public before the offering is made.

This release and the information contained herein is directed only to and intended only for persons (x) outside the United Kingdom or (y) in the United Kingdom who are "qualified investors" (as defined in the Prospectus Regulation which forms part of United Kingdom domestic law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018) and (i) who are investment professionals within the meaning of Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the "Financial Promotion Order"), (ii) who are referred to in Article 49(2) (a) to (d) of the Financial Promotion Order ("high net worth companies, unincorporated associations etc.") or (iii) are persons to whom an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) may lawfully be communicated or transmitted (the persons referred to in paragraphs (y)(i), (y)(ii) and (y)(iii) together being referred to as "Authorized Persons"). Any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe for or purchase any of the securities referred to in this release is only open to Authorized Persons and may only be made by Authorized Persons. This release is directed only to Authorized Persons and may not be used by anyone other than an Authorized Person.

In accordance with the product governance requirements of: (a) the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2014/65/EU, as amended ("MiFID II"); (b) Articles 9 and 10 of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 supplementing MiFID II; and (c) local implementing measures (together, the "Governance Requirements"), and disclaiming any liability, whether arising from tort, contract or otherwise, that any "producer" (as defined in the Governance Requirements) may have in this regard, the shares offered as part of the offering (the "Offering Shares") have been subjected to an approval process following which the Offering Shares have been determined to be: (i) compatible with an ultimate target market of retail investors and investors meeting the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, as defined in MiFID II; and (ii) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels, as permitted by MiFID II (the "Target Market Assessment"). Notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, distributors should note that: the price of the Offering Shares may decline and investors may lose all or part of their investment; the Offering Shares do not guarantee any income or capital protection; and an investment in the Offering Shares is appropriate only for investors who do not require guaranteed income or capital protection, who (alone or in conjunction with a financial or other advisor) are capable of evaluating the merits and risks of such an investment and who have sufficient resources to be able to withstand any resulting losses.

The Target Market Assessment is without prejudice to any contractual, legal or regulatory selling restriction requirements applicable to the Offering. For all purposes, the Target Market Assessment does not constitute: (a) an assessment for any particular client of suitability or adequacy for the purposes of MiFID II; or (b) a recommendation to any investor or group of investors to invest in, purchase or take any other action in respect of the Offering Shares.

Each distributor is responsible for making its own assessment of the target market for the Offering Shares and for determining the appropriate distribution channels. For the avoidance of doubt, although the target market includes retail investors, the producers and distributors have decided that they will only provide investors for the Offering Shares that meet the eligibility criteria of eligible counterparties and professional clients.

1 "Pregnenolone can protect the brain from cannabis intoxication." (Science, January 3, 2014).

2 On a non-diluted basis, not including the shares that may be issued in the event of the exercise of the Over-Allotment Option and not taking into account the 970,584 new shares that need to be issued on the settlement day of the Offering on the automatic conversion of existing convertible bonds (OCA2017 and OCA2019) issued by Aelis Farma and the 133,968 new shares to come from the exercise of Aelis Farma's BSA and BSPCE on the settlement day of the Offering.

3 Inserm Transfert Initiative (ITI) for an amount of 0.5 million, Aelis Innovation, a fund represented by the management company Irdi Capital Investissement for an amount of 1 million, Nouvelle Aquitaine Co-Investissement (NACO) for an amount of 1.392 million, Aqui-Invest for an amount of 0.454 million, Aquitaine Creation Investissement (ACI) for an amount of 1.154 million and Bpifrance for an amount of 1 million.

4 Taking into account the 970,584 new shares to be issued on the Offering's settlement day on the automatic conversion of existing convertible bonds (OCA2017 and OCA2019) issued by Aelis Farma and the 133,968 new shares to be issued on the Offering's settlement day on the exercise of Aelis Farma's BSA and BSPCE.

5 These provisions are conditional and within the limit of available caps. Persons who are interested are requested to speak to their financial advisor.

Not to be distributed, directly or indirectly, in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Japan or South Africa.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215006193/en/

Contacts:

AELIS FARMA

Pier Vincenzo Piazza

Co-founder and CEO

contact@aelisfarma.com

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In terms of online casino payment, there are more possibilities for players to think about now than at any point in history.

No matter if you want to pay by phone, debit or credit card or using an online payment provider, the internet has something to satiate your payment appetite.

Mobile casino payment providers are currently among the most exciting options out there. Gamers can play now and pay later by paying via their mobile phone bill and it is possible to find a list of sites at Paybyphonecasino.uk that are offering this exciting service.

In this article, we will look at the industry of mobile casino payment providers, considering the finest options out there in 2022. From beloved brands to newcomers providing a unique way to pay, we will think about some of the top methods out there.

So, without further ado lets think about what mobile casino payment providers are prior to looking at the best out there right now.

What Do Mobile Casino Payment Providers Do?

Prior to thinking about the UKs top mobile casino payment providers in 2022, it is important to think about what a mobile casino payment providers job is.

A rapidly growing way to pay that is often referred to as direct carrier billing, mobile casino payment works via charging a deposit to the members mobile phone bill rather than a direct debit card payment.

What is so great about the mobile casino payment method? There are plenty. Making for a play now, pay later style of casino fun, it lets users pay in a safe and rapid style. This method of payment has proven particularly popular in nations where the population have mobile phones but not credit cards.

The UKs Top Mobile Casino Payment Providers in 2022

Certainly the UKs top mobile casino payment provider in 2022, Boku is a company that is quickly increasing in the public perception and is many players initial introduction to the world of mobile casino payment.

Providing players the option to add their overall spend at an online casino site to their next mobile phone bill, this brand is all about rapid, simple payment processing that brings in players and users from across the world.

Fortumo is another big name in the world of mobile casino payment providers in 2022. Estonian in origin, this brand was launched back in 2007 and works much the same way as Boku with a play now, pay later type model that attracts gamers from everywhere!

Bango is another big name in the world of mobile casino payment providers in 2022. A publicly listed name from the UK that wants to offer a quick, easy to execute method for paying for casino fun on the web. Reliable and high quality, Bango is forging a name for itself among the UKs top payment providers in 2022.

Overall, it is fine to say mobile casino payment companies in 2022 are going through a true purple patch in terms of their profile. The best mobile casino payment providers are all able to provide their members a rapid and quick method to pay, with safety always paramount!
Finding a web development company is not an issue. However, choosing the right one can be not the easiest task.

The number of web development companies is constantly growing. They all specialize in different types of businesses, industries, and technologies. How can you make sure they will deliver your website on time? How can you check their expertise and experience?

Lets see what will help you make this choice.

1. Pay attention to reviews

Such popular services as Goodfirms or Clutch publish lists of the most trustworthy web development companies. The lists are based on such criteria as market presence, corresponding experience, and verified client reviews.

Such platforms as Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Fiverr, or Freelancer also offer work history and reviews for the teams and specialists.

My recommendation would be to read the testimonials left by the customers. This way, you will understand the companys background, their specialization, and the scope of projects they have built.

If youre hesitant, you can try talking to their existing clients to make the final choice. They can share with you their experience on how the company follows the requirements and communicates. Thanks to clients reviews, youll understand if the company is responsible and truly engaged in each project.

2. Check portfolio

Look through a companys portfolio published on their website and showcasing their works. It will help you check their relevant experience working on similar products or for the same industry. Besides, the portfolio gives a valuable insight into the domain the provider specializes in.

The companys website design, content, and social media profiles may help you understand if they have a professional approach to development. Website is a brand identity for customers. So, if a web development provider takes care of their own UX and UI, then, most likely, they will build a product for you in the same quality manner.

If the company does not present their case studies on the website, look at their profiles on such platforms as Behance and Dribble. Youll discover their approach to creating the design for solutions.

3. Learn about the development approach and reporting

The product development approach is another thing that is worth checking. Learn what approach the company applies to development.

There are two main methods: waterfall and agile. In the waterfall approach, a team moves to the next step after completing the previous one. An agile approach implies that a team works with small stages verifying that the solution works properly at each phase.

If you are a startup owner, I recommend adopting the agile methodology. The development team checks the solutions proper work at every small step. So, it wont take long to improve the solution if needed. As a result, you save resources and effort for development.

Also, I advise you to inquire about the reporting system that the company adopts. The teams reports on daily results and operational chat should be available to you. Such transparency ensures that youre informed about the current progress of your web solution development.

4. Talk to the team before signing a contract

Make sure you easily communicate with the people engaged in developing your website. Also, check if they contact you through many channels, such as phone or messengers. A professional team that responds to you quickly is the key to the projects success.

Development of your website must involve experienced specialists. If the team has been working together for a long time, they are likely professionals knowing how to deliver your website in the best way.

Another important aspect is your part in the development process. Contact the company and discuss your involvement while the team builds your web solution. It is good practice that the company shares relevant discussions and documents with you. Check that you can pass changes or improvements to the team if you need them. This way, the team will be able to adjust the development process for your project.

5. Discover technologies they use in development

There are many programming languages, frameworks, and development environments. Thats why its quite challenging to understand if the company applies the technologies that serve your needs best.

So, there are questions that you can ask the company to clear things up:

How long have they used the technologies suggested to you?

Why do they choose the particular technologies?

Do they follow the latest search engine requirements and web standards?

How do they ensure the security of your website?

A company with solid experience would suggest the tech stack that ensures your websites reliability and efficient work. If a company has years of proven work using particular technologies, that might be the right choice.

6. Learn about a companys services

Check what services a company provides at developing your website. There are typical stages that are considered a good practice. They include the following:

Product discovery. The stage involves research and analysis that helps learn if the product is profitable. At this point, the company discovers the market potential of your product.

Planning. Depending on the functionality to be included in the website, the company forms a team with dedicated tasks.

Creating design. Making intuitive UX and appealing UI is vital for your solution. Design highlights the uniqueness of your brand.

Building an MVP. Minimum viable product, or MVP, is the preliminary form of your product that includes the main features. This is a workable version that helps to launch your web solution early and gather feedback from users. Based on it, you can improve your product.

QA and optimization. Thorough testing and check of code efficiency ensure proper work of your website and secure it from cyber threats.

Maintenance and support. The right company will assist you in the following improvements to your website. It will help you make changes to your website in line with new tech standards and market needs.

If the company walks your website or app through similar stages, it might be a good choice for you.

To sum up

It can be a challenging task to find an experienced web development agency. The company should know the specifics of your industry and understand your business requirements well. They should be an expert in delivering lightweight and fast-loading websites or apps.

However, with some research relying on the above tips, you will find a great team to build the best web solution for you.
The Carlos Danger comeback tour is off to a rocky start.

Disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) struggled to convince Fox News host Sean Hannity that hes a changed man after being convicted and doing prison time for sexting a 15-year-old girl as part of a yearslong string of pervy acts.

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I dont think you go through that type of experience and dont emerge changed, Weiner said Monday night.

Anthony Weiner (AFP Contributor/AFP via Getty Images)

But Weiner, 57, failed to win over Hannity in the contentious interview to launch his planned new radio gig with fellow failed mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa.

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I am not out to persuade you or anyone else that I have changed, Weiner said. I mean, I am doing a radio show, and people can call in and then ask me questions.

Im not trying to make someone like me, or [have] someone be persuaded of any particular outlook on me, Weiner added.

Weiner was a fast-rising Democratic star in Congress and a power couple with top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin when his X-rated hijinks came to light in 2011, forcing him to step down from representing a district spanning parts of Queens and Brooklyn.

Using the cringeworthy moniker Carlos Danger, Weiner sent crotch shots to random women and girls he met online.

He apologized and claimed he had seen the light several times, winning back Abedin and even launching a comeback bid for mayor in 2013.

But it all came falling apart again when it was revealed that he had not given up his pervy ways. He eventually was convicted of sending obscene materials to a minor and served more than a year in federal prison.

[ Anthony Weiner sentenced to 21 months in prison for teen sexting scandal ]

Weiner insisted that his new gig would be focused on New York City and its challenges, rather than any effort to remake his personal public brand.

Hopefully, people will tune in to the show, but Im not terribly interested in trying to make them feel any differently about me, Weiner said.
Paper, a Montreal, Canada-based school software provider, raised $270M in Series D funding.

The round was led by Sapphire and Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from IVP, Salesforce Ventures, Framework Venture Partners, Bullpen Capital, Reach Capital, BDC Capital, and Red House Education.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth and expand operations.

Led by CEO Philip Cutler, Paper partners with school districts to deliver 1:1 tutoring. With Paper, students get 24/7 live help and writing feedback, teachers get insights to tackle individual learning gaps, and administrators get actionable data to inform strategic decisions. Its multilingual tutors add an extra layer of support across all content areas and grade levels.

Paper supports some of the largest school districts in the nation, such as Clark County School District (NV), Hillsborough County Public Schools (FL), Boston Public Schools (MA), Atlanta Public Schools (GA), Columbus City Schools (OH), and Santa Ana Unified School District (CA).

FinSMEs

15/02/2022
Parse Biosciences, a Seattle, WA-based company dedicated to providing scalable single-cell sequencing solutions, raised $41.5M in Series B funding.

The round was co-led by Marshall Wace and Janus Henderson Investors. Soleus Capital, Logos Capital and Bioeconomy Capital also participated in the round, bringing total funding to date to over $50M.

The company intends to use the funds to expand commercialization of its Evercode Whole Transcriptome products, which empower researchers to profile cells at various levels of scale.

Led by Alex Rosenberg, CEO and co-founder, and Charlie Roco, CTO and co-founder, Parse Biosciences is a company with the mission of accelerating progress in human health and scientific research. Its product portfolio includes the Evercode Whole Transcriptome Mega, which can profile up to 1,000,000 cells in parallel, and the Evercode Whole Transcriptome Mini, a kit used to profile up to 10,000 cells in parallel for studies of smaller scale.

Following the raise of their $7M Series A round in January 2021, the company extended its reach on a global scale. In October 2021, Parse partnered with Decode Sciences to provide its single-cell sequencing solution to Australia and New Zealand. Shortly afterwards, Parse announced a distribution agreement with Research Instruments Pte Ltd to expand its availability to Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

FinSMEs

15/02/2022
Showdigs, a Seattle, WA-based PropTech startup that combines scheduling and showing technology with a network of licensed real estate agents, closed a $7.4M Seed II funding round.

The round was led by MetaProp with participation from Vesta Ventures, Trilogy, Fortson VC as well as Tacoma Venture Group.

This capital will enable the company to strategically expand its team and launch its agent network nationwide.

Led by Kobi Bensimon, Founder & CEO, Showdigs provides a software platform that enables property managers to scale as well as simplify their business by outsourcing fieldwork and automating the listing to leasing process. At the same time, it provides prospective renters with an on-demand rental hunting process, while helping licensed real estate agents improve their skills and supplement their income.

Over the last three years, the company has gone from a small agent network in Seattle to a fully built out Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform with hundreds of agents across Seattle, Denver, Portland, and the Bay Area. After launching their end-to-end leasing software to property managers nationwide, Showdigs plans to spend 2022 growing its agent network across the nation as well as Canada.

FinSMEs

15/02/2022
University Growth Fund (UGF), a student-run private equity fund, closed a fund with over $50m committed.

Ally Financial Inc. (Ally) is the lead investor. In addition to Ally, investors include Sallie Mae Bank, Lending Club, Arvest Bank, Continental Bank and ATHOS, along with notable investors and entrepreneurs such as Jeremy Andrus and Franklin McLarty, among others.

University Growth Fund is an education-based private equity fund, with over $80 million in assets under management from several institutional investors. UGF gives university students the opportunity to gain real-world experience as they invest alongside top-tier investors in many of the best companies in the country.

UGF typically has 50+ student associates from fourteen universities in the program each semester.

With locations in Salt Lake City and San Diego, UGF expanded to Atlanta last year to promote diversity in the underrepresented field. Atlanta has 26,000 college students of color and 57 institutions of higher learning, including four Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Students in the Atlanta office come from a range of universities including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and these schools include Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Gwinnett College and Emory University.

FinSMEs

15/02/2022
Mayor Adams is eyeing former City Councilman Fernando Cabrera for a faith-based position in his administration, the Daily News has learned, outraging LGBTQ advocates concerned about Cabreras history of anti-gay views.

Cabrera, a socially conservative Democrat who represented a section of the Bronx in the Council between 2010 and 2021, was initially considered by Adams to head the Mayors Office of Community Mental Health, which has an annual budget of more than $300 million. The mayor abandoned that plan, first reported by Politico, amid intense backlash from LGBTQ activists earlier this month.

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But Adams divulged in a private meeting with state lawmakers Monday that hes moving ahead with potentially hiring Cabrera in another capacity, according to two people familiar with the matter.

He said that Fernando Cabrera has something to offer and mentioned faith-based initiatives as his new position, said one of the sources, who was in the room.

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Adams made the revelation in response to a question about Cabrera from state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), according to the sources.

Hoylman, whos gay, in turn pushed back and told Adams that Cabrera is a bigot and has no place in City Hall, the sources said.

[Adams] basically responded that, We can agree to disagree, and that this is his administration and that he can do what he wants, the person who was in the room said.

Cabrera did not respond to phone calls or texts Tuesday, and an Adams spokesman declined to comment. Hoylman, who represents most of lower Manhattan and parts of Midtown, also declined to comment.

Former New York City Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx) (Angus Mordant/for New York Daily News)

Word of Cabreras potential appointment comes on the heels of Adams launching the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnership, which will serve as a conduit between city government, the faith-based community throughout New York City and nonprofit organizations, according to a press release.

It was not immediately clear if Adams is considering Cabrera for a post in that office  but Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC President Rose Christ urged the mayor to not give the ex-councilman any sort of job.

It would be disappointing to see him in any role in city government. Our taxpayer dollars shouldnt go to cover the salary of a bigoted homophobe, said Christ, who served as an adviser on Adams transition team committee on equity.

Allen Roskoff, a longtime gay rights activist in the city and co-founder of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, said the idea of Cabrera in a faith-based position is equally as unacceptable as him running the mental health office.

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Allen Roskoff, a gay rights advocate, speaks during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

How is he going to deal with LGBTQ people of faith? How is he going to deal with a gay synagogue? How is he going to deal with gay Catholics? Roskoff said. What is this mayor thinking? Has he no consideration for us? Its a big FU to the LGBTQ community.

Cabrera, a pastor at the New Life Outreach International church, has been a vocal opponent of gay and abortion rights for years.

He drew incredibly intense ire from LGBTQ people when he traveled to Uganda in 2014 and praised its notoriously homophobic government for not caving to U.S. economic pressure over its bans on gay marriage and abortion.

The United States of America has put pressure; It has told Uganda, We are not going to fund you anymore unless you allow gay marriage, and they have stood in their place. Why? Because the Christians have assumed the place of decision-making for the nation. Abortions are illegal here  things that Christians really stand for. Why? Because the Christians here took the opportunity to take their rightful place, Cabrera says in a video from his trip posted to YouTube.

During Cabreras visit, Ugandas government had passed a law that made homosexuality illegal and punishable by life in prison. The bill was infamously referred to as the Kill the Gays Act because it initially contained a clause making homosexuality a crime eligible for the death penalty.

Roskoff said its beyond the pale that Adams would even consider appointing Cabrera given his history.

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Hes going to be remembered for this in the LGBTQ community, he said.
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Mayor Adams showed some Fashion Week swag Monday when he announced that the first major tenant in a Brooklyn redevelopment project will be an environmentally minded institute focused on creating sustainable fashion industry practices and products.

The tenant, Slow Factory, will serve as an anchor at the Made in NY garment hub in Sunset Parks Industry City, where it will focus on sustainability and racial equity through workforce development and training, as well as community outreach.

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(L-R) President, IMG Models & Fashion, Ivan Bart, Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer, and Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams sit front row at the 'IN THE BLK' showcase during NYFW: The Shows 2022 on February 13, 2022 in Brooklyn, New York. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for IMG Fashion)

New York City was already the fashion capital of the United States, but the redevelopment and creation of new fashion jobs at the Made in NY campus in Brooklyn will only solidify our place as the city of swagger, Adams said in a written statement Monday. Slow Factorys opening at the garment hub in Sunset Park will help create hundreds of fashion jobs onsite and bring tens of millions of dollars of direct economic output to New York City.

Adams administration projects the Sunset Park garment hub will create 460 onsite jobs in the fashion industry, train 500 additional people and bring $57 million into the citys economy.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams, attends the 'IN THE BLK' showcase during New York Fashion Week: The Shows on February 13, 2022, in Brooklyn, New York. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows)

Slow Factory will operate in partnership with the citys Economic Development Corporation and will offer a free education series on climate justice, climate solutions and climate-positive design, according to a statement released by Adams.

It will also offer a program focused on design for disassembly, aimed at using discarded clothing and returned goods.

Reducing fashions carbon footprint is not only trendsetting, but necessary in the fight against climate change, said EDC President Rachel Loeb. Slow Factory will build on Sunset Parks strong foundation of garment manufacturing and green innovation with cutting edge solutions and meaningful workforce development that puts New York City on a path to strengthen, grow and change the manufacturing industry for the better.
Fort Wayne, IN (46808)

Today

Heavy rain to start, then showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 69F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low 47F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Gainesville, TX (76240)

Today

Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 68F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low around 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 83F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 76F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph.
The threat of a Russian military invasion of Ukraine continued to hang over Europe on Monday, as President Biden discussed possible responses with the British prime minister, and Washington lawmakers dug their teeth into intelligence assessments.

Jake Sullivan, the presidents national security adviser, gave Senate leadership a classified late-afternoon briefing on the crisis, according to staffers.

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The Kremlin, meanwhile, indicated an openness to continued diplomatic talks with the West. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the dialogue was far from being exhausted.

But the reality in Eastern Europe was concerning. Dozens of Russian military vessels threatened in the Black Sea near the Ukrainian coast, and estimates put the number of Russian troops deployed near Ukraines borders above 130,000.

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Urgent warnings echoing out of Washington and London have suggested that Russias president, Vladimir Putin, may order an invasion within the week, perhaps on Wednesday.

We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time, Karine Jean-Pierre, deputy White House press secretary, said in a news briefing. It remains unclear which path Russia will choose to take.

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage again constructively, Jean-Pierre added. But we are clear-eyed about the prospects on the ground, and are ready to impose severe costs on Russia in coordination with our allies and partners.

Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelensky, declared Wednesday will be a national day of unity in his country. Zelensky, a comedian by trade and optimist by disposition, has sought to downplay the threat from his countrys east.

Our country today is as strong as ever. It is not the first threat the strong Ukrainian people have faced, Zelensky said in a Monday address to his nation, according to The Associated Press. Were calm. Were strong. Were together. A great nation.

Still, with the murky and volatile situation unfolding, the U.S. has pulled staff from its embassy in Kyiv and urged U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Monday that the U.S. was continuing our intensive diplomatic efforts to deescalate the crisis.

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage in good faith, Blinken said in the statement. We look forward to returning our staff to the Embassy as soon as conditions permit.

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White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Over the weekend, the U.S. said that it was deploying 3,000 troops to Europe. But Biden has suggested that U.S. soldiers will not be dispatched to rescue Americans in Ukraine if Russia advances into the country.

Were dealing with one of the largest armies in the world, Biden told NBC News last week, describing Russias military. Things could go crazy quickly.

The White House said in a statement that Biden spoke Monday with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, and that the pair reviewed ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts.

The West is expected to institute crippling sanctions on Russias economy should Putin choose to invade Ukraine, a nation of 44 million people that sits in what was once the Soviet Union.

In a tweet, Johnson threatened Monday that Putin would be making a disastrous mistake by invading.

We are on an edge of a precipice, but there is still time for President Putin to step back, Johnson said in the post.

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In a subsequent post, Johnson added that he and Biden both see a crucial window to advance talks with the Kremlin. But he emphasized that the stakes were highs.

Further incursion into Ukraine, Johnson tweeted, will result in far-reaching damage for Russia and the world.
As Benton County pushes ahead with its plan to overhaul its justice complex, one question has continually cropped up from the public: Why does the proposed new correctional facility need so many beds?

As it stands, county officials hope to expand the current 40-bed jail to a 120-bed correctional facility. The terminology is important  jails are essentially warehouses for criminals, while correctional facilities provide programs for rehabilitation and reentry to society. The additional capacity for a correctional facility plays a role in the latter approach.

We simply have a very outdated, and frankly used-up and undersized, jail, Nick Kurth, project manager, said. We would like to have a correctional facility where we can offer programs and do much more in terms of rehabilitative services, and accommodate the balance of treatment and accountability were trying to attain.

Doing more than just holding people in cells isnt a new concept. Capt. John DeVaney, Benton County Sheriffs Office Corrections Division commander, said over the course of his career hes seen the addition of training courses, such as anger management or drug treatment, education programs and mental health assistance become more commonplace.

The Benton County Jail has explored and implemented some programs and assistance as it moves toward a correctional facility model. Ideally, those programs would hit the ground running in the evolution from jail to corrections. But Benton County Sheriff Jef Van Arsdall said a new building is needed to reach all of the goals entailed.

The jail is old, its falling apart, its got issues, he said. And its going to get more and more expensive to run.

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Crossroads of law enforcement, mental health

Helping those experiencing a mental health crisis has increasingly fallen on law enforcement agencies. That help could take many forms, from calming someone by talking to them to calling in crisis responders to taking them into custody. When the last option is used, how well-equipped the facility is could make a difference.

Van Arsdall said those who arrive at the jail in mental distress dont go into the general population; they are put in a spot where they can be safe. Those isolated spots are limited, which could hold up bringing other people into the facility, snarling the intake process.

The mental health problem the entire country is facing, when you simplify it down to Benton County, it has a huge impact when you have such a small facility, Van Arsdall said.

Van Arsdall said best practices for correctional facilities include keeping people connected to their support systems (family members, social services, etc.), which is much harder if they must be housed at other locations, such as when inmates are transferred to other counties or to the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Center.

It all adds up

Space comes at a premium inside the 8,000-square-foot Benton County Jail, which was built in 1976.

According to an assessment, the projected daily population at the Benton County Jail is 70 people. When you factor in jail population variables, the recommended number of beds is 82, twice the existing capacity. When you figure in best practices and city population growth, the number of recommended beds climbs to 123, according to Kurth.

Here's how that math works: Starting from the 70-bed average daily population, Kurth adds in 22 beds for the expected city growth up to 2040. Eliminating forced and matrix early release, defined below, adds another 10 beds. Reducing cite and release to 15% of arrest requires another 13 beds, and 15 beds are figured in for 5% failures to appear in court.

That adds up to 130 total beds.

Cmdr. DeVaney explained forced release as when space must be made to hold someone accused of a more serious crime, which means releasing someone held on less serious crime. Matrix release is determined through a risk assessment based on the individuals background and alleged offenses.

When corrections programs are added, the total number of beds needed could come down a bit. Mental health assistance and crisis intervention, transitional housing, pre-trial services, electronic monitoring, and in-custody programs each could chip away a little of the expected jail population, although by how much is harder to estimate, he said.

Other programs that might further lessen the need for beds include a sobering center and work release, but Kurth said financial constraints have pushed both out of the picture, at least for now. He said if everything recommended by the assessment was implemented, the number of beds needed comes to around 112.

So why ask for 120? Reducing the proposed number of beds from 123 doesnt really pencil out, according to Kurth. He said by coming down, say by 25%, to 90 beds, the county would save $5 million, which is just 10% of the proposed correctional facility cost. He said reducing the size of the facility wont solve the financial reality of the situation.

Its a really terrible value tradeoff, he said. We should be at 80-plus beds now. Were really trying to avoid putting the county right back into the same situation.

If nothing changes soon

If Benton County doesnt move from its old jail to a new, bigger correctional facility model, Kurth said the practice of renting beds elsewhere and transporting inmates will continue, costing public dollars and manpower. And patchwork fixes would carry on at the deteriorating, cramped jail.

Officials say the jail, which is the only one in Benton County, is the smallest per capita of any county in Oregon. It intakes arrestees not only from the sheriffs office, but also law enforcement agencies in Corvallis, Philomath, Albany and Oregon State Police.

The overall justice system improvements  which include a new correctional facility, courthouse, crisis center, sheriffs office and emergency operations center  are expected to run between $106 million and $136 million. County officials are planning a bond measure of up to $100 million, costing property owners an estimated 80 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

The county has around $26.25 million at hand. A capital savings plan is an option for the justice system improvements if a bond fails, but Kurth previously said it could take 10 to 20 years to reach the justice programs funding mark. Its not clear the current jail would hold up for that long.

Ultimately, theres no possibility of continuing to use our jail facility indefinitely, Kurth said.

The correctional facility could cost up to $50 million. The new courthouse is estimated at $35 million, with $20 million in state matching funds already approved. The crisis center is estimated at $6 million to $7 million. The sheriffs office and emergency operations center is estimated at $15 million to $24 million.

The siting sticking point

The Benton County Board of Commissioners chose the site for a new courthouse, jail and center for the sheriffs office and emergency operations on Jan. 21, unanimously voting on the McFadden Ranch property on Second Street near HP Inc. over one on Reservoir Road near the Benton County Fairgrounds and the Grand Oaks neighborhood.

The property acquisition could be 20 or 28 acres and could cost an estimated $5.6 million to $7.9 million. County officials have discussed using eminent domain to acquire it. The Justice System Improvement Project is on a tight timeline, making the siting obstacle particularly significant to breaking ground on a justice system campus.

Its not a fun position to be in if youre one of the commissioners, Van Arsdall said. But I trust theyll make a decision based on the best interests of this community.

Kurth previously said missing scheduled milestones brings consequences such as buying an expensive site that might not be used as intended, being stuck with an aging and undersized jail, borrowing challenges from being financially leveraged, losing the opportunity for a bond measure, and millions of dollars out the door on assessments and predesign.

In the pre-design phase now, the county expects to open doors at the new facilities between 2025 and 2027.

Editors note: A quote attributed to Nick Kurth, JSIP project manager, while accurate, was edited for further clarification.

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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A Corvallis community group is pushing back against a proposed 42-acre annexation for a housing development.

Saving Open Space members say they are concerned about losing green areas in Corvallis as well as safety implications for the neighborhood.

The annexation proposal, adding more land to the city boundaries, came to the Corvallis Planning Commission on Jan. 19. It includes a zoning change and a proposal to subdivide the property into 41 lots for single-family homes and five preservation tracts. Known as The Preserve, the site would be a major annexation.

The Planning Commission is slated to deliberate on the development at its meeting Wednesday, Feb. 16.

The site is at the north end of Northwest Goldfinch and Northwest Bunting drives, near Chip Ross Park, Timberhill Natural Area and McDonald Forest. The housing subdivision was proposed by Corvallis developer Jim Boeder, the propertys owner and also a planning commissioner. He participated in the hearing as a private citizen.

Public comments from more than a dozen speakers during the hearing were heavily weighted against the development, as were the vast majority of more than 40 written comments that were submitted. Members of Saving Open Space were among the opposition calling to the Planning Commission to reject the application.

Already planning an appeal

We feel our arguments are very clear cut, said Saving Open Space organizer James Ryan, who lives next to the proposed development site. The disadvantages clearly outweigh the advantages.

In an interview, Ryan said the group is looking ahead at the appeal process if the development is approved. He added the group has retained a land use attorney who has been advising and submitting comments on the matter.

Citing a 2016 decision lifting requirements for a public vote regarding annexations, Ryan said the group is considering polling the development question to give officials a better sense of the communitys opposition. He said the development would compromise a delicate tract of property, benefiting nobody except the developer.

And then theres the potential risk, opponents say.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

Safety concerns

My major concern has been how this development would impact the existing neighborhoods ability to safely evacuate in case of an emergency, Pam Burnor, a Saving Open Space supporter, said. Shes worried that wildfires, earthquakes, landslides or flooding could leave fleeing residents trapped by backed up traffic, which would hamper first responders as well.

In his presentation to the commission, Boeder cited the need for additional housing in Corvallis. He said the 2010 census showed around 63% of those working in the city, around 17,000 people, did not live there. And 2018 statistics showed an increase to 66%, around 21,000 workers, commuting in and out and likely spending elsewhere.

Ryan said Corvallis has numerous housing developments in the works, making this project unnecessary in terms of future city growth. Acknowledging it could be needed in the future, he said now is not the time. He noted the homes wouldnt fall into the affordable category, rather they will likely be in the $500,000 range.

Possible conflict of interest?

Boeder's position on the Planning Commission also raises questions among those opposed to the development. Boeder has abstained from discussion and votes on his project, but Ryan said there is still the optics of a potential conflict of interest to consider in terms of influence on the commission and staff.

Speaking by phone, Boeder said his appointment to the Planning Commission was widely supported by the Corvallis City Council because of his experience with community development in the city. He said he brings the perspective not just of a developer but also of a longtime Corvallis resident.

Any applications Ive ever submitted  this and others  I get no special treatment from the city, staff or otherwise, he said, adding he has no relationships with the other commissioners outside of the Planning Commission, and he treats all applications objectively.

Boeder disputed the evacuation concerns, saying the development will open a new western egress route, on top of fire hydrants and land management that would further reduce the danger.

Staff recommended the Planning Commission approve the zone change and subdivision with numerous conditions, including sign-off from the state lands agency and Army Corps of Engineers. Staff also recommended subsequent approval of the annexation by Corvallis City Council.

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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TUESDAY

Academy for Lifelong Learning, 9:30 a.m., online. Michael Blouin, professor of integrative biology at Oregon State University, will present Hatchery and Wild Salmon: Can They Coexist? Blouins lab studies how salmon adapt to hatcheries. Registration: 541-737-9405 or admin@academyforlifelonglearning.org.

Illuminating: Supporting a Friend in Grief, noon, online. Lumina Hospice and Palliative Care will present this program exploring the dos and donts of helping others through grief. Learning the different ways people experience grief can prepare you to offer support to others. Registration: 541-757-9616 or outreach@luminahospice.org.

Academy for Lifelong Learning, 1:30 p.m., online. Julia Corbett, an author and retired professor of communication and environmental humanities at the University of Utah, will present New Directions for Communicating about the Climate Crisis. The problem with communicating effectively about climate change isnt a lack of information but an inability to deal with the climate information we already have. Registration: 541-737-9405 or admin@academyforlifelonglearning.org.

THURSDAY

Managing Stress for Caregivers, 10:30 a.m., online. Lumina Hospice and Palliative Care is sponsoring this free presentation for nonprofessional caregivers. Topics will include tools to help reduce stress, improving your self-confidence, navigating tough decisions, effective communication, and valuable resources. The program is an abbreviated introduction to Powerful Tools for Caregivers, a six-week self-care education program for family caregivers. Registration: outreach@luminahospice.org.

Academy for Lifelong Learning, 1:30 p.m., online. Vince Adams, development specialist for the Oregon School Board Association, will present School Boards: An Oregon Perspective. Adams will discuss the nuts and bolts of school boards, reviewing research, history and current best practices. Registration: 541-737-9405 or admin@academyforlifelonglearning.org.

FRIDAY

Music a la Carte, noon, https://youtu.be/t-ZTukwTY-4. Students of the Oregon State University Trombone Ensemble, directed by Carson Keeble, and the OSU Tuba-Euponium Ensemble, directed by JaTtik Clark, will perform. Hosted by the College of Liberal Arts at OSU. Information: erin.sneller@oregonstate.edu.

C3 GameCon, 1 to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Corvallis Community Center, 2601 NW Tyler Ave. Live tabletop gaming; board games, miniature gaming events; cosplay costume contest with categories of Gaming, Disney, Comics/Marvel Cinematic Universe/DC Extended Universe, and Original Character; vendor hall with local artists, businesses and community partners tabling. Cost: $10 for one day; 541-766-6959 or c3.recreation@corvallisoregon.gov.

Items for this calendar are pulled from the user-generated calendar that runs on our websites. For further information, write to jane.stoltz@lee.net.

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Hong Kong: CE welcomes funding approval

Chief Executive Carrie Lam welcomed the Legislative Council Finance Committees passage of the Governments funding application for the sixth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund (AEF) today.

She tasked relevant government departments with implementing the various support measures at full steam.

The Chief Executive thanked the LegCo Finance Committee for expeditiously approving the funding application of $27 billion for the fund's sixth round today, after four and a half hours' discussion, upon the Governments submission of a formal funding application yesterday.

It is a testimony to LegCo members readiness to address people's pressing needs and the co-operative spirit between the executive and the legislature to serve members of the public in a pragmatic manner, Mrs Lam added.

Following the announcement of the various support schemes under the fifth-round AEF in early January, the Government announced the sixth round on January 27 to provide further support.

Mrs Lam said she has requested the government departments involved in the execution of various schemes to seriously consider LegCo members views so as to maximise the benefits.

As at February 11, about one-third of the funding under the fifth-round AEF, or around $1.1 billion, has been disbursed to the eligible enterprises and individuals.

The sixth round comprises 48 schemes which are estimated to benefit 67,000 businesses, operators of 40,000 transport tools and 750,000 individuals.

Mrs Lam noted that the Financial Secretary will deliver the 2022-23 Budget on February 23 and she believed that he would take into account legislators suggestions when formulating it.

With the full support of the central government and the co-operation of the community, the Government will stand up to the challenge with unwavering determination and strong faith to lead Hong Kong out of the epidemic.

May I once again appeal to members of the public to stay confident during this difficult time, support the Governments anti-epidemic work, and get vaccinated as soon as possible or in a timely manner to facilitate the implementation of the vaccine pass initiative to be launched later this month.

Let us all join hands to fight the epidemic.

This story has been published on: 2022-02-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Champagne led to real pain for patrons at a German bar who had their drinks spiked with ecstasy.

The incident occurred Saturday night in Weiden, in the region of Bavaria.

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According to police, one person died and eight others became sick after unknowingly drinking from the bad bottle of bubbly.

Police vehicles are stand in front of a restaurant in the city of Weiden, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022. One man died and eight others were hospitalized in serious condition after drinking spiked drinks at a bar in the Bavarian city. (Armin Weigel/AP)

There were things in it that normally are not in Champagne. senior prosecutor Gerd Schaefer told the dpa news agency. It had a toxic, a poisonous effect.

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The victims were between the ages of 33 and 52.

Schaefer said it was still unclear how the ecstasy was put into the bottle of champagne but that it did not appear to be a targeted attack against the group.

Police arrived to find the people on the floor in the bar and eight were rushed to a hospital. A 52-year-old man died shortly after being admitted.

Schaefer said there was a suspicion of negligent homicide but the investigation was ongoing.

With News Wire Services
Gillette, WY (82718)

Today

Windy with increasing clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. High near 60F. Winds SE at 25 to 35 mph..

Tonight

Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low 39F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
DALLAS, Feb. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- U.S. Risk, LLC, a top ten property and casualty wholesaler and MGA, today announced the acquisition of McSweeny Agency, LLC, a wholesale broker and MGA headquartered in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. The McSweeny team will join U.S. Risk Brokers, the wholesale brokerage division of U.S. Risk. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Commenting on the new partnership, Dennis McSweeny, president of McSweeny Agency, shared: We are thrilled to be joining the U.S. Risk family of companies. I am confident this new partnership will further expand the value we deliver to our agents with the additional markets, products and resources available through U.S. Risk.

Randall Goss, chief executive officer for U.S. Risk, added: We look forward to welcoming the talented professionals from McSweeny Agency to the U.S. Risk team. Their entrepreneurial culture and passion for delivering quality service to their retail agency clients fit very well with U.S. Risk, and we are excited to expand U.S. Risks footprint and expertise throughout New Jersey and the greater northeast region.

About U.S. Risk, LLC

U.S. Risk, LLC is a leading international specialty lines underwriting manager and wholesale broker headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Operating 16 domestic and international branches, the company offers a broad range of products and services through its divisions and affiliate companies, which include U.S. Risk Underwriters, U.S. Risk Brokers, U.S. Risk Solutions, Oxford Insurance Brokers Ltd. (UK), James Hampden International Insurance Brokers Ltd. (UK), MGB Insurance Brokers Ltd. (UK), Antarah FZE (UAE) and UNIS United Insurance Services (Zurich). For more information, visit www.usrisk.com.

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A bold bid to hold a gun maker accountable for irresponsibly marketing its lethal product  precisely the kind of effort that a terrible 2005 federal statute shielding firearm makers from liability lawsuits sought to ban  has succeeded in Connecticut, with Bushmaster AR-15 maker Remington (or the four insurers who run the now-bankrupt company) agreeing to a $73 million settlement with the families of children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary. Hallelujah.

In 2019, a saner U.S. Supreme Court let the lawsuit move forward in Connecticut, under a state statute barring deceptive and dishonest marketing. Plaintiffs made a powerful case that Remington manufactured a gun capable of firing rounds with devastating speed and force, then recklessly enticed unstable young men to get their hands on one, knowing full well what carnage might result.

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Veronique De La Rosa, mother of Noah Pozner, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, wipes away tears during a news conference in Trumbull, Conn., Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (Seth Wenig/AP)

The next shoe to drop, one the families fought hard for, will be the release in the coming weeks of the suits discovery trove  meaning, the reams of evidence collected in the course of the proceedings. Among other things, those may reveal whether Remington had a dirty deal with Call of Duty maker Activision to feature the gun in question. We know the murderer played that game for hours on end.

In 2012, a deranged young man whose name we will not repeat murdered 20 first-graders and six educators, unloading 154 rounds in less than five minutes. By rights, the type of gun he used should be banned in America. So should the high-capacity 30-round magazines he used.

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But even if the deadly weaponry remains legal for sale in most states (and could conceivably become effectively legal in all if the Supreme Court, as expected, eviscerates New Yorks strong gun law later this year), we need not sit idly by while its pushed to people eager to pull the trigger in the worst way. Congress must repeal the federal liability ban. And until they do, more state legislators with a conscience must follow Connecticuts lead.
English French

Press release

Paris La Defense, February 14, 2022

Albioma acquires a new geothermal power plant in Turkey

Albioma, independent producer of renewable energy, finalizes today the acquisition of the geothermal power plant Turcas Kuyucak Jeotermal Elektrik Uretim A.S. (renamed Albioma Kuyucak Jeotermal Elektrik Uretim A.S.), in Turkey, by becoming its sole shareholder.

On December 21, 2021, the Group announced that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with Turcas Petrol A.S. for the acquisition of a second geothermal power plant in Turkey, located in the province of Aydin. The favorable opinion of the Turkish competition authorities, obtained on February 3, 2022, allows the transaction to be finalized.

The acquisition of this plant confirms Albioma's entry into the geothermal business, with high technical added value, complementary to its historical biomass and solar businesses.

Competitive and local, geothermal energy is a renewable energy source available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, transforming the heat coming from the subsoil for the production of electricity. Like biomass, geothermal energy is a controllable source of electricity, which contributes to the security of electrical networks.

The Group's second geothermal power plant in Turkey

With more than 1600 MW of installed power, Turkey ranks fourth in the world for geothermal production and has strong development potential. Albioma has been established in Turkey since January 2021.

The Albioma Kuyucak power plant Jeotermal Elektrik Uretim A.S. (18 MW gross) was commissioned at the end of 2017 and is based on an operating license expiring in 2042 (with the possibility of extension for a period of 10 additional years). It produces electricity from 5 production wells for a net exported production at the end of 2021 of 83 GWh.

Until the end of 2022, the power plant benefits from a dollarized purchase obligation tariff of approximately 118 USD/MWh (Feed-in tariff) and for 5 years between 2023-2027 is 105 USD/MWh.

Frederic Moyne, Chairman and CEO of Albioma said: We warmly welcome the Turcas teams to Albioma. This new operation allows the Group to strengthen its presence on the geothermal market and to continue to improve its skills in this new business. We are gradually building up a platform of quality industrial assets. We will benefit from the synergies between the neighboring plants of Gumuskoy and Kuyucak and will be able to capitalize on the know-how of our teams to deploy it in new geographies. The complementarity of renewable energies is essential to favorably develop the energy mix. Our Group is maintaining its objective of nearly 100% renewable energy by 2030.

Next meeting: annual results for the 2021 financial year, March 2, 2022 (before market).

About Albioma contacts An independent renewable energy producer, Albioma is committed to the energy transition through biomass and photovoltaics.



The Group is present in the French Overseas Territories, in Metropolitan France, in Mauritius and in Brazil. For 25 years, it has developed a unique partnership with the sugar industry to produce renewable energy from bagasse, the fibrous residue of sugar cane.



Albioma is also the leading producer of photovoltaic energy in Overseas France, where it builds and operates innovative projects with storage. Albioma has recently strengthened its position in mainland France. Investors

Julien Gauthier

+33 (0)1 47 76 67 00



Media

Charlotte Neuvy

+33 (0)1 47 76 66 65

presse@albioma.com Albioma shares are listed on NYSE EURONEXT PARIS (compartment B) and eligible for SRD and PEA-PME (ISIN FR0000060402  Mnemo ABIO).



The Group is also included in the Gaia-Index, the index of responsible average values. www.albioma.com





Attachment
SALISBURY, N.C., Feb. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In partnership with Food Lions customers, Food Lion Feeds donated more than 152 million meals to feed food-insecure neighbors in 2021, deepening the omnichannel retailers commitment to nourish the towns and cities it serves. Since 2014, Food Lion has donated more than 900 million meals through Food Lion Feeds, its hunger-relief initiative.



The donations come at a time when neighbors across Food Lions 10-state footprint continue to face challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In parts of Food Lions footprint, as many as one in six people, including one in five children, are living in households without reliable access to food. Nationally, according to Feeding America, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, face food insecurity, and recent numbers indicate over 60 million people annually turn to food banks and community programs for help putting food on the table.

Our neighbors are counting on us more than ever, and thats why were doing everything we can to try to eliminate the difficult choices many of our neighbors are forced to make, said Kevin Durkee, Manager, Food Lion Feeds. Caring for the towns and cities we serve is core to everything we do, and were committed to fighting hunger and setting our neighbors up for success. We appreciate the partnership and dedication of our community partners, and they have our commitment that we will continue to do everything we can to continue our shared mission of fighting food insecurity.

In 2021, more than 52 million meals alone were donated through Food Lion Feeds food rescue program, where every Food Lion store gives excess food to a local feeding agency for neighbors in need. Additionally, 30 million meals were donated in partnership with customers through Food Lions four annual in-store campaigns, where meal donations are connected to a customers purchase of a designated product or financial donation.

The remaining of the 152 million meals were donated through a combination of product, financial and equipment donations; disaster relief and recovery efforts; capital campaign support for feeding agencies; and volunteer hours by associates, based on various meal equivalent formulas.

About Food Lion

Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., since 1957, has more than 1,100 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and employs more than 82,000 associates. By leveraging its longstanding heritage of low prices and convenient locations, Food Lion is working to own the easiest full shop grocery experience in the Southeast, anchored by a strong commitment to affordability, freshness, and the communities it serves. Through Food Lion Feeds, the company has donated more than 900 million meals to individuals and families since 2014 and has committed to donate 1.5 billion meals by 2025. Food Lion is a company of Ahold Delhaize USA, the U.S. division of Zaandam-based Ahold Delhaize. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com or job applicants may visit www.foodlion.com/careers .

CONTACTS: Food Lion Media Relations 704-245-3317 publicrelationsteam@foodlion.com

Photos accompanying this announcement is available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cf72ca97-a063-45c4-ad43-175ee4fdc3b9

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/88e436e7-eb5b-4302-ad3d-5dbcdb5c7814
Forde, Feb. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EarlyBirds has created an open innovation ecosystem that helps private and public organizations capitalize on the innovations currently being offered by startups, scaleups and mature organisation who are willing to share their technological advantages in exchange for mutual commercial benefits. Readers can find out more about the company and its services by heading over to their website at earlybirds.io.

The relentless pace of technology development and digital disruption continues to accelerate across all areas of public and private sector business. For example, 5G will open up a whole new world of functionality enabled by its significant bandwidth and connectivity advantages over 4G, bringing billions of new devices online that will be aware of each other and work together to serve a greater function. However, there are only a few international conglomerates that are currently offering 5G enabled hardware that can work with existing networks. Therefore, there is a need now to find alternatives that allow businesses to take advantage of the coming wave of the 5G revolution in a cost-effective manner without bowing to the hegemony of these few players.

One such company is EdgeQ, launched in 2018 by former executives at Broadcom, Intel, and Qualcomm. EdgeQs SoC (System on a Chip) is capable of connecting to private 5G networks while also offering AI compute capabilities that can handle critical processing required by industries such as manufacturing, energy, automotive, and others. The birth of a company like EdgeQ is only possible when individuals whose goals are closely aligned come together to solve a pressing industry problem. Startups like EdgeQ need the support, both monetary and symbolic, of industry leaders who recognize the value of such endeavors and have the foresight to see how a small companys efforts can benefit them as well as the whole world.

The emergence of new technology is not showing any signs of slowing down. 5G is just one piece of the puzzle as there are a lot of technologies that can piggyback off the innovations in communications and open up use cases that were not possible just a decade ago. McKinsey published an in-depth article that outlines the most exciting technologies that are bound to make an impact in the coming decades. These include next-gen computing, applied AI, distributed infrastructure, trust architecture, bio-revolution, automation and virtualization, nano-materials, and clean technologies, just to name a few. Large corporations such as Meta have also expressed their desire to implement their vision for the future which includes the building of a metaverse that leverages existing innovations such as sensors, computer vision, augmented reality, and spatial computing to give individuals and businesses a whole new way of interacting with the broader world.

For business leaders and executives, it becomes crucial to identify the technologies that show the most potential for revolutionizing their industry. In some technologies, there are literally thousands of choices or there are hidden areas of emerging relevant technology that are difficult to find. One challenge is shaping requirements and matching them to what is commercially available. A lot of resources are spent on research for identifying what disruptive technologies are worth pursuing to gain competitive advantages in the market or to obtain efficiencies to meet organizational goals.

For example, Amazon envisioned a future where drone technology is ubiquitous and well-accepted to a point where short-distance deliveries can be made using a fleet of interconnected drones. The company already spends $47 billion dollars each year on shipping costs. From the companys perspective, it made complete sense to acquire Kiva Systems, a company that manufactures mobile robotic fulfillment systems, in 2012. The company now has more than 200,000 Kiva packing and shipping robots that have been given the moniker Prime Air which will soon make good on its original promise of 30-minute drone deliveries making it the cheapest and fastest way for customers to get products at home.

EarlyBirds is solving the innovation problem by using artificial intelligence to quantify the value of over 4 million innovators across all these technologies and many more on its platform. EarlyBirds can help shape business strategies and solve these technology needs with their unique platform plus the Challenger and Explorer programs. They can also create innovation maps based on a specific technology group that remove the complexity for solving challenges using an intuitive data set. Its AI-enabled platform of over 4 million startups, scaleups, and mature innovators is updated regularly and can be searched, curated using unique search assessment tools to meet business and technology needs.

Mature corporations that want to take advantage of the innovations on the EarlyBirds platform and their services can do so by signing up as Early Adopters at the link: https://earlybirds.io/en/early_adopter.

###

For more information about EarlyBirds, contact the company here:



EarlyBirds

Mr Kris Poria and Mr Jeff Penrose

+61 401 287 060

support@earlybirds.io

FORDE SUITE 10, LEVEL 1, 26 FRANCIS FORDE BOULEVARD, FORDE, ACT 2914
SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Korean steel conglomerate SeAH Group (KRX: 003030.KS), one of the largest Korean steel pipe manufacturer, is proud to announce Lee Joo-sung as its new President & CEO, effective Jan. 02, 2022. Previously, Lee served as Senior Executive Vice President, overseeing strategic planning, new business development, human resource development, finance and production. Known as a clear-headed and transparent manager with a keen grasp of future opportunities, Lee helped guide the company to record earnings in 2021, positioning him to lead SeAH Steel Holdings.



After high school in Switzerland and education in the United States at the University of Chicago and Colombia University, where he obtained his MBA, Lees competency took him to Accenture and Merrill Lynch, where he further developed his expertise in M&A transactions, management consulting and strategy.

As Senior Vice President, Lee has combined his experience in financial institutions with his deep understanding of the steel industry, working to increase SeAH Steels competitive advantage in a global age. Known for his excellent insights on market environment, Lee continuously benchmarks global market analysis and global corporate cases to guide his decision-making. Lee is a trusted and effective manager, praised for his humble, caring attitude, and commitment to accountability and responsibility. SeAH Steel employees value and respect his initiative to work transparently and reasonably, and his time as Senior Executive Vice President is marked by clear decisions based on insights, fast execution and flexible organizational operation.

In 2020 and 2021, Lee led the companys MOU and investment of 400 billion won to build the worlds largest monopile production facility for wind power in the United Kingdom. The facility in Able Marine Energy Park, located south of the Humber River in North Lincolnshire, will handle 160,000 tons of monopile production annually. The company expects to deliver concrete business results from this investment, made through SeAH Wind, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SeAH Steel Holdings, and will break ground on the plant in early 2023.

As a result of the UK investment, SeAH Wind signed a multi-million pound agreement to supply monopiles for Hornsea 3, an offshore windfarm, through technology exchanges with Denmarks rsted, the worlds No. 1 offshore wind power generator. By 2030, offshore wind will be generating more than a third of the UKs electricity, and SeAH will be positioned as a top player in the global market thanks to Lees foresight.

SeAH Steel was well positioned to lead this groundbreaking partnership after Lee identified offshore wind substructures as a crucial area of growth. The company has had a successful track record of supplying foundation structures for offshore wind substructures to Taiwan and other countries since 2017.

Lee also led the successful 2018 demerger of SeAH Steel Corp. The split, which divided the parent company into SeAH Steel Holdings to oversee investments and SeAH Steel to run manufacturing, improved the expertise and efficiency of domestic and foreign affiliates and increased management transparency by separating investment, management and manufacturing functions. Most importantly, this move, helmed by Lee, was a crucial move in strengthening the businesss global competitiveness by upgrading global strategic functions and establishing a more nimble structure that can make agile decisions.

Media Contact

Sunggyu (Billy) Lee

Communications Team

Tel: +82-2-6970-0092

E-mail: sunggyu.lee@seah.co.kr

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/43ee52c1-4d2f-4c69-971c-a5cbc0824584
English French

BURLINGTON, Ontario, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, as our country marks National Flag of Canada Day, the Juno Beach Centre Association (JBCA) and Wounded Warriors Canada (WWC) are proud to announce a new partnership to raise funds for remembrance activities and mental health services for injured Veterans, First Responders and their families.



The Juno Beach Centre, located in Normandy, France, flies a Canadian flag or Maple Leaf every day to honour the 45,000 Canadians who sacrificed their lives during the Second World War. To keep these flags in acceptable conditions, they are replaced regularly at a cost to the museum.

The JBCA established the Flag Sponsorship Program in 2020 to help ensure there is always a pristine Maple Leaf flag flying at Juno Beach Centre (JBC) to honour those who landed at Juno Beach on June 6th, 1944. The program also offers supporters the opportunity to purchase a flag previously flown at the Juno Beach Centre to commemorate family members who served or to pay their respects to our Veterans.

The new partnership between the JBCA and Wounded Warriors Canada takes the Flag Sponsorship Program one step further  allowing donors to support both the JBC and Canadas injured Veterans by purchasing a flag through this CanadaHelps form.

One of the questions supporters often ask is whether donations go to support Veterans and their care, said Alex Fitzgerald-Black, Executive Director of the Juno Beach Centre Association. Commemoration and recognition have a role in positive mental health outcomes, but this subset of our Flag Sponsorship Program will enable us to respond affirmatively with absolute certainty. Wounded Warriors Canada's work for the Veteran and First Responder Community is essential, especially as we enter the third year of the global pandemic. We are pleased to be able to support them.

Scott Maxwell, Executive Director of Wounded Warriors Canada, commented, Honouring and supporting the service and sacrifice of our Veterans, First Responders and their families is at the core of what we do at Wounded Warriors Canada. Our partnership with the JBCA directly supports these two important objectives and were extremely proud to work together to help preserve the memory of our storied military history while raising much needed funds to support the mental health needs of our Veterans and their families.

Wounded Warriors Canada is tackling issues in the present that would have been familiar to the 1.1 million Canadian men and women who served in the Canadian armed forces during the Second World War. However, the stigmas of the time and limited access to care meant that many suffered in silence. Sadly, the Second World War generation is leaving us rapidly. The Juno Beach Centre views this partnership as a way to enhance how modern Veterans relate to the site and feel welcomed as they carry the torch of remembrance forward into the future.

To make your secure donation to support the Juno Beach Centre and Wounded Warriors Canada, proceed to the following link: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/69797.

ABOUT THE JUNO BEACH CENTRE

The Juno Beach Centre was established in 2003 as a permanent memorial to all Canadians who were part of the Allied victory in the Second World War, and to preserve this legacy for future generations through education. The Centre in Normandy, France, pays homage to the nearly 45,000 Canadians who died during the War, of which 5,500 were killed during the Battle of Normandy and 381 on D-Day. Nearly two decades and more than 1,000,000 visitors later, the Centre has been designated a site of national historic significance to Canada. It is owned and operated by the Juno Beach Centre Association, a charitable organization based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. To learn more, please visit www.junobeach.org.

ABOUT WOUNDED WARRIORS CANADA

Wounded Warriors Canada is a national mental health service provider offering a range of clinically facilitated programs that have been developed to support the unique needs of Veterans, First Responders and their families. Their programs support individuals, couples, spouses, surviving spouses, and children of those who serve or have served our country and communities. The organization also provides leading-edge trauma-informed workplace training geared towards helping make trauma exposure management a new professional standard for uniformed service personnel. To learn more, visit: www.woundedwarriors.ca
STERLING, Va., Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 73% of educational institutions see digital signage as a crucial component for the future of student and staff communication. As a leading provider of enterprise-grade pro-AV solutions, Mvix has launched Managed Services, which allows educational institutions to optimize, scale, and deploy an effective digital signage strategy for educational institutions.

Digital signage technology has a wide range of use cases catering to K-12 and higher education campuses. Use cases can range from directing foot traffic, event schedules, displaying campus alerts during emergency events, showing school spirit, and sharing learning tools with staff and students. Additionally, campuses need a flexible and comprehensive digital signage platform to accommodate multiple content and scheduling options.

"Technology is woven into the fabric of our educational system so tightly that students expect digital communications to be omnipresent,'' said Mike Kilian, Executive Vice President at Mvix. "Digital signage is the perfect solution to engage students at all levels."

This scope of work and ongoing management can be difficult for educational environments due to limited IT resources and time constraints. Mvix's Managed Services program minimizes overhead and resources for campuses needing enterprise-scale digital signage solutions. With ongoing support and collaboration, the entire scope of the digital signage network is covered by a professional project manager. This includes project planning, creative strategy, and ongoing management.

Managed Services include:

Content Management: Mvix will update announcements and additional content requiring manual changes.

Remote Management: The client's player connectivity will be monitored by the project manager and will advise if downtime is experienced.

ROI Analysis: Ongoing advisement of ROI deployment.

Enhanced Support: Quick and prompt response rates from Client Success Team.

In a recent ongoing implementation, Olivet Nazarene University utilized Managed Services to deploy BrightSign media players, optimize templates through content design, and conduct professional user training. Their use cases included welcome signs, donor walls, faculty directory, department digital signage for internal communications, and university-wide signage for campus affairs.

"The Mvix Digital Signage was the perfect solution," said Adam Ollervidez, Associate Director of Media Services at Olivet Nazarene University. "Mvix's digital signage is robust and has afforded us the ability to create multiple designs to match our various departments across campus. This has made updating and sharing content more accessible, ensuring that our many constituencies have the right information."

Multi-venue digital signage solutions are key to improving the learning experience, attracting higher levels of enrollment, and increasing donations/funding. The Managed Services program is now available for K-12 and higher education institutions needing numerous screen deployments.

About Mvix

Mvix is a leading provider of enterprise-grade pro-AV solutions, specializing in enterprise full-service solutions backed by its award-winning digital signage software that offers unique value to clients all over the world. For more information, contact Mvix at 1 866.310.4923 or visit: www.mvix.com.

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Dublin, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Small Molecule Innovator CDMO Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Small Molecule API, Small Molecule Drug Product), by Stage Type, by Customer Type, by Therapeutic Area, by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global small molecule innovator CDMO market size is expected to reach USD 74.9 billion by 2030. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2022 to 2030.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted market growth. During this crisis, CDMOs are playing an important role in meeting the needs of pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, and other end users. These have been working diligently towards the development of small-molecule drugs against SARS-CoV-2 since the end of 2019.



COVID-19 has caused a significant impact on the API CDMO market where China was a key performing country in contract manufacturing of APIs. In China, due to a strict government-imposed lockdown, 44 firms became non-operational and several governments chose to boycott APIs manufactured in China.

To combat this shortage, several countries have started manufacturing their own APIs. COVID-19 has changed supply chains but has also boosted the API CDMO market. With the growing demand for outsourcing by pharma companies, CDMOs are now focusing more on continuous bioprocessing and process intensification.



Small molecules continue to play an important role in the development of new treatments globally. Specialty medicines are increasingly driving the global pharmaceutical industry, particularly in developed markets with small-molecule applications accounting for over half of specialty sales.

However, the main drivers of this market are increasing pharmaceutical R&D investment, growing demand, and the rising incidence of cancer and age-related disorders.



Small Molecule Innovator CDMO Market Report Highlights

By product, the small molecule API segment is anticipated to register the fastest growth rate over the forecast period. This growth can primarily be attributed to the high approval rate of NME small molecules during covid

The oncology therapeutic area segment dominated the market with a revenue share of over 40.0% in 2021 and is anticipated to register the fastest growth rate over the forecast period. Overall, the small molecule oncology pipeline is growing with 38% of small molecule therapeutic candidates in preclinical development

The clinical stage type segment dominated the market with a revenue share of over 50.0% in 2021. CDMOs offer specialized expertise, time-saving, and cost-efficiency, which is expected to augment the segment growth over the forecast period

Asia Pacific is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR over the forecast period due to significantly cheaper manufacturing costs than North America and Europe and the presence of favorable laws

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope



Chapter 2 Executive Summary

2.1 Market Outlook

2.2 Segment Outlook



Chapter 3 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO Market: Variables, Trends, & Scope

3.1 Market Lineage Outlook

3.1.1 Parent market outlook

3.2 Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3 Impact of COVID-19 on Small Molecule Innovator CDMO Market

3.4 Market Dynamics

3.4.1 Market Driver Analysis

3.4.1.1 Increasing demand for small molecule drug

3.4.1.2 Growing demand for small molecules in the oncology segment

3.4.1.3 Increasing pharmaceutical R&D investments

3.4.2 Market Restraint Analysis

3.4.2.1 Stringent government Regulations

3.4.2.2 Compliance Issues with Outsourcing

3.5 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO Market Analysis Tools

3.5.1 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

3.5.2 PESTEL Analysis



Chapter 4 Small Molecule Innovator CDMO Market: Product Segment Analysis

4.1 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO: Market Share Analysis, 2021 & 2030

4.2 Small Molecule API

4.2.1 Small molecule API, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

4.3 Small Molecule Drug Product

4.3.1 Small molecule drug product market, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

4.3.2 Oral solid dose

4.3.3 Semi-solid dose

4.3.4 Liquid dose

4.3.5 Others



Chapter 5 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO Market: Stage Type Segment Analysis

5.1 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO: Market Share Analysis, 2021 & 2030

5.2 Preclinical

5.2.1 preclinical market, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

5.3 Clinical

5.3.1 Clinical market, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

5.3.2 Phase I

5.3.3 Phase II

5.3.4 Phase III

5.4 Commercial



Chapter 6 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO Market: Customer Type Segment Analysis

6.1 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO: Market Share Analysis, 2021 & 2030

6.2 Pharmaceutical

6.2.1 Pharmaceutical market, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

6.2.2 Small

6.2.3 Medium

6.2.4 Large

6.3 Biotechnology



Chapter 7 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO Market: Therapeutic Area Segment Analysis

7.1 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO: Market Share Analysis, 2021 & 2030

7.2 Cardiovascular Disease

7.2.1 Cardiovascular diseases market, 2017 - 2030 (USD Million)

7.3 Oncology

7.4 Respiratory Disorders

7.5 Neurology

7.6 Metabolic Disorders

7.7 Infectious Diseases

7.8 Others



Chapter 8 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO Market: Regional Analysis

8.1 Small Molecule Innovators CDMO: Market Share Analysis, 2021 & 2030



Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape

9.1 Company Profiles

9.1.1 Company overview

9.1.2 Financial performance

9.1.3 Service benchmarking

9.1.4 Strategic initiatives

Lonza Group Ltd.

Patheon (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.)

Cambrex Corporation

CATALENT, INC.

Siegfried Holding AG

Recipharm AB

CordenPharma International

Boehringer Ingelheim

Piramal Pharma Solutions

Covance Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/uu0nkh

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Memphis, TN, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Redwood Services (Redwood), a home services firm focused on investing in leading residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical services companies in growing U.S. markets, today announced it has invested in Arlinghaus Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning (Arlinghaus).

Based in the Greater Cincinnati area, Arlinghaus has been offering plumbing, heating and air conditioning services to homeowners throughout much of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio since 2008. In that time, the company swiftly grew and developed a reputation as one of the most trusted HVAC companies in the Cincinnati tri-state area, complete with a world-class training university and distinctive bright pink branding proudly amplified by over 100 employees.

With their passion for providing exceptional service and giving back to the community, the Arlinghaus team has established a tremendous foundation from which the company is poised to grow in the years to come, said Richard Lewis, CEO of Redwood Services. Their innovative training university has deservedly drawn national attention in the HVAC community and contributed to their impressive track record of growth. We are thrilled to join the great team they have built and work with them to make it even stronger.

Brian and Heather Arlinghaus, co-founders of Arlinghaus, will retain a significant minority ownership stake. The Arlinghaus team, led by Brian as president and Heather as general manager, will continue to operate and manage the business under the Arlinghaus banner and name, while Redwood offers operational, strategic and financial support to enhance the companys growth in the Cincinnati market.

Since the day we started Arlinghaus over 13 years ago, we have remained dedicated to our core mission: achieving and exceeding the expectations of our customers by working together as a cohesive and passionate team, said Brian Arlinghaus, president of Arlinghaus. Redwood Services shares that focus on teamwork and community.

While Brian and I never planned to take on a partner for our company, Redwood understood what made us successful while offering a level of operational expertise that promises to supercharge our growth, said Heather Arlinghaus, general manager of Arlinghaus.

Arlinghaus marks Redwoods fourth platform investment overall and second in as many months, following the companys investments in Tucson-based Rite Way Heating, Cooling and Plumbing in December 2020, D.C.-based John C. Flood of Virginia in June 2021 and Fresno-based Allbritten Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning Services in January 2022. With the investment in Arlinghaus, Redwood expands its reach from the two coasts to the Midwest as it seeks to build out a national network of premier home services companies.

About Redwood Services: Founded in 2020, Memphis-based Redwood Services is building a family of people-focused essential home service companies, actively investing in the HVAC, plumbing and electrical trades throughout the United States. Redwood operates four brands in the Arizona, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, California, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana markets as it seeks to build out a national home services platform. For more information, visit RedwoodServices.com.

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Calgary, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CALGARY, ALBERTA, February 14, 2022  Lithium Chile Inc. (Lithium Chile or the Company) is pleased to announce it has commenced their phase 2 drilling program consisting of three, 500-metre-deep step-out holes aimed at expanding the lithium resource and increasing the grade on the Arizaro property. The program is announced after an initial resource of 1,420,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) equivalent in the Indicated and Inferred Resource categories was reported on their maiden well (see February 8, 2022 News Release). Well permitting and an environmental impact study are currently underway. Drilling of the first well is anticipated by the end of March. The 3 well program is scheduled to take 6 months.

As recommended by the company's QP, Montgomery & Associates, steel casing will be installed down the wellbore and the upper halite will be cemented off to prevent dilution by lithium-poor brine from the upper zones. On the Companys initial well, samples during various tests returned values up to 555 mg/ls.

Steve Cochrane, President and CEO of Lithium Chile, commented on the Salar de Arizaro Project: After such encouraging results on the NI 43-101 resource estimate of our maiden well, the important next steps for our Company and its Shareholders are to expand the lithium resource and prove the overall grade with the phase 2 drilling program on the Arizaro property. As a result of our deep relationships with the Argentina community, we have secured a drilling rig for the duration of the project, which we estimate to take around 6 months"

See attachment photo for Phase 2 Well locations.

The Company also reports on their successful Warrant Program. An additional 1,959,043 common shares have been issued in consideration of C$1,175,425 as the result of the exercise of outstanding warrants. A total of 3,789,528 Warrants from the February 23, 2021, financing remain outstanding at C$0.60 and are due to expire on February 23, 2023 (see February 23, 2021 News Release).

About Lithium Chile

Lithium Chile is advancing a lithium property portfolio consisting of 69,200 hectares covering sections of 10 salars and two laguna complexes in Chile and 23,300 hectares in Argentina.

Lithium Chile also owns 5 properties, totaling 20,429 hectares, that are prospective for gold, silver and copper. Exploration efforts are continuing on Lithium Chiles Carmona gold/silver/copper property which lies in the heart of the Chilean mega porphyry gold/ silver/copper belt.

Lithium Chiles common shares are listed on the TSX-V under the symbol LITH and on the OTC-BB under the symbol LTMCF.

To find out more about Lithium Chile Inc., please contact Steven Cochrane, President and CEO via email: steve@lithiumchile.ca, Jose de Castro Alem, Argentina Manager via email jdecastroalem@gmail.com or Michelle DeCecco, Vice President of Corporate Development via email michelle@lithiumchile.ca or at 587-393-1990.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Forward Looking Statements: This news release may contain certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expected", "anticipated", "aims to", "plans to" or "intends to" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things: the estimates in the Report, future drilling programs and the results thereof. Such forward-looking statements are based on various assumptions and factors that may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, factors and assumptions with respect to: the general stability of the economic and political environment in which the Company operates; the timely receipt of required regulatory approvals; the ability of the Company to obtain future financing on acceptable terms; currency, exchange and interest rates; operating costs; the success the Company will have in exploring its prospects and the results from such prospects. You are cautioned that the foregoing list of material factors and assumptions is not exhaustive. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors on which such forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct or that any of the events anticipated by such forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits the Company will derive there from. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including, but not limited to: fluctuations in market conditions, including securities markets; economic factors; the risk that the new lithium exploration tender process does not yield the anticipated benefits to the Company, if at all; the risk that the Offering will not be completed as anticipated or at all, including the risk that the Company will not receive the approvals necessary in connection with the Offering; and the impact of general economic conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

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NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Big Idea Ventures , the global leader in early-stage alternative protein and food technology has appointed Frank Klemens, PhD as the Managing Director for its Generation Food Rural Partners (GFRP) fund. Dr. Klemens previously served as Managing Director of DuPont Ventures where he oversaw all aspects of sourcing, analyzing, executing strategic equity investments, and licensing for DuPonts businesses. Focus areas included biotech, food ingredients, food safety, nutrition, electronics, IoT, machine learning, and advanced materials. Dr. Klemens generated collaborative technology investment and licensing options to create new business opportunities. Dr. Klemens holds a B.S., M.S. in Chemistry and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Purdue University.

I am thrilled to be part of the BIV team. My entire career has been spent in the technology industry where I actively licensed and invested in technology universities and companies, respectively, said Dr. Klemens. I look forward to continuing the partnerships between universities, startups and our GFRP fund to provide best of class growth solutions to rural communities in the food and agriculture areas.

As the GFRP Managing Director, Dr. Klemens will supervise the funds team of experts to evaluate intellectual property developed at collaborating universities with the strongest commercialization potential. The GFRP fund will invest in new companies formed around the groundbreaking research. These new companies will be headquartered in rural communities near the collaborating universities, creating living wage jobs and driving economic growth and development.

Big Idea Ventures is proud to welcome Frank to the team and we are honored that he has chosen BIV for the next chapter of his career, said Tom Mastrobuoni, Chief Investment Officer. Frank brings a wealth of specific experience that will help drive the growth and success of the GFRP fund.

The Big Idea Ventures GFRP fund is focused on bringing together world class research from top universities with business leaders and corporate partners to create the next generation of food companies, added Andrew D. Ive, founder and managing general partner of Big Idea Ventures. Franks experience solidifies our ability to deliver a peerless fund positively impacting the entire food industry. Were glad to have him and his demonstrated leadership and experience onboard.

About Big Idea Ventures



Big Idea Ventures (BIV) is solving the world's greatest challenges by supporting the worlds best entrepreneurs. Big Idea Ventures develops the most globally strategic funds, delivering significant investor returns while addressing real world challenges. BIV focused on alternative protein with its first New Protein Fund and then the commercialization of university intellectual property with its Generation Food Rural Partners fund. www.bigideaventures.com
Anthony Weiners message is clear: Dont call it a comeback.

Well, dont worry, I wont. But if its quite alright with the man formerly known as Carlos Danger, I will call it gross. Disturbing. Pathetic. Revolting.

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How else to describe the unwelcome news that the former Democratic congressman who disgraced his office, his family, his political party and the City of New York with a lurid  indeed criminal  sex scandal is now co-hosting a new radio show with ex-mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa on WABC AM radio?

Anthony Weiner, a former Democratic congressman who pleaded guilty to one count of sexting a teenage girl leaves Federal Court after being sentenced to 21 months in prison in New York on September 25, 2017. (AFP Contributor/AFP via Getty Images)

Addressing what he referred to as the elephant in the room, he assured, No, this isnt some kind of a comeback. A radio show about New York is sometimes just a radio show about New York.

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I suppose its some consolation to know Weiner wont be asking New Yorkers for their vote anytime soon, or embarrassing them with another scandal-ridden run for office, but its little relief to know hell still be foisting himself upon them as a reinvented radio personality.

If you buried the memory of Weiners sordid transgressions in the deepest recesses of your brain  and who could blame you?  Ill unhappily refresh.

Weiner had been representing a New York City district in the U.S. House for nearly 12 years when in 2011 he used his public Twitter account to send a link of an explicit photo  an erect penis inside gray briefs  to a woman who followed him on the social media platform.

Weiner spent days indignantly denying the photo was of him or sent by him, blaming the media, claiming he must have been hacked, and even joking that his kitchen blender might be the next machine to attack him.

Then, he admitted the image was his and that hed exchanged similar messages and photos with about six women over three years. As photos kept surfacing, mounting pressure from Democrats led him to finally resign with a brief statement to the press.

That was all bad enough for Democrats to weather  not to mention the humiliation it brought to his wife, longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin.

With the saga sorted, New Yorkers breathed a collective sigh of relief and thought he was done. However, Weiner the consummate narcissist just couldnt help himself.

In 2013 he was back, looking for redemption, running for mayor, Abedin by his side. In the midst of that campaign, it surfaced that hed been texting inappropriately with a new woman, 23-year-old Sydney Leathers. He once again apologized to his humiliated wife and voters. On primary day, finishing with just 5% of the vote, he conceded, but not without flipping off a reporter.

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Completely fitting his sociopathic ego, all of this indignity happened on camera, thanks to the documentary film crew Weiner had allowed to follow his ill-fated campaign.

Lest you think our awful tale ends here, Weiner wasnt done.

In 2016, new photos and text messages, including racy language and one half-naked pic cradling his newborn son (pause to vomit) popped up, finally leading Abedin to announce she was separating from Weiner.

But the final, revolting blow was yet to come. Less than a month later, reports that hed sexted with a 15-year-old girl surfaced. In 2017, Weiner surrendered to the FBI and pleaded guilty to one charge of transferring obscene material to a minor. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison with three years supervised probation, and has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

So the obvious question is: In what twisted, upside-down, bizarro and unjust universe would a terrible person and convicted predator like Anthony Weiner be given a public platform to lecture New Yorkers about anything? Apparently, John Catsimatidis universe. The grocery store mogul and conservative donor bought WABC AM in 2019. One of his first new talent hires was disgraced Fox News personality Bill OReilly, the guy who, along with Fox News, paid five women approximately $13 million to settle various sexual misconduct lawsuits.

For Catsimatidis  who also hosts his own show, natch  folks like Weiner and OReilly are exactly who New Yorkers deserve to hear from on his radio network.

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I guess I shouldnt be surprised. It seems like its just the American way. Misogynists and sexists, abusers and harassers will eventually find protection and comfort somewhere. Bill Clinton, accused by multiple women of harassment and by one of rape, is still beloved in the Democratic Party. Donald Trump, accused by multiple women of harassment and assault, is a cult leader of the Republican Party.

Several #MeToo violators have attempted comebacks to varying degrees of success. Others are looking to.

So why wouldnt a convicted sex offender who embarrassed his party and ruined his family get a radio show?

But dont feel bad for Abedin or Weiners teenage victim, because remember, Weiner insists its not a comeback. Just a radio show with a friend of mine. How nice for him.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GlowTouch LLC, a global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services provider based in Louisville, Kentucky, is celebrating its 20th year in business this month. From its inception, GlowTouch has grown into a global enterprise with seven contact center locations and thousands of agents who support clients in varying industries worldwide while cultivating its brand as The Uncommon BPOTM.

"It has been an exciting and remarkable journey from the company we were to the organization that we are becoming," said Vidya Ravichandran, President and Founder of GlowTouch. "There is an evolution in going from an owner-led business to one with more distributed leadership, and it has been a thrill to see people embrace opportunity and discover their best selves."

GlowTouch has helped a myriad of clients navigate the digital transformation, its contact center capabilities augmented by a seasoned staff of software engineers and app developers. This level of IT strength is among the uncommon factors that have shaped the company. As technology becomes more complex, so do customer issues and that has made the need for high-quality service as a key component of the overall user experience more pronounced.

The value of customer care is now entirely at the forefront, turning support from an operational cost into a business strategy that promotes customer retention and can increase revenue. This trend of emphasizing quality support accelerated when the pandemic and its associated restrictions hit, and online activity jumped dramatically. Since the onset of the pandemic, GlowTouch has added over a dozen new clients and opened new locations onshore, nearshore, and offshore.

"We have seen several things evolve in this industry. One is how the dynamic between businesses and customers has tilted in favor of the consumer," said Ravichandran. "It is why service has become so critical; retention is far more cost-effective than new customer acquisition. Second, the perception of outsourcing has shifted, gaining tactical value as businesses focus their primary energy on core products while taking on subject matter experts for other functions, including customer care."

Along with its business growth, GlowTouch operates the GT Foundation as the conduit for reaching into the communities where the company is located. Community involvement was part of the corporate DNA from the company's founding; doing well in business was to be the conduit for doing good in the surrounding communities. Recent initiatives include the purchase of ICU beds for a community hospital and the utilization of targeted impact sourcing programs to create career opportunities for underserved communities. One effort has led to the hiring of remote workers from some of the lowest-income counties in the U.S. Another program, SALUTE, addresses the career disruptions faced by military dependents due to frequent relocations by offering work that is portable.

Among the Foundation's ongoing initiatives are a school, a mega-kitchen, a STEM-based mentoring and entrepreneurship program, and more. The company has been recognized here and abroad for its growth, exports, and philanthropy, and anticipates the opening of new locations in the years ahead.

About GlowTouch

GlowTouch is a privately held and WBENC-certified, woman-owned enterprise, founded in 2002. We provide personalized, omnichannel contact center, business processing, and technology outsourcing solutions to clients around the world. Our 2,300+ employees deliver operational excellence with high-touch engagement garnering recognition by independent bodies such as Everest Group, International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), and a six-time honoree on the Inc. 5000. GlowTouch is headquartered in Louisville, KY, with onshore contact centers in Louisville, Kentucky, and Miami, Florida; a nearshore presence in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and offshore locations in Mangalore, Bangalore, and Mysore, India, and Manila, Philippines. To learn more about GlowTouch, visit www.GlowTouch.com, or email Tammy Weinstein at Tammy.Weinstein@GlowTouch.com. ###

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GlowTouch is celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2022.









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CEDARVILLE, OHIO, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The state of Ohio is piloting a new criminal justice program unlike anything the United States has ever seen, and Cedarville University is at the core of this historic development.

The College to Law Enforcement Pathway Program, which accepted its first candidate enrollees in early 2022, exists to create a pool of pre-qualified, college-educated, mentored law-enforcement candidates for law enforcement agencies in Ohio.

The program was first introduced last year by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, and it is a byproduct of the Governors implementation of the Office of Law Enforcement Recruitment. DeWine asked Dr. Patrick Oliver, director of Cedarville Universitys criminal justice program, to serve as the lead consultant to the statewide office and the new academic program.

This elite honors program will pilot at Cedarville University and Central State University during the upcoming spring and fall semesters. The program, which includes 11 students in the first class, will be open to qualifying upper-class criminal justice majors, and participants will be guaranteed a job with a partnering law enforcement agency upon graduation.

Dr. Patrick Oliver addresses the media at the news conference where Gov. Mike DeWine announced the College to Law Enforcement Pathway program. (Photo: Mark D. Weinstein, Cedarville University)

"Students who graduate from this rigorous professional development program will have great potential to become Ohio's next generation of law enforcement leaders," said Governor DeWine. "In a time when many law enforcement agencies are struggling to recruit highly-qualified candidates, this program will create a pool of pre-qualified applicants with a strong understanding of criminal justice issues and the know-how to form positive relationships within their communities."

One of the students in the program is Cedarville Universitys Will Geist.

Geist, from Springfield, Ohio, hopes participating in the program will aid his long-term career goals of serving in law enforcement in his home state.

Im excited about all the preparation Ill receive  physical fitness, ride-alongs and mentorship, said Geist. Knowing that Im growing professionally and will have a job right after I graduate is such a benefit.

Currently being piloted by Cedarville University and Central State University, the program welcomes qualifying upper-class criminal justice majors with a minimum 3.0 GPA, history of compliance with the programs six core values  integrity, service orientation, human relations skills, team compatibility, performance-driven and self-control  and professor recommendations to fill out a pre-application.

Candidates who make it past the pre-application phase begin a vetting process that includes a background investigation, polygraph and psychological examinations; physical fitness training and testing; an oral interview; career assessment; medical examination; verification of attendance; and faculty affirmation that the candidate has lived out the programs core values.

Following this vetting process, a student is fully accepted into the program. They will continue with bi-weekly professional development workshops, physical training, police car ride-alongs and officer mentorship.

Students who graduate from the program are guaranteed a position at one of the participating Ohio law enforcement agencies including the Fairfield Township Police Department, Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks, Hilliard Police Department, Lebanon Police Department, and Ohio State University Police Department. Additional agencies are expected to begin participating in the program.

This program is a win-win-win, said Oliver. College students are developed, mentored and guaranteed a job; police agencies get top-quality hires, and the participating universities have a distinctive honors program that places their criminal justice majors in jobs after college.

Working with Governor DeWine and Ohios Office of Law Enforcement Recruitment (OLER) is central to the success of this program.

We did a survey of over 60 law enforcement agencies around Ohio about recruitment, and a top issue across the board was the difficulty of finding quality applicants, especially women and minorities, Oliver explained.

Responding to this need, Gov. DeWine established OLER to help agencies around Ohio recruit, select, and retain law enforcement officers.

I thought to myself, We cannot run the selection process for law enforcement agencies, but we can identify, screen, and develop candidates that well make available for agencies to hire, Oliver explained. That idea led to the program, which we view as filling those needs with leadership development and mentorship.

The program maintains noteworthy rigor throughout its duration  candidates can be eliminated at any point if they fail to meet benchmarks  but the benefits it includes make it attractive to prospective candidates.

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,715 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio, recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, including the Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice program, strong graduation, and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit cedarville.edu.







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NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire -- CryptoCurrencyWire, one of 50+ brands part of IBN (InvestorBrandNetwork), is proud to announce its continued collaboration with Bitcoin Events as the official newswire of Africas premier blockchain and cryptocurrency event, Blockchain Africa Conference 2022, which will be held in a virtual format this year. The eighth conference in the series, the event is scheduled for March 17-18, 2022. A combined audience of 2,500+ delegates are expected to attend, representing 80 countries around the globe.



The 2022 event comes on the backdrop of increasing awareness regarding blockchain technology and its applications, more so in cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance. As a result, the conferences main theme has evolved over the years with the global adoption of blockchain technology from Beyond the Hype, and then From Hype to Mainstream, to this years aptly titled Ready for Business?

We are pleased to be working with Bitcoin Events again this year to provide extended coverage for the Blockchain Africa Conference, said Jonathan Keim, Director of Communications for CryptoCurrencyWire. With the exploding interest in blockchain, cryptocurrencies and NFTs over the past year, we believe that Africa is more than ready to capitalize on the opportunities in the space. The timing for this conference is perfect. We are leveraging our syndication network and various subscription platforms to make sure the conference reaches the largest online audience possible.

Renowned speakers from Africas best blockchain and digital asset companies will share their stories and insights on the market and its prospects. As the technology continues to make inroads in the African continent, the conference offers governments, companies and donors the chance to accelerate its adoption and reap the benefits of lower transaction costs, efficient delivery and more inclusive growth.

CryptoCurrencyWire and its affiliated brands through IBN provide us with an optimum solution to communicate with larger audiences in the financial community, said Sonya Kuhnel, Founder of Bitcoin Events. The extensive syndication network provided, which includes more than 5,000 media outlets and a robust social media presence with a combined 2+ million following, plays a key role in amplifying exposure for our sponsors.

The potential for blockchain in Africa cant be overstated. With 60% of the worlds mobile money already flowing through the continent and with Nigeria being the worlds second-largest bitcoin market after the USA, the continent appears well-positioned to benefit from other enterprise-ready blockchain solutions. This is exactly what Blockchain Africa Conference 2022 has been designed to highlight.

To find out more and register, visit the events official website at www.BlockchainAfrica.co.

About Blockchain Africa Conference 2022

Since 2015, Bitcoin Events annual Blockchain Africa Conferences have been bringing together some of the top thought leaders from across the globe. Over 7,500 delegates and 230 speakers representing more than 150 countries have attended the previous seven conferences, hailing from both the public and private sectors. Blockchain Africa Conference 2022 will take place virtually on March 17-18, 2022. For more information, visit the events website at https://BlockchainAfrica.co/.

About CryptoCurrencyWire (CCW)

CryptoCurrencyWire is a financial news and content distribution company that provides (1) access to a network of wire services via InvestorWire to reach all target markets, industries and demographics in the most effective manner possible, (2) article and editorial syndication to 5,000+ news outlets (3), enhanced press release services to ensure maximum impact, (4) social media distribution via the InvestorBrandNetwork (IBN) to nearly 2 million followers, (5) a full array of corporate communications solutions, and (6) a total news coverage solution with CCW Prime. As a multifaceted organization with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CCW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. By cutting through the overload of information in todays market, CCW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness.

CryptoCurrencyNewsWire is where news, content and information converge via crypto.

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CONCORD, Ohio, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Dolbey Fusion CAC computer-assisted coding solution has been ranked Best in KLAS for the sixth year in a row. Dolbey's Fusion CAC is utilized by hospitals and health systems to streamline the entire revenue cycle process. Fusion CAC uses a single engine that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced machine learning (ML) technologies to enhance documentation integrity, proper reimbursement and regulatory compliance.

The 2022 Best in KLAS Software and Services report leverages feedback from customers to rank healthcare solutions on their efficiency and effectiveness. Anonymous feedback KLAS received about Dolbey includes:

Hospital Executive - "The vendor's support does really well compared to other vendors' support. Dolbey's support is way better. The executives give us a call and ask for feedback, so they get very involved."

Hospital Director - "When managing coders, we need good metrics to judge their productivity and quality. Fusion CAC is very handy for us because it allows us to automate our processes. CAC tools don't usually have productivity metrics built into them, but this one does."

Hospital Executive - "Fusion CAC has made a huge difference in our coder's productivity. Our operations team doesn't have to go in and hunt things down in our main EMR. The system consolidates a lot of information. It organizes things to help us be more productive."

Adam Gale, Co-Founder and CEO of KLAS Research, states, "Each year, thousands of healthcare professionals across the globe take the time to share their voice with KLAS. They know that sharing their perspective helps vendors to improve and helps their peers make better decisions. These conversations are a constant reminder to me of how necessary accurate, honest, and impartial reporting is in the healthcare industry. The Best in KLAS report and the awards it contains set the standard of excellence for software and services firms. Vendors who win the title of Best in KLAS should celebrate and remember that providers now accept only the best from their products and services. The Best in KLAS award serves as a signal to provider and payer organizations that they should expect excellence from the winning vendors."

"There is no greater compliment than the approval of our partners, our customers," states Heather Gladden, Product Manager of Dolbey. "The feedback from KLAS Research culminates with the Best in KLAS award but we value the feedback all year long. It guides our efforts to make sure our solution and our service are meeting expectations."

About Dolbey

Dolbey's award-winning healthcare suite of solutions improves productivity while delivering better documentation, improving patient care. Since 1914, Dolbey has consistently evolved its products incorporating the latest technologies available to meet the demands of the healthcare community. Today, our suite of products includes CAC, CDI, CAPD, Speech Recognition, Transcription and Dictation.

About KLAS

KLAS is a research and insights firm on a global mission to improve healthcare delivery by amplifying the provider's voice. Working with thousands of healthcare professionals and clinicians, KLAS gathers data and insights on software, services and medical equipment to deliver timely reports, trends and statistical overviews. The research directly represents the provider voice and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. Follow KLAS on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KLASresearch.

For further information, please contact:

Traci Miller, Marketing Director

800-878-7828 x119/tmiller@dolbey.com

www.dolbey.com

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New York, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the statistics by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), visitor arrivals to Japan grew from 8611175 numbers in the year 2010 to 31882049 numbers in the year 2019. Moreover, travel spending per foreign traveler in the country grew from 130819 units in the year 2011 to 158531 units in the year 2019. Besides this, the GDP of the country, according to the statistics by the World Bank, touched USD 5.065 Trillion (in current US$) in the year 2019, by growing from USD 4.389 Trillion (in current US$) in the year 2015.

Research Nester has recently released a report titled  Japan Window Coverings Market : Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2020-2030 which includes a detailed analysis of the key market players, along with their latest developments, and their market strategies. Moreover, the report, which is studied for the forecast period, i.e., 2021-2030, focuses on the latest market trends, and the major driving factors for market growth.

The tourism and hospitality industry in Japan, which also contributes significantly to the GDP of the nation, is soaring at rocket speed. The industry is also one of the major consumers of window coverings, including products such as curtains, drapes, and others. According to the statistics by the International Trade Center (ITC), Japan was the third-largest importer of curtains, including drapes and interior blinds, registering growth in import value from USD 211550 Thousand in the year 2015 to USD 250365 Thousand in the year 2020. Furthermore, the preferences for window coverings, such as curtains, drapes, shutters, and blinds among others, are growing significantly in the nation as these products are known to enhance the aesthetics of the room or the house. Moreover, with the growing living standards of Japanese people, backed by the surge in household disposable income and rising urbanization, the demand for window coverings is projected to grow significantly in the coming years. According to the statistics by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the gross adjusted household disposable income in Japan grew from USD 25024/capita in the year 2008 to USD 29891/capita in the year 2017. On the other hand, in one of the statistics by the World Bank, the urban population as a share of the total population in the country touched 91.782% in the year 2020, up from 78.649% in the year 2000.

Get a sample copy of the report@ https://www.researchnester.com/sample-request-3600

The Japan window coverings market, which generated a revenue of USD 685.2 Million in the year 2020, is further projected to touch USD 1018.9 Million by the end of 2030, by growing with a CAGR of 4.1% during the forecast period. Moreover, the market is expected to register a Y-o-Y growth of 4.28% in the year 2030 as compared to the previous year. The market growth can also be attributed to the numerous opportunities generated by the rising availability of dwellings in the nation, as well as the increasing trends of rental homes. According to the statistics by the Statistics Bureau of Japan, the total number of dwellings in the nation increased from 57586 Thousand in the year 2008 to 62407 Thousand in the year 2018.

The Japan window coverings market is segmented on the basis of type into window blinds, window shutter, window shades, curtains & drapes, and others. Out of all these segments, the window blinds segment registered the largest revenue of USD 231.6 Million in the year 2020 and is further expected to touch USD 371.6 Million by the end of 2030, by growing with the highest CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period. The segment is also expected to attain the fastest growth of 1.6X over the forecast period. The window shades segment, on the other hand, is expected to grow with the second-highest CAGR of 4.1% during the forecast period and also register the second-largest revenue of USD 260.5 Million by the end of 2030.

The Final Report will cover the impact analysis of COVID-19 on this industry.

Please visit: https://www.researchnester.com/reports/japan-window-coverings-market/3600

The Japan window coverings market is further segmented by curtain rail type into rods and tracks. Out of these two segments, the rods segment is projected to generate the largest revenue by the end of 2030 and also register the highest market share over the forecast period. Additionally, the tracks segment is expected to attain the fastest growth of 1.4X and grow with the highest CAGR of 3.7% during the forecast period. The segment is further divided into corded tracks, bay window tracks, uncorded tracks, double curtain tracks, and others. Amongst all these segments, the corded tracks segment is expected to generate the largest revenue of USD 39.9 Million by the end of 2030. Meanwhile, the bay window tracks segment is predicted to grow with the highest CAGR of 4.1% during the forecast period.

The Japan window coverings market is also segmented on the basis of distribution channel, and by end-user.

Japan Window Coverings Market, Segmentation by Distribution Channel

Offline

Online

Japan Window Coverings Market, Segmentation by End-User

Residential

Commercial Hotels & Restaurants Hospitals Academic Institutions Office Buildings Others



Get a PDF Sample for more detailed market insights@ https://www.researchnester.com/sample-request-3600

Some of the prominent industry leaders in the Japan window coverings market that are included in our report are TOSO Company Limited, Nichibei Co., Ltd., Nien Made Enterprise Co., Ltd., Hunter Douglas N.V., Silent Gliss International Ltd., Nanik Japan, Inc., Carolina Blind Crafters, Lutron Electronics Co., Inc., Tachikawa Corporation, and others.

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Research Nester is a one-stop service provider with a client base in more than 50 countries, leading in strategic market research and consulting with an unbiased and unparalleled approach towards helping global industrial players, conglomerates and executives for their future investment while avoiding forthcoming uncertainties. With an out-of-the-box mindset to produce statistical and analytical market research reports, we provide strategic consulting so that our clients can make wise business decisions with clarity while strategizing and planning for their forthcoming needs and succeed in achieving their future endeavors. We believe every business can expand to its new horizon, provided a right guidance at a right time is available through strategic minds.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SaaS, Technology and Healthcare Marketing Executive Sajal Sahay has joined Chief Outsiders, effective January 2022. Sahay joins the ranks of the fractional Executives-as-a-Services firm at a time of significant growth, with more than 100 CMOs now available to deliver C-level marketing strategies through right-sized engagements at SMB and mid-market companies.

Sahay, who joins Chief Outsiders after gaining 30 years of product marketing, demand generation, as well as branding and executive management experience, is noted for leveraging a trio of insights  product, distribution, and competitive industry analyses  as a recipe for revenue growth. Sahay has honed these skills with leading organizations such as Bausch & Lomb, Philips, T-Mobile, Hewlett-Packard, and Fairchild Semiconductor, as well as multiple start-ups funded by Tier I VCs in the Seattle and Bay Areas.

Over the course of his career, Sahay has successfully increased market share and revenue for the Sonicare electronic toothbrush, even with a 6x pricing premium to its closest rival. He led a team from T-Mobile, Google and HTC that launched the worlds first and second Android phones. At Twin Prime, Sahay worked closely with the initial trial customers to design and execute a content marketing strategy that positioned Twin Prime as the thought leader and lead generator in the AI performance field.

Designing marketing plans, product portfolios, content marketing strategies, and unique value propositions, Sajal quickly builds value, thought leadership, and brand presence to accelerate company valuations, said Karen Hayward, Managing Partner, Chief Outsiders.

Sahay earned his Masters degree in Business Administration from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

About Chief Outsiders

Chief Outsiders, LLC is a nationwide "Executives-as-a-Service" firm, with more than 100 fractional Chief Marketing Officers/Chief Marketing Outsiders (CMOs) engaged from coast-to-coast. Unlike other strategic marketing and management consulting firms, each CMO has held the position of VP Marketing or higher at one or more operating companies. Chief Outsiders have served on the executive team of over 1,400 client companies to drive growth strategy and execution plans by offering instant access to talent with highly customized and flexible engagements.

Because of its market-based growth plans, quality of leadership, and experienced team, Chief Outsiders has been recognized for the past eight years by Inc. Magazine as one of the 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies in the US, and was recognized in 2019 as a Forbes Small Giant. Chief Outsiders CEO Art Saxby and Principal Pete Hayes are the co-authors of The Growth Gears: Using a Market-Based Framework to Drive Business Success, an Amazon #1 best-seller for business owners and CEOs. For additional information about the companies who trust Chief Outsiders as their premier source for business growth acceleration, click here.

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San Diego, CA, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Healthcare, now more than ever, is some of the most important work in the world, yet constant high-stress situations within the health field directly impact employee burnout. Rejuvenation Station and Rejuvenation Station GO! are brand new immersive experiences designed and proven to mitigate the stress that accompanies healthcare work. The service provides a fix to burnout in less than six minutes, helping healthcare workers reduce stress, improve effectiveness at work and, at the same time, reduce employee turnover.

Many individuals may think stress is no big deal or that its just part of the job, but we imagine a world in which this is not the standard, says founder and President of Rejuvenation Station, Annette Ridenour. Stress has been proven to profoundly affect the physical body and manifest itself in a variety of ways. This is not fair to our healthcare workers who put themselves on the line every day to help people.

What is the cost of burnout in healthcare? Approximately $4.6 billion dollars annually. Physician turnover is costly making short-staffed hospital units a detriment to public health. Bringing value to healthcare workers with Rejuvenation Station and Rejuvenation Station GO! has tangibly reduced stress for healthcare workers as shown through data collection taken before and after usage. Unlike many audio/visual opportunities marketed as stress-reducing, Rejuvenation Station and Rejuvenation Station GO! are the only options on the market that include quantitative assessments before and after usage that allow organizations to measure the real effects on their healthcare staff.

The experience is created using the evidence-based phenomena of biophilia, humans' innate love and affinity for nature. The immersive audiovisual experience induces the feeling of awe which has been shown to enhance critical and creative thinking faculties, improve health, and increase pro-social behaviors, subsequently improving work and overall wellbeing.

When implemented at Houston Methodist Hospital, Rejuvenation Station allowed nurses and doctors the ability to destress on a regular basis right there on the unit in the department. Co-inventor, David Corbin states, If these Rejuvenation Stations can improve employee burnout by only a fraction of what it is today, it will improve healthcare delivery for patients and economics for hospitals for years to come.

For a proven solution to employee burnout delivered safely and economically, Rejuvenation Station and Rejuvenation Station GO! are the answers hospitals need. If you are interested in engaging in the experience yourself, head to Rejuvenation Stations website to try it. For more information in general, learn more at its website: https://www.rejuvenationstations.com/.

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Rejuvenation Station was founded in 2018 by Annette Ridenour who has been a leader in healthcare design and arts in health for over forty years and David Corbin, two time Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author in the fields of Patient service, leadership and Brand Integrity. Rejuvenation Station was founded with the belief that caregivers deserve care provided back to them. The service aims to prevent healthcare burnout one immersive experience at a time.

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FRANKLIN, Tenn., Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acadia Healthcares Military & Family Support Services (MFS) has become certified as a Veteran Ready Healthcare Organization.

Acadias MFS program serves as a much-needed resource for members of the military, Veterans, and their families who are struggling with addictions and mental health concerns by connecting them with appropriate, thoroughly vetted treatment options. With access to facilities both inside and outside Acadias nationwide network, the MFS team offers members of the military community referrals that align with their personal and financial needs.

The MFS team partnered with PsychArmor, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping treatment professionals develop additional skills needed to better care for this unique population. The MFS team completed the trainings offered by PsychArmor and became the first team within Acadias network to receive Veteran Ready certification. From there, they offered support and guidance as additional professionals at Acadias facilities sat for certification.

Acadia Healthcare is the largest stand-alone behavioral healthcare company in the United States. Through this partnership between MFS and PsychArmor, the treatment teams at Acadias facilities can learn to better understand military life, military culture, and the challenges members of the military community often face when returning from deployment or transitioning back to civilian life.

Acadia is committed to caring for those who have served our nation, and our commitment just took another huge step forward, said Acadia Healthcare Chief Medical Officer Michael V. Genovese, M.D., J.D. We are thrilled to partner with PsychArmor as we further train the teams at our facilities across the nation and cultivate treatment environments that are geared toward better understanding and supporting those who have served. The advanced trainings and critical resources PsychArmor provides will help ensure that our programs are best prepared to effectively engage with and support military service members, Veterans, and their families.

Many of the facilities within Acadias network already offer specialized programming for active-duty military members, Veterans, and their loved ones who are struggling with mental health or substance use concerns.

By becoming certified as Veteran Ready healthcare organizations, facilities within Acadias network can help their staffs develop the cultural competence they need to better support the military community.

We value our healthcare partners who are actively working to enhance healthcare competence through education and training. Cultural awareness training for providers assists in reducing or eliminating barriers to care, said Dr. Tina Atherall, CEO of PsychArmor.

About Acadia Healthcare Military & Family Support Services

The Acadia Healthcare Military & Family Support Services (MFS) program is a free service that connects active-duty service members, Veterans, and their family members with mental health and substance use treatment providers in their area. Our military liaisons work with premier facilities across the U.S. both inside and outside Acadias nationwide network. Services include referral coordination, guidance with the admissions process, ongoing support throughout treatment, and aftercare support. For more information, please visit www.acadiahealthcare.com/programming-treatment/military-support.

About Acadia Healthcare

Acadia is a leading provider of behavioral healthcare services across the United States. As of September 30, 2021, Acadia operated a network of 230 behavioral healthcare facilities with approximately 10,200 beds in 40 states and Puerto Rico. With more than 20,000 employees serving approximately 70,000 patients daily, Acadia is the largest stand-alone behavioral health company in the U.S. Acadia provides behavioral healthcare services to its patients in a variety of settings, including inpatient psychiatric hospitals, specialty treatment facilities, residential treatment centers and outpatient clinics. For more information, please visit www.acadiahealthcare.com.

About PsychArmor

PsychArmor is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation providing education and support to individuals and organizations that work with, live with, and care for American service members, Veterans, and their families.
NEW YORK, NY, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- ILUS International Inc (OTC: ILUS) is a Mergers and Acquisitions company focused on acquiring and developing public safety technology-based companies across the globe. The company has completed several acquisitions and has now acquired Georgia Fire and Rescue Supply. This is ILUS first distribution acquisition and it is key to the rollout of ILUS technology across North America, whilst adding significant technical expertise and consistent, profitable revenue to the company.



Founded in 2003 and headquartered out of Canton, Georgia, Georgia Fire and Rescue Supply, LLC (Georgia Fire) is a renowned nationwide distributor of firefighting and emergency response equipment. The company holds several exclusive Georgian distribution contracts for the sales and servicing of some of the worlds largest firefighting equipment brands, such as Holmatro, Innotex and Paratech. It also distributes a wide range of products across North America, including prominent global brands for firefighting and the wider public safety sector. Some of these include but are not limited to; wildland firefighting, technical rescue, hazardous materials, emergency response, law enforcement and even homeland security. The profitable company has zero debt and an annual turnover of $3.5 million.

Of great importance to ILUS is the acquisitions extensively experienced 7-member sales team, all of whom are retained firefighters with a wealth of technical knowledge and a thorough understanding of how to penetrate the US market. Georgia Fire currently operates from its 6,000 square foot distribution warehouse, from which several vehicles operate for sales and servicing purposes across Georgia, Alabama and North-East Florida. Within the coming months, ILUS plans to move Georgia Fire into a 15,000 square foot distribution facility with a showroom and dedicated vehicle yard.

Georgia Fire is a leading distributor of Holmatro hydraulic rescue equipment in the United States. The company has been selling and servicing the global brand for many years. Although Georgia Fire distributes a very broad product range, Holmatro has long been the mainstay of the companys product portfolio. Holmatro is the worlds leading hydraulic rescue tools brand. It is widely used by fire and rescue services to extricate road accident victims and for several related rescue applications. With road accidents being in the top 10 causes of death globally, ILUS immediately saw alignment with Holmatros innovative technology that has been proven to save lives.

ILUS focus on delivering its strategy of acquiring routes to market in the US for its existing and future products has been integral to its acquisition of a leading distributor such as Georgia Fire. This is the first of many distribution acquisitions in the US for ILUS and it compliments the companys ongoing acquisition of manufacturing capability in North America, the UK, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Georgia Fire provides an immediate route to market for ILUS FireBug technology. Georgia Fires experienced sales team is conducting daily demonstrations to fire brigades and the wider emergency response industry, therefore they are well positioned to present FireBugs solutions for structural compartment fires, electric vehicle (EV) fires, wildfires and rapid response vehicle solutions.

Georgia Fire will be FireBugs initial distribution channel into the US market, meaning that all FireBug products will be demonstrated to fire authorities across the US through this channel and they will also be sold online, supported and serviced by the acquisition. ILUS products distributed by Georgia Fire will be manufactured or assembled in the US by the complimentary ILUS acquisitions, Bull Head Products in Tennessee or Precision Powered Products in Texas. Georgia Fire will be led by its current President, Jason Whidby, who is also the son of the companys founder. With more than 20 years of experience in the firefighting industry and still serving on a part time basis at the Atlanta Fire Department, Jason will bring a wealth of experience to ILUS as the company forges its path in the US market. Jason will report to ILUS Managing Director, John-Paul Backwell, and will also provide consultation to ILUS regarding its US firefighting equipment sales strategy in the US.

John-Paul Backwell, Managing Director at ILUS, had the following to say about the acquisition: It is exciting to welcome Georgia Fire to our family. It marks the beginning of our real boots on the ground US rollout. The people at the heart of the company are incredibly valuable to the delivery of our strategy in the US market. We now have an effective distribution channel for our existing firefighting equipment and vehicles, as well as the exclusive distribution of leading global rescue equipment brands. These brands deliver consistent quarterly revenue and provide continuous opportunities for further US and global expansion. As a result of this acquisition, additional very exciting acquisition discussions are already underway and there is already engagement on very significant US sales opportunities. We continue to deliver our strategy, and acquisitions like Georgia Fire will be the cornerstone of ILUS consistent growth and long-term sustainability.

For further information on the companies, please see their communication channels:

Website: https://ilus-group.com

Twitter: OTC_ILUS

Contact:

Email:IR@Ilus-Group.com

Source: ILUS

Related Links

https://ilus-group.com

Forward-Looking Statement

Certain information set forth in this press release contains "forward-looking information", including "future-oriented financial information" and "financial outlook", under applicable securities laws (collectively referred to herein as forward-looking statements). Except for statements of historical fact, the information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements and includes, but is not limited to, the (i) projected financial performance of the Company; (ii) completion of, and the use of proceeds from, the sale of the shares being offered hereunder; (iii) the expected development of the Company's business, projects, and joint ventures; (iv) execution of the Company's vision and growth strategy, including with respect to future M&A activity and global growth; (v) sources and availability of third-party financing for the Company's projects; (vi) completion of the Company's projects that are currently underway, in development or otherwise under consideration; (vi) renewal of the Company's current customer, supplier and other material agreements; and (vii) future liquidity, working capital, and capital requirements. Forward-looking statements are provided to allow potential investors the opportunity to understand management's beliefs and opinions in respect of the future so that they may use such beliefs and opinions as one factor in evaluating an investment. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or result expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although forward-looking statements contained in this presentation are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has provided guidance to issuers regarding the use of social media to disclose material non-public information. In this regard, investors and others should note that we announce material financial information via official Press Releases, in addition to SEC filings, press releases, Questions & Answers sessions, public conference calls and webcastsalso may take time from time to time. We use these channels as well as social media to communicate with the public about our company, our services, and other issues. It is possible that the information we post on social media could be deemed to be material information. Therefore, considering the SEC's guidance, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in our company to review the information we post on the following social & media channels:

website: https://ilus-group.com Twitter: OTC_ILUS

Note: ILUS Coin does not sit within ILUS International Inc (Ilustrato Pictures International Inc), so the public are recommended to follow the correct Media Channels relating to the public company OTC: ILUS.
Suffolk Countys newest police commissioner has put together a dream team of detectives to solve a long-stalled Gilgo Beach serial killing case.

The Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force includes investigators from the FBI, New York State Police, Suffolk County Police Department homicide squad, Suffolk County district attorneys office and the Suffolk County sheriffs office and will take a fresh look at the remains and evidence collected between Manorville and Hempstead beginning in 2011.

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I believe this case is solvable, and identifying the person or people responsible for these murders is a top priority, said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison, the NYPDs former chief of department.

The task force marks the first time federal, state and local agencies will jointly dedicate investigators to solve a serial killing case, Suffolk County police said. Investigators will use new scientific techniques to advance the investigation as well as uncover the names of the remaining unidentified victims. The renewed efforts will ultimately lead them to the killer, who may have links to law enforcement.

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An aerial view of where a body was discovered in the area near Gilgo Beach and Ocean Parkway in Wantagh, Long Island on April 15, 2011. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The remains of nearly nearly a dozen people, mostly sex workers, were unearthed a decade ago near Gilgo Beach.

At about the same time, disgraced Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke was accused of beating Christopher Loeb, who had stolen a duffel bag from Burkes SUV.

During a podcast that aired in January 2021 Loeb said the duffel bag contained an incriminating pornographic DVD that featured footage of a masked man torturing a prostitute, an allegation that law enforcement officials have not verified.

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Burke was also running the department when its homicide squad cut ties with the FBI, which was assisting in the serial killer probe.

The former chief served nearly four years in jail after pleading guilty to charges that he violated Loebs civil rights, but has never been linked to the Gilgo Beach killings.

Police search for more remains in the Gilgo Beach serial killer case. (Barcelo stephen/Freelance NYDN)

Suffolk County cops, investigating the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, recovered the first of 10 sets of remains believed to be the work of one or more serial killers in the Gilgo Beach area in 2010.

The dead included eight women, an Asian man dressed as a woman and a toddler.

The first four bodies were those of women in their 20s who worked as prostitutes and were found within a quarter of a mile from each other.

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Gilberts remains were recovered in the same area on Dec. 13, 2011.

Suffolk County police are offering a $25,000 reward for any information that will lead them to a suspect. Anyone with information regarding those responsible is urged to call (800) 220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Goshen, IN (46526)

Today

Rain this morning with thunderstorms by evening. High 59F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Rain showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low 46F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
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Mohammed Ben Sulayem spoke to all the team bosses at the F1 Commission meeting in London yesterday. The newly appointed President of the FIA is pleased with the topics discussed and states that good initial decisions have been made that are in the best interest of the future of Formula 1

Among other things, what was discussed were the sprint races for 2022, how the points should be distributed at a time when a Grand Prix has to be stopped prematurely and the position of Michael Masi and the handling of the final laps in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. However, a complete report on the last-mentioned point is not yet available, but its completion will not take very long.

Ben Sulayem keeps it vague

"Analysis is still going on but it will come soon, but it was a good discussion there so we will see," Ben Sulayem told Sky Sports. "Information will be announced but the integrity of the FIA will always be intact and we elected to do that, but also to have a fair motorsport, thats my duty, so it was a very good meeting." He doesn't want to release more than this about it.

The 60-year-old top executive from the United Arab Emirates is happy with the first steps taken and is looking forward to a great Formula 1 year. We can only go forward, this is important for the FIA, for the integrity of the FIA and for the sport, so we can only improve the future", he concludes. On March 18, the results of the investigation into the closing laps in Abu Dhabi will be revealed to fans.
On Tuesday, Williams launched an alll-new livery for the 2022 Formula 1 season. With drivers Nicholas Latifi and Alex Albon alongside, Williams boss Jost Capito explained why the team have opted for a different livery on the FW44 car.

A splash of red

Capito saw Williams improve during the 2021 season. Thanks to a sublime qualifying session and then a virtually cancelled race due to rain, George Russell even managed to record a podium for the team in Belgium. With the new rules and regulations coming, Williams didn't reveal the actual car but did launch the livery for the 2022 season and Capito explained the changes.

"The design reflects the brand definition we redid last year especially when you look at various shades of blue with the diamond scheme we have in the team as well, and a touch of red. The red is British. We are a proud British team and that's why we have a hint of red on the car," Capito explained.

High expectations

With Toto Wolff signing Russell for Mercedes, Williams loses a key person in their car. Latifi stays on for his third season at Williams, whilst Albon returns after a year on the sidelines working as Red Bull's sim driver. Capito said he expects a lot from his drivers for the 2022 Formula 1 season.

"Nicholas has been with us two years, and he deserved the place definitely. He showed a really great performance at the end of last year when he got into the rhythm and got very close to George. We expect a lot from him this year. Alex has podiums under his belt, a lot of experience and a fighting attitude, he fits the team," Capito added during the car launch.
Kirt Earhart, owner of Maxines on Shine, poses with the various sizes of mimosas available at the restaurant on Monday, February 7, 2022. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

Orange juice, a staple at the breakfast table and a champagne-laced treat for brunch, could get more expensive as Florida groves are expected to grow their smallest orange crop in more than 75 years.

Floridas thinner harvest, forecast to be down 18% from last season, comes at the same time orange juice from concentrate has gone up in price, rising 13.8% in 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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While most Florida oranges arent converted to concentrate, a worldwide shortage of the fruit is one of the factors affecting orange juice, said Marisa Zansler, director of economic and market research at Floridas Department of Citrus.

We would anticipate an increase in prices since the decline in Florida production would surely lead to shortages amid higher consumer demand, Zansler said.

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She said citrus production is on the decline worldwide mainly due to a disease called citrus greening that harms both the tree and its fruit.

The grove at Showcase of Citrus on U.S. 27 in Clermont, Thursday, January 6, 2022. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Demand is at its highest in recent years, Zansler said.

Recent consumer research has shown that consumers are purchasing 100% orange juice since the onset of the pandemic because of its nutritional benefits, Zansler said. And, in fact, they are willing to pay more for orange juice now than they have in the past.

Its too early to see price hikes in restaurants, said Geoff Luebkemann, senior vice president of the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association.

He added big chains have contracts in place that could help protect them from increases, so neighborhood diners and independent breakfast spots serving orange juice could be more likely to feel the squeeze.

If the supply tightens, the price goes up, Luebkemann said.

Maxines on Shine in Orlando hasnt seen a spike in what it pays for Florida orange juice, owner Kirt Earhart said, but it wouldnt surprise him if his costs rose because of the smaller crop.

The restaurant serves mimosas anytime, including at brunch 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The menu includes a 32-ounce, $22 mimosa that contains a bottle of champagne.

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For me, I like the richness of being able to utilize a good, not-from-concentrate, Florida orange juice, Earhart said.

Mimosa prices at Maxines were bumped up recently, but that was due to the general increases in the cost of doing business, Earhart said. Restaurants have seen labor costs and expenses for food and supplies increase in the last year.

Florida is forecast to grow 43.5 million 90-pound boxes of oranges this year, according to a USDA forecast. An earlier forecast of 44.5 million was the smallest crop since the 1944 to 1945 season, said Mark Hudson, Florida State Statistician for the USDA.

The most recent projection was based on data collected before the recent freeze in parts of Central Florida.

The citrus industry is still feeling the damage from 2017s Hurricane Irma while farmers have been battling citrus greening for years, said Christina Morton, director of communications for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association.

The freeze was another stress on the trees, Morton said.

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You have all these issues at the same time people have really gravitated back towards orange juice as part of overall health and wellness, she said.

Even so, its not all bad news for Central Florida farmers.

Kris Sutton, whose family owns about 140 acres of citrus and takes care of another 500 to 525 acres in Umatilla as well as Marion County, said he saw his navel orange production increase about 35% to 40% this season compared with last year.

His Hamlin oranges, which are almost done being harvested, also grew about 10%, and while he hasnt started picking his Valencia oranges, they are also looking better.

Still, his crop lags behind what it was before greening, and Sutton doesnt expect it will ever return to those levels.

He said his farming operation has focused on nutritional fertilizers.

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I think what were doing at least for this season worked, he said. In citrus and farming, every seasons different, so you just dont know. It could be next year could be a bad year.

Kris Sutton talks with Brian Faryna (left) about citrus greening in Umatilla in this 2019 file photo. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

The recent freeze did not hurt Suttons fruit, but damage from it could effect his next crop.

Some of the groves had a pretty good amount of bloom get damaged, Sutton said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an order earlier this month declaring a state of emergency following freezing temperatures that could harm agriculture.

Citrus is big business for Florida, supporting 33,000 jobs with an annual economic impact of $6.7 billion in the state.

Suttons Faryna Grove Care has about six full-time employees as well as 14 contract workers for picking the fruit.

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Obviously, citrus is not as big as it used to be, Sutton said. It still employs a lot of people. Its still one of the big operations for farming in the state of Florida, and we want to keep that going.

afuller@orlandosentinel.com
Yes, like every other state in the nation

At least half of it

No, keep funneling to the General Fund

Eliminate the fuel tax

Uncertain

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Guests arrive during the daily opening at Disneys Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, with cold weather heading to Central Florida, Friday, January 28, 2022. Temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing in northern counties both Saturday and Sunday morning. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Starting Thursday, vaccinated guests visiting Walt Disney World will be able to go maskless at indoor locations at the resort, including attractions, shops and restaurants.

Regardless of vaccination status, all visitors age 2 or older still have to mask up inside the resorts enclosed transportation, including the monorail, Skyliner and buses.

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The resort is still asking unvaccinated visitors to continue to wear face coverings indoors.

Disney announced the change to its mask requirements Tuesday, marking the first time it has updated its face-covering policy in nearly seven months.

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The current rules, which require visitors of all vaccination statuses to mask up when indoors, are still in place Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the resort. Disneys full face covering policy can be found on its website.

The resort said the changing rules were in response to recent trends and regulatory guidance, and it encourages vaccination for all.

Orange County is still considered to have high community COVID-19 transmission by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency recommends people in areas of high transmission keep wearing masks in public, indoor areas.

Disneys announcement comes four days after Universal dropped its face mask rule for vaccinated guests, reversing a policy the latter implemented in late December amid the omicron variants surge.

Fully vaccinated guests at Universal can forgo face coverings indoors, while Universal similarly encourages unvaccinated guests to continue to mask up.

Disneys face mask rules have shifted along with the COVID-19 pandemics different stages since Disney World reopened in July 2020. Disney has consistently had the strictest COVID-19 safety measures of Orlandos theme parks.

Last May, Disney relaxed its rules alongside Universal Orlando and SeaWorld so visitors did not have to don masks outdoors. The next month, the resort said fully vaccinated visitors could opt to not wear masks indoors, except on transportation systems.

As the delta variant emerged, Disney reinstated the indoor mask requirement for all visitors in July, a rule that has been in place since.

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krice@orlandosentinel.com and @katievrice on Twitter
Kevin Hart is set to perform in Orlando on his "Reality Check Tour" later this year. (Chris Pizzello / Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Comedian Kevin Hart is set to entertain audiences at Orlandos Amway Center later this year, bringing his Reality Check Tour to the City Beautiful.

The performer, who was crowned Pollstars comedy touring artist of the decade, will embark on his first major tour in more than four years beginning in Las Vegas this July. Hart will have audiences laughing in Orlando on Sept. 16.

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I am hyped to go back on tour. There is nothing better than making people laugh. I can feel the energy in the venues like caffeine pumping through my veins, he said in a news release. Ive been cooking up something special and have thoughts I need to get off my chest.

Phone use will not be permitted in the performance space, and guests will be required to secure their devices in individual Yondr pouches. Attendees will keep hold of the pouches, which will be opened at the conclusion of the show. Devices can still be used in phone use areas within the venue.

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Hart was ranked as one of the highest-earning stand-up comedians by Forbes in 2019, and the entertainer sold out more than 100 arenas during his 2018 tour. In addition, hes appeared on the big screen in films such as Get Hard, Top Five and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

Tickets start at $46.50 and go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Feb. 18. A Live Nation presale begins at 10 a.m. Feb. 16. For more information, visit amwaycenter.com.

Find me @PConnPie on Twitter and Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com. For more fun things, follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Jose Antonio Martinez and Terance Elder were arrested Sunday and face charges of third degree grand theft and criminal mischief (Orlando Pol)

Two 19-year-old men were arrested Sunday after stealing 30 catalytic converters from a Universal Orlando area hotel parking lot, according to Orlando Police.

Terance Elder and Jose Antonio Martinez were arrested Sunday and face charges of third degree grand theft and criminal mischief, court records show. Both men are from outside of Florida, OPD said.

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On Sunday, OPD received a call about two men removing converters from vehicles in a hotel parking lot. The two were able to remove them in under two minutes, and in one instance about 40 seconds.

30 catalytic converters were found in the hotel room of Jose Antonio Martinez and Terance Elder Sunday. The two were arrested and face multiple charges. (Orlando Police Department)

Surveillance footage of the lot shows the suspects arriving in a black SUV. One suspect can be seen exiting, grabbing a tool and then removing a converter, while the other suspect waited in the driver seat.

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Within a few hours of the initial call, officers were able to identify the suspects getaway car and what hotel room they were staying in with the converters.

Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com
The United States imports many of the minerals used in EV batteries, such as cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, and nickel, with lithium being the predominant mineral. Although use of these minerals is not restricted to battery production for EVs, they are nonetheless important for meeting the increasing demand for EV production.

From 2016-2019, more than 90% of the lithium imported to the United States came from Argentina (55%) and Chile (36%).

During this same time period, Gabon produced 69% of the manganese imported to the United States, while imports of cobalt, graphite and nickel were not as heavily dependent on a single country.

In terms of US net import reliance, 100% of graphite and manganese was imported, 76% of cobalt was imported, and about 50% of lithium and nickel was imported in 2020.





Source: US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021.

Excluding US production, worldwide lithium production in 2021 increased by 21% to approximately 100,000 tons from 82,500 tons in 2020 in response to strong demand from the lithium-ion battery market and increased prices of lithium, according to the US Geological Survey. Global consumption of lithium in 2021 was estimated to be 93,000 tons, a 33% increase from 70,000 tons in 2020.
New Flyer of America has received a new contract from the New York City Transit Authority (NYCT) for 60 battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE NG forty-foot heavy-duty transit buses. The order is supported by Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds and advances NYCTs goal to reduce New York Citys carbon footprint through sustainable public transportation.

The order is in addition to 15 battery-electric buses previously delivered to NYCT by New Flyer. The NYCT and the MTA Bus Company (together, MTA) constitute the largest transit agency in North America. MTA serves an estimated 8.5 million citizens and more than 60 million visitors with 678 million bus rides annually, and is one of seven transit agencies in New York State to purchase zero-emission buses from New Flyer.

New Flyers Xcelsior CHARGE NG battery-electric bus features a new lightweight electric traction drive system, provides up to 90% energy recovery, and integrates up to 525 kWh of power to meet the MTAs route demands on a single charge.

Earlier in the month, Philadelphias SEPTA awarded NFI a contract for up to 340 low-emission hybrid-electric buses, comprising a firm order of 220 Xcelsior forty-foot, heavy-duty, hybrid-electric transit buses with options to purchase up to 120 additional Xcelsior forty-foot, hybrid-electric buses under a five-year contract.

SEPTA is Americas sixth-largest transit agency, delivering 300 million annual rides across five counties surrounding Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The hybrid-electric buses feature BAEs HDS200 hybrid drive propulsion, including the latest MAPS2 accessory power system which will upgrade SEPTAs current fleet with engine-off features such as stop/start, arrive and go, and onboard Green Zone technology, which enables the bus to switch to battery-electric power in specified zones. Together, these features provide emission and noise reduction in the community.
Rolls-Royce is teaming up with UK rail rolling stock owner and asset manager Porterbrook to identify and develop technological innovations to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality across the rail network. The two companies, who have signed a memorandum of understanding, will investigate the potential for the use of synthetic and net zero fuels, including hydrogen, both in fuel cells and internal combustion engines.

Building on their recent success of jointly introducing hybrid battery-diesel railcars into passenger service (earlier post), the two companies will also explore the potential for advanced hybridization.

The relationship also includes considering the role of the wider rail ecosystem in decarbonization, including fuel chain supply, infrastructure and operational models that can aid innovation and the transition to net zero.

The UKs railway accounts for approximately 1% of all domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Governments ambition is to remove all diesel-only trainsboth passenger and freightfrom the network by 2040 and achieve a net zero rail network by 2050.

The UK Government has identified a number of different routes to this target including alternative forms of power such as hydrogen, fuel cells, batteries, hybrid-electric and sustainable fuels.

Rolls-Royce, through its Power Systems business, has decades of experience in providing drive solutions for rail with its mtu-branded engines in service across five continents. The company has been developing new sustainable solutions including the hybrid-electric mtu Hybrid PowerPack for rail use. This technology recently entered commercial service in the UK with Chiltern Railways on HybridFLEX trains, supplied by Porterbrook, which reduce CO 2 emissions by up to 25%.

Power Systems is already developing a range of engines for power generation which can run on hydrogen and is working on fuel cells to be used as reliable power supply in ships and heavy-duty off-highway vehicles.

Last year, Power Systems committed to release new generations of its most popular diesel engines for use with sustainable fuels by 2023; this includes mtu Series 4000 engines which are today used in locomotives operating in conditions as varied as Siberia and the Australian outback. From next year it plans to have conversion kits available which enable mtu Series 4000 engines to run on 100% hydrogen.

Porterbrook owns almost a quarter of the UK national passenger rail fleet and currently has around 4,000 vehicles on lease or on order. The business has an established reputation for delivering new technologies, such as battery, hybrid and hydrogen powered trains. Alongside the HybridFLEX and other hybrid trains in commercial service, the company has developed HydroFLEX, the first hydrogen-powered train to run on the UKs mainline network. It can operate under electric, battery and hydrogen power, making it the worlds first tri-mode train.
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This is Rodman Dam along the Ocklawaha River. Tree trunks and branches continually pile against the dam's upstream side. That's a legacy of the hasty construction of the dam and reservoir in the 1960s that left many trees in the reservoir's boundary. Photo was taken Aug. 30, 2020. (Kevin Spear)

A Florida tax watchdog called Tuesday for busting the Rodman Dam to restore the Ocklawaha River, bolstering the push to remove the aging and controversial structure as beneficial to the economy, wildlife and water resources.

Florida TaxWatch recommends the legislature appropriate funding, the nonpartisan, nonprofit group said in its analysis of the dams condition, environmental effects and ecotourism. To do otherwise would be a dam shame.

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Removing the Rodman Dam near Palatka has been hotly pursued by environmentalists from before it was finished in the 1960s as part of an ill-fated and abandoned plan by the federal government to build a barge canal across Floridas peninsula.

The canal was deauthorized by Congress in 1991 and state agencies have backed removal of the dam at various stages.

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But a local push to retain the dam grew intense, including from former state Sen. George Kirkpatrick, as its reservoir became popular for bass fishing, boating and other recreation.

The remote lake retains an inky stain from decomposing vegetation and is hazardous for boating in many areas because of submerged stumps and floating plants.

In recent years, dam opponents have revived their campaign to breach the dam and restore the Ocklawaha River, which starts in Lake County, receives waters of Silver Springs in Marion County and ultimately drains into the St. Johns River.

A coalition of environmentalists contends that removing the dam would revitalize a huge ecosystem, particularly from Silver Springs to the the St. Johns Rivers estuary at the Atlantic Ocean.

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The dam inhibits freshwater springs, migrations of manatees and many species of fish and, because of its reservoir, drowns thousands of acres of wetlands.

TaxWatchs analysis largely supports environmentalists claims that breaching the dam would bring significant improvement for Floridas water, wildlife and ecotourism, and also underscores economic gains from dam removal.

The number of visitors to the dam and its reservoir has declined steadily since 2010 but still generates as much as $7 million annually for Putnam and Marion counties, according to TaxWatch.

Keeping the dam would require as much as $14 million to repair the dam to meet acceptable standards, with an annual maintenance fee of $234,000 thereafter, TaxWatch stated. And if the dam were to fail  it has already surpassed its 50-year life expectancy  it could flood an estimated 539 properties, with $57 million in expected damages.

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TaxWatch said dam removal and river restoration would cost $26 million over many years but would result in a return of $1.76 for every dollar invested. The costs, according to the groups analysis, could be defrayed by federal infrastructure money.

Given the public safety risks posed by dams, as well as the reasonable costs associated with the project and Floridas favorable economic position, Florida TaxWatch supports the breaching of the dam and partial restoration of the natural flow of the Ocklawaha River, said Dominic Calabro, the groups president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

kspear@orlandosentinel.com
OTTAWA - Demonstrators in Canada's national capital were defiant Tuesday in the face of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's invocation of never-before-used emergency powers, and hundreds of big rigs and other vehicles continued to jam major downtown thoroughfares.

But if little appeared changed on Ottawa's streets, the fallout from the crisis deepened Tuesday with the resignation of Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly, who drew intense criticism for a lax response to the self-styled "Freedom Convoy" protests against pandemic restrictions and Trudeau that are now in their third week.

Trudeau said Monday that his government would invoke the Emergencies Act, a law passed in 1988 but never before applied, to address a public order emergency - one that has rippled across the country, closing several U.S.-Canada border crossings and harming the country's reputation as a reliable trading partner.

The measures will give police additional tools "to restore order" where protests "constitute illegal and dangerous activities." They will also grant financial institutions sweeping powers to choke off funding to demonstrators, including by freezing the accounts of those supporting the protests, without a court order.

"We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue," Trudeau said Monday in Ottawa. "These illegal blockades are hurting Canadians, and they need to stop."

The streets around Parliament Hill buzzed with what's become a new normal flow here. People milled about among the tents and trucks. Some distributed food. Supporters draped in Canadian flags walked through, cheering it all on. One man salted the road in front of his truck. Several people danced.

Alongside the din of truck horns, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "Don't Worry, Be Happy" blared from speakers.

There appeared to be little reason for the demonstrators to worry. They pulled carts full of jerrycans and propane up and down the main street in front of the Parliament buildings. Others stockpiled firewood. Several jerrycans clustered together sat unattended in a row. The police presence was limited.

But the demonstrations have been disruptive for locals, who have complained of being harassed by protesters and terrorized by the constant drone of honking horns. Businesses are closed for safety reasons. Residents staged counterprotests over the weekend in an attempt to block vehicles from joining the convoy downtown.

Trish Ferguson, Ottawa's acting deputy police chief, said the number of demonstrators in the downtown core fell to fewer than 150 overnight Monday. There were about 360 vehicles jamming the streets - "down substantially" since the beginning of the demonstrations, she said.

Ottawa police said that there were 172 active criminal investigations and that they had laid 33 charges, made 18 arrests and issued more than 3,000 tickets. Ferguson said police were waiting "for official details before operationalizing" the Emergencies Act and working with lawyers to understand its implications.

"Like other residents in Ottawa, I have watched in disbelief as this carnival of chaos has been allowed to continue," Diane Deans, chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board, said Tuesday.

Canadian authorities said there was progress at several blockaded U.S.-Canada border crossings. Authorities reopened the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest land crossing on the U.S.-Canada border and a key trade artery connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, over the weekend.

On Tuesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta said traffic in Coutts, Alberta, "is moving slowly, and the border crossing is open." Their counterparts in Manitoba said they had reached a "resolution" with demonstrators blocking the Emerson crossing and expected them to clear out Wednesday.

Windsor police have made 46 arrests and filed 90 charges since the beginning of demonstrations at the Ambassador Bridge, they said Tuesday. Forty-three people were charged with mischief over $5,000, and 43 were charged with breach of a court order, police said. Thirty-seven vehicles were seized.

The RCMP in Alberta said two people were arrested late Monday after a truck nearly barreled through a checkpoint at Coutts before swerving at the last minute. Earlier, authorities announced the arrest of 11 people there and the seizure of guns, body armor and a "large quantity of ammunition."

Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act has drawn some criticism. Several provincial premiers have indicated that they do not think it is necessary and could make things worse. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a political opponent whose province is heavily affected by the demonstrations, has backed the prime minister.

The act applies to situations in which the "lives, health or safety" of Canadians or "sovereignty, security and territorial integrity" is threatened and it "cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada." It allows the government to take temporary measures that might not be appropriate in normal times.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said the blockades don't meet the threshold.

"Governments regularly deal with difficult situations, and do so using powers granted to them by democratically elected representatives," Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, the group's executive director, said in a statement. "Emergency legislation should not be normalized. It threatens our democracy and our civil liberties."

Shannon Stubbs, a Conservative lawmaker, called Trudeau's move a "serious blow to individual liberties." She said her party intended to debate it in Parliament. The emergency declaration took effect immediately, but it must be put to a vote in Parliament within seven sitting days. If it's not approved, it's revoked.

In a document released Tuesday to set out the reasons for invoking the act, the government said the blockades "are being carried on in conjunction with activities that are directed toward or in support of the threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property . . . for the purpose of achieving a political or ideological objective."

"There have been those who have tried to characterize these illegal blockades [as being] about vaccines and mandates and fatigue with the pandemic," Marco Mendicino, Canada's public safety minister, told reporters Tuesday. "That is not what is driving this movement right now. What is driving this movement is a very small, organized group that is driven by an ideology to overthrow the government."

James Balisky arrived in Ottawa with several friends after driving for 48 hours from Alberta. He said he opposes a federal government requirement that travelers on planes and trains be fully vaccinated, and said he believes that people should have a choice over medical decisions.

Balisky said he was initially a little concerned about the emergency measures, but he and his friends decided to stay put.

"This is the last card that Mr. Trudeau can play," he said. "After this, there's no other cards. And I'm going to stick it out here because this is so important."

- - -

Simon reported from Washington, and Francis reported from London. The Washington Post's Andrew Jeong in Seoul contributed to this report.
NORWALK  A former city police officer arrested last week created more than 30 fake traffic violations over the span of about four months, according to the warrant for his arrest.

Edgar Gonzalez, 31, of Stamford, resigned in June after an investigation into his traffic stop reports yielded evidence that he fabricated 33 traffic violations between February and April 2021, the warrant said.

Gonzalez, a Stamford resident, was charged last week with five counts of third-degree computer crime and five counts of second-degree forgery, according to the state judicial database.

Gonzalez, who was a five-year veteran of the departments patrol division, has been released after posting $100,000 bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

An investigation began last May after a person contacted police when they discovered a Google alert showed their name was included on the departments website for being issued a traffic warning, the warrant stated. A Google alert is an email a user receives based on keywords, like their name, that they went to be notified about when its posted online.

(The male victim) said he was never stopped by a Norwalk police officer and was never issued a warning, Detective Sgt. Lee Young wrote in the warrant. A further review of Gonzalezs CAD (Computer Aired Dispatch) activity for that day showed that Gonzalez self-reported a total of 10 traffic stops ... which included 10 e-ticket warnings, but not the issuance of any actual infractions tickets.

The log said the man was stopped April 21, which the victim said was not possible as he was ill at the time and remained in a hotel in Norwalk for a three-day period, according to the warrant.

Each city police vehicle is equipped with a Mobile Data Terminal and officers are required to include in traffic reports the motorists drivers license number, car make and model, registration information, traffic stop location and time and the road and traffic conditions at the time, according to the warrant.

However, many of Gonzalezs self-reported traffic stops were incomplete and missing drivers license numbers, races and genders, the warrant stated.

I also saw the same pattern where the citation information is incomplete where the sex, race, operator number and involvement information is incomplete, Young wrote in the warrant.

Additionally, officers all have access to the Connecticut On-Line Law Enforcement Communications Teleprocessing system, which allows them to run license plates and drivers license numbers, according to the warrant.

No body camera footage exists of any of the noted traffic stops and, in some cases, Gonzalezs vehicle locator showed he was not at the location of the supposed traffic incidents at the times indicated on his reports, the warrant stated.

The 17-page arrest warrant, obtained in early February, does not offer an explanation why police believe Gonzalez allegedly issued the falsified traffic warnings. In the warrant, the detective also made no mention of interviewing Gonzalez during the course of investigation.

In one instance, Gonzalez falsified a traffic report involving a 2020 Nissan Altima, the warrant stated. When the woman identified in the report was contacted, she denied being pulled over on that date and has no Nissan registered in her name.

After realizing it was a rental vehicle, Gonzalez scanned the license plate of a car in view at the time  the female victims vehicle  and took the operators license number and information to input into the fake report, according to the warrant.

The affiant (Young) believes Officer Gonzalez realized after running the above registration through COLLECT that it was a rental car and that to complete the fictitious traffic stop he needed operator information, Young wrote. (The female victim) lives 0.5-tenths of a mile from where Officer Gonzalez self-initiated this fictitious traffic stop and where (the female victim) parks her 2004 Acura. ... That all Officer Gonzalez would have to do is get the above registration and run same through COLLECT to get the operator information.

In another instance, Gonzalez listed pulling over a man from New York, the warrant stated. The victim said his wife had been in Norwalk on that date, but was not pulled over, according to the warrant.

The citation information was incomplete, but the traffic data information he put gender as male and race as white, Young wrote in the warrant. Officer Gonzalez would have known the operator was a female if he had actually stopped the above vehicle.

Vehicle location data showed Gonzalez was also not in the area at the time listed on the report, the warrant stated.

On April 21, without traveling in his vehicle, Gonzalez reported four traffic incidents on Main and Glover avenues, where he was not located, according to the warrant.

While reviewing Gonzalezs other self-reported incidents, Young found a pattern of fake traffic stops with incomplete information. Young contacted 20 of the 33 seemingly random victims whose names were used in the fake reports, according to the warrant.

By using the COLLECT database to falsify traffic stop information, Gonzalez violated its training and use policy, which resulted in the computer crimes charges, the warrant stated.

The states preliminary findings were shared with the Stamford states attorney, who called for a criminal investigation, Norwalk police spokesperson Sgt. Sofia Gulino said. Gonzalez resigned from the department amid the probe in June, Gulino said.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
Many parents are feeling two opposing forces on the subject of masks in schools. One is the perception of expert opinion. We are told students must wear masks for safety. Countervailing is the day-to-day reality we live. Parents sense something illogical about the protocols. We see inconsistencies and question the efficacy. We come across evidence that seems to counter the experts, not just in dark corners of the internet, but in respectable, center-left publications such as The Atlantic. We hear of normalcy in countries such as the United Kingdom and Denmark dropping restrictions, and hear from friends in the 34 states that do not have state mask mandates for students. We know that a great cost is being imposed on our children. And yet the experts say to bear it. What to do?

Max Planck, the Nobel Prize-winning quantum physicist, observed in his autobiography a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. Planck, credited as the father of quantum physics, was apt to make this point; his friend Albert Einstein went to the grave unable to embrace the quantum field (memorialized by his God does not play dice with the universe.)

Plancks point was a specific application of human nature to the scientific community  even great scientists can get so set in their ways that they never adapt to new paradigms. This is not an isolated pithy observation. Thomas Kuhn, the MIT philosopher and historian of science, wrote a book on the phenomena in 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn documented a repeated pattern of scientists being unable to accept paradigm shifts (a phrase coined by Kuhn).

If great scientific minds throughout history have repeatedly been unable to accept new observations that upend what they have been trained to believe, is it so far of a leap to imagine that the current experts driving COVID policies may be stuck in a similar state? Also consider that many of the authoritative scientists and experts are just bureaucrats, in that the incentives and constraints they face largely exempt them from consequences of being incorrect. Arguably their greatest incentives are to conform to their peers, keep their job, and ascend the ladder of power and influence. This is a luxury parents do not enjoy with the stakes being their childrens well-being.

As a member of the Greenwich Board of Education, I see growing parental frustration every day, email by email. My inbox has been flooded from parents concerned about the mask mandate. The urgency, the frequency and the variety of these emails continues to grow. This has become an issue for almost all parents in Greenwich. It is a problem we need to address.

Here is what I say back to every person that writes  the mandates must end. And for a very simple reason  there is no significant and credible scientific evidence that justifies such a dramatic and impactful intervention in childrens lives. Parents need to understand that there is not a discrepancy between the reality they see every day with their children and the science. Instead, the discrepancy exists between the science and the administrators and experts who continue to ignore it.

Basic econometrics says that to firmly establish causation, there needs to be a randomized controlled study to isolate the effects of an intervention or independent variable  in this case, mandatory cloth masks in schools. This is not controversial. However, the CDC does not justify its mask recommendations with a single randomized controlled study. Much has been written elsewhere about the deficiencies of the CDCs arguments. Suffice to say that when it comes to the gold standard of establishing causation, the CDC ignores the only two randomized controlled studies available on masks and COVID transmission. Neither could establish causation between cloth masks and transmission rates (and both were conducted with adults and both pre-vaccines).

One of these studies looked at 350,000 people across Bangladesh comparing 300 intervention villages and 300 control villages. Bangladeshs population density and history with NGOs for poverty intervention made it an ideal choice for researchers to test mask efficacy. The researchers found just an 11 percent reduction in confirmed symptomatic COVID infection among adults (pre-vaccine) wearing surgical masks. They found a de-minimis impact from cloth masks, even though the cloth masks distributed in the study had 3- 4-times higher filtration efficiency than normal cloth masks worn by students. And yet, one might have missed this from the headlines on the study. Nature went with Face masks for COVID pass their largest test yet only to note beneath that cloth masks fall short.

True science is an adaptive process of discovery. It has nothing to do with dogmatic mask policy as set by the CDC, which has been closed to emerging evidence. Unlike experts, parents do not have the luxury to hide from what is being done to their children. They cannot avoid hard decisions by deferring to faraway administrative bodies and are not focused on avoiding the embarrassment of being wrong. They do not have to balance political incentives with the pursuit of truth.

Parents know what the experts dont because of what Planck and Kuhn observed: even great scientists get set in their ways, defying the observational evidence to the end. Parents are observing the truth that the actual science is uncovering (and there are many scientists doing credible work on this subject). We should not wait for those who choose to ignore the evidence to change their mind.

Kuhn wrote that, Political revolutions are inaugurated by a growing sense ... that existing institutions have ceased adequately to meet the problems posed by an environment that they have in part created.

Is there not a better way to describe the current awakening happening with COVID? Our institutions are failing us with a system they designed. And yet they perpetuate this failure and deflect their own culpability by deferring decision-making to others. This is why Gov. Ned Lamont did not directly lift the mask mandate, but instead deflected the decision to a bizarre combination of the Legislature, the Department of Health and the local school boards.

Institutional failure is why parents are revolting. It is why it is imperative that parents remember this moment come November, when the imposers of this failed and anti-scientific system can be held to account. Parents must know that their inclinations on this subject are in line with the science, and that the history of science itself helps explain why. The state government and Boards of Education, like ours in Greenwich, must end this mask mandate as soon as possible. It is time to free the children of this treatment.

Cody Kittle is a member of the Greenwich Board of Education.
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Oppo officially announced it will collaborate with iconic Swedish photography brand Hasselblad on the imaging system of the upcoming Find X5 series. This comes as no surprise given the myriad of Find X5 Pro leaks which showed out the Hasselblad logo. It remains to be seen if the collaboration will be limited to color calibration and camera interface design like on last years OnePlus 9 Pro or if well get some additional Hasselblad image tuning.



Oppo x Hasselblad collaboration poster

The imaging system on the Find X5 is expected to use a Sony IMX766  a 50MP, 1/1.56 sensor with 1.0 m pixels for the main and ultrawide cams while the telephoto module will use a 13MP sensor with 5x optical zoom. Oppos self-developed MariSilicon X NPU chip will also be part of the equation handling image processing and the omni-directional autofocus system.

In related Find X5 news, notable leakster Digital Chat Station shared that Oppos in-house five-axis stabilization system is in mass production. This is the same module that was showcased at Oppos camera event last summer.

The global Oppo Find X5 Pro bearing the CPH2305 model number was also spotted in a Geekbench listing rocking the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and 12GB RAM. The phone managed 1,256 single-core points and a 3,420-point outing in the multi-core department.



Oppo Find X5 Pro on Geekbench

The software side is covered by Android 12 presumably with ColorOS 12 on top.

Source 1  Source 2  Source 3
Guam knows how to celebrate big during the holidays. Its a time of warm smiles, large spreads, and abundant gifts. While good company and smiles are free, all that celebrating comes at a cost. An expensive cost.

So does eating out, buying a new purse, a nice car and that expensive data plan on your phone. Repeated overspending piles up into large debts that are difficult to get out of.

Debt and mental health

Debt can lead to anxiety, depression and difficulty sleeping or focusing. Debt also weighs heaviest on marriage, being the consistent number one stressor on marriage relationships.

Financial stress can wear on your nervous system causing you to be more susceptible to disease and infection. Essentially, debt can make it harder to be a productive worker and increase your chances of divorce, leading to more financial stress.

What leads to debt?

There are other reasons besides impulsive buying that lead to debt. These may include medical expenses or an underlying mental illness. If you are depressed or experiencing dementia you might not have the energy required to keep on top of bills.

Unmanaged mania or impulsivity can turn into a frenzy of frivolous spending or bad investment schemes. It is important to get help with underlying mental conditions  this just may be the beginning of escaping your financial debt crisis.

Make a plan

While it may take a long time to get out of debt entirely, there are a few things you can do right now to put you on course. Having a written plan, for starters, might give you some immediate relief.

As you work to discipline yourself to follow your plan, your peace will increase. While life may not be as thrilling and fanciful on a strict budget, you will be rewarded with less stress, calmness, and control of your situation.

Adding to savings each month should be a priority for everyone. There will be unexpected expenses in your future. Guaranteed. An emergency fund is used for an urgent expense with easily accessible money.

A savings account is typically used for long-term plans. How lovely would it feel to know you have 3 to 6 months of expenses saved away if ever you have a disaster strike? It feels very lovely indeed.

Small increments

You do not need to have large sums of money to start saving. The biggest goals in life are achieved by tiny increments repeated over time.

It doesnt matter what your income is, if you can figure out how to spend less than you make then you are living within your means and saving.

Mental health and financial health go hand-in-hand. Start your journey to get out of debt today and set your mind at ease.
Lori Alhadeff, left, helps to release doves during a memorial at Eagles Haven community wellness center on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, the fourth anniversary of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Alhadeffs daughter, Alyssa was killed in the massacre. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

As the years pass, the Parkland community pauses each Feb. 14 to remember victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.

Hundreds of people gathered at an afternoon wellness event and an evening vigil to mark the fourth anniversary of the tragedy where a gunman murdered 17 people and injured 17.

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In the early afternoon, Scott Amos attended a wellness day event at Eagles Haven, which included therapy dogs, art therapy and a candle lighting and dove release.

Lori Alhadeff, left, helps to release doves during a memorial at Eagles Haven community wellness center on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, the fourth anniversary of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Alhadeffs daughter, Alyssa was killed in the massacre. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Amos, a 19-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student who was in Building 12 the day of the shooting, said some days healing feels impossible.

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I tend to kind of withdraw within myself sometimes, Amos said.

[ RELATED: Parkland dad climbs crane near White House in protest as activists urge Biden to take action on gun violence ]

The meditation helped ground him, he said, on a day where he particularly struggles with symptoms of PTSD. But his healing, he said, takes one day at a time.

One foot in front of the other, Amos said.

Amos sat in silence at the meditation, listening to an instructor who helped guide the crowd repeat the phrases: May we be happy and peaceful. May we be healthy and strong. May we be safe and protected. May we live with ease.

Tables for the activities at the event bore the students names, encouraging attendees to participate in activities that represented some of their interests by painting a canvas or star, making a bracelet, playing a drum, writing in the guest book or spinning a basketball in their honor.

Be the light that shines bright even in the dark times, read a message on one of the stars guests painted.

Make our schools safe, read another.

The Parkland community is still struggling and reeling these four years later, said state Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, who was the mayor of Parkland at the time of the shooting.

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People take a moment to reflect during a community commemoration event on the fourth anniversary of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. (John McCall /South Florida Sun Sentinel)

You have family members who went through their fourth Thanksgiving  These just bring up such awful memories and theres always an empty seat at the table, and you have young people who have now gone off to college but are still dealing with the trauma that they experienced that day, she said.

And as a community, I think people just want to be remembered. I think the families want their loved ones to be remembered. I think the students who were there that day want people to acknowledge what they went through and that theyre still going through it. The same with the teachers and the staff  that this was a trauma that everybody is still working through in their own way, Hunschofsky said.

For Diane Wolk-Rogers, a former AP world history teacher at Stoneman Douglas who retired in 2020, Monday was the first anniversary that felt different for her.

[ RELATED: You cant keep reliving it: Stoneman Douglas trauma endures, but healing continues four years later ]

Its been a four-year process for me and I would have to say this is the first time  where I woke up this morning on the 14th, I didnt have the chills, I didnt feel nauseous and I just wanted to come here, look at them and remember the joy and the love that they gave people. I truly feel that, she said.

She helped lead the group meditation at the wellness event that ended with the group of about 30 jumping, laughing and dancing.

Theres hope in healing, Wolk-Rogers said.

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Danielle Turner, of Coral Springs, holds her son, Grayson Turner, 5, during a memorial at Eagles Haven community wellness center on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, the fourth anniversary of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

At Pine Trails Park just before sunset, a sea of people gathered in the field for a commemoration that included speeches and prayers from community religious leaders, singing, a tribute video to the 17 victims and a drum circle in front of a board displaying the victims photos.

String lights hung above the wall of photos where attendees walked up to lay flowers, many embracing each other in silence. The tribute video displayed the 17 smiling faces in childhood photos, on family vacations and at school sporting events.

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A moment of silence followed the reading of each of the 17 names: Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Scott Beigel, 35; Martin Duque Anguiano, 14; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Aaron Feis, 37; Jaime Guttenberg, 14; Christopher Hixon, 49; Luke Hoyer, 15; Cara Loughran, 14; Gina Montalto, 14; Joaquin Oliver, 17; Alaina Petty, 14; Meadow Pollack, 18; Helena Ramsay, 17; Alexander Schachter, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16; and Peter Wang, 15.

Clear boxes with each victims name lined a table near the wall of photos for those at the commemoration to write notes to drop inside.

Jillian Smath, a Parkland resident who attended the commemoration with her daughter, said she came to honor each of the victims but particularly to remember Luke Hoyer, whose mother she works with. The message she hopes resonates with the community on the anniversary of the tragedy is one of love.

Always sharing your love. Always doing something for somebody else because you dont know what is going on for them and just always trying to do the right thing and be good and be about love, Smath said.

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After prayers and the moment of silence, attendees held glow sticks above their heads to represent their hope to be a light and to emanate kindness in their communities for the victims who no longer have the chance.

Jennifer Naile, a 22-year-old Florida Atlantic University student who was a senior at Stoneman Douglas in 2018, said the anniversary is a day to remember how amazing each person was and who they were in their lives.

Its very hard as the years go on   Naile said. Its just really, really hard to still see it, to know that this was so just long ago and it just gets further and further away from who they were then.
Guams 308th COVID-related fatality was recorded Tuesday.

The patient, who died at Guam Memorial Hospital, was a 72-year-old woman who was fully vaccinated but didnt receive a booster shot.

She had underlying health conditions and tested positive for the virus Friday, according to a news release from the Joint Information Center.

With each tragic loss, we are reminded of the life that was cut short and the families who are left to grieve, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said in the release. We must not become numb to reading about losing members of our community to this invisible threat, especially when we have the resources to prevent it.

Hospitalizations

There were 58 people in hospitals with COVID-19 Tuesday, including two children, three people in intensive care and two on ventilators.

Thirty-four patients were admitted to Guam Memorial Hospital, including the two children. Two of GMHs COVID patients were in the intensive care unit and on ventilators.

There were 23 hospitalized at Guam Regional Medical City, with one in intensive care. Naval Hospital Guam reported one COVID admission.

The Department of Public Health and Social Services reported 611 new cases of COVID-19 from 1,577 specimens analyzed Monday; 81 of those were reported by the Department of Defense.

Guam has had 40,891 officially reported cases of COVID-19. There are 5,200 active cases.
Guams upgraded missile defense system, which will provide 360-degree protection against different types of missiles, must be spread out over different locations on island, according to Navy Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson, commander of Joint Region Marianas.

He said the Missile Defense Agency is evaluating 18 to 20 parcels of military-owned land on Guam to find suitable locations for the different elements of a defense system.

Defensive missiles likely will be placed closer to the shore so their rocket boosters will fall into the ocean instead of over populated areas, Nicholson said.

If you could, youd want to place your missile defense system right in the center (of the island)  that would be ideal, Nicholson said during a press conference Tuesday at Joint Region headquarters on Nimitz Hill.

Thats not possible here, for safety reasons, because of the location of the airport and because radar can be harmful at close range, he said. We have to spread the pieces out.

Some of the parcels being evaluated are: a former military housing area on Nimitz Hill, near Top O the Mar; land next to the 102 acres the government of Guam wants to lease for a new hospital in Mangilao; and the former NASA tracking station in Inarajan.

Defend the island

The militarys fiscal 2022 budget includes $765 million for Guam projects and prioritizes a 360-degree integrated air and missile defense system to defend the island from advanced cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missile threats.

Nicholson said the initial funding is for research and development.

Fiscal year (2023)  thats when well really start to see some of the progress happen. But the first part is defining where its gonna go and how its gonna be.

The entire system is not just a radar. Its not just a missile launcher. Its multiple radars, potentially multiple missile launchers, and there has to be command and control facilities, he said. So theres a lot of different parts and pieces that it takes to defend an entire island form all vectors of approach.

Nicholson said the THAAD missile defense system, permanently stationed at Andersen Air Force Base, is really great against ballistic missiles but possibly not as good against other types of missiles.

The Missile Defense Agency hasnt even yet decided what system will be installed. Theres a couple of different technologies, Nicholson said. One is based off of an Army air defense system. The other one is based off of a Navy air defense system. It might be a blend of the two. We just dont know yet.
Creators and entrepreneurs have opportunities and resources to turn waste materials into marketable products after the Guam Green Growth Makerspace and Innovation Hub opened its doors Tuesday.

About 100 people came to CHamoru Village in Hagatna to see where residents can use laser cutters, a 3D printer, vinyl cutters and power tools that can process metal, wood and other materials.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio, University of Guam President Thomas Krise, senators and others cut the green ribbon to open the space.

Austin Shelton, director of the Center for Island Sustainability at the university, said there is an over-reliance on imported goods here. More than 90% of the food and goods consumed locally is shipped in and packaging is sent to the landfill.

Shelton said a goal of the G3 Makerspace and Innovation Hub is to help people think about waste as a resource. It provides creators and entrepreneurs with the tools they need to transform whats usually considered trash into new products.

Aaron Ferrer, a G3 Makerspace attendant, said products made using the tools include bookmarks from wood pallets and cell phone holders made from recycled plastic.

The hub is divided into two rooms. One is specifically for working with wood and metal. The other is primarily for molding and working with plastic materials.

Creators who want to use the space and tools can do so for $50 per month or $500 per year.

Sustainable

Part of the G3 initiatives mission for the facility is to support regional economic development through establishing sustainable and profitable cottage industries.

To assist with this, Shelton said participants also will have access to business development resources from the UOG School of Business and the organization Guam Unique Merchandise & Arts.

G3 Makerspace also has a green store, where the public can buy merchandise created in the facility that is sold on consignment.

The development of the center was supported by the Guam Ecosystems Collaboratorium for Corals and Oceans project at the University of Guam, which is funded by the National Science Foundations Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research grant. Additional funding came from the governors office and the Guam Economic Development Authority.
A federal judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a former school counselor of sexual abuse.

Dennis Mark Zermeno is being accused of sexual assault while he was a counselor at Agueda Johnston Middle School in 1981. The unnamed plaintiff was about 13 or 14 years old at the time, according to court documents.

Zermeno is now a resident of California, and based his motion to dismiss the lawsuit against him on the fact that he has not been to Guam since he left in 2005.

He also asked for a dismissal because the claim is being brought after the alleged events.

However, Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood denied the dismissal against Zermeno writing in her order that the alleged actions occurred on island and the fact the law allows claims to be filed regardless of the passage of time. He will be prosecuted in the District Court of Guam instead of the state of California, Tydingco-Gatewood wrote.

In the initial lawsuit filed against Zermeno in May 2021, he is accused of sexually abusing the plaintiff 75-100 times, court documents state.

Aside from assaults that occurred at Agueda Johnston Middle School, Zermeno is accused of assaulting the plaintiff after asking him to work at Paseo Stadium at the ticket booth, a sleepover at Zermenos house and on one occasion took the plaintiff to Rota, documents state.

As a result the plaintiff has felt emotional suffering which included several occasions of attempted suicide, documents state.
The Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands are projected to see funding gaps in their annual budgets after certain Compacts of Free Association grants expire, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The Compacts of Free Association have provided economic assistance from the U.S. to the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands since 1986.

This same support has been provided to the Republic of Palau since 1994.

The FSM and Marshall Islands grants are scheduled to end in 2023, and Palaus will end in 2024.

U.S. assistance provides as much as one-third of the countries annual budgets, including grants for services like health care and education.

The U.S. government has contributed to trust funds meant to partly replace the grants.

The trust funds are based on market performance, as opposed to assured amounts like the multi-year fixed grant program, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The Government Accountability Office projects the trust funds for the FSM and Marshall Islands will supply less funding. Some years may not see any funding provided at all, which will lead to budget gaps.

FSM

The report found that the FSM relied on compact grants and a supplemental education grant for 28% of the nations expenditures in 2019.

The office projects the compact trust funds wont cover the value of these grants. Because of rules governing the trust funds, the country faces a 36% likelihood of going for at least a year without any funding disbursements sometime before 2034.

Marshalls

The Marshall Islands relied on compact sector grants and a supplemental education grant for 21% of expenditures in 2019.

There is a 12% probability of having at least one year without any disbursements before 2034.

Palau relied on compact grants and disbursements from its compact trust fund for 13% of expenditures in 2019. The Government Accountability Office office projects minimal disbursement risks to Palaus compact trust fund before 2044.

Sustainability

The U.S. Department of State hasnt established a timeline of goals for an advisory group on economic reform to help Palau plan for long-term economic sustainability after the countrys grants end, the report said.

The office recommends the secretary of state and Department of the Interior work together to establish time frames and milestones for the Palau Advisory Group on Economic Reform.
Motorists heed lighted detour signs as they proceed through a section of roadway under construction on Marine Corps Drive in Yigo, as seen on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021.
Johnathan Hernandez was charged with armed burglary, making written threats to kill or do bodily injury, and resisting an officer without violence. (Volusia County Sheriff's Office)

Volusia County deputies used a drone to help capture an armed suspect escaping out of a victims bedroom window.

The arrest happened in a Deltona house on Urbana Avenue around 6:40 a.m. Monday, according to the Volusia County Sheriffs Office Facebook page.

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Deputies were on-site to escort a victim in an earlier incident.

The victim told authorities the suspect, 27-year-old Jonathan Hernandez, texted her that he was on his way to her house to shoot her, according to the Facebook post.

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She left home that night, and deputies ensured the house was safe before she returned.

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Overhead video footage from the scene showed multiple deputies approaching the home with a shield to protect from gunfire.

The video cuts to a ground-floor level viewpoint before deputies breached the home.

Drone footage at the 0:27 mark shows Hernandez escaping out of the bedroom window and hopping a fence into a neighboring yard.

Deputies eventually catch up to the Hernandez and take him into custody.

They searched his backpack and found a loaded pistol, according to the Facebook page.

Authorities charged Hernandez with armed burglary, written threats of bodily injury, and resisting an officer without violence.

Hes currently in a Volusia County Branch Jail on a $20,500 bond.




Haiti - D-1 : The Government will request $1.9 billion in aid from the international community





The Haitian Government and its partners, including the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the European Union, are preparing to organize Wednesday, February 16, the international donor conference to be held from 9:00 a.m. at 2:00 p.m., at the Karibe Convention Center, in person and by videoconference, the Government will present its Integrated Recovery Plan for the Southern Peninsula (PRIPS) in the amount of nearly 200 billion gourdes.



This donor conference will be devoted to financing the reconstruction and recovery of southern Haiti, heavily damaged by the earthquake of 7.2 on the Richter scale on August 14, 2021 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34479-haiti-flash-magnitude-72-earthquake-in-the-nippes.html



Download the full report (23 pages / PDF in French): https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/Seisme-du-14-Aout-2021._-Rapport-de-situation-detape-No-1-du-Coun.pdf



During this conference, focused on the reconstruction and recovery of the southern peninsula, the Prime Minister will try to mobilize his interlocutors and obtain commitments for 1.978 billion dollars (nearly 200 billion gourdes) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35916-haiti-post-earthquake-table-of-donors-the-haitian-government-seeks-to-obtain-200-billion-gourdes.html



Download the official executive summary of the Post-Disaster Assessment (Earthquake of August 14, 2021 in the southern peninsula) PDF 80 pages : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/Resume-final-executif.pdf



The Prime Minister is optimistic to mobilize nearly 200 billion gourdes for post-earthquake reconstruction https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35349-haiti-flash-the-pm-optimistic-about-mobilizing-nearly-200-billion-for-post-earthquake-reconstruction.html



In addition, Monday morning at a press conference as part of the preparation for this international conference Ricard Pierre, Minister of Planning and External Cooperation, Emmelie Prophete, Minister of Communication and Bruno Lemarquis, Deputy Special Representative in the Bureau United Nations Integrated Mission in Haiti (BINUH) and the United Nations Resident Humanitarian Coordinator provided an update on the meeting on reconstruction and recovery in the South.



"The Government promises to make aid more transparent, taking into account the problems of the different sectors of the Great South, internal needs and recovery," declared Minister Ricard Pierre



"It is up to Haiti to decide the best way forward with the support of the international community," indicated Bruno Lemarquis for his part.



Press Conference on Southern Reconstruction and Recovery :







See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35349-haiti-flash-the-pm-optimistic-about-mobilizing-nearly-200-billion-for-post-earthquake-reconstruction.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35346-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34681-haiti-earthquake-latest-assessment-of-civil-protection.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34571-haiti-earthquake-reconstruction-will-cost-$112-billion-first-assessment.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34479-haiti-flash-magnitude-72-earthquake-in-the-nippes.html



S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Port-de-Paix : New Government Commissioner

Friday, February 11, Berto Dorce the Minister of Justice appointed the deputy of the Government Commissioner Me Michelet Virgile as Government Commissioner at the Court of First Instance of Port-de-Paix. He replaces in this position Me Bellamin Jean Volney revoked for serious administrative faults https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35961-haiti-news-zapping.html



2 of 3 hostages of Feb. 2 released

Kidnapped on February 2 in Tabarre 48, Jayne Keriahlie Jean Gilles, 4, and her uncle Junior Almy were released yesterday for ransom. The other child, Noj Latortue, 3, is still being held hostage by the kidnappers who are demanding an additional ransom. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35883-haiti-news-zapping.html



Montana Agreement : The 2nd meeting with the Government did not take place

On Monday, February 14, the scheduled meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Henry and members of the Montana Accord Monitoring Office (BSA) ultimately did not take place. The Prime Minister did not appear, the members of the BSA left the official residence after waiting about forty minutes. The Prime Minister, however, has another version stating Monday evening "[...] the representatives of the September 11 agreement [initiated by the PM] were present and were waiting for the arrival of another representative from Montana to start the meeting. However, their colleagues left without notifying anyone..." The two parties accuse each other of being responsible, but no one assumes, the resumption of discussions is temporarily suspended...



The RNDDH renews its accusations against the PM

After statements by Prime Minister Ariel Henry seeking to clear himself of charges over his suspicious phone calls with Joseph Felix Badio (on the run and actively sought) considered the mastermind of the President's assassination; the Executive Director of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) renewed Monday his accusation on the airs of a radio station of the Capital concerning the contacts between the Head of Government and Joseph Felix Badio "If Ariel Henry really has the recordings of his calls [as he says https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35940-haiti-flash-the-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-defends-prime-minister-henry.html ] and that he has nothing to reproach himself that he render them public." See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35940-haiti-flash-the-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-defends-prime-minister-henry.html



Ex-Senator Latortue accuses

The former opposition Senator, Youri Latortue, denounces a contract of 25,000 US dollars per month that he supposedly signed, according to him, the Embassy of Haiti in Washington and the lobbying firm "Latin American Advisory Group" in order to to improve the image in the United States of Ariel Henry and his Government.



Les Cayes : The propaedeutic year launched

After a time of retreat, the propaedeutic year was officially launched at the propaedeutic Sainte Therese (diocese of Les Cayes) by its Director the Reverend Father Cabral Jhon Nickson in the presence of Cardinal Chibly Langlois who presided over the opening mass of the propaedeutic year. The candidates for the priesthood came from 11 different parishes of the diocese.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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Korean Drama | 2009

 Sitcom

Directed by  Jo Chan-joo ()  Kim Byung-wook ()  Kim Yeong-gi ()

Written by  Jo Seong-hee ()  Lee So-jeong ()  Lee Young-cheol ()

TV Channel/Plateform: MBC (MBC)

Airing dates: 2009/09/07~2010/03/19

126 episodes - Mon~Fri 19:45

Synopsis

The story of two sisters.

Two sisters, twenty-two and nine in age, lived all their lives with their father, deep in the country where even electricity is an unaffordable luxury. One day, after a bizarre turn of events, they end up in Seoul. The two sisters encounter a severe case of cultural shock as soon as they hit the city. Building forests, computers, department stores, subways, cell phone To 9-year old Shin-ae, who had never seen these before, Seoul is like a fantasy that can sometimes be difficult to fathom.

Meanwhile, a peculiar family lives at a corner of a residential area in Seongbuk-dong.

Sun-jae is the president of a small food company.

At 72, Sun-jae falls head over heels in love just as his life is slowly winding down. His granddaughter Hae-ri shrieks every morning in the bathroom over her constipation. All the other members of this family have some sort of defect. The most invisible son-in-law in Seongbuk-dong, the EQ-deficient doctor, the perverted female teacher Come to think of it, every man living in this day and age harbors some kind of unique defect.

This is why they shout confidently, "Only those of you who are perfect may throw stones at us!" is a sitcom portraying the uplifting comedic story of two sisters who begin to work at Sun-jae's house as maids and their episodes with members of this family. At the same time, it is a drama of these two girls blossoming into young women as they fall in love.



Starring



Lee Soon-jae (73)

President of a small food company. A typical Korean father figure. Headstrong, ill-tempered, and releases gas freely and loudly. His wife passed away 3 years ago. But he suddenly changes when he begins a passionate relationship with Ja-ok, the Vice Principal of a high school. Of course, he is still the same at home, but he tries pathetically to come across as a courteous, gentle, and dashing man when he is with Ja-ok. Despite the students taunting him whenever he visits Ja-ok's high school, and despite his daughter, Hyeon-gyeong's oppositions, he is excited about marrying her.



Kim Ja-ok (60)

The Vice Principal of a high school. She is dating Sun-jae, who is 12 years older than her. Although she has an elegant and poised manner of speech, her favorite form of punishment is pinching the boys' nipples. For this, she is called "Vice Principal, the Pervert." She has never been married and cries while looking out the window when rain is falling, laughs when she see s a crooked sign, and has abrupt emotional fluctuations. In general, she is like a young girl.



Lee Hyeon-kgyeong (43)

Sun-jae's daughter. P.E. teacher at a high school. She's a tomboy and isn't afraid to speak her mind. Thanks to her forthright personality, she often quarrels with the rest of her family but never holds grudges. But Sun-jae's marriage to Ja-ok is one thing that she absolutely cannot accept. She had never liked Ja-ok and now she has to fight with her over every little thing at home, too. She fumes whenever she sees Sun-jae caring for Ja-ok at the thought of her deceased mother.



Jeong Bo-seok (44)

Hyeon-gyeong's husband. Vice President of a food company. Despite his intelligent looking appearance, he is rather slow and so incapable that it's almost funny. So rather than being respected as a son-in-law, Sun-jae is always out to get him anytime and anywhere. He is a kind and caring husband to Hyeon-gyeong and a good father to his son Jun-hyeok and daughter Hae-ri. But he is afraid that even Hyeon-gyeong is getting fed up with his incompetence. The one thing he has confidence in is that he can come off as a handsome guy if he keeps his mouth closed. He is a bad drunk and is especially bad with numbers.



Lee Ji-hoon (29)

Sun-jae's son. He is a resident surgeon at a hospital. His EQ is low, considering his high IQ. He doesn't care about other people's emotions and is self-centered. On a blind date, if the girl seems to be having health issues, he will ask about her menstrual cycle. As such, he is only interested in himself or his own business and has no consideration for formalities or manners. He runs into Se-gyeong by chance soon after she arrives at Seoul and indirectly helps her come his house has a maid. He keeps running into Se-gyeong in various ways.



Hwang Jeong-eum (23)

A college student going to an unknown school. A typical college student who is bright and can sometimes lie to get her way. Her family lives in Dae-jeon so she lives in a studio on her own with a big dog. She buys a very expensive pair of shoes on impulse and becomes Jun-hyeok's private tutor. She likes to joke around and play pranks on people but when Jun-hyeok rebels aggressively during her lessons, she doesn't back off. She grows closer to Jun-hyeok while quarreling so frequently.



Sin Se-kyeong (21)

She leaves her country life with her younger sister Shin-ae and comes to Seoul. She does her best to take care of Shin-ae. Their life in Seoul begins with Se-gyeong's part time job at a gas station until she finds a job as a maid at Sun-jae's house. She is a caring and optimistic person and keeps her chin up through most hardships. At the same time, she tends to be careless and constantly makes mistakes. Having spent her teens deep in the country, she has no idea how to survive in the real world, but she learns fast with Ji-hoon and Jun-hyeok's help.



Shin Shin-ae (9)

The narrator of the series. Se-gyeong's younger sister. Her mother passed away when she was three and she has spent her whole life in the country. She is amazed by everything she sees in Seoul and is full of questions. Her questions can be direct and objective criticisms of modern civilization. She is mature for her age but she is still a child. There is so much she wants to do, eat, and have. She is mesmerized by the world of high definition TV after her first HDTV experience at Sun-jae's house. Hae-ri, Sun-jae's granddaughter, bullies her all the time but she is too proud to ask for anyone's help.

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More land in the City of Oviedo has been clear-cut for roads and parking lots than buildings. 75% more, to be precise. This is the case in the vast majority of Central Florida cities. Let that sink in. More land in Oviedo is dedicated to helping people get someplace else or to store their empty cars than is dedicated to destinations. And covered garages at peoples homes count as buildings, not parking lots.

Oviedo owns so many roads, if you stretched them end-to-end, they would reach almost to Charleston, South Carolina (319 miles). Surface parking lots pay next to no taxes and roads pay none at all. In fact, we must constantly invest money in roads to keep them from falling apart. And because of Floridas Constitution and homestead exemptions, the vast majority of buildings that the roads lead to do not generate enough tax revenue to cover the cost of the infrastructure that serves them. Thats what the math says.

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Megan Sladek was elected mayor of Oviedo in 2019. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

Local governments have been able to make ends meet to date because as new neighborhoods were built, they paid taxes that were redirected toward repairs in older neighborhoods. In retrospect, we should have set aside taxes from those new neighborhoods for use inside them when their own infrastructure needed to be replaced. But that is not what happened in Oviedo, nor is it what happened most places. Now, there is simply not enough suburban-style new development generating enough new taxes to allow us to fund our communities using the Ponzi scheme that worked so well in the past.

We should talk about this looming financial burden now, before it is genuinely an emergency and while we still have options. We should go over the math, talk about what counts as wasteful government spending, eliminate it, then hash out long-term solutions we are all willing to be a part of. By the experts calculations, we need to have less infrastructure on our books or we need to almost double what we collect in taxes to take care of what we already built.

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Selling off city-owned assets is not a solution, as once we sell them we cant sell them again. We have significant annual recurring expenses about to appear on our balance sheet, and they are too big and interminable to address with loans or one-time influxes of cash.

Grants are not an option, as no one is offering free money to rebuild internal neighborhood roads. We cant pass the buck to developers either. It is illegal to charge impact fees to cover expenses that will accrue even if the new project is never built.

The solution most people hope for is, Have someone else pay for the goods and services that benefit me so I dont have to. This is an option, but it would require 540 additional acres of multi-story mixed-use development in our town  without adding any roads. A typical Central Florida high school campus is about 40 acres. Many people would prefer a tax hike to adding 13 high school campuses worth of urban density inside our 16-square-mile corporate boundary.

We have to decide on the right balance as a community, and the data and possible solutions will be presented at a Town Hall Conversation on Wednesday, Feb. 23 at Crosslife Churchs Legacy Hall. Though the presentation will be centered on Oviedo-specific data, the information is similar for cities throughout Central Florida, and everyone is welcome to attend. We have to understand the facts before we can have a rational discussion about how to move forward in light of them. I hope you will join the conversation and be part of the solution.

The Town Hall Conversation is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 45 W. Broadway Street, hosted by the Orlando Regional REALTOR Foundation (ORRF). More information here: http://tinyurl.com/OviedoTalk

Megan Sladek is mayor of Oviedo and a local attorney and real estate broker. She is also founder of The Oviedo Preservation Project, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Oviedos history and places.
Published on 2022/02/14 | Source

JTBC's new drama "Green Mothers' Club" revealed the script reading.

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"Green Mothers' Club" is an elementary school community that cannot be avoided if five women with different parenting methods and educational centers are Korean mothers. The script reading stills released by the production team of "Green Mothers' Club" on the 14th show Lee Yo-won, Choo Ja-hyun, Kim Gyu-ri, Jang Hye-jin and Joo Min-kyung. They quickly immersed themselves in their characters.

First of all, Lee Yo-won, who naturally permeates any role, showed her true value again this time. In the drama, she transforms into Lee Eun-pyo, a former French scholar but now living as an ordinary housewife, drawing in detail the complex emotions of ordinary mothers who are in conflict with their children's education, drawing deep sympathy.

Choo Ja-hyun, who boasts a thrilling and attractive acting, plays the role of Byeon Choon-hee, who lives in the house in front of Lee Eun-pyo's new house. She ranks No. 1 in beauty and No. 1 in information in the neighborhood, pursues perfect elites and strictly raises her children. The subtle war of nerves between the two mothers, Lee Eun-pyo, who newly steps into the Green Mothers' Club, which is tightly run by Byeon Choon-hee, is drawing attention.

Among them, Kim Gyu-ri plays Seo Jin-ha, a penthouse goddess with natural elegance. Rumor has it that she, who even has a handsome foreign husband and a genius son, forms a significant atmosphere with her old friend and rival Lee Eun-pyo (Lee Yo-won), causing tension.

On top of that, actress Jang Hye-jin, who has an amazing acting spectrum, takes on the role of a self-proclaimed open-minded mother Kim Yeong-mi and transforms once again. As a character who is most opposed to Byeon Choon-hee, she stimulates the curiosity about what 'butterfly effect' her actions, which are different from others, will have.

In addition, Joo Min-kyung, who has delicate acting skills, plays the role of Park Yoon-joo, Lee Eun-pyo's cousin in the drama, drawing laughter with her cute chatter skills, but causing sorrow with the aspect of an Alpha Mom who wants to grind bones and flesh for her child.

"Green Mothers' Club" will premiere in April.
Published on 2022/02/15 | Source

New character posters added for the upcoming Korean movie "In Our Prime" (2020)

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Directed by Park Dong-hoon

With Choi Min-sik, Kim Dong-hwi-I, Park Byung-eun, Park Hae-joon, Jo Yun-seo, Ro Jong-hyun,...

Also known as "A Mathematician in Wonderland"

Synopsis

Special classes of math between two outcasts: a genius mathematician with a hidden past and a needy student given up on math.

Ji-woo (Kim Dong-hwi-I), an outcast in a prestigious private high school, does not fit in due to different social backgrounds than his well-to-do classmates. One day, he meets Hak-seong (Choi Min-sik), the school's security guard who is actually a mathematical genius defected from North Korea, now living with his past shut away. Ji-woo asks Hak-seong to teach him math, and although reluctant at first, Hak-seong eventually agrees to. Finding each other in their most difficult times, Ji-woo and Hak-seong open up to one another during their special math lessons, but their friendship is at risk when Ji-woo is framed for an incident in school, and Hak-seong is faced with people prying on his past.

Release date in Korea : 2022/03/09
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A military source said, quoting an agency affiliated with Damascus government, that "at around 7:25 am today, an explosive device planted in a military bus exploded in the city of Damascus near customs roundabout."

The source added that the explosion killed a member of Damascus government forces and wounded 11 others.

Sh-S

ANHA
Five years ago today, on February 15, 2017, I got on a plane from Puerto Rico to Orlando. I had gotten a new job at the Orlando Sentinel after being laid off on November 16, 2016, from my previous job. I had also become recently single that same year. It is fair to say that 2016 was the year to leave behind a past that no longer served me and open myself to new possibilities.

These are two dates I remember vividly. The first one marked a new beginning full of uncertainties and many fears. I had never worked in a newspaper. My background was in digital news and television, but I needed a job and didnt want to move to cold weather states where I had other offers. Florida seemed like the best option. The second one, well, it was eight days after covering one of the toughest elections I have had to report on. Puerto Rico had six candidates running that year, a first for the island, and Hillary Clinton was facing Donald Trump, who won the presidency of the United States. Eight days later, budget cuts left many of us on the digital team without a job, and in search of new beginnings.

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I lived in Miami when I went to Florida International University for my masters degree. Every person I know told me I would be bored in Orlando, that there was nothing more than theme parks or an option to retire and live the best life after decades of hard work.

With this in mind, I planned my relocation. I packed box after box of my belongings, scheduled my car transport and finally got on that plane with my mother  because even though I was a grown woman, my Latina mom wanted to make sure her baby daughter was fine. We were each carrying two checked-in luggage, also full of my items.

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The view from Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio's the flight from Puerto Rico to Orlando on February 15th, 2017. (Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio)

I was blessed enough that my moms best friend offered me a place to stay in her house until I found housing. I did, four months later in a much less volatile market than the one we have today. I moved downtown, close to our former Sentinel office in Orange Avenue, and so my life as a woman living in Central Florida began.

My first week at the Sentinels office I spent time assimilating my new life and my new job. To be honest, I wasnt very convinced I would spend too long here. I decided to give Orlando one year, but life had other plans for me.

Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio's first day at the Sentinel (Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio)

Everything started coming into place and I started finding my purpose within the next few months after I was assigned to get in touch with many of the Puerto Rican families affected by the Pulse tragedy. June 2016 marked the one-year remembrance of the worst tragedy in Florida history. I had covered Pulse as a working journalist for Univision in Puerto Rico as 23 of the victims were of Puerto Rican descent. Being able to give their family and friends a voice to honor them has been one of the humblest experiences in my life.

By August 2017 I was promoted from Senior Digital Reporter and appointed editor of El Sentinel Orlando. It was a task that I wasnt sure I was fit to fill  hello, impostor syndrome  but one that I took with great reasonability and humbleness.

This is why I needed to be here in Orlando, I thought to myself. I was able to be that liaison between my beloved island and my newfound home away from home. Seven months later, my life was upside down again. Hurricane Maria happened in Puerto Rico. Not only was I reporting on the catastrophic Category 4 hurricane, but I was also so concerned for my own familys well-being. I was able to get my family on October 1. My mom, aunt and grandmother spent almost four months living with me in a downtown studio apartment. We were cramped, but we made it work. Thats what Latinos do for family.

Again, as weeks passed by, months and to this day, years, I have come to learn that when I prayed to God to put me wherever my talents were most needed, my move to Orlando was the answer. I was able to cover the Puerto Rican families moving to Central Florida, and the local organizations going above and beyond to find assistance for the thousands of Boricuas relocating. We witnessed how our Latino / Hispanic population has skyrocketed in the past years. Not only are Puerto Ricans fleeing a devastated island because of Maria and then a series of earthquakes, but we also have Venezuelans and Cubans leaving behind dictatorships that have put their lives at risk day in and day out. We have a growing Mexican community that keeps thriving, and we become more diverse with every day that passes by.

What was supposed to be a pit-stop for me to figure out my life and career, has become my home away from home. Ive seen the resiliency of the growing Latino community that keeps pushing and thriving, no matter the obstacles they face, even in the middle of a global pandemic.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

When I have questioned why I am here, why I keep putting the long hours, I get a life reminder that being bilingual, being able to use my voice to tell the stories of my community  our people that come in all shades of color  is a blessing itself.

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Every year when I read Scott Maxwells 101 things to love about Central Florida, I am reminded of why I fell in love with this city and why I am proud to call it home. It proves that Florida is more than just theme parks and a retirement option. Its full of life, with diversity and people who fight to make it a better place. People who are not afraid to stand up to against inequalities, people who have fought with me for access to Spanish resources for our community, (some) leaders who listen when we approach them with why this is important.

I have found a new purpose here. I am now a member of the editorial board, a job that I didnt quite understand in the beginning  but one that has taught me how to be a better advocate for our community, a better journalist, and a better human being. Our job as seekers of the truth and the writers of the first draft at history is something I am so proud to be able to do.

Ive been able to learn how to be a better advocate and use my time and energy into helping others. In these five years I also started volunteering with Big Brother Big Sister of Central Florida and I am now on the National Board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) as their Spanish-at-Large representative.

Representation matters, and I think that is what keeps me going, making sure it is not about me and my achievements, but how I help pave the road for others behind me.

As John Lewis used to say, I am ready to keep the fight going, I am ready to push through thick and thin and Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America, one story at a time.

Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio is the Senior Content Editor for El Sentinel Orlando. She is also member of the Orlando Sentinels editorial board.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that an explosion occurred in the town of Maarat al-Naasan, located in the northeastern countryside of Idlib, after midnight on Monday-Tuesday, caused by a suicide drone, likely affiliated with Iranian groups, to target the area, without information about casualties.

On February 12, 6 civilians from one family, two men, two children and two women, were killed in a bombing carried out by the Damascus government forces, targeting the town of Maarat al-Naasan, located in the northeastern Idlib countryside, with missiles, on the afternoon of last Saturday.

ANHA
The area so-called "de-escalation" witnessed missile bombardment carried out by Damascus government forces targeting places in Al-Baraa, Flayfel, Sfuhin, Al-Fatera and Benen in Jabal al-Zawiya, without information about casualties, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Also, Damascus government forces targeted with heavy machine guns the frontlines with Turkish occupation mercenaries in Al-Ghab Plain in Hama countryside.

In conjunction with the flight of Russian drone in Jabal al-Zawiya and Al-Ghab Plain in Idlib and Hama countryside.

yesterday, 6 citizens of the same family, 2 men, 2 children and 2 women, were killed in shelling carried out by Damascus government forces in Ma'arat al-Na'asan, in northeastern Idlib countryside.

Sh-S

ANHA
Henderson, NC (27536)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 86F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 64F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
OXFORD  Prosecutors are hoping to bring suspended Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins to trial this year, but it remains to be seen whether that will happen in Granville County, or somewhere else.

A request from Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman for a change of venue in the case has been on file since March 2021, and Freeman on Monday confirmed that the motion remains pending.

It remains our intent to ask [that] his cases be moved to another county, Freeman said.

In asking for a move, Freeman and her staff contend that Wilkins is so well known in Granville County from his past election campaigns  and that the cases have received enough publicity  that its unlikely that a jury of 12 and alternatives who either do not know the defendant personally or havent already heard a lot of information about the case can be seated.

They also noted that theres precedent in North Carolina for moving trials at the request of the prosecution, even though state statute suggests its only the accused that can ask for a change of venue.

A trio of N.C. Supreme Court rulings  the latest coming in 1989, building on precedents from 1979 and 1947  have held that trial judges have the inherent authority to move a trial in the interests of justice.

The 1947 ruling said judges can act on their own to move a trial, and the 1979 and 1989 rulings said they can act on the request of prosecutors.

Wilkins faces four sets of charges, and Freeman on Thursday indicated that his cases are on the front burner now that a Wake County jury has convicted former Granville sheriffs office Sgt. Chad Coffey of obstruction of justice for falsifying training records on his behalf.

The sheriff  who is suspended but retains the title until the end of his current four-year term late in 2022  took the stand in that trial and essentially admitted he ordered Coffey to fake records claiming he and former Chief Deputy Sherwood Boyd had completed six years worth of in-service training classes they never attended and firearms qualifications they never shot.

Wilkins didnt invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, even though he faces a similar set of Wake County charges in connection with the false-records issue. The list in addition to obstruction included allegations of obtaining property by false pretenses.

In Granville County, another obstruction-of-justice case dating from 2019 that stems from an alleged murder plot targeting former Granville sheriffs office Deputy Joshua Freeman also remains pending.

And there are two more sets of charges  each alleging obstruction of justice and willful failure to discharge his duties  pending in Granville County that a grand jury handed up in May 2021.

One set of those charges concerns Wilkins alleged failures to properly administer the states pistol-purchase permit system in Granville County from late 2015 to early 2019.

Prosecutors allege that pistol-purchase permits were being issued without completing the necessary background checks on applicants, and in some cases despite information that the [applicant] may not qualify.

Consultants hired by the county government reported last November that witnesses told them Wilkins regularly ignored the background-check law, to the point that his employees, uncomfortable with his stance, were unwilling to sign their own names to the necessary paperwork.

The second set of obstruction and willful-failure charges accuses Wilkins of failing to keep proper track from early 2012 until September 2019 of money, drugs, firearms and other goods seized, confiscated or otherwise in his possession that should have been logged as evidence.

The case stemming from the training-records issue is pending on Wake County because the alleged victim in the case, the N.C. Sheriffs Education and Training Standards Commission, is based there.

All the other charges against Wilkins are pending in Granville County, and the Wake DA is prosecuting them because local District Attorney Mike Waters has a conflict of interest.

Contact Ray Gronberg at rgronberg@hendersondispatch.com or by phone at 252-436-2850.
TWO brothers are accomplishing their dream of opening a bakery and delicatessen together.

Jack and Freddie Wilcox, from Stoke Row, will open McQueens at the former Field Kitchen premises in High Street, Nettlebed, next month.

They will sell their own sourdough bread, pastries, salads, soups and coffee as well as fresh local produce and other foods.

They are also planning pizza and gelato evenings in the summer and to have outdoor seating.

Jack, 31, said: We want to create a space for the local community and support growers and millers from the area as well as contributing to a more sustainable food system.

Ive been a baker since 2013 and Freddie has been working as a chef for the past five years and we got to a point where we wanted to produce something we are proud of and passionate about, using high quality ingredients and supporting local businesses.

We wanted to create somewhere people can do their weekly shopping and come for breakfast or lunch.

We hope to offer a bit of everything and to sell products that you dont see in supermarkets, supporting small businesses that are just getting off the ground.

Freddie, 28, said: We are very excited. We know people in Nettlebed have missed something like this, so it makes sense for the customers and for us.

I own about 100 cook books and I love trying new recipes all the time, which is what Im going to do here.

The pair grew up with their parents, Simon and Libby, in Stoke Row and attended Shiplake College before going to university.

Jack studied geography in Portsmouth while Freddie studied sport and business in Southampton. Freddie then pursued his passion for making ice cream by working for Gelupo, a gelateria in London, while Jack went on a course to become a baker.

Jack said: During my university degree, I realised that geography was not working for me career-wise.

As a child I used to go to the bakery in Watlington and used to love it so much but I had never experienced baking my own bread before going on a course.

I realised it was something I enjoyed so much and wanted to pursue long term. Freddie has always been into food as well.

The brothers were both working at the Goring Grocer when they decided it was time to open their own business.

Jack said: We have wanted to do something like this for a long time and this was just the perfect space for it. We saw how much potential it had and it made so much sense for us to get up and running in a place like this, it felt right.

 I have wanted to have my own bakery for a long time but the deli style seemed to draw me in.

The whole concept of a place where people can get everything they need made a lot of sense.

Theres definitely a demand for something like this in Nettlebed and people are really excited that we are joining the village and excited about what we are going to bring to the table. We are very excited too  theres a lot of work to be done and we know its going to be hard but we are really pleased to be able to create something for ourselves and doing something together.

The business is named after their mothers middle name. Jack said: She is the person we got our inspiration from.

When we were growing up, she was always in the kitchen making all sorts of treats.

The Field Kitchen closed in April last year, when Dave Field and Barb Grigor, who had run it for 10 years, retired.
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Last weekend, we had friends in town for an event, and they wondered how long our drive would take.

I said: Well, its supposed to be about 30 minutes. But we have to take I-4. So the congestion will probably add another 10 or 15 minutes.

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My buddy was confused. But its a Saturday night, he said. You mean you guys have delays at times other than rush hour?

My wife and I began cackling like the demented hyenas from The Lion King. We then explained to him what all road-weary Central Floridians know: There is no safe time to drive I-4.

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Supposedly that is about to change.

After a construction project that lasted as long as the Seven Years War, Central Floridas very own boulevard of bottlenecks is about to debut a new feature  toll lanes down the middle that offer an escape to those willing to pay.

Originally, the Florida Department of Transportation estimated drivers would have to pay as much as $14 each way for the full 21-mile stretch  an amount so high I thought each toll payment should come with its own Netflix subscription.

Now, though, the state says tolls will cap out at $3.50 each way. I thought that sounded better. But I was also suspicious. Thats when I learned the lower prices are an introductory rate.

That phrase reminds me of my childhood when Columbia House would offer 12 CDs for a penny. That was the introductory offer. If you didnt cancel your subscription, other CDs would be automatically billed to your parents credit card for approximately the price of a used Volkswagen.

So lets dig deeper into the new I-4  into what you might be asked to pay down the road (probably more) and what you should expect in the free lanes (congestion).

That second part  about congestion  surprises people who dont realize this project was never intended to make driving I-4 a breeze for everyone, only for those who pay.

See, the projects financing relies on toll money paying off the bonds. And obviously no one would choose to pay tolls unless the free lanes were a mess. So this project literally banks on the free lanes remaining clogged and undesirable as way of paying its bills.

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Still, the theory is that the toll lanes will benefit everyone  that every car opting for the Lexus lanes is one less car in the free lanes.

Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesnt. In South Florida, the state added optional toll lanes to Interstate 95, and things remained messy. (See this story from the South Florida Sun Sentinel: $10.50 tolls fail to keep I-95 express lanes moving.)

Ive long viewed the I-4 Ultimate project as more of a costly act of desperation for a community that failed to adequately plan in the first place than a visionary way to ease daily commutes for all.

But there are some advantages everyone should see and some you can already see. Dangerous and traffic-slowing curves have been improved. Exit ramps have been redone to allow for smoother transitions. Driving should get at least somewhat better for everyone.

The I-4 Express, 21 miles of toll lanes on the interstate running from near Kirkman Road to State Road 434 through downtown Orlando, is expected to open later in February. (i4express.com)

So how will you decide when to pay and where to jump into a toll lane? Well, the state has a website that explains everything: i4express.com.

Yes, this road has an instruction manual. The website shows where you can jump in and out of the toll lines and notes that the $3 and $3.50 maximums are merely an introductory rate.

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As a past Columbia House member, I wanted to know when that introductory rate will end. The state isnt saying. FDOT spokeswoman Jessica Ottaviano said the introductory rate will be used to gather data from actual traffic using the express lanes which is needed to set up variable rates.

In other words: The state first wants to see how many people are willing to pay $3. If its a lot, then the price might go to $5. Or $9. Or $14. Whatever amount is high enough to keep out enough people that the lanes keep moving.

Keep in mind: The highest price will only be for people driving the entire 21-mile segment, from Seminole County down near Sand Lake Road in south Orange, at peak times.

The state says prices should start at 50 cents per tolling segment. And segments run a couple to few miles each.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

So what do we know for sure?

That this project was costly, behind schedule and over budget. The $2.4 billion price tag was higher than some nations annual budgets. (Seriously. Monacos and Bermudas are half that.)

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We also know the designers still expect congestion. (Though it will be interesting to see if a post-pandemic world with fewer commuters means less congestion than expected and less people paying the tolls needed to pay off this project.)

And we know that turning this project over to a private party  an international consortium called I-4 Mobility Partners  wasnt a panacea. Aside from the delays and overruns, five workers were killed during construction, and more than 1,000 drivers and property owners filed claims for things like construction debris that fell through windshields.

We dont know precisely when the new lanes will open. Last weeks Sentinel quoted a state official saying: If everything stays on schedule and we dont have any blips along the way, we are looking to be open by the end of February.

Unfortunately, this project has been full of blips. It will probably take months to see how this plays out. Hopefully better than things ran seven years ago. Until then, have your patience  and maybe your SunPass or E-PASS  ready.

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
Sharon Jean McCarthy, 83, of Greenville, passed away on April 11, 2022 in Greenville, Texas. A memorial service will be at Wesley United Methodist Church on April 30, 2022 at 9 a.m. Coker-Mathews Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. Mrs. McCarthy was born Feb. 4, 1939 in St. Louis, Mi
Anderson, IN (46016)

Today

Rain showers this morning with numerous thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High 71F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 49F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Anderson, IN (46016)

Today

Rain showers this morning then thunderstorms with heavy rainfall arriving during the afternoon hours. High 71F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 49F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Anderson, IN (46016)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. High 71F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 49F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
TALLAHASSEE  Gov. Ron DeSantis now supports a plan to withhold $200 million in funding from 12 school districts that mandated masks because of the pandemic, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

DeSantis is on board after discussions with state Rep. Randy Fine, who is proposing the budget measure, Press Secretary Christina Pushaw wrote in an email.

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The governor has been clear that he doesnt want to take away any funding from students or teachers, she wrote. He is on board with the FEFP [Florida Education Finance Program] adjustment following discussions with Rep. Fine. The fines in this proposal would only impact administrators making $100k+, who were actually making the political decisions to force-mask children.

It was school boards not school administrators, however, that made the decision to mandate masks for students, and the state fined those boards as a result, withholding money equivalent to school board members monthly salaries. Florida returned the money once mask mandates were lifted.

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On Friday, DeSantis said he would not support Fines idea.

My view would be lets not do that, DeSantis said during an appearance in Jackson County, when asked about Fines proposal. But what you could do is say any parent whose kid was illegally force-masked this year in Florida in any of those districts, they should have the right to sue if their kids have any negative effects ... They flouted the law and they should be liable for the consequences of their actions.

DeSantis remains committed to the idea of a private right of action for parents to sue if they think school mask mandates harmed their children, Pushaw said.

Fine, a Brevard County Republican, said on the House floor the governor is now supporting his proposal if it is tailored to take money away only from central administrative offices.

After discussions personally that I have had with the governor over the last few days, the governor is in support of the concept, he said. I understand this is late-breaking news.

Orange County Public Schools could lose $16.5 million if Fines measure was adopted. Two-thirds of the $200 million would come from South Florida. Miami-Dade could lose $72 million, Broward $32 million and Palm Beach County $28 million.

The Orange County School Board was in a workshop Tuesday when news broke of DeSantis change of opinion.

I just read a tweet that Gov. DeSantis is supporting the $200 million from school districts, said board member Angie Gallo. It upset me. So excuse my lack of thought process right now.

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The amount each district would lose would be based on how many administrators are earning more than $100,000. OCPS school leaders said they have 92 such positions.

They have called Fines proposal unfair, unprecedented and possibly unconstitutional.

They and other school leaders said they enacted mask mandates in good faith as a way to keep students and staff safe during the surge in COVID-19 cases that coincided with August school openings. They noted both national and local medical experts recommended masks in schools as the delta variant led to a sharp increase in cases and hospitalizations.

In a letter to lawmakers sent last week, OCPS leaders noted that even when masks were optional at the start of the school year, more than 90% of OCPS parents sent their children to school wearing them, suggesting widespread support for the 60-day mask mandate the district imposed. The mandate ended Oct. 31.

The proposal to take money from the districts would be an unprecedented punitive redistribution of money in the states school-funding formula that aims to equalize per-student spending across the state, said the letter from Superintendent Barbara Jenkins and Teresa Jacobs, chair of the Orange County School Board.

School districts have the right to challenge state rules they think are improper, as Orange and others did with the states rule banning face mask mandates, the letter said, and Fines plan could violate the state constitution by imposing fines in ways state law does not allow.

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Palm Beach County Superintendent Mike Burke said theres no justification for the penalty Fine proposed because the school district complied immediately when mask mandates were declared unlawful on Nov. 19.

Representative Fines proposal to claw back $28 million in funding for the upcoming school year is unfounded, unprecedented, and unjust, Burke said in a statement.

Florida already spends less per-pupil than many states, he added, so any dollars lost to such a punitive proposal would negatively impact the ability of our schools to meet the needs of our students.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

The Broward School District was disappointed in the governors reversal, said John Sullivan, director of legislative affairs.

We hope the Senate will not agree to penalize administrators who have worked tirelessly to meet the unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic, always focused on the health and safety of students and teachers, Sullivan said. This penalty would have a negative impact on the services the district is able to provide to our students.

Senate President Wilton Simpson told reporters Thursday he had not closely examined the Houses proposal, but he supported the concept of holding organizations that dont follow state law accountable.

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Fine said the 12 school districts would still get more money this year than last but not as much as the 55 districts that did not require students to wear face masks. The 12 districts are in: Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Indian River, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Sarasota and Volusia counties.

DeSantis issued a statement on Twitter on Tuesday about Fines proposal.

Thanks to Speaker [Chris] Sprowls, Representative Fine, and the House of Representatives for heeding my call to protect students and teachers from accountability measures affecting union-controlled politicians and bureaucrats who defied Florida law by force masking kids, DeSantis said in the tweet. Most students didnt want to wear masks in the first place! Lets also give parents recourse for harms imposed on their kids due to this defiance. They should get compensated by academic, social, and emotional problems caused by these policies.

Sun Sentinel staff writers Brooke Baitinger and Scott Travis contributed to this report. sswisher@orlandosentinel.com; lpostal@orlandosentinel.com
Saint Joseph, MI (49085)

Today

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. High 53F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low 43F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Left to Right, Dr. Raul Pino, Director of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, and Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings during a COVID-19 briefing at the Orange County Administration Building, on, Monday, September 13, 2021. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

TALLAHASSEE  Republican state legislators rejected an effort late Monday by Central Florida Democrats to protect county health department directors who take positions on the coronavirus pandemic at odds with Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The issue came up during a committee debate over a free speech bill for doctors that is moving through the Florida House.

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State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, proposed the amendment to the legislation, alluding to the recent suspension of Orange Countys health director Dr. Raul Pino. Pino was put on administrative leave after he sent an email chiding his employees who hadnt gotten vaccinated against COVID-19.

If we are not going to protect our county health directors from political retaliation for also exercising free speech, which I would say is more about just doing their job, then this bill is extremely one-sided and totally inconsistent with the values it purports to espouse, Smith said.

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[ RELATED: State health officer Pino placed on administrative leave after vaccination email ]

Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who leads the Florida Department of Health, has not said why Pino was put on leave. During a Senate confirmation hearing, he said the matter is under investigation and involves policy, not politics.

In Florida, county health directors report to the state Department of Health in Tallahassee, which is under DeSantis direction.

State Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, questioned whether Pinos email to staff was a coercive act in an attempt to force employees to get vaccinated, rather than an opinion that would be covered under the bill.

In the email, Pino wrote, I am sorry, but at this point in the absence of reasonable and real reasons, it is irresponsible not to be vaccinated He wrote it was pathetic that his staffs vaccination rate was still less than 50%.

Republicans on the Professions and Public Health Subcommittee said action is needed to ensure doctors in private practice can speak freely without being sanctioned by some bureaucrat or self-serving boards. They advanced the legislation without the Smith amendment in a 12-5 vote.

Smith said he worries the state will be tying the hands of medical boards whose job it is to keep Floridians safe that are run not by politicians but medical professionals.

It sounds a whole lot like this bill is crafted intentionally to protect Florida doctors who agree with Gov. DeSantis and Dr. Ladapos pushing of misinformation, disseminating of disinformation about vaccines and effective therapies, Smith said.

Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino speaks during a news briefing about local COVID-19 updates on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021 at the Orange County Administration Center in Orlando, Fla. (Chasity Maynard/Orlando Sentinel) (Chasity Maynard/Orlando Sentinel)

The legislation (HB 687) specifies that a medical board or the Department of Health may not reprimand, sanction, revoke, or threaten to revoke a license, certificate, or registration of a health care practitioner for exercising his or her constitutional right of free speech, including social media statements.

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It includes an exception for speech used by the health care practitioner that leads to the direct physical harm of a person with whom the health care practitioner had a practitioner-patient relationship within the three years immediately preceding the physical harm.

State Rep. Brad Drake, R-Eucheeanna, referenced a Panhandle physician who he said was threatened with losing his certification from the American Board of Family Medicine.

Dr. Joel Rudman, a family medicine physician in Navarre, told legislators he isnt sure why he received the letter. He said he is vaccinated against COVID-19 but has been critical of mandates. He said the letter came after he posted a video on Facebook live about how he caught COVID-19, despite being vaccinated.

[ RELATED: Suspension of Dr. Pino comes as administration tightens muzzle on public health, critics say ]

Dr. Warren Newton, president and CEO of the American Board of Family Medicine, said in a prepared statement the number of letters sent to physicians was greatly exaggerated.

Spreading disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine is harmful to the public and to individual patients, he said. Very few family physicians across the US have been sent letters to understand more about the information they have shared publicly regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.

Newton said he could not discuss Rudmans letter because correspondence with individual physicians is confidential under the boards policies.

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Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

State Rep. Bob Rommel, R-Naples, said Florida doctors need to be protected from Washington bureaucrats, adding that he doesnt think masks did anything to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That view is at odds with most public health experts.

We have to protect individual freedoms, and the God-given right to speak is the No 1 thing, Rommel said. If we cant do that, weve lost everything.

The bill as written could undermine the Department of Healths authority to discipline health care practitioners, as well as drive up prosecution costs for taxpayers, according to a staff analysis of the legislation. State law prohibits licensed health care professionals from making misleading, deceptive, or fraudulent representations.

The Federation of State Medical Boards has warned doctors they could face disciplinary action if they spread misinformation about vaccines because they have a professional and ethical responsibility to share information that is factual, scientifically grounded and consensus-driven for the betterment of public health.

The Legislature ran afoul of doctors free speech rights in high-profile legislation known as the Docs vs. Glocks law passed in 2011. That law limited the ability of physicians to ask their patients about gun ownership and make notes about firearm ownership in medical records.

A federal court struck down major parts of that law in 2017 on the grounds that it violated doctors First Amendment rights.

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sswisher@orlandosentinel.com
The Hotel Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square Opens Its DoorsRIU | February 14, 2022

RIU Hotels & Resorts has just opened the Hotel Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square, the Spanish hotel chain's second establishment in New York City. Just like its predecessor, this hotel is a new build and has a highly desirable location in the heart of Manhattan, surrounded by the most famous theatres on Broadway and just a stone's throw from Times Square.

The Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square has 656 rooms and its brand new, innovatively designed facilities are ready to offer guests the exclusive Riu Plaza service. The hotel's decoration aims to submerge guests in the Big Apple's renowned theatrical world from the moment they walk through the door. This is a clear nod to the hotel's unbeatable location on 47th Street, just a stone's throw away from Times Square and Broadway's acclaimed musicals.

The hotel's architectural details, interior design and artwork transmit all the excitement and stage design of Broadway. The lobby is a clear example, where huge masks inspired by the famous show "The Phantom of the Opera" give customers an elegant and personalised welcome.

The new build housing the hotel has 47 floors that take customers up to the dizzying heights of New York. On the ground floor, we can find the main lobby and the "Grab&Go" cafeteria, as well as spacious relaxation areas. The gym is located on the floor below. The first floors of the building house a car park and a restaurant that serves RIU's well-known buffet breakfast, while the rooms are located on the seventh floor and above.

This hotel's more than 650 rooms are designed with the modern and elegant RIU style and are ready to offer customers all they need to relax after a thrilling day of sightseeing in the big city. What's more, with the facility fee, guests have access to extra services such as free WiFi, luggage storage on arrival and departure, a bottle of water in the room on the day of arrival and unlimited access to the gym.

RIU took its first steps in Manhattan in 2016 when it opened the Hotel Riu Plaza New York Times Square, a real milestone for the company as this was its first hotel in one of the world's economic hubs and most vibrant cities. The opening of the Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square represents a new achievement for RIU Hotels, as the Majorcan chain now has two large hotels in unbeatable locations of one of the world's most attractive cities for tourists.

With the opening of the Hotel Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square, the company now has nine Riu Plaza hotels located in some of the world's most important and historic cities: the Hotel Riu Plaza Espana in Madrid; the Hotel Riu Plaza Panama in Panama city; the Hotel Riu Plaza Guadalajara in Mexico; the Hotel Riu Plaza Berlin in the German capital; the Hotel Riu Plaza The Gresham Dublin in the Irish capital; the Hotel Riu Plaza Miami Beach in Miami; the Hotel Riu Plaza Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco; and the Hotel Riu Plaza New York Times Square and Hotel Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square, both in New York.

In the coming years, Riu Plaza will continue to grow with projects in major cities such as Chicago, Toronto and London. RIU recently purchased a plot of land in Chicago, another major US city, where it will build a new 4-star hotel with 28 floors and more than 350 rooms. In London, work has already started on the construction of a future 4-star hotel located next to Victoria Station, which will have 435 room and will open its doors in 2023. Meanwhile, in Canada it has selected Toronto, the fifth largest city in North America, as the home of the newly built Riu Plaza Toronto hotel, with 350 rooms, meeting rooms, a gym, a bar and a restaurant.

Hotel website
Danilo Zucchetti - with important positions behind him in prestigious luxury hotel structures, starting with the Four Seasons group in 1993 and a long experience in the Villa d'Este Hotels group - has been appointed "vice president operations" of the Baglioni Hotels & Resorts group . After graduating in Hotel Operations at the Hosta Hotel & Tourism School in Switzerland and in Hotel Management at the Hotel Institute in Montreux, Danilo Zucchetti immediately began his career in the hotel sector. He holds the role of general manager of the Hotel Bauer and of Il Palazzo in Venice. In November 2005 he joined the management of the Villa d'Este Group, on Lake Como, where in 2012 he held the position of general manager of the group.

Over the years, Zucchetti has received important international awards and prizes, including the Independent Hotelier of the World 2020 on behalf of the hospitality magazine Hotels and in 2019 the Award of Excellence - Top General Manager Worldwide by Luxury Travel Advisor . Moreover, thanks to his strategic vision and deep knowledge of the sector, he was named "Best Hotelier of the year 2012" by Virtuoso, an international network made up of the most prestigious travel agencies in the world.

Now, within the Baglioni collection, Zucchetti will initially focus on closely following the Baglioni Hotel Luna in Venice and the Baglioni Resort Sardinia. "I am very pleased - he commented - to continue my path matured in the excellence of iconic structures in a hotel reality such as Baglioni Hotels & Resorts, which has always been an emblem of Italian hospitality and an expression of uniqueness and authenticity in the panorama of luxury hotels. international".
Singapore  Today, when human connections matter more than ever, IHG Hotels & Resorts boutique luxury brand, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants launches the Kimpton Digital Guestbook in Australia, South East Asia and Korea  breathing new life into the art of storytelling. The platform sparks creative expression through visuals and video, inviting travellers to share and exchange stories all bound together by the love of connection. For a limited time, travellers can also win one of four Ultimate Kimpton Experiences to reconnect in real time with unforgettable 10-night stays including Kimptons signature perks.

The Kimpton legacy is built on the ethos of delivering heartfelt human connections, believing that these connections make peoples lives better and that commonalities and connections exist between all people. And while international travel may be on hold for some right now, others are returning to travel, or getting ready to pick up their suitcases and seek out new destinations once again. The Digital Guestbook encapsulates this community of stories and allows people to uncover what cherished moments look like, what connections means to one another now, or simply a promise for the future ahead.

The collection launches with Kimpton stories from guest Creators  a selection of artists, travellers, creators and explorers  from Sydney to South Korea. With colourful tales of togetherness from across the globe, the Kimpton Creators stories are available in the Guestbook and include Singapores DJ and producer, MYRNE and experimental illustrator, Andre Wee; Australias entrepreneur, Alyce Tran fashion and lifestyle influencer, Jasmin Howell photographer, Jarrad Seng and model and presenter, Christian Wilkins and in South Korea, artist Novo and fashion illustrator, Jaesuk Kim share their stories.

Exciting new Kimpton hotels  from dreamy resorts to heritage icons

Since the brand was created by Bill Kimpton in San Francisco in 1981, Kimpton has created a hotel culture that stripped the barrier between guest and staff, creating a personable, thoughtful and sociable vibe that is well-loved by guests. Today, Kimptons unique brand of service and style can be found in over 75 hotels across the world.

2022 continues to be a year of exciting growth for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, with seven properties set to open in new city and resort locations. Today, 14 February, marks the Australian debut of the brand with Kimpton Margot Sydney: a magnificent heritage-listed Art Deco hotel offering guests a treasure-trove of history, art, pop-up events and even an underground cellar. In January 2022, Kimpton Kitalay Samui opened as Thailands first Kimpton resort in Koh Samui, complete with its breezy beachside appeal, breath-taking beauty and village-living inspired by the Samui way of life.

In 2020, the first Kimpton hotel opened in South East Asia with the edgy Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok in the creative district of Langsuan. An insiders pass to the City of Angels, the 362-room hotel including 131 serviced residences, emulates the vibrant pulse of the city, contrasted with the uplifting greenery inspired by the adjacent Lumpini Park. Kimpton St Honore Paris opened its Art Nouveau doors in August 2021 as the brands debut in France, a stunning transformation of the former 1900s "Samaritaine de Luxe" department store with 149 guestrooms in the Opera district. Looking ahead, the all-villa boutique luxury resort, Kimpton Naranta Bali will open as the perfect gateway to the Island of the Gods with an unforgettable take on barefoot luxury.

View and contribute to the Kimpton Digital Guestbook here, or book a stay at one of Kimpton new hotels and resorts here.

To celebrate brand new Kimpton hotels around the world and help create new human connection stories, the brand is giving away Ultimate Kimpton Experiences to four lucky winners: an unforgettable 10-night adventure at participating Kimpton hotels in Sydney, Bali, Bangkok, Koh Samui or Paris, including a tailored itinerary* and all the signature Kimpton perks. From 14 February to 13 March 2022, participants are invited to share about their most cherished heartfelt human connection moment on Instagram with the hashtag #KimptonStories. Find out more here.
As Airbnb and other short-term-rental platforms have grown during the past decade, regulators and hotel industry associations have fought to limit their impacts. The hotel industry has generally viewed these new platforms as competitive threats. As such, the hotel industry sought to level the playing field by asking municipalities to impose taxes and regulations on short-term rentals that would be comparable to what hotels experience.

Overview of Short-Term Rental Policies in Chicago

In Chicago, the effort to constrain the short-term rental industry went farther than just leveling the playing field. Airbnb bookings are now taxed at a higher rate than hotels. Aldermanic privileges have created sizeable barriers to entry for would-be hosts. The City of Chicago implemented a new registration fee that short-term rental hosts must pay every year.

Combined with the pandemic, these policies were temporarily successful in reducing Chicagos inventory of short-term rental units. The supply of active short-term rental units in Chicago has declined from approximately 10,600 at the end of 2019 to about 5,500 in the first quarter of 2022. HA&A has identified four main factors that we believe have contributed to this trend.

Pandemic  Many hosts removed their listings from Airbnb and similar platforms during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some hosts were concerned about safety and uneasy about letting strangers into their homes during a pandemic. Other hosts were concerned about liabilities. Many hosts were not traveling during 2020, so they did not have any dates available to rent out their primary residences anyway. And some hosts simply determined that the sharp decline in travel demand during the pandemic meant it was no longer worth the headache and cost of trying to rent out their units. Airbnb Cleaning Protocol  During the pandemic, as Airbnb was attempting to prepare for their IPO, the company published a strict new cleaning protocol. All hosts were required to sign off on the new protocol to remain actively listed on the Airbnb platform. Despite good intentions, this protocol was deemed overly aggressive by some hosts. When interpreted literally, it made hosting cost prohibitive for many listings that were furnished or equipped like a primary residence. This new cleaning protocol led to a further reduction in active listings, especially among hosts renting their primary residences who opted out. Aldermanic Privilege  Chicago city council members (aldermen) enjoy an unwritten veto power in council votes affecting their own wards, especially in cases of zoning, variances, and related regulation. Some council members, such as Alderman Marty Quinn (13th Ward), have used this power to veto applications from homeowners in their wards that seek to register homes on short-term rental platforms. The effect of these campaigns to fight short-term rentals has further reduced participation, by curtailing the property rights of homeowners in certain wards. City Registration Fee  In 2021, the City of Chicago implemented a new, annual registration fee for all short-term rental units. Hosts are now required to pay an annual registration fee of $125 to the City, to maintain an active listing, regardless of whether they end up renting out their unit. This has especially affected hosts who occasionally listed their primary residences on short-term rental platforms. If you only rent out your home a few days per year, this new administrative burden and fee, make the business case for participating much less attractive. However, if you are a professional management company renting out multiple units every day of the year, then this new registration fee is less burdensome, when measured as a cost per occupied room night.

The first factor has been largely reversed since lodging demand began rebounding in 2021. According to our interviews, many Airbnb hosts have experienced 2021 occupancies and ADRs that exceed their prior peak levels of performance. This is partly due to the mismatch in supply and demand; as demand rebounded, supply continued to decline in Chicago.

The second factor was also reversed, as Airbnb revised their cleaning protocols. The company individually contacted former hosts to explain the policy reversal. Airbnbs current cleaning protocol has removed much of the overly strict language that had scared off former hosts.

But the other two factors remain in place, continuing to limit and reshape the short-term rental industry in Chicago. Aldermanic Privilege has not been challenged or successfully countered; instead, this anti-Airbnb policy stance has spread to multiple wards, especially in wards with Aldermen seeking to score political points by turning short-term rentals into a political wedge issue. The Citys registration fee also continues to limit participation by hosts renting their primary residences and other small operators.

Filling the Void

The rapid rebound in demand, combined with the rapid reduction in supply, has led to a high-performance period for those left standing on Chicagos short-term-rental playing field. Many operators report 2021 as their peak occupancy year, even with several months negatively affected by the pandemic and restrictive travel protocols. The winners have generally been multi-unit owners with professional management. The losers have generally been single unit owners, owner-operators, and hosts who occasionally rented out their own primary residences while out of town. In short, professionals are winning while the amateur hosts are losing. As a result, we are witnessing a rapid professionalization of the short-term rental industry in Chicago.

Professional investors and operators are filling the void that was created by Chicagos recent reduction in supply. According to some confidential interviews with developers, we estimate more than a dozen short-term rental development projects are planned in Chicago for 2022. All of these projects involve large, multi-unit buildings. All seek to retain professional operators. Moreover, each project aims to market all of their units year-round as full-time lodging operations. So, the new supply filling the void will be much more like traditional hotel rooms  with standardized guestroom designs, year-round operating strategies, and professional management.

Unintended Consequences

One goal of Chicagos policies was to limit the competitive impact of short-term rentals on the hotel industry. However, these policies are beginning to backfire. A series of unintended consequences are leading short-term rentals to have a more direct, competitive impact on the hotel industry. What is happening and how is it worse for Chicago hotels?

There are three important unintended consequences that current and prospective hotel investors in Chicago should consider. Firstly, the total competitive supply from short-term rentals may increase even though the number of active rentals has been decreasing, if permanent supply replaces elastic [1] supply. Secondly, there will be less geographic and product differentiation as single-family homes from diverse neighborhoods become increasingly displaced by centrally located, multi-unit properties. Thirdly, as the short-term rental industry shifts more towards professionally managed properties, these properties will increasingly be marketed more directly to traditional hotel guests as professional operators increasingly implement more sophisticated revenue management and channel management strategies to maximize revenues. Lets summarize each of these effects in turn.

How can supply increase when the number of active short-term rental units is decreasing? The number of nights each unit is available is the key. Supply in the lodging industry can best be measured by the number of available room nights. This supply metric is the product of (i) the number of units built multiplied by (ii) the average number of nights each unit is available in a year. [Units x Nights Available = Annual Supply]

Suppose Market X has 10,000 active short-term rental units that are rented out an average of 14 nights per year. In this example, Market X has 140,000 room nights of added supply from these short-term rental units each year. Furthermore, if these units are primarily rented out during peak demand periods, when many hotels are sold-out anyway, then the supply impact on traditional hotels may be negligible. One silver lining of the Airbnb platform was that many hosts were induced to rent out units when demand spikes outstripped supply. As a result, these short-term rental units made lodging supply more elastic, expanding during demand peaks and constricting during demand troughs. They primarily accommodate pent-up demand that otherwise could not be accommodated in the market. Supply elasticity is a good thing for the hotel industry.

Contrast this with Market Y, which has 5,000 active short-term rental units that are available 365 nights per year. Market Y has 1,825,000 room nights of added supply. Moreover, Market Y gets none of the benefits of elastic supply. These 5,000 units are operated year-round and can have a severely negative impact on traditional hotels during the slowest periods of demand.

So, Market Y has 50 percent fewer units than Market X. But Market Y has 13 times more competitive supply, measured in room nights available, than Market X. Moreover, the average impact of the new supply in Market Y is more negative on the hotel industry than the relatively elastic supply in Market X.

Conclusions

Investors in Chicagos hotel market should consider that current policies incentivize a less elastic lodging supply than what existed a few years ago, and Chicagos lodging inventory will likely be less elastic than other markets that have not imposed similar policies that deter amateur homeowners from participating in platforms like Airbnb. Policymakers in other parts of the country may wish to learn from the experience of Chicago and craft more nuanced policies and regulations to keep short-term rentals safe without the unintended consequences. In general, we recommend considering policies that maximize supply elasticity; encourage diversity of product and location; and allow amateur homeowners to compete on a level playing field with professional short-term rental management companies.

[1] Detlefsen discussed the positive aspects of elastic supply (or seasonal supply) when interviewed by Long Live Lodging for a podcast titled Disruptive Innovators. It was broadcast on July 10, 2019. His comments are shared at approximately 18:05 through 23:30 on this podcast.
Today, were talking about

Incorporating your brands visual identity into your social media content.

Youve done an amazing job

Creating your hotel website.

A truly amazing job

Designing logos, hand selecting fonts and photographs, slaving over color palettes and patterns.

All the ingredients you need

to create a beautiful and consistent visual identity.

But when it comes to your social media channels.

Do you give them the same time and attention?

Or

Are the photographs a little bit of this and a little bit of that?

Is the story

all over the map? Like the colors and the tones.

Its not easy. Is it?

Curating and hand selecting and slaving over images day after day.

Its hard enough

writing the captions and sourcing the images. Who has time to make it beautiful and on brand, too?

But what about the travelers who use social media first?

Are they seeing a lesser version of your perfectly cultivated brand?

Social media ought to be an extension of your brand story.

Not an afterthought.

Another place where your hotel gets discovered.

For the first time.

No different than your website.

So why not put your best foot forward?

Like this property

See how they incorporated all the same colors, images, and fonts from their website (right) into their social media feed (left).

Hotel Social Media Example 1 Photo by Tambourine

And this property.

See how they brought in patterns and textures from their website design to maintain a modern look and feel.

Hotel Social Media Example 2 Photo by Tambourine

And this property, too.

See how they maintained an editorial, luxury vibe by incorporating lots of beautiful white space.

Hotel Social Media Example 3 Photo by Tambourine

Youve spent a lot of time and money creating your brands visual identity.

Protect it.

About Tambourine

Tambourine uses technology and creativity to increase revenue for hotels and destinations worldwide. The firm, now in its 36th year, is located in Fort Lauderdale, Carlsbad, and Bogota. Visit Tambourine to learn more about our new line of segment-based hospitality solutions.

About Tambourine

Tambourine continues to shake up the hospitality industry with custom integrated marketing solutions for hotels, resorts, and destinations world-wide. The company's emergence as the market leader for both branded and independent hotels is a testament to their core values: putting customer service center stage, setting the standards for hotel website design, and making performance digital marketing easier and more profitable for its valued partners.

Thomas McDermott

Vice President of Corporate Marketing

+1 954 975 2220

Tambourine
WASHINGTON - Governor Greg Abbott's plans to expand Texas's computer chip sector could soon be getting a boost from the Biden administration.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters Tuesday the administration was urging the House and the Senate to reconcile their differences on legislation pumping $52 billion into the U.S. semiconductor industry.

"We've allowed ourselves to fall behind. We invented the chip industry. Twenty years ago 40 percent of all semiconductors were produced here," she said. "Now we produce only 12 percent of the worlds semiconductors, and even scarier 90 percent of leading edge semiconductors are made by a single company in Taiwan."

As the global economy continues to digitize, rising demand for computer chips, or semiconductors, has set off an international race to build manufacturing.

And with Covid-19 pandemic upending supply chains, a global chip shortage has slowed the manufacturing of everything from cars to medical equipment.

Some new chip factories are already locating in the United States, with Samsung announcing in November it was building a $17 billion semiconductor factory outside Austin. And Abbott is hoping to attract more factories in the years ahead.

"We need to not depend upon China or other countries for our essential needs, for things like semiconductors," the Republican governor told Fox News in December. "That is exactly why Texas actually is leading the way, becoming the home for semiconductors that go into everything that people use."

The Biden administration is hoping to attract more projects from the likes of Intel and Samsung by boosting federal funding for research and development into developing the next generation of semiconductors.

Legislation has passed both the House and the Senate, with the two sides now trying to work out conflicts between the two bills. And Raimondo said the White House was urging Congress to get the bill to President Joe Biden's desk, "as fast as possible."

"Samsung and Intel have made clear that future investment in the United States is predicated on this legislation," she said.
Kohls department store revealed a list of 400 stores, including five in the Houston area, that will be adding Sephora at Kohls beauty product shops this year.

The stores, which occupy 2,500 square feet within select Kohl's stores, are designed to mimic the look and feel of a freestanding Sephora. The stores offer prestige makeup, skincare, hair and fragrance brands, such as Rare Beauty, NARS, Charlotte Tilbury, Kiehls, Giorgio Armani, Olaplex, Clinique and Sephora Collection. Sephora-trained beauty advises offer consultations and assistance with finding products.

Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based Kohl's introduced Sephora at Kohl's last fall at 200 locations, although none were in Houston. The 400 additional stores, spanning 36 states, put the partnership on track to open 850 stores by 2023. Opening dates were not disclosed.

RELATED: Retail wrap: Target, H-E-B, Burlington signal rebound in Houston retail construction

Locally, Sephora at Kohls will open at 1200 Fry Road in Katy; 2808 Interstate 45 N. in Conroe; 20614 Interstate 45 in Spring; 22529 Tomball Parkway in Tomball; and 5550 W. Grand Parkway South near the Westpark Tollway in Richmond.

Were thrilled to be bringing Sephora at Kohls closer to millions more of our customers nationwide through this 400 store expansion, Kohls Chief Merchandising Officer Doug Howe said in an announcement. The quick and vast rollout of Sephora at Kohls is a testament to how much we believe in this partnership and making prestige beauty more accessible to people everywhere. Were excited to grow and bring this elevated beauty experience to more of Kohls existing and new customers this year.

The collaboration with Sephora is designed to drive sales and bring in new, younger and more diverse customers who will also shop in other areas of the store. New brands that will join Sephora at Kohls assortment in 2022 include Murad, Clarins, Jack Black, Living Proof, Versace and Voluspa.

Kohl's, which sells apparel, shoes, accessories, home products, small electrics and more, has 22 stores in the Houston area.
Chronicle file

A Houston Chamber of Commerce committee proposed that the city's new municipal stadium seat 65,000, with the ability to expand to 100,000 seats if the public supports it. Houston Mayor Oscar Holcombe had been supportive of the project for the past few weeks.

Such talk would continue throughout the year until Rice University announced plans to build a stadium on its campus.
A Houston tow truck driver is being held on a combined $400,000 bail after being charged in a crash that killed an infant.

Jose Luna, 39, is accused of not attaching towing safety chains and failing to control his speed before crashing into the back of a Nissan that was parked at a red light Sunday morning at Cunningham and Little York Road in northwest Houston.
A man who was robbed at gunpoint at a bank ATM drive-thru on Monday evening pulled his own gun and fired shots at the robber, but instead struck a 9-year-old girl who was in the backseat of her familys vehicle, authorities said. The girl died Tuesday evening.

The child, identified by relatives as Arlene Alvarez, was shot around 9:45 p.m. Monday as her father drove her and her siblings by a Chase bank on Winkler Drive, near the 2900 block of Woodridge Drive in southeast Houston.

Tony D. Earls, 41, of Houston, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the incident. Earls reported to authorities that a man had walked up to him at the banks drive-thru and robbed him and his wife at gunpoint around 9:45 p.m., authorities said.

Earls grabbed his own weapon, got out of the vehicle and shot at the armed thief as he ran away, according to police. He then fired at a passing truck that he thought the robber was in, piercing the back window, police said.

The pickup truck was instead carrying a family of five  with Arlene in the backseat.

The girls father, Armando Alvarez, told reporters outside Memorial Herman hospital in the Texas Medical Center that he heard the initial gunfire while driving and tried to warn his children, but that Arlene had her headphones on at the time.

I told them, Get down, but shes the only one that didnt get down. She didnt hear me, said Alvarez.

He pulled over but the shooter was, by then, gone. He said Arlene went down fast and did not feel pain.

I was going to chase him, he said. If I was by myself, I probably would have.

Alvarez told reporters that the family had been traveling to Arlenes favorite restaurant in the neighborhood. In a Facebook post, the father addressed a post to her and expressed regret about working late.

I ended up working late today and could have taken the day off to spend the day with you, Alvarez wrote.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Apprentice plumber gets 25 years after molesting 4-year-old girl at work

The tragedy follows two other recent shootings in Harris County this month in which children were victims. On Feb. 3, Darius DJ Dugas , 11, was shot and killed outside his northeast Harris County apartment. Five days later, 9-year-old Ashanti Grant was watching cartoons in the backseat of her familys vehicle when she was critically wounded by gunfire from a road rage shooting. Her familys vehicle had gotten caught between two vehicles that were racing when someone opened fire.

A day after seeking the publics help in finding those responsible for Ashantis shooting, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was expressing his condolences to the Alvarez family.

The precious little girl was an innocent victim caught in the crossfire of an incident that had nothing to do with her or her family, Turner said in a tweet. My heart goes out to Arlenes mother, father and siblings following her tragic death this afternoon. We cannot imagine their unfathomable grief.

In a text to the mayor, Alvarez expressed his desire that Earls be held without bail.

This was not self defense, Alvarez wrote.

More from Joel Umanzor: Woman accused in MS-13 machete killing cut off ankle monitor and fled, authorities say

At the time charges against Earls were filed, prosecutors noted in a motion for sufficient bail that Arlene was not displaying normal brain activity. She was declared deceased soon after.

Executive Chief Matt Slinkard of the Houston Police Department said during a news conference late Monday that the robber was running away by the time the shooter got out of his vehicle and fired his weapon.

We do not know if the robbery suspect returned fire, Slinkard said.

The robbery suspect had not been identified late Tuesday and remained at large.

Earls left after the shooting but called police to report the robbery and returned, Slinkard said. Earls initially told investigators that he did not know one of the rounds he had fired had struck the vehicle  or the girl, police said.

It goes to show that anytime theres guns involved, the danger to innocent bystanders is high, Slinkard said.

The incident comes less than a year after Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a measure eliminating the requirement that Texas residents receive training or obtain a license to carry a handgun. The new rules took effect Sept. 1.

Based on the initial details of the incident, Geoffrey Corn, a professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, wondered if the case would turn out to be an example of someone misunderstanding Texas so-called stand-your-ground laws  which allow an individual to shoot another when facing the threat of death or great bodily harm.

I think there are a lot of people who have armed themselves who think stand-your-ground means youre allowed to use deadly force when you feel threatened, Corn continued.

The defendant, he said, would likely be unable to argue self-defense because the robber was already fleeing when he opened fire, according to police.

At that point, the deadly force was no longer necessary because he didnt face a threat, Corn said.

A probable cause hearing for Earls was expected Tuesday night, with a later appearance on Thursday in the 263rd District Court, records show. He was being held in the county jail on a $30,000 bond. A defense attorney was not listed.

Prior convictions against Earls consist of three Harris County misdemeanors: soliciting prostitution, tampering with a government record and possession of marijuana.

Police are still searching for the robber and are encouraging anyone with information related to the incident to contact the HPD homicide division at 713-308-3600 or Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Joel.Umanzor@chron.com

nicole.hensley@chron.com
Authorities found a man in his 20s dead Monday evening in a Houston apartment where they were sent out for a shooting.

Houston police officers were dispatched after 7 p.m. for a shooting. When they responded to the 13700 block of Richmond Avenue, authorities say they found a man in his 20s dead in an apartment.
A man died early Tuesday after a suspected arson at his home in south Houston, police said.

Firefighters responded to reports of the fire around 3:15 a.m. at the 3700 block of Ward Street and found a 60-year-old man inside the house before taking him to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The victim did not have any visible physical injuries or trauma, according to Lt. Emanuel Pavel of HPD, who added that the cause of death appears to be smoke inhalation.

"At this time, it is early in the investigation, we believe the fire was started in the living room," Pavel added. "It just looks suspicious and looks like someone started the fire."

On HoustonChronicle.com: 'Multiple students' involved in after-school fight at Katy park, with 2 people airlifted to hospital

A person of interest  who lives at the residence and apparently called in the incident  was taken into custody by Houston police, Pavel said.

Police had been called to the house days before the fire, authorities said.

"The suspect is alleging aggravated assault by the victim saying a gun was pointed at him. We are still investigating that," Pavel said. "The victim also called saying that he wanted the guy evicted and out of his house. We explained to him what he needed to do to evict him at that time."

More from Joel Umanzor: Daughter of woman found dead in west Harris County charged with murder

Police and firefighters remained at the scene into late Tuesday morning with investigators searching a nearby car they said was tied to the residence.

Neighbors near the residence said the car belonged to the suspect and recalled seeing law enforcement visit the home Monday afternoon prior to the fire.

"I passed by and they had the man who owns the car right here jacked up for a couple of hours," resident Cedric Perry said, adding the vehicle had only been seen in the neighborhood as recently as the past two weeks.

"They were talking to both gentlemen," neighbor Marilyn McCoy said. "I was just saying, it's a shame, if they had taken both of them to jail maybe this wouldn't have happened."

Joel.Umanzor@chron.com
Nine-year-old Ashanti Grant was watching cartoons in the backseat of her familys car when a bullet tore through the vehicle and hit her in the head.

She was critically injured, and the shooter  who was allegedly racing when Grants family got caught between them and another vehicle  has not been arrested. The childs uncle on Monday pleaded for anyone who knows what occurred to aid in the investigation.

Houston Crime Stoppers has increased its anonymous reward to $30,000, by way of a $25,000 donation from businessman and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta.

Give justice to Ashanti, Larry Grant said. She deserves it.

The girls family stood behind Mayor Sylvester Turner and Police Chief Troy Finner during a news conference, where the leaders also advocated for public agencies to OK video monitoring of traffic and roadways. Agencies such as TranStar have the capability and technology but do not use it, because threatened lawsuits over privacy have thwarted previous efforts.

Times have changed, Turner said, adding that families like Ashantis could benefit from such video footage.

Especially when things happen to our babies, when things happen to our children, we will go the extra step, the extra mile to find you, the mayor said. It is important that we augment our boots on the ground with the use of technology.

The girl and her family were going to the grocery store about 9 p.m. Feb. 8 when they got in between two vehicles that were racing on the Southwest Freeway feeder road, traveling northbound toward Fondren, police said. Officers have said they believe the shooting was related to road rage.

"One of those individuals in the race decided to go after our complainants," Lt. Ronnie Wilkens said after the incident. "They started shooting into the Tahoe and sadly enough a little 9-year-old girl was shot in the head."

Ashanti is making progress in the hospital but is still in critical condition, Turner said.

The suspect's vehicle is believed to be a white, GMC Denali that had arrows in the blinkers. A 20- to 30-year-old man was spotted behind the wheel of the truck, which is possibly a 2017 model, police said. A female passenger was also seen in the car.

Finner declined to provide further details about the events leading up to the shooting, saying he didnt want to speculate on the involvement of the female passenger or the third car that was reportedly racing. He said that he was not blaming any of Grants family for what happened to the girl, who he called Princess.

You can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, he said.

Anyone with information should contact Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
Capping his 12-day Keeping the Lights On road trip, Beto ORourke Tuesday night spoke about the heartbreak of last years fatal freeze in Texas and said why he believes it happened in hopes that its not repeated.

The Democratic gubernatorial hopeful drew a crowd of at least 200 people at 8th Wonder Brewery in Houston a year after hundreds of Texans died from freeze-related causes.

No city, no part of Texas, got hit as hard as Houston did, he said. More people died in this community than in any of the other 254 counties of Texas though it got very cold everywhere, and it certainly was very cold here.

This community understands the sacrifice and the cost and the consequence of our failure as a state to get it right better than any other. And its really important that we understand it, so that we never have to face it again.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Beto O'Rourke touts raising $7.2 million in Texas governor's race

People of all ages came to the rally Tuesday night, listening to music  including the country-inspired Babes in Betoland band  or grabbing a drink. Some danced as another band took the stage and the tunes continued on, bouncing black-and-white BETO FOR TEXAS signs in the air as string lights glowed above them.

Earlier in the day at Houston City Hall, ORourke said the state should further weatherize gas facilities, connect the states electric framework to a broader grid, and assist ratepayers. The Democrat has homed in on the power outages as he campaigns against Abbott. On Monday, his campaign launched an attack ad making that case as well.

ORourke stopped at Houston City Hall to mark the one-year anniversary of the freeze and power grid breakdown that left more than 240 people dead in Texas.

ORourke, a former Texas congressman, laid blame for the grids near-collapse at the feet of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, whom he is seeking to defeat in the November general election. Both men face opponents in their respective parties in the March 1 primary elections.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Abbott trumpets Texas Ethics Commission's 'preliminary review' of Beto O'Rourke fundraising

In the energy capital of this planet, we were unable to power the lives of our fellow Texans, ORourke said during City Councils weekly public session. That was not due to any act of God, or the force of Mother Nature. It was those in the positions of power, the highest positions of power at the state, who could not deliver the power to the people of Texas.

Temperatures plummeted in Houston and across Texas on Feb. 15 last year. The states power grid almost collapsed, resulting in prolonged outages that caused millions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses and crippled many water systems.

The governor, meanwhile, has argued that a series of bills he signed into law have vastly improved the grid.

A campaign spokesperson for Abbott told the Chronicle that O'Rourke should have used his time in front of Houston's City Council "explaining his support for the Green New Deal," alleging that it would "kill hundreds of thousands of energy jobs and open border policies that have resulted in over 1,000 fentanyl deaths in Texas."

The truth is Governor Abbott and the legislature have put reforms in place that have made the grid more resilient than ever," the spokesperson's statement said.

leah.brennan@chron.com



dylan.mcguinness@chron.com
Eloping was always the plan for Andrea Edwards and Abdul Audu.

But settling on Valentines Day for their big day did not happen until last week. The bride then ordered a sleek white dress online, told her friends where to be and arranged for her mother to take care of their young daughter. All they had to do next was tie the knot Monday at the Harris County Civil Courthouse.

The groom wore a velvety red coat.

I wanted to wear something simple but hes a dressy guy, she said.

The bailiff, whose daughter helped decorate Judge Audrie Lawton-Evans courtroom, warned the groom that its impossible to forget their wedding anniversary because it falls on the heart-filled day. Dozens of couples  many of whom obtained their marriage licenses on the third floor moments earlier  at the courthouse were likely to remember their wedding for the same reason.

Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

At one point, a line of lovebirds flowed out the Harris Count Clerks Office for their licenses  a sign that weddings are on the rise amid two years of uncertainty during the pandemic. Couples obtained 227 marriage licenses on Monday  more so than at any point during the pandemic, according to Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeths office.

In 2019, the county received nearly 32,000 marriage license applications. That number dropped to about 15,700 in 2020 as the pandemic erupted world-wide and rose back to about 28,000 the following year.

Hudspeth said license applications declined in 2020 and 2021 as some couples postponed weddings because of social distancing concerns.

Some couples decided to start Valentines Day at the courthouse.

Hazel Duong woke at 6 a.m. to do her makeup and dress for her wedding to her boyfriend Kami Truong, who recently asked her father for permission to marry. License in hand, the couple set off to find a judge to marry them.

Truong brushed a wayward lock of his bride-to-bes hair on her back as the two stepped into the elevator. The doors to many courtrooms were locked and some judges were busy with cases. But eventually, the two found Judge Fredericka Phillips and she waived the 72-hour waiting period for their license.

Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

The bailiff in the 9th floor courtroom fetched their rings from a bag. The couple said, I do, while standing in a heart of rose petals and lowered their masks for a quick kiss. In a month, the two will honeymoon in Colorado.

One woman, Angela Edwards, got through courthouse security in a voluminous red gown with white lace. Her teen sons helped re-buckle her high-heels after going through security.

The groom, Winston Weaver, whom she has known since middle school, was waiting for her upstairs.

I proposed to him in December, Edwards said, noting that she would be taking her husbands last name.

Rather than dressing up for the occasion, Randy Resendiz and Stephanie Gomez arrived at the courthouse at 9 a.m. sharp in their pajamas and with their 1-year-old daughter, Genesis. The two met by chance in 2019 while walking in downtown Houston.

My sister wanted his number, Gomez said. But he just wanted to talk to me.

The couple had marriage on their mind and decided Monday was it.

If you want to be serious, you should put a stamp on it, Resendiz said.

Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Judge Jim Kovach wrapped up a morning of hearing eviction appeals and opened his courtroom to a man and woman seeking to be wed. In his opening remarks to the couple, Kovach said he and his husband would have been unable to exchange vows in that same courtroom when they married in 2016.

The former jurists on the 5th floor  where his courtroom is located  stopped officiating weddings, he said, out of protest to the Supreme Court ruling (Obergefell v. Hodges) that forced all states to recognize same-sex marriages.

After Obergerfell, they stopped weddings because they could not pick and choose who they married, Kovach said.

The lack of weddings during the pandemic did not go unnoticed in Kovachs courtroom. He used to officiate at least four to five times a week before the pandemic. Now, hes lucky to have one every two weeks.

County Clerk Hudspeth said Monday was closer in comparison to 2019 and earlier.

I think folks are getting a handle of COVID, the clerk continued.

nicole.hensley@chron.com
Before the pandemic, Huda Alhamdani, a case manager at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, wrangled Medicaid coverage and food stamps for newly arrived refugees in a week.

Now, the process takes months, leaving her clients with limited health care options at a time when theyre most needed.

If its an emergency, we just tell them to call 911, and well deal with the bills later, she said.

Health insurance delays are among the ways that COVID has complicated the stressful lives of newly arrived refugees in Houston. The virus has forced them to navigate a maze of increasingly technology-dependent providers with little knowledge of the countrys complex health care system, while also tending to their housing and transportation needs.

Houston each year welcomes hundreds of refugees fleeing violence or persecution in their home countries. Historical data from 1975 to 2018 show most refugees arrived in the city from Vietnam, Iraq and Cambodia. But last years Taliban takeover of Afghanistan triggered an influx of more than 4,000 Afghans, according to earlier reports in the Chronicle.

When they arrive, theyve already gone through a stressful situation, and it continues to be a struggle because adjustments take time, said Ali Al Sudani, chief programs officer for Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston. So if you add COVID on top of this, of course thats going to make it a little bit more difficult and complicated for everyone.

When it comes to health care, insurance delays are the most immediate concerns for refugee families, advocates say.

The problem is twofold, said Alhamdani. First, Social Security offices have remained closed throughout the pandemic, except for limited in-person visits. Case managers endure lengthy wait times over the phone to schedule appointments so their clients can receive their Social Security cards, a necessity for a Medicaid application.

Oftentimes, Alhamdani said, she cant reach anyone. And when she does, appointments are not available until the following month.

For the refugees who do eventually obtain their Social Security cards, case managers face another lengthy wait during the application process for Medicaid and food stamps with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, she said. Medicaid provides health coverage for some low-income people and for people with disabilities.

Texas Health and Human Services did not respond to an inquiry about the reasons for the delays. In an emailed statement, the U.S. Social Security Administration highlighted its commitment to operating our nations immigration system more efficiently by allowing refugees to apply for a Social Security card on the same form used to apply for a work permit. But the federal agency did not elaborate on the long wait times.

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Refugees do have other options for health care. Many qualify for temporary health insurance through the Refugee Medical Assistance program, but that funding stops after eight months. Alhamdani says she tries to reserve those benefits for people who need immediate care.

Some uninsured refugees feel stuck if they test positive for COVID. Abdullah Laqaragoli, a 21-year-old Iraqi refugee living in Houston, said he lay on the floor of his home for four days in early 2021 as the virus left him fatigued and short of breath.

If I had health care, I 100 percent would have gone (to a doctor), said Laqaragoli, who first moved to Turkey with his mother before coming to the United States in 2020. I would have called the ambulance and had them pull me up, because I literally could not move.

In addition to the insurance holdups, many refugees simply do not know where to go for treatment. Case managers must explain the difference between primary care and emergency care, and define terms like out-of-pocket expenses and in network. That can lead to costly bills for visits to a hospital emergency room. If refugees need treatment, the agencies often steer them to safety-net clinics for mild infections or to Ben Taub Hospital for severe illnesses. But many refugees also follow the lead of family members and neighbors who go to Hillcroft Physicians PA, a 14-room clinic in southwest Houston that serves patients in 10 languages.

During COVID surges, the clinic sees a huge influx of refugees who work and live in the surrounding area, said Dr. Forough Farizani, the medical director. The population, while largely vaccinated, is more vulnerable to the virus because many work in the service industry, she said.

At the peak of the omicron wave, the clinic saw more than 70 people a day with a variety of illnesses, stretching its staff of about six people.

Theyre very dependent on us for education, said Farizani. Theyre not computer savvy or their English is not at the level where they can go online and find things. So they come here for everything.

Zamir Amiri visited the clinic in late December, four months after he and his pregnant wife fled from Afghanistan and arrived in the U.S. He sought treatment for his two-year-old son, who had cold-like symptoms.

He said the clinic is his preferred choice because its close and because some of the staff, including Farizani, can speak a mix of Dari and Farsi.

We all want to come here, he said through a translator.

Farizani and her husband were accused last year of participating in a $32 million health care fraud scheme, in which they allegedly submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicaid and Medicare for services that were not provided as billed or were not provided by a licensed and qualified provider, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Her attorney, Steve Shellist, disputed the allegations and said authorities mischaracterized the doctors work. Farizani has not been disciplined by the Texas Medical Board and maintains her medical license, records show.

They were not perfect in the way they did things, but it was absolutely not done intentionally, Shellist said. You could put any hospital under a microscope and find a dozen violations.

The Hillcroft clinic may be a convenient option for refugees, but its not the only provider that caters to them. Alhamdani said she often refers clients to Texas Childrens Hospital, which offers the Program for Immigrant and Refugee Child Health, an initiative that connects uninsured or underinsured refugee patients to primary care providers and specialists throughout the region.

The programs director, Dr. Karla Fredricks, noticed many refugees lack reliable sources of information in their language about treating a COVID infection. They often rely on social media or WhatsApp, she said.

Youve been taught to fear it and avoid it, and now youre new to this country and your child is sick, she said. So we could do a better job of (informing them) what to do if you do get sick.

She also pointed out that the health care system has become increasingly technology-dependent with the rise of telemedicine. Communication between the patient and providers is largely online, and refugees sometimes lack the skills to navigate mobile apps or websites on their own.

They might not be able to access their COVID test results, for example, and therefore may not know whether they should quarantine or isolate.

Thats just another aspect of the newly arrived experience, she said. They say I knew who to turn to when we were back home. I just went to the next village and asked my mom. But when you got to the U.S., you usually dont have that extended family support like you do back home.

Editors note: This article has been updated to include details of a health care fraud case.

julian.gill@chron.com
Kendra London stood in the middle of the street where she grew up and still lives, yet again doing what she didnt want to have to do. She was explaining the injustice of what was happening to her community.

Residents in this historically Black neighborhood had done too much of that.

On HoustonChronicle.com: In heated fight over contaminated rail yard, Fifth Ward asks: Would this happen in River Oaks?

On this day, Valentines Day, at this time, noon, another neighborhood activist had proposed they hold a protest. They might have been out there now in front of the contaminated Union Pacific rail yard, holding pictures of people they loved who had died.

But London spoke up at that community meeting last week. No more picketing, she said.

London didnt want still to be talking about the fact that decades after the potential danger was known the rail yard in Fifth Ward remains contaminated with creosote, a chemical sludge suspected to cause cancer. She didnt want still to be pointing out that the area has higher rates of certain cancers than state researchers expect to find.

It wasnt their fault their neighborhood was poisoned, London and her neighbors knew. They were the victims, with medical bills to pay and family members to care for, up against a giant company that bought the property after creosote was used there to preserve the wood in rail ties.

Why was this their problem to fix?

And why should they keep putting in the time, effort and energy to picket if it hadnt worked before? Who would care? What did they really expect would change?

So there was no protest. But London decided it was worth a try to call her activism mentor, Kathy Blueford-Daniels, and zip home on her lunch break in her black Honda Civic to tell a Houston Chronicle reporter the story  again, the same story  of her frustration with all her neighborhood was up against.

Maybe this time someone would hear it.

Maybe this time theyd get what living so close to a toxic site felt like.

Maybe someone would do something.

The 40-year-old stepped out of her car in jeans, a blazer and high heels.

On HoustonChronicle.com: A Houston teen died of leukemia in Fifth Ward. After cancer cluster discovery, his family fights on.

Im tired of hearing about, Hold on and wait, London said, standing in front of her familys home and looking toward the sun. The hold on and wait is over. Somebody has to show results.

So far, state environmental regulators and Union Pacific are still working out a clean-up plan for the site, where creosote hasnt been used since 1984. The company says residents are not at risk. Residents dont get their drinking water from underground, contaminated soil was covered with concrete and site monitoring is ongoing. The railroad followed state requirements.

London didnt know as a kid to worry about all this. No one did. She ate oatmeal and played jacks at Ms. Claras at the end of the block. She got frozen cups of Kool-Aid at Mrs. Valentines around the corner. She bought groceries for Aunt Sis nearby, who taught her how to bake a cake.

Fifth Ward is a village community, said 64-year-old Blueford-Daniels, a place where longtime neighbors are considered cousins. Many were maids and porters and Ship Channel workers, not attorneys. London, a social worker, couldnt help but push for accountability now that she knows the threat.

She felt sad that this perpetual fight was the new normal, but on Monday she was controlling her story instead of picketing, and maybe there was a small victory in that. Her community wasnt going through those same motions of staging a protest.

Monday was different.

Its a dance that we do, she said. Were not dancing.

Theyd danced long enough. They didnt want to watch this fight from heaven. They needed a new way to survive.

emily.foxhall@chron.com
Picture a couple going out to a romantic Valentines Day dinner and finding the restaurant closed. There are no cabs to take them back home, and the young suitor doesnt even have flowers for their partner  the stores arent stocked because workers at every step of the supply chain are nowhere to be found.

Thats what a nation without immigrants would look like, according to Carlos Eduardo Espina, a 23-year-old law student from College Station. Last month, he got on TikTok and proposed to his 2.5 million followers that this Valentines Day, they make that scenario a reality.

A similar protest had happened before, in 2017, to push back against President Donald Trumps proposed border wall and immigration policies, but Espina wanted to organize this years version on a day when the impact would be felt the most.

Valentines Day is one of the days that people spend the most money, they go out to eat, shop, etc, so lets have a Day Without Immigrants where we dont go to work, dont go to school, dont do anything, and see if the country feels our impact and sees the necessity for immigration reform, Espina told his followers in Spanish.

What do yall say, do you support it or no? he asked.

Espina quickly got his answer. The video, viewed over a million times, spread like wildfire, and on Monday, cities across the country held Day Without Immigrants rallies to demonstrate his point: that this country couldnt run without immigrants.

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While only about 100 people  far less than the 1.6 million-plus immigrants who live in the Houston metro area  came out to Guadalupe Plaza Park in Second Ward for Mondays rally, the message rang out loud and clear.

Por nosotros, para nosotros: reforma migratoria!, the crowd chanted. By us, for us: immigration reform!

The Houston rallys organizers  immigrant advocacy groups FIEL Houston, Woori Juntos and the Organizacion Latina de Trans en Texas  never expected every immigrant to participate in the general strike. The purpose, instead, was to create a powerful hypothetical to demonstrate how important immigrants are to the day-to-day functioning of society.

In the Houston metro area, immigrants make up about 23 percent of the population and are responsible for an even larger percentage of the areas gross domestic product, according to the New American Economy, a bipartisan immigration research and advocacy organization. Everything collapses when immigrants are removed from the equation, argued FIEL Executive Director Cesar Espinosa.

If you took the immigrants away, what would Houston look like? It would be devastating to a variety of fields, not only in the service industry but the doctors and nurses and all the people working in our medical center. At the end of the day, to say that we need immigrants for the city to thrive is an understatement, Espinosa said.

Maria Montenegro, 34, took the idea to heart. The Humble resident played hooky from her fast-food job and pulled her two sons, 8 and 15, out of school to attend the rally.

A native of Guanajuato, Mexico, who moved to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant at the age of 4, Montenegro now has her citizenship but said it was important to teach her children that they had to continue standing up for others who are still without legal status.

They need the immigrants to work, but when they dont have us, what are they going to do? Montenegro asked. At one point in our lives we were undocumented and now were not, but theres still 11 million people that are, so we need to do our little part to get things moving.

Espina, the TikTok creator who promoted the 2022 rallies, attended a Day Without Immigrants event Monday in Washington D.C., where he hoped to capture the attention of lawmakers who had once promised immigration reform.

While picturing a world without immigrants may send a powerful message, the end goal remains a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people, one that doesnt mean getting mired in a years long backlog of cases. A good starting point would be offering legal status that lets people work, pay taxes and travel without fear of deportation, Espina said.

We hear people say, Get to the back of the line, but thats a huge misconception because there is no line, theres no streamlined system for people who want to come here and work, Espina said. Theres so many ways to fix the immigration system and we want an overhaul to make it more humane and more efficient. Its good for immigrants and its good for the country as a whole.

Espina returned to TikTok, the platform where his message initially blew up, throughout the day Monday to provide updates to his followers. Outside the White House, bundled against the cold, he turned a camera on hundreds, maybe thousands, of people who had come to support the cause.

There were so many of us that they had to kick us out! he shouted in Spanish with glee, as supporters cheered behind him. Its incredible. Lets keep working toward immigration reform, my people.

Sam.Kelly@chron.com
NASA astronaut Raja Chari was struck by the beauty of the International Space Station.

It was his first time leaving the planet, and Chari had survived the thrill of launch. Now he was noticing the beauty of space. The spacecrafts thrusters created breathtaking plasma plumes, and the sun danced along the stations exterior.

It was back lit by the sun, and it looked like pure gold, Chari said Monday during an interview from the space station. Just black light and then this golden space station, which was really neat knowing thats the place where we were going to live.

ISS DEORBIT: International Space Station will plummet into the Pacific at end of its mission

Chari launched into space Nov. 10 as part of the Crew-3 mission. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft delivered him to the International Space Station for a six-month stay.

It took some time for his body to adapt to microgravity. His eyes, ears and other senses had to orient to the new environment. And there was the feeling of falling.

The International Space Station is constantly falling around the Earth, which is why its occupants float. It doesnt hit the Earth because the station moves at the right speed, roughly 17,500 miles per hour, so that the curve of its fall matches the curve of the Earth. This keeps the station falling toward the ground but not hitting it.

Others have attempted to describe the sensation of both floating and falling. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything, former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said it felt like there was no pressure on his body.

Sometimes it feels like you are just hanging but you are not hanging by anything, just hanging there, Kelly said. If I close my eyes, I can give myself the sensation that I am falling. Which I am, I am falling around the Earth.

In a Scientific American article published in 1999, Fred Best, who was the director of the NASA Center for Space Power at Texas A&M University, described his experiences of weightlessness. These came from conducting engineering research on NASA's Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker plane, also known as the vomit comet, that created periods of weightlessness.

"The feeling is completely different from being on a roller coaster. It is more like motionlessness than movement, Best said.   Beware losing your orientation, however. If your instincts take over, your brain starts telling you, 'You're falling, reach out and catch yourself.' Your arms and legs flail until you regain rational control and convince your brain you are okay.

Chari said his brain eventually adapted to the feeling of falling.

His longer-term challenge has been focusing on just one task at a time. He used brushing his teeth as an example. On Earth, he might use toothpaste and then set it down. Perhaps Chari looks at his phone while brushing his teeth. But when hes done, he knows the toothpaste is exactly where he left it.

Thats not the case in space.

If you dont immediately put the toothpaste back in the little pocket where it came from, youre going to lose that toothpaste and itll be gone, he said. So you have to be very deliberate and very mentally aware of doing one thing at a time.

Life on the International Space Station brings a wide variety of tasks, including maintaining the station, preparing fellow astronauts for spacewalks and conducting science experiments. The latter takes a big chunk of Charis time.

Were doing 300 different experiments in the time were up here, which is more than one a day, he said. Trying to keep track of all those has been a lot of hard work. But its a lot of fun, too, to get to interact and be a part of that.

Some of the research has been focused on growing plants. One experiment looks for a more efficient ways to deliver nutrients and water to plants in microgravity; another experiment looks at how a plants genetics responds to the different levels of gravity found on Earth, Mars, the moon and in space.

FOOD TECH: Houston company adapts NASA food-growing technology to use as 'life support system' on Earth

Chari has also participated in material science research, such as studying concrete that could be used when building habitats on the moon. How will it harden without Earths gravity, and what mixtures might work best?

Its all really exciting stuff, Chari said.

Thus far, space has met  and exceeded  his expectations. And Chari has enjoyed spending time with the stations other occupants: NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei, European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.

The thing I was least expecting was how fun it is just to be with the people up here, Chari said. Its kind of like a second family.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder
The Texas electric grid failure during Winter Storm Uri a year ago shocked the nation. Our state has long been one of the worlds top energy producers and if an extended blackout was going to happen in the U.S., few outside of the gas industry would have guessed it could happen in Texas.

The industry, however, knew it had a problem, did nothing about it and raked in billions in surplus profits from Uri. Even worse, the core issue that led to the blackout still has not been fixed a year later, and the blackout profiteers of the gas industry are fighting to keep it that way.

My family, like far too many others, received only tragedy from Uri. My mom, Cynthia Pierce, made her home in a senior living apartment that lost power. Her facilitys backup generators, intended to protect against exactly these kinds of emergencies, also failed.

My mom froze to death in the self-described energy capital of the world in 2021. The way that she died still haunts us, and I think it always will. We dont want other families to ever experience anything like this again, but unfortunately, Texas remains vulnerable.

An analysis from federal energy regulators published in the aftermath of last years disaster states that the blackouts experienced by Texans represents the largest manually controlled load shedding event in U.S. history. The report details how inadequate gas infrastructure simply froze up and choked off supplies of the fuels that these companies routinely insist are essential for our lives and economy.

But this wasnt news to those inside the natural gas industry. They knew about the potential for catastrophic failure and death, but did nothing.

Following a similar cold-weather event in 2011, the same federal agency warned that Texas needed to consider legislation requiring minimum, uniform standards for winterization, and to designate critical natural gas facilities that should be exempted from rolling blackouts. The 2011 report cites lack of regulation as a contributing factor to Texas failure to implement common winterization preparations, and it specifically states that failures at gas wellheads and gaslines caused power declines and outages at the power generators that supply electricity directly to our homes and hospitals. This happened seven times in the 18 years of power generation studied in the 2011 report. The natural gas industry pushed back hard on these suggestions, and the Texas legislature listened to them.

We are now seeing the gas industry flex its political muscle again to block necessary action, and its easy to see why. Even though the gas system failed, plunging the state into the dark and cold for days during freezing weather that killed my mom and hundreds of other Texans, the disaster was also an $11 billion windfall for a small handful of politically powerful gas suppliers, traders and pipeline companies.

The biggest winner was Energy Transfer, a gas pipeline giant that pocketed $2.4 billion in just four days of Uri. In recent weeks, Energy Transfer has run high-profile TV commercials glorifying the importance of oil and gas to the way we live. But while its true that we depend on reliable access to energy, as Winter Storm Uri ruthlessly demonstrated, its wrong that we should accept the status quo.

Not only is it unconscionable to leave in place a system that allowed the gas industry to profit off a disaster of its own making, Texas cannot actually rely on natural gas until we have legislation that requires winterization, transparency and oversight of the gas industry.

My family, like the families of hundreds of other Texans tragically lost in Winter Storm Uri, will never be the same. At long last, our response to the gas industry should be never again.

Holly Ferguson currently resides in Fort Worth.
Woburn, MA (01801)

Today

Rain showers this morning with mostly cloudy conditions during the afternoon hours. High 58F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low around 45F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Scrutiny of books in schools intensified in Texas last year, as state Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, chairman of the House Committee on General Investigating, requested that superintendents catalog nearly 850 titles related to race and sex or that could produce "discomfort" among students.

Separately, some school boards in Texas have moved to remove books from libraries, as books have been challenged and banned in other states as well.

A viral Feb. 1 tweet that garnered at least 16,100 retweets and 65,800 likes by Australian user @AnthCondon said, "Books banned in Texas include 1984, Maus, and The Handmaid's Tale, but not Mein Kampf. I'm done arguing with people over whether this is fascism."

PolitiFact Texas reached out to the user for his source but did not hear back. The books the user refers to are:

"1984" by George Orwell, about a dystopian totalitarian government that censors information, brainwashes citizens, and persecutes them for individualist, critical thinking.

"Maus" by Art Spiegelman depicts the author asking his father, a Holocaust survivor, about his experiences.

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, set in a totalitarian theocratic society where women cannot hold property or jobs. A group of women, called "handmaids," are forced to produce children for the ruling class of men.

"Mein Kampf," Adolf Hitler's antisemitic political manifesto.

Is this post right about these books being banned in Texas and "Mein Kampf" not banned? Let's take a look.

Process to challenge a book to be banned

A ban is the removal of a book from a collective space, whereas a challenge brings the book into question based on the objections of a person or group, according to the American Library Association.

The American Library Association noted online, "Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection."

Rob Weiner, a popular culture librarian at Texas Tech University, said there is a long history in the U.S. of challenging and banning books.

"Certainly, there is a political impetus behind it. But it's nothing new. That's why there's Banned Books Week," Weiner said.

The tweet does not specify whether it is referring to Krause's letter to superintendents but the books named in the letter have not been removed from libraries statewide. The letter also doesn't include the titles mentioned in the tweet, though it does include 'The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel' by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault.

Because of heightened scrutiny around what is being taught in schools and Krause's list, there is a wave of local attempts to remove specific books from school and public libraries.

"Many of these challenges began with the titles on Rep. Krauses list, including 'The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel' by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault," said Shirley Robinson, executive director of the Texas Library Association, in a Feb. 8 email to PolitiFact Texas. "However, from there, the issue has continued to snowball on a case-by-case basis with individuals taking it upon themselves to carefully and subjectively curate a selection of books to challenge based on specific themes and genres."

She noted Texas public schools have clear, transparent processes approved by school boards for addressing book challenges. Usually that means a committee of educators and parents is appointed to read the book and evaluate its educational value. The process is similar in public libraries with selections made based on guidelines approved by the library's governing authority.

Proponents for book banning are painting this issue "with a broad brush" for political support while taking the decision-making process away from children and parents, Robinson said.

What books are being challenged?

When Gov. Greg Abbott showed support for Krause's scrutiny of school books, he said parents "are rightfully outraged about highly inappropriate books and other content in public school libraries."

A vast majority of the books named in the state letter are about or reference sexuality, LGBTQ+ identity, and race. An October analysis by The Dallas Morning News found that 97 of the first 100 titles listed were written by women, people of color, or LGBTQ+ authors.

Records requested by NBC News of nearly 100 Texas school districts found 86 formal requests to remove books from libraries in 2021, with the majority of requests coming at the end of the year after Krause sent his letter.

NEWSLETTERS Join the conversation with HouWeAre We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities. Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here.

A librarian who is a member of #FReadom, a collective of librarians who highlight the work of libraries and books in reaction to Krause's letter, said they weren't aware of any of the books mentioned in the tweet being recently challenged in Texas, other than "The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel." The librarian also noted a district in another state removed the title "Maus" from its curriculum, not library.

That state was Tennessee, where a school board banned "Maus" in January, as reported by the (Nashville) Tennessean.

"Some high school libraries own Mein Kampf in Texas," the #FReadom librarian wrote. "We checked four  two owned it, one did not, and one did not, but had a video about it. So we would say it's true that high school libraries 'sometimes' have Mein Kampf."

Robinson wrote that it is possible titles mentioned in the tweet may have been discussed on the local level.

"Each school district has its own process for challenges to books because each school district is different, and there isnt a one-size-fits-all strategy that would work across a state the size of Texas," Robinson said. "As there is no central organization in Texas tracking every book that is challenged, it is almost impossible to say whether one particular title has been banned in Texas public schools or libraries in the past."

"The Handmaid's Tale" and "1984" are both on the American Library Association's Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010-2019 online list. "The Handmaid's Tale" was the seventh most challenged and banned book in 2019 nationally for "vulgarity and sexual overtones."

PolitiFact's ruling

A viral Feb. 1 tweet said, "Books banned in Texas include 1984, Maus, and The Handmaid's Tale, but not Mein Kampf. I'm done arguing with the people over whether this is fascism."

While Texas is seeing an influx in local requests to remove books, there is no statewide ban in place. Additionally, "1984," "Maus" and "The Handmaid's Tale" are not named in a state effort to scrutinize certain books, though "The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel" by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault is included on the list.

We rate this claim as False.

Sources
Chicago, IL (60637)

Today

A steady rain this morning. Windy with showers continuing this afternoon. High 48F. Winds NNE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

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Windy with rain showers this evening overnight with mostly cloudy skies. Low 41F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
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Djibouti, Djibouti (PANA)  Heads of the military and the Police in Djibouti have been placed under house arrest and fired from their posts in unclear circumstances, the local media reported Tuesday
Williamstown Board of Health Discusses Pullback on COVID-19 Advisories

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Board of Health on Monday discussed whether it is time to relax some of the COVID-19-related public health measures it has encouraged throughout the pandemic.

Although it never went the route of mandating steps like wearing indoor face coverings when a state mandate was lifted, the local board has continued to advise masks and made signage to that effect available to local businesses.

But that recommendation could come to an end as soon as next month if COVID-19 numbers continue to trend in the right direction locally and countywide.

"It seems to be that this variant, Omicron, had  a quick decline time," Health Inspector Jeff Kennedy told the board at its virtual meeting on Monday morning. "We're seeing in the county, the numbers I looked at this morning for Berkshire County, our percent positives are 8.72  this is as of last Thursday. Just a month ago, Dr. [Win] Stuebner was saying it was at 20 percent, so it's pretty much gone down.

"Our cases in town are declining precipitously. Williams College cases are declining. And Williams College has a good procedure to keep its students protected. I'm seeing drops of a couple of hundred [active cases] a month ago  [to] we have 21 cases that aren't Williams College on the 11-day [window] and on the six-day, we have nine that aren't Williams College. It's pretty much insignificant right now.

"Our case averages are dropping. Our county vaccination is at 89 percent for at least one dose and 72 percent that they consider fully vaccinated."

Kennedy said the number of county residents who are "fully vaccinated," having received at least two jabs of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, is probably higher because of the commonwealth's recording mechanism that won't recognize a second dose if information isn't entered into the system exactly as it was the first time.

Kennedy distributed to board members a spreadsheet from the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission that suggests public policy decisions based on certain health metrics.

"This is something they wrote about how you start getting back to normal, how do you start de-implementing the measures that have been taken," he said. "It's dealing with percentages and vaccination rates and case counts.

"I'm looking at the county, and we've probably met those benchmarks to almost stop treating this like a pandemic and start treating it as if it was endemic, where it is something we're going to have to live with and leave it to individuals and organizations and establishments how they want to handle it to protect their people or themselves. It becomes an individual decision."

Kennedy suggested to the board that it might be time for it to stop recommending COVID-related measures in the community and leave it up to individuals.

"We're a little over a year into vaccinations now, and I think we've got the vaccination rates we're going to see," Kennedy said. "Those who are going to get vaccinated are vaccinated. You may get a trickle, but everyone's minds are pretty well set. And those who have underlying health issues or even personal concerns know that they have to mask. So leave it up to an individual decision."

Dr. Erwin Stuebner said the community is approaching the threshold where the Board of Health can take a step back, but he and the rest of the board agreed the time has not come yet.

"In this grid, they say, greater 85 percent vaccination, remove precautions regardless of case rates," Stuebner said. "I think we're very much, as you say, Jeff, close to that. Before we make a formal statement from the Board of Health, I might prefer to wait until our March meeting. I think we're almost there, but if we're going to make a statement from us in that regard, I would prefer to wait through this winter [school] vacation and maybe make a statement or policy at our March meeting."

Board of Health Chair Ruth Harrison agreed and noted that the board's current advisories are working well.

"It doesn't seem like there's any great need to do this now," Dr. James Parkinson said. "In many ways, I've observed people doing it on their own. Because we didn't make a mandate, it's not like we have to take a mandate. Our action was basically to say, 'Be smart. Do what's right.' In many ways, that's what we'd be saying, I think, in March: OK, use your judgment.

"We can revisit it in March and go from there."

The committee agreed to hold its March meeting on Monday, March 14, at 9 a.m. and, on a note of optimism, tentatively planned to hold that gathering in person at Town Hall.
Hancock Shaker Village Announces The Big Chill

PITTSFIELD, Mass. Hancock Shaker Village welcomes visitors on Sunday, Feb. 20 for The Big Chill - a day of winter fun.

The Big Chill goes from 11AM to 4PM.

"Like all New Englanders, the Shakers of Hancock embraced the winter months  and so do we," said Hancock Shaker Village director Jennifer Trainer Thompson. "The Berkshires in the winter can be magical. Come enjoy a day of exploring traditions and winter fun."

Activities will include maple tree tapping, ice-harvesting talks and ice sculpting, visits with farm animals in the Round Stone Barn, blacksmithing and woodworking demos, snowman making, live music, and more.

Country music band Wild Bill and the Flying Sparks will take the stage in the Believers' Room for two afternoon sets. The Village Farm & Forest Trail and South Family Trail trails are also accessible to those wearing snowshoes.

Ice harvests, once an essential part of winter in rural communities, will be explored by ice-harvesting expert Dennis Picard using historic tools and techniques. Today, ice is not only essential for keeping items cold, it is also used as a medium for artists creating intricate sculptures that reflect and refract the light like glass. Watch as two accomplished ice carvers, Peter Vacchina and Bob Markey, create pieces of art while chipping away at 300-pound blocks of ice.

Andy and Trish from Windsor Hill Sugar House will demonstrate maple tapping on our large specimen tree near the Sisters Dairy and Weave Shop with their syrup and other products available for purchase in Shaker Mercantile.

Planned activities include:

Maple tapping demonstrations  11:30, 1:30

Live music  1:30, 3:30

Guided walking tours of Village  Noon, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00

Ice talks  12:30, 2:30

Ice sculpting demonstrations (throughout the day)

Story Walk The Mitten by Jan Brettin the Round Stone Barn (throughout the day)

Scavenger Huntthroughout the Village (throughout the day)

Snowshoeing/hiking on the Farm and Forest Trail (throughout the day)

Blacksmithing demonstrations (throughout the day)

Woodworking demonstrations (throughout the day)

Snow funbuild a snowperson, make a snow angel, do a snow craft, play snow games (hula hoop snowman toss)--throughout the property

Farm Animals in and out of the barnfrolicking in the snow, warming up in the Dairy Ell (throughout the day)

There will be a bonfire and lunch and beverages from Bimi's Cafe will be available. The bar will be open for wine, Big Elm Beer, and mulled cider.

The Big Chill is part of Pittsfield's Office of Cultural Development 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival. All activities are included in admission; $15 per person, free to members and children 12 and younger.
A Top College, Again: The MCLA Community Reflects on Success

As a top ten public college, MCLA has a lot to offer: more than 100 scholarships, a liberal arts curriculum that helps students learn across academic disciplines, tons of student activities, and support ranging from student-led tutoring to the TRIO Program, which focuses on helping low- income, first-generation, or disabled students get the most out of their college experience.

These are all important facetsand no doubt part of why MCLA also continues to appear on U.S. News list of best colleges for social mobilitybut the MCLA community, who work here, live here, and learn here, has more to say about why MCLA has been named a Top Ten College for nine of the last 11 years, and keeps climbing the rankings lists each year.

"I think MCLA is a top college because of the quality of education it provides," said Domenica Gomez 23, who attends MCLA while working as an admission ambassador, giving tours to prospective students. "Throughout my college experience I have had the opportunity to receive one-on-one assistance from professors that genuinely care about your educational success and

make long-lasting connections that will help shape my future."

Kayla Hollins 12, MCLAs director of admission, came to MCLA from New York City and has helped thousands of students learn more about the College before they apply.

"MCLA is a top ten college because it is filled with true trailblazersfirst generation students, students who live far from campus, undeclared students, and more," she said. "These are students who took a chance on our small communityand our community continues to deliver a quality education. MCLA is a place for all students to learn how to be a leader. As an alum, I pride myself on being a Trailblazer, and as the director of admission, I hope to recruit more of us to the institution."

MCLA professors bring their classes to experience everything in the Berkshires, from tracking salamanders in the MCLA forest and Mount Greylock State Reservation to working with museum staff on arts and education projects.

"We have incredible access to the arts," said Professor of Art Melanie Mowinski. "MASS MoCA, the largest contemporary art museum in the country, is one of our teaching labs. I think that experiential element related to the arts, the environment, and the beauty of the land is what continues to make us a top ten school."

"I think the institution, meaning the people who are at its core, understand and stay true to the ultimate mission: providing a quality affordable liberal arts education to a student population that is not especially advantaged," said Dennis Ducharme 82, president of the MCLA Alumni Association. "The college provides amazing support through a great student to faculty ratio and with many layers of services geared to maximize retention and graduation rates. The result is an educational experience that puts our students on an upward trajectory, both financially and as engaged members of their communities."
NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  McCann Technical School senior Emily Belanger received a Travers Tool High School Senior Level Annual Tooling Scholarship for her chess set project.

Belanger, an advanced manufacturing technology student from North Adams, will receive $500 worth of tools useful for students pursuing careers in manufacturing.

"It has always been my dream to pursue manufacturing. Machining parts and designing is like a sixth sense, everything comes to me with ease," she wrote in a personal essay included with her application. "Being able to make a part within a thousandths of tolerance makes me feel like I did my job right, and that I have a true gift."

According to a project description, Belanger designed each individual chess piece and machined each piece from aluminum or brass.

She engraved or created pockets on each piece as needed on the mill and gave each piece a smooth finish to allow safe handling and gameplay.

"We created programs using the lathe to create certain arcs and diameters to change the size of the original stock," Belanger wrote. "If the parts needed additional work done to them (engravings, pockets, etc) we would then take it to the mill machine and create it there. It was one of the most fun projects Ive ever made."

Scholarships are awarded to one underclass high school student, one high school senior class student, and one college student in the United States or Canada.

These tool scholarships are designed to lessen the financial burden students face and allow them to join the ranks of skilled machinists, CNC operators, welders, and exacting craftsmen that make up the fabric of the manufacturing industry.

Travers is a metalworking and industrial supply superstore located in Flushing, N.Y. It has distribution centers in South Carolina and California.
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Dalton Select Board Supports Fair Share Amendment

DALTON, Mass.  The Select Board on Monday voted to support the Fair Share Amendment, which would impose an additional tax of 4 percent on an individual's earnings exceeding $1 million to fund education, infrastructure, and transportation.

It is estimated to generate about $2 billion a year toward public education and affordable colleges and universities, road and bridge repair, and public transportation.



In June, the Legislature voted overwhelmingly to advance the amendment to the November 2022 state election ballot. It is supported by the Berkshire delegation -- state Sen. Adam Hinds, state Reps. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Paul Mark, and John Barrett III.



Tony Pagliarulo, a former teacher in the Central Berkshire Regional School District, brought information about the amendment with a request for support to the board. He described it as a progressive surtax that would essentially affect the top one percent of in the state.



This amendment has been on his radar for 15 years, Pagliarulo said.



"In a nutshell, this amendment is a change to our constitution in the state, and it would provide additional funding for public education and public transportation, and public education. It isn't just K through 12, but it's also our colleges and universities and that's a real consideration in terms of my grandchildren," Pagliarulo said.



"And in terms of public infrastructure, it's the one thing we all seem to agree on that with our potholes and our roads and our bridges, they are in dire need. These monies will be dedicated through this constitutional amendment for that purpose and it would raise well over a billion dollars upwards of two billion given the information by the Mass Budget and Policy Center."



Dalton resident Henry Rose said they wanted the amendment put on the warrant for an upcoming town meeting to be endorsed by the people of Dalton.

The Select Board also supported bringing it to the voters but it will have to be placed on the warrant on at a later date.



Rose added that he was disappointed to see that Wahconah Regional High School does not have a dedicated vocational program.

Esko abstained from the vote.



Chairman Joe Diver pointed to the number of Massachusetts residents who would be subject to the additional tax.



"What I learned from the [Department of Revenue] report is that the impact of residents across the state has been 19,500 that would be impacted in this change, things of that nature," he said.



"And there's a lot of history of this trying to make its way through to the legislative process, including some core challenges which seem to have been cleared up and now on the ballot for November."
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
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FILE - Senior Pastor Robert Jeffress addresses attendees at First Baptist Church Dallas during a Celebrate Freedom Rally in Dallas on Sunday, June 28, 2020. While some Americans have been seeking religious exemptions in order to circumvent COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Jeffress says, Since there is no credible biblical argument against vaccines, we have refused to offer exemptions to the handful of people who have requested them." (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
Vehicle drives over spike strips twice during intense chase along SR 3 in Mason County; one arrested as two flee
NVIDIA today announced that it will host its GTC 2022 conference virtually from March 21-24, with a news-filled keynote by its founder and CEO Jensen Huang and more than 900 sessions from 1,400 speakers, including some of the worlds top researchers and industry leaders in AI, high performance computing and graphics.

Top Technologists from Deloitte, Epic Games, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Pfizer, Sony, Visa, Walt Disney, Zoom and More to Present

Registration is free and open now at NVIDIA GTC

Huangs keynote will be live-streamed on Tuesday, March 22, at 8 a.m. Pacific time and available on demand afterward. Registration is not required to view the keynote.

As one of the worlds leading AI conferences, GTC provides a singular opportunity to help solve huge challenges and redefine the future for developers, researchers and decision-makers across industries, academia, business and government, said Greg Estes, vice president of Developer Programs at NVIDIA. Theres a mother lode of content and opportunities for attendees of all levels to deepen their knowledge and make new connections.

This GTC will focus on accelerated computing, deep learning, data science, digital twins, networking, quantum computing and computing in the data center, cloud and edge. There will be more than 20 dedicated sessions on how AI can help visualize and further climate science.

Among the many notable speakers at GTC:

Andrew Ng, founder of DeepLearning.AI, founder and CEO of Landing AI

Prof. Dr. Bjorn Stevens, managing director and director of the department, The Atmosphere in the

Earth System, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology

Prof. Chelsea Finn, assistant professor of computer science, Stanford University

Hao Yang, vice president of AI Research, Visa

Jack Jin, lead machine learning Infra engineer, Zoom

Joe Ucuzoglu, CEO, Deloitte U.S.

Lidia Fonseca, chief digital and technology officer, Pfizer

Magnus Ostberg, chief software officer, Mercedes-Benz AG

Marc Petit, general manager for Unreal Engine, Epic Games

Markus Gross, vice president of Research, Walt Disney Studios

Michael Russinovich, CTO and Technical Fellow, Microsoft Azure

Natalya Tatarchuk, director of global graphics, Unity

Peter Stone, executive director, Sony AI, and professor of computer science, University of Texas, Austin

Dr. Stefan Sicklinger, head of BigLoop and Advanced Systems, CARIAD/VW Group

Yu Liu, director of AI, Meta

Zoe Lofgren, member of Congress, U.S. House of Representatives

Other organizations participating include Amazon, Autodesk, Barclays, Bloomberg, Cisco, Cornell University, DeepMind, Dell Technologies, Ericsson, Flipkart, Google Brain, Lockheed Martin, NASA, NFL, Snap, U.S. Air Force and VMware.

Learning and Development Opportunities

GTC provides participants at all stages of their careers with outstanding learning and development opportunities  many of which are free.

The event kicks off with Learning Day, for all levels and backgrounds, on Monday, March 21, and continues the rest of the week with sessions in four languages across multiple time zones. From sessions on GPU computing to AI workshops, there will be extensive learning and training opportunities for students, developers and professionals with technology talks from NVIDIA subject-matter experts, including from NVIDIAs Deep Learning Institute (DLI) and NVIDIA Academy.

Students and early career professionals can participate in introductory courses on deep learning and robotics. They can also access sessions like The Right Formula for AI Success: Insights from AI High Performer and Deep Learning Demystified as well as the 5 Steps for Starting a Career in AI panel, featuring Sheila Beladinejad, president of Women in AI & Robotics, and David Ajoku, founder of Aware.ai.

More experienced developers can enroll in a variety of DLI courses, including 20 free, short-day sessions and 17 full-day workshops, to dive deeper into AI and earn a DLI certificate demonstrating subject-matter competency. From Feb. 21 until the end of March, new members to NVIDIAs Developer Program can get access to an additional complementary GTC DLI course when they sign up.

Developed for IT professionals, NVIDIA Academy will host certified training programs on the data center, InfiniBand, IT infrastructure and networking. The program includes instructor led-training sessions followed by self-paced coursework and proctored certification tests.

All workshops and sessions are led by trained, DLI-certified instructors, either from NVIDIA or partners and collaborators who are experts in their field.

Supporting AI Ecosystem for All

As part of NVIDIAs commitment to making AI accessible for all developer communities and emerging markets, there are numerous sessions showcasing how developers and startups in emerging economies are building and scaling AI and data science. Sessions for emerging markets include Look to Africa to Advance Artificial Intelligence and Democratizing AI in Emerging Markets Through the United AI Alliance.

NVIDIA is also providing free credits for DLI courses to minority-serving institutions, from community colleges to historically Black colleges and universities.

Spotlight on Startups

NVIDIA Inception, a global program to nurture cutting-edge startups with 9,000+ members, will host tracks aimed at helping emerging companies build and grow their businesses and gain industry knowledge.

These include VC-focused sessions on such topics as Omniverse and quantum computing, as well as sessions led by NVIDIA and startups from across the globe on AI, autonomous systems, climate science, cybersecurity, healthcare and digital twins, among other themes.
As achievers, students and first jobbers are passionate about everything they do. They balance the career that they're pursuing but still be on the lookout for trends that showcase their awesome or interests. Samsung is empowering these people with the new Galaxy A03, a budget-friendly smartphone that allows them to capture their awesome moments while being productive to achieve their goals in life, whether in school or at work.

Be ready to shoot for awesome with the new Samsung Galaxy A03

Shoot awesome moments for less with its improved cameras

The latest addition to the Galaxy A Series introduces new and improved cameras that fuel the creativity and passion of students and first jobbers. It allows them to capture moments at school or work, achieve a clear selfie camera during meetings, or accomplish video outputs for their film classes.

Headlined by a 48MP main camera, students and first jobbers are treated with high-quality content perfect for everyday photos and video recording. It also comes with a Live Focus in its 2MP Depth Camera that adjusts the background and foreground focus, adding a creative blur to portraits.

Users can also maximize its 5MP front camera that comes with a bokeh effect perfect for attending virtual meetings, classes, and taking stunning selfies for social media.

Fuel your creativity with its huge storage and long-lasting battery life

The Galaxy A03 has a huge memory that allows its users to maximize their smartphone experience by saving all of their important school or work files without running out of space. Available in 3 different variants: the 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB internal storage, all expandable up to 1TB, to save all their important documents, presentations and assignments, and can also be used for apps, games and videos for the times they need to unwind. The different variants also allow them to explore different storage options depending on their needs.

To top it off, the Galaxy A03 has a 5,000mAh long battery life perfect to accompany the busy schedule of every student and first jobber.

The Galaxy A03 features a cross-hatched light pattern and a soft matte finish design on the back, and it comes in Black, Blue, and Red variants.

Shoot for awesome with the new Samsung Galaxy A03, now available for:

Php5,490 SRP (3+32GB)

Php6,490 SRP (4+64GB)

Php7,490 SRP (4+128GB)

The Galaxy A03 is also available for as low as Php660/month for up to 6 months at 0% interest via Home Credit until March 31. Those who purchase the Galaxy A03 until March 31 will also receive a 1-year free subscription to VIU Premium worth Php999.

Samsung Galaxy A03 Specifications

6.5-inch HD+ (720 x 1600) PLS TFT LCD

1.6GHz octa-core CPU

3GB/4GB RAM

32GB/64GB/128GB of internal storage

microSD card support(dedicated slot)

Dual rear cameras (48MP F1.8 main + 2MP F2.4 secondary)

5MP F2.2 front camera

Dual-SIM / 4G LTE

WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac / Bluetooth 5.0

GPS, Glonass, Galileo, QZSS

Micro USB 2.0 / 3.5mm headphone jack

Android 11

5,000mAh battery charging

164.2 x 75.9 x 9.1mm (dimension)

196g (weight)

Colors: Blue, Black and White

For more information, visit samsung.com/ph.
Ivana Alawi is one of the most popular vloggers in the country who has gained a loyal following because of her fun content, which shows how she expresses her love for the people around her - family, friends, fans and beyond. As packed as her schedule is, she always makes the time to give back to her community, holding several donation drives and sharing her experiences on her Youtube channel.

This February, Ivana unveils a new way to send love with her new partner that does it all for her - GCash.

The #1 e-wallet in the country recently launched the online sensation as the newest member of its barkada, the perfect face to show #SendGCashSendLove is the easiest and safest way to send your love to the people in your life.

Im really happy to be the newest face of GCash. Dati pa akong gumagamit ng app na ito, and Im really glad na ineendorse ko na siya ngayon, says Ivana. Ive been using GCash Send Money throughout the pandemic to send love and money to my friends and family and it never fails me. Also, nung pandemic gustong-gusto ko tumulong, gustong-gusto ko mag-pamigay (at) ang naging way talaga para sa akin ay GCash.

Ivana hopes to highlight the many features of GCash Send Money, such as Express Send, Padala, and Send with a Clip and how these can help users send money and love to the people in their lives in real time, hassle free!

GCashs Chief Customer Officer Winsley Bangit says, Were so excited to welcome Ivana to the GCash barkada. She exudes the spirit of GCash, which is to uplift the lives of fellow Filipinos. With her help, we hope to reach as many people to show them how easy and safe it is to #SendGCashSendLove.

Madali at simple with GCash! Download the app and get verified, so you can cash-in and start sending money to your loved ones with just a few taps. Express Send makes money transfers sulit at safe. Its easy to send your love from GCash to GCash, in real time, libre pa!

Want to #SendGCashSendLove to someone without a GCash account? No problem! GCash Padala allows you to send money to non-GCash users in real-time, as its network of over 40k partner outlets and growing allows receivers to claim padala sent from GCash accounts. With pinakamurang padala fee of just 1% fee for Php500 transfers and no other hidden fees, kayang-kaya magpadaLOVE kada buwan sa probinsya!

Add a little more heart by personalizing your money transfer with Send with a Clip. Attach themes, photos or videos whether or not theres a special occasion, to show your love in a more meaningful way.

With over 51 million registered users, and over 170k* outlets nationwide, GCash is definitely everyones favorite and #1 e-wallet in the Philippines because you can access it anytime and anywhere, adds Bangit.

Whether its through Express Send, GCash Padala or Send with a Clip, its never been easier for you to #SendGCashSendLove to the special people in your life - real time na, libre pa!

To learn more about the GCash, you may visit GCashs website or GCashs Facebook page.
Building ventilation is not an easy topic to understand, nor one we ever had to think about prior to the pandemic. But now there are many variables to consider, especially as you bring employees back to the office. By breathing and talking, we constantly emit respiratory aerosols that can build up indoors--unless they are diluted out of the air or cleaned. And most buildings are designed to meet a minimum standard that was never intended to protect against infectious diseases like Covid-19.

But the next generation of sensors, ionizers, and ultraviolet technologies can handle that job.

What you need today largely depends on what kind of office space you have. Before fixing or upgrading anything, contact your building manager, or hire a mechanical engineer to better understand your current system and what upgrades are possible, Dr. Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program and an associate professor at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Inc. You should also become familiar with industry standards, which are regulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), an association that helps shape specifications and guidelines for proper building engineering practices.

For some, cleaning the air in the office is as easy as opening a few windows. For others, such as those in large, commercial buildings where that's not possible, it's a bit more complicated. Industrial environments also need to be equipped with heavy duty and superior industrial filtration systems for enhancing air quality in the work area. Luckily, if you're looking for a more inventive solution, there are lots of options, in part due to investments in the industry. A study published by Global Industry Analysts, a market research company, estimates that the global industrial filtration market will reach $39.2 billion by 2026.

Here are a few of the latest innovations.

Real-Time Sensors

People increasingly want to know the status of the air in their workplace and real-time sensors do just that. Sensors can monitor the air and measure the performance of your air purification systems in real time. They not only alert you about any contaminants via software on your computer or phone, but automatically adjust themselves to optimize air quality. This is crucial as contaminants in any space fluctuate as people move about the office.

"Somebody can walk into a room, shuffle their feet on a carpet, and kick up thousands of particles into the air. So a dynamic system or an adjustable system can actually see the air quality level, read it through sensors, and then adjust its output when needed," says Tony Abate, vice president and CTO for Clean Air Group, a Connecticut based commercial and industrial indoor air purification company.

The best part about sensors is that they easily adapt to existing HVAC systems. You place a unit near the air supply before it's filtered and then another outside the filter after it's cleaned. A basic table-top monitor from Temtop goes for $90 on Amazon. At the higher end is Infogrid, a company that works to make buildings smarter using hardware and software technology. Infogrid offers a system that costs roughly $1,200 per year for a three-year-contract for a 10,000 square foot office. It includes sensors and the software technology that actively monitor the air quality in your building.

Bipolar Ionization

If you're in a pristine environment, away from man-made pollution and emissions, air ions, which create negative ions using electricity and then discharge them into the air, are naturally quite plentiful. In areas with high air pollution, such as many big and medium-sized cities, these ions have been stripped away by pollution. Bipolar ionization restores ions in the air. And at higher levels, it can combat contaminants and break down gaseous elements, essentially sanitizing the air.

While the technology has been around since the 1970s, it's lately been reinvented to fit into existing buildings. As with any emerging technology, there's little research available outside of lab tests, and bipolar ionization has the potential to generate ozone and other potentially harmful by-products indoors unless maintained at certain levels, says Jesse Kroll, professor of civil and environmental engineering and chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So make sure you use one that's certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

UV-C Air Purifiers
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.
India is still facing West while RCEP and Asia continue to wait for engagement.

By Asia Investment Research

India has been positioning itself as a favored destination to attract foreign direct investment in recent years and enjoyed strong global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows as FDI rebounded in 2021, up 77% to an estimated US$1.65 trillion, from US$929 billion in 2020, surpassing their pre-COVID-19 level.

China

However, there have been exceptions in the origins of investment capital entering the country. As recently as 2019, Chinese investors provided US$3-4 billion dollars of growth capital to young India-based tech firms. This flow was completely stopped during 2020 following Indian Government security concerns, and only began to slightly reopen in 2021  mostly to Chinese funds, which were already in India-based vehicles, and then only in minority positions. There were four India-based investments involving Chinese investors during Q4 2021  all were tech/TMT/ e-commerce. In three of these investments, China-based investors invested US$6 million or less. The largest investment by a single Chinese company was US$19 million as part of a US$115 million AdTech capital raise.

India, however, has been much more prepared to deal with Chinese investments via its multilateral policy banks, both of which include significant Indian shareholding. India is the second largest equity holder (after China) in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and has a 19.42% equity stake in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) on par with China. India received three major investments from these sources in Q4 2021 (see below).

Gujarat Education

AIIB funding US$250 million out of a US$1.07 billion PC (World Bank-led) education program in December, implementing comprehensive reforms in this sector, based on a decentralized stakeholder-owned planning and management approach. This will upgrade the physical learning environment as well as digital infrastructure of participating schools. The investments also finance soft activities, which will ensure the efficiency of the upgraded school infrastructure to bring the intended educational outcomes.

Tamil Nadu Urban Services

AIIB funded US$150 million out of US$701 million PC in November 2021. The program is envisioned as a first phase engagement and a building block for AIIBs long-term partnership by supporting the governments program of expenditures. As a subset of the overall government scheme, the program supported by this financing will cover core urban services, including water resource management, water supply and sewerage, urban mobility, solid waste management, and public health.

This article has been extracted from the February issue of Asia Investment Research, to be released on Thursday, February 17. The issue contains unique data concerning Q4 Asian inbound investment flows and includes intelligence concerning Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. To reserve your early bird discounted copy for just US$100, please click here. Offer valid until closing of business, Wednesday, February 16. This article has been extracted from the February issue of Asia Investment Research, to be released on Thursday, February 17. The issue contains unique data concerning Q4 Asian inbound investment flows and includes intelligence concerning Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. To reserve your early bird discounted copy for just US$100, please click. Offer valid until closing of business, Wednesday, February 16.

India  Himachal Pradesh Rural Water Supply Well

NDB funded US$80million of the US$100 million PC Himachal Pradesh rural water supply, which lacks sustainable infrastructure. Around 42% of the state population have limited access to clean drinking water. This non-availability of reliable water supply also causes the rural population to spend up to 2 hours for water fetching and storing related activities. The project will construct 24 rural water supply schemes to provide drinking water to 1,255 villages covering eight districts in Himachal Pradesh.

Pakistan and Bangladesh

Pakistan more than doubled in inbound investment amounts in 2021, including many new Western investors. Bangladesh has over the past year attracted significant overseas investment interest with a view to getting local assets placed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. There are more details of these investments and the projects involved in the current issue of Asia Investment Research  see the box above.

At present, investment flows into Asia have been largely influenced by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade agreement, which India was invited to join but opted out of in 2019. Despite the loss of the RCEP deal, India is proceeding with a number of Free Trade Agreements, not least with the Eurasian Economic Union, increase trade with the Central Asian states and make improvements to existing agreements with ASEAN.

Thus far, India has proven adept at attracting FDI, yet changes are afoot. Quite how long the Indian Government can manage to hold China at bay while banning Chinese-made digital equipment and apps and discourage Chinese investment, while at the same time take advantage of its policy bank ties remains to be seen. A disconnect between Government and the pro-China business and investment lobby appears to be developing, and this will widen if India continues to ignore the opportunities presented by RCEP. Whether that matters at present with India enjoying closer ties with Australia, the EU, United Kingdom, and the United States is a moot point, and India is negotiating deals with all. However  a potential Asian division is there amidst uncertainty about the full extent of Indias eastern investment policies.

For investment assistance into India, please contact india@dezshira.com.

Related Reading
Over the last half a decade, Indias personal finance ecosystem witnessed interesting developments with digitization taking the centre stage. In May 2021, Indias mutual fund industry crossed over 10 crore folios. Though the personal finance service sector saw the entry of several new players, there is less awareness among the public regarding personal finance. People are familiar with mutual funds, stocks, saving schemes and other investment options but are still not in a position to make sound financial decisions.Getting people to embrace personal finance services is quite a challenge with low financial education among consumers. No doubt, people are interested in upgrading themselves on financial matters but the common man finds it too difficult to keep up with the finance terms and jargons generally used in communications by companies. The situation however is slowly changing and finance companies are now resorting to new advertising tactics to reach consumers in better, enhanced ways. Listed below are a few ways advertising can help bring awareness about the personal finance sector:1. Educational content to bridge the financial literacy gapIf you want someone to try a product, you would first need to convince them of its usefulness. The same thing applies to personal finance services too. While previously a major chunk of the advertising was focused solely on promoting the services, a shift to creating educational content can help people get naturally interested in the services. With advertising that demystifies personal finance, consumers are better able to comprehend its benefits. The first step is to break down the concepts in simple terms and advertising is an effective medium that can impart education to the common man in an interesting manner without boring them with lengthy explanations and complex language.2. Fun and quirky ads on social media can entice younger generationGenZ uses social media to follow current events, trends and connect with brands. Advertising on social media enables one to catch hold of consumers at places where they are most active. Social media is more of a fun and entertaining experience for people and finance companies can leverage this fun element to their advantage. Advertising personal finance services with fun and creative elements infused could be a real game changer. Fun and quirky ads will not just hook attention but effortlessly convey the features and benefits of services, ultimately building trust and encouraging participation from consumers. While finance is generally a dry subject, fun ads on social media can help build awareness around various financial services.3. Promoting thought leadership content will help make informed decisionsPersonal finance service companies can promote thought leadership content through advertising. As people are now more serious about managing their finances, they are genuinely eager to learn and brush up their financial knowledge. They want to know the current market trends and proactively align their financial plans in response to the dynamic market conditions. By tapping into the power of advertising, companies could promote thought leadership content that will inform the audience about the deeper nuances of the financial world. This will remove their apprehensions and encourage them to explore an array of financial services that are widely available but remain grossly underutilized.4. Advertising can help empower consumers to independently explore the benefits of financial servicesAdvertising can be leveraged to empower consumers to utilize financial services with minimum assistance. Todays consumers, especially millennials and GenZ, are hesitant to talk to customer support executives and would like to do things on their own in a hassle free manner. Companies could digitize their offerings and use advertising to empower consumers on ways to install an application or utilize their services in the best possible manner. Advertisements employing storytelling techniques could help get the message across quickly, bring in a human factor and motivate consumers to sign up for the services.Advertising can be a powerful tool to raise awareness about personal finance services. Though companies are offering a wide gamut of financial services, only 27% of the Indian population is financially literate as per a recent study conducted by the National Centre for Financial Education. This staggeringly low level of literacy can be overcome with smart advertising that arms the common man with enough knowledge on prudent money management. With the rapid acceleration in digitization during COVID, reaching consumers has never been easier. Advertising can go a long way in raising awareness if used correctly and its high time companies get innovative with ad campaigns to get more people interested in the art of managing finance!
Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors.

KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary.

No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account."

www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.


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Indiana, PA (15701)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will give way to occasional showers during the afternoon. High near 70F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with thundershowers developing overnight. Low around 60F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
In a tragic incident, Ganvi TK, a 22-year-old nurse in Nirmala Nursing home in Shivamogga, collapsed at her workplace on February 8 while on her night shift. Soon after, she was rushed to Nanjappa hospital, from where she was referred to PMSSY in Bengaluru.

The doctors said that she was put on a ventilator after her surgery. Unfortunately, on February 12, she was declared brain-dead. However, she gave a fresh lease of life to a few people in her death when her family opted to donate her organs.

Second case in just a week

The tragic case is similar to that of 26-year-old Chaitra K.R. from Kolar who collapsed on the day of her wedding reception on February 6 and was taken to NIMHANS where she was declared clinically brain dead four days later. Her family also chose to donate her organs.

Twitter

The donors body was shifted to the Institute of Gastroenterology and Organ Transplant (IGOT) for organ retrieval by Jeevasarthakathe, the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation, which is the nodal agency that facilitates cadaveric organ donations. The mother consented and her sister and uncle witnessed the decision, sources said.



Liver, kidneys, heart valves, corneas donated

Although the family had consented for all organs, we could utilise her liver, kidneys, heart valves, and corneas, Lijamol Joseph, chief transplant coordinator, Jeevasarthakathe, told The Hindu.

Health Minister K. Sudhakar tweeted on Sunday: She cured and cared for patients when she was alive and she gifted her organs after her death."

pmssy-in-bengaluru

He further said: "The 22-year-old staff nurse T.K. Ganvi who donated her organs after a tragic death is an example of Paropakarartham yo jivati sa jivati  they alone live who live for others. Hats off to the family of Ganvi for their kindness amid heart-wrenching tragedy. The young girl is an inspiration to all of us to pledge for organ donation. The Minister also said this was the first organ retrieval at the IGOT.



India ranks 3rd in organ transplants

Remember, India ranks third after the United States and China in organ transplants, according to the data by the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT) website. Similarly, the organ donation rate has increased to about four times compared to 2012-13.



For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.


India advised nationals, especially students, who do not have essential work in the country to leave Ukraine temporarily due to uncertainties over the current tensions between Russia and United States.

The advisory

"In view of uncertainties of the current situation in Ukraine, Indian nationals, particularly students whose stay not essential, may consider leaving temporarily," the Embassy of India in Kyiv said in a statement.

worldtravelguide

The notice further requested Indian citizens to keep the embassy informed about the status of their presence in Ukraine to enable the Embassy to reach out to them where required.

Tensions rise in Ukraine

The advisory comes as tensions rise over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Reuters

Tensions have gripped Kyiv as Moscow has amassed thousands of troops within the reach of the Ukrainian border, triggering fears of an invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his address to the nation shared on Facebook said that his army is stronger than it was before. The tensions between Kyiv and Moscow have increased as Russia has amassed an estimated 130,000 troops near the Ukraine border over the past few months.

On the other hand, Pentagon ordered 3,000 troops to Poland, pushing the total to 5,000 reinforcements sent to Europe in the past three weeks. The US White House has recently warned that Moscow's invasion into Kyiv could start 'any time'.

Nations that have warned their citizens

In the last few days, several countries are cutting back their diplomatic staff in Ukraine and have urged their citizens to leave the country.

AFP

Among the countries that have called on their nationals to leave Ukraine are the United States, Germany, Italy, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Australia, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.


A pair of bionic eyes recently gave sharp sight to sheep. Could humans be next to receive this gift of science? A team of scientists from Australia recently gave a flock of sheep "exceptionally sharp eyesight" using bionic eyes that were surgically implanted behind their retinas.

The results were so positive that researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales claim to have filed paperwork to begin human trials soon.

Popular Science

"No unexpected reactions"

Samuel Eggenberger from the University of Sydney told BBC that there were "no unexpected reactions from the tissue around the device." In addition, Eggenberger thinks it could remain "in place for many years."

Unsplash

Officially called "Phoenix 99," the device wirelessly transmits a camera feed from a tiny camera attached to a pair of sunglasses in the form of electric signals directly to the retinas, Futurism reported. Once processed by the optical nerve, these signals are sent to the brain.

Also read: Engineer Builds Robot To Insert And Remove Contact Lenses From Your Eyes Perfectly

Such tech is extremely expensive - some can cost as high as $100,000. Even then, it is still in its nascent stage. But over the next few decades, such tech is expected to make great strides and could bring relief to million of humans around the world.

Unsplash

According to a 2019 report, India's home to 20% of the world's visually impaired. More than 40 million people are blind or visually impaired. Around the world, at least 2.2 billion suffer from some form of impaired vision, according to World Health Organization.

Also read: No More Spectacles: These Eye Drops Could Reduce Blurry Vision For Millions



What do you think about such tech that we saw in films becoming a reality? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Debusmann, B. B., Jr. (2022, February 14). Bionic eye tech aims to help blind people see. BBC News.

Bionic Eyes Give Sheep Sight, Heading to Humans Next. (2022, February 14). Futurism.
Today, China celebrated the Lantern Festival. Also known as Yuan Xiao Festival, the occasion is a traditional holiday that honours the deceased ancestors and remembers them. The 15th day of the first month (Yuan) of the lunar calendar is marked for the occasion.

The lantern festival is also the conclusion of the two weeks of festivities of the Lunar New Year. From following various traditions and customs to celebrating with fireworks and floating lanterns in the sky, let us understand the significance and the symbolism behind this festival celebrated in China.
Buzzword alert: continuous intelligence. Its fairly well defined on Gartners website. I also found an article in Forbes from almost four years ago that does a good job of explaining this new concept.

The term continuous intelligence also pops up in some vendor marketing materials, and I often see it defined as something thats focused more on operations and monitoring rather than on business processes. As a concept, continuous intelligence provides value to both.

There is a wide range of opinions about what continuous intelligence means. My take is that its a design pattern that allows us to leverage real-time analytics to provide intelligence data for business- and operations-related processing that can process current data in the context of historical data, as well as apply real-time intelligence (AI and machine learning).

In other words, continuous intelligence provides perfect, up-to-date, real-time data, along with real-time information about what that data means. Moreover, we leverage that current, meaningful, and intelligently augmented data within critical business processes so it can be more useful to automate a business, as well as optimize the business around any external changes. External changes could come from the market, customer behavior, system outages, supplier logistics, or anything else that could be a problem or an opportunity.

Continuous intelligence concepts require a set of enabling technologies to drive them. These technologies typically include augmented analytics, event-stream processing, business rule management, and, of course, AI or machine learning. It could be anything that can aid in both delivering the right data to the right business processes and making sense of that data in flight without first having to send it to a data warehouse or data mart.

The purpose of bringing up the continuous intelligence buzzword now is that Im seeing embedded intelligence (my term) concepts arise that have many of the same patterns and business objectives. I come from a data-, application-, and service-integration background that started in the 90s. Even back then, many similar embedded intelligence concepts and their buzzwords were kicked around. These included process-oriented enterprise application integration (a term/concept I popularized), the event-driven enterprise, the real-time enterprise, low-latency business processing, and the zero-latency enterprise.

Ive seen new versions of embedded intelligence concepts emerge about every two years. Theyre all a bit different in how they define the core value of leveraging real-time data intelligence within applications and business processes. Regardless, they have access to almost perfect information, and the core concepts are pretty much the same.

Dont get me wrong, Im not trying to beat up the phrase continuous intelligence or any other buzzword. I just want to remind people that these emerging popular concepts are often much older and more pragmatic than we might realize. Also know that making up and/or repeating buzzwords is usually more distracting than productive. This is from someone whos created a buzzword or two.

Heres what the next instance of the continuous intelligence concept will have that we havent seen in the past:

First, realistic viability because we now have access to once-expensive technology resources via the on-demand value of cloud computing.

Second, the use of true intelligence in flight due to todays AI-based technologies that can process data as it appears.

Finally, historical data storage that can be accessed in nanoseconds with some business intelligence database queries that once took several days to process.

Although todays continuous intelligence concepts and core business objectives are pretty much the same as they were in the past, its the enabling technology (the technology that makes it work) that finally evolved to make it all possible. Continuous intelligence, embedded intelligence, or whatever you want to call it, the enabling technology is finally cost-effective (cheap) enough for businesses to leverage these approaches as true force multipliers.

The bottom line? Continuous intelligence is an aspect of cloud computing that needs to be understood and leveraged by most businesses if they plan to stay in business. Tossing out new buzzwords that mean basically the same thing as the last crop of buzzwords does nothing to get us closer to widespread understanding of this problem and potential solutions.

Lets clear out the white noise and keep the continuous intelligence conceptsor whatever you want to call themin sight, including the core value. Hyped phrases and acronyms just make us look silly.
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Waltham, Massachusetts-based pretzel maker Eastern Standard Provisions managed to get its pretzels on Oprah Winfreys Oprahs Favorite Things list in 2019 and that led to a boom in business.

Last year, the company repeated the feat by getting what it said were its Liege waffles on Oprahs 2021 list. Waffle sales have soared.

But are they really Oprahs favorite waffles?

Shane Matlock, owner of Attleboro, Mass.-based restaurant and caterer The Burgundian, which specializes in Liege waffles, says no. He claims Eastern Standard (aka Hawthorne Food Co.) stole his recipe and is knowingly excluding Burgundian from the Oprah Effect and the benefits of Ms. Winfreys endorsement.

Matlock says the waffles that Winfrey tasted were made by him using Burgundians confidential Liege waffle recipe that he created after training in Belgium with a master Liege waffle maker.

The complaint filed in Suffolk Superior court in Boston further alleges that after it won Winfreys favor, Eastern Standard began selling Liege waffles from a different company that Winfrey has not tasted or tried.

Publicly, Eastern Standard claims that Ms. Winfrey picked the Liege waffles it is selling for her 2021 Oprahs Favorite Things list. Privately, Eastern Standard claims that the Liege waffles it is selling are different from Burgundians Liege waffles because they use a new recipe and process, the complaint alleges.

According to the Matlock, Eastern Standard did not disclose to Oprah that Eastern Standard signed a non-disclosure agreement with Burgundian prohibiting Eastern Standard from using Burgundians waffle recipe.

Matlock alleges Eastern Standard actually executed the non-disclosure agreement as part of a scheme to learn Burgundians proprietary recipe. And then it submitted Burgundians Liege waffles to Oprahs Favorite Things, but only under Eastern Standards name and branding, the suit says.

Matlock claims that Eastern Standard pursued him to capitalize on Burgundians growing success with waffles and signed a non-disclosure agreement with Burgundian under the pretense that it was interested in offering Burgundians Liege waffles in a co-branded venture.

Eastern Standards Garret Harker, co-founder of the pretzel maker who is also a restaurant owner, denies the allegations.

I can just say unequivocally that [Burgundians] recipe is not the recipe that has been promoted on Oprahs Favorite Things, Harker told the Boston Globe. These claims are unfounded, inaccurate, and untrue.

Liege waffles are not like other waffles. They are made from yeasted, brioche-like dough, not a batter, and Belgian pearl sugar, which caramelizes to give the waffles built-in syrup flavor, according Matlock.

Matlock is suing the pretzel-and-waffle seller for what he says are wrongful acts and unfair and deceptive practices including violations of trade secrets. He is seeking damages, lost revenues and enforcement of the non-disclosure agreement.

Topics Claims Massachusetts
This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Conduit Re, Brit Ltd. and Oneglobal Broking.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Conduit Re Names Roberts as Chief Underwriting Officer

Conduit Re announced the appointment of Greg Roberts as group chief underwriting officer. Roberts takes over this role from Trevor Carvey, the group chief executive officer and the current group chief underwriting officer, with effect from March 1, 2022, when he will also join the executive committee.

Roberts joined Conduit prior to the IPO in 2020 to lead Conduits property underwriting.

It was always our intention to split the roles of CEO and CUO to allow Trevor to concentrate on his role as CEO and the strategic development of the group, commented Neil Eckert, group executive chairman of Bermuda-based Conduit.

Under Trevors leadership, we are now through the initial foundational phase of building out both our underwriting team and portfolio. During that process, Greg has emerged as the outstanding candidate to assume the mantle of CUO and we feel that now is the right time to promote Greg into this key role, Eckert added.

Roberts brings 20 years underwriting experience to Conduit. He spent 18 years of his career at MS Amlin, where he held a number of roles including leading class underwriter and head of reinsurance catastrophe modelling. Most recently he was head of North American Property Treaty, London for MS Amlin. In 2018 Greg joined Am Trust Re, where he established and ran the property reinsurance division until the sale of Syndicate 1861 in 2019.

Greg has shown great ability and leadership right from our pre-IPO planning stages through to establishing a solid presence in the market throughout our first year of trading. He has been instrumental in putting in place so many of the essential building blocks around Conduits underwriting, systems and team building, said Carvey.

Greg has excellent commercial awareness, an acute sense of the underlying insurance dynamics and an in-depth understanding of the reinsurance marketplace in general. Transferring the CUO responsibilities to Greg is a natural progression, enabling me to concentrate on my role as group CEO as we scale our business and grow strategically for the future, Carvey continued.

Roberts will report to Carvey. The appointment is subject to Bermuda immigration approval.

Conduit Re is a pure play global reinsurance business based in Bermuda. Conduit Reinsurance Limited is licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority as a Class 4 insurer.

***

Brit Appoints Hodgkins as Cyber Underwriting Consultant

Brit Ltd. announced the appointment of Tim Hodgkins as cyber underwriting consultant. Hodgkins joined on Feb.14, 2022 and reports to Ben Maidment, head of Global Cyber, Privacy & Technology.

Hodgkins joins from SureCloud, where he held the role of senior security consultant and focused on supporting financial services businesses manage and reduce risk across their technology landscape. He started his career at PwC, working first in the Technology Risk & Digital Audit division before becoming a senior consultant for cyber security.

In this newly created role, Hodgkins will add security and technology expertise to Brits market-leading cyber proposition, providing technical risk management advice and detailed insight into emerging cyber threats to support both internal and external stakeholders.

A London-based, global specialty re/insurer, Brit has a major presence in Lloyds of London, with significant U.S. and international reach. Brit is a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.

***

Oneglobal Hires de Lima as CEO of Andean Region

Oneglobal Broking, the London-based broker, announced the appointment of Ernesto de Lima as CEO of the Andean Region (excluding Chile). de Lima will report to Nicolau Daudt, CEO LatAm Oneglobal and will officially join on April 1.

de Lima is a highly experienced insurance and reinsurance professional with over 15 years in the industry and has substantial experience in the property, sabotage & terrorism and power & utility markets. He was latterly placement vice president for Arthur J. Gallagher Colombia and has held a number of senior roles at Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., Guy Carpenter and Marsh.

Oneglobal continues the strategic build out of its international operations, which has seen expansion into Singapore, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Netherlands, Middle East and significant growth in Latin American in its first 18 months of operations. The Latin American operation is led by Daudt and Jose Miguel Gonzalez, chief commercial officer LatAm, and supported by Ricardo Retana, CEO of its Central American operation and a team of technical and operational brokers.

Oneglobal Broking is a specialist international broking company focused on the placement of open market and delegated authority business, across marine, aviation, property, casualty and specialty lines. Owned by financial services private equity firm JC Flowers, the business was founded in 2018 following the merger of the SSL and Endeavour insurance broking houses.

Topics Cyber Underwriting Reinsurance Property A.J. Gallagher London
Akron, Ohio-based First Energy announced it has settled a series of shareholder lawsuits seeking corporate reforms in the wake of a bribery and corruption scandal.

FirstEnergy in a statement said provisions of the settlement include an agreement that six longtime board members will not stand for election at the companys May shareholder meeting. The board of directors will now be responsible for overseeing FirstEnergys lobbying and political activities while a committee of board members will conduct a review the current executive team.

The deal awaits U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbleys approval.

FirstEnergys insurer will pay the company $180 million less fees owed to attorneys representing shareholders in the complaints called derivative lawsuits. FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young told the Akron Beacon Journal the company is awarded money because the lawsuits were filed on behalf of the company against board members and former executives.

The shareholders are basically saying the company has been harmed, Young said.

The lawsuits were filed in the months following U.S. Attorney David DeVillers announcement in July 2020 that FirstEnergy had secretly funded a $60 million bribery scheme to win legislative approval of a $1 billion bailout of two Ohio nuclear power plants operated at the time by a FirstEnergy subsidiary.

FirstEnergy signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in July 2021 that detailed how its executives carried out the bribery scheme in concert with former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others. FirstEnergy also agreed to pay a $230 million fine.

A federal charge of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud will be dismissed against FirstEnergy in 2024 if the company abides by a long list of reforms listed in the agreement.

Householder, who was indicted in July 2020 on a federal conspiracy charge along with four associates, has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.

FirstEnergy still faces shareholder lawsuits alleging the company committed securities violations. Defendants include current CEO and President Steven Strah along with former CEO Chuck Jones, who was fired by the company in October 2020 for violating company policies and its code of conduct.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits USA Ohio
Jury selection starts Feb. 15 in a trial to determine if engineering contractors bear responsibility for lead-contaminated water in Flint.

Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, known as LAN, were not part of the recent $626 million settlement between Flint residents and the state of Michigan, Flint and two other parties.

Attorneys for four Flint children claim Veolia and LAN were negligent in not doing more to get the city to properly treat water that was being pulled from the Flint River in 2014-15. Corrosive water caused lead to leach from service lines serving homes, a disastrous result in the majority Black community.

Veolia and LAN deny liability. Veolia said it had a brief contract with Flint, mostly to address other water issues at the citys treatment plant. LAN, too, said water quality was not part of its assignment at the plant.

The problems in Flint were not caused by the alleged failures of outside engineers, attorneys said last week in a court filing. They were instead entirely caused by the epic failure of the local and state and federal government at every level.

Nonetheless, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy declined to dismiss the lawsuit. The trial could last weeks in federal court in Ann Arbor.

Michigan is paying $600 million of the settlement with Flint residents who said they were harmed by lead-contaminated water. After legal fees are subtracted, more than $400 million is expected to go to people and property owners who file claims.

There is no safe level of lead. It can harm a childs brain development and cause attention and behavior problems.

Topics Michigan Contractors
Remington Arms will pay $73 million to the families of five adults and four children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the families said on Tuesday, the first time a gunmaker has been held responsible for a mass shooting in the United States.

Twenty students and six adults were killed on Dec. 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, by gunman Adam Lanza, who used a Remington Bushmaster AR-15 rifle to shoot his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School after killing his mother at home.

Remington Arms will pay $73 million to the families and release all the discovery and disposition material to the public. The settlement will be paid through insurance policies, lawyers for the families said in a statement.

Today marks an inflection point when our duty of care to our children as a society finally supersedes the bottom line of an industry that made such an atrocity like Sandy Hook possible, said Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah was killed in the shooting, during a news conference.

The nine families sued in 2014 and spent years in the courts trying to hold Remington liable, despite a U.S. law that protects gunmakers and dealers from most civil litigation and two bankruptcy filings by Remington. The settlement will be paid through insurance policies, lawyers for the families said.

The Sandy Hook families found a way around that legal protection for gunmakers by claiming that Remingtons marketing of firearms contributed to the massacre.

These families would do everything to give it all back for just one more minute. That would be true justice, said Josh Koskoff, an attorney for the families.

Koskoff said the case focused on the marketing of the gun, the AR-15, which was originally made for combat and for decades only appealed to small civilian market.

After the Cerberus private equity firm bought Remington in 2007, it launched aggressive campaign that pushed sales of AR-15s through product placement in first-person shooter videogames and by touting the AR-15 as an effective killing machine, Koskoff said.

Sales rose from 100,000 AR-15 in 2005 to 2 million in 2012, Koskoff added.

MASS SHOOTINGS CONTINUE

The settlement with Remington comes as the United States continues to be marred by mass shootings and gun violence.

A government-funded research project released in February found that of all the mass shootings that took place between 1966 and 2019, more than half took place since 2000, with 20% of them occurring between 2010 and 2019.

Gun control advocates have been encouraged by the Sandy Hook legal strategy, including New Jerseys attorney general who is investigating Smith & Wessons marketing.

Mexico filed a U.S. lawsuit last year seeking $10 billion from several gunmakers, accusing them of marketing their weapons to the countrys gangs.

New York last year enacted a law that allows firearm sellers, manufacturers and distributors to be sued for creating a public nuisance that endangers the publics safety and health. Gun manufacturers have challenged the law in court.

Firms Sue to Overturn New York Law Allowing Lawsuits Against Gun Industry

Gun advocacy groups have also been using the courts and state legislatures to expand gun rights and have scored victories at the Supreme Court in 2008 and 2010 that established an individuals right to keep a gun at home for self-defense.

(Reporting by Brendan OBrien in Chicago; Editing by Mark Porter, Bernadette Baum and Aurora Ellis)

Photo: In this Jan. 17, 2013, file photo, a sign is placed in front of the Remington Arms Company in Ilion, N.Y. U.S. gun maker Remington Outdoor Company filed for bankruptcy protection, after years of falling sales and lawsuits tied to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Records from the bankruptcy court of the district of Delaware show that the company filed late Sunday, March 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

Topics Lawsuits USA Claims
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted to approve two orders for state utilities to recover natural gas costs incurred during the February 2021 winter storm.

The commission approved separate orders for CenterPoint Energy and Public Service Company of Oklahoma. Commission Chair Dana Murphy says the PSO decision uses the states securitization law to spread the cost over 20 years, while the CenterPoint order spreads the cost over 15 years.

This means that the monthly impact to ratepayers will be far less than it otherwise would have been, Murphy said in a statement. Its estimated that the natural gas costs owed would have cost an average residential CenterPoint customer $538.07 if billed all at once and $44.61 if billed over 12 months. Securitization allows the cost to be spread out up to 15 years, dropping the monthly payment to an estimated $4.36 for the average residential customer.

Commissioner Bob Anthony voted against the PSO order, writing in a dissenting opinion that the order imposes onerous, overpriced, nonconsensual debt on Oklahomas residential ratepayers.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Windstorm Oklahoma
Investigators were set to begin digging through rubble to determine the cause of a massive fire that smoldered for four days and engulfed a $65 million luxury apartment complex in Oklahoma City that had been under construction.

At least 80 firefighters, working in six-hour rotations, were called in to help extinguish the blaze that began on Feb. 8 at the 326-unit complex. No injuries were reported.

Oklahoma City firefighters were helped in their efforts to put out lingering flames by demolition crews, who cleared areas and allowed access to hotspots.

There was just so much fire that we couldnt access, Scott Douglas, a spokesman for the Oklahoma City Fire Department, told KFOR-TV. It was unsafe for our firefighters inside. So, it was definitely unsafe for our investigators.

Douglas said investigators will rely on security footage as well as digging through rubble to help them determine what caused the massive fire.

The luxury apartment complex had been scheduled to open sometime in the spring.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Oklahoma
Two more property insurers, including one of the largest insurers in Florida, have stopped writing new policies in the state, marking the fifth and sixth carriers this year to pull back from the turbulent Florida waters.

At this time, St. Johns Insurance has made the difficult decision to suspend all new business writing statewide as of Feb. 15, 2022, the company said in a bulletin sent to its agents.

The St. Johns closure applies to all lines of business. Any outstanding quotes had to be bound in the system by 6 p.m. Tuesday, the bulletin noted.

The Orlando-based St. Johns is listed as the eighth-largest homeowners carrier in Florida, with more than 160,000 policies, according to a list maintained by the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters.

Later Tuesday, word spread that Lighthouse Insurance also had stopped writing new business.

As we manage our reinsurance placement options, Lighthouse has made the difficult decision to suspend new business writing for all products in Florida, effective end of business today, reads a bulletin sent to agents on Tuesday.

Lighthouse said it would honor any policies quoted Tuesday or before, with effective dates on or before Feb. 28.

The news about struggling insurance carriers in Florida has become almost routine. In the past three months, some of the best-known insurers have said they will stop writing new homeowner policies or wont renew thousands. These include United Property & Casualty, TypTap, Florida Farm Bureau, and Progressive.

One Florida property insurance insider called a market meltdown, and other carriers will likely soon follow.

St. Johns executives could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The one-page bulletin briefly explains that the suspension is one of several actions the company has taken recently.

In an effort to maintain balance within our portfolio, we have been employing many strategies to manage our risks: non-renewals, new business eligibility rules, rate changes, overall exposures in territories and portfolio performance, the bulletin reads. Sometimes, adjustments may be needed in order to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.

Florida agents that sell St. Johns policies said that the announcement did not come as a surprise in a state that has been squeezed by storm losses, spiraling claims litigation costs, and higher reinsurance prices.

St. Johns has been pulling back for a while and increasing premiums, pushing people away, said Chris Coulter, a managing agent in Orlando associated with the Robert ONeil Insurance agency.

While an almost-unprecedented number of companies have pulled back from the Florida market in recent months, other carriers can still be found to write homeowners insurance, Coulter said.

It all depends on what part of the state youre in, he said.

Policyholders are taking notice, though, especially with spikes in premiums this year.

Everyone is seeing rate increases, especially when they get that letter in the mail that they have an escrow shortage, said Bryan Madril, owner of the Madril Agency in Pensacola, which has sold St. Johns policies for a number of years.

The loss of St. Johns is not a major blow to Madrils business, but it will force agents to scramble to find new carriers for homeowners.

They were a good fit for us, Madril said. Well have to look for alternative markets.

St. Johns is a privately held company that was established in 2003. It is owned by the St. Johns Holding Co. and the majority shareholder is St. James Insurance Group, a managing general agency, according to the company website.

Jesse Schalk is president and Jonathan Mertz is chief operating officer.

A company balance sheet shows that as of December 31, 2020, the company had $153 million in assets and $106 million in liabilities, along with $46 million in surplus.

Last week, the company asked for a use-and-file rate increase of 12% on HO-3 policies and a 15% increase in condo or HO-6 policies, for a total of 169,335 policies in the state. St. Johns also asked for a 14.9% increase on dwelling fire policies. That followed an 8.8% increase for some base rates, filed in September, according to an explanatory memo filed with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

Lighthouse was founded in 2008 and is authorized to write in Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

Insurance industry advocates have said the rate increases and writing suspensions show that the Florida market is in deep crisis, affecting homeowners, businesses and the real estate market. Many have pinned their hopes on more legislation that could help curb claims litigation and roof-replacement costs, among other changes.

The most comprehensive measure, Senate Bill 1728, by Sen. Jim Boyd, passed the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee earlier this month and is on the agenda for Wednesdays meeting of a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee.

Thats the number one question weve been getting from agents: What is the Legislature going to do to help,' said B.G. Murphy, director of government affairs for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents.

Topics Carriers Agencies Florida Homeowners
The U.S. Forest Service in Oregon will receive more than $262 million in federal disaster funding to help with wildfire recovery.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported the money is part of a $1.1 billion disaster assistance bill that passed last year to help regions across the country recover from a variety of natural disasters over the last three years.

Oregons Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, both Democrats, supported the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act of 2021, which passed in September with more than a billion dollars in funding for recovery efforts after wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters.

More than a million acres of land across Oregon burned in the Labor Day wildfires in 2020, calling attention to the need to manage trees and brush in federal forests to reduce the risk of wildfire.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Oregon
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School trustees in Las Vegas have approved a $9 million settlement in a case involving a former school bus driver who was sent to prison in 2018 for sexually assaulting special education preschoolers.

The Clark County School Board accepted the agreement unanimously and without comment, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The action last week followed the dismissal in November of a federal lawsuit involving the parents of a girl and a boy who were 3 and 4 years old when Michael Ray Banco was arrested in 2015.

Documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas say the funds will be deposited in a trust account for the children.

Banco faced 41 felony charges before he pleaded guilty to sexual assault with a minor under 16 and lewdness with a child under 14. Hes now 62 and is serving 35 years to life in prison.

Police and prosecutors said Banco, a longtime school bus driver, sexually assaulted children in the back of his bus before dropping them off at their home. Acts were captured on bus surveillance video.

A district spokesman said this week that insurance will pay two-thirds of the settlement, leaving the district to pay $3 million.

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Former Ireland and Leinster rugby prop Mike Ross will be among 18 people to face a survival challenge deep inside the Arctic Circle to help raise funds for charity.

On their six-day trek from March 4-10, Ross and his comrades will learn the skills needed to survive in the wilderness in chilling temperatures of -27C.

Their initial accommodation will be a woodcutters lodge with no electricity or running water.

There, they will learn the skills necessary to survive in one of the worlds harshest environments, lighting fires using lichen, pickaxing through ice for drinking water and cooking local food on camp fires.

Former Ireland and Leinster rugby prop Mike Ross will be among 18 people to face a survival challenge deep inside the Arctic circle to help raise funds for Butterfly Skin charity, Debra Ireland.(Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography Copyright 201

After two days training, they head off on a two-day trek into Finlands Yllas national park, where they will camp outdoors overnight.

Ross, 42, who retired at the end of 2017 after a 12-year professional career, admitted that he struggled with fitness during lockdown but is training again.

Ive done some hill walking and I go for nightly walks as well as doing Brazilian Jujitsu, he said.

Its just about preparing to get active again and getting ready for the challenge. Its going to be a slog.

But once you mentally prepare for it, thats the main thing.

While our trek will be pretty formidable, it is nothing like the survival challenge that living every day with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) entails.

Three hundred people in Ireland live with hugely distressing EB, which causes the skin, both inside and out, to blister and wound at the slightest touch  and Butterfly Skin Debra Ireland is dedicated to supporting those living with the condition.

I had never been to the Arctic so it suddenly seemed like a good opportunity to go there and raise much needed funds for a great charity at same time.

There is no known cure for the genetic condition and the only treatment is constant, painful bandaging of the skin.

Money raised from the challenge will be used to continue increasing the quality of care Debra Ireland provides as well as fund critical medical research that can make treatments available.

I was well aware of Debra Ireland from my rugby days, because Leinster supported the charity and Johnny Sexton was, and still is, quite heavily involved with them, Mike said.

He added that when the charitys board member, Bobby Healy, approached him in June 2020 about doing the challenge, it was the middle of lockdown and he jumped at the opportunity.

When Bobby asked me I probably would have gone on an adventure to the Sahara, he added.

I had never been to the Arctic so it suddenly seemed like a good opportunity to go there and raise much needed funds for a great charity at same time.

Leading the 2022 expedition is internationally qualified, veteran outdoors man Ronan Mullen of Adventure.ie.

As well as providing day to day support both in the home and remotely for EB patients, the charity also funds research programmes to find better treatments and possible cures for EB.

Each participant in the Arctic Challenge, which is sold out, will have a minimum 5,500 euro fundraising target, 3,500 euro of which will go to Debra Ireland to maintain the charitys vital services.

To support Rosss fundraising, visit his page at justgiving.com/fundraising/debrairelandarcticmr
From the Archive Myanmars Slain Karen National Union Leader Mahn Sha: 60 Years in Vain

Days before his assassination on February 14, 2008 Karen National Union leader Mahn Sha spoke to The Irrawaddy reporter about Burmas prospects for peace

On Feb. 11, 2008, the day before the 61st Union Daya holiday intended to celebrate unity among Myanmars ethnic peoplesthen Karen National Union leader Mahn Sha told The Irrawaddy in an interview that after 60 years of efforts to impose unity by force, the country needed to restore democracy and introduce a federal system of government to halt what he saw as its ongoing disintegration. To mark Mondays anniversary of his assassination on Feb. 14, 2008, we revisit the interview, conducted just days before his death.yt

Days before his assassination on February 14, 2008 Karen National Union leader Mahn Sha spoke to The Irrawaddy about Burmas prospects for peace.

Speaking on February 11, 2008, the day before the 61st Union Daya holiday intended to celebrate unity among Burmas ethnic peoplesMahn Sha argued that after sixty years of efforts to impose unity by force, the country must restore democracy and introduce a federal system of government to halt its ongoing disintegration.

Question: Tomorrow is Union Day, but it is said that there is still no solidarity among Burmas ethnic nationalities. As a Karen leader, what would you like to say about that?

Answer: Before independence was declared [in 1948], all ethnic nationalities, all people and politicians representing them, tried very hard to gain genuine independence. But when the time came, we did not get what we expected.

After gaining independence, the people of Burma, including ethnic minorities, did not gain any freedom. People with power just used it as they liked. As a result, the country has become one of the poorest and least secure in the world.

So sixty years have been wasted in vain, and instead of prosperity, we have fallen into poverty because of the military dictatorship. There is no security. Thats why we want to establish a democracy and federal union, which is the best form of government to bring all the ethnic nationalities together.

We want a government elected by the people that can guarantee that kind of system. In other words, we want political change. We want to establish a truly independent, truly united country. The country will never prosper if it continues like this.

There is no [economic] security. There is only unemployment. There are many who must leave the country to find jobs. Educated people go abroad and workers abandon their homes to find jobs in neighboring countries. There is no development at all. So I think political change must come at once.

Q: But ethnic minorities are also disunited, as we can see within ceasefire groups, armed resistance groups and political organizations. It is also said that there is no solidarity among different ethnic groups.

A: The country has disintegrated because of the ethnic chauvinism of the military dictatorship. If there were no military dictatorship and no ethnic chauvinism, and the country adopted democracy and a federal system, it would be peaceful, united and developed like other countries. I can say that for sure.

The military dictatorship has caused the whole country to disintegrate. But many ethnic nationalities are working together in opposition. We have a lot of political agreements with other peoples and their representatives.

As we cannot wait for the regime to act, we have been drafting a federal constitution. We are cooperating with one another to abolish the dictatorship. The main cause of the countrys disintegration is the dictatorship. If it fell from power today, the country would be united today. We believe that.

Q: Do you mean that the regime is the cause of all the disunity among ethnic nationalities?

A: Yes. They create disunity so they can continue to rule the country by force. They think that if the country is peaceful and stable, there will lose their rationale for holding onto power.

[Some have argued that] the country would fall apart if the junta was no longer in powerthat Burma would be like Bosnia. But it is totally untrue. It is totally unfounded. In fact, the opposite is true: if the dictatorship lost its power, the country would be more united.

Q: As a representative of the Karen people, do you have any other comments you would like to make on the occasion of Union Day?

A: We cannot count on the regime to bring democracy or a federal system. To achieve a genuine union, all the peoples of Burma, and the politicians and organizations representing them, must work together with firm spirit and unity.

We must abolish the dictatorship and its policy of ethnic chauvinism. We must establish a genuine democracy and federal system by ourselves, with our own hands.

We must be determined, and we must take practical measures to achieve our goal.
Burma China-Backed Pipeline Facility Damaged in Myanmar Resistance Attack

The oil and gas pipelines under construction / Shwe Gas

An off-take station of the China-backed oil and gas pipelines was damaged when a local resistance group attacked regime forces guarding the facility in Mandalay Regions Natogyi Township early on Monday.

At around 2 a.m., the Natogyi-Peoples Defense Force (NPDF) used two rifle grenades to attack 13 regime personnel providing security for the off-take station.

The station is located 6 km east of the town of Natogyi.

During the attack, the wall of the off-take station was damaged after being hit by an explosive, said Ko Twantay, NPDF spokesperson and Myingyan District-PDF Battalion 4 commander.

The NPDF said it believed the Myanmar military suffered casualties in the attack.

We just targeted the regime forces, not the pipeline station, Ko Twantay told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

The NPDF said it had to attack the regime forces based at the off-take station, as they have become notorious for persecuting and looting civilians during their operations in the area.

The oil and gas pipelines, which run from the Rakhine coast to southern China, were constructed in 2011 and began operation in July 2013.

The 973-km pipelines pass through Magwe and Mandalay regions and Shan State to Chinas Yunnan Province.

Following the PDF attack, the regime tightened security in Natogyi town, bringing in reinforcements from nearby townships.

Regime forces arrested nearly a dozen people in the town on Monday and Tuesday, including some with links to the National League for Democracy (NLD), a Natogyi resident told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

On Sunday evening, two regime personnel were killed when Natogyi-PDF members ambushed a regime motorbike patrol in the township.

Anti-Chinese sentiment swelled in Myanmar following the military coup last February, with many people believing Beijing had a hand in the takeover. At that time, there were calls for a boycott of Chinese products, along with calls to blow up the pipelines if China refused to condemn the regime.

The calls prompted China to urge the regime to increase security for the pipelines. Since March last year, the regime has assigned extra forces to protect them.

In May last year, three regime troops guarding the pipelines in Sintgaing Township, Mandalay Region were slashed to death by unidentified attackers.

In the wake of intensifying civilian armed resistance against the military regime, China has urged Myanmars civilian National Unity Government to ensure the resistance movement does not harm Chinese investments in the country.

The request came after a local resistance group attacked electricity pylons supplying the China-backed Tagaung Taung nickel-processing plant in Sagaings Tigyaing Township in early January.

The junta is facing daily intense attacks from PDFs and many ethnic armed groups across the country. Its forces are reportedly suffering heavy losses in the attacks.



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Burma Major Myanmar Hospital Closes Outpatient Departments as Doctors Hit by COVID-19

Yangon General Hospital in 2017. / The Irrawaddy

Outpatient departments in Yangon General Hospital (YGH), one of Myanmars biggest public hospitals, have been shut down for ten days because of staff shortages as the country experiences a surge in COVID-19 cases.

With the highly infectious Omicron variant spreading fast, YGH announced on Monday that it would close five outpatient departments for ten days starting from Tuesday due to a shortage of doctors, nurses and other staff.

The affected outpatient departments are the General Medical Unit, Department of Medical Oncology, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Gastroenterology and Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology.

Last week, YGH also announced that the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine would shut for five days as senior doctors from the department have COVID-19.

Coronavirus cases have been rising in Myanmar since early February. On Monday, the Ministry of Health said that there were 1,586 new cases, a significant jump from last month when daily new infections were in double figures.

Myanmar has recorded 19,311 COVID-19 related deaths since the first coronavirus case was reported in March 2020.

The 2,000-bed YGH is one of the best-equipped public hospitals in Myanmar, providing a medical lifeline for people on low incomes and from rural areas.

In normal times, the hospital has over 250 doctors and over 500 nurses, according to the Yangon City Development Committees website.

However, like many other government hospitals in the country, YGH is now struggling to remain functional as many of the staff have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and have been refusing to work for the military regime since last years coup.

Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing admitted earlier this month that only 765 of Myanmars 1,077 hospitals are functional because of striking medical staff.

The regime is pressuring staff to return to work by detaining them or issuing arrest warrants against them.

Despite that, over 50 per cent of the junior medical staff and 30 per cent of senior medical staff from YGH are still on strike, according to CDM-supporting medics who used to work there, leaving the hospital badly understaffed. The current COVID-19 crisis has made the situation even worse.

A working medic from YGH told The Irrawaddy that the outpatient departments have been struggling to stay operational since the coup as there now only around five doctors working in each department, compared to a dozen before the military takeover.

Now three or four doctors are down with COVID-19. We dont have enough people to run our department, said the medic, who requested anonymity.

While the closure of the departments is a temporary measure, it will have a negative impact on the outpatients who rely on them.

A CDM-supporting doctor from YGH told The Irrawaddy that most of the patients come to YGH to see doctors from the General Medical Unit. The second-busiest department is endocrinology and the third is oncology.

Some outpatients suffering from cancer or needing hormone treatment need to adjust the doses of their medication regularly. It will be difficult for those patients, the doctor said.

The outpatient department of the Yangon, Ear, Nose and Throat Public Hospital also announced that it will be closing for eight days from Monday because most of its staff have COVID-19.

Despite the coronavirus surge, coup leader Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing held a grand military review on Saturday in Naypyitaw, attended by over 10,000 people. After the parade, the number of new COVID-19 cases in Naypyitaw was 90, three times higher than previous weeks.



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Burma Meet Myanmar Military-Linked Crony Taking Stake in Telenor Sale

U Thein Win Zaws Shwe Byaing Phyu Group will become a major stakeholder in Telenor.

A company with close links to Myanmars military regime has been allowed to take a stake in Norwegian telecom operator Telenors business in Myanmar, following the sale of the telecom business to the Lebanese investment company M1 Group.

M1 Group and Shwe Byaing Phyu Co have established a venture called Investcom, which is expected to become the new owner of Telenor. Currently, Telenor has 18 million subscribers in Myanmar.

Shwe Byaing Phyu Group has been allowed to take a 49 per cent stake in the venture, with the possibility of that rising up to 80 per cent in the future, sources from the telecom industry told The Irrawaddy.

There are concerns that the personal data of the 18 million Telenor users in Myanmar will fall into the hands of the military regime if Shwe Byaing Phyu Group is allowed to take a stake in Telenor. Last year, the junta tried to force Telenor to install eavesdropping equipment on its network to monitor the communications of its users.

Myanmars pro-democracy activists have launched an online petition calling on Telenor to stop the sale of its subsidiary in Myanmar to a military-linked company and to safeguard users data.

Last week, Myanmars parallel National Unity Governments acting president Duwa Lashi La wrote to Norways prime minister Jonas Gahr Store, saying that the sale of the Telenor Group is not acceptable and should not be approved because it will endanger the security of the 18.3 million Telenor customers.

The acting president urged Norway to respect Myanmars people and to ignore decisions made by the illegal military regime and scrap plans to sell the business.

Who is U Thein Win Zaw?

Owned by U Thein Win Zaw, Shwe Byaing Phyu Group has interests in gas stations and gem mining. But the 59-year-old U Thein Win Zaw is also a director of the Mahar Yoma Public Company, part of a consortium that has a stake in the military-owned telecom operator Mytel.

His business was reportedly established in 1996 and operates in partnership with the military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd in mining and fuel importation and distribution.

U Thein Win Zaw allegedly amassed a fortune from the large-scale smuggling of fuel by sea via southern Myanmars Tanintharyi Region and Mon State, and has close links with the Myanmar Navys senior leadership.

Navy vessels even provided security for U Thein Win Zaws fuel smuggling fleet, according to sources, and he was known as the owner of floating filling stations among fuel importers and distributors.

He maintained good ties with successive Navy chiefs from Vice Admiral Soe Thein and Admiral Thura Thet Swe to Admiral Tin Aung San.

U Thein Win Zaw is closer to U Soe Thein. The two are confidants, a businessman told The Irrawaddy.

U Soe Thein became the Minister for Industry after he retired as navy chief in 2008. He served as the chairman of the Myanmar Investment Commission under President U Thein Seins quasi-civilian government from 2010 to 2013, and then as Minister of the Presidents Office until power was transferred to the National League for Democracy (NLD) government in March 2016.

The Vice Admiral publicly supported last years coup, when the Myanmar military cancelled the results of the 2020 general election and seized power from the civilian NLD government. After the coup, U Soe Thein wrote a book in which he criticized the NLD administration and supported the military takeover.

Shwe Byaing Phyu Group is a new face in Myanmars telecom industry, but its acquisition of Telenor Myanmar is not a surprise given the fact that the business has the backing of former navy chief Admiral Tin Aung San, who is now the regimes transport and communications minister.

After the February 1 coup, then Navy chief Admiral Tin Aung San was demoted and became the Minister for Transport and Communications in the juntas cabinet, as well as a member of the regimes administrative body, the State Administration Council.

However, U Thein Win Zaws relationship with current Navy chief Admiral Moe Aung has soured as a result of a conflict of interest with the IGE Group, a company owned by a brother of Admiral Moe Aung, which also vied for a stake in Telenor Myanmar, according to a former business partner of U Thein Win Zaw.

U Thein Win Zaw is one of the few business tycoons who has been allowed to visit the residence of junta boss Senior General Min Aung Hlaing since the coup. U Thein Win Zaws wife, Daw Tin Latt Min, is part of the inner circle of the wives of the generals. She is also a shareholder in the military-owned Forest Products Joint Venture Corporation Ltd, which has been sanctioned by the European Union.

Shwe Byaing Phyu Group is more of a wholesaler of fuel to gold and mineral mines in central and northern Myanmar than a fuel retailer.

Normally, the business wins tenders offered by the Myanmar Navy to supply fuel for navy vessels, and when captains embezzle the supplied fuel, they normally sell it back to U Thein Win Zaws company, according to a source from the fuel industry.

He is a good talker and keeps a low profile. He likes to invest in those with the potential to become senior officers in the navy. He would buy apartments at Thanlyin Star City [a luxury housing development on the outskirts of Yangon] for potential senior officers, the source told The Irrawaddy.

Considering the fact he has come out into the open to acquire Telenor, after previously keeping a low profile, business sources suggested to The Irrawaddy that U Thein Win Zaw might be acting as a front man for generals and their families who want to own Telenor.

When one of Asias top oil traders Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd went bankrupt last year amid the steep decline in global oil prices caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, U Thein Win Zaw lost cash deposits his company had given the Singapore-based oil company. Some generals then subsidized him, a business source told The Irrawaddy.

I heard U Thein Win Zaw suffered quite a loss. Later, some generals funded him and bought shares in his company, said the source.

Amid the reports of U Thein Win Zaws ties with the regime, Singapore is limiting fuel sales to his company and reducing business dealings with it, said sources in the domestic fuel industry.

Shwe Byaing Phyu Group did not respond to The Irrawaddys email.

Telenor is already under pressure in Myanmar, after a local user filed a complaint with Norways data protection authority to investigate the companys planned sale of its Myanmar operations to make sure that his rights under Norways data protection law are not violated.



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Burma Myanmar Junta Says Wont Attend ASEAN Summit After Regrettable Snub

Myanmar coup leader Min Aung Hlaing (left) and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Naypyitaw in January. / Cncds

Myanmars junta on Monday said it would not attend an upcoming ASEAN summit after the blocs regrettable exclusion of its top diplomat over a lack of progress in defusing post-coup violence.

ASEAN invited Myanmar to send a non-political representative to this weeks foreign ministers meeting, citing a lack of progress on a consensus agreed last year to facilitate dialogue with opponents of the coup.

The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since the military ousted Daw Aung San Suu Kyis civilian government, with more than 1,500 civilians since killed in crackdowns on anti-junta protests, according to a local monitoring group.

The decision to exclude junta-appointed diplomat Wunna Maung Lwin from the meet in Cambodia was regrettable, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

In this regard, Myanmars inability to participate or even designate a non-political representative is inevitable, it added.

It blamed the exclusion on unnamed member countries still holding on to the unilateral decision adopted by the bloc last October, when it barred junta chief Min Aung Hlaing from attending a leaders meet.

That represented a rare rebuke from ASEAN, long seen as a toothless talking shop, but which has sought to lead diplomatic efforts to tackle the Myanmar crisis.

Myanmar is increasingly isolated on the international stage, with Cambodian strongman ruler Hun Sens January visit the first by any foreign leader since the generals seized power.

He met military leader Min Aung Hlaing and the pair discussed peace efforts and the juntas future plans, as well as the role of the ASEAN special envoy, according to the junta.

But violence has continued, with anti-junta groups clashing regularly with the military, and the World Bank has warned that Myanmars economy likely contracted by almost a fifth last year.



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Burma Thousands of Myanmar Migrants Detained as Thai Border Remains Closed

Migrants from Myanmar detained by the Thai authorities at the border.

More than 2,000 nationals from Myanmar, who illegally crossed the border into Thailand, have been detained so far this month, according to labor rights activists.

Despite tightened border security by the Thai authorities, migrants fleeing from the junta or seeking jobs are crossing each day, mostly from Mon, Karen and Shan states and Tanintharyi Region, U Moe Gyo, the chairman of Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs, told The Irrawaddy.

More than 2,000 people have been detained between Feb. 1 and Feb. 14. Most were detained in Kanchanaburi, bordering Mon State, followed by Prachuap Khiri Khan beside Tanintharyi, Mae Sot adjacent to Karen State and Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai bordering Shan State, said U Moe Gyo.

Most of them were aged between 18 and 40 and they paid 16,000 to 28,000 baht (900,000-1.5 million kyats) to cross the border, which is closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

People cannot wait until the border reopens. They are using agents instead, said U Moe Gyo.

Labor rights groups estimate that 80 percent of those who illegally cross the border are job seekers who have been approved to work in Thailand under a bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU).

Migrant rights activist U Min Oo of the Foundation for Education and Development said: The MoU workers can no longer wait after they have spent large sums [on paperwork]. Another group is migrants who have already been working in Thailand and returned to Myanmar. They cant wait until the border officially opens and they paid agents to help them cross.

There are few jobs in Myanmar. Some dont feel safe in Myanmar because of the fighting, he added.

According to the Federation of Thai Industries, Thailand needs around 800,000 migrant workers for manufacturing, tourism and other jobs. To address the labor shortages, the Thai government signed MoUs with Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos allowing workers to enter.

But coronavirus restrictions have delayed the process.

Labor rights activists estimate that there are more than 3 million migrants from Myanmar in Thailand.



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Burma Why the Arakan Army Attended Myanmar Juntas Union Day Event

Arakan Army troops in 2019. / The Irrawaddy

The generals in Naypyitaw wanted ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) to attend the 75th anniversary of Union Day and they wished to demonstrate that they were ready to strike a deal with powerful enemies.

Seven of the 10 signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and four non-signatories commemorated the 1947 signing of the Panglong Agreement between the pre-independence government and ethnic minorities.

At the weekend, only a few, smaller EAOs were represented by their leaders with most of the groups only sending relatively minor representatives.

NCA signatories the Restoration Council of Shan State and New Mon State Party were represented by central executive committee (CEC) members. The Arakan Liberation Party was represented by its vice-chairwoman Saw Mra Yazar Lin and Padoh Saw Shwe Maung, former Dupalaya district chairman Karen National Union, attended.

Representatives of the Lahu Democratic Union, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army  Peace Council also attended the event.

Among the non-signatories present were the United Wa State Army and the National Democratic Alliance Army, which sent liaison officers, the Shan State Progressive Party, which was represented by a CEC member and the Arakan Army (AA) was represented by Aung Mrat Kyaw, a brother of its chief Twan Mrat Naing, and veteran United League of Arakan (ULA) politician U Oo Hla Saw.

Observers said the regime was keen for the AA to send representatives and it made repeated approaches to the armed group and Rakhine politicians.

In reply, AA leaders asked the regime to free its members who were detained in 2019 and 2020.

The regime agreed as it appeared desperate to have the AA at the Union Day event. Until 2020, the regime called the AA terrorists and engaged in heavy fighting with the armed group in northern Rakhine.

Finally, a deal was reached. The AA agreed to send a representative to Naypyitaw with the regime insisting it was a senior member.

The AA sent Aung Mrat Kyaw and U Oo Hla Saw, a former political prisoner and elected MP who became a political representative after last years coup.

The regime flew its guests to Naypyitaw from Rakhine State.

AA spokesman Khaing Thukha explained the reason the group attended. We always attach great importance to the interests of our people. We, therefore, take a pragmatic approach to the needs of our people.

On Union Day, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing pardoned 814 prisoners, a regular feature of major holidays, the regimes media said. Unsurprisingly, 64 of the prisoners were AA members.

According to AA sources, several prominent leaders and military commanders remain in Myanmars prison. The AA also holds several prisoners of war in Rakhine State, including military officers and other ranks.

The AA poses a real threat to Myanmars military as the country has been in turmoil since last years coup, with mass protests and a subsequent military crackdown that has killed more than 1,500 civilians, according to the UNs human rights office. The regime also confronts the new threat of peoples defense forces (PDFs) across the country.

Months before the coup, AA agreed an informal ceasefire with Myanmars military which largely seems to be holding despite several clashes.

Just days before the Union Day event, there were clashes and the junta suffered heavy casualties in Maungdaw Township.

The ULA is the political wing of the AA and has been building a separate administration in Rakhine State with a new judiciary, revenue department, public security offices and other governmental institutions. While the ceasefire holds, there is regular speculation about where fighting will break out next.

The AA began as a minor resistance group in 2009 but has grown to be one of Myanmars most powerful ethnic military forces.

After last years coup, Rakhine was largely spared the violence that sprung up everywhere else in Myanmar and the ULAs parallel administration is now in de-facto control of the state, especially in the north.

The AAs commander-in-chief, Gen. Tun Mrat Naing, has said in his speeches that he was working on a step-by-step approach to reclaim the lost sovereignty of the Rakhine people so they can restore their identity.

The regime is exhausted as it faces new armed insurrections and it cannot also fight the AA.

In the south of Rakhine State, the juntas troops are still in control but the regime is losing control of the north.

Around 12,000 junta infantry troops are still in Rakhine State along with about 3,000 naval personnel and several thousand police and border guards.

It is clearly willing to meet AA demands and worries that the AA and some PDFs will unite to fight the junta.

The AA has already reportedly provided military training to PDFs in Rakhine. It appears to be playing a long game and is happy to attend the juntas Union Day event for pragmatic reasons.

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Guest Column Myanmar Chin Armed Groups Rivalry With Indian Rebel Outfits Dates Back Decades

CNA members attend a funeral. / By special arrangement

The enmity between the Chin National Army (CNA) and some rebel outfits from Indias northeast can be traced to an episode nearly three decades ago when the Indian army launched Operation Golden Bird to thwart the transshipment of a huge quantity of weapons from Bangladesh.

Early in 1995, a combined squad of nearly 170 rebel functionaries belonging to three banned outfits from Indias northeastthe United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)had embarked upon a perilous operation of ferrying a large consignment of weapons from Bangladesh to Manipur. The weapons comprised assault rifles, pistols, universal machine guns, grenades and ammunition.

The rebels route was mainly through the rugged hills of Chin State in Myanmar. Their plan was to chart a track from Bangladesh to Myanmar through the Indian state of Mizoram which links up the two countries.

It was estimated by the rebel groups that the journey would last no longer than three weeks but the guides who belonged to the PLA became confused about the route after they set foot in Myanmar. So some senior members of the CNA whom they chanced upon in a village in Chin State were asked to show the accurate route leading to Manipur.

The CNA, which was formed in 2008, is the armed wing of the Chin National Front. It is active mainly in Myanmars Chin State and it aims at securing the self-determination of the Chin people, the restoration of democracy, and establishing a federal union in Myanmar.

The CNA was willing to assist the rebel outfits from Indias northeast, but only if a part of the consignment was given to them. The groups were unwilling to accept the demand. They forged ahead with the journey but on an erroneous route, which was to have an adverse impact within a few days.

Upset over the arrogant gesture of the groups, the CNA informed the Indian army and security agencies about their movements in Myanmar.

Brigadier (Retired) Rumel Dahiya, who was one of the two Indian army commanders entrusted with Operation Golden Bird, said the CNA provided information about the actual movements of the insurgent group through certain places and confirmation of their engagement with Myanmar Army columns.

Such information was mostly received late and was not, therefore actionable. CNA also claimed that they had killed six insurgents and captured six weapons when they caught the tail of their column while moving in Myanmar territory. CNA also intimated the general area on the border from where the remaining insurgents of PLA-led group crossed into Manipur, explained Brig. (Retd) Dahiya.

He believes that the CNA might have provided the information as they wanted to be rewarded with weapons and money in return for their help. It is also possible that they were looking for a safe haven in Mizoram as and when they came under pressure from Myanmar Army.

Brig. (Retd) Dahiyas version tallies with the accounts given by two over ground militants of the ULFA who participated in the journey and are currently based in Assam. Diwakar Moran, who had his hand pierced by a bullet after an encounter with the Myanmar army, and Biju Deka, who was in charge of the medical unit during the operation, were in no doubt that the CNA had fed the Indian army details about the movement of the rebel groups after it failed to strike a deal.

Deka, who has also written a book in Assamese on his experiences in the ULFA, mentioned that the meeting with the CNA was held on March 25 in Myanmar, 10 days after the trek began in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. He pointed out that the ULFA and PLA suffered a severe depletion in their ranks after being ambushed repeatedly by the armies of India and Myanmar before reaching the destination at Manipur. Operation Golden Bird was officially terminated on May 21.

The CNA was in the news last month for carrying out an attack on a PLA camp in Senam in Myanmars Sagaing Region. In all probability, the attack was prompted by the CNAs willingness to strike at a group believed to be collaborating with the Tatmadaw against the Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs).

There has been a spate of reports alleging that Myanmars military regime has been making increasing use of some insurgent groups from Indias northeast against civilian resistance groups in Myanmar. Many of these Indian separatist groups already had camps and training facilities in Myanmar that existed through a tacit understanding with a section of the Tatmadaw (Myanmars military).

According to an estimate, at least 70 CNA functionaries were killed during fighting with the Myanmar military between 1988 and 2012. The group was opposed to the Constitution framed in 2008 but signed a ceasefire with the government in 2012.

After the coup last year, the CNAs ranks have reportedly swelled with new recruits, who are being trained at facilities in various locations. It has joined hands with other PDFs active in Chin State to conduct coordinated attacks against the Tatmadaw.

Rajeev Bhattacharyya is a senior journalist in Assam, India.

You may also like these stories:

Silent Strike: A Quiet Display of Power From Myanmars People

Myanmars Military Chief Staged a Coup. But He Did Not Act Alone

Rohingya Without Myanmar ID Not Being Given COVID-19 Jab: Junta
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Ithaca, NY (14850)

Today

Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 71F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

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Overcast with rain showers at times. Low 53F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Sixty-seven percent of organisations in Australia struggle to provide connected user experiences across all channels, according to integration and API platform provider MuleSoft.

The MuleSoft 2022 Connectivity Benchmark Report shows this comes at a time when 70% of organisations customer interactions are now digital. Yet as digitalisation booms, organisations could lose an average $6.5 million in revenue if they fail to implement digital transformation initiatives.

The study recommends that companies need to deliver connected digital experiences for both customers and employees.

In this all-digital world, customers and employees expect truly connected experiences, says MuleSoft CEO Brent Hayward.

However, siloed applications and data continue to hinder customer experience and digital transformation  and it is now costing businesses millions of dollars per year. Companies need to be able to easily integrate a growing number of apps and data sources to automate their business, create seamless digital experiences, and drive growth.

Based on a survey of 100 CIOs and IT decision makers in Australia, the 2022 Connectivity Benchmark Report highlights the challenges and opportunities for organisations as they look to unlock their data to create and automate experiences:

Customers expect seamless user experiences

Applications lie at the centre of digital transformation and efforts to enhance the user experience. On average, organisations are using 974 individual applications (compared to 884 a year ago). Yet only 28% of these applications are integrated on average, indicating there is still an enormous opportunity to improve connected user experiences. MuleSofts report indicates that:

Creating connected user experiences has become increasingly difficult: More than half (55%) of organisations said they find it difficult to integrate user experiences. This is up from 44% a year ago, showing there is increasing complexity for companies to meet their customers' digital needs.

Lack of internal knowledge is a hurdle: A lack of internal knowledge (56%) was cited as the biggest challenge to integrating user experiences, ahead of outdated IT infrastructure (55%) and an inability to keep up with ever-changing processes, tools, and systems (53%).

Integrating user experience delivers business benefits: Of the organisations that have integrated user experiences, more than half said it had enhanced visibility into operations (57%) and innovation (57%). Other benefits realised included improved return on investment (54%), increased automation adoption (54%), and increased customer engagement (52%).

Integration challenges hinder digital experiences and initiatives

Data silos hinders creating integrated user experiences as organisations citing silos as a challenge (97%) increased from a year ago (94%). The report shows:

Integration headaches: The biggest challenges to digital transformation are integrating siloed apps and data (44%) and risk management and compliance (43%). Ninety-six percent of respondents said integration challenges continue to slow digital transformation initiatives.

Too much is being spent on custom integration: In their efforts to integrate apps and data from across the enterprise, organisations appear to be focusing more resources in the wrong areas, such as custom integration. As a result, they continue to incur technical debt. On average, organisations spent $3.56 million on custom integration labour in the last 12 months

IT budgets are up, but so is demand: Eighty-nine percent of organisations said IT budgets have increased year-on-year (compared to 78% last year). At the same time, the number of projects IT is asked to deliver increased by 42% on average, a big jump from 33% a year ago. Despite the extra budget, IT is finding it difficult to meet the demands of the business. On average, more than half (57%) of projects werent delivered on time over the past 12 months.

Organisations turn to APIs to drive digital transformation and revenue

Despite these integration challenges, all the organisations surveyed use APIs. By using APIs to connect data and applications, organisations can digitally transform in a more sustainable manner and accelerate business success. The report indicates:

A top-down integration and API strategy: Most (92%) organisations now have a clear integration and API strategy. Over a third (34%) said leaders now demand that all projects abide by a company-wide API integration strategy, up from just 10% a year ago.

Reuse is on the rise: Organisations are increasingly creating and using reusable IT assets and APIs to create new experiences and accelerate projects, rather than building from scratch each time. On average, 46% of organisations internal software assets and components are available for developers to reuse  an increase from 42% a year ago. More than half (53%) of organisations said IT is actively reusing these components.

Empowerment of business users: Enabling non-technical users to harness low-code tools to drive their own automation and digital transformation projects can take huge pressure off IT teams. More than half (57%) of organisations now have a very mature or mature strategy to empower these users to integrate apps and data sources powered by APIs (compared to 33% last year).

APIs drive revenue: Forty-six percent of organisations said they have experienced revenue growth as a direct result of leveraging APIs (compared to 25% a year ago).

Digital agility is essential to successful transformation, allowing organisations to drive innovation at scale, deliver new initiatives faster, and create the experiences that customers want, says Deloitte Consulting managing director and API transformation leader Kurt Anderson.

A modern strategy that combines integration, API management, and automation is central to achieving digital agility. It enables organisations to easily connect and integrate their data, applications, and devices to create new digital capabilities and drive transformation projects.

The 2022 Connectivity Benchmark Report was conducted in collaboration with Deloitte Digital.
McAfee Enterprise and FireEye have come together to create a resilient digital world as Trellix, and the new companys first research report has come out. It reveals the magnitude of the Log4j vulnerability which dominated headlines and the focus of security teams and defenders alike - along with other insights into security issues in the third quarter of 2021. The report is a fascinating - and deeply sobering - read.

Trellix has been a part of the Log4j story since the vulnerability's exposure, with its rapid release of network-based detection signatures and a write-up of the vulnerability.

In a nutshell, Apache Log4j is a popular and widely-deployed open-source Java-based logging library. Logging is a critical aspect of most any application, allowing software developers and support teams to understand precisely what a system is doing and how its internal variables change. A great logging library is a huge asset to developers, and Log4j enjoyed vast popularity, and hence, deployment across enterprises and governments across the globe. Were talking companies of all sizes - including Apple iCloud, Steam, Samsung Cloud storage, and absolutely thousands of apps across all industries.

The Log4j vulnerability was identified and disclosed responsibly to Apache on November 24, which affected nearly all Log4j versions from 2.0-beta9 through 2.15.0 and allowed an attacker to execute arbitrary code. The vulnerability was rated critical due to Log4js prevalence and the seriousness of its impact. However, the vulnerability, now code-named CVE-2021-44228, was released on Twitter on December 9 along with proof of concept code on GitHub. With code in the wild, malicious attackers could weaponise affected versions of Log4j which were in use on applications and clouds all over the planet.

Apache released a fix in Log4j 2.16.0, but there was no rest for them; on December 18 a second vulnerability, dubbed CVE-2021-45105, came to light which affected Log4j versions from 2.0-alpha1 all the way through to this new release, version 2.16.0. Apache subsequently released a fix in 2.17.0 and has since followed up with 2.17.1.

Trellix has tracked the vulnerability closely since it first emerged, recognising the criticality for security teams to keep pace with fast-evolving threats. The company quickly researched and outlined the precise DNA of a Log4j attack and how it works, and what it means for affected software and systems.

Source: Trellix Advanced Threat Research Report: January 2022

Trellix explains in their research report they originally sought to determine the ease of exploitation using the public proof-of-concept and were able to achieve this. The Trellix researchers explain they are continuing to test variations of the exploit and have released a network signature KB95088 for customers leveraging NSP (Network Security Platform).

Trellix further pointed security teams and incident responders to a Log4j scanner from CISA.gov, that identified if an organisation was susceptible, and released its own ENS Expert Rules and Custom Scan reactions which were designed to apply precise countermeasure against emerging threats like this.

Of course, while Log4j dominated the security headlines, attackers were busy on all fronts. The Trellix research report identifies ransomware activity continued and, in fact, it was research from Trellix that aided the FBI and Europol in arresting Evil affiliates and seizing $US 2 million paid in ransoms from victims.

Trellix additionally investigated the BlackMatter ransomware threat, the association between the Groove Gang and the Baby Gang, LockBit 2.0, and noted REvil/Sodinokibi claimed responsibility for successfully infecting over one million users through a ransomware attack on Kaseya VSA. REvil reported a ransom demand of $US 70 million, the largest publicly-known ransom demand to date. The attack forced the closure of hundreds of supermarket stores.

Trellix explains the US Government launched a campaign to reduce the effectiveness of ransomware, with the launch of StopRansomware.Gov offering rewards up to $US 10 million for information identifying or locating state-sponsored threat actors involved in cyber activities against critical US infrastructure.

Trellix is continuing its research into ransomware attack techniques and threat research and details the work in the report.

Additionally, the Trellix research report details the notable attack trends against countries and continents, industry sectors, and the attack vectors used. Not surprisingly, malware remains the technique most often used, though Trellix observed a decrease of 24% in quarter three vs. quarter two.

The Trellix research report next turns its attention to "living off the land" - a cybercriminal technique that uses legitimate software and functions (such as PowerShell) to perform malicious activities on a victims system, and then to the organisations work on tracking and evaluating new bugs which may end up being exploitable vulnerabilities.

Trellix concludes its first research report with a moment of reflection. Apache had a rough year, of course, with two impactful bugs that hit hard. However, Palo Alto also receives a mention for a bug detected in its Global Protect VPN. In both the Apache and Palo Alto cases the bug could be leveraged remotely, without authentication, providing an entry point to a network and serving as a gateway to a larger-scale attack.

Special note is given to Microsoft, with a Windows Install Service local privilege escalation bug which was allegedly patched and fixed, but the patch did not work as expected. With a publicly available proof of concept and a failed patch, Trellix has already seen bad actors selling weaponised exploits on the dark web.

The Trellix research report is out now and is a highly-engaging, accessible report, full of useful insights and links to expanded detail. Practically, it provides advice and guidance to CISOs and their teams, while also explaining the ongoing work Trellix is performing to uncover and mitigate threats, and to work with law enforcement in eradicating bad actors.

This is the first report from Trellix, the combination of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye, and its definitely a must-read and a series to keep an eye on.
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.
In honor of National Space Day on May 6, Stacker has compiled a list of key astronomy and astrophysics terms that are out of this world! Click for more.
Jacksonville, TX (75766)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms during the morning becoming more widespread this afternoon. High 79F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable.
In a latest advisory issued on Tuesday, the Embassy of India in Kiev has asked Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to consider leaving the country temporarily in the wake of the current situation.

"Indian nationals are also advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine," it added.

The advisory further requested Indian nationals to keep the Embassy about the "status of their presence in Ukraine", in an effort to enable the Mission "to reach them when and where required".

"The Embassy continues to function normally to provide all services to Indian nationals in Ukraine."

After the US ratcheted up warnings against a possible Russian invasion in days, a dozen countries have advised their citizens to leave Ukraine.




Donate Now As a public service during this pandemic, the Jewish News is providing free, unlimited access to all articles. Jewish News is a nonprofit publication that is owned by the community and relies on community support.
Jonesborough Police Chief Ron Street is retiring from the department after five-plus years, effective April 30.

Street, who was hired as chief of police in November 2016, told the town of his retirement on Jan. 4, writing to Town Operations Manager Craig Ford that the decision comes with some reluctance and some feelings of relief.

I must say that it has been my pleasure to work with some of the finest people during my tenure with the police department these past 5+ years, Street said in a letter announcing his retirement. I will cherish the friendships I have made here in Jonesborough, with town employees, department heads and supervisors. Certainly, the experience has been one of the highlights of my 43+ years of public service in law enforcement.

This will be the third retirement for Street, who is now in his 70s. He previously served as Johnson Citys Chief of Police until he retired from that position in 2003, and as chief deputy under former Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes for eight years until he retired again in 2014.

Jonesborough Mayor Chuck Vest said Streets retirement will be a big loss for the town, and that theyre in the process of finding his replacement.

Jonesborough has been blessed by some people with some great experience down here, and for us to have Chief Street for the five-plus years that hes been here has been a blessing for the town, Vest said. Happy to see him doing what we wants to do, but it will be a big loss for our town.

If a new chief isnt selected by April 30, Street said in his retirement notice that hed be willing to continue as chief until a new one has been hired, if needed.

Courthouse parking changes on the way

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved on first reading an ordinance amending the towns municipal code concerning parking near the Washington County Courthouse in downtown Jonesborough.

The town is looking to set a time limit for parking spots on the east and west sides of the courthouse, near where Mauks and Texas Burritos and More are located. The board is looking to ensure those spaces are used more by people who are visiting downtown to eat, shop or take care of business at the courthouse or elsewhere, rather than people who are working downtown.

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The ordinance must be approved a second time during the boards March meeting, scheduled for the 14th. The board will also need to approve a resolution designating the parking spaces that fall under the new time limit, and another to designate fines, if they desire. Currently, a fine for such a violation would be $10.

The spaces will remain free, and the board appeared content to have enforcement of the time limit rely on an honor system.

East Main sidewalk project could begin next month

While the project will cost more than anticipated, the long-awaited construction of sidewalks along East Main Street leading into downtown could begin as early as next month.

I would think if we get the bids back fast enough, I would hope we get that underway in March or April, Vest said. Probably just once the soil is dried out enough for them to start that work, but Id be surprised if its not started in the next month or two.

The project was originally expected to cost a little over $100,000, the vasty majority of which would be paid for through a $100,000 donation from the Sonia King Trust back in December. But due to delays in the completion of other street department projects, due in large part to limited staffing, the project would take months, potentially years, longer to complete.

On Monday the town decided to utilize a private contractor for the project, and approved the construction of 4-foot-wide sidewalks on East Main from Clay Avenue to Forrest Drive utilizing the $100,000 in donated funds, as well as $22,000 from the street departments sidewalk budget not to exceed $133,000. The town is not looking to install sidewalks from Forest Drive to Headtown Road at this time.

The 1,900 feet of sidewalk from Clay Avenue to the Jonesborough Senior Center is projected to cost around $88,500, with an additional cost to tie that sidewalk to the McKinney Center. The 1,000 feet of sidewalk from the Senior Center to Forest Drive is projected to cost $44,278. The projected cost of installing 3,500 feet of sidewalk from Forest Drive to Headtown Road is projected at $154,973.

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Johnson City, TN (37604)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 83F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms. Low 62F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
After the special CBI court of Ranchi held RJD chief Lalu Prasad guilty in yet another fodder scam, BJP and JD-U leaders welcomed the decision.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi said that he raised this scam several times in the past. "I am highly satisfied that he (Lalu Prasad Yadav) who looted Bihar was finally punished. I appreciate the decision of the CBI court," Sushil Modi said.

"The hearing of the case was going on for the last 30 years. He (Lalu Prasad) used to do laughable things to get attention of the media. The court has given a strong message to the society. Whoever violates the law will be punished," Sushil Modi said.

Tar Kishore Prasad, the deputy chief minister of Bihar, said: "Those who ignore and cheat people would get punished by the court of law."

Samrat Chaudhary, the Panchayati Raj minister in the Nitish Kumar government said: "Justice has been done for the people of Bihar after the decision of the CBI court, Ranchi."

Neeraj Kumar, MLC and chief spokesperson of the JD-U said: "Lalu Prasad makes a record on corruption. He has cheated people in the past. Now, justice has been delivered by the court of law. He is also involved in the IRCTC scam and its amount is much bigger than the fodder scam."

Responding to the BJP and JD-U's statements, Jagadanand Singh, the RJD Bihar president, said that the RJD will challenge the decision of the CBI court in the High Court. "We will fight for our leader in the apex court till our last breath. We have huge expectations and belief in our judiciary. Lalu Prasad is a leader known for social equality and social unity in the country."

Ajit Sharma, the CLP leader of the congress in Bihar said: "Lalu Prasad is being framed by opposition leaders. If this case goes to the supreme court, the matter will be clear. RJD should challenge the decision in the upper court."

Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday was held guilty of illegal withdrawal of Rs 139.5 crore from Doranda treasury in fodder scam, Jharkhand. Besides Lalu Prasad, there were 74 more accused who have been held guilty under the same charge. The CBI court has acquitted 24 persons in this case.

The quantum of punishment will be announced on February 21.
Pakistan Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa held meetings with President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan on the same day in a rare move, Dawn news reported.

Although the army chief's meeting with the Prime Minister took place on the sidelines of the apex committee on Afghanistan's session, it is rare for a COAS to meet both heads of the state and the government on the same day, the report said.

The brevity of a statement on the Khan-Bajwa meeting issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) added to the curiosity of political observers about what could have been possibly discussed between them.

All that the PMO had to say about the meeting was "Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Prime Minister Imran Khan today. Professional matters pertaining to Pakistan Army were discussed during the meeting".

Press statements on the meetings between Khan and Gen Bajwa have been typically pro forma since their public disagreement over the appointment of Inter-Services Intelligence director general.

There have been just two publicly disclosed meetings between the two since October 26, 2021 the day Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum was notified as the new director general, though they have been together at forums attended by other functionaries as well.

Meanwhile, the presidency's statement gave a little more insight into the meeting between Alvi and the COAS, suggesting that they had a focused discussion on the recent terrorism incidents in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Today

Mostly sunny skies this morning. Scattered showers and thunderstorms developing during the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 61F. Winds light and variable.

Tomorrow

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 85F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
02/14/2022

by Buffy Lockette

The university has selected Dr. Arlitha Williams-Harmon to serve as Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration, effective March 14. While serving as the universitys Chief Financial Officer, she will oversee Human Resources, Capital Planning and Facilities, Procurement and Fixed Assets, Auxiliary Services and the Controllers Office.

I am honored to be selected to serve in this position and excited to join the JSU leadership team, she said. With a commitment to excellence, I look forward to working collaboratively with the university community.

Dr. Williams-Harmon comes to JSU from California, where she has spent the past decade at one of the nations largest community college systems  the Kern Community College District, located in Bakersfield. She has served as Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services since 2012 in addition to Interim Chief Financial Officer since 2020.

Before her employment at Kern, Dr. Williams-Harmon worked for the City of Los Angeles in several roles,including Mayoral Aide for the Mayors Office and Financial Manager and Treasury Accountant for the Office of the Treasurer. She also served as a Project Analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles and as District Business Manager for Okolona High School in Okolona, Mississippi.

She holds a BS in accounting from the University of Southern California, a Master of Public Administration from California State University and a Ph.D. in community college leadership from Mississippi State University.

We are pleased that Dr. Williams-Harmon has agreed to join the universitys administration, said President Don C. Killingsworth, Jr. Her breadth of knowledge and experience in educational and governmental finance will be a huge asset to the institution and I look forward to welcoming her into the JSU family.
A week after his electoral debacle in Senegals local elections, President Macky Sall was able to raise his head on the international stage. The day before the Lions first victory in the African Cup of Nations final, he took over as chairperson of the African Union for a year. In his inaugural speech, delivered on February 5 in Addis Ababa, the issue of restitution came at the end, after the many security and economic challenges that await him. But his words were strong and determined.

The restitution of our stolen heritage will remain at the heart of our agenda, because it is an integral part of our civilizational identity; it is what connects us to our past and is part of the legacy that we must bequeath to future generations, said Sall. The Africa that we want to build cannot ignore its cultural heritage. Time cannot erase our collective memory. () We say yes to giving and receiving through fruitful dialogue of cultures and civilizations; but no to injunctions that would dictate our choices and our behaviour.

These words echo what President Sall said on December 6, 2018, during the inauguration of the Museum of Black Civilizations (MCN) in Dakar. He was speaking before an audience of Senegalese cultural actors and intellectuals as well as diplomats and the special envoy of Xi Jinping, the president of China, which financed its construction. He paid a strong tribute to pan-Africanist and anti-colonialist leaders, and to Senegals first post-independence president Leopold Sedar Senghor. A few days after the Sarr/Savoy report on the restitution of African heritage was published in France, Senegals former colonial power, Sall firmly reminded French President Emmanuel Macron of his promises a year earlier during a speech in Ouagadougou. We have no other choice but to accept the invitation of poet-president Leopold Sedar Senghor and walk together to the place of giving and receiving, a prelude to the civilization of the universal, a symbiosis of all cultures and civilizations, said Sall, keen to stress his pan-Africanism.

Senghors pan-Africanist dream

The visitor entering the imposing MCN museum shaped like a large amphitheatre first comes face to face with a reproduction of Toumai, a 7 million year old skull discovered in a desert in Chad, our common ancestor. This surprising introduction reminds us that Africa is the cradle of humanity.

This museum was conceived from the start as a continuous creation of humanity, says Hamady Bocoum, the director of the MCN, who is seen here as the key man in restitution of cultural objects stolen during the colonial period. Bocoum recalls that it was Senghor himself who wanted to create a negro-African museum after the first Festival of Black Arts in 1966. Senghor left the presidency in 1980, his dream unfulfilled. Twenty yearslater, this great pan-Africanist project was resurrected by President Abdoulaye Wade. Senghor dreamed it, Wade wanted it and Macky Sall realized it, summarizes Bocoum. It was in 2010 that we obtained the financing from the Peoples Republic of China, then there was a political change [at the head of the state, in 2012], and the work began in 2013. Bocoum, then director of the IFAN Museum of African Arts founded in colonial times by Theodore Monod, followed and supported the work, and says he was then naturally appointed to be its director.

Hamady Bocoum, Director of the Museum of Black Civilizations in Dakar and coordinator of the Special Commission on Restitutions of Senegal.  Franck Petit

A museum of insubordination

The MCN is intended to break fundamentally with the dusty old IFAN museum and its colonial architecture  called neo-Sudanese when it was built in the 1930s  which preserves in Dakar some ten thousand objects devoted to the arts and traditions of West Africa. The Museum of Black Civilizations is not an ethnographic museum, it is not an anthropological museum, it is not a chromatic museum  it is a museum of insubordination, says Bocoum. We dont want to be like anyone else, were going to do our own thing. That will be our choice.

The museum has no permanent collection. It is starting from scratch and in fact has no collections, although Bocoum says it is planned that objects returned to Senegal be kept there. The Museum of Black Civilizations, he says, is ready to receive any African object, or even from the rest of the world. We see ourselves as having a universal vocation. We are ready to house the Mona Lisa. In two months, we will exhibit Picasso and last year we exhibited Leonardo da Vinci. I say this seriously. This is not the museum of Black people, it is really the museum of Black people in global times. And as Africa is the cradle of humanity, this museum is open to the world. It speaks of everything. One floor of the museum is dedicated to contemporary artists.

Certainly the objects seized during the colonial era were seized in a context of subordination and must be returned, says Bocoum, who was in November appointed coordinator of the Senegal Special Commission on Restitution. But he nuances his argument. Restitution is not a fundamental issue, even if it is important. What is in the West must be recovered. But it should not be considered essential. When we say that 90% of African cultural heritage is abroad, it is not true. We dont know even 1 % of African heritage, all that archaeologists are starting to uncover, all the contemporary production. To say full speed ahead for restitution would be delusion, we need to step back and analyse. We need to work with the colleagues in the museums, who are responsible, qualified people and then recover what seems to us the most important.

A recent meeting took place in Dakar, he explains, with the Parisian Quai Branly Museum, which is working with other African museums on an ambitious provenance research programme on 3,500 objects brought back to France in 1933 by the famous Dakar-Djibouti expedition. This expedition that crossed 18 countries is considered the founder of the so-called ethnographic collection method, which brought 70,000 objects from the African continent to the Musee Branly. This research, according to the Musee Branly, is likely to take several years and could lead to an exhibition, with all the African partners, in 2025.

Inventories, meetings and commissions

So, after the Ouagadougou speech in 2017 and the start of restitution requests, have we already entered a period of waiting, diplomacy and research? In fact, in Senegal, there has been no other official restitution request since the symbolic handing over of the sword of El Hadj Oumar Tall, which can be seen at the MCN. In France, requests received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2019 come from seven countries: Senegal and Benin, whose requests have been followed by restitutions; Mali, Cote dIvoire, Chad, Ethiopia, and Madagascar, whose requests remain to be followed up. There have been no further requests since then, according to our sources. On the Senegalese side, two upcoming missions are planned: one to the museum in Le Havre, for jewellery and other pieces claimed by the descendants of Oumar Tall (who are planning a museum in a mosque under construction); and the other to the Musee Branly, to identify the pieces belonging to Senegal. More requests could therefore follow.

The sword of El Hadj Oumar Tall, the one and only piece returned to date by France, on display at the Museum of Black Civilizations.  Franck Petit

Several people we met in Dakar expressed regret that the pace of restitutions has been suspended, owing to Covid-19. After the headline-catching announcements, it was time for inventories, coordination and negotiations. In Senegal, although everything began in 2019, it was not until the end of 2021 that the work of the Special Commission really started. Since 2021, I have been associated with the work of harmonizing internally and at the African level, says Fatima Fall, museum curator in Saint-Louis and Senegalese president of the International Council of Museums. We need to involve the countries of the sub-region in the inventory of our intangible heritage. It is a question of knowing to whom we will return what, how we will return it, who will coordinate between the countries of Africa.

Meanwhile, consultations have taken place at the level of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU), which should lead to a common position of African states in January 2023, adds Senegalese lawyer Ibrahima Kane, who is following this issue for the Open Society Initiative for West Africas project on restitution. The NGO had a fund of 15 million dollars for the project at the end of 2019. Again, the pandemic has slowed everything down, says Kane, and only five million has been spent so far to support the design of an action plan by ECOWAS and the AU; to help Benin City in Nigeria lobby the German authorities for restitution of its bronzes; organize conferences and try to mobilize civil society on the issue. What is still missing is an angle of attack, an African Union common position, says Kane.

De-Berlinizing restitution requests

These thefts were perpetrated during the colonial period, when the current states did not exist, he continues. The kingdom of Benin, for example, was a kingdom that extended from Nigeria to present-day Togo. If we are to make big demands for restitution, who should make them? At the African Union, he says, nothing is settled yet. Within the framework of a common position, we want to de-Berlinize this issue of restitution, we must organize ourselves among Africans. This is the leitmotiv at the heart of the debate on restitutions, a reference to the division of Africa between colonial powers, ratified at the Berlin Conference in 1885.

Senegal is not the only one to take a stand on the issue, Kane continues. Algeria has launched the idea of a great African museum. There is a pharaonic museum that Egypt is building. In South Africa, museum techniques are very advanced. But all this must be coordinated at the level of the African Union.

Cultural communities do not correspond with administrative boundaries, also notes Massamba Gueye, a teacher, researcher and adviser on culture and heritage for Senegals presidency. The position of President Sall is that everything must return, but that this issue should not lead to diplomatic breakdowns, he explains. This issue must be carried by the African Union because when colonization and slavery began, these countries did not exist. We must say what we want and we must not be the echo of the will of the West. So far, this is a weakness for Africa because it has not yet built a coherent discourse.

Gueye points to the lack of leadership of heads of state, who have not seized the window of opportunity opened by Macron. For as long as we have been talking about it, if the African Union took this matter seriously, we would have had a written and signed request on the table of the United Nations with clear deadlines and terms of reference. After the Ouagadougou speech, Africa did not provide the necessary response. Africa had the opportunity to demand clear, precise and fixed terms of reference. It is not yet too late but in a way yes, we missed the boat.
A Kenyan lawyer went on trial on Tuesday accused of bribing and intimidating witnesses in the failed International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Deputy President William Ruto.

Paul Gicheru led an egregious and damaging witness tampering scheme that made it impossible to pursue allegations against Ruto over post-election violence in Kenya in 2007-2008, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors allege that Gicheru paid bribes of up to one million Kenyan shillings ($9,200, 7,800 euros) and threatened the safety of ICC witnesses, one of them at gunpoint.

Gicheru denies the allegations. For the record, I plead not guilty, he told the Hague-based court.

ICC deputy prosecutor James Stewart said Gicherus trial was crucial to protect the integrity of the worlds only permanent war crimes tribunal, which was set up in 2002.

Those who would seek to undermine the courts ability to provide redress for victims of mass atrocities cannot be allowed to prevail, Stewart told judges.

Gicheru had managed and coordinated a scheme to identify, locate and corruptly influence witnesses throughout the ICC trial of Ruto and co-defendant Joshua Sang, which collapsed in 2016, he said.

This was done through a combination of bribery and intimidation, said Stewart.

Four vital prosecution witnesses had recanted their testimony as a result of Gicherus actions. Another two witnesses reported him to the ICC, Stewart said.

Prosecutors noted that of the individuals caught up in the witness tampering scheme, one witness had died and another had disappeared  although there were no allegations that Gicheru had been directly linked to their fate.

Prosecution lawyer Anton Steynberg said the wide ranging and concerted scheme involved witnesses being offered large sums of money not to testify to the ICC.

Gicheru had set up meetings and then paid bribes in installments of hundreds of thousands of shillings, he said.

One witness was told that they would now be safe after accepting the bribe, Steynberg said.

The ICC also launched a case against Rutos boss, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, over the post-electoral violence. That too collapsed, in 2014.

The disputed 2007 vote in Kenya fuelled tribal violence involving bows, arrows and machetes that left 1,100 people dead.

The ICCs new chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has recused himself from all Kenya cases as he was Rutos lawyer during his trial.
Frances top court on Tuesday confirmed that a probe should be closed into the shooting down of a presidential plane that triggered the 1994 Rwanda genocide, ending a two-decade legal saga.

The Court of Cassation rejected the appeal by families of people killed in the missile attack on president Juvenal Habyarimanas aircraft on April 6, 1994.

They had asked judges to reverse a lower courts decision to abandon the case against people close to current President Paul Kagame.

Relations between Paris and Kigali had long been strained by the probe and its associated arrest warrants.

The investigation was complete and sufficient charges did not exist against anyone for committing the alleged crimes, nor any other infraction, the Court of Cassation found.

The Falcon 50 plane was carrying Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira from a summit in Tanzania, where they had been discussing the crisis in the two countries and continuing negotiations with Kagame, then leader of the mostly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR).

Its downing is widely seen as the spark that ignited the genocide in which more than 800,000 people are believed to have died  most from the Tutsi minority at the hands of Hutus.

Rwandas representative at the UN said at the time that the plane was shot down by enemies of the peace, while the defence ministry said unidentified elements were responsible.

Relatives of the French flight crew turned to the courts in 1998.

French investigators long suspected that Kagames rebels fired on the flight as it landed in the Rwandan capital.

Later they chased up the theory that Hutu extremists unsatisfied with the moderate Habyarimana were behind the attack, with no more success.

But a French expert report found in 2012 that the plane was hit by missiles fired from a camp occupied by Habyarimanas own presidential guard.

Defending their dropping the case in December 2018, the investigating magistrates said there was a lack of indisputable material evidence, and this left the charges resting on witness accounts that were mostly contradictory or impossible to verify.

They also underlined the detrimental atmosphere around the case, including killings, disappearances of witnesses and manipulation of testimony.
Before they showcase their chemistry in their new legal drama "Big Mouse," Lee Jong Suk and SNSD's YoonA flaunt their visuals and perfect bod in new magazine pictorial together.

SNSD's YoonA and Lee Jong Suk Stun in New Pictorial

Elle Korea magazine tapped Lee Jong Suk and SNSD's YoonA for its March 2022 issue. Known for being certified head-turners, the two celebrities exuded strong charisma on their pictorial snaps for the fashion magazine.

The two celebrities are currently working together for their first drama team-up, "Big Mouse," also known as "Big Mouth."

In the photos uploaded by Elle Korea magazine, the lead actors donned themselves in Prada and Miu Miu, and proved their fashion icons status.

The "W" actor immediately went to film "Big Mouse" after he finished working on his upcoming action-adventure movies "Decibel" and "The Witch 2."

Meanwhile, the magazine released a chop of the interview with the Korean heartthrob.

When asked about his role as Park Chang Ho in "Big Mouse," Lee Jong Suk said he wanted to bring out a slightly different side of him, signaling a new transformation.

Elle Korea Releases Teaser of Lee Jong Suk and YoonA's Interview

Lim YoonA, who is set to mark her 15th debut anniversary, shared she feels the influence affects her performance, whether in acting or performing on stage as a Girls' Generation member. She added that many things happened to her in 2021 that made her grow as a person.

Lee Jong Suk and Lim YoonA have their charms when delivering their performances in dramas. They both show affection for acting. The male star was then asked what kind of accomplishments acting gives him, and he answered, "The sense of accomplishment comes from the fact that there are people who support me. The desire to repay them (fans) grows.

The "Hush" actress gave her sincere answer by saying, "The support I've received so far has changed me tremendously. After playing a role, I feel like I am accumulating another piece of data about humans in my head."

YoonA and Lee Jong Suk's full magazine interview can be found in the upcoming March issue of Elle.

"Big Mouse" is expected to air in the first half of 2022.

Are you excited for Lee Jong Suk and SNSD YoonA's drama team up? Share your comments with us!

For more Korean drama and and celebrity updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Shai Collins reported this.
Decorating the upcoming Harper's Bazaar March issue is none other than A-list actress Song Hye Kyo. In her interview, the "Hallyu Queen" comments on her new Netflix series "The Glory."

Song Hye Kyo to Dominate Netflix with Her First-Ever Revenge Drama 'The Glory'

A month after "Now, We Are Breaking Up" concluded, Song Hye Kyo is returning to the small screen with a new exciting series. She is expected to have a character transformation on her next drama "The Glory."

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN: Song Hye Kyo Kicks Off Filming of 'The Glory' + What We Know So Far About The Drama

In her exclusive interview with fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar, the "Full House" star expressed her feelings about Netflix's original series "The Glory," which already began filming last January.

According to her, "This work is my first revenge genre drama. Since my character will be different from my previous ones, I look forward to new expressions and emotions that will come out while acting."

Song Hye Kyo Grateful to Work with Supportive and Talented Team

The "Encounter" actress also didn't forget to mention the staff she works with. She said, "Fortunately, writer Kim Eun Sook is there, who has a strong command in writing the script and director Ahn Gil Ho whom I can trust and follow, so I am very dependent on him on set."

Song Hye Kyo added that it is a project that she couldn't just do alone. Having creative, talented and supportive colleagues around makes the work easier. The harmonious relationship she builds with her workmates is one of the valuable and important things that the actress appreciates the most.

Song Hye Kyo Gets Honest About Her Worries in Acting

Though she has been at the top for a long time, Song Hye Kyo gets real and expresses her sincere concerns about acting.

She explained, "'You can do well because you've always done it.' I have never entered work with this mindset. I've been acting for a long time now and still I get nervous every time I act in front of the camera."

The "Now, We Are Breaking Up" star continued by sharing her thoughts about her new drama role, "Not only am I getting old, but the character is also getting old like me. There must have been joys and sorrows as a new character will come to life. I think I need to express those emotions well. That's why I think acting is getting harder for me these days."

Aside from the interview, each photo contains different charms of Song Hye Kyo. She shows strength, delicacy, purity, and passion. The K-drama star emphasized the provocative charm in a smoky makeup and black suit, and pulled off a bold pose displaying her powerful aura.

Are you excited for Song Hye Kyo's first revenge drama "The Glory"? Share your comments with us!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Shai Collins reported this.
A proposal that was written by Sam Adams, the former mayor of Portland and now current aide to Mayor Ted Wheeler has sparked attention in how the city will confront the houseless issue.
Pauline Pelly, right, holds her daughter Ella during a public event at the Keeseekoose School Gymnasium at Keeseekoose First Nation on Tuesday Feb. 15, 2022. The event revealed that 54 potential graves have been found through ground-penetrating radar at the site of the former St. Philip's and Fort Pelly residential schools. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell
Protesters block traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, linking Windsor, Ontario and Detroit on Wednesday, February 9, 2022. The demonstration in solidarity with protests in Ottawa against COVID-19 restrictions blocked traffic into Canada on the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor and Detroit. It is the single busiest commercial crossing in North America. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne
SOMERS  Black History Month is recognizing the history and contributions African-Americans have made to society.

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 900 Wood Road, invites the public to join the university as it celebrates Black culture, engage in critical conversations and honor the legacies that prevail today. People can stay connected to the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs on Facebook and Instagram to learn about upcoming events including informative workshops, guest speakers and musical performances.

Guest speaker Calvin Brown Jr. was UW-Parksides guest speaker on Feb. 8 to help kick off Black History Month. Brown is the executive producer of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. His career includes writing and producing for shows like A Different World, Moesha, The Real Husbands of Hollywood and more.

Mosaic workshop

Hidden Stories, an in-depth mosaic workshop on the hidden stories of African American history, takes place from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14, in Molinaro L111. Participants will learn why hidden histories are problematic and what people can do to tell more inclusive stories.

Trivia Tuesday

A Black History Month Trivia Night is scheduled to be held from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Walnut Room of the Student Center. Participants will answer questions regarding pictures, quotes, and music from black cinematic films. Trivia winners will receive prizes.

Black Business Expo

A Black Business Expo to support black-owned businesses in the surrounding area is scheduled to be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21, on the bridge in the Student Center. Vendors will sell products varying from skincare items and hoodies to sweets.

MLK Celebration

The 23rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration honors the life and legacy of King. People who attend this noon concert on Friday, Feb. 25, in Bedford Hall will feature the University Chorale, Jazz Ensemble and other artists within the campus community. The celebration continues with a reception at 1 p.m.

Essence Ball

People can register for the fourth annual Essence Ball to be held from 5 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26, in the Student Center ballroom. This formal gathering consists of a keynote speaker providing dialogue that captures the essence of the Black Student Unions mission.

Exhibition

A Celebration Shrine exhibition can be seen through Feb. 25 in the Foundation Gallery in the Rita. This installation features community-sourced objects assembled to pay tribute to those whove fought for social justice, and those who inspire people to become better versions of themselves.

Book discussion

UW-Parksides faculty Joseph Benson and Doug Singsen will discuss their book, Bandits, Misfits, and Superheroes: Whiteness and Its Borderlands in American Comics and Graphic Novels. from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, in Bedford Concert Hall.

For more information about the schedule, go to uwp.edu.

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Nine months after Dane County residents could cast aside face masks indoors and six and a half months after being told to wear them again, theyll get another reprieve March 1, when the countys COVID-19 mask mandate will expire in light of decreasing case rates and hospitalizations, officials said Monday.

The decision by Public Health Madison and Dane County to lift the mask order comes after several Democratic governors moved last week to ease up on mask mandates even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it still recommended masks for students and staff inside school buildings.

Letting the face covering order expire doesnt mean that the pandemic is over. Rather, it signals that we have made it through the omicron surge and are entering a new stage of the pandemic, Janel Heinrich, director of the city-county health department, said in a statement that urged people to stay up to date on vaccines.

Tim LeMonds, spokesperson for the Madison School District, said Monday there are no immediate changes to the districts mask requirement or COVID-19 safety protocols. But, we are consulting with (the health department) and our medical advisory team on the issue this week, he said.

UW-Madison in January extended its mask requirement until March 1. We expect to be announcing a decision before the end of the month on what will happen after that, spokesperson Meredith McGlone said Monday.

In Dane County, the order requires people over age 2 to wear a mask in most enclosed spaces open to the public, except when all people within a space are vaccinated and for stage and musical performers if they follow a set of criteria.

The county first adopted a mask order in June 2020, following a statewide order that was eventually struck down by the state Supreme Court.

In early June 2021, when cases of COVID-19 declined dramatically after vaccines became widely available, the county lifted its order. In mid-August, when the delta variant of the coronavirus surged, the department reinstated the mask requirement.

As the delta wave declined, the health department said in early November the mandate would expire late that month. But with rising cases and holiday travel looming, the order was continued. Since the omicron variant emerged in December, the order has been extended again.

Asked Monday if the department might adopt a mask order again if COVID-19 conditions become worse, spokesperson Morgan Finke said: There are no additional orders planned at this time. I cannot speculate on future conditions.

The daily average of new COVID-19 cases in the county is at 340, down from a peak of 1,491 on Jan. 12, the department said Monday. The daily average of hospitalizations is at 110, down from a peak of 195 on Jan. 15. As of Sunday, the county had 87 patients in hospitals with COVID-19, including 17 in intensive care.

High case levels did not lead to hospitalization levels as high as they were before vaccines were readily available, the department said. Currently, an estimated 58% of Dane County residents are up to date on their vaccines, meaning a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters, when eligible. Some 82.2% of county residents had at least one dose as of last week, compared to 63.5% statewide.

Dane Countys public health order expiration does not affect the federal requirement for face coverings on public transportation, including public transit networks, airplanes, buses and school buses, trains, taxis and the ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft, the department said.

Public Health will continue case investigation efforts to prevent spread and strongly encourages everyone to stay home when sick and follow the latest isolation and quarantine guidance to prevent transmission, which can include masking recommendations.

The Democratic governors of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Oregon last week announced plans to lift mask requirements in public places or schools by the end of February or in March, according to The Associated Press. Massachusetts, led by a Republican, also joined the list. Other Republican-led states that had mask mandates long ago dropped the requirements.

But the CDC continues to recommend universal masking in K12 schools and day care centers. Last week, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Reuters that now is not the moment to drop mask mandates, given continued high case levels.

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Hopkinsville, KY (42240)

Today

Cloudy early, then thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 78F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

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Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 51F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Rep. Lynn Bechler, R-Marion, sponsored a measure that would give parents the right to opt their child from mask mandates at public schools. (LRC photo)
Ketchikan, AK (99901)

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Cloudy and windy at times with periods of rain. High 48F. SSE winds at 20 to 30 mph, decreasing to 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

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Occasional light rain. Low around 40F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
The new reality of medical conferences shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic requires a new language and a fundamental rethink to make these major showcases of medical organizations and societies a place where physicians and patients can share their experiences and perspectives.

We can no longer characterize medical conferences as  in the words of an old Jimmy Buffet tune  a Holiday Inn full of surgeons who meet there every year and exchange physician stories and get drunk on Tuborg beer.

That is the unavoidable conclusion from a webcast held earlier this week featuring Len Starnes, a Berlin-based digital health care consultant and close observer in medical conference trends. The webcast is part of a regular series hosted by Peter Llewellyn for MedComms Networking.

A year ago, Starnes presented to the same webinar series and outlined how the COVID-19 pandemic had caused most medical conferences to become virtual in nature. Then, he predicted all medical conferences hosted by associations or societies would be held virtually until at least the last quarter of 2021. In reality, few major medical conferences were in-person only in 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic, and this trend is now extending into 2022.

The new reality  which dominated much of the current webinar discussion  focused on the ascendance of hybrid medical conferences featuring a combination of in-person and virtual components. With physicians having discovered the benefits of virtual meetings and now wanting a choice in how they experience conferences, this approach that allows both synchronous and asynchronous learning is here to stay.

One of the major features of the new medical conference, said Starnes is that they now feature more opportunity for including patients and could be a radical breakthrough for patients and patient organizations.

Despite patients having had a presence on the agendas of some medical conferences for more than a decade and the formal Patients Included movement putting its stamp of approval of medical meetings since the mid-2010s, what we may be seeing now is a more fundamental shift.

Basically now, theres no more discussion about the value patients bring, said Starnes. It looks like we may be moving into a new area of patient participation.

Patients and patient organizations have told me it is important (to acknowledge) patients are not just there to listen; they are also there to present. They can present their experiences of being on a drug  or whatever it is and explain to doctors what it means for them. Patient organizations say its very important that doctors understand what theyre doing from a patient perspective.

Starnes was joined by Ilan Ben Ezri, CEO of G-Med, a social physician-only community with 1.5 million members from more than 160 countries in the webcast. A survey of 1206 physicians from countries conducted by G-Med in 2021 showed an even split between preferences for in-person, virtual or hybrid medical meetings. The preference for in-person meetings was greatest in the youngest (aged 20-40) group of physicians.

In discussing the future of medical conferences, Ben Ezri implied the drive for patient inclusion may get pushback from physicians who still want to discuss their study findings in a peer to peer environment.

However, Starnes noted there is a counter-view that excluding patients is not really appropriate. He cited a European Medicines Agency statement that input of real-world patient data is absolutely crucial. The opportunity to share perspectives in order to support the paradigm shift to shared-decision making is something health care cant avoid, he said.

Another fundamental challenge to the more active participation of patients at medical conferences is a regulatory one that in some cases restricts physicians from reporting data from new drug trials to audiences including non-physicians. However, Ben Ezri pointed out the fluid nature of the new hybrid medical conference could get around this by creating some sessions restricted only to physicians (although patient groups could well argue that it would be much more appropriate to change the regulations concerning reporting of pharmaceutical data).

Cost is another issue. Medical conferences saw attendance skyrocket early in the pandemic when there was no registration fee, and patients benefitted from this. But with medical societies facing the necessity of having to charge often hefty registration fees, many patients or patient organizations with no financial backers may once again be left in the cold.

And lets not forget equity and the reality that many patients who should be in the room at a conference to present their unique perspective may have neither the time nor capability to attend  although here again, the virtual option may present new opportunities.

Many questions indeed, but those witnessing the dominant social media participation of the Creaky Joints arthritis patient community at last falls American College of Rheumatology meeting or IBD Moms at last months Crohns and Colitis Congress are showing how this new future for medical conferences should look.

Pat Rich is a digital writer and can be reached on Days of Past Futures and on Twitter @pat_health.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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High functioning depression (or HFD) is the mental health diagnosis given to an individual who exhibits symptoms of high-level depression but manages to maintain overall functionality in life. An HFD person will often engage in activities that would be considered normal and healthy for a typical person, maintaining a job and even social relationships (though they may not appear as close and involved as typically expected). However, they might find it challenging to take care of themselves or participate in their mental well-being treatment, leading to worsening mental health. Because those with HFD feel less empowered than those without mental illness, they may also be more likely than other groups to come up short on self-care, such as enough rest, following medical advice regarding their mental health.

One of the most common signs that a person is depressed isnt sadness or even feeling down. Instead, its anger and irritability. Its impatient with everything from traffic to slow computers and or snapping at family members who dont deserve it. However, in high functioning depression  where people continue to function well in their lives despite feeling terrible inside  goes unrecognized mainly because patients arent complaining about feeling depressed and often continue to work or go about the activities they usually do without complaining appearing sad.

A patient can look like theyre on top of the world  theyre successful, productive, on top of their game  but be struggling with this profound sense of emotional exhaustion. Recently, in the news, we heard about the tragic, untimely suicide of Cheslie Kryst, a model, attorney, a tv host who, from the surface, appeared to have it all. Yet, she suffered from mental health challenges and sadly took her own life.

Mental health is a hot topic and one that has been appearing more frequently in the news because of increasing reports of mental attacks such as school shootings. Yet many people who have mental illness go without getting treatment for issues such as depression, and they are not the stereotypical patient. Depression can be a very secretive disorder, like cancer, is initially often evades the detection of the patient. Depression, like cancer, often goes undetected in a patient until it has advanced into an untreatable stage. In mental disorders, it is not always easy to spot when someone is suffering unless they express how they are feeling.

The suicides of seemingly successful and happy people highlight the insidious, sometimes sleuth depression hides. People still stereotype depressed individuals are being disheveled, tired-looking individuals with socioeconomic status. However, mental disorders do not discriminate, and anyone can have a mental illness. Their high functioning capabilities are how they mask mental illness.

Its believed nearly 80 percent of suicide victims had depression or another mental health issue such as clinical anxiety, and these issues go undiagnosed and untreated.

High-functioning depression is a mental disorder that is not usually recognized by the person who has it, even though they suffer significantly from mental anguish. The inner emotional state of people with high-functioning depression is often chaotic. Sometimes it leads to substance abuse or pathological gambling addictions, which are ways of escaping from their mental illness for a little while.

People suffering from high-functioning depression might not recognize they have any mental issues. When they look in the mirror or at a photograph of themselves, these individuals will see someone else looking back at them. They feel they appear fine, but internally their feelings tell differently.

As health care professionals, its essential that screening for depression be frequent, regardless of age, as we see depression in teenagers, as well as adults. People who suffer from high-functioning depression deserve our sympathy and support. Sadly, some in society might not react most compassionately. For example, after the death of Cheslie Kryst, I read hundreds of comments on various social media platforms in response to her death. There were many supportive comments on the post. However, some of the analyses showed pervasive ignorance regarding mental health.

February is Black History Month, so I will take the time to tie in mental health concerns in the African American community. I am not sure if mental illness is more challenging to diagnose in the black community because mental health services are not readily available or some social stigma attached to mental illnesses. Or, it could be a combination of both reasons. In my opinion, mental health services should be readily available and accessible for individuals to navigate.

Also, perhaps mental health clinics are grouped as such, which might cause individuals to be resistant to go to the mental health clinic for obvious privacy concerns. For example, maybe mental health clinics can do something about the confidentiality issue and reevaluate how the clinics are set up. Suicide is a genuine concern with depressed individuals, and depression does not discriminate if you are a doctor, a lawyer, or a busy professional.

If this message strikes a chord, please reach out. I have practiced medicine for over a decade, and I have firsthand seen those showing signs of clinical depression fall through the cracks. Please take care. Know that your life matters and you are loved.

Tomi Mitchell is a family physician and founder, Dr. Tomi Mitchell Holistic Wellness Strategies. She can be reached on Twitter @DrTomiMitchell, Facebook, Pinterest, and Clubhouse.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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GOAL and AIB have thanked the thousands of people in Kilkenny who took part in the GOAL Mile over the Christmas period, with over 400,000 being donated to the humanitarian aid agency at fundraising events in Ireland and abroad.

The Christmas tradition of running, jogging or walking a Mile in support of GOALs work has taken place since the 1980s. With the support of AIB for the first time, this was the biggest event yet. Funds raised at annual nationwide and international events support the agencys emergency response and humanitarian work in 14 countries in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

A GOAL Mile was organised in Thomastown, with runners of all ages taking part. GOALs Chief Executive Officer, Siobhan Walsh, has thanked participants and highlights how the GOAL Mile is essential to GOALs mission to fight poverty.

This years GOAL Mile has been truly exceptional. It was inspiring to see how eager people were, not just to support GOALs work, but to get out and re-connect with each other. We want to thank everyone for organising, helping out and turning up to their local GOAL Mile this Christmas. There were events in 28 counties across Ireland, as well as GOAL Miles on every continent around the globe. By showing up and donating, you have made a difference in someones life.

"While normality is closer to being restored here in Ireland, the impact of Covid-19 in the global south is still profound. The support of thousands of people for the GOAL Mile helps us continue to work with vulnerable communities, to enable them to weather the impact of shocks like Covid, conflict and climate change.

AIB Chief Executive Colin Hunt said We are thrilled to have been able to help make the GOAL Mile the biggest one yet and are looking forward to working with GOAL in 2022. Communities in Ireland stepped up to join us in supporting GOALs work to transform the lives of the some of the worlds most vulnerable people. On behalf of AIB, Id like to extend a big thank you, and well done to all who took part.

Ms Walsh is already looking towards the 2022 GOAL Mile with AIB, which she says will be a landmark event.

A very special word of thanks to all our friends at AIB, whose incredible support and commitment helped make this a GOAL Mile to remember and the biggest one yet. The results speak for themselves and demonstrate the power of partnership. We already look forward to working with Colin and his colleagues for the 2022 event which will be the 40th anniversary of the GOAL mile."

GOAL invites all who took part in the GOAL Mile to stay engaged throughout the year, to see the impact of their support across the globe.
Pedestrians hurt in Rochester after car goes on sidewalk due to slick roads
Jasper, TX (75951)

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...The National Weather Service in St Louis MO has issued a Flood Warning for the following rivers in Missouri... Hinkson Creek at Columbia. River forecasts are based on observed precipitation and forecast precipitation for the next 24 hours. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Motorists should not attempt to drive around barricades or drive cars through flooded areas. This product, along with additional weather and stream information, is available at https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=lsx. && ...FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM THIS MORNING TO EARLY TOMORROW AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Hinkson Creek at Columbia. * WHEN...From this morning to early tomorrow afternoon. * IMPACTS...At 16.0 feet, Right bank 50 feet downstream of the old Providence Road bridge begins to flood. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 6:00 AM CDT Tuesday the stage was 16.1 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to crest near 16.1 feet and fall below flood stage this morning. It will continue falling to 5.4 feet tomorrow evening. - Flood stage is 15.0 feet. && Fld Observed Forecasts (6 am CDT) Location Stg Stg 6 am Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Hinkson Creek Columbia 15.0 16.1 5.4 MSG MSG MSG MSG &&
JEFFERSON CITY  Five months after a federal report found that Missouris Department of Social Services (DSS) is not adequately protecting its foster care children, the department and its acting director are trying to mend deep-rooted technological and personnel-related cracks and restore public confidence.

After the report was published in September, lawmakers quickly focused their criticism on a technological shortcoming in the departments case management system known as FACES. The system makes it so that the department cannot distinguish between foster kids who are in an unapproved, but known, placement and foster kids who are truly missing.

If we know kids are in a safe place  for example, with their aunt, who may not be an approved placement, but is a safe place  we dont need to put as many resources into finding that child as we do if we dont know where that child is, Rep. Sarah Unsicker (D-Shrewsbury) said.

Technological Woes

Unsicker said that DSS made a request to update its FACES system in 2019 and that the project was estimated to cost about $90,000.

However, a couple of budget cycles have since passed, and the department has not yet made the change.

According to state budget records, in fiscal year 2020, there was about $2 million left unspent in the Field Staff and Operations Budget of the Childrens Division, the division of DSS that oversees child welfare services in the state.

Im not sure whether that couldve been used for the computer systems change, but that was money they decided not to spend, Unsicker told Target 8.

During at least two public hearings toward the end of last year, Democrats and Republicans expressed their dismay that the problem had not yet been fixed.

And you know they kept blaming like, Oh, we dont have funding, Rep. Dottie Bailey (R-Eureka) told Target 8. Well, we gave them funding, and you know, that question  that part of the funding  should be taken care of.

Late last month, DSS Acting Director Robert Knodell told Target 8 that his department has asked the Office of Administration to address this issue and that it is working on a solution.

He also noted that the department and Gov. Mike Parson have been working together on a $40 million plan to overhaul the entire FACES system.

If that money is appropriated, well be able to purchase an entirely new system that will be modular, that will allow our case workers in the field to be able to interact and interface with those systems. It will reduce paperwork burdens and give us more accurate  more reliable  information on a more timely basis, Knodell said.

Unsicker said the smaller $90,000 fix to the FACES system should happen sooner rather than later.

If the case worker changes, then if somebody knows where the child is, but then they leave, the next person might not know where that child is, unless its documented in the case file, Unsicker said.

Staff Turnover

Staff turnover remains a major thorn in the departments side.

Last year, the consulting firm Accenture examined the DSS organizational structure and overall health. Target 8 obtained a copy of that report through a public records request.

The average frontline staff member in the Childrens Division stays in their role only about six months to a year, according to the report.

Theres no reason to stay, Bailey said. You know, McDonalds is maybe paying more. I mean literally thats how low theyre paid, and its a travesty.

Acting Director Knodell, who assumed that role in October, said he has been working with the governor on a beefed up compensation plan for department workers.

It circles back to our compensation, Knodell told Target 8. We have, you know, obviously been a very loud voice in support and advocating for the governors pay plan . . . and now were working very aggressively with the General Assembly.

He said he is also looking into other approaches to ease the burden on case workers.

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We have piloted some unique approaches that involve the utilization of case aides that perhaps do not have to have the education level of a case worker but are able to assist them to ease the case loads that are made more difficult as we see, you know, more incidents and more cases, Knodell said.

Additionally, the Accenture report found that the workload is not evenly distributed, nor is all work captured in the FACES system of record to adequately assess workload or time.

As of August 2021, 56% of supervisors were carrying cases, while 16% of staff with case carrying titles were not carrying cases at all, according to the report.

Within the group of employees who have case carrying titles, there also seems to be a mismatch. The report found that, as staff are promoted, the culture/practice is that [t]hey have fewer cases and/or they can choose the type of cases they work.

Were working . . . circuit by circuit to try to address those issues, Knodell said. We understand that most of these cases are very difficult, but my objective is to have experienced personnel working the most challenging or the most labor-intensive cases that we have.

Trafficking Assessment Tool

The federal report also found that, of the dozens of cases studied, the majority of files did not show evidence that children received a screening to identify victims of sex trafficking upon those childrens return to state custody.

In August of last year, the department released its Human Trafficking Assessment Tool, a nine-page document to be used by department employees to assess whether a child who had been missing had been a victim of trafficking.

The tool must be completed and documented within the FACES system within 24 hours of a child being returned to Missouris custody after being missing, on the run or abducted, according to a memo sent to Childrens Division staff in August. Previously, no such protocols existed.

Many states have been in the same position, and we kind of all move forward at different rates and levels of awareness, but it speaks to our own states lack of awareness, said Nanette Ward, a founding member and current board member of the Stop Human Trafficking Coalition of Central Missouri.

Ward, who regularly works with survivors of trafficking, said the tool is a step in the right direction, especially since foster children face different risks than children not in foster care.

Theyre targeted, Ward said. Bad things will happen because theyre targeted by perpetrators . . . [who are] taking advantage of them being homeless and without shelter or needing food or not being able to make good decisions for themselves.

Interactions with Law Enforcement

Then there were the findings in the federal report that dealt with local law enforcement agencies.

According to the report, Nearly half of the case files contained no evidence of Missouri reporting the children as missing, as required, to either local law enforcement or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

In a written response to the report, Jennifer Tidball, the former acting director of the department, wrote that the Childrens Division historically had trouble convincing some local law enforcement agencies to accept reports that children and youth in care were missing, particularly for children and youth 17 years and older.

Under current Missouri law, a missing child is defined as someone who is under the age of 17 who is not accounted for. There is a push this legislative session to expand that definition of a missing child to include any child under the age of 18 or any child in the foster care system whose whereabouts are unknown.

I think there are some police departments where, if a child is 17, they say, Well its not a missing child because hes 17 years old, and they wont take the report, Unsicker said.

Callaway County Sheriff Clay Chism told Target 8 that he was a little saddened to hear about maybe some of these reports not being taken but that it was not a problem in Callaway County.

He also said that in November 2020  almost a year before the federal report came out  his department changed its policy to transfer the responsibility of missing children cases from its deputies to detectives within the criminal investigations unit.

Were not looking at it as just a runaway kid anymore, Chism said. Were looking at it like, Okay, they may have ran away on their own, and they may have ran on their own free will, but now what are they going to get lured into thats going to lead to, you know, just a horrific situation?

Back at the department, Knodell said that his staff has great partnerships with law enforcement officers in the vast majority of the state.

The issues that weve encountered with law enforcement since Ive been here have been relatively minor, Knodell said.

On Tuesday after the Olympics, hear more about what the state has done so far in taking accountability for the identified foster care failures and whats being done to make sure they never happen again.

Read and watch the first installment of KOMU 8's Forgotten in Foster Care series here.


RCEP results in de facto FTA with Japan, opens doors with ASEAN wider



By Yi Whan-woo



It took almost 10 years for the world's largest trade pact  the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)  to take effect in Korea, Feb. 1, after the country under the then-incumbent Lee Myung-bak administration began to consider joining a multinational trade bloc led by either the United States or China, or both.



The global trading environment has changed so much since then, with the COVID-19 crisis, deepening U.S.-China conflict, disrupted supply chains, China's steep economic slowdown, lingering Trumpism and other risks that were unforeseeable in the past decade. All of these factors leave people questioning whether Korea can benefit from the RCEP as intended originally.



The question additionally sums up risks associated with China and Japan, both participating countries of the 15-member RCEP that each have weaponized trade against Korea over bilateral diplomatic conflicts in recent years.



Plus, India decided to stay out of the RCEP after taking into account its trade deficit with the founding member nations, therefore downscaling the possible impact the economic giant could have had on the trading bloc.





President Moon Jae-in waves to leaders of member states of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), as Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee stands next to him during the signing of the 15-member RCEP at a virtual meeting in Cheong Wa Dae on Nov. 15, 2020. Korea Times file



"Under the given circumstances, I'd say all these risks make RCEP more important than when it was first discussed, and that it can bring new opportunities for Korea's export-driven economy," Kim Soo-dong, a research fellow at the Trade Policy Division of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET) told The Korea Times.



He said the aforementioned risks are related to protectionism and isolationism in general and they can be tackled through multilateralism embraced by RCEP from its early stage.



"The RCEP is especially on the same page as Korea, which has adopted an open-door policy," the KIET researcher said.



Kim Bong-man, head of the International Affairs Division at the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), said the RCEP can especially work as a "safety lock" against supply chain bottlenecks in the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.



"The RCEP will broaden our horizons in overseas markets, and will accordingly leave us more options to choose from in terms of supply," he said.



He emphasized that the 15 RCEP member nations, including 10 ASEAN states plus Australia and New Zealand, collectively account for 29.6 percent of the world population with 2.25 billion people. Their combined GDP of $26.1 trillion accounts for 28.4 percent of the global GDP and their combined trade volume of $10.5 trillion accounts for 27.9 percent.



The figures of the RCEP led by China are higher than those of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), another mega-sized multilateral trade bloc renamed from U.S.-led TPP after was TPP was thrown into limbo during the Donald Trump administration



Korea is not a member of CPTPP, which took effect in 2018, though it is currently in talks with involved parties to join.



Korea had already signed separate free trade agreements (FTAs) on bilateral or multilateral levels with all RCEP members except for Japan. And with the RCEP, Korea will see tariffs lowered over the next 20 years by up to 94 percent in trade with ASEAN, 91 percent for China, Australia and New Zealand and 83 percent for Japan.



The ultimate goal of non-tariff barriers to trade will be largely made possible through the common rule of origin, a set of criteria to determine which products should be eligible for duty free or preferential treatment. The rule of origin can then facilitate supply chain management.



"You can see how the rules of origin will be simplified under the RCEP, and this will be effective for the member states to hedge against supply chain risks that are not likely to let up for the time being," the FKI economist said.





President Park Geun-hye, second from left, and leaders from China, Japan and Malaysia link arms to symbolize their joint efforts to speed up talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2015. Korea Times file
By Dan Benbow



To win in 2024, the Republican presidential candidate must recapture three of the five states that flipped from Donald Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020. With this goal in mind, GOP legislatures in these states have muscled through dozens of voter suppression bills on party-line votes.



Georgia's "Election Integrity Act of 2021" (SB 202), which Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last year, bans public officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballots, reduces the window of time allowed to request or return absentee ballots, and increases ID requirements for absentee ballots. It also limits the number of absentee-ballot drop boxes and the hours drop boxes are available.



These changes will disproportionately harm Democrats in a state where Biden received 65 percent of the absentee vote. The omnibus bill will have an especially adverse effect on Black and Latinx voters, who wait around 45 percent longer to vote in person and have faced notoriously long lines in Georgia.



Arizona's legislature passed SB 1485, which purges infrequent voters from the early voting list, and SB 1003, which limits the amount of time voters have to fix unsigned absentee ballots. If Arizona Republicans expand their majorities in the midterms, they might be able to pass other voter suppression laws, including HB 2793, which prohibits automatic voter registration.



Taken together, these bills could tip the balance in a state Biden won by only 10,543 votes, where nearly 90 percent voted by mail in 2020 and 75 percent are registered on permanent early voting lists.



Similar legislation has been proposed in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania  states with Republican legislatures and Democratic governors up for re-election this fall.



Michigan's Republican-led legislature is trying to slip absentee ballot restrictions and voter ID laws past Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Using an obscure provision in the state Constitution, Republicans are attempting to gather 340,000 signatures  less than 10 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial race  for the "Secure MI Vote" initiative.



If 340,000 signatures are collected in a six-month span, Republicans will pass the bill into law while avoiding Whitmer's veto pen. If they fail to get the signatures needed but Whitmer loses her re-election bid, a new Republican governor could rubber-stamp any of several dozen voter suppression bills drawn up by Republican legislators.



Joe Biden won Wisconsin by just 20,000 votes out of more than 3 million cast. If Democratic Gov. Tony Evers loses his re-election bid this fall, the GOP legislature has voter suppression legislation ready that would harm disabled Wisconsinites and make it very challenging for a Democratic presidential candidate to win the state.



Even if Whitmer and Evers win, the GOP could cement control in Pennsylvania, where the Republican legislature passed House Bill 1300. The "Voting Rights Protection Act" toughens voter ID requirements, reduces the window of time to register to vote and request absentee ballots, and limits the use of absentee ballot drop boxes. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed the bill; his Republican opponent in 2022 would likely sign it into law.



Given the polarized and closely divided nature of the U.S. electorate, a voter suppression boost in these swing states could give the Republican presidential candidate a virtual lock on the electoral college in 2024.



Optimists believed that the 2020 election proved the system works, as Republican judges and state officials followed the rule of law despite Trump's attempts to overturn the election results.



In 2021, the ranks of Republicans willing to oppose undemocratic power grabs were shown to be smaller than expected.



The 2022 midterms could determine whether U.S. democracy stays on life support or flatlines.





Dan Benbow is a features writer whose work has appeared at Salon, Truthout, RawStory, AlterNet, and BuzzFlash. This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives and distributed by Tribune News Service.


Butler, IN (46721)

Today

Rain this morning with thunderstorms developing for the afternoon. High near 65F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch..

Tonight

Rain showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low 46F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Rain this morning with thunderstorms by evening. High 64F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Rain showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low around 45F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Garrett, IN (46738)

Today

Rain this morning with thunderstorms developing for the afternoon. High around 65F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low 46F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Rain this morning with thunderstorms by evening. High 62F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low near 45F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
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INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizers of AOTMP Engage 2022 announced today that Sakon has become the premier sponsor of the event taking place April 24  27 at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld.

"We are excited to connect with others in the mobility & IT space " says Dan Hughes , Sakon President .

The annual flagship conference for the telecom, mobility & IT management industry is now in its 16th year. Industry professionals will convene to share success stories with peers, learn from industry experts, and review the latest telecom, mobility & IT management trends. This event is filled with three full days of roundtables, speakers, and educational sessions and is capped off with the annual AOTMP industry awards presentation for business operations individuals and teams.

" Sakon is thrilled to be attending AOTMP Engage 2022! We are excited to connect with others in the mobility & IT space to discuss what 2022 has in store for the industry, as well as how we can optimize our solutions to meet the evolving needs of our clients" says Dan Hughes, Sakon President.

Timothy C. Colwell, AOTMP Executive Vice President, says, "AOTMP Engage is the place where industry experts come together in one place at one time to share what they know and to learn from thought leaders and industry trailblazers like Sakon."

About Sakon

Sakon helps enterprise clients in a wide range of industries control telecom spend and manage end-user devices more efficiently. The company's Telecom Expense Management, Managed Mobility Services and Cloud Expense Management solutions reduce operational costs, increase insights and optimize financial performance through a platform that connects organizations with suppliers globally, automates workflows and optimizes services. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts, Sakon has over 900 employees with offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, Singapore and India. For more information, go to www.sakon.com.

About AOTMP

AOTMP, the Association of Telecom, Mobility, and IT Management Professionals, is a professional organization for individuals and teams that support and advance a $4.3 trillion global industry. AOTMP delivers value to all members and non-members through training, certifications, events, publications, industry standards, memberships, recruiting, and personal branding.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sakon-announced-as-premier-sponsor-at-aotmp-engage-2022-301481049.html

SOURCE AOTMP
No bones about it  Indiana is going to have a state fossil.

The Senate voted 39-6 on Monday to approve House Enrolled Act 1013, designating the mastodon as Indiana's official fossil.

The legislation last month passed the House, 92-0. It now goes to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to be signed into law.

The mastodon is an elephant-like animal that weighed approximately 12,000 pounds and roamed North America, Europe and Asia for more than two million years before going extinct about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago.

Dozens of mastodon fossils have been found throughout Indiana, including the bones of at least five mastodons now held by the Indiana State Museum that were found in 2005 by workers digging a pond in the Porter County town of Hebron.

Supporters of the measure said that designating the mastodon the official state fossil will encourage Indiana schoolchildren to learn more about the beasts that once walked where they walk and may even be resting right under their feet.

It also could spur museums across the state to display more mastodon bones and to sell T-shirts and other souvenirs touting the mastodon as Indiana's official fossil.

Indiana currently is among just five states lacking an official fossil.

Michigan is the only other state to have the mastodon as its state fossil. Five states, including Nebraska, have designated the similar mammoth, or wooly mammoth, as their state fossil.

The state fossil of Illinois is the Tully monster, a small worm-like creature with up to eight sharp teeth that lived some 300 million years ago in muddy waters in what today is part of Grundy County, Illinois.

Three of the senators who voted against recognizing the mastodon hail from Northwest Indiana: State Sens. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores; Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell; and Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago.

They did not say during Senate debate why they opposed the state fossil proposal.
Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

Rain. Thunderstorms possible...mainly in the afternoon. High near 65F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. Low 46F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Former EXO member Tao held a live stream where he allegedly dissed Kris Wu. Keep on reading for all the details.

Former EXO Tao Disses Kris Wu in Recent Live Stream

Former EXO member Tao (Huang Zitao) has been embroiled in dating rumors with Xu Yiyang, an artist signed under his label for the past few days. On February 12, an internet user shared a photo of Huang Zitao and Xu Yiyang posing intimately on the side of the road, with Xu Yiyang leaning on the wall and Tao in front of her.

It was then discovered that at the time, both artists participated in a TV program for iQiyi. Internet users were able to uncover the exact photo of Huang Zitao and his rumored girlfriend, wearing the same images from the original photo.

Huang Zitao quickly held a live stream to address the concerns of his fans. He vehemently denied the dating rumors between him and Xu Yiyang. As he spoke about why the photo of him and the female star was his profile photo in an online messaging application, he explained that it was because he thought the picture was beautiful.

ALSO READ: Huang Zitao Draws Flak for Mentioning EXO During a Livestream

Huang Zitao also expressed regret for hurting Xu Yiyang.

During the live stream, Huang Zitao is seen getting heated, saying, "I do not feel the need to explain myself. I am not a criminal, and I am not going to be jailed." The idol is also heard saying, "Does the person in prison not sleep well?"

Internet users believe these statements are a jab at Kris Wu, his former co-member in EXO. Currently, Kris Wu is in custody on suspicion of raping women  some being underage  administering drugs, sex trafficking, and more. The Chinese star is currently in the Beijing Chaoyang Detention Center.

This is not the first Huang Zitao has shaded Kris Wu. When Kris first left EXO, Huang Zitao took to Instagram and Weibo to call out Kris for leaving the group, framing his departure as a betrayal since the group was preparing for their concert. In addition, Kris allegedly never spoke to the other EXO members about his withdrawal from the group.

What do you think of the situation? Tell us in the comments below!

Kris Wu in Custody + Most Likely Sentence

Kris Wu is currently being detained in the Beijing Chaoyang Detention Center. He has been there since July 31, 2021, meaning he has remained there for nearly seven months. Though he was formally arrested on August 16, 2021, the case is still ongoing.

ALSO READ: Alleged Video of Former EXO Kris Handcuffed During Visit to Hospital Surfaces

If found guilty of the charges against him, Kris Wu will live behind bard for 17 years. Kris Wu's lawyer stated that if the investigation continues without a hitch, the Chinese rapper will most likely receive his final sentence in March 2022.

Until then, Kris Wu will not appear in public. Instead, he will remain in police custody.

What do you think of the situation? Tell us in the comments below!

For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns This

Written by Alexa Lewis
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Weather Alert

Motorists should expect hazardous travel conditions this morning with snowfall accumulations of a trace to two inches. Plan for slippery road conditions that could impact the morning commute. Reports of 1 to 2 inches have been observed along ID-26 between Gooding and Shoshone. Marginal road surface temperatures between 32 and 40 degrees may limit roadway accumulations. Slow down and use caution while traveling in areas of snow and low visibility, allowing for extra time to reach your destination. The latest road conditions can be obtained by calling 5 1 1 or by heading to 511.idaho.gov.
Homestead, FL (33030)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the morning giving way to a few showers late. Thunder possible. High 86F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
FILE PHOTO - Actor Alec Baldwin in costume on the movie set of "Rust." The family of late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins is suing Alec Baldwin and the movie producers of "Rust" for wrongful death, the attorneys said Tuesday.
There are, however, at least two other areas of unforeseen consequence of NATO enlargement, both of which relate to the internal comity of the alliance itself.

by David C. Speedie

The backdrop to the current crisis over Ukrainereal, imagined or exaggeratedis the snarling confrontation of NATO and Russian forces in a sweeping arc from the Baltic to Black Seas. This standoff in turn is attributable to the expansion of NATO to Russias borders, beginning in 1999 with the inclusion of the Visegrad countries: Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

In addition to the military/security concerns of NATO forces on its doorstep, the reasons for Russian neuralgia at this enlargement of a military alliance forged in a Cold War no longer extant are well known: reneging by the West on what was at very least a handshake agreement that NATO would not expand one inch to the east, in exchange for Russias acquiescence to German unification; refusal to take seriously Russias proposals for a new post-Cold War European security architecture that would include Russia and its erstwhile adversaries; refusal also to consider NATO membership for Russia; and, underlying all this, a barely disguised, U.S.-orchestrated triumphalism in a decade of the 90s of Russia in extremis [an attitude that in the current environment is proven to be myopically ill-advised].

There are, however, at least two other areas of unforeseen consequence of NATO enlargement, both of which relate to the internal comity of the alliance itself. First, one of the rationales offered for expansion was that NATO would bring to the New Europe [as Dick Cheney dubbed it] not just a military security blanket but the gift of democratic governance and rule of law enjoyed in the west. [Some of us argued at the time that if this was to be the reward for Warsaw Pact states that had suffered under the communist yoke, who had suffered more over the past eighty years than the people of Russia?] If, however, we look at todays Poland, Hungary or Slovenia, we see concerted, disturbing attacks on an independent media and judiciary. This is, of course, primarily an EU, not NATO issuethe ruling Law and Justice Party in Poland has challenged central aspects of EU laws and regulations to which it willingly signed onbut again, an embrace of and adherence to western-style democracy was inherent in the justification of NATO expansion.

Second, and perhaps more to the point in terms of NATOs core raison detre, there is significant division within the 30 members over the situation in Ukraine, and over relations with Russia. One the one hand there are the Baltic states, Poland and Romania, hard liners all, willingly absorbing more NATO materiel and boots on ground [there was a major infusion of U.S. troops to southeast Poland this week] and, in the cases of Poland and Romania, sites of the missile defense systems that are of greatest concern to Moscow. On the other is Germany and France, the former with a major economic stake in the final disposition of the Nordstream 2 pipeline. France leads the push for diplomacy on Ukraine, and President Macron returned from meetings with President Putin bearing assurances of Russias continuing wish for a diplomatic solution for Ukraine; it is doubtful whether these would have been favorably received in Warsaw and Bucharest. There are also tensions within the new European states themselves, with Hungarys Premier Orbans flirtations with both Russia and China.

Finally, there is the strange case of The United States most resolute anti-Russian ally, the United Kingdomstill a member of NATO, but cut adrift from the EU. Whether the self-inflicted wounds from Brexit, notably in UK relations with France, will have any negative knock-on impact on intra-NATO relations, we do not know, but what we do know is the recent visit by UK foreign minister Liz Truss for talks with her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, went pretty disastrously: the kindest words the canny and seasoned Lavrov had to describe them were that the British delegation arrived unprepared [we should also note that if Boris Johnson is toppled by the Partygate scandal, the current favorite to succeed him as prime minister isMs. Truss.]

In sum, on Russia in general and Russia-Ukraine in particular, Europe is all over the place. My colleague Anatol Lieven has suggested that Macron could resolve Ukraine simply by saying that, for France, NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia is a non-starter. This offers the prospect of a neutral Ukraine beholden to no great power military bloc, and in a position to enjoy mutually beneficial relations with both East and West. And to say that this action on Frances part would divide Europe is merely to restate what is already obvious.

Author Bio: David C. Speedie, a board member of ACURA, was formerly senior fellow and director of the program on U.S. Global Engagement at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Prior to this, he chaired the Program on International Peace and Security at Carnegie Corporation.This article was produced by Globetrotter in partnership with the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord.

Source: Globetrotter
Are you planning to attend NH Pumpkin Festival this year? If not, what would make you attend?
MILLER COUNTY, Mo.  An Iberia, Mo. man is facing four felony charges after authorities say he had sex with a 13-year-old girl and exchanged nude photos with another.

It started on Snapchat. Thats according to a probable cause document for the charges, which were filed in January and early February. Authorities say during an investigation into a possible statutory rape, a Miller County deputy spoke with a 13-year-old girl who told him she had sex with 22-year-old Lucas Ellis, also known as Luke Rowden. The deputy then ended the interview and scheduled a forensic interview at Kids Harbor Child Advocacy Center. There, the girl explained Ellis had initially contacted her on Snapchat. He asked her for nude photos, which she says she sent, and then he sent her nude photos of himself, she told investigators.

She said the first time they hung out in person, Ellis took her to the park in Brumley, where they had sex in the back of his car, according to the document. The girl said she continued to spend time with Ellis, and he wanted sex every time she saw him, according to the document, threatening to kill himself or someone else if she ever stopped talking to him.

A search of the girls phone revealed sexual videos of the two together, authorities say.

While that investigation was ongoing, authorities made contact with another young teen girl who said she had met Ellis and was obsessed with him. She told authorities she and Ellis had exchanged nude photos, and that she knew he had a sexual relationship with another teen girl.

Ellis is facing the following charges:

-1st Degree Statutory Sodomy

-1st Degree Statutory Rape

-Sexual Misconduct Involving a Child Under 15

-Enticing/Attempting To Entice a Child Under 15

He is being held in Miller County Jail on $200,000 bond.
After working seven years as cooks in restaurants, Lake Geneva residents opened their first Mexican-American restaurant on Feb. 14 in Williams Bay.

The newly opened restaurant, Bay Cooks, offers breakfast, lunch and dinner options.

The restaurant is owned by Juan and Antonia Basurto of Lake Geneva and Mchenry, IL resident, Leoncio Agaton.

The charm of the town and the nice people made it an easy choice for the owners to select Williams Bay as their location, Juan said.

We want to offer something new to the area and hopefully people enjoy it, said Juan.

Bay Cooks offers a variety of food options. Visitors can choose from authentic Mexican food, breakfast entrees, burgers, wings and even fish fry.

Opening this restaurant is our dream. Since we moved to Wisconsin weve worked in restaurants and our dream was to open a breakfast place but we had the opportunity to offer more options for Williams Bay, said Antonia.

A specialty breakfast item the business is excited to serve are their Swedish pancakes.

The couple used to work at Scuttlebutts, what is now Oakfire, in Lake Geneva. They were inspired by the Swedish pancakes that were served there and now offer them to locals who have expressed they missed them, Antonia added.

They had great feedback from some of their customers.

It was wonderful. I had Swedish pancakes and my husband had eggs and sausage. They were very good, said Williams Bay resident Linda Overbeek. Id like to try it for lunch.

It took the owners roughly four months to get everything up and running. They even secured their liquor license on Feb. 7 and are in the process of putting together their bar.

Wisconsin law states that every municipality can have one liquor license per 400-450 people. Because of the recent increase in population, the village was able to obtain another liquor license and award Bay Cooks their license.

The bar will offer micheladas, margaritas, pina coladas and more. They also plan to offer catering in the near future.

Give us a chance and come try our food, our doors are open to everyone, said Juan.

For Easter and Mothers Day the restaurant will have a buffet set up.

Bay Cooks is located between Privato and Dip in the Bay on Walworth Avenue.

Its located where La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant had been located until it closed in August. La Fiesta was unable to obtain a liquor license because new Census numbers werent yet in and it closed due to unforeseen circumstances.
Digital Bangladesh has set an example to the world by making the dream a reality. Unprecedented success in the agricultural sector has been repeatedly discussed in the world court.

by Jubeda Chowdhury

Bangladesh has achieved enviable success in various fields including poverty alleviation, expansion of education, development of women, reduction of child and maternal mortality rate. Bangladesh is moving forward along the highway of development. The United Nations has recognized Bangladesh as a developing country. Initiatives have been taken for the construction of Bangabandhu Tunnel, construction of deep seaport at Maheshkhali, the establishment of 100 economic zones across the country including Bangabandhu Industrial City at Mirsarai. Electricity has now reached every house in the country. There has been a wonderful success in the production of paddy, fruits, and fish. Bangladesh has become one of the ideal countries in the world for the success of child immunization programs.

Digital Bangladesh has set an example to the world by making the dream a reality. Unprecedented success in the agricultural sector has been repeatedly discussed in the world court. Bangladesh has already become a model for the rest of the world in the areas of intensive integrated management of natural disasters, utilization of micro-credit, and success in poverty alleviation, afforestation, positive changes in social and economic indicators. According to the 2020 index, Bangladesh is now the 41st largest economy in the world. Bangladesh will be the 25th largest economy in the world by 2035, according to a report released by the Center for Economic and Business Research in the World League Table 2021. According to the report, if the current trend of development continues, in the next 15 years, Bangladesh will be ranked 25th among 198 countries in the world.

That Bangladesh was once neglected, impoverished; The Bangladesh that was ridiculed by the western world as 'bottomless basket'; As a result of the visionary, efficient, creative, and courageous leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, that Bangladesh is a wonder of the world today and a role model of development. Bangladesh, which once suffered from identity problems, is now known all over the world because of tremendous economic success. Bangladesh, which started its journey empty-handed, now sends satellites into space, building the Padma Bridge with its own money. The country that started its journey by holding hand standing on the rubble, after going through many ups and downs, that Bangladesh is now a wonder in the eyes of the world. The dream of Golden Bengal is being realized today by transforming the country into a digital Bangladesh, from a least developed to a developing country, and turning a food deficient country into a food surplus country.

Bangladesh is now one of the top five fast-developing countries. A hundred-year-old plan called 'Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100' has been adopted to achieve the desired development by tackling the adverse effects of climate change. Bangladesh is moving forward at a relentless pace on the path of implementation of Vision-2021 and 2041. The establishment of Bangladesh's sovereignty over the sea has opened the door to the potential of a blue economy. About 131098 square kilometers of sea area have been added to the border of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has entered the era of space science by launching Bangabandhu Satellite-1. Despite hundreds of conspiracies, most of the work on the Padma Bridge has been completed with its own funds. The construction of a 2,400-megawatt nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Pabna is progressing fast.

Landscaping development is being achieved through the construction of four-lane, six-lane, and eight-lane national highways, flyovers, metro rails, elevated expressways, marine drives, various important bridges, Bangabandhu Tunnel. Initiatives have been taken to set up electric-powered bullet trains on Dhaka-Khulna, Dhaka-Rajshahi, Dhaka-Chittagong-Cox's Bazar routes. Chittagong port has been modernized. Economic activities have increased in Patuakhali with the commencement of Pigeon Seaport. With more than 90 million Internet users, 4G mobile technology, machine-readable passports, online test results publication and admission process, the introduction of e-tenders, the introduction of digital service centers at the union level, e-commerce, etc., Digital Bangladesh is no longer a dream but a reality.

Bangladesh now ranks second in the world in garment exports, third in freshwater fish production, third in vegetable production, fourth in rice production, seventh in potato production, 9th in mango production, and 10th in food grain production. The standard of living of marginalized people has been ensured through old age allowance, widow allowance, shelter scheme, one house one farm, distress allowance, and social security. 100 special economic zones have been established to attract industrialization and foreign investment. The closed jute mills and textile mills have been reopened. The government is adamant in its zero-tolerance policy against terrorism and militancy. The international community has lauded Bangladeshs efforts to curb terrorism and militancy. Bangladesh ranks 50th out of 153 countries in the Gender Gap Index and 7th in women's political empowerment. Work is underway to build 100 special economic zones, more than two dozen high-tech parks, and IT villages across the country.

Bangladesh has a strong diplomatic position in South Asia. Other countries are following Bangladesh in tackling the impact of climate change. Bangladesh could not be kept under control even in the global epidemic of coronavirus. Bangladesh is first in South Asia and 20th in the world in its ability to corona. Disaster management, climate change mitigation, women's empowerment, social security provisions, highly effective Covid-19 control, and the provision of vaccines to the people, leaving many developed countries behind, are exemplary for the world. Today, the benefits of Digital Bangladesh in the development journey of Bangladesh have spread from cities to villages. Broadband facilities are being extended to remote villages. Bangladesh has made four steps forward in the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Democracy Index-2020. With a score of 5.99, Bangladesh ranks 76th among 165 countries and two regions in the index. Bhutan is ranked 84th, Nepal 92nd, and Pakistan 105th. The progress and position of today's Bangladesh in various indicators including socio-economic-infrastructural development is a role model for different countries of the world.

Bangladesh was upgraded from a low-income to a low-middle income country on July 1, 2015, according to the World Bank. Bangladesh comes in this list due to continuous improvement in per capita income growth.

Nobel laureate Indian economist Amartya Sen wrote in his book India: Development and Deprivation that no one thought that Bangladesh would move faster on the path of social development. After the independence of the country, many said then, the future of Bangladesh is dark. Some have called it a "basket case" and put it on the spending list, saying the country should not be given any economic aid. Because that population will not be able to produce food on par with the explosion. He further said that Bangladesh is not only doing much better than India in many well-established standards of living, it has also come a long way. Bangladesh has surpassed India in many social indicators, such as average life expectancy, infant mortality rate, vaccination rate, traditional fertility rate, and even some measures of schooling. The whole world is now considering Bangladesh as a 'role model' of development. Development researchers consider today's Bangladesh as a 'role model for development' in South Asia.
Will virtual fence technology find its way to Pennsylvania? If so, Holsteins like these in East Earl could be doing some high-tech grazing in the near future.
As the urban farming industry continues to grow, Russell Redding is actively working to address the needs of all Pennsylvania farmers  both rural and urban  in the interest of food justice.
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 15 (ANI/PR Newswire): Datar Cancer Genetics today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted 'Breakthrough Designation' for its blood test to detect early-stage prostate cancer. This is the second test from the Company that has received the Breakthrough Device Designation from the US FDA. Late last year, the company's breast cancer detection test became the first such test to receive the designation.

This is the first blood test for men which can detect early-stage prostate cancer with high accuracy. Men with serum PSA of more than 3 ng / mL can avail of this test in consultation with their physician. The test requires 5 ml blood and does not involve exposure to radiation or any of the discomforts of a digital rectal examination. The blood test is based on the detection of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) specific to prostate adenocarcinoma. The test can detect early-stage prostate cancers with more than 99 per cent accuracy without any false positives. The test has been validated in large clinical studies involving healthy males and prostate cancer patients.

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In India, about 35,000 men were detected with prostate cancer in 2020 and this number is slated to increase every year, as is the case for all cancers due to various risk factors. Unfortunately, most prostate cancer cases are detected at late stages (III or IV) where it has spread to other organs. In such cases, curative surgeries that can remove the cancerous tissue are not viable options, and treatment involves long-term administration of anticancer drugs to manage the disease. If detected at early stages where cancer has not spread out of the prostate, prostate cancer has a very high (>99 per cent) chance of being cured.

"About 75 per cent of prostate biopsies are benign and with foreknowledge, these could be potentially avoided. The new blood test by the Datar team will help Doctors decide precisely the patients who need a biopsy and who do not. This is a very significant scientific advancement in the complex field of liquid biopsies coming from India. I congratulate the Datar team for their exemplary work and achievement," said Dr Sewanti Limaye, Director of Medical and Precision Oncology and Oncology Research, Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai.

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"It is a landmark acknowledgement that the US FDA has recognized the potential benefits of our 'first in the world' prostate cancer detection test. The highly coveted 'Breakthrough Designation' is granted after very rigorous evaluation. We take great pride in the fact that this test has been wholly developed in India and by Indian scientists and clinicians. This is our ongoing contribution to the Prime Minister's 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' mission after the breakthrough breast cancer detection test and is further intended to augment the global fight against cancer," said Rajan Datar, Chairman of the Company.

Appreciably, getting the test does not involve having to go to any hospital or health centre and waiting for appointments. The blood collection for this test can be done in the convenience and privacy of one's home or office after which the patient can go about their routine work. From the patient's point of view, the whole process is very non-intrusive.

The test is already available in Europe and is CE marked. The Company is in discussions with several leading healthcare providers for ready accessibility in India.

Datar Cancer Genetics is a global oncology research and applications company that is spearheading the development of non-invasive technologies for improved detection, treatment and management of cancer. The Company's state-of-the-art cancer research centre is NABL, ISO, CAP and CLIA accredited. The Company serves cancer patients and suspected cases in the UK, European Union, United States, GCC, and India.

Website: trubloodprostate.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1746104/Datar_Cancer_Genetics.jpgLogo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1572835/Datar_Cancer_Genetics_Logo.jpg

This story is provided by PR Newswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad, Feb 15 (PTI) Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday telephoned Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and extended support to the latter's "fight" against the alleged polarization politics of BJP.

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Rao told Gowda he would visit Bengaluru and meet him on the issue, a CMO release said.

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"Rao Saab, you are fighting very well. Every one should fight against the communal elements. To protect our country's secularism, culture and its diverse culture we will be with you and support you. Continue your fight and our total support will be there for you," the release quoted Gowda as saying.

Rao, who has been critical of the BJP and its-led Central government on a number of issues, on Sunday said he will soon have meetings with his Maharashtra and West Bengal counterparts, Uddhav Thackeray and Mamata Banerjee, respectively, as part of the efforts to unite various political parties against the saffron party and the NDA Government.

He had said he may go to Mumbai anytime soon to meet Thackeray while the West Bengal CM is expected to meet him here.

Holding that the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government should be dumped for its alleged anti-people policies, Rao had said he would play a major role in uniting anti-BJP political parties.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], February 15 (ANI): Former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on Tuesday resigned from Congress after a long association of 46 years with the party.

In a letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Kumar said, "Having given my thoughtful consideration to the matter, I have concluded that in the present circumstances and consistent with my dignity, I can best subserve larger national causes outside the party-fold."

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He further said that he hopes to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters.

"I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years and hope to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters," he said.

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"While paying my respectful regards, I thank you for the consideration extended to me in the past and wish you good health in the years ahead," he added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ahmedabad, Feb 15 (PTI) The Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday directed a police officer to distribute 100 cans of a cold drink to the bar association, after he spotted the latter sipping the beverage during a virtual hearing.

Also Read | Delhi: 305 kg Ganja Valued at Rs 2 Crore Seized; One Arrested.

Chief Justice Aravind Kumar recalled that he had similarly pulled up an advocate for eating a samosa during an online proceeding of the court a few days ago.

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The Chief Justice had noticed inspector A M Rathod drinking something that looked like a cold drink during an online hearing of a case.

Reprimanding the officer for his behaviour, the Chief Justice directed him to distribute 100 cans of the cold drink to the bar association or face disciplinary action.

Chief Justice Kumar further said that he had similarly pulled up an advocate for eating a samosa during a virtual hearing.

"We said that we have no objections to you eating a samosa. But the only ground is, you cannot eat it in front of us, because others are also tempted. Either he should give it to everybody or he should not eat it," the Chief Justice said.

He then directed the government pleader to ask inspector Rathod to distribute 100 cans of the cold drink to the bar association, or else he will direct the chief secretary to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him.

"It was in a lighter vein that the court asked him not to have the cold drink alone, but share it with others as well. The court had similarly asked an advocate to share a samosa he was eating during online proceedings," said a government pleader who was present during the hearing.

The inspector had appeared before the court for the hearing of a petition accusing him and some other officers of beating up two women at a traffic junction, he said.

The police commissioner on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into the matter by a DCP-level officer, directing that a report be submitted within 10 days, he added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Patna (Bihar) [India], February 15 (ANI): Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has played down the Hijab controversy which has been raging in the country and said that in Bihar this is not an issue as people respect each other's religious sentiments.

Talking with the media, Kumar said, "In Bihar schools, children wear the same type of dress... We respect each other's religious sentiments."

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The Chief Minister also said that the people of the state does not pay attention to such things as Bihar does not interfere with the way of practising one's religion or culture.

"We do not interfere in their way of practising religion or culture. That's why we should not pay attention to such things," he said.

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Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that a proper dress code should be followed in schools, adding that he never asked the public or workers in UP to wear saffron, for what they wear is their personal choice.

He had also said that one's personal belief is separate, "but when one talks about institutions, then one has to accept the rules there. In a national context, the Constitution should be followed."

The Hijab protests in Karnataka began in January this year when some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing hijab.

Following this incident, students of different colleges arrived at Shanteshwar Education Trust in Vijayapura wearing saffron stoles. The situation was the same in several colleges in the Udupi district.

The pre-University education board had released a circular stating that students can wear only the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious practices will be allowed in colleges.

Various petitions challenging the ban on headscarves in educational institutes have been moved to Karnataka High Court. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], February 15 (ANI): Five people including four policemen have died when a vehicle of Gujarat Police carrying an accused from Delhi to Gujarat met with an accident in the Bhabroo area of Jaipur, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot informed on Tuesday.

Gehlot extended condolences to the families, and tweeted, "It is sad to know about the death of five people including four policemen when a Gujarat Police vehicle carrying the accused from Delhi to Gujarat met with an accident in Bhabru area of Jaipur. My deepest condolences to the bereaved family, may God give them strength and may the soul of the departed rest in peace."

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Further details are awaited. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ranchi, February 15: Former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted of fraudulent withdrawal from Doranda treasury by a CBI Special Court in Ranchi on Tuesday. The CBI court, while pronouncing its verdict in the fodder scam case, found the RJD leader guilty.

Earlier in April last year, the Jharkhand High Court granted bail to the RJD Supremo in the case of fraudulent withdrawal from Dumka Treasury, one of the cases related to the fodder scam for which he was convicted. Fodder Scam: RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav Convicted Of Fraudulent Withdrawal From Doranda By CBI Special Court.

He had already been granted bail in the Chaibasa Treasury Scam case in October 2020, and in the Deoghar Treasury Scam case in February 2020.

The case pertains to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.5 crore from the Dumka treasury by Animal Husbandry Department officials between 1991 and 1996 when Lalu Prasad Yadav served as the State's Chief Minister.

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Aizawl (Mizoram) [India], February 15 (ANI): Mizoram reported 2,022 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the positivity rate to 25.54 per cent, informed the state Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) on Friday.

As per the data shared by the state government, with the addition of new cases, the active caseload in the state stands at 11,878.

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A total of 1,99,019 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the state so far and as many as 637 people have succumbed to the virus.

A total of 2,022 people were recovered in the state in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative recoveries in the state to 1,86,504.

Also Read | Serum Institute of India Provided COVID-19 Vaccine at Cost of Cup of Tea, Saved Nearly Two-thirds of Infant Population, Says Cyrus Poonawala.

On the fresh cases, 383 were confirmed through RT-PCR test, 1,476 through Rapid Antigen Test, 114 through TrueNat tests and 49 through Fluorescent Immunoassay (FIA). (ANI)

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Live flies had themselves a feast ahead of the Valentines Day holiday, landing on sliced tomatoes, bags of onions and on a stove-top pot filled with cream at seven restaurants ordered temporarily shut by state inspectors last week.

The restaurants red-flagged this week are Oka Sushi & Thai in Lake Worth Beach, Wills Cafe Creole Restaurant in North Lauderdale, Kabayan Oriental Mart in Loxahatchee, Plaza Diner in Miramar, Wayback Burgers in Coconut Creek, Hotdog-Opolis in Boca Raton and Favor Sushi in Pompano Beach.

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The South Florida Sun Sentinel highlights restaurant inspections in Broward and Palm Beach counties from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. We cull through hundreds of restaurant and bar inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for high-priority violations, like improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.

[ FULL DATABASE: See Florida restaurant inspection reports from the last 30 days ]

Sun Sentinel readers can browse full Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade county reports on our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Monday) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.

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Any restaurant that fails inspections must stay closed until it passes a follow-up state inspection. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But dont contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesnt inspect restaurants.)

[ Lee en espanol: Moscas vivas en panes, agujeros de roedores obligan a cinco restaurantes del sur de Florida a cerrar temporalmente ]

Oka Sushi & Thai, Lake Worth Beach

817 Lake Ave.

Ordered shut: Feb. 10, reopened Feb. 11

Why: Seven violations (three high priority), such as five live cockroaches found crawling on trash can dolly underneath the kitchen sink, along with 14 rodent droppings discovered on floor behind ice machine, behind the cooler at the kitchen cooking station, and in small hard-to-reach area under sushi bar. (The manager later sanitized these areas.) Inspectors also found a pair of dead roaches on the floor between sushi bar and menu rack in the dining room. The sushi house was allowed to reopen Feb. 11 when the follow-up inspection revealed one minor issue.

Wills Cafe Creole Restaurant, North Lauderdale

5460 N. State Road 7, Suite 104

Ordered shut: Feb. 10, reopened Feb. 11

Why: 17 violations (seven high priority), led by this: Six live cockroaches found crawling inside cabinets at the restaurants front counter, crawling on the floor near the kitchen sink and on dining room floor. Inspectors also ordered the restaurant to stop selling and trash its cashews, peanuts, bread, fried chips and sesame pies because they were made from home and brought into the restaurant, and to toss a container filled with pork due to temperature abuse. The state also discovered several containers of rice, flour and sugar with no labeling, and ordered the restaurant to throw out a bottle of crema  an alcoholic beverage  with no warning label and from unapproved source. The restaurant reopened the next day after state inspectors discovered a single minor issue.

Kabayan Oriental Mart, Loxahatchee

14585 Southern Blvd.

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Ordered shut: Feb. 10

Why: Six violations (five high priority), including 160 live flies landing on a pot with cream on the stove top, microwave, container with coconut, clean utensils all over the kitchen area, and landing on a container with bananas on top of reach-in freezer in the dining room. The restaurant was also ordered to stop selling and toss its cooked pork and butter due to temperature abuse. The state has not yet posted a report of its follow-up inspection.

Plaza Diner, Miramar

3118 S. University Drive

Ordered shut: Feb. 10, reopened Feb. 14

Why: Inspectors found a whopping 34 violations (six high priority), led by 10 live cockroaches under stove at cook line, under reach-in freezers and coolers in the kitchen, [and] under prep table at cook line. The state also discovered 25 dead roaches in the same kitchen areas as well as under the kitchen storage shelves, under the kitchen stove and on the floor at the front counter. Inspectors also ordered the restaurant to trash its sausage, beef franks, gravy, ham, cooked spinach, turkey sausage, chicken soup, diced cooked potatoes and a variety of cheese due to temperature abuse. Despite finding 12 more major violations during its second visit, including mislabeled food and more dead roaches, the state let the diner reopen Feb. 14.

Wayback Burgers, Coconut Creek

4690 N. State Road 7, Suite 103

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Ordered shut: Feb. 10

Why: 18 violations (five high priority), such as 127 live flies landing on cut tomatoes in the kitchens flip-top cooler  the tomatoes were also ordered to be thrown out, naturally  as well as landing on bags containing onions in prep area, on clean prep tables and on box containing raw ground beef stored near the kitchen sink. Inspectors also found one dead roach in cupboard underneath the Coca-Coca soda fountain in the dining room. The restaurant also was ordered to stop selling and toss its raw chicken due to temperature abuse. The state has not yet posted a report of its follow-up inspection. In December, the Sun Sentinel reported the hamburger joint had also been ordered shut twice, on Nov. 30 and Dec. 6.

Hotdog-Opolis, Boca Raton

6020 N. Federal Highway

Ordered shut: Feb. 8, reopened Feb. 9

Why: Three violations (one high priority), such as 33 rodent droppings observed inside box of maintenance equipment located inside the air-conditioning closet next to the front counter, on the ground in the closet, on floor under [kitchen] prep table and on box of bottled beverages. The restaurant owner sanitized the areas during the inspectors visit. The restaurant reopened the following day after inspectors discovered a minor issue.

Favor Sushi, Pompano Beach

1415 SW 26th Ave.

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Ordered shut: Feb. 8

Why: Five violations (four high priority), including seven live cockroaches found in kitchen under the rice cooker in prep area and in the kitchen beneath the doors of the reach-in cooler. State inspectors also spotted 14 dead roaches in the same kitchen areas as the live ones. The state has not yet posted a report of its follow-up inspection.

[ RELATED: South Florida restaurants: Now open, coming soon and closed | PHOTOS ]
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 15 (ANI): Trinamool Congress spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh on Monday said that the leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari is a "Gaddar (traitor)".

Speaking to ANI, Ghosh said, "Suvendu Adhikari is a 'Gaddar' and everyone is aware of his arrogant behaviour. People are not protesting against the BJP leaders Dilip Ghosh and Sukanta Majumdar because they are not traitors to their party. It is only because of Suvendu. People have seen what is happening so they out of frustration have protested. The way Suvendu is acting now I think recently he has watched Pushpa."

Also Read | India Becoming the New Global Market for Millets, Says Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje.

The TMC leader said that the BJP is going everywhere but not facing the public.

"As far as moving High Court for the BJP is concerned, they can go anywhere. I think the BJP should move to United Nations because since they are moving to this court, that court, election commission but they are not facing the public. Let them go to the UN and file petitions to send the force from there. Even then the BJP will be defeated badly because they are not facing the public," he said.

Also Read | Valentine's Day 2022: Bajrang Dal Members Booked for Harassing Couples at Public Places in Uttar Pradesh.

Ghosh said that students protested on Monday against the betrayal of Adhikari.

"Adhikari and his members of the family used TMC and on the eve of the Assembly elections joined the BJP. The students protested by raising some slogans against his betrayal. He usually insults journalists and others. On Monday students were just raising slogans against Suvendu Adhikari and he came off his car and ran to the youths. The students did not attack him, they only raised slogans," he added.

He further said that Adhikari should have ignored the protest but he was chasing them like "goonda" (hooligan).

"Whatever the students have done they have done right with Suvendu. Moreover, Suvendu has abused police there also," he said.

Earlier, Ghosh had alleged that Adhikari is feeling suffocated in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and wants to rejoin the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Speaking to ANI, Ghosh said, "We heard that LoP Suvendu Adhikari is not happy after Contai Municipality list. Adhikari wanted his brother Soumendu Adhikari's name on the list. Soumendu Adhikari was earlier the chairman of Contai Municipality. However, the BJP did not pay heed to Suvendu Adhikari's demand."

The TMC spokesperson said the political dynamics of Purba Medinipur have changed and the Adhikaris no longer enjoy the mileage there.

Adhikari, who was a minister in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's previous government, had joined BJP in December 2020 ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 15 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids at the premises of Radius Developers in Mumbai and Pune in connection with the Yes Bank case, sources said on Tuesday.

Earlier in 2020, CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a charge sheet in connection with the Yes Bank scam case against the bank's former Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director Rana Kapoor and other accused.

Also Read | Sensex Rebounds 900 Points; FMCG, IT, Energy Stocks Climb.

The agencies are probing Yes Bank and a number of its borrowers in connection with an alleged fraud case where loans issued by the bank became non-performing assets, which led to a crisis whereafter the RBI had imposed a moratorium on the bank. (ANI)

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New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) India and the UAE are likely to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) on February 18, under which both the countries could give duty-free access to a number of products from different sectors, sources said.

In September last year, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had formally launched negotiations on the pact, officially dubbed as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

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Under such an agreement, two trading partners reduce or eliminate customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. Besides, they liberalise norms to enhance trade in services and boost investments.

This would be the second such agreement to be signed by the current government.

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In February last year, India had inked the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) with Mauritius.

"The India-UAE agreement is ready and it would be signed on February 18," a source said.

Bilateral trade between India and the UAE stood at USD 43.3 billion in 2020-21. Exports were USD 16.7 billion and imports aggregated at USD 26.7 billion in 2020-21.

Last week, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had said "we hope to make some announcements very quickly" on the India-UAE trade agreement.

Earlier, he had stated that the UAE is a gateway to all of Africa and many other parts of the world.

The UAE also has a huge Indian diaspora, and a large market for products like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather, footwear and food items, which are labour oriented sectors, he had said.

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Ottawa, February 15: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has invoked emergency powers to try to quell the protests by truck drivers and others who have paralysed Ottawa and blocked border crossings in anger over the country's COVID-19 restrictions.

Trudeau ruled out using the military and said Monday that the emergency measures will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address. Canada Pushes Back Against GOP Support for COVID-19 Restrictions Protests.

For the past two weeks, hundreds and sometimes thousands of protesters in trucks and other vehicles have clogged the streets of Ottawa, the capital, railing against vaccine mandates and other virus precautions and condemning Trudeau's Liberal government.

Members of the self-styled Freedom Convoy have also blockaded various US-Canadian border crossings, though the busiest and most important  the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit  was reopened over the weekend.

The prime minister met virtually with the leaders of Canada's provinces and planned to address the nation late in the afternoon.

In recent days, Trudeau rejected calls to use the military but otherwise said all options are on the table to end the protests, including invoking the Emergencies Act, which gives the government broad powers to restore order.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], February 15 (ANI): External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Tuesday concluded his Philippines visit, during which he reviewed bilateral relations as both sides agreed to further expand economic cooperation and reaffirmed their strong commitment to a multifaceted partnership.

Jaishankar was in the Philippines from February 13-15, for his first visit as External Affairs Minister (EAM).

Also Read | After Batsirai Cyclone, Madagascar Bracing For Another Tropical Storm, Says UN.

The Minister held a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines. The two Ministers reviewed developments in bilateral relations since the meeting of the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation that they co-chaired in the virtual format in November 2020.

They also discussed the future trajectory of the wide-ranging engagement between the two countries. The two Ministers also had an in-depth exchange of views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Also Read | Pakistan: Man Arrested For Vilifying PM Imran Khans Wife Bushra Bibi.

The Ministers welcomed recent trends in bilateral ties that have contributed to the deepening of mutually beneficial cooperation and the expansion to newer areas based on shared interests in line with the vision of the leadership of both countries. They agreed to further work towards strengthening engagement in counter-terrorism and defence and maritime security, covering defence capabilities as well as military training and capacity building.

"In light of the complementarities between the two countries as fast-growing market economies, and the shared interest in diversifying supply chains, they agreed to make efforts to further expand economic cooperation as well as trade and investment links in a range of areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, health and pharmaceuticals, tourism, ICT, and science and technology," the MEA release said.

According to the MEA, the Ministers also noted with satisfaction recent initiatives to step up cooperation in emerging areas such as fintech, blue economy, renewable energy, space, cyber security and traditional medicine.

"To expand business, tourism and student exchange between the two countries, both sides agreed on the need for a simplified visa regime between India and the Philippines. EAM also sought the attention of the Philippine government to facilitate the early return of Indian medical students to the Philippines," the release added.

It further said both ministers agreed to coordinate closely at multilateral fora and reaffirmed their strong commitment to a multifaceted partnership that would facilitate the developmental aspirations and shared priorities of the two democracies in Indo-Pacific region.

During the visit, EAM also interacted with Delfin Lorenzana, Secretary of Defence, Carlos Domineguez III, Secretary of Finance and Dr William Dar, Secretary of Agriculture to discuss issues strengthening cooperation in Defence, Finance and Agriculture sectors respectively.

EAM interacted with a cross-section of the Indian Community in Manila. He appreciated their role in promoting friendship and amity between the people of the two countries and urged them to continue to be a bridge between the people of India and the Philippines. (ANI)

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Islamabad [Pakistan], February 15 (ANI): The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) continued its sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly on Monday demanding the release of Pashtun leader Ali Wazir.

PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen said the group would continue to stage its protest sit-in till a notification for the release of the lawmaker was issued.

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Dozens of PTM supporters demanded the provincial government to discard the FIRs lodged against Wazir and listen to the grievances of the Pashtuns residing in Karachi.

Ali Wazir has spent nearly 14 months in prison for allegedly delivering anti-state speeches in Karachi, The News International newspaper reported.

Also Read | Afghanistan: Acting Defense Minister Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob Mujahid Says Previous Govt Allowed Pakistan To Cross Durand Line.

PTM leaders said the Pakistan Supreme Court had in November last year had allowed Wazir's appeal against the dismissal of his bail plea by the Sindh High Court and granted him post-arrest bail in the Sohrab Goth rally case. "Despite the apex court's orders, Wazir is in jail," said Pashteen.

Wazir was arrested in Peshawar on December 16, 2020, at the request of the Sindh police, and flew to Karachi. Wazir was arrested on the charges of making insulting and incendiary speeches against the state institutions at a PTM protest rally in Karachi on December 6, 2020, according to the newspaper.

The PTM leader was charged for treason and hate speech against the state. However, Wazir denied such allegations and blamed the state for a biased attitude towards minorities. (ANI)

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Doha [Qatar], February 15 (ANI): A Taliban delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Monday began talks with representatives of the Gulf states in Doha.

"A high-level Afghan delegation led by Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in the capital of Qatar (Doha) and will discuss a range of issues with the envoys of the Gulf countries on Monday," said Zia Ahmad Takal, the deputy spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, reported Tolo News.

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The delegation arrived in Qatar on Sunday. According to the ministry, the delegation of the caretaker government is scheduled to hold talks with representatives of the European Union, the Union of Religious Scholars, and diplomatic missions operating from Qatar on behalf of Kabul.

"The recent visit of the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate to Doha is in fact a follow-up to the continuation of diplomatic relations with foreign countries, which will provide the grounds for international recognition," said Nasir Ahmad Haidari, a political analyst.

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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.

"This is a very important trip for solving the political challenges in Afghanistan," said Wali Mohammad Sarwari, a university lecturer, reported Tolo News.

Qatar is one of the countries that, according to political analysts, wants to play a mediating role between the current government of Afghanistan and the world, in an effort that is more focused on bilateral interaction.

"One of the demands of the Taliban is to ask Qatar to mediate once again between the Taliban and the US to free the frozen money of Afghanistan," said Sayed Javad Sajjadi, a political analyst.

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)

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Brunswick (US), Feb 15 (AP) Prosecutors were to begin calling witnesses Tuesday in the federal hate crimes trial of three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.

On the trial's first day in the port city of Brunswick on Monday, prosecutors told the jury they have evidence that each of the defendants had a history of making racist comments. To win convictions on the hate crime charges, they must prove to the jury that Arbery was chased and fatally shot because he was Black.

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In their opening statements, defense attorneys called their clients' use of racist slurs offensive and indefensible.

But they insisted that their deadly pursuit of Arbery was motivated by an earnest, though erroneous, suspicion that the 25-year-old Black man had committed crimes  not by racial hostility.

Also Read | After Batsirai Cyclone, Madagascar Bracing For Another Tropical Storm, Says UN.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after spotting him running in their coastal Georgia neighbourhood on Feb. 23, 2020.

A neighbour, William Roddie Bryan, joined the chase in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun.

No arrests were made until the video leaked online two months later.

Both McMichaels and Bryan were convicted of murder last fall in a Georgia state court and sentenced to life in prison.

All three are now standing trial in a separate case in US District Court, where they are charged with violating Arbery's civil rights and with targeting him because he was Black. They have pleaded not guilty.

A jury of eight white members, three Black people and one Hispanic person was sworn in Monday to hear the case. (AP)

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Islamabad, Feb 15 (PTI) Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa met President Dr Arif Alvi and has reiterated the armed forces' resolve to weed out extremist elements from the country, according to a statement released by the President's House on Tuesday.

Bajwa met President Alvi at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Monday, where he briefed the head of state on the operation against terrorists and the security forces' professional readiness.

Also Read | After Batsirai Cyclone, Madagascar Bracing For Another Tropical Storm, Says UN.

The Army chief also reiterated his forces' resolve to eliminate militants and miscreants from the country, the release said.

Two weeks ago, the security forces flushed out 20 militants from Naushki and Panjgur areas in the restive Balochistan province.

Also Read | Pakistan: Man Arrested For Vilifying PM Imran Khans Wife Bushra Bibi.

The nation is proud of the armed forces' sacrifices [...] despite all the troubles, the security forces have defended the country's borders, President Alvi said after the meeting.

Bajwa also met Prime Minister Khan on Monday, a rare engagement that took place on the sidelines of the apex committee on Afghanistan's session.

This high-profile meeting has elicited considerable interest, especially after Khan and Bajwa were at odds over the appointment of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt. Gen Nadeem Anjum.

Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Prime Minister Imran Khan today. Professional matters pertaining to the Pakistan Army were discussed during the meeting, Pakistan's PMO said in a tweet.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
A special #CBI court in #Jharkhand to deliver verdict in yet another #fodder scam case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 139 crore from Ranchi's Doranda treasury. Lalu Prasad Yadav, the main accused, has already been convicted in four similar cases DD News (@DDNewslive) February 15, 2022

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Broward taxpayers will likely fund free heart screenings for thousands of people, but it will come from county coffers generated by property taxes and not from a new sales tax that had previously been considered.

Broward County commissioners had little appetite to pass a half-penny sales tax that was projected to generate as much as $125 million a year to pay for cardiac CT scan tests. The imaging test uses X-rays so doctors can see the heart and blood vessels and with an injection of iodine, known as with contrast, doctors can see the plaque in the coronary arteries that can lead to trouble.

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So County Commissioner Mark Bogen made a new pitch Tuesday: Use $10 million from the county budget for a pilot project to get 20,000 residents medical help they might not have otherwise known they needed.

The board always keeps a healthy reserve, said County Administrator Bertha Henry of the cash.

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Mayor Michael Udine called the new plan palatable.

[ RELATED: Would you pay more sales tax to get a free heart test? Broward is considering it. ]

Under Bogens new plan, the first three categories of 5,000 people each would focus on the heart screenings: Black people of all ages, anybody ages 45-65, and a third group specifically for senior citizens.

A fourth category of another 5,000 people would focus on cancer screenings to target breast, lung, colon and prostate cancers, and a panel of medical professionals will later decide age and other high-risk factors of who could participate.

Next, medical experts will come up with recommendations how do we find and identify these people.

Bogen said his aim is to create a proactive health plan instead of waiting for people to get sick first. Insurance plans dont often pay for preventative care.

I believe we could save hundreds of thousands of lives, Bogen said. Nothing is more valuable than a persons life.

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com or 954-572-2008 or Twitter @LisaHuriash
India on Tuesday asked its nationals, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to leave Ukraine temporarily amid fear of Russian invasion. As per the US intelligence, Russia could attack Ukraine any time. US officials said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders.

Tweet By ANI:

Embassy of India in Kyiv asks Indians, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to leave Ukraine temporarily in view of uncertainties of the current situation pic.twitter.com/U15EoGu89g  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

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By now, the world is well aware of how Russia used armies of bots and online commentary to manipulate information on social media and spread disinformation during the United States 2016 presidential campaign.

Less well known is how those methods have spread internationally, with dozens of countries, including the Philippines, Turkey and Sudan, using social media to suppress dissenting voices and promote an anti-democratic agenda.



For the record: An earlier version of this story said the 2017 report showed that overall, 24% of the world is considered to have internet access that is partially free of government restrictions. The correct number is 28%.

Inspired by Russias pioneering work, authoritarian countries have turned to fake news and Twitter bots to create disinformation campaigns that undermine their internal enemies. The spread of such techniques was chronicled in a report released Tuesday by Freedom House, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for freedom and democracy.

Out of 65 countries surveyed for the report from June 2016 to May, 30 countries were using methods of information manipulation and disinformation largely developed and tested by Russia and China during the last decade, according to the report. At least 18 countries elections, including the 2016 presidential campaign in the U.S., were affected by the manipulations during the reports research period.

The U.S. is way behind on understanding ... what disinformation is and how it operates in the mainstream media and social media.  Melissa Hooper of Human Rights First

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In the Philippines, investigative reporters found that a keyboard army created fake news, fake accounts, bots and trolls to promote the presidential campaign of Rodrigo Duterte, the authoritarian firebrand who eventually won the election. Now in office, Duterte quickly drew criticism for his governments harsh crackdown on drug dealers and drug abuse. Human rights advocates have accused him of extrajudicial killings.

Freedom House researchers found that after Duterte took office in July 2016, these keyboard soldiers were paid as much as $10 a day to continue using social media to attack oppositional journalists and online voices on the internet for speaking out against Dutertes government.

Its not a censorship technique in the traditional sense, but it is a method that is being used to undermine democracy, said Sanja Kelly, the director of the project, called Freedom on the Net. Government-backed online commentators or bots are limiting free speech, and we are seeing a chilling effect, she said in an interview Monday.

If you have an opposition figure speaking out against the government, and then they are attacked by pro-government commentators or bots online, in the future they might think twice about voicing their opinions, she said.

The practice has become significantly more widespread and technically sophisticated over last few years, the report said.

Freedom Houses annual report typically focuses on global trends in restrictions to internet freedom, including government restrictions on particular websites or applications, such as messaging services, as well as state-sponsored limitations on virtual private networks and mobile connectivity, prosecution for posting online oppositional views, and attacks on online citizens, or netizens.

This years report examined what it estimates to be 87% of the worlds internet users in 65 countries. Overall, internet freedom declined in 32 countries of those surveyed. China topped the list of most restricted countries for the third year in a row. (North Korea, which is even more restrictive than China, was not included in the survey.)

The 2017 report shows that overall, only 23% of the world can be considered to have internet access free of government restrictions. Thirty-six percent of the worlds internet is not free, while 28% is partially free.

Despite the concerns from Freedom House and warnings from human rights groups about the effects of disinformation campaigns, the United States has fallen behind in developing ways to counter such methods of information manipulation, said Melissa Hooper of Human Rights First., a U.S.-based advocacy organization that wants the United States to be an advocate for human rights globally. Hooper has done substantial research on Kremlin-linked disinformation campaigns and testified to a congressional committee on the subject in September.

The U.S. is way behind on understanding ... what disinformation is and how it operates in the mainstream media and social media, Hooper said. We are way behind in saying, This is a problem, and we need to do something about it.

Both Hooper and Kelly pointed to Scandinavian and Baltic countries, many of which have started education programs and school curricula that include news literacy skills to teach participants how to identify false reports as well as reliable sources.

Ironically, many of the countries implementing such programs have imported expertise and methods developed by U.S. experts, Hooper said.

Freedom Houses report recommends that governments strengthen regulations to ensure that political advertising is transparent online as well as offline. Tech and social media companies should develop comprehensive technical solutions to restrict the proliferation of automated political bots. One suggestion is for Twitter to find a way to separate and identify automated tweets from political bots, Kelly said in an interview.

This is where policy makers need to focus, Hooper said. This is where real research needs to happen and hard decisions need to be made.

ALSO

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sabra.ayres@latimes.com

Twitter: @sabraayres

Ayres is a special correspondent.
A Venezuelan judge on Wednesday formally charged opposition leader Maria Corina Machado with conspiracy to kill President Nicolas Maduro and told her that she faces a maximum prison sentence of eight to 16 years if convicted.

Six other prominent opposition figures were named in the complaint, which said the plot sought to disturb the peace of the nation, according to a statement issued by prosecutors. The investigation of the alleged conspiracy began in March when the country was convulsed by nationwide demonstrations against the Maduro government, protests that Machado encouraged and led.

It was unclear what evidence the government has against Machado, 47, a former National Assembly member, who is one of Maduros most persistent and harsh critics. The judge told her that she would have an opportunity to prove her innocence before judgment is passed.

Maduro has said in public speeches that there is incriminating evidence against Machado in emails intercepted by government investigators. This year, Machado was banned from the National Assembly after the legislative bodys president, Diosdado Cabello, accused her of treason for supporting the nationwide student-led protests against rising crime and economic mismanagement.

In February, the government jailed former Caracas borough Mayor Leopoldo Lopez, another leading opposition leader, for allegedly inciting the protesters to violence in demonstrations that left 41 dead. Both Lopez and Machado insisted they encouraged only peaceful protests.

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Despite international pleas that he be freed, including a demand from a U.N. human rights panel, Lopez remains in prison.

In comments before her appearance at a Caracas court, Machado denied the charges and said the accusation is a sign of desperation on the part of the government to stifle criticism while the nation is sinking deeper into economic and political crisis.

I have not committed any crime and there is no evidence against me, Machado told Globovision TV news. Scores of supporters accompanied Machado to her court appearance Wednesday morning.

Machado also vowed to continue to participate in and support all forms of protest and mobilization of our youths, workers, housewives, union members and all those who feel their rights have been violated.

Human Rights Watchs director for Latin America, Jose Miguel Vivanco, issued a statement saying Machado is facing a presumption of guilt.

Its very difficult to imagine that the case against Machado for alleged participation in a plan to assassinate the president can be anything but a farce, Vivanco said in an email.

The other six alleged co-conspirators are all prominent opposition figures, all of whom are believed to be currently outside Venezuela. They include former Gov. Henrique Salas Romer, former presidential candidate Diego Arria and a former member of the state oil companys board of directors, Pedro Mario Burelli.

The six are subject to arrest, while Machado for the time being is free. In brief emailed comments, Burelli said that in his case the government had fabricated email evidence.

Venezuelan blogger and Maduro critic Francisco Toro said in comments posted after Machados court appearance that the government has systematically targeted the former legislator for harassment and physical abuse.

Today, attention was focused on whether she would be jailed  she wasnt. Yet, even before shes jailed  and that could happen any time now  virtually all of her rights have been violated, Toro wrote.

Special correspondents Mogollon and Kraul reported from Caracas and Bogota, Colombia, respectively.
New research shows that the megadrought has been experienced across the Southwestern U.S. for at least two decades. It added that the region is seeing its driest conditions in 1,200 years.

The study was published on Nature Climate Change on Monday. Researchers studied tree ring patterns and found that the current megadrought has exceeded the severity of one experienced in the later 1500s and driest since AD 800, ABC 7 Chicago News reported.

Researchers included southern Montana, northern Mexico, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains in the study.

Host and writer of Redacted Tonight Lee Camp tweeted his opinion regarding the study. Camp said that people will continue to ignore the dire climate conditions and will get back trying to have war with other countries.

Nothing to see here -- US experiencing worst mega-drought in 1,200 years due to climate change, but we'll just keep ignoring that & instead get back to work trying to create war with other countries.

Is war drinkable?https://t.co/n8wQBlMopS  Lee Camp [Redacted] (@LeeCamp) February 14, 2022

Politician Lourin Hubbard took to Twitter to express his opinions, saying that a comprehensive climate policy is needed to address the crisis now.

"This is a wake-up call for everyoneFor all of us. We are facing a new normal when it comes to climate change." We NEED comprehensive climate policy to address this crisis NOW before it becomes too late!! #CA22 #ClimateCrisis https://t.co/zPhcss61at  Lourin Hubbard For Congress- CA 22nd (@LourinHubbard) February 14, 2022

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration noted that the term "megadrought" is used to take note of a severe and intense drought that spans a couple of decades.

READ NEXT: Large Wildfire Near Colorado 470 Forced Evacuation of Residents in Ken Caryl Valley

U.S. Southwest Megadrought

The Southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico region is home to tens of millions of people, with agricultural centers, and including some of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that the number of water molecules available is declining.

Williams is also the study's lead author. According to an NPR report, he sounded the alarm regarding climate change, saying that it is time for people to get real about how much water there is to use.

Williams said that there were hopes during a wet 2019 that the current megadrought was following a similar pattern.

Williams said that the drought is nowhere near done, with the dry conditions across the West starting from summer 2020 through all of 2021.

The study estimated that 42 percent of this megadrought can be attributed to human-caused climate change, according to The Salt Lake Tribune report.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said that what people hoped they would never see "is here."

The whole state of California was considered in official drought from mid-May until the end of 2021.

The U.S. drought monitor noted that at least three-quarters of the state was at the highest two drought levels from June through Christmas.

Williams said that the megadrought really kicked off in 2002, which is one of the driest years ever based on humidity and tree rings.

Federal water managers declared the first-ever water shortage at the Colorado River last year, which caused cuts to some of the river's 40 million water users.

Kim Mitchell, the senior water policy adviser at Western Resource Advocates, said that the Colorado River Basin "no longer has the privilege of time."

Mitchell noted that incremental solutions will not be enough anymore to address the drought.

In addition, existing management guidelines for the Colorado River will be expiring in 2025.

READ MORE: Caldor Fire Moves Closer to Lake Tahoe as Blaze Continues to Spread in Northern Part of California

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: American West's megadrought worst in 1,200 years - from FOX 13 News Utah






Texas on Monday filed a lawsuit against Facebook's parent company, Meta, over the facial recognition feature on the social media platform.

The lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that the parent company gathered facial recognition data through Facebook, without the "informed" consent of the users, per CBS News.

CNN noted that the lawsuit was filed in Harrison County District Court, slamming the photo tagging feature of Facebook that analyzes faces in photos, including the faces of those who do not use the social media platform.

"Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of one's safety and well-being," Paxton said, adding that what Meta did is another example of "Big Tech's deceitful practices."

Because of this, the Texas lawsuit asks the court to impose a $25,000 civil penalty per violation of the state's biometric law and $10,000 per violation of the Texas consumer protection law.

Attorney General Paxton said he is seeking billions of dollars in damages, but he did not mention the exact amount.

READ NEXT: Facebook Official Announces Plans to Shut Down Facial Recognition

Facebook Lawsuit: Texas' Action on the App's Facial Recognition Feature

According to Texas law, companies must obtain "informed consent" from people to use their biometric data. This law underscored that users should be informed before their biometric data is captured, and it can only be done if they agree to it.

However, a Texas lawsuit against Meta contended that from 2010 to June 2011, Facebook "secretly forced millions of Texans into a facial-recognition scheme without their informed consent."

"Little did users know that when they answered the simple question of who was in the photograph, they were helping to teach Facebook's facial recognition technology to better map and recognize human faces for the benefits of Facebook's commercial endeavors," the lawsuit states via Cnet.

The lawsuit Paxton filed against Meta was not the only legal action he issued concerning big tech companies. CBS News stressed that Paxton launched an investigation on Twitter over its ban on former President Donald Trump. He also filed several lawsuits against Google.

Meta on Texas Lawsuit

Meta has not yet issued an official statement regarding the most recent case Texas has filed against them. However, a spokesperson from Facebook's parent company commented on the matter, saying that Texas' claims "are without merit" and that they will defend their camp "vigorously."

Texas lawsuit came after a federal judge approved a class-action settlement lawsuit in Illinois, where Facebook agreed to pay $650 million over allegedly using face tagging and other biometric data without the consent of the users, per NBC News.

In November, Facebook said that they are going to scale back their facial recognition system and delete more than one billion user templates.

However, Meta's Vice President for Artificial Intelligence, Jerome Pesenti, said that they would still use facial recognition for a "narrow set of use cases" such as gaining access to a locked account, verifying their identity, or unlocking a personal device.

READ NEXT: Mark Zuckerberg Rebrands Facebook to Meta as tech Company Dives Into Metaverse

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Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Texas Suing Meta Over Facial Recognition Technology-Seeking Hundreds Of Billions In Penalties - From Forbes Breaking News
New details emerged surrounding the death of Brian Laundrie when the Sarasota Medical Examiner's office released a full autopsy report of the 23-year-old man connected to the disappearance and death of Gabby Petito.

District 12 deputy chief medical examiner Dr. Wilson Broussard noted in the report that Laundrie died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to The Daily Beast news report.

The report stated that the cylinder contained two live rounds and one spent round of ammunition.

Laundrie's corpse was also found to have "moderately extensive carnivore activity" as shown with multiple gouging and gnawing marks, according to a medical examiner's report.

The medical examiner also stated that there are areas consistent with carnivores and/or omnivores, which included canines such as feral dogs and coyotes with rodents and raccoons.

The document noted that Laundrie's toxicology report showed no signs of drug use, according to a New York Post report.

Around the nearby secondary scene, officials found animal skeletal remains, as well as a handwritten half note and a MOAB Coffee roaster's hat.

A drybag was also found with Laundrie's journal and a wooden box with a small notebook and a picture of himself.

There were also personal items found at the scene such as a pair of green shorts, slip-on shoes, a white metal ring, a backpack and a handgun on the dirt ground.

READ NEXT: Gabby Petito Family to Celebrate First Christmas Without Her, Takes Action to Ensure No One Else Suffer the Same

Disappearance and Death of Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito

Laundrie's disappearance has caused a nationwide manhunt in September 2021 after his fiancee, Gabby Petito, went missing and was later found murdered.

He was named a person of interest in the case after he returned to his parents' home in Florida alone in early September. He then disappeared.

Petito's parents reported her missing on September 11. It was three days before Laundrie's family claimed that he left their house in North Port with a backpack, but he left his wallet and cellphone, according to The Guardian report.

A federal arrest warrant was issued by a court in Wyoming on September 24 after a grand jury indicted Laundrie for the unauthorized use of a debit card that Petito's family say was hers.

Before the couple's disappearance, the two were pulled over by police in Moab, Utah after responding to a domestic incident involving the couple.

An independent investigator noted that the officers who pulled them over should have been suspended for not citing Petito after the violent encounter, wherein she admitted to being the aggressor, according to a Daily Mail report.

Bodycam footage showed a visibly shaken Petito admitting that she started the public argument.

In September, a coroner confirms that the remains found in Grand Teton belong to Petito. Her death was ruled a homicide.

On October 21, a comparison of dental records confirmed that the human remains found in a Florida nature preserve belonged to Laundrie.

At the time, no cause or manner of death has been announced immediately.

Laundrie and Petito were childhood sweethearts on Long Island in New York. They then moved to Florida in 2019 to live with Laundrie's parents.

In July, they decided to take a road trip planning to reach Oregon by Halloween.

READ MORE: Brian Laundrie Case: Probe Into Utah Cops Who Responded to Gabby Petito and Fiance's Domestic Dispute 'Close' to Wrapping Up

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Brian Laundrie autopsy report: New details released - from LiveNOW from FOX






Police in New Mexico confirmed Monday that a BMX-riding man who went for a stabbing spree in Albuquerque on Sunday has been arrested.

According to Albuquerque police, Tobias Gutierrez, 42, was traveling on a BMX bike during the random stabbing of 11 people, New York Post reported.

Police said Gutierrez was booked into jail on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Associated Press reported that it was still unclear whether the New Mexico stabbing spree suspect had a lawyer to represent him or speak on his behalf.

According to reports, Gutierrez's arrest came after New Mexico police officers saw him dumping an object into a trash can. Police reportedly stopped him from doing so.

Authorities noted that the police officers later recovered the knife used in the stabbing. Police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the stabbing or attacks made by the suspect "doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason."

READ NEXT: Brian Laundrie Update: Full Autopsy Report Released With New Details Surrounding His Death

New Mexico Suspect Stabs 11 People

At least 11 people in seven different scenes across Albuquerque were injured after the stabbing spree.

NBC Chicago reported that the first stabbing incident occurred in the city's downtown. Officers responded at the scene at around 11:15 a.m. and discovered a man with a laceration on his hand.

KOAT reported that the first stabbing occurred near Sister bar on Central Avenue and 4th Street. At the time, police said the suspect was riding a BMX-style bike and was armed with a large knife.

The second stabbing reportedly occurred an hour later outside a smoke shop near the University of New Mexico. Gutierrez was reported to ask the victim for money and yelled obscenities before stabbing the person in the arm.

The third incident happened in front of an apartment building around 1 p.m., then another victim stabbed in the neck was discovered nearby.

The New Mexico police then received another call about a suspect attempting to stab customers in a convenience store. However, authorities discovered multiple victims when they arrived in the store.

After 20 minutes, the authorities received two more calls, and the final victim was reportedly stabbed outside the restaurant. All in all, Gutierrez stabbed 11 individuals, and two of them were critically injured.

Authorities did not identify any of the victims, but they said the injured were brought to several hospitals in Albuquerque. Aside from the two victims seriously hurt, the other victims were either treated, released, or in stable condition.

Other Crimes of New Mexico Stabbing Suspect

According to court records, Tobias Gutierrez already committed federal felony offenses, including battery, burglary, and possession of a controlled substance.

The New Mexico suspect was also reported to be charged with driving while intoxicated. He failed to appear in court for driving on a revoked license in 2014. He told the court that he was in federal custody in another county and was trying to better himself while incarcerated.

He was also previously held in prison for entering a casino armed with a revolver and ammunition. Records showed that he was released from federal custody in 2020.

READ MORE: American Airlines 'Unruly Passenger' Forces Flight Bound to Washington D.C. to Divert to Kansas City

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Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: 11 Stabbing Victims Reported Along Central Ave. in Albuquerque - From KRQE
The plane of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro left the Latin American country Monday evening to head to Russia despite objections and suggestions to cancel the trip, including the U.S. government.

According to The Washington Post, some of his allies were afraid that Bolsonaro could make damaging comments on the crisis or that his presence could be seen as a support to Russia's invasion of its neighbor.

Even Bolsonaro's own Cabinet members were opposing his Russia trip. However, the visit was planned well before the Ukraine crisis emerged, with the Brazilian president focusing on bilateral trade.

Russia is a major source of fertilizers for Brazil's agricultural sector. Bolsonaro justified the trip on Monday in front of his supporters outside the presidential palace, saying that a huge part of the country's agribusiness depends on fertilizers.

The Brazilian president said they have issues to discuss with Russia, such as defense and energy, among other things. Two meetings were scheduled with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Bolsonaro is set to arrive in Russia on Tuesday.

Brazil has publicly reaffirmed its diplomatic ties with Kyiv on Monday as Bolsonaro set off on an official visit to Russia. The foreign ministry announced that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Franca, spoke with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba by phone, France 24 reported.

Franca reiterated Brazil's support for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, adding that Brazil and Ukraine recently celebrated 30 years of diplomatic ties.

READ NEXT: Brazil: Senate Committee Recommends to Criminally Charge Pres. Jair Bolsonaro Over COVID Response

U.S. Government's Opposition Against the Russia Trip of Brazil President

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that the U.S. government has urged Jair Bolsonaro to cancel a visit with Vladimir Putin in Russia amid the rising tensions over its troop build-up near Ukraine.

The source, who declined to be named, noted that U.S. officials worry that the Moscow trip could embolden Putin as he engages in talks to stave off an invasion.

The person said that it was not a good time to go and that U.S. officials had tried to "dissuade" the Brazilian president from taking the trip.

A Brazilian diplomat, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said that Bolsonaro's trip was still on and that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had not pushed Brazil to call it off when he called Franca.

The diplomat said there was no discussion of cancellation of the trip at all during the call, adding that the U.S. knows Bolsonaro's visit to Moscow is just about the trade.

Analysts on Brazil President's Trip to Russia

Meanwhile, analysts have noted the "terrible timing" of the visit amid the worst crisis since the Cold War. Western countries are afraid that Russia will invade Ukraine after deploying more than 100,000 troops with huge amounts of military hardware near or on the borders of the former Soviet republic.

Celso Amorim, who was foreign minister during the government of the now-opposition Workers' Party, said that canceling the trip could be seen as submitting to U.S. government policy.

Amorim noted that receiving an invitation from an important partner and canceling would give a "bad reading." Jair Bolsonaro's trip to Russia has been scheduled since December, following an invitation from Vladimir Putin.

READ MORE: Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele Express Support to Joe Rogan

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Como Visita De Bolsonaro a Putin e Vista Na Russia - From BBC News Brasil






Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday cited a "conspiracy" behind the U.S. suspension on avocado imports.

According to Associated Press, Lopez Obrador said the suspension is part of a conspiracy against Mexico by political or economic interests.

Lopez Obrador put forward the conspiracy theory even though the U.S. measure was because of years of worries about drug cartel violence in Michoacan state.

The U.S. suspended imports of Mexican avocados on the eve of the Super Bowl following a threat against an American plant safety inspector in Mexico.

"In all of this, there are also a lot of political interests and political interests. There is competition. They don't want Mexican avocados to get into the United States... Because it would rule in the United States because of its quality," the Mexican president said.

Lopez Obrador did not specifically mention what those interests were. But he noted that there were other countries interested in selling avocados.

"As in the case of other farm products, so they lobby, they look for senators, professional public (relations) people and agencies, to put up obstacles," Lopez Obrador added.

According to reports, the U.S. grows about half of the avocados the Americans consume, and to protect their local fruit plantations from pests, they inspect imported avocados. In recent years, nearly 90 percent of the avocados Americans consume are from Mexico.

READ NEXT: U.S.-Mexico Border Crisis: Mexican Officials Demolish Makeshift Migrant Camp in Tijuana; Hundreds Evicted

Mexico's Avocados Ban Will Continue

A spokesman of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the suspension would remain in place for as long as necessary to ensure that appropriate actions were taken, Government Executive reported.

APHIS spokesman Lucero Hernandez added that this was also to secure the safety of APHIS personnel working in Mexico.

Hernandez said their agency is working with the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to allow avocados still in Mexico that were inspected and approved before the pause to be imported into the U.S.

U.S. Suspends Import of Mexico's Avocados Amid Threat to Inspector

On late Saturday, Mexico announced that the U.S. government had suspended all imports of Mexican avocados after one of its officers tasked to carry out inspection received a "threatening call."

The temporary suspension issued by the U.S. will affect the import of avocados from Michoacan state, which is the only Mexican state dully authorized to export avocados in the U.S. market.

"An investigation (by APHIS) is currently being carried out to assess the threat and determine the necessary mitigation measures to guarantee the physical integrity of all of its personnel working in Michoacan," Mexico's Agriculture Department said.

The suspension of Avocado import in the U.S. came a day after Mexican avocado growers and the packers association unveiled its Super Bowl 56 ad. This year's advertisement shows Julius Caesar and a bunch of rough gladiator fans enjoying guacamole and avocados outside the coliseum.

It is known that Guacamole and Avocados are traditionally present during Super Bowl celebrations. According to author and times Columnist Gustavo Arellano, the famous dip became a Super bowl tradition in the 1960s.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico tweeted that it is working with the Mexican government "to guarantee security conditions that allow for our personnel in Michoacan to resume operations."

It noted that "facilitating the exportation of Mexican avocados to the U.S. and guaranteeing the safety of our agricultural inspection teams go hand in hand."

Facilitar la exportacion de aguacates mexicanos a  y garantizar la seguridad de nuestros equipos de inspeccion agricola van de la mano. Estamos trabajando con @GobiernoMX para garantizar condiciones de seguridad que permitan a nuestro personal en #Michoacan reanudar operaciones  Embajada EU en Mex (@USEmbassyMEX) February 14, 2022

It was not the first time that avocados in Michoacan had been threatened as the state is currently being fought over by Mexican drug cartels.

The Jalisco cartel in Michoacan is fighting turf wars against an alliance of smaller cartels known as the United Cartels, which had the support of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Many avocado growers in Michoacan say drug cartels threaten them or their family members with kidnapping and death unless they pay protection money.

In August 2019, a U.S. Department of Agriculture team was "directly threatened" in Ziracuaretiro, Michoacan. Authorities did not specify what happened, but local authorities said a gang robbed the truck inspectors were traveling in at gunpoint.

The avocado ban was the latest threat to Mexico's export trade, stemming from the government's inability to curb illegal activities.

READ MORE: Mexico: Drug Cartel CJNG Adopts Brutal Tactics From Middle East Terrorists | Here's What They Added to Their Arsenal

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Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Defending Avocado Farms From Drug Cartels - From VICE News
The Jalisco cartel in Mexico is forcing new members into cannibalism, making them eat human flesh.

According to Daily Mail, the notorious Mexican drug cartel has shared a sickening video of one of its new recruits feasting on a rival's heart straight from his mutilated chest.

The cellphone footage, which surfaced in Mexico's Zacatecas state last month, showed the cartel member crouching over the dead body of the rival hitman from the Sinaloa Cartel and tearing large bites from the man's heart before pretending to offer it to the lifeless body to taste.

The dead victim had his arms tied and appeared to have his chest ripped open, The Sun reported. Another member was seen in the background hacking away at a second corpse.

Dr. Robert Bunker, a security analyst and expert on Mexican drug cartels, told The Daily Beast that the violent initiation ceremony was used to frighten members of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Sinaloa Cartel was formerly run by drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera and is now headed by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

READ NEXT: Rival of Sinaloa Cartel Sent Severed Head, Death Threat to Tijuana's New Police Chief on First Day

Cannibalism in Jalisco Cartel's 'Terror School'

Cannibalism became part of the Jalisco cartel initiation around 2015. The cartel forces new recruits to eat raw human hearts of rival members as part of its "terror school."

According to Robert Bunker, the video "has clearly been produced for PSYOPS purposes" by the Jalisco cartel unit involved in the incident, who then uploaded it to social media to scare other El Mayo's gunmen.

It was also reported that the practice was used to root out moles and test the loyalty of new recruits. In 2015, Alfredo Castillo, a federal security commissioner for Mexico's Michoacan state, said the ritual ranged from dismembering individuals they intended to kill to sometimes serving up the heart.

The Jalisco Cartel recruits reportedly undergo extreme combat courses, including learning how to use weapons and set up secret locations in Zacatecas.

After three or four months, they were forced to eat human flesh and taught to sever fingers and toes, a technique for torturing and interrogating rival members.

A former Jalisco Cartel member told the Daily Beast that they were given a choice of one of those pieces to eat in front of the boss.

The member noted that they must eat it without reacting or vomiting, or they would be beaten. Also, if one does not want to eat human flesh, they would not let the person leave.

Recruits were also forced to sleep next to the dead at night to desensitize them. Anyone who breaks the rules faces being killed.

The Jalisco Cartel in Mexico

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel or Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) is currently the Sinaloa Cartel's main rival. The Jalisco cartel is being led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known by his alias "El Mencho," according to an InsightCrime report.

The Jalisco cartel came out from the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010 after the death of former Sinaloa Cartel capo Ignacio Coronel, known as "Nacho," who was killed by Mexican security forces. Nacho's death resulted in the split into two factions - "La Resistencia" and "Torcidos" - of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The "Torcidos" became what is now the Jalisco cartel, which has since expanded rapidly in Mexico. The CJNG involves itself in many criminal activities, including international drug trafficking and kidnappings.

According to the U.S. State Department, the Jalisco cartel is considered "to be the most violent drug trafficking organization currently operating in Mexico, with the highest cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine trafficking capacity."

The U.S. government has already offered a $10 million reward for information leading to El Mencho's arrest as he continues to evade capture.

READ MORE: Mexico: 2 Bodies Found Hanging From Bridge, 3 Police Officers Killed as Mexican Drug Cartels Battle for Territory

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: New Generation Jalisco Drug Cartel Spreads Through Mexico - From CGTN America






Hispanic Unity of Florida, a Hollywood-based nonprofit organization serving diverse and multicultural working families in South Florida, announced recently that it had received a grant from AmeriCorps.

The $179,000 grant will be used to support the organizations economic opportunity initiatives, with a special focus on workforce, emergency assistance and food insecurity programs.

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The COVID-19 pandemic created hardships for many families in our area, said Felipe Pinzon, president and CEO of Hispanic Unity of Florida. This grant, and our collaboration with AmeriCorps and Volunteer Florida, allows Hispanic Unity of Florida to increase our capacity and help more struggling families. Our goal is to provide the resources and services they need to thrive.

Serving the Broward community, Hispanic Unity was founded more than 39 years ago by community leaders to facilitate the acculturation transition of immigrants from other nations. It offers help in applying for citizenship, learning English, filing taxes, learning how to feed a family well, child care after school, among other programs.

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[ Free legal help for Venezuelans to apply for TPS virtually and in person in South Florida ]

Programs and services will be available in person (through workshops or group events) and one on one by phone.

AmeriCorps is a national service program that provides opportunities for people to serve their communities. Volunteer Florida (officially recognized as the Florida Community Service Commission) receives more than $34 million in federal and state funding to support its efforts to expand national service, promote disaster resilience, and advocate for volunteerism in Florida. In 1994, Volunteer Florida was established to administer national service programs, such as AmeriCorps, throughout the state.

HUF provides assistance through 12 programs and more than 30 services in four languages: English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Sign Language to people in more than 25 countries.

The AmeriCorps grant runs through July 31, and is renewable, the program states.

People interested in receiving help can contact Hispanic Unity at 5840 Johnson St, Hollywood or https://www.hispanicunity.org.

yvaldez@sunsentinel.com, @yvonnehvaldezz in Twitter and @elsentinelsur in Facebook, Twitter e Instagram.
Rafael "N," known by his alias "El Fantasma," who is the leader of the Jalisco Cartel in Mexico's Zacatecas state, has been arrested on Saturday.

According to Mexico News Daily, the Army and the National Anti-Kidnapping Coordinator arrested the cartel chief in Chihuahua for aggravated kidnapping.

Authorities believed that "El Fantasma" (the ghost) was responsible for the 10 bodies found hanging from an overpass in Cuauhtemoc at Zacatecas.

El Fantasma was reportedly in charge of training recruits and suspected of selling illegal drugs, extortion, kidnappings, and homicides in Fresnillo, Tepetongo, and Monte Escobedo.

The Jalisco cartel leader is also being investigated for kidnapping two U.S. citizens, siblings Javier and Alejandra Marquez Gomez of Los Angeles, California, last December 23. According to reports, the kidnappers demanded $17,000 from their relatives in the U.S.

Tepetongo and Monte Escobedo that El Fantasma allegedly controlled were left with no police officers in November, while Fresnillo has the distinction of being a city in Mexico where the highest percentage of residents feel unsafe.

According to El Universal, the Jalisco cartel leader was wanted by both Zacatecas and Chihuahua authorities.

READ NEXT: Joaquin' El Chapo' Guzman Mansions, Aztec Stadium Luxury Box Among Raffle Prizes up for Sale: Mexico Government

Bodies Hung From Bridges in Mexico Amid Mexican Drug Cartels' Turf War

In November, at least 19 bodies were found hanging from separate bridges and a tree in Mexico's Zacatecas state. Three bodies were discovered hanging from a bridge in Fresnillo town on November 15 and 10 bodies from another bridge in Cuauhtemoc town on November 18.

After a week, another three bodies were found hanging from an overpass in Fresnillo and three more from a tree in the same town.

Zacatecas reportedly sees a number of murders as rival Mexican drug cartels fight for control of some highways that link border states with the rest of Mexico. Most of the cartel violence in Zacatecas is allegedly connected to a turf war between the Jalisco cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.

In late November, at least 12 were reported dead in a series of clashes between the Jalisco cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel in Zacatecas.

Human remains were also found in two plastic bags in the same month. At least four municipalities in Zacatecas reportedly ran out of police officers after mass resignations in November.

In early December, an SUV filled with 10 bodies was left outside the state governor's office. The bodies were discovered crammed inside a Mazda SUV abandoned near a Christmas tree in the main plaza of the state capital of Zacatecas.

From January 18 to 25 this year, Zacatecas reportedly had 24 intentional homicides. Last year, the state had a total of 1,621.

Turf War Between Jalisco Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico's Zacatecas State

Officials said Mexican drug cartels have been battling for control of Zacatecas since the state is a key transit point for drugs.

Security experts noted that Zacatecas was crucial in transporting fentanyl from Mexico's South Pacific ports to the U.S. border. Zacatecas reportedly links the center and west of Mexico to the U.S. border, a key territory for drug-trafficking routes.

Aside from the Jalisco cartel and Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, Northeast Cartel, and the Los Talibanes also reportedly operate in Zacatecas state. All five crime organizations are involved in the operations of trafficking fentanyl and other illegal drugs.

Security experts said an unprecedented wave of violence had enveloped the streets of Zacatecas as the Mexican drug cartels fought over the territory.

Mexican drug cartels usually make public displays of bodies to taunt their rivals or authorities. It is also sometimes used to scare local residents.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel or Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) is currently the Sinaloa Cartel's main rival. The Jalisco cartel is being led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known by his alias "El Mencho," according to an InsightCrime report.

According to the U.S. State Department, the Jalisco cartel is considered "to be the most violent drug trafficking organization currently operating in Mexico, with the highest cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine trafficking capacity."

The U.S. government has already offered a $10 million reward for information leading to El Mencho's arrest as he continues to evade capture.

READ MORE: Jalisco Cartel in Mexico Is Creating Homemade Bombs Similar to Those Use by Islamic Militants Amid Drug War

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: The First Militaristic Drug Cartel | Narco Wars - From National Geographic
After breaking up with Julia Fox, Kanye West said he would "get" his family back with his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian.

In a since-deleted Instagram post, the "Donda" rapper posted an old photo of him and Kim in a wedding dress at the Donda listening event in Chicago last August, and brought up his political beliefs while praising Jesus.

Kanye wrote in the caption that he was not a "bad man" because he's not a "Democratic like 90% of Black celebs," and he loves his family and "being with his kids."

The rapper added: "I LOVE MY WIFE I LOVE MY CHILDREN AND I LOVE GOD IM AN ARTIST AND I NEED TO PAINT MY CHILDRENS FUTURE... IM COMING TO GET MY FAMILY BACK THIS IS NOT A TIRADE IT'S A PRAYER IN JESUS NAME AMEN."

The post was just the latest Kanye had posted regarding his family. Earlier, he said he had "faith" that he and Kim would reunite.

READ NEXT: Kanye West Blasts Kim Kardashian's Boyfriend, Pete Davidson, on a Series of Instagram Post | Here's What the Rapper Says About the Comedian

Kanye West Sends Truck Full of Roses to Kim Kardashian on Valentine's Day

Kanye West, now legally known as "Ye," issued the statement a few hours after sending a truck full of red roses to Kim Kardashian's house on Valentine's Day.

According to The Daily Mail, the rapper sent a massive arrangement of red roses in a truck branded, "MY VISION IS KRYSTAL KLEAR."

Kanye also posted the truck's photo on his Instagram but later deleted it. He tagged Kim in the center of the image. He also captioned the photo, "MY VISION IS KRYSTAL KLEAR," followed by a string of red rose emojis.

Kim has not commented on Kanye's grand gesture on Valentine's Day amid their feud. Kanye sent the roses to his ex-wife after news surfaced that he broke up with Julia Fox.

According to Daily Mail, Julia was spotted tearfully jetting out of the Los Angeles International Airport alone after her social media activity implicated that her whirlwind romance with Kanye was over.

The "Uncut Gems" star reportedly attempted to hide her emotional state behind a mask at the time. Julia had "liked" a post from Kim on Sunday after deleting all photos of West from her page.

It comes after Kanye shared several Instagram posts declaring, "I wish my wife were with me" and yearning for his family to be reunited.

A source told E! News that Julia does not have the energy to put more into a relationship with Kanye and would like to focus on her family and work obligations in New York.

The source added that Kanye expressed that he wanted Julia in Los Angeles, "but she couldn't take that on."

How Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson Feel About Kanye West's Pleas

Amid Kanye West's public declarations, two sources close to Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson told E! News that the couple is trying to ignore the rapper's remarks.

A source said Kim is trying to ignore Kanye's social media posts and pleas to get back together, adding that the reality star likes "where she is at in life and is loving this new chapter."

"She is really happy right now and is having a lot of fun... As long as the kids are safe and taken care of, that's all that matters to her," the insider noted.

The source said Kim wanted Kanye to move on and accept the fact that they "aren't getting back together." The source added that Kim will always communicate and be "cordial" with Kanye when it comes to their kids, and she "wants him to be happy."

The second insider noted that Pete was not totally aware of the drama since he did not really spend time on social media.

The source added that Pete also does not want to be in the middle of Kim and Kanye, adding that the comedian has "sympathy" for the rapper while he supports Kim with whatever she needs.

Kanye earlier attacked Pete in a series of social media posts amid the comedian's romance with his estranged wife. Because of this, Kim contacted Kanye over his actions.

In another deleted post, Kanye shared screenshots of messages sent to him by Kim, claiming that the rapper was "creating a dangerous and scary environment" for Pete.

The reality star also said that it would be Kanye's fault if someone hurt Pete.

"There are dangerous people out there, and this is scary, and it doesn't have to be," Kim noted.

The rapper then answered Kim Kardashian, saying "he will do everything" to protect their family, and he will also make sure that nothing will happen to Pete, whom he called "Skete."

READ MORE: Kanye West Threatens to Quit Coachella if Billie Eilish Doesn't Apologize for 'Dissing' Travis Scott - Here's Her Response

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Newly-Single Kanye Sends Truck Full of Roses to Kim's House - From news.com.au
HOLLYWOOD  Controversial new rules could be coming to the carnivalesque party zone known as Hollywood beach  and chances are not everyone is going to like them.

Heres what could be coming down the pike should commissioners give the word: No walking or hanging out on the sand between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Popular canopy tents would get the boot. And Rollerblades, roller skates and bikes with more than two wheels would be no-nos as well.

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Commissioners are set to vote on the proposed changes Wednesday during a meeting that begins at 1 p.m. The new rules would go into effect after a final vote in the coming weeks.

Its all about making Hollywoods family-friendly beach safer for all, city officials say.

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Our Broadwalk sees millions of people a year, Mayor Josh Levy told the South Florida Sun Sentinel Monday. And all the various activities people want to enjoy are happening at the same time. We want to make sure all those uses occur in a safe manner. At the same time, Im not looking for the city to be the fun police either.

Any day of the week, Hollywoods oceanfront Broadwalk is buzzing with a flurry of activity. Skaters and bicyclists roll past tourists and locals making their way to and from the beach. Kids zoom by on low-riding three-wheeler banana bikes. Families rent four-wheeled canopied surreys by the hour, taking in the sights at a more leisurely pace.

[ LEE EN ESPANOL: Hollywood pudiera prohibir los paseos por la playa a ultima hora, las tiendas de campana, los patines, las bicicletas tipo banana ]

Riders in a four-wheel surrey make their way along the busy Broadwalk in Hollywood on Monday. New rules could be coming that would ban bikes with more than two wheels along with roller skates and canopy tents. Hollywood might also close the sandy part of the beach between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. (Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Playing referee

On a good day, no one collides. But sometimes accidents happen. Tempers flare. People get hurt. And cops are occasionally called in to play referee.

Critics have complained for years about the crowded Broadwalk, saying its become a danger zone for both pedestrians and those on wheels. The tents on the beach have also created controversy, with some griping they block the view and take up way too much space.

Dan Kennedy, a longtime resident whose home sits on the south end of the 2.5-mile Broadwalk, says he can understand why the city wants to control the chaos.

I think those banana bikes are an accident waiting to happen, Kennedy said Monday. I saw some little kids almost take out four senior citizens the other day. The Tour de France people on the regular bikes are going too fast, too. All the Lance Armstrong wannabes. Theyre horrible.

Kennedy is all for the ban on canopy tents. But he thinks the skaters and surrey rentals should get to stay. And he thinks people should be allowed to walk on the beach after the clock strikes 11 p.m.

[ RELATED: Hollywood sets up tent zone on beach ]

Closing the beach during those hours would help stop loitering and criminal activity, Hollywood officials say.

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They also cite an increase in tents and canopies on the beach. While popular with families, they can also keep lifeguards and other first responders from seeing whats happening and getting to the water quickly when a beachgoer needs help.

As for bike rules, the city says the bike lane on the Broadwalk was designed for two-way travel by bikes with two wheels, not three and four. Bikes with more than two wheels are wider, forcing other riders to leave the bike lane, endangering pedestrians.

People on skates also pose a hazard, city officials argue.

A couple skate on the Broadwalk in Hollywood on Monday. A proposed ban would keep skaters off the crowded promenade. (Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

In the name of safety

But not everyone is gung-ho about all the proposed changes  and that includes the mayor.

Everything is in the interest of public safety, but I am opposed to most of the changes, Levy said. I think its an overreach.

Levy says he doesnt favor a ban on canopy tents or roller skates. But the banana bikes may need to go.

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I think those are nerve-wracking for people who walk along the beach, Levy said. And Ive seen the kids riding them lose control. We need to discuss whether those are compatible with all the activity that goes on along the Broadwalk.

Levy says hes open to closing the sandy part of the beach to the public at 11 p.m.

Just like any other city park that closes at a certain hour, I think the beach can have operating hours, he said. There are people who choose to camp on the beach. Were trying to keep people safe. Lets keep that in perspective. At 3 a.m. most people are not on the sandy beach.

Despite what some may think, the public does not have a constitutional right to hang out on the beach at night, said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University.

The city can close a public area if there is a reason to do so, Jarvis said. If the city is saying they want to reduce crime, that is a valid objective. But you have to ask if there is more to the story. You have to ask if the city is targeting a particular group like African Americans or the homeless. If thats the reason the city is doing it, thats unconstitutional. You cant target a group.

Hollywood commissioners are set to vote Wednesday on a slew of new rules for the beach that includes a ban on skating along the busy Broadwalk. (Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Killing the culture?

Leonard Ivler, manager of Sun & Fun Cycles on Hollywood beach, is no fan of the planned changes.

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The surreys are part of the culture of Hollywood beach, he said. Theyve been around for 40 years. Never been a problem on the beach. We rent the banana bikes. We rent adult trikes, too. Anything with over two wheels would be banned.

Beachgoer Veronica Sanchez wasnt too thrilled with the idea of a ban on beach tents. Sanchez lives in Hialeah but frequently comes to Hollywood to visit her son and his family.

If they ban all tents then I definitely would not go there to the beach, she said. Most people feel like that because of the sun and the heat.

But Sanchez says she understands where the city is coming from.

I never ride anything on the Broadwalk, she said. I would not take my grandkid there to ride. Its just too much going on. Its not safe.

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan
Portland, TN (37148)

Today

Mostly cloudy early, then thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 81F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then cloudy skies after midnight. Low 54F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
A Stradbally farmer was a category winner in the Glanbia Ireland Quality Grain Awards 2021.

Bobby Miller of Rathmore was the winner in the Winter (Cassia) Feed Barley category.

Bobby farms a combination of owned and rented land at Rathmore. Crops grown on the farm include winter oilseed rape, winter barley, gluten free oats and spring malting barley, all as part of a five-year rotation. All crops are established using a plough-based system.

Bobby has begun to increase the use of organic manures on the farm in recent years. Weanling dairy heifers are brought onto the farm over winter to graze on catch crops such as rape and kale.

Bobby will be known to many growers as the Chairman of the Irish Grain Growers Group. Attention to detail is a hallmark of Bobby Millers farming system and this shines through in the quality and yield of crops produced.

The winning crop had an average specific weight of 70.1kph, 1.4% screenings and 9.7% protein at a moisture of 13.6% across 122 tonnes.

Bobbys Glanbia agronomist is Tim Scott.

Elsewhere, Kildare grain growers Matt and Luke Dempsey claimed the Glanbia Ireland Grain Supplier of the Year Award for 2021, amid strong competition from across the country following a bumper harvest.

From barley to beans, the annual awards programme recognises the excellence of the top-class Irish crops delivered by growers each year.

The growers from Celbridge were amongst 12 suppliers honoured for their dedication and attention to detail in grain production. Matt and Luke Dempsey operate a tillage and beef enterprise, with around 250 acres allocated to cereal crops.

Glanbia Co-op Chairman John Murphy said the calibre of the entrants to the awards is a reflection of the hard work, dedication and professionalism displayed throughout the grain sector. We are extremely proud of our top-class portfolio of grains and the high quality is a direct result of the pride that our growers take in their work each and every day.



The weather often takes a toll on farmers, particularly grain growers, and it was good to note the favourable conditions and excellent yields were matched by strong prices for the 2021 harvest.



Glanbia Ireland Director of Ingredients, Aoife Murphy, said the state-of-the-art new Innovation Centre has delivered enhanced opportunities for our strong
A 20-year-old accused of murdering a drunk fisherman who entered his home as a trespasser "had no intention to do anything other than protect his own home" and had acted in self defence, his lawyers have told a Central Criminal Court jury.

However, prosecution counsel said that the case of Dean Kerrie "bears out the true folly of taking the law into your own hands".

In his closing speech counsel for the DPP, Michael Delaney SC, said the accused could have let Jack Power (25) walk out of his house that night but decided to take the law into his hands "at a level much greater and with much deadlier consequences" than Mr Power intended when he entered the Kerrie home.

Mr Kerrie (20), with an address at St Brigid's Square, Portarlington in Co Laois has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Power at Shanakiel, Dunmore East, Co Waterford on July 26, 2018.

Addressing the jury on Monday, February 14 in his closing speech, Mr Delaney said there was "fairly significant" conflict between the evidence from the prosecution witnesses as to the circumstances of how Mr Power met his death and the account given by the accused in his evidence last Friday. "It is your function to determine where the truth lies," he said.

Mr Kerrie took to the stand at his own trial last Friday, telling the jury that the deceased had kicked in the front door of his home, attacked him and threatened to kill his mother.

Today, Mr Delaney submitted in his closing address that because Mr Power had entered Mr Kerrie's house as a trespasser with intent to commit assault, then regard must be hard to self defence or the justifiable use of force and how these principles interacted with the basic ingredients of murder.

Describing the basic principle of self defence, counsel said that if a person uses no more than reasonable force in defending themselves or their property then they are not acting unlawfully and commit no offence. "In a homicide case, if no more than reasonable force is used and there is no unlawful killing and the basic ingredient of murder has not been committed, then the accused is entitled to a full acquittal," he said.

However, he pointed out if the force used is excessive having regard to the circumstances, then the accused is acting unlawfully and commits an offence. It depends on the state of mind of the accused at the time of the killing as to whether it is murder or manslaughter, he added.

"If a person uses excessive force and knows they are using excessive force and as a result the person is killed then they are guilty of murder. On the other hand, if on your view the person uses excessive force but honestly believes the force used is no more than reasonable, the law does not regard them as acting maliciously and says the verdict is one of manslaughter and not murder," he explained.

When considering self defence, Mr Delaney said there were three possible verdicts open to the jury namely; not guilty, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or guilty of murder. "It is important that you establish in your own minds what force was used by the accused and were the circumstances by which that force was used justified," he told the jury.

Outlining Mr Kerrie's "version of events", Mr Delaney said the 20-year-old gave evidence that he picked up a knife that night and brandished it at Mr Power when he was being assaulted by him in the bedroom "but that he did not stab him with the knife, that Mr Power had lost his footing and fell into the knife".

"As implausible and all as that may seem, if you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that this was not an accidental stabbing but a deliberate act and he deliberately stuck a knife into Mr Power's chest, then that is a different scenario, that's a serious level of force and a serious act of violence. In those circumstances you would have to be satisfied that there was a serious threat at the time to Mr Kerrie or someone else in the house to justify that level of force," he continued.

If it was a deliberate stabbing, counsel said, there was no threat and Mr Power had left the house as described by his friend Christopher Lee in his evidence. "There is no justification for that level of force in circumstances where there is no threat; it's simply an act of retaliation," he pointed out.

He drew the jury's attention to the law which outlined that one is not entitled to kill someone because they trespass on another's property.

Regarding the "version of events" put forward by Mr Kerrie, counsel said there were a number of features in his evidence that were "inherently implausible". These, he said, included that the knife was "conveniently lying" at the foot of a bed where the assault had taken place and within reach of the accused rather than in the kitchen, where one would expect it to be.

It was also implausible, Mr Delaney said, that Mr Power had lost his footing as he was trying to kick the knife out of Mr Kerrie's hand and that he ended up falling onto the weapon.

Furthermore, the lawyer said the account given by the accused concerning what he did with the knife after the incident was also implausible. "Mr Kerrie said he went into the kitchen and put it on the draining board, it was clearly concealed by view. He would have you believe that completely by mistake he picked up a different knife and placed it in the hall, not according to him where the stabbing occurred but just so it would be there when the gardai came into the house," he said.

If this was the case, counsel asked, why "take it from the kitchen at all and tell gardai when they arrive that is where it is to be found".

In the opening address, Mr Delaney said the jury would hear that a black and white handled knife was seized from the hall and swabbed for blood but "curiously no blood was found on the blade". The court heard gardai found a similar knife partially concealed on the draining board in the kitchen of the house, which did appear to have blood and it was found to contain Mr Power's DNA.

Other areas of Mr Kerrie's account "stretched credibility", he argued, including the alleged attack by Mr Power on Mr Kerrie, who said he was choked so firmly by the deceased that he passed out and then woke up in the corner of the middle bedroom. Mr Delaney said the accused had made no complaint of neck pain and there was no evidence of any marks around his neck. "What he did sustain were some minor cuts or scratches, consistent with a minor assault. Nothing more than that," he added.

Counsel told the jurors that Mr Kerrie claimed his mother, Ann Fitzgerald, did not know Mr Power had been stabbed until her son told her. "It is not credible that his mother would not have been aware that Mr Power was stabbed. He may have lied to cover up the fact that she did nothing to assist a man who was dying outside," he submitted.

Also, counsel said the accused's account did not tally with that of his friend Dylan Jones, who he had shared a bed with that night.

Mr Kerrie said that Mr Power had kicked in his door whereas Jones gave a very different description as to how the deceased entered the property. "He [Jones] saw the handle going down on the door and said Mr Power simply walked in," said counsel.

Also, counsel reminded the jury that Mr Kerrie said that he was defending himself from attack by Mr Power when he [Mr Kerrie] produced the knife whereas Jones said that the deceased was pulling Ms Fitzgerald by the hair. "The two men are describing two very different things happening at the time of the stabbing," said Mr Delaney.

Furthermore, he said, Ms Fitzgerald had shown no signs of injury and made no complaint of assault or injury to gardai.

He urged the jury to reject the version of events offered by Mr Kerrie and Jones.

Mr Delaney said that the account given by the deceased's best friend Christopher Lee was consistent with the other evidence in the case. "Looking through the window of the middle bedroom, Mr Lee saw the scuffle take place between Mr Power and Mr Kerrie. When the scuffle came to an end, Mr Lee saw Mr Power coming out into the hall, about to leave the house and saw Mr Kerrie come from behind Jack Power and shout something at the end by where Mr Power turned around and was stabbed," he said.

The barrister noted that the limited amount of blood found at the scene was concentrated in the area around the hall adjacent to the kitchen, that the "decoy knife" was placed by Mr Kerrie on the floor of the hall adjacent to where those spots of blood were identified by gardai and that Mr Power had no defence injuries on him. "Mr Power did not see this knife coming at him, it is consistent with him having his back to Mr Kerrie and as soon as he turns around he is stabbed in the chest. He had no opportunity to put his hands up and defend himself," he said.

Mr Delaney suggested that "the most telling piece of evidence" were the words of the accused man in the background that night when his mother was being put through to gardai on the phone.

The accused accepted on the stand last Friday that he could be heard shouting "I'll take your life, I hope you're dead. I'll take your life" in the background on the 999 call.

Mr Delaney submitted that these were not the words of someone who was in fear of their life as Mr Kerrie had told gardai on the phone that night.

The jury has already listened to a 999 recording of then-teenager Mr Kerrie telling a dispatcher "I'm actually so in fear of my life right now" after he said he stabbed Jack Power "by accident" and that the man had come "in the front door at him" and tried to hit him.

"I did it but I didn't mean to though," Dean Kerrie told the emergency services. "My life is going to be gone over him coming in here," he also said.

Mr Delaney stressed today that these were words of "defiance and malice", which revealed the accused's true state of mind when he stabbed Mr Power.

The lawyer concluded by saying that the facts of this case bear out "the true folly" of taking the law into your own hands. "Whether he was right or wrong, Jack Power was convinced Mr Kerrie had broken the wing mirror of his car. He paid for that mistake with his life. Mr Kerrie, we say on the evidence, could have just let Mr Power walk out of the house that night but he too decided to take the law into his hands. He did it at a level much greater and with much deadlier consequences than Mr Power intended when he went into the house," he highlighted.

In summary, Mr Delaney said the jury could be satisfied that the prosecution had proved the case of murder against Mr Kerrie beyond a reasonable doubt.

Defence counsel Ciaran O'Loughlin SC told the jury that the central issue they have to consider is what happened inside the house that night from the time Mr Power broke the window of Mr Kerrie's house up until he suffered a stab wound.

He indicated that there were serious difficulties in the evidence but also serious similarities.

He reminded the jury that his client had repeatedly said that he had stabbed Mr Power but didn't mean to. "If he had intended to stab him, he might have stabbed him two or three times," he said.

Mr O'Loughlin argued that there was no time for Mr Kerrie and Jones to "concoct" a story as the accused was on the phone from the time Mr Power was stabbed until gardai arrived at his home.

He called the allegation of the accused's hiding the knife nonsense and said the evidence established that Mr Kerrie was in fear of his life. "Why wouldn't he be, he had just been attacked by a huge man. To suggest he is on the phone sobbing and crying to gardai and interfering with evidence is nonsense," he added.

If Mr Kerrie was threatening people outside the house then it was to keep them away, he said.

Counsel said whilst this was an enormous tragic event, it was an act of self defence. "He had no intention to do anything other than protect his own home," he said.

The murder trial has heard that Mr Power sustained a single stab wound to the front of the chest which penetrated his heart.

Ms Justice Eileen Creedon will begin charging the jury of seven men and four women tomorrow before they commence their deliberations.
A man drove while disqualified, Portlaoise District Court heard on Thursday last.

John Kerry, 44, of 74 Kirwan Park, Mountmellick was charged with no insurance and driving without a licence at Kirwan Park on January 7, 2022. He pleaded guilty.

He was also driving while disqualified, the court was told.

Defending, solicitor Barry Fitzgerald said that Mr Kerry was living in Dublin. He had four children.

He was driving within the confines of an estate area. He accepted he was in breach of a disqualification order. Mr Fitzgerald noted he had a young family, and he hoped for the opportunity of a non custodial sentence.

He said that Mr Kerry hoped to get some building work.

Sgt JJ Kirby told the court that Mr Kerry had been disqualified from driving for six years for no insurance in December 2019.

Mr Fitzgerald said that Mr Kerry accepted his record, and that he was at risk. He had learned his lesson and was a good family man.

Judge Catherine Staines sentenced him to six months in the Midlands Prison, suspended for one year. She disqualified him from driving for eight years, taking into account the driving licence matter.
A jury will return to the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday to consider its verdict in the murder trial of a 20-year-old man who says he was protecting his home when a drunk fisherman entered as a trespasser.

The jury of seven men and four women began considering their verdict shortly after 2pm this afternoon and have spent a total of one hour and 47 minutes deliberating in their jury room in the Criminal Courts of Justice building.

At 4pm today, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon told the jurors that she would release them until tomorrow and asked them to come back to the Central Criminal Court at 11am in the morning.

Ms Justice Creedon spent the morning of Tuesday, Ferbruary 15explaining the law to the jury of seven men and four women following the two-week trial at the Central Criminal Court. She explained that the defendant Dean Kerrie had raised the issue of self defence and there was no burden on him to prove that he had acted in self defence.

Mr Kerrie (aged 20), with an address at St Brigid's Square, Portarlington in Co Laois has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jack Power (25) at Shanakiel, Dunmore East, Co Waterford on July 26, 2018.

The murder trial has heard that Mr Power sustained a single stab wound to the front of the chest which penetrated his heart.

In his closing speech yesterday, defence counsel Ciaran O'Loughlin SC submitted that Mr Kerrie "had no intention to do anything other than protect his own home" and had acted in self defence that night.

However, prosecution counsel Michael Delaney SC told the jury that the case of Mr Kerrie "bears out the true folly of taking the law into your own hands". Counsel said the accused could have let Jack Power walk out of his house that night but decided to take the law into his hands "at a level much greater and with much deadlier consequences" than Mr Power intended when he entered the Kerrie home.

Mr Kerrie took to the stand at his own trial last week, telling the jury that the deceased had kicked in the front door of his home, attacked him and threatened to kill his mother.

The accused accepted on the stand last Friday that he could be heard shouting "I'll take your life, I hope you're dead. I'll take your life" in the background on the 999 call.

In her charge to the jury today, Ms Justice Creedon said that the accused had raised the issue of self defence and there was no burden on him to prove that he had acted in self defence. "The onus of proof always rests on the prosecution and there is no difference with the issue of self defence. The defence has to prove nothing," she added.

Ms Justice Creedon said there were three verdicts the jury could return in relation to the murder charge against Mr Kerrie, namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.

If the jury was satisfied that Mr Kerrie was not acting in self defence, that he had killed Mr Power unlawfully and that he intended to kill or cause serious harm to him then the offence of murder had been set out.

If, having considered the evidence, the jury finds Mr Kerrie had an honest belief that Mr Power had entered the house as a trespasser to commit a criminal act and they find the force used by Mr Kerrie was reasonable, then the accused was not acting unlawfully and should be acquitted.

If the jury finds that Mr Kerrie had an honest belief that Mr Power entered the house as a trespasser but that the accused employed more force than necessary but no more force than he felt was reasonable, then they must return a verdict of guilty of manslaughter.

Furthermore, the judge told the jury they must have regard to the Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Act 2011 and said a person cannot lose their life because they are a trespasser in the house of another.

Ms Justice Creedon explained that it shall not be an offence for a person who is in his dwelling, or for a person who is a lawful occupant in a dwelling, to use force against another where, he believes the other person has entered the dwelling as a trespasser for the purpose of committing a criminal act.

She said the force used is only such as is reasonable in the circumstances as he believes them to be to protect themselves from injury; to protect his property from destruction, or; to prevent the commission of a crime.

The judge said it was immaterial whether a belief is justified or not if it is honestly held but in considering whether the person using the force honestly held the belief, the court or the jury shall have regard to the presence or absence of reasonable grounds for the person so believing.

She told the jury that it was immaterial whether the person using the force had a safe and practicable opportunity to retreat from the dwelling before using the force concerned. The use of force shall not exclude the use of force causing death, she said.

Finally, Ms Justice Creedon said the prosecution case is that Mr Kerrie, who was raised in Waterford, unlawfully killed Mr Power, that he was not acting in self defence and that he charge of murder had been made out.

The defence case, she said, is that the charge of murder had not been made out and that the accused had acted in self-defence when he stabbed Mr Power.

Ms Justice Creedon told the jurors that they must be unanimous in their verdict before sending them away to begin deliberations shortly after 2pm.
A Laois woman who played a passionate and active role in many community groups throughout her life, will be laid to rest today.

Mary B Culliton from Mountmellick was a proud Tipperary woman from Mullinahone but was also dedicated to her adopted town, from being a teacher and credit union founder, to encouraging many local children to make the most of their talents in music and craft.

She was predeceased by her husband Tomas, who was for many years the principal of The Rock NS.

She was the beloved mother of Kathleen, John, Margaret, Tracy, Anne, David, Sinead, Eoin and Grainne. Also loved by sisters and brothers, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, extended family and friends.

Mary was well known and actively involved in many circles including teaching at St Mary's College in Mountmellick, Comhaltas, ICA, Pro-Life, Credit Union, Foroige, Girl-Guides/Scouts, Sliabh Bloom Association, Laois Heritage Society, Laois Tourism, Concern and others. Gaelgoir broduil ab ea i.

Below: Mary B Culliton at an exhibition by Mountmellick Camera Club. Photo: Denis Byrne

Mountmellick Credit Union paid tribute.

"The Board of Directors of Mountmellick Credit Union wish to express their deepest sympathy to Mary's family on her passing. Mary was a founder member of our Credit Union and was a very dedicated Director.. May Mary Rest in Peace," they said.

The past pupils of Mountmellick paid tribute in Irish, as Iar-scolaire St Marys College Mointeach Milic.

"Comhbhron o chroi le clann Mary B. Ba bhean uasal i a chuir go mor le saol chuile dhuine lenar chas si. Go dtuga Iosa abhaile i go Cathair na nGrast. Ni imithe uainn i ach imithe romhainn. At dheis lamh De go raibh a hanam dilis."

Mary had been a Brownie and Girlguide leader for many years, and one of the past members shared fond memories.

"Very sorry to hear about the passing of Mrs Culliton. Fond memories of "camping" in her sitting room and going exploring the next day out around Barkmills, may she rest in peace".

The Presentation Sisters in Mountmellick offered their condolences also.

"Sincere sympathy to the Culliton family on the death of Mary. She was a valued colleague in St. Mary's College and a loyal friend to our Presentation community over many years. Ar dheis De go raibh a hanam dilis. You are in our thoughts and prayers at this very sad time."

A Mullinahone music festival committee also paid fond tribute.

"Sincere condolences to the Culliton & OGorman families on the sad passing of Mary B. A lovely lady who never forgot her roots in Mullinahone & gave generously of her musical talents, annually, for the Kickham Country Weekend celebrations. May the Angels serenade her with their Heavenly violins go dti leaba I measc na naomh. RIP."

She died on February 12, peacefully after a short illness at her home in Acragar, surrounded by her loving family.

Her requiem Mass was at 11am on Tuesday, February 15 in St Joseph's Church Mountmellick, followed by burial in St Joseph's Cemetery.
A Miami police officer exchanged gunfire with an armed man suspected of shooting his wife in Little Havana on Monday afternoon, police said.

The armed man and his wife, both elderly, were pronounced dead at the scene, at a home near Southwest 18th Avenue and Fifth Street. The shootings happened just after 3 p.m.

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Acting Miami Police Chief Manny Morales, in a media conference held nearby, stressed that it was too early in the investigation to determine if the officers bullet ended the mans life or if the man had shot himself.

Police have not named the man, the woman or the officer involved in the shooting. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting.

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Go to Herald.com for the full report.
A big slice of public money is set to be invested in the overhaul of a road linking Portlaoise to towns and villages in the south of the county with Mountrath in line for overdue road resurfacing.

Some 680,000 has been secured for resurfacing improvements to the R445 road between Borris-In-Ossory and Mountrath under the Former National Roads category of the 2022 Regional & Local Roads funding, announced by Ministers Eamon Ryan and Hildegarde Naughton.

Mountrath town centre is getting 250,000 for structural inlay while Moneymore (between Borris-in-Ossory and Ballaghmore) is getting overlay worth 250,000. A further 180,000 is to be spent on the roundabouts at Borris-in-Ossory which lead to the M7 motorway at Townparks.

An Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council and local Fine Gael Councillor Conor Bergin welcomed the news.

"This is great news for anyone who travels this road between Ballaghmore, Borris-In-Ossory, Mountrath and Portlaoise on a daily basis that significant improvements will be carried out to a number of sections of the road which are most in need of repair.

"I have been raising this issue with Laois County Council and I proposed a notice of motion at our Municipal Meeting last November asking for the Council to apply to the Department of Transport for funding under the Former National Roads category of the Local & Regional Roads allocation to address a number of the worst sections of this road.

"I have been working closely on this issue with Council engineers and I also raised the issue with a number of Fine Gael Ministers, including our local TD Charlie Flanagan who greatly supported this project.

"The R445 road was previously the old N7 road between Dublin and Limerick, arguably one of the busiest roads in the country prior to the opening of the M7 motorway in 2010. Once the motorway was completed this road was downgraded to a regional road. However, in recent years we have seen a steady increase in traffic once again and the road is as busy as it was maybe 10 or 15 years ago before the motorway opened.

"I am delighted to confirm that works will be carried out to improve these three sections of the R445 road in the Western Area, which will greatly enhance road safety for motorists and locals.

He added that a separate section of the road at Ballytarsna which is also badly in need of repair was unfortunately not included in this years allocation. He said he would continue to work closely with Laois County Council to try and get this section addressed as well.

Laois is getting nearly 13.5 million out of 597 million allocated under the 2022 regional and local roads programme announced by the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan TD on February 15.
Four young Laois people represented their county this week at a national Youth Work planning meeting in Dublin.

Jack is a 5th year student at Portlaoise College and Tamsin Fitzgerald is in her last year at YouthReach Mountmellick..

They are both members of the youth council Laois Comhairle na nOg, which gives children a voice in national Government policy.

Joining them were Matty Doyle from the UBU Project in Knockmay and Esraa Amour from UBU Project Colliers Wood.

All four are on a national panel at the Youth Work Ireland head office in Dublin.

This new group called the Youth Participant Panel is made up of selected members from all over Ireland who will get the opportunity to plan and organise youth work events for 2022 on a national level, and set out targets to achieve by the end of the year.

Each panel member will be assigned roles and responsibilities.

Below: The Youth Participant Panel in progress.

Jack Bowe is delighted to have a say at national level.

It is such a great opportunity to be involved in this group whether it be in planning, organising or using our voices to organise youth work events for 2022, he said.

The four will attend monthly meetings in a mix of online and in-person events, with a meeting to be hosted in the midlands in the pipeline.

UBU Projects work to ensure that young people from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to achieve their full potential within their communities and society.
A man who was jailed for two years after he twice rammed a garda patrol car before embarking on a high-speed cross-country chase has lost an appeal against his conviction for dangerous driving and endangerment.

Daniel Kelly reached a speed of 130kph in 80kph zones as gardai pursued him along narrow country roads and through townlands in Co Limerick.

Kelly drove past schools and churches at excessive speeds, collided with other vehicles, and was seen driving on the wrong side of the road, as he tried to escape arrest after he had been stopped for speeding.

The high-speed chase only ended after Kelly crashed his van after driving in to a field.

Kelly (35), of Main St, Caherconlish, Co Limerick, was later convicted by a jury at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court of one count of damaging property, contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Criminal Damage Act, and one count of endangerment, contrary to Section 13 of the same Act.

He was also convicted of three counts of dangerous driving, contrary to Section 43 (1) of the Road Traffic Act 1961, following the trial in October 2020, and banned from driving for six years.

He later appealed the conviction on the grounds that Judge Sean O Donnabhain had erred in law and fact by conducting the trial in a rushed manner.

Kelly also claimed the judge erred in failing in his charge to the jury to make proper reference to the fact that the van had not been forensically examined by gardai  a point which the defence had raised during the trial.

However, in a judgement delivered on Monday by Mr Justice John Edwards, presiding, who had sat with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, the appeal was dismissed.

Mr Justice Edwards explained that the case before the court was that it had been claimed the defence counsel had been inhibited from making submissions that he wished to make by the judges haste in considering a directions application in respect of the endangerment count.

However, the appeal court ruled that the defence counsel was one of the most experienced and senior members of the criminal defence junior bar at the time and was well able to assert his clients rights notwithstanding any ostensible impatience by the trial judge in seeking to progress the trial.

Regarding the charge to the jury, Mr Justice Edwards stated the Court of Appeal was satisfied there was no unfairness and no error on the part of the trial judge.

The offences were committed on August 8, 2016, shortly after Kelly was caught speeding on the N21 by a garda patrol, which had been parked on a slip road near Patrickswell, Co Limerick.

After a short pursuit, with the garda car displaying blue flashing lights, Kelly braked and brought his vehicle, a white Volkswagen combo van, to a halt.

But when one of the gardai exited their vehicle, which had pulled in behind Kellys van, the appellant suddenly reversed and rammed his van into the front of the garda car.

Kelly then rammed the garda car a second time before driving away at speed.

One of the gardai later described in court the force with which Kellys car hit the garda vehicle as extreme.

Kelly later attempted to ram another garda patrol after he was spotted driving towards Limerick, during a pursuit which involved several garda from the regional support unit.

He was arrested hiding in a ditch shortly after his van crashed into a field just past Donaghmore Church on the main Limerick to Kilmallock Road, the R512.
The water supply used by a group of residents in Kilteel has become contaminated with arsenic, prompting calls for water tankers to be deployed.

Up to 60 families are directly affected by the problem.

While they can use the water for washing purposes and in toilets, it is highly toxic and must not be consumed.

Nor can the problem be alleviated by boiling.

The amount of arsenic in the supply is nearly seven times the safe limit, it was claimed at a Naas Municipal District meeting on February 8 last.

responsibility

A KCC representative said that because the affected water supply is operated by a private group water scheme, primary responsibility rests with the local trustees of the scheme.

The representative added: In the interest of public health, KCC issued a do not consume notice  to all users of this supply prohibiting, until further notice, the use of this water for either drinking purposes or for the preparation of food.

assessments

The representative added that as the supervisory authority for group schemes, the council will continue to work with the trustees to assist in addressing the issue. Initial assessments suggest that finding a solution in the short term is likely to be challenging.

In the interim, the council will not be providing tankers as supplies from this source must also be boiled before consumption in accordance with drinking water regulations.

Local councillor Fintan Brett has called on the authorities to deploy water tankers to provide a safe and accessible supply for local families.

He said the contamination is a locally occurring problem but the scheme functioned normally for many years.

There is no point in Irish Water burying their heads in the sand, said Cllr Brett.

Cllr Brett believes that in the medium to long term it will be necessary to connect these homes to the public supply and this is likely to be expensive since some residences are located more than three kilometres from the nearest mains

source.

It is understood that all of those affected are part of a group water scheme, which provides water from a privately owned supply.

available

The water is fine for some use but for not drinking and you could have a situation where it snows heavily as it did a few years ago and no water would be available.

At that time this community was snowed in, said Cllr Brett.

He added: I understand that the contamination is well above the safe limits and Ill be calling on Irish Water and Kildare County Council to step up to the plate and find an immediate and long term solution.

According to Irish Water it has no responsibility for private group water schemes.
The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has issued a final call for local Kildare schools to submit their projects for the national Building the Future competition.

Entries for the competition, which invites students to plan, design and market a new residential development that is environmentally friendly and enhances the wellbeing of their local community, will close in early March.

To date, a total of 44 schools have registered for the competition, with a total of 105 teams due to take part.

Of those three local Kildare schools are due to participate in the challenge.

The winning teams and their school will receive the following prizes:

Opportunity to present their winning design at the Ireland Skills Live Event in the RDS in September 2022.

A days Construction Experience provided by Technical University Dublin

A TOPCON Complete construction package to include most up to date laser equipment

There are prizes for first, second and third place projects in this years competition.

The spokesperson added: "To support students in finalizing their entries, title sponsor Autodesk are also providing students and their schools with free access to Autodesk design software and digital Construction cloud-based services including FormIt, Revit, Recap Pro and the Autodesk Construction Cloud.

"The companys software was also used to design some of Irelands most iconic buildings, including the Guinness Storehouse, the Central Bank of Ireland, the Samuel Beckett Bridge, and even Dublins Spire."

Commenting on the competition, Amanda Fennell, Director of EMEA Marketing at Autodesk Construction Solutions said: "We are proud to be a part of this years Build the Future construction challenge, in partnership with the Construction Industry Federation of Ireland.

"This challenge has been designed to introduce students across Ireland to construction and design technology and we are extremely excited to see the innovative ideas that are submitted this year.

She continued: "At Autodesk, we have also made our software and cloud-based services available to all students and schools who are participating in this years challenge as part of our mission to inspire students to consider a career in construction.

"These technologies allow students to experience real life construction processes including collaborative working, risk reduction, sustainability, and data management: we hope that these technologies can help to open a world of opportunity and imagination for those students as they look to bring their own visions to life."

"It is extremely encouraging to see such high levels of interest in this years challenge and as the final deadline approaches, we want to remind registered teams to ensure that their project is submitted by 5pm on March 1," Ms Fennell concluded.

Further information about the competition can be found by clicking here.
For the past eight years, the mother of a boy from County Kildare with two separate medical conditions has passionately urged the Irish government "to make a stand" on surgery times and cancellations for those with spina bifida. (SB).

Monasterevin woman Lisa Brett has pointed to her son Eddie as an example of a child that has been negatively affected by surgery cancellations.

Eddie is an eight-year-old boy who has both SB and Hydrocephalus (HC).

SB is a condition that affects the spine and is usually apparent at birth, and is a type of neural tube defect, while HC refers to a build up of fluid on the brain.

According to the UK-based charity Shine, the two conditions are often linked.

Three Sinn Fein (SF) politicians also met with the families of Kildare children with SB and/or HC last Friday, February 11, at the office of Reada Cronin TD in Naas.

Waterford SF TD and health spokesperson David Cullinane joined Ms Cronin and Patricia Ryan TD to discuss the issues facing families of children suffering from SB and HC.

The event was praised by Ms Brett, who optimistically said: "I thought it went really well: SF has really got behind us, and they have really fought for us.

"I am really happy that there is someone is fighting for us, because these children deserve better, they really do," she added.

In addition, the very dapper Eddie said he too enjoyed the event, and also the goodies provided at the meeting.

'A critical issue'

Mr Cullinane said, of meeting with the families, that "the story is the same: its one of capacity, delays in getting surgeries, problems in getting aftercare and annual check-ups... the waiting time is a critical issue."

He explained: "The problems existed long before the Covid-19 pandemic... weve known for a long time what the capacity deficits: we just havent seen the solutions put in place

"To be fair, in the last year, Childrens Health Ireland has pushed very hard for capacity: they have got some funding, and I commend those in CHI and also in Crumlin and Temple Street for doing what they can with their resources.

"However, its at a Central level, a Department level and Ministerial level where there hasnt been movement as quick as there should have, and this had led to frustration from the parents of children with these conditions, as well as the children themselves."

Naas Hospital

Mr Cullinane further explained that he recently visited Naas General Hospital (NGH).

"I met with the manager and clinical director and other staff at NGH... a lot of the problems are the same in the hospitals across the country: lack of surgical theatre capacity, a lack of consultants, problems with diagnostics and beds.

"There are also inefficiencies in the system: it takes far too long for decisions to be made, for example, NGH endoscopy unit, first proposed around 2011, still isnt built."

He continued: "Theres a real frustration when you can go into a hospital who has shown that they have solved some of these issues due to their own innovation.

"However, they need the tools to do the job, and if they get them quicker and the plans that they have are properly resourced, they can do it... its not beyond us."

Children in Ireland in pain

Reada Cronin also commented on the event, saying: "Nobody wants to know that children in Ireland are in pain: if this was happening in other countries, we would be sending teams of doctors out if we knew that this was going on in our own State.

"I dont think anyone would object to fulfilling the wants and needs of these families."

She also pointed to surgeon Connor Green, who she said is lobbying for 5 million to go towards setting up a state-of-the-art facility to do operations to help children with SF/HC in Cappagh.

In addition, Ms Cronin echoed Mr Cullinanes sentiments that the issues present in hospitals, including NGH, have been present since pre-Covid times, and said that Ireland must look at modelling its health system on other European countries, such as Spain and England.

Mr Cullinane and Ms Cronins sentiments were further echoed by their party colleague, Patricia Ryan TD from Kildare South, who criticised the current rate of progress regarding SB and HC surgeries: "I think it is a disgrace that these families are waiting so long to have their children looked at.

"I think the government must provide the money, and we need to move forward," Ms Ryan added.

Further information about SB and HC can be found at the official website of the Irish Association for spina bifida and hydrocephalus, at https://sbhi.ie/.
Applegreen, which owns multiple service stations around Ireland, should not be allowed to abandon a development site in Naas.

The hoped for July 2019 opening of a new service station and an estimated 400 jobs never materialised at the former Cemex plant.

The Cemex plant, which once manufactured concrete pipes and which itself closed in late 2007, was the location for the planned Applegreen project beside the big ball on the Dublin side of Naas.

Planning permission for the development was granted in 2014 by Kildare County Council.

When this happened the council said development levies would amount to 760,000.

The proposal was to build a 400 square metre floor area development embracing a net retail sales area of 100 square metres and a restaurant seating area of 107 square metres.

Also approved were 41 car park spaces, 15 bicycle spaces and six fuel pump stands, including two stands to cater for trucks and heavy goods vehicles.

However the planning application was subsequently withdrawn by the company.

It looks like a bomb site. Weve got so used to it we hardly see it, Cllr Bill Clear said at a Naas Municipal District meeting.

He said Applegreen should not be allowed to leave it.

And he quoted from material which the company generated and uses to describe itself which includes the words sustainability is at the heart of what we do.

He said Naas would not win the Tidy Towns competition so long as the site remains as it is.

Read more Kildare news

Were being held to ransom by Applegreen. Its just plain wrong. There are homeless people living there.

However, Applegreen was defended by some councillors.

Naas Mayor Seamie Moore pointed out that the site was in that condition when Applegreen bought it.

And Cllr Fintan Brett criticised Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which expressed reservations about the proposal. And he accused TII of stopping 400 jobs.

He said TIIs role was akin to a semi state body interfering in issues that it ought not to be interested in.

I dont blame Applegreen for being very sore about what happened.

It is understood that the company was irked over how the project was received though it did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile Kildare County Council has embarked on a traffic survey in the immediate area as part of the preparation of a masterplan, which recognises the location as a key gateway site.

A traffic modelling and access strategy for the site is to be developed within a year of the passing of the local area plan, which happened two months ago.
The only way to solve the problem of dog faeces left in public areas throughout Naas is to take samples of DNA testing.

This is what happens in some European countries where dog ownership and registration rules are much tighter and where DNA can be used to identify the owner.

Thats the view of an exasperated councillor, Carmel Kelly, who wants dog owners reminded of their responsibility to clean up after their pens by painting stencils in pink.

These stencils are painted on pathways in public places and the stencils are due to be renewed by the end of June in Naas, Johnstown, Kill and Sallins.

Read more Kildare news

Cllr Kelly told a Naas Municipal District meeting on February 8 that we have a huge issue with dog fouling adding short of testing it for DNA like they do on the continent, I dont know the answer.

Cllr Kelly also asked Waterways Ireland to install audio warning systems along the Grand Canal reminding owners not to leave the dog dirt in their wake.

She also called for the warning system to be deployed along the greenway and blueway routes as these will attract dog owners.

Cllr Kelly said the council should pursue anything that will make people stop.

But KCC official Mairead Hunt said there are no plans to put audio warning systems on the greenway of bluebell - but a code of practice will set out the requirements for all users of both amenities.

Ms Hunt also said KCC would raise this issue of concern with the steering groups behind the greenway and blueway.
DELRAY BEACH  A woman and baby got out of their car unharmed Tuesday morning just before the vehicle was hit by a Brightline train, according to Delray Beach Fire Rescue.

Delray Beach police said about 6:30 a.m. the 28-year-old woman and her 3-month-old daughter became stuck on the tracks in their car.

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It looks like the car got stuck, Delray police spokesman Ted White said. The place where the car was stuck wasnt a designated railroad crossing, White said.

We believe the mom tried to cross the railroad tracks at a non-intersection, White said.

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[ RELATED: Car hit by Brightline train drove around the safety arm as train was approaching, Sheriffs Office says ]

Soon afterward the mother got out of the car with her child and started knocking on neighborhood doors and telling people someone was after her.

The woman was detained under the Baker Act, which allows people believed to be in mental distress to be assessed and observed. The Department of Children and Families is also involved. White said police were able to contact the 3-month-olds grandmother.

White said the Brightline train wasnt bearing down on the woman and her child when they got out of the car.

A Delray Beach police officer stands near a car that was struck by a Brightline train after it became stuck on the tracks, Tuesday, Feb.15, 2022, in Delray Beach. A woman and her baby were in the car but got out before the crash. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

This is the second such incident this week.

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A West Palm Beach man died when a Brightline train struck his car in Lake Worth Beach late Sunday afternoon.

The Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office said that driver went around the safety arm as train was approaching.

Sundays crash is believed to be the 54th fatality involving the company since January 2018.

In January of this year, a man tried to cross the train tracks in Hollywood, Fla., when he was fatally struck by a Brightline train.

[ RELATED: What makes the combination of South Florida drivers and high-speed trains so deadly? ]

Marc Charleus, 68, and his sister were killed in January when Charleus drove his SUV around a lowered crossing gate and into the trains path in Aventura.

Witnesses said Charleus had been stopped behind the lowered gate but then darted around it, likely unaware that the Brightline train was barreling down the tracks at some 79 miles per hour.

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To stop a train at that speed, the train would need about 1,500 feet of leeway, or more than one-quarter of a mile, officials with Brightline said.

Sun Sentinel staff writers Austen Erblat and Eileen Kelley contributed to this report.
A man facing allegations of assaulting his former partner put pressure on her in advance of a court hearing.

The man is being prosecuted on three allegations of assault causing harm - on August 16, November 9 and November 20.

Judge Desmond Zaidan described him as a serious threat to women.

He appeared before Naas District Court on February 9 last.

The man also faces allegations of false imprisonment and the production of an article in relation to the most recent incident.

It was alleged the woman was struck on the face and an attempt was made to stamp on her head which left her with bruising to her jaw and a temporary hearing problem. She was referred to the fracture clinic of a Dublin hospital following the August 16 incident.

Read more Kildare news

On November 9 he grabbed her by reh thorat, leaving scratch marks when they met and on the third occasion she received burisies following an assault during which a knife was produced as she was held down.

All of the incidents took place in Naas.

Det Gda Kevin Williamson objected to bail being granted and said no conditions would satisfy him because he feared he would interfere with a witness.

He said the phones of both the defendant and the woman were seized and a reading of the messages indicated he was putting pressure on her to withdraw the allegations.

He was basically saying to withdraw the complaints or he would injure himself or kill himself if she continued with the prosecution, he added.

When it was suggested that the man could live at his mothers address in Dublin, the garda said that one of the bail conditions relating to another case is that the defendant does not live at this address.

He also claimed that the defendant came back to live in Naas in breach of previous bail conditions and was in contact with the injured party which was also against the conditions.

He said the defendant had breached bail conditions and he agreed he has a serious alcohol problem.

Defending barrister Mark Gibbons said the defendant was offering 2,000 as bail and would stay out of Naas and obey a curfew. Mr Gibbons added his mother is elderly and his father is ill.

Ha added that while the relationship with his ex partner was fractious, he was not someone who would normally come to garda attention.

Sgt Brian Jacob said every bail condition was breached and offences were committed while on bail.

There is no clearer case for refusing bail, he said.

The injured party said she and the defendant lived in the same house for a period and she denied that drink was an issue for her as well.

She also said he was begging her to drop the case.

Judge Desmond Zaidan said each alleged assault is serious. He added the injured party is a competent witness who previously said she loved the defendant.

Its clear pressure was put on the woman. The court is satisfied the objections are well founded and the imposition of strict bail conditions would not be appropriate, he added.

He was sent forward for trial to Naas Circuit Court.
The following deaths have occurred in the wider Leitrim area:

John Cunningham, Corrigeen Eslin Bridge, Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim



The death has occurred of John Cunningham, Corrigeen, Eslin, Carrick-On-Shannon, Co Leitrim peacefully after a short illness surrounded by his wife Mary, daughter Pauline, son Thomas and granddaughter Savannah at Sligo University Hospital. Predeceased by his parents Elizabeth and John-Tom, his daughter Carmel, sisters Mae and Rita, brothers Christy and Jim. John will be sadly missed by his wife Mary, daughter Pauline and her partner Gerard, his son Thomas and his partner Laura, his son -in- law Rory, his sisters Kathleen (Meath), Josie (Liverpool), Eileen (Galway), his brother Peadar (Drumdoo),his grandchildren Savannah, Ruby, Kyran, Sienna, Sophie, Jack and Eddie, sisters -in- law and brothers -in- law, his extended family, neighbours and friends. Removal to St. Patricks Church, Mohill, on Wednesday 16th of February 2022 for funeral mass at 12 noon, followed by burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. John's Funeral Mass may be viewed on www.churchtv.ie/mohill Please adhere to mask wearing, no handshaking and respect social distancing protocols at all times.

Aoife Donegan Kennedy, Gortahoose, Carrigallen, Leitrim



Peacefully, at St Vincent's private hospital surrounded by her husband and loving family. Loved and sadly missed by her adoring parents, Des and Josephine, sisters Grainne and Niamh, best friend and husband Amhairghean, Godson Oisin, grandmother Maureen and extended Donegan, Quinn and Kennedy family, friends, children and staff at St Peter's National School, Phibsboro and fellow researchers in the school of Education UCD. Reposing at her family home today, Tuesday 15th, from 4pm until 8pm and tomorrow, Wednesday 16th, from 4pm until 6pm - shuttle bus will be in operation from Drumreilly Community Centre (Eircode H12XY92) during reposing times. House open to close friends and family only at all other times, please. Funeral Mass on Thursday 17th at 12 noon in St Mary's Church, Drumreilly (Eircode H12XY92). The funeral Mass will be livestreamed (link to follow shortly). Followed by cremation at 3.30pm in Lakelands Crematoriun Cavan (Eircode H12RF78) (link to follow shortly). No flowers, please, donations, if desired, to Irish Cancer Society c/o Gorby Funeral Directors Newtowngore.

Bernard (Barney) O'Boy, Slieve View, Mohill, Leitrim / Gortletteragh, Leitrim



The death has occured of Bernard (Barney) OBoy, 9 Slieve View, Mohill, Co. Leitrim and formerly of Cattan, Mohill, who passed away on Sunday the 13th of February 2022 peacefully in the loving care of the nurses and staff of at St. Patricks Hospital, Carrick on Shannon. Predeceased by his wife; Anna, sister; Cissie and brother; Sonny. Deeply regretted and sadly missed by daughter; Ruth, son; Leonard (UK), son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews, nieces, relatives, neighbours and friends. Funeral Arrangements Later

May they all Rest in Peace
TUXEDOS and evening dresses got an airing for the first time in two years at the Irish Grocers Ball in the Castletroy Park Hotel last Saturday night.

Chairman of the Mid-West region of the Irish Grocers Benevolent Fund (IGBF), James Johnson, of Dunnes Stores, hosted retailers and suppliers from across the trade at the return of its annual black tie gala Valentines ball.

Continue reading below or click 'Next' for more photos

Guests put aside their retail differences and came together to help the Mid-West region raise much needed funds for the many families that are in need of support.

Mr Johnson said the objective of the fund is to provide temporary assistance to individuals associated with the grocery trades who, due to circumstances, are in need of a helping hand.

The IGBF are currently assisting families nationwide who have fallen on difficult times and many of these families have young children in education or perhaps are elderly, retired, seriously ill or are short term unemployed, said Mr Johnson, who stressed assistance is provided on a strictly personal and confidential basis

IGBF funding is generated from a number of charity events organised by voluntary committees, including Saturdays ball in the Castletroy Park Hotel.

The night could not happen without the retailers and suppliers. It is thanks to the generous support of members of todays grocery trade who, year after year, contribute to the fund, the IGBF are in a position to continue to assist colleagues in need, said Mr Johnson.

Each year grants reach on average over 560,000. An estimated 20,000 will be collected from Saturdays event.

In attendance on the night were Dunnes Stores, Gala, Tuffys, Diageo, Tesco, CPM, Johnston M & O Brien, Musgraves, Mondelez, Supermacs, Kelloggs, Molson, Tayto Snack Co, Centra Cashel, Primeline, Irish distillers, Britvic, Mars, Limerick Chamber of Commerce, Global Water, Ishka, Channell Pet, Tuffy's Wholesalers, Crowes Gala and John Player.

Mr Johnson especially thanked Shannon Airport for the sponsorship of the top prizes - trips to Corfu and Malta.

*PICTURES: Keith Wiseman
THE University of Limerick (UL) and Clare County Council have this morning unveiled multi-million euro plans to develop a huge new economic zone on the college's north campus.

In a move described as being a "game-changer", the project could create upwards of 3,500 jobs, and generate a gross added value of 1.795bn to the local economy.

The joint strategy has seen UL and Clare County Council apply to government to designate lands adjoining the north campus of the University - in South East Clare - as an Economic Strategic Development Zone (SDZ).

It will pave the way for an 'Innovation District' allowing enterprise partnerships and immersive academies of learning at the third-level institution.

UL president Prof Kerstin Mey and the chief executive of Clare County Council Pat Dowling have formally written to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh OBrien to seek the designation.

"The decision to seek the designation of the lands as an SDZ is a culmination of the joint will of both our organisations to facilitate the development of academies of learning and centres of excellence on the University campus in County Clare, said Prof Mey.

"These academies are the cornerstone of the most significant revision of the relationship between higher education and enterprise. They are intended to establish Ireland, and in particular the Limerick-Shannon Metropolitan Area, as a treasury of talent constituting a vital resource towards securing future employment opportunities, attracting foreign direct investment into the region, sustaining both multinational and indigenous enterprises and the ongoing economic and social development of Ireland," added the college's president.

Now, Mr O'Brien will consult with Limerick City and County Council, residents and other interested parties before making any decision in relation to designation.

If it's granted, a two-year consultation will then take place with landowners and stakeholders in relation to the development of a masterplan.

It is anticipated that the decision regarding the designation will be made by government this year.

According to today's release both UL and Clare County Council believe, should the designation be successful, that the site has the capacity to become a "game changer" both regionally, nationally and internationally.

They say the project has the potential to generate upwards of 3,500 jobs, with additional employment being generated in the construction phase and subsequent spin-off developments.

Foreign and indigenous enterprises will partner with the University in designing and delivering dual, immersive education, advanced research and re- and upskilling.

"Talent is key to attracting Foreign Direct Investment, and creating attractive places is key to attracting talent," said Mr Dowling, "The South Clare/UL Economic Strategic Development will be an environment with high quality placemaking providing for a full range of education, research, living, working, and recreational spaces integrated within the University campus environment."

Economic forecasts have suggested that the site could generate a gross added value of 1.795 billion annually to the Irish economy.

The project will establish UL as a European Centre of Excellence in dual education, advanced research with industry and knowledge exchange. It will confer a lead status on the University as an institution of international repute in enterprise data stewarding, Clare Council and UL say.

The establishment of the site as an Innovation District with enterprise partnerships, immersive academies of learning and necessary amenities will provide a considerable economic, social and cultural boost to the Limerick city region, says Clare County Council and UL.

The development of this area with clustering of domains of knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship will in time cite Limerick on a par with the great centres of knowledge-led social and economic advantage in both Europe and the United States, said Professor Mey, "It is intended that this zone would be accessible and integrated with Limerick city and have sustainable transport links, including the redevelopment of the Errina canal link, said Professor Mey.

"This is a world class, global location for industry of scale that will allow the University to expand over the next 50 years of its lifetime, and give us more space for student accommodation as well as advanced learning and research spaces," she added.

Prof Mey said: "We do this hand in glove with our commitments to the city and the recent opening of the UL city centre campus is evidence of that. We have great ambition to grow our existing campus footprint and extend further into the city at the same time. To make UL the catalyst of change it needs to be to attract students and world class researchers and academics, the city, the future SDZ and the campus expansion are integrated elements of our vision for the future of this university."
DEPUTY Kieran O'Donnell and Senator Paul Gavan have reacted to the news broken by the Leader that Riverbrook Nursing and Respite Care faces "potential" closure.

The Leader understands the nursing home cares for 22 residents and employs 31 staff.

Deputy O'Donnell said families of the residents of the nursing home in Castleconnell have been in contact with him and local councillor, Michael Murphy, about the potential closure of this long established nursing home located in the heart of the village.

"They are understandably very shocked and extremely worried about the possibility of the closure and the impact it will have on their family members, many of whom have been long term residents at Riverbank. Our main concern is for these residents and their families as well as the hard-working staff at Riverbrook.

"I have made direct contact with the owners of Riverbrook asking what could be done to ensure it remains open. Riverbrook Nursing Home has been one of the central features of Castleconnell for over 40 years and plays a key role in the provision of nursing home healthcare and employment for the wider community and everything must be explored to keep it open," said Deputy O'Donnell.

The Fine Gael TD said he has been in contact with the HSE and the local Fair Deal office on these "distressing and unsettling developments to ensure that all supports continue to be provided for all these residents at Riverbrook".

"We will continue to follow-up on this important matter to achieve a satisfactory outcome, more especially for the residents, their families and the staff at Riverbrook," said Deputy O'Donnell.

Senator Paul Gavan called on the Government to act on an all party Oireachtas Report recommending additional financial supports for nursing homes.

Responding to the news that the popular Limerick nursing home has entered into a collective consultancy period with its 31 staff, Senator Gavan said: "Many nursing homes have come through a particularly challenging period over the last couple of years facing additional expenditure costs amid the challenges of Covid, and Riverbrook is no exception. The government have long been aware of the need for additional investment across this sector but have failed to act, even after an Oireachtas report told them to do so."

The Sinn Fein senator said Riverbrook has provided an excellent standard of care and good jobs for decades in Castleconnell.

"The Government should be actively looking to maintain this care facility rather than see it close. It should also be examining what other parts of the HSE elder care or disability services could use this facility and act quickly. Government also needs to work with families of loved ones who are residents in Riverbrook to ensure they receive all necessary assistance if it does prove necessary to find alternative care facilities," said Senator Gavan, who lives in Castleconnell.

He said this is "potentially a major blow to our village and needs an urgent response".

"Having a quality nursing home in the village has provided significant support and comfort to families for over forty years. It also plays an important part in our village economy. The government knows the current model of elder care is not fit for purpose, it needs to act now to secure this care facility rather than see the permanent closure of our nursing home," said Senator Gavan.
THERE are now almost 300 properties in Limerick on the derelict sites register  with the majority added in the last three years.

The figures, released to the councils community, leisure and culture committee, come with concern growing at the number of homes lying idle amid the housing crisis in the country.

And a major cross-party campaign is running this month to highlight the levels of dereliction across Ireland, with a special walking tour of vacant units in the city set for February 26.

As of the end of January, there were 290 properties on Limerick City and County Councils derelict sites register.

While some of these may be industrial buildings, its understood a significant proportion is out-of-use living spaces.

Council said that since 2019, 249 properties have been added to the derelict sites register, a move which is designed to compel landowners to act to tackle these.

Of the homes currently on the register, council has proposed 166 to acquire on a compulsory basis. Often in this case, the local authority will then put the unit back on the market.

However, some councillors have called for these to be given over to the housing waiting list, which stands at 2,333 at present.

The local authority has already taken on 102 properties which were considered derelict.

The chair of the community committee, Cllr Kieran OHanlon said: Its a shame with such a housing crisis that we have these derelict units. Some of them in my opinion could be refurbished a lot quicker. There is some urgent action required. I do understand council has to go through a legal process. Again, that can be difficult and there can be all kinds of obstacles put in the way. People have a right to property, but they do not have a right to allow that property to go into a state of dereliction.

He also said that some derelict homes attract illegal dumping and rats, causing chaos for neighbours.

Meanwhile, the free walking tour of different vacant and derelict properties in Limerick is being organised for Saturday, February 26.
LIMERICK City and County Council is to host a meeting with Treaty Suicide Prevention over the provision of a new base locally.

On a number of days a week, trained volunteers from Limerick Treaty Suicide Prevention (LTSP) carry out patrols of the banks of the River Shannon in a bid to help anyone in distress.

But they are now without a base, with its one-year lease at a premises in John's Street expired. The charity could not afford the annual rent of 6,000 as donations dried up due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the Limerick Leader revealed the charity's plight in January, the matter has been raised on the floor of the Dail, and locally by Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan, who urged council to do what it could to help LTSP secure a location to store its equipment.

Now, in a statement, the local authority says it will seek to meet with LTSP and other groups providing similar support.

"Limerick City and County Council collaborates on an ongoing basis with the lead agency in this area, the HSE, and An Garda Siochana to deliver the objectives of the Connecting for Life national strategy aimed at reducing suicide. In keeping with that strategy, together with our fellow statutory stakeholders, we will seek to meet with these groups to discuss a coordinated approach that will meet best practice going forward, including around facilities required to support these groups collectively in the delivery of this voluntary service," the council said in a statement.

Tribute was also paid to the "incredible spirit of volunteerism" across all voluntary groups in Limerick who are working to "tackle an issue that is impacting so severely across Irish society. These activities speak to the level of care and compassion that exists across Limerick and we commend the groups for their efforts."
A LIMERICK school are taking part in a childhood reading initiative that involves 64 schools across Ireland.

Over 1,900 pupils sixth class will receive a book based on Irish Traveller storytelling tradition in partnership with Childrens Books Ireland and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

The initiative will see copies of Why the Moon Travels donated to children at schools across the country including St. John the Baptist Boys National School in Garryowen.

Why the Moon Travels is a collection of folk tales rooted in the oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community collected by Oein DeBhairduin and beautifully illustrated by Leanne McDonagh.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Foley said: "I am delighted to be launching the ROAD Forward initiative here in Tralee.

"Introducing children to reading at a young age is crucial and initiatives like this go a long way to fostering an appetite for reading in our schools.

"It is said that books are uniquely portable magic and this initiative will transport a myriad of Irish children and young people into a world of Irish folk and fantasy through the power of reading.

Why the Moon Travels which preserves and showcases the wonderful oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community. I hope all the pupils receiving a copy of this book enjoy it and share with their friends and families the unique tales it captures.

Speaking of the initiative, Enterprises Managing Director for Ireland, Brendan Grieve, said: "Enterprise has a long-standing relationship with communities across Ireland and we continue to support this through initiatives such as ROAD Forward, which stands for Respect, Opportunity, Achievement and Diversity.

"These are values that are central to everything we do at Enterprise. Were incredibly proud to partner with Childrens Books Ireland and are grateful to Norma Foley for supporting todays launch.

"Its a brilliant book, which I hope will give a lot to the pupils. As a father of four, I understand the positive impact that a love of reading can have on children and the opportunities that it can bring as both a source of pleasure and empowerment.

"I hope the children enjoy Why the Moon Travels and that it helps to foster a life-long love of the written word."
Washington: The Biden Administration has warned Russia of severe consequences" in case its forces invade Ukraine and insisted on a diplomatic solution to the issue.

We are actively working to reach a diplomatic solution to de-escalate the crisis. Over the weekend, as you all know, the President spoke with President Putin, and we remain engaged with the Russian government in full coordination with our allies and partners," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively," she said.

However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground," she said, as President Joe Biden reached out to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss the situation.

The leaders discussed their recent diplomatic engagements with Ukraine and Russia, said the White House in a readout.

They also reviewed ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russias continued military build-up on Ukraines borders and reaffirmed their support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, it said.

They discussed efforts to reinforce the defensive posture on NATOs eastern flank and underlined the continued close coordination among allies and partners, including on readiness to impose severe consequences on Russia should it choose further military escalation," the White House said.

During the White House news conference, Jean-Pierre said they are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time.

We will not comment on any details of our intelligence information except that it could begin this week, despite a lot of speculation that it would happen after the Olympic. It remains unclear which path Russia will choose to take," she said.

The US is ready for any situation, she asserted.

President Biden has made it very clear on his call with Putin this weekend that if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States, together with our allies and partners, will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia," she noted.

Biden reiterated that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia's standing, she said.

At a separate news conference, Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby announced that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is going to travel to Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania.

He will meet with allied defense ministers and NATO leadership to discuss Russia's military build-up in and around Ukraine.
Airlines and the leasing companies that control billions of dolllars' worth of passenger jets are drawing up contingency plans for a freeze in business with Russia if the standoff on Ukraine's border boils over into a military conflict.

U.S. officials have warned that Moscow could launch an attack on Ukraine after amassing more than 100,000 troops close to its neighbour's border, with the West preparing heavy sanctions.

Aviation bosses are worried about the impact on dealings with Russian companies. Sanctions could disrupt payments to leasing firms, and any retaliatory move by Moscow to restrict access to Russian airspace might throw east-west trade into chaos.

"We are expecting an asymmetrical Russian response," said a Western source involved in drawing up scenarios, adding the West was unlikely to restrict its own airspace first.

Air corridors between parts of Europe or North America and Asia stretch across Russia, making its 26 million square km (10 million square miles) of airspace a vital trade intersection.

Cargo is particularly active. U.S. carrier FedEx said on Monday it was making unspecified contingency plans.

Without access to Russia's airways, experts say airlines face having to divert flights south while avoiding areas of tension in the Middle East - adding significant cost at a time when airlines are reeling from the pandemic.

According to some reports, the crisis has resurrected the Cold War prospect of European jets heading over North America to refuel in Anchorage, then dropping down to destinations such as Tokyo, pushing the economics of such flights to the limit.

So far, Alaska's largest airport has not been contacted by any airline exploring that option, which would require an increase in ground-handling capacity, a spokesperson said.

But the scenario is a reminder that Russia's size and position on the aviation map gives it leverage not available to the Soviet Union when economies were less integrated, according to Elisabeth Braw, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

"So far, Moscow hasn't threatened to revoke overflight rights, but knows it has a phenomenal weapon at its disposal," Braw wrote in a column in Defense One last month.

Even short of formal retaliation, experts say the impact on crucial Russian overflights is hard to predict.

"Every one of those operations requires advance clearance and that's not always routinely granted. And there's every reason to believe that if things got serious some of those requests could just go unanswered," analyst Robert Mann said.

LESSOR CONCERNS

Russia's 8,000 air traffic controllers handled 194,296 transit flights, or 532 overflights a day, on average in 2021.

That's up 16% from coronavirus-depressed levels in 2020 but still 37% below pre-crisis traffic in 2019, according to the Federal Agency for Air Transport.

"It would be devastating in normal circumstances, but Asia traffic is lower than normal," the Western source said.

Analysts say Russia earns significant fees from overflights.

As tensions rose in recent months, U.S. airlines raised concerns that Russia could refuse to extend overflights, disrupting connections to Asia, India and the Middle East.

If there is an emergency, we have no choice but to avoid Russia and fly the southern route," said Yuji Hirako, president and chief executive of All Nippon Airways Co Ltd. "Since the demand for international flights is so low due to the coronavirus pandemic, we may choose not to fly in the event of an emergency."

In October, U.S. carriers asked the State Department to "act urgently" to secure additional rights to overfly Russia, according to a trade group's letter seen by Reuters. U.S. officials are expected to meet the carriers within days.

For the aircraft leasing industry, Russia has until now been a relative bright spot, as airlines have largely kept up with payments during the pandemic, one leasing company executive said.

Even as some airlines began avoiding Ukraine on Monday, leasing companies were eyeing larger risks in Russia.

Domhnal Slattery, chief executive of lessor Avolon, said his biggest concern was the potential for sanctions involving SWIFT, which would disrupt international payment transfers. "So we're focused on ensuring of how do we get around that from the payment of our rentals perspective," he said.

Russian companies have 980 passenger jets in service, of which 777 are leased, according to analytics firm Cirium.

Of these, two thirds, or 515 jets, with an estimated market value of about $10 billion, are rented from foreign firms.

"If there are sanctions on dealing with Russian companies, this could affect more than 500 aircraft if no exemptions are allowed," said Rob Morris, head consultant at Ascend by Cirium.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
Carol Wright was halfway home from her 6-mile bicycle ride when the unthinkable happened: The crossing arms of a drawbridge came down behind her and the span of the bridge lifted, trapping the 79-year-old.

Wright, just some 20 feet from the staffed bridge-tender house, grabbed onto the railing, hanging on as long as she could. She died in a public and painful way, tumbling down the span of an opening drawbridge, slamming to the pavement six stories below.

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And now, a lawyer representing the family wants more information about the tragedy, which remains under investigation.

The Royal Palm Park drawbridge that connects downtown West Palm Beach to the heart of Palm Beach opens at least every 30 minutes, allowing yachts and other large boats to pass through on the Intercoastal Waterway. Some 12,000 motorists use it each day. There is a generally a healthy flow of pedestrians  like Wright who was pushing her bike  who cross the bridge.

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[ RELATED: 79-year-old bicyclist often crossed drawbridge to Palm Beach. She fell to her death when it opened beneath her. ]

The bridge tenders house is equipped with mirrors and a minimum of three surveillance monitors, attorney Lance Ivey said at a Monday news conference near the bridge. There is also a catwalk that wraps around the house. The bridge tender is required to come out of the house and walk around three times to make sure the span of the bridge that lifts is clear of motorists and pedestrians before pushing the button that lifts the bridge, Ivey said.

Wrights death was untimely, unimaginable and a completely preventable tragedy, Ivey said.

Ivey believes the bridge tender, a 42-year-old Greenacres woman, must not have completed any of those mandated safety measures.

[ RELATED: Man falls to his death after drawbridge opens ]

So right there, the bridge tender had five opportunities to avoid this tragedy, Ivey said. Carol was there to be seen. She was legally there to be seen.

Ivey questioned why the bridge tender didnt push the emergency stop button. [She] didnt even do the bare minimum to take care of Carol, Ivey said.

Born the daughter of two New York Daily News reporters in 1942, Wright too became a journalist, working for the Palm Beach Daily News as reporter and copy editor. She was also a reporter for the Palm Beach Business Weekly and served as a columnist for Bon Appetit magazine. After a long career in journalism, Wright worked at the Palm Beach County Property Appraisers Office. She retired five years ago, according to her blog WrightNow.

[ RELATED: Desmond Nolan, 80, dangled from the bridge until he could no longer hold on ]

About 10 years ago, Wright vowed to shed extra weight and hopped on a bicycle, which she rode daily.

She earned the right to live out her golden years with her family and friends, Ivey said. She earned the right to live life to the fullest. She earned the right that, in time, peacefully, naturally and in a humane and dignified fashion, to pass away. And unfortunately that was taken away from her and her family.

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Everything she worked for to maintain her health  to maintain mental health, physical health  was taken away.

An avid reader, Wright who was two months shy of celebrating her 80th birthday, was on her way back from the Classic Bookshop on the island  a 6-mile round trip from her West Palm Beach home. Crossing the pedestrian walkway of the bridge to get home on Feb. 6 became a slow, mental and physical death sentence, Ivey said.

She is literally on the bridge in between the crossing arms. Shes literally herded into this area  shes trapped, Ivey said, pointing at a photograph of an open span of the drawbridge.

An undated file photo of Carol Wright was displayed on Monday in West Palm Beach during a news conference at the Royal Palm Bridge where she died. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

As the bridge began lifting, Wright grabbed a railing, holding on for what most likely seemed like minutes to her, Ivey said.

Unfortunately her 79-year-old arms and hands gave way, Ivey said. And she falls. And she falls down into this little abyss.

By the time first responders got to her, she was dead. As Ivey described Wrights life and her death, Jill Sanchez, Wrights niece, cried. She was too distraught to talk during the news conference.

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Our goal is this will never, ever happen to another family, Ivey said. ... I think its egregious. The bridge tender didnt do the bare minimum. The one job they have, aside from lifting the bridge for yachts, is to ensure there are no persons or property on the bridge when you activate it.

The Florida Department of Transportation contracts Florida Drawbridge Inc. to provide bridge tenders. The Pompano Beach-based company has previously declined comment.

West Palm Beach Police are also urging anyone who witnessed Wright on the bridge around the time of the 1 p.m. incident on Feb. 6 to call detective Ivy Erhardt at 561-822-1684. Ivey, the attorney, is asking witnesses to call him at 561-820-2240.

Eileen Kelley can be reached at 772-925-9193 or ekelley@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @reporterkell.
Delays in dealing with the growing debt burden in poor countries seems unlikely to be resolved by the G20, a top World Bank official warned.

As interest rates are starting to rise around the world, putting more pressure on borrowers, the Group of 20 finance ministers are due to meet in Indonesia this week.

But World Bank chief economist Carmen Reinhart is skeptical there will be a resolution soon to help address unsustainable debts.

"The stalling is really, really problematic," she told AFP in an interview. She warned that the average length of a government debt crisis is nine years, which would create a "lost decade" for already vulnerable countries.

During the Covid-19 pandemic the G20 put in place a debt service suspension initiative to help countries as they ramped up borrowing to deal with the twin health and economic crises, but that program ended in December.

And the so-called common framework meant to offer a way to restructure large debt loads, remains subject to uncertainty, and only three countries -- Chad, Ethiopia and Zambia -- have requested a negotiation.

The problem, Reinhart said, is "These little countries are not systemic. They not going to make or break the global outlook.

"So unfortunately, it means they can easily slip into backburner territory and remain on the backburner."

Advanced economies offered debt forbearance to help countries that already had high poverty and low per capita income, deal with the pandemic, but she said "the damage is still ongoing."

Asked if she expected another push to deal with the debt issue at the G20 this week, the official said, "I hope that they do. But I am not optimistic."

In its World Development Report released Tuesday, the global lender again flagged the issue of hidden debt vulnerabilities, due to rising private sector debt during the pandemic as well as lack of transparency around lending, especially by China.

"It's not the things that you see that get you, it's what you don't see," Reinhart said, noting the lack of information on "hidden non performing loans."

The World Bank report urges policymakers in debtor countries to deal with the pressing economic risks, dealing with bad loans quickly to shore up their financial systems, as well as addressing high government debt.

That is more urgent since rising prices globally have prompted major central banks to begin raising interest rates. And the US Federal Reserve is expected to do so next month.
Russias enormous military buildup near Ukraine features some of its most potent weapon systems and provides the Kremlin with the means to attack Ukrainian forces from multiple directions, which likely would overstretch their defenses.

In its buildup, which has quickened in recent weeks, Russia has positioned forces on three sides of Ukraine: in Belarus, western Russia and Crimea and on naval vessels in the Black Sea. The forces include some of Russias best trained battalions, special forces and surface-to-surface missiles that could strike targets throughout Ukraine.

The more than 130,000 troops Russia has in the region are still too few to seize and occupy the entire country, according to U.S. assessments. Urban warfare would still be a challenge, military specialists said, as it was for Russian forces fighting in Chechnya more than a decade ago and for the U.S. and its partners in the Iraqi city of Mosul in their more recent struggle against Islamic State militants.

However, Russias deployments provide its commanders formidable advantages. They include the capability to make rapid thrusts toward Ukraines capital, seize swaths of territory, take command of the skies and blockade the countrys ports, current and former U.S. officials said.

The advantages are very strong up front. They can move quickly and use artillery and missile systems with long-ranges and a high rate of fire to target military facilities, air defense and army units," said Dara Massicot, an expert on the Russian military at the Rand Corp.

But over time, the missions would become more complicated for them, like holding roads, securing terrain and cordoning off major cities. Urban warfare would be very manpower intensive, and they dont train on that scale," Ms. Massicot said.

For months, Biden administration officials said that if Russia attacks, the U.S. would expand its supply of weapons to Ukraines forces, as well as impose punishing economic sanctions. Sending supplies could effectively be foreclosed if Russian President Vladimir Putin orders a major invasion, which the White House has said could halt commercial transportation and sever communications.

On Sunday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Russia has sharply accelerated its buildup and that an attack could come essentially at any time." Moscow has said it has no intention of invading Ukraine but could take retaliatory military measures against what Mr. Putin has called unfriendly steps."

Ukraines forces, which number some 260,000, have improved since 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea and backed a separatist proxy force in Ukraines east. Since then, Ukrainian forces have benefited from U.S. and other Western advisers and increased support. Those forces, however, would be stretched thin if they had to defend against potential Russian attacks on multiple axes, military analysts said.

The best of Ukraines forces are positioned on the border of Donbas, where fighting against the Russian-supported separatists has been going on since 2014. Those Ukrainian forces, however, could be vulnerable to envelopment if Russian troops attacked from the north and the south.

The U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have sent antitank weapons, Stinger air-defense missiles and other battlefield systems to Ukraine. Ukraine also has acquired Turkish-made drones, one of which it used in October to destroy a howitzer manned by Russian-backed separatists. Still, the arms shipments the U.S. and its partners have provided havent included sophisticated air defenses or antiship missiles, hampering Ukrainians ability to defend themselves against Russias more modern military.

Ben Hodges, a retired lieutenant general who served as the U.S. Army commander in Europe from 2014 to 2018, said that by surrounding Ukraine on three sides, the Kremlin may be trying to damage the countrys economy and undermine President Volodymyr Zelenskys government while keeping its military options open. Already, some businesses are putting expansion plans on hold, the Dutch airline KLM has suspended flights, and U.S. military trainers have been withdrawn.

Russian forces are like a boa constrictor around Ukraine," Gen. Hodges said. If the Kremlin can bring about a collapse, it wont have to attack or worry about sanctions."

Russian officials have said their forces in Belarus are conducting a joint exercise with that nations military while Russian naval maneuvers are being carried out in the Black Sea. Western analysts said the exercise in Belaruswhere Russian artillery, multiple rocket systems, warplanes, missiles and reconnaissance drones have been deployedprovides Russian forces with an opportunity to fine-tune tactics and train for a potential attack.

Currently theres over 130,000 troops stationed at readiness or exercisingplus warplanes, plus ships into the Black Seaon the borders of Ukraine, and that is an action that is not normal," Ben Wallace, Britains defense secretary, said last week. It is beyond normal exercising."

At the forefront of Russias capabilities are battalion tactical groups that have been deployed close to Ukraine, including in Belarus, according to U.S. assessments. Those units, which generally number about 700 to 800 troops each, are manned by professional soldiers instead of conscripts. Built around mechanized infantry or tank battalions, they are reinforced with artillery, air defenses, electronic warfare and other units. The Biden administration told Congress earlier this month that 83 of the groups were poised near Ukraine. That number, U.S. officials said, has since increased

The battalion tactical groups are capable of fast maneuvering on open terrain, including a rush toward Kyiv, U.S. officials said, but are also too small to defend large areas. If a major attack is ordered, traditional Russian regiments and brigades would likely follow to consolidate gains, according to current and former officials. Russian helicopters, which have been observed moving toward the region, could also be used to insert airborne troops at road junctions and bridges, and to fire at Ukrainian reinforcements moving to the front.

Adding to Russias firepower are Iskander surface-to-surface missile brigades, whose deployments within range of Ukraine have tripled since October, according to Phillip Karber of the Potomac Foundation, a policy research organization. Along with Kalibr cruise missiles deployed on vessels in the Black Sea, the Iskander missiles could strike airfields, ammunition storage sites, air defenses, army bases and command centers throughout Ukraine. Russia could use bombers to fire air-launched cruise missiles.

If Russia attacks, Russian Su-35 fighters and the S-400 air defense systems that Moscow has deployed in Belarus and whose range extends well into Ukraine, would give the Russians an advantage in the skies.

These systems will help Russia achieve air superiority over the Ukrainian Air Force within days of the start of a further invasion" and would also dissuade the U.S. and allied cargo and reconnaissance aircraft from operating in Ukrainian airspace, according to an assessment by military fellows at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

In amassing its forces, Russia has deployed units from far-flung bases near China in the nations far east, garrisons near Norway in the north and from installations in the south near Georgia and Azerbaijan, according to Western experts and accounts on social-media.

Warships have steamed to the Black Sea from Russias northern Arctic waters and the Baltic Sea, giving Moscow the capability to blockade Ukrainian ports. During maneuvers there they are carrying out missile firings in zones restricting shipping. Still, more Russian naval vessels have taken up positions in the Mediterranean.

An invasion could start with cyberattacks, electronic jamming and, the U.S. has repeatedly alleged, some sort of staged provocation.

Among Mr. Putins options are putting military pressure on Kyiv without entering the city and moving more Russian forces into separatist-controlled Donbas, said Philip Breedlove, a retired U.S. Air Force general who served as NATO commander from 2013 to 2016. They could also seize Ukraines southern coastline, which could enable the Russians to isolate the city of Mariupol and control the water supply that serves occupied Crimea, he said.

He has built a set of tools that gives him distinct options, and those tools now are ready," Gen. Breedlove said.
Shackeem Frankson is the quintessential burly prison guard, but when he turned Monday to exchange wedding vows with his longtime girlfriend, Sarah Horton, he had to pause to wipe away the tear that trickled down his cheek.

But no worries  the other eight couples exchanging their own vows at a mass Valentines Day wedding outside one of Floridas most historic mansions were probably too busy to notice so his secret is safe.

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Its all right to be emotional today, said a laughing Frankson, his bride giggling at him being busted, after the ceremony arranged by Palm Beach County Court Clerk Joseph Abruzzo and his staff.

Sarah Horton, left, and Shackeem Frankson exchange rings as they get married during a Valentine's Day group wedding ceremony, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, outside the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Fla. The pair were one of nine couples married by the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller for Palm Beach County during the annual event. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

Appropriately, the group ceremony took place on the south lawn of Whitehall, the 75-room, 100,000-square-foot waterside retreat that oil and railroad tycoon Henry Flagler built as a wedding present for his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler. The Flaglers wintered there beginning in 1902, and it is now the centerpiece of the Flagler Museum. Historians say it cost $4 million ($110 million today) to build. It typically costs $15,000 to get married there, but on this day the venue was free.

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And it was a bright, sunny but chilly for a South Florida morning as the couples gathered outside the gates of the two-story neoclassical mansion, its white columns overlooking the crowd.

Bride-to-be Diana Garcia waited outside in her white dress with her fiance, retail manager Sergio Mena, about to culminate their two months of engagement. They met in middle school about a dozen years ago, but only started dating two years ago. They have a 1-year-old son.

Garcia  or Diana Mena as you are reading this  signed up the couple after seeing it promoted on the clerks website. It would be really cool to get married on Valentines Day at such a historic venue.

It is a special destination and not at the courthouse, said Diana Mena, a housekeeper.

Arielle Agnelli and Bryan Arvesu head to a photo shoot after being married during a Valentine's Day group wedding ceremony, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, outside the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Fla. The pair were one of nine couples married by the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller for Palm Beach County during the annual event. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

For Frankson and the former Ms. Horton, who waited nearby, the ceremony ended a five-year engagement  we just kept putting it off, she said. They met online seven years ago.

Sarah Frankson, an accounts manager, said she had seen a local TV news story that the clerks office was seeking couples for the ceremony, so she signed them up and they were picked. Theyd sorta started planning a wedding a couple years ago, but then the COVID-19 pandemic began and it got pushed aside until this opportunity arose.

It is different, she said. Frankson added another benefit  there was none of the hassle of planning a more traditional wedding. The downside  no families were allowed, including the Franksons 5-year-old son, but they could watch the ceremony on Facebook and many had plans for luncheons or receptions after.
Houstonians won't have to wait until the summer to enjoy the next Restaurant Weeks.

Eat Drink HTX, happening from Feb. 15 to 28, offers even better dining deals from more than 100 local restaurants. Dinner ranges from $20 to $25, compared to Restaurant Weeks' $35 to $49. Lunch and brunch options are $15.

Order delivery or pickup now! Grubhub Order Now

The Cleverley Stone Foundation is behind the two-week event, the same organization that runs Houston Restaurant Weeks. Proceeds will benefit the Houston Food Bank and Star of Hope Mission. Between $1 and $3 per meal sold will be donated to the two charities.

Eat Drink HTX taps into the beauty of Houston's food scene: The best food in the city isn't necessarily found at higher-end restaurants. The event allows more casual spots to participate.

Al Quick Stop's new location in the Heights and the new Portuguese-Indian Da Gama Canteen are both offering lunch only, while 93 Til, which opened in late 2020 in Montrose to much hype, is doing dinner.

There are big names participating as well, including Phat Eatery, Alex-Au Yeung's Malaysian restaurant in Katy; and Christine Ha's two Vietnamese restaurants, the Blind Goat in Bravery Chef Hall and Xin Chao.

If you're looking for a good drinks scene, Eat Drink HTX has a few options. Trash Panda Drinking Club serves great cocktails and creative bar food. Shoot the Moon is Houston's first self-serve bar, allowing people to pour their own beer, wine and cocktails from a tap wall. And Buffalo Bayou Brewing has you covered with the craft beer, smoked birria nachos, pizzas, burgers and more.

For the full list of participating restaurants, head to Eat Drink HTX's website.

Cleverley Stone, a former food journalist and radio host, founded Houston Restaurant Weeks in 2003. Her daughter, Katie Stone, took over the operations after she died of cancer in 2020.

This new event was one of her final wishes, helping restaurants during the slow period after Valentine's Day and before the spring, while giving diners an even better bargain.
The City of Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz, along with the Yes, I Will Vote organization and representatives of United Independent School District, Laredo Independent School District, Premier High School, Harmony Public Schools, and Laredo College, participated in a mayoral proclamation declaring it Student Voting Day in Laredo.

Since 1985 here in Texas, theres a law focused on ensuring that all youth in the state have the opportunity to express their voice through their vote, Saenz said. The voice of the youth of Laredo and all Texas will have an impact on our future as a city, state, and nation.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent assigned to the Laredo Sector was killed in a single-vehicle crash over the weekend, authorities said.

Laredo police identified her as 26-year-old Stephanie Denise Camacho. The U.S. Border Patrol said Camacho was off duty at the time of the incident.

Officers were dispatched to an accident with injuries at about 2 a.m. Saturday in the 2300 block of Main Avenue. Initial information indicated that a 2020 Honda Accord had crashed into a residence, according to police.

First officers on the scene encountered Camacho inside the vehicle. She was eventually pronounced dead at the scene. Camacho was the sole occupant inside the vehicle at the time of the crash, according to police.

No residents inside the house were injured, authorities said. The LPD Crash Team was called to the scene to take over the case. The investigation continues.

Camacho graduated from the J.W. Nixon High School Class of 2013. She then went on to pursue her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice with a Minor in Psychology in 2018 from Texas A&M International University, her obituary states.

Camacho then joined U.S. Border Patrol Academy Class #1174 in Artesia, New Mexico and was recently assigned to the Laredo North Sector, where she diligently worked to protect Americas borders, according to her obituary.

The family will receive condolences from 4-9 p.m. Tuesday at Joe Jackson North Funeral Chapels & Cremation Services on 1410 Jacaman Road. A prayer service by the Rev. Dorso Maciel will start at 7 p.m.

The funeral service is slated for 10 a.m. Wednesday. Pallbearers will be the U.S. Border Patrol Honor Guard.

crodriguez@lmtonline.com
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MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP)  Searchers found a debris field in the ocean off North Carolina where a small plane carrying eight people went down Sunday night, the Coast Guard said Monday.

Watchstanders received a report of a possible downed aircraft about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) east of Drum Inlet from a Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point air traffic controller on Sunday, the Coast Guard said. The air traffic controller reported that the aircraft was behaving erratically on radar, then disappeared from the radar screen.
Lockport, NY (14094)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain during the afternoon. High 64F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 49F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
NEW YORK (AP)  A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 years old, according to a court filing Tuesday.

Attorney David Boies, who represents Giuffre, said in a filing in Manhattan federal court that lawyers on both sides were informing the judge that a settlement in principle has been reached and theyll request a dismissal of the lawsuit within a month.

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Meanwhile, the letter said, the judge should suspend all deadlines and hold the action in abeyance.

[ LEE EN ESPANOL: Abogados: Se resolvio demanda por abuso sexual contra el principe Andres ]

FILE - Virginia Roberts Giuffre holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court following the jailhouse death of Jeffrey Epstein, Aug. 27, 2019, in New York. A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexually abusing a 17-year-old American, according to a court filing Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) (Bebeto Matthews/AP)

Giuffre, who grew up in West Palm Beach, Fla., sued Andrew in August. The American accused the British royal of sexually abusing her when she was 17 while she traveled with financier Jeffrey Epstein, who owned several properties, including a mansion in tony Palm Beach.

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Andrew has strenuously denied Giuffres allegations and attempted to get the lawsuit tossed.
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Bank of Ireland is advising businesses to be on increased alert against fraudsters during the current period of change, as many companies reopen their workplaces and employees adapt to new hybrid work practices.

Bank of Ireland has recorded a marked increase in reported cases of invoice redirection in the weeks since Government work from home advice was lifted, as fraudsters have used this period of change to capitalise on vulnerability.

Two Longford women charged with causing over 4,360 worth of damage to car Two women are due to reappear at Longford District Court charged with criminal damage to a vehicle in the carpark of a local supermarket.

Invoice redirection fraud is where fraudsters pretend to be a supplier or service provider in order to trick employees into changing bank account payee details. A common tactic is to tell the business that their bank account details have changed and for all payments to be sent to a new account, controlled by the fraudster.

What to look out for:

- Fraudsters may write to a companys finance or payments department either on forged headed paper or by email, pretending to be a supplier.

- Typically, they will say that their account details have changed.

- The payee account may be located either in Ireland or overseas.

- The fraudster may ask an employee to send a pending payment to the new account or to ensure that all future payments are sent to the new account.

Edel McDermott, Head of Fraud at Bank of Ireland commented:

We know that fraudsters thrive in periods of change or uncertainty for business, where attention may be focused on other priorities.

While the winding down of pandemic restrictions and the return to workplaces is positive news, after two years of remote working, this period will bring considerable change to many companies. Companies and their suppliers may be working in different ways, with team changes or the introduction of new processes and procedures.

Business email fraud at any time has the potential to have a devastating impact on business. Training staff on the warning signs and verbally checking requests with a known contact will help safeguard business against avoidable losses. We are urging businesses not to drop their guard against email scams.

Bank of Irelands advice to business:

- Be skeptical of urgent requests that do not follow typical company procedures and policies.

- Establish a documented internal process for requesting and authorising all payments.

- Consider how your business issues and accepts payment instructions. Email is NOT considered a secure means of communication unless encrypted.

- Always verify that the email is from the real sender before making any payment.

- Under no circumstances should contact details contained in the email or attachments be relied upon to verify the request.

- Notify the Bank immediately if you receive a suspicious email relating to payments or if you think you have been the victim of fraud.

- Visit /security-zone/protect-your- business/ for examples of business fraud and for advice on how to protect your business.

Bank of Ireland is committed to building awareness around fraud. Bank of Ireland will continue to focus on the issues around fraud, through the Banks own channels and by working collaboratively through the Bank and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) FraudSMART campaign www.fraudsmart.ie
Ensure you get a print copy of the Loudoun Times-Mirror delivered weekly to your home or business!

Complete online access is included with all print subscriptions purchased online. Plus, up to four other members of your household can share online access through this subscription with their own, individual linked accounts at no additional charge.

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10th February 2022

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London South East welcomed Aldo Boitano, CEO at CleanTech Lithium to our first live event of the year. CleanTech Lithium have two Lithium assets based in Chile, and hope to be producing Lithium within 2 years. The assets are called Laguna Verde and Francisco Basin.

The assets are both immature salars high in the Andes, previously thought unsuitable for lithium extraction and the Lithium will be produced locally. Production is by DLE or direct lithium extraction and the whole process is particularly environmentally friendly - hence the name CleanTech Lithium.

CTL intend to float on AIM in early March, the book is currently being built and things are going well, with a raise target of 6 million pounds currently. This will include a portion of funding to be raised through Primary Bid so that retail investors can participate.
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Lycoming College is pleased to welcome Crystal Eddins, Ph.D., assistant professor of Africana studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as the keynote speaker for the Colleges Race Equity? Symposium. The discussion, titled Racial Capitalism and Reproductive Justice, will take place Monday, March 7, at 7 p.m., in the Mary L. Welch Theatre.

The Race Equity? Symposium, directed by Victoria Gonzalez, Ph.D., visiting assistant professor of sociology at Lycoming College, aims to not only bring awareness and education to the Lycoming campus but to call into question the absence of racial equity, or equal opportunities for all races. The question of how to achieve race equity is not one that is easily answered. With this year-long symposium, we hope to approach that question through many different lenses, said Gonzalez. Dr. Eddins presentation on reproductive justice will provide us with important insight to understand and navigate the current fight for the rights of women in general and women of historically underrepresented groups specifically.

Eddins will center her talk around Black maternal health as well as other reproductive justice issues, including the recent Texas abortion law and its impacts on Black communities.

The speaker holds a dual major doctoral degree in African American & African studies and sociology from Michigan State University. She teaches courses on African diaspora theory, slavery, race, and colonialism, and social justice movements, and her research has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Haitian Studies as well as on online platforms like the AAIHS blog Black Perspectives.

Eddins work has been supported by the UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies, Brown Universitys Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and John Carter Brown Library, and the National Science Foundation Sociology Program Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award.

In her book, Rituals, Runaways, and the Haitian Revolution: Collective Action in the African Diaspora, (Cambridge University Press) Eddins examines the journey of enslaved Africans to colonial Haiti, and how they used their culture, religious heritages, social networks, and labor and militaristic skills to survive horrific conditions.
radhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) is an initiative by the Government of India to provide affordable housing to the rural poor. Originally launched in 1985 as Indira Awaas Yojana, PMAY-G scheme was revamped and relaunched in 2016 by the current government as part of its Housing for All by 2022 initiative. PMAY-G mission has now been extended upto 2024. This move will benefit lakhs of village dwellers.



In its new avatar, PMAYG seeks to provide pucca houses, with all the basic amenities including water, sanitation and electricity, to all the eligible rural households in two phases.



In its second phase now, this scheme aimed to deliver 1.95 crore pucca houses across rural India between 2019 and 2022. This scheme has been extended up to 2024 and the target has been revised upt to 2.95 crore pucca houses. If you are looking to apply online for PMAYG 2020-21, heres everything you need to Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana Union Budget 2022-23, the finance minister has recommended that over 80 lakh affordable houses will be constructed and delivered by the year 2023. In addition to this, the Finance Minister has also recommended an allocation of Rs 48,000 crore for the stalled projects under the affordable housing schemes across the country. It will enable the timely delivery of the under-construction projects.



is an initiative by the Government of India to provide affordable housing to the rural poor. Originally launched in 1985 as Indira Awaas Yojana, PMAY-G scheme was revamped and relaunched in 2016 by the current government as part of its Housing for All by 2022 initiative.. This move will benefit lakhs of village dwellers.In its new avatar, PMAYG seeks to provide pucca houses, with all the basic amenities including water, sanitation and electricity, to all the eligible rural households in two phases.In its second phase now, this scheme aimed to deliver 1.95 crore pucca houses across rural India between 2019 and 2022.If you are looking to apply online for PMAYG 2020-21, heres everything you need to. With an aim to provide a boost to the Housing for All mission, in the, the finance minister has recommended thatwill be constructed and delivered by the year 2023. In addition to this, the Finance Minister has also recommended an allocation offor the stalled projects under the affordable housing schemes across the country. It will enable the timely delivery of the under-construction projects.

Let's start with the benefits of PMAYG followed by eligbility criteria, beneficiay list, and the documents required to apply online for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAYG).

PMAYG 2021-22: Key Objectives & Benefits

Following are the key features and benefits of this scheme:



1. Pucca houses for all: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAYG) scheme seeks to build 2.95 crore pucca houses in rural India by March 2022 in 2 phases: 1 crore houses in Phase 1 (2016-17 to 2018-19) and 1.95 crore houses in Phase 2 (2019-20 to 2021-22). The PMAY-G scheme has now been extended upto 2024.

2. Monetary assistance of upto Rs 1.3 Lakhs: Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana (PMAY-G) offers an assistance of Rs 1.2 Lakhs for building houses in the plain areas and Rs 1.3 Lakhs in hilly areas, North-East states, and certain other areas.





3. Centre-state cost sharing: The cost of building the houses will be shared between the Central and State governments in the ratio of 60:40. However, in certain states including North-East states, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J&K, this ratio would be 90:10.





4. Extra assistance for toilets: Each beneficiary will also get mandatory assistance of Rs 12,000 for construction of toilets, either through Swach Bharat Mission or any other scheme.



5. Employment benefits: Apart from the housing assistance, PMAYG 2021-22 scheme also provides the beneficiaries with 90-95 days of employment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.



6. Housing unit size: The houses built under PMAYG are required to have a minimum area of 25 sq.m



7. Special borrowing facility: The beneficiaries are also given an option to avail a home loan



8. Housing typologies: The beneficiaries also get choices of house design typologies based on topography, climate, culture, and other housing practices. Each beneficiary will also get mandatory assistance of Rs 12,000 for construction of toilets, either through Swach Bharat Mission or any other scheme.Apart from the housing assistance, PMAYG 2021-22 scheme also provides the beneficiaries with 90-95 days of employment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.The houses built under PMAYG are required to have a minimum area of 25 sq.mThe beneficiaries are also given an option to avail aof upto Rs 70,000 from any authorized financial institution.The beneficiaries also get choices of house design typologies based on topography, climate, culture, and other housing practices.

PMAYG Eligibility 2021-22

The government has set the following guidelines for identification and selection of beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana (PMAY-G) scheme 2021-22:

You or your family should not own a pucca house anywhere in the country.

Your family should comprise a spouse and unmarried children.

You should not own a two-wheeler, three-wheeler, or a four-wheeler.Your household should not have any member serving as a government employee.Your household should not own a refrigerator or a landline.

Beneficiaries under PMAYG Scheme 2021-22 @ pmayg.nic.in

Households that have no adult member between the age of 16 to 59 years.

Households that have no literate adult member above 25 years of age.

Households headed by a female, with no adult member between the age of 16 to 59 years.

Households that have a disabled member and have no able-bodied adult.

Any landless household that earns most of the income from manual casual labour.

Is PMAYG Priority List Verified by Gram Sabha?

Once the priority list is generated, it is made available to the Gram Sabha for verification of the facts on the basis of which a household has been identified as eligible. In case the Gram Sabha finds out the facts provided were wrong, it has the authority to remove the name of that household from the list.

Documents required to for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (Rural)

Among all the eligible households, priority will be given to those who are most deprived. This priority will be decided on the basis of certain socio-economic parameters as listed below:

You will need the following documents to apply for PMAYG scheme:

Identity proof such as Aadhar card or Voter ID

Bank account details

Swachh Bharat Mission registration number

Job card number (as registered under MGNREGA)

Consent to use Aadhar information

An affidavit stating that you (or your family members) do not own a pucca house

How to apply for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin @ pmayg.nic.in

Though the beneficiaries are automatically selected by the government on the basis of Socio Economic Caste Census of 2011 (SECC), you can still add beneficiary / register for PAMYG scheme in the following steps:

Visit the official website of PMAY-G: https://pmayg.nic.in/



Fill in the required details.

Enter your Aadhar card number and click on Search button to find the beneficiary name.

Once you find the name, click on Select to Register.

Verify your auto-filled details and add the remaining details.

Proceed by providing your consent form, bank account details, MGNREGA number, and Swachh Bharat Mission number.

Your registration number will be generated.

PMAYG Beneficiary List: How to find your name in PMAY List

The government releases an annual list of beneficiaries on the basis of SECC 2011 data. To check your name in Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana list, take the following steps:

Visit the PMAY-G beneficiary list website.

Enter your registration number.

Click on Submit to view the status.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin has been one of the most important rural development schemes initiated by the government. If you are looking to get a house under this scheme and if you are eligible, keep a track on the annual beneficiary list.




Stamp Duty in UP is an essential part of a property transaction in UP. Whenever a property changes hands, the requisite stamp duty in UP and applicable registration charges must be paid to the State government. The payment of stamp duty in UP ensures that the property transaction is duly registered in government records.

While registering property in Uttar Pradesh, it is mandatory to pay the stamp duty and registration charges in UP that are levied by the Uttar Pradesh state government. Payment of stamp duty in UP ensures that the property is legally registered. In UP, it is mandatory to register any transaction involving an immovable property that exceeds Rs 100 in the sub-registrar office under Section 17 of the Uttar Pradesh Registration Act 1908.

Stamp duty is a legal tax that is payable during the purchase or sale of a property. The fee paid is used to register the property in the buyers name and legalize the property ownership. The stamp duty and registration charges in UP vary from other states. Generally, around 5-7 % of the propertys market value is charged as stamp duty, and around 1% is of the propertys market value is imposed as a registration charge across states of India.

Rates of Stamp Duty and Registration Charges in UP in 2022

The stamp duty charges in UP are levied in accordance with the circle rates decided by the administration. Circle rates are those rates below which a property cannot be registered. These rates are also called Ready Reckoner Rates in some states. Each locality has fixed circle rates which are imposed by the government. The property should be registered at a value equal to the circle rate or above it. The stamp duty and registration charges imposed by the UP government are:

Stamp Duty and Registration Charges in UP in 2022 Gender Stamp Duty in UP Registration Charges in UP Male 7% 1% Female 6% 1% Joint (Male + Female) 6.5% 1% Joint (Female + Female) 6% 1% Joint (Male + Male) 7% 1% Source: IGRSUP Source: IGRSUP

Note: The 1% reduction in stamp duty charges offered for a woman in UP is applicable only up to Rs 10 lakhs of the total value of property transaction.

Also Read: IGRS UP

How to pay Stamp Duty Online in UP

To ensure a seamless property registration process, the UP government has implemented a technology-backed digital system. The homebuyer must upload all the property related documents online and pay the applicable stamp duty. The sub-registrar verifies the documents and issues the stamped certificate.

The stamp duty in UP can be paid online by following the below-mentioned procedure 

Step 1: Enter into the official website of Uttar Pradesh Stamp and Registration Department .

Step 2: Click on the Apply button under the property registration on the left.

Step 3: Create an application number by selecting the New Registration option.

Step 4: The system will be redirected to a form. Enter the details such as city, area, unit size of the property, etc.

Step 5: In this step, Pay the applicable stamp duty charges in UP.

Once the documents are uploaded and the stamp duty in UP is paid, the documents uploaded will be verified by the Sub Registrar Officer and the registration document will be generated. The applicant can download the registration document.

Also Read: Bhulekh UP

Stamp Duty in UP for Different Deeds in 2022

In addition to the property registration, the State government of Uttar Pradesh levies stamp duty on the registration of different kinds of deeds. Some of the popular deeds and applicable stamp charges in UP are-

Stamp Duty on Various Deeds Deed Document Stamp Duty Charges in UP Gift deed Rs 60-125 Will Deed Rs 200 Exchange deed 3% of the Transaction Value Lease deed Rs 200 Agreement Deed Rs 10 Adoption deed Rs 100 Divorce Deed Rs 50 Bond Rs 200 Affidavit Rs 10 Notary Document Rs 10 Special Power of Attorney (SPA) Rs 100 General Power of Attorney (GPA) Rs 10-100

How to apply for stamp duty withdrawal in UP

The IGRSUP portal permits a user to withdraw the deposited stamp duty. A user can apply online for stamp duty payback on the IGRSUP portal (igrsup gov in). Here is the detailed method to apply online for withdrawal of stamp duty on IGRSUP portal.



Step 1: Visit the official IGRSUP portal (IGRSUP login ) at https://igrsup.gov.in/igrsup/defaultAction.action

Step 2: After IGRSUP Login, hit the Stamp Vaapsi Hetu Aavedan  button (Withdrawal of stamp duty on IGRSUP) tab. The following screen will be displayed.

Stamp refund on IGRSUP

Step 3: If you are a first-time user and applying for stamp duty refund on IGRSUP, click on the New Register button.

Step 4: The following window will pop-up.

Step 5: Fill in the details such as Mobile Number, Password, District and Captcha Code and Click on the Sign in button. You can now apply for the stamp duty refund in UP.

Step 6: If you have already registered on the portal, you have to click on the Pre-register tab.

Step 7: Now, you will have to fill in some details such as Application Id, Captcha Code and password and the stamp duty refund status in UP will be displayed on the computer screen.

This way, the stamp duty refund in UP can be applied on the IGRSUP website. This stamp duty refund facility has enabled the online application for stamp duty refund and saves precious time for the general public. It has also ensured transparency and efficiency in the refund system of IGRSUP.

Also Read: Circle Rate in Noida

Stamp duty and registration charges in UP during Coronavirus Pandemic

The UP government notified new stamp duty rates on property registration fees in February 2020 and other transactions under which the maximum cap of Rs 20,000 on the transaction was removed. The registration fee is calculated at 1% of the total transaction value. For example, if the property is registered at Rs 1 crore, Rs 1 lakhs will be levied as registration charges.

Due to the pandemic, housing sales had suffered, and hence the UP RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) and NAREDCO (The National Real Estate Developers Council) requested the government to reduce the stamp duty and registration charges to encourage homebuyers to invest in real estate.

The reduction also helped the developers to clear the unsold inventory. The UP RERA requested the change in stamp duty and registration charges after observing similar actions taken in states like Maharashtra and Karnataka to boost property sales. However, there was no decision taken by the UP government on reducing the stamp duty and registration fees.

Summing up Stamp Duty and Registration Charges in UP

Conclusively, the stamp duty in UP is a mandatory charge and must be deposited as soon as the property is sold. The payment of stamp duty and registration charges in UP ensures proper registration of the property in Government records and negates the chances of a legal or Title dispute at a later stage.

Also Read:
Stamp duty in Maharashtra is levied on property transactions across the State. Stamp duty and registration charges in Maharashtra are charged under the Maharashtra Stamp duty Act.





To ease homeownership and provide a boost to the real estate sector amid the economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, the Government of Maharashtra has reduced the Stamp Duty in Maharashtra to 2-3% of the property value. However, from April 2021, the stamp duty in Maharashtra has been reinstated.



Latest News: In a recent development, the Maharashtra Government has decided to collect 1 percent 'Metro Cess' in four cities of Mumbai, Nagpur, Thane and Pune. This would increase the stamp duty charges by 1 percent. Although this decision was to be implemented in February 2019, it was deferred due to the Coronavirus pandemic and resultant challenges. The fund so generated will be used to finance transport infrastructure projects in these cities.

Stamp Duty and Registration Charges in Maharashtra

Stamp Duty in Maharashtra - Charges and levies covered (Rural and urban)

Total Stamp Duty in Maharashtra includes Stamp Duty, and additional taxes as follows:





In urban areas falling under Municipal Corporation or Municipal Council limits, there is a cess/ transport surcharge/ local body tax payable. This is 1% of the property value, and is intended to be used for funding transport infrastructure projects in the cities such as Metros, bridges, flyovers, etc.





In rural areas which fall under Gram Panchayat and not under the jurisdiction of any Municipal Corporation or Municipal Council, this cess/ surcharge is replaced by Zilla Parishad cess. This cess is also payable at 1% of the property consideration value.





An additional surcharge of 0.5% is applicable on areas falling under the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) jurisdictions. This is over and above the 1% cess/ surcharge payable.

Stamp Duty in Maharashtra in 2021

After 31st March 2021, as the economy has started to stabilize, the Stamp Duty has been reinstated to 5% of the of property value for Mumbai and 6 percent for the rest of the State, as applicable until 31st August 2020.

Stamp duty and registration charges Maharashtra 2021 Region Stamp Duty in Maharashtra from 1st April 2021 onwards Mumbai and its suburbs 5 percent Other urban areas of Maharashtra 6 percent Rural Maharashtra 4 percent Source: Government of Maharashtra Source: Government of Maharashtra

* MMRDA stands for Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The areas under MMRDA include Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Panvel, Mira-Bhayandar, and Vasai-Virar; along with some other parts of Thane, Raigad, and Palghar districts.

How much reduction was made in Stamp Duty in Maharashtra recently?

A reduction of 3% in Stamp Duty applicable till 31st December 2020, and 2% till 31st March 2021 for Mumbai (city and suburban districts).





A reduction of 2% in Stamp Duty applicable till 31st December 2020, and 1.5% till 31st March 2021 for all other areas in Maharashtra.

Area Total Stamp Duty in Maharashtra Registration Charges Up to 31 Aug 2020 1st Sept 2020- 31 Dec 2020 1st Jan 2021- 31 Mar 2021 Mumbai city and suburbs 5.0% 2.0% 3.0% 1% of the agreement value

(Maximum:

Rs 30,000) Nagpur Municipal Corporation 6.5% 3.5% 4.5% Other urban areas 6.0% 3.0% 4.0% Rural areas under NIT Area and within Influential Zone 4.5% 1.5% 2.5% Rural areas under NIT Area and out of Influential Zone 5.5% 2.5% 3.5% Rural areas under MMRDA* 5.0% 2.0% 3.0% Other rural areas 4.0% 1.0% 2.0% Source: Department of Registration & Stamps, Government of Maharashtra



Source: Department of Registration & Stamps, Government of Maharashtra

A reduction of 1% in cess/ surcharge/ local body tax till 31st December 2020, and 0.5% till 31st March 2021 for all areas in Maharashtra.





However, the 1% Metro cess in Mumbai and 0.5% surcharge in Nagpur has not been reduced.





These rates are applicable from 1st September 2020 to 31st December 2020. The Stamp Duty payable from 1st January 2021 to 31st March 2021 would be 3-4% of the property value.





After 31st March 2021, the stamp duty rates are expected to be in the range of 5-6%, until any further announcement by the State government.

How does this reduction affect buyers?

At 5-6% of the property value, the Stamp Duty makes up a considerable amount of money to be paid upfront while buying a house. It may not seem significant in affordable areas, but in areas such as Mumbai and Pune where property prices are high, it makes a substantial difference.





For instance, for a property in Mumbai costing Rs 1 Cr. The stamp duty payable was Rs 5 lacs (5% of Rs 1 Cr) until August 2020. Now after reduction, the stamp duty payable on a property worth Rs 1 Cr. is Rs 2 lacs till December 2020, and Rs 3 lacs till March 2020. This results in savings of up to Rs 3 lacs.

Stamp duty in Maharashtra: Online Payment (Step-by-step)

The erstwhile system for the payment of stamp duty in Maharashtra was amended to enable online payment of stamp duty. Here is the step-by-step guide to pay stamp duty in Maharashtra online.





Step 1: Login to the Maharashtra Stamp Duty Online Payment portal, i.e., https://gras.mahakosh.gov.in/igr/frmIndex.php

Step 2: Click on the Pay Without Registration tab on the homepage.

Step 3: Click on the Make payment to Register your documents. Here you have the option of paying the stamp duty and registration charges together or only stamp duty/registration charges.

Step 4: Once you choose the option, you will have to fill in the details such as district, Name of the Payer, PAN number, property details, property value details and proceed for payment.





Step 5 : Choose the payment method and generate the challan as it will be required to at the time of execution of the Deed.

Stamp Duty in Maharashtra on Gift Deed, Lease Deed and Others

In accordance with the Maharashtra Stamps Act 2017, the State of Maharashtra would levy a stamp duty of 3 percent of the property value, in case of a Gift Deed. However, in cases where a residential or agricultural property has been gifted without any payment to the family members, the stamp duty on gift deeds in Maharashtra will be Rs 200. In addition to this, following duties are applicable on various deed instruments in Maharashtra

Stamp Duty in Maharashtra on Various Deeds Type of Deed Stamp Duty Gift Deed 3 percent Lease Deed 5 percent Gift Deed family (Residential/agricultural property) Rs 200 Power of Attorney 5 Percent- For properties in municipal areas 3 Percent  For properties located in gram panchayat areas

Tax Savings on Stamp Duty in Maharashtra

Income Tax deductions can be availed under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act against the Stamp Duty, cess/ surcharge, and registration charges paid. However, the total deduction allowed under Section 80C is limited to Rs 1.5 lakh.





Stamp Duty in Maharashtra is a tax payable on registering a legal document with the Government. Stamp Duty is applicable on various documents including Property sale agreement, and Leave and License (rental) agreement, among others. The Stamp Duty in Maharashtra is usually in the range of 4-7% of the consideration value mentioned in the document. This rate of Stamp Duty varies from state to state. Some states provide concession in Stamp Duty to women.





For property sale documents, Stamp Duty is payable on the consideration value of the property mentioned in the document, or the circle rates (also called Ready Reckoner rates) as decided by the government- whichever is higher. Payment of Stamp Duty for registering property is mandatory under Section 3 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899.

Stamp Duty in Maharashtra Refund

The Maharashtra Stamps Act 2017 makes a provision for the refund of the stamp duty in Maharashtra. The stamp duty in Maharashtra can be refunded in the following cases-

Cases where a person whose signature is essential declines to sign or is dead before signing.

In cases where a party to the stamp paper document refuses to sign it.

In the case where a party does not fulfil the essential terms and conditions.

Cases where the value of the stamp is insufficient, and the transaction was completed by using another stamp paper with the appropriate value.

In cases where stamp paper is torn, and parties involved have executed a different stamp paper document for the same purpose.

In cases where the stamp paper is a misfit for use owing to written errors

In cases where stamp paper is unsigned/ not signed, and information filled (complete/partial) is intended not to be used.

The cases where a stamp paper is signed but the transaction is illegal (According to Section 31 of Specific Relief Act).

In cases where a lawful court declares the transaction entirely illegal from the beginning (Void /ab/ initio)

Stamp Duty in Maharashtra: Apply for Refund Online

To get the stamp duty refunded in Maharashtra, follow the below-mentioned steps. To get the stamp duty refunded in Maharashtra, you will have to fill the following details-





Step 1 : Login to the following portal, https://appl2igr.maharashtra.gov.in/refund/





Step 2: Click on the checkbox to accept the terms and conditions below and click on New Entry.

Step 3 : Enter Mobile Number, OTP, and captcha code.











Step 4 : Enter token number, create password and enter confirm password.




TALLAHASSEE  Gov. Ron DeSantis now supports a plan to withhold $200 million in funding from 12 school districts that mandated masks because of the pandemic, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

DeSantis is on board after discussions with state Rep. Randy Fine, who is proposing the budget measure, Press Secretary Christina Pushaw wrote in an email.

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The governor has been clear that he doesnt want to take away any funding from students or teachers, she wrote. He is on board with the FEFP [Florida Education Finance Program] adjustment following discussions with Rep. Fine. The fines in this proposal would only impact administrators making $100k+, who were actually making the political decisions to force-mask children.

It was school boards not school administrators, however, that made the decision to mandate masks for students, and the state fined those boards as a result, withholding money equivalent to school board members monthly salaries. Florida returned the money once mask mandates were lifted.

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On Friday, DeSantis said he would not support Fines idea.

My view would be lets not do that, DeSantis said during an appearance in Jackson County, when asked about Fines proposal. But what you could do is say any parent whose kid was illegally force-masked this year in Florida in any of those districts, they should have the right to sue if their kids have any negative effects ... They flouted the law and they should be liable for the consequences of their actions.

DeSantis remains committed to the idea of a private right of action for parents to sue if they think school mask mandates harmed their children, Pushaw said.

Fine, a Brevard County Republican, said on the House floor the governor is now supporting his proposal if it is tailored to take money away only from central administrative offices.

After discussions personally that I have had with the governor over the last few days, the governor is in support of the concept, he said. I understand this is late-breaking news.

Orange County Public Schools could lose $16.5 million if Fines measure was adopted. Two-thirds of the $200 million would come from South Florida. Miami-Dade could lose $72 million, Broward $32 million and Palm Beach County $28 million.

The Orange County School Board was in a workshop Tuesday when news broke of DeSantis change of opinion.

I just read a tweet that Gov. DeSantis is supporting the $200 million from school districts, said board member Angie Gallo. It upset me. So excuse my lack of thought process right now.

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The amount each district would lose would be based on how many administrators are earning more than $100,000. OCPS school leaders said they have 92 such positions.

They have called Fines proposal unfair, unprecedented and possibly unconstitutional.

They and other school leaders said they enacted mask mandates in good faith as a way to keep students and staff safe during the surge in COVID-19 cases that coincided with August school openings. They noted both national and local medical experts recommended masks in schools as the delta variant led to a sharp increase in cases and hospitalizations.

In a letter to lawmakers sent last week, OCPS leaders noted that even when masks were optional at the start of the school year, more than 90% of OCPS parents sent their children to school wearing them, suggesting widespread support for the 60-day mask mandate the district imposed. The mandate ended Oct. 31.

The proposal to take money from the districts would be an unprecedented punitive redistribution of money in the states school-funding formula that aims to equalize per-student spending across the state, said the letter from Superintendent Barbara Jenkins and Teresa Jacobs, chair of the Orange County School Board.

School districts have the right to challenge state rules they think are improper, as Orange and others did with the states rule banning face mask mandates, the letter said, and Fines plan could violate the state constitution by imposing fines in ways state law does not allow.

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Palm Beach County Superintendent Mike Burke said theres no justification for the penalty Fine proposed because the school district complied immediately when mask mandates were declared unlawful on Nov. 19.

Representative Fines proposal to claw back $28 million in funding for the upcoming school year is unfounded, unprecedented, and unjust, Burke said in a statement.

Florida already spends less per-pupil than many states, he added, so any dollars lost to such a punitive proposal would negatively impact the ability of our schools to meet the needs of our students.

The Broward School District was disappointed in the governors reversal, said John Sullivan, director of legislative affairs.

We hope the Senate will not agree to penalize administrators who have worked tirelessly to meet the unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic, always focused on the health and safety of students and teachers, Sullivan said. This penalty would have a negative impact on the services the district is able to provide to our students.

Senate President Wilton Simpson told reporters Thursday he had not closely examined the Houses proposal, but he supported the concept of holding organizations that dont follow state law accountable.

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Fine said the 12 school districts would still get more money this year than last but not as much as the 55 districts that did not require students to wear face masks. The 12 districts are in: Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Indian River, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Sarasota and Volusia counties.

DeSantis issued a statement on Twitter on Tuesday about Fines proposal.

Thanks to Speaker [Chris] Sprowls, Representative Fine, and the House of Representatives for heeding my call to protect students and teachers from accountability measures affecting union-controlled politicians and bureaucrats who defied Florida law by force masking kids, DeSantis said in the tweet. Most students didnt want to wear masks in the first place! Lets also give parents recourse for harms imposed on their kids due to this defiance. They should get compensated by academic, social, and emotional problems caused by these policies.

Sun Sentinel staff writers Brooke Baitinger and Scott Travis contributed to this report. sswisher@orlandosentinel.com; lpostal@orlandosentinel.com
Manchester, TN (37355)

Today

Clouds and some sun this morning with more clouds for this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 81F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms. Low 62F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
MANISTEE COUNTY  Munson Healthcare announced a new art initiative to promote vaccines during Tuesday's weekly COVID-19 press conference.

The program is called Voices for Vaccination and is open to children and adults. The program would be local to northern Michigan and is open to any medium including music and writing.

According to the website and the presentation that was given at the press conference, "Voice for Vaccination (is) a regional art contest, (that) aims to illustrate the ways vaccines promote individual and community health for the betterment of health in childhood, pregnancy, breast-feeding mothers, minorities, seniors and beyond!"

Voices for Vaccination was announced by Toni Leaf-Odette, a perinatal grant coordinator for Munson Healthcare and a community health expert who leads several community health initiatives. Leaf-Odette said that "art is universal and is subjective and so it really allows us to create a better world through self-expression."

"The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, in the past, have historically utilized artists as trusted messengers to address public health concerns and so we thought we'd bring something like that to northern Michigan," she said.

Leaf-Odette said submissions will be accepted until March 15. The specifications are as follows:

 Pieces should have a base width of no greater than 36 inches;

 Recordings should be limited to two minutes;

 Writing submissions are not to exceed 500 words; and

 Entries must be original work of the artists own creation.

The website said that the art submissions should "tell us what vaccines mean to you, how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted you, how vaccines have improved lives or how vaccines help support the health of your community."

There will also be prizes for the winners of the competition. Cash prizes will be awarded for the top three submissions, as voted by the community, in each age group:

 First place: $1,000;

 Second place: $500; and

 Third place: $200.

The winning submissions will be displayed at several selected locations in northern Michigan according to Leaf-Odette.

The three age groups that are eligible are as follows:

 Children: Up to and including age 8

 Youth: Ages 9-17

 Adult: Age 18 & Up

More information on the program can be found at munsonhealthcare.org/blog/voices-for-vaccination-call-for-submissions.

'A nice downward trend'

Dr. Christine Necfy, chief medical officer for Munson Healthcare also gave an update for the most recent numbers and trends as far as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the region.

Nefcy noted a positive trend with cases and the COVID-19 test positivity rate decreasing both statewide and in the region.

"We are down at a state level to 15.5%," Nefcy said. "We had not been below 20% for the state since December. This is really good news, as we continue to see that number trend down."

Nefcy noted that the area lags slightly behind in terms of test positivity rate.

"We are still just above the 20% (test positivity rate) at 20.3%, but again, we are seeing a nice steady trendline down in our percent positivity as well as our cases per 100,000," she said.

Dr. Christopher Ledke, an infectious disease specialist with Munson Healthcare, explained during the press conference in more detail what it would mean for the pandemic to go into an endemic stage. However, he said he doesn't know exactly when the pandemic will end.

He said the complete eradication of COVID-19 is unlikely, but that the pandemic will shift to a situation where the virus is spreading in a way that does not cause the healthcare system to be overwhelmed and have the extreme effects on society that have occurred during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Endemicity essentially implies that the virus will continue to circulate long term but at levels that are more manageable," Ledke said.

He noted that the number of cases would be stable over a longer period of time and not have large spikes as the current situation has been.

"Basically we would be accepting the level of impact that the virus would have and would no longer be in this crisis mode. I do expect that over the next few months, cases will continue to decrease to a point where we will have very low levels of community transmission," he said.

Ledke said that the country, state and region are headed in that direction but are not there yet.

"We're still having about 150,000 new cases and 2,500 deaths daily -- nationwide -- with about 4,000 cases and at about 60 deaths (daily) statewide in Michigan still," he said.
McAlester, OK (74501)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 69F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy with late night showers or thunderstorms. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
McAlester, OK (74501)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 69F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
McAlester, OK (74501)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 68F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy with late night showers or thunderstorms. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright exits after answering questions from the school board for her interview. The School Board selected her for the permanent position over the other finalist, Michael Gaal, an Air Force veteran and former Washington, D.C., deputy chancellor of schools. (Mike Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

The Broward County School Board had the opportunity to restore the publics confidence in K-12 education for Broward students, but once again failed miserably.

Choosing interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright as the permanent leader of Broward Schools is a slap in the face to all parents with students in K-12, as well as all Broward County taxpayers.

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In July of 2021, Cartwrights very first promise to the public was that she would not seek the permanent position, if selected as the interim leader, as this was a requirement set by the School Board.

However, just months after Cartwright was selected as the interim superintendent, the School Board and Cartwright changed their tune. In October of 2021, Cartwright threw her hat into the ring to be considered as the permanent replacement to succeed Robert Runcie  an act she had just promised she would not make.

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Tom Powers is chairman of the Republican Party of Broward County.

As the selection process proceeded, the School Board narrowed their search to two candidates: Vickie Cartwright, a former music teacher and superintendent for a tiny school district in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Michael Gaal, a retired Air Force colonel and former deputy chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools.

Cartwright became the favorite of the teachers union and groups representing principals. Gaal was overwhelmingly supported by parent groups, including the leaders of several district advisory committees and Concerned Citizens of Broward County, a several-thousand-member group of parents and activists on Facebook.

With the advantage of incumbency, and a history of corruption from the school district, the School Board ignored the will of parents and broke their promise to Broward County citizens by selecting Vickie Cartwright for the permanent position they all had just promised would go to another candidate, less than a year ago.

Is anyone paying attention?

Our elected officials refuse to listen to voters. As a result, their values do not represent Broward County parents. It is concerning that School Board members feel they should determine the values taught to children, as opposed to their own parents. The School Boards actions demonstrate that leaders do not need to keep their word and can skirt the rules when it suits their own agenda. This is exactly why parents are pulling their children out of the public school system in record numbers.

Parents across this country are standing up to school boards to demand that they have a say in their childrens education. Broward County has responded loud and clear to parents, letting them know they are not interested in what parents have to say.

The frustration of citizens must be heard one way or another. And with parents requests falling on deaf ears, we must amplify this message at the ballot box. Every school board member that went back on their word, changed the qualifying rules, and selected Superintendent Cartwright needs to be voted out of office.

If the School Board wont restore faith in the educational system in Broward County, then its up to the voters to do so. Every parent has the right to be involved in their childs education.

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Tom Powers is the chair of the Republican Party of Broward County and a former city commissioner of Coral Springs. He worked with the Arizona State Police for 21 years as a narcotics agent on the Mexican border.
The little town with the long name, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, is one of many area communities holding non-partisan elections on March 8. The voters of this quaint seaside village of about 7,000 people will elect one member to the five-member town commission.

Commissioner Randy Strauss, who was elected in 2018 and is seeking a new four-year term in District 2, is the preferred choice in this two-man race.

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Strauss, 60, a lawyer, has four years of service, and under the town charter, he cant serve more than two consecutive terms. He brings an energetic, businesslike approach to town affairs and wants to use his experience to maintain continuity at Town Hall, which is important.

Strauss opponent is Brian Kuszmar, 58, the owner of a rare currency and coin shop in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. The challenger has provided voters (and us) with very little upon which to judge his qualifications. He has no campaign website, did not submit a questionnaire to the editorial board and did not respond to two emails offering him an online interview.

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People dine in an expanded outdoor space at Aruba in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea on Sept. 4, 2021. The town expanded outdoor dining to help businesses coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. (Michael Laughlin/Sun Sentinel)

Kuszmar ran for the state House of Representatives 20 years ago under the Libertarian Party banner, and received 21% of the vote against Connie Mack IV.

Kuszmar and Strauss are scheduled to participate in a campaign forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16. It is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Broward County and will be live-streamed on the citys web page.

As Strauss said in his Sun Sentinel questionnaire, he wants to help oversee completion of various capital improvements, keep taxes and crime low and protect the towns character with its low-rise height limits on buildings, approved by voters in 1973.

[ QUESTIONNAIRE: Randy Strauss, candidate for Lauderdale-By-the-Sea Town Commission, District 2 ]

The towns motto is Relax ... youre here. An Adirondack chair design as the town logo projects a laid-back vibe, and not much controversy erupts here.

Strauss was on the short end of a couple of votes in the past year, but he was right on both counts. He opposed hiring William Vance as town manager, and the commission fired Vance a year ago after only two years for management weaknesses. Strauss also opposed making interim town manager Linda Connors Vances permanent replacement without a formal search process, and initially was outvoted.

To support struggling local restaurant owners during the COVID-19 pandemic, Strauss joined his colleagues in expanding outdoor dining areas by reducing the number of public parking spaces.

Strauss has spent virtually his entire life in Broward. He grew up in Coral Springs and graduated from that citys first high school in 1979, which began as an all-portable campus. He remembers when University Drive was a dusty two-lane road, and as a boy roamed what were then you-pick-em fields. That historical perspective, gained over several decades, matters in local government decision-making.

#DontForget you still have time to return your March 8,2022 #SpecialGeneral & #MunicipalElection #Ballot! Simply put it in the mail or drop it off at one of our convenient drop off locations! Visit https://t.co/qNKtThska8 to view the #VBMdropbox schedule. #BrowardVotes pic.twitter.com/qrMWc3gjlO  Broward SOE (@BrowardVotes) February 11, 2022

Voters can request a mail ballot from the county elections office through Feb. 25. Two polling places, Jarvis Hall and Assumption Catholic Church, will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on March 8. Town commissioners represent separate geographical districts but all voters in town are eligible to vote.

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Two other commission candidates had no opposition and will be automatically elected: Mayor Chris Vincent and District 1 Commissioner Theophilos Poulopoulos, who will replace term-limited Commissioner Elliot Sokolow.

The annual salary of a town commissioner is $12,410.84, according to the town clerk.

In Lauderdale-by-the-Seas election for District 2 town commissioner, the Sun Sentinel recommends Randy Strauss.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its staff members. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.








[ the news ] 02.14.22 Sanctuary

W hen Michael told me what had happened to Nell, I thought it must have been the machetes. At the sanctuary, the volunteersteenage hippies from Spain or the Balkanstold us we needed to cut our own sugarcane if we wanted them to come anywhere near us. They passed out machetes, real ones, the size of my forearm, rusted and flat, and led us to a pile of thick, green-yellow shafts. I held the branches down with my left hand and chopped with my right, trying and failing to slice at the plants natural segments, never slicing cleanly through, of course, but instead hacking over and over and over until the pieces cracked apart. In America, I thought, this would be illegal, even with waivers. Somebody could lose a finger. The volunteers told us to suck on the smallest segments, taste the fresh, sweet pulp. I never dreamed it would have been the elephants. What do you mean shes dead? I typed with heavy thumbs. It was a baby boy, he replied. I could read his anguish quivering in the digital blue bubble of his text message. An adolescent. The paddock was supposed to be locked. He wanted to play with Nell, knocked her over with his trunk. Two feet on her chest later I remembered worrying, when I was at the sanctuary, that one of the elephants might step on my foot and break it while I wasnt paying attention. An accident. Im so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help? I could get in touch with Lyle and Amelia for you, or I could come over and cook. Whatever you need. For a few moments his response was nothing but a gray ellipsis. Then: Stay the duck away from me. Thats why Im telling you. This is your fault.

Its not my fault, I asked Amelia. Right? Of course its not your fault, she said. It was nobodys fault. She tossed a purple stress ball my way stamped with Second Chance Animal Shelters logo: five white dots that formed a perfect paw. Amelias job title was Care Coordinator, but really she and her husband Lyle ran the place. Theyd brought Nell and me on at around the same timesupposedly for bookkeeping and marketing, respectively, but really to tend to the animals. We spent most of our time with the dogs and cats and gerbils and rabbits. Nell and I had never been particularly close, but we went out after work sometimes, happy hours at the fake Irish pub next door. Michael often joined us. They were one of those couples that smiled too much and had matching teeth. But they were nice enough, and Michael was so funnygood company for an evening. When I was there the elephants were totally fine, I said. I mean, completely. I know, she said. They were like big dogs. They only wanted to eat your food. I couldnt stop remembering how, when I was at the sanctuary, I was worried that if anything bad happened, it would be my fault. Not only machete accidents or broken feet. When the elephants curled their trunks around the sugarcane in my palm, I worried Id forget to let go, become food. I kept getting in the way of their batting, pancake ears, and I worried that Id irritate them, provoke them. When we swam with them in the muddy, lukewarm jungle river, when we cupped our hands in the silt and scrubbed their rough bodies, I worried that one of them, in their joy, would roll over, and my reflexes would be too slow to save me. But none of that had happened. The elephants were sweet and docile, the way you hope they are when youre a child. Dont suppose you know Nells password? Amelia asked. The news hadnt shaken her too badlyat shelters, you get used to death. Taxes coming up. She was a whiz with numbers, but she wasnt exactly organized. I told her not to speak ill of the dead, but it was truereceipts went missing for days, important emails went unnoticed. Nell always fixed it in the end, and people tend to take pity on scrappy do-gooders anyway. Michael sometimes called when we were at the pub, wondering where she wasshed forgotten their plans. Once she left Bowsers cage open, and the massive Newfoundland drank all the toilet bowl water. She was enthusiastic, but careless. Have you tried password? I suggested. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7? Now whos speaking ill of the dead? She wasnt stupid. Youre right, I said. Im just a mess. Id gone to Thailand the summer after my divorce was finalized, tried to live my own cliche, Eat, Pray, Love adventurethe elephants were as exciting as it got. When Nell mentioned she and Michael were planning an anniversary trip, I insisted on ThailandMichael wanted France, but Nell had heard my elephant stories, and knowing how much she loved animals, Michael agreed it would be better. I emailed them recommendations and links. I raved about the sanctuary, brought in the framed picture of me and one of the gentle female beasts. Nell didnt believe me when I told her the frame was made from dried elephant dung. The elephants were so gentle, every last one. What should I do? I asked Amelia, who was still trying to log in. If you could learn basic accounting, that would be great. No, I mean about Michael. Hes mad at me. I dug my nails into the stress ball. I need to make some kind of gesture. It sounds like Michael wants you to leave him alone, she said. You should probably leave him alone.

I almost left him alone, I really did. But it wasnt my fault. He had to know that, deep down. I sent flowers to her funeraltropical lilies, bright and biting frangipani. In the card, I wrote that I had made a generous donation to the elephant sanctuary in Nells name.
MBABANE  Should employees not keen to be vaccinated for COVID-19 be added to the unemployment statistics?

This question has come to the fore once again as there is an evident rise worldwide of action being taken against unvaccinated workers, with dismissals due to employees refusal to vaccinate becoming more prominent than ever. A recent arbitration award issued by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in South Africa, in a matter between Theresa Mulderji vs Goldrush Group, determined that Mulderji, who was an employee of Goldrush, was permanently incapacitated on the basis of her decision not to get vaccinated and by implication, her refusal to participate in the creation of a safe working environment. She was further dismissed from Goldrush. Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) Secretary General Mduduzi Gina, when asked about the unions view on this topical issue, said on the outset as a federation they encouraged vaccination in the labour force, however as a principle, did not agree with this being mandatory.

encourages

We wish to state that the federation encourages all workers to vaccinate to curb the diverse effect of the coronavirus. As a principle, however, we do not agree that vaccination should be compulsory. If employers want to join the vaccination project, we understand that their interest is not on the workers lives per se, he said. Gina further said some of the employers interest was on the disruption of production as a result of the possible sickly workforce. It is our view that the employers must put up incentives that would entice its workforce to vaccinate. There should be no policy to impose a vaccine on workers, as that proves to be a challenge to their constitutional rights. Workers and employers must agree on their approach to that, said the TUCOSWA secretary general. In previous reports it was stated that The new world of work was going to be explored by the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC) and other labour law experts on February 24, 2022.

One of the key discussions during the Labour Law Seminar will be compulsory vaccination in the workplace. Worldwide, employers are formulating policies on vaccination and whether they can require their staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In light of governments also changing policies to ensure vaccination becomes mandatory, employers both within and outside the healthcare sector may want to consider very carefully their evidence base for mandating COVID-19 vaccination of their staff as it stands, or stood, at the time they mandate the requirement. In neighbouring country South Africa, there are already companies which have instituted the mandatory vaccination policy such as the MTN Group and Old Mutual. Locally, the Anglican Church has instructed its Clergy to vaccinate at a compulsory basis.

According to Insight, there are numerous laws and policies at play when instituting mandatory vaccination in an organisation. In the absence of a government mandate, employers who wish to mandate vaccinations or to collect information about the vaccination status of their employees will need to consider a number of employment and privacy law issues.

Dispute

In a recent arbitration award issued by South Africas Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), SAs primary dispute resolution body issued its first award in respect of an employee refusing to vaccinate in the face of the employers mandatory vaccination policy. The neighbouring country published the Consolidated Directions on Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Certain Workplaces in June 2021, which has since brought up the debate about the legality of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations in the face of constitutional safeguards protecting an individuals right to freedom and security of person, the right to bodily and psychological and psychological integrity and freedom of religion.

In a matter between Theresa MulderjivsGoldrush Group, MsMulderji referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the CCMA on the grounds of incapacity. She had been employed by Goldrush as its business related and training officer. After undertaking a risk assessment of its workplace in respect of COVID-19, Goldrush had opted to introduce a mandatory vaccination policy and allowed employees the opportunity to apply for exemption from the compulsory inoculation scheme, highlighted an article on ENSAfrica, by Irvin Lawrence and Ehigie Marilyn Okojie.

Exemption

Following the refusal of MsMuderjis exemption and appeal application, and her continued refusal to comply with the mandatory vaccination policy, she was summoned to an incapacity hearing by Goldrush, stated the article. It was further highlighted that after the hearing, the presiding officer concluded that MsMulderji was permanently incapacitated based on her refusal to get vaccinated. She was then dismissed. MsMulderji then approached the CCMA, challenging the substantive fairness of her dismissal and sought reinstatement or maximum compensation. In the arbitration proceedings, Goldrush indicated that it had gone through a thorough risk assessment process before resolving to apply a mandatory vaccination policy.

It was also contended, that given the nature of MsMulderjis duties, there was no other position where she could be placed. MsMulderji raised her right to bodily integrity as a defence to dismissal, read in part the article on the arbitration award.

She further stated that she felt under extreme social pressure and emotional discomfort at being subjected to deciding between her livelihood and agreeing to be vaccinated, especially in circumstances where she had to waive her rights of recourse against pharmaceutical companies and her employer. The employee, Mulderji, when stating her case, further pointed out that since the beginning of the national lockdown, she had strictly followed COVID-19 protocols and was aware that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had confirmed that the vaccine does not stop the spread or contraction of COVID-19, but only served to minimise the severity of symptoms. All MsMulderji wanted was for Goldrush to exempt her mandatory vaccination and offer her an alternative position. It also emerged during the proceedings that Mulderji abandoned her intention to seek medical exemption after her doctors had refused to provide a medical certificate in support of her application.

Crucial

When handing down the assessment of the matter, the CCMA commissioner concluded that Goldrush had followed all the crucial steps set out in its vaccination policy and that the company considered Mulderjis exemption claim. She was further identified as a high risk individual who was required to interact with colleagues daily while on duty in confined, uncontrollable spaces. The commissioner concluded that Mulderji was permanently incapacitated on the basis of her decision not to get vaccinated and by implication, her refusal to participate in the creation of a safe working environment. It was further included in the report on the matter that although this arbitration award may provide a sigh of relief to employers, it is important to note that this may not be the final word on the matter and the Labour Court or even the Constitutional Court in that country, may ultimately be called upon to determine this issue in due course.
Meadville, PA (16335)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain during the afternoon. High 66F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu announced their separation on social media by releasing a joint statement in October 2021.

Since then, the two have been making headlines for several unconfirmed reports and talking about their lives post-split.

Thats not all, fans who were heartbroken upon hearing the news have been digging old interviews of the ex-couple when things were all well between the two.

 Samanth Ruth Prabhu Instagram

One such interview has now surfaced online when Naga Chaitanya was the special guest on Samantha Ruth Prabhus chat show Sam Jam.



During the rapid-fire round on the chat show, Samantha showed Naga Chaitanya several AVs of his industry friends and family members who were asking him a question.

One of them was Rana Daggubati who asked Naga Chaitanya, Why are you? The randomness of the question left Naga Chaitanya dumbfounded for a moment as he wondered what should he answer.

Initially, he simply replied, Oh god, I dont know. Samantha then repeated the question to which an audience member screamed, For you (Samantha).

Chaitanya then blushed as he echoed the same saying, Yes, I am here for you.

 Samanth Ruth Prabhu Instagram

Check out the video below:



While the video is from June 2021, there are a few recent comments from fans who are hoping for the ex-couple to reunite.

One fan wrote, I hope they reunite again. They both r nice pair and human being. Another wished for the same, Hoping they meet again.... we will wait everday for their reunite...

One comment read, These days will never come back again. One fan hoped that they marry again as he wrote, I hope someday they marry again !!! Lots of couple has rekindled love .. after divorce!!! So they too willl ... let's hope.

Check out the responses below:

 Aha Video YouTube

 Aha Video YouTube

 Aha Video YouTube

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On the work front, Samantha Ruth Prabhu made her Bollywood debut last year with season 2 of Manoj Bajpayees The Family Man. She will soon be seen in a film backed by Taapsee Pannu.



Naga Chaitanya, on the other hand, will be seen making his big Bollywood debut alongside Aamir Khan in his upcoming Forrest Gump remake, Laal Singh Chaddha.
Prosecutor: Arberys killers known to use racist slurs

BRUNSWICK, Ga.  The three white men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery had histories of making racist comments or using slurs in text messages that stunned their friends and colleagues, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday as the trio stood trial on hate crime charges in the 25-year-old Black mans death.

During opening statements in the case, defense attorneys admitted their clients had each expressed offensive and indefensible opinions about Black people. But they insisted the trios pursuit of Arbery as he ran in their neighborhood was prompted by honest, though erroneous, suspicion that he had committed crimes  not by his race.

Im not going to ask you to like Travis McMichael, Amy Lee Copeland, the defense attorney for the man who fatally shot Arbery, told the jury. Im not going to ask you to decide that he had done nothing wrong. But Im going to ask you to return a verdict of not guilty to this indictment.

Birx, COVID-19 adviser under Trump, has a book deal

NEW YORK  Dr. Deborah Birx has a memoir coming out this spring that will focus on her contentious time as White House coronavirus task force coordinator in the administration of President Donald Trump.

Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced Monday that Birxs Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of The Trump Administration, COVID-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before Its Too Late, will be published April 26.

I wrote Silent Invasion to document the full extent of what I witnessed as I tried to save lives during this devastating time, Birx said in a statement. In the book, I expose the true cost of mistakes that were made at all levels of the federal government, but I also clarify the things that went right yet remained largely unseen  the insights and innovations that saved American lives in this pandemic and are essential to preparing for the next.

Billionaire who flew SpaceX last year going back into orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  The billionaire who launched on his own SpaceX flight last year is headed back up, aiming for an even higher orbit and the chance to take part in a spacewalk.

Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman announced Monday that he will make another private spaceflight launching from NASAs Kennedy Space Center, alongside two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force fighter pilot.

Its the first of three planned flights to try out new tech  including still-in-the-works spacewalking suits  culminating in the first flight with people of SpaceXs new Starship, which is intended for moon and Mars travel.

Isaacman paid undisclosed millions for last Septembers three-day spaceflight for himself and three others, the first space tourism flight for Elon Musks SpaceX. On Monday,

Isaacman told reporters that he and the company are sharing costs for the upcoming flight, but declined to elaborate.

Plans call for the four to blast off aboard a Falcon rocket no earlier than November. They will circle Earth for up to five days, higher than any previous Dragon capsule or NASA shuttle  the September flight reached more than 360 miles high (585 kilometers), far higher than the International Space Station.

Isaacman would not specify how high his next capsule would reach, but said it would be around the altitude of NASAs two-astronaut Gemini flights in the mid-1960s. Gemini 11 holds the record for the highest astronaut mission outside of the Apollo moonshots: 853 miles (1,373 kilometers).

For the spacewalk, the entire Dragon capsule will be depressurized just as the Gemini capsules were, with each crew member in pressurized suits. Isaacman declined to say who or how many would venture, tethered, outside the capsule.

If we are to have a more permanent presence on the moon and some day build a colony on Mars, we have a lot to learn, including better suit designs, he said.

Theyll also use Starlink internet satellites launched by SpaceX to test communication from orbit.

Last week, Musk showed off the Starship, the tallest and most powerful rocket built. Hes awaiting clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration before launching it empty from Texas on its first orbital test flight. The FAA said Monday it wont finish its environmental review of the Boca Chica launch and landing site, at the southern tip of Texas, until the end of March.

Isaacman indicated that hed like to be aboard the second spaceflight in this program named after the triple-star system Polaris  another Dragon mission  and on the first Starship crew as well.

Lets get Polaris Dawn right and then well think about the next mission, he said.

Isaacman hand-picked his three passengers, each of whom helped carry out his September flight: SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, whose husband was chosen by NASA in December as an astronaut; and Scott Poteet, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. Poteet also worked for Isaacmans Shift4 Payments company and Draken International, a high-performance aircraft company that Isaacman co-founded.

SpaceX plans multiple Starship flights before using the sleek, steel, bullet-shaped rocketship to land NASA astronauts on the moon by around 2025.



The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
PIGGS PEAK  A son to Prince Malamba, the chief of kaGucuka is among nine people arrested for the alleged murder of a Zandondo High School pupil who was killed last Friday.

The pupil Njabuliso Vilakati is alleged to have been kidnapped from his school, beaten, tied with a rope and thrown into a fire that had been alighted in a house at his homestead following allegations that the family practiced witchcraft. Yesterday, Mfanfikile Gendeni Magagula (44), Mlungisi Chude Vilakati (29), Bongani Mshishi Dlamini (36), Menelisi Gadla Maseko (31), Thulani Magagula (28), Mancoba Sbhobho Simelane (29), Mzamo Vilakati (26), Siyabonga Mabo Dlamini (30) and Ndumiso Dlamini (19) appeared at the Magistrate Court. All but Simelane are from KaGucuka under Prince Malamba. Ndumiso is the son of Prince Malamba.

Condemned

Noteworthy, last Sunday, the chief, during a residents meeting condemned the action of the killing of the pupil. He warned the residents that the matter involving the family of the deceased pupil was still being deliberated on by the umphakatsi. The nine men were slapped with three charges. On the first charge, they were accused of killing one Njabuliso Vilakati. For the second count, they were charged with arson for burning immovable property in the possession of Duduzile Vilakati. The property was valued at E681 000. Magagula was also charged with malicious injury to property in that he damaged a door belonging to Duduzile Vilakati. The door was valued at E1 000. The nine men arrived in a van from Mliba Police Station and calmly walked inside the courtroom. They were being escorted by about three plain clothes police officers. About 30 residents from kaGucuka were at the court yesterday to give moral support to the people who were arrested.

Wives

These also included one of the chiefs wives (not the mother to Ndumiso). The men appeared before Magistrate Zakhele Dlamini. Crown counsel Gezani Mkhonta advised the men to apply for bail at the High Court. He advised that the magistrate court did not have jurisdiction to hear their application in the charges they were facing. Noteworthy, the murder incident is said to have exacerbated the tense relationship between Zandondo residents and KaGucuka. The two neighbouring communities have disputes on projects as well as the chiefdoms boundaries. There is also an ongoing dispute over Zandondo High School.

Residents of KaGucuka claim Zandondo High School is situated under their community but those from Zandondo area claim the school was named so because it was situated within their community. Meanwhile, Duduzile Vilakati who is the mother of the slain pupil is still in hiding as she fears facing being attacked. This publication gathered that some of the residents were still bitter, particularly due to witchcraft claims by at least two children.
Jonathan Shelton went room to room through an old Bowling Green elementary school-turned-donation center and stacked socks, washcloths, bedding into a shopping cart  the ordinary things he lost when a tornado swept through his neighborhood in early December.

Shelton, 29, doesnt really like asking for help, but he needed some.

He applied for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, hoping for a check to cover a temporary place to stay, replace some lost items or repair his car.

Just anything helps, you know, he said. Especially when you lose everything.

Shelton was surprised when the agency denied his request. He paid rent to a roommate, but his name wasnt on the lease. To FEMA, thats not a primary residence.

A similar thing happened to Terra Utley in Mayfield.

Shes been on a rent to own plan for her home and didnt have home insurance when the tornado struck. After the dust had settled, Utley found her home without a roof and with walls collapsed around where her, her partner and his mother had been sheltering. She started her FEMA application right away.

At first they were great, it was quick, simple, Utley said.

Utleys application process started quickly, even meeting with an inspector shortly after the tornado. However, there were also some struggles  someone had filled out an application in her partners name that wasnt him. They were able to get that canceled though.

On Christmas Eve, Utley received a check for personal property losses from the tornado. FEMA denied her for housing assistance because she didnt have her lease. She was provided with rental assistance for two months, but to get any more assistance was going to be more paperwork. Utley did start appealing the housing decision because she was in the process of buying her home. When she did get her lease agreement, she uploaded it to FEMA and was denied. Then, she was told to send it in or fax it over.

They kept saying fax it in, fax it in, Utley said. Where the heck am I going to find a fax machine in the middle of a tornado?

Utley was unable to return a missed call from FEMA about housing and when she brought that up at a public meeting she was told no one should have called her. With all of this confusion, Utley really just wants guidance from FEMA.

If [FEMA] could just tell me, Yes, were going to help rebuild your home,  Utley said. Or Yes, were going to help do this, or No, we cant help you do anything, because weve done all we can do, then thats great.

Even if she knew what to do next, Utley couldnt start the rebuilding process. Shes just left with questions for FEMA at this point.

Why are you not helping? Utley said. Why are you not giving us direction?

The federal agencys mission is to aid people after disaster strikes by helping pay for temporary housing, repair damaged homes, or other critical needs like food, clothes or medicine.

But fewer than 14% of the 11,800 Kentuckians who asked for FEMAs help within six weeks of the storm were approved for aid, according to a KyCIR review of federal data.

More than 4,300 applicants were considered ineligible for housing assistance because they missed or couldnt be contacted for an inspection, according to the agencys data.

Nearly 200 were turned down because FEMA officials could not verify their identity, address or that they owned the damaged property.

FEMA denied nearly 2,000 applicants after their application was withdrawn or duplicated, the data show. They are not included in KyCIRs analysis.

Applicants have 60 days after a denial to appeal the decision.

In an emailed statement, a FEMA spokesperson said the agency could not explain the assistance approval rate because every applicant has a unique case, with unique circumstances.

Survivors have every right to appeal FEMAs decision, in writing, if they disagree, said Alberto A. Pillot, FEMA assistant external affairs officer.

Rejections common

The historic tornado tore 160 miles across Kentucky, killing 77 people and causing billions of dollars in damages.

Since then, FEMA has provided more than $12 million in aid through the Individuals and Households Program, which includes housing assistance and other critical needs.

But in Facebook support groups, donation centers, and firehouses in western Kentucky, the stories of FEMA are often about getting turned down.

Its a common issue nationwide. FEMAs assistance approval rates have dropped in recent years into the teens, down from more than 60% a decade ago, according to a report last year from The Washington Post.

A 2020 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office highlighted several challenges to seeking FEMA aid, such as requiring some people to first apply for a loan with the Small Business Administration  a requirement FEMA didnt fully explain.

FEMA also has struggled to manage expectations, and needs to improve how it communicates with people seeking assistance, according to the report.

FEMA strives to help after a disaster, but theyre not the cavalry, said Simone Domingue, research fellow at the University of Oklahomas Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program.

The unfortunate result is there are often some pretty critical gaps, she said.

There are many reasons a person can be denied assistance, according to FEMA. Having insurance is a leading reason; the agency wont pay for any damage covered by insurance.

The application process is the byproduct of a government system under pressure to respond to more and more disasters, said David McEntire, professor in the emergency services department at Utah Valley University.

There are often people who are frustrated with FEMA and the amount they get or the time it takes to get it, he said. But FEMA is in a precarious position because they need to verify everything, with speed, and those things clash.

A quick denial can be enough to make someone throw up their hands and give up.

Thats what Shelton was prepared to do after seeing FEMA denied his request for assistance.

It was, like, theyre not going to do anything, you know? he said.

His mother, Mari Taschner-Whitlow, however, worked for years in insurance and shed dealt with FEMA in the past. She figured shed meet face-to-face with a FEMA representative, explain her sons situation and resolve the issue.

She went to the local disaster recovery center in Bowling Green  a hollowed-out Sears at the nearby shopping mall  and tried to set the record straight.

She also got her sons roommate to submit a statement that the damaged home was Sheltons primary residence, Whitlow said, an option no one told her son about. Shes hopeful the denial will be reversed and hell be eligible for some type of assistance.

But, three weeks later, theyve yet to hear anything.

FEMA came in and made it sound as though were saved. No, no, she said. I think most people have come to realize weve got to just rely on each other.

FEMA cannot make you whole

It didnt take long for Patti Sawyer to see that the support from her community would outweigh the federal governments.

She was hopeful after President Joe Biden came to Kentucky to tour the wreckage beside Gov. Andy Beshear.

I thought it would be pretty obvious that someone would walk through the neighborhood and kind of be like, You poor people, let us help you,  she said.

And thats largely what she heard, when Biden promised from amid the rubble in hard hit Dawson Springs that the federal government would be there to help.

Were going to get every single thing you need, he said on Dec. 15.

Sawyers home on a dead-end street in Bowling Greens Whispering Hills subdivision sustained more than $60,000 in damage.

A few days after the storm, while staying at a friends house, she applied for FEMA aid and was rejected because she had insurance.

FEMA denied nearly 3,000 Kentuckians requests for aid because they had insurance coverage, according to KyCIRs review of the agencys data.

Having insurance is not a guarantee a person will be denied FEMA aid, but Pillot, the FEMA spokesperson, said its only intended to meet basic needs.

FEMA cannot make you whole, he said.

Sawyers home is still standing, and for that she considers herself lucky. After she was denied, FEMA directed her to apply for a Small Business Administration loan, but shes not looking to take on debt.

Im not expecting  to come out ahead in this, she said. But Id like to come out where I left off, before this disaster hit.

Now, shes not too hopeful that will happen, and shes learning to accept it.

This is Kentucky, she said. Were gonna dig in and were gonna rebuild. Were gonna do what we need to, to clean up. Were going to help each other.

This story was produced by KyCIR, a nonprofit investigative newsroom by Louisville Public Media. Contact reporter Jacob Ryan at jryan@kycir.org.

Lily Burris is a tornado recovery reporter for WKMS, Murray States NPR Station. Her nine month reporting project is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Members of the Junior League of Owensboro will each wear the same black dress every day from Monday through Friday next week.

And they want people to ask them why.

Its all part of the organizations third annual Little Black Dress Initiative, designed to raise money for My Sisters Keeper, a new emergency shelter for women and children in Daviess County thats expected to open this fall.

Angel Welsh, founder and director of My Sisters Keeper, said even though the shelter isnt open yet, it still helps fill some of the needs for four to six women a week.

Theres a lot of need out there in the community, she said.

The money raised by the Little Black Dress Initiative will be used for construction of the shelters bathrooms and showers.

Molly Hagan, communications chairwoman for the League, said last year more than $6,000 was raised for New Beginnings Sexual Assault Support Services.

This is the third year for the initiative, she said.

Hagan said each of the 50 active members and some of the sustaining members will wear the same black dress Monday through Friday next week along with a button that says, Ask me about my dress.

The idea is to highlight the challenges faced by women struggling with low incomes, homelessness and not having the proper clothes for job interviews.

Each club member will be asking for donations from friends and on social media.

The social media posts will include a link for people to make donations.

Brandi Keller, Junior League president, said, In Kentucky, nearly 24,000 school-aged children are housing insecure, and one in 14 children under age 6 are experiencing homelessness. This trauma can lead to inadequate nutrition and declining educational performance, and can take tolls on the mental health of both children and parents. Our goal in this campaign is to call local attention to this issue.

She said, In 2020, nearly 54,000 families in the United States experienced homelessness in one night.

Hagan said one woman last year got a tear in the dress she was wearing but continued to wear it through the entire week.

Thats how dedicated they are to the cause, she said.

Jessica Weafer, one of the participants last year, said, Limiting my wardrobe to a single dress for the week was frustrating. And by the end of the week, I was self-conscious and uncomfortable. And that was a brief experience losing one small freedom. I cant even imagine what its like to have my sense of safety and sanctuary so limited. It was truly an eye-opening experience.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com
Most schools in the region have decided to go mask optional beginning Monday, due to the rapid decrease in COVID-19 case numbers locally, across the state and throughout the country.

Hancock, McLean, and Owensboro Catholic schools joined Owensboro Public Schools with this new mask optional policy that is effective beginning this week. Daviess County and Ohio County have been mask optional since November.

Officials from Muhlenberg County Schools said they have sent out a survey to all staff to receive their input on changing the policy.

Carla Embry, the school systems community relations specialist, said masking is definitely a hot topic around here, and that MCS Superintendent Robby Davis has been doing research before making the final call.

He has also been in communications with our local health department and hospital, Embry said. We hope to make a decision by the end of the week so we could make it effective starting next Monday, Feb. 21, whether we will continue with requiring masks or move to optional.

Keith Osborne, Owensboro Catholic Schools chief academic officer, also said the decision to change the mask mandate was made based on the school systems data, and after consultation with Owensboro Health Regional Hospital physicians who represent multiple disciplines.

Robby Asberry, Hancock County Public Schools superintendent, and Tommy Burrough, McLean County Public Schools superintendent, both said masks will still be required on buses at all times, per the federal mandate.

Owensboro Catholic students who are riders on Daviess County Public Schools buses will also be required to wear masks while on board.

We will continue to closely monitor our school quarantine rates and other local factors, Asberry said in a letter sent to students and families. If any of these factors warrant a change, we will reconsider universal masking. Please know we make each decision based on what we believe is best for our students, staff, and community.

Burrough said he made the decision to alter the mask policy after a survey was sent throughout the district indicated staff and parents/guardians were overwhelmingly in favor of going mask optional. He also has been talking with other leaders in surrounding counties for additional guidance.

He said that while masks wont be required, he is still recommending that they be worn.

Im comfortable with the decision, he said. Nobody wants masks but Im still going to monitor every day to make sure were in a good place for staff numbers to have school.

Messenger-Inquirer reporter Freddie Bourne contributed to this story.

Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315
The new U.S. Department of Agriculture school lunch standards that were announced recently are all important, area school food directors say, but right now schools are still contending with supply chain issues which take precedence.

The new school lunch standards are for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, and specifically regard milk, whole grains, and sodium. Much of the rules within these new guidelines began a few years ago, but were put on hold due to the pandemic.

Under the new standards, schools must offer only low-fat flavored milk and must ensure that at least 80% of the weekly grains in school lunch and breakfast menus are whole grain-rich. Schools are also asked to meet the Sodium Target 1 guideline which was defined in 2012, and which implements a weekly cap on sodium based on grade level.

Throughout the pandemic, school meal restrictions were eased, but the USDA is providing these guidelines in advance of when they will need to officially be online, by 2024. Schools are also being provided transitional years to help with implementation.

At this time, however, the pandemic is still causing disruptions for school systems, specifically dealing with the supply chain issues. School nutrition programs have been given waivers to help them remain compliant with the standards.

For example, Owensboro Public Schools Food Service Director Kaitlyn Blankendaal said this year the district was slated to begin only offering 1% or non-fat flavored milks, but their milk vendor stopped creating 1% and non-fat milks.

Our vendor said they werent even making non-fat milks at this time because they couldnt, she said. They dont have enough staff to offer what they did before.

Connie Beth Fillman, Daviess County Public Schools food service director, said these standards arent new, but simply a reminder to school systems to get back on track as they are able to.

She is happy the USDA is providing school systems and vendors with plenty of time to plan ahead and transition to the guidelines.

They have to give vendors a chance to make the product and us a chance to find vendors to purchase items from, she said.

The Kentucky Department of Education has been in contact with school systems, indicating more information about these standards and whats next for school systems is on the horizon.

At this time, the guidelines are meant to act as an eventual transition from pandemic options to more nutritious meals, Blankendaal said.

Not that the meals they are offering arent nutritious, she clarified, but some of them may not fall within the strict guidelines simply because those options are not available due to shortages.

Whats in the forefront of all food service directors minds right now is what meal program will be offered next school year. They are all in the process of planning for the upcoming school year, but they havent heard any news from state or national representatives regarding the USDA options.

At this time, all schools are able to offer meals at no cost to students through the Seamless Summer Option waiver districts were provided because of the pandemic.

School officials report they are making more school meals than ever before, and have more participation than ever before. They all can see the benefit of no-cost meals for all students, and are communicating that with their legislative representatives.

All of us are hoping that they continue (the Seamless Summer Option), Fillman said.

Both Fillman and Blankendaal said the new standards are all in the name of providing the healthiest meal options for students. That is always a goal, but its also important to them to provide food that students enjoy and want to eat.

We want our students to be well-fed so they can learn their best, Fillman said.

Blanekdaal agreed, and said the number one goal is always feed the kids, and thats what we will continue to do no matter what.

Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315
Martin Stallings, young boy accused by George Tomlinson some weeks ago of having assaulted and robbed him of a large sum of money, was dismissed in juvenile court. For the second time Tomlinson failed to appear against the boy and County Judge McFarland could see no reason for holding the lad. When the case was first forwarded to juvenile court and set for trial, Tomlinson failed to appear against the boy but told the court he was unable to get to the courthouse until the afternoon. The court also set forward the prosecution against Gilbert Hamilton and Oliver Witham charged with stealing bicycles and who were caught at the Rockport landing some weeks ago.

 Feb. 14, 1922, Audrey, four-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Roberts, was badly burned. She was playing in front of a grate fire when her clothes ignited and she was badly burned before her mother, who was in the next room, hearing her screams, could reach her. By quick action in smothering the flames the mother saved the childs life but she was badly burned about the hips.

 Feb. 15, Harry E. Bleich and Joe P. Day, manager of the Owensboro Buick company, are contemplating the erection of a handsome new garage in Frederica Street, which will be the home of the Buick. The firm will also include Alfred Zelt, of Sturgis, Mich., who will close out his interests in Michigan and take an active interest in the firm. It is planned for the corporation to buy the Bleich property by Mattingly Aud Motor Company and the lot adjacent from Mrs. G. A. Bleich. The garage will be modern and fireproof and have a sprinkler system.

 Feb. 16, the young peoples Sunday School classes at the Gospel Mission center, the sewing classes, and a class taught by Miss Prentiss Farmer held a Valentine social at the mission Tuesday night with more than 100 present. The work at the mission proceeds apace. The Sunday school is growing rapidly and the cottage prayer services held three or four times a week are increasing in attendance.

 Feb. 17, Deputy Sheriff James Cooper and Constable William Ashby destroyed a barrel of mash on a farm rented out by Frank Birk in the Panther Creek flats. The barrel contained fifty gallons of mash and was just ready to be distilled. They were unable to locate a still. They arrested Byron Johnson and upon searching him found a .32 calibre revolver. Johnson told the officers that the weapon belonged to a man named Wilson who was with him and that they were mink hunting.

 Feb. 18, Miss Irene Parsley, living at Shiloh, Ind., put a pebble in her ear when nine years old and it has been there for six years. No one believed her story when she told of the people, so using the handy hair pin, she extracted the pebble and now hears distinctly although ordinary conversation is so loud as to hurt her.

50 Year Ago

 Feb. 14, 1972, newcomers, mothers who children are in school for the first time, mothers who want to get away from the children for a while and adults with time on their hands, are all prime prospects for the Volunteer Bureau get involved coffees scheduled for this week. The Volunteer Bureau of Owensboro-Daviess County is eagerly seeking another 50 adult members and need volunteers from all age levels.

 Feb. 15, love of nature and a desire to preserve ones heritage were emphasized by James Leonard Wimsatt in his talk at the February meeting of the Welcome Wagon Club. The local artist was introduced by Mrs. Carl L. Schenk, hostess. Wimsatt displayed several of his paintings which were the subject of anecdotes related to his travels to pain such scenes as the grist mills and covered bridges throughout Kentucky.

 Feb. 16, the Central Kentucky Youth Symphony Orchestra will present a concert in the Daviess County High School auditorium. Founded in 1947, the Central Kentucky Youth Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest youth orchestras in the United States. Composed of experienced high school-age musician, this orchestra is the only youth, non-professional group giving regular concerts throughout the Commonwealth.

 Feb. 17, the Candian Opera Company, under the auspices of the Owensboro Community Concert Association, will present the opera Orpheus in the Underworld on Friday at the Daviess County High School auditorium. The opera will be a bonus performance for new members joining the local concert association during its two-week membership drive. Four concerts are scheduled for the 1972-73 season.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 14, 2022

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Governor Whitmer Launches Program for Michigan Homeowners Experiencing Hardships

The Michigan Homeowner Assistance Fund expected to help over 8,300 homeowners keep their homes

Lansing, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) launched a new program today to aid homeowners with additional financial support to help Michiganders pay their bills and stay in their homes.

The Michigan Homeowner Assistance Fund (MIHAF) uses federal resources allocated under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to provide financial assistance to homeowners who have fallen behind on homeownership-related expenses. The MIHAF program can help with delinquent mortgage, property tax and/or condominium payments, payment of escrow shortages, and past due utilities payments, including gas, water, electric, and internet or broadband.

"Over the years, we've made great strides to keep families in their homes, and this additional financial support will build on our efforts that put Michiganders first," said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. "The program offers homeowners much-needed relief to help them overcome those financial obstacles while also providing a strong degree of housing security - a vital measure that can positively impact every part of our lives."

The U.S. Treasury allocated a total of $242,812,277 to Michigan for the MIHAF program, which MSHDA anticipates will help more than 8,300 homeowners across the state. Half of the funds have been allocated by the state Legislature, and the remaining approximately $121 million must be approved at a later date.

"The MIHAF program will ensure thousands of Michigan homeowners avoid the personal devastation of foreclosure while also helping communities across Michigan reduce the secondary impacts foreclosures can have on neighborhoods, local governments, and social services networks," said Mary Townley, MSHDA's director of homeownership. "We are grateful to Governor Whitmer for putting Michigan first and providing this critical support."

To qualify for MIHAF, applicants must have experienced a qualified financial hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic after January 21, 2020, or had a qualified hardship that began before January 21, 2020, but continued after that date, meet income eligibility requirements, and the property must be owner-occupied. The maximum amount of assistance available through MIHAF per household is $25,000.

Interested homeowners can find details and a link to the application portal at Michigan.gov/MIHAF

or receive assistance with their application submission by calling 844-756-4423.

About MSHDA: The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), established in 1966, provides financial and technical assistance through public and private partnerships to create and preserve safe and decent affordable housing, engage in community economic development activities, develop vibrant cities, towns and villages, and address homeless issues.

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MANISTEE TWP.  Ana Olson believes that everyone loves Mexican food, and as the owner of a new Mexican restaurant near Manistee, shes counting on it.

Taqueria Diablo held its soft opening at the Little River Casino Resort on Saturday.

Ive been traveling the world for years and there hasnt been a place that I have gone that has no Mexican restaurant, Olson said. Everywhere, they either have a Mexican restaurant or a place that sells margaritas  the culture, in general, travels.

Scott Fraley/News Advocate

Olson, who also owns Los Amigos Tequila Bar and Grill, in Muskegon, said that diners should expect authentic Mexican food from her restaurant.

As a taqueria, Olson said that her new restaurant specializes in making tacos, but she also recommends that visitors to the casino try Diablos tortas  a kind of sandwich.

Taqueria means they mostly sell tacos and they will be something really traditional that you will find south, through the border, she said. We are going to have traditional Mexican dishes that are more like finger foods  we will have nachos, burritos  kind of food that is easy on the go.

Taqueria Diablo joins Da J Wok and Sparks BBQ as the third vendor at the casinos Big Lake Dining area.

Related content: What sparked a career in barbecue for a northern Michigan businessman

I feel like weve got some great options here, that not only are for our guests, but also for the community, said Jodi Walter, the casino resorts director of food and beverage.

Once home to a popular buffet, the area was transformed into more of a food court style venue in 2020.

We recognize that there are people out there that think that we should have the buffet, but, given the current state of affairs in our world, it just was not something that we really felt was going to be conducive to the safety and security of the people that come here, Walter said.

Big Lake Dining, she said, was aimed at creating a food court style experience, but with higher quality food from established vendors like Olson.

Scott Fraley/News Advocate

I am so super grateful (for) Little River Casino, said Olson. They have done above and beyond to ensure that we not only hit our marks, but they are just putting all of it forward to make the restaurant functional.

Olson said she planned the soft opening to test the market before officially opening. In the future, she said she planned on having a delivery option for Manistee customers.

Currently, Taqueria Diablos is open from noon to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; noon to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

More information can be found on Facebook at facebook.com/TaqueriaDiablosYummy or on the Little River website lrcr.com/dining/big-lake-dining.

Little River Casino Resort is located at 2700 Orchard Hwy.
One of the nations largest suppliers of wooden furniture is located here in Huron County, and it is working to become cutting edge to increase its output.

The L. J. Gascho Furniture Company is working on adding automation to its process of taking wooden Amish-made furniture and preparing it for the retail market.

Trent Gascho, the Chief Operations Officer and one of Gascho Furnitures owners, said the additions include a new assembly line-like system and some robotic sprayers. Two robots from Lesta USA that are just an arm and can self-learn spraying patterns will be brought in at first, with plans for six total in the future.

Right now, all the coating is sprayed by hand, Gascho said. Bringing in robots will help bring the laborers, the sprayers and material handlers, into other areas.

The other autonomous addition are carts that can guide themselves through the facility, run on a timer before moving between stations, and can know the height of what they carry. Gascho said these carts are also being used in Amazon warehouses.

Founded in 1986, Gascho Furniture distributes solid wood furniture to retailers across the country, with Gascho saying they primarily go after top 100 furniture retailers. Their largest customer is based out of Atlanta and currently has 130 locations nationwide.

Gascho has 40 Amish and Mennonite feeder shops based in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania that supply chairs, tables, and other wooden furniture to its main shop on Haist Road near Pigeon. From there, laborers work the process of applying three different coating layers, a stain, sealer, and the top coat, along with smoothing the furniture and putting them in hot rooms called curing ovens before they are packaged and await shipment.

As part of these plans, Gascho Furnitures facilities will also be undergoing some expansion, adding 28 feet to one of the buildings, a lean-to, and two new passageways between the buildings.

He added that finding new help is extremely challenging right now and this will feel like the company is gaining six employees because their responsibilities will be shifting to other roles in the finishing process, like preparation or packaging.

There are some things you cant automate, Gascho said. We still inspect for quality. They will be part of the hands-on finishing process.

Gascho said that the main purpose behind their remodeling is to help decrease the lead time for delivering products to market, which gives them an advantage over their competition. Gaschos lead time is currently 10 to 12 weeks, while similar competitors have a 36- to 40-week lead time. He also hopes these new additions will double the companys output within two years of installation.

Our advantage is were able to ship quickly, Gascho said.

Gascho said that it currently takes about six hours from start to finish to apply all the layers of coating and smooth a piece of furniture. When all the new equipment is installed, it will take about two hours to perform that process.

Another reason the process currently takes so long is that convection heat is used for the drying process. It takes about 40 minutes to cure each coating placed on the furniture. Infrared heat of up to 200 degrees will be used instead, which will reduce the cure time to only five minutes.

Gascho said that business is currently booming for Gascho Furniture and other domestic manufacturers. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, imported furniture is taking about a year to come in from overseas or is stuck in containers on arrival.

Domestic companies have the advantage right now because retailers need to sell something, Gascho said. Weve been able to supply retailers that normally sell imports.

These new facility changes are expected to break ground once winter is over. Gascho hopes they go live either in the spring or early summer.
MANZINI  The creation of jobs, improvement of energy supply (electricity), economic growth and infrastructure development are key in the Speech from the Throne and the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

His Majesty King Mswati III delivered the Speech from the Throne on February 4, 2022 while the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, presented the SONA on February 10, 2022.

In the two key speeches by the heads of State, infrastructure development was highlighted the most. His Majesty King Mswati IIIs speech referred to it eight times, while his South African counterpart said it 19 times. This was across four subheadings which are economic performance and outlook, capital investment, road infrastructure development and the national airline.

In his speech, the monarch identified infrastructure as a catalyst for developing the economy while creating jobs. This is because under the capital investment, he said in order to create an enabling environment for the kingdom to develop, government needed to budget for capital projects which included but were not limited to; infrastructure development such as road construction, provision of potable water, dams for irrigated agriculture, health facilities, energy, factory shells and others.

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa highlighted infrastructure as needed to create jobs, improve transport system and bolster the economy. He said the republics government would reinvest in its railway lines to improve transportation of goods between inland cities and ports, while also offering alternative transport to the citizenry. The monarchs speech highlighted jobs twice wherein he highlighted that investors were reluctant to leave their countries and start shop in new environments. These challenges, he said, needed the citizenry to unite and find solutions by creating jobs at small, medium and large enterprise levels. He also said the youth needed to exploit the Youth Revolving and Regional Development funds so that they may create more jobs for their peers. The King also spoke of unemployment once.

On the other hand, Ramaphosas speech pointed out at jobs 16 instances. He said they had given themselves 100 days to finalise a comprehensive social compact to grow South Africas economy, create jobs and combat hunger. The South African president pointed out that even with the best business environment and much faster rates of economic growth; it would take time for the private sector to create enough jobs for the millions of South Africans who needed them. He said the global business services sector was on track to create 500 000 new jobs over the next few years. On the other hand, Ramaphosa also linked infrastructure development to the creation of jobs. He said this work would build on the foundation of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP), which remained South Africas common programme to rebuild the economy.

He said they remained focused on the priorities identified in the 2021 SoNA which were; overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, a massive rollout of infrastructure, a substantial increase in local production, an employment stimulus to create jobs and support livelihoods and the rapid expansion of our energy generation capacity. Both leaders spoke about energy generation, as His Majesty King Mswati III said the countries ambition to attract businesses that generate billions in revenue relied on a solid power grid. He highlighted that the contract between the country and South Africa was coming to an end in 2025 and needed the kingdom to produce its own energy. His speech emphasised on the production of energy eight times.

The monarch noted that the country was looking at thermal power station while also acknowledging that the global community was considering phasing out this energy production. He called upon the country to consider exploiting natural gas, solar energy and wind turbines. Ramaphosa on the other, identified the challenges that were posed by their unrealistic electricity grid, while also pinpointing the direction South Africa needed to take. His reference to electricity was 16 times while noting that seven power grids would be coming online in the next few years. He said Eskom had established a separate transmission subsidiary, and was on track to complete its unbundling by December 2022. The utility, he said, had continued with its intensive maintenance programme, to reverse many years of neglected maintenance and underperformance of existing plants.

Compass

It is worth noting that the compass for the countries economic recovery is the Eswatini Strategic RoadMap, which seeks to exploit five major sectors, namely: Manufacturing, Natural Resources, Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and Tourism. On the other hand, South Africas compass is the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP). Also, both leaders in their speeches thanked healthworkers for their resilience and dedication during the COVID-19 pandemic. South Africa further highlighted what had been done to strengthen the healthcare sector. It was highlighted that they had administered 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines which means nearly 42 per cent of all adults and 60 per cent of everyone over 50 was fully vaccinated. It is worth noting that locally, fully vaccinated people 330 142 which is 28.5 per cent of the total population of 1.16 million people.

Furthermore, while Eswatini is called upon to abolish Circular No.3 of 2018 to increase employment opportunities in the kingdom, South Africa emphasised that 80 per cent of the working class was in the private sector which was supported by a foundation of legislations set to improve the economy. Also, Ramaphosa was elaborate on the effects of corruption, as he pin pointed the adverse challenges it brought to their economy while also calling for those fingered in the State Capture investigation to face the law. He pointed out that corruption had caused the collapse of their electricity grid.
MILFORD  A building material and distribution company has signed a lease for warehouse, yard and storage space on Depot Road.

In a statement, Michael Richetelli, president and designated broker of Colonial Properties, Inc., said the landlord, MNBD, LLC., is leasing the 22,000-square-foot site at 252-262 Depot Road for more than $1.4 million to New England Gypsum for a five-year term.

The landlord has done some terrific enhancements to the facility with paving, fencing and fixing up the warehouses. Hes done an awesome job, said Dave Westerman, Hartford branch manager.

New England Gypsum, which also has a site in Hartford, has already occupied the Milford building.

Our top five specialties are drywall, metal framing, acoustics, lumber and ventilation, said Westerman. We supply residential and commercial construction, and we supply contractors as well as homeowners.

Besides materials, New England Gypsum also has tools, safety equipment and accessories, Westerman added.

Before expanding their business into Milford, New England Gypsum had several locations across different states, including South Portland, Maine, Boston, Mass., and Manchester, N.H.

This is the first time we are in Milford, and it is a brand new location for us, said Westerman.

He said they do a lot of business along the coastline, and Milford is an excellent central location to operate the business.

Its a great site for what we do. Its in a great location, and the storage space is perfect for what we do. Its a big wide-open building, he said. And we had been servicing the coastline from Norwalk to New Haven from Hartford for several years. The coastline is a market we ship into, and its a market we would like to do more business in.

We are excited to be here, and we are staffing, so we are looking to hire people in the area, Westerman added.
Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of "Conspiracy to Communicate Restricted Data" after he snuck classified documents to federal agents posing as foreign spies.

Toebbe, 43, who admitted guilt as part of a plea deal, will now face about 12 to 17 years in prison, avoiding the possibility of a life sentence, according to court records.

He was arrested in October 2021 along with his wife, Diana, though many details of the couple's offenses were not made public at the time.

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According to new information in the plea document, both prosecutors and Toebbe's lawyers agree that the nuclear engineer made four "dead drops" between June and October 2021. His wife allegedly acted as a lookout in three of those instances.

A dead drop is a spycraft term that describes the practice of one person leaving materials in a pre-arranged location for another person to pick up later, thus avoiding direct contact between them.

On his first drop, Toebbe put "militarily sensitive design elements, operating parameters, and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors on an SD card, which was wrapped in plastic and concealed between two slices of bread on a half of a peanut butter sandwich," according to the plea.

That SD card also contained a typed message that said: "I hope your experts are very happy with the sample provided" and "I want our relationship to be very successful for us both."

On his second drop, Toebbe left behind a typed message that laid out a plan for him to leak "51 packages over time in exchange for a total of $5 million paid in cryptocurrency."

"The message also included statements that the information 'was slowly and carefully collected over several years' and 'smuggled past security checkpoints a few pages at a time' and that one of the sets of information 'reflects decades of U.S. Navy 'lessons learned' that will help keep your sailors safe,'" according to the plea document.

The next two drops involved Toebbe hiding SD cards in packets of chewing gum.

Prosecutors have not revealed for whom Toebbe believed he was spying. The plea agreement references agents posing as representatives of "COUNTRY1."

Before making the four drops, Toebbe traveled to Washington, D.C., around the end of May 2021 to view a "physical signal  that had been placed at a location associated with COUNTRY1" as a way of assuring him of their legitimacy.

The documents also suggest that Toebbe was ready to abandon his life in the U.S. should he be discovered. "'We have cash and passports set aside for th[e] purpose' of having to flee the United States," he wrote in a message on his third drop.

Investigators paid the engineer more than $100,000 in cryptocurrency as part of the investigation, money that he has agreed to help officials recover. Toebbe has also agreed to allow agents to search much of his property and devices for more classified or restricted information.

Diana Toebbe's case is ongoing; she faces three charges of "Communication of restricted data -- sabotage."

According to an apparent LinkedIn page for Toebbe, he claimed to have worked as a nuclear engineer for the Navy's Nuclear Reactor department and was the technical lead for Columbia-class submarine nuclear design. Court records from early in his case described him as "a current employee of the United States Navy."

The plea agreement noted that Toebbe had access to information concerning the Virginia-class submarine, including, but not limited to, information relating to militarily sensitive design elements, operating parameters, and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

Related: Navy Engineer and Wife May Face Life in Prison for Allegedly Trying to Sell Nuclear Sub Secrets
Hundreds of 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) soldiers are gearing up to deploy to Europe as Russian troops have amassed on Ukraine's borders, positioned for a potential invasion.

The soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, are expected to deploy soon and will include a mix of support personnel and ground combat units, a spokesperson told Military.com. It is unclear which European countries these troops will deploy to, but mobilizations of U.S. combat troops to Europe have been concentrated in Poland and Romania, with some support personnel sent to Germany.

In total, roughly 6,000 U.S. soldiers are expected to be in place in Europe in the coming days and will join troops from other NATO partners, including the United Kingdom and France.

Read Next: The First Shots in a Ukraine Conflict May Be in Space

Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division, who will make up a majority of the surge of forces to Europe, have been trickling into Poland over the past two weeks. Meanwhile, soldiers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, a Stryker squadron based in Germany, have been mobilized to Romania. Soldiers with the XVIII Airborne Corps, the administrative arm of the 82nd, have set up in Germany.

In addition to those mobilizing to Europe, roughly 80,000 U.S. troops are already on the continent, including those permanently stationed there, such as the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Italy, and troops rotating in as part of pre-planned missions that mostly involve training with NATO allies.

These rotations include 3,800 soldiers from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, whose arsenal includes 80 M1 Abrams tanks and 130 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Roughly 1,000 National Guardsmen are also operating in Europe, mostly in Poland.

President Joe Biden has ruled out U.S. troops fighting in Ukraine, which is not a NATO member. Over the weekend, 160 soldiers with the Florida National Guard who were on a training mission in Ukraine were pulled out of the country, preventing a potential confrontation with Russian troops.

On Tuesday, Russia's Ministry of Defence claimed that some of its 100,000 troops positioned on Ukraine's borders were returning to their respective bases. However, Russian officials offered no evidence on the drawdown nor specified how many troops would be removed from the front lines.

"We in Ukraine have a rule: we don't believe what we hear, we believe what we see. If a real withdrawal follows these statements, we will believe in the beginning of a real de-escalation," Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement Tuesday.

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: US Soldiers in Ukraine Pulling Out Amid Warnings of Imminent Russian Invasion
Lois Bouton, affectionately and widely known as "The Coast Guard Lady," was laid to her final rest with full military honors on Feb. 7, 2022.

Though 102 years old at the time of her passing, Bouton was still writing the letters that earned her the famed title she was so proud of. She began her correspondence with coasties worldwide in the early 1970s, 30 years after serving in the Coast Guard herself as a radio technician during World War II.

Toward the end of the war, she married a fellow coastie and then went on to teach for 30 years. Following her career in education, she picked up her pen and paper.

Lois Bouton served as a SPAR from 1943 to 1945. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Bouton began crafting handwritten notes filled with words of encouragement, hope and with the intent to make every person she wrote her friend. One of those recipients was 8th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Vince Patton.

"It was somewhere around Christmastime in 1986 when the XO [executive officer] handed me a letter and asked me to answer it," Patton shared. At the time, he was the chief yeoman underway during a long five-month Alaska patrol ---- away from family and feeling down himself.

Her flowing messages of holiday cheer lifted him before he even knew who she was.

Patton responded to her letter, having no idea he'd just begun a friendship that would change his life. "Fast forward maybe 10 years, and I am the command master chief of the Atlantic Area when this lady walks up to me at a Change of Command ceremony in Alabama with the biggest grin on her face," he said, smiling with the memory of meeting Bouton in person for the first time.

While visiting the unit later on, he asked the coasties to raise their hands if they'd heard of The Coast Guard Lady. "They said, 'Oh, yeah, we get Christmas cards and notes from her all the time,'" Patton added. "At that point, I sort of became her cheerleader. You talk about someone who really uplifted morale with her letters and then in person. Her cheery personality was just infectious."

It's estimated that Bouton wrote more than 100,000 letters.

So what was her reaction when Patton was named the 8th MCPOCG (Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard)?

"Tickled pink," he laughed. "By then, she definitely wanted to know all the things I was up to and what I was doing. During that time in her circle of friends, she became very good friends with a prolific author, Alex Haley."

As she heard the news of a Navy ship the Coast Guard would be acquiring, she suggested it be named after Haley. Multiple times.

"I walked into the Commandant's office to share the latest letter and request with him," Patton said. But Bouton had already gotten to the top leader, writing him a letter of his own with the request. The two shared an easy laugh, he added.

She got her wish.

Commissioned in 1999 and homeported in Kodiak, Alaska ---- the Alex Haley is proudly named after the Coast Guard's first chief journalist and its first Black chief petty officer. Haley served for 20 years before becoming a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Roots: The Saga of an American Family," among other extraordinary books.

"She [Bouton] had this commanding respect that you just couldn't say no to. But she also had this sweet, almost child-like voice which made you say 'OK, whatever you want ---- you can have it'," Patton admitted.

Not long ago, Bouton sat down for an interview with the Coast Guard Museum, and Patton was with her. She was asked why she wrote all of those letters over the years and if it was some sort of mission for her. She responded, explaining she wrote the letters with the intent of turning every acquaintance into a friend.

"She saw writing as a lost art which was going away with technology and felt like letter writing really showed how much you cared about a person. She also said that making friends builds happiness," he said.

When she celebrated her 100th birthday, Bouton got a surprise of her own. "She received something very few people ever get and was named an honorary master chief. After being presented with it by Jason Vanderhaden, the Coast Guard's current and 13th MCPOCG, she had only one question," Patton laughed.

What was her number, and where did she rank on the list?

"We all cracked up about that. She really was something else," Patton said. "All joking aside, nothing she did was for recognition or awards. Honestly, she valued being called The Coast Guard Lady more than anything."

The church pews at her service were filled with a sea of Coast Guard dress blues as coasties from all corners of the country came to honor Bouton's legacy. Her loss was felt deeply and expressed by stories of love, laughter and impact shared over smiles and tears.

Later, as the gunshots echoed over the snow through the mournful taps being played, the sun shone on the American flag folded by the all-female honor guard she'd requested.

Just hours before her passing, Bouton called Patton for one last chat. Despite knowing she was at the end of her life, she still had the energy to implore him not to be sad and then demand he not dwell on her passing. "She asked me to continue to live her legacy of happiness. And that's exactly what I am going to do," he promised.

Read the original article on MilitaryFamilies.com

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The U.S. military spent $1 million and 5.8 million man hours last year on programs meant to root out extremism from the ranks, foster a diverse military and prepare for the national security challenges of climate change, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley said in a recent letter to Congress.

The letter, dated Jan. 6, was released Tuesday by Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee who had asked Milley in November for details on money and time spent on those three areas, which have been a focus of Pentagon policymakers since President Joe Biden was inaugurated.

The majority of the money and time detailed in Milley's letter went toward the forcewide extremism stand-down Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered shortly after he took office.

Read Next: The First Shots in a Ukraine Conflict May Be in Space

The military services, combatant commands and Joint Staff spent about 5.4 million man hours and $535,000 on the stand-down.

The man hours "averages to just over 2 hours per Service member in a total force of 2.46 million members and is comparable to other Joint Force periodic training requirements," Milley's letter stressed. The money reflects administrative costs and does not include salaries that would have been paid regardless of the type of work being done, the letter added.

Austin ordered the stand-down for units to discuss the issue of extremism after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The military has long struggled with rooting out extremists from its ranks, but the Capitol attack brought the issue to the forefront as dozens of those arrested were found to have military backgrounds.

Pentagon officials acknowledge the number of extremists in the military is small, but say even one is too many and corrosive to good order and discipline.

But although officials say they are prioritizing the issue, there continue to be signs the military is struggling to address cases tied to extremism. Of five service members charged in the Jan. 6 attack, just one Army reservist has been booted from the force, while a National Guardsman who pleaded guilty and has been sentenced has been allowed to remain in the Guard.

The Pentagon released a plan in December to combat extremism in the ranks, but experts said it fell short.

Republicans, though, have accused the Biden administration of overstating the threat of extremists in the ranks and using it as cover to attack conservatives in the military.

"We face real threats across the world, yet the Biden administration is more focused on promoting its leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering China, Russia and Iran or creating an effective counterterrorism plan," 12 Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a joint statement about Milley's letter.

The only Republican on the committee not to sign the statement was Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, though he has issued similar criticisms in the past.

The military has also spent 529,771 man hours on diversity, equity and inclusion training since Jan. 21, 2021, as well as $476,874 on contract support and administrative costs related to the training, according to Milley's letter.

Those figures do not include training that was in place prior to Jan. 21, 2021, such as the Army Equal Employment Opportunity Program, the letter said.

An investigative series by The Associated Press last year found that deep-rooted racism and discrimination in the services persist despite repeated efforts to stamp it out.

Republicans have attacked diversity, equity and inclusion training as "critical race theory," which is actually a complex legal theory largely confined to graduate school courses that examines the intersection of race and law.

Milley has previously sparred with Republicans over their accusations of the military promoting critical race theory and offered a robust defense of being well-read.

"I've read Mao Zedong. I've read Karl Marx. I've read Lenin," Milley said at a contentious congressional hearing in June. "That doesn't make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?"

The military also spent $5,000 and 1,059 man hours preparing the "Climate Adaptation Plan" the Pentagon released in October, according to Milley's letter.

The plan, which was required by an executive order Biden issued shortly after taking office, calls for making military bases energy self-sufficient and for service members to improve their "climate literacy."

Military officials have long identified climate change as a national security threat, both because issues caused by a changing climate such as food scarcity can lead to military conflict and because extreme weather can severely damage military bases.

For example, in 2018, hurricanes caused about $3.6 billion in damage to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and $4.7 billion in damage to Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

Related: Pentagon Plan to Fight Extremism in the Ranks Is a Start, But Experts Say Problems Loom
These days, airlines can't get enough military pilots. They recruit so heavily from the military, using huge pay bumps and preferential basing, that the military has a hard time retaining enough pilots in some areas.

When Marlon Green applied to fly for Continental Airlines in 1957, they were excited to have him until they learned he was a Black pilot. It would take six years and a Supreme Court case before he actually started flying for Continental.

Green was a pilot with the United States Air Force, who flew B-26 Marauder Bombers and SA-16 Albatross seaplanes while at Johnson Air Base in Japan. At age 28, and still flying for the USAF, he read about a pledge from commercial airlines, which promised not to discriminate against hiring candidates based on their race.

He decided he would go on leave back to the U.S. and apply to be a pilot for Continental Airlines. He had 3,000 flight hours under his belt and was a military-trained pilot. Even in those days, flying commercial was a much better payday for pilots than the military was. After nine years in the Air Force, Green was ready for a change.

When he arrived in the U.S., he applied for work at every major airline that existed, along with some of the smaller ones. The pledge wasn't worth a damn. The only interview he received was with Continental, and it was only because he'd left the box for "race" blank. He also did not submit a photo, for which the company also asked.

Six applicants arrived at Continental Airlines to jockey for four flying positions. Green was the only Black man among them, but he was the only one with more than 1,000 flying hours in multi-engine aircraft. When Green was not hired and four lesser-experienced White pilots were, he took action.

Colorado, where Continental was based at the time, had just passed the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act of 1957, which allowed Green to appeal the hiring decision to a commission on discrimination in the state. The commission found that Green had been discriminated against and ordered the airline to begin his flight training.

Continental fought back and appealed the decision, which was first reversed in a district court. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld the reversal, so the commission took it all the way to the Supreme Court.

By that time, the dispute, "Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission v. Continental Airlines, Inc.," had become less about the details of the case, and more about the application of the law and interpretation of past decisions. Green had been discriminated against, but did the Colorado commission have the right to do anything about it?

The airline argued that the state's anti-discrimination law extending to the flight crew of an interstate carrier would impose an undue economic burden on airlines. As hiring laws in different states have different restrictions, it might confuse how an airline would hire pilots and crew in different states, the airline contended.

The Supreme Court was "not convinced," according to the official decision. To support its argument, the airline cited cases that had no mention of hiring legislation in any state, and the justices told it as much. The court also held that laws or rulings that allowed discrimination in any manner violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In 1963, the anti-discrimination commission's ruling was upheld, as was its determination that Green had been the victim of Continental Airlines' racial discrimination. He was hired and trained, as the commission ordered, in 1964.

Green became a Continental captain in 1966 and flew for Continental Airlines until 1978. (FAA) Green became a Continental captain in 1966 and flew for Continental Airlines until 1978. (FAA)

Green began flying passengers for Continental Airlines in 1965 but was not the first Black man to fly for a major commercial airline. As the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission fought in the Supreme Court, David E. Harris was finishing up his own Air Force career. He was hired by American Airlines in 1964, becoming the first Black pilot for a major U.S. passenger airline.

When Harris told American Airlines he was Black, the interviewer responded with, "This is American Airlines and we don't care if you're black, white or chartreuse; we only want to know, can you fly the plane?" avoiding a lengthy court battle.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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14.02.2022 LISTEN

The E-Levy proposed by the Nana Dee government in the 2022 Budget Statement continues to dominate discussions on the airwaves. As expected, those under the eagle-headed Umbrella took advantage of the situation to demonstrate against the introduction of the electronic tax.

The Yentua Demo saw General Ntontom and Chairman Diabolics subtly trying to outdo each other, serving as a foretaste of what to come in the impending Zu-za chairmanship contest. 3b3 y3 pinsoo, apologies to the Late Dan Lartey.

I felt a sense of deja vu when I saw Mr. DJ Bomi Nyom and Mr Loose Talker Akamba demonstrating against the introduction of the tax. I struggled to shake off the feeling of having seen such a spectacle before.

Just like the famous Greek philosopher, Archimedes, I shouted eureka when I finally remembered the answer. The unprincipled politicians, under the eagle-headed Umbrella, were the same folks who opposed and vehemently demonstrated against the introduction of the talk-time tax by the Kufuor government around 2008. They said it was a repressive tax and promised to abolish it if they won power.

My compatriots swallowed their lies hook, line and sinker and voted them into power. Being kings of deception and mendacity, not only did they maintain the tax, but also increased the percentage.

Their lies and deception did not end there. Page 45 of their 2008 manifesto, under Fiscal Policy stated, As a party of modern Social Democrats, the NDC believes in funding development and the provision of essential services through efficient, effective and equitable taxation of all citizens based on the principle of affordability. The new NDC government will not introduce any new taxes.

Abusuapanin, did they not introduce many new taxes when they hoodwinked me and my compatriots to vote them back into power in 2008? They introduced 17.5% VAT on Financial Services. We also saw the introduction of 15% Petroleum Tax and 5% Rural Electrification Levy. They introduced many more taxes including Condom, aka koti sox, Tax.

So do not be deceived when you hear the likes of General Ntontom screaming their lungs out that should the E-Levy be passed, they would abolish it if Zu-za should return to the presidential seat. It is a political trick weve seen before. General Ntontom and his ilk are only replaying the lies, deception and melodrama that defined Zu-zas 2008 electioneering campaign.

Clement Apaak, a so-called neutral-turned-politician, has revealed the true intentions of his party on the subject. When asked if his party will withdraw the levy when voted into office should it be passed, Clement Apaak suddenly developed the traits of a stammerer. He literally implied that the question was a conjecture and he wasnt ready to engage in same. Nobody taa no do, running away!

Apaak's position loudly captures Zu-zas true intentions. They will never abolish the electronic tax if they win power in 2024. The noise and vehement opposition to the introduction of the levy is as a result of what the proceeds will do for the country and its adverse impact on their political fortunes in the 2024 polls.

Its the reason Im appalled at the Great Elephants lack of effective communication strategy to neutralise Zu-zas propaganda. Kwame Baffoe Abronye is the only dude who is so far doing a great job at neutralising Zu-zas propaganda on the topic. If only all communicators riding on the Elephant would take a leaf from his book!

See you next week for another interesting konkonsa, Deo volente!
Professional services firm Deloitte has expanded its Electronic Discovery (eDiscovery) capabilities in Saudi Arabia and is now the first provider of an online Relativity platform based in the Kingdom without data having to cross borders.



As a result of ever-growing data volumes and complexity, many organisations are facing an unprecedented data management challenge, in particular during crisis scenarios such as investigations, litigation or data breaches.



The Relativity eDiscovery platform is used by thousands of organisations around the world to manage large volumes of data and quickly identify key issues. The Deloitte platform in the KSA is based on the secure and flexible Oracle Cloud Infrastructure which supports the confidentiality of assignments.



Boray Altunisler, Head of the Middle East eDiscovery team, said: We are thrilled to launch our Relativity platform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, marking an important step in our expansion and investment plans. We see an increasing requirement to support our clients in KSA with an eDiscovery tool based in the Kingdom without the need to transfer data out of the country.



The Kingdoms first comprehensive national data protection law that will come into effect on March 23, 2022 has further solidified the need to provide a secure, scalable and cutting-edge platform in the country to address our clients data discovery challenges in litigation, investigation, and regulatory compliance matters.



The wider Deloitte Forensic practice is also expanding in the Kingdom in response to the growing demand from clients for investigation services.



Neil Hargreaves, Forensic Leader for the Middle East, with over 30 years of experience, has relocated to the Kingdom and will lead the team from Riyadh to advise and support clients across the country and the wider region. Neil is joined by Director Paul Huck who has 20 years of experience in forensic accounting investigations, asset tracing, and the design and implementation of fraud analytics and review platforms, to help clients better foresee and protect themselves from fraudulent schemes and activities.



Hargreaves commented: We are seeing a greater focus on the investigation and prevention of fraud, waste and abuse in Saudi Arabia and, with it, an increased demand for our services. I am excited to lead the growth of our team in the Kingdom and bring cutting edge technology to support our clients. The practice includes global and regional experts, with a major focus on attracting and developing the best talent from within the Kingdom. We look forward to this journey, advising new and existing clients during a truly transformative period.



With over 120 Relativity-certified practitioners, a global strategic alliance and a 10-year working relationship as a Certified Partner with Relativity, Deloitte brings an unmatched level of eDiscovery process and technical capability to the Relativity platform.



Deloittes eDiscovery team in the Middle East includes several Relativity-certified practitioners, and has been providing services on various high-profile matters for several years, working with corporations and law firms around the world, including three of the largest cases in the UK High Courts, involving tens of millions of documents.



Deloitte has been named a Worldwide Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide eDiscovery Services 2021 Vendor Assessment. The IDC MarketScape recognizes Deloitte as a Leader based on capabilities and strategies such as remote review capabilities, investigation capabilities, cybersecurity, data management and customer service.  TradeArabia News Service
14.02.2022 LISTEN

For the fifth time in 481 pieces of beef, the word 'coup' appears in the heading. That many times of occurrence raises cause for concern about that anathema of social upheaval which always results in waste and resource squandering. It first headlined on March 22, 2010. Then it was about mentality. A second appearance in a heading was on August 5, 2013 when a 'never again' was canvassed.

April 16, 2018 marked a third appearance in which 'unmatriotic' compatriots were being castigated for having coup nostalgia. Then on the fourth occasion on October 7, 2019 it was a wonderment over people really wishing for coup.

Therefore, 'coup' has been surfacing in intervals of over three years, almost three years, and just over a year, to today's a little over two years; since the October 2019 last appearance. The concern is how some among my compatriots could still be thinking coup. This time, though, coup in a beef heading is with a lot of reason. People are talking coup everywhere.

Market women, unaware of the 'yhann, ykanea,' congress founder torture of traders who came before them, are able to open their mouths to wish for coup. MPs, West Africans, abrfoamanso; they are all talking coup, as if it is desirable or could serve any useful purpose.

Naively, a congress lawless so-called lawmaker, more a serial demonstrator, is carelessly threatening judges that they are political because they are exercising their constitutional duty to hold lawmaker lawbreakers accountable. Obviously, he's also too young to know about the Martyrs of Justice who stand in front of the Supreme Court buildings.

If he had been reminded his congress forbears killed judges they didn't like, he would know he opened his mouth carelessly. No one in his party has told him that it was his congress forbear murderers who carried out their threat to deal with judges whenever they would come to power and actually abused their coup power unjustifiably murdering judges.

It's coup mongering. Monger on, they would continue. My wish as someone who has seen the bad, and the ugly in coups, is that their wish for coup is never granted. It should never be granted because coups are always destructive. They have never corrected political, economic or social ills. They compound them, making them more difficult to be addressed.

'Matriotically' and wisely, a real lawmaker, one who knows e-levy will ensure he gets paid for working for the motherland, is saying: 'Be on full alert to protect Ghanaians against coup detat.' He's the caring one not the congresspeople urging coup against the motherland republic hoping to take advantage to rape it again.

Sadly, the mechanism the constitution created for self-defence by which it was to be protected from coups, is fast asleep. The coup makers who made that constitution thought they would rule with it forever so they thought there should be coup-proof provisions. So, for example, they instituted the NCCE to educate and develop a coup resistant critical mass. Just imagine, with all the threats and coup advocacy, not a word of anti-coup is coming from it.

To my loyal compatriots who care about the stability and prosperity of the motherland, they should take a cue from the wise saying by the elders: Onyawo a by wo (threat) anoaduro (antidote) ne (is) M'ada me ho so (taken the necessary precaution or preventive measures). Let us all be vigilant and expose any moves to destabilise the motherland.

Congresspeople hope to intimidate and sow disaffection among my compatriots with demonstrations such as the 'yentua' one they just undertook. Like everything they steal, they distort and make nonsense of it where their originators meant well. The last time someone said yentua in the 1970s, it was to instill, through practice, a national sense and spirit of self-reliance., to grow what we were eating, among other positive national development programmes and projects. Congress' yentua is self-seeking, trying to twist a responsible e-levy intention into a monster of exploitation.

I read somewhere about this imposter of a fixer. Too young to have ever lived the negativity of a coup experience, he's, by his actions, demonstrated he doesn't have a clue about how to fix anything about a motherland. Listen to him say he would stage a coup himself. Of course he comes from a family of coup makers but he talks like coup making is a child's play.

Let whoever cares, though, heed the matriotic MP's call for vigilance. If anybody fools you in 2022 that a coup will be beneficial to you, tell him apuu and alert the powers who will stop him, be he the pretender fixer and his coup crazy kin.

A motherland where life is dominated by politics and religion which are much about talk and little about doing development would be at coup risk. 'Bn'asomu' was the heading for the June 7, 2010 edition of the beef write-up. Congress never gives up on violence as means for seizing power. It's in their marrow; because, almost twelve years on, after all the distance the 1992 Constitution has travelled, that anopheles of a scribe is still talking somebody should slap a deputy speaker. Forever violent congress, indeed.

By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh
The leadership of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) will soon meet to deliberate on actions to take against the Member of Parliament for the Dome-Kwabenya constituency, Sarah Adwoa Safo for her continuous absence in Parliament.

Some constituency executives and known NPP members have accused Adwoa Safo of deliberately holding the government hostage with her continuous absence in Parliament at a time when a hung parliament situation requires the presence of every member to speed up government business.

In a Citi News interview, the Constituency Chairman of the NPP for the Dome Kwabenya Constituency, Robert Osei Bonsu, said the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) will meet to decide what actions to take on the MP, who took a long leave from her duties as Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection.

Unfortunately, we have not heard from our Member of Parliament for some time now. All efforts to get to her have proven futile. The National Executive Committee will definitely decide on the next line of action.

Her actions are not the best. It is not in the interest of the party or Ghanaians.

Last week, a Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Michael Kofi Okyere Baafi, accused Sarah Adwoa Safo of sabotaging government business.

The New Juabeng South MP said the former Deputy Majority Leader's continuous absence in Parliament is making government business in the chamber difficult.

Sarah Adwoa Safo had been absent from Parliament for a while following an extension of her leave which was granted by the President.

She had become the subject of public debate some months ago following allegations that she was impersonated during Parliamentary proceedings on November 30, 2021 because the Majority side needed the numbers at all cost to approve the government's 2022 budget, which they did despite the disapproval by the minority side.

The controversy was deepened by the fact that videos and photos of a woman believed not to be the Dome Kwabenya MP from the proceedings in Parliament went viral on social media.

In the video, the woman was seen wearing a nose mask, leaving the chamber right after the headcount which led to the approval of the budget statement.

Meanwhile, Madam Adwoa Safo has been away from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection Ministry as well, after President Akufo-Addo directed the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, to temporarily serve as caretaker Minister in October 2021.

---citinewsroom
14.02.2022 LISTEN

Today German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travels to Kyiv and tomorrow is about to discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin the current crisis. As Putin speaks German perfectly well it is hoped he would listen more to a German Social Democratic Leader than even to the USA President, UK Prime Minister or French President. As a former KGB spy in Dresden, East Germany and the traditionally close ties between the two nations some peaceful solutions might come up.

A dictator like Vladimir Putin can achieve many of his goals while acting in secret. Democratic elected leaders depend on the support of their people much more for which reason their intentions must be openly and truthfully be made public and this intensively.

Vladimir Putin is well aware of the consequences his moves habe and the possible Invasion. He is well able to estimate the force set against him and which alliance could be formed to push his soldiers back into Russian territory.

Leaders and Diplomats from the NATO countries travel to Russia to warn him of decisive actions against him personally and Russia as a whole. The possible scenario is obvious to him. While they visit him he can extort the last pieces of information needed to strategize himself better and have a much better understanding of what would come to him and for Russia. So to have ample time to get prepared for an appropriate counter-attack. Putin last week ordered his private luxurious yacht to return from a shipyard in Hamburg, Germany to Russia to be saved from the possible embargo.

As the old saying goes as long as nations and leaders talk war could be prevented. Learning from history this is not true. It gives the aggressor more vital time to position himself for victory while the defensive side falls into a dangerous pink dream. Adolf Hitler rejoiced when the former UK Prime Minister Chamberlain flew in and out of Germany declaring on his return to the UK by waving a paper that a second World War was avoided by the help of diplomacy. Shortly after the Second World War started. History is only a wise force when people draw lessons from it.

But if NATO countries would employ the same secret strategy and not disclose their intentions rather leave him in the dark he most certainly would see his invasion as more of a serious risk that could cost him his historic and internal victory. Even if NATO, in the long run, would win over Vladimir Putin this moment of truth in preparedness for a counter strike costs the free world a great advantage over the evil.
Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader in Parliament has called on the Ghana Police Service to authorise a full-scale investigation into Sunday's shooting incident at Lamashegu, a suburb of Tamale.

Mr Iddrisu, who is Member of Parliament for Tamale South, the constituency in which the incident occurred, urged the Inspector General of Police to take a keen interest in the issue adding he would raise the matter on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, February 15.

He made the call in Tamale on Monday after visiting the injured at the Tamale Teaching Hospital as well as the Lamashegu Chief's palace to ascertain the situation.

On Sunday afternoon, February 13, some Police officers allegedly shot at a driver of an unregistered vehicle at the Lamashegu Chief's palace in Tamale.

The driver allegedly refused to stop after he was signalled to do so by the Police and they pursued him to the palace.

Stray bullets also allegedly hit some bystanders and all the injured were rushed to the Tamale Teaching Hospital for treatment.

One of the injured, a boy, who just graduated from JHS, died of his injuries on Sunday.

Mr Iddrisu called on the State to accept responsibility for the urgent medical treatment and attention of those affected.

He condemned the use of live ammunition to deal with the situation saying it was unacceptable.

He said "The recurrent acts of attack on the inhabitants of Tamale, through the use of live ammunition by the Police to quell disturbances that result in loss of lives and injury to innocent bystanders, is unacceptable and is to be denounced."

He added that "This, unfortunately, appears to be a growing trend; the third time in two years in the Tamale Metropolis."

He raised issues with the Police for not exercising restraint when the occupants of the vehicle reached the Chief's palace.

He said "From time immemorial and across religions and cultures, places of worship and in our case, palaces of traditional rulers have served as places of refuge for individuals under pursuit for any offense or reason."

Meanwhile, the Police Administration, in a statement on Monday, announced that it had interdicted six Police officers following an initial investigation into the incident.

The statement said "The Police Administration has also dispatched a team of investigators led by the Deputy Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), DCOP/Mr Frederick Agyei to lead the investigation into the matter."
The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has urged Headmasters of Senior High, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) schools to encourage students to take a keen interest in the study of STEM-based courses.

This, he said could be done by engaging the services of various institutions in the organization of a seminar, fairs and career days in their schools to expose the students to prospects available in the STEM sector after school.

Dr Adutwum made this call when he addressed Heads of all Senior High Schools in Kumasi on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

The meeting was aimed at discussing issues relating to the new academic calendar for the year and how best to improve their performance during the period.

The meeting was to discuss various strategies needed to bring about improvement in the performance of schools during the year and also share best practices and experiences by some heads.

"With the current state of development across the globe, there is the need for all to think about ways of being part of the global economy by training the critical minds that can compete in the global market," he said.

Merger of schools

The Education Minister who is a career educationist hinted of plans by the government to merge some schools with low enrolment within the same community or localities to help curb the huge administrative cost in maintaining those schools.

He said effort was being made to help provide boarding facilities to some schools to perform efficiently.

Dr Adutwum lauded headmasters in the country for their roles in the provision of high-quality education to students across the country describing them as very critical stakeholders in the nation's transformation agenda.

Intervention programmes

Dr Adutwum urged the Heads to liaise with their governing councils to introduce intervention programmes in their schools for students with challenges in English Language and Mathematics to enable them catch up with their peers without such challenges.

He explained that students with weaknesses in English language proficiency and mathematics could be given additional tuition in those areas for about one year so they would be able to improve on their performances in those subject areas.

Caution

Mr Anthony Boateng, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, charged heads to work hard to help curb the issue of sexual harassment and other forms of harassment against students by being proactive and not reactive.

He cautioned that any student, teacher or headmaster caught in any sexual harassment would be made to face the full rigours of the laws in the country.

Mr Boateng urged the Heads to desist from shielding any teacher or student who indulged in the sexual harassment since it was criminal and rather allows them to be reported to the Police to investigate such cases.

"To ensure that we avoid all forms of attacks and other forms of challenges, lets us all learn to abide by rules and regulations as heads so we win the trust of society all the time," he noted.

The Deputy Director-General cautioned headmasters to desist from hiding behind Parents Teachers Association to collect money from students.

He urges that to allow parents themselves do their own money collection and decide what to use it for.

He explained that PTA's can be operated independently on their own without attaching it to the activities or using students as a means of collecting money since it was very wrong.

Mr Boateng charged the heads not to engage the services of any staff without an official letter since they could be charged for indulging in illegality.
A medical report from the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in the Western Region indicates that the right ear drum of the Connect FM journalist who was severely beaten by police has been perforated.

The journalist, Eric Nana Gyetuah, was assaulted at the God is Love Chop Bar by some men in plain uniforms purported to be police officers.

After subjecting him to severe beatings, the supposed officers handcuffed and dumped him at the back of a pickup vehicle with registration number WR-3213-13 and charged him at the headquarters of the Western Regional Police command .

He was later granted police enquiry bail.

Since the incident happened, the journalist, who is also the producer of Connect FM's morning show Omanbapa, has been complaining of frequent yellowish discharges from his right ear.

He also complains of severe headache.

He reported at the ENT Clinic of the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital , where series of medical examinations have confirmed that his right eardrum has been damaged.

On examination, the right eardrum (tympanic membrane) was perforated with mucopurulent fluid in the external auditory and carnal, part of the medical report indicates.

His employer Media General transported him on an emergency to see a specialist in Accra for further treatment.

In the meantime, the Police Professional Standards Bureau (PPSB) under the instructions of the Inspector General of Police , Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, has met the assaulted journalist to take initial report on what transpired on the day of the incident for thorough investigations to be conducted.

3news.com
15.02.2022 LISTEN

Professor of Journalism, Kwame Karikari, has said he does not believe that Ghana is returning to the dark days of culture of silence despite the recent arrests of some journalists in the country.

He indicated that there has been a lot of recklessness in the media space and in public communication by too many people, both the media and politicians.

He however questioned the Police on why they are now resurrecting the law when the issue of recklessness in the media has been there for a long time.

The Former Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) said The law has been around for ages. Let me just say that there has been a lot of recklessness in our media and in public communication by too many people, both the media and politicians.

There is a lot of recklessness. When we are defending people's freedoms of speech and media that is not to say that we are unaware of the unprofessionalism, the recklessness and the abuses of those freedoms.

We are aware of them and we don't condone them but this law has been around for a very long time, why is it now that the Police are waking up this law and arresting journalists left and right? The kind of things or expressions that the Police are basing the law on to arrest these people, examples abound.

When the Police is policing speeches, the tendency is for them to be arbitrary because in the cases we are talking about, you will notice that these expressions, based on which the people had been arrested, are all targeted at the Executive or government. But is the Police telling us that those media that belong to politicians favouring the government don't make any reckless statements against people in opposition and so on? In other words, in using such a law , the Police is the not right instrument to define what is false news.

The Police intervening in matters of speech will almost always tend to be arbitrary and selective. In our part of the world they are likely to do so only when it is in the interest and favour of the ruling government.

I will not say we are going back necessarily, to the very dark days of the culture of silence but when the Police intervenes in policing speech their very participation in such an act drives so many people into silence because the image of the police is fear. I do not know what has happened that our police, especially now that Dr Dampare's administration, they are beginning to gain quite some public approval and acclaim, they are suddenly on this mission of silencing media, he told Accra based Citi on Monday February 14.

Meanwhile, the Police has said it is not putting fear into journalists and preventing them from doing their work following the arrests.

The Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Kwesi Ofori said the Police is only seeking to ensure responsible journalism in the country.

The Police is not doing anything to put fear into the media or to prevent the media in its operations. All that we are saying is that the journalists must be responsible, should make sure that things put out are in line with good practices, he also sad ipn the sam platform.

The Police received flak for arresting journalists including Accra FM's Bobie Ansah and Media General's Captain Smart for utterances they made in the line with their duties.

For instance, three Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), IMANI Africa and Africa Center for International Law & Accountability (ACILA) expressed concerns about what they believed was the subtle re-introduction of the abolished Criminal Libel Law in Ghana.

We are deeply troubled by the growing use of the prosecutorial and judicial power of the State to punish criminally speech that allegedly falsely injures or damages the reputation of other persons or of an institution of State.

Instructively, during the heyday of the criminal libel law in the 1990s, the criminal law was used in precisely the way it is now being used: to prosecute and punish journalists and public speakers for allegedly false or defamatory statements against certain family members or associates of the President, a statement issued by the three CSOs said.

3news.com
The Ghana Police Service is not the right institution to determine what false news is, Professor of Journalism, Professor Kwame Karikari, has said.

He indicated that the Police is likely to be arbitrary in the act of determining what false news is hence, that should not be their function.

Reacting to the recent arrests of some journalists in the country, the Former Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) said The law has been around for ages. Let me just say that there has been a lot of recklessness in our media and in public communication by too many people, both the media and politicians.

There is a lot of recklessness. When we are defending people's freedoms of speech and media that is not to say that we are unaware of the unprofessionalism, the recklessness and the abuses of those freedoms.

We are aware of them and we don't condone them but this law has been around for a very long time, why is it now that the Police are waking up this law and arresting journalists left and right? The kind of things or expressions that the Police are basing the law on to arrest these people, examples abound.

When the Police is policing speeches, the tendency is for them to be arbitrary because in the cases we are talking about, you will notice that these expressions, based on which the people had been arrested, are all targeted at the Executive or government. But is the Police telling us that those media that belong to politicians favouring the government don't make any reckless statements against people in opposition and so on? In other words, in using such a law , the Police is the not right instrument to define what is false news.

The Police intervening in matters of speech will almost always tend to be arbitrary and selective. In our part of the world they are likely to do so only when it is in the interest and favour of the ruling government.

He also refuted claims that Ghana is returning to the dark days of the culture of silence with these arrests.

I will not say we are going back necessarily, to the very dark days of the culture of silence but when the Police intervenes in policing speech their very participation in such an act drives so many people into silence because the image of the police is fear. I do not know what has happened that our police, especially now that Dr Dampare's administration, they are beginning to gain quite some public approval and acclaim, they are suddenly on this mission of silencing media, he told Accra based Citi on Monday February 14.

Meanwhile, the Police has said it is not putting fear into journalists and preventing them from doing their work following the arrests.

The Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Kwesi Ofori said the Police is only seeking to ensure responsible journalism in the country.

The Police is not doing anything to put fear into the media or to prevent the media in its operations. All that we are saying is that the journalists must be responsible, should make sure that things put out are in line with good practices, he also sad ipn the sam platform.

The Police received flak for arresting journalists including Accra FM's Bobie Ansah and Media General's Captain Smart for utterances they made in the line with their duties.

For instance, three Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), IMANI Africa and Africa Center for International Law & Accountability (ACILA) expressed concerns about what they believed was the subtle re-introduction of the abolished Criminal Libel Law in Ghana.

We are deeply troubled by the growing use of the prosecutorial and judicial power of the State to punish criminally speech that allegedly falsely injures or damages the reputation of other persons or of an institution of State.

Instructively, during the heyday of the criminal libel law in the 1990s, the criminal law was used in precisely the way it is now being used: to prosecute and punish journalists and public speakers for allegedly false or defamatory statements against certain family members or associates of the President, a statement issued by the three CSOs said.

3news.com
15.02.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana Police Service has announced that efforts are underway to apprehend some Gamashie youth who blocked roads in Jamestown to celebrate the Ashikpai festival.

The incident occurred on Monday, February 14, 2022, at about 4pm on the beach road that links the John Atta Mills high street to the lighthouse area.

A Police statement issued this evening confirms that the situation was handled swiftly and the roadblock removed for commuters to be able to continue their journeys.

For the delays caused and the unlawful nature of the roadblock, the Police say efforts are underway to have the perpetrators arrested.

About 500 youth of Gamashie celebrating their Ashikpai festival today, Monday, February 14, 2022, at 4:00 pm blocked the beach road that links the John Atta Mills high street at the lighthouse area opposite the Jamestown palace, thus preventing the free flow of traffic.

The Accra Regional Police Command and the Jamestown District Command intervened to clear the road. The Police succeeded in reopening the road to motorists and commuters after an hour-long operation.

Efforts are underway to apprehend the perpetrators, part of a Police statement on its Facebook page has said.
The National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu Ampofo says former President John Dramani Mahama is willing to support the government to revive the ailing economy.

According to him, the current state of the economy reveals the mismanagement by the government.

Speaking to journalists after a closed-door meeting John Mahama had with members of the clergy, Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo said the party is willing to offer its support towards coming up with comprehensive measures in rebounding the economy.

Discussions were frank and open. The former President has given clear indications that he will put the issues ahead of his personal and parochial interest and for that, he is prepared that if there is any dialogue that encapsulates the plan towards addressing the economic challenges, he is prepared to offer his bit in the interest of mother Ghana.

Moody's and Fitch recently downgraded Ghana's credit rating.

Moody's downgraded Ghana's long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to Caa1 from B3, and changed the outlook from negative to stable.

It said the new rating reflects the woes of Ghana in fixing its liquidity and debt challenges.

The government has declared intentions of revitalizing the economy through the introduction of the electronic transfer levy.

Many have however argued that the e-levy is not a reliable means of generating revenue.

Mr. Mahama recently advised the government to engage in extensive consultations to help revive the economy.

citinewsroom
Boursa Kuwait has announced net profits (attributable to equity holders of Boursa Kuwait) of KD15.9 million ($52.56 million) for the financial year ended December 31, 2021, an increase of approximately 26.3% from 2020 net profits of KD12.6 million.

The company also announced that its total operating revenue came in at KD31 million for 2021, an increase of approximately 39.7% compared to the same period in 2020, when the total operating revenue was approximately KD22.2 million. Net operating profit also increased by 56.5%, from KD11.8 million to KD18.5 million.

Meanwhile, Boursa Kuwaits total assets stood at approximately KD110.4 million as of December 31, 2021, which is a 6% increase versus the 2020 total of KD104.2 million. Boursa Kuwaits shareholder equity increased 14.8% from KD52.8 million on December 31, 2020 to KD60.6 million as of December 31, 2021.

In line with the successful performance and commitment to deliver superior returns to shareholders, Boursa Kuwaits Board of Directors has recommended the distribution of cash dividends of 65 fils per share for the financial year ended 31 December 2021 (subject to approval of the General Assembly and other regulatory entities).

Boursa Kuwait Chairman Hamad Meshari Al-Humaidhi commented: We are pleased to have recorded profits of approximately KD15.9 million for 2021, with a marked improvement in key performance indicators, exhibiting Boursa Kuwaits financial strength, its flexible operational model, as well as its innovative and adaptable strategy. The company continues to support the national economy and remains committed to contributing to the New Kuwait 2035 vision and solidify its position as a leading stock exchange in the region, and Kuwait as a world-renowned investment destination.

Al-Humaidhi added: Boursa Kuwait also remains committed to the implementation of environmental, social and governance policies and principles as part of its Corporate Sustainability strategy, which is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I would like to thank my fellow Board members, the Executive Management team, and all Boursa Kuwait employees for their invaluable efforts to enhance the company and the capital market.

The Kuwaiti capital markets market capitalization in 2021 was around KD41.4 billion, an increase of around 28.5% from 2020. Trading volume increased by more than 57.9% from 53.6 billion to around 84.6 billion transactions, while traded value saw an increase of around 26.6%, from around KD10.8 billion to about KD13.6 billion.

The Premier Markets capitalization came in at KD31.1 billion, with almost 21.7 billion shares traded at a value of KD8 billion as a result of over 1.1 million transactions, while the Main Markets capitalization came in at KD10.3 billion, with over 62.9 billion shares traded at a value of over KD5.6 billion as a result of over 1.9 million transactions.

Mohammed Saud Al-Osaimi, Boursa Kuwaits Chief Executive Officer, also commented on the companys financials for 2021, saying: Boursa Kuwait has seen a marked increase in trading value and volume, due to increased activity in the Main Market which was complemented by the listing of three new companies in it, which is undoubtedly a reflection of the increasing confidence of investors from all over the world. The company also increased its product line in 2021 with the introduction of Tradable Rights Issues and collaborated with the Capital Markets Authority to introduce Margin Lending and Trading, in an effort to diversify its financing tools and offer more opportunities for investors to turn a profit. - TradeArabia News Service
The founder and former Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Prof. Kwame Karikari, wants media stakeholders including owners and journalists to consider a push for the reform of sections of the criminal code that appears to be the basis of many recent arrests of journalists in the country.

According to him, there is a false assumption that the repeal of the criminal libel law is absolute and so enough to protect the work of journalists.

The police have largely relied on Section 207 and Section 208 of Ghana's criminal code to arrest especially journalists in recent times.

Speaking on Citi TVs Point of View, the former Director of the School of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana said, there are many aspects of the criminal code that empowers the police to take action against journalists in their line of work that must be looked at.

The problem that I find is that when we got those [criminal libel] laws repealed , it seems the community of media practitioners and owners went to sleep thinking that everything is well. I hope the owners of media and the Ghana Journalists Association will be interested in a conversation to reform this law. I think this law can be refined in such details that journalists making certain speech will not be arbitrarily treated, he remarked.

He told the host Bernard Avle that while the police and the existing laws are clear on the alleged issue of publication of false news for instance, there is the need for some reforms to protect the right and the work of journalists.

Within three weeks, four journalists and activists have been arrested by the police often for allegations they made on radio or on social media which according to the police are investigated by them and found to be false.

The arrested persons include; Accra FM's Bobie Ansah, Power FM's Oheneba Boamah Bennie, and the Executive Director of the Alliance For Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson who were all slapped with the charge of publication of false news and offensive conduct.

But according to Prof. Karikari, media stakeholders need to consider the option of self-regulation to guard against police arrests such as what has been done recently.

He further criticized the quality of journalism in the country, saying that there has been a lot of recklessness in the media, the unprofessionalism, and abuses of freedoms. We are aware of them and we do not condone them, and that also needs to be addressed.

He also urged the government and its assigns to hasten slowly in frequently engaging the police to arrest journalists for comments the complainants believe impugn their reputation.

When that kind of thing happens, it is a sure way of minimizing the image of the executive. When the police are seen to be arresting people, it becomes very negative for the image of the executive. They should minimize using the police to police speech. That readily makes people accuse the president as the one ordering the police to do these things, he advised.

Citinewsroom
The Northern Regional Minister, Shani Alhassan Shaibu says his outfit will push for the punishment of persons including police officers who played a role in the shooting incident at Lamashegu that resulted in the death of one person and the injury of eight others.

According to him, punishing the culprits will help bring lasting peace and calm to the area.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, he urged the youth of the area to avoid taking any retaliatory action to maintain the peace of the community.

Tamale is currently calm, and we are appealing to residents to remain calm and allow the due process to take its course. We shall make sure that the issue is properly investigated and culprits brought to book, he promised.

Shani Alhassan Shaibu explained that the metropolis is working closely with the chiefs, assembly members and other local authorities to prevent violence.

Police and residents on Sunday afternoon clashed after officers allegedly shot a 24-year-old man for refusing to stop when police ordered him to.

Initial reports indicated that the wounded man was chased to the Lamashegu Chief's Palace, where he was shot by the officers.

The incident resulted in the burning of car tyres and wood on some major highways in Tamale.

Some agitated residents also hurled stones at the police patrol team that was at the scene to restore calm.

There is currently joint police and military presence in the area to calm tempers and reduce tensions.

The regional minister said the chief has requested that he should be involved in the investigation in order to ensure that it is followed through to the end.

They want the chief to be part of the investigation to ensure that the investigation is properly done, and the culprits are brought to book. Tomorrow, we will be visiting the injured people to see how we can support them to be treated and discharged from the hospital, he said.

The chiefs are participating seriously and supporting us. We are dialoguing seriously to make sure that these things do not reoccur.

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Dampare has instructed the Northern Regional Police Command to ensure that the medical bills of the inured persons are paid.

citinewsroom
The striking University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the National Labour Commission (NLC)are expected back in court today after what has been described by both government and lecturers as inconclusive engagements.

The five-week strike has already destabilized academic work, while the Labour Commission fights the Association over the legality or otherwise of the action.

Students have been left stranded on various campuses of public universities, not knowing what the academic future holds for them.

The Ministry of Educations Public Relations Officer, Kwasi Kwarteng, told Citi News that the parties would be back in court after fruitless attempts at an out-of-court resolution of the impasse.

As of now, a lot of these engagements have not been very conclusive. I am unable to, for instance, say that our parties have reached a very concrete resolution, he said.

UTAG has been on strike since January 10 to force the government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon in 2012.

The 2012 conditions of service pegged the Basic plus Market Premium of a lecturer at $2,084.42.

UTAG has complained that the current arrangement has reduced its members' basic premiums to $997.84.

The National Labour Commission dragged UTAG to court, but the two were told to return to the negotiation table.

The commission sued, seeking the enforcement of its order, which was defied by public university teachers in the country.

The commission earlier directed UTAG to call off its strike, but this directive was not adhered to.

By Citi Newsroom
The National President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Professor Solomon Nunoo says the association will update the court on its next line of action later today, February 15.

According to him, the association has held some internal meetings after its meetings with the National Labour Commission and the Education Ministry ''yielded no results.''

We will update the court on the outcome of our meetings today. We have had two meetings with the government so far with the last being last Thursday. Both ended inconclusively.

We (UTAG) held a meeting on Sunday to review our industrial action so far. We will report to the court on the outcome of our meeting, he said in a Citi News interview.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Kwesi Kwarteng also said: We have had meetings in various forms. As of now, a lot of these engagements have ended inconclusively. We still have not come up with concrete resolutions.

We will be heading to court on Tuesday for a determination of the case. We will wait for the outcome of the court and see the way forward, he told Citi News.

He insisted that the Ministry will be unable to negotiate with UTAG, as long as it remains on strike.

Our Labour laws are clear on that. We cant be expected to relent on this when UTAG does not seem to be willing to compromise.

Striking members of the University Teacher's Association of Ghana say they will not return to the lecture halls until the government meets their demands for better conditions of service.

UTAG has been on strike since January 10 to force the government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon in 2012.

The 2012 conditions of service pegged the Basic plus Market Premium of a lecturer at $2,084.42.

UTAG has complained that the current arrangement has reduced its members' basic premiums to $997.84.

The National Labour Commission dragged UTAG to court, but the two were told to return to the negotiation table.

The Commission sued, seeking the enforcement of its order, which was defied by public university teachers in the country.

The Commission earlier directed UTAG to call off its strike, but this directive was not adhered to.

citinewsroom
The Executive Director of the National Media Commission,NMC, Dr. George Sarpong fears that more journalists would be arrested by the police in the future.

He said the trend will continue if stakeholders in media do not come together to develop a framework that will guide their work.

According to him, there are concerns that the current situation of arrest of journalists by police may worsen to the extent that the public will get involved to exact justice on journalists.

We have been anticipating what is happening now for the past two years, and it is going to get worse. What is going to happen that we have to prevent is when ordinary people get involved. I am worried about our lack of appreciation of the context and the idea such that everybody takes a strand of the issue instead of looking at the major factor, he noted.

Dr. Sarpong indicated the need for a comprehensive framework for the media that will guide its operations and save journalists from personal attacks for the content of their programming or comments in their programmes.

He made the comment in reaction to fears that the dark days of criminal libel law is returning to Ghana following the arrest of some journalists and social activists and charges of publication of false news slapped on them.

Accra FM's Bobie Ansah, Power FM's Oheneba Boamah Bennie, and the Executive Director of the Alliance For Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson have all been slapped with the charge of publication of false news and offensive conduct.

Dr. Sarpong said the developments are a clear indication of the lack of a comprehensive framework for media.

Because we do not have a unified framework for addressing these issues, any time anyone come under media stress the first thing they say is that, within my power, what can I do [to the media]? It is likely to continue to happen unless the bigger issue is addressed, he added.

citinewsroom
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina Constituency, Mr. Francis Xavier Sosu has hit back at the Ghana Bar Association (GBA).

He said he rejects all claims of being irresponsible and unprofessional.

The GBA blasted the MP in a statement on Monday in a reaction to his interview with the media during the Yentua demo last week.

During that interview, Francis Xavier Sosu noted that the next NDC government would deal with all political judges when it returns to power.

If you are a judge, your fidelity is to the constitution of Ghana and the laws of Ghana. If you allow yourself to be used as a political judge so that you can do the bidding of the ruling government be warned, be warned because we are watching closely and in the event that theres change of power, every political judge will be fished out, every political judge will be dealt with politically, the MP told journalists.

Having watched the interview, the GBA says it finds the assertion by Francis Xavier Sosu very unprofessional, unfortunate, irresponsible, distasteful, and same smacks of deep-seated ignorance, as the tenure of judges per the Constitution, 1992, and other relevant laws, is never in any way whatsoever tied to the tenure of the political regime under which judges are appointed.

The GBA adds that it takes a dim view of the very unprofessional conduct of Francis Xavier Sosu and deems the same as an unwarranted, unnecessary, and unjustified attack on judges.

GBA views as unprofessional, irresponsible, and totally out of place for a Lawyer to make utterances in the nature of those by Francis Xavier Sosu.

The GBA wishes to strongly advise ALL lawyers, irrespective of their status in society, to refrain from visiting unwarranted and unnecessary attack on members of the Judiciary and Judges for that matter, part of a GBA release on the matter reads.

Not moved by the GBA statement, Francis Xavier Sosu has stressed that he wonders if the association still exists in the country following its loud silence on critical matters of national concern which relate to the Bar, Legal Education, Mistreatment of Lawyers, lack of welfare for Lawyers, Human Rights abuses, Press freedom, and justice delivery among others in Ghana.

Insisting that he rejects all allegations from the GBA, the Madina MP adds that he stands by his comments.

I reject the allegation of being unprofessional and irresponsible and would reiterate that the GBA is rather a monumental failure to our democracy and I take strong exceptions to the Statement of the leader. A cursory look at the Objects of the GBA Constitution in Part 1, Section 2 clearly shows that the GBA has lost its focus and relevance long ago, the MP has said in a statement.

Francis Xavier Sosu adds, Needless to say, let me be clear that I stand by my statement any day, any time. The Statement was a conditional statement and no amounts of twists and turns will extricate judicial officers and judges who would allow themselves to become agents of political partisan agenda.

Find a copy of the Madina MPs statement below:
Member of Parliament for South Dayi constituency, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor has said the Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng should talk less and do more.

Speaking on Accra based Joy News today, the lawmaker stated that, the Special Prosecutor should stop talking plenty and start acting on all the numerous cases it says it is working on to boost the confidence of Ghanaians.

He advised that the Special Prosecutor get a Public Relations Officer (PRO) to handle the communications aspect of the office instead of always being in the news with trivial issues.

I think the OSP is becoming garrulous, hes talking too much he needs a PRO so that the special prosecutor himself can do his work. The office is turning into another usual state investigative institution and that is not the intent. Their performance must speak for itself. He should get a PRO so that some of these things can be addressed. Every time hes in the news hes speaking to very trivial issues, he stated.

Another panelist on the same show, Hardi Yakubu who is the Fighter-General of the Economic Fighters League stated that there was no need for the Special Prosecutor to go public on cases it is yet to act on.

According to him, his predecessor run the office in a familiar way where a lot was said but very little was done.

He said that the office of the special prosecutor was losing credibility and so the special prosecutor has to work hard and clear that notion.

This bit about in the coming weeks youll hear from me on these cases; I dont really see the point in that. Why cant the special prosecutor just tell us that these are the actions that have been taken so far or wait till he takes those actions and then us? I mean Martin Amidu run the office in such a way that I think that is weighing on him. He basically just wrote a lot and granted a lot of interviews and we barely saw any actions. The only action we saw was maybe his action on Agyapa. So I dont know maybe thats what is weighing on the special prosecutor preventing him from seeing cases through because he doesnt want to meet the same fate, Hardi Yakubu stated.

The office of the special prosecutor on February 14 released a statement giving details about some three cases to take action on. The three cases include that of LaBianca company limited, former Public Procurement Authority (PPA) boss, Adjenim Boateng Adjei and Alexander Kwabena Sarfo Kantanka who went after Assemblymembers to collect back bribes he paid to confirm his nomination as Chief Executive of the Juaben Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti Region.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben South, Mr. Michael Okyere Baafi has cautioned that failure on the part of Ghanaians to accept the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) will lead to the cancellation of the free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

The government since November last year has been pushing to have the controversial E-Levy approved by the Parliament.

As a result of strong opposition from the Minority in the house, the E-Levy is struggling to get approval.

Engaging his constituents on why they need to accept the E-Levy, Mr. Michael Okyere Baafi argued that it is key for the continuous implementation of the free SHS policy.

If we dont pay the E-levy and we go to the World Bank or the IMF for loans, they will ask Akufo-Addo to cancel the free SHS which will affect your children so you must all accept the E-levy and pay it so it helps all of us, the New Juaben South MP shared.

Government plans to charge a 1.75% tax on all daily financial transactions that exceed GHS100 once the new levy is approved.

Due to the rejection from the Minority in Parliament, reports suggest that government has reduced the charge to 1.50% but the NDC MPs says never, it must be dropped.
15.02.2022 LISTEN

Member of Parliament for the Sekondi Constituency in the Western Region of Ghana, Andrew Egyaapa Mercer, has stated that journalists cannot hide behind the curtain of freedom of the press to commit crime and go free.

Speaking to Accra based Joy News on February 15, he stated that, the freedom journalists enjoy in their work does not include the freedom to utter statements that would find them in the chains of the law.

He noted that freedom comes with responsibilities.

We speak of freedom of speech. You sitting here this morning interrogating issues freely, has someone come to arrest you? Youre doing your job unhindered and so are other journalists in the country. But youll agree that some of your colleagues hide behind the so called freedom to commit crime and offend the law and when they are caught all hell breaks loose, he told the host.

According to him, he was not in support of the arrest of Executive Director of ASEPA Mensah Thompson.

He indicated that the arrest was high handed.

However, he stated that, with the arrest of the #FixTheCountry Convener Oliver Barker-Vormawor, matters of the nature of his comments should definitely be taken serious.

He noted that Oliver has consistently used his platform to glorify coups.

I dont want to second guess that police, but as a trained lawyer I know the clear distinction between Mens Rea, which is the intent and Actus Reus which is the action itself. Ordinarily, it's only when the two meet that a crime is said to have taken place, but in matters of this nature; it seems to me as social media means irresponsible media, but it is a serious media because for an individual who has consistently sought the army to subvert the constitution; an invitation for the army to subvert the constitution. His post was clear. This is an individual who uses his platform to glorify coup detats in Guinea in Mali and yet we sit here glorifying his actions and condemning the police for doing their work. It beats me, he emphasised.

His comments come on the back of the arrest of Oliver Barker Vormawor, #FixTheCountry convener, Accra FM's Bobie Ansah, jailing of Power FM presenter, Captain Smart of Media General journalist and others over alleged false publication.
15.02.2022 LISTEN

The Executive Director for Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson has issued a warning to investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, indicating that he should not see himself more knowledgeable than all journalists in the country.

This is in a reaction to an opinion piece written by Manasseh Azure Awuni titled, Gutter journalism and Akufo-Addos criminal libel regime.

In the piece, Manasseh Azure Awuni admitted that he is not a fan of some of Mensah Thompsons utterances due to the fact that it sometimes cast a slur on social activism.

Another person who was arrested and charged with the publication of false news is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA).

I am not a fan of some of Mensah Thompsons utterances. His behaviour has, on a number of occasions, cast a slur on social activism. Focusing on his arrest and detention is, therefore, based on principle and not who is involved, part of the opinion piece published by Manasseh Azure Awuni said.

In response, the ASEPA boss has issued a release today hitting back at the journalist.

According to Mensah Thompson, Manasseh Awuni should not see himself as the headmaster of journalism in the country just because he runs a news portal, the Fourth Estate.

Dear Manasseh, I would also advise that you take serious caution, you running the Fourth Estate does not automatically accord you the position as the Headmaster of Journalism in Ghana to approve and disapprove which Journalism style is acceptable or not, need I say that you have your own cub web of excesses un-dealt with, Mensah Thompson notes in his release.

The ASEPA Executive Director insists that it is rather the conduct of Manasseh Azure and his posture that is casting a slur on the reputation and the purpose of the Fourth Estate.

Mensah Thompson continues "We are in this struggle together my brother, united we stand against the oppressor, divided we fall against them and absolutely no one is immune to the sting of this oppressor, tomorrow it may be you once more and the voices you bastardize today maybe your only hope to liberation and emancipation.

Read the full statement from the ASEPA Executive Director below:

Mensah Thompson of ASEPA writes...

Re: Gutter Journalism and Akufo-Addos Criminal Libel Regime

Dear Manasseh Azure Awuni, I have sighted your publication in the Fourth Estate about the recent attacks on Press Freedom and also your comments on PM Express on JoyNews about the same subject particularly on the arrest of Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor.

Apart from your reference to the profession of others as gutter journalism, you particularly took a swipe at myself in a manner I wont repeat and even sought to cast a judgement on a man currently standing trial for treason felony!!

Need I remind you Manasseh that we dont always agree with you, neither is everyone a fan of your style of Journalism or certain things that you have done, but when suspected State operatives were haunting you after your Millitia in the Castle expose, we did not remind the public of the things you have done in the past that we did not agree with, neither did anyone go into the facts to cast a verdict on whether what you did was right or wrong, the whole Nation, Journalists fraternity and Civil Activists stood behind you unconditionally on a principle that no matter what you did, nothing could justify the treatment and response you received in the conduct of your professional duties.

I regret to say that you failed to return that favor that was done you in your difficult moments these past days and that could pass as dismissive ingratitude.

Dear Manasseh, I would also advise that you take serious caution, you running the Fourth Estate does not automatically accord you the position as the Headmaster of Journalism in Ghana to approve and disapprove which Journalism style is acceptable or not, need I say that you have your own cub web of excesses un-dealt with.

Finally Manasseh, the confusion in your recent pronouncements are too glaring, we dont know where you stand, with the oppressor or the oppressed?

I shudder to say that it is your conduct and posture that is rather casting a slur on the reputation and the purpose of the Fourth Estate.

As someone who work in the civic space, I am very much aware of the purpose behind the Fourth Estate and why certain entities Financial support the Fourth Estate, I really hope that their funds are not being wasted on a self-serving personal aggrandizement of mentally acquired self-importance instead of the real work and intent the MFWA has for the Fourth Estate.

We are in this struggle together my brother, United we stand against the oppressor, divided we fall against them and absolutely no one is immune to the sting of this oppressor, tomorrow it may be you once more and the voices you bastardize today maybe your only hope to liberation and emancipation.

Mensah Thompson

Executive Director,ASEPA
The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) has reached a long-term agreement with shipping giant Bahri for the construction and operation of an integrated logistics park over a land leased at the Jeddah Islamic Port with a total area of 95,436 sq m.

Once built, Bahri will manage operations at the state-of-the-art facility for a duration of 20 years, said the statement from Mawani.

The 95,436-sq-m logistics zone will provide storage and handling services for all types of inbound and outbound shipping containers that are owned by Bahri and other entities.

It will be capable of storing reefer, insulated and dry containers with services like container maintenance and repair, container cleaning, bonded storage, and haulage available to clients at any given point, it stated.

"Launching this project forms a core part of our initiatives to achieve the objectives of the National Transportation and Logistics Strategy (NTLS), which envisions setting up similar logistics zones within and beyond Saudi ports to empower the kingdoms bid to become a global logistics hub as well as provide world-class logistics services to accelerate economic development and enable overall transformation in line with Vision 2030," stated Mawani President Omar Talal Hariri after signing the deal with Bahri CEO Engineer Abdullah Ali Aldubaikhi in the presence of senior officials

Spread over 12.5 sq km and equipped with 62 berths and 4 terminals, Mawani is all geared in its drive to position the Jeddah Islamic Port amongst the top ten globally.

Efforts are underway to expand the ports capacity and upgrade its operations with the help of development projects and concessions, he stated.

A recent concession worth SAR9 billion was awarded to DP World for a period of 30 years to improve the operational efficiency of the ports container terminals and raise its capacity by 70% to be able to handle more than 13 million units.

On the other hand, Abdullah Aldubaikhi expressed his delight at signing the deal which is expected to boost his companys partnership with Mawani in the pursuit of developing the Kingdoms logistics services and consolidating its stature as a global hub that links three continents.

"Leveraging Jeddah Islamic Ports strategic location, this agreement will further expand Bahris import, transport, distribution, and storage capabilities and help the company raise the level of its services according to international standards. We constantly strive to be a responsible business that builds sustainable capabilities and offers solutions that meet the exact needs of our partners," he added.
Kwame Baffoe Abronye

15.02.2022 LISTEN

The Bono Regional Chairman of the ruling NPP, Kwame Baffoe Abronye better known as Abronye DC is asking Ghanaians not to spare anybody who threatens coup in the country.

He said anyone who threatens to stage a coup is an enemy of the state who needs to be eliminated.

The outspoken NPP stalwart incited Ghanaians to shoot and kill any coup plotter by stating that, " I am therefore ready to shoot anyone with the idea of taking the country back to coup days to protect and defend mother Ghana".

According to him, people died and families wiped out in coups decades ago.

"During the coup days, people were murdered in cold blood, married women were raped and robbed while innocent souls were killed," he said.

Commenting on the arrest of Mr. Barker Vormawor who has threatened to stage a coup if the controversial Electronic Levy (E-levy) is passed on " Dwene ho bio" with Agya Wusu on Hot FM in Accra, Abronye DC explained that, the capacity to stage coup is not only by the military but any form of support, either financially or physical support by ordinary persons.

He noted that Mr.Barker has been a presidential staffer under the Mahama led-administration and may have links with people who can easily support his agenda against the Akufo-Addo government.

The law student noted that the 1992 constitution protects citizens who will fight coup plotters to the point of death to defend and protect it.
A human rights lawyer has called out the management of the Ghana Police Service for disgracing the valedictory judgement of the former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo to Ghanaians.

According to the lawyer, the leadership of the police command must bow their heads in shame for the detention of the convener of #FixTheCountry movement, a pressure group over a coup comment on social media.

Mr. Martin Kpebu said when the Chief Justice was leaving office, she left a landmark judgment that made it possible for people to be bailed on public holidays and on weekends.

He explained that the former CJs judgement was for the purpose of correcting some of these abuses on the part of the police.

The actions of the police in the matter of the arrest of the convener of the movement, Oliver Barker-Vomawor, and detaining him for more than 48 hours according to Mr Kpebu was a gross disrespect to the judgement delivered by the former C.J. for the good of society.

Mr. Kpebu expressed these concerns on Accra-based Joy FM.

He bemoaned that Mr. Oliver Barker-Vomawor was in custody for 58 hours without bail when the law says it must not be more than 48 hours.

He said the accused persons lawyer was also prevented from seeing his clients.

The gross constitutional breach in the matter of the arrest of the young man is disgraceful, he argued.

He added that the disgrace that has come upon the police administration led to the police administration going on a Mary-go-round over the kind of charges to prepare against the convener of the movement.

He said the police charges against Mr Barker-Vomawor moved from breaching public peace to a first-degree felony charge.

He noted that the police's decision that it could not go to court on a weekend to have the young man granted bail as stipulated by the law was disgraceful

---Classfmonline.com
Every leader has weak points. Your weak point is where you are vulnerable.

Therefore, your weak points are of interest to your enemy! Every good general attacks what is weak and leaves what is strong. Therefore, brace yourself for attacks at your weak points. Your enemy will always look for your weak spot and attack you there.

Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come

forth out of Egypt;How he met thee by the way, and SMOTE THE HINDMOST OF THEE, even ALL THAT WERE FEEBLE behind thee, WHEN THOU WAST FAINT and weary; and he feared not God.

Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it

Deuteronomy 25:17-19

Amalek was one such enemy who attacked the Israelites from their weaker backside when they were escaping from Egypt. Amalek was simply attacking what was easy to attack.

Germany's Weak Spot

During the Second World War, Germany had an iron grip on the whole of Europe. In order to get to Germany and overthrow Hitler, the allies (British, American, Canadian, French forces) had to cross the sea from Britain and land in France. The allies had to choose an appropriate weak spot on the coast of France where they could land their troops, tanks, trucks and cars. Where would they choose to do this massive invasion? Where would be most appropriate to land all these forces?

Something had happened earlier, which had taught the allies an important lesson. In 1942, the British and Canadians had raided a port city on the French coast. This raid was a disaster because the Germans had very heavy defences at the port. Through this, the allies learnt that the Germans had heavy fortifications in every port city.

Invading a port city was going to be very difficult. The allies therefore decided to choose an area which was not a port and that would be thinly defended. They searched along the cost for a weak spot and they found Normandy.

Normandy was not a port city and it was not as heavily defended as real port cities.

The British decided to tow an artificial harbour to Normandy and use it temporarily till the battle was over. Eventually, the day of invasion (D-day) came and the British and their allies were successful in establishing themselves in this relatively thinly defended coastal town called Normandy.

Weak Points Are Your Vulnerable Sides

Every minister has weak areas, which can be attacked. Every church also has weak areas that need strengthening. These are the areas in which you are more vulnerable to attack. The most common weak area in a minister's defences is his family.

Your spouse and your children are often weak points through which attacks take place. Many of the terrible crises that ministers have endured have come through their families. In a family, everyone has a different level of spirituality. Some family members are more spiritual than others. Your great spirituality and convictions cannot cover all members of the family. People have to believe God for themselves especially when they are adults.

If your wife is less spiritual than you are, she becomes a weak point through which an attack can come. If your wife is beautiful, but quarrelsome, it becomes a weak point through which contention and confusion can enter. If your wife is stubborn and unyielding, it becomes a door through which witchcraft can enter your life.

Why Children Can Be a Weak Point?

Having children is also a weak point because your children make you more vulnerable to attack. To have many children is to have your quiver full of arrows and defenders but children also open many doors to the enemy. Your children may not be as spiritual as you are. Their lives can be open doors to your enemy. The devil knows that if he attacks your children, he will get your attention. The more children you have, the more weak points you have!

Having children opens the door to potential disgrace. Your child can be a disgrace to you spiritually, academically, socially and in almost every other way.

Having children opens the door to potential financial difficulties. Children are the greatest expense that parents sometimes experience. There are parents who steal money so they can look after their children.

Having children opens the door to marital conflict. Many times children are the reason why parents have conflict. There are arguments about children and what should be done for them

Dear leader, remember that your enemy is looking for a weak spot in your life. Your weak spots are of great interest to the enemy. He will invade you at your weak spot.

Be on your guard!

[email protected]
The prosecution has begun its cross-examination of the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, who is standing trial for his alleged role in the collapse of the private bank.

The accused opened his defence and denied conspiring with anyone to commit any crime when he was in charge of the insolvent bank.

He insisted in his witness statement that he did not act with Fitzgerald Odonkor or Tetteh Nettey who are also on trial, to act together or facilitate any crime and the transfer of funds were legitimate investments by Capital Bank.

The prosecution led by Evelyn Keelson, a Chief State Attorney, began cross-examining the Ato Essien, focusing on some companies owned by the embattled businessman which she said 'benefited' from the GH620 million Bank of Ghana liquidity support which the prosecution said was misused.

Mr. Essien, while under cross-examination, appeared to have forgotten some vital information relating to the setting up of some of the said companies and who the majority shareholders were.

For instance, he told the court that he could not recollect that he was the sole shareholder in Essien Swiss, a company that was the sole shareholder of Capital Africa Group, which in turn held the majority shares in Capital Bank.

Again, Ato Essien said he was struggling to recollect that his co-accused, Tetteh Nettey, was the majority shareholder in MC Management Services, a company that got GH130 million out of the GH620 million which was later used in the establishment of the now defunct Sovereign Bank.

Mrs. Keelson, therefore, put it to him that he was the one who recruited Mr. Nettey to set up MC Management Services so there was no way he could have forgotten about that piece of evidence.

Like I said earlier, kindly forgive my memory and also in this box, I genuinely didn't remember. Additionally, I recruited Dr. Tetteh Nettey under the strict instructions of Dr. Rahman, Ato Essien replied.

The prosecutor then suggested to the accused that MC Management Services was set up purposely to use it to raise money to set up Sovereign Bank but Ato Essien said that was not the case and insisted that the company had plans to venture into real estate.

In fact, the purpose was for MC Management to raise GH130m as capitalisation for Sovereign Bank, and you were behind this enterprise of setting up the company and raising the money, Mrs. Keelson reiterated but the accused denied it and said Dr. Rahman was behind the company.

She then asked Ato Essien whether he was aware of the arrangement to get GH100 million from Capital Bank through All Time Capital for MC Management Services was through a commercial paper.

Even though Ato Essien replied 'yes', he said he was not aware Tetteh Nettey was the one who signed the commercial paper with Capital Bank.

Mrs. Keelson further put it to Ato Essien that not only did Capital Bank not receive interest on the GH100 million arraignment, it did not even get the principal sum and he, the accused, was aware.

Ato Essien denied that assertion by the prosecutor too.

There are no documents in terms of investment certificate or any other supporting documents for the supposed placement and this has been confirmed by the Head of Treasury at the time in his evidence before this court, the Chief State Attorney fired.

It cannot and never unimaginably be that a bank will dole out GH100 million without documentation. Then Mr. Kontor should be the one in this box and not me. How can you dole out GH100 million without record and you call yourself a treasurer of a bank. He must be here to answer questions, Ato Essien rebutted.

She asked the accused whether the GH100 million which was taken from Capital Bank through All Time and later MC Management Services ended in his Capital Africa Group account but Essien denied it saying the money ended up in the setting up of Sovereign Bank.

He, however, admitted that he indicated in his own witness statement that the money went to Capital Africa Group and was later used by Capital Africa group to acquire shares in Sovereign Bank.

Mrs. Keelson also asked the accused whether he knew anything about a company by name Britling Services which he set up for one Felix Koranteng. He said he knew about the company adding that the said Koranteng was a shareholder in the company but denied setting it up for him.

When he was also queried about email correspondences between him and Felix Koranteng when the latter wanted to resign from running Britling Services, Ato Essien said he was taking his instructions from Dr. Rahman although he was not copied in any of the emails.

She further queried him on the fact that GH35 million, out of GH65 million which was taken from Capital Bank through Nordia Capital and MC Management Services went to Britling Services but later ended up in the accounts of Capital Africa Group.

He told the court that he did not remember and would be grateful if he could be assisted with the reference of the transaction.

Hearing continues on February 17.

---Daily Guide
Two unemployed men who sprayed pepper powder unto the face of a Bolt driver and made away with his Tecno Carmon Phone valued GHC800, have been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment each by an Accra Circuit Court.

Raphael Maamah aka Tema Boy, Solomon Anum aka Container Money, broke down in tears after the sentence.

Maamah and Anum were found guilty by the court presided over by Mrs Evelyn Asamoah at the end of the trial on charges of conspiracy to commit crime to wit robbery and robbery.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Emmanuel Haligah narrated that, the complainant, Kester Anderson is a professional driver with Bolt Transport Services and resides at Tema Community 11.

Chief Inspector Haligah said both accused were residents of Teshie Maami, Accra.

Prosecution said on November 29, at about 2305 hours, Maamah called the complainant for his services and that Anderson was to transport the accused from Teshie-Agblezaa to Salem Square also in Teshie.

The Prosecution said the accused asked the complainant to use the Teshie LEKMA Hospital Road through Teshie Mobile to Lascala through to Salem Square.

Chief Inspector Haligah said on reaching Salem Square, the accused persons alighted but while doing so Maamah who was sitting behind the complainant quickly smeared powered pepper unto the face of the complainant.

According to prosecution Anum who was sitting at the front seat, forcibly took the complainant's phone and both bolted.

The prosecution said the complainant shouted for help and some ladies came to his aid by providing him with water to wash his face.

He said a report was made to the Police and while the case was under investigations, the Bolt Transport Services provided Maamah's phone which was used in securing the services of the complainant on the day of the incident.

He said the Police arrested Maamah who mentioned Anum as the one who committed the offence with his mobile number.

The prosecution said on January 5, last year, Anum was also arrested and the accused in their respective cautioned statements admitted the offence.

GNA
The National Lottery Authority (NLA) and the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) have joined forces to curb the activities of lotto fraudsters in the country.

The collaboration is a part of efforts being made by the two companies to ridding the country of scammers who use their organizations to dup people.

The Director General of NLA, Sammi Awuku stated that his outfit would not hesitate to wage war against persons using NLA to dup Ghanaians.

He noted that some persons posing as employees of the company defraud others while some operate without licenses.

According to him, the war has led to the rest of many persons who have been found culpable.

Government is losing several billions of cedis as a result of activities of these lotto fraudsters. We have waged a war and started arresting them but it is my hope that with your intervention we will remedy the situation and save a lot of cash for development, he expressed optimism.

In a courtesy call on February 14 to the NLA boss, the newly appointed EOCO boss, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah reiterated EOCO's readiness to help deal with the fraudsters.

COP Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah emphasised that with EOCOs sophisticated technology they would ensure that lotto fraudsters.

She expressed her outfit's support to the NLA in its dealings but cautioned the authority against misappropriations.
An ordinary Ghanaian struggling on the streets without any job and hope over where his next meal will be coming from thinks of a coup, as the only means to make his life better, while a corrupt Ghanaian politician fears a coup because it will prevent him from stealing from the government's coffers.

Corrupt Ghanaian politicians are like a pack of hyenas that steal carcasses from those that work hard for the kill but when they see five or six lions coming to where the meat is being enjoyed, they quickly leave it and flee different directions.

The hyena-like attitude of corrupt Ghanaian politicians makes them fear coups more than the most dangerous snake called the black mamba.

If I am a politician and wouldnt like any possible coup to occur in my country, the only thing I will do to prevent that is the right thing but it's hard for corrupt politicians to change because they enjoy seeing the poor suffering.

Who will be so happy to see the state treasures being looted when people, including graduates, are struggling to find a job? Things have already fallen apart in Ghana and it has become worse, yet the government has declared war on critics.

Arresting Oliver Barker-Vormawor for mentioning a coup in a tweet is not only intimidation but also reveals to the NPP government that after all the noises and claim that they are fighting against corruption, they still fear a coup. That means they know they are corrupt.

I am a writer that loves to go straight to the point without circling the object, meaning the NPP government, especially Nana Akufo Addo is scared to death about a coup taking place in that country. However, its very stupid indeed for someone to entertain such fear if he knows he is doing the right thing.

Its not a hidden secret anymore that the current chaotic, political unrest, the economic disaster, huge debt without accountability, missing funds without tangible explanation, and the imposition of an unwanted E-Levy, have all summed up to put fear in the government, therefore, mentioning the word coup has become an abomination in Ghana.



I am bringing what Mr. Samuel Bryan Buaben, the Tech Officer & Deputy Head at the Office of the President, said against the former Electoral Commission's boss, Afari Gyan, before the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, and the Inspector General of Police, George Akuffo Dampare.

Ghanas security has become a laughing stock just like its judiciary system. When John Mahama became the president after John Atta-Mills, someone who claims to be a Tech Officer & Deputy Head at the Office of the President, Samuel Bryan Buabeng, called the former Electoral Commission boss, Afari Gyan, evil man, and a criminal who deserved to be hanged but no one arrested Mr. Buaben.

Because Serwa Broni has some sensitive recordings involving the presidents infidelity with her, security personnel from the Flagstaff House were sent after her to retrieve those items and at gunpoint, her telephone and other things were seized. The Ghana Police and the CID avoided any investigation.

This is what is happening in a country where people pray daily to be great and this is the type of rotten government that people, including the tribal bigots, and the tribal-links media want everyone to support and the failure to do so makes one an enemy instantly. I prefer to remain an enemy than to disgrace myself.

Intimidation, oppression, imprisonment, etc; are not solutions to prevent a coup, they are rather catalysts to spark problems that can lead to many tragedies in a country. Therefore, the NPP government mustn't think the arrest of Oliver Barker-Vormawor will solve their problems. In fact, its only the beginning.

I am bringing the threat that Mr. Samuel Bryan Buaben, the Tech Officer & Deputy Head at the Office of the President, made against the former Electoral Commission's boss, Mr. Afari Gyan, before the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, and the Inspector General of Police, George Akuffo Dampare.

If the law works in that country Mr. Samuel Bryan Buabeng should be arrested for making such a threat against a person. If not, they must set free Mr. Oliver Barker-Vormawor immediately.
15.02.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana Police Service has asked the Bono Regional Chairman of the ruling NPP, Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC to present himself to the police for investigations.

This is in relation to allegations he made against former President John Dramani Mahama of planning to stage a coup in the country.

The police have in a statement on February 15, are asking Abronye DC to report at the police regional headquarters today by 4pm today.

The police statement noted that he will be arrested if he fails to turn up.

The police stated that, the public would be updated on developments in this regard.
A Cape Coast High Court has slapped the Ghana Police Service with a GH320,000 fine for the negligence of its officers who shot three persons in a taxi cab.

The officers who were pursuing some goat thieves from Twifo Praso fired into the car occupied by the thieves. The bullet strayed into a moving taxi occupied by a couple and their daughter.

The gun hit and killed the woman, Josephine Owusuaa Aboagye, which caused injuries to her husband Aboagye Okyere and a student who was on her way to school.

According to the plaintiffs, on January 10, 2019, at about 6:30am, they were on board a taxi cab from Ankaful Junction in Cape Coast when they were shot at by policemen who said they were chasing robbers from Twifo Praso.

The bullet fired by the police strayed and hit Mary Aboagye who later died at the hospital, hit her husband, and hit one Cecilia Mensah, who was on her way to school.

Some bystanders rescued the victims and sent them to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital where Mary Aboagye was pronounced dead.

The other two victims, Cecilia Mensah and her father sustained varying degrees of injuries as a result of the bullet they received.

The defendants, the Ghana Police Service told the court it deployed five policemen from various police stations in the Central Region for police patrol duty at Darmang near Twifo Praso. Whilst on patrols, they had information that there was a BMW saloon car with four occupants suspected to be driving recklessly.

A few minutes later, the said BMW car approached the patrol team.

The team signalled the driver to stop. However, he ignored the signals and sped off, nearly knocking down the policemen.

The team noticed that the passenger on the front seat was holding an AK 47 riffle.

Accordingly, they notified all the police barriers from Twifo Praso to Cape Coast and proceeded to chase the said BMW car.

On the outskirts of Jukwa Senior High School, the suspected robbers then began firing at the police patrol vehicle with AK 47 rifle leaving the police no choice but to return fire.

A search conducted in the car revealed six live goats, one live sheep and five dead goats.

They arrested the suspected robbers and sent them with the animals found in the car to the regional headquarters in Cape Coast where they made a situational report to their officers.

Justice Kwasi Boakye explained that the judgment was not meant to intimidate and lower the morale of the crime-fighting institutions such as the Police.

He urged the Inspector General Police (IGP) to take proactive steps to 'Damparise' the Service.

He noted that there was a dire need to undertake a complete overhaul or re-engineer the service as far as its professional training needs and competence are concerned.

He made reference to a similar incident where some armed policemen in broad day, shot into an unregistered saloon car at Tamale, resulting in the death of one [1] of the occupants whereas the others sustained various degrees of injuries.

He consequently awarded the 1st plaintiff, the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHC150,000.00) lump sum as compensation and ordered the defendants to pay same having considered the following heads: future loss of earnings, nursing attendants, loss of amenities, loss of expectation of life and disability.

For Cecilia Mensah, the 3rd plaintiff, a student of the Academy of Christ The King SHS, the judge assessed compensation payable at 60,000 and ordered the defendants to pay same.

He also further awarded a lump sum payment of GH100,000 to the estates of the deceased because her family member, Josephine Okyere, sued as a dependent of Mary Aboagye.

The court assessed cost at GH10,000 in favour of the plaintiffs and against the defendants.

---DGN online
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed malaria as the leading cause of health reported cases at the Appiatse Relief Camp in the Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality of the Western Region.

According to officials at the health post in the Camp, the disease affected all ages but was common among children due to their weak immune system.

The facility has all health personnel to take care of all cases  midwives, nurses, child wellness, disease control officers and health promotion officers.

On Thursday, January 20, a truck carrying explosives from Maxam Ghana Limited, exploded killing at least 14 people in the Appiatse community.

Hundreds including children were displaced, while others were injured making the once vibrant Appiatse community a pale show of itself, a situation which birthed the Appiatse Relief Camp.

Maxam Ghana was asked, after the government's investigations, to pay a total of US$6 million, including a US$1 million fine for regulatory breaches.

President Akufo-Addo has since directed that the additional US$5million be donated to the Appiatse Support Fund set up by the government to reconstruct the community.

The health officials, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, mentioned coughing, bodily pains and wounds dressing as other health challenges facing residents at the Camp and attributed them to the impact of the explosion and weather.

For the malaria cases, the health officials attributed it to residents' refusal to sleep in treated mosquito nets due to heat in the tents.

Also, many have remained adamant to regular public education for them to observe good personal hygiene and environmental cleanliness.

That has resulted in stagnant waters which served as fertile grounds for breeding mosquitoes aside the spots of overgrown weeds around the camp.

All residents here have refused to sleep in the treated mosquito nets, claiming it got in the nets and tents.

They are many in the rooms so who should buy the mosquito spray is a problem and they claim they don't have money to buy repellents, the health officials lamented.

The health officials reiterated the need for the people to always sleep under treated insecticide mosquito nets to protect them from the disease.

Parents must ensure they take their children to the hospital for any suspected case rather than treat them at home and urged them to desist from staying out late.

They should encourage proper hand-washing, avoid over the counter medication, knowing that, excess use of malaria drugs and the refusal by people to use the treated insecticide mosquito nets as some of the challenges hindering the fight against malaria in the country.

Some malaria patients cited their refusal to sleep under treated mosquito nets as main contributory factor.

Madam Ernestina Adobah, said: Sleeping in the heat-filled tent is not easy, how much more the uneasiness with sleeping in the mosquito nets.

We need more tents so we can check some of these things. How do you lay your net in a small room occupied by dozens with no sleeping place, she noted.

GNA
Leading global EdTech, Cuemath, the one-on-one personalised math learning platform backed by Google, has announced its market entry to Bahrain, the fifth Middle East country in which it now has a presence.

Cuemath is now present in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain. This rapid expansion follows the companys explosive growth in the UAE, where its subscriber base has grown 600% to over 180,000 customers since June 2021.

As with Cuemaths rapid regional and global expansion, the catalyst in Bahrain has been organic, word-of-mouth amongst consumers.

Bahrain is a perfect location for Cuemaths expansion - a highly digitised nation with 99% of its population connected to the internet. In the World Banks Human Capital Index (2020), Bahrain ranks 1st in Mena for test scores and 2nd for years of schooling. Both factors have improved significantly in the past decade and are on the rise. Digital nations with a rich education landscape are a perfect market for Cuemath.

In a recent statement at World Expo Dubai, Bahrains Youth Minister, Aymen Almoayed, had noted that curriculums built decades ago do not cater to the demand of industry and labour today,  and highlighted the importance of learning experiences across multiple channels  both of which mirror Cuemaths goal to prepare students for 21st century jobs.

Education also forms a key part of Bahrains Economic Vision 2030, the long-term development strategy pushing the country forward, with a highly educated workforce key to expanding sectors of the economy such as IT and financial services, where math is highly relevant.

Vivek Sunder, CEO of Cuemath, commented: Bahrain is a natural market for Cuemath to continue its Middle East expansion. The kingdoms innovation-friendly policies and tech-savvy population are ideal for Cuemaths unique approach to teaching math.

As education moves from the content era to the engagement era. Cuemath is proud to help educate the next generation of problem solvers, preparing children for future jobs in a fully digitised economy. Our rapid Middle East expansion gives me great confidence that Bahraini parents and children will place their trust in Cuemaths unique way of making math fun again.

Cuemath has grown its global market presence to over 50 countries, including the UK, US, Singapore, Canada, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, India and Thailand. The programme is led by over 10,000 teachers from various professional backgrounds.-- TradeArabia News Service
Abronye DC

15.02.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana Police Service has invited controversial New Patriotic Party (NPP) Bono Regional chairman Kwame Baffoe Abronye better known as Abronye DC to its regional headquarters in Accra over allegations against John Dramani Mahama.

The invitation is coming on the back of the claim from the NPP communicator that the former President is conniving with Al Qaeda to stage a coup in Ghana.

Abronye DC made the allegation on Hot 93.9FMs political -talk show "Dwene Ho Bio hosted by Agya Wusu while responding to issues on the arrest of the #FixTheCountry convenor Oliver Barker on his attempt to stage a coup if E-levy is passed.

READ ALSO: https://www.modernghana.com/news/1138975/im-ready-to-shoot-and-kill-any-coup-plotter-abro.html

With the attention of the Ghana Police Service drawn to the allegation, it has issued a press release noting that it has extended an invite to the NPP communicator to come and answer some questions.

The Police statement adds that if Abronye DC fails to honour the invitation by 4pm today, officers will be assigned to arrest him.

The attention of the Police Service was drawn to a publication in which Mr. Kwame Baffoe alias Abronye DC is alleged to have said that former President John Mahama is allegedly planning to stage a coup.

The Accra Regional Police Command has invited Mr. Kwame Baffoe to report to the Regional Headquarters by 4 pm today to assist investigation failure of which he will be arrested, a Police press release said on Tuesday morning.

Below is a copy of the Police press release:
The day breaks, and many of the thousands of Malian refugees in Ouallam are already up and about.

Some have left for the market to sell animals and handicrafts, while others are getting to work in a local brickyard.

Barefoot and bare-chested children line up in front of a couscous vendor while school children, bags on their backs, head off to class.

Their refugee camp, located about a hundred (60 miles) kilometres north of Niamey in southwestern Niger, is a haven for around 6,000 people.

They are just a small number of the tens of thousands of Malians who have fled jihadist attacks to take shelter in their deeply impoverished neighbour.

But as time passes, many refugees see little or no hope of returning to their homes and want to integrate into local communities.

"We have wandered enough and suffered enough -- we are finally going to settle down here and give our children a future," said Hama Dawa.

Ouallam lies in the Tillaberi region, which has been badly hit by jihadist incursions. By Tupac POINTU AFP

Agaichatou, a baby on her back, paused for a moment from pounding millet for the evening meal.

"Go back to Mali?" asked the young mother from Menala in Mali's northeast.

"I've almost nothing there now -- my children were born in Niger, one of them goes to school here. Their future is here."

Safety

"Returning to Mali is not on the agenda," Mahamadou Seguid, a spokesperson for the refugees at Ouallam, told AFP.

"For the moment we are building our future here. We are well assisted and it is safe."

More than 61,000 Malians are in Niger after fleeing northern Mali a decade ago when the region fell under the control of jihadist groups.

The UN and the Nigerien authorities are postponing their return indefinitely because of persistent attacks by jihadist groups, including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).

"We are following the developments in Mali with some concern," UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi, who visited Ouallam last week, told AFP.

"We hope they will become more positive, because without peace there will be no return of refugees."

Laouan Magagi, Niger's minister for humanitarian work, agreed.

"With the worsening of security in the three-border area (where the frontiers of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso converge), the conditions for their return are obviously not there," he said.

'Positive coexistence'

With a shrug of the shoulders, the refugees recognise the reality of the situation.

Many provide the economic lifeblood of Ouallam, a small town of 15,000 inhabitants, through "common spaces" set up by the UNHCR: shops, health centres, schools.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi centre is aiming for 'positive coexistence' between the locals and the refugees at Ouallam. By BOUREIMA HAMA AFP

Some refugees received sheep and goats to get milk and develop a livelihood, said Ousseini Hassane, another refugee.

In the space of three years, the site has been transformed from a chaos of shelters into a real neighbourhood: small ochre brick houses are gradually taking the place of shelters and makeshift tarpaulins that were regularly destroyed by sandstorms and floods.

There is a school, a drinking-water fountain connected to the town's water system, solar street lights, a children's playground and a small park.

More than 400 families have already been rehoused in houses where they live alongside locals.

The UNHCR has promised that 800 houses will go up soon.

This "extraordinary project aims to ensure positive coexistence between the locals and the refugees," said Grandi.

Of the 600 students at the newly-built school in Ouallam, "40 percent" are refugee children, he says.

Joint farming

Recently, a field was created where refugees and Nigeriens jointly grow fruit and vegetables.

Farmed by 464 people, including 404 women, with the help of agronomists, the five-hectare (12.5-acre) plot is equipped with a drip irrigation system and soil humidity sensors to help conserve water in this hot, semi-arid climate.

The Malian refugees in Ouallam are now farming alongside the locals. By BOUREIMA HAMA AFP

"I was able to earn my own money at last after selling part of my production," said Madinat, a refugee, watering can in hand.

Niger is itself a victim of jihadism, fighting bloody insurgencies on its southwestern border with Mali and on its southeastern frontier with Nigeria. More than a quarter of a million of its citizens have been displaced since 2015.

It is also the world's poorest country, according to the UN's Human Development Index.

Despite this, Niger is home to more than 266,400 Nigerian and Malian refugees, to which have just been added more than 13,000 Burkinabe fleeing jihadist atrocities.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Assin North Constituency, James Gyakye Quayson has been admitted to a bail of GHS100,000 after pleading not guilty to charges brought against him by the Attorney General.

The embattled Parliamentarian is facing charges of deceit of a public officer, forgery of passport, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury, and false declaration for office.

Arraigned before the Accra High Court today for the first time after being served, the MP for Assin North pleaded not guilty to all the five charges.

Subsequently, James Gyakye Quayson was granted a GHS100,000 bail with one surety.

Justice Mary Maame Ekue Nsenkyire who was the Presiding judge in court today ordered the prosecution to file disclosure documents and have the same served on the accused person.

Speaking to the media after the court proceedings, Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah stressed that the allegations of witch-hunting by members of the Minority in Parliament are neither here nor there.

The simple truth is that the rule of law must prevail and that is what we are doing, he emphasised.

If found guilty by the court, Mr. James Gyakye Quayson will lose his right as the Member of Parliament for the Assin North Constituency.

Meanwhile, the case has been adjourned to March 15, 2022.
The Market Centres Fumigation Project being championed by Crisis Management Company LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited in collaboration with the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has reached Tema in the Greater Accra Region.

The fumigation exercise which was done in Tema on Sunday, February 13, 2022, saw the complete fumigation of the offices of the Tema Municipal Assembly, the Tema main Market in Community 1, spare parts shops and electrical shops at the Mankoadze roundabout.

In all, about Five Thousand (5,000) shops were fumigated free of charge in efforts by LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited to support governments fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited, the Market Centres Fumigation Project is aimed at fumigating market centres across the country to lessen the risk of traders catching the COVID-19 Virus.

So far the Greater Accra, Central, Ashanti and Eastern Regions have benefitted from the project with dozens of market centres containing more than Forty Thousand (40,000) Shops fully fumigated free of charge by the company.

Chief Executive Officer of LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited, Mr. Kareem Abu in an interaction with the media said the company was so far satisfied with the results and outcome of the exercise.

Were happy with what we have done so far in the regions we have covered. Im reliably informed by the leadership of GUTA that the traders whose shops have been fumigated are going about their business in confidence, cognizant of the fact that their environment has been rid of any infectious pathogens and viruses. That is our aim in this project, to create a safe, secure and healthy environment for traders to go about their business without let or hindrance, Mr. Abu said.

He added that we will continue to implore the traders to compliment this gesture by adhering to the safety protocols at all times. This way, well all be contributing our quota towards the fight against the pandemic with the conviction that together we can win.

Mr. Clement Boateng, the first Vice President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association on his part, lauded Authorities of the Tema Municipal Assembly and the traders for their cooperation which made the exercise a success.

He reiterated GUTAs desire to ensure that the Ghanaian traders interest is protected at all times and that they operate in a conducive and congenial atmosphere.

Mr. Boateng who was full of praise for LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited for carrying out the fumigation exercise at the market centres free of charge, hinted that the next beneficiary of the project will be the Western Region which will be done soon.
15.02.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana Police Service has confirmed the arrest of twenty-five (25) robbery suspects across the various regions.

The arrests were made after successful operations between February 1, and February 14, 2022. It is part of the continuous efforts by the security agency to fight crime in the country.

"Within the past two weeks, from 1st to 14th February, twenty-five (25) robbery suspects have been arrested in various regions across the country, part of a Police statement issued via its Facebook page said on Tuesday.

The suspects include Moses Walewale, Kwame Ansong, Nana Kow Mensah, Eric Abi Aidoo, Bismark Abugri, Kanita Gariba Zule, Eliasu Awudu, Abubakar Ali, Haruna Mohammed, Nicholas Mills, and Dennis Mawuli.

The others are Nana Kwame, Jojo Kwame Nhyira, Kwadwo Peter aged, Kwame Barko, Ebenezer Pupulapu, Francis Mahama, Alexander Agyeman, Badu Gabriel, Nii Addo, Kwesi Arthur, Evans Koffie, Baba Shaibu Iddrisu and Michael Divuo.

The success of the Police operation was possible due to the effective collaboration between the service and the affected communities.

The Police note that it is confident if it receives continuous support from communities, it would be able to better fight crime to keep the citizenry safe at all times.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank all members of the public who supported us in these operations.

We are confident that if communities continue to partner the police in our crime-fighting efforts, together we can make our country safer today than it was yesterday, and more peaceful today than tomorrow, the Police statement concludes.
A chamber and hall flat of a fire service officer was last night set on fire by some angry young men in the Lamashegu community, a suburb of Tamale.

According to the caretaker of the house, the young men were aiming at a police officer who is also a tenant in the house.

The fire has destroyed portions of the veranda ceiling and some items in the house.

Tenants believe the incident is connected to the clash between the police and some residents of Lamashegu which resulted in the death of one person and left several others injured.

Narrating the incident to Citi News, Awal Yasir, the caretaker of the house, said; Yesterday [Monday] evening, I heard someone knocking heavily on a door in the house mentioning someones name. I came out to meet one of my tenants veranda on fire, we got water to quench the fire. After the fire was put out, we noticed a gallon of petrol and matches around the veranda, indicating that someone intentionally came to do that.

The room she lives in now used to house a policeman who has moved into another room. Probably the person still thinks the police officer still lives in that room.

Meanwhile, the Assembly Member, Mashud Musa of the Lamashegu community has condemned the action of the perpetrators.

It is very bad, the police are here for us, and we are here for them too. Even if there are misunderstandings between both parties, we should sit and settle them amicably.

The tension in Tamale and its environs is currently calm.

There has been unrest for the past three days in the Northern Regional capital after some police officers got into a fight with the residents, leaving one person dead and several others injured.

This has left the youth angry with the police.

---citinewsroom
Kwame Baffoe alias Abronye DC

15.02.2022 LISTEN

The Bono Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe alias Abronye DC says he will honour the invitation extended to him by the Ghana Police Service to assist with investigation about an allegation he made against former President John Dramani Mahama.

The police have invited me via a telephone call and I have also seen the document concerning my invitation on social media. The fact of the matter is that Director-General in-charge of Criminal Investigation, Ken Yeboah has spoken with me via phone. I think the reason for the invitation is just as stated in the document on social media platform of the Ghana Police Service which was written by the police spokesman, Kwesi Ofori. I strongly believe everything will be based on the content of the letter and nothing else.

In the letter, they said I should report at the Police Regional Command at 4pm but Ill be there before that time. There is nowhere in the Criminal Procedure Act 30 which states that you should extend invitation to someone to assist with investigation since the police can decide in a Rambo style to effect arrest but for them to extend invitation to me that means theyve accorded me respect which I must also reciprocate and honour the invite.

I am in Accra and Ill gladly honour the invitation to assist them with investigation concerning former President John Dramani Mahama with whatever I have concerning the case.

He stressed that This is not the first time the Ghana Police Service is inviting me concerning former President John Dramani Mahama. The first time I was invited by the police I provided high core evidence including video on pen drive to buttress my claim. They later told me Mr. Mahama has decided to withdraw the case against me.

He however, questioned why the police decided not to make use of the evidence he provided against the former president.

Abronye DC has been invited by the Ghana Police Service to assist with investigation into claims that former President John Dramani Mahama reportedly conspiring with some militants to stage a coup in Ghana.

He is expected to report to the Accra Regional Police Command today February 15, 2022 at 4pm to provide further and better particulars on the intended coup plot by the former President as failure for him to report will have him arrested.

The NPP stalwart was said to have alleged that the former President has met Al Qaeda militants to stage a coup in Ghana.

According to him, John Mahama is in ties with the group to help him undertake a coup to become president again

He was said to have made the allegation on Hot 93.9FM's political -talk show Dwene Ho Bio hosted by Agya Wusu while responding to issues leading to the arrest of convenor of the #fixthe country movement, Oliver Barker on his attempt to make a coup if E-levy is passed.

According to Abronye DC, he is convinced that the former president might have knowledge about what Oliver Barker-Wamawor was planning since Mr. Mahama tweeted under Mr. Barker's coup post.

---DGN online
The Ghana Police Service have reopened the Jamestown lighthouse section of the beach road linking the John Atta Mills high street after a group of Gamashie youth blocked it to celebrate the Ashikpai festival on Monday.

The Service said blockage of the road prevented the free-flow of traffic, but the situation was swiftly handled by personnel who after an hour-long operation reopened the road to motorists and commuters.

The Police in a news brief said efforts were underway to apprehend the perpetrators of the unlawful road block.

It said the Service would update the public on the development.

GNA
Food security is a global priority  and it is becoming more urgent in the face of climate change, which is already affecting crop productivity . One way to improve food security is to increase crop yields .

But this is not easy. Research has shown that in the past two decades plant breeders have been unable to increase yields of staple crops at the rate at which the world's population is growing.

New technologies are needed to achieve this rate. Over the past decade several novel technologies have been developed. These are known as New Breeding Techniques and have the potential to hugely help in growing efforts.

Genome editing is one such technique. It allows the precise editing of genomes  that is, the genetic information an organism contains. Scientists worldwide have embraced the technology . And countries that adopted New Breeding Techniques early have seen a significant increase in the development of locally relevant products. Current crops under development include ones resistant to specific diseases and insect pests, that are healthier to eat or which are tolerant of drought or heat stress.

Both small, micro and medium enterprises and the public sector in these countries have been involved in developing and using genome edited crops. This should translate to improved economic growth and employment opportunities.

Read more: What is CRISPR, the gene editing technology that won the Chemistry Nobel prize?

Whatever approach a country chooses, it must be underpinned by regulation. This ensures a framework for the introduction of new products that benefit consumers and stimulate the bio-economy in a sustainable manner.

South Africa's authorities have taken what we think is an unfortunate approach to regulating genome-edited plants. In October 2021 the government classified genome-edited plants as genetically modified crops. This is based on its interpretation of the definition of a genetically modified organism in a 25-year-old piece of legislation rather than on recent science-based risk analysis considerations.

As experts in plant biotechnology we fear that this regulatory approach will greatly inhibit the development of improved crops for South African farmers. It will place an unnecessary regulatory burden on bio-innovators. This will discourage local investment for in-house research and development, as well as projects in the public sector. Local entrepreneurs who aim to enhance local crops' climate resilience or to develop speciality products for niche markets through genome editing will be thwarted by the need to raise disproportionate funding to fulfil current regulations.

A technological timeline

Crop plants are improved by generating genetic variation that leads to beneficial traits. Plant breeders traditionally achieved this by crossing different varieties of the same plant species. These approaches alter many genes; the result is that traditionally-bred plants contain both advantageous and deleterious traits. Removing disadvantageous traits before the crop can be commercialised is a costly, time-consuming process.

In the 1980s, transgenic genetic modification technologies were developed. These rely on pieces of DNA from one species being integrated into the genome of a crop. Such genetically modified (GM) plants are highly regulated internationally. In South Africa the legislation governing these plants came into force in 1999. The use of GM technology in South Africa  and other countries  has been highly successful.

For example, it has led to South Africa doubling maize productivity , making it a net exporter of this commodity. This contributes to food security and also generates foreign income, which reduces the country's trade deficit.

But the regulations governing GM plants are onerous: only large agricultural biotechnology companies have the resources to commercialise them. This is done to the eliminate risk that GM plants containing new DNA are harmful for health or to the environment.

Because of this, all GM plants licensed for commercial use in South Africa come from a small number of international companies. Not a single locally developed product has been commercialised during the past three decades, despite South Africa being an early adopter of the technology. This hampers the development of novel crops and the improvement of traditional crops, especially for emerging and subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

That's why newer tools like genome editing are so exciting. They can be used to introduce genetic variation for crop improvement in a fraction of the time it would take using conventional methods. Some forms of genome editing are transgenic in nature, while others aren't because they don't involve the insertion of foreign DNA into a plant.

This approach mimics the effect of traditional plant breeding, but in a highly targeted manner so that only advantageous traits are introduced. For example, genome editing is being used to produce peanuts, soybean and wheat that do not produce allergens .

It's working well. Despite the technology only being available for a decade, some crops produced using genome editing are already on the market in some countries, including soybean and tomatoes which are healthier for human consumption.

A proposed regulatory approach

Regulatory authorities around the world have taken either a process- or a product-based approach to regulating GM crop safety. A process-based approach examines how the crop was produced; a product-based approach examines the risks and benefits of the GM crop on a case-by-case basis.

We believe that a product-based approach makes most sense. This is because a process-based approach could lead to the strange situation where two identical plants are governed by very different regulations, just because they were produced by different methods. The added regulatory burden imposed by this approach will also hamper innovation in developing new crops.

Our approach would mean that any plant with extra DNA inserted into the genome would be governed as a GM plant. Plants with no extra DNA added and that are indistinguishable from conventionally bred organisms should be regulated like a conventionally produced crop.

This is the most rational way to regulate these different types of organisms, as it adheres to the principles of science-based risk analysis and good governance.

Many countries, among them Argentina , China , Japan , the US , Australia , Brazil and Nigeria , have taken this approach.

Science-based risk analysis should return to the heart of regulation: concrete risk thresholds should define regulatory triggers.

James R Lloyd receives funding from the National Research Foundation, South Africa.

Dave Berger receives funding from the National Research Foundation, South Africa and The Maize Trust, South Africa.

Dr Priyen Pillay receives funding from the National Research Foundation, South Africa and the Department of Science & Innovation, South Africa.

By James R Lloyd, Associate Professor, Stellenbosch University And

Dave Berger, Professor in Molecular Plant Pathology, University of Pretoria And

Priyen Pillay, Senior Researcher, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
Uganda enforced the longest period of school closures worldwide  22 months  during the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategy was subject to scrutiny by many local and international organisations in view of the multiple challenges the country's education sector already faced before the pandemic.

Studies of the predicted and already visible impact of COVID-19 on education in sub-Saharan Africa are beginning to reveal how inequities that affected children and their families prior to the pandemic have intensified during and after school closures. It is estimated that 15 million pupils have not attended school in Uganda for almost two years.

Statistical models predict a learning deficit of 2.8 years in Uganda. Other effects include a 22.5% increase of pregnancies among Ugandan school-going girls and young women aged 10-24 between March 2020 and June 2021. There was also an increase of child labour from 21% to 36%, affecting girls in particular.

Some schools have closed for good , as they were either destroyed for new real estate projects or sold.

To understand how the prolonged closure of schools affected the lives of adolescents in Uganda we conducted interviews with 36 young people (18 male, 18 female) living in central Uganda (Luwero and Kampala) and predominantly from a low socio-economic status. Interviews were part of a longitudinal qualitative study, the Contexts of Violence in Adolescence Cohort Study ( CoVAC ).

While the longer term impacts of COVID-19 on education in Uganda remain to be seen and still need to be studied, emerging evidence from our small cohort study, including other research , shows that the effects for young people have already been devastating. The compound effects of school closures, loss of livelihoods and caregiver stress (especially during lockdowns) also increased the risk of domestic violence , with instances of verbal and physical abuse of children.

Context and intersecting disadvantages

Our study participants were between 15 and 17 years old when we first met them in 2018 and over the next four years we conducted at least six interviews with each young person. We also interviewed their caregivers, teachers or peers so we already knew quite a lot about their lives and challenges.

During the lockdown, we conducted phone interviews between May and June 2020 with 18 girls and 16 boys (mainly aged 16-19 years) who had been participants in our longitudinal study. We interviewed all participants again in 2021.

For the 22 young people (out of the 36) who were in school before the lockdowns, the pandemic seriously disrupted their education. Their experiences varied depending on their socio-economic background, location and gender. We applied an intersectional lens to analyse how pre-existing and intersecting inequities had intensified, with detrimental effects on young people's educational paths and life circumstances.

For example, young people needed to find ways to generate an income while schools were closed. This posed different challenges depending on gender or location.

Some boys in rural areas migrated to another region to find work, which was often precarious and exploitative. For girls, who tended to be more confined to their homes, and for girls in rural areas, options to earn money were extremely limited. This inability to complete their education, or to work, or to earn enough, was a heavy burden for young people. Some of them felt they had failed.

The pandemic has strained participants' mental health in multiple ways. They were concerned about whether they would be able to afford to return to school. They expressed feelings of fear, loneliness, anxiety, distress and loss of self-esteem. Very few were able to use distance learning materials.

Several participants experienced unintended pregnancies, reducing their prospects for returning to school. School closures could add to the complex mix of reasons for getting pregnant. Financial pressures, stressful family situations and more free time could all have a bearing.

Structural barriers

Our data also shows that gender, socio-economic circumstances and location have a bearing on the effectiveness of interventions. Not everyone can equally use opportunities to get an education.

Take the example of Atala (not her real name). She is the oldest of five children and helps her mother with chores, childcare and informal sector work. She wanted to train as a nurse but her school results weren't good enough because  as a girl  she had so many responsibilities. During the first lockdown she was offered a place in a government sponsored vocational training programme in tailoring. But hardly any teaching took place. When the programme finally resumed, classes were rushed. Atala said she got her certificate but didn't feel qualified to work as a tailor. And she lives in a rural community with no financial means, tools or opportunities to start her own business.

Our study participants' experiences are a reminder that Uganda's current challenges in education due to the prolonged closure of schools are not new. Rather, the pandemic worsened existing inequities and structural barriers in education such as: not having access to truly free education; high drop out rates, low learning outcomes or lack of opportunities to find employment after completing school.

These impacts have far reaching consequences for education, reproductive health, mental health, working conditions, and earning opportunities.

Now that schools are open again, we will investigate existing and persisting grievances that affect and disadvantage adolescents, and how they cope with challenges such as paying school fees or catching up with teaching content. Strategies and interventions to 'build back equal' can learn a lot from an intersectional lens on the basis of young people's accounts, their specific challenges, unique circumstances and everyday realities.

Rehema Nagawa, Research Assistant at Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Dipak Naker, Co-director at Raising Voices and Cofounder of the Coalition For Good Schools, also contributed to this article and the research it's based on. Karen Devries, Jenny Parkes and Dipak Naker are co- Principal Investigators on the CoVAC study.

Simone Datzberger previously received funding from the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme.

Amiya Bhatia's research is funded by the UK Medical Research Council, UNICEF, and an anonymous funder.

Jenny Parkes receives funding from the UK Medical Research Council, which funds the COVAC research.

Karen Devries receives funding from the UK Medical Research Council.

By Simone Datzberger, Assistant Professor in Education and International Development, UCL And

Amiya Bhatia, Assistant Professor in Social Epidemiology and Child Protection, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine And

Jenny Parkes, Professor in Education, Gender and International Development, UCL And

Karen Devries, Professor of Social Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Boeing said it has achieved an annual record for e-commerce parts sales last year with more than $2 billion in online orders.



Fuelled by investment in digital tools, Boeing Distribution sold nearly 70,000 parts products through its e-commerce site to commercial and government customers, eclipsing pre-pandemic levels. Commercial orders accounted for $1.5 billion in sales, reflecting the continued recovery in the airline industry.



"Our $2 billion closeout to 2021 was a great capstone as the market heads to a more stable recovery," said Ted Colbert, president and chief executive officer, Boeing Global Services, at the Singapore Airshow.



"Our e-commerce capabilities are a great example of the digital solutions we provide to enable industry recovery and growth. Our focus as always is on bringing value through our products and services, and we will continue to partner with our customers as they navigate this dynamic environment."



Boeing Distribution's online revenue last year was 15 percent higher compared to pre-pandemic levels, while orders were 20 percent higher. The stronger sales came as the company rolled out new tools to improve the customer experience, including a new homepage, a live chat feature, and an online knowledge centre.



The refreshed e-commerce parts website, which features over 500,000 products, saw five million visits from 50 countries last year.



"Boeing is improving e-commerce with our customers in mind," said William Ampofo, vice president of Parts, Distribution Services, and Supply Chain, Boeing Global Services.



"In addition to launching new digital tools, we are creating a more streamlined process for our customers by realigning strategy, program, and product line management with supply chain and customer support. We will continue to focus on digital and performance improvements, along with simplifying how we engage with our customers." - TradeArabia News Service
A popular man of God at Nkawkaw in the Kwahu West Municipal Assembly Prophet Seth Frimpong has led a prayer session for Rev Owusu Bempah.

The motive behind the prayer session is to prevent the General Overseer for Glorious Word Power Ministry and his Junior pastors from going to jail.

Last year, a viral video captured the popular preacher in the company of others, at what is believed to be the residence of Fetish Priestess now Evangelist, Nana Agradaa.

The police, on September 13, 2021, arrested Rev Owusu Bempah and three others, for allegedly issuing threats, brandishing weapons, and attacking police officers.

The preacher, in one of the videos, approached the camera and explained the reason for the visit.

Nana Agradaa says she will teach me a lesson, so I came here so that she deals with me. When I got there she was home, so I dared her to come down. When I got there she had a gun but my boys ceased it, I told them not to shoot else she would have been dead by now.

"She called the police and I explained myself and the commander intervened, I did not go to fight but she threatened me, he is heard saying in the viral video.

The Police later issued a statement on the viral videos and how an attempt to arrest the preacher resulted in an attack on the police officers.

They were arrested and granted bail.

Moreover, the Accra Circuit Court 2 was expected to hear the case on January 19, 2022, but that couldnt happen since the Court presided over by Rosemary Baah Torsu noted that the accused had written to the court about his inability to appear before the court on the said date.

On Sunday 13th February 2022, Prophet Seth Frimpong said this could happen to everyone and that, the congregants were asked to pray for the man of God.

He is a human being and we all make mistakes, and this could happen to everyone. It can happen to me. I dont know him in person, I only see him on TV lets pray to God to save him from any disgrace the devil has planned. In the spiritual realm, his children (Jnr pastors) were jailed and he was also jailed. Lets pray to God to cease this from happening, he said as they began to pray.
The Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has disclosed that government is at the advanced stages of closing the deal for the acquisition of Telecommunication Company, AirtelTigo.

She says the state is also finalizing processes in compliance with all requirements of the agreements explaining that these requirements will be fulfilled before the end of the current meeting of parliament.

In August 2021, the government of Ghana and the parent companies of AirtelTigo, Bharti Airtel Ghana Holdings B.V., and MIC Africa B.V, concluded negotiations and signed an agreement to transfer the shares of the company to the Ghana government following the announcement of the company's departure from the Ghanaian market in 2020.

This agreement transfers all customers, assets, and agreed liabilities of AirtelTigo to the Government of Ghana.

But Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, while answering questions on the floor of parliament on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, said the Ministry is collaborating with the Attorney Generals Department to seal essential aspects of the deal.

We will improve the Telcom and ICT sector in full compliance with the laws of the country. So we will complete all constitutional and legal processes by the end of this meeting of parliament for the acquisition of AirtelTigo. The acquisition of Telecommunication companies follows a process, and those processes are ongoing. There are phases in these processes from contract signing, regulatory approvals, and closing obligations that parties have to undertake and the legal and regulatory processes that have to be gone through.

The government has said the decision is aimed at protecting jobs and safeguarding the interest of stakeholders of AirtelTigo which has some 5.1 million customers.

In the last update by the government, it said the arrangement will be concluded by the execution of definitive agreements in due time.

The contract was signed at a particular period, that was what was announced, and the other closing obligations are ongoing. And when we conclude all of that, part of it being if, on the advice of the Attorney General, we need to comply with any provisions of the law regarding this acquisition, it will be done in due course, Ursula Owusu further added.

Bharti Airtel in 2017 merged with Millicom's Tigo in Ghana to become the country's second-largest mobile operator, AirtelTigo, with the approval of the National Communications Authority.

Celtel International acquired 75% of Western Telesystems Ltd (Westel) from the Government of Ghana for $120 million in 2007. Celtel was subsequently acquired by the Zain Group which also sold all its African Assets to Bharti Airtel in 2010.

The Government of Ghana remained a shareholder in Airtel Ghana with a 25% holding through the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, until the AirtelTigo merger, and retained an option to acquire additional shares after the merger.

Westel was at the time of the takeover by Celtel, the second national operator in Ghana, and was licensed to provide fixed and mobile (GSM) telecommunications services.

Millicom Ghana Limited was the first mobile telecommunications company to operate in the country under the brand name Mobitel before rebranding to become Tigo.

---citinewsroom
The Mamprugu Youth Association has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. George Akuffo Dampare to reject a petition presented by Anchoring Democracy Advocacy Movement Ghana (ADAM GH) on happenings in Bawku.

The youth said the petition is full of defamatory, inaccurate and ethnocentric statements.

ADAM-GH, a civil society organization that anchors proper democratic principles, ensures good governance, promotes the rule of law, fights for proper fundamental human rights and resists corruption in the country in their petition to the IGP Dr George Akuffo Dampare said Unfortunately your core mandate and key functions beautifully presented do not reflect in the lives of the people in Bawku and its environs.

The confidence ADAM-GH as a CSO and Ghanaians have in your leadership as a dynamic Inspector General of Police (IGP) due to your commitment to ensuring law and order in Ghanaian society needs to reflect in the Bawku situation to bring a lasting solution to the area. ADAM-GH is one of the CSOs that openly commends you for your great leadership style which you can easily access online, portions of their petition said.

But in a counter letter to the IGP, the Mamprugu youth said Sir, we humbly wish to reiterate to you and other relevant authorities copied in this correspondence to totally ignore the tribalistic and ethnocentric agenda spearheaded by discredited organizations like ADAM GH.

We believe strongly and as was made evident above that ADAM GH is a criminal band whose activities is very detrimental to the peace and security of Bawku and its environs. It is therefore our fervent hope that you will cause the relevant authorities to with immediate effect arrest and prosecute officers of ADAM GH for their defamatory and inciteful comments that is aimed at destabilizing the peace and security of Bawku. 

Below is the full letter by the Mamprugu Youth

February 14th, 2022

THE INSPECTOR GENERAL

GHANA POLICE SERVICE

P. 0. BOX 116

ACCRA

Dear Sir,

RE: ENFORCE THE LAWS TO SUPPORT PRESIDENT NANA ADDO AND THE GOVERNMENT'S PRONOUNCEMENT TO SECURE ABSOLUTE PEACE IN BAWKU

We the undersigned, representing Mamprugu Youth in Bawku, write to you in response to the above subject matter. This action became necessary after our attention was drawn to a petition purportedly written and submitted to you by an organization referring to itself as Anchoring Democracy Advocacy Movement Ghana (ADAM GH). In the said petition dated 4th February 2022 and copied to the Jubilee House, Ministry of Interior, and Minister for Chieftaincy Affairs, the said organization made defamatory, inaccurate, ethnocentric, intemperate, and inciteful comments which requires our response. This is coupled with the fact that the said petition was published widely on online media platforms such as www.3news.com, www.ghanaweb.com, and social media platforms.

Our response will focus on four (4) key themes that we believe will provide clarity to your office and other state agencies copied on the issues raised in the said petition.

1. ADAM-GH IS DISCREDITTED, PARTISAN, BIASED AND ETHNOCENTRIC

Sir, we recognize the right of Ghanaians to set up organizations aimed at promoting governance. However, it is the expectation of Ghanaians that such organizations exhibit decorum, fairness and professionalism in all their actions especially on issues which may result in conflict of interest.

ADAM-GH which basically was established to champion a political partisan agenda (subject for another day), has in recent times become a tribal vehicle through which their founder and executive director Emmanuel Azubilla who is Kusasi executes the ethnocentric agenda of his tribesmen. What is sad is that this so called civil society organization has on several instances, incited people to violence and chaos.We demonstrate below.

In a press release dated 16th January, 2022 with heading This is the Time For All Political Parties TO Break THE Loud Silence On The Criminal Activities In Bawku Particularly MPs IN KUSAUG, ADAM GH not only clearly demonstrated a conflict of interest but also ended up stereotyping a whole tribe (Mamprusis) by ethnocentrically describing them as violent criminals. In that release, the organization noted that the Executive Secretary of ADAM-GH Mr. Azubila is Kusasi and hence had an interest in the matter. In promoting ethnocentric interest, the organization picked sides and said Undoubtedly we know that Mamprusis who choose to torment Bawku and its people with criminal violence. Sir, for an organization which claims to be civil to engage in ethnic profiling of an entire tribe (Mamprusis) as tormenting with criminal violence is very unfortunate and only exposes how dangerous the actions of such an organization can be to the peace, security and unity of the area.

Furthermore, comments by ADAM GH such as telling Mamprusis to pack all their belongings and leave Bawku to their home region are not only ignorant but confirm the fact that the organization and its actors lack integrity as far as this issue is concerned. As such we urge your high office to regard them as a discredited organization whose only goal is ethnocentrism and not helping to solve the Bawku crisis.

Evidence abound that Emmanuel Azubilla has posters and political party campaign material out there to contest as the Greater Accra regional Secetary of the NDC. We wish to draw the attention of the NDC and its members that such characters are tribal bigots with a track record of ethnocentrism and inciting conflict and confusion among people. We advice the NDC to evaluate such a miscreant before he destroys them with his tribal bigotry.

2. ON THE MISLEADING CLAIM THAT THE SUPREME COURT RULED ON BAWKU

CHIEFTAINCY

Sir, aside the ethnocentric agenda championed by ADAM GH, the discredited organization premised its call for action from the IGP on a false claim that The Supreme Court decision is clear that the Zugr-raana Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, is the legitimate and only Paramount Chief of Bawku and President of the Kusaug Traditional Area. We wish to draw your attention to the fact that their claim is a false statement without any basis aimed at misleading your esteemed self just as they have successfully done to mislead other key state actors. We reiterate that there is absolutely NO such statement in any Supreme Court decision with regards to Bawku in the year 2003. Any such claim worth its salt would have attached a copy of the said ruling to support the claims. We challenge the ethnocentric ADAM GH and all those making these misleading statements to provide proof of such words uttered by the Supreme Court.

Sir, it is common knowledge supported by several legal authorities that the Supreme Court is not the constitutional forum to rule on chieftaincy matters or make pronouncements about who is the rightful occupant of a skin or traditional area. So as interested parties on this matter, it came to us as a surprise that some key state actors fell for this misleading commentary by the likes of ADAM GH without taking time to necessarily understand the issues.

For the avoidance of doubt there was NO such decision by the Supreme Court. The only thing that is related to the Bawku issue is the ruling of the Supreme Court on a motion of discontinuation of a case brought for the interpretation of PNDL 75. Nothing more, nothing less! Kindly find attached the said ruling in which no mention of Chieftaincy or who is the rightful occupant of the Bawku skin or Traditional area is concerned.

Respectfully, neither ADAM GH nor any of the state actors have the right to arrogate upon themselves the sole rights of the Supreme Court Justices by interpreting such a ruling to mean a ruling that someone is the rightful occupant of a skin. This is very absurd and we trust you will not fall for such propaganda.

We advice ADAM-GH to go and pay for the services of lawyers to give them legal counsel and advice on the 2003 supreme court ruling. Getting legal education on the matter will save them from the embarrasjing charade they are putting up. This would be a better investment of their money in many ways than investing in inciting his kusasi kinsmen to choose violence.

We advice ADAM-GH to go and pay for the services of lawyers to give them legal counsel and advice on the 2003 supreme court ruling. Getting legal education on the matter will save them from the embarrasjing charade they are putting up. This would be a better investment of their money in many ways than investing in inciting his kusasi kinsmen to choose violence.

3. ON THE INCITEFUL CALL TO ARREST THE REGENT ALHAJI IBRAHIM ADAM ZANGBEO

Sir, on inciteful claims by ADAM GH that  what then stops you from arresting the man in Bawku who self-styles as the Regent and puts his palace by the roadside with inscription Original Bawku Naaba and his accomplices?, we wish to state that the tone and nature of the request exposes the real intent of ADAM GH as one of ethnocentrism.

First of all, it will interest you to know that the Regent is an important personality for Mamprusis and several other tribes in Bawku including some clans among the Kusasis. Some of these kusasi clans have been forced by threats from groups like ADAM GH and some Kusasi youth groups into silence. Thus, the ignorant and inciteful call for the Regent's arrest by ADAM GH is misplaced and aims to exacerbate chaos and insecurity in the area.

ADAM-GH has exhibited crass ignorance by questioning the existence of a Regent when there is a Bawku Naba. Perhaps they do not understand what or who a regent is. Unlike the Regent of Bawku who has a lineage dating back to the 16th century and whose father was customarily enskined and installed by the Nayiri in line with the lineage of his ancestory as the 14th Bawku Naba, Abugrago does not hail from any lineage. Even Abugrago's father who was politically installed Bawku Naba did not only die a commoner, but was described as such by the National House of Chiefs , the constitutionally mandated body that handles all chieftaincy affairs. The records are there and ADAM-GH claiming to have a research unit can check this out if they are so minded. If ADAM-GH can not contribute anything positive in the public space, they should desist from exposing their warped way of thinking and throwing dust in people's eyes with such ignorance about chieftaaincy.

Furthermore, we wish to draw your attention to the fact that the Regent by virtue of his title has not contravened any law. Under the customs and traditions of Mamprugu, he is automatically referred to as THE REGENT after the demise of his father. For the information of ignorant and ethnocentric organizations such as ADAM GH, we wish to repeat, that the Regent's father was the 14th Bawku Naaba Naa Alhaji Adam Zangbeo who died as the legal and gazetted Chief of Bawku. It will interest you to note that the late 14th Bawkunaba until his demise in 1981 was the Vice President of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs. In fact even after 2 years of his demise in 1981, a decision by the National House of Chiefs in 1983 ruled in his favor and affirmed him as the legal chief of the Bawku Traditional Area whilst referring to his adversary who is the father of Aninchema Abugrago as a commoner. Thus, there is absolutely nothing wrong with his traditional title as THE REGENT.

We ask, what crime has the Regent committed? ADAM GH's claim that the Regent is acting in contempt of court is a fallacy and does not support any facts. In any case, is it a court of competent jurisdiction that has the mandate to rule on contempt or discredited organizations like ADAM GH? What prevents ADAM GH or even Aninchema Abugrago from filing a case of contempt against the Regent if they so believe he is contravening any law, instead of taking the law into their own hands and arrogating the powers of courts of competent jurisdiction on themselves? They should take cue from the exemplary action of the late 14th Bawkunaba when he sued Abugrago Azoka at the High Court in 1980 asking the court to restrain the defendant from presenting himself as Chief of Bawku. The court ruled in favor of the application and granted the order restraining Abugrago Aninchema from presenting himself as chief of Bawku. ADAM-GH should realise that any civil society organisation worth its salt, and which is seeking peace in any area affected by a chieftaincy dispute or conflict will restrain itself from taking sides. If for nothing at all, issues of credibility should be a constant reminder in their dealings. A call for the IGP to arrest the regent and to demolish his palace should be backed by law. Can ADAM-GH tell us which law gives the police the power to demolish the palace of the regent? And is it not a fact that those inscriptions that seem to bring out the worst in the tribal bigotry and ethnocentric character of ADAM-GH, are facts, and actually the ancestral home of all the names of past Bawku Naba's listed.

ADAM-GH should note that no amount of demolition or arrest can change what the truth is. In any case the powers that be, including your very goodself have found it wise to go and visit the regent in an attempt to foster peace and unity in Bawku and ADAM-GH is not the one to direct the police as to how to do their work.

4. DEFAMATORY ALLEGATIONS MADE BY ADAM GH AGAINST THE GHANA POLICE SERVICE AND MAMPRUSIS

In a very disrespectful and inciteful manner, ADAM GH makes a very dangerous and despicable allegation that has in the past sparked targeted violence against members of the security services. The organization alleged that the Ghana Police Service of which you the IGP is the boss, criminally connives with Mamprusis by escorting the Mamprusis to Togo and then back to Bawku. According to ADAM GH the police escort helps the Mamprusis to smuggle in logistics (ostensibly referring to weapons and ammunition). We believe this is a very dangerous and irresponsible allegation which requires the immediate action of the IGP. The Executive Secretary of ADAM GH and those who are signatories to the said petition should be invited for questioning and investigated to substantiate their claims. If they fail to prove their assertions they should be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law.

This move by the IGP is very important because of a past experience in which similar irresponsible allegations by ADAM GH and Kusasi youth groups like the Kusasi Voice Association caused Kusasi youth at Sabon Gari, a suburb of Bawku, to attack and burn a vehicle used by military intelligence officers on suspicion that the security personnel were carrying weapons for the Mamprusis. It is only by a miracle that the security officers escaped the incident unhurt. Also, a young female police office was gunned down at Habitat, an area not far from Abugrago Aninchemas house by these same kusasi youth when she was on a visit to a colleague of hers in Bawku. It is therefore imperative for the security organizations to as a matter of urgency act on this issue and arrests these war mongers parading as a civil society organization to serve as a deterrent to other errant organizations/individuals. Furthermore, in the wake of recent terrorist threats and insecurity across the border in Burkina Faso, this irresponsible allegation by ADAM GH should not be treated lightly. Emmanuel Azubila of ADAM GH and his team should immediately be arrested for questioning and possible prosecution.

Sir, we humbly wish to reiterate to you and other relevant authorities copied in this correspondence to totally ignore the tribalistic and ethnocentric agenda spearheaded by discredited organizations like ADAM GH. We believe strongly and as was made evident above that ADAM GH is a criminal band whose activities is very detrimental to the peace and security of Bawku and its environs. It is therefore our fervent hope that you will cause the relevant authorities to with immediate effect arrest and prosecute officers of ADAM GH for their defamatory and inciteful comments that is aimed at destabilizing the peace and security of Bawku.

It is also our hope that their so called petition is not entertained by your high office. It should be jettisoned in the dustbin where it belongs and the devious authors of it brought to book.

Thank you very much in advance for your kind consideration.

Yours faithfully,

Awudu Seidu

President

(0243723085)

Majeed Bagura

Secretary

(0245283946)

CC:

1. H. E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

Through

Secretary to The President

Nana Asante Bediatuo Esq

Jubilee House

Accra

2. The Minister of Interior

Hon. Ambrose Dery

Ministry of Interior

Accra

3. The Minister for Chieftaincy Affairs

Hon. Kojo Kum (MP)

Ministry for Chieftaincy Affairs

Accra

---3news.com
Residents in Ho, particularly those living around the Ho Technical University (HTU) have been gripped with fear after a recent robbery attack by unknown assailants.

The incident which occurred last Sunday night, February 13, 2022, behind the University towards Gemfuga Hostel within the Bosontoe electoral area, left a young man with wounds on his head and shoulder.

The area used to be prone to such attacks three years back until constant reports to the Police led to several swoops and lightning of the vicinity.

Residents had also been urged to keep the nearby bushes low to reduce attack spots and hiding places for unscrupulous people.

It appears the assailants have devised a new modus operandi where they lay an ambush in plain sight; pretending to be students and walking individually at strategic distances. Other times they move with motorbikes.

They hide sharp objects and casually request phones, money, and other personal effects from victims. The slightest resistance causes them to reveal the weapons and inflict injuries.

In the latest attack last Sunday night, at about 9:00 pm, a young man, believed to be in his 20s, was walking along the road that connects to the Southern Gate of HTU. He was in the company of a lady. They were attacked by three other young men who pretended to be living in the vicinity.

The robbers, who were wielding a sharp weapon suspected to be a machete, demanded mobile phones and other personal belongings.

The attackers, considering the possibility of some resistance from the gentleman, allegedly inflicted deep wounds on his head and left shoulder, leaving the lady unhurt.

A resident, Seyram, who chanced on the incident while driving scared off the assailants and rushed the victim to the Ho Technical University Clinic for medical attention.

Seyram later made a Facebook post on the incident, which reads, Ho is becoming increasingly dangerous. Just this night I chanced upon this young man who was being butchered by three other young guys wielding machetes at Ho poly small gate because of a Techno spark 5 phone!

Although further checks reveal the victim was neither a Student nor a Staff of HTU, the incident has ignited fear and panic among students of both HTU and the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) who have hostels littered in that enclave.

Other residents in the area are also unhappy with the situation, Wilson Elorm told DGN Online that the closed Police checkpoint in the area should be restored. More so, authorities or HTU and UHAS should put resources together and equip their security with motorbikes for random patrols.

---Daily Guide
Defence Counsel for Charles Nii Armah Mensah aka Shatta Wale, Mr Jerry Avenorgbo has rejected moves by the police to withdraw the charges against the musician for publishing false news.

He contended the police was not empowered to withdraw the charges and that they should justify their actions before the court.

The applications should be rejected and be treated as an infected one, he said.

Mr Avenorgbo's call for rejection for the withdrawal of the charge sheet came after prosecution led by Chief Inspector Dennis Terkpetey informed the court based on new facts, they wanted to withdraw the charge against Mr Mensah and substitute it with a new one.

We are prosecuting on behalf of the Attorney General, we have the fiat to do so, he said.

He said they have new facts and they wanted to substitute the charge sheet.

He said they were reliably informed if charges were withdrawn from a case, the matter had to be reassigned.

The Lawyers for the accused persons, however contended that the new or amended charge sheet should be filed and be served on the accused persons.

The matter was adjourned to February 21, 2022.

Shatta Wale, a dance hall artist is standing trial with Kojo Owusu Koranteng, aka Nana Dope, Eric Ventnor, aka Gangee" and Iddrisu Yusif for publication of false news.

They have denied the charge and are on bail.

GNA
The Attorney General on Tuesday opposed the release of Ruger 9mm pistol belonging to Samuel Adu Frimpong aka Medikal.

The said gun was confiscated by the Police after Medikal allegedly displayed it on social media.

His Lawyers had filed an application for the release of the weapon.

When sitting resumed at an Accra Circuit Court, Mr Adu Gyamfi an Assistant State Attorney argued that the gun in question was the subject matter of the offence of which the accused had been charged.

He said the release of the gun will interfere in evidence before the court as such it should not be released to the accused person.

He said the accused person has not demonstrated to the court enough as to why the gun should be released to him.

Mr Bobie Banson, Lawyer for Medikal, contended that the Police are in possession of the gun without an order of the court.

He recalled that, under the law, his client was obliged to possess the said gun to protect himself and his family.

Mr Banson said his client had obtain the pistol lawfully and had a permit for it.

He said ownership of a gun is not a crime.

According to Defence Counsel, accused if attacked will not have any means to protect himself.

Mr Banson said the said pistol has a license covering it and the police have not indicated their intention of bringing same to court as photograph taken of the said gun.

Continuous detention of the pistol is in breach of the constitution that is his right to safety and safety of his family, he said.

Court presided over by Mr Essandoh has adjourned to February 21 to deliver its ruling.

Medikal, a renowned rapper has been charged for allegedly displacing a Ruger 99mm pistol on social media.

He has since denied the charge and is on GHC100,000.00 bail.

Prosecution case was that, on Sept 26, 2021, the video of the accused displaying the gun on social media went viral.

On October 21, 2021, based on intelligence, accused was arrested.

Accused admitted the offence in his caution statement.

GNA
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) is set to direct its members to return to the lecture halls following an order from the Labour Division of the Accra High Court on Tuesday, February 15, 2022.

UTAG was in court today as it faced off with the National Labour Commission (NLC) for the second time in the last few weeks.

The NLC had dragged UTAG to court after it insisted that the strike action embarked by the association is unlawful.

For UTAG, it was never interested in returning to work until demands relating to conditions of service had been met by the employer.

The National Labour Commission after filing an interlocutory injunction to compel UTAG to return to duty pending the determination of the substantive matter has been successful at the end of court proceedings today.

The court presided over by Justice Frank Rockson Aboadwe said it has taken Judicial notice of the attempts to settle the matter but negotiations cannot be conclusive if UTAG is still on strike.

As a result, the court granted the interlocutory injunction while the substantive matter for enforcement has been adjourned to February 22, 2022.

The court decision interprets that UTAG will now return to the lecture halls while negotiating with its employer to reach an agreement on its demands.
Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Sumana Bagbin has expressed some concerns over the reoccurrence judgement debts in the annual Auditor-Generals report.

He is further concerned with why the Minister of Finance has repeatedly failed to present to Parliament the requisite documents of contracts between the government and private entities.

The Speaker expressed these concerns when the Minister of Communication and Digitalization, Madam Ursula Owusu appeared before the House to respond to some questions relating to the government's acquisition of AirtelTigo, a telecommunications company.

The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George questioned the Minister about when the Ministry intends to comply with Article 181 clause 5 of the 1992 Constitution which requires Parliamentary approval before the government can go into such acquisitions.

The Minister, in her response, said her Ministry oversees the Telecommunications or Information Communication Technology sector of the economy in full compliance with the laws of the land, thus, will complete all legal and Constitutional processes and bring the acquisition of AirtelTigo before Parliament before the end of the year.

Not satisfied with her response, the MP for Ningo-Prampram pushed for the transaction between the two be brought to the floor of Parliament in the nearest possible time.

---Classfmonline.com
One of the leaders of the two rival gangs involved in the deadly clash that occurred at Nima a few weeks ago, Ibrahim Hussain alias Kumodzi, has been granted bail by the Accra Circuit Court.

Leader of the Kumodzi group, was admitted to bail on Tuesday, 15 February 2022 together with three other suspects.

The 3 other suspects include Aziz Suleman, Zakari Mohammed aka Miller and Farouk Dawda aka Omoni.

All 4 were admitted to a bail of GHS80,000 each with two sureties each.

They are also to report to the Nima Police twice a week.

The 4 were have been charged with conspiracy to riot with weapons, rioting with weapons and causing harm to two persons.

They however pleaded not guilty to the charges.

They are also to reappear in court on Wednesday, 9 March 2022.

Meanwhile, the leader of the other group, Bombom, is, still on the run.

The police administration had set aside a GHS20,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest of the leaders of the two rival gangs behind the mass violence.

The Accra circuit court on Tuesday, 1 February 2022, granted 8 out of the 12 suspects arraigned in connection with the violence, a bail bond of GHS80,000 with two sureties each.

--- classfmonline.com
The electronic transactions tax (e-levy) will help to generate more revenue to spur the country' socio-economic growth, Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, has said.

Mad. Owusu-Banahene addressing the conference

She therefore called for Ghanaians to accept the tax to enable the government to generate adequate revenue to fund development projects and make things better for everybody.

Mad. Owusu-Banahene was speaking at the third edition of the 'Ahava's Conference' of the Kuotokrom Calvary Baptist Church in the Sunyani Municipality.

My Success Story was the theme chosen for the conference which was attended by mostly students in tertiary institutions.

It created the platform for people who have been successful in life to share their life experiences and to inspire the youth.

Madam Owusu-Banahene said the country could not continue borrowing and to depend on donors to undertake major infrastructure projects.

It was through taxation that the government could raise money to build roads, provide education and health infrastructure, pay public sector workers, and to carry out other vital social services.

The Regional Minister asked the youth to be patient, set goals for themselves and persevere, saying perseverance, hard work, discipline and being God-fearing were the only way they could grow to become responsible adults.

She talked them out of promiscuity, unruly behaviour, unhealthy lifestyle and cutting corners, saying there were no short-cuts to success.

The Reverend John Asare, the Pastor of the Church said aside from physical development, it was the responsibility of the church to facilitate the spiritual growth of the youth to enable them to become useful to themselves and society.

He said since it started the conference three-years ago, the Church had impacted and inspired many young people in the area to engage in employable skill training.

GNA
The Philippines and the UAE are bolstering economic ties with the signing of a joint statement on the proposed Philippines-UAE Comprehensive and Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa).

The UAE is the Philippines biggest export partner in the Middle East. In 2021, the total trade between the Philippines and the UAE grew by 34.7% to reach AED3.5 billion ($951 million) from AED2.6 billion in 2020. In terms of investments, the UAE ranked as the 17th top source of approved investments in 2019, valued at AED48 million.

Both sides have agreed to launch the negotiations for a future Cepa that will strengthen trade, enhance investment flows, remove unnecessary barriers to trade, and create new business opportunities.

Further, the Philippines and the UAE are headed towards unprecedented economic relations as the two countries concluded negotiations for the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (IPPA).

Philippines Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez and UAE Minister of State Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh recognised the signing of the start of negotiations for the Cepa and committed towards the eventual signing of the IPPA.

After the bilateral meeting, Secretary Lopez and UAE Minister for Foreign Trade Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi signed the joint statement formally announcing the intent to pursue Cepa.

The cooperation between two countries adds another leaf to the success of the ongoing Expo 2020 Dubai in forging stronger connections and opening more opportunities for economic growth and prosperity.

During the Philippines Country Business Briefing held in parallel with the Philippines National Day at Expo 2020 Dubai, the Philippines welcomed Letters of Intent from GCC companies. These LOIs are expected to bring in AED2.2 billion worth of investments and generate 4,000 job opportunities in the countrys healthcare, energy, tourism and hospitality, and dairy industries.

Lopez said: These initiatives are expected to boost trade and investments between two countries, leading to more diversified economic activities, development of new industries, employment generation, and higher consumer spending as we partner for shared prosperity. The Philippines may serve as a UAEs strategic hub for the Southeast Asian region, as economic activities continue to shift to Asia. Active engagement between government and business sectors is key in ensuring that both countries will maximise benefits of the Agreements, including diversifying and expanding economic interests.

Lopez highlighted that this is an opportune time for UAE investors as the Philippines develops the necessary investment landscape through significant economic and regulatory reforms such as the liberalisation of the Public Service Act, Retail Trade Law, Foreign Investments Act, the CREATE Act and the aggressive Build Build Build programmes of the Duterte administration.

These are supported by the Philippines efforts to improve ease of doing business by streamlining government processes, reducing processing time, and cutting bureaucratic red tape. The opportunities for FDI into several activities are broader and coupled with the IPPA, these investments will reap the benefits of all these reforms and agreements.-- TradeArabia News Service
Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, says 18 beneficiary communities of the East Mamprusi District have been included in the first phase of the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project (GRTDIP).

Out of the number, five communities have had their masts constructed and ready for traffic.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful told parliament on Tuesday more communities from the Nalerigu and Gambaga would be added in the next phase of the GRTDIP.

The Communications and Digitalisation Minister disclosed this on the floor of Parliament when Mr Seidu Issifu, the Member of Parliament for Nalerigu and Gambaga asked her the number of communities in the Gambaga Municipality expected to benefit from the GRTDIP.

"Mr Speaker, lands have been acquired and ready for construction to commence in the following communities: Langbina, Gbangdaa, Yankazia, Zandua and Wundua.

"Mr Speaker the others are Yunyalanyiri, Dagbiriboari, Kulgona, Laatari, Kpaluaka, Nanyeli (Langayiri), Za'ari, Namongu, Jawani, Kolinvae and Tunni (Tundi)," she said.

The Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation through the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), in partnership with the Export-Import Bank of China and Huawei Technologies Ghana officially launched the Rural Telephony Project at Atwereboana in the Ashanti Region on November 4, 2020.

The initiative aims to provide voice and data services to more than 3.4 million people in underserved and unserved communities by commissioning 2,016 Rural Star sites developed by Huawei, thereby extending national mobile coverage from 83 per cent to 95 per cent and greatly accelerating local economic development.

The solution is expected to save the government up to 70 per cent of the cost of traditional cell sites.

GNA
On 10th February, President Akufo-Addo directed that 5 million dollars of the 6 millions Maxam fine be donated to the Apiate support fund. The initiative was praised, but Apiates victims and the public are calling for more transparency.

What happened?

Ghana is still in shock following the violent explosion that left 17 dead and around 60 injured in Apiate, a village in the region of Bogoso, some new 300 km from Accra. Just after midday on 20 January, a lorry transporting explosives collided with a motorcyclist. Fire broke out, resulting in an explosion 15 minutes later. The blast from the explosion left the village in ruins, and a giant crater right in the middle of the villages main road. The explosives were under the legal responsibility of Maxam, a Spanish group that develops, manufactures and sells explosives for civil engineering infrastructure, the extractive sector and defence.

Historic of drastic measures taken

On 7 February, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources announced that Maxam had been fined 6 million dollars. While such a measure is to be welcomed, the use of such funds must also be questioned. The victims have already expressed their concerns. How can they be assured that the funds will be properly spent on the reconstruction? Safeguards must be put in place. Many think that a committee with representatives of civil society and the opposition should be set up. As a reminder, misuses of public funds have skyrocketed in recent years. The graph below records irregularities committed by state institutions according to the auditor general:

Opaque investigations

Since the accident, at least three investigations have been carried out, but nothing was communicated to the public. The different investigations have also focused in particular on whether or not security protocols were adhered to for transporting this kind of cargo. According to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the lorry had no escort  even though it was transporting highly explosive substances. By now, the investigations should also have determined whether or not the poor condition of the road was a factor. In the wake of such trauma, the authorities must share the entire range of responses they found.
The price of Irresponsible Speech should not be the loss of ones liberty for such a protracted period of time. It is otherwise extortionate and definitely unjust and disproportionate.

Fellow Ghanaians, Freedom of Expression OR Freedom of Speech has become a very topical subject following the arrest of Oliver Barker-Vomawor.

President Nana Akuffo Addo once said he will rather have a critical and sometimes reckless media rather than one that is, meek and mild and engages in praise-singing; President Akufo-Addo said he abhors a sycophantic media which is likely to rob him of divergent views. Speaking at the Africa Summit at the London School of Economics (LSE), Nana Addo explained that sometimes the criticisms of a section of the media though irritating, offers broader perspective on national issues

It is Ironical though that a person who thought the country needed fixing as such a matter of urgency as to seek to join in leading a demonstration should become rather so vexed as to engage and mingle in treasonable conduct. To engage in such conduct when Government appears to have conceived of an option that offers them light at the end of the tunnel  E-levy. Freedom of Expression is a fundamental pillar of any vibrant democracy. It is indeed one of the tenets of and/or symbols of a true democracy. In Ghana, the truth in politics have become so difficult to identify that it usually when you are on some frolic of sorts that you may walk into the truth. In todays politics in Ghana, they think you are smart only when you are clever at telling lies and doing the wrong things well, contrary to John Majors admonitions to his former fellow Conservative Prime Minister. The truth is arrests also have the risk of destabilizing or creating an atmosphere of instability. Rawlings, if my memory is not playing any tricks on me, was actually in prison when the coup that led to his 1979 Government was staged. My question is did intelligence at the time take its eyes off the actual stage? Does our security have institutional knowledge of what went wrong?

There was a time in the history of our dear country, particularly, from 1979 to 1992 when it would have been foolhardy to venture even a genuine opinion about a seemingly indiscreet act or policy of Government unless perhaps you belonged to organisations such as the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Student Representative Councils(SRCs), the Bar Association, Trade Unions etc; these organisations gave a bit of cover to their politically active members, since it was assumed you represented a wide and legitimate institution, strand or school of thought of sorts.

That cover was however gradually blown away by the very Rawlings Government, as student leaders got accused of and arrested for all manner of subversive conduct, often trumped up, and sometimes interviewed on daytime Television, looking clearly harassed and/or tortured. Sometimes, they will retract statements and make seemingly fudged confessions and admissions.

Our freedoms today have been the result of a hard-fought endeavour; many of todays politicians had no time or temerity to risk anything for Ghanas Freedom. Some were busy working on their career or steadfastly working on their Grade Point Averages (G.P.A.) at university. When the veteran Sam Okudgeto says that some politicians are stupid for appearing to support coups or provoking the phenomenon by their conduct, I can understand the depth of his frustration. Sam Okudgeto was one of the very few who could speak their minds during that period. Sam Okudgeto, Obeng Manu etc. Some student leaders even jumped onto the trendy Socialist bandwagon whilst many of those were brave enough to withstand and oppose Rawlings dictatorship; I wonder where the latter group are in our political geography.

University campuses were hotbeds for astounding political activism. Incidentally, Okudgeto represented the Bar Association, the Recognized Professional Bodies Association etc.

Every Right, even across the free World, come with responsibilities. Freedom of Speech is not an unrestricted Right. It is not for nothing that the New Patriotic Partys Motto is Development in Freedom. And like President Kufour is on record to have said, a free man is a lead factor in Productivity. A free mind, in my view, is undoubtedly more creative and more useful to a Nation. On the contrary, a supressed mind obviously aims at saying things that will please his oppressors and his target audience, be it true or false. Having said that, words are commonly interpreted by their context. Indeed, one of the concepts of statutory interpretation is the contextual approach . When I tell my friend that he is being stupid, it does not mean the same as directing the same words at a police officer in the course of performing his duties. How can you threaten a Coup, of whatever shape or form against the backdrop or the context of the threat of political instability at this side of the African continent? Oliver is a man of no mean intellect, who joined in leading the fix the country movement in recent demonstrations. Oliver is a Lecturer of one of Cambridges schools in the U.K. In the U.K. no one would blink an eyelid if you threatened a coup as against terrorist conduct; in point of fact a coup in the U.K. is so imponderable after so many light years of Democracy, the irony or humour will not be lost on your audience.

Oliver has clearly spoken irresponsibly, without a doubt, because his words can, in the literal sense, clearly amount to incitement for those with the wherewithal or means to execute a coup; he calls the army useless in his outburst, presumably provoking them into action. I am very sorry for him because he was expected to be clearly beyond such loose talk, but we already struggle to enforce Laws in this peaceful land of our birth. Did this gentleman not just engage in mere huffs and puffs? Government must be careful it doesnt appear paranoid. Significant mistakes are bound to occur when Government is paranoid.

It is said that Justice delayed is Justice denied. It is reported that the Chief Justices Office was required to empanel judges for the trial of Oliver but failed to do so before time and Oliver has been remanded in custody awaiting the next hearing on 28th February because the Judge did not have power to grant bail for the renewed offence that poor Oliver was charged with. Oliver will be there for about 2 weeks (14 days) all for huffing and puffing, we will find. His Lawyer, Mr Akoto Ampaw NPPs lead Lawyer at describes the renewed charge as cynical. It is not entirely dissimilar from what Mahamas courts did to Kennedy Akompreko Agyapong. Such conduct by the authorities is professionally unacceptable. This is not acceptable, especially under the watch of an NPP Government in 2022. If there are any lessons to be learnt, Oliver should have regretted the error of his ways by now, having been locked in custody in the last few days.

Irresponsible, if not careless, Oliver has been intending to incite a coup? Even if he would have wished so, he the evidence will not stack up in a full-blown trial. Is it his wish that someone will act on his call? It is very probable, but we dont know. Was it his wish to render the Nation ungovernable? He may have so wished. Oliver has really gone astray but we should develop our intelligence gathering machinery so strongly that in future wanton arrests of the citizenry should be an option of last resort. A mans liberty is one of the most protected rights under any modern constitution not to be withdrawn wily nily. People should rather be put under surveillance for such seeming misdemeanours over a reasonable period of time and pounce on them whenever there is significant evidence of their intention to carry through their wishes. We do these things at the risk of doing irreparable damage to our Justice system. People strongly believe it is being used for clearly political ends.

Whichever overzealous police or A.G. holds the key to this matter should endeavour to employ more subtle or subterfuge forms of crime detection and release Oliver ASAP to make him available for the next News file.
Nine years after first intervening in Mali to fight jihadism, France is likely to remove troops to neighbouring Sahel states amid escalating tension between Bamako and Paris.

The statement by the French foreign affairs minister came a day before President Emmanuel Macron is to meet Sahelian leaders from Niger, Chad and Mauritania.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, said if the conditions in Mali are no longer favorourable to continuing the fight against terrorism, France will move to neighbouring countries.

However, he also stressed that France is not leaving the Sahel.

The President of the Republic [Emmanuel Macron] wants us to reorganise but we are not leaving! he said on France 5 TV channel on 14 February.

He spoke a few hours after a video meeting with his European counterparts.

Le Drian indicated that other Sahel states have expressed the wish to host French and European troops.

We went there at the request of the Malians who asked us to come fight the jihadists. Otherwise, with all the Al Qaeda affiliated groups, Mali would have become a terrorist state, a caliphate.

"And this was avoided because we intervened, he said.

That was in 2013. By now, jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and Daesh have spread beyond Mali to other Sahel countries, into West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea area.

Paris-Bamako hostility

Back in 2013, Mali was governed by a transitional government led by President Dioncounda Traore. In August 2020, a military coup forced the then President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to resign.

Relations between Bamako's junta and Paris have been increasingly hostile.

Recently, Malian Prime minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga accused France of partitioning his country, enabling the terrorists to find refuge and come back stronger in 2014.

Mali is ruled by a junta of five colonels who came to power two years ago and who are now saying that they need to maintain power for the next five years," Le Drian added.

"And is this the kind of government, this junta, that we have to work with."

Le Drian went on to say that Mali's neighbouring states all condemned the current regime.

I don't know a single African state which supports the military junta in Mali. So, it is the junta which is isolating itself; it is the junta which is losing, it is the junta which will have to face the consequences.

Junta derailing EU operations

Le Drian said that there are an increasing number of hurdles to military operations on the ground, referring to a series of measures the junta recently put in place.

Denmark also began pulling its troops out of Mali in January after the junta insisted on an immediate withdrawal.

Denmark is one of the 14 countries that make up the Takuba Task Force, a European special forces mission, created by France in 2020 to accompany Malian soldiers in the fight against jihadists and who will ultimately take over from the French Barkhane Operation.

In February, Norway announced that it had abandoned plans to send a contingent of troops to Mali, saying it was unable to reach an agreement with the military government in Bamako.

A few days later, the French ambassador to Mali was asked to leave the country. This came after French Defence minister Florence Parly said that the junta was multiplying provocations and Le Drian called the Mali junta "illegitimate" and making irresponsible decisions.

Germany has also just announced that there no reason to keep its troops in Mali if the country delays presidential and legislative elections by four to five years.
Nairobi, February 14, 2022  Authorities in the Somali states of Galmudug and Hirshabelle should investigate and hold to account police officers who assaulted and arrested journalists and ensure that security personnel do not pose a threat to media freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

On the evening of January 24, a group of police officers in the town of Beledweyne, a city in Somalias Hirshabelle state, harassed and beat Radio Hiiraan Weyne reporter Abdullahi Ali Abukar, accusing him of leaking footage of a January 21 police raid on the outlet, according to a Facebook statement published by the privately owned station and Abdullahi, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Separately, on the afternoon January 30, police officers in the town of Abudwak, in the Galmudug regional state, raided the privately owned Sooyal TV and Radio offices, taking equipment and arresting the stations director, Mahad Bashiir Xilif, according to a joint statement by local press rights groups the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Somali Media Association (SOMA), and another statement by the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ).

Unless each arbitrary arrest or assault on a journalist is investigated credibly, impunity in attacks on the press will continue to fester within the ranks of Somalias security forces, said CPJ Sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoki Mumo. Authorities should investigate the attacks on journalists in the Galmudug and Hirshabelle regions, hold those officers responsible, and ensure that equipment damaged or confiscated during the raid on Sooyal TV and Radio is replaced or returned.

On January 24, Abdullahi was walking home from work when he was approached by a group of officers, and accused of leaking CCTV footage of a January 21 police raid on Radio Hiiraan Weyne. Abdullahi told CPJ that Beledweyne police commander Mohamed Mohamud Durdage was in charge of the officers.

During that raid, Abdullahi was arrested and detained for several hours, alongside six of his colleagues, following the stations reporting of an opposition group, as CPJ reported at the time.

For about 35 minutes on January 24, the officers forced the journalist to carry heavy stones, left on the streets earlier that day by protestors, and beat him with the butts of their guns, resulting in back and chest pain, according to Abdullahis interview with CPJ and a separate interview published on Facebook by Hiiraan Weyne.

In a telephone interview on February 9, Beledweyne police commander Mohamed requested questions via WhatsApp, but did not answer them. CPJ questions sent via messaging application to Hirshabelle Information Minister Mohamed Abdirahman and via Facebook to the Hirshabelle State House, the office of the regional president, were also unanswered.

During the January 30 raid on Sooyal TV and Radio, police broke a desktop computer and confiscated a hard disk and two memory cards, Mahad told CPJ by messaging app, adding that the memory cards have since been returned.

Mahad was arrested and told by police that it was in connection to a January 30 report, published shortly before the raid, about Galmudug police officers on strike, angered by delayed salaries and an alleged government plan to replace them with new recruits.

Police then drove Mahad to the outskirts of Abudwak town, where he was held, blindfolded under a tree, for several hours, the journalist told CPJ. Later that day, the officers moved Mahad to a police station in Abudwak, where he was detained overnight before he was freed unconditionally, following the intervention of his clans elders and family.

The officers who raided Sooyal Radio and Television were identified by Mahad and the statements from the local press rights groups as members of the Darwish forces, a police unit deployed at federal and state level, whose mandate includes border policing, protecting government infrastructure and fighting terrorism, according to reports. Darwish officers have been previously trained by or received support from several international actors, including the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a regional peacekeeping force, the United Nations Mission to Somalia (UNSOM), and the Italian government, according to the joint SJS and SOMA statement as well as reports and statements posted by these groups.

Previously, the European Unions delegation in Somalia, its training mission in the country (EUTM), and its Capacity Building Mission in Somalia (EUCAP), have also supported the training of Darwish officers, according to these same sources.

Both UNSOM and the European Union delegation said they had not trained or supported local Darwish forces in Galmudug, according to emailed statements sent to CPJ. UNSOM said it is engaged in efforts to strengthen capable, accountable and rights-based police in the state and plans to fund future trainings of police officers in human rights.

The European Union said its past support of the Darwish was limited to specific Federal Darwish units deployed to another Somali region, the Southwest State. The EU said it would that, follow up on any evidence or indications that EU-supported Darwish forces had been involved in press freedom violations in Galmudug.

When CPJ called AMISOM for comment, Gifty Bingley, a spokesperson, said she could not immediately provide comment as the matter did not directly involve AMISOM officers. CPJ emails sent to AMISOM went unanswered.

Someone who answered the phone when CPJ called the Italian embassy to Somalia on February 10 acknowledged receipt of an emailed request for comment, but the questions remained unanswered as of publication time.

In a telephone conversation on February 9, Farah Abdille Hassan, a district commissioner in Abudwak, requested that CPJ send queries via WhatsApp, but did not immediately respond. Sharmarke Godad, the police commissioner in Galgaduud, in whose jurisdiction Abudwak falls, did not answer CPJs phone calls and did not respond to queries sent by text message. CPJ emails to the Galmudug State House and its internal security ministry were either unanswered or undelivered.

In a statement sent via messaging application, Galmudug Information Minister Ahmed Shire Falagle told CPJ that the incident had been reported to him by Sooyal. Ahmed said he apologize[s] to the journalist who had to endure this inappropriate practice, that the Galmudug government would get to the bottom of this, and that local police said they were investigating, as they were not informed of the raid that took place.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, and CPJ has previously documented attacks on the press by security personnel  including arrests and assaults. In a statement on February 9, the United States State Department announced visa restrictions for officials who undermined the democratic process, including unjust arrests or intimidation of journalists. The SJS and SOMA welcomed the visa bans as a move to uphold justice, according to their joint statement.
President of the Artisanal Palm Oil Millers and Outgrowers Association of Ghana, Mr. Paul-Kwabena-Amaning, has urged government to come up with policies that will build the local crude palm oil industrys capacity, as doing so will make the country become self-sufficient and an exporter of refined palm oil products.

However, he said, the discussion should now be focused on policies which will make the industry robust enough to produce sufficient amounts to satisfy local demand and export the excess, as this will end imports of refined palm oil products.

So I would say the attention should be given more to crude palm oil production, because at this moment Ghana has a shortage of crude palm oil but we have adequate installed capacity for refineries. The main focus should be how to build and improve capacity of local crude palm oil manufacturers to become more productive.

If we increase crude palm oil production we will not need to import refined oil, because it is from the crude oil that we get refined oil, Mr. Paul-Kwabena-Amaning exclusively told Kwaku Owusu Adjei on Adwenekasa Accra-based Original 91.9 FM.

He further stated that focusing on building the crude oil palm industrys capacity will also create massive employment opportunities and make the currency stable; adding that if such help is not given to the sector, local refineries cannot produce to their maximum  and this will encourage imports of refined vegetable oils, thereby creating unfavourable competition and weakening the local currency.

Refineries can be put up in just six months and will be ready for production. But if you want to produce 450,000 tonnes of crude oil you need 120,000 to 150,000 hectares of plantation, and that size of plantation can create direct and indirect employment for more than 600,000 people.

If you look at the international price of crude palm oil, there is just about a US$70 to US$80 difference between the refined oil. So if you are producing the crude, you only need to add small value and you will stop imports of refined oil. It has the advantage of import substitution, and will save us a lot of FX while creating employment  especially for the rural folk, he said.

He added that government must emulate the example of Nigeria, where its government has put in deliberate policies to protect and grow the oil palm industry by supporting manufacturers with soft-loans and slapping high duties on imported crude palm oil.

Lets try to compare ourselves to Nigeria. Nigeria is trying to give single-digit interest loans to the oil palm sector. Aside from that, Nigeria regulates the crude palm oil sector. You cannot just import crude palm oil; you need approval of the central bank of Nigeria, and they will not have access to forex from the central bank. They have to get it from the open market. So this means government is trying to give some level of protection to the sector.

And if you look at duty on imported crude palm oil in Nigeria, it is 35 percent; but here in Ghana, it is 5 percent duty. So, it is important that the benchmark be removed and duty on imported crude increased, he said.

Source:Richard Obeng Bediako/Kingdomfmonline.com/2022
A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, so that the people may require a leader.  Plato

Oliver Barker-Vormayor knew what he meant when he said, "I will do the coup myself". For those who have joined in his vague defence that the usage of the word "Coup" did not mean a military-like junta as Ghana has witnessed in years before 1992.

Assuming without admitting that the false introduction of an 'e' before the coup to make it an E-Coup makes any meaning, what is an E-Coup? Is there any historical and political proof of any such agenda regarded as an E-Coup?

But then, let's also interrogate what the military has got to do with an electronic coup assuming without admitting that Vormayor truly meant an electronic coup d'etat. Evidence from the archives of Ghana's political history does not support his claim of an "E-Coup d'etat".

The military of Ghana, dating back as far as 1964 has never staged an electronic coup d'etat. Every coup d'etat organized by the military all across Africa if not the world has been one done through the barrel of the gun.

In their refusal to do what Oliver Barker-Vormayor may have attempted to convince them to do, he, Vormayor, a practising lawyer who understands the repercussions of a military or military-like revolution had nothing but one phrase to say to them; "useless army".

A coup d'etat is not the way to go in a country such as ours which have had the experiences of such actions and the deadly repercussions thereof. Ghana should not burn because Oliver Barker-Vormayor thinks he is not pleased with the leaders of the country.

Reindolf Amankwa

Member, Critical Thinkers International (CTI) - Middle Belt
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has said as a Minister for Food and Agriculture and a very staunch Catholic member, all his works are guided by ethics he learnt from Opoku Ware.

He noted that those who have had the privilege to go through the school are not only impacting academic excellence but also good morals and ethics through religious service.

Speaking at the 70th Anniversary official launch of Opoku Ware School, he stated, I left here at the age of nineteen (19) for further studies at the University of Ghana, and Cambridge University in England, but I feel that, of all the institutions including St Joseph's Primary School in Ashanti new town where I started my education, none of these institutions have added such significant value in my life than Opoku Ware School.

Dr. Akoto noted that he owes it to support the school and to wish it well.

He posited that 70 years of excellence by the school is not an easy achievement, and of course.

According to him, there might be other schools before Owass but the influence that the institution has had on the history of this nation is unparalleled.

Dr. Akoto ended his speech with a chant of Opoku Ware three times.
Adehye 1994, dubbed, 'The Mayors', a fraternity of like-minded past students of Okuapemman School, Akropong, Akwapem who completed their O-Levels in 1994, on Sunday, February 13, 2022, feted some less privileged children on the streets of Accra, in a pre-Valentine giveaway.

The gesture was to show them love and care on the eve of the celebration of St. Valentines Day worldwide.

It was also meant to bring joy and happiness into the lives of these children who spend most of their daily routine on the streets and cannot afford decent meals of their own on a regular basis.

On Sunday afternoon, the giveaways started at the Accra Mall where The Mayor's distributed food and drinks to the children and some mothers.

The exercise continued around the 37 area before ending at the Ring Road to cap off a very successful event.

The package included 100 packs of jollof rice each with chicken, bottled water and soft drinks.

Also, each 100 packs of kenkey contained 2 balls, fried fish, bottled water and soft drinks.

The Mayors were full of joy as they chose to celebrate such a lovely day with the children.

We will continue to do our very best in ensuring that we become a beacon of hope for the less privileged in society and our Alma Mater, a spokesperson for the group said.

He added, "Our next move is to give to the school that taught us and have made us what we are today."

The vision for the group, he said, is to bring on board past students of Okuapemman School who did not complete in 1994 and even those who did not attend the school," adding that, some have already shown interest in joining."
The tussle between the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and EaseMyTrip over a 'misleading' consumer advertisement has reached its nadir as the leading travel platform has now filed a lawsuit against the advertising industry's self-regulatory body.

ASCI alleged in its recommendations that EaseMyTrip published a misleading advertisement "with a blanket claim of charging '0 Convenience Fee' and as a result it 'Always' offers the 'Lowest' prices for bookings, without representing the 'Terms & Conditions Applicable' for the same, which is a mandate.

"EMT has published a misleading advertisement wherein it has illegally used IBIBO Group Pvt Ltd's trademark, without authority to unfairly denigrate, attack and discredit IBIBO Group Pvt Ltd," the ASCI said.

In a statement, EaseMyTrip said that the actions of ASCI are "beyond jurisdiction and non-est as EMT is not a member of ASCI".

"As per ASCI's own rules, it cannot exercise any right over non-members, thus, any decision or proceedings by ASCI is void at the outset," Himank Tripathi, president, external affairs & investor relations, EaseMyTrip, told IANS.

EaseMyTrip said that it has filed a civil lawsuit "assailing the decisions of ASCI on many counts and presently the matter is sub-judice before the court and it is next listed on 22.03.2022."

"The court has issued a notice to ASCI in the said matter," said Tripathi.

According to the ASCI, the EaseMyTrip advertisement was in contravention of Chapter I of the ASCI Code.

EaseMyTrip claimed in its advertisement that it is India's 'second largest online travel aggregator', which was found to be misleading by ASCI's consumer complaints council (CCC).

"The CCC discussed that on a particular date/day it may be possible that EaseMyTrip offers lowest prices for bookings, but this cannot generalise that they always offer lowest prices as compared to their competitors. EMT charges a Convenience Fee which is only waived by using a coupon code and this has not been clarified in the advertisement, which is misleading and is in contradiction of the claim made," according to the ASCI.

The CCC observed that the official website of EMT only consisted general terms and conditions and not the specific terms and conditions applicable for the claims made.

Based on these observations, the CCC concluded that the voice over claims, "ticket prices on EaseMyTrip are always lowest as you don't pay convenience fee," and '0 Convenience Fees', were not substantiated and are misleading by omission.

"The claims are likely to cause widespread disappointment in the minds of the consumers," the ASCI said in the CCC recommendations.

Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.
National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) has signed an agreement with Petroleum Marine Services to strengthen cooperation in exploring engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project opportunities in the oil and gas sector in Egypt and the region.

The MoU was signed at the Egypt Petroleum Show, the regions leading exhibition for the petroleum industry, by NPCC Chief Executive Ahmed Al Dhaheri and Petroleum Marine Services Chairman and CEO Ashraf Emam in the presence of senior officials from both companies.

A subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-based National Marine Dredging Company, NPCC is a leading company that has been providing total EPC solutions to offshore and onshore oil and gas, petrochemicals and renewables sectors for nearly five decades in Mena and the Indian Subcontinent.

PMS is an offshore installation and services provider with extensive experience in the installation of offshore structures, pipelines, cables, underwater survey and air diving services as well as platform and pipeline maintenance & repair and subsea intervention services.

According to NPCC, the deal will support the industry and the companies in driving their ambitious growth plans.

Through the MoU, the two entities aim to explore opportunities in the energy-sector, which has tremendous potential in Egypt and other regions.

With their combined forces, the companies will share local knowledge and capabilities of PMS in Transportation & Installation with the global EPC experience of NPCC in mega offshore projects especially the heavy lift and pipelaying & subsea cable / umbilical laying capabilities with extensive fabrication capabilities.

NMDC Group CEO Yasser Zaghloul said: "We are proud to sign this agreement with PMS at Egypt Petroleum Show, a landmark event for the petroleum industry. For 2022 and beyond, we will continue to build on our expansion plans and explore new business opportunities and geographies, which will lead to creating a strong infrastructure based on expertise and knowledge across the industry value chain."

"The agreement further consolidates our presence in Egypt," he remarked.

Al Dhaheri said: "NPCC is proud to strengthen our partnership and collaboration with PMS, as we join hands to share world class expertise and knowledge."

"We aim to provide the industry with the best EPC projects, driven by innovation and operational efficiency. NPCC is a pioneer in delivering mega projects, and we are looking forward to explore our opportunities in Egypt and beyond," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
India has become a laughing stock, as the global media laps up reports of how a Himalayan Yogi was the puppet master dictating the actions of Chitra Ramkrishna, celebrated managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) who resigned abruptly in December 2016.

And why not? The story, more bizarre than any fiction, has been exposed in cringe-worthy detail by SEBIs 190-page order released last Friday . In line with the now popular narrative, it shows we have two Indias. One Indiain which the NSE is a tech powerhouse, the largest derivatives exchange in the world with an incredible 70% operating margin and near monopoly position over Indias capital market. And another Indiawhere the same NSE has an MD who claims to communicate on email with a spiritual guru who instructs her on how to manage the Exchangein effect the Indian rope-trick combined with modern technology and an email ID to communicate with her, but ostensibly no physical presence!

SEBIs order quotes her absurd claim that she met this unknown guru on the banks of the Ganges 20 years ago, as well as emails where she is making plans to chill with him at Seychelles and rendezvous in Delhi.

Then there is the third India, where the market regulator does the following: sleep for a decade on published evidence of irregular appointments (including Chitras own appointment as MD); asks the NSE to repeatedly investigate itself during the algo scam; bleats plaintively about NSEs refusal to answer its queries. All this, brought out in SEBIs order, exposes the investigation as a farce by failing in the rudimentary requirement of establishing the identity of this guru or siddha purush. After all, he was running the Exchange by proxy and was, probably, Anand Subramanian (Subbu), a consultant she hired in violation of all norms and repeatedly promoted on the advice of this guru. SEBIs order spews out plenty of details, but is riddled with inconsistencies, poor logic and, eventually, lets off the NSE and its senior employees with a small rap. SEBIs kid-glove treatment of an unruly and aggressive NSE clearly continues even after a regime change at the NSE as well as at SEBI.

What is worse, between the co-location (Colo) or algo scam of 2015 and the situation today, SEBI has issued multiple orders that fail to correct basic flaws in the functioning of the NSE. The MD & CEO, even today, has no experience in technology, regulator or capital markets. The board continues to delegate enormous powers to the NSE management and there is nothing to prevent another puppeteer dictating its actions. The Exchange reportedly continues to bypass the regulator and hobnob with the finance ministry on issues of listing and SEBIs order, despite identifying all these issues, does not order corrective actions.

Remember, the NSE is not just another company. It is a first-line regulator and a highly sensitive market infrastructure institution (MII). Shouldnt the government be concerned about how this damages Indias reputation and ensure a full clean-up? Let us analyse why the order paints a scary picture.

Known Unknown: A forensic audit by Ernst & Young (E&Y) on the Colo scam had revealed, way back in 2015, that Chitra was sharing internal confidential information about NSEs organisational structure, financial results and policies and seeking guidance on internal issues with an outsider whose email ID was A forensic audit by Ernst & Young (E&Y) on the Colo scam had revealed, way back in 2015, that Chitra was sharing internal confidential information about NSEs organisational structure, financial results and policies and seeking guidance on internal issues with an outsider whose email ID was [email protected] (it combined the names of the three vedas).

A subsequent inquiry, ordered by SEBI, revealed that she also referred to this unknown person as thee or swami ji or your lordship and said the Company (NSE) is run on your blessings alone (para 71.2 of SEBIs order). This yogi has such granular information about NSE employees that he advises her on their promotions, postings, appointment of board directors, how to avoid reporting Subbu as a KMP (key management person) to SEBI and, finally, how to lobby the finance ministry and government to ensure self-listing by the NSE. An email from the so-called guru that exposes how Chitra acted as a mere puppet says, Don't worry the straw knows when to be a capillary and when NOT to. Kanchan is the straw and I will be the suction force for this and you will vomit all that is required as always. Kanchan, referred to in the in the email is Subbu and the issue under discussion is how to lobby the government to permit self-listing by the NSE.

Most emails from this gurus ID ( [email protected] ) are copied to Anand Subramanian (Subbu) whose career was closely tracked by the guru by copying him in correspondence with Chitra. And, yet, SEBI alone is unable to come to any final conclusion as to his identity, but still does not recommend further investigation to establish it. Instead, SEBI attempts to bury matters with paltry penalties and a meaningless order barring six entities from the capital market.

Everybody I spoke to from SEBI and NSE insiders as well as some board members are absolutely certain that the fake guru is Subbu. His attachment and equation with Chitra was the subject of much gossip at the NSE. Many emails between Chitra and her guru are detailed discussions about Subbus rapid promotions and astronomical salary hikes, how to avoid reporting him as KMP. The guru also ingeniously recommends rewarding all those who could, and ought to have, object to the irregular decisions, but were effectively silenced with personal rewards.

The SEBI order finds convoluted ways to avoid identifying Subbu as the guru, even though the forensic auditor, E&Y had no such doubts. Based on tracing the IP address, etc, it had concluded that [email protected] was none other than Subbu. Anant Barua, SEBIs whole-time member (WTM), who wrote the wishy-washy order, thinks this is not conclusive enough. He systematically weakens E&Ys findings by citing two emails from the same ID, that he thinks cast doubts on whether rigyajursama was, indeed, Subbu.

One, dated 17 February 2015, talks about a romantic trip to Seychelles cited below for her to chill out and is replete with un-guru like comments such as Today you are look awesome and you must learn different ways to platt your hair which will make your looks appealing and interesting.

The second email from [email protected] to Chitra is copied to her secretary Navaz Patel as well. This time, he poses as a friend of the foreign shareholders representation committee seeking a meeting at the India office at Vasant Vihar in Delhi. Navaz has confirmed the appointment. SEBI had a duty to initiate these actions.

1. Hand over the investigation to cybercrime experts to conclusively identify the guru with very physical needs, aspirations and greed.

2. Question Chitras secretaries (Navaz and Lourdes) about the meeting in Delhi, the trip to Seychelles and if they had any connection with Seshu who was to make the bookings for the guru.

3. Question NSEs foreign investors, including shareholder directors on the board, about the existence of a foreign shareholders representation committee and if anyone had been authorised to speak on their behalf.

4. Investigate the financial dealings with the guru, hinted at in an email to Chitra copied to Subbu to withdraw and surrender to the unknown person per month as gratitude on the gross amount. Why has SEBI not been investigated, if this is backed by any financial transactions and if so with whom?

5. All of this would have been revealed if the last two emails were either sloppiness on the part of the guru and his devotee or a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters.

SEBIs failure to conclusively identify the guru/ unknown person ensures that nobody is seriously indicted. It then goes on to indict the NSE board for letting off Chitra and Subbu by allowing them to resign and not sacking them. Interestingly, even under the new MD-CEO, Vikram Limaye, the NSE has aggressively defended the actions of the directors, then and now. Also, both NSE and Ravi Narain (indicted former vice-chairman and a member of the founding team of the Exchange), seem to believe that once a person has resigned (Subbu as well as Chitra, in October and December 2016, respectively), no further action is possible. If this is accepted at face value, it would mean that anyone can get away with fraud at the monopoly exchange with no consequences other than resignation. And why wont the same latitude be given to companies and market intermediaries?

The NSE board members, who I spoke to, aggressively defend their decision to allow Chitra and Subbu to resign, despite knowing the enormity of wrongdoing, fudging regulatory filings, etc, on the pretext of avoiding litigation. This is amusing since NSE itself had no issues in filing litigation to contest every SEBI order. These sources strongly refute the claim that SEBI was not informed of NSEs actions and decisions. They claim to have met the SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi and given him a copy of their report. This is a serious charge and contradicts SEBIs findings. It also raises a question about why the chairman did not counsel the board and ask it to act more decisively. Isnt it the job of the regulator to provide this guidance to public interest directors, who were specifically appointed by SEBI? According to my source, former SEBI chairman UK Sinha had specifically appointed them to clean up the Exchange. If this is true, who will hold SEBI responsible? Will these directors speak up? One of them told me they are discussing the matter and taking legal opinion.

On the flip side, if they remain silent and SEBI sticks to its make-believe indictment, then it raises questions about their acting as independent directors on other listed entities and proxy advisory firms. After all, if they have fallen short of meeting their own fiduciary obligations when appointed as public interest directors in a first-line regulator with the monopoly presence that the NSE has, how does the regulator expect them to act independently on other boards? The ball is in SEBIs court. If its charge has substance, it should have consequences; otherwise, the regulator is no different from a troll who uses its power and presence to cast aspersions on others, to deflect attention from its own failures.

Dogs That Did Not Bark

SEBIs order then goes on to dwell on what Sherlock Holmes would have called the dogs that did not bark. Each person indicted by SEBI (named in the table below) benefited from their silence over Subbus pay hikes and colluding with Chitra to avoid reporting him as a KMP. VR Narasimhan, NSEs chief regulatory officer, was even appointed dean at the National Institute of Securities Management (NISM) a certification and training institute set up by SEBI. I was told, SEBI doesnt interfere in the day to day administration of NISM. Mr Narasimhans tenure is till April 2022 claims that NISM makes independent decisions. Not even a nudge to the NISM board to ask him to go, after being issued a show-cause notice in 2019. SEBIs reply is also disingenuous because there is a public record from past controversies of how it decides senior appointments at NISM.

J Ravichandran, one of the earliest employees got multiple pay hikes and designation changes. Ravi Narain got to stay on NSEs board in a specially created post, with a lot of power, little accountability, many board directorships and perks.

Regulatory Failure

The rot at the SEBI as well as the NSE has grown over the past two decades and has been captured in our book Absolute Power: Inside Story of the National Stock Exchanges Amazing Success, Leading to Hubris, Regulatory Capture and Algo Scam released in June 2021, which describes the complete regulatory capture and dominance of the NSE.

Read the full SEBI order here
Due to the very poor response from corporates on separating the roles of chairman, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) before the April 2022 deadline, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to make its implementation voluntary for the top-500 listed companies.

In a meeting held in New Delhi, the SEBI board found that as of 31 December 2021, only 54% of the top-500 listed companies have followed its directions to separate the roles of chairman, MD and CEO. Earlier in January 2020, SEBI had extended the deadline to April 2022.

It says, As the revised deadline is less than two months away, on a review of the compliance status, it is seen that the compliance level, which stood at 50.4% amongst the top 500 listed companies as of September 2019, has progressed to only 54% as of 31 December 2021. Thus there has been barely a 4% incremental improvement in compliance by the top 500 listed companies over the last two years, hence, expecting the remaining about 46% of the top 500 listed companies to comply with these norms by the target date would be a tall order.

Considering rather an unsatisfactory level of compliance achieved so far, with respect to this corporate governance reform, various representations received, constraints posed by the prevailing pandemic situation and with a view to enabling the companies to plan for a smoother transition, as a way forward, SEBI board at this juncture, decided that this provision may not be retained as a mandatory requirement and instead be made applicable to the listed entities on a voluntary basis, SEBI says in a release.

In March 2018, SEBI had recommended separation of the posts of CEO and MD and chairperson that was supposed to be first applicable for the top-500 entities from 1 April 2020.

October 2017, the Uday Kotak Committee set up by SEBI (the third such committee set up by SEBI over the past two decades) had recommended separation of powers of the chairperson (or leader of the board) and CEO and MD or leader of the management, in a phased manner to provide a better and more balanced governance structure. Earlier inset up by SEBI (the third such committee set up by SEBI over the past two decades) had recommended separation of powers of the chairperson (or leader of the board) and CEO and MD or leader of the management, in a phased manner to provide a better and more balanced governance structure.

The Kotak committee had recommended limiting directorship to a maximum of eight in listed companies. In addition, the Kotak committee had said that from 1 April 2019, at least half of the board of directors should comprise independent directors.

Coming back to the SEBI board meeting, which also decided to amend SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012. The amendment would provide flexibility to category III alternative investment funds (AIFs) to calculate the investment concentration normbased either on investable funds or on net asset value of the fund while investing in listed equity of

The investee company. This would be subject to the conditions specified by the board, the market regulator says.

SEBI board also approved amendments SEBI (Debenture Trustee) Regulations, 1993, SEBI (Issue and Listing of Non-Convertible Securities) Regulations, 2021 and SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements), 2015.

According to the market regulator, these amendments would align the regulatory framework for security cover instead of asset cover, disclosure of credit ratings and due diligence certificate.

Further, references with respect to the disclosure of credit ratings have been rationalised and due diligence certificate for unsecured debt securities has been prescribed in SEBI (Issue and Listing of Non-Convertible Securities) Regulations, 2021. These amendments are expected to bring uniformity and consistency in these regulations, SEBI says.

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Weather Alert

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT MDT TUESDAY NIGHT FOR ALL OF BEAVERHEAD AND MADISON COUNTIES, AND GALLATIN COUNTY ABOVE 6,000-FT ELEVATION... * WHAT...Snow expected. Total snow accumulation of 1 to 6 inches below 6,000-ft elevation, and 3 to 12 inches 6,000-ft elevation and above. * WHERE...Beaverhead and Madison Counties, and Gallatin County above 6,000-ft elevation. * WHEN...Until Midnight MDT Tuesday Night. * IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult. The hazardous conditions could impact the Tuesday morning and evening commutes. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Snow rates and accumulations at any one location will be determined by a narrow but intense band of heavy snow that develops late tonight into Tuesday. Snow rates within this band may reach up to 2 or 3 inches per hours, and result in visibility reduced to one-quarter mile or less at times. Areas that do not get the intense snow band will see little to no significant snow accumulations, generally less than 3 inches. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions can be obtained by calling 5 1 1 or visiting the MDT Road Report website. To see a graphical representation of the degree of stress on young livestock please visit our webpage and select Local Programs then Cold Air Advisory for Newborn Livestock. &&
The following is a press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks:

TOWNSEND, Mont. - A Helena man received a lifetime ban from hunting and trapping in Montana as part of his sentence for illegally killing a trophy moose east of Townsend in 2019.

Shiloh Berry, 41, was sentenced Friday in Broadwater County District Court after pleading guilty last fall to unlawful possession of a game animal, hunting without a valid license and waste of a game animal.

In addition to the lifetime ban from hunting and trapping, Berrys sentence includes a three-year suspension of fishing privileges, $12,100 in fines and restitution, and a suspended five-year imprisonment term.

In November 2019, game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks received a tip via the departments 1-800-TIP-MONT hotline about a dead moose with its head cut off and the meat abandoned. Wardens responded and found the carcass on Blacktail Road, about 17 miles east of Townsend. Wardens also found distinctive tire tracks and boot prints at the scene.

In April 2020, wardens received another tip that Berry possessed moose antlers he claimed to have found in the same area where the moose carcass was discovered. Wardens executed a search warrant and discovered the antlers, as well as boots and tires that matched the tracks at the kill site. During an interview with wardens, Berry confessed to killing the moose.

The mooses antlers were 56 inches wide and had a Boone and Crockett gross score of 167 and a net score of 145.

Montana game wardens rely on tips from people who observe crimes against wildlife. FWPs 24-hour hotline for reporting these crimes is 1-800-TIP-MONT. Callers could be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.
Greenfield-based artist Carlos Franco Villagomez claims he has millions of paintings and sculpture ideas imprinted in his head, and that his work comes from his soul: Im giving a piece of myself, my voice, my perspective, my love, he says of his work.
Baker Hughes and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) will establish and drive a flare recovery initiative to support emissions recovery and reduction across Egypts upstream and downstream oil and gas operations.

For this, Baker Hughes has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the 2022 Egypt Petroleum Show (EGYPS) with EGPC.

As Egypt prepares to host COP27 in November 2022, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources aims to showcase data and findings from this project during the summit to demonstrate the role of the oil and gas sector in driving the countrys decarbonisation initiatives.

To enable flare recovery from oil and gas sites across Egypt, Baker Hughes will leverage its portfolio of emissions management solutions including flare management technology, compression, gas turbines, and integrated processing systems that can help in the measurement, management, recovery, and utilisation of flare gas.

Through the deployment of Baker Hughes emissions management solutions, EGPC will aim to reduce emissions and improve the efficiency of its oil and gas operations across the country. This will include reducing the amount of gas flared and vented into the environment, enabling EGPC to drive more efficiency by reutilising the gas that would otherwise go to waste.

In addition, and in support of the Ministrys Modernisation Programme, Baker Hughes solutions, including flare.IQ, will contribute to digitalising emissions management infrastructure by enabling EGPC to pull critical information about its flare systems to calculate optimum levels of flare efficiency and help reduce methane emissions.

Baker Hughes emissions management solutions will support EGPCs decarbonisation strategy, contributing to helping achieve ambitious carbon reduction targets, including positively impacting the quality of life for residents living in areas neighboring refineries.

As part of Egypts sustainable development vision, we are actively exploring opportunities that support our strategy of using clean energy and reducing emissions to accelerate our journey towards net-zero, said Tarek El Molla, Egyptian minister of petroleum and mineral resources.

We are proud of EGPCs collaboration with Baker Hughes to deploy technologies that can help us manage and recover emissions across oil and gas operations, which is a key pillar in driving the energy transition in Egypt.

With a history stretching more than 100 years, Baker Hughes is proud to continue its partnership with Egypt and transform core oil and gas operations, said Lorenzo Simonelli, chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes. We are committed to reaching net-zero by 2050, and our emissions management solutions help our customers reach similar goals and can directly benefit Egypts sustainable development vision. We look forward to COP27 being hosted in Egypt, where we will continue to support the countrys climate change agenda, as well as the broader regions just transition to new and sustainable sources of energy which are vital for its people and economy.-- TradeArabia News Service
Executive Director Caroline Horne, far left, addresses the board of directors of the United Way of Colquitt County during a board meeting in 2021. The local chapter of the national charity has been recognized for transparency by GuideStar, the world's largest source of information about nonprofits.
As the global population edges towards the 10 billion mark by 2050 and world GDP more than doubles, natural gas will continue to play a crucial role in alleviating energy poverty, fuelling economic growth, expanding prosperity, and contributing to the protection of the environment, according to Engineer Mohamed Hamel, the Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).

"Natural gas is the fuel for sustainable development in many developing countries. We shall not forget that today, more than three billion people still lack access to clean fuels for cooking," stated Hamel, while delivering his pre-recorded remarks in a panel session at the 5th Egypt Petroleum Show (EGYPS) 2022, in Cairo.

"Energy transition in Europe cannot be the same as in India, or in Africa," he said at the panel discussion titled Modernising the global energy dialogue for industry transformation, cautioning that a one-size-fits-all model will not work in the energy transition.

The GECF official was joined by several peers, including Dr Omar Farouk Ibrahim, Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), Joseph McMonigle, Secretary General of the International Energy Forum (IEF), and HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, Secretary General of OPEC. The discussion was moderated by John Defterios, formerly of CNN.

Hamel expressed confidence that COP27 in Egypt  a developing country, and in Africa  will mobilise financial resources, transfer of technology, and capacity building to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Not investing in natural gas today is a recipe for much higher prices tomorrow. This penalises the poorest and the developing world, he asserted.

It risks creating a backlash against the very policies that stifled investment, and jeopardising the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and, thus, the very battle on climate change.

Hamel praised the Egyptian leadership for supporting the growth of the industry. Egypt is the rotating President of the GECF Ministerial Meeting in 2022.

In its fifth anniversary edition EGYPS has become the regions leading platform to shape the industrys commitment to sustainable hydrocarbons and their role in the energy transition.
Big Bend National Park

BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK  After missing for over two weeks, a Fort Stockton man and his daughter have been located "alive and well" in the Mexican state of Coahuila, which is adjacent to Big Bend National Park.



The National Park Service was notified on Sunday by residents of a remote Mexican community across the Rio Grande River that a man and young girl fitting the description of Hector Flores Jr., and Luna Flores were in the area and seeking to purchase food. Mexico State Police confirm their identities Monday afternoon.

They will be returned to the United States to reunite with family members Tuesday.
There was a labor of love occurring at St. Lukes United Methodist Church on Saturday, and it involved members of Midlands Quilters Guild.

From 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., eight women gathered to construct fidget lap quilts for residents at Legacy Ranch Memory Care. A large Sunday School classroom and another remodeled space turned into a sweatshop full of donated sewing machines on cutting tables surrounded by tall shelves of material, tubs of notions, multiple irons and ironing boards.

Fidget quilts, you ask? With assorted fabric, bits and pieces from sewing kits and craft drawers, bound quilts of about 12 inches by 18 inches became activity mats for zipping, buckling, buttoning, ripping and mashing Velcro, stuffing pockets, braiding ribbons, counting beads and petting fur or fleece. While the fabrics and tasks differed slightly among quilters, the goal was the same: brightly colored backgrounds with engrossing, hands-on work.

Cindy Lanning, chair for this project, was asked to provide about 20 of these quilts for those at Legacy who, like her mother, need things to keep their minds active and their fingers busy. A local neurologist explained that anxiety is a common companion to Alzheimers disease, and fidgeting is often a manifestation of that anxiety.

Lest you think this workshop was comprised of docile little old ladies, nothing could be further from the truth. CPA Kathy Lupardus prepared the go by fidget quilt and even though this is tax season, shes been quilting for awhile, because, she said, I do left brain stuff at work, so Ive got to have some right brain activities. Both accounting and quilting involve lots of math and precision, she adds. All of the ladies were loving the fun aspect of this project because their work did not have to be as precise as actual quilting.

Kathy Hassell, a former kindergarten teacher, has been quilting since 1995 and even opened her own business, Aunt Kathys Quilts & More, three years ago. She specializes in T-shirt and memory quilts along with memory teddy bears. Her sister, Karla Roth, a 20-year quilter, joined in the fun Saturday while on vacation from her career as an overseas consultant. No stranger to a sewing machine, she even made her daughters wedding gown years ago. That caused Pam Thompson to reminisce about making her two daughters prom dresses. Interspersed with her 20-year quilting hobby are years of donning leather and fringes, mounting her Harley, and taking off for Sturgis, South Dakota, as well as the backroads of Texas with her husband. You might still find her astride her hog if her husband hadnt sold his which left her with no one to ride with.

Other ladies stitching Saturday were also multitalented.

Former Mississippi resident Becky Greenleaf has only been quilting for seven or eight years but is very dedicated, saying she had finally turned off her sewing machine at 10:30 p.m. the previous night. Her background includes a career as a school counselor, work in a quilt shop where she demonstrated Bernina sewing machines and promoted the embroidery business.

Vicky Saxe, a fifth-generation Midlander, is an EOG retiree and the mother of three, including an MPD officer. Her motivation for attending the workshop, besides the camaraderie of the group, was to honor her mother who died last October from Alzheimers.

Brandy Pagett, also a native Midlander and member of St. Lukes, may be the newest member of this group which normally meets at the church on Tuesdays. She claims she was adopted by this family when she brought a 90-something client with Alzheimers to the weekly gatherings. Assisting that lady who loved quilting made it an easy choice for her to continue after the client died.

Lanning learned to quilt via a class at Midland College (which still offers quilting) in 1992 while she was executive director of Keep Midland Beautiful. Shes the organized one who is chairing the annual Quilt Show at Bush Convention Center in October where ladies offer their work for sale.

In the meantime, guild members hand sew quilts of varying sizes for nonprofits in Midland. One special project involves red, white and blue 60-inch-by-80-inch 80 quilts for veterans (of at least six months of active service) who are nominated by friends and relatives. (To nominate someone, please contact Phyllis Price at 432-230-0884). The group makes quilts for Habitat for Humanitys new homeowners, for Hospice of Midland, for Allison Cancer Center, Midland Rape Crisis and Childrens Advocacy Center, for The Fields Edge, and for clients of Midland County Child Welfare Board. Each December, they make quilted placemats for Meals on Wheels recipients.

Saturdays fidget lap quilts could be considered one-of-a-kind works of art. Or they could just be expressions of love from ladies whose talents with needle and thread expand their giving hearts.
Smyrna Town Councilwoman Racquel Peebles finds value in family history

TAYLA COURAGE Smyrna Town Councilwoman and attorney Racquel Peebles thumbs through an album of photographs, newspaper clippings and obituaries that help tell the story of her family, which has lived in Smyrna for more than five generations. SUBMITTED Side-by-side photographs show the property once purchased by Smyrna Town Councilwoman Racquel Peebles great-great-great grandmother, Josephine Gregory, in 1907. The photo on the right shows the Smyrna home Peebles mother, Patricia, lives in today alongside her aunt and uncle, Angela and William. TAYLA COURAGE A collection of family photographs show Smyrna Town Councilwoman Racquel Peebles grandparents, William Alex and Nora Mai (Dillard) Peebles and great-grandparents Lem and Hattie (Gregory) Dillard, who was born in 1896. TAYLA COURAGE Family album photographs show the family generations of Peebles and Dillards of Smyrna Town Councilwoman Racquel Peebles. She credits her late grandmother, Nora Mai, for being a collector of the family artifacts that have allowed her to explore her heritage.

Smyrna Town Councilwoman and attorney Racquel Peebles has carved out her place in local history while diving into more than five generations of Rutherford County relatives.

Rather than relying solely on digital genealogy websites, much of her family history has been tied together in an album of photographs, newspaper clippings, graduation announcements and obituaries that to help piece together the story of her lineage that dates back to the 1800s.

My great-grandmother was born in the 1800s, and my grandmother was born in 1917, said Peebles. I found the deed where my grandmothers great-grandmother bought the property where our house sits now in 1907.

The nearly two acres of property is located in Smyrnas Hilltop area on Nora Peebles Lane, named after her late grandmother, who was once the oldest living resident of the town, according to her 2016 obituary. The matrilineal land ownership was a discovery made after paying a visit to the Register of Deeds, who was able to provide property records for Nora Mais home.

I always find that fascinating, said Peebles on the Progressive Era purchase made by her great-great-great grandmother, Josephine Gregory, just seven years before World War I. That would not have been a normal transaction at that time of the century.

At that time, white women were 13 years shy of winning the right to vote. African American women wouldnt fully get this freedom until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, when literacy tests were no longer required to enter the polls.

Susan Knowles, a PHD research fellow with Middle Tennessee State Universitys Center for Historic Preservation, said it may have been pretty amazing for women to purchase property at this time, but it wasnt necessarily out of the ordinary for minorities to make strides toward land ownership.

I actually think property ownership itself might have been more common in this early period among African American Tennesseans than people know, Knowles wrote in an email. In fact, it seems like one of the first things people tried to do as soon as they could, which makes perfect sense to me.

Knowles and her university colleagues have conducted research on several Tennessee counties on the topic of African American Community-building, and theyve come across property deeds for homes and farms as well as property donations for schools and churches before the turn of the 20th century.

Usually, the property deeds have both the husband and the wife listed if they were a married couple. So, they often are a way to find a womans maiden name and thus research her family history, wrote Knowles. But there are these surprising instances where a woman alone is the purchaser or the donor.

Successful return home

Peebles has called Smyrna home for most of her life. Even during the decade-long period she spent living in Decatur, Ga., where she studied law at Emory University, she knew shed always make it back to the place where people were always kind to her. Its a favor she hopes to return to others.

Shes made her own history by becoming the first African American to be elected to the Smyrna Town Council in 2016 and the first to have a law practice in her hometown as well.

The things that Ive done, Ive never looked at them as trying to be the first. I was just trying to be the best that I could be and to do what God had called me to do, and it just evolved into those things, said Peebles.

After returning to Smyrna in 2003, her quest to learn more continued. Peebles has referenced both birth and death certificates of relatives as well as property records that have pointed her in the right direction on her genealogical journey.

I think that because Im an attorney, and I know how to look for things has helped me tremendously, said Peebles, who recommends keeping patience and persistence in mind. Sometimes they have what are called affidavits of heirship and it will outline family members, like how the property came to be in a persons name.

The family connections

Calling on other family members to turn genealogy into a group project is a bonding activity she believes can bring everyone closer. Her dads side of the family, which hails from the Nolensville area, has kept its history alive through the regular hosting of family reunions.

Peebles comes from a network of people who were involved in the local community. Her grandmother worked in close proximity to elected officials when she served as a domestic worker in the office of Mayor Knox Ridley. She was also a caretaker for several well-known families in town.

Her aunt, Carolyn Peebles, who has also attempted to enter local politics by running for a seat on the Smyrna Town Council in 2010, has made her mark on the community by being one of the first 500 employees to be hired at the Nissan Motor Manufacturing plant when it opened in 1982.

Her 17-year tenure there and active involvement has led to her being recognized with an award this month.

Smyrna has a Lifetime Service Award, where they honor a citizen who served the community and shes the first African American to ever get that award, said Peebles.

Peebles said the greatest thing she has gained from delving into the past has been to feel a sense of connection and belonging. This knowledge is one shes shared with her children Nora, 18, and Gabriel, 14, as a way to uphold their family motto Destined for Greaterness.

Just being able to build on what we know about our family now and the history that we have here in the Town of Smyrna, I want them to be able to take that and do greater things with it, said Peebles.

Her daughter, a college sophomore studying fashion merchandising at MTSU, has used her mothers familial findings to use in her undergrad Tennessee History course.

Its a really cool and interesting thing to see how deep your familys roots go and to understand how you got here and what they went through to get all the way to you and see their legacy play out, Nora wrote in a text message.

She is the namesake of both her maternal great-grandmother, Nora Mai, and her paternal great-grandmother, Irene.

It helps me to feel more connected to my history to my ancestors. It gives me a sense of belonging, Racquel Peebles said. The Bible told us not to be prideful, but I feel proud to know that my family has roots here and that its documented.
Blood Work for Dummies Part 2

Written by PJ Braun

15 February 2022

Blood Work for Dummies Part 2

Think about the choices you make in your life, who are they for and why are you making them.

Limitless Bodybuilding

By PJ Braun

presented by

IIn the last column I went over blood work and some of the glaring things that you have to pay attention to, but didnt get into too much detail so to not overwhelm you. What Im going to do is put together a little cheat sheet for you. The reason I am doing this is to help you better understand what the difference is between healthy ranges and unhealthy ranges, and what the HRT community refers to as optimal numbers. I am going to be giving you what are considered optimal numbers for what a HRT doctor would be striving to have you achieve.

As Ive said plenty of times, I am not a doctor, I do not prescribe medication and I do not try to treat symptoms, sicknesses or illness  this is all just practical application that Ive picked up over the past 20 years working with some of the best doctors in so many different fields.

Lets start with cholesterol, because so many people dont understand what cholesterol is, what it does or even how many different kinds of cholesterol we make and can be tested for.

One of the best cardiologists Ive ever met strongly suggested I start looking at the cholesterol ratio rather than just the total. An optimal total cholesterol peaks at 200 (mg/DL) but you will see two numbers underneath that number. You will see the LDL and you will see the HDL. This is where the whole you need more good cholesterol because you have too much bad cholesterol arguments came in, but most importantly you want the range to be around 3-1 LDL to HDL and that is far more important. So for example, if you have a total cholesterol number of 200 you may think, Oh Im perfect, I am optimal, but the doctor should then show you the difference between your HDL and LDL numbers. Herein lies the problem, especially with bodybuilders using different hormones, aromatase inhibitors and God knows what else that can dramatically affect these numbers  in fact, I have seen total cholesterol around 160 but with a ratio of 12 to 1 and this is very, very dangerous so I will briefly explain why.

Because of the effects from some of these hormones on the body, in particular the heart, we see the good cholesterol, which is the HDL, often dropped very low; Ive seen it in the single digits on many athletes. Why is this good cholesterol so damn important? Because this is the cholesterol that carries the bad cholesterol away from your heart and back to the liver! On the flip side, the bad cholesterol, the LDL, contributes to the buildup of fatty acids in the arteries. This narrows the arteries and increases the risk for heart attack, stroke and peripheral artery disease. And we have heard this one a lot the past few years in bodybuilding, so I wont get myself in a rant about bodybuilders throwing caution to the wind to be as big as possible but afraid to take some heart medication that could very well save their lives.

Another area I always see brought up as a major concern is the liver, and although the liver does repair itself to a degree, this is still an area of lots of concern when bodybuilders get carried away with higher doses of androgens and more specifically oral androgens. This is a very interesting ratio, because the average person should have their AST and ALT anywhere from 50 to 60 depending on the lab or protocol they are on, however there are so many contributing factors to your liver performance  training hard, taking in copious amounts of certain vitamins and ingesting large amounts of protein can all push you out of range. It is very common to be slightly elevated in those areas; even if you are natural but training very, very hard and eating lots of food, you arent letting your liver rest. Some food for thought: when I was an alcoholic, my liver enzymes were always high, sometimes in the triple digits, before I found intravenous glutathione. I could write novels on glutathione and its benefits, but instead Im going to share my own personal experience with it and why I administer 1,000 milligrams intravenously on a weekly basis.

When I went through my divorce and let myself get out of hand with vodka, I ended up in the hospital with a .429 alcohol rating, and they told my mother he wont make it through the night. Whether it was a mothers love or a divine intervention, I was released from the hospital six days later and never took a sip of booze ever again. My first set of labs came back after the first night and my AST and a LT were over 1,200 and over 1,400. They rushed me in to more tests to see if I had alcohol-induced hepatitis, cirrhosis and a bunch of other terrifying things.

The liver is so resilient that at my sixth day in the hospital, my labs came back with both numbers down to the 400s already. As soon as I got home I did an IV of 1,400 milligrams of glutathione, which is such a powerful antioxidant that not only was it killing all of the free radicals in my body, it was also rapidly detoxifying my liver. I felt like a new man already, waited two weeks and then another, then did my labs and the doctors were astounded. I was back in the optimal range over the last four years because of this phenomenon and I decided to run all sorts of mini blast cycles, usually 30-day protocols, with some of the most aggressively liver-toxic (lol, depending on who you talk to you) but I still do once-a-week intravenous glutathione and even on 40 milligrams of Halotestin, my numbers stay in range!

The reason I wanted to share that story is so that you can think about the choices you make in your life, who are they for and why are you making them. Ill tell you personally that nothing good comes from a bottle of booze, in fact if you do it long enough it will kill you one way or another, but when used in moderation its fine just like the things that we put in our body.

Most of you are going to read this and say damn, I got to get some glutathione! Before you do, remember these pointers: nobody has designed an oral, stable glutathione at this time so dont waste your money. The next most common is doing intramuscular shots, but they have to be done frequently and still dont have the same purifying effect. Down here in Florida, you can get glutathione on every corner and every med spa or IV place, and it can be done as a cocktail with things like Myers Cocktail or just a high dose of vitamin C (quick tidbit from the writer: they must add the glutathione at the end of the bag for it to be the most effective; if they pre-mix it, they dont know what theyre doing!)

So how much or how often do you really need to do it? How about this: mild gym life, weekend warrior, once a month. Serious lifter taking gear and messing with other recreational drugs, at least biweekly. And for the top NPC and IFBB athletes, it can only help you to do it weekly; youll feel so much better, your skin will look better, your digestion will be better and this is all stuff you can handle on your own.

There is so much more to talk about with blood and lab work, so expect more in the next column. Thank you all for reading; each time I write one of these columns it brings back the greatest memories of learning all about bodybuilding in Muscular Development! The best of the best!

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UW Graduate Student Develops Assessment Tools to Assist Wyoming Health Division

Danny Burns

A University of Wyoming masters degree student has received a regional Student Leaders in Public Health award to develop tools that will help a Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) program that assists women and children.

Danny Burns, a UW Department of Mathematics and Statistics student from Wall Township, N.J., was among 27 Student Leaders in Public Health (SLPH) program award winners. The program enhances the public health workforce in the Rocky Mountain region, specifically in rural and underserved communities and populations. The program supports students conducting applied health projects and provides opportunities for mentoring and professional development.

Burns, who received his bachelors degree in psychology from Marist College and a neuroscience masters degree from the University of Hartford, is collaborating on the project with his adviser, UW mathematics and statistics Professor Tim Robinson, and the WDHs Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. WIC representatives are Tina Fearneyhough, WIC unit manager for WDH, and Feliciana Turner, the departments performance improvement and health equity manager. Both are in the WDHs Public Health Division.

The collaborative project will use relevant WIC program data provided by the WDH, in conjunction with current best practices from similar states throughout the country, to build easy-to-update statistical models. Burns plans to develop a web app that will allow for WDH employees to update the models by simply entering information on key metrics through a browser. The models will allow for quick and accurate assessment of WIC vendor peer group status, fair and competitive pricing, and fraud detection.

This is an excellent opportunity to get meaningful real-world experience working with data, especially for furthering public health missions, he says. My career goals are to be able to work in the public health sector and with public health/biomedical data, and taking part in this project should be a great launching point.

Burns says thorough analyses on his collaborative project -- with accompanying detailed documentation -- will be conducted to ensure optimal peer group placement based on the most relevant and useful metrics for the state. A plug-and-play application will be developed so that WDH employees can update and compare vendor prices on-demand to make sure all vendors, both currently approved and those awaiting authorization, remain competitively priced, and will have the ability to flag those that are not.

The goal of the collaborative group project is to provide the WDH with easy-to-use tools that will last many years, making the process of vendor-WIC and federal compliance simpler, accessible and more accurate, Burns says. This, ultimately, will most benefit those who rely on WIC services, as more federal dollars could become available, as will more vendor options.

Robinson praises the collaboration between the WDH and UW.

The UW Department of Mathematics and Statistics will be providing an important product for the Wyoming Department of Health through this project and, in turn, Danny will have hands-on training with data science that will be invaluable for him as he prepares for the job market, Robinson says.

If the overall results are successful, other local or state agencies can use the projects data tools, Burns says. He adds that hes extremely fortunate and grateful to have received the SLPH award, and to work with Robinson and WDH professionals.

Having the opportunity to learn in such a setting and being able to showcase my skills while building connections with individuals and institutions such as WDH are invaluable and something I couldnt have imagined just six months ago, Burns says. I couldnt be more excited to work on this project and to help the people and state of Wyoming.
VELMA -- A concerned parent who says he wasnt allowed to speak before the Velma-Alma School Board on Monday night is asking for the resignation of a Comet school board member after a TikTok with hate speech from the school board member surfaced last week.
Horry County Schools' K-12 virtual program will be dissolved beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, but with the caveat that the district staff bring back a viable option for creating another virtual education option in a years time.

In spite of interventions, changes to the program and the diligent efforts of K-12 HCS Virtual teachers, students in the virtual program are approximately twice as likely to fail one or more classes needed for promotion compared to students in brick-and-mortar classrooms, said Horry County Schools Chief Officer of Academics Boone Myrick during a presentation on Monday.

The Horry County Board of Education voted 11-1 in favor of dissolving the virtual school at the end of this school year. District 5 board member Howard Barnard cast the dissenting vote.

Before the vote, the board was split down the middle on the first motion to close the virtual school, with board members Russell Freeman (District 1), Tracy Winters (District 3), Howard Barnard (District 5), Neil James (District 10/vice chairman), James Edwards (District 9) and chairman Ken Richardson voting against closing the school.

After changing the motion to keep the virtual school but barring kindergarten through third grades from participating in it, the opposite tie occurred, with Sherrie Todd (District 2), David Cox (District 4), Helen Smith (District 6), Janet Graham (District 7), Melanie Wellons (District 8) and Shanda Allen (District 11) voting against that motion.

The district's virtual program began in August 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) required a virtual option for families in all districts.

Last month, the districts curriculum committee shared data that showed 42% of the 2,127 HCS Virtual students were failing one or more classes. This included 46% of those in the senior class.
A Wilmington-based research firm has opened a new office in Myrtle Beach, where it is conducting clinical trials on behalf of drug manufacturers.

Trial Management Associates, LLC currently has three trials underway at its 82nd Parkway location, and is recruiting local participants for several more.

Healthy volunteers are needed for vaccine studies, as well as diabetes, obesity, smoking cessation, and rheumatoid arthritis therapies trials, a press release stated. All study-related medical care and procedures are conducted at no cost, and participants will be compensated for their time and travel.

TMA President Phil Dattilo downplayed common fears about side effects, saying that researchers monitor participant health so closely that they sometimes discover unknown conditions.

Patients will know more about their health in a clinical trial than from any doctor, he said in a phone interview. We check bloodwork, run EEGs and give quality of life questionnaires. If we find something abnormal, its our job to let them know.

TMAs next Myrtle Beach trial, a vaccine study for people over 60, is expected to start in April.

Dattilo decided to expand operations after his Wilmington, North Carolina, office became just one of ten locations to run phase two and three trials for Modernas COVID-19 vaccine.

He said the opportunity, which transformed pandemic responses across the globe, came about from a partnership with another Wilmington research firm, which he declined to name due to a non-disclosure agreement.

We had access to a large diversity of patients in the area, from an age standpoint and ethnicity standpoint, he said of Wilmington, adding that pandemic shutdowns required vaccine researchers to recruit participants locally. There was a contract research organization running Moderna trials in Wilmington and a lot of travel restrictions during COVID were brought down. It was really being in the right place at the right time.
The former Shopko building at 1964 W. Morton Ave. could see new life soon after being purchased.

Tom Marx of Marx Commercial Development Co. purchased the property for $1.3 million, according to Morgan County property transactions.

"There is nothing definite planned at the moment," Marx said. "We just purchased the building."

The 101,688-square-foot free-standing building sits on 18.58 acres with 507 parking spaces.

Marx's company will begin marketing the building to see what interest there is, he said.

While the building now is one open space, it could be divided into multiple spaces, Marx said.

"There aren't a lot of players in the market for a big box store space right now," he said. "We might subdivide it up into smaller increments at a later date."

Subdividing it would require plumbing and electrical work, the construction of walls and additional exits, he said.

"If someone only wanted 30,000 square feet, we'd have to do a lot of work," Marx said. "It's not easy or simple to adjust a big building like that."

It could be a while before the building is occupied, he said, noting that any subdividing necessary once potential tenants are found would require that they have blueprints drawn up, get permits and then let the job for bids before work could begin.

"It's a process and won't happen overnight," Marx said. "It could take a year or even two to redevelop the property like that."

There is some minor work that can be completed, but the building is ready if any large business wants to occupy the whole space, he said.

"At some point we will give the exterior a cleaning up, get the Shopko signage down, update the parking lot lighting and make it a little more eye catching," Marx said. "The inside is in good shape. If someone wanted a big box space, it is turn-key ready."

Marx has seen some improvement in the market and hopes to find some interest in the building, he said.

"There has been a lot of activity and interest in businesses moving into smaller business markets," Marx said. "That is encouraging. I don't like seeing vacant buildings, so we'll do our best to get someone in there."
JERSEYVILLE  A Louisiana woman faces charges that include drug possession after a drunken driving arrest.

Dawn C. Stephens, 41, of Louisiana was charged with aggravated battery and possession of a controlled substance in addition to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and improper lane use.

Stephens was stopped by a Jerseyville police officer at State and Adams streets about 3:52 a.m. Feb. 6. Police said they found cocaine in the car.

She is also accused of later striking a corrections officer on the side of the head.

Bail was set at $40,000.
UW Hosts Fourth Annual WOMENgineering Conference Feb. 19

The University of Wyoming Society of Women Engineers (SWE) will host the fourth annual WOMENgineering Conference from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, for Wyoming fifth through ninth grade students.

The free event -- in UWs Engineering Education and Research Building -- offers a variety of engineering workshops, free lunch and T-shirt, and guest speaker Jera Likely, the senior project engineer for Martin/Martin Wyoming. Participants will have the opportunity to meet students, faculty and professionals in various engineering fields.

I was encouraged by many females in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to peruse the field from a young age, and it certainly helped me choose a path, says Tessa Rodgers, the SWE vice president from Lander. Diversifying the field is important for all parties and will create a better future in STEM education and careers.

The goal of the conference is to inspire and empower students to pursue STEM careers. The conference is open to 100 participating students.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women are still vastly underrepresented in the STEM workforce, making up only 27 percent of STEM workers in 2019.

Attending the SWE conference will be a fun experience for students to see how the fields of engineering work and gather hands-on experience of what their future may hold, says Courtney Rainbolt, a SWE Joint Engineering Council representative from Newcastle.

To register or for more information, visit uwyoming.swe.org/womengineering-conference.html.
Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Darold L. Fanshier, 50, of 209 Maple St., Meredosia, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 3:44 a.m. Saturday on a retail theft charge.

VANDALISM

 A brick was thrown through the window of a residence in the 300 block of West College Avenue between 10 p.m. and 11:08 p.m. Sunday.

South Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Jason C. Doyle, 28, of 728 N. East St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:30 p.m. Sunday on charges of possession of a controlled substance and criminal damage to property.

Brown County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Donna M. Bynum, age unavailable, of Jefferson City, Missouri, was arrested at 8:48 a.m. Saturday on charges of speeding, fleeing or attempting to elude a peace officer, concealing a fugitive, obstructing identification, and obstructing justice.

Pike County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Skyler F. Pitzer, 36, of Louisiana, Missouri, was booked into Pike County Jail at 4:31 p.m. Wednesday on a warrant accusing him of aggravated assault.

 Jonathon C. Moore, 22, of Pittsfield was booked into Pike County Jail at 9:17 a.m. Feb. 7 on a charge of driving under the influence.

 Stephan M. Greenwood, 32, of Pittsfield was booked into Pike County Jail at 7:55 p.m. Thursday on a battery charge and on a petition to revoke probation.

 Dennis E. Perry, 62, of Quincy was booked into Pike County Jail at 10:03 p.m. Saturday on charges of burglary and arson.

 Britney L. Singleton, 27, of Rockport was booked into Pike County Jail at 3:46 p.m. Feb. 7 on a domestic battery charge.

 Zachary A. Edens, 24, of Troy, Michigan, was booked into Pike County Jail at 5:03 p.m. Feb. 7 on a domestic battery charge.

 Billy L. Balcom, 28, of White Hall was booked into Pike County Jail at 8:23 p.m. Feb. 7 on a charge of driving while license is revoked or suspended.

Pittsfield Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Tracy L. Wyatt, 45, of Pittsfield was booked into Pike County Jail at 2:11 a.m. Friday on a charge of criminal sexual abuse.

 Ashley R. Squires, 34, of Pittsfield was booked into Pike County Jail at 3:35 a.m. Sunday on a domestic battery charge.

 Jacob M. Frasier, 35, of Pittsfield was booked into Pike County Jail at 10:50 p.m Wednesday on charges of possession of a weapon by a felon and reckless discharge of a firearm.

 Jeremy A. Presley, 39, of Griggsville was booked into Pike County Jail at 12:21 a.m. Sunday on a domestic battery charge.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
The new year is ushering in an unprecedented test for democracies. Democracy around the globe is in peril. As historys most effective and fair form of government, democracy is confronting a confluence of crises.

Freedom House succinctly sums up the global situation heading into 2022: As a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world, democracys defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny, it found.

The world is in the midst of the 15th consecutive year of democratic backsliding. Authoritarianism is on the march. In a brazen example in the heart of Europe, the democratically elected government of Ukraine is under threat by Russia, which has massed nearly 100,000 troops along their common border. From Hungary to Tanzania to Turkey and beyond, elected leaders are attacking civil society, media, and oversight institutions and spreading disinformation.

Some governments have used the pandemic to deploy emergency powers that restrict civil liberties. In addition, citizen trust in government across democracies has plummeted. The United States entered 2022 reliving the horror of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on its democracy. In 2022, elections across several major democracies  Brazil, India, the Philippines among others  will serve as a litmus test on whether leaders with authoritarian tendencies prevail.

But there are signs of hope and promise. The end of 2021 saw major global forums  such as the U.S. Summit for Democracy and the Global Summit of the 78-country Open Government Partnership  convening a countervailing force to renew democracy and push back against the rise of authoritarianism.

A new study published by the organization I lead, Open Government Partnership, assessed democratic reforms implemented over the last decade in scores of countries around the world. It highlights hundreds of transformative efforts that are building citizen trust in democratic governance by making government more open and accountable. Specifically, courageous reformers and activists over the last decade are advancing four broad categories of reforms that can protect and renew democracy going forward.

The first category  opening opaque institutions to fight corruption. Today, 70 governments from Argentina to Ukraine are opening procurement contracts to end corrupt backroom deals. At a time when the Panama and Pandora Papers have unmasked illicit wealth stashed in anonymous corporations, 30 countries like Armenia, Nigeria, and the UK are opening up about who really owns the companies. In another example, Colombia is empowering citizen auditors to monitor COVID-19 stimulus spending on a mobile app to ensure it reaches intended beneficiaries.

The second category  empowering citizens to shape and oversee policies and services that impact their lives, particularly at the local level, such as participatory budgeting in Madrid, Spain, or citizens monitoring services in Kaduna, Nigeria. Reformers are convening people across political divides in Citizens Assemblies to forge shared solutions on contentious policies such as same-sex marriage in Ireland or climate justice in France.

The third category  empowering historically marginalized communities, such as enhancing access to justice for the Roma minority in North Macedonia, or empowering women by targeting the gender wage gap in Jalisco, Mexico.

The fourth category confronting threats to democracy, such as the Netherlands and Canada strengthening the transparency of online political campaigns to curb disinformation.

The imperative now is to scale up these reforms to tackle societal crises and reignite confidence in democracy as the most viable and potent form of government for addressing the needs of people.

The Canadian writer Margaret Atwood noted the duality of democracy  its great power to transform whole nations for the better and yet its own vulnerability and need for constant nurturing.

The fabric of democracy is always fragile everywhere because it depends on the will of citizens to protect it, she wrote. And when they become scared, when it becomes dangerous for them to defend it, it can go very quickly.

The mission of all peoples during this period of unprecedented peril must be to join forces to demand and advance reforms that renew democracy  and protect this most cherished of gifts
We ran a story with Senator Lee Schoenbeck talking on the group Convention of States South Dakota and the group reached out to KXLG to clarify what they represent from their perspective.

Click to check out the original article:

We spoke with the Regional Director of Convention of States, David Schneider who gave an overview

David expands on why they feel this is necessary

There are changes they feel need to be made

North Dakota adopted this just a few years ago and Nebraska a few weeks ago, with little opposition. Texas and Oklahoma can be added to the mix as well.

David recaps how its gone through the session

Senator Schoenbeck was the person that made the motion to essentially kill the resolution this year on the Senate side, stated David

David had comments on Schoenbecks statements in our original article

They have 17 states on board and would need 34 states to call a Convention.

Senator Schoenbeck made a statement in our interview, If you are from South Dakota youd have to have rocks in your head to like this.

Convention of States project is a non-partisan group, so they do not claim Republican or Democrat parties, but they seem to receive more support from Republicans versus Democrats. At this time their opportunity in this years session is over.

Check out the full interview below:
UWs IMPACT 307 to Host Lunch and Learn Series Webinar Feb. 23

IMPACT 307, a University of Wyoming program, will host Foundational Topics for Licensing Intellectual Property, a new Lunch and Learn series webinar, from noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23.

Joshua Brackett, licensing manager for the Wyoming Technology Transfer and Research Products Center at UW, will present the webinar.

A company developing its intellectual property (IP) strategy is an important, and often overlooked, area of business development. One of the most common and effective ways of using IP is licensing. IP licensing can be an advantageous method for startups to grow their business; launch new products and services; and expand into new geographic markets.

In the latest webinar, attendees will gain a foundational understanding of how IP can be licensed from the perspective of a startup founder. Brackett works to market UW-invented or -developed technologies, allowing the transfer of IP to industry. Brackett is a graduate of UWs College of Law and a recently admitted member of the Wyoming State Bar.

The IMPACT 307 Lunch and Learn series is designed to introduce new and existing entrepreneurs to a wide range of business topics. The hourlong educational sessions are held once a month and presented via Zoom.

IMPACT 307, with locations in Casper, Laramie and Sheridan, is a statewide network of innovation-driven business incubators committed to growing and strengthening Wyomings entrepreneurial community by providing resources and support for founders to thrive.

To register for the webinar, go to https://uwyo.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wcvtakhuRqK4FYwfRQgy1Q.

For more information on IMPACT 307s services, call (307) 766-6395 or go to www.IMPACT307.org.
Mariposa County Public Health, if you are sick please stay home View Photo

Tuolumne County Public Health reports the death of a woman in her 60s due to Coivd-19.

There are 62 new Covid cases reported Saturday through today, 43 are community cases, active community cases decreased 85 to 175 including 11 people who are hospitalized. There are 19 newly identified inmate cases at the Sierra Conservation Center from Saturday through Monday. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reports 74 active inmate cases. There have been 2,393 inmate cases according to Tuolumne Public Health. The first wave of inmate cases reaching a peak of 831 cases in 14 days vs. a peak of 775 in the most recent wave. The prisons inmate population is currently 2,930.

The newly reported community cases include three cases age 17 or younger and nine cases age 60 or older. The new Covid cases demographics: one girl age 11 or younger, one girl and one boy age 12 to 17, three women and four men age 18 to 29, two women and seven men in their 30s, three women and five men in their 40s, two women and four men in their 50s, four women and one man in their 60s, and three women and one man in their 70s.

The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County decreased to 51.7 from 67.3 per 100,000 population. The case rate reached a high of 174.8 on January 24th. A total of 125 were released from isolation in all 9,903 have been released from isolation. The 7-day test positivity rate is 9.1% and 62% of the population eligible to get vaccinated has been vaccinated. Vaccination details per case are no longer reported, the state vaccination trends are here.

You can help slow the spread of COVID-19 by 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, public health officials recommend getting vaccinated or boosted.

Calaveras County Public Health reports 43 new cases since Friday, February 11. There are 32 fewer active cases for a total of 42 active cases including six Covid hospitalizations. Calaveras reports positive cases age 17 and under are at 1,400 or more, and cases age 65 and older remain at 1,100 or more, specific numbers are no longer provided. There are 75 more counted as recovered for a total of 6,840 and 57.03% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated in the county.

California Department of Public Health updated health orders and guidance, masks are only required on public transit, in schools (update here), and in care/hospital settings and indoors for those not vaccinated as of February 16. Surgical masks or higher-level respirators (e.g., N95s, KN95s, KF94s) with good fit are highly recommended: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/guidance-for-face-coverings.aspx Details are also in the news story here. Mega events guidance, long-term care, hospital visitation, skilled nursing and care facilities visitation guidance are in yesterdays report here.

COVID-19 Testing Public health recommends scheduling an appointment to get tested 5 days after possible exposure and if you are having any symptoms, to get tested right away. The Tuolumne County State testing site schedule is 7 days a week from 7 AM to 7 PM at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds. Appointments can be 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 2/10 (M/Th) 50 239 (18) 1,538 5,704

(67) Calaveras 2/14 43 42 (6) 2,288 6,989

(107) Mariposa 2/14 13 47 (21) 1,027 2,890

(20) Mono 2/14 10 N/A 981 2,951

(8) Stanislaus 2/14 519 5,997 (161) 31,761 116,566

(1,590) Tuolumne 2/14 62 175 (11) 4,610 12,637 (166) Reported cases at end of 2021 and 2020 Amador updates Monday and Thursday.
Columbia, CAThis years Tuolumne County Poetry Out Loud Contest was recently held at the Fallon House Theater in Columbia. Nine students participated that were selected from three county high schools. Each participant recited from memory, two poems selected from the Poetry Out Loud website, including one that was written before 1900 and one that was fewer than 25 lines long.

The participants were Alissa DeAnda, Valerie Harris, and Lindsey Holland from Summerville, Carmela David, Hannah Husher, Om Patel, and Sarai Saucedo from Sonora, and Dana Brandau and Isabelle Cook from Tioga. Five studentsDeAnda, David,Harris, Holland, and Husher, were selected for the final round, during which each recited a third poem.

Alissa DeAnda is the official county winner and Lindsey Holland is the runner-up. DeAnda next step is submitting a video recitation as part of the state contest where she will represent Tuolumne County. This years state and national competitions will be held virtually. De-Anda recited Diameter by Michelle Y. Burke, The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus,and Cartoon Physics, Part 1 by Nick Flynn. The winner of the state contest will advance to the nationals.

Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry contest that is under the umbrella of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, the California Arts Council, and the Tuolumne County Arts Association.
By Thomas Savage

Little, Brown. 228 pp. Paperback, $16.99

- - -

Jane Campion's outstanding adaptation of Thomas Savage's novel "The Power of the Dog" -- which won three Golden Globe Awards and has been nominated for a dozen Oscars -- finally spotlights a first-rate novelist who never received much recognition in his lifetime, or even well beyond it.

Savage, who died in 2003 at age 88, was, for the most part, ignored -- even in his home state. Montana's famous state literature anthology, a fat book arrogantly titled "The Last Best Place" (1989), made no mention or inclusion of Savage or his novelist wife, Elizabeth Savage. That's inexcusable, given the quality of their fiction.

I've lived in Thomas Savage's hometown, Dillon, for three decades. A generation ago I was advised by a literary friend to read Savage, whom I'd never heard of. I've not looked back.

Over many years I've published several articles about Savage, taught him to college freshmen, led tours through what I've called "Thomas Savage country," and talked him up whenever possible. Last year, I published a biography about Savage that explores this complicated man and his work. In my mind, Savage ranks among the best 20th-century novelists from Montana. Over the course of 44 years, he published 13 novels -- all received kudos from local and national reviewers. Critics such as Doris Grumbach and The Washington Post's Jonathan Yardley consistently hailed his work, regarding Savage as one of the country's first-rate novelists.

Savage was a PEN-Faulkner Award finalist (1989) for his final novel, "The Corner of Rife and Pacific." That's about the only recognition he received other than glowing reviews. During his lifetime, exactly one scholarly article was published about him. At the close of a Publishers Weekly interview in 1988, Savage acknowledged the limitations of his audience, saying: "I'm writing for rather highly educated people, and I think my writing is only going to appeal to people who have extreme sensitivity. This can come by birth or it can come by education. And if you don't have it ... you'll never understand (BEGIN ITAL)me.(END ITAL)"

His books never sold well. Currently only a few of his novels are in print, including "The Power of the Dog" and "The Sheep Queen." Emily Salkin Takoudes, the assistant editor at Little, Brown, who oversaw the publication of Savage's two best novels, estimates that when "Power" was first published in 1967, it sold 1,000 copies at most.

Savage's obscurity became part of reviewers' copy. The author claimed to know almost nothing about marketing his novels or about other Montana writers. In his day, a book launch consisted of one Manhattan cocktail party. With Campion's film (in which I had a small consulting role), perhaps Savage will finally get the rousing toast he deserves.

Campion became obsessed with the novel when her stepmother lent her a copy in 2017. It was not the first time Hollywood took interest in "The Power of the Dog." The novel had been optioned multiple times, with Paul Newman and Gerard Depardieu in mind for the role of Phil Burbank, the book's complicated protagonist, according to Deadline. But Campion's tenacity paid off. Her film captures the harder, harsher human landscape of Savage's brilliant book.

Savage's idea of the West was unlike that celebrated in most popular cultural portraits of the region. He knew a different reality from the inside, and though he left Montana at 22 (but for periodic visits), his imagination remained there. He owned southwest Montana (and Idaho's Lemhi River Valley) in ways that only writers do. He possessed a photographic memory and re-created Dillon, the Beaverhead Valley and Horse Prairie, Montana, from the coast of Maine, where he and his family lived for 30 years and where he wrote most of his novels. Eight of his novels are set in his home ground of Montana's southwest corner. The other five all have Montana connections.

Annie Proulx, long a Savage fan, wrote about him in the afterword to a new edition of "The Power of the Dog": "Something aching and lonely and terrible of the west is forever caught on his pages." Savage's nephew Sandy James wrote a short verse that captures much of Savage's world: "Of mountains and valleys / of cold and cruelty / of stony silence / writes Thomas Savage / queerly."

Savage was gay, though he married a woman and had three children. He loved family more than anything. But in Adrienne Rich's immortal phrase, he was "split at the root," and the sexual and gender tensions infused his life and fiction. Savage's West is also a queer West. His plots don't feature happy endings. He tended to mask his gay self through self-accusation and self-condemnation. Though he claimed to never write autobiography, he wrote deeply autobiographical fiction. He kept rewriting his home ground and town, as well as family members.

Phil Burbank is based on Savage's step-uncle, eccentric William "Bill" Brenner, who died of blackleg just as Phil dies of anthrax. A mechanical wizard, Bill bathed rarely, avoided gloves, didn't go to town and played excellent banjo. Rose Gordon and George Burbank represent versions of Savage's mother, Beth, and his stepfather, Charlie Brenner. Peter Gordon poses the first clear self-representation of Savage, also a stepson on the Brenner (Burbank) cattle ranch. In the next half-dozen novels, Savage fictitiously grows up, and in "Sheep Queen," the protagonist narrator is a middle-aged novelist named Tom Burton.

When Campion visited me in 2018 in preparation for the film, she took dozens of photos of Savage's home ground. When she left the ranch, she looked back and saw the dog formation in rock that she's said felt like a blessing from Savage to make the movie. She and Benedict Cumberbatch have repeatedly saluted Savage's "Power" as a classic in American literature. I hope the movie brings him the recognition he deserves.

- - -

Alan Weltzien is a professor emeritus at the University of Montana Western and the author of 10 books, including "A Father and an Island" and "Savage West: The Life and Fiction of Thomas Savage."
Former News 4 San Antonio personalities are reuniting for a local digital and marketing public relations agencys podcast.

Noisy Trumpet launched Be Heard on Tuesday. Hosted by former Express-News and MySA journalist, Candice Avila-Garcia, guests will include notable members of the media and community leaders. They will share insight about the latest trends, news and challenges of the digital marketing and public relations landscape.

As industry leaders, its a privilege to host the conversations most important to our clients and audience - to be the voice at the forefront of innovation and transformation, said Fran Yanity, CEO of Noisy Trumpet.

In the first episode out now, Noisy Trumpet speaks with former News 4 San Antonio TV personalities who have left the industry and transitioned into public relations.

Courtesy, Noisy Trumpet

Jeff Coyle, a former News 4 investigative reporter with the troubleshooters, is now the Assistant City Manager of San Antonio. In his current role, he oversees the Aviation, 311 and Government and Public Affairs (GPA) departments. Coyle was a reporter for 10 years  seven of those 10 were spent at WOAI-TV before making the switch to public relations according to his LinkedIn profile.

Courtesy, Noisy Trumpet

Darlene Dorsey was a news reporter. She worked for the city in the public works department as the Senior Public Information Officer. Dorsey spent more than six years at WOAI-TV/KABB before making the jump to a communications role.

Courtesy, Noisy Trumpet

The podcast also features Noisy Trumpets Leslie Bohl. She brought you the news from the News 4 anchor desk for more than two decades.

You can tune in and listen to episodes of Noisy Trumpets Be Heard podcast on Apple and Spotify. The plan is to release a new episode twice a month. You can follow Noisy Trumpet on its social media platforms for more information.
Big Bend National Park

After missing for over two weeks, Hector Flores Jr. and his daughter Luna have been successfully located alive and well in the Mexican state of Coahuila adjacent to Big Bend National Park, according to a news release from the National Park Service.

Hector, 49, and his 9-year-old daughter Luna were last seen on January 28 after traveling from Fort Stockton to Big Bend National Park in his blue 2005 Dodge 1500 truck. Flores' truck was found abandoned along the northern end of the remote Old Ore Road with many of their personal belongings inside.
San Antonio's historic $1.2 billion bond caught the attention of national media outlets last week with Mayor Ron Nirenberg calling the package's proposed housing funding was "unprecedented."

On Thursday, February 10, city council pushed the proposed 2022-2027 bond package Thursday on to the May 7 election. The proposed bond's housing portion of $150 million would dramatically expand the city's housing resources. It's important to note, however, that the original proposed amount was for $250 million, though that was later divvied up.

"The proportion of resources that were focusing into the housing ecosystem is unprecedented," Nirenberg tells Bloomberg. We have also essentially quadrupled the amount of resources in our annual budget going to housing."

Bloomberg says the bond's housing initiative is "built on a Biden administration push to end homelessness." Nirenberg chalks the groundwork of housing portion up to Housing Secretary Marcia Fudges laser focus on houselessness and President Joe Biden's "House America" initiative.

The housing bond, if approved, would allocate $25 million towards permanent housing for people experiencing houselessness, and put $45 million toward funding repairs for homes in danger of being demolished, which would lead to orders to vacate the home.

But when the bond package was still in early discussions among city council and community-led bond committees, the original proposed amount for housing bond was $250 million. Council members seemed mostly receptive to the $250 million proposal at an September 29 council meeting, but City Manager Erik Walsh said at an October 13 meeting that $100 million should go to parks.

As of May 2021, there were 1,499 people experiencing houselessness in San Antonio shelters, and 2,013 indentified by street outreach teams who live outside the shelter system, according to the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless' 2021 Point-In-Time report.

In December, a report from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law pointed to an "unprecedented" amount of demolitions and orders to vacate from San Antonio's code enforcement. The city issued 626 orders to vacate and demolish occupied single-family homes between 2015 and 2020.

City officials blasted the report, calling it an attempt to incite fear that the city is not following due process.

Progressive council members Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and Teri Castillo pushed heavily for reforms to the city public housing initiatives. It was one of the issues both candidates campaigned on.

On the day the city council sent the $1.2 billion bond to the election, Castillo sent out a statement on what housing bond funds would be used for and say she owes a "major debt of gratitude" to those in District 5 who engaged in public comment. McKee-Rodriguez said also called the housing bond "first of its kind" and praised the district receiving nearly $80 million for Eastside projects.

MySA reached out to both council members for further comment on the housing bond.

Bloomberg reports that San Antonio has made strides by committing to 860 housing units to extremely low-income households into the development pipeline in December 2021. The city reportedly rehoused about 660 families in four months time.

The city aims to increase those numbers if the bond passes.
U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw was 34 as he entered his first congressional term in 2019 amid buzz that he could be the future of a Republican Party searching for a younger generation of lawmakers.

The Houston Republican had a growing social media following and garnered a sudden national profile after he appeared on Saturday Night Live to accept an apology about an ill-received joke  and take his own swipes at cast member Pete Davidson.

But as Crenshaw now seeks a third term, critics from his right are portraying his style of using sharp retorts to call things as he sees them as a sign that hes not a party loyalist. He faces three challengers in the March 1 GOP primary  and an erosion of support from some former backers who take issue with how he conducts himself, particularly when he calls out fellow Republicans. One of his most vocal primary opponents chief complaints is that Crenshaw accurately rebuts Republican former President Donald Trumps baseless claims that widespread voter fraud cost him reelection in 2020.

Im doing it in my own way, Crenshaw said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. I think the way that I do it is in the most truthful and honest way.

Observers say that Crenshaw remains a party favorite, and hes still expected to clinch the nomination without a runoff. But criticisms from within his party come as experts say last years redistricting process enables more polarizing politics. And the denunciations also fall as a fractured media landscape can create an echo chamber of inaccurate information for GOP voters, depending on the avenues through which they access information.

If youre inside the Republican media ecosystem, its almost impossible to find evidence that youre wrong. Theres kind of a politics of victimhood, said Stephanie Martin, a Southern Methodist University professor who focuses on discourse in conservative movements. So when Crenshaw says, point of fact, the election wasnt stolen, it doesnt just feel like youre being told a truth you dont want to hear. It feels like youre being further victimized.

Crenshaw faces three opponents in next months primary: Jameson Ellis, who describes himself as a self-employed small business owner, public speaker, and family man; Milam Langella, a Marine Corps veteran; and Martin Etwop, a student at Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Ellis is the most vocal challenger of the trio: He frequently calls Crenshaw a RINO  Republican in name only  and rejects the idea that the incumbent is a pro-liberty conservative. Ellis echoes Trumps false claims about the 2020 election results.

What I have a problem with is when you have Republicans like Dan Crenshaw who act and vote like Democrats, and thats why I believe that were in the mess that were in, Ellis said. I also believe that thats why we allowed  the election to be stolen. And its because people wont stand up.

Yet Crenshaws acceptance of the 2020 election results isnt the only thing drawing ire. His recent comments warning about grifters within the conservative base and pointedly criticizing the Republican National Committees censure of GOP colleagues investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection have cost him supporters.

He absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt is the most arrogant politician Ive ever seen, conservative political radio host Michael Berry, a former Crenshaw backer, said on his podcast last month.

Corbin Casteel, a political consultant who was briefly the Texas director of Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, said Crenshaw has remained no nonsense and has not shown himself to toe any line during his time in Congress.

However, Casteel said Crenshaw is being faced with rhetoric from some conservatives who think they need to be vocal to hold on to political office or keep their standing. He said these candidates are the ones who tout crazy ideas, like the idea that the election was stolen.

Those who used to be considered fringe far-right conservatives are now being called moderates by some, Casteel said. When Dan Crenshaw was elected, he was considered one of the next true conservative fighters alongside Ted Cruz. Now, somehow, Dan Crenshaw is considered not conservative enough. And its nuts. Theres no logic to it whatsoever.

Campaigning after Trump

This years midterm elections are the first time Republicans have had to chart a political path for themselves since voters ousted Trump. But doing so requires trying not to alienate the former presidents base while grappling with Trumps firebrand legacy as his role in the violent 2021 Capitol riot is being investigated.

In December 2020, Crenshaw briefly joined a lawsuit to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, but admitted later that month that Biden duly won.

Crenshaw said hes stayed true to his conservative roots, a sentiment with which many supporters agree. He also says he remains supportive of the former president.

Ive always supported the agenda, and we have a good relationship, Crenshaw said. He understands that Im not always going to see eye to eye with him and that Im a pretty straightforward and honest guy about what I think is true and what is not true.

Crenshaw doesnt place himself along a spectrum within the GOP, reasoning that there isnt as big of a spread among conservatives as there is among Democrats. He said the differences among Republicans comes from personality.

Conservatives live in a box  like theres not a big ideological difference between me and Jim Jordan, Crenshaw said, referring to the Ohio Republican who helped found the House Freedom Caucus.

Crenshaw connects the backlash he faces to right-wing radio hosts and influencers who are monetizing outrage and division to increase audience members. Some of his colleagues, he said, buy into this political theater.

The incentive structure is as such: You gain by tearing others down. You tear them down by calling them a RINO or a neocon or some other stupid word, Crenshaw said.

Crenshaw was among 79 Republicans who voted with every Democrat in the chamber to pass House Resolution 550, which supports improving data security of existing vaccine registries.

Some conservatives claimed the resolution would create a new vaccine database, something PolitiFact debunked. Backlash against the resolution prompted Crenshaw to explain the bill in a Twitter thread.

Unfortunately, many Republicans you trust are lying to you, Crenshaw tweeted.

That resolution came up at a candidate forum in Cypress hosted by the conservative Texas Liberty Alliance Political Action Committee. But it was Crenshaws comments on another matter that sparked a new wave of criticism.

In introducing two other congressional candidates, Crenshaw sought to differentiate them from what he called performance artists in Congress  those he said say what conservative voters want to hear.

We have grifters in our midst, Crenshaw said in a clip that went viral. I mean in the conservative movement. Lie after lie after lie. Because they know something psychologically about the conservative heart. Were worried about what people are gonna do to us, what theyre gonna infringe upon us.

Defenders of the Freedom Caucus took his comments to mean he was referencing the GOPs most conservative bloc in the U.S. House. Crenshaw later clarified that he was referencing Republicans who pushed falsehoods about topics like HR 550 to attract support, not specifically the Freedom Caucus at large.

Then last month, Crenshaw drew ire when he told a young woman to not question his faith after she asked him to clarify a quote from a podcast.

To suggest, as Crenshaw typically does, that he is above being questioned by his constituents is a pattern  and a troubling pattern, said Berry, the conservative radio host. I think the tone was inappropriate.

But David Rogers, chair of the board of directors for the Texas Liberty Alliance, said he still backs Crenshaw, citing his support of gun rights and border security.

I think hes stayed true to his word and hes not wavered at all, Rogers said.

A more conservative district

When Texas GOP-controlled Legislature redrew the states political maps during redistricting last year, lawmakers fortified Crenshaws 2nd Congressional District for the states majority party, which also dominates Texas congressional delegation.

The previous boundaries charted a long arc from western Houston to its northeastern suburbs. The new district configuration is more compact and centers around the Houston suburbs like The Woodlands, Spring and Kingwood.

Trump won the previous configuration of the district by 1.3 percentage points in 2020. Under the new map, he would have won by 22.8 points. The new map likely gives Republicans an advantage in the district for the next decade. It also means the winner of next months primary is expected to handily defeat Robin Fulford, the only Democrat running for the seat, in Novembers general election.

Martin, the political communication expert, said a byproduct of making the district a GOP stronghold is that it also opens the door to more pitched intraparty battles.

We normally talk about gerrymandering as something that is dangerous, because it ensures one party or the other wins the election, Martin said. But the other thing that happens with gerrymandering is that it also ensures radicalism in parties. So Dan Crenshaw is really up against the extreme of his party because of what his party has ensured via gerrymandering.

Crenshaw headed into the final stretch of the primary season with more than $4.5 million in cash on hand at the end of 2021 and remains well known and liked among Republicans in the area. His three challengers collectively had less than $15,000 on hand in December.

Ellis, one of those challengers, told the Tribune he doesnt believe the incumbent makes a strong enough stand for freedom. He cited Crenshaws 74% rating from Liberty Score, which evaluates members of Congress based on their voting record. Langella and Etwop did not respond for comment. On a policy level, Crenshaw and Ellis both support gun rights, oppose abortion and want to secure the border.

But Ellis thinks the new district lines will work against Crenshaw because hes suddenly representing a more conservative constituency.

What I see all over the place, not just in person whenever Im meeting with constituents, not just online on social media  everywhere  people are fed up with Crenshaw, Ellis said

If Crenshaw is feeling the pressure, he isnt showing it. He insists he remains a principled conservative, citing his 98% session score from Heritage Action and his A ratings from the National Rifle Association and the National Right to Life Committee.

Ive stood up for conservatism in ways that have actually brought people to the party, Crenshaw said. Im their No. 1 warrior, far and away  because I actually try to persuade people to think like us, which is unfortunately something thats becoming more and more rare.

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University and Texas Southern University - Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
It was love at first sight. A match made in Heaven. Being at the right place at the right time. No matter how you label it, when youve found the one, you feel it was just meant to be.

For KENS 5 anchor, Sharon Ko, that moment came in January when she said yes to the love of her life in a storybook proposal.

It was a Sunday afternoon (in January). We go to this winery Alexander Vineyards in Fredericksburg. We reserved a table. It was a windy day, didn't expect it to be windy. He asks if Im cold and would like his jacket. My hand hit the top of the pocket, and I thought 'what is this perfectly shaped box'.

Courtesy, Sharon Ko

As the sun was setting on what would be the start of her happily ever-after, Ko says he got down on one knee and popped the question.

Ko has been with her now-fiance Bryant for more than six years. She tells MySA they met online and had an instant connection.

I was so blown away by his smile. Hes very handsome and of course our energy connected. Hes kind, intelligent, has kids; I love that aspect of him.

Though theres no wedding date set just yet, Ko says shes looking forward to married life.

Courtesy, Sharon Ko

Im excited to grow with him, with our future, everything we can do as a married couple. I feel very, very lucky that Ive found my person.

Not only did she find her person, but she found the right furry friend to add to her family. Ko adopted Milo just before Christmas last year from San Antonio Great Dane Rescue  a non-profit organization that has a variety of animals waiting for their forever homes.

Courtesy, Sharon Ko

Ko tells MySA she lost her first dog, Boo Bear, just before Thanksgiving of last year.

It was heartbreaking when I lost Boo Bear. I needed a little bit of time. He taught me what matters most and so many life lessons. He will forever be my heart.

Courtesy, Sharon Ko

Fast forward a few months, Ko says she's found new happiness not only in her adopted friend but also in her soon-to-be husband.
After a rabid fox interacted with a person in Kerrville, Kerr County is making sure residents are on alert.

The fox came into contact with a person on February 8 on Main Street and has tested positive for rabies. It's Kerr Countys second official case of rabies in 2022.

Kerr County Environmental Health and Animal Services (KCAS) Director Reagan Givens said Kerr County Animal Control Services were informed about the fox on Main Street. They recovered the specimen and sent it to the zoological lab for testing the following day.

On Friday, February 11, KCAS received a positive rabies test from the fox.

"Rabies is a fatal, but preventable," Givens said. "In our country, rabies is mostly found in animals such as bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes and coyotes, but it can also spread to people from cows, dogs and others."

Rabies affects the central nervous system of its victims. If a person does not receive appropriate medical attention after a possible exposure, the virus diseases the brain and causes death, according to the county press release.

The person that came in contact was not bitten by the rabid fox, but KCAS advised the individual to seek medical attention from their physician.

If a dog or cat has been exposed to a rabid animal, Texas law stipulates that it must be humanely euthanized.

Most of the time, pet owners are not willing to do that. So, the law provides an alternative that must be strictly followed, Givens said.

If a dog or cat that's currently vaccinated is exposed to rabies, then they should be re-vaccinated immediately and restrained/confined for no fewer than 45 days. If the exposed pet has not been vaccinated, then it should be immediately and placed in strict isolation for 90 days, with booster rabies vaccinations in the third and eighth weeks of isolation.

Since the fox was in the city and not on rural property, Givens reminded residents that they can encounter the risk of rabies anywhere, so being prepared is key.

If anyone notices an animal acting strangely, call Kerr County Animal Services at 830-257-3100 or after-hours 830-896-1216.
Fuse/Getty Images

Texas is home to many snake species, but when a non-native creature slithers into the wild, it can cause a stir. That's what happened last summer when a venomous West African Banded Cobra escaped from its enclosure in North Texas. On February 9, the snake's owner was arrested for illegally releasing the creature into the wild, the Dallas Observer reports.

Lawrence Matl, 23, of Grand Prairie was apprehended by authorities for violating the "release from captivity" law under the Texas Parks and Wildlife code.
Courtesy of SAPD

The latest volunteer search for missing 3-year-old Lina Sadar Khil has come up empty. Nonprofit the Eagles Flight Advocacy and Outreach hosted another search with Lina's family along a San Antonio greenbelt on Sunday, February 13.

"Bittersweet ending to the last search on the greenbelt," the group wrote in a Facebook post. "My prayer is that we are one day closer to Lina being back in the arms of her family."
A Democratic nomination fight is brewing in one of Texas most liberal congressional districts. This prize fight captures parts of Austin and San Antonio and features two local political heavyweights: former Austin City Council member Greg Casar and state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez.

Casar is a local lightning rod, synonymous with some of the most progressive policies in Austin, including a push to reduce the city police budget and a measure  later overturned by voters  that allowed homeless people to camp in tents throughout the city. Casar is armed with an endorsement from Democratic superstar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who visited San Antonio and Austin this weekend to rally for him.

Rodriguez, on the other hand, is a longtime Democratic fixture who has steadily climbed the ranks of local and state politics  a former Travis County Democratic Party executive director who has spent the last 19 years in the state House. He lacks some of Casars progressive flash but is also unburdened by policies passed by the City Council that may have soured moderate Democrats and attracted powerful Republican adversaries.

The question ahead is, what kind of Democrat do voters want to send to Washington from the Texas 35th Congressional district?

There are two other competitors for the open seat, though Casar and Rodriguez are the most well known in the northern portion of the district.

In this case, voters have two options with two different perspectives on how we should address really important issues like public safety, affordability and housing, Travis County Democratic Party Chair Katie Naranjo said of Rodriguez and Casar. Were going to find out how progressive CD 35 is.

The 35th district, currently held by Congressman Lloyd Doggett, includes East Austin, runs south along the eastern side of Interstate 35, and extends into eastern San Antonio. Doggett is running in the newly created 37th District, which came about because of Texas massive population growth.

Other Democrats vying against Casar and Rodriguez include Austin consultant Carla-Joy Sisco and former San Antonio Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran.

In fundraising, Casar heads into early voting on Tuesday with the best hand. He raised $468,000 in the most recent reporting period and had $356,000 in cash on hand. In comparison, Rodriguez raised $251,000 and reported $220,000 in cash on hand.

From activist to council member

At age 25, Casar became the youngest person ever elected to the Austin City Council in 2014.

Casar first became enamored with Austin as a teenager, when he came to town to compete in the Texas Relays as a track star from Houstons Strake Jesuit. After he earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia, he moved to Austin to become an activist.

Next to Austin Mayor Steve Adler, Casar was the most prominent city leader in a dispute over homelessness that has consumed Austin civic life for more than two years and landed the capital city in national headlines for its handling of its unhoused population. In 2019, the council loosened the rules on homelessness, leading to tented encampments in parks, downtown and under Interstate 35.

A backlash ensued that included a political action group and by 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a bill overriding the City Council efforts in May. Earlier that month, the opposition went local, as Austinites reinstated the encampment bans.

Casar defended his efforts to lift the tent ban, saying it led to other efforts to provide funding for housing and services.

My takeaway is if we look back a couple of years from now, and we were able to house hundreds or thousands of people that otherwise would have been under bridges and keep people safe and from dying that would otherwise die, then this was the right thing to do, Casar said.

Rodriguez argued the encampments are not safe for the homeless or the rest of the public. He said his strategy of using state laws to expand the work of Community First! Village, a nonprofit that houses homeless individuals on campuses in Austin, is a more effective solution.

Casar also spearheaded a 2020 effort to cut $150 million from the Austin Police Department, which came amid reports of police injuring protesters who were organizing after the death of George Floyd. That move, part of a national movement by progressives to defund the police, again drew Abbotts ire and was featured in Republican ads attacking Democrats. Once again, Abbott and the Legislature passed a counter measure in response.

Rodriguez points to the Republican response as his primary case against Casar, arguing that with that style or brand of progressive, there are consequences to it.

Rodriguez voted against both of those Republican bills, but said hes frustrated that Casar and the City Council employed methods that would attract such a strong state legislative response.

Were here in the capital city. Weve seen a backlash already, Rodriguez said. Now theres a state law that now prohibits cities from cutting in any way the budget of law enforcement without having to go to the governors office and talk about why theyre doing it.

That was not a thing before this council did what they did, he added.

Casar argued that because he and his allies brought the issue to the forefront, Austin innovated its emergency response apparatus, which included an option for 911 callers to seek mental health services rather than a police response.

Was there a backlash from the governor? Yes, Casar said. Is the answer to backlash from the governor to just not have mental health responders? No. The answer is no.

Now as a federal candidate, he has both local and national backing, counting among his endorsers Ocasio-Cortez of New York, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, most of the state and local unions, prominent Austinites like Adler and former state Sen. Wendy Davis, plus a slew of mostly municipal officials in Austin, San Marcos and San Antonio.

He counts himself as progressive in the mold of national figures like Ocasio-Cortez, but he also pointed to another Democrat with a growing profile, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington.

She has been so helpful to me in getting a good, strong sense on how to be a progressive who both fights and delivers in Congress, he said of Jayapal. Its important to be able to do both, to be able to both fight and deliver, he said.

In his television advertising, Casar promises to support Medicare for All, fix the power grid and pass regulations to fight global warming. He also backs a $15 dollar federal minimum wage.

From day one, I was impressed that Greg held his positions strongly but he understands that to win youve got to build a coalition, and thats really important for any Democrat, said Matt Angle, a longtime Texas Democratic strategist who donated to Casars campaign.

Angle also raised a critique of Rodriguez.

From the outside looking in, it sure looks like Greg is outworking Eddie, he said.

Dean of the Travis County delegation

At the same time, Rodriguez brings his own strengths to the race.

A native of the Rio Grande Valley, Rodriguez attended the University of Texas at Austin for both his undergraduate and his law degrees. He got his political start as a former state legislature chief of staff and went on to be the top staffer at the Travis County Democratic Party.

In 2002, he was elected to the state House, just as Democrats lost control of the chamber. After 19 years in the chamber, hes the dean of the Travis County state legislative delegation.

As part of the group of state Democrats who fled to Washington last summer in protest of the state GOPs efforts to pass the elections restrictions law, Rodriguez had a front row seat to Congressional negotiations over the unsuccessful effort to pass the federal voting rights bill.

I had never really thought about running for Congress, to be honest with you.  [Washington] seems somewhat dysfunctional, he said.

But that time in Washington resonated with him, and an opportunity presented itself after the release of the new maps. He promises to continue the voting rights advocacy should he serve in Congress.

Rodriguezs case to the voters is one of pragmatism.

They want a progressive that actually gets things done, Rodriguez said of district voters.

Rodriguez points to his work at expanding the childrens free breakfast program and expanding students opportunities to earn college credit in high school. He is currently the policy chair of the Mexican American Leadership Caucus and is a past vice chair in the organization.

His colleagues lined up behind him, including Democrats who represent Travis and Bexar Counties: state Sen. Roland Gutierrez and state Reps. Sheryl Cole, Philip Cortez, Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, Vikki Goodwin, Gina Hinojosa, Donna Howard, Celia Israel, Ray Lopez and Trey Martinez Fischer.

The Rodriguez camp is concentrating on a direct mail campaign, and he said that his leaner way of doing things, much more surgically will offset Casars financial advantage.

Right now, an equal number of people dont know who any of us are that are running, thats just a fact, he said. Its about communicating my message. Right now, I really do think Im out-communicating him.

Both Casar and Rodriguez count Austin as their political base, but observers point to Viagran, the former San Antonio councilwoman, as a potentially strong enough contender who could force the race to a May runoff.

Despite the emphasis on Austin, the district is nearly evenly split between the two population centers, with Bexar County making up about 40% of the district. Travis County hosts 39% of constituents while Hays County is the largest of the in-between counties at 18%.

Carla Astudillo and Chris Essig contributed to this report.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg threw his full support behind his former chief of staff Ivalis Meza Gonzalez as early voting kicks off. Here's what you need to know.

Nirenberg tweeted a video Sunday expressing his support for Meza Gonzalez's campaign. While Nirenberg has been seen at campaign events for 2022 primary candidates, this is his first explicit endorsement of a candidate. The San Antonio mayor even says in the tweet that he doesn't "often wade into partisan political races."

"She was my right hand as chief of staff of the mayor's office during a very challenging time for San Antonio," Nirenberg says in the video.

He says her work included COVID-19 response, economic recovery, housing policies, and equity framing for city policies.

Nirenberg's support adds even more fuel to Meza Gonzalez's campaign. The candidate has also received an endorsement from Congressman Joaquin Castro and former Texas state senator Leticia Van de Putte.

Meza Gonzalez faces longtime District Judge Peter Sakai and State Rep. Ina Minjarez on the Democratic ballot. Early voting began this week.

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How the avocado ban affects San Antonio

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George Strait, H-E-B team up for Super Bowl

If you were watching the Super Bowl this past Sunday, then you probably caught a collaboration between country icon George Strait and H-E-B for an ad that was out of this world.

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DeLorean to set up HQ in San Antonio

Years after the last DeLorean coupe was made, the second iteration of the company plans to revive production in San Antonio with a new electric vehicle.

Read more here.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Facebooks parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., saying the technology conglomerate infringed on the states privacy protections by using facial recognition technology on its users without their consent.

Paxton filed the suit, which he said could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in civil penalties, in state court in Harrison County on Monday, the first day of early voting in the March 2022 primary. He announced the suit at a press conference in Marshall, an East Texas town represented by one of his most prominent Republican challengers, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert.

Paxton said Facebook collected facial geometries without consent and sent the information to others for profit.

Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of ones safety and well-being, he said. This is yet another example of Big Techs deceitful business practices, and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans privacy and security.

A Meta Platform Inc. spokesperson said in a short statement that the Texas lawsuits claims are without merit, and the company will defend itself vigorously.

The lawsuit accuses Facebook of violating a 2009 state law that requires people to obtain consent before capturing a biometric identifier of an individual. State law imposes a $25,000 penalty for each unlawful capturing of an identifier, Paxton said. The lawsuit also accuses Facebook of deceptive trade practices, which would each incur a $10,000 penalty.

Facebook ended its use of facial recognition last November and said it would delete more than a billion users facial templates. The state is asking for Facebook to maintain relevant data for the investigation.

Facebook has, for over a decade, built an Artificial Intelligence empire on the backs of Texans by deceiving them while capturing their most intimate data, thereby putting their well-being, safety, and security at risk, the lawsuit says.

A similar lawsuit played out in Illinois, where Facebook settled a class action lawsuit last year over its facial recognition practices. The social media company agreed to pay $650 million for violating Illinois biometric privacy law, which requires users consent before facial data is recorded.

Facebook introduced a facial recognition opt-out in 2017, and late last year, when it announced the end of the facial recognition system, the company said it would no longer track users who opted into the system.

The Texas lawsuit also outlines some concerns that Facebook's parent company would still collect facial recognition data on its other platforms such as Instagram and the soon-to-debut virtual reality metaverse.

The biometric data Facebook collected is unique and unchangeable. Facial recognition technology is increasingly used in a persons day-to-day life, such as when unlocking a phone or accessing a bank account. The lawsuit said such information being compromised would increase the risk that criminals will access these unique identifiers and encroach into virtually every aspect of their owners lives.

Paxtons lawsuit is the latest in a string of official actions against big technology companies as conservative backlash festers against them.

Earlier this month, he announced that his office joined a brief accusing Apple of violating antitrust laws by monopolizing app space in its mobile store. Last week, he opened an investigation into GoFundMe after it pulled down an online fundraiser for the Freedom Convoy of Canadian truckers, a group protesting pandemic restrictions. He also sued Google in January, accusing the company of deceptive advertising in support of its smartphone.

Paxton is seeking to avoid a runoff in his bid for reelection as his opponents question his fitness for office. He was indicted in 2015 on state securities fraud and faces an FBI investigation into allegations of bribery made in 2020 by several of his former top lieutenants.

Paxton has particularly targeted Gohmert in his bid for reelection, running attack ads against the conservative congressman on TV in East Texas and on Facebook. Paxton also faces prominent challenges from Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman.

When asked whether announcing the lawsuit in Marshall had anything to do with Gohmert, Paxton denied any connection. He said the lawsuit has been planned for a long time, and Gohmerts bid in the attorney generals race has nothing to do with it. Paxton said while he could have filed the suit anywhere in Texas, it seemed appropriate to announce the lawsuit in Marshall where he filed the case.

Disclosure: Apple, Facebook and Google have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originall

y appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/14/paxton-facebook-privacy-lawsuit/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
My Nashville Post role has evolved since 2000 when I joined the now-defunct The City Paper. TCP became a Post sister publication in 2008 (when I began doing some Post work) and folded in 2013. I have been managing editor of the Post since late 2011.

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(Natural News) Amnesty International has issued a statement Friday smearing the peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters in the city of Ottawa as violent racists.

(Article by James Anthony republished from ThePostMillenial.com)

The international non-governmental organization focused on human rights joined the mob thats attempting to frame the largely peaceful trucker demonstration as a scene of violence, despite abundant footage of hugging, dancing, and singing.

Amnesty International Canada is deeply troubled by the reports of violence, harassment, intimidation, and hate speech which have surfaced since January 29th, said Amnesty International Canada Secretary General Ketty Nivyabandi. Nazi flags, Confederate flags, and other symbols of racism and hate exhibited have no room in peaceful protests. Equally concerning is the affiliation of some of the Convoy organizers with overtly racist, white supremacist groups.

The UK-headquartered group claimed that the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, Algonquins of Pikwakanagan, the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg have also expressed concerns about the misuse and appropriation of sacred, traditional objects and ceremonies.

Amnesty Internationals statement clashes with video evidence of Indigenous groups actively taking part in the protests themselves. An Indigenous Clan Mother blessed the Freedom Convoy on its second day of protest in Ottawa. Other minorities such as two Indian protesters joked on camera, calling themselves the white fringe minority that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned of.

Authorities hold an equal international obligation to protect people from violence and harassment, and to respect the rights of all protesters to peaceful assembly and expression of their views. Violence and harassment however are not part of exercising the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, Nivyabandi said.

Amnesty International is calling on authorities to take immediate and appropriate action to facilitate peaceful protests, while investigating and holding those perpetrating violence or inciting hate to account, added Nivyabandi.

Read more at: ThePostMillenial.com
(Natural News) Australian radio and television personality Deborah Knight returns on air with shingles, two months after her Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) booster injection.

Knight, the host of Afternoons with Deborah Knight on 2GB 873 radio in Sydney, was also affiliated with 2CC 1206 in Canberra and is the weekend host on Nine Networks A Current Affair.

A veteran journalist, Knight announced on February 7 that shes back on deck at 2GB radio as she continues to battle with shingles, which is a reactivation of the chickenpox and results in a painful rash that can be treated with antiviral medication and pain relief.

Knight previously used her platforms to promote and encourage experimental COVID-19 vaccines since the beginning of 2021. She received her Pfizer vaccine on May 31, declaring that shes feeling fine after. She received her second shot on June 21. As per her Twitter account, Knight received her booster on December 11. (Related: Australia cancels COVID vaccine trial over unexpected false positives for HIV.)

Shingles is a common and well-documented adverse effect of the mRNA vaccines despite mainstream media saying that they are rare. A Twitter user even went so far as to tell Knight about it, but the journalist dismissed the warning, saying that shell stick to the medical experts and their advice.

Shingles and the COVID-19 vaccine

Shingles is a fairly common condition that usually affects around 20 to 30 percent of people in their lifetime, and the risk of developing the disease usually increases with age.

There had been reports of people experiencing a shingles flare-up after receiving their coronavirus vaccines, and it may be possible that it is an immune response that might trigger a flare. Others suggest that this may not be an adverse event, but merely a coincidence.

To prevent the transmission of the coronavirus, health experts have been pushing people to receive their doses as soon as possible. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention insists that they are safe and effective despite the thousands of adverse effects and deaths recorded post-vaccination.

Researchers who continue to monitor the safety of the vaccines say that there is evidence suggesting that a shingles flare may be an adverse event. A small study in 2021 involving 491 vaccinated individuals in Israel showed six participants experiencing shingles after getting their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. All six individuals had pre-existing conditions that lowered their natural immune response and have fully recovered from the disease.

The study prompted researchers to advocate for more studies regarding the vaccines and to look into whether or not they can serve as triggers for shingles.

However, a separate systematic review still indicates that there is no definitive link between the vaccine and shingles.

In two known cases of shingles eruptions in adults after vaccination with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, both individuals previously had chickenpox. While the researchers noted that these cases may be coincidental, they also highlighted the potential influence of stress and immune response to the vaccine.

Shingles reactivates when there may be some mild derangement caused by stress and other things like immune-suppressing medications and intercurrent illnesses, which allow the virus to then begin reactivating and producing the shingles, said Dr. Gerald Evans, chair of Queens Universitys infectious diseases division in Kingston, Ontario.

Researchers also noted that following vaccination, some may experience lymphocytopenia, or lower levels of white blood cells, which could be sufficient to trigger a reactivation that could result in a flare.

More related stories:

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A colossal coverup of countless COVID vaccine coincidences.

SHOCK: German physicians discover astonishing impurities in COVID vaccine.

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COVID vaccine rollout linked to rise in deaths, according to published data.

Watch the video below to learn more about the possibility of developing shingles.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

Follow Pandemic.news for more updates related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sources include:

TheCOVIDBlog.com

MedicalNewsToday.com

Healthline.com

AJC.com
(Natural News) Maxime Bernier, leader of the conservative Peoples Party of Canada (PPC), is being prevented from properly participating in his political role as leader of the party due to the countrys Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate.

To help Bernier get back his freedom of movement, the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), a conservative legal advocacy organization, has filed a legal application in Federal Court on his behalf asking for a judicial review of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus vaccine mandate. (Related: Canadas Freedom Convoy invokes waves of protests against Canadas COVID mandates.)

On Oct. 30, 2021, the federal government of Canada announced a new COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Anyone traveling by air, train or ship must be fully vaccinated.

The vaccine mandate for air travel, titled the Interim Order Respecting Certain Requirements for Civil Aviation due to COVID-19, No.53, went into effect on Jan. 28. With very few exceptions, it prevented anybody who is not recognized as fully vaccinated from traveling by air.

This has prevented Bernier from fully participating in democratic discussions and the electoral process as the leader of the fifth largest political party in Canada.

For most of 2021, before the vaccine mandate went into effect, Bernier had to do a lot of traveling to garner more support for the PPC, especially since the Canadian parliament had an election in late September. He had to fly nearly 50,000 miles all over Canada as part of his work.

Access to domestic flights allowed Bernier to fulfill his role as leader of the PPC by reaching out to thousands of people all over the country. It also allowed him to participate in various political, intellectual and charitable activities. Without access to domestic flights or even long train rides, it is no longer feasible for him to continue doing his job the way he used to.

Transport vaccine mandate segregates Canadians, prevents health freedom advocates from organizing

The COVID-19 zealots are attempting to gag dissenting voices like mine by any means possible, said Bernier. One such tactic is to prevent people from meeting and organizing politically. The courts must put an end to this segregation.

According to the JCCF, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides Canadians with the right to mobility, allowing them to freely enter and leave the country and travel unhindered between Canadian provinces and territories. The Charter also guarantees citizens like Bernier equal access to political institutions, public debate and the electoral process.

According to the JCCF, the air travel vaccine mandate is discriminatory and a clear violation of the constitutionally protected rights of Canadians.

The mainstream media give me almost no air time. I have to go and meet people all across Canada to keep my party growing and get the word out. If I have to travel the equivalent of 14 times the distance from Victoria to St. Johns in a year, Im certainly not going to do it by car or bike, said Bernier.

Democracy is not the property of the vaccinated, nor is it some kind of reward for well-behaved children, noted Samuel Bachand, primary counsel for the JCCFs chapter in the province of Quebec. All Canadians of all political affiliations must be free to travel. Canada is the only country in the developed world that has banned vaccine-free travelers from air travel, and yet we are supposed to be one of the most democratic countries in the world.

More related stories:

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Food shortages begin in Canada following trucker covid vaccine mandate.

Watch this video and hear Maxime Bernier speak at a press conference in support of the Freedom Convoy.

This video is from the Bright345 channel on Brighteon.com.

Read the latest articles regarding the vaccine mandate in Canada at Vaccines.news.

Sources include:

LifeSitenews.com

NetNewsLedger.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) repurposed a health tracking system as a surveillance tool. From its original purpose to curb the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), the health code system is now used to monitor citizens and restrict their movement.

The health code system was first used in the city of Hangzhou, capital of the eastern Zhejiang province. It originally had three colors  green, yellow and red  but orange was later added. The new addition signified that the person assigned this color lives in a pandemic prevention zone.

During the launch of the health code in Hangzhou last Feb. 11, the number of applications surpassed 1.3 million. Under the health code system, only those with green codes could pass through the city. Those with other colors either had to self-isolate or meet certain COVID-19 test requirements until their colors could be changed to green.

The citys health code system is based on the provinces Government Cloud health engine, developed by Jack Mas Alibaba Group. It runs through the Alipay port on peoples mobile phones  allowing the devices to decide if someone can travel or not.

A spokesperson for Alibaba affiliate Ant Group said the company does not have any data on health codes. Ant Group added that the Chinese government manages the standards and information used in the health code system. Ant Group helped develop the health code technology in its early days.

Following the success of the health codes, other derivatives have also risen across the country. These include the enterprise code, home harmony code, cold chain code, non-custodial code and more. (Related: Beijing using the coronavirus pandemic to expand internet surveillance apparatus.)

The non-custodial code is used to monitor criminals via their mobile phones, without the need for electronic tracking devices such as bracelets or ankle rings. Criminals who are not in custody of law enforcement  such as those released on bail pending trial, those under residential surveillance and those released on parole for medical treatment  are tracked using the non-custodial code.

Chinese surveillance adjusting with the times

Several pundits put in their two cents on the communist countrys surveillance through the health code. Former Capital Normal University associate professor Li Yuanhua told the Epoch Times: The CCP uses big data and technology and uses the guise of providing services to the population to carry our authoritarian and totalitarian surveillance.

During this pandemic, in particular through the health code, each persons information is collected into the hands of the CCP. If the information is not used as they claim, but is instead used in a bad way, then the CCPs public security apparatus can use it to monitor anyone.

According to Li, the CCP is no stranger to surveillance. In the past, Beijing utilized small foot detection teams consisting of elderly women sitting at the entrances of villages and residential communities. They contributed to restricting the populations movement by watching people and spotting anyone who was not a local in the area. But as time passed and new technologies became more available, the CCP adapted its surveillance methods.

He also pointed out why implementing such a scheme in the West would be difficult. The health code policy is difficult to implement in Europe and the U.S. because these countries have strict legal requirements for privacy-sensitive data. [Meanwhile,] the most important thing for the totalitarian CCP dictatorship is to monitor everyone, said Li.

More related stories:

Chinese Communist Party ramps up surveillance in the guise of fighting coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus being used as justification to implement a total surveillance society.

Big Brother is here: Governments exploit pandemic to normalize surveillance.

The coronavirus outbreak is sparking the rollout of more digital surveillance.

Singapores COVID tracking turns it into a veritable surveillance state.

Watch how the CCP quickly changed to red the health codes of potential COVID-19 close contacts.

This video is from the Take down CCP channel on Brighteon.com.

Surveillance.news has more about Chinas use of COVID-19 software as monitoring tools.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Veteran physician Dr. Syed Haider told The Dr. Ardis Show host Dr. Bryan Ardis that he will not recommend remdesivir as treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

No, absolutely not. I mean people come to me and they asked me What do you think about remdesivir? And I just I kind of cringe. I would not take it and I wouldnt recommend somebody take it or accept it to be given to them, Haider, a board-certified internal medicine doctor, said during the February 9 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show on Brighteon.TV.

The World Health Organization [WHO] itself doesnt recommend remdesivir. And its based on the data. There was just no good data to suggest that remdesivir should be used. Now theyre trying to push it for people.

Remdesivir is a nucleotide prodrug of an adenosine analog that binds to the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and inhibits viral replication by terminating RNA transcription prematurely, which it has demonstrated in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Ardis noted that the NIH updated its actual protocols and guidelines to treat COVID-19 patients and that remdesivir is the one drug the agency said is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Haider pointed out that there is a huge double standard in medicine, with American health institutes deciding to push through with the COVID vaccines for young children and newborns without testing it and with no or very little evidence. He also cited the benefits of using hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as a COVID treatment which was completely ignored in favor of remdesivir. (Related: Is remdesivir increasing peoples risk of needing to be hospitalized for covid?)

They are not harmless things. So the risk benefit ratio is kind of way off. And then you look at something like hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin where the benefits far outweigh the risks. So its hard, they dont really have a leg to stand on. Its hard for me to understand how they can with a straight face encourage the use of these drugs or even approved them, explained Haider, who spent over 15 years in corporate healthcare aside from helping over 40,000 patients.

Haider, a doctor currently based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said that there were only five hospitalizations and zero death out of the 5,000 patients who came to him for COVID treatment. He estimated up to 400 hospitalizations and five deaths among his COVID patients if he had done the standard CDC and FDA recommendation.

Ivermectin has tremendous results as COVID treatment

The physician said he recommended ivermectin twice a week for his COVID patients who were mostly over 50 years old, and it has tremendous results.

And these results  they are the same results the doctors are seeing all over the country and all around the world. Just incredible results from everywhere. Dr. Zelenko, like you mentioned off air, hes had great results. Down in California, Ive seen tremendous results, said Haider.

The Puerto Rico-based doctor also recommended the use of over-the-counter treatments like hydrogen peroxide which he said really simple to use.

You can dilute it down to one percent, do gargles, mouth rinse, nose rinse every three hours, even if you think youre coming down with it or you might have been exposed to it. It just kills the virus on contact. I mean, Ive seen tremendous results with just this one intervention, Haider said.

He also revealed that he has added fluvoxamine along with hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as the backbone of his COVID protocols.

The internal medicine physician added that the progress of COVID variants has posed a problem since it is getting harder to treat. He disclosed that he had to use higher doses of ivermectin aside from adding hydroxychloroquine and fluvoxamine.

Haider also emphasized the importance of checking websites of medical professionals to get a free book that will tell people how to take all the over-the-counter stuff that they will need.

He further advised people to get the necessary COVID drugs into their medicine cabinets before they get sick.

More related stories:

The dangers of remdesivir to treat COVID-19 patients in hospitals  Brighteon.TV.

Japanese study finds that ivermectin is safe and effective for treating covid.

Covid vaccines are causing micro blood clots in millions and theres no medical solution.

COVID-19 vaccine spike proteins are SHEDDING, giving people heart attacks, strokes and more.

Doctor who developed HCQ protocol has now successfully treated thousands of COVID-19 patients.

Watch the full Feb. 9 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show below. The Dr. Ardis Show airs every Wednesday at 10-11 a.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Follow Outbreak.news to know more about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

DrSyedHaider.com

Covid19TreatmentGuidelines.NIH.gov
(Natural News) President Joe Biden announced in December 2021 that his administration will be distributing five hundred million free COVID tests for Americans so that they can test themselves before attending social events, work or school in real-time. While this may seem like a reasonable approach, it is a bad idea in the grand scheme of things.

Lawyer Nancy Ana Garner elaborated on that when she gave a statement on false PCR tests at the Grand Jury Proceeding by the Peoples Court of Public Opinion.

In her opening statement, Garner said the basis of the pandemic was a big lie to begin with  especially with PCR test being used as a basis for diagnosing the disease.

The inventor of the test, Nobel Prize winner Kary Mullis, said that the process he invented was never intended to be a valid diagnostic tool as it cannot detect active infection. However, the test has still been used to create worldwide panic and compliance. (Related: Coronavirus RT-PCR tests are being used to mislead people amid the pandemic, says health expert.)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also admitted that its own test was based on contrived samples. Further, the World Health Organization recommended grossly excessive cycle thresholds. These thresholds determine whether or not there was anything present in the samples. The WHO standards are far beyond that of the industry, rendering the tests meaningless with false-positive results.

Garner went on to say that there had been studies that showed the false-positive rates of the PCR tests to be closer to 97 percent, which means that only three percent of the population who tested positive may be sick with something. However, it is not clear what theyre sick with because the test does not determine that, either. The tests have been globally misused to justify the existence of a pandemic and determine falsely inflated case and death numbers.

She also went on to say that the coronavirus is a global lie that governments say is widely dispersed to allow them to declare public health emergencies. From these emergencies, almost two years in the making, the governments were able to mandate draconian restrictions, separation and isolation of vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly. (Related: CDC admits PCR tests are a fraud so what about the last two years, then?)

With the worldwide testing of healthy people, governments grossly inflated the number of cases and allowed it to be broadcasted by mainstream media to incite panic and compliance among their citizens.

Bidens PCR distribution can increase false positives

The number of rapid tests that the Biden administration wants to distribute to Americans for free will be used to test both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. With a generous assumption of one percent background disease prevalence and 98 percent specificity, there will be around 9.9 million false positives resulting from the tests: that is not a low number by any means.

A chart from BMJ also noted that there are 1,980 false positives for every 670 true positives, giving a 75 percent false-positive rate. A more realistic assumption, however, would be a 0.5 percent disease prevalence and 90 percent antigen test specificity, which showed a 97 percent false-positive rate.

For the CDC to define a case as a positive result only is also not correct, as it can lead to very large numbers of false positives being misidentified as cases. The trend, which goes too far, finds people in a casedemic, not a pandemic.

To get out of this scenario, governments must stop focusing on the number of positive test results. Singapore, for instance, focuses on hospitalization rates for tracking the severity of the pandemic and for forming their pandemic policy choices.

Learning to live with the virus in the long term will require changes in both mindset and policy. Relying on Covid-19 hospitalizations as the most important metric to track closely will provide the most reliable picture of how an area is faring with the virus, said Monica Gandhi, professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

And by focusing attention on the number of hospitalizations, health professionals can better focus on reducing them. This becomes especially important as case counts become more complicated.

More related stories:

PCR tests and the rise of disease panic.

PCR tests once again proven fraudulent.

Portuguese court rules PCR tests are unreliable, unlawful.

The CDC admits: PCR tests cannot differentiate between CORONAVIRUSES.

Pandemic fraud exposed: CDC admits PCR tests dont work.

Watch the video below to learn more about the fraudulent PCR tests.

This video is from the Freedom Dobermans channel on Brighteon.com.

Follow Pandemic.news for more updates.

Sources include:

DailyExpose.uk

TamHunt.Medium.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The Health Ranger Mike Adams called for the criminal prosecution of Big Pharma and its allies during the Feb. 11 edition of his Situation Update podcast. He zeroed in on mainstream media (MSM) outlets that conspired with Big Pharma to push the scamdemic.

Adams outlined the personalities that need to be held accountable, such as the CEOs of Big Pharma companies. He also mentioned the journalists who served as propaganda mouthpieces to get people killed. Furthermore, Adams said the Big Tech CEOs and corporations who silenced the truth and censored those who were trying to speak out and blow the whistle must also be brought to justice through the legal system.

Right now, one of the biggest priorities of what all of us need to be doing is simply documenting what happening, because we need to create videos and documents. We need to note the names of those who are involved in this, Adams said.

We need to remember who these people are and what they did. We need to remember and document their crimes against humanity, and be ready to submit to the war crimes tribunals that will be launched.

The Health Ranger, however, clarified that these tribunals to prosecute those responsible for the fraud will not happen in a short period of time. Now, this process may take several years  Im not saying its going to be tomorrow. But its now clear that they lost the COVID war. This whole thing is going to flip.

MSM and Big Pharma should be prosecuted, made to apologize

Adams read an article from State of the Nation (SOTN), which argued that a tidal wave of lawsuits against Big Pharma will eventually cause its downfall. According to the piece, the pharmaceutical firms that manufactured the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) injections committed egregious fraud in the rollout of their extremely dangerous and deadly injections.

The SOTN piece also pointed out that the manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S.  Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson  are not the only ones looking at a potential lawsuit in the works. All the other vaccine manufacturers are also culpable of perpetrating a multi-decade criminal conspiracy through the mandatory childhood shots and the adult flu vaccination program, it said.

Adams zoomed in on a section in the article that named the MSM as a co-conspirator in the scheme to depopulate the United States. The corporate mainstream media is also a willful accomplice in the  highly organized and well-planned COVID depopulation scheme, it said.

According to the Natural News founder, the MSM took money from Big Pharma and lied to push Big Pharma products to earn more money while people were being killed by those very products. He continued: There is criminal and civil liability in Big Media, [and] all those media organizations that pushed [the vaccines]  are complicit in murderous fraud. Their day of reckoning is coming.

He also exhorted the media to issue massive apologies to the whistleblowers censored for revealing the truth, such as Dr. Robert Malone and Brighteon.TV hosts Dr. Jane Ruby and Stew Peters. The latter was banned from audio streaming service Spotify for allegedly touting dangerous, false or deceptive content about COVID-19. (Related: Stew Peters banned by iHeartRadio and Spotify  catch his show on Brighteon.TV where the truth will never be censored.)

They all deserve an apology, and probably you do too, said Adams.

More related stories:

Stew Peters reminds Americans that COVID-19 pandemic was planned  Brighteon.TV.

Italy launches manslaughter case after AstraZenecas coronavirus vaccine kills teacher.

RFK Jr. wins case against U.S. government for vaccine safety violations.

Listen to the Feb. 11 edition of the Situation Update podcast below.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

Visit Resist.news to read more about impending legal actions against Big Pharma and its associates.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

StateOfTheNation.co

TheWrap.com
(Natural News) In both the United States and the United Kingdom, heart conditions are up bigly, to quote Donald Trump, ever since his Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines were first introduced under Operation Warp Speed. And the corporate-controlled media claims that this is all completely normal.

The new claim is that all the young people having heart attacks these days is not only no big deal but also the way things have always been, even though this is clearly untrue.

In-shape athletes dropping dead on the field or court, as has been happening all around the world ever since the jabs were forced on them, is not normal. But the media talking-heads are hoping that nobody notices. (Related: Meanwhile, the CDC already confirmed that Fauci Flu shots cause heart inflammation.)

Back in the fall, the experts chose to just play dumb. For instance, one news report claimed that scientists have been left baffled by the sudden rise in heart conditions among young people.

Later on, the media started blaming things like peoples pillows, bad sleep and even sex for the phenomenon. One U.K.-based media outlet actually blamed eating breakfast on the rise in youth heart attacks.

These patients were all diagnosed with partially blocked arteries cutting the blood supply to the heart, but it was A mystery rise according to the Times, reported the Daily Expose.

We know of course that correlation does not equal causation, but there was no mention of a rise in black pudding suppers consumed or the fact that there had been a vaccine rollout of an experimental gene therapy jab just a few months previously.

Media blames FREEDOM for causing heart attacks in fully vaccinated youth

Here are some of the other headlines that have emerged, showing just how desperate the propaganda masters are to deflect from the fact that Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines are the obvious cause of widespread heart disease:

Heart attack: Does fluffing pillows increase the risk?

Death during sex isnt just something that happens to middle-aged men, new study finds

Now even sticking to medics alcohol guidelines is bad for your health! Risk of heart problems could be increased even if you drink less than NHS weekly units, study suggests

Researchers warn that cold weather can cause blood clots & heart attacks

Expert warns that shoveling snow can be a deadly way to discover underlying cardiovascular conditions as straining the heart with physical activity could cause sudden death

Lonely older women at greater risk of heart attack, study shows

Watch out: Moving clocks forward an hour could be dangerous for millions of Brits with serious heart problems

Breathing too many times a day could raise your risk of a deadly heart attack

This writers favorite one of all is the following headline, which reads like it was pulled straight from The Babylon Bee:

Too much freedom makes young people feel unsafe and unprotected: a possible explanation of alarming myocarditis events

As silly and ridiculous as these all sound, there are sadly and almost unbelievably millions of people who read this tripe and actually believe it. Amazingly, there is a contingent of people out there who will never make the connection between the injections and skyrocketing poor health.

 in the USA, 90% of all the media is owned by only 6 conglomerates, reported the Expose. They include ATT (bought Time Warner), CBS, Comcast, Disney, News Corp (parent of Fox News), and Viacom.

In the U.K., there are only three companies that own the media, News U.K., Daily Mail Group, and Reach, and together [they] dominate a huge 90% of the market. When online readership is included, the trio dominates 80% of the market.

More of the latest news about mainstream media deception can be found at Propaganda.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyExpose.uk

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Autopsy results confirmed that an elderly woman from Kansas passed away in late March 2021 due to an allergic reaction to Modernas Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

Jeanie Evans, 68, from Effingham, Kansas, served on the city council and was also a clerk for Main Street Food & Fuel. She received her first dose of Modernas mRNA COVID-19 vaccine on the afternoon of March 23, 2021. Between 15 to 20 minutes later, she started to complain that her airway felt like it was blocked.

An ambulance was called and Evans was rushed to Stormont-Vail Health hospital 35 miles southwest in Topeka, where she was admitted for experiencing some kind of anaphylactic reaction to the vaccine. The EMTs who brought Evans to the hospital noted that she was experiencing severe respiratory distress with labored breathing and stridor and poor oxygen situation.

Evans was declared dead just before noon the next day. She was survived by five children, 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

At the time of her death, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment refused to explicitly say the COVID-19 vaccine is what caused her death. A spokesperson at the time said that it would be premature to assign a specific cause of death before a thorough investigation was conducted.

Autopsy report released nearly a year later

That investigation has now been concluded, nearly a year after Evans death. A local media outlet, the Topeka Capital-Journal, had to submit a Kansas Open Records Act request to the Shawnee County coroners office, which conducted the autopsy, to get a copy of the report. (Related: FDA now burying incriminating documents showing Modernas covid vaccine to be harmful.)

Based on the available case history and autopsy findings, it is my opinion that Jeanie Evans, a 68-year-old female, died as a result of anaphylaxis due to COVID-19 vaccine administration, concluded the report.

The autopsy report attempted to downplay the effects of the vaccine on Evans by pointing out that she has a medical history of hypertension, environmental allergies, allergic disorder and reactive airway disease. The report cited that she has previously experienced an anaphylactic reaction to a drug.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other public health organizations and media outlets who covered Evans death also tried to downplay the fact that the vaccine killed her by claiming that anaphylaxis after COVID-19 vaccination is supposedly rare and only occurs in five people per one million vaccinated.

Colt Umphenour, one of Evans sons, said the family intends to file a lawsuit. He and other family members already hired Lynn Johnson of the Shamberg, Johnson and Bergman law firm based in Kansas City, Missouri. Johnson has been on retainer for the family since April of last year.

Evans family hired Johnsons firm because its lawyers had experience suing for wrongful death, including one case from 2008 wherein the company was able to sue a transportation company for a traffic crash.

Unfortunately, Johnson has chosen not to pursue legal action on the familys behalf. He said he could not reveal any additional details regarding his decision because of attorney-client privilege, but he did say that he has personally recommended that the family continue pursuing the case.

I am actively looking for a new attorney to represent the family, said Umphenour.

More related stories:

Vaccine-promoting Canadian radio host Adrienne Pan dead after battling post-Moderna illness.

A NY Times editor has died of a heart attack at 49, one day after receiving a Moderna COVID booster shot.

Texas man with natural immunity DIES after being forced to take COVID-19 vaccine while awaiting lung transplant.

Moderna vaccine causes blood clots in 22-year-old British woman.

91-year old Ohio man nearly DIED after being given TWO DOSES of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine within four hours.

Watch this clip from a newscast from last year stating that Jeanie Evans cause of death is unknown.

This video is from the Heaven Reigns channel on Brighteon.com.

Learn more about the many people who have died because of the COVID-19 vaccines by reading the latest articles at VaccineDeaths.com.

Sources include:

TheGatewayPundit.com

CJOnline.com 1

KSHB.com

CJOnline.com 2

CJOnline.com 3

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Bill Gates is one of the worlds richest men, rightly recognized as a visionary who helped build a massive technology industry. He has moved into the world of philanthropy to pursue support for some notable causes. He also has a deeply troubling relationship with the Chinese regime.

(Article by Peter Schweizer republished from JustTheNews.com)

No one can blame a corporate executive for being enticed by the Chinese markets opportunities. From the earliest days of the internet, China, with approximately four times the population of the United States, has been seen as a lucrative market for the tech industry. You can bet Bill Gates saw it, too.

But Gates has cooperated with the regime in ways that other tech titans have not. He has lent credence to the claims of the Chinese Communist Party and been rewarded with access, favors, and titles. He has done the bidding of the regime in the tech world and has apologized or made excuses for its aberrant activities. On top of all that, he has invested in companies attached to Beijings military-industrial complex.

Gates appears to have always underestimated the repressive nature of the CCP. His relentless techno-optimism has made him an easy mark. He has expressed naive attitudes about the role of technology in that repression. In 1995, at the dawn of the broader internet age, he suggested that Chinese efforts to censor the web would fail. Gates claimed that Chinese officials would literally need to have someone looking over everyones shoulder to implement full internet access and maintain censorship.

Of course, Beijing had a censorship system in place just two years later. Even after China erected what came to be known as the Great Firewall, Gates still insisted that censorship was too hard to erect and would not work. In 2008, he told students at Stanford University: I dont see any risk in the world at large that someone will restrict free content flow on the internet, he told them. You cannot control the internet.

It was a bold statement that proved both inaccurate and disingenuous. At that point, Microsoft had already been helping the regime censor content for several years.

In June 2005, Microsoft launched a blogging software program called MSN Spaces in China, just as blogging was taking off. But the program censored words including democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression. If you typed in those words or phrases, the blogger would receive an error message. The system also blocked or limited results of searches for specific names or phrases like Tibet independence, Falun Gong, and Tiananmen Square. On December 30, 2005, when a Chinese blogger and journalist named Zhao Jing criticized the censorship on his MSN Spaces blog, Microsoft shut him down, following a request from Chinese authorities, according to Amnesty International. The problem extends even to today.

In early June 2021, users of Microsofts Bing search engine in the United States, Europe, and Asia reported that they could not pull up images and information concerning the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on their laptops. Microsoft blamed it on human error, but did not specify what error would have caused images of tank man and others to disappear.

The controversy over the regimes censorship on the internet finally boiled over in 2010, when Google went to battle over search engine restrictions. When the dispute became public, Gates actually sided with Beijing and against Google, arguing that companies need to follow local laws. His position even prompted the Chinese embassy to run an approving story titled Bill Gates Bats for China.

Gates tried to sound principled, but this simply did not conform to the realities of his participation in censorship. In 2010, he claimed that Chinas restrictions were minimal and expressed confidence that technology would overcome it. Chinese efforts to censor the internet have been very limited, he said. Its easy to go around it, so I think keeping the internet thriving there is very important.

Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO at the time, echoed that sentiment. If the Chinese government gives us proper legal notice, well take that piece of information out of the Bing search engine. Ballmer added that countries like the United States with extreme free speech laws also censor some material.

While Gates was attempting to explain away Chinese censorship, he was actively helping the regime accomplish it. Meanwhile, he was critical of any censorship in the United States. Gates was quick to criticize efforts he saw to restrict internet access unnecessarily. One example was his view of legislation that would curb childrens access to pornography. As Gates put it:

Microsoft and others in industry and non-profit organizations were deeply involved in trying to block language that would put chilling restrictions on the use of the Internet for the free publication of information. The language, ostensibly aimed at keeping pornography out of the hands of children, goes much too far in restricting freedom of expression.  Lets not undermine the world-wide trend toward free expression by setting a bad example when it comes to free speech on a computer network.

Clearly, Gates did not want children to have easy access to pornography. Yet, while the vagueness of language concerning that law bothered him, Chinas censorship apparently did not, given his frequent defense of it.

Beyond the issue of apologizing for Beijings censorship, Gates continued to appease the Chinese government. Microsoft promised Beijing that it would begin outsourcing jobs from the United States to China  it was an explicit promise. By the early 2000s, Microsoft was on track to have outsourced a thousand jobs. When the Chinese government criticized the company for not keeping pace, Microsoft said they would work harder to ship more jobs more quickly to the Chinese mainland.

Gates efforts to support the regimes policies have been rewarded over the years. In 2006, the state-run Peoples Daily Online named Gates among 50 foreigners shaping Chinas modern development. Joining him on the list were Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Joseph Stalin. Gates was the only person from the world of technology on the list. Earlier that year, when Chinese president Hu Jintao made his first official visit to the United States, he stopped in Seattle for a visit with Gates at his palatial home before heading to Washington, D.C. ABC News declared, Chinese President Meets Bill Gates First.

The relationship between Microsoft and Beijing improved. By 2010, Microsoft had taken another step in its tightening association with the Chinese government. The company set up a research laboratory in China to work on artificial intelligence (AI) with a Chinese military university, an essential area of research that would have huge implications for the economy and on the battlefield. Microsoft even started taking in interns from the Peoples Liberation Army at its Asian research facility.

Microsoft worked with the Beijing regime in other ways. The company allowed the PLA to access communications on Skype, the companys online videoconferencing platform. Communist officials were monitoring chats that might include organizing protests or other activities that might displease the regime. When asked about it, Microsoft simply said, Skypes mission is to break down barriers to communications and enable conversations worldwide.

Microsoft later formed a partnership with the state-owned military conglomerate China Electronics Technology Group (CETC) to make Windows available to government officials in Beijing. The agreement would provide operating system technology and services for Chinese users in specialized fields in government institutions and critical infrastructure state-owned enterprises. The decision by Microsoft to work with CETC raised plenty of eyebrows in the tech world. As Computerworld noted, CETC manages scores of research institutes and more than 180 commercial subsidiaries, most of them involved in defense-related research and development, the production of defense and dual-use electronics, or supplying the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and government agencies and state-run companies with technology products. CETCs labs designed the electronic guts for Chinas first nuclear bomb, as well as its guided missiles and satellites. There are very blurred lines between what is civilian and military at CETC, the publication noted. The specifics of the deal were mysterious. Microsoft said that it made changes to Windows for the Chinese government but would not explain what they were.

Gates budding relationship with the Chinese government opened the door to other opportunities. In 2014, when Gates stepped down as chairman of Microsoft, he remained on the board as a technical advisor. He wanted to spend time on his nonprofit foundation, but it is clear that he still had other interests related to technology. With a fascination with nuclear power, he had cofounded a company called TerraPower in 2008, with hopes to build nuclear reactors in China. He started working with Beijing on a project in 2011.

As TerraPower technical adviser Roger Reynolds explained in an interview, they were collaborating with the Chinese National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to build a next-generation reactor. The technology involves something called a traveling wave reactor, which is based on a molten-salt reactor conceived initially by American scientists more than 50 years earlier.

Gates seemed oblivious to national security concerns about the project. By working with the communist regime, he was providing the government a strategic leg up in its competition with the United States for control over global nuclear markets. As the U.S. State Department has repeatedly explained, China uses its large, rapidly-growing, state-sponsored nuclear industry as a strategic tool with which to augment Chinas comprehensive national power  both through development in the civilian sector and in support of a military buildup. Furthermore, his partner, CNNC, has also come under fire from the Nuclear Threat Initiative because it is involved in the development of Chinas nuclear energy program, both civilian and military.

Gates project also helped the communist regime in its military competition with the United States. These new generation reactors are incredibly effective at propelling ships at sea, including military vessels. Beijing already had an active thorium molten-salt reactor program itself, and the PLA is planning to use the technology to propel aircraft carriers and military drones.

In 2018, Gates plans to build nuclear reactors with the Chinese government came to a halt when policy changes in Washington made the project difficult to achieve. Later, the U.S. Department of Defense released a list of 20 Chinese companies linked to the PLA. His Chinese partner was on the list. This forced Gates to shelve his joint deal with CNNC. But it was not for a lack of trying.

He has pledged to continue seeking efforts to cooperate with Beijing on nuclear power projects. The TerraPower thing, that was a setback, but there are ways to come back and engage China in a fairly deep way later in the project, he told Chinese state media.

Gates is also an investor in a Chinese electric vehicle company with the uplifting name Build Your Dreams (BYD) and has praised the companys product. (His good friend Warren Buffett also owns a stake.) BYD also has deep ties to, and cooperates with, the Chinese military. According to a study sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, BYD grants military enterprises access to its technologies and research data. In 2018, for example, BYD announced that it would conduct strategic cooperation with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology  a PLA entity  which is the largest research and production base of missile weapons and launch vehicles in China. At the same time, BYD works with military institutions to shape its products. For good measure, the companys founder and CEO is a Communist Party official.

Beyond the deals, Gates has gone out of his way to personally praise President Xi. During an interview with the Communist Partys Peoples Daily in 2017, Gates talked about his relationship with Xi and the fact that the Chinese leader took so much time to speak with him. They discussed the area of science, where China is now leading a lot of ways and willing to invest, thats been something I discussed with President Xi. He added: And I am impressed of how hard President Xi works. Now he is involved in the committee that are looking at this problem and that problem. Hes quite amazing that hes able to contribute in a number of ways.

What does this mean? It means that one of the richest men in the world was praising the leadership of a man who runs ethno-political prison camps.

This is more than idle chatter. Gates is now an adviser of sorts to the Chinese government. In 2017, the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) honored Gates with a lifetime membership. The CAE is under the direct supervision of the Chinese State Council, Beijings top governing body. This elite body, whose name sounds relatively harmless, is actually at the center of Chinese government power and plays a central role in the Chinese military-industrial complex.

Membership in the CAE requires strict political clearance. Foreigners can join only if they have contributed to Chinas development. As the state-run Peoples Daily reported, Election as a foreign member of CAE is a lifelong honor that is expected to build up the institution, promote international cooperation and exchanges, and improve CAEs status in the field of engineering.

The CAE has a formal responsibility to advise the government, and on its website, it has numerous political articles extolling Xi and the Chinese Communist Party.

The founder of the Chinese Academy of Engineering was Zhu Guangya, Chinas leading scientist in the countrys research and development of nuclear weaponry. On the anniversary of his death in 2011, the current academy president, Zhou Ji, pledged to follow his example and urged all Chinese scientists to contribute to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.'

None of this seems to have bothered or concerned Gates as he joined the organization. Indeed, it was Zhou Ji who granted Gates his membership in the academy.

One of the most critical roles for the CAE is to adapt civilian technologies to military use. These are so-called dual-use technologies. Zhou Ji has noted on other occasions that artificial intelligence will be the most important dual-use technology in the coming decades. The Chinese Academy of Engineering sees that AI has a role in boosting the Chinese military. In October 2012, the CAE signed a partnership agreement with the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to strengthen cooperation and push forward the military-civilian integration and innovative development of the PLA Navy and the CAE.

Microsoft continues to work closely with military researchers in China, particularly in the area of AI. In 2018, Microsoft researchers wrote three research papers on AI in cooperation with Chinas National University of Defense Technology (NUDT). The Central Military Commission has authority over the school. Microsoft research enjoys long-running links to Chinese military-funded academia. This includes running tech clubs at several universities known to have military connections.

Microsoft, despite this close work with Beijing, is not immune to cyberattacks launched with the support of the Chinese government. In 2021, the Biden administration pointed a finger at Beijing regarding a massive breach of Microsoft. But Microsoft has given no indication that they will be scaling back their work with the government that is targeting them.

Gates has continued to praise Beijing  even its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Ignoring the fact that the regime has disappeared Chinese doctors, journalists, and others trying to alert the world about the virus, Gates has misrepresented what they knew about it and falsely blamed the U.S. military for the virus, explaining that Beijing did a lot of things right.

Read more at: JustTheNews.com
(Natural News) Probiotics are added to a range of products, such as yogurt, tea and even chocolate. According to their proponents, probiotics are live strains of yeast and bacteria that can help balance the good and bad bacteria in the gut, giving a slew of health benefits. While these benefits vary widely, there is evidence that probiotics can help relieve diarrhea and even reduce the symptoms of some psychiatric conditions, such as depression.

Research into the risks and benefits of probiotics is still in its early stages, but it seems that it may be medically useful as well. (Related: The benefits of Probiotics.)

Probiotic drinks could be a new weapon in battling antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A team of scientists from the University of Birmingham engineered and patented a genetic element they hope could mitigate antibiotic resistance in humans.

The team is currently seeking funding for a clinical trial for the drink, which can potentially work against many resistant bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The probiotic drink works by targeting small DNA molecules inside bacterial cells. These molecules, called plasmids, carry genes that give resistance to antibiotics, which the bacteria can use. The plasmids shall then replicate independently spreading between bacteria while carrying resistance genes with them.

By preventing the target plasmids from replicating, the probiotics can displace the resistance genes available to the bacteria, making them sensitive to the antibiotics.

We were able to show that if you can stop the plasmid from replicating, then most of the bacteria lose the plasmid as the bacteria grow and divide. This means that infections that might otherwise be hard to control, even with the most powerful antibiotics available, are more likely to be treatable with standard antibiotics, explained lead researcher Christopher Thomas.

Explaining pCure plasmids

PCure plasmids are contained in bacteria in the form of a drink (similar to probiotic drinks such as Yakult) and work in two ways: they prevent the resistance plasmids from replicating and they block addiction systems which the plasmids use to kill bacteria.

In this addiction system, the resistance plasmid carries a stable toxin and an unstable antidote in the host cell. If the plasmid is lost from the cell, the antidote breaks down, but harmful toxins are left to attack the host. The pCure plasmids, however, carry the antidote to ensure that the cells that lose resistance plasmids survive and can thrive in the gut.

Thomas explained further, We manipulated our pCURE plasmids to incorporate genes that block the replication of the resistance plasmid. We also target the plasmids addiction system by designing our pCURE plasmids to ensure the antidote is still available to the host.

By doubling the number of copies of the pCure plasmid in each bacterium, it became effective at displacing different types of resistance plasmids. It would even spread through laboratory cultures to clear out resistance.

The team also collaborated with colleagues from the University of Sydney in Australia to test the pCure plasmids in mice. They found that the plasmids were effective, but that it needed to be primed by giving the mice an initial dose of antibiotic to reduce the number of competing bacteria.

The next step is to see whether or not the plasmids can spread fast enough to get rid of resistance plasmids in human volunteers.

This is a promising start. We aim to make modifications to further improve the efficacy of our pCURE plasmids before moving towards a first clinical trial, Thomas said.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest medical challenges of our time, adds Professor Thomas. We need to be tackling this on a number of different fronts including by reducing our use of antibiotics and searching for new, more effective drugs. Our approach, which tackles one of the causes of antimicrobial resistance at a genetic level, could be an important new weapon in this battle.

Read more about gut health at AlternativeMedicine.news.

Sources include:

MedicalNewsToday.com

MedicalXpress.com
(Natural News) We now know that Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines are spreading vaccine-induced AIDS, or VAIDS, which is convenient timing seeing as how the corporate-controlled media is starting to push a new experimental AIDS vaccine on the masses.

In late January, Moderna announced early-stage clinical trials on a new HIV injection it created based on the same mRNA (messenger RNA) technology used in Fauci Flu shots.

The biotechnology giant teamed up with a non-profit organization called the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) to develop the shot, which is already being administered to volunteers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C.

We are tremendously excited to be advancing this new direction in HIV vaccine design with Modernas mRNA platform, said Dr. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of IAVI, 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.

Fake government doctor Tony Fauci has long been obsessed with AIDS, and it is said that he has been working for years to try to get a vaccine for it into production. That time appears to be now, just in time for the end of the covid plandemic operation.

United Nations claims new HIV variant is spreading  is it vaccine-induced AIDS?

With covid starting to vanish from the headlines, it is now being replaced with fearmongering about the spread of AIDS.

One headline from the United Nations now claims that a [f]ast-spreading HIV variant doubles rate of immune system decline. A Nature article also claims that a Highly virulent HIV variant found circulating in Europe.

There is even a push in the United Kingdom for Brits to get tested for HIV just like everyone was told to get tested for the Fauci Flu. Prince Harry announced that everyone now has a duty to get an HIV test for the safety of the public  sound familiar?

The Sun also urged the public to get HIV tested as heterosexual diagnoses higher for first time in a decade.

This sudden emergence of HIV out of nowhere strangely coincides with the VAIDS phenomenon that mysteriously appeared after large masses of people started getting injected with Fauci Flu shots.

Could it be that HIV and AIDS are on the rise because of the injections? And if so, does this mean that the next plandemic is an AIDS plandemic that will come with more testing, more masking, more tyranny?

If the jab is confirmed to contain HIV protein inserts that are lowering peoples T-cell counts, then hundreds of millions of people all around the world now have HIV and do not even know it.

A Department of Defense (DoD) whistleblower says that HIV cases are up 590 percent year over year. Are vaccines the cause?

Asymptomatic HIV infection is the second stage of HIV / AIDS, reports Strange Sounds. During this stage, there are no symptoms of HIV infection.

This stage is also called chronic HIV infection or clinical latency. During this stage, the virus keeps multiplying in the body and the immune system slowly weakens, but the person has no symptoms.

It is certainly within the realm of possibility that every fully vaccinated person who became infected with covid and developed flu-like symptoms is possibly carrying around HIV. And even if they ultimately recovered, this is only temporary until the next time their body starts to run low on T-cells.

The uptick in HIV news and testing by the media could be a soft disclosure of whats ahead for those who are vaccinated, Strange Sounds warns, suggesting that a new HIV / AIDS pill or vaccine is soon to come.

To keep up with the latest news about the next manufactured plandemic, be sure to check out Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

StrangeSounds.org

StrangeSounds.org
(Natural News) Well-known orthopedic physician Dr. Lee Merritt told her viewers during the February 9 episode of Merritt Medical Hour on Brighteon.TV that a takedown of the U.S. military forces is a distinct possibility.

Why would we even vaccinate a military that only had 20 deaths from COVID? Why would we take that chance? Why are we vaccinating healthy pilots that have essentially zero risk of dying from COVID? asked Merritt, who completed an orthopedic surgery residency in the U.S. Navy and served as a Navy physician and surgeon.

Whats really going on here? Why would we hide it in the database? Why would we not point out that we are the military thats vaccinating our people with this RNA technology, but not the Chinese? The Chinese military isnt doing this and nor [are] the Russians. So is this a military takedown? added Meritt, who took note of the military-wide epidemiologic database that showed the rate of cancer and neurologic complications or neurologic diseases going up by 300 and 1,000 percent, respectively. (Related: Cover up: DOD silent after whistleblowers expose COVID vaccine injuries in military)

COVID vaccine data comes from China

Merritt also pointed out some facts like how the American Big Pharma corporations were able to upload the genetic sequence to develop the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

If you want to know where this whole vaccine program came from, it came from a genetic sequence given to us by the Chinese, Merritt said.

She added that China owns 50 percent of the rapid sequencing machines in the world that can really sequence genomic information.

So we have embedded Chinese scientists and we have a vaccine that was made from their data. And now we are giving it [vaccine] in spite of the biggest death count in the VAERS data that weve ever seen. We are now vaccinating our entire military, Merritt said.

The former Navy general medical officer also cited the F-35C Lightning II fighter plane mishap on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson last month. The crash injured seven sailors, including the pilot who ejected from the plane and was safely recovered.

She said the pilot was vaccinated with the COVID vaccine and Merritt said this violates all the safety protocols to give vaccines or give any medication to pilots that havent been on the market for five years.

So they are at high risk and they were vaccinated. Youre not carrying passengers, thank God, but youre carrying weapons, including potentially nuclear weapons. I dont know exactly how they train anymore. I mean these guys are healthy people. So what is going on about this? Merritt inquired.

Merritt also spoke of a military timeline or deadlines that is happening, which she believes are artificial deadlines that will be used to enforce more military personnel on active duty to take the COVID vaccines. Merritt also asked whether America was on somebody elses logistic timeline or invasion timeline and whether the date marks given were to get everybody ready.

No military briefing about COVID vaccine

The Navy physician and surgeon also brought up her meeting with Scott Atlas, a Stanford University professor and former senior adviser to President Donald Trump. Merritt had earlier warned about the U.S. military getting vaccinated and she asked Atlas questions about the vaccination program for the military and whether briefings with experts were done.

Merritt said Atlas told her that no briefings about the COVID issue and vaccine rollout were done. So I dont know. I dont know what to say about that. But that is what the F-35 crash made me start thinking about, and thats why Im sharing with you this data this week. Who benefits from all this going on in the military? she said.

More related stories:

ACT OF WAR: Thanks to covid vaccines, the militarys cancer rate has more than TRIPLED

Lawyer Thomas Renz accuses military of COVID cover-up, urges immediate investigation  Brighteon.TV

Jeffrey Prather: Tyranny of leadership hounds US military, compounds problems brought about by COVID vaccines  Brighteon.TV

House Republicans calling for ban on using taxpayer funds for implementing military vaccine mandate

Watch the full Feb. 9 episode of Merritt Medical Hour below. Catch new episodes of the program every Wednesday at 7-8 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Follow Conspiracy.news to know about the possible conspiracies happening in America.

Sources include:
(Natural News) Dr. Robert Malone, the brilliant scientist and co-inventor of mRNA technology, dropped new bombshells during an interview this week with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Malone addressed his recent experience with cancel culture following an appearance on top podcaster Joe Rogans show last month, during which he revealed a number of things about the COVID-19 vaccines and the surrounding authoritarianism regarding them.

Rogan, in turn, was blasted by the fascist Nazi left for daring to have Malone and another guest on his program who do not embrace the groupthink surrounding pandemic-related mandates, rules and restrictions (most notably because he knows they are nothing but control mechanisms). Not only was Rogan attacked by the left-wing outrage mob, but an effort was launched to get him thrown off of Spotify, the podcasting platform that signed him to a $100 million deal last year.

The platforms CEO, Daniel Ek, issued a statement after Malones appearance saying that the platform would be reviving a COVID information hub.

We have had rules in place for many years but admittedly, we havent been transparent around the policies that guide our content more broadly. This, in turn, led to questions around their application to serious issues including COVID-19, CEO Daniel Ek wrote.

Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, its become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time, he continued. These issues are incredibly complex.

Why would the platforms CEO come down on Rogan after signing him to a massive deal? Perhaps because the order came from higher up: Malone revealed to Carlson that the top owner in the Spotify platform is also a top owner in vaccine maker Moderna.

This is about political warfare and information warfare, he told Carlson for an episode of Tucker Carlson Today.

Bombshell From Malone The Top Owner of Spotify Is Also The Top Owner of Moderna pic.twitter.com/HnoEkdpFNM  Covid-1984 (@Orwells_Ghost_) February 10, 2022

All of these chatters that many have bought into that its about culture wars, its about vaccines. No, its not  Its about power and money. Its about Spotifys market cap dropping, he said.

So, the fascinating point is that the major owner, the top owner of Spotify is also the top owner of Moderna, Malone added.

Interestingly, his claim was substantiated by a real journalist, The Tennessee Stars Peter DAbrosca:

Malones claim checks out.

The largest stakeholder in Moderna is Baillie Gifford and Company, which owns almost 46 million shares of the companys stock, valued at more than $11.6 billion.

Baillie Gifford and Company is also the largest stakeholder in Spotify, holding more than 22 million shares of that companys stock, valued at more than $22 billion.

Baillie Gifford and Company is a worldwide asset management fund founded in Scotland, which has headquarters in New York City and London. It manages a portfolio of nearly half a trillion dollars.

Through each successive generation of partners, our singular focus on generating superior long-term investment results for our clients has been the bedrock of our own growth, according to its website. Baillie Gifford today is wholly owned by its 47 partners  all of whom work within the firm. Growth has been organic, with no mergers or acquisitions, and we are committed to remaining independent.

The 47 partners are not identified.

DAbrosca goes on to point out that its not at all clear that the investment behemoth is involved in the campaign to silence Rogan, which is being carried out by propagandized left-wing agitators and cancel culturalists, the link itself has created an appearance of impropriety.

Malone is right: Money and power are at the root of all of this controversy surrounding him, Rogan and the vaccine narratives. Not science.

Sources include:

TennesseeStar.com

Infowars.com
(Natural News) For years, information has trickled out in a series of reports pertaining to the underhandedness of Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign against then-GOP nominee Donald Trump, including allegations by the former president that his office at Trump Tower was wiretapped.

That claim has been officially verified, along with several other allegations regarding the Democratic candidates dirty tricks in saddling Trump for years with the insanely fake narrative that his campaign colluded with Mother Russia to steal the election from Hillary.

In fact, she was trying to steal it from Trump.

Fox News reports exclusively:

Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to infiltrate servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an inference and narrative to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from Special Counsel John Durham says.

Durham filed a motion on Feb. 11 focused on potential conflicts of interest related to the representation of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent. Sussman has pleaded not guilty.

According to the indictment against Sussman, he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016, fewer than two months before the presidential election, that he wasnt working for any client when he asked for and held a meeting, during which he presented purported data and white papers that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel between Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin, and the Trump Organization.

However, Fox News reports, Durhams filing on Friday, in a section titled Factual Background, says that Sussman had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive (Tech Executive 1) at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.

Durhams filing also states that Sussmans billing records reflect that he repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the Russian Bank-1 allegations.

The special counsels Feb. 11 filing also says that Sussman and the Tech Executive met and communicated with another law partner serving as General Counsel to the Clinton campaign. According to sources who spoke with Fox News, that attorney is well-known Democrat lawyer Marc Elias, who worked at the Perkins Coie law firm and who played a major role in getting Democrat state attorneys general and left-leaning state courts to change voting laws ahead of the 2020 election that sane people know was stolen from Trump.

Durhams Friday filing says that in July 2016, the tech executive worked with Sussman as well as a U.S. investigative firm retained by Law Firm 1 on behalf of Clintons campaign, several cyber researchers and staffers at a number of internet companies to assemble the purported data and white papers.

In connection with these efforts, Tech Executive-1 exploited his access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data, the filing says. Tech Executive-1 also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract.

Tech Executive-1 tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish an inference and narrative tying then-candidate Trump to Russia, Durham notes in his filing. In doing so, Tech Executive-1 indicated that he was seeking to please certain VIPs, referring to individuals at Law Firm-1 and the Clinton campaign.

Fox News adds: Durham also writes that during Sussmans trial, the government will establish that among the Internet data Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited was domain name system (DNS) internet traffic pertaining to (i) a particular healthcare provider, (ii) Trump Tower, (iii) Donald Trumps Central Park West apartment building, and (iv) the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP).'

The filing said that the internet company Tech Executive-1 worked for had come to access and maintain dedicated servers for the Executive Office of the President as part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services to the EOP.

Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOPs DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump, Durhams filing says.

In addition, the filing reveals that Sussman provided an updated set of allegations including the Alfa Bank data as well as more allegations relating to Trump to a second agency of the U.S. government in 2017.

Durham notes that the allegations relied, in part, on the purported DNS traffic that Tech Executive-1 and others had assembled pertaining to Trump Tower, Donald Trumps New York City apartment building, the EOP, and the aforementioned healthcare provider.

In recent days, Trump said he believed that theres a lot coming from Durhams investigation, indicating he must have been aware the filing was getting ready to drop.

Were gonna see what happens. But what hes doing is one of the most important jobs being done right now in America, Trump told The Epoch Times.

NEW! President Donald J. Trump: The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection pic.twitter.com/jaERtmhDER  Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) February 12, 2022

Trump reacted to Durhams filing Saturday evening, saying it provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia.
Press Release

February 15, 2022 PRRD remains focused on sustaining momentum to defeat pandemic while Bong Go highlights gov't efforts towards inclusive economic recovery With less than five months left until the end of the President's term, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go said President Rodrigo Duterte remains focused on maintaining the forward momentum of the country's COVID-19 response and laying the groundwork for an inclusive economic recovery in 2022. The lawmaker remarked that the President is determined to work hard to serve the Filipino people until his final day in office. He urged voters to consider the nation's best interest by electing leaders who will build on the progress made under the Duterte Administration. "While many Filipinos have expressed their sadness that President Rodrigo Duterte's term is coming to an end, such is the democratic process. Everything has to come to an end at some point. That said, I am confident that he has done his best in serving the country and will continue to do so as the country's leader," said Go. "It is up to the Filipino people to decide who among them can actually carry on the positive initiatives started by the current administration in order to provide a comfortable life for all," he added. As Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Go commended the President's strong leadership, noting that the Department of Health recently relegated the status of most parts of the country to either low or moderate risk for COVID-19. He particularly praised the government's vaccination efforts. This was partly made possible through an aggressive information campaign that helped bring down vaccine hesitancy levels among adult Filipinos from 33% in May to just 8% in December 2021, according to Social Weather Stations surveys. Go noted that the vaccines have proven to be safe and effective at reducing one's risk of getting severely sick or dying of COVID-19. According to the DOH, low risk areas in the country have an average daily attack rate of less than one per 100,000 people, whereas moderate risk areas have a rate of one to seven. Meanwhile, total bed occupancy and intensive care unit usage rates in all areas are at low to moderate risk. The national health system's capacity is in a sound state. Despite these developments, the senator expressed concern over the World Health Organization's assessment that more than 2.5 million senior citizens in the country have yet to get vaccinated. He renewed his call to national and local authorities to intensify their efforts to reach eligible members of the priority list, especially the senior citizens who have difficulty going to the vaccination sites, by conducting house-to-house vaccinations. "Bagama't hindi mandatory ang vaccination laban sa COVID-19 at hindi pwedeng pilitin ang mga tao, hikayatin pa rin natin ang mga hindi pa bakunado na magpabakuna na upang maiwasan natin ang malubhang sakit o maging kamatayan dahil sa COVID-19. Ipaintindi natin nang mabuti at ilapit na natin sa kanila ang bakuna," Go recently appealed. "Iyung mga senior citizens natin hindi nakakalabas at takot mag-travel papunta sa vaccination center. Kaya dapat puntahan ng local government units 'yung pamamahay ng mga gustong magpabakuna na," he added. Go likewise encouraged parents to get their children aged 5 to 11 years inoculated as soon as pediatric vaccines are available in their areas. He reassured that the government rigorously reviewed all available data and consulted with health experts before clearing the use of vaccines for said age group. "Alam ko na marami ang nag-aalala at concerned sa magiging epekto ng bakuna para sa kanilang mga anak ngunit maniwala tayo sa mga eksperto, doktor at sa siyensya. Napatunayan na na makakatulong itong magbigay ng dagdag proteksyon para sa mga menor de edad," said Go. On this note, the senator reiterated his call to the public to continue strictly adhering to the mandated health and safety protocols especially in the weeks ahead of the election. "As we look to the future, I am sure President Duterte's legacy and the programs he initiated will continue to have positive impact on the lives of Filipinos well beyond his term. Coupled with his well-calibrated pandemic response and proactive measures that will see a booming Philippine economy post-pandemic, I have no doubt that we are on a path towards a swift and lasting recovery," he ended.
(Natural News) Americans want to be able to trust the institutions of the country that help shape it and build it, but ironically many of those agencies and organizations only build corruption in America, and its been that way for many decades. A prime example is the leading law enforcement agency known as the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Recently, it has been uncovered that over two dozen agents were involved in giving flawed forensic testimony in trials that sentenced people to death using (faulty) hair examinations for evidence to get convictions. Over 90 percent of the FBI agents admitted to this, and more than 95 percent of the trials OVERSTATED forensic matches to help prosecutors put defendants in prison, some of whom were executed.

Justice Department formally acknowledges FBI fraud 26 agents committed using faulty hair match in over 250 criminal cases in 1980s and 1990s

In the largest post-conviction questioning of forensic evidence in history, 32 defendants were sentenced to death because their hair matched the faulty forensics that came back from the FBIs private lab. The NACDL (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) and the Innocence Project are investigating the corruption.

This massive forensics scandal should be the nails in the coffin (pardon the pun) for all Americans realizing this agency does NOT represent the ideals of this country that our founding fathers put in place.

Now Americans should question other pattern-based forensic techniques that corrupt agencies can twist, bend and alter to fit their agendas, including bite-mark comparisons, DNA analysis and junk science bullet markings. Sure, the technology is real and works in certain cases if done properly and reported correctly, but are these agencies able to manipulate the results or the findings to fit their narrative, and put people in prison or underground? Yes. Obviously they are able, and they just got caught red-handed.

FBI reported a hair match in over 2,500 cases  should they ALL be thrown out and prisoners released, if still alive?

Reviews of more than 340 cases have already been completed to check for corrupted testimony from FBI agents regarding a hair match that was often enough to put the criminal away. Another 2,000 cases have either not been addressed or prosecutors have not responded to requests for trial transcripts. Nobody is wondering why.

How many wrongful convictions are the FBI responsible for? Who can trust this agency with anything at all, if theyre capable of killing people with their lies? Is this how the DOJ, CDC and FDA function also? How deep does this go and for how long has it been happening, because this latest revelation accounts for two decades of FBI corruption. Is this just the tip of the iceberg? This is worth careful consideration.

State governments rely on examiners trained by the corrupt FBI and the courts let it happen, time and time again

Even if the prisoners that are still alive get exonerated, how long have they been behind bars unjustly, ten or twenty years? Thirty? Will there be reparations, like dissolving the systemically-corrupt FBI and allocating all of their funds to people they found guilty who were innocent? That could work. FBI has no comment so far. Fabricated and false evidence has been used to convict people. There must be consequences and agents must be held responsible. Ten people in Florida alone went to death row for murder and/or rape, based on an erroneous hair match.

Hair examiners lacked scientific standards and used erroneous methods for explaining hair match results in court

Bottom line is there is NO accepted research to date on how many times hair from different people can appear the exact same. For more than twenty years, FBI labs have used visual hair comparison to rule in or rule out sources and suspects. Really? So they basically just looked at a piece of hair and said, yes, this is our guy.

The tools didnt exist to do a hair match with any certainty so the FBI just made up the whole forensics basis and their agents simply lied in court. This happens all across the United States, by the way.

Tune your internet dial to FakeScience.news for updates on how the US government and their so-called reliable agencies fake studies to fit their corrupt agendas.

Sources for this article include:

WashingtonPost.com

NaturalNews.com

FakeScience.news
(Natural News) Many governments worldwide are now rescinding Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) measures almost two years since start of the pandemic. They cited data and science  as well as politics, frustration and weariness  for the decision to lift the mandates imposed back in March 2020.

Several European countries led the way in lifting COVID-19 restrictions, Denmark being first among them. The Scandinavian country lifted restrictions and allowed certain venues to reopen on Jan. 16. Fifteen days later on Jan. 31, the Danish government relaxed further restrictions in the country of 5.8 million.

Copenhagen allowed cinemas, zoos, museums and theaters to reopen. Indoor and outdoor sporting events were likewise permitted  albeit with limits on the number of spectators. In order to visit these, Danes must mask up at all times and provide proof of vaccination or recent recovery from COVID-19.

According to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions in Denmark was based on recommendations by the Epidemic Commission. She added that her cabinet intends to follow the recommendations of the commission  which serves as Copenhagens expert advisory panel on the pandemic. (Related: Welcome to the life we knew before: Denmark is abolishing ALL COVID-19 restrictions.)

The United Kingdom followed suit, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson accelerating the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions. Under the original plan, current restrictions in the entire U.K. would be lifted by March 24. But according to the Guardian, Johnson moved this a month earlier to Feb. 24.

Johnson claimed that the hard work of the British people is paying off. Should the current encouraging trends in the data continue, Johnson reiterated that all domestic COVID-19 measures  including mandatory quarantine after a positive test result  would immediately be ended. However, travel restrictions such as quarantine for the unvaccinated and passenger locator forms would not be rescinded, the Guardian added.

Health officials warn against premature lifting of restrictions

While governments are lifting restrictions on citizens weary of lockdowns, health experts are advising against the move. They warned that the threat of COVID-19 and its variants still looms, saying that governments appear to be rushing toward what they see as a finish line for the pandemic  but is actually not.

World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan told Emma Barnett of Bloomberg Quicktake during a Jan. 27 interview that dropping all coronavirus restrictions currently in place is a foolish move.

It would be foolish to drop all precautions that weve been taking all this time. We need to continue that and hopefully by 2022, well be in a much better position, said the WHO chief scientist.

Swaminathan also chided governments claiming that the pandemic is nearing its end. I dont think anybody can predict that. Lets not declare the pandemic over as some people are doing now. A variant can arise anywhere and youre back to square one. We still need to be cautious.

However, leaders with any plans of extending COVID-19 restrictions would have a hard time convincing citizens that these are beneficial. Many have suffered economic damage ever since lockdowns were implemented. Small businesses were forced to close, workers were laid off from their jobs and governments were forced to borrow massive amounts just to keep themselves afloat.

The impact of lockdowns and other COVID-19 restrictions also went beyond the economic aspect. These measures have fueled protests against government tyranny, such as the anti-vaccine pass demonstration in France and the Freedom Convoy protest in Canada.

More related stories:

WHO reverses course, again: Lockdowns as primary response to COVID-19 now said to be damaging.

EU pushes for extending vaccine passports as many countries start relaxing restrictions.

12 European countries roll back covid restrictions, Israel scraps green pass.

End of COVID-19 tyranny: European countries move to ease pandemic rules.

Watch Jeffery Jaxen and Del Bigtree talk about European countries relaxing their COVID-19 measures.

This video is from The HighWire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com.

Visit HealthFreedom.news for more stories about countries around the world lifting COVID-19 restrictions.

Sources include:

JapanTimes.co.jp

Euronews.com

TheGuardian.com

BusinessLive.co.za

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Dr. Mark Sherwood told Thrive Time Show host Clay Clark that hearing the voice of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci is like having a nightmare and demonic influence.

I think when you wake up on a Saturday morning and you have to hear that voice called Anthony Fauci, you need to go back to bed and call it a nightmare because its not even true. Its a demonic influence that is in your head. So cast it out and get away from it, Sherwood told Clark during the Feb. 8 episode of the Thrive Time Show on Brighteon.TV.

He [Fauci] answers a question in the positive but then he switches it to the negative. So youre being stuck with a negative. Its like a positive, but oh, well, you might die. Well, thats not even something I want to hear. That guy is not dealing any sort of hope at all. Hes instilling fear and thats garbage.

Sherwood said Fauci is completely not credible. We need to turn him off like a bad light switch. (Related: Mounting evidence points to Faucis efforts to conceal Wuhans role in COVID.)

Lockdowns, social distancing dont change outcome of COVID pandemic

The well-known naturopathic doctor also cited a Johns Hopkins University study indicating that the lockdowns and social distancing did not do anything to change the outcome of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

So we have all that looking back now. And its something that we already knew. And we need to understand that these clowns that are in charge right now, should have never been in charge, turn them off, and listen to and ingest truth from this point forward. Thats what I would tell people because this is a big deal, said Sherwood, who along with his wife Michele, is doing wellness-based health practice in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Sherwood added that people should not fear COVID-19, explaining that the model or projection being presented merely predicts the future. He noted that fear in the human body will not only block logic, but will also cause blood pressure to elevate, muscles to tighten and digestion to go down. He added that the body will also begin to focus on the stress and away from any sort of immunology or immune function.

Clark agreed with Sherwood, saying that Fauci just scares people of all ages and that the NIAID director is a shameless, pathological liar. He pointed out that the models of Fauci that showed 2.2 million Americans would die are false and this he said has become the epicenter or the genesis of the fear.

The Brighteon.TV host, who also organizes the Reawaken America Tour, added that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are falsely calibrated to inflate the number of positive COVID-19 cases. Clark also revealed that COVID-19 continues to be 100 percent treatable using budesonide, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Clark added that people should not allow their brains to be poisoned by Faucism or continuous listening to Fauci since it will cause paranoia and fear.

He also talked about World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab who said that there will be a coming cyber attack or cyber pandemic in the world. Clark pointed out that Schwab has called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to join hands and rise to the challenge with the rest of the world.

More related stories:

Smoking gun: Lord Fauci states COVID PCR test has fatal flaw; confession from the beloved expert of experts.

PCR testing a fraud: Government uses faulty testing to amplify COVID case numbers.

REVEALED: Top Fauci-linked U.S. govt advisor serves on Chinese Communist influence committee.

Dr. Judy Mikovits tells Dr. Steve Hotze: Fauci is chief perpetrator of plagues of corruption  Brighteon.TV.

Watch the full Feb. 8 episode of the Thrive Time Show below. Catch new episodes of the program from Monday to Friday at 3:30-4 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Follow FauciTruth.com to read more stories about Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Sherwood.TV
(Natural News) A former Obama Department of Homeland Security official who did her best fascist authoritarian impression when lashing out at protesting Canadian truckers was all in for the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots during the summer of 2020 because a) she hates Donald Trump, and b) any left-wing cause is acceptable to her.

The convoy protest, applauded by right wing media as a freedom protest, is an economic and security issue now, Harvard professor and CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem wrote on Twitter last week as Freedom Convoy truckers blocked a major international bridge (which is the point of protesting  make situations uncomfortable to effect the change you seek).

The Ambassador Bridge link constitutes 28% of annual trade movement between US and Canada. Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks, she added.

Readers know that these truckers are protesting against one of the dumbest public health policies ever devised  forced vaccination for COVID-19, a virus that has a 98.5 percent survivability rate.

So for protesting against the mandate, these truckers, to Kayyem, are domestic terrorists who should be moved against forcefully because Canada is governed by the hard left and since shes a hard-leftist then their protests are illegitimate.

Remember when Democrats and their voters were all about workers rights?

Needless to say, the Internet is forever so her rank hypocrisy was immediately called out.

The convoy protest, applauded by right wing media as a freedom protest, is an economic and security issue now. The Ambassador Bridge link constitutes 28% of annual trade movement between US and Canada. Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks ?? https://t.co/nvRQTfPWir  Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) February 10, 2022

We now know Trump wanted 10,000 active troops deployed. Dangerous? Yes. Ahistorical? Certainly. Legal? Only if, like Trump, you see lawful protest  with pockets of violence  as an insurrection, she wrote regarding a CNN interview she did June 7, 2020, as American city blocks were being torched around the country in response to George Floyds death.

In another tweet a few days later, she wrote: The ties between #blacklivesmatter and the #covid crisis are not just about its disproportionate impact on minority communities. Coronavirus exposed a federal government so morally unsound, so dysfunctional, so not capable of the moment that protest became a citizens duty.

Translation: Left-wing protests and violence are okay; right-wing freedom-minded protests without violence but with some economic pain are never okay  if youre a fascist Nazi like Kayyem.

And by the way, there is no evidence that COVID targeted minority communities as this lunatic suggests; there are a lot of other factors at play and if minority communities are harder hit maybe its because those communities had greater risk factors.

Needless to say, others took her to task on social media for her ridiculous insistence on flattening the tires of tractor-trailer rigs and draining them of fuel.

Not sure Id recommend siphoning diesel fuel or slashing a steel belted retread under 100 psi, but youre the expert Professor Tow Truck, pundit David Burge wrote. I think the Fightin 101st Tire Slashers may need a little training before we send em in.

I think the Fightin 101st Tire Slashers may need a little training before we send em in pic.twitter.com/y9cABNCNDO  David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 10, 2022

Once we slash the tires and empty the fuel tanks, how do we remove the trucks? Easy, put on a Harvard Hogwarts robe, wave your wand, and cast the ol Truckus Removem spell, he continued.

He also called out left-wing journalist Matt Yglesias who volunteered the U.S. Marines, but not himself, to forcefully reopen the international bridge (and since half the bridge is Canadian soil, so to speak, we have to assume that this brainiac was sanctioning a U.S. invasion of our northern neighbor).

Another bold plan from the Harvard Institute for Removing Giant Trucks From Bridges, Burge wrote.

Another bold plan from the Harvard Institute for Removing Giant Trucks From Bridges pic.twitter.com/bp8bjAIHuT  David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 10, 2022

Leftists arent just tyrants and authoritarians, they literally are out of their minds with hate.

Sources include:

ThreadReaderApp.com

CitizenFreePress.com
(Natural News) One of the primary COVID-19 vaccine makers, Pfizer, appears to be panicking after a federal judge has ruled the company cannot delay the release of documents sought after by media and organizations regarding the testing clinical trials used to justify the rapid distribution of the jabs.

The drugmaker supported an effort by the corrupt Food and Drug Administration to delay the release of nearly 400,000 pages of documents in an obvious effort to shield its failure to produce a legitimate, effective vaccine  otherwise, why try to keep the data hidden?

Federal judge Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in an order issued Feb. 2, said the FDA must release redacted versions of the documents in question according to the following disclosure schedule, Childrens Health Defenses The Defender noted in a report.

10,000 pages apiece, due on or before March 1 and April 1, 2022.

80,000 pages apiece, to be produced on or before May 2, June 1 and July 1, 2022.

70,000 pages to be produced on or before Aug. 1, 2022.

55,000 pages per month, on or before the first business day of each month thereafter, until the release of the documents has been completed.

So not only has Pittman ordered the drugmaker to release the documents, but hes not messing around: He wants them revealed quickly, over the course of a few months, not years (and certainly not over the course of 75 years, which is what the FDA and Pfizer originally sought).

Last weeks ruling is the most recent development in an ongoing court case that began with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in August 2021 by Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency (PHMPT), a group of doctors and public health professionals, The Defender noted.

PHMPT, a group of more than 30 medical and public health professionals and scientists from institutions such as Harvard, Yale, and UCLA, in September 2021 filed a lawsuit against the FDA after the agency denied its original FOIA request.

In response, the FDA claimed that it did not have the staff or resources to redact and release that many documents per month, stating instead that the agency could only produce about 500 documents monthly  meaning all of the documents would finally be released after nearly everyone alive today is dead.

Meanwhile, as reported by SHTF Plan, Pfizer has quietly issued a warning regarding unfavorable safety data getting out into the public realm without being appropriately censored, which again, can only mean the company is panicking over having to be transparent about testing and clinical trial data.

This all comes after the Big Pharma company projected $54 billion in annual COVID-19 vaccine sales not long ago, the outlet noted further.

Also, as noted by Rubicon Capitals Kelly Brown on Twitter, it appears as though Pfizer is concerned that the coronavirus is not going to be around much longer, at least in an allegedly dangerous form:

(3/3)

New risk disclosure regarding Covid-19 itself: the possibility that COVID-19 will diminish in severity or prevalence, or disappear entirely; pic.twitter.com/1nOK8fu8HQ  Kelly Brown (@rubiconcapital_) February 8, 2022

He notes a section in a recent report the possibility that COVID-19 will diminish in severity or prevalence, or disappear entirely, which means profits, too, of course.

Heres part of what Pfizer may be trying to hide, as Natural News reported in November: Higher death rates among the vaccinated during clinical trials:

Pfizer-BioNTech basically trimmed off 30 percent of the deaths to make it appear as though those who took its injections fared better than those who did not. The reality is that more people died after getting vaccinated than died receiving a placebo (which was really just another type of injection).

These were not just COVID deaths, reported Alex Berenson about this discovery. In fact, they were mostly not from COVID.

Only three of the people in the trial died of COVID-related illnesses  one who received the vaccine, and two who received the saline shot. The other deaths were from other illnesses and diseases, mostly cardiovascular.

Bring on the full disclosure.

Sources include:

NaturalNews.com

SHTFPlan.com

ChildrensHealthDefense.org
(Natural News) J.D. Rucker recently interviewed the illustrious Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who told him that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has released a lab-manufactured hemorrhagic fever bioweapon at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Before I get into the details, Rucker writes, its important to understand that she and her sources are highly credible. There have been concerted efforts to discredit her, but her claims as far back as early 2020 have invariably been proven accurate.

Li-Meng was one of the first, if you recall, to come forward with evidence suggesting that the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) was developed in a Chinese laboratory. The powers that be tried to discredit her, but her claims continue to stand the test of time.

They tried to disprove what shes said all along, that Peter Daszak and Anthony Fauci had intimate knowledge of the gain-of-function research that was going on in Wuhan, Rucker adds.

They even tried to prove she was wrong about the inefficacy of the vaccines. All of her claims have been verified and she has been vindicated multiple times.

Get ready for a second round of the plandemic, bleeding orifices style

Li-Meng told Rucker that the CCP has been studying various strains, if you will, of hemorrhagic fever viruses. These include Lassa, Marburg, and hantavirus, all of which just so happen to share the same CD38 drug target in the disease.

Her sources reveal that the CDC was already fully prepared to release this bioweapon during the Winter Olympics, though she cannot confirm which strain of the virus has been released without first obtaining the viral genome.

This new bioweapon is supposedly much more deadly than the Fauci Flu, which may have just been a test run for the final act, so to speak, in the current world order.

According to UPI, health authorities in the United Kingdom have already identified at least two cases of viral hemorrhagic fever, and possibly a third. If confirmed, these mark the first time the illness has been seen in the country in over a decade.

Officials claim that the cases of Lassa fever, as they have classified it, are from the same family and are linked to recent travel to western Africa, where the illness is said to be endemic.

Two of the cases are conclusive and the third hasnt been confirmed yet, reports reveal. Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic illness and infection usually occurs through food or household items contaminated with urine or feces from rats who are carrying the virus.

In milder cases, Lassa fever causes a fever, obviously, and fatigue. In more severe cases, it can result in bleeding of the mouth, breathing difficulties, and low blood pressure.

Most people who contract Lassa fever dont develop any symptoms and its fatal in only about 1% of cases, UPI further reported. The new cases are the first in Britain since 2009.

Bleeding orifices are a common occurrence with severe cases of hemorrhagic fever, assuming this is really what was released at the Olympics. Since the media is already blaming a scapegoat, rats from Africa, the world could see another round of the plandemic.

The problem with this report is that the disease may not be standard Lassa fever, but possibly something new that was created through gain-of-function research, Rucker notes.

Dr. Yan has not confirmed this, but based on sources and evidence, Lassa is one of the bioweapons they prepared to launch attacks during or after Winter Olympics  She noted that CCP military scientists worked with Liberia to study Ebola in 2014. They also sent six groups of scientists to Sierra Leone to study Lassa viruses, most recently in 2020.

Li-Meng says that a simple cure for hemorrhagic fever is a drug by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) called Darzalex (daratumumab), which is approved to treat multiple myeloma.

The latest news about communist China can be found at Terrorism.news.

Sources for this article include:

JDRucker.substack.com

NaturalNews.com
Second of five beluga whales that was transferred to Mystic Aquarium from Marineland is dead.

What Could Have Led to the Whales' Death?

According to a statement released by Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut on Friday, the female beluga had been in the aquarium's intensive care unit and had received "round-the-clock medical treatment" from their staff and veterinarians prior to her death.

Until a necropsy is completed, the cause of death cannot be determined, according to the statement.

One of Mystic Aquarium's top zoologists, Allison Tuttle, said the whale received a "continuum of world-class care" over a long period of time.

The circle of life is complete when an animal dies in the wild. It's devastating when it happens to an animal you've grown to love and care for on a daily basis at an aquarium.

A request for comment on the whale's death was not immediately returned by Marineland. The whale was one of five that were transferred from Niagara Falls to the aquarium in May 2021 for research purposes, as per CBC.

The aquarium revealed at the time that one of the five whales, a male named Havok, had died in August after a long battle with a pre-existing gastrointestinal condition.

Also Read: Three Pregnant Killer Whales Might Save Their Population From the Brink of Extinction

Mystic Issued a Statement After the Second Whale Died

Following an inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture last fall, Mystic issued a statement stating that it had made changes to address issues in five areas, including communication between veterinarians and animal care staff on the night Havok died.

According to a statement issued at the time, those issues also included handling and accommodations for animals with vision difficulties, access to shade, and changes in water quality.

The Animal Welfare Act is designed to protect animals, says Mystic CEO Stephen Coan. Inspections, investigations into animal deaths, and accreditation processes are critical to improving animal welfare, he said.

"We are constantly seeking to evolve and learn in our mission to provide the best possible care for animals."

Call for Investigation into the Whales' Death

It's "disturbing" that two whales have perished less than a year after they were transferred to Mystic Aquarium, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) said in a statement on Friday.

Marine mammal biologist Dr. Naomi Rose with the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) said, it is becoming increasingly obvious that these five whales were not healthy when they were imported.

A complete government investigation into the animals' death is demanded because these whales deserve better, said Dr. Naomi Rose, AWI's marine mammal scientist.

As a result of what was supposed to be an uncomplicated research import. Animal protection groups in the United States attempted to halt the transport of the whales, which ultimately led to their relocation in Mystic. However, an injunction was denied by a judge.

According to AP News, the relocation was approved by the federal governments of both Canada and the United States. In addition to six other belugas, one of them is currently in intensive care at Mystic Aquarium, according to the aquarium.

Related Article: Scientists Claim Whales Have Previously Walked In North America Coastline

For more news, updates about whales and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
A 30-year-old man was admitted in the hospital with multiple organ failure and fungal infections after he tried self-medicating with mushroom tea.

How the Victim was Hospitalized

According to the report, the man injected a mushroom tea into his system but was rushed to the hospital after he developed a deadly outbreak of fungi growing in his blood.

According to the team of doctors and medical students from the Creighton University School of Medicine in Phoenix, the man self-medicated with psilocybin also known as a magic mushroom which is known for its hallucination effects.

The man with type 1 bipolar disorder researched the therapeutic effects of micro dosing LSD and psilocybin after which he tried making medication for himself.

He then tried brewing tea out of these mushrooms by boiling them with water and also filtering them using a cotton swab before injecting this final content into his system intravenously, as per Vice.

A few days after the supposed treatment, he fell into a critical condition with different symptoms including lethargy, jaundice, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting of blood before he was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

From the test results in the hospital, he was diagnosed with acute kidney dysfunction, liver injury, and multi-organ failure, and blood test results confirmed the presence of fungi and bacteria in his bloodstream, these fungi where growing in his veins by feeding off his bloodstream.

The 30 years old man was treated with an intense dose of anti-fungal treatment which will be a continuous treatment to prevent the fungi from regrowing.

Also Read: A Single Dose of This Magic Shroom Could Reduce Depression, Anxiety in Terminal Patients

Effects of Magic Mushroom

Psilocybin mushrooms; commonly known as magic mushrooms are a polyphyletic informal group of fungi with psilocybin as its most common properties. psilocybin-containing species are dark-spored, gilled mushrooms that grow mostly in subtropics and tropics.

They are sometimes used as recreational drugs but they are said to have physical effects including nausea, vomiting, euphoria, muscle weakness or relaxation, drowsiness, and lack of coordination. These symptoms may occur about 20 mins after consumption and last up to 6 hours.

Although there are no signs of physical or psychological dependence (addiction), this mushroom is still considered dangerous and can be quite harmful to the human health if not handled properly.

Case Report From 1985

In 1985, there was a similar report of a 30 years old man carrying out the same experiment. He extracted the psilocybin from the magic mushroom unlike the current mushroom tea method.

He also injected it intravenously and got similar symptoms as the current case report. Symptoms like vomiting, muscle aches and acute fever, as well as low oxygen and high methemoglobin in the blood.

According to the report author, "The case reported above underscores the need for ongoing public education regarding the dangers attendant to the use of this [psilocybin], and other drugs, in ways other than they are prescribed."

Related Article: Fungi Grow in Man's Blood After Injecting Self with Shroom Tea

For more news, updates about mushrooms and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
At a hunting camp in Zambia over a decade ago, UCLA biologist Paula White was puzzled by the heavy skull of a trophy-hunted lion. Zambia allows limited hunting in certain areas to fund national conservation programs, and White assesses how hunting affects conservation efforts. They had permission to examine the trophy skull and skin.

Currently, only about 23,000 wild lions (Panthera leo) remain, and leopards (Panthera pardus) are thought to be extinct in 23 of the original 85 habitat countries.

The main threats to African lions and leopards are human activities such as poaching, invasion of protected areas, conflicts with locals, and declining prey population due to the wildlife meat trade.

Wire snares and shotgun pellets used by poachers

As per Phys.org, Wiresnares are traps used to poach bushmeat and control carnivores. They pose a double threat to lions and leopards by reducing prey populations and inadvertently catching large carnivores.

Shotgun pellets pose a threat to large predators. Wildlife officials and locals use shotguns with buckshot ammunition (made of lead balls) to ward off predators. If the projectile hits the animal's eyes or face, it can cause serious injury and the pellets can remain embedded in the skull, causing lead poisoning.

Also Read: Poaching Endangered Animals, COVID-19, and Climate Change: How Are They Related?

Examining Lions to determine injuries due to snares

Paula White, director of the Zambia Lion Project and a senior research fellow with the Center for Tropical Research at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, said that "It was an odd mix of thrilling to figure out the cause of the notches and horrifying to realize that so many animals had been entangled in a snare at some point in their lives," according to ScienceDaily.

Effective monitoring and quantification of non-fatal injuries from trap and shotgun bullets is difficult, and reported cases are likely to be underreported. Paula White and her colleague Blaire Van Valkenburgh, professor emerita of ecology and evolutionary biology looked to previously untapped data sources to better quantify poaching and human-wildlife collisions.

White explained that in their study of age-related natural wear and tear, and natural cranial trauma for another study, they found abnormal tooth wear confirmed by the diagnosis of wire loop damage and an old bullet lodged in the skull.

The sad findings in their examination

According to ScienceDaily, from 2007 to 2012, White crossed Zambia to examine and photograph the skulls, teeth, and fur of lions and leopards. They examined White's photographs of 112 lions and 45 leopards in two wildlife sanctuaries in Zambia, the Luangwa Valley (LV) and the Greater Kafue ecosystem (GKE)

According to a study published today in the Journal Frontiers in Conservation Science,they found that 37% of lions and 22% of leopards had snare scars and tooth scars. The incidence of snare damage was found more often in animals from GKE than in animals from LV.

As published by Phys.org, Evidence of shotgun bullet wounds was found only in lions, with 27% of individuals sampled having shotgun bullets lodged in their skulls. GKE lions had a higher incidence than LV lions. Dual wounds including trap damage and bullet damage are found in 16% of GKE lions and 7% of LV lions.

Related Article: Poaching Threatens South Africa's Rare Desert Plants
A rogue rocket has been estimated to crash into the moon on March 4. Astronomers confirmed that the space object, once thought to be from SpaceX, actually comes from China as part of their space mission in 2014. It is reportedly misidentified during an initial assessment since a SpaceX rocket was also launched to the moon in 2015.

There are many deep space objects surrounding the moon and our solar system. The recent discovery of the rogue rocket's real identity emanates from a misidentification that highlights the challenges surrounding the proper tracking of deep space objects.

Misidentified Deep Space Rocket

Astronomers made a new discovery that the rogue rocket or space junk estimated to crash into the moon on March 4 does not belong to Elon Musk's SpaceX aerospace company-but rather from China.

Bill Gray, an astronomer, and proponent of the asteroid tracking software Project Pluto believed that he and his colleagues' initial assessment was wrong.

During the initial assessment, Gary gave a temporary name for the rogue rocket as WE0913A-which was once believed to be the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX.

Gary corrected the misidentification that the rogue rocket was not the SpaceX upper stage but was actually a rocket booster from China, as per Gary's updated blog on the Project Pluto website.

Also read: SpaceX Going Big: Elon Musk Company Begins Test Firing Parts, Boosters of Falcon Heavy

Discovery of Error

The misidentified rocket was first discovered by Jon Giorgini, an engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who tracks active spacecraft, as per Live Science.

The discovery of the error first occurred when Giorgini used NASA's Horizons system, a database containing estimated locations and orbital distance of hundreds of thousands of solar system objects.

Giorgini informed Gray about the object. Gray assessed that the rogue rocket's launch time and trajectory nearly match the rocket stage from China's Chang'e 5-T1 mission in 2014.

The 2014 China and 2015 SpaceX Missions

In October 2014, the China National Space Administration launched the Chang'e 5-T1, an experimental robotic spacecraft, into the moon as part of the Chang'e 5 mission to conduct atmospheric re-entry tests.

China's moon mission was followed by the February 2015 SpaceX mission, wherein Elon Musk used the Falcon 9 rocket as a launch vehicle for the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), as per the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS).

The DSCOVR, owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is an Earth observation satellite to monitor space weather and space climate.

Challenges on Tracking Deep Space Objects

The misidentified rocket estimated to crash into the moon on March 4 highlights the challenges surrounding tracking deep space objects.

There are many space objects orbiting Earth's moon and across our solar system. Due to the recent misidentified object, rigorous efforts are likely to be implemented when it comes to tracking space objects in the future.

Over recent decades, Earth has sent several robotic spacecraft missions to explore the moon's lunar surface and its origin following the 1969 first human landing on the lunar's surface.

Related article: The U.S. is Going Back to the Moon; Moon Express Lunar Mission Approved
Transfer and Restoration Work Programme of Last Two 25-pounder QF Field Gun in Gibraltar

The Ministry for Heritage is informing the public that it has completed the transfer of the last 25 pounder QF Field Guns from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment as an addition to Gibraltars heritage assets.

These are now on display at the 100 Ton Gun visitor facility at the south end of Rosia Road.

The 25 Pounder QF Field Gun was the major British field gun and howitzer during the Second World War. It was introduced into service just before the war started, combining both high-angle and direct-fire abilities.

The first 25 Pounders arrived in Gibraltar in June 1941 and operated by the 18th Defence Regiment RA. In total ten pieces were deployed to the Rock by 1942.

It remained the British Army's primary artillery field piece well into the 1960's, with smaller numbers serving in training units until the 1980s.

After WWII, eight 25 Pounder Field Guns were retained and these took over the saluting duties formerly performed by 18 Pounder QF Field Guns firing from Kings Bastion. These duties were later transferred to the Gibraltar Regiment who used the Devils Gap Saluting Battery for this purpose until the 1990s, when they were finally decommissioned. Six were returned to the UK, one transferred to the Government of Gibraltar for display at Hays Level and one retained by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment to be adapted for use for military and state funerals. The coffin platform, which is still mounted when the gun was transferred to the Ministry, will be retained and the gun, with its accompanying interpretation, will now be displayed at the 100 Ton Gun.

The funeral gun carriage has been used on for three funerals: that of Captain Frank Galliano on the 24th February 1992, Sir Joshua Hassan on the 1st July 1997 and most recently for the funeral of Col. Arthur John Ferrary, OBE on the 4th October 2006.

Meanwhile, the second 25-pounder field gun inside the WWII tunnels in Hays Level, which has suffered from considerable deterioration from the dampness and humidity, was conveyed on the same day to the Gibdock facilities for a complete water blasting treatment of all the metal surfaces, followed by re-priming and re-painting of the entire gun.

The restored piece will also be displayed at the 100 Ton Gun. Volunteers from the Gibraltar Army Cadets will be engaged in various tasks to restore both guns to their former glory under supervision of Pete Jackson of the Gibraltar Heritage Trust.

The Ministry for Heritage would like to thank Mr. Freddie Pitto for his part in arranging for the gun to be water blasted and repaired at Gibdock. The Ministry would also like to express its gratitude to Mr. Richard Beards Managing Director of Gibdock and Mr. Giovanni Monteverde, Managing Director of Monteverde & Sons Ltd for kindly agreeing to offer their full resources for the transportation and restoration of this heritage asset free of charge.

The Minister for Heritage welcomed the project as yet another example of the spirit of collaboration, which prevails in Gibraltar in the interest of preserving our unique heritage.
According to a new research, dog feces and urine are being dumped in such large numbers in nature reserves that it is likely to harm animals.

New study reveals that footpaths might overfertilize the earth with nitrogen and phosphorus to amounts banned from agriculture.

The researchers arrived at these results after counting dog counts in four Belgian nature reserves on the outskirts of Ghent for 18 months. Across Europe, which is home to around 87 million dogs, they said, the situation would be similar.

According to local news KSN, dogs are fed at home and then excrete nutrients while on walks, leaving an average of 11kg of nitrogen and 5kg of phosphorus per acre every year.

There is a similar amount of nitrogen in the air that comes from farming, industry, and traffic emissions, ranging from 5 to 25 kg; thus, the impact of dog feces and urine is substantial.

Many dog walkers believe that letting their pet's feces out in the open will not affect the environment. On the other hand, overfertilization diminishes biodiversity by enabling a few healthy plants, such as nettles and hogweed, to push out others and the species that depend on them, resulting in a loss of biodiversity.

Related Article: Company Forced to Recall Pet Food After Testing Positive of Salmonella Contamination



Extensive Studies

The study's leader, Prof Pieter De Frenne of Ghent University, remarked, "We were startled by how high the nutritional intakes from dogs maybe. Agriculture, industry, and transportation inputs to the atmosphere deserve a lot of legislative attention, but dogs are completely ignored in this regard."

In instances where dogs must be kept on leashes and can only stray 2 meters each side of a walkway, the researchers calculated the prohibited amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus.

He saw no reason why the situation in Ghent would be different from that in many other countries in western Europe because the amount of dog ownership is relatively comparable. "One of the greatest risks to our wild plants, lichens, and fungi, yet nothing is being done to confront it," according to the British charity Plantlife.

According to the study, more than 1,600 dogs were counted during 500 trips to nature reserves, at all hours of the day and on all days of the week, which was published in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence.

They merged this information with the known quantities of nitrogen and phosphate excreted by dogs to determine the total nutrients deposited.

Waste Trail

When the scientists considered whether the dogs were on leads or not, they found that trails deposited 126kg/ha/year of nitrogen, and the remainder of the nature reserves deposited 4kg/ha/year of nitrogen. The quantity of phosphorus increased to 175kg/ha/year by pathways if all dogs were kept on leashes.

Because dog urine includes a lot of nitrogen but little phosphorus, picking up and removing all dog feces eliminated virtually all phosphate but only half of the nitrogen. According to a previous study, high nutritional levels can persist even three years after dogs are prohibited.

"Making dog owners aware of this fertilization impact is an essential first step," De Frenne stated. "I assume many people would merely clean up the feces." But the urine would stay, and he said administrators of nature reserves with fragile ecosystems might consider banning dogs, which currently occur in specific locations to safeguard birds and other species.

What Comes Next?

"Nature reserves are important locations for nature protection, where species and vulnerable ecosystems are preserved," said Rob Stoneman, director of a landscape recovery at The Wildlife Trusts in the United Kingdom. Dog poo is, of course, a natural product, but it also includes nutrients that might harm the ecosystem of endangered species.

The following steps in the research may include soil analysis to double-check the present study's findings and extend the examination to pet cats, according to De Frenne.

Also Read: 7 Animals That Prove 'Forever' is Real in Mating

For more news about the animal kingdom, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Northern snakeheads, native to China, had been a problem in the United States since it was first introduced to California in 1977. They can potentially eliminate native fish populations and alter aquatic communities, which is why it is encouraged to report sightings of the invasive fish from Asia.

A recent angler report of an ongoing prevalence of the invasive northern snakehead fish in Hudson waterways is currently being investigated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the agency announced.

"DEC will undertake a larger sampling effort when aquatic vegetation begins to die back. Until that time, DEC is taking water samples throughout the marsh in an effort to detect the potential of northern snakehead environmental DNA. Any northern snakehead caught should be immediately killed and reported to the Region 3 Fisheries Office," the statement said.

A recent study suggests that the invasive species were most likely introduced to waterways through aquarium dumping, NewsBreak reported.

Predatory fish possibly dumped from aquarium - accidental or intentional?

According to DEC, Northern snakeheads (Channa argus) were most likely introduced to New York through aquarium dumpings and both accidental and intentional releases from fish markets. The invasive predators are federally listed as "Injurious Wildlife", which means they may not be imported or transported between states without a permit.

The species are generally brown with large, dark blotches along their sides and can grow up to three feet long, with somewhat flattened head and a large mouth with many teeth. They are very similar to bowfin (Amia calva), which is native to North America.

The state has been making ongoing efforts to stop the spread and establishment of this invasive fish to protect the health of waters, wildlife and fishing industry. The juveniles feed on a wide variety of microscopic organisms, insect larvae, and crustaceans on which native fish rely. Meanwhile, adults feed mostly on other fish species, but also eat crustaceans, reptiles, mammals and small birds.

Should the northern snakeheads continue to invade New York waters, municipalities which rely on tourist dollars from recreational fishing may suffer significant losses.

Also read: Fascinating Images Reveal 'Alien-Like' Eggs Containing World's Most Venomous Animal

Challenge in removing the animals from the environment

In the state of New York, snakeheads were identified in two connected ponds in Queens, DEC reports. Through efforts in containing their population, another population found in Ridgebury Lake in the town of Wawayanda, Orange County, was eradicated in 2008 using the pesticide rotenone.

Besides aquarium dumping and fish market releases, they can also spread when people illegally use them as bait, or unknowingly transporting juveniles in the water-containing compartments of boats. They can even spread in nearby waterbodies on their own, as they are known to temporarily move around on land, and breathe air.

Once well-established, or if physical conditions favor them, their removal could be quite challenging and render efforts ineffective. Although there is little that can be done to control and manage them once in the area, they can still be dealt with on a case-by-case basis using trap nets, electrofishing and pesticides like rotenone, depending on the population size.

DEC announced that any northern snakehead caught should be immediately killed and reported to the Region 3 Fisheries Office in New Paltz.

Also read: 29,000 Turkeys Killed to Prevent a Highly Pathogenic Strain of Bird Flu in the U.S.
Washington House Bill 1868, referred to as the Safe Staffing Standards bill, recently made its way to the state Senate Committee on Ways and Means. In an executive session on February 28, no action was taken by the state Senate regarding the bill.
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NEW CANAAN  The State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection aided the town in locating an oil source that was found to have leaked its way into Bristow Sanctuary pond, said Kathleen Holland, the towns director of Inland Wetlands, on Monday.

Absorbent booms, installed to stem the flow of oil from the tributaries, were still in place by noon Monday at the 16.8-acre nationally renowned and recently restored park.

DEEPs Emergency Response Division identified a 275-gallon tank had been leaking from an above ground oil tank on private property on Douglas Road less than a half-mile south of the park, Holland said. The tank had a small dripping leak along the seam.

The leaked oil migrated to a partially piped watercourse that eventually flows into the Bristow Sanctuary watercourse, Holland said. The owner was unaware of the issue and is fully cooperating with DEEP to mitigate the spill.

In preparations for the parks 100th anniversary, the town spent more than $200,000 to renovate the increasingly popular walking space next to Mead Memorial Park. The pond was dredged, paths were widened to accommodate visitors of all age groups, fences were fixed and landscaping was upgraded to include more native plants over the last couple of years.

In order to prevent an accidental release and a costly clean-up, homeowners should conduct regular tank maintenance as per DEEP instructions, Holland said.

Now, we will have to see the results of the remediation to understand the impact on the amphibians and turtles. Fortunately, the bird migration is just getting underway, so that impact is minimized, said Conservation Commission Chairman Chris Schipper, who first spotted the oil sheen near the pond.

What you do on your property can affect the environmental resilience of our town which is blessed with many rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands, he cautioned residents.

DEEP recommends homeowners check their heating equipment yearly, either by asking their oil delivery company or doing it themselves. Residents should check the condition of their oil tanks by looking for blisters, wet spots, rust, dents, bulges or drips and check the lines and fittings from the tank to the furnace to look for drips.

This is a precautionary event, where all of us with oil tanks should be more observant regarding leaks  including the heating oil suppliers, Schipper added. I first spotted the oil sheen when I was restocking the Bristow bird feeders last Friday.

Soon after, he sent a photo to Tiger Mann, who alerted Holland and the town swung into action, he said.

Fire Marshal Paul Payne was alerted and, soon after, firefighters installed the booms. I am pretty impressed by their speed of response, including the fire marshal and the fire department in placing absorbent booms across the waterway to soak up the oil, Schipper said.

Holland thanked DEEP for the help in resolving the contamination issue that was effecting the water resource in the Douglas Road and Bristow Sanctuary area, and eliminating the source of contamination.

DEEPs fact sheet explains that if fuel oil is in groundwater or soil, the licensed environmental contractor will usually collect water and soil samples to help guide their cleanup activities.

Schipper added that many need to be more thoughtful about the use of herbicides, pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers upstream of our parks and lakes and neighborhoods.

If residents smell oil, they should call the local fire department, call 1-866-DEP-SPIL or 860-424-3338.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Mostly cloudy this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High around 85F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low around 70F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
In the spring of 2018, as vice chair of the Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee, I attended a presentation of the Board of Educations Facilities Master Plan by KG&D, the consulting firm hired by the BOE to conduct a study of the towns existing school buildings and prepare a 15-year capital budget plan.

Since that presentation, I have been continually puzzled by the position of Central Middle School 15-plus years out in the Master Plan when KG&D said it needed to be torn down and replaced at some point. If it was in such bad shape, it didnt seem logical to spend millions to maintain it until it could be torn down. The only explanation given was that the decision would be up to Board of Education members to finalize the prioritization of their capital projects.

Connecticut General Statues Chapter 170, Section 10-220 states the following: Each local board of education ... shall make a continuing study of the need for school facilities and a long-term building program and from time to time make recommendations based on such study to the Town ... There can be no doubt that the responsibility for prioritizing the capital plan resides with the BOE, not the Board of Estimate and Taxation, as many have erroneously suggested. In June 2018, the then Democratic BET Chair Jill Oberlander said We ask that the board does the difficult work of determining not only the priority, but also a timetable for implementation. Just to be abundantly clear, both Republicans and Democrats on the BOE have the responsibility to prioritize their capital projects, not the BET.

While the BOE has an obligation to prioritize its capital requests, the final decision on funding rests with the BET and then the RTM. These bodies can only fund those requests presented to them, that are deemed necessary and clearly rise above competing priorities. Its clear now that, until recently, the BOE did not believe the capital plan that placed rebuilding CMS so far into the future met that standard.

During the recent campaign for the BET, I and my Republican colleagues, made it very clear that proper prioritization of school capital projects was an important issue, and I said on a number of occasions that the replacement of Central Middle School should be accelerated. Fortunately, the BOEs proposed capital plan did move the appropriation to rebuild Central from FY 2033-2034 to FY 2025-2026. Obviously, recent events strongly make it very clear that it should be rebuilt as soon as practically possible.

Now is not the time to assign blame, and the righteous high ground is much too narrow for all those clamoring to occupy it. This is the time for all of us to get this right. To that end, in addition to the funds needed to make CMS safe for students to return to school; I encourage my Republican and Democrat BOE colleagues to ask for an interim appropriation of $250,000 to begin the Central Middle School feasibility study as soon as possible. Additionally, I urge them to move the $2.5 million funds for the architectural and engineering work listed in the FY 2024-2025 capital plan, into the current FY 2022-2023 budget currently being developed. It is vitally important that our town come together now to get Central done in a timely manner, and I pledge to work collaboratively with all of my BET colleagues to make this happen.

Mike Basham is vice chair of the Board of Estimate and Taxation.
New Castle, PA (16103)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. High around 70F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.


Catholic charity opens homeless house in Cromer Catholic charity opens homeless house in Cromer

Catholic social action charity, the St Vincent de Paul Society, has opened a house for the homeless in Cromer and it was officially blessed by Bishop of East Anglia, the Rt Rev Alan Hopes on February 4. Steve James reports.

Society Project Manager Joey Garande, assisted by caretaker Liam Peers, showed the Bishop around Blessed Rosalie Rendu House, the second stage of a project for the homeless, which had been filled within a week of opening at Christmas and is now home to six individuals.



The Bishop brought with him Canon David Paul, Dean of St Johns Cathedral in Norwich, who is at present opening the Cathedral as a shelter for the street homeless. They were moved by the anonymous interview of a house resident who was preparing to leave after six weeks, with his life back on an even keel.



The Bishop blessed the house, including an icon of Blessed Rosalie painted and donated by Judith James. They then returned to Cromer church for refreshments and to meet conference members and guests. SVP Trustee Maurice Downey attended, along with Helen Voyce, now directing SVP social enterprise.



Since 2012, the North Norfolk Conference has been supporting street homeless people, both individuals and families in need of emergency accommodation. The temporary loan and leasing of a house between 2014 and 2018 developed into the current Project when the SVP Society Board of Trustees approved the purchase of St Vincents House in Sheringham.



This was commissioned in December 2019 to relieve homeless families who up to that time had to be housed in unsatisfactory conditions. For more than two years now the house has been operating continuously and sustainably at almost full occupancy and has helped more than 14 families and over 50 children live in normal safe conditions until being able to move on to a new permanent home.



Following the success of the Sheringham property, the SVP Society were able to authorise a project expansion to establish a second house, this time supporting a different category, single homeless individuals. Support needs for the single homeless can be more complex and the need for a live-in caretaker was identified.



Conference President Michael McMahon thanked Bishop Alan for a significant capital grant payment to the project from the Alive in Faith Outreach Fund and Canon David Longe, Rector of the local Matlaske Benefice (Church of England), whose parishioners have made significant donations supplementing funds from the St Josephs, Sheringham and Sacred Heart, North Walsham parishes.



Helen Voyce confirmed that the Society had included the procurement of a third house in the new 2022/23 budget year.



Jeanne Rendu, born 1786, was a member of the Daughters of Charity and received the name Rosalie. She spent over 50 years serving God and assisting the poor in the Paris streets, risking her life on the barricades during the bloody uprisings that took place in 1830 and 1848. She became known as the good mother of all, and in 1833 became the mentor to Blessed Frederic Ozanam, helping him and his friends to do good works, which is how the St Vincent de Paul Society started.



Pictured above is Bishop Alan with SVP Project Manager Joey Garande outside the new move-on accommodation for single homeless people.


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MOGADISHU, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and ten others wounded in an explosion on Monday in a local restaurant in the southern part of Somalia, local security officials said.

The security officers told state-owned Somalia national television that the explosion occurred at a tea shop in Qalimow town in Middle Shabelle region, about 35 km north of the capital, Mogadishu.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks in Somalia but al-Shabab militants frequently stage such attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

The militants have intensified attacks in Somalia despite government forces having made intensive operations against the group in central and southern regions in recent months in an attempt to flush out al-Shabab cells. 
SUVA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Fiji will send military personnel to help Tonga where the violent eruptions of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano over the weekend has caused damages and casualties.

According to a Fijian government statement on Wednesday night, Fiji's Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that Fiji has formally written to Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni to assure that Tonga has Fiji's support as his government looks to respond to their people's immediate needs and, eventually, mount their recovery.

He said that Fiji is working closely with the Australian and New Zealand governments to coordinate a regional relief effort due to Tonga's volcanic eruptions.

Australia has established a communication channel with Tonga's capital city of Nuku'alofa and is preparing to dispatch the HMAS Adelaide frigate to Tonga's shores.

Fiji has offered to airlift disaster-ready Fijian military personnel to ship out with the contingent of Australian troops. These Fijian military personnel are currently in isolation and will be tested prior to departure, he said.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Jone Kalouniwai, Fiji's military commander, said on Wednesday night that the Fijian military contingent is on standby to assist the Tongan government.

The commander said he can confirm that the Australian Defense Force has made available a strategic lift cap to take Fijian troops across to Tonga. However the Tongan government's approval for any deployment to the island nation is still pending.

The Tongan government has so far confirmed three deaths in relation to Saturday's volcanic eruption and all houses on the island of Mango were wiped out.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano is part of the highly active Tonga-Kermadec Islands volcanic arc, a subduction zone extending from New Zealand north-northeast to Fiji. Over the past decades, the volcano has erupted several times. 
TORRINGTON  Friendly Hands Food Bank, joined by Community Health & Wellness and a group of volunteers, stood on the steps of the Elks Club for a second care day for homeless and other people in need.

With a blustery wind blowing snow across the crowd, members of the food bank handed out winter clothing, personal care supplies and hot coffee, courtesy of Dunkin. Sandwiches were provided by the Community Soup Kitchen of Torrington, which serves meals daily on Maiden Lane off Main Street.

Staff from Community Health & Wellness distributed COVID-19 and HIV test kits and hand sanitizer. As a collaborator for the event, CHWC parked its mobile clinic, Betty, in front of the Elks Club.

Were glad to be part of this, said one of the health centers nurses, Kristie Wilson. It gets us out in the community where we can meet more people.

There were about 60 people waiting for us when we got here at 10 a.m., said the food banks executive director, Karen Thomas.

Even on a freezing cold day like this, people are outside, so we will be here to help them, she said, as a couple walked up for Big Y gift cards, donated by the supermarket. Theres such a need; for people to come out on a day like this is proof of that.

Food bank board president Danny Hartnett said the monthly care days will continue through winter and possibly beyond the cold weather.

Well be here every month, he said. We have plenty of donations from so many generous people, and its not doing any good sitting inside in a box, so well keep having these events for people who need help.

The Elks Club porch railing was transformed into a bargain shop, loaded with coats for children and adults and boxes of sweaters, hand-knitted scarves and mittens, boots and shoes. Everyone who came received a bag or box to take as many items as they wanted.

Friendly Hands Food Bank is expanding its offerings to the local community to provide more than food, Thomas said. Those efforts include a monthly pet food pantry and an upcoming coupon workshop to teach residents how to save money on their grocery bills. Torrington Savings Bank recently provided a grant to create a community room at the food bank on King Street, where Thomas plans to offer classes and programs.

To reach Friendly Hands, visit fhfb.org, or call 860-482-3338.
There's no change for now to the rules for students but starting Friday, vaccinated and boosted staff members and "certain visitors" can go mask-free in rooms where no students are present, the door is closed and at least 6 feet of distance is kept between all present.
Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
TEHRAN, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- About 30 stores have burned down completely in a huge fire that erupted on Saturday morning in a mall in downtown Tehran, the capital city of Iran.

No casualties have been reported yet, according to the semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency.

Tehran Fire Department Spokesman Jalal Maleki said the blaze was reported at 7:38 local time (0408 GMT) in Tehran Grand Bazaar. Firefighters from six stations were sent to the scene of the incident, arriving there in three minutes.

He added the fire has so far destroyed 30 stores, damaged many walls in the building and shattered glasses.

Maleki said major part of the flames has been quenched.

The mall is located in Hajeb Al-Dowleh historical market, which is one of the oldest arcades in Tehran Grand Bazaar. 
Reporter

Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Cloudy this morning. A few showers developing during the afternoon. High 67F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Cloudy. Low 44F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers described the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant in south-eastern France.

Study: First cases of infection with the 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant in Marseille, France. Image Credit: Orpheus FX / Shutterstock.com

Background

Several variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected to date following its emergence in late 2019. However, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is currently the predominant variant of concern (VOC) due to its high transmissibility and the ability to escape from natural- and vaccine-induced immunity.

Three subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron have been identified so far, namely BA.3, 21L/BA.2, and 21K/BA.1. In contrast to the 21K/BA.1 Omicron variant with a rapid transmission rate even in highly vaccinated populations, 21L/BA.2 was observed less frequently in most countries worldwide. However, recently in Denmark, the 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant has become predominant over the SARS-CoV-2 21K/BA.1 variant, suggesting a possibility of epidemiological change of 21L/BA.2 in other nations.

About the study

In the current study, the researchers characterized the initial cases of the SARS-CoV-2 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant in Marseille, France.

The nasopharyngeal samples procured from patients of the University Hospital Institute Mediterranee Infection was tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection using the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Further, SARS-CoV-2 variants-specific qPCR assays identifying the spike (S) mutations E484K, K417N, L452R, or P681H merged with TaqPath coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) kit targeting the SARS-CoV-2 ORF1, nucleocapsid (N), and S genes were conducted as per the French recommendations.

Amino acid and nucleotide changes in the 21L/BA.2 Omicron genomes compared to the genome of SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan-Hu-1 isolate were evaluated using the Nextclade tool. The genomic identification of 21L/BA.2 was performed via next-generation sequencing with the Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT). Pangolin lineages and Nextstrain clades were determined using the Pangolin and Nextclade web applications.

Further, phylogeny was reconstructed and visualized using the Nextstrain/new CoV (nCoV) tool and Auspice, respectively. Genomes that were genetically closest to the 21L/BA.2 Omicron was determined using the Usher and global initiative for sharing all influenza data (GISAID) BLAST tools.

Findings

The results indicate that 13 SAR-CoV-2 21L/BA.2 Omicron cases were identified from Marseille between November 28, 2021, to January 31, 2022, using variant-specific qPCR and next-generation sequencing. The initial two cases were detected in two couples who traveled back from Tanzania. These travelers were tested positive following three weeks of receiving the third dose of the SARS-CoV-2 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Map of the Omicron 21L/BA.2 spike protein with signature amino acid substitutions and deletions (a) and structural features of 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant spike protein (b) a: Amino acid substitutions and deletions shared with the 21K/BA.1 Omicron variant are indicated by a red font. b: Structural model of the Omicron 21L/BA.2 spike protein with mutations highlighted in red atomic spheres (left panel) or in electrostatic surface rendering (right panel). Note the flat surface of the N-terminal domain that faces lipid rafts of the host cell membrane. The S1-S2 cleavage site is indicated by an arrow. The color scale for the electrostatic surface potential (negative in red, positive in blue, neutral in white) is indicated. NTD, N-terminal domain; RBD, Receptor binding domain.

The third case had a history of contact with a COVID-19-positive patient and migrant patients with anonymous status of SARS-CoV-2 and received the third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine seven weeks before the 21L/BA.2 Omicron diagnosis. Finally, two other 21L/BA.2 patients originated from the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands. Information about the remaining eight 21L/BA.2 Omicron-positive patients were unavailable.

Every 21L/BA.2-positive respiratory samples demonstrated the same S mutation combinations in real-time qPCR, which was negativity for E484K, P681R, and L452R, and positivity for K417N. Further, the TaqPath COVID-19 kit showed positive signals for all three S, N, and ORF1 genes targeted.

The 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant genomes demonstrated a mean of 65.92.5 nucleotide substitutions, 31.08.3 nucleotide deletions, 49.62.2 amino acid substitutions, and 12.41.1 amino acid deletions.

Phylogeny indicated that the nine 21L/BA.2 genomes detected in the current study were associated with three distinct clusters of 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant genomes from Singapore and Nepal, France and Denmark, England and South Africa.

The 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant had a substantially enlarged and flattened N-terminal domain (NTD) surface compared to 21K/BA.1 in the molecular modeling and structural predictions, probably due to the absence of 143-145 nucleotide deletions in the 21L/BA.2. This indicated the advanced 21L/BA.2 Omicron adaptability to the electronegative surface of lipid rafts relative to the 21K/BA.1 Omicron variant.

Number of genomes of the SARS-COV-2 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant available in GISAID and chronology of collections of respiratory samples from where they were obtained a: Number of genomes of the SARS-COV-2 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant available in the GISAID sequence database (https://www.gisaid.org/)15 as of 02/02/2022. b: Chronology of SARS-CoV-2 diagnoses with the 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant for genomes deposited in the GISAID sequence database and obtained worldwide. c: Chronology of SARS-CoV-2 diagnoses with the 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant for genomes deposited in the GISAID sequence database and obtained in France or in our university hospital institute. The number of genomes was analyzed until 02/02/2022. Total number of genomes analyzed was 36,428. A total of 1,093 genomes were excluded as the date of sample collection was incomplete (days or months were lacking).

Conclusions

The present study highlights the need for 1) close surveillance at the center, country, and global levels to monitor the occurrence and clinical outcome of the SARS-CoV-2 21L/BA.2 Omicron variant as no study is available to date describing the frequency of severe, mild, and asymptomatic forms of COVID-19 associated with 21L/BA.2; 2) phenotypic assessment through inoculation on permissive cells to determine the susceptibility of the emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants to neutralization by the previous COVID-19 infection- or vaccine-induced anti-S antibodies; and 3) the real-time close genomic and molecular surveillance of the emergence, transmission, and disappearance of SARS-CoV-2 variants to predict the emergence and outcomes of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been caused by the spread of a contagious virus known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Despite the commencement of COVID-19 vaccination around the world, the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to a rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, which has also increased COVID-19-related hospitalization and mortality rates.

Study: The Utility of Telemedicine In Managing Patients After COVID-19. Image Credit: Cryptographer / Shutterstock.com

An introduction to telemedicine

Due to the vast amount of pressure put on hospitals, particularly that which was witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals were forced to release stable and treated patients to make space for severe cases. Some of the patients who are discharged under this type of pressure could require extended oxygen treatment; therefore, this approach is not ideal.

Both healthcare professionals and policymakers have recognized that telemedicine could be an effective tool for the remote treatment of stable patients. Telemedicine is defined as the utilization of electronic information and communications technology to support the health care system.

Previous studies have demonstrated that the implementation of telehealth measures has effectively helped patients who live in remote regions. Furthermore, research has shown that practicing telemedicine not only reduces mortality but also decreases the days lost due to unplanned cardiovascular hospitalizations.

Similarly, during the Ebola outbreak, mobile applications helped trace and monitor confirmed cases. In Taiwan, online communication with healthcare providers through online video calls increased the availability of medical consultants during the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak.

In the current COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has played an important role in treating chronically ill patients during the lockdown. Although many available studies cover different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, none have addressed the time when COVID-19 patients could be safely released from the hospital.

About the study

In acknowledging the urgent need for managing outpatients, especially after hospital discharge, scientists have conducted a pilot telemonitoring program. The data collected from this program has been published in a recent Research Square* study while it is being considered for publication in BMC One Health Outlook.

In this study, patients were recruited either during the time of being discharged from Barlicki Memorial Hospital in Lodz, or after completing their first outpatient visit six weeks after discharge from another center.

Participants were recruited between December 2020 and May 2021 and were provided with equipment to record daily saturation and heart rate measurement, as well as a tablet for remote data transmission. The researchers also obtained daily reports of cough, dyspnea, and fatigue from the study participants.

Study findings

The researchers monitored thirty patients for at least forty-five days and a minimum of two weeks after spontaneous saturation normalization. The mean age of the study participants was 55 years.

The researchers divided the groups in accordance with their clinical improvement. For example, patients with greater than 10% improvement in their functional vital capacity (FVC) or greater than 15% increase in their lung transfer for carbon monoxide (T L,CO ) were considered to be clinically improved patients. Comparatively, patients who exhibited at-rest saturation measurements lower than 94% indicated a lack of clinical improvement.

The non-improvement group exhibited lower than 94% SpO 2 with higher variations in saturation measurements up to day 22. These patients also did not show significantly improved pulmonary function tests two-three months post-hospital discharge. Importantly, the researchers emphasized the lack of data to guide the use of home pulse oximetry or validate it in disease progression.

The researchers observed that participants who missed two or more measurements during the observation period were more inclined to be categorized into the clinically improved group. Furthermore, daily heart rate measurements did not differ between the study groups.

In the clinically improved study cohort, only one patient returned to the hospital because of diarrhea as a post-hospitalization and post-antibiotic consequence. Between both groups, the data on dyspnea and cough intensity were not statistically significant.

Conclusions

The findings from the current study demonstrate that telemedicine allows for the management of COVID-19 patients in a controlled manner.

One of the limitations of this study is the lack of randomization; however, the key strengths of this study are its longer observation time and the computation of the correlation between patient's pulmonary function tests and pulse oximetry results. This study emphasizes that home oxygen saturation telemonitoring could help predict the trajectory of the disease course.

*Important notice

Research Square publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
The University of Pennsylvania today announced the Leonard A. Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Program, which will recruit and prepare a diverse cadre of expert nurse practitioners to provide primary care to individuals and families in underserved communities across the U.S. The $125 million donation by Leonard A. Lauder, Chairman Emeritus of The Estee Lauder Companies, to create this first-of-its-kind, tuition-free Program is the largest gift ever to an American nursing school. Mr. Lauder is a Penn alumnus. The gift comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the nation's acute shortage of primary care providers, and persisting inequities in access to quality healthcare.

This is the most timely and consequential gift not only for our university but for our country. It is unprecedented in its potential to address America's most critical need of providing primary health care to all who currently lack it by investing in nurses." Amy Gutmann, former Penn President

"Growing the number of nurse practitioners who are prepared and committed to working in underserved areas is the most practical and inspiring way to ensuring a healthier country. I am grateful and honored that Leonard would make this gift to Penn Nursing, and thrilled to know that it will have an immediate impact that will last far into the future."

Nurse practitioners are leaders on the front lines of care, a role never more important as Americans confront a primary healthcare shortage in their communities. With their advanced clinical training and graduate education, nurse practitioners have the knowledge and skill to supervise and manage critical aspects of care in a decision-making capacity, from patient diagnosis, to ordering and interpreting tests, to prescribing medication. Nurse practitioners deliver high-quality primary care to people of all ages, such as treating common illnesses, managing chronic conditions, and providing preventive care that helps patients stay healthy.

Nurse practitioners are also able to take on key leadership roles, from managing and operating walk-in or community clinics to leading interdisciplinary teams within health systems. The new Program will better the lives of patients and communities most in need, while providing a pathway for the many nurses interested in advanced education who may not otherwise have the means to pursue it.

The Program:

 Structure: Leonard A. Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Fellows will enroll full-time in a two-year, rigorous Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program at Penn Nursing.

 Community Practice: Fellows will complete at least 50 percent of their clinical education at community partner sites in the greater Philadelphia area that provide direct patient care, an invaluable experience that will prepare Fellows to meet the complex needs of patients and families throughout their careers. Every Fellow will be expected to commit to practice or service in an underserved community for two years after graduation.

 Recruitment: Penn Nursing will select 10 Fellows to begin classes this fall, growing the program enrollment through 2026 when it will reach its annual target enrollment of 40 Fellows, continuing in perpetuity. By 2027, the program will have enrolled 140 excellent nurse practitioner students. Fellows will need to show a demonstrated commitment to working in underserved neighborhoods, where they are needed most, and to promoting health equity.

 Tuition: All participants in the program will enter the workforce free of graduate school debt, receiving student aid to cover their tuition and fees and thereby eliminating any potential financial barriers for nurses and others who wish to enroll. Fellows with greater financial need will also receive stipends to help with living expenses.

 Program Leadership: Penn Nursing will name the first endowed Leonard A. Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Professor, who will oversee curriculum innovation, support of community sites, and program implementation.

 Penn Community Partnership: Penn Nursing will provide support for select community partner sites to support the clinical education of Fellows while providing professional development and networking opportunities and access to School and University resources.

"Penn Nursing has a long history of advancing science, promoting equity, practice excellence, and preparing leaders. That's why Mr. Lauder's gift is so meaningful. The synergy between Penn Nursing and the Program will improve the health of underserved patients and families, by uniquely preparing primary care nurse practitioners, who will work with them in their communities. The sustained investment in the education and careers of primary care nurse practitioners and communities is unprecedented. We are excited by the opportunity to lead this important Program and to extend its impact beyond Penn Nursing," says Penn Nursing Dean Antonia Villarruel. "We are deeply grateful to Mr. Lauder for recognizing and investing in this critical need, and for partnering with us in this ambitious endeavor."

Stephen P. Fera, Executive Vice President of Independence Blue Cross, which is one of the community partners that will be involved in the new initiative, noted that nurse practitioners are key to improving individual and community care. Said Fera: "Bolstering the nurse practitioner workforce is a means to improve access to care and strengthen the health care safety net provided by health centers. This is a key priority of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation and our partnership with Penn Nursing has been synergistic in efforts to prepare nurses to work in community-based settings. The Program will build and strengthen our individual and collective efforts toward improving the health and well-being of communities."

"Now more than ever, the country needs greater and more equitable access to quality primary care-;and highly-skilled nurse practitioners are the key to making that happen," said Leonard A. Lauder. "The program will ensure that more Americans receive the essential health care services that everyone deserves, and I'm so pleased to be working with Penn Nursing on this initiative. I look forward to welcoming our first class of future nurse practitioners this fall. I know their expertise will be matched only by their commitment to serving our communities."
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers evaluated the efficacy and safety of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in young and elderly cohorts from Canada.

Study: Safety and Efficacy of Preventative COVID Vaccines: The StopCoV Study. Image Credit: LookerStudio / Shutterstock

While the population-based studies and clinical trials on COVID-19 vaccines have demonstrated a brilliant transitory safety and efficacy profile of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines, only a few participants aged 70 years or older were included in these trials. Yet, COVID-19-related mortality was higher in older subjects, particularly those with comorbidities.

The Canadian Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended increasing vaccine dosing intervals up to four months and mixing of brands to partly vaccinate more individuals against SARS-CoV-2 during a period of limited vaccine availability. These public health policies raised concerns regarding vaccine efficacy.

Although few investigations suggested the positive impact of extending dosing intervals on immune responses, the effects of the vaccine-elicited antibody responses within the elderly mobile population were undefined. Further, apart from clinical trials, proof regarding the efficacy of vaccination from real-world data and during breakthroughs is necessary to devise booster vaccination strategies.

About the study

In the present decentralized prospective cohort study, called the stopCoV study, the researchers compared the responses of the COVID-19 vaccine-induced antibodies among young and elderly participants. In addition, the team also compared the safety of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines between these cohorts.

The study presents data regarding the self-reports of adverse events and self-collected dried blood spots (DBS) from 911 participants aged 70 years or older and 375 participants aged between 30 and 50 years up to 12 weeks of receiving the second vaccine dose.

Individuals who consented to contact for research received study information emails following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination at Ontario distribution centers. Similarly, the Ontario Canadian Association of Retired Persons members also received these emails. Further, subjects can also enroll through the study website, www.stopcov.ca., before the first or second dose vaccination. Participants were enrolled in the study following the submission of an electronic consent form.

The self-administered electronic survey forms collected data regarding baseline demographics and health. Electronic diaries obtained information on vaccine brand, vaccination dates, systemic and local adverse events up to seven days of each vaccine dose. The check-in questionnaires sent monthly procured information on adverse events lasting long term, booster doses, and the latest SARS-CoV-2 diagnoses.

Self Reported Adverse events to Second vaccine dose a) Adverse events and reported severity during first 7 days post-dose 2 by age cohort (n=955) b) Adverse Events and reported severity during first 7 days post-dose 2 by vaccine type (n=938) c) Adverse Events and severity reported on day 7 post-dose 2 by age cohort (n=905)

Findings

The results indicate that nearly 95% of the study participants reported at least one adverse event following the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, but they were mild and short-lived. These adverse events were more frequent in the younger subjects and the recipients of mRNA-1273 vaccines. However, few patients had residual symptoms after seven days of vaccination.

Violin plots of a) anti-Spike and b) anti-RBD (receptor binding domain) IgG normalized ratios by Time and by Age Cohort

The systemic and local SARS-CoV-2 reactivity rates, particularly in young participants, were high but transitory following the mRNA-1273 vaccination. After one dose of the mRNA-1273 vaccine, 84% of the young cohorts had positive IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) and receptor-binding domain (RBD) proteins, which increased to 100% following the second mRNA-1273 vaccination. However, only 46% of the older subjects developed positive immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 S and RBD antigens which increased to 98% by the second dose of mRNA-1273 vaccine.

Low normalized IgG RBD antibody ratios after two weeks of the second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination statistically correlated with male gender, old age, history of cancer, low body weight, cardiovascular disease, the BNT162b2 vaccine, immunosuppression, and long intervals between doses in the multivariable linear regression analysis.

Although lower antibody responses were observed each week before and after the second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, these effects were insignificant following 12 weeks of vaccination, after adjusting other covariates such as age and comorbidities.

The SARS-CoV-2 RBD IgG antibody ratios declined in younger and older cohorts after 12 weeks of the second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination; however, ratios were higher in younger participants than the elderly.

Conclusions

In the current study, the researchers report the real-time IgG antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in older and younger cohorts. The study findings indicated that the SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses were higher in young participants than the elderly and the recipients of at least one mRNA-1273 dose. Although the immunity threshold was unknown, correlations between neutralizing and binding antibodies were strongly positive.

Future extensive prospective studies will provide deep insight into vaccination policies of the elderly since more information regarding correlates of protective immunity is available now.

Overall, the study sheds light on the age-associated limitations of the first and second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced antibody responses irrespective of other demographic variables, the elderly being an underrepresented group in the clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccines. Further, the findings demonstrate that the BNT162b2 vaccines generate less robust antibody responses than the mRNA-1273 vaccine, probably because of the large number of antigens present in the mRNA-1273 vaccine and the safety of increasing the dosing intervals in younger cohorts.

Although a single dose of COVID-19 vaccines generates significant antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2, the study reinforces the requirement of two doses, especially in the elderly, without any delay.

*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.
Disease and health are the result of a complex interaction between humans and their pathogens. Genetic factors that partly determine host defenses sometimes differ significantly between people and populations. This is shown in a publication in the American Journal of Human Genetics by researchers from the Netherlands, Tanzania and India. More genetic and immunological research in non-European populations will provide a better and more complete picture of how the human immune system works.

You never become ill on your own. It always involves a combination of host and guest, the human being infected by a virus, for example. The course of such an infection can vary greatly. One person may become seriously ill from a flu virus, while another may hardly notice it at all. How does that work exactly? What makes someone clear up a viral infection without a problem while someone else gets seriously ill? To a large extent, the explanation lies in our immune system, which can vary enormously from one individual to another. But there can also be clear differences in the immune system between different population groups.

Immune response regulators

To gain more insight into these differences, Collins Boahen from Radboudumc and his colleagues focused their research on the role of genetic factors in regulating cytokine production. Cytokines are an important and early link in the coordination of immune response. Like directors, they determine the immune system's response to invading pathogens. The group of cytokines includes interferons, interleukins, chemokines and tumor necrosis factors. All these different factors make the cytokine response a complex one, which can also vary greatly from person to person and from population to population.

Variations in the cytokine response determine not only the risk of infectious disease, but also, for example, susceptibility to inflammation and autoimmune disease." Collins Boahen from Radboudumc

Tanzania

Cytokine responses in the Western European population (Caucasian race) have been studied many times. What is particularly lacking are data on cytokine responses in populations from other geographical areas. Together with Blandina T Mmbaga, director of the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute in Tanzania, and her colleagues Godfrey Temba and Vesla Kullaya, Boahen investigated how these responses occur in healthy Tanzanian adults of East African descent. "In doing so, we also looked at the underlying genetic variations that may influence cytokine responses," says Mmbaga. "In other words, are there genetic differences between populations that cause some to respond differently to infection than others?"

Genetic and immunological differences

The research fits within the Human Functional Genomics Project (HFGP), which investigates how genetic variation in human DNA affects physiological processes, with a special focus on the immune system in health and human disease. Boahen: "The research shows that both genetically and immunologically, there are clear differences between the European and African populations. Genetically, for example, we see small variations - called SNPs - between the two groups that affect the production of cytokines. Put more simply, we see significant differences in the genetic basis for cytokine production in people from Tanzania in East Africa and Western Europe."

More focus on non-European populations

The results of this study, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG), point to the need for more research in non-European populations. This is the only way to gain a full understanding of the diversity of the human immune system. Vinod Kumar, last author of the article, therefore argues for the inclusion of underrepresented populations in genetic research to enable new discoveries about differences in health and disease both between individuals and populations.
JERUSALEM, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Turkish port company was disqualified from participating in a tender for the privatization of the northern state-owned Haifa Port, Israeli media reported on Monday.

The financial websites Calcalist, Globes and TheMarker reported that the Turkish company Yilport was disqualified "for security reasons and for reasons related to Israel's foreign relations."

According to the reports, the group that registered for the tender which includes the Turkish company was notified about the disqualification by the Israeli Government Companies Authority. The group also includes U.S., British and Israeli companies.

The websites said that the decision was made in a decisive discussion held by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and representatives of the defense bodies and the ministries of finance and foreign affairs.

According to the reports, Yilport's possible ties with the Turkish government and with the Lebanese military organization Hezbollah prevented the company from participating in the tender.

After the disqualification, four groups remained in the race, consisting of companies from India, Britain and Israel. 
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) triggered the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has claimed over 5.8 million lives as of February 14, 2022.

SARS-CoV-2 binds to human cells through the use of its spike protein, which attaches to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor present on the surface of host cells. In a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America study, researchers suggest that extracellular vimentin (VIM) may act as a coreceptor to allow for SARS-CoV-2 entry into cells.

Study: Extracellular Vimentin Is an Attachment Factor That Facilitates SARS-Cov-2 Entry into Human Endothelial Cells. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock.com

Introduction

VIM is a filamentous protein found in mesenchymal derivatives, including endothelial cells. To this end, this protein is present at the extracellular surface of endothelial cells and macrophages.

Earlier studies have demonstrated that VIM is an attachment factor for SARS-CoV, Japanese encephalitis virus, and dengue virus. Thus, these observations could indicate the key role of VIM in promoting the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into human circulation and other organs.

SARS-CoV-2 has been identified in the lungs, cardiovascular system, brain, heart, liver, and kidneys of infected humans. Although the ACE2 receptor is abundantly present in the upper respiratory tract, its concentration in the lower respiratory tract is low. Comparatively, many other potential receptors of SARS-CoV-2 have been identified, including Neuropilin-1, CD209L/L-SIGN, CD209/DC-SIGN, and heparan sulfate, which may facilitate its entry into lung cells.

Study findings

The current study confirmed that the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) binds to VIM, which is present as intermediate filaments on the outer surface of cells and in the cytoplasm. However, cells expressing VIM did not show increased viral entry as compared to those expressing ACE2.

However, when both VIM and ACE2 were expressed together, viral entry into the cells was significantly increased as compared to ACE2 only-expressing cells. The same result was observed with the addition of exogenous VIM to ACE2-expressing cells. Further research showed that extracellular VIM is a potential coreceptor or attachment factor for SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers then determined whether VIM was present at the same location as ACE2 on cells co-expressing both of these receptors. To this end, they found VIM filaments in the cell membrane, especially where cells were in contact.

Moreover, RBD bound more strongly to cells expressing both molecules, even when recombinant soluble ACE2 was used to test RBD binding with or without VIM. The remarkable increase in RBD-ACE2 binding in the presence of VIM may be due to a different binding site for VIM on the RBD than for ACE2.

Extracellular VIM facilitates SARS-CoV-2 entry into human cells. (A) HEK-293 cells expressing ACE2 and VIM-Myc were costained with anti-ACE2, anti-VIM and DAPI. The slides were viewed by confocal microscopy. White arrowheads show colocalization of VIM with ACE2. (Scale bars, 50 M.) (B) WCL from HEK-293 cells expressing control EV or coexpressing VIM-Myc with ACE2 were subjected to a coimmunoprecipitation assay using anti-ACE2 antibody. The immunoprecipitated proteins were analyzed by Western blot analysis using anti-Myc antibody for VIM. The same membrane was also probed for ACE2 and GAPDH. (C) Different concentrations of WCL from HEK-293 cells expressing EV, VIM, ACE2, or coexpressing VIM with ACE2 were blotted on the PVDF membrane. The membranes after blocking with BSA were incubated with S-RBD-HIS-STRP (1 g/mL), followed with immunoblotting with anti-HIS antibody. Quantification of the blots is shown. (D) A 96-well plate coated with soluble ACE2 was incubated with RBD-HIS-STRP alone or RBD-HIS-STRP with CM containing VIM. The plate was subjected to ELISA and the binding of S-RBD with ACE2 determined with streptavidin-HRP. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001; ns, not significant.

The researchers also tested the competitive binding of the RBD with ACE2 in the presence of two anti-RBD antibodies CR3022 and S309. Both CR3022 and S309 were found to bind outside the receptor-binding motif (RBM), without directly clashing with ACE2 for binding.

If the RBD is first treated with CR3022, VIM-RBD binding is reduced; however, this same effect was not observed with S309. This may indicate that VIM and ACE2 bind to the RBD at two different sites. Furthermore, CR3022 may depend on the presence of VIM for its neutralizing activity, as incubation of the RBD with this antibody prevents viral entry into VIM+ cells, but not when VIM is knocked out.

Taken together, our data demonstrate the CR3022 antibody interferes with the binding of SARS-CoV-2-S and can function as a neutralizing antibody in relevant cell types when both VIM and ACE2 are expressed.

SARS-CoV-2 infection occurred at a higher rate in cells expressing both ACE2 and VIM than ACE2 alone, while VIM knockdown reduced infection rates. This indicates the requirement for VIM for endothelial cell infection by SARS-CoV-2, in which case it could be targeted to prevent or treat SARS-CoV-2 infection. Moreover, VIM may be the bridge binding the spike protein to the ACE2 receptor to promote viral entry into the cell.

When the level of VIM expression was increased, the rate of infection was moderately increased. Comparatively, a significant increase was observed when ACE2 and VIM were both present.

Implications

The results show the key function of VIM as an attachment and infection factor for SARS-CoV-2 into ACE2-expressing cells. In addition to lung cells, SARS-CoV-2 attacks endothelial cells and can also cause damage to the cardiovascular system, kidneys, and intestine.

The endothelial component of infection by SARS-CoV-2 may be an important part of the pathologic process in COVID-19 since endothelial activation can combine with the inflammatory response in COVID-19. This causes a hyper-inflammatory and procoagulant state that results in thrombosis, capillary occlusion within the lungs, abnormal blood vessel growth, as well as neurological features.

Another recent preprint also suggested that VIM is instrumental in SARS-CoV-2 infection since anti-VIM antibody administration prevents infection of ACE2-expressing cells by SARS-CoV-2. With the same binding sites for both, a higher level of expression of VIM would have reduced RBD-ACE2 binding by competition, which is not the case.

CR3022, an RBD-binding antibody, neutralizes SARS-CoV-2, possibly through its inhibition of VIM binding, while not preventing ACE2 binding. Further research is needed to identify other receptors that may interact with VIM, as earlier animal models with ACE2 knockdown showed a slight reduction in infection by SARS-CoV-2, whereas VIM knockdown led to a significant increase.

The widespread expression of VIM on mesenchymal derivatives, as well as on type 2 alveolar pneumocytes and nasal goblet cells, is increased during inflammation and viral infection. This may indicate a potential role for VIM in infection of nasal and lung epithelial cells, especially since ACE2 expression on lung alveolar cells and endothelial cells is quite low, requiring VIM to act as an attachment factor and enhance the viral entry.

Taken together, the observations we present may lead to the development of new antiviral therapeutics combining therapies that inhibit interactions of both ACE2 and VIM with SARS-CoV-2.
The rapid spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused intensive research on the development of a safe and effective vaccine, leading to the rollout of several different vaccines between December 2020 and January 2021. However, pregnant women were excluded from the initial trials for most coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, including the first one to be approved, the Pfizer/BioNTech messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine.

A new JAMA Pediatrics study describes the effects of maternal COVID-19 vaccination on pregnancy outcomes and infant health.

Study: Association of BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccination During Pregnancy With Neonatal and Early Infant Outcomes. Image Credit: Elnur / Shutterstock.com

Introduction

Uncertainty regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccines has been cited as one of the major reasons for vaccine unwillingness during pregnancy. However, observational data using vaccinations administered to high-risk pregnant women, such as frontline healthcare workers, has been used to issue recommendations for universal vaccination against COVID-19 in pregnancy.

Earlier studies on neonatal outcomes have not been large enough or long enough and lacked a comparison group. The current study used data from an Israeli statutory health fund called Maccabi Healthcare Services, which represents over 25% of the population. As of January 19, 2021, COVID-19 vaccination has been recommended in Israel for all pregnant women.

Study findings

The study population included mother-infant dyads between March 1, 2021, and September 31, 2021. Taken together, about 24,000 newborns, with about 16,700 of them having been born to mothers who had taken the vaccine, were included in the current study.

A majority of the babies born to mothers who were vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy were born to older mothers who were more likely to have taken the flu shot, more likely to be part of the ethnic majority group, and live in a richer neighborhood.

After considering the observations appropriately, exposed infants had higher rates of pertussis immunization and lower rates of infection SARS-CoV-2. However, preterm births were comparable in both groups, as well as small-for-gestational-age. Hospitalization rates were also similar in neonates, as were the rates of phototherapy.

Infant deaths made up 0.1% of either cohort, with similar proportions of preterm births in either group. Congenital anomalies and heart defects were comparable overall, though major heart defects were only half as common following prenatal exposure to the vaccine in the first trimester.

Implications

The current study failed to show any increased illness or deaths among infants exposed to the Pfizer vaccine prenatally as compared to infants born to non-vaccinated mothers. Birth weights and gestational age were also similar in both groups.

The study also compared first-trimester and second-trimester vaccinations for their effects on gestational age and birth weight, finding no difference. Congenital malformations were similar in both groups and comparable to those reported before the pandemic.

These findings contribute to current evidence in establishing the safety of BNT162b2 to offspring and can be used to inform pregnant patients, couples planning pregnancy, and counseling physicians. Robust assessments of maternal and offspring safety are important to reduce vaccine hesitancy and increase confidence among pregnant women.

Further studies should include both stillborn and live-born infants.
Most patients who show signs of alcohol or opioid/stimulant drug use associated with injury now undergo screening and/or intervention in Level I and II trauma centers, according to national survey results. Screenings and interventions are also conducted for some trauma patients who show signs of depression, suicidal ideation, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and exposure to firearm violence, which can lead to PTSD, although some of these mental health conditions are not screened for as consistently.

Alcohol and drug use problems and other mental health disorders are "endemic among patients admitted to U.S. trauma centers," note study authors in an "article in press" published online in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

In trauma care, there's an intention to better understand the risk factors for patients who are injured and how we can intervene to reduce their rate of reentry into a trauma center. The first studies were done to study the relationship between alcohol use and traumatic injury. Out of that work, grew a really convincing evidence base, which showed that if you did even a brief intervention with those patients while they were still in the hospital, that intervention would substantially reduce their risk of subsequent injury." Eileen M. Bulger, MD, FACS, lead study author, Chair of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT), and chief of trauma and trauma medical director for adults and pediatrics, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle

For trauma patient interventions, an integrated mental health care approach is key, especially in acute care trauma and emergency department settings, explained study coauthor Douglas F. Zatzick, MD, a psychiatrist who works with trauma survivors with Dr. Bulger at the Harborview Medical Center Level I trauma center and is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. "Our model is to meet people by the bedside, and we don't necessarily start with mental health. We start with a very patient-centered approach to post-injury care by asking patients about what concerns them the most following their injury. After eliciting patient concerns, we initially address patients' most pressing concerns. It turns out that we can establish a therapeutic alliance with injury survivors by initially working with patients to address concerns, which relate to multiple social determinants of health, including post-injury financial worries and return to work. After establishing this alliance, it's often easier to address specific mental health issues such as PTSD symptoms."

About the survey

Researchers identified U.S. Level I and II trauma centers using the American Trauma Society's Information Exchange system, the ACS COT listing of verified trauma programs, and through internet searches of state departments of health websites. The survey extended beyond ACS-verified trauma centers, although all ACS verified trauma centers were invited to participate.

Next, 627 Level I and II sites were contacted to complete the survey inquiring about screening and intervention procedures for alcohol and substance abuse, PTSD symptoms, depression, and suicidality [thoughts and/or attempts to deliberately hurt oneself with an intent to die], and violence intervention programs. The capacity of trauma centers to offer peer interventions and to deliver information technology screening intervention procedures was also queried.

The survey attained a 51% response rate (n=322), which the authors view as a limitation since prior national trauma program surveys had a response rate greater than 70%. The authors cite the COVID-19 pandemic as the likely cause for a lower response rate as hospitals were significantly impacted with patient care responsibilities during the investigation period (May 14, 2019 - May 18, 2021).

Overview of key findings

Alcohol screenings/interventions are routine

More than 95% of the centers who responded reported routinely screening and/or intervening for alcohol use problems for high-risk patients. Three screening methods are used: laboratory test, a patient questionnaire, or electronic health record screen, which identifies risk factors.

This finding shows a significant increase in the number of trauma centers performing alcohol screening/intervention over time. In 2008, alcohol screenings were reported by 70% of Level I centers, however, only 25% followed through with evidence-based interventions for patients who needed it.

When the ACS COT published new trauma center standards in 2014, alcohol screening and brief intervention became a verification requirement for Level I and II centers. A concurrent nationwide survey documented alcohol screening and intervention rates at more than 90% of all Level I and II centers.

"These changes show how effective ACS COT standards are for changing a practice," said Dr. Bulger.

Many trauma centers screen for opioids and stimulants

Survey results shed new light on national screening and intervention efforts for trauma patients at risk for abusing opioids and stimulants with the same three screening methods as alcohol use. Trauma centers have extrapolated their experience with alcohol screening and intervention to support patients with other substance abuse disorders:

For opioids, 82% of sites reported using at least one of the three screening methods also used for alcohol

For stimulants, 78% of sites endorsed using at least one of the three screening methods

Screening and support for some mental health issues lacking

Routine screening patients for PTSD symptoms and the factors contributing to firearm injury were lacking among at least 70% of all reporting centers:

28% of responding centers offer routine services to support patients with PTSD

30% of centers conduct programmatic screening and intervention for the impact of firearm injury on patients

Screening rates for suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms were higher than for PTSD symptoms, with 77.5% of sites screening for suicidal ideation and 38.3% of sites endorsing depression screening.

Study authors note "that while screening for suicide risk is becoming more common, there is considerable opportunity to continue to increase screening and intervention for PTSD symptoms in U.S. trauma centers."

Leverage electronic health records for screening and develop peer support programs

Expanding technological capacity to support electronic health record screening and strengthening referrals for peer services for trauma survivors are two areas where centers can expand to better assist patients.

Only 20% of sites reported current use of highly efficient automated screening procedures for alcohol and substance abuse and 10% of sites reported current use of automated screening procedures for some mental health conditions.

Peer support programs were reported to be in place by 15% of centers, but 86% of centers expressed interest in having such programs.

Strengthening peer support through trauma centers provides an opportunity to address the long-term recovery for trauma survivors across the U.S.

Looking ahead

The evolution of the ACS standards for trauma center verification have incorporated evidence from research to advance the care and support for injured patients. The implementation of alcohol screening and intervention as a standard for trauma centers is an example of how this program can change care across the U.S. "By doing the alcohol mandate and having evidence behind that, we were able to substantially show a change in practice over time. This approach can be applied to PTSD screening or screening for other mental health disorders or substance abuse," said Dr. Bulger.

PTSD and firearm injury survival are two important areas where many trauma patients need support, particularly in a collaborative care setting where their injury and their mental health issues can be treated as comorbid conditions. However, their risk needs to be identified and addressed early on. Many patients are at risk to develop PTSD after a traumatic injury. By screening for risk factors up front, professionals can intervene and reduce their risk so they have a better recovery.

Firearm injury survivors are at risk for PTSD, as well as other mental health issues, and substance abuse. Patients that survive firearm injuries are high risk for reinjury. If they survive the initial firearm injury but go back to the same environment, there's a high risk that they'll be injured again. "A number of trauma centers have put in place hospital-based violence intervention programs, where they bring in trained survivors of firearm injury as violence intervention specialists. They work with patients in the hospital to build a relationship so that when they're discharged back into the community, the survivors can be connected to resources to support their recovery and address their social needs to hopefully reduce their risk of reinjury," Dr. Bulger explained.

While screening and intervention for both mental health disorders and violence prevention can be found in some trauma centers, the number of trauma patients who are participating is not commensurate with the number who may need it, and the research evidence base lags behind what has been established for alcohol screening and intervention.

"The work now being done with alcohol screening and intervention in trauma centers shows the influence of the structure of the trauma center verification program in that it allows us to take evidence, translate it into program standards, and really change practice across the country. With continued research and more evidence to come, the potential is there to make the verification standards even more effective and beneficial for trauma patients in the future," concluded Dr. Bulger.
Tennessee's Board of Medical Examiners unanimously adopted in September a statement that said doctors spreading covid misinformation  such as suggesting that vaccines contain microchips  could jeopardize their license to practice.

"I'm very glad that we're taking this step," Dr. Stephen Loyd, the panel's vice president, said at the time. "If you're spreading this willful misinformation, for me it's going to be really hard to do anything other than put you on probation or take your license for a year. There has to be a message sent for this. It's not OK."

The board's statement was posted on a government website.

But before any physicians could be reprimanded for spreading falsehoods about covid-19 vaccines or treatments, Republican lawmakers threatened to disband the medical board.

The growing tension in Tennessee between conservative lawmakers and the state's medical board may be the most prominent example in the country. But the Federation of State Medical Boards, which created the language adopted by at least 15 state boards, is tracking legislation introduced by Republicans in at least 14 states that would restrict a medical board's authority to discipline doctors for their advice on covid.

Dr. Humayun Chaudhry, the federation's CEO, called it "an unwelcome trend." The nonprofit association, based in Euless, Texas, says the statement is merely a covid-specific restatement of an existing rule: that doctors who engage in behavior that puts patients at risk could face disciplinary action.

Although doctors have leeway to decide which treatments to provide, the medical boards that oversee them have broad authority over licensing. Often, doctors are investigated for violating guidelines on prescribing high-powered drugs. But physicians are sometimes punished for other "unprofessional conduct." In 2013, Tennessee's board fined U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais for separately having sexual relations with two female patients more than a decade earlier.

Still, stopping doctors from sharing unsound medical advice has proved challenging. Even defining misinformation has been difficult. And during the pandemic, resistance from some state legislatures is complicating the effort.

A relatively small group of physicians peddle covid misinformation, but many of them associate with America's Frontline Doctors. Its founder, Dr. Simone Gold, has claimed patients are dying from covid treatments, not the virus itself. Dr. Sherri Tenpenny said in a legislative hearing in Ohio that the covid vaccine could magnetize patients. Dr. Stella Immanuel has pushed hydroxychloroquine as a covid cure in Texas, although clinical trials showed that it had no benefit. None of them agreed to requests for comment.

The Texas Medical Board fined Immanuel $500 for not informing a patient of the risks associated with using hydroxychloroquine as an off-label covid treatment.

In Tennessee, state lawmakers called a special legislative session in October to address covid restrictions, and Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a sweeping package of bills that push back against pandemic rules. One included language directed at the medical board's recent covid policy statement, making it more difficult for the panel to investigate complaints about physicians' advice on covid vaccines or treatments.

In November, Republican state Rep. John Ragan sent the medical board a letter demanding that the statement be deleted from the state's website. Ragan leads a legislative panel that had raised the prospect of defunding the state's health department over its promotion of covid vaccines to teens.

Among his demands, Ragan listed 20 questions he wanted the medical board to answer in writing, including why the misinformation "policy" was proposed nearly two years into the pandemic, which scholars would determine what constitutes misinformation, and how was the "policy" not an infringement on the doctor-patient relationship.

"If you fail to act promptly, your organization will be required to appear before the Joint Government Operations Committee to explain your inaction," Ragan wrote in the letter, obtained by KHN and Nashville Public Radio.

In response to a request for comment, Ragan said that "any executive agency, including Board of Medical Examiners, that refuses to follow the law is subject to dissolution."

He set a deadline of Dec. 7.

In Florida, a Republican-sponsored bill making its way through the state legislature proposes to ban medical boards from revoking or threatening to revoke doctors' licenses for what they say unless "direct physical harm" of a patient occurred. If the publicized complaint can't be proved, the board could owe a doctor up to $1.5 million in damages.

Although Florida's medical board has not adopted the Federation of State Medical Boards' covid misinformation statement, the panel has considered misinformation complaints against physicians, including the state's surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo.

Chaudhry said he's surprised just how many covid-related complaints are being filed across the country. Often, boards do not publicize investigations before a violation of ethics or standards is confirmed. But in response to a survey by the federation in late 2021, two-thirds of state boards reported an increase in misinformation complaints. And the federation said 12 boards had taken action against a licensed physician.

"At the end of the day, if a physician who is licensed engages in activity that causes harm, the state medical boards are the ones that historically have been set up to look into the situation and make a judgment about what happened or didn't happen," Chaudhry said. "And if you start to chip away at that, it becomes a slippery slope."

The Georgia Composite Medical Board adopted a version of the federation's misinformation guidance in early November and has been receiving 10 to 20 complaints each month, said Dr. Debi Dalton, the chairperson. Two months in, no one had been sanctioned.

Dalton said that even putting out a misinformation policy leaves some "gray" area. Generally, physicians are expected to follow the "consensus," rather than "the newest information that pops up on social media," she said.

"We expect physicians to think ethically, professionally, and with the safety of patients in mind," Dalton said.

A few physician groups are resisting attempts to root out misinformation, including the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, known for its stands against government regulation.

Some medical boards have opted against taking a public stand against misinformation.

The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners discussed signing on to the federation's statement, according to the minutes from an October meeting. But after debating the potential legal ramifications in a private executive session, the board opted not to act.

In Tennessee, the Board of Medical Examiners met on the day Ragan had set as the deadline and voted to remove the misinformation statement from its website to avoid being called into a legislative hearing. But then, in late January, the board decided to stick with the policy  although it did not republish the statement online immediately  and more specifically defined misinformation, calling it "content that is false, inaccurate or misleading, even if spread unintentionally."

Board members acknowledged they would likely get more pushback from lawmakers but said they wanted to protect their profession from interference.

"Doctors who are putting forth good evidence-based medicine deserve the protection of this board so they can actually say, 'Hey, I'm in line with this guideline, and this is a source of truth,'" said Dr. Melanie Blake, the board's president. "We should be a source of truth."

The medical board was looking into nearly 30 open complaints related to covid when its misinformation statement came down from its website. As of early February, no Tennessee physician had faced disciplinary action.

This story is part of a partnership that includes Nashville Public Radio, NPR and KHN.
The COVID-19 pandemic has uneven impacts across cities and provinces, with some regions struggling more than others. A new study shows hotspots of COVID-19 infections across Canadian cities are linked to occupation, income, housing, and markers for structural racism.

To better understand the factors contributing to the concentration of infections in specific regions, a team of researchers across Canada, including Yiqing Xia, David Buckeridge, and Mathieu Maheu-Giroux of McGill University, analyzed provincial surveillance data from January 2020 to February 2021. The study, which looked at infections in 16 urban centers in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Manitoba, is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Patterns of COVID-19 transmission within cities

In each of the cities we examined, 50% of cases were concentrated in areas that accounted for less than 21% to 35% of the population. In these regions the factors associated with case concentration varied slightly depending on local contexts." Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, Professor Canada Research Chair in Population Health Modeling, McGill University

"Across all provinces, cases were geographically concentrated along social determinants of health. These include neighborhoods with high-density housing, more essential workers, residents with lower income or educational attainment, and a higher proportion of visible minorities or recent immigrants," says lead author Yiqing Xia, a McGill PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health.

The researchers found that the most common social determinant of health across all cities was visible minority status. These findings are consistent with other studies from Canada as well as Sweden, the United States, and other countries showing higher rates of COVID-19 in vulnerable communities or diverse neighborhoods.

During the study period, there were 63,266 COVID-19 cases in British Columbia, 15,089 in Manitoba, 239,160 in Ontario and 224,377 in Quebec recorded in the 16 metropolitan areas. They accounted for 81%, 57%, 83% and 80% of all confirmed cases in each province respectively.

COVID-19 hotspots in Quebec

"What is striking in our analyses, is that we observe similar patterns in all the Quebec cities examined: cases are concentrated along social determinants of health in Gatineau, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, and Trois-Rivieres," says Mathieu Maheu-Giroux.

"In Montreal, the local Direction regionale de sante publique has at times prioritized some interventions like testing and vaccines to specific areas of the city that experienced high COVID-19 transmission. There is a need to scale-up these initiatives to make our pandemic response more efficient," he adds.

Focusing on populations at greater risk of infection

"Understanding the factors associated with geographic patterns of transmission within cities can help identify the populations and, specifically, the contexts with the greatest risks," says Dr. Sharmistha Mishra of St. Michael's Hospital and Unity Health Toronto. "Geographic analyses can enable better allocation of resources, tailoring of policies and implementation of context-specific strategies to more effectively and efficiently curb local transmission," she says.

To effectively reach and meet the prevention and care needs of communities at disproportionate risk of COVID, the authors call for geographically prioritized public health supports for hotspots across the country, like vaccination rollouts and testing in specific areas. "Prioritizing specific neighborhoods that are most at risk of transmission offers a clear path forward in the public health response to COVID-19's resurgence," they conclude.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers evaluated whether severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission among school-aged children in the Netherlands follows a bipartite school and household network.

Children play a significant part in several infectious diseases transmission and are the recipients of most vaccines. In-depth knowledge of interactions between children based on gender, age, social group, vaccination status, and location and determining the transmissions associated with these interactions is essential in developing and implementing interventions to curb the transmission or identifying the risk for an outbreak when the vaccination rates drop. This understanding should be made available at the local level since the implementation of interventions or vaccination rollout programs is generally organized by the local authorities.

Further, contact surveys demonstrated that most close social encounters of children occur at home or school. Altogether, during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with the lower vaccination rates of children, it is of prime importance to determine the SARS-CoV-2 transmission pattern among children in the home and school settings.

About the study

In the present study, the scientists analyzed COVID-19 transmission pairs in students aged between four and 17 years stratified by study year and primary and secondary schools to establish SARS-CoV-2 transmission through a school-household network. The COVID-19 cases with symptom onset from March 1 to April 4, 2021, identified through contact and source tracing in the Netherlands, were included in the study.

During the study period, primary schools were open full time and held in-class education whereas, secondary school students had in-class learning at least once a week in the Netherlands. Within SARS-CoV-2 transmission pairs, the spatial distance between postal codes was estimated as the Euclidean distance.

Study findings

The results indicate that of the 4,059 COVID-19 transmission pairs of school-going children identified, 51.9%, 19.6%, and 28.5% were between primary schoolers, primary and secondary schoolers, and secondary schoolers, respectively.

Symptom onset was known for 84.7% and 67% of the infectors and infectees, respectively. The full six-digit postcode was available for 99.7% of the pairs of school-aged children with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 99.5% of the infectees reported the possible setting of acquiring infection.

Over 68% of SARS-CoV-2 transmission among children in the same study year happened at school, and most occurred in the oldest children of primary and secondary schools. By contrast, 81.7% and 64.3% transmission among primary-secondary schoolers and children from different study years, respectively, occurred in the home.

Students from higher classes in primary and secondary schools were more frequent infectors than infectees relative to students from lower classes. Further, older children of primary schools were more often infectors of secondary students than vice versa.

The average spatial distance between the SARS-CoV-2 infections among children sharing the same postcode was 1.2 km for primary students, 1.6 km for primary-secondary schoolers, and 4.1 km for secondary school pairs. The average distance of SARS-CoV-2 cases between children with different postcodes was 1.9 km and 6.1 km for primary and secondary school pairs, respectively.

Nearly 0.3% of identified SARS-CoV-2 transmission chains with three children demonstrated transmission among primary and secondary school-aged children. Children more commonly get SARS-CoV-2 infected at school then infect a third individual at home than the other way around. Most of the SARS-CoV-2 transmission chains were associated with primary school-going children than secondary children during the study period.

Conclusions

The study findings demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 transmission among the primary and secondary school-aged children in the Netherlands pursues a bipartite network between schools and households during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study indicates that while schools play a significant role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission among children from the same study years, households play a crucial part in SARS-CoV-2 transmission in children between study years and primary and secondary schools. The lower spatial distance between infections in transmission pairs from primary schools indicates the smaller school catchment area of the same. Most of the patterns observed in the current study are generalizable to the non-pandemic period and other respiratory pathogens such as influenza.

Overall, the study provides proof of COVID-19 transmission on a bipartite school-household network. Further, it highlights the significance of vaccinating children to curtail the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and understanding interventions implemented by primary and secondary schools to mitigate COVID-19 and age-specific infectiousness and susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2.

*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.
A recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server described coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) sequelae developed in non-hospitalized young adults more than six months after COVID-19 infection. Although extensive research has been conducted on the manifestation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) symptoms in infected patients, data about the persistence of symptoms and their effects on the patients post-infection are insufficient.

About the study

The present LoCoMo (Long COVID in Military Organisations) study aimed to evaluate the long-term sequelae of COVID-19 infections, particularly the adverse impact on the pulmonary, neurological, cardiovascular, ophthalmological, male reproductive, renal, psychological, and general health of the patient based on laboratory and serological parameters.

The study involved Swiss army recruits of ages between 18 to 30 years who were tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in their saliva samples using SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests. The participants then filled out a consent form and provided baseline demographic data, including sex, age, body weight, body height, COVID-19 test result, vaccination status, smoker status, comorbidities, and education level.

The study was evaluated based on a non-invasive test battery that assessed general symptoms like fatigue using the Chalder fatigue scale (CFQ-11) and mood states 2 (POMS2) profile. At the same time, kidney function was measured using cystatin C and creatinine levels along with the glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). White cell counts and C-reactive protein (CRP) were also evaluated. Pulmonary function was assessed to estimate interstitial damage or damage to microcirculation and total lung capacity (TLC).

Cardiovascular sequelae were measured based on the presence of the marker for congestive heart failure, N-terminal pro-Brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). A cardio-pulmonary exercise test (CPET) evaluated the cardiovascular function while the olfactory function was evaluated by threshold-discrimination-identification (TDI) score, which indicated normosmia with a TDI of 31 and more, hyposmia with TDI less than 31, and functional anosmia with TDI less than or equal to 16.

Ophthalmic examination included tests like color fundus photography (CF), optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) scanning, autofluorescence imaging, and ultra-widefield (UWF) CF. Sperm count, the status of mental health, and neutralizing antibody (nAb) titers of individuals of different vaccination statuses were also evaluated.

Results

The study results showed that among the 501 participants involved in the study, 5.6% were female candidates, and the median age of the population was 21 years. Six months after COVID-19 infection, participants had a higher body mass index (BMI), higher blood cholesterol, higher low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels, and lower aerobic thresholds compared to the control group, which had no history of COVID-19 infections, and a higher fatigue level compared to the asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.

Significant hyposomia was observed in a higher number of COVID-19 cases patients less than six months after infection than in older cases. Compared to the control cases, a poorer sperm count was observed in recent infection cases than in less recent cases. Anxiety levels and scores of COVID-19-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were notably higher in COVID-19 cases less than six months post-infection as compared to less recent infection cases.

A limited ability to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was observed in COVID-19-recovered patients who were unvaccinated while recovered and fully vaccinated individuals had a higher neutralization capacity.

Conclusion

The study findings showed that non-hospitalized COVID-19-infected young adults mostly recovered from mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and experienced a lower overall impact of the infection on the human body than older, hospitalized patients with comorbidities. However, even mild infections have been noted to cause significant sequelae that persist over several months after the infection. Effects like hyposomia, fatigue, reduced psychological scores, and an adverse impact on the male reproductive system were also found.

The researchers believe that the LoCoMo study can be further used to analyze COVID-19 sequalae in other populations, especially young females. Understanding the long-term impact and persistence of COVID-19 sequelae can facilitate the improvement of COVID-19 policies with better knowledge of sequalae pathophysiology.

*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.
Pell City, AL (35125)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 86F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms possible. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Jeffersonville, IN (47130)

Today

Cloudy early followed by heavy thunderstorms this afternoon. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 79F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening, with mostly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 53F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
BAGHDAD, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that an oil and gas law in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan is unconstitutional.

The court decided to oblige the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to hand over all the extracted oil production to the Federal Ministry of Oil, the court said in a statement.

Moreover, it allows the ministry to seek to invalidate oil contracts between the regional government and other countries or companies for oil exploration, extraction, export and sale, according to the statement.

The court decision also obligated the regional government to enable the federal review of its export and sale contracts for oil and gas to determine the region's financial jurisdiction, it added.

The regional Ministry of Natural Resources has been developing oil and gas resources independently of the federal government. The KRG passed its own oil and gas law in 2007 to enable direct contracts with foreign energy companies without federal authorization. 
(Newser)  Update: A Hollywood actor accused of running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme was sentenced Monday to 20 years behind bars in federal prison, reports CNN Business. Per a DOJ release, Zachary Horwitz (aka Zach Avery), 35, was ordered by Judge Mark C. Scarsi, of the US District Court for the Central District of California, to also pay more than $230 million in restitution to his victims, who were duped in a scheme thought to have raised at least $650 million. Our original story from April 2021 follows:

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of a Hollywood actor appearing in an upcoming movie with Olivia Munn over charges that he ran a $690 million Ponzi scheme. Zachary Horwitzwho uses the name Zach Avery in film creditsran a company, 1inMM Capital, that claimed to purchase foreign distribution rights to films, which would then be licensed to platforms including Netflix and HBO, per the Washington Post. But the emails and licensing and distribution agreements he showed investors as coming from Netflix and HBO were forged, according to the SEC. "In reality, neither Horwitz nor 1inMM Capital ever engaged in email correspondence with Netflix or HBO, nor did Horwitz or 1inMM Capital ever have any business relationship with Netflix or HBO at all," FBI agent John Verrastro writes in court documents, per the Los Angeles Times.

The 34-year-oldwho appeared uncredited in 2014's Fury and had slightly bigger roles in a few indie filmswas arrested Tuesday at the Los Angeles mansion he purchased for $5.7 million in 2018, the Times reports. Charged with wire fraud, he's accused of misappropriating millions in investments to pay for his home, cars, jet travel, trips to Las Vegas, and luxury watches, per the Post. He'd promised investors returns of up to 40% within a year, raising $690 million between 2014 and 2019, says the SEC. As payments came due, he pulled money from new investments or concocted fake emails to explain the delays, per the FBI. The agency adds that Horwitz owes $227 million in principal alone. Assistant US Attorney Alexander Schwab suggested on Tuesday that Horwitz "squirreled away" some of that money as he urged a judge to hold the accused until trial. He was released on a $1 million secured bond. (Read more Ponzi scheme stories.)
(Newser)  If you or any of your children have been baptized in San Diego, Arizona, or Brazil over the past two decades, you might want to check who the presiding pastor was at that purification ceremony. That's because the Rev. Andres Arango, a priest in the Diocese of Phoenix, has now had thousands of baptisms he performed over the past 20 years rendered invalid, leading to his resignation from the church he presides over. The hubbub is all thanks to one word he kept saying wrong over the years during the baptism ritual. The correct way to say the phrase that accompanies the pouring of the holy water during the sacrament, per the Washington Post: "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Unfortunately, Arango's version has consistently been "We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," a one-word variation that isn't up to snuff with the Catholic Church, and which has now led to some bad news for Arango: He's resigned from his post as pastor of St. Gregory Catholic Church. The bad news for everyone else, per the diocese website: "All of the baptisms he has performed until June 17, 2021, are presumed invalid." The site adds to those affected, "You will need to be baptized" and notes that, "as far as we know," the other sacraments carried out by Arango have been OK.

Diocese officials don't believe Arango acted in bad faith, either in Phoenix or in his previous parishes in California and Brazil. The Post notes that because baptism is the sacrament that "opens the door to others," those who were improperly baptized by Arango may need to first get properly baptized, then do over other sacraments such as confirmation and marriage. The Catholic News Agency notes those thought to have received a botched baptism also shouldn't receive Holy Communion until their status is remedied.

The New York Times cites other cases of people, including priests, finding out their baptisms were invalid, with University of Dayton faith professor Sandra Yocum noting, "It's very hard to gauge how often this happens." She adds that the reason the Vatican has been so firm on adhering to that very specific wording is because "we" implies the baptismal blessing comes from the community, whereas "I" signifies it's coming right from God, through the priest. As for Arango, he writes in an open letter, "I deeply regret my error" and vows to "dedicate my energy and full time ministry to help remedy this and heal those affected." (Read more baptism stories.)
(Newser)  Police in the UK helped ensure a Canadian woman received help after she reported a break-in to the wrong Durham police force. The victim had meant to contact Ontario's Durham Regional Police Force on Wednesday morning. Instead, she reached out to the Durham Constabulary in the UK using a live chat feature on its website. "I need help, he is going to come, he is in the house," wrote the woman, who failed to respond to replies. Upon realizing she was some 3,400 miles away, the UK's Durham police contacted their counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic. Officers with Ontario's Durham Regional Police Force say they found a 35-year-old man inside the woman's Ajax home, reports the CBC.

He escaped but was located nearby and Tasered after refusing to obey commands, according to police. He was taken into custody some 30 minutes after the victim, treated for undisclosed injuries, sent her plea for help. "If we can assist in rescuing a vulnerable victim in immediate danger, regardless of where they live, we will do all we can to help," says Inspector Andrea Arthur, head of the Durham Constabulary control room, per the Guardian. Inspector Paul Hallett of the Durham Regional Police adds it's "a success story of international cooperation between two police communication centers separated by tremendous distance." The man is now charged with breaking and entering, assault, forcible confinement, and disobeying a lawful order of court. (Read more break-in stories.)
(Newser)  Update: The jury ruled against Sarah Palin in her libel lawsuit against the New York Times Tuesdayunaware that the judge had already decided to dismiss the case because Palin's attorneys had failed to show there had been "actual malice" from the Times. US District Judge Jed Rakoff had allowed deliberations to continue so a verdict could be considered if the case goes to appeal. "Your job was to decide the facts, which youve now done. My job is to decide the law," he told the jury Tuesday, per the Washington Post. "And I've concluded as a matter of law that the defendants are not liable, too." Palin attorney Kenneth Turkel said the former Alaska governor's team is "obviously disappointed" and an appeal is likely. Our story from Monday follows:

An unexpected development in Sarah Palin's libel lawsuit against the New York Times: The federal judge overseeing the case said Monday he's planning to dismiss the lawsuitbut he will allow the jury to continue deliberating. US District Judge Jed Rakoff said Palin's lawyers had failed to prove that the Times had knowingly published false information about the former Alaska governor in a 2017 editorial or acted with a reckless disregard for the truth, the Hill reports. The jury is now in its second day of deliberations. Rakoff said he would allow deliberations to continue because an appeal seems inevitable, and the appeals court "would greatly benefit from knowing how the jury would decide."

Rakoff said Palin's attorneys hadn't proved the "actual malice" standard a 1964 Supreme Court decision set for libel cases involving public figures. Palin's lawsuit was filed in response to a 2017 editorial that linked her campaign to the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that injured Rep. Gabby Giffords. A correction was published the next day and the Times' lawyers said former editorial page editor James Bennet had made an honest mistake. "I dont think a reasonable juror could conclude that Mr. Bennet either knew the statements were false or that he thought the statements were false and he recklessly disregarded that high probability," the judge said Monday, per Politico.

The editorial accused Palin's campaign of inciting political violence with a map that showed Giffords and 19 other Democrats in crosshairs, though there was no evidence the Arizona shooter had seen the map. Rakoff said that while the evidence presented didn't meet the high bar set for libel cases, he was "hardly surprised Ms. Palin brought a lawsuit," the AP reports. "I think this is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times," the judge said. (Observers say Palin may have hurt her case with testimony Thursday.)
(Newser)  At a time when former President Donald Trump and his company are facing investigations into their business practices, they've lost the support of longtime accounting firm Mazars USA. The firm wrote to the Trump Organization last week that it is no longer Mazars' client. The letter also said the firm was retracting the annual financial statements it compiled for Trump for 2011 to 2020 that were based on information provided it, the New York Times reports. Mazars said that though it hadn't "as a whole" found significant differences between the information it used and the actual value of Trump assetsthe issue that criminal and civil investigations are looking intoit can't, given the circumstances, stand behind the documents. Mazers said anyone given the statements should be told they're not to be relied on.

Trump employed the annual statements when negotiating loans. The New York state attorney general and Manhattan district attorney are investigating whether he used them to fraudulently win the best terms for the loans. Michael Cohen, Trumps former personal lawyer, told Congress that the Trump Organization manipulated the value of assets to reduce its tax obligations and improve terms for loans and insurance policies, per CNBC. Last month, the attorney general's office said Trump's financial statements portrayed valuations "in broad terms and in ways which were often inaccurate or misleading" when put up against the information the Trump Organization provided to its accounting firm.

Mazars said it based its decision on court filings by the attorney general's office, its own investigation, and other information. A spokesperson for the Trump Organization issued a statement expressing disappointment at the severed relationship but saying that Mazars' work was done to professional standards and that there were no material discrepancies in the statements, per CNBC. Mazars said that while gathering the Trump information, it had "become aware of departures from accounting principles." (Read more Trump Organization stories.)
(Newser)  A visitor walked into a Louisville mayoral election campaign office Monday, was greeted by the candidate, and opened fire on him. Craig Greenberg wasn't hit, but one of the bullets grazed his clothes, the Courier-Journal reports. The city's police chief said that someone was in custody but that no motive was known. The shots didn't hit anyone in the office. "No one was physically harmed," Greenberg said, "and we're extraordinarily grateful for our safety."

Greenberg said he and four staff members were in a meeting when a man appeared in a doorway. "When we greeted him, he pulled out a gun, aimed directly at me, and began shooting," the candidate said, per the AP. Staff members were able to shut and barricade the door with furniture, he said. The suspect then fled. "I'm very fortunate to have a great team of great people who responded in that way," the Democratic candidate said. A bullet grazed his sweater and shirt, Greenberg said, adding. "We are shaken but safe."

Greenberg's election opponents and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear denounced the attack. "I know what it's like to have the threats," Beshear said, "but this is a step above and beyond that." Another Democrat in the race, David Nicholson, said he's imposing greater security precautions. Greenberg is active in the local Jewish community, but an official with the Jewish Federation of Louisville said there's no information that that's why Greenberg was targeted. The police chief said there's also no information that the motive was political. The gunman appeared to have acted alone, she said. (Read more Louisville stories.)
(Newser)  Four years after 17 students and others were gunned down at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., families and gun control advocates pressed President Biden on Monday to do more to address gun violence. Protesters demonstrated near the White House, and the father of one teenager killed at the school scaled a 150-foot crane across the street on the Valentine's Day anniversary of the shooting, the AP reports. The whole world will listen to Joaquin today. He has a very important message, the father, Manuel Oliver, said in a tweeted video, referring to his son. I asked for a meeting with Joe Biden a month ago, never got that meeting. Oliver unfurled a sign that showed a photo of his son and criticized Biden for gun deaths since he took office. The father and two other protesters were taken into custody, accused of breaking into a construction site and scaling the equipment.

His action was part of a series of efforts to draw attention to gun violence and to a new website chronicling 47,000 gun deaths, including suicides, since Biden was inaugurated. The tracker also lists the number of young people killed and injured as well as mass shootings and encourages users to call on Biden and other administration officials to act. Former Marjory Stoneman Douglas student David Hogg, now a vocal gun control advocate, said they were protesting in front of the White House on Monday and were driving a truck around Washington with a sign that blares the number of gun deaths and injuries since Biden has been president. We are demanding that he takes action to save lives before the next Parkland happens, Hogg said.

As a candidate, Joe Biden promised to prioritize gun violence prevention. As president, Joe Biden has not, said Igor Volsky, founder and executive director of the group Guns Down America. Blocked by members of Congress, especially Republicans, Bidens efforts to pass legislation to tighten gun laws havent left the drawing board. He also was forced to pull his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The group is calling on Biden to start a national office to address gun violence and to make a new nomination to head the ATF. We can never bring back those weve lost," Biden said in a statement. "But we can come together to fulfill the first responsibility of our government and our democracy: to keep each other safe. For Parkland, for all those weve lost, and for all those left behind, it is time to uphold that solemn obligation.

(Read more Parkland school shooting stories.)
(Newser)  For the first time in weeks, the number of troops near the Ukraine border actually diminished. Russia pulled back some of its soldiers, though the vast majority remain, reports the BBC. By the count of the Wall Street Journal, the move might even be considered merely symbolic: It estimates that only 10,000 of 130,000 troops have been pulled back. But coupled with Vladimir Putin's public embrace on Monday of more talks, the development is raising hope that an attack once seemed as imminent might not be. (Putin reiterated his willingness to negotiate with the US and NATO on Tuesday, per the AP.) Here is how the New York Times sums things up: The drawback is "the strongest signal yet that Russia might be trying to de-escalate the military standoff near the Ukrainian border, but it was far from clear that the threat of war had passed."

Russian defense officials explained the move by saying that the troops were returning home because their military exercises were complete. However, such drills continue elsewhere, including on the Black Sea and in neighboring Belarus. In the meantime, both sides were claiming victory over the drawback:

Ukraine: "We have managed together with our partners to deter Russia from any further escalation," said Ukraine Foreign Minister Dymytro Kuleba.

"We have managed together with our partners to deter Russia from any further escalation," said Ukraine Foreign Minister Dymytro Kuleba. Russia: Tuesday "will go into history as the day western war propaganda failed," said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. "They have been disgraced and destroyed without a single shot being fired."

(Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)
(Newser)  Update: San Francisco officials announced Wednesday that the city's police department will no longer use DNA from survivors of sexual assaults and other crimes to investigate other, unrelated crimes. The practice ended as soon as the DA's office last week submitted a complaint, and it was formally put to rest Friday. As for the victim who was recently charged with a crime after being identified using evidence from her rape kit, those charges have been dropped, the AP reports. Our original story from Feb. 15 follows:

The San Francisco Police Department crime lab has been entering sexual assault victims' DNA profiles into a database used to identify crime suspects, which could be a violation of their constitutional rights. It's "legally and ethically wrong," District Attorney Chesa Boudin said Monday, per the Los Angeles Times, noting his office had learned that a suspect in a recent property theft crime was identified using rape-kit evidence submitted years ago as a sexual assault victim. Boudin said his office is weighing how to approach such cases as using rape kit DNA for any purpose other than investigating the rape could violate California's Victims' Bill of Rights and constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Boudin said the database could potentially include DNA from thousands of victims, submitted over "many, many years," though his office is investigating just how widespread the practice is. Officials don't believe it is disclosed on victim waivers. "Even if it were mentioned somewhere in the fine print, is that an appropriate waiver to seek from a victim whos just come in and reported a sex assault? Absolutely not," Boudin said, per the Chronicle. "We should encourage survivors to come forwardnot collect evidence to use against them in the future," he added, per the AP. Police Chief Bill Scott said he had ordered a review of the practice. He added the department's DNA collection policies "have been legally vetted and conform with state and national forensic standards."

But "we must never create disincentives for crime victims to cooperate with police, and if it's true that DNA collected from a rape or sexual assault victim has been used by SFPD to identify and apprehend that person as a suspect in another crime, I'm committed to ending the practice," Scott added. San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen said she reached out to the City Attorney's Office about drafting legislation to prevent evidence from a victim's rape kit being used for any purpose other than investigating that rape. "This should not be done at any level of government, anywhere," she said. State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat, also said he would "seriously consider introducing state legislation to ban the practice," per the Chronicle. (Read more San Francisco stories.)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 14, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

In a press encounter, Guterres said he was deeply worried about the current tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict.

"The price in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate. We simply cannot accept even the possibility of such a disastrous confrontation," he said.

"There is no alternative to diplomacy. All issues, including the most intractable, can and must be addressed and resolved through diplomatic frameworks. It is my firm belief that this principle will prevail," said Guterres.

Earlier on Monday, the secretary-general held a virtual meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He also spoke separately with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Guterres said he will remain fully engaged in the hours and days to come.

He said, as secretary-general, it is his duty to appeal for the full respect of the UN Charter, a fundamental pillar of international law.

He quoted part of Article 2 of the UN Charter: "All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."

The time is now to defuse tensions and de-escalate actions on the ground. There is no place for incendiary rhetoric. Public statements should aim to reduce tensions, not inflame them, he said.

Guterres welcomed the recent flurry of diplomatic contacts and engagements, including between heads of state, but said more needs to be done.

"I have made my good offices available and we will leave no stone unturned in the search for a peaceful solution. Abandoning diplomacy for confrontation is not a step over a line, it is a dive over a cliff," he said. "In short, my appeal is this: do not fail the cause of peace." 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 14, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 14, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. (Xinhua/Xie E)
(Newser)  A new narrative has emerged in the orbit of former President Trump, one that accuses the Hillary Clinton campaign of essentially spying on the former president. It's a tangled story that involves special counsel John Durham and Democratic-allied lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was previously charged with lying to the FBI as part of Durham's probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. The new development is the result of a legal filing made by Durham late last week. A sample of coverage:

Fox News: "Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to 'infiltrate' servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an 'inference' and 'narrative' to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from special counsel John Durham found." Full story here. The New York Post cover is more succinct: It blares "Hillary the Spy" in all caps.

"Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to 'infiltrate' servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an 'inference' and 'narrative' to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from special counsel John Durham found." Full story here. The New York Post cover is more succinct: It blares "Hillary the Spy" in all caps. Editorial: As that New York Post headline suggests, the narrative has gained much steam on the right. Here's the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal assessing: "Special counsel John Durham continues to unravel the Trump-Russia 'collusion' story, and his latest court disclosure contains startling information. According to a Friday court filing, the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign effort to compile dirt on Donald Trump reached into protected White House communications." Read the editorial, headlined, "Trump Really Was Spied On."

As that New York Post headline suggests, the narrative has gained much steam on the right. Here's the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal assessing: "Special counsel John Durham continues to unravel the Trump-Russia 'collusion' story, and his latest court disclosure contains startling information. According to a Friday court filing, the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign effort to compile dirt on Donald Trump reached into protected White House communications." Read the editorial, headlined, "Trump Really Was Spied On." CNN: Durham "accused a lawyer for the Democrats of sharing with the CIA in 2017 internet data purported to show Russian-made phones being used in the vicinity of the White House complex, as part of a broader effort to raise the intelligence community's suspicions of Donald Trump's ties to Russia shortly after he took office," reads the outlet's story. "The accusationwhich Durham couched in vague, technical language in a court filing late Fridayhas been seized upon by Trump and his supporters, who claim the former President was subjected to a smear campaign." Full story.

Not so much? Charlie Savage of the New York Times writes that "the entire narrative appeared to be mostly wrong or old newsthe latest example of the challenge created by a barrage of similar conspiracy theories" from Trump and his supporters. "Upon close inspection, these narratives are often based on a misleading presentation of the facts or outright misinformation. They also tend to involve dense and obscure issues, so dissecting them requires asking readers to expend significant mental energy and time" and often leads to accusations of a media cover-up. Full story.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times writes that "the entire narrative appeared to be mostly wrong or old newsthe latest example of the challenge created by a barrage of similar conspiracy theories" from Trump and his supporters. "Upon close inspection, these narratives are often based on a misleading presentation of the facts or outright misinformation. They also tend to involve dense and obscure issues, so dissecting them requires asking readers to expend significant mental energy and time" and often leads to accusations of a media cover-up. Full story. Trump: The former president was indeed quick to accuse the media of burying the news. "The press refuses to even mention the major crime that took place," he said in a statement on Monday, per the Times. "This in itself is a scandal, the fact that a story so big, so powerful and so important for the future of our nation is getting zero coverage from LameStream, is being talked about all over the world."

(Read more Hillary Clinton stories.)
(Newser)  Colombia's government is taking steps to recover the so-called "holy grail" of Spanish colonial shipwrecksthought to hold up to $20 billion worth of gold, silver, and precious stonesfrom its waters and at the same time taking heat from others with claims to the centuries-old treasure. As CBS News reports, Colombia was a colony of Spain when the San Jose galleon, carrying treasures to the court of King Philip V from the Spanish colonies in Latin America, was sunk by the British navy off Cartagena de Indias in 1708. However, Colombia never signed the UNESCO convention, whose principle of sovereign immunity guarantees that a warship remains under a nation's flag after it has sunk, reports Vanity Fair.

In addition to Spain, the Qhara Qhara, an Indigenous group in Bolivia, claims ownership of the treasure, saying their ancestors were forced to mine the silver held within the San Jose, whose wreck was located near the Rosario Islands in 2015. Separately, US company Sea Search Armada claims Colombia promised it 50% of the treasure after it discovered the wreck's location, 200 meters deep, back in the 1980s. Colombia is having none of that. In announcing the 2015 discovery, then-president Juan Manuel Santos claimed the San Jose and its bronze cannons with unique dolphin engravings were found 600 meters deep in a location never surveyed before. "With the law of submerged cultural heritage, we can recover it," he added in 2018, per the BBC.

A government decree issued Thursday said companies or individuals hoping to get involved in the excavation need to sign a contract with the state, with any assets pulled from the wreck becoming part of a national registry, per CBS. But under a law passed by the Santos government, private contractors can keep up to 50% of the value of items not considered part of the country's heritageand that can include duplicate coins and gems, per Vanity Fair. The excavation, expected to cost at least $70 million, is controversial for another reason. Most of the San Jose's 600 crew members died in the sinking and "one is not supposed to intervene in war graves," Stanford University archaeologist Justin Leidwanger told Live Science in 2015. (Read more shipwreck stories.)
(Newser)  A disturbing case of alleged child abuse has emerged out of Florida, where a couple is accused of making their 14-year-old son spend most of his time in a locked 8-by-8 "office" in their garage. Timothy and Tracy Ferriter, both 46, of Jupiter face felony charges of aggravated child abuse and false imprisonment. Both were released on $50,000 bonds, reports WPBF. Their four childrenincluding the adopted 14-year-old who allegedly suffered the brunt of the abuseare in the custody of child services, per CBS12.

Locked in: On Jan. 30, police went to the family home after Tracy Ferriter reported that her son had run away. In the garage, they found an 8-by-8 structure, with a small box spring and mattress, a security camera, and an orange bucket instead of a bathroom, per the Washington Post. The structure had a lock, but only on the outside, meaning the person inside could not exit.

First call: About a month before the police visit, a handyman went to police because the Ferriters asked him to build just such a structure, and it struck him as "very strange," according to a police report filed about his visit. Officers did not visit the home at that time.

About a month before the police visit, a handyman went to police because the Ferriters asked him to build just such a structure, and it struck him as "very strange," according to a police report filed about his visit. Officers did not visit the home at that time. Allegations: When police located the missing teen on school property on Jan. 31, he said his parents forced him to spend most of his time in the structure when he wasn't at school. He said he was brought leftovers instead of being allowed to eat with the family, was forced to clean his own waste from the bucket, and was physically punished in a "really aggressive" manner, per WPBF. He told police he ran away because "I feel like no one loves me."

When police located the missing teen on school property on Jan. 31, he said his parents forced him to spend most of his time in the structure when he wasn't at school. He said he was brought leftovers instead of being allowed to eat with the family, was forced to clean his own waste from the bucket, and was physically punished in a "really aggressive" manner, per WPBF. He told police he ran away because "I feel like no one loves me." Parents: An attorney for the couple says the police report does not provide a complete picture. Defense attorney Nellie King says the teen has reactive attachment disorder, meaning he failed to bond with his caretakers, per People. In the criminal legal system, the temptation for a community to rush to judge is tempered by the judicial process, a presumption of innocence, and the facts, she tells the Post. What Tim and Tracy have lived through the past many years will therefore be presented in court. Also likely to be presented in court: Footage from the security camera that police say supports the boy's claims.

(Read more Florida stories.)
(Newser)  Update: After the dramatic rescue of Paislee Shultis, police were driving the 6-year-old to the police station when they passed a McDonald's. The girl, who had been scared when she was initially found hiding with her mother, mentioned she hadn't eaten there in a long time, so detectives turned around and picked up a Happy Meal for her. "And she was fine after that," the police chief says, per CNN. Per News 12, she was then brought to her grandmother and her teenage sister, whom her grandmother also has custody of; the police chief says the girl was "joyful" at the reunion. It's not clear why their parents lost custody, but Paislee's father was arrested in 2019 shortly before they lost custody. CBS New York reports that while the girl was not schooled and can't read or write, she was in good health and there is no evidence of physical or sexual abuse. Our original story from Tuesday follows:

After a tip and some extensive searching, a girl who vanished more than two years ago at age 4 was recovered in New York. NBC News reports Paislee Shultis was reported missing in July 2019 from her home in Cayuga Heights. She was located about 160 miles away in Saugerties on Monday night. While searching a home there, Detective Erik Thiele says he noted an oddity with the staircase that led to the basement. He shone a light between the steps and says he saw a blanket. From there, he "used a ... tool to remove several of the wooden steps, and that is when detectives saw a pair of tiny feet," per a Tuesday statement from the Saugerties Police Department.

"After removing several more steps, the child and her abductor were discovered within," it continued. "The space was small, cold, and wet." At the time of her disappearance, investigators believed the girl had been abducted by non-custodial parents Kimberly Cooper and Kirk Shultis, Jr., who are believed to have fled with her when they lost custody. Both were arrested and charged in connection with the case along with Kirk Shultis, Sr. Paislee was in the crawl space with her mother, possibly for as many as five hours before police discovered them, NBC News reports.

Police say they had been to the home about a dozen times previously looking for Paislee, who is now 6. "During some of the follow ups to the Fawn Road location, authorities were permitted limited access into the residence to look around for the child, by both Kirk Shultis Sr. and Jr. ... knowing the child and her abductor were hidden within the house and would not be found," police said. CBS Albany reports Shultis, Jr., the girl's biological father, allegedly told police on prior occasions that Paislee's mother had gone to Pennsylvania and he had not seen the child. Paislee was found to be in good health and has been returned to her legal guardian and older sister. (Read more missing child stories.)
(Newser)  Update: Honduras extradited former President Juan Orlando Hernandez to the United States on Thursday to face drug trafficking and weapons charges in a dramatic reversal for a leader once touted by US authorities as a key ally in the war on the drugs. Just three months after leaving office, a handcuffed Hernandez boarded an airplane with agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration bound for the United States, where he faces charges in the Southern District of New York, the AP reports. US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hernandez abused his position as President of Honduras from 2014 through 2022 to operate the country as a narco-state. Our original story from Feb. 15 follows:

The United States requested the arrest and extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernandez on drug and weapons charges less than three weeks after he left office, a move that follows years of accusations about the Honduran leader's alleged links to drug traffickers. Honduran security forces surrounded Hernandezs neighborhood Monday night and on Tuesday the Supreme Court of Justice met to choose a judge to handle the extradition request, the AP reports. Honduran Security Minister Ramon Sabillon, who was fired by Hernandez as head of the National Police in 2014, said Tuesday that Hernandez had conspired "with cartels to traffic (drugs) and corrupt many public institutions, which led to social deterioration and undermined the application of justice in Honduras."

He said the main charges Hernandez faces in the US are drug trafficking, using weapons for drug trafficking, and conspiracy to use weapons in drug trafficking. US prosecutors in New York had repeatedly implicated Hernandez as a co-conspirator during his brothers 2019 drug trafficking trial, alleging that his political rise was fueled by drug profits. His brother, Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison on drug and weapons charges in March 2021. At his sentencing, Assistant US Attorney Matthew Laroche characterized the crimes as "state-sponsored drug trafficking."

Hernandez, who left office Jan. 27 with the swearing in of President Xiomara Castro, released an audio recording via Twitter early Tuesday thanking his supporters. "It is not an easy moment," he said. "I don't desire it for anyone." He said his lawyers had informed the National Police that "I am ready and prepared to cooperate and go voluntarily ... to face this situation and defend myself if an arrest order is issued. The US moves were a long-awaited fall for a leader reviled in his home country who enjoyed support from the Trump administration but had been kept at arms length by the Biden White House, which has targeted Central Americas endemic corruption as a root cause of migration.

(Read more Honduras stories.)
The Public Safety Report is compiled from criminal complaints filed in state and federal courts, as well as some police blotter information, trooper dispatches, fire department reports and interviews with public safety officials. Individuals named as arrested and/or charged with crimes in this report are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Bahrain will remain an oasis of goodness, love and peace: HM King Hamad

Bahrain will remain an oasis of goodness, love and peace: HM King Hamad

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Taking pride in the Kingdoms achievements and progress under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bahrain will remain an oasis of goodness, love and peace.

This was emphasised by HM the King on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the National Action Charter (NAC) yesterday.

His Majesty, the Royal Family Council Chairman, received at Al Sakhir Palace yesterday members of the Royal Family Council.

The meeting was held in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

HM the King affirmed that the approval of the National Action Charter with a sweeping majority of the votes constituted a promising beginning of the comprehensive modernisation march of the Kingdoms institutions and its constitutional authorities.

He praised the honorable stance of the Bahraini people which embodied the inherent Bahraini identity and keenness on development.

His Majesty added that the principles of the charter, with their renewed spirit and promising vision, will continue to motivate the people of Bahrain towards more construction, strengthening the role of the legislative institutions and opening wider horizons for popular participation in accordance with the developed democratic approach.

HM pointed out that the belief in the need to build on the achievements is the successful way to consolidate the foundations of the civil state on the basis of justice and equality.

He stressed that the kingdom will always work to promote the values of moderation, tolerance and coexistence, in the face of extremism and intolerance.

HM the King added Bahrain will always consolidate the foundations of political work based on the principles of the Charter and the Constitution as well as respect for the rule of law and the independence of the national decision.
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PHNOM PENH, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved 95 million U.S. dollars in loan for the Cambodian government to purchase COVID-19 vaccines from 2022 to 2023, it said in a press statement on Tuesday.

"The project will help Cambodia save lives by reducing the number of severe COVID-19 cases and accelerate the country's economic recovery from the pandemic," said ADB senior social sector specialist Rikard Elfving.

"ADB will also provide 1 million U.S. dollars in technical assistance to help Cambodia boost the effectiveness of logistics and supply management systems and reduce access barriers among women, girls, children, and hard-to-reach populations," he said.

In addition to the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX) loan, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is expected to provide co-financing of 50 million U.S. dollars subject to approval of their Board of Directors, the statement said.

To date, Cambodia has fully vaccinated 13.8 million people against COVID-19, or 86.2 percent of its 16 million population, according to the health ministry on Tuesday.

Some 6.08 million people, or 38 percent of the total population, have received their third dose or booster shot and 665,492 people, or 4 percent, have taken their fourth dose, the ministry said.

The Southeast Asian country registered a record 184 daily cases of the Omicron variant of the virus on Tuesday, the ministry said.

It said that since the pandemic hit it in January 2020, the country has confirmed a total of 124,139 COVID-19 cases, with 3,015 deaths and 119,196 recoveries. 
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

A lawmaker has presented a proposal to officially redefine elderly based on studies and the latest statistics available in Bahrain.

According to Law No 58 of 2009, a citizen comes under the elderly category if he/ she completes 60 years of age.

MP Sawsan Kamal said the Ministry of Labour and Social Development along with the Ministry of Health must carry out a detailed study based on adequate data collection before and redefine the elderly age if required.

She said over the years the Kingdoms average life expectancy has increased owing to the high-quality healthcare system and healthcare policies implemented by the government.

This is very important to keep pace with global trends as the human lifespan has changed over the past few decades and so are the social, health, psychological and economic factors.

The MP said 60 is the age of wisdom.

"It is the time when an individual can contribute to the development of the nation by sharing his views and experience with the young generations, she said.

She said the proposal is very much in line with Sustainable Development Goals.

The proposed study must be carried out on a scientific basis encompassing all variables. This will also help the government better deliver social protection schemes and healthcare services.

The lawmaker asserted that such a move would also enhance the rights of senior citizens, by ending the discriminatory views and stereotypes against them that prevail in the society
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Ending 28 years of marital life, the Bahrain Sharia Court yesterday granted divorce to a woman from her husband after the latter was proven guilty of domestic violence.

The couple has nine children. According to her lawyers Zahida Al-Sayyid and Huda Salman, the husband was regularly beating her up, insulting her apart from engaging in other acts of domestic abuse.

The woman requested the court to grant a divorce to end the suffering she has been enduring for the past 28 years.

She was abused and deserted by her husband. He would physically torture her apart from defaming her honour, the lawyers said.

Many criminal complaints were filed at the local police station by the woman, which served as evidence of torture before the court.

For his part, the husband confessed before the court to physically harassing the woman.

He said she was in the habit of emotionally provoking him, leading to the issues. Dismissing her claims of desertion, the man said he was taking care of the entire expenses of the family including that of his wife and children.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

The increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) from five per cent to 10pc along with the price rise of the yellow metal led to a decline in gold sales on Valentines Day in Bahrain.

Every year in the Kingdom, Valentines Day has been an important day on the sales calendar for all jewellery houses.

Unlike the previous years, presenting a Valentines Day gift in gold or jewellery proved to be a little expensive affair for many yesterdays as the gold price stood at BD21.9 per gram apart from the increase in VAT.

The gold price is this years highest, which is attributed to tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Historically, any turbulence in global affairs has led to gold price rise, reinforcing its status as a safe-haven asset.

With more people across the world opting for secure investments, the higher the prices of gold soar.

According to data from The Gold Bullion Company, around this point last year the gold price per troy ounce hit a low of $1648.69.

A year later, the spot price for gold has steadily increased and surged to $1849.53 per troy ounce.

Speaking to The Daily Tribune, a gold retailer said Valentine sales did not match the expectations.

Gold and jewellery sales have not been up to the mark since the beginning of the New Year.

The increase in VAT from five per cent to 10pc has led to a decline in sales and we are expecting it to catch up in the next few months as the consumer spending increases in post-pandemic economic recovery.

He said the Valentine Day customers were a mix of citizens and expatriates as everyone celebrates Valentines Day.

Diamond jewellery, earrings and pendant sets were among the most favourites of customers on Valentines Day.

However, ornaments and products varied based on purchasing capacity.

Another retailer said Valentines Day sales were not too good not too bad.

Some product lines saw good sales while others saw a decline compared to previous years.

We cant give you a perfect picture of todays sales now but I can say it was not as bad as expected.

He said Valentines Day sales have to be read with the general decline in gold sales following the increase in VAT.

Since the beginning of the New Year, our sales have declined by 30pc compared to last year and this is just due to VAT increase as well as gold price rise.

I hope things will improve in the coming months.

We expect more lovers to hit the gold stores on next years Valentines Day, fuelling our post-pandemic sales growth.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon has commended HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifas courageous stance in The Kingdom of Bahrain Declaration, on securing and developing religious freedom for all, protecting the rights of women and children and promoting the spirit of mutual respect in pursuit of peaceful coexistence.

He held talks in Manama with Betsy B. Mathieson, Deputy Chairman of The King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence, and Chairman of THIS IS BAHRAIN, and several Young Ambassadors of King Hamad Faith in Fellowship Leaders Programme.

Lord Ahmad was briefed on the King Hamad Global Centres various educational and youth empowerment programmes such as The King Hamad Chair in Interfaith Dialogue and Peaceful Coexistence at Sapienza University in Rome, King Hamad Faith in Leadership Fellows Programme in conjunction with St Benets Hall Oxford University and The King Hamad Cyber Peace Academy.

Mathieson said that the King Hamad Cyber Peace Academy Programmes were designed as rehabilitative tools for young offenders and showed great potential as a powerful addition to the new alternative sentencing programme offering skills and knowledge that were quantifiable and immediately transferable to daily life.

Lord Ahmed praised the global reach of the various educational programmes of King Hamad Global Centre and highlighted the King Hamad Cyber Peace Academy and its use of real-life scenarios to help combat hate speech, extremism and radicalization and its effectiveness in reaching the minds of the youth to offer them an alternative path.

Lord Ahmad congratulated the Young Ambassadors of King Hamad Faith in Leadership Fellows on their recent graduation at St. Benets Hall, Oxford University.

He extended an invitation to King Hamad Global Centre and the Young Ambassadors of King Hamad Faith in Leadership Fellows to visit the House of Lords in London, urging them to continue sharing the Bahrain model of peaceful coexistence to inspire hope in others as they begin their ambassadorial journeys around the world.
Sometime in 2019, New Britain officials embarked on a new school construction project and realized they had a dozen previous jobs that were done but werent fully closed out with the state  leaving millions of dollars in reimbursements up in the air.

Mayor Erin Stewart, frustrated by the delays, arranged a meeting with Konstantinos Kosta Diamantis, then director of the school construction finance unit for the state. She brought the school facilities director.

He did ask me in that meeting a couple of times, Stewart recalled, Do you have a consultant? You have to hire a consultant. I can give you recommendations.

3 1 of 3 Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Kostas told us that if we wanted to make sure we got our money back, that we should hire this company to do the work for us.

The company was Construction Advocacy Professionals LLC, located in the Moosup section of Plainfield, in eastern Connecticut. That same year, CAP hired Diamantis daughter, Anastasia.

Diamantis lawyer, Norm Pattis, told my colleague John Moritz that his client is a man of the highest ethical standards, so I doubt he would do anything involving a conflict of interest. He did not return a call Tuesday morning for comment.

Stewart said she didnt like the idea of paying a consultant because she believed the city had the capability to close out the projects on its own  if Diamantis told them how to proceed. But the New Britain Board of Education, acting independently of City Hall, hired CAP to do the work.

Then last March, the school board in an 8-2 vote hired CAP again, this time as an owners rep, or project consultant, for a job upgrading the high school to meet federal Americans with Disabilities Act codes and standards.

CAPs principal, Antonietta Roy, brought a favored construction company to do the work, which the school board initially moved to hire along with her, records show.

The BOE intends to engage DAmato Construction Company Inc. under a design-build contract and has selected CAP to act as the BOEs representative, a nine-page agreement said.

Still underway, the high school job is expected to total around $1.5 million, sources said. CAPs estimated fees should total $65,620, at $115 an hour, school board records show.

DAmato is based in Bristol, the city Diamantis had represented in the Connecticut General Assembly. Its also the company that received a no-bid contract in 2019 worth $46 million to rebuild the Birch Grove Primary School in Tolland, according to state documents that were first reported Friday in the Hartford Courant and the CT Mirror. Those news outlets reported pressure on local officials by Diamantis, to hire DAmato and CAP.

Diamantis, who retired rather than accept a paid suspension from Gov. Ned Lamont at the end of October, is now under federal investigation in connection with his activities directing the states Office of School Construction Grants and Review. That office moved in November, 2019 from the state Department of Administrative Services to the state Office of Policy and Management, the governors budget agency  a move Lamont now calls a mistake.

Construction Advocacy Professionals, Antonietta Roy, DAmato and New Britain are all on a list of possible subpoena recipients in the federal investigation, based on keywords in documents released publicly.

The picture unfolding in New Britain, combined with Tolland, points to a possible repeating pattern of pressure from Diamantis on routine, sometimes small consulting work, not just large, high-profile projects. That pattern, if it turns out to be true, will draw close political scrutiny in addition to the inquiry by federal prosecutors.

Its too soon to say whether the pressure Stewart described in New Britain is a case of improper behavior. Republicans in the legislature and on the campaign trail are already calling for more oversight and political investigations  causing Lamont to have to respond to this new crisis just as the omicron variant fades.

The state Department of Administrative Services took back control of the school construction grants office on Oct. 29, the day after Diamantis retired. In a statement late Monday, the Lamont administration sought to wall off the earlier period.

It is not and should not be common practice to require municipalities to use specific contractors in order to access state funding. Our competitive bidding process, and collaboration with municipal leadership are key values in this administration, DAS spokeswoman Lora Rae Anderson said in a written statement. Since DAS has re-inhereted the administration of the school construction grant program, DAS has adhered to all policies, laws, and ethical guidelines while ensuring complete transparency.

In New Britain, the school board later in 2021 reconsidered the no-bid design-build deal with DAmato for the ADA work at the high school. The board sought proposals and received three bids including one from DAmato. A different company, Newfield Construction Group, snagged the first phase of the work.

As for CAP, Stewart said Roy, who is named as Antonietta DiBenedetto-Roy in some public documents, tried to gain work on two much larger school projects, sending her Facebook messages and requesting a meeting, which Stewart said she rebuffed.

Typically in previous years weve done it all in-house, Stewart said, referring to the project oversight role.

She said she was mildly perturbed that the board of education hired CAP a second time last year  circumventing a city board, as was the school boards right because the project was not financed with bonded debt.

I didnt think anything of it at the time, Stewart said. The school district typically marches to the beat of its own drum anyway.

DiBenedetto-Roy did not respond to an email seeking comment about the New Britain work. There have been no questions raised about the quality of the firms performance.

Even as the federal probe continues the growing political question is, how much should Diamantis bosses, up through to Lamont, have known about his alleged ties to companies that he apparently helped in his role overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in school construction grants? And, when did they first have an inkling there were problems?

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) Wolfgang Ischinger holds a copy of Munich Security Report during a press conference in Berlin, capital of Germany, Feb. 14, 2022. Participants in the forthcoming 58th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) will discuss the findings of a 180-page report titled "Turning the Tide - Unlearning Helplessness," which warns of a mounting feeling of "helplessness" in many societies of the world in the face of a growing number of crises and conflicts.

The Munich Security Report, released here on Monday, is published annually ahead of the MSC. It sets the tone for the conference, which is often referred to as the "Davos of global security" and is to be hosted by Munich in Germany between Feb. 18 and Feb. 20. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

BERLIN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Participants in the forthcoming 58th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) will discuss the findings of a 180-page report titled "Turning the Tide - Unlearning Helplessness," which warns of a mounting feeling of "helplessness" in many societies of the world in the face of a growing number of crises and conflicts.

The Munich Security Report, released here on Monday, is published annually ahead of the MSC. It sets the tone for the conference, which is often referred to as the "Davos of global security" and is to be hosted by Munich in Germany between Feb. 18 and Feb. 20.

The year 2021 was clearly not one for geopolitical optimism, according to the report. "Almost every month, a new crisis dominated the news, contributing to a sense that this mounting tide of crises threatens to overwhelm us," it says.

It cites "the seemingly endless" pandemic, "the increasingly tangible" threat of climate change, "the vexing vulnerabilities" of an interconnected world and the increasing geopolitical tensions among those challenges that contribute to "a feeling of a loss of control."

The western societies, and the transatlantic partners in particular, "need to prove that they have the right answers to today's challenges," according to the report, adding that "systemic competition can be a catalyst for reform and innovation, providing us with a chance to turn the tide."

The MSC, though not an official platform for formulating resolutions, provides an opportunity for face-to-face talks and discussions among different parties, said Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the MSC, at a press conference launching the security report.

He said he believed that it was necessary for all parties concerned to meet and discuss the explosive Ukraine issue, and added that he expected to conference to send a cooling signal. "War could still be avoided, if I am not being naive," he said.

Alongside Ukraine, this year's MSC is expected to also focus on the situation in Afghanistan, Africa and the Middle East; the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments' climate change policies; technology supply chain security; and the future of the European Union, according to Ischinger.

Due to the pandemic, last year's MSC was held online for the first time. The conference resumes with physical meetings this year, but the number of attendees has shrunk significantly.

According to the MSC's official website, 30 heads of state and government, 100 ministerial officials and heads of important international organizations are expected to attend the event, among them United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The MSC was founded in 1963 by German publisher Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin under the name Wehrkundetagung (conference on defense issues). 

Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) Wolfgang Ischinger (R) and director of Research and Policy of the Munich Security Conference Tobias Bunde attends a press conference in Berlin, capital of Germany, Feb. 14, 2022. Participants in the forthcoming 58th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) will discuss the findings of a 180-page report titled "Turning the Tide - Unlearning Helplessness," which warns of a mounting feeling of "helplessness" in many societies of the world in the face of a growing number of crises and conflicts.

The Munich Security Report, released here on Monday, is published annually ahead of the MSC. It sets the tone for the conference, which is often referred to as the "Davos of global security" and is to be hosted by Munich in Germany between Feb. 18 and Feb. 20. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) Wolfgang Ischinger (R) and director of Research and Policy of the Munich Security Conference Tobias Bunde attends a press conference in Berlin, capital of Germany, Feb. 14, 2022.

Participants in the forthcoming 58th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) will discuss the findings of a 180-page report titled "Turning the Tide - Unlearning Helplessness," which warns of a mounting feeling of "helplessness" in many societies of the world in the face of a growing number of crises and conflicts.

The Munich Security Report, released here on Monday, is published annually ahead of the MSC. It sets the tone for the conference, which is often referred to as the "Davos of global security" and is to be hosted by Munich in Germany between Feb. 18 and Feb. 20. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)
SHERMAN  One day, when David Marks and his son Ron were driving to see some people, Marks decided to leave his jacket in his car. After the visit, they saw the jacket had been stolen.

The first thing Marks said to his son was, They must have been cold.

That was the type of person Marks was  always thinking the best of people, said his wife Kathy Marks, about her late husband, a Sherman resident and Holocaust survivor who died Feb. 8 at the age of 93.

Marks, a father of four, grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of three, lost 35 family members in the Holocaust, including his parents, a brother and three sisters.

Aside from spending time in the Auschwitz concentration camp, Marks survived a death march to the Dachau extermination camp. He was later imprisoned in a British concentration camp on the island of Cyprus for two years. He came to America with nothing on his back.

Despite all he experienced, Marks was never bitter, said his wife, who is 71.

David had such an unbelievable ability to see the good in everyone, she said.

Marks said her husband would do anything to help anyone. She relayed a story he shared when he risked his life for his sisters while in the concentration camps.

He was able to get an assignment to work in the kitchen. One time, his sisters were on the other side of the fence, being forced to push large wagons of bodies to be incinerated, she said.

Marks came out of the kitchen, saw them and asked how he could help. They said they needed shoes because their feet were infected from blisters. Potatoes were a trading commodity on the black market in the camps, Marks said.

In a tribute to Marks, a family member wrote: David stole potatoes, traded 60 potatoes for a pair of shoes, four days in a row, one pair for each sister, and tossed them over the fence for his four sisters. He could have been shot on site for this courageous act of heroism and love.

In January 2020, when Marks was in his 90s, he returned to that same fence at the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau ceremonies in Krakow, Poland  along with other Holocaust survivors, most of whom were also in their 90s.

We felt it would bring closure for him in a way that nothing else could, Marks said. It was a very helpful experience for him to see the crematorium where 35 of his family members were killed the day they arrived. For him to be able to be with his parents ashes, it was a chance to grieve and heal.

Values of giving

Marks said her husband would instill his values of giving in his children. She shared a story she heard from Marks son Sandy, who said when it was his birthday, his father told him he had a present for him.

When Sandy would go to dad, and say, what is it? Marks would say, so and so needs help, and asked his son to help that person, she said.

While he chose not to share his experiences in the Holocaust with his children when they were young, he later came to realize he needed to talk about it, Marks said.

His generation was being lost and the lessons from that experience were being lost, she said.

In recent years, Marks shared his story at local schools and temples.

Marks spent his entire life valuing the freedom that American have, his wife said.

Having experienced what it was like to lose his freedom, Marks said Marks was very concerned about anything that could happen that could cause it to be lost again.

She said he loved to be in America. An American flag hangs outside of their Sherman home.

He loved democracy and he was very concerned about antisemitism and some of the things going on that are a threat to democracy. He knew a threat to democracy can be the end of freedom, Marks said.

She said Marks was a doer and worked hard every day of his life. He had a dream to establish a fine custom furniture making business, which he did  Newmark Furniture in New York, which is still in business.

He established a name locally for himself as well, by being a founding member of the JCC in Sherman.

He recently made a podium for the JCC, which is borrowed by Temple Sholom in New Milford.

Davids last project was making a podium to be donated to the temple. He did a majority of the work on it and now his friends are putting on the final touches, Marks said.

She said Marks valued each day as special.

If asked when his birthday was, he would always respond today, she said.

He would say, every day is my birthday. David woke up with gratitude on his heart every day, Marks said. Every day, he talked about the blessings of the day before and the blessings that were going to be part of the day ahead. He saw joy in everything.

sandra.fox@hearstmediact.com 203-948-9802
BROOKFIELD  Starting March 1, Brookfield schools will no longer require masks for students and staff, becoming one of the first districts in the Danbury area to decide on local requirements.

The school board voted unanimously to end the policy during a special meeting Monday using guidance from two district health advisers along with local vaccine and COVID statistics. Mask wearing in schools will become optional for Brookfield students and staff, and the board also gave Superintendent John Barile the power to make future decisions on mask-wearing should health and safety circumstances change.

Masks will still be required on public transportation, including school buses, per federal law.

The decision comes after months of division over school masking mandates and a hastily scheduled meeting to vote on a plan Monday night.

I think were moving into a new phase with the support of our health advisers, which I think is really important, said board chair Bob Belden following the vote.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced last week that the statewide school mask mandate would end on Feb. 28, and local districts like Brookfield have been scrambling to determine their next steps forward and whether to continue with the requirement locally. Before making its final decision, Brookfields school board members considered existing policy, health data and health officials recommendations, according to a letter Superintendent John Barile sent to the community following Lamonts announcement.

Written correspondence from Dr. Raymond Sullivan, the town health director, and Dr. Vicente Garcia, the district medical ad visor, contributed heavily to the decision in the absence of further guidance from the Department of Public Health or state Board of Education.

I think we can reasonably assume that we can recommend eliminating the mask requirement in schools when any executive order from the state expires, wrote Sullivan on Feb. 10. The state Senate voted Monday night to extend Lamonts executive powers only through Feb. 28.

Sullivan noted that his recommendation was based on the assumption that COVID cases, which have dropped precipitously for three weeks, will continue to decline.

Lets all hope the trend continues as it would be very difficult to turn back, he wrote.

Garcia wrote in recommending an optional mask policy, but asked that parents continue to keep their children home if they are sick and urged people to follow current quarantine guidelines.

Barile pointed out that in Brookfields opening plan published in the fall, the masking section clearly noted that the boards ultimate goal was to have children not wearing masks if circumstances and health conditions allowed.

Here we are arriving at those appropriate circumstances now, he said. Its time to have the board have its discussion.

Board member Amy Foster said that she was in support of the decision because Sullivan, who has tended to be more conservative about COVID concerns, recommended an end to masking.

That carries a lot of weight for me, she said.

A contentious decision

During discussions, board members, health experts, and administrators frequently returned to the idea that kindness and compassion must take a front seat during the next few months as families make their own decisions about mask-wearing, which has not always been the case in Brookfield.

Throughout 2021, the Brookfield school board has faced a barrage of criticism from community members over wearing masks in schools, including hourlong public comment sessions where parents spoke for and against masks. These tensions resulted in a meeting that was shut down early due to an anti-mask disruption, and another meeting video that was initially taken down by YouTube who cited medical misinformation.

Yet, up until last week, the decision was not under the districts jurisdiction they were legally obligated to follow the state law requiring masks.

While there was no public comment at Mondays meeting, the public was invited to share their thoughts with the board ahead of time. Belden told other board members that between the governors announcement ending a statewide mask mandate and Mondays meeting, he received at least 84 emails. Still, Belden asked the board if they wanted to hear more public comment prior to making a decision, to which none said they did.

We have a goodly amount of input and Ill remind us all, we got a lot of input last summer, too, he told the board.

All members felt confident making a decision at that time.

Board member Debbie Brooks asked about teachers union input on the decision. Barile said that in a poll of teachers in the local Brookfield union, the group was split down the middle when it came to masks, which was what he and the union president both expected.

Some people are a little more anxious about things, and others are ready to take that mask off, he said.

With this new district decision, a mask mandate is unlikely to return for Brookfield schools unless another state or federal mandate is put in place.

It would take a big step for us to re-institute masks, Belden said. Once kids are out of the habit of masks, its hard to go back into it.
After seven years, the Sandy Hook families v. Remington legal battle came to an end Tuesday. The families, suing the gun manufacturer for unlawful marketing, agreed to a $73 million settlement.

Here is a timeline of how the lawsuit unfolded:

Dec. 14, 2012

Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed by a 20-year-old man who took his mothers AR-15-style rifle from an unlocked chest and shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School.

December 2014

The families of nine people killed in the Sandy Hook shooting file a wrongful death lawsuit against Remington, the maker of the weapon used in the lawsuit. Legal observers, at the time, called the lawsuit unlikely because federal law protects the gun industry from most liability when firearms are misused.

March 2016

The families lawsuit is among the defining issues in the Democratic presidential primary between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sanders supported the federal law that protected the gun industry, while Clinton, who voted against the law as a senator, said it should be repealed.

October 2016

State Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis throws out the lawsuit against Remington brought by the nine Sandy Hook families. The families appeal to the state Supreme Court.

March 2018

Remington files to reorganize its finances under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in part due to bad debt Remington took on when investors left the company after the 2012 shooting. In 2012, Remington had net sales of close to $1 billion.

March 2019

The state Supreme Court overrules part of the 2016 state Superior Court decision that threw out the Sandy Hook families lawsuit against Remington. The ruling preserves the families grounds to sue Remington for unlawful marketing under Connecticut law.

November 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Remingtons petition. The refusal sends the case back to Bellis trial court.

February 2020

The nine families streamlining their case into a single claim: That Remington violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act by marketing the AR-15-style rifle to civilians.

June 2020

A fight by the families to grill Remington executives about its internal affairs takes center stage in state Superior Court in Waterbury. Bellis sides with the nine Sandy Hook families and denies Remingtons motion to protect its executives from discovery questions Remington considers invasive and improper.

July 2020

Remington again files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection  in federal court in Alabama. Remington doesnt list the Sandy Hook lawsuit among its creditors raising objections by the families, who accuse Remington of attempting to escape liability. The families send a legal team to Alabama to fight Remingtons sale.

September 2020

A federal judge in Alabama overseeing Remingtons $159 million bankruptcy sale assures the nine Sandy Hook families that some of the sale proceeds will be dedicated to keeping the gunmakers insurance intact.

July 2021

During a routine exchange of pretrial data turned over by Remington, lawyers for the nine families say they found 18,000 random cartoons and 15,000 irrelevant pictures of people go-karting and dirt-biking. The story is picked up by news organizations across the country and stays in the national headlines for weeks.

July 2021

One week after the random cartoons story goes viral, two of Remingtons insurers offer each of the nine Sandy Hook families a $3.6 million settlement. Remingtons two other insurers are not part of the offer.

September 2021

News that Remington subpoenaed the academic, attendance and disciplinary records of five children killed in the 2012 shooting makes national headlines. Lawyers for the nine families say in court papers they had no explanation for why they were being subpoenaed

September 2021

A Connecticut judge rejects a request from a Sandy Hook denier from Wisconsin interested in intervening in the lawsuit.

Feb. 15, 2022

The nine families announce a settlement with Remington, which was made public in a court document. The settlement is worth $73 million. It is formally announced at a news conference in which representatives of the families spoke about their relatives who died, along with attorney Josh Koskoff, who presented information from the case against Remington.
Alleging that his chopper was not allowed to fly to Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar as it was declared a no-fly zone because of Prime Minister Narendra Modis rally in Jalandhar, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said that he is not a terrorist and Punjab is safe in our hands, adding that using investigative agencies for the Opposition will not work.

Consequently, he was unable to attend Congress leader Rahul Gandhis election rally in Hoshiarpur.

Speaking to media persons, the Chief Minister said, I was in Una at 11 am but suddenly permission to fly (to Hoshiarpur) was denied due to PM Modis movement, it was declared a no-fly zone. I was not able to attend Rahul Gandhis rally in Hoshiarpur. I had permission to land, said Channi. This is our Punjab and this is safe in our hands. Charanjit Channi is a Chief Minister, hes not a terrorist that you are stopping him from flying to Hoshiarpur. This is not the way, he added. The elections should be conducted free and fair and using agencies (ED, CBI) against opposition will not work, he said.

Earlier on Monday, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Sunil Kumar Jakhar had alleged that Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channis scheduled visit to Hoshiarpur was cancelled by the Centre. Addressing a public gathering in Hoshiarpur, Jakhar said, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was scheduled to come to Hoshiarpur but its shameful that the Central Government cancelled permission for him to come here. If the Election Commission of India does not take cognisance of this, I will understand that these polls are a farce, sham, Jakhar said. The Congress leader said the Centre should shed some light on the incident.

A few days back, the Prime Minister said that when he came to Punjab, he wasnt allowed to visit Ferozepur and there was a threat to his life. Today, when Charanjit Singh Channi is being stopped from coming to Hoshiarpur, I request PM Modi Sahab to shed some light on it, he said.

Prime Ministers Ferozepur rally earlier had to be cancelled after a major security breach with his convoy stuck on a flyover after the agitating farmers had blocked the road. The BJP is raising the issue of the security breach of the Prime Minister in the ongoing electioneering in the state.

On January 5, Prime Ministers convoy was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes.

Assembly polls for electing 117 assembly seats in Punjab will be held on February 20. The results will be declared on March 10.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that China's "tacit support" is detrimental to the security situation in eastern Europe. The DoD official also refused to rule out the chances of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 16.

US has slammed China for its support to Russia in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. During a US Department of Defense press briefing on Monday, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that Chinas tacit support is detrimental to the security situation in eastern Europe.

On being asked if the US is worried about Chinas role in the situation in eastern Europe, Kirby said that Chinas February 4 joint statement with Russia has provided evidence of Chinas support to the latter. We certainly have been watchingChina has decided that theyre going to stand alongside Russia with respect to whats going on in Europetheir tacit support, if you will, for Russia is deeply alarming, said Kirby.

Speaking about the chances of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Kirby said, We have said for a while now that military action could happen any day. The statement was in response to a press query about the inputs received by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that speculate an invasion by Russia on February 16. He further added, You heard from the national security advisor, making it clear that it  it  it certainly could happen before the end of the Olympics, maybe even this week.

He also informed the press that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will be meeting senior military and government leaders in Belgium, Poland and Lithuania in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss Russias military buildup near Ukraines borders. Kirby stated, He will meet with allied and defense ministers across NATO leadership in the defense ministerial, obviously, to discuss Russias military buildup in and around Ukraine.

Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border. The troop build-up had raised concerns among the US and NATO allies that Russia is planning a military incursion. However, Russia has continually denied having any such plans.
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Emergency Management has launched a year-long campaign to ensure the elimination of related risks during the relocation of hazardous chemical industry in China, sources with the ministry said Tuesday.

The move was carried out as the country has accelerated the relocation of hazardous industry to its central, western and northeastern regions from eastern coastal areas in recent years, Sun Guangyu, an official with the ministry, told a press conference.

The campaign will take place in 21 provincial regions that have undertaken relocation projects, said Sun, adding that more than 470 such projects are expected to begin production this year.

The sound management of safety risks is needed to avoid accidents, Sun said.

The campaign seeks to strengthen the evaluation of new and existing projects and take action on those that fail to meet safety standards to ensure safety in the sector, Sun said.

A total of 632 hazardous chemicals-related projects has been relocated to the central, western and northeastern parts of China since 2019, mostly from east China's coastal regions, Sun said. 
"Laissez les bon temps rouler" at these Connecticut restaurants and bars, which celebrate Mardi Gras with jambalaya, gumbo, po'boys, king cake and Hurricanes. Events are happening March 1 unless otherwise noted.

BRYAC Black Rock in Bridgeport offers a Mardi Gras menu all month through March 1, with New Orleans-inspired specials. Enjoy po'boys with fried oysters, clams, shrimp or calamari, or red beans and rice with Andouille sausage, jumbo shrimp or Cajun blackened chicken. Other entrees include BRYAC jambalaya, a seafood delight pasta dish with spicy garlic white wine tomato sauce and a full crawfish boil for the table ($48) with two pounds of Louisiana crawfish, Andouille sausage, potatoes and corn on the cob. Hurricane cocktails are $4 off. 203-522-4777.
CHESHIRE  Route 42 remained closed Monday, three days after a rollover crash resulted in a 2,000-gallon oil spill.

Passing cars slowed during the late morning as they neared a blockade of cones and an orange, diamond-shaped Road Closed sign at the fork between South Brooksvale Road and Route 42. An arrow labeled detour directed travelers eastbound.

While signs show the now-closed section of road is not open to thru trucks, police say it appears the oil truck driver whose truck rolled over was making a local delivery. The investigation remains ongoing, according to Cheshire police Lt. Jeffrey Sutherland.

In response to an email request for comment, Libretti & Son Fuel and Pool Water, the business to which the truck belonged, said the driver took that route because we had deliveries in that area that day.

The email, which came from the businesss account, did not include the respondents full name.

Following the Friday crash, emergency responders took the driver to the hospital, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to officials. Libretti & Son Fuel and Pool Water said Monday the driver was recovering at home.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection previously warned the road could remained closed until mid-week amid cleanup efforts, which involve removing boxes of contaminated soil from the site.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation is expecting traffic impacts for at least the next several days, agency spokesman Josh Morgan said in an email.

The road remains closed for the safety of the public, he said.

DEEP spokesman Will Healey said in a statement Monday night that the road is expected to remain closed through at least this coming weekend.

Remediation work remains ongoing at the spill site. 60 roll-off boxes (each containing 15 tons of contaminated soil) have been removed thus far. Excavation and delineation work, and monitoring and sampling work, continues, said Healey. The team working on-site continue to remain confident that the spilled oil is contained.

The closed portion of Route 42 starts in Cheshire and cuts through Prospect into Bethany, ending at the Route 69 intersection. To avoid the closure, travelers can go a little further north and use Route 68 to travel west, but the detour adds 10 to 15 minutes of travel time.

CTDOT does not provide traffic enforcement, however motorists should always obey traffic signs and use extreme caution in work zones: slow down, keep a safe distance, and stay alert, Morgan said.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
Matt Rourke / Associated Press

BRISTOL  Police are investigating after shots were fired in the city not long after midnight Monday, according to the department.

Lt. Geoffrey Lund said in an email that officers were called to the intersection of Willis Street and Northmont Road Extension for a report of shots fired around 12:03 a.m.
A decades-old cold case in Pennsylvania is closed thanks to DNA and help from a college student.

In 1964, 9-year-old Marise Ann Chiverella was abducted, raped and murdered in Luzerne County.

Investigators announced Thursday they had identified her killer as James Forte, a bartender with a record of violent sexual assault. He died in 1980.

Pennsylvania State Police worked on the case for nearly 60 years.

It was in 2019 when investigators got their first genealogical match and decided to reach out to a young genealogy expert: Elizabethtown College student Eric Schubert.

The 20-year-old said he started working on this case during his freshman year of college.

In regards to how he solved it, he said it came down to time management and a love for helping people.

"I'll never know how much it means to that family  I can't put myself in their shoes  but it was a big deal for me and for Marise's sake after 57 years, I knew it needed to be done," he said.

Schubert's experience with genealogy spans around 10 years. It started when his mother encouraged him to find a hobby during winter breaks from school.

"We saw a commercial for genealogy and ancestry and thought it would be interesting, take up some of my time, keep me busy," he said.

Schubert was soon going through newspapers and scouring census records, helping people piece together their family history.

He never thought he'd get to use his skills to take on more serious tasks.

"I had always seen on the news genealogy being used to solve cold cases, but I said there's no way police are going to let a 17 or 18-year-old do that. So, I just sort of resigned myself to, you know, if someone needs me, they'll reach out," he said.

He did get his chance to help after enrolling in Elizabethtown College.

When Schubert wasn't in class or hanging around campus, he assisted law enforcement in solving two cold cases.

"You're going to have late nights. You're going have long hours. But at the end of the day, if you can find the answer, that's what's important," he said.

During the second semester of his freshman year, Schubert discovered the Chiverella case.

He sent some emails expressing his interest in getting involved, and investigators recruited him.

After two years of hard work, the oldest cold case in the state was solved.

Schubert hopes it will send a message.

"I hope that the press conference gave some hope to people, whether that's family or investigators, that there's hope in other cases," he said.

Schubert is now looking forward to graduating college and putting his history degree to work while continuing to use his genealogy expertise to help more families.
Gov. Ned Lamont will join interim University of Connecticut President Radenka Maric and state business leaders Thursday night in a week-long visit to Israel promoting economic development and trade.

It will be Lamonts first trip as governor to Israel. Among the goals is to promote UConns Technion Clean Energy Program, a faculty and student exchange with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Weve been working on this for about two-and-a-half years, Lamont said Tuesday afternoon after an unrelated event in Hartford. There was lots of elections, a lot of government issues, a lot of COVID issues. I think this is the time to do it. We are getting a chance to meet with all the people that can make a real difference, and Im going to show them the very best of Connecticut because I think were going to benefit from it.

The 10-member delegation, including Commissioner David Lehman of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, will meet with top leaders, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and President Isaac Herzog, in an attempt to strengthen trade and promote entrepreneurs. The delegation will also meet with Dr. Salmon Zarka, head of the coronavirus task force in the Israeli ministry of health.\

While in Israel, we will be spending time with some of the brightest minds in the small business ecosystem, Lehman said. We hope to carry home best practices on how we can work more closely with Israel to provide startups with a soft landing when they arrive in our state.

The trip, which will fly out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, will include a game of Venture Clash, in which six Israeli companies will compete in eight-minute elevator pitches to officials from Connecticut Innovations Inc. the states quasi-public, strategic venture-capital organization, including Chairman of the Board Michael Cantor, CEP Matthew McCooe and Lauren Carmody, vice president of marketing and communications.

Others on the trip include Kurt Amend, vice president of defense contractor Raytheon; Michael Bloom, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Connecticut; Dr. Barry Stein, vice president and chief innovations officer at Hartford HealthCare; Michael Kraines, CFO at Digital Currency Group; professor Daniel Weiner, vice president for Global Affairs at UConn.

Business development in the pharmaceutical and defense industries will be among the goals of the group, in an attempt to promote Connecticuts workforce and economic environment. The group will visit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

As an important part of our global recruiting strategy, we will meet with innovative companies looking to create a U.S. headquarters in Connecticut, McCooe said in the statement. Through VentureClash, we not only have the opportunity to connect with promising companies, but also we will expand and strengthen our network of co-investors who will work on future deals with Connecticut Innovations.

There are also plans for innovation round tables, one of which is scheduled to be led by Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Part of growing Connecticuts innovation ecosystem includes adding diverse businesses from all around the world, Lamont said in a joint statement with Lehman and McCooe. Israel continues to lead the way in innovation and has one of the strongest economies in the world to back it up. This is an opportunity for Connecticut to strengthen its ties with Israel and provide these innovative companies with an option for any U.S. expansion. I look forward to meeting with these business leaders and government officials to learn how we can strengthen the bond between our two regions.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
ANKARA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces killed at least four members of Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, Turkey's Defense Ministry said on Monday.

Turkish military "neutralized" the YPG fighters when they attempted to "attack" Turkey's Peace Spring zone, the ministry tweeted.

Turkish authorities often use the term "neutralized" to imply "terrorists" killed, wounded, or captured in security operations.

Turkey's forces and the YPG members often exchange fire on the Syrian border, and the tension has increased in the region since early January after the killing of three Turkish soldiers.

Turkish army killed a total of 316 "terrorists" since the beginning of this year in 18 domestic and cross-border operations, Defense Ministry Spokesperson Maj. Pinar Kara told reporters on Feb. 10.

The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019 and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in northern Syria.

Turkish authorities say the operations aim to eliminate terror threats against Turkey and provide a safe zone that will facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homes. 
NEW HAVEN  A city pastor and her husband are starting a shoe and boot drive Friday for victims of the December tornadoes in Kentucky  and will be throwing some new winter coats, disposable diapers and baby formula into the mix.

Pastor Brenda Adkins of His Divine Will Fellowship Church said theres a great need still in the portion of Kentucky hit hardest, even though it may be out of the headlines and people here arent talking about it.

Its not the first time the church has focused on footwear in their community giving, as theyve held sneaker and shoe drives in Greater New Haven under the slogan, Cover thy brethrens feet.

I know shoes are essential. You cant walk around without shoes, Adkins said. I know we need to cover our brethrens feet.

Between Dec. 10 and 11, more than 40 tornadoes touched down across multiple states, leaving close to 100 dead and causing widespread devastation, the Associated Press has reported. Kentucky was one of the hardest hit states  neighborhoods were leveled.

Brenda Adkins and her husband, John, are collecting new and gently used shoes, boots and sneakers. Since they have a community connection/partnership with The Diaper Bank of Connecticut, they will also include disposable diapers and formula in the shipments. They will also provide brand new coats left over from Knights of Columbus from its Day of Joy giving event in November, they said.

Brenda Adkins said they are also accepting monetary donations, as shipping will be expensive. They expect to ship the goods in September, but could ship sooner if they get enough money to cover the cost.

To donate shoes or money to the cause, people can mail or drop off donations to the Adkinses home, 330 Munson St., New Haven, 06511; and/or contact them at 203-836-6832.

Others in the state have also gathered items for Kentucky tornado victims, including the Middletown Police Department, which last month sent a 53-foot tractor-trailer stuffed full of supplies that included hand sanitizer, canned goods and nonperishable food items, water, toiletries and pet food to Kentucky.

Residents and companies from all across the state made the trip to Middletown to help. The event was so successful that there were supplies left over after the truck was filled, so items were donated elsewhere, including 300 bags of clothing to Goodwill, and St. Vincent de Paul of Middletown received vouchers to exchange for donated clothing.
NEW HAVEN  City officials had no explanations as of Monday evening for why hundreds of doses of COVID-19 vaccines were improperly stored and given to city residents.

Health Director Maritza Bond said the doses, 650 of which were given out, were kept in freezing temperatures for eight weeks, six weeks longer than the recommended storage time. But neither she nor Mayor Justin Elicker offered a reason for what happened.

There is an ongoing investigation into what occurred, Elicker said in a text late Monday. One thing I have learned as mayor is to get all information before making a judgment as things are often more complicated than they appear at first.

Phone calls were made over the weekend to 625 people who received the vaccines, most of whom were contacted, Bond and Elicker said, and letters will be sent to all those affected. The city is recommending those people get revaccinated.

Elicker announced Friday that there had been a temperature excursion of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines and 650 doses had been given out at the Health Departments clinic at 54 Meadow St. between Dec. 23, 2021, and Feb. 7. The number of people affected is about 625 because some had received two doses during that period, Elicker said Monday. He said about 500 of the doses were given as booster shots.

In emailed responses to questions, Bond said Pfizer had informed the city it was unknown whether the error would reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines. The effectiveness of vaccines that are stored in the freezer longer than the manufacturer recommends cannot be determined and the recommendation is to receive an additional vaccine or booster, Bond wrote. Therefore, it is possible that the vaccines did not lose efficacy.

She said neither the state health department nor Pfizer could provide any evidence of medical harm caused by additional doses. It is the Health Departments recommendation that the affected patients be immediately revaccinated. However, we also recommend that patients consult with their primary medical provider for additional guidance.

The Health Department is doing an internal review to ensure that something like this doesnt happen again, Elicker said. Weve reached out to the Department of Public Health to request that they come in and review our protocols and procedures with regard to vaccine storage.

Bond said vaccine temperatures are checked every morning and evening and two staff members are assigned that duty. She said the affected doses were all stored in one freezer and the affected doses made up all the doses in the affected freezer.

She said the remainder of the affected doses will be returned to Pfizer. She did not say how many doses beyond the 650 given were affected.

Bond said the error was discovered Feb. 8 by a staff member conducting a general vaccine inventory. She said Elicker was not notified until Friday afternoon because we were waiting for guidance from the Connecticut Department of Public Health and Pfizer on whether the temperature excursion impacted the efficacy of the doses that were stored too long in the freezer. The state health department and Pfizer did not respond until Friday, she said.

Bond said the Health Department also was conducting an internal review as to the number of patients who may have been impacted.

Our focus is to make sure that people are safe and healthy and Ill do everything I can do make sure that happens, Elicker said. I can understand that people would be concerned about how well protected they are from COVID-19.

Pfizer has two formulations for its COVID-19 vaccine for those 12 and older, identified by purple or gray caps, according to David Pritchard, pharmacy manager at Yale New Haven Hospital. Patients can receive either or both when they receive their shots, he said. Each has a different cold chain, or sequence of time when they must be kept at different temperatures, as well as different ways of preparing them for use.

Bond said the vaccines that were affected had purple caps. Those must be kept in ultracold temperatures, between 130 and 76 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, until their expiration date.

Once you move it out of that ultracold, when you move it to a freezer temperature, its given two weeks, Pritchard said. That temperature is 13 degrees below zero to 5 degrees above. That was the temperature at which the Health Departments affected doses were being stored, according to Bond.

After two weeks in the freezer, you would have to move it to refrigerator temperature for one month, Pritchard said, which is 36 to 46 degrees. Once the vials are taken out of the ultracold freezer, a beyond-use date is set for six weeks out. Then they must be discarded.

Purple cap vaccines must be diluted with saline before injected. The gray cap variety is easier to administer, Pritchard said. It does not need to be diluted and once you remove it from the ultracold it can be thawed to room temperature and given right away or kept in the refrigerator  for 10 weeks, he said.

Pfizers vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds has an orange cap.

Elicker said anyone who was responsible for the error would he held accountable, but that its premature at this moment to talk about accountability until we determine what actually occurred.

In late January, Stacey Hutcherson, director of public health nursing, was terminated after failing to complete his 90-day probationary period satisfactorily. Bond has not commented on the reason because its a personnel issue. Among his duties, Hutcherson oversaw the citys vaccination clinics.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
TRUMBULL  Nine families whose loved ones were killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting accepted a $73 million settlement from the defunct gunmaker Remington, ending a seven-year wrongful death lawsuit that began as unlikely to result in victory and became a landmark case.

These families would give that (settlement) up to get their loved ones back, said their attorney Josh Koskoff, breaking into tears during an emotional two-hour news conference with families at the Trumbull Marriott Shelton. That would be true justice.

Nicole Hockley, whose son was among the 20 first-graders and six educators killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, said the families victory sent a message to gun manufacturers, insurers and the banking industry that this is a high-risk market, it is not profitable, and you will be held accountable.

We heard that we had an impossible and unwinnable case  that firearm manufacturers were immune and untouchable, Hockley said through tears. For eight long years we continued our fight to hold Remington accountable for its role in prioritizing profit above safety and using reckless marketing techniques to appeal to at-risk and violent-prone young men.

The settlement, filed with state Superior Court on Tuesday, included plans by the families to make public marketing records they recovered from Remington as the two sides prepared for trial, Koskoff said.

Attorneys in Hartford and Chicago representing Remingtons four insurance carriers did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

President Joe Biden called the settlement historic.

While this settlement does not erase the pain of that tragic day, it does begin the necessary work of holding gun manufacturers accountable for manufacturing weapons of war and irresponsibly marketing these firearms, he said in a statement. This progress is the result of the perseverance of nine families who turned tragedy into purpose. They have demonstrated that state and city consumer protection laws  like Connecticuts Unfair Trade Practices Act  provide an opportunity to hold gun manufacturers and dealers accountable for wrongdoing despite the persistence of the federal immunity shield for these companies.

As recently as July, the families rejected an offer by two of the bankrupted Remingtons insurance companies of $3.6 million each.

Because Remington was bankrupt, we were limited in the amount of damages that could be recovered  but this case was never about damages and compensation, Koskoff said Tuesday as family members sat solemnly behind him, crying and wiping their eyes. This was about the families doing whatever they can to prevent the next Sandy Hook.

The families sought to prove to a jury that the one-time gunmaking giant had unlawfully marketed the AR-15-style rifle that a 20-year-old gunman used in the slaying.

Tuesdays settlement brings an end to a case that some experts believe had already changed the way insurance companies cover gunmakers.

While a federal law remains intact that protects the firearms industry from most liability when guns are misused, the families were able to preserve their suit on arguments that Remington aggressively marketed the assaultive and militaristic capabilities of the weapon used in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting ... purposefully appealing to the very kinds of people most likely to commit mass murder in violation of Connecticuts Unfair Trade Practices Act.

This victory should serve as a wakeup call not only to the gun industry, but also the insurance and banking companies that prop it up, Koskoff said. For the gun industry, its time to stop recklessly marketing all guns to all people for all uses and instead ask how marketing can lower risk rather than court it.

Remington, which declared bankruptcy twice and was sold off to competitors as the case moved toward trial, maintained that it manufactured a legal gun that was legally sold to the gunmans mother, and that it was the gunman alone who was responsible for one of the worst crimes in modern Connecticut history.

Koskoff began his remarks Tuesday the way he might have addressed a jury had the case gone to trial, sharing memories of what the shooting victims were doing the last morning they were alive.

Daniel was very prepared for the holidays  he had written Santa a card, Koskoff said, speaking of first-grader Daniel Barden, as his parents dabbed at their eyes with tissue. Dear Santa, I just hope you can let me see you with your reindeer. Merry Christmas, Daniel.

The heart of the families case against Remington was not so much about guns as it was about greed, Koskoff said, arguing that the aggressive marketing of the AR-15 rifle to civilians began in earnest when a private equity firm took over Remington in 2005.

In 2005 there were about 100,000 AR-15s sold, Koskoff said. In 2012, there were over 2 million AR-15s sold.

The Remington case is not to be confused with separate defamation lawsuits brought by some of the same families and the same law firm in Connecticut against conspiracy extremist Alex Jones.

Sandy Hook families in Texas and Connecticut have won their cases against Jones by default and are preparing for a jury trial that will award damages.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this story. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
TEHRAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said on Tuesday that the U.S. breaches of promises pose major threat to "a good agreement" in the ongoing nuclear talks.

"The proven American malpractice is the most important threat to any agreement," Shamkhani tweeted on his social media account. "Verification and guarantee is an integral part of a good agreement," he noted.

"The real lifting of sanctions means that Iran will enjoy credible and sustainable economic benefits," Shamkhani explained.

A day earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said a "good agreement" will be within reach in the short term if the United States and the E3 group of France, Britain and Germany show seriousness to fully honor their commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments one year later and advance its halted nuclear programs.

Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in Austria's capital Vienna between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties, namely Britain, China, France, Russia plus Germany, with the United States indirectly involved in the talks, to revive the landmark deal. 
Niagara Falls, NY (14301)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain this afternoon. High 62F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Rain. Low 48F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
The North 4 North support group for Atiku Abubakar says the south-east region deserves to produce the candidate for the presidency in 2023...

The North 4 North support group for Atiku Abubakar says the south-east region deserves to produce the candidate for the presidency in 2023.

According to a statement issued on Monday by Mohammed Garba and Abubakar Sanni, national coordinator and secretary of the group, respectively, the south-east is the only region yet to be elected president since 1999.

The support group said it had backed Abubakar, former vice-president, over the past elections, but asked him to step down his ambition for a younger candidate.

Nigeria does not need more of the old, but a switch to the new, in order for paradigm shift in the management of affairs, the statement reads.

The old ways have not worked and it is time for complete turnaround of our fortunes and this will not happen if we limit ourselves by choosing from those who have tasted power before.

We have promoted Atikus candidature for years, but we humbly call on the former vice-president to do us good in return for the many good returns we have done for him.

We have sacrificed a lot pushing for the presidency of Atiku Abubakar all these years, even though we have been abandoned by him after each election cycle. It is time for him to project national interest outside of his need to become president.

At almost 80 years, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar does not have enough in the tank to put in the high level of physical and mental efforts required to fix Nigeria.

We equally call on other aspirants who are old to leave the field and allow for young and vibrant candidates to emerge and take the reins of power in 2023.

We must give all parts of Nigeria a chance to become president of the country, or we might slide dangerously into the narratives of divisionist enemies of the state who will have a ready recruitment pool from among disgruntled groups.

Only one region in Nigeria has not been given a chance to take the presidency of Nigeria and it is only fair that in 2023, almost a quarter of a century into our current democratic system, the south-east is reminded that they are just as Nigerians as the rest of us.

Fairness and equity are the major ingredients for sustainability of any society as history has clearly shown, and Nigeria can be no exception to this clear and present rule of nation building. When a society begins to deviate from the principle of fairness and equity, it declines and slides down the rabbit hole of oblivion.

The presidency cannot also afford to go to an older candidate, considering the enormity of the demands of the job in the 21st century, where there are series of factors playing into a tectonic shift in economic centres of gravity, coupled with the many challenges confronting Nigeria that require a proactive person with energy to cope with the rigours of office.

The south-east deserves the presidency of Nigeria come 2023, and we must narrow down our focus to searching for the best candidate from the region rather than allowing the public discourse space to be crowded by cacophony of distraction that will end up robbing us of the very best of us.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has ordered the closure of all satellite units of the Intelligence Response Team and S...

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has ordered the closure of all satellite units of the Intelligence Response Team and Special Tactical Squad across the country.

This comes a day after the arrest of the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police and Head, Intelligence Response Team of the Nigeria Police Force, Abba Kyari and others by authorities of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency over alleged drug dealings.

All serving officers in the satellite units have been asked to report to the Force Headquarters, Abuja for debriefing.

A police source confirmed that authorities have directed that serving officers and men in the unit will be demobilised and posted to commands across the country.

Meanwhile, the Force management also directed that the IRT/STS Headquarters in Abuja should be fortified and organised for enhanced operational performance to combat emerging trends.

In July 2020, the then-Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu had directed the disbandment of the satellite offices and bases of the IRT and STS, leaving the headquarters of the units under the State Investigation Bureau as a response to the public outcry on human rights infringement by some officers of these units.

While the civil society organisations commended then disbandment stressing that most of the alleged atrocities that have dented the image of the Police were carried out at the Satellite bases, where the operatives acted with impunity.

According to them, the IGS decision was to ensure that IRT Officers operates in the various State Commands under the strict supervision and control of the State Commissioners.

The Commissioners of Police would be held responsible for any excesses and failure of the Operatives or failure to hold them accountable for a breach of due process.

The formations of the two units of the police followed moves by the Force Headquarters to reposition the police and ensure accountability and due process.
The Nigerian Army on Tuesday dismissed reports that two officers connived with internet fraudsters, also called Yahoo boys, in Edo State a...





The Nigerian Army on Tuesday dismissed reports that two officers connived with internet fraudsters, also called Yahoo boys, in Edo State and also collecting illegal returns from soldiers at checkpoints.





Recall that some online media outlets of February 14, 2022, alleged that two Army officers; Captain Ayegba and Captain Okakah, who are both Commander of Operation WABAZIGAN, a security outfit set up by the Godwin Obaseki administration in Edo, and Okakah, Officer-in-Charge (O/C) of Military Police at 4 Brigade, Benin, were allegedly living beyond their means and emboldening the Yahoo boys, who recently sprayed Okakah over N4 million at a social event.





The reports further alleged that the aggrieved soldiers said that by allowing the two officers to continue to stay at the brigade without being investigated, they would pollute the Army and make the committed personnel also start cutting corners and be involved in unethical practices.





Reacting on Tuesday, Captain Yemi Sokoya, Asst. Director Army Public Relations dismissed the report.





According to the statement, the Brigade stated that the report is bereft of truth and therefore entirely misleading, saying the report is nothing short of an attempt to spite the image of the Brigade and by extension the Nigerian Army.





The unsubstantiated allegations could be viewed as an attempt to defame the Brigade, despite the selfless efforts of its troops in ensuring security in Edo and the contiguous states.





According to the statement, the Brigade exercises zero tolerance on troops engaged in activities detrimental to service discipline as defaulters are always sanctioned accordingly.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, didnt shut down satellite units of the Intelligence Response Team and Special Tactical Squad...

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, didnt shut down satellite units of the Intelligence Response Team and Special Tactical Squads in the country, acting Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, has said.

Adejobi made this clarification on Tuesday while reacting to reports that the police boss ordered the closure of IRT formations nationwide following the indictment of suspended Head of the IRT, DCP Abba Kyari, in a narcotics deal.

The report is untrue, the IGP didnt shut IRT and tactical squads in the country, Adejobi said.

Recall that the IGP on Monday handed over Kyari to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for prosecution for alleged link in drug trafficking after the anti-narcotics agency released damning photos and evidence to nail Kyari.

NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, had chronicled how Kyari belonged to a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline.

The anti-narcotics agency said Kyari contacted one of its officers in Abuja and struck a deal to secure the release of a total of 25kg seized cocaine and offered $61,400 to NDLEA officers who played along until his arrest.

The NDLEA also said it had photo and video evidence against Kyari.

The IGP in a statement through the FPRO had corroborated the NDLEAs findings, saying incontrovertible evidence indicted Kyari in the drug crimes.

He said the affected police officers have been transferred to the NDLEA for prosecution. The concerned officers include DCP Abba Kyari, ACP Sunday Ubuah, ASP Bawa James, ASP John Umoru (at large), Inspr. Simon Agrigba and John Nuhu. They have all been, accordingly, handed over today 14th February 2022 to the NDLEA authorities, he said.

The IGP also urged the anti-narcotics agency to arrest NDLEAs officials who colluded with Kyaris accomplices, especially at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

Kyari was earlier indicted in 2021 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States for his alleged role in a $1m scam allegedly perpetrated by alleged international Internet fraudster Ramon Abbas, aka, Hushpuppi and five others.

FBI Special Agent, Andrew Innocenti, had said he obtained voice calls and WhatsApp conversations between Kyari and Hushpuppi, adding that Hushpuppi also paid the police officer N8m or $20,600 for the arrest and detention of a co-conspirator, Chibuzo Vincent.

The United States Attorneys Office at the Central District of California had ordered the FBI to arrest Kyari but the IGP and the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) evasively continued to shield Kyari till this moment.

Many Nigerians have since called for the sacking of the suspended erstwhile IRT boss while they also urged the Federal Government not to allow the NDLEA case affect the extradition of Kyari to the United States and his prosecution in the Hushpuppi saga.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has confirmed the arrest of suspended police officer, DCP Abba Kyari. The agency indicted...

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has confirmed the arrest of suspended police officer, DCP Abba Kyari.

The agency indicted him on Monday, for involvement in a 25 kilograms cocaine deal.

NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a statement confirmed that the police handed Kyari over.

Others are ACP Sunday J. Ubua; ASP Bawa James; Inspector Simon Agirgba and Inspector John Nuhu.

They were driven into the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja at about 5pm on Monday for interrogation and further investigation.

The agency vowed that no stone will be left unturned to ensure that suspects in custody and those that may still be name face the full weight of the law.

Kyari was formerly Commander, Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Force Intelligence Bureau.
The Osun State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) The Osun NSCDC and the Osun Police Command have disagreed ...

The Osun State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) The Osun NSCDC and the Osun Police Command have disagreed over the alleged attack on the convoy of Rauf Aregbesola.

Osun NSCDC, had in a reaction, assured residents of the State of adequate security amidst the mayhem caused by some unscrupulous elements in the State capital on Monday evening.

Giving the assurance via a statement signed by the Commands Public Relations Officer, Atanda Olabisi on Monday, the Osun NSCDC Commandant, Emmanuel Ocheja, who noted that the corps would continue to render excellent and all inclusive security services in the State, added that this was in line with the statutory mandates and functions of the corps.

Ocheja also stressed that professionalism and impartiality will be the watchword of the NSCDC at all times during its operations.

While acknowledging that earlier in the evening, the convoy of Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior was attacked by political thugs in Osogbo, he explained that security details attached to him were able to disperse them and bring about normalcy to the area.

On its part, the Osun State Police Command has also described the shooting by the Ministers convoy as conduct likely to cause breach of the public peace.

In a press release signed by Yemisi Opalola, the Command Police Public Relations Officer and made available on Tuesday morning, the Command revealed that normalcy has since returned to the area and the situation is under close monitoring.

It, however, revealed that no casualty was recorded but that after the departure of the minister and his team, the police recovered 13 empty shells of G-3, assault and AK-47 rifles along the road.

The police also maintained that some of the security escorts of the minister started shooting sporadically into the air without any provocation or attack.

According to the press release, The Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola was moving in a convoy of personnel of NSCDC, correctional service, immigration as well as some unidentified armed people suspected to be political thugs along Orisunbare/MDS Road, Osogbo. Suddenly, some of the security escorts of the minister started shooting sporadically into the air without any provocation nor attack.

Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior had been in Ijebu-Jesa to attend a critical stakeholders meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

At the meeting, the former governor of Osun had thrown his weight behind Moshood Adeoti, the aspirant of the Rasaq Salinsile faction of the party.

His convoy was later attacked as he made his way through the Station Road area of the town on Monday evening, with exchange of gunshots.

The State government, after the incident, made an announcement, noting that it had credible reports that some misguided cowards invaded Osogbo with armed thugs with intent to foment trouble.
Hearing in the Fundamental Human Rights suit by the former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, against the Economic and Financia...





Hearing in the Fundamental Human Rights suit by the former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was stalled at the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Monday.





This follows a fresh application by the anti-graft agency.





The court had on February 8 adjourned the process in the suit brought by Okorocha till Feb. 14, 2022 for hearing on grounds of late service of processes on the respondent, EFCC.





When the case resumed on Monday, EFCC through its counsel, G.K. Latona, approached the court with a fresh motion on notice, praying the court for substitution of their document earlier filed and to withdraw an earlier motion on notice had filed to replace it with a new one





While counsel to Okorocha, Ola Olanipekun, opposed the application, saying the fresh motion on notice has stalled the hearing of the main suit which is against the earlier judgment against the commission, Latona however stated that the EFCC was not going contrary to the judgment of court.





He noted that there was no fundamental point to prove the claims of contempt.





The trial Judge, Justice, Stephen Pam, after listening to the arguments, said judgment of the court which ordered the EFCC to release the travel document of Okorocha and a stop to further investigation against him still subsists.





He thereafter adjourned till April 4 for hearing.
Notices of measures against COVID-19 are seen on a door of a store in New York, the United States, Feb. 14, 2022. Most Americans thought U.S. economy and the fight against COVID-19 improved to some extent in recent weeks, but still not good, while a majority of people were still concerned about the pandemic, according to a new poll released on Sunday. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Most Americans thought U.S. economy and the fight against COVID-19 improved to some extent in recent weeks, but still not good, while a majority of people were still concerned about the pandemic, according to a new poll released on Sunday.

As coronavirus cases came down in many places in the Unite States, more Americans said efforts against the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic "are going well," but it was still a mixed report, showed the poll conducted by CBS News/YouGov between Feb. 8 and 11.

Around 47 percent said "things are going well," up from 36 percent a few weeks ago. Fewer people reported than a year ago that their own mental health "is worse" as a result of the pandemic, it found.

People rated things in the country better than they did in January, but they did not call them good, the poll said, noting Americans expressed roughly the same mix of being hopeful and scared about the year ahead as they did a year ago.

Nearly half of parents reported feeling exhausted or frustrated by managing the pandemic and kids, saying their children's mental health and educational development got worse as a result of the pandemic, according to the result of the poll.

About the economy, it found that the general measure of how things were going in the United States was up seven points in a month, but still net negative.

President Joe Biden's approval rating remained at 44 percent in February, unchanged from last month, the poll showed, believing that it reflected this mixture of measures and sentiments in the country. 

People walk on the street on Times Square in New York, the United States, Feb. 14, 2022. Most Americans thought U.S. economy and the fight against COVID-19 improved to some extent in recent weeks, but still not good, while a majority of people were still concerned about the pandemic, according to a new poll released on Sunday. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

People walk on the street on Times Square in New York, the United States, Feb. 14, 2022. Most Americans thought U.S. economy and the fight against COVID-19 improved to some extent in recent weeks, but still not good, while a majority of people were still concerned about the pandemic, according to a new poll released on Sunday. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

A security guard stands outside a store on Times Square in New York, the United States, Feb. 14, 2022. Most Americans thought U.S. economy and the fight against COVID-19 improved to some extent in recent weeks, but still not good, while a majority of people were still concerned about the pandemic, according to a new poll released on Sunday. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
The Police Command in Osun State has narrated the shooting incident involving the convoy of Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola. The ...

The Police Command in Osun State has narrated the shooting incident involving the convoy of Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola.

The former Governors motorcade was attacked on Monday by hoodlums at Orisumbare/MFS Road in Osogbo, the capital.

A statement by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Yemisi Opalola, said that it was some of the ministers escorts that opened fire without provocation.

The spokesperson noted that the episode occurred at about 5.40pm as NSCDC, Correctional Service, Immigration personnel escorted Aregbesola.

Some unidentified armed people suspected to be political thugs were with the convoy.

Suddenly, some of the security escorts of the minister started shooting sporadically into the air without any provocation nor attack, thereby causing members of the public to scramble for their safety, she added.

The police confirmed that thirteen empty shells of G-3, assault and AK-37 rifles were recovered along the road after the ministers departure.

Noting that no one died, the PRO said a full report would be made available at the end of investigation.

Factional Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abiodun Agboola, earlier said the minister was attacked by political thugs while coming from Ilesa.

Todays attempt on the life of the minister is a confirmation that Osun is no longer a safe State, Agboola declared.
The Nigeria Police Force has said there is nothing like money ritual, warning Nigerians to stop killing fellow human beings. Lately,...

The Nigeria Police Force has said there is nothing like money ritual, warning Nigerians to stop killing fellow human beings.

Lately, the killing of humans for purported money rituals have become a trend among young Nigerians who are in a hurry to get rich.

Aside from those who were caught in the act of killing or those seen with body parts, mutilated human bodies have been found in different locations across Nigeria with killers such persons unknown.

In Ogun State, no fewer than three cases of ritual killing were reported in the past two weeks.

Nigerians were taken aback when 18-year-old Soliudeen Majekodunmi recounted how he, alongside his three friends, beheaded his girlfriend, Sofiat Okeowo and burnt her head in a local pot for money ritual.

On Saturday, a couple, 43-year-old Kehinde Oladimeji and his wife, Adejumoke Raji, were arrested by the police for killing a girl, who was a friend to the wife at Leme area of Abeokuta.

The head of the victim, they confessed, was sold at the rate of N70,000.

Likewise, our correspondent reported earlier that some two men in Oja Odan area of Ogun were lynched and burnt to ashes by a mob when they were caught with a fresh human head.

It was gathered that people who engage in this act believe the body parts could be used for rituals that would propel them into sudden wealth and riches.

But, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said no money could come through the killing of fellow human beings.

Oyeyemi, who described as worrisome, the increasing rate of ritual killing in Ogun and Nigeria, called on well-meaning individuals to join hands in putting an end to the menace.

While speaking in an interview with newsmen at the Ogun State police headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, the cop said the act is mans inhumanity to man, adding that it is the superlative degree of animalistic behaviour.

He condemned the act in its entirety, saying it is barbaric, despicable and unacceptable.

It is becoming worrisome, the rate at which some disgruntled elements are killing their fellow human beings for money-making rituals. It is something that all well-meaning Nigerians should have to put all hands on deck to checkmate.

This is the height of mans inhumanity to man. It is the superlative degree of animalistic behaviour. There is nothing like money-making ritual. It is barbaric, it is despicable and it is not acceptable.

The Ogun police spokesman charged parents to warn their children, urging adults and anyone aiding and abetting the crime to stop henceforth.

He stressed that the hand of the law will catch up with those perpetrating the evil, no matter where they hide.
Unknown gunmen on Monday attacked the convoy of Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, during a roadshow he conducted in Osogbo, the Osun S...

Unknown gunmen on Monday attacked the convoy of Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, during a roadshow he conducted in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

It was gathered that the gun-wielding hoodlums, suspected to be political thugs, waylaid his convoy and started shooting in a bid to scare away the former governor of the state and members of his entourage.

The pandemonium broke when Aregbesola got to Orisunbare market, close to Old-Garage when sounds of gunshots rented the air.

There was pandemonium as his supporters ran for safety.

A team of combined security operatives from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria Immigration Service and Department of State Security, who were among Aregbesolas convoy, repealed the thugs.

This is coming after Aregbesola openly declared support for the former Secretary to the State Government, Moshood Adeoti and proclaimed him as the next governor of the state.

It can be recalled earlier that Osun State announced that it has credible reports that some misguided cowards have invaded Osogbo, the state capital with armed thugs to foment trouble.
Yes. Gov. Hochul chose Mr. Benjamin, and she's stuck with him through the election.

No. The state should have the option to remove someone under criminal indictment.

Vote

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MOSCOW, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, said Monday that the parliament would consider two resolutions on the recognition of eastern Ukraine's Lugansk and Donetsk regions as independent.

The appeal will be considered and voted upon during the parliament's plenary session on Tuesday, Volodin said in a telegram post.

According to the chairman, the first resolution will be sent directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin after it is adopted, while the second will be sent to the Russian Foreign Ministry and government structures for further consideration.

"Washington is escalating tensions, supplying weapons to Ukraine together with European countries, Kiev doesn't comply with the Minsk agreements," he wrote.

"All this poses threats and risks to the lives of our citizens and compatriots living in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics," Volodin added. 
When it comes to Civil War documentaries, Ken Burns 1990 epic The Civil War  spanning more than 11 hours over nine episodes  is still, and probably long will be, the gold standard. It was ambitious, it was well-told and it captured the imagination of the American public on an unprecedented scale.

That being said, Lincolns Dilemma  a four-part, four-hour miniseries that begins streaming Friday (Feb. 18) on Apple TV+  is every bit its equal.

Its shorter and more focused than Burns series, but its still every bit as ambitious, every bit as technically proficient and every bit as thought-provoking.

It also has one heck of a compelling story to share.

This is an amazing story, actually, when you step back and look at it, Princeton University historian and author Sean Wilentz says at the outset of Episode 1. Maybe the greatest story in modern history.

Hes one of a number of scholars enlisted to help directors Jacqueline Olive and Barak Goodman explore and explain the political and moral evolution of Abraham Lincoln with regard to slavery.

Theyve got their work cut out for them. After all, were talking about a larger-than-life legend here, the Great Emancipator, a man held up for more than 150 years as a solemn symbol of what we like to think America is all about.

We love Honest Abe so much we put him on our money not once but twice.

Hard for any tribute to get much more American than that.

Nudging aside the myth

But a big part of what makes Lincolns Dilemma so interesting is in the way it uses historical context and, often, Lincolns own words to nudge aside the myth and instead provide an honest, unflinching yet respectful assessment of the human being behind it.

Based on David S. Reynolds book Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, this isnt, in other words, a series about the 170-ton statue ensconced in Lincolns namesake memorial in Washington, D.C.

Rather, its about the man behind that monolith and, more significantly, about the myriad internal and external complications with which he wrestled on his way to becoming the legend that statue represents.

For example, its no secret that the Lincoln, who first ran for president in 1860, wasnt an abolitionist. He was anti-slavery, but abolishing that peculiar institution wasnt his presidential priority. That was, above all else, holding the union together  and, after that fateful attack on Fort Sumter, reunification.

Where slavery was concerned, Lincoln was more pragmatic than dogmatic. If it were to be abolished, he thought the better method was gradual emancipation  starting with the stemming of slaverys expansion  rather than risking the political shock of a sudden alternative.

Freedom vs. equality

So how did he go from there to issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862  and then to recognizing in the Gettysburg Address that freedom and equality are two dramatically different things in September 1863?

Thats the story Lincolns Dilemma sets out to tell.

Much of the heavy lifting is done by the unimpeachable panel of experts Olive and Goodman have assembled to share their observations and insights.

Also noteworthy are the contributions of Jeffrey Wright, who narrates, and actors Bill Camp and Leslie Odom Jr., who give voice to the words of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, respectively.

From a technical standpoint, Olive and Goodman also deserve credit for their creative approach to the problem inherent in making a movie about a person who lived and died before motion picture cameras were invented.

A story worth hearing

Burns solution  in The Civil War and pretty much every other film he makes  was the technique that today carries his name, in which he pans, zooms and otherwise uses camera movement to create the illusion of motion from still photos.

Olive and Goodman take that a step further. Building on the Ken Burns effect, they use computer animation to create their own photographs, which they then bring to life with subtle, gentle animation.

No one will mistake their work for real film; thats not their intention. Rather, its to add visual interest and to bring these historical figures alive in a much more seamless, less hackneyed way than, say, dramatic reenactments and similarly regrettable techniques.

The result is enormously effective, adding an elegance and dynamism that complements  and even elevates  the already poignant story being told.

Now more than ever, its a story worth hearing. The filmmakers make that clear in the opening minutes of the first episode by showing footage from the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2020.

Its a brief segment, but it makes one thing unambiguous: This 162-year-old story is still enormously, shamefully relevant.

Mike Scott can be reached at moviegoermike@gmail.com.
When a pregnant employee of McDonalds was arrested on a 4-year-old domestic violence warrant last week, a prosecutor working for Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams pitched the court on a $100,000 bail.

A public defender called it outrageous. Her 23-year-old client wept. Magistrate Commissioner Albert Thibodeaux had to make sure hed heard correctly.

$100,000? Thibodeaux said. Any basis, any analysis regarding these facts? Have you spoken with the victim?

The prosecutor explained that the figure came from a chart: he was merely following his offices new, fixed bail schedule. Thibodeaux, unimpressed, set the womans bail on a home invasion count at a tenth of the DAs request.

That courtroom exchange was one of many in recent days featuring Williams new, bail-heavy response to a violent crime surge and mounting political pressure to hold violent and repeat offenders in jail.

Over his first year in office, Williams avoided weighing in on bond amounts at most initial appearances in Magistrate Court, defense attorneys and judges say. Suddenly, however, his prosecutors are pushing hard for massive bail amounts.

The bond schedule is among several moves by Williams to address concerns over the frequent releases of suspects arrested in violent crimes. He also has pledged to beef up case screening, while under fire for allowing dozens of suspects in violent crimes to go free from jail from missed charging deadlines.

In a statement this week, Williams downplayed the idea that the high bond recommendations from the new schedule marks a sharp reversal, insisting his prosecutors have always been able to recommend bonds.

So, what you see now isnt very new, but it is a concerted proactive effort to be clearer and unequivocal about our position on these matters of violent crime, Williams said, because instead of others taking full responsibility for their actions and legal responsibility, some have unfairly and inaccurately blamed our office for bonds, thereby distorting our policies and record.

But to supporters drawn to Williams progressive platform in 2020, when he won the DAs race handily in a runoff over Judge Keva Landrum, the pivot to recommending high bonds under a rote schedule feels decidedly retro.

Judges and magistrate commissioners have chafed at the suddenly steep and inflexible requests, challenging prosecutors to explain their reliance on the schedule. Thibodeaux called one request canned.

Public defenders, meanwhile, claim the new bail requests fly in the face of Williams campaign pledge to wean the criminal justice system off of mass incarceration and cash bail. The pressure from prosecutors is already having an effect, they fear.

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We see bonds going up, even where the testimony on the record suggests the bond should go down, said Derwyn Bunton, chief of the Orleans Public Defenders. We see cases where complaining witnesses don't want to go forward and that information is relayed on the record, and the bond goes up.

Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche, who has clashed with Williams, provided a copy of the bond schedule and other documents to the newspaper. Goyeneche characterized the push for high bonds as a political 180 for Williams.

That is an indication of an overreaction, a correction to a policy that was flawed," Goyeneche said of the new requests. Having a schedule like thatindicates the people that are doing this arent being trained properly.

Williams said his office declined to get involved in most initial bond settings because thats the job of a commissioner or judge, and because he has vowed to not have public fights with the judges like (my) predecessor on things that only the judge has the authority to do.

Williams predecessor, Leon Cannizzaro, abandoned Magistrate Court for most first appearances toward the end of his tenure. Cannizzaro's time came to a close as the court began to embrace bail bond reform, relying more on risk scores presented by court staff and less on argument.

Those scores generally track the risk of rearrest, city figures show. The percent of people rearrested after making bail has steadily dropped since 2019, according to data from the Mayors Office of Criminal Justice Coordination.

Previously, Williams former first assistant, Bob White, told prosecutors that we dont really get involved in most bond settings, but would engage in the adversarial system when it came to requests by defense attorneys for bond reductions.

Williams has ordered his prosecutors to request bonds of up to $100,000 for aggravated criminal damage to property, $250,000 for second-degree battery or aggravated burglary, $200,000 for simple robbery and $200,000 for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

For commercial surety bonds, the suspect must put up 12 percent of the set amount under state law.

The high bond ranges laid out in the new schedule are consistent with the law and bond setting in other parishes, Williams said in the statement.
The Louisiana Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide if a ban on non-unanimous jury verdicts applies retroactively under the state constitution, as it considers the case of a man convicted of murder and sentenced to life for a 1993 slaying in Plaquemines Parish.

The case of Reginald Reddick, who was convicted by a 10-2 jury vote that is no longer allowed, sets up a decision by the states highest court that could affect as many as 1,500 Louisiana inmates, most of them serving life sentences without parole.

Convicted by split juries years ago, their appeals exhausted, those inmates missed a shot at new trials when the U.S. Supreme Court last year refused to make its 2020 ban on divided juries retroactive. Still, advocates have argued that the high court's ruling doesn't prevent the Louisiana Supreme Court from deciding that those older split verdicts violate the state's constitution and should be tossed.

District Judge Michael Clement agreed in Reddicks case, in a ruling that an appeals court left intact. Attorney General Jeff Landrys office asked the Supreme Court to step in, and the seven justices unanimously agreed to hear the state's challenge.

Nearly two years after the U.S. Supreme Court found Louisiana had been convicting people in violation of the Constitution on the basis of a Jim Crow law, the Louisiana Supreme Court hearing this case will be a relief to both Mr. Reddick and the 1,500 people who have their fates in the hands of the court," said Hardell Ward, Reddicks attorney with the Promise of Justice Initiative.

Louisiana and Oregon were the only two states to adopt split verdicts before Louisiana voters outlawed them in a bipartisan groundswell in 2018, but only for people charged with crimes from 2019 or later. The U.S. Supreme Court then banned split verdicts going forward, ruling in the case of Evangelisto Ramos that juries in America were always meant to be unanimous.

Landry's solicitor general, Liz Murrill, has argued twice before the U.S Supreme Court that chaos would overtake Louisiana courts -- first if split verdicts were outlawed, and then if a ban on them became retroactive.

"We hope that the Louisiana Supreme Court can settle this matter once and for all, recognizing the disruption applying Ramos retroactively would cause in the criminal justice system," said Cory Dennis, a spokesman for Landry's office.

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The Ramos decision ended a practice that Louisiana adopted 120 years earlier at a constitutional convention called with the explicit aim of restoring white supremacy in the state. Beginning then, juries could convict people on serious felonies with as few as nine of 12 votes. Convention delegates in 1973 raised the required count to 10 votes, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed split verdicts in state courts. But a quarter century later, the high court trashed that earlier ruling, while highlighting the law's racist history and enduring impact.

A 2018 review by The Advocate of thousands of state jury trials found a disparate impact from the split-jury law on Black people. Black defendants were 30% more likely that White defendants to be convicted by split juries. Black jurors also dissented at more than twice the rate of White jurors, the newspaper found.

Advocates argue that the law violates the equal protection clause in the state constitution, which states: No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws. No law shall discriminate against a person because of race or religious ideas, beliefs, or affiliations."

Landrys office has described the ruling in Reddicks case as a blatant abuse of discretion, arguing that Clement, the Plaquemines Parish judge, declared that the U.S. Supreme Courts ban on split juries was a watershed ruling, and thus retroactive, with little basis.

The 4th Circuit, which reviews district court rulings in Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish, has disagreed with that view. In another case decided last month, a 2-1 appeals court panel found no legitimate interest in the finality of convictions obtained through a non-unanimous jury verdict scheme designed to ensure inequality and by which the likelihood of an accurate conviction was seriously diminished.

The Louisiana Supreme Court has not yet set a hearing date for Reddick's case.

Note: This story has been updated to include comments from a spokesman for Attorney General Jeff Landry.
A New Orleans judge on Monday reduced the bail of a woman accused in a fatal 2019 Mid-City shooting from $302,000 to $7,600, a move that left prosecutors vowing to appeal but that defense attorneys argued was warranted following three years of delays.

Byrielle Hebert, 20, is accused of first-degree murder and a slew of other charges in connection with the slaying of Zelda Townsend.

New Orleans police allege that in May 2019, Hebert, along with two others, burglarized a string of vehicles before arriving in the 2700 block of Cleveland Avenue, where Zelda Townsend lived with her husband Danny.

After hearing an alarm, the couple came outside to find a teenage boy sitting inside their SUV. As Danny Townsend attempted to hold closed the vehicle's door, trapping him inside, another vehicle drove by, and someone inside of it yelled, just shoot him, police said. The youth in Townsend's SUV fired, killing Zelda Townsend and injuring Danny Townsend, according to police.

Later that night, police arrested Hebert and Emanuel Pipkins, 18 and 17 at the time, respectively, at a hospital where Pipkins was seeking treatment for a gunshot wound that they say he sustained during the shooting.

A third person, Alvin Robinson, 16 at the time, has also been charged in connection with the killing. Both Pipkins and Robinson were charged as adults.

Hebert and Pipkins are also charged with the attempted murder of two people in a separate May 2019 incident. Prosecutors allege that Hebert and Pipkins shot at the victims after they tried to stop the pair from rifling through a vehicle outside Lakeviews Homedale Inn Bar.

After being arrested in May 2019 in connection with Townsend's slaying, Hebert was questioned by officers over several hours, during which time she asked for the interview to end 11 times.

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She ultimately acknowledged being at the scene, but the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in May 2021 that Heberts statement cannot be used during the trial because police had violated her constitutional right to remain silent.

On Monday, Heberts attorney, Eusi Phillips, asked that Hebert be released from jail, where she has been held since 2019.

Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Angel Harris denied the request but agreed to reduce Heberts $302,000 bail after Phillips pointed out that the statement tying Hebert to the scene was ruled inadmissible, and that the pandemic has delayed her trial.

Jury trials are scheduled to resume on March 7 at Criminal District Court; the trial for both Hebert and Pipkins has been scheduled for June 6.

Harris reset Heberts bail at $7,600, including $1,000 for the first-degree murder charge. If Hebert is released from jail, she must wear an ankle monitor and remain in home incarceration 24/7, Harris said.

Assistant District Attorney Alex Calenda opposed Heberts bail reduction Monday, and said he will seek to challenge her decision in the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal.

"Our office believes that Hebert is a danger to the community and do not support the courts position," Ned McGowan, an assistant district attorney, said in a prepared statement.

Harris also set Pipkins bail to $1.5 million. Pipkins had previously been held without bail.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the conditions of Hebert's release. If released, Hebert will be subject to 24/7 home incarceration.
The Department of Justice has awarded the Orleans Parish District Attorneys Office more than $2.3 million in federal grants that will allow the office to ramp up DNA testing capabilities, support reentry programs and pursue cold cases.

District Attorney Jason Williams was joined by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, members of the Innocence Project New Orleans and others to announce the four grants at a news conference Monday.

The grants have restrictions on how the funds may be spent, but each revolves around efforts to increase safety and justice, from overseeing the safe reentry of felons to ensuring the right person is behind bars by expanding post-conviction DNA testing.

For example, some of the funds will allow the district attorneys office, in partnership with reentry nonprofit First 72+ and the Louisiana Parole Project, to create a new task force aimed at helping people who are released from prison as a result of work done by its civil rights division, Williams said.

The funds will also assist the office in pursuing racially-motivated cold cases that occurred before 1980.

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During the news conference Monday, Williams was quick to say that the grants cant replace the important and necessary money hes requested from the city to beef up the offices workforce and pay its expenses as crime continues to surge across New Orleans.

In November, he asked the city for a $9.3 million budget, $2.2 million more than it allotted for the current budget year.

Referencing the recent spike in crimes across the city, Williams said that weve been very clear that solving cold cases [is] critically important to our public safety today, because when you don't solve a cold case, you leave a perpetrator on the street to reoffend."

The grants will do exactly that, he said, and help us grow our work in that area of solving cold cases.
Two women were robbed by an armed man in the French Quarter early Monday morning, New Orleans police said.

Police responded to the call at around 1:20 a.m. A 41-year-old woman and a 43-year-old woman were in the 500 block of Toulouse Street when a man pressed an unknown item against their backs and demanded their property, police said. The women complied. The suspect fled.

Police are investigating the incident as an armed robbery.
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland on Monday reported 40 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

Of the new local infections, 29 were reported in Liaoning, eight in Jiangsu, two in Guangdong, and one in Guangxi, the commission said in its daily report.

Tuesday also saw nine provincial-level regions reporting 40 imported COVID-19 cases, said the commission.

Two new suspected cases arriving from outside the mainland were reported in Shanghai. No deaths from COVID-19 were reported on the day, it added. 
A man accused of stealing a womans purse at gunpoint and firing at a New Orleans police officer who shot him in return has been released from the hospital and taken to jail.

Investigators on Monday booked Daniel Ignacio Mejia Castillo, 32, with counts of armed robbery, attempted armed robbery and attempted first-degree murder in the encounter last week outside a church in Treme.

New Orleans police plan to release video footage of the incident Tuesday morning and discuss Mejias shooting and arrest, as is agency policy in cases where officers use such force. The briefing is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.

Mejia allegedly used a gun to mug two women who were sitting in their car after dropping off their children at the Church of God El Milagro in the 400 block of North Dorgenois Street on the night of Feb. 8. While one of the women left without surrendering anything, the other handed over her purse with a mobile phone inside, which she then tracked to a field across the street, police said.

While an officer searched that field for signs of Mejia, the victims cell phone rang in the bushes, police said. Mejia allegedly was hidden there, and fired at the officer but missed. The officer fired back, hitting Mejia three times in the leg, police have said.

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Police said they also recovered the mugging victims belongings, along with blue gloves, a ski mask and a backpack that Mejia had. Those items were all allegedly visible on surveillance video that the police recovered from the scene of the hold-up.

Paramedics brought Mejia to the hospital to be treated for his gunshot wounds. By Monday, he had been discharged and transferred to jail.

Besides the counts of robbery and murder, Mejia was also booked with a warrant accusing him of fraud, jail records show. His bail wasnt immediately set.

The records dont elaborate on the fraud case. But in September 2020, federal prosecutors charged Mejia  a native of Honduras  with possessing a counterfeit permanent resident card, also known as a green card. Mejia later pleaded guilty and in February 2021 was sentenced to jail time that he had already served, federal court records show.

Police haven't identified the officer who shot Mejia, but he's been on the force for three years and was wearing a camera, according to officials. The department put that officer on desk duty pending an internal investigation into the case.
A man who stole a woman's purse at gunpoint outside a Treme church last week ignored a New Orleans police officer's repeated commands to drop his weapon and fired at the officer, who returned fire and hit him in the leg, authorities revealed Tuesday.

Daniel Ignacio Mejia Castillo, 32, fired twice at Officer Levi Atkin before his 9mm pistol jammed, New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said. Mejia missed, and Atkin fired back 17 times, striking Mejia in his left leg twice, Ferguson added.

Ferguson said the tense encounter illustrates how his officers "put their lives on the line every day." The chief's remarks came as the NOPD publicly released Atkin's body camera footage from the Feb. 8 shootout in compliance with NOPD's policy on officers who use force in the line of duty.

Atkin remained on desk duty pending an internal investigation into his actions during the confrontation with Mejia, who faces charges of robbery and attempted murder. The 90-second video released Tuesday showed Atkin give Mejia numerous chances to peacefully surrender before firing in defense of his life, Ferguson said.

On the night of the shootout, Mejia had allegedly used a gun to rob two women who were sitting in a car after dropping off their children at the Church of God El Milagro in the 400 block of North Dorgenois Street. While one of the women didnt hand anything over, the other surrendered her purse with a mobile phone inside.

The woman who didn't hand over anything used a mobile app to track the other victim's cell phone to a field near the Lafitte Greenway across the street, said Sgt. Debra Pruitt, the NOPD investigator overseeing the case.

After Atkin was called to investigate the stickup, he and the victims decided one of the women would call the phone while the officer searched the field to see if he could hear it, Pruitt said.

On video released Tuesday, the mobile phone's ring tone is audible, and its screen lights up as the call comes in.

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Atkin then saw Mejia hiding in the bushes. The officer yelled at Mejia to put his hands up, but Mejia would only answer, "My phone! My phone!" Atkin ordered Mejia to lay down, but Mejia wouldn't.

Ultimately, Mejia pulled out a pistol, and Atkin yelled desperately, "Drop the gun! Drop the f****** gun!"

Mejia fired but missed, and then his gun jammed, Ferguson said. Atkin fired the 17 rounds in his magazine, striking Meja in the left leg twice.

Paramedics brought Mejia to the hospital, and by Monday he had been transferred to jail, where he was booked with armed robbery, attempted armed robbery and attempted first-degree murder.

At the scene, police recovered the victims belongings, plus blue gloves, a ski mask and a backpack containing Mejia's identification. Police allege the gloves, mask and backpack were all visible on surveillance video from outside the church, and Mejia's pistol was within reach.

"The good thing about all of this is everyone was able to get out of this thing alive," Ferguson said. Atkin "showed great patience in a very heated moment."

Mejias bail hasnt been set, with federal authorities placing a detainer on him in connection with a warrant accusing him of fraud. Investigators havent elaborated on that case. But in September 2020, federal prosecutors charged Mejia  a native of Honduras  with having a counterfeit permanent resident card, also known as a green card.

Mejia pleaded guilty to the charge in February 2021, and served time behind bars, according to federal court records.

Ferguson said he met with Mejia's family Tuesday morning before the NOPD released the video of the shootout.

Mejia's case was unrelated to the deadly shootout Feb. 10 in Central City pitting New Orleans police and the U.S. Marshals against murder suspect Terrell Russell. Russell, 22, was shot and killed inside an apartment in the 3300 block of South Robertson Street when he allegedly refused to surrender to officers who arrived to arrest him in connection with a warrant linking him to a deadly double shooting last year, according to officials.
St. Tammany Parish school buses rolled without incident Monday morning after a surprise sickout by 62 drivers Friday that caught both the administration and the St. Tammany Federation of Teachers and School Employees flat-footed Friday afternoon.

The sickout, which affected 14 schools across the parish, followed months of growing driver dissatisfaction over stagnant operational pay and rising maintenance costs. Most of St. Tammany's nearly 400 bus drivers own their buses and say that the operational money provided by the state, last increased in 1986, doesn't begin to cover the cost of keeping their buses in good working order.

The sickout prompted a robocall to parents Friday evening from St. Tammany schools Superintendent Frank Jabbia in which he said that the school district's contract with the employees union prohibits sickouts, work stoppages or strikes "because we know that this will directly impact students and families."

He called the sickout "extremely disappointing" in the robocall and added that there is an open-ended offer for a raise on the table.

The offer -- an additional $200 a month from February to June -- was rejected by the union after drivers called it insulting.

Jabbia and union officials met Monday, and both sides described the meeting as positive.

Jabbia said that they discussed the possibility of a counter-offer. "I will be talking with our School Board President and CFO in regards to details and plan to get back with the union president as soon as possible," he said in a prepared statement.

Federation President Brant Osborn said in a social media post that the two sides had a candid conversation that included a counter proposal from Jabbia. "We countered again with a proposal based on the feedback from the bus owner/operators who met with the Federation yesterday," Osborn said in the post.

"We left with a positive feeling that we can bring an end to the frustrations on both sides," Osborn said in the post.

The original offer from the administration would have cost just over $610,000, but Osborn said Jabbia's counter proposal went up to nearly $1 million. It included:

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An additional $200 a month for a five-month period

$1,500 stipend to make up for lost pay during the COVID shutdown

A $20 coverage stipend for drivers who pick up routes for others, with a $40 daily maximum

The union's counter proposal was for nearly $2.23 million. It included:

An additional $400 per month for four months

$3,225 to make up for years of low operational pay

$1,500 stipend for lost pay during COVID

A $20 coverage stipend for picking up additional routes with a $40 daily maximum

Osborn said in an interview that he had called a union meeting Sunday morning, attended by about 25 people, after hearing about another possible sickout.

Friday's sickout was not a union action, he said, calling it "disorganized labor" that could hurt public support.

Bus drivers get a starting salary of $25,850 a year for 177 work days. The also get a fuel allotment that is adjusted every month and a $1,200 stipend from the district.

But the state operational pay -- 87 cents per mile on average -- has not changed in more than 30 years, bus drivers say.

Osborn said that bus drivers, who buy and maintain their buses, are the only employees who have to put their own credit on the line.

"People are crying out, and this work force is falling apart," Osborn said.
The New Orleans City Council will start holding public meetings this week to begin the process of redrawing council districts based on the latest U.S. Census figures, with the political maps of Districts C and D likely to see the biggest changes.

The council is scheduled to hold four public meetings, followed by a fifth to approve the new maps:

Wednesday, 10 a.m., virtual (Government Affairs committee informational hearing)

Wednesday, 5:30 p.m., virtual (informational meeting)

Thursday, 5:30 p.m., virtual (informational meeting)

Feb. 22, time to be determined, virtual (review draft maps)

March 16, time to be determined, virtual (vote on maps)

A decade ago, the council was forced to redraw the map to align a smaller post-Hurricane Katrina population with rules that require the five council districts to be as close to equal in population as possible.

Based on the 2020 census, the ideal district for the next decade will have 76,799 residents, after New Orleans population was measured at 383,997 people.

Standard practice is to adjust boundaries so that each district is within 5% of the ideal, said Paul Harang, the councils chief of staff.

Two of the five council districts are currently outside of that 5% threshold:

District C, which includes Algiers, the French Quarter and some downriver neighborhoods, is 11% below the target population. Its council member is Freddie King III.

District D, which includes most neighborhoods on the lake side of Claiborne Avenue between City Park and the Industrial Canal, along with a sliver of New Orleans East, is 6% above. Its council member is Eugene Green.

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Those figures reflect dramatic population swings in those districts over the past decade, compared with the other three districts.

Here are the 2020 populations of the five districts, along with the changes from 2010:

District A: 78,207 (+8,287)

78,207 (+8,287) District B: 76,731 (+5,830)

76,731 (+5,830) District C: 68,113 (-3,313)

68,113 (-3,313) District D: 82,010 (+16,419)

82,010 (+16,419) District E: 78,936 (+12,945)

New Orleans' charter imposes a six-month deadline to finalize the maps, following the publication of precinct-level population data for the council.

Unlike with most decennial census publications, the Census Bureau released the 2020 data twice, first on Aug. 12 and again on Sept. 16 in a new format designed to be easier to use.

The council initially started the six-month clock ticking from the earlier release but then pushed the deadline back to time it with the second release, Harang said. The deadline was pushed back in consultation with the city attorneys office. Harang said the second release provided more effective tools, and was less likely to result in errors.

According to the charter, council members must forfeit their salaries until new maps are finalized if the deadline is not met.
Entergy New Orleans could have avoided leaving swaths of the city in the dark on the freezing night of Mardi Gras 2021, the City Council's utility advisors said, but the results of their six-month investigation make a big fine unlikely.

In a final report on the outage released Monday, the advisors said that preventable computer errors at Entergy knocked out power to four times as many customers as necessary, and the utility failed to warn New Orleans that the lights were about to go out.

Yet despite those errors, the City Council isnt poised to slap Entergy with a big fine; the councils contracted utility advisors didnt find that Entergy acted "imprudently," a legal standard that would have set the company up for a potential penalty.

None of the councils members have signaled that they will seek a fine.

The councils advisors, the Denton law firm and the Legend Consulting Group, filed their report on the blackout on Nov. 1, but the Monday meeting of the Utility, Cable, Telecommunications and Technology Committee was the first time it was discussed in public.

Shedding the load

In large part, the council advisors final report hewed to the findings of a first draft produced last April.

As Winter Storm Uri bore down on Feb. 16 last year, immiserating the city in the coldest Fat Tuesday in more than a century, demand for electricity soared.

In response, the Mid-Continent Independent System Operator, which manages much of Americas grid, ordered local utilities to cut off power to some customers to decrease demand, a tactic known as load shedding.

Entergy New Orleans was only supposed to take 26 megawatts of demand offline. Instead, a faulty computer program led to New Orleans customers bearing an additional 60 megawatts of outage that should have been borne by customers of Entergy Louisiana.

Because of the error, an extra 13,400 customers in New Orleans were unnecessarily put in the dark.

Separately, faulty measurements of how many megawatts had already been shed knocked out another 19 megawatts of demand from 4,200 extra customers.

It was just one technical error after another, and they did not have self-awareness of it until the council conducted its investigation, Clint Vince, the Washington, D.C.-based lawyer whos the councils chief legal advisor on energy, said Monday.

The council advisors report stopped short of making a key declaration, however. They didnt find that the utility acted imprudently, which might have set up fines for the company.

The reasons for that finding were only hinted at in the Monday hearing. Vince said that the utility hadnt conducted a load shed in at least 20 years.

In their report, the advisors said that "although the advisors agree that ENOs conduct was substandard, in determining imprudence the regulator must necessarily review the decisions made by the utility at the time those decisions were made, not based on hindsight."

While he didnt raise the specter of a fine, City Council Vice President JP Morrell said the utility should have been put on alert by outages elsewhere.

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Its frustrating for us to be on the back end, fixing problems that are foreseeable, said Morrell, who chairs the utility committee. Even though it was new to New Orleans, with climate change happening across the country, it was foreseeable that we would eventually have a load-shed event.

New procedures

Instead of recommending a fine, the councils advisors said that they believe that the appropriate response to this substandard conduct, which would be in the best interest of (Entergy New Orleans) customers, is to ensure that these mistakes never occur again.

The councils advisors presented a list of nine recommendations for Entergy New Orleans, which Brian Guillot, the companys vice president for regulatory affairs, said are already being implemented.

The recommendations include a "load shed" plan, going through simulations for the next time the utility is ordered to cut off power, and updating the list of critical customers like the Sewerage and Water Board so they aren't knocked offline, as the S&WB was last year.

The advisors also said the utility must issue clear and concise updates to customers in real time. On Monday, Council President Helena Moreno recalled having to coordinate a conversation between Entergy and the S&WB on the night of the outage last year.

There was very little information going out to the public, Moreno said. Instead, council members went on their social media platforms.

Advocates were disappointed that the council's advisors didnt find the company to be imprudent despite the findings that Entergy made serious and avoidable mistakes.

Its absolutely a disappointment, and it falls directly on the heels of now years of the council saying Entergy, you really need to deal with the fact that your power is unreliable, said Logan Atkinson Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

In 2019, the City Council fined Entergy New Orleans $1 million for years of failing to prevent power outages. But the utility company sued the council in court, challenging its ability to levy such a fine without laying down ground rules around power reliability first.

Burke said she worries that the ongoing lawsuit has created a chilling effect for the council and its advisors.

Surprise bills in spotlight

Also Monday, Entergy New Orleans said it is ramping up its customer service in response to a surge of complaints about surprise bills.

Utility representatives on Monday touted 99.1% billing accuracy, a figure that the company says refers to all of 2021. In recent months, however, customers have gone to social media and local television stations to fret about sudden high bills.

After a pause due to Hurricane Ida, the utility resumed service cutoffs for non-payment on Nov. 1. Residents lined up around the block at a customer service center for help.

Sandra Diggs-Miller, the companys vice president for customer service, acknowledged that the companys phone line was not performing at its optimal level at the time. Since then, the utility has hired more customer service reps and the average wait time for help has decreased to 120 seconds or less, she said.

Another company representative suggested that the onus for some of the surprise high bills lay with the company's customers. "In some cases they werent actually billing errors," said Courtney Nicholson.

Morrell said the company needs to be more aggressive in using its technology to identify customers who face sudden high bills and offer them assistance through various programs before they wind up in arrears.
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.
Williamsport, Pa.  Soon the Greater Lycoming Habitat for Humanity will provide housing renovations in addition to its support of housing access for low-income populations.

The Greater Lycoming Habitat for Humanity (GLHFH) announced on Monday that they have received a $50,000 grant from the Williamsport Lycoming Community Fund at the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania (FCFP). The grant will provide startup funds for the organization's Home Preservation Program.

This year FCFP asked nonprofits: what do you want that is above and beyond your regular operating budget? The Wish List cycle focused on request of equipment, new or updated technology, a capital renovation, program enhancement expenses, or costs associated with a new program initiative.

This opportunity allowed GLHFH to apply and receive funds to create the Home Preservation Program which will serve more people in our community through home repairs in neighborhoods that have needs other than new housing.

GLHFH is excited to join Home Preservation work of Habitat all over the US, explained Corinne Stammel-Demmien, GLHFH Program Director. The Home Preservation Program emphasizes the principles that underlie Habitats mission through working together, forming diverse and new partnerships, sharing resources, and celebrating.

Stammel-Demmien added, Lycoming County residents with limited incomes are struggling to stay in homes they already own. They need repairs and modifications vital to their health, safety, and comfort. An inability to upkeep a home threatens families with displacement or unsafe living conditions. We are working to bring strength, stability, and self-reliance through an array of housing solutions, including home repairs. The Home Preservation Program will help to revitalize the condition and appearance of neighborhoods and protect affordable homeownership where it exists.

The Home Preservation Program will offer a variety of services to qualified homeowners  whether its an accessibility ramp, exterior painting, or a fresh coat of paint  to help keep them in their homes while reducing blight throughout their neighborhood. The Home Preservation Program is not an emergency repair program; there will be a waiting period for repair work to be done.

For more information about the Home Preservation Program or to support its efforts, please visit www.lycominghabitat.org or call support specialists at 570.322.2515 ext. 306.

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Williamsport, Pa.  An articulation agreement with Rochester Institute of Technology will streamline the postgraduate admissions process for Pennsylvania College of Technology students seeking to complete a masters degree in architecture there.

The just-signed agreement provides qualified students in Penn Colleges four-year architecture and sustainable design major with a smooth pathway to RITs graduate program. Interested students would need to apply in the final year of their bachelors study, complete all requisite courses with a 3.0 GPA, and fulfill other standard admissions requirements.

Upon satisfactory completion of their Penn College degree, accepted students would automatically be granted advanced placement into the second year of RITs masters program.

This is a great opportunity for our students! said Ellyn A. Lester, assistant dean of construction and architectural technologies. When RIT approached us about joining forces, we couldn't see a downside. It's truly a win/win for all of us, so we're excited to get started.

In addition to relaxing the graduate admission requirements in acknowledgement of the quality of Penn Colleges architecture program, RIT will hold up to three annual scholarships  each the equivalent of at least 25% of tuition costs  for the undergraduate students receiving the highest application review.

We currently have several students attending Master of Architecture programs at other colleges in Pennsylvania and nearby states. RIT will give our graduates another option to consider in their path toward licensure, said Geoffrey M. Campbell, assistant professor and department head. The possibility of having reduced tuition via scholarships for Penn College applicants is a strong bonus.

Penn Colleges Board of Directors recently approved a Bachelor of Architecture degree that is the first step toward National Architectural Accrediting Board endorsement. The agreement with RIT is welcome news for current architecture students who prefer to pursue a masters degree, rather than the new bachelors at Penn College.

As a fairly young graduate architecture program, a decade old this year and fully accredited, RIT had been researching institutions with which to collaborate  and Pennsylvania College of Technology rose to the top during that curricular homework.

If we had an undergraduate program, it would be this program, said Seth H. Holmes, an associate professor in RITs Department of Architecture, who added that Penn Colleges emphasis on sustainability makes it the best possible partner.

Every architecture school teaches sustainability, but not every architecture school necessarily has a dedicated sequence of sustainability courses, he said. Penn College students would not only be coming in ready, but they have had an interest in sustainability from the start.

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Last week, the House and Senate approved $25 million in federal stimulus funding for the support of fire and EMS companies across the state.

Select companies will receive funds through the state's Fire Company and Emergency Medical Service Grant Program.

Projects eligible for funding include construction or renovation of a fire or ambulance company facility, purchase or repair of equipment, training, or reduction of existing debt. This year, the funding may also be used to offset revenue loss due to limited fundraising opportunities resulting from COVID-19 restrictions.

Grants were awarded to the following fire and EMS companies, divided by county.

Bradford County

Oscoluwa Engine and Hose Company Inc.: $13,900.

Smithfield Township Volunteer Fire Department: $15,000.

South Creek Ambulance Association: $8,325.05.

South Creek Volunteer Fire Company Inc.: $15,000.

Tri Township Ambulance Association: $8,325.05.

Western Alliance Emergency Services: $8,325.05.

Athens Township Volunteer Fire Company: $15,000.

Diahoga Hose Company No. 6: $15,000.

Engine Company No. 1: $15,000.

Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Department: $15,000.

Greater Valley EMS: $8,325.

Greater Valley EMS (fire): $15,000.

Herrick Township Volunteer Fire Company: $15,000.

Howard Elmer Hose Company No. 4: $10,746.

J.E. Wheelock Hose Company No. 5: $14,342.

Litchfield Township Volunteer Fire Company: $15,000.

Monroe Hose Company: $15,000.

Protection Hose Company No. 1: $15,000.

Vigilante Engine Company No. 1: $12,030.

Warren Township Volunteer Fire Department Inc.: $15,000.

Wilmot Fire Company Inc.: $12,768.

Windham Township Volunteer Fire Company: $14,790.

Wysox Volunteer Fire Company: $15,000.

Potter County

Austin Volunteer Fire Department, Austin: $8,325.05 for EMS operations; $15,000 for fire company operations.

Coudersport Volunteer Fire Department, Coudersport: $15,000.

Genesee Volunteer Fire Department Inc., Genesee: $8,325.05 for EMS operations; $15,000 for fire company operations.

Goodyear Hose Company No. 1 Inc., Galeton: $15,000.

Kettle Creek Ambulance Association, Cross Fork: $3,767.70.

Kettle Creek Hose Company No. 1, Cross Fork: $13,200.

Roulette Chemical Engine No. 1 Inc., Roulette: $8,325.05 for EMS operations; $15,000 for fire company operations.

Shinglehouse Volunteer Fire Department, Shinglehouse: $8,325.05 for EMS operations; $15,000 for fire company operations.

Goodyear Hose Company No. 1: $15,000.

Tioga County

Blossburg Firemans Ambulance Association: $8,325.05.

Blossburg Volunteer Fire Department: $15,000.

Chatham Township Volunteer Fire Company: $15,000.

Crary Hose Company: $15,000.

Elkland Borough Volunteer Fire Department: $15,000.

Lawrenceville Fire Department: $15,000.

Lawrenceville Firemans Ambulance Association Inc.: $8,325.05.

Mansfield Firemens Ambulance Association: $8,235.05

Mansfield Hose Company: $15,000.

Millerton Volunteer Fire Department: $15,000.

Morris Township Fire Company: $15,000.

Osceola Volunteer Fire Department Inc.: $15,000.

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital EMS: $8,320.88.

Tioga Volunteer Fire Department Inc.: $15,000.

Tioga Volunteer Firemens Ambulance Association Inc.: $8,325.05.

Wellsboro Volunteer Fire Department: $15,000.

Sullivan County

Dushore Fire Company No. 1: $15,000.

Dushore Fire Company No. 1 (EMS): $8,325.

Eagles Mere Volunteer Ambulance Association: $8,325.

Eagles Mere Volunteer Fire Company: $15,000.

Endless Winds Volunteer Fire Company Inc.: $15,000.

Hillsgrove Volunteer Fire Company: $15,000.

Hillsgrove Volunteer Fire Company (EMS): $6,031.

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KIEV, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday held a meeting with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss regional security challenges, the presidential press service reported.

After the talks in Kiev, Zelensky told reporters that the two parties talked over the peace process in and around Ukraine and the legal guarantees that would help to protect Ukraine.

In particular, Zelensky said that Ukraine needs energy security guarantees due to the risks associated with the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.

Besides, the parties discussed the steps that have been made within the framework of a peaceful settlement in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, in particular the two rounds of talks in the Normandy format at the level of political advisors.

"We expect that in the near future we will be able to hold further talks and agree on a summit of the leaders of the Normandy Four," Zelensky said.

For his part, Scholz said that Germany is trying to find a diplomatic solution to the situation around Ukraine.

"Together with France, we have intensified our efforts in the Normandy format. It's a difficult process, but I'm sure it's worth the effort," Scholz said.

Zelensky and Scholz also discussed Ukraine's aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during their talks.

At the press conference after the talks, Scholz said that Ukraine's possible accession to NATO is currently "out of the agenda", Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

Ukraine and Germany are members of the Normandy format that also includes Russia and France.

Scholz arrived in Kiev earlier in the day for a working visit. On Tuesday he will visit Moscow.

Since November, Kiev and some Western countries have accused Russia of assembling heavy troops near the Ukrainian border with a possible intention of "invasion".

Russia denied the accusation, saying that Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory as NATO's activities constitute a threat to Russia's border security. 
Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed a bill that aimed to limit restrictions on local gun ordinances and regulations and instead grant individuals the power to challenge local laws.

House Bill 979 would have deterred implementation of illegal ordinances by holding offending jurisdictions financially responsible for attorney fees and costs, as well as any lost income, for a person who successfully challenges such an ordinance.

According to the Governor's office, the legislation would have discouraged local jurisdictions from attempting to regulate firearms.

In addition, it would have provided an opportunity for individuals to challenge local ordinances and sue a county, municipality, or township that violates the prohibition on stricter firearms laws.

Governor Wolf vetoed the legislation upon concern that Philadelphia, which has seen more gun violence-related deaths in 2022 than days in January, could potentially have been unable to enforce local laws when individuals could oppose them on a case-by-case basis.

Correction This article has been updated to provide greater accuracy and detail.

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Napoleon, OH (43545)

Today

Heavy rain to start, then showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 69F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 48F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks at a press conference in Jerusalem on Dec. 19, 2021. (Marc Israel Sellem/JINI via Xinhua)

JERUSALEM, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met on Tuesday Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa after arriving for a first visit by an Israeli leader to the Gulf Arab country, the prime minister's office said.

"Prime Minister Bennett was received by an honor guard at the palace of Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain Al Khalifa," Bennett's office said in a statement.

Also on Tuesday, Bennett met with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed Rashid Al-Zayani and Transportation, Infrastructures and Agriculture Minister Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed.

"The prime minister and the ministers discussed strengthening cooperation as well as various ideas in the fields of innovation, economy and technology," Bennett's office said in a separate statement, adding they also discussed cooperation in transporting goods between Asia and Europe.

Photo shows Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat (L), Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani (C) and Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz (R) at the signing ceremony of a series of agreements between Israel and Bahrain, in Manama, capital of Bahrain, on Oct. 18, 2020. (Photo from Bahrain News Agency)



Bennett also met representatives of the Bahraini Jewish community. "I'm very delighted to be here in Bahrain, and I could think of no better way to kick off this visit than seeing my family here," he said.

In an interview published on Tuesday by a local newspaper in Bahrain, Bennett said his visit aimed at cementing ties between his country and Bahrain. "I see Israel and Bahrain as close partners in all areas," he told the Al-Ayyam daily in the interview, which was published in Arabic.

"The cooperation between us is natural," he said, adding he expected the volume of trade and tourism to increase significantly. "Most importantly, I wish that the two peoples will get to know each other better: in delegation visits, joint cultural activities, etc. We want a very warm peace with Bahrain."

Referring to the tensions in the Gulf, Bennett pointed to Iran as the source of security concerns to both Israel and Bahrain. "We will fight Iran and its followers in the region night and day. We will aid our friends in strengthening peace, security and stability, whenever we are asked to do so," he said.

Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa speaks at the opening ceremony of the Manama Dialogue 2012 in Manama, capital of Bahrain, on Dec. 7, 2012. (Xinhua File photo)

Bennett landed in Bahrain's capital Manama on Monday, less than two weeks after Israel and Bahrain signed their first security cooperation deal that formalized mutual defense relations.

Bahrain normalized ties with Israel in September 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements between Israel and Arab states sponsored by the United States.

The visit also comes amid Israel's diplomatic efforts to halt the ongoing nuclear talks between world powers and Iran. 


Nokia has made the rumored successor to the budget G20 official, and has ushered a new G11 in alongside it. The new smartphones are equipped with large batteries for markedly long run-times - which may be handy as the 2 new phones offer a series-first 90Hz refresh rate. The two new phones have been released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland today (February 14, 2022).

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HMD Global has announced not 1 but 2 new smartphones today. One is the previously-projected Nokia G21, which has emerged with the specs hinted at in earlier leaks. They include a T606 SoC from Unisoc, which drives a 6.517-inch HD+ display with an 8MP selfie camera in a water-drop notch.

Those specs may not seem overly encouraging; on the other hand, Nokia has introduced a 90Hz refresh rate in this panel for the first time in the G line's history. The OEM also asserts that the G21 will also be capable of "stunning" photography with a 50MP main camera.

However, it is clear from Nokia's launch campaign that the phones' new 5,050mAh battery is the star of the show. It is rated to help the new G-series phones last for up to 3 days on a charge. It powers back up using a USB type-C port rated for 18W - although the G21 ships with a 10W power brick.

The G21 also contains some potentially useful facilities on the software side, the most notable of which are ExpressVPN and Spotify pre-loads (with a 3-month trial for the former). However, its OS is merely "Android 12 ready", which means they have the 11 version out of the box.

The G10's successor has launched with much the same specs, except it downgrades to a 13+2+2 MP rear camera system, has 3GB of RAM rather than 4GB and comes in Ice and Charcoal color options rather than the Nordic Blue or Dusk SKUs of the G21.

It goes for 159 (~US$180) for a single 3/32GB version, whereas the G21 starts at 189 (~US$214) for a 4/64GB SKU. Finally, the G11 and G21 have launched with 3.5mm jacks, which go well with Nokia's new 40mm-driver Wired Headphones (priced at $31), even though there are also wireless versions of the same for $50.
Russian officials said on Feb. 15 that some units taking part in military exercises near the Ukrainian border would start returning to their bases, sparking hope that the Kremlin might not invade Ukraine after all amid a massive troop buildup that put Western leaders on high alert for an imminent attack.

The units of the southern and western military districts, having completed their tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today, Russias Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

While it is unclear how many troops Russia is withdrawing, Konashenkov suggested that other Russian units stationed near Ukraines border would follow suit.

As the combat training measures are completed, the troops, as always, will make marches in a combined way to the points of permanent deployment, he added.

Konashenkovs announcement came after weeks of heightened tensions as Western leaders warned that Russian forces were poised for an imminent invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS Face the Nation program on Feb. 13 that there has been a dramatic acceleration in the Russian troop buildup over the prior 10 days, with military action possible essentially at any time.

We also are watching very carefully for the possibility that there is a pretext or a false flag operation to kick off the Russian action in which Russian intelligence services conduct some kind of attack on Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine or on Russian citizens, and then blame it on the Ukrainians, Sullivan added.

While Russia has amassed about 130,000 troops, plus artillery and other heavy equipment, close to Ukraines border, the Kremlin has denied planning an attack, saying the military movements are about maintaining security against NATO aggression.

Moscow has asked the United States and its allies for a binding commitment that they wont accept Ukraine into NATO. Russia also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

Washington and NATO have rejected those demands.

From our perspective. I cant be more clearNATOs door is open, remains open, and that is our commitment, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in late January, though he renewed an offer of reciprocal measures to address mutual security concerns between Russia and NATO, including missile reductions in Europe.

On Monday, signs of hope for de-escalation came when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that Moscow was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that have fed into the crisis.

The talks cant go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage, Lavrov said at a made-for-TV meeting with Putin that seemed designed to convey to the world the Russian leaders position. In his comments, Lavrov noted that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills, and other confidence-building measures.

Despite the hopeful signs, however, the United States and European countries have kept up their warnings.

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Tuesday that an invasion risk remains, telling Sky News that it could be imminent. She added that there is still time for Vladimir Putin to step away from the brink.

European and Russian stocks rallied while oil prices retreated on Tuesday morning after Konashenkovs remarks about the troop pullback, as markets welcome his declaration as a sign that a military conflict may be averted.

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Midwest Express Clinic scored millions of eyeballs by airing a Super Bowl ad with former standout running back Marshawn Lynch.

The chain of urgent care clinics that started in Munster a decade ago and that has an extensive footprint in Northwest Indiana ran an ad in the Chicago metropolitan area playing off Lynch's Beast Mode nickname.

"We want to expand our quality affordable care to more communities," Director of Business Operations Muhammad Tayyab said. "With that goal in mind, Midwest Express Clinic sought to place an ad in the Super Bowl, the most watched event during the year. We wanted to highlight how we provide access to care in many different areas, including underserved suburbs. We have the goal of providing exceptional care to all of our patients, which was the whole driving force of getting an ad in the Super Bowl."

The 60-second-long ad features Lynch getting treated at Midwest Express Clinic after injuring himself while making coffee "in Barista Mode," fixing motorcycles "in Greased Mode," and making ice cream "in Beast a la Mode" or when sick in bed "in Fleeced Mode."

"We wanted to show how versatile we were in treating different illnesses and injuries," Tayyab said. "We show our primary care concept is health care for any mode. We pretty much came up with the concept first of different modes for different services."

Midwest Express Clinic took the idea to Lynch's camp.

"We presented the concept, and they really liked it," he said. "We felt that partnering up with Marshawn would spread the word and appeal to the younger generation."

Midwest Express Clinic previously employed Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant as a brand ambassador before he was traded to the San Francisco Giants.

"It boosted our brand awareness," Tayyab said. "He was featured on a lot of billboards and PR articles and digital ads."

But it already made a huge impact, reaching an estimated 3 million viewers.

"A lot of people saw the commercial. It has a huge impact for our family-owned company," Tayyab said. " Our goal is always to provide affordable healthcare. Healthcare does not have to be intimidating. Midwest Express Clinic makes you enjoy the experience whether you're stick or hurt."

Director of Clinical Resources Kaitlyn Steinberg started with Midwest Express Clinic five years ago when it had four clinics. Now it has more than 20.

"I've seen our expansion from a few clinics to a Super Bowl commercial and a brand ambassador," she said. "I'm proud to see how this company has grown. Random friends and family, patients and staff have reached out to say how awesome it was to see the ad."

The Super Bowl ad helps further establish Midwest Express Clinic in the minds of patients in Chicagoland, Tayyab said.

"It felt like a step in the right direction in terms of further growth," he said. "It helps us open up new doors in other areas of health, including preventative care and primary care. We want to give everyone access to stay on top of their health by being able to walk in on their own time."

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Hong Kong: Food supply back to normal

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today said that the fresh food supply from the Mainland has gradually bounced back.

This follows the Shenzhen and Hong Kong SAR governments extending the operation of the Man Kam To Control Point to midnight to allow fresh food trucks to return to Hong Kong smoothly.

As notified by the Shenzhen authorities earlier, a Hong Kong cross-boundary goods vehicle driver had tested positive in COVID-19 nucleic acid tests at the Man Kam To Control Point so it had to be disinfected, leading to a temporary disruption of fresh food transport.

According to information from the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department and Vegetable Marketing Organization wholesale markets, the supply of vegetables from the Mainland increased as at midnight when compared with the previous day.

The throughput volume was about 714,000 kg, which was around 70% of a normal day's volume. The overall wholesale price has slightly dropped and it is anticipated the overall supply of vegetables will return to a stable level.

Meanwhile, the supply of chilled poultry and meat imported yesterday was around 60% of a normal day and will gradually increase when the control point's operation returns to normal. The supply of live pigs is as usual.

The Hong Kong SAR Government said it will closely liaise with the Mainland authorities to ensure a stable supply of fresh food.

This story has been published on: 2022-02-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
[February 14, 2022]

Bell Canada to redeem Series M-26 debentures due March 22, 2023

MONTREAL, Feb. 14, 2022 /CNW/ - Bell Canada (Bell) today announced it will redeem, on March 16, 2022, prior to maturity, all of its outstanding Cdn $1,000 million principal amount of 3.35% Debentures, Series M-26, due March 22, 2023 (the Series M-26 Debentures).

The Series M-26 Debentures will be redeemed at a price equal to $1,017.396 per $1,000 of principal amount of debentures plus $16.062 per $1,000 of principal amount for accrued and unpaid interest up to but excluding the date of redemption.

About Bell

Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing advanced broadband wireless, TV, Internet, media and business communication services throughout the country. Founded in Montreal in 1880, Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca or BCE.ca.

Through Bell for Better, we are investing to create a better today and a better tomorrow by supporting the social and economic prosperity of our communities with a commitment to the highest environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. This includes the Bell Let's Talk initiative, which promotes Canadian mental health with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns like Bell Let's Talk Day and significant Bell funding of community care and access, research and workplace leadership initiatives throughout the country. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk.

Media inquiries:

Marie-Eve Francoeur

514-391-5263

marie-eve.francoeur@bell.ca

@Bell_News

Investor inquiries:

Richard Bengian

514-786-8219

richard.bengian@bell.ca

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bell-canada-to-redeem-series-m-26-debentures-due-march-22-2023-301481912.html

SOURCE Bell Canada
OTTAWA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday declared a public order emergency to support provinces in ending the ongoing blockades caused by truck convoy protests.

Trudeau said in a press conference that he invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada's history to give the federal government extra and "temporary" powers to handle the issue, adding the move targets to those areas in need, not the whole country.

"It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," Trudeau said. "This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people's jobs and restoring confidence in our institutions."

The act will ensure that essential services, such as towing services to remove trucks, are rendered, said Trudeau. It will also be used to protect critical infrastructure such as borders and airports from the blockades and the government will enable the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to enforce municipal bylaws, and he dismissed the involvement of military force.

As the truck convoy organizers have secured millions of dollars from crowdfunding sites, the measures also include giving banks the power to suspend or freeze accounts of blockade supporters without a court order, and force crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies to follow anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said at the same event that companies with trucks involved in the illegal blockades will have their corporate bank accounts frozen, and their insurance suspended.

She said that under the act, crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers must report large and suspicious transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, the national financial intelligence agency.

The Emergencies Act, which replaced the War Measures Act in the 1980s, provides special powers to respond to emergency scenarios affecting public welfare (natural disasters, disease outbreaks), public order (civil unrest), and international emergencies or war emergencies. 
LYNWOOD  Warsaw Inn, the legendary Polish buffet in Lynwood, is closing after half a century because its owners are retiring.

"It is with a heavy heart that I am announcing my retirement," owner Angie Golom posted online. "After 50 years in business at Warsaw Inn, choosing to retire was not an easy decision. However, the time has come to step back and spend more time with my family."

The buffet at 2180 Glenwood-Dyer Road in Lynwood offered more than 60 items, including Polish favorites like pierogi, stuffed cabbage, potato pancakes, blintzes, sauerkraut and Polish sausage. The selection also included fried chicken, ham and freshly carved roast beef, as well as a full salad bar and dessert bar with soft-serve ice cream for the kids.

Customers dined in a banquet hall-like room decorated with traditional Polish decor, including landscape paintings of the countryside. Warsaw Inn was known for giving customers coupons with their checks that would save them money if they returned for seconds in the next week.

"When I think back over the past 50 years, my heart is filled with memories of my loving and faithful patrons," Golom posted. "So many of you spent your holidays and special occasions with me and my restaurant family. I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the privilege and honor to serve you and your loved ones night in and night out."

The nostalgic old world European eatery often was voted best Polish food in The Times of Northwest Indiana's Best of the Region polls. It was also featured in MSN's "Amazing All You Can Eat Restaurants in Every State."

Michael Bigda frequently drove there from Michigan City, such as while on his way to the Chicago Auto Show. He savored the "real authentic Polish food made from scratch."

"It's well worth the drive," he said. "I love their pierogi. It's all filling, less dough than the others."

He's been going there for years, including to celebrate birthdays.

"It's got chicken, ocean perch, ham, roast beef, Polish sausage and green beans," he said. "Sundays are the best time to go because it's got pork roast and turkey with gravy and dressing. The Polish food is outstanding."

He regularly visited on Thursdays and Sundays, sometimes coming on Tuesday for the roast duck.

"Years ago, they used to have an organist back in the corner," he said. "I was surprised because they just changed out the carpet and chairs and stuff. I originally learned about it from word of mouth. Everybody said it has great Polish food. Have car, will travel."

The buffet just across the state line will remain open for a few more weeks.

"I have been blessed with a wonderful staff; you have been hardworking and dedicated. For those that have been with me from the start, and those more recent, I want to thank you for your dedication and caring enough to treat our customers as if they were family," Golom posted. "Warsaw Inn will be closing its doors on February 27th at the end of the business day. I am truly blessed and will miss each and every one of you."

A few other old school Polish restaurants remain in the Region, including Cavalier Inn and MJ's Polish Deli in Hammond, and Dan's Pierogis in Highland.

Bigda said the Warsaw Inn's absence will leave a void.

"I'll missing taking my friends and family there," he said. "Where else are you going to go?"

For more information, visit www.angieswarsawinn.com or call (708) 474-1000.

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VALPARAISO  A 20-year-old Valparaiso murder-for-hire case is back with the former wife of the victim challenging her conviction and 85-year prison sentence.

A full-day hearing has been set for Oct. 19 on Kimberly Baldwin's request for post-conviction relief, which has been pending since March 2009.

The petition has been brought back by defense attorney Russell Brown, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Baldwin, 56, is serving her time at the Rockville Correctional Facility and has an earliest possible release date of Aug. 27, 2040, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.

Baldwin was found guilty in December 2004 of arranging the murder of her former husband, Frank Parker, on Feb. 16, 2002, at his Valparaiso home.

A jury deliberated four and a half hours before returning with guilty verdicts on the counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and aiding in a murder.

Baldwin initially was sentenced to 115 years behind bars, but the state appellate court threw out that sentence, saying Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford enhanced a portion of the term without the required participation of a jury. Bradford went on to resentence her to 85 years in 2008.

The revised sentence is the same received by Baldwin's codefendant, Findley Paul Thompson, 64, who Baldwin hired to shoot her ex-husband.

Thompson since has died, according to the IDOC.

Baldwin provided Thompson with a gun, details about Parker and even a ride to Parker's home on the day of the killing, prosecutors had said. Prosecutors argued Baldwin was depressed and desperate after losing custody of two children to Parker and did not hide the fact she wanted him dead.

Thompson, who pleaded guilty to his role as the gunman in return for prosecutors not pursuing the death penalty, testified that Baldwin sought his help in killing Parker.

Baldwin argued she suffered from battered wife syndrome, officials had said.

She argues in her pending motion that she was, "incompetent to stand trial due to the nature of her psychiatric illness, which rendered her unable to fully comprehend the nature of the proceedings and unable to assist her counsel in her defense."

Baldwin further claims her trial was "fundamentally unfair due to the erroneous rulings of the trial court judge" and due to misconduct by the prosecutor, the motion reads. She also argues she was denied her right to effective trial counsel.

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LAPORTE  A LaPorte man allegedly repaid his father for helping get the man's vehicle out of snow Sunday by rear-ending his father's vehicle and driving away, according to the LaPorte County Sheriff's Office.

Police said 44-year-old Steven D. Copner was traveling north on County Road 600 West about 2 a.m. when his father  who just helped free Copner's vehicle from the snow  passed Copner in his own vehicle and pulled in front of Copner on the two-lane road south of U.S. 20.

According to police, Copner then rear-ended his father's vehicle and fled. The father was found alone at the crash scene by Sgt. Jeff Wright.

Using a description of Copner, Deputy Marvin McCoy said he located Copner inside a nearby service station and determined Copner was impaired.

Police said Copner was arrested on a charge of operating while intoxicated, a Class C misdemeanor.

He since has posted bond to be released from LaPorte County Jail, according to police.

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CROWN POINT  Charges allege two Chicago men were part of a group of eight people who swarmed a delivery struck last week in Hammond and stole about 50 cases of cigarettes valued at $120,000.

Rahmaan M. Reed, 24, and Terrance Powell, 25, were captured after they crashed Reed's gray Audi during a pursuit with Hammond police and attempted to run, Lake Criminal Court records state.

Each of the men posted a $7,000 cash bond last week on felony counts of armed robbery, theft and resisting law enforcement. Their initial court appearances were scheduled for April.

The pursuit began about 10 a.m. Feb. 8 after Hammond police were dispatched to the Mobile gas station in the 5600 block of Hohman Avenue for a report of a robbery.

The driver of a delivery truck told police he pulled up to the gas station and handed a case of cigarettes to an employee standing just inside the door.

The driver was walking back to his truck when he noticed the doors on several vehicles open simultaneously and several people, all wearing masks, rush to his delivery truck, records state.

One of the masked men looked at the delivery driver and grabbed his waistband. The driver feared the man had a gun, so the driver fled back into the gas station, locked the door and asked employees to call police, records state.

Surveillance video showed at least eight people in four vehicles were involved in the robbery, according to court documents.

Police arrived and saw several vehicles, including the gray Audi, leaving the parking lot, court documents state.

As one of the officers chased the Audi, the officer hit a patch of ice and slid into the Audi, records state. The chase continued into a parking lot in the 4700 block of Hohman Avenue, where the Audi slid on ice and crashed into a large cement block.

Powell, the driver, was captured after slipping on ice as he ran. Officers located Reed hiding in a residential area, records state.

Police recovered multiple boxes filled with cartons of Newport cigarettes from inside the Audi and a Glock handgun, which had an extended magazine and switch that made it fully automatic, on the ground near where Reed got out of the Audi, records state.

Investigators also discovered the Audi was registered to Reed, but the license plate affixed to it had been stolen from a dealership.

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Indiana state prison and county jail inmates, and their families, no longer will be required to pay excessive per minute charges to speak with their loved ones over the telephone.

The Indiana Senate voted 42-3 Monday to set a statewide rate cap for all collect, debit, prepaid or prepaid collect calls made by Indiana inmates to telephone numbers in Indiana, in accordance with Federal Communications Commission regulations.

House Enrolled Act 1181 previously was approved 93-0 by the House. It now goes to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to be signed into law.

According to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA), Indiana Department of Correction inmates currently are charged 24 cents per minute for in-state debit, prepaid and collect calls.

That rate will drop to 12 cents per minute beginning July 1 if the measure is enacted by the governor.

LSA records show telephone charges at Indiana county jails range from a low of 22 cents per minute to $4.70 per minute.

Under the plan, county jail telephone rates after July 1 will be capped at 21 cents per minute across the state, except at the Marion County Jail in Indianapolis, where the rate will be 14 cents per minute.

State Sen. Jon Ford, R-Terre Haute, the sponsor, said cutting state prison and county jail telephone rates will help inmates better stay in touch with family and thereby reduce recidivism.

LSA also projects the rate cut may cause revenue from state prison and jail telephone calls to increase if inmates make more calls at the lower rates.

During the 2021 budget year, Indiana collected $12.6 million in telephone revenue from state prison inmates that went toward upgrading computer technology at the state government campus in Indianapolis, records show.

The legislation also begins the process of permanently closing the youth offender boot camp at the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in Madison County.

Camp Summit, a similar boot camp program that operated for 22 years in LaPorte, was shut down in 2017. Its facilities were repurposed to house female youth offenders.

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No bones about it  Indiana is going to have a state fossil.

The Senate voted 39-6 on Monday to approve House Enrolled Act 1013, designating the mastodon as Indiana's official fossil.

The legislation last month passed the House, 92-0. It now goes to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to be signed into law.

The mastodon is an elephant-like animal that weighed approximately 12,000 pounds and roamed North America, Europe and Asia for more than two million years before going extinct about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago.

Dozens of mastodon fossils have been found throughout Indiana, including the bones of at least five mastodons now held by the Indiana State Museum that were found in 2005 by workers digging a pond in the Porter County town of Hebron.

Supporters of the measure said that designating the mastodon the official state fossil will encourage Indiana schoolchildren to learn more about the beasts that once walked where they walk and may even be resting right under their feet.

It also could spur museums across the state to display more mastodon bones and to sell T-shirts and other souvenirs touting the mastodon as Indiana's official fossil.

Indiana currently is among just five states lacking an official fossil.

Michigan is the only other state to have the mastodon as its state fossil. Five states, including Nebraska, have designated the similar mammoth, or wooly mammoth, as their state fossil.

The state fossil of Illinois is the Tully monster, a small worm-like creature with up to eight sharp teeth that lived some 300 million years ago in muddy waters in what today is part of Grundy County, Illinois.

Three of the senators who voted against recognizing the mastodon hail from Northwest Indiana: State Sens. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores; Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell; and Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago.

They did not say during Senate debate why they opposed the state fossil proposal.

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HAMMOND  A proposed consent decree filed Monday requires Cleveland-Cliffs to pay $3 million in civil penalties and make other improvements at its Burns Harbor facility for permit violations under the Clean Water Act, including a 2019 spill that killed thousands of fish and forced beach closures.

The Environmental Law & Policy Center and Hoosier Environmental Council, which filed a citizen lawsuit against the steelmaker in late 2019, said the proposed consent decree filed by attorneys for the U.S. and Indiana would resolve their claims and provide "the full suite of remedies available under the Clean Water Act."

The consent decree must still be approved by a U.S. District Court judge. The case had not yet been assigned to a judge Monday, online records showed.

In their citizen lawsuit, the two environmental groups accused ArcelorMittal, which owned the Burns Harbor facility in 2019, of violating its Clean Water Act permit more than 100 times during the past five years.

One of those violations included an August 2019 discharge of higher-than-permitted levels of cyanide and ammonia into the east branch of the Little Calumet River, which flows directly into Lake Michigan.

The spill killed 3,000 fish and forced the closure of nearby beaches, including those at newly designated Indiana Dunes National Park.

Indiana American Water, which provides drinking water to much of the Region, restricted water intake at its nearby Ogden Dunes filtration plant as a precaution but found no sign of contamination during real-time monitoring, a spokesman said at the time.

Cleveland-Cliffs, which took ownership of the Burns Harbor facility in December 2020, admitted in the proposed consent decree that the steelmaking operation "violated pollution laws aimed at protecting health and the environment" for more than five years.

"Those violations include illegal discharges of cyanide, ammonia and other pollutants, as well as violations of emergency reporting requirements in the event of spills," the consent decree states.

The Burns Harbor facility is one of the largest fully integrated steels mills in North America and has the capacity to produce about 5 million tons of raw steel each year, according to court records.

The proposed consent decree requires Cleveland-Cliffs to complete "comprehensive operational upgrades to the steel mill to prevent future cyanide and ammonia violations," the environmental groups said.

The steelmaker agreed to improve its notification procedures and pay $3 million in civil penalties, which are to be split between Indiana and the U.S. Treasury.

Cleveland-Cliffs also will be required to fund environmental projects that will benefit Region residents, including a transfer of Cleveland-Cliffs property adjacent to Indiana Dunes National Park that will be placed into a land trust.

Howard Lerner, executive director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, said engagement by his organization and HEC show citizen lawsuit enforcement provisions "protect people and the environment."

"We're putting industrial operators on notice that the waters of Northwest Indiana can't be polluted without consequence," Lerner said.

Jesse Kharbanda, the Hoosier Environmental Council's executive director, said his organization hopes the consent decree will help protect "the extraordinary ecological treasure that is Lake Michigan from another toxic industrial spill" and "elevate environmental protection across Northwest Indiana, which has several communities that have borne a special burden of environmental injustice for far too long."

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GARY  There was little love in the air on Valentine's Day as Calumet Township Board President Darren Washington scrutinized in exacting detail the township's spending over the past year by Trustee Kimberly Robinson.

The board's affirmation of the township's annual report usually is a perfunctory matter of flipping through some two dozen pages listing every purchase made by the township and agreeing to send it in to the state to make it official.

This year, however, Washington had questions. Lots of questions. And on Monday night he found something to question on seemingly every page of Robinson's report.

Specifically, Washington asked why certain Gary officials, including Councilwoman Tai Adkins, former Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and B.R. Lane, former chief of staff for Freeman-Wilson, among others, were paid thousands of dollars in township funds during 2021.

He also noted other businesses receiving five-figure payments from the township appear to be connected to individuals recently indicted or convicted of crimes, or people who are married to or relatives of top township officials.

In addition, Washington asked Robinson to produce the receipts needed to corroborate expenses charged on the township's credit card and for Robinson to present the mileage log from her township vehicle for review by the board.

Robinson told Washington she would be happy to gather the information he's seeking and give it to him if he would provide her a written list of his questioned costs.

That initially seemed to placate Washington. But he soon grew more emphatic about the need for increased spending transparency between the township trustee and the township board.

"I'm going to keep asking questions. When I see questionable expenses that are being paid with taxpayer dollars, I owe it to you as taxpayers to make sure that these services are being provided," Washington said.

"There may be reasonable answers. But if you don't ask, you don't know."

Washington did get one quick answer when he wondered aloud why township board candidate Robert Buggs was listed as a recipient of township assistance.

Buggs stood up from his seat in the audience and explained that a rental tenant in a building he owns was struggling to pay their bills and the township covered the tenant's rent after determining the tenant was eligible for assistance.

Robinson confirmed Buggs was indeed a vendor to the township in 2021.

"It's been a long time since I've been to one of these meetings. There seems to be a lot of contention," Buggs said. "It's sort of strange."

Washington shrugged off the suggestion something more was afoot. He and fellow board member James Piggee told Buggs that if Buggs is elected to the township board he'll want to similarly take a close look at how the trustee is spending township funds.

"We have to understand what is being done because the board is responsible, just like the trustee," Piggee said. "This is the reason we ask these types of questions  because we want to know. We don't want anybody to get in trouble."

Notably, Buggs wasn't the only candidate on the May 3 Democratic primary ballot in attendance in the small township board meeting room on the second floor of the Calumet Township building in downtown Gary.

Washington is giving up his board seat to challenge Robinson for township trustee.

Afterward, she said that seemed to be the real motivation for Washington's sudden, line-by-line interest in examining township spending.

"Today was Darren Washington starting his campaign. That's it. That's all it is. We've never had this many questions for an annual report like we got today," Robinson said. "But it's good. We've got everything he's asking for."

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SCHERERVILLE  For over 100 years, Edith Coleman has been working to better herself and her community.

Born on Feb. 13, 1917, this weekend Coleman celebrated her 105th birthday outside her Schererville condo with friends, family and even a small parade of Schererville police cars and a fire truck.

"I feel wonderful to know I am still here," Coleman said, surrounded by birthday cards, flower bouquets and a stack of family photo albums.

Coleman came from a family of teachers. Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, she moved to the South Side of Chicago to live with her aunts after the death of her parents. Her family instilled in her a love of reading, an appreciation for the arts and, most importantly, a dedication to advancing herself any way she could. At age 22, she met her husband, Henry Coleman, while visiting Gary and moved to the city's Midtown neighborhood in 1940.

Her husband opened El Frio Beverage with his business partner Percy Canty. El Frio operated in Gary for 26 years and was one of the largest Black-owned bottling companies in America at that time. Coleman's husband eventually left the private sector to work under Gary's first Black mayor, Richard Hatcher, filling several roles, including city controller in 1973.

"We both were interested in anything that would better others and ourselves," Coleman said. "My husband used to say if a person did not go to college, if they traveled and read, they would be educated."

When Coleman began teaching at Frederick Douglass Elementary School in the late 1950s, schools were still largely segregated.

Coleman has kept a scrapbook filled with faded photos of former students, lessons and class trips to Chicago museums and theaters. Throughout her 27 years in the classroom, she said she taught "hundreds and hundreds" of students.

"I was around so many teachers growing up and just loved children. At that time as a Black woman, we could not do much but teach," Coleman said. "Teaching, if you have a desire to help, that is just a good field for you."

She also helped connect students with scholarships through her involvement with the Women's Association of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Society and the American Association of University Women.

Coleman left Gary after her husband's death in 1987. She said she has seen the city go through immense changes.

"When I came they had a wonderful downtown, and the mills were producing so much steel after the war and there was a lot of money in Gary," Coleman said. "After the steel mills stopped producing, Gary suffered. So many people left, the money left Gary because the shops left and people would have to go outside [the city] to buy groceries."

Pouring over a family lineage book created by her cousin, Coleman explains that she is one of the "only ones left," on her mothers side.

"I have lived a very good life," Coleman said. "My advice is to focus on things that elevate you. ... Try to lead a wholesome life."

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It sometimes seems baffling to me: I put my life on the line for research to produce a cancer medication that  if and when it is put on the market  I probably could not afford. Its miraculous prolongation of my existence, for which I am ever grateful, deepens my concern about those who will be unable to benefit from it.

When I enrolled in a Phase I clinical trial in 2012, I knew that the pills had never before been tested on human beings. The risk was great, but the drug was free. Were it to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it would probably be priced like a similar drug for recurrent ovarian cancer, a Parp inhibitor called Rucaparib: about $20,000 a month. Would I have been able to negotiate with my insurance company to plunk down a mind-boggling $240,000 a year for a medication that might not have worked? Even if I could have guessed that this drug would be effective, where would I have come up with the money to keep paying for it? I have already used it for six years, at what could have been a cost of $1,440,000.

We are all familiar with the physical toxicity triggered ironically by both cancer and its treatments: pain, fatigue, nausea, weight loss, edema, constipation and diarrhea. These ills can be acute (harmful in the short term), sub-chronic (harmful for more than a year) or chronic (harmful over an extended period or a lifetime). Increasingly, investigators like Dr. S. Yousuf Zafar use the term financial toxicity to describe the acute, sub-chronic and chronic burdens of insured, underinsured and uninsured people impaired or destroyed by the high costs of care. While medicine transforms cancer into a chronic disease with which patients can live for an extended period of time, financial toxicity threatens to turn chronic, too.

A white paper by Family Reach, a national nonprofit dedicated to alleviating the financial burden of cancer, and Xcenda, a consulting group, draws on earlier studies to explain that Adult patients are 2.65 times more likely to file for bankruptcy than patients of a similar age without cancer. Patients who filed for bankruptcy had a 79 percent greater risk of early mortality than patients who did not. In other words, cancer treatment escalates the possibility of penury, and treatment-produced fiscal catastrophes are tied to cancer deaths.
COPENHAGEN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A World Health Organization (WHO) official on Tuesday urged the governments in east European countries not to relax COVID-19 restrictions too early as the Omicron variant spread.

"Faced with the Omicron tidal wave, and with Delta still circulating widely in the east, this worrying situation is not the moment to lift measures that we know work in reducing the spread of COVID-19," said Hans Kluge, regional director of WHO Office for Europe, in a statement on Tuesday.

Due to the obvious disparity in vaccine coverage within the European region, Kluge urged the governments in the east not to emulate western governments by prematurely reopening their societies.

Instead, Kluge called on the governments to maximize vaccine coverage, promote more self testing and self protection, scale up evidence-based treatments in all countries and "plan ahead for a growing burden of Long COVID."

"Across the entire WHO European Region, we have now recorded more than 165 million COVID-19 cases to date, "said Kluge. "This remains a deadly disease, 1.8 million people have lost their lives, 25,000 in the past week."

Kluge noted that the Omicron wave, as anticipated, is moving east as "10 eastern member states have now detected this variant."

According to the regional director, the east of the region continues to have low vaccination coverage, with less than 40 percent of those aged over 60 receiving the COVID-19 vaccine series in countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria.

"Vaccination remains our best defense against severe disease and death for all current COVID-19 virus variants circulating. However, too many people at greater risk remain unprotected," said Kluge. 
Davis noted that Taylors technique of composing fragments of notes in cells that he then would develop, expand and turn upside down at times appealed more to classical musicians than to jazz musicians, though today his influence is heard widely among improvising pianists. (She cited an expansive list, among them Marilyn Crispell, Jason Moran, Craig Taborn, Myra Melford, Alexander Hawkins, Angelica Sanchez and Vijay Iyer.)

But on the nightclub scene of the 60s and 70s, genius didnt always mean drink sales, and being in the vanguard of a new approach meant it could be a challenge finding suitable collaborators. Oblivion, the label putting out this release, has called it The Return Concert because in 73, Taylor, then 44, had been mostly absent from recording and being in the New York scene for five years as he pioneered another aspect of avant-garde jazz life: turning to academia. (He taught at Antioch College and the University of Wisconsin, not without controversy.)

The taping of the Town Hall concert was another feat of improvisation. Taylor had recorded significant LPs (Conquistador!, Unit Structures) for Blue Note in the late 1960s, but, at this point, was independent. Planning a release for Taylors nascent Unit Core label, his sort-of manager, David Laura, turned to an unlikely source: a Columbia student, Fred Seibert, who had recorded concerts for the university radio station and released several blues LPs on the independent Oblivion label with cohorts from a Long Island record store.

With borrowed equipment and much youthful confidence, Seibert took the gig  and faced a torrent of music. I felt like I was under Niagara Falls with every sound coming at me from 360 degrees and fighting for space in my head, said Seibert, who would go on to engineer and produce records for Muse Records before leaving the music industry at the dawn of the 1980s for Hollywood, where he became a storied producer of animated television. (Series launched under his aegis include Dexters Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls and Adventure Time.)

For Taylor, free also meant freedom from the restraints of the commercial music industry. Releasing the first set would have demanded making a double LP and fading down the music at the end of each side, which Seibert considered contrary to its spirit. A shorter second set proved a better fit: Split between a 16-minute solo Taylor piece and a side-length band workout, the encore performance had a limited 1974 release as Spring of Two Blue Js. One of the 2,000 copies made it to the critic Gary Giddins at The Village Voice; he called it probably my favorite album made in the last year.
The shows expanded creative team added more Black characters, like the journalist and newspaper editor T. Thomas Fortune, a historical figure played by Sullivan Jones. The group also solved narrative problems, like having Peggy take a job as a secretary to Agnes, and helped redesign Peggys wardrobe.

As Benton explained: Theres a real difference in the way that I would have dressed to play a maid than to play a secretary  someone with her own sovereignty and interior life that wasnt tied to Marians side. That really trickled into every part of the way my character showed up.

Thompson, a star of theater (The Merchant of Venice) and TV (Mare of Easttown), said he hoped to see The Gilded Age continue to break new ground in chronicling the Scott family and this era of Black history. (HBO announced on Monday that it has renewed the series for a second season.)

Theres more to go  you can always go deeper and wider, he said. But I also feel like the table has been set for the introduction of this family, for an audience to say, Oh wow, I didnt even know there was a class of people like this that existed.

Richardson-Whitfield, who directed this weeks episode, said that there was value in teaching this history. But she said it was also important for The Gilded Age to find the humanity in sequences like Marians awkward introduction to the Scott household.

I just had so much fun with that scene, from the moment Marian walks out of that carriage, she said. The looks from the people on the street. The astonishment when she comes through the door. I wanted to make a meal out of it.

As with any other period drama, Richardson-Whitfield said, Its about telling a story and getting great performances. And showing off those beautiful clothes.
Russia signals openness, and Ukraine, concessions

With Russian warships massing off the Ukrainian coast in the Black Sea and the U.S. warning of an imminent invasion, Ukraines president left open the possibility that his country might drop its bid to join NATO, a potential major concession to avert war with Russia.

Maybe the question of open doors is for us like a dream, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He acknowledged the difficulty of the situation, with Russian troops surrounding Ukraine and allies saying they would not send troops in the event of an invasion.

The Kremlin sent its strongest signals yet that it would seek further negotiations with the West. In stage-managed, televised meetings, Russias top diplomat said that the possibilities to reach a diplomatic resolution were far from exhausted. Russias defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that what he characterized as large-scale drills around Ukraine were coming to an end.

President Vladimir Putin responded ambiguously: Good.

Surging oil prices: Fears of war have caused oil prices to spike, pushing well past $90 a barrel. A Russian invasion of Ukraine could drive prices above $100.
On Sunday the Canadian police finally cleared away anti-vaccine demonstrators who had been blocking the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, a key commercial route that normally carries more than $300 million a day in international trade. Other bridges are still closed, and part of Ottawa, the Canadian capital, is still occupied.

The diffidence of Canadian authorities in the face of these disruptions has been startling to American eyes. Also startling, although not actually surprising, has been the embrace of economic vandalism and intimidation by much of the U.S. right  especially by people who ranted against demonstrations in favor of racial justice. What were getting here is an object lesson in what some people really mean when they talk about law and order.

Lets talk about what has been happening in Canada and why I call it vandalism.

The Freedom Convoy has been marketed as a backlash by truckers angry about Covid-19 vaccination mandates. In reality, there dont seem to have been many truckers among the protesters at the bridge (about 90 percent of Canadian truckers are vaccinated). Last week a Bloomberg reporter saw only three semis among the vehicles blocking the Ambassador Bridge, which were mainly pickup trucks and private cars; photos taken Saturday also show very few commercial trucks.

The Teamsters union, which represents many truckers on both sides of the border, has denounced the blockade.
A mayoral candidate in Louisville, Ky., said he was the target of a shooting inside his campaign office on Monday that left him unharmed but shaken  and with a bullet hole in the back of his sweater.

The candidate, Craig Greenberg, said he and four members of his campaign team were in a morning meeting near downtown when a man walked in.

When we greeted him, he pulled out a gun, aimed directly at me and began shooting, Mr. Greenberg said at a news conference.

The gunman was standing in the doorway as he fired his weapon multiple times, Mr. Greenberg said, and a member of his campaign staff slammed the door shut before helping to build a barricade out of tables and desks.
The conservative media also skewed what the filing said. For example, Mr. Durhams filing never used the word infiltrate. And it never claimed that Mr. Joffes company was being paid by the Clinton campaign.

Most important, contrary to the reporting, the filing never said the White House data that came under scrutiny was from the Trump era. According to lawyers for David Dagon, a Georgia Institute of Technology data scientist who helped develop the Yota analysis, the data  so-called DNS logs, which are records of when computers or smartphones have prepared to communicate with servers over the internet  came from Barack Obamas presidency.

What Trump and some news outlets are saying is wrong, said Jody Westby and Mark Rasch, both lawyers for Mr. Dagon. The cybersecurity researchers were investigating malware in the White House, not spying on the Trump campaign, and to our knowledge all of the data they used was nonprivate DNS data from before Trump took office.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr. Joffe said that contrary to the allegations in this recent filing, he was apolitical, did not work for any political party, and had lawful access under a contract to work with others to analyze DNS data  including from the White House  for the purpose of hunting for security breaches or threats.

After Russians hacked networks for the White House and Democrats in 2015 and 2016, it went on, the cybersecurity researchers were deeply concerned to find data suggesting Russian-made YotaPhones were in proximity to the Trump campaign and the White House, so prepared a report of their findings, which was subsequently shared with the C.I.A.

A spokesman for Mr. Durham declined to comment.

Mr. Durham was assigned by the attorney general at the time, William P. Barr, to scour the Russia investigation for wrongdoing in May 2019 as Mr. Trump escalated his claims that he was the victim of a deep state conspiracy. But after nearly three years, he has not developed any cases against high-level government officials.

Instead, Mr. Durham has developed two cases against people associated with outside efforts to understand Russias election interference that put forward unproven, and sometimes thin or subsequently disproved, suspicions about purported links to Mr. Trump or his campaign.
The confiscation of the Bitcoin that remained in Mr. Lichtensteins wallet on Feb. 1, worth roughly $3.6 billion at the time, was the Justice Departments largest financial seizure ever, officials have said. The case has been seen as a watershed in the regulation and perhaps investigation of the murky and often illicit world of cryptocurrency.

In reviewing the case against the couple, Judge Howell appeared to conclude that Mr. Lichtenstein was more adept in the type of financial sleight of hand needed to launder the stolen funds and potentially secure a future for the pair outside the United States. Given what she described as a familiarity with false identities and skill at moving financial assets discreetly, Judge Howell expressed concern that Mr. Lichtenstein was a flight risk.

A lawyer representing the couple denied that they had ever planned to flee, citing their family ties in the United States, as well as the fact that they had embryos frozen in New York in hopes of conceiving a child, and that they had not tried to leave the country even after indications that they were under investigation last year.

But a prosecutor stressed that while the government had secured the bulk of the stolen funds, the couple had been recorded moving stolen money between various cryptocurrencies and had the experience with encrypted accounts necessary to duck investigators in moving assets overseas.

Judge Howell expressed concern that Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan were being represented by the same lawyer, especially as she appeared to conclude that Mr. Lichtensteins involvement and planning far outweighed that of Ms. Morgan.
Mr. McMichael chased Mr. Arbery, Mr. Balbo said, not because he was a Black man, but because he was the man.

More than 1,000 people spread across 43 counties received jury summonses for the federal trial. By Monday morning, the group had been whittled down to 12 jurors and four alternates. Of the dozen people selected for the main panel, eight are white, three are Black and one is Hispanic. They include a cook, a social worker, a stay-at-home father, a former cosmetology worker and an air-traffic controller.

In the earlier murder trial in state court, 11 of the 12 jurors were white. Before the murder convictions, the racial lopsidedness had raised questions about whether justice would be served.

The federal jury is charged with determining not whether the men committed murder but whether they deprived Mr. Arbery of his right to use a public street because he was Black. The men are also charged with attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels are charged with one count each of using a weapon during a violent crime.

Ms. Bernstein laid out her case for racial bias for each man. Travis McMichael, she said, had referred to Black people as niggers on numerous occasions. Mr. Bryan, she said, had used the word to describe a Black man dating his daughter. And Ms. Bernstein described a time that Gregory McMichael had ranted against Black people to a work colleague and described his animosity toward the civil rights leader Julian Bond, who had recently died.

Mr. Bond, Mr. McMichael said, should have been put in the ground years ago. He was nothing but trouble. Those Blacks are nothing but trouble.

It was difficult to gauge the jury members reactions to such language because they were wearing masks. Reactions were more identifiable among some of Mr. Arberys family members. Mr. Arberys aunt, Diane Arbery Jackson, shook her head and left the courtroom as Ms. Bernstein read a message Travis McMichael sent to a friend responding to a video of a Black man sticking a firecracker up his nose.
A Republican county clerk in Colorado who was stripped of her responsibility of overseeing county elections is joining a growing movement of people throughout the country who spread false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election and want to oversee the next one.

Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk, who is facing accusations that she breached the security of voting machines, announced on Monday that she would run to be the top elections official in Colorado.

At least three Republican challengers are already running to unseat the current Colorado secretary of state, Jena Griswold, a Democrat.

Colorado is a purple state that President Biden won with 55 percent of the vote in 2020. The states primary is on June 28, and Colorado is one of 27 states whose top elections official will be on the ballot this year.
Follow our live coverage on the trucker protests in Canada.

OTTAWA  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the rare step of declaring a national public order emergency on Monday in a push to end protests that have paralyzed the center of the Canadian capital for more than two weeks and reverberated across the country.

Mr. Trudeau and several of his cabinet ministers said the move would allow the government to take a variety of steps, including freezing bank accounts of protesters, to clear the blockade of about 400 trucks in Ottawa and smaller protests that have closed border points in Alberta and Manitoba.

We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue, the prime minister said in a speech to the nation, pointing to serious challenges to law enforcements ability to effectively enforce the law.

The invocation of the Emergencies Act confers enormous, if temporary, power on the federal government.
Ugandan artists perform during a recording session at the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) in Kampala, Uganda, Feb. 10, 2022. Strong African beats fused with Chinese melodies is the latest genre Ugandan artists are promoting to strengthen the people-to-people ties between the two countries.(Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

KAMPALA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Strong African beats fused with Chinese melodies is the latest genre Ugandan artists are promoting to strengthen the people-to-people ties between the two countries.

For now over a month, the artists have been practicing Chinese popular songs as they seek to reach out to the Chinese audience.

Clad in African traditional wear, playing African music instruments but bellowing out Chinese tunes, the artists sing about patriotism and love.

John Bosco Katende, group's trainer told Xinhua that practicing singing in Chinese was at first difficult but because of the persistence, the musicians were able to get the notes right.

"It is a new experience because of the language, but when we go to the music language it is the same only that you find the Chinese are using so much of pentatonic scale as Ugandans, majority, use the diatonic scale," Katende said.

"Music is the same language, so it is easy to find that some notes can be fused into the African style leaving the Asian style. So it was so easy using the music knowledge," he added, as the group did a recording session at the National Theatre also known as the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC).

Katende who has been a trainer for the last 20 years said he believes that the group can now comfortably perform on a Chinese stage as well as doing exchanges with Chinese performers.

"We are looking forward to exchanging the art, Ugandans going to China and Chinese coming here and they perform," he said.

Florence Nakijoba, a Chinese language teacher said it was easy for the musicians to quickly grasp what she taught them. Nakijoba, who was part of a Ugandan government program to train teachers who will teach mandarin in secondary schools, was in charge of teaching the musicians the various songs and their meaning.

The musicians performed among others the Chinese national anthem, a children's song Chun Tian Zai Na Li, a patriotic song Wan Jiang, a Chinese New Year songGong Xi Fa Cai, and a love song Tian Mi Mi.

Josephine Mugerwa, one of the performers and also a popular musician told Xinhua that China is one of the fastest developing countries in the world and therefore strengthening ties with such a country not only economically or politically but also socially must be explored.

"We are trying to strengthen the friendship between Uganda and China. China has been in a relationship with Uganda for some good time, when it comes to trade but this time we want to do it socially through music. It feels good when you see another person from another country singing your music," she said.

"We are promoting patriotism, we want to promote Uganda in China that is why you see us singing Chinese songs, but then we are putting on Ugandan outfits," she added.

Mugerwa said through music the Chinese and Ugandan people can be brought together for the good of both communities.

Sam Okello, chairperson board of trustees UNCC said there are several lessons to pick from China especially at a time when perceived modernity is threating indigenous cultures.

"The strength of China stemmed from the people, China lived as a closed community for a long time and by the time it was opened to the world, everything was done according to the cultural values of China," Okello said.

He said although modernity is good, it can also be negatively disruptive, especially among young people who may adopt it forgetting their traditional values.

Okello argued that nations grow basing on their cultural values, adding that Chinese culture is what has made China become advanced and developed. 

Ugandan artists perform during a recording session at the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) in Kampala, Uganda, Feb. 10, 2022. Strong African beats fused with Chinese melodies is the latest genre Ugandan artists are promoting to strengthen the people-to-people ties between the two countries.(Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

Sam Okello, chairperson board of trustees UNCC, speaks in an interview with Xinhua during a break in a recording session at the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) in Kampala, Uganda, Feb. 10, 2022. Strong African beats fused with Chinese melodies is the latest genre Ugandan artists are promoting to strengthen the people-to-people ties between the two countries.(Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

Ugandan artists perform during a recording session at the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) in Kampala, Uganda, Feb. 10, 2022. Strong African beats fused with Chinese melodies is the latest genre Ugandan artists are promoting to strengthen the people-to-people ties between the two countries.(Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

Florence Nakijoba, a Chinese language teacher, speaks in an interview with Xinhua during a break in a recording session at the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) in Kampala, Uganda, Feb. 10, 2022. Strong African beats fused with Chinese melodies is the latest genre Ugandan artists are promoting to strengthen the people-to-people ties between the two countries.(Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

Troupe trainer John Bosco Katende speaks in an interview with Xinhua during a break in a recording session at the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) in Kampala, Uganda, Feb. 10, 2022. Strong African beats fused with Chinese melodies is the latest genre Ugandan artists are promoting to strengthen the people-to-people ties between the two countries.(Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)
INDEX, A HISTORY OF THE

A Bookish Adventure From Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age

By Dennis Duncan

Over the last quarter-century, the book as physical organism has been increasingly anatomized, and there has been no better medium for displaying anatomists findings than the book itself. As they illuminate long-overlooked corners of bibliography, volumes like Anthony Graftons The Footnote and H. J. Jacksons Marginalia have charted the contrapuntal dance among writer, publisher, reader and material object.

Consider, for example, the 2019 anthology Book Parts, edited by Dennis Duncan and Adam Smyth. Its table of contents includes, satisfyingly, Tables of Contents, along with Dust Jackets, Frontispieces and Indexes  a chapter by Duncan himself. Now, Duncan, a lecturer in English at University College London, has expanded that chapter into the erudite, eminently readable and wittily titled Index, A History of the. Fittingly, the book comes equipped with not one but two official indexes  one stellar, the other unabashedly less so  as well as a third and perhaps even a fourth. (More on Indexes: Duncans multiplicity of, below.)

An index, Duncan explains, is simply a map: a set of signposts pointing to  indicating  where to find what in the texts vast terrain. This map has three constituent parts: rubrics (generally subjects or personal names); locaters (typically page numbers, at least before the e-reader era); and an internal ordering principle (usually alphabetical).
During a journey as haphazard as it is harrowing, Aikins keeps the focus on Omar and the other migrants while giving enough context that we always understand whats at stake in this high-risk, ever-shifting environment. At times, especially toward the end, the pacing of the book is electrifying. But this is no Sound of Music finale. Instead Omar, Aikins and their fellow migrants climb mountains, only to realize they have to go back and find another way. They are apprehended by officials and released, then caught again. At the last minute, a smuggler hustles them onto a boat bound for the very part of Europe they had hoped to avoid, leading to a prolonged period of confinement in one of the worst detention encampments in the European Union. There are no tidy arcs or pat resolutions. Aikins chronicles it all, typing up his notes on his phone nightly, until eventually he has logged more than 60,000 words.

Small vignettes tell a larger story. A Greek man yells at the Afghan migrants for swimming in the ocean, then apologizes: Tell them its nothing personal.  Were both stuck in the middle of something much bigger than us. Wealthy nations, Aikins implies, love feel-good moments  holding up signs that say Refugees welcome here! or awarding humanitarian prizes  but are less interested in the hard work of studying the underlying causes of mass migration from war-torn and economically ravaged countries. Instead, that work falls too often to individuals or small groups who cannot possibly address the scale of the crisis. The swelling waves of people are barely contained by the border camp where Aikins and Omar get stuck, or in the squats and underground hiding places where they stay along the way: From this dammed-up pool of the displaced, the West takes measured sips.

Aikins does not just criticize governments; he examines his biases in a way that invites readers to scrutinize their own. He finds Omars almost obsessive feelings for Laila alternately inspiring and frustrating: There was no logic to love. Before the trip, he spends months trying to persuade his friend to leave Afghanistan, but Omar lingers, hoping for some word from Laila. Months into their journey, Omar sinks into a depression, listening obsessively to Celine Dion and searching Facebook for mentions of Laila (who isnt on social media). Aikins feels a prick of annoyance at the hours Omar spends staring at his phone: What kind of protagonist was he? Aikins had hoped to write about someone who spoke English and understood Europe, who marched with the activists and made love to volunteers, a real hero. But Aikins uses this scene, among others, to shine a glaring light on his own unfair expectations; Omar is not a stock character  the revolutionary hero calculated to rally Western sympathy  but his friend, sad and homesick. Aikins ensures that, to the breathless end, we are rooting for Omar and the world he hopes to create for the love of his life.

On this journey, Aikins finds love too, though of a different kind. When he cups a childs head while their boat flails through riotous waves, when he dances with new friends at an unlikely haven in Athens, when he shares a sandwich with a man who is more brother than friend, Aikins moves past his role as journalist. He experiences the kind of equality that politicians, advocates and religious leaders tout but rarely achieve. Aikins wants to believe in some activists vision of a world where transformative, systemic, societal change is possible: To believe felt like falling in love. Instead, he discovers that this ideal can be found only in fragments. He weaves those fragments into a meticulously told story the world needs to hear now more than ever.
4. Prince Andrew settled a sexual abuse lawsuit brought against him by one of Jeffrey Epsteins victims.

The amount that Andrew will pay has not been disclosed. The lawsuit was brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who accused him of raping her when she was under 18 at Epsteins mansion in Manhattan, on his private island and in London. The parties agreed to keep the financial terms of the settlement confidential, according to a statement attached to a court filing.

The deal came just weeks before Andrew was scheduled to sit for a deposition, in which he would have been questioned by Giuffres lawyers. Andrew did not admit to any of Giuffres accusations against him in the statement that announced the settlement.

Wider questions about Andrews finances and behavior continue to plague the royal family.
The United States is enduring its most severe increase in traffic deaths since the 1940s.

It is a sharp change from the recent norm, too. Deaths from vehicle crashes have generally been falling since the late 1960s, thanks to vehicle improvements, lower speed limits and declines in drunken driving, among other factors. By 2019, the annual death rate from crashes was near its lowest level since cars became a mass item in the 1920s.

But then came the Covid-19 pandemic.

Crashes  and deaths  began surging in the summer of 2020, surprising traffic experts who had hoped that relatively empty roads would cause accidents to decline. Instead, an increase in aggressive driving more than made up for the decline in driving. And crashes continued to increase when people returned to the roads, later in the pandemic.

Per capita vehicle deaths rose 17.5 percent from the summer of 2019 to last summer, according to a Times analysis of federal data. It is the largest two-year increase since just after World War II.
To prevent her nomination from advancing to the full Senate, Republicans held up the vote on all five nominees.

Democrats and the White House criticized Republicans for engineering a boycott and scrambled for a solution that could get the nominees to a confirmation vote. Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio and chair of the Banking Committee, on Tuesday shot down the idea that he would separate Ms. Raskin from the other nominees to allow the rest to advance. Ms. Raskin could face tough odds of passing, especially on her own.

By nominating five of the Feds seven governors and all of its highest-ranking leaders, Mr. Biden had a chance to shake up the institution. While some of his picks  like Mr. Powell  represented continuity, together they would have made up the most racially and gender-diverse Fed leadership team ever.

Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University who co-wrote a book on the politics of the Fed, said Democrats would need to come up with a strategy to overcome the Republican block or the nominees could get stuck in limbo.

It is really a delay  it might yet scupper Raskin, she said. She noted that Democrats could break the nominations up or try to garner enough support among the full Senate to override the rules and get the nominees past the committee, though that might be a challenge.
Meredith Kopit Levien, the chief executive of the Times Company, said on Tuesday that the verdict marked a good day for journalism and a good day for the free press.

Ms. Palin told reporters outside the courthouse that she was disappointed in the verdict. Asked if she had a message for The Times, she said: Tell the truth. Its as simple as that.

The jurors made no immediate comment after the verdict.

Ms. Palins lawyers may get another chance to make their case for why press protections should be pared back. Legal experts said one avenue for asking an appeals court to reconsider the case was to argue that the courts should revisit the broad definition of a public figure in current law, which makes it extremely difficult for people who have even modest public profiles to successfully sue.

But ultimately, her appeal may never reach the Supreme Court. First Amendment scholars said the appeals court may view her case skeptically given that both the judge and the jury decided she had not met her burden of proof. And the justices may find it more palatable to take a case involving a less politically charged public figure.

There is unease on the court about The New York Times v. Sullivan test, said Eugene Volokh, who teaches First Amendment law at the University of California, Los Angeles. But Mr. Volokh said he believed there was little chance that Ms. Palins case would end up being the vehicle for any effort to roll it back because the jury did not believe her argument that Mr. Bennet was so blinded by his disgust for her that he knew the editorial contained material that was likely false and overlooked evidence to the contrary.

It sounds like the jury didnt buy that, Mr. Volokh said. And it becomes very difficult to argue to the court, Well, they thought it was an innocent mistake, but they were wrong.

Ms. Palins suit claimed that The Times defamed her with an editorial that incorrectly asserted a link between her political rhetoric and a mass shooting near Tucson, Ariz., in 2011 that left six people dead and 14 wounded, including Gabrielle Giffords, then a Democratic member of Congress. Ms. Giffordss district had been one of 20 singled out underneath digitized cross hairs on a map circulated by Ms. Palins political action committee. There was no evidence the shooter had seen or was motivated by the map.
Tyson Foods, one of the first national employers to mandate Covid vaccines for its workers, is moving to ease mask requirements for its employees as the number of coronavirus cases in the United States falls.

The meatpacking giant said on Tuesday that fully vaccinated workers at some facilities could begin to remove their masks at work. It joined companies like Walmart and states like New York that have moved to loosen restrictions in hopes of achieving a new normal in the absence of revised national guidelines.

Due to our many efforts and, most importantly, our enterprisewide vaccinated status, weve seen lower rates of Covid-19 infection, as well as extremely low rates of serious illness at Tyson, Tom Brower, the companys senior vice president of health and safety, wrote in a memo to employees.

And in recent weeks the number of active cases at Tyson has declined significantly, he added.

A spokesman for Tyson said the company has had productive and ongoing conversations with union representatives about the policy change.
WASHINGTON  As a candidate and then as president, Joseph R. Biden promised to address the unequal burden that people of color carry from exposure to environmental hazards.

But the White Houses new environmental strategy to tackle this problem will be colorblind: Race will not be a factor in deciding where to focus efforts.

Worried that using race to identify and help disadvantaged communities could trigger legal challenges that would stymie their efforts, administration officials said they were designing a system to help communities of color even without defining them as such.

We are trying to set up a framework and a tool that will survive, and one that still connects to what the on-the-ground impacts are that people are experiencing, said Brenda Mallory, chairwoman of the White House Council of Environmental Quality, which is designing the system. I feel that we can do that based on race-neutral criteria.
Sea levels along the coastal United States will rise by about a foot or more on average by 2050, government scientists said Tuesday, with the result that rising water now considered nuisance flooding will become far more damaging.

A report by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies also found that, at the current rate of warming, at least two feet of sea-level rise is expected by the end of the century.

What were reporting out is historic, said Rick Spinrad, the NOAA administrator, at a news conference announcing the findings. The United States is expected to experience as much sea level rise in the next 30 years as we saw over the span of the last century.

Dr. Spinrad said that while cutting greenhouse gas emissions to limit warming was critically important, the projected sea level rise by 2050 will happen no matter what we do about emissions.
Only about 700 people in the world have ever purchased cellular meat  most of it ground, breaded and fried, and all of it in Singapore, which became the first nation to grant regulatory approval in 2020. And though the United States isnt far behind (the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration could finish writing rules about how to produce and sell cultured meat by the end of the year) all of this is still a long way from the grocery store.

There are plenty of questions about whether producers will ever master the technology and build plants big enough to make commercially viable amounts of the meat at a price consumers will pay.

But as the theoretical keeps inching closer to reality, curious cooks and adventurous diners are taking a closer look at whether farming meat cells will  or should  be widely embraced, the way plant-based meat substitutes have been.

Im not excited about it, but I wouldnt bet against it, said the restaurateur Danny Meyer, who added that he has yet to see evidence that cell-based meat is healthier, better for the planet or not just for elite diners. I want to buy food for dinner, not a science experiment.

For true believers, growing meat in tanks is a way to lessen the environmental impact of industrial meat production and relieve animal suffering. It could reduce food-borne illnesses, they say, and create an abundant meat supply to feed the world.

Opponents say the process ignores both culture and nature, and could be scientifically risky, creating potential allergens and untested byproducts, along with waste that might be a biohazard. And it ignores the value of time-tested regenerative agricultural practices in favor of unproven claims of environmental gain.

If for any reason someone wants to avoid animal protein, why not just eat plants and foods made with plants? said Alan Lewis, who oversees governmental affairs for the Natural Grocers health food chain. The obsession with the taste and texture of meat I can understand. But taking the leap of faith to consuming synthetic protein seems entirely unnecessary.
HONG KONG, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam welcomed the passage of the HKSAR government's funding application of 27 billion Hong Kong dollars (3.46 billion U.S. dollars) for the sixth-round Anti-epidemic Fund (AEF) by the Legislative Council (LegCo) Finance Committee on Tuesday.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Lam also tasked the relevant HKSAR government departments with implementing the various support measures at full steam.

The sixth-round AEF comprises 48 schemes which are estimated to benefit 67,000 businesses, operators of 40,000 transport tools and 750,000 individuals.

The chief executive said that with the full support of the central authorities and the cooperation of the community, the HKSAR government will stand up to the challenge with unwavering determination and strong faith to lead Hong Kong out of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Lam once again appealed to Hong Kong residents to stay confident during this difficult time, support the HKSAR government's anti-epidemic measures, and get vaccinated as soon as possible. 
Headliner

Bar Tulix

John McDonald has revamped his long-established Burger & Barrel at the edge of SoHo and made it a Mexican restaurant. Mr. McDonald, who owns several establishments nearby, is collaborating with his friend Justin Bazdarich, the chef and an owner of Oxomoco in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Speedy Romeo in Clinton Hill, to open this restaurant at the end of the month. Justin and I have been wanting to do something together for years, Mr. McDonald said. Glossy black walls are the backdrop for vibrant colors. Mr. Bazdarichs Mexican-inspired menu with a seafood focus explores the Pacific Coast from California, with a farmers market escabeche and a Caesar salad, on down through Mexico. Also on the menu are smoked shrimp chicharron, fresh tuna slathered with salsa macha, tostada mixto piled high with marinated seafood, branzino with a masa crust in a red sauce, and octopus with fried potatoes and romesco sauce. Tequila, mezcal and sotol are a significant presence on the bar display, and the drinks are by Trey Bliss, who was at Mr. Bazdarichs now-closed Xilonen. Examples of folk art and works by local New York artists are displayed throughout. This is not Mr. McDonalds debut in Mexican restaurants: He helped start the Dos Caminos chain with Stephen Hanson, and was the owner of El Toro Blanco in the West Village, which closed during the pandemic and became Hancock St. (Opens Feb. 28)

25 West Houston Street (Mercer Street), 212-334-7320, bartulix.com.

Opening

Charles Pan-fried Chicken

This Harlem favorite has moved south and reopened on the Upper West Side. Its had many names and locations since 1995, when Charles Gabriel first started selling his pan-fried chicken as a stand on the street. Hes enlarged his menu to include smoked pulled pork and ribs. Additionally, hes opening another location at 340 West 145th Street and has more in the works.

146 West 72nd Street, 646-590-0662, charlespanfriedchicken.com.

UnPublished by Serafina

Sequestered in Serafina in the Sky, the new restaurant off the upper-level lobby in the Pod Hotel on West 42nd Street is a speakeasy-style evening spot and a joint venture from the Serafina Restaurant Group and the nightlife impresario Karim Amatullah of KRM Group. The secret code needed for entry can be obtained upon making a reservation. The menu is the same as that served at Serafina in the Sky. (Wednesday)

Pod Hotel, 400 West 42nd Street, 212-776-4140, serafinarestaurant.com.

Moynihan Food Hall

The food hall on the concourse level of the Moynihan Train Hall is finally getting up to speed. Dining stations are by familiar New York names like Jacobs Pickles, E.A.K. Ramen, Chopt, Maman, Alidoro, Naya, Burger Joint and Sauce. The central highlight is the Bar at Moynihan Food Hall, operated by HPH, the company that runs the Dead Rabbit and Bathtub Gin, among others. Its done in a vintage style with polished walnut and brass. Elsewhere in the station, H&H Bagels and Magnolia Bakery have opened. Outlets for La Maison du Chocolat, Threes Brewing and Vesuvio Bakery are yet to come.

Moynihan Train Hall, 421 Eighth Avenue (33rd Street), moynihanfoodhall.com.
The Senate on Tuesday narrowly confirmed Dr. Robert Califf as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a key federal agency that has been without a permanent chief for more than a yearlong stretch of the coronavirus pandemic.

The vote was 50-to-46, with six Republicans crossing the aisle to support him while five senators who caucus with Democrats opposed him. One senator voted present.

Dr. Califf, who is 70, is expected to be sworn in this week. He faces a looming flurry of decisions  including intense scrutiny of a coronavirus vaccine for children under 5 and reviews of e-cigarette applications like Juuls bid to stay on the market.

In recent weeks, Dr. Califfs odds of a second confirmation looked increasingly long as opposition mounted over concerns about how he would respond to the opioid epidemic and the agencys handling of abortion drug rules. The White House responded by trying to rally support in Congress and among other allies, with mainstream medical societies and a bipartisan group of six former F.D.A. commissioners coming to Dr. Califfs defense.
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A woman of mixed race appears to be the third person ever to be cured of H.I.V., using a new transplant method involving umbilical cord blood that opens up the possibility of curing more people of diverse racial backgrounds than was previously possible, scientists announced on Tuesday.

Cord blood is more widely available than the adult stem cells used in the bone marrow transplants that cured the previous two patients, and it does not need to be matched as closely to the recipient. Most donors in registries are of Caucasian origin, so allowing for only a partial match has the potential to cure dozens of Americans who have both H.I.V. and cancer each year, scientists said.

The woman, who also had leukemia, received cord blood to treat her cancer. It came from a partially matched donor, instead of the typical practice of finding a bone marrow donor of similar race and ethnicity to the patients. She also received blood from a close relative to give her body temporary immune defenses while the transplant took.
As Russian troops are dispatched to Ukraines borders, the threat of a major assault on the country continues to escalate. Ukrainian soldiers stand guard at possible points of invasion, including sections of irradiated zones near Chernobyl. The United States has sent troops to NATO countries and has pulled most diplomats from Kyiv, Ukraine and world leaders are in contact with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to try to negotiate peace in the region. In a one-hour phone call on Saturday, President Biden warned Mr. Putin that an invasion would result in swift and severe costs.

Andrew E. Kramer, a Times Moscow correspondent, has been reporting from Kyiv and the Ukrainian border since November, speaking with soldiers, civilians and diplomats to gain a sense of what the conflict looks like from the ground. This interview has been edited and condensed.

What has the atmosphere been at the border and in Kyiv?

You would expect more nervousness than you actually see, and part of the bigger story here is that the Ukrainians have been less worried on an official level and in society than the U.S. government about the Russian buildup. You also see in eastern Ukraine that soldiers didnt articulate particular worry  but theyre also soldiers.

Its not exactly calm. This is the line of contact between Russian-backed separatists and government forces. Its been compared to the Berlin Wall in a sense because it divides these villages and fields out of eastern Ukraine between two political camps, and the people on both sides are very similar. Its a sense of waiting for the unknown.
The lawsuit said that the defendants should not have allowed live ammunition onto the set, that Mr. Baldwin should not have pointed a gun at anyone, and accused the production of aggressive cost-cutting that it said had jeopardized and endangered the safety of the cast and crew. The suit claimed that the producers had hired an inexperienced and unqualified armorer, and that members of the production had ignored earlier firearms discharges on the set that had led to complaints about a lack of safety.

Brian Panish, a lawyer for Mr. Hutchins, said at a news conference in Los Angeles: There are many people culpable, but Mr. Baldwin was the person holding the weapon that, but for him shooting it, she would not have died. So clearly he has a significant portion of the liability, but there are others.

Last month, lawyers for the Hutchins family indicated that they were contemplating a lawsuit when they asked a court to appoint a representative in New Mexico for Ms. Hutchinss estate. Under New Mexico law, half of any proceeds from the lawsuit would go to Mr. Hutchins and half would go to her son.

Ms. Hutchins was a rising cinematographer from Ukraine; friends and colleagues described her as fiercely dedicated to the art of filmmaking.

It remains unclear why live bullets were on the film set and how one of them got into the gun that Mr. Baldwin was handling. The sheriffs office in Santa Fe has been investigating that question since the fatal shooting, but officials have made no new public disclosures about the inquiry since last month, when Mr. Baldwin turned his cellphone over to the authorities.

Several other lawsuits have been filed in relation to the shooting. Two crew members filed separate lawsuits in California, alleging that cost-cutting measures by the production contributed to lax adherence to safety protocols and that Mr. Baldwin should have checked that the gun was safe to handle. Lawyers for Mr. Baldwin and other producers behind Rust filed a motion seeking to dismiss one of the lawsuits, arguing that Mr. Baldwin could not have intentionally shot a live bullet from the gun because he had been told it was cold, meaning it did not contain any live bullets.
Hercule Poirot is one of those literary heroes, like James Bond or Sherlock Holmes, whose image blazes brightly in the popular imagination. From his debut in Agatha Christies 1920 novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, through his final appearance in Curtain, published in 1975, the Belgian detective cut a simple, distinctive figure: a quaint, dandified little man, as Christie wrote, hardly more than 5 foot 4 inches, with a head exactly the shape of an egg, a pink-tipped nose and, in what is probably the most famous instance of facial hair in the history of English literature, an enormous, upward-curled mustache  which Christie later boasted was no less than the finest one in England.

Christie wrote more than 80 novels and short stories about Poirot, and nearly all of them have been adapted for film and television. Many actors have stepped into the role over the years, each trying to give it his own spin, much as a stage actor might take a fresh crack at King Lear. Tony Randall, in Frank Tashlins 1965 mystery-comedy The Alphabet Murders, played it for laughs, exaggerating Poirots exotic pomposity with farcical zeal. By contrast, Alfred Molina, in a made-for-TV version of Murder on the Orient Express from 2001, brought a subtler, more muted touch, softening the characters sometimes cartoonish extravagance. Hugh Laurie once even donned the iconic stache for a cameo in Spice World, letting Baby Spice (Emma Bunton) get away with murder.

But of the dozens of takes on Poirot over the last century or so, only a handful have truly endured, leaving a permanent mark on the character. These are the interpretations that come to mind when most people think of Hercule Poirot, and in their own way, each of these versions seems to some extent definitive. As Kenneth Branaghs Death on the Nile arrives in cinemas, we look back at the most famous and esteemed versions.
BERLIN  Isabelle Huppert isnt fond of nostalgia. In her five-decade career, the 68-year-old French actress has appeared in over 120 films, including recurring collaborations with some of the most important filmmakers in postwar European cinema. Her ability to channel brittle vulnerability, intellectual forcefulness and icy hauteur (often simultaneously) in films like Michael Hanekes The Piano Teacher and Paul Verhoevens Elle have made her one of the few true superstars of international art house film.

The Berlin International Film Festival awarded her an honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement on Tuesday, which Huppert will not accept in person after testing positive for the coronavirus, according to a news release from the festival.

The festival will still celebrate her career by showing seven of her films, although Huppert said in a recent phone interview that she had little interest in looking back. She explained that the award was as much about the present and the future than about the past. She added that she rarely rewatched her old films: I dont have time to see new films. Why should I lose time watching my previous ones?

Hupperts schedule is almost comically packed. She has one film (Promises) currently in French cinemas and three more set for release in the coming months. Another, About Joan, is screening at this years Berlin Film Festival. She is currently shooting The Union Lady with the French director Jean-Paul Salome, and this year, Huppert is going on tour with two plays as well. She also revealed that she was slated to appear in the next film by Francois Ozon.
The video now has more than 1.4 million views, more than 440,000 likes and thousands of comments. In it, Mr. Rose and Ms. Smith-Fields are walking outside on a sunny day with brimming smiles, singing on a stage and dancing in unison. Good Days plays in the background. i literally just a shed a tear i cant believe this still. i love you, Mr. Rose wrote in the caption.

Image The family of Ms. Smith-Fields, 23, said they didnt learn of her death until nearly two days later.

Ms. Smith-Fields was a student at Norwalk Community College who wanted to become a physical therapist. Her family and friends described her personality as vibrant and magnetic.

Her mother, Shantell Fields, has said that she didnt find out about her daughters death for nearly two days  and that she learned the news not from the Bridgeport Police Department, but through a landlord. She said that a detective told her family not to worry about the man Ms. Smith-Fields had been with that night, adding that he was a really nice guy. Her lawyer said the family had to beg the police to collect evidence, including bloody bedsheets, found in the apartment.

As weeks passed with few updates provided to the family and little media attention on the case, TikTok videos about Ms. Smith-Fields, many featuring footage of her familys emotional pleas for help, began to garner more and more attention. Her friends began to post clips too, showing how playful and energetic she was. And in lieu of news from the Police Department, amateur sleuths began making videos in which they tried to answer big questions about the case themselves.

The videos about Ms. Smith-Fields have since garnered millions of views and hundreds of thousands of comments. The hashtags #laurensmithfields and #justiceforlaurensmithfields have been viewed more than 27 million times each on TikTok.
The office of New Yorks attorney general, Letitia James, said on Monday that it had recovered more than $400,000 for consumers who were charged by laboratories for premium services like same-day delivery of coronavirus test results, but did not get their results until much later.

The refunds were issued by ClearMD Health and Sameday Health. The attorney generals office said the companies advertised expedited testing but repeatedly misrepresented turnaround times for results. ClearMD Health was ordered to pay more than $182,000 to 1,198 consumers, and Sameday Health was ordered to pay more than $230,000 to 3,110 consumers.

The companies were also ordered to change their advertising, and train employees to provide accurate information about turnaround times, according to the attorney generals office.

Its simple: Testing sites and labs must follow the law and accurately advertise when consumers can expect their results, otherwise they can expect to hear from my office, Ms. James said in a statement.
Many elected officials, advocates and the leader of the transit agency that operates the subway have been pressing the new mayor, Eric Adams, to provide more financing for the program and expand eligibility for it, arguing that many more riders could benefit.

New York, where it generally costs $2.75 to ride the subway, operates one of the most expensive major public transit systems in the country, and despite popularity of the reduced fare program, it only reaches the poorest riders. Many working-class commuters, who rely on public transit every day, do not qualify and must dig deep to be able to ride.

Of the American cities that offer discounted fares, New York has among the strictest income eligibility rules for its program, requiring applicants to be at or below the federal poverty level.

Roughly 900,000 adult New Yorkers live in poverty, according to census data.

It is imperative that public transportation be accessible, affordable, and equitable for all New Yorkers, Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker, said in a statement on Sunday, as she called on the mayor to double the programs funding, from $53 million to $106 million. The city promised that amount when the program began, but it was halved when the pandemic triggered a financial crisis.

Mr. Adams agreed on Monday to raise the funding, but only to $75 million. Since its inception, Fair Fares has proven to be a transformative program for so many New Yorkers struggling to get by, Mr. Adams said in a joint statement with the speaker.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said Tuesday that he is developing a framework that will set out his plan to move toward an inclusive political settlement, including the establishment of a multi-track process.

Through this process, the warring sides' interests can be addressed within the context of a broader Yemeni agenda along the three tracks of political, security and economic matters, he told the Security Council in a briefing.

Despite many challenges, there is a way out of the war in Yemen. Allowing the war to continue is a choice, and so is ending it, he said. "We all know that ending it will not be easy, but I firmly believe that it is possible."

He said he will next week begin a series of structured bilateral consultations aimed at informing and refining the framework. He will engage with multiple Yemeni stakeholders, including the warring parties, political parties, representatives of civil society, and Yemeni experts in the political, security and economic arenas.

"The consultations will explore Yemenis' priorities for the immediate and longer term for the three tracks, as well as their aspirations and broader vision for ending the conflict," said Grundberg. "I count on the support of this council to encourage all actors to participate constructively without delay. This is a real opportunity for Yemeni parties to shift gear and charter a peaceful way forward."

For too long Yemenis have been without a political process and without hope that this conflict can end. Through initiating a structured process trying to address the key elements of the conflict, hope for an end to the devastating military, political and economic battles can be restored, he said.

Grundberg said he looks forward to presenting his framework later this spring. 
Prince Andrew, the disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who had accused him of raping her when she was a teenage victim of Andrews friend, the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday.

The amount that Andrew, 61, will pay Ms. Giuffre is confidential, the parties said in a joint statement attached to the filing.

Andrew also intends to make a substantial donation to a charity in support of victims rights, the statement says.

The deal comes just weeks before Andrew was scheduled to sit for a deposition, in which he would have been questioned under oath by Ms. Giuffres lawyers. Andrew did not admit to any of Ms. Giuffres accusations against him in the statement announcing the settlement.
The families of nine Sandy Hook school shooting victims settled a lawsuit for $73 million on Tuesday against the maker of the AR-15-style rifle used in the massacre, in what is believed to be the largest payout by a gun manufacturer in a mass shooting case.

The agreement is a significant setback to the firearms industry because the lawsuit worked around the federal law protecting gun companies from litigation by arguing that the manufacturers marketing of the weapon had violated Connecticut consumer law.

The families argued that Remington, the gunmaker, promoted sales of the weapon that appealed to troubled men like the killer who stormed into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 first graders and six adults. The lawsuit was filed by relatives of five of the children and four of the adults.

These nine families have shared a single goal from the very beginning: to do whatever they could to help prevent the next Sandy Hook, said Josh Koskoff, the lead lawyer for the families. It is hard to imagine an outcome that better accomplishes that goal.
The Alaska Supreme Court recently decided a case that an experienced lawyer told the court was the most significant case since statehood. The court confirmed that the states new primary and ranked-choice voting system  which would eliminate traditional party primaries  is here to stay.

The decision is significant not just for Alaska; it could also have considerable implications nationally. For the reforms in that state, like those that have taken hold in other states and localities across the country, are among the most promising structural solutions that could help mitigate the forces of extremism in our politics.

Through a 2020 ballot measure, Alaskan voters enacted a top-four primary. In this system, candidates list themselves on the ballot in three possible ways: as affiliated with a political party or political group, as undeclared or as nonpartisan. The four candidates who get the most votes move on to the general election, in which ranked-choice voting is used to determine the winner. (In ranked-choice voting, rather than selecting just one candidate, voters can instead choose several and rank them.)

This reform aims to increase the likelihood that candidates with the broadest appeal to voters, rather than more factional candidates, will win the election. In a traditional primary, in which many candidates can split the vote, factional candidates can prevail by drawing, say, just 25 percent of the vote. Because factional candidates often hold more extreme views, this reality helps fuel dysfunction in American politics.
Plane crash, prosthetic leg, dead 8-year-old son. A fellow writer who used the same Manhattan workout space that I did would be wearing that, the succinct summary of a harrowing story. Flying was a hobby of his, and he was piloting the aircraft when it went down, killing his lone passenger, his only child. He almost lost his second leg and spent the next five months in treatment centers. I learned all of this not from him but from other acquaintances of his and only after many upbeat, spirited chats with him that gave no hint of it. I was stunned and humbled.

Debilitating headaches, near-constant shrieking in ears, frequent thoughts of suicide. Thats what a celebrity who once confided in me would be wearing, and I doubt that anyone who had ever coveted this persons riches and fame would trade places, not on those terms. The revelation left me awe-struck, because its revealer just kept pressing on.

Some of these sandwich boards were legible to me because I was now reading the world differently and some were presented to me by people who knew what my own sandwich board said. (Eyesight compromised, could go blind.) I didnt have to compel the people in question to share what they were going through. It would dribble out in asides and unguarded moments, and I just had to be sensitive enough to hear and hold on to the details. I now was.

I followed up on comments that might have whizzed by me before and lingered in conversational spaces that I would have once hurried past or detoured to avoid. At a university that I visited to give a speech, someone mentioned the health problems of the presidents wife; when I later met her, I gently asked her about those and learned that on many days, unbeknown to people she mingled with, she soldiered through excruciating back pain. A manager in a Las Vegas restaurant who recognized me and had seen something that Id written about my imperiled eyesight confided that hed had lifelong vision problems; I reconnected with him later and learned his entire story, one of remarkable trials and achievements. It was a lesson in perseverance and positive thinking. It put my lesser troubles in perspective.

In so much of what I noticed and read, I found reminders  parables  of the secrets that people carry, of the suffering that they bury. I found those when Alan Krueger, a celebrated economist, killed himself in 2019.

Id once interviewed Krueger and was struck not only by the joyfulness of his demeanor but also by the ease of the encounter. It stood out from the usual stress. Ill tell you a secret about my journalism career, one that hints at the self-doubt and timidity that has also colored the rest of my life: Before I pick up the phone to call someone Im about to interview, I have to steady myself. I have to take a few breaths. Im afraid that Ill ask the wrong questions or at least wont ask the right ones. Or that Ill ask them in a fumbling, embarrassing fashion. If the person with whom Im about to speak has a well-known name or august credentials, Im intimidated. Many of my 11 a.m. interviews began at 11:02, and many of my 3 p.m. interviews began at 3:03. Thats not because Im sloppy or run late. Its because I need and use those extra minutes for those breaths, which are valuable enough to be worth the price of apologizing for my slight tardiness.

But I think I called Alan Krueger on time. Wed emailed back and forth just a bit before our call, and his manner  amiable, approachable  calmed me. An economist then teaching at Princeton University, Krueger had been the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama. Hed done pioneering work on the effects of minimum wage increases, determining that they did not lead to decreased hiring and employment.
To the Editor:

Re A Fatal Shove on the Subway and a Broken Mental Health System (front page, Feb. 6):

The woeful inadequacies of our mental health systems are legion: universal underfunding; no overarching system to provide consistent individualized care over time; insufficient hospital and residential beds, leading to too short revolving-door hospitalizations; too few intermediate care programs; waiting lists for mobile crisis intervention teams; virtually nonexistent housing for the mentally ill, leading to homelessness and imprisonment; and on and on.

There is one underlying theme in all these inadequacies  our unwillingness as a society to spend the money necessary to adequately meet the needs of mentally ill people. Just one example: Since the earliest days of deinstitutionalization, the number of psychiatric hospital beds in America has declined relentlessly, so that it is rarely possible to treat the full episode of illness in hospital. It is not unusual to be discharged after three or four days, even when hospitalization was prompted by a suicide attempt or a psychotic episode.

Despite all the talk and the intermittent media coverage, our attention spans are short. We return to this conversation repeatedly, especially following a random act of horrific violence, but make no systemic change. We seem to be OK with the homeless mentally ill wandering the streets.

There are no words for this. It is inhumane, disgraceful. We should be ashamed.

Harold I. Schwartz

West Hartford, Conn.

The writer is psychiatrist in chief emeritus at the Institute of Living, Hartford Hospital.
New York City has experienced an alarming rise in violence over the past two years. From 2019 to 2021, murders went up 52 percent, shootings went up 104 percent, burglary went up 16 percent and car theft went up 91 percent, according to statistics from the New York Police Department.

While all New Yorkers are affected by rising crime, the brunt of the increase is borne by Black New Yorkers. In 2020, Black New Yorkers, who make up about 24 percent of the citys population, were the victims in 65 percent of murders and 74 percent of shootings. They were also the largest racial demographic among victims of felony assault and rape.

It is hard not to notice that these tragic trends have emerged alongside the introduction of policies that were supposed to help Black New Yorkers  specifically, by reducing the impact of the criminal justice system on their lives. Black New Yorkers are disproportionately represented among those who are arrested, convicted and incarcerated in the city. Over the past few years, policymakers have sought to rectify this imbalance, designing policies aimed at achieving numerical parity among racial groups when it comes to relative rates of arrest, conviction and incarceration.

But this strategy is harming Black New Yorkers. By aiming for racial equity in criminal justice rather than focusing solely on deterring and responding to crime, policymakers seem to have neglected the foundational purpose of law and order. What has followed  a sharp rise in victims of crime, who remain disproportionately Black, and a slight increase in the percentage of Rikers Island inmates who are Black  is a racial imbalance of a more troubling kind.
Several related forces are fueling this anxiety, from deepening partisan polarization and our winner-take-all politics to our sharp division across lines of identity, culture and geography. There is the fact that this country is saturated with guns, as well as the reality that many Americans fear demographic change to the point that theyre willing to do pretty much anything to stop it. There is also the issue of Donald Trump, his strongest supporters and their effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Americans feel farther apart than at any point in recent memory, and as a result, many Americans fear the prospect of organized political violence well beyond what we saw on Jan. 6, 2021.

There is, however, a serious problem with this narrative: The Civil War we fought in the 19th century was not sparked by division qua division.

White Americans had been divided over slavery for 50 years before the crisis that led to war in 1861. The Missouri crisis of 1820, the nullification crisis of 1832, the conflict over the 1846 war with Mexico and the Compromise of 1850 all reflect the degree to which American politics rested on a sectional divide over the future of the slave system.

What made the 1850s different was the extent to which that division threatened the political economy of slavery. At the start of the decade, the historian Matthew Karp writes in This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy, slaveholding power and slaveholding confidence seemed at their zenith, the result of spiking global demand for cotton and the dependence of the entire industrial world on a commodity that only American slaves could produce with profit.

But with power came backlash. Over the course of the decade, Karp notes, slavery was prohibited in the Pacific states, came under attack in Kansas and appeared unable to attach itself to any of the great open spaces of the new Southwest. The growth of an avowedly antislavery public in the North wasnt just a challenge to the political influence of the slaveholding South; it also threatened to undermine the slave economy itself and thus the economic basis for Southern power.
The Encores! series at New York City Center has, a program for the new season reads, staged weeklong revivals of rarely seen musicals from the Broadway canon for nearly three decades. It does such a great job that a revival can jump the rails back to Broadway: The current run of Chicago started as an Encores! revival and has been going (minus the pandemic break) for around a quarter century. The three Encores! shows each year have become a kind of ritual for many New York theatergoers, and the appeal is obvious: Every now and then, its both entertaining and edifying to dust off an old show and give it another look.

But the artistic director of Encores!, Lear deBessonet, named to that role shortly before the pandemic, appears to have something a bit different in mind. Quoted in the program, she said Encores!:

had been this gorgeous archaeological site that had been perfectly excavated. So, whats next? The question that had always been there but became the most urgent was, How do we decide when we give audiences a second look at a show? Almost zero shows written before the 21st century have a worldview and politics that sit well with a contemporary viewer, so what is the criteria? I love that question.

Im not sure I do.

Nor what the producing creative director, Clint Ramos, had to say: Im excited to be bringing a practitioners point of view as well as a social justice approach. He added, History is written by the powerful, so its not just about looking back but how we look back. With The Tap Dance Kid  this seasons first production  we are expanding the definition of a hidden gem. Its director, Kenny Leon, said, You have to speak to the audience sitting in the seats today because were not creating museum pieces.

As if a museum piece were inherently a mistake. Even though museum pieces are pretty much what Encores! has been pulling out of the proverbial crates all these years  indeed, museum pieces is what Encores! implies. But per deBessonet, We knew that the mission was going to grow into its next stage of evolution. In other words, apparently, Encores! hasnt been woke enough, and the job is to correct this supposed flaw.

In The Tap Dance Kid  based on Louise Fitzhughs novel Nobodys Family Is Going to Change and staged on Broadway in 1983  about an upper-middle-class Black family, one of the leads is a nerdy and heavier-set teenage daughter who wants to be a lawyer. The problems that the character, Emma, encounters because of her size were inherent to the plot and woven into the lyrics of her songs. In Four Strikes Against Me, she sings: Four strikes against me/Why dont they open their eyes?/Its the worst rotten luck being hopelessly stuck/with my gender, my color, my age and my size. Her challenges arent identical to those I had growing up, but the Emma of the novel was the closest literary analog that I had as a nerdy, awkward Black teenager myself. Legions of Black kids in the 1970s and 80s could relate.
Two summers ago, while snorkeling in the marshy streams of the Tollense River on Germanys Baltic coast, a 51-year-old truck driver named Ronald Borgwardt made a startling discovery.

Poking around in the peat, he picked up a six-inch-tall bronze figurine with an egg-shaped head, looped arms, knobby breasts and a nose that would make an anteater envious.

The statuette, sporting a belt and a neck ring, was only the second of its kind unearthed in Germany, though the 13th found near the Baltic Sea. The first turned up around 1840. All are similar in shape and proportion.

The most recent statuette poses an archaeological riddle, said Thomas Terberger, an archaeologist and head of research at the Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage, in Germany. What was it, how did it get there and what was it used for?
It could arrive at the delta by late May or early June. Ingenuity will try to stay ahead of Perseverance.

The helicopter flies faster than the rover can drive, but after each flight, its solar panels have to soak up several days of sunshine to recharge the batteries. Perseverance, powered by the heat from a hunk of plutonium, can drive day after day after day.

The helicopter, however, might be able to take a shortcut across the sand dunes.

Were planning to get to the delta, Mr. Tzanetos said. And were discussing what happens beyond the river delta.

But, he added that every day could be the last for Ingenuity, which was designed to last only a month. You hope that youre lucky enough to keep flying, he said, and were going to keep that streak going for as long as we can.

Once Perseverance gets to the delta, the most electrifying discovery would be images of what looked to be microscopic fossils. In that case, we have to start asking whether some globs of organic matter are arranged in a shape that outlines a cell, said Tanja Bosak, a geobiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It is unlikely Perseverance will see anything that is unequivocally a remnant of a living organism. That is why it is crucial for the rocks to be brought to Earth for closer examination.

Dr. Bosak does not have a strong opinion on whether there was ever life on Mars.

We are really trying to peer into the time where we have very little knowledge, she said. We have no idea when chemical processes came together to form the first cell. And so we may be looking at something that was just learning to be life.
TUNIS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Tunisia detected two cases of the new Omicron variant BA.2, a senior health official said on Monday.

"The detection of two cases of infections by the Omicron variant BA.2 does not constitute a danger for the health situation in Tunisia," Hechmi Louzir, director general of the Pasteur Institute of Tunis, was quoted as saying by Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP).

Louzir explained that the Omicron variant BA.2 seems to spread more quickly than the Omicron BA.1 variant which is dominant in Tunisia and other countries across the globe, adding that Tunisia follows this subvariant very closely.

The senior health official stressed that the health situation in Tunisia is improving since the number of infections by the COVID-19 has experienced a decrease in recent days.

According to the latest figures released by the Tunisian Health Ministry, 2,095 new COVID-19 cases have been detected on Sunday, raising the total number of infections in the country to 967,052.

The death toll from the virus rose by 15 to 27,119 in Tunisia, the ministry said in a statement. 
It wouldnt be New York Fashion Week if Christian Siriano did not host some sort of party. This time he took over the Blond on Saturday night, strolling in fashionably late with a gaggle of models and semi-celebrities.

Occasion: An after-party to celebrate his fall 2022 collection, shown earlier in the day on the concourse level of the Empire State Building.

The Room: The Blond, the second-floor lounge at the 11 Howard hotel, which held back-to-back parties for much of this fashion week.

In Attendance: Coco Rocho (who walked in the show earlier), Alicia Silverstone, MJ Rodriguez, Aquaria, Ava Max, Leigh Lazark and lots of midlevel fashion players.

The Mood: Describe your collection in three words. Victorian, Matrix, metaverse, Mr. Siriano said, holding court in a corner booth, surrounded by supporters and bottles of liquor. Sometime we feel like we are in the Victorian era, and sometimes we are in the Matrix. Is it the real world or not? Is this digital or is it real? Thats kind of what the collection is about. Is this reality now? Kind of, but not really, he added.
Ms. Ward has already filed a lawsuit to try to block the committee from gaining access to logs of her phone calls.

The committee said Mr. Mastriano had spoken directly with Mr. Trump about his postelection activities. Mr. Mastriano, a former Army officer, was also on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, though he later explained in a statement that he followed the directions of the Capitol Police and respected all police lines that day.

The subpoenas instruct the witnesses to produce documents and sit for depositions in March.

The select committee is seeking information about efforts to send false slates of electors to Washington and change the outcome of the 2020 election, Mr. Thompson said, adding, The select committee has heard from more than 550 witnesses, and we expect these six individuals to cooperate as well as we work to tell the American people the full story about the violence of Jan. 6 and its causes.

Five of the six officials and aides who were subpoenaed did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. In a statement, Ms. Cox said the public announcement of the subpoena reeks of partisanship and P.R. stunts.

My guy lost. President Biden won. But that does not make raising questions about irregularities a crime, she wrote. The Jan. 6 committee knows I dont know anything about what happened on Jan. 6.

The scheme to employ the so-called alternate electors was one of Mr. Trumps most expansive efforts to overturn the election. It began even before some states had finished counting ballots and culminated in the pressure placed on Mr. Pence to throw out legitimate votes for Mr. Biden when he presided over the joint congressional session to certify the election outcome.
American officials are poring over intelligence  both analytic reports and raw material  trying to answer a critical question: how Mr. Putin assesses his likelihood of success.

Both American and British officials say that a key element of their analyses is a shared conclusion that something has changed in Mr. Putins assessment of Russias relative status in the world. After spending heavily on his military, he now believes Russia is in the strongest position to coerce Ukraine  and the rest of Europe  since the fall of the Soviet Union. His financial reserves have greatly improved Moscows ability to withstand sanctions.

More recently, he has benefited from high gas and oil prices  and discovered that the more he threatens war, the higher those prices go.

And as Germany and other nations have looked at the wildly high cost of replacing Russian energy sources should they be cut off, it has made some European leaders more eager to negotiate a solution that would avoid needing to impose sanctions. It is extortion, one European negotiator said, while noting that Mr. Putin thinks like an extortionist.

Mr. Putin also has the benefit of time. He does not face voters for another two and a half years, potentially allowing him to recover from any domestic criticism that could arise from a punishing conflict  or the sanctions that might follow.

While there is broad agreement of that analysis in intelligence circles, former intelligence officials warn that those trying to predict the moves of a leader like Mr. Putin need to proceed with humility about how much they do not know.

Analysts understand how Putin thinks, his grievances and his anger at the West and the United States, said John Sipher, a former C.I.A. officer who served in Moscow. Now, does that mean we know what hes going to do and when hes going to do it? No, because to do that you have to get in his head.
Since becoming an independent nation, Ukraine has largely stuck with the family of weapons designed by the Soviet Union. That can be seen in the Ukrainian Armys use of Kalashnikov-type assault rifles instead of the M16s and M4 carbines used by the United States and many other Western militaries.

That began to change after Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014, with the United States providing hundreds of antitank missiles and other weapons to Ukraine. The number of Javelins given to Ukraine numbered in the many hundred before these recent shipments were made, said Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who oversaw European affairs on the National Security Council from 2018 to 2020. And now that number has increased by hundreds and up to several thousand when including advanced anti-armor capability provided by NATO allies, he added.

Alone, they wont drive Russias decisions for military offensive, but will affect the calculus around the costs and benefits of military action, Colonel Vindman said. Javelins would be highly effective in ambushes and Russia would have to account for them in certain ways, including forcing Russia to employ air power against soldiers using them.

Although the Pentagon has not specifically said it was sending NATO-standard firearms like machine guns to Ukraine, it has shared photos of ammunition it has shipped to Kyiv. On Feb. 3, the Pentagon tweeted photos of an arms shipment to Ukraine that included dozens of crates, each containing 800 rounds of belted 7.62-mm ammunition chambered for NATO machine guns like the Belgian-designed M240 commonly carried by Western infantry troops and mounted in vehicle turrets.

Another important weapon is the Javelin, a relatively lightweight guided missile developed specifically to destroy Soviet armored personnel carriers and tanks. But unlike previous generations of American portable antitank weapons like the TOW missiles supplied to Syrian rebels, which require the operator to stay in place after firing and optically guide the missile to its target, the Javelin locks onto its targets so that soldiers using it can move as soon as the missile is fired  limiting their exposure to any return fire.

The Javelin has two other features that make it attractive to militaries: a single missile contains two explosive warheads  one behind the other  that can defeat modern types of advanced armor typically found on the front and sides of Russian tanks. It can also be set to fly upward and then descend nearly straight down on the top of a vehicle, where its armor is thinnest. Soldiers require little formal training to use the Javelin launcher effectively.
Changes in eating habits  either eating more or less than usual  can also be a sign of burnout: In the study of Italian health care workers, 56 percent reported changes in food habits. People might eat less because theyre too busy or distracted, or they might find themselves craving those comfort foods that we all like to go to when we need something to make us feel better, Dr. Bennett said. Research suggests, too, that stress hormones can affect appetite, making people feel less hungry than usual when theyre under a lot of stress, and more hungry than usual when that stress alleviates.

Headaches and stomachaches can also be incited by burnout, Dr. Gold said. One study of people in Sweden suffering from exhaustion disorder  a medical condition similar to burnout  found that 67 percent reported experiencing nausea, gas or indigestion, and that 65 percent had headaches. Its also important to note that burnout can develop alongside depression or anxiety, both of which can cause physical symptoms. Depression can cause muscle aches, stomachaches, sleep issues and appetite changes. Anxiety is linked to headaches, nausea and shortness of breath.

What to do

If youre experiencing physical symptoms that could be indicative of burnout, consider seeing your primary care doctor or a mental health professional to determine whether they are driven by stress or rooted in other physical conditions, Dr. Dyrbye said. Dont just ignore the symptoms and assume they dont matter.

Its really easy to blow off your own symptoms, especially in our culture, where were taught to work hard, Dr. Gold said.

If it is burnout, then the best solution is to address the root of the problem. Burnout is typically recognized when it is job-driven, but chronic stress can have a variety of causes  financial problems, relationship woes, and caregiving burdens, among other things. Think about the pebbles in your shoe all the time that you have to deal with, Dr. Maslach said, and brainstorm ways to remove some of them, at least some of the time. Perhaps you can ask your partner to help more with your toddlers bedtime routine, or get take-out when youre especially busy so you dont have to plan dinner, too.

Despite popular culture coverage of the issue, burnout cant be fixed with better self care, Dr. Maslach said  in fact, this implication only worsens the problem, because it lays the blame and responsibility on those with burnout and implies that they should do more to feel better, which is not the case, she said. However, some lifestyle choices can make burnout less likely. Social support, for instance, can help, Dr. Gold said. This could include talking to a therapist or meeting with friends (even if over Zoom). It may also help to take advantage of mental health or exercise benefits offered by your employer. Sleeping more can help too  so if youre suffering from insomnia, talk to a doctor about possible treatments, Dr. Bennett suggested.

When burnout stems from job-related woes, it may help to request better working conditions. Dr. Maslach suggested brainstorming with co-workers and presenting your employer with ideas that would help  like providing quiet areas for breaks and personal phone calls, creating no meeting days so that employees can have more time to focus, or ensuring that theres always coffee in the break room. Even small changes like these can make a dent in the risk for burnout if they fix a problem people face at work every day. Its the chronic job stressors that drive people really nuts after a while  they dont have the right equipment, they dont have the things they need, they dont have enough people to do the work, Dr. Maslach said.
RIO DE JANEIRO  In the midst of his brinkmanship over neighboring Ukraine in recent weeks, President Vladimir V. Putin has also been busy trying to expand Russias influence thousands of miles away: in Latin America.

He spoke to Daniel Ortega, Nicaraguas strongman president, for the first time since 2014. He also called the leaders of Venezuela and Cuba. He hosted the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, who vowed during a Kremlin visit to reduce his countrys reliance on the United States.

And on Wednesday  the same day that American officials have said could be the start of a Russian invasion  Mr. Putin is scheduled to meet with President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. Mr. Bolsonaro is flying to Moscow despite repeated entreaties from American officials in recent weeks that he postpone his trip as the West scrambles to pressure Mr. Putin over Ukraine.

The flurry of personal diplomacy directed at Latin America by Mr. Putin during the most high-stakes period of his tenure often builds on ties that go back to the Cold War and sheds light on the global nature of his ambitions: to exert influence even on faraway regions. He is stepping up engagement and building ties to an expanding swath of the Western Hemisphere  including to countries, like Brazil and Argentina, that have traditionally been close to Washington.
The owner of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia was convicted Tuesday of raping 13 of his underage students  fathering nine children with his victims  and was sentenced to life in prison.

A court in the city of Bandung on the island of Java found Herry Wirawan, 36, guilty of raping the girls, ages 11 to 16, repeatedly and systematically over a period of five years.

The allegations against Mr. Herry outraged Indonesians and focused national attention on the issue of child protection at privately run religious schools, which number in the tens of thousands. Officials said President Joko Widodo had been following the case closely.

The three-judge panel decided against imposing the death penalty and chemical castration, as the prosecution had sought. President Joko signed a regulation in 2020 allowing for the chemical castration of convicted child rapists.
PARIS  Until a couple of years ago, the great replacement  a racist conspiracy theory that white Christian populations are being intentionally replaced by nonwhite immigrants  was so toxic in France that even Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of the countrys far right, pointedly refused to use it.

But in a presidential race that has widened the boundaries of political acceptability in France, Valerie Pecresse, the candidate of the mainstream center-right party in the coming election, used the phrase over the weekend in a speech punctuated with coded attacks against immigrants and Muslims.

The use of the slogan  in what had been billed as the most important speech so far by Ms. Pecresse, a top rival of President Emmanuel Macron  has fueled intense criticism from both her opponents as well as allies within her party. It also underscored Frances further shift to the right, especially among middle-class voters, and the overwhelming influence of right-wing ideas and candidates in this campaign, political experts said.

The great replacement, a conspiracy theory adopted by many white supremacists worldwide, has inspired mass killings in the United States and New Zealand.
With the Kremlin signaling an openness to further diplomacy and Ukraine hinting at concessions to avert war, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Moscow on Tuesday, becoming the latest Western leader to embark on shuttle diplomacy to defuse the crisis in Eastern Europe.

In opening remarks broadcast by Russian state media, Mr. Putin told Mr. Scholz that a significant part of their meeting would be focused on Ukraine and other matters of European security. The meeting lasted about three hours, according to Russian state media, and a joint news conference by the two leaders was expected later.

The German leaders one-day trip to Moscow, a day after visiting Kyiv, comes as the Russian Defense Ministry said that some Russian troops amassed around Ukraine were returning to their bases, a tentative sign that the threat of an imminent Russian invasion was easing.

Moscows continued talks with the West were a sign that the Kremlin was holding out the possibility that it could avoid military action and still achieve key objectives. The prospect for such a scenario was bolstered in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, where President Volodymyr Zelensky left open the possibility of dropping his countrys ambition to join the NATO alliance  a move that would help fulfill one of Mr. Putins key demands.
ROME  Catholic groups and abuse survivors on Tuesday called on the Roman Catholic Church in Italy, which has yet to reckon with the scourge of sexual abuse by priests, to create an independent commission to investigate how the crisis has been handled.

In a number of countries  including Australia, France, Ireland and the United States  the church has allowed some scrutiny of its actions. But so far, the church in Italy has resisted calls for an independent inquiry, even after Pope Francis in 2019 held a landmark meeting on clerical sexual abuse and called for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors.

Italy is an anomaly, said Francesco Zanardi, a clerical abuse survivor and president of Rete lAbuso, the countrys most outspoken victims rights group, which has independently tracked more than 350 cases of pedophile priests in the Italian justice system.

An investigation would be the first step toward justice to which the victims and families are entitled, said Ludovica Eugenio, a journalist for a Catholic weekly magazine who is part of the newly formed group, which doesnt have a name yet but is using the hashtag #ItalyChurchToo.
TRIPOLI, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday that 245 illegal migrants were returned to Libya after being rescued off the coast last week.

"In the period of Feb.6- Feb.12, 245 migrants were rescued/intercepted at sea and returned to Libya," IOM said in a statement.

IOM also said that since the beginning of the year, 34 illegal migrants died and 87 others went missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route.

So far in 2022, a total of 1,721 illegal migrants were rescued and returned to Libya, including 150 women and 53 minors, IOM added.

In 2021, a total of 32,425 illegal migrants 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, making the North African country a preferred point of departure for illegal migrants who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores. 
I am not afraid of this court, of the penal colony, the F.S.B., of the prosecutors, chemical weapons, Putin and all others, Mr. Navalny said in court, according to a video of his statement. I am not afraid because I believe it is humiliating and useless to be afraid of it all.

Russian investigators have accused Mr. Navalny and his associates of creating his anti-corruption foundation for the purpose of embezzling peoples donations, court documents said. Investigators said that Mr. Navalny had published inquiries of alleged corruption among government officials at various levels to attract these donations. They said Mr. Navalny attempted to take part in the 2018 presidential election for that purpose. (Mr. Navalny was barred by Russian election officials from running for president.)

In particular, the investigators accused Mr. Navalny of stealing $35,000 from four people, who had testified against him. In a video published ahead of the trial, Mr. Navalnys ally Ivan Zhdanov accused two of the four victims mentioned in the case of cooperating with the Russian government to slander an innocent person in exchange for money.

These are people who were brought by the hand, given someone elses money and told to make one payment, said Mr. Zhdanov, adding that the criminal case was opened only a day after one of the four victims sent a donation to the foundation.

The other two people who testified against Mr. Navalny were pressured to do so, Mr. Zhdanov said. One is facing up to 10 years in prison, and the other had been under investigation over tax evasion, he said.
As their standoff over Ukraine continues, Moscow and Washington are playing an increasingly high-stakes, increasingly complex game of signaling to try to secure their aims without firing a shot.

Traditional diplomacy is just one component of this dance. Troop movements, sanctions warnings and legislation, embassy closures, leader summits, and intelligence leaks are all aimed, in part, at proving each countrys willingness to carry out certain threats or accept certain risks.

It is a form of high-stakes negotiation, conducted in actions as much as words, meant to settle the future of Europe just as conclusively as if decided by war, by telegraphing how a conflict would play out rather than waging it directly.

Russia, by shifting thousands of troops from its far east to Ukraines border, hopes to convince Washington and Kyiv that it is willing to endure a major war to secure its demands by force, so those countries are better off meeting Russian demands peacefully.
MANAMA, Bahrain  Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel met Tuesday in Bahrain with the Bahraini king and crown prince, part of a warm welcome that provided the latest evidence of the rapid realignment of Middle Eastern politics.

The first visit by an Israeli prime minister to Bahrain, a tiny but strategically located Gulf state, Mr. Bennetts trip underscored the speed at which Israel has cemented ties with several Arab governments since the country formalized diplomatic relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, re-established relations with Morocco, and improved them with Sudan, all in 2020.

But the delicate dynamics of the visit also highlighted how Israels new relationships largely remain government-level agreements that are still far from becoming society-wide compacts between Israeli and Arab publics.

Mr. Bennett acknowledged as much in his comments to Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the Bahraini prime minister, at the start of their meeting.
Robert Jones

Robert Jones, who was senior VP-government relations and PA at Pfizer, has joined Mercury as managing director.

During his 19-year run at Pfizer, he led its federal, state and local advocacy efforts and strengthened the drugmakers relationships with PhRMA, BIO, National Governors Assn. and the US Chamber of Commerce.

With the COVID-19 outbreak, Jones provided guidance to Pfizers leadership team and other stakeholders on communications and crisis management matters.

He also worked with the governors of 14 states to assure them that Pfizers US plants would continue to operate.

Jay Propes, Mercury partner, said Jones tenure at the highest levels of corporate and public affairs team leadership will be an invaluable addition to the firm.

Omnicom owns Mercury.
Lou Hammond Group signs up to provide public relations/corporate communications, strategic planning, branding and digital marketing for Visit Cheyenne Wyoming, the official travel and tourism marketing organization for the Cheyenne area. LHG will promote the citys outdoor recreation, world-class rodeo, vibrant culture/arts, brewery scene and family-friendly attractions. The agency is also representing Preserve Sporting Club & Residences in Richmond, RI; Two Roads Development, a South Florida-based real estate development firm; and Hotel Haya, a new boutique hotel located minutes from downtown Tampa.

Clarity is named agency of record for LexisNexis Risk Solutions in the UK and Ireland. Clarity will be responsible for further establishing LexisNexis Risk Solutions as the leading authority in digital identity, financial crime compliance and customer data management. The agency team is tasked with providing senior strategic counsel, thought leadership, campaign support and ongoing media relations. LexisNexis Risk Solutions is part of RELX, a FTSE 30 company with revenues of 7.1B ($9.6B) and market capitalization of 43B ($58.2B). Claritys ideas, enthusiasm, professionalism and understanding of the brief put them head and shoulders above others throughout the pitch process, said LexisNexis Risk Solutions senior PR manager Mike Normansell.

Hemsworth Communications adds Amsterdam-based Corendon Hotels & Resorts and Montreal-based Rental Escapes to its roster of travel & tourism clients. Hemsworth will manage a comprehensive media relations program for Corendon, helping reintroduce the newest addition to the brands expanding hospitality portfolio  Mangrove Beach Corendon Curacao All-Inclusive Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton  within the U.S. market. Working alongside Rental Escapes recently appointed chief marketing officer Willie Fernandez, Hemsworth will craft a national PR strategy that elevates recognition for the brand amongst the travel advisor community, as well as raising its visibility with affluent travelers.
Taft Communications is elected to partnership in PROI Worldwide. Founded in 1983 and based in the Princeton area of New Jersey, Taft focuses on communications to drive purpose and impact. Much of its work centers on sustainability; diversity, equity & inclusion; employee engagement; social impact; health and other ESG topics. ESG programs are an important and growing part of the work done by many PROI Partners around the world, said PROI Worldwide global chair Ciro Dias Reis. Taft Communications purpose-driven model fits well within the culture of our entrepreneurial network and brings additional perspectives in this area. PROI Worldwide encompasses more than 85 PR and communications businesses in 165 cities and 55 countries.

The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications forms the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology Consulting Council, a team of senior executives from journalism, technology, gaming and strategic communications, who will advise the Consortium on industry trends and activity and provide feedback on programs and research. The council includes, among others, Google head of global partnerships/search Banks Baker, Center for Public Integrity CEO Paul Cheung, StoryCorps CEO Sandra Clark and Omnicom Media Group senior vice president, marketplace intelligence Ben Hovaness. The Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology is charged with investigating ways to restore and advance trust in media and technology as a vital part of civic life, said CTMT managing director Janet Coats. Funds to enable the creation and support of the Consulting Council were provided through a gift from UF alumni Mitchell and Elissa Habib.

Cessie Cerrato

Cessie C. Communications, a public relations and social media influencer marketing agency, is launched by Cessie Cerrato. Cerrato was previously vice president of public relations for Palace Resorts and Le Blanc Spa Resorts, a chain of resorts in Mexico and Jamaica. The new firm, which has offices in Miami and New York City, specializes in the lifestyle, beauty, luxury travel and hospitality sectors. It starts business with a client roster that includes Leviticus Lifestyle & Travel, Turk Hospitality and Rumore Beauty, an e-commerce platform dedicated to the discovery of Russian beauty brands in the US.
The Faculty of Continuing, Professional, Online and Distance Learning at Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) - Midlands Campus were delighted to host the book launch of Veterinary Law and Practice in Ireland by two Faculty colleagues Ms Finola Colgan and Dr. Lisa Geraghty. The book was launched on Thursday last by Mr Henry Abbott, Senior Counsel, Judge of the High Court (retired).

Veterinary medicine in Ireland is a regulated profession, and as such, the onus on veterinary practitioners to adhere to the ethical and legal framework governing the practice of veterinary medicine is increasingly challenging.

This is the first book to deal with the practical and legal issues that confront the veterinary profession in Ireland. Finola Colgan co-author commented that the publication of the book came about through a combination of personal events, opportunities and a meeting of minds. Finola is involved in her family Tullaghansleek Stud and has spent many years working alongside the veterinary profession.

Lisa Geraghty is a veterinary practitioner and lecturer of veterinary nursing and bioveterinary science in TUS Midlands. The authors met when Lisa was a student of law and Finola was her lecturer. A friendship and professional collaboration blossomed, with both authors bringing their unique perspective on veterinary practice and law to this publication.

The Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest currently has a student population of 14,000 and a staff of 1,200 working across a network of campuses and it will be influential in driving academic learning, professional learning, research, development, and investment across the Midlands and Midwest regions.

On the Athlone Campus, the Faculty of Continuing, Professional, Online and Distance Learning continues to work closely with industry. The objective to ensure that they deliver relevant learning opportunities meeting both learner and industry skill demands not only in the region but also, nationally, as all its programmes are delivered in a flexible manner online. Currently, there are over 1500 students studying online with the Faculty, representing some 681 companies, across 29 counties.
Ireland is set to be hit by two storms this week with Storm Dudley set to hit on Wednesday and Thursday with Storm Eunice forecast to follow on Friday.

Met Eireann has already issued Weather Warnings for Ireland for Storm Dudley with damaging winds expected across the country.

CLICK ON THE LINK TO READ MORE ON THE WEATHER WARNINGS

However while Storm Dudley is set to bring wind and rain, a forecaster is warning that Storm Eunice could also bring accumulations of snow when it hits Ireland on Friday.

In a post this evening, Weather Alerts Ireland says there is a risk of 'a decent snowfall' associated with Storm Eunice depending on on the path of the storm. It also says that the evening ECMWF model is showing destructive winds with gusts over 150km/h in some areas of the South West on Friday. Read more in the post below.

In its forecast for, Met Eireann says Friday will be a cold and very windy or stormy day with outbreaks of rain, sleet and hill snow. Some snow at lower levels too especially in the north and west.
Eight separate warnings have been issued as Storm Dudley tracks across the Atlantic before it hits Ireland on Wednesday and Thursday.

Met Eireann has issued six warning for Ireland and the seas around the island while the Met Office has issued two warnings for Northern Ireland.

Storm Dudley is expected to bring damaging winds to parts of the island through Wednesday and Thursday.

Met Eireann has issued a Status Orange Wind Warning for Donegal stating that westerly winds associated with Storm Dudley will reach mean speeds of 65  80km/h with damaging gusts of 100  130km/h, stronger on exposed coasts and on high ground. A combination of high tide and strong winds will lead to some coastal flooding.

That warning comes into effect at 9pm on Wednesday and remains in place until 9am on Thursday.

A Status Yellow Wind Warning has been issued for the rest of the country which comes into place at noon on Wednesday and runs until noon on Thursday.

It states that westerly winds associated with Storm Dudley will reach mean speeds of 50  65km/h with damaging gusts of 80  110km/h, stronger on exposed coasts and on high ground. A combination of high tide and strong winds will lead to flooding on exposed coasts.

The UK Met Office has issued an Amber Wind Warning for Antrim and Derry which says that Storm Dudley is expected to affect the UK on Wednesday night and Thursday, bringing a period of very strong and disruptive winds. That warning is valid from 6pm on Wednesday until 9am on Thursday.

The UK Met Office has also issued as Yellow Wind Warning for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry from 3pm on Wednesday until 6pm on Thursday.

Met Eireann has also issued four Marine Warnings

A Status Orange Storm Warning states that westerly winds will occasionally reach storm force 10 on Irish coastal waters from Rossan Point to Bloody Foreland to Fair Head. That warning comes into effect at 9pm on Wednesday and runs until 9am on Thursday.

There is also a small Craft warning for all coasts of Ireland with westerly winds will reach force 6 or higher on all Irish Coasts. That warning is from 5pm on Tuesday until 11pm on Wednesday.

Met Eireann has also issued two Status Yellow Gales Warnings.

A Gale warning from Valentia to Loop Head to Erris Head from 8pm on Tuesday until 2am on Wedensday warns that westerly winds will reach gale force 8 at times on Irish coastal waters from Valentia to Loop Head to Erris Head.

A separate Status Yellow Gale warning for all coasts of Ireland and on the Irish Sea runs from noon on Wednesday until 6pm on Thursday. This warns that southwesterly winds, veering westerly, will reach gale force 8 or strong gale force 9 on all Irish coastal waters and on the Irish Sea.
Because of the impending two storms coming this weekend, the 'Behind These Walls' event at Tullamore Gaol is being postponed until Friday, February 25th and Saturday, February 26th.

The free event, by Caroline Conway, takes place from 7:30pm until 10pm. All are welcome.

The facade of Tullamore Gaol at Kilcruttin Business Park will be drenched in spectacular light and colour as Birr visual artist Caroline Conway projects her fascinating animation depicting the history of the mysterious building. The work entitled Behind These Walls is steeped in known and unearthed stories surrounding the building, from the individuals who were incarcerated there up to its industrial usage. This event is one of many events that will take place in the county between now and the end of April as part of Spectacular Vernacular- In the Open | Faoin Speir.

Spectacular Vernacular- In the Open | Faoin Speir  Offaly, funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, is a collaborative partnership led by Offaly County Councils Arts Office with Birr Theatre and Arts Centre and Birr Festivals Collective. The aim is to develop an exciting and innovative curated programme of outdoor events, to take place in Birr, Lough Boora, in conjunction with the Sculpture Park and Tullamore, in anticipation of the opening of the new Arts Centre for the town next year. In the Open | Faoin Speir  Offaly generates a sustained and curated programme of multidisciplinary, inclusive arts activity in public or open spaces in towns and communities around Ireland until April 2022.

Caroline Conway is a renowned artist who has been providing significantly focused arts strands of collaborative, multi-disciplinary projects in non-traditional art spaces and the public realm for over 20 years in County Offaly. She feels that the Tullamore Gaol has had a very significant and broad tapestry of events happen within its changing roles over the years, with experiences by its inhabitants and workers that need to be shared.

We walk past buildings that have a great history but give little thought to the human stories tied up in them. These stories connect us to our town and to our past. Tullamore Gaol housed Land Leaguers and Suffragettes and was where the last woman was hanged under British Rule. It was burned down and rose again as Salts and then Tullamore Yarns, the largest employer in town for over 30 years. This history will be brought to life through a mesmerizing audiovisual projection that animates the architecture of the imposing gateway.

Incidents of historical significance in her animated stories include the Tullamore Tweed incident amidst a place of Hard Labour, with terrible overcrowded conditions:

'In 1887, when the Land League leaders William OBrien, M.P. (Mallow) and tenant farmer John Mandeville were imprisoned at Tullamore Gaol, Mandeville and OBrien declared themselves political prisoners and refused to wear the official prison uniform. It is said that a suit of Blarney Tweed, a soft hat and an emerald green tie was somehow smuggled into the Gaol for OBrien to wear in defiance of the authorities.

Upon his release and his subsequent return to the House of Commons, OBrien wore the same tweed suit to rankle Arthur Balfour during the chamber sittings.'

In 1913, the Women Suffragette prisoners were moved from Mountjoy Prison to Tullamore Jail to attract less attention. The suffragettes also demanded to be acknowledged as Political Prisoners, which the authorities consistently denied.

Lays of Tullamore by TD Sullivan (1905)

"Oh, Tullamore Jail is a charming place

Bang the bolts and clatter the tins

This loyalty's school for the Irish race-

At 6 a.m. the trouble begins:

Rub and scrub and tramp away,

Pull and prick, and hammer all day.

Smash the stones and turn the clay

And mourn for your political sins"

These are just some of the fascinating stories that will light up the Gaol entrance on both nights at this free all ages event.

This event will officially launch the Spectacular Vernacular In the Open | Faoin Speir  Offaly programme of which full details of all upcoming In The Open/Faoin Speir workshops, projects and events will be available on Facebook Page Spectacular Vernacular, www.intheopenoffaly.ie and offaly.ie/eng/Services/Arts-and-Culture/.

For more information on Caroline Conway and her amazing work, visit www.carolinefconway.com
TRIPOLI, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Monday condemned an attack against a correspondent of a local TV channel in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi.

"UNSMIL strongly condemns the attack on 218TV correspondent, Ms. Mabrouka al-Mismari, on Feb. 12 in Benghazi while on duty," UNSMIL said in a statement.

The correspondent was reportedly physically and verbally assaulted by a group of people when she was at work, and her camera was broken during the incident, according to UNSMIL.

"Such attacks must be thoroughly investigated, and the perpetrators brought to justice," the statement said.

UNSMIL called for the "protection of all journalists and media professionals across Libya so they can carry out their duties without fear."

Libya has been suffering insecurity and chaos ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. 
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IRVING  The Seneca Nation Council passed a resolution Saturday requiring a review and final determination by the National Indian Gaming Commission on whether additional revenue-sharing payments to New York state are lawful under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

That decision follows a settlement agreement signed by Seneca Nation President Matthew Pagels and Gov. Kathy Hochul on Jan. 12 to end the five-year Class III gaming compact payment dispute.

The Department of Interior and National Indian Gaming Commission have raised concerns about the legality of the continued revenue share payments under the Seneca Nations gaming Compact and commenced a review of the matter several months ago, Pagels told the Times Herald Monday. To date, neither agency has issued an official report, nor taken any legal action.

The Mothers of the Nation, a group of Seneca women organized under the Seneca Constitution, commended the Council for passing a resolution at the regular session Saturday on the Cattaraugus Territory.

This came less than five days after the Mothers organized a petition drive Feb. 8 and gathered signatures of Seneca women who deem the settlement agreement invalid. The petition was submitted to the Department of the Interior.

At a Council session Saturday, several members of the Mothers called upon the Council to halt more than $800 million in disputed payments to the state.

This was one of two actions against the gaming compact agreement in the past week. On Thursday, Marie E. Williams, former executive director of the Seneca Gaming Authority, filed a challenge of the legality of the agreement in Seneca Nation Courts.

Williams legal filing is focused on the assessed costs that go beyond the provisions of the compact and illegal payments that she says Pagels buried in the agreement. She said the additional costs have consistently been disputed and denied by the Seneca Gaming Authority and several Seneca Nation presidents for nearly a decade.

As the former executive director of the Nations gaming authority, Williams said she can attest to disputed billings from the New York State Police and state Gaming Commission from 2014 to 2019.

Meanwhile, Odie Brant Porter, a resident of the Allegany Territory and a founding member of the Mothers of the Nation, proposed the resolution to make more than $540 million in payments to the state be amended to require that any future payments be subject to federal review and determination.

In September 2021, the National Indian Gaming Commission announced that it had opened an investigation into the matter, which is on-going.

After receiving community feedback, the Nations Council approved a resolution to continue holding Compact revenue share payments until the federal review is complete, Pagels said. We hope such a report is finalized expeditiously so our Nation can move forward in charting the future of our gaming operations.

The Mothers of the Seneca Nation issued the following statement: The Mothers of the Nation support the Councils decision to require federal review of the legality of additional revenue sharing payments to New York State before any payments are made. The Mothers have exercised our collective voices, and the power of our people, to move our Nation in the right direction for the best benefit of the Seneca people, our children, and our future. We thank the Council for its decision today.

The Mothers of the Nation, who are recognized under the Seneca Constitution of 1848 to approve treaties, organized a petition drive Feb. 8 and gathered signatures of nearly 200 Seneca women opposed to the terms of the proposed settlement agreement. The Mothers petition has been submitted to the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Department of the Interior requesting immediate intervention and swift review of the legality of the payments.

The proposed settlement agreement with the state, if approved, would end the gaming compact dispute, pledging to release approximately $540 million of disputed payments held in escrow and another projected $265 million through 2023.

In return, the state offered to commence good faith negotiations for a new compact, which concedes nothing, since any state is obligated to enter compact negotiations when asked by the tribe under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

In 2016, Nation officials made the decision to stop paying the State because the terms of the 7-year compact extension were silent on further payments. The Interior Department has twice written that it agrees with this interpretation, including the Biden-Haaland Administration, as recently as April 2021.

In addition, on Sept. 16, 2021, the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) stated that it considers additional revenue sharing payments a significant question requiring review. Further, a Sept. 15, 2021 letter from Assistant Secretary of the Interior Bryan Newland expressed serious concern that further payments to the State may violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

On behalf of the Mothers, Porter said, The Mothers of the Seneca Nation will continue to stay active to ensure that the actions of our officials promote the betterment of our people and our future generations. We appreciate their decision today.
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Uttar Pradesh is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 after India had become a republic. It was a successor to the United Provinces (UP) during the period of the Dominion of India (19471950), which in turn was a successor to the United Provinces (UP) established in 1935, and eventually of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh established in 1902 during the British Raj. The state is divided into 18 divisions and 75 districts, with the state capital being Lucknow, and Allahabad serving as the judicial capital. On 9 November 2000, a new state, Uttaranchal, was created from Uttar Pradesh's western Himalayan hill region. The two major rivers of the state, the Ganges and its tributary Yamuna, meet at the Triveni Sangam in Allahabad, a Hindu pilgrimage site. Other notable rivers are Gomti and Saryu. The forest cover in the state is 6.1 per cent of the state's geographical area. The cultivable area is 82 per cent of total geographical area and net area sown is 68.5 per cent of cultivable area.
TRIPOLI, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah on Monday met with his Palestinian counterpart, Mohammed Ishtaye, in the capital Tripoli and signed a number of memoranda of understanding (MoU).

The MoUs are in the fields of employment, economic, commercial and technical cooperation, as well as the establishment of a joint ministerial committee between the two countries, said a statement issued by the Libyan Government's Information Office.

"These MoUs emphasized the strategic relations that unite Libya and Palestine at all levels," the statement said.

The Libyan prime minister expressed hope to see Palestine as a free and independent state. He also affirmed Libya's commitment to supporting its Palestinian brothers and defending their cause and their right to a decent life in all international forums, it added.

Ishtaye arrived at Tripoli on Monday in an official visit to "discuss bilateral relations between the two countries, the latest developments in the Palestinian cause, and ways to support the Palestinian people who are resisting occupation," the statement said. 
Daily Record 29 Apr 2022

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The federal move to invoke the Emergencies Act could allow authorities to forbid more large trucks from rolling into the gridlocked area around Parliament Hill.
The German Chancellors one-day trip, which followed a visit to Kyiv on Monday, is part of a Western effort to try to prevent a Russian attack on Ukraine.
Upworthy 18 Feb 2022

Diana Toebbe, a high school teacher, acknowledged her part in an effort to try to sell nuclear reactor secrets her husband had..
The British government has announced sanctions against Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. But its own capital has come to be known as "Londongrad" because of its close ties with Kremlin-linked oligarchs.
The German and Russian leaders have met in Moscow with Ukraine high on the agenda. Both Scholz and Putin expressed willingness to continue addressing European security issues through dialogue.
The federal government will send Ukraine $7.8 million worth of lethal military equipment to bolster its defences ahead of a possible Russia invasion.
A lawyer says a Pakistani man sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for strangling his sister  a model on social media  has been acquitted of murder
Accounting firm Mazars advised that financial statements it had prepared should not be used. Weeks earlier, New York Attorney General found evidence of "fraudulent or misleading" valuations of properties.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said Germany "stands close by" Ukraine's side amid fears of a Russian attack. However, his visit came amid questions over the real extent of Germany's support.
RABAT, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's navy coast guards have rescued 120 illegal migrants during the weekend in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, the Moroccan military said.

The illegal immigrants, mostly sub-Saharans, including 21 women and 2 children, were on board several boats.

They received first aid on board, before being transported to the nearest ports of the North African country and handed over to the Royal Gendarmerie for the usual procedures, it said.

Morocco has long been a transit country for African immigrants seeking to reach Europe. 
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Some troops in Russia's military districts adjacent to Ukraine are returning to their bases after completing drills, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, a move that could de-escalate frictions between Moscow and the West.
Thousands of nurses have rallied in Sydney to protest their workload and demand better pay. Meanwhile, the WHO has warned that a new coronavirus wave is about to hit Eastern Europe. DW has the latest.
Germany's chancellor said there were "no sensible reasons" for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders, and urged more dialogue.
Yet hours before the Russian Defense Ministry statement about the troops, a US defense official said units were moving closer to the Ukrainian border.


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Notice body

The Korea Center-King Sejong Institute, or KC-KSI, in the Auburn University Office of International Programs in partner with Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures will host a lunch seminar on Feb. 24, from 12:30  2 p.m. in 2222/2223 Student Center. The event, which is part of the KC-KSIs Korean Lunch Dialogue Series, is free and open to all Auburn students, faculty and staff.

This event offers the Auburn community an opportunity to come together in a relaxed and inclusive environment to discuss different cultural characteristics and current events happening in South Korea and around the world, said Ellie Lee, Korea Center-King Sejongs director of academic programs.

The lunch on Feb. 24 will feature an in-depth conversation with a North Korean defector. The guest speaker, Mr. Jin Sung Lee, will share details of his experiences and take questions from the attendees using an interpreter, Hyongrae Kim.

The Korean Lunch Dialogue Series is one of many educational outreach events offered by the KC-KSI throughout the year. The KC-KSI strives to provide Auburn students, faculty and staff and the wider community with an avenue to better understand and connect with Auburns growing Korean and Korean-American population.

To learn more about the KC-KSI and their events throughout the year, please visit the Office of International Programs website.
VIENTIANE, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Lao health official on Monday called for strict observance of COVID-19 prevention and control measures.

Buaphan Khamphaphongphan, deputy director-general of the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology under the Lao Ministry of Health, said it is essential for everyone to strictly comply with the COVID-19 measures, and vaccination is strongly advised to reduce the infection rate and bring the virus spread under control.

Laos' National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control has also advised medical workers across the country to be on alert for the Omicron variant after three Lao nationals tested positive for the virus upon their return from Thailand.

The three Omicron cases were detected when health authorities conducted a random check of 25 samples collected at hospitals in the Lao capital Vientiane and provinces of Champasak, Savannakhet, Bolikhamxay, Xieng Khuang and Bokeo. The other 22 samples tested positive for the Delta variant of COVID-19.

As of Monday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Laos reached 139,244, with 597 deaths.

Laos reported its first two confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 24, 2020. 
Indian Embassy in Ukraine on Tuesday urged its citizens, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to leave Kiev temporarily amid the ongoing tension between Russian and Ukraine. In an advisory, India also requested its nationals to keep the Embassy informed about the status of their presence to enable the Embassy to reach them where required.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later Tuesday, a government source said, as Tokyo expressed "grave concern" about the risk of a
Judge Jed Rakoff ruled in favor of the New York Times in a defamation case filed former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The former governor wrote in her lawsuit that the media outlet unfairly linked her to a 2011 mass shooting that damaged her career as a political commentator.
Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 14, 2022



Asian and European markets sank and oil prices rallied Monday after the United States warned Russia could attack Ukraine within days as diplomatic efforts to prevent a war appeared to fail, while fears over inflation were also keeping traders on edge. The losses matched a sell-off in New York and Europe on Friday as Western powers prepare for a conflict in eastern Europe after Russian Presid
Boris Johnson says there is a "severe" set of economic sanctions ready to go if Russia does invade.
Upworthy 24 Feb 2022

A U.S. district judge on Wednesday said the legal team for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin plans to seek a new trial in her libel..
The family of Halyna Hutchins, who was shot and killed on the New Mexico set of the film in October, is suing the actor and the movie's producers for wrongful death, attorneys say.
A jury on Tuesday rejected former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palins claim that The New York Times damaged her reputation in a story that linked her to a mass shooting in Arizona.



On Monday, a judge had declared that if the jury sided with Palin, he would set aside verdict that she had not proven the newspaper acted maliciously  which is required in a libel suit involving public figures.



According to U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoffs ruling, issued just as the jury began deliberations, Palins lawyers failed to produce sufficient evidence that the Times knew that what it wrote about her in a 2017 editorial was false or that the papers staff acted recklessly. Palin claimed that the newspaper defamed her by featuring her in an editorial that mistakenly connected one of her political action committees to the deadly 2011 Arizona shooting that wounded then-U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords. The Times later added a correction to the editorial.



Palins suit against the Times was previously dismissed in 2017 by Rakoff, but was resurrected by a federal appeals court in 2019. When Rakoff dismissed the suit in 2017, he wrote in his ruling that Palin did not demonstrate that the Times showed actual malice. In her lawsuit, Palin alleged that the paper falsely accused her of inciting the near-fatal shooting of Giffords.
Russia says some troops are returning to base after a build-up prompted fears of an invasion.
NEW DELHI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Days after the local government in India's Madhya Pradesh ended COVID-19 curbs, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, chief minister of the central state, said on Tuesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

This is the second time that Chouhan tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in India.

Chouhan took to social media, saying he has contracted the viral infection and was undergoing self-isolation.

"I have done my reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) COVID-19 test in which I tested positive. I have normal symptoms and isolated myself following the guidelines of COVID-19," Chouhan wrote on social media.

He said he would be doing all the work virtually.

In July 2020 Chouhan tested positive for COVID-19, following which he was hospitalised for a few days.

The local government of Madhya Pradesh on Friday lifted all the restrictions imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the state following a decline in cases.

On Monday, the state reported 1,760 new COVID-19 cases and four related deaths.

The ongoing third wave of COVID-19 in India has gone sluggish as the daily caseload of new infections is showing a downward spiral.

The federal health ministry said Tuesday morning that 27,409 new cases and 347 related deaths were reported from across the country during the past 24 hours. 
An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced an Islamic school teacher to life in prison for raping 13 students in a case that has spotlighted the need to protect children from sexual violence in the country's religious boarding schools.
As Russian forces amass on the country's border with Ukraine, NATO has mobilized troops and diplomats to push back on the looming threat from Putin.


The United States has not seen evidence yet of any Russian troop pullback near Ukraine, but any such action would be welcome, Washington's ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

European investment firm Life Science Partners (LSP) announced that it has raised over 1B ($1.13bn) for its flagship fund LSP 7.

According to a press release from the Amsterdam-based firm that provides finance for life sciences and health care companies, LSP 7 is the largest life sciences venture capital fund ever raised in Europe to date.

The fund aims to invest in companies developing new drug therapies and medical technologies, to help ensure that their scientific innovations benefit patients. With the LSP 7 fund, the Dutch firm plans to invest in 15 to 20 companies developing new drug therapies and medical technologies. To date, LSP has already invested in four companies.

In November of last year, LSP announced that it had raised EUR 850 million for LSP 7 and that it is intending to join forces with EQT, one of the largest European and top-ten global private equity firms.

''Just one day after the announcement of our partnership with EQT, a large investor decided to pursue a EUR 150 million investment in LSP 7, bringing the fund straight to the maximum size (hard cap) of EUR 1 billion. This investment immediately validates a key rationale for joining EQT: with EQT, we expect that we will be able to raise large funds much faster, serving the life sciences in Europe even better than before,'' said Rene Kuijten, managing partner of LSP and incoming head of EQT Life Sciences.

LSP 7 is, among others, backed by fiv......................

To view our full article Click here
Ottumwa, IA (52501)

Today

Cloudy with occasional light rain...mainly in the morning. High 51F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low 38F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.
ELDON [mdash] A graveside memorial service, with military honors, will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, 2022, at the Eldon Cemetery in Eldon, IA for Charles and Irene Stribling. Family and friends are welcome to attend.
SYDNEY, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A large crocodile that had outworn its welcome among increasingly anxious residents of Australia's tropical far north has been caught and is awaiting its new home.

The 3.8-metre mature male was carefully removed from the Herbert River in Queensland and transported to the city of Townsville earlier this week, to ultimately join one of the state's crocodile farms or zoos.

Queensland Department of Environment and Science (DES) wildlife officers said the "saltie" -- which is what locals call the saltwater variety of the world's largest living reptile -- had become a "problem" in recent weeks having twice approached people along the riverbank.

"Salties can be very aggressive, much more so than the freshwater variety which are generally more docile," DES wildlife operations manager Mike Joyce told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"So we start to become concerned when they grow to beyond about two-metres in length and they happen to be living in close contact with people. That's when we're likely to send in the trappers."

In this case, Joyce said there was a three-person team who monitored the crocodile for a few days before setting a trap using a wild pig as bait.

Joyce, meanwhile, told potential visitors to Queensland's "croc country" to closely follow safety measures including never leaving food, fish scraps or bait near the water's edge, camp sites or boat ramps and to avoid using canoes and kayaks in the saltie-infested waters.

"Crocodiles are fascinating creatures," said Joyce, who has been working closely with the predators for about 25 years. "But you need to be wary when you're in their territory because crocodiles are amazingly good at camouflaging themselves in the water."

"If you're in this part of Australia and the water is brackish, then there's a pretty good chance there'll be crocs around...so be warned." 
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On Feb. 10, the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Energy announced nearly $5 billion that will be made available under the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to build out a national electric vehicle charging network, an important step toward making electric vehicle charging accessible to all Americans.

Michigan is set to receive $16,290,764 under the new formula in fiscal year 2022, and $110,061,712 over the next five years. The program is set to provide nearly $5 billion over five years to help fund the creation of the network of EV charging stations. These charging stations are to be found along designated Alternative Fuel Corridors, particularly along the Interstate Highway System. There is $615 million available to states for the fiscal year 2022.

States must submit an EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan before they can access these funds. A second, competitive grant program designed to further increase EV charging stations access in locations throughout the country, including in rural and underserved communities, will be announced later this year, the department stated in a press release.

"A century ago, America ushered in the modern automotive era; now America must lead the electric vehicle revolution," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. "The presidents Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help us win the EV race by working with states, labor, and the private sector to deploy a historic nationwide charging network that will make EV charging accessible for more Americans."

Each state is required to submit an EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan to the new Joint Office of Energy and Transportation that describes how the state intends to use its share of NEVI Formula Program funds consistent with Federal Highway Administration guidance. This is intended to help ensure a convenient, reliable and equitable charging experience for all users, the Department of Transportation stated.

"Americans need to know that they can purchase an electric vehicle and find convenient charging stations when they are using Interstates and other major highways," Deputy Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack said in a statement. "The new EV formula program will provide states with the resources they need to provide their residents with reliable access to an EV charging station as they travel."

Nearly every state has designated Alternative Fuel Corridors over the past six years of this program, with new plans expected to build on the existing corridors, which will be the spine of the new national EV charging network. The new Joint Office of Energy and Transportation is set to play a role in the implementation of the NEVI Formula Program by providing technical assistance and support to help states develop their plans before they are reviewed and approved by the Federal Highway Administration.

"We are modernizing Americas national highway system for drivers in cities large and small, towns and rural communities, to take advantage of the benefits of driving electric," U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement. "The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping states to make electric vehicle charging more accessible by building the necessary infrastructure for drivers across America to save money and go the distance, from coast-to-coast."

This news follows Michigan's ramped-up attention to electric vehicles, as the state became the home of the first public wireless in-road charging system for electric vehicles.
Midland County is taking its first step toward possibly creating a countywide public transit system.

In its regular meeting on Monday evening, Midland City Council voted to approve a grant application for a feasibility study about a possible merger between Dial-A-Ride and County Connection of Midland. Council also discussed the citys Capital Improvement Plan and its annual audit.

Transportation Study

Karen Murphy, Director of Public Services, presented a grant request to council for a study regarding a potential merger between the two demand-response transit services. The study would explore what the possibility of collaborative efforts between Dial-A-Ride and County Connection might look like, up to and including a full merger into a county-wide transit authority. Dial-a-Ride currently serves the city of Midland, and County Connection serves the rest of Midland County.

The grant request would be for $65,000 to cover the study costs, which would go through the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), Murphy said. The study would be a collaboration between the City of Midland, Dial-A-Ride, and County Connection of Midland. It would take about two years to complete the study, she said.

Mayor Maureen Donker said this study is needed for those who cannot drive. She also said the landscape of public transit is changing and that Midland should catch up.

We need to be very thoughtful as we move forward with this, Donker said.

Council approved the grant request in a 5-0 vote; however, Murphy said the Midland County Board of Commissioners will also have to approve the grant request in order for it to be sent to MDOT.

Capital Improvement Plan

The Capital Improvement Plan is a multi-year roadmap to identify needs for physical infrastructure across the community and to identify funding sources to meet those needs. This also helps guide capital investments and allows the public to see upcoming projects in the city, said Director of Planning and Community Development Grant Murschel.

The plan is re-evaluated annually, and this year the city is looking at 2022-2028. The Midland City Planning Commission reviewed the revised plan last week, with many street, wastewater, and water projects centering around Concept Five, the citys wastewater and sewer improvement plan.

Council approved the plan in a 5-0 vote.

Other council business:
Congressman John Moolenaar is calling on the Biden Administration to take action to address the fentanyl crisis by making Schedule 1 classification permanent for synthetic fentanyl and the synthetic analogues under the Controlled Substances Act.

Moolenaar joined a letter led by Congressman Bryan Steil (R-WI) in calling on President Biden to make the classification permanent.
Paducah, KY (42003)

Today

A few isolated thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 76F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 50F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Palestine, TX (75801)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms this morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. High 77F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - President Uhuru Kenyatta has begun a three-day working visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), focused on strengthening trade ties between Kenya and the Gulf state, a Kenyan diplomat said on Monday
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The eleventh anniversary of the 17 February 2011 Revolution, which will be celebrated by Libyans on Thursday, places the country once again at the crossroads
Photo: (Photo : Dominika Kwiatkowska from Pexels)

Car accidents happen frequently, and most people will experience an accident at least once in their lives. When an accident occurs, taking the right steps to seek medical care is essential for injured victims. This guide will provide important steps to help injured victims know what to do to get help with their injuries after a serious car accident.

Steps to Take After Car Accident Injuries

When someone is injured in a car accident, there are certain steps they must take to protect their rights and best interests as they pursue compensation. Taking the following steps becomes essential in the immediate aftermath of a serious car accident.

Injured victims should always call law enforcement and file a police report. A victim needs the police report to help establish the details of the accident, damages, and injuries. Police reports can often be used in the pursuit of proving liability.

At the scene of the accident, injured victims need to make sure they secure the contact information of any eyewitnesses to the accident. Getting the names and contact information of these people will help injured victims have witnesses to corroborate their stories.

Injured accident victims also need to seek immediate medical attention. If the injuries are severe, an ambulance should be called to the scene. If the injuries are minor, victims should still make sure they visit their doctor, urgent care, or the emergency room right away. Sometimes, the person's injuries are not immediately known.

When receiving any form of medical care, injured victims must make sure they describe their injuries in great detail. Medical providers will document all complaints from the injured party. Medical records are admissible in court and are important for proving the extent of injuries suffered.

Injured victims must seek comprehensive diagnostic testing to ensure their injuries are diagnosed and documented properly. Injured victims should request copies of all test results because these will be used by the attorney to pursue compensation for damages.

An injured victim should never offer a statement to the insurance company without first consulting with an attorney. Accidents statements may be used against the injured victim and should be avoided until the victim receives guidance from an attorney.

Schedule a Consultation Appointment

Injured victims need to schedule a consultation appointment with an attorney as soon as possible after an accident. Waiting too long only leads to the possibility of the statute of limitations running out. Once this time runs out, individuals will no longer be able to pursue compensation related to the accident.

Consultation appointments with personal injury attorneys often offer many benefits. Injured victims can share information about their accidents and ask pertinent questions to help them better understand their rights and best interests.

Get Legal Help Right Away

No injured victims should be forced to go through the process of filing an injury claim without assistance. Insurance companies are notorious for being unfair when settling claims, especially if the victim has no attorney representing them.

Injured victims should allow a personal injury attorney to become their legal advocates. These attorneys fight for the rights of their injured clients. An attorney works to negotiate with the insurance company and hold them accountable for what they owe. Hiring an attorney helps ensure the injured victim will get the fair outcome they deserve for their damages.
Photo: (Photo : Getty images )

Button batteries used for children's toys have caused the death of Baby Hugh, a 17-month-old-boy, after swallowing the tiny thing. Following the toddler's death, the parents called for the passage of Baby Hughie's Law, which aims to ban button batteries in Scotland completely.

Christine McDonald, 32, and Hugh McMahon, 29, tucked little Hugh to bed around 7:30 PM after a hot chocolate and a movie night that fateful Christmas evening in their home in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Daily Express reported.

Two hours later, the couple was shocked to discover their youngest son lying on his back, giving out a strange sound from his chest, and just staring at the ceiling. The couple said that he had difficulty breathing, his color was draining, and he was flopping.

The couple panicked and quickly called an ambulance. When the medical responders arrived, they gave him oxygen. The baby was immediately brought to the University Hospital Wishaw.

The father said that he found out that his son was being resuscitated when they got to the hospital.

Read Also: 8-Year-Old Girl Saves Her Mom's Boyfriend From Choking Using Heimlich She Learned Weeks Earlier

Button battery poisoning in babies

McMahon said that everything happened so fast. Their baby lost a lot of blood, and it is all over the place. McMahon said it looked like their child just had a car accident. Later, the doctors told him that they did not know where the bleeding was coming from and that the baby's blood was acidic.

Doctors also told the distraught parents that Baby Hugh that a hole, the size of a coin, had been burned in his heart, and it was because a button battery was lodged in his esophagus. The baby had brain damage, and his organs were shutting down. Doctors also told the parents that should BabyHugh live, he would have to be tube-fed, and his throat was all burned out.

A 12-hour operation was done, but the baby kept bleeding, and he sustained severe injuries that the parents later decided to take the little one off the life support. Baby Hugh was laid to rest on December 26 in Cumbernauld.

"He had fought such a hard fight and it took such a toll on his little body," McMahon told the BBC.

Baby Hughie's Law

McMahon said they searched their home and found a teething toy of VTech company powered by three button batteries. One of the batteries was missing, and the family believes that it was the battery that baby Hugh swallowed.

According to Boys Town Pediatrics, swallowing button batteries has dire side effects. The battery could get stuck in the throat, causing an electric current and leak of corrosive chemicals like alkaline electrolytes. The corrosive chemicals cause the buildup of hydroxide, a chemical that causes dangerous burns within two hours.

Little Hugh's parents recently launched a petition for the passage of Baby Hughie's Law, which calls for the complete ban of button batteries.

The couple said that at least two children a year die from swallowing button batteries, and they do not want other families to go through what they experienced as "it just destroys you completely."

Related Article: Melbourne Mom Gets 3-Year Jail Sentence for Leaving Toddler Inside Hot Car for Almost Five Hours
The La Paz County Supervisors want to name Interstate 10 in La Paz County after La Paz County Sheriffs Sgt. Michael Rudd (above). In October, Rudd became the first La Paz County Sheriffs Deputy to be killed in the line of duty.
The Western Area Power Administration transmission lines from Parker Dam are seen near the Emerald Canyon Golf Course. The County Board of Supervisors has sent a letter to WAPA supporting a plan to relocate the power lines away from the Parker Strip.
TUESDAY, Feb. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Fully vaccinated U.S. workers at Amazon and Walmart will no longer have to wear masks unless local or state laws require them.

Walmart's announcement last Friday to its 1.6 million U.S. workers said masks will still be required for unvaccinated staff and those in its health clinics and pharmacies, CBS News reported.

"Though vaccinated associates are no longer required to wear a mask in our facilities, we support and respect an individual's choice to continue wearing one," the company's memo to employees stated.

Walmart also said its COVID-19 emergency leave policy, which provides more paid sick leave for coronavirus-linked absences will end on March 31, CBS News reported.

In July 2020, Walmart first mandated face coverings, then dropped the rule for fully vaccinated workers in May 2021 before returning to a mask mandate as infections climbed due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

Last week, Amazon also told fully vaccinated employees they can work without a mask depending on local regulations and "based on guidance from public health authorities as well as our own medical experts."

The company also said that as of Friday, only workers who have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine will be entitled to paid leave due to COVID-19, and only those who are fully vaccinated will have access to the benefit as of March 18, CBS News reported.

The two retail giants' mask policy changes come as a number of states scrap mask mandates as Omicron cases and hospitalizations decline.

However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still advises masking in public indoor settings in high-transmission areas, which still includes most of the United States, CBS News reported.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on masks.

SOURCE: CBS News
SKOPJE, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Random COVID-19 testing kicked off across North Macedonia on Monday, in order to determine the percentage of the population that is immunized against the virus.

According to the country's Health Minister Bekim Sali, the random serology testing will show "the real immunity of the population against the virus."

Sali said that a total of 41 percent of the population has been vaccinated, but natural infection could have immunized 60 percent of citizens.

The Health Ministry said on Monday that the random testing will begin in the capital city of Skopje, and later be extended to other cities across the country.

Meanwhile, the Media Information Agency (MIA) reported on Monday that around 1,000 people in Skopje will be tested, and 2,000-3,000 people nationwide.

Last week, the Chairman of the Commission for Infectious Diseases, Aleksandar Petlichkovski, said that COVID-19 testing conducted a year ago showed that about 30 percent of respondents had some level of immunity.

On Monday, the Health Ministry reported a total of 465 new COVID-19 cases and 20 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to 287,481, with 269,014 recoveries and 8,768 fatalities. 
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A new rumor circulating in South Korea today claims that Samsung's next-gen Galaxy Z Fold 4 will introduce a built-in S Pen slot.

Sources have told The Elec that Samsungs Galaxy Z Fold 4 launching later this year will have a designated slot for the S Pen stylus and come with a similar screen size as its predecessor the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

While last year's Galaxy Z Fold 3 which launched last year with S Pen support, it didnt have a designated slot on the device to house the stylus. Rather, Samsung sold a separate cover accessory that could be used to attach the S Pen on it.

Fold 3 sold fewer models than its sister phone Galaxy Z Flip 3 last year, but the integration of the S Pen is expected to narrow the gap. Samsung is expecting the integration of the S Pen on the Fold 4 to be a big selling point, the sources said.



Last April Patently Apple posted a Samsung patent report laying out how the next-gen Galaxy Z Fold would work with their S Pen.

Over the weekend, Patently Apple discovered a new patent filing by Samsung that illustrated a future Galaxy Z Fold smartphone with a built-in S Pen Slot as presented below in patent FIG. 5B, backing today's rumor from The Elec. The image was found in Samsung's Korean patent application number 1020200124099.

Lastly, Samsung has been reviewing applying an active electrostatic solution for the Galaxy Z Fold, which wont require a digitizer. This solution is used by Apple for their Apple Pencil. For more, read the full report by The Elec.
Fellow Pagan Lynne Cantwell asked how we can explain Paganism to those who are genuinely curious but religiously ignorant.

I had a friend ask me if what I did was actually a religion. She thought it was a philosophy or an ideology or something. I explained that no, its a religion, even though we dont have a holy book or brick-and-mortar churches, and that I follow several Gods. Im not sure she got it. A lot of these folks profess to be atheists and are quite antagonistic toward Christianity. I dont want to get too deep into theology, lest I be accused of proselytizing  which I have no interest in doing. But theyre asking. And it frustrates me that they see only two options: believe in the Christian God or believe in nothing.

Lynnes take on Paganism is here.

My first impulse is to hand these people a copy of my book The Path of Paganism. It is, as the subtitle indicates, an experienced-based guide to modern Pagan practice, and it does a good job of building a case for why Paganism is a meaningful, helpful, and reasonable religion.

However, most people who ask what is Paganism? arent looking to read a book. They want you to explain everything in under a minute. They want a creed, or perhaps a mission statement.

For those who demand a sound bite answer, I say that Paganism is 1) seeing the Divine as many Gods of all genders, not just one male God, 2) seeing the Divine in the rhythms and cycles of Nature, and 3) a resonance with the beliefs and practices of our pre-Christian ancestors.

Still, theres no way to truly describe an entire religion in under 50 words. So for those who are willing to have a conversation over a glass of wine or a cup of tea, I offer this guide to explaining Paganism to those who are genuinely curious (i.e.  they want to learn for the sake of learning, not so they can proselytize) but who have some inaccurate and unhelpful assumptions about what religion is and isnt.

Christianity is not the standard for all religions!

The only religion most people in the West know is Christianity. In the U.S., they mostly only know Protestant Christianity, with its emphasis on the authority of the Bible and the primacy of belief. And so when they encounter a new religion, their first question is what do they believe? and their second question is what is their holy book?

Some years ago, I spent several minutes explaining Paganism to someone. I talked about many Gods and the divine in Nature. I talked about the Sun and the Moon, the land and sky and sea. I described how my daily practice connects me to my Gods, to my ancestors, and to the land where I am.

At the end of all this, he said what I really want to know is how does Paganism say you get to heaven?

Terminology aside, he assumed that the goal of any religion is ending up in the good place after you die and staying out of the bad place. As though there are only two possibilities. As though the afterlife is more important than this life.

You will occasionally see people saying that Buddhism isnt a religion because it doesnt have a God. Youll see other people saying Islam isnt a religion, although thats usually driven by political ideology. More subtly, youll see anthropologists and other social scientists describing tribal beliefs and practices as superstitions rather than as actual religions (most contemporary social scientists do better, but much of the late 19th and early 20th century work that was helpful to the modern Pagan movement is guilty of this).

Even Christianity is not monolithic. Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics, and the United Church of Christ are all part of the Christian tradition, but they believe and do very different things.

So the first thing people need to learn is that religion is much broader than what theyve always assumed it is.

Religion is about what you do, who you are, and whose you are

Belief has a place in religion. But for most people in most of the world throughout most of history, religion is not about which set of supernatural propositions you affirm and which ones you reject. Rather, religion is about what you do, who you are, and whose you are.

What you believe is important. Whats more important is what those beliefs motivate you to do: especially how they motivate you to live in harmony with Nature, and with your fellow humans.

Our religion tells us who we are. Paganism tells us that we were not placed on the Earth, we grew out of the Earth. The Earth is our Mother. We are one part of Nature: not the head and not the center, but one part among many.

Our religion tells us whose we are  it tells us where we belong. Paganism says we belong to our ancestors, without whom we would not be. It says we belong to the Earth from whence we came, to the Sun that sustains all life, and to the Moon that fascinates and inspires us. Most importantly, it says we belong to each other: to our families of blood and of choice, to our communities, and to all of Life.

The Four Centers of Paganism

Paganism is like Christianity in that it has many different variations. Some years ago several of us took a religious studies approach to figure out how we could best define Paganism. We came to the conclusion that while you cant define Paganism, you can describe it.

Paganism isnt an institution  its a movement. Institutions have boundaries  movements have centers (ideas and concepts people gather around) and directions (where theyre moving). John Halstead came up with the idea that Paganism has four centers  others took that idea and expanded on it. This post from 2014 titled The Four Centers of Paganism describes it in depth and links to other posts on the four centers.

Each center of Paganism is a place where people find the Divine, however they understand it.

Nature-centered Pagans find the Divine in Nature  their primary concern is the natural world and our relationship with it. They may be theists or non-theists. It includes animism, the idea that everything is not a thing but a person, who we can relate to as persons. It has a strong respect for science, and a strong concern for the Earth.

Deity-centered Pagans find the Divine in the Many Gods  their primary concern is forming and maintaining relationships with the Gods, ancestors, and spirits, through acts of devotion: worship, offerings, prayer, and meditation.

Self-centered Pagans find the Divine within  their primary concern is to make themselves stronger, wiser, more compassionate, and more magical, so they can be of greater service to the world.

Community-centered Pagans find the Divine within the family and the community  their primary concern is maintaining harmonious relationships and preserving sacred traditions. It usually includes some form of ancestor veneration.

When we started discussing the Four Centers, I called myself a Nature centered and Deity centered Pagan. Eight years later thats still accurate, but the Gods are the primary focus of my practice.

OK, but what is Paganism to you?

There are many Gods, who are the mightiest of spirits. They are individual persons, not metaphors or archetypes, and not aspects of one God. The Gods will speak to us, if we will listen. Such communication is usually subtle  Gods have no need of spectacle.

I have oathed relationships with Cernunnos, Danu, and the Morrigan. There other deities who I worship and work with on a regular basis, more I interact with on occasion, and still more I do not know. My service to Them is among the most meaningful aspects of my life. My life is better with Them in it.

It is good to honor our ancestors. We owe a debt of gratitude to them, for without them we would not be. Some day we will be ancestors. My daily prayer is that I will live so as to be worthy of the honor of those who come after me.

We are part of Nature. Science tells us that life evolved once on Earth. Every living thing  every living person  is related. Nature isnt all about us, and while we have the right to modify our environment, we have no right to do so to the permanent detriment of other species.

Nature is good. Nature is beautiful and terrible, life-giving and life-taking, and it is good.

There is more to life than the ordinary world. We live on after death, not forever in some good place or bad place, but for a time in the land of the Gods and ancestors. And then we are reborn into this world, to continue learning and growing.

Theres so much more to my Paganism, but those who are curious but ignorant dont need to be overwhelmed. They need to know what Paganism is to you.

This is what it is to me.

Hold loosely but practice deeply

The theological and doctrinal claims of all religions are inherently uncertain. We dont know whos right or to what degree. Some choose to make claims of certainty that cant be substantiated. Some decide that since they cant be certain, theyll just ignore the whole question of religion.

I prefer a third approach. We choose the path that calls to us  we believe what our hearts and our heads tell us is true. While we hold those beliefs, we follow them as deeply as we can.

But we remain open to new information, new experiences, and new interpretations. If we find reason to think that our beliefs are untrue or unhelpful, we change our beliefs. We change our practices.

Does your religion  or lack thereof  help you live a better, fuller, and more connected life? Does it inspire you to build a better world here and now? Does it help you deal with the immensities of life, with birth and death, with change and loss?

If it does, then youve found the right path, and Im happy for you.

For me, Paganism does all these things. Thats why Im a Pagan.
Microsofts spring update to Windows 11 is now officially live. New features include the first Amazon apps, a revamped taskbar, and more.

Microsoft will push the new features to your PC via Windows Update, the Microsoft Store, and new experience packs that will download quietly in the background and facilitate changes to the Windows 11 operating system. Updates to the Store will push new versions of Notepad and Windows Media Player, which will replace the older Groove Music app. Several years ago, Microsoft pulled the plug on the Groove music service. In fact, clicking on Groove Music within your app drawer should redirect you to the new Media Player app.

Heres whats new within the new Windows experiences for February 2022:

The addition of Android apps, via a subset of the apps available via the Amazon Appstore

The addition of a Weather app on the Taskbar

The ability to mute your mic in Teams, again from the Taskbar

Easier screen sharing in Teams, from your Taskbar

The (re)addition of the clock to multiple monitors on the Taskbar

Updates to Media Player and Notepad

The update may be delivered in chunks, so that certain portions of it may arrive earlier than others. For example, the updated Media Player and Notepad arrived almost immediately via the Microsoft Store on my PC, but the new updates to Windows 11 via Windows Update werent available when clicking check for updates within the Settings menu.

Technically, its not even fair to call the new release a Windows 11 February 2022 Update, although that may be what it will be known as. In a blog post, Microsoft chief product officer Panos Panay called the updates new experiences in Windows 11 and not a formal update. The plan of record is to issue Windows 11 22H2 or whatever it ends up being called this fall.

Heres what you need to know about the new features.

Android app support

As with virtually all of Microsofts new features, the new experiences arrived early within the Windows Insider preview program. We have a detailed story describing how to install Android apps on your PC via the Amazon Appstore and would expect that it will be the same under the new experiences as well.

The Amazon Appstore within Windows 11. Mark Hachman / IDG

Essentially, its a one-step process. All you have to do is download the Amazon Appstore Preview app within the Microsoft Store and follow the instructions. Windows establishes a virtual machine of sorts on your PC and downloads the necessary files in the background. Interestingly, formal VMs typically require Windows 11 Pro. In this case, Android apps will run on top of Windows 11 Home, provided you have the necessary hardware to run the operating system.

Is it worth it? Sort of. The limited number of apps (under 60 just before launch, though Microsoft says that theyre launching with about 1,000 apps) means that theres a lot of clunkers within the current offerings  the type of apps youd uninstall from a new PC. But apps for United Airlines and The Wall Street Journal also mean that theres enough there to check out. Googles own app store isnt available, either, without some modifications.

A redesigned Taskbar

If youre familiar with our original Windows 11 review, you know that we took issue with the redesigned Taskbar and Start menu. Youll be happy to know that certain things have been fixedand others havent.

Windows 11 adds the ability to mute your mic by clicking the Taskbar. Microsoft / YouTube

As the bulleted list above notes, head-scratching omissions like the removal of the clock from the taskbar on anything but the main display have now been restored. Whats slightly disappointing is that two of the new features  muting the mic and sharing your screen  seem to be exclusive to Microsoft Teams, not any app that uses your mic. In other words, while using Teams, youll see a little mic icon appear on your Taskbar. (A mic icon already appears when using an app like Zoom, but clicking it simply takes you to the Windows 11 Settings page and mic permissions). Now, while using Teams, clicking that mic icon will simply mute your mic.

Likewise, the new update also facilitates screen sharing  again within Teams. While in a Teams call, if you hover your mouse over your taskbar, you should see a small thumbnail of the active window as well as a button to share the screen. Clicking it will simply project it for others to see.

Now you can easily share your screen in Teams within Windows 11, too. Microsoft / YouTube

Finally, the Weather icon has arrived on the Taskbar. On Windows 10, this is known as News and Interests. On Windows 11, the Weather icon is a shortcut to the Widgets menu in the left-hand corner by default. While youre using another window, the weather icon will simply show a small summary of the weather (sunny, partly cloudy, and so on) and temperature. Hovering over it will open the Widgets drawer, which may be a surprise.

The new Windows Media Player app

As noted above, Windows Media Player replaces Groove Music, whose utility became questionable when Microsoft killed off the Groove Music Pass five years ago (!) in 2017. Now, Media Player works like youd expect. Pick a music file, play it, and go on from there. Theres no integration with Spotify and no visualizer, but there is basic functionality for both audio and video playlists.

The redesigned Media Player app within Windows 11. Mark Hachman / IDG

While the app itself doesnt list the audio/video formats it supports, its at least nicely integrated with your Music, Videos, and Downloads folders, finding my collected audio and video files and presenting them within the apps context. Supposedly, the apps also pulls content from OneDrive even with a specific music folder added to the music library.

The new Notepad

If youre not a frequent Notepad user, youll wonder whats changed. If you are, you may notice the new Dark Mode and how Notepad adapts to your Light Mode/Dark Mode system settings. Otherwise, the most noteworthy additions are multi-level undo (hurray!) and emojis (okay?).

Microsoft didnt say whether or not it would be adding to these new experiences over time. In any event, its a bit of fresh paint for Windows 11.

Correction: Although the Amazon Appstore app featured about 50-60 apps just before launch, Microsoft says that it is launching with about 1,000 apps.
MOSCOW, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Part of the armed forces participating in joint drills with Belarus will be pulled back, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

When the combat training activities are completed, the Russian troops, as always, will return to their locations of permanent deployment, the ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

The units of the Southern and Western Military Districts that have already completed their tasks are packing up and will leave for their garrisons on Tuesday, he added.

The Russian-Belarusian large-scale exercise the Allied Resolve 2022 is being held at various training grounds in Belarus.

According to Konashenkov, live firing will be held at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground on Feb. 19 as part of the drills.

Military attaches at the embassies of foreign states in Belarus have been invited to observe the last stage of the exercise. 
Google has released Chrome OS Flex, a way to take older Windows and Mac hardware and replace the operating system, turning them into Chromebooks. Its an interesting development given Windows 11s strict hardware requirements, which could leave legions of older PCs stranded when Windows 10 goes end-of-life in 2025.

Although Google is calling Chrome OS Flex an early access and unstable project, the concept is intriguing: Instead of disposing an old PC thats nearing the end of its life, you can turn it into a Chromebook instead. Google has launched the new operating system on its dedicated Chrome OS Flex site, though youll have to sign up with an email to receive download instructions.

Google appears to be positioning Chrome OS Flex for a dual purpose: a way for consumers to try out the benefits of Chromebooks, and a way for enterprises to evaluate how well they can be managed. For example, a Chrome OS Flex fleet can be managed with Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, Google says. If this all sounds familiar, youre right: Google bought CloudReady a few years ago, and used that companys work as a way to turn laptop PCs into Chromebooks. Google describes CloudReady as a previous version of Chrome OS Flex. Google will automatically update CloudReady devices to Chrome OS Flex, when Chrome OS Flex is stable, the company added.

Traditionally, DIY PC enthusiasts would either leave an older PC running, scavenge it for parts, or replace the Windows operating system with a resource-light version of Linux. Now, Google is offering them an additional option: Replace Windows with Chrome OS, and enjoy the benefits of that streamlined operating system. And thats a point to be reiterated: Chrome OS Flex doesnt offer the ability to run Chrome OS in a window or a virtualized environment, a la the new Android apps for Windows. Instead, it replaces Windows, and all of its files.

On a support page, Google says that Chrome OS Flex will be a more limited version of CloudReady, at least for now: Chrome OS Flex will not allow some system-level access currently available on CloudReady Home Edition, including: command line access via shell and command line access via teletype (TTY), Google says.

Dont expect things to go smoothly, either. This operating system is still in early access on the dev channelyou may experience some instability, Google says.

Google warns that adding Google Chrome OS Flex to an older PC may mean that youll be using Chrome with a keyboard that wasnt explicitly designed for it, so certain functions may not work or may behave erratically. Matthew Smith / IDG

Installing Google Chrome OS Flex looks similar to installing Windows 11 via installation media on a new PC. Youll need a USB key with 8GB or more. PCs will need at least 4GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The CPU restrictions are more lenient: Youll need a 64-bit CPU, period. Which is basically any processor made after the year 2000. There are GPU restrictions, though: Intel GMA 500, 600, 3600, and 3650 graphics hardware do not meet Chrome OS Flex performance standards, Google says.

The real gotcha, however, appears to be simply in the diversity of compatible PC hardware, and how it will interact with Chrome OS Flex. Google has published a list of certified models that are either currently certified or planned to be certified with Chrome OS Flex, and many, many of them are listed with the caveat minor issues expected next to them. (Models are likely to support at least basic functionality, but are still being worked on by our team, Google says rather circularly, in describing what minor issues might mean. You might run into minor issues.)

The certified models include both PCs and Macs.

So why wouldnt you want to install Chrome OS Flex on an older PC? Well, there is the substantial list of caveats that come with the installation. For one, forget Android apps, Google Play, or Parallels Desktop supportthats out, Google says. Google cant manage firmware updates on Chrome OS Flex devices, nor can it provide verified boot capabilities. ARM PCs? Nope.

All this makes it seem like adding Chrome OS Flex to an older PC is very much a use at your own risk type of projectbut one that can still turn your older PC into a Chromebook, for free. Its worth checking out before you toss it out.
Literacy rate in the country is now at 69.8 per cent, a report of the 2021 Population and Housing Census conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service has indicated.

This is an improvement on the statistics of the 2010 census, when the rate was 67.1 per cent.



The 2021 data cover people from age six and above who can read and write in any language.



Of the number, males make up 74.1 per cent, while females constitute 65.4 per cent.



The Greater Accra Region has the highest figure of 87.9 per cent, while the Savannah Region recorded the lowest of 32.8 per cent.



Titled: Ghana 2021 Population and housing census general report volume 3D, literacy and education", the report also presents the educational profile of the population  three years and older and literacy of persons six years and older.



The data on literacy, school attendance and educational attainment are disaggregated by sex, age, type of locality and region of residence.



The highlights on literacy pertain to three age brackets: six years and older, 11 years and older and 15 years and older, while education is three years and older, 15 years and older and 18 years and older.



Regional breakdown



The regional breakdown is as follows: Ashanti, 78 per cent; Eastern, 75.7 per cent; Central, 75.2 per cent; Western, 72.6 per cent, and Bono, 71.5 per cent.



Others are Volta, 70.9 per cent; Ahafo, 68.6 per cent; Western North, 62.8 per cent; Bono East, 56.3 per cent, and Oti, 50.6 per cent.



The rest are Upper East, 48.1 per cent; Upper West, 46.0 per cent; Northern, 41.3 per cent; North East, 35.9 per cent, and Savannah, 32.8 per cent.



The report also reveals that four in five (80.6 per cent) of the urban population six years and older are literate in at least one language, compared to half, 55.2 per cent, of the rural population of the same age, with the rural-urban differential being similar for males and females.



It further states that four out of the 16 regions have more than three-quarters, 75 per cent, of their population six years and older being literate, with Greater Accra recording the highest, 87.9 per cent, while Savannah has the lowest of 32.8 per cent.



Additionally, the report says that the male population in eight regions have literacy rates below the national figure, compared to females in 12 regions.



And across the three age brackets, about half of females in rural areas are not literate in any language, compared to a little over a third of males.



It adds that three in 10  30.2 per cent  people six years and older are not literate in any language, and is higher among females, 34.4 per cent, than males, 25.9 per cent.



School attendance



On school attendance, the report further indicates that the proportion of the population three years and older that have never attended school ranged from nine per cent in Greater Accra to 57.4 per cent in Savannah.



And the proportion of persons three years and older currently attending school in the Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East and Upper West regions is about twice as high as those who attended in the past.



On tertiary education, four in 10  40.7 per cent  of the population 18 years and older currently attend tertiary school, while in the 2010 census, 13 per cent of people attained tertiary education.



The report also said that among people 15 years and older (females) who attended school in the past attained JSS/JHS education, 54.3 per cent, as compared to their male counterparts, 45.7 per cent in urban areas, and almost equal the proportion of females, 50.6 per cent, and males, 49.4 per cent, in rural areas.



The Head of Census Methodology at the GSS, Dr Pearl Kyei, said her outfit would soon issue a report to explain the data contained in the literacy and education report.









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 National Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammi Awuku took over the reins of the National Lottery Authority as Director General barely a year ago but he's already leaving an impressive indelible mark at the Authority that deserves commendation.



Sammi Awuku, upon resuming office, has made significant changes in the NLA streamlining the lottery sector of the economy and providing better opportunities for NLA customers.



The Director General, as part of his goals to improve the operations of the NLA, has first instilled a major discipline in the staff of the Authority which is making them comply with the working time.



As a result, he as the Director General, is always the first to go work, hence encouraging the workers to be early to work as well.



Aside the fact that now NLA employees are punctual and efficient as they start work on time, Mr. Awuku has also resolved all internal disputes that existed, particularly the political divisions, so as to stimulate unity and hard work among them.



Mr. Awuku made all these known in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's flagship programme ''Kokrokoo''.



''I'm excited that everybody is aligned when it comes to this vision and now we see ourselves as one body. Everybody is in a hurry to go to work the next morning and it hasn't been by a miracle. We work towards it. Traditionally, it is difficult to change but when progress demands change, there must be change and I think the working attitude of the people, I say as for the politics, you can't stop them but from the 8am - 5pm, you can't engage in that...What I'm happy is that now we don't mix the politics with our revenue'', he said.



Under his leadership too, the NLA has touched thousands of lives through its good causes.



''From Christmas, that's from December to end of January, through this our good causes and spreading cheer, we've touched over 15000 lives'', he revealed.



Not to sound like he's blowing his own trumpet although he deserves the praises, Mr. Awuku also disclosed the efforts he and the management of the NLA have made to settle a conflict between their service provider, KGL Technology Limited and them.



He elucidated; ''KGL was supposed to plug into our backend but in the NLA's agreement, the NLA owned online monitoring platform. NLA did not give KGL that online monitoring platform for them to plug in. So, we did it to ourselves, I admit. [2] They were supposed to transfer knowledge in terms of ICT...whatever KGL has doesn't belong to them. It's for the NLA. Yes, Yes, we own the infrastructure. They (KGL) are only our service provider, so they have to also train our people.



''So, I asked our people whether they sent a proposal to them. Was there a training programme you laid before them that they didn't do? And they responded that no. I also made KGL aware that with the substantive that we're walking through currently, I cannot accept the 30 million this year, so, they will have to come dressing properly.''



With these facts established, Sammi Awuku could be said to be one of the effective Director Generals of the National Lottery Authority as he continues to show exemplary leadership.

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 Government and commercial transport operators are holding opposing positions on what should be the appropriate rate for the increment in transport fares expected to take effect in the coming weeks.

Whereas the Coalition of Private Transport Operators proposed an increment of not less than 20 per cent, government is pushing for a 10 per cent increment, the transport operators told the Ghana News Agency after meeting with Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Minister of Transport on Monday, February 14, 2022.



The three-hour meeting, the second to be held in one week, ended in stalemate as both parties "held entrenched positions" Mr Abass Imoro, Head of Communications, Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), who was at the meeting, said.



The Coalition had initially proposed a 30 per cent increment when it met the Minister last week Monday  a meeting, which equally ended inconclusively.



Mr Moro said after extensive deliberations on Monday evening, the Coalition agreed to reduce the rate to 20 per cent.



"The Minister said the 20 per cent is too high so we should bring it down to 10 per cent. We disagreed with that because 10 per cent is too small for us.



After more than two hours we could not agree on anything so we have postponed the discussions to next week," he said.



Mr Imoro said the Coalition would meet with its constituents in the coming days to deliberate on the way forward ahead of next week's engagement.



The Coalition of Private Transport Operators consists of Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPRTU), Association of Tipper Truck Drivers, Harbor Transport Owners, Ghana National Cargo Transport Association, Ghana Committed Drivers Association, Concerned Drivers Association, Digital Drivers, Commercial motorbike riders, popularly referred to as Okada, and the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, among others.



The transport operators earlier proposed a 30 per cent increment in transport fares, citing hikes in fuel prices, spare parts and other variables as basis for the proposal.



The Coalition said a market survey it conducted recently showed that the prices of the variables that affected its operations, including spare parts and lubricants had shot up by at least 35 per cent over the period.



They said the continuous hikes in fuel prices had taken a toll on their businesses, hence the need for an upward adjustment in transport fares.



They initially appealed to the Government to scrap some taxes on petroleum products to cushion the burden on consumers and enable them sustain their businesses.



The Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PRSL), which had been suspended from November 2021 to the end of January 2022, was reintroduced this month.



Fuel prices have gone up by at least 50 pesewas per litre at the pumps since February 01, 2022. Petrol and diesel are currently being sold at an average GH 7.3 and GH 7.4 per litre respectively. The hike has been blamed on rising cost of Brent crude on the international market, with some analysts, projecting that fuel prices could hit GH8.0 per litre by March this year if the situation on the world market persisted.









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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Journalists and media practitioners have been urged to be ethical in the discharge of their duties as critics and information disseminators.

According to a Deputy Minister of Information, Mrs Fatimatu Abubakar, the concept of ethical and critical journalism should not be mutually exclusive, adding that journalists could criticise and still be ethical.



Speaking on the theme: Radio and trust at the commemoration of World Radio Day in Accra yesterday, Mrs Abubakar said it was important radio journalists in particular constantly fed the public with the truth and verifiable and accurate information, in line with basic standards of ethical journalism.



According to her, radio should not be used to incite, misinform or force personal opinions on the public, adding that radio work was a public service and, therefore, those who were privileged to have access to the airwaves should be mindful of their usage.



They are not personal property for personal use. They should be used as impartial platform for public good; radio should be a platform for responsible conduct, she said.



The deputy minister further said protectors of radio, including civil society organisations (CSOs), should not be given a one-sided public commentary of protecting the airspace, adding that they must not just criticise the police when they took action against matters they perceived to be criminal but also be heard loud when irresponsible conduct was exhibited on the airwaves.



Ensuring trust



The Secretary-General of the Ghana Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Mrs Ama Serwaa Nerquaye Tetteh, urged stakeholders not to relent in their efforts to improve radio trustworthiness.



According to her, people were more likely to become devoted listeners if they had access to relevant information, adding: There is more to radio than announcements, news and songs.



For his part, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Affail Monney, said it was the responsibility of media practitioners to deodorise the media by being responsible, stressing that this truth must always be lodged in the memory of all journalists.



He also said the time had come for the authorities to prioritise the acquisition of delayed broadcast equipment to help sieve materials before they got to the public.



Mr Monney encouraged media practitioners not to feel intimidated in the performance of their duties but entreated them to always ensure decency, decorum and professionalism.





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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Residents of Borteyman, Adjiringanor and Nma Dzorn in the Adenta Municipality of the Greater Accra Region are full of praise for the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare for tackling the menace of Languards who have been terrorizing them head-on since assuming office.



You would recall that on the 28th of January 2022, The residents issued a statement and subsequently petitioned the IGP relative to how they were being attacked by Landguards. This petion was well received by the IGP and acted on same with swift response through the Anti-Languards Division of the Ghana Police Service.



It is trite knowledge that, the issue regarding Land guards and their activities within these areas have been on the ascendancy in recent times leaving residents restless and in fear for their lives. This situation pushed the residents to petition the Inspector General of Police. Dr. George Akuffo Dampare to take immediate steps in dealing with the matter.



The IGP upon receipt of the petition acted swiftly through the Anti-Languards division of the Ghana Police service. This intervention according to the residents was as the pervasive issue had been going from bad to worse with daily reports of land guards brutalizing land owners and property developers unprovoked and in many instances robbery.



The residents further revealed that the IGP's relentless effort to clamping-down the activities of these hoodlums who use brute force to intimidate property owners has since reduced considerably.



One resident who spoke on grounds of anonymity indicated that, these land guards were often in the company of some developers who were illegally taking lands from legally acquired owners with brute force and assault.



The Land Act 2020 prescribes a minimum five-year jail term and a maximum 15-year sentence for persons acting as land guards. Those who engage the services of same in Ghana also fall foul of the law.



The deployment of Anti Land guard Unit by the Ghana Police Service among is one of the drastic measures employed to effectively end the activities of Land guards in Accra.



We wish to encourage the IGP and the Anti-Land Guards Division of the Ghana Police Service to continue to fight this menace of Land guards in the whole of the Greater Accra 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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Lawyer Maurice Ampaw wants the state to deal with individuals who hide behind fundamental rights to disturb the peace of the country.



To him, condoning everyones rights will turn Ghana into a rebel state.



Lawyer Maurice Ampaws was responding to a fellow legal practitioner, Lawyer Martin Kpebu claims that the arrest of #Fixthecountry convener Oliver Barker-Vormarwor over his coup comment and denial of a lawyer was against his fundamental rights.



Mockery of Power Of Arrest



Lawyer Kpebu had slammed the police administration over what he described as a mockery of the power of arrest exhibited during the apprehension of Oliver at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).



He also believed the police acted in clear breach of the laws on the detention of persons in police custody.



Bundled At KIA



Barker-Vormawor was arrested last Friday at the KIA on his arrival from London and was subsequently detained by the Tema Regional Police Command.



His arrest follows a social media post in which he threatened to stage a coup if the E-levy, currently under consideration in parliament, is passed into law.



E-Levy Cake



Oliver Barker-Vormawor had made the threat after pictures of the Majority Leaders 65th party showing an E-levy-designed cake emerged.



The police says the post contained a clear statement of intent with a possible will to execute a coup in his declaration of intent to subvert the constitution of the Republic of Ghana.



No Absolute Rights



But commenting on the issue, Lawyer Ampaw pointed out that though individual's rights are enshrished in the constituition, it is not cast in stone or absolute.



Rights, rights, rights is eating into our heads. I have my rights; I have my rights will soon collapse this country.



No ones rights is absolute. Your rights is subject to the constitution of the land and must be of national interest, he said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie.



Bail Denied



Meanwhile, the Police has charged #Fixthecountry convener Oliver Barker-Vormarwor with treason felony.



He was processed for court on Monday and slapped with treason felony charges in accordance with section 182 (b) of the Criminal and other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) at the Ashaiman District Court.











Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, yesterday begun a 2-day working tour to the Northern Region to inspect the progress of projects being undertaken by the Ministry and to have a fair understanding of the issues on the ground.



Welcoming the Minister to the region, the Northern Regional Coordinating Director, Alhassan Issahaku, on behalf of the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Shaini Shaibu, expressed gratitude to Asenso-Boakye for being the first Works and Housing Minister, in recent memory, to visit and assess housing and drainage situations in the region.



The Regional Coordinating Director noted that the Minister's working tour to the region offers some relief to the people of Tamale whose concerns on housing, in particular, have been profound lately.



Commencing the 2-day working visit in the company of the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, Hon Abdulai Abanga, the Tamale Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Sule Salifu, officials of State Housing Company and the Ministry, Asenso-Boakye expressed satisfaction with the progress of work at the 24-Unit Apartment for the Ghana Immigration Service housing project, which is being executed by the State Housing Company Limited.



The Minister indicated that this construction works and other housing developments across the country lend credence to governments continuous commitment to provide decent accommodation for its public service workers.



The project, which is within schedule of its 24-month completion period, is expected to bring relief to officers of the service who are posted to work in the region.



At the Tamale Affordable Housing Project, Asenso-Boakye expressed worry about the rate of encroachment on the land for the project. He admonished the Regional Coordinating Director and the Municipal Chief Executive to strengthen their engagement with the chief to forestall any further encroachment.



Currently the project sits on 94-acre land instead of the original 261 acres of land.



With a strategic new direction towards the provision of affordable houses for Ghanaians,

the Minister said the Ministry is poised to collaborate with the private sector to ensure that there is a significant reduction in the national housing deficit. He emphasized the need to create jobs for local developers in Tamale and added that, this project creates the needed avenue to achieve this objective.



Government focus is to increase the countrys housing stock by subsidizing the construction cost by 40% through the provision of lands, service amenities and infrastructure. He added.



The Works and Housing Minister also assessed the state of the low-cost housing units built to provide accommodation facility to junior and senior public service workers in the regional capital. He was hopeful that the Ministry's Redevelopment Projects, which ultimately optimizes the use of land in prime areas while increasing the housing stock, will be replicated to further address the housing needs of the people of Tamale.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Mrs Joyce Bawa Mogtari, a Lawyer/Presidential Aid to former President John Dramani Mahama, has urged women not to give up in the struggle for leadership roles in both the political and governance space.



She said politics was a tool for leadership upbringing and if women were given the chance, the best could be seen in them.



She advised them not to depart from hard work and be intellectually focused even as they pursued their political ambitions.



Mrs Mogtari said this at the third edition of the West Africa Young Women in Politics Forum in Accra, to sensitize them on how to enhance their growth within the political parties to contribute to the development of their respective countries.



The Gender Centre for Empowering Development (GenCED) organised the workshop on the theme: Accelerating the growth of young women within Political Parties in West Africa, to help participants develop their leadership skills.



It was attended by more than 50 participants from Ghana, Burkina Faso, the Gambia, and Nigeria.



Mrs Mogtari recounted how she braced the odds to attain a position in the National Democratic Congress, saying: As women, we need to knock hard on the door, be strengthened, and make sure nothing beats our reputation....







Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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NICOSIA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus and France completed a joint air defense exercise on Monday, which aimed at testing the capability of the eastern Mediterranean island's air defense systems, the Cypriot Defense Ministry said in a press release.

It said that as part of the exercise, code-named "Talos 2022," French Rafale planes carried out simulated attack sorties over parts of Cyprus.

"The exercise involved the entry of a formation of fighter aircraft at low altitude ... The main purpose of the exercise was to evaluate the response of the air defense system and to train the personnel of the National Guard in realistic conditions," the press release said.

The exercise was performed on the occasion of the presence of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The aircraft carrier has taken part in several exercises with Cypriot air and air defense forces as part of a bilateral defense cooperation agreement between Cyprus and France.

The exercise, said the press release, "sends a very positive signal about the willingness of both countries for cooperation in order to strengthen even more the bilateral ties in the domain of security and defense." 
Former Head of Monitoring Unit of the Forestry Commission, Charles Owusu has described as an afterthought government's town hall meetings on the controversial E-levy



The government has said that the town hall meetings are aimed at explaining the importance of the E-levy to Ghanaians as well as taking feedback.



So far the town hall meetings have been held in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale, Koforidua and Takoradi.



Reacting to this on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', Charles Owusu said the various meetings and engagement should have been done before the levy was introduced to Ghanaians.



"I hear the ruling administration is a listening government and that that is why they are engaging Ghanaians on e-levy; to me, it's an after-thought...had the levy been accepted in Parliament, would they have come back to us for town hall meetings? he queried.



Listen to him in the video below





Pratt Agrees

Speaking to the same issue and on the same platform, the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr agreed with Charles Owusu.



According to him, government would not have considered any engagement with Ghanaians had the levy been accepted.



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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Grapevine information indicates that there is currently a conflict within the Central Regional branch of the New Patriotic Party.



Sources reveal that "almost all the registration books containing the list or names and particulars of the party members in various polling stations have been destroyed by some suspected members and executives with the purpose of creating confusion and chaos in the upcoming polling stations elections, scheduled for on 19th February to 5th March this year".



Read statement below:



*NPP Electoral Area Coordinators in Agona West constituency call for an investigation into the destruction of the party register*.



Information reaching us indicates that the leadership of central regional branch of the New Patriotic party has been called upon to investigate some serious misconduct of some constituency executives and members of the party in Agona West.



Information available to us indicate that almost all the registration books containing the list or names and particulars of the party members in various polling stations have been destroyed by some suspected members and executives with the purpose of creating confusion and chaos in the upcoming polling stations elections, scheduled for on 19th February to 5th March this year.



Narrating the story by two of the electoral area coordinators to our reporter, Daniel Prah, the constituency executives invited the coordinators to a meeting at the party office on Wednesday, 9th February around 3:00pm. According to the coordinators, there were no agenda prior to the meeting , only to be told at the meeting that they wanted to handover the registration booklets to them to inspect whether everything is intact. This was a surprise to us because the booklets were given to us some months ago to register our party members from various polling stations. The exercise ended long ago and we the coordinators submitted the filled registration booklets back to the constituency executives, so it doesnt sound well to us to be invited again only to inspect the very same books that we the coordinators submitted by ourselves.



In fact when the books distributed to us at the party office, we were surprised to see that all the names and particulars in the booklets have been removed from the booklets. Every name written in the booklets have been removed. This is a very serious issue because some people who love the party spent a lot of money for the registration exercise not long ago. How could a human being sit down and plan this against the party they claim to love? Angry coordinator.



Further investigation into the matter shows that an informant who was at the party office on 31st January, 2022 has narrated the events leading to the destruction of the registers to the party office Assistant, Kwesi and he also forwarded same to the acting constituency chairman, Mr. Isaac Aggrey.



According to the narrations, he was with the Office Assistant at the party office on that day when the 2nd vice chairman, Mr. Ako Mohammed came to the office. He met the office assistant (Kwesi), his Father and himself (brother of Kwesi) at the office on that day. A few minutes later the father of Kwesi who was at party office left for a meeting. Mr. Ako Mohammed then sent the Office Assistant out to buy him food away from the office with party car and the driver (Ibrahim - Younger brother of the 2nd Vice).



According to the narrations to acting chairman, when the administrator left the office, one Eric Acquah and Joe Cedy came and walked straight to the chamber of the office where the booklets were kept. According to him, He was watching the AFCCON tournament at the party office, but Mr. Ako Mohammed then asked him to sit outside because the two men were having confidential meeting in the office chamber so he should step out of the office which he obliged and sat outside the office together with Mr. Ako Mohammed. While sitting outside the party office, Ako Mohammed engaged him in so many conversations for almost one hour till the two gentlemen left the office. The two men spent about 1hour inside the chamber before they left. According to him he saw a black bag filled fully in the hands of Eric Acquah when they were leaving the office. They told Mr. Ako Mohammed that they are done. Immediately they left, Mr. Ako then told him he could go and watch the Afcon game since the said meeting was over.



The narrator stayed there till his brother (the office assistant) returned from where he went to buy food for Mr. Ako Mohammed.



According to the narrator, he suspected the two men of something unusual so he decided to follow them to see what they were holding in the bag but Mr. Ako Mohammed upon sensing that, gave him Ghc 7.00 to buy food and started engaging him again till the two men left the scene. The narrator claims that he suspects that the registers were destroyed by the two men with the knowledge of Mr. Ako Mohammed.



This narration drew Kwesi's attention to how the driver (Ibrahim) intentionally delayed him when he was sent out by Mr. Ako Mohammed on that day. He said, after buying the food, the driver told him that, one Ato Preko was coming so they should wait for him. They waited for over 40 minutes, but he didn't show up. According to him, Ibrahim told him he would also buy the food, but he will eat there before they leave. This was after waiting for Ato Preko for over 40 minutes.



Meanwhile, when the Acting Chairman enquired from Mr. Ako Mohammed after hearing this narrations , Mr. Mohammed said it was true, but the two men only came to inspect the booklets to know whether everything was intact.



In a related issue, our information is that the office keys to the chamber where the books and other vital documents of the party were kept were changed by Mr. Ako Mohammed together with some other executives about four months ago and the new keys have been with him.



Asking the coordinators their next action, they stated they have expressed their disappointment to the constituency acting Secretary and they are waiting to hear from the regional executives through the acting Secretary before any further action.



By Hon. kofi Anto

Delegate

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Founder and General Overseer of the Royal House Chapel Apostle General Sam Korankye Ankrah has called on Ghanaians to hold political actors accountable after vesting power in them.



he said it is the duty of every Christian to make sure that those we entrust power into their care, they are properly accountable.



We the people of Ghana, we have resolved that not only shall we go to queue and to vote for our leaders anymore and go to sleep, we wont do that again. When we vote for them we shall call them to accountability, he said.



They will have to account for the power that we vested in them. Well call on them to account for the promises that they make for which we elect them. We are telling them this is not going to be assignment of journalists and courts only, but every citizen of this nation including those of us worshiping at the Royal House Chapel. As a matter of fact, every Christian, it is your responsibility to make sure that those we entrust power into their care, they are properly accountable, the Apostle General added.



Apostle Sam Korankye Ankrah said these when two persons, the Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson and Accra FMs Bobie Ansah charged with alleged publication of false news visited his church to seek prayers and Gods intervention.



Praying for the duo, Apostle Korankye Ankrah said: The freedom of the press will move to another level as a result of this case. Our nation will be a better place by the time this case is over. The press would be enhanced as a result of their case.



Mensah Thompson was charged for a Facebook post alleging that the family members of President Akufo-Addo travelled on the presidential jet to the United Kingdom (UK) for shopping during the Christmas holidays.



Bobbie Ansah has also been charged for publication of false news and offensive conduct.



He is also alleged to have accused the First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo and the Wife of the Vice President Samira Bawumia of fraudulently acquiring state lands at the AU village to construct the Rebecca Foundation.





Source: modernghana.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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Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Sammi Awuku, has urged Ghanaians to support the government's e-levy policy.



The controversial e-levy has become a bone of contention between the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the Minority in Parliament has kicked against it which was envisaged to commence this month.



The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta announced the e-levy during the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy before Parliament last year but the policy has suffered rejection by the Minority and a section of Ghanaians.



The opposition claims the e-levy will compound the plight of Ghanaians.



However, the government is bent on implementing the e-levy which has now been reduced from 1.75% to 1.5%.



Currently, the government is engaging the public in Townhall meetings to educate them on the electronic transaction tax.



There are also calls for government to return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance in the stead of charging Ghanaians an e-levy.



Speaking in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Sammi Awuku registered his disagreement with those calling for IMF intervention.



He reminded Ghanaians of the attendant problems associated with the IMF loans such as the cancellation or suspension of teacher and nurses trainees' allowances among other conditionalities that have always characterized the IMF loan agreements.



He noted that the IMF isn't the best alternative but encouraged Ghanaians to make the sacrifice of paying the e-levy aimed to develop the country.



" . . a time comes when I believe sacrifices too must be borne in the supreme interest of our country," he stated.



He presented the reality of Ghana's economy as he urged the citizenry to embrace this new initiative, saying, ''we've come to a situation where we are between the devil and the deep blue sea. If you go to an IMF programme, it will still be added to your debt stock. Make no mistake! However, my thinking is that we need to encourage government that, with this money, because we want to see what the proceeds will be used for; we should set aside a different fund which will not be the consolidated fund''.



''I don't think government's position is that, without e-levy, Ghana will collapse. What government is seeking to do is to help and raise revenue [from] within,'' he added.



Sammi Awuku also charged the Finance Minister to be accountable to the citizens, letting them know what the e-levy is being used for in order to inspire public confidence.



''I believe that will also give some kind of confidence," he stressed.

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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Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt has condemned the approach used by the Police in arresting people, particularly regarding the recent arrest of journalist Bobie Ansah.



Kwabena Bobie Ansah, a Presenter at Accra FM, was on Thursday, February 10, 2022, arrested for alleging that First and Second Ladies, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia have stolen State lands.



He also posted on Facebook that ''this current judicial system is corrupt and made up of crooks and criminals, led by a corrupt Chief Justice who's struggling to purge himself from a $5 thievery allegations. Facts are sacred''.



He is charged with offensive conduct.



Reacting to the arrest during a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show ''Kokrokoo'', Kwesi Pratt snapped over the Police picking up the journalist at late hours.



According to him, the Police have developed this trend of arresting people late or on a Friday so they detain them in the cell.



''They wait till 11pm in the night and come to arrest you because, no matter what, you must sleep in the cell. Sometimes, they will arrest you on a Friday so that you sleep in the cell. What's style is that? Doesn't the Police have the capacity to arrest someone like Bobie Ansah during day time? If they had to arrest him, did they have to arrest him in the manner in which he was arrested? I doubt!'', he said.



He admonished the Police to put paid to such character.



He also questioned the fairness of the Police to arrest some journalists while they leave others off the hook for similar or even worse conduct.



''In the application of the law, there should be an element of fairness. Are these people who have been arrested the only ones who have made false statements or written something that is false?...Why is it that some people are not arrested when they lie or engage in a wrongdoing?'', he asked.





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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Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party has been arrested and detained by the police.



Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC, has been charged on two counts of publication of false news and offensive conduct conducive to breaches of the peace.



He reported himself to the Greater Accra Regional Police Command to assist in investigations and was subsequently arrested.



This follows an invitation extended to him by the Ghana Police Service in a statement issued earlier in the day.



The invitation was occasioned by a comment he (Abronye) made in relation to a coup plot he claimed ex-President John Dramani Mahama was involved in.



According to Abronye DC, the former Persident is in ties with Al Qaeda militants and had met them in an attempt to stage a coup in Ghana to become president again.



He made the allegation on Accra-based Hot FM while responding to the arrest of the #FixTheCountry convener Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor on his attempt to stage a coup if Parliament passes the controversial 1.75% E-levy.



A statement signed by DSP Juliana Obeng of the Public Affairs Unit of the Accra Regional Police said; "preliminary investigation has established that his claims against former President [Mahama] are untrue and likely to occasion a breach of the peace."



"In view of this, he [Baffoe] has been formally arrested and charged on two counts of publication of false news and offencive conduct conducive to breaches of the peace."



He has therefore been detained and will be arraigned before court tomorrow Wednesday, 16th Feb., 2022, the statement added.





Read Statement Below

Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









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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Craig James, former clerk of the British Columbia legislature, leaves B.C. Supreme Court on Jan. 26, 2022. Former Speaker of the legislature, Bill Barisoff is testifying at the trial of James, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of breach of trust by a public officer in relation to allegations that he used his position for personal gain. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Truck drivers and others protest COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in Ottawa on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. Donor information from an alleged hack on a major 'Freedom Convoy' fundraising platform suggests significant Canadian involvement despite much publicized involvement from the United States. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP -Ted Shaffrey
MOSCOW, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, gave the green light to a bill on Tuesday recognizing the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk republics in east Ukraine's breakaway region of Donbass.

At a plenary session, the lawmakers supported the document requesting Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize "the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR)" and "the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)" as independent and sovereign states, the State Duma said in a statement.

According to the Russian lawmakers, the inhabitants of both regions have been living under shelling for eight years and millions of people have become refugees, while the Ukrainian authorities have stopped paying pensions and providing social benefits while establishing a complete economic blockade.

"Our citizens and compatriots living in Donbass need help and support. In this regard, the deputies believe that the recognition of the LPR and DPR will create grounds for guaranteeing the safety and protection of the inhabitants of the republics from external threats," State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said in the statement.

A total of 351 deputies voted in favor of the bill and 16 others opposed it, TASS news agency reported.

The bill will be sent to Putin immediately for his final approval. 
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MOSCOW, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Russia's security concerns during a phone conversation on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Lavrov stressed the necessity of continuing the efforts, as agreed upon by President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden, to cooperate on Russia's security proposals submitted to the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Lavrov underlined the unacceptability of the aggressive rhetoric by Washington and its allies, and called for a pragmatic dialogue on the entire range of issues raised by Russia, particularly the indivisibility of security.

The top diplomats also discussed the schedule for upcoming meetings at various levels. 
An 18-year-old has been charged with murder in connection to a Dec. 3, 2021 shooting that claimed the life of a 16-year-old Aiken High School student.

Caleb Jaleil Johnson, of Aiken, is charged with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He is currently incarcerated at the Aiken County detention center.

On Dec. 3, Thaj Nance-Parker, 16, an Aiken High School student and employee at the McDonalds on York Street, was found in his employers parking lot around 7 p.m. with a gunshot wound, according to the Aiken County Coroners Office.

He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Police believe Johnson shot Nance-Parker once in the chest with a Glock 9 mm, according to arrest warrants obtained from the Aiken Department of Public Safety.

An incident report generated by Aiken Public Safety listed 10 names under others involved.

The Aiken County School District confirmed Johnson was not a student.

The Aiken Department of Public Safety received assistance from Aiken County Sheriffs Office, 2nd Judicial Circuit Solicitors Office, U.S. Secret Service, South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division, Richmond County (GA) Sheriffs Office, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms RAGE Unit Task Force and the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Anyone with information on this crime is urged to call Aiken Department of Public Safety at 803-642-7620 or submit a tip to CRIME STOPPERS by using the P3 Tips app or going to CrimeSC.com and clicking Submit a Tip. Tips submitted through Crime Stoppers will remain anonymous and may receive a cash reward of up to $1000.

Breaking news. This story will be updated as new information becomes available.
After over an hour of audience discussion, Aiken City Council approved new multifamily apartments to be built in the Village at Woodside at their meeting Monday.

There would be 14 apartments, all housed in one building on Society Hill Drive, with one-car garages for each of the apartments behind the structure.

Of the 14 apartments, 12 would be two-bedroom units and two would be one-bedroom units.

Since 2007, according to agenda notes, this area has been indicated as a future development site for multifamily apartments on the approved concept plan.

A few Village residents spoke out against the plans at City Council's Jan. 25 meeting, citing concerns over parking, the location and the apartments being available for rent, not just for purchase.

In the agenda notes, three pieces of information were listed based on comments and questions from the Jan. 25 meeting, with one of them being the townhomes would be governed by the same covenants and restrictions applicable to residential property owners.

Secondly, a parking analysis was performed after concerns were raised, which showed that parking for the new development complies with the minimum parking requirements.

Lastly, the developers amended the plan for the townhomes to be set back 13 feet from the road, instead of the current setback of 10 feet, 5 inches on the existing townhomes. This is to help with navigation in the alley.

Some of those same residents from the earlier meeting, along with some new faces, came Monday evening to make their voices heard.

Marianne Tansky, a Village resident, brought and read a letter to council from a fellow resident, Sarah Cleator, who was unable to attend the meeting.

In the letter, Cleator restated many of her concerns voiced at the earlier meeting, chiefly that the garages can be difficult to get into and that it's difficult to maneuver the one-way alley the garages are on.

John Rush, a Village resident, said his concern is that these apartments would take away from the residential feel of the neighborhood.

"That's not the concept that we bought into or not the lifestyle that we were looking to spend the rest of our days in," Rush said, before continuing on to say, "I don't believe this is what the view of Aiken is, one apartment complex after another."

One resident, Bill Reynolds, voiced his approval for the project, saying it would be good for the neighborhood.

"I'm hoping that we get more people into the Village to help support the retailers and hopefully bring in the grocery store we all keep talking about," Reynolds said. "(If) we're building townhomes, we're never going to get there."

The second reading passed 5-1, with councilwoman Lessie Price dissenting. Councilwoman Gail Diggs was absent from the meeting.

The first reading of the ordinance was passed 5-2 at the Jan. 25 meeting, with councilwomen Diggs and Price voting in opposition.

Residents who would like to watch a recording of the meeting can visit the city's Youtube page.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to invoke emergency powers across all of Canada to quell the protests by demonstrators who have paralyzed Ottawa and blocked border crossings in anger over the country's COVID-19 restrictions, a senior government official said Monday.

The prime minister met virtually with the leaders of Canada's provinces and planned to address the nation late in the afternoon.

In recent days, Trudeau rejected calls to use the military but otherwise said "all options are on the table" to end the protests, including invoking the Emergencies Act, which gives the government broad powers to restore order.

The government official who confirmed Trudeau's plans was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

For more than two weeks, hundreds and sometimes thousands of protesters in trucks and other vehicles have clogged the streets of Ottawa, the capital, railing against vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 precautions and condemning Trudeau's Liberal government.

Members of the self-styled Freedom Convoy have also blockaded various U.S.-Canadian border crossings, though the busiest and most important  the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit  was reopened on Sunday after police arrested the last of the demonstrators and broke the nearly week-long siege that had disrupted auto production in both countries.

"This is the biggest, greatest, most severe test Trudeau has faced," said Wesley Wark, a University of Ottawa professor and national security expert.

At least two provincial leaders warned Trudeau against taking emergency action.

"At this point it would not help the social climate. There is a lot of pressure and I think we have to be careful," said Quebec Premier Francois Legault. "It wouldn't help for the polarization."

In other developments, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they arrested 11 people at the blockaded border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, opposite Montana, after learning of a cache of guns and ammunition.

Police said a small group within the protest was said to have a "willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade." Authorities seized 13 long guns, handguns, sets of body armor, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition and high-capacity magazines.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney also said protesters in a tractor and a heavy-duty truck tried to ram a police vehicle at Coutts on Sunday night and fled.

"This is extremely concerning," he said. "There is, at least in that case, a small cell of people who wanted to take this in a very dangerous and dark direction."

But Kenney said he told Trudeau it would not be a good idea to enact emergency measures in his province. "I am concerned that there is a certain kind of person, if the federal government proceeds with this, who will be further inflamed," he said.

Over the past weeks, authorities have hesitated to move against the protesters around the country. Local officials cited a lack of police manpower and fears of violence, while provincial and federal authorities disagreed over who had responsibility for quelling the unrest.

Invoking the Emergencies Act would allow the federal government to declare the Ottawa protest illegal and clear it out by such means as towing vehicles, Wark said. It would also enable the government to make greater use of the Mounties, the federal police agency.

An earlier version of the Emergencies Act, called the War Measures Act, was used just once during peacetime, by Trudeau's late father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, to deal with a militant Quebec independence movement in 1970.

Invoking emergency powers would be "a signal to both Canadians across the country and also an important signal to allies like the United States and around the world who are wondering what the hell has Canada been up to," Wark said.

The demonstrations have inspired similar convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands. U.S. authorities have said that truck convoys may be in the works in the United States.

Also Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that on March 1, Canada's most populous province will lift its requirement that people show proof of vaccination to get into restaurants, restaurants, gyms and sporting events. The surge of cases caused by the omicron variant has crested in Canada.

"Let me very clear: We are moving in this direction because it is safe to do so. Today's announcement is not because of what's happening in Ottawa or Windsor but despite it," Ford said.

The province will also remove its 50 percent capacity limit on restaurants on Thursday, four days earlier than planned. Ford gave no timetable for dropping the requirement that people wear masks in public places.

Ford said he would support Trudeau's government if it proposed further measures to quell the protests.

"We need law and order. Our country is at risk now. It's not just happening here in Ottawa, but it's happening in Alberta and British Columbia," Ford said. "We won't accept it."

Police in Windsor arrested 25 to 30 protesters and towed several vehicles Sunday near the Ambassador Bridge. The span, which carries 25 percent of all trade between the two countries, reopened to traffic late Sunday night.

The interruption in the flow of goods forced General Motors, Ford, Toyota and other automakers to close plants or curtail production on both sides of the border.

The siege in Ottawa, about 470 miles away, has infuriated residents fed up with government inaction. They have complained of being harassed and intimidated by the protesters who have parked their rigs on the streets.

"It's stressful. I feel angry at what's happening. This isn't Canada. This does not represent us," Colleen Sinclair, a counter-protester who lives in Ottawa.

Sinclair said all demonstrators have had their say and need to move on  with police force, if necessary.

"They're occupiers," she said. "This is domestic terrorism and we want you out of our city. Go home."

Many of Canada's COVID-19 restrictions, such as mask rules and vaccine passports for getting into restaurants and theaters, are already falling away as the omicron surge levels off.

Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the U.S., but Canadians have largely supported them. The vast majority of Canadians are vaccinated, and the COVID-19 death rate is one-third that of the United States.

_____

Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Ted Shaffrey in Ottawa, Ontario, and Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.
MOSCOW  Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he welcomed a security dialogue with the West as his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine. But U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. had not verified Russia's claim and that an invasion was still a distinct possibility.

Putin said he does not want war and would rely on negotiations as he presses his demand for the West to halt Ukraine's bid to join NATO. At the same time, he did not commit to a full pullback of troops, saying Russia's next moves in the standoff will depend on how the situation evolves.

In remarks at the White House, Biden promised that the U.S. would continue to give diplomacy "every chance" to prevent a Russian invasion, but he struck a skeptical tone about Moscow's intentions. Biden also insisted that the U.S. and its allies would not to "sacrifice basic principles" respecting Ukraine sovereignty.

"Two paths are still open," Biden said. "But let there be no doubt: If Russia commits this breach by invading Ukraine, responsible nations around the world will not hesitate to respond. If we do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today, we'll surely pay a steeper price tomorrow."

Putin's overtures soothed global markets that have been on edge amid the worst East-West tensions in decades. Washington and its European allies remained cautious, saying they want to see evidence of a Russian pullback. Biden said 150,000 Russian forces are now massed near Ukraine, an increase from an earlier U.S. estimate of 130,000 troops.

The U.S. and NATO continue to warn that Russia could invade at any time as they sent troops and military supplies to shore up NATO members in Eastern Europe. Russia has denied having such plans. It wants the West to keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of the alliance, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back forces from Eastern Europe.

The U.S. and its allies have roundly rejected those demands, but offered to engage in talks with Russia on ways to bolster security in Europe.

Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures  issues that Moscow put on the table years ago.

He said Russia is open to discuss "some of those elements," but added that it would only do so in combination "with the main issues that are of primary importance for us."

Asked if there could be a war in Europe, Putin said Russia doesn't want it but that Ukraine's bid to join NATO posed a major security threat to his country.

While Scholz reiterated that NATO's eastward expansion "is not on the agenda -- everyone knows that very well," Putin retorted that Moscow will not be assuaged by such assurances.

"They are telling us it won't happen tomorrow," Putin said. "Well, when will it happen? The day after tomorrow? What does it change for us in the historic perspective? Nothing."

Putin went on to argue NATO expansion violates the principle of the indivisibility of security enshrined in international documents.

"We want to solve this issue now as part of negotiation process through peaceful means," Putin said. "We very much hope that our partners hear our concerns and take them seriously."

Scholz also said diplomatic options are "far from exhausted," and praised the announcement of a troop withdrawal as a "good signal," adding: "We hope that more will follow."

The Russian Defense Ministry released images of tanks and howitzers rolling onto railway platforms and more tanks rolling across snowy fields. It did not disclose where or when the images were taken, or where the vehicles were headed, other than "to places of permanent deployment."

Biden acknowledged the likelihood that U.S. and allied sanctions on Russia in retaliation for an invasion of Ukraine would have significant blowback on the American economy, including possible price hikes and disruption to the nation's energy supply.

"The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost," Biden said. "I will not pretend this will be painless."

He said the administration was trying to preempt supply issues by working with energy producers and shippers on contingency plans, and said he would work with Congress on unspecified "additional measures to protect consumers and address the impact of prices at the pump."

Russian forces continue to threaten Ukraine along the eastern border and from the Black Sea Crimean peninsula that Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014, the year when it also backed a separatist insurgency in the country's east. More Russian troops loom over Ukraine in Belarus, where they were deployed for sweeping joint drills.

Ukraine expressed skepticism about Russia's statements of a pullback.

"We won't believe when we hear, we'll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we'll believe in de-escalation," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that "so far, we have not seen ... any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine," adding that the alliance wants to see a "significant and enduring withdrawal of forces, troops, and not least the heavy equipment."

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated the invasion danger still exists. Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt issued a similar warning, and Estonia's foreign intelligence agency said the Russian armed forces could launch an operation "from the second half of February."

Few Russians expect a war, following the Kremlin's dismissal of Western warnings as "hysteria" and "absurdity."

In a village in Russia's Belgorod region about 18 miles from Ukraine's border, residents carried on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets.

"We are friends with Ukraine," said villager Lyudmila Nechvolod. "We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody there (on the Ukrainian side). No one wants war."

Diplomatic efforts continued Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a call with Lavrov, according to a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call had not been publicly announced. And Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday about the evolving crisis.

European leaders have scrambled to head off a new war on the continent after several tense weeks that have left Europeans feeling caught between Moscow and Washington, and further pushed up household energy prices because of a dependence on Russian gas.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers urged Putin to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russia's lower house, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect.

Putin said the motion reflects the Russian public's sympathy for the suffering of people trapped in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed over 14,000 since 2014. He noted, however, that Russia continues to believe a 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany should serve as the main vehicle for a settlement of the separatist conflict.

Putin's statement signaled that he wasn't inclined to back the parliament motion that would effectively invalidate the 2015 agreement, which marked a major diplomatic coup for Moscow, requesting Kyiv to offer a broad self-rule to the separatist territories. It has been resented by many in Ukraine and its implementation has stalled.

___

Karmanau reported from Kyiv, Ukraine and Madhani from Washington. Dasha Litvinova in Moscow, Angela Charlton in Paris, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Robert Burns, Matthew Lee and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed.
MOUNT PLEASANT  The state's fourth-largest municipality recently revamped an arcane zoning rule and a property owner wants to know what it means for its previously rejected plan to develop a three-story office building near Shem Creek.

Mount Pleasant approved the rewritten policy on Feb. 8, three months after Cannon Street Venture LLC went to court. The company is appealing a decision that it said keeps it from developing two vacant parcels along Coleman Boulevard and Mill Street.

The dispute centers on curb cuts, which provide vehicular access to homes and businesses.

Last year, Cannon Street Venture sought variances from the town's required distances between curb cuts for its proposed project. It was seeking one cut that would allow cars to enter from and exit onto Coleman and another that would allow entry to the Mill Street side of the property.

The town's Board of Zoning Appeals rejected the request in a 4-3 vote in October, calling it "a detriment to the public good" and saying the "area would be damaged if the variance was granted," according to the appeal.

The decision, if it stands, will keep the lots from being developed, the Pawleys Island-based company said in a court filing.

"The plan, in its current form, satisfies all the towns zoning regulations other than the towns curb cut spacing requirements, which simply cannot be achieved on the properties given their narrow frontages on both Mill Street and Coleman Boulevard," according to the appeal filed in circuit court in late November. "Simply put, this prevents the properties from being developed  at all."

At the time the variance was sought, the town required 150 feet between two-way cuts and 75 feet between one-way cuts, except in residential areas. The property owner was seeking a 50-foot separation to make its project work.

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The newly adopted measure did away with the minimum 150- and 75-foot requirements and replaced them with non-specific parameters.

The change was meant to address outdated standards and align Mount Pleasant's regulations with those of other governing bodies that might have authority over certain roads, town attorney David Pagliarini said.

In this instance, Mill Street and Coleman Boulevard are both state-owned, and the S.C. Department of Transportation has signed off on the proposed ingress and egress points for the Cannon Street Venture development in conflict with the town's decision, according to the appeal.

Pagliarini said Feb. 14 he has not had an opportunity to review the implications of the policy change on specific real estate projects.

He suggested the property owner request another review of its previous plan to determine if it meets the new standard or submit a new plan altogether.

Ross Appel, Cannon Street Venture's attorney, said he is trying to work with the town to determine what the change means for the office project.

"We are reviewing the ordinance and evaluating our options," Appel said. "We are unsure how this impacts our buyers development plans."

A hearing has not been set for the appeal.
Federal safety regulators will be taking over final flight inspections for all Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets until they're confident with the changes the North Charleston-based program has made amid ongoing quality issues that have halted deliveries of the aircraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration told the company Feb. 15 that it will be handling those checks, which are typically assigned to Boeing employees.

Once 787 deliveries resume, the FAA said it will retain the authority to issue airworthiness certificates  documents that clear a new plane for flight  until the agency is sure Boeing's "quality control and manufacturing processes consistently produce 787s that meet FAA design standards."

Taking over those functions will allow the FAA "to confirm the effectiveness of measures Boeing has undertaken to improve the 787 manufacturing process," the agency said in a statement.

It also said the company must have a "robust plan" for reworking a "large volume" of new 787s it has in storage and stable delivery processes.

Deliveries of the wide-body have been halted because of production issues including gaps in parts of that aircraft that don't meet Boeing's engineering standards.

Most recently, company officials said that problems found with some of the jet's doors had to be fixed on all undelivered 787s.

Handovers of the jet were first stopped in late 2020 and resumed for a couple months last spring. In May, deliveries were stopped again and haven't restarted since.

The FAA is retaining the authority to inspect all 787s for flight indefinitely.

Boeing has declined to provide investors an idea of when shipments might resume. It said in a statement that it "respects the FAA's role" as its regulator and that it will "continue to work transparently" with the agency.

"Safety is the top priority for everyone in our industry," the company said. "To that end, we will continue to engage with the FAA to ensure we meet their expectations and all applicable requirements."

For years, the FAA has relied on Boeing employees to certify the airworthiness of planes by designating workers to act on its behalf. The practice came under intense criticism after two deadly crashes of 737 Max jets and revelations that agency officials knew little about a key flight control system implicated in the crashes.

The treatment of safety workers at Boeing's North Charleston campus has also come under scrutiny.

In a 2020 filing, the FAA accused managers at the South Carolina site of putting "undue pressure" on employees who were certifying planes, "harassing" safety workers to complete their inspections more quickly and interfering with a 787-9 inspection at the North Charleston site. Boeing paid $1.21 million to settle those cases last year.

North Charleston has been the sole headquarters for Boeing's 787 since the company consolidated the program about a year ago as part of a cost-cutting plan triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The original Dreamliner assembly line in Everett, Wash., was shut down.

Jets assembled at both sites are still awaiting delivery. About 110 Dreamliners were sitting in inventory at the end of 2021.
CHICAGO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell on Tuesday as geopolitical tensions eased slightly.

The most active gold contract for April delivery fell 13.2 U.S. dollars, or 0.71 percent, to close at 1,856.2 dollars per ounce.

Geopolitical tensions eased slightly as the Russian Defense Ministry said that a number of Russian troops would withdraw from the Ukrainian border and return to their home bases, dulling safe haven demand for gold. Much of the recent gain in gold's price has been attributable to geopolitical strife surrounding Ukraine.

U.S. Department of Labor reported on Tuesday that U.S. producer price index jumped 1 percent in January, more than 0.5 percent higher than market expectation and the largest gain in a year.

Gold found additional support as the New York Fed reported on Tuesday that the Empire State business conditions index inched higher to 3.1 in February, after a surprise negative 0.7 reading in January, lower than economists' expectation of a reading of 10.

Silver for March delivery fell 50.6 cents, or 2.12 percent, to close at 23.342 dollars per ounce. Platinum for April delivery fell 7.6 dollars, or 0.74 percent, to close at 1,020.4 dollars per ounce. 
COLUMBIA  The University of South Carolina is eyeing pedestrian-friendly road improvements on Columbia's south Main Street, where campus and the Statehouse collide.

The project already has been stalled three times by funding issues, with latest bids from January coming in about $3 million above budget, said Berry Mattox, the project's manager for S.C. Department of Transportation.

So USC is asking lawmakers to help make up the difference, requesting $3 million as part of its annual budget, spokesman Jeff Stensland said.

SCDOT and the university last met with disappointment in January 2021, when price quotes from construction companies came in over budget. After scrounging up some additional funding, the agencies tried again this year only to find prices had gone up significantly.

"So we're in the same position we were a year ago, Mattox said, just shy of the $22 million needed to finance the full project.

USC's request to close the funding gap comes as the Legislature has an extra $6 billion in funding to dole out in the coming fiscal year, a combination of budgetary surplus from better-than-expected tax collections, $2.5 billion in federal COVID-19 aid and other sources.

Should lawmakers oblige, Main Street would be taken down from five lanes to two for a total of four blocks, between Pendleton and Blossom streets. It would look much like the Main Street District, stretching from the 1200 block to the 1600 block north of the Statehouse, except with no median, Mattox said. The sidewalks would be widened, allowing outdoor dining for any restaurants, and a bike lane separated from the street.

The project could go out for bid from constructions firms again as early as June. The project would take just over a year to complete once the contract is awarded.

Mattox said the stretch of street just south of the Statehouse, which once housed iconic businesses like Sandy's Hot Dogs and the South Carolina college bookstore, sees some of the heaviest pedestrian traffic anywhere in the city, with volumes topping 1,000 people during peak hours.

"All the various entities funding this project recognize the benefits of beautifying and improving accessibility and livability for this long-neglected gateway to the State Capitol," Stensland said. "The additional money requested will make those improvements possible and lead to the type of private development seen to the north and west of the Statehouse, where improvements were made before."

Though much of the area south of the capitol is controlled by the state and USC, the improvements could draw investments into the commercial portions of the blocks, much like the upgrades to the Main Street District did more than a decade ago, said Matt Kennell, CEO of the Main Street industry group called City Center Partnership.

Each of the 1200 to 1600 blocks of Main Street have seen $100 million or more of private investment, Kennell said, bringing new restaurants, retailers, apartments and a student housing tower.

"It's tangible," he said.

The construction was disruptive, particularly in the early years, Kennell said.

"But as it was completed, it really set the groundwork for construction of buildings like First Citizens Bank headquarters, the Meridian building and 1221 Main," he said, all of which are major office towers.

A pedestrian-friendly environment is what Kennell said is driving the success of the Main Street District, which also used to see four lanes of traffic, outdated telecom and internet connectivity and 100-year-old waterlines that often burst.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of opportunities for more restaurants and retail in that area once that pedestrian infrastructure goes in," Kennell said of south Main.

Kennell points to businesses like Sylvan's Jewelers, located on the 1500 block across from the Columbia Museum of Art, which he said boasts higher business volumes now than ever before in its 120 years of business.

"Infrastructure is really everything when you're talking about economic development," Kennell said. "You have to prepare the ground for development to come."

To pay for the improvements, Mattox said the city of Columbia has earmarked money for sewer improvements, the S.C. Department of Administration has dollars for pedestrian safety improvements near the Capitol, Richland County has set aside money from its penny sales tax, there's $1 million so far from USC and the Central Midlands Council of Governments has roughly $6 million in funding, as well as federal dollars.
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Charleston County School District is delaying its decision indefinitely about whether to put federal COVID-19 relief money toward funding the controversial Reimagine Schools proposal.

CCSD's interim Superintendent Don Kennedy submitted an update on how the district plans on spending its third round of federal funds during a Feb. 14 board meeting. In the presentation, his team announced they were putting a pause on deciding whether to partner with community organizations.

This announcement caught board members by surprise. Cindy Bohn Coats, a member of the board, said in an email after the meeting that they were only notified about Kennedys decision at 11 a.m. that day.

"There are only two reasons staff does not provide the board the information we need in order to actively engage in the district's work of educating our students  it is either due to lack of ability to get this work done in a timely manner or it is intentional, she said, adding that it didnt appear like Kennedys staff valued any input from the board.

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Kennedy was made interim superintendent in January after Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait resigned suddenly on Dec. 29. Before becoming the interim superintendent, he was the districts chief financial and administrative officer.

In an interview with The Post and Courier after the meeting, Kennedy said that he informed the board during a Jan. 24 meeting that he was going to make a decision on the community engagement proposals on Feb. 14.

We got 72 proposals, and theres $109 million dollars, there has to be a process for how best to analyze those proposals and align them with the districts priorities, he said.

The Reimagine Schools proposal was first introduced by the Coastal Community Foundation nonprofit on Dec. 13. It wanted to put $31.6 million of federal relief fund dollars toward improving academics at 21 low-performing schools in the district, almost all of which serve student populations that are mostly students of color.

The proposal triggered backlash from the community almost immediately. At the meeting where the plan was introduced, two people spoke out against it, criticizing its lack of specifics. The board was also concerned about the lack of detail and delayed a vote on it until January.

In the time between votes, the movement against the proposal gained more traction, with a group called Stand As One South Carolina creating a Change.org petition voicing their concern about reimagining schools leading to the privatization of schools. Politicians also started opposing it.

Rep. Marvin Pendarvis, D-Charleston, held a news conference on Jan. 10 saying that if it passed he would file legislation to remove North Charleston schools from the district. Six of the schools the proposal wanted to reinvent were in North Charleston.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey also condemned the proposal and its lack of specifics in a Feb. 2 letter that he sent to Kennedy and CCSDs school board. The board didnt make a final decision on the proposal in January, instead opting to continuously push the vote back.

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Kennedy declined to say whether the controversy over the Reimagine Schools proposal was why he decided to pause any decision about putting ESSER funds toward community partnerships.

The Coastal Community Foundation didnt immediately return calls seeking comment.

Just because putting the money toward community partnerships was tabled doesnt mean that everything is on pause, however. During the meeting, Kennedys team outlined other initiatives it planned on putting the funds toward.

Kennedys staff announced that it wanted to invest its third round of ESSER funding in providing students with more mental health support and fixing reading loss.

The district plans on hiring more social workers and behavior interventionists, and also intends to create calm rooms in schools where students can decompress.

Students' mental health has been a hot topic not just in South Carolina, but across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that showed between February 2021 and March 2021, the number of emergency department visits for presumed suicide for 12- to 17-year-old girls rose by approximately 51 percent compared to the same period in 2019. The amount for boys rose by about 4 percent.

CCSD also saw an uptick in mental health problems amongst students. The district reported during a December board meeting that there was a 45 percent increase in suicide assessments and a 50 percent increase in violent threats compared to the same period in 2019. District officials attributed the rise in violent threats to students deteriorating mental health.

The district also wanted to put the federal relief fund money toward remedying reading loss in schools. Kennedys team announced a plan where all students up to fifth grade will be reading at their grade level by 2027.

While the overall district held strong academically during the course of the pandemic with 49.1 percent of student meeting or exceeding the states English language arts requirement for the 2020-21 school year compared to 50.2 percent of students in 2018-19, students across the nation suffered as they were thrown back and forth between in-person and virtual learning. This disruption most strongly impacted students of color and those attending schools in low-income areas.

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You wont find comfort food like the Eastern European-inspired dishes rolling out of Jack of Cups Saloons kitchen anywhere else in the Charleston area.

Creamy mushroom soup with a hint of black truffle; borscht  but in dip form and served with salted pumpernickel bread; mashed potato shlishkes (dumplings) with black pepper sour cream.

And thats just a few of the appetizers.

From now through mid-March, Jack of Cups Saloon executive chef and co-owner Lesley Carroll is serving her spin on the Hungarian and Czech recipes her grandmother, a first generation immigrant from Czechoslovakia, cooked when Carroll was growing up.

Appetizers include vegan meatballs with sauerkraut; Hungarian cabbage salad; that warming mushroom soup, which serves as an ideal companion on a chilly day; and the bright pink borscht dip, a light and airy contrast to the heartier beet soup of the same name thats a staple in Eastern Europe.

For entrees, Carroll is serving options like bean goulash, her personal favorite; halupki, or braised and brined cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and tender ground beef; and pierogi lasagna topped with caramelized onions.

Since 2014, patrons have flocked to Folly for Carrolls take on fusion dishes with roots in India, Asia and Europe, but the winter menu swap isnt new to Jack of Cups.

During the last three winters when it's far less busy on Folly Beach, Carroll has served Italian food to drive more business. After a recent DNA test found that, in addition to her connection to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, she also has roots in Hungary, she decided to switch gears.

This year I just decided to do something a little closer to home, Carroll said.

Carroll has fond memories of eating the homemade perogies, borscht and stuffed cabbage her grandmother brought with her when she moved to the United States. When Carroll went vegan at age 13, her grandmother, who grew up on a farm that slaughtered its own animals, was confused and perhaps a little disappointed, Carroll recalled.

The chef found redemption in college when she developed the recipe for the pierogi lasagna found on Jack of Cups winter menu. Her grandmother, who has since passed away, was impressed with the resulting dish; a surprising rich indulgence for anyone from Poland, where pierogis are the national dish, to Pittsburgh, a city with an affinity for the half-circular dumplings made from noodle flour dough.

As I grew up, I obviously just became very interested in our heritage and started exploring some things I could eat. That was definitely a little private nod to her, said Carroll, who credits her mom and sister with teaching her how to make some of the other Hungarian and Czech staples she's riffing on at Jack of Cups. It definitely feels like a family affair.

Like Jack of Cups regular menu, 90 percent of Carrolls Czech and Hungarian offering is meat-free, but you wouldnt know it unless someone told you. Guests with their eyes on more meat can add roasted chicken, kielbasa and paprika-braised short rib to any dish, too.

For me now, its not as challenging as it was before, said Carroll of creating vegetarian dishes out of ones classically served with meat. Were a restaurant that hopefully could appeal to everybody.

The Hungarian and Czech menu will stick around at Jack of Cups, 34 Center St., through mid-March, but Carroll said she might tweak one or two of the winter dishes for her spring menu. The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Wednesday through Monday; it's closed on Tuesdays.
GREENVILLE  As the final days of Rick Erwin's Nantucket Seafood tick away in its longtime prime location, the ownership group is pledging to reopen the restaurant and keep its location downtown.

"Our goal is to keep the restaurant downtown," Rick Erwin Dining Group owner and chief financial officer Michael Ivey said in a Feb. 14 release. "We are engaged in several conversations and working through a shortlist of options to determine the best path forward."

The move marks a larger shakeup in the group's restaurant portfolio as well, as changes coming to the Downtown Marriott will see two Charleston-born dining concepts take Nantucket's place.

This month, the city of Greenville signed a new agreement with the hotel's owner, Bo Aughtry, to transform the courtyard between the hotel and City Hall into an outdoor event space.

Charleston-based The Indigo Road Hospitality Group has been tapped to bring two new establishments  sushi restaurant O-Ku and a wood-fired pizza and Italian restaurant, Indaco  to the space Nantucket has occupied for the past decade.

The outdoor area will have an open bar with ability to order food, along with lounge seating and a woodburning fireplace.

During Nantucket's temporary closure, the group will reimagine the restaurant that Ivey said "has been a staple in downtown Greenville since 2010."

We also recognize that a lot has changed in the 15 years since that restaurant was originally designed, and were ready to see it evolve," he said. "When we reopen youll notice big changes.

Meanwhile, the group is preparing to reopen on March 2 its casual seafood restaurant Saltwater Kitchen, located in Haywood Mall. That reopening will allow the dining group to retain all employees, who can then transfer back to Nantucket when it opens again.

The timing of these moves was important so we could preserve jobs and retain our employees," Ivey said. "Plus, we are now fully staffed for the Saltwater Kitchen reopening instead of scrambling to find new hires during an industry-wide labor shortage."
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control updated its COVID-19 guidance for child care centers and K-12 schools on Feb. 13 amid a decline in cases across the state.

The updated child care center guidance states kids who are close contacts can avoid quarantine if they do not have symptoms and get tested twice: once on day three and again between days five through seven.

Children are also strongly encouraged to wear a mask for 10 days if they are age 2 and older while staff in child care settings must follow the same Test to Stay protocol for K-12 schools, which includes no symptoms and testing at least once on day five through seven and masking for 10 days.

Changes to the K-12 school guidance state that when using the Test To Stay program, students may remove their mask as needed to participate in an extracurricular activity or sport once they have tested negative on day five or later. They must continue to mask at all other times at school through the 10-day period.

DHEC no longer strongly recommends universal mask requirements in schools, however, the agency strongly encourage individuals to mask.

"We are consistent in our stance that recommendations should reflect the latest COVID-19 trends and data, said Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC's public health director. We are glad to see cases declining in recent weeks, and we are updating our guidance to reflect that trend while maintaining our focus on keeping children in school safely."

The agency also reported over 1,500 new COVID-19 cases on Feb. 14 and no deaths related to the virus.

Data related to COVID-19 cases and deaths in South Carolina was delayed Feb. 11 due to "issues with the receipt of data charts into our system," DHEC explained. Those numbers were included in information released Feb. 14

Statewide numbers

New cases reported: 2,602 confirmed, 1,181 probable (Friday); 2,061 confirmed, 1,163 probable (Saturday); 1,647 confirmed, 731 probable (Sunday); and 1,188 confirmed, 405 probable (Monday).

Total cases in S.C.: 1,130,548 confirmed, 311,998 probable.

New deaths reported: 51 confirmed, 28 probable (Friday); five confirmed, 11 probable (Saturday); 15 confirmed, two probable (Sunday); and zero confirmed, zero probable (Monday).

Total deaths in S.C.: 13,852 confirmed, 2,389 probable.

Percent of ICU beds filled (with COVID-19 and other patients): 74.09 percent.

Percent positive: 9.1

S.C. residents vaccinated

In South Carolina, 62.4 percent of people who are eligible for the vaccine have received at least one dose, and 53.5 percent of eligible residents have completed their vaccinations.

This number reflects all eligible residents in South Carolina, including young children. The latest data from DHEC shows 17.9 percent of children ages 5-11 have at least one vaccine dose.

Hardest-hit areas

Lexington (129), Greenville (125) and York (118) counties saw the highest total numbers of new cases.

What about tri-county?

Charleston County had 82 new cases, while Dorchester had 40 and Berkeley had 39.

Deaths

DHEC releases county-level data regarding COVID-19 deaths and the ages of those who have died from the virus on Tuesdays. According to the latest data from Feb. 8, at least 429 in South Carolina died from the virus Jan. 30- Feb. 5. Greenville County recorded 64 COVID deaths that week.

Hospitalizations

Of the 1,473 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Feb. 14, 287 were in the ICU and 158 were using ventilators.

What do experts say?

Officials from the state health agency strongly encourage vaccinations for ages 5 and up, booster shots for eligible populations and the use of masks to protect others from virus spread.

"We must continue increasing our vaccinations, masking when appropriate, and following other protocols if we want to see this trend continue and ultimately end this pandemic, Traxler said in a recent press release.

Go to https://vaxlocator.dhec.sc.gov to find a clinic near you.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 89F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday urged efforts to "gather wisdom from all sides" to improve the government's work, and specified measures to bolster China's industrial economy and services sectors.

While chairing a State Council executive meeting, Li was briefed on the handling of suggestions from deputies to the National People's Congress and proposals from members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 2021. 
After visiting classrooms at Mossy Creek Elementary School, providing small bookmarks to students, counselor Shari Hooper was named the statewide School Counselor of the Year.

This is the second consecutive year an Aiken County Public School District counselor has received the honor by the Palmetto State School Counselor Association. She will represent the state during the 2023 American School Counselor Association conference.

Hooper was nominated by Aiken County Public Schools Coordinator for Counseling and Career Services, Sharon Worley.

Her desire to see all students succeed has a positive impact on everyone she encounters, including her fellow counselors. She also regularly volunteers to serve as a mentor and supervises graduate student interns, Worley said in her nomination letter.

Hooper wants students to understand her role in the school system.

I want them to know Im there to help and assist them. I often feel like an investigator because Im trying to figure out what the problem is and sometimes they cant really tell me, especially the little ones, Hooper said.

Mossy Creek Elementary School Principal Jeff Matthews is proud of Hooper and her accomplishments as she goes to represent South Carolina as the states top counselor.

There is not a more deserving candidate in this state to be the counselor of the year than Mrs. Hooper, stated Matthews. She has been amazing. She is Mossy Creek. She makes sure our kids needs are met. The mentoring program has been amazing and she never misses a beat.
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.
Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.
Approximately 80 U.S. Army National Guard soldiers with the 108th Chemical Company, 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Carolina National Guard, will deploy to Fort Bliss, Texas for a year. Their deployment mission is to conduct COVID-19 mobilization support for the 5th Armored Brigade and 1st Armored Division.

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COLUMBIA  The financial cost of domestic violence in South Carolina runs to nearly $1 million a day when you add up the burden put on families, courts, law enforcement and the economy, a study conducted by researchers at the University of South Carolina says.

USC economist Dr. Joseph Von Nessen said the spread of domestic violence cost the state approximately $358.4 million in 2020 alone, a sum that victim advocates describe as leaving a "staggering" toll on the state's health care facilities, businesses, nonprofits and the judicial system.

"Domestic violence does occur in every county in our state," Von Nessen said Feb. 15 at a Statehouse press conference to discuss details of the findings. "So it is critical for us to make sure that there's sufficient resources for intervention and support services within reach of all South Carolinians."

The monetary numbers come in a study commissioned by the Jamie Kimble Foundation for Courage, a Charlotte-based nonprofit founded in the memory of a young woman who was fatally shot by an abusive ex-boyfriend.

The study, the first of its kind in South Carolina, is co-funded by several organizations, including the Robert S. Handler Fund of the American Endowment Foundation, the Springsteen Foundation and Domtar Corp.

Findings in the analysis indicate that, annually, 82,379 South Carolinians will be victims of intimate partner violence.

As of 2019, that figure was considered the seventh-highest rate in the nation, according to figures by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

That same year, 57 women were killed by men in South Carolina, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Violence Policy Center. That led to the state being ranked sixth-worst in the nation for women who died at the hands of men.

Von Ness called the report a "call to action" for state leaders to support additional prevention and support initiatives, noting the estimated cost of domestic violence affects the average South Carolina resident in services and other daily activities between $65 to $72 per year.

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The tally encompasses numerous categories accounting for the financial cost of someone losing their life to domestic violence, the price of physical and mental health care, hours of lost work productivity, policing and incarceration costs, volunteer hours, domestic violence programs and shelters. Lost productivity, according to the study, accounted for more than a quarter of the total annual cost at $96.6 million, followed by $72 million in annual expenses for physical health care related to domestic violence. Von Ness also warned there is an incalculable impact to victims' well-being that the study could not capture, especially when domestic violence incidents go unnoticed or unreported. South Carolina has consistently ranked within the top 10 states for female homicide rates in each of the past 17 years, and that remains the case today. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four women and one in seven men will experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

The study comes in the wake of The Post and Courier's Till death do us part project, its 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into violence against women that prompted lawmakers to implement reforms to address these killings.

South Carolina has implemented some reforms since 2014 to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, such as a lifetime gun ban for the worst abuser. Those convicted of other serious felonies against their loved ones can lose their firearms for up to a decade.

But the law gives judges discretion whether to impose the gun ban in misdemeanor domestic violence cases, which make up the overwhelming majority of abuse crimes that pass through the states court system.

Of the 57 women killed by men in South Carolina in 2019, nearly 79 percent of the women were fatally shot, according to the Violence Policy Center study.

During the Feb. 15 news conference, lawmakers identified several solutions intended to stem the state's high prevalence of domestic violence, including increased funding for prevention programs and legislation like that filed by Democratic state Reps. Kambrell Garvin and Gilda Cobb-Hunter. Their Teen Dating Violence Prevention Act would mandate domestic violence education programs for South Carolina's youth alongside criminal penalties for juveniles found guilty of domestic violence.

"To go into the root of the problem at an early age is going to be really, really important," Garvin said. "But I think the conversation is happening. I think that the more folks are aware it's an issue, the more traction this issue will gather."

The absence of such a program, advocates say, is the biggest oversight in the state's domestic violence prevention efforts.

"There's a lot of funds that go into secondary prevention and helping current victims get out of it, but there's not a lot of money going into primary prevention efforts," said Ron Kimble, a co-founder of the Jamie Kimble Foundation for Courage. "How do we teach young people in middle school, high school and college to stay away from an abusive partner?"
HUANGSHAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- For more than 600 years, locals of Wangmantian Village have the tradition to make fish-shaped lanterns to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Shexian County of Huangshan City, east China's Anhui Province. From the 13th to the 16th of the first Chinese lunar month, villagers hold fish-shaped lanterns parade every night to pray for harvest and good fortune.

The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar when a full moon appears. It features family reunions, feasts and various cultural activities.



Villagers hold fish-shaped lanterns parade to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Wangmantian Village, Shexian County of Huangshan City, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 13, 2022. (Photo by Fan Chengzhu/Xinhua)

Villagers hold fish-shaped lanterns parade to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Wangmantian Village, Shexian County of Huangshan City, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 13, 2022. (Photo by Fan Chengzhu/Xinhua)

Villagers hold fish-shaped lanterns parade to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Wangmantian Village, Shexian County of Huangshan City, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 13, 2022. (Photo by Fan Chengzhu/Xinhua)





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
I wrote about the riots on Lake Street in Minneapolis this past Friday night here over the weekend. The Star Tribune hasnt reported or editorialized on the riots. Instead they have published a brief op-ed column by Andy Brehm. Andy is a corporate attorney and former press secretary to then Senator Norm Coleman. To top it off, Andy lives in St. Paul.

Andys column appears under the heading Anarchy in Minneapolis goes unchallenged. Subhead: This crisis of criminality cannot continue to be ignored. This must come as something of a shock to readers who get their news from the Star Tribune:

Last Friday night, lawbreaking activists marched on Uptowns Lake Street and illegally barricaded traffic for two hours, graffitied local businesses and terrorized the few people still willing to patronize that dangerous neighborhood at night. All without any  I repeat any  pushback from the Minneapolis Police Department.

What was equally disturbing was that the Star Tribune did not devote a single drop of ink to writing about this hellish episode in the hell world that has become Minneapolis at dusk. Nor was there a peep of protest from Mayor Jacob Frey.

What a slap in the face to weary Uptown residents and businesses that have bravely refused to give up on their neighborhood.

Have things become so bad in Minneapolis that this kind of infernal Friday night  unthinkable just a few years ago  is now not worth the attention of Star Tribune readers? Has law and order been so soundly surrendered that such dangerous disorder does not warrant any response from police nor the attention of the mayor?

I love Minneapolis. Despite its sad state, I go out of my way to support its restaurants and retailers. My parents still call downtown Minneapolis home even though their neighborhood looks and feels nothing like it did when they moved in. It breaks my heart to see the deterioration of our once-great city in such a short span of time.

But whats most disturbing is the seeming hopeless acceptance of the current state of things. When something like last Friday nights Uptown chaos garners no attention from politicians, the police nor this paper, the message to lawbreakers is clear: Do whatever you want. We dont care. How feckless and foolish.

The problem with accepting decline is that the downturn will continue. These things dont just fix themselves  and matters in Minneapolis can and will get worse if coddled criminals continue to have their hands held.

It doesnt have to be this way. Minneapolis can be a functional city again  and its residents and businesses surely deserve that. But that will never happen if it remains so dangerous. Minneapolis leaders and this newspaper need to give the crisis of criminality the attention and seriousness it deserves so it can be dealt with instead of ignored. Then and only then will Minneapolis have a shot at better days.
What follows is pure speculation, but I have had a sneaking suspicion for a while that the Ukraine crisis is ready-made for an international solution that benefits a number of leaders politically while avoiding any serious down-side. Like a war, for example.

That suspicion is strengthened by the positive turn that reporting on Ukraine has suddenly taken. Thus, the London Times headlines: Diplomacy with Russia can still save Ukraine, insists Johnson. Subhead: Britain and US talk of crucial window as Moscow hints at peaceful solution.

You can see it coming:

Boris Johnson and President Biden have said that there remains a crucial window to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine as Moscow hints that it is still open to a diplomatic solution to the crisis. In a marked change of tone the two western leaders agreed there was an opportunity to avert conflict as international efforts to ease tensions increased. The Russian foreign minister used a televised meeting with President Putin to hold the door open to peace. It seems to me that our possibilities [of diplomacy] are far from being exhausted, Sergey Lavrov said. [Talks] certainly should not continue indefinitely, but at this stage I would suggest that they continue and be intensified. Separately the Russian defence minister said that some military drills, which have fanned fears of invasion, had ended or were coming to a close.

So why might war fever suddenly be subsiding? U.S. officials warned that Russia planned an invasion for Wednesday, preceded by a false flag operation to serve as a pretext. Then Joe Biden had a long phone conversation with Vladimir Putin in which Biden supposedly conveyed stern warnings. If war is now called off, who benefits? Joe Biden.

The U.K. jumped into the fray on Ukraines side, asserting British standing in world affairs and coming to Ukraines defense, including, I believe sending some troops to the area. So if the Russian invasion is called off, who benefits? Someone who needs a boost almost as badly as Joe Biden: Boris Johnson.

Emmanuel Macron, following in the footsteps of Charles DeGaulle, charted his own course independent of NATO and tried to be a broker via independent conversations with the Russians. He is engaged in a tough re-election race; if the Ukraine crisis dissipates, he will take credit for it.

And Vladimir Putin, by far the most secure of these four leaders, will benefit as long as Russia gets something out of its mobilization of troops at the Ukraine border. Putin is popular because he is seen as a strong leader, but no leaders popularity is enhanced by soldiers being killed. So Putin gets the best of both worlds if he takes an aggressive position, mobilizes troops and threatens war, but then achieves Russias ends by peaceful means. And, of course, he avoids sanctions that could threaten Russias creaky economy.

Are the Western powers prepared to sell Ukraine down the river? The answer, I think, is how far down the river Putin has in mind. Some concessions are easy:

The developments came after Kyivs ambassador to London had signalled that Ukraine may be prepared to suspend its efforts to join Nato to avert war.

No voter in the U.S., the U.K. or France will care that Ukraine has agreed to stay out of NATO. This is an easy win-win.

It seems to me that the question is, what does Putin need in addition to Ukraine staying out of NATO? He annexed Crimea and obviously wants to annex eastern Ukraine, which is mostly Russian speaking and largely pro-Russia, as well. My guessand it is purely a guessis that this is what is now being negotiated. How much of Ukraine will the Western powers be willing to sever from that country, perhaps by plebiscite, over the heated objections of Ukraines government?

Call me cynical, but I think we may soon know the answer to that question. Or possibly some seemingly unrelated concession to Putin is on the table. But I think the congruence of political interests among the relevant leaders is too strong for war to be the most likely option.
Nigeria needs to adopt a new seed system approach to compete globally so as to keep the prices of cassava-based foods stable and affordable in the country, agriculturists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have said.

IITAs digital extension and advisory specialist, Godwin Atser, in a statement on Sunday, said Lateef Sanni, the project manager of the institutes BASICS-II project, described cassava as the engine of economic growth that Nigeria must take advantage of.

Countries like Brazil, China, Thailand, Vietnam, and even Cambodia are reaping gold from cassava. These countries do not record less than 30 tons per hectare. However, farmers in Nigeria produce less than 10 tons due to poor performing seeds, Mr Sanni was quoted to have said during a media parley at Ibadan on Wednesday last week.

The project

Launched two years ago, the projectBuilding an Economically Sustainable Cassava Seed Systems (BASICS I & II), is a new seed system model developed by the IITA.

It is aimed at creating a more efficient dissemination of cassava stems that would trigger the adoption of new varieties to improve productivity; raise incomes of cassava growers and seed entrepreneurs; enhance gender equity, and contribute to inclusive agricultural transformation in Nigeria and Tanzania.

The seed system approach creates an ecosystem of seed actors, breeders, foundations, and certified seed producers which ensures that seeds of improved and virus-free cassava varieties are multiplied and disseminated to farmers through a value chain in an economically sustainable manner.

According to the statement, Mr Sanni said: the goal of BASICS-II project is to provide farmers with access to affordable, quality-assured seeds of improved cassava varieties in demand by local food and processor markets through the establishment of a commercially viable seed value chain.

We are doing this using the seed system approach called the BASICS model. We are encouraging farmers to adopt new and improved varieties to improve productivity, raise incomes of cassava growers and seed entrepreneurs, enhance gender equity, and contribute to inclusive agricultural transformation, the project manager said.

In his remarks, Mr Atser, who is also the projects advocacy, promotions and outreach lead, explained that improved cassava varieties are key to changing cassava production narrative in Nigeria.

Adoption of improved varieties will increase cassava productivity, ensure food security, guarantee processors of quality raw materials, and hinder the spread of cassava crop diseases on farms, he said.

Apart from its economic and sustainability elements, Mr Atser said the BASICS model had a job creation component.

Today, we have hundreds of farmers across Nigeria and Tanzania that are engaged in cassava stem multiplication and marketing, he explained, adding that currently, the project has created over 400 of cassava seed entrepreneurs in Benue, Kogi, Abia, Delta, Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.

Mr Atser said that the project had strengthened links with the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), the countrys seed regulating agency.

He noted that the country currently has two EGS companies  IITA GoSeed, a private company owned by IITA, and Umudike Seed, a private firm owned by the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, Abia state.

Mercy Diebiru-Ojo, a vegetative seed specialist and IITAs GoSeed general manager, said that the early generation seed companies were responsible for multiplying the new varieties developed by the breeders in IITA, NRCRI, NextGen Cassava and other breeding programs.

READ ALSO:

At IITA GoSeed, we use new technologies to multiply the improved varieties and make virusfree stems available to the seed producers who will further multiply and sell to farmers, she said.

Mrs Diebiru-Ojo said: Our Semi Autotrophic Hydroponics (SAH) technology has helped us surmount the slow multiplication challenge we used to have in the past.

She explained that the institute is currently multiplying virus-free cassava planting materials at a much faster rate such that within two years of release, the improved planting materials are commercially available.

Akinyemi Ibikunle, IITAs GoSeed operations manager also stated that the business of making improved varieties available to farmers is a very lucrative venture for people who have interest in cassava seed production.
Researchers at Erudera, a higher education search platform, have listed what they termed seven best masters degree programmes for individuals looking at a possible career change.

These seven degrees as listed by the research team are; Finance, Marketing, Business Administration, Nursing, Education, Cybersecurity and Software Engineering.

With what is dubbed the Great Resignation across the world, where more workers are quitting after a lockdown in 2020, theres been an increase in career change as more people seek satisfaction in the job they do.

In Nigeria, about 20 per cent of Nigerias working population lost their jobs around the same period, says the National Bureau of Statistics.

Alma Miftari, a digital public relations officer at Erudera, said a research team at the organisation put together that list based on the most popular programmes in a specific discipline being searched on the platform and by analysing the growth trend.

Ms Miftari said the team picked out the top seven masters degrees that lead to higher-paying salaries and have a lower barrier to entry for someone who wants to change their career.

As career change has become a topic of discussion recently, Eruderas higher education experts have done some research in this regard and have come up with the top seven best masters for a career change in this pandemic time, based on the platforms data on most searched for degrees, Ms Miftari said.

Erudera said upskilling in these fields provide individuals with an understanding of accounting analysis, financial economics, finance concepts, modelling, teaching, programming and reporting as well as job opportunities including insurance, business consulting, banking, and becoming entrepreneurs among others.
In a special interview with TVC News which aired on Sunday, celebrated Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Adichie, addressed shocking events that unfolded at the church where her mothers funeral thanksgiving Mass was held.

Her father, James Adichie, died on June 10, 2020, and was buried on October 10, 2020.

Her mother, Grace Adichie, died nine months later on her fathers birthday, March 1, 2021, and was buried on May 1, 2021. The funeral Mass where this happened was on May 2, 2021.

At her mums funeral, thanksgiving Mass took place at St. Pauls Catholic Church in Abba, Njikoka LGA of Anambra State; the grieving family of Adichie sat at the front pew of the church. However, they were unknowingly about to witness a shocking ordeal.

It was a tough day, Ms Adichie told TVCs news anchor Mike Okwoche.

She revealed that during his message on that fateful Sunday, the parish priest started speaking about her in an unpleasing manner, and the contents of his speech left her in shock.

I was taken aback to hear my name. The priest, she revealed, Christopher Eze, referred to an interview she granted months ago.

I have never been afraid of criticism. The fear of criticism is not something I have. If this priest had written something to criticise me or even shouted at me at any other venue but the holy mass at my mothers funeral, it would have been okay. I really would not have minded, she said.

Nevertheless, she said she found it unsettling that the same church where her mother was a devoted Catholic and spent her last hours on earth was where she was being verbally abused on a day that was supposed to be her mothers funeral thanksgiving Mass.

Allegations

She also alleged that the said priest had done collections of N10 from the church members who are villagers struggling to feed themselves in the past.

Why do you need to ambush poor villagers who can hardly feed themselves?. She shared that the same priest had also harassed her family for money when it was time to bury her father, who passed in 2020. They presented a cow to the church, and he was upset because he wanted a monetary offering. When I gave money to the church for Bazaar, because I knew that he always wants cash, I made sure to go and get cash because he rejects cheques and bank transfers.

A shocking revelation was that during the tenure of a previous priest in the same church, they locked the church doors to prevent people from going out until the exceptional collection was over  this she stated was one of the reasons she stopped attending church in Nigeria.

In January 2021, PREMIUM TIMES reported that she stopped attending the catholic church in Nigeria because activities became way too much about money, fundraising, and thanksgiving.

Whats the point of church? We should go to get hope, comfort, and peace. But you go there, and there is so much talk about money.

Grief

When the anchor asked how shes been navigating the challenging period, she revealed that the priests actions have made the grieving process more difficult.

She said: I cannot help but think of one of the beatitudes, Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. But, unfortunately, we were not comforted, and the priest failed. He failed terribly at his duty. Instead of comforting us, he increased our pain. she stated, still trying to come to terms with having to face such an incident while mourning. I should be allowed to mourn my mother in peace, but I havent been able to because of what this man did, and I havent been able to because this man has not faced any consequences for his action.

After making several complaints for the issue to be addressed, she said she was asked to write a complaint to the bishop, which she did. The bishop responded to tell me that he would not be able to do anything, and the reason was that I had talked about the incident at the Bishops Conference where I had been invited to speak. Therefore he was now unable to act.

READ ALSO:

Adichie revealed that, in reality, the bishop is the authority to discipline the priest, but given this response, it is apparent that disciplinary action will not happen.

She did not name the bishop who has refused to reprimand the priest.

With the issue lingering since May 2021, she said she and her siblings have had to deal with the emotional toll it has taken on them, but for Adichie, this is bigger than her family. One of the reasons that I want to talk about this publicly is I dont want what happened to us to happen to any other person. I dont want that for anybody.

After a video where she was responding to the priest at the funeral Mass went viral on Twitter, it became evident that many have been victims of similar incidents, especially in Catholic churches in the East. People have had to endure all types of humiliations because they wanted to give their loved ones a befitting burial, she said.

Nobody has faced any consequence. We have not received an apology. The wrong that we suffered has not been righted, so how much worse would it be for the people who do not have the platform that I have?
Jagdish Koonjul, the ambassador of Mauritius to the UN, on Monday, hoisted his countrys flag above the atoll of Peros Banhos and announced that his country has reclaimed Chagos Archipelago from Britain, the Guardian reported.

We are performing the symbolic act of raising the flag as the British have done so many times to establish colonies. We, however, are reclaiming what has always been our own, Mr Koonjul said.

The Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, in a prerecorded message, noted that this is the first time Mauritius has led an expedition to that part of its territory, adding that he feels sad that he could not be part of the historic visit.

Im delighted that our Chagossian brothers and sisters are able to travel to their birthplace without any foreign (British) escort, he said.

The message I wish to give out to the world, as the state with sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago, is that we will ensure a wise stewardship of its territory  over its maritime security, conservation of the marine environment and human rights, notably the return of those of Chagossian origin, Mr Jugnauth added.

In a phone call to the Guardian shortly after the flag was raised, the Mauritian prime minister said, this is a very emotional moment for me and a very historic time for us because we are able to raise our flag on our own territory.

The international community and international institutions have already decided that this is our territory. What we are doing is legitimate.

Asked what would happen if UK officials later removed the Mauritian flag, Mr Jugnauth said: I dont know what they are going to do. If they remove the flag, this will amount to a provocation on their part. The UK is not abiding by international law judgments.

Reacting to the event, a spokesperson for the UK foreign office said, the UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, which we have held continuously since 1814. Mauritius has never held sovereignty over the territory and the UK does not recognise its claim.

We are honouring the assurances we gave to Mauritius that we would not interfere with this survey.

However, the International Court of Justice in an advisory opinion delivered on February 25, 2019, concluded that the process of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when that country acceded to independence and that the United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.

It also said the peoples of non-self-governing territories are entitled to exercise their right to self-determination in relation to their territory as a whole, the integrity of which must be respected by the administering power.

The court in its submission added that after recalling the circumstances in which the colony of Mauritius agreed in principle to the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago, the Court considered that this detachment was not based on the free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned.
The Police Headquarters on Monday revealed the identities of the suspected drug barons who allegedly colluded with DSP Abba Kyari and four others to ferry illicit drugs into the country.

Abba Kyari and his team were declared wanted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Monday.

The suspects had been arrested by the police and handed over to the NDLEA for further investigation.

The Deputy Force Public Relations Officer (DFPRO), Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said in a statement in Abuja that some NDLEA officials were allegedly involved in the drug deal.

He said that the police had carried out discreet investigation when it received a request from the NDLEA on February 10.

In line with standard administrative procedure of the Force, the Inspector General of Police ordered a high-level, discreet, and in-house investigation into the allegations.

The interim investigations report revealed that two international drug couriers identified as Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus, both males, were arrested at Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, on Jan. 19.

The suspects were arrested upon their arrival from Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight ET917.

The arrest led to the recovery of substantial quantity of powdery substance suspected to be cocaine from the two narcotic couriers.

The operation which was intelligence-driven, was undertaken by a Unit of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), he said.

Mr Adejobi, a chief superintendent of police, said the case and the two suspects were subsequently transferred to the NDLEA on Jan. 25.

He said the findings of the in-house investigation ordered by the Inspector-General of Police established reasonable grounds for strong suspicion that the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) officers involved in the operation could have been involved in some underhand and unprofessional dealings.

The Police spokesman said the finding showed that the officers were allegedly involved in official corruption which compromised ethical standards in their dealings with the suspects and exhibits recovered.

Beyond this, the Police investigation also established that the international narcotics cartel involved in this case have strong ties with some officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) who are on their pay roll.

The two arrested drug couriers confirmed that the modus is for the transnational drug barons to conspire with the NDLEA officers on duty and send them their pre-boarding photographs for identification.

The idea is to ensure seamless clearance, and unhindered passage out of the airport with the narcotics being trafficked, he added.

According to him, the two arrested drug couriers also confirmed that they have been enjoying this relationship with the NDLEA officers at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport since 2021.

He said the narcotics, in the instant case of Jan. 19, was identified and cleared by the NDLEA officers as customary, having received their pre-departure photographs and other details prior to their arrival in Enugu.

READ ALSO: Police hand Abba Kyari over to NDLEA

He said the suspects were on their way out with the narcotics when they were apprehended by the Police.

Mr Adejobi said police investigations report had earlier indicted Kyari, who had been on suspension for alleged involvement in a fraud case being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

He said Kyaris involvement in the recent allegation occurred while his suspension from service was subsisting.

On the strength of the findings of the in-house Police Investigation Panel, the I-G has ordered the immediate arrest and transfer of all the indicted police officers to the NDLEA for conclusive investigation.

Appropriate disciplinary actions are also being initiated against them by the Force leadership, he said.

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Mr Adejobi said the IGP has formally requested the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA to ensure the identification, arrest and investigation of the agencys officers involved in the alleged criminal act.

(NAN)
Aides to lawmakers of the National Assembly have again protested over unpaid salaries and other allowances.

This time, they took their grievances to the chairman of Nigerias anti-graft agency, EFCC  Abdulrasheed Bawa.

Asides from protesting over emoluments, the aides also accused the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, of diverting funds allocated for their salaries and allowances and mismanaging the legislative aides funds.

Also indicted is the Clerk of the National Assembly, Amos Ojo.

They also added that the lawmakers have since the last assembly, treated them as slaves.

Efforts to get the reactions of the Senate President and the Speaker were unsuccessful.

Their spokespersons did not respond to messages at the time of this report.

Angry aides

During the demonstration at the EFCC headquarters, the aides carried placards which listed their six demands  salary arrears, CONLESS implementation, minimum wage implementation, Duty Tour Allowance, training and conditions of service.

They also presented a petition to the EFCC detailing their complaints and demands.

In a copy of the petition dated February 14, 2022, the aides said the failure of the EFCC to act on previous complaints they lodged encouraged the National Assembly leadership to engage in financial malfeasance and misappropriation of funds meant for legislative aides of the ninth Assembly.

The allowances of legislative aides are duly captured in the National Assemblys budget  which the Lawan-led Senate have failed to reveal.

We are hereby alleging criminal diversion of these yearly appropriated legitimate entitlements by the Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator (Dr.) Ahmad Lawan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and the Clerk of the National Assembly, Arch. Amos Ojo because of their complicity in the mismanagement of the Legislative Aides account.

Out of the 12 quarterly DTAs owed legislative aides of the nine per cent National Assembly since June 2019, none has been paid. Similarly, there has been no training activities for the past two and half years by management despite the budgetary allocations for these items, which were neither used for the said activities nor were they returned to government coffers as unused funds, part of the petition read.

The budget of the legislatives aides has always been N9.6 billion annually. The non-payment of these accumulated legitimate entitlements has turned legislative aides into legislative slaves.

We have been pauperised to the extent that we are unable to meet our financial obligations like payment of school fees, hospital bills, house rents, debt serving, putting us into several embarrassing situations, they said, adding that efforts to appeal to the leadership were unsuccessful.

They urged the EFCC to use its office to investigate this criminal diversion of their budgeted legitimate entitlements, bring the culprits to book and ensure the prompt payment of the allowances and arrears.

They further asked that the salary arrears, DTA and Minimum wage from January 2020 till date, be duly appropriated and paid, as well as transparency in the management of legislative aides account to avoid breach of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

Not the first time

The latest protest by the aides is one of many since the ninth assembly emerged. While some aides have demanded monies being owed from the previous assembly till date, others have focused on the ninth assembly.

Similar protests with the same demands have been held many times where they not only accused the National Assembly management of refusing to pay them for over six months, but also accused them of short-changing the few who were paid.

In the previous year Messrs Lawan and Gbajabiamila had met with relevant agencies of government led by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to discuss the non-payment of severance allowances for legislative aides who served in the National Assembly between 2015 and 2019.

It is only fair that we give them what is due to them (aides). We realise there was need to bring on board for this discussion the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the National Assembly Service Commission as well, so that in this meeting we are able to discuss and finalise where the source of the severance allowance for the legislative aides will be, Mr Lawan had said.

Copied in the latest petition are President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Inspector General of Police, Director General, State Security Service and Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission.

Others are SSA to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), SERAP, Budgit, PLAC and Human Rights radio.

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In what some officials have described as an unprecedented violation of Nigerias procurement laws, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has ordered construction giant CCECC Nigeria Limited to award contracts to some local companies he hand-picked.

Mr Amaechi gave the directive to the Chinese construction company in a letter exclusively obtained by this newspaper, dated October 14, 2021.

The letter was signed on behalf of Mr Amaechi by J.A Yusuf, Director of Rail Transport Services at the transportation ministry.

The contracts are in connection with the Nigerian Railway Modernisation Project covering the Lagos-Kano and Kaduna-Kano sections.

According to the letter, the minister hand-picked the companies in accordance with what Mr Yusuf described as Local Content Policy of the Nigerian government.

Titled Local Content Policy on Construction Materials and Equipment, the ministry claimed it received Expression of Interest from the various companies it listed in connection with the railway project. The ministry further directed the construction company to invite the hand-picked companies listed in the letter for contractual engagement.

Controversial Quotation

Aside from submitting the list of hand-picked companies to the construction firm, Mr Amaechi, through the Ministry of Transportation, attached to the letter a quotation showing the expense of purchasing materials in the local market. The quotation also listed all the companies and the specification and unit of materials they are expected to supply to the construction company.

In addition, the quotation detailed the quantity of materials each company is expected to supply, as well as the market prices of the materials. Quick checks conducted on the status of the companies showed that they are domiciled mostly in Kano, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.

Insiders at CCECC have expressed worry over the controversial letter, adding that it is in contravention of the nations procurement laws. A source told this newspaper that CCECC management is disturbed by the development, and has found it quite difficult to deal with.

Fuzzy Local Content Policy document?

For months, PREMIUM TIMES searched for the Local Content Policy on Construction Materials and Equipment referenced by Mr Amaechi through the transportation ministry in its letter to CCECC, but this newspaper could not find any such document.

Officials at the transport ministry declined to speak on the issue when contacted, and they failed to acknowledge if there was any such policy document.

Aliyu Abudukadir, the Director of Corporate Service at the Nigerian Society of Engineers, told PREMIUM TIMES that no one has any idea of any such policy document on the construction materials and equipment

What we know, which is in the public domain, is Executive Order 5, he said, adding that the order was signed in 2018.

Probably thats what you are referring to but the policy document on the construction materials, I dont know.

The Executive Order 5, signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, gives preference to Nigerian indigenous organisations in the award of contracts in either construction or manufacturing.

Government sources told PREMIUM TIMES that no policy or executive order could have given Mr Amaechi the express authorisation to unilaterally hand-pick contractors for a private company engaged by the government.

Companies selected for government contracts are expected to go through the process of competitive bidding.

Amaechis Record of Violations

Mr Amaechi has a record of violating the nations procurement laws. At various times, he has got himself mired in arbitrary conduct in his handling of procurement processes.

In a number of contractual agreements involving the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mr. Amaechi has been found to have recklessly violated extant rules.

In one case, he directed the NPA to restore a boat service contract with logistics giants, Intels, in disregard for an ongoing open bidding exercise in which the company had been disqualified. In its intervention, the BPP flayed Mr Aamechis position and warned that a monopoly could endanger the nations bidding system.

In a related concern around the NPAs port dredging contract, Mr. Amaechi directed that contracts be extended for a year beyond original expiration dates instead of a bidding exercise, which the BPP had approved.

Last year, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation showed how President Muhammadu Buhari and Mr Amaechi approved a huge national security-sensitive maritime contract to a medical company in a process the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) said was embarrassing and illegal.
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- As tensions on the Ukrainian situation keep mounting, multiple countries have been engaged in shuttle diplomacy, trying to de-escalate the crisis.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Kiev on Monday for a working visit. After their talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that the two parties discussed the peace process in and around Ukraine and the legal guarantees that would help to protect Ukraine.

In particular, Zelensky said that Ukraine needs energy security guarantees due to the risks associated with the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.

"We expect that in the near future we will be able to hold further talks and agree on a summit of the leaders of the Normandy Four," Zelensky said.

Ukraine and Germany are members of the Normandy format that also includes Russia and France.

Scholz said that Germany is trying to find a diplomatic solution to the situation around Ukraine.

"Together with France, we have intensified our efforts in the Normandy format. It's a difficult process, but I'm sure it's worth the effort," Scholz said.

Zelensky and Scholz also discussed Ukraine's aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during their talks.

Scholz said that Ukraine's possible accession to NATO is currently "out of the agenda," the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

After his stay in Kiev, the German chancellor is scheduled for a visit to Moscow on Tuesday.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Moscow and held an hours-long discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine crisis.

After their talks, Macron said that his Russian counterpart assured "his desire to maintain the stability and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

Following his visit to Russia, the French president visited Ukraine. After his talks with Zelensky in Kiev, Macron told a joint press conference that France would continue working with Germany to mediate the crisis.

Wrapping up the visits, Macron met with Scholz in Berlin. At a joint press conference, the French president reaffirmed that pursuing dialogue with Russia is "the only path that will make peace possible in Ukraine."

Scholz emphasized "the maintenance of peace must intervene through diplomacy."

In recent days, the United States has hyped up tensions between Russia and Ukraine and stoked fears of a Russian "invasion."

Moscow denied the accusation, saying that Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory as NATO's activities constitute a threat to Russia's border security.

Also on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a virtual meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He also spoke separately with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

In a press encounter, Guterres said he was deeply worried about the current tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict.

"The price in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate. We simply cannot accept even the possibility of such a disastrous confrontation," he said.

"There is no alternative to diplomacy. All issues, including the most intractable, can and must be addressed and resolved through diplomatic frameworks. It is my firm belief that this principle will prevail," said Guterres.

On Saturday, Putin discussed the Ukraine crisis with U.S. President Joe Biden and Macron respectively over the phone.

During these conversations, Putin reiterated the absence of a substantive response from the United States and NATO to Russian initiatives in addressing its security concerns, while agreeing to continue dialogue and contacts with the other two leaders. 
Gunmen have reportedly killed three police officers in Ebonyi State, Nigerias South-east.

The officers were gunned down on Monday night in front of a police station along the Enugu-Abakaliki highway, a source told PREMIUM TIMES.

The officers were said to be manning a roadblock in front of the station when the gunmen opened fire on them

The source said the gunmen were in a bus, and that the officers may have mistaken it for a commercial vehicle.

The remains of the three police (officers) have been deposited at a mortuary in Abakaliki after they were confirmed dead by doctors, he said.

The police spokesperson in Ebonyi State, Loveth Odah confirmed the incident.

She, however, said she could not give details of the casualty until after a visit to the scene of the incident.

Several police officers were shot dead in Enugu State in two separate attacks at checkpoints last week by gunmen.

The Ebonyi incident may indicate a return of the deadly attacks on the police and other security agencies in the South-east.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for it, the attack may be linked to the outlawed group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) which is leading the agitation for an independent state, Biafra, which they want carved out of the South-east and a part of the South-south regions.

IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is detained in Abuja, where he is standing trial for alleged treasonable felony and terrorism.
President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the Senate, seeking the approval of a supplementary budget of N2.557 trillion.

The letter, an amendment to the Appropriations Act passed in December 2021, was read out at the start of plenary on Tuesday.

The budget, Mr Buhari said, is meant to provide for subsidy on petroleum products from June to December 2022.

He requested that an additional provision for N2.557 trillion naira be appropriated by the National Assembly for this purpose.

This comes about a month after the federal government suspended plans to remove subsidy on petroleum products.

The Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, had said only N443 billion was available to fund subsidy in 2022.

She also said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) requested a total of N3 trillion from the federal government to fund fuel subsidy in 2022.

With the supplementary budget of N2.557 trillion approved, the federal government will now have about N3 trillion to fund subsidy.

Queries/required amendments

The president, in the letter, said while the sum of N106.1 billion provided in the Supplementary Bill would be used as capital expenditure, N43.87 billion would be for recurrent expenditures.

He also sought a review of the Finance Act 2021.

He also ordered the lawmakers to remove all capital projects that were replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act.

The president identified 139 out of the 254 projects in the budget totaling N13.24 billion to be deleted.

He emphasised the need to reinstate four capital projects totaling N1.4 billion in the Executive Proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources; and N22.0 billion cut from the provision for the Sinking Fund to retire mature loans needed to meet governments obligations under already Issued Bonds.

It is important to restore the provisions made for various key capital projects in the 2022 Executive Proposal (see details in Schedule l) that were cut by the National Assembly. This is to ensure that critical ongoing projects that are cardinal to this administration, and those nearing completion, do not suffer a setback due to reduced funding.

It is equally important to reinstate the N25.81 billion cut from the provision for the Power Sector Reform Programme in order to meet the Federal Governments commitment under the financing plan agreed with the World Bank.

In addition, it is necessary to reinstate the four (4) capital projects totaling N1.42 billion in the Executive Proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources that were removed in the 2022 Appropriation Act.

Furthermore, there is critical and urgent need to restore the N3 billion cut from the provision made for payment of mostly long outstanding Local Contractors Debts and Other Liabilities as part of our strategy to reflate the economy and spur growth (see Schedule I).

The president also queried the lawmakers for including National Assemblys expenditures in the budget of the Executive.

This, he said, negates the principles of separation of powers and financial autonomy of the legislature.

He therefore asked the National Assembly to transfer its expenditures totaling N16.59 billion in the Service Wide Vote back to National Assembly Statutory Transfer provision.

It is also imperative to reinstate the N22.0 billion cut from the provision for Sinking Fund to Retire Mature Loans to ensure that government can meet its obligations under already issued bonds as and when they mature.

The cuts made from provisions for the recurrent spending of Nigerias Foreign Missions, which are already constrained, are capable of causing serious embarrassment to the country as they mostly relate to office and residential rentals.

Similarly, the reductions in provisions for allowances payable to personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Police Formations and Commands could create serious issues for government. It is therefore imperative that these provisions be restored as proposed.

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It is also absolutely necessary to remove all capital project is that replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act; 139 out of the 254 such projects totaling N13.24 billion have been identified to be deleted from the budget.

More amendments

The president also identified some significant and non-mandate projects that were introduced in the budgets of the Ministry of Transportation, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

He said there are several other projects that have been included by the National Assembly in the budgets of agencies that are outside their mandate areas.

He therefore directed the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to work with the relevant committees to comprehensively identify and realign all such misplaced projects.

It is also necessary to restore the titles / descriptions of 32 projects in the Appropriation Act to the titles contained in the Executive Proposal for the Ministry of Water Resources (see Schedule IV) in furtherance of our efforts to complete and put to use critical agenda projects.

I therefore request the National Assembly to make the above amendments without increasing the budget deficit. I urge you to roll back some of the N887.99 billion of projects earlier inserted in the budget by the National Assembly to accommodate these amendments.

Mr Buhari said the total budget deficit is projected to increase by N1.01 trillion to N7.40 trillion, representing 4.01 per cent of GDP  the incremental deficit will be financed by new borrowings from the domestic market.

The lawmakers are expected to consider the proposed amendments by the president on another legislative day.
Climate change, no doubt, is a phenomenon affecting many nations, if not all, across the world today with some exploring innovative, climate-smart initiatives to address this largely ignored existential threat.

Sadly, the awareness of the dangers inherent in ignoring this threat to humanitys continued existence is low with the few responses from governments and nations ranging from apathy, wariness to disdain.

In Nigeria, for instance, climate scientists and newsrooms, who should be at the forefront of calling attention to this global challenge, have not been able to fulfil this obligation due to a multiplicity of factors, mainly funding.

There is now a niche known as attribution science, a few scientists across the globe are exploring to bridge the gap in information.

Climate change, Nigerian story

Climate change is the long-term, significant change in the climate of Earth. It can happen through natural causes or as a direct response to human activities, which include but are not limited to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

Climate change has impacted Nigeria negatively in the past few decades though not as drastically as in some other parts of the globe.

From low crop yield, food shortage, reduced livestock production, loss of income, public health crisis, decreased hydroelectric power supply to loss of homes and road networks, Nigeria has had its fair share of the turbulence of global warming.

To tackle this, the Nigerian government has introduced some policies aimed at mitigating climate change effects. These include the National Environmental Policy; National Drought and Desertification Policy; National Forest Policy and the National Erosion and Flood Control Policy.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how Nigerian farmers are using climate-smart tactics to fight the effects of climate change.

This newspaper also reported on how farmers in the nations capital now use organic pesticides to fight the scourge of climate change.

Apart from this, climate agro-forestry models are also actively being used by some of these farmers.

Attribution science

Across the globe today, over the last few months, some scientists have taken up the gauntlet in helping the world better understand the climate change phenomenon using science as a vehicle of interpretation.

Scientists now use raw data and a bit of maths to establish possible links between climate change and (extreme) weather events.

Climate refers to patterns of weather in an area over long periods of time while weather refers to the atmosphere at a particular place and time which can be described in terms of air pressure, humidity, moisture, any precipitation (rain, snow or ice), temperature and wind speed.

Weather constitutes the actual conditions that occur at any time and place. It is different from climate, which is a description of the conditions that tend to occur in particular regions during a particular month or season.

Extreme weather points to specific turbulent events such as heatwaves, thunderstorms, tsunamis, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods which usually end in tragedies.

Due to the low level of awareness of this technical field, it was usually difficult to determine if such extreme weather events were directly related to climate change or natural factors.

But scientists are now using the field of attribution science to bring some more clarity to these questions.

Today, climate scientists, using computer models and data from certain regions, can determine to a large extent how climate change has (or has not) influenced weather-related tragic events in such areas.

These scientists are going even deeper to seek answers to climate change questions by developing more computer models to not only analyse climate data with maths but find simpler ways to quantify, or measure, the impacts of climate change.

For instance, Carbon Brief, a U.K. website recently reported how climate scientists mapped out over 350 peer-reviewed studies of weather extremes around the world and analysed the trends.

The scientists found out, for instance, that extreme events have increased in the last 10 to 15 years with 70 per cent of 405 extreme weather events made more likely or more intense by human-induced climate change.

They also documented that 92 per cent of 122 attribution studies of extreme heat found that climate change made them (heat) more likely or more severe. They noted too that 58 per cent of 81 rainfall studies found that human activities made them more probable or intense and 65 per cent of 69 drought events were worsened by climate change

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Finding answers

Meanwhile, Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, at the Imperial College London, during a lecture Attributing Extreme Weather, last week with a group of global scholars, journalists and activists, said the field has put climate science on the offensive in the discourse on climate change.

Ms Otto was speaking with the members of the first cohort of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN), a group of professionals who come from over 60 nations.

A PREMIUM TIMES editor on the Standards Desk, Tosin Omoniyi, was one of the two Nigerian journalists selected to join the fellowship with others picked from the U.S., Lebanon, Czech Republic, Poland, Argentina, China, the UK, Nepal, Denmark, Philippines, among other nations.

The Oxford Climate Journalism Network is aimed at addressing some of the challenges journalists face when reporting on climate change and helping editors and news media executives develop their approaches to these issues. The OCJN is a new programme at the Reuters Institute for the study of journalism at the University of Oxford.

Funded for the first year by a 477,170 grant from the European Climate Foundation (ECF), the project is led by two co-founders, the Reuters Institutes deputy director, Meera Selva, and visiting fellow and advisory board member, Wolfgang Blau.

Mrs Otto, in her comments, explained how attribution science is trying to bridge the information gap on the link between human-induced climate change and extreme weather.

When we talk about climate change in the media, particularly in the policy domain, it is usually talking about global mean temperature, and future climate change, keeping to global mean temperature goals agreed to at the Paris Agreementwe talk about climate change as if everything is fine until we reach these temperature goals. So, everything is fine until we reach 1.5 degrees and then the world is going to end. This, of course, is not what climate change is, she said.

She said climate change manifests primarily through the changing risks and intensity of extreme weather events and sea-level rise.

So, the warmer it gets, the more these events change and so it is a gradual change. And it has long begun. For a long time, we have been in the era of loss and damage. People have been dying from the impact of climate change for decades and also the economic impact and other kinds of loss and damage have occurred. We dont have an inventory of these so we dont know exactly what they are but we do know they happened. We are also able to pinpoint the role of climate change in individual extreme events.

On attribution science, she adds: So, we cant say this was climate change, yes or no. But what we can say now (with attribution science) is whether and to what extent human-induced climate change has altered the likelihood of an event to occurand while this is not always straightforward to study in detail, the idea behind this study and how this science works is not very complicated

How useful can attribution science be?

Meanwhile, experts say attribution science can provide great insights into the impacts of climate change across the world.

Apart from its ability to help educate, prepare, and influence global communities as they face the ravages of a warming world, it is also providing useful answers to knotty questions using science and data.

It has also become a tool to resolve legal battles revolving around climate justice.

For instance, the Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has established the Climate Attribution Database.

The database contains 385 scientific resources revolving around climate change attribution, extreme event attribution, impact attribution, and source attribution which are expected to assist scientists in linking attribution science to existing laws and policies.

In addition, it also helps lawyers, who handle climate change-related litigation, access resources that can aid their cases.

Currently, through attribution science, many extreme weather events that have rocked parts of the world have been persuasively linked to the effects of climate change and are increasingly easier to link to specific sources of emissions.

According to Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Centre, a Dutch court ordered Shell to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the combustion of its fossil fuel products by 45 per cent by 2030, using a form of source attribution.

The Philippines Commission on Human Rights also determined that fossil fuel companies have a responsibility under a Philippines human rights law to reduce the emissions that result from their products and services.

Experts say attribution science is now making it possible to quantify increased risks, and this will likely result in more lawsuits in the future.

It is, however, yet to be seen how science will help the world better understand and address an existential threat that has largely failed to attract commensurate attention from a world already battling with other deadly challenges.
The Nigeria Police Force has said its intelligence Response Team (IRT) and Special Tactical Squad (STS) across the country are still intact.

The police spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, stated this in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday evening.

Some media platforms, including this newspaper, had reported earlier that the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali, ordered the disbandment of the two units.

Channels Television, from where this newspaper picked the story, had reported that all serving officers in the satellite units had been asked to report to the Force Headquarters, Abuja, for debriefing.

Earlier efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to confirm the development from the police spokesperson were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls and SMS sent to his mobile telephone.

But speaking with this newspaper on Tuesday night, Mr Adejobi said the police did not take such action.

There was nothing like that. I am not aware and the IGP is not aware of that, he said in a telephone interview.

The clarification by the police comes a day after the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Monday gave an insight into how the suspended Deputy Police Commissioner, Abba Kyari, used officials of the IRT to push drugs across Nigeria.

The NDLEA said despite being on suspension, Mr Kyari claimed to be in control of the IRT and still had police officers loyal to him.

The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, told journalists that the suspended IRT boss allegedly belonged to a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline. He said a covert operation was conducted to expose the officer.

The NDLEA said Mr Kyari refused to honour its investigation when invited for questioning. It, therefore, declared him wanted.

Mr Kyari and four other police officers believed to be his accomplices were, on Monday, later arrested by the police and handed over to the NDLEA in whose custody they still are.

Editors Note: This story has been updated based on the clarification by the police that showed that our earlier report was inaccurate.
The Police in Osun have denied the report that the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, was attacked and shot at by hoodlums in Osogbo.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Yemisi Opalola, in a statement on Monday in Osogbo, said that it was some of the ministers escorts that shot into the air without provocation, causing people to scramble for safety.

Today, Monday, at about 5.40 p.m., the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola was moving in a convoy of personnel of NSCDC, Correctional Service, Immigration, as well as some unidentified armed people, suspected to be political thugs along Orisumbare/MFS Road, Osogbo.

Suddenly, some of the security escorts of the minister started shooting sporadically into the air without any provocation nor attack, thereby causing members of the public to scramble for their safety.

Thirteen empty shells of G-3, assault and AK-37 rifle were recovered along the road after the ministers departure.

No casualty, however, was recorded, the PPRO said.

She, however, said that the report of the incident was still sketchy, adding that a full report would be made available at the end of the investigation.

According to her, the situation is under close monitoring and normalcy has returned.

The Publicity Secretary of a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Abiodun Agboola, had, in a statement, alleged that Mr Aregbesolas convoy was attacked by some armed political thugs at Orisunmibare, Osogbo, while coming from Ilesa.

Todays attempt on the life of the minister is a confirmation that Osun is no longer a safe state.

We can only pray that the Almighty would keep the good people of Osun and her well-wishers safe, Mr Agboola said.

(NAN)
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, an Igbo apex socio-cultural organisation, has insisted that zoning the presidency to the South-east remains a fundamental ingredient for national unity.

This was contained in a release signed by the Presidential-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, George Obiozor, and made available to reporters in Owerri on Monday.

Mr Obiozor, a professor and former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, said the current state of the nation underscored the need for a president of Igbo extraction.

According to him, wherever the next president of Nigeria comes from will send a strong message to Igbo people.

Nigeria will, above all, once again experience resurgence of nationalism with enthusiasm under a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction, with malice towards none, and charity to all, Mr Obiozor said.

He urged the nations political class to drop all fears and prejudices against Igbos and to forge a common front to move the nation forward.

The former ambassador also said there was no better time for Nigerian politicians to embrace patriotism and political wisdom and jettison personal ambition.

He said the Igbos were blessed with a good number of capable, patriotic and credible personalities, who were eminently qualified to govern the country and meet the expectations of the citizenry through equity, justice and fairness.

Mr Obiozor assured Nigerians that a president of Igbo extraction would bring into office, an amazing sense of peace and harmony to the country, ensure the imperative of national unity and commitment to good governance with dedication, decency and decorum.

Igbos have been campaigning for their rights to leadership in Nigeria since 1960, hence the complaints of marginalisation in critical areas of politics and government, he said.

The Ohaneze leader admonished political elites to take serious note of denial of justice to any group or groups in the history of Nigeria.

We need a leader who can unite us as one nation and one destiny and not one Nigeria with disputed destinies as incrementally observed in our history in recent years.

How many Nigerians are more popular than Ndigbo political elites within and outside Nigeria who have a high visibility and popularity in Nigeria and outside?

Above all, it is part of the prejudice Ndigbo complain about that when the opportunity for leadership comes to them, our rivals and political adversaries always try to shift the goal post whenever Ndigbo are within the penalty box.

In a country where you have a glaring statistics of power sharing history as Nigeria, there is absolutely no doubt that it is politically and morally defensible and justifiable for power to shift to the south and to the South-east, he said.

(NAN)
A retired a judge of the Lagos State High Court, Olusola Williams, has advised the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) judiciary to introduce case filtering system to tackle case congestion in its magistrates courts.

The Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) Case Filtering System was developed by the Lagos State judiciary as an innovative measure of weeding frivolous cases out of its dockets.

Mrs Williams spoke at a workshop organised by the Magistrates Association of Nigeria-FCT in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation, Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary and Duty Solicitors Network on Monday in Abuja.

Speaking on constitutional bottlenecks that impede justice delivery process in the FCT magistracy, Mrs Williams noted that magistrates are not recognised by the Nigerian constitution  thereby subjecting them to inferiority complex in adjudication.

The fact that magistrates are not recognised by the constitution, affects their psyche in adjudicating on cases before them, Mrs Williams, who retired voluntarily from the High Court bench to train paralegals, said.

Because the constitution talks about superior courts of record and listed them, while the magistrate court was not listed, so, people began to say the magistrate court is an inferior court of record. Yet it is supposed to give superior justice as the superior court does, the retired judge explained.

This, according to her, formed the consideration of the Supreme Court decision that the magistrate lacked the jurisdiction to have granted the order. This is ridiculous. This is one of the bottlenecks, Mrs Williams who heads the Institute of Paralegal Services in Lagos, said.

How filtering of case system works

Giving insights into the workings of the Lagos case filtering system, Bayo Akinlade, convener, Duty Solicitors Network and Fight Against Corruption in the judiciary, said the States Director of Public Prosecution, stations lawyers from the Justice Ministry at various magistrates courts, who scrutinise case files.

These lawyers from the office of the DPP go through the charges that have been filed by the police; to see whether they have merit or not.

Through that process of examining the proof of evidence supplied by the police, the lawyer would be able to filter frivolous charges from potentially credible ones that can go to trial, Mr Akinlade who was chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu Branch in Lagos explained.

This procedure is swift and does not give room for delays in waiting for the DDPs legal advice which often takes several months in most cases, with the resultant effect being crowded court dockets at the magistracy, the Lagos-based lawyer said.

Agreeing with Mr Akinlade, Mrs Williams said: One of the things that delays trials is that magistrates wait for the (legal) advice of the Director of Public Prosecution, and that is forever.

Drawing a distinction between what obtains in Abuja and Lagos, she noted that the problem with Abuja magistracy is the use of First Information Report, which doesnt come with proof of evidence.

In dealing with the issue, Mrs Williams advised magistrates in Abuja to critically examine FIRs that are filed to determine whether there is a good cause of action before going to hear them.

The way that can work is that a magistrate can take a look at the FIR and decide if a case can go on or not, she said, noting that The filtering system works in civil cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

We have to embrace ADR. For instance tenancy or debts matter shouldnt go to trial. Luckily, Abuja has a court-comnected ADR, she added.

Poor welfare of magistrates discussed

In his welcome address, the Chairman of Magistrates Association of Nigeria-FCT, Musa Eneye, said the issue of his colleagues welfare cannot be overemphasised.

He noted that most magistrates are being affected by the pervading insecurity in Nigeria, calling for improved protection of members of his association from attacks.

Similarly, Mr Akinlade disclosed that magistrates in Lagos were being evicted by their landlords over inability to pay rents.

Mr Akinlade urged the FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, to look into the issue of welfare of magistrates
The House of Representatives has directed the Chief of Army Staff, Faruk Yahaya, and the Inspector General of Police, Usman Akali, to investigate the alleged invasion of five communities in Imo State.

The directive followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by Emeka Chinedu (PDP, Imo) on Tuesday.

In his motion, Mr Chinedu said five communities, Ihitteafoukwu, Umu Okirika, Oparanadim, Mpam, and Ogbor Umeze in Ahiazu Mbaise LGA were invaded by security operatives on February 12.

He stated that several persons in the communities were arbitrarily arrested by the security agents who came shooting sporadically.

Mr Chinedu said Nigerians are increasingly losing hope and confidence in the nations law enforcers due to high-handedness, unethical conducts and total disregard for rule of law and engagements.

He informed his colleagues of the news of averted bloodshed across the communities due to timeous intervention of some community leaders who persuaded youth against coming to the defence of their lives and properties.

The lawmaker condemned the one-sided narrative as often packaged by law enforcement agents in such circumstances without thorough investigation is not only unhealthy for democracy but also an intolerable affront to fundamental human rights, especially where law enforcement agents can recklessly invade, attack, destroy and maim before coming up with some frame-up to rationalise extra-judicial activities.

READ ALSO: Gunmen kill inspector in another deadly attack on Imo police facility

He added that delay in investigating matters of this nature may not only send complicating signals, but also be counterproductive in the long run.

Consequently, the army and the police chiefs were directed to determine the perpetrators of the act, reasons for the invasion, number of lives and properties destroyed, their offences, and finally, why communities that are not at war must be razed without recourse to the excruciating effect of rendering the innocent homeless as well as depriving the living their breadwinners.

To ensure compliance, the Committees on Army and Police were mandated to monitor the implementation.

The motion was adopted without debate.
A non-governmental organisation, The Stellar Initiative, has announced the launch of The BoyCode, an empowerment project aimed at equipping 50 young boys between the ages of 13 and 20 with tech skills like robotics, web designing, graphics, block chain education, ui/ux and other relevant technical skills.

This was launched on February 4 to foster the growth and development of future leaders and developers, the organisation said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.

The group said it has plans to collaborate with private and public organisations and educational institutions worldwide to support and promote efforts that further its mission to get boys off the street with technology and teach them skills that are relevant in the market place.

Precious Eniayekan, the founder of the Initiative, said: Education is the most powerful weapon that we can use to change the world, and technology also has systematically changed how we learn, live and do things. We are are preparing boys especially from Nigeria for this paradigm shift in web application, with courses and programs to bridge this skills gap. Through The Boy Code , TSi will provide support in a way that suits students needs, including but not limited to: providing Laptops, softwares , seasoned professionals, internship opportunities and so much more to aid learning.

The Vice Principal of The Stellar Academy, Victoria Agorye, noted that so far, TSI has been able to acquire 20 brand new laptops for the beneficiaries, while calling on people to donate to get more laptops for the boys.

According to her, the goal is to train 50 boys from different communities in Africa but starting from Lagos, Nigeria.

They must be empowered to see themselves as part of the solution. This initiative builds on our ongoing work to make sure the next generation of men that are now boys is equipped with the information, tools, and mentorship they need, said Precious Eniayekan of TSI.

Our work with the Stellar Initiative has been ongoing for several years and we are excited to be launching this project that is set to transform lives. We believe that the skills and knowledge were providing to our students will be key for the industry to thrive and were really excited to be part of the future generation of technological development, Precious Eniayekan said.
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Tuesday marks the traditional Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar and an important occasion for family reunions.

The festival is believed to have originated more than 2,000 years ago, a demonstration of how important the family and family ties are to the Chinese people throughout the centuries.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has on many occasions talked about the significance of the family, stressing integrating the love for the family with the love for the country and incorporating the pursuit of personal goals into the realization of the Chinese Dream.

The following are some highlights of his remarks in this regard:

-- The family is the basic unit of society and the first school that we attend in life.

-- Regardless of how the times change, or how our lives are transformed, we must remain committed to making our families better, laying emphasis on life, learning and conduct in the home.

-- The Chinese nation always places a high value on family, just as the maxim goes, "The root of the world is in the state; the root of the state is in the family." A family in harmony prospers.

-- Filial piety at home and loyalty to the country are among the fine traditions of the Chinese nation.

-- The prosperity and strength of the country and the rejuvenation of the nation must be ultimately reflected in the happiness of myriads of families and the continuous improvement of the lives of hundreds of millions of people. 
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has launched a scathing attack on his erstwhile ally and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu.

Mr Aregbesola, a former governor of Osun State, while addressing party loyalists in Ijebu-jesa on Monday, said he acquiesced to Mr Tinubus handpicked candidate as his successor in 2018 because it was agreed that he would continue the legacies he laid.

Upon assumption of office, however, Governor Gboyega Oyetola failed to keep the agreement, according to the minister.

Mr Aregbesola said the same treatment Mr Tinubu and his group meted out to former Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, will be given to Mr Oyetola because he had derailed from the master plan too.

That was how it was in Lagos at a time; a governor derailed and the party members unseated him using the ballot boxes, said Mr Aregbesola, addressing his supporters in Yoruba language.

As it was in Lagos yesterday, so shall it be in Osun today. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander, he said.

Only God can terrify us, not man. Go and tell them wherever they are, we own this party. We own this Afenifere group. We own this people-loving group started by our patriarchs Obafemi Awolowo and Bola Ige. This was Elder Akandes group before he temporarily left us.

This is our party. Stop calling yourself a factional group; you are not a faction; you are the authentic APC.

In the middle of his speech, the minister launched a song that was, apparently, targeted at Mr Tinubu and his successor to drive home his point. He sang Bye-bye to jagba-jagba, bye bye to rede rede (which means; bye bye to nonsense).

We came back home to reposition our party to where it was meant to be because we followed the leading of our leader that we thought was a noble and reliable fellow. We followed him dutifully with all sense of loyalty, he continued.

Some people even thought that we were no longer Muslims because of how we cooperated with him. We dealt with him without treachery but we never knew he planned evil for us.

We exalted him beyond his status and he turned himself to a god over us and we had sworn to ridicule anyone who compares himself to God. God has no competitor; He is enough to be God.

We built this party on perseverance as well as sweat and blood. We lost a lot of people in this struggle but eventually, we came into government on November 27, 2010. We were in government for eight years and governed according to the measure of Gods grace, everybody in Osun enjoyed our tenure.
Sherriff Oborevwori, the Speaker, Delta House of Assembly, has joined the race for the 2023 governorship election in the state.

Mr Oborevwori disclosed this at the resumed plenary of the House after a break on Tuesday in Asaba.

My dear colleagues, I have offered myself to serve our people in a higher capacity come 2023 and there is no going back.

By the grace of Almighty God and the goodwill of our teeming supporters, I remain a frontline aspirant in the 2023 governorship race, he said.

While welcoming the lawmakers from the break, the speaker commended them for their commitment and support for the programmes and activities of the House.

He said the leadership of the House acknowledged their loyalty and commitment to the success recorded so far.

My distinguished colleagues, as we resume plenary today, I wish to remind all of us that we have a number of bills to consider, process and pass before the end of this session in June.

Distinguished colleagues, let me commend you for the peace and stability in the House.

Delta House of Assembly is one of the most vibrant Houses of Assembly in the country.

This is because of your collective efforts and strength of character. Let us therefore continue to work together with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, our dear governor, to achieve the Stronger Delta Vision agenda, he said.

Mr Oborevwori urged the lawmakers to work towards the passage of the bills before the House.

ALSO READ: Delta Assembly passes bill to regulate manufacture of wooden boats

He also appealed to all political aspirants to pursue their aspirations in peace for the interest of the people and the state.

We should respect the dignity of others, no matter how you feel about them, he said.

The speaker assured his colleagues and the constituents that leadership of the assembly was anchored on accountability and transparency.

I have not been invited by any anti-graft agency for fraud related issues, he boasted.

(NAN)
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, rejected appeals to stop the Zamfara State House of Assembly from continuing with the impeachment proceedings intiated against the Deputy Governor, Mahadi Gusau.

The judge, Inyang Ekwo, turned down the request of the lawyers to Mr Gusau and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who had sought an order directing parties to maintain status quo.

Mr Ekwo, instead, fixed March 10 for definite hearing in the suit.

The Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, had last year defected from the PDP  the party on whose platform he rose to power, to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Gusau, the deputy governor, refused to defect to the APC with the governor, a development believed to be the major source of acrimony between the two of them.

In a show of loyalty to the governor in the wake of the political differences between the two men, the state lawmakers had last year threatened to remove the deputy governor over alleged misconduct.

A major allegation counted against him by the lawmakers was that he held a political rally amidst killings in the state. But he denied any wrongdoing.

Restrained

The Federal High Court, Abuja, later in July 2021, restrained the lawamakers and the Chief Judge of the state from taking steps to impeach the deputy governor.

But the state House of Assembly started fresh moves to remove the deputy governor earlier this month.

The lawmakers served him an impeachment notice about a week ago.

PREMIUM TIMES reported some days ago that 18 of the lawmakers voted for the continuation of the impeachment process.

Court hearing

In the light of the fresh impeachment moves against him, Mr Gusau and the PDP, on Monday, urged the court to revive its order issued in July last year to halt the fresh impeachment proceedings.

At the hearing, the plaintiffs lawyer, Emmanuel Ukala, appealed to the judge to make a definite pronouncement on maintaining the status quo.

In the alternative, the lawyer urged the court to direct Mike Ozekhome, counsel for Mr Matawalle, and lawyers to other defendants  the Chief Judge of Zamfara State and the Speaker of the Zamfara State House of Assembly  to give an undertaking for maintenance of status quo.

But, in his response, Mr Ozekhome told the court that Mr Ukala only served him the amended originating summons, the motion to revive the status quo, as well as a motion for interlocutory injunction just on Friday, February 11, 2022.

He argued that by the rules of court, he was entitled to seven days each to respond to both motions and 30 days to respond to the amended originating summons.

He also argued that the status quo order granted in July 2021 had since expired after 14 days going by the rules of the Federal High Court. He said maintenance of status quo order was based on a mere letter of invitation sent to Mr Gusaau to appear before the parliament to answer certain questions, and not an order against impeachment.

Mr Ozekhome said further that he would not give an undertaking which would have the effect of preventing the Zamfara State House of Assembly from carrying out its constitutional functions, including impeachment.

Ruling on the matter, Mr Ekwo held that it was premature to hear the application for maintenance of status quo and the other processes.

He advised both lawyers that whatever applications or grievances they might have should be taken to the next hearing date.

He, therefore, granted Mr Ozekhome seven days each to respond to the two applicantions and 21 days to respond to the main suit

The court also granted Mr Ukala time to file his responses.

Zamfara Chief Judge sets up probe panel

Meanwhile, the Zamfara State Chief Judge, Kulu Aliyu, has inaugurated a seven-member panel to investigate allegations against the deputy governor, following a request by the State House of Assembly.

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Mrs Aliyu explained the use of shall in section 185 (5) as imposing a duty on her office to appoint a panel consisting of people of unquestionable character, integrity and honesty to investigate the deputy governor.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the State House of Assembly has been making moves to remove the deputy governor.

Eighteen members of the House had voted in support of the impeachment move last week.

The seven-member panel is headed by a retired judge, Tanko Soba. The members are Oladipo Okpeseyi (SAN), Abdul Ibrahim (SAN), Hussaini Zakariyau, Amina Marafa, Sani Mande and Ahmad Rabah while Ashiru Tsafe will serve as the Secretary.

Mrs Aliyu asked members of the panel to give the deputy governor a fair hearing and chance to defend himself against allegations of gross misconduct, financial fraud, abuse of office and breach of the constitution.
The local council elections held on Saturday in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have again brought to fore the low representation of women in Nigerias politics and governance.

The election was held in 2,229 polling units of the 62 wards in the six area councils of the Nigerian capital. About 1.3 million people registered to vote in the polls.

A total of 55 candidates contested to be the chairpersons of the six area councils. Only three of the candidates (9 per cent) are women.

Also, all the 55 candidates, by law, had to have running mates, who if elected would be the vice-chairpersons of the area councils. Of the 55 running mates, only eight (15 per cent) are women.

For the councillorship positions, a total of 363 candidates sought to be elected to represent the 62 wards in the area councils. Only 39 of the councillorship candidates (11 per cent) are women.

The FCT Area Council election presented an opportunity to improve the electoral process at the local level and deepen democracy within the area councils.

Unfortunately, as in the other parts of the country, the election also confirmed the poor political representation of women in Nigeria.

Political Parties Guilty

All the 14 political parties that took part in the Abuja council elections were guilty of low female representation, but some were worse than others. The poor performing parties include Nigerias two largest parties, the ruling APC and the main opposition PDP.

Data from the electoral commission, INEC, shows that at least four political parties  APC, PDP, Action Alliance (AA) and Labour Party (LP)  had no female candidates vying for any seats in the 2022 FCT Area Council Elections.

The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) with 10 candidates had the highest number of women candidates for the 2022 FCT Area Council elections.

Low Women representation across Nigeria

Since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, after several years of military rule, the country has completed six election cycles. In all the elections, the low representation of women has been a constant.

Through the years, there has been a consistent clamour to address the gender imbalance. Yet, women have remained a vastly underrepresented minority in political power across Nigeria.

Nigeria has not had a female president or vice president. However, there have been few female aspirants who contested for such offices in the general elections.

Also, no female governor has been elected into office since the beginning of the fourth republic. The deputy governorship is the highest executive position women have held since 1999, data from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed.

For the office of the deputy governor, only one woman was elected into office in 1999; in 2003, the female deputy governors became two and by 2007, the number had increased to six, before dropping to four in 2019, representing 11.1 per cent.

The data on female senators has also been low. Out of 109 seats available, only three senators (2.8 per cent) were elected in 1999.

In 2003, the number increased to four, representing (3.7 per cent), then to nine (8.3 per cent) in 2007. By 2011, there were seven female senators in the red chambers, before dropping to eight (7.3 per cent) in 2015 and 2019 respectively.

Similarly, only a few women have been elected into the House of Representatives compared to their male counterparts. Between 1999 and 2007, there was an increase in the number of female lawmakers before the numbers declined in 2011.

Seven women (1.9 per cent) were elected as members of the green chambers in 1999. The number increased to 21 (5.8 per cent) in 2003, and then to 27 (6.9 per cent) in 2007.

The emergence of female lawmakers dropped to 19 (5.3 per cent) in 2011 and 2015 respectively. This would further plummet in the 2019 general elections as only 11 (3.1 per cent) women were elected into the house of representatives.

Idayat Hassan, the Director Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, said the gender imbalance keeps recurring because of womens financial constraints and because political parties are not giving adequate considerations to women.

Ms Hassan said generally, women do not have the money and for political parties to put you forward, you must have money or be able to attract donations.

This problem is more concentrated on the dominant APC and PDP. They tend not to present women during elections and even when they do, the internal party politics will ensure that women do not emerge as the final candidates.

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At the end of the day, the women will go to non-viable platforms which of course do not have the resources to reach the people. Until we have more women as candidates it will be difficult to achieve the high numbers that we want, she told PREMIUM TIMES.

One way to address this, Ms Hassan said, is through the quota system.

Although it cannot (the quota system) stand without affirmative action at the political party level. Affirmative action would make it compulsory for political parties to give women seats. After that we can have the national affirmative action which will then go into the constitution, Ms Hassan said.

Hope on the horizon?

In a recent study, the CDD said despite the prevailing challenges facing women in Nigerian politics, there are some reasons for optimism.

The study, a citizens perception survey on the attitudes of Nigerians towards female candidates in the political space, surveyed 7,396 persons (roughly 49 per cent female and 51 per cent male) between September 2019 and June 2020.

Conducted using a stratified quota sampling technique, it covered all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, to explore citizens perceptions of womens participation in electoral politicsAbout 86 per cent of the respondents said they would vote a woman into public office, while 85 per cent of those polled thought that women would bring about positive changes in society through sound public administration.

The same percentage of respondents strongly affirmed the proposition that women could bring change to society if elected to public office.

The survey suggests that social norms often presumed to explicitly exclude women from political participation might either be losing strength or may not be as widespread as often been assumed.
Energy is the key to Africas development and green transition. Approximately 600 million Africans and 10 million medium-sized enterprises lack access to electricity and millions of households use charcoal, wood and kerosene for cooking. Current charcoal demand clears an estimated 3 per cent of Africas forested area a year.

The green transition is one of five key areas for the Africa-European Union (EU) Partnership, established in 2020 to improve coordination between the two continents. Energy transformation is critical in this transformation.

But are Europe and Africa on the same green page? And when it comes up at the Sixth African Union (AU)EU summit in Brussels this week, will discussions lead to concrete, mutually beneficial cooperation?

On February 10, the EU announced a 150 billion investment plan for Africa to focus on the green transition, including renewable energy generation and protecting biodiversity. But the details and implications of Europes energy plans for Africa are ambiguous and could negatively impact many countries on the continent.

The energy situations in Africa vary immensely between countries. Some, such as Morocco, Mauritius and Namibia, depend on energy imports and are ripe for renewable energy investment. States with significant renewable energy opportunities and low energy access could leapfrog carbon dependency and become a prototype for green innovation and low-carbon industrialisation.

Others are energy exporters such as Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Senegal, and Cote dIvoire. Many of these countries rely on fossil fuel exports and have recently locked into investments that could risk becoming stranded assets. Proposals to move away from fossil fuels without concrete alternatives concern them.

African leaders are right to worry about what will replace fossil fuel exports if European partners move away from them in their quest for neutrality. The EU has proposed a carbon border adjustment mechanism  a levy on certain imported goods that negatively impacts African exporters. If Europe winds these imports down or imposes trade blockages without replacing them or helping to generate alternatives, there will undoubtedly be economic losers.

Some accuse Europe of double standards. Fossil fuels constitute by far the largest share of EU imports from Africa. Europe also recognises the need to continue investing in gas for its use while ending financing for gas in developing countries.

Developing new green energy value and supply chains that enable African economies to grow should be an Africa-EU Partnership priority. Some European entities are exploring green hydrogen production in African countries as an alternative to fossil fuel imports. Hydrogen is very energy-intensive.

If the production of European exports requires energy sources in areas where local African populations dont have energy access, it wont be sustainable. That could cause political and social tension and possibly conflict. Any low-carbon technologies that address Europes energy needs should add value to Africa.

There has been much debate on Africas continued natural gas exploration and development, particularly because of the continents energy needs. The concern is that renewable energies alone arent sufficient to drive industrialisation. The gas debate should be context-specific and balance countries economic progress with de-carbonisation.

Europes green transformation relies on raw materials such as cobalt, lithium, nickel and copper. Africa is rich in these resources  60 per cent of the worlds cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The EU and AU must ensure that competition over depleting resources doesnt escalate conflict or further strain governance in those areas.

Most African countries rely predominantly on natural resources and primary production exports. Green industrialisation is vital to diversify and develop African economies and make them less dependent on resource extraction and fossil fuels. It will be impossible without energy access.

The AU and EU must show that they prioritise green economic transformation in their shared agenda. It should form the basis for EU and African engagement on energy transition and adaptation. They should map out the economic winners and losers of climate neutrality and jointly invest in capacity building and financing for long-term strategies.

Relationships between Europe and Africa on climate-related issues are tense. This reflects a discord between developing and developed countries underpinned by the view that wealthy states are less concerned about poorer countries climate risks, even though the latter contribute least to the problem. Developing nations bear the brunt of climate impacts and have the least resources to manage them. The green transition as it is currently proposed could hamper development for Africa.

These tensions were shown at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year when African countries said wealthy nations had failed to keep their promise to raise $100 million in climate finance. African needs are still widely unmet while the continent faces severe climate exposure with inadequate investment capacities. All this while it is still recovering from the COVID-19 crisis.

Cooperation between Africa and Europe on the green transition is vital. Separately, the AU and EU have made significant progress on their respective green agendas. The plans of both continents include many complementary visions and overarching goals for their green transitions. But the pathways to achieving them are fundamentally different, including energy transformation. AU and EU strategies must converge better to ensure the continents development.

Aimee-Noel Mbiyozo, Senior Research Consultant, Migration, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Pretoria

The ISS partnered with the European Think Tanks Group (ETTG) with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to conduct a series of roundtables on the EUAU partnership. The report on green transformation and climate change is available here.

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a PREMIUM TIMES syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).
Nigeria on Monday recorded 75 additional coronavirus infections across eight states of the federation, raising the countrys infection toll to 254,091.

The latest statistics released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Tuesday morning, shows that the death toll still stands at 3,141, as no fatalities were recorded on Monday.

The disease centre noted that the latest figure includes a backlog of 18 confirmed cases and a single discharged case reported for Akwa Ibom State from February 7 to 13, 2022.

NCDC also stated that a total of 230,457 have now been successfully treated and discharged, while 20, 493 people are still down with the virus nationwide.

Breakdown

Apart from Anambra State, the breakdown of the NCDC data shows that Lagos State came first on the log with 28 new infections.

Ondo State also recorded 10 cases, closely followed by Cross River and Rivers states with nine and six cases respectively.

While Edo State recorded two cases, the duo of Delta and Kano States reported a single case respectively.

NCDC also noted that eight states Abia, Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Nasarawa, and Sokoto, reported that they recorded no cases on Monday.
Human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has urged the National Assembly to withdraw the award it conferred on the deputy commissioner of police, Abba Kyari last year.

Mr Effiong said this in his reaction to the officers alleged involvement in drug trafficking.

The House of Representatives in June last year honoured Mr Kyari for his hard work and outstanding performance in the Nigeria Police.

The House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, at the occasion described the award as The greatest honour as it was coming from an Institution where all Nigerians are represented.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES, Monday, Mr Effioing said if National Assembly has any integrity and reputation, they should not wait for a conviction before withdrawing the award from Mr Kyari.

They (NASS) dont need to wait for conviction to withdraw the award that they gave him. If the NASS has any reputation and integrity, they should have withdrawn the award long ago.

The National Assembly should be embarrassed by now that they would have hurriedly withdrawn the award because Mr Kyari has been indicted.

Before his suspension, Mr Kyari was the commander of the Inspector General of police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

Mr Kyari and his team were declared wanted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Monday over allegations that they were involved in the trafficking of illicit drugs into Nigeria from Addis Ababa aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight ET917.

The drug is said to have arrived in Nigeria through Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, on January 19.

The police spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said findings showed that the officers were allegedly involved in official corruption, which compromised ethical standards in their dealings with the suspects and exhibit recovered.

Mr Adejobi said a police investigation report had earlier indicted Mr Kyari, who had been on suspension for alleged involvement in a fraud case that is being investigated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

He said after in-house investigations, the Inspector General of police ordered the indicted officers arrested and transferred to the NDLEA for conclusive investigation.

The police are also initiating appropriate disciplinary actions against Mr Kyari and his colleagues, the spokesperson said.

Mr Effiong said the police authorities do not need to prove beyond reasonable doubt since the suspended deputy police commissioner has been indicted and his conduct has been unprofessional and violates the police regulations.

This, he said, is sufficient to dismiss Mr Kyari from service.

He further said both the police officers and the NDLEA officers indicted by police investigations should be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
The Nigerian government will open an auction on Wednesday to welcome, from investors, offers for a combined sum of N150 billion in bonds through the local debt market to meet its funding needs, the Debt Market Office (DMO) said.

To be sourced in pairs, the offering seeks to raise N75 billion at a coupon rate of 12.50 per cent set to mature by January 2026 through its first note while the second carries the same value but at a 13 per cent rate, which expires January 2042.

According to the offer terms, it will be allocated at N1,000 per unit subject to a minimum subscription of N50,001,000 and in multiples of N1,000 thereafter.

Nigerias avalanche of public debt climbed to N38 trillion in September 2021, 18 per cent higher than a year earlier, the debt office said in December, as the governments obsession for borrowing to fund critical infrastructures remains too hard to cure.

Last year, the country spent 85.5 per cent of its revenue servicing debt and the figure is bound to hit 92.6 per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund said this month, hinting that Nigeria could be plunged into a debt sustainability crisis soon.

A $4 billion Eurobond raised in September went into budget support and provided a bulwark for its foreign exchange reserves, which took a hit from an oil crash and the Covid-19 outbreak. That was Nigerias seventh round of exploring the market.

Patience Oniha, the DMO, has said government will not tap that market this year but will be casting its glance elsewhere.

The government plans to borrow N6.3 trillion to plug its funding gap for 2022.
The House of Representatives has passed for second reading a bill to remove imprisonment as punishment for attempted suicide.

The bill, sponsored by Francis Waive (PDP, Delta), was debated and passed for second reading on Tuesday.

Mr Waives bill seeks to amend section 327 of the Criminal Code Act. The principal act provides one year imprisonment for attempted suicide.

The proposed amendment is seeking to replace imprisonment with compulsory counselling and community service.

Any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to compulsory counselling and community service not less than six months, the proposed amendment reads.

Mr Waive, in his lead debate, said suicide is a call to help and should not be punished.

Suicidal people are in need of effective treatments, counselling and assistance not punishment. Penalizing attempted suicide is hardly a prevention method instead the law should direct the appropriate authorities to assist the traumatised attempters.

Self-destructive behaviour is often a cry for help since suicide is mainly an indication of underlying mental and psychological disorder. The criminal laws are better suited for prosecuting criminal acts not an exhibited call for help and act of distress, he said.

The lawmaker also lamented the surge in suicide cases in Nigeria, linking it to the increase in mental health challenges in the country.

The motion was taken without any debate and referred to the House Committee on Justice.

Surge in suicide rate in Nigeria

The Suicide Research and Prevention Initiative (SURPIN), a Not-for-Profit Organisation, had disclosed that over 40 per cent of total calls it had received since its inception in 2017, came from people under age 30.

PREMIUM TIMES had published a report on the rising cases of suicide and its connection with hard economic realities.
Read the full text of the letter entitled, SUBMISSION OF THE 2022 APPROPRIATION AMENDMENT PROPOSAL:

As I indicated at the signing of the 2022 Appropriation Act, I forward herewith the Proposals for amendment of the 2022 Appropriation Act (as detailed in Schedules I-V), for the kind consideration and approval by the Senate.

Let me seize this opportunity to once again express my deep gratitude to the leadership and members of the Senate for the expeditious consideration and passage of the 2022 Appropriation Bill as well as the enabling 2021 Finance Bill.

It has become necessary to present this amendment proposal considering the impacts of the recent suspension of the Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) subsidy removal and the adverse implications that some changes made by the National

Assembly in the 2022 Appropriation Act could have for the successful implementation of the budget.

It is important to restore the provisions made for various key capital projects in the 2022 Executive Proposal (see details in Schedule l) that were cut by the National Assembly. This is to ensure that critical ongoing projects that are cardinal to this administration, and those nearing completion, do not suffer a setback due to reduced funding.

It is equally important to reinstate the N25.81 billion cut from the provision for the Power Sector Reform Programme in order to meet the Federal Governments commitment under the financing plan agreed with the World Bank.

In addition, it is necessary to reinstate the four (4) capital projects totaling N1.42 billion in the Executive Proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources that were removed in the 2022 Appropriation Act.

Furthermore, there is critical and urgent need to restore the N3 billion cut from the provision made for payment of mostly long outstanding Local Contractors Debts and Other Liabilities as part of our strategy to reflate the economy and spur growth (see Schedule I).

You will agree with me that the inclusion of National Assemblys expenditures in the Executive Budget negates the principles of separation of Powers and financial autonomy of the Legislature. It is therefore necessary to transfer the National Assemblys expenditures totaling N16.59 billion in the Service Wide Vote to National Assembly Statutory Transfer provision (see Schedule l).

It is also imperative to reinstate the N22.0 billion cut from the provision for Sinking Fund to Retire Mature Loans to ensure that government can meet its obligations under already issued bonds as and when they mature.

The cuts made from provisions for the recurrent spending of Nigerias Foreign Missions, which are already constrained, are capable of causing serious embarrassment to the country as they mostly relate to office and residential rentals.

Similarly, the reductions in provisions for allowances payable to personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Police Formations and Commands could create serious issues for government. It is therefore imperative that these provisions be restored as proposed (see Schedule II).

It is also absolutely necessary to remove all capital project is that replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act; 139 out of the 254 such projects totaling N13.24 billion have been identified to be deleted from the budget.

Some significant and non-mandate projects were introduced in the budgets of the Ministry of Transportation, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (see Schedule III). There are several other projects that have been included by the National Assembly in the budgets of agencies that are outside their mandate areas. The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has been directed to work with your relevant Committees to comprehensively identify and realign all such misplaced projects.

It is also necessary to restore the titles / descriptions of 32 projects in the Appropriation Act to the titles contained in the Executive Proposal for the Ministry of Water Resources (see Schedule IV) in furtherance of our efforts to complete and put to use critical agenda projects.

The Appropriation Amendment request is for a total sum of N106,161,499,052 (One hundred and six billion, one hundred and sixty-one million, four hundred and ninety-nine thousand, and fifty-two Naira only) for Capital Expenditures and N43,870,592,044 (Forty-three billion, eight hundred and seventy million, five hundred and ninety-two thousand, and forty-four Naira only) for Recurrent Expenditures. I therefore request the National Assembly to make the above amendments without increasing the budget deficit. I urge you to roll back some of the N887.99 billion of projects earlier inserted in the budget by the National Assembly to accommodate these amendments.

However, following the suspension of the PMS subsidy removal, the 2022 Budget Framework has been revised to fully provide for PMS subsidy (see Schedule V). An additional provision of N2.557 trillion will be required to fund the petrol subsidy in 2022. Consequently, the Federation ACCOunt (Main Pool) revenue for the three tiers of government is projected to decline by N2.00 trillion, while FGNs share from the Account is projected to reduce by N1.05 trillion. Therefore, the amount available to fund the FGN Budget is projected to decline by N969.09 billion.

Aggregate expenditure is projected to increase by N45.85 billion, due to additional domestic debt service provision of N102.5 billion net of the reductions in Statutory Transfers by N56.67 billion, as follows: NDDC, by N12.61 billion from N102.78 billion to N90.18 billion; NEDC, by N5.90 bilion from N48.08 billion to N42.18 billion; UBEC, by N19.08 billion from N112.29 billion to N93.21 billion; Basic Health Care Fund, byN 9.54 billion from N56.14 billion to N46.60 billion; and NASENI, by N9.54 billion from N56.14 billion to N46.60 billion.

Total budget deficit is projected to increase by N1.01 trillion to N7.40 trillion, representing 4.01% of GDP. The incremental deficit will be financed by new borrowings from the domestic market.

Equally, it is imperative that Clause 10 of the 2022 Appropriation Act which stipulates that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) are authorized to charge and defray from all money standing in credit to the units as revenues, penalties or sanctions at 10% for technical setup and operational cost at the units in this financial year be repealed.

This clause is in conflict with the Act establishing these Agencies, as well as some other laws and financial regulations of the government. These are neither Revenue Generating Agencies nor Regulatory Bodies that generate revenue or charge penalty fees. They are fully funded (Personnel, Overhead and Capital) by Government through Budgetary provisions.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, as well as the Finance Act 2021, require these Agencies to remit fully any recovered funds to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). This clause may lay a dangerous precedence, and spark clamours for similar treatment by other anti-corruption agencies.

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Also, the Clause 11 which stipulates that Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law in force, Nigerian Embassies and Missions are authorised to expend funds allocated to them under the Capital components without having to seek approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should likewise be repealed. It too is inconsistent with extant Financial Regulations and the Public Procurement Act, which set thresholds for approving officers and Parastatal / Ministerial Tenders Boards for awards of Contracts for the procurement of goods and Services. This also amounts to an intrusion of the Legislature into what is an executive function.

Given the urgency of the request for amendments, I I seek the cooperation of the National Assembly for expeditious legislative action on the 2022 Appropriation Amendment Proposal in order to sustain the gains of an early passage of the budget.

Please accept, Distinguished Senate President, the assurances of my highest consideration.
" " Steel columns with the names of victims of lynchings fill a pavilion at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Equal Justice Initiative/Human Pictures

It's the columns that get you, endless rust-colored steel columns hanging from a ceiling. Each represents a county in the U.S. where someone (or several someones) was lynched. The Wilcox County, Alabama, column shows four people lynched between 1893 and 1904. The Avery County, North Carolina, column shows one. Counties from all over the South are represented, as well as a few in the West and Midwest.

It's all part of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, founded by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). The organization represents indigent prisoners and defendants throughout the state of Alabama, many of whom are, or were, on death row. The EJI's executive director and founder is Bryan Stevenson, whose bestselling memoir "Just Mercy" was recently made into a movie. Stevenson led the creation of the memorial and its sister site, the Legacy Museum.

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The stereotype of lynching is a group of white men stringing up a black man from a tree. In truth, people were also shot, forced to jump off bridges or dragged behind cars. Sometimes thousands watched the murder in a carnival atmosphere. Postcards of lynchings were sold to spectators and body parts of the victims were even sometimes distributed as souvenirs. The EJI documented more than 4,400 lynchings between 1877 and 1950, 800 more than had been previously believed. (Lynchings declined in the U.S. with the end of legal segregation and the rise of the civil rights movement.) Most victims were African American men but women, poor whites, Hispanics and Asians were sometimes lynched as well.

While lynching had been practiced during slavery, it really got going during the Reconstruction era, after the abolition of slavery when African Americans started to make modest gains politically and economically. Lynchings were used to intimidate blacks and prevent them from asserting their rights.

" " One of the plaques at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice showing the "crime" a man was lynched for. Kathryn Whitbourne

And what "crimes" were the people who were lynched guilty of? The memorial lists several on a wall, each with its own plaque. "General Lee was lynched in Reevesville, South Carolina, in 1904 for knocking on a white woman's front door," reads one. "Anthony Crawford was lynched in Abbeville, South Carolina, in 1916 for rejecting a white merchant's bid for cottonseed," says another.

Gabrielle Daniels, a program manager at the EJI, told an audience at the memorial last month that the idea for the museum developed out of reports the institute put out on slavery in 2013 and lynching in 2015. The memorial and museum were a chance to make those reports tangible.

"We found that communities didn't have a strong understanding of that history of terror and what that meant, to have a tool of racial terror to enforce segregation and economic exploitation," she said. "And what we wanted to do was think about how does a lack of public memory around over 4,400 victims of racial terror and lynching  what does that mean for us? What more have we lost other than just remembering someone's name? Have we lost a very important part of our context to piece together why we still need healing today?"

Another way to heal? Collecting soil. Inside the memorial are hundreds of jars of soils from the sites of these lynchings that were collected by victims' families or community volunteers. In the park surrounding the memorial are duplicates of the steel columns waiting to be sent to the counties where the lynchings were carried out for community remembrance projects, provided the requesters have shown efforts to build community and address inequities.

The Legacy Museum

Just a mile away from the memorial is the Legacy Museum, also operated by the EJI. The museum attempts to draw a line connecting slavery, lynchings, segregation and today's mass incarceration of African Americans. Housed near the grounds of an old slave market (Montgomery was a big hub for the domestic slave trade), the museum uses first person accounts to talk about these issues, whether through re-enactments, letters, period posters and ads or videos. One of the most touching displays is a collection of newspaper advertisements placed by former slaves after Emancipation looking for relatives who had been sold away from them. A note mentions that most enslaved people never saw their loved ones again after they were sold.

" " The exterior of the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, which attempts to connect slavery, lynchings, segregation and mass incarceration. The museum and the memorial both opened in 2018. Equal Justice Initiative/Human Pictures

In the section devoted to mass incarceration are videos and letters from prisoners or former prisoners. "The first night I was here, I was jumped by four men," reads one letter to the EJI on display. "I was beaten and gang-raped several times during the night... I told the deputy and asked for a doctor. He just looked and me and said no, you don't need a doctor, you're getting just what you deserve."

The museum prominently displays a quote from John Ehrlichman, domestic policy chief to President Nixon, who told a writer that the war on drugs was really just a political ploy to attack blacks and hippies, both of whom Nixon considered his enemies. "We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities ... Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

"Sometimes you hear people say, 'Why do we still need to be talking about slavery? That happened a long time ago,'" said Daniels. "But you have inherited a history, a legacy, [and] a responsibility to consider what that legacy means today."

Now That's Interesting Planning a visit? The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice are both located in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. A combination ticket costs $10 for adults and $7 for students. You can see both museums in one day but you may want to pace yourself with an overnight visit. The museum and memorial are open daily except Tuesdays and major holidays.
Sorosoke: an #Endsars Anthology, edited by Jumoke Verissimo and James Yeku is now available.

The memories of a nonviolent protest to raise awareness about SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) violence against young Nigerians are still fresh in many Nigerians minds.

Unfortunately, some of the protestors who took to the streets to condemn the polices impunity are no longer alive today.

Efforts to keep their memory alive are, nonetheless, continuing.

One such example comes from a new book that gathers contributions from poets from all walks of life in an attempt to guarantee that the tragic legacies remain unforgotten.

The editors have gathered thirty-two poets using their art to push back against the violent suppression and intentional brutality perpetrated against Nigerians, especially the younger generation.

This new anthology contains poems that reflect on the various dynamics surrounding the event, ranging from the tragic violence against tens of civilians that occurred in Lekki on October 20, 2020, to other instances of violence that were never documented, as well as private ruminations on the state of the nation.

The anthology boasts remarkable poets like Gbenga Adeoba, Biodun Bello, Yejide Kilanko, Tayo Bello, Rasaq Malik, Uchechukwu Umezurike, Soji Cole, Kola Tubosun, and several other poets and scholars.

Editor James Yeku explains why they decided to bring these poets together:

It is important to articulate what motivates our project as poets. In the direct contexts of #EndSARS, we write to archive the self and preserve the memories of the fallen. The poets in our anthology trenchantly demonstrate the power of poetic justice to demand real change and liberation from the shackles of tyranny. This is why we write.

The book began as a project hosted online at the thick of the protest before being released in print and eBook editions, thanks to a collaboration with Professor Ainehi Edoro, along with her team at Brittlepaper, whose assistance further aided the initiatives success.

Jumoke Verissimo and James Yeku, both scholars and writers, edited Sorosoke: an #Endsars Anthology, published by Noirledge Publishing in Ibadan.

Verissimo is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alberta, studying literary representations and legacies of the Nigeria-Biafra War, while Yeku is a University of Kansas Assistant Professor of African Digital Humanities.

Copies are available on Amazon and across bookshops in Nigeria.

Profits from copies sold would be donated to charities that promote the objectives of the #ENDSARS project.
President Muhammadu Buhari has confirmed the appointment of Mohammed Bello-Koko as the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

The confirmation was announced in a release signed by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation, Eric Ojiekwe.

The appointment is to take effect immediately.

Mr Bello-Koko was first appointed acting MD of the agency in May 2021 after the previous managing director, Hadiza Usman, was suspended.

President Buhari approved Ms Usmans suspension after the transport minister, Chibuike Amaechi, accused her of insubordination and refusal to take or carry out lawful instruction from superior officers/higher authorities.

The government said the suspension would allow it investigate the allegations against the former MD.

Ms Usman denied wrongdoing in a February 26, 2021 letter.

The government has not released the outcome of the probe.

Prior to this appointment, Mr Bello-Koko was the Executive Director, Finance & Administration at the agency.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday, released an updated list of landed properties seized from an unnamed top military officer.

The new list contains 24 landed assets valued at N10.9 billion, a sharp increase from the N3billion given as the worth of the properties in the commissions earlier statement on Monday.

A judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nkeoya Maha, issued an order of final forfeiture of the assets to the federal government on Monday, Wilson Uwujaren, the spokesperson for the EFCC, had disclosed in the earlier statement.

But in another statement on Tuesday, Mr Uwujaren listed 24 sets of assets worth N10.9 billion seized from the military officer in Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Cross River states.

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, the EFCCs spokesperson confirmed that the list is an update on Mondays statement, which was without a list of the seized assets.

According to the commission, the assets include about nine filling stations with a total of 300 pumps scattered in Kano.

They also include an LPG plant with 30 shops, an event centre, a three storey plaza with 28 shops, and a block industry, all in Kano.

The 24 properties scattered across Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Cross River states, comprise land, shopping complex, gas station and fuel stations cumulatively valued at N10, 935,000,000.00. (Ten Billion, Nine Hundred and Thirty-Five Million Naira), the statement stated.

The commission had earlier disclosed on Monday that the assets were controlled by the military officer through proxies including the late General, Aminu Maude, and some companies such as Atlasfield Integrated Services Nigeria Limited, Marhaba Events Place, Aflac Plastics and Atlasfield Gas Plant Limited.

The judge, Nkeoye Maha, on Monday, granted the final forfeiture order in a ruling on the application by EFCCs lawyers, Cosmos Ugwu and Musa Isah.

Read EFCCs full list of the seized assets:

EFCC Press Release

Revealed: N10.9Bn Properties Seized From Military Officer

Justice N.E. Maha of th e Federal High Court on Monday February 14 ordered the final forfeiture of 24 properties held by fronts and proxies to a top military officer, to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The Order was pursuant to a forfeiture application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which had in May 2020 secured the forfeiture of the properties on interim basis.

The court had ordered the publication of notices in national newspapers, inviting persons with interest in the properties to show cause why they should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

With no such interest shown by any entity, Justice Maha on Monday, February 14, 2022, ordered the final forfeiture of the properties to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The 24 properties scattered across Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Cross River States, comprise land, shopping complex, gas station and fuel stations cumulatively valued at N10, 935,000,000.00. (Ten Billion, Nine Hundred and Thirty-Five Million Naira)

The properties are:

1. A 16 Pump filling Station located at Rijiyar Lemo, Kano.

2. A Filling Station with 41 pumps located opposite Federal Secretariat, Kano.

3. A Filling Station with 39 pumps located along BUK Road, Kano.

4. A Filling Station with 31 pumps located along Zaria Bypass, Kano.

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5. A Filling Station with 31 pumps located along Maiduguri Bypass, Kano.

6. A Filling Station with 29 pumps located along Maiduguri Bypass, Kano.

7. A Filling Station with 23 pumps located along Naibawa , Kano.

8. A Filling Station with 39 pumps located along Bachirawa, Kano.

9. A Filling Station with 51 pumps and a one-storey building with 35 shops attached to the Filling Station located along Shiek Jaafar Road Dorayi, Kano.

10. An LPG plant with 30 shops attached to it located along Zaria Road, Kano.

11. Marhaba Event Centre, Guda Abdullahi Road, Farm Centre, Kano.

12. A three storey building (Plaza) With 28 shops located on Hadeja Road, next to Sheshe Supermarket , Kano.

13. A three-storey building (Plaza) with 126 shops located on Audu Bako Way, Opposite Nation Plaza, Kano.

14. Classic Block Industry at Maiduguri Road, Kano.

15. Atlasfield Corporate Headquarters, No. L6 Ahmadu Bello Way, Kaduna.

16. Undeveloped plot located at Sharada, Adjacent A.A. Rano Filling Station, Kano.

17. Undeveloped plot located at Yan Rake, Adjacent Dala Orthopedic Hospital, Kano.

18. Undeveloped plot located along Kano-Gwarzo Road, Adjacent Kedco Regional Office, Kano North/Opposite Silver Spoon Restaurant, Kano.

19. Undeveloped plot located along Kano-Gwarzo Road, opposite Markaz Mosque, Kano.

20. Undeveloped plot located on Sani Marshal Road, Opposite Nissan Automobile, Kano.

21. 11.7 hectares located Adjacent TINAPA Resort, Adiabo, Calabar. 22. Truck Assembly Plant, Easter Bypass, Kano.

23. Event Center located in Calabar, Cross River State.

24. Aflac Plastics Limited located behind National Eye Center, Kaduna.

Find attached photographs of some of the properties.

Wilson Uwujaren

Head, Media & Publicity

15 February, 2022
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, fixed March 25 for judgment in a case filed by the 36 state governors over plan to deduct funds from the federation account to settle $418 million judgment debt in relation to Paris Club refund.

Inyang Ekwo, the judge, fixed the date for verdict after counsel for the parties in the matter adopted their final written addresses on Tuesday.

The 36 states Attorneys-General (plaintiffs) had sued the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Accountant General of the Federation and Ministry of Finance, and others, over the planned deduction.

Others are the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Debt Management Office (DMO), Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Incorporated Trustees of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), among others.

There are a total of 43 defendants, including the judgement creditors, sued in the suit that was filed by the 36 state governors on October 27, 2021.

Mr Ekwo had last November restrained the federal government from making any deduction from the federation account to settle the controversial judgment debts until his courts resolution of the issues.

Lawyers closing arguments

The plaintiffs lawyer, Sunday Ameh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in his final submission, contended that the defendants misunderstood the crux of his clients suit.

Mr Ameh challenged the argument by the AGF that the suit was challenging existing judgments given by the court in favour of some of the consultants.

We are not challenging the judgments, we are saying the way the federal government and its agencies are going about enforcing the judgments violates sections 120 and 162 of the (Nigerian) constitution, Mr Ameh said.

He argued that since the defendants agreed that the contractors were owed in relation to the services they rendered, it should settle the indebtedness without deploying funds belonging to the states and local government.

The plaintiffs lawyer urged the court to allow the case and grant his clients prayers.

On his part, the defendants lawyers Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Maimuna Lami-Shiru (Acting Director, Civil Litigation, Federal Ministry of Justice) and Olusola Oke (SAN) faulted the competence of the suit and urged the court to dismiss it.

Mr Olanipekun, who represented one of the consultants, Ted Iseghohi-Edwards (14th defendant), described the plaintiffs as meddlesome interlopers, noting that the state governments claimed to be fighting for the local councils, a distinct level of government, without the consent of the third tier of government.

He prayed the court to dismiss the suit for being time-wasting and constituting an abuse of court process.

Mrs Lami-Shiru argued that not only was the suit statute-barred, the plaintiffs are also seeking the impossible by asking the court to sit in appeal over judgments earlier delivered by it and other courts of coordinate jurisdiction.

The lawyer further argued that the decision by the federal government to issue promissory notes to the consultants as a way of settling the debt owed them was legitimate.

She added that the plaintiffs cannot distance themselves from the decision taken by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) in engaging some of the consultants.

Mrs Shiru represented the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), the Accountant General of the Federation (AGoF), the Ministry of Finance Incorporated and the Debt Management Office (DMO), sued as the first, second, third, fourth and sixth defendants in the suit, marked:

Mr Oke, who represented Riok Nigeria Limited and Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, some of the judgement creditors, argued that the suit is without merit and should be dismissed.

Background

The debts had accrued from court judgments awarding the creditors, who claimed to be consultants and contractors to the states and local governments, various sums of money which currently stand at $418 million.

Some of the creditors claimed to have earned their shares of the money through consultancy services of helping state and local governments to recover funds over-deducted by the federal government from their allocations between 1995 and 2002 to service the London Club and Paris Club loans.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how President Muhammadu Buhari had ignored the protests by the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) to approve the issuance of promissory notes to the creditors.

The promissory notes asked to be issued by the Debt Management Office (DMO) are to be funded through deductions from the allocations of the states and local governments for a period of 10 years.

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The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has said the Commission would resolve the challenges arising from the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) before the next rounds of elections.

Mr Yakubu stated this during a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja on Tuesday.

He spoke against the backdrop of the malfunctioning of the BVAS during the February 12 area council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Although, INEC had expressed confidence in the device after last November governorship election in Anambra State, the system performed below expectation during the FCT poll as a result of which many people could not be accredited to vote.

Aside from the reports of dysfunctional BVAS during the FCT poll, PREMIUM TIMES also witnessed high congestion of voters in some PUs, among other inconsistencies.

Mr Yakubu acknowledged the challenges but assured that the Commission would resolve them before the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun polls in June and July, respectively, as well as the 2023 general elections.

When the commission introduced the BVAS last year, the compact device was intended to achieve two objectives.

First is the verification of the genuineness of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and the fingerprint or facial authentication of voters during accreditation.

Secondly, to replace the Z-pad for uploading the polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in real-time on election day. So far, the BVAS has performed optimally in verifying the authenticity of PVCs and uploading images of Polling Unit results to the IReV.

We will review and improve its functionality for biometric accreditation of voters in the forthcoming by-elections and off-season governorship elections before the 2023 general election, Mr Yakubu said.

He also promised that the commission would ensure further decongestion of polling units in coming elections.
Some Nigerian lecturers have said it would have been better for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to declare an indefinite strike, instead of a warning strike.

ASUU announced a one-month warning strike as part of its resolutions at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Lagos on Monday to protest the governments failure to implement various agreements it entered with the union.

Edith Ohaja, a former head of the Mass Communication Department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), said the warning strike was improper because enough warning had been given to the government since the unions last embarked on industrial action.

I feel that by deciding to embark on a one-month warning strike rather than indefinite one, ASUU has once again shown that it is long on complaints and short on strategy, Mrs Ohaja said on Monday via a Facebook post.

She said strike action had been recurring partly due to ASSUs unwitting tendency to be outfoxed by the government.

During this warning strike, the government will set up or reactivate some committees that will hold a few meetings, make some solemn promises which it cannot be reasonably expected to fully implement within one month, she added.

Mrs Ohaja said the government could throw in some billions to defray a small percentage of the outstanding arrears of allowances and expect ASUU to call off its strike in response to what she termed, gestures of goodwill.

Rather than turn the screws tighter to increase pressure on the government, such a position is likely to further fuel public ire. So, we may have shot ourselves in the foot once again, she said.

Another UNN lecturer, Chidiebere Nwachukwu condemned the Nigerian government for speedily entering into agreements with the union without intention to fulfil them.

I am a bit sad because it ought to have been an indefinite strike, but they declared a one-month warning strike, Mr Nwachukwu told PREMIUM TIMES.

He said it was unfortunate that the government does not show seriousness to honour agreements with the union.

We are not interested in the warning strike, we want an indefinite strike as long as it will take to get them to fulfil their obligations to the academic union, he said.

The ASUU chairman, UNN chapter Christian Opata, said the decision to embark on the warning strike was to give the Nigerian government another opportunity to honour the pending agreements.

We feel for our children, we feel for parents who suffer. Thats why we said Okay, within this period of warning, lets see what happens again. If they dont do anything, we can proceed to indefinite action, Mr Opata told PREMIUM TIMES Monday night.

He said those calling for the union to proceed on indefinite action were only expressing their opinion.

They dont understand the dynamics, he said.
Evidence has shown that two of the five students involved in the alleged bullying of the late Sylvester Oromoni (Jnr) had been suspended in 2019 for the same offence.

This was during the testimony of the deceaseds father, Sylvester Oromoni (Snr), on Monday.

Prior to the inquest, the deceaseds father had claimed that five pupils bullied his son to death after he refused to join a secret cult. He claimed his son named these pupils moments before he died.

At the resumed hearing, Mr Oromonis lawyer, Andrew Efole, tendered several exhibits including suspension letters from the deceaseds school, Dowen College, issued to some senior students over previous bullying incidents in 2019.

He also tendered statements of persons made during the police investigation in December 2021 of the alleged bullying of the deceased by the same seniors and three others.

But the lawyer for the school, Anthony Kpokpo, objected to the line of examination-in-chief by Mr Efole.

Mr Kpokpo said, there is no reference to the exhibits in the witness deposition. The witness has always been in control of these documents and had an opportunity to refer to them in his deposition but chose not to. His counsel (Mr Efole) is now trying to get him to pad his deposition with the missing gaps of these exhibits just admitted.

The implication of this is that there will be no end to this examination in chief. The witness has just read out a paragraph of an exhibit that has just been admitted, whats the point to that? Except Mr Efole is saying that these exhibits require crutches.

But Mr Efole replied that the particular sections of the documents must be specified by the witness to guide the court, which is an adjudicator in the case at hand.

In his ruling, the coroner, Mikhail Kadiri, said Mr Efole should have filed a further affidavit incorporating all the documents to be relied on as exhibits.

But the coroner added that because the nature of the hearing is inquisitorial, he would allow all evidence that could assist him in the case.

He, however, limited the evidence of the witness, saying he would study all the documents.

During cross-examination by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Godwin Omoaka, representing one of the accused students, the lawyer asked the witness to confirm whether the young boy was taken to the hospital between November 24, 2021, when he was taken away from school and November 30, when he died.

Mr Oromoni said his son was initially taken to a diagnostic centre in Lagos for an X-ray done on his right leg.

He added that he was treated at home upon his arrival to Warri, Delta State, on November 26.

He was taken to hospital and our family doctor said there was no private ward and he was taken back to the house. Later he was taken to St Leo Diagnostics for x-ray and scan.

Mr Omoaka also asked the witness about the TV and online interviews he granted upon his sons death, which he confirmed.

The lawyer then sought to play the video clips via YouTube, which elicited arguments by various lawyers.

Mr Efole objected that they havent been served the exhibits, labelling the act as an ambush.

In his response, the lawyer said

there is nothing to be served, as these material are already in the public domain on YouTube.

Dowen College frontloaded one of the videos in a disc so we are playing it directly from the source. We wanted to avoid a situation where we will be accused of manipulating the videos because they are editable videos.

Section 34 of the coroners law says we arent bound by strict rules of evidence and the whole world including the lawyer objecting has seen the interviews which also helped to shape public perception about the case.

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Another counsel, Akingbola George, for the Lagos State government said:

This witness even admitted to all the pieces of evidence that the SAN is presenting. There is no controversy about these exhibits, they are most relevant to the very business of this sitting. So, I submit that counsel should not bring in the technicalities of the rule of evidence in order to stall these proceedings that have been moving expeditiously for the very fact that the witness has no objection and he is the author of the documents.

Mr Kpokpo also said a cross-examiner is not bound to front-load a document with which he intends to contradict a witness.

The court held that even though there was undue reliance on technicalities by Mr Oromonis counsel, Mr Omoaka, should provide the other parties with copies of the exhibits for use during the evidence of the witness.

All the videos were, however, played in the court.

A further hearing is fixed for Tuesday, February 15, 2022.
Sylvester Oromoni (Snr), the father of the late student of Dowen College, has explained to the court why he thinks there is a massive cover-up in the death of his son.

He spoke on Tuesday while responding to Akingbola Goerge, a lawyer representing the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, in the ongoing coroner inquest in Lagos over his sons alleged murder.

We have seen a lot of videos on social media and you said eloquently that there is a massive cover-up in this case. Who are those who cover-up, when and how? The lawyer asked.

Mr Oromoni said: there is a massive cover-up and it is clearly stated in the police report. A Magistrates Court in Yaba requested for 21-days and after 14-days, the boys were granted bail when the police were not done with their investigations.

When I saw the (former) Commissioner of Police (Hakeem Odumosu), he told me that it was not true that they were not done with their investigation.

He said that on that day when they said they had released those boys, the courts were not sitting. I then called the Deputy Commissioner of Police. He told me the same thing and told me to give him some time.

He said Mr Odumosu called him back and told him that they were given 21-days for their investigations and the boys had just spent 14-days in detention.

They (police) said they were going to write a protest letter. They were already interrogating two of the students so they were taken by surprise, he said, he said.

The same Commissioner of Police, after some days now publicly said that at the instance of Mr Governor, the Attorney-General and the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) said there was nothing wrong with the boys, therefore, theyve released them.

Do you know the processes involved in the administration of justice regarding children? The lawyer asked.

No, Mr Oromomi said.

Scan

Mr Oromoni said the deceased was taken to church on Monday morning (Nov 29) for a deliverance service  a one-hour service.

He confirmed that his doctor, Owhojede Henry, had ordered that a scan be conducted on the deceased and as of November 29, the scan showed that nothing was found in his stomach.

The lawyer asked: would you agree with me that whatever the pathologist found in the stomach on the 2nd of December must have come after 29th?

I dont agree with him, he said.

In last weeks hearing, the pathologist, Sunday Soyemi, who conducted the second autopsy, said that a blackish substance was found in the deceaseds intestine but was not tested because there was no facility with the hospital to conduct a toxicology test.

Cult group

Perrison Oromoni (deceaseds cousin) had alleged in a tweet that five boys beat up the deceased over his refusal to join the cult, is it that he lied, Ayi Ekpenyong, a lawyer asked.

I cant answer you, Mr Oromomi said.

Before that, the lawyer had asked: Did he mention that he was beaten because he was asked to join a cult?

Responding, Mr Oromomi said: he didnt mention the cult.

He said he learnt that the deceased was beaten on November 14 in a statement before the court.

Would you be surprised that one Peter (your employee) and Amanda (daughter) speculated that the deceased was beaten by some students of Dowen college? Mr Ekpenyong asked.

Im surprised, Mr Oromoni responded.

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Mr Oromoni said those videos were not made in anticipation of his death, adding that the deceaseds mother made it to use it in thanksgiving in (the) church to show what he went through.
Plattsburgh, NY (12901)

Today

Some early morning breaks in the overcast, otherwise cloudy. High 66F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Rain. Low around 50F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
CLEVELAND, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MIM Software Inc., a leading global provider of medical imaging software, announced today that it has partnered with United Kingdom-based AMG Medtech Ltd. AMG Medtech is a provider of industry-leading artificial intelligence, software solutions, and process improvement medical technologies across a variety of diagnostic and therapy care paths.

The partnership will focus on developing MIM Software's existing and prospective customer base across the United Kingdom and Ireland. AMG Medtech will provide specialist consultancy services to hospitals and research centers to identify areas that would benefit from a technology uplift and maximise operational efficiency through automation and standardization in the Nuclear Medicine, Radiology, and Radiation Therapy space. MIM Software will continue to manage implementations, application support, and development for its customers in the region.

"We are dedicated to positively impacting patient care globally," said Karel Van De Weghe, Business Development Manager at MIM Software Inc. "Partnering with AMG Medtech will allow us to utilize their expertise to bring us closer to our customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland and provide more clinics with the opportunity to enhance patient care and increase efficiency."

AMG Medtech and MIM Software seek to bring customers the latest future-proof software and technologies to improve clinical workflows through timesaving tools for organ and tumor segmentation, deformable registration, and voxel-based dosimetry for Molecular Radiotherapy.

"AMG Medtech is excited to partner with MIM Software to provide our United Kingdom and Ireland customers with MIM Software's powerful imaging platform, which includes industry-leading Nuclear Medicine and Dosimetry software solutions," said Freddie Elliot, Director at AMG Medtech. "This will empower both physicians and technologists to work harmoniously by using a powerful common platform and set of tools for PET/CT, SPECT, and MRI."

About MIM Software Inc.

MIM Software Inc. is a privately held company with a dynamic working environment. It is headquartered in Cleveland, OH, with international offices in Beijing, Chengdu, and Brussels. These fully-staffed offices manage application support as well as sales and engineering efforts for the European and Asian markets, respectively.

MIM Software sells its products globally to imaging centers, hospitals, specialty clinics, research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies. The company's products are used in over 3000 centers worldwide, with more than 500 of those centers located outside of the United States.

MIM Software Inc. is committed to enhancing patient care by providing customer-centered and innovative imaging solutions in the fields of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Neuroimaging, Cardiac Imaging, and Radiation Oncology.

To learn more, visit www.mimsoftware.com .

About AMG Medtech

AMG Medtech is a specialist consultancy service that offers the distribution of medical AI technologies and software solutions across the UK, Ireland, and Europe. AMG Medtech brings over 18 years of experience and expertise in medical imaging, cardiology, and radiotherapy. AMG Medtech understands its customers' workflows and how to scale them for different departments and across geographical networks so that you can deliver quality treatment with efficiency and consistency.

AMG Medtech understands the challenges hospitals and cancer clinics face every day with limited resources, such as a lack of trained staff, or overwhelming clinician workloads. This inadvertently takes a toll on patient care and treatment. AMG Medtech is excited to bring the advantages of AI technology and software into healthcare to reduce the number of routine tasks for clinicians and to raise the standard of care.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/709760/MIM_Software_Logo.jpg

SOURCE MIM Software Inc.
DALLAS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Addverb Technologies (Addverb), a leading automation solutions provider for warehouses and factories, announces its expansion into North and South America. The announcement comes on the heels of $132 million in funding from Reliance Industries. This expansion establishes an experienced U.S. leadership team with more than four decades of robotics, manufacturing, and business development experience.

Multi-Pro is a shuttle-based ASRS system designed for multi-deep pallet storing. Zippy, Addverb's ultra-fast sorting robot.

The U.S. subsidiary office will be led by Mark Messina, who has joined as the CEO of Addverb Technologies USA Inc. Messina carries two decades of experience in building, developing, and scaling global engineering, manufacturing, and operations. Messina is joined by Luke Lee, Marketing Head of Americas at Addverb, who brings 10+ years of business development and marketing experience, with a recent focus on the robotics sector. The team has worked collectively across companies including Amazon, Mattel, Geek+, and Hai Robotics.

The demand for automation is rising thanks to pandemic supply chain disruptions, combined with an increase in home deliveries. The global warehouse robotics market size is expected to grow from $4.7 billion in 2021 to $9.1 billion by 2026, with the US market being a significant portion of this demand. By designing and manufacturing its own hardware and software, Addverb has been able to design and deliver innovative, efficient, and flexible solutions for customers across different industries on a global scale.

"The supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic have accelerated the demand for automation globally and we are looking forward to expanding US and EMEA operations to deliver the next generation of Industry 4.0 automation to the customers," says Sangeet Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Addverb Technologies. "We are delighted to onboard Mark and Luke, to drive our continuing efforts to strengthen and scale the business in the US. We hope that the duo will take Addverb Technologies to new highs, making it the mark for a robotic solution."

Addverb has pioneered human-robot collaboration since its launch in 2016; its extensive product portfolio delivers innovative solutions by merging both fixed and flexible automation. The company offers autonomous mobile robots, carton shuttles, picking technologies, automated storage and retrieval systems, warehouse management and execution software, and industrial IoT solutions to streamline warehouse automation and increase productivity, accuracy, and safety.

To learn more about Addverb's intelligent logistics solutions, visit https://addverb.com/contact/ .

About Addverb

Addverb Technologies provides smart end-to-end warehouse and industrial automation and logistics solutions. The fleet of automated robots, material handling technologies, in-house system integration services and software solutions, helps improve the performance and accuracy of warehouse and factory operations.

Addverb's mission is: discovering the right automation for a customer's problem; designing the solution to manufacturing the product; develop and execute the project; dedicated after-sales support.

Addverb's headquarters, manufacturing, and R&D facilities are in India, with subsidiaries in Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States. Addverb's current 100+ customers include Reliance, Unilever, Flipkart, Coca-Cola, Pepsico, Johnson & Johnson, and PAR Pharmaceutical.

Media Contacts:

Megan Alba

[email protected]

405-973-8077

Luke Lee

[email protected]

SOURCE Addverb Technologies
Aircraft Engine Compressor Market Dynamics:

Market Driver - The key factor driving the global aircraft engine compressor market growth is the increase in aircraft deliveries due to expected growth in air travel at a steady pace during the forecast period. The introduction of innovative low-fare business models by regional airlines and the rise in affluence of the middle class in emerging economies such as China , India , and Indonesia have increased the demand in the air-travel industry. Furthermore, with the growing global air traffic, regulatory bodies are intensifying regulatory controls over emissions to meet the Paris Climate Agreement. In March 2017 , the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a new aircraft CO2 emissions standard applicable for the aircraft manufactured from 2020, and the aircraft in production has to meet the standards by 2023. Therefore, aircraft engine manufacturers and aircraft fleet operators are extensively integrating advanced solutions to curb emission levels, which is expected to support the market growth during the coming years.

The key factor driving the global aircraft engine compressor market growth is the during the forecast period. The introduction of innovative low-fare business models by regional airlines and the rise in affluence of the middle class in emerging economies such as , , and have increased the demand in the air-travel industry. Furthermore, with the growing global air traffic, regulatory bodies are intensifying regulatory controls over emissions to meet the Paris Climate Agreement. In , the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a new aircraft CO2 emissions standard applicable for the aircraft manufactured from 2020, and the aircraft in production has to meet the standards by 2023. Therefore, aircraft engine manufacturers and aircraft fleet operators are extensively integrating advanced solutions to curb emission levels, which is expected to support the market growth during the coming years. Market Challenges - The key challenges to the global aircraft engine compressor market growth are the technical issues with compressor and the complexity of compressor blade manufacturing. Failure of any component in the aircraft engine may lead to catastrophic consequences. For instance, in July 2018 , All Nippon Airways, a Japan -based airline, had to cancel 113 domestic flights to conduct engine inspections on its Boeing 787 aircraft. The aircraft uses Trent 1000 engines, manufactured by Rolls-Royce, which experienced several occurrences of in-flight engine shut down. The malfunction in engines compelled the airline to ground several B787 aircraft.

To learn about additional key drivers, trends, and challenges- Read our FREE Sample Report right now!

Aircraft Engine Compressor Market Segmentation



The aircraft engine compressor market report is segmented by Application (Commercial and business aircraft and Military aircraft) and Geography (Europe, North America, APAC, South America, and MEA). Technavio report provides an accurate prediction of the contribution of all the segments to the growth of the aircraft engine compressor market size and actionable market insights on each segment.

View our sample report for additional insights into the contribution of all the segments ional opportunities in the report.

Some Companies Mentioned

The aircraft engine compressor market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.

Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd.



Bharat Forge Ltd.



Honeywell International Inc.



IHI Corp.



Melrose Industries Plc



MTU Aero Engines AG



Raytheon Technologies Corp.



Rolls-Royce Plc



Safran SA



Turbocam Inc.

To gain access to more vendor profiles with their key offerings available with Technavio, Click Here

Related Reports:

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Aircraft Engine Market -The aircraft engine market share is expected to increase by USD 57.07 billion from 2021 to 2026, at a CAGR of 18.83%. - Download a free sample report!

Aircraft Engine Compressor Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.41% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 8.13 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.97 Regional analysis Europe, North America, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution Europe at 38% Key consumer countries US, UK, Germany, France, and Canada Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd., Bharat Forge Ltd., Honeywell International Inc., IHI Corp., Melrose Industries Plc, MTU Aero Engines AG, Raytheon Technologies Corp., Rolls-Royce Plc, Safran SA, and Turbocam 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.

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2020

Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Application

Market segments

Comparison by Application

Commercial and business aircraft - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Military aircraft - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Application

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd.

Bharat Forge Ltd.

Honeywell International Inc.

IHI Corp.

Melrose Industries Plc

MTU Aero Engines AG

Raytheon Technologies Corp.

Rolls-Royce Plc

Safran SA

Turbocam Inc.

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

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

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Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
The investment and decision to expand their facility in Red Lake Falls was a logical step in Altoz's strategic growth plan to increase capacity and improve operational efficiency. The new manufacturing facility will accommodate state-of-the-art metal fabrication equipment including laser cutting systems, turret presses, press brakes, robotic welders, along with a powder coat paint system, assembly and a distribution center. "This expansion will allow us to meet the increased demand for our commercial mowers and continue to diversify into other segments of the outdoor power equipment industry," said Dennis Brazier, Altoz CEO. In addition to the manufacturing facility, the site features a modern, multi-story office building that will accommodate a growing workforce.

2021 was a remarkable year, one in which Altoz gained worldwide recognition and won numerous industry awards for new product innovation with its tracked stand on mower. The company was also named one of the Top 175 Workplaces in Minnesota. The corporate headquarters holds MNSHARP certification from MNOSHA that recognizes organizations where managers and employees work together to develop safety and health management systems that go beyond basic compliance with all applicable OSHA standards. "Altoz has an impeccable safety record and we bring this same level of commitment to our Red Lake Falls location. We are focused on growth, excited about the future and eager to add additional talent to our company. We encourage career-oriented people to apply now, as we have immediate opportunities prior to the facility being completed," said Brazier.

About Altoz

Altoz, Inc. is an outdoor power equipment company built by an experienced team of engineering specialists, turf-industry professionals and powersports industry leaders who are inspired by a passion for excellence. The Altoz dealer base spans across the United States and includes distributors in New Zealand, United Kingdom and Australia. The company manufactured the world's first zero-turn and stand on mowers with tracks. Find the latest Altoz innovations at Altoz.com. Media Contact: Janie Brandon at 855-782-5869 or [email protected]

SOURCE Altoz
American Writers Festival comes to Chicago May 15, 2022, coinciding with American Writers Museum's fifth anniversary. Tweet this

Throughout the festival, notable themes from AWM's "My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today" exhibit and its upcoming "Dark Testament: A Century of Black Writers on Justice" exhibit (opening in June), will also be addressed through lively discussions.

As a bonus, the AWM will waive museum admission fees on Sunday, May 15 and Monday, May 16 - AWM's fifth anniversary - to encourage more people to experience the literary works of the greatest American writers. Guests can also purchase literary works and authors' books on-site through the Seminary Co-op Bookstore.

The American Writers Festival is one of many exciting new cultural events to be held in Chicago in the coming year.

"We are excited to support the American Writers Museum as they host the first ever American Writers Festival in Chicago," said Erin Harkey, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). "Revitalizing our arts and culture scene is essential to our ability to recover from this pandemic on both an economic and a social level. Mayor Lightfoot and DCASE are proud to offer continued support to the artists and organizations who bring us beauty, culture and experiences that make us human."

The American Writers Festival will feature renowned writers including Joy Harjo, Marie Arana, David W. Blight, Jabari Asim, Rebecca Makkai and John Scalzi. There will also be a comedy writing panel with Peter Sagal, host of the well-known NPR podcast Wait WaitDon't Tell Me and a live taping of the American Writers Museum's Dead Writer Drama podcast with best-selling authors Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Zakiya Dalila Harris. More events and new guest appearances will be announced in the following weeks at AmericanWritersMuseum.org.

The American Writers Festival will also feature special programming from American Library Association, Chicago Public Library, Seminary Co-op Bookstores, The Newberry Library, Black Arts Consortium Poetry Foundation, Chicago History Museum, National Museum of Mexican Art and the DuSable Museum of African American History.

The American Writers Museum will operate in accordance with all current COVID-19 safety precautions. In accordance with the City of Chicago's revised COVID-19 protocols, all guests over the age of 5 must show proof of full vaccination to attend the American Writers Festival. As required by the City, all guests over the age of 2 must wear a face mask that covers both mouth and nose while indoors, except while actively eating and drinking.

For high-res images, b-roll (including today's press conference held by the AWM), social media assets and more, click here.

To stay up-to-date on guest announcements and programs by the American Writers Museum, click here.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM

The American Writers Museum is the first museum of its kind in the United States. The mission of the American Writers Museum is to engage the public in celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, and our daily lives. The museum is located at 180 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60601, and offers something for every age group including permanent exhibits and special galleries highlighting America's favorite works and the authors behind them. Tickets to the museum are $14 for adults, $9 for seniors, students, and teachers. Free for members and children ages 12 and under. To inquire about discounted rates for groups of 10 or more, including adults, student travel groups, and University students, visit AmericanWritersMuseum.org/visit/groups/ or call 312-374-8765. Museum hours are Thursday - Monday 10 AM  5 PM. For more information visit AmericanWritersMuseum.org or call 312-374-8790. Follow AWM on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Madeline Sweeney

[email protected]

SOURCE American Writers Museum
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Andre Pienaar announced today that he has contributed $1,500,000 to the Endowment of the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) to honor the leadership example of Nelson Mandela on the commemoration of his release from prison on the 11th of February 1990.

USIP has a distinguished history of building partnerships with African countries to support peace and good governance in Africa. A former Chair of the Board of USIP, Dr Chester Crocker, led the United States negotiations as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs for the independence of Namibia and the signing of a comprehensive regional peace agreement in Southern Africa that helped paved the way for Mandela's release. The current Chair of the Board of the USIP, Ambassador George Moose, worked with Mandela during the crucial transition years to democracy in South Africa from 1993-997 as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Stephen Hadley, who led the Board until 2021, served as the National Security Adviser when the U.S. Government worked closely with African leaders to end the devastating wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Sudan. In 2012, Pienaar contributed to the Endowment of the USIP to honor the work that Dr. Crocker and other U.S. leaders did to help build peace, good governance and democracy throughout Africa.

Pienaar said "We have been discussing for many years how to honor Nelson Mandela, and at this critical time in our democracies, it is only fitting to honor Mandela who was the pioneering leader who ended apartheid and undertook the arduous challenge of reconciliation that is a precondition for lasting peace and democracy. I had the privilege of working with Nelson Mandela and South African leaders to establish the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), also known as the Scorpions, to fight organized crime, terrorism and corruption in Africa. Mandela's determination to fight for good governance, the rule of law and inclusive democracy remains an inspiration to us all. I am very pleased to be able to support USIP's work to advance Nelson Mandela's principles," Pienaar said.

Ed Royce, who chaired the Africa Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives and met with Mandela several times, said "USIP is fortunate to have the strong support of Andre to help spread Nelson Mandela's extraordinary legacy of peaceful, democratic change that respects the rights of each and every person."

About Andre Pienaar. Pienaar has served on the International Advisory Council of USIP since 2016. He is the founder and CEO of C5 Capital, a venture capital firm focused on investing in cybersecurity, space and energy security headquartered in Washington DC and offices in London, Luxembourg and Vienna. Andrepienaar.info

Media Contact:

[email protected]

+44 (0) 020 7710 8940

SOURCE C5 Capital
"Preamble is crisp, clean and made with one malt and a single American hop grown by U.S. Military Veterans at Dog Star Hops in Michigan. It has a light malt sweetness balanced by a restrained herbal hop profile formulated by our award-winning brewmaster, Bob Rupprecht," Alan Beal, CEO of Armed Forces Brewing Company stated.

The beer will be available on President's Day in select stores in Maryland and Virginia, and consumers can order it online at www.Preamble.Beer. Preamble will also be available in Eastern Pennsylvania and Florida in March. It is scheduled to hit the shelves in HEB stores in Texas in late Spring. A portion of the profits from Preamble - We The People will be donated to the John Daly  Major Ed Heart of a Lion Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides support for children, first responders and America's Veterans.

Armed Forces Brewing Company is owned by Military Veterans and is known for great tasting beers as well as its outrageous and patriotic videos for its public stock offering, which has already attracted more than 2,500 investors. More information on the SEC-qualified public offering is available at www.OwnArmedForcesBrewingCo.com/preamble.

About Armed Forces Brewing Company

Armed Forces Brewing Company was created to pay homage to the U.S. Military through its four beer brands that pay tribute to each branch of the Military: Seawolf Brewery (Navy, Coast Guard), Soldier Brewery (Army), Jarhead Brewery (Marines) and Airmen Brewery (Air Force and Space Force). Launched in 2019, Armed Forces Brewing Company was founded by experienced veterans of the food and beverage industry and Military Veterans.

For more information visit www.OwnArmedForcesBrewingCo.com.

SOURCE Armed Forces Brewing Company
OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Shield of California today announced $150,000 in community investments in the San Joaquin Valley to promote health equity and help build healthy families.

Six community-based organizations throughout the region will each receive $25,000 to help support initiatives that provide fresh groceries, hands-on job training, and housing services.

"Basic needs such as access to nutritious food and housing are critical for creating equitable health for all," said Kristen Cerf, president and CEO, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan. "We are very honored to collaborate with local organizations and provide our support on projects that build healthier communities. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of individuals and families throughout the San Joaquin Valley."

One of those nonprofits is the Kings/Tulare Homeless Alliance, a consortium of partners that includes homeless service providers, advocacy groups, government agencies, and homeless individuals who collaborate to address the needs of the unhoused in the San Joaquin Valley.

"With the pandemic still in full swing and the economy not lifting up all people, these are critical times," said Miguel Perez, executive director of the Alliance. "This funding from Blue Shield is coming at the right time for us and will be a huge lift as we continue to provide our most vulnerable community members with the resources they need to flourish."

Below is the list of the other organizations receiving Blue Shield's support.

Community Action Partnership of Kern is the official anti-poverty agency in Kern County . The organization offers a variety of programs in collaboration with local community-based organizations to help at-risk residents combat food insecurity and malnutrition, secure homeless services, and receive child development and family support services.





is the official anti-poverty agency in The organization offers a variety of programs in collaboration with local community-based organizations to help at-risk residents combat food insecurity and malnutrition, secure homeless services, and receive child development and family support services. Community Action Partnership of Madera is the county's anti-poverty agency, providing resources to low- and moderate-income residents annually through its broad range of programs and resources including emergency shelter, victim services, and child development services.





is the county's anti-poverty agency, providing resources to low- and moderate-income residents annually through its broad range of programs and resources including emergency shelter, victim services, and child development services. Kings Community Action Organization is the federally designated anti-poverty agency for Kings County , providing support to low-income residents by administering a full range of coordinated programs, including homeless services, food distribution, and community outreach.





is the federally designated anti-poverty agency for , providing support to low-income residents by administering a full range of coordinated programs, including homeless services, food distribution, and community outreach. Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries is a faith-based nonprofit organization that serves the needs of over 10,000 refugees in the Fresno area, providing cross-cultural resources, consultations, and referrals.





is a faith-based nonprofit organization that serves the needs of over 10,000 refugees in the area, providing cross-cultural resources, consultations, and referrals. Fresno Metro Ministry is a nonprofit working to address the social, economic, health, and safety issues experienced by children and families in disinvested neighborhoods. Their goal is to increase resiliency, health, and prosperity through services addressing food insecurity and malnutrition.

"This timely gift will help us close gaps and fully fund the infrastructure needed to expand our local food system programs," said Keith Bergthold, executive director of Fresno Metro Ministry. "We are grateful for Blue Shield of California's support."

Today's announcement is the latest example of the nonprofit health plan's ongoing support for communities throughout the state.

For example, during this past challenging 2021 holiday season, Blue Shield of California and Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan provided more than $200,000 in financial assistance to over 80 community organizations dedicated to addressing food insecurity across California. This support helped provide food, supplies, and holiday meals to more than 66,000 Californians and 16,000 families.

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
The Seqster operating system is the 'standard of excellence' for Operating Systems for Decentralized Trials, Clinical Studies and Digital Health. It aggregates and automates patient data collection for studies, enabling data streams to be analyzed to identify novel biomarkers for Real World Evidence (RWE) and accelerated drug discovery. The platform also facilitates patient engagement and long-term patient retention in current and future studies.

Mr. Villetelle currently leads Novartis' Data and Digital in Global Drug Development, and is focused on fully integrating Data science and Digital technology into the drug portfolio and development processes. Prior to joining Novartis, he became the first Chief Digital Officer ever nominated in the pharma industry at Takeda. His impressive track record of leading Fortune 500 enterprises' Data and Digital strategy and transformation makes him an ideal candidate for the Seqster advisory position.

"Data silos and fragmented health data is indeed one of the most pressing issues in the healthcare ecosystem" said Bruno Villetelle, Head of Data and Digital Global Drug Development at Novartis. "Successful trials and drug development has never been more critical than it is today. The Seqster operating system, by automating patient data collection, in real-time, and breaking down the health data silos has huge potential to create remarkable value for drug development. It can change the paradigm of an industry that has had to rely on conventional data collection methods that take long, are costly, and often times, are ineffective. I am thrilled to join Seqster's board and be part of this industry evolution."

About Seqster

Seqster is the leading healthcare technology company that breaks down health data silos at scale. Its enterprise operating system aggregates disparate health data sources into a single, 360-degree view of a patient in real-time, solving a multitude of challenges for life sciences, patient engagement and data interoperability.

Seqster has nationwide coverage of EHRs from hospitals and medical groups, genomic DNA, wearables, pharmacy and social determinants of health data. Through its customizable white-label approach, Seqster provides accelerated access to de-identified, tokenized, real-time data and comprehensive curated data to address critical needs across the healthcare continuum.

Seqster is privately held and headquartered in San Diego. To learn more about Seqster's platforms for Life Sciences, Patient Engagement and Data Interoperability, please contact us at [email protected] or visit www.seqster.com.

SOURCE Seqster
CBD Beverages Planned for Second-Half of 2022

DENVER, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: CWEB) (OTCQX: CWBHF) Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. ("Charlotte's Web" or the "Company"), the market leader in cannabidiol ("CBD") hemp extract wellness products, is exploring the entry into the CBD wellness beverage market with new CBD social elixirs currently under development with an expected launch date later in the calendar year.

"Entering the beverage category is reflective of our increased focus on new product categories and formats to drive our topline growth," said Jacques Tortoroli, Chief Executive Officer of Charlotte's Web. "This allows us to enter this fast-growing portion of the market."

The Company looks to introduce CBD sparkling elixirs powered by Charlotte's Web full spectrum hemp extracts derived from the Company's proprietary patented hemp cultivars. The beverages will be developed with best-in-class formulations blended with other functional botanicals and natural flavors and are vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and non-GMO.

According to The Brightfield Group, the CBD beverage market is set to achieve $245 million in sales in 2021, up 50% from 2020, and is expected to reach $1.3 billion in 2026, representing a 40% CAGR.

Charlotte's Web executive suite has substantial experience in the beverage category. Jacques Tortoroli has over 20 years of global beverage experience through previous roles with PepsiCo, and Pepsi-Cola International and more recently with Bermuda based family-owned Bacardi Ltd. Charlotte's Web Chief Financial & Operating Officer, Wes Booysen, has more than a decade of experience in the beverage industry at Molson-Coors where he was most recently Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Africa.

Subscribe to Charlotte's Web investor news.

About Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.

Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc., a Certified B Corporation headquartered in Denver, is the market leader in innovative hemp extract wellness products under a family of brands which includes Charlotte's Web, CBD Medic, CBD Clinic, and Harmony Hemp. Charlotte's Web branded premium quality products start with proprietary hemp genetics that are 100-percent American farm grown and manufactured into hemp extracts containing naturally occurring phytocannabinoids including cannabidiol ("CBD"), CBC, CBG, terpenes, flavonoids, and other beneficial hemp compounds. The Company's CW Labs R&D division, advances hemp science at two centers of excellence in Louisville, Colorado, and the Hauptmann Woodward Research Institute at the University at Buffalo, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network. Charlotte's Web product categories include full-spectrum hemp CBD oil tinctures (liquid products), CBD gummies (sleep, stress, exercise recovery), CBD capsules, CBD topical creams and lotions, as well as CBD pet products for dogs. Through its vertically integrated business model, Charlotte's Web maintains stringent control over product quality and consistency. Charlotte's Web products are distributed to more than 14,000 retail, over 8,000 health care practitioners, and online through the Company's website at www.CharlottesWeb.com.

Charlotte's Web was founded by the Stanley Brothers with a mission to unleash the healing powers of botanicals through compassion and science, benefiting the planet and all who live upon it. Charlotte's Web is a socially and environmentally conscious company and is committed to using business as a force for good and a catalyst for innovation. The Company weighs sound business decisions with consideration for how its efforts affect employees, customers, the environment, and diverse communities. The rate the Company pays for agricultural products reflects a fair and sustainable rate driving higher quality yield, encouraging regenerative farming practices, and supporting U.S. farming communities. Management believes that its socially oriented and environmentally responsible actions have a positive impact on its customers, suppliers, employees and stakeholders. Charlotte's Web donates a portion of its pre-tax earnings to charitable organizations.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking information"). In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Specifically, this news release contains forward-looking information relating to the Company's expansion activities and growth strategy; the Company's expectations regarding future cash flow and its financial position; the results of cost saving efforts; the impact and results of the Company's reorganization; market share expectations; and impacts of regulatory changes.

Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's current expectations, estimates and projections regarding the future of our business, future plans, strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking information include, among others, the factors discussed throughout the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's most recently filed annual information form available on www.sedar.com and in the Company's most recently filed Form 10, as amended, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available on www.sec.gov. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking information, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

SOURCE Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.
KARIYA, Japan, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TSMC (TWSE: 2330,NYSE: TSM), Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation ("SSS") and DENSO Corporation ("DENSO") today announced that DENSO will take a minority stake in Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, Inc. ("JASM"), TSMC's majority-owned manufacturing subsidiary in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan with a US$0.35 billion investment. With this equity investment, DENSO will hold a more than 10% equity stake in JASM.

Construction of JASM's fab in Japan is scheduled to begin in the 2022 calendar year with production targeted to begin by the end of 2024. To support market demand, TSMC will also enhance JASM's capabilities with 12/16 nanometer FinFET process technology in addition to the previously announced 22/28 nanometer process and increase monthly production capacity to 55,000 12-inch wafers. With the additional capacity, the total capital expenditure for JASM's Kumamoto fab is estimated to be approximately US$8.6 billion with strong support from the Japanese government. The fab is expected to directly create about 1,700 high-tech professional jobs.

The closing of the transaction between JASM and DENSO is subject to customary closing conditions.

"TSMC is very glad to welcome DENSO's participation in JASM to enable fresh innovations in the future of transportation together," said Dr. CC Wei, Chief Executive Officer of TSMC. "JASM is not only an opportunity for TSMC to support growing market demand for specialty technologies, it enables us to leverage Japan's top-notch semiconductor talent and contribute to the growth of the global semiconductor ecosystem."

"While the global demand for semiconductors is expected to grow, we expect JASM to contribute to securing a stable supply of logic wafers, not only for us but also the overall industry," said Terushi Shimizu, President and CEO of Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation. "We are very pleased to have DENSO as a new member, and we look forward to working with them to support the launch of JASM."

"Semiconductors are becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry as mobility technologies evolve, including automated driving and electrification," said Koji Arima, President and CEO of DENSO Corporation. "Through this partnership, we contribute to the stable supply of semiconductors over the medium to long term and thus to the automotive industry."

About TSMC

TSMC pioneered the pure-play foundry business model when it was founded in 1987, and has been the world's leading dedicated semiconductor foundry ever since. The Company supports a thriving ecosystem of global customers and partners with the industry's leading process technologies and portfolio of design enablement solutions to unleash innovation for the global semiconductor industry. With global operations spanning Asia, Europe, and North America, TSMC serves as a committed corporate citizen around the world.

TSMC deployed 291 distinct process technologies, and manufactured 12,302 products for 535 customers in 2021 by providing broadest range of advanced, specialty and advanced packaging technology services. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 5-nanometer production capabilities, the most advanced semiconductor process technology available in the world. The Company is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information please visit https://www.tsmc.com.

About Sony Semiconductor Solutions

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation and the global leader in image sensors. Our semiconductor business also includes a variety of other parts including microdisplays, LSIs, and laser diodes. We strive to provide advanced imaging technologies that bring greater convenience and fun to people's lives. In addition, we also work to develop and bring to market new kinds of sensing technologies with the aim of offering various solutions that will take the visual and recognition capabilities of both human and machines to greater heights. For more information, please visit https://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/e/.

About DENSO

DENSO is a $44.6 billion global mobility supplier that develops advanced technology and components for nearly every vehicle make and model on the road today. With manufacturing at its core, DENSO invests in its 200 facilities to produce thermal, powertrain, mobility, electrification, & electronic systems, to create jobs that directly change how the world moves. The company's 168,000+ employees are paving the way to a mobility future that improves lives, eliminates traffic accidents, and preserves the environment. Globally headquartered in Kariya, Japan, DENSO spent 10.0 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. For more information about global DENSO, visit https://www.denso.com/global.

SOURCE DENSO
Due to the firm's continued growth, Ford O'Brien Landy LLP has now opened new headquarters at 275 Madison Avenue. Tweet this

"Adam Ford and I founded this firm because we were confident in our abilities to provide a unique partnership with our clients in order to gain the very best counsel," said Kevin O'Brien, Partner at Ford O'Brien Landy LLP. "Rob joined our firm just weeks after its inception. Along with Adam and I, Rob has been a key architect of the firm we've built over the past six years ."

Due to the firm's continued growth, Ford O'Brien Landy LLP has now opened new headquarters at 275 Madison Avenue, having recently signed a 10-year lease for the full the 24th floor. The firm also recently announced it has opened a new office in Austin, Texas. The Austin office will provide the presence to support Austin's Technology and and DeFi industries, as well as provide a southern presence throughout Texas and the surrounding region.

"I am excited and proud to continue playing an integral part in the continued growth of the firm, in both New York City and Austin," said Rob Landy, Partner at Ford O'Brien Landy LLP, "I look forward to continuing to strengthen our presence and providing top-notch counsel to all existing and future clients."

For further information contact:

Ford O'Brien Landy LLP

275 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: + 1 (212) 858-0040

[email protected]

Website: www.fordobrien.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ford-o-brien-llp-995a5b110

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ford-OBrien-LLP-1084508568239782/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fordobrienlaw

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Ford O'Brien Landy LLP is a limited liability partnership formed in the State of New York.

MEDIA CONTACT: Katherine Jaskot, Esq.

Phone: (212) 858-0040

Email: [email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160412/354634LOGO

SOURCE Ford OBrien Landy LLP
PLANTATION, Fla., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Goodwin Biotechnology, Inc. is pleased to announce a key appointment designed to accelerate its growth significantly and scale the company into the future. Darrin Schellin joins the company as Chief Executive Officer and will also be inducted as a member of the company's board of directors. Darrin will be based in Florida.

Darrin has had a distinguished career in the life sciences industry spanning several decades. After successful supply chain and operations management assignments with Culligan and Bausch & Lomb, he was part of the leadership team at Alliance Medical Products as COO and then CEO, growing the company rapidly over a decade until it was sold to Swiss CDMO, Siegfried Holding AG. Darrin then ran Siegfried's global drug products business for six years, managing five sites across the US and Europe.

Darrin Schellin, incoming Chief Executive Officer, said, "It is my honor and privilege to be joining the Goodwin family as CEO. I am excited for the opportunities that lie ahead for all of us as we look to challenge ourselves to grow together, united as a team, developing not only from our company's 30 years of experience but as a team to build upon the quality of our work, our dedication to meeting our customer and patient needs, and the passion we instill in our products. I am confident that our commitment will translate into success for the company as we achieve our growth projections, and I am excited to be leading this effort."

Karl Pinto, Executive Chairman, said, "These are exciting times. Darrin's rich experience within the CDMO space, his successful track record in scaling operations, building excellent teams, and business development make him the ideal person to lead Goodwin at this important point in our evolution. As someone who has led Goodwin over many years to become the preferred manufacturing partner to dozens of biopharmaceutical clients today, I welcome Darrin to Goodwin. His leadership skills, customer-first approach, and strong integrity will add great impetus to Goodwin's mission and enable us to scale the new heights we have planned for the company. With Darrin's addition, we will accelerate our ability to bring more hope and life to more patients globally."

About Goodwin Biotechnology, Inc.

Goodwin is a uniquely qualified and flexible USbased CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) that offers a Single Source Solution to enhance the value of complex biopharmaceuticals for our clients. With 30 years of experience as an independent contract manufacturer, Goodwin has worked as a strategic partner with companies and institutions of all sizes, taking their products through clinical trials and towards rapid commercialization. Goodwin provides process development and cGMP manufacturing services encompassing drug substance and drug product for complex biologics, including multi-specific antibodies, recombinant proteins, antibody-drug conjugates, and other classes of cell-based products. Based upon its impressive track record, Goodwin has received numerous industry awards that span from Frost & Sullivan's Customer Value and Leadership Award for Best Practices in Mammalian Contract Manufacturing to the Biologics cGMP Manufacturer of the Year by Global Health & Pharma News.

For more information, please visit https://www.goodwinbio.com/

Contact: David C. Cunningham, 954-439-2565, [email protected]

SOURCE Goodwin Biotechnology, Inc.
SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Joshua B. Poulsen of Harris Personal Injury Lawyers, Inc. recovers $3.5 million for client Lucas Kramer during litigation.

On the morning of August 16, 2018, Kramer, a highly intelligent and gifted young man, was riding his bicycle, in the bike lane, to his summer internship in Sunnyvale, California. A federal government employee operating a government vehicle, did not see Kramer and executed a right-hand turn across the bike lane and directly in front of Kramer's path of travel, resulting in Kramer being ejected over his front handlebars and thrown onto the asphalt.

As a result of this collision, Kramer suffered severe brain, head, face, neck, back and extremity injuries, which has required years of treatment, hundreds of doctor's appointments, and several reconstructive surgeries. Kramer continues to suffer from his permanent injuries that will require ongoing medical care for the remainder of his life.

The Defendant in this case contested liability and attempted to minimize Kramer's injuries and damages. Harris Personal Injury Lawyers aggressively litigated the case, which included securing vital eye-witness testimony, expert analysis, and audio/visual evidence to neutralize the Defense's strategy and put the focus solely on adequately compensating Kramer for his extensive damages.

As a result, Harris Personal Injury Lawyers, Inc. was able to avoid trial and secure a $3.5 million dollar settlement for their client.

SOURCE Harris Personal Injury Lawyers, Inc.
LONDON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Huobi Incubator, the project incubation arm of Huobi Global, today announced that it will co-host and sponsor the second cohort of the Octopus Accelerator Program together with Web3 Scholarship and Octopus Network to underpin and drive the improvement of Web3 projects, with the aim to lead the current Internet into its next phase.

In the past two decades, Internet technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, greatly changing users' lives. But the major drawback of the current Web2 phase lies with having all value available owned and controlled by Web2 social media companies, with user data and privacy breaches occurring from time to time. To counter these drawbacks, Web3 is emerging, with the goal of making the Internet more permissionless, decentralized, transparent, and secure. All these properties are in line with Huobi Incubator's expectations for the future Internet.

As a multichain interoperable cryptonetwork for launching and running Web3 Substrate-based application-specific blockchain, Octopus network is committed to unleashing a new wave of innovation for Web 3. The opening of the second cohort of the Octopus Accelerator Program follows the launch of the Program's first cohort in December last year, where five projects received the Octopus Star Prize. Some of these winning projects, such as DeBioNetwork and Myriad Social have completed fundraising and mainnet launches, emerging as pioneers in the Web3 sphere.

The success experienced by Octopus Network Accelerator's pioneering cohort will continue as the program enters its second iteration. Carrying forward Octopus Network's best-in-class mentorship standards and capabilities, all participating projects in the second cohort of the Octopus Accelerator Program will be offered online training courses. In addition, Octopus Network will release a live seminar for participants to commune while providing access to top mentors for emerging projects in the Web3 field. More than ten mentors, such as Guy Oren, the Co-Founder at Poolz Finance, Joao Leite Head of Polkastarter Research, and Liam Cohen, founder and CMO at Poolz, will share their experiences and present professional guidance and industrial suggestions to assist these emerging projects. Starting February 28, 2022, all participants will need to deploy their projects on the Octopus network. The top five projects will be selected during Showcase Day and will each receive $50,000 worth of grants. Furthermore, the top winning project out of the five will receive an additional $12,500 grant from Huobi Incubator and Web3 Scholarship.

"Huobi Incubator has been committed to incubating projects in the Web3 field since its establishment, and has partnered with five organizations and companies to launch the Web3 Scholarship to fund projects in this field. Huobi Incubator's belief in Web3 has also extended to empowering emerging projects with other public chains to spur innovation in the next phase of the Internet," said Jewel Chen, Head of Huobi Incubator. "This synergistic partnership with Octopus Network will help mentor aspiring Web3 projects, so all users of the Internet will benefit from the innovation put forward by up-and-coming developer talent."

About Huobi Incubator

Huobi Incubator is a professional, full-cycle project incubator that integrates industry research with investment funds, incubation processes, and accelerators. With the mission of accelerating startup project development across all stages and users, Huobi Incubator helps entrepreneurs and startups overcome obstacles, achieve rapid growth, and work toward their respective visions and goals.

About Octopus Accelerator

The Octopus Accelerator is a structured acceleration framework to initiate the future of web 3.0. We believe in the importance of a vibrant community of projects, where founders can interact in an open, entrepreneurial environment in order to effectively innovate.

SOURCE Huobi Incubator
Earn a master's degree while receiving instruction through a paid, in-person residency at implant dentistry practices. Tweet this

The program, part of the university's Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences, also offers the ability to earn an online master's degree from Jacksonville University while receiving instruction through a paid, in-person residency at one of several U.S. implant dentistry practices. The first group of dental residents is expected to begin their training in the summer of 2022.

"This offering represents the next in-demand program born from ongoing, open discussions with our health industry partners and colleagues regarding where the market is headed and how Jacksonville University can best meet a very specific need for top-tier education and training," said Jacksonville University President Tim Cost. "Jacksonville University is proud to partner with the professionals at COIRF and AAID to advance this highly specialized and growing field within dentistry."

Jacksonville University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Christine Sapienza added: "This new postdoctoral program builds on the strength of our esteemed School of Orthodontics, offering another distinct pathway for advanced learning beyond the Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. Moreover, Jacksonville University's intimate learning environment means the residents in this program will receive highly individualized training and mentorship from experienced faculty who are certified by the American Board of Oral Implantology and invested in the success of each student."

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, people 65 and older will outnumber those 18 and younger by 2030. As the population ages, the likelihood that patients need dental implants increases. In recent years, dental implants have increasingly become the solution of choice to restore smiles and dental functionality to aging patients. To address demand, more dentists are seeking training in implantology to expand their skills and service offerings in their practices.

"Oral implantology is a $6.8 billion industry that will only continue to grow, and the dramatic advances in knowledge within this field in recent years has created the need for an implantology branch within dentistry," said Dr. Andrew MacConnell, DDS, MIIF, FAAID, DABOI/ID, President of the Comprehensive Oral Implantology Residency Foundation. "Upon completion of the program, our residents will receive their Certificate of Comprehensive Oral Implantology and will be prepared to sit for the ABOI/ID Written and Oral Board Examination."

Dr. Hilt Tatum, widely regarded as one of the world's most skilled dental implant surgeons and founder of the Dental Implant Residency Program, developed the program with the AAID post-graduate core curriculum for dental implantology. Dr. Duke Heller is an Honored Fellow of the AAID, board certified in Oral Implantology and has performed more than 20,000 implants in his career.

"Dr. Heller and I are proud to join forces with Jacksonville University to provide students a much-needed educational opportunity for comprehensive clinical training in advanced oral implantology procedures," Dr. Tatum said. "This program solves a long-standing challenge in our field that relates to a lack of training programs and will impact it for years to come as Jacksonville University graduates exceptional, skilled and certified oral implantologists."

Applications are due April 15, 2022 and can be submitted online at ju.edu/implant. Jacksonville University is offering a scholarship for residents of the Alfred L. "Duke" Heller & O. Hilt Tatum Comprehensive Oral Implantology Residency Program. It will provide $10,000 for the first year the resident participates in the program.

The Certificate in Comprehensive Oral Implantology joins several new programs launched in the Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences in the last year, including a Master of Science in Medical Sciences, a Master of Science in Respiratory Care, and an accelerated, 12-month Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

For more information about the Comprehensive Oral Implantology program and scholarship, visit ju.edu/implant.

About Jacksonville University

As northeast Florida's premier private institution of higher education, Jacksonville University is consistently recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Best Regional Universities in the South, ranking among the top 25% of colleges on the list. Founded in 1934, the University offers more than 100 majors, minors, and programs, including in-demand degrees in Nursing, Business, Marine Science, Engineering, Finance, and Psychology, as well as those in the highly specialized fields of Aviation, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Film, Animation, and Orthodontics. With its four colleges, eleven schools and two institutes, Jacksonville University's 235-acre riverfront campus is minutes from downtown and from beautiful area beaches.

About American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID)

Founded in 1951, the American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) is the first professional organization in the world dedicated to implant dentistry. Its membership includes general dentists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, periodontists, prosthodontists, and others interested in the field of implant dentistry. As a membership organization, we currently represent almost 5,000 dentists worldwide.

Contact:

Laura Phelps

Sr. Director of Communications

Jacksonville University

[email protected]

SOURCE Jacksonville University
The innovative Jeep Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid is the Best 4x4, according to the 2022 Women's World Car of the Year (WWCOTY) jury, a panel of 56 motoring journalists from 40 countries spanning five continents.

Vehicles in the WWCOTY awards are judged for excellence in their segments, based on safety, driving, comfort, technology, design, efficiency, impact on the environment and value for money. Jurors from WWCOTY, now in its 12th year, praised the new Wrangler 4xe for its commitment to sustainability.

"With the Wrangler 4xe, the Jeep brand has taken a giant step forward in many ways, but the most important is its commitment to a more sustainable environment," said Marta Garcia, executive president of WWCOTY. "It is very much appreciated that one of the true SUVs left on the market has opted for hybridisation. The Jeep Wrangler 4xe's commitment to the environment is of decisive value for the Women's World Car of the Year."

The Jeep Wrangler 4xe delivers 21 miles of zero-emission, electric-only propulsion, making it commuter friendly as an all-electric daily driver without range anxiety. It is also the most capable and eco-friendly off-road Jeep vehicle, delivering nearly silent off-roading combined with the open-air freedom that only Jeep Wrangler offers.

"We are delighted that the WWCOTY jurors recognized the great strides that the Jeep brand is making toward electrification of its vehicles around the world, in pursuit of its vision of Zero Emission Freedom," said Christian Meunier, Jeep brand CEO. "This Women's World Car award is further confirmation that electrification enhances the core capabilities of our Jeep vehicles. The Jeep Wrangler 4xe is a clear example that you can have the best of both worlds: legendary Jeep capability and open-air fun combined with an electrified, eco-friendly package that allows you to enjoy nature in almost absolute silence."

The Wrangler 4xe's hybrid powertrain combines a high-tech, 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine with two electric motors, a high-voltage battery pack and TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic transmission. Torque from the electric motors in the Wrangler 4xe arrives instantly on demand from the driver. The powertrain also delivers fuel-saving, seamless, start-stop operation of the engine.

The most advanced powertrain ever developed for a Jeep Wrangler maximizes efficiency and is EPA rated at 49 miles per gallon-equivalent (MPGe). With 375 horsepower, the Jeep Wrangler 4xe delivers performance, benchmark off-road capability and an electric vehicle lifestyle.

Jeep Brand

Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that brings capability, craftsmanship and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of safety and security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle range consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Renegade and Wrangler and Wrangler 4xe. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep brand owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is enhanced by a global electrification initiative that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. All Jeep brand SUVs will offer an electrified variant by 2025.



Follow Jeep and company news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Jeep brand: www.jeep.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep

YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA

SOURCE Stellantis
HIGHLANDS, N.C., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Judy Michaud is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Trusted Broker for her work in the Real Estate field and in acknowledgment of her work at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Meadows Mountain Realty.

Judy Michaud has always loved visiting new houses and learning about architecture. As a child, she dreamed of becoming an architect. Ms. Michaud is a respected Real Estate Agent and Owner with over 26 years of experience in the business. She chose to go into real estate in order to help people find properties they love.



Judy Michaud

Ms. Michaud attended Florida State University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. She then embarked on a career as a Flight Attendant for National Airlines, where she worked the East Coast route, exploring Miami, Boston, and cities in between. She stayed until 1974, when she left to care for her firstborn child.



She and her young family were constantly on the move due to her husband's career as a professional wrestler, and Ms. Michaud loved discovering new architecture everywhere she went. She and her family traveled throughout multiple US states, including California, Georgia, and Florida. During this period, Ms. Michaud reconnected with her love of real estate and began seeking out fresh career opportunities.



In 1986, Ms. Michaud entered the Real Estate field, working for Signature Properties. Ms. Michaud remained with the company until 2006, ending her tenure there as a Managing Broker. She acted upon her longtime desire to open her own Realty firm, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Meadows Mountain Realty. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Meadows Mountain Realty has three locations in North Carolina, with two in Highlands and one in Cashiers.



Ms. Michaud has been working as the Owner, President, and Managing Broker at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Meadows Mountains Realty since November 2006. She manages 30 brokers across three office locations, including her oldest daughter, Tricia Michaud Cox. Outside of her executive duties, she is actively involved in Berkshire Hathaway's listings. She loves to work one-on-one with her clients to help them find their dream home. Their team is familiar with Highlands, Cashiers, Franklin, Sapphire, Glenville, and other surrounding areas in North Carolina.



In 2015, Ms. Michaud took her company to the next level by initiating an affiliation with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. She guarantees top-quality service and integrity to every client as she pairs them with a skilled market leader in their area.



Ms. Michaud is affiliated with the National Association of Realtors, the North Carolina Board of Realtors, Highlands-Cashiers Board of Realtors, Real Estate Buyer's Agent Council, and the North Carolina Association of Realtors.



She has been awarded and honored for her work in the Real Estate field with the Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Diamond Circle Award, given to just .5% of agents in the company. Ms. Michaud is recognized among Who's Who of Professional Women.



She would like to dedicate this honorable recognition to her two daughters, Tricia Cox and Michelle Michaud.



For more information, visit https://meadowsmountainrealty.com/.



Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who
"Our partnership with Korea is continuing to grow as we shift from transactional support approaches to customized models driven by agreed-to readiness outcomes," said Thom Breckenridge, senior director of Far East Programs for Boeing International Government & Defence. "These agreements enhance the value of PBL contracts that have delivered high mission-capable rates and improved parts forecasting and procurement of the ROKAF's F-15K fleet for more than a decade, and will extend benefits to the AEW&C and CH-47 fleets as well."

Boeing will execute the contracts in partnership with local industry, using its proven integrated logistics model to coordinate supply chain forecasting, procurement, delivery, maintenance training and risk-management practices in support of ROKAF and ROKA objectives. The PBL model will also improve the ability to adapt logistics quickly and cost effectively to support emergent issues and unanticipated events. In addition to executing the PBLs, Boeing will examine how data analytics can further improve the effectiveness of its PBL approach.

"Through the data they generate, these platforms are already telling us how to extend the life of parts and components, when to defer or elevate maintenance activities and how to focus training on actions that are most imminent," said Torbjorn Sjogren, vice president and general manager for Boeing International Government & Defence. "Applying data analytics to these PBLs is a very practical yet powerful way to maximize our customer's investment and support successful military operations in a critical region."

For over 70 years, Boeing has enjoyed a strong and productive partnership with the Republic of Korea. Boeing is committed to supporting the growth of the Korean aerospace industry with a spend of over $5 billion in the past 15 years with local companies. As a reliable partner in the commercial aircraft and defense business sector, Boeing Korea continues to further strengthen its relationships with over 50 local industry partners, and employs more than 200 employees.

As a leading global aerospace company, Boeing develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. As a top U.S. exporter, the company leverages the talents of a global supplier base to advance economic opportunity, sustainability and community impact. Boeing's diverse team is committed to innovating for the future and living the company's core values of safety, quality and integrity. Learn more at www.boeing.com.

Contact

Kunwoo Yoo

Boeing Korea Communications

+82 2 2075 4815

[email protected]

SOURCE Boeing
CALGARY, AB, TORONTO and VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Laurel Hill Advisory Group is very pleased to announce Curtis Tokarchuk as Senior Account Manager, Operations, and Shivank Goel as Associate Governance Advisory, both based in Toronto. As North America's leading independent, cross-border shareholder communications and advisory firm, Curtis and Shivank will add their expertise to the industry's most experienced, multidisciplinary and collaborative team. Their skills and experience further reinforces our ability to develop and maintain market-leading governance, compensation review, shareholder engagement, and activism preparedness.

Curtis Tokarchuk joins our client-facing operations unit and will be responsible for leading, coordinating and driving the successful execution of client mandates. Curtis has over nine years of progressive industry experience at a competitor, including leadership positions providing clients with advice and execution related to annual meetings, M&A transactions, activist engagements, and proxy contests. Curtis graduated from Laurentian University with a Bachelor of Commerce.

Shivank Goel joins our governance unit and will support client needs related to corporate governance and executive compensation research and advice. Shivank has three years of experience at a governance and compensation firm performing industry analysis and financial research and providing advice to boards and senior management teams on corporate governance, executive compensation, regulatory compliance, board effectiveness, and risk mitigation matters. Shivank graduated from University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce and is also a CFA Level II candidate.

"The addition of Curtis and Shivank builds on our industry-leading shareholder communications and advisory expertise. Our ability to attract and retain key talent, such as Curtis and Shivank, is a testament to the organizations' culture, growth and track record of results," notes Laurel Hill's President, David Salmon. "As we mark our 15th year of business in 2022, I am very proud of our deep, stable and seasoned team of capital markets professionals and how our people consistently deliver great advice, service and results for our clients."

Curtis Tokarchuk notes, "The opportunity to join a leader like Laurel Hill and to be part of such a strong and collaborative team is exciting. I look forward to this next step in my career."

"Laurel Hill's impressive roster of annual meeting, governance and compensation clients gives me the chance to be part of a leading team that is on the front lines of ESG matters," adds Shivank Goel.

About Laurel Hill

Laurel Hill Advisory Group is North America's leading independent, cross-border shareholder communications and advisory firm. We provide industry-leading governance advisory, compensation advisory, strategic advisory, proxy solicitation, information agent, depositary, escrow, and asset recovery services. Our customized solutions, delivered by the industry's most experienced, multidisciplinary and collaborative team, help our clients develop and maintain market-leading governance, shareholder engagement, and activism preparedness. We are regularly engaged on the most high-profile, complex, and contentious governance, M&A, and activism situations. Our cross-border operations allow us to effectively reach shareholders regardless of their location  Canada, U.S. and globally. We deliver results.

Follow us on

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurelHillAdvGp

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/laurel-hill-advisory-group

For more information, please visit us at www.laurelhill.ca

SOURCE Laurel Hill Advisory Group
"Stacy has been a tremendous asset to the Memorial Hermann Board," said Easter. "She has a deep understanding of Memorial Hermann and its inner workings, including compliance and finance. She also has strong business acumen and is a proven leader. But above all, she is passionately committed to advancing Memorial Hermann's mission to improve the health of the diverse communities we serve. These qualities and more make her the best choice to lead the Board in the years ahead."

Methvin began her relationship with Memorial Hermann in 2013 as a member of the Finance and System Quality Committees. In 2018, she was appointed to the Memorial Hermann Health System Board and has chaired both the Compensation and Finance Committees.

"It's been an honor to serve on the Memorial Hermann Board and to witness the incredible work performed by our organization, especially over the past two years," said Methvin. "COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way we operate, but all levels of the organization have pulled together and demonstrated resilience and courage under pressure."

"Their dedication truly makes me proud and eager to assume my new role," added Methvin. "I look forward to working alongside my fellow Board members to ensure Memorial Hermann continues to positively impact our community by providing safe, personalized, quality care."

After graduating from Princeton University in 1979, Methvin joined Shell Oil Company. During her 33-year tenure, she held various executive roles with increasing global responsibility in the Upstream, Downstream, Refining and Chemical businesses before retiring in 2012.

From there, Methvin pursued her passion of community and industry service. In addition to her commitment to Memorial Hermann, Methvin currently serves as Chair of the Board of the Houston Zoo and is a former Board Chair of Girl Scouts San Jacinto Council. She also is an Independent Director on four energy industry boards, including Pioneer Natural Resources; Magellan Midstream Partners, LLC; Oiltanking GmBH based in Hamburg, Germany; and xF Technologies.

About Memorial Hermann

Charting a better future. A future that's built upon the HEALTH of our community. This is the driving force for Memorial Hermann, redefining health care for the individuals and many diverse populations we serve. Our 6,500 affiliated physicians and 29,000 employees practice the highest standards of safe, evidence-based, quality care to provide a personalized and outcome-oriented experience across our more than 265 care delivery sites. As one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in Southeast Texas, Memorial Hermann has an award-winning and nationally acclaimed Accountable Care Organization , 17* hospitals and numerous specialty programs and services conveniently located throughout the Greater Houston area. Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center is one of the nation's busiest Level I trauma centers and serves as the primary teaching hospital for McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. For more than a century, our focus has been the best interest of our community, contributing approximately $500 million annually through school-based health centers and other community benefit programs. Now and for generations to come, the health of our community will be at the center of what we do  charting a better future for all.

*Memorial Hermann Health System owns and operates 14 hospitals and has joint ventures with three other hospital facilities, including Memorial Hermann Surgical Hospital First Colony, Memorial Hermann Surgical Hospital Kingwood and Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital-Katy.

MEDIA CONTACT

Lindsey Klingensmith

(713) 248-8782

[email protected]

SOURCE Memorial Hermann Health System
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Luiz Leonardos & Advogados welcomes Ricardo Pinho, well-known in Brazil and internationally, as a leader in Intellectual Property, to galvanize its Litigation Department and update its services, as the firm invests in modernizing its practice.

Ricardo Pinho, New Head of Litigation at Luiz Leonardos & Advogados Intellectual Property law firm in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Pinho holds a law degree from the Federal University in Fluminense and was admitted to practice by the Brazilian Bar Association in 1993. He holds postgraduate degrees in Intellectual Property Law from Fundacao Getulio Vargas (2000) and in Higher Education from Universidade Candido Mendes (2015). Pinho is a qualified and registered Industrial Property Agent, IP Technical Expert, and Arbitrator. He is licensed to practice in front of any Brazilian courts and tribunals, including the High Courts in Brasilia. Prior to joining Luiz Leonardos & Advogados, Pinho was a partner for more than 10 years at Guerra IP, where he not only served his clients but also the IP and legal communities, with volunteer positions in numerous professional associations, including serving as President of the Brazilian National IP Agents Association from 2016-2019.

Luiz Leonardos & Advogados is the result of the split on April 30, 2012 of the businesses from Momsen, Leonardos & Cia, which was founded in 1919. With 12 partners, Luiz Leonardos & Advogados has over 60 experienced professionals dedicated to all areas related to intellectual property. The firm is built on the legacies of Thomas Othon Leonardos and his son Dr. Luiz Leonardos, who is an IP luminary, President of Honor of ABPI and Honorary Member of FICPI and AIPPI. Gustavo Leonardos, the third generation to lead the firm, is an IP force in his own right, and currently serves as Managing Partner.

"Ricardo has held leadership positions in IP like my grandfather. His reputation precedes him among his peers in the IP industry, especially in litigation, where he has obtained much success and recognition. We're excited to have him join us," says Gustavo Leonardos.

Pinho will lead the litigation group at this firm that boasts a highly distinguished team of engineers, scientists, attorneys, and industrial property agents, working across a spectrum of industries to secure and protect the rights of inventors, companies, creators, and brands that move and shape the Brazilian economy.

"This endeavor will be the Pinnacle of my career, and I could not be more enthusiastic about the challenge, especially with all that the firm is doing take our IP practice into the future," says Ricardo Pinho of the new position.

For more information on this, please contact:

Luciano Araujo

[email protected]

+55 21 3514 0406

Website: llip.com

SOURCE Luiz Leonardos & Advogados
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- New York-based performance marketing agency Mason Interactive, has achieved 2022 Premier Partner status in the Google Partners program.

Mason Interactive's team of experts provides strategy & planning, owned/paid media, and creative services for direct-to-consumer brands and educational institutions across the United States. Explore the full range of offerings on the Mason Interactive website.

"Our partnership with Google continues to evolve, and we are honored to be recognized as a leader in the industry as we position our portfolio for success in 2022," says Brook Shepard, Founder & CEO of Mason Interactive.

In February 2022, Google recognized the achievements of top-performing digital marketing partners across the globe by awarding Premier Partner status as part of the new Google Partners program .

The Google Partners program has undergone significant changes for 2022, including redefining what it means to be a Premier Partner through new, advanced program requirements and offering new Premier Partner benefits to support growth and success with Google Ads.

"Congratulations to our Premier Partners for being among the top 3% of Google Partners in the United States. These companies stand out based on their commitment to developing product expertise, building new client relationships, and helping their current clients grow. We look forward to supporting them as they help their customers succeed online." Davang Shah, Senior Director, Google Ads Marketing.

Mason Interactive is part of a select group of Premier Partners in the Google Partners program . This program is designed for advertising agencies and third parties that manage Google Ads accounts on behalf of other brands or businesses. Its mission is to empower companies by providing them with innovative tools, resources, and support to help their clients succeed and grow online.

Mason Interactive is an award-winning performance marketing agency, headquartered in New York City with a second location in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Since 2009, the agency has helped businesses grow, from global lifestyle brands to online fashion retailers and CPG startups. Whether your goal is to drive conversions, grow leads, boost brand awareness, or generate revenue - their client-specific performance marketing strategy will take you there.

Media Contact:

Stephen Holts

[email protected]

SOURCE Mason Interactive
BALTIMORE, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Natalie Chilaka, MD, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Trusted Orthopedic Surgeon in the Medical field and in acknowledgment of her work at UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

Natalie Chilaka is an Orthopedic Surgeon and Founder of the UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center in the Orthopedics Department and Osteoporosis Clinic, where she helps patients with bone fractures and Osteoporosis. She has been working the in Medical field for five years.

Natalie Chilaka

Dr. Chilaka attended Cornell University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 2008. She completed an internship in 2009 and a residency in 2013 at Massachusetts General Hospital. She next attended the Weill Cornell Medical College, graduating with a Medical Degree in 2014. Dr. Chilaka took on a residency in Orthopedic Surgery at the Harvard Combined Program, followed by a Fellowship in Orthopedic Trauma at Denver Health and Hospital Authority in 2014. She has been board-certified in Orthopedic Surgery by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery (ABOS) since 2016. Dr. Chilaka is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (FAAOS).

As the first physician in her family, Dr. Chilaka is proud to help patients address their healthcare needs. Subsequent to completing her education and training, she worked at a Level 1 Trauma Center at Yale-New Haven Hospital. After several years in that location, Dr. Chilaka now works at UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center in the Orthopedics Department and Osteoporosis Clinic. After working at the location for two years, Dr. Chilaka started the center in 2019, and treats patients for many types of traumatic orthopedic conditions.

Dr. Chilaka examines and diagnoses many types of broken bones as a fracture care and osteoporosis specialist. This includes upper extremity and lower extremity fractures, intra-articular and periarticular fractures, pelvis fractures, nonunions, malunions, and tendon ruptures. The Osteoporosis Clinic offers personalized bone health care for all patients 49 years old and up who have broken a bone or have an increased risk of developing Osteoporosis.

Dr. Chilaka is the Founder of an Osteoporosis Clinic that she runs on Friday mornings. She is able to provide osteoporosis care to elderly people and people with underlying conditions through her clinic. Involved in her specialty, Dr. Chilaka is a member of the Orthopedic Trauma Association and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

On a personal note, she enjoys spending time with her family, including her children, ages 2 and 4. She speaks both English and French.For more information, visit https://www.umms.org/find-a-doctor/profiles/dr-natalie-chilaka-md-1346412418.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson today announced new real-world evidence data showing the initiation of ERLEADA (apalutamide) results in high rates of rapid and deep prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response among patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC). In a separate post-hoc analysis of the registrational Phase 3 SPARTAN and TITAN studies, rapid and deep PSA responses with ERLEADA were associated with improvement in patient-reported outcomes (PROs) related to quality of life, physical wellbeing, pain, and fatigue intensity. These findings will be presented during the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Genitourinary (ASCO GU) Cancers Symposium, taking place in San Francisco and virtually from February 17-19, 2022.

The real-world evidence study evaluating PSA response (Abstract 43, Poster B9) included data from 186 patients treated with ERLEADA and 165 treated with enzalutamide from 69 community urology practices in the United States. By six months, 69.3 percent of patients with mCSPC initiated on ERLEADA attained PSA90 response and 55.6 percent for enzalutamide (HR=1.56; p=0.014). PSA90 response is defined as the patient's earliest attainment of 90 percent decline in PSA relative to their baseline PSA at treatment initiation. At nine months and by the end of follow-up, 70.4 percent of patients treated with ERLEADA achieved PSA90 and 62.5 percent for enzalutamide (HR=1.49; p=0.024). The median time to PSA90 response was 3.1 months for patients treated with ERLEADA and to 5.2 months for enzalutamide.1*

"Deep PSA response is an important early prognostic factor for achieving longer radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer," said Benjamin Lowentritt, M.D., Director Prostate Cancer Care Program, Chesapeake Urology, and Past President, AUA, Mid-Atlantic Region, and lead study investigator.** "These real-world data are consistent with and reinforce the benefit of ERLEADA as reported in the clinical trial setting, providing prescribers with important insights regarding time to and durability of PSA90 responses for commonly prescribed mCSPC medications."

Patients included in the analysis had at least 12 months of clinical activity to assess baseline characteristics and were classified into treatment cohorts based on their first filled prescription for ERLEADA or enzalutamide after Dec. 16, 2019. Patients were followed from their first filled prescription date until the earliest of one of the following events: regimen discontinuation, treatment switch, end of clinical activity or end of data availability (March 5, 2021).

A separate ERLEADA poster presentation evaluating PROs data (Abstract 73, Poster D1) demonstrated an association between rapid and deep PSA decline and improved health-related quality of life PROs as reported from the Phase 3 SPARTAN and TITAN studies. Patient-reported outcomes were assessed using tools including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Prostate (FACT-P; TITAN and SPARTAN), Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF; TITAN only), and Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI; TITAN only):

A landmark analysis at three months after treatment initiation evaluated the association between deep PSA decline ( 0.2 ng/mL) and delay in deterioration in PROs (defined as decrease  10 points FACT-P total,  3 points Physical Wellbeing,  30 percent baseline for BPI-SF worst pain, or  2 points for BFI worst fatigue). 2

Patients in both studies who achieved a deep PSA decline maintained FACT-P total (SPARTAN: HR=0.83; TITAN: HR=0.54) or FACT-P Physical Wellbeing (SPARTAN: HR=0.70; TITAN: HR=0.63) levels longer. 2

Patients in TITAN who achieved a deep PSA decline had a lower risk of increasing pain or worsening fatigue; as assessed by the BPI-SF worst pain intensity progression (HR=0.70) or BFI worst fatigue intensity progression (HR=0.76), respectively.2

"This analysis demonstrates that the rapid and deep PSA responses shown in the SPARTAN and TITAN pivotal studies translate into improved quality of life for patients," said Tracy McGowan, M.D., Therapeutic Area Head, U.S. Medical Affairs, Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC. "We are dedicated to continually expanding the body of research for ERLEADA by providing important information that may help patients and their physicians make treatment decisions that work best for them."

To date, published results on ERLEADA include data from more than 2,000 patients across three Phase 3 clinical studies. ERLEADA has shown a statistically significant improvement in overall survival with a consistent safety profile, while maintaining patients' health-related quality of life in both approved indications of mCSPC and non-metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC).3 ERLEADA is currently approved in more than 74 countries.

About ERLEADA

ERLEADA is an androgen receptor inhibitor indicated for the treatment of patients with nmCRPC and for the treatment of patients with mCSPC.4 ERLEADA received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for nmCRPC on February 14, 2018 and was approved for mCSPC on September 17, 2019.4 To date, more than 50,000 patients worldwide have been treated with ERLEADA. ERLEADA is taken orally, once daily, with or without food.4 The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Prostate Cancer include apalutamide (ERLEADA) with continued androgen deprivation therapy** as a Category 1 Preferred treatment option for patients with non-metastatic (M0) castration-resistant prostate cancer and a PSADT 10 months.4 The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines also include apalutamide (ERLEADA) with androgen deprivation** as a Category 1 Preferred treatment option for patients with metastatic (M1) castration-naive prostate cancer.5 The American Urological Association (AUA) Guidelines for Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC) recommend clinicians offer apalutamide (ERLEADA) with continued androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) as one of the treatment options for patients with nmCRPC at high risk for developing metastatic disease (Standard; Evidence Level Grade A).***5 ERLEADA is being further studied in two ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials.

For more information about ERLEADA, visit www.ERLEADA.com.

* National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Inc. 2020. All rights reserved. Accessed December 11, 2020. To view the most recent and complete version of the NCCN Guidelines, go online to NCCN.org. NCCN makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever regarding their content, use, or application, and disclaims any responsibility for their application or use in any way.

**Orchiectomy, LHRH agonist, or LHRH antagonist

Use of an LHRH agonist plus a first-generation antiandrogen is an option for patients receiving ADT alone, but is not an option for patients receiving apalutamide.

The term "castration-naive" is used to define patients who are not on ADT at the time of progression. The NCCN Prostate Cancer Panel uses the term "castration-naive" even when patients have had neoadjuvant, concurrent, or adjuvant ADT as part of radiation therapy provided they have recovered testicular function.

***Standard: Directive statement that an action should (benefits outweigh risks/burdens) or should not (risks/burdens outweigh benefits) be taken based on Grade A or B evidence.

***Evidence Level: A designation indicating the certainty of the results as high, moderate, or low (A, B, or C, respectively) based on AUA nomenclature and methodology.

ERLEADA IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS



Cerebrovascular and Ischemic Cardiovascular Events  In a randomized study (SPARTAN) of patients with nmCRPC, ischemic cardiovascular events occurred in 3.7% of patients treated with ERLEADA and 2% of patients treated with placebo. In a randomized study (TITAN) in patients with mCSPC, ischemic cardiovascular events occurred in 4.4% of patients treated with ERLEADA and 1.5% of patients treated with placebo. Across the SPARTAN and TITAN studies, 4 patients (0.3%) treated with ERLEADA and 2 patients (0.2%) treated with placebo died from an ischemic cardiovascular event. Patients with history of unstable angina, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, stroke, or transient ischemic attack within 6 months of randomization were excluded from the SPARTAN and TITAN studies.

In the SPARTAN study, cerebrovascular events occurred in 2.5% of patients treated with ERLEADA and 1% of patients treated with placebo. In the TITAN study, cerebrovascular events occurred in 1.9% of patients treated with ERLEADA and 2.1% of patients treated with placebo. Across the SPARTAN and TITAN studies, 3 patients (0.2%) treated with ERLEADA, and 2 patients (0.2%) treated with placebo died from a cerebrovascular event.

Cerebrovascular and ischemic cardiovascular events, including events leading to death, occurred in patients receiving ERLEADA. Monitor for signs and symptoms of ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disorders. Optimize management of cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, or dyslipidemia. Consider discontinuation of ERLEADA for Grade 3 and 4 events.

Fractures  In a randomized study (SPARTAN) of patients with nmCRPC, fractures occurred in 12% of patients treated with ERLEADA and in 7% of patients treated with placebo. In a randomized study (TITAN) of patients with mCSPC, fractures occurred in 9% of patients treated with ERLEADA and in 6% of patients treated with placebo. Evaluate patients for fracture risk. Monitor and manage patients at risk for fractures according to established treatment guidelines and consider use of bone-targeted agents.

Falls  In a randomized study (SPARTAN), falls occurred in 16% of patients treated with ERLEADA compared with 9% of patients treated with placebo. Falls were not associated with loss of consciousness or seizure. Falls occurred in patients receiving ERLEADA with increased frequency in the elderly. Evaluate patients for fall risk.

Seizure  In two randomized studies (SPARTAN and TITAN), 5 patients (0.4%) treated with ERLEADA and 1 patient treated with placebo (0.1%) experienced a seizure. Permanently discontinue ERLEADA in patients who develop a seizure during treatment. It is unknown whether anti-epileptic medications will prevent seizures with ERLEADA. Advise patients of the risk of developing a seizure while receiving ERLEADA and of engaging in any activity where sudden loss of consciousness could cause harm to themselves or others.

Embryo-Fetal Toxicity  The safety and efficacy of ERLEADA have not been established in females. Based on findings from animals and its mechanism of action, ERLEADA can cause fetal harm and loss of pregnancy when administered to a pregnant female. Advise males with female partners of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during treatment and for 3 months after the last dose of ERLEADA [see Use in Specific Populations (8.1, 8.3)].

ADVERSE REACTIONS

The most common adverse reactions (10%) that occurred more frequently in the ERLEADA-treated patients (2% over placebo) from the randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials (TITAN and SPARTAN) were fatigue, arthralgia, rash, decreased appetite, fall, weight decreased, hypertension, hot flush, diarrhea, and fracture.

Laboratory Abnormalities  All Grades (Grade 3-4)

Hematology  In the TITAN study: white blood cell decreased ERLEADA  27% (0.4%), placebo 19% (0.6%). In the SPARTAN study: anemia ERLEADA  70% (0.4%), placebo 64% (0.5%); leukopenia ERLEADA  47% (0.3%), placebo 29% (0%); lymphopenia ERLEADA  41% (1.8%), placebo 21% (1.6%)

In the TITAN study: white blood cell decreased ERLEADA 27% (0.4%), placebo 19% (0.6%). In the SPARTAN study: anemia ERLEADA 70% (0.4%), placebo 64% (0.5%); leukopenia ERLEADA 47% (0.3%), placebo 29% (0%); lymphopenia ERLEADA 41% (1.8%), placebo 21% (1.6%) Chemistry  In the TITAN study: hypertriglyceridemia ERLEADA 17% (2.5%), placebo 12% (2.3%). In the SPARTAN study: hypercholesterolemia ERLEADA 76% (0.1%), placebo 46% (0%); hyperglycemia ERLEADA 70% (2%), placebo 59% (1.0%); hypertriglyceridemia ERLEADA 67% (1.6%), placebo 49% (0.8%); hyperkalemia ERLEADA 32% (1.9%), placebo 22% (0.5%)

Rash  In 2 randomized studies (SPARTAN and TITAN), rash was most commonly described as macular or maculopapular. Adverse reactions of rash were 26% with ERLEADA vs 8% with placebo. Grade 3 rashes (defined as covering >30% body surface area [BSA]) were reported with ERLEADA treatment (6%) vs placebo (0.5%).

The onset of rash occurred at a median of 83 days. Rash resolved in 78% of patients within a median of 78 days from onset of rash. Rash was commonly managed with oral antihistamines, topical corticosteroids, and 19% of patients received systemic corticosteroids. Dose reduction or dose interruption occurred in 14% and 28% of patients, respectively. Of the patients who had dose interruption, 59% experienced recurrence of rash upon reintroduction of ERLEADA.

Hypothyroidism  In 2 randomized studies (SPARTAN and TITAN), hypothyroidism was reported for 8% of patients treated with ERLEADA and 1.5% of patients treated with placebo based on assessments of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) every 4 months. Elevated TSH occurred in 25% of patients treated with ERLEADA and 7% of patients treated with placebo. The median onset was at the first scheduled assessment. There were no Grade 3 or 4 adverse reactions. Thyroid replacement therapy, when clinically indicated, should be initiated or dose-adjusted.

DRUG INTERACTIONS

Effect of Other Drugs on ERLEADA  Co-administration of a strong CYP2C8 or CYP3A4 inhibitor is predicted to increase the steady-state exposure of the active moieties. No initial dose adjustment is necessary; however, reduce the ERLEADA dose based on tolerability [see Dosage and Administration (2.2)].



Effect of ERLEADA on Other Drugs

CYP3A4, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and UGT Substrates  ERLEADA is a strong inducer of CYP3A4 and CYP2C19, and a weak inducer of CYP2C9 in humans. Concomitant use of ERLEADA with medications that are primarily metabolized by CYP3A4, CYP2C19, or CYP2C9 can result in lower exposure to these medications. Substitution for these medications is recommended when possible or evaluate for loss of activity if medication is continued. Concomitant administration of ERLEADA with medications that are substrates of UDP-glucuronosyl transferase (UGT) can result in decreased exposure. Use caution if substrates of UGT must be co-administered with ERLEADA and evaluate for loss of activity.

P-gp, BCRP, or OATP1B1 Substrates  Apalutamide is a weak inducer of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), and organic anion transporting polypeptide 1B1 (OATP1B1) clinically. Concomitant use of ERLEADA with medications that are substrates of P-gp, BCRP, or OATP1B1 can result in lower exposure of these medications. Use caution if substrates of P-gp, BCRP, or OATP1B1 must be co-administered with ERLEADA and evaluate for loss of activity if medication is continued.

Please see the full Prescribing Information for ERLEADA.

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 www.janssen.com. Follow us at @JanssenUS and @JanssenGlobal. Janssen Biotech, Inc. and Janssen Research & Development, LLC are part the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

# # #

*While this study utilized robust methodology, it did not address whether these findings represent a clinically meaningful difference or whether they translate into differences in longer term outcomes (e.g.: overall survival).

**Dr. Lowentritt has served as a consultant to Janssen; he has not been paid for any media work.

Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding product development and the potential benefits of ERLEADA (apalutamide). 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 Research & Development, LLC, Janssen Biotech, Inc., or any 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 2, 2022, including in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and in Johnson & Johnson's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other 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.

1 Lowentritt et al. Attainment of Early, Deep Prostate-Specific Antigen Response in Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer: A Comparison of Patients Initiated on Apalutamide or Enzalutamide. ASCO GU 2022.

2 Small et al. Association Between Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) and Changes in Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) in Patients (pts) with Advanced Prostate Cancer Treated with Apalutamide (APA) in the SPARTAN and TITAN Studies. ASCO GU 2022.

3 ERLEADA U.S. Prescribing Information, November 2021.

4 NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Prostate Cancer V.3.2020. National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Inc. 2020. All rights reserved. Accessed January 2022.

5 American Urological Association. Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Guidelines. http://www.auanet.org/guidelines/castration-resistant-prostate-cancer-(2013-amended-2018). Accessed January 2022.

Media Contacts:

Paloma Feliciano

Phone: +1 908-307-8610

Suzanne Frost

Phone: +1 416-317-0304

Investor Relations:

Raychel Kruper

Phone: +1 732-524-2955

U.S. Medical Inquiries:

+1 800-526-7736

SOURCE The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
Vizient is the largest GPO in the U.S. serving more than half of the healthcare organizations nationwide. Vizient members represent a diverse base of integrated delivery networks, academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals and non-acute health care providers that collectively have more than $110 billion in annual purchasing volume.

"Olympus is thrilled to be chosen as a supplier in bronchoscopy by Vizient," said Kevin Mancini, Vice President for the Respiratory Business Unit at Olympus America Inc. "Our leadership in endoscopy allows us to provide a full portfolio of endoscopes with attributes that can match physician needs for each specific case."

The total Olympus portfolio of premium single-use bronchoscopes, available through this new agreement, and re-usable bronchoscopes, available through earlier Vizient contracts, give physicians access at contracted pricing to a comprehensive selection of bronchoscopes for any procedure and site of care. A full and robust portfolio ensures the right bronchoscope is available when and where needed for both basic and advanced diagnostic and therapeutic pulmonary procedures.

The advanced H-SteriScope portfolio includes five single-use bronchoscopes that offer efficiency, control and variety to healthcare providers. The H-SteriScopes range in size from ultra-thin to extra-large with working channels up to 3.2 mm to fulfill a variety of clinical needs. Differentiating features of the H-SteriScopes that are useful in respiratory care include 90 rotation left and right, 210 angulation up and down, and passive bending for enhanced maneuverability.

The new Olympus single-use bronchoscope portfolio complies with the latest safety recommendations from the FDA to advance performance in the bronchoscopy suite.

For more information, visit the medical.olympusamerica.com/single-use-bronchoscopes.

About Olympus

Olympus uses innovative capabilities in medical technology, therapeutic intervention, and precision manufacturing to help healthcare professionals deliver diagnostic, therapeutic, and minimally invasive procedures to improve clinical outcomes, reduce overall costs, and enhance the quality of life for patients. Olympus' portfolio includes endoscopes, laparoscopes, and video imaging systems, as well as surgical energy devices, system integration solutions, medical services, and a wide range of EndoTherapy instruments. For more information, visit medical.olympusamerica.com.

SOURCE Olympus Medical Systems Group
DUBLIN, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Luxury Handbag Market (2021-2026) by Type, Distribution Channel, Material, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Luxury Handbag Market is estimated to be USD 71.84 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 97.05 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.2%.



Market Dynamics

Key factors such as a rise in per capita income, the evolution of new offerings, and the rise in internet penetration boost market growth. Rising product innovation and changing fashion trends are key opportunities in the market. With the increasing working women population, the manufacturers of luxury handbags are developing handbags fortified with mobile holders, laptop sleeves, and key holders that provide a luxury feel without compromising the quality. The demand for men's luxury handbags is increasing as they have identified luxury handbags as a lifestyle product. However, the high cost of luxury handbags is major.

The Global Luxury Handbag Market is segmented based on Type, Distribution Channel, Material, and Geography.



Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are Burberry, Giorgio Armani, Prada, GANNI, Loeffler Randall, Macy's, Michael Kors, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes a 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 Luxury Handbag 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 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, 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 IGR Positioning Quadrants, Infogence's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Influencers

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Overall Rise in Per Capita Income and Increasing Working Women Population

4.1.2 Evolution of Retail and E-Commerce

4.1.3 Rise in Internet Penetration and Social Media Influence

4.2 Restraint

4.2.1 Higher Cost of Luxury Bags

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Rising Product Innovation with Changing Fashion Trends

4.3.2 Demand for Men's Luxury Handbags

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Availability of Alternatives



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 Luxury Handbag Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Handbag

6.3 Backpack

6.4 Wallet

6.5 Others



7 Global Luxury Handbag Market, By Distribution Channel

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Duty free stores

7.3 Online stores

7.4 Discount Stores

7.5 Hypermarket

7.6 Specialty stores



8 Global Luxury Handbag Market, By Material

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Cotton

8.3 Leather

8.4 Nylon

8.5 Synthetic



9 Global Luxury Handbag Market, By Gender

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Male

9.3 Female



10 Global Luxury Handbag Market, By Geography



11 Competitive Landscape

11.1 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 Burberry

12.2 Loeffler Randall

12.3 Prada

12.4 Furla

12.5 GANNI

12.6 Giorgio Armani

12.7 Gucci

12.8 Hermes

12.9 Kate Spade

12.10 Longchamp

12.11 Louis Vuitton

12.12 Louvreuse

12.13 Macy's

12.14 Michael Kors

12.15 Mulberry Group

12.16 Polene

12.17 Ralph Lauren

12.18 Rebecca Minkoff

12.19 Richemont

12.20 Samsonite International

12.21 Valentino

12.22 Vera Bradley Sales

12.23 Yves Saint Laurent



13 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/fxucy2

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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For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

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SOURCE Research and Markets
Pilot Company is investing significantly in growing and enhancing its travel center network this year with plans to add more than 34 locations , including 14 new travel centers and over 20 dealer sites . In partnership with Southern Tire Mart, the two companies are expecting to add 40 new Southern Tire Mart at Pilot Flying J (STMPFJ) service centers to Pilot Flying J locations across the country. This is part of STMPFJ's expansion plans to provide fleets with over 200 on-premises shop locations within the next few years.

In addition to network growth, Pilot Company is stepping up its initiatives to provide travelers and professional truck drivers with upgraded amenities, more offerings and new services that make the store experience easier, faster and more rewarding. Key initiatives will include testing new food concepts, facility upgrades, technology enhancements and introducing new partnerships, such as the recent addition of GNC wellness products to Pilot Flying J stores nationwide.

"We are always looking ahead and listening to our guests and team members to drive future innovation and strategic investments in our business," said Shameek Konar, Pilot Company CEO. "As we move into 2022, we have made several key organizational changes and additions that diversify our leadership team and position our company for sustained growth by delivering on our promise to ensure the experience at Pilot is exceptional."

Continuing to build on its people-first culture and history of giving back, Pilot Company will also focus on enriching the team member experience and exploring additional corporate sustainability programs. Through these initiatives, the company will assess and deploy impactful systems, tools and strategies to advance talent development, recognition and rewards, diversity and inclusion, and wellbeing for all team members. Pilot Company will further leverage its energy division and capabilities as one of the largest suppliers of biodiesel and alternative fuels to evaluate new opportunities and future innovations that will support the industry's energy transformation.

To support the ambitious goals of Pilot Company, three individuals have been recently promoted and a new hire added to round out the company's leadership team.

Allison Cornish has been promoted to VP, Store Modernization. In her new role, Cornish will lead the design and execution of store improvement initiatives alongside Pilot Company's construction and development team. Cornish is excited to meet and exceed the ever-changing needs of today's consumers. Since joining the company in 1999, Cornish has held leadership positions in multiple capacities throughout the company, including her most recent role as Zone VP, Operations. Her substantial knowledge on store operations and its impact on the team member and guest experience will play a significant role as she oversees store modernization projects.

Cornish is originally from Lexington, KY and lives in Knoxville. She graduated from Maryville College with a BA in Business Administration.

Jamie Landis has been promoted to VP, Team Member Experience, where she will be responsible for the design, implementation, and elevation of the experience for all team members. This will include a focus on attracting, hiring, retaining top talent and delivering on Pilot Company's overall Human Resources strategy. Landis joined the company in June 2021 as Senior Director, Human Resources Strategy and Operations. Prior to Pilot Company, Jamie held multiple cross-functional Human Resources leadership roles with Delaware North, Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos, and Dick's Sporting Goods where she drove talent strategies that enabled organizational growth and performance.

Landis relocated to Knoxville in 2021 from Buffalo, NY. She holds an MBA from University of Illinois and a BS in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University.

Tim Langenkamp has been promoted to VP, Business Development  Sustainability. In this new role, he will focus on energy-transition strategies including developing EV charging infrastructure for passenger vehicles and medium- and heavy-duty trucks, developing a strategy for supporting low emission and zero emission vehicles, and continuing to provide low carbon fueling alternatives to our guests. He has been serving as General Counsel for the energy unit of Pilot Company since 2019, working with Pilot Company's senior team on diversifying and growing revenues. Langenkamp has two decades of experience in private practice, advising clients on public and private securities offerings, corporate governance, M&A and joint ventures.

Langenkamp resides in Houston, Texas. Originally from Austin, Texas, he holds degrees from the University of St. Thomas (BBA) and the University of Houston (JD and LLM in Intellectual Property).

Jonathan Braatvedt joined Pilot Company as VP, Food and Beverage, to focus on expanding Pilot Flying J's offerings into new business channels, improving operational efficiencies and enhancing guests' food and beverage experiences. Braatvedt oversees more than 790 owned and operated restaurants across 14 brands, and 670 proprietary fresh delis', from development to execution. His near-term focus will be to utilize technology to expand Pilot Flying J's reach to guests beyond the travel center, create crave-able food innovations and provide a frictionless and easy dining experience. Prior to Pilot Company, he spent ten years at Taco Bell in numerous operation and development roles and was an Operational Consultant for municipal agencies prior to that.

Braatvedt relocated to Knoxville, TN, from Irvine, CA, where he immigrated from South Africa in 1999. He has a Masters degree in Project Management from Keller Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts in English, with a Minor in History, from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

"It's incredibly rewarding to see many talented people being promoted internally and joining the Pilot family to lead our teams as we continue to expand and differentiate our business," Konar expressed. "We are in the service industry and will continue to do everything we can to make a better day for everyone that walks through our doors."

For more information about Pilot Company or to learn more about joining the team, visit www.pilotcompany.com.

About Pilot Company

Pilot Travel Centers LLC ("Pilot Company") keeps North America's drivers moving as one of the leading suppliers of fuel and the largest operator of travel centers. Founded in 1958 and headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Pilot Company has grown its network to more than 800 retail and fueling locations and as the third largest tanker fleet in North America, supplies more than 12 billion gallons of fuel per year. Its energy division also supplies DEF, bio and renewables and provides hauling and disposal services. Pilot Company serves 1.5 million guests per day and provides over 70,000 direct fleet customers with bundled solutions for fuel, credit, factoring, services and rewards. Its Pilot Flying J Travel Center network includes over 750 locations in 44 states and six Canadian provinces with more than 680 restaurants, 75,000 truck parking spaces, 5,300 deluxe showers, 6,200 diesel lanes and offers truck maintenance and tire service through Southern Tire Mart at Pilot Flying J. The One9 Fuel Network connects a variety of fueling locations to provide smaller fleets and independent professional drivers with everyday value, convenience, credit and perks. More information on locations and rewards are available in the myRewards PlusTM app.

Pilot Company is currently ranked No. 7 on Forbes' list of America's Largest Private Companies. For additional information about Pilot Company, its 28,000 team members and commitment to giving back, visit www.pilotcompany.com.

SOURCE Pilot Company
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PinMed, a Pittsburgh-based developer of innovative medical-monitoring technologies, has partnered with the National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) on a U.S. Navy contract. The goal is to adapt PinMed's FDA-cleared wireless cardiovascular monitoring platform (PELEX) for continuous tracking of electrocardiogram (ECG) and physical activity in the Navy's dolphins.

The U.S. Navy uses free-swimming dolphins to protect harbors and Navy assets, detect and mark underwater mines, and locate and attach recovery hardware to underwater objects as part of the fleet's operational Marine Mammal Systems. Cardiac arrhythmias and other cardiovascular diseases are of increasing clinical concern in aging mammals and require continuous ECG monitoring for accurate diagnosis and management. However, currently available monitors cannot be used in the aquatic environment.

"The future of personalized monitoring is wearability, versatility, and AI-driven analytics," said Vladimir Shusterman, PinMed's President and Chief Scientist. "PinMed's PELEX platform has been designed with that vision, and it has already proven its versatility in the most challenging environments. We are honored to partner with the NMMF, a globally recognized leader in marine mammal science, medicine, and conservation. The ability to monitor ECG and physical activity will be useful not only for dolphins but also for other aquatic animals and human swimmers and divers."

"PinMed's monitoring platform is unique in its adaptability, wide range of applications, and ability to be used in a variety of settings, including those with extreme electromagnetic interference, such as MRI," commented Alan West, Executive-in-Residence at the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. "We are excited to see the growth of this important platform, and we are pleased that PinMed continues the strong tradition of medical-device innovation in Pittsburgh."

For more information about PinMed and the company's suite of innovative medical devices and technologies, visit https://pinmed.net or email [email protected].

PinMed, Inc., is a Pittsburgh-based National Innovation Award-winning medical-device company that develops high-fidelity cardiovascular monitoring and defibrillation solutions to ensure patient safety throughout the continuum of care, including the most challenging environments where conventional systems fail. PinMed's monitoring platform provides diagnostic 12-lead ECG and long-term ECG monitoring in home and hospital settings, and has recently been adapted for nonobtrusive blood-pressure tracking as well as monitoring in the MRI.

The National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization recognized globally as a leader in marine mammal science, medicine, and conservation. With a mission to improve and protect life for marine mammals, humans, and their shared oceans through science, service, and education, the NMMF's team of forward-thinking aquatic and wildlife veterinarians, scientists, conservationists, care experts, and analysts is answering critical questions about the health of marine mammals. The NMMF is committed to protecting marine animals and conserving at-risk, threatened, and endangered cetacean species worldwide. In addition to publishing its findings in scientific literature, the NMMF shares its discoveries with children and the community through its Education and Outreach program. More information is available at NMMF.org.

The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG) is a comprehensive life-sciences economic development organization. It is dedicated to advancing life sciences in western Pennsylvania by building on the region's strengths in research, clinical care, and life-sciences entrepreneurship. The PLSG serves the community by providing knowledge, connection, and capital to help companies grow, create jobs, and improve the health of all humanity. For more information, please visit www.plsg.com.

SOURCE PinMed
Submissions to the WashU Olin's BIG IdeaBounce powered by Poets&Quants came from student entrepreneurs in every corner of the world, from Ph.D. candidates to MBA students and undergraduates. Submissions represented a wide range of industries, from telemedicine and cheaper food delivery to support of fisheries and water bottles for surfing wetsuits.

"These submissions were often backed by thoughtful analysis, competitive research, and go-to-market strategies", said John A. Byrne, editor-in-chief of Poets&Quants, "These pitches would put a smile on any angel investor's face."

One hundred and sixty-seven founders and founding teams entered competition. The contest was open to all current undergraduate and graduate school students or any prospect interested in a graduate business school degree.



The 12 Finalists are:

Budeli: A property tech amenity that provides free food delivery for tenants in higher end residential apartments.

Tylmen: A sizing technology to help people shop for apparel online with confidence by automatically choosing the best fit clothing for them.

OnDeck Fisheries AI: A monitoring tool for fisheries that satisfies regulatory needs using AI instead of humans to automatically quantify catch; revolutionizing marine conservation while cutting costs by a factor of 10.

Cartik: A socially responsible business with the goal of repurposing plastic waste in Africa into sustainable textiles for the global market.

MiDoc: An at-home medical device that allows physicians to remotely conduct lung and heart physical exams.

IMA Blends: A healthy snack that provides key nutrition for pregnant and nursing women, with no sugar added, dairy-free, organic, and with clean ingredients.

Pareto: A direct-to-consumer, women's apparel brand that makes the best version of the clothing you actually wear using our industry-leading, farm-to-closet supply chain.

SurfStraw: The first ever water bottle designed for surfing wet suits.

PedalCell: A bicycle power source that converts a cyclist's motion into continuous charge for lights, smartphones, GPS, and other essential USB devices.

Green Room: Simplifies payments and tax compliance for the live music industry.

Resense: A Memory Box toolkit designed to bring comfort and joy to those living with Alzheimer's and Dementia.

RHM Innovations Inc.: Products to help people who have difficulty performing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). The first product, the Aiding Arm, helps users to bathe more comfortably and independently.



These finalists will now compete for three slots to present in person on Washington University's campus in St. Louis in early March. The winner, to be chosen by a panel of judges, will receive $50,000 in funding from the Olin School. P&Q is also inviting our audience to vote for their favorite team and idea. You can watch their 2-minute elevator pitches and read about their business plans here.

Readers can also register to view the live broadcast of this event on March 22nd, 2021 here.

About Poets&Quants:

Poets&Quants is the leading resource for complete coverage of graduate business education. We feature multiple tools and authoritative content, including consolidated B-school rankings, news and in-depth features, videos, podcasts, two searchable directories, and events, empowering our community with information needed to make decisions along their journey from pre- to post-MBA.

About Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis

Firmly established at the Gateway to the West, Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis stands as the gateway to something far grander. WashU Olin prepares our students to thoughtfully make difficult decisionsthe kind that can change the worldthrough a values-based, data-driven approach to decision-making, informed by entrepreneurial spirit, experiential learning and a global outlook on business. Olin offers 13 graduate business degree programs, including specialized master's programs and the MBA, online and in-person, along with a four-year BSBA and a host of joint degrees and related minors. Learn more at olin.wustl.edu or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.



SOURCE Poets&Quants
OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On February 28, 2022, SlotoGate.com celebrates its first anniversary. The company began as a local enterprise for gambling enjoyers from Canada, and now it has become one of the most fast-growing firms in the market.

For its birthday, SlotoGate has prepared a number of events for users and stuff, which take part in the end of February  keep up with the latest news to find out the precise information. More than that, the company is ready to please the registered users of the website with special promotional offers and bonuses. Celebrate this date with SlotoGate and get rewarded for being a loyal member of SlotoGate community!

"We have a lot to take pride in, and we are happy to share the excitement with our users. For the past year, we paid special attention to awareness of our visitors, the true info about interaction between customers and gambling establishments are currently reach a new level." says Simon Coulson, CEO/ Executive Creative Director of SlotoGate.com. "The first anniversary of our website is a fascinating date that means the world to the team."

About SlotoGate

The company was established in the year 2021 as a website for Canadian users. SlotoGate has recently decided to take over the international market, adding the Spanish language to the site. SlotoGate specializes in publishing the hottest and the most important news of the online gambling world, educating gamers by providing them with regular blog posts on the most interesting and essential themes.

"It's wonderful how we have created such a dedicated team of professionals, every one of which puts the most of their effort into making our company a leader in the industry", says Jennifer Pauli, the Head of HR of SlotoGate. "We are planning to enhance the company's performance in the global market by adding numerous languages to the website, and by the end of the next year, we will have created a multilingual website that will support different languages and be more close for larger number of nationalities and ethnic groups."

Apart from writing a blog for online gamblers worldwide, SlotoGate team actively uses popular social medias to create a closer connection with its userbase. To learn more about the work of the company, follow SlotoGate company on Facebook.

Website: https://slotogate.com/

Source: https://slotogate.com/the-first-anniversary-of-slotogate/

SOURCE SlotoGate
The United State District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania entered a permanent injunction against Eckert for its conflict of interest in representing Pace-O-Matic, the largest distributor of skills games in Virginia, while simultaneously working against skills games on behalf of casino clients in multiple jurisdictions.

The injunction resulted from a lawsuit Pace-O-Matic brought against Eckert in February of 2020. In its Order, the District Court found that Mark Stewart, chair of the Eckert's Gaming Group, had "actively and clandestinely engaged" in an "obviously intentional subterfuge" in representing casinos against the interests of its other client, Pace-O-Matic.

Despite pending federal litigation related to Eckert's obvious conflict of interest, the Virginia Lottery entered into a consulting agreement with Eckert and, specifically, Pennsylvania attorney Mark Stewart in October 2020 to provide independent "consulting on gaming and compliance issues as requested by the lottery." Concurrently, Virginia was contemplating new gaming legislation and procedures for the emerging gaming industry in the state.

"The injunction by the federal court in Pennsylvania indicates continued serious ethical violations on the part of the attorneys representing the large out-of-state gambling companies working against Virginia small businesses like my client, Hermie Sadler," commented Bill Stanley of The Stanley Law Group. "This subpoena requesting certain documents from the Virginia Lottery is a critical piece of our legal argument before the Greensville County Circuit Court that Virginia did not have a valid and compelling state interest to ban skills games.

Not only was Virginia Lottery's 'independent' consultant representing casino interests, but also was embroiled in a clear conflict of interest. It is appalling that this may have been done in an attempt to violate the rights of the small and family-owned businesses, the operators of small convenience stores throughout Virginia who have both operated skill games in their establishments and supported the Virginia Lottery for years. They deserve an answer about the extent of the Lottery's involvement.

"The Lottery knew  or, at minimum, should have known  Mr. Stewart represented out-of-state casinos committed to dominating the state's gaming industry by making skills games illegal in Virginia. Nevertheless, the Lottery entered into a contract with Mr. Stewart and Eckert to provide advice on who should be allowed to participate in the emerging gaming marketplace in Virginia. Mr. Stewart and his colleagues at Eckert had proprietary and privileged knowledge about the skills game industry when they met with state and local regulators, elected officials and prosecutors regarding the legality of skills games in Virginia. They worked directly against the interests of skill games, their manufacturers, and Virginia small businesses. Hermie Sadler and his fellow small business owners have an absolute right to know the truth about the Lottery's complicity."

Hermie Sadler's lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia is currently pending, and a final hearing on permanently overturning Senate Bill 971 (2021), "the skill games ban" is set for trial on May 18, 2022, in the Circuit Court for Greensville County.

A copy of the subpoena duces tecum, along with the attached requests and the factual and legal basis for the documents requested are attached to this press release.

CONTACT:

Autumn Johnson, Esq.

(540) 721-6028

[email protected]

SOURCE The Stanley Law Group
TOWSON, Md., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) has announced the ten companies selected to participate in this year's STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator. The class of 2022 cohort will focus on technologies that enable the electrification of consumer and industrial products through the implementation of battery technology, advanced and recyclable materials, microprocessors, robots, consumer appliances and services.

"We are excited for the 2022 cohort and their potential to bring continued innovation to the electrification industry," said Mark Maybury, Chief Technology Officer, Stanley Black & Decker. "At Stanley Black & Decker, we believe electrification will open new doors for future-forward design and function for many of our consumer and industrial products. This year's class represent a diverse group of global startups positioned to make a meaningful impact. We are eager to energize these startups in the city of Baltimore, a top-tier innovation hub, to revolutionize electrification."

The 2022 class will participate in a three-month program, taking place in Baltimore, near Stanley Black & Decker's Tools & Storage headquarters and where BLACK+DECKER was founded in 1910. The program will kick-off this week and will culminate with demo and investor days in late May. This year's program will be hybrid, utilizing both a virtual and in-person format. The class of startups represent the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, and Virginia and the countries of Canada, Germany and Ireland.

The 2022 cohort will work alongside local mentors and partner with Upsurge Baltimore, which is propelling Baltimore into a top-tier innovation hub and the country's first Equitech city. UpSurge is helping to launch, support, attract, grow and celebrate high-impact startups in Baltimore.

Presenting the STANLEY+Techstars Class of 2022

Next Generation Batteries / Electric Power: These companies are focused on technologies for rapid charge, high power, advanced and recyclable materials and the electrification infrastructure:

Plazmod

PlazMod Technology, Inc is planning to commercialize a revolutionary materials processing technology for manufacturing structured materials systems to enable global energy system transition to electrification - www.plazmod.net



Mattery / Chargd

Mattery is a mobile application that enables sharing of home EV chargers in addition to accessing public chargers, thereby creating the largest existing charging network. The technology connects car and charger, provides an interactive experience, and allows users to perform data driven optimizations - www.chargd-app.com

Electrification: These companies are focused on the advancement of electric powered products (e.g. battery powered tools, outdoor equipment, home products), applications that accelerate energy efficiency and/or savings and tools for the electrified world:

Kitchenery

Kitchenery is a hardware + software + data startup. With its patent-pending modular wireless power transfer technology, appliance manufacturers and brands can convert conventional corded kitchen appliances to smart cordless kitchen appliances. For users, this will eliminate the need and use of power cords in small kitchen appliances like juicers and toasters, and provide a smart, efficient, and aesthetically pleasing cooking experience - https://www.kitchenery.net/



MeterLeader

MeterLeader is a platform that empowers and motivates people to adopt energy efficient behaviors and equipment in their homes and buildings by leveraging the power of real-time utility data, behavioral science, and community. Users can easily create and participate in energy saving competitions that are integrated with real-time PG&E electricity and natural gas data - https://www.meterleader.com/



Athenai

ATHENAI is revolutionizing sensor networks by building a novel low power, event-based chip. The company is founded by neuromorphic technology pioneer and serial entrepreneur, Ryad Benosman , and is focusing on micromobility as the first application.

Autonomy and Sustainability: These companies are focused on automation solutions for products or manufacturing that promote efficiency, effectiveness and circularity:

Molg

MOLG is developing a circular manufacturing platform to enable the autonomous assembly and disassembly of sustainable, cost-effective products and devices. Working with leading product companies, MOLG is working to deploy robot-first micro-factories around the world to advance the transition to the circular economy - www.molg.ai



Flora Coatings

Flora Coatings has developed a smart and sustainable, transparent, one part liquid coating that transforms to functional glass on application in ambient conditions without the need of high temperature heating. The coating can prevent surfaces from aggressive environmental conditions including corrosion, wear, microbial infection, high temperature usage and bio fouling that occur in aerospace, automotive, healthcare, appliances, electronics and marine industries - www.floracoating.com



Helgen Technologies

Helgen Technologies enables companies struggling to find consistent staff to operate heavy equipment to increase productivity and improve revenue management by upgrading heavy machines into intelligent autonomous systems - helgen.tech



Revolute Robotics

Revolute Robotics' inspection robots are for confined and dangerous spaces. Users can switch between rolling on the ground and flying through the air to travel where no other robot can - www.revoluterobotics.com



Autonopia

Autonopia builds autonomous mobile robots to take over hazardous work on inaccessible surfaces or tall structures  www.autonopia.com

To learn more visit: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/stanley

About Stanley Black & Decker

Headquartered in the USA, Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) is the world's largest tool company operating nearly 50 manufacturing facilities across America and more than 100 worldwide. Guided by its purpose  for those who make the world  the company's more than 60,000 diverse and high-performing employees produce innovative, award-winning power tools, hand tools, storage, digital tool solutions, lifestyle products, outdoor products, engineered fasteners and other industrial equipment to support the world's makers, creators, tradespeople and builders. The company's iconic brands include DEWALT, BLACK+DECKER, CRAFTSMAN, STANLEY, Cub Cadet, Hustler and Troy-Bilt. Recognized for its leadership in environmental, social and governance (ESG), Stanley Black & Decker strives to be a force for good in support of its communities, employees, customers and other stakeholders. To learn more visit: www.stanleyblackanddecker.com.

About Techstars

The Techstars worldwide network helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideasentrepreneurs 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

About UpSurge Baltimore

UpSurge Baltimore is building an engine to propel Baltimore into the top tier of US innovation cities., envisioning Baltimore not just as the next great tech city, but as the world's first Equitech City. Equitech is a force multiplier on a tech economy - where diversity is a competitive advantage. UpSurge's work centers on founders, tech-enabled and scale businesses, helping to launch, support, grow and celebrate high-impact startups. The organization is also developing strategies to attract new companies, talent and capital to Baltimore. Over time, not only will entrepreneurs and investors around the world look to Baltimore as a launching pad for transformational companies, but more Baltimoreans will see the knowledge economy as a pathway for their own upwardly mobile futures. www.upsurgebaltimore.com

SOURCE Stanley Black & Decker
GREENWICH, Conn. and CHATHAM, N.J., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stone Point Capital LLC and R. Seelaus & Co., Inc. have partnered to create Seelaus Financial ("the Company"), a women-owned and managed leveraged finance platform. Seelaus Financial will be the first women-owned platform capable of underwriting, structuring, arranging and distributing leveraged loans on a committed and best-efforts basis. Stone Point has also made a minority equity investment in R. Seelaus & Co. in order to further align the two firms in their commitment to enhancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ("DEI") in the financial industry.

R. Seelaus & Co. is a women-owned and led broker dealer and asset manager headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey. As a certified Women's Business Enterprise with a robust debt and equity capital markets effort, a secondary sales and trading platform, and an asset management arm, R. Seelaus & Co. aims to help clients meet the full range of their financial needs while simultaneously furthering their DEI goals.

In addition to private equity, Stone Point's platform includes a full-service capital markets and credit investing business. Through SPC Capital Markets LLC, Stone Point has dedicated capabilities in structuring, arranging, underwriting and distribution across debt and equity products, while Stone Point Credit, Stone Point's credit asset management business, pursues debt financing opportunities across the capital structure.

Seelaus Financial, through Seelaus Capital Markets, is excited to expand its capital markets services to leveraged finance, a business with historically high barriers to entry for underrepresented groups. SPC Capital Markets and Stone Point Credit will assist Seelaus with introductions to clients and intermediaries, and Stone Point's capital commitment to Seelaus Financial will enable the Company to underwrite and hold leveraged loans and revolvers.

"We have always been committed to expanding the opportunity set for leadership by women in areas of finance where there is little to no representation," said Annie Seelaus, CEO at Seelaus. "In Stone Point, we have found a partner that shares our vision for a more inclusive leveraged finance market that offers clients superior levels of service."

Chuck Davis, CEO of Stone Point Capital, said, "We are thrilled to be partnering with Annie Seelaus and her team to help take their business to the next level through the expansion of their leveraged finance capabilities. We believe Seelaus is a best-in-class firm and admire their dedication to serving clients and supporting and empowering women in the financial services industry."

About R. Seelaus & Co., Inc.

R. Seelaus & Co., Inc. was founded in 1984 by Richard Seelaus originally as a municipal bond broker dealer. The firm has since become a certified women's business enterprise ("WBE") and has grown into a full-service financial firm that is mission driven in its commitment to creating more opportunities for women in the financial services. R. Seelaus & Co., Inc. and its subsidiaries offer investment advisory, asset management, capital markets, brokerage, fixed income and equity trading, institutional sales, and insurance services. The R. Seelaus & Co., LLC subsidiary is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and member of FINRA, and the subsidiary Seelaus Asset Management, LLC, is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor ("RIA"). With various fixed income trading desks and more than sixty professionals, both entities serve individuals, families, public and private companies, non-profit organizations, and institutional investors. The firm has offices in New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois and Massachusetts. For more information about R. Seelaus & Co., visit www.rseelaus.com.

About Stone Point Capital LLC

Stone Point is an investment firm based in Greenwich, CT, with over $40 billion of assets under management. Stone Point targets investments in companies in the global financial services industry and related sectors. The firm invests in a number of alternative asset classes, including private equity through its flagship Trident Funds. Stone Point also manages both liquid and private credit funds and managed accounts. In addition, Stone Point Capital Markets supports our firm, portfolio companies and other clients by providing dedicated financing solutions. For more information, please visit www.stonepoint.com.

SPC Capital Markets LLC is a broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a member of FINRA and SIPC. SPC Capital Markets LLC is an affiliate of SPC Financing Company LLC, a financing company involved in arranging or originating loans for portfolio companies and/or sponsors, and Stone Point Capital LLC, an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Certain employees are dual employees of Stone Point Capital LLC. Securities are offered through SPC Capital Markets LLC.

Contact Information

Stone Point Capital

Anne Gilliland

(203) 862-2926

[email protected]

Seelaus

Lauren Ruocco

(908) 273-3011

[email protected]

SOURCE Stone Point Capital; R. Seelaus & Co.
BEAVERTON, Ore., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tektronix, Inc., introduces the industry's first PCI Express 6.0 compatible Base transmitter test solution just weeks after the PCI-SIG working group released PCI Express (PCIe) 6.0 Base specifications and validation requirements.

PCIe 6.0 is an important and scalable standard for data-intensive markets such as data center, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), and high-performance computing. To meet ever growing performance demands, PCIe 6.0 standard transitions to PAM4 signaling and new innovative error correcting techniques. The Tektronix test solution includes PCIe 6.0 measurement-specific software, enhanced PAM4 DSP capabilities and noise compensation on the oscilloscope for increased accuracy of results. The Tektronix test solution for PCIe 6.0 standard is further enhanced by the industry-leading analysis tools for SNDR and uncorrelated jitter measurements which are both mandated requirements for the PCIe 6.0 standard.

Tektronix, Inc., introduces the industry's first PCI Express 6.0 compatible Base transmitter test solution. Tweet this

The industry's first PCIe 6.0 standard transmitter validation solution is focused on serving high-performance and data-intensive markets and is available worldwide for use with DPO70000SX ATI Performance Oscilloscopes . "Tektronix' PCIe 6.0 standard test solution came to market quickly because of the company's deep involvement in the PCI-SIG working group, where it helped define the standard's measurement methodologies," said David Bouse, PCI Express Principal Technology Lead at Tektronix and PCI-SIG working group participant.

Tektronix' customer, industry leading silicon IP provider, Alphawave collaborated with Tektronix for early validation of PCIe 6.0 physical layer designs. "Tektronix was deeply involved in defining the PCIe 64 GT/s measurement methodologies, which enabled our engineers to increase their confidence in meeting this challenging new standard prior to release," says Clint Walker, Vice President of Marketing at Alphawave.

Tektronix' Swapnil Mane, Marketing Director of Wired Solutions, agreed, saying, "We are proud of this collaboration with our customer, Alphawave. Our PCIe 6.0 standard test and debug solution easily integrates into the engineers' workflow for test and debug. With the complexity of PAM4 signaling, our analysis tools make it easier to test their design and ensure it meets the new 6.0 standard requirement with a high degree of confidence."

Key features include:

PCIe 6.0 (64 GT/s) standard automated Base Transmitter solution running on Tektronix DPO70000SX series real time oscilloscopes with bandwidth 50 GHz and above

Enhanced PAM4 DSP capabilities with the Tektronix PAMJET application

Support for measurements uniquely developed for PCI Express 6.0 standard including SNDR, RLM, uncorrelated jitter, and pulse width jitter

Instrumentation noise compensation techniques tailored to individual measurements to achieve the most accurate results

Availability

Tektronix's PCIe standard solution is now available worldwide for use with DPO70000SX Real-Time Oscilloscopes. Contact a Tektronix representative for pricing and additional details or visit www.tek.com/pci-express .

About Tektronix

Tektronix, Inc., headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, delivers innovative, precise and easy-to-operate test, measurement and monitoring solutions that solve problems, unlock insights and drive discovery globally. Tektronix has been at the forefront of the digital age for over 75 years. More information on our products and solutions is available at Tek.com .

Follow us on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter , YouTube, and Instagram , to stay connected. Learn more from our engineers on the Tektronix blog and read our latest announcements in our Newsroom .

Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. PCI Express, PCIe and all other trademarks and trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE Tektronix, Inc.
DUBLIN, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market (2021-2026) by Application Type, Material Type, Technology Type, Manufacturing Stage Type, End-Use Industry, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market is estimated to be USD 13.3 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 34.93 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 21.3%.



The Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market increasing use of Roll-to-Roll Printing in various solutions such as deployment in the Internet of Things based solution and applications include demand for energy-efficient, thin, and flexible printing by consumer electronics, aerospace and defense, and healthcare, and developing compact and lightweight electronic devices and circuits by using R2R printing are driving the growth of the market.

Additionally, cost advantages offered by roll-to-roll printing in manufacturing components and devices are fuelling the market's growth. On the other hand, the high cost associated with the initial investment, a substantial massive amount of funding required to perform research and development activities, and the risk of product failure due to failure of interdependent stages and limited product development restrict the market's growth.



The integration of R2R printing flexible batteries creates potential opportunities for the market to grow in the forecasted period. Furthermore, the emergence of new technology in R2R printing later integrated with multiple products increased usage of graphene ink for cost affecting development, water-repellent, etc. Moreover, lack of awareness related to the benefits of R2R printing in manufacturing electronic devices and components and commercialization of new and cost-effective inks are the challenges that may negatively affect the market.



The Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market is segmented based on Application Type, Material Type, Technology Type, Manufacturing Stage Type, End-Use Industry, and Geography.

Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are Agfa-Gevaert Group, BASF SE, DuPont de Nemours, Inc, E Ink Holdings, Inc, LG Electronics, Inc, Molex, LLC, Nissha Co Ltd, NovaCentrix, Palo Alto Research Centre Incorporated, and Samsung Group, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes a 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 Roll-to-Roll Printing 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 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, 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 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 Use in Various Solutions and Application

4.1.2 Developing Compact and Lightweight Electronic Devices and Circuits

4.1.3 Cost Advantages Offered by Roll-to-Roll Printing

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 High Cost Associated with Initial Investment and Research & Development Activities

4.2.2 Risk of Product Failure and Limited Product Development

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 The emergence of New Technology in R2R Printing

4.3.2 Growing Usage of Graphene Ink for Cost-Effective Development

4.3.3 Integration of R2R Printed Flexible Batteries

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Lack of Awareness About the Benefit of R2R Printing

4.4.2 Commercialization of New and Cost-Effective Inks

5 Market Analysis

5.1 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.2 Impact of COVID-19

5.3 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market, By Application Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Displays

6.2.1 E-Paper Displays

6.2.2 Electroluminescent Displays

6.3 Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) Tags

6.4 Batteries

6.5 Photovoltaic (PV) Cells

6.6 Sensors

6.7 Lighting

6.7.1 OLED

6.7.2 Electroluminescent Lighting (EL)

6.8 Flexible Circuits



7 Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market, By Material Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Substrates

7.2.1 Organic Substrates

7.2.1.1 Oligomers

7.2.1.2 Molecules

7.2.1.3 Polymers

7.2.1.4 Paper

7.2.2 Inorganic Substrates

7.2.2.1 Silicon

7.2.2.2 Glass

7.2.2.3 Metal Oxides

7.3 Inks

7.3.1 Conductive Inks

7.3.2 Dielectric Inks



8 Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market, By Printing Technology Type

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Flexographic Printing

8.3 Gravure Printing

8.4 Inkjet Printing

8.5 Screen Printing

8.6 Others

8.6.1 Nanoimprinting

8.6.2 Offset Printing

8.6.3 Aerosol Jet Printing

8.6.4 Pneumatic Printing

8.6.5 3D Printing



9 Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market, By Manufacturing Stages Type

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Substrate Selection

9.3 Film Deposition

9.4 Assembling & Cutting

9.5 Testing & Packaging

9.6 Curing



10 Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market, By End-Use Industry Type

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Automotive & Transportation

10.3 Aerospace & Defence

10.4 Consumer Electronics

10.5 Construction & Architecture

10.6 Healthcare

10.7 Others

10.7.1 Advertising & Media

10.7.2 Textiles

10.7.3 Semiconductor



11 Global Roll-to-Roll Printing Market, By Geography

12 Competitive Landscape

12.1 Competitive Quadrant

12.2 Market Share Analysis

12.3 Strategic Initiatives

12.3.1 M&A and Investments

12.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

12.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



13 Company Profiles

13.1 3M

13.2 Agfa-Gevaert Group

13.3 Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc

13.4 Avery Dennison Corporation

13.5 BASF SE

13.6 BrightVolt Solid-State Batteries

13.7 Cambridge Display Technology

13.8 DuPont de Nemours, Inc

13.9 EMFIT LTD

13.10 Enfucell Oy

13.11 E Ink Holdings, Inc

13.12 Fujikura Ltd

13.13 Kayaku Advanced Materials, Inc

13.14 Kent Displays, Inc

13.15 Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Private Limited

13.16 LG Electronics, Inc

13.17 Linxens Holding SAS

13.18 Molex, LLC

13.19 Multek Corporation

13.20 Nippon Mektron, Ltd

13.21 Nissha Co Ltd

13.22 NovaCentrix

13.23 Optomec, Inc

13.24 Palo Alto Research Centre Incorporated

13.25 Printed Electronic Ltd

13.26 Samsung Group

13.27 Seiko Epson Corporation

13.28 T+Ink, Inc

13.29 Thin Film Electronics ASA

13.30 Verbeck Materials Corp

13.31 Ynvisible Interactive, Inc



14 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/q233lp

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
LOS ANGELES and BROOKLYN, N.Y., Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading independent DIY digital music distributor TuneCore, a division of global digital music company Paris-based Believe, has partnered with newly launched mobile music discovery platform Fwaygo. The two companies will work together to provide artists with digital music distribution through Fwaygo, powered by TuneCore.

Fwaygo is a new mobile music discovery platform which gives independent artists the ability to increase their exposure and, in the future, their earnings. Created by serial social media entrepreneur, musician and Fwaygo CEO Jeremy Greene alongside partners Mercari CEO John Lagerling and Fwaygo COO Janelle Greene, the company launched in beta late last year and has already attracted tens of thousands of enthusiastic users and gained the support of artists like renowned rap artist Young Thug, who uses Fwaygo to find new music and artists with whom to collaborate.

Young Thug commented, "I have never came across such so many great artists on one single platform. Fwaygo is the future of music discovery and distribution. Fwaygo is P"

Said Greene, "I believe the future of artist discovery and distribution is in mobile and I'm happy to disrupt the music industry because It's been broken for a very long time. We are thrilled to be partnering with the TuneCore team and look forward to joining the revolution for independent artists."

Through the Fwaygo app, artists can upload songs directly from their mobile devices, along with artwork and social tags with a 15 second burst allowing users to discover the best parts of the song. The ease of use has fueled Fwaygo's rapid growth with over 40,000 artist profiles created since their launch.

Once the record has been uploaded, Fwaygo uses its AI powered algorithm to match fans with music they will love, giving artists the opportunity to go viral through Fwaygo's "Discover" feed. Through the new partnership with TuneCore, artists will have the opportunity to send their music to over 150+ digital stores and streaming platforms using TuneCore's industry leading automated distribution services, all via their mobile phones, making the entire experience simple and seamless.

Commented Andreea Gleeson, Chief Executive Officer, TuneCore, "Fwaygo taps into two areas of importance for independent artists - opportunity for music discovery and a fast easy music upload experience. We're looking forward to the partnership and working with Fwaygo to get their artists' music distributed to audiences around the world, while they keep their ownership, and get paid too."

About TuneCore

TuneCore is the global platform for independent musicians to build audiences and careers  with technology and services across distribution, publishing administration and a range of promotional services. TuneCore Music Distribution services help artists, labels and managers sell their music through Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TikTok, Tencent and more than 150 download and streaming stores worldwide, while retaining 100 percent of their sales revenue and rights for a low annual flat fee. TuneCore Music Publishing Administration assists songwriters by administering their compositions through licensing, registration, worldwide royalty collections, and placement opportunities in film, TV, commercials, video games and more. The TuneCore Artist Services portal offers a suite of tools and services that enable artists to promote their craft, connect with fans, and get their music heard. TuneCore, part of Believe, is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, with offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, and Austin, and operates globally through local teams based in the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, India, Japan and Singapore across 5 continents. www.tunecore.com

About Believe

Believe is one of the world's leading digital music companies. Believe's mission is to develop independent artists and labels in the digital world by providing them the solutions they need to grow their audience at each stage of their career and development. Believe's passionate team of digital music experts around the world leverages the Group's global technology platform to advise artists and labels, distribute and promote their music. Its 1,401 employees in more than 50 countries aim to support independent artists and labels with a unique digital expertise, respect, fairness and transparency. Believe offers its various solutions through a portfolio of brands including TuneCore, Nuclear Blast, Naive, Groove Attack and AllPoints. Believe is listed on compartment A of the regulated market of Euronext Paris (Ticker: BLV.PA, ISIN: FR0014003FE9). www.believe.com

Fwaygo, is the first music streaming platform which enables undiscovered artists to increase their exposure and their earnings. The platform avoids exploitative music ownership, royalty and streaming revenue policies of traditional labels and streaming services.

SOURCE Fwaygo
"The Ritchie Boys were one of World War II's greatest secret weapons for US Army intelligence," said incoming Museum Chairman Stuart E. Eizenstat. "Many had fled Nazi Germany but returned as American soldiers, deploying their knowledge of German language and culture to great advantage. They significantly helped the war effort and saved lives. We are honored to recognize the unique role they played serving the United States and advancing our victory over Germany."

Outgoing Museum Chairman Howard M. Lorber added, "We selected the Ritchie Boys because of their remarkable actions and heroism in helping to end the war and the Holocaust. This little-known part of American history deserves national acknowledgment. Our country owes them an enormous debt of gratitude for their courage and sacrifices. What could be more appropriate than to honor them with an award bearing the name of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel."

Facing significant intelligence deficiencies, in April 1942, the US Army activated a plan to convert Fort Ritchie, a Maryland National Guard Camp, into an intelligence training center. Approximately 20,000 menmany of whom were immigrants and refugees from more than 70 countries, including 2,800 German and Austrian refugees who fled Nazi persecution and had arrived in the United States as "enemy aliens"were trained there. They became known as the "Ritchie Boys." Their enormous contributions to defeating Nazismone Army study concluded they were responsible for obtaining nearly 60 percent of the actionable intelligence gathered in Europe during the warand their postwar justice efforts remain little known to Americans even today.

After their training, the Ritchie Boys were dispersed in different Army units. Many landed on the beaches of Normandy soon after D-Day. From that point on, Ritchie Boys were involved in every major battle in Europe, using their language skills to gather intelligence, interpret enemy documents, and engage in psychological warfare encouraging German soldiers to surrender by dropping leaflets, through radio broadcasts, and in trucks equipped with loudspeakers. Hundreds of Ritchie Boys were attached to divisions that liberated concentration camps and interviewed former prisoners to document the atrocities that took place. Jewish soldiers were in great danger if captured, and two were captured and executed due to being identified by their captors as German-born Jews. After the war, a number served as translators and interrogatorsespecially during the Nuremberg Trials.

In August 2021, the bipartisan US Senate Resolution 349 officially recognized the bravery of those troops. About 200 Ritchie Boys are estimated to be alive today.

About the Elie Wiesel Award

Established in 2011, the Elie Wiesel Award recognizes individuals whose actions embody the Museum's vision of a world where people confront hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Elie Wiesel, the Museum's founding chairman, was the first recipient of the award, which was subsequently named in his honor. Engraved on the award are the words from Wiesel's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "One person of integrity can make a difference."

About the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A nonpartisan, federal educational institution, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is America's national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust dedicated to ensuring the permanence of Holocaust memory, understanding, and relevance. Through the power of Holocaust history, the Museum challenges leaders and individuals worldwide to think critically about their role in society and to confront antisemitism and other forms of hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. For more information, visit ushmm.org.

SOURCE United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
DAYTON, Ohio, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rand/JBK announced that Gary Burdette will be joining JBK as General Manager effective 3rd January 2022.

Gary will be joining company from Indian Creek Fabricators, where he was a Senior Leader. Gary will be bringing his experience in increasing sales and revenue significantly at JBK.

Additionally, Gary's experiences that will benefit JBK moving forward include:

Taking managerial responsibilities

ringing in new customers and providing strong customer satisfaction

Running the facility excellently and improving operation efficiencies

About Raw Selection

Raw Selection favors a meticulous approach to candidate research. Our process for selecting the right candidate means we can boast a 100% success rate for all our retained clients, with 96% of placed candidates still in their role after 12 months.

If your Private Equity firm is looking to hire new talent for your portfolio companies within the Industrial sector, please get in contact with Jack Burns, at [email protected].

SOURCE Raw Selection
BENTON HARBOR, Mich., Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the board of directors of Whirlpool Corporation (the "Company") authorized an additional $2 billion in share repurchases under the Company's ongoing share repurchase program. Approximately $1.5 billion remained available under the program as of December 31, 2021.

The Company's board of directors also approved a $0.35 increase in the quarterly dividend on the Company's common stock to $1.75 per share from $1.40 per share. The dividend is payable March 15, 2022, to stockholders of record at the close of business on February 25, 2022.

"I am pleased to announce that we are increasing our dividend for the tenth consecutive year and have approved another significant increase of our share repurchase program," said Marc Bitzer, chairman and chief executive officer of Whirlpool Corporation. "These actions highlight the confidence we have in our business to continue generating strong levels of cash and reflect our continued commitment to delivering long-term shareholder value and returns."

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 2021, the company reported approximately $22 billion in annual sales, 69,000 employees and 54 manufacturing and technology research centers. Additional information about the company can be found at WhirlpoolCorp.com, or find us on Twitter at @WhirlpoolCorp.com.

Website Disclosure

We routinely post important information for investors on our website, whirlpoolcorp.com, in the "Investors" section. We also intend to update the Hot Topics Q&A portion of this webpage as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our webpage is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document.

Whirlpool Corporation Additional Information

This document contains forward-looking statements regarding cash generation and shareholder value creation. Actual events or results may differ materially from those statements as a result of many factors, including the company's ability to execute on its short-term and long-term plans. For information about the factors that could cause such differences, please refer to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, including the information set forth under the caption "Risk Factors."

SOURCE Whirlpool Corporation
Like previous travel adapters from Zendure, the new Passport III has an auto-resetting fuse and press-and-slide controls for easy one-handed operation. But in this latest offering, the company has departed from the subdued charcoal and white exterior to add some fun and nostalgia to the design. With a metallic ombre and facebook and translucent enclosure, Passport III evokes design trends from the mid '90s and early '00s.

While the outside of the new travel adapter is a throwback, the inside is 100% modern. The primary USB-C port can deliver up to 65W, enough power to charge an iPhone to 50% in under 30 minutes or fully charge a 13 inch MacBook Pro in just two hours. Passport III uses GaN semiconductor technology to achieve high conversion power in a small form factor without overheating.

Passport III is, ostensibly, a travel adapter. After all, it works in over 200 countries and regions, with a variety of connectors and compatibility with a broad range of voltages. But Zendure has positioned their newest product as an "everything charger", with the potential to replace numerous proprietary charging bricks, whether you're in the home office, at the coffee shop down the street, or halfway around the world.

Zendure's Passport III travel adapter is now selling on Kickstarter, with shipping planned for April.

Zendure is an outdoor consumer electronics company located in Silicon Valley in the United States and the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area in China. Zendure has continuously launched innovative products, made rapid breakthroughs in the core technologies of outdoor energy storage and power supplies, and continues to bring pleasant surprises to the user experience. The company recently received a multi-million dollar series-A round of funding from a joint investment from Shanghai GP Capital and YOTRIO group.

Contacts:

Company name: Zendure

Media: Tom Haflinger

[email protected]

Phone: +1 800 219 0960

SOURCE Zendure
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- International software awards program The SaaS Awards opened this week for early entries, with a new tier of lower pricing for organizations able to submit their nomination forms early.

The tiered entry fees have been introduced alongside a new 'Finalists' stage of the awards program, set to further recognize organizations which progress beyond the Shortlist.

The SaaS Awards logo - black and white

SaaS Awards head of operations James Williams said: "At the SaaS Awards we seek out and recognize the very best software solutions on the market. We also have a commitment to those participating organizations -- both to encourage them to take part, and to offer the best level of service.

"It sounds obvious, but our panel of expert judges can only identify the best of the best from the pool of candidates who put the time aside to enter the program and demonstrate the value they offer to their user base.

"If you're a new business with a brilliant innovation to share, a sophisticated PR team isn't a requirement to enter the SaaS Awards. Nor do you have to be based in North America; we encourage entries worldwide.

"With the scope of categories now available, a flat fee for entering an unlimited number, and the early entry through March replicating last year's standard prices, any organization wishing to make their mark could easily enter a dozen or so categories at a cost of less than $60 per entry.

"With our new Finalists recognition tier and manifold benefits for those shortlisted, we're not complacent about remaining the de facto recognition platform in the SaaS industry."

New categories include:

Best SaaS Product with 1,000+ Licensed Users

Highest Customer Satisfaction with a SaaS Product

Most Agile / Responsive SaaS Solution of the Year

Best Data Innovation in a SaaS Product

Best SaaS Product for the Construction Industry

Best SaaS Product for Loyalty and Retention

Best SaaS Product for Law and Legal Services

Best SaaS for Product for Engineering Management, PLM or CAD

Best SaaS Product for Real Estate / Property Management

Best SaaS Product for IT Management

Best SaaS Product for Email Marketing

Best Content Management Innovation in a SaaS Product

The SaaS Awards has a May 20 deadline: https://www.cloud-awards.com/software-as-a-service-awards

Notes for editors

About the Cloud Awards and the SaaS Awards

The Cloud Awards currently offers two awards programs, the Cloud Computing Awards and the Software-as-a-Service Awards. The Awards programs recognize and honor industry leaders, innovators and organizational transformation in cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service. The awards are open to large, small, established and start-up organizations from across the entire globe, with an aim to find and celebrate the pioneers who will shape the future of the Cloud as we move into 2023 and beyond. Finalists are selected by a judging panel of international industry experts. For more information about The Cloud Awards and The SaaS Awards, please visit https://www.cloud-awards.com/.

Contact:

James Williams

(212) 574-8117

[email protected]

SOURCE The SaaS Awards
AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Abrigo, the leader of compliance, credit risk, and lending solutions for financial institutions, today announced its integration with RouteOne, a leader in the indirect auto financing space. The integration will ensure community financial institutions can create a streamlined and efficient buying experience for their customers at an auto dealership.

RouteOne's indirect auto financing software creates efficiencies in data collection and credit applications by leveraging web-based technologies and electronic application processes. The result is a faster vehicle financing process. By collaborating with Abrigo and creating an integration with the Sageworks Loan Origination Software, banks and credit unions using Abrigo's Sageworks lending software can support their customers and members in the car loan process. Having a streamlined system from the dealership and continuing through to the financial institution ensures data integrity, efficiency, and, most importantly, a faster consumer lending process.

With critical features like direct import into Dynamic Application, instant loan decisioning, and direct communication between the financial institution and the dealership, the Abrigo LOS system gives banks and credit unions a flexible and powerful consumer lending tool for indirect auto loans. "Community banks and credit unions are always looking for ways to support their customers and members. At Abrigo, we never lose sight of that goal, making sure every feature, every function of our products drives toward a better customer experience", said Jay Blandford, President of Abrigo.

Amber Haseley, Director, Customer Relationships at RouteOne, states, "RouteOne is pleased to announce the availability of Abrigo with our platform. We have a shared interest in continually streamlining the vehicle financing process and serving our dealer customers with innovation and efficiency. In addition, this integration builds an infrastructure that will make it easy for any of Abrigo's participating financial institutions to harness the power of RouteOne's technology and best serve their dealer customers."

About Abrigo

Abrigo enables U.S. financial institutions to support their communities through technology that fights financial crime, grows loans and deposits, and optimizes risk. Abrigo's platform centralizes the institution's data, creates a digital user experience, ensures compliance, and delivers efficiency for scale and profitable growth. Visit www.abrigo.com to learn more. Follow Abrigo on social media using @WeAreAbrigo.

About RouteOne

RouteOne was formed in 2002 by Ally Financial, Ford Motor Credit Company, TD Auto Finance, and Toyota Financial Services to improve the F&I process for automobile dealers and their customers. Connecting thousands of dealers and finance sources in North America for vehicle financing, RouteOne's platform delivers a comprehensive suite of F&I solutions across multiple channels: in-store, online, mobile, and via third-party solutions. Its product line-up includes digital retail, credit application, eContracting, menu, and compliance solutions. In addition, RouteOne enables dealer choice across a wide variety of best-in-class providers through open integrations with over 200 DSPs. More information is available at www.routeone.com.

SOURCE Abrigo
SHANGHAI, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AffaMed Therapeutics ("AffaMed"), a global clinical stage biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical, digital and surgical products, today announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the clinical development of AM712 (ASKG712), a novel proprietary bispecific biologic molecule blocking both vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) for the treatment of retinal vascular diseases.

Under this IND, AffaMed will soon initiate a Phase 1 study in the United States to investigate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of AM712 in subjects with neovascular AMD.

AffaMed Therapeutics recently entered into a licensing agreement with AskGene Pharma Inc. ("AskGene") for the exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize AM712 in ex-Asia plus Japan territories globally.

"We are excited to partner with AskGene and receive our first IND clearance from the FDA." Dr. Dayao Zhao, CEO of AffaMed commented: " As part of our China-for-Global innovation strategy to leverage AffaMed's strong presence in China and the US to advance differentiated therapeutics for the world markets, this license agreement further strengthens our global ophthalmology pipeline. I am very pleased to witness our rapid execution of this strategy from licensing to US IND clearance and look forward to our close cooperation with AskGene."

"AskGene is committed to rapidly bringing safe and effective medicines to patients through the use of innovative technologies. We are very pleased to cooperate with AffaMed to develop the promising anti-VEGF/ANG2 bispecific molecule AMG712(ASKG712) to benefit patients" said AskGene's CEO Dr. Jeff Lu: "The exceptional global expertise by the AffaMed team in the ophthalmology area was an important consideration for our collaboration. Working together, we can accelerate the development of ASKG712 globally."

Dr Ji Li, President of AffaMed commented: "We believe AM712 has the potential to be a best-in-class anti-VEGF/Ang-2 bispecific biologic molecule to address the high unmet medical needs among patients with retinal vascular diseases. We are thrilled to demonstrate our strong execution capabilities in receiving the US IND clearance within 2 months after completing our licensing agreement with AskGene."



About AM712 (ASKG712)

AM712 is a novel bispecific biologic molecule specifically designed for ocular use. It provides dual inhibition of two important disease-relevant pathways in retinal diseases, VEGF and Ang-2. In pre-clinical studies, AM712 demonstrated robust efficacy, adequate ocular pharmacokinetics, and the desired safety profile supporting clinical exploration. AskGene recently also received China CTA clearance for AM712(ASKG712) in January, 2022.

About AffaMed Therapeutics

AffaMed Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical, digital and surgical products that address critical unmet medical needs in ophthalmic, neurological and psychiatric disorders for patients in Greater China and around the world. The leadership team of AffaMed Therapeutics has gained deep industry expertise and an extensive track record in high-quality clinical development, regulatory affairs, CMC, business development and commercial operations at leading multi-national pharmaceutical companies in China and globally.

About AskGene Pharma

AskGene (California, USA), founded in 2012 in Los Angeles, California, is dedicated to the discovery and development of novel antibody and fusion protein therapeutics. AskGene is a pioneer in the discovery and development of next generation cytokine therapeutics. It has established the cutting edge SmartKine cytokine prodrug platform. The SmartKine platform significantly improves the developability of cytokines for oncology and inflammation indications. AskGene is actively moving multiple projects into clinical and preclinical developments.

SOURCE AffaMed Therapeutics
New digital health technology and integrated solutions business that will deploy a range of health technology assets, proprietary data analytics and extensive health expertise.

Accelerates AIA's Health & Wellness strategy and positions the Group to capture significant new opportunities from the rapidly growing health market in Asia .

Opens up additional and substantial growth opportunities from the provision of health technology services to third-party clients across the region.

Provides a key competitive advantage for AIA, helping grow new business value and delivering financial benefits such as improved claims performance.

Transforms how individuals, corporates, payors and providers experience and manage health insurance and healthcare delivery, improving the health and wellness outcomes of patients and communities across Asia .

HONG KONG, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AIA Group Limited (the "Company", and together with its subsidiaries, "AIA" or the "Group") announces that it has established a new pan-Asian Health InsurTech business called 'Amplify Health', encompassing a joint venture entity with Discovery Group Limited ("Discovery") for Asia excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau and a separate entity wholly owned by AIA for these three markets. The vision for Amplify Health is to be a leading digital health technology and integrated solutions business, transforming how individuals, corporates, payors and providers experience and manage health insurance and healthcare delivery, improving the health and wellness outcomes of patients and communities across Asia.

Amplify Health will deploy a range of health technology assets, proprietary data analytics and extensive health expertise to AIA's market-leading and rapidly growing businesses across the region and to other major participants in the healthcare sector. This will become a key competitive advantage for AIA helping to grow new business value and delivering financial benefits such as improved claims performance and reduced operational costs. In addition, Amplify Health will open up new and significant growth opportunities from the provision of its health technology assets and services to third-party clients.

The powerful combination of capabilities from AIA and Discovery will create value for stakeholders across the healthcare value chain by delivering the following outcomes:

Individuals will have greater access to the right providers at the right cost with improved health outcomes and empowerment through behavioural change programmes.

Payors and corporates will have access to better health insurance and wellness products, improved claims quality, advanced risk management capabilities and reduced administrative costs.

Healthcare providers will transform patient experience and satisfaction through world class digital services and insights leading to enhanced decision-making, greater alignment with payors and better medical outcomes.

Pharma and MedTech companies will improve clinical programmes through enriched real-world data and advanced digital tools, leading to lower treatment costs and new therapies.

This is an opportune time to transform healthcare delivery across Asia. Total healthcare expenditure across AIA's markets is expected to exceed US$4 trillion in 2030[1]. By this time, there will be 2.6 billion[2] people in the middle classes in Asia, who will be significantly more engaged with improving their personal health than previous generations. Consumers are already more proactively managing their well-being, with 80 per cent actively engaged in health maintenance and lifestyle changes and nearly 50 per cent using digital health and remote care services compared with pre-pandemic levels[3].

Digital healthcare adoption has accelerated as a result of the pandemic, with Telehealth services expected to reach 70 per cent consumer adoption and close to 90 per cent physician adoption by 2024 across key Asian markets[3]. Adding to this, the population in parts of Asia is ageing with close to 850 million people in the region predicted to be over the age of 60 by 2030[4]. This unparalleled combination of shifting demographics, rising consumer expectations, accelerated digital adoption, new advancements in HealthTech and significant unmet service demand underpin the strategic importance of Amplify Health.

AIA is the leading pan-Asian private medical insurer and provides life, health and wellness solutions to the holders of more than 39 million individual policies and over 16 million members of group insurance schemes. Amplify Health brings together the best of both partners by combining Discovery's unique and proven global healthcare technology, intellectual property ("IP") and health expertise with AIA's brand, unrivalled distribution platform and decades of well-established execution capabilities across Asia.

Over the past three decades, Discovery has built a fully-integrated, production-tested health technology stack, along with the associated IP and expertise. This end-to-end capability comprises state of the art claims processing and administration systems, the assets to support a fully-interconnected digital health ecosystem, considerable multisource data sets and experienced human capital. Discovery has demonstrated the ability to apply these integrated capabilities across the entire health insurance value chain, resulting in more efficient insurance pricing, best-in-class claims and risk management and advanced value-based care capabilities.

Enabled by a common set of values and purpose, Discovery and AIA have developed a strong working relationship since the launch of the AIA Vitality programme in 2013. The success of this partnership is reflected in the development of powerful products and capabilities, which have been expanded across 10 AIA markets to date. This capability will form a powerful underpin to Amplify Health, through the integration of wellness capabilities.

Amplify Health will include a joint venture entity for Asia excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, which will be 75 per cent owned by AIA and 25 per cent owned by Discovery, and a separate entity wholly owned by AIA for these three markets. As part of the agreement and subject to regulatory approval, Amplify Health will be assigned ownership of Discovery's Health IP and its full stack of technology assets, processes and analytics for the Asian region, including the systems and capabilities behind the existing AIA Vitality wellness programme, which will be transferred from Discovery to a separate entity wholly owned by AIA within Amplify Health. This entity will also be assigned ownership of Discovery's Vitality IP for the region, excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Japan given Discovery's existing partnerships in those markets.

As a Health InsurTech business, Amplify Health will not take underwriting risk on its balance sheet and no regulatory capital will be required directly as a result. AIA will fund Discovery's share of growth capital up to US$200 million over the first 10 years and make certain contingent payments limited to the first 10 years of operations based on delivery and performance outcomes for AIA's local businesses.

Lee Yuan Siong, AIA Group Chief Executive and President, said, "For more than a century AIA has been at the forefront of protecting our customers when they need us the most. As we look to the future, we see an urgent need for better, simpler and more affordable healthcare, and an expanding protection gap for the growing population in the region. These factors, combined with the fundamental drivers of growth in Asia, present an extraordinary opportunity. Amplify Health is the natural next step in our journey from payor to partner, enabling us to play a leading role in shaping the transformation of the development and delivery of healthcare in Asia. Discovery is a partner who is equally passionate about creating value for all stakeholders. I am certain that through Amplify Health we will go on to help millions more Asian families live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives."

Adrian Gore, Discovery Group Limited Chief Executive, said, "Over three decades Discovery has built unique and powerful health insurance, wellness and health management capabilities, made up of considerable IP, technology, data analytics and subject matter experts  their relevance and our deployment track record are demonstrated by the successful application of our capabilities in other markets. All these learnings have manifested in an end-to-end Shared Value healthcare stack that will be shifted into Amplify Health to ensure that together with AIA we will build a significant business across the region and make a positive societal impact. Discovery and AIA have an exceptionally successful long-term relationship through AIA Vitality, and our organisations have completely aligned core purposes - this creates a powerful platform for Amplify Health."

About AIA Group

AIA Group Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively "AIA" or the "Group") comprise the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group. It has a presence in 18 markets  wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR[5], Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan (China), Vietnam, Brunei and Macau SAR[6], and a 49 per cent joint venture in India.

The business that is now AIA was first established in Shanghai more than a century ago in 1919. It is a market leader in Asia (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and holds leading positions across the majority of its markets. It had total assets of US$330 billion as of 30 June 2021.

AIA meets the long-term savings and protection needs of individuals by offering a range of products and services including life insurance, accident and health insurance and savings plans. The Group also provides employee benefits, credit life and pension services to corporate clients. Through an extensive network of agents, partners and employees across Asia, AIA serves the holders of more than 39 million individual policies and over 16 million participating members of group insurance schemes.

AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited under the stock code "1299" with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the over-the-counter market (ticker symbol: "AAGIY").

About Discovery

Discovery Limited is a South African-founded financial services organisation that operates in the healthcare, life insurance, short-term insurance, banking, savings and investment, and wellness markets. Since inception in 1992, Discovery has been guided by a clear core purpose  to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. This has manifested in its globally recognised Vitality Shared-value Insurance model, active in over 35 markets with over 20 million members. The model is exported and scaled through the Global Vitality Network, an alliance of some of the largest insurers across key markets, including Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and South America.

Discovery trades on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange as DSY. Discovery Group is the holding company of Vitality Group in the USA and of Vitality UK.

Contacts Investment Community News Media Lance Burbidge +852 2832 1398 Cecilia Ma Zecha +852 2832 5666

Evelyn Lam +852 2832 1633 Duke Malan +852 2832 4726

Feon Lee +852 2832 4704 Kitty Liu +852 2832 1742

Rachel Poon +852 2832 4792







Notes: 1. McKinsey, Bain & Co, Fitch Solutions (Aug 2021), Oxford Economics. 2. IHS and McKinsey. 3. Asia-Pacific Front Line of Healthcare Report 2022, by Bain & Company. 4. Population 2030: Demographic challenges and opportunities for sustainable development planning, by United Nations. 5. Hong Kong SAR refers to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. 6. Macau SAR refers to Macau Special Administrative Region.

SOURCE AIA
HOUSTON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Orion Group has been selected to manage five affordable housing redevelopment communities for BGC Advantage: College Park (consisting of College Park Family I & II and College Park Senior), Askew Place/Uptown Rental Homes in Memphis, and Windsor Maley at the River in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Windsor Maley at The River in Daytona Beach, FL College Park in Memphis, TN

The redevelopment efforts of the Memphis, Tennessee properties is a partnership between BGC Advantage and the Memphis Housing Authority with the intention to turn former public housing into affordable housing developments that will serve a broader spectrum of the affordable housing population.

Construction will be spearheaded by Snyder Construction, and Allied Orion Group will provide management for the communities. Upgrades include complete bathroom and kitchen renovations; new floors, doors, and lighting throughout; new exterior/interior paint; and energy efficient appliances, water heaters, and HVAC. The communities will be enhancing accessibility features as well. New amenities may include upgraded fitness centers, playgrounds, clubhouses, and business centers.

Windsor Maley at the River in Daytona Beach, FL is a redevelopment project partnership between BGC Advantage and the Housing Authority of the City of Daytona Beach to convert public housing into affordable housing. General Contractor services are being provided by Sauer, Inc., architecture by DNA Workshop, and management by Allied Orion Group.

A senior living community situated along the Halifax River, Windsor Maley at the River redevelopment efforts will modernize both buildings with updated flooring, lighting, doors, and cabinetry. In addition to updated kitchens and bathrooms, the towers will receive updated building systems, elevators, energy efficient appliances and storm-resistant features. The interior and exterior community amenities will feature new meeting rooms, leasing space, community kitchen, library, fitness center, social services, and resident activities. In addition, gated entry and private parking will be available.

"We are pleased to continue to grow and enhance our management partnership with BGC Advantage and will do whatever it takes to ensure the success of these communities entrusted to us," said Susan Jarvis, Vice President of Housing Operations and Compliance for Allied Orion Group. "We currently manage communities for BGC Advantage in Arkansas and Missouri and are excited to expand our management portfolio in Florida and extend our management footprint into Tennessee."

About Allied Orion Group

Allied Orion Group is a leading fully integrated, multifamily real estate investment, construction and property management firm headquartered in Houston, Texas, with additional offices in Denver, Dallas, and San Antonio. Allied Orion Group has acquired or developed more than 18,000 multifamily units with a total aggregate value of approximately $2 billion and has a growing portfolio of more than 25,000 apartment homes under management throughout the nation. For more information, visit www.allied-orion.com .

Contact:

Carrie Saks

[email protected]

713-622-5844

SOURCE Allied Orion Group
PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Andrei Damian, M.D., F.A.C.C., is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Distinguished Physician for his work in the Medical field and in acknowledgment of his work at Cardiovascular Consultants Inc.

Andrei Damian

As a Physician and Entrepreneur, Dr. Andrei Damian has been helping patients in the Phoenix, AZ area find quality healthcare for over 35 years. He has years of experience creating healthcare models that benefit the consumer and allow them to pay less for high-quality medical care. Dr. Damian has expertise in creating value-added contracts and collaborating on healthcare models.



To obtain his education, Dr. Damian attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he earned a Doctor of Medicine degree. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC).



Dr. Damian built Lifeprint Healthcare in 2000 from scratch to create private equity based outpatient services. Today the company is one of the largest cardiovascular groups in Phoenix, AZ, where Dr. Damian and his staff provide exceptional services at a lower cost. The company currently covers eight hospitals, including locations in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Peoria, Glendale, Fountain Hills. They offer both in-person and telehealth visits at a lower cost than patients might pay at a traditional hospital or healthcare service.



Dr. Damian was the President of IRMS in Phoenix, AZ, from 2012-2016. He became a board member and healthcare consultant in 2012, a role he remains in today. Dr. Damian began working as the President of CVC in 2017. He is proud to have overseen the company's sales and acquisition.



He attributes his success to continuous innovation, and his important work on the front lines. He plans to continue to solidify his vertically-integrated cardiovascular services on a fee-for-service model.



For more information, visit https://cvcheart.com/



Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]



SOURCE Continental Who's Who
TEMPE, Ariz., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to support a racially and ethnically diverse student population and help strengthen the pipeline of diverse CPA talent, the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University (ASU) has announced its collaboration with the Deloitte Foundation in the Deloitte Foundation Accounting Scholars Program (DFASP).

Over the next six years, the DFASP expects to fund $30 million in scholarships for students pursuing a fifth-year master's degree program in accounting from select Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredited colleges/universities, including the W. P. Carey School of Business at ASU, in an effort to support students with a record of a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Participating schools and the Deloitte Foundation will cover 100% of tuition (excluding books and living expenses) for selected students.

The DFASP is a critical tenet of Deloitte's Making Accounting Diverse and Equitable (MADE), a $75 million commitment to generate more opportunities and leadership pathways for the next generation of certified public accountants (CPAs). MADE aims to transform the future of the accounting profession, combining both financial support and resources to help address the identified barriers faced by racially and ethnically diverse students, and support them as they chart their pathway from high school to business professional to leadership in the profession.

"Our Deloitte Foundation is laser focused on driving education initiatives that help prepare the next generation of diverse business leaders," said Erin Scanlon, Deloitte Foundation president. "We are proud to fund the Deloitte Foundation Accounting Scholars Program as an important step in strengthening the pipeline of next generation CPA talent."

The effort further supports ASU's charter, which calls for the university to judge itself on who it includes, not who it excludes. "The Deloitte Foundation Accounting Scholars Program is a vital and appreciated step in supporting students who are interested in pursuing a master's degree in accounting," said Amy Ostrom, interim dean of the W. P. Carey School and PetSmart Chair in Services Leadership. "We appreciate the Deloitte Foundation's support to help make careers in business more accessible to students, and are proud to participate in this initiative."

"The Deloitte Foundation's collaboration with Arizona State University represents an important action toward creating an accounting workforcein Arizona and beyondthat is reflective of our diverse society," said Ken Udenze, Arizona marketplace leader and managing partner, Deloitte LLP. "I'm thrilled to be a part of helping to increase diversity in the accounting profession."

The application period for the 2022-2023 school year is open now, and scholarships will be granted in 2022. Interested students should apply for admission to ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business following standard criteria and processes for admission, and then separately apply to be considered for the DFASP. Each school will select the scholarship recipients.

For more information, visit the Scholarships & Resources page or contact the W. P. Carey graduate programs office at 480-965-3332. Learn more at the Deloitte MADE website.

About the W. P. Carey School of Business

The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is one of the top-ranked business schools in the United States. The school is internationally regarded for its research productivity and its distinguished faculty members, including a Nobel Prize winner. Students come from more than 100 countries and W. P. Carey is represented by alumni in over 160 countries. Visit wpcarey.asu.edu.

About the Deloitte Foundation

The Deloitte Foundation, founded in 1928, is a not-for-profit organization that supports education in the U.S. through a variety of initiatives that help develop the next generation of diverse business leaders, and their influencers, and promote excellence in teaching, research and curriculum innovation. The Foundation sponsors an array of national programs relevant to a variety of professional services, benefiting high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and educators. Learn more about the Deloitte Foundation.

About Deloitte

Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of our legal structure.

For more information, contact:

Shay Moser, W. P. Carey School of Business

[email protected]

SOURCE W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rhys Branman, MD and the team at Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery are pleased to announce they have awarded the first annual Arkansas Rural Health Scholarship to Lane Tupa, a first-year medical student pursuing his Doctor of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Dr. Rhys Branman and the team at Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery have awarded the Arkansas Rural Health Scholarship to Lane Tupa, a medical student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The Arkansas Rural Health Scholarship is intended to encourage the next generation of Arkansas medical providers to serve in rural areas of the state.

"We are proud to have a small part in supporting Lane's endeavors to improve medicine in Arkansas," said Dr. Branman. "We have a widespread need to retain our home-grown talent, and as an intelligent, thoughtful, and personable medical student with a special interest in serving rural communities, Lane is the ideal recipient for this scholarship."

The Arkansas Rural Health Scholarship is designed to alleviate some of the cost burdens of pursuing a medical degree for students interested in serving rural Arkansas. Recipients have the opportunity to use the $2,500 scholarship award for costs related to pursuing their degree, such as tuition, supplies and textbooks, required technology, transportation costs, or housing. Mr. Tupa says that he plans to use the award toward the cost of tuition.

While the scholarship received applications from students throughout Arkansas, Dr. Branman said that Mr. Tupa's application stood out because of his keen interest in rural health issues facing Arkansas communities.

"Lane is a promising student who I am confident will improve healthcare in Arkansas," said Dr. Branman. "I see this as an investment in our collective future."

During his time as an undergraduate at Henderson State University, Mr. Tupa was a high academic achiever who was highly regarded by his professors. He also served as president of the Pre-medical Student Club and treasurer of the Chemistry Club. In addition to being well-prepared for medical school academics, the scholarship recipient says that his upbringing in rural Arkansas has given him insight into the difficulties that face both patients and doctors in those areas.

"People are raised with the belief that you should not go to the doctor unless it is an emergency This way of thinking is only reinforced by physician shortages and places with high levels of poverty. If someone has to drive an hour to see a doctor, there's a better chance they'll decide to just put it off and deal with the consequences later. This is especially true if they are going to have to take off work to go to an appointment," Mr. Tupa said. "I hope that I'm able to help fill the gap in healthcare access that's present in many rural communities like the one that I grew up in."

He added that he takes a caring, patient approach to each new person that he meets. "In my experience, if you take enough time, you will usually be able to find at least one thing in common with most people, and I think that's really the first step into understanding them as a person."

Dr. Branman founded the Arkansas Rural Health Scholarship to encourage the next generation of Arkansas medical providers to serve rural areas, where demand for primary care grows faster than supply . The scholarship will be offered annually to a first-year medical or nursing student committed to practicing in rural Arkansas. Interested candidates may learn more and check the status of the next scholarship cycle by visiting https://www.littlerockcosmeticsurgery.com/arkansas-rural-health-scholarship/ .

About Dr. Rhys Branman: Dr. Branman is a board-certified cosmetic surgeon in Little Rock, Arkansas, and a member of the Arkansas State Medical Board. Dr. Branman is certified by both the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery and the American Board of Maxillofacial Surgery, and serves as a Board Examiner for the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery. Dr. Branman is beloved by his patients for his caring bedside manner, surgical skill, and commitment to safety. His practice, Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center, is located at 10809 Executive Center Drive, Searcy Building Suite 100, Little Rock, Arkansas 72211; (501) 227-0707. For more information, visit www.littlerockcosmeticsurgery.com/ .

Media Contact: Dr. Rhys L. Branman, Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center, (501) 227-0707.

SOURCE Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center
HOUSTON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, December 7th, the Board of Judges of the Civil Trial Division of the Harris County District Courts met and determined to consolidate all the past filed and any future filed Astroworld lawsuits to one Judge  Kristen Hawkins of the 11th District Court  for further handling.

That ruling, hailed as a positive step toward justice for the Astroworld victims, was quickly overruled later the same evening by the Texas Supreme Court, which was petitioned by defendant Live Nation to stay the cases and have them consolidated through the State Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation.

Yesterday, February 14, 2022, that panel reached its decision: to return the cases to Judge Hawkins in Harris County. With that ruling, the stay has been lifted and the consolidate case will move forward into discovery.

"I'm eager to resume our work on behalf of the victims of this tragedy," said prominent trial attorney Brent Coon, who represents more than 1,500 Astroworld plaintiffs. "But at the same time, I'm dismayed that Live Nation and its fellow defendants were able to delay this process for three months, just to have the case returned to the very judge it was assigned to originally. The State Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation's decision is validation that Live Nation's true motivation was never about finding the right venue. It was about delaying justice."

Brent Coon and Associates was the first and only plaintiffs' firm to file a motion with the Texas Supreme Court to have the stay rescinded when it was first placed. The firm was also the only to oppose the defendants' suggestion of shifting the case to another judge.

"Make no mistake: a delay only benefits the corporate defendants who are hoping that evidence will be lost, memories will fade, and victims will begin accepting small compensations  like covering the cost of tickets  offered by the defendants in exchange for dropping their legal claims," added Coon. "But we fought for our plaintiffs' rights and ultimately ended up on the right side of the decision. Finally, we can begin to understand the failures that led to the Astroworld tragedy and get these plaintiffs the justice they deserve."

About Brent Coon & Associates

Founded in 2001 by Brent Coon, Coon & Associates specializes in complex, multi-party trial law. With offices and legal associations throughout Texas and the nation, Brent Coon & Associates has won hundreds of major jury awards and settlements against industry leaders in the petrochemical, transportation, pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries. As a triple board-certified trial specialist, Coon is also designated counsel to numerous unions, including the United Steel Workers, BMWED, TMPA and others, and has received almost every accolade for demonstrating superior legal and technical skills in the judicial arena.

SOURCE Brent Coon & Associates
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ATSG, a global, tech-enabled managed services and solutions company, announced today that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named ATSG to its Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the Elite 150 category for 2022. CRN's annual MSP 500 list identifies the leading service providers in North America whose approach to managed services is changing the landscape of the IT channel, helping end-users increase efficiency and simplify IT solutions, while maximizing their return on investment.

While many customers are still recovering from the impact of the pandemic, MSPs have become a vital part of the success of businesses worldwide. MSPs not only empower organizations to leverage innovative technologies that support digital transformation but also help them focus on their core business strategy while being cost-efficient.

CRN's 2021 MSP 500 list showcases the market's key managed service providers for their innovative and forward-thinking approach to managed services, and the ability to optimize operational efficiencies and systems with best-of-breed technology solutions. The MSP Elite 150, recognizes large, data center-focused MSPs with a strong mix of on-premises and off-premise services.

ATSG has now been recognized on the MSP 500 list for the sixth consecutive time. Through its Technology Solutions as a Service portfolio, ATSG focuses on innovative managed services solutions to enhance today's digital enterprise and the end-user experience. This past year was pivotal for the company. ATSG's focused strategy is driving extraordinary value and innovation in the global marketplace, with enterprise solutions that include a public and private cloud, collaboration, unified communications, contact center, digital workplace, mobility, hybrid infrastructure, security, wrapped with a world best-in-class professional services support infrastructure.

"ATSG is honored to have once again been named to the prestigious MSP500 List in the Elite 150 category," said Anthony J. D'Ambrosi, Chief Executive Officer, ATSG. "Through strategic development programs and targeted acquisitions, we have further bolstered our innovation posture, including large enterprise capabilities, channel partner ecosystem expansion, and we have added unique intellectual property and automation platforms to our company. Execution on our innovation strategy is directly in line with our mission to deliver exceptional clients experiences and outcomes as a leading tech-enabled managed services provider. We are excited to receive this recognition and give a special thanks to the global OneATSG team who make this possible."

"In addition to having to adjust their own business operations to account for the changed conditions during the pandemic, MSPs have also seen increased demand for their managed communications, collaboration, and security services," said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. "The solution providers on our 2022 MSP 500 list deserve credit for their innovative and game-changing approaches to managed services in these unpredictable times, as well as their ability to optimize operational efficiencies and systems without straining IT budgets."

The MSP 500 list will be featured in the February 2022 issue of CRN and online at www.crn.com/msp500.

About ATSG

ATSG is a global tech-enabled managed services and solutions company focused on innovative solutions to enhance today's digital enterprise and end-user experiences. ATSG provides Intelligent IT through Technology Solutions as a Service (TSaaS) to a variety of customers; leveraging an offerings portfolio of rediTech, rediManage, rediCloud, and rediSecure, which delivers reliable, elastic, dynamic infrastructure, collaboration, applications, as well as world-class IT operations.

ATSG is a privately held company headquartered in Manhattan, New York.

For more information on ATSG, please visit us on the web at www.atsg.net , like us on LinkedIn , follow us on Twitter or become a fan on our Facebook page. #AboutATSG

ATSG is a portfolio company of RunTide Capital, a private equity firm focused on building tech-enabled growth companies.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end- users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com

Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

 2022 The Channel Company LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Press Contact  Elizabeth Kubycheck

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SOURCE ATSG, Inc.
PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Automation in Combined Heat and Power Market by Component (Sensors, Controllers, Switches & Relays, Drives, and Others), Control and Safety System (Distributed Control System, Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition System, Systems Instrumented Systems, Programmable Logic Controller, and Human Machine Interface): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030." As per the report, the global automation in combined heat and power industry was accounted for $12.53 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $24.12 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 7.1% from 2021 to 2030.

Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities-

Several government initiatives & supportive policies and increase in adoption of industry 4.0 & enabling technologies industries drive the growth of the global automation in combined heat and power market. On the other hand, high initial investment restrains the growth to some extent. However, increased demand for safety compliance automation solutions is anticipated to create lucrative opportunities in the industry.

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Covid-19 Scenario-

The outbreak of the pandemic gave way to falling business confidence, massive slowing of supply chain, and increasing panic among customers, which impacted the global automation in combined heat and power market negatively.

However, the market is anticipated to get back on track soon.

The Controllers Segment Held the Lion's Share-

Based on component, the controllers segment held the major share in 2020, generating around one-third of the global automation in combined heat and power market. The heightened need for safe, reliable, and qualitative production is projected to increase the demand for controllers in the automation in combined heat and power market. The sensors segment, simultaneously, is projected to cite the fastest CAGR of 8.8% during the forecast period. Factors such as rise in need for automation across different industry verticals as well as technological advancements, availability of cheap labor, and low manufacturing cost drive the growth of the segment.

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The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (Scada) Segment Held The Highest Share In 2020-

Based on control and safety system, the supervisory control and data acquisition system (Scada) segment held the highest share in 2020, generating around one-fourth of the global automation in combined heat and power market. This is attributed to the fact that the demand for SCADA systems is increasing in the manufacturing, pipeline monitoring & control, water treatment centers & distribution, electrical power transmission & distribution, and other industries. The Programmable Logic Controller (Plc) segment, on the other hand, would cite the fastest CAGR of 9.4% from 2021 to 2030. This is due to the fact that the majority of the end users prefer PLCs to implement them as a major component in configuration of small control systems.

Europe, Followed by North America, Held the Major Share-

Based on region, Europe, followed by North America, accounted for the major share in 2020, contributing to more than one-third of the global automation in combined heat and power market. Increase in investments in the development of small-sized manufacturing units in the region has augmented the business opportunity, thereby propelling the market growth. Asia-Pacific, however, is expected to cite the fastest CAGR of 9.3% throughout the forecast period. Investments in large new gas-fired cogeneration plants and large coal-fired plants, along with rising demand for electricity, are expected to drive the growth of the market in this province.

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Prominent Market Players-

Emerson Electric Co.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Yokogawa Electric Corporation

Omron Corporation

Rockwell Automation, Inc.

Honeywell International Inc.

Schneider Electric S.E.

ABB Ltd

Siemens AG

Valmet

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PARIS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that Bontaz Group, an automotive supplier and world leader in hydraulic functions dedicated to this industry, has chosen to implement Infor CloudSuite Automotive to support its "Phygital" transformation. Bontaz opted for a deployment in the Infor multitenant cloud, hosted by AWS, with the specific objective of doubling its annual revenue and diversifying its activities empowered by the Infor solution dedicated to the automotive sector.

Learn more about Infor CloudSuite Automotive: https://www.infor.com/products/cloudsuite-automotive

Founded by Yves Bontaz in 1965 as a family business specializing in metal bar machining, the group has grown rapidly and now employs nearly 4,000 people. With more than 24 factories around the world  in France, United States, China, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, Czech Republic, Tunisia, Portugal and Morocco  the company is a true partner of car manufacturers for whom it develops and manufactures 180 million mechanical valves per year and 14 million solenoid valves, which are high-precision components. The quality of these products is widely recognized, and Bontaz has received awards from industry players.

To support its growth in the framework of a 2030 project, Bontaz decided to look into replacing its in-house ERP. The company wanted to accelerate its digital transformation by integrating a modern, innovative solution, dedicated to the sector and capable of handling all the company's complex manufacturing processes.

The group's leadership launched a call for tenders in October 2020 and selected six vendors and solution integrators before narrowing the list to two major players, then reaching the final decision in May 2021, selecting Infor. Infor's cloud offering was chosen as the multitenant deployment minimizes the costs and risks associated with a migration project and also reduces the internal resources mobilized at the customer's sites. The functional richness of Infor's solution was a key factor for this choice, as it is preconfigured at an extensive level to meet the specific needs of the automotive industry.

Jean-Marie Willot, Bontaz Group CIO, explains: "The project we have started with Infor goes far beyond the framework of a business process management tool. It aims to radically change the group's structural organization by adding new skills to the IT teams, whose numbers have doubled and who are expected to derive maximum benefit from the solutions we provide."

Indeed, the Bontaz Group will optimize the organization starting 2022 in France and 2024 at the international sites. This technology upgrade with Infor is designed to help Bontaz maintain its market-leader position while diversifying its production and approaching other sectors, such as aeronautics, by providing better support for its research and development (R&D) and by rationalizing and streamlining communication between the various business lines to increase its productivity and revenues.

"Infor's CloudSuite solution will provide us with a single view of critical data from heterogeneous sources that benefit all functions and businesses in the organization. The platform we will have at our disposal will certainly contribute to improving the organization of production itself, but also of our financial processes with a clear improvement expected in our purchasing practices, our supply chain and our distribution channels. Another crucial point for us is that Infor's cloud offering will allow us to benefit in near real time from all version upgrades to support our growth through constant innovation integrated into the solution," Willot says.

Laurent Jacquemain, Infor senior vice president and general manager in Southern Europe, said: "This project with Bontaz is a great opportunity for Infor to demonstrate its ability to respond accurately, quickly and efficiently to the specific business challenges and issues faced by professionals in the automotive sector. Our track record in this area  with more than 800 automotive companies among our customers worldwide  speaks for itself. But the flexibility of our approach, the proximity created with the customer, and the cloud technology hosted by our partner AWS guaranteeing high availability, security, agility and simplified integration of future applications have also contributed to position us with Bontaz as the ideal partner for this global transformation project over the long term."

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, and we are continually innovating to quickly solve emerging business and industry challenges. Over 65,000 organizations in more than 175 countries rely on Infor's 17,000 employees and their deep industry expertise to help overcome market disruptions and 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, employees and partners. Visit www.infor.com.

Media contact:

Richard Moore

Infor

[email protected]

+44 7976111243

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
The automobile industry has been severely impacted due to COVID-19 pandemic. Shortage of raw materials, electric components, and skilled labor force owing to travel restrictions have hampered the manufacturing capabilities of autonomous buses. However, the industry is anticipated to witness swift recovery owing to the development of smart cities and increasing government initiatives to automate transport systems to achieve sustainable economy.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/5105

The intercity applications of autonomous buses are expected to gain traction with the development of specially designed transport routes for these buses. Level 1 and level 2 autonomous buses with features such as cruise control, blind spot monitoring, and lane keeping assist are being used for intercity travel by private & public bus operators.

The North America autonomous bus market is anticipated to grow rapidly through 2028. The market growth can be attributed to increased investments by local government authorities to automate transport systems. The benefits of electric autonomous buses in reducing traffic congestion and environmental pollution are encouraging increased private and public investments in this industry.

Autonomous bus market players are partnering with technology companies to develop new models of autonomous buses. For instance, in January 2022, Gillig, a bus manufacturer, signed a partnership agreement with RR.AI, a developer of autonomous driving systems. The partnership will assist the companies to leverage mutual competencies for the development of passenger buses with self-driving technology and driver-assistance systems.

Some key findings in the autonomous bus market report include:

Rising internet connectivity, development of 5G technology, and rapid technological advancements in AI & IoT fields are anticipated to create lucrative opportunities in the autonomous bus industry.

Autonomous buses reduce incidents of road accidents and traffic jams on crowded streets. Furthermore, these buses possess the ability to reduce the fleet size of bus operators to an optimal level. The reduction in fleet size will lead to a lower operational & maintenance cost of fleet operators, driving the autonomous bus industry growth.

Increasing investments by private players along with supportive government policies to develop autonomous bus will drive the industry growth over the forecast timeframe. For instance, in November 2021, EasyMile, a French startup, developed its first driverless vehicle with level 4 automation. The company was granted approval by France's Ministry of Ecological Transition and Ministry of Transport.

The growing development of smart cities and increasing investments by government bodies to modernize transport systems will create robust market opportunities for industry participants.

Key players operating in the autonomous bus market include Volkswagen AG, Continental AG, AB Volvo, Daimler AG, Tesla, Toyota Motor Corporation, Proterra, Navya SAS, Robert Bosch GmbH, Scania AB, and Hyundai Motor Company.

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Partial chapters of report table of contents (TOC):

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

2.1 Autonomous bus industry 360 synopsis, 2018  2028

2.1.1 Business trends

2.1.2 Regional trends

2.1.3 Level of autonomy trends

2.1.4 Fuel trends

2.1.5 Application trends

Chapter 3 Industry Insights

3.1 Industry segmentation

3.2 Impact of COVID-19 on autonomous bus industry landscape

3.3 Industry ecosystem analysis

3.4 Technology & innovation landscape

3.5 Installed base of level 4 autonomous buses, by region, 2021

3.6 Investment landscape

3.7 Regulatory landscape

3.8 Industry impact forces

3.8.1 Growth drivers

3.8.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges

3.9 Growth potential analysis

3.10 Porter's analysis

3.11 PESTEL analysis

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.

Contact Us:

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Corporate Sales, USA

Global Market Insights Inc.

Phone: 1-302-846-7766

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Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc.
SAN MATEO, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Axis Security has named Joe Mattioli as the company's first Chief Revenue Officer. Mattioli will have world-wide responsibility for scaling revenue growth at Axis to meet increased demand for the company's Security Service Edge platform. Mattioli will report directly to Dor Knafo, CEO and co-founder of Axis.

Mattioli joins Axis Security from Crowdstrike where he spent six years, first as VP of Global Corporate Sales, and most recently as VP of Emerging Technology Sales. Previously he spent eight years at Proofpoint, rising to VP of Commercial and Public Sector Sales, Americas.

"We are excited to add a cloud security leader, with a bold vision, to lead our sales organization," said Knafo. "Joe played a critical role in the success of CrowdStrike and Proofpoint - helping catapult each to market leadership positions. His experience in designing and implementing successful go-to-market processes, and his proven track record, are skills we can't wait to infuse into our team. In the market, we are seeing increased demand for security service edge (SSE) platforms, and the need for technology partners to help guide them as they look to adopt these new cloud-delivered services. Joe will help design this customer journey, and ensure we introduce as much value as possible to our rapidly expanding customer-base."

"Two years before I joined CrowdStrike, the growing market demand for a revolution in endpoint security was palpable," said Mattioli. "Today, we are seeing that same call on the network edge. This is the last frontier in security which has yet to go fully cloud-native to simplify infrastructure and reduce risk. By using 350 cloud edge locations that bridge user access to corporate assets, Axis provides a path to digital transformation that results in an optimal work experience for employees, partners, and B2B customers. By centralizing access into a single pane of glass, security teams gain user-based visibility which integrates, and layers, Internet activity with access to all company-owned assets. Traditional networks will become obsolete as the zero trust movement continues to focus the world on users and access, rather than on network perimeters. Axis is designed to facilitate a painless, yet rewarding transition through this infrastructure revolution. When I look at the Axis team, and the current market environment, I can't help but be thankful that I, once again, have an opportunity to be part of an amazing crew. A crew on a mission to accelerate the world's transition to a modern workplace, through secure connectivity. Together, we will simplify transformation for our customers."

Bolstering the Axis Leadership Team

Axis has made several strategic hires in recent months as the company scales its operations globally. Jason Pishotti joined as the new Chief Customer Officer, and Omar Fakhri joined as the new Vice President of Customer Care. They joined Axis from Forescout where they held similar roles. Chris Hines, who joined Zscaler in 2017 and played a key role in driving the company's hyper-growth, was recently appointed Vice President of Product Marketing & Strategy at Axis Security.

Securing the modern workplace

To secure the modern workplace, IT needs to make sure that no matter what, the exchange of data is always fast, seamless, and secure. Organizations need the ability to inspect every connection to their applications and track every user's activity at a whole new level. Enterprises must support access to any application, from any device, and over any network, until IT can tell exactly who's accessing applications, from where, and what their digital experience looks like. The promise of Security Service Edge (SSE) is that it will reduce complexity and lower costs by reducing the number of vendors required to deliver secure remote access and to do so more securely.

Last month, Axis launched the Security Service Edge Forum in collaboration with IT leaders from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. who represent a cross section of industries, including beverage, travel, technology, financial services, automotive, manufacturing, hospitality, state, and local government. The SSE Forum brings together CIOs, CISOs, Architects, and IT operators to share strategy, discuss challenges, uncover platform requirements, and discuss best practices related to adopting the SSE framework.

Learn more about the Security Service Edge Forum - www.sseforum.io.

About Axis Security

Axis believes that the sooner IT adopts zero trust, the sooner we can witness a world where the exchange of information is always fast, seamless, and secure. With 350 Axis cloud service edges across the world, Axis helps IT leaders enable their employees, partners, and customers to securely access business data - without the pitfalls of network-centric solutions or application limitations that every other zero trust service faces. Through its world-class research and development and founding team which hails from Israel's acclaimed Unit 8200, Axis aims to accelerate the world's transition to a modern workplace where hybrid work is made simple, digital experience becomes a competitive advantage and business data remains protected from cyber threats - even as it moves to the cloud. For more information, visit www.axissecurity.com . Follow us on Twitter and on Linkedin .

Contact:

Janet Brumfield, Guyer Group for Axis Security

[email protected]

SOURCE Axis Security
HOUSTON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- C. Bob Basu, MD, MBA, MPH, FACS of Houston is proud to award the first annual Advancing Care Scholarship for Adult Learners to Andrea Dai, a nursing student at the Concordia University of Texas College of Nursing. Sponsored by Basu Aesthetics + Plastic Surgery, the annual Advancing Care Scholarship is intended to support a Texan over the age of 30 who is returning to school to pursue a graduate medical degree.

Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Bob Basu awarded the first annual Advancing Care Scholarship for Adult Learners to Andrea Dai, a nursing student at Concordia University of Texas.

"Ms. Dai is a brave young woman who sees patient care as her passion, not just a job. Her drive paired with her academic proclivities will make her a truly outstanding nurse. I am happy to have this opportunity to support her schooling," said Dr. Basu.

After working in clinical research, Ms. Dai decided to change her career path in order to work directly with patients, having personally experienced the impact that caring, capable nurses have in their patients' lives. When her mother's cancer abruptly worsened, Ms. Dai spent months in hospitals with her, being a caregiver and interacting with medical staff. After this experience, Ms. Dai says she is motivated to work on the frontlines and serve patients in that role herself.

"I am choosing to pursue nursing because I want the skill set and knowledge base to make a tangible difference in peoples' lives," she said. "I was inspired by oncology nurses who cared for my mom, and continue to be inspired by the hard-working frontline workers who battle the COVID-19 pandemic today."

In addition to her personal experiences with healthcare, Ms. Dai has visited rural areas across the globe, most notably as an intern evaluating the impact of public health programs with CARE International in Ecuador. As such, she says she is interested in the "combined forces that intersect to create conditions of poverty and unequal access" to healthcare, both abroad and in Texas.

"I want to have a strong and clear voice for my patients," Ms. Dai said. "To me, becoming a nurse isn't simply a career changeestablishing a medical background is a piece of my development into the person I want to be."

Dr. Basu and the team at Basu Aesthetics + Plastic Surgery met with Ms. Dai in January to confer the scholarship in person. Ms. Dai will be able to use the $1,500 award toward tuition or educational expenses.

The Advancing Care Scholarship for Adult Learners is given annually to help reduce cost burdens for Texans over the age of 30 who are pursuing a graduate medical degree as a licensed medical practitioner, physician, or nurse. To learn more about the scholarship or submit an application, visit https://www.basuplasticsurgery.com/advancing-care-scholarship-for-adult-learners/ .

About Dr. Bob Basu: Dr. C. Bob Basu is a nationally-recognized board-certified plastic surgeon. His practice, Basu Aesthetics + Plastic Surgery, has offices in both Cypress and Houston, Texas. The Cypress office is located at 9899 Towne Lake Pkwy Suite 100, Cypress, TX 77433. The Post Oak Uptown Park office in Houston is located at 1700 Post Oak BLVD, Suite 1-280, Houston, Texas 77056. The practice can be reached by phone at (713) 799-2278.

Media Contact: Dr. Bob Basu, www.basuplasticsurgery.com or (713) 799-2278.

SOURCE Dr. Bob Basu
"Silk yarn for skin, silk for hair" is a vivid discrption of Beijing silk figurines. It is one of China's traditional handicrafts as well as one of China's intangible cultural heritage.

The origin of silk figurines can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It gradually became popular in the Tang Dynasty and eventually prevailed in the Northern Song Dynasty. Its production process is complicated, requiring choice silk, silk fabric, silk yarn and spun silk as raw materials, and through more than a dozen delicate manual procedures such as sculpturing, painting, clothing, headdressing and props-making, it can be made into vivid and exquisite silk figurines.

During the period of the Republic of China(1912-1949), the handicraft of silk figurines "disappeared" due to the scourge of war, and was "revived" by traditional silk figurine craftsmen and artists in modern times.

Tang Yan, the inheritor of silk figurines fromTang Ren Fang Studio, improved the traditional silk figurine making process so that ancient and modern techniques are combined in order to prevent silk figurines from "disappearing" again.

On the same day, Meng Li and Ma Zhuoran visited the Silk Figurines Museum. Looking at the figurines through the glass, they could see the delicacy, softness and vividness of them. There are goddesses flying and playing musical instruments, eight immortals talking together; Guan Yunchang standing with a knife. There are also historical figures Du Liniang and Yang Gui Fei , which are so vivid that as if they were singing melodiously... These silk figurines are so lifelike as if they were real..

"Unlike barbie dolls made of plastic, which can be mass-produced, Beijing silk figurines have a long history and complicated production process. More than a dozen steps of the handicraft need to be made by hand." Tang Yan explained to Meng Li and Ma Zhuoran who were amazed at the vivid figurines.

Later, they themselves handmade tiger-head hat, the headpiece of the Tiger year doll.

The tiger hat is like a baby tiger, and the two international students need to make a baby tiger by themselves. Having the tiger's ears, eyes, nose and other parts ready on the table, they use hot melt to glue them on the bare hat one by one. When gluing all the parts , one needs to make sure that the baby tiger is cheerful, and never give it a sad face.

Looking at the tiger hat made by himself, Meng Li felt it is magical and interesting, but also difficult and tedious. "The finished product of tiger hat looks very delicate and lovely, but I didn't expect it to be so complicated. I have seen children in China wearing tiger-head hats during the Spring Festival, whcih gives them a cute and energetic look. Still I amazed that a tiger-head hat of the silk figurine can be so delicately made given its small size."

After experiencing the production, Tang Yan introduced the improved manufacturing process of silk figurines by Tang Ren Fang Studio, which adopted plaster moulding instead of the traditional technology of Baotou (cotton-stuffed head) and the clothing fabrication was also simplified, yet still delicate. Other than that, the figurines are largely made in traditional craftmanship.

The two international students learned about the craft of the intangible culture heritage throug experience of making a Beijing silk figurine, thus making this handicraft more popular.

SOURCE China.org.cn
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The upcoming webinar, "Economic opportunities in the Mobility Sector", February 23, 2022, is a place for exchange, networking and future-shaping. UEMN; an initiative that connects Berlin's ecosystem for sustainable energy and innovative mobility solutions with five international metropolitan regions including New York; will host this meeting together with the Berlin Business Office, USA (BBO) to ignite a discussion on current challenges and chances of this sector.

Representatives from relevant institutions from both cities can connect to discuss their respective mobility and transport systems. Due to climate change and regulatory reasons, cities are transforming fast, changing transportation habits for their inhabitants and cutting emissions for a whole new era of mobility and urban reality. Bringing together the most relevant players from Berlin and New York in the mobility and urban energy sector is in line with the mission of BBO to build bridges between Berlin and the U.S.

Besides the organizers and the invited speakers, the very core of Berlin's and New York's mobility ecosystem are expected at this webinar. The program begins with welcoming words from Sebastian Serafin, Deputy Director of BBO followed by Sebastian Ulm, Project Lead of Urban Energy & Mobility Network from Berlin. The New York side will give insights with Stacey Matlen, Director of Innovation Programs at Partnership for NYC on the most pressing urban challenges and point out best-practices to address these challenges. Robinson Hernandez, Managing Director of Urban Tech Hub New York will then speak on prospects for entrepreneurs and businesses.

Efforts are high on both sides of the Atlantic to reduce our overall carbon footprint and the EU might be the first continent with zero carbon emissions by 2050. These plans and possible achievements require a lot of change in our urban structures.

Meet us there and let's forge connections and create bridges for businesses for both countries together!

About Berlin Business Office, USA:

Berlin's first economic development office in the U.S. offers cost-free services that deliberately promote and strengthen Berlin's connectivity to the U.S. via supporting Berlin- and U.S.-based startups with their expansion plans in both directions and promoting Berlin's vibrant startup ecosystem.

Sebastian Serafin, Deputy Director

Berlin Business Office, USA

+1 646-939-0323

[email protected]

SOURCE Berlin Business Office, USA; Berlin Business Office
PHOENIX, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BioCare, Inc., a leading specialty pharmaceutical distribution partner that provides distribution, specialty pharmacy and logistics services, today announced the addition of IT expert Cory Shouse as Senior Vice President of Information Technology. With more than 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical services and distribution, Shouse will concentrate on delivering new digital capabilities for BioCare specialty providers and manufacturers, with an emphasis on improving data and analytics, enhancing customer experiences and driving better business outcomes.

"With Cory's impressive background in analytics technology and a passion for empowering a team, we are confident that he will play an integral role at BioCare as we continue to transform how life-saving therapies are distributed nationwide," said Linda Matthews, CEO of BioCare. "Cory is joining our team at a time of extraordinary growth, and we look forward to seeing all that he will accomplish."

With a history of leveraging technology to solve key business problems, Shouse is a proven leader who combines technical knowledge with strategic acumen to bring about meaningful change. He has been responsible for the development, integration and implementation of numerous IT capabilities across multiple Fortune 200 healthcare companies. His expertise will be invaluable across BioCare, which is comprised of BioCareSD, a national specialty distributor of life-saving therapies, LogiCare3PL, a national provider of pharmaceutical logistics services that launched earlier this year, and more.

"It's clear that BioCare is on an impressive growth trajectory, evidenced by recent milestones such as the launch of LogiCare3PL. This, combined with the company's reputation for having a strong culture and wonderful leadership team, is what solidified my decision to join the team," said Shouse. "I look forward to leveraging my experience in the pharmaceutical services and provider sectors to deliver solutions that will improve access to life-saving therapies and ensure enhanced outcomes for all."

Shouse previously served as Head of Enterprise Data & Analytics at Tenet Healthcare, where he was responsible for key analytic capabilities such as data management, data governance and advanced analytics. Prior to that role, he spent more than a decade with AmerisourceBergen, where he served in various IT leadership roles across the specialty, animal health, global logistics and patient services units.

About BioCare, Inc.

BioCare, Inc. is comprised of BioCareSD, a leading national specialty distributor of life-saving therapies, CanyonCareRX, a full-service specialty pharmacy, and LogiCare3PL, a national provider of time- and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical logistics services. Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, BioCare, Inc. has been devoted to delivering specialty and therapeutic biological products since 1982. For more information about BioCare, Inc., please visit www.biocare-us.com.

SOURCE BioCare, Inc
NANJING, China, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- @Visit Jiangsu is providing some fascinating Chinese New Year culture for the Year of the Tiger. @Visit Jiangsu showcased a series of Happy Chinese New Year online programs with Jiangsu's characteristics on five social media platforms. The programs have reached nearly 100 countries and regions worldwide, providing a Jiangsu style feast for the eyes and ears of global audiences.

The grand concert Elegance of Chinese Music has risen to become the most popular Happy Chinese New Year video on Facebook. The concert was directed by Chen Xieyang, a renowned Chinese conductor, and performed by the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra. By combining Chinese folk music with Western symphony, the concert highlighted both the elegance of China and the local characteristics of Jiangsu.

Meanwhile, @Visit Jiangsu also launched the Global Chinese New Year Relay Race, inviting global fans to record Chinese New Year videos to pass on their love and support for Jiangsu to their family and friends. Fans from various countries and regions sent a number of greetings videos to Jiangsu and celebrated a unique Year of Tiger together on social media platforms.

The event will last until Feb 15, the day of the Lantern Festival. Cultural and creative products will be handed out as special gifts to the participants. If you are interested in the relay race, please search for Visit Jiangsu on social media to enjoy a Happy New Year ride with Jiangsu!

SOURCE Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism
Power Electronics investors to boost nine new storage projects in California

VALENCIA, Spain, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- California is undoubtedly one of the states where energy storage is breaking records. One of the multinationals that will participate in 9 of the new projects to be promoted in this territory is Power Electronics. The company will supply technology with a storage capacity of 6.4 GWh and will include both battery inverters and solar storage for a total amount of 1.6GW, the two main business lines of the multinational.

Participation in this plan means Power Electronics, whose Headquarters are in Gilbert, Arizona, will become one of the suppliers of 11.5 GW of clean energy ordered by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission in California. These actions are part of the SB100 policy through which it is intended that California will have 100% clean energy by 2045.

"This project is evidence that we continue leading the energy transition worldwide and that an increasing number of countries are joining the process," said David Salvo, CEO of Power Electronics. In fact, the corporation is not only the world's largest manufacturer of energy conversion systems, but also the leading manufacturer of solar inverters in the US.

Power Electronics' participation in this project located in California represents a strong start for the company, which closed 2021 with 25 % more installed capacity than the previous year."This 2022 is going to be key to continue growing in the United States, Latin America and Europe," reiterated Salvo.

About Power Electronics. Power Electronics is the world's leading manufacturer of power conversion systems for energy storage and a leading manufacturer of solar inverters for photovoltaic plants in Europe, Oceania and America. Its products are present in nearly 1,300 plants in 35 countries around the world. The company closed 2021 with a figure of 50GW of installed AC power, which has prevented the discharge of more than 60.5 million tons of CO2 into the environment.

https://power-electronics.com/

SOURCE Power Electronics
TAIPEI, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Carota, a global one-stop Over-The-Air (OTA) upgrade and remote diagnostic full solution provider, today reveals its new services for the mobility industry and car OEMs.

"We are committed to enhancing our services and meeting the growing demand for advanced mobility solutions," said Paul Wu, CEO and Founder of Carota. "Our mission is to supply automakers with a one-stop full solution for OTA testing and deployment, remote diagnostic, cybersecurity, digital content management, and subscription services. Through the acquisition of EGK, a well-known domestic IoV service provider, Carota extends its IoV services and commercial application spectrum to deliver a comprehensive fleet management system and driving analytical services."

Paul Wu explains why Carota decided to unveil its new product line at this point of time, "As vehicles are getting more software-defined and complex, our goal is to position ourselves as the software tier-1 provider for both traditional and EV automakers. We continue to see growth potentials and opportunities in the coming years and believe now is the right time to share about our new business strategy in the journey to globalization."

The six pillars below compose our business:

1. Whole car OTA

OTA updates serve as an efficient and seamless way for OEMs to offer vehicle software and firmware updates. OEMs can remotely deliver new functionalities, features enhancements and security patches to improve the driving experience and vehicle's safety.

2. OTA testing service and equipment

A ready-to-market solution designed to reduce the number of software defect issues and vehicle recalls, and to ensure the OEM's compliance with OTA regulations of different regions and countries .

3. Remote diagnostic and event recording

Preserves the vehicle's health and provides insightful data for the vehicle's troubleshooting, maintenance, and repair. The event recording helps improve the driver's safety and future design of the vehicles.

4. Cybersecurity

Carota teams up with global leading Cybersecurity providers to keep vehicles protected from harmful attacks, unauthorized access, damage, and anything else that may interfere with safety functions.

5. Licensing and subscription services

A platform for OEMs to manage digital assets, customize user experiences, and generate new revenue streams via unique integration of real-time orchestration of applications.

6. Fleet, transportation, driver one-stop management system service

With the addition of EGK, Carota provides SAAS, PAAS, IAAS system services in the fields of people, goods, and vehicle management, data analysis and supply chain, to synergize OTA, Fleet Management Services, Driver Management Services, Video Management Services, and Transportation Management Services.

About Carota

Carota is a global one-stop OTA and remote diagnostic full solution provider. Our commitment is to provide safe, stable, reliable, and scalable OTA upgrade solutions to car OEMs and IoT smart devices manufacturers.

Carota is a significant player in the global market, with over 320 million smart devices installed and upgraded. The company serves customers in more than 20 countries and areas, including Greater China, the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, India, and the Southeast Asia region.

Contact:

Carota Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE Carota
HOUSTON, Texas, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CenTrio, the industry-leading core-competency U.S. district energy business, today announced the appointment of Meghan Riesterer as Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President  ESG & Decarbonization, effective February 28, 2022. In these newly created roles for the Company, Ms. Riesterer will report directly to CenTrio CEO Steve Swinson.

CenTrio is a fully integrated, sustainable energy services provider to higher education and healthcare campuses, cities, and communities with utility infrastructures. It currently serves more than 130 million square feet of space and operations in eight U.S. cities and continues to expand across the country. The Company operates highly efficient, innovative utility infrastructures that produce and distribute electricity, steam, hot water, and/or chilled water to customer campuses and buildings, resulting in reduced operating costs, lower emissions, and unmatched reliability.

Ms. Riesterer joins CenTrio from Oberlin College, where she led the Office of Environmental Sustainability, focusing on developing and implementing energy management and sustainability initiatives to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions at the College. Under her leadership, the College launched a $140 million, four-year, campus-wide conversion to geothermal heating and cooling, modernizing its district energy services and positioning it as a national leader in clean energy. This novel program, a model for colleges, universities, and other energy districts around the world, is supported by an innovative green-bond offering, only the second certified climate bond offering by a U.S. college or university and the third such offering in the world.

"We're excited to bring Meghan on board to lead CenTrio's ambitious sustainability initiatives and goals across our systems and facilities," said Mr. Swinson. "Meghan is known not only for her visionary thinking around sustainable district energy and decarbonization but also for her concrete results. Her active approach, technical energy engineering expertise, and background in planning and facilitation will be valuable assets for our team, our customers, and our communities as the world transitions to a more sustainable energy future, and we deliver reliability, sustainability, and value to our customers."

Ms. Riesterer joined Oberlin College in January 2014, serving as Assistant Vice President of Campus Energy & Sustainability and as a lecturer in environmental studies. Before that, she was the Director of Sustainability for the Medical Center Company, a non-profit district energy system serving thermal energy and power to the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Earlier in her career, she worked in urban planning and energy efficiency services for the City of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Ms. Riesterer, a Certified Energy Manager and LEED Accredited Professional, is a former member of the Board of Directors of the International District Energy Association (IDEA). She earned a Master's Degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About CenTrio

As the industry-leading core-competency U.S. district energy business, CenTrio provides innovative, heating, cooling, and electric district energy solutions focused on reliability, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. CenTrio owns and operates assets in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Portland, Seattle, and Syracuse, operating intelligent thermal energy systems that generate, store, and distribute energy. To learn more, visit CenTrio online at centrioenergy.com.

Media Contact:

Leslie Fangman

CenTrio

[email protected]

SOURCE CenTrio
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cetera Financial Group, one of America's largest networks of financial professionals, announced today that it has bolstered its business development team with several key hires. The team expansion follows record results in 2021, when Cetera's business development efforts attracted $10 billion through organic recruiting and more than $37 billion from an acquisition of certain assets from Voya Financial Advisors. The expansion rounds out Cetera's business development team, which is comprised of 25 individuals supporting 10 territories across the U.S.

"Our focus on recruiting quality assets and positive 2021 momentum have inspired us to invest significantly in the team in order to continue our positive growth trajectory," said John Pierce, head of business development at Cetera. "I'm extremely excited about the team of industry veterans we have in place and am confident that we are positioned well to continue to attract financial professionals from across the industry to Cetera. We welcome growth-minded financial professionals seeking industry leading resources to Cetera and invite any financial professional contemplating their professional home to engage with our team to learn more."

The recent hires on the business development team include:

Jim McMahon , a senior business development specialist in the Pacific Northwest territory, who joins Cetera from Kestra Financial. McMahon worked for Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Raymond James before starting his recruiting career at Ameriprise Financial Services in 2012.

, a senior business development specialist in the Pacific Northwest territory, who joins Cetera from Kestra Financial. McMahon worked for Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and before starting his recruiting career at Ameriprise Financial Services in 2012. Liz Seagren , a sourcing and engagement specialist who worked for nine years as an internal recruiter at Ameriprise Financial Services. Seagren also worked at RiverSource: Insurance and Annuities and worked in the field with an advisor.

, a sourcing and engagement specialist who worked for nine years as an internal recruiter at Ameriprise Financial Services. Seagren also worked at RiverSource: Insurance and Annuities and worked in the field with an advisor. Lee Maxim , CFP  , an internal business development specialist who worked in multiple business development roles previously at Janney Montgomery Scott, and spent seven years as a retirement counselor with Prudential.

, an internal business development specialist who worked in multiple business development roles previously at Janney Montgomery Scott, and spent seven years as a retirement counselor with Prudential. Jacob Fremgen , an internal business development specialist joining Cetera from Kestra Financial, where he was a business development specialist. Fremgen also worked as a financial associate at CUSO Financial Services for three years prior to joining Kestra Financial.

an internal business development specialist joining Cetera from Kestra Financial, where he was a business development specialist. Fremgen also worked as a financial associate at CUSO Financial Services for three years prior to joining Kestra Financial. Amanda Laas, a sourcing and engagement specialist who joins Cetera from Ameriprise Financial Services, where she worked in advisor recruiting, specializing in sourcing banking and institutional clients.

a sourcing and engagement specialist who joins Cetera from Ameriprise Financial Services, where she worked in advisor recruiting, specializing in sourcing banking and institutional clients. Dave Renko , a senior business development specialist covering the Gulf Coast Region, who joins Cetera from Raymond James and held prior roles at Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Cannon Financial Institute.

, a senior business development specialist covering the Gulf Coast Region, who joins Cetera from and held prior roles at Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Cannon Financial Institute. Tanner McMahon , a sourcing and engagement specialist who worked as an advisor at Morgan Stanley and worked for a large RIA firm that that cleared through Ameriprise Financial Services.

a sourcing and engagement specialist who worked as an advisor at Morgan Stanley and worked for a large RIA firm that that cleared through Ameriprise Financial Services. Tom Zirbel , a sourcing and engagement specialist, who has 40 years of experience working in wide-ranging roles at broker-dealers, RIAs, money managers, and insurance companies.

Click here for more information about Cetera's tools and resources for financial advisors.

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 approximately $353 billion in assets under administration and $122 billion in assets under management, as of December 31, 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. Located at: 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
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ChannelAdvisor Corporation (NYSE: ECOM), a leading provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions, today announced that it has achieved 2022 Premier Partner status in the Google Partners program . ChannelAdvisor is a trusted multichannel commerce platform designed to help brands and retailers optimize their operations and connect with active consumers at every stage of the buyer's journey. Through marketplace management tools, automated digital marketing strategies, brand analytics, shoppable media, and first-party solutions, ChannelAdvisor positions brands and retailers to diversify selling channels and scale their businesses.

"The Premier Partner designation highlights the strength of ChannelAdvisor's ongoing strategic alliance with Google," said Link Walls, vice president of digital marketing strategy at ChannelAdvisor. "Brands and retailers have turned to Google Ads to elevate their e-commerce advertising and stand out amongst their competitors. As a Premier Partner, ChannelAdvisor has access to the training and insights needed to help brands and retailers drive long-term growth and stay ahead of the fast-changing e-commerce landscape."

In February, Google recognized the achievements of top-performing digital marketing partners across the globe by awarding Premier Partner status as part of the new Google Partners program . The Google Partners program has undergone significant changes for 2022, including redefining what it means to be a Premier Partner through new, advanced program requirements and offering new Premier Partner benefits to support growth and success with Google Ads.

"Congratulations to our Premier Partners for being among the top 3% of Google Partners in the U.S.," said Davang Shah, Senior Director, Google Ads Marketing. "These companies stand out based on their commitment to developing product expertise, building new client relationships, and helping their current clients grow. We look forward to supporting them as they help their customers succeed online."

ChannelAdvisor is part of a select group of Premier Partners in the Google Partners program. This program is designed for advertising agencies and third parties that manage Google Ads accounts on behalf of other brands or businesses. Its mission is to empower companies by providing them with innovative tools, resources, and support to help their clients succeed and grow online.

For more details about ChannelAdvisor, visit ChannelAdvisor's blog , follow ChannelAdvisor on Twitter @ChannelAdvisor , like ChannelAdvisor on Facebook and connect with ChannelAdvisor on LinkedIn .



About ChannelAdvisor

ChannelAdvisor (NYSE: ECOM) is a leading multichannel commerce platform whose mission is to connect and optimize the world's commerce. For over two decades, ChannelAdvisor has helped brands and retailers worldwide improve their online performance by expanding sales channels, connecting with consumers across the entire buying cycle, optimizing their operations for peak performance, and providing actionable analytics to improve competitiveness. Thousands of customers depend on ChannelAdvisor to securely power their e-commerce operations on channels such as Amazon, eBay, Google, Facebook, Walmart, and hundreds more. For more information, visit www.channeladvisor.com .

ChannelAdvisor Media Contacts:

Tamara Gibbs

[email protected]

919-249-9798

SOURCE ChannelAdvisor Corporation
LUDWIGSBURG, Germany, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- An international comparison shows that Chinese and US companies are the frontrunners in the use of digital technologies in an Industry 4.0 environment. The United Kingdom, though slightly off the pace, is managing to keep up, due in some part to the early course set for Brexit. These are the key findings of the Industry 4.0 Barometer 2021, compiled by the management and IT consultancy MHP in cooperation with the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich. 776 experts from industrial companies in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, China, the UK and the USA took part in the survey, which was conducted for the fourth time last year. The barometer shows the status quo of Industry 4.0 activities at the companies surveyed and provides insights into market-specific features in the regions studied.

Associated Partner und Head of Operations Performance & Strategy at MHP Tom Huber says: "In addition to the four topic clusters of technology, IT integration, strategy and goals, and drivers and obstacles of digitalisation, which are surveyed every year, we also analysed the focus topics of digital leadership and supply chain resilience in more detail. Our international comparison shows that different directions of development can be observed in the different countries.

Digital Leadership: DACH stagnating, while China sets a fast pace

Companies in the German-speaking region are performing worse overall than in 2020: the results in the technology categories surveyed have remained at the same level as in previous years or fallen even lower. DACH region companies do not make a convincing impression in international comparison either. In Chinese companies, for example, use of digital twins is 20 percent higher, supply chain transparency is twice as high and there is twice as much automation and remote control of plants. US companies also achieve high scores - more than half have advanced technology infrastructures that enable them to use artificial intelligence. However: not everyone in the US can keep up with the rapid pace. SMEs and established companies in particular are in danger of losing touch. The situation in the UK is similar: Just about half of companies with less than 100 employees have implemented additive manufacturing processes, while 75 per cent do not use sensor-equipped systems and autonomous robots.

Cross-nationally: High costs and a lack of expertise

Prof. Dr Johann Kranz, Professor of Digital Services and Sustainability at LMU Munich: "Companies globally are under enormous pressure to digitalise, now that customer requirements for products and services are undergoing massive and continuous change as a result of digitalisation. In hesitant companies, the economic potential of this change is not being sufficiently exploited and thus appears too small in comparison to the investment costs. However, current challenges such as the Corona pandemic or the supply chain problems show that companies that have done their digitalisation homework can manoeuvre their way through these crises significantly better." In addition, there is a lack of qualified employees with digitalisation skills, China being the one exception here. "There is often simply a lack of employees with the know-how to implement Industry 4.0 successfully and quickly," adds Prof. Kranz. In addition to the lack of qualified staff, difficulties with internal coordination and bureaucracy slow down the progress of digitalisation projects, especially in German-speaking countries.

"The DACH companies need to reduce their digitalisation deficit quickly in order to remain competitive. Internationally, a CIO in the management, customer focus and collaboration are proving to be universal guarantees of success," states Tom Huber.

The complete report is available for download free of charge here: https://www.mhp.com/en/company/studies/industry-40-barometer-2021

Contact:

Jean-Paul Olivier, Communication & PR

E-Mail: [email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1747071/MHP_Logo.jpg

SOURCE MHP
BEIJING, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In China, the online ride-hailing service is available in more than 400 cities, with an annual ridership of more than 4.31 billion trips.

Every day, we start off a new journey with new relationships and new life.
BOSTON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Circle Internet Financial, LLC, today announced the first in a series of partnerships centered around its Circle Impact digital financial literacy pillar through collaboration with HBCU Bowie State and Rhodes Universities' joint learning module, the Entrepreneurial and Technological Empowerment Program (ETEP). Supported by the U.S. Department of State in South Africa, the module is part of the Spring 2022 semester for students enrolled at the universities in Bowie, Maryland and South Africa.

ETEP introduces business students to the skills needed to integrate budding digital technologies with project management, information systems, and digital financial literacy to develop a global entrepreneurial mindset and foster intercultural knowledge exchange. The program benefits both local communities and business students as they apply tech-based solutions to identified socio-economic problems facing local community co-ops.

"The opportunity to collaborate with these two esteemed universities on their ETEP initiative is a prodigious honor for Circle and our employees," said Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Global Policy at Circle. "A key pillar of Circle Impact is to ensure the future of finance leaves no one behind by establishing a digital financial literacy initiative, and both Bowie State and Rhodes Universities are aligned in our mission to help us foster fair and equitable access to digital financial education and catalyze more participatory entrepreneurship."

As part of the collaboration, Circle will assist in co-creating learning modules, provide subject matter experts to help teach material and offer hands-on learning opportunities, exposing students to the opportunities that open source technologies and fintech offer aspiring entrepreneurs. Circle's collaboration will also expose students to hackathon-style presentations and executive mentorship, career fairs and access to mentoring and networking for startups.

"When we learned of the Circle Impact initiative, we knew we had found the right collaborative partner to help us realize the vision of this initiative," said Dr. Kavita Kapur, Assistant Professor at Bowie State University's College of Business. "The digital financial literacy subject matter expertise and real-world entrepreneurial skills will help us accelerate learning and take our students from the classroom to the future."

"We approached Circle with a wish list to bring ETEP's curriculum to life, and they answered with energy, passion and resources," said Yaya Fanusie, ETEP advisor and chief strategist at Cryptocurrency AML Strategies who also developed a blockchain introduction course in 2018 at Morgan State University, a Baltimore, Maryland-based HBCU. "Together, I believe we will educate and prepare students to succeed personally and professionally and make lasting contributions to their communities."

"Preparing students for the world of work and integrating a service-learning aspect into our curriculum are hallmarks of Rhodes University's unique business programs," said Tshidi Mohapeloa, Professor at Rhodes University's Business School. "Collaborating with Bowie State and now Circle to bring the benefits of ETEP to our students and our community co-ops is a unique opportunity for all of us to contribute toward our common goals."

About Circle

Circle is a global financial technology firm that enables businesses of all sizes to harness the power of digital currencies and public blockchains for payments, commerce and financial applications worldwide. Circle is the principal operator of USD Coin (USDC), one of the fastest growing dollar digital currencies powering always-on internet-native commerce and payments with a circulation greater than $50 billion and over $2.5 trillion in on-chain transactions according to internal data aggregation as of February, 2022. Today, Circle's transactional services, business accounts, and platform APIs are giving rise to a new generation of financial services and commerce applications that hold the promise of raising global economic prosperity for all through the frictionless exchange of financial value. Additionally, Circle operates SeedInvest, a leading startup fundraising platform in the U.S. Learn more at https://circle.com .

About Rhodes University

Rhodes University is one of the oldest (since 1904) yet smaller universities (about 8000 students) is a research intensive, internationally-respected academic institution which proudly affirms its African identity and is committed to democratic ideals, academic freedom, rigorous scholarship, sound moral values and social responsibility. Rhodes guiding values are institutional autonomy, collegiality, excellence, social justice and respect for each other, equity and redress, development and wellbeing, stewardship and advancing the public good. All these values are underpinned by the principle of accountability and courage.

About Bowie State University

Bowie State University (BSU), the oldest historically black university in Maryland, is an important higher education access portal for qualified persons from diverse academic and socioeconomic backgrounds, seeking a high-quality and affordable public comprehensive university. The university places special emphasis on the science, technology, cybersecurity, teacher education, business, and nursing disciplines within the context of a liberal arts education. For more information about BSU, visit bowiestate.edu .

SOURCE Circle Internet Financial, LLC
This science partnership aligns with all of our organizational goals to provide factual, unbiased information. Tweet this

James Lawler, Founder of Climate Now, said, "Achieving global net zero emissions is now an urgent challenge facing investors, business leaders, and policy makers. To meet it, they will need to understand practical paths forward, and the science that underpins key concepts in climate and energy science. Climate Now's mission is to provide that understanding from experts in the climate and energy space through our videos and podcast conversations. This science partnership involving Livermore Lab aligns with all of our organizational goals to provide factual, unbiased information."



"We are honored to partner with Climate Now, and their in-depth and expert-led approach to understanding climate and energy science," said Sally Allen, Executive Director of the Livermore Lab Foundation. "Our Foundation is dedicated to helping the general public and students of all ages understand the science and engagement needed to address carbon neutrality. The research at Lawrence Livermore National Lab is helping shape this national discussion and this partnership will highlight that expertise."



In the energy space, LLNL is working to predict and understand climate change security challenges and develop solutions for future adaptation. In 2020, LLNL authored the seminal report, Getting to Neutral , which identified a path forward for California to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. More than 100 scientists, engineers, and researchers at LLNL are engaged in climate resiliency efforts with the goal of identifying practical applications and solutions.



Dr. Roger Aines, Chief Scientist of the Energy Program and the Carbon Initiative at the LLNL, said, "One of our most important missions is to share information about climate solutions in ways that are unbiased and easily accessible. Climate Now has the highest standards for those goals."



About Climate Now

Founded in 2021, Climate Now creates high-quality, expert-led video and audio content on the science of climate change and the energy transition. Its goal is to root the conversation about climate change in hard science, while making it accessible to a broader global audience. Through podcasts, videos and newsletters, the content explores answers to tough questions about the impacts of, and solutions to, the climate crisis. All content presented by Climate Now is reviewed by experts, and citations to academic literature are provided for all statements of fact on the climatenow.com website. For more information or to subscribe to Climate Now content, visit climatenow.com , Facebook @weareclimatenow , Instagram @weareclimatenow , or Twitter @weareclimatenow . Podcasts are available on Apple , Spotify , Google , or Audible . View a video introduction to Climate Now, supported by the Livermore Lab Foundation, on YouTube .



About the Livermore Lab Foundation and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Founded in 2016, the Livermore Lab Foundation is a 501(c)(3) philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing fundamental science and research initiatives, STEM programs and fellowships at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.



Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , founded in 1952, provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
The move marks the next step in Corestream's evolution. Corestream seeks to build upon the two million-plus employees who presently have access to voluntary benefit offerings through its platform, including critical illness, long term care, pet care, auto and home insurance, financial assistance programs, and other health and wellness related offerings. The addition of Cope is the first in a series of investments in 2022 intended to deepen Corestream's commitment to innovation in the voluntary benefits industry.

"We're excited to bring on a growth leader of Mark Cope's caliber as we continue to help companies counteract the 'Great Resignation' by engaging their employees with a vibrant benefits plan," said Corestream founder and CEO Neil Vaswani. "Corestream has been valuable to so many clients, as proven by our NPS score. Now our goal is to equip even more businesses to retain their talent, and Mark will be a key piece of helping us achieve that vision."

Cope brings extensive experience to the CRO role. Immediately before joining Corestream, he served as senior vice president of sales and customer experience for Central Reach, a leading practice management and electronic health record technology company. At Central Reach, Cope was instrumental in scaling the organization through its hypergrowth phase, ultimately becoming the clear market leader in that space. He has also held prior CRO, sales VP, and sales director roles dating back to 2005.

"Corestream has built a great ecosystem to help employers combat employee burnout and support their overall well-being. I look forward to leveraging that ecosystem to propel company growth while keeping things fun and inventive. It's go-time," said Cope.

A native of the U.K., Cope earned his marketing degree from North Warwickshire College and currently lives in New Jersey.

About Corestream

Corestream is a leading voluntary benefits software provider that believes the success of any organization relies on the holistic wellness of its workforce, from physical and mental health to financial wellbeing. Corestream's revolutionary SaaS platform scales the distribution and adoption of voluntary benefits to become an integral part of protecting and enhancing the employees' livelihood. By removing barriers, streamlining administration, and optimizing the user experience, Corestream has become a powerful tool in the arsenal of HR teams, brokers, vendors, and employees. For more information, visit www.corestream.com.

Contact:

Gary Frisch / DeFazio Communications

856-767-7772 / [email protected]

SOURCE Corestream
CALGARY, AB, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Canadian Pacific's (TSX: CP) (NYSE: CP) President and Chief Executive Officer, Keith Creel, will address the following conferences in Miami, Fla.:

Feb. 22, 2022  Citi's 2022 Global Industrial Tech and Mobility Conference at 11:20 a.m. ET

 Citi's 2022 Global Industrial Tech and Mobility Conference at Feb. 23, 2022  Barclays Industrial Select Conference at 9:45 a.m. ET

CP will provide access to live audio webcasts of each address at investor.cpr.ca. Replays will also be available following the conclusion of each event.

About Canadian Pacific

Canadian Pacific is a transcontinental railway in Canada and the United States with direct links to major ports on the west and east coasts. CP provides North American customers a competitive rail service with access to key markets in every corner of the globe. CP is growing with its customers, offering a suite of freight transportation services, logistics solutions and supply chain expertise. Visit cpr.ca to see the rail advantages of CP. CP-IR

SOURCE Canadian Pacific
CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- While officials in the fossil fuel industry have long insisted that investments in coal and natural gas are necessary to keep electricity bills low and the lights on, a consumer watchdog group on Tuesday said that its first-ever analysis of state-by-state energy data casts doubt on those claims.

In fact, Electric Utility Performance: A State-By-State Data Review shows that consumers appear to pay higher bills and spend a higher percentage of their income on electricity in many of the same U.S. states where fossil fuels account for the largest share of the power mix. Similarly, states that rely heavily on fossil fuels also tend to rank relatively low on reliability.

The relationship between the cost and environmental ramifications of electricity is one of a litany of findings in the state-by-state ranking of overall utility performance, conducted under the auspices of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), a nonprofit consumer advocate based in Illinois.

Analyzing data that utilities are required to file with the federal government, the report evaluates state rankings in three key areas: affordability, reliability and the environmental impact of electric service. It then averaged the rankings in these categories to yield a cumulative best-to-worst value of utility performance for all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Nevada captured the top spot for utility performance, with an average ranking of 13.6 across the three categories. West Virginia was at the bottom, with a corresponding mark about three times higher at 39.3. The study's data were collected and published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Census Bureau. Most figures are from 2019 because of a time lag in reporting on the part of utilities.

"In assessing how well our nation's utilities perform, we evaluated them from the perspective of the consumers they serve and the public resources they're entrusted with safeguarding," CUB Executive Director David Kolata said. "Ultimately, we believe the quality of our electric service hinges on three key objectives: It should be affordable, reliable and clean."

While the report can serve as a helpful guide for states ranking poorly in various categories, Kolata said that states performing well shouldn't regard these positive metrics as a license to coast. There is ample room for even the top-performers to improve, and further benefit their customers.

Kolata noted that the report comes at a pivotal time for the U.S, as evidence of the changing climate jolts the country with increasing frequency, from winter deep freezes, to spring and summer floods and wildfires, to autumn hurricanes. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared last year that the U.S. and the globe were at a crossroads in efforts to avert the most devastating

impacts of carbon emissions unleashed by fossil fuels. As one of the country's largest sources of the carbon emissions that cause climate change, electric utilities loom large in the ability to keep these threats in check.

Meanwhile, technological innovation, combined with cultural sea changes such as the working-from-home revolution spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, have put even more demand on our electric infrastructure and underscore the critical importance of an affordable and reliable power supply.

"Arguably, it's never been more important to understand how our electric utilities are performing  and what can be done to optimize the delivery of their services  than now," Kolata said. "Our security, our economy, and the viability of our environment are all dependent on the quality of this vital resource."

The report yielded other findings that warrant further review by policymakers, the authors said. Among them:

Lower electricity rates are not necessarily synonymous with lower electricity bills for consumers. In fact, several states with some of the lowest per-unit power costs actually are among those with the highest average residential bills. This seeming paradox can be attributed in part to differences in weather, but it also reflects the money-saving benefits of investments in cost-effective energy efficiency and clean energy programs. Those expenditures may lead to increases in the nominal electric rate a utility charges, but by reducing the amount of actual power consumed, they can shrink overall costs for consumers over time.





Not all states that installed so-called smart-grid infrastructure ranked well in the reliability of electric service. Michigan , Ohio , and Oklahoma each spent large sums on grid modernization yet floundered on reliability, suggesting that the introduction of technologies such as Advanced Metering Infrastructure needs to be coupled with vigilant oversight by regulators and consumer advocates.

Kolata said CUB intends to conduct further research to probe deeper into the relationships between the data in the report, and he urged federal and state policymakers to launch similar reviews.

"We hope this report sparks discussion and then action on how states can achieve the cheapest, fastest path to 100 percent clean, affordable power," Kolata said.

CUB is Illinois' leading nonprofit utility watchdog. Created by the Illinois Legislature, CUB opened its doors in 1984 to represent the interests of residential and small-business utility customers. Since then, it has saved consumers more than $20 billion by helping block rate hikes, secure refunds, and fight for clean, low-cost energy. For more information, call CUB's Consumer Hotline, 1-800-669-5556, or visit its award-winning website, www.CitizensUtilityBoard.org.

SOURCE Citizens Utility Board
Growing investments by technology providers will boost the data center accelerators market demand. To accelerate innovations and introduce new Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) technologies, venture capitals are backing companies with experience & expertise in this sector. For instance, in January 2022, Vela Technologies invested around USD 0.85 million in EnSilica Ltd., a company focused on designing & suppling custom mixed-signal ASICs. An influx in working capital helps manufacturers in fast-tracking their technological development processes. In addition, the funds will aid the company in supporting its current client base while adding a new customer base from different sectors including automotive, healthcare, and industrial.

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The data center accelerators market will witness growth owing to the rising competition in the industry. With increase in usage of online services such as digital payments, streaming platforms, net banking & e-commerce platforms, the data traffic has increased over the last few years. This factor has encouraged the technology providers to launch advanced solutions in the market.

Rising focus on digital transformations across the government sector will drive the market expansion in the coming years. For instance, the Indian Ministry is emphasizing on providing all its services through digital portals to increase process speed & efficiency. This factor has encouraged the construction of new data centers in the country. In November 2021, the Tamil Nadu government signed around 60 MoUs for projects worth approximately USD 4.7 billion for the construction of data centers. The administration has confirmed deals with companies such as Larsen & Toubro Limited, STT GDC, CtrlS, Adani Enterprises, and Bharti Airtel's Nxtra.

Increasing utilization of digital payment modes & sources in Europe will foster the data center accelerators market progression. Consumers are now relying heavily on online cloud-based platforms for completing their transactions due to their seamless usability. Government authorities are supporting the changing market conditions as they help them in managing information more proficiently. In November 2021, the European Central Bank approved a new oversight framework for electronic payments including different crypto assets and stable coins. It will assess the efficiency & security of electronic payments, direct debits, e-money transfers, credit transfers, and digital payment tokens. This factor will increase data generation across the BFSI sector, propelling the demand for data centers and high-end accelerators.

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Some major findings of the data center accelerators market report are:

Expanding utilization of online platforms across the consumer sector will boost the industry demand for data center accelerators. With an increase in data generation, solution providers are focusing on installing high-end hardware and software to increase their processing speed.

The increasing integration of AI-based systems in high-performance computing data centers will fuel the market value in the coming years. Operators that manage complicated data sets, optimize performance & increase efficiency are relying on implementing evolving technologies.

Construction of new data centers across the globe for information processing will impel the market growth. Growing utilization of cloud-based services in different sectors has supported the launch of new sites, creating opportunities for the installation of advanced GPU or FPGA processors.

Growing penetration of IoT devices and smartphones will support the data center accelerators market in IT & telecom applications. The increasing number of social media applications and video-streaming platforms has boosted data traffic, encouraging companies to install advanced HPC accelerators.

The developing government sectors will support industry growth. Ruling administrations are emphasizing on infrastructure changes and shifting population data, such as personal details and banking & tax filings, on cloud-based platforms for process acceleration.

Table of Contents (ToC) of the report:

Chapter 3 Data Center Accelerators Market Insights

3.1 Industry segmentation

3.2 Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

3.2.1 Global outlook

3.2.2 Regional outlook

3.2.3 Industry value chain

3.2.3.1 Component supplier

3.2.3.2 Manufacturers

3.2.3.3 Technology providers

3.2.4 Competitive landscape

3.3 Industry ecosystem analysis

3.3.1 Raw material suppliers

3.3.2 Component suppliers

3.3.3 Manufacturers

3.3.4 Software/technology providers

3.3.5 System integrators

3.3.6 Service providers

3.3.7 Distribution network

3.3.8 Vendor matrix

3.4 Technology & innovation landscape

3.4.1 Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

3.4.2 Growth of cloud-based services

3.4.3 Deep learning in big data analytics

3.4.4 Parallel computing in data centers

3.5 Regulatory landscape

3.6 Industry impact forces

3.6.1 Growth drivers

3.6.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges

3.7 Growth potential analysis

3.8 Porter's analysis

3.9 PESTEL analysis

Browse Complete Table of Contents (ToC) @

https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/data-center-accelerator-market

About Global Market Insights Inc.

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

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SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc.
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global data collection and labeling market is projected to reach US$ 9,670 Mn, exhibiting growth at 18% CAGR during the forecast period from 2022 to 2032, estimates Fact.MR.

The ongoing technological advancement, evolving healthcare infrastructure, and increasing awareness among customers about digitization are expected to drive the growth in the market.

Emergence of robotics and drones, especially in developed countries, is another factor propelling the demand in the market. Various government and private agencies are integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) with drones to provide data collection and labeling services to industries, such as defense, construction, mining, forestry, and agriculture.

Besides this, data gathering and its annotation are likely to create various growth opportunities for industries such as e-commerce, social networking, and gaming. Consequently, social networking platforms are estimated to benefit from the image processing technology for improving audience engagement.

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Data collection and labeling software solutions help these platforms in creating a more connected experience by encouraging users to tag their friends and share their images. Hence, implementation of data annotation with functions, such as landmark detection, object recognition, and facial recognition will drive the market.

The advent of large-scale cloud-hosted ML and AI platforms provided by tech giants will also increase the demand for data collection and labelling. Rising integration of mobile computing platforms and digital image processing in diverse applications, such as document verification and digital shopping, will bolster the market.

"Need for verified clinical information and increasing adoption of Electronic Health Record (EHR) in the healthcare sector to conduct in-depth studies on patients are expected to boost the sales of data collection and labeling software solutions. On the other hand, these software solutions are utilized for gathering insights from vast volumes of datasets for surveillance and national security," says a Fact.MR analyst.

Key Takeaways:

Based on data type, the image/video segment is likely to hold more than 35% of the market share owing to the generalization of public surveillance and facial recognition technology by governments.

By vertical, the automotive segment will account for 1/3 rd of market share owing to the high demand for rental services and autonomous driving.

of market share owing to the high demand for rental services and autonomous driving. The U.S. is expected to hold about 27% of the revenue on the back of rapid expansion of the e-commerce industry and growing trend of online shopping.

India is estimated to account for 25% of the market share due to rising usage of smartphones and adoption of digital platforms in retail and healthcare sectors.

is estimated to account for 25% of the market share due to rising usage of smartphones and adoption of digital platforms in retail and healthcare sectors. China data collection and labeling market is projected to exhibit 40% of the share backed by development of high-quality localized AI data solutions by key players.

Growth Drivers:

High demand for medical imaging systems equipped with computer vision technology in the healthcare industry for detecting various diseases is estimated to boost the market.

Need to enhance organizational decision-making is expected to encourage healthcare institutions to adopt big data, fuelling the growth in the market.

Rising government investments to develop innovative data collection and labeling software due to privacy concerns are projected to augment the sales.

Restraints:

Usage of an external force during the crowd-sourced data labeling process can limit a team's ability to learn and develop its own processes.

As machine learning models are trained according to the available datasets, objects that are external to the sample might not be labeled accurately during automated labeling. This might limit the growth in the market.

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Competitive Landscape

Leading players operating in the data collection and labeling market are engaging in collaborations with start-up companies to increase production capacities and broaden their presence across the globe.

Meanwhile, some of the other key players are conducting research and development activities to introduce state-of-the-art technologies to cater to the high demand from a wide range of industries.

For instance,

February 2022 : FlyNex and Drone Harmony joined hands to develop an all-in-one solution for data collection with the help of drones. The platform is aimed at the real estate, telecommunications, energy, and construction industries. It would enable integrated mission planning and is specially designed to enhance surveying jobs, documentation, and building inspections. The company will also provide training to numerous organizations, where it will introduce topics related to drones and the usage of its new software.

: FlyNex and Drone Harmony joined hands to develop an all-in-one solution for data collection with the help of drones. The platform is aimed at the real estate, telecommunications, energy, and construction industries. It would enable integrated mission planning and is specially designed to enhance surveying jobs, documentation, and building inspections. The company will also provide training to numerous organizations, where it will introduce topics related to drones and the usage of its new software. January 2022 : AIMMO, a leading data labeling service provider based in the Republic of Korea, announced that it has raised US$12 million in a 'Series A' round to accelerate its data labeling technology and expand its presence worldwide. The company's AI-powered data annotation includes AIMMO Enterprise, its new flagship product, Microsoft Azure infrastructure, and AIMMO Annotation Workforce Service, which is a novel labeling service.

: AIMMO, a leading data labeling service provider based in the Republic of Korea, announced that it has raised in a 'Series A' round to accelerate its data labeling technology and expand its presence worldwide. The company's AI-powered data annotation includes AIMMO Enterprise, its new flagship product, Microsoft Azure infrastructure, and AIMMO Annotation Workforce Service, which is a novel labeling service. November 2021 : Scale AI, a provider of high quality training data headquartered in the U.S., acquired SiaSearch, a small start-up firm to boost the development of its newest product and to expand its reach in Europe . This acquisition would help the former in creating its AI development platform named Nucleus which would help customers to manage, curate, and organize massive data sets.

Key Players in the Data Collection and Labeling Market Include:

Appen Limited

Reality AI

Globalme Localization Inc.

Global Technology Solutions

Alegion

Labelbox Inc.

Dobility Inc.

Scale AI Inc.

Trilldata Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Playment Inc.

More Valuable Insights on Data Collection and Labeling Market

Fact.MR provides an unbiased analysis of the data collection and labeling market, presenting historical demand data (2017-2021) and forecast statistics for the period from 2022-2032. The study divulges compelling insights on the global data collection and labeling market with a detailed segmentation on the basis of:

By Data Type

Text

Image/Video

Audio

By Vertical

IT

Automotive

Government

Healthcare

BFSI

Retail & E-commerce

Others

By Region

North America

Latin America

Europe

East Asia

South Asia & Oceania

& Oceania Middle East & Africa

Key Questions Covered in Data Collection and Labeling Market Report

The report offers insight into the data collection and labeling market demand outlook for 2022-2032.

The market study also highlights projected sales growth for data collection and labeling market between 2022 and 2032.

Data collection and labeling 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.

Data collection and labeling 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 Technology Domain-

Data Center Containment Solution Market Trends - The increased adoption of cloud computing and heavy content applications by businesses throughout the world is predicted to increase demand for data centers. This, in turn, is likely to contribute to the growth of the data center containment solutions market.

Data as a Service (DaaS) Market Scope - The Data as a Service market is fueled by the fact that it is one of the most cost-effective and agile services for businesses that are utilized to provide amazing services to their consumers. Due to its application in offering data-driven solutions, demand for data as a service is likely to grow significantly.

Data Extraction Software Market Analysis - The trend towards artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, as well as strong demand for superior business intelligence tools, are the key reasons driving the growth of the data extraction software market.

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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The campaign, aptly titled "Come Closer", celebrates the joy of closeness and connection in our challenging times, featuring intimate images of two of the world's most recognizable celebrities against the backdrop of David Yurman's perennial inspiration and home of New York City.

"After years of separation for many  much longer than any of us could have anticipated  we are all craving connection," said Evan Yurman. "'Come Closer' is a call to all of us to delight in the everyday, where simple moments with family and friends are unexpected and beautiful."

Scarlett Johansson for David Yurman 2022 "Come Closer" Campaign

When envisioning the campaign, there was only one choice for Evan Yurman when it came to its female star.

"Scarlett is the embodiment of the David Yurman woman. A native New Yorker at the top of her craft, Scarlett is a woman who forges her own path. She doesn't take no for an answer and isn't afraid to stand up for herself and what's right," said Evan Yurman. "To have the opportunity to work with a force like Scarlett to create such honest images, profound in their lack of pretense and artifice, is an honor."

For "Come Closer", mother, founder, Tony winner and two-time Academy Award-nominated actress Johansson was photographed by renowned fashion photographer Lachlan Bailey and styled by Anastasia Barbieri. The series of 10 images and short film feature a relaxed Johansson as few have had the opportunity to see her  humming and singing to Sinatra's iconic tune, "New York, New York." The images and film were captured throughout New York City's The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel and its famed Bemelmans Bar  an enduring magnet for New York's creative and cultural luminaries.

"Growing up in New York, I always felt connected to David Yurman  I would see their beautiful black and white ads in all my favorite fashion magazines," said Johansson. "The Yurmans and their designs always embodied New York for me  bold, fresh and just a bit of edge. When Evan approached me with this opportunity and shared his vision for the campaign, I already felt so linked to the brand that it was a natural fit."

Henry Golding for David Yurman 2022 "Come Closer" Campaign

With the decision to introduce the brand's first-ever male ambassador, Henry Golding shined. Already exhibiting the enigmatic qualities of the David Yurman man, Golding's New York story is one of perseverance and identity.

"Henry embodies the passion and grit of the David Yurman man. He's extremely talented, principled, and well-traveled, but of all the amazing places he's visited and after all that he's achieved, it is the spirit of New York City that keeps calling him back," said Evan Yurman. "We are thrilled to welcome Henry into the David Yurman family and to introduce him as the face of the Men's category, debuting in our new campaign that shares the sometimes-quiet ways that only New York City can draw you back in."

For "Come Closer", father, advocate and globally celebrated actor Henry Golding was photographed by renowned fashion photographer Lachlan Bailey and styled by George Cortina. The series of 10 images and short film, featuring a sophisticated and stylish Golding, were captured at Casa Cipriani - the new private club and landmark hotel on the waterfront at the epicenter of New York's creative scene  as well as the iconic hotel, The Carlyle.

"There is a magnetism to New York City and a tenacity among New Yorkers that is difficult to describe, but contagious just the same. I've been fortunate enough to visit the city many times for both personal and professional reasons, and each time I feel more and more a sense of belonging," said Golding. "David Yurman is a testament to the city's heritage and values, and I'm honored to be the face of a brand whose timeless works of self-expression continue to connect us all."

In 2022, David Yurman will continue to support its Unity Fund  created in May 2021 in partnership with Robin Hood, New York City's largest poverty fighting philanthropy. Beginning February 15th, 20% of the purchase price from a curated assortment of women's and men's designs will benefit the David Yurman Unity Fund.

ABOUT DAVID YURMAN:

David Yurman is a celebrated American jewelry company founded in New York by David Yurman, a sculptor, and his wife, Sybil, a painter and ceramicist. When the artists began collaborating, their goal was simply to make beautiful objects to wear. Lead today by their son Evan, David Yurman creates timeless, yet contemporary collections for women and men defined by inspiration, innovation, consummate craftsmanship and cable  the brand's artistic signature. David Yurman collections are available at 49 retail stores throughout the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and France and at over 300 locations worldwide, through their exclusive authorized fine jewelry and timepiece network of retailers.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Nike Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE David Yurman
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2021, Build-A-Bear Workshop (NYSE: BBW) hosted a Make-A-Wish event for Keegan, an 18-year-old wish kid whose wish was to partner with the company to raise awareness for liver cancer. For his wish experience, Keegan visited Build-A-Bear World Bearquarters in St. Louis, MO to design his own furry friend to help raise awareness for liver cancer.

Keegan began his day with Bear Builder Training and received the first ever tour of Build-A-Bear's new World Bearquarters in downtown St. Louis, MO. He then worked with a senior product designer to design furry friend concepts before pitching his ideas to Build-A-Bear senior leadership, including CEO Sharon Price John.

Designed by Keegan himself, Keegan's Wish Frog has emerald green fur to match the liver cancer ribbon and a yellow belly and eyes to represent the jaundice many liver cancer patients experience. The frog also features the green liver cancer awareness ribbon on its left paw pad and dark green 'liver spots' along its back. The fabric was hand-picked by Keegan to resemble a comforting blanket. "I wanted something that you can physically have in your hand and that people can relate to my situation but also can enjoy for themselves," Keegan said during his visit.

"We were so honored when we learned about Keegan's wish to design a special furry friend with Build-A-Bear. To be a part of someone's wish in such a significant and meaningful way meant so much to our entire team," said Build-A-Bear Workshop President and CEO, Sharon Price John. "Keegan's designs were so creative and inspiring and spot-on in terms of what our Guests love. As a Build-A-Bear fan, Keegan knew that frogs are always a favorite, and I know Keegan's Wish Frog will be a beloved addition to many collections! It was an honor to have him join the Build-A-Bear family."

"We are so thankful for our partners at Build-A-Bear Workshop for helping to bring Keegan's heartfelt and selfless wish to fruition," said Caroline Schmidt, President & CEO of Make-A-Wish Missouri & Kansas. "Keegan and his wish are an inspiration to all of us and we are privileged to be able to deliver on his vision of raising awareness for liver cancer. I know his incredible spirit will radiate through this creation, providing a legacy of everlasting hope for us all."

Keegan also designed two liver cancer awareness t-shirts to accompany his Wish Frog. DeLIVER some love by dressing your furry friend in a t-shirt featuring the green liver cancer awareness ribbon. Or choose the "Storm clouds and 'liver' linings" tee; the liver on this t-shirt includes a silver lining as a symbol of hope for those impacted by liver cancer.

While most wish kids overcome their illnesses, Keegan lost his battle with liver cancerbut not before he was able to see his vision come to life. "For someone to find a little bit of hope or a little bit of community by seeing this frog, really it's all about connecting with that inner child," Keegan said when he made his visit to the company's headquarters. "Making this wishyes, it is my wish and yes, it is about liver cancer awarenessbut also making it bigger than that. It's endlessly beautiful."

Keegan's wish has helped to create a legacy of everlasting hope for children with critical illnesses. In honor of Keegan's Wish Frog and his Make-A-Wish experience, Build-A-Bear Foundation donated $15,000 to the UPMC Liver Cancer Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Product images can be found here.

For more information about Build-A-Bear Workshop furry friends, gifts, events and deals, visit buildabear.com, and follow the brand on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter.

ABOUT BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP, INC. (NYSE: BBW)

Build-A-Bear is a multi-generational global brand focused on its mission to "add a little more heart to life" appealing to a wide array of consumer groups who enjoy the personal expression in making their own "furry friends" to celebrate and commemorate life moments. Nearly 500 interactive brick-and-mortar retail locations operated through a variety of formats provide guests of all ages a hands-on entertaining experience, which often fosters a lasting and emotional brand connection. The company also offers engaging e-commerce/digital purchasing experiences on www.buildabear.com including its online "Bear-Builder" as well as the new "Bear Builder 3D Workshop". In addition, extending its brand power beyond retail, Build-A-Bear Entertainment, a subsidiary of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc., is dedicated to creating engaging content for kids and adults that fulfills the company's mission, while the company also offers products at wholesale and in non-plush consumer categories via licensing agreements with leading manufacturers. For more information, visit the Investor Relations section of buildabear.com.

SOURCE Build-A-Bear Workshop
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global defibrillator market size is expected to reach USD 20.6 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.0% from 2022 to 2030. The key drivers for this market include supportive regulatory policies, rising incidences of sudden cardiac arrests, product developments, and rising awareness regarding cardiac conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, gave rise to several challenges such as dampened demand for ICDs, logistical bottlenecks, postponed elective surgeries across the globe, and reduced sales growth.

Key Insights & Findings from the report:

North America held the largest revenue share in 2021 due to the advanced healthcare infrastructure, supportive policies driving adoption of public access AEDs, and deeper penetration of the technologically advanced devices.

Asia Pacific is anticipated to register the highest CAGR of 7.9% over the forecast period owing to the high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in China and India and increasing healthcare expenditure.

The industry participants are focusing on investing in acquisitions, collaborations, product launches, and partnerships to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Some of the leading players in the market are headquartered in Asia such as Asahi Kasei, Nihon Kohden, and Microport, thus contributing to the regional market growth.

Europe held a significant revenue share in 2021 owing to initiatives by key companies and well-established healthcare infrastructure.

For instance, in January 2020 , Medtronic received the CE mark for its Cobalt and Crome lineup of defibrillators. This extended the company's cardiac solutions offerings and enabled it to commercialize the products across Europe .

Read 150-page market research report, "Defibrillator Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (ICDs, External Defibrillators), By End Use (Hospital, Pre Hospital, Public Access Market, Alternate Care Market, Home Healthcare), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030", published by Grand View Research.

Defibrillators Market Growth & Trends

The demand for ICDs plunged during 2020 as governments in many key markets implemented movement restrictions and hospitals deferred elective procedures. The sales recovered gradually as movement restrictions were eased and elective procedure volume went up. For instance, Abbott reported a decline in demand and sales of its cardiovascular and neuromodulation portfolio in 2020. Abbott attributed the sales decrease to reduced procedure volumes resulting from the pandemic.

The rising demand to develop solutions to improve sudden cardiac arrests response and the need to improve patient outcomes is expected to drive innovation in implantable as well as external defibrillators product segments. Innovation in the implantable defibrillators segments is driven by product advancements in subcutaneous and transvenous devices to increase device safety and efficacy. Integration of digital technologies such as analytics and tracking software is expected to drive the development in the external defibrillators segments. Other emerging technological trends include developments in personal AEDs for use in home settings, improvements in tracking technology for AEDs, the use of drones to deliver devices to care sites, and the use of IoT.

Major market players are focused on launching technologically advanced products and collaborations to enhance their presence. For instance, in July 2020, Zoll Medical Corporation launched a new remote view technology feature on its X Series monitor/defibrillator. This enhanced the existing product portfolio. In 2020, the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) launched a project in collaboration with Everdrone and Schiller to understand and explore the possibilities of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for emergency medical deliveries. The AEDs used were provided by Schiller, thus strengthening the company's market presence.

Defibrillators Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global defibrillators market on the basis of product, end use, and region:

Defibrillators Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICD)

S-ICD



T-ICD



Single Chamber





Dual Chamber





CRT-D

External Defibrillators (ED)

Manual ED



Automated ED



Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillators

Defibrillators End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

Hospital

Pre Hospital

Public Access Market

Alternate Care Market

Home Healthcare

Defibrillators 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



Colombia

MEA

South Africa



Saudi Arabia



UAE

List of Key Players of Defibrillators Market

Medtronic

Abbott

Boston Scientific Corporation

BIOTRONIK SE & Co. KG

MicroPort Scientific Corporation

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Stryker

ZOLL Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei)

Nihon Kohden Corporation

Schiller AG

Check out more related studies published by Grand View Research:

External Defibrillators Market - The global external defibrillators market size is anticipated to reach USD 6.5 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a notable CAGR of 9.3% from 2022 to 2030. The key factors driving the market growth include rising technological advancements, initiatives for promoting public access AEDs, and the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest. The COVID-19 pandemic increased awareness about defibrillation training and the use of external defibrillators in case of an adverse cardiac event, thus increasing demand for defibrillators.

The global external defibrillators market size is anticipated to reach by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a notable CAGR of 9.3% from 2022 to 2030. The key factors driving the market growth include rising technological advancements, initiatives for promoting public access AEDs, and the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest. The COVID-19 pandemic increased awareness about defibrillation training and the use of external defibrillators in case of an adverse cardiac event, thus increasing demand for defibrillators. Pacemakers Market - The global pacemakers market size is anticipated to reach USD 5.94 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a lucrative CAGR of 3.4% from 2022 to 2030. This growth is owing to various factors such as technological advancements and the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular devices. Furthermore, the growing sedentary lifestyle coupled with the rising geriatric population is also anticipated to fuel the market growth during the projected period.

- The global pacemakers market size is anticipated to reach by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a lucrative CAGR of 3.4% from 2022 to 2030. This growth is owing to various factors such as technological advancements and the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular devices. Furthermore, the growing sedentary lifestyle coupled with the rising geriatric population is also anticipated to fuel the market growth during the projected period. Pneumatic Nebulizers Market - The global pneumatic nebulizers market size is anticipated to reach USD 1.02 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 6.0% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market has shown constant growth in the adoption of pneumatic nebulizers as home healthcare devices have been gaining popularity in recent years. Miniaturization of products and technological advancements are also boosting the adoption of home healthcare devices.

Browse through Grand View Research's coverage of the Medical Devices 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.

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SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
HONG KONG, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Delos Capital, a Hong Kong-headquartered life sciences venture capital fund with a global presence and investment mandate, announces the successful $300 million first close of its Fund III. The first close of Fund III was completed in only 6 months of fundraising and attracted commitments from reputable investors across US and Greater China, with all existing investors in Delos Capital Fund II re-upped or upsized their commitments in Fund III.

"Our rigorous science-driven investment approach leveraging critical insights from our venture partners and senior advisors, who are world-class scientists and entrepreneurs, has resulted in industry-leading track record and earned us trust from investors and entrepreneurs globally. Our deep-rooted presence across both US and Greater China also has generated meaningful synergies for and among the portfolio companies" commented Henry Chen, Managing Partner of Delos Capital, "we are grateful for our investors' longstanding support; this reflects a strong vote of confidence in Delos Capital's vision and strategy".

With the first close of Fund III, Delos Capital is committed to building on its successful investment strategy and bringing to market promising solutions that improve patients' lives globally.

About Delos Capital

Delos Capital aims to identify and develop cutting-edge life sciences innovations through active investing, building, and operating word-class life science ventures across the US and Greater China. For more information, please visit: https://www.deloscapital.com/, or contact us through: Email [email protected] | TEL +852-3912-0500.

SOURCE Delos Capital
NEWTOWN, Pa., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Defense Health Agency (DHA) announced that Optimal Strategix Group, Inc (OSG), a customer-centric global technology and analytics provider, is one of three small businesses being awarded a five-year contract for the Defense Healthcare Management Systems (DHMS) Workforce 3.0 digital transformation efforts. Workforce 3.0 is part of the Program Executive Office's multi-year strategy to digitally transform the organization for year-over-year growth in product portfolio value and customer outcomes.

The award is a $1.425B, firm-fixed-price, multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This effort has an estimated completion date of January 2028.

"OSG's focus on nudging patients to better outcomes by improving experience and engagement is delivered through our world-class healthcare-centered technology, PatientX360. We are honored to be recognized with this award and very proud to use our technology to benefit the DHA and its constituents," says R. Sukumar, Ph.D., CEO of OSG.

OSG, in partnership with Nolij Consulting LLC (Nolij), a woman-owned, solutions-focused Healthcare IT services company, successfully submitted a winning bid for the Workforce 3.0 contract and intend to enter bids in partnership for similar government contracts in the future.

Along with the other contract recipients, OSG and Nolij will be working with the DHMS to build technology solutions for their Workforce 3.0 objective to monitor and analyze the healthcare journey. This contract is designed to leverage innovative processes and best-in-class methodologies from the private sector to enable the DHMS workforce to manage healthcare and workplace data seamlessly and digitally.

About OSG

Optimal Strategix Group (OSG) is a global leader in Customer Experience and Journey Analytics with their powerful technology platform. OSG provides their customers the resources to understand the current and future needs of patients, physicians, consumers, and customers. OSG connects data to customer engagement through powerful AI-driven analytics, revealing customer motivations and designing outcome-driven nudges. Their Technology-Enabled Services, and SaaS and PaaS products have successfully delivered business growth to their customers, including some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies, by focusing on customer expectations, improving experiences & driving engagement. OSG is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania with offices in New York, Bengaluru, and Dubai.

To learn more, visit osganalytics.com .

About Nolij Consulting

Nolij Consulting is a woman-owned, solutions-focused Healthcare IT services company that specializes in digital healthcare modernization for the military, public, and commercial sectors.

To learn more, visit www.nolijconsulting.com.

SOURCE Optimal Strategix Group (OSG Analytics)
"Giving back to the communities we serve is part of who we've always been. We're stoked to kick off this year with our 16th annual Dutch Luv Day," said Katie Hutchison, vice president of social impact at Dutch Bros Coffee. "We're so thankful for our crews and customers who show up to make a difference, together."

Dutch Luv Day started as a canned food drive in 2007. It's grown over the last 16 years to raise more than $2.3 million for nonprofits dedicated to nonprofits dedicated to meeting community needs.

On average, a $1 donation helps provide three meals. In 2021, Dutch Bros raised $537,983 on Dutch Luv day. This allowed local organizations to serve 1,613,949 meals throughout their communities.

This year, Dutch Luv Day partners include Food Bank of Northern Nevada, Boise Rescue Mission, Utah Food Bank, Houston Food Bank and St. Mary's Food Bank in Arizona.

About Dutch Bros

Dutch Bros Coffee is a drive-thru coffee company dedicated to making a massive difference one cup at a time. Headquartered in Grants Pass, Oregon, where it was founded in 1992 by Dane and Travis Boersma, it's now sharing the "Dutch Luv" with more than 500 locations in 13 states. Dutch Bros serves specialty coffee, smoothies, freezes, teas, an exclusive Dutch Bros Blue Rebel energy drink and nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee. Its rich, proprietary coffee blend is handcrafted from start to finish.

In addition to its mission of speed, quality and service, Dutch Bros is committed to giving back to the communities it serves. Through its Dutch Bros Foundation and local franchisees, the company donates several million dollars to causes across the country each year.

To learn more about Dutch Bros, visit www.dutchbros.com , follow Dutch Bros Coffee on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , & TikTok , and download the Dutch Bros app to earn points and score rewards!

SOURCE Dutch Bros Coffee
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ETHOS ASSET MANAGEMENT INC USA , announced a new long-term financing partnership with HGI DEVELOPMENT, a Turkish hotel development company that operates 39 branded hotels and supports investors in their hotel projects. Ethos and HGI have been working together closely, over the last year, in structuring the overall investment with an initial capital infusion that will continue for several years.

HGI Development

Carlos Santos, President, and CEO of Ethos stated, "We are delighted to be partnering and supporting such an important and innovative project in Turkey. Ethos is proud to be part of this project and important development to meet passenger demand at Ankara Airport. With Turkey's popularity as a tourist destination rising steadily, this is a critical moment to look to the post Covid future world. We are honoured to be partnering with HGI's impressive CEO, Guillaume Defrance, who has a significant track record in developing major brand name hotels worldwide and his passion, commitment and vision for establishing an airport hotel in Ankara. A Branding and Management Agreement signed between a large international group hotel brand and HGI DEVELOPMENT cements this project firmly as a premier investment for Ethos in the hospitality and leisure sector in Turkey for 2022. The project will provide employment and career opportunities for local people and local businesses who will benefit from the construction phases and roll out opportunities for the long term."

Guillaume Defrance, CEO, HGI DEVELOPMENT, said,

"I am particularly proud to work with the ETHOS Group as a partner. This project is a first step in the hotel business in Turkey and we have other projects to come in Turkey and in other countries. The international hotel franchises we work with will allow us to perform in a very active hotel market in Turkey. This hotel will be located in a business area very close to Ankara airport. There was a very important lack of beds in this area. This area is in strong development and requires an important hotel development. The reactivity of the ETHOS group allows us to seize market opportunities. I would like to thank the management team in particular for their support in the development of this project."

Hans Kastensmith, Attributed Holdings Managing Partner, Ethos Associate, said,

"AHI is proud to be a part of this development project. This marks another significant accomplishment for Mr. Santos and Ethos in its work to expand in the Turkish project financing market. It has been a pleasure working with HGI and Ethos on the first commercial real estate financing project in this highly important sector for the Ethos  AHI team in Turkey".

About Ethos Asset Management:

Ethos Asset Management (Ethos) is an independent, US-based company with a global reach in resource mobilization and project financing.

For more information about Ethos Asset Management, please visit https://www.ethosasset.com/ .

About HGI DEVELOPMENT:

HGI DEVELOPMENT is a company specialized in the development, support, financing and management of hotels throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Contacts:

HGI DEVELOPMENT Contact:

Guillaume Defrance, CEO;

[email protected]

Ethos Contact:

Hans Kastensmith, Attributed Holdings Managing Partner, Ethos Associate; [email protected]; +1 858 535 4814

SOURCE Ethos Asset Management INC
BOSTON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Expert.ai today announced its technology will be deployed as a key component of Titan Technologies' Compendia solution by the U.S. National Security Research Center (NSRC) to make digitized documents easier for researchers to search and explore. The move follows a successful six-month proof-of-concept (PoC) aimed at providing scientists and engineers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Weapons Program automated research support via AI-based natural language understanding and machine learning (hybrid AI approach.)

The NSRC is one of the largest libraries of its kind, holding tens of millions of various materials, including film, audio, notebooks, photos, documents, drawings, microfiche, aperture cards and more. By leveraging expert.ai technology together with other components, Titan Technologies' Compendia solution categorizes unstructured content into a secure digital repository. Through a single integrated interface, Compendia offers focused search, including relationships and key entities to improve the speed and accuracy of information discovery within archival research material. With AI-based natural language understanding (NLU) and machine learning (ML) provided by expert.ai, the Compendia solution embeds knowledge and learning in the new NSRC system, called Titan on the Red, which is expected to make the already-digitized content categorized and explorable in months, a process that otherwise could have taken decades with manual categorizing and tagging.

"One of the greatest assets at Los Alamos National Laboratory is the information that we have generated in over 75 years of nuclear weapons work," said Rizwan Ali, Director, National Security Research Center. "This is what distinguishes us from any other weapons laboratory in existence. The Titan on the Red system will make this valuable information discoverable."

Expert.ai technology performs natural language understanding and user interface functions within Compendia. In doing so, it applies proprietary semantics-based processes to generate granular metadata, put textual content into context, and enable discovery of even hidden or inferred information. Combined with the other components of Compendia, expert.ai technology transforms the research environment, making data smart, consumable, and meaningful. Compendia met all Los Alamos National Laboratory criteria and the decision to move ahead with Compendia and a full Titan on the Red deployment was made.

Nanette Mayfield, Leader of the NSRC digital collections team, added: "Investing in AI/ML saves countless manpower hours and money, while directly contributing to the Lab's mission success."

About Los Alamos National Laboratory and Triad National Security

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security. Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

For more information, go to www.lanl.gov .

About Titan Technologies

Titan Technologies, which includes its wholly owned subsidiaries TelaForce, LLC and Titan Facilities, Inc., designs, integrates, and manages innovative solutions and software applications. Titan Technologies provides advanced information technology solutions and services in the areas of digital business transformation, customer care, security and communications infrastructure, and infrastructure modernization and management. Titan Technologies is headquartered in Destin, Florida with offices in Reston, Virginia; Derwood, Maryland; Honolulu, Hawaii; Galveston and Houston, Texas.

For more information, go to https://titantechnologies.com/ .

About Expert System USA  expert.ai

Expert System USA, a subsidiary of expert.ai (EXAI: IM), is an Artificial Intelligence company focused on developing and deploying innovative and customized Natural Language Understanding (NLU) solutions for the Public Sector with emphasis on the Intelligence, Military, Law Enforcement and Homeland Security communities. Expert.ai's unique hybrid approach to natural language combines symbolic human-like comprehension and machine learning to extract useful knowledge and insight from unstructured data to improve decision making. With a full range of on-premises, private and public cloud offerings, expert.ai enhances business operations, accelerates and scales natural language data science capabilities while simplifying AI adoption across a vast range of industries, including insurance, banking & finance, publishing & media, defense & intelligence, life science & pharma, and oil, gas & energy. Expert.ai serves global businesses such as AXA XL, Zurich Insurance Group, Generali, The Associated Press, Bloomberg INDG, BNP Paribas, Rabobank, Gannett and EBSCO.

For more information about Expert System USA, visit https://www.expertsystem.us/ and for more information about expert.ai, visit https://www.expert.ai .

Join the expert.ai Community ! Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter .

SOURCE expert.ai
WINDSOR, Va., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmers Bankshares, Inc. (OTC-PINK: FBVA) (the "Company") announces that the Board of Directors elected William A. Gwaltney, Jr. as Chairman of the Farmers Bankshares, Inc. board of directors. Mr. Gwaltney replaces outgoing Chairman Richard J. Holland, Jr. Mr. Gwaltney has served on the board since 1993 and most recently as Vice-Chairman. He has a deep-rooted passion for Farmers Bank, its shareholders, employees and customers.

The board also elected Kent B. Spain as Vice Chairman. Mr. Spain has served as a board member since 2005 and as Chairman of our Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Spain has an expansive knowledge about the Bank's corporate structure and governance.

The Board and staff appreciate Mr. Holland's years of dedication to the organization and guidance over the past forty years and look forward to working under Mr. Gwaltney, Mr. Spain and the entire board's leadership.

SOURCE Farmers Bankshares, Inc.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- February 18, 2022 marks the 7th anniversary of National Caregiver Day.

Adam Blecker

"We wholeheartedly join in this annual salute," says Adam Blecker, President, Seniors In Place. "In honoring all caregivers, we want to particularly single out Certified Home Health Aides, professional in-home caregivers many of whom have invested in their own training. They not only care for their patients, but often must 'hand-hold' patients' families as well. They may not wear suits of armor, but they are, nevertheless, professional lifelines on the frontlines of senior care  and we can't thank them enough."

Certified Home Health Aides are often overlooked when honoring caregiver heroes. In-home agencies and hiring families can do much toward rectifying this situation. For instance, Seniors In Place has its own caregivers' recognition programs, and makes sure their caregivers have the support they need through advanced training and the assistance of registered nurses, social workers, case workers, and other professionals.

"Professional caregivers are on the front lines. They deserve our encouragement and appreciation. They should never feel alone," says Blecker.

About Seniors In Place LLC

Seniors In Place is the largest private duty health care service firm in New Jersey. For over two decades, we have provided millions of hours of in-home and in-facility care for thousands of New Jersey families.

Seniors In Place is accredited with distinction by The Commission on Accreditation for Home Care, the largest accrediting body in the state of New Jersey.

Seniors In Place caregivers are state-certified, insured, receive benefits, and are continuously educated and regularly evaluated. They are all employees  NOT independent contractors.

About Adam Blecker

Adam Blecker is the President of Seniors In Place; New Jersey State Chair of Home Care Association of America (HCAOA.org); and on the Board of Trustees for the Commission on Accreditation for Home Care.

For more information, visit our website at www.SeniorsInPlace.com

Contact: Robert Dubin

973-493-5329 / [email protected]

SOURCE Seniors In Place
OAKTON, Va., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

What's the news? The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded AT&T* four separate contracts for modernized communications capabilities to help FEMA improve its ability to deliver its mission to help people before, during, and after disasters.

The four Task Orders, awarded via the General Services Administration's Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract, are valued at more than ~$167 million over five years if all options are exercised.

Why is this important? Timely, accurate communications are mission-critical for FEMA. In awarding these agreements, FEMA selects AT&T as its single integrated communications provider for the vast majority of its telecommunications services. These awards allow FEMA to identify and acquire advanced communications capabilities quickly and efficiently.

What is the scope of capabilities AT&T will provide to FEMA? Under these four awards, AT&T will transition FEMA voice and data systems, wireless LAN capabilities, Contact Center Capability Modernization Program (C3MP), and The National Warning System from legacy technologies to modernized communications in accordance with EIS guidelines on a timeline directed by FEMA.

As an existing FirstNet subscriber, FEMA can use FirstNet's wireless capabilities for redundant or alternate access to these data networks. Built with AT&T in partnership with the federal government, FirstNet provides first responders with truly dedicated coverage and capacity when they need it, unique benefits like always-on priority and preemption, and high-quality Band 14 spectrum.

Voice/Data

AT&T will collaborate with FEMA to modernize the FEMA network. AT&T will provide FEMA a voice and data solution that reduces the agency's enterprise network footprint; lowers management and maintenance resource support costs; increases security and availability; and provides a platform for future scalability, transformation, and modernization options. The solution also offers a flatter network topology (Layers 2 and 3) to enhance and simplify network monitoring.

Wireless WAN (Wi-Fi)

AT&T will continue to provide FEMA with a fully managed solution while moving existing billing to the new EIS contract. Following that, AT&T will collaborate with FEMA to modernize the solution, bringing technologies like Wi-Fi 6 and other enhancements to the forefront of the FEMA mission.

National Warning System (NAWAS)

AT&T will transition the NAWAS legacy technologies to newer services available via EIS through a well-planned, phased, cost-effective, and non-disruptive approach to the new solution with government oversight.

Contact Center Modernization

The FEMA C3MP system provides contact center services for FEMA's contact centers servicing all inbound calls from disaster survivors to approximately 1,600+ call centers and surge or overflow agents at three primary locations, additional sites, and telework locations nationwide. It also supports more than 200 technical staff and FEMA Finance Center agents.

AT&T will provide FEMA a protected, resilient, survivable, and recoverable contact center solution as well as a path to migrate C3MP to the cloud.

Here's what people are saying:

Stacy Schwartz, Vice President, Public Sector and FirstNet, AT&T

"The FEMA mission is noble in intent, expansive in reach, and complex in delivery. As climate events and their impacts continue to increase in number and scope, more and more U.S. citizens turn to FEMA for help. We're proud to stand beside FEMA and modernize its communications capabilities now and for the future."

When does the work begin?

AT&T is already working with FEMA to transition the agency's voice and data systems, wireless LAN capabilities, C3MP contact center system, and the National Warning System.

About FEMA

Officially created in 1979 via Executive Order by then-President Jimmy Carter, The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today employs more than 20,000 people nationwide to help people before, during, and after disasters. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., FEMA has 10 regional offices located across the country and uses its tremendous capacity to coordinate within the federal government to help ensure America is equipped to prepare for and respond to disasters.

Where can I find more information?

Go here for more information about AT&T's work in the public sector, or visit FEMA online here.

*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.

FirstNet and the FirstNet logo are registered trademarks of the First Responder Network Authority. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

 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
FELTON, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global finance app market size is expected to reach USD 2.01 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 11.1% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Million Insights. The market growth is owing to the rising demand for tracking investment apps from consumers in emerging economies, such as China and India. Moreover, the increasing demand for one-stop digital money management app services in Europe is refueling the market growth.

Key Insights from the report:

The Asia Pacific region made the largest contribution to the global market with a revenue share of over 45% in 2020. This can be credited to the rising demand for payments interface apps from the consumers of China and India .

Google play store segment held the highest revenue share of 65% in 2020. This can be credited to the rising demand for the enhanced spotlight search optimization-based app from the consumers of the U.K. and the U.S.

Apple iOS Store segment is projected to witness a CAGR of 12.5% from 2021 to 2028. This can be attributed to the growing demand for premium trading app services from consumers of developed economies.

The Middle East and Africa region is projected to witness a CAGR of 13.6% from 2021 to 2028. Soaring demand for the peer-to-peer investing apps in Saudi Arabia is estimated to escalate the market growth over the forecast period.

Finance App Market Growth & Trends

Rising demand for customized budgeting app across the globe is propelling the market growth. A surge in the adoption of the analytical app for better access to financial graphs is set to boost the growth of the market. Global key player Mint had updated the app service in the financial year 2021-2022 to analyze personal spending. The rising trend to adopt the micro-investing app in the Middle East and Africa is anticipated to boost the market growth.

Key players are focusing to provide book-keeping management app to scan and upload financial documents. The prime key players are offering debt management BI tools to track financial statements. Multiple companies are providing financial updates for their clients to analyses asset management. A surge in the adoption of 5G connectivity across the globe will contribute to the commercial opportunities for the global key players.

Apple iOS store segment will register the highest growth over the forecast period. This can be credited to the growing demand for iCloud-based cloud storage systems from the consumers of the U.S. and Canada. Fewer security breaches and seamless connectivity are refueling the market growth. Jailbreaking for customization, multi-language, and smooth multitasking feature, and better access for the finical app also reflects the significant market growth over the forecast period.

The Asia Pacific region made the largest contribution in the global finance app of over 45% share in 2020 due to the rising demand for risk management solutions from the consumer the China and India. The rising trend in China to adopt business intelligence solutions to meet the need for financial institutions are propelling the market growth.

Read synopsis or request for a free sample of market research report, "Finance App Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Marketplace (Google Play Store, Apple iOS Store), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & South America, Middle East & Africa), And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028", published by Million Insights.

Finance App Market Segmentation

Million Insights has segmented the global finance apps market based on marketplace and region:

Finance App Marketplace Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 -2028)

Google Play Store

Apple iOS Store

Others

Finance App Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 -2028)

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

U.K.



Germany



France



Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan



Rest of Asia Pacific

Central &South America

Brazil



Argentina



Rest of Central & South America

Middle East & Africa

& Saudi Arabia



South Africa



Rest of Middle East & Africa

List of Key Players of the Finance App Market

Appello Pty. Ltd.

Arateg

Emizen Tech

NIX United

Shakuro

Arka Softwares

Peerbits

Endive Software

Diceus

Sidebench Studios

Explore Snapshots by Million Insights, for industry specific reports that provide real-time market trends and forecasts, by condensing the integral elements from our industry reports into bite-sized paragraphs, charts, and tables.

Access More Snapshot Reports and Press Releases.

About Million Insights:

Million Insights, is a distributor of market research reports, published by premium publishers only. We have a comprehensive marketplace, that will enable you to compare data points, before you make a purchase. Enabling informed buying, is our motto and we strive hard to ensure that our clients get to browse through multiple samples, prior to an investment. Service flexibility & the fastest response time are two pillars, on which our business model is founded. Our market research report store includes in-depth reports, from across various industry verticals, such as healthcare, technology, chemicals, food & beverages, consumer goods, material science & automotive.

Contact:

Ryan Manuel

Research Support Specialist, USA

Million Insights

Phone: +1-408-610-2300

Toll Free: 1-866-831-4085

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.millioninsights.com/

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

SOURCE Million Insights
The EV Charging Reliability Transparency Act seeks to help ensure investments in charging infrastructure benefit all Californians.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Electric vehicle (EV) charging network FLO and charging station maintenance and analytics company ChargerHelp! have partnered with Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Reyes (D  San Bernardino) and Assembly Budget Committee Chair Phil Ting (D  San Francisco) to introduce a new bill to require disclosure of reliability data for all publicly funded EV charging stations in California.

A survey by EV driver consumer group Plug In America found that 54 percent of respondents had issues accessing public infrastructure, with broken chargers cited as the most common issue. While policymakers and media alike have raised the issue of charging station reliability, the performance data which they and the public need to assess returns on public investment in EV charging stations has so far been lacking, which poses a problem for the many drivers who would consider a switch to EVs were it not for scarce information about the availability and reliability of charging infrastructure.

"No driver should have to put up with broken chargers, and no community should be left behind in accessing reliable stations," said Louis Tremblay, President and CEO of FLO. "This legislation will help California make sure its investments in infrastructure are providing the public benefit promised to drivers."

FLO and ChargerHelp! have long believed that consumer perceptions about the charging experience drive EV adoption. FLO and ChargerHelp! expect that reliability standards will improve the charging experience and, thus, encourage drivers to adopt EVs, which would be a positive development for both the charging industry and the state's climate goals.

The bill, dubbed by the sponsoring EV charging companies the "EV Charging Reliability Transparency Act" (Act) aims to help policymakers and the public understand the performance of California's investments in EV infrastructure, and whether there are inequities in driver access to reliable stations.

"For a decade, we have watched California, and then the nation, focus its attention on getting charging stations in the ground to build the EV market," says Kameale C. Terry, ChargerHelp! Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. "But that is only one half of the equation  we need to ensure chargers are in good working order for all drivers to use, at all times."

The Act builds on an existing foundation of policy in the state. In 2021, the state released the Zero-Emission Vehicle Market Development Strategy, which calls for the measurement of charging station performance. In last year's state budget, led by Assemblymember Ting, the Legislature required tracking of "downtime" as part of a US$785 million allocation to deploy zero-emission vehicle infrastructure.

"Dependable charging stations encourage greater adoption of EVs. Through last year's budget, we became the first state to require reliability data for our charging stations," said Assemblymember Ting. "My AB 2061 is a critical next step because disclosure of reliability data helps ensure the equipment drivers plug into is functional and, therefore, accessible to all Californians."

In 2018, the state also passed legislation to require equitable deployment of charging infrastructure, but it stopped short of ensuring equitable access to reliable stations, which could leave EV drivers in areas where stations are not maintained at a disadvantage.

"We have a duty to ensure the public is receiving the benefit of accessing reliable public chargers that are funded by public funds," said Assemblymember Reyes. "Ensuring high reliability of stations will help drive EV adoption and help the state meet its climate goals".

In addition to requiring accountability through data disclosure, the Act requires the Energy Commission to consistently analyze this data and consider tools to improve infrastructure reliability if it decides it is undermining EV adoption.

About FLO

FLO is a leading North American electric vehicle charging network operator and a major provider of smart charging software and equipment. Every month, FLO enables over half a million charging events thanks to over 50,000 high-quality stations deployed on public networks, commercial and residential installations. FLO's headquarters and network operations center are based in Quebec City, and its assembly plant is located in Shawinigan (Quebec). The company also has offices in Montreal, Vancouver and California, and regional teams located in Ontario, New York, and Texas. For more information, visit flo.com.

About ChargerHelp!

ChargerHelp! is an app-based company that enables on-demand repair of electric vehicle charging stations, while building out local workforces, removing barriers and enabling economic mobility within all communities. ChargerHelp! operates at the intersection of clean technology and workforce development. ChargerHelp!'s system solves the industry-wide problem of downed electric vehicle charging stations by providing on-demand repairs and maintenance support from trained and supported local workforces. ChargerHelp! is headquartered in Los Angeles, California with service in 11 states and immediate plans for expansion into another 8 states.

SOURCE FLO
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC), a leading global agricultural sciences company, has made Barron's annual list of America's Most Sustainable Companies for the first time, and is the only agricultural company included on the list.

"Sustainability has become a key indicator of company performance, not just for FMC but for any company looking to compete in the global marketplace," said Mark Douglas, president and CEO. "FMC continues to invest significantly in sustainability across our company, from research and new product development to more efficient production, packaging and logistics around the world. We're honored to be included in this year's listit shows that our efforts are gaining traction and making a difference."

The rankings, compiled by Calvert Research and Management, an investment management company specializing in responsible investing, evaluated the top 1,000 publicly held American companies by market value on their performance for five constituent groups: shareholders, employees, customers, communities and the planet. FMC ranks 72nd on Barron's top 100 list.

"FMC has set ambitious goals over the past year that will challenge the way our company and business operate," said Karen Totland, vice president and chief sustainability officer for FMC. "Whether it's our goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 or our efforts to achieve gender balance and race equity among our global workforce, we are working to drive meaningful change in our company, community and industry."

Barron's is the second major publication this year to include FMC in its rankings of most sustainable companies.

About FMC

FMC Corporation is a global agricultural sciences company dedicated to helping growers produce food, feed, fiber and fuel for an expanding world population while adapting to a changing environment. FMC's innovative crop protection solutions  including biologicals, crop nutrition, digital and precision agriculture  enable growers, crop advisers and turf and pest management professionals to address their toughest challenges economically while protecting the environment. With approximately 6,400 employees at more than 100 sites worldwide, FMC is committed to discovering new herbicide, insecticide and fungicide active ingredients, product formulations and pioneering technologies that are consistently better for the planet. Visit fmc.com to learn more and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Statement under the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current views and assumptions regarding future events, future business conditions and the outlook for the company based on currently available information. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement. These factors include, among other things, the risk factors and other cautionary statements included within FMC's 2020 Form 10-K filed with the SEC as well as other SEC filings and public communications. FMC cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by the above cautionary statement. FMC undertakes no obligation, and specifically disclaims any duty, to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which they were made, except as otherwise required by law.

SOURCE FMC Corporation
TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FoodNear, a platform for food sustainability, is going to transform the food supply chain by improving processes of food production, distribution, and consumption. Moreover, FoodNear encourages sharing economy and charity activities by giving users the right to distribute meals or part of their profits for charity goals.

Food is not evenly distributed around the world. While millions of pounds of foodstuff are thrown away every year due to the inefficient supply chain, 815 million people, primarily in developing countries, are hungry and undernourished. By 2040 food production and distribution will have to increase by over 50% to satisfy the huge demand of the growing world population. FoodNear is aiming to meet the needs of both chefs and food consumers to improve the food chain.

Max Teodorovych, CEO of FoodNear: "The launch of the app that is going to improve cooperation between food producers and consumers is crucially important nowadays, as 40% of food waste in developed countries occurs at the distribution and consumer stages of the food supply chain. The FoodNear team have been working an entire year to create an application, which unites business with customers around the goal of more conscious use of the resources and making sustainability a good habit for the benefit of the future generations."

The application is available for the users of iOS and Android after the public beta-testing. In 2022, FoodNear is planning to announce several collaborations in the area of food sustainability and also test the business model on several markets, including the UK and North America.

FoodNear is a blockchain platform, whose economy is backed by FoodNear Token (FON), a Polygon-based blockchain solution. FoodNear Token (FON) equips users with a method of payment for the whole FoodNear ecosystem, which includes FoodNear Foundation, FoodNear App, and the FoodNear platform.

PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12905042

SOURCE FoodNear
Mushroom lovers and doubters alike will now be able to experience shiitake mushrooms like they never have before. To produce its signature crunch, Popadelics Crunchy Mushroom Chips leverage a unique cooking method called vacuum frying, which allows foods to cook at much lower temperatures while absorbing less oil and retaining more of their color, nutrients, texture, and flavor. Popadelics are also vegan and a good source of protein and fiber.

While Popadelics do not contain any psilocybin or any other psychedelics or narcotics, purchases will support the Fun-Gal Snacks Foundation, a charitable organization from the creators of Popadelics that will support various causes centered on health and wellness. Most notably, the Fun-Gal Snacks Foundation will support the Johns Hopkins Center of Psychedelic & Consciousness Research and their exploration for innovative treatments for improved mental health.

Early taste testers have been raving about Popadelics:

"These are genuinely one of the most delicious snacks I've had in quite some time, in any category. And I eat a LOT of better-for-you snacks," said Vanessa D.

"I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I love the crunch and the fact that [Popadelics] doesn't spare the flavor, which is wonderfully bold. The bag didn't last long!" said Ginny R.

"This flavor [Trippin' Truffle Parm] right here changed my life. These are so good, I bet you can't eat just one!" said Raqueta R.

"I had never heard of a mushroom based snack before, so I was definitely curious how they would taste. I was blown away. I love spicy food so the Twisted Thai Chili was a much-welcomed surprise blast of flavor and crunch in one bite. I am also partial to the Rad Rosemary and Salt for a classic crunch," said Demi D.

"At first, I didn't know what to think, and I didn't know how it would taste. But the kick of flavor sets this apart from any other snack out there! It's so innovative, so creative, and very tasty. I look at mushrooms so differently now!" said Corbin P.

"I never thought a [better-for-you] snack could be so delicious and full of flavor. I can't wait to share these with everyone I know. They really hit the spot!" said Rebecca E.

"Popadelics Crunchy Mushroom Chips aren't just a snack  they're an experience," said Michael Casali, Co-Founder and CRO of Fun-Gal Snacks LLC.

"We're super psyched to turn everyone on  even mushroom doubters  to the superpowers of shiitake mushrooms," adds Marilyn Yang, Co-Founder and CEO of Fun-Gal Snacks LLC. "Popadelics are only the beginning. We're on a mission to create innovative snacks that harness the benefits of mushrooms and other underloved veggies."

Popadelics will be available nationwide for pre-order via Indiegogo starting on February 22 and will be available for online purchase in April at popadelics.com. Visit popadelics.com for more details on pre-orders and purchases.

About Fun-Gal Snacks LLC

Fun-Gal Snacks LLC is based in New York City and was founded on a mission to create innovative snacks that harness the benefits of mushrooms and other underloved veggies - all while supporting social causes. Popadelics, Fun-Gal Snacks' flagship brand, is a mushroom-centric brand for the health-conscious individual who loves delicious, better-for-you snack food options. Their unique, vacuum frying cooking process paired with creative flavor combinations results in an unmatched experience that is incredibly tasty with a satisfying crunch  all while championing the added benefits found in shiitake mushrooms. For more information, visit popadelics.com.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Fun-Gal Snacks LLC
DALLAS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A newly published report entitled as Global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs Market research is accountable to illustrate a comprehensive data on several emerging trends, special industry drivers, different growth opportunities as well as constraints that can avert the industry dynamics of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market across the globe. Furthermore, the world Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market offers an in-depth and systematic assessment of the crucial industry segments which contain products, end-use applications as well as detailed competitor analysis. The given study on the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market is widely developing and expanding at an initial pace on the international scenario.

The report on the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market announces a fresh research on the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market report 2022-2029 by well-formed players, by regions, by application and by product types (Phytonadione, Andexanet Alfa, Idarucizumab, Protamine, Others). This research also provides a deep investigation on the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market. Apart from this, the new report gives an elaborated overview of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market along with the brief segmentation that demonstrates crucial insightful information regarding the certain industry.

Request for a PDF of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs Market [email protected]: https://calibreresearch.com/report/anticoagulant-reversal-drugs-market-179472#request-sample

Based on the latest survey, the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market size was estimated at $745.12 million in 2021 and it is likely to enlarge CAGR of around 16.1 percent from 2021-2029.

Segmentation Analysis: Global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market

This section explains the crucial segment and sub-segments of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market. Every segment included in the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market is analyzed based on profitable share as well as growth prospect of the respective industry. Besides this, some analysts have examined the possible regions that may be considered as highly rewarding for the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market manufacturers in the forthcoming years. The region-wise assessment contains reliable predictions on value as well as volume by helping leading industry players to accelerate all-inclusive insights into the overall Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs industry.

Major players functioning in the Global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market:

Portola Pharmaceuticals

Boehringer Ingelheim

CSL Behring

Bausch Health Companies Inc.

Octapharma AG

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories

AMAG Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Pfizer Inc.

SGPharma Pvt. Ltd.

Alps Pharmaceutical Ind. Co. Ltd.

Fresenius Kabi AG

Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market: Product Type Outlook

Prothrombin Complex Concentrates

Phytonadione

Andexanet Alfa

Idarucizumab

Protamine

Others

Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market: Distribution Channel Outlook

Hospital Pharmacy

Retail Pharmacy

Online Pharmacy

Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market: Regional Outlook

Here we have explained the geographical investment of the Global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market which has been mainly determined for the prominent regions including North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe and Rest of the globe. The analysts have revealed that North America is the fastest growing regions around the world in terms of industrial share of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market. While, on the other hand, owing to the other countries including India, Japan, China and Asia Pacific region is expected to be the biggest dominating region over the predicted period from 2022 to 2029. A comprehensive analysis of the topological scenario of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market offers brief qualitative as well as quantitative insights about the following geographies.

Have Any Question about Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs Market 2022: https://calibreresearch.com/report/anticoagulant-reversal-drugs-market-179472#inquiry-for-buying

It is reported that, the idarucizumab member in the 2019 computed for the biggest share of around 37.74 percent and is assumed to keep its dominance over the forecast period. This is ultimately assigned to highest profit generation by idarucizumab in vital topographies. While, analyzing product type segment of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market, the request is segregated into prothrombin complex concentrates, phytonadione (Vitamin K), idarucizumab, protamine, alfa & others.

The member of andexanet alfa is presumed to extend at an economic CAGR during the predicted period because of the blessing and initialization of andexanet alfa in main requests. In April 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) release an endless J-legislation for Andexxa, mitigating sits payment in sanitarium inpatient settings. And that's why, desirable payment script for anadecanet alfa in crucial requests is expected to aid the member growth throughout the forecasted period.

Insightful statistics: Global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market

The research analysts have elaborated the key objective of the study document on the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market is to depict industry sizes of differentiable segments as well as nations in forthcoming years and to estimate the precise values regarding the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market. The research report on the world Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market is designed to examine all the precious aspects of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs industry within each of the region and country that included in the draft.

Additionally, the latest report also illustrates the crucial statistics related to the dominant facts of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market such as special driving factors, risk components as well as challenges which will responsible for defining the upcoming growth of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market at the universal marketplace. Furthermore, the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market report incorporates various available opportunities for the industry players, stakeholders, policy makers to invest along with the extensive assessment of the competitive landscape analysis and product offerings of the significant players.

It also offers analysis of the top companies in the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market around the world. The report is still exhibits the recently generated revenue, pricing of products, developed products and other crucial services provided by the important industry vendors. Different facts as well as marketing figures about the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market competitors alongside special standpoints of superior industry players are displayed in the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market report.

Get Full Reports: https://calibreresearch.com/report/anticoagulant-reversal-drugs-market-179472

Extensive data on factors computed the overall influence on the growth and share of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market during the projected period is also cited in this newest report. It gives the current scenario and futuristic growth prospects of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market in numerous geographical regions. The analytical survey of the SWOT analysis has been carried out along with the analysis of Porter's Five Forces analysis. It even underlines the possible growth rates and lucrative opportunities reviewed in the business sphere of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.



Principal benefits delivered by the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market report:

It studies Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs industry drivers, restraints as well as opportunities.

It covers conventional perspective on the growth performance and operating pattern of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.

The report enchants possible industry trends and newer development tactics of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.

Detailed competitive landscape and strategies adapted by the pivotal players are also discussed in the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market study .

Potential segments exhibiting the promising growth are also encompassed in the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market study .

Historical, current and projected industry size has been explained in terms of value and volume.

Distinct investment pockets are also elaborated in the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.

It provides snapshot of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.

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Fundamental coverage of product profiles, manufacturing activities such as collaboration deals, patent information, innovative technologies, licensing and other substantial details are also widely expressed in the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.

Competitive Landscape: Global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market

Our researchers' team has broadly explained the detailed and highly intelligence competitive sphere of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market players who are actively operated in the international platform of the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market. There are evaluated on the basis of their overall rankings that counted across the global standards. The leading industry competitors of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market are examined alongside their company profiles, fastest revenue contribution, fundamental infrastructure and geographical position of each player in the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs markets.

This information is essential to accelerate their growth probabilities for the whole development of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market. Moreover, the research study of the world Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market indulges an exhaustive synopsis of the recent industry functions, new happenings such as mergers, acqusitions, critical collaborations that are run by the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market-driven entities for increasing the performance rate and strength of the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.

Prime reasons to buy the Global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market report:

The recent report involves a detailed plethora of insights such as the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market dynamics scenarios as well as opportunities during the estimated timeline.

Segment and sub-segments included in the Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market report.

Various regional, sub-regional as well as country-oriented information comprises of the demand and supply forces alongside their regulation on the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.

The competition landscape involves share of each vendor, upcoming development, relevant fiscal information, product establishment, gross margin and strategies used in the global Anticoagulant Reversal Drugs market.

Media Contact:

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SOURCE Calibre Research
DUBLIN, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global MulteFire Market (2021-2026) by Device, Application, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Multefire Market is estimated to be USD 591.5 Mn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 2,555.52 Mn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 34%.



Market Dynamics

Factors such as a surge in demand for more scalable and better network connectivity for industrial IoT (IIoT) applications, high capacity wireless networks, and improved network connectivity are expected to boost the growth of the MulteFire market in the forecast period. The requirement for high-capacity networks has also increased as they can provide end-user services with a particularly high quality of service (QoS). Furthermore, a shortage of skilled personnel, cybersecurity risk, and high maintenance costs can hinder the growth of the Global MulteFire market.



Demand from consumers for low latency has increased the deployment of 5G network, which will further aid the MulteFire market.



The Global MulteFire Market is segmented based on Device, Application, and Geography.



Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are Intel, Telia, Huawei, Ericsson, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes a 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 MulteFire 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 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, 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 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 A surge in Need for Better Network Connectivity for Industrial IoT (IIoT) Applications

4.1.2 Easy Deployment Without Costly Licensed Spectrum

4.1.3 Requirement of Offloads Mobile Operators

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Shortage of Skilled Manpower

4.2.2 Concerns Over Development of Ecosystem of MulteFire Compatible Devices

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Deployment of the 5G Network has Increased

4.3.2 Demand from Consumers for Low Latency

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Delay in Decision Making Related to Utilization of Shared Spectrum



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 MulteFire Market, By Device

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Small Cells

6.3 Switches

6.4 Controllers



7 Global MulteFire Market, By Application

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Industrial Manufacturing

7.3 Transportation

7.4 Commercial

7.5 Healthcare

7.6 Public Venues

7.7 Hospitality

7.8 Power Generation

7.9 Oil & Gas and Mining



8 Global MulteFire Market, By Geography

9 Competitive Landscape

9.1 Competitive Quadrant

9.2 Market Share Analysis

9.3 Strategic Initiatives

9.3.1 M&A and Investments

9.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

9.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



10 Company Profiles

10.1 Airspan

10.2 Athonet

10.3 Baicells Technologies

10.4 Boingo Wireless

10.5 Casa System

10.6 Codium Networks

10.7 Ericsson

10.8 Dekra

10.9 Huawei

10.10 Infosys

10.11 Intel

10.12 InterDigital

10.13 Keysight Technologies

10.14 Nokia

10.15 Qualcomm

10.16 Qucell

10.17 Quortus

10.18 Redline Communication

10.19 Ruckus Network

10.20 Samsung

10.21 Sercomm

10.22 Sony Corporation

10.23 SpiderCloud Wireless (Corning)

10.24 Telia



11 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/injlf7

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



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SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Syndromic Multiplex Diagnostic Markets with COVID-19 Impacts. Strategies and Trends, Forecasts by Syndrome (Respiratory, Sepsis, GI Etc.), by Country, with Market Analysis, Executive Guides and Customization" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The COVID pandemic is ushering in a new world of infectious disease diagnostics. Infectious disease Dx is changing and will change more in the future. Can a rapidly growing market expand even faster? Find out all about it in this comprehensive report on Syndromic Multiplex Diagnostics.



Are targeted tests for specific pathogens going to be obsolete? Will diagnostics replace physicians? Will Infectious Disease testing move into the Physician's Office or even the Home?



Syndromic testing is proving itself in the market. Players are reporting double-digit growth. Lowering costs, improving outcomes and even helping in the battle against Anti Microbial Resistance. Learn about this market including the issues and outlooks. The two key trends of Point of Care Testing and Molecular Diagnostics are merging with spectacular success.

It could possibly displace most frontline test protocols AND save money at the same time. The report includes five year market forecasts. In a special section, the report looks at the numbers on how syndromic molecular diagnostics is replacing traditional panel-based ordering of infectious disease tests.



Market Trends

Factors Driving Growth

Speed of Diagnosis

Effect of Syndromic Testing on Costs

Point of Care Advantage

Syndrome Testing, Accuracy and Diagnostic Risk

Single Visits

Improvement in Outcomes

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Factors Limiting Growth

Lower Prices

Administration/reimbursement

Infectious Disease is Declining But

Wellness Hurts

Economic Growth improves Living Standards.

Impact of the Pandemic Recession

Instrumentation and Automation

Instruments Key to Market Share

The Shrinking Machine.

Syndrome Testing Moving to Big Instruments?

Diagnostic Technology Development

Syndromictrends.com

Comparing Syndrome and Targeted Testing

The Multiplex Paradigm Shift

The Sepsis Testing Market - Bellwether for Syndromics

The Single Visit and AntiMicrobial Resistance

Syndromics drives POCT adoption.

A Big Future for PCR?

Syndromic Testing Recent Developments

QuantuMDx Developing Syndromic Panels for European Launch

Quidel Gains CE Mark for Savanna Analyzer, Respiratory Panel

QuantumDx Gets CE Mark for Rapid PoC PCR System

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Seegene Partner for MDx Development

Baebies to Expand Finder Platform

With Luminex Acquisition, DiaSorin to Broaden MDx Portfolio

Binx Health Targeting Clinics, DTC & OTC With STI Tests

Luminex Lands BARDA Grant to Develop Test for SARS-CoV-2, Flu, RSV

Molzym, Fraunhofer Developing Rapid Sepsis Diagnostic

MiRxes Receives Approval for Multiplex SARS-CoV-2, Flu Test

New Approach Involves Silicon-Based Test for Infectious Disease Screening

Scanogen's Portable Battery Operated Instrument for 90 Minute Multiplex Test

Qiagen sees NeuMoDx as Growth Vehicle

Torus Biosystems Developing Syndromic Test with 30-Minute Turnaround

Roche, SpeeDx Partner to Expand Access to Antibiotic Resistance Tests

BioMerieux's BioFire SARS-CoV-2 Respiratory Panel Wins FDA EAU

Infectious Disease Testing Firm Curative Acquires KorvaLabs

ChromaCode Raises Additional $10M

COVID-19 Patients Need Syndromic Testing

GenMark Diagnostics - New Respiratory Panel due in June

Qiagen Respiratory Panel with Coronavirus Targets Receives CE Mark

Exact Diagnostics launches respiratory panel control

bioMerieux submits enhanced BIOFIRE BCID2 Panel to FDA

Nanomix Receives CE Mark for Diagnostic

Applied BioCode Applies to FDA for Syndromic Respiratory Panel

Expedeon AG and Sona Nanotech to Collaborate on Multiplex POC

QIAGEN's New GI Panel Performance Assessed

McKesson to Distribute QIAstat-Dx Syndromic Testing Solution in USA

Applied BioCode Obtains FDA Clearance

Meridian Bioscience to Acquire GenePOC Inc.

Curetis Introduces Rapid DNA Testing for Antibiotic Resistance

Qiagen gets FDA clearance for syndromic testing system

Entasis Therapeutics Signs Rapid Diagnostic Agreement with bioMerieux

Akonni Biosystems Submits Multiplex Diagnostics System to FDA

Ador Diagnostic to receive $30M in Funding for 100-Plex PoC

in Funding for 100-Plex PoC SAW Diagnostics Receives Funding for Commercialisation of PoC Platform

QuantuMDx and Molbio announce MoU

Immunexpress Wins $745K Contract for Rapid Sepsis Assay

Contract for Rapid Sepsis Assay Mobidiag Inks European, Middle Eastern Distribution Deals

BIOFIRE FILMARRAY System chosen for Phase 3 clinical trial

Profiles of Key Syndromic Testing Companies

Abacus Diagnostica

Abbott Diagnostics

Accelerate Diagnostics

Ador Diagnostics

Akonni Biosystems

Alveo Technologies

Antelope Dx

Applied BioCode

Aus Diagnostics

Baebies

Beckman Coulter Diagnostics

Becton, Dickinson and Company

Binx Health

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc

Biocartis

BioFire Diagnostics (bioMerieux)

bioMerieux Diagnostics

Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH

Cepheid (Danaher)

Credo Diagnostics Biomedical

Cue Health

Curetis N.V./Curetis GmbH

Diagenode Diagnostics

Diasorin S.p.A.

Enzo Life Sciences, Inc.

Eurofins Scientific

Fluxergy

Fusion Genomics.

Genetic Signatures

GenMark Dx (Roche)

Hibergene Diagnostics

Hologic

Immunexpress

Inflammatix

Invetech

Janssen Diagnostics

Karius

Lexagene

LightDeck Diagnostics

Lucira Health

Luminex Corp

Maxim Biomedical

Meridian Bioscience

Mesa Biotech ( Thermo Fisher )

) Millipore Sigma

Mobidiag (Hologic)

Molbio Diagnostics

Nanomix

Novel Microdevices

Operon

Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Panagene

Perkin Elmer

Primerdesign (Novacyt)

Prominex

Qiagen Gmbh

Quantumdx

Quidel

Roche Molecular Diagnostics

Saw Diagnostics

Seegene

Siemens Healthineers

Sona Nanotech

SpeeDx

T2 Biosystems

Talis Biomedical

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Veramarx

Visby Medical

XCR Diagnostics

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/a1gcoj

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
In an ever-changing consumer landscape, the annual Product of the Year Awards are a go-to resource for those looking to find some of the best new products on the market, whether they're shopping online or in-store. With a distinctive red seal that is globally recognized as the vote of confidence from consumers themselves, shoppers can easily cut through the clutter and trust that these products demonstrate the utmost innovation in their respective categories, whether in function, design, packaging or ingredients.

"Given the continued flux and uncertainty over the past two years, we're prouder than ever to provide consumers with the vote of 40,000 fellow shoppers as a guide they can trust when making important purchase decisions for themselves and their families," said Mike Nolan, Global CEO of Product of the Year Management. "One of the great strengths of Product of the Year is that we champion manufacturers for putting forward products that reflect the latest trends and offer consumers the solutions they're looking for."

For over 30 years globally and 14 years in the USA, Product of the Year has served as the stage for brands to showcase exceptional quality and innovation. As an annual benchmark that forecasts the trends in store for the year ahead, this year's winners reflect the things that everyday consumers value most.

"We're thrilled to have got2b glued 2-in-1 Spray Wax recognized as the 2022 Product of the Year Award winner for the Hair Styling category," said Melinda Johnson, Marketing Director, Hair at Henkel North America. "We innovated the hair styling market by introducing got2b glued Spray Wax, which is the first dual finish spray wax, allowing consumers to achieve two different looks with just one product. In an extremely competitive industry, we're grateful for the opportunity to leverage the iconic Product of the Year red seal to help us stand out to consumers in the saturated market."

The 40 winners of the 2022 Product of the Year Awards will be celebrated in a segment on Daily Mail TV and on DailyMail.com. Shoppers nationwide can also enter to win all 40 winning products in a Product of the Year sweepstakes hosted in partnership with Daily Mail TV. For more details, visit the Product of the Year Instagram page, here .

As a resource for shoppers nationwide, the 2022 Product of the Year winners are highlighted in a shoppable article created in partnership with WomansDay.com, the online destination for the Hearst-owned Woman's Day brand, and Ensemble IQ, a premier business intelligence resource with revered publications including Progressive Grocer, Store Brands, Drug Store News and Convenience Store News.

For further information about the 2022 Product of the Year winners, visit productoftheyearusa.com . Follow along socially with #got2bUSA on Instagram , Facebook , and Twitter and at #POYUSA2022 on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter .

About Henkel in North America:

In North America, Henkel operates across its three business units: Adhesive Technologies, Beauty Care, and Laundry & Home Care. Its portfolio of well-known consumer and industrial brands includes Schwarzkopf hair care, Dial soaps, Persil, Purex, and all laundry detergents, Snuggle fabric softeners as well as Loctite, Technomelt and Bonderite adhesives. With sales of around 6 billion US dollars (5 billion euros) in 2020, North America accounts for 27 percent of the company's global sales. Henkel employs approximately 9,000 people across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. For more information, please visit www.henkel-northamerica.com , and on Twitter @Henkel_NA .

About Product of the Year:

Product of the Year is the largest consumer-voted award for product innovation. Established over 30 years ago, POY currently operates in over 40 countries with the same purpose: Guide consumers to the best products in their market and reward manufacturers for quality and innovation. Product of the Year winners are determined by the votes of 40,000 consumers in an independent, national representative study conducted by research partner Kantar, a global leader in consumer research. The award is a powerful merchandising program for marketers proven to increase product sales, distribution and awareness. Winning products announced in February of each year are included in Product of the Year's national marketing program and receive the right to use the Product of the Year honor and logo in their own marketing and sales communications for two years. For more information, visit productoftheyearusa.com .

About Kantar:

Kantar is the world's leading marketing data, insight and consultancy company. We know more about how people live, feel, shop, vote, watch and post worldwide than any other company. Working across the entire sales and marketing lifecycle, we help brands uncover growth in an extraordinary world. Kantar's services are employed by over half of the Fortune 500 companies in 100 countries.

SOURCE Henkel
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Gryphon Investors, a leading middle-market private equity firm, today announced it has acquired Benoist Brothers Supply Co. ("Benoist" or "the Company"), a Midwest-based regional distributor of HVAC/R (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration) equipment, parts and supplies. Gryphon plans to operate the Company as an independent division of its Wittichen Supply Holding Company under the Benoist brand, alongside existing portfolio company Wittichen Supply Company ("Wittichen"), a wholesale distributor of HVAC/R equipment, parts, supplies, and customer service to residential and commercial customers based in the Southeastern United States. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Benoist will continue to be led by its current management team, including CEO Peter Warren. Mr. Warren, along with the Benoist family, will retain a minority investment stake in the Company.

Headquartered in Mount Vernon, IL and Fenton, MO, Benoist is a 90-year-old, family-owned HVAC/R distributor with 13 branch locations across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee. The Company offers a broad portfolio of products, including Ruud equipment, a sister brand to Wittichen's core brand Rheem. Benoist has been actively growing, including through its acquisition of NuComfort in late 2018 to expand its presence to the Chicago area.

Craig Nikrant, Gryphon's dedicated Operating Partner to its Heritage Fund team, said, "The addition of Benoist creates a leading, multi-region distribution platform serving customers in eight states. Benoist and Wittichen, which share similar histories and cultures and a focus on superior service to contractor customers, will work together to create broad availability of parts, supplies and equipment across a larger territory. This also represents an exciting opportunity for Benoist and Wittichen to bolster their already strong relationships with Ruud and Rheem, respectively, opening a new path for growth. We are pleased to support Benoist as it continues to invest for its future."

Alex Averitt, CEO of Wittichen Supply Holding Company, said, "We are thrilled to welcome Peter and the Benoist team. Like Wittichen, Benoist is a longstanding leading distributor with an established market share in its core markets and strong customer and supplier relationships. The Company's product offerings are highly complementary to those of Wittichen, and its position as one of the largest HVAC/R distributors in Illinois provides us with a springboard for growth in the Midwest."

Mr. Warren noted, "We are delighted to be working alongside Wittichen and Gryphon. We look forward to being part of a larger organization with a wider array of product offerings and resources, which provides us with additional growth opportunities as we continue to deliver premium service and a superior customer experience."

Wittichen was advised by legal counsel Kirkland & Ellis. WachtelMissry served as legal counsel to Benoist Brothers and Uplift Partners served as exclusive financial advisor to the Company.

About Benoist Brothers

Benoist Brothers Supply Co. is a full-service wholesale distributor of heating and air conditioning products. Headquartered in Mount Vernon, IL and Fenton, MO, the Company has 13 locations across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee. The Company offers a broad array of HVAC/R supplies and is Illinois' largest distributor of Ruud brand products.

About Wittichen Supply Company

Founded in 1914 and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, Wittichen is the market-leading wholesale distributor providing best-in-class HVAC/R equipment, parts, supplies, and customer service across 25 locations in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Wittichen maintains long-standing relationships with leading vendors and distributes products from more than 500 leading HVAC/R manufacturers. With over 100 years of experience, Wittichen continues to provide its customers best-in-class service including fully stocked branches, competitive pricing, and after-hours service for emergency situations. For more information, visit www.wittichen-supply.com.

About Gryphon Investors

Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors (www.gryphoninvestors.com) is a leading private equity firm focused on profitably growing and competitively enhancing middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. The firm has managed over $7.5 billion of equity investments and capital since 1997. Gryphon targets making equity investments of $50 million to $300 million in portfolio companies with enterprise values ranging from approximately $100 million to $600 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form strong partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon's capital, specialized professional resources, and operational expertise.

Contact:

Lambert & Co.

Caroline Luz

203-656-2829

[email protected]

or

Jennifer Hurson

845-507-0571

[email protected]

SOURCE Gryphon Investors
Vendor Insights

The gummy vitamin market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as marketing on social media platforms and new product launches to compete in the market. Market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Companies are launching innovative products and solutions to strengthen their market positions and presence in the minds of target audiences. For instance, Amway Corp. offers Nutrilite SEIZE THE DAY undernutrition which is a multivitamin-mineral gummy.

The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including:

Amway Corp.

Bayer AG

Church and Dwight Co. Inc.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc

Hero Nutritionals Inc.

Honest Co. Inc.

Nestle SA

Pharmavite LLC

Power Gummies

Unilever Group

Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings, Read Free Sample Report.

Geographical Market Analysis

APAC was the largest revenue-generating regional segment of gummy vitamin market. 38% of the market's growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period. China and India are the key markets for gummy vitamins in APAC. The presence of a large consumer base that is increasingly paying attention to their health in countries such as China and India will facilitate the gummy vitamin market growth in APAC over the forecast period.

Furthermore, countries such as US, China, India, Brazil, Australia, and Canada are expected to emerge as prominent markets for gummy vitamin market's growth during the forecast period.

Know more about this market's geographical distribution along with the detailed analysis of the top regions. https://www.technavio.com/report/gummy-vitamin-market-industry-analysis

Key Segment Analysis

The online distribution channel segment held the largest gummy vitamin market share in 2021. The segment's popularity is growing mainly due to the increase in the number of websites offering a wide range of gummy vitamins at low cost than those available offline. In addition, gummy vitamin market players are involved in the omnichannel retailing format deploying both online and offline channels to expand their visibility among customers, which will also help in increasing their revenue.

View FREE Sample: to know additional highlights and key points on various market segments and their impact in coming years.

Key Market Trend & Challenge:

The availability of gummy supplements for children is one of the key trends likely to influence the market's growth during the forecast period. Parents are resorting to easily chewable nutraceutical products available in different formats, shapes, and flavors, such as gummy supplements that come in many attractive shapes, such as bears, fruits, and flowers. In addition, companies are providing organic ingredient-based gummy supplements for children to expand their customer base. For instance, in August 2021, Nature's Truth expanded its line of vitamin gummies with three products focused on children's needs. These factors will eventually boost the market's growth during the forecast period.

However, the high cost of production due to the low availability of raw materials for naturally-sourced vitamins. Operational hindrances in the availability of raw materials in the recent past have resulted in interference with the efficient supply of vitamins A and E. Furthermore, additional costs of production caused due to the formulation of gummy supplements infused with additional nutrients, flavors, and colors will also result in a hindering factor to the gummy vitamin market's growth.

Download free sample for highlights on market Drivers & Challenges affecting the gummy vitamin market.

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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.

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Vitamin K2 Market by Source and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026

Gummy Vitamin Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 12.54% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 5.06 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 11.38 Regional analysis APAC, North America, South America, Europe, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 38% Key consumer countries US, China, India, Brazil, Australia, and Canada Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Amway Corp., Bayer AG, Church and Dwight Co. Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Hero Nutritionals Inc., Honest Co. Inc., Nestle SA, Pharmavite LLC, Power Gummies, and Unilever Group 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.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2021

Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Distribution channel

Market segments

Comparison by Distribution channel

Online - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Offline - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by Distribution channel

Customer landscape

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 MEA - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Amway Corp.

Bayer AG

Church and Dwight Co. Inc.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc

Hero Nutritionals Inc.

Honest Co. Inc.

Nestle SA

Pharmavite LLC

Power Gummies

Unilever Group

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us:

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
The hair care market in Brazil is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. To leverage the current opportunities, market vendors must strengthen their foothold in the fast-growing segments while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Influence through social media and blogging, introduction of products with an added value proposition, and rise in demand for hair care products for men will offer immense growth opportunities. However, factors such as the availability of counterfeit personal care products may threaten the growth of the market.

The report also covers the following areas:

Hair Care Market In Brazil 2022-2026: Segmentation

By product, the hair care market in Brazil has been segmented into shampoo, conditioner, hair color, and others. The shampoo segment will have significant market share growth during the forecast period. Shampoos protect hair from dirt and polluting agents, remove dandruff, and add softness and shine to the hair. They also assist in protecting hair color. Therefore, growing disposable income; a rise in the middle-class population; and increasing urbanization, advertisements, and promotions are major factors influencing the market growth.

By distribution channel, the hair care market in Brazil has been segmented into offline and online. The offline segment will have significant market share growth during the forecast period. Hair care products of varied sizes, packaging, and brands are sold through the offline distribution channel.

Learn about the contribution of each segment of the hair care market in Brazil. View Our Free Sample Report Now

Hair Care Market in Brazil 2022-2026: Vendor Analysis

To help businesses improve their market position, Technavio's report provides a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the market. Some of the major vendors of the hair care market in Brazil include Colgate-Palmolive Co., Genomma Lab Internacional SAB de CV, Grupo Boticario, Henkel AG and Co. KGaA, Johnson and Johnson Inc., LOreal SA, Moroccanoil, The Procter and Gamble Co., Unilever Group, and Wella Operations US LLC. The key offerings of some of these vendors are mentioned below:

Colgate-Palmolive Co. - The company offers a wide range of hair care products under brands such as Palmolive naturals and Sanex.

The company offers a wide range of hair care products under brands such as Palmolive naturals and Sanex. Genomma Lab Internacional SAB de CV - The company offers a wide variety of hair care products under brands such as Tio Nacho and Medicasp.

- The company offers a wide variety of hair care products under brands such as Tio Nacho and Medicasp. Grupo Boticario - The company offers a wide range of hair care products under brands such as Match and Siage.

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Hair Care Market in Brazil 2022-2026: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026

Detailed information on factors that will assist hair care market growth in Brazil during the next five years

during the next five years Estimation of the hair care market size in Brazil and its contribution to the parent market

and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the hair care market in Brazil

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of hair care market vendors in Brazil

Related Reports:

Hair Care Market in Colombia by Product and Distribution channel - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026

Hair Spray Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Hair Care Market In Brazil Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.19% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 895.73 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 9.96 Regional analysis Brazil Performing market contribution Brazil at 100% Key consumer countries Brazil Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Colgate-Palmolive Co., Genomma Lab Internacional SAB de CV, Grupo Boticario, Henkel AG and Co. KGaA, Johnson and Johnson Inc., LOreal SA, Moroccanoil, The Procter and Gamble Co., Unilever Group, and Wella Operations US LLC 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.

Find more valuable insights into the hair care market in Brazil. Download Latest Free Sample Report

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2021

Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Shampoo - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Conditioner - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Hair color - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by Product

Market Segmentation by Distribution channel

Market segments

Comparison by Distribution channel

Offline - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Online - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by Distribution channel

Customer landscape

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Genomma Lab Internacional SAB de CV

Grupo Boticario

Henkel AG and Co. KGaA

Johnson and Johnson Inc.

LOreal SA

Moroccanoil

The Procter and Gamble Co.

Unilever Group

Wella Operations US LLC

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
OAKLAND, Calif. and TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Harborside Inc. ("Harborside", or the "Company") (CSE: HBOR) (OTCQX: HBORF), a California-focused, vertically-integrated cannabis enterprise, today announces the acquisition (the "FGW Acquisition") of a further 29.9% interest in FGW Haight, Inc. ("FGW"), a company that has the conditional use approval necessary to operate a cannabis dispensary and related businesses located in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.

Harborside is acquiring the increased interest in FGW through the execution of a securities purchase agreement (the "Agreement"), following the previously announced acquisition of a 50.1% interest in FGW that closed on December 18, 2020. Subject to regulatory approval from the City of San Francisco, the FGW Acquisition will increase the Company's interest in FGW to 80%. Harborside also retains the right of first refusal to purchase, in its discretion, in whole or in part and in one or more closings, the remaining 20% of FGW, subject to regulatory approvals.

Pursuant to the Agreement, Harborside will pay an aggregate purchase price of USD$1,300,650 (the "Purchase Price") for the Shares. The Purchase Price will be satisfied through the issuance of multiple voting shares of the Company, valued at the greater of: (i) the 30-day VWAP of the subordinate voting shares of the Company on the CSE at the time of issuance less a discount multiplied by 100; (ii) CAD$150 per MVS; or (iii) such other price as may be approved by the CSE.

"This dispensary in the historic and culturally-significant Haight-Ashbury district will enhance Harborside's position as a leading cannabis retailer in California," added Mr. Hawkins. "Our position in Northern California is already very strong and we expect to expand it significantly following the creation of StateHouse."

"I am excited to strengthen our partnership with Harborside and to continue serving our community," said Damien Posey, a leading community mentor in San Francisco and a founding shareholder of FGW. "This dispensary will be neighborhood-oriented, including the hiring of local staff, the selection of local products and the promotion of community safety."

The FGW Acquisition is subject to certain material closing conditions, including approvals from regulatory authorities. There can be no assurance that the FGW Acquisition will be completed on the current terms or at all. Closing of the FGW Acquisition is expected to occur on or before February 28, 2022.

For the latest news, activities, and media coverage, please visit the Harborside corporate website athttp://www.investharborside.com or connect with us onLinkedIn andTwitter.

About Harborside:

Harborside, a vertically integrated enterprise with cannabis licenses covering retail, distribution, cultivation, nursery and manufacturing, is one of the oldest and most respected cannabis companies in California. Founded in California in 2006, Harborside was awarded one of the first six medical cannabis licenses granted in the United States. Today, the company operates three major dispensaries in the San Francisco Bay Area, a dispensary in the Palm Springs area outfitted with Southern California's only cannabis drive-thru window, a dispensary in Oregon, a manufacturing facility in Oakland, California, distribution facilities in San Jose and Los Angeles, California and an integrated cultivation/production facility in Salinas, California. Harborside is a publicly listed company, trading on the CSE under the ticker symbol "HBOR" and the OTCQX under the ticker symbol "HBORF", and the Company continues to play an instrumental role in making cannabis safe and accessible to a broad and diverse community of California and Oregon consumers. Additional information regarding Harborside is available under Harborside's SEDAR profile atwww.sedar.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates, and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements with respect to whether the Company will receive the requisite regulatory approval for the FGW acquisition, timing for the completion of the FGW Acquisition, the future success of and expansion plans relating to FGW's dispensary and related business, future performance, growth, profitability, competitive position, and acquisition opportunities, and the Company's corporate strategy moving forward.

These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: whether the Company will receive additional voting support agreements for matters to be considered by shareholders at the Meeting; implications of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's operations; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; expectations regarding the size of the cannabis markets where the Company operates; changing consumer habits; the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business objectives; plans for expansion and acquisitions; political and social uncertainties; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; employee relations; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on cultivation, production, distribution, and sale of cannabis and cannabis-related products in the markets where the Company operates; and the risk factors set out in the Company's management discussion and analysis for the period ended September 30, 2021 and the Company's listing statement dated May 30, 2019, which are available under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

The Company, through several of its subsidiaries, is indirectly involved in the manufacture, possession, use, sale, and distribution of cannabis in the recreational and medicinal cannabis marketplace in the United States. Local state laws where the Company operates permit such activities however, investors should note that there are significant legal restrictions and regulations that govern the cannabis industry in the United States. Cannabis remains a Schedule I drug under the US Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal under federal law in the United States to, among other things, cultivate, distribute or possess cannabis in the United States. Financial transactions involving proceeds generated by, or intended to promote, cannabis-related business activities in the United States may form the basis for prosecution under applicable United States federal money laundering legislation.

While the approach to enforcement of such laws by the federal government in the United States has trended toward non-enforcement against individuals and businesses that comply with recreational and medicinal cannabis programs in states where such programs are legal, strict compliance with state laws with respect to cannabis will neither absolve the Company of liability under United States federal law, nor will it provide a defense to any federal proceeding which may be brought against the Company. The enforcement of federal laws in the United States is a significant risk to the business of the Company and any proceedings brought against the Company thereunder may adversely affect the Company's operations and financial performance.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities in the United States. The Company's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. 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 release.

SOURCE Harborside Inc.
UFODRIVE is the first all-digital, all-electric car rental service controlled from an app. Its advanced eMobility SaaS Platform makes transitioning to electric easy for both customers and fleet providers  delivering lean operations, lower energy costs, better charging and optimal fleet utilization using advanced AI tools. UFODRIVE's technology delivers a two-minute 'arrive and drive' entirely digital EV customer experience.

The partnership builds on Hertz's announcement in October 2021 that the company is investing in EVs  with a commitment to offer the largest electric vehicle rental fleet in North America and to grow its EV fleet globally. Hertz also committed to providing the best rental and recharging experience for leisure and business customers around the world. Also in October, the company announced an exclusive partnership with Uber to make Tesla electric vehicles available for drivers to rent when using the Uber network.

UFODRIVE's Series A financing round was co-led by Hertz and Certares, in partnership with Knighthead Capital Management, and included participation from existing investors. Hertz Senior Vice President of Strategy, Jayesh Patel, and Venture Lead at Certares, Chantal Noble Haldorsen, will join the UFODRIVE board.

"Our partnership with UFODRIVE is yet another major step in Hertz becoming an essential component of the modern mobility ecosystem," said Mark Fields, Hertz interim CEO. "Together, we will pilot ways to make renting an EV even easier using UFODRIVE's digital platforms for both the rental experience and fleet management. For customers, this partnership will help us create the future rental car experience that is all-digital and EV-centric."

"Born from a vision to deliver what we call 'Radically Better Car Rental,' this investment is a major validation of that dream," said Aidan McClean, UFODRIVE CEO. "We are proud that we are helping to accelerate the transition to zero-emissions mobility, and our investors see the opportunity ahead."

McClean added: "We pioneered and are now the premier operating system for electric fleets and already service a growing list of high-profile mobility companies."

Following successful live testing in 2021, Hertz aims to deploy UFODRIVE'S market-leading digital rental and fleet management technology to enhance its global EV fleet operations. Starting with Hertz's key partners in the U.S. and Europe, this will offer a fully digital rental experience, charge point wayfinding, touchless smartphone access and online customer support with live telematics using UFODRIVE's SaaS platform.

UFODRIVE will use the additional capital to accelerate product development and to expand globally, with a focus on the U.S. market. Founded in 2018, UFODRIVE's success is based on environmentalism, superb customer experiences and an eye to what modern consumers need. The business has experienced sustained growth throughout the pandemic, opening new locations as well as adding home delivery and subscription to its existing rental operation.

About Hertz

The Hertz Corporation, a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings, Inc., operates the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty vehicle rental brands throughout North America, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin American, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The Hertz Corporation is one of the largest worldwide vehicle rental companies, and the Hertz brand is one of the most recognised globally. Additionally, The Hertz Corporation operates the Firefly Car Rental, Ace Rental Cars and Hertz 24/7 in select markets as well as the Flexicar car sharing business in Australia and New Zealand. For more information about The Hertz Corporation, visit www.hertz.com.

About UFODRIVE

UFODRIVE is pioneering the electric car revolution with its own all-electric car rental service powered by its unique end-to-end eMobility platform. It offers a 100% electric, 100% digital experience in nine countries and 18 locations globally - delivering a radically better car rental experience which combines state-of-the-art technology with superior electric cars. With zero-emissions, every journey with UFODRIVE helps avoid further pollution on roads and in the atmosphere. Customers can access and drive their car on their schedule, open 24/7, 365, and with optimised charging and routing using the advanced AI eMobility platform. UFODRIVE's contactless electric platform has also been developed to manage rental, shared, commercial, and private fleets - maximising cost efficiency while providing an exceptional customer experience. For More information about UFODRIVE, visit www.ufodrive.com.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements contained in this release include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws and regulations. These statements often include words such as "believe," "expect," "project," "potential," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "seek," "will," "may," "would," "should," "could," "forecasts" or similar expressions. These statements are based on the Hertz's current views with respect to future events and the timing of the tender offer. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including prevailing market conditions, as well as other factors. Forward-looking statements represent Hertz's estimates and assumptions only as of the date that they were made, and, except as required by law, Hertz undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Hertz Global Holdings, Inc.
FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WhitneySmith Company, a provider of HR advisory services, has joined Higginbotham, an insurance, financial and HR services firm ranked as the 20th largest independent broker in the U.S. The two Fort Worth, Texas-based firms, which have partnered to provide HR services to Higginbotham's employer clients for 30 years, have now formally combined forces. WhitneySmith Company will expand the service capacity of Higginbotham's HR Services division while giving WhitneySmith Company the ability to offer insurance services to its clients.

Higginbotham is strategically growing to expand its footprint and increase its service capability by partnering with other firms that have strong reputations in their local markets, a desire to keep growing by tapping into Higginbotham's single source solution and a cultural match.

"We have a long relationship with WhitneySmith Company that helped demonstrate the power of collaboration with like-minded firms early in our journey to developing an all-encompassing solution for managing risk," said Higginbotham Chairman and CEO Rusty Reid. "Our clients were asking for HR services, which spurred the partnership with WhitneySmith Company in 1991. Having them formally join us today will spell success because they're already part of our team and know how to solve the pain points of our clients."

WhitneySmith Company founder and President Whit Smith said, "Our firms have extremely strong positive reputations across the Metroplex, and we have similar cultures and a shared work ethic. There is a compatibility between the Higginbotham and WhitneySmith teams that provides an opportunity to expand our services and client base."

Higginbotham named Smith a managing director, and he with co-founder Gretchen Smith will continue overseeing WhitneySmith Company's existing 10-person team in Fort Worth.

About WhitneySmith Company

WhitneySmith Company opened in 1989 and offers a full line of tactical human resources advisory services to fit an organization's every need. Through either a one-time project or a long-term collaborative partnership, the firm is dedicated to helping clients establish practices and policies, manage human resources issues and mitigate risk through cost effective and thoughtful solutions. The firm's commitment to client satisfaction has established its reputation as a leading provider of human resources consulting services in Fort Worth, Texas. Visit whitneysmithco.com for more information.

About Higginbotham

Employee owned and customer inspired, Higginbotham is a single source solution for insurance, financial and HR services. The firm was established in 1948 in Fort Worth, Texas, and ranks by revenue as the nation's 20th largest independent insurance firm. Serving thousands of businesses and individuals through locations across 13 states, Higginbotham's approach to finding insurance, employee benefit and risk management solutions is more individual and less institutional. By understanding customer priorities, eliminating inefficiencies and committing to transparency, Higginbotham is a place that leads with values so value leads. Visit higginbotham.com for more information.

SOURCE Higginbotham
BALTIMORE, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- From humble beginnings to today recognized as one of Maryland's premier boutique marketing advisory firms, Incite Creative celebrates 22 years in business.

Incite Creative started as a two-person company working out of a third-floor apartment in Baltimore City. In 2000, it began with just two clients, an interchangeable phone/fax line and a couple of teal iMac G3s. Today, the firm has advised over 325 clients, completed more than 5,000 campaigns, serves clients nationwide, and shows no signs of slowing down.

Incite Creative is a marketing advisory firm that works in an outsourced capacity. In short, we become your company's chief marketing officer (CMO) and do so virtually and efficiently - saving you time and money. From humble beginnings to today recognized as one of Maryland's premier boutique marketing advisory firms, Incite Creative celebrates 22 years in business. Today, the firm has advised over 325 clients, completed more than 5,000 campaigns, serves clients nationwide, and shows no signs of slowing down.

"Most people celebrate the significant milestones like 10 and 25. But after the last two years, I think businesses should celebrate every victory no matter how small," said Dina Wasmer, President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). "It's been a crazy time for many, and we're proud to have helped all of our clients successfully weather the COVID storm."

Incite Creative is well-positioned for the future too. As marketing specialists in high-growth industries, including technology, healthcare (including senior services, behavioral and mental health, and medical devices), and deathcare, the marketing advisory firm partners with their client's C-suite to make critical business decisions.

"As an outsourced CMO, we bring an outside-in perspective that is not only isolated to one industry," says Wasmer. "This value-add gives our clients a competitive edge. And in today's challenging hiring climate, our annual retainer model gives clients stability. They know that they can count on us to be there. One of our long-time clients always says, 'I feel like I'm your only client, and I know that's not true!' A statement like that is the highest compliment we could hope to receive."

The professional services firm advises other industries as well. Its portfolio includes numerous clients in the financial, legal, education, hospitality, real estate/construction, and retail markets.

As the ever-changing mix of marketing tools evolves and attention to the bottom line increases, small and middle-market businesses across all industries need marketing leadership. Incite Creative's 22 years of experience helps business owners make the most of their investments in the following:

Wasmer states, "For us, it's less about an industry focus, it's more about finding the right fit. Our process is grounded in strategy and planning, followed by creative execution. Companies that want and need senior-level marketing leadership but feel like they can't afford a full-time CMO now have a great alternative."

Incite Creative's fractional CMO services are available for six or 12-month engagements and are generally one-third the investment of a full-time employee with comparable credentials. Companies looking to boost their brand and increase revenue in 2022 and beyond can benefit from Incite Creative's methodology and proven industry experience.

About Incite Creative, Inc.: Incite Creative is a marketing advisory firm that works in an outsourced capacity. In short, we become your company's chief marketing officer (CMO) and do so virtually and efficiently  saving you time and money. Since 1999 we've had the pleasure of building and boosting brands for a core set of industries. Our thoughtful process, experienced team, and vested interest in our client's success have positioned us as one of the Mid-Atlantic's most sought-after marketing partners for those looking to grow their brand awareness and bottom line. Stop paying for digital and traditional services you may not need. Our retainer, no mark-up model means our recommendations don't come with any catch or commission. Our advice aligns with what you need and what fits within your budget. For more information, contact us at 410-366-9479 or [email protected].

Media Contact:

Dina Wasmer

President & CMO

Incite Creative, Inc.

[email protected]

410-366-9479 x101

SOURCE Incite Creative, Inc.
- The company currently has a skilled workforce of more than 300 people across a diverse portfolio of services in the country

- Company will collaborate with Costa Rican nonprofit, CINDE, to recruit talent and expand presence in Latin America

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys BPM, the business process management arm of Infosys (NYSE, BSE,NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced plans to hire 400 skilled customer services workers in Costa Rica. The new employees will join a workforce of highly skilled talent that operates at the cutting edge of innovation in the digital space and will support the world's largest organizations in navigating their digital transformation journeys. In line with Infosys' global mission to develop tomorrow's workforce through continuous learning and upskilling, Infosys BPM will provide critical training and growth opportunities to new hires to help ensure success in their respective roles. This will also contribute to the long-term digital aspirations of the Costa Rican government and its citizens.

Infosys BPM in Costa Rica currently has a skilled workforce of more than 300 people across a diverse portfolio of services, including sales and fulfillment, sourcing and procurement, customer services, legal process management, human resource outsourcing, and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). The 400 new employees will be hired at multiple job levels and will be distributed across these service lines, with a primary focus on customer service.

The company will collaborate with CINDE, the Costa Rica Investment Promotion Agency which is a private, non-political, and nonprofit organization dedicated to driving sustainable productivity and investment with a purpose, to leverage its business ecosystem in the region and recruit top talent for the new roles.

Anantha Radhakrishnan, CEO & Managing Director, Infosys BPM, said, "Infosys BPM is committed to growing its operations in Costa Rica and helping generate new employment opportunities in the country. Costa Rica, with its proximity to the US, friendly business policies, conducive infrastructure, and quality of talent, presents a stellar opportunity for us to grow our presence in Latin America. Hiring the best of talent builds on our long-standing commitment to developing a highly-skilled workforce in Costa Rica, and further underlines our focus on relentless innovation to deliver consistent business value and an exceptional client experience. This will be another significant step in our continual journey to deliver digital transformation for our clients through digital technology and human-ware, based on the solid foundation of business domain expertise, design thinking, and empathy."

The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, thanked the company for its continued commitment to Costa Rica. It has plans to more than double its workforce and anticipates that it will continue to grow throughout 2022. The President stressed that this growth comes thanks to Costa Ricans' high level of professional training and promised to "continue promoting improvements to our human talent, as we have been doing via English training through the National Institute of Apprenticeship and other public-private associations, both inside and outside the Greater Metropolitan Area. Our goal by 2040 is for everyone, in any part of the country and all education system graduates, to be bilingual, thus opening the doors to opportunities and quality employment."

The announcement is part of Infosys BPM's strategy to enhance its portfolio of international clients and overall business growth. This is in line with its expansion plans in Costa Rica and the overall focus on enhancing communities in which the company operates.

The Minister of Foreign Trade, Andres Valenciano, commented, "Results from our policies that support a favorable investment climate have paid off in the growth of companies such as Infosys in Costa Rica. The services sector continues to be a driver of quality employment that generates knowledge opportunities in highly innovative areas, such as digital transformation. The foreign trade sector will continue promoting quality proposals, so that more multinational companies, such as Infosys, continue to grow and foster business with a purpose in our country."

Jorge Sequeira, Managing Director of CINDE, said, "Costa Rica has long been committed to building its knowledge services sector and establishing technology clusters that excel in an array of areas. That includes engineering support, software development, legacy system support, cloud services, and cybersecurity. Under CINDE's guiding principles of People, Planet, & Prosperity, we are creating opportunities for global enterprises to improve their ESG operations while adding to their bottom line in a responsible way. We congratulate Infosys BPM for its continuous growth and its commitment to our local talent".

To apply for the new positions, please reach out to [email protected]

About CINDE

For almost 40 years, CINDE, a private, non-political, and non-profit organization, has advised and guided over 300 high-tech companies to establish in the country. Becoming the right partner to reach sustainable productivity and drive investment with a purpose.

CINDE has promoted FDI in strategic sectors such as Smart Manufacturing, Knowledge-Intensive Services, and Health & Wellbeing, to generate employment and greater opportunities for its most valuable asset: its people; with the goal of contributing to the social and economic development of Costa Rica.

It was ranked as the world's top institution in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), by the International Trade Center.

About Infosys BPM

Infosys BPM Ltd., the business process management (BPM) subsidiary of Infosys Ltd. (NYSE, BSE,NYSE: INFY), was established in April 2002. We offer integrated end-to-end transformative BPM services and have journeyed through the table-stakes of effectiveness and efficiency with an ever-increasing focus on enhancing stakeholder experience and empathy. We enable clients to navigate their digital journey, operating from 35 delivery centers across 14 countries, with over 48,800 people from 120 nationalities.

Visit www.infosysbpm.com to learn how Infosys BPM can help your enterprise navigate your next.

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE,NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

SOURCE Infosys BPM
DUBLIN, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Agricultural Biotechnology for Transgenic Crops Market (2021-2026) by Type, Crop, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Agricultural Biotechnology for Transgenic Crops Market is estimated to be USD 5.23 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 12.07 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 18.2%.



Market Dynamics

A Transgenic or genetically modified organism has either combined DNA from different genomes or foreign DNA into a genome. The use of biotechnology to genetically modify plants by transferring specific DNA from one organism to another is used to produce transgenic crops. Factors like increasing demand for crops that combat environmental challenges like diseases, pests, and drought, rising demand for biofuels, the growing cultivation area of genetically manufactured crops, and integration of data science & predictive analysis to monitor crop health are some of the driving factors for the market. Whereas strong opposition to genetically manufactured crops in Europe and excessive commercialization are major restraints for the market.



Tailored solutions to meet the demands of every farmer and increased research activities in APAC and Africa are some of the opportunities for the growth of the market. Whereas, the unintentional introduction of allergens and other antinutritional factors into the food chain appears as a challenge for the growth of the market.



The market is segmented based on Type, Crop, and Geography.



Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd., Agrilife Agricultural solutions, BASF SE, Bayer AG, DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., Dow Agrosciences LLC, Limagrain, Rubicon, Monsanto Company, etc.



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 Agricultural Biotechnology for Transgenic Crops 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 Increasing Demand for Crops that Combat Environmental Challenges

4.1.2 Growing Cultivation Area of Genetically Manufactured Crops

4.1.3 Integration of Data Science & Predictive Analysis to Monitor Crop Health

4.1.4 Rising Demand for Bio-Fuels

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Strong Opposition to GM Crops in Europe

4.2.2 Excessive Commercialization

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Increased Research & Development Activities in APAC & Africa

4.3.2 Tailored Solutions to Meet the Needs of Each Farmer

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Unintentionally Introducing Allergens and Other Antinutritional Factors in Food Chain

4.5 Trends



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 Agricultural Biotechnology for Transgenic Crops Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Cisgenic

6.3 Multiple Trait Integration

6.4 Subgenic

6.5 Transgenic



7 Global Agricultural Biotechnology for Transgenic Crops Market, By Crop

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Cereals & Grains

7.3 Flowers

7.4 Fruit & Vegetables

7.5 Medicinal Herbs & Spices

7.6 Oilseeds & Pulses



8 Global Agricultural Biotechnology for Transgenic Crops Market, By Geography



9 Competitive Landscape

9.1 IGR Competitive Quadrant

9.2 Market Share Analysis

9.3 Strategic Initiatives

9.3.1 M&A and Investments

9.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

9.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



10 Company Profiles

10.1 ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd.

10.2 Agrilife

10.3 BASF SE

10.4 Bayer AG

10.5 Certis USA

10.6 DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc.

10.7 Dow AgroSciences LLC

10.8 Evogene Ltd.

10.9 Global Bio-chem Technology

10.10 KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA

10.11 Land O'Lakes Inc.

10.12 Limagrain

10.13 Monsanto Company

10.14 Mycogen Seeds

10.15 Performance Plants Inc.

10.16 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.

10.17 Rubicon

10.18 Syngenta AG

10.19 Takii & Co. Ltd.

10.20 Vilmorin



11 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/tprepc

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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For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Verified Market Research recently published a report, "Insulated Concrete Form Market" By Product (Polyurethane Foam, Cement-Bonded Wood Fibre, Polystyrene Foam), By Application (Non-Residential, Residential), and By Geography. According to Verified Market Research, the Global Insulated Concrete Form Market size was valued at USD 905.78 Million in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 1,375.26 Million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 5.20% from 2021 to 2028.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/download-sample/?rid=182708

Browse in-depth TOC on "Insulated Concrete Form Market"

202 - Pages

126  Tables

37  Figures

Global Insulated Concrete Form Market Overview

The global Insulated Concrete Form Market is predicted to increase owing to increase demand for green construction along with sustainability to reduce carbon footprint. The global Insulated Concrete Form Market is gaining traction owing to enhanced disaster resilience. In addition, the appealing characteristic of reducing the amount of energy required to heat or cool buildings is propelling the market ahead. Improved properties of insulated concrete foam, such as improved structural strength and energy efficiency, are causing it to gain popularity in a variety of sectors, including infrastructure, industry, residential, and commercial. This factor has a significant impact on the market's growth. It surpasses wooden roofs and walls in terms of performance and is extremely cost-effective.

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and tsunamis have increased the demand for a more disaster-resistant material, boosting the global Insulated Concrete Form Market demand. Increased building activity, along with a high demand for a more thermally efficient product, is expected to drive the market forward. Insulated concrete blocks are also classified as green products, making them comply with government regulations. Furthermore, the market for insulated concrete forms is expected to develop owing to the display of excellent acoustic properties. It also has excellent pest resistance, corrosion resistance, and decay resistance, all of which are projected to drive market expansion.

However, a significant amount of capital investment is anticipated to restrain the global Insulated Concrete Form Market's expansion. Another thing to consider is the additional labor cost to manufacture the insulated concrete foam. This works as a restrain and a barrier to entry into the industry, stifling the worldwide Insulated Concrete Form Market's growth.

Key Developments in Insulated Concrete Form Market

In January 2020 , BASF closed the acquisition of Solvay's polyamide (PA 6.6) business. With new and well-known products like Technyl, BASF's polyamide capabilities are expanded. This will enable BASF to provide even better-engineered plastics solutions to its customers, such as for autonomous driving and e-mobility. The deal also gives the corporation better access to emerging markets in Asia , as well as North and South America .

Key Players

The major players in the market are BASF, Quad-Lock Building Systems Ltd., IntegraSpec, Superform Products Ltd., Airlite (Fox Blocks), Amvic, Nudura Corporation, Plasti-Fab, Logix Insulated Concrete Forms Ltd., and BuildBlock Building Systems.

Verified Market Research has segmented the Global Insulated Concrete Form Market On the basis of Product, Application, and Geography.

Insulated Concrete Form Market, By Product

Polyurethane Foam



Cement-Bonded Wood Fibre



Polystyrene Foam



Others

Insulated Concrete Form Market, By Application

Non-residential



Residential

Insulated Concrete Form Market by Geography

North America



U.S





Canada





Mexico



Europe



Germany





France





U.K





Rest of Europe



Asia Pacific



China





Japan





India





Rest of Asia Pacific



ROW



Middle East & Africa

&



Latin America

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Top 5 Building Management System companies discovering and delivering innovative solutions

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SOURCE Verified Market Research
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "We realize that various individuals may not be able to practice oral hygiene," said inventors from Alexandria, Va. "This inspired us to develop a device that could maintain general oral health for nearly anyone."

They developed the patent-pending AUTOSMILE that allows users to quickly and easily clean the oral cavity for a bright, clean, refreshing and healthy smile. This convenient and practical device would be easy to use and may reduce cavities, gum disease and halitosis. Additionally, it may establish a lifelong practice of proper oral hygiene.

The original design was submitted to the Washington, D.C. sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-WDH-2700, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "We wanted to create a fun shooting toy that can be enjoyed by all," said one of two inventors, from Newport Beach, Calif., "so we invented the POCKET-SIZED RAPID-FIRE BLOWGUN TOY. Our design offers an entertaining alternative to traditional shooting blowguns."

The patented invention provides a new blowgun toy for shooting spherical projectiles. In doing so, it could enhance fun and it could help to alleviate boredom. The invention features a compact design that can be concealed within a pocket. It also features fully automatic fire and no moving parts so it is easy to use. Additionally, a prototype is available.

The original design was submitted to the Salt Lake City sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-SLT-260, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp
PHOENIX, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Item 9 Labs Corp. (OTCQX: INLB) (the "Company")a vertically integrated cannabis dispensary franchisor and operator that produces premium, award-winning productstoday reported operating and financial results for the three months ended December 31, 2021, the Company's first quarter for its fiscal year 2022 ("Q1 FY2022"). Item 9 Labs Corp. management will be hosting an earnings results call today, February 15, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time (11:00 a.m. Pacific time); details are provided below.

Key Financial Highlights for Q1 FY2022 (compared with Q1 FY2021)

Revenue increased 104% to $6.2 million

Gross profit increased 68% to $2.4 million

Gross margin remained strong at approximately 39%

Operating loss of $2.1 million compared with operating loss of $0.4 million

million compared with operating loss of $0.4 million Net loss of $3.3 million compared with net loss of $1.1 million

Net loss included $1.2 million ( $76,000 paid in cash) of interest expense compared with $0.70 million ( $319,000 paid in cash)

( paid in cash) of interest expense compared with ( paid in cash) Adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.2 million compared with adjusted EBITDA profit of $0.4 million

Escrow deposits of $12.8 million in cash set aside for expansion

Key Business Highlights During and Subsequent to Q1 FY2022

Broke Ground on Expansion of Cultivation & Lab Site in Arizona : Item 9 Labs Corp. has been cultivating, manufacturing and processing Item 9 Labs productsthe Company's elevated mainstream cannabis brandsince 2017 from its existing 19,200 square-foot facility, which sits on five acres in Coolidge, Arizona . As part of the master site expansion, the Company recently acquired the neighboring 45 acres and anticipates increasing its operations space to 640,000-plus square feet; a 3,100% increase from its current operations. At 50 acres, the site is one of the largest properties in Arizona that is zoned to grow and cultivate flower. The initial development phase is estimated to be completed in Summer 2022 and includes the construction of three steel buildings and two greenhouses  adding 9,600 square feet for indoor cultivation, 9,600 square feet of lab and packaging and a 9,600 square-foot head house to support the addition of the two 18,000 square-foot greenhouses. With this initial expansion phase, the Company expects to increase output of cannabis plant material by 250-300%, with a per unit cost reduction of at least 30%. Further, the additional greenhouses will reduce reliance on third-party sourced material for lab productions by 40-50%. Expansion of the existing lab allows for the addition of more state-of-the-art equipment for all extraction processes, which will support product diversification.





Item 9 Labs Corp. has been cultivating, manufacturing and processing Item 9 Labs productsthe Company's elevated mainstream cannabis brandsince 2017 from its existing 19,200 square-foot facility, which sits on five acres in . As part of the master site expansion, the Company recently acquired the neighboring 45 acres and anticipates increasing its operations space to 640,000-plus square feet; a 3,100% increase from its current operations. At 50 acres, the site is one of the largest properties in Arizona that is zoned to grow and cultivate flower. The initial development phase is estimated to be completed in Summer 2022 and includes the construction of three steel buildings and two greenhouses  adding 9,600 square feet for indoor cultivation, 9,600 square feet of lab and packaging and a 9,600 square-foot head house to support the addition of the two 18,000 square-foot greenhouses. With this initial expansion phase, the Company expects to increase output of cannabis plant material by 250-300%, with a per unit cost reduction of at least 30%. Further, the additional greenhouses will reduce reliance on third-party sourced material for lab productions by 40-50%. Expansion of the existing lab allows for the addition of more state-of-the-art equipment for all extraction processes, which will support product diversification. Earned Five Podium Finishes at 710 Degree Cup: Item 9 Labs earned two first-place awards, two second-place awards and one third-place award in October for its high-quality vape and concentrate products at the 710 Degree Cupone of Arizona's largest and longest-running annual cannabis festivals and awards events. Overall, the decorated brand has earned 23 awards in product competitions since its inception, including 14 first-place finishes.





Item 9 Labs earned two first-place awards, two second-place awards and one third-place award in October for its high-quality vape and concentrate products at the 710 Degree Cupone of largest and longest-running annual cannabis festivals and awards events. Overall, the decorated brand has earned 23 awards in product competitions since its inception, including 14 first-place finishes. Executed Asset Purchase Agreement for a Colorado Dispensary Kickstarts National Growth Plan: Item 9 Labs Corp. plans to aggressively expand its dispensary franchise, Unity Rd., by acquiring and converting cannabis retail stores, training the local team and selling the business to new and existing Unity Rd. franchise partners. As the Company seeks to keep dispensary ownership local, this growth strategy offers turnkey investment opportunities for prospective cannabis entrepreneurs. In October, Item 9 Labs Corp. executed an Asset Purchase Agreement for an existing dispensary license and storefront in Adams County, Colorado . This will be the first corporate-owned shop under the Unity Rd. brand. Currently, the Company is awaiting regulatory approval by Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division (the "MED") and expects the shop to be operational in the first half of 2022.





Item 9 Labs Corp. plans to aggressively expand its dispensary franchise, Unity Rd., by acquiring and converting cannabis retail stores, training the local team and selling the business to new and existing Unity Rd. franchise partners. As the Company seeks to keep dispensary ownership local, this growth strategy offers turnkey investment opportunities for prospective cannabis entrepreneurs. In October, Item 9 Labs Corp. executed an Asset Purchase Agreement for an existing dispensary license and storefront in Adams County, . This will be the first corporate-owned shop under the Unity Rd. brand. Currently, the Company is awaiting regulatory approval by Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division (the "MED") and expects the shop to be operational in the first half of 2022. Signed First Partner through Local Alliance Program: Unity Rd. launched its Local Alliance Program in 2021 to support existing dispensary owners and operators and signed its first partner in January 2022 with an Oklahoma City dispensary, Ringside Medical. The shop is located at 14201 N. May Ave. #205 and will be rebranded to Unity Rd. Through the program, existing cannabis dispensary owners and license holders can partner with Unity Rd. to gain direct access to the buying power, resources and supportive network normally reserved for multi-unit operators. Partners through this program retain 100% ownership of their dispensary license and business and benefit from the tools, expertise and ongoing support necessary to compliantly and successfully operate a dispensary.





Unity Rd. launched its Local Alliance Program in 2021 to support existing dispensary owners and operators and signed its first partner in with an dispensary, Ringside Medical. The shop is located at 14201 N. May Ave. #205 and will be rebranded to Unity Rd. Through the program, existing cannabis dispensary owners and license holders can partner with Unity Rd. to gain direct access to the buying power, resources and supportive network normally reserved for multi-unit operators. Partners through this program retain 100% ownership of their dispensary license and business and benefit from the tools, expertise and ongoing support necessary to compliantly and successfully operate a dispensary. Signed First Unity Rd. Agreement in South Dakota : Unity Rd. kicked off local expansion in South Dakota with the signing of an agreement that will bring the brand's first shop to the Mount Rushmore State. The retailer has partnered with local serial entrepreneur BJ Olson and his business partner to develop at least one Unity Rd. shop and is currently guiding them through the state's dispensary license process.

Nevada Cultivation Site Expansion Update

The Company's 20,000 square-foot facility in Pahrump, Nevada is currently approximately 95% finished. The team is starting to prepare the rooms with growing equipment, including lights and fans, and recently completed the water line connection. Once the meter set-up is finalized, the water can be turned on and outdoor work such as landscaping and the parking lot can be completed. Flooring is also in process with 50% of the building's flooring currently complete. Item 9 Labs Corp. expects to receive the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy during the second quarter of its 2022 fiscal year.

Management Commentary

"Demand remains strong for Item 9 Labs in Arizona, and we anticipate it will only accelerate more," stated Item 9 Labs Corp.'s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Bowden.

The Arizona market generated $1.9 billion in sales from marijuana products in 2021, according to recent studies. The report also noted an early sign of industry success for the state as it drew in more demand than other states during their first year of legalization.

Bowden continued, "Our product offerings will continue expanding in the year ahead to further meet the needs and interests of today's modern-day cannabis consumer. We closed out the 2021 calendar year with tremendous movement in gaining market share and reports from BDS Analytics show that Item 9 Labs was one of the top three preferred brands for cannabis vape products in Arizona. Our elevated mainstream brand is currently in more than 50% of the state's dispensaries and we anticipate expansion into new markets in the year ahead through partnerships and acquisitions to bring our award-winning products to Unity Rd. shops nationwide."

The Company's Chief Franchise Officer, Mike Weinberger, added, "Continued legalization and awareness of our dispensary franchise opportunity is keeping our development pipeline robust. Unity Rd. now has a franchised shop open in Boulder, Colorado as well as agreements with close to 20 partners to open more than three dozen shops across 9 states. A majority in development are in various stages of state licensing; we also have a wide range of appealing markets in our acquisitions pipeline and expect to make further announcements over the next few months."

"We are continuing to invest and build for the future," said Item 9 Labs Corp.'s Chief Financial Officer, Bobby Mikkelsen. "We are adding top talent and deploying capital for our cultivation and lab site expansions in Arizona and Nevada. We know there is more demand in Arizona for our award-winning products than we can currently supply. While our revenue remains strong, we are sacrificing near-term profitability to strengthen our position for increased business in Arizona and ultimately accelerated revenue growth, increased profitability and increased shareholder value. Of note, we held $12.8 million of escrow deposits as of December 31, 2021, that is set aside for expansion."

Financial Results for Q1 FY2022 Ended December 31, 2021

Revenue: For the three months ended December 31, 2021, revenue was $6.2 million, an increase of $3.1 million, or 104%, compared with $3.0 million for the three months ended December 31, 2020. The increase in revenue was primarily due to a change in certain processes and procedures in the Company's Arizona lab during the year ended September 30, 2021 . The Company purchased equipment to automate certain manual processes, such as the filling of cartridges, which allowed for increased efficiency and output.





For the three months ended December 31, 2021, revenue was $6.2 million, an increase of $3.1 million, or 104%, compared with $3.0 million for the three months ended December 31, 2020. The increase in revenue was primarily due to a change in certain processes and procedures in the Company's lab during the year ended . The Company purchased equipment to automate certain manual processes, such as the filling of cartridges, which allowed for increased efficiency and output. Gross Profit: For the three months ended December 31, 2021, gross profit was $2.4 million, an increase of $1.0 million, or 68%, compared with $1.4 million for the 3 months ended December 31, 2021. The resulting gross margin was 39%, compared with 47% for the 3 months ended December 31, 2020 . The Company experienced lower gross profit margins in the first quarter of 2022 due to price reductions as competition rises in Arizona . Additionally, to deepen the market penetration of Item 9 Labs products, the Company sourced plant and extract materials from third parties, the effect of which is higher gross profit, but lower gross margin.





For the three months ended December 31, 2021, gross profit was $2.4 million, an increase of $1.0 million, or 68%, compared with $1.4 million for the 3 months ended December 31, 2021. The resulting gross margin was 39%, compared with 47% for the 3 months ended . The Company experienced lower gross profit margins in the first quarter of 2022 due to price reductions as competition rises in . Additionally, to deepen the market penetration of Item 9 Labs products, the Company sourced plant and extract materials from third parties, the effect of which is higher gross profit, but lower gross margin. Total Operating Expenses: For the three months ended December 31, 2021, total operating expenses were $4.5 million, an increase of $2.7 million, or 152%, compared with $1.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2020 . The Company has been investing to meet growing demand in Arizona as well as funding the build out of its local cultivation and lab site. Management believes this will improve earnings and future cash position. Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue increased to 73% from 59%, as the Company has invested in its infrastructure to support a much larger company and revenue base. Management believes this ratio will decrease going forward as it scales the business.



Of note, $0.9 million of the Company's operating expenses for the three months ended December 31, 2021, were non-cash expenses, including depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation.



Of note, $1.0 million of interest expense for the three months ended December 31, 2021 , is non-cash amortization of the debt discount.





For the three months ended December 31, 2021, total operating expenses were $4.5 million, an increase of $2.7 million, or 152%, compared with $1.8 million for the three months ended . The Company has been investing to meet growing demand in as well as funding the build out of its local cultivation and lab site. Management believes this will improve earnings and future cash position. Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue increased to 73% from 59%, as the Company has invested in its infrastructure to support a much larger company and revenue base. Management believes this ratio will decrease going forward as it scales the business. Of note, $0.9 million of the Company's operating expenses for the three months ended December 31, 2021, were non-cash expenses, including depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation. Of note, of interest expense for the three months ended , is non-cash amortization of the debt discount. Operating Loss: For the three months ended December 31, 2021, operating loss was $2.1 million, an increase of $1.8 million , or 483%, compared with an operating loss of $0.4 million for the three months ended December 31, 2020 .





For the three months ended December 31, 2021, operating loss was $2.1 million, an increase of , or 483%, compared with an operating loss of $0.4 million for the three months ended . Adjusted EBITDA: After adding back operating expenses, depreciation and amortization, interest, acquisition-related costs and stock-based compensation, Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended December 31, 2021 was a loss of $1.2 million , as compared with an Adjusted EBITDA profit of $0.4 million for the three months ended December 31, 2020 .





After adding back operating expenses, depreciation and amortization, interest, acquisition-related costs and stock-based compensation, Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended December 31, 2021 was a loss of , as compared with an Adjusted EBITDA profit of $0.4 million for the three months ended . Net Loss: For the three months ended December 31, 2021, net loss attributable to the Company was $3.3 million, or net loss of ($0.04) per share, an increase of $2.3 million , or 211%, compared with a net loss of $1.1 million, or ( $0.02 ) per share, for the three months ended December 31, 2020.





For the three months ended December 31, 2021, net loss attributable to the Company was $3.3 million, or net loss of per share, an increase of , or 211%, compared with a net loss of $1.1 million, or ( ) per share, for the three months ended December 31, 2020. Cash: Cash and cash equivalents totaled $0.2 million as of December 31, 2021.





Cash and cash equivalents totaled $0.2 million as of December 31, 2021. Escrow Deposits: $12.8 million set aside for expansion.

Conference Call and Webcast Information  Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m. PT)

Item 9 Labs Corp.'s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Bowden and Chief Financial Officer Bobby Mikkelsen will host the Company's Q1 FY2022 results call.

Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2022





Tuesday, February 15, 2022 Time: 2:00 p.m. Eastern time ( 11:00 a.m. Pacific time)





2:00 p.m. Eastern time ( Pacific time) Access by Zoom: A live and archived webcast will be available via Sequire, click on this webcast link to register or access the replay.





A live and archived webcast will be available via Sequire, click on this webcast link to register or access the replay. Access by Phone: Please call the conference telephone number 10-15 minutes prior to the start time: Dial-in number: 669-900-6833 // Meeting ID: 96850773091 // Passcode: 926987





Please call the conference telephone number 10-15 minutes prior to the start time: Dial-in number: 669-900-6833 // Meeting ID: 96850773091 // Passcode: 926987 Questions: Please submit questions to [email protected] before the presentation begins. The management team will do their best to answer all questions.

Adjusted EBITDA



Three months ended December 31,

2021 2020





Net loss -$3,345,014 -$1,074,456





Depreciation and amortization 439,135 142,545 Interest expense 1,210,390 708,367 Stock-based expense 507,294 467,908 Acquisition related costs  179,677





Adjusted EBITDA -$1,188,195 $424,041





About Item 9 Labs Corp.

Item 9 Labs Corp. (OTCQX: INLB) is a vertically integrated cannabis operator and dispensary franchisor delivering premium products from its large-scale cultivation and production facilities in the United States. The award-winning Item 9 Labs brand specializes in best-in-class products and user experience across several cannabis categories. The company also offers a unique dispensary franchise model through the national Unity Rd. retail brand. Easing barriers to entry, the franchise provides an opportunity for both new and existing dispensary owners to leverage the knowledge, resources, and ongoing support needed to thrive in their state compliantly and successfully. Item 9 Labs brings the best industry practices to markets nationwide through distinctive retail experience, cultivation capabilities, and product innovation. The veteran management team combines a diverse skill set with deep experience in the cannabis sector, franchising, and the capital markets to lead a new generation of public cannabis companies that provide transparency, consistency, and well-being. Headquartered in Arizona, the company is currently expanding its operations space up to 640,000+ square feet on its 50-acre site, one of the largest properties in Arizona zoned to grow and cultivate flower. For additional information, visit item9labscorp.com.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement the Company's financial statements presented on a GAAP basis, Item 9 Labs Corp. provides Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure of its performance. To provide investors with additional insight and allow for a more comprehensive understanding of the information used by management in its financial and decision-making surrounding pro forma operations, Item 9 Labs Corp. supplements its consolidated financial statements presented on a basis consistent with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, with Adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure of earnings. Adjusted EBITDA represents EBITDA plus stock-based compensation and acquisition related expenses. Item 9 Labs Corp. management uses Adjusted EBITDA as a financial measure to evaluate the profitability and efficiency of the business model. The Company uses these non-GAAP financial measures to assess the strength of the underlying operations of the business. These adjustments, and the non-GAAP financial measures that are derived from them, provide supplemental information to analyze its operations between periods and over time. Item 9 Labs Corp. finds this especially useful when reviewing pro forma results of operations, which include large non-cash amortizations of intangible assets from acquisitions and stock-based compensation. Investors should consider its non-GAAP financial measures in addition to, and not as a substitute for, financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, risks and effects of legal and administrative proceedings and governmental regulation, especially in a foreign country, future financial and operational results, competition, general economic conditions, proposed transactions that are not legally binding obligations of the company and the ability to manage and continue growth. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those indicated. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make in this news release include the introduction of new technology, market conditions and those set forth in reports or documents we file from time to time with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to revise or update such statements to reflect current events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Media Contact:

Item 9 Labs Corp.

Jayne Levy, VP of Communications

Email: [email protected]

Investor Contact:

Item 9 Labs Corp.

800-403-1140

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Item 9 Labs Corp.
DALLAS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jacobs (NYSE:J) is part of a consortium selected by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to develop and implement an inductive vehicle charging pilot  the first of its kind in the United States. The project team will be led by Electreon , a leading provider of wireless charging solutions for electric vehicles (EVs). NextEnergy , a Detroit-based clean energy accelerator, will head up stakeholder and partner engagement. The pilot will also be supported by partners like Ford Motor Company and DTE Energy  a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services  among others.

As the engineering partner, Jacobs will provide project management and design services to successfully deliver this pilot project through to operation. The consortium will design and build a one mile stretch of dynamic and stationary wireless EV charging technology in Detroit hosted by the Michigan Central mobility innovation district, which serves as an open platform for collaboration. The technology, developed by Electreon, will enable inductive charging by placing embedded coils under the road pavement along with semi-dynamic charging stations at end point terminals to charge the vehicles while stationary in a queuing or parking lane. The system supports charging of equipped EVs and addresses several shortcomings in electrification related to battery limitations, charging needs and vehicle asset utilization.

"As the world transitions to the future of electrified transportation, cities and communities are seeking and adopting green economic-centric models as part of the transformation," said Jacobs People & Places Solutions Americas Senior Vice President and General Manager Ron Williams. "This innovative pilot project aims to demonstrate efficient vehicle operability to prove the viability of wireless EV charging. Jacobs is committed to delivering decarbonization solutions to address the increasingly critical issue of climate change. This project is just one of the ways Jacobs and our partners are working together to create a more connected, sustainable world."

Transportation accounts for approximately one quarter of all CO 2 emissions globally and in the United States, it is the highest CO 2 emitting sector. Reducing global transportation sector emissions is a top priority for Jacobs, and the greening of public and private vehicles is a critical step leading to improved air quality and healthier cities.

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, ,and Item 2 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations; Item 1 - Legal Proceedings; and Item 1A - Risk Factors in our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q,, if filed on or after Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 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
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal court judge has ruled that JLM Couture will retain access to the key social media accounts used to promote its bridal brands. The accounts, including the 1.1 million-follower Instagram account (IG), are and have always been critical pieces of JLM's marketing and advertising program for its Hayley Paige brands, the judge ruled.

Both the District Court and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the employment contract is clear and unambiguous and that there is a likelihood of success on JLM's claims against Ms. Gutman because she "breached her duty to assist with the advertising programsand repudiated her obligation to post [JLM's] content on the Instagram account, and 'used the Instagram account to promote third party goods and build a commercial platform she intended to use for herself as an influencer."

In January, Ms. Gutman posted on her social media account that the appeals court ordered JLM to hand over control of the IG account to her. With Judge Swain's latest ruling, Ms. Gutman's posting have been shown to be false.

Judge Swain has reinstated and revised the Preliminary Injunction (PI) to allow Ms. Gutman to post only content that solely promotes the Hayley Paige brands on the @MissHayleyPaige IG and Pinterest accounts. The court's latest order continues to bar Ms. Gutman from locking JLM out, promoting herself as an influencer, and/or using the account(s) for any commercial purposes other than promoting the Hayley Paige brands, changing the name of the IG or Pinterest accounts, deleting, or altering any content, communicating with followers or other third parties in connection with any non-JLM commercial venture, or gaining exclusive control over the accounts.

Judge Swain, in her Order, continues to recognize that "content included on the social media platformsmust meet certain criteria, including that it must be 'consistent with JLM's high standards of quality and decorum' and 'promote the HP brands.'"

A spokesperson for the company said, "The Court's ruling is affirmation that up until Ms. Gutman's breach of her contract, the social media accounts have solely been used to advertise the Hayley Paige brands. JLM has always and continues to welcome the opportunity to collaborate with Ms. Gutman in promoting the Hayley Paige brands in a way that is in line with the brand image."

JLM expects there will be further modifications to the PI at the appropriate time.

ABOUT JLM COUTURE, INC.

JLM Couture, Inc. (OTC: JLMC) is a multi-label bridal house engaged in the design, manufacture, and distribution of bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses. The company's bridal gown collections are Hayley Paige, Blush by Hayley Paige, Lazaro, Tara Keely, Ti Adora, and Allison Webb. The bridesmaid collection is Hayley Paige Occasions. JLM Boutique, the company's flagship bridal store, is located in West Hollywood, California.

SOURCE JLM Couture
TORRANCE, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kay Properties & Investments, a national leader in Delaware Statutory Trust equity placements, recently announced it worked closely with a large institutional real estate investment firm to perform a series of test investments prior to helping the client complete multiple DST 1031 exchanges totaling $100 million.

According to Dwight Kay, Founder and CEO of Kay Properties, the institutional investment firm decided to strategically relinquish a portfolio of four large retail assets and invest in custom DST 1031 exchange portfolios in order to help them become potentially more diversified. A significant caveat to their investment strategy, however, was to enter into smaller investment transactions as part of a "test investment" strategy.

"Kay Properties is widely recognized as the number one leader in placing 1031 exchange equity for every sized accredited real estate investor. In this case, we were contacted by a large institutional real estate investment firm who ultimately wanted to liquidate its $100 million portfolio of retail investment properties to potentially achieve greater diversification for its investors. The Kay Properties investment team spent more than a year educating them and introducing them to different sponsors that we work with, and carefully going over the risks, benefits and structure of DSTs, and even facilitated several test investments with them before they decided to invest a larger component of their portfolio with us," said Kay.

Steve Haskell, Vice President with Kay Properties spearheaded the interaction with the client, and explained that while they were more sophisticated than many real estate investors, they still required a lot of education and insisted on testing out the Kay Properties DST 1031 exchange platform before placing larger investments with the firm.

"It is not uncommon for investors of all sizes to want to test our processes and platform before placing a large investment amount with us. In this case, the investment firm wanted to watch our paperwork and look at how we operated as an advisory firm, while also evaluating the DST structure as an investment vehicle. They also wanted to make sure we always 'dotted our i's and crossed our t's'. We obviously performed as we do with all our clients - professionally, honestly, and always being forthright regarding potential risks of DSTs," said Steve Haskell, Kay Properties Vice President and recognized DST 1031 exchange expert.

According to Haskell, during these test investments, Kay Properties was also introducing them to numerous sponsors, and helping them create a portfolio that fit their specific investment criteria.

"Because we had been working with them for more than a year, we were able to have properties they wanted already set up and reserved so that they could close on their DST 1031 exchange literally the same day they closed on their relinquished assets," explained Haskell.

As a result, Kay Properties helped the investment firm successfully close on multiple DST portfolios in various types of real estate asset classes, in different geographic locations, and across a variety of tenants to help achieve greater diversification, passive management, and the potential for monthly distributions.

"The client was impressed with every facet of the Kay Properties business model, and felt like they accomplished what they wanted to do from an investment perspective," said Haskell.

About Kay Properties and www.kpi1031.com

Kay Properties & Investments is a national Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) investment firm. The www.kpi1031.com platform provides access to the marketplace of DSTs from over 25 different sponsor companies, custom DSTs only available to Kay clients, independent advice on DST sponsor companies, full due diligence and vetting on each DST (typically 20-40 DSTs) and a DST secondary market. Kay Properties team members collectively have over 150 years of real estate experience, are licensed in all 50 states, and have participated in over $30 Billion of DST 1031 investments.

*NOTE: Past performance does not guarantee future results and DST investments may result in a complete loss of investor principal. This is an example of the experience of one of our clients and may not be representative of the experience of other clients. These clients were not compensated for their testimonials. Please speak with your attorney and CPA before considering an investment

Diversification does not guarantee profits or protect against losses. All real estate investments provide no guarantees for cash flow, distributions or appreciation as well as could result in a full loss of invested principal. Please read the entire Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) prior to making an investment. This case study may not be representative of the outcome of past or future offerings. Please speak with your attorney and CPA before considering an investment.

There is a risk of loss of the entire investment principal. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Potential distributions, potential returns and potential appreciation are not guaranteed. For an investor to qualify for any type of investment, there are both financial requirements and suitability requirements that must match specific objectives, goals, and risk tolerances. Securities offered through FNEX Capital, member FINRA, SIPC.

SOURCE Kay Properties and Investments
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- KOS, the plant-based powerhouse and functional nutrition brand, announces today the closing of its milestone $12 million Series A investment led by industry vets and entrepreneurs, Clayton Christopher and Brian Goldberg, with a follow-on investment from early-stage investor, Springdale Ventures. The funding further cements the brand as a key player in the plant-based nutrition space. KOS will utilize the investment to ramp up retail partners, enhance customer awareness, innovate product, enter new service categories, accelerate and expand mission-aligned partnerships, as well build the KOS team with those who embody and fuel the plant-based lifestyle.

KOS KOS

Driven by an unapologetic desire to feed the world with honest and pure ingredients, KOS continues to flourish as a plant nutrition provider and pushes towards becoming an all-encompassing wellness platform fit for any lifestyle. In 2021, according to SPINS, KOS was the fastest growing plant-protein brand by total distribution points in the natural channel, which includes specialty retailers and stores like Whole Foods Market. Additionally, KOS secured national retail partners Walmart, CVS and Vitamin Shoppe, bringing total distribution up to 38,500 by year-end, an impressive 470% increase over 2020.

A distinguishing feature of KOS is the friendly rapport it has with consumers, an outcome of its sizable DTC digital business. "The direct line of communication with hundreds of thousands of consumers both inform us in real-time of changing customer needs but also gives us a platform to launch and test new products before taking them to the broader retail market," said Tony Stahl, KOS Co-Founder and Co-CEO. Also, a crucial part of KOS' pursuit is giving back through its one-to-one partnership with Feeding America, with fulfilling its 10 million meals project to help those facing hunger. As of January 2022, KOS has provided more than 2 million meals towards this goal.

Clayton Christopher, Brian Goldberg, and the team at Springdale Ventures have been longtime believers in KOS and its overall mission to upgrade individual wellness and quality of life for the conscious consumer. Clayton Christopher is most known for founding Sweet Tea Leaf, Deep Eddy Vodka, Waterloo Sparkling Water and one of the leading better-for-you CPG investment firms, CAVU Ventures. In tandem, Brian Goldberg is Founder and Managing Director of Redbud Brands, a holding company focused on creating and scaling 'better-for-you' consumer brands and digital consumer ventures. He was formerly a founding executive of Amplify Snack Brands, makers of SkinnyPop Popcorn, from inception through its IPO and subsequent ~$1.7 billion-dollar exit to The Hershey Company in 2018. Additionally, Goldberg has been a C-level executive, board director, advisor, or investor to various successful CPG brands, from early-stage to exit. Springdale Ventures is once again investing in KOS after leading a $2.1M early-stage investment for KOS in 2020.

"We are beyond excited to continue our journey with Clayton Christopher and Brian Goldberg's involvement. They are incredibly skilled brand operators who have built multiple iconic brands throughout their careers," said Allan Stevens, KOS Co-Founder and Co-CEO. "They have been incredibly helpful from the start, and they bring invaluable experience that will aid us in navigating the coming years."

"We've been fans of the KOS brand since it first launched and have watched it develop into something quite special in a very short period. I have been a heavy user of plant-based proteins, tried them all and KOS wins on both taste and nutritional profile," said Clayton Christopher. "Over time as an investor, you see certain patterns repeat that are clues to a brand's long-term success and KOS has exhibited many of them. We're excited to be involved and to support the KOS team in their next chapter of growth."

KOS is a fast-growing team actively looking for talented individuals who have a passion for improving lives through plant-based nutrition while also being environmentally conscious. Open positions in the United States include sales, marketing, e-commerce, and more. Email [email protected] for career inquiries. For more information on KOS, its full line of retailers and products, and its larger nutrient mission, please visit www.kos.com.

About KOS

KOS, mission-driven lifestyle brand and producer of plant-based protein and functional ingredients, supports customers' journeys toward plant-centric nutritional lifestyles, and the life-changing physical tune-up nature intended. KOS' suite of superfoods is designed to deliver the high-octane punch that drives the natural world - without the fuel contaminants found in today's dysfunctional processed and meat-based food system. KOS products are made entirely out of the good stuff that springs from the soil and are designed to help you look good, feel good, and do good while having a positive impact on your community and the environment. KOS' boutique family of great-tasting, USDA-certified organic, non-GMO, responsibly sourced products provide honestly delicious plant-based nutrition for those navigating a healthier way of life through the maze of our ever-busier culture. KOS can be found in more than 70 major national and regional brick & mortar retailers throughout the U.S., representing nearly 42,000 total distribution points. For more information and a look at KOS' full line of products, please visit www.kos.com.

About Springdale Ventures

Springdale Ventures is an Austin, Texas-based venture capital firm that partners with visionary founders to accelerate growth of transformative, early-stage consumer brands that are both digitally native and retail ready. Led by successful entrepreneurs and operators, the $27 million fund has a team of over 30 years of track record of valuation creation and a combined more than 150 years of CPG experience, and it has invested in a group of stellar brands across categories including food & beverage, lifestyle, personal care, and wellness. To date, there are more than 20 portfolio companies under Springdale Ventures, including Caraway, KOS, Judy, BeatBox, Literati, and Canteen. www.springdaleventures.com/brands/

Media Contact:

Shea Gorden | Carissa Izquierdo

[email protected]

(818) 836-0080

www.startrco.com

SOURCE KOS
BEIJING, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kuke Music Holding Limited ("Kuke" or the "Company") (NYSE: KUKE), a leading classical music service platform, today announced that the Company has established a blockchain business unit and completed a strategic investment in KOLO, a leading international non-fungible token (NFT) platform for classical music in the Metaverse.

Kuke's blockchain business unit aims to utilize blockchain technology to validate, authorize, and protect digital music copyrights. In addition, the Company's strategic investment in KOLO will further enable the development of a consumer-oriented, classical music-focused and global NFT application in the Metaverse. The NFT application will leverage the diversified classical music copyright resources of the Company and Naxos, the Company's strategic global business partner and the largest independent classical music content provider in the world, and further enhance the transaction liquidity, platform interoperability and ease of sharing of digital music assets.

As the general public increasingly acknowledges that blockchain technology represents one of the most exciting paradigm shifts in the history of technology, and NFT applications are leading the global development trend in industries such as gaming, art, and music, the Company intends to utilize blockchain technology and NFT applications to drive innovation in the classical music industry, increase the monetization of classical music digital assets, build a digital economy for musicians, provide value to users, and foster mutually-beneficial partnerships among industry participants.

The KOLO platform has auctioned four NFTs within the past month, namely, Spring Festival Overture, Brahms- Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.77, and J.S.BACH  Cello Suite No.1, BWV 1007, as well as Beethoven- Piano Sonata No.14 in C- Sharp Minor, Op.27, "Moonlight", all of which were licensed by Naxos. The auctions have drawn considerable attention and were completed at attractive prices within a few minutes. Notable on the list was the "Spring Festival Overture" composed by well-known composer Huanzhi Li. This classic piece has been played at the beginning of every Chinese New Year Gala for over 30 years. KOLO plans to release new NFTs licensed by Naxos and Kuke on a weekly basis starting mid-February 2022.

About Kuke Music Holding Limited

Kuke is a leading classical music service platform in China encompassing the entire value chain from content provision to music learning services. By collaborating with its strategic global business partner Naxos, the largest independent classical music content provider in the world, the foundation of Kuke's extensive classical music content library is its unparalleled access to more than 900 top-tier labels and record companies. Leveraging its market leadership in copyrighted classical music content in China, Kuke provides highly scalable classical music licensing and subscription services to over 700 universities, libraries and online music platforms. In addition, it has hosted Beijing Music Festival ("BMF"), the most renowned music festival in China, for 24 consecutive years. Through KUKEY, the Company's proprietary AI music learning system, Kuke aims to democratize music learning via technological innovation, bring fascinating music content and professional music techniques to more students, and continuously improve the efficiency and penetration of music learning.

About KOLO

KOLO is a classical music-focused and decentralized NFT platform driven by blockchain technology and aims to build a better music ecological environment on the blockchain, encourage paid digital music consumption and become the blockchain standard for classical music. KOLO is committed to using the blockchain technology to improve the efficiency of royalty payments and protect the rights of musicians.

Investor Relations Contact

Kuke Music Holding Limited

Email: [email protected]



SOURCE Kuke Music Holding Limited
Key Points

Lensbox, is launching first-in-the world, eyecare bricks and clicks technology, with teleoptometry (telehealth) and ecommerce services, tied into point-of-sale in retail

The technology is owned and validated by eyecare professionals and features the most accurate and hassle-free, virtual eyecare assessment tools and vision testing in the world

The technology allows anyone, anywhere in the world to connect with an eyecare professional for prescriptions, eyecare testing and access to quality products

MIAMI, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Lensbox, an optometry-led and funded eye healthcare technology company, that digitalizes the practice of eyecare beyond clinic walls, is pleased to announce the launch of 480+ Lensbox EyeDocs. The bricks and clicks technology is fully automated and first-to-market patient experience centers, that seamlessly integrate with the Lensbox first-to-market app, tying in tele-optometry, e-commerce, and point-of-sale technology for eyewear retail.

Lensbox was launched in 2018, by doctors of optometry, and CEO and co-founder, Sheila Sanaz Bissonnette, a former global M&A executive at Essilor-Luxottica, who spear-headed ecommerce acquisitions. Bissonnette left the company in 2018 and started Lensbox, to ensure eyecare services and e-commerce are delivered with the health and safety of patients in mind. Equally important to Bissonnette was her mission for eyecare professionals to own the most advanced virtual eyecare technology in the market, so that they can compete in an increasingly digitalized world.

"Sanaz has consistently advocated for eyecare patients and professionals and has worked diligently to innovate the eyecare space," says Dr. Matt Michniewicz, optometrist, and Lensbox Director of Optometric Partnerships. "Under her leadership, we have developed first-to-market technologies for practitioners, flipping the script in the eyecare industry, placing eyecare professionals back in the driver's seat. It's thrilling to see her vision come to life with a compliant technology, which offers the most accurate, in-app eyecare assessments in the world, without the use of rulers or credit card (current practice), as well as many other AI powered diagnostics tools and high quality eyecare products."

Lensbox EyeDocs apps, web-based platform, and point-of-sale technology are all integrated in a first-to-market, proprietary suite of products, designed, owned, and funded by independent doctors of optometry. Lensbox takes care of all the backend logistics, marketing, compliance, and operations, while offering remote tele-optometry and memorable patient experiences.

The technology is approved, built, and funded by doctors of optometry for practice growth, and as an extension of their services in key locations to grow new market segments.

"EyeDocs is taking a traditional brick and mortar optometry practice and bringing it to the digital age, allowing ECPs to flourish and compete with the online world," says Dr. Sunil Parekh, Optometrist and Lensbox Investor. "The commodification of eye care products, mass industry consolidations, and unregulated e-commerce players, has exacerbated the economic and societal cost of vision loss and made it difficult for ECPs to thrive, as independent practitioners and small business owners. ECPs can now be market leaders with this technology." Validated by government grants, private foundations, and schools of optometry, the Lensbox EyeDocs Initiative serves to grow the entire eyecare market, by catalyzing tele-optometry and eyecare e-commerce services, in high-potential locations, like family medicine practices, pharmacies, university campuses and remote, marginalized communities by end of Q2.

"Doctors of Optometry spend much of their career in a dark room, serving patients, so that we can all see the world better. They need to be valued and supported in every way, so that as small business owners they can thrive," says Sanaz Bissonnette, CEO of Lensbox.

Bissonnette's introduction to the eyecare industry came in 2012, through a lived experience as a business student attending college. "I was trying to get access to my prescription to buy glasses online through our student benefits. It turned out I didn't need a prescription and I could selfprescribe contacts and glasses. With a little digging , I learned that most vision loss is due to a lack of diagnosis and treatments of eye conditions. It seemed that by cutting eye care professionals out of the purchase cycle, eyecare patients were being put at risk. It's great to be able to bring this technology to market and serve doctors and patients, at the same time." Interested in owning a EyeDocs of your own? You can pre-order it HERE .

About Lensbox: Lensbox is an optometry-led and ECP funded eye healthcare technology company, that develops first-to-market products, designed by independent doctors of optometry, for ECPs to digitalizes the practice of eyecare beyond the clinic. As an aggregator and marketplace, Lensbox connects suppliers, manufacturers, ECPs, and consumers with a widerange of price competitive eye-related products and services.

For Media and Investor Relations, contact Emeka Alozie, Co-Founder USA - VP of Investor Relations and Marketing, [email protected]

SOURCE Lensbox
UNION, N.J., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LifeStation, a leading provider of medical alert monitoring and telehealth technology services, and Papa, a curated platform of companionship and support for older adults, families, and other vulnerable populations, today announced a partnership to address the social needs of older and other vulnerable adults. The collaboration offers a new approach to combating loneliness, isolation and its impact on health.

Papa's companionship and care services are available now to individuals with LifeStation's Personal Emergency Response System (PERS). According to LifeStation, nearly nine out of 10 button presses by members with a medical alert device are for reasons other than medical emergencies. Papa's on-demand workforce of vetted "Papa Pals" will provide companionship and support the specific needs of older adults  helping to close gaps in care and connectedness. Papa Pals will also assist LifeStation members in setting up their PERS device, removing a critical barrier to effective use of the potentially life-saving support.

This partnership is a prime example of the need Papa fills for companies, like LifeStation, that have great tech solutions but need to address barriers to use. Companies often cannot rely on a tech interface or a remote exchange to unlock the value of a specific solution, yet they do not need a nurse or physician in order to realize its full potential. Papa Pals help close those gaps and allow companies to scale solutions without needing to create their own in-home workforce. LifeStation is taking that member support a step further by providing its members additional time with a Papa Pal to address other social needs, like loneliness and isolation.

"For so many individuals who use our LifeStation devices, the communication when pressing their pendant is the only conversation they have all day," said Laura Aiello, Director of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships at LifeStation. "So many of our members are seeking connection, communication and companionship. Now, with Papa, a Pal can help provide the needed support for both technical and social needs, improving total health and well-being."

Nearly half of all United States seniors described themselves as lonely in a survey by researchers at the University of California San Francisco (1), and one quarter described themselves as socially isolated in research done by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (2). A recent LifeStation study also found that family caregivers are acutely aware of the impact their absence has on feelings of isolation by aging loved ones  nearly half of caregivers saying the aging adult they care for could use some way of being connected to others. Beyond the stereotype of the lonely older adult, there are real health consequences to loneliness and social isolation for many populations.

"Perhaps more than any other condition, loneliness and isolation widen the gap between healthy, independent living and the marginalization that leads to health challenges," said Andrew Parker, Papa founder and CEO. "Through our partnership with LifeStation, our Papa Pals not only provide technical support, they can also help address social isolation and loneliness firsthand by providing the companionship and everyday support that these members need."

LifeStation customers or eligible members can request a Papa Pal by calling 888-855-4218. Papa Pals are trained and vetted companions who assist directly with medical appointments, grocery shopping, technology troubleshooting, and much more. Papa's platform uses technology to streamline access to in-the-home support and to efficiently and meaningfully engage with people on a personal basis.

About LifeStation

LifeStation is one of the leading providers of medical alert monitoring and telehealth technology services in the United States. LifeStation's mission is to leverage innovative technology and services to transform the lives of seniors and help them live safely and independently. Of equal importance is the wellbeing of caregivers and providing them with the peace of mind they need. Learn more about LifeStation by calling 800-446-3300, or visiting www.lifestation.com

About Papa

Papa and its Papa Pals platform provide "family on demand," by working with Medicare, Medicaid, and employer-sponsored health plans to provide a companionship and care benefit for older adults and families. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Miami, Papa is backed by Canaan, Tiger Global Management, Comcast Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, TCG, Initialized Capital, and Seven Seven Six, among other revered institutional and individual investors. For more information, visit papa.com.

SOURCE LifeStation
INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumina Foundation has awarded 23 new grants from a $15 million Racial Justice and Equity Fund. The fund supports national and Indianapolis-based organizations focused on disrupting systemic racism in ways aligned with or complementary to Lumina's mission of supporting a better-educated country.

In July 2020, Lumina announced the three-year funding commitment to support an array of justice projects, awarding almost $6.6 million to 23 organizations in 2021 and early this year. Another $3.2 million was awarded to 11 organizations in late 2020.

Investments from this fund commenced in response to racially motivated violence in 2017 at a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va. Lumina renewed and strengthened its commitment to achieving racial justice and equity after George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police.

"A desire to achieve racial equity, especially in terms of educational attainment, is embedded in virtually everything we do," said Jamie Merisotis, Lumina's president and CEO. "Our Racial Justice and Equity Fund has been a signature effort in response to racially motivated violence. Most of our investmentsgrants, contracts, impact investmentsacross our different areas of work explicitly address racial disparities in outcomes."

In the latest rounds of funding, Lumina identified 13 new organizations to award $3.6 million in multiyear grants and awarded another 10 grants totaling nearly $3 million to organizations that responded to an open call for proposals. They were:

Higher Education

American Association of Colleges & Universities ($400,000)To support the expansion of Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers to prepare the next generation of leaders and thinkers to break down racial hierarchies in higher education.

Boston University Center for Antiracist Research ($500,000)To convene researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to figure out novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice. The center relies on research-based policy innovation, data-driven educational and advocacy campaigns, and narrative-change initiatives.

Indigenous Futures Institute, University of California, San Diego ($400,000)To support the Mat-koo-la-hoo-ee Project, examining the history and cultural significance of the native land where UC San Diego is located. Also, to support the Kumeyaay Water Craft Project.

John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity ($350,000)To address barriers to people who have been in jail or prison that prevent them from accessing quality education or training after high school.

Mary Jane's Legacy Project, The Ohio State University ($250,000)To support the Mary Jane's Legacy Project, a research-and-action effort centering on Black women's experiences and challenges in earning college degrees.

Philadelphia Student Union ($250,000)To support the student union's Equity Research Cooperative, which plans to develop and launch a College Students of Color Experience Survey.

Reach Higher/Common App ($175,000)To support improved access to and support for Minority-Serving Institutions using the Common Appand by extension to prospective students of color who use the application to apply to multiple colleges online.

University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law ($400,000)To support the Critical Race Studies Program at the UCLA School of Law, which focuses on the intersection of race and law.

Legal Aid

Lawyers for Good Government ($350,000)To mobilize the legal profession in support of people who have been harmed by systemic racism, using means such as policy resource and analysis.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund ($300,000)To support to the fund's efforts to advocate for racial justice. The fund supports protecting voting rights, reforming the criminal justice system, achieving educational equity, and ensuring economic justice for all.

National Legal Aid & Defender Association ($300,000)To support the Black Public Defender Association's efforts to expand its summer fellowship model, which advances racial diversity within the criminal defense community by giving Black students opportunities to work with public defender mentors.

Southern Poverty Law Center ($400,000)To ensure fair and just educational opportunities and advance youth "decarceration" efforts such as raising the minimum age for locking up teenagers and putting more restorative justice approaches in place.

Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice ($200,000)To increase the effectiveness of the clinic's program, which trains college students to support refugees who are navigating the asylum process and other public systems.

Social Justice

Border Network for Human Rights ($400,000)To organize marginalized border communities to defend and promote civil and human rights by creating economic, political, and social conditions affording individual dignity.

Capital B News ($300,000)To support the launch of a national news organization building local news operations focused on investigative and service journalism that exposes racial injustice and ensures Black Americans have access to quality journalism.

Highlander Research and Education Center ($400,000)To support the Tennessee nonprofit's efforts to catalyze grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the South among people fighting for equality, justice, and sustainability.

Jeremiah Program ($50,000)To support national work to disrupt the cycle of poverty among single mothers and their children, two generations at a time.

Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples ($250,000)The fund, which advocates for the right of self-determination and the sovereignty of Native lands, will support programs that respond to, prevent, and remedy violence against Native women and girls.

Indianapolis

ACLU of Indiana Foundation ($100,000)To support the Indiana ACLU chapter's efforts to expand its "Yes! You Can Vote!" campaign, and to strengthen partnerships with community and coalition members.

Asante Art Institute of Indianapolis ($124,100)To support programming that enables Black children to learn about their history and culture.

Goodwill Foundation of Central & Southern Indiana ($250,000)To support Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana's collaboration with Cook Medical Group to bring 100 jobs to residents of Indianapolis' near eastside through a $7 million, 40,000-square-foot manufacturing plant.

Indiana University-Purdue University School of Education ($250,000)To support the Education for Liberation program at IUPUI, which works with schools in Indiana to bring about change benefiting students of color and other students poorly served by public K-12 education.

Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council ($175,000)To support the Accelerate 100+ program, which has committed to providing tools and processes to grow existing Black-owned businesses and launch new entrepreneurial ventures.

About Lumina Foundation

Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. We envision a system that is easy to navigate, delivers fair results, and meets the nation's need for talent through a broad range of credentials. Our goal is to prepare people for informed citizenship and for success in a global economy.

Tracy Chen

317.670.0521

SOURCE Lumina Foundation
PHOENIX, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Make-A-Wish, the organization that grants life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses, raised nearly $10 million during its giving season through the generous efforts from national corporate partners. Every holiday season, Make-A-Wish joins forces with corporate brands to ensure that wish kids nationwide continue to experience the hope and joy a wish can bring to families in a time of need. The funds will join together with the millions more donated during the holidays by everyday people in communities nationwide to make more wishes possible.

Throughout the holiday months of November and December, several Make-A-Wish partners showcased their support for the nonprofit organization through local wish-granting, consumer promotions, employee engagement and corporate donations in several sectors across the country. The list of partners that activated during the timeframe and helped raise much-needed funds includes Disney, Macy's, Subaru of America, Inc., Snappy, American Freight, Avis Budget Group, Black Bear Diner, Discover, Fujitsu, GameStop, Great Wolf Lodge, I Got Games (IGG), IT'SUGAR, Lokai, Party City, Playtika, Sugarwish, among others.

"A wish can give children renewed strength to fight a critical illness, but for every wish granted, three more are waiting," said LuAnn Bott, vice president of revenue partnerships and services at Make-A-Wish America. "We are thankful for the partnerships that help us bring communities together because wishes empower children with critical illnesses to reclaim their childhood, families to experience life beyond illness, and entire communities to rally together in moments of transformational joy."

Every day, nearly 32 children become eligible to begin their life-changing wish journey with Make-A-Wish. A wish continues to have the power to help a child replace fear with confidence, sadness with joy, and anxiety with hope  giving them the strength needed to fight, and even overcome, their illness.

Since its founding in 1980, Make-A-Wish has granted more than 350,000 wishes for children with critical illnesses in the U.S., including more than 14,600 wishes since the pandemic began. As a nonprofit, there is still a great need for support to grant the wishes that are waiting.

To learn more and find out how you can get involved, visit wish.org/become-a-national-partner.

About Make-A-Wish

Make-A-Wish creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Make-A-Wish is the world's leading children's wish-granting organization, operating in every community in the United States and nearly 50 countries worldwide. Together with generous donors, supporters, staff, and more than 24,000 volunteers across the U.S., Make-A-Wish delivers hope and joy to children and their families when they need it most. Make-A-Wish aims to bring the power of wishing to every child with a critical illness because wish experiences can help improve emotional and physical health. Since 1980, Make-A-Wish has granted more than 520,000 wishes worldwide; more than 350,000 wishes in the U.S. and its territories alone. For more information about Make-A-Wish America, visit wish.org.

SOURCE Make-A-Wish Foundation of America
BALTIMORE, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Maryland Nonprofits, a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to strengthening nonprofit organizations and networks for greater quality of life and equity, celebrates 30 years of being a trusted resource, advocate, and partner for the more than 30,000 nonprofits in Maryland.

To commemorate this milestone, Maryland Nonprofits is launching its anniversary campaign, 'This is the moment to care.' The initiative will address the urgent need for a shift towards an internal culture of care within the nonprofit sector.

It will provide innovative tools and strategies to help organizations care for their teams with the same passion that they support those impacted by their missions.

"Nonprofit organizations depend first and foremost on our people  our staff, volunteers, and boards. We cannot care for others without first caring for ourselves," says Heather Iliff, Maryland Nonprofits' President & CEO, who is celebrating her 15th year with the organization this April.

"Discussing workplace culture in this moment is critical, particularly as many nonprofit staff are women and people of color, and we know COVID-19 has added stressors and exacerbated pre-existing class, gender, and racial inequities. After two draining years, our organizations continue to operate in crisis-response mode. Especially in the context of the 'Great Resignation,' we must recognize and address the unprecedented prevalence of exhaustion and overwork."

An economic and social force, nonprofits employ 12.9% of the private sector workforce in Maryland and process more than $300 million in payroll weekly. By embarking on this campaign, Maryland Nonprofits aims to leverage the sector's collective power to advocate within economic, political, cultural, and social systems to foster a caring culture in the workplace.

For 30 years, Maryland Nonprofits has been the source of capacity-building services for its members, including consulting, training, an annual conference, and the national Standards for Excellence program. Founded in 1992 with 139 charter members, the organization currently has more than 1,350 members across the state.

Maryland Nonprofits has served as a clearinghouse for information during the COVID-19 crisis, advocating for and helping organizations to access relief funding, and working to address the disproportionately negative health and economic impacts the pandemic has had on Black and Latino communities.

March 25, 2022, marks Maryland Nonprofits' official birthday and the convening of the first event of the campaign, 'Beginning the conversation around building full-hearted, caring workplaces.' All are invited to attend. Register here: https://sforce.co/3HV1t4s

For more information about the campaign, follow the hashtag #ThisIsTheMomentToCare on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and visit the Maryland Nonprofits website at www.marylandnonprofits.org.

About Maryland Nonprofits

With more than 1,350 members, Maryland Nonprofits is one of the nation's largest nonprofit associations, with a mission to strengthen organizations and networks for greater quality of life and equity. The association has 30 years of experience and expertise and provides a range of programs and services that help organizations build their capacity, operate more efficiently, engage in cross-sector dialogue fostering collaboration, and advocate for key policy issues.

Maryland Nonprofits offers the Standards for Excellence, a nationally replicated accreditation program that enhances governance, management, and the public's trust in the nonprofit sector. It is also home to the Maryland Association of Resources for Families and Youth and Maryland Latinos Unidos.

SOURCE Maryland Nonprofits
HOUSTON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- McDermott International has been awarded its largest ever renewable energy contract from TenneT for the BorWin6 980MW High-Voltage, Direct Current (HVDC) project. Through a consortium with Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Co., Ltd. and C-EPRI Electric Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (GEIRI / C-EPRI), McDermott will provide engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) services.

The project is for the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of an HVDC offshore converter platform, located 118 miles (190 kilometers) offshore Germany on the Platform North Sea Cluster 7 in a water depth up to 131 feet (40 meters). Electricity generated from offshore wind farms will be converted into direct current and transported to an onshore converter station located 28 miles (45 kilometers) onshore near Buttel, Germany.

"This major EPCIC award elevates our growing energy transition portfolio and signifies our expansion into the thriving offshore wind market, further strengthening our global ambitions in the renewables sector," said Samik Mukherjee, McDermott's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

McDermott will lead the consortium with GEIRI / C-EPRI through an integrated execution model utilizing McDermott's extensive global engineering centers and strategically located fabrication yards. The consortium will leverage McDermott's extensive project management, engineering, global procurement and fabrication expertise and GEIRI / C-EPRI's proven HVDC experience and world-class network solutions.

"Our integrated EPCIC delivery model, combined with nearly a century of experience executing some of the most challenging offshore projects in the world, make us ideally suited to support TenneT on this important offshore grid connection project," said Tareq Kawash, McDermott's Senior Vice President, Europe, Middle East, Africa. "Additionally, our HVDC Center of Excellence in The Hague is strategically positioned to lead our execution delivery in the European market."

On the HVDC offshore platform, McDermott's scope includes the engineering, procurement, fabrication, transport and installation and commissioning of the topside module and jacket. On the onshore converter station, McDermott's scope includes the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning.

GEIRI / C-EPRI's scope includes the engineering, manufacture, supply, installation supervision and commissioning of the HVDC system for the onshore and offshore converter stations.

The engineering and project management will be executed from McDermott's HVDC center of excellence in The Hague with support from its Chennai and Gurgaon offices. The fabrication of the topside is planned to be executed by the Qingdao McDermott Wuchuan (QMW) Fabrication Facility in Qingdao, China, and the jacket from McDermott's Batam fabrication yard in Indonesia.

About McDermott

McDermott is a premier, fully-integrated provider of engineering and construction solutions to the energy industry. Our customers trust our technology-driven approach engineered to responsibly harness and transform global energy resources into the products the world needs. From concept to commissioning, McDermott's innovative expertise and capabilities advance the next generation of global energy infrastructureempowering a brighter, more sustainable future for us all. Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott's locally-focused and globally-integrated resources include more than 30,000 employees, a diversified fleet of specialty marine construction vessels and fabrication facilities around the world. To learn more, visit www.mcdermott.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

McDermott cautions that statements in this communication which are forward-looking, and provide other than historical information, involve risks, contingencies and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about the expected scope and execution of the project discussed in this press release. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those statements are made by using various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous risks, contingencies and uncertainties, including, among others: adverse changes in the markets in which we operate or credit or capital markets; our inability to successfully execute on contracts in backlog; changes in project design or schedules; the availability of qualified personnel; changes in the terms, scope or timing of contracts, contract cancellations, change orders and other modifications and actions by our customers and other business counterparties; changes in industry norms; actions by lenders, other creditors, customers and other business counterparties of McDermott and adverse outcomes in legal or other dispute resolution proceedings. If one or more of these risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. This communication reflects the views of McDermott's management as of the date hereof. Except to the extent required by applicable law, McDermott undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement.

Contacts:

Global Media Relations

Reba Reid

Senior Director, Global Communications and Marketing

+1 281 588 5636

[email protected]

Local Media Relations

Barbara Knight

Senior Director, Area Communications and Marketing

+971 56 403 2903

[email protected]

SOURCE McDermott International, Ltd
HUDDINGE, Sweden, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

October  December

Financial summary for the quarter

Net turnover amounted to SEK 13.9 (1.5) million.

(1.5) million. The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK -23.5 (-10.6) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK -0.44 (-0.46) and SEK -0.44 (-0.46) respectively.

(-10.6) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to (-0.46) and (-0.46) respectively. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -5.4 (-1.0) million.

(-1.0) million. Liquid assets and short-term investments at the end of the period amounted to SEK 221.2 (70.0) million.

Significant events during the quarter

In October, the Board of Directors appointed Jens Lindberg as new CEO of Medivir. Jens Lindberg has extensive experience from the pharmaceutical industry and the field of Oncology. He joins from Sedana Medical where he has been VP Commercial Operations and acting CEO.

as new CEO of Medivir. has extensive experience from the pharmaceutical industry and the field of Oncology. He joins from Sedana Medical where he has been VP Commercial Operations and acting CEO. IGM Biosciences, Inc. initiated its clinical study in solid cancers with birinapant (IGM-9427) in combination with IGM's DR5 agonist antibody IGM-8444. The purpose of this first clinical trial with the combination is to evaluate safety and tolerability.

In November, results from an investigator-initiated phase II clinical trial of remetinostat in patients with squamous cell carcinoma were published.

In December, it was announced that the first patient with hepatocellular carcinoma had started treatment with fostroxacitabine bralpamide (MIV-818) in the phase 1b / 2a combination study.

January - December

Financial summary for the period

Net turnover amounted to SEK 25.5 (13.9) million.

(13.9) million. The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK -59.5 (-38.5) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK -1.20 (-1.75) and SEK -1.20 (-1.75) respectively.

(-38.5) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to (-1.75) and (-1.75) respectively. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -48.7 (-58.1) million.

(-58.1) million. Liquid assets and short-term investments at the end of the period amounted to SEK 221.2 (70.0) million.

Significant events after the end of the period

In January, it was announced that the WHO had selected fostroxacitabine bralpamide as the official generic name for the patented candidate drug MIV-818, which is in clinical development in primary liver cancer.

Jens Lindberg assumed his position as CEO of Medivir on January 24, 2022 .

Conference call for investors, analysts and the media

The Year-End Report January - December 2021 will be presented by Medivir's CEO, Jens Lindberg.



Time: Tuesday, February 15, 2022, at 14.00 (CET).

Phone numbers for participants from:

Sweden + 46 8 566 427 06

Europe +44 33 3300 9032

US +1 646 722 4956

The conference call will also be streamed via a link on the website: www.medivir.com

The presentation will be available on Medivir's website after completion of the conference.

CEO's message

On January 24, 2022, I took over as CEO of Medivir and after my first time on the job, it is clear to me why the company managed to deliver so well on business goals in 2021. We have an extremely competent and experienced team that works dedicatedly with both our cutting-edge project fostroxacitabine bralpamide (MIV-818) and with the business development for our other assets. I hope to be able to contribute to the further strengthening of our delivery capacity in the future. Under the leadership of the company's former CEO Yilmaz Mahshid, today a board member of Medivir, and our CFO Magnus Christensen, who has been the company's interim CEO since May, Medivir has made significant progress in 2021.

Medivir's drug development focuses on a very promising and proprietary clinical project, fostroxacitabine bralpamide (formerly MIV-818), with a clear therapeutic target, where the unmet medical needs remain extremely large, despite recent clinical advances. Fostroxacitabine bralpamide has the potential to become the first liver-targeted and orally administered drug that can help patients with various cancers of the liver. Its unique mechanism of action means that it does not directly compete with other treatment options but instead enables combination treatments with other drug alternatives in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide and HCC is the most common form of cancer that arises in the liver. The effect of today's medications is often limited and mortality remains at a high level.

After the end of the year, MIV-818 received the official generic name fostroxacitabine bralpamide from the World Health Organization WHO, something we see as an important step towards a product for the treatment of HCC.

The clinical development program for fostroxacitabine bralpamide has passed a number of milestones during the year. In April, it was announced that the top-line results from the monotherapy part of the phase Ib study were positive with a good safety and tolerability profile. They were later presented in more detail at the ESMO Congress in September and aroused great interest. In May, the design for the next step, the phase 1b/2a combination study with fostroxacitabine bralpamide for liver cancer, was presented. The regulatory approval from the British Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the study was obtained at the end of August, and from the South Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in November.

In December, the first patient with HCC was dosed in the phase 1b/2a combination study with fostroxacitabine bralpamide, which is given in combination with two other medicines, either with Lenvima, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or with Keytruda, an anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor. Lenvima and Keytruda (approved in the USA) are currently approved as mono therapy treatments of HCC.

The licensing agreement with IGM Biosciences, Inc., which gives IGM the global and exclusive rights to develop birinapant, could potentially provide milestone payments up to a total of approximately USD 350 million as well as tiered royalties up to "mid-teens". At the time of signing in January 2021, Medivir received USD 1 million, and when IGM in early November initiated a phase I clinical trial in solid cancers with birinapant in combination with its own DR5 agonist antibody IGM-8444, it was followed by an additional USD 1.5 million. Of course, we look forward to IGM's continued clinical development of birinapant.

Also for remetinostat, a number of steps forward made during the year should be noted. Positive results from the investigator-initiated phase II clinical trial of remetinostat in patients with squamous cell carcinoma were published in November in the scientific journal JAMA Dermatology. Promising results from the investigator-initiated phase II study with remetinostat for basal cell carcinoma were published in August in the scientific journal Clinical Cancer Research. Through a renegotiated multi-party agreement, Medivir was able to further strengthen the business development potential for remetinostat in August.

Business development and collaborations are central to Medivir's success. Birinapant is a good example of this and we see opportunities for remetinostat and MIV-711, but also in other smaller projects. In early 2021, a licensing agreement was entered into with Ubiquigent for the preclinical research program USP7.

Thanks to the financing that was successfully carried out at the beginning of the year and provided the company with approximately SEK 223 million before transaction costs, we are entering 2022 with resources and business development opportunities that provide good conditions for continuing the clinical development program for our cutting-edge project fostroxacitabine bralpamide. Our goal is to make it an effective drug for liver cancer that makes a real difference for patients and for healthcare, and thus also for our shareholders. I look forward to keeping you informed about Medivir's continued development.

Jens Lindberg

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact

Magnus Christensen, CFO, +46 (0)8 5468 3100

E-mail: [email protected]

This report has not been subject to auditors' review.

The information was submitted for publication at 08.30 CET on February 15, 2022.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/medivir/r/medivir-ab---year-end-report-january---december-2021,c3506550

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/652/3506550/1534997.pdf MEDIVIR AB a" YEAR-END REPORT JANUARY a" DECEMBER 2021 (PDF)

SOURCE Medivir
"MemVerge is pioneering a new category of Big Memory software which will revolutionize the way next generation applications are designed and delivered," said Charles Fan, CEO of MemVerge. "Milner, with his experience and proven track record in driving sales and expanding channels for technology innovations that support today's new converged infrastructure, will accelerate MemVerge growth and sales expansion. His insights will bring significant value to our growing leadership team as we move the market with our innovative Big Memory technology."

Milner brings to MemVerge more than 20 years of experience in selling SaaS, cloud, enterprise software, and IT infrastructure solutions. Throughout his career he has developed and implemented sales strategies that have converted technology innovation into solution revenue. Most recently he was Senior Vice President, Sales for Avochato where he led the company's sales, business development and customer success teams. Milner has also served in sales and business development leadership roles with Arrow Electronics, VERA Security, Zerto, Long View Systems, Dell EqualLogic and Spectra Logic. Milner earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado Boulder.

"We are at the dawn of a new era of application proliferation and the only thing holding tomorrow's applications back is memory," said Milner. "MemVerge is taking the constraints modern applications have with today's compute and storage technologies head on. I am thrilled to be a part of this new memory revolution and I'm eager to help the MemVerge leadership team capitalize on growing demand for Big Memory Computing in a multi-cloud world."

Milner will be responsible for refining the MemVerge sales and go-to-market strategy, expanding the company's sales channels, and deepening relationships through innovative customer success programs. His new position as Vice President of Sales is effective immediately and he reports to MemVerge COO Jonathan Jiang.

About MemVerge

MemVerge is pioneering Big Memory Computing and Big Memory Cloud technology for the memory-centric and multi-cloud future. MemVerge Memory Machine is the industry's first software to virtualize memory hardware for fine-grained provisioning of capacity, performance, availability, and mobility. On top of the transparent memory service, Memory Machine provides another industry first, ZeroIO in-memory snapshots which can encapsulate terabytes of application state within seconds and enable data management at the speed of memory. The breakthrough capabilities of Big Memory Computing and Big Memory Cloud Technology are opening the door to cloud agility and flexibility for thousands of Big Memory applications. To learn more about MemVerge, visit www.memverge.com.

Memory Machine and Memory Machine ZeroIO are trademarks owned by MemVerge.

Media Contacts:

Steve Sturgeon

MemVerge

[email protected]

858.472.5669

SOURCE MemVerge
BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Merna Elaggar is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Trusted Broker for her exemplary contributions in the real estate industry and her professional excellence at Merna Elaggar & Windermere Real Estate.

Merna Elaggar

Having led impressive careers in architecture and interior design, Mrs. Elaggar demonstrates an innate ability to help you truly make a house a home. She readily draws up designs to help buyers make their visions a reality and to help sellers attract the right audience of potential buyers. Additionally, she guides you through the market and will counsel you through the process of design, like paint colors or furniture arrangements, to help you maximize your new investment. Mrs. Elagger is truly passionate about helping clients achieve their goals and is determined to do so at Windermere Real Estate in Bellevue. She specializes in the Medina, Bellevue, Kirkland, Sammamish, Bothell, Mill Creek, Everett, and Maple Valley areas.

In light of her academic achievements, Mrs. Elaggar received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design in 2010. She then became a Certified Negotiation Expert and a Luxury Marketing Specialist by the National Association of Realtors.

As a testament to her professional excellence, Mrs. Elaggar's commitment to client satisfaction has led her to receive numerous industry awards and accolades. She was honored with the Rising Star Real Estate Agent Award by 5 Star Professional in 2018 and 2019. She was named 10 Best Real Estate Agents in Washington State in 2019 by the American Institute of Real Estate Professionals. She is also listed as Top 15 Bellevue Real Estate Broker on Social Media in 2017 and in Who's Who in America in 2019. Mrs. Elaggar was also named by Home Snap Top 15% of Production in the Nation.

Born and raised in Egypt, Mrs. Elaggar speaks three languages. She enjoys traveling in her free time and is always on the lookout for the world's best roller coaster.

Mrs. Elaggar dedicates this honorable recognition to her husband Mina Abouseif, of 14 years. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Sammamish.

To learn more, please visit www.mernarealestate.com.

SOURCE Continental Who's Who
BRATTLEBORO, Vt., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Omega Optical Holdings, LLC (OOH or the Company), a leading precision optics platform backed by Artemis Capital Partners (Artemis), announced today that Mike Ransford has been appointed Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. He brings a comprehensive background in operations and engineering with over 30 years of experience in the optics and photonics industry to the Company.

Mr. Ransford will oversee the operations of the businesses across the OOH platform that include Omega Optical Filters, Spectral Systems, Optometrics, and Evaporated Metal Films. He will use his backgrounds in Optical Engineering and Lean Manufacturing to help the teams attain their long-term objectives for profitable growth, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.

Mike joins OOH after recently retiring from IDEX Corporation, where he held various roles for IDEX Health and Sciences. During his career, he has worked in various Engineering and Operations roles, and had the opportunity to participate in four early-stage start-up companies focused in industries from Fiber Optic Telecommunications, to Industrial Sensing, to Life Sciences.

"We are very pleased to welcome Mike as our Chief Operating Officer," said Michael J. Cumbo, President & CEO of Omega Optical Holdings. "His optical engineering and manufacturing experiences with leading edge companies like Semrock and CIENA, both of which are iconic brands, will be an excellent addition to the OOH executive team. He will play a prominent role in developing and refining our business processes as well as our process technologies that will serve as important growth engines for OOH. His background working with both start-up and highly integrated businesses also makes him a great partner and management mentor as we continue to scale OOH's business both organically and through acquisition."

"I am excited to join Omega Optical Holdings and look forward to working with the teams at our various businesses," said Mr. Ransford. "I am truly impressed and inspired by the vision of both our Artemis sponsors and the OOH Leadership team. It will be a great endeavor to pull together the Mission, Vision, Values, Business Processes, and Strategies to help create an industry leading optical solutions company."

Mr. Ransford has a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Optics from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Omega Optical Holdings

Omega Optical Holdings (OOH) is a leading precision optics platform whose brands design and manufacture precision optical filters, coatings, infrared components, laser optics, and diffraction gratings to enable mission-critical applications for global OEM customers in a wide range of industries, including life sciences, environmental monitoring, aerospace, defense, semiconductor, and more. For more information on Omega Optical, please visit: www.omega-optical.com

Artemis

Headquartered in Boston, MA, Artemis is a specialized private equity firm focused on acquiring and partnering with differentiated Industrial Tech companies, whose people and products enable and accelerate a healthier, safer, more connected, mobile, productive, and equitable world. For more information, please visit: www.artemislp.com.

SOURCE Artemis Capital Partners
KINGSPORT, Tenn., Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman ("Milberg") has filed a class action lawsuit in response to the Eastman Chemical Company Steam Pipe Explosion in Kingsport, Tennessee.

The explosion occurred on January 31, 2022, at Eastman Chemical Company's Kingsport location, causing asbestos and other toxic materials to be sprayed into the air and spread throughout the surrounding community. Milberg attorneys Greg Coleman, Billy Ringger, Will Ladnier, Melissa Sims, Roy Mason, Ginny Whitener, and Kelsey Davies filed a class action lawsuit against Eastman Chemical Company on February 14, 2022. The complaint, filed in Sullivan County Circuit Court, includes claims for public and private nuisance, trespass, negligence, and strict liability for ultra-hazardous activity.

On Sunday, Milberg attorneys, joined by Dr. Angela Hind (a physician and environmental consultant) hosted a townhall meeting in Kingsport to meet with local residents and discuss their concerns. Residents explained seeing visible debris on their properties and throughout the neighborhood, and many reported experiencing headaches, nausea, and skin rashes following the incident.

Lead plaintiff Sharon Weatherly owns a home in the affected area. She says she and her neighbors were exposed to the toxic contaminants released during the explosion and claims in the lawsuit that her home and others in Kingsport have lost value as a result of this incident. The complaint alleges that Ms. Weatherly's neighborhood and much of Kingsport will be negatively affected for many years to come due to the legitimate concern and public perception that these types of incidents will continue to occur at Eastman in the future.

"This is not the first instance like this committed by Eastman," said Milberg Senior Partner Greg Coleman. "Our attorneys are already working with the Kingsport community and surrounding communities to protect their legal rights. These innocent victims deserve justice. With this lawsuit we hope to help them clean up their neighborhoods and force Eastman to clean up its act."

After the explosion, Eastman did not sound an immediate alarm warning the surrounding community of the incident. Eastman also reportedly failed to request that Kingsport officials use the city's automated emergency alert system to warn those in the affected area. Eastman waited late into the evening to inform residents that the debris covering their community contained asbestos. As alleged in the complaint, Eastman's actions have put residents at unnecessary risk, affected property values, and otherwise damaged the reputation of the community.

"After years fighting for cleanup workers devastated by the Kingston coal ash spill and other man-made environmental disaster victims around the country, we understand the terrible impact these events can have on the environment, wildlife, and people," said Milberg Attorney Billy Ringger. "The impacts on businesses, homeowners, and their families are likely to be felt for years."

Milberg's Environmental and Toxic Torts Litigation group has helped thousands of homeowners and businesses that have been negatively affected by similar man-made disasters, including the Kingston coal ash spill, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the Huntington Beach oil spill. The firm seeks to represent all persons and businesses harmed as a result of the Eastman steam pipe explosion.

More information about the lawsuit is available on Milberg's website, www.milberg.com, or by contacting the firm at 865-247-0080. Local residents affected by the Eastman steam pipe explosion are encouraged to reach out to Milberg for a free legal consultation.

SOURCE Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Federated Hermes, Inc. today announced that monthly fund composition and performance data for Federated Hermes Premier Municipal Income Fund (NYSE: FMN) as of Jan. 31, 2022, is now available in the Products section of FederatedInvestors.com. To order hard copies of this data or to be placed on a mailing list, call 800-245-0242 x5587538, email [email protected] or write to Federated Hermes, 1001 Liberty Avenue, Floor 23, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

Federated Hermes, Inc. (NYSE: FHI) is a global leader in active, responsible investment management, with $668.9 billion in assets under management. We deliver investment solutions that help investors target a broad range of outcomes and provide equity, fixed-income, alternative/private markets, multi-asset and liquidity management strategies to more than 11,000 institutions and intermediaries worldwide. Our clients include corporations, government entities, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, banks and broker/dealers. At Federated Hermes, responsibility is central to our client relationships, our long-term perspective and our fiduciary mindset. It's part of our heritage and the foundation of our future. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Federated Hermes has nearly 2,000 employees in London, New York, Boston and offices worldwide. For more information, visit FederatedHermes.com.

###

SOURCE Federated Hermes, Inc.
SEATTLE, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Coherent Market Insights, the MR vaccines market is estimated to be valued at US$ 55.7 million in 2021 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 2.1% over the forecast period (2021-2028).

Key Trends and Analysis of the MR Vaccines Market:

Key trends in the market include increasing incidence of measles and rubella (MR), ongoing clinical trials to develop safe MR vaccines, growing awareness about immunization services, and rising government initiatives to launch vaccine campaigns. These key trends are expected to aid in growth of the MR vaccines market.

Moreover, key players operating in the MR vaccines market are focusing on adoption of inorganic growth strategies such as partnerships with organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, and the GAVI Alliance, the global health partnership aims to increase access to immunization in poor countries to improve their immunization programs.

For instance, in June 2021, the Government of Kenya launched measles and rubella (MR) vaccination campaign in Kajiado County, with support of the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The campaign aimed to vaccinate about 3.9 million children with age group of 9 months to 5 years in 22 counties of Kenya.

Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/4917

Key Market Takeaways:

The MR vaccines market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 2.1% over the forecast period, owing to rise in ongoing clinical trials. For instance, in August 2020, a Phase II / III clinical trial of double viral vaccine for Measles and Rubella (MR) produced by Bio-Manguinhos / Fiocruz, a vaccine manufacturing company, was completed. The study was conducted in 11 months old children to assess the safety, immunogenicity, and reactogenicity of the MR vaccine.

Among vaccine brand, MR vaccine segment is estimated to account for the largest market share in 2021, owing to increasing focus on research and development activities to develop safe MR vaccines.

Key players operating in the MR vaccines market include PT Bio Farma, Bio-Manguinhos, BE Vaccines, Serum Institute of India, and Crucell Switzerland AG.

Request for Customization @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/4917

Detailed Market Segmentation:

MR Vaccines Market, By Vaccine Brand:

MR Vaccine

MRBEV (BE LTD.)

MR Vaccines Market, By Distribution Channel:

Public

Private

MR Vaccines Market, By Region:

North America

By Country:



U.S.





Canada

Europe

By Country:



U.K.





Germany





Italy





France





Spain





Russia





Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

By Country:



China





India





Japan





ASEAN





Australia





South Korea





Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

By Country:



Brazil





Mexico





Argentina





Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

By Country:



GCC Countries





Israel





South Africa





Rest of Middle East & Africa

Buy this Complete Report Now @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/4917

Find more related trending reports below:

Vaccines Market, by Technology (Conjugate Vaccines, Inactivated and Subunit Vaccines, Live Attenuated Vaccines, Toxoid Therapy, and Recombinant Therapy), by Type (Monovalent Vaccines and Multivalent Vaccines), by Indication (Typhoid, Hepatitis, Pneumococcal, DTP, Malaria, Influenza, Human Papilloma Virus, Meningococcal, Polio, Rotavirus, MMR, Varicella, Herpes Zoster, and Others), by Route of Administration (Parenteral Administration and Oral Administration), by Age Group (Pediatric and Adult), and by Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa) - Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2021  2028

Human Combination Vaccines Market, by Product Type (Inactivated Vaccine and Live Attenuated Vaccine), by Age Group (Children and Adults), by Combination Type (DTaP/IPV/Hep B, DTaP/Hib/IPV, MMR II, Hep B-Hib , and Others), by Distribution Channel (Hospital pharmacies, Retail pharmacies, and Online Pharmacies) and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa) - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2021- 2028

H1N1 Vaccines Market, by Vaccine Type (Inactivated Vaccine and Live Attenuated Vaccine), by Route of Administration (Injection and Intranasal), by Distribution Channel (Retail Pharmacy, Hospital Pharmacy, and Online Pharmacy), by Geography (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa) - Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2018  2026

About Us:

Coherent Market Insights is a global market intelligence and consulting organization focused on assisting our plethora of clients achieve transformational growth by helping them make critical business decisions. We are headquartered in India, having sales office at global financial capital in the U.S. and sales consultants in United Kingdom and Japan. Our client base includes players from across various business verticals in over 57 countries worldwide. We create value for clients through our highly reliable and accurate reports. We are also committed in playing a leading role in offering insights in various sectors post-COVID-19 and continue to deliver measurable, sustainable results for our clients.

Contact Us:

Mr. Shah

Senior Client Partner  Business Development

Coherent Market Insights

Phone:

US: +1-206-701-6702

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Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

SOURCE Coherent Market Insights
LONDON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), the largest bank in Bahrain, has won the "Best Corporate Banking Brand -Bahrain, 2021" and "Best Retail Banking Brand- Bahrain, 2021" for the year 2021. The felicitation ceremony will be held at the Palm Jumeirah  Waldorf Astoria in early 2022 in Dubai.

The Global Brand Awards is an annual event held by Global Brands Magazine (GBM), an international publication headquartered in the UK. The award aims to recognise global brands achieving excellence in performance across a broad range of sectors while keeping its readers updated on key trends surrounding the branding world. The National Bank of Bahrain was evaluated based on customer service , satisfaction, digital innovation, strategic relationships and new business development.

Commenting on NBB winning the awards, Jay Reddy (Head of Branding) of Global Brands magazine said, "The National Bank of Bahrain has continued to excel not only as a traditional consumer bank, but also as a modern pioneer, diversifying its focus to include its people, business and brand as it encompasses different aspects of the banking sector. We're particularly impressed with NBB's dynamic ability to evolve with both its retail and corporate customers, meeting both local and regional needs, and become one of the leading, most recognised banks in the region."

Commenting on winning the awards, Hisham Al Kurdi (Group Chief Executive of Corporate & Institutional Investment Banking) said, "On our transformational journey, we have adopted a ' client first' approach; we have developed our coverage model, products capabilities and digital channels all with our corporate clients' requirements at the center of our efforts. Today, NBB lives by its motto and is closer than ever to its clients. We are the bank of choice for our corporate clients, possessing the necessary products, skills and resources to assist them with large strategic projects as well as the day to day operation of their businesses. Over the past few years, NBB has significantly improved its offering on all fronts, from large public mandates and strategic projects, to digital channels to working capital and treasury solutions. As a result, NBB is now viewed as a solid banking partner capable of adding value to regional corporates and GREs."

Arif Janahi, Head of Commercial and SMEs at NBB added: "As a major component towards the structure of our organisation, NBB has remained dedicated to supporting and funding corporate and SMEs across the Kingdom. This year alone we welcomed hundreds of new clients and launched Tamweel Al Watani as a means to provide the necessary access for SMEs during these challenging times. We additionally worked hand in hand with local banks, the Central Bank of Bahrain and the Bahrain Chamber as part of the Kingdom's Liquidity Support Fund, launched in 2019, facilitating the Corporates' banking transactions and truly becoming closer to them. Being the national bank of choice, and as part of our r esponsibility towards realising Vision 2030 , it is our duty to strengthen the local economy as we bring this vision to fruition."

Subah Al Zayani, Chief Executive of Retail Banking at NBB stated: "Since our establishment, NBB has built a strong brand. In line with keeping our brand promise of enriching the lives of generations, we have introduced a number of customer-centric products and services with a long-term positive effect, such as Alwatani Savings Scheme, Mazaya and Joint Housing real estate loans, Solar Financing, among others. Furthermore, our state-of-the-art digital app provides accessibility to our numerous financial services while also enabling financial inclusion. We remain committed to our philosophy of keeping our customers at the forefront of our decisions, and this has resonated throughout the entire organisation and enhanced our performance as the national bank of choice."

About The National Bank of Bahrain

NBB has a consistent drive to deliver against its brand promise, pushing the bank to make more investments in humanising its customer interactions and bringing the voice of its customers into the organisation. These investments have ensured the bank remains solid, agile and susceptible to adapting to changes in the market dynamics while also mitigating any risks. Furthermore, NBB has embarked on a solid sustainability journey, gradually integrating material ESG considerations into its business transformation story, reflecting its core values as an institution.

About Global Brands Magazine (England)

Global Brands Magazine (GBM) has been at the forefront, bringing news, views and opinions on brands shaping the future of their industry. The UK-based magazine provides its readers with the latest news and information on 'best-in-class brands across the globe. Each year, GBM develops a series of awards for companies that stood out, having a unique vision, exceptional service, innovative solutions and consumer-centric products among their industry leaders.

About Global Brand Awards

Global Brand Awards honours brands for their excellence in performance and rewards companies across different sectors for the quality of their services. The Brand Awards highlight accomplishments of organisations that have performed remarkably well in finance, education, hospitality, automotive, lifestyle, education, real estate, technology and several more. Global Brand Awards recognise vital players who progress towards excellence by providing a platform to acknowledge their efforts. In addition, GBM strives to create awareness concerning the significance of such organisations and rewards them for their notable efforts with the ultimate global recognition.

Check out the links below for Social Media Shout outs:

Facebook: https://bit.ly/32XPcx0

Linkedin: https://bit.ly/3L6P67d

Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rlYqMU

Instagram: https://bit.ly/35Bm6Eq

SOURCE Global Brands Publications Limited
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- National health Foundation (NHF), a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health of under-resourced communities, and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Supervisor to the Fifth District, successfully opened a new interim housing site for people experiencing homelessness on Monday, February 14th. Also on hand to celebrate the event were Glendale Mayor Paula Devine and Councilmember Ara Najarian.

While the annual Homeless Count by Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in 2020 showed 66,436 people in Los Angeles County experiencing homelessness, each District, neighborhood and organization must continue to do its part to solve this crisis.

In that effort, this newly renovated, 36-bed facility will provide recuperative care services to those experiencing homelessness while connecting them to long-term, stable housing, and resources that support their continued path to wellness. Upward Housing, a local organization that sources, identifies, and attains properties for purpose-driven use, purchased, rehabilitated and prepared the physical grounds to become a place of transformation for National Health Foundation's guests while they await their permanent housing placement.

As Michelle, one of the guests of NHF's program, put it, "The program has made a huge difference in my life, by giving me a clean secure, safe place to live. Staff here have helped in matching me with permanent housing so I may be independent on my own again."

For over a decade, the National Health Foundation has partnered with Los Angeles County through its Housing for Health Program to provide an unparalleled approach to care for its unhoused neighbors recovering from health challenges.

Staffed by 24/7 nurses and a dedicated team of social workers, our guests can recover from illness or injury in a home-like environment while receiving medical oversight and a co-created care plan that enables a pathway to health and housing.

"My team and I are so proud to work with dedicated partners at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, and Upward Housing. Partnerships are a cornerstone of our values and how we serve our communities to address localized barriers to health" said Kelly Bruno, CEO of National Health Foundation.

"Today, we're celebrating an important accomplishment in the fight against homelessness," said Supervisor Kathryn Barger. "This program offers a place to heal for medically fragile individuals who have nowhere else to go. Solving the homelessness crisis takes investment in program models that provide both housing solutions and support services, like this one. This model works."

This ribbon cutting event was made possible thanks to the partnership between NHF, Supervisor Kathryn Barger and office, and Upward Housing.

About National Health Foundation

For 50 years, National Health Foundation (NHF) has advanced wellness for communities across Southern California through research, programs, and services that address acute and long-term health needs. NHF operates four recuperative care centers in Los Angeles and Ventura counties to provide trauma-informed services and support to individuals experiencing health challenges including homelessness. These care centers also serve as hubs, connecting the surrounding neighborhood to resources that activate wellness and strengthen the overall community so every individual can be as healthy as possible. NHF believes every neighbor deserves to be safely housed and connected to community, with full and equitable access to resources that activate health and wellness. For more information, visit www.nationalhealthfoundation.org .

For more information about the National Health Foundation, please visit www.nationalhealthfoundation.org or connect with us on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter (@NHFcommunity).

Contact:

Danielle Cameron

[email protected]

703.999.9423

SOURCE National Health Foundation
For more than 130 years, treasure hunters dreamed of discovering the wreck of the SS Central America, which quickly became known as the "Ship of Gold." When the wreck was finally discovered in the late 1980s, the process of retrieving its treasure began.

Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) is thrilled to reveal to the public the final mystery of the ship's recovered cargo  a box containing $20 gold coins from the height of the California Gold Rush, now certified, preserved and ready to be studied and appreciated by collectors around the world. This video shows the treasure's journey to the NGC grading room: youtube.com/watch?v=fyqmA50cQfE.

California Gold Marketing Group acquired the SS Central America treasure from those who salvaged it from the wreck. It entrusted NGC with the certification of the first coins recovered from the SS Central America, and now the last.

"It's the greatest treasure ever found in American history," says Dwight Manley, Managing Partner of the California Gold Marketing Group. "It's the greatest treasure ever lost in American history. And it's from a magical period in American history, the Gold Rush, the authentic United States Gold Rush, the biggest one in history."

The coins graded by NGC consist of 123 US Liberty Head $20 gold coins, known as Double Eagles. The San Francisco Mint Box that contained the coins had been transformed into a "concretion" by the conditions that it endured during its time on the seafloor. The contents of the box were identified as coins, but their condition was unknown prior to its recent opening. After professional conservation, many of the coins were found to be of exceptional quality.

Mark Salzberg, NGC Chairman, praised the condition of the coins, describing some of them as "fresh off the die." Among the most impressive coins discovered in the box was one that graded NGC MS 67 PL, making it the finest known Prooflike example of an 1857-S $20 gold coin. Another example with exceptional eye appeal graded NGC MS 67, which is the highest-graded 1857-S $20 gold coin with the NGC Star Designation. Incredibly, four of the 1857-S $20 gold coins graded NGC MS 67+, indicating that they approach the quality requirements of an NGC MS 68.

To view a gallery of all 123 coins, which includes primarily 1857-S examples but also 1850, 1851, 1852, 1855-S and 1856-S coins, visit NGCcoin.com/SSCentralAmerica.

The coins certified by NGC were minted with gold mined at the height of the California Gold Rush. It was hoped that their arrival in New York would bolster confidence in the US financial industry, which had been shaken by the announcement of the collapse of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company in August 1857. When the gold failed to arrive, it sparked what has come to be known as the Panic of 1857, which is considered the first worldwide economic crisis.

The discovery of the shipwreck after more than a century of searching resulted in numerous expeditions to reclaim the lost cargo. Bob Evans, Chief Scientist of the SS Central America recovery efforts, was instrumental in locating artifacts from the legendary ship, including the box of coins. Once the mineralization was removed from the coins, Evans says that they look "exactly the way they looked in 1857" with Prooflike coins even stacked together in the box.

As the coins were extracted from the concretion, each coin's location in the box was cataloged according to row, stack and the coin's place in the stack. These "coordinates" (appropriate for shipwreck coins) are indicated on the NGC certification label: first, "A" or "B" for the row; next is the number of the stack; and the third number identifies the coin's place in the stack. Collectors will also appreciate that the NGC certification number for these coins includes the year 1857.

The certification of the coins from the SS Central America is another example of the role that NGC has been privileged to play in the certification of significant historical artifacts, from coins retrieved from the bottom of the ocean to medals flown to the surface of the moon as well as many others that have captured the hearts of numismatists and earned a place in the history of coin collecting.

"You're talking about the end of a great, great story," concludes Salzberg. "It's a world-renowned collection and to have it come here is just fantastic."

NGC-certified coins from the SS Central America are now available through select retailers.

About Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC)

NGC is the world's largest and most trusted third-party grading service for coins, tokens and medals, with more than 53 million collectibles certified. Founded in 1987, NGC provides an accurate, consistent and impartial assessment of authenticity and grade. Every coin that NGC certifies is backed by the comprehensive NGC Guarantee of authenticity and grade, which gives buyers greater confidence. This results in higher prices realized and greater liquidity for NGC-certified coins. To learn more, visit NGCcoin.com.

 2022 Numismatic Guaranty Company. All rights reserved.

NGC, NCS, PMG, CGC, CCS, CSG, ASG, CAG and CCG are the registered trademarks or unregistered trademarks of Numismatic Guaranty Company, and/or its related companies in the United States and/or other countries. All other names and marks referenced in this release are the trade names, trademarks, or service marks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Numismatic Guaranty Corporation
CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NielsenIQ BASES, today announced the winners of its first Menu Innovation Awards. The awards were created to showcase standout menu innovations in the restaurant industry in the US, according to restaurant guest feedback. These innovations were impactful successes which kept guests engaged and returning, during a difficult year because of the pandemic.

After reviewing more than 100 menu items launched in 2020, 14 met the requirements of being truly relevant (items that guests say they need or want), or truly unique (items that guests find to be truly distinctive) to the restaurant industry.

In its inaugural year, the BASES Menu Innovation Awards identified several themes underlying restaurant success in a difficult year. Four winners delivered on taste, the top driver of new menu items, by offering a mash-up of existing favorites. For example, Taco Bell's Grilled Cheese Burrito and Little Caesars Slice-N-Stix are two examples of this successful trend.

Some winners found success by tapping into new occasions. One of these is the huge incremental growth of meal delivery  according to Rakuten Data, in 2020, US restaurants saw a 144% dollar sales increase in delivery sales compared with the same period in 2019. As part of that trend, family meals became more important. Chick-fil-A's Build Your Own Family Meal, was a winning testament to that trend.

Since the start of the pandemic, 32% of customers admitted they are snacking more and items, such as Jack in the Box Loaded Tiny Tacos are a winning example of this trend.

NielsenIQ also saw that restaurants are winning over guests with celebrity partnerships. The successful partnerships are taking existing menu items and working with celebrities to promote their own orders. McDonalds Famous Orders is an exemplary item of how this approach can drive incremental sales and guest engagement.

Lastly, as part of the growing wellness trend, guests were looking for more plant-based options. Two examples of this are the Burger King Impossible Crossan-wich and Dunkin Planet Oat Oatmilk.

"For many restaurants, 2020 was a long toil, with economic hardships and reduced guest count," said Matthew Luff, Vice President, Global Lead of NielsenIQ BASES Restaurants. "In light of this extraordinary year, we have seen a surprising number of innovations, that enabled some to not only persevere, but start to see a regular cadence of guests seeking out those menu items. What was similar among winners was seeing the right idea with the right activation strategy. We are encouraged to see such vibrant innovation on menus around the nation."

The winners of the 2021 NielsenIQ BASES Menu Innovation Award:

Arby's Crispy Fish Sandwich

Burger King Impossible Croissan-wich

Chick-fil-A Build Your Own Family Meal

Dunkin Planet Oat Oatmilk

El Pollo Loco World's First Keto Burrito

Jack in the Box Loaded Tiny Tacos

Little Caesars Slices-N-Stix Pizza

McAlister's Deli Cinnabon Bakery-Inspired Cheesecake

McDonald's Famous Orders

Panera Broccoli Cheddar Mac and Cheese

Pizza Hut Big Dipper

Shake Shack Korean-Inspired Chicken Sandwich

Taco Bell Grilled Cheese Burrito

Wendy's Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger and Chicken Sandwich Duo

The inaugural 2021 BASES Menu Innovation Awards winners are wonderful examples of how restaurants can truly connect with their guests and create disruptive and innovative menu items.

For more information on how you can replicate this on your menu, visit innovation.nielseniq.com/BASES-Restaurant

About NielsenIQ

NielsenIQ BASES is a leader in helping companies build brands through innovation, renovation, strategy, and go-to-market optimisation, and is a trusted partner globally, and across industries. BASES helps maximise brand success end-to-end through advanced predictive analytics, behavioural science, proprietary databases, expert advice, and agile, digital technology platform.

For more information, visit NielsenIQ.com .

For media queries: Peter Tulupman

[email protected] +1 718-909-8363

SOURCE NielsenIQ BASES
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Finopotamus, the only online resource providing in-depth technology coverage exclusively to credit unions, announced that it is now accepting nominations for its 2022 Tekkie Awards. This is the second installment of the annual competition.

Our Mascot

The awards are co-sponsored by popular technology e-newsletter, Credit Union tech-talk. This annual award series honors significant achievement in credit union technology from the previous calendar year. The 2022 awards will thus recognize outstanding technology achievements from 2021. The nomination form is located here.

"Our reporting reflects the resilience of the credit union industry and its continuous ability to innovate and grow in these trying times. We're excited to see this year's entries," said Finopotamus co-founder John San Filippo. "It's going to be hard to top the submissions we received last year, but somehow, I think credit unions are up to the task. We're especially enthusiastic about our first Technologist of the Year award."

Tekkie award nominations are being accepted in the following categories:

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning

Core Integration

Lending

Marketing and Member Communications

Payments

Self -Service

Technologist of the Year

The 2021 Tekkie Award winners were Meridian Credit Union (Core Integration), co-winners Community First Credit Union and Delta Community Credit Union (COVID-19 Response), Northwest Community Credit Union (Data & Analytics), Nuvision Federal Credit Union (Lending) and iTHINK Financial Credit Union (Self-Service).

In addition to six award categories that recognize achievement at the institution level, Finopotamus has added Technologist of the Year to honor individuals who have shown exceptional leadership and vision. The entry fee for each submission is $149 and nominations close May 2, 2022. Winners will be announced in July to mark the two-year anniversary of Finopotamus.

About Credit Union tech-talk

Credit Union tech-talk is a technology newsletter that goes out every week to over 14,000 credit union professionals and 2,000 FinTech vendors. Since 1988, we have served as a clearinghouse for technology information to the credit union movement. Our goal is to be a leading source of technology information for credit unions of all sizes. We provide the latest information on such topics as the Internet, online banking, bill payment/presentment, debit/credit and smart cards, technology training, conferences, vendors, hardware, software, security, ATMs/kiosks, wireless access, biometrics, call centers, imaging, plus technology and marketing/merchandising. Learn more at www.cunews.com.

About Finopotamus

Finopotamus is an online publication created by industry veterans W.B. King, John San Filippo, and Roy Urrico to bring credit unions technology news and original content not found elsewhere. The publication looks at technology best practices across multiple industries to bring credit unions the broadest range of relevant information. The publication's tagline is Fintech News for Hungry CUs. Visit Finopotamus at www.finopotamus.com.

Contact: John San Filippo, [email protected], (619) 467-0431.

SOURCE Finopotamus
SINGAPORE, Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The National University of Singapore (NUS) has launched a new Master of Science in Sustainable and Green Finance (MSc SGF) programme to nurture new talents to combat environmental and sustainability challenges through financial solutions and services. Launched by NUS Business School in collaboration with the Sustainable and Green Finance Institute (SGFIN) at NUS, the MSc SGF programme is the first MSc programme offered among leading Asian universities that focuses on sustainable and green finance.

"Many green finance experts were trained in the West. Asia needs its own indigenous finance talents with the right institutional knowledge to tackle environmental and sustainability challenges while balancing the needed economic development. We are excited that NUS is at the forefront in introducing a full-fledged Master's programme in Sustainable and Green Finance in Singapore and Asia," said Associate Professor Zhang Weina, Academic Director of the MSc SGF programme and Deputy Director of SGFIN.

Demand for green finance experts

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated that the green economy could create 24 million jobs worldwide by 2030. According to a report from Bain & Company, Microsoft and Singapore's Temasek Holdings in 2021, Southeast Asia alone requires about US$2 trillion investment in sustainable infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The region's green economy would create around five to six million new jobs by 2030. Graduates from the one-year full-time NUS MSc SGF programme will be able to seize these growth opportunities to create a better world.

Learn from a world-class environment

The programme is suitable for interested professionals who desire to contribute to the growing business and financial sector in tackling sustainability issues.

Students will learn about sustainable finance theories and research, as well as case studies on Asian companies and financial markets. They will be trained to identify environmental and business challenges, and propose feasible financial services and solutions for real-world industry problems, such as those relating to regulatory reporting, management of environmental risks, and sustainable investment.

At NUS, students will learn from world-class faculty and also witness exciting sustainability innovations that come from the university and beyond. "We are passionate in nurturing a new generation of financial experts, who go beyond the traditional approach of maximising profits, who help sustainable businesses get more funding, and who will make Asia a greener place to live in," said Low Tuck Kwong Distinguished Professor Sumit Agarwal, Managing Director of SGFIN.

The programme, which will start classes in August 2022, aims to admit about 35 to 40 students for the first cohort.

Applications start on 22 February and end on 30 April 2022. For more info, visit https://msgfin.nus.edu.sg/.

SOURCE National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With more San Francisco Bay Area-based companies looking for new ways to maintain productivity, innovation, and connection during the pandemic, Office Evolution has the perfect solution. As the largest provider of locally owned and operated flexible workspaces across the U.S., the brand is continuing to address this demand and helping small businesses and entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area by offering safe, coworking spaces close to home.

"Our members and franchise owners are all part of our Ohana  Hawaiian for family," said Mark Hemmeter, Founder and CEO of Office Evolution. "That means we collaborate, support and help each other every day. Small businesses in the area will benefit from our collaborative community of entrepreneurs who are looking for a space where they can connect and thrive."

Office Evolution's national network of locally operated locations has provided remote workers and business owners alike with access to affordable workspace close to home with flexible terms. These spaces are where innovation happens and business performance is enhanced. Businesses of all sizes are shifting their focus towards flexible workspaces to get out of the home while avoiding the expenses and restrictions inherent in traditional office space. This transition from traditional workspaces to more flexible options in suburban markets has positioned Office Evolution perfectly for growth.

"In an expensive market like the San Francisco Bay Area, it can be costly to find the perfect office space within budget and close to home," said Hemmeter. "With locations in Walnut Creek, Los Gatos, Concord, and Mill Valley, we offer small businesses in the area a range of options with affordable workspaces near where they live to help them grow and succeed."

For more information about Office Evolution, please visit: https://www.officeevolution.com .

About Office Evolution

Founded in 2003 and franchising since 2012, the Colorado-based company is the largest provider of locally owned and operated flexible workspaces in the United States. Office Evolution has more than 70 locations open, 140 units sold in markets across the country and is poised for further growth as the demand for affordable and safe, workspace close-to-home continues to rise. On any given day, Office Evolution provides inspiration to a network of Dreamers, Risk-Takers and Doers across the nation. Office Evolution continues to lead the workplace transformation that is projected to see nearly 30 percent of all office space become shared office space by 2030, according to a JLL report. Office Evolution is currently operating in 25 states across the nation. For more information about Office Evolution, please visit https://www.officeevolution.com/

SOURCE Office Evolution
INGLEWOOD, Calif., Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Big Game Sunday, California gubernatorial candidate Anthony Trimino made a statement high above SoFi Stadium seen as far as 16 miles away. The sky message was intended for Gavin Newsom and Eric Garcetti and it was a simple one: "Unmask Our Kids - Trimino2022."

"If we can host over 70,000 people at an indoor stadium in LA, where it was obvious mask mandates were not enforced, there should be no doubt that we can formally lift the state of emergency and invite our kids back to the classroom on Monday without masks," said Trimino.

Trimino's position is reflective of a growing number of California parents fighting to end mask mandates for their children. Many agree his message is one of strength, freedom and empowerment for parents across the state and beyond.

Californian's took to social media with the hashtag #Trimino2022 to show their support for the Big Game ad. Political Reporter Anthony Cabassa went on Twitter and Instagram to report the bold statement made by Trimino.

However, Trimino wasn't the only one drawing attention to this controversial issue. The LA Times also printed an article paid for by concerned parents that looked to expose government mask hypocrisy. That ad went viral across all major social platforms, bringing awareness to what many consider to be a mask mandate double standard.

Anthony Trimino is the Founder and CEO of Traffik, one of California's most influential minority-owned ad agencies. Grandchild to Cuban grandparents, Anthony's family fled Cuba during Castro's revolution in hopes of a better life in California. It wasn't long enough after Anthony's grandparents arrived in California that they founded a small business in Los Angeles that still exists today. Raised with strong family values and the desire to build a better future, he started his first company 20 years ago and built that company into what Inc. Magazine named one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America.

When not on the campaign trail, the LA native dedicates his time supporting frontline workers who lost their jobs due to vaccine non-compliance through his foundation, We Are Still Heroes.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Anthony Trimino
LAKEWOOD, Colo., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning, one of the nation's greenest and fastest-growing carpet cleaning franchises, had a powerful 2021 and plans to continue its expansion in the new year through franchise opportunities to entrepreneurs throughout the United States and Canada. They hope to see 60 new locations launch by the end of 2022.

Last year saw Oxi Fresh continue its long growth trend. Company leadership credits this growth to skilled franchisees and the brand's overall commitment to the principles of speed through systems, trust through transparency, ownership through scoring, and letting go to grow.

According to leadership, these guiding ideas, alongside their oxygen-powered cleaning system and powerful online marketing programs, will continue to aid the brand as they pursue some ambitious 2022 goals. These include:

Launch 60 new locations launch in 2022.

Target valuable development areas like Los Angeles , Boston , Oregon , Santa Fe and Tampa . According to Matt Kline , the company's Director of Franchise Sales, the company believes there is enormous potential in those areas for the right entrepreneurs.

, , , Santa Fe and . According to , the company's Director of Franchise Sales, the company believes there is enormous potential in those areas for the right entrepreneurs. Continue to improve and iterate upon support and marketing tools to continue empowering their carpet cleaning franchisees.

As the company pursues these goals, its president, Jonathan Barnett, explained how Oxi Fresh could help the many people who will begin their entrepreneurial journeys in 2022.

"Many people will be looking to take control of their future by becoming their own boss. That entrepreneurial journey is one of the most important they'll undertake in their lifeit shouldn't be started without research and planning. I'd strongly encourage any new entrepreneur to consider franchising with Oxi Fresh," said Jonathan Barnett, Founder and CEO of Oxi Fresh.

Mr. Barnett went on to detail the many advantages offered by the brand, including a centralized Scheduling Center, a robust Customer Relationship Management software program, a fast-drying cleaning system that has earned the brand hundreds of thousands of positive reviews and much more.

He continued, "Our franchising system can provide entrepreneurs with tools and support that can give them an invaluable advantage. So before you open a business by yourself, consider all the benefits that come from being part of a franchising system like Oxi Fresh."

About Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning

Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning offers green carpet cleanings and exceptional results through innovative products and modern technology. The company's powerful combination of knowledgeable people, innovative technology, and robust processes has landed the brand in Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500, ranked in Inc. magazine's Inc. 500|5000, and saw them named as one of "America's Best Franchises to Buy," by Forbes magazine. Oxi Fresh has hundreds of locations throughout the United States and Canada, with more locations currently in development. For more information, visit oxifresh.com.

SOURCE Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning
CRANBURY, N.J., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Palatin Technologies, Inc. (NYSE American: PTN), a biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class medicines based on molecules that modulate the activity of the melanocortin and natriuretic peptide receptor systems, today announced results for its fiscal second quarter ended December 31, 2021.

"We are pleased to have initiated a Phase 3 pivotal study of PL9643 in patients with dry eye disease and expect topline results in the second half of calendar year 2022," stated Carl Spana, Ph.D., President and CEO of Palatin. "Regarding Vyleesi, our focused plan continues to show positive trends for our targeted value metrics related to commercial insurance reimbursement and net revenue per dispensed prescription."

Dr. Spana further commented, "Our strong cash position of approximately $47 million at December 31, 2021, provides us with a sufficient operating cash runway through at least March 2023, including advancing our novel and differentiating melanocortin-based programs, including topline data readouts in the second half of calendar year 2022 for our Phase 3 pivotal study of PL9643 in dry eye disease and for our Phase 2 clinical trial of PL8177 in ulcerative colitis."

Second Quarter Ended Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Highlights

Net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2021 , was $8.7 million , or $0.04 per common share, compared to a net loss of $10.0 million , or $0.04 per common share, for the same period in 2020.

, was , or per common share, compared to a net loss of , or per common share, for the same period in 2020. As of December 31, 2021 , the Company had cash and investments of $47.3 million , compared to $53.4 million as of September 30, 2021 , and $60.1 million as of June 30, 2021 , and no debt.

Business Highlights and Updates

Anti-Inflammatory / Autoimmune Programs

PL9643 melanocortin agonist for the treatment of dry eye disease (DED):



Initiated pivotal Phase 3 clinical program in DED patients in December 2021 . Topline data readout expected in the second half of calendar year 2022.

. Topline data readout expected in the second half of calendar year 2022.

PL8177 melanocortin agonist for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC):



Presented the positive effects of PL8177 on treating UC in an animal disease model, including genomic data characterizing the anti-inflammatory effects of melanocortin agonists at the 2022 Crohn's and Colitis Congress.





A Phase 2 oral formulation study of PL8177 in UC is currently scheduled to start in the first half of calendar year 2022. Topline data readout currently expected in the second half of calendar year 2022.



Presented the protective effects of PL8331 and PL9654 in mouse models of retinopathy, at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS). Awarded "Top Ten Poster" Designation.

Vyleesi (bremelanotide injection) / Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD): Goal of the Vyleesi program is to demonstrate product value in the marketplace with an objective of re-licensing the U.S. rights to a committed women's healthcare company.

Goal of the Vyleesi program is to demonstrate product value in the marketplace with an objective of re-licensing the U.S. rights to a committed women's healthcare company. For the quarter ended December 31, 2021 :

:

Gross product sales decreased 18% and net product revenue increased 144%, over the comparable quarter in 2020.





Gross product sales decreased 46% and net product revenue decreased 55%, over the prior quarter ended September 30, 2021 . This decrease was primarily a result of the pharmacy distributors minimizing their end of year inventory levels.

. This decrease was primarily a result of the pharmacy distributors minimizing their end of year inventory levels.



Total prescriptions dispensed were flat compared to the same period in 2020, and the prior quarter ended September 30, 2021 .

.



Commercial insurance reimbursement and net revenue per prescription dispensed increased over the comparable quarter in 2020, and the prior quarter ended September 30, 2021 .

.

Patients and healthcare providers can learn more about HSDD and Vyleesi at www.vyleesi.com and www.vyleesipro.com

Research and Development Infrastructure: Continued to strengthen the R&D department with key appointments who have demonstrated a high-level of expertise in their fields to support the advancement of our programs.

Second Fiscal Quarter Ended December 31, 2021 Financial Results

Revenue

Total revenue consists of gross product sales of Vyleesi, net of allowances and accruals, and license and contract revenue.

Vyleesi gross product sales to pharmacy distributors for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, amounted to $0.8 million, with net product revenue of $72,140, compared to gross product sales of $0.9 million, with negative net product revenue of $(163,971), for the comparable quarter in 2020. Gross product sales decreased 18% and net product revenue increased 144%, over the comparable quarter in 2020.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2021, Palatin recognized $250,000 in license and contract revenue pursuant to its license agreement with Fosun Pharma. There were no license revenues recognized during the comparable quarter in 2020.

Operating Expenses

Total operating expenses for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, were $8.8 million, compared to $9.1 million for the comparable quarter in 2020.

The decrease in operating expenses was the result of decreased commercial expenses related to Vyleesi, offset by increased research and development expenses primarily related to the advancement of PL9643 into a pivotal phase 3 clinical trial.

Other (Expenses) / Income

Total other expenses, net, consist mainly of unrealized foreign currency losses of $234,078 and $745,002, respectively, for the quarters ended December 31, 2021 and 2020.

Cash Flows

Palatin's net cash used in operations for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, was $6.3 million, compared to net cash used in operations of $14.4 million for the same period in 2020. The decrease is mainly due to a one-time negotiated payment of approximately $7 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2020 related to inventory purchase commitments of Vyleesi, assumed as part of our Termination Agreement with AMAG Pharmaceuticals, which included $16.3 million of payments by AMAG to Palatin.

Net Loss

Palatin's net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, was $8.7 million, or $0.04 per basic and diluted common share compared to a net loss of $10.0 million, or $0.04 per basic and diluted common share, for the same period in 2020.

The difference between the quarter ended December 31, 2021, and the quarter ended December 31, 2020, was due to the combination of the increase in revenue recognized, the decrease in operating expenses and the decrease in unrealized foreign currency losses recorded for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, compared to the same period in 2020.

Cash Position

As of December 31, 2021, Palatin's cash and cash equivalents were $47.3 million with $0.6 million of accounts receivable, compared to cash and cash equivalents of $53.4 million with $0.9 million of accounts receivable as of September 30, 2021 and $60.1 million of cash and cash equivalents with $1.6 million of accounts receivable as of June 30, 2021.

Based on its current operating plan, Palatin believes that existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund currently anticipated operating expenses through at least March 31, 2023.

Conference Call / Webcast

Palatin will host a conference call and audio webcast on February 15, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the quarter ended December 31, 2021 results of operations in greater detail and provide an update on corporate developments. Individuals interested in listening to the conference call live can dial 1-800-289-0720 (US/Canada) or 1-856-344-9142 (International), conference ID 8966903. The audio webcast and replay can be accessed by logging on to the "Investor/Webcasts" section of Palatin's website at http://www.palatin.com. A telephone and audio webcast replay will be available one hour after the completion of the call. To access the telephone replay, dial 1-888-203-1112 (US/Canada) or 1-719-457-0820 (International), passcode 8966903. The webcast and telephone replay will be available through February 22, 2022.

About Melanocortin Receptor Agonists and Inflammation

The melanocortin receptor ("MCr") system has effects on inflammation, immune system responses, metabolism, food intake, and sexual function. There are five melanocortin receptors, MC1r through MC5r. Modulation of these receptors, through use of receptor-specific agonists, which activate receptor function, or receptor-specific antagonists, which block receptor function, can have medically significant pharmacological effects.

Many tissues and immune cells located in the eye (and other places, for example the gut and kidney) express melanocortin receptors, empowering our opportunity to directly activate natural pathways to resolve disease inflammation.

About Palatin

Palatin is a biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class medicines based on molecules that modulate the activity of the melanocortin and natriuretic peptide receptor systems, with targeted, receptor-specific product candidates for the treatment of diseases with significant unmet medical need and commercial potential. Palatin's strategy is to develop products and then form marketing collaborations with industry leaders to maximize their commercial potential. For additional information regarding Palatin, please visit Palatin's website at www.Palatin.com and follow Palatin on Twitter at @PalatinTech.

Forward-looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts, including statements about future expectations of Palatin Technologies, Inc., such as statements about market potential of Vyleesi and other Palatin products in development, clinical trial results, potential actions by regulatory agencies including the FDA, regulatory plans, development programs, proposed indications for product candidates, market potential for product candidates, and potential adverse impacts due to the global COVID-19 pandemic such as delays in regulatory review, manufacturing and supply chain interruptions, adverse effects on healthcare systems and disruption of the global economy, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Palatin intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause Palatin's actual results to be materially different from its historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Palatin's actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements for reasons including, but not limited to, Palatin's ability to establish and maintain the capability for manufacturing, marketing and distribution of Vyleesi, sales of Vyleesi in the United States and elsewhere in the world, results of clinical trials, regulatory actions by the FDA and other regulatory and the need for regulatory approvals, Palatin's ability to fund development of its technology and establish and successfully complete clinical trials, the length of time and cost required to complete clinical trials and submit applications for regulatory approvals, products developed by competing pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, commercial acceptance of Palatin's products, and other factors discussed in Palatin's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Palatin is not responsible for updating for events that occur after the date of this press release.

Palatin Technologies and Vyleesi are registered trademarks of Palatin Technologies, Inc.

(Financial Statement Data Follows)

PALATIN TECHNOLOGIES, INC. and Subsidiary Consolidated Statements of Operations (unaudited)



















Three Months Ended December 31,

Six Months Ended December 31,



2021

2020

2021

2020



















REVENUES















Product revenue, net $ 72,140

$ (163,971)

$ 231,622

$ (452,531)

License and contract 250,000

-

250,000

-



322,140

(163,971)

481,622

(452,531)

OPERATING EXPENSES















Cost of products sold 29,171

29,400

83,104

54,600

Research and development 5,426,397

4,011,418

8,911,161

6,935,269

Selling, general and administrative 3,317,760

5,044,913

7,154,302

7,376,519

Gain on license termination agreement -

-

-

(1,623,795)

Total operating expenses 8,773,328

9,085,731

16,148,567

12,742,593



















Loss from operations (8,451,188)

(9,249,702)

(15,666,945)

(13,195,124)



















OTHER (EXPENSE) INCOME















Investment income 1,563

4,800

2,973

16,935

Foreign currency loss (234,078)

(745,002)

(126,719)

(745,002)

Interest expense (2,773)

(1,871)

(8,404)

(9,360)

Total other (expense), net (235,288)

(742,073)

(132,150)

(737,427)



















NET LOSS $ (8,686,476)

$ (9,991,775)

$(15,799,095)

$(13,932,551)





































Basic and diluted net loss per common share $ (0.04)

$ (0.04)

$ (0.07)

$ (0.06)



















Weighted average number of common shares outstanding used in computing basic and diluted net loss per common share 238,276,793

236,405,065

238,256,318

236,375,463



PALATIN TECHNOLOGIES, INC. and Subsidiary Consolidated Balance Sheets (unaudited)









December 31, 2021

June 30, 2021 ASSETS





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 47,325,547

$ 60,104,919 Accounts receivable 583,991

1,580,443 Inventories 1,078,896

1,162,000 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 2,379,693

3,059,679 Total current assets 51,368,127

65,907,041







Property and equipment, net 511,316

94,817 Right-of-use assets - operating leases 1,058,241

1,237,813 Other assets 56,916

56,916 Total assets $ 52,994,600

$ 67,296,587







LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities:





Accounts payable $ 160,180

$ 640,650 Accrued expenses 6,178,200

5,797,378 Short-term operating lease liabilities 360,655

351,853 Short-term finance lease liabilities 96,924

- Other current liabilities 7,068,033

3,721,907 Total current liabilities 13,863,992

10,511,788







Long-term operating lease liabilities 715,893

900,520 Long-term finance lease liabilities 204,908

- Other long-term liabilities 3,013,500

6,232,907 Total liabilities 17,798,293

17,645,215







Stockholders' equity:





Preferred stock of $0.01 par value  authorized 10,000,000 shares; shares

issued and outstanding designated as follows:





Series A Convertible: authorized 264,000 shares: issued and outstanding

4,030 shares as of December 31, 2021 and June 30, 2021 40

40 Common stock of $0.01 par value  authorized 300,000,000 shares:





issued and outstanding 231,695,273 shares as of December 31, 2021 and

230,049,691 shares as of June 30, 2021 2,316,953

2,300,497 Additional paid-in capital 400,473,806

399,146,232 Accumulated deficit (367,594,492)

(351,795,397) Total stockholders' equity 35,196,307

49,651,372 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 52,994,600

$ 67,296,587

SOURCE Palatin Technologies, Inc.
The experiment will travel to the ISS aboard Northrop Grumman's 17th commercial resupply services mission, contracted by NASA, in its Cygnus spacecraft no earlier than February 19, 2022 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

"We know from historical data that space travel and lengthy exposure to microgravity have profound effects on the skin. Astronauts in space experience thinning, dry skin that is susceptible to cuts. While these changes are comparable to those observed during the normal aging process on Earth, it appears that they are accelerated in microgravity," said Lia Arvanitidou, Global Technology and Design Vice President for Colgate-Palmolive's skin health businesses. "Through this exciting endeavor, we'll be able to gather new data on the skin health biomarkers behind those changes - data which will be available faster than it would be on Earth," said Arvanitidou.

For 30 years, PCA SKIN has pioneered and perfected the science of skin health to improve people's lives. Developing transformative solutions backed by science is an important part of the brand's mission and vision, which support Colgate-Palmolive's purpose to reimagine a healthier future for all. With this experiment, the brand hopes to find ways to better identify areas for early intervention in skin health and, ultimately, help guide the development of groundbreaking skincare innovations across all of C-P's skincare brands - PCA SKIN, EltaMD, and Filorga.

To conduct the experiment on the ISS, Colgate-Palmolive scientists partnered with BioServe Space Technologies, an ISS National Lab implementation partner that specializes in engineering space-based life science investigations to develop a custom device, containing live, lab-grown skin samples from MatTek Life Sciences. The samples will be exposed to the microgravity environment aboard the ISS for a set number of days and then frozen until they are returned to Earth. Once the samples return to our lab, investigators will compare findings to those observed in matching control experiments conducted on the ground.

The experiment is Colgate-Palmolive's second research project to be conducted in collaboration with the ISS National Lab. "We are committed to exploring new pathways to innovation that help our customers feel their best. We are confident that our collaboration with the ISS National Lab will give us valuable insights to inform our work as a result-driven, professional-grade skincare company deeply rooted in science and skin health," said Arvanitidou.

To learn more on PCA SKIN's latest innovations, visit PCASKIN.com.

About PCA SKIN

For 30 years, PCA SKIN has pioneered and perfected the science of skin health. We create individualized solutions to deliver dramatic, visible results, starting with our transformative peels. Our professional peel treatments bring effective skincare solutions into the future, ensuring the best results are achieved for every skin type and concern. Today, our line of professional treatments and daily care products are found in over 70 countries and feature the most scientifically-advanced formulations for better stability, delivery, and above all, efficacy. We know skin health is personal, so we put our best into helping customers feel their best. Discover your personal PCA SKIN experience at pcaskin.com. | @pcaskin on Facebook and Instagram.

About Colgate-Palmolive:

Colgate-Palmolive Company is a caring, innovative growth company reimagining a healthier future for all people, their pets and our planet. Focused on Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care and Pet Nutrition, the Company sells its products in more than 200 countries and territories under brands such as Colgate, Palmolive, elmex, hello, meridol, Sorriso, Tom's of Maine, EltaMD, Filorga, Irish Spring, PCA Skin, Protex, Sanex, Softsoap, Speed Stick, Ajax, Axion, Fabuloso, Soupline and Suavitel, as well as Hill's Science Diet and Hill's Prescription Diet. The Company is recognized for its leadership and innovation in promoting environmental sustainability and community well-being, including its achievements in saving water, reducing waste, promoting recyclability and improving children's oral health through its Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program, which has reached more than 1.4 billion children since 1991. For more information about Colgate's global business and how the Company is building a future to smile about, visit www.colgatepalmolive.com. CL-E

SOURCE PCA SKIN
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Solomon Growth Advisors LLC is now working with select brands to create once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for asymmetric upside. Led by Perry Solomon, the advisory group mentors entrepreneurs to create profitable growth and an exit strategy for brands selling on Amazon where appropriate. As a partner of Razor Group, an international private equity-backed firm specializing in Amazon FBA businesses, Solomon Growth Advisors helps develop and scale brands, creating opportunities for acquisition if desired.

"Having recently completed a 7-figure exit of three consumer product brands through Razor Group in two separate transactions, we have first-hand experience as to their integrity and professionalism," said Perry Solomon, Founder and CEO of Solomon Advisors. "We are honored to be a contracted partner of Razor Group and look forward to aiding the founders and stakeholders of organizations that we provide board advisory services for to achieve potentially life-changing success via an Amazon exit. While our board advisory services are in no way limited to Amazon brands, this is currently where we are seeing the highest demand."

"We couldn't be happier to be partnering with Solomon Growth Advisors," said Jonas Diezun, Co-Founder of Razor Group. "Early to mid-stage entrepreneurs often struggle to build and manage a successful Amazon presence while balancing all the other responsibilities of brand building and product development. By assisting with Amazon strategy, Solomon Growth Advisors allows entrepreneurs to focus on core competencies while still being fast-tracked towards success. The wealth of knowledge Perry Solomon brings to the table is invaluable and working with him to acquire recent brands is helping us create a platform for further expansion in the US."

Perry Solomon is a serial entrepreneur with over four decades of experience. Always at the forefront of e-commerce, Perry has been running highly trafficked and profitable B2C and B2B websites since the 1990s. Having participated in four exits in the past 12 months, including consumer brands primarily sold on Amazon such as Aleratec, Prosumer's Choice, and TunePhonik, Perry has substantial experience and expertise in the currently supercharged environment of highly capitalized Amazon aggregators.

About Solomon Growth Advisors

Solomon Growth Advisors provides strategic advice to emerging businesses and mentors early to mid-stage entrepreneurs so they can reach their full potential. With over four decades of experience, Solomon Growth Advisors specializes in exit strategy, onboarding new e-commerce brands to Amazon, and assisting both emerging Amazon-based businesses and Amazon aggregators in managing and growing their presence. Solomon Growth Advisors is a contracted partner of Razor Group. For more information, please visit SolomonGrowthAdvisors.com.

About Razor Group

Operating at six offices worldwide, Razor Group knows what a true global player looks like. Their 300+ employees are scattered across three continents yet work together as one unit to make the acquired brands grow as much as the company itself. With a clear focus on carefully selected categories, Razor Group is committed to generating long-term value and reaching superior customer satisfaction  pursuing the goal to catapult e-commerce merchants to the next level  and transform them into serial entrepreneurs.

PR Contact:

Kathleen Gonzales

[email protected]

619-368-2701

Elevated Public Relations

SolomonGrowthAdvisors.com

SOURCE Solomon Growth Advisors LLC
GREENSBORO, N.C., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Physicians from The Old North State Medical Society will host a free webinar and live Q&A session with attendees on Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. The theme is "Just the Facts: ONSMS Physicians Discuss COVID-19." The virtual event is open to the public; registration is required via the Zoom Webinar link:

+ WHO: Physicians associated with The Old North State Medical Society + WHAT: FREE Webinar and Live Q&A with physicians from ONSMS + WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. + WHERE: Virtual Event  hosted on Zoom Webinar; Registration Required + REGISTER: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6sFD24u8RyuQ-4uKEvyGXQ + DETAILS: Join physicians from The Old North State Medical Society for a free, 1-hour virtual Zoom Webinar session discussing and answering important questions about:

-The History of ONSMS and Facts About COVID-19

-COVID-19 and Health Equity

-COVID-19 and its Impacts on Children

-COVID-19 and the Economic Impact on Households

-COVID-19 Mitigation, Reflection, What's Next? ... and more!

About The Old North State Medical Society

Trusted since 1887, The Old North State Medical Society is one of the oldest medical societies in the nation established for African American physicians. The organization was created to further the interests of African American physicians and continues to support the interests of minority physicians. ONSMS focuses on educating and advocating for the most vulnerable patients and people residing in communities that consistently produce poorer health outcomes  and seeks to protect the quality of patient care in all communities of North Carolina. For more information, visit www.onsms.org

SOURCE The Old North State Medical Society
"We're thrilled to join Station Square with FA's first location in Pittsburgh," said Jon Shepard, FA co-founder and director of business development. "We believe in creating spaces that inspire and connect people, and we know our members and guests will appreciate Station Square's amenities, with unique dining, entertainment, easy accessibility and parking. We're excited to introduce you to our unique blend of fitness and fun and show Pittsburgh an unforgettable climbing experience."

The Station Square gym, FA's first in Pittsburgh, will offer beginners and experienced climbers alike the world-class climbing experience that FA is known for, with a full range of bouldering terrain and features to help climbers of all ability levels explore a wide variety of climbing styles.

In addition to climbing walls, FA Station Square will offer a one-stop shop for all your fitness needs, including a full fitness gym and yoga program, locker rooms with showers and key code lockers, and a climbing gear pro shop. The fitness area will include professional-grade cardio and training equipment, as well as group fitness classes and two yoga studios hosting more than 30 yoga classes per week. Free WiFi and plenty of social hangout space round out the amenities.

"We're on a mission to share our love of climbing with everyone, and I'd say what really makes us stand out is the atmosphere we work to create for our members and guests," said Dan Bartz, co-founder and marketing director for FA. "We craft spaces where all are welcome to experience adventure, explore movement, connect with others, and have fun. Best of all, anybody can enjoy climbing, no matter your age or ability level. Climbers as young as 3 and as old as 75 climb regularly at FA gyms, and climbing is an activity you can enjoy as a family, with friends, alongside your spouse or significant other, and with people you just met at the gym."

Visitors to FA Station Square can purchase a Day Pass to access all amenities and rent climbing gear if they don't have their own. Monthly, Annual and Family Memberships will also be available, as well as climbing classes for youth and adults, birthday party and corporate event packages, group fitness programs, and personal training.

To celebrate the grand opening, FA Station Square is hosting special events and deals for new climbers:

Join FA for a Hard Hat Tour to get an early, pre-opening look at the gym. Staff will show you around the new climbing walls, answer questions, and provide exclusive, pre-opening bonuses only available during a tour. Head to faclimbing.com/HardHatTourPGH to sign up for a tour.

to sign up for a tour. Customers who purchase their Pre-Opening Membership early will get exclusive access to the facility before it opens to the public. In addition, FA is offering special bonus gift cards from businesses in the area each week until February 26  follow FA on social media (Instagram: @faclimbingpittsburgh; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FAClimbingStationSquare ) to see which gift cards new members will receive. In addition, the first 99 people to grab a Pre-opening Membership will receive a limited edition, custom-numbered FA Station Square t-shirt. These t-shirts are in limited supply, so sign up today to receive your first official FA Station Square apparel: faclimbing.com/ Pittsburgh /pre-opening-membership-sale .

For more information about FA Station Square, please visit faclimbing.com/pittsburgh.

About FA Climbing & Fitness

FA Climbing & Fitness creates world-class indoor climbing gyms with a mission to share our love of climbing with everyone, connect people through movement, and create welcoming, uplifting spaces that strengthen minds, bodies and communities. Built by climbers for climbers of all ability levels, FA currently operates five gym locations in Illinois, with more locations under development. Each location regularly hosts climbing classes for youth and adults to help you grow as a climber, climbing competitions to test your skills, and fun events that bring the community together. Our locations also feature a full schedule of yoga classes in a dedicated studio space, state-of-the-art fitness equipment, and experienced, friendly staff who can guide you on your first ascent. Let's climb!

For more information, visit faclimbing.com .

Media Contact:

Allie Kuopus

262-957-6020

[email protected]

SOURCE FA Climbing & Fitness
LONDON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prescient, a biopharma product and portfolio strategy firm, has announced the recent appointments of Shirin Ahmed, Dr. Erica Carlisle and Dr. Christian Wasmer as leaders in its Advisory business, which helps biopharma clients develop and commercialize assets and brands that resonate in the market and differentiate from the competition.

Prescient announces the recent appointments of Shirin Ahmed, Dr. Erica Carlisle and Dr. Christian Wasmer as leaders in the Advisory business.

Shirin is an Associate Vice President of Real-World Evidence and Medical Affairs Excellence. As well as holding an MBA, she is an epidemiologist by training and has spent 20 years at various large pharmaceutical companies; her most recent position was with Merck Medical Affairs, leading on strategy and execution for its oncology franchise. She is an industry expert in real-world evidence generation, portfolio strategy, medical affairs and drug safety, and has deep scientific expertise in oncology and infectious diseases. She is also skilled in organizational redesign, change management and operational excellence. At Prescient, Shirin is responsible for growing our global Advisory business, specifically in evidence generation beyond clinical trials and medical affairs.

Erica is a Vice President and Head of Advisory for the US at Prescient. She has over 15 years of experience in healthcare consulting and biotechnology, including eight years at the Boston Consulting Group, where she served as the North America topic leader for biopharma launches. Prior to joining Prescient, Erica was a Vice President at Zymergen, a synthetic biology company, where she led on strategy and managed technical delivery teams. She specializes in biopharma strategy and has experience across many therapeutic areas. Erica earned her PhD in cognitive psychology from Princeton University and her MBA from MIT Sloan. At Prescient, Erica focuses on uncovering and understanding the drivers of decision making and translating them into actionable recommendations for clients.

Christian is a Director and Head of Advisory for our Munich-based office. After studying physics and completing his PhD in molecular biology at ETH Zurich, he worked as a research associate at Harvard Medical School for three years. Christian then developed his career working in consulting roles at BCG, Syneos Health and Trinity Life Sciences. Most recently, his work has focused on helping biopharma companies prepare for the commercial launches of novel therapies in Europe. He is skilled in working with cross-functional teams and in leveraging his experience in commercial, medical affairs and market access. Christian has extensive experience across therapeutic areas, with a focus on rare diseases and novel technology platforms, including cell and gene therapies. At Prescient, Christian is responsible for building our German Advisory team to support the growth of our European business.

"As we continue to expand our presence and bring the best of product strategy advisory to biopharma clients, we are delighted to welcome Shirin, Erica and Christian as leaders in our rapidly growing team," said Dr. Debasish Talukdar, President and Head of Prescient Advisory. "Their combination of industry expertise, strategic advisory skills and scientific depth make them invaluable assets for the Advisory team as we bring expertise, experience and evidence together to partner with our clients and deliver impact."

Biographies and contact information for the Prescient Advisory team can be found on www.PrescientHG.com.

About Prescient

Prescient is a pharma services firm specializing in dynamic decision support and product and portfolio strategy. We partner with our clients to turn science into value by helping them understand the potential of their molecules, shaping their strategic plans and allowing their decision making to be the biggest differentiating factor in the success of their products. When companies partner with Prescient, the molecules in their hands have a greater potential for success than the same science in the hands of their competitors.

Founded in 2007, Prescient is a global firm with a footprint in eight cities across three continents. Our team of more than 400 experts partners with 23 of the top 25 biopharmaceutical companies, the fastest-growing mid-caps and cutting-edge emerging biotechs, including some of the biggest and most innovative brands. More than 80% of our employees hold advanced life sciences degrees, and our teams deliver an impressive depth of therapeutic, clinical and commercial expertise.

Prescient has been a portfolio company of Bridgepoint Development Capital since 2021 and Baird Capital since 2017. For more information, please visit: www.PrescientHG.com.

Contact:

Christina Maffei

+1 908 342 3556

[email protected]

SOURCE Prescient Healthcare Group
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prologis (NYSE: PLD) today announced Tim Arndt will be the company's new chief financial officer effective April 1, 2022. Arndt, who has been with Prologis since 2004, will succeed long-time CFO Tom Olinger, who plans to retire. A well-respected leader in the logistics real estate industry, Olinger has had a significant impact on Prologis and on the industry overall. During his tenure, the company significantly expanded its scale and scope, moving into the top 100 companies of the S&P 500 and growing its total square footage from less than 150 million to one billion.

"Tom's leadership has materially contributed to the success of the company over his years of service. This includes the integration of numerous transactions, as well as building an industry-leading financial infrastructure and team that position us for continued success," said Prologis CEO and co-founder Hamid R. Moghadam. "Tom has been a great partner and a key leader for our company for 15 years. I've appreciated and relied on his level-headed and thoughtful approach. He will be greatly missed, and we wish him the very best in his retirement."

He continued: "Looking to the future, I believe Tim's expertise and extensive business experience make him the ideal next CFO as we continue our focus on delivering long-term value to our shareholders. He knows the industry and our business very well and has played an important role in building our financial strategy for many years."

This change is the culmination of extensive preparation and a part of Prologis' ongoing leadership succession planning process. Olinger will remain with the company through the balance of the year as part of the transition plan. When he retires, he plans to focus full time on philanthropic causes.

"Serving as Prologis' CFO has been the highlight of my career," said Olinger. "I'm so proud to see how this company has prospered and excited knowing that Prologis' best years are still ahead. We have a deep bench of financial talent, and I am confident that under Tim's leadership, the finance team will further help drive the company's growth."

As the new CFO, Arndt will be responsible for the company's worldwide corporate finance. His areas of responsibility will include treasury, cash management, financial planning and reporting, accounting, tax, investor relations and internal audit.

"I am very excited and honored to step into this role for Prologis, a company I've believed in and served for 18 years," said Arndt. "The company has incredible growth opportunities, both organic and inorganic, which I look forward to seizing together with this highly capable team."

Arndt is a seasoned finance leader with Prologis, having joined AMB in 2004 in portfolio management for the company's Strategic Capital business. Over his tenure, he has worked in several capacities, including as corporate treasurer, head of corporate planning and in the company's global deployment team. Previously, Arndt worked in real estate strategy at Gap Inc. and in debt capital markets at Forest City Enterprises.

ABOUT PROLOGIS

Prologis, Inc. is the global leader in logistics real estate with a focus on high-barrier, high-growth markets. As of December 31, 2021, the company owned or had investments in, on a wholly owned basis or through co-investment ventures, properties and development projects expected to total approximately 1.0 billion square feet (93 million square meters) in 19 countries. Prologis leases modern logistics facilities to a diverse base of approximately 5,800 customers principally across two major categories: business-to-business and retail/online fulfillment.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The statements in this document that are not historical facts are 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. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the industry and markets in which we operate as well as management's beliefs and assumptions. Such statements involve uncertainties that could significantly impact our financial results. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," and "estimates," including variations of such words and similar expressions, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the futureincluding statements relating to rent and occupancy growth, development activity, contribution and disposition activity, general conditions in the geographic areas where we operate, our debt, capital structure and financial position, our ability to form new co-investment ventures and the availability of capital in existing or new co-investment venturesare forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Although we believe the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained and, therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that may affect outcomes and results include, but are not limited to: (i) national, international, regional and local economic and political climates; (ii) changes in global financial markets, interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates; (iii) increased or unanticipated competition for our properties; (iv) risks associated with acquisitions, dispositions and development of properties; (v) maintenance of real estate investment trust status, tax structuring and changes in income tax laws and rates; (vi) availability of financing and capital, the levels of debt that we maintain and our credit ratings; (vii) risks related to our investments in our co-investment ventures, including our ability to establish new co-investment ventures; (viii) risks of doing business internationally, including currency risks; (ix) environmental uncertainties, including risks of natural disasters; (x) risks related to the current coronavirus pandemic; and (xi) those additional factors discussed in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by us under the heading "Risk Factors." We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements appearing in this document except as may be required by law.

SOURCE Prologis, Inc.
DALLAS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pursuant, a leading fundraising and marketing agency, serving the nonprofit sector, announces the launch of a new award program, recognizing the work of nonprofit professionals who are driving lasting change around the world. The Pursuant 40 Over 40 Award is designed to celebrate the longevity of impact by honoring those who consistently set a high bar for excellence in the nonprofit sectorelevating their organization, the people around them, and the lives of the people who want to make a difference in the world.

"Having dedicated 20+ years of my career to the philanthropic sector, I've had the benefit of learning from many exceptional leaders," states Kelley Hecht Stewart, executive vice president, client solutions at Pursuant. "With so many awards celebrating rising talent, we felt it was time to shine a light on the leaders who have left an indelible mark on the sector through the longevity of their careers."

Innovated by Pursuant, the award program was co-developed by a committee of nonprofit executives from leading organizations in the sector, including NonProfit Pro, Merkle RMG, and Barker & Scott. The collaboration blends industry experience, insights, and perspectives to identify and recognize the community of leaders.

Pursuant is currently accepting nominations and invites the industry to play an active role in recognizing excellence and celebrating impact. Fundraisers, marketers, and partners throughout the country can nominate peers who are over forty years old and meet the awards criteria, including continued impact and innovation, and commitment to DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion). Honorees will be announced in mid-summer and will be celebrated throughout the industry.

"The Pursuant 40 Over 40 Award is our opportunity to recognize the transformational leaders that make up the sector", states Jennifer Bielat, executive vice president, client strategy at Pursuant. "We are committed to honoring their hard work and dedication, and look forward to celebrating these individuals who have positively impacted our industry and the philanthropic community."

Deadline for submission is Friday, March 11th, 2022. For more information or to submit a nomination for the Pursuant Forty over Forty Award, please go to https://info.pursuant.com/40over40.

Pursuant

Founded in 2001, Pursuant is a leading fundraising and marketing agency, serving the nonprofit sector, through direct response, digital, and analytics. Powered by our GivingDNA platform, we extend an organization's impact by allowing more people to experience the joy of giving. Experience the difference. www.pursuant.com

Merkel RMG

Merkle Response Management Group (RMG) is a processing, data and technology-driven company. By combining best-in-class direct response processing, customer care and fulfillment solutions with actionable data insights, Merkle RMG drives one-to-one relationships for an improved donor and customer experience that increases retention and revenue. www.merkleresponse.com

Barker & Scott

Barker & Scott Consulting (BSC) helps non-profits leverage the power of information technology for strategic advancement, operational excellence, and mission success. BSC helps span the critical strategic and operational gaps that all too often separate a nonprofit organization's technology, data, people, and processes from the many constituencies the organization depends on for success.

www.barkerandscott.com

NonProft Pro

NonProfit PRO is the go-to source for nonprofit management and strategy. Developed for thought leaders and innovators, we cover topics ranging from internal issues such as human resources, board and volunteer management to technology to tax and legal matters, news and, of course, raising funds.

www.nonprofitpro.com

Media Contact:

Jackie S. Graziano

VP, Marketing & Communications

Pursuant

214.866.6484

SOURCE The Pursuant Group Inc
DALLAS, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Radix IoT and South Africa-based Vangard Projects Ltd, turnkey process control and data acquisition solutions providers, today announced a partnership which will expand Radix IoT Mango OS unified IoT platform availability across Africa. As sales, service, and integration solution partner in Africa, Vangard Projects will integrate Mango OS as part of its monitoring and control services allowing clients to harness disjointed data from across all their connected systems into one cohesive source for actionable analytics, automation, predictive maintenance, and operational improvement with unlimited scalability.

"Vangard Projects' nearly 30-years of pioneering solution-driven innovation is well established in Africa and is instrumental in its agility to design and support solutions for seamless integration of Mango OS with their existing remote monitoring and operations for critical facilities and industries," said Michael Skurla, Chief Product Officer at Radix IoT. "In expanding our joint offering across Africa, Vangard Projects can now offer the market's unmatched unifying IoT platform for remote operations and monitoring of such critical facilities as water utility, waste management and mining industries."

Vangard is currently working at developing Mango software in conjunction with MIRI Technologies Africa.

An example of Vangard's successes includes helping to address South Africa's current water stressed environment for which water conservation is an urgent priority. Vangard Projects has successfully integrated Mango OS into its water telemetry services for SilulumanziNelspruitsubsidiary of South African Water Works (SAWW)utility company that delivers 120 million liters of safe drinking water daily to nearly 400,000 people. With Mango OS, the utility company monitors over 80 telemetry stations and seven SCADA systems for the Nelspruit and surrounding areas water reticulation system. With end-to-end connectivity, data collection, massive scale site capabilities, storage, analytics, data visualization engine, and real-time connectivity of IoT devices, Silulumanzi utility company uses the critical data to schedule and automate pumping routines for most efficient water use and conservancy.

Unlike other products requiring additional fees and licenses for frequent updates, Mango's development and engineering updates accrue no additional fees for end-users. Its interoperability and open-source platform allow for seamless integration into all Vangard Projects' existing systems since Mango adapts to nearly all third-party software and protocols. From small farmers with a reservoir water monitoring system needing to pay for scalable datapoints, to mining industry clients monitoring water in the mines for safety measures in determining chemicals in groundwater and stockpiles for water distribution, Mango remains a viable solution for cost-effective, scalable asset management as well as remote monitoring and operation.

"True to our commitment to supply solutions based on easy-to-use and commercially available hardware and software products, our partnership with Radix IoT has given us a competitive edge in the African market. Our clients using Mango's open-source programming that's free of vendor-lock, gain reduced development time and real-life visual graphic interface for digitized asset management capability. This allows us to provide a cost-effective price-point for the best of the latest products and top solution not previously available in our market," said Reynder van den Bank, Managing Director of Vangard Projects. "There are no surprises with Mango. We haven't had anyone tell us they have a better system than Mango because it's just not out thereor no one is selling it."

Mango's viability for Vangard Projects' water and mining industry clients eliminates the high cost of SCADA licenses, providing instead a reliable, unlimited scalability and remote monitoring capability that is interoperable with all existing systems, reporting and functionalitywith access and ability to make changes, call queries, and to source support. Mango's unlimited scaling, from one to tens of thousands of locations allows monitoring and operations of an entire portfolio via a single pane of glass. Coupled with Radix IoT Cloud, end-users can change and grow monitoring and remote management footprint on their own terms and free of proprietary vendor lock.

For more information, visit Radix IoT www.radixiot.com or contact [email protected].

Resources

Radix IoT Brochure

Vangard Projects Services

Vangard Projects' Clients

Radix IoT Mango OS

Radix IoT Case Studies

Radix IoT White Papers

About Vangard Projects

Founded in 1999 by Dirk van der Vorst, in his home garage in Sunward Park Boksburg, South Africa, Vangard Projects has since become a multi-disciplined company that specializes in providing complete solutions in the electrical (MV & LV), MCC manufacturing, protection, process control and data acquisition fields. The company prides itself on employing only the highest quality staff throughout all levels of the organization. The results speak for themselves, having assembled a team of professionals, experienced in all facets of customers' requirements.

The product and service philosophy of Vangard Projects is simplesupplying solutions-based and easy to use, commercially available hardware and software products. Committed to growth, based on product sourcing, research, and innovation, the company lives by a simple code "We do what we say". For more information visit, https://vangardprojects.co.za/.

About Radix IoT

Radix IoT offers a flexible and unified IoT platform to unite and harness data from existing subsystems into a managed dashboard allowing remote monitoring, process management, and data aggregation intelligence to maximize uptime operations and minimize operating expenses. From one location to multiple, the Radix IoT portfolio of products solves the inherent complexity of managing geographically distributed facilities across various markets, including edge data centers, utilities, carrier edge/telecom infrastructure, industrial, and property management. Radix IoT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Compass Datacenters. It is headquartered in Dallas, TX, with offices in Mountain View (CA) and Chicago (IL). For more information, visit www.radixiot.com and Follow on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Radix IoT
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 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=23650&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=23650&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
TOLEDO, Ohio, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Reuben Brothers (RB) and Welltower (NYSE: WELL) today announced the formation of a long-term strategic partnership in conjunction with Reuben Brothers' acquisition of Avery Healthcare, one of Welltower's largest operating partners and the Company's largest partner in the United Kingdom. The 50/50 joint venture partnership is expected to generate significant future growth opportunities through the development of the next generation of seniors housing properties by leveraging Reuben Brothers' real estate investment and development acumen and Welltower's unparalleled data analytics platform and leadership within the seniors housing industry. This transaction also positions Avery for superior growth to meet the demand of an aging population in the UK.

Reuben Brothers, founded by David and Simon Reuben, are highly sophisticated global investors in private equity, venture capital, infrastructure and prime real estate. Over the past decades, RB has assembled a world class portfolio of irreplaceable real estate through the acquisition of high-quality super-prime retail, office and leisure properties in many of the world's most desirable markets. RB has also been a pioneer in alternative real estate investments through its early investment in Global Switch, a premier network dense, carrier and cloud neutral data center business.

The acquisition of Avery Healthcare, one of the United Kingdom's preeminent operators of assisted living and care facilities, marks RB's initial investment in the rental seniors housing and care home sector, serving as a beachhead investment in an area of strategic growth. With high-quality assets concentrated across Greater London, the Avery portfolio will complement Reuben Brothers' existing portfolio of existing real estate assets and prime land bank.

"We are delighted to announce this investment by Reuben Brothers which will improve our growth prospects as well as enhance resident and employee experience," said John Strowbridge, CEO and founder of Avery. "We started our partnership with Welltower with a handful of properties in 2013. We are proud of our growth to 65 homes today and the platform we have built. Through our continued partnership with Welltower, and now joined by Reuben Brothers, the best days of this company lie ahead."

"We are tremendously excited to announce our new partnership with Reuben Brothers and their strategic investment in the seniors housing industry through the acquisition of Avery Healthcare," said Shankh Mitra, Welltower CEO and CIO. "Reuben Brothers share our vision and excitement for the unprecedented multi-year growth opportunity in the seniors housing sector in the UK and the US, and we look forward to working alongside their team to expand our relationship. While many investors appropriately remain on the sidelines due to a near-term focus on COVID-19, the exponential multi-decade growth of the seniors population has begun after a period of anemic population growth during the last decade. The entry of Reuben Brothers, a highly sophisticated global investor, into seniors housing, highlights the attractiveness of the opportunity that is ahead of us. We also thank John Strowbridge, our partner, for outstanding leadership so far and going forward."

"Our investment in Avery Healthcare will be an exciting addition to our portfolio of real estate and operating companies, as we arrive at the precipice of unprecedented growth of the UK seniors population," said David Reuben Jr. "We are thrilled to be making this investment alongside Welltower and their industry-leading data analytics platform. Together, we are well-positioned to capitalize on an array of growth opportunities as strong secular tailwinds drive exceptional demand for seniors housing in the coming decades. We are proud to be part of this platform that enhances the lives of a great number of UK seniors by providing them high-quality care and an avenue for social and cognitive interaction."

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release may contain "forward-looking" statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When Welltower uses words such as "may," "will," "intend," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate" or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause Welltower's actual results to differ materially from Welltower's expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. This may be a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, those factors discussed in Welltower's reports filed from time to time with the SEC. Welltower undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements.

About Welltower

Welltower Inc. (NYSE: WELL), an S&P 500 company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, is driving the transformation of health care infrastructure. The Company invests with leading seniors housing operators, post-acute providers and health systems to fund the real estate infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people's wellness and overall health care experience. Welltower, a real estate investment trust ("REIT"), owns interests in properties concentrated in major, high-growth markets in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, consisting of seniors housing, post-acute communities and outpatient medical properties. More information is available at www.welltower.com.

About Reuben Brothers

Reuben Brothers is a leader in private equity, real estate investment and development, and debt financing. Our investments include racecourses, pubs, aerodromes, media and data centres. Our resource heritage is today represented through energy investments, shipping, metal warehousing and mining. Our real estate holdings are significant in scale and broadly diversified, encompassing office, retail, hotel, residential and infrastructure properties across the world.

Our philanthropic arm, the Reuben Foundation, was formed in 2002 and makes essential contributions to the advancement of healthcare and education worldwide. For further information on the Reuben Foundation please visit www.reubenfoundation.com

SOURCE Welltower Inc.
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- REZI, the pioneer of the "Occupancy-as-a-Service" model to help property owners minimize vacancy costs, today releases the results of their latest Market Insights Report , an analysis of NYC's rental market trends through real-time neighborhood performance data for the last six months of 2021.

Using over 100 data points sourced from a collection of proprietary and public resources, REZI compares borough and neighborhood-level data across average rental price, days on market, (DoM), and average vacancy loss for all currently marketed apartments to provide a complete view of NYC's rental market.

Key Terminology:

Days on Market (DoM): represents the amount of time a vacant unit has been marketed.

represents the amount of time a vacant unit has been marketed. Vacancy Cost: represents the amount of income lost due to vacancy  inclusive of Days on Market, tenant move-in delays, and placement fees.

represents the amount of income lost due to vacancy  inclusive of Days on Market, tenant move-in delays, and placement fees. Listing Rent: represents the monthly net-effective rent / the amount of rent collected adjusted for vacancy cost.

Topline Findings for an Average NYC Apartment:

From Average Days on Market and Average Listing Rent, it's clear to see that the New York City rental market is undoubtedly rebounding from the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite this progress, there is still more improvement to be made to return to true pre-pandemic levels, especially for Avg. Listing Rent and Avg. Discounts  which are still performing worse than December 2019 levels throughout several neighborhoods across the city:

Average Days on Market: 32

32 Average Listing Rent: $3,509

Average Vacancy Cost: $8,987

Borough Breakdown:

Borough with best Year-over-Year Improvement: Manhattan , with Days on Market down by over 35% and Listing Rents up by 37.0%

, with Days on Market down by over 35% and Listing Rents up by 37.0% Best Performing Borough: Brooklyn , with the lowest Days on Market at an average of 24 days.

, with the lowest Days on Market at an average of 24 days. Worst Performing Borough: The Bronx , with the smallest Year-over-Year change in Days on Market and Listing Rents and second-highest Days on Market at 37 days on average.

Listing Rent Findings:

Manhattan is the top-performing borough regarding improvement in Average Listing Rent over the past year  where the borough saw a 37% increase YoY.

While some neighborhoods like SoHo - Tribeca saw +55% improvements in Avg. Listing Rent  that success wasn't evenly distributed across the entire borough. Throughout all of Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood Avg. Listing Rent increased by less than 10% YoY and is still largely below pre-pandemic levels and expectations.

Likewise, all neighborhoods throughout The Bronx saw a similar performance, with one neighborhood  Kingsbridge - Riverdale  seeing a YoY increase of only $16.

Jamaica, Queens, was the only neighborhood across all of New York City that saw a decrease in Average Listing Rent  although it was minimal by only $21 from $1,824 in December 2020.

The most expensive Listing Rents were found in SoHo - Tribeca in Manhattan at an average of $7,452, followed by Chelsea - Union Square at an average of $5,236.

The cheapest Listing Rents were found in Jamaica, Queens, at an average of $1,803, followed by Bensonhurst - Bath Beach in Brooklyn at an average of $1,810.

Days on Market Findings:

Manhattan saw the largest decrease in Days on Market at the borough-level, with the Lower East Side at the neighborhood-level seeing a 50% decrease Year-over-Year  down by 42 days from 68 in December 2020.

Additionally, 6 of the top 10 neighborhoods with the largest decreases in Days on Market were located within Manhattan.

Despite this, Manhattan's West Village and Morningside Heights neighborhoods were tied for having the longest Days on Market across all of New York City at an average of 47 days.

The shortest Days on the Market was found in Queens' Bayside - Whitestone neighborhood at an average of just 13 days, followed closely by Bushwick in Brooklyn at an average of 15 days.

Further out neighborhoods in Brooklyn saw the worst Days on Market performance, with Gravesend - Midwood seeing a 50% increase in Average Days on Market and Bensonhurst - Bath Beach seeing a 35% increase.

Only 8 neighborhoods across all of NYC saw a Year-over-Year increase in average days on market and 5 (62.5%) of them were located in Brooklyn, 2 in Queens, and 1 in The Bronx.

Vacancy Cost Findings :

With increased Listing Rents throughout the city, all boroughs saw broad increases in Average Vacancy Costs, although several neighborhoods were able to leverage substantial decreases in Average Days on Market to drive down Vacancy Costs.

Fordham in The Bronx saw the largest % decrease in Average Vacancy Cost in 2021  down by $2,205 from $6,518 in December 2020.

Meanwhile, Long Island City in Queens saw a significant increase in Average Vacancy Cost  up by $1,706 from $5,597 in December 2020.

The highest vacancy costs in the city are found in SoHo - Tribeca at an average of $22,497, followed by the West Village at an average vacancy cost of $15,444  driven by relatively high Days on Market (45 days and 47 days respectively) and increased Listing Rents ($7,452 and $4,872 respectively).

The lowest vacancy costs in NYC are found in Jamaica, Queens, at an average of just $4,113  largely driven by a low Average Listing Rent ($1,803) and a decent Average Days on Market (24 days).

*For the full report, please visit https://leasing.rentrezi.com/market-insights/new-york/12-2021-report

About REZI

Founded in 2017, REZI leverages state-of-the-art leasing and financial technology to improve and optimize the renting experience for tenants and increase effective rental prices for property owners. REZI is a privately held company based in New York City.

Media Contact:

Loren Pomerantz

917-902-0219

[email protected]es.com

SOURCE REZI
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On 29 March 2021, the 'Solarplaza Summit Energy Storage The Netherlands' will take place in Amsterdam's Bimhuis. This high-level B2B conference will connect key industry players - local & European - from the energy storage and PV industries. Storage will play a crucial role in scaling up large-scale Dutch renewables to the critical levels needed to achieve the Netherlands' goals of decarbonization. The realistic roadmap to ramping up storage will be the central discussion point of the 'Solarplaza Summit Energy Storage The Netherlands', both on stage and on the networking floor.

The Dutch renewable energy industry is experiencing remarkable growth. The Netherlands now boasts around 12 GW of solar PV capacity and over 8.5 GW of windmills. However, the management and further build-out of these intermittent power sources are challenged by rising grid congestion issues and increased scrutiny of business models.

With investors welcoming its potential for diversifying risk and providing additional revenue streams, and technology costs steadily dropping, the business case for energy storage has never been as strong as it is now. Moreover, updated regulations will remove double taxation (starting 2022) and incentivize congestion management, further strengthening the case.

At the event, grid experts will explain the potential of storage in easing congestion. Experienced developers will present case studies on profitable storage business models and share practical knowledge on developing storage-compatible solar plants. And analysts will dissect the outlook for cost developments and projections.

The time for ramping up energy storage in the Dutch power mix is right now. Join Solarplaza and Energy Storage NL for the first Dutch event focused on energy storage, with interactive panel discussions, inspiring keynotes, and ample networking opportunities. Reserve your ticket today to take advantage of the Early Bird offer.

Solarplaza Summit Energy Storage | The Netherlands

29 March - Bimhuis Amsterdam

Tickets: Regular 795,- / Early bird 595,-

More info: https://bit.ly/3otSO1a

SOURCE Solarplaza
MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Two executives from global talent solutions and business consulting firm Robert Half (NYSE: RHI) have been named to Staffing Industry Analysts' 2022 North America Staffing 100 list. M. Keith Waddell, president and chief executive officer, and Paul F. Gentzkow, president and CEO of talent solutions, were recognized among the most influential leaders in the staffing industry based on their business practices, processes, philosophies and people-first mindset.

M. Keith Waddell, president and chief executive officer of Robert Half Paul F. Gentzkow, president and CEO of talent solutions at Robert Half

In his more than three decades with the organization, Waddell has helped establish Robert Half as the global leader in talent solutions and was instrumental in launching Protiviti, the enterprise's global business consulting subsidiary, in 2002. Over the past two years, Waddell has led the enterprise through a global pandemic, achieving record recovery and results. He has prioritized investments in AI-based matching technology and the organization's global network to effectively position Robert Half to deliver hybrid and fully remote solutions to employers and job seekers alike. Under his leadership, the enterprise remains committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion practices and upholding its core values as a responsible corporate citizen.

Since first joining the company in 1986 in Minneapolis, Gentzkow has helped grow Robert Half's talent solutions business to more than 300 locations worldwide. In the past two years, Robert Half's talent solutions teams have assisted countless job seekers throughout the pandemic and provided world-class service to companies navigating unforeseen economic shifts and tapping into increasingly remote talent pools. In 2021, the business reported record revenues, which Gentzkow attributes to the expertise and dedication of the firm's talent solutions professionals.

About Robert Half

Robert Half is the world's first and largest specialized talent solutions and business consulting firm that connects opportunities at great companies with highly skilled job seekers. Robert Half offers contract, temporary and permanent placement solutions and is the parent company of Protiviti, a global consulting firm. Visit roberthalf.com and download our award-winning mobile app.

SOURCE Robert Half
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Brand dollars have always been important to production financing, but traditional product placement leaves a large swath of content creators behind. That's the impetus for a new partnership between technology vendor Ryff and content distributor MVault, which will make possible AI-powered digital product placement in MVault's catalog of over 20,000 films and TV series.

As consumers avoid ads at greater rates, brands have turned to content as a way to get their products in front of the right audience. But product placement can be time-consuming, expensive, and error prone, meaning that only certain brands and content creators can take advantage of it. Ryff solves that problem with 3D technology inspired by the world of gaming; new products can be inserted digitally without the need for post-production, as simply as a gamer could change out armor.

The Ryff and MVault partnership enables AI-powered digital product placement in MVault's catalog of over 20,000 films. Tweet this

"Content creators and brands see the value in working together, but they've struggled to work seamlessly  especially in the independent world," says Matthew Joynes, film producer and Chairman of MVault and film producer. "Ryff opens up that possibility for them."

Ryff approaches the world of product placement from a unique vantage point: the founders have experience in gaming, graphic hardware, and film. Its Placer platform ingests content such as a film, and its AI-driven Scene Intelligence software analyzes the content for moments when products make sense to appear, such as a kitchen counter for a bottle of wine. Ryff then inserts 3D models of the product in place and renders them to match lighting and cinematography, so they look like they belong there.

Because the platform can insert products into thousands of scenes at once, brands can work a larger audience than traditional product placement would allow. "The new generation of content viewers doesn't want to see ads, but they're OK with brands in their content  as long as that placement feels authentic," says Roy Taylor, CEO of Ryff. "This partnership helps advertisers reach people at scale  all in an environment where content can't be fast-forwarded or skipped."

Independent creators like the ones in MVault's library have typically been shut out of placement deals because they can't guarantee distribution, which means brands can't safely predict what their return might be. The deal calls for MVault to integrate its real-time rights management technology with Ryff, which will let copyright holders sign new placement deals long after their content has launched.

"Ryff captures the key moments in a film or TV series, so brand integrations can be monetized downstream," Joynes says. "Now independents can earn product placement revenue even after production."

ABOUT RYFF

Ryff is an American multinational technology company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company delivers authentic brand integration into any visual media at scale. Ryff serves the needs of brands looking for audiences and content creators wanting narratively supportive advertising.

ABOUT MVAULT AND CDAX

MVault is a downstream distributor of film, television, and games. MVault has a digital rights management platform used by content owners to reach the widest audience upstream to Amazon, Apple, and other aggregators. It is wholly owned by CDAX, an emerging financial technology company leveraging proprietary blockchain security for fast efficient payment processing with new card payment features.

PRESS INQUIRIES:

Theresa Nasi, Sweat + Co, 917.855.2531, [email protected]

SOURCE Ryff; MVault
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE), the creator and leader of the modern ground lease industry, announced that it has closed on the sale of 108,571 Caret Units and received a binding commitment for the purchase of 28,571 Caret Units for $24.0 million. Those 137,143 Caret Units equal 1.37% of the authorized Caret Units in Caret Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Safehold, implying a total Caret Unit valuation of $1.75 billion.

The Caret Units were purchased by a diversified group of leading FinTech, PropTech, institutional and high net worth investors, including Ribbit Capital, Fifth Wall, Zigg Capital, a leading sovereign wealth fund, Kevin Durant and Michael Rubin's family office.

"We have followed Safehold and its business strategy for many years and believe Caret represents a compelling investment with significant growth and upside potential," explained Brad Griewe, managing partner of Fifth Wall. "Caret has the ability to harness the economic power of our communities and we are excited to partner with management and Safehold to help them realize on its full potential."

"When we first launched Safehold, our primary goal was to demonstrate proof of concept that we could build and scale a modern ground lease platform," added Jay Sugarman, Safehold's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Having recently closed our 100th ground lease, we are now in a position to highlight the value of our fast-growing portfolio by enabling sophisticated investors to participate directly in Caret. This initial Caret Unit sale is a key first step and marks an important milestone for Safehold by helping to unlock a meaningful component of value within the platform."

Caret is structured to track and capture the Unrealized Capital Appreciation ("UCA") in our portfolio, to the extent UCA is realized upon expiration of our ground leases, sale of our land and ground leases or certain other specified events. UCA stood at an estimated $8.1 billion as of December 31, 2021.

Safehold owns approximately 84% of the outstanding Caret Units following this sale. Safehold's management team owns approximately 15% of the Caret Units, which were earned through a shareholder approved long-term incentive plan after having reached certain stock price hurdles.

An advisory board comprised of representatives from Ribbit Capital, Fifth Wall, Zigg Capital, and Michael Rubin's family office will bring their unique perspectives to help maximize the value of Caret over time. As part of the sale, we are obligated to seek to provide a public market listing for the Caret Units within the next two years. If we are unable to achieve a public market liquidity event at a value in excess of the Investor's basis, the Investors would have the option to cause us to redeem their Caret Units at their original purchase price.

About Safehold:



Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE) is revolutionizing real estate ownership by providing a new and better way for owners to unlock the value of the land beneath their buildings. Having created the modern ground lease industry in 2017, Safehold continues to help owners of high quality multifamily, office, industrial, hospitality and mixed-use properties generate higher returns with less risk. The Company, which is taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT) and is managed by its largest shareholder, iStar Inc., seeks to deliver safe, growing income and long-term capital appreciation to its shareholders. Additional information on Safehold is available on its website at www.safeholdinc.com.

Company Contact:



Jason Fooks

Senior Vice President

Investor Relations & Marketing

T: 212.930.9400

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Safehold
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- San Francisco Health Plan (SFHP) has been providing affordable health care options to the San Francisco community for 25 years. SFHP's mission is to improve the health outcomes of the diverse San Francisco communities through successful partnerships. SFHP currently serves over 155,000 Medi-Cal members, over 11,000 Healthy Workers HMO members, and serves as the third-party administrator for the nationally recognized Healthy San Francisco program. SFHP's provider network includes over 7,000 health care providers and 7 hospitals in both San Francisco and San Mateo counties, providing access to world class health care for low- and moderate-income San Francisco residents for 25 years.

"SFHP has been able to leverage our community partnerships in order to provide innovative health care programs to the diverse population of San Francisco," said John F. Grgurina, Jr., CEO of San Francisco Health Plan. "The past 25 years has provided us with the opportunity to provide innovative health care options from children to whole families to seniors and persons with disabilities."

SFHP began operations in 1997, enrolling its first Medi-Cal members. We expanded our offerings to the community of San Francisco by launching the Healthy Families program in 1998, the Healthy Workers program in 1999 and the Healthy Kids program in 2002. Partnering with the SF Department of Public Health we provided third-party administration services for the groundbreaking Healthy San Francisco program, launching in 2007.

The Medi-Cal program went through its most transformative period when the Affordable Care Act launched in 2014, affording our community with the biggest expansion in history. With our continued commitment to the care of our community and the health care providers that serve them, we launched our first ever Member Service Center in 2015 and earned a 4 out of 5-star NCQA Accreditation in 2021. After 25 years, SFHP now covers 1 in 6 San Francisco residents with health care options.

"Public health care delivery systems have played a vital role in enhancing access to care and quality health outcomes for our members over the past 25 years," said Fiona Donald, MD, Chief Medical Officer of San Francisco Health Plan. "SFHP has been on the forefront of providing innovative programs: SFHP was an early adopter of telemedicine access for our members and we were the first county in the State to launch the Health Homes Program, a comprehensive care coordination programs that incorporate physical, behavioral and social determinants of health. SFHP has also worked in partnership with the SF Department of Public Health to provide services through Whole Person Care initiative as well and coordinated to provide a rapid response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, which has helped SFHP achieve the highest Medi-Cal Managed Care vaccination rates in the state."

"Our health care provider network has been able to grow over the past 25 years due to their commitment to quality care for our members," said Mr. Grgurina.

"We are excited to continue to partner with our provider network, community agencies, governing board, and our staff in order to deliver pioneering programs over the next 25 years."

San Francisco Health Plan is an NCQA Accredited Medi-Cal health plan providing no-cost and affordable health coverage to over 160,000 low and moderate-income families residing in San Francisco.

About San Francisco Health Plan

San Francisco Health Plan (SFHP) has a rating of 4 out of 5 in NCQA's Medicaid Health Plan Ratings 2021. SFHP is a licensed community health plan providing affordable health coverage to over 160,000 low- and moderate-income families residing in San Francisco. SFHP is designed for and by the residents it servesmany of whom would not be able to otherwise obtain health care for themselves or their families. Through SFHP, members have access to a full spectrum of medical services including preventive care, hospitalization, prescription drugs, family planning, and substance abuse programs. SFHP's mission is to improve health outcomes of the diverse San Francisco communities through successful partnerships. San Francisco Health Plan is also the third-party administrator for the nationally recognized Healthy San Francisco program. For more information on SFHP, visit www.sfhp.org.

About NCQA

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes clinicians in key clinical areas. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA's website ( ncqa.org ) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more-informed health care choices. NCQA can be found online at ncqa.org , on Twitter @ncqa , on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/ and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa .

SOURCE San Francisco Health Plan
PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Self-Balancing Mobility Market by Product Type (Single Wheeled and Double Wheeled), Level of Automation (Semi-Autonomous and Fully Autonomous), End Use (Personal Use and Commercial Use) and Vehicle Type (Unicycle, Segway, Hoverboard and Scooter & Bikes): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030." According to the report, the global self-balancing mobility industry was pegged at $1.53 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $10.09 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 21.2% from 2021 to 2030.

Download Report (224 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures) at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/15982

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities-

Rapid urbanization and local commute requirements, inclination toward the use of electric mobility as an eco-friendly & efficient solution, and high portability as compared to other personal electric vehiclesdrive the growth of the global self-balancing mobility market. On the other hand, inaccuracy and calibration issues in autonomous vehicles and rise in bike vandalism & theft impede the market growth to some extent. However, growing R&D investments for enhanced battery technologies and continuous product development are anticipated to pave the way for multiple opportunities in the industry.

COVID-19 scenario-

Due to the imposed lockdown and various restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, the manufacturing and industrial operations were either slowed down or completely stopped, thus declining the demand dynamics of mobility vehicles.

However, with relaxation in restrictions, the world is steadily getting back to normalcy. Due to the growing inclination of people toward electric mobility and portability of self-balancing vehicles, the demand for self-balancing mobility is expected to grow in the coming years.

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The double wheeled segment to dominate by 2030-

By product type, the double wheeled segment accounted for nearly three-fourths of the global self-balancing mobility market share in 2020, and is anticipated to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. This is owing to the increase in dependency on mobility equipment and trend of using advanced technologies and modern mobility vehicles among people. The single wheeled segment, however, would showcase the fastest CAGR of 21.8% by 2030. Growth in inclination of middle age generation toward trendy & technologically advanced medium to commute and carry out recreational activities drives the growth of the segment.

The fully autonomous segment held the lion's share in 2020-

By level of automation, the fully autonomous segment held the lion's share in 2020, contributing to more than two-thirds of the global self-balancing mobility market, and is expected to continue its lead during the forecast period.The demand is due to the growing adoption of automation in the transportation sector. Moreover, this segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 21.6% by 2030. The report also includes analysis of semi autonomous segment.

Interested to Procure the Data with Actionable Strategy & Insights? Inquire here at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/15982

North America to manifest the highest CAGR through 2030

By region, the global self-balancing mobility market across North America is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.7% during the forecast period, owing to production and sales of vehicles and increased infrastructure development across North America. The region across LAMEA is anticipated to grow at the fastest CAGR of 23.0% by 2030. However, the global self-balancing mobility market across Asia-Pacific held the largest share in 2020, accounting for more than two-fifths of the market. This is due to the emerging trend of vehicle electrification in the region, market players are investing in development of electrical driven technology to cater the changing demand for electric mobility.

Major market players

Fosjoas

Airwheel Holding Limited

Freego High-Tech Corporation Ltd.

Eswingsports

Hangzhou Chic Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

UBoard

Razor USA LLC

LLC Halo Board

Inventist, Inc.

Oxboard B.V.

Zhejiang Aerlang Technology Co., Ltd

HoverRobotix

IO Hawk Invest

Segway Inc.

Inmotion Technologies Co., Ltd.

Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts to Find Solutions for Your Business at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/15982

Similar Reports We Have on Automotive Industry:

One Wheel Electric Scooter Market by Product Type (Electric Unicycle, and Electric One wheel Hoverboard), Application (Off-road Activities, and Daily Commute), Sales Channel (Online Sales, and Offline Sales), and Speed Limit (Kmh) (20 Kmh - 30 Kmh, 30 Kmh - 50 Kmh, and More than 50 Kmh): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202030.

Electric Unicycle Market by Type (Below 500W, 500-1000W, and Above 1000W), and Application (Adults and Children): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202030.

Hoverboard Scooter Market by Type (Compact Size, Mid-size, and Full Size), Application (Personal Mobility Device and Business Purposes), Sales Channel (Online Sales and Offline Sales), and Speed Limit (Less than 15 Kmh and More than 15 Kmh): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030.

Electric Bike Market by Product (Pedelecs, Speed Pedelecs, Throttle on Demand, and Scooter & Motorcycle), Drive Mechanism (Hub Motor, Mid-Drive, and Others), and Battery Type (Lead Acid, Lithium-Ion (Li-ion), and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202030.

Fuel Cell Bikes Market by Drive Mechanism (Hub Motor, Mid Drive, and Others), Battery Type (Lead-acid, Lithium-ion (Li-ion), Nickel-metal hydride (NiMh), and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030.

High-End Bicycle Market by Type (Mountain Bikes, Road Bikes, Track Bikes, and hybrid Bikes), Application (Specialty Bicycle, Sporting Goods Retailers, and Department Stores & Hypermarkets): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030.

About Us

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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SOURCE Allied Market Research
NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc. ("New Oriental" or the "Company") (NYSE: EDU). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether New Oriental and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On April 25, 2021, media reports revealed that the City of Beijing had fined four online education agencies, including the New Oriental subsidiary Koolearn, the maximum fine of 500,000 yuan (approximately $80,000) each for misleading customers with false advertising regarding course pricing. On May 12, 2021, news reports revealed that an impending crackdown by the Chinese government on the private tutoring sector would be further reaching and more drastic than previously publicly known, including that regulators had already taken adverse actions against New Oriental and other for-profit tutoring companies.

On this news, New Oriental's American Depository Share ("ADS") price fell $2.77 per ADS, or 19.4%, over the following two trading sessions to close at $11.51 per ADS on May 13, 2021.

On June 1, 2021, Chinese regulators announced that they had fined 15 off-campus training institutions, including New Oriental, for illegal activities such as false advertising and fraud.

On this news, New Oriental's ADS price fell $1.77 per ADS, or 16%, over the following two trading sessions to close at $9.32 per ADS on June 3, 2021.

Then, on July 23, 2021, China unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its education sector, banning companies that teach the school curriculum from making profits, raising capital or going public, effectively ending any potential growth in the for-profit tutoring sector in China. On July 25, 2021, New Oriental published an "update" on the new regulations, which stated that the Company will "comply with relevant rules and regulations when providing educational services" and "expects such measures to have material adverse impact on its after-school tutoring services related to academic subjects in China's compulsory education system."

On this news, New Oriental's ADS price fell $4.46 per ADS, or nearly 70%, over the following two trading sessions to close at $1.94 per ADS on July 26, 2021.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Telos Corporation ("Telos" or the "Company") (NYSE: TLS). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether Telos and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On November 15, 2021, Telos held an earnings call to discuss the Company's financial results for the third quarter of 2021. During the call, Telos's Chief Financial Officer, Mark Bendza, disclosed that the Company's contracts with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") and U.S. Transportation Security Administration ("TSA") would be delayed, with only the TSA contract commencing in 2022, while the CMS contract was pushed back until after 2022. During the call, Bendza acknowledged deficiencies in Telos's past guidance process, stating that "going forward . . . I will guide based on what [we] have a high degree of visibility into at a point in time. And so, you're going to see that in how we guide going forward."

On this news, Telos's stock price fell $6.84 per share, or more than 28%, to close at $17.54 per share on November 15, 2021.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

888-476-6529 ext. 7980

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
ATLANTA, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Shef, an online marketplace that enables local cooks to earn a meaningful income selling homemade food in their communities, announced today that it has expanded its business to Atlanta. Now, customers in Atlanta will have access to authentic specialties from across a wide variety of cuisines  all made by members of their community and delivered right to their doorsteps.

"The wide range of global cuisines offered by cooks on Shef in Atlanta reflects the incredible diversity of the local community," said Shef co-founder Joey Grassia. "We couldn't be more excited to introduce the talent of these local cooks to the region and make it easier for people to get a healthy and affordable homemade meal on the table."

Atlanta's cohort of shefs represents a wide variety of cultures, including hard-to-find cuisines like Nepalese, Pakistani, and Caribbean. Originally from India, Shef Satabdi specializes in traditional Bengali Fulkopir Roast and Dhokar Dalna. "I grew up eating delicious food cooked by my grandmother whose origin was from Dhaka, and food has always played such an important part in my traditions and culture," said Shef Satabdi. "On Shef, I cook a variety of Bengali dishes and am excited to be able to provide a taste of home to those missing homemade Bengali food in Atlanta, as well as those looking to try a new cuisine."

Other local shefs include Shef Srisaowalak, originally from Thailand, who honors her mother who ran a famous food stall in Wat Krut, by preparing dishes like Massaman Curry Chicken, and Shef Angela who merges her Chinese culture and culinary training to create contemporary dishes like Braised Beef Noodles and Pork Soup Dumplings.

The service has skyrocketed in the past year with over 1.6 million meals served across the U.S. and more than 30,000 applicants to sell food on the platform. Diversity is central to Shef's mission with more than 85% of cooks on Shef being people of color. Shef currently operates in several markets across the country, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Chicago, Houston, Austin, Boston, and Washington, D.C, and includes Padma Lakshmi, Tiffany Haddish, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, and chef Aaron Sanchez among its investors.

Local regulations vary by region but, at a minimum, all cooks on Shef are required to pass an accredited food safety certification exam, undergo a food quality assessment, and be subject to regular food quality checks. In regions that have not yet implemented home cooking laws, cooks are required to prepare food out of commercial kitchens or other legally permissible facilities.

About Shef

Shef is an online marketplace for local, homemade food. Shef helps talented cooks who are food safety certified connect with customers in their community and earn a meaningful income selling their homemade dishes. With its wide selection of global cuisine, including unique and hard-to-find regional specialties from across South Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, Shef delivers a taste of home for those missing it, and a world of flavor for those looking to try something new. The service is currently available in several markets across the United States, including San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Chicago, Houston, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. To order food from a local cook in your area, or for more information on how to become a shef, visit www.shef.com.

SOURCE Shef
H1FY22 performance highlights

(All figures in AUD as at December 31, 2021)

Total revenue was up 9% on H1FY21 (10.4% in constant currency (cc)) to $55.0 million .

In H1FY22, in cc over H1FY21, revenue grew 25% in the Americas and 16% in EMEA, and declined 5% in APAC.

SiteMinder's global customer base increased 6% during H1FY22. During H1FY22, annualised property growth in the Americas expanded by 15%, EMEA by 8% and APAC was flat.

Global customer base increased 8% by annualised property growth during Q2FY22.



Global customer base was 33,400 as at December 2021 , which was an increase of 2.7% over December 2020 .

Annualised recurring revenue (ARR) grew 13.5% (cc) on H1FY21 to $111 million .

Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) grew 7.7% (cc) on H1FY21 to $280 .

LTV/CAC increased from 2.1x in FY21 to 3.2x in H1FY22.

Underlying free cash outflow of $16.6 million represented 30% of revenue with available cash and term deposits of $113 million .

Underlying net loss was $18.6 million reflecting investments to reaccelerate.

Reported net loss was $87 million primarily from the costs of revaluation of embedded derivatives on preference shares while a private company.

SYDNEY, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SiteMinder Limited (ASX:SDR) ("SiteMinder" or "the Company") has today released its results over the six months ended 31 December 2021 (H1FY22), to mark its first half-year report as an ASX-listed company since its Initial Public Offering in November 2021. SiteMinder's performance demonstrated reacceleration, in line with the continued reopening of travel globally and the Company's rebuilding of its go-to-market (GTM) capacity, which was reduced as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

Growth recovery

Following a resilient performance in FY21, SiteMinder delivered growth in H1FY22, including total revenue, which grew 10.4% (cc) from the prior year to $55.0 million. Annualised Recurring Revenue (ARR) at the end of H1FY22 was $111 million, growing 13.5% (cc) from H1FY21 and outpacing revenue growth to reflect the acceleration of SiteMinder's business.

SiteMinder's customer property count increased from 32,800 to 33,400 over the past quarter, with annualised property growth in a quarter picking up speed from 5% in Q1FY22 to 8% in Q2FY22. With subscription growth, improving travel and increased transaction attachment rates[1] of 32% (9 pp growth YoY), total ARPU rose to $280  an increase of 7.7% YoY (cc).

Transaction revenues rebounded with the partial recovery of global travel. Around a third (32%) of customers have adopted an average of one transactional product  up 9 percentage points from the prior year.

SiteMinder also saw its LTV/CAC increase from 2.1x in FY21 to 3.2x in H1FY22, with lower churn and expanding ARPU. The rise in CAC is temporary and due to GTM investments to recover sales capacity.

Financial outcomes

SiteMinder remains well capitalised, following its IPO, with cash and term deposits on hand of $113 million. Underlying free cash outflow represents 30% of revenue, following planned investments in rebuilding GTM and product. The Company continues to invest in R&D, with the February 2022 relaunch of its Little Hotelier mobile application now mobilising the world's small hoteliers, and its next generation platform on track to launch during H2FY22.

The reported net loss for the period was $87 million driven in large part by a one-off cost of $61.8 million relating to the higher revaluation of preference shares while a private company. Additionally, one-off IPO costs of $6.7 million were incurred in November 2021. The underlying net loss was $18.6 million and underlying EBITDA loss was $10.0 million.

Market highlights

SiteMinder's revenue in the Americas increased 25% (cc) to $14.0 million over H1FY21, due in part to the reopening of travel in the region and the increased attachment of transactional products. The Americas' annualised property growth expanded by 15% during the half to represent the highest growth across all regions.

Revenue from EMEA increased 16% (cc) to $24.1 million, underpinned by the reopening of travel over the Northern Hemisphere summer. Annualised property growth of 8% during the half was also assisted by the reopenings. There were some impacts from Omicron and the reintroduction of lockdowns in some markets, but they have again begun reopening.

With Asia Pacific hotels particularly dependent on international travel, and borders remaining closed throughout the period, Asia Pacific revenue declined by 5% (cc) to $17.0 million over H1FY21. Annualised property growth in the region stabilised during H1FY22 with greater optimism from improved vaccination rates.

Global product and customer leadership

The breadth and depth of SiteMinder's hotel commerce platform, combined with the Company's continued customer focus, earned SiteMinder the top prize and the highest number of major accolades at the 2022 HotelTechAwards, affirming the Company's position as the world's leading open hotel commerce platform. SiteMinder was awarded the overall People's Choice Award, as well as Best Marketplace & Integrator, Best Channel Manager and Best Booking Engine.

With close to 650 members, SiteMinder's Partner Program remains the most extensive, global program of its kind and continues to drive the growth of SiteMinder's ecosystem of more than 1,400 partners. The Company celebrated the first anniversary of the program in November with the inaugural SiteMinder Partner of the Year Awards, which attracted more than 80 nominations from 24 countries.

Commenting on SiteMinder's H1FY22 performance, SiteMinder CEO and managing director Sankar Narayan said: "In line with the continued reopening of travel markets and the rebuilding of our go-to-market capacity, SiteMinder's growth is accelerating once again and our performance over the past six months stands as a testament to our ability to withstand the ongoing challenges presented by travel globally. We continue to exhibit our resilience through growth in total revenue and our subscription base, as well as ARR, ARPU and improved unit economics. Our performance also reflects the scale and breadth of our global business, with both the Americas and EMEA driving Company growth, and we are hopeful that the Asia Pacific will continue to reopen during 2022, to provide additional strength to our growth recovery.

"As we continue to deliver on our growth objectives, we have recently relaunched the Little Hotelier mobile app to literally free the world's small hotels and to deepen our ability to service that critical segment of the market. Particularly during a time when hoteliers are increasingly relying on technology more than ever to help sell, market, manage and grow their business, the launch of our next generation platform over the coming months puts us in an even greater position to capitalise on the opportunity that is uniquely available to us.

"Along with the validation we have gained through the recent HotelTechAwards wins, these strategic initiatives will transform how we do business. We know that our customers want choice, but also a platform that takes the complexity out of designing and executing online commerce strategies in an integrated way, to reach new customers and increase revenue. These hotel strategies involve both direct and indirect revenue streams, which reinforces the importance of our strength in indirect distribution as well as our recognised leadership in integrated, direct booking solutions."

Outlook

Following a global resumption of travel, SiteMinder is targeting pre-COVID-19 revenue growth rates (31% from FY17-FY19) in the future but realisation of this target will depend on many factors outside of the Company's control, including the substantial abatement of COVID-19 related influences on the accommodation and travel industry.

This announcement was authorised for release by the Board & Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.

About SiteMinder

SiteMinder Limited (ASX:SDR) is the world's leading open hotel commerce platform, ranked among technology pioneers for opening up every hotel's access to online commerce. It's this central role that has earned SiteMinder the trust of tens of thousands of hotels, across 150 countries, to sell, market, manage and grow their business. The global company, headquartered in Sydney with offices in Bangkok, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London and Manila, generated more than 100 million reservations worth over US$35 billion in revenue for hotels in the last year prior to the start of the pandemic. For more information, visit siteminder.com .

Investor information Ronn Bechler [email protected] Media enquiries Maria Cricchiola [email protected]

Definitions

ARR is the prior month's recurring subscription revenue multiplied by 12 and the prior quarter's transaction revenue from subscriber customers (assuming any promotions have ended) multiplied by four. ARR provides a 12-month calculation of revenue at a point in time, assuming other factors such as subscriber numbers, transaction volumes, pricing and foreign exchange remain unchanged. We use ARR to project current performance into the future. However, investors should note that ARR does not represent our actual results, is not a financial forecast and should not be used in isolation as a forward-looking indicator of revenue.

ARPU is calculated by using monthly recurring revenue and dividing it by the number of properties for each respective month. The monthly ARPU is presented as the average of the last 12 months.

LTV/CAC is the ratio between the Lifetime Value (LTV) and Cost of Acquiring Customer (CAC). LTV is calculated by taking the monthly average ARPU over the last 12 months, multiplied by the gross margin percentage, divided by Monthly Revenue Churn. This is then annualised by multiplying by 12. CAC is calculated by the total sales, marketing and onboarding expenses over a period, less set-up fees charged in the period, divided by the number of new billed properties in the period. Figures are on a rolling average, depending on the period covered i.e. six months for half-year or 12 months for full-year.

Underlying free cash flow is the sum of underlying operating cash flow and underlying investment cash flows.

[1] Subscription customers on average having one transaction product

SOURCE SiteMinder
The tour begins at Iredell Museums in Statesville September 2022. From there, the exhibit travels to Joyner Library at East Carolina University in Greenville, Granville County Historical Society and Museum in Oxford, Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, and Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. The tour concludes at Onslow County Museum in Richlands June 2023.

Crossroads: Change in Rural America is a Smithsonian Institution exhibit that offers small towns and rural communities a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibit explores how rural America embraces the notion that their citizens and their cultural uniqueness are important assets. All Americans benefit from rural America's successes, and we can learn great things from listening to those stories.

"With so many North Carolinians living and working throughout rural North Carolina, we are excited to tour this exhibit within our state," said Sherry Paula Watkins, Executive Director of North Carolina Humanities. "Rural looks different depending on where you are in North Carolina, from the western mountains to the eastern coastline, and we're excited to see how each venue selected showcases what rural means to their community."

With program support and grant funding from NC Humanities, the six selected venues develop complementary exhibits that showcase their local history, people, and stories and offer programs and events that prompt discussions about the economic innovations, challenges, persistence, and cultural facets that make their community unique and essential.

NC Humanities has proudly partnered with SITES for over a decade to bring nationally-touring Smithsonian exhibits to North Carolina. With the completion of this upcoming tour, NC Humanities will have brought six distinct exhibits to over 30 different North Carolina small-town and rural museums, community colleges, libraries, and historic sites. In 2022, Crossroads: Change in Rural America will tour through Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.

To stay up to date with the North Carolina 2022-2023 tour of Crossroads: Change in Rural America please visit nchumanities.org.

NC Humanities Selected Venue City General Tour Schedule. Specific Dates Announced Per Venue. Iredell Museums Statesville September 2022  October 2022 Joyner Library at East Carolina University Greenville October 2022 - November 2022 Granville County Historical Society and Museum Oxford December 2022 - January 2023 Museum of the Albemarle Elizabeth City January 2023 - March 2023 Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University Cullowhee March 2023 - April 2023 Onslow County Museum Richlands May 2023 - June 2023

About North Carolina Humanities: Through public humanities programs and grantmaking, North Carolina Humanities connects North Carolinians with cultural experiences that spur dialogue, deepen human connections, and inspire community. North Carolina Humanities is a statewide nonprofit and the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.To learn more visit www.nchumanities.org.

About the exhibit: Crossroads: Change in Rural America is part of Museum on Main Street (MoMS), a unique collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), state humanities councils across the nation, like North Carolina Humanities, and local exhibit host institutions. Support for MoMS has been provided by the U.S. Congress. Learn more at www.museumonmainstreet.org.

SOURCE North Carolina Humanities
ATLANTA, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company today issued its "2021 Transformation Report: Moving to Equity," detailing its commitment to equity and actions taken to further advance equity within the company and its communities. Southern Company recognizes there is still work to do and is continuing to move boldly forward with its diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) work.

Key DE&I takeaways from the report include:

Underrepresented groups, including women and people of color, made up 58% of hires in 2021.

100% of Southern Company operating companies have launched comprehensive DE&I learning programs and implemented inclusivity training for all new leaders.

Southern Company, its operating companies and their foundations donated $66 million in 2021 to more than 1,000 organizations working to advance racial equity and social justice. In total, the Southern Company system plans to invest $225 million through 2025 to continue this important work.

in 2021 to more than 1,000 organizations working to advance racial equity and social justice. In total, the Southern Company system plans to invest through 2025 to continue this important work. Of the $50 million Southern Company committed to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in January 2020 , $40 million has now been pledged. That includes working with Apple to launch the Propel Center, a business incubator and innovation hub headquartered in Atlanta , and funding scholarships, endowments and paid internships for HBCU students.

"Across Southern Company, we are fully committed to equity," said CEO Tom Fanning. "This collective commitment among our 28,000 employees seeks to prevent racial disparities where they exist and ensure equitable access, opportunities and outcomes for all. Our goal of diversity, equity and inclusion aims to ensure all groups, and especially historically underrepresented and marginalized groups, are well represented, included and fairly treated within all levels of our organization and in our communities."

Southern Company launched its Moving to Equity framework in 2020 amid national conversations on racism and inequality. After a period of listening, learning and understanding, the Southern Company Management Council decided to focus its efforts on five key areas: talent, workplace environment, community, political engagement and supplier diversity.

The Transformation Report reiterates Southern Company's commitments to these pillars, tracks progress of long-term goals, highlights key results and outlines how the company has and will continue to hold itself accountable while Moving to Equity.

"Make no mistake, this report is a beginning," Fanning said. "I want these commitments to be an enduring reflection of Our Values and for Southern Company to serve as a guiding light in our communities, our industry, our nation and around the world among those companies seeking change."

About Southern Company

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is a leading energy company serving 9 million customers through its subsidiaries. The company provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy through electric operating companies in three states, natural gas distribution companies in four states, a competitive generation company serving wholesale customers across America, a leading distributed energy infrastructure company, a fiber optics network and telecommunications services. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and affordable prices below the national average. For more than a century, we have been building the future of energy and developing the full portfolio of energy resources, including carbon-free nuclear, advanced carbon capture technologies, natural gas, renewables, energy efficiency and storage technology. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation and a low-carbon future, Southern Company and its subsidiaries develop the customized energy solutions our customers and communities require to drive growth and prosperity. Our uncompromising values ensure we put the needs of those we serve at the center of everything we do and govern our business to the benefit of our world. Our corporate culture and hiring practices have been recognized nationally by the U.S. Department of Defense, G.I. Jobs magazine, DiversityInc, Black Enterprise, Forbes and the Women's Choice Award. To learn more, visit southerncompany.com/.

SOURCE Southern Company
CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Spool Marketing and Communications, the fastest-growing people-first PR agency, announced today the expansion of its corporate affairs practice with the addition of two industry leaders to support the agency's rapid growth and clients' needs.

CPG- and retail-industry expert and corporate communications professional, Sarah Sheehan, joined the company this month as a Senior Vice President and Casey Swanson joined the company in November 2021 as a Vice President. Both Sheehan and Swanson will lead the company's corporate practice and capabilities, managing multiple teams and driving key business initiatives and results.

Sheehan and Swanson will oversee and continue expanding existing corporate affairs capabilities, which include: media relations, strategy and narrative, executive positioning and thought leadership, CSR and social impact, issues management and public affairs, and internal communications and employee engagement. This expertise will impact account work for partners such as The General Insurance, Fresh Thyme Market, Full Circle Brands, Bicycle Playing Cards and more.

"Sarah and Casey are incredible additions to our team, to our clients and to supporting the ambitious growth goals we have in place for this year and beyond," said Catherine Merritt, CEO of Spool Marketing and Communications. "Their years of experience in the industry and passions for building authentic relationships with both employees and clients will be tremendous assets to Spool."

Sheehan spent over eight years as a leader at Ketchum, serving most recently as an SVP in the retail sector, where she led corporate reputation work for a leading retail brand, as well as brand marketing communications for General Mills and Whirlpool. Prior to Ketchum, Sheehan spent nearly a decade at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, fine-tuning her concentration on corporate and brand reputation marketing and study of client service. Sheehan is a graduate of Indiana University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and grew her passion for writing and storytelling.

Swanson spent over seven years at ICF Next (formerly known as Olson Engage) with previous employment roles at Allison+Partners and Motion PR prior to joining Spool. During her tenure at ICF Next, Swanson supported a number of CPG and Fortune 500 companies through mergers and integrations, including Mars (Wrigley), PepsiCo and Kraft Heinz, developing thoughtful communications strategies to reach key stakeholders, drive visibility and support employee engagement. Swanson holds a Bachelor's degree from University of Dayton and began her career supporting some of Chicago's scrappiest startups.

Since its launch three years ago, Spool has seen massive growth and was named by PRovoke Media as the fastest-growing agency, globally, in 2021 with 173% year-over-year growth. Additionally, Spool was included as part of PRNews Top 100 Agency Elite in 2021 and 2022, and was awarded as a finalist for New PR Agencies of the Year from PRovoke Media. This year Spool was shortlisted for two 2022 Sabre Awards categories  Best Agency Disruptors and Innovator of the Year. To learn more about Spool Marketing and Communications, visit www.spoolmarketing.com.

About Spool Marketing and Communications

Spool Marketing and Communications is the people-first, fastest growing PR agency globally founded by a cohort of media and agency expats in 2018 and was launched with the belief in a new agency model for today's companies and brands. With a startup hustle and traditional agency pedigree, Spool delivers strategic, integrated, high-impact marketing campaigns that drive maximum growth and scale for clients through a new, efficient agency model. Spool's vision is to be the leading people-first agency for both employees and clients, with the shared values of growing and investing in the brands and companies that make our homes, communities, and planet better for all.

Media Contact:

Maura Gallagher

(614) 565-7626

[email protected]

SOURCE Spool
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- After additional purchases over the last few weeks, Beat Kahli, through Avalon Park Group Holding AG, Zurich, Switzerland and Avalon Park International LLC, Orlando, Florida USA, now owns 5,000,000 or 23.32% of all outstanding Class A shares of VOXX International, Orlando, Florida. This makes Avalon Park Group (APG) the largest shareholder as of February 11th, 2022. Beat Kahli is also a Director of VOXX International, where he has served since July 2021.

Avalon Park Group will continue to build up its participation in VOXX International as indicated at the annual shareholder meeting on July 29, 2021.

Avalon Park Group, its subsidiaries, and affiliated companies are hands-on, owner-managed enterprises in a wide range of industries, operating worldwide. While Avalon Park Group is a well-known developer of new urban towns in Florida, over the last 25 years, diversification from real estate has been a key to the group's business success.

Throughout the last several months, Avalon Park Group has been contacted by other shareholders of VOXX International and asked about APG's intentions behind the purchases of VOXX shares. It has been the longstanding practice of APG to be fully transparent and open in our communication, so in keeping with that tradition, we are offering the following answers to frequently asked questions by VOXX shareholders and other interested parties.

1. Why do you invest in VOXX International?

The VOXX International stake is a strategic diversification from our real estate assets. In VOXX we see a company, founded more than 60 years ago, that we believe has tremendous hidden value in its brands, business development, real estate, and more. The group of companies fits well and is complimentary to our international business network, global offices, and skills.

2. Why are you increasing your stake in VOXX and why are you, at times, buying VOXX shares daily, and, at times, not at all?

VOXX shares are presently traded below its book value and at less than 50% of its annual revenue per share. APG's group of companies, with more than $1 billion in assets, has strategically chosen to participate in VOXX, hence the size of our VOXX stake. We will continue to increase our stake in the company, as indicated at last year's annual shareholder meeting of VOXX.

At present price levels, we are buying VOXX shares daily in the open market. Being a director of a publicly traded company, however, there are times when an insider is not allowed to trade in the securities of the company it serves.

3. Why are you investing in the biometric segment of VOXX?

As I previously stated in an earnings call of VOXX International, I believe in the future of the biometric industry. The biometric segment of VOXX represents less than 10% of its assets. I view this participation, given the patents, business development of EyeLock, and the world market for this particular biometric iris technology, as promising for VOXX.

I am currently investing a 2-digit million amount of my own money into the buildup and distribution of EyeLock iris recognition technology, through the distribution agreement approved by VOXX shareholders on July 29th, 2021. By doing so, I support other large shareholders of VOXX who would like to see an IPO for EyeLock in the future.

4. VOXX reported an adverse arbitration ruling in December 2021, what is your take on this?

I believe the CEO of VOXX openly communicated on the last earnings call in January 2022 about this ruling. The company has vigorously taken every avenue available to overturn the verdict it believes is without merit.

VOXX built reserves for this arbitration verdict in the last quarter. While I am upset about the arbitration ruling stemming from an agreement entered in 2007, given the fact that it amounts to about $1.5 per VOXX share, or around 10% of the VOXX equity, even if it is not overturned, it is not an event to bring VOXX off its course.

5. What are your goals for VOXX?

I am motivated to lead and help to create value for all stakeholders, the worldwide team members of the VOXX family of companies, its customers and business partners on every continent, and naturally its shareholders, as the largest of them.

While I have only been a member of the Board of Directors for half a year, Management and the Board has been receptive to opening a new chapter in the VOXX history.

-VOXX INTERNATIONAL has an opportunity to build the world's premier AUDIO group, with its well-known brands KLIPSCH, ONKYO, INTEGRA, and PIONEER. I believe this VOXX business segment alone already accounts for a higher value today than the present stock market capitalization of VOXX.

- VOXX's Automotive group has many irons in the fire and can count on decades-long relationships with the world's largest car manufacturers.

-The Biometrics / IRIS segment is in its very beginning of value creation, and with the 2-digit million investment alongside EyeLock, I want to make sure the fruits can be earned soon, and an IPO opportunity is a possibility.

While there is ample work to be done, I believe VOXX can grow to over $1 billion in revenue while increasing its current profit margins in the coming years.

As an entrepreneur, I am used to long-term thinking. With my investment in VOXX, I have demonstrated over the last 2 years that I "put my money where my mouth is" and will continue to do so.

Beat Kahli

Avalon Park Group

[email protected]

Office: 407.658.6565



About Avalon Park Group

Avalon Park Group is a uniquely diversified family of companies engaged in businesses ranging from master-planned community development, to home building, mining and property management, in Florida, Texas and Switzerland. With more than $1 billion in total assets, Avalon Park Group combines its exceptional reputation, sound business experience and significant financial resources to invest in extraordinary opportunities. At Avalon Park Group, our mission is to change the way the world lives, learns, works and plays through creating healthy sustainable communities and every aspect thereof. For more information on Avalon Park Group, visit www.AvalonParkGroup.com or call 407-658-6565.

About VOXX International Corporation

VOXX International Corporation (NASDAQ: VOXX) has grown into a leader in Automotive Electronics and Consumer Electronics, with emerging Biometrics technology to capitalize on the increased need for advanced security. Over the past several decades, with a portfolio of approximately 35 trusted brands, VOXX has built market-leading positions in in-vehicle entertainment, automotive security, reception products, a number of premium audio market segments, and more. VOXX is a global company, with an extensive distribution network that includes power retailers, mass merchandisers, 12-volt specialists and many of the world's leading automotive manufacturers. For additional information, please visit our website at www.voxxintl.com.

SOURCE Avalon Park Group
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As per Fact.MR, the global precision farming market is estimated to exceed US$ 20.36 Bn by the end of 2032.

Precision farming is gaining popularity among modern farmers, as it enables them to use crop inputs including tillage, pesticides, fertilizers, and irrigation water more efficiently. Hence, with growing inclination towards sustainable agriculture and development, it is extensively being used for efficient use of water, reduction of chemicals use in crop production, and preventing soil degradation.

The surging application of precision farming in field mapping, weather tracking & forecasting, yield monitoring, and irrigation management among others is projected to assist the market to top US$ 6 Bn through 2022.

In addition to this, increasing adoption of innovative farming technologies such as remote sensing, variable-rate technology, global positioning systems (GPS), and drones among others for weeding, spraying, trimming, and harvesting is favoring the growth in the market.

For More Valuable Information on Market Dynamics, Request a Report Sample

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=4593

Driven by this, the sales in the precision farming market are estimated to rise at a staggering CAGR of 13% over the assessment period.

Based on technology, precision farming guidance system is forecast to outrank other segments, accounting for revenue share of more than 41% between 2022 and 2032. Growing usage of these systems for agriculture vigilance such as security, preventive care, and maintenance is facilitating the sales across the segment.

"Surging adoption of cloud platforms for climate services and introduction of novel agricultural technologies with integrated internet of things (IoT) for better agricultural decision-making is expected to accelerate the sales in the market," says a Fact.MR analyst.

Key Takeaways from the Precision Farming Market Study

The U.S. is estimated to register robust growth in North America market, assisting the region to account for over 42% of the global share by 2022.

market, assisting the region to account for over 42% of the global share by 2022. Demand in the U.K. is expected to surge at a rapid pace owing to the increasing utilization of guidance systems for increasing agriculture productivity.

China is anticipated account for leading share in East Asia market on the back of growing adoption of innovative farming technologies in the country.

is anticipated account for leading share in market on the back of growing adoption of innovative farming technologies in the country. On the basis of offering, the hardware segment is forecast to dominate the market, accounting for more than 70% of the revenue share by the end of 2022.

The precision farming solutions for the yield monitoring segment is projected to outpace other segments, projecting growth by 3x over the assessment period.

Key Drivers

Increasing penetration of automated technologies to address the need for increasing agricultural crop productivity to mitigate concerns pertaining to limited resources is expected to favor the growth in the precision farming market.

Rising demand for innovative solutions for reducing negative effects of chemically loaded agricultural systems and resolving soil fertility imbalance is bolstering the sales of variable-rate technology precision farming.

Key Restraints

High initial cost and cost of maintenance of precision farming hardware are primary factors hampering the sales in the market.

Need for a proper understanding of precision farming technologies and efficient management of data for proper decision-making are restraining the growth in the market.

To learn more about Precision Farming Market, you can get in touch with our Analyst at

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=4593

Competitive Landscape

Leading players operating in the global precision farming market are aiming at adopting strategies such as new production launch, collaboration, merger, and acquisition to expand their portfolio and global footprint. For instance,

In January 2022 , John Deere & Co., an American manufacturer of agricultural machinery announced launching its new line of autonomous tractors integrated with innovative artificial intelligence technology, 8RX Tractor. This will assist the company to expand its footprint in the precision agriculture domain.

, John Deere & Co., an American manufacturer of agricultural machinery announced launching its new line of autonomous tractors integrated with innovative artificial intelligence technology, 8RX Tractor. This will assist the company to expand its footprint in the precision agriculture domain. In December 2019 , CropMetrics, a precision agriculture software and analytic company announced entering into a partnership with a digital agriculture company, the Climate Corporation to enable optimized data connectivity for farm precision irrigation management.

Some of the key players in the market profiled by Fact.MR are:

Ag Leader Technology

AgJunction, Inc.

CropMetrics LLC

Trimble, Inc.

AGCO Corporation

Raven Industries Inc.

Deere and Company

Topcon Corporation

Dickey-John Corporation

CropX Inc.

Boumatic LLC.

AgSmarts Inc.

More Valuable Insights on Precision Farming Market

An exhaustive study published by Fact.MR offers a detailed analysis on the global precision farming market, analyzing forecast statistics for the assessment period 2022-2032. The study offers refines sales projections in precision farming market with detailed segmentation:

By Offering

By Technology

By Application

Precision Farming Hardware



Precision Farming Software



Precision Farming Services

Precision Farming Guidance System



Remote Sensing Precision Farming



Variable-Rate Technology Precision Farming

Precision Farming for Yield Monitoring



Precision Farming for Field Mapping



Precision Farming for Crop Scouting



Precision Farming for Weather Tracking & Forecasting



Precision Farming for Irrigation Management



Precision Farming for Inventory Management



Precision Farming for Farm Labor Management



Precision Farming for Other Applications

By Region

North America



Latin America



Europe



East Asia



South Asia & Oceania

& Oceania

Middle East & Africa

Key Questions Covered in the Precision Farming Market Report

The market survey also highlights projected sales growth of the precision farming market between 2022 and 2032

The report offers insight into precision farming demand outlook for 2022-2032

Precision farming market share analysis of the key companies within the industry and coverage of strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, collaborations or partnerships, and others

Precision farming market analysis 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

Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Technology Domain 

Hyperspectral Cameras Market Forecast - The primary advantages of hyperspectral cameras are their low power consumption and low heat dissipation, which are propelling the hyperspectral cameras market forward.

Earth Observation Market Analysis - As the use of satellite imagery expands, so will the demand for earth observation systems. This is due to the fact that in most major regions, investments in earth observation system hardware infrastructure are on the rise.

All-Electric Satellites Market Trends - Over the last few years, all-electric satellites have been the preferred propulsion method on many different types of satellite platforms. The most visible manifestation of this trend is the increasing use of all-electric satellites for telecommunication systems, which is driving up the demand.

All-Electric Satellites Market Scope - The global wireless communication equipment market is being fueled by continual advancements and developments in low-cost wireless technologies. The global wireless communication equipment market is likely to be driven by the emergence of 4G/5G technologies that improve high-speed wireless communications.

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.

Contact:

Mahendra Singh

US Sales Office

11140 Rockville Pike

Suite 400

Rockville, MD 20852

United States

Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583

E: [email protected]





SOURCE Fact.MR
NOVI, Mich., Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stoneridge, Inc. (NYSE: SRI) will webcast its fourth-quarter 2021 earnings conference call live on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. ET with president and chief executive officer, Jon DeGaynor, and chief financial officer, Matt Horvath.

The webcast can be accessed on the Webcasts & Presentations page of the Investors section of the Company's website, www.stoneridge.com.

Stoneridge, Inc., headquartered in Novi, Michigan, is an independent designer and manufacturer of highly engineered electrical and electronic components, modules and systems principally for the automotive, commercial vehicle, motorcycle, agricultural and off-highway vehicle markets. Additional information about Stoneridge can be found at www.stoneridge.com.

SOURCE Stoneridge, Inc.
BEND, Ore., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunshine Retirement Living, a family-owned senior housing company that offers a premiere living experience for its residents at more than 40 independent living, assisted living and memory care communities across the country, has successfully completed the installation of innovative "Sensory Spas" at each of its 23 memory care communities.

People with memory-related disease such as Alzheimer's or dementia have unique needs based on the progression of the disease. Therefore, it is critical to offer a variety of appropriate activities to prevent feelings of boredom and isolation that can lead to depression, frustration, anxiety, and an increased use of medications that can present unwanted side effects.

The Sensory Spas provide "sensory stimulation" with mood-boosting benefits that can also reduce behavioral challenges stemming from memory-related disease. Moreover, in a 60-day pilot program at Sunshine's Copper Canyon Assisted Living and Memory Care community in Tucson, Arizona, antipsychotic use among residents dropped significantly including up to 70% of "PRN" medications that are administered on an as-needed basis.

"Recent medical research has found that sensory stimulation in Sensory Spa settings can decrease non-pharmacological interventions and help manage responsive behaviors among residents with dementia and Alzheimer's," said Luis Serrano, CEO, Sunshine Retirement Living. "With all this encouraging data, our company immediately tested a Sensory Spa program at one of our memory care communities and the positive outcomes were much more than we anticipated. With those results, we immediately began to install Sensory Spas at each of our memory care communities and today I'm delighted to report that we've completed the effort."

Sunshine's Sensory Spas provide a variety of sensory stimuli that work together to help improve cognitive, behavioral and communication issues by engaging all the five senses of taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight. The Sensory Spas include soothing sound machines to calm anxiety, mood-enhancing variable lighting, and virtual reality headsets with special software that offers a variety of virtual experiences that can help uncover memories and improve socialization. The dedicated rooms also include various seating options such as rocking chairs to encourage movement, aromatherapy and essential oils, large and pleasing wall murals, and multi-tactile materials and objects such as soft, heated and weighted blankets. Large wall monitors and TVs show various scenes to calm and promote past memories, such as travel or meditation videos.

The Sensory Spas are now part of Sunshine's robust Life Enrichment Programs, which provide a customized approach to care provided by the company's professional caregivers and include several types of beneficial therapies such as Pet Therapy, Music Therapy, Life Skills Stations and activities, and more.

"As dementia progresses, it can be very confusing and stressful for the person living with it," said Mindy Podraza, director of clinical services, Sunshine Retirement Living. "Sunshine Retirement Living's Sensory Spas provide a quiet environment where our residents can focus on pleasant sensory sensations that can help refocus that energy and decrease challenging behaviors. The spas also promote better communication between our residents and caregivers, and many times, our residents' families will join them, which can also help with those connections."

Sunshine Retirement Living's memory care communities include:

Arizona:

Copper Canyon Assisted Living and Memory Care in Tucson

Arkansas:

Magnolia Place Assisted Living and Memory Care in Rogers

California:

Caleo Bay Assisted Living and Memory Care in La Quinta

Park View Estates Assisted Living and Memory Care in Fountain Valley

Colorado:

Belleview Heights Assisted Living and Memory Care in Aurora

Florida:

Azalea Gardens Assisted Living and Memory Care in Tallahassee

Georgia:

Marshall Pines Assisted Living and Memory Care in Evans

Indiana:

Heritage Point Assisted Living and Memory Care in Mishawaka

Louisiana:

The Verandah Assisted Living and Memory Care in Lake Charles

Nevada:

Stone Valley Assisted Living and Memory Care in Reno

New York:

Juniper Glen Assisted Living and Memory Care in East Amherst

Ohio:

Cardinal Court Assisted Living and Memory Care in Strongsville

Central Parke Assisted Living and Memory Care in Mason

Sage Park Assisted Living and Memory Care in Gahanna

Windsor Heights Assisted Living and Memory Car in Beachwood

Pennsylvania:

The Haven at North Hills Assisted Living and Memory Care in Pittsburgh

Whitetail Springs Assisted Living and Memory Care in Pittsburgh

Woodland Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care in Dresher

South Carolina:

Ashley Gardens Assisted Living and Memory Care in Charleston

Colonial Gardens Assisted Living and Memory Care in West Columbia

Tennessee:

Quail Ridge Assisted Living and Memory Care in Bartlett

Texas:

The Gardens at Brook Ridge Assisted Living and Memory Care in Pharr

Wisconsin:

Lakewood Assisted Living and Memory Care in Brookfield

About Sunshine Retirement Living

Family-owned Sunshine Retirement Living was founded in 2007 and today operates approximately 4,000 senior units across its more than 40 communities in 18 states. The company focuses entirely on offering premier independent, transitional assisted living and memory care options for the middle-market senior, a demographic that will see significant growth in the years ahead. In fact, by 2050, it is estimated that the number of people aged 65 or older in the U.S. will grow to nearly 90 million as compared to 54 million in 2019. Seniors aged 85 or more will reach 19 million in 2050, approximately a 20-fold increase over 2021.

With more than 20 years in the senior housing industry, Sunshine Retirement Living's mission is to be the preferred senior living provider offering value, choice and independence while promoting health and social interaction that exceeds residents' expectations and enriches the lives of both residents and staff. By providing meals, housekeeping, activities, transportation, utilities and in-house management staff, Sunshine Retirement Living continues to build an unparalleled community feeling in each property. For more information, visit www.SunshineRet.com or connect socially.

SOURCE Sunshine Retirement Living
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Thanks to the lucrative prospects of trading, millions of traders are now partaking in the financial markets, for obtaining swift or stable profits. Under these circumstances, brokerage services carry immense importance, as they are the intermediary platforms forming a connection between traders and markets. Swiss Crypto Bank is a leading broker trusted by many around the world, and it has recently announced that it is offering 24/5 operational customer support.

"Ensuring our clients' satisfaction has always been our top priority," stated Anthony Barone, spokesperson for Swiss Crypto Bank. "In order to take this commitment to the next level, our customer support department will now remain active 24 hours a day, five days a week. We have taken diligent measures to provide our traders with top-notch customer services via email, phone, and live chat, and solve their issues in the best possible manner. By taking this step, we ensure to create a trading ecosystem where our clients can trade with complete ease and efficiency."

Trade without reservations

Swiss Crypto Bank is a reputable online trading broker offering a wide range of tradable assets, namely cryptocurrencies, forex, indices, commodities, and shares. The broker integrates the most popular and technologically advanced MT4 trading platform to allow users a seamless entry into the financial markets. Moreover, Swiss Crypto Bank's account categories, ranging from standard to PRO, assimilate a multitude of advanced features and tools.

"We believe that trading can only turn successful in a secure, professional, and high-quality environment," explained Barone. "Our brand was established with this core belief in mind, and we will continue to provide reliable and proficient trading services in the future as well. As evident by our present operating structure, including multiple account types and easily accessible customer support , our goal has always been to cater to the needs of every kind of trader."

About Swiss Crypto Bank

With a motto of 'our traders come first', Swiss Crypto Banks maintains an impeccable trading environment, including high-level security and dedicated customer support. Account holders can benefit from margin loans, ranging from 25% (Standard account) to 100% (Pro account), as well as enjoy several valuable features, such as daily market review & signals, sessions with accountants, personal portfolio managers, and account monitoring by analysts. Moreover, an extensive collection of financial instruments, alongside a high-technology and secure trading platform, highlight the broker's versatility.

SOURCE Swiss Crypto Bank
Canada's leading ultra-low-cost carrier adds service to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Nashville

CALGARY, AB, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Swoop, Canada's leading ultra-low fare airline, today announced it will expand its presence in the United States (U.S.) by adding non-stop flights to five new destinations this summer: New York, Chicago, Nashville, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

In addition to serving five new destinations, the fast-growing Canadian airline will also extend its current seasonal services to San Diego, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, St. Pete-Clearwater, Orlando (Sanford) and Phoenix (Mesa) into the summer season. In total Swoop will serve 11 U.S. destinations with ultra-not-expensive flights from its three main Canadian bases in Toronto, Hamilton, and Edmonton.

"As part of our planned growth in 2022, we're excited to be adding five new popular U.S. destinations to our network," said Bert van der Stege, Head of Commercial & Finance at Swoop. "As Canada's leading ultra-low-cost carrier, we are growing our fleet, expanding our network, and adding service to existing destinations to ensure we are ready to meet Canadian's pent-up demand for travel experiences south of the border."

In addition to the new U.S. destinations announced today, Swoop previously announced it will begin service to 10 new Canadian destinations bringing the airline's total number of destinations served to 33 this summer.

Demand for transborder travel amid restrictive testing requirements

Swoop's announced U.S. expansion comes as the ULCC reports significantly increased domestic passenger numbers and record bookings, on par with pre-pandemic demand. The airline expects to see that pent-up demand trend extend to U.S. leisure travel this summer as more than 30.5 million fully vaccinated Canadians look to resume their transborder travel habits.

As countries across the globe take measures to safely re-open borders for vaccinated travellers and make sensible adjustments to overall travel guidance and testing requirements, the ULCC expects to see Canadian requirements updated by March 1, when current government measures are set to expire.

"Outdated travel restrictions that were meant to be temporary, continue to severely impact the recovery of the travel and tourism sectors," said van der Stege during the Routes Americas Conference in San Antonio where the announcement was made. "Our airline is fully vaccinated, our travellers are fully vaccinated, and yet duplicative testing requirements continue to make travel unnecessarily expensive and inaccessible."

The ULCC continues to call on government to outline a re-opening timeline and roadmap for travel recovery that is based on science and reflective of the current realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Full Details of Swoop's U.S. Network Expansion

Route Peak Frequency Start Date Total fare one-way (CAD) Base Fare (CAD) Taxes and Fees (CAD) Toronto (YYZ)  Chicago (ORD) 5x weekly May 30 $99.00 $4.92 $94.08 Toronto (YYZ)  New York (JFK) 5x weekly June 20 $99.00 $4.92 $94.08 Toronto (YYZ)  Nashville (BNA) 4x weekly May 26 $99.00 $4.92 $94.08 Toronto (YYZ)  Las Vegas (LAS) 3x weekly May 20 $99.00 $4.92 $94.08 Toronto (YYZ)  Orlando / Sanford (SFB) 2x weekly Ongoing $99.00 $4.92 $94.08 Toronto (YYZ)  St. Pete-Clearwater (PIE) 2x weekly Ongoing $99.00 $4.92 $94.08 Hamilton (YHM)  Las Vegas (LAS) 2x weekly June 23 $99.00 $10.30 $88.70 Hamilton (YHM)  Orlando / Sanford (SFB) 2x weekly Ongoing $99.00 $10.30 $88.70 Hamilton (YHM)  St. Pete-Clearwater (PIE) 2x weekly Ongoing $99.00 $10.30 $88.70 Edmonton (YEG)  San Francisco (SFO) 4x weekly June 6 $99.00 $2.21 $96.79 Edmonton (YEG)  Los Angeles (BUR) 3x weekly June 23 $99.00 $2.21 $96.79 Edmonton (YEG)  Nashville (BNA) 2x weekly June 19 $99.00 $2.21 $96.79 Edmonton (YEG)  Las Vegas (LAS) Daily Ongoing $99.00 $2.21 $96.79 Edmonton (YEG)  San Diego (SAN) 3x weekly Ongoing $99.00 $2.21 $96.79 Edmonton (YEG)  Palm Springs (PSP) 1x weekly Ongoing $99.00 $2.21 $96.79 Edmonton (YEG)  Phoenix Mesa (AZA) 1x weekly Ongoing $99.00 $2.21 $96.79

Special introductory fares are limited quantity. Book by February 18, 2022, for travel between June 1 and July 27, 2022. Blackout Period: June 28  July 4, 2022.

Additional Quotes

"John F. Kennedy International Airport is delighted to see five new, non-stop flights to Toronto beginning later this year. This new route will provide customers with more affordable flight options when traveling to the NYC region."

- Charles Everett , General Manager, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)





International Airport is delighted to see five new, non-stop flights to beginning later this year. This new route will provide customers with more affordable flight options when traveling to the NYC region." - , General Manager, John F. International Airport (JFK) "On behalf of Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot , Chicago is honored to welcome Swoop to offer additional, affordable travel options between O'Hare International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport. Canadians are invited to the 'Windy City' for the diverse tourist attractions and eclectic cuisine across our 77 community areas."

- Chicago Commissioner of Aviation, Jamie L. Rhee .





, is honored to welcome Swoop to offer additional, affordable travel options between O'Hare International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport. Canadians are invited to the 'Windy City' for the diverse tourist attractions and eclectic cuisine across our 77 community areas." - Commissioner of Aviation, . "It's always a great day when we add new nonstop international flights to Nashville , and it's even better when we can welcome a new airline to the BNA family. Swoop's service to both Toronto and Edmonton make it easier for Canadian friends to make their way down to Music City, and for southern hospitality to make its way up north."

- Doug Kreulen, President and CEO, Nashville International Airport





, and it's even better when we can welcome a new airline to the BNA family. Swoop's service to both and make it easier for Canadian friends to make their way down to Music City, and for southern hospitality to make its way up north." - Doug Kreulen, President and CEO, International Airport "SFO is pleased to welcome Swoop Airlines to offer non-stop service between Edmonton and San Francisco , starting this Summer. This new Canadian service helps to define SFO as a world-class gateway airport, strengthening our ties with our neighbor to the North, and we hope this new service will be a great success."

- Ivar C. Satero , Airport Director, San Francisco Airport (SFO)





and , starting this Summer. This new Canadian service helps to define SFO as a world-class gateway airport, strengthening our ties with our neighbor to the North, and we hope this new service will be a great success." - , Airport Director, San Francisco Airport (SFO) "Swoop customers will soon get to experience the most convenient way to visit the Los Angeles metro area. Swoop is also offering our local passengers a convenient opportunity to visit and explore the natural beauty, culture, and attractions of Edmonton and Canada ."

- Frank Miller , Executive Director, Hollywood Burbank Airport

To learn more about Swoop please visit FlySwoop.com and for information on how Swoop is ensuring a safe and healthy travel experience visit FlySwoop.com/traveller-safety.

About Swoop

Swoop is on a mission to make travel more affordable and accessible for all Canadians. Established in 2018 as an independent subsidiary of the WestJet Group of Companies, Swoop is Canada's ultra-not-expensive airline. Offering scheduled service to destinations in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean, Swoop's unbundled fares put travellers in control of purchasing only the products and services they desire.

Swoop's modern fleet of ten Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, will grow to 16 with the addition of six Boeing MAX-8 in 2022. At FlySwoop.com travellers can quickly and easily book flights, manage bookings, check-in, view boarding passes, track flights and access Wi-Fi service in-flight.

SOURCE Swoop Inc.
Syngas Market in North America Market Dynamics:

Market Driver - The rising application of syngas is one of the factors supporting the syngas market growth in North America . Syngas has application in many industries such as chemicals, petrochemicals, refining, and fertilizers. It can be used to produce power or can be converted to chemical products through the Fischer Tropsch process. It can be further fermented to produce ethanol, ammonia, methanol, and other chemical building blocks. Furthermore, it is used to produce steel, synthetic natural gas (SNG), and hydrogen. Synthetic natural gas is considered a future fuel and an essential component in the energy transition. Such factors will increase the demand for syngas during the forecast period.

The is one of the factors supporting the syngas market growth in . Syngas has application in many industries such as chemicals, petrochemicals, refining, and fertilizers. It can be used to produce power or can be converted to chemical products through the Fischer Tropsch process. It can be further fermented to produce ethanol, ammonia, methanol, and other chemical building blocks. Furthermore, it is used to produce steel, synthetic natural gas (SNG), and hydrogen. Synthetic natural gas is considered a future fuel and an essential component in the energy transition. Such factors will increase the demand for syngas during the forecast period. Market Challenges - Complex quality requirements for syngas are hindering the syngas market growth in North America . Syngas is produced by gasification or pyrolysis. It involves subjecting the materials to high temperatures in the presence of controlled amounts of oxygen and with only limited combustion to provide the thermal energy required to sustain the reaction. Moreover, the composition of syngas depends highly on the inputs to the gasifier, such as various types of coal. Efficient coal gasification and the utilization of the resultant syngas require fulfilling several criteria and critical technical aspects. Such factors increase the complexities and costs associated with engine design and the overall gasification process. This might restrict the large-scale adoption of coal gasification, thus hindering the growth of the market.

To learn about additional key drivers, trends, and challenges - Read our FREE Sample Report right now!

Syngas Market in North America - Segmentation

The syngas market in the North America report is segmented by feedstock (coal, natural gas, petroleum byproducts, biomass, and others) and geography (US, Canada, and Mexico). Technavio report provides an accurate prediction of the contribution of all the segments to the growth of the syngas market size in North America and actionable market insights on each segment.

View our sample report for additional insights into the contribution of all the segments, and regional opportunities in the report.

Some Companies Mentioned

The syngas market in North America is fragmented and the vendors are deploying organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.

Air Products and Chemicals Inc.



Chiyoda Corp.



Dakota Gasification Co.



Haldor Topsoe AS



Honeywell International Inc.



LAIR LIQUIDE SA



Linde Plc



McDermott International Inc.



Sierra Industrial Group



SynGas Technology LLC

To gain access to more vendor profiles with their key offerings available with Technavio, Click Here

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Syngas Market In North America Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 2.62% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 416.12 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 2.09 Regional analysis US, Canada, and Mexico Performing market contribution US at 66% Key consumer countries US, Canada, Mexico, and ROW Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Chiyoda Corp., Dakota Gasification Co., Haldor Topsoe AS, Honeywell International Inc., LAIR LIQUIDE SA, Linde Plc, McDermott International Inc., Sierra Industrial Group, and SynGas Technology LLC Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2021

Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Feedstock

Market segments

Comparison by Feedstock

Coal - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Natural gas - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Petroleum byproducts - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Biomass - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by Feedstock

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Mexico - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Air Products and Chemicals Inc.

Chiyoda Corp.

Dakota Gasification Co.

Haldor Topsoe AS

Honeywell International Inc.

LAIR LIQUIDE SA

Linde Plc

McDermott International Inc.

Sierra Industrial Group

SynGas Technology LLC

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

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TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Tampa General Hospital (TGH)is partnering with Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay, a pulmonology and sleep medicine practice with locations in Tampa, Brandon and Wesley Chapel. Effective Jan. 14, the new affiliation is known as TGH Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay.

Joining Tampa General from Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay are Dr. Dragos Zanchi and Dr. Rafael Martinez, pulmonologists and practice co-founders, and eight nurse practitioners who also provide patient care. The practice is accredited by The Joint Commission and serves a wide range of patients across 12 counties.

"The alliance gives Tampa General patients in Hillsborough and Pasco Counties more access to integrated, comprehensive treatment for sleep disorders," said Dr. Tapan Padhya, professor and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and medical director of Tampa General Hospital's Ear, Nose and Throat Institute. "We're excited to be aligning with the talent and quality of the professionals at TGH Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay. This will have a significant impact on our ability to increase access and efficiency and enhance quality."

Through the partnership, Tampa General's approach to treating thoracic cancers is evolving to a seamless process for patients, taking them from diagnosis through treatment with one complete team of multidisciplinary care providers. Thoracic cancers include cancers of the chest area as well as esophageal cancer, small cell and non-small cell lung cancer and mesothelioma.

"TGH Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay fits in perfectly with the TGH Cancer Institute's multidisciplinary approach, emphasizing compassionate and personalized care focusing on the whole patient," said Dr. Abraham Schwarzberg, chief of oncology and senior vice president of network development, Tampa General. "We emphasize top-tier, innovative care by supporting cancer patients with a highly coordinated range of multidisciplinary specialties. This alliance will strengthen our methodology of diagnosing and treating thoracic cancers by developing a team of pulmonologists, oncologists, thoracic oncology surgeons, along with radiation oncologists, integrative medicine, nutritionists, social workers and more."

The affiliation provides Tampa General an opportunity to:

Increase patient access to screening, early detection and treatment of lung cancer through three locations.

Expand patient access for the treatment of lung conditions, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disorders (diseases that cause scarring of the lungs), pulmonary hypertension, as well as sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and insomnia.

Extend its multidisciplinary approach to patient care through collaboration between general surgery and oncology.

Expand patient access to lung transplant services and bariatric surgery.

"Both Dr. Zanchi and Dr. Martinez possess a wealth of knowledge in pulmonology and thoracic oncology which gives us the opportunity to unite their deep experience in pulmonary care with the expertise of a world-class cancer institute," said Dr. K. Eric Sommers, cardiothoracic surgeon, and chief of thoracic oncology, Tampa General, and medical director for lung cancer, TGH Cancer Institute. "TGH Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay is another way that Tampa General is innovating to connect the community with specialized medicine."

TGH Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay provides services for pulmonary and sleep disorders, including early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, allergy testing, an array of sleep disorder testing and interventional bronchoscopy.

Dr. Dragos Zanchi

Dr. Dragos Zanchi is a pulmonologist and was co-founder and president of Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay and will continue to see patients at all three locations. He has professional expertise in treating pulmonary disorders, including asthma, COPD, allergies, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, sarcoidosis (an abnormal collection of inflammatory cells that form clumps in the lungs, skin or lymph nodes), early detection and treatment of lung cancer, sleep disorders, (obstructive and central sleep apnea, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy), and Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) physical examinations.

Zanchi's philosophy of patient care is to find the root cause of the medical problem and treat the patient's body and spirit as a whole entity. He is an advocate of lifestyle changes, healthy nutrition and meditation as therapeutic options.

He received his medical degree from Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, in Bucharest Romania, and then proceeded to complete several fellowships:

Cardiology Fellowship, University Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

Internal Medicine Residency and Internship, Mount Sinai School of Medicine Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood, N.J. (now Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai )

(now Icahn School of Medicine at ) Sleep Disorders Fellowship, CliniLabs, Inc. Sleep Disorders Institute, Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital (now Mount Sinai Morningside) and Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai West), New York, N.Y.

Pulmonary Medicine Fellowship, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Cabrini Medical Center, New York, N.Y.

Zanchi is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in general internal medicine, pulmonary diseases, and sleep disorders. He is also board certified by the American Board of Sleep Medicine and the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists. His research experience includes numerous clinical studies in all areas of pulmonary and sleep medicine, and he is a Certified Principal Investigator by the Association of Clinical Research Professionals.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for our patients to have access to the resources of a world-class hospital,'' said Zanchi. "Through TGH Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay, patients can be seamlessly connected to minimally invasive robotic surgery, state-of-the-art radiation and chemotherapy, lung and heart transplants, and bariatric surgery."

Dr. Rafael Martinez

"Our partnership with Tampa General will create a comprehensive network of care, providing our patients with the best resources in the region. This will be a true benefit to our patients, while providing them with the same caregivers they have come to rely on," noted Dr. Rafael Martinez, Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay co-founder and pulmonologist. Martinez specializes in research, pulmonary hypertension, interventional pulmonology, and sleep medicine.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Zaragoza School of Medicine, Zaragoza, Spain, and completed a fellowship in pulmonary diseases at University District Hospital, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his internal medicine residency at Mayaguez Medical Center, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

Martinez is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in general internal medicine and pulmonary diseases. His professional memberships include the American College of Chest Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Internal Medicine and the American Thoracic Society.

As a Certified Principal Investigator by the Association of Clinical Research Professionals, Martinez has led more than 20 clinical trials as a principal investigator. He collaborates on teaching with faculty at the USF Health College of Nursing. He speaks English and Portuguese and is currently studying American Sign Language (ASL).

As part of TGH Pulmonary & Sleep of Tampa Bay, Zanchi and Martinez will practice in all three locations and the office locations and phone numbers will remain the same. To schedule an appointment, call 813-490-9495 (Tampa and Wesley Chapel) or 813-654-8100 (Brandon).

ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL

Tampa General Hospital, a 1,041-bed non-profit academic medical center, is one of the largest hospitals in America and delivers world-class care as the region's only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. Tampa General Hospital is the highest-ranked hospital in the market in U.S. News & World Report's 2021-22 Best Hospitals, and one of the top 4 hospitals in Florida, with five specialties ranking among the best programs in the United States. The academic medical center's commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by two prestigious 2021 Forbes magazine rankings  America's Best Employers by State, third out of 100 Florida companies and first among health care and social organizations and 13th nationally in America's Best Employers for Women. Tampa General is the safety net hospital for the region, caring for everyone regardless of their ability to pay, and in fiscal 2020 provided a net community benefit worth more than $182.5 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It is one of the nation's busiest adult solid organ transplant centers and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General Hospital transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care they need. Tampa General houses a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center and its 32-bed Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It also is home to the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General Hospital's footprint includes 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices, TGH Family Care Center Kennedy, TGH Brandon Healthplex, TGH Virtual Health and 19 outpatient Radiology Centers. Tampa Bay residents also receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care powered by Fast Track network of clinics, and they can even receive home visits in select areas through TGH Urgent Care at Home, powered by Fast Track. As one of the largest hospitals in the country, Tampa General Hospital is first in Florida to partner with GE Healthcare and open a clinical command center that uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to improve and better coordinate patient care at a lower cost. For more information, go to www.tgh.org.

Media Contact: Karen Barrera

Assistant Director of Communications & Partnerships

(813) 844-8725 (direct)

(813) 928-1603 (cell)

[email protected]

SOURCE Tampa General Hospital
LONDON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Brandessence Market Research, Global Crypto Payment Gateway Market is expected to grow with the CAGR of 22.8% over the forecast period. Increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies broadly and growing investment in this field are some of the major factors driving the growth of the Global Crypto Payment Gateway Market.

Over the past year, Covid-19 has dramatically accelerated the wave of online fraud. Most businesses are now operating Crypto Payment, at least partly online, providing a perfect landscape for attackers seeking to harvest and exploit valuable data. It is not surprising to learn that identity fraud has had the greatest impact on financial services, followed by professional services. It is understandable that as the number of sensitive information passed online has increased, so has the number of attackers trying to block it. For this, many crypto payments gateway players in the market have offered various facilities to the customers which have received a huge response from the customers in the Covid-19 era.

Get Sample of [email protected] https://brandessenceresearch.com/requestSample/PostId/1856

Scope of Crypto Payment Gateway Market Report:

Cryptocurrency Payment Gateway is a dynamic payment processing infrastructure that allows merchants and providers to accept payments across different cryptocurrencies while ensuring security. Using this service, users can transfer money directly from one wallet to another. In addition to their main functions, these payment gateways are responsible for securely distributing the payment's sensitive wallet-related data to the merchant's software. This payment network is commonly used by businesses of all sizes as they search for the most profitable, secure, and fast payment methods. Furthermore, the blockchain ecosystem underscores the crypto payment gateway, which provides record-breaking and transaction transparency. And, the decentralized structure of blockchain eliminates intermediaries such as banks from the payment process, speeds up transactions, and slows down the payment processing process. Finally, the system encourages more people to use digital currencies and adds to the growing popularity of decentralized gateways.

Key Players of Global Crypto Payment Gateway Market Report:

Gox

Coinbase

NOWPayments

Blockonomics

Coingate

Coinsetter

BitPay

Avalon

BitcoinX

Nvidia

ATI

Bitcoin Foundation

Spectrocoin

CoinPayments

Recent Development:

News: PayCEC Launched Cryptocurrency Payment Gateway and SEPA Transfers Acceptance: On November 12th, 2021; US-based payment gateway provider PayCEC introduced cryptocurrency payment gateway as cryptocurrencies continues to gain popularity globally. The firm said that its payment gateway will be upgraded to accept cryptocurrency transactions, enabling merchants or providers to accept payments in different cryptocurrencies. Additionally, PayCEC was also launching Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) transfer acceptance to enable faster funds transfers within the Eurozone. The move is expected to enhance payment acquiring process for E-commerce and online businesses through access to digital banking transactions.

BitPay Partners with Wix Enabling Wix Merchants to Accept Crypto Payments: On October 12th, 2021; BitPay, the world's largest provider of blockchain payment services, and Wix is a leading global SaaS platform for creating, managing, and expanding its online presence, and integrates BitPay's Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment process as a new payment option on the Wix eCommerce platform. BitPay's blockchain payment rail integrates seamlessly with Wix's ecommerce platform, allowing Wix merchants to offer their customers Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency payment options.

Remitano Launched New Crypto Payment Gateway and Offered Special Deals for the First 50 Merchants: On August 27th, 2021; The Remitano Crypto Payment Gateway is a new service that will allow users to pay for goods and services with cryptocurrencies fast and securely. Remitano currently supports crypto payments using 6 different coins: BTC, ETH, USDT, XRP, LTC, and BCH. The service will make it possible for businesses to operate regardless of borders, thanks to blockchain technology. It will provide merchants with the opportunity to expand their businesses to millions of Remitano crypto users and investors across the globe.

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Crypto Payment Gateway Market Dynamics

Increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies broadly is one of the major factors driving the growth of the global crypto payment gateway market. Cryptocurrencies are proliferating and becoming popular across the global. A decade since their dawn with the invention of Bitcoin, the value of all cryptocurrencies reached USD 0.25 trillion. To put that in perspective, there are 1.7 trillion USD and USD 1.4 trillion Euros in circulation today (European Central Bank 2019; U.S. Federal Reserve Board 2019). In November 2019, bitcoin is the world's sixth-largest currency in circulation. The average daily trading of cryptocurrencies has surpassed one percent of trading in foreign exchange markets, the world's largest market by trading volume. Bitcoin transactions and unique accounts alone have grown at nearly 60 percent per annum over the past 5 years. In short, cryptocurrencies are being adopted rapidly and broadly. Also, trading in Bitcoin has increased significantly over the last few years. Young people around the world are investing heavily in this. As a result, Bitcoin's investment is growing exponentially. For instance; Indian crypto exchanges recorded their biggest investment levels ever, not only in terms of the number of investors but also in the sums invested. According to crypto research and intelligence business CREBACO, Indian crypto investments have increased to over USD 10 billion from USD 923 million in April 2020. And, According to Brandessence estimates that as much as 20 percent of the worldwide bitcoin network remains in China. That's the reason, growing adoption of cryptocurrencies is driving the crypto payment gateway market.

Reginal Analysis:

North America is expected to capture the largest share in the global crypto payment gateway market owing to the high popularity of crypto currencies and its rising adoption and presence of key players in this region. Although the government does cash by consumers as well as fact, many developing countries still focus on using digital money. Acceptance of digital cash by consumers as well as retailers drives the growth of the market. And, rising popularity of cryptocurrency mining and the presence of the major players in this region area also fostering the market growth.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness a fastest growth in the global crypto payment gateway market owing to the increasing number of technological developments and rising acceptance for virtual currency in this region. In addition, rising number of partnerships and collaboration activities among the market players in this region are also fostering the market growth. For instance; in January 2020, Z corporation, Inc. and TaoTao Inc. collaborated with the financial service agency to expand the crypto market by confirming regulatory compliance in the Japanese market. Japan recently accepted a new digital currency exchange during the Covid-19 outbreak. Similarly, In February 2020, India-based crypto exchange CoinDCX partnered with OKEx Digital Asset Exchange to provide OKEx with exposure to the Indian market. This development will open the door to the immense liquidity of Bitcoin for trading applications in one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. In December 2019, Wirex partnered with i2C on Asia-Pacific blockchain-based payment cards. The payment card enables users to transact in more than 150 digital and traditional currencies, including Bitcoin, British Pound, Australian, and US Dollars, Japanese Yen, and other currencies. It enables users to pay and receive benefits by debit, credit or digital currency.

On Special Requirement Crypto Payment Gateway Market Report is also available for below region:

North America

U.S.

Canada

Europe

Germany

France

U.K.

Italy

Spain

Sweden

Netherland

Turkey

Switzerland

Belgium

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

South Korea

Japan

China

India

Australia

Philippines

Singapore

Malaysia

Thailand

Indonesia

Rest Of APAC

Latin America

Mexico

Colombia

Brazil

Argentina

Peru

Rest of South America

Middle East and Africa

Saudi Arabia

UAE

Egypt

South Africa

Rest Of MEA

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CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The trend of employees quitting jobs is like nothing seen before in history, with record numbers of employees leaving their roles for new opportunities today. No matter the reasons  including a desire for higher pay, better working conditions, or greater flexibility  the pain is real for employers. To quickly stem the tide, many leaders are now looking for fresh options to retain what they view as their company's greatest asset  its people.

Holy Shift: Lead with Heart to Engage and Retain Employees During The Great Resignation

In a new eBook released this month, a prominent Chicago-based leadership and communications consultancy  The Grossman Group  examines the problem and offers practical, actionable guidance on how to reverse the disturbing trend, often referred to as "The Great Resignation."

The eBook, Holy Shift: Lead with Heart to Engage and Retain Employees During The Great Resignation, offers fresh insights on leadership for a new era from leading communications consultant David Grossman, CEO and founder of The Grossman Group.

"This unprecedented trend of employees leaving their jobs has many leaders scrambling, and nearly all of our Fortune 500 clients are asking a version of the same question today: 'How do we slow or halt turnover for the workers who remain?'" Grossman said. "This eBook provides leaders the context behind the problem and what we've found to be some of the smartest approaches for addressing it. It enables leaders to continue building the kind of winning employee culture and business results they're striving for now and for years to come."

The eBook draws some of its insights from Grossman's latest leadership book, Heart First: Lasting Leader Lessons from a Year that Changed Everything. One of the biggest takeaways from the book is the importance of Heart First leadership  championing authenticity, empathy and humanity to build a stronger, better business. Grossman argues that Heart First leadership leads to a crucial outcome for business today  better employee engagement and retention.

"From the results I've seen with leaders, a Heart First leadership approach is absolutely helping organizations reverse the trend of employees leaving in droves," Grossman said. "That's because by being a leader unafraid to lead with authenticity, empathy and humanity, you naturally build greater trust, stronger working relationships  and a top-notch culture overall."

The new Holy Shift eBook offers practical tips and guidance for building a stronger culture, one that employees are excited to be part of  and leaves them much fewer reasons to leave. In the book, you'll find advice on topics such as:

 Making a more personal connection to employees so they feel even more valued and appreciated

How to take more time to listen to employees, and get more substantive feedback

How to make the most of employee recognition efforts

The core components that lead to employee engagement

Striking a balance between company goals and employee preferences

Ensuring the business communications team is structured wisely

Workplace policies that help support employees

How manager training and effectiveness can help greatly enhance engagement

Proven communication strategies for improving engagement

To download a free copy of the eBook, go here:

About The Grossman Group

The Grossman Group is an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focusing on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communication. A certified diversity supplier, The Grossman Group works closely with Fortune 500 companies and other organizations including Allstate, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kaiser Permanente, Lockheed Martin and Novartis, among others.

About David Grossman

A leading consultant, speaker and author, David Grossman ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, CSP is one of America's foremost authorities on communication and leadership inside organizations. He is Founder and CEO of The Grossman Group. A source to media, David provides expert commentary and analysis on employee and leadership issues. He's been featured on "NBC Nightly News," WSJ.com, Today.com, in the Chicago Tribune, the World Economic Forum, LA Times, and CBS MoneyWatch, among others. His latest award-winning book, "Heart First: Lasting Leader Lessons from a Year that Changed Everything" features interviews with 30+ leaders inside a variety of organizations, each of whom share extraordinarily candid insights and unique leadership lessons.

Contact: Kayla Ellsworth

The Grossman Group

312.927.4588 | [email protected]

SOURCE The Grossman Group
WORCESTER, Mass., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. (NYSE: THG) today released its "State of Specialty Insurance Report," which highlights the risks of fragmentation in the marketplace. The report spotlights the advantages agencies realize when they create strategic partnerships with select carriers that offer broad capabilities and deep expertise.

The Hanover, in conjunction with Zeldis Research, conducted a study of over 300 independent retail agents responsible for quoting and making placement decisions for commercial lines clients. The report studied how their agencies approach specialty lines and the key factors they consider in the placement decision-making process. Notable trends uncovered through the research include:

Agents' knowledge spans the full breadth of commercial lines  Agents have broad expertise and possess the capabilities to meet the wide spectrum of their clients' needs, as the vast majority (96%) of agents sell or place both specialty lines and standard lines products.

 Agents have broad expertise and possess the capabilities to meet the wide spectrum of their clients' needs, as the vast majority (96%) of agents sell or place both specialty lines and standard lines products. Agents take a targeted approach to policy placements  Agents choose to place specialty business directly with carriers about half of the time, selecting to leverage wholesalers, MGAs or MGUs the balance of the time for market accessibility or expertise in a specific product, line or industry.

Agents choose to place specialty business directly with carriers about half of the time, selecting to leverage wholesalers, MGAs or MGUs the balance of the time for market accessibility or expertise in a specific product, line or industry. Agents strongly value carriers with a wide reach - Among agents who expressed a preference, 81% prefer national carriers to niche carriers due to the broader footprint and availability of coverages.

While these findings lend themselves to a framework for strategic carrier selections, a review of The Hanover's agency data reveals that carrier selection is often made tactically. As a result, agents end up working with multiple carriers depending on the specialty line they are placing, resulting in widespread fragmentation in an agency's portfolio. Notable findings include:

50% of commercial accounts have only a single policy with an agency, but have many more insurance policies elsewhere.

When commercial accounts do have more than one policy with an agency, 24% are split across multiple markets, causing added work for agencies that are often left trying to coordinate placement and servicing across multiple carriers.

The typical mid-sized agency has at least 50 carrier relationships, and sometimes significantly more, yet more than 60% of an agency's premium is placed with its top five markets

"Agents have an invaluable opportunity to serve their clients by taking a cohesive approach to solving their needs," said Bryan J. Salvatore, president of specialty at The Hanover. "Today's client is looking for ease of doing business and streamlined service, both of which can be achieved by partnering with carriers that have comprehensive, carefully-designed product portfolios that respond to a wide variety of risks."

With this in mind, The Hanover is working with its agent partners to understand their needs and develop specialized solutions that align with their books of business, such as its new specialty general liability and enhanced excess and surplus offerings. Additionally, The Hanover's expert underwriters operate across lines of business to offer coverage in a thoughtful, coordinated way that makes it easy for agents to deliver cohesive coverage to their clients.

To see the full report please click here.

About The Hanover

The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. is the holding company for several property and casualty insurance companies, which together constitute one of the largest insurance businesses in the United States. The company provides exceptional insurance solutions through a select group of independent agents and brokers. Together with its agent partners, The Hanover offers standard and specialized insurance protection for small and mid-sized businesses, as well as for homes, automobiles, and other personal items. For more information, please visit hanover.com .

All products are underwritten by The Hanover Insurance Company or one of its insurance company subsidiaries or affiliates ("The Hanover"). Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions and is subject to the company underwriting guidelines and the issued policy. This material is provided for informational purposes only and does not provide any coverage. For more information about The Hanover visit our website at www.hanover.com.

SOURCE The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc.
The Independence Fund leads coalition of 21 VSOs to demand regulation changes in new Caregiver VA policy. Tweet this

Under the revisions to the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) a Caregiver's benefits will be eliminated if a Veteran or their Caregiver works outside the home. Additionally under the new restrictive program, a Veteran must have a minimum 70% disability rating to receive benefits, and fail to achieve their Activities of Daily Life (ADLs) independently 100% of the time. The VA categorizes walking, feeding, dressing and grooming, toileting, bathing, and transferring themselves from one location to another as ADLs. Further, the updated provisions require annual assessments of a Veteran's true needs, even in the case of the most catastrophically disabled Veterans.

"While the VA attempts to standardize the execution of this program in the field with the regional evaluation teams," says Carey, "the way the regulations are written leads to huge variations in execution: What's a baseline of dressing for presentability? What constitutes a well-executed transfer from bed to a wheelchair? Importantly, the whole process has been profoundly shifted from a Veteran's performance on his or her worst day to his or her best."

"With more than 100,000 new Veterans applying for these benefits, the need for this program is great and increasing." continues Carey. "We, and the 20 other Veteran organizations who joined us in our Petition to the VA, are asking the VA to change these regulations now. We don't take our role as leaders and voices for Veterans and Caregivers lightly, and we look forward to working with these groups to amplify the voices of disabled military Veterans, and the Caregivers and families who support them, and urge the VA to drop these unnecessary and unfair restrictions."

PETITION FOR RULEMAKING SIGNERS:

The Independence Fund

American Logistics Association

American Military Society

American Retirees Association

American Veterans (AMVETS)

Armed Forces Retirees Association

Catholic War Veterans and Auxiliary of the USA

Chief Warrant And Warrant Officer Association Of The U.S. Coast Guard

Fleet Reserve Association

Healing Household 6

Jewish War Veterans of The United States of America

Military-Veterans Advocacy, Inc.

National Defense Committee

National Military Family Association

Reserve Organization of America

Sea Service Family, Foundation

The Military Order of the Purple Heart

United States Army Warrant Officer Association

Veteran Warriors, Inc.

VetsFirst

Vietnam Veterans of America

ABOUT THE INDEPENDENCE FUND:

Established in 2007, The Independence Fund is a national Veterans Service Organization dedicated to meeting the unmet needs of catastrophically wounded Veterans, Caregivers, and their families through a variety of programs. To learn more, visit www.independencefund.org .

Media Contacts:

Caroline Arey, Strategic Messaging Director

[email protected]

(704) 608.8770

SOURCE The Independence Fund
DUBLIN, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Thermal Printing Market (2021-2026) by Application Type, Offering Type, Printer Type, Format Type, Printing Technology Type, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Thermal Printing Market is estimated to be USD 35.56 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 48.22 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.28%.



The Global Thermal Printing Market is driving due to the rising adoption of automatic identification, data capture, and wireless technologies to improve productivity. The growing concerns related to anti-counterfeit and product safety drive the market's growth. Additionally, the increasing use of thermal printing as per on-demand printing applications fuels the market's growth. On the other hand, stringent printing rules and regulations and poor image quality of barcode labels restrict the market's growth.



The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in printing solutions will create potential opportunities for the market to grow in the forecasted period. Furthermore, the growing usage of thermal printing solutions in various industries such as e-commerce, healthcare, and the supply chain industry deals with RFID, smart labels, tags, and Barcode thermal printers. Moreover, heat setting in thermal barcode solutions is a challenge that may negatively affect the market.



The Global Thermal Printing Market is segmented based on Application Type, Offering Type, Printer Type, Format Type, Printing Technology Type, and Geography.



Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are Brother Industries, Ltd, BIXOLON America, Inc, Fujitsu Limited, Honeywell International, Inc, NCR Corporation, SATO Holdings Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, Star Micronics Co., Ltd, Toshiba Corporation, and Zebra Technologies Corporation, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes a 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 Thermal Printing 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 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, 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 competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Influencers

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Rising Adoption of Automatic Identification and Wireless Technologies

4.1.2 Growing Concern Related to Anti-Counterfeit and Product Safety

4.1.3 Increasing Use of Thermal Printing in On-Demand Printing Applications

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Stringent Printing Rules and Regulations

4.2.2 Poor Image Quality of Barcode Labels

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Growing Usage of Thermal Printing Solutions in Various Industries

4.3.2 The emergence of IoT Technology in Printing Solutions

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Heat Setting in Thermal Barcode Printers



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.2 Impact of COVID-19

5.3 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Thermal Printing Market, By Application Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Government

6.3 Healthcare & Hospitality

6.4 Manufacturing & Industrial

6.5 Transportation & Logistics

6.6 Retail



7 Global Thermal Printing Market, By Offering Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Printer

7.3 Supplies



8 Global Thermal Printing Market, By Printer Type

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Barcode Printers

8.3 POS Printers

8.4 Kiosk & Ticket Printers

8.5 Card Printers

8.6 RFID Printers



9 Global Thermal Printing Market, By Format Type

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Desktop Format

9.3 Mobile Format

9.4 Industrial Format



10 Global Thermal Printing Market, By Printing Technology Type

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Direct Thermal (DT)

10.3 Thermal Transfer (TT)

10.4 Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer (D2T2)



11 Global Thermal Printing Market, By Geography



12 Competitive Landscape

12.1 Competitive Quadrant

12.2 Market Share Analysis

12.3 Strategic Initiatives

12.3.1 M&A and Investments

12.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

12.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



13 Company Profiles

13.1 Advantech Co., Ltd

13.2 APS Group

13.3 Avery Dennison Corporation

13.4 AXIOHM

13.5 Brother Industries, Ltd

13.6 BIXOLON America, Inc

13.7 Citizens Systems Europe GmbH

13.8 CognitiveTPG, LLC

13.9 Cougartron

13.10 Fujitsu Limited

13.11 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

13.12 Honeywell International, Inc

13.13 JADAK Technologies, Inc

13.14 NCR Corporation

13.15 NEC Corporation

13.16 ProMach, Inc

13.17 Rongta Technology (Xiamen) Group Co., Ltd

13.18 SATO Holdings Corporation

13.19 Sartorius AG

13.20 Seiko Epson Corporation

13.21 Seiko Instruments, Inc

13.22 Shenzhen Brightek Printer Co., Ltd

13.23 Shinmei Co., Ltd

13.24 Star Micronics Co., Ltd

13.25 Toshiba Corporation

13.26 TSC Auto ID Technology Co., Ltd

13.27 Urovo Technology Corporation Limited

13.28 Wasp Barcode Technologies, Inc

13.29 Zebra Technologies Corporation

13.30 Zhuhai Zywell Technology Co., Ltd



14 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qj2mwy

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
FREDERICK, Md. and BOSTON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Theradaptive, a privately held biopharmaceutical company pioneering a new class of regenerative implants announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Medical Device designation for its OsteoAdapt SP Spinal Fusion implant indicated for posterolateral spinal fusion to treat degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, or retrolisthesis. This is the second Breakthrough Designation for Theradaptive in spinal fusion.

The Breakthrough Devices Program is a program for select medical devices that provides for more effective treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions. Under the program, the FDA will provide Theradaptive with priority review and interactive communication regarding device development and clinical trial protocols during the premarket review process.

"This is an important development and the potential for patients is significant. Gaining a Breakthrough Designation from the FDA for posterolateral fusion is a strong indication of the promise of this approach. The expansion into additional indications for spine expands access to a wider potential patient population," said Dr. Mark Shasti of Inova Loudoun Hospital.

Theradaptive's regenerative implants are best-in-class and are designed to permit precise tissue regeneration for a variety of tissue types and clinical indications. This new technology enables superior outcomes and safety, and greatly improved ease of use.

"This is Theradaptive's second Breakthrough designation from the FDA in four months and expands our portfolio into the posterolateral fusion approach. This significantly increases the number of patients who can potentially benefit from this game-changing device," said John Greenbaum, Senior Vice President of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs at Theradaptive.

About Precision Regenerative Implants:

As of 2022 there are no precision regenerative implants available to treat spinal fusion, orthopedic repair, or craniomaxillofacial repair. The current state of the art is based on technology that is over 20 years old and has several serious safety issues. The annual cost of revision procedures in these clinical areas represents a significant burden to the healthcare system.

About Theradaptive

Theradaptive is a venture-backed biopharmaceutical company developing a therapeutic delivery platform technology for targeted tissue regeneration with a total addressable market of over $10B in several clinical indications. Theradaptive was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has received significant research and development support from the US Department of Defense. Theradaptive has operations in Frederick, MD and Boston, MA.

For more information on Theradaptive, please visit https://www.theradaptive.com

Contact: Serena Lertora [email protected]

SOURCE Theradaptive
Triazine market report key highlights

Estimated year-on-year growth rate: 2.66%

Key market segments : Application (oil and gas, chemical processing, medical, and others) and geography ( North America , APAC, Europe , MEA, and South America ).

Application (oil and gas, chemical processing, medical, and others) and geography ( , APAC, , MEA, and ). Key Consumer Region & contribution: North America at 34%

Triazine Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.00% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 335.37 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 2.66 Regional analysis North America, APAC, Europe, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 34% Key consumer countries US, China, Germany, India, and Canada Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Ashland Global Holdings Inc., BASF SE, Dow Inc., Ecolab Inc., Foremark Performance Chemicals, Haihang Industry Co. Ltd., Hexion Inc., RAG-Stiftung, Sintez OKA LLC, and Stepan Co. 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!

Triazine Market Share Trend

Introduction of green corrosion inhibitors

Corrosion scientists and engineers are increasingly concentrating on developing low-cost triazine concentrations. As a result, green inhibitors like triazine are becoming more popular. The European Union, for example, has financed a project to develop a novel biomimetic and environmentally friendly environmental solution to prevent microbial-induced corrosion (MIC). Biofouling will develop new triazine concentrations by incorporating microorganisms into a sol-gel coating for metal surfaces. During the forecast period, such research activities are expected to assist the market's expansion even further.

Triazine Market Challenge

Stringent regulations

Stringent regulations on permits, permit expiration dates, residual management concerns, and limitations for the entry of new companies into the market are all obstacles to the worldwide triazine market's growth. In large countries such as the United States, the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations are the legally enforceable requirements that vendors and the general public must follow while using water systems and water treatment chemicals such as triazine. The global triazine market is projected to be hampered by rigorous regulations in the global water treatment chemicals industry during the forecast period.

Get free sample for extensive insights on key market Drivers, Trends, and Challenges influencing the triazine market.

Key market vendors insights

The triazine market share is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic strategies to compete in the market.

Some of the key market vendors are:

Ashland Global Holdings Inc.

BASF SE

Dow Inc.

Ecolab Inc.

Foremark Performance Chemicals

Haihang Industry Co. Ltd.

Hexion Inc.

RAG-Stiftung

Sintez OKA LLC

Stepan Co.

For more detailed highlights on products offerings and the growth strategies adopted by other vendors, Download free sample report

Key Segment Analysis by Application

Oil and Gas



H2S gas is an impurity that can be corrosive in nature and can be found in oil and gas fields. Natural gas, olefins, and cracker products all suffer as a result. H2S is a dangerous gas that can cause nausea, headaches, vomiting, eye irritation, and other problems. MEA-triazine solutions are effective in removing H2S gas completely and can be employed in a variety of concentrations. Furthermore, the chemical's non-corrosive nature safeguards oil and gas resources. Because MEA-triazine is widely used to remove H2S from gas streams, natural gas wells, and oil tanks, it is an effective H2S scavenger, boosting demand for the market in question during the projection period.

Regional Market Analysis

North America will contribute to 34% of the triazine market share growth during the forecast period. US, China, Germany, India, and Canada are the major markets for triazine market share.

The significant increase in the demand for H2S scavengers in developed economies such as the US is expected to boost the triazine market share in the region.

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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Phosphate Market - The phosphate market share is expected to increase by USD 8.68 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 6.12%.Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Fortifying Agent Market - The fortifying agent market share is expected to increase by USD 43.24 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 10.64%.Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2021

Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Application

Market segments

Comparison by Application

Oil and Gas - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Chemical processing - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Medical - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by Application

Customer landscape

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 MEA - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Ashland Global Holdings Inc.

BASF SE

Dow Inc.

Ecolab Inc.

Foremark Performance Chemicals

Haihang Industry Co. Ltd.

Hexion Inc.

RAG-Stiftung

Sintez OKA LLC

Stepan Co.

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (CSE: TRUL) (OTCQX: TCNNF) ("Trulieve" or "the Company"), a leading and top-performing cannabis company in the U.S., today announced it has completed the acquisition of an operational 64,000 sq. ft. cultivation facility in Phoenix, Arizona. Trulieve will pay $13.75 million cash at closing, with potential milestone payments subject to earn-out and escrow requirements.

"We are excited to close this acquisition which is in line with our strategic priorities," said Kim Rivers, CEO of Trulieve. "The facility strengthens Trulieve's presence in the cornerstone market of our Southwest hub, as well as expands our cultivation capacity. We look forward to serving more patients and customers throughout Arizona with our high-quality, proprietary brands."

The new cultivation facility immediately improves supply chain capacity and becomes Trulieve's fifth cultivation facility in Arizona, supporting Trulieve's 17 dispensaries in the state of Arizona with flower for medical patients and adult-use customers. Trulieve locations in Arizona include Avondale, Casa Grande, Chandler, Cottonwood, Glendale, Guadalupe, Lake Havasu, Mesa, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and Tucson.

About Trulieve

Trulieve is an industry leading, vertically integrated cannabis company and multi-state operator in the U.S. operating in 11 states, with leading market positions in Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Trulieve is poised for accelerated growth and expansion, building scale in retail and distribution in new and existing markets through its hub strategy. By providing innovative, high-quality products across its brand portfolio, Trulieve delivers optimal customer experiences and increases access to cannabis, helping patients and customers to live without limits. Trulieve is listed on the CSE under the symbol TRUL and trades on the OTCQX market under the symbol TCNNF. For more information, please visit Trulieve.com.

Facebook: @Trulieve

Instagram: @Trulieve_

Twitter: @Trulieve

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes forward-looking information and statements, which may include, but are not limited to, information and statements regarding or inferring the future business, operations, financial performance, prospects and other plans, intentions, expectations, estimates, and beliefs of the Company. Words such as "expects", "continue", "will", "anticipates" and "intends" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current projections and expectations about future events and financial trends that management believes might affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs, and on certain assumptions and analysis made by the Company in light of the experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors management believes are appropriate. Forward-looking information and statements involve and are subject to assumptions and known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual events, results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future events, results, performance, and achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking information and statements herein, including, without limitation, the risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and in subsequent periodic and current reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and in the Company's filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com Although the Company believes that any forward-looking information and statements herein are reasonable, in light of the use of assumptions and the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in such information and statements, there can be no assurance that any such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, and accordingly readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance upon such forward-looking information and statements. Any forward-looking information and statements herein are made as of the date hereof, and except as required by applicable laws, the Company assumes no obligation and disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking information and statements herein or to update the reasons that actual events or results could or do differ from those projected in any forward looking information and statements herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws.

Investor Contact

Christine Hersey, Director of Investor Relations

+1 (424) 202-0210

[email protected]

Media Contact

Rob Kremer, Executive Director of Corporate Communications

+1 (404) 218-3077

[email protected]

SOURCE Trulieve Cannabis Corp.
https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9012651-hinge-first-dual-purpose-untippable-nail-polish-crafting-tool-smartgrip-airlock-suction/

Station 22, LLC, the makers of Tweexy products is committed to inventing products that help nail polishers and crafting enthusiasts work faster, easier and with less mess.

After the global success of Tweexy, the original patented wearable nail polish bottle holder and crafting scrap collector that went viral everywhere, these two new innovative, multi-purpose products for nail polishers and crafters were introduced to solve the problem of unreliable suction.



Unlike with suction, Smartgrip does not need to be pressed down to work, nor does it need to be peeled off to lift. Simply set the Tweexy Hinge down, and the Smartgrip instantly grips. When knocked into from the side, Smartgrip holds firm to a smooth flat surface. And when you need to pick it up, it lifts naturally and without resistance. The magic of Smartgrip is that it works in the background, gripping and releasing exactly when you need it to. There are no buttons to push or levers to pull; it just works.

Like the original wearable Tweexy silicone ring (www.tweexy.com), Tweexy Hinge allows the polisher to use all their favorite nail polish brands, regardless of their various shapes, sizes, and capacities. Co-Inventors Elizabeth Boyle and Mark Miclette designed the Tweexy Hinge so it would work vertically in an upright position or at a 45-degree angle. The person polishing can also adjust the bottle angle securely within the Hinge receptacle. Circular, square, quarter moon, oval, rectangular, triangle, and other jewel shapes all hold well in the Tweexy Hinge.

For crafting activities like weeding vinyl for Cricut users, the Hinge is foolproof. Tweexy Hinge stays perfectly attached to the table at any angle while the crafter scrapes vinyl pieces off their tools into the Hinge receptacle. The scraps self-adhere into easily removable 'balls' for easy clean-up and disposal. Tweexy Hinge works effectively for sewing projects as well.

When projects are complete, you just lift straight up on Tweexy Hinge or leave it in place on your work surface. Seeing this advancement in suction technology for the first time seems almost impossible to comprehend.

Jayme Smaldone of Mighty Ventures, the inventor of Smartgrip (www.smartgrip.us), noted: "Smartgrip's unique function can improve products ranging from consumer goods to innovations in the medical space. Tweexy's use of Smartgrip will be a game-changer in the nail polishing and crafting world, where users want instant stability to either reduce nail polish spills or aid the removal of crafting materials. We are excited to be working with the Tweexy team to bring these innovations to market.

Each Tweexy Hinge is available in six colors. They are currently available exclusively on Amazon. Wholesale opportunities for major retailers will be considered.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Tweexy
CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Chicago's Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD) is partnering with Ireland-based Preparing for Life (PFL) to launch an innovative home visiting program to support Chicago families and help their children flourish and thrive.

The program will provide comprehensive support for parentswith home visits, prenatal education, evidence-based parenting programs and case managementfor up to five years. The goal is to bolster children's early development and school readiness.

The program will help parents give their children a strong start in life, while yielding data to help better understand how caregivers can best enhance their child's development.

Through this outreach initiative, Chicago-area families will benefit from extensive expertise in multiple areas. PFL has run one of the most successful evidenced-based home visiting programs in Ireland for more than 12 years. CEHD, a pioneer in the use of innovative economic analysis of early interventions, has studied the impact and benefits of the PFL program. Now they will merge their expertise with a local group to serve and support Chicago children and families.

Babies learn from birth; the social, emotional and cognitive skills they build early are the foundation for success in school and life. "Skills beget skills. Abundant research shows that early interventions to support this development pay off with long-lasting benefits in education, employment, earnings and health," said James J. Heckman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who directs CEHD. "Early intervention is the most efficient way to promote better outcomes as adults."

Home visiting is a well-established approach to support families and help them provide an optimal environment for child development. Partnering with a local early childhood organization to provide this support, CEHD will use advanced economic analysis to assess the impact of this support and learn more about which approaches work best and why.

Niall Sexton, Programme Manager with Preparing for Life in Dublin welcomed the announcement: "PFL has had a long lasting relationship with CEHD for many years and we are very excited to be part of this international collaborative project. We are really looking forward to working in partnership with families, community services and the CEHD to help build long lasting outcomes for children and pats in Chicago."

For more information, see http://cehd.uchicago.edu/homevisiting .

About the partners: The Center for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago works to understand the circumstances under which people thrive and reach their fullest potential. Preparing for Life is a program of Northside Partnership, a community based non-profit established to support social and economic regeneration Dublin City, Ireland.

CONTACT:

Becky Harles

[email protected]

312-972-3040

SOURCE University of Chicago Center for the Economics of Human Development
Students will not find a better program at such a reasonable cost that provides flexibility in a nurturing atmosphere. Tweet this

The purpose of this major is to cultivate professionals who serve in a variety of roles. These include, but are not limited to, teachers, curriculum specialists, program directors, educational or social service administrators, family child-care providers, parent educators, child advocates, undocumented youth workers, social services specialists, and graduate study candidates. Courses integrate research, theory, and developmental domains in order to implement best practices for professional excellence.

Topics relating to social justice and diversity are embedded in each class and empower students to accept responsibility to serve in advancing a culturally pluralistic, equitable and interdependent world.

Students may complete a generalized Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education & Adolescent Development or may elect one of the new concentrations within the major with specific focuses in: Early Childhood Studies, Early Childhood Special Education, or Teacher as Practitioner. Any of the concentration courses may also be taken as an elective within the generalized program. The concentrations will enhance students' career opportunities in the field of early care and education and prepare graduates for licensure in their respective states.

Intelligent.com estimates the employment of preschool teachers is expected to increase by 18 percent. The website has also named Union's CHAD program as one of the best. Program Chair Birgit Monks, Ed.D. explains why students should choose the Union degree program.

"Students will find the highest standards, best qualified instructors who are working in the field, and an atmosphere of support and success when they choose Union Institute & University to complete their education," said Dr. Monks. "Classes are small, and schedules are flexible, allowing students to earn their degree around commitments to other obligations, such as family, work, and life. The program is permitted to be offered in a hybrid format to residents in Ohio, California, and Florida, and is available in a fully online format to residents in California and all NC-SARA approved states.

"Classes start every eight weeks and students may choose to attend fully online, virtually via Zoom, or both. With Union's generous credit transfer policy, students can transfer up to 90 credits and we'll even do a free transcript review. There is no application or enrollment fee. Tutoring, mentoring, writing assistance, mental health services, and other support services are available to all students at no charge."

Dr. Monks concluded, "Union's Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education & Adolescent Development degree program is perfect for those who have a passion for working with young children. Upon graduation, students can become the most competent professionals they can be in the field of early childhood education and become a strong advocate for families and children. Early childhood development students will not find a better program at such a reasonable cost that provides flexibility in a nurturing atmosphere."

Learn more about or apply to the Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education & Adolescent Development from Union Institute & University today.

About Union Institute & University

Founded in 1964, Union Institute & University has been a pioneer in educating adults through distance learning. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, Union Institute & University offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degree programs and certificates designed for adults seeking to make a difference in their own lives and within their communities. The university offers specialized online and low residency degree programs with high-touch faculty attention, designed for students regardless of where they live and work. Union's flexible delivery models emphasizes relevant and transformative coursework taught by a national faculty of scholar-practitioners. Union graduates, including two dozen college presidents, leaders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, members of the United States Congress, and the first female prime minister of Jamaica, promote Union's legacy of utilizing education to transform lives and communities.

To learn more about Union Institute & University, visit www.myunion.edu or call 1-800-861-6400.

SOURCE Union Institute & University
TIGARD, Ore., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IT infrastructure-as-a-service leader, Uplevel Systems, today announced its partnership with global small business cybersecurity supplier, Transmosis. Transmosis's robust cybersecurity-as-a-service, transmosisONE, along with its $1 million financial safety net for SMBs, will now be available to Uplevel Systems' extensive MSP network as part of its comprehensive small business IT solution.

Deployed in minutes, transmosisONE combines an Artificial Intelligence-powered Extended Detection and Response platform (XDR) with a 24/7 U.S.-based live distributed Security Operations Center, all fully integrated with $1 million in financial liability protection for ransomware and other business losses. The platform is delivered in a flexible monthly subscription.

Designed specifically for the small business sector and remote work environment, transmosisONE defends SMBs from sophisticated cyber threats at the enterprise level. Deployed in minutes, it combines an Artificial Intelligence-powered Extended Detection and Response platform (XDR) with a 24/7 U.S.-based live distributed Security Operations Center, all fully integrated with a ground-breaking $1 million financial liability protection. The platform is delivered in a flexible monthly subscription.

"Cybersecurity is a top priority for our MSPs and their small business customers," said Tom Alexander, CEO of Uplevel Systems. "We are thrilled to include cybersecurity protection, 24/7 US-based live distributed SOC as part of our subscription, with up to $1 million in financial protection for ransomware and other business losses."

"61% of all SMBs have reported at least one cyber attack in the past year, and an astounding 83% are not financially prepared to recover, with the majority going out of business within 6 months after an attack," said Chase Norlin, CEO of Transmosis. "This partnership will help small and medium-sized businesses fight an alarming reality."

Uplevel Systems is known for reliable small business IT solutions that scale. With its enterprise-class Infrastructure-as-a-Service model, business customers use only what they need with a monthly subscription-based service and no upfront costs. Sold through MSPs, Uplevel provides security and full compliance through its hardware gateways with firewall, storage, Active Directory, VPN and SDWAN capabilities. With the Transmosis partnership, it is now adding Cybersecurity-as-a-service to its comprehensive offerings.

For more information about this offering, visit: https://www.uplevelsystems.com/cybersecurity-transmosisone.

About Uplevel Systems

Founded on the premise that small business IT infrastructure is too complex, Uplevel Systems brings simplicity, profitability and efficiency to small businesses. With easy installation, no upfront costs and reliable, cloud-managed solutions, Uplevel is taking small business IT to the next level. www.uplevelsystems.com .

About Transmosis

Transmosis is a nationally recognized cyber security workforce developer that enables American workers to develop new careers in the rapidly growing information security industry. Transmosis is the creator of transmosisONE, a Fortune 5000 cybersecurity platform designed to protect small businesses/SMBs from cyber attack with integrated financial liability protection. ( http://www.transmosis.com/transmosisONE ).

CONTACT

Transmosis Media Relations

[email protected]

Uplevel Systems Media Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE Uplevel Systems; Transmosis
BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it structured $34,100,000 in construction financing for the development of a 315,320 square foot, 36-foot clear, Class A industrial building situated on approximately 14 acres in Chino, California. Located in the Inland Empire, whose industrial market remains one of the most sought-after warehouse and distribution areas in the United States, the property is well positioned to benefit from the region's low vacancy and attractive rental rates.

The rising demand for industrial space is driven by the rapid growth of e-commerce and a quickly changing supply chain and logistics process. New online retailers and traditional retailers alike continue to lease ever-increasing amounts of space to solidify their position in the hierarchy of e-commerce platforms. Competition for industrial space within the Inland Empire area is widespread among Fortune 500 companies, credit-rated tenants, and third-party logistics companies, driving the region's average asking rental rates up by more than 10% the last 12 months alone1.

Mark Strauss and Rob Quarton led the Walker & Dunlop team in sourcing the construction loan for Xebec. The team utilized their deep financing expertise to ensure the loan was consistent with the developer's requirements. Their work laid the foundation for a timely and efficient closing process, attractive terms, and full-term interest-only payments.

Jay Soni, Executive Vice President at Xebec, added "Walker & Dunlop exceeded my expectations in finding capital for our development. They were tireless in their pursuit to find the best debt available. In fact, they substantially beat our target for leverage and pricing by over 14%."

Mr. Quarton commented, "With industrial vacancy rates consistently below 1%, this project represents a rare opportunity to participate in satisfying the extremely high demand for Class A industrial product in the Inland Empire. The project garnered significant interest from our lending relationships, thanks to the veteran Southern California sponsorship and the exceptionally supply-constrained location."

Strategically located within the Inland Empire West submarket, the property enjoys proximity to Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties. The warehouse will also be within driving distance of multiple airports, major courier delivery service hubs, and the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. This location is advantageous for access to the regional consumer base and the regional labor force. The building will be built speculatively and is expected to generate high demand from a wide variety of potential tenants.

Walker & Dunlop was the fourth largest provider of capital to the U.S. commercial real estate market in 2020, and in 2021 the firm originated $49 billion in debt financing volume. With one of the strongest networks in the industry, the firm's 2021 brokered loan originations totaled $30 billion, a 170% increase over 2020. To learn more about our Capital Markets capabilities and financing options, visit our website.

Loans made or arranged pursuant to a California Financing Law license.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD) is the largest provider of capital to the multifamily industry in the United States and the fourth largest lender on all commercial real estate including industrial, office, retail, and hospitality. Walker & Dunlop enables real estate owners and operators to bring their visions of communities  where Americans live, work, shop and play  to life. The power of our people, premier brand, and industry-leading technology make us more insightful and valuable to our clients, providing an unmatched experience every step of the way. With over 1,000 employees across every major U.S. market, Walker & Dunlop has consistently been named one of Fortune's Great Places to Work and is committed to making the commercial real estate industry more inclusive and diverse while creating meaningful social, environmental, and economic change in our communities.

About Xebec

Xebec, a U.S. based privately-held real estate company, focuses exclusively on providing real estate investment opportunities to institutional and private wealth investors through its vertically integrated and full-service platform providing real estate acquisition, development, ownership, financing, leasing, property management (principally through local third-party property managers) and real estate investment management services. Xebec focuses on fulfillment, warehouse and distribution centers (bulk logistics), light industrial and infill/last-mile properties. Xebec currently has projects at various stages of development spread across multiple states. Learn more about Xebec at https://xebecrealty.com/.







1 Per Costar Group.

SOURCE Walker & Dunlop, Inc.
OLYMPIA, Wash. and LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU), with $4.5 billion in assets and 280,000 members across Washington and beyond, today announced it has partnered with Zest AI, a leader in software for AI-driven lending, to increase automation and safely approve more members for new vehicle loans.

"Zest will help us say yes to more members with a solution that safely approves more borrowers overlooked by legacy credit scores," says Julie Lind, VP of Retail Lending. "Our partnership with Zest is another way WSECU is demonstrating a commitment to provide credit responsibly to the people that need it, leaning less on traditional credit scores to make good loan decisions."

Zest models use more data and math than traditional national scores to produce a more accurate risk ranking without sacrificing compliance. Accuracy gives WSECU the confidence it needs to decide quickly. Credit unions are achieving five-fold increases in auto-decisioning rates by injecting better risk scoring directly into their lending systems. Approval increases are typically 25% or more with no added risk. Loan approvals are far more inclusive thanks to the deeper insights drawn from thousands of standard credit variables.

WSECU joins a growing family of credit unions turning to Zest AI for better underwriting  in aggregate reaching five million members and $76 billion in assets. "We're honored that member-powered WSECU has chosen us to help them achieve their approval rate and automation goals," said Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI. "AI is becoming an imperative for credit unions that want to provide a better experience and enrich their communities."

About Zest AI

Zest AI software helps lenders make better decisions and better loans. Zest was founded in 2009 to make fair and transparent credit available to everyone and is now a leader in software for more inclusive underwriting. Portfolios scored by Zest now total $182 billion. The company is based in Los Angeles, California. Learn more at www.zest.ai and connect with us on Twitter at @Zest_AI.

About Washington State Employees Credit Union

Washington State Employees Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative headquartered in Olympia, WA, with more than $4.5 billion in assets, 280,000 members, and 22 branches across Washington. Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, or attends school in Washington. Additional information can be found online at www.wsecu.org .

SOURCE Zest AI
ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global waterproofing admixture market was valued at US$ 3.7 Bn in 2020. The market is projected to rise at a CAGR of 7.9% during the forecast period, from 2021 to 2031. The global waterproofing admixture market is anticipated to attain valuation of US$ 8.5 Bn by 2031. The global market is being driven by an increase in the use of waterproofing admixture in the commercial and residential applications. Market players are estimated to have a profitable presence in this market. These companies are raising their capital investments and focusing more on research and development as well as improving product quality to suit consumer demands. The fast rise of the waterproofing admixture market is also being aided by continuous infrastructural development and maintenance initiatives in developing nations.

Waterproofing admixtures are used to minimize permeability and render concrete buildings waterproof, with the purpose of offering improved protection. As a result, they improve the structure's sturdiness as well as the maintenance procedure as a whole. The necessity to improve the compressive strength and durability of concrete has led to a rise in the usage of waterproofing admixtures in the building sector. The steadily increasing usage of waterproofing admixtures in old and new building projects to resolve various concrete durability challenges is a major factor likely to propel the global waterproofing admixture market.

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Water reduction, splendid pore reduction and blocking, increased hydrophobic effect, and increased density are key factors that make their utilization appropriate in such application areas. In the global waterproofing admixtures market, grasping the mechanisms of chemical and physical deterioration caused by water and fluid infiltration opens new opportunities for product introductions and advancements.

Key Findings of Market Report

The global waterproofing admixtures market is projected to be led by the crystalline segment. They are mostly hydrophilic and are utilized as a main admixture. Their self-healing properties, which are derived from a combination of patented cementitious material and active chemicals, give them the remarkable ability to fix even microscopic fissures in concrete.

The residential application is expected to meet the majority of market demand. Rise in popularity can be linked to the rapidly increasing demand for different forms of waterproofing admixtures in both old as well as new residential construction projects. The market for waterproofing admixtures is increasing as the property market improves, particularly in developing nations. The rapid rate of urbanization in many parts, particularly developing parts of the world supports such growth of the market.

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Due to the strong development of the construction industry, particularly in India and China , the Asia Pacific region holds majority of the market share and expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period

Global Waterproofing Admixture Market: Growth Drivers

In the form of secondary admixture, pore-blocking admixtures have become popular. They work by creating an insoluble hydrophobic surface on concrete, preventing water from penetrating it, and this feature is likely to drive its sales opportunities in the global market.

Rising popularity of multi-dwelling units in Middle East & Africa is expected to aid the regional market's growth during the forecast period

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Global Waterproofing Admixture Market: Key Players

Some of the key market players are

Sika AG

Wacker Chemie AG

CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V.

Mapei S.P.A.

BASF SE,

Global Waterproofing Admixture Market: Segmentation

Component

Hardware

Software

Services

Application

Radiology

Cardiology

Urgent Care

Remote ICU

Psychiatry

Dermatology

Others

End User

Payers

Providers

Patients

Others

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:

Below-grade Waterproofing Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/belowgrade-waterproofing-market.html

Cementitious Waterproofing Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cementitious-waterproofing-market.html

About Transparency Market Research

Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyse information.



Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.

For More Research Insights on Leading Industries, Visit our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8e-z-g23-TdDMuODiL8BKQ

Contact

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Transparency Market Research

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United States

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SOURCE Transparency Market Research
SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WireBarley today announced its partnership with Tencent Financial Technology for overseas remittance service, specifically for international money transfers to China through Weixin, the mainland Chinese version of WeChat.

WireBarley is the first Korean fintech company to partner with Tencent Financial Technology for inbound remittance service into China through Weixin. The partnership between the two tech companies is expected to further enhance the overall user convenience. When a WireBarley user sends money to China, a recipient can now easily receive the money through Weixin, which has gradually evolved from a social communication app to being a way of life in China.

Weixin will be added as an option and available between corridors from WireBarley's 11 sending countries, including Korea, the U.S., and Canada, to China.

"We're pleased to announce this partnership with WireBarley to further expand Tencent Financial Technology's global reach. The collaboration marks another important step towards enabling Chinese residing worldwide to send money more conveniently to Weixin users in China," said Wenhui Yang, General Manager, Tencent Financial Technology Asia Pacific.

"Our partnership with Tencent Financial Technology enables us to offer more convenient remittance service and delivery methods for customers sending funds to China. Together with our 50 partner companies, we plan to build a fintech ecosystem without borders. We aim to provide a convenient and safe cross-border remittance experience to our worldwide customers," said Joongwon John Yoo, CEO of WireBarley.

All new customers remitting funds to Weixin users in China will receive a US$20 WireBarley coupon (or its equivalent in local currency) when the transaction is successfully completed through the end of February. The promotion is applicable for all remittances made to China from WireBarley's 11 sending countries  Korea, Australia, the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Irelands, and more.

WireBarley

Established in 2016, WireBarley grew exponentially with a strong foothold in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore. Recently, the fintech has further strengthened its presence as a global brand with its expansion into the U.S. and Canada markets, for the first time as a Korean overseas remittance company. Headquartered in South Korea, it has multiple subsidiaries worldwide in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the U.S. WireBarley's FX and corporate treasury center in Hong Kong, which is one of the largest FX trading hubs in the world, plays a key role in enabling effective FX management and strong compliance practicality and formulating strategic partnerships with key banks and payment players in the Asia Pacific. With 12 outbound and 44 inbound countries, WireBarley currently offers over 520 corridors for personal remittance. The company recently expanded into providing B2B remittance and e-wallet services, as it seeks to be not only Asia's leading remittance company but to leap forward to become a global total payment platform.

www.wirebarley.com

SOURCE WireBarley
OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Xantrion Inc. announced today that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named them to its Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list for the seventh consecutive year, in the Pioneer 250 category for 2022. CRN's annual MSP 500 list identifies the leading service providers in North America whose forward-thinking approaches to managed services are changing the landscape of the IT (Information Technology) channel, helping end users increase efficiency and simplify IT solutions, while maximizing their return on investment.

With many customers still recovering from the impact of the ongoing pandemic, MSPs (Managed Service Providers) have become a vital part of the success of businesses worldwide. MSPs not only empower organizations to leverage intricate technologies but also help them keep a strict focus on their core business goals without straining their budgets.

The annual MSP 500 list is divided into three sections: the MSP Pioneer 250, recognizing companies with business models weighted toward managed services and largely focused on the SMB (Small and Medium sized Business) market; the MSP Elite 150, recognizing large, data center-focused MSPs with a strong mix of on- and off-premises services; and the Managed Security 100, recognizing MSPs focused primarily on off-premises and cloud-based security services.

"In addition to having to adjust their own business operations to account for the changed conditions during the pandemic, MSPs have also seen increased demand for their managed communications, collaboration and security services," said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. "The solution providers on our 2022 MSP 500 list deserve credit for their innovative and game-changing approaches to managed services in these unpredictable times, as well as their ability to optimize operational efficiencies and systems without straining IT budgets."

"We are honored to be a member of the Pioneer 250. In particular, we are excited about being recognized for our holistic approach to managed services as well as our cloud-based cybersecurity and compliance services. We pride ourselves on our performance and expertise in these areas", said Anne Bisagno, President, Xantrion Inc.

The MSP 500 list will be featured in the February 2022 issue of CRN and online at www.crn.com/msp500.

About Xantrion

Experts in cybersecurity and technical support, Xantrion provides outsourced IT services for midsized companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its team of IT experts brings impeccable technical and business skills to every assignment. Featuring an award-winning strategic approach, SOC2 Type II certified security practices, 24/7 help desk, fixed fees, and a 99.9% uptime record, Xantrion is a proven partner for managed IT and security services.

Follow Xantrion Inc. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com

Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

 2022 The Channel Company LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Xantrion Inc Contact:

Anne Bisagno

Xantrion Inc.

(510) 272-4701

[email protected]

The Channel Company Contact:

Jennifer Hogan

The Channel Company

[email protected]

SOURCE Xantrion Inc.
SAN MATEO, Calif., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Xignite, Inc., the leading provider of market data APIs to brokers and wealth managers, announced the launch of a new cryptocurrency data API. Xignite's brokerage, wealth, and media customers can now increase the value and stickiness of their services to digital investors by taking advantage of the depth and breadth of data offered by this API.

XIGNITE INC

Investment in cryptocurrencies has increased dramatically over the last few years and has proven to draw new investors into the world of trading. As a result, brokerage companies are trying hard to make buying, selling, and holding Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and other cryptocurrencies as easy as possible for their clients. The XigniteCrypto API is the first to bring together a vast universe of Cryptocurrency information alongside the equity, ETF, and option data brokers and fund managers need to offer high-quality services to their clients. It also provides the depth of functionality required for them to engage customers and drive trading activity

"Cryptocurrencies tend to operate in their own world," said Stephane Dubois, CEO and Founder of Xignite. "This means that if you want to offer integrated equity, option, and crypto trading or analytics for your clients, you are going to have to cobble up a lot of heterogeneous data from many disparate sources, and that's a pain," adds Dubois. "With our new crypto API, you get the depth of coverage, the quality, and the reliability across all asset classes you need to grow your business - all in one integrated solution."

Xignite's new cryptocurrency API, XigniteCrypto, provides real-time and historical quotes for over 900 cryptocurrencies including coins and tokens. It includes unique API endpoints that help firms engage digital investors, using the data and tools they need to make crypto trading decisions, including price alerts, historical charting, currency conversion, and cryptocurrency news.

About Xignite

Xignite is the leading provider of market data API solutions to brokers, wealth managers, and the tech firms who serve them. Xignite has been disrupting the market data industry from Silicon Valley since 2003 when it introduced the first commercial REST API. Since then, Xignite has continually taken advantage of new technologies to help its clients grow their business and serve their customers better by using financial market data effectively. Today, more than 700 firms use Xignite's APIs more than half a trillion times a month to deliver high-value data to digital investors. Visit xignite.com or follow on Twitter @xignite.

Media Contact

Kerry Langstaff

Xignite

[email protected]

650-242-4466

SOURCE XIGNITE INC
Zeitzer has already been instrumental in growing ZoomCare's medical and clinical teams over the last several years, having been in the role of Medical Director of Acute Care Services. In this role, Zeitzer was focused on ensuring an awesome patient and provider experience in urgent, emergent, telemedicine and specialty care services.

Dr. Zeitzer is a board certified Emergency Physician, a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. He studied medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. His experience in emergency medicine spans from the inner city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to rural communities such as Silverton, OR.

Dr. Zeitzer's primary professional goal is developing efficient, state-of-the-art, patient and provider centric healthcare systems that radically lower barriers for large populations to get access to high quality healthcare.

"Mark is the right person for this role on many levels. He is passionate about ZoomCare's Mission, Vision, and Values and he leads with integrity and conviction," said Jeff Fee, ZoomCare's Chief Executive Officer. "He is deeply committed to delivering high-quality, patient-centric, connected care and is a powerful voice for our patients and our employees. And he is an innovator who is inspired to change the way health care is delivered for the good."

Zeitzer officially joins the ZoomCare executive team as they continue their mission of creating an on-demand, patient-empowered health ecosystem for the 21st Century and beyond. Zeitzer has been with ZoomCare since 2015 when he helped pioneer ZoomCare Super, an innovative facility that bridges the gap between traditional urgent care and an Emergency Room. There are currently three ZoomCare Super clinics located throughout Oregon & Washington. "I'm honored to contribute to ZoomCare's approach to revolutionizing the healthcare industry," said Zeitzer. "I look forward to empowering our clinical teams to feel engaged in their work, and helping ZoomCare provide high-quality care to all of our patients."

About the Company:

ZoomCare is focused on a single goal: reinventing healthcare to put people in charge of their own health. We deliver same day, on-demand primary, urgent, specialty, and emergency healthcare through mobile-first technology, text and video visits, and in-person at over 60 neighborhood clinics across 4 states. Our trusted professionals help you feel better, faster, with compassionate care, no-wait visits and on-site access to prescription medication. And our patients love us, with 20k reviewers rating us 4.8/5 stars. For more about ZoomCare, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Media Contact:

Kate Arvidson

Strategic Partnership Manager

[email protected]

SOURCE ZoomCare
Is self-help going to trump the tough love from activist investor Nelson Peltz, who is looking to shake things up at Marmite and Dove soap maker Unilever?

If it is the former, the revival may already be underway at the Anglo-Dutch giant, according to the consumer staples equity research team at Barclays Capital.

Its analysis suggests Unilever is making market share gains in over half of its categories, accounting for 71% of turnover, which it says may be indicative of a "nascent top-line recovery".

Product superiority was a lead indicator of P&G [Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG)] top-line recovery back in 2016 so perhaps there are some early signs of a few similarities, Barclays said in a note to clients.

However, it does caution that in 2022 any growth will come from price increases with sales volumes likely to be negative.

Veteran Peltz, 79, has made a career out of campaigning for change at firms he invests in, including Heinz and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG).

The billionaires Trian Capital has an undisclosed stake in Unilever.

The stock in the group, which earlier this year made an unsuccessful 50bn bid for GlaxoSmithKlines consumer arm, was down 1.8%, mirroring the fall of the wider market, and has largely marked time for the past year.

Barclays in its note said it had retained an equal weight recommendation on the Unilever shares.

Of the 19 analysts following the FTSE 100 constituent, seven are neutral on the stock, eight are positive, while the remainder are negative.
QMines Ltd (ASX:QML) has become one of only three ASX-listed resources companies to achieve certified carbon neutrality for its business operations.

The companys carbon-neutral certification is endorsed by the Australian Governments voluntary Climate Active program, which requires independent carbon auditing.

The company says the scheme provides credibility to its net-zero emissions statements and demonstrates its leadership in the metals and mining industry, highlighting the sectors role in the global transition to a low-carbon economy.

QMines has positioned itself as a business committed to climate action, and has, since it listed, been targeting zero-carbon copper and gold mining.

Carbon-conscious markets

The certification will assure carbon-conscious markets that the companys flagship Mt Chalmers copper and gold project is ideally placed to meet increasing demand for zero carbon and ethically sourced copper.

Prior to listing, QMines set itself a bold objective of becoming a zero-carbon copper and gold developer, executive chairman Andrew Sparke said.

After a rigorous carbon audit and verification process, I am proud to announce that we have now achieved this goal.

Climate Active participants are an exclusive group of approximately 350 Australian businesses that are certified carbon neutral.

QMines is now one of only three ASX listed resources companies to have achieved this milestone. Todays announcement validates QMines carbon abatement initiatives and demonstrated its leadership in transitioning the metals and mining industry towards a low carbon future.

ESG objectives

The company targets strong growth while also observing sustainability targets such as:

 35% renewable energy generation;

 90% rainwater use onsite;

 100% wastewater usage onsite;

 20% renewable fuel usage;

 66% board independence; and

 50% locally procured goods and services.

About QMines

The company wholly owns four advanced projects covering a total area of 1,096 square kilometres.

Its flagship project, Mt Chalmers, 17 kilometres northeast of Rockhampton, is a high-grade historic mine that produced 1.2 million tonnes at 2.0% copper, 3.6 g/t gold and 19 g/t silver between 1898 and 1982.

It has kicked off an aggressive exploration program over more than 30,000 metres, and its objective is to grow its resource base, consolidate assets in the region and assess commercialisation options.
OKYO Pharma Ltd said the US regulator has given it the green light to take its dry eye disease treatment directly into a phase II clinical trial.

The Food & Drug Administrations decision to fast-track the OK-101 in this manner will accelerate the approval process, the company said.

The decision followed the successful conclusion of a pre-IND (investigational new drug) meeting with the FDA.

At that gathering it was also decided there would be two primary goals or endpoints for the phase II trial covering both a sign and a symptom of dry disease.

The fact that we are designating efficacy endpoints as primary endpoints in this first-in-human trial is highly significant, said OKYO chief executive Gary Jacobs.

Should our upcoming trial meet its prespecified primary endpoints, this would be an important step in reducing the timeline to a new drug application filing with the FDA."

The company previously said it expects the study will involve 100 to 200 people with dry eye disease.

It will be overseen by Ora Inc, the groups ophthalmic clinical development partner, and is expected to be completed in six to eight months from first enrolment.

OK-101 is being developed as a long-acting anti-inflammatory drug candidate. The technology is based around G protein-coupled receptors typically found on immunological cells present in the eye.

They act like an inbox for messages in the form of light energy, peptides that fight bacteria and promote wound healing, lipids, sugars, and proteins.

Currently, the two leading products for dry eye disease are Xiidra, created by Novartis (NYSE: NVS), and Restasis, developed by Abbvie (NYSE:ABBV) (Abbvie (NYSE:ABBV)) (NYSE: ABBV).
Oncimmune Holdings PLC (AIM:ONC) said its ImmunoINSIGHTS operation had landed a further contract under a master services agreement with an unnamed top-five global pharma company.

It has been given the task of profiling people with chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU), a skin condition that is also sometimes referred to as hives.

It can be the result of an allergic reaction to food or drugs, though in some cases the cause is unknown.

Oncimmunes ImmunoINSIGHTS team will profile the Immunoglobulin G autoantibodies present in the patients under scrutiny.

Doing this prior to and after treatment will allow researchers to assess whether these particular biomarkers can better characterise the disease.

This in turn could lead to the classification or stratification of patients for response to the therapy, the company said.

The study will also uncover insights to support the clinical development of a therapeutic for CIU, it added.

This contract, along with others previously announced and other unannounced contracts, further demonstrates the growing commercial momentum behind our ImmunoINSIGHTS platform, said Oncimmune chief executive Adam Hill.

No financial details were provided.

In the same announcement, investors were told the company has taken an office at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in Boston, which will be the new base for its chief business officer, Cameron Barnard.

The establishment of an office at CIC will facilitate more efficient business development interactions for our North American clients, said CEO Hill.
Cornish Metals Inc (AIM:CUSN, TSX-V:CUSN, OTC:SBWFF) has reached an agreement with Sir Ferrers Vyvyan of Trelowarren in Cornwall to lease certain mineral rights owned by the Vyvyan family.

The mineral lease covers an area of 222 hectares and is valid for 25 years. The lease will enable Cornish Metals to explore and mine within all the mineral right areas owned by the Vyvyan family inside the South Crofty Underground Permission Area, and explore certain other mineral right areas adjacent to the South Crofty property.

The terms of the lease require Cornish Metals to pay an annual rent, plus a tin price-based sliding scale net smelter return royalty on production of any minerals recovered from the leased area.

The Vyvyan family has a long association with Cornish Mining, South Crofty and Camborne in particular.

"This mineral lease agreement with the Vyvyan family is another important step for the company, consolidating further ground within the South Crofty Underground Permission Area, said Richard Williams, chief executive of Cornish Metals.

"The agreement enables Cornish Metals to further explore and develop the mineral resources that are contained within the South Crofty Underground Permission Area.
Anemoi International PLC slipped 6.4% to 2.95p after director Remy Schimmel left the company by mutual consent in what looks like a money-saving move.

The recent fund-raise leaves the company with a strong but limited balance sheet. It was, therefore, decided, in the best interest of all stakeholders, to reduce fixed overhead and rather focus on revenue growth. Right now, the company needs a motivated, commission-based sales team to accelerate sales of id4's award-winning software. Remy's duties will be covered by myself, with support from Tim Donell, finance and Alasdair Johnston, legal, said Duncan Soukup, the chair of Anemoi.

Last week, the company, which recently acquired d4, a Swiss-based developer of RegTech software solutions for small- and mid-sized financial institutions, announced the resignation of another director, Gareth Edwards.

1.40pm: Kistos's value creation plan gets off to a spectacularly bad start

Kistos PLC (AIM:KIST) intends to establish a new value creation plan, the primary objective of which is to motivate key members of the company's executive directors to achieve exceptional levels of performance and deliver further returns for Kistos' shareholders.

It has not got off to a very good start. The shares slumped 9.1% to 323.5p, wiping almost 30mln off the low carbon intensity energy producers value.

Apparently, in order to encourage the directors to do the jobs for which they are paid to the best of their ability, Kistos intends to give the executive chairman, chief executive officer and chief financial officer a pile of shares if certain share price targets are met.

There is an overall cap of 25mln for each participant  about 8.5% of the companys current market capitalisation (so, 25%+ for all three directors) in the plan and the maximum potential dilution is 9.5%.

12.45pm: Minoan Group rallies as it appoints top Greek academic to its board

Minoan Group plc (AIM:MIN), a volatile stock that once traded as high as 12.5p, rallied 4.9% to 1.08p on Tuesday on news of a board appointment.

George Mergos, Professor Emeritus at the University of Athens, has been appointed as a director to the boards of both the Company and its subsidiary Loyalward Limited.

The septuagenarian is a senior academic with extensive management experience at the highest levels in the public and the private sector. He has served as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Finance, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Economy, Governor of IKA, and as a member of the boards of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, the Public Power Corporation and the Council of Europe Pension Reserve Fund. He is an expert on economic development, project and programme evaluation and has consulted extensively with organisations which included the World Bank, OECD and the European Commission, Minoan said.

11.50am: OKYO higher after getting green light for Phase II clinical trial

OKYO Pharma Limited, up 4.65 at 5.75p, said the US regulator has given it the green light to take its dry eye disease treatment directly into a phase II clinical trial.

The Food & Drug Administrations (FDAs) decision to fast-track the OK-101 in this manner will accelerate the approval process, the company said.

The decision followed the successful conclusion of a pre-IND (investigational new drug) meeting with the FDA.

10.55am: Just another diamond day for Kazera

Kazera Global PLC (AIM:KZG), the AIM-quoted investment company, sparkled in early trading after a diamond production update.

Production for the current production cycle (December 2021/January 2022) has achieved a record number of over 1,000 carats (ct), the largest of which is a high-value stone of 13 ct, the company told investors.

In addition, as per company projections at year-end, the Tantalite Valley mine is expected to become operational shortly, after which the company will begin exporting commercial quantities of Tantalum to its off-take partner.

10.00am: Pantheon Resources a hot stock in a cold climate

Pantheon Resources PLC (AIM:PANR, OTC:PTHRF) was 13% higher at 140.2p after an operational update from Theta West.

The oil exploration company has drilled the Theta West well down to its planned total depth and encountered both the Upper Basin Floor Fan (UBFF) and Lower Basin Floor Fan (LBFF) targets, measuring around 1,160 gross feet of hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir across the two.

Operations have been hampered by extremely cold weather in Alaska, with temperatures as low as -55 Celsius, and a typical programme of analysis has not been possible to date. Wireline logging has not yet been possible but the company did conduct logging whilst drilling which the company said has provided excellent quality data.

9.05am: MySale Group plunges as supply chain issues hit profits but Smartspace rises after lifting expectations

MySale Group PLC, down 39% at 2.02p, was the top faller on Tuesday morning after the board issued a cautious outlook statement.

The international online retailer reported a slump in underlying earnings (EBITDA) to A$1.0mln in the second half of 2021 compared to EBITDA of A$2.5mln in the same period of 2020 as supply chain volatility hit the bottom line.

The group has worked hard to navigate recent headwinds in lower consumer demand driven by the impact of the Omicron variant and supply chain challenges. The group's increased inventory position is of ... high quality. Notwithstanding these challenges, we remain confident and are well-positioned to capitalise on the long-term opportunity for the group, said Kalman Polak, the chief executive officer of the company.

The trading update from Smartspace Software PLC (LSE:SMRT) was a lot more cheery and sent the smart building software specialist 9.9% higher to 72.5p.

The company revealed that results for the full year ending 31 January 2022 are expected to be slightly ahead of market expectations.

The underlying loss of not more than 2.5mln is slightly ahead of market expectations.
Rio Tinto PLC (LSE:RIO) said it agreed on a new management plan with Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corp to ensure the protection of significant social and cultural heritage values as part of the miners proposed development of the Western Range iron ore project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The management plan is the result of strong collaboration over the past year between the Yinhawangka people and Rio Tinto and outlines protocols for joint decision making on environmental matters, mine planning and closure, it said.

The mining giant suffered a major backlash after it destroyed sacred aboriginal sites at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara in May 2020, damaging its longstanding relationship with the traditional owners of the 46,000-year-old caves and triggering the biggest management change in the companys history.

Rio Tinto said it continues work to improve its approach to social and cultural heritage management with traditional owners in the Pilbara and is engaging with other traditional owner groups to develop similar plans.

We know we havent always got this right in the past, said Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Simon Trott. We have learned and continue to learn a lot from this co-designed process which is the manner in which we want to work with all traditional owners.

The management plan was submitted to Western Australias Environmental Protection Authority on February 1 and forms part of Rio Tintos submission to the EPA regarding the Greater Paraburdoo iron ore hub proposal.

Earlier this month, Rio Tinto said it was "deeply disturbed" by the findings of a report that revealed systemic bullying and sexism as well as racism across the company and promised that it would implement all the recommendations from the review to improve its culture.

READ: Rio Tinto 'deeply disturbed' by report that reveals widespread bullying, sexism and racism
Altech Chemicals Ltd (ASX:ATC) subsidiary Altech Industries Germany GmbH (AIG) has awarded the contract for final plant engineering of the battery materials coating pilot plant to be constructed in Saxony, Germany to German engineering firm Kuttner GmbH & Co. KG.

The appointment of Kuttner as the pilot plant engineering contractor is the next step in the development of the plant at the Dock3 facility and will assist ATC in progressing its technology to produce alumina-coated battery anode materials.

Work begins now

Kuttner will start engineering work immediately, with procurement and construction of the pilot plant to follow.

The pilot plant is designed to produce 120 kilograms per day of coated battery anode material.

The product will be made available to selected European battery manufacturers and automakers.

About Kuttner

Kuttner is a German-based industrial plant engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor with strong experience in design, procurement, project and construction management, and plant commissioning across a range of industries.

Kuttner has previously completed metallurgical plant, water and off-gas treatment projects in Germany, and brings valuable local knowledge to the execution of the pilot plant project.

The move follows the completion of the preliminary design of the battery materials coating pilot plant.

Read: Altech Chemicals subsidiary AIG completes pilot plant design for German battery materials plant
Creso Pharma Ltd (ASX:CPH, OTCQB:COPHF) is moving along with its acquisition of Sierra Sage Herbs (SSH), which will deliver the company its maiden entry into the US.

By completing the acquisition, Creso Pharma will gain immediate access to a US footprint and opportunities for both parties to scale the product suite, grow sales and leverage existing sales channels.

Several product development initiatives are pending, with new products pending and an initial product launch planned for a new line of Green Goo Immunity Deodorant in February 2022.

The product is preapproved for sale with CVS, AmazonUS and others retail outlets.

New product ingredients include functional mushrooms and other herbal formulations.

Based in Denver, Colorado SSH leads consumer packed goods with a focus on plant based and CBD products.

Their Green Goo and Southern Butter ranges are currently sold across 90,000 distribution points in the US, including retail giants such as CVS, Walgreens Walmart, AmazonUS and Target.

The acquisition of SSH by Creso will give it access to the worlds largest and fastest growing CBD market in the US, which is expected to reach US12 billion (AUD$17 billion) by 2026.

New products planned for development

Both companies have pushed a number of new products, with SSH anticipating a new line of herbal immunity deodorants which boast ingredients of functional mushrooms and other herbal formulations.

The mushrooms sector was of initial interest, particularly in variety of properties which can deliver unique health benefits.

Functional mushrooms are a sector earmarked for entry  anticipated to be worth US$19 billion (AU$27 billion) by 2030.

The deodorants line is being launched under the Green Goo brand, and will initially be sold through CVS, Army & Air Force Exchange Service, AmazonUS and Natural Grocers Vitamin Cottage.

A special Valentines Day massage oil and pillow spray launched by Southern Butter has also been marked for development in the first quarter.

Creso Pharma is confident their partnership with SSH will result in an immediate increase in sales. The acquisition stamps a solid footprint for the company in the US and creates a strong foundation to accelerate the growth of its projects.

Creso Pharma CEO and Managing Director William Lay said SSH has a well-established network of key retailers which can be leveraged for the new products.

In a short amount of time, the strong synergistic benefits resulting from the proposed acquisition are being witnessed with the launch of the new Green Goo immunity deodorant.

I look forward to updating shareholders on the continuing work with SSH as we move to finalising the acquisition at the upcoming shareholder meeting.

Written by Duncan Bailey
If being in a great location surrounded by successful neighbors was the only thing needed to guarantee success, then junior Red Pine Exploration would be a sure-fire hit.

The company's Wawa property in Ontario has Barrick Gold's Hemlo mine to the west and Newmont's Borden mine to the east - the two largest gold producers in the world.

Also, within 40 kilometres (km) distance, sits both Alamos Golds highly successful and growing Island Lake Gold Deposit (over 4.5 million ounces) and the Mexican-based Argonaut Golds, which is poised to go into production at its Magino project and boasts 2.14 million ounces of contained metal.

All of this is happening in the Michipicoten greenstone belt, an area within Canada's prolific Abitibi, which is still greatly underexplored, despite it being the scene of Ontario's first gold rush - before Timmins - for a few decades around the turn of the twentieth century. Over the last five years or so, the area has seen a significant renewal of interest.

High-grade deposits

Indeed, the Wawa region is now home to two of the highest grade deposits in Canada - Alamos Gold's Island mine and Wesdome's Eagle River asset - while the area as a whole has generated over 3 million ounces of gold since that first gold rush, at a decent grade of over 9 grams per tonne (g/t).

"I think the exploration stage we are at and where we are makes us very attractive. We are in an area that's seeing significant expansion in terms of gold production and an influx of money," Red Pine's CEO Quentin Yarie told Proactive. He also pointed out that his firm's project is in a safe jurisdiction and has excellent infrastructure.

"Let's face it, there are not many advanced exploration projects kicking around. There are some, obviously, but they get scooped up pretty quickly," Yarie said.

And it's not just Canadian companies getting interested. Australian, South American and African-based groups are also starting to dip a toe in the Michipicoten water, not least as they divest assets in locations, which are deemed riskier.

The Wawa property, a brownfield site, covers nearly 7,000 hectares (Ha) and hosts several former mines with historic production of a combined 120,000 ounces (oz) of gold. It also already hosts a tidy NI-43 101 compliant 700,000 indicated and inferred ounces across the Surluga and Minto mine south deposits at a grade of at least 5 g/t, so the potential economics for a mine look favorable.

So how did smallcap Red Pine get its hands on such an opportunity? Well, let's just say it's taken a while.

Scouting around

Yarie explained that the story began about eight years ago when Red Pine began scouting around for a decent project after the assets it had been working on had not "played out" and the firm had cash to spend.

"We found this asset (Wawa) in a bit of a bind," he said, explaining it had been in an option deal with Augustine Ventures and Citadel Gold Mines, but the former couldn't raise money and complete the option and was about to lose its stake.

Red Pine struck a deal to earn 30%, became the operator and had to spend C$2 million, which was the beginning of what was to be a lengthy process to sort out the asset's complicated ownership structure, that only ended around this time last year, when Red Pine finally consolidated a 100% ownership.

Fully funded for a C$8.4 million Phase 1 drill program this year, which is expected to be completed by July, Yarie said investors can expect a steady stream of drill results from the company in 2022 - after several positive drill assay announcements last year - as it aims to expand mineralization down-plunge and along strike at Surluga and Minto.

The aim is to push the resource to around the 2 million ounce mark, particularly by proving it extends to depth, said the Red Pine boss.

"90% of the resource is above 300m (depth) right now, so if we punch it down to 600m across the board we end up in that 2 million ounce range if everything stays status quo. If the gold mineralization gets higher grade, greater thickness we could end up with more," he explained.

For Yarie, updating the resource estimate is not key to advancing the Wawa project. He cites the example of junior Great Bear Resources (TSX-V:GBR), which was snapped up at the end of last year by major Kinross in a C$1.8 billion deal, without a resource estimate for its Dixie gold asset in Red Lake.

The thinking is that the quality of Great Bear's steady stream of exploration drill results spoke for themselves, rather than needing an official resource.

"You've just got to prove visually that there's extensive gold mineralization, and in a high hit rate like that, somebodys interest will be garnered," said Yarie.

"The idea is you always work on these things as if they're going into production ... You don't want to just be exploring to explore. You have to be adding ounces that are critical so that those new ounces can be used in a production scenario," he added.

Experienced team

And on that note, the Red Pine team is certainly laden with highly experienced technical and exploration specialists.

Yarie himself is an experienced geophysicist with three decades in the mining industry and has been with the company for over ten years, firstly as vice-president (VP) of exploration between 2009 and 2013, and in 2015, he became the chief executive officer (CEO).

He is credited with being involved in Quebec's Malartic Mine discovery and Noronts nickel deposit. He was also business development officer at airborne survey specialist Geotech Ltd and was CEO at both MacDonald Mines Exploration and Honey Badger Exploration.

Meanwhile, chairman Paul Martin was president and CEO at Detour Gold from 2013 until he retired in 2018 - he was CFO from 2008 to 2013. And Red Pine director Nils Engelstad is the vice-president and general counsel of Alamos Gold Inc, which holds a 19.3% stake in the group.

So Red Pine Exploration is a story that looks set to have a bright future.

Against what is undeniably currently a bullish outlook for gold, the company's high pedigree management, great asset, and enviable location mean it could certainly be a stock for investors to keep an eye on in the near future.

Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com
i-80 Gold CEO Ewan Downie has transformed the company by disposing of a non-core asset while acquiring multiple projects that will allow the company to run a major hub-and-spoke operation in Nevada

i-80 Gold Corp CEO Ewan Downie has the markets attention.

Through tactical masterstrokes, Downie has positioned his company on the growth fast-track. He has transformed i-80 Gold by disposing of a non-core asset while acquiring multiple projects that will allow the company to run a major hub-and-spoke operation in Nevada.

The mining veteran leveraged his relationship with Nevada Gold Mines to negotiate an asset exchange agreement that transferred Lone Tree, with complete processing infrastructure to the company. The firms portfolio now has five projects  Lone Tree, Brooks/Buffalo Mountain, Granite Creek, McCoy-Cove, and Ruby Hill, with the last two projects being recently acquired to complete the pipeline.

Lone Tree will act as the hub of i-80s operation, providing integrated processing infrastructure for all types of ore.

I expect i-80 Gold to be one of the fastest-growing gold producers. While our 2022 production is expected to be less than 50,000 ounces of gold, it is our goal to double production each year for the next several years so that we eventually become the second-largest gold producer in Nevada, Downie told Proactive.

The well-financed company ultimately aims to produce over 500,000 ounces of gold annually.

That would catapult i-80 into a mid-tier gold producer and comparable companies have market caps in the billions. Our current market cap is around $650 million. I think there's plenty of upside in our stock, added Downie.

The transformation at i-80 hasnt gone unnoticed. Stifel GMP has raised its target price for i-80 to C$6.20 per share, up from C$4.25 per share previously, and reiterated its 'Buy' rating. Sprott has also initiated coverage of i-80 Gold with a 'Buy' recommendation and a C$6 price target, citing high-grade potential.

Proactive sat down with Downie to learn more about i-80s natty Nevada mining complex and how it will create a mining juggernaut.

Proactive: Nevada has eclipsed Western Australia as the most attractive region for mining, according to Fraser Institute. Is it part of i-80s strategic philosophy to have a strong footprint in the Silver State?

Ewan Downie: Yes, it is. We view Nevada as the Golden State, not the Silver State because Nevada is the largest gold-producing US state. If Nevada were a country, it would rank amongst the largest gold-producing nations in the world. While still referred to as the Silver State, Nevada is now a more significant producer of gold. Our company is 100%-focused on Nevada  we have no projects outside the state, and we have relocated our head office from Canada to Reno so that most of our people are based there. Nevada is consistently ranked as one of the top-tier mining districts in the world and the jurisdictional risk is minimal. Its one of the best places I've ever worked in for mining and exploration.

Please elaborate on how youve transformed i-80 Gold by exchanging non-core assets and acquiring projects that will allow the company to run a hub-and-spoke operation in Nevada.

When we started i-80, part of the go-public transaction involved acquiring Granite Creek in mid-April 2021 from Waterton. We knew Granite Creek had the potential to be a core asset. At the time our only producing asset was the South Arturo Mine, a joint venture with Nevada Gold Mines (NGM). We owned 40% of South Arturo and NGM was the operator. It wasn't a large producing mine  relatively small-scale for our 40%  and we were able to negotiate a deal with NGM to trade South Arturo for the Lone Tree site, which has a complete processing facility, including the capability to process refractory gold ore. It has a tailings pond, an autoclave, floatation plant, heap leach facility, assay lab, and office buildings.

In the future, we will produce gold onsite  having acquired a turnkey processing facility in Nevada. Moreover, autoclaves capable of processing refractory ore are very rare. There are only five in the US, and all five are in Nevada, and until this transaction, four of the five were owned by NGM, giving them somewhat of a monopoly. When they approached us about acquiring our South Arturo project, the Lone Tree site was idle. We were able to cut a deal to get our own processing facilities and control our own destiny, a better outcome for our shareholders than being a minority stakeholder in a mine.

It was transformational for us to get Lone Tree, which will be the hub of our operations, with a central processing facility, operations office, assay lab, and warehouse for all our sites. Mineralization from Granite Creek, Ruby Hill, and McCoy-Cove will feed the Lone Tree autoclave, once restarted, and mineralization from the Buffalo Mountain and Brooks open pits will be processed at the Lone Tree heap leach facility. Lone Tree is the hub of our operations, while Granite Creek, Ruby Hill, McCoy-Cove, Buffalo Mountain and Brooks are the spokes.

How do you plan to execute i-80s hub-and-spoke development plan?

Weve embarked this year on building four new gold mining operations over the next three years. All four mines will ultimately feed Lone Tree. We have already started developing the Granite Creek underground mine and expect to start to ramp up into production this year. This quarter, were starting the underground advanced exploration to lead up to development at McCoy-Cove, and in the second half of the year, we expect to kickstart the development of the Buffalo Mountain/Brooks project. We expect to have three projects, in production or development, by year-end. This quarter we will have gold production coming from Ruby Hill and Lone Tree as we have heap leaching programs running at each site.

How big are i-80s gold and silver resources across its five projects in Nevada?

We have nearly 6.5 million ounces of measured and indicated resources, and more than 8 million ounces in the inferred category. We are also one of the largest holders of silver resources in the state. The Battle Mountain and Carlin trends collectively represent Nevadas most productive region, where Nevada Gold Mines produces over 3 million ounces of gold a year. NGM itself is owned by the world's two largest producers  Newmont and Barrick. They are the largest producer and resource holder in the Battle Mountain and Carlin trends, I-80 is the second-largest gold resource holder. And it's our goal to next be the second-largest producer in the region.

Two of the three underground deposits we are developing have reported high grades in excess of 10 grams per ton (g/t) gold, and our open pit grades are among the highest in the US.

Does i-80 Gold have the balance sheet to advance four project sites, restart the Lone Tree autoclave and execute on other growth initiatives?

Yes, we're in a tremendous financial position. Weve entered into a transaction with Orion Mine Finance for a gold prepay and silver stream on Ruby Hill that will ensure a very strong balance sheet going into 2023. The only real unknown is the cost to restart the Lone Tree autoclave. As such, we have awarded the engineering study for the restart of the autoclave to Hatch Ltd. Tony Carroll, the Lone Tree project director, has been retained to move the study ahead. We won't know what our ultimate financial needs are probably until the third quarter.

In the interim, we're in a very strong financial position. This year we expect to drill in excess of 50,000 meters at Ruby Hill, McCoy-Cove, and Granite Creek. We're developing the underground mine at Granite Creek and expect to have gold production this year. When we close the Orion Mine finance piece, later this month, we will have around US$190 million in cash. We also have an accordion feature that will allow us to take another $100 million, providing us with additional financial flexibility.

You come from a mining family and started Wolfden which made large polymetallic discoveries. Later you were the founder and CEO of Premier Gold Mines which was bought by Equinox Gold (TSX:EQX) in 2021. What do you consider the biggest strength you bring to i-80 Gold?

I think one of the primary strengths I bring to i-80 are relationships. My previous companies have essentially all been acquired by bigger companies as we were growing them out. During 20 years of running public companies, I have created good relationships with a lot of the large mining companies, which is where we have acquired a lot of our projects. It has allowed us to cut deals like acquiring Lone Tree that probably a lot of other companies could not have done. I've also been fortunate to have created good relationships with a lot of the banking and investment community.

Therefore, we've always been in a fortunate position to be able to raise capital when needed. Just like here in i-80, where we have a tremendous balance sheet to provide us with a platform to build an exciting growth-oriented gold producing company.

Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive
AuTeco Minerals Ltd has successfully increased the inferred mineral resource for the Pickle Grow Gold Project in Canada by 500,000 ounces to 2.23 million ounces at 7.8 g/t, an over 30% increase just six months after the last resource update.

Read: Auteco Minerals lifts Pickle Crow gold resource by 71% to 1.7 million ounces

Since September 2020, AuTeco has added some 1.2 million ounces of inferred resource at an exploration cost of A$17.58 per resource ounce, upgrading its project to what it considers world-class.

The resource is categorised based on two distinct styles of mineralisation:

the high-grade quartz vein component, which has increased to 1.92 million ounces at 9.3g/t; and

the alteration-hosted near-surface resource, which is predominantly within Banded Iron Formation (BIF). This has increased to 304,000 ounces at 3.8g/t gold.

Immense potential for ongoing increases

Pickle Crow has joined an exclusive club of global gold companies with a resource base of more than 2 million ounces in a tier-one location, AuTeco Minerals executive chair Ray Shorrocks said.

It speaks volumes about the quality of the Pickle Crow system that we added more than half-a-million ounces to the resource in just six months and at a cost of less than A$20 per ounce.

This means we have created substantial value for shareholders and also demonstrates the immense potential for ongoing increases in the inventory.

AuTeco says the speed and low cost with which the resource has been grown highlights the quality and huge remaining growth potential of the Pickle Crow mineralised system.

The companys extensive 50,000-metre drilling campaign is ongoing, with more assays expected to be returned in the coming weeks.

A regional exploration program is also ramping up, with three drill rigs assigned solely to a host of regional exploration targets with potential to add further ounces to the resource of the project.

The company is well funded to continue these exploration activities, given it holds some $10.5 million in cash as of December 31, 2021.

About AuTeco Minerals

AuTECO Minerals is an emerging mineral exploration company focused on advancing high-grade gold resources at the Pickle Crow Gold Project in the world-class Uchi sub-province of Ontario, Canada.

Pickle Crow is one of Canadas highest-grade gold mines  historically producing 1.5 million ounces at 16 g/t gold.

The company also has a joint venture on the Limestone Well Vanadium-Titanium Project in Western Australia.
The much-heralded launch of SpaceXs flagship Starship Mars rocket has been delayed by at least a month due to an ongoing environmental assessment study by US regulators.

The review of Starbase, the South Texas site where the company builds, tests and launches its space vehicles, was due to be completed by the end of last year, but has now been pushed back to 28 March.

This is the second time the assessment date, carried out by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has been moved.

The FAA may still decide a more in-depth review is required, which would delay the launch further.

In that event, Musk has said the launch would take place at NASAs Kennedy Space Centre in Florida instead.

SpaceX has long term plans to launch Starship, a rocket larger than the Eiffel Tower when upright, from multiple locations, with the company modifying two deep-sea oil rigs to serve as launch towers.

The materials used to build the space craft are fully and rapidly reusable, according to SpaceX, which the company believes will accelerate plans to colonise Mars and space.

Starship prototypes have already conducted test flights from Starbase, although these were relatively short in distance.
Net revenue for its wholesale branded division at City Trees continued to rise with monthly net revenue growth of 127% year-over-year and 191% over 2020

CLS Holdings USA (CSE:CLSH, OTCQB:CLSH), Inc said its wholly-owned subsidiaries in Nevada generated net revenue of $1.75 million and a record gross margin of 55% during January, maintaining the company's goal of achieving a greater than 50% gross margin.

The Las Vegas, Nevada-based cannabis company said net revenue for its wholesale branded division at City Trees continued to rise with monthly net revenue growth of 127% year-over-year and 191% over 2020.

"2022 is off to a great start," the companys president and chief operating officer Andrew Glashow said in a statement. "We are committed to reinvesting in our growth and made a number of significant hires to bolster our strong core team. Additionally, we are investing in our facility to ramp up greater production to keep up with our current sales trends.

During the month, CLS Holdings USA (CSE:CLSH, OTCQB:CLSH) said City Trees continued to maintain its position as the number one selling tincture brand in the state of Nevada, as reported by BDS Analytics, with sales of over 44,000 units.

Additionally, BDS Analytics reported that City Trees sold over $1 million of concentrates at retail during December 2021, the company noted.

In January, it signed two significant manufacturing deals and began exclusively producing live resin concentrates for renowned brand Sauced in Nevada. It also signed on to produce live and cured resin concentrates, live resin vape cartridges and pods, distillate vape cartridges and pods and tinctures for a notable celebrity brand set to release in Nevada in April.

We are keenly aware of the opportunities in front of us and truly believe we are well-positioned to be one of the predominant cannabis companies in the state of Nevada as consolidation continues and the cream rises to the top, Glashow concluded.

CLS stands for 'Cannabis Life Sciences', in recognition of the company's patented proprietary method of extracting various cannabinoids from the marijuana plant and converting them into products with a higher level of quality and consistency.

The company's business model includes licensing operations, processing operations, processing facilities, sale of products, brand creation and consulting services.

Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com
Michael McNeilly, chief executive of Metal Tiger PLC (AIM:MTR, OTC:MRTTF, ASX:MTR) (Metal Tiger PLC (AIM:MTR, OTC:MRTTF, ASX:MTR)) talks to Proactive London about Sandfire Resources, in which the firm have a significant position and he explains how crucial is it now that they have completed the acquisition of the MATSA complex in Spain.



And Cobre recently announced a quarterly update as well as an update on the Perrinvale project, McNeilly explains how these will develop in the rest of 2022.



And finally to the copper price, remaining robust so far this year and the world beginning to return to normal following the pandemic, he explains opportunities ahead in this environment.
Pantheon Resources PLC (AIM:PANR, OTC:PTHRF) shares continued its ascent higher on Tuesday after its latest well result in Alaska.

Rising 12% to trade at 139.18p the AIM-quoted explorer is now up around 90% over the past month, and, is now approaching a market capitalisation of 1bn.

Results to date from the Theta West well indicate high-quality light oil was encountered in two targets, the Upper Basin Floor Fan (UBFF) and Lower Basin Floor Fan (LBFF). More testing is required to firm up and further quantify the findings.

Tuesdays positive result was described as encouraging by Pantheons technical director whilst chief executive Jay Cheatham meanwhile said the company was cautiously optimistic.

The tone of the comments are perhaps more tempered than they might otherwise have been because extreme cold weather in Alaska hampered the initial testing operations.

Pantheon measured some 1,160 feet of gross hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir across two targets in the well, though only logging whilst drilling data was captured due to the freezing Arctic weather which prevented a more detailed analysis through wireline data capture.

That said, Pantheon noted that resistivity, gamma ray, neutron density, formation density data was gathered during drilling along with gas chromatography readings, meanwhile, analysts at stockbroker WH Ireland upcoming tests will in-time supersede what wouldve been captured through the wireline.

Most investors await the flow test as a more technically accessible litmus test of the emerging Alaskan oil play, with the programme expected in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, WH Ireland analyst Brendan Long said: We believe the suite of logs from the logging while drilling tool will be of a high quality and really cover the key data points one would hope to acquire from a well.

We believe the results announced today are very encouraging. The geological model works, the oil is there, the structures conform with expectations and the reservoir is better than at Talitha #A, as expected.

Elsewhere, SP Angel analyst Sam Wahab in a note described it as encouraging initial update.

Following these wells, the PANR intends to drill the Alkaid 2 well in Spring/Summer 2022 which, if successful, can commence production soon thereafter, the analyst added.

What the company says

In this mornings statement, Pantheon technical director Bob Rosenthal said: "This an encouraging result.

Our initial assessment of 1,160 feet of light hydrocarbons 1,500 ft structurally updip from Talitha, with better porosities, is in line with our pre-drill geologic model.

It is very much a case of so far, so good."

Jay Cheatham, Pantheon chief executive, meanwhile, added: "We are cautiously optimistic that testing will prove the commercial viability of the BFF at this location, with all indications so far supporting our pre-drill assumptions.
Kenorland said it is awaiting final assays from the 2021 drill program concluded at the Healy Project in Alaska

Kenorland Minerals Ltd (TSX-V:KLD) has updated investors on its ongoing exploration activities across North America as it prepares for an active year of exploration with multiple projects located in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Alaska being advanced through the exploration pipeline.

The Vancouver-based mineral exploration company said it is well funded to carry out its anticipated 2022 exploration activities having approximately C$8.2 million in working capital at the beginning of January 2022.

It also announced executive management changes and the granting of incentive options.

Eastern Canada Exploration Update:

Frotet Project, Quebec (joint venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.): At the Regnault gold discovery, a 10,000-metre diamond drill program is underway targeting step-outs along strike and down dip of the R1 and R2 trends as well as targeting additional gold-bearing structures within the Regnault area. The drill program represents the final phase of exploration within the fiscal 2021 budget set in March of last year. Kenorland said it expects to announce the fiscal 2022 jointly-funded exploration program and budget later in the first quarter. In addition, complete results from the remaining 7,968 metres (m) of drilling, including 25 holes from the 17,792m drill program concluded in October 2021 are expected to be received and reported during the first quarter.

Chicobi Project, Quebec (Optioned to Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.): Kenorland recently completed detailed UAV magnetic, induced polarization (IP), and electromagnetic (EM) geophysical surveys at Target B, a coherent multi-element geochemical glacial till anomaly, within the Chicobi Project. It plans to carry out a 2,500m maiden diamond drill program beginning in March at Target B. This drill program will conclude the fiscal 2021 budget approved by Sumitomo Metal Mining. The fiscal 2022 partner-funded exploration program and budget is anticipated to be announced later in the first quarter.

Chebistuan Project, Quebec (Optioned to Newmont Corporation): Kenorland recently completed a high-resolution heli-magnetic survey and is currently carrying out an IP survey at Deux Orignaux, a coherent multielement geochemical glacial till anomaly identified last year following two phases of regional exploration, which covered the entire 161,025-hectare property. The company said it is awaiting assays from the boulder prospecting and bulk till sampling surveys carried out last fall within the same target area. The 2022 partner-funded exploration program and budget are expected to be announced later in the first quarter.

Hunter Project, Quebec (Optioned to Centerra Gold Inc): The company said the 2022 partner-funded exploration program and budget are anticipated to be announced in the coming weeks.

South Uchi Project, Ontario (Optioned to Barrick Gold Corp): In 2021, a property-wide regional till sampling program was completed including a total of 1,904 samples collected, covering the 65,657-hectare South Uchi Project in the Red Lake Mining District of Ontario. Kenorland said it expects to announce the 2022 partner-funded exploration program and budget within the first or second quarter.

Alaska Exploration Update:

Healy Project, Alaska (Joint Venture with Newmont Corporation): In 2021, Kenorland completed 5,200m of diamond drilling including 15 holes testing the Bronk, Thor and Spike target areas associated with an extensive gold system in the Goodpaster District of Alaska. In addition to the drill program, high-powered IP and magnetotellurics (MT) geophysical surveys were completed transecting the three target areas. The company said it is awaiting final assays from the drill program concluded in September 2021 and expects to announce results within the first quarter.

Kenorland also announced that it has completed its Phase 1 earn-in minimum work expenditures of US$4m for which it has earned a 70% interest in the Healy Project. Joint funding has commenced whereby it and Newmont are participating on a pro-rata basis of 70% and 30%, respectively.

Tanacross Project, Alaska (100% owned): In 2021 Kenorland completed an extensive soil geochemical and mapping survey covering East Taurus, West Taurus, South Taurus and Big Creek prospects. A total of 1,870 soil samples were collected for which complete assays have recently been received. Detailed UAV magnetic surveys, consisting of over 600 line kilometres were flown over the same target areas and IP and MT surveys were completed over the South Taurus target area. It expects results from these surveys along with the 2022 exploration program to be announced soon once the final compilation and targeting have been completed.

Project Generation:

Kenorland said it has recently applied for additional Mineral Exploration Licenses to add to its growing portfolio of early-stage exploration projects in the province of Manitoba, with a commodity focus on nickel and gold.

Executive Management Changes:

Kenorland also announced that it has appointed Francis MacDonald as president along with Scott Smits as vice president of exploration, and Janek Wozniewski as vice president of operations.

MacDonald is a co-founder of Kenorland and has been with the company since its formation in 2016 as executive vice president of exploration. The company noted that he is an exploration geologist who has spent much of his career with Newmont Corporation managing grassroots exploration projects in North America, West Africa, and East Africa.

Smits is also a co-founder of the company and has been chief geologist since 2016. His most recent role before joining Kenorland was senior geologist within Newmont Corporation's Exploration Development Group conducting project generation and evaluations in North America.

Wozniewski joined Kenorland in 2019 as exploration manager and has been an integral part of the team managing its exploration operations across North America. Before joining Kenorland, he consulted with numerous resource and energy companies focusing on program planning and project management.

Kenorland revealed that it has granted options to directors, officers, and employees to acquire a total of 1,375,000 of its common shares at the exercise price of $0.70 per share for five years. The options vest 25% immediately followed by 25% every six months thereafter, it said.

Kenorland's focus is early to advanced-stage exploration in North America. It currently holds four projects in Quebec where work is being completed under joint venture and earn-in agreement from third parties.

In Alaska, the company owns 100% of the advanced stage Tanacross porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum project as well as a 70% interest in the Healy Project, held under joint venture with Newmont Corporation.

Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com
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Patna, Feb 15 : The concept of Bio-fortified rice farming is getting popular among farmers in Bihar these days as it is not just nutritious but also helps in increasing the farmers' earning.

It is believed that bio-fortified rice has rich contents of nutrition including protein and zinc which is helpful to fight with malnutrition among children especially in a financially backward state like Bihar.

One such initiative was taken in Bihar's Samastipur district where farmers started the cultivation of bio-fortified rice in Kalyanpur-Samartha village.

"We have started cultivation of bio-fortified rice in a 2.5 acre land in Kalyanpur- Samartha in Samastipur district as a pilot project and it has given good yield despite adverse situations. It is a new technique introduced in the farming sector not only to enhance the nutrition of a product but also to increase the earning of farmers. We need support from the state government to provide seeds," a local farmer said.

"Over the years, more than 20 districts of North Bihar have been affected by floods every year. Last year, flood water entered into districts like Samastipur, Muzaffarpur and Vaishali. Interestingly, our crops sustained in adverse climatic situations and yielded a good amount of agricultural produce," he said, while pointing out that the water logged in agricultural fields for extended periods due to choked drains connected with different rivers.

"I used one 2.5 acre land for farming and used 50 kg seeds of bio-fortified rice in Samastipur. Besides, the same cultivation is also done in Bela Bilaspur in West Champaran district," he said.

The farmer was guided by some experts of India Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Bihar origin NRIs related to an USA based forum called Global Indian Scientists and Technocrats (GIST).

Sharad Mohan, a Bihar origin NRI based in USA along with some other technocrats were working in the field of technologically upgrading Indian agriculture, had planned such an initiative last year.

"We took it as challenge to connect technology with farmers that would not only enhance their income but also help to fight micronutrient deficiency," Mohan said.

The shift from normal farming of paddy to bio-fortified rice may prove to be a boon to the state like Bihar that ranks lowest with more than 48 per cent stunted children in the country.

"It could be a good initiative to introduce bio-fortified rice in the mid-day meal program of the state government in schools, Anganwadi centers and different food distribution programs to cater the needs of poor families having undernourished children. The bio-fortified rice has high protein content of 10.1 per cent and Zinc containing 20 ppm as per the claim of National Rice Research Institute Cuttack," Mohan said.

"Bio-fortification could be a step for India's transition from availability and access to nutrition security and eradicating hidden hunger. I firmly believe that Bihari Thali would soon transform into a Nutria-Thali after adoption followed by replication of the practice by the farmers in the state," he said.

"Some of the senior officials Ashok K. Singh, DDG of ICAR has shown special interest in this initiative. He has provided expert views and support for the farming of bio-fortified rice," Mohan added.

"The cultivation of rice would certainly fetch a premium price in the market. It required branding followed by awareness and advertisement at government level to promote this product. Qualitative analysis, especially nutrition aspects mentioned on the packets are key here to promote the product. At present, rice means carbohydrate which the people know. Once they know about the nutrition aspect like protein and zinc, people from across the country and world attract towards it," said Aditya Satsangi, a USA based agriculture trader and owner of a farm named kisanpro.com.

"India is a big market for bio-fortified rice. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also pointed out this in his Independence Day speech from Red Fort this year. Besides India, if we target African countries, it would give good export opportunities to generate foreign revenue for the domestic farmers as well," Rachit Garg, a trader of HFN Mandi said.

"We are looking forward to buying bio-fortified rice from farmers of Bihar and selling it off in the countrywide market," he says.

Bihar has good potential to produce bio-fortified rice especially in districts such as Rohtas, Kaimur, Bhojpur, Buxar which are known as "Dhan Ka Katora" of Bihar. Apart from these districts, the cultivation of rice is being done in all 38 districts as well.
Kiev, Feb 15 : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has held a meeting with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss regional security challenges, the presidential press service reported.

After the talks in Kiev, Zelensky told reporters that the two parties talked over the peace process in and around Ukraine and the legal guarantees that would help to protect Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported.

In particular, Zelensky said that Ukraine needs energy security guarantees due to the risks associated with the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.

Besides, the parties discussed the steps that have been made within the framework of a peaceful settlement in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, in particular the two rounds of talks in the Normandy format at the level of political advisors.

"We expect that in the near future we will be able to hold further talks and agree on a summit of the leaders of the Normandy Four," Zelensky said.

For his part, Scholz said that Germany is trying to find a diplomatic solution to the situation around Ukraine.

"Together with France, we have intensified our efforts in the Normandy format. It's a difficult process, but I'm sure it's worth the effort," Scholz said.

Zelensky and Scholz also discussed Ukraine's aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during their talks.

At the press conference after the talks, Scholz said that Ukraine's possible accession to NATO is currently "out of the agenda", Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

Ukraine and Germany are members of the Normandy format that also includes Russia and France.

Scholz arrived in Kiev earlier in the day for a working visit. On Tuesday he will visit Moscow.

Since November, Kiev and some Western countries have accused Russia of assembling heavy troops near the Ukrainian border with a possible intention of "invasion".

Russia denied the accusation, saying that Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory as NATO's activities constitute a threat to Russia's border security.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Washington, Feb 15 : US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced that the US will temporarily relocate its embassy in Ukraine from the capital city of Kiev to the western city of Lviv, citing escalating tensions on Ukraine's borders.

"We are in the process of temporarily relocating our Embassy operations in Ukraine from our Embassy in Kyiv to Lviv due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces," Blinken said, using the Romanized spelling of the name of the capital city from the Ukrainian language.

"The Embassy will remain engaged with the Ukrainian government, coordinating diplomatic engagement in Ukraine," Xinhua news agency quoted the secretary as saying.

He added that his country also remains "engaged with the Russian government" and that the "path for diplomacy remains available." The State Department on Saturday ordered the departure of most US direct hire employees from the embassy in Kiev, a decision it claimed was made "due to the continued threat of Russian military action" against neighboring Ukraine.

Passport, visa and other routine consular services have been suspended since Sunday, according to the department, and the mission of the now-reduced U.S. diplomatic team is to "handle emergencies" in Lviv.

The US and the Russian top diplomats and defense officials held separate telephone conversations Saturday to discuss the Ukraine crisis, followed later in the same day by a high-stakes phone call between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In addition to evacuating its diplomatic staff, the US has also been urging its nationals currently in Ukraine to depart immediately, warning that those who choose to stay cannot count on the US military to come to their rescue in the event that war breaks out in Ukraine.

Washington has been releasing intelligence purporting an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine but refused to back it up with details. Moscow, for its part, has repeatedly denied any intention to invade, accusing the Biden administration of "hysteria."
Seoul, Feb 15 : South Korea reaffirmed its commitment to comprehensive vaccine support for Asia's developing countries during a virtual session hosted by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to Seoul's foreign ministry Tuesday.

Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon delivered the message at the Covid-19 Global Action Meeting held the previous day, Yonhap news agency reported.

Choi said South Korea will offer a "support package," including vaccine supplies, cold chains, storage logistics, to help improve health care infrastructure in those nations.

Seoul also plans to work with the World Health Organization to train local health care workers for relevant programs, he added.

Top diplomats and other senior representatives of 16 nations and other international organizations participated in the meeting to outline the urgent actions required by the global community to vaccinate 70 percent of the world's population against the coronavirus by mid-2022.
Agra, Feb 15 : Bajrang Dal members have been booked for allegedly harassing couples in public places on the occasion of Valentine's Day on Monday.

Agra DIG-SSP Sudhir Kumar Singh said that an FIR was registered after it came to light that the Bajrang Dal members had harassed boys and girls in the city.

"Some boys and girls were sitting in the Paliwal Park under Hariparvat police circle. Some Bajrang Dal workers reached there and misbehaved with them. A case has been lodged at the local police station and legal action is being taken," Singh said.

Earlier in the day, the Bajrang Dal activists, including women, had reached the park where they rounded up young boys and girls in their opposition to the Valentine's Day celebration. Videos of the incidents went viral on the social media.

One video showed a woman activist wearing saffron stole around her neck, catching hold of a girl in a school uniform and checking her identity card and asking her to call her parents.

"This is a western culture which is flourishing in India but it will not be allowed to flourish here," said Avtar Singh Gill, who identified himself as an office-bearer of Bajrang Dal.

He urged the 'Sanatan Dharma' followers to question such Hindu boys and girls not only on Valentine's Day but every day when they see such couples in public, in order to 'save Hindutva'.
Mau, Feb 15 : Jailed mafia don-and-MLA Mukhtar Ansari's is now unlikely to contest the ongoing Assembly elections.

His son Abbas Ansari has filed his nomination papers from the Mau Sadar assembly constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh as a candidate of the Suheldev Bhartaiya Samaj Party (SBSP), an ally of the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Mukhtar Ansari, currently lodged in Banda jail, is a five-term MLA and has been representing the Mau Sadar seat since 1996.

Mau will go to polls in the seventh and last phase on March 7.

After filing his nomination, Abbas Ansari said, "My father is a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar. He will not contest the election this time. It is a son's duty to carry forward the legacy of his father. Mau is my 'karmabhoomi' and I will carry forward my father's political legacy. I will leave no stone unturned for it." Asked why Mukhtar decided not to contest, Abbas Ansari claimed "democracy is under threat today".

He further said that a conspiracy was being hatched so that his father could not file his nomination. "In such a situation, he has handed over his legacy to me," Abbas Ansari said.

Mukhtar Ansari's lawyer Daroga Singh said, "He (Mukhtar) has handed over his political legacy to his son Abbas Ansari. Abbas filed his nomination as the SBSP candidate from the Mau Sadar Assembly seat, which Mukhtar won five times consecutively. Now, Abbas will be in electoral politics." This time, the BJP has fielded Ashok Singh, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded its state president Bhim Rajbhar and the Congress candidate is Madhavendra Bahadur Singh from Mau Sadar, which has been a bastion of Mukhtar Ansari, who first won the seat in 1996 as a BSP candidate.

Mukhtar Ansari retained the seat as an independent in 2002 and 2007, and as a Quami Ekta Dal candidate in 2012. In 2017, he won the seat on the BSP ticket.

Abbas Ansari had contested the 2017 assembly election from Ghosi as a BSP candidate and finished second to the BJP's Phagu Chauhan.
San Francisco, Feb 15 : Popular social media app Snapchat is reportedly planning to start showing ads on stories, which will help creators earn money.

It is being tested with a small group of creators in the US and will allow people to earn money from mid-roll ads that appear in the middle of Snapchat Stories.

While only a limited number of people can get in on the act now, Snapchat will roll the feature out to everyone in the coming months, reports The Verge.

Snapchat has added various ways for creators to monetize their presence on the app. Snapchat users already see ads in between friends' Stories and on the Discover section.

Snapchat recently added some new features along with bitmoji reactions to facilitate fun interaction.

There are seven options to choose from, including thumbs up, thumbs down, a heart, a flame and tears of joy.

On top of that, Snapchat users can poll friends in snaps and stories.

They can respond to your question with an emoji, and you'll be able to see how everyone voted. You will find the option in the sticker folder.
Lucknow, Feb 15 : "Naam Samajwadi Kaam tamanchawadi aur soch parivarwadi" -- this is the Samajwadi Party," said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while campaigning in Mainpuri, considered to be a SP bastion.

The chief minister lashed out at SP and said, "The SP's basic objective is to patronise criminals and think about the welfare of only one family. There used to be bombing during the day time and robbery in the night. The mafia had no fear of law and used to grab the property of the common man." He said the level of anarchy was so high that people were afraid of coming out of their houses. "There used to be riots during festivals and curfews were imposed for months," he said.

"For SP, socialism is anarchy, corruption, dynastic rule, mafia, loot and terrorism. When the BJP came to power, criminals had to flee. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav gets restless whenever we speak about bulldozers, because unaccounted cash was recovered from the house of his friend who traded in perfume," Yogi Adityanath said.

He further said that the Akhilesh government was not interested in the upliftment of the poor, protection of women, and jobs and employment to youth. The SP was more concerned about the terrorists who attacked Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya and CRPF camp in Rampur.

"Cases lodged against them were taken back by the SP when it came to power in 2012," he said, adding that during the SP regime, mafia and goons used to fly in helicopters and were honoured.

Yogi said his government worked for the welfare of the poor while the SP government stopped pension of the elderly and widows.

He said that no electricity was provided even to the land of sage Mayan which contributed to raising the flag of India's 'Sanatan Dharma' since time immemorial.

"Those who looted your schemes, ate poor's ration, pocketed funds for roads and electricity and pension for widows and elderly, and occupied houses of the poor are being searched by us. We have a stick of development in one hand and a lever of bulldozer against the mafia in the other," he said while attacking the Yadav clan.
Prayagraj : , Feb 15 (IANS) The Allahabad High Court has pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for not submitting the post-mortem reports of a victim of the 2006 Nithari murder case.

A division bench comprising Justices Manoj Mishra and Sameer Jain was hearing a petition filed by convict Surinder Koli against his death sentence on Monday.

The petition was filed under CrPC sections 91 and 294.

Koli was found guilty of raping and murdering several children between 2005 and 2006 and was sentenced to death in more than 10 cases.

The petition demanded to present the post-mortem reports of Pinky Sarkar, a victim in the case, along with 15 others. However, despite directions by the court, the CBI could not present the report of one of the victims.

Advocate Sanjay Kumar Yadav, appearing for the CBI, said that they have prepared a draft reply and it has been sent to the concerned department for investigation but the reply is awaited.

All the appeals against the conviction of Surendra Koli and co-accused Moninder Singh Pandher, accused of brutal murder and rape in the Nithari case, have been directed to be presented for hearing on March 3, 2022.

The Nithari murders were committed between 2005 and 2006. The case came to light when in December 2006, skeletons were found in a drain near a house in Nithari, Noida.
Varanasi, Feb 15 : An exhibition of visual arts organised at Banaras Hindu University has led to a major controversy.

Amresh Kumar, assistant professor of Visual Arts himself, has superimposed his picture on a painting of Lord Shri Ram and his wife's face on the picture of Sita.

The exhibition has been organised in the Faculty of Visual Arts of Banaras Hindu University.

Angry students are now demanding action against Amresh Kumar and have accused him of inciting religious sentiments.

Amresh Kumar said that this is not a big deal, because Ram belongs to everyone. He did not take further questions on the matter.

The BHU administration has, so far, remained silent on the controversy.

The students have said that if action was not taken at the earliest, they would start a protest.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday will inaugurate The Energy and Resources Institute's (TERI) latest edition of the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) that will deliberate on the planetary resilience in wake of the multitude of extreme weather events across the globe in the recent years.

Curated on the theme 'Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future', the experts at the Summit will confer on a range of pressing issues from climate change, sustainable production and energy transitions to global commons and resource security, among others.

Apart from Modi's inaugural address, the keynote addresses will be delivered by President of the Republic of Guyana Dr Irfaan Ali and Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed. India's Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav will make the opening address.

The Summit would also see participation of Ministers for Environment from about a dozen countries, representatives from the United Nations, heads of inter-governmental organizations, and delegates from 126 countries, a statement from TERI said.

"It is our conscious effort at creating a platform where stakeholders from across the world sit together to deliberate on solutions that are based on sustainability and green growth. TERI is a pioneer in these areas and WSDS 2022 will play a crucial part in accentuating our role in providing technological, policy as well as knowledge solutions as India works towards realising the commitments made at COP26," Director General, TERI, Dr Vibha Dhawan said.

A high-profile ministerial session on sustainable consumption and production in developed countries will be attended by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the US, John Kerry as well as Ministers of Environment from France, Canada, Norway, Finland, France, Spain, and Germany. Other key speakers at the Summit that ends on February 18 include Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa, and Egypt's Minister of Environment Dr Yasmine Fouad and Maldives' Foreign Minister, Abdulla Shahid.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Jerusalem, Feb 15 : Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has arrived on a historic trip in Bahrain, marking the first-ever visit by a premier of the Jewish state to the Gulf nation.

Before departing for Bahrain on Monday, the Prime Minister told reporters that he is scheduled to meet King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa and hold a series of meetings, "the goal of which is to provide content and energy for the peace between the two countries".

In a separate statement, the Prime Minister's Office said Bennett and the Crown Prince will also discuss "additional ways to strengthen bilateral ties" and exchange views on "the importance of peace, advancement and prosperity in the region, and especially the advancement of diplomatic and economic issues, with an emphasis on technology and innovation".

Bennett is slated to meet other Bahraini Ministers and representatives of the local Jewish community during the duration of the trip, Xinhua news agency reported.

During their meeting on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow last November, the Bahraini Crown Prince invited the Israeli premier for a first official visit.

In September 2020, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) agreed to normalise their ties with Israel under Us-brokered agreements, known as the Abraham Accords.

In December 2021, Bennett visited the UAE for the first time.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Referring to a plea in the Karnataka High Court to defer hearing on the 'hijab' row till the Assembly polls were over, the BJP has raised questions over the timing of the row and said the row was not a controversy, but a conspiracy against India.

A plea has been filed in the high court to defer the hearing on the hijab row till the Assembly polls are over in five states. The court said that the application is not listed and we can consider if this request was made by the Election Commission or authority holding elections.

Pointing to the plea, BJP national General Secretary C.T. Ravi said, "In the ongoing hijab row, petitioner students have filed an application before the High Court to postpone their case until the completion of Elections in five States. What do students have to do with Assembly Elections? Does anyone still believe that the hijab issue was not pre-planned?" "The hijab row is not a controversy, it is a conspiracy against India," he said.

The Karnataka High Court on Monday adjourned hearing on the petitions filed in connection with the hijab row Tuesday.

Last week, the high court had restrained students from wearing hijab or any other religious attire until further orders.

Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that everyone should abide by the Karnataka High Court's order on the hijab row.

"Schools up to 10th standard have reopened today (Monday). A few incidents have been reported from various districts. A meeting would be convened to discuss the standard operating procedures. School managements, principals and parents share the responsibility of obeying the high court order. It will create a conducive atmosphere for the high court to deliver its final judgement. We should maintain restraint till then," Bommai had said on Monday.

The hijab row, which started last month in Udupi Pre-University College after six girl students refused to remove hijab and were disallowed from entering the class. The row has snowballed into a major issue in the state and has hit international attention too. The bench had asked the media not to publish passing remarks and arguments by the counsel until the final order is issued on the matter.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The 8th session of the India-Italy Foreign Office Consultations was held in Rome wherein both the nations deliberated on the bilateral relations and agreed on the need to commence negotiations on the India-EU Free Trade and Investment Agreements at the earliest, the Ministry of External Affairs informed.

Discussions also covered regional and global issues of mutual interest, including multilateral cooperation at various international fora. They reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing consultation and cooperation bilaterally and in regional and multilateral context.

During the meet on Monday, both sides reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations including cooperation in the political, trade & economic, defence, science & technology, energy, health, consular and cultural spheres and expressed satisfaction at the renewed momentum in bilateral relations thanks to regular high level exchanges and shared commitment of both sides to further intensify cooperation in a wide range of areas, the ministry said.

India welcomed Italy's interest in the implementation of the EU's Indo-Pacific guidelines and the India-EU connectivity partnership. India-Italy took stock of the progress in implementation of the Plan of Action agreed during the virtual summit in November 2020 and welcomed the Strategic Partnership on Energy Transition launched by the two Prime Ministers in October 2021 which offers fresh opportunities for deepening multi-faceted ties.

The Indian delegation was led by Reenat Sandhu, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs and the Italian delegation was led by Luca Sabbatucci, Director General for Global Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The last FOC was held in 2019 in New Delhi. Both sides agreed to hold the next consultations at a mutually convenient date in New Delhi.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Chennai, Feb 15 : The upcoming Indian Neutrino Observatory project (INO) in Tamil Nadu's Theni has gained momentum following a 'no objection' certificate by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which is one of the partners of the prestigious project, on Monday submitted before the Supreme Court that the NTCA had given a no-objection certificate to the Union Environment Minister in March last year.

The TIFR in its contention said that Rajendra C Garawad, Deputy Inspector General of Forests at NTCA had in an e-mail to the Union Environment Minister said: "Approximately 0.88 km of underground tunnel of the proposed project is inside the tiger corridor. Further, this authority has no-objection to the proposed project as the tunnel is underground." The apex court will hear the matter further on February 22.

Notably, the Neutrino project of the Centre is to come up at the Pottipuram village in the Bodi West Hill bordering Kerala and will be the largest basic science project in India.

The underground laboratory coming up at the project will house a 50-kilo ton magnetised iron calorimeter detector to detect atmospheric neutrinos.

In a statement on Monday, the Neutrino Project Director Gobinda Majumdar said that the project comprises 26.825 hectares of revenue land above ground and 4.62 hectares of land underground comprising the tunnels and lab caverns.

He said that the surface facilities are purely restricted to the revenue land and lie totally outside the forest land and that there won't be any disturbance to the forest land or tiger corridor. As far as the underground construction is concerned, the tunnel entrance commences at the revenue land and the horizontal tunnel is deep before it enters the forest land.

However, the state forest officials are skeptical of the project and dismissive of the idea and a senior officer said: "As per Section 38-O(1)(g) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, areas linking one tiger reserve or protected area with another tiger reserve or protected area are not diverted for ecologically sustainable uses, except in public interest and with the approval of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) and on advice of NTCA" The wildlife authorities also said that these corridors are the key to tigers' genetic flow and dispersion that leads to an increase in the tiger population. He said that the Mathikettan -Periyar tiger corridor was in a very small strip of land that is not more than 1 km in width and was extremely vital as it is the only link to Periyar Tiger Reserve, Mathikettan Shola National Park, Annamalai Tiger Reserve, Eravikulam national park and the Srivilluputhur Meghamalai Tiger reserve for the free movement of tigers.

It is to be recalled that the INO project has drawn flak from environmentalists that it would lead to the disturbance for the ecologically sensitive areas of Theni and the Mathikettan Tiger reserve. Senior CPI(M) leader and then Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had also raised his objections to the project and had come out strongly against the possible degradation the project would cause to the environment and the tiger life.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Pakistan Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Bajwa held meetings with President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan on the same day in a rare move, Dawn news reported.

Although the army chief's meeting with the Prime Minister took place on the sidelines of the apex committee on Afghanistan's session, it is rare for a COAS to meet both heads of the state and the government on the same day, the report said.

The brevity of a statement on the Khan-Bajwa meeting issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) added to the curiosity of political observers about what could have been possibly discussed between them.

All that the PMO had to say about the meeting was "Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Prime Minister Imran Khan today. Professional matters pertaining to Pakistan Army were discussed during the meeting".

Press statements on the meetings between Khan and Gen Bajwa have been typically pro forma since their public disagreement over the appointment of Inter-Services Intelligence director general.

There have been just two publicly disclosed meetings between the two since October 26, 2021 the day Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum was notified as the new director general, though they have been together at forums attended by other functionaries as well.

Meanwhile, the presidency's statement gave a little more insight into the meeting between Alvi and the COAS, suggesting that they had a focused discussion on the recent terrorism incidents in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Gen Bajwa "briefed the President about the professional preparedness and measures being taken by the security forces against the terrorist elements", the presidency stated, adding that the army chief reiterated the resolve "to eliminate militants and miscreants from the country".
Mumbai, Feb 15 : Mining major Vedanta and Hon Hai Technology Group, better known as Foxconn, which is the world's largest electronics manufacturing company, have collaborated to manufacture semiconductors in India, as the government opens the PLI (performance-linked incentive) scheme to locally manufacture chips in the country.

This first-of-its-kind joint venture between the two companies will support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to create an ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in the country, the companies said in a statement.

According to the MoU, Vedanta will hold the majority of the equity in the JV, while Foxconn will be the minority shareholder.

Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal will be the Chairman of the joint venture company.

The targeted project plans to invest in manufacturing semiconductors. It will provide a significant boost to domestic manufacturing of electronics in India.

"Discussions are currently ongoing with a few state governments to finalise the location of the plant," said Foxconn.

The government recently approved an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore ($10 billion) for the development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem.

The PLI and other schemes to boost semiconductors will not only help domestic companies to overcome the challenges posed by Covid-19 but also assist them to become globally competitive, especially in chip making, it added.

Semiconductors are an integral part of modern technology used in automobiles and its components, electronic and medical devices.

The Vedanta-Foxconn is the first joint venture in the electronics manufacturing space after the announcement of the policy.

The government had notified the National Policy on Electronics 2019 (NPE 2019) scheme to position India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by encouraging and driving capabilities in the country for developing core components, including chipsets.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Expanding cooperation between European and Russian businesses is the most effective way to achieve sustainable and innovative development goals, agreed the experts of the Verona Eurasian Forum at a visiting session held at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on February 10 in Moscow.

The Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona plays a significant role in shaping dialogue to impact society positively through international cooperation.

The visiting session of the Eurasian Forum convened business, political and science experts to identify opportunities for further development of joint action. The participants highlighted that business and economic diplomacy had acquired a decisive influence globally.

One of the most crucial areas of international economic cooperation between Russia and the EU countries remains the energy sector, which has gained greater prominence amid the global fight against climate change. The multilateral joint work in the energy transition is imperative to ensure a reliable and sustainable future.

During the session, the business leaders outlined joint plans and commitment to energy, ecology, and social infrastructure advancements. Russian and Italian experts discussed the recent trends and pivotal issues in the energy transition. Innovative technologies for renewable energy sources, production of green hydrogen, and safe nuclear power were among the key topics around economic and trade cooperation
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) cyber crime wing has arrested a man in Lahore in connection with running a 'malicious campaign' against Prime Minister Imran Khan's wife Bushra Bibi on social media, Dawn news reported.

An FIA official said Sabir Mahmood was arrested in Model Town in Lahore on Monday for allegedly running a "propaganda campaign", adding that "more arrests are expected in this matter".

Earlier, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib called out "certain quarters" for pushing "fake stories" about the Bishra Bibi and asked them to stay away from cheap tactics such as dragging an apolitical woman into politics.

A close aide of the Prime Minister warned on Sunday that the government was going to move court against the journalist who issued "insulting and fabricated" statements against the First Lady, the Daily Pakistan reported.

Special Assistant to thePrime Minister on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill said "strict legal action will be taken against those who spread false news about the First Lady", the report said.

A journalist had claimed a day ago that Bushra Bibi had "got into a fight with Prime Minister Imran Khan" and left Bani Gala for Lahore where she would be staying at her friend Farah Khan's house, the report said.

The journalist's statement spread on social media like a wildfire and was widely shared in WhatsApp groups.
Mumbai, Feb 15 : Actor Himansh Kohli recently went to Dehradun to shoot for his upcoming film 'Boondi Raita' and he had a wonderful time in the city. The actor shares his experience, and things he would cherish forever.

"It is a nice and easy city which has its own pace. Dehradun gives an energetic vibe because of the abundance of educational institutions, and well-educated crowd. I really loved interacting with the people there and genuinely felt they are very welcoming," he says.

The actor then goes on to elaborate on his experience.

"No matter how many difficulties you face, if you are strong and determined, things can turn in your favour. This film saw two waves of Covid-19 before it could even go on the floor. It was announced in 2019 and we finished shooting in January 2022. But, I'm glad that we also got the time to make it so much more relevant and tune it in our favour as we got more time to work on every aspect. One of the most memorable things was that this film received the opening from the honourable CM of Uttarakhand, Shri Pushkar Dhami ji and we wrapped up the shoot with a Ganga Aarti. Now we have only good things to expect," he shares.

In between his work Himansh did try and explore Dehradun and places around it.

"Dehradun was my home for about three months and I lived there like a local. I went to temples, bakeries, scenic spots of the city etc. I also went to Mussoorie and Rishikesh a couple of times. Once the shoot was over I did everything that a Dehradun localite would do on his regular days," he adds.

Himansh sounds happy to have been able to work after such a long gap and finish the project. Now, he is looking forward to the release of the film.

"What can I say, destiny has its own timelines and you can't do much when you're not supposed to be doing something. But, we utilized the time in our favour and kept reworking the script, the dialogues, the music and everything we could have achieved sitting in our homes. We planned so much that we didn't face a hiccup when we went on the floors and the shoot wrapped up in the exact timeframe as expected. 'Der aaye par durust aaye', and I hope we will do well at the box-office," he is keeping his fingers crossed.

There's a lot in the pipeline waiting to be executed that has been pushed due to Covid, reveals the actor. "But, as per my confirmation, I'll announce new projects the moment they are on the floor. I don't want to say anything till that happens," he says.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 15 : A group of migrant labourers from West Bengal, onboard a train from Ernakulam to Howrah, thrashed a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) on Tuesday morning after he penalised them for ticketless travel.

The incident took place between Ernakulam and Aluva when around 10 migrant labourers got together and beat up TTE Bessy who hails from Ernakulam district.

Bessy was sitting and writing the penalty when he was hit by the labourers and in the melee, one of them threw out his mobile and files.

However, when the train reached Thrissur station, the Railway Police took into custody two of the attackers, while the others escaped.

The injured Railway official was first taken to a state-run hospital at Thrissur and later shifted to a leading private hospital for expert treatment.

The official is understood have informed the police that he will be able to identify his tormentors and the case will now be investigated by the local police too.
Bhopal, Feb 15 : In an effort to create awareness among the farmers about the sustainable and chemical-free farming, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has set up an exhibition centre called -- 'Shashwat Bharat Krushi Rath' in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior district.

This Shashwat Bharat Krushi Rath is a moving replica of Pune-based sustainable farming and rural entrepreneurship centre, which has been conceptualised to inform farmers about globally acclaimed sustainable, natural, chemical-free farming methods, along with holistic development of soil and more. It will also inform farmers about the appropriate market linkages, post-harvest technologies and policies related to agriculture and allied businesses.

The centre has been built to achieve holistic development and fight against the agrarian crisis. It aims to strengthen the farmers' economy by imparting education on sustainable agriculture practices and to achieve everlasting sustainable farms. The system was inaugurated by Union agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday.

The exhibition has been set up to demonstrate the worth of sustainable farming from the grassroots level. It will touch base on points, for instance, what crops and when to grow them, how to grow their produce with the various available natural resources in their farm, market linkage.

As per the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, this is the first such kind of initiative in the country and in coming months, the Rath will travel across the villages of India and spend 3-4 days at every location.

Tomar said, "The initiative will help farmers in India to become sustainable with the use of modern farming techniques. Gwalior is the first place where this exhibition has been set up and in the coming days it will reach across the country." Meanwhile, Tomar also congratulated the Pune-based The Eco Factory Foundation (TEFF) team, which is the main unit behind the setting up of the exhibition centre in Gwalior.
Geneva, Feb 15 : The World Health Organisation (WHO) has lauded the efforts of South African researchers, who have set up a hub to develop mRNA-based vaccines against Covid-19.

In June last year, the WHO helped set up Africa's first Covid mRNA vaccine technology-transfer hub in South Africa, with participants including Afrigen, the Biovac Institute and local universities. The aim was to scale up vaccine production to address those massive shortfalls in the developing world.

Earlier this month, the researchers made microlitres of the vaccine based on Moderna's Covid shot.

Moderna's shot was chosen to replicate because more information on its development was available publicly, compared with Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine.

"I've just returned from South Africa yesterday, where I saw first-hand the progress underway at the WHO mRNA vaccine technology transfer Hub," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the virtual Covid-19 Small Group Minister Meeting hosted by the US Department of State, late on Monday.

"I have just witnessed the collaborative work being done at the Hub...the commitment from the government and the private sector is real.

"Fostering local vaccine manufacturing capacity throughout the globe, supplemented by temporary intellectual property waivers for Covid-19 tools, will help bring this pandemic to an end and keep us all safer," Ghebreyesus said.

Ghebreyesus noted that the "historic initiative" comes at a critical time as high vaccine coverage in some countries, "combined with the lower severity of Omicron, is driving a false narrative that the pandemic is over".

At the same time, low vaccine coverage and low testing rates in other countries are creating the ideal conditions for new variants to emerge, the WHO chief warned.

"We can bring the pandemic under control this year -- but we are at increased risk of squandering that opportunity," he said.

So far, 116 countries are off track for WHO's shared target of vaccinating 70 per cent of the population of every country by the middle of this year.

The WHO had earlier reached out to Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech to help teach researchers in low- and middle-income countries how to make their Covid-19 vaccines. But the companies did not respond.

Moderna had previously said it would not enforce the patents on its vaccine But more than 60 charities, campaigners and non-governmental organisations have accused Moderna of attempting to derail WHO plans to manufacture more Covid-19 vaccines in Africa, the Guardian reported.

In an open letter to the US drug maker, the organisations stated that Moderna has "filed several patents with broad claims in South Africa, prompting fears it will begin enforcing patents while Covid-19 is still endemic in Africa, effectively derailing the WHO's plans to build African vaccine production".

The letter, signed by organisations, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) along with People's Health Movement (PHM), calls on Moderna to "act in the interests of people, not profits" by withdrawing patents and patent applications in South Africa.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Delhi Police have arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly raping an 87-year-old woman at her residence in the national capital's Tilak Nagar area.

The police said they have also recovered the stolen mobile phone from the accused, identified as Ankit.

"He was living in a nearby locality and worked as a sweeper," Additional DCP (west district) Prashant Gautam said.

The official said soon after the incident, several teams were constituted to nab the accused. As the police examined the CCTV footage around the area they got their first clue about the accused.

"Within 16 hours, we zeroed in on the accused and cracked the case," the official said.

On Monday, the police had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident of alleged rape of the elderly woman in west Delhi.

According to the police, initially a written complaint of theft of a mobile phone from a house in Tilak Nagar was received from the daughter of a senior citizen on Sunday after which an FIR was registered. However, the complainant on Monday reported that the senior citizen of the house, where the theft took place, was also allegedly raped.

"Sexual assault has been further alleged by the complainant and subsequently, relevant sections of law have been added to the FIR and investigation taken up," the police informed.

Sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 376 (punishment for rape) were the latest charges added to the FIR.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) also took note of the incident and termed it a 'very serious matter'. DCW chief Swati Maliwal asked the police to submit a copy of the FIR registered in the matter, details of the accused identified and person(s) arrested in the matter; and a detailed action report in the matter.

Considering the gravity of the matter, the police was asked to submit this information by February 17.
Kiev/New Delhi, Feb 15 : In a latest advisory issued on Tuesday, the Embassy of India in Kiev has asked Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to consider leaving the country temporarily in the wake of the current situation.

"Indian nationals are also advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine," it added.

The advisory further requested Indian nationals to keep the Embassy about the "status of their presence in Ukraine", in an effort to enable the Mission "to reach them when and where required".

"The Embassy continues to function normally to provide all services to Indian nationals in Ukraine." After the US ratcheted up warnings against a possible Russian invasion in days, a dozen countries have advised their citizens to leave Ukraine.
Bhopal, Feb 15 : Four labourers were killed and 15 others injured after a van in which they were traveling overturned and fell into Sindh river in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district on Tuesday.

According to the police, the labourers, hailing from West Bengal, were proceeding towards a bridge construction site in Vira village.

The incident occurred at 2 a.m. near Goritila Hirapur village, around 25 km from Shivpuri district headquarters, the police said.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the accident occurred because the van driver lost control following which the vehicle plunged into the river, the police said.

"Four labourers died and 15 others were injured, some of them seriously," a senior police officer told IANS over phone.

The labourers had reached Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) by train on Monday night. From Jhansi, they reached Padora village in Shivpuri by a bus, the police said.

Three of the deceased have been identified as Hamid Mohammed Abdullah, Khahul Ameen and Hakim Mustafa. The injured have been admitted to a hospital.

Police said further investigation is underway.
Bhubaneswar, Feb 15 : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch has arrested Babu Singh Kushwaha, a chit fund company director and promoter, in a Rs 10 crore fraud case, officials said here on Tuesday.

Kushwaha, promoter of Auroxa Deal Multitrade (OPC) Pvt Ltd, has been arrested from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and is being brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of transit remand, the EOW officials said.

During investigation, the EOW found that the company Auroxa Deal Multitrade (OPC) Private Limited was functioning in a rented building in Balasore town of Odisha during the year 2019-20.

At that time, Kushwaha and his associates had collected more than Rs 10 crore from around 500 investors by promising them high returns and duped them subsequently.

They duped the investors under various lucrative schemes on direct selling of various household goods/electronic goods with high returns having cash back offers.

The deposits collected by the company are nothing but ponzi schemes and binary schemes. The business model of the firm is a simple pyramid structure, works as a binary scheme in which the early entrants earn money and as the number of investors increases, the scheme collapses at a point of time.

Thus, the deceit and fraud is camouflaged under the name of direct selling marketing and business, the officials informed.

The chit fund company is registered with registrar of companies (ROC), Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) during May-2019 and the accused Babu Singh is its only director.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Hollywood star Tom Holland is looking forward for his film 'Uncharted' to release in the country and also has confessed his love for India.

While promoting the film, he said, "I am a big fan of India but as I said I never got a chance to go there. I am grateful to my fans in India for the kind of love and support I have received." The actor says he wants to see the Taj Mahal in Agra.

"I am coming with my new film and I hope the Indian audiences will like it too. I would love to come to India someday to meet my Indian fans or maybe someday shoot a film there too. I would love to see every part of it including the Taj Mahal in India. Everything there is very beautiful. I am very keen to travel all over India," he said.

'Uncharted' will release in four languages- English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on February 18. The film tells the story about street-smart Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), who is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor 'Sully' Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada.
Bengaluru, Feb 15 : Congress MLA B.Z. Zameer Ahmad Khan, who stoked controversy by stating that without hijab Muslim women 'will get raped in India', while reacting on the hijab row, after being slammed from all corners, regretted his statements on Tuesday.

Khan stated, "I get anxious and scared to see increasing atrocities and rape on women in our country. Because of this state of our society, I said that at least with burqa-hijab we may be able to prevent rapes. It was not intended to hurt or disrespect anyone. I regret if it has hurt anyone." "My opinion is that education is the only thing that protects women. If, for religious reasons, not wearing hijab prevents them to access education, I would want them to first get educated at least by wearing it. They will then be able to protect themselves through education," he further stated.

"There is no strong weapon than education. Hence I humbly request both the government and the people not to deny them education just because they want to wear hijab," he maintained.

Earlier, State Congress President D.K. Shivakumar had condemned the previous statement and said his comments are not endorsed by the Congress party. He had also demanded that MLA Khan should apologise and take back his statement.

Khan, a Siddaramaiah camp loyalist, outrightly refused to apologise and said that he has said nothing that he should apologize for.

He equated hijab to helmet (headgear) and explained that how helmet gives security to a motorist, hijab also ensures safety of women and it helps them to conceal their beauty and prevents setting of evil eyes on them.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : A day after Maharashtra government announced a comprehensive study to help determine phase down of coal-fired power plants in a systematic manner, experts on Tuesday welcomed the decision saying it would not accelerate climate goals but also financially benefit the state.

Director, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Nandikesh Sivalingam, said: "Maharashtra is taking a bold step by being one of the first states in the country to consider coal phase down. Given the current overcapacity situation in the state with respect to coal power, it would not only be accelerating climate goals and protecting public health from dirty coal power but will also benefit the state financially." However, he also had a word of caution. "It would be important to have clear time-bound targets that are rooted in the climate emergency and the public health crisis the state is facing," he said.

The public health crisis, he referred to, was cases such as Nandgaon, where Maharashtra's Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray visited on Monday after the villagers drew his attention to the adverse impact due to thermal plant and ash pond located near the Khaparkheda Thermal Power Station (KTPS) near Nagpur.

Of Maharashtra's current installed capacity of 13,602 MW, coal-fired thermal power accounts for as high as 75 per cent or 10,170 MW, according to Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MAHAGENCO) statistics.

Earlier, on Monday, Maharashtra government had announced to undertake a comprehensive study to help determine phase down of ageing and polluting coal-fired power plants in a systematic manner. "An audit of all power plants in Maharashtra for pollution control measures will be done. Thermal Power Plants not meeting prescribed standards will face decisive action," Maharashtra's Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray had said.

The decision by Maharashtra government is significant given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, during the Conference of Parties (COP26) at Glasgow last November, declared to Net Zero target by 2070 and considering the growing needs of energy for its people, India had insisted on 'phasing down' coal consumption rather than 'phasing out' much to the chagrin of the richer, developed countries.

A 2021 report by research group Climate Risk Horizons had suggested savings opportunities of up to Rs 75,000 crore over the next decade through the quick retirement of 4,020 MW of old coal power plants by 2022. That was for all India power plants.

The Centre had constituted a Task Force in March 2021 to categorise thermal plants in three categories: on the basis of their location to comply with the emission norms within the time limit specified and work according to the timelines to install FDGs. Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a set of technologies used to remove sulphur dioxide (SO2) before the chimneys of the TTPs release polluted gases in the atmosphere. The categorisation done late last year has meant that the power plants either agree to upgrade technology by spending humongous monies or retire.

It is an important step as part of India's energy transition in view of climate goals. And therefore, Maharashtra's decision has been welcomed by experts.

"It's encouraging that Maharashtra is examining the issue of a coal phase down. Retrofitting old coal units at Koradi, Khaperkheda, Nasik and Chandrapur to control air and water pollution will cost thousands of crores and increase electricity costs. On the other hand, a planned phase down and replacement with cheaper renewable energy and battery storage will reduce the cost of power, address the pollution and health issues residents are suffering from and create new employment opportunities," said Ashish Fernandes, Chief Executive Officer, Climate Risk Horizons.
Seoul, Feb 15 : Samsung released a new version of its Expert RAW camera app for the Galaxy S21 Ultra and now a new report has claimed that the app is set to be made available to more Galaxy devices from February 25.

Expert RAW is a fairly new app that brings professional-grade imaging capabilities to Samsung's latest flagship smartphone.

Launched in November 2021, the app quickly grew in popularity among Galaxy S21 Ultra users, reports Android Headlines.

The Expert RAW app fixes a number of issues including when using the telephoto camera. This could also solve issues including shutter speed information when attempting to capture long exposure photos with the Expert RAW app.

Images can also be saved in their lossless JPEG versions or 16-bit linear DND RAW formats. Expert RAW also supports HDR. One can even directly open DNG RAW files in Adobe Lightroom through a dedicated button on the image viewer screen.

Meanwhile, Samsung shipped 271 million units in 2021, up 6 per cent from 2020, mainly due to increased demand for its mid-tier and M series smartphones.

Samsung's annual shipments grew despite supply-side issues starting with its Vietnam factory being shut in June due to Covid-induced lockdown.
Hyderabad, Feb 15 : Telangana State tourism department in association with a private aviation company has launched helicopter service from Hanamkonda to Medaram for devotees to the tribal fair beginning Wednesday.

Thumby Aviation Private Limited is operating the chopper service to Medaram in Mulugu district for Sammakka Sarakka Jatara, billed as the largest tribal fair in Asia.

Officials said those health and time conscious can fly to Medaram from Hanamkonda for a short trip to offer prayers. The chopper will take off from Arts and Science College grounds at Hanamkonda and land in Medaram village.

The operator is charging Rs 19,999 for up and down ride per head. It will also operate the chopper for aerial view of Medaram with the charge fixed at Rs 3,700 per head.

District tourism officer M. Shivaji said those who could afford to fly and those who prefer not to stay put there in view of Covid-19 scare can avail of the helicopter service.

Authorities expect 1.25 crore devotees for the four-day event, often described as Telangana's Kumbh Mela.

The biennial event will kick-off on Wednesday at Medaram, about 240 km from Hyderabad.

Tribals and non-tribals from various parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and other states will converge for the fair, which marks celebration of tribal traditions.

Officials said in view of Covid-19, many devotees already visited Medaram to offer prayers.

An estimated four lakh devotees have already visited Medaram during the last few days ahead of the Jatara.

Adivasis living in forest fringe habitations in several states along the river Godavari congregate once in two years to celebrate the valour of legendary warriors Sammakka and Sarakka.

The tribals treat them as goddesses and hail their bravery in trying to protect them. Belonging to the Koya tribe, the mother-daughter duo died while fighting against the Kakatiya empire about eight centuries ago.
Chennai, Feb 15 : Three pilgrims, including a woman, died after being mowed down by a truck early Tuesday morning at Samayapuram in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchi.

The pilgrims, who were on a visit to Arulmigu Mariamman temple at Samayapuram, were walking from Ayyalur and Vedasandur when they were hit from behind by a truck carrying vegetables from the Oddanchatram market.

According to Manapparai police, the incident occurred at around 2 a.m. Two men, S. Tirunnavakkarasu (40) and P. Sekar (27) died on the spot. The woman, V. Kaleswari (32) died at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College hospital, Tiruchi.

Four others were grievously injured in the accident.

The truck driver was arrested.

Police sources told IANS that the pilgrims were walking in a stretch of road which was poorly lit when the truck hit them from behind. The walkers did not have any torch lights or reflective stickers on the body and the police said that the driver had confirmed that the accident occurred due to poor visibility.

Police have registered a case and commenced an inquiry. The bodies of the three are at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial medical college hospital for post-mortem and will be handed over to the relatives after the inquest process is completed.
Shahjahanpur : , Feb 15 (IANS) In the first incident of poll-related violence, a Samajwadi Party leader was shot dead and another person injured when some people attacked them in his village under Nigohi police circle on Tuesday.

The police said that the deceased has been identified as Sudhir Kumar and booth president of Samajwadi Party in the Vikrampur Chakora village. The injured person is Sunil.

The accused have been identified as Antu and Sarvesh of the same village.

Superintendent of Police City Sanjay Kumar said that a manhunt had been launched for the accused and the two would be arrested soon.

Sources said that there had been a dispute between the deceased and the accused on Monday during polling over fake voting.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Maryam Nawaz, Vice President of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), lashed out at Imran Khan over the arrest of a journalist, asking if the Prime Minister was a "sacred cow, whose looting and failures cannot be criticised".

In a tweet on Monday, Maryam Nawaz said: "The abduction of Sabir Mehmood Hashmi in broad daylight testifies to the disillusionment of the government. Is Imran Khan a sacred cow whose looting and failures cannot be criticised?" Earlier on Monday, the country's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Hashmi, accused of running indecent trends against Khan on social media, Geo News reported.

The agency has also seized Hashmi's mobile phone and other belongings.

In her tweet, Maryam Nawaz went on to say that the PML-N is standing with the journalist and the FIA should also refrain from being a puppet of the government.

While chairing a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Monday, Khan expressed displeasure over the indecent trend that consisted of personal attacks.

Condemning the act, the Prime Minister called it "cheap and intolerable," adding that "such elements cannot be left unchecked and their actions have to be condemned".
Ranchi, Feb 15 : A special CBI court in Ranchi on Tuesday convicted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and ten others in the Rs 139.35 crore Doranda treasury scam, the fifth fodder scam case.

The former Bihar chief minister has already been found guilty in four cases related to the Rs 950 crore fodder scam, and is serving a sentence of 27.5 years imprisonment.

In the fifth case related to the scam, an FIR was lodged in the Doranda police station in 1996 and later the CBI took over the case.

Initially, in case number RC 47 A/96, a total of 170 were accused of corruption, of which 55 have died, seven became witnesses, two confessed to the crime while six are still absconding.

During the hearing of the case in the CBI special court, 575 people testified on behalf of prosecution, while 35 from the defendants. The probe agency produced 15 documents in the case.

Crores of rupees were illegally withdrawn in the name of transporting animals and arranging fodder for them in Bihar's animal husbandry department. The animals included bull, buffalo, cow, heifer, goat and sheep. The documents submitted by the department regarding the transportation were found to be fake. The vehicle numbers shown in the documents were of scooters, mopeds and motorcycles.

The cases occurred during the period of 1990-1996. Bihar CAG had sent the information about it to the government time and again, but the government did not pay heed to it.

The CBI produced the documents in the court, which showed that the then Chief Minister Lalu Prasad, despite knowing everything, did not take any action. Lalu also held the portfolio of Finance Minister.

The former Chief Minister had to go to prison over six times, but he has been granted bail by the High Court in these matters.

In January, the Special Court of S.K. Shashi had reserved the order for Tuesday (February 15) in the fifth fodder scam case.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Every time she comes on screen she gives her all to the role she plays. Actress Alia Bhatt, who currently awaits the release of her upcoming film 'Gangubai Kathiawadi', has talked about how emotionally draining it was to play an intense character like Gangubai in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial and described her as "sunshine" but with "sadness".

'Gangubai Kathiawadi' tells the tale a young girl named Ganga who becomes Gangubai, a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. It is loosely based on the true story of Gangubai Harjivandas, popularly known as Gangubai Kothewali, whose life was documented in the book 'Mafia Queens of Mumbai' written by S. Hussain Zaidi.

In a conversation with IANS, Alia spoke about the emotionally draining part of playing a real life character like Gangubai, who was sold by her suitor to a brothel.

Alia said in the candid chat: "One of the things that maybe you'll also get to see in the trailer that there is a constant anger in her eyes so that comes with what happened to her and the situation she was put in. I remember whenever we used to play out scenes and there would always be that layer sir would ask me to bring in the character and maybe I didn't understand it while I was doing it and bringing it I was understanding it but when I saw the film in a flow I understood what he was trying to do and that is something ... that all adds up." "That was one of her biggest sensitive points that what happened to her was not fair and which world she had to enter is not fair but the beauty is what she does with that anger... She has it in her body and soul but how she turns it around." So how would you describe Gangubai?

"She is sunshine but there is sadness in her that is emotionally draining...to that to do what she did... " The 28-year-old actress added: "Her picture was on every girl's wall in Kamathipura for 50 years. That was the impact she had for women so put yourself out for other people and not really be there for yourself that is another weight to carry. Even when I was dancing, walking or laughing... Sanjay sir said 'weight'. 'Weight' doesn't mean physical weight... It means in the heart and head and that's what translates hopefully in the screen.

Asked how much is too much an actor to invest in intense roles, Alia, who has given power-packed performances in films such as 'Highway', 'Raazi' and 'Udta Punjab' to name a few, said: "Well, it depends in your personality I am that kind of a person where I will give everything." "That's how I think sir and I connected. I kind of feel we had a sould connect by the end of it. We are both number 6... I could hear him without him saying things to me.. That's the kind of connect we have formed and I have seen how he gives everything." Alia added: "He does not even rest even when his back was hurting he would be standing in pain and would not let his crew down. It is a very soldier like attitude. You have to soldier on there is no excuse. So, I am that kind of person and so is sir." (Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)
Seoul, Feb 15 : The South Korean government plans to formally call on the authorities in New York City to step up actions to counter a surge in crimes there against Asians in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, officials here said Tuesday.

Chung Byung-hwa, South Korea's Consul General in New York, will meet Edward Mermelstein, New York City's commissioner for international affairs, on Friday to convey concerns over unprovoked attacks on Koreans and those of Korean descent, Yonhap News Agency reported citing a Foreign Ministry official as saying.

"(Chung) will deliver the Korean American community's concerns over the surge in anti-Asian crimes and request that the New York City make proactive efforts to prevent the recurrence of such incidents," the official added.

A Korean-American woman was stabbed to death in her Manhattan apartment on Sunday.

Last week, a South Korean diplomat with the nation's diplomatic mission to the UN was punched in the face by an unknown assailant near Koreatown, and an investigation is currently underway.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear the dispute between the central and the Delhi government in connection with the control over administrative services in the national capital.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi government, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana. The bench, also comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, scheduled the matter for hearing on March 3.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikri and comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan of the apex court, in February 2019, delivered a split verdict on the question of powers of the Delhi government and the Centre over services and referred the matter to a 3-judge bench.

Justice Bhushan held that the Delhi government had no power over 'services', while Justice Sikri, took the middle path.

The Delhi government had contended that the Centre had excluded the elected government in the capital from exercising any administrative control over the officers. The government further argued that officers are continuing to act on the orders of the central government through the Lieutenant Governor (LG).

Justice Sikri concluded that files on the transfers and postings of officers in the rank of Secretary, Head of Department and Joint Secretary could be directly submitted to the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G). Justice Bhushan said Entry 41 of the State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, dealing with 'State Public Services,' was outside the purview of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

Justice Sikri said for DANICS (Delhi, Andaman Nicobar Islands Civil Service) cadre, the files could be processed through the Council of Ministers led by the Chief Minister to the L-G. Justice Sikri had said the situation in Delhi was "peculiar." The February 2019 judgment followed a Constitution Bench verdict in July 2018, where the bench held that L-G was bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers of the National Capital Territory government.
Jaipur, Feb 15 : Five people, including four policemen, died when a vehicle of Gujarat police carrying an accused from Delhi to Gujarat met with an accident in Bhabroo area of Jaipur, police officials said.

The accident was so severe that the SUV of Gujarat police had to be cut to pull out the dead bodies.

Police said that the accident took place at around 2 a.m. in Bhabru police station area after the man driving the vehicle on Jaipur-Delhi highway suddenly lost his balance. The car first hit the divider. After that it went down from the road and hit a tree.

The accused and the policemen died on the spot. The accident was so horrible that even the air bags that opened were left torn. The bodies of the policemen and the accused have been kept in the morgue of the Government Hospital, Shahpura.

The Gujarat Police has been informed about the accident.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has expressed his condolence in a tweet shared on his twitter handle.

He said, "It is sad to know about the death of 5 people including 4 policemen when a Gujarat Police vehicle carrying the accused from Delhi to Gujarat met with an accident in Bhabru area of Jaipur. My deepest condolences to the bereaved family, may God give them strength and may the soul of the departed rest in peace," he said.
Karnataka: B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan Met the Hon. Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai & urged more funds allocations for minority welfare among the state in the forthcoming budget & also discussed Hijab controversy and demanded to resolve the issue at the Image Source: IANS News

Karnataka: B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan Met the Hon. Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai & urged more funds allocations for minority welfare among the state in the forthcoming budget & also discussed Hijab controversy and demanded to resolve the issue at the Image Source: IANS News

Bengaluru, Feb 15 : Congress Muslim legislators met Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai here on Tuesday and expressed their displeasure over the manner few schools and colleges in the state were treating the students in connection with the hijab row.

The delegation, which met CM Bommai at his residence, also sought additional funds for the development and welfare of the minority community. KPCC Executive President Saleem Ahmad stated that they have brought the matter of ill-treatment to children at schools and colleges. "We have asked CM Bommai to stop the conspiracy with regard to the hijab row," he said. The students must focus on education, he added.

There are invisible hands behind the hijab row. It is requested to abide by the court order in the matter. "We will bow our heads to the court's decision on the constitutional basis. We are also confident of getting a decision which reflects constitutional values," he said.

The government has also failed to manage the hijab versus saffron shawl crisis at schools and colleges, this has also been brought to the notice of CM Bommai.

Senior MLA Tanveer Sait stated that the delegation requested CM Bommai to check outside forces from interfering into matters of schools and colleges in the state. Whatever it is, the decision has to be made by the school management committee, college authorities and parents. "We have requested to maintain peace and order in academic institutions like before," he said.

Congress MLA Nazeer Ahmad explained that schools and colleges where students wore hijab before the row must be allowed to attend classes with hijab. The court order has clearly stated this. But, few schools have denied permission for hijab wearing students. "We have discussed the matter with CM Bommai," he said.

-- IANS

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Paris, Feb 15 : Trade ministers from the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union (EU) have discussed the bloc's trade policy priorities, and partnerships with the African Union (AU) and the US.

EU countries should have strategic autonomy to respond to global economic threats and challenges, while respecting the environmental sustainability goals of the Union, Franck Riester, French Minister delegate for foreign trade and economic attractiveness, said during the meeting held in Marseille.

The Ministers' first session of talks concerned the French priority during its presidency of the bloc to enhance trade relations between the AU and the EU. This means increased investment and broader trade arrangements, Riester explained.

For Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Trade, the upcoming summit between the two continental unions must result in a "new deal" for digital transformation in African economies and free-trade areas.

"African countries are key partners for the EU," he added.

The Ministers' second session of talks focused on transatlantic trade relations, and preparation for the upcoming meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council in France in May.

Ministers discussed the EU-US partnership, and how both partners should focus on resolving "common vulnerabilities", Riester said.

Multilateral trade issues "must be overcome", Riester and Dombrovskis said, via dialogue to ensure fair competition, while also considering environmental sustainability goals.

During the meeting, the Ministers discussed the EU's strategy for multilateral trade issues with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

They also discussed an urgent reform of the WTO to adapt to the pandemic, and ensure fair competition in global trade.

Dombrovskis said increased cooperation is required with countries in need of vaccines.

"To address this challenge we need a holistic approach to trade and investment," he added.
Lucknow, Feb 15 : The battle for Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary is almost over with the completion of the first two phases of polling in Uttar Pradesh.

The question now is whether Jayant Chaudhary, who is making his first independent foray into electoral politics after the demise of his father Chaudhary Ajit Singh last year, will regain lost ground for the party and emerge as a political force to reckon with.

Jayant faces the challenge of carrying forward the legacy, not only of his father, but also grandfather and former Prime Minister, late Chaudhary Charan Singh.

The RLD has been on the downslide since 2014 when majority of Jats went with the BJP after the Muzaffarnagar riots.

The trend consolidates in the 2017 assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the RLD was completely side-lined in the state politics.

In the past five years, when his father Ajit Singh took a back seat, Jayant has been quietly touring the villages in western UP, meeting Khap leaders and repairing his ties with Jats.

The year-long farmers' agitation against the three farm laws, gave RLD a chance to reclaim lost ground. Jayant extended support to the agitation and the farmers, too, did not resent his presence even when other political parties were asked to stay away.

Jayant now has the sympathy of Jats after his father' demise and his supporters are enthused over the renewed Jat-Muslim bonhomie to a great extent. The climate has been favourable for the RLD.

Sarvesh Tygai, a farmer in Baghpat says, "He is the 'chhora' (son)' of Chaudhary family and it is our responsibility to look after him because he has no elder left in the family. I and many others, look upon him as a son and we will guide him whenever needed." Jayant, who had lost his Lok Sabha seat to BJP's Hema Malini in 2014 - his party drew a complete blank in these elections.

In 2017, RLD won one seat in Chaprauli but the lone MLA crossed over to the BJP in 2018.

RLD spokesman Anil Dubey says, "The way the top BJP leaders tried to woo Jayant, and failed to break the RLD-SP alliance, is evident from the fact that the BJP was scared of our leader's popularity. The RLD is going to re-emerge as a force to reckon with after this election." Political analysts feel that RLD could have gained more if it had allied with the BJP but, apparently, Jayant responded to the mood of the farmers and opted for Samajwadi Party for an alliance.

Political soothsayers also believe that Jayant Chaudhary could emerge as the proverbial dark horse in state politics if the polls throw up a hung assembly.

"In case no party gets a clear majority, both SP and BJP will reach out to Jayant Chaudhary if the RLD gets a substantial number of seats and he could strike gold in such a situation," said political observer.
Progress MS-19 arrives at ISS The first Russian cargo mission to the International Space Station in 2022 departed Baikonur Cosmodrome on February 15. The Progress MS-19 spacecraft followed a two-day rendezvous profile with the outpost, docking at the Poisk module on February 17. Previous mission: Progress MS-18 Progress MS-19 mission at a glance: Spacecraft designation(s) Progress MS-19, 11F615 No. 449, ISS mission 80P Launch vehicle Soyuz-2-1a 14A14-1a No. Ya15000-056 Payload fairing 11S517A2 No. Ya15000-132 Launch site Baikonur, Site 31, Pad 6 Mission Cargo delivery to the ISS Launch date and time 2022 Feb. 15, 07:25:39.528 Moscow Time (actual) Docking date and time 2022 Feb. 17, 10:03:20 Moscow Time (actual) Docking destination ISS, Russian Segment, MIM2 Poisk (zenith port) Mission duration Around 367-370 days Undocking and reentry 2023 February Spacecraft mass ~7.4 tons SUPPORT THIS PROJECT! Progress MS-19 mission According to Roskosmos, the supplies to be delivered to the ISS aboard Progress MS-19 included 431 kilogram of propellant for refueling the station, 420 liters of water in the tanks of the Rodnik system and 40 kilograms of compressed air in the tanks of the oxygen supply system. In its pressurized cargo section, the spacecraft was to carry 1,632 kilograms of dry cargo for the crew and equipment including cable sets for the upgrades of the Nauka module, medical and hygiene supplies, clothing and standard food packages for the Expedition 66 crew. The onboard cargo included materials for the following experiments: Neirolab kits for the Pilot-T experiment series studying the influence of space flight on the quality of cosmonauts' professional activities;

Packages for Vozdukh and Poverkhnost kits for the Aseptik experiment seeking the development of sterility measures during biological research in space flight;

Bioproby kit for the Biodegradatsiya experiment looking at the influence of micro-flora on structural materials in space and at the development of biological safety methods in space flight;

Biomodul kit for the Fotobioreaktor experiment studying the possibility of producing food and oxygen out of photo-synthetic Spirulina algae in weightlessness;

Chashki and Probirki kits for the Biomag-M experiment studying the influence of space flight on the properties of organisms protected by the Earth's magnetic field;

BOP, PM and PS kits for the Kaskad experiment, studying effective methods of biotechnological production of cellular cultures in microgravity;

Probiovit kits for development of production techniques in microgravity used in pharmacological products with immunological properties. In its cargo bay, Progress MS-19 also carried six cubsat-class satellites: YuZGU-55 from No. 5 to No. 10 developed by the South-Western University, in the city of Kursk, for the Radioskaf experiments and intended for launch during spacewalks, Roskosmos said. Mass breakdown of the cargo delivered aboard Progress MS-19, according to the mission control in Korolev: Hardware for onboard systems 510 kilogram Means of medical support 29 kilograms Personal protection equipment 55 kilograms Sanitary and hygiene equipment 266 kilograms Means of servicing and repair 7 kilograms Complex of means for the crew support 41 kilograms Food 470 kilograms Payload complex 73 kilograms Additional hardware 24 kilograms Equipment for MIM1 module 12 kilograms Equipment for MIM2 module 2 kilograms Equipment for MLM module 3 kilograms NASA cargo 80 kilograms Progress MS-19 launch campaign Progress MS-19 is loaded into vacuum testing facility on Dec. 15, 2021. The active launch campaign for the Progress MS-19 mission started on Dec. 1, 2021, when the spacecraft was placed into the anechoic chamber inside the processing facility at Site 254 in Baikonur for tests of its radio systems. On Dec. 15, 2021, the ship was moved to the vacuum chamber at Hall 103 for air leak checks. In early January 2022, all activities in Baikonur were interrupted by spontaneous anti-government protests across Kazakhstan which quickly escalated into violence and mass arrests. Under high security, on January 12, the RKK Energia team arrived at the spaceport for completing the preparations of the mission. According to Roskosmos, all launch campaigns for vehicles scheduled to fly to the ISS in 2022 had been resuming after the holidays. On January 17, Roskosmos said that specialists had started loading the Rodnik water-supply tanks aboard the spacecraft and the processing of dry items for packing inside the ship's cargo compartment. The next day, Roskosmos reported the unloading of the rocket stages for the Progress MS-19 mission from their rail cars and the inspection of hardware ahead of the integration of the 1A and 2A sections forming the core stage of the Soyuz-2-1a rocket. The assembly of the first and second stages proceeded around January 25. On the same day, the cargo ship's solar panels were put to a routine light exposure test. On February 2, Roskosmos announced that a meeting of technical management in Baikonur had cleared Progress MS-19 for fueling operations, which were completed on February 4. On the same day, the vehicle was returned to the spacecraft processing building at Site 254 for closeout operations and on February 7, the spacecraft was integrated with an adapter ring, PKhO, designed to serve as an interface with the third stage of the launch vehicle. Specialists then performed test activations of the ship's radio complex and other systems. On February 9, the spacecraft was lowered into horizontal position and rolled inside its payload fairing assembly. Specialists then conducted the final test of launch readiness, after which the payload section was disconnected from the diagnostics equipment and prepared for shipment to the launch vehicle assembly building at Site 31, which took place on Feb. 10, 2022. The final integration of the payload section with the launch vehicle was performed on February 11 and on the same day, the State Commission gave the green light to the rollout of the rocket to the launch pad which took place in early hours of February 12. Launch profile of the Progress MS-19 mission A Soyuz-2-1a rocket with the Progress MS-19 cargo ship lifted off as scheduled from Site 31 at Baikonur Cosmodrome at 07:25:39.528 Moscow Time on Feb. 15, 2022, (11:25 p.m. EST on February 14). Following the vertical liftoff through the wintery mist under the combined thrust of the four RD-107 engines on the first stage and the single RD-108 of the second (core) stage, the launch vehicle will head eastward from Baikonur matching its ground track to an orbit inclined 51.67 degrees to the plane of the Equator. The four first-stage boosters will separate 1 minute and 58 seconds into the flight at an altitude of around 43 kilometers, followed by the split and drop of the two halves of the payload fairing slightly more than a minute later (at L+3 min. 3 sec.), when the rocket reaches 91 kilometers above the planet. In the meantime, the second stage will continue firing until 4.7 minutes into the flight (L+4 min. 47. sec.). The third stage will ignite moments before the separation of the second stage, firing its RD-0110 engine through a lattice structure connecting the two boosters and ensuring a continuous thrust during the separation process at an altitude of 143 kilometers. A fraction of a second after the boosters of the second and third stage part ways, the aft cylindrical section of the third stage will split into three segments and drop off, ensuring the fall of the second stage and the aft section into the same drop zone. The spacecraft is expected to separate fr om the third stage of the launch vehicle 8 minutes and 49 seconds after liftoff at an altitude of 194 kilometers, entering a 193 by 240-kilometer orbit with an inclination 51.67 degrees toward the Equator. Known details of the Progress MS-19 orbital insertion sequence: Milestone Elapsed time Moscow Time Altitude Liftoff 0 seconds 07:25:39 0 Stage I engine cutoff 117.418 seconds - - Stage I separation 117.848 seconds 07:27:37 43 kilometers Payload fairing separation 183.079 seconds 07:28:42 91 kilometer Stage III oxidizer tank pressurization completion 277.159 seconds - - Stage III engine ignition 286.159 seconds - - Stage II engine cutoff 286.399 seconds - - Stage II separation 287.419 seconds 07:30:26 143 kilometers Stage III aft section separation 296.779 seconds - - Stage III engine cutoff 525.45 seconds - - Stage III separation 530.24 seconds 07:34:28 192 kilometers Rendezvous and docking operations The Progress MS-19 mission followed a two-day, 34-orbit rendezvous profile with the ISS. According to the mission control in Korolev, Progress MS-19 was scheduled to perform six orbit-correction maneuvers with its main SKD engine and small DPO thrusters during its autonomous rendezvous with the station: No. Moscow Time Range to ISS Velocity change Burn duration Engine used 1 08:02:50 400.32 kilometers 30.87 m/s 79.0 sec. SKD 2 08:22:46 201.81 kilometers 1.60 m/s 41.6 sec. DPO 3 08:49:41 74.37 kilometers 28.00 m/s 73.0 sec. SKD 4 09:30:58 2.01 kilometers 5.38 m/s 17.8 sec. SKD 5 09:35:12 1.00 kilometers 5.58 m/s 77.6 sec. DPO 6 09:38:13 0.59 kilometers 1.54 m/s 27.2 sec. DPO The autonomous rendezvous process between Progress MS-19 and the station was planned according to the following timeline on Feb. 17, 2022: Start of the autonomous rendezvous 07:39:59 Moscow Time Activation of the rendezvous equipment on the Zvezda Service Module 08:28:59 Moscow Time Activation of the rendezvous equipment on the cargo ship 08:29:59 Moscow Time Flyaround and station-keeping period starts 09:41 Moscow Time Flyaround and station-keeping period ends 09:55 Moscow Time Berthing starts 09:55 Moscow Time Berthing ends 10:05 Moscow Time Contact 10:05:54 Moscow Time Docking process begins 10:06 Moscow Time Docking process ends 10:23 Moscow Time Around 09:30 Moscow Time (1:30 a.m. EST) publicly available communications between mission control and the ISS indicated that Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Petr Dubrov successfully tested and put in stand-by mode the TORU manual rendezvous system aboard the Zvezda Service Module. Shortly thereafter, Progress MS-19 began its automated flyaround of the station from a distance of around 400 meters to get into a straight line position for berthing at the zenith (sky-facing) port of the MIM2 Poisk module. The maneuver was completed around 09:50 Moscow Time at a distance of around 180 meters from the station with a roll maneuver lasting couple of minutes and a short period of station-keeping, as mission control confirmed that everything had been ready for final approach. The docking was originally scheduled within three minutes from 10:06 Moscow Time (2:06 a.m. EST) on Feb. 17, 2022, but the actual mechanical contact between the two spacecraft took place at 10:03:20 Moscow Time (2:03 a.m. EST) on February 17, as the vehicles were flying over the Pacific Ocean. Few minutes later, mission control confirmed that the docking process had been completed with a tight seal between the station and the cargo ship. The Progress MS-19 mission was originally scheduled to last for 286 days, but it was later extended to up to 370 days. As of early 2022, Progress MS-19 was expected to be deorbited in February 2023. (To be continued)

Loading of cargo aboard Progress MS-19 on Jan. 25, 2022. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos Progress MS-19 during final inspection in Baikonur on Feb. 9, 2022. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos Soyuz-2-1a rocket lifts off from Baikonur with Progress MS-19 on Feb. 15, 2022. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos First-stage boosters separate from the launch vehicle, as seen by an onboard camera. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos Payload fairing separates from the launch vehicle, as seen by an onboard camera. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos Aft skirt separates from the third stage of the Soyuz-2-1a rocket, as seen by an onboard camera. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos Progress MS-19 separates from the 3rd stage of the Soyuz-2-1a launch vehicle on Feb. 15, 2022, as seen by an onboard camera. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos Progress MS-19 separates from the launch vehicle as seen by a camera on the rocket's third stage. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a penalty of Rs 50 crore on Sir Shadilal Distillery and Chemical Works in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar for flouting environmental norms by contaminating water through discharging of highly organic load in the water bodies of the area.

A bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel noted that the excise duty paid by the Project Proponent(PP) is more than Rs 1,500 crore per year on average.

"In view of the same, the turnover of the PP does not appear to be less than Rs 2,500 crore per year. Having regard to repetitive violations of serious nature, we determine the liability of the Project Proponent at 2 per cent of its annual turnover i.e Rs 50 crore," stated the order dated February 11.

The Tribunal asked the distillery to pay the fine to Central Pollution Control Board within two months.

It has also directed the violator to spend the amount on the restoration of the environment in the area including waterbodies -- Mansurpur drain and the pond. Part of the amount may be spent in the execution of the District Environment Plan in the area, the green court said asking a joint committee to implement the plans within a year.

A compliance status in the matter also sought to submit by the CPCB and State PCB by May 15.

During the visit of the UP Pollution Control Board on August 8, 2021, it was found that the distillery was violating the Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) condition and was allegedly discharging high organic load (pH 4.9, COD 28,700) effluent into Mansurpur drain through a common channel. The Mansurpur drain showed pH 5.2, COD 18,400 indicating contamination of drain with distillery effluent thereby a serious threat to the water quality of River Kali (West), the NGT observed.

Pointing to another site inspection, the tribunal said on November 17, 2021, it was found that the Mansurpur drain water quality showed pH 5.6 and BOD 843 mg/l indicating contamination of drain with industrial discharge. The lower values of pH are on account of molasses/spent wash-bearing effluent, it said.

The green court said it was established that the company has been violating the environmental norms which include violation of ZLD condition by discharging effluent into the drain as well as disposing effluent on earthen land. Overflowing of the lagoon was observed on November 20 and 23, 2021, it noted.

Analysis of water during inspection has confirmed the violations. The project proponent has thus to be held accountable on the polluter pays principle. The compensation assessed does not cover all the non-compliance, including failure to develop a green belt, the NGT said.
Chennai, Feb 15 : The AIADMK and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have complained that voters were being bribed through e-wallets and direct transfers through phone by the DMK.

In separate complaints on Monday, the two parties have alleged that Rs 1,000 per head was being given to each voter in Tamil Nadu's Namakkal district.

There also allegations that the resident associations have been roped in by paying lakhs of rupees to collect the telephone numbers and to campaign for the political parties concerned.

However, most of the money transfer is now taking place through UPI transactions as the election commission and the police have enforced strict measures to crack down on people carrying money. The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) has already seized Rs 11.75 lakh in cash from Chennai and gifts equivalent to Rs 1 crore from some political parties which were meant for distribution among the voters.

M. Soundarajan, an anti-corruption crusader from Teynampet, Chennai while speaking to IANS said, "The elections in Tamil Nadu have always been money-spinner and there is no change in it even now. The political parties have become more modern and have now started transferring money through UPI systems collecting the phone numbers of the voters from resident associations." Another interesting move by the political parties is to send gift coupons to voters through couriers after collecting their residential addresses. The gift coupons mostly of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 value could be redeemed at the nearby malls and shopping centres.

The ruling front, according to Soundararajan, has resorted to power cuts at specific times in Chennai to make the party cadres reach homes and distribute gifts. The gifts are expensive and include mixers, grinders, and clothes. Bath towels and lanterns are attractions and in most of the houses, the cadres have distributed them.

DMK senior leader and state Water Resources Minister S. Duraimurugan denied the allegations. While speaking to IANS, he said, "DMK is a political party that is rooted in Dravidian ideology and on Social equality . We fight elections putting across our ideology to the people and has never engaged in bribing people for votes. We sat in the opposition for ten years in Tamil Nadu since 2011 and have bounced back in 2021. Likewise we never indulge in bribing or giving something to people in return for votes. I request the TN State election commission to strongly take action against anyone who is indulging in such matters during elections. It's never the DMK." The Tamil Nadu State Election commission said that it has already constituted 45 flying squads to catch the offenders who are trying to lure voters by bribing them.

However, political parties including Makkal Needhi Maiam and Ngan Tamilar Kazhagam (NTK) have put the blame squarely on the State Election Commission.

M. Senthil of MNM, while speaking to IANS, said, "The state election commission has not conducted proper awareness on the elections and they should have shared the information about clean elections to the people. Clean elections mean elections in which bribe is not given nor accepted. Unless such a situation comes the political parties continue to attract the voters using such tactics side-stepping the essence of democracy." The elections are to take place on February 19.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Delhi High Court has dismissed Commonwealth Human Right Initiative (CHRI)'s plea seeking to quash an order that suspended its registration of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act(FCRA) certificate.

"I do not see any reason to interfere with the order dated June 7, 2021. The writ petition is dismissed," said Justice V Kameswar Rao.

"The scope of judicial review is very limited and should be exercised only when it is a case of mala fide, arbitrariness, or an ulterior motive," the court said in its order dated February 14.

As per the plea, petitioner CHRI, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), contended that it was received the FCRA Registration in September 1993.

Thereafter, the registration was renewed on October 2026 with validity till October 2021, the NGO said challenging the suspension order of the Ministry of Home Affairs under section 13 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 dated June 7, 2021.

The FCRA registration was suspended on 7 June 2021 for 180 days. It was challenged and it was stated there was no violation of the FCRA 2010. The petitioner had requested urgent revocation of its FCRA registration, the plea read.

It was submitted that on December 1, 2022, the suspension order was extended for another period of 180 days. On December 7, 2021, a show-cause notice was served on the petitioner.

According to the show-cause notice, the central government had authorised the audit of the account books and activities for the first time.

"Wherever the legislature intended to stipulate inquiry/opportunity, it had said so, like in Section 14(1) and 14(2) of the FCRA, 2010. Not prescribing inquiry/opportunity to the holder of the certificate before suspension under Section 13(1) of the FCRA, 2010 has also to be understood from the perspective, that the FCRA, 2010 is to consolidate the law, to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or association or companies and to prohibit acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith," the court stated in the order.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The ins and outs of the situation on the China-India border are very clear and the responsibility does not lie with China, a spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry in Beijing has said.

"At present, China and India are in communication on further improving border management and control and confidence-building measures. We hope that the Indian side will strictly abide by a series of agreements signed by the two sides, refrain from making irresponsible remarks and take concrete actions and work with China to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility of the border area," the spokesperson said.

The remarks were in response to a question about comments made by Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.

"While he was visiting Australia, he criticised China's economic actions toward Australia. And then separately, he mentioned the clash between India and China on the border had been discussed during Quad meetings. And at that time, he put the blame on China for the ongoing border conflict.

"On the China-India boundary issue, it is China's consistent view that both sides jointly safeguard peace and stability in the border area following the agreements already signed. We hope the two sides will keep up communication through military and diplomatic channels to properly resolve remaining boundary issues," the spokesperson said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Feb 15 : A 25-year-old Christian man was killed and several others sustained injuries following a brawl between Muslim and Christian community members over the construction of a wall in a neighbourhood of Lahore's Factory Area, Friday Times reported.

Pervaiz Maseech died on Monday from trauma he sustained after being hit on the head with an iron rod during the fight.

Several of the injured remain in critical condition.

Police told Dawn that the clash was not related to religious tensions, but pertained to a local dispute.

It was not the first time the community had erupted in violence. On Sunday, the same fight had taken place, but Lahore police, busy with the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL), were unable to respond.

On Monday, nearly 200 people gathered on the street and began chanting slogans and hurling abuses towards one another.

Pervaiz, who lived on the same street, went outside to confront the group. It was then that several in the group, carrying guns, began aerial firing.

Pervaiz was surrounded by the mob and beaten on the back of his head with an iron rod, Friday Times reported.

News of the young man's death spread quickly among the Christian community, and police remained on the scene to quash the simmering unrest.

Police have arrested a suspect and have registered a murder FIR against others involved.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : India's January 2022 merchandise exports rose to $34.50 billion, higher by 25.28 per cent on a year-on-year basis, official data showed on Tuesday.

The exports during January 2021 stood at $27.54 billion.

The data by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that in comparison to January 2020, last month's exports rose by 33.45 per cent.

"Non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in January 2022 wereAA$27.10 billion, registering a positive growth of 20.13 per cent over non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports of USD $22.56 billion in January 2021," the ministry said.
Balaghat, Feb 15 : At the break of dawn, Gajendra Rokde walked down the village road carrying a lathi to protect himself from wild boars. Then, with three of his friends, he entered the 130-acre forest adjacent to their village of Pathri, situated in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district.

In the absence of Mansaram, the appointed van rakshak (forest protector) who had fallen ill, the villagers had taken it upon themselves to patrol the forest.

"I'll be here till noon to ensure that there are no trespassers who may cut down trees or harm the birds and animals in this forest. I'm checking for signs of smoke or sparks to put them out before they cause a forest fire," Rokde told 101Reporters.

Having protected the forests for generations, the villagers of Pathri take turns inspecting the woods every morning. Due to their constant vigilance, there hasn't been a single forest fire incident in this dense jungle in more than eight decades.

Meanwhile, there have been 54,321 fire alerts between January 1 and September 19 this year in Madhya Pradesh, as per the 2021 Forest Survey of India. This is the state with the largest forest cover in the country.

Pannalal Nagpure, the village's Sarpanch said that he hasn't heard of any forest fires in his area since when he was a child. "This jungle is ancient. I remember my grandfather used to be one of the caretakers of the forest. I haven't heard of any forest fires in this jungle since British time. We don't let anyone cut down healthy trees and only use what is needed," he added.

An inherited, collective task The jungle adjacent to Pathri is noted for a particular grass, known as Bid, used in Hindu funeral rites. This grass is an essential source of income for the villagers.

"The Bid grass grows to its full height by December and then starts drying up, increasing the risk of forest fires in March-April. The van rakshak removes the grass and dead leaves from the forest. People from other villages also buy it from us to thatch their roofs," said Nagpure.

The villagers also collect dry sticks and dead tree branches and sell them to the locals at reasonable prices. "We only collect and auction the wood from trees that are already dead. The income generated through this helps us take up more developmental works in the village," added Nagpure.

The village has a dedicated 15-member committee, called Sarvajanik Bid Samiti, named after the grass. The representatives of the committee are elected by the villagers every two years and are tasked with protecting the forest from any harm by appointing a van rakshak.

Rokde, who serves as the committee's secretary, said that apart from bid the forest houses a diverse flora and fauna. It is home to trees like Sal, Teak, Mango, Neem, Banyan, Jamun and also animals like rabbits and wild boars alongside various butterfly species and birds.

"Earlier, there used to be a large population of vultures, but with time, they have become fewer in number," added Rokde. He told 101Reporters that the forest department hadn't conducted any survey or inspection as the forest area falls under revenue land.

Nagpure recalled that there were talks back in 2009 to bring the forest under the forest department, but it didn't pan out due to reasons unknown to him. The villagers, however, think this is for the best.

"Our jungle will be snatched away from us and the forest department will start their activities here. We know this forest like the back of our hand. If people from distant areas are sent here for patrolling and caretaking, they will take time to learn the ropes and won't listen to us," said Rokde.

He also brings up the issue of Maoist activity in the region. "Though Balaghat is a Maoist area, the Maoists never stop us from entering the forest as they know that we will not harm it. But that equation may not be possible with outsiders," he said.

Protecting the forest as a way of life To protect the forests, the villagers of Pathri are employing traditional knowledge passed down through generations.

"We have learned everything from our forefathers. They used to cut the grass annually, and it became a tradition. People used to wait for December or January to repair their homes after rains when the grass was available. Though we have cemented houses now, and only a few people need the grass, we are continuing this tradition for the forest's safety," said Nagpure.

He added that the van rakshaks also collect dry leaves from the ground and put them in small pits dug in the forest to turn them into mulch. "This way, we don't need any artificial fertilisers or chemicals for the trees as they get proper nutrition from the dead leaves and animal dung itself." The villagers also fiercely protect the forest from trespassers. "We love the trees here more than life itself. They are like our children, and we ensure that no one cuts them. In addition to the van rakshak's daily care, all 15 members of the committee also conduct weekly inspections in the forest," Nagpure told 101Reporters.

If the committee finds that a healthy tree has been cut down for selfish interests, there is a framework in place to ensure judgement and punishment.

"We call a meeting, and the person who has chopped down a tree or a shrub is summoned. The witness who saw them cutting down the tree is also called to testify. In most cases, the culprit accepts his fault and is fined. The culprit has to pay the money to buy five plants, and the cost of transportation is included in his fine. When the committee procures the plants, the person responsible for cutting down the tree is called again to plant them at the same spot," Rokde added.

The time has now come to appoint a new van rakshak. Having been at his post for almost 20 years, the current van rakshak, Mansaram, said, "We always elect someone who knows how to take care of trees and doesn't have any vested interests. I will just provide them with guidance as I'm too old to discharge my duties. It's been a pleasure to serve the forests." (The author is a Bhopal-based freelance journalist and a member of 101reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)
Bengaluru, Feb 15 : The full bench of the Karnataka High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S. Dixit and Justice Khaji Jaibunnesa Mohiyuddin on Tuesday afternoon resumed hearing of petitions seeking directions to the state government to allow wearing of hijab in classrooms.

This is the third day of hearing by the three judge bench. The petitioner for girl students seeking order to attend classes wearing hijab will complete his submission through senior advocate Devdatt Kamat. On Monday, he had argued that the government can't deny fundamental rights to students in the pretext of managing law and order situations. He also objected to the powers given to the College Development Committee to decide on uniforms.

On Monday, the bench had also refused to restrain media from reporting the proceedings as one of the counsel demanded that it will have effect on the elections of other states. The court had earlier given an interim order that no religious symbols are allowed for the students in schools and colleges until the final court. The order banned both hijab and saffron shawls in the school and college premises.

The larger bench also set aside the arguments of petitioners seeking orders to the government for allowing students to wear hijab of the colour of their uniform to classrooms.

However, petitioners moved the Supreme Court challenging the interim order banning hijab in classrooms. The state government has resumed classes till standard 10 and Pre-University Colleges are opening from Wednesday.
Kochi, Feb 15 : Following fresh revelations by the prime accused in the infamous gold smuggling case -- Swapna Suresh who was asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate officials in Kochi, did on Tuesday and sought a few more days time as she was unwell.

Swapna after presenting herself before the ED officials here informed them that she is unwell.

"I had told the officials that I am unwell and I requested for some more time, which they agreed. I said I will return in a few days and appear before them," said Swapna to the media.

This case resurfaced last month when an autobiography written by then principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan - M. Sivasankar revealed that "he never did any favour to Swapna" and also added that "he never knew the iPhone that was gifted to him by her was part of a bribe".

Angered by this statement, Swapna said, "it was Sivasankar who destroyed my life and all what I knew, he also knew".

She also pointed out that he had told her that he will take voluntary retirement and settle down with her in the UAE.

She said that it was with his help that she, along with her husband and children and their friend Sandip Nair, managed to sneak out of Kerala, when the gold smuggling case surfaced in July 2020, when the entire state was under massive Covid travel restrictions. Another revelation was that of the two audio clips of hers, one which came out on the day she and her family were on the run to Bengaluru and another while in custody, she said, it was all stage managed and directed by Sivasankar and others.

Meanwhile, the other central agencies -- Customs and Intelligence Bureau have also registered cases supplementary to the gold smuggling case and in all these Swapna is an accused and now out on bail.

And according to sources in the know of things, these agencies are also examining the fresh revelations and are likely to give her notice to appear before them to find out more.
Chennai, Feb 15 : Tamil Nadu former Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam on Tuesday urged Chief Minister M.K.Stalin to ensure that the state's rights over Mullaperiyar dam are protected.

Condemning the Tamil Nadu government's silence on the visits by Kerala Ministers and officials to inspect the dam, its shutters and ordering release of waters, Panneerselvam said such actions by Kerala should be nipped in the bud.

AIAMDK Coordinator Panneerselvam also added that if Tamil Nadu remains silent on such acts, it may lead to Kerala claiming such rights later.

The Mullaperiyar dam is owned by Tamil Nadu and its maintenance is undertaken by it is irrefutable truth, Panneerselvam added.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the dam, built under an 1886 accord between the then Maharaja of Travancore and the erstwhile British Raj.

Though the dam is located in Kerala, it is owned, maintained and operated by Tamil Nadu.

The Supreme Court on May 5, 2014 had decreed in favour of Tamil Nadu and permitted the state to raise the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam to 142 feet from its earlier storage level of 136 feet.

In 2012, the Supreme Court empowered committee had said the Mullaperiyar dam is structurally safe.

Even in 2006, the apex court had said that Kerala cannot obstruct Tamil Nadu from increasing the water level in the dam to 142 feet and from carrying out repair works.

The Kerala government wants to build a new dam so that its control will be with it.
Amaravati, Feb 15 : The Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday shunted out Director General of Police D. Gautam Sawang and appointed Kasireddy V. R. N. Reddy as the new police chief.

Sawang has been directed to report to the General Administration Department for his next posting.

KVRN Reddy, Director General of Police (Intelligence) has been given full additional charge as DGP till further orders.

Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma has issued a Government Order (GO) to this effect.

Belonging to the 1992 batch of the Indian Police Service (IPS), KVRN Reddy has been serving as the Intelligence chief of the state since August 2020.

He had earlier worked in various posts including Deputy Commissioner of Police in Hyderabad, Vijayawada Railway SP and also as Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner. He also headed the narcotics control cell.

Sawang's transfer has come as a surprise as he is due to retire in July 2023. The development has raised a few eyebrows in bureaucratic circles.

This comes nearly two weeks after government employees held a huge protest in Vijayawada despite police denying permission and imposing restrictions in the city. Thousands of employees from across the state managed to reach the city for 'Chalo Vijayawada' on February 3. This was seen as a big failure of the police.

Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had reportedly taken serious note of the incident. The next day he had called the DGP and sought an explanation from him.

After assuming office of the chief minister in May 2019, Jagan Mohan Reddy had picked Gautam Sawang as the police chief.

Sawang, a 1986-batch IPS officer, succeeded R. P. Thakur.

Before Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, Sawang worked in various positions including Superintendent of Police (SP) and Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of Maoist-hit Warangal district.

In 2015, he became the Commissioner of Police in Vijayawada and three years later, he was appointed as Andhra Pradesh's DG, Vigilance and Enforcement.

During 2009-12, he served as a Commissioner for UN Police in Liberia.
Chennai, Feb 15 : A 32-year-old bus driver was arrested by the Madukkarai police under the Coimbatore rural district for sexually assaulting and impregnating his live-in partner's minor daughter.

The woman, who was living with her daughter after her husband passed away 13 years ago, entered into a relationship with a bus driver who had separated from his wife. They were living near Madukkarai.

The man, according to the Coimbatore rural police who arrested him, had assaulted the Class 11 student multiple times and when she complained of stomach pain she was taken to a hospital. The doctors at the hospital confirmed that she was pregnant and on questioning, she told that her mother's live-in partner had assaulted her.

Madukkarai All woman police registered a case under Sections 5(1) (n) (j) (ii) under the Protection of Children against Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.

The man was produced before the judge for POCSO Act who remanded him to judicial custody and on Tuesday he is lodged at Satyamangalam sub-jail.
Chennai, Feb 15 : Top choreographer Brinda Master, who is making her directorial debut with 'Hey Sinamika', a romantic comedy featuring actors Dulquer Salmaan, Aditi Rao Hydari and Kajal Aggarwal in the lead, has now disclosed why she chose to name her first film so.

Brinda, who considers filmmaker Mani Ratnam her guru, had choreographed a song titled 'Aye Sinamika' for his film 'OK Kanmani'. Fortunately, the director says that by a strange stroke of coincidence, the word 'Sinamika' also means 'angry girls' and that fit perfectly with the film's plotline.

Without any second thoughts, director Brinda decided that this was going to be her film's title and locked it! Elaborating further, she says, "I choreographed one of Mani sir's songs 'Aye Sinamika' in the past and that too featured Dulquer. I really liked the title and when I told Mani sir about it, he laughingly said, 'So, now you are taking the title from one of my films?' You could say it's my tribute to him." Produced and presented by Jio Studios, associate producer Global One Studios, the film has already been cleared by the Censor Board with a 'U' certificate and is scheduled to hit screens on March 3.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Top IBM executives reportedly plotted to reduce the portion of older employees at the company -- sometimes disparaging them with terms of art like "dinobabies" -- in order to hire a younger workforce to keep pace with corporate rivals.

A report in The New York Times, citing documents made public by a Federal District Court, said that IBM executives discussed plans to "phase out older employees and bemoaning the company's relatively low percentage of millennials".

In recent years, former IBM employees have accused the company of age discrimination in a variety of legal filings and press accounts.

Now, the documents that emerged from a lawsuit alleging that IBM engaged in a years-long effort to shift the age composition of its workforce, "appear to provide the first public piece of direct evidence about the role of the company's leadership in the effort".

"These filings reveal that top IBM executives were explicitly plotting with one another to oust older workers from IBM's workforce in order to make room for millennial employees," Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer for the plaintiff in the case, was quoted as saying in the report that came out on Monday.

IBM said that it "never engaged in systemic age discrimination".

"Employees were separated because of shifts in business conditions and demand for certain skills, not because of their age," According to the company, it hired more than 10,000 people over 50 in the US from 2010 to 2020.

The median age of IBM's US workforce was the same in each of those years: 48.

However, the new unsealed documents show top IBM executives specifically emphasising the need to "thin the ranks of older workers and hire more younger ones".

"We discussed the fact that our millennial population trails competitors. The data below is very sensitive -- not to be shared -- but wanted to make sure you have it. You will see that while Accenture is 72 per cent millennial we are at 42 per cent with a wide range and many units falling well below that average. Speaks to the need to hire early professionals," read one email from a top executive at the time, the NYT report said.

Another email by a top executive mentioned a plan to "accelerate change by inviting the 'dinobabies' (new species) to leave" and make them an "extinct species", the report added.

The company spokesperson said some of the language in the emails "is not consistent with the respect IBM has for its employees" and "does not reflect company practices or policies".

A ProPublica story in 2018 "identified employees in similar situations, and others who were asked to relocate out of state and decided to leave the company instead".

IBM faced other age discrimination claims, including a lawsuit filed in federal court in which plaintiffs accused the company of laying off large numbers of baby boomers because they were "less innovative and generally out of touch with IBM's brand, customers and objectives".

The case was settled in 2017, according to the ProPublica report.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Congress has attacked the government questioning the silence of the Finance Minister on the issue of an alleged ghost baba giving directions to Chitra Ramkrishna, the former CEO and MD of the NSE.

"The NSE is India's largest stock exchange with a combined market capitalisation of close to $4 trillion (Rs 303 lakh crore), and was guided by a BABA residing in the Himalayas. BABA was appointing KMP's (Key Managerial Personnel), fixing salary and increments of executives of the NSE. Not only this, BABA was also deciding and appointing Public Interest Directors. Operating Margin of NSE was at 70 per cent (which is abnormal)," the Congress said.

Ramkrishna was ousted from NSE in 2016 for her role in the co-location and algo trading scam and abuse of power in the appointment of COO.

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh said, "The probe found that Ramkrishna ran NSE with impunity. No one from the senior management, board, or the promoters, which include big government institutions and banks, ever objected to her ways. Instead, Ramkrishna was given Rs 44 crore as pending dues and salary when she left NSE." Vallabh questioned the silence of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister on India's biggest financial scam of all time. "Why an IP address of emails sent by BABA can't be traced till now? The entire world is laughing at us that a country known as the Tech powerhouse of the world can't trace a BABA who is sending emails from an IP Address," he said.

The party asked who all had invested in NSE in the last 7.5 years, complete details of the holding, price of acquisition, and date of investment should be made public. The NSE is planning for an IPO and immediately after an IPO, value of investment made in the last 7.5 years will increase by 10 times.

"What was SEBI doing from 2016 on Chitra Ramakrishna shenanigans when scandalous facts were reported? When SEBI is not having any expertise on search and seizure, why the case was not transferred to the CBI, SFIO, ED and IT for investigation in the last 6 years. Who is stopping SEBI from doing the same?" he asked.

The party asked since 2015 when co-location and algo trading scam was reported, what action was initiated by the Finance Ministry and SEBI against the NSE and alleged that instead of investigating co-location and algo trading scam on its own, asked NSE to undertake a forensic audit.
Srinagar/New Delhi, Feb 15 : Under the Srinagar Smart City Limited Project the developmental work of Jhelum River Front and Water Transport is in full swing. All major departments under this Smart City banner such as Floriculture, Urban and Social Forestry, Tourism, Handicrafts and Handlooms, and industry experts are cooperating to complete the project in a time bound and effective manner. Jhelum or Vitasta is a reflection of Kashmir's essence, the sacred thread of Kashmiri cultural ethos for more than 2,500 years.

Earlier in the month Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation stone for Jhelum Riverfront development to be constructed on the lines of Sabarmati riverfront, turning its surroundings into ecologically sustainable leisure hubs. Vitasta being the Venice of the East in Srinagar will be exhibited as a central attraction according to the Master Plan 2035. Its historic 7 bridges and 26 ghats will be restored in the same faith as they used to be upheld during ancient times.

The ghats on both sides of riverbanks will allow smooth water and river cruise transport. A mechanical system will be placed at Chattabal to maintain the water level at all times. The ghats are being visualized as a meeting point for cultural and commercial activities. They will be architected for maximum public turnout with small shops, pop-up stores selling art and craft, chai and small delicacies, live music from local bands, and act as a hangout location for all ages.

To be raised at the cost of Rs 75 crore, the riverfront project is under the authority of Jal Shakti Department under the Srinagar Smart City project. The first phase foresees modern public utilities and architectural grandeur with maximum green spaces. The Lt Governor also called for rebuilding of Polo View Road as a pedestrian walkway to provide suitable shopping experience to the people, an activity estimated at Rs 5.3 crore. The area will facilitate seating spaces, retractable bollards for emergency services, illumination, surveillance, improved drainage, and Wifi zone.

The establishments in the surroundings will be raised in a manner conducive to the aesthetics of the riverfront. In the wave of this development the Nishat and Shalimar Bagh will also go through a series of visual changes with respect to pathways and footpath reconstruction, lighting of bridges and buildings, etc.

On this note, many Shahar-e-Khaas developmental projects are waiting in the pipeline, ready to be executed. The foremost priority is the restoration of water channels like the historical Doodh Ganga, famous in fables for its magical foamy white water. Then the upgradation of markets and streets, Nalamar Road, Brari Nambal, restoration of Shrines and religious spots, development of Yarikand Sarai, and conservation of Amar Niwas as museum. The project for 'Adaptive Traffic Control System (ATCS)' is estimated at Rs 12.76 crore. The Dal Lake cleaning, weeding, and sewage disposal project too will shortly begin once the city snow melts and is aimed to be resolved by June this year.

JKUT achieved a remarkable feat of entertaining 1,27,605 tourists in the single month of November 2021. The Tourism Department is seeing its best days in decades owing to these grand expansions in infrastructure and the stabilized political climate.

NHAI will be leading the project responsible for the integration of religious and heritage sites, historical and sacred sites, and the hotspots for craft and folk art which earned Srinagar City a spot in the UNESCO world creative cities network under the Craft and Folk Arts category. After this momentous achievement, the UT citizens have taken the collective responsibility of strengthening and reviving traditional handicrafts and handloom that are almost extinct. With Prime Minister's various initiatives under the Naya Kashmir framework, free skill training, interest-free loans to entrepreneurs (especially women), and Self-Help Groups for such crafts have been set up, and are delivering above expectations.

The past years lacked a systematic effort to improve cities in JKUT and the Governor has decided to take the reins of such pending projects. The transformation in urban services, infrastructure, and improved urban governance will make the cities ecologically sustainable, economically productive, and socially equitable. Such physical and economic change of climate is sure to create favourable living and work conditions, and provide an opportune environment for businesses to flourish. In the Smart City Project, the residents have been involved to play a proactive role in participation of such urban rejuvenation programmes as they are the final receivers of the benefits. All the development work in the Srinagar City will be in the spirit of its culture and tradition, and its glorious past which has not seen the light of the day in the past 30 years.

The change of environment in the Valley can be witnessed today with the introduction of various technical interventions and focus on public service delivery by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. Heavy machines such as the Vehicle Mounted Manhole desilting Machine and snow clearance machines are lining up for citizens of Srinagar to combat harsh weather and root out any hiccups caused due to it. The new development projects are raised ground-up without relying on any previous infrastructure to ensure a strengthened core and sturdy roots. Modern art like graffiti in public spaces and wall paintings in celebration of 'Azadi ki Amrit Mahotsav' across the city is displaying the excitement of the new dawn upon Srinagar.

The Center is building a highly self-reliant model demanding responsibility and accountability from the people for employment and growth. The government is weeding out the weak-willed structures in the systems which have previously only obscured the perspectives of the citizens regarding growth and development. With an open-door policy on grievances and feedback, a transparent system of management is shaping up. In the two years since the bottlenecks of Article 370 were removed J&K is witnessing the break of the day.
Los Angeles, Feb 15 : The hit US sitcom 'Friends' has been edited on Chinese streaming platforms, including iQiyi and Youku, which have removed all references to Ross Gellers former-wife Carol being lesbian and in a relationship with another woman.

Carol, who was played originally by Anita Barone, before she was replaced by Jane Sibbett, was edited out of her first appearance in the show, including all references to Ross, played by David Schwimmer, getting divorced, the South China Morning Post newspaper reports, according to femalefirst.co.uk.

Meanwhile, a scene that showed Joey, played by Matt LeBlanc and Chandler, played by Matthew Perry, kissing at a New Year's Eve party has also been removed by the streaming platforms.

Fans of the comedy recently took to the Chinese social media site Weibo to voice their opposition to the move, using the hashtag FriendsCensored. However, the hashtag has now been removed from the site, according to CNN.

Prior to this release, the unedited version of the sitcom was available between 2012 and 2013 on platforms such as Sohu and iQiyi.

However, in 2016, the Chinese government brought in new guidelines that prohibited TV programmes from featuring gay relationships, along with topics that "exaggerate the dark side of society".

The eight-page document banned "vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content" and ruled that homosexuality, extra-marital affairs, casual sex and underage relationships as no-go areas.

'Bohemian Rhapsody', the Oscar-winning biopic of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, was previously altered to satisfy the guidelines. Editors of the film removed over two minutes of LGBT-related content, including two men kissing and the use of the word "gay".
Patna, Feb 15 : After the special CBI court of Ranchi held RJD chief Lalu Prasad guilty in yet another fodder scam, BJP and JD-U leaders welcomed the decision.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi said that he raised this scam several times in the past. "I am highly satisfied that he (Lalu Prasad Yadav) who looted Bihar was finally punished. I appreciate the decision of the CBI court," Sushil Modi said.

"The hearing of the case was going on for the last 30 years. He (Lalu Prasad) used to do laughable things to get attention of the media. The court has given a strong message to the society. Whoever violates the law will be punished," Sushil Modi said.

Tar Kishore Prasad, the deputy chief minister of Bihar, said: "Those who ignore and cheat people would get punished by the court of law." Samrat Chaudhary, the Panchayati Raj minister in the Nitish Kumar government said: "Justice has been done for the people of Bihar after the decision of the CBI court, Ranchi." Neeraj Kumar, MLC and chief spokesperson of the JD-U said: "Lalu Prasad makes a record on corruption. He has cheated people in the past. Now, justice has been delivered by the court of law. He is also involved in the IRCTC scam and its amount is much bigger than the fodder scam." Responding to the BJP and JD-U's statements, Jagadanand Singh, the RJD Bihar president, said that the RJD will challenge the decision of the CBI court in the High Court. "We will fight for our leader in the apex court till our last breath. We have huge expectations and belief in our judiciary. Lalu Prasad is a leader known for social equality and social unity in the country." Ajit Sharma, the CLP leader of the congress in Bihar said: "Lalu Prasad is being framed by opposition leaders. If this case goes to the supreme court, the matter will be clear. RJD should challenge the decision in the upper court." Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday was held guilty of illegal withdrawal of Rs 139.5 crore from Doranda treasury in fodder scam, Jharkhand. Besides Lalu Prasad, there were 74 more accused who have been held guilty under the same charge. The CBI court has acquitted 24 persons in this case.

The quantum of punishment will be announced on February 21.
Imphal, Feb 15 : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said the BJP-led Centre's policy was to benefit big industrialists thereby depriving the poor and middle class, and not providing political and cultural space for people of different religions, castes and regions.

The Congress leader was addressing gatherings in Manipur virtually from Delhi.

She said the BJP government at the Centre was generally giving benefits two to three big industrialists of the country who are making thousands of crores a day whereas the poor and middle class people are not getting any support from the government.

"The individual voices are being throttled and suppressed by the BJP. The party made so many promises before the elections, but after the election the BJP ignored Manipur and the Northeast region. Everything has been imposed from the Centre," Priyanka said.

Saying that the politics of BJP and Congress is different, she accused the saffron party of not giving space to the diverse sections of people leading to discrimination and unrest in the society.

Terming Manipur as the jewel of the country, Vadra said that there is a huge unemployment crisis in the state despite the tourism sector having great sources of employment opportunities and jobs could be created by helping small and medium scale industries.

Alleging that states, regions and all people of the country are not being treated equally by the BJP, the Congress leader said that the BJP government at the Center and in the states do not respect individual life and culture, different ways of living, diverse opinions causing rising discriminations.

Claiming that the Congress party built the nation and obtained India's Independence, the Congress general secretary said that rampant corruption, unemployment, price rise and undemocratic activities shattered the lives of the people in Manipur.

Demanding 33 per cent reservation for women in the government jobs and free transport for the women in Manipur, the Congress leader said that she has been constantly trying to provide equal opportunities to women while the BJP's ideology never supports this policy.

Noting that Manipur has huge potentiality in tourism, hydroelectric to handloom and handicrafts, she said that if the Congress after the election comes to power unemployment allowance would be given, would protect each ethnic group and community, curb rising drug menaces, provide free health care, resolve unemployment and women's problems. "Congress is always focusing on development and women's empowerment," she stated.

She said that in the 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress got the people's mandate by securing 28 seats (in the 60-member Assembly) but BJP captured power through manipulation, undemocratic process, bullying, bribing and fundamentally following unethical means.

Congress sources said that several other party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi would visit poll-bound Manipur next week. The two-phase elections to the 60-seat Manipur Assembly would be held on February 28 and March 5 and the counting of votes would take place on March 10.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 15 : Already under fire from both the Congress and the BJP for his statements praising China, CPI-M politburo member S. Ramachandra Piillai, on Tuesday again did the same and then blamed media for it.

Pillai on a few occasions last month while addressing his party cadre as part of the district party meetings, praised China and on Tuesday while speaking at the Alappuzha district CPI-M committee meeting, said the growth of China is the victory of socialism and it's one country where there is no poverty.

"China is one country which lends money to other countries and when I speak facts the media kicks up a row," said Pillai.

Last month, Pillai said at the Kottayam district CPI-M party meeting, that China has grown to the stature of questioning American imperialism and went on to add that they have become powerful and is facing a global attack, directed to target their achievements.

Soon after that, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan asked the CPI-M to spell out its policy on China and wanted to know if the CPI-M here is controlled and guided by the Chinese Communist party.

Satheesan went on to say that China for long has been trying to create trouble in India and it's strange and surprising that the CPI-M is speaking of the policies of China.

BJP ally in Kerala, the Democratic Party has demanded that appropriate action should be taken against the CPI-M in Kerala for glorifying China at its ongoing party meetings and asked the Centre to take steps to initiate a probe on this.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will inaugurate an orientation programme for the members of Bihar Legislative Assembly and Bihar Legislative Council in Patna on February 17 on the occasion of the foundation day of Bihar Assembly.

Birla will also launch the Bihar Vidhan Sabha Digital TV and Bihar Vidhan Sabha Patrika.

The orientation programme will be organised by Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE), and Lok Sabha Secretariat, in coordination with the Bihar Legislative Assembly Secretariat for the members of both the state Assembly and Legislative Council.

A total of 318 members of Bihar Legislature will attend the programme at the Central Hall of Bihar Legislature.

The objective of the orientation programme is to familiarise the members with the working of the Legislature and to promote knowledge and appreciation of the Legislature's constitutional role, and its position as the supreme representative institution.

The Programme will also emphasise on acquainting the members with the operational mechanisms, parliamentary traditions, conventions, and etiquette.

The members will be sensitised on several subjects, including 'How to be an Effective Legislator'; 'Privileges of Legislatures and their Members'; 'Parliamentary Customs, Conventions and Etiquette'; 'Legislative Process'; 'Budgetary Process' etc.

The orientation programme for the members of Legislative Assembly was started in Arunachal Pradesh in 1981, which was inaugurated by then Lok Sabha Speaker Bal Ram Jakhar.

Since 1981, a total of 59 orientation courses have been conducted in which more than 4,000 members have participated. Out of the 59 courses, 32 have been conducted in the national capital, and the rest were sprawled across state capitals.
Chennai, Feb 15 : The Madras High court on Tuesday granted bail to Bishop Samuel Mar Irenios, head of the Syro-Malankara Diocese of Pathanamthitta, Kerala and five other priests in a case related to illegal sand mining at the Tirunelveli property of the diocese.

The Bishop and five priests, including the Vicar General, were arrested by the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch CB-CID on February 6.

While Bishop Irenios and Father Jose Chamkala were admitted to Tirunelveli Medical College after they complained of chest pain and giddiness, the rest of the priests were lodged in Nanguneri jail.

The CB-CID charged that the Pathanamthitta diocese has 300 acres of land at Pottal near Kallidakurichi in Tirunelveli district. The land was given on a five-year lease to one Manuel George of Kottayam from 2019 onwards.

The charge was that Manuel George obtained a license for manufacturing M-sand at the property but lifted sand from Vandal Odai that does not have a title deed and sold the sand with the connivance of officials of revenue and police. After environmentalists raised complaints, Cheranmahadevi Sub collector Pratik Tayal conducted an inspection and found that 27,774 cubic metres of river sand has been illegally lifted. A fine of Rs 9.57 crore was slapped against the Malankara diocese who are the owners of the property.

On February 9, the bail application of the Bishop and other priests was rejected by the Judicial Magistrate 1 (In-charge) Kadarkarai in Tirunelveli.

The Advocate for the diocese argued that the owners of the land, including Bishop Irenios and others, were not able to inspect the property near Pottal since March 2019 due to Covid -19. The advocate also argued that George seized this opportunity and illegally mined the sand.

The diocese also said that the lease agreement for the property with Manuel George will be terminated as he breached the terms of the lease agreement.
Kolkata, Feb 15 : India's limited-overs captain Rohit Sharma has said that as the IPL mega auction is over, players have been told to focus on playing for India. He added that clarity has been given to all the players and it is up to them on how they want to adapt.

"Whatever has happened has happened, for the next two weeks, now we have to focus on playing for India, nothing else," said Rohit during a virtual press conference.

"I can understand that some of the team members will go through ups and downs during the auction, some emotional feeling within themselves on which team they will play for in the IPL. But that was done. We had a great meeting. Now everyone should focus on the colour blue for the next two weeks," he said.

On the eve of the T20I series against the West Indies, Rohit reiterated that the team management is not considering IPL at this moment.

"There is no consideration of the IPL here honestly. We will be focusing on the T20 against the West Indies. I know these guys do different roles for their franchises, what we need from them here is important. IPL will happen later, we will take care of it," he said.

India face West Indies in a three-match T20I series, starting Wednesday. India whitewashed the West Indies 3-0 in the ODI series last week and will look to stamp their authority in the T20I series.

Latest updates on IPL 2022
Zira : , Feb 15 (IANS) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday campaigned for the party's candidate Naresh Kataria in this assembly constituency in Ferozepur district of Punjab that will go to the polls for the 117-member Assembly on February 20.

"The time has come to sweep away 70 years of political corruption from Punjab. Every Punjabi will contribute to clean out the political corruption from the system of Punjab by voting for 'Jharoo' (broom)," said Mann at an election meeting.

He said February 20 is an opportunity to create a new history in Punjab. "Leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal, the BJP and the Congress have been taking turns to loot Punjab. Today Punjab has a debt of Rs 3 lakh crore due to the wrong policies of these traditional parties and their greed." The two-time Member of Parliament, who is contesting from Dhuri, said there was a time when the exchequer of the government was full of money.

Mann said the SAD, the Congress and the BJP leaders had usurped the resources of Punjab due to which the government was not getting any revenue which was being locked in the coffers of corrupt political leaders.

Mann appealed to the people that in order to increase the revenue of the government it was necessary to free the sources of revenue from the Badals, the Congress and the BJP. "For this it is important to change the government of Punjab." AAP candidate Kataria thanked Mann and said that the people of Zira will win this constituency to form the government in Punjab.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Congress General Secretary Incharge UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is scheduled to visit Ravidas temple in Varanasi on Wednesday on the occasion of the Jayanti of the 16th centry saint. The temple in Varanasi is revered in Punjab and has huge following in the state. Even the state election was deferred on the request of the Chief Minister and the BJP.

Punjab elections were earlier scheduled for February 14 but were deferred to February 20 in view of the Ravidas jayanti.

The visit holds significance as Punjab is going to polls on February 20 and scheduled caste comprises around 32 per cent of the electorate in the state. The Congress has a Dalit Chief Minister, Charanjit Singh Channi on whose face the Congress is contesting polls. However, the Congress says that this is not the first time she is visiting the temple.

Priyanka Gandhi is campaigning for the party in Punjab and on Tuesday she was at Ropar to canvass for the party candidates. Earlier on Sunday, she accused former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for running his government on the directions of the BJP-led central government.

"This forced us to change the leadership (Amarinder Singh) in the state so that the state government is operated from Punjab, and not from Delhi," she said while campaigning for party candidates. She also targeted the AAP and then took a stroll in agricultural fields to have a feel of the rural Punjab. She also attacked the Aam Aadmi Party, saying it has emerged from the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), the BJP's ideological offshoot.
Lucknow, Feb 15 : Ashish Mishra, son of union minister Ajay Mishra Teni, who was accused of mowing down four farmers in Lakhimpur on October 3 last year, following a protest by farmers, was released from Lakhimpur jail on Tuesday evening, after the Allahabad High Court corrected its order.

Ashish Mishra had moved the Lucknow bench of the High Court seeking insertion of sections 302 (murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC that were 'inadvertently' not mentioned in the high court order as the jail authorities would not release him due to the omission.

"It is a mere typographical error, while the court already considered the bail under these sections too and, as such, the same may be allowed making the addition of these sections in the order," said the application.

Ashish Mishra was arrested on October 9 last year by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing the incident.

"Ashish Mishra has been arrested as he was not cooperating during the interrogation and did not answer a few questions," DIG Upendra Agarwal had told reporters at the time of his arrest.

An FIR was registered against him and a few others over the incident, but the UP police did not move against him until the Supreme Court decided to take up the matter.

His arrest came a day after the apex court expressed its dissatisfaction with the UP government over the action taken in the case.

Ashish turned up for questioning the second time he was summoned, and after 12 hours the nine-member SIT headed by DIG Agarwal, arrested him.

It may be recalled that eight people were killed on October 3, 2021, after violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Four of the dead were farmers who were mowed down by a speeding SUV, belonging to Ashish Mishra. One journalist covering the incident was also killed in the incident.

Three BJP workers were killed in retaliatory violence.

The Special Investigation Team probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence incident has said that there was a planned conspiracy to murder protesting farmers.

Meanwhile, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesman, Rakesh Tikait, has said the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) will approach the Supreme Court over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence episode in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Ludhiana, Feb 15 : The national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Arvind Kejriwal, said on Tuesday that an AAP government would ensure the safety of every person in Punjab, irrespective of their religion or caste.

Kejriwal said there is an atmosphere of fear among the people in Punjab due to the sacrilege and bomb blast incidents in the past. People are worried about their safety, said the Delhi Chief Minister.

Giving an example, Kejriwal said, "On Monday, a man came to me and said, 'I am a Hindu. There is a lot of concern about security in my mind these days. The incidents of sacrilege are disturbing. Me and my family are scared'." Kejriwal said there is fear among the people in the poll-bound state due to the pathetic condition of law and order, frequent incidents of sacrilege and dirty politics of the Congress and the BJP over the Prime Minister's security breach last month.

"In view of all these incidents, today I want to assure all the individuals and businessmen of Punjab, whether they are Hindu, Sikh, Muslim or Christian, that the AAP government will take responsibility of the security of three crore Punjabis. The AAP government will be responsible for the security of every individual, every trader in Punjab," Kejriwal said.

On how the relationship with the Central government will be if AAP manages to form the government in Punjab, Kejriwal said, "Our government in Delhi has many differences with the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. Despite this, we always supported the Central government on the issue of security of the country and welfare of its people.

"Even during Covid-19, we tried to work in coordination with the Centre and saved the lives of lakhs of people in Delhi. When the Aam Aadmi Party forms the government in Punjab, we will fix the relationship with the Centre and work in coordination for the betterment of the state." On the issue of smuggling of drugs from across the border, Kejriwal said, "We will stop infiltration, drugs smuggling and drones coming from across the border by guarding Punjab's (international) border." The AAP leader said that only an honest government is needed to make Punjab safe and drugs-free.

"If an honest government is formed, Punjab Police will work with full sincerity and dedication and will ensure the safety of Punjab and its people," he said.

Kejriwal said the previous Congress and Akali governments were marred by by corruption and mafia raj, adding that money and bribe was involved in the transfer posting of police officers.

"Therefore, it was their (police personnel) compulsion to give exemption to drugs mafia, sand mafia and other mafias. AAP government will work with complete honesty, and the same Punjab Police will take action against all such criminals." The AAP government will give strict punishment to all the culprits and masterminds by conducting fair and independent investigation into all the incidents of previous sacrilege, so that no one can dare to commit such a crime in the future, he added.

The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 20, while the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.

In the 2017 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 77 seats, while the SAD-BJP alliance could win only 18 seats. The AAP emerged as the second-largest party with 20 seats.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Feb 15 : India is among several countries including the US, the UK, Germany and Singapore, who issued an advisory for their nationals in Ukraine, amid tensions over the Russian military build-up on its borders.

In an advisory issued on Tuesday, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv has asked Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to consider leaving the country temporarily in the wake of the current situation.

Indian nationals are also advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine, it added, and asked all those in the country to register with it.

The UK has asked British citizens to leave Ukraine.

"Since January 2022, the build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine's borders has increased the threat of military action. Due to the growing threat from Russia, the FCDO has taken the decision to temporarily withdraw some Embassy staff and their dependents from Kyiv. The Embassy remains open but will be unable to provide in-person consular assistance. British nationals should leave while commercial options remain," reads the British advisory.

"If you decide to remain in Ukraine, you should remain vigilant throughout due to potential combat operations, keep your departure plans under constant review and ensure your travel documents are up to date. You should monitor the media and this travel advice regularly, subscribe to email alerts and read our advice on how to deal with a crisis overseas.

"Public demonstrations regularly take place. Policing of these events may include road closures. You should avoid all demonstrations and take extra care at public gatherings. In Kyiv, the areas around Maydan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) and government buildings such as the Verkhovna Rada (parliament building) and the Cabinet of Ministers are most frequently affected," the UK advised its citizens.

Singapore also issued an advisory telling its nationals in Ukraine to take the necessary precautions for their personal safety, heed the instructions of the local authorities, and closely monitor the local news. "Singaporeans should remain vigilant and exercise increased caution such as avoiding public gatherings and crowded places. They should also purchase comprehensive travel insurance and be familiar with the terms and coverage," reads its advisory.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, in a statement, said that the "build-up of Russian troops means that the fate of an entire country and its people currently hangs in the balance".

"The situation is extremely dangerous and could escalate at any time - in Europe we are all too well aware of how quickly that can happen." The US State Department, in its advisory, warned its citizens not to travel to Ukraine due to the increased threats of Russian military action and Covid-19 and asked those there to depart immediately via commercial or private means. "If remaining in Ukraine, exercise increased caution due to crime, civil unrest, and potential combat operations should Russia take military action. Some areas have increased risk." On February 12, it ordered the departure of most employees from the Embassy in Kyiv and suspended consular services there.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Despite expressing confidence of forming the next government in Uttarakhand with a huge majority, the BJP is now assessing the damage caused by party rebel candidates. Voting for the 70 member Uttarakhand Assembly elections was held on Monday and BJP is now calculating actual damage caused by these rebels.

A senior Uttarakhand BJP leader said that as the polling has ended now the party is calculating the damage caused by the rebels. "We are collecting the feedback from cadres to find out damage caused to our official candidates by the rebels. Actual damage can be known to everyone after declaration of election result on March 10 but before that through various means we are trying to get the sense," he said.

Another party functionary mentioned that there are two categories of rebels, one are real strongmen in the constituencies and the second those aspirants who are contesting the polls after being denied ticket. "Rebels like Rajkumar Thukral, sitting MLA from Rudrapur, are a major concern for the party as they have real capacity to damage chances of our official candidates. It might be possible in some seats, they will be the reason for the defeat of BJP candidates," he said.

BJP rebels are contesting against party's official candidates in Kotdwar, Dhanaulti, Rudrapur, Doiwala, Bhimtal, Lalkua, Ghansali and Dharampur. Even before the polls, rebels were a major concern for the BJP. On Monday, BJP national general secretary and Uttarakhand in-charge, Dushyant Gautam had told IANS that the way people voluntarily came out to vote clearly shows that their blessing is with the BJP.

"The trend and feedback received till late afternoon clearly shows that the BJP will form the next government in Uttarakhand with a huge majority," Gautam had said.

Polling for the 70 member Uttarakhand assembly was held on February 14 and counting of votes will be held on March 10.

The ruling BJP left no stone unturned to retain power in the state. The BJP has set a target of winning over 60 seats in next assembly polls in Uttarakhand. In the last assembly polls in 2017, the BJP had won 57 seats.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : In the latest development in the Rs 22,842 crore fraud, allegedly committed by ABG Shipyard company, the CBI said that it has issued a Look Out Circular (LOC), against the accused in the case.

The CBI revealed that there are around 100 high value bank fraud cases that could not be registered due to non-accordance of specific consent u/s 6 of the DSPE Act by the state governments where the general consent has been withdrawn.

The CBI has recovered incriminating documents, i.e account books of ABG Shipyards, its sale-purchase details, minutes of board meetings, share registers, contract files.

Also, the bank account details of ABG Shipyards and related parties have been obtained. Subsequently, LOCs against the accused have already been opened by the CBI. Earlier, the State Bank of India had also opened LOCs against the main accused in 2019.

"The withdrawal of general consent to a CBI investigation by certain states has made the registration of bank fraud cases more challenging. There are around 100 high value bank fraud cases that could not be registered due to non-accordance of specific consent u/s 6 of the DSPE Act by state governments where the general consent has been withdrawn," said a CBI official.

In the present case, there are 28 banks involved in a consortium with a huge amount of disbursement.

There were different types of bank loans including CC Loan, Term Loan, Letter of Credit, Bank Guarantee etc. that were given as advance by the banks.

The fraud is primarily on account of huge transfers by ABG Shipyard Ltd to its related parties and subsequently making adjustment entries. It is also alleged that huge investments were made in its overseas subsidiary by diverting the bank loans. Funds were diverted to purchase huge assets in the name of its related parties.

"They took a loan of Rs 1228 cr from the Indian Overseas Bank, Rs 1244 crore from Punjab National Bank, Rs 1614 crore from Bank of Baroda, Rs 7089 crore from ICICI Bank and Rs 3634 crore from IDBI Bank. Later they didn't pay the banks their dues. Initially the bank initiated an internal inquiry in which it was found that the company was cheating the consortium of Banks by diverting funds to different entities," said the CBI.

The CBI official said that ABG Shipyard Ltd has been in business with the SBI since 2001. The account of ABG Shipyard turned NPA on 30 November 2013. As per the bank complaint, the NPA is to the tune of Rs 22,842 crore and the majority of the disbursement happened between 2005 and 2012 by a consortium of 28 banks led by ICICI Bank and including SBI.

The account was restructured under the CDR mechanism on 27 March 2014. However, the operations of the company could not be revived.

On 10 September 2014, N V Dand and Associates was deputed to conduct a stock audit of ABG Shipyard Ltd. The audit firm submitted its report on 30 April 2016 and observed various faults on the part the accused company. Subsequently, the account of ABG Shipyard Ltd was declared NPA.

In keeping with a policy implemented since 2014 of red-flagging suspect accounts, commissioning forensic audits by empanelled forensic auditors, and making CMDs liable, a forensic audit was initiated based on the lenders' decision in the Joint Lenders Meeting on 10 April 2018.

Ernst & Young LLP was appointed Forensic Auditor. As per the usual practice, these forensic audits cover a period starting approximately three to four years prior to the date of the declaration of the NPA, which, in this case was 2016.

The forensic audit of ABG Shipyard Ltd therefore covers the period from 2012 to 2017. Meanwhile, the company ABGSL was also referred to NCLT, Ahmedabad on 1 August 2017 by ICICI Bank, being the lead bank, for Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process(CIRP).

Between April 2019 to March 2020, various banks of the consortium declared the account of ABG Shipyard a fraud.

The CBI is investigating this biggest fraud committed by any company so far.
Bengaluru, Feb 15 : Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani said on Tuesday that the state was one of the top FDI recipients among the major states in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We implemented the Industrial Policy 2020-25 with an aim to attract more foreign investments and push industrial growth in the state. Those who make more than Rs 500 crore investments will get special incentives," the minister said.

Responding to a query in the Upper House of the state Assembly, Nirani said that the global investors' meet -- Invest Karnataka - 2022 -- will be held from November 2 to 4 this year at the Palace Ground in Bengaluru.

"Karnataka attracted Rs 1,02,866 crore investments and remained the top FDI recipient in India with 46 per cent share in the April-September period last year," stated the minister.

In an effort to push industrial growth beyond Bengaluru, the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) will develop new industrial areas in eight districts, he said.

Replying to MLC H.M. Ramesh Gowda's query in the Upper House, Nirani said KIADB is planning to develop new industrial areas in 2022-23.

"KIADB will develop the Harohalli 5th phase in Ramanagara, Gauribidanur 3rd phase in Chikkaballapura, Madhugiri industrial area in Tumakuru, Jakkasandra 2nd phase in Kolar, Kuduragundi industrial area in Mandya, Arasikere industrial area in Hassan, Kadechur 2nd phase in Yadgir, and Obalapura industrial area in Bengaluru rural," Nirani said.

The minister added that the KIADB has developed 188 industrial estates across the state so far and basic infrastructure facilities are in good condition. He said the government has released Rs 525 crore under the Critical Infrastructure Development Scheme to upgrade infrastructure facilities in the old industrial areas.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
San Francisco, Feb 15 : Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who flew to Earth orbit on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule last year, has now bought three new missions with the Elon Musk-led company.

Isaacman is the 39-year-old founder of Shift4, an online payment processing company, and the commander of the first "all-civilian" space mission Inspiration4, which was launched last year.

He announced that he's purchased three spaceflights with SpaceX, and named the series "Polaris Programme" that would take him deeper into space on the company's spacecraft, Space.com reported.

All three commercial spaceflights will be launched on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft by November or December this year.

"The Polaris Programme is an important step in advancing human space exploration while helping to solve problems through the use of innovative technology here on Earth," Isaacman was quoted as saying in a statement.

The programme's first launch, dubbed "Polaris Dawn," will launch Isaacman as mission commander.

The other three crewmates, include pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force who served as the mission director for Inspiration4, mission specialist Sarah Gillis, who oversees SpaceX's astronaut training programme, and medical officer Anna Menon, who manages the development of SpaceX's crew operations while also serving the company's mission control.

The Polaris Dawn crew will expand upon the achievements of the record-setting Inspiration4 mission.

In September 2021, Isaacman and his three Inspiration4 crewmates (Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux and Chris Sembroski) spent three days aboard a Dragon spacecraft in Earth orbit, reaching a maximum altitude of 565 kilometres -- the fifth-highest orbital human spaceflight in history.

"On Polaris Dawn, we endeavour to achieve the highest Earth orbit ever flown," Isaacman said.

That record is currently set at 1,373 km, as achieved by NASA's Gemini 11 astronauts, Charles "Pete" Conrad and Richard "Dick" Gordon, in 1966, the report said.

One of the Polaris Dawn mission's objectives is to collect data on the effects of space radiation exposure on human health.

At approximately 500 km above Earth, two of the Polaris Dawn crew members will also attempt the first commercial extravehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk, the report said.

The flight would also serve as another St. Jude fundraising opportunity as Inspiration4.

Further, the flight would also test out SpaceX's Starlink "laser-based communications in space," tapping into the massive satellite constellation the company is building to provide global broadband coverage, the Verge reported.
Hyderabad, Feb 15 : Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal-Secular party President H.D. Deve Gowda has extended his support to the fight launched by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao against the religious polarisation of politics by the BJP government at the Centre.

According to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), Deve Gowda on Tuesday spoke to Chandrasekhar Rao over phone. The CMO said Rao's fight against politics of polarisation is getting support from several quarters.

Deve Gowda congratulated KCR for fighting against the communal politics in the country. "Rao Saab, you are fighting very well. Every one should fight against the communal elements. To protect our country's secularism, culture and its diverse culture we will be with you and support you. Continue your fight and our total support will be there for you," the CMO quoted the former Prime Minister as saying.

KCR told Deve Gowda that he would visit Bengaluru in this regard and meet him personally.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : With an aim to further strengthen island and border security through space technology, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is to soon hold a meeting with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to plug in gaps and to facilitate development of infrastructure in border island areas.

During the meeting, the MHA officials will discuss ways to have better border management to plug in security gaps by using space technology at northern, eastern border and on island security as well, the sources further said.

There are several points on the border which is not fully fenced at northern border due to the hilly terrain and riverine belt in North and western border, while the 3,488 km long border with China is not properly demarcated and defined, the officials in the security set up said, adding that by using space technology, the security forces will have better eye on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

According to sources, high officials from border guarding forces such as BSF, ITBP and SSB will be participating in the meeting with the senior officials of the ISRO to explain the need for the required technology in border management.

Apart from keeping eyes on both hostile neighbours in the north and eastern theatres, the lack of a proper communication system in these difficult terrains, poses a challenge for the border guarding forces, the officials in the security forces said, adding that they are solely dependent on radio communication. The radio communication has its own limitations due to heights and inclement weather, however some forces use satellite telephones for communications but that also has chances of interception by the enemy forces.

On January 17, 2019, then Home Minister Rajnath Singh approved a report of a Task Force created by the MHA to identify areas for use of Space Technology in improving Border Management. The Task Force headed by Joint Secretary (Border Management) and having members from BSF, Department of Space and Border Management Division consulted all stakeholders including Border Guarding Forces (BGFs), ISRO, National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) to finalise the report focusing on island development, border security, communication and navigation, GIS and Operational Planning System and the border infrastructure development.

The Task Force also recommended that the immediate need of the border guarding forces be met by procuring high resolution imagery and hiring of bandwidth for communications while ISRO would be launching a satellite for an exclusive use of the MHA.

The BSF was designated as lead agency for implementation of ground segment and network infrastructure including establishment of archival facilities. Deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in remote areas will also be coordinated by satellite communications, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)-based GPS will provide navigation facilities for operational parties in high altitude, remote and difficult borders and Maoist infested areas.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chandigarh, Feb 15 : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance on Tuesday released election manifesto promising what it called "brave and path-breaking initiatives", including a revolutionary shift to clean solar energy to ensure zero-bill electricity to every house and student cards of Rs 10 lakh each for quality education, anywhere.

The alliance promised Rs 10 lakh free annual health insurance for all Punjabis, Rs 2,000 per month to all women heads of 'blue card' families, 5 lakh houses and five marla plots each to homeless poor and hiking old-age pension to Rs 3,100 and shagun scheme of Rs 75,000.

The manifesto promises Rs 5 lakh interest-free loan to every youth, especially women to start their own enterprise.

Releasing the manifesto jointly, SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal said, "Our blueprint for taking Punjab and Punjabis into the brave new era makes a strong pitch for combining the much needed thrust on social welfare with path-breaking initiatives for sustained, inclusive and futuristic progress and development." "We will completely transform the lives of the people of our state in every sphere. We have prepared a practical road for revolutionising agriculture by a state-sponsored shift to the commercial exploitation of our farmers' potential." The manifesto promised to encourage and promote the lucrative water-based farming which requires no fertilisers, insecticides or pesticides and saves 90 per cent water, said Badal at a press meet with BSP in-charge of Punjab affairs, Randhir Beniwal.

To open up professional avenues, the manifesto promises a series of measures. "The SAD-BJP government will start flying academies to train pilots, flight engineers and cabin crew on a cost-to-cost basis." On the political and social front, Badal and Beniwal said the alliance is committed to peace and communal harmony as fundamental condition for any progress.

Punjab will go to the polls for 117-member Assembly on February 20.

In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, the Congress won 77 seats, while the SAD-BJP alliance could win only 18 seats. The AAP emerged as the second-largest party with 20 seats.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday greeted fellow citizens on the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas.

"I extend warm greetings and best wishes to all the fellow citizens on the auspicious occasion of birth anniversary of Guru Ravidasji.

"Guru Ravidas was a great saint, poet and social reformer. Through his devotional songs, he tried to eradicate the social evils and bring about harmony in the society. He is considered a leading poet saint of the Bhakti Movement," he said, as per a communique from the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Stating that Guru Ravidas tried to inculcate the feeling of mutual love and equality among the people, the President said that the Guru's teachings of peace and fraternity are even more relevant today. "Being an enlightened spiritual person and a great social reformer, Guru Ravidas always encouraged his followers to follow the path of hard-work, diligence and forbearance," he said.

Kovind also appealed the people to take pledge to follow the path shown by Guru Ravidas and contribute in building a society based on equality and harmony, the communique said.
London, Feb 15 : A new wave of infections from the Omicron variant of coronavirus is moving towards the east of Europe, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday, urging authorities to improve vaccination and other measures.

WHO's Europe regional director Hans Kluge, in a statement, said that the past two weeks, cases of Covid have more than doubled in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine, reports said.

The comments come at a time when several European countries including Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have all lifted Covid restrictions, while the Czech Republic and Poland have hinted at easing of Covid-19 restrictions next month, if daily infection numbers kept falling.

Over 165 million Covid cases and 25,000 deaths have been recorded so far across the WHO European region in the last week.

The global health body stressed the continued need for measures such as rapid testing and masking, as well as avoiding crowded locations, and improving ventilation.

Kluge stressed that in the face of an "Omicron tidal wave", and "with Delta still circulating widely in the east", now was "not the moment to lift measures that we know work in reducing the spread of Covid-19".

He also called on governments to increase vaccination rates.

Less than 40 per cent of those aged over 60 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan have completed their Covid-19 vaccine series, he said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Chennai, Feb 15 : Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai has said that Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin has forgotten about the promise he and the DMK had made during the run-up to the 2021 assembly elections regarding payment of Rs 1,000 per month to women.

The former IPS officer turned politician said that the Chief Minister seems to remember promises only when people start questioning him. He was speaking at Thanjavur on Tuesday during the election campaign for the urban local body polls.

He said that the Chief Minister has started talking about the Rs 1,000 assistance for the past two days only after the public questioned him.

Annamalai said the government is still creating a hype that it would sanction the money immediately and asked how he can sanction money without any government order. The BJP leader also said that there was no budget allocation for the same.

The BJP Tamil Nadu unit president said that the party is receiving an overwhelming response from the people who are benefiting from the central government schemes. He said that the state BJP has taken the achievements of the union government to each household who has benefited from at least one scheme of the Centre.

The BJP state president exhorted the party cadres and sympathizers to visit each and every household during the last leg of the campaign as there are only three days left for the polls. He said that for the central schemes to reach the people, BJP need to win the urban local body polls and called upon cadres to convey this message to the people during their door-to-door campaigning.
Bengaluru, Feb 15 : The Karnataka High Court was on Wednesday urged to direct the government to allow students wearing the hijab in classes as more students remained out in schools across the state, refusing to shun the head covering.

Teachers have also turned out students who came to attend classes with skull caps. Many students chose to be absent as hijab-wearing students were not allowed into schools.

A bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, and Justices Krishna S. Dixit and Khaji Jaibunnesa Mohiyuddin adjourned the hearing of petitions to Wednesday after hearing arguments and counter arguments for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Senior advocates Devdatt Kamat, Mohammad Tahir, and Ravi Varma Kumar presented their arguments in favor of girls demanding to wear hijab, while Advocate General Prabhuling Navadagi represented the government.

The petitioners submitted that since the colleges are being started from Wednesday, the bench must pass an order allowing Muslim students to wear hijab while attending classes. They also quoted a judgment of the South African court, where a Tamil girl was not allowed to attend classes for wearing a nose ring. When it was questioned in the court, the student was allowed to attend classes, counsel submitted.

The petitioners also submitted that the Karnataka government is yet to make guidelines on uniform, and without this, it is improper to make the uniform compulsory for students.

When one of the petitioners submitted that students with hijab are not allowed in Urdu schools in the state, the Advocate General objected to lacing arguments without submitting an application before the court.

The bench asked counsel to submit an application in this regard.

The petitioners also argued that the government does not have supreme power of prohibition in the name of public order.

Meanwhile, 25 girl students of the Government School in Indavara of Chikkamaglur district boycotted exams as they were asked to take off their hijab. More than 20 students went back to home without attending school for the same reason in Nelya village of Madikeri district.

The school authorities of Sasvehalli near Honnali in Davanagere district had a difficult time as more than 20 boys came in skull caps to attend classes. The teachers had sent them back. They sat in front of the school along with girl students wearing hijab and demanded that they should be allowed inside classes with hijab and skull caps.

Majority of students at Urdu Girls School in Kalaburagi chose to remain absent from classes as the hijab was not allowed. Similar incidents have been reported from Gadag, Hassan, Yadgir, and Shivamogga districts.

Congress Deputy Leader in the Assembly U.T. Khader asked the state government to resolve the hijab issue as confusion continued in the state even after the intervention of the High Court and interim order on the matter was given.

"There is confusion regarding interim order. The primary and high school students think that the order is only for colleges. This will lead to ruining the education prospectus of students already hit by Covid crisis," he said.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy, meanwhile, said that the government would follow the high court orders in this regard.

This was the third day of hearing by the three-judge bench. Earlier, it was vehemently argued that the government can't deny fundamental rights of students in the pretext of managing law and order situations. Counsel for the petitioners also objected to the powers given to the College Development Committee to decide on uniforms.

The bench had also refused to restrain media from reporting the proceedings as one of the counsel demanded that it will have effect on the elections of other states.

The court had earlier given an interim order that no religious symbols are allowed for the students in schools and colleges until its final order, thus ruling out both hijab and saffron shawls in the school and college premises.

It did not accede to the vehement arguments of petitioners seeking orders to the government for allowing students to wear hijab of the colour of their uniform to classrooms.

The state government had resumed schools till Class 10 and Pre-University College (Classes 11 and 12) are opening from Wednesday.

The hijab row which started last month in Udupi Pre-University College by six girl students, has snowballed into a major crisis in the state and has been discussed at international levels too.
San Francisco, Feb 15 : Tech giant Samsung's new line of Galaxy S22 devices now comes pre-installed with Google Messages, giving a major boost for the adoption of Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging in the US.

Google Messages, with Google's broad support of RCS messaging, became the default messaging app on the Galaxy S21 last year in Europe and other markets, but not in the US, reports ZDNet.

Now Samsung has made Google Messages the default messaging app in the US, the report said.

Google has been pushing RCS to be treated as a standard on all phones, including Apple's iPhone.

RCS is the would-be modern standard for SMS that allows WhatsApp-like functionality for the standard messaging experience on Android. But RCS is not supported by Apple's iMessage app.

According to 9to5Google, Samsung has now made Google Messages the default messaging app in the US for the newly unveiled Galaxy S22 series, which includes the S22, S22 Plus, and premium Ultra.

Previously, the US users could install Google Messages from the Play Store on S21 devices, but since it was not the default messaging app it was unlikely users would take the time to change it to the default.

In the S22 series, Google Messages also replaces Samsung Messages on the device's home screen, the report said.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The chiefs of the Indian Army and Royal Saudi Land Forces held discussions and briefings over areas of collaboration here on Tuesday, an official statement said.

In the first visit by the Royal Saudi Land Forces commander, making the deeping bilateral defence cooperation, Lt General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair, accompanied by other senior officers, arrived in India on a two-day tour.

Lt General Al-Mutair was received by Indian Army chief, General M.M. Naravane on Tuesday at South Block and accorded a ceremonial Guard of Honour.

The two army chiefs then held significant bilateral discussions and were briefed on security aspects and about areas where engagements can be enlarged and deepened. The deliberations also aimed to increase bilateral courses.

During the meeting, the Army Design Bureau made a presentation which covered current capability and competencies within the Indian defence industry. It included systems developed indigenously which have been evaluated and inducted by the Indian Army, including artillery, specialist vehicles, drones, counter drones, helicopters and missiles.

Indian Army officers apprised Saudi military officers about the policy initiatives and enabling provisions put out by the Indian government. They also informed how the start up ecosystem is being facilitated in conjunction with the industry in India. The visiting delegates were also informed that the Indian government is looking for major investment by the private sector and defence research and development has been opened up for industry, startups and academia with 25 per cent of defence research and development budget earmarked for the purpose.

The delegates were also apprised about various niche techniques being developed by armed forces in conjunction with start ups and incubating with academia. They discussed areas of collaboration feasible with the Indian industry to meet requirements of Saudi Land Forces. Other initiatives of the government for ease of doing business were also discussed, said a senior Indian Army officer.

Lt General Al-Mutair also visited the National Defence College where they met a Saudi student.

The Indian Army, in a statement, said: "The relationship between India and Saudi Arabia has grown owing to common interests in economic prosperity, eliminating the scourge of terrorism and mitigating the effects of climate change. Defence diplomacy forms one of the major tenets of the overall relationship." General Naravane had visited Saudi Arabia in December 2020 in a historic visit which marked the first time that an Indian Army Chief had visited Saudi Arabia.

Lt General Al-Mutair will return on Wednesday.
Patna, Feb 15 : Several supporters of Lok Janshakti Party (R) president Chirag Paswan on Tuesday were injured when police resorted to lathi charge during a protest march in Patna on Tuesday.

The protest march led by Chirag Paswan, began from Gandhi Maidan. When it reached at Dak Bunglow intersection, Patna police tried to stop them. The protesters stormed towards the Income Tax roundabout where police again tried to stop them but failed. When the march reached Hartali Mor, police intercepted them using riot control vehicles, and tried to disperse the protesters using water cannons.

When the march did not stop, the police fired tear gas shells. When they still did not stop, the cops resorted to lathi charge and detained several JLPR supporters including Chirag Paswan.

Chirag Paswan was taken in custody at secretariat police station. He was released after the bail was given by his mother Reena Paswan.

"Chief minister Nitish Kumar is afraid of me. That is why he is using such force on me and on those who believe in democracy. He rules like a dictator and he uses power on the people who have challenged his dictatorship," Chirag Paswan said.

"On the direction of Nitish Kumar, Bihar police has changed the narratives of the lathi charge. They have beaten us in such a way that many of our supporters sustained serious injuries. A number of our supporters have sustained head injuries. One supporter sustained fractures in the rib cage, a woman supporter sustained skull injuries too," he said.

"We were dealt with as we are terrorists. Do we look like terrorist? The Chief minister should clarify," Paswan asked.

The protest march was launched against Gaighat shelter home sexual assault case, rising crimes, high unemployment rate and deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
New Delhi, Feb 15: At a time when global shortage of semi conductors has hit production of electronic items including smartphones and vehicles, the newly inked joint venture between the Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta and Hon Hai Technology Group - better known as Foxconn Technology Group -- to manufacture semiconductors in India naturally had grabbed headlines.

While this is expected to give a push to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's production-linked incentive (PLI) plan, it is also seen by many as a move that would further expand collaboration between India and Taiwan, which is a key player in the global supply chain network.

The joint venture also gives shape to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's "New Southbound Policy" and Modi's Act East Policy.

"India is quietly but aggressively deepening its economic ties with Taiwan, there could be many more such investment announcements in the offing," an insider told India Narrative.

Also read: Taiwan electronics giant Foxconn forms JV to make chips in India Though New Delhi and Taipei have no diplomatic ties at present, India is one the 18 countries under its New Southbound Policy" that Taiwan is looking to expand its ties with.

"The investment would be considered a win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which aims to create an ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in India," Taipei Times said in a report.

Last year, the Centre gave its nod for a Rs 76,000 crore PLI scheme aimed at developing the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem.

India has been solely relying on imports of this critical component that forms a key raw material for almost all electronic items.

Senior government officials of both countries pointed out the need to expand bilateral relations "based on mutual interests." "Taiwan is a developed economy and a powerhouse of technology and we must establish good relations with the country," the late Shakti Sinha, a former bureaucrat and director at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International had told India Narrative in an interview.

Invest India, meanwhile, in its assessment said that India's semiconductor demand at present, is valued around $ 24 billion but by 2025, the market is expected to touch $ 100 billion.

Demand for semi-conductor has increased significantly with the rise in usage of mobile phones and computers. The advent of 5G technology will push demand further.

Invest India, the nodal body facilitating investments in the country, noted that the shortage of semi conductor amid the Covid 19 pandemic and the new geopolitical realities further exacerbate the need to develop trusted and reliable sources for chip manufacturing.

It has also set up a new mechanism under the umbrella 'Taiwan Plus' to help and handhold Taiwanese companies set up shop here.

Besides Foxconn, several other Taiwanese contract manufacturers including Wistron Corp and Pegatron Corp have also set up their manufacturing facilities in India. According to a Reuters report, these companies have drawn up plans to plough in $900 million in India over the next five years to tap into the government's production-linked incentive plan.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Feb 15: The leaders of terrorist organisations in South Asia region continue to spread hatred against India through internet platforms and social media and raise funds through fake charities, crowdfunding and by portraying themselves as humanitarian NGOs and non-profit organisations, India told the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) of the United Nations' Security Council on Monday.

The CTC open briefing started with remarks from Ambassador T S Tirumurti, the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations who is also the chief of the Counter-Terrorism Committee.

It was attended by officials from the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and representatives from the Member States of South and South-East Asia.

India's statement was delivered by Rajesh Parihar, Counsellor at India's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, who, at the very outset, reminded the attendees about the 40 brave men of Indian security forces who were martyred in a dastardly terrorist attack carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad in Pulwama, exactly three years ago on February 14, 2019.

As members deliberated on counter-terrorism approach, India said that there is an urgent need for the UN Monitoring Team and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to focus on non-traditional aspects of terror financing.

"From the past few years, the UN member-States have been ringing alarm bells about terrorists having access to modern and emerging technologies such as internet, on mobile devices, social media, encrypted messaging services and using them to spread hatred, radical propaganda, fake narratives and carry out recruitment and terror activities," said the Indian representative.

New Delhi reiterated that the UN-designated terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Mujahidin, and Jaish-e-Mohammad, as well as their aliases and proxies continue to operate in the region targeting civilians, security forces, places of worship, soft targets and critical infrastructure.

"The growth of extremist ideology in our neighbouring state is bolstered by their patronage of radical outfits. The mainstreaming of radicalism and communal ideology by the State has also provided a fertile environment for the growth of terror infrastructure in the region," Parihar told the gathering.

Urging the Counter Terrorism Committee, CTED, and the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team to pay a "close attention" to the terrorist threat emerging from Al-Qaida, particularly, their affiliates, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, India also raised concerns about the return of Taliban in Afghanistan.

"In South Asia, under the Taliban, Afghanistan once again is at the risk of becoming a safe haven for Al-Qaida, ISIL and a number of other UN-designated terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohamed," said Parhiar.

He reminded everyone that the 2021 report of the Taliban Sanctions Committee and other reports have recognised the continuation of links between Taliban, especially through the Haqqani Network, and Al Qaida and other terrorist groups in India's neighbourhood.

Tirumurti, in his opening statement, also mentioned how the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan poses a complex security threat outside the region, "particularly in parts of Africa", where terrorist groups may try to emulate the Taliban's example.

The CTC head mentioned the linkages between the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and terrorist entities proscribed by the Security Council, such as Lashkar e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, are a further source of concern.

All of this, he said, raises serious concerns about Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for Al Qaida and a number of terrorist groups in the region.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN revealed that, since their military defeat in the conflict zones of the Middle East, ISIL and Al-Qaida have been seeking to establish a foothold in both South and South-East Asia.

"We are also aware that the misuse of information and communications technologies (ICT) - including new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, "deep fakes", and Blockchain - for terrorist purposes is on the increase," said Tirumurti.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed an appeal against the Karnataka High Court order, dismissing a petition against the election of Janata Dal-Seular's Prajwal Revanna from the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency.

The high court, in an order passed on January 31, 2020, had junked the plea filed by G Devarajegowda, a voter from Hassan, on technical grounds stating that he has not complied with a mandatory procedure prescribed in law while filing the petition against the legality of election of a returned candidate.

On Tuesday, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M. M. Sundresh allowed the appeal filed by Devarajegowda and set aside the order passed by the high court. Devarajegowda moved the top court challenging the high court in February 2020. He was represented by senior advocate Pramila Nesargi in the top court.

The plea, filed through advocate Balaji Srinivasan, said: "The court below has not considered that by dismissing an election petition on mere procedural grounds, it is running the risk of having a representative in the Parliament who has not got the maximum number of valid votes." The plea said that the petitioner also challenged the election of Revanna based on various corrupt practices, such as bribery committed by him which have been recognised under various sections of Representation of People Act.

The high court noted that the petitioner had failed to comply with the Section 81(3) of the Act, as he had not attested annexures appended to the petition. It further added that the court cannot rely on non-attested annexures, while framing issues and hence cannot proceed further as Section 86 mandates that the court dismiss a petition that does not comply with the provisions of the Section 81 of the Act.

On December 13, last year, the Supreme Court had also set aside a Karnataka High Court order, which dismissed an election petition by BJP leader A. Manju at threshold on hyper-technical ground against Revanna.

The top court had then said: "The appellant (Manju) states the case clearly and in no uncertain terms with supporting material in the election petition. Whether the violation is made out by respondent no 1 (Revanna) or not would be a matter of trial but certainly not a matter to be shut out at the threshold." Revanna, grandson of ex-Prime Minister and JD-S supremo H.D. Devegowda, was accused of resorting to corrupt practices by allegedly not disclosing his complete assets in his poll affidavit. The high court had termed Manju's plea as "not maintainable", as it was filed without an affidavit, which made it incomplete.

Revanna was declared the winner with 6,76,606 votes, while Manju was at second place with 5,35,282 votes.
Mumbai, Feb 15 : Actress Mahie Gill who has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party recently and also played a politician on-screen in the recently released web series 'Raktanchal 2' says encountering the real situation as a politician is very different from acting then in films and series.

Asked about her new career choice as a politician and Mahie told IANS: "Firstly it is just a coincidence that in 'Raktanchal 2' I played a politician and in reality also I joined politics. The timing was not quite planned. But I must say that when an actress becomes a politician, people's attitude changes and not always fame helps to influence people to change their minds.

"Same people who love me for my acting, not necessarily love and support me as a politician. Initially, people are interested to come and meet me for selfies and the fact that they are meeting an actress. So I would say that playing a politician on-screen and meeting real people and real issues as a politician is very different and rather tougher." In the show she plays the character named Saraswati Devi and the story is set in the '90s era.

Drawing the similarity from the story of the show and the present time in Indian politics, Mahie said, " when it comes to the show, I was excited to play Saraswati Devi because of the very fact that the story was set in the 90s era and I never played a politician in my career before. Back in the day, female representation in Indian politics in higher positions was quite a power struggle." "Politics is mostly a male-dominated space where it was looked at almost like an insult for a man to take orders from a woman leader and follow her. Of course, now things have changed but still, female politicians with powerful profiles are underrepresented. Even now, only 10 per cent of our female population gets everything including higher education, high profile job because the mindset needs to be changed from home. Post marriage, their husbands also discourage women to remain ambitious. So no matter how much we talk about gender equality, we need to sensitise parents also to start the equality from home." Considering the fact that in the recent time the question is raised on the preference of religious identity over the right to education for girls when the controversy over wearing Hijab in school of Karnataka started, asked about her opinion on the matter, Mahie said, " Well, the matter is in court so I do not want to comment on it. Also, it is a highly sensitive topic and as a politician, I refuse to make any irresponsible comments. Let the verdict come out." 'Raktanchal 2' is streaming on MX Player.
Jaipur, Feb 15 : Launching a fierce attack on the opposition which boycotted the Assembly proceedings and were on the streets demanding a CBI probe into the REET scam, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday said that the opposition is demanding a CBI probe so that the recruitments are delayed and the state government can be defamed.

Gehlot was replying to the debate on the Governor's address in the Assembly.

Speaking on the stalemate created by the opposition demanding a CBI probe in the REET case, he said "There has been no debate in the Assembly so what answer should I give," taking a dig at the opposition as the BJP has been protesting since the start of the budget session from February 9.

"There has been no debate in the Assembly so which debate should I answer," he questioned.

Talking about the factionalism in the BJP, he said, "There are so many sahibs that I don't know who will be the sardar of sahibs?" The BJP did not participate in the Assembly proceedings demanding a CBI inquiry into the REET case.

Speaking on the Alwar rape case, the CM said, "The accident with the girl child in Alwar was given the name of rape to take political advantage. We handed over the Alwar case to the CBI. Now the government in Delhi is theirs, why is the CBI not taking this case? The girl was not raped, none of her organs indicated any possibility of rape. Still they are terming it as rape. What must have happened to that family?, he questioned.

Gehlot added, "We want to conduct the tests soon so that the candidates get a job in the next six months. 62,000 teachers are being recruited, however some people are trying to stop it." He said that Rajasthan will be the first state in the country to have English schools in every village.

Attacking Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, he said "The demand to declare the Eastern Canal Project as a national project has been pending for a long time but there is no response to it." The Chief Minister said the opposition wants to defame the government. "They want the state government to be maligned on the REET issue. Many cases have already been given to the CBI and they are not being investigated. They want jobs to be stuck in the name of a CBI investigation. but we want to give jobs in the next few days."
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that if Pakistan becomes the first country to recognise the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, the international community's pressure on Islamabad would be "too much" to bear, Geo News reported.

"If Pakistan was the first to grant recognition of Taliban, the international pressure would become too much for us as we try to turn our economy around," he said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro.

"To be isolated by becoming the only state (to recognise the Taliban regime) would be the last thing we would want," the Prime Minister said, noting that Pakistan wanted the recognition of the Taliban government as a "collective process", the report said.

He said Afghans were proud people who could not be forced to act in a certain way.

"You cannot force them. There is a limit to what foreign pressure can do to a government like the Taliban [...] Afghans should not be expected to respect women's rights as Westerners understand them," he said.

However, the premier said the Taliban had agreed on girls education but needed time.

The Pak premier expressed concern over the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the possible reflux of refugees, and the US administration's decision to free only half of the Afghan funds on the United States soil.

He mentioned that before the fall of the former regime, three organisations were operating from Afghanistan - the Pakistani Taliban, the Baloch terrorists, and a group of Daesh.

"We believe that the more stable the Afghan government is, the less these groups can operate. That is why we are so concerned about the stability of Afghanistan," he said, as per the report.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Delhi Police has arrested three people including two minors for stabbing a man to death at the Neb Sarai area of the national capital, an official said here.

The accused were identified as Rakesh (21), a resident of Delhi and two minors.

DCP (South) Benita Mary Jaiker said on January 13, a PCR call regarding the stabbing incident was received at Neb Sarai police station. Acting on this information, the police staff rushed to the spot and found that the injured man was already taken to a nearby hospital. When the police reached the hospital, the doctor present informed them that the man was 'brought dead'.

Accordingly, a case under section 302 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered and investigation taken up. During the course of investigation, a police team was constituted which first collected CCTV footage of all relevant surrounding areas i.e. spot and the nearby crime spot. After examining several CCTV footages, the police found three suspects running nearby the crime spot.

"Their photographs were developed and shared with the beat staff to get any clue about them. Local sources were also deployed," the DCP said.

Accordingly, on February 14, Monday, a raid was conducted at Kudedaan, Bandh Road and the trio were apprehended. During the course of investigation, one of the minor boys disclosed that the deceased had made some objectionable comments on his family. Therefore, in order to take revenge, he along with his accomplices made a plan and stabbed the deceased.

The police have also recovered the knife used in the commission of the crime.
Bengaluru, Feb 15 : Karnataka RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat provoked a controversy by stating on Tuesday that Congress MLA B.Z. Zameer Ahmad Khan's statement that hijab will prevent Muslim women from getting raped in India is pointed at Muslim men.

"MLA Zameer has spoken about his community. Muslim women wear a burqa inside houses also fearing the action by the males in the family. In Arab countries women wear burqas out of the fear of being raped. Likewise here in India also Muslim women clad in burqa get protection from their own community members," Bhat said.

He stated that wearing of saffron shawls by Hindu students is just a reaction. "What has happened in our country is that Hindus are trampled upon so much that there is no reaction for action from them. I appreciate the boys who wore saffron shawls to schools and colleges. They are not trained by RSS, the students are expressing themselves by flaunting saffron shawls," he maintained.

The government should not hesitate to initiate action in this regard. It should not have declared holidays for schools and colleges after the hijab row surfaced, he opined.

Hindus will not go for action at any point of time, however, they will react. "You want them to not react also," he questioned. The High Court has given interim orders, in spite of the fact that the students are coming to schools with hijab. If there is an order in future by the Supreme Court also, they would wear a hijab, he said.

Bhat stated that saffron symbolizes service, sacrifice, valour and "our entire nation is saffron. There is an agenda of dividing this country with the hijab row. Even before local media could pick up the issue of protests over hijab, the Pakistani media and other international media have taken up this issue, he added.

The Congress party has also slammed Zameer for his statements. State Congress President D.K. Shivakumar said the party won't endorse his statement and urged him to take back his comments. Though initially Zameer refused to take back his statement, he later regretted what he had stated.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : India and the Philippines have initiated cooperation in areas like fintech, blue economy, renewable energy, space, cyber security, and traditional medicine, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Tuesday.

To expand bilateral business, tourism, and student exchange between the two countries, both sides agreed on the need for a simplified visa regime between them.

External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar visited the Philippines from February 13-15, in his first visit as Minister, also sought the attention of its government to facilitate early return of Indian medical students, the MEA said.

Jaishankar met his counterpart, Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., as well as Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Finance Secretary Carlos Domineguez III, and Agriculture Secretary Dr William Dar to discuss strengthening cooperation in these sectors.

He and Locsin reviewed developments in bilateral relations since the meeting of the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation that they co-chaired in virtual format in November 2020. They also discussed the future trajectory of the wide-ranging engagement between the two countries, and also had an in-depth exchange of views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

In light of the complementarities between two countries as fast growing market economies, and the shared interest in diversifying supply chains, they agreed to make efforts to further expand economic cooperation as well as trade and investment links in a range of areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, health and pharmaceuticals, tourism, ICT, and science & technology.

The Ministers welcomed recent trends in bilateral ties that have contributed to deepening of mutually beneficial cooperation and the expansion to newer areas based on shared interests in line with the vision of the leadership of both countries. They agreed to further work towards strengthening engagement in counter-terrorism and defence and maritime security, covering defence capabilities as well as military training and capacity building, the MEA statement said.
Beijing, Feb 15 : China on Tuesday slammed the US for interfering in the Indo-Pacific, saying its strategy for the region is a resurrection of Cold War mentality and bloc politics, and "has nothing new" or any future.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the US Indo-Pacific strategy is different from what the US is actually doing in this region. "It claims to advance freedom and openness in the region, but is forming exclusive cliques like AUKUS and the Quad," it said.

"It (the US) asserts to strengthen regional security but is generating grave nuclear proliferation risks that would undermine regional security and stability. It professes to promote regional prosperity but is provoking antagonism and provocation between regional countries.

"This undercuts the ASEAN-centred regional cooperation architecture formed over the years and poses a serious threat to regional cooperation outcomes and development prospects," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

"This strategy that resurrects the cold war mentality and bloc politics has nothing new, still less does it have any future. It will bring only division and violality to Asia-Pacific. It will therefore be met with vigilance and be brushed aside by the regional countries," Wang added.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the wife has not established any reasonable cause to remain away from her matrimonial home as it dissolved the marriage on the ground of desertion.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Abhay S. Oka said that perusal of the wife's evidence does not disclose any effort made by her to resume the matrimonial relationship and she has also not filed a petition for restitution of conjugal rights. It noted the husband was carrying on business at Assam's Tezpur and his wife was working at a college in Guwahati, and they have been staying separately since July 1, 2009.

The bench said on account of the death of the husband's mother, she visited her matrimonial home in December 2009 and stayed there only for one day, which cannot be termed as resumption of cohabitation. "She has not stated that she came to her matrimonial home on December 21, 2009 with the intention to resume cohabitation. The intention on the part of the respondent to resume cohabitation is not established. Thus, in the facts of the case, the factum of separation has been proved," it held.

Justice Oka, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, said: "From the evidence on record, an inference can be drawn that there was animus deserendi on the part of the respondent. She has not pleaded and established any reasonable cause for remaining away from her matrimonial home".

This came even as the wife's counsel argued that there was no intention on the part of her to desert the husband and on the contrary, he has made no efforts to resume cohabitation.

The husband filed a petition on the grounds of cruelty and desertion before the district court, which was dismissed. He filed an appeal challenging this order, which was dismissed by the Gauhati High Court. He moved the top court challenging the high court order.

The bench noted that law consistently laid down by the top court is that desertion means the intentional abandonment of one spouse by the other without the consent of the other and without a reasonable cause. It further added that the deserted spouse must prove that there is a factum of separation and there is an intention on the part of the deserting spouse to bring the cohabitation to a permanent end.

"In other words, there should be animus deserendi on the part of the deserting spouse. There must be an absence of consent on the part of the deserted spouse and the conduct of the deserted spouse should not give a reasonable cause to the deserting spouse to leave the matrimonial home," it added.

The top court also directed the husband to pay her a sum of Rs 15 lakh. "In our considered view, the ground of desertion under clause (ib) of sub-section (1) of Section 13 of HM Act has been made out as the desertion for a continuous period of more than two years before the institution of the petition was established in the facts of the case," it said.
Bhubaneswar, Feb 15 : The Odisha government has urged the Defence Ministry to instruct the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to isse a no-objection certificate (NOC) to operationalise the Amarda Road airstrip near Rasagobindapur in Mayurbhanj district under the RCS-UDAN.

Odisha Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra has written a letter to Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar in this regard.

In his letter, Mahapatra said the Ministry of Civil Aviation has included the Bhubaneswar-Amarda Road as a special RCS route under UDAN 4.1 on request of the state government and Gsec Monarch has been selected as the airline operator for the route with seven flights/week using a nine-seater aircraft.

The Odisha government had requested DRDO several times in this respect for providing NOC to use the airstrip for commercial flight operations under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)-UDAN.

However, there has been no response till date for which flight operations are in a stalemate situation, he pointed out.

Informing about the importance of the airstrip, Mahapatra said the northern part of Odisha is deprived of any kind of air-connectivity and the existence of the Amarda Road airstrip has a huge significance for the nearby places.

He further said it will facilitate tourism connectivity to important places like Simlipal National Park, Kuldiha Sanctuary and Chandipur and Talsari sea beach, facilitate economic growth through trade, provide jobs, increase revenues from taxes and foster the community relationship with the neighbouring states and communities.

The Chief Secretary requested the Defence Secretary to look into the matter and issue necessary instructions to DRDO for the use of the Amarda Road airstrip by the state government for flight operations under RCS-UDAN in the larger public interest. He hoped that DRDO would issue the NOC in this regard at the earliest.

The airstrip, which is located 225 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, was built during World War-II.

According to sources, about 1,000-acre piece of land in Rasagobindapur block falls under the purview of the Defence Ministry, so the NOC is needed.

The Amarda Road airstrip, once it turns into an airport, will cater to the people, mostly in north Odisha, south Bengal and east Jharkhand, the sources said.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has said that it has not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side with regard to Ukraine.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels, "We haven't seen any de-escalation so far by Russia on the borders with Ukraine," BBC reported.

But, he added, "signs" coming from Moscow about diplomatic efforts give "some reason for cautious optimism".

Stoltenberg says a real de-escalation would mean a substantial withdrawal of Russian troops and military equipment from the border areas with Ukraine, the report said.

"Russia has amassed a fighting force in and around Ukraine, which is unprecedented since the Cold War. Everything is now in place for a new attack," he said.

"But Russia still has time to step back from the brink, stop preparing for war and start working for a peaceful solution," Stoltenberg added.

He added that there are signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue. This gives grounds for cautious optimism. But so far we have not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side," BBC reported.

Stoltenberg spoke to reporters ahead of a two-day meeting of the alliance's defence ministers in Brussels. He said they will address the need to further "increase our defencive posture".
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Former Union Minister Ashwani Kumar, who resigned from the Congress on Tuesday, targeted Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and claimed that the party's defeat in the state in the February 20 Assembly polls is certain.

In an interview to IANS, Ashwani Kumar, who was perceived as a loyalist of the Gandhi family and had supported against the 'G23' , said it was getting difficult to continue in the party. He also said he is open to join any other party.

Here are excerpts of the interview.

Q. After being so long in the Congress, you have decided to quit now. Why? A. I was feeling uncomfortable, helpless and ignored for the last many months and I understood that now I am not needed in the party. Therefore, I distanced myself. I was not able to do whatever I wanted to do by staying inside the party. That's why I decided to fulfil my duty and now I can do what I feel comfortable to do.

Q. You tried to keep your point on the party platform. Were all those points ignored? A. What is the platform of the party now... I tried to tell them (the top leadership) in my own way, but indication was clear that I am not needed in the party. I gave a lot of thought to this and came to the decision that according to the current circumstances and my limitations, it would be better for me to break away from the party and work in the national interest on a larger scale.

Q. Is everything going well in the Congress in Punjab? You have indicated that result will be shocking.

A. I have been involved in the work of party organisation in the campaign of Punjab for many weeks and from what I have seen on the ground, it seems that the Aam Aadmi Party is moving ahead there with a huge majority.

Q. Why do you feel that Congress is losing in Punjab? A. Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi says he is from a poor family, then how come he has Rs 10-12 crore in his house. So the definition of poverty has changed in the eyes of the Congress, especially for Channi. Now let's see how many people in Punjab have Rs 10-12 crore in their homes. Those who have so much money will definitely vote Congress. Congress is being made fun of in Punjab. Apart from two-three leaders, no one has done anything for the party. It is beyond my understanding how such an old party will move forward in such circumstances. As far as I understand, Congress is losing elections in Punjab and Aam Aadmi Party is winning hands down. In rural areas, where once Akali Dal, Congress dominated, new candidates are getting support.

Q. You were in the Congress for about 46 years and were also the Union Law Minister. Now that you have resigned, what advice would you give to the Congress? A. This is not my duty to give advice. Now I will do politics on my own strength, will write my own destiny because today the country needs politics that connects people.

Q. Have you thought of joining other party? A. I have not given any thought so far, but no party is untouchable. It is also not right to hold Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for every shortcoming in the country. I have always believed that ideas should be fought, not persons.

Q. Will you go to BJP like Jitin Prasada, Jyotiraditya Scindia and R.P.N. Singh or with Aam Aadmi Party? A. I said earlier that no decision has been taken yet in this regard, nor have I talked to the BJP or the AAP. I have met (AAP chief) Arvind Kejriwal and (West Nemgal Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee also. I have good relations with all the leaders but have not decided yet.
Jaipur, Feb 15 : Rajasthan police on Tuesday used water cannons to disperse BJP workers who had come in large numbers to gherao the state Assembly demanding CBI probe into the REET paper leak case.

Those who led the protest included BJP state president Satish Poonia, state in charge Arun Singh, Leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria and Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathod.

Satish Poonia and other leaders courted arrest. Poonia suffered injuries due to the fall during the protest.

BJP workers started reaching the state party headquarters from 9 a.m in the morning. From here, the workers left to gherao the assembly. As the police stopped them midway, there was a scuffle and the protesters tried to move forward. However, the police chased them away using water cannons and did not allow them to proceed further.

Poonia said that after the cancellation of REET, there is a one-point demand for investigation from the CBI. The SOG has its own limit and it won't take action on influential people, he added.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : India's January 2022 merchandise exports rose to $34.50 billion, higher by 25.28 per cent on a year-on-year basis, official data showed on Tuesday.

The exports during January 2021 stood at $27.54 billion.

The data by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that in comparison to January 2020, last month's exports rose by 33.45 per cent.

"Non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in January 2022 were $27.10 billion, registering a positive growth of 20.13 per cent over non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports of $22.56 billion in January 2021," it said.

Similarly, India's merchandise imports in January 2022 increased by 23.54 per cent over last year to $51.93 billion from $42.03 billion. The ministry data showed that last month's exports rose by 26.19 per cent in comparison to January 2020.

"Non-petroleum, non-gems and jewellery imports were $34.62 billion in January 2022 with a positive growth of 31.33 per cent over non-petroleum, non-gems and jewellery imports of $26.36 billion in January 2021 and a positive growth of 39.22 per cent over non-petroleum, non-gems and jewellery imports of $24.87 billion in January 2020." The trade deficit widened by 20.23 per cent on a year-on-year basis to $17.42 billion in January 2022 from $14.49 billion in the like period of 2021. It had widened to $15.30 billion in January 2020.

ICRA's Chief economist Aditi Nayar said: "The fall in mobility and the demand for gold with the onset of the third wave and the associated restrictions, helped to pull back the merchandise trade deficit to a five month low $17.4 billion in January 2022.

"Non-oil exports displayed a modest sequential decline in January 2022 post the Christmas season, but encouragingly exceeded the level seen in October 2021. Non-oil, non-gold imports also reported a small MoM dip, resulting in a mild increase in the non oil non gold trade deficit in that month." FIEO President A. Sakthivel said that top export sectors included petroleum products, engineering goods, organic and inorganic chemicals, cotton yarn or fabrics or made-ups, handloom products etc., gems and jewellery, 'RMG' of all textiles, plastic and linoleum, electronic goods, marine products and man-made yarn or fabs. or made-ups amongst others.

He said though the government has announced a slew of measures to support exports, the "need of the hour is to soon announce extension of the interest equalisation scheme and allow transfer of MEIS, increase the validity of scrips to 24 months, extend RoDTEP to EOUs, SEZ and Advance Authorisation and expand usages of RoDTEP and RoSCTL scrips".
Chennai, Feb 15 : With only four days left for the urban local body elections scheduled for February 19, the ruling DMK is in a spot after its MLA from Tiruchirappalli (East), Inigo Iruthayaraj, received the main accused in the Lavanya suicide case, Sagaya Mary, outside the Tiruchirappalli central prison with a shawl. This happened on Monday.

Lavanya, a student of the Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School in Michaelpatti in Thanjavur, was staying in the school hostel. She consumed poison and died at the Thanjavur Medical College hospital on January 19. Three days before her death, she had in a video recording before a magistrate, accused the hostel warden, Sister Sagaya Mary of torturing her and making her do daily chores at the hostel and not allowing her to study properly. In the video recording, Lavanya had in detail stated the alleged torture she was subjected to by Sagaya Mary.

In the statement, she accused Sagaya Mary of physically assaulting her and refusing to give food to her when she was not able to pay the hostel fee properly.

Lavanya's statement was recorded in the FIR and Sagaya Mary was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.

Inigo Iruthayaraj in a social media post said that Sagaya Mary had done yeoman service in increasing the education level of students in Thanjavur and hence he welcomed her in front of the Tiruchirappalli central prison.

When contacted Irudarajan said that he was not interested in commenting and that he was busy with the civic elections. DMK leaders also did not respond to questions posed to them.

The Supreme Court had on February 14 refused to stay the order of the Madras High Court directing a CBI probe into Lavanya's suicide. The High Court had ordered a CBI probe on January 31 against which the Tamil Nadu government had moved the Supreme Court which rejected its plea on Monday.

The BJP and the VHP had in the meanwhile released a video of Lavanya which stated that two years ago another nun of the school, Raquel Mary had asked her to convert to Christianity.

When Muthuvel of the VHP who was recording the video asked Lavanya whether she was tortured in school due to her not converting to Christianity, she had replied, "It could be so".

The DMK is now facing embarrassment over the MLA welcoming the main accused in the case. Hindu outfits have already come out with statements that the DMK was hand-in-glove with the perpetrators and demanded an apology from the Chief Minister.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Union Jal Shakti Ministry has formed a Steering Committee for the implementation of the controversial Ken Betwa Link Project and also set up the Ken-Betwa Link Project Authority (KBLPA), a step that environmentalists said showed complete disregard for statutory institutions.

It is a multi-agency project spanning the areas in the river basins of Ken and Betwa across Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The project involves transfer of water from the Ken to the Betwa through the construction of Daudhan dam and a canal linking the two rivers, the Lower Orr project, Kotha Barrage and Bina complex multipurpose project. The project will provide an annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh Ha, drinking water supply to a population of about 62 lakhs, and also generate 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW solar power.

The Secretary, Jal Shakti will be the Chairperson and members would include Secretaries, Environment, Finance, Tribal Affairs, and Power, apart from a host of other officials. Chief Engineer, National Water Development Authority would be the Member-Secretary.

On February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced Rs 44,605 crore for the implementation of Ken-Betwa river link project, which, the government claimed is necessary for irrigation of Bundelkhand region.

Of the total allotment, Rs 4,300 crore allocations comes from the Revised Estimate pertaining to 2021-22 and Rs 1,400 crore in 2022-23 in this year's budget.

The Union Cabinet had, on December 8, approved the funding and implementation of the project for interlinking of the rivers at a cost of Rs 44,605 crore at 2020-21 price levels.

It had approved the central support of Rs 39,317 crore for the project, covering grant of Rs 36,290 crore and loan of Rs 3,027 crore.

The Cabinet had also approved of a SPV called the KBLPA for implementation of the project.

The functions of the Steering Committee would include approval of the fundamental administrative policies of the KBLPA and complete procedures to make it functional along with approving the budget and its amendments for each financial year, upon motion of the the KBLPA.

The notification issued by the Jal Shakti Ministry last week also constituted the KBLPA as a vertical of the NWDA under the Ministry.

Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) came down heavily on the government move.

"The government is in a way putting pressure on the statutory bodies," he said and reminded that the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) report of the project is pending at the Supreme Court, the environmental clearance has been challenged at the National Green Tribunal, and the Environment Ministry too is to deal with the Forest Clearance.

By giving cabinet clearance by the PM, by the Chief Minister inviting the Prime Minister for the bhumi poojan and now by constituting this Authority, it is a clear tactic to put pressure," he said, adding: "This shows complete disregard for statutory institutions and procedures."
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Delhi High Court would pass an order on Wednesday on the plea filed by real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal against their seven-year sentence in the Uphaar tragedy evidence tampering case.

In the last hearing on January 27, Justice Subramonium Prasad had reserved the order after hearing the arguments of counsel for convicts and for the victims of the Uphaar tragedy.

On November 8, 2021, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Court, Dr. Pankaj Sharma, had sentenced Ansals to seven years imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs 2.25 crore on both in the evidence tampering case.

During the course of the hearing on January 27, the bench said: "We will try to pronounce the judgment on the petition before the date of hearing in the trial court. If, in any case, it is not pronounced by then, I will direct the trial court to continue the hearing on appeals." Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Ansals, submitted that no judicial system considers the primary conviction as final.

"There is a need to adopt a larger view and not a tactical one... it was alleged that I delayed the trial which is not true. We had challenged the summoning order on the charge, even during that period, trial was not stayed," he said.

He submitted with regards to the allegations related to the conspiracy of tampering with evidence, "there is no direct evidence of tampering. The only ground was that I would be the beneficiary of delay".

"If all the documents were intact and exhibited before the court, then what led to this delay is questionable," he added.

On January 11, the Delhi Police had told the High Court that Ansals cannot take advantage of their old age in their plea seeking suspension of their jail terms.

On June 13, 1997, halfway through the screening of Hindi film "Border", a fire broke out in the Uphaar cinema, located in Green Park in south Delhi, killing 59 people in one of the worst tragedies in the country.
Patna, Feb 15 : Following the decision of the special CBI court of Ranchi in the fodder scam case convicting Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi Yadav, the younger son of the former Bihar Chief Minister said that he and his party will appeal in the higher court.

"During 16 years of Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, many scams took place but not a single leader was convicted. Everyone in the country knows that the CBI, ED, Income Tax are working like units of the BJP. They never act on accused like Vijay Malya, Mehul Choksi, Neerav Modi, Lalit Modi and recently a Gujarati Bhai took away Rs 23,000 crore," Tejashwi said.

"So everyone in the country knows how BJP is acting against opposition leaders. Lalu ji is a representative of the poor and deprived people of the country. They have made Lalu ji a mass leader. He is a symbol of social equality and social justice. That's why his party RJD became the single largest party in Bihar. There is no need to dishearten with the decision of the Ranchi court. We will fight for him till our last breath. The CBI court has given a decision against him but he was never held guilty in Janata ki Adalat," Tejashwi said.

Following the decision of the CBI court of Ranchi in 139.5 crore alleged illegal withdrawal from Doranda treasury, Tejashwi said that Lalu Prasad is a complainant of the incident but the opposition made him accused.

According to information, Lalu Prasad has been shifted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) considering his elderly age and health condition.

Lalu Prasad and 74 others were held guilty of illegal withdrawal of Rs 139.5 crore from Doranda treasury some 30 years ago. The quantum of punishment will be announced on February 21.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday said that over 1000 museums in India are instrumental in not just showcasing and preserving our cultural heritage, but also educating the future generations.

Speaking after inaugurating a two-day global summit in Hyderabad on "Reimagining Museums in India", Reddy said"India is a land of rich cultural heritage and this needs to be preserved, propagated and perpetuated. I believe our museums provide a wonderful medium to achieve these goals. Today our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given all of us the mantra of "Vikas and Virasat". With this vision for Vikas we are ensuring that the poorest of the poor receive the benefits of development and with Virasat we protect our wonderful heritage." The summit has been organised under the aegis of "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav", the flagship programme to mark the 75th anniversary of India's independence.

"As we celebrate "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav", we are proud to renew our focus and dedication to preserving, protecting, and perpetuating our cultural heritage. I believe that museums play a pivotal role in reviving our glorious past to life. Today India's 1000+ museums are instrumental in not just showcasing and preserving the cultural heritage, but also educating future generations," the minister said.

He highlighted the role of other ministries and departments in promoting and upgrading museums across the country.

He also informed that the Centre is developing 10 museums on tribal freedom fighters to recognise their contribution in our freedom struggle and is continuing to support specialised museums such as Textiles and Crafts museums, Defence Museums and Railway Museums.

Later, addressing the media, Reddy highlighted the efforts being made to bring back the county's stolen heritage from abroad. "95 per cent of the heritage that was stolen or taken away has been returned during the tenure of Prime Minister Modi. Out of the 212 antiques that have been returned since 1976, 199 were returned after 2014. Among these 157 antiques have been returned from the USA recently," he added.

The minister spoke about the various initiatives taken in Telangana including a proposal for a Science City in Hyderabad, the support for 10 museums in the state including the Salar Jung museum and a tribal museum for which allotment of land is being awaited from the Telangana government.
Mumbai, Feb 15 : After 44 days, Mumbai recorded zero Covid-19 deaths even as the Maharashtra's Omicron infections suddenly rocketed, health officials said on Tuesday.

BrihanMumbai Municipal Commissioner I.S. Chahal announced that the country's commercial capital recorded zero deaths for the first time since January 2, and the civic body was "proceeding in the right direction" in controlling the coronavirus pandemic.

Simultaneously, the city was unshackled from the containment zone or sealed tags in any buildings or localities, said the civic chief.

After recording the first Covid-19 cases in March 2020, the city recorded nil fatalities on October 17, 2021 for the first time ever, in wake of the second wave of the pandemic.

December was better with zero deaths notched 7 times even as the third wave set in and now the pandemic curve is apparently waning.

The state position worsened with 2,831 new infections on Tuesday - compared with 1,966 a day before, while the number of deaths almost tripled from 12 to 35.

The worrisome factor was a sudden spurt in Omicron infections - from 8 on Monday to 351 - sounding fresh alarm bells - though none reported from Mumbai.

The state has reported 4,345 Omicron cases since December 1, while 3,334 have been fully cured and sent home, while 8,904 positive samples have been sent for genome sequencing. The results of 1,046 are awaited.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the state has recorded a whopping 78,47,746 cases and a total of 143,451 fatalities.

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Hubballi : , Feb 15 (IANS) Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Mining Pralhad Joshi, commenting on the hijab row in Karnataka, said on Tuesday that the state government has exercised much restraint on this (hijab row) issue and this should not be mistaken as weakness.

"Court decision should be followed at any cost. You don't follow the interim order of the court. What is this arrogance? The government headed by Basavaraj Bommai is handling the issue with restraint. The government is considering it as a sensitive matter and exercising restraint. It should not be mistaken as weakness," Union Minister Joshi said.

"Are you trying to be extra constitutional? Which time we are living in? You want to cover the face of girls? This has to be considered seriously. Progressive Muslims should think. This is unnecessary, you are being made a scapegoat," he stated.

He further said, "I appeal to the parents of Muslim children that you have all the freedom, no one is opposing your religious practices. But, still communal feelings are provoked. BJP will not approve such appeasement." "If anyone creates trouble in schools regarding hijab, police will take strict action and put them behind bars. Initiate legal action, we can't be helpless," he said.

"Muslim women for generations have been kept in darkness. We (BJP) have broken their shackles. I want to ask the Congress leaders to make their stand clear on the hijab issue. If you want to give out a call for Muslim students to wear hijab, go ahead and do it. Otherwise, all parties should tell students to attend classes as per the interim court order. Karnataka is known for communal harmony, good culture. This is not required," he added.

Though majority of students are attending classes, good number of Muslim students have refused to shun hijab and are not taking preparatory exams for class 10.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Delhi Police said on Tuesday that they have arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly raping an 87-year-old woman at her residence in the national capital's Tilak Nagar area.

The accused, who has been identified as Ankit alias Jhandal alias Mogli, a resident of Harijan Colony, Tilak Nagar, was working as a part-time sweeper in the area.

Furnishing details about the case, Additional DCP (West District), Prashant Gautam, said the elderly victim lady is a resident of Tilak Nagar where she stays with her 65-year-old daughter.

On Sunday, as a daily routine, the daughter went for a walk in a park nearby around midday. "She did not lock the main door and just bolted the latch. When she came back after one hour or so, she found the main door of the house open," the official said.

The victim was very mentally disturbed and could only tell about her missing phone.

Gautam said that when the police arrived, the daughter of the victim submiited a handwritten complaint wherein the victim alleged that an unknown person entered her house on the pretext of checking gas connection. The victim gave her phone to the accused to call her daughter, but the accused fled with the cellphone.

Accordingly, a case under Section 380 of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Tilak Nagar police station.

However, the complainant on Monday reported that the senior citizen was also allegedly raped.

After this the police added relevant sexual assault charges. The police then formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident of the alleged rape.

"Ground intelligence sources were activated to identify and arrest the accused. Technical data analysis along with scanning of CCTV footage was also done to identify the accused," the officer informed.

Finally, based on the CCTV footage, the police team zeroed in on the suspect and apprehended him. The stolen mobile phone was also recovered from his possession.

On sustained interrogation, the accused revealed that while roaming in the area, he went upstairs with the intent to commit theft and found the door without lock. He opened the latch and went inside where he found the old lady alone in a room. The victim lady asked the accused about the reason for his presence to which he replied that he came there for gas repair.

Finding her alone, the accused bolted the door from inside and told her that by mistake the door has been closed and is not opening, on which the octogenarian woman gave her phone to call her daughter. But instead of dialling, the accused forcibly committed sexual assault.

Notably, as per the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) four months ago, the national capital recorded the highest number of crimes against women among all the metropolitan cities of the country.

According to the data compiled by the Delhi Police, 1,725 women were allegedly raped till October 31, 2021 in the city. In 2020, 1,429 women had to face the heinous crime till the same period.
Bhopal, Feb 15 : A college in Madhya Pradesh witnessed a row over wearing hijab in the college premises, following which its administration issued a notice instructing students to follow proper dress code on the campus.

The fresh controversy over wearing headscarves erupted at a government college in Datia district.

The row was triggered after a student wearing burqa-hijab was seen in the college following which students associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students' wing of the RSS, staged a protest raising 'Jai Shree Ram' sloguns.

If that was not enough, the members of Durga Vahini, the women's wing of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), staged a protest against the institute for allowing Muslim students to wear headscarves on campus.

Subsequently, D.R. Rahul, principal of the Government Autonomous College, Datia, put out a notice banning headscarves on campus.

"All the admitted students/girls in the college are informed that they will not be allowed to enter the college in clothes belonging to any particular community or other special dress like hijab etc. All the students should enter this temple of education in a decent dress," said Rahul in the order.

The row surrounding Hijab is being witnessed in many colleges in Madhya Pradesh, despite the state government maintaining that there is no proposal to ban hijab in the state.

On Tuesday, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra, who belongs to Datia district, told the media that he has directed the district collector to investigate the matter.

"The Madhya Pradesh government has already stated that there is no proposal to ban burqa-hijab in the state. I have directed the Datia district collector to investigate the matter as to why the college administration ordered a ban on hijab. I request you not to create any confusion about it," Mishra said on Tuesday.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : A court here has granted bail to former CBI Sub-Inspector Abhishek Tiwari, who was arrested in connection with a case of alleged leaking of confidential documents to divert the probe against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case.

Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal of Rouse Avenue Court, while granting bail, noted that Tiwari is a former CBI official and has roots in the society.

The court, in its order dated February 11, observed that the allegations of the present case do not pertain to economic offenses of huge magnitude, therefore, it cannot per se be said to be falling under the category of grave offenses.

It also pointed out that other accused persons having almost similar roles have already been released on bail recently.

It was also directed that Tiwari furnish a personal bond of Rs 1,00,000 with one surety of the like amount.

On January 31, the same court had granted bail to Deshmukh's lawyer Anand Daga and his social media manager Vaibhav Gajendra Tumane in the case.

Opposing the bail plea, the CBI argued that Tumane was the one who collected the sensitive report from Daga, prepared its copies, and sent them through courier to various addresses in Delhi.

As per the FIR, Investigating Officer Tiwari, who was assisting the Enquiry Officer in the preparation of the probe report, was in possession of sensitive documents.

He allegedly shared copies of different documents like memorandum of proceedings, sealing-unsealing memorandum, statements, seizure memos etc, related to the investigation of the case with Daga through WhatsApp on many occasions.

The CBI said that the investigation has revealed that Tiwari and Daga met in Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune in person, and had been in regular touch through WhatsApp calls and messages and SMS after April 14 last year.

The probe has revealed that Daga had bought an iPhone worth Rs 95,000 for the CBI official and gave it to him as illegal gratification in lieu of sharing case sensitive and confidential documents.

The CBI had arrested Daga from Mumbai and Tiwari from Delhi. Later, Daga was shifted to a Delhi jail on transit remand.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : Automaker Kia India on Tuesday launched its fourth offering -- Carens -- a three-row recreational vehicle at an introductory price of Rs 8.99 lakh (ex-showroom, pan-India).

According to the company, Carens is offered in 19 variants with prices ranging from Rs 8.99 lakh to Rs 16.99 lakh (ex-showroom, pan-India).

The model is available in five trims, three engine options and three transmission options.

So far, the company has received 19,089 bookings for the car in over a month since the bookings opened on January 14.

The vehicle is offered with three engine options -- Smartstream 1.5 Petrol, Smartstream 1.4 T-GDi Petrol, and 1.5 CRDi VGT Diesel -- mated with three transmissions - 6MT, 7DCT, and 6AT.

"The pricing offers us an opportunity to cater to an even more diverse set of our customer. We will enhance our production to meet this increased demand," said Tae-Jin Park, Managing Director and CEO, Kia India.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he is not bolstered by the latest intelligence on Russias military buildup around Ukraine and is receiving "mixed signals", CNN reported.

"We are seeing Russian openness to conversations. On the other hand, the intelligence that we're seeing today is still not encouraging," he said.

"We've got Russian field hospitals being constructed near the border with Ukraine, in Belarus for [what] only can be construed as a preparation for an invasion. You've got more battalion tactical groups actually being brought closer to the border with Ukraine, according to the intelligence that we're seeing," he added, CNN reported.

"So mixed signals, I think at the moment, and all the more reason therefore for us to remain very tough and very united in particular on the economic sanctions," he said, adding that an invasion could still happen "virtually at any time", the report said.

Russia announced on Tuesday that some troops would be returning to their bases after completing military drills.

To reassure the UK and other Western leaders, Johnson said they would have to see a "programme of de-escalation" from Russia, the report added.

"That means withdrawing the battalion tactical groups away from a potential theater of conflict, not constructing field hospitals on the border with Belarus and between Belarus and Ukraine; a sense that things are being scaled back, scaled down, that the threat is over and the conversation and negotiation is beginning," he said.

"We think there is an avenue for diplomacy," Johnson added.
New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre whether it can consider automatic annual revision instead of the existing policy of periodic review, done once in five years, during the hearing of a plea in connection with One Rank, One Pension (OROP) in the armed forces.

A bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud asked the Centre's counsel that after agreeing to OROP, whether the government went back on its decision over automatically passing on any future enhancements in pension to the pensioners.

The petitioners have questioned the November 7, 2015, notification issued by the Centre while implementing OROP, in which the government adopted a modified definition of the expression, under which the gap between the rates of pension of current and past pensioners were to be bridged at periodic intervals.

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM), said the government's decision is arbitrary and mala fide, as it creates a class within a class and effectively grants one rank, different pensions.

The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath, noted that the government agreed to OROP in the Parliament in 2014, and put a volley of questions to Additional Solicitor General N. Venkatraman, who represented the Centre.

Venkatraman argued that petitioners say the base year for OROP implementation should be prospectively from 2013 and not 2014, and following this, there would be no end to it.

Citing the November 7, 2015 decision, he said it was a policy decision, which was formulated after holding extensive discussions between different stake-holders and inter-ministerial groups.

As the top court queried whether the government went back on its decision to automatically pass on the future enhancements in pension, besides granting uniform pension to personnel retiring in the same rank and service tenure, regardless of retirement date, the ASG said that automatically passing the future enhancements in pensions, is inconceivable in any kind of services.

He emphasised that a policy decision involves different buckets like economics, socio-economic, politics, psychology, and budget.

Venkatraman added that OROP seeks to bridge the gap -- first the lowest and the highest pension is taken within that rank of pensioners, holding the same rank and same service tenure to reach an average. He added the exercise of bridging the gap is to be carried out periodically once in five years.

The hearing in the matter will continue on Wednesday.

The top court, in July 2016, sought Centre's response on a petition by IEMS seeking implementation of OROP as recommended by the Koshyari Committee with an automatic annual revision, and not the periodic review of once in five years.
Agartala, Feb 15 : To boost trade and people's movement between India and Bangladesh and to ease the transportation bottleneck in the northeast, new waterway connectivity would be created and the Central government has sanctioned Rs 25 crore to build the necessary infrastructures in Tripura for the purpose, Union Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, said here on Tuesday.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India, the Land Port Authority of India and the Tripura government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build necessary infrastructure, including 10 new jetties on the Gomati river in Tripura to develop a new India-Bangladesh waterway.

Sonowal, who was accompanied by Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, said that the new waterway would facilitate easy transportation between the northeastern states and Bangladesh.

"The proposed waterway would boost trade and people's movement, as passenger and cargo vessels would be operated through this new water route. The tourism industry would get a further boost with the opening of new waterways," he told the media.

The minister said that hydrogeological surveys would be conducted in the other rivers of Tripura to study the possibilities of developing more waterways between India and Bangladesh.

Eight major rivers flow down from Tripura to Bangladesh.

Biplab Kumar Deb said that with the opening of new waterways via Bangladesh, the distance between Tripura and Haldia port in West Bengal would be only 600 km and it would facilitate transportation of construction materials and other goods at a much cheaper cost besides saving time.

He said that as a giant bridge has been constructed over river Feni in southern Tripura, the state would also be soon connected with the Chittagong international port to ferry various goods and heavy machinery easily.

The Chittagong international sea port in Bangladesh is 75 km from southern Tripura.

As part of a trial run for shipping of goods from other parts of India to the northeast region via Bangladesh, the first consignment of goods from Bangladesh was ferried to Tripura by waterway in September 2020.

Agartala via Guwahati is 1,650 km from Kolkata by road, and 2,637 km from New Delhi while the distance between Agartala and Kolkata via Bangladesh is just 620 km.

India and Bangladesh had earlier signed an MoU to ferry various goods, including foodgrains, from different parts of India to the mountainous northeastern states using Bangladeshi ports and surface roads to save time and transportation costs.
Chandigarh, Feb 15 : Punjabi actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, who had been named in connection with the violence at Red Fort in Delhi on Republic Day last year, died in a road accident near Delhi on Tuesday.

The 38-year-old actor was active in the farmers' protest against the three now repealed Central farm laws.

The accident took place on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway that bypasses the national capital. Sidhu was going from Delhi to Bathinda in Punjab when the car in which he was travelling rammed into a trailer truck at 9.30 p.m., the police said. His woman co-driver escaped in the accident.

Sidhu was declared brought dead at the Kharkhoda hospital in Haryana's Sonipat district.

On January 26 last year, Sidhu was seen amid the crowd that reached the iconic Red Fort by violating the planned route of the proposed farmers' tractor march, and was accused of provoking the protesters to instal a Nishan Sahib, a symbol of Sikh religion, on its ramparts.

Belonging to Muktsar's Udekaran village in Punjab, Sidhu's family had left the village in the 80s. His father was an advocate who practised at Gidderbaha.

In a Facebook live from the Red Fort, Sidhu, who was once known for his proximity to actor and BJP MP Sunny Deol, was heard saying after he was accused in the violence: "We have only hoisted the Nishan Sahib flag on the Red Fort while exercising our democratic right to protest." He had also said that the national flag was not removed from the flagpole at the Red Fort and that nobody raised a question over the country's unity and integrity.

In another video, Sidhu could be seen fleeing from the Red Fort on a bike.

Sidhu, along with gangster-turned-social activist Lakha Sidhana, were named as the main accused in the January 26 violence in Delhi.

Sidhana is a gangster-turned-politician who was acquitted in several cases before he contested the 2012 Assembly polls as a candidate of the People's Party of Punjab, once led by Manpreet Singh Badal, who is currently the Finance Minister in the Congress government in Punjab.

Farmer leaders had, in fact, distanced themselves from both Sidhu and Sidhana and blamed them for inciting violence.

However, Sidhu, blaming the farmer union leaders of taking decisions without consulting the people and defending himself, said in one of his videos: "I am seeing that false propaganda and hatred is being spread against me.

"Thousands of people had reached there (the Red Fort), but no farmer leader was present there. Nobody indulged in violence or damaged any public property. They put up the Nishan Sahib and a farmer flag at the flagpole to register their protest," he had said.

"Many people were carrying Nishan Sahib flags, farmer flags and the tricolour. If you say by doing so I have turned traitor, then those who were present there were traitors too," Sidhu had said.

On the farmer union leaders calling him an RSS man, Sidhu had said that only a truthful person would be able to hoist a flag at the Red Fort.

"You're calling me an RSS man, a BJP man. Will an RSS man put the flag atop Red Fort? Think about it. Will a Congressman be able to do so? No. Only a pure and truthful person will do so. By calling one person a traitor, you are referring to the whole crowd," he had said.

Born in 1984 in Punjab's Muktsar district, Sidhu, who was associated with the agitation against the three contentious farm laws, studied law.

His first Punjabi movie, 'Ramta Jogi', was released in 2015. His second movie, 'Jora Das Numbria', which released in 2018, was hit.
Imphal, Feb 15 : In the run-up to the February-March Manipur Assembly elections, the NSCN-IM has undertaken a campaign in the Naga-dominated areas of the state to make the people understand the importance of the ongoing talks with the Centre with reference to the 2015 Framework Agreement.

In a statement on Tuesday, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak-Muivah faction said that its Central Administrative Officer D.G. Robert is spearheading the campaign.

"People extended their fullest support to the ongoing Indo-Naga political talks based on the Framework Agreement of August 3, 2015," the statement said.

Robert, while addressing a recent meeting at Tahamzan in Manipur's Senapati district, stressed on the critical importance of staying alert, lest people are trapped by the unscrupulous elements and agents for mere politicking and appealed to the people to never to compromise the Nagas' rights for monetary gains.

He also sought to stress that the Naga political talks with the Central government is moving in the right track and fruition will come soon.

The meeting unanimously adopted the declaration and appealed to both the NSCN-IM and the Centre to expedite the Naga peace process based on the Framework Agreement, inclusive of the Naga national flag and the Naga constitution (Yehzabo), and that the solution should be inclusive, honourable and acceptable to the Naga people based on the uniqueness of the Naga history, the statement said.

The Central government, however, has earlier rejected the demand for a separate flag and constitution.

Greater Nagalim, or integration of Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, as well as Myanmar, has been one of NSCN-IM's core demands, but has seen strong opposition in the three northeastern states.

The Central government has been separately holding peace talks with the NSCN-IM and eight other Naga outfits, which came together a few years ago under the banner of 'Naga National Political Groups' (NNPGs).

The NSCN-IM and other outfits entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Centre in 1997 and in the subsequent years, held more than 85 rounds of political negotiations since then.
Kabul, Feb 16 : Pakistan has refuted the reports about its spying agency's chief meeting with Afghan Jihadi leaders in Turkey.

According to a media report, the Pakistani embassy based in Kabul has denied the reports about meeting of the ISI chief with Afghan Jihadi leaders- Atta Muhammad Noor, Abdul Rashid Dustom, and Muhammad Muhaqiq- in Turkey.

Dubbing the news as "fake", the embassy has said that "no Pakistani official has met with Afghan Jihadi leaders in Turkey".

Earlier, it was claimed that Lieutenant-General Nadeem Anjum, chief of ISI has met with a number of Afghan Jihadi leaders and has discussed the establishment of an "inclusive government" in Afghanistan.

This comes as officials of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan have urged Afghan politicians in exile to return to the country and "live peacefully".
Now, Left Main users can use smrtPhone to better communicate with prospects, track calls and texts, and close more deals.

Left Main REI today announced a new integration with smrtPhone. The partnership provides real estate investors an exciting new option for their phone system, a mission-critical tool in an industry that relies on speed of communication.

We are excited to collaborate with smrtPhone to continue to provide Left Main users options for integrated phone systems. , says Stephanie Betters, CEO at Left Main REI. Its a familiar phone choice for real estate investors and we are elated to have them on our platform!

We are thrilled to partner with Left Main and expand our footprint into Salesforce, says Jordan Samuel Fleming, Co-Founder and CEO of smrtPhone. Both companies bring established experience working with the real estate investment community, which made finalizing the details of our deep integration into their Salesforce platform practically effortless. Now, Left Main users can use smrtPhone to better communicate with prospects, track calls and texts, and close more deals.

The benefits of the new partnership include:



Embedded click-to-dial functionality along with 1:1 text messaging and text message drip sequences

Integrated single or multi-line power dialer

Full-featured smrtPhone mobile app for making and receiving calls on the go

An open webinar to learn more about the partnership and demonstrate the integration is scheduled for Feb 23, 2022 at 2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT. Secure your spot to attend live or receive the recording by registering here.

About Left Main REI: Left Main is the fastest growing, most comprehensive CRM system for real estate investors, built on Salesforce. With thousands of users and growing, the goal of Left Main is to provide clear data and metrics combined with excellent customer service to help customers grow their businesses. For more information, visit leftmainrei.co.

About smrtPhone: smrtPhone is an all-in-one phone system that allows sales-driven businesses to make more calls, send more texts, and close more deals. The cloud-based phone, multi-line power dialer, full featured mobile app, customizable call flows, and robust suite of user management tools flex and grow with you. Focused on delivering deep integration with your CRM, smrtPhone powers greater automation, reduces time spent on clerical tasks, and gives valuable insight enabling you to do business better. Learn more at smrtphone.io.
Situation Publishing Nicole Hemsoth is a well-known force in enterprise IT publishing as editor in chief and founding creator of several long-standing publications.

Nicole Hemsoth is a well-known force in enterprise IT publishing as editor in chief and founding creator of several long-standing publications. In addition to serving as Managing Editor for global supercomputing magazine, HPCwire, she has also been founding editor of publications including data analysis-focused Datanami and later, EnterpriseTech (now EnterpriseAI). In 2015 she co-founded and served as co-editor of high-end enterprise IT analysis publication The Next Platform, which she will continue to manage as part of the expanded role.

As part of the role, Hemsoth will help drive far-reaching strategies to bolster further growth across all Situation Publishing titles. From expanding breaking news and in-depth analysis across publications, making sure teams remain at the forefront of what matters for enterprise IT readers, and seeking innovative ways to drive new readership and engagement through events, special series, features, and multimedia, Situation Publishing will continue producing what matters for IT professionals.

This role is an honor since I have been an avid reader of Situation Publishing titles, particularly The Register for many years. With that said, I see opportunities to increase depth and range of coverage, both in terms of breaking news and insightful analysis and to help tune content for an ever-changing reader base, Hemsoth says. "I will strive to enhance the existing strong reputation of reach title and in the process, empower Situation Publishing writers and editors to do the best work of their careers, she adds.

Nicole joins us from a background of enterprise technology publishing, where she has built publications and dominated her subject areas. She brings with her a trove of editorial and publishing experience, not to mention a depth of technical knowledge, that can help drive our publishing strategy into the future. We're thrilled to have her on board and look forward to our readership feeling the benefit of her experience, says Philip Mitchell, CEO of Situation Publishing.

Nicole has unmatched experience and expertise in this market. She has always been on the cutting edge of whats next from both subject matter and media perspective. Nicoles fresh approach, authoritative voice and boundless enthusiasm is instrumental to our evolution as a business. Says Alan King, COO of Situation Publishing.

Press and media contacts should continue to reach out to Hemsoth with pitches at Nicole.hemsoth@sitpub.com

About Situation Publishing

Situation Publishing is a leading global force in B2B technology publishing headquartered in London with offices in San Francisco, Boston, Sydney and Singapore.

Situation Publishing operates a growing portfolio of titles and events, including The Register, DevClass and the Next Platform, which serve the global enterprise technology community.

Situation Publishing works with the worlds leading technology businesses to shape and deliver against their marketing objectives. Our services span account-based marketing, go to market content solutions, demand generation, data driven display advertising and live events.
vranda can act as a virtual Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) for companies that need to be more ESG-compliant for their customers.

vranda is a bottom-up approach to ESG data and enterprise software solutions. This technology enables companies to aggregate ESG data into one system to simplify reporting and manage tasks associated with disclosure and workflows. It also functions as a business intelligence tool that helps firms monitor information to drive meaningful action.

vranda was founded in early 2021 by a team of former fintech and investment banking executives along with a former sustainability officer from a global top 20 company. This mix of talent and experience allows vranda to clearly link data and actions in the ESG realm with direct financial performance and outcomes for their clients.

vranda can act as a virtual Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) for companies that need to be more ESG-compliant for their customers, who are increasing their scrutiny of sustainability metrics due to pressure from rating agencies. This burden will only increase for both public and private companies over the coming years, taking up valuable resources which could be directed elsewhere.

For example, vrandas new clients within the food and beverage industry want to be able to leverage advanced software for ESG reporting without burdening their IT or Sustainability departments. They find that their current Excel-oriented focus has led to outdated reports and requires too much manual data entry. vrandas proprietary ESG wizard helps companies compile data in minutes and assists them with better managing their cost of capital and the additional operational risks associated with a new sustainability-focused corporate climate.

As vranda provides integration of a 360 degree nature around companies ESG data that involves all stakeholders, it empowers clients with better access to accurate, reliable and near real-time internal ESG metrics globally. These data-driven insights give companies the ability to make better operational and strategic decisions

Financial modeling and scenario analysis are part of this package. These tools provide a direct, quantifiable link between ESG efforts and their financial impact on the company. Simply put, the risk of not knowing and acting on this data is too high in todays business environment. Contact us now to find out how we can help enable change!

More info at http://www.vranda.io
Telepresenz and Antea announce a strategic partnership to integrate and jointly pursue projects in the energy sector.

Telepresenzs award winning remote assistance software platform runs on hands-free wearable devices (such as Realwear, Vuzix, Rokid Glass, and others). It provides frontline workers with digital workflows and remote expert guidance.

The Antea platform is one of the industrial markets leading AIM (Asset Integrity Management) solutions, creating a 3D digital twin of a facility allowing operators to track inspection data, maintenance, and failure risk profiles for every piece of equipment.

Combining remote assistance technology with Antea's digital twin solution enables field workers to stay connected with back-office experts and all mission critical equipment data. This creates huge operational efficiencies improving both safety and speed for inspections, maintenance, and repair.

At Antea, we strive to deliver the most feature-rich mechanical integrity risk-based inspection platform available. Together, Antea and Telepresenz will help change the way work happens with asset integrity management in a post-pandemic world, Floyd Baker, VP Antea North America.

This integrated solution allows the field team to capture inspection data in a paperless fashion with hands-free smart glasses. Data such as videos, photos, measurements and sensor data captured during inspections will be directly uploaded into the Antea platform eliminating the need for manual data entry.

We are very excited to partner with Antea and believe this partnership will drive accelerated growth for both companies in the global market, said Indu Tolia, CEO/Founder of Telepresenz. An integrated offering of Anteas asset intelligence and services with the Telepresenz real-time remote assistance and digital workflow platform will reduce equipment downtime, improve overall service delivery, and reduce costs for businesses.

The digital transformation technologies from Telepresenz and Antea promise operators significant benefit in digital plant management while keeping field personnel safe in hazardous industrial environments.

Learn more about remote assistance technology at http://www.telepresenz.com.

About Telepresenz

Telepresenz specializes in remote assistance, digitized workflows, and client specific customizations of our platform, that can be delivered on a variety of smart devices including AR glasses. The business mission is to empower field workers with real-time access to expertise, data and information for diagnosing and resolving critical issues as they occur.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/telepresenz-official/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/telepresenz

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Telepresenz

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/telepresenz/
The Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors is honored to announce Leslie Williams as the first black woman to hold the President seat for the association. President Williams has been honored to be awarded the Congressional Record Volume 167, number 215 From Congress Women Deborah Ross. Williams is a proud constituent and was honored this week in the RRAR Board meeting with this award for this wonderful milestone. Leslie has been a resident of North Carolina for 20 years and has over 30 years of sales, marketing, customer service, and management experience. She also has a masters degree in business administration and has attained several real estate certifications throughout her career.

In addition to her professional achievements, Leslie is dedicated to volunteering, mentorship, and ensuring homeownership for all. I am so proud to represent a constituent who is committed to supporting these important efforts in our community, and I look forward to hearing more about her work in the future and collaborating to improve our community.Deborah Ross
The investment of IGI in Concord is indicative of both our past success and our bright future of service, notes Mark Johnson, Concord CEO.

Concord Servicing Corporation, a leading loan servicing company serving originators, lenders, capital market participants, and asset investors, announces Inverness Graham, a private investment firm that invests in high growth, innovative manufacturing, technology, and services companies, has invested in Concord alongside the founding owners to support the scaling and continued expansion of servicing solutions, technology, and world-class service.

Concord leverages its investments in purpose-built technology along with market-specific expertise to deliver world-class service for its customers at any scale, states Michael Morrissey, Managing Principal of Inverness Graham. Its seasoned and professional leadership team, scalable processes, and technology make it a great platform investment for Inverness. We look forward to supporting the continued success of Concord.

Founded in 1988, Concord is a full-scope loan servicer delivering innovative, flexible, and scalable portfolio servicing solutions to meet the demands of loan originators and capital providers in multiple asset classes.

Trey Simpson, Vice President of Inverness Graham, emphasizes, Concord is a proven, dependable and market-leading servicer of portfolios that provides unsurpassed quality in servicing for originators, owners, and lenders across a range of attractive end-markets. Were excited about their prospects for growth as we continue to invest in the companys best-in-class servicing platform for the needs of Concord clients."

Concords commitment to providing clients unsurpassed quality and value across a wide array of servicing solutions, and to providing associates a terrific place to work and grow, has and will continue to serve our organization, our customers, and our workforce exceptionally well. The investment of IGI in Concord is indicative of both our past success and our bright future of service, notes Mark Johnson, Concord CEO.

We are excited to be part of the IGI family of companies, which helps us further enhance support of existing and new clients in a variety of ways. Concord remains committed to enhancing the client experience with collections practices that enhance portfolio performance, providing real-time reporting, and world-class client management. All of this gets addressed by our end-to-end configurable solutions customized to client needs, adds Shaun ONeill, Concord President and Chief Revenue Officer.

About Concord

Since 1988, Concord Servicing has offered a full range of account servicing options to portfolio originators, owners, and lenders. For over three decades, Concord has delivered award-winning financial technology and support for unparalleled efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility. Concord serves clients globally and operates facilities in the United States and Mexico. Concord offers world-class servicing by dedicating investments, talent, and other resources to servicing portfolios and establishing an advisory partnership with clients to align interests. Concord delivers proven technology platforms and solutioning support to exceed client expectations, regardless of industry or asset class.

Website: http://www.concordservicing.com

About Inverness Graham

Inverness Graham is a private investment firm that has raised over $1 billion of capital since inception. Inverness Graham acquires innovative tech-enabled manufacturing, service and software companies, and their approach is as unique as their heritage. Founded by senior executives of the Graham Group, a family-owned multi-national industrial concern, they bring unparalleled resources developed over a 50-year history to support their portfolio of companies. Inverness Graham partners with businesses to provide the support necessary to accelerate growth while enabling owners to achieve key liquidity objectives.

Website http://www.invernessgraham.com
Michael and Kathleen Smith present AdventHealth Ocala leaders and the Gray family with a check to launch the Maternal Fetal Medicine program. This incredible showing of generosity from Michael Smith and his family supports us in our promise to continuously elevate the care of our community and serve families in a way theyve never experienced before," said AdventHealth Ocala President and CEO Joe Johnson.

AdventHealth Ocala is pleased to announce the introduction of the McKenzie Kearney Gray Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) program to elevate the pre- and post-natal care of high-risk pregnancy patients close to home. Currently, families must travel miles outside of Marion County to receive this highly specialized pregnancy related care. This program will allow families to remain in the AdventHealth system and receive world class care from nationally ranked AdventHealth for Women and AdventHealth for Children specialists, with expertise in the care of women with multiple high-risk pregnancy factors and babies who are born after high-risk pregnancies.

As Marion Countys only obstetrics and neonatal intensive care unit, we are committed to investing in the programs, technology and teams to help us positively impact families for years to come, said Joe Johnson, President and CEO, AdventHealth Ocala. This incredible showing of generosity from Michael Smith and his family supports us in our promise to continuously elevate the care of our community and serve families in a way theyve never experienced before.

Maternal Fetal Medicine care teams work with the obstetrician and help guide practices to achieve the best possible outcome for complicated pregnancies. They identify risk factors during pregnancy such as the delivery of multiples, and other complicated risk factors such as maternal hypertension, diabetes, fetuses with birth defects and genetic issues to assist families in making the best plans for a safe delivery.

We are excited to bring this program to Marion County through our partnership with AdventHealth Ocala. This will complement the specialized neonatology services that are already in place at AdventHealth Ocalas level 2 NICU, staffed by board certified Neonatologists and specially trained Neonatal Nurse Practitioners, said Rajan Wadhawan, MD, MMM, Senior Executive Officer for AdventHealth for Children and AdventHealth for Women. Our program in Ocala will be a part of the extensive network of AdventHealth for Women and AdventHealth for Children in Orlando. This will allow us to bring the same high level of expertise to Marion County that is only available in bigger centers today.

The MFM program at AdventHealth Ocala was funded in part by local philanthropists Michael and Kathleen Smith through a generous donation of $1.7 million to the AdventHealth Ocala Foundation in honor of McKenzie Kearney Gray, daughter of Ryan and Kait Gray, of Ocala. McKenzie was born premature and passed away days later.

Since coming to Ocala my wife, Kathleen, and I have been moved by Ryan and Kaits story, said Michael Smith. The past few years, we have honored McKenzie by contributing to the McKenzies Moment charitable organization. We were looking for opportunities to impact the lives of expecting parents in Marion County and we are privileged to participate in the establishment of AdventHealth Ocalas Maternal Fetal Medicine program. Ocala is a special place, and this gift expresses our love and gratitude.

The MFM program at AdventHealth Ocala will build on the health systems robust network of neonatal and pediatric care services in Marion County. AdventHealth Ocala is home to world-class neonatal and pediatric services where nationally ranked AdventHealth for Children physicians care for the smallest patients. The hospital houses a Level II neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) which is staffed 24 hours a day with specialized neonatal care nurses and neonatologists. Additionally, AdventHealth Ocala has the areas only pediatric cardiologist specializing in fetal echocardiograms for high-risk pregnancies in Marion County through AdventHealth for Children.

The program will officially start Fall 2022.

About AdventHealth Ocala

AdventHealth Ocala is a 385-bed full-service community hospital that opened in 1898. In August 2018, AdventHealth Ocala became a part of the AdventHealth network. The facility is 640,000 square feet and sits on 15-acres. Within the hospital network there are two 24/7 ER facilities, one onsite and another offsite, to better meet the needs of Marion County. The onsite ER has both an adult and childrens emergency department that has over 50 combined beds with the ability to treat many conditions and injuries. Established in 2002, the offsite ER, AdventHealth TimberRidge ER, is a 24-hour full-service emergency department with 16 private rooms and was the first offsite ER in the state of Florida. The hospital offers many inpatient services including, labor and delivery through The Baby Place, Orthopedic unit, comprehensive cardiovascular surgery unit, and a wound care center. AdventHealth Ocala is accredited The Joint Commission and has received recognition from American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. They are accredited by the American College of Cardiology in Chest Pain, Heart Failure, Cardiac Cath Lab, Electrophysiology, Transcatheter Valve Certified and awarded the HeartCARE Center designation. They are also a Certified Advanced Primary Stroke Center as well as a Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery.

About AdventHealth Ocala Foundation

The AdventHealth Ocala Foundation is a not-for-profit 501c3 that supports programs and services throughout AdventHealth Ocala. Through generous donations and acts of gratitude, our Foundation funds new facilities, and life-saving equipment and technology to advance medicine, enhance patient experiences and provide world-class health care, close to home. With a sacred mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ, our Foundation strives to help more people feel whole and live their healthiest life possible. For more information, please visit AdventHealthFoundationWestFL.com.
Key features in ArangoDB 3.9 Historically, the adoption of graph databases has been hindered due to difficulties around operating them at scale. With the introduction of Hybrid SmartGraphs in ArangoDB 3.9, we've made yet another step in improving ArangoDB's performance across large data sets.

ArangoDB, the most scalable open source graph database, today announced the GA release of ArangoDB 3.9. ArangoDB 3.9 includes new capabilities that improve graph query performance across distributed data sets, as well as additional search functionality, supporting the ever-growing need for businesses to perform analytics focused around graph and full-text search.

Key new features in ArangoDB 3.9 include Hybrid SmartGraphs, making it even more efficient to query sharded datasets, as well as additional Analyzers for ArangoSearch, ArangoDBs natively-integrated, full-text search and ranking engine. IDCs Research Vice President of Data Management Software Carl Olofson regards the graph database as the next truly revolutionary database management technology, and expects the market to grow 600% over the next 10 years[1]. The release of ArangoDB 3.9 continues ArangoDBs goal to serve as the most scalable graph database by making it easy to work with any data of any kind.

Graph technology continues to solve some of todays toughest business problems, such as supply chain management, fraud detection, and route optimization, to name a few, said Jorg Schad, PhD, CTO at ArangoDB. Historically, the adoption of graph databases has been hindered due to difficulties around operating them at scale. Weve made great strides with the past few releases of ArangoDB to introduce new features that improve performance across large data sets, and with the introduction of Hybrid SmartGraphs, ArangoDB 3.9 is yet another step in this direction.

Hybrid SmartGraphs (ArangoDB Enterprise)

ArangoDB 3.9 introduces Hybrid SmartGraphs, an extension of ArangoDB Enterprise Edition features SmartGraphs and SatelliteCollections. SmartGraphs allow ArangoDB to scale smartly by minimizing network hops across distributed data. Hybrid SmartGraphs take this a step further by combining this functionality with SatelliteCollections, which enable faster join operations with sharded datasets. By allowing queries to be executed locally as much as possible, Hybrid SmartGraphs makes it even easier to scale data effectively and execute queries as efficiently as possible.

New ArangoSearch Analyzers: Segmentation and Collation

ArangoDB 3.9 includes the addition of two new Analyzers that bolster ArangoSearchs already extensive support for a wide range of languages. The segmentation Analyzer facilitates mixed-language strings, and the collation Analyzer ensures the rules of the respective language are followed. These additional Analyzers assist ArangoDBs increasing global growth.

AQL: Decay and vector functions, PRUNE variables

While ArangoDB 3.9 includes many new AQL features and improvements, there are three main ones: decay and vector functions, as well as PRUNE variables.

The three new decay functions, exp, linear, and gauss, calculate a score with a function that decays depending on the distance of a numeric value from a user-given origin. These are especially helpful in analytics scenarios or when dealing with time-series data that includes measurements which change over time.

The three new vector functions, cosine similarity, Manhattan distance, and Euclidean distance, can calculate how similar vectors are. This is useful for grouping similar documents together, powering use cases such as text analytics and recommendations.

ArangoDB 3.9 also builds on the PRUNE functionality with the introduction of PRUNE variables. PRUNE reduces the overhead of graph traversal queries by stopping a query when it reaches specific conditions. PRUNE variables adds the option to store a PRUNE expression as a variable, allowing it to later be used in a query without having to repeat the PRUNE condition.

Extended database naming conventions

In order to better support ArangoDBs international user base, ArangoDB 3.9 accepts database names that include most UTF-8 characters, such as Japanese or Arabic letters, emojis, and letters with accentuation. In addition, many ASCII characters that were formerly banned in the traditional naming convention are also now accepted.

Additional features in ArangoDB 3.9 include various performance and UI improvements.

ArangoDB 3.9 is available immediately for download here, as well as on ArangoDB Oasis, ArangoDBs managed service.

Learn more



About ArangoDB

ArangoDB is the most scalable open source graph database, with more than 12,000 stargazers on GitHub. Building on the concept of graph and beyond, ArangoDB combines the analytical power of graphs with JSON documents, a key-value store, and a full-text search engine, enabling developers to access and combine all of these data models with a single, elegant, declarative query language. It serves as the scalable backbone for graph analytics and complex data architectures across many different industries.

Founded in 2015, ArangoDB Inc. is a privately-held company backed by Bow Capital, Iris Capital, New Forge, and Target Partners. It is headquartered in San Francisco and Cologne, Germany with offices and employees around the world. Learn more at http://www.arangodb.com.

[1] https://siliconangle.com/2022/01/09/analyst-predictions-2022-future-data-management/
Bellus Academy graduates Angie Monic (left) and Jessica Andrews (far right) are achieving beautiful success as entrepreneurs. Learning from those who have crafted exceptional careers helps students consider all of the career paths available to licensed beauty professionals.

As America observes National Entrepreneurship Week February 12-19, Bellus Academy is spotlighting entrepreneurial success in the professional beauty industry. From owning spas and salons, to working behind the scenes at venues like New York Fashion Week, Bellus Academy graduates are achieving careers that combine autonomy, artistry and opportunity. Meet a few Bellus beauty-preneurs below:

Nine months after completing her esthetics education at Bellus Academy in 2021, Angie Monic opened In the Nude Skincare in Hilcrest, Calif. Like many professionals across the nation, Angie made a career pivot during the pandemic. An evening study program at Bellus allowed her to work toward her licensure while holding down her marketing job. Inspired by the breadth of specialty designations available in professional skincare, Angie earned certifications in hydro-facial and DMK paramedical skincare. She credits networking opportunities cultivated through Bellus Academys virtual guest lecture series with helping her build a client book and become self-employed just nine months after graduating.

Jessica Andrews may be based in the heartland of Manhattan, Kan., but she is a behind-the-scenes fixture at global fashion events including New York Fashion Week. The halt in live events during the pandemic didnt disrupt Jessicas management of her makeup line she founded in 2019. JMAMakeup includes the signature 3D mink strip eye lashes shown off on her Instagram @jsmakeupartistry30. Her work has been noticed by others, as Jessica took home top honors as Make-up Artist of the Year at the KC Fashion Awards in Kansas City in 2019. When shes not traveling the globe or building her makeup brand, Jessica serves as an educator to next-gen makeup professionals. Her advice for other entrepreneurs is straight-forward. I tell my students to be prepared. Stay humble. It takes time to build a following so stay patient and be open to new experiences and opportunities.

The success of Bellus Academy graduates in building entrepreneurial careers is echoed by leaders across the professional beauty industry, according to owner Lynelle Lynch. Ten years ago, Lynch founded Beauty Changes Lives, a non-profit that equips next gen talent through scholarships and mentoring. She noted nearly a third of Beauty Changes Lives scholarship recipients go on to establish their own business. The creativity involved in entrepreneurship is a natural complement to opportunities in the beauty industry, Lynch said. Bellus Academys curriculum is built around providing students with the technical and artistic skills required to work in the beauty industry, but also the management acumen required to grow a business

Learning from industry leaders is an integral part of professional development. As National Entrepreneurship kicked off, Bellus Academy invited Chrystofer Benson an award-winning colorist to speak to students about achieving success in a remarkable industry. Learning from those who have crafted exceptional careers helps students consider all of the career paths available to licensed beauty professionals, said Lynch.
A $500 rebate is available for eligible U.S. military personnel at Bill Alexander Toyota on the purchase or lease of select new Toyota vehicles.

Inspired by the sacrifices and bravery shown by our soldiers at the frontline, Bill Alexander Toyota is offering a $500 rebate for eligible U.S. military personnel on the purchase or lease of select new Toyota vehicles. This offer can be used toward any new Toyota vehicle purchased or leased through the Alexander Toyota dealership and Toyota Financial Services, and is valid from Feb. 1, 2022, to Feb. 28, 2022.

The Military Rebate Program offered by Bill Alexander Toyota is available to the U.S. military personnel who are in active-duty and inactive reserve, U.S. military veterans within one year of discharge, U.S. military retirees within 1 year of retirement and the household members of eligible U.S. military personnel including Gold Star families. To be eligible for this program, prospective buyers must present verifiable proof of military status or active service at the time of purchase/lease of the Toyota vehicle  this can be a Military ID card, leave and earning statement or a certificate of release or discharge from active duty. Eligible customers must receive a qualifying salary and receive credit approval from Toyota Financial Services through the dealership. Also, please note that this offer cannot be combined with the iFi Program, the College Graduate Rebate Program or the Lease-End Refi Program.

Customers are encouraged to visit Bill Alexander Toyota located at 889 E 32nd St, Yuma, Arizona, 85365, in person or have a look at their official website. For any further information or inquiries, drivers can contact the dealership staff on 928-344-1170.
Withdraw to Jesus: Poems of the Heart: a powerful exploration of the authors faith. Withdraw to Jesus: Poems of the Heart is the creation of published author Bonnie-Jean Heather, a retired human resource professional who earned both a bachelors degree in business management and a masters degree in international care and community development from Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington.

Heather shares, Jesus gave me the poems he wanted me to write. Im trying to be his obedient servant.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Bonnie-Jean Heathers new book will encourage and inspire as readers consider the thoughtful messages within.

Heather shares in hopes of encouraging others to find the peace available to all through dedication to Gods word.

Consumers can purchase Withdraw to Jesus: Poems of the Heart at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Withdraw to Jesus: Poems of the Heart, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Charles E. Crutchfield III, M.D. I am honored to have been selected by my peers as a top dermatologist. There is nothing more humbling and satisfying than to be recognized by my colleagues for the quality service to patients and the best skincare in Minnesota.," said Dr. Crutchfield.

Mpls. St. Paul Magazines Top Doctors rankings are determined by a survey sent to 5,000 physicians and nurses in the metro area. Survey participants are asked to nominate one or more doctors (excluding themselves) whom they would choose if they or a loved one were seeking medical care. The candidates who made the final list were evaluated on indicators of peer recognition, professional achievement, and disciplinary history. Less than 3% of physicians are recognized with this honor by their peers. Dr.Crutchfield has been selected with this honor, yearly, for the past 21 years.

"I am honored to have been selected by my peers as a top dermatologist. There is nothing more humbling and satisfying than to be recognized by my colleagues for the quality service to patients and the best skincare in Minnesota. I truly appreciate their recognition and confidence in naming me for this best skincare honor," said Dr. Crutchfield, Eagan Dermatologist.

Dr. Crutchfield specializes in the treatment of acne, psoriasis, vitiligo, atopic dermatitis, and ethnic skin disorders. Additionally, Dr. Crutchfield is considered, by his peers, to be a leading cosmetic dermatologist in the United States.

About Charles Crutchfield III MD

Charles E. Crutchfield III, MD is a board-certified dermatologist and clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota Medical School and a Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor of Biology at Carleton College. He also has a private practice, Crutchfield Dermatology in Eagan, MN. He received his MD and Masters Degree in molecular biology and genomics from the Mayo Clinic. He has been selected as one of the top 10 dermatologists in the United States by Black Enterprise magazine. Minnesota Medicine recognized Dr. Crutchfield as one of the 100 Most Influential Healthcare Leaders in Minnesota. Dr. Crutchfield specializes in skin-of-color and has been selected by physicians and nurses as one of the leading dermatologists in Minnesota for the past 18 years. He is the team dermatologist for the Minnesota Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves, Wild, and Lynx. Dr. Crutchfield is an active member of both the American and National Medical Associations and president of the Minnesota Association of Black Physicians. He can be reached at CrutchfieldDermatology.com or by calling 651-209-3600.
Datanomix provides real-time production monitoring and performance analytics for CNC machines Our customers are expanding their Datanomix coverage to more machines in facilities across the country, providing a comprehensive view of their operations. Our continued success speaks not only to our exceptional product-market fit, but also the tremendous effort we put into our customers success.

Datanomix, the leading automated production intelligence platform for precision manufacturers, today announced the company experienced record growth in FY2021 ending January 31, with Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) more than tripling since FY2020. Market acceptance for the companys solutions has increased as US manufacturers boost production while simultaneously dealing with challenges in hiring and retaining employees. The Datanomix platform helps identify and address factory performance issues in real time and supports unattended operations with automated insights.

Like most industries, US manufacturers are suffering through some of the worst labor shortages in decades, with some industry analysts forecasting that up to 2.1 million manufacturing positions will be left unfilled by 2030. Datanomix delivers actionable insights that help manufacturers address labor deficits through better communications and performance for both manned and unmanned factory shifts. And by allowing production supervisors to laser-focus on work cells that need attention, Datanomix helps identify areas where operator training will result in a more intelligent workforce, armed with the exact data they need to affect change.

Not only has adoption of the Datanomix software platform accelerated, but many of our customers are expanding their Datannomix coverage to every machine and every facility they own across the country, said John Joseph, CEO and co-founder of Datanomix. And because we dont require operator input to drive insights, our power users have adapted Datanomix to their unattended shifts, which they can monitor remotely. Its because we spend so much time with our customers that we understand how they work, and we delivered a platform that matches how they work.

Highlights for Datanomix in FY2021 include:



Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) grew more than 350%, with the average deal size tripling from the first half of the year to the second half.

100% customer retention, with more than 20% of customers expanding their Datanomix machine deployments, both in their existing facilities and additional factories.

Datanomix tripled the number of employees across all functions - engineering, sales, customer success, and marketing.

A strategic partnership announcement with Caron Engineering will provide solutions to help manufacturers proactively optimize whole-factory performance and profitability.

A diverse range of new customers across a variety of industries, including medical, aerospace, firearms, automotive, and semiconductors.

Major Product Updates and New Product Introductions in 2021:

Quote Calibration Report: an in-depth analysis of every job and an indication if you are making a profit or there is an opportunity for improvement.

Continuous Improvement Hub: a new management workflow that consolidates key performance indicators for factory health into a single dashboard.

Digital GEMBA: a new product that accelerates mission-critical information directly from ERP systems to become a factory communication hub.

Our customers continue to be our biggest source of inspiration and insight as we improve and expand our product offerings, stated Greg McHale, CTO and co-founder of Datanomix. Manufacturers know their business inside and out, and are looking for ways to get solid data to help them fine-tune operations and increase profits. Its an incredibly challenging time for manufacturers, and the organizations that will thrive are those that embrace automation and advanced analytics. Were proud to be able to support our customers with the most in-depth insights into real-time operations as well as overall factory performance trends.

Datanomix delivers massive business impact for its customers. When they connect their CNC machines to Datanomix, precision manufacturers experience a 15% productivity boost in parts output, along with an average improvement in cycle time of 27%. In addition, theres an almost 12% reduction in time-to-first part across shifts and the time-to-resolution for most issues is cut in half. And when TVs are installed on the factory floor so everyone sees progress in real-time, there is a 33.5% boost in overall factory performance and utilization.

Visit the Datanomix online resources center to explore blog posts, customer stories, news, videos, and more. Recent content includes a blog post from John Joseph2021 Was Great. 2022 Looks Even Betterand a think piece from Greg McHaleThe Fatal Flaws of First-Generation Production Monitoring. To see Datanomix in action, please visit http://www.datanomix.io/schedule-a-demo/.

About Datanomix

Based in New Hampshire, Datanomix provides real-time production monitoring and performance analytics for CNC machines, without the need for operator inputs or links to ERP systems. Datanomixs mission is to level the data analytics playing field for industrial manufacturers by giving them robust decision-making tools so they can proudly build world-class products. Learn more at http://www.datanomix.io.
Dylan Bates Joins Golden Bear as Lead Independent Board Director Its a great honor to be part of an organization that understands how to grow the right way by taking care of their partners and employees, who in turn take care of their patients and communities, said Dylan Bates.

Golden Bear Therapy Partners, a leading provider of outpatient physical therapy and rehabilitation services, announced today the addition of renowned industry veteran Dylan Bates as Lead Independent Board Director.

Mr. Bates brings a wealth of industry knowledge and executive leadership experience to Golden Bear. Bates will be plugged into the organization in a number of key areas and will work closely with Brent Mack, CEO, and the rest of the leadership team to execute on their winning strategies.

"Having personally known Dylan for over 20 years, his passion, extensive industry knowledge, coupled with his commitment to exceptional patient care speak volumes of the caliber of individual we have to join our team, said Golden Bear Therapy Partners CEO Brent Mack. "He will be a tremendous value-add to the organization and we are thrilled to have him a part of our family. We have won together in the past and look forward to winning with him again.

Before joining Golden Bear, Mr. Bates spent over 19 years with ATI Physical Therapy, starting in the original clinic as a Physical Therapist and progressing to COO and eventually CEO. Bates leadership was instrumental and a driving force as ATI scaled from the original clinic to over 800 locations at the time of his exit from the business.

Most recently, Mr. Bates has served as a board member for several businesses including Southern Vet Partners (a Shore Capital Partners animal hospital platform. Bates joined the board in 2014 when SVP had 2 locations and has scaled to over 300), and Salt Dental Collective, a thriving dental support organization. Additionally, Bates is the founder of RESET Telluride, a luxury wellness retreat concept (ResetTelluride.com).

Im thrilled to return to the industry that I love and join the wonderful leaders and team members of Golden Bear Therapy Partners. Its a great honor to be part of an organization that understands how to grow the right way by taking care of their partners and employees, who in turn take care of their patients and communities, said Dylan Bates. Im excited to work with Brent Mack, Kim Kollwelter, and all GBTP leaders and team members to build a special organization. Im extremely confident in the strategy being deployed, the talent that we will attract, and the winning culture we will create.

About Golden Bear Therapy Partners

Formed in 2019, Golden Bear Therapy Partners is a Physical Therapist led, a portfolio company of Shore Capital Partners. GBTP has offices in Chicago, Illinois & Modesto, California, and operates over 125 clinics across 6 states. The company has an extensive network of partners that have been established leaders within their respective communities. The company strives to be the partner of choice for clinic owners looking for best-in-class support for growth, operational and back-office functions. To learn more, please visit http://www.gbtherapypartners.com.
ElitAvia, a fully-integrated provider of business aircraft sales, leasing, charter, aircraft management and related services, today announced that it has been named an Ambassador by the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA).

Launched last year, the EBAA Ambassador program is a peer-networking initiative that allows industry leaders to join public forums and closed workshops to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the business aviation industry. Fellow Ambassadors include ACC Columbia, Air BP, Bombardier, CAT Aviation, Dassault Aviation, DC Aviation, Duncan Aviation, FlyingGroup, Jetcraft, JETMS, JSSI, Martyn Fiddler Aviation, Medaire, NetJets, Primus Aero, Satcom Direct, UAS International Trip Support and VistaJet.

We are proud to be joining the EBAA Ambassador program, says Nick Houseman, Co-Owner and Board Member, ElitAvia. As part of a small but influential group of industry leaders, we believe that we can initiate the adoption of new standards that contribute to superior policy-making. Sustainability is one of the biggest challenges facing business aviation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions must be a top priority.

For example, pure sustainable air fuel (SAF) has the potential to reduce emissions by up to 80%. But SAF blends can cost up to twice the price of Jet A fuel and only represent a small fraction of total supply. As an industry, we need to address this imbalance. Operating within the EBAA, we can introduce a blueprint for change and success that will have direct ecological benefits for the wellbeing of future generations, adds Mr. Houseman.

About ElitAvia

One of Europes largest mixed fleet business aircraft operators, ElitAvia is a fully-integrated provider of business aircraft sales, leasing, charter, aircraft management and related services, including flight operations management, staff provisioning and CAMO. Headquartered in Luqa, Malta and with executive offices in Ljubljana, Slovenia, ElitAvia holds AOCs in both countries. At present, ElitAvia manages a mixed fleet of 25 business and cargo aircraft for charter and private use. Aircraft types include Gulfstream, Bombardier, Dassault Falcon, Embraer, Hawker and Boeing models. For more information, please visit http://www.elitavia.com.

Media Contact:

Mark Lowe, PRagmatic Communications

mark.lowe(at)pragcom.com / (514) 576-2519
Express is proud to stand out from the competition as a top employer for both job seekers and businesses." - Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller

Express Employment Professionals has once again been recognized for its commitment to providing exemplary staffing services with the receipt of ClearlyRateds Best of Staffing Client and Talent Awards.

Express also achieved the Best of Staffing Talent Diamond Award for providing superior service to candidates for at least five consecutive years.

In partnership with presenting sponsor CareerBuilder and gold sponsors Indeed and Talent.com, ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing Award winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and candidates.

On average, clients of winning agencies are two times more likely to be completely satisfied and candidates who have been placed by winning agencies are twice as likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided compared to those working with non-winning agencies.

Express is proud to stand out from the competition as a top employer for both job seekers and businesses, Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller said. We strive to provide the highest quality service on every level as we aim for putting a million people to work annually.

Express received satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 66% of their clients, significantly higher than the industrys average of 41%. More than 68% of placed job candidates also gave Express a satisfaction score of 9 or 10 out of 10 compared to the industry average of 40%.

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," said ClearlyRated's 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!

Express is committed to the vision of helping as many people as possible find good jobs by helping as many clients as possible find good people. With its international headquarters based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Express has more than 850 franchises in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand

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If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bill Stoller to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Hollander, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

About Bill Stoller

William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment International. Founded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the international staffing franchisor supports the Express Employment Professionals franchise and related brands. The Express franchise brand is an industry-leading, international staffing company with franchise locations in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

About Express Employment Professionals

At Express Employment Professionals, were in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Our international network of franchises offers localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, employing 586,000 people globally in 2021 and 10 million since its inception. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com.

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 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, placed talent and internal employees. 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 client ratings and testimonials.


"This years conference is particularly meaningful to us as we reunite with our customers and partners around the world to share and celebrate their technical successes and contributions to society," said Dr. Amir Isfahani, CEO of Flow Science.

Flow Science, Inc. will hold the FLOW-3D World Users Conference 2022 on May 16-18, 2022 at the Maritim Hotel in Munich, Germany. Co-hosted by Flow Science Deutschland, this years conference features application-specific tracks, advanced training sessions, in-depth technical customer presentations, and the latest product developments presented by Flow Sciences senior technical staff. Attendees will also enjoy a tour of the BMW Museum as part of the conferences social events.

Hubert Lang of BMW will be this years keynote speaker. Hubert Lang has worked in BMWs Light Metal Foundry in Landshut, Germany since 1998. Introduced to FLOW-3Ds metal casting capabilities in 2005, Lang has led the expansion of BMWs use of FLOW-3D. Today BMW uses FLOW-3D for a wide range of metal casting processes and special projects. Lang will showcase some of BMW's innovative designs for which FLOW-3D has played an indispensable role.

Were looking forward to an informative and fun conference in Munich. This years conference is particularly meaningful to us as we reunite with our customers and partners around the world to share and celebrate their technical successes and contributions to society. We're so glad to finally be able to see everyone after so long apart. We are also very pleased to welcome our keynote speaker Hubert Lang to honor our 17 years of partnership with BMW," said Dr. Amir Isfahani, CEO of Flow Science.

The call for abstracts is now open. Customers are encouraged to share their experiences, present their success stories, case studies and validations, and obtain valuable feedback from their peers and Flow Science staff. Topics include metal casting, additive manufacturing, laser welding, civil & municipal hydraulics, micro/nano/bio fluidics, aerospace, and automotive applications. The deadline to submit an abstract is Friday, March 18.

Advanced training sessions for FLOW-3Ds family of products will be offered as part of the conference. Taught by senior technical staff and experts in their fields, advanced training sessions include Version Up seminars for FLOW-3D CAST, FLOW-3D AM, FLOW-3D HYDRO and FLOW-3D, as well as a FLOW-3D POST session focused on best practice workflows and commonly asked support questions. Detailed information about these training sessions is available at https://www.flow3d.com/training-sessions-flow-3d-world-users-conference-2022/

Registration for the conference is available at https://www.flow3d.com/flow-3d-world-users-conference-registration/

About Flow Science

Flow Science, Inc. is a privately held software company specializing in computational fluid dynamics software for industrial and scientific applications worldwide. Flow Science has distributors and technical support services for its FLOW-3D products in nations throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australasia. Flow Science can be found online at https://www.flow3d.com. FLOW-3D and TruVOF are registered trademarks in the USA and other countries.
It is not lost on the staff at Geo Week how much of an honor it is to be able to facilitate and produce these awards for the industry, and to recognize some of the brightest minds in the geospatial community.

To recognize and celebrate excellence across the geospatial industry, Geo Week hosts an awards ceremony to honor nominated leaders and distinguished professionals for their achievements. In partnership with LIDAR Magazine, Lidar News, and ASPRS, the Geo Week Awards were presented at the Geo Week Conference in Denver, CO on February 7, 2022.

The 2022 Geo Week Awards honor the achievements of individuals and teams working in the geospatial technology space. The ceremony included the Younger Geospatial Professional Award, Lidar Leader Awards, and the presentation of ASPRS Awards.

After a virtual event ceremony took place in 2020, the awards returned to the conference stage for the live event taking place in Denver from February 6-8 2022.

We are thrilled to be able to gather together in person after so much time apart, and I want to thank everyone who submitted nominations from all sectors and industries around the globe, said Lora Burns, Marketing Manager of Diversified Communications portfolio of technology events.

It is not lost on the staff at Geo Week how much of an honor it is to be able to facilitate and produce these awards for the industry, and to recognize some of the brightest minds in the geospatial community.

The Younger Geospatial Professional Award was presented by Dr. Gene Roe, Founder and Managing Editor of Lidar News. This years recipient was Rami Tamimi, the founder and chief geodetic engineer at GEOICS, and doctorate student at The Ohio State University studying Geodetic Engineering. In addition to his academic and professional career, Tamimi is a prolific YouTube creator whose videos went viral after trying to find a way to connect with his students remotely via YouTube, producing videos about the surveying industry and educating those new to the profession with wit, creativity and expertise. His educational contributions to the field were notable to the judges who found his efforts critical and needed for inspiring the next generation of surveyors.

The LIDAR Leader Awards, presented by Stewart Walker, managing editor of LIDAR Magazine, announced awards in five distinct categories,

The winner of the Outstanding University Achievement in Lidar was chosen by a panel of judges who watched live presentations from nominees during Geo Week in a University Lightning Round. Dr. Ezra Che was presented with the award for his work in developing and testing a high-performance algorithm for classifying large, complex point clouds. By taking on one of the most challenging aspects of lidar collection, Dr. Che and his team are committed to work towards solving a problem with long-lasting impacts on the lidar community.

The Outstanding Team Achievement in Lidar award is given to teams who have demonstrated a unique achievement in the area of service, project management, product development or other specialty. The winner of this award was the Minnesota 3DGeomatics Committee, which was accepted by three members of the committee, Sean Vaughn, Coin Lee, and Dr. Jennifer Corcoran. The 3D Geomatics Committee of the Minnesota Geospatial Advisory Council works to identify and promote the need for planning, funding, acquisition, and management of three-dimensional geomatic data and derived products. 3DGeos success is built on a collaborative community, working together to coordinate fundraising and education to achieve the common goal of acquiring high-density lidar statewide.

The Outstanding Enterprise Achievement in Lidar is awarded to organizations for companies of 100 members or more in product development within geospatial lidar technology. Outsight received this award for its Augmented Lidar Box, a first lidar pre-processor: a real-time software engine that turns any lidar into a Spatial Intelligence device.

The Outstanding Innovation in Lidar Award is given to products, business models or technology on the market for less than one year, and is awarded to Emesent for their Hovermap lidar mapping and autonomy payload. Hovermaps high quality, high resolution, colorized point clouds have enabled customers to derive new insights in mining, architecture, construction, engineering, forestry, and other verticals. Hovermap was recognized for its advanced autonomy and mapping capabilities. When mounted on a drone, it provides safe, autonomous, beyond line of sight flight in challenging areas even without GPS.

The award for Outstanding Personal Achievement in Lidar is awarded to individuals who have made a significant impact to their organization, local, or national community, either through technical excellence, professional development, or innovation within the realm of geospatial lidar technology. This year the award was presented posthumously for the first time, awarded to Dr. Martin Isenburg who passed away in 2021. Dr. Isenburg was the creator of the widely used LAStools, LASzip, and PulseWaves software packages, and he operated Rapidlasso GmbH while providing commercial and open-source software for lidar data processing, exploitation, compression, and organization. The committee received an overwhelming number of nominations for Dr. Isenburg and decided unanimously to honor Martins life work with this award. The award was accepted by Silke Kammerer, the administrator and executor for Martin, who also presented a touching memorial tribute to one of lidars most notable figures.

The final section of the Geo Week awards featured awards presented by ASPRS. The ASPRS Fellow Awards is conferred on ASPRS members for exceptional service in advancing the science and use of mapping science disciplines. The winners of the Fellow Awards were; Dr. Bruce Quirk, Semi-retired scientist working for the USGS since 1981 and USGS UAS liaison; Dr. Haluk Cetin, Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Murray State University; Dr. Henry Hank Theiss, Research Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas in the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST).

The ASPRS Estes Memorial Teaching awards recognizes individual achievements in promotion of remote sensing and geographic information systems technology and applications through educational efforts. The award was bestowed upon Dr. Bon Dewitt, Professor and Associate Director of the Geomatics Program at the University of Florida.

The ASPRS Outstanding Technical Achievement Award recognizes significant critical contributions and rewards developers of breakthrough technology that advances geospatial practices in the US. This year, the award was given to Dr. Bruno Scherzinger of Applanix in recognition of his leadership in commercialization and implementation of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-aided internal navigation systems.

About Geo Week

Geo Week is part of a network of events and media for the global geospatial and built markets organized by Diversified Communications, a leading organizer of conferences, trade shows, and online media with 15 years in the technology arena. Geo Week, taking place February 6-8, 2022, is the new brand name of previously stand-alone events AEC Next Technology Expo & Conference, International Lidar Mapping Forum, and SPAR 3D Expo & Conference, and reflects the increased integration between the built environment, advanced airborne/terrestrial technologies, and commercial 3D technologies. Powerful partnership events will also take place at Geo Week, including ASPRS (American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing), MAPPS and USIBD (US Institute of Building Documentation). Diversified Communications also produces Geo Week E-Newsletter, SPAR 3D E-Newsletter, AEC Next E-Newsletter, GeoBusiness Show (UK), Digital Construction Week (UK), Commercial UAV Expo, and Commercial UAV News. For more information, visit http://www.geo-week.com.

Click here to view the Geo Week Award Ceremony.
Information Technology World Awards by GLOBEE The IT World Awards are open to all Information Technology and Cyber Security organizations from all over the world and their end-users of products and services.

The Globee Awards organizer of the worlds premier business awards programs and business ranking lists is now accepting nominations and entries for the 2022 IT World Awards honoring achievements and recognitions in the information technology and cyber security industries worldwide.

IT industrys premier excellence awards program, IT World Awards honors achievements in every facet of the information technology and cyber security industries. This annual industry and peers program now has several major sections making this one of the most and only complete IT recognitions and achievements award programs in the world. There are many categories for which your organization and the people behind its success can be nominated. Categories are classified under the following groups:



Company-Organization Awards categories

Corporate Communications and Public Relations Awards categories

Creative, Social and Traditional Media Awards categories

Customer Service & Support Awards categories

Best Deployments and Customer Success of the Year Awards categories

Executive & Professional Awards categories

Chief Technology Officers Awards categories

Human Resources Awards categories

Information Technology Users Awards categories

Marketing Information Technology Awards categories

New Product & Service Awards categories

Product Development and Engineering Awards categories

Sales and Business Development Awards categories

COVID-19 Business Response Awards categories

A worldwide judging panel of executives and professionals representing a wide spectrum of industries will determine the winners. Winners will be presented and honored in a virtual ceremony attended by the finalists, winners, judges, and industry peers from all over the world. Industry experts and end-users of information technology products and services can participate in the judging process.

Learn more about the 2022 IT World Awards and how to nominate here: https://globeeawards.com/it-world-awards/

A special category group for startups of the year will include the achievements of new startups formed since 2018 in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, IT Cloud/SaaS, IT Hardware, IT Hybrid, IT Services, IT Software, Security Cloud/SaaS, Security Hardware, Security Hybrid, Security Services, Security Software, and Telecommunications.

Apply here to participate as a judge and an industry expert to help decide the winners: https://globeeawards.com/it-world-awards/judges/

Winners of previous years are listed here: https://globeeawards.com/it-world-awards/winners/

Stay posted and read success stories of organizations by subscribing to the Globee Newsletter: https://globeeawards.com/subscribe/

IT World Awards will also recognize Chief Technology Officers from all over the world for their achievements in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, IT Cloud/SaaS, IT Hardware, IT Hybrid, IT Services, IT Software, Security Cloud/SaaS, Security Hardware, Security Hybrid, Security Services, Security Software, and Telecommunications.

About the Globee Awards

Globee Awards are conferred in eleven programs and competition: the American Best in Business Awards, Business Excellence Awards (Best Employers), CEO World Awards, Communications Excellence Awards, Customer Sales & Service World Awards, Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards, Disruptor Company Awards, Golden Bridge Awards, International Best in Business Awards, IT World Awards, and Women World Awards. Learn more about the Globee Awards at https://globeeawards.com

Follow Globee Awards on twitter https://twitter.com/globeeawards

All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Josh Prywes, a Tax Practice of counsel in the Dallas office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, will speak on a panel at the Financial Executives International (FEI)s Dallas chapter Private Equity CFO Series, Feb. 17 at 4:30 p.m. CST.

Prywes will participate in the panel titled The Great Balancing Act, which will cover the potential imbalances the economy is facing in 2022. During the panel, attendees will learn what is driving the economy and financial markets, the risks that are present, and potential scenarios that may play out. Prywes will present alongside UMB Banks Chief Investment Officer and Executive Vice President KC Matthews.

FEI is a leading association comprised of members who hold positions as chief financial officers, chief accounting officers, treasurers, tax executives, and controllers at companies in every major industry. FEI enhances member professional development through peer networking, conferences, research, career management services, and publications, according to its website.

Prywes focuses his practice on federal, international, multistate, and local tax planning and implementation for both U.S. and foreign companies. Prywes has advised a variety of businesses on the tax implications of inbound and outbound transactions. He regularly structures and negotiates complex partnership and corporate agreements throughout the United States and has experience advising clients on the tax implications of real estate transactions and corporate mergers and acquisitions.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP  Texas: Texas is important to Greenberg Traurig, LLP and part of its history. With approximately 130 Texas lawyers in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, Greenberg Traurig has deep roots in the Texas business, legal, and governmental communities. Greenberg Traurig Texas works with clients to address their interdisciplinary legal needs across the state utilizing the firms global platform. The Texas attorneys are experienced in industries key to the states future, including: aviation, chemicals, construction, education, energy and natural resources, financial institutions, health care, hedge funds, hospitality, infrastructure, insurance, media, medical devices, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, real estate, retail, sports, technology and software, telecommunications, transportation, and video games and esports.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2400 attorneys in 42 locations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm, often recognized for its focus on philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono, reported gross revenue of over $2 Billion for FY 2021. The firm is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law 100, Am Law Global 100, NLJ 250, and Law360 (US) 400. On the debut 2022 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard, it is a Top 15 firm. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 4.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab and net carbon neutral with respect to its office energy usage. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com.


Curt Skoog, IBTS Local Government Solutions Development Lead and new mayor of the City of Overland Park, Kansas We are very pleased about Curts election as Mayor of Overland Park. His passion for strengthening local governments is clear from his years of service as a Council Member and exemplifies the public service mission embedded in our culture at IBTS, said Ashok Goswami, IBTS Chief Executive Officer.

The Institute for Building Technology and Safety (IBTS)a national, nonprofit organization that serves as a trusted partner to local, state, and federal governmentsextends its congratulations to Curt Skoog, IBTS Local Government Services Development Lead, for his recent electoral win as Mayor of the City of Overland Park, Kansas.

Prior to his election, Mayor Skoog served as an Overland Park City Council Member since 2005, as Council President in 2021, Mid-American Regional Council Board Chair, and has also acted as Co-Chair of the Creating Sustainable Places Consortium Coordinating Committee. His work for the City has personified IBTS mission of strengthening communities by implementing policies and supporting projects that build resilience and enhance culture, such as the resurgence of the Citys downtown areas.

"We are very pleased about Curts election as Mayor of Overland Park, said Ashok Goswami, IBTS Chief Executive Officer. His passion for strengthening local governments is clear from his years of service as a Council Member and exemplifies the public service mission embedded in our culture at IBTS, he added. Im excited to see the City benefit from his leadership.

Mayor Skoog has been with IBTS since 2015; during that time, he has used his public sector leadership expertise to find solutions for dozens of local governments nationally, with a focus on Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. He currently oversees IBTSs partnership with the HGACBuy purchasing cooperative. To become an HGACBuy vendor, IBTS completed a highly competitive procurement process, which enables cities and counties to engage IBTS immediately to provide emergency and disaster management services, including managing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.

As Mayor, Skoog plans to improve the Citys existing track record of success. Overland Park has consistently been rated as one of the best places to live, to start your career, to raise your family. It would be easy to settle in and feel comfortable with where we are now, he says. "But my focus as Mayor will be keeping the City moving forward by becoming more transparent and improving our communications with the public, he added.

One of Mayor Skoogs first efforts will be updating the Citys comprehensive plan, which will serve as the blueprint for the Citys future. As IBTS has assisted several municipalities with creating and updating their comprehensive plans, Mayor Skoog brings extensive knowledge about successful comprehensive planning to the process.

I am honored to have been elected and am ready to work for each of our residents to build on our longstanding tradition of excellence, says Mayor Skoog.

In addition to his local government service, Mayor Skoog has also been active within the community serving the Shawnee Mission School District South area and the Kenilworth Homes Association. He is a graduate of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce Leadership Kansas Program, The Greater Kansas City Area Chamber of Commerce Centurions Leadership Program and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Kansas School of Business.

ABOUT IBTS

As a national nonprofit organization with a mission to strengthen communities, IBTS work is guided by a board of directors with representatives from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), National League of Cities (NLC), the National Association of Counties (NACo), the Council of State Governments (CSG), and the National Governors Association. IBTS unparalleled team of certified code professionals, inspectors, planners, grant managers, and energy and resiliency experts make IBTS uniquely positioned to understand and meet the needs of government.
InScribe's digital communities cut across the traditional support silos in higher education, giving students a single place to turn when they need help. "InScribe's digital community platform will help us build connections and create more visibility around the topics that matter most and the strategies that we can apply to ensure our students thrive," said Massa-McKinley.

InScribe, which delivers game-changing digital community solutions, has partnered with the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) to support the new Impact exChange online platform that brings together higher education faculty, administrators, and practitioners from over 40 institutions to promote innovative student success solutions statewide.

Kentucky CPE, which oversees Kentucky's state universities and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, helps monitor and promote academic quality, affordability and student success. The Kentucky Student Success Collaborative, an initiative of CPE, convenes communities of practice to allow administrators to share priorities, feedback, best practices, concerns and ideas to drive improved student success, to build a stronger system of higher education and workforce partnerships.

"There is so much we all can learn from each other, and by giving campuses a voice and connecting them with one another, we can foster the conversations and collaborations that keep us progressing and innovating," said Lilly Massa-McKinley, Executive Director, Kentucky Student Success Collaborative. "InScribe's digital community platform will help us build connections and create more visibility around the topics that matter most and the strategies that we can apply to ensure our students thrive."

The Impact exChange, powered by InScribe communities, brings together innovators in student success from institutions across the state of Kentucky. These interactive spaces not only streamline communication from Kentucky CPE to its member institutions, they also empower institutions to proactively exchange ideas and outcomes and to support each other as they roll out improvements in education, operations and support - all with students in mind.

"We are grateful to be part of a program of this magnitude that brings together the innovative minds and collective insights of so many education leaders and practitioners," said Katy Kappler, CEO of InScribe. "We share Kentucky CPEs commitment to increasing student success and are thrilled to see our digital communities bringing these individuals together to form a statewide collaboration to help students succeed.

About InScribe

InScribe is a digital student support platform that leverages the power of community and artificial intelligence to connect students with the answers, resources, and individuals they need to succeed. InScribe's digital communities cut across the traditional support silos in higher education, giving students a single place to turn when they need helpno matter the topic or time of day. Students benefit from on-demand, peer-to-peer, and student-to-expert collaboration that helps them feel more connected, increasing student engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Learn more about InScribe at https://www.inscribeapp.com/.

About Kentucky CPE

The Council on Postsecondary Education is leading transformation in our workforce, economy and quality of life by advancing progress in educational attainment across Kentucky. As the states higher education coordinating agency, we champion high-quality, inclusive and affordable postsecondary opportunities that prepare students for civic engagement and sustainable careers. Thats why we are undertaking the 60x30 goal, an ambitious effort to raise the percentage of working-age Kentuckians with a postsecondary degree or certificate to 60% by the year 2030. At CPE, we believe that higher education matters  for everyone.
yutori to transform Sourcing with Centric PLM We believe that Centric PLM is the best solution to achieve our goal of visualizing the real-time status of sourcing and sharing product plans with the team.

yutori Inc., the Japanese direct to consumer (DTC) fashion start-up, has selected Centric Softwares product lifecycle management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, home decor, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Founded in Tokyo in 2018, yutori Inc. operates a popular vintage fashion community and owns several direct-to-consumer brands, targeting young adults in their teens and twenties. In 2020, yutori announced a partnership with ZOZO Corporation, which operates Japans largest fashion shopping site, ZOZOTOWN, to collaborate on apparel manufacturing and inventory management.

yutori develops and sells many products in collaboration with suppliers and urgently needed to improve sourcing and procurement efficiency due to rapid business growth and expanding supplier numbers. In addition, to better prepare for its future IPO, yutori needed to strengthen internal controls and information management.

yutori was using tools such as e-mail, spreadsheets and instant messaging to communicate with suppliers for product planning, quotation requests, order placement and product delivery. However, as the amount and different types of data increased, the company decided a PLM system was essential to enable more efficient information sharing and improve the speed and control of sourcing.

After researching various solutions, yutori decided to implement Centric Fashion PLM based on Centrics global track record in fashion, high configurability and ability to flexibly respond to future business expansion. In December 2021, yutori kicked off their PLM implementation.

yutori plans to use Centrics product development, material management, procurement management, calendar management and workflow tools to accelerate the efficiency of information sharing with its suppliers.

Kazuma Senokuchi, board member and COO of yutori Inc., says, We believe that Centric PLM is the best solution to achieve our goal of visualizing the real-time status of sourcing and sharing product plans with the team. Although we are still in the early stages of implementation, we are confident that the capability to track transaction records and communicate with suppliers will reduce risk by eliminating human error. We expect to integrate everything from product planning to procurement on the PLM system.

We are delighted that yutori, a fast-growing company in the Japanese fashion industry, has chosen Centric as their partner, says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. We look forward to working closely with yutori throughout implementation and beyond to help them achieve their business expansion goals.

Learn more about Centric Fashion PLM

Request a Demo

yutori Corporation (https://yutori.tokyo/)

digital "street" company, yutori

Founded in June 2018 in Shibuya, Tokyo, yutori Inc. operates a popular vintage fashion community, owns several direct-to-consumer brands, such as genzai, 9090, centimeter, My Sugar Babe, wherepunk, targeting young adults in their teens and twenties. yutori is selling their products 100% online, currently has over 1 million followers on Instagram.
Longwood Central School District Joins the Empire State Purchasing Group The Longwood Central School District invites all potential vendors to register online.

Today, the Longwood Central School District announces it has joined the Empire State Purchasing Group, a regional purchasing community by bidnet direct. Local government agencies throughout New York State utilize the purchasing group for bid and vendor management. The Longwood Central School District invites all potential vendors to register online with the Empire State Purchasing Group to access its upcoming solicitations by visiting http://www.bidnetdirect.com/new-york/longwoodk12ny.

The Longwood Central School District joins the Empire State Purchasing Group and the community of over 275 participating local government agencies located throughout New York. Along with a variety of bid and vendor management solutions, the Longwood Central School District gains access to a bid library to help with bid creation, a shared pool of vendors, and association with like-minded purchasing professionals in the area.

Vendors interested in doing business with the Longwood Central School District and other nearby government agencies are encouraged to register at http://www.bidnetdirect.com/new-york/longwoodk12ny. Benefits of joining the Empire State Purchasing Group include:



Centralized location for bids from over 275 participating agencies

Bid alerts customized to the vendors products or services

Reliable and timely delivery of notifications, addenda and documents

Advanced notice of Term Contract expiration

E-Bid and E-Quote Submission

The Empire State Purchasing Group is one of bidnet directs regional purchasing groups throughout the country. It provides the Longwood Central School District a bid and vendor management solution, document and addendum distribution, and tracking of all activity throughout the procurement process.

About the Longwood Central School District:

Longwood Central School District covers 53 square miles in central Brookhaven Town, Suffolk County, New York. It serves the hamlets of Ridge, Gordon Heights, Middle Island, Coram, and Yaphank, and parts of Shoreham, Shirley, Medford, and Upton (Brookhaven National Laboratory). During the 20172018 school year, there were 15,833 students enrolled and 2,069 teachers employed at Longwood CSD.

About bidnet direct:

bidnet direct, powered by mdf commerce, is a sourcing solution of regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies throughout the country. bidnet direct runs regional purchasing groups, including the Empire State Purchasing Group, across all 50 states that are used by over 1,600 local governments. To learn more and have your government agency gain better transparency and efficiency in purchasing, please visit http://www.bidnetdirect.com/buyers
Josh D'Agostino and Ashley Druica Ken Voelker stated, These organizational changes position Mighty for continued growth and success."

Josh DAgostino joined Mighty as Vice President of Business Development in 2016 and was promoted to President in 2020. Today, he serves as President and CEO with responsibilities for sales, franchise operations, franchise development, IT, human resources, and office administration. He also oversees the Atlanta Company Operation and competitive acquisitions.

Before joining Mighty, Josh was Director of New Business Development for Genuine Parts Company/NAPA AUTO PARTS, a Fortune 250 company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. He focused on recruiting prospects for NAPA store ownership, competitive acquisitions, and managing a store ownership loan program guaranteed by Genuine Parts Company.

Serving as Mightys President & CEO was certainly beyond my expectations when I joined the company, said Josh. We are seeing tremendous growth within our organization, and Im honored and extremely fortunate to lead a team dedicated to providing the best support to our franchise partners.

A new addition to the Mighty team is Ashley Druica, who takes on the role of Vice President of marketing. Ashley has 14 years of marketing experience as a brand marketing leader. She has a background in traditional and digital marketing, including design, communications, public relations, print, video, social networking, and digital media. Earlier in her career, Ashley ran the marketing department for a non-profit established in 1891, working with the New York Yankees, UPS, Tiffanys, and the NY Times.

Before joining Mighty, she was on the executive leadership team in the financial technology industry for a national company specializing in furniture, automotive, jewelry, optical, and home improvement services.

Ken Voelker stated, These organizational changes position Mighty for continued growth and success. Josh has had a tremendous impact on Mighty over the last six years, and his appointment as CEO recognizes past contributions and positions him to lead Mighty into the future. Ashley has quickly demonstrated outstanding marketing capabilities and leadership skills in building her team to enhance Mightys market position. These positive changes to Mightys leadership continue Mightys evolution as an industry-leading distribution system.

About Mighty Distributing System of America

Headquartered in Peachtree Corners, GA, Mighty supports 100 franchised distributors in 44 U.S. states and five international markets. The Mighty System features local service, inventory management expertise, and training in conjunction with extensive offerings of OE quality underhood and undercar parts, VS7 chemical products, lubricants, and shop supplies. The Mighty business model attracts independent repair shops, quick lubes, tire centers and new car dealerships across the nation and abroad. Mightys unique approach of dealing directly and exclusively with automotive professionals began in 1963.
[February 15, 2022] Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Expands Presence in Michigan Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, a global residential real estate brokerage franchise network, is pleased to announce its further expansion in the state of Michigan, with the addition of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kee Realty. This addition marks the brand's continued growth throughout the state with its 11th network location. With offices throughout Michigan including Clinton Township, Rochester, Oxford, New Baltimore and more, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kee Realty will add more than 400 network agents to the global brokerage under the leadership of industry veteran John Meesseman. "Our company principles of family, teamwork, fun, agent experience and superior service to our clients support the Berkshire Hathaway principles of trust, integrity, stability and longevity," said John Meesseman, president, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kee Realty. "With this transition, our company will continue to uphold these values with the support of the global brand." "We're thrilled to expand in Michigan with such an esteemed group of network agents," said Christy Budnick, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. "These market-leading agents are known for their exceptional client service, and we can't wait to advance their businesses with the brand's top-of-the-line technologyand programming. Our continued growth throughout the Midwest region will provide them with an expanding referral network."

By joining the network, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kee Realty agents gain access to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices' active referral and relocation networks, and its "FOREVER Cloud" technology suite, a powerful source for lead generation, marketing support, social media, video production/distribution and more. The brand also provides an exclusive Luxury Collection marketing program for premier listings. Its Prestige Magazine showcases network members' premium listings with a strong lineup of feature stories covering topics that appeal to high-end real estate clients. "We are excited to welcome John and his talented group of agents to the network," commented Gino Blefari, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. "And we are looking forward to supporting their growth as they assist home buyers and home sellers throughout the state of Michigan and beyond." Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kee Realty has 10 offices with plans for continued growth. The company is actively involved in the community with local charities such as Big Family of Michigan where John Meesseman sits on the Board of Directors. For more information visit: https://www.bhhskeerealty.com/ About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kee Realty With 25 years of industry experience, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kee Realty offers a complete suite of home service products to serve its agents, clients, and tenants. Located in Michigan, the company facilitates the needs of buyers and sellers throughout the state in cities including Clinton Township, Rochester, Oxford, New Baltimore and more. About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is a global residential real estate brokerage franchise network with more than 50,000 real estate professionals and nearly 1,500 offices across 12 countries including, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, The Bahamas and India. In 2021, the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices global network represented more than $179.9 billion (USD) in real estate sales volume. The network, among the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name, brings to the real estate market a definitive mark of trust, integrity, stability and longevity. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005433/en/

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Jessie Swendig, senior vice president of communications at marketing at Neighborhood Credit Union, presenting a donation of $32,478.04 to Kendal Rowden, development officer at Children's Health. Supporters like Neighborhood Credit Union play an integral role in helping us deliver top-notch care that makes a noticeable difference in the lives of children and families in our community.

On February 2, 2022, just hours before a Texas winter storm, Neighborhood Credit Unions Senior Vice President of Marketing, Jessie Swendig, presented Childrens Health with a donation of $32,478.04.

We are immensely grateful for our friends at Neighborhood Credit Union and their unwavering commitment to helping Childrens Health make life better for children, said Paulette Mulry, associate vice president of development at Childrens Health. Supporters like Neighborhood Credit Union play an integral role in helping us deliver top-notch care that makes a noticeable difference in the lives of children and families in our community.

As they have in previous years, the money was raised by two different programs Neighborhood Credit Union offers during the 2021 holiday season. Starting in October, in partnership with Childrens Health and the Women's Auxiliary to Childrens Medical Center, the BOO Yard Challenge provided a crafty way to raise donations. For a donation of only $20, anyone in the community could purchase a BOO yard sign, pick it up at any Neighborhood Credit Union branch, and then secretly place it in friends' or neighbors' yards during the Halloween season.

Throughout November and December, Neighborhood Credit Union encouraged members to participate in the Skip a Payment program. Members could choose to skip a monthly payment on a qualifying loan in exchange for a donation of $35 or more to Childrens Health.

Neighborhood Credit Union and Childrens Health: Neighborhood Credit Union has been proud to donate to Childrens Health for 26 years in a row. More than 200,000 children looked to Children's Health for care last year, and Neighborhood Credit Union is honored to make an enormous difference with the help of its members and community.

About Neighborhood Credit Union: As an active part of the community for 91 years, Neighborhood Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial organization serving the state of Texas with branch locations in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, and Tarrant counties. With assets topping $1 billion, Neighborhood Credit Union has a continuously growing membership of 58,000. For more information, call (214) 748-9393 or visit our homepage.
This appointment supports our plans to rapidly grow the business as we open up new possibilities for ultra-low-power IoT geolocation.

Nestwave, a global technology leader in low-power geolocation for the IoT, has announced that Ciaran Connell will join the companys board of directors in March.

Ciaran is a seasoned veteran of the communications and semiconductor industry who co-founded and ran DecaWave, the micro-location specialist and pioneer of UWB (Ultra-Wideband) technology acquired by Qorvo in 2020. Ciaran Is now General Manager of the UWBU (Ultrawideband Business unit) at Qorvo and lives in Dublin and Toulouse.

The new appointment comes at a time when Nestwave is seeing increased interest in its innovative hybrid software approach to IoT geolocation. Nestwave technology combines GNSS, cellular and Wi-Fi location techniques with cloud-based processing to deliver dramatic reductions in power consumption while simplifying hardware design, minimizing bill of materials and reducing cost.

Nestwave CEO Ambroise Popper comments: Ciarans in-depth knowledge and experience of the wireless and location sectors, alongside his proven track record as a successful entrepreneur and fund-raiser, further enhance our board-level expertise. This appointment supports our plans to rapidly grow the business as we open up new possibilities for ultra-low-power IoT geolocation.

Ciaran Connell adds: I look forward to helping Nestwave capitalize on the many new tracking and logistics opportunities that the companys innovative technology enables and to leveraging my experience in funding technology start-ups and optimizing returns for investors.

Ciaran has a degree in Electronic Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to founding DecaWave, he worked for Motorola / Freescale in Texas and Toulouse, France for 23 years.

About Nestwave

Nestwave enables the proliferation of IoT geolocation by providing the smallest, most power efficient, lowest component count solutions. The companys combination of IP and cloud services eliminates the need for conventional GPS/GNSS chipsets and dramatically reduces power consumption. Because of this, Nestwave technologies minimize the bill of materials, extend the battery life and speed up the time-to-market of accurate indoor and outdoor positioning and tracking applications. Nestwave IP can be incorporated into existing DSP cores and connectivity chips without re-design, while cloud-assisted implementation leverages the computation power of the cloud and keeps power consumption to a minimum.

The unprecedented power and BoM savings realized by Nestwaves innovative technology significantly improve existing positioning and tracking applications. They also open the door to the integration of geolocation in applications where power and size limitations would previously have made this impossible. And by combining lower power consumption with the use of fewer components, Nestwave solutions contribute to environmental sustainability and reduced carbon footprints.

To learn more, please visit us at http://www.nestwave.com.

For press inquiries, contact:

Ambroise Popper

ambroise@nestwave.com

NW_003/A
Skilled Nursing News (SNN), an Aging Media publication, has published the results of its 2022 Skilled Nursing Outlook Survey, revealing that skilled nursing providers are optimistic about the industry in 2022, and they are successfully navigating the challenges and opportunities in the evolving skilled nursing landscape.

SNN conducted the survey among its readership to gain perspective on the sentiments of skilled nursing providers as they prepare for growth and adaptation in a post-pandemic world. The results show the views of 248 skilled nursing professionals in a variety of leadership roles and organizations, providing context and insight around the keys to recovery as the industry emerges from some of the most difficult circumstances to date.

By examining the industrys outlook on 2022, this survey unveiled the drivers of both optimism and fear with respect to occupancy recovery, staffing and investments in the year ahead.

In summary, respondents indicated:



Occupancy is expected to increase in 2022

Staffing continues to be the most critical pain point in skilled nursing

The 2022 skilled nursing M&A market is expected to be stagnant as provider conditions improve

The clinical and operational challenges of COVID-19 have pushed the skilled nursing industry to new levels of innovation, said Skilled Nursing News Editor Jordyn Reiland. The results from our annual outlook survey reveal some of the key areas of focus as providers make a push in occupancy recovery, staffing and growth.

The survey was conducted online between 11/15/2021, and 12/20/2021. Access the full survey results here.

About Aging Media Network and Skilled Nursing News:

Aging Media Network is an innovative publishing company based in Chicago, Illinois, and is the publisher of Senior Housing News, Home Health Care News, Skilled Nursing News, Hospice News, and Behavioral Health Business. Skilled Nursing News (SNN) is the leading source for news and information covering the skilled nursing industry.
With these new offerings, we are making it easier for any legal team to access and benefit from this technology.

Onna, the knowledge discovery leader, today announced a new Pay as You Go offering for its eDiscovery solution, creating a simplified online subscription experience that makes it quick and easy to get started with Onna eDiscovery.

Onna eDiscovery is trusted by some of the worlds leading corporations and service providers to rapidly identify, defensibly collect, review, preserve and export data for litigation, investigations and audits. Built on Onnas Knowledge Integration Platform, it connects out-of-the-box to todays remote work applications and centralizes eDiscovery with a self-service tool that enables users to search across all their information in one place, cull relevant data, and export only whats needed, cutting time and review costs.

With the new Pay as You Go service, users can collect, process and search across enterprise data from a range of applications, including Slack, Box, Dropbox, Google, Microsoft, Zendesk and Zoom. It is Onnas lowest-cost and scalable plan for organizations that need support for one-time discovery cases and can be set up with just a few clicks, getting users up and running with defensible eDiscovery in minutes.

In addition to Pay as You Go, Onna is also releasing a Free Trial, which provides 14-day access to Onna eDiscovery at no cost.

"Onna is committed to empowering legal teams and our partners with modern technology to address today's greatest eDiscovery challenge: pinpointing the information that matters most across the vast unstructured data created by todays collaboration, communication, and content apps. With these new offerings, we are making it easier for any legal team to access and benefit from this technology," said Jose Lazares, Chief Product Officer at Onna. "Ideal for legal service providers and small-to-medium-sized law firms or in-house legal teams requiring limited eDiscovery support, or for anyone who simply wants to understand how Onna can support their business needs, we want to give all legal teams the power to modernize their eDiscovery approach."

To learn more and get started with Pay as You Go or a Free Trial, visit here.

About Onna

Onna integrates knowledge from workplace applications, allowing organizations to unify, protect, search, automate, and build on top of their proprietary knowledge. With the rise of cloud-based and hosted workplace apps, knowledge is extremely fragmented and difficult to access in most organizations, costing businesses huge amounts of time and money in searching for their own information.

Onnas Knowledge Integration Platform connects to many of the most popular applications, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Dropbox, Salesforce, and many more. It supports eDiscovery, information governance, knowledge management, archiving, monitoring for private and sensitive data sharing, and building bespoke internal workflow apps using proprietary information.

With headquarters in New York City and Barcelona and teams in Raleigh, San Francisco, Toulouse, and London, Onna supports some of the worlds leading companies, including Dropbox, Electronic Arts, Fitbit, Lyft, and NewsCorp. Onna has raised more than $50M from investors, including Atomico, Dawn Capital, Dropbox, and Slack Fund. To learn more, visit http://www.onna.com.
Optronics will be moving its North American headquarters into a new 200,000-square-foot facility on a 17-acre campus. Fifty years is a milestone that few companies ever achieve.  Brett Johnson

Optronics International, a leading manufacturer of vehicle harnesses, electronic control systems and LED lighting for the global transportation industry, kicked off its 50th anniversary celebration today, with the announcement that it will be moving its North American headquarters into a new 200,000-square-foot facility on a 17-acre campus. Accompanying the announcement was the introduction of a new 50th anniversary logo and a newly revised corporate website. Details of the new facility, logo, website and other related developments will be presented to the industry at Optronics booth 5191 during NTEA Work Truck Week 2022, March 811, 2022.

Fifty years is a milestone that few companies ever achieve, said Brett Johnson, president and CEO of Optronics International. Im happy and proud to say that Optronics has enjoyed five decades of continuous growth throughout a myriad of economic cycles as well as the current pandemic with its related supply chain challenges.

Established in 1972, the company has thrived, but Johnson points to the most recent decade as Optronics most pivotal, noting that the company dramatically altered the competitive landscape in the commercial vehicle lighting and harness business, inexorably disrupting the status quo in the process. Our 2020 acquisition of USA Harness, alone, made Optronics one of only a few manufacturers capable of fully serving the light-, medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicle industry with both lighting and harness technologies, Johnson said. This is just the beginning of the sea change that is to come.

With 700 staff members worldwide, Optronics will ultimately consolidate its three current Oklahoma-based operations into the new Tulsa facility and will maintain its Goshen, Indiana, location and its USA Harness manufacturing plant in Winnsboro, Texas. The Tulsa campus will serve as the companys corporate headquarters, as well as a research and development lab, assembly plant and distribution hub, and will allow Optronics to immediately expand to accommodate rapid growth.

Optronics has also taken the occasion of its anniversary to highlight its updated web presence and the introduction of a revised Optronics USA Harness logo, which includes a representation of the companys signature Glo-Light lamp as a central feature. Through the remainder of 2022, the logo will also include a 50 years designation.

Were looking forward to first publicly celebrating our anniversary with staff, customers and industry contacts during Work Truck Week 2022, said Marcus Hester, chief marketing officer for Optronics International. Our interactive booth will feature our anniversary graphics, highlight lighting and harness displays and enable us to access interactive content.

Optronics website makes it easy for users to select and filter information on more than 3,000 of the industrys most advanced lighting and harness product offerings. The site also includes a 360-degree product-viewing feature that allows users to closely examine products from all angles while accessing technical and product data.

The website includes more than 500 recently added items, including Optronics Smoke Series lamps, new trilingual packaging, and a variety of multi-function lamps, DOT utility lamps and white LED lamp products. Optronics also has a number of unique new lighting solutions now under development.

All Optronics LED lamps come with Optronics industry-leading, no-hassle, one-diode lifetime warranty that will replace any lamp if even one diode fails. When Optronics LED lighting is purchased in conjunction with its patented USA Plus Harnessing, the entire system is protected by the no-hassle lifetime warranty.

Although we try to do it in every interaction, all of us at Optronics would like to offer our deepest and most sincere thanks to our customers, Johnson said. Not only have they made our first 50 years possible; they have made each of them a resounding success!

Optronics products are available in the U.S. and Canada through the companys extensive distribution network of more than 30,000 convenient distribution locations. Users can access individual Optronics distributor websites by simply clicking on their logo icons. For information on international sales and distribution of Optronics products, please contact Dorian Drake at +1 (914) 697-9800, or visit http://doriandrake.com.

To view images of Optronics new headquarters, to interact with its new website and to find details on its 50th anniversary, please visit

http://www.optronicsinc.com/RESOURCES/ImageGalleries/50_Years.aspx.

-END-

About Optronics

As the fastest-growing vehicle lighting and harness manufacturer in the U.S., Optronics International attributes its success to delivering better value, better options and better lighting to its customers. Founded in 1972, Optronics International is a premier worldwide manufacturer and supplier of branded industrial and commercial vehicular safety lighting products and premium, custom electrical wiring harnesses for commercial vehicle applications. The company specializes in electrical system and harness design and interior and exterior LED and incandescent lighting for heavy-duty on- and off-highway vehicles, armored couriers, light-to medium-duty trailers, specialized vocational equipment, transit vehicles, RVs and marine equipment. The companys patented USA-PLUS system provides the most advanced molded harness connections available in the market. The Optronics product catalog is among the most extensive in the industry. Optronics is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it has an IATF 16949-certified manufacturing facility in Annan District, Tainan, Taiwan. The company also has a plant in Winnsboro, Texas, and ISO 9001:2015-certified manufacturing and distribution facilities in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Goshen, Indiana. Learn more at http://www.optronicsinc.com.

Glo-Light, USA Harness and USA-PLUS are trademarks of Optronics International, LLC.
We hope this study works toward reenergizing the conversation in the U.S., said Sadia Corey, VP of Client Development at Savanta.

Savanta, the global intelligence business, today issued its new study titled, Black Lives Matter: Re-Energizing the Conversation, which found that more than half of Americans believe that racism is getting worse in the United States.

The study is an update of Savantas 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) report, which surveyed 1,500 employed Americans to see how the movement had impacted their experience in the workplace.

Going beyond the impact of the BLM movement on employees, this latest Savanta study investigates the lasting impact of the movement by tracking the changes in attitudes amongst all Americans one year on.

The George Floyd tragedy struck a chord with modern America, opening many eyes to the realities of police brutality and the often-unparalleled treatment of Black people through systematic racism. Despite highlighting an issue targeted solely at minorities, the BLM message was universal.

So how far have we come since the death of George Floyd? According to the new study, things have gotten worse.

Top Findings of Study:



Especially concerning for racism in America is that amongst American adults, over half (55%) say that racism towards Black people has gotten worse during the last year, with just under one in five (18%) saying that it has improved.

Even more disappointing is the striking difference in perception of how racism towards Black people has gotten worse between Black and White Americans. While two thirds of Black Americans (65%) say racism has gotten worse in the past year, just two in five White Americans (39%) have the same impression.

While a quarter of White Americans (25%) say that racism towards Black people has gotten better in the past year, just one in six Black Americans share this view (15%).

However, despite widespread acknowledgement that such divisions exist, a third of Americans overall (33%) and two in five White Americans (41%) say that claims of racism experienced by Black Americans are exaggerated.

Racism in the Workplace

As a shift erupted last year amongst Americans in the workforce, employees and employers alike took action to implement and transform the workplace in reaction to the BLM movement and the residual systemic problems that BIPOC consumers face at work.

However, are the effects of the BLM movement long lasting when it comes to the workplace? Here's what the updated study found:

A comparison of data from 2021 shows a dramatic shift of sentiment surrounding initiatives being done around diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In 2021, employed Americans (57%) agree that BLM is creating an improvement in the workplace, significantly higher than what we see from employees now (37%).

A similar difference arises when it comes to employee trust in their employer compared to last year, with employees (49%) agreeing that they trust their employer to make meaningful change, as opposed to the last wave which shows much more employee trust (57%).

Its Important for Brands to Speak Out

Many organizations were quick to show their support for the BLM movement in the summer of 2020. But do Americans, and Black Americans in particular, care if brands do or dont speak out? Heres what the updated study found:

Over two thirds of Americans (68%) say that it is important for brands to speak out about racism, rising to almost eight in ten Black Americans (78%).

Two fifths of Americans say that brands are doing a little to promote equality (41%). Almost a quarter feel that brands arent doing anything or much at all (21%).

Crucially the bigger problem appears to be that one in four Americans dont even know what brands are doing to promote equality.

We hope this study works toward reenergizing the conversation in the U.S., said Sadia Corey, VP of Client Development at Savanta. With the country divided on whether claims of racism are exaggerated or underplayed, there is, at least, a consensus that the responsibility to drive change lies with everyone.

Click here to download the full Black Lives Matter: Re-Energizing the Conversation report.

About Savanta

Savanta provides the intelligent products that underpin better decision-making. With five global offices and 400 staff, we bring the benefits of scale. But with us, its personal. Our specialist Practices with their deep expertice and nimble teams built around individual clients make the Savanta experience feel more like working with a smaller, boutique agency. Savanta offers clients a full range of intelligence services, including:



Bespoke research  tailored solutions built using specialists from Savantas Industry and Methodology Practices

Data collection and analysis  access to 100 million respondents through a proprietary technology platform

Intelligence products  including the BrandVue and MarketVue reputation tracking solutions

savanta.com.

LinkedIn: Savanta

Twitter: @savantagroup
The LFC biodigesters have enabled ships to reduce their carbon footprint through a natural process that complies with MARPOL regulations. Power Knot continue to offer premier service while researching new innovative solutions such as our fully organic Powerchips Green media for biodigesters.

Power Knot LLC, the market leader for onsite organic waste management solutions announced today that it has received multiple food digester orders for spare parts, services, and support from Carnival United Kingdom (CUK).

Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across ten different cruise line brands such as Costa Cruises, Seabourn, Princess Cruises, Holland America, and Cunard. In 2019, Carnival Corporation tested the LFC biodigester to improve environmental compliance and the disposal of food waste onboard its ships. After extensive third party testing, the LFC biodigester was fully certified and found to be in compliance with all regulations by the CUK legal team. Power Knot has continued to support and supply CUK ships, many of which have been completely outfitted with LFC biodigesters.

Power Knot is proud to offer service and support to nearly every major cruise ship line, said Iain Milnes, President at Power Knot. Our LFC biodigesters have enabled ships to reduce their carbon footprint through a natural process that complies with MARPOL regulations. We continue to offer premier service while researching new innovative solutions such as our fully organic Powerchips Green media for biodigesters.

Despite supply chain issues that have disrupted most high technology industries, Power Knot has remained profitable over the last eight years. Power Knot continues to service all its maritime customers with machines, spare parts, and support.

About the LFC biodigester

The LFC biodigester is a machine that digests food waste. These machines are usually installed in a commercial kitchen or galley and reduce the expense, inconvenience, mess, and carbon footprint of disposing of food waste that would otherwise be hauled to a landfill. Power Knot has eight different sizes that digest from 10 kg (20 lb) per day to 3000 kg (6600 lb) per day of food waste. With many hundreds of installations globally on land and on the ocean, the LFC biodigester has proven to be reliable, safe, and cost effective.

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.
In a new interview with CMRubinWorld, John Lang, who manages the Energy and Climate Intelligence Units NetZero Tracker, talks with C.M. Rubin (Founder of CMRubinWorld) about the worlds race to Net Zero. Lang specializes in communicating climate science and policy to the public.

The world needs to take emissions down from roughly 40 billion tonnes to zero in a matter of decades. Leaders have largely accepted the math of tackling climate change, states John Lang. Now we just need more countries to adopt robust, credible Net Zero targets that are genuine, not greenwash.

Examples that Lang cites in this new interview with C.M. Rubin are Sweden, which has set a target of Net Zero by 2045. It lists interim emission targets in its Climate Policy Framework: 63% lower by 2030 and 75% lower by 2040. These targets cover all greenhouse gasses, says Lang. In the past 3 decades, the UK grew its economy by 75% and still reduced emissions by 43%. This is largely to do with the country retiring coal-fired electricity, notes Lang, but he adds that policy has helped the UK. For example, the UK's Climate Change Act of 2008 set up a climate change commission to advise the government and required 5-year carbon budgets to be set 12 years in advance. Lang believes the UK still has a long way to go, but it's in a better position to deliver on its promises than other nations.

This month, the Protect our Planet Movement in association with Planet Classroom launched Net Zero, a new video and podcast series in which 24 youth climate activists from the Protect Our Planet (POP) Movement in association with Planet Classroom will ask international thought leaders working on the environment the big questions as to how their nations are progressing towards their 2050 Net Zero pledges.

Read the Interview here

About CMRubinWorld:

CMRubinWorlds award-winning series, The Global Search for Education, brings together distinguished thought leaders in education and innovation from around the world to explore the key learning issues faced by most nations. The series has become a highly visible platform for global discourse on 21st century learning, and offers a diverse range of innovative ideas presented by the series founder, C. M. Rubin, together with the worlds leading thinkers.

About Planet Classroom:

The Planet Classroom Network brings together musicians, dancers, video game creators, filmmakers, learning innovators, scientists, and emerging technologists from all over the world to entertain, educate and engage youth and to provide a rich cultural experience at a time when art and global learning institutions are less accessible. The Planet Classroom Network is by youth for youth.

For more information on CMRubinWorld

Follow @CMRubinWorld on Twitter

Contact Information:

David Wine

David(at)cmrubinworld(dot)com


Thank God for Roses: A Collection of Sweet Nothings: a hopeful collection of poetic works with an encouraging tone. Thank God for Roses: A Collection of Sweet Nothings is the creation of published author Rosemary Eady-West, PhD, an accomplished scholar, educator, and military service member.

Eady-West, PhD shares, Thank God for Roses: A Collection of Sweet Nothings is a message of love and joy. It is also an expression of pain and sorrow for the loss of loved ones. This body of work is inspired by the authors faith in Christ, love for family, and appreciation for the sweet nothings of life.

In addition to being her namesake, the author views the rose as one of Gods perfect gifts of love to us. While the splendor of a single rose may be overlooked, when collected into a bouquet, they become more widely adored or appreciated. As a gift of inspiration and comfort, the author offers each poem in this collection as a rose to her readers. She encourages her readers to be strong in faith, despite the trials of life, and to be reminded of Gods lovenot only did He give us his only begotten Son, but He also gave us the rose.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Rosemary Eady-West, PhDs new book encourages readers to explore their faith, emotions, and personal connection to God.

Eady-West offers a uniquely balanced arrangement that will provide comfort and inspiration.

Consumers can purchase Thank God for Roses: A Collection of Sweet Nothings at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Thank God for Roses: A Collection of Sweet Nothings, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
We discovered that myeloma cells show differences on a single-cell level in a single patient, both in different areas of the bone marrow and over time.

In 1873, Russian doctor J. von Rusitzky coined the term multiple myeloma after finding eight different types of bone marrow tumors in a single patient. Nearly 150 years later, using advanced cell sequencing technology and state-of-the-art imaging techniques, researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center have provided a molecular and biological explanation for this finding, discovering that different myeloma clones can be present in a single patient and linking these distinct genetic changes in myeloma cells to the development of myeloma bone disease.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cell, a type of white blood cell present in the bone marrow that makes antibodies to fight infection. In patients with myeloma, plasma cells proliferate too rapidly, crowding out healthy cells and causing painful areas of bone damage called osteolytic lesions. However, why cancerous cells in patients with multiple myeloma cause debilitating bone disease in some areas of the body while leaving other areas unaffected has been largely unknown for many years.

In the first prospective clinical trial of its kind, a multidisciplinary team of collaborators including Jens Hillengass, MD, PhD, Chief of Myeloma, and Philip McCarthy, MD [Philip McCarthy, MD __title__ https://www.roswellpark.org/philip-mccarthy , Director Emeritus of Transplant & Cellular Therapy at Roswell Park, revealed vast spatial heterogeneity in patients with relapsed/refractory or newly diagnosed multiple myeloma through a combination of single-cell RNA sequencing and image-guided biopsies of myeloma bone lesions. The study, published Feb. 10 in Nature Communications, links the accumulation of malignant, disease-causing plasma cells to the development of myeloma bone disease, providing answers to long-standing questions about multiple myeloma that could change the way the disease is diagnosed and treated.

Our multidisciplinary approach revealed important information about the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of multiple myeloma, notes Dr. Hillengass, the studys senior author. We discovered that myeloma cells show differences on a single-cell level in a single patient, both in different areas of the bone marrow and over time.

To confirm the diagnosis of multiple myeloma, a cancer specialist typically obtains a bone marrow biopsy from the iliac crest (hip bone), without the guidance of imaging techniques. For this prospective clinical trial, Roswell Park specialists used state-of-the-art whole-body imaging (PET/CT) to not only biopsy the iliac crest but also identify and biopsy myeloma bone lesions in 10 patients with symptomatic multiple myeloma (7 with newly diagnosed cancer and 3 with relapsed/refractory disease).

Next, researchers from the departments of Medicine, Immunology, Diagnostic Radiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Flow and Image Cytometry, Clinical Cytogenetics and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Roswell Park, in collaboration with scientists from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, analyzed hundreds of thousands of the myeloma cells obtained during image-guided biopsies using single-cell RNA sequencing, a laboratory technique that can identify treatment-resistant clones and subpopulations responsible for metastatic spread.

The analysis revealed that myeloma cells from different locations in the same patient are genetically different, especially in patients with relapsed disease. The researchers identified subclusters of malignant myeloma cells that overexpressed genes associated with proliferation and oxidative phosphorylation, two hallmarks of cancer associated with poorer outcomes, confirming the prognostic value of this technique.

When the team repeated their analyses of individual malignant plasma cells after the patients completed myeloma therapy, they discovered genetic changes in the malignant plasma cells that remained after therapy  changes likely associated with treatment resistance  showing that single-cell sequencing can be used to not only identify and characterize residual disease but also identify new strategies to eradicate treatment resistance in the future.

In addition to genes that have previously been associated with myeloma, the investigators identified a new gene, LAMP5, that is overexpressed in bone lesions and most likely contributes to disease progression. Because sampling myeloma cells only from the iliac crest does not give a complete picture of the disease, the authors note, acquiring additional information from imaging to identify treatment-resistant clones could become standard practice, especially when designing targeted, personalized therapies.

Our work underlines the importance of whole-body imaging in the diagnosis and treatment of myeloma, considering the strong evidence that different myeloma clones are present in a single patient, says the studys first author, Maximillian Merz, MD, who led the work while he was a Roswell Park faculty member and continues to be a frequent collaborator with Roswell Parks myeloma team. If we want to cure myeloma, then we need to include whole-body imaging in routine follow-up, because without modern imaging techniques like PET and CT, doctors might underestimate the true extent of the disease.

The teams findings enhance the current understanding of multiple myeloma, with implications for the treatment and monitoring of patients with both newly diagnosed and relapsed disease. They highlight the possibility to personalize treatment based on the distinct genetic makeup of myelomas in each patient, both at initial diagnosis and over time.

This research was supported by grants from German Cancer Aid, Celgene Corp. and the Black Swan Research Initiative of the International Myeloma Foundation. This work also relied on Genomics, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics and Flow & Image Cytometry resources supported by Roswell Parks Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute (award P30CA16056).

An online version of this release is available on our Newsroom

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a community united by the drive to eliminate cancers grip on humanity by unlocking its secrets through personalized approaches and unleashing the healing power of hope. Founded by Dr. Roswell Park in 1898, it is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. Learn more at http://www.roswellpark.org, or contact us at 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or ASKRoswell@RoswellPark.org.
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 consultants in the United States.

SEOblog analysts determined the 15 best SEO consultants 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 consultants who contribute to a very competitive digital marketing landscape.

"The SEO industry is unique in that it truly rewards value, said Danny Star, CEO and founder of Website Depot. The more value you can provide to users, the more likely you are to succeed at SEO."

SEOblog.coms 15 Best SEO Consultants in the United States in 2022:

Infintech Designs, TopSpot Internet Marketing, Image Management, CS Design Studios, EWR Digital, Dot Com Media, Get The Clicks, Website Depot Inc., South Street & Co., NITRO PLUG Digital Marketing, Funnel Boost Media, Visualwebz LLC, AGI Marketing, Social Firm and The Ad Firm.

Link: https://www.seoblog.com/best-seo-consultants/

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  https://www.seoblog.com/best-seo-companies/.

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.
ServiceCore, a provider of cloud-based business management software purpose-built for the liquid waste and roll-off industries, announced today a $54 million investment from Mainsail Partners, a growth equity firm focused on investments in fast-growing, software companies. The capital will be used to buy out Full In Partners, the original investor in ServiceCore, and put money on the balance sheet to scale the company.

ServiceCore was founded in 2015 and built an all-in-one platform to help customers in the liquid waste and roll-off industry get their jobs done, get paid, and provide better service to their customers. The software is built to manage work orders, dispatch, billing, payments, and inventory for portables, septic, and roll-off businesses. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate ServiceCores product roadmap, expand its customer success team, and continue to support its growing customer base.

ServiceCore has always been ambitious, said Jonah Chilton, CEO of ServiceCore. We are a customer-first organization that obsesses about making our customers lives easier and their businesses more profitable. We want to help move our industry forward by bringing capital and innovation. By partnering with Mainsail, we believe we now have the financial and operational means to accelerate our product roadmap and enhance the platform to better serve our customers.

ServiceCore is an all-in-one solution designed to significantly improve processes, save time and reduce costs with features like advanced route optimization, automated batch billing, online customer payments, inventory availability forecasting, and a mobile driver application. Employees ranging from customer service representatives, dispatchers, drivers, accounting staff and executives rely on ServiceCore daily to manage their operations. ServiceCore also services roll-off companies that provide dumpster rentals at construction sites and waste collection services.

We are proud to partner with the team at ServiceCore which is serving the needs of a historically underserved market, said Jason Frankel, Partner at Mainsail. ServiceCore is helping liquid waste business owners and field workers more effectively run their companies, manage their fleets and inventory, and deliver even greater value to their customers.

Mainsail Partners Jason Frankel and Vinay Kashyap will join the board of directors at ServiceCore.

About ServiceCore

ServiceCore is an easy-to-use software built specifically for your liquid waste and roll-off business that will help you get your jobs done, get paid, and provide better service to your customers. ServiceCore is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, USA. Visit http://www.servicecore.com for additional information.

About Mainsail Partners

Mainsail Partners is a growth equity firm with offices in San Francisco and Austin that invests in fast-growing, bootstrapped software companies. The firm has raised over $1.3 billion and invested in more than 50 growing companies since 2003. Mainsail prioritizes investments in B2B software companies with compelling business models in growing markets. The firms approach to driving value creation is anchored in a dedicated Operations Team that is purpose-built to help founders scale their businesses and accelerate growth. These women and men include former software company operators who leverage real-world experience, well-established best practices, and a true partnership ethos to support management teams. For more information, visit mainsailpartners.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn.
"I'm extremely proud of and grateful to all of our employees, client partners, and investors who have helped get SheerID to this point. We have a number of exciting product capabilities to unveil in 2022, said Jake Weatherly, Chief Executive Officer of SheerID.

SheerID, the identity marketing platform used by hundreds of leading brands around the world, announced that it has verified consumers for more than 250 million exclusive marketing offers worldwide. Also this year, the company hired its 200th employee and was recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in North America by Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 for the third consecutive year.

These milestones coincide with the company's 10-year anniversary in the personalization industry that was recently estimated to be worth $1 trillion according to a recent McKinsey report. Working with more than 250 B2C brands - such as Amazon, Comcast, HomeDepot, NASCAR, Target, and YouTube  SheerID helps them create gated, personalized offers to instantly verify a consumers eligibility with authoritative data in the brands existing purchase experience.

"I'm extremely proud of and grateful to all of our employees, client partners, and investors who have helped get SheerID to this point. In many ways, this is just the beginning, as we have a number of exciting product capabilities to unveil in 2022, said Jake Weatherly, Chief Executive Officer of SheerID. Looking ahead, there are massive data challenges digital marketers need to overcome due to the loss of 3rd party cookies and changing consumer attitudes. SheerID will continue to lead the way in providing the gold standard in verified opt-in data marketers use to create winning campaigns that build consumer trust.

The SheerID journey:

2012: SheerID incorporates and signs first deal with Amazon

2013: New clients added include Tableau, Student Universe, and the PGA Tour who are still clients today.

2014: Opened office in Portland, Oregon.

2015: Awarded first SOC Compliance Certification.

2016: Named to Outside magazine 100 Best Places to Work in the US ranking

2017: Launched international student verification across 40 countries

2018: South American marketplace launches

2019: Launches Identity Marketing platform with access to 9000 authoritative data sources to verify 2.5 billion consumers worldwide.

2020: Launched Healthcare community for Nurses and Doctors pre-pandemic

2021: Allows Brands to verify 100s of consumer communities based on their profession. Opened office in London and named to Deloittes Technology Fast 500 for the third consecutive year.

Founded in 2011 as a concept at the Oregon Technology Business Center and incorporated in 2012, SheerID has provided marketers a fresh approach where they can create an exchange by giving gated, personalized offers. The data marketers gather directly from consumers allows them to understand them more deeply, including such areas as aspects of their identity, their life stage, and their professions.

About SheerID

SheerID is a leader in identity marketing. With SheerID, brands identify and acquire consumer communities  such as the military, students, teachers, first responders, and more  with personalized offers, gated by instant verification from the largest set of authoritative data worldwide. SheerID verifies zero-party data from over 2.5 billion people via 9,000 authoritative data sources; provides global insights from hundreds of the worlds leading brands, and never shares or sells customer data. As a result, the worlds biggest brands  including Amazon, Home Depot, Spotify, and T-Mobile  rely on SheerID as their identity marketing partner. Founded in 2011, SheerID is backed by Arnold Venture Group, Brighton Park Capital, Centana Growth Partners, CVC Growth Partners, and Voyager Capital. For more information, please visit SheerID or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Contact:

Matt Tatham

SheerID, Head of Public Relations

PR@sheerid.com
"ShelterBox Adventurers are people who make charitable giving part of their daily routine, combining their personal passions with their desire to make an impact, said Kerri Murray, President of ShelterBox USA.

ShelterBox USA, a global disaster relief organization, launched a campaign to support adventure seekers taking on life-changing challenges to help the worlds most vulnerable who have been forced from their homes.

ShelterBox Adventurers are ordinary people taking on extraordinary challenges. They raise awareness and funding for ShelterBoxs mission to provide shelter and living essentials to families around the world displaced by disaster or conflict.

At ShelterBox, we have been overwhelmed by the extraordinary acts of giving by ordinary people, volunteers around the world who are making a profound difference in -- and in some cases saving -- other peoples lives. ShelterBox Adventurers are people who make charitable giving part of their daily routine, combining their personal passions with their desire to make an impact, said Kerri Murray, President of ShelterBox USA. Even during this global pandemic, people are doing awe-inspiring activities that are transforming lives for the most vulnerable people in our world. It is truly inspiring.

Since its founding in 2000, the U.K.-based ShelterBox has provided shelter and other living essentials to more than 2 million people around the world in disaster areas and conflict zones. It has responded to more than 300 disasters and deployed to 100 countries.

The Adventurers program began and grew organically, fueled by ShelterBoxs tenacious volunteers who, like ShelterBox, go the extra mile for those in need. This year, ShelterBox has developed a program to support their efforts, including with ShelterBox gear, media outreach and training, as well as support for their fundraising goals.

Brittney Woodrum of Leadville, Colo., conceived her project during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I felt this helplessness when I saw this growing need around the world that no one was really talking about, she said. Individuals that were displaced were much more vulnerable to COVID-19. I thought there must be something I could do to raise awareness and make a global impact.

Woodrum would go on to summit all 58 of Colorados 14,000-foot peaks with a ShelterBox strapped to her back.

I wanted to be out there supporting a cause, Woodrum said. Having that extra reason to be out there  that greater cause behind me  is what kept me out there every day.

All types of adventurers are welcome and encouraged to sign up  from runners, to cyclists, to rowers, mountaineers and climbers. Unlike other nonprofit fundraisers, ShelterBox adventurers set their own objectives; ShelterBox stands ready to help.

Previous ShelterBox Adventurers have included:



Jesse Pine of Denver, Colo., who cycled more than 3,700 miles from California to Alaska.

Erik Elsea of Cape Coral, Fla., who paddled the entire Mississippi River with a ShelterBox in his canoe.

Jasmine Harrison, of North Yorkshire, UK, who, at 21 years old, became the youngest woman to row solo the Atlantic Ocean.

Think you have what it takes? For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.shelterboxusa.org/adventurers

Notes to editors:



Please see our YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Y_GaJ2REc

Kerri and Brittney are available for interviews.

Images of previous expeditions and ShelterBoxs work around the world are available.

About ShelterBox

ShelterBox provides emergency shelter and other essential items to families who have lost their homes to disasters or conflict. In April 2021, ShelterBox surpassed providing support to two million people since 2000, responding to more than 300 disasters in nearly 100 countries. ShelterBox responds urgently to earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, cyclones, tsunamis, or conflict by delivering boxes of essential shelter, aid, and other life-saving supplies. Each iconic green ShelterBox contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, blankets, a water filtration system, emergency lighting, and other tools for survival. The organization was nominated for a distinguished Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 and 2019. ShelterBox USA is based in Santa Barbara, California.
Power is often thought of as ubiquitous until you find out its not. We enable successful projects by delivering reliable power solutions where they are needed, states Robert Reynolds, President at Solis Energy.

Solis Energy Inc., a leading manufacturer of hardened outdoor power systems, today announced that its Continuous Power Bridge was selected by the University of Mississippi to provide continuous power to traffic monitoring devices in parts of the campus with poor power availability. The university, which encompasses over 2,500 acres and served more than 18,000 students in the 2020-2021 academic year, is expanding its ability to monitor roadways and parking lots to ensure student safety. This helps make sure that small traffic and parking violations are caught before they can spiral into campus-wide gridlock. Solis Energys Continuous Power Bridges (CPB) were selected to provide continuous power to a smart security system monitoring ingress and egress at the campuss five main entrance points.

One of the universitys primary challenges during the design of its smart traffic monitoring system was a lack of power at the campuss entranceways during daylight hours. The streetlights in the area had power that could be tapped, but they were connected to photocell-governed outlets in nearby buildings that cut all power to the poles during the day when the lights are off. This created a significant issue as the systems primary function was to monitor campus traffic, most of which occurs during the daytime.

Solis Energys Continuous Power Bridge ended up being the perfect solution to the power problem. The CPB taps into the streetlights power and uses an integrated charge controller to power the load and recharge the CPBs battery bank. When power isnt available, the CPB uses its batteries to keep the load online until power is available again. The university has several Continuous Power Bridges running Motorola Solutions Avigilon H4 License Plate Capture (LPC) and H4 Multisensor cameras at key entry points on the edge of campus.

I was extremely excited to discover this backup power solution for security cameras installed on light poles in potentially vulnerable areas, states Kathy Tidwell, Director of Contractual Services & University Licensing at the University of Mississippi. The solution was implemented at the university as part of a larger project over the course of three years and has proven to be a tremendous success.

The CPB offered by Solis is an ideal power provider for video security cameras installed at schools, university campuses, office buildings, malls, hospital parking lots, and other large sites, as its designed to keep power flowing to devices during intermittent and planned outages.

The Solis CPB helped bridge the gap between day and night by powering video security cameras in the daytime for the university. The CPB coupled with Motorola Solutions Avigilon security cameras has served as a powerful solution to help alert the University Police Department of unauthorized vehicles pulling up to the campus day or night, which has mitigated risks and created a safer environment for all.

In addition to schools, Solis Energys rugged and reliable products are a critical part of the security and surveillance infrastructures for parking facilities, airports, power plants, port and border security, and many other vertical markets Power is often thought of as ubiquitous until you find out its not. We enable successful projects by delivering reliable power solutions where they are needed, states Robert Reynolds, President at Solis Energy.

For further information on Solis Energys continuous outdoor power solutions, visit http://www.solisenergy.com or call 407-339-6786.

About Solis Energy Inc.

Orlando-based Solis Energy is a privately-held manufacturer of outdoor power products, including Solar Generators, Battery Backup Systems and Power Conversion components. Solis Energys products offer the most reliable, rugged, flexible, and cost-effective outdoor powering solutions available on the market today. Established in 2005, and with thousands of systems installed, the companys products power vital applications and devices for public utilities, state/local/municipal government, airports, telecommunications companies, and corporate enterprises. Solis Energys products are much more than a competitive edge. Find out why they are a competitive necessity. Visit http://www.solisenergy.com.

Company Contact:

Robert Reynolds

Phone: 407-339-6786

Email: robert@solisenergy.com
Sonni Choi Williams announces candidacy for 3rd District Appellate Judge The people of Illinois need Sonni Choi Williams on our Appellate court. She brings with her vast legal experience, humility, empathy, and a lifetime of public service.

Will County attorney Sonni Choi Williams is pleased to announce her candidacy for 3rd District Appellate Judge. Ms. Williams is a well-regarded attorney who provides exceptional legal services and devotes significant energy to enriching the legal profession. She will bring her decades of broad legal experience to the 3rd District Appellate Court which now covers the counties of Bureau, DuPage, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, LaSalle, and Will.

Sonni Choi Williams has been practicing law for 23 years in the state of Illinois. Since 2017, Sonni Williams has served the City of Lockport as its City Attorney. She has also represented clients in complex civil tort cases at both the state and federal levels. As an attorney, she has argued cases before the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Illinois Supreme Court, and the 3rd District Appellate Court.

Previously, Ms. Williams served the city of Peoria as the Deputy Corporation Counsel, Interim Corporation Counsel, Senior Staff Attorney, and Assistant Corporation Counsel. Prior to that, she worked as an Assistant Public Defender in the juvenile delinquency division for Tazewell County Public Defenders Office.

She was recently elected as the 3rd Vice President of the state-wide premier legal association, Illinois State Bar Association, becoming the first woman lawyer of color to be elected to that office in its 145-year history. Ms. Williams also serves as a board member for several associations, including the Illinois Bar Foundation, the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago, and the Korean-American Bar Association of Chicago.

Williams hard work, integrity, and diligence have earned her several awards. Most recently, she received the Alumna of the Year award from her alma mater, Northern Illinois University College of Law. She has received the Illinois State Bar Association Diversity Leadership Award on multiple occasions. The ISBA also awarded Attorney Williams with the Board of Governors Award. Additionally, in 2008, she received the Annual Achievement Award from the Illinois Local Government Lawyers Association.

Sonni Choi Williams historic win to the appellate court bench will strengthen the confidence of a fair and just judicial system that is reflective of the community that it serves. Sonni lives in Lockport with her husband. They have been married for 25 years and have two adult children.

"The people of Illinois need Sonni Choi Williams on our Appellate court. She brings with her vast legal experience, humility, empathy, and a lifetime of public service. In this richly diverse area of the state, the newly drawn 3rd Appellate District gives the people the opportunity to elect its first Asian American woman, said State Representative Natalie A. Manley of the 98th District, who is endorsing Williams.

Sonni Choi Williams' growing list of endorsements includes:

State Senator Meg Loughran Cappel, 49th District

State Representative Dagmara "Dee" Avelar, 85th District

Denise Winfrey, Will County Board Member, National Association of Counties' First Vice President, and past Speaker of the Will County Board

Michelle Stiff, Vice-Chair of the Will County Democratic Party, Chair of the Will County Democratic Black Caucus, Vice-Chair of Joliet Township High School Dist. 204

Lorraine Guerrero Neumayer, Secretary of the Will County Democratic Party and Joliet Township High School Dist. 204

Ken Harris, DuPage Township Assessor and Treasurer of the Will County Democratic Party

Sonya Jenkins-Bell, Trustee of Village of University Park and Second Vice-Chair of the Will County Democratic Party

Ken Griffin, Trustee of the Village of Romeoville and Chair of the Lockport Township Democratic Organization

Ken Mejia-Beal, Chair of the Democratic Party of DuPage County

Arian Ahmadpour, Auditor for Will County Democratic Central Committee and Treasurer & Finance Chair for Will County Young Democrats

Homer Township Democratic Organization

Julia Kennedy Beckman, Illinois Democratic Party Central Committeeperson (11th Congressional Dist.)

Please send all press inquiries to Contact@Vote4Sonni.com.

For more information related to Sonni Choi Williams campaign, please visit https://www.vote4sonni.com/.
Sparrows high-touch, high-tech experience manages each employee leave end-to-end, solving this longstanding difficulty in Human Resources,

Sparrow, a pioneer in Employee Care Management (ECM), today announced the company has announced their Series A and $20 million in funding.

Sparrow enables companies to easily manage employee leave reducing compliance risks and better-supporting employee wellness. The infusion of capital will support the acceleration of the companys sales, marketing, and product development activities in North America. Sparrow is scaling their team of industry leaders and hiring for several key positions in engineering, product, operations, sales, and marketing.

The Series A was led by WndrCo, the investment company headed by Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks and former chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. Authentic Ventures and South Park Commons also participated in the round.

A 2021 Gallup poll found that of the 67% of knowledge workers working remotely, 90% of them want to continue working remotely to some degree, and since 2019, five states have added some form of state-sponsored paid leave. Together this has made keeping up with the changing regulatory landscape for employee leave excruciating for Human Resources teams.

Its shocking that in 2022, managing employee leave is a nightmare for companies and for employees, said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founding Partner at WndrCo. Sparrows revolutionary offering solves this problem, delights employees, and saves companies money in the process.

Critical events in an employees life, such as welcoming a child, caring for a loved one, bereavement, or disability, provide employers a unique opportunity to care for their people when they need it most. But regulatory complexity makes providing that support extremely difficult. This causes companies to inadvertently undermine one of the most impactful ways they can support employee wellness, said Deborah Hanus, Cofounder and CEO at Sparrow. Sparrows high-touch, high-tech experience manages each employee leave end-to-end, solving this longstanding difficulty in Human Resources.

Sparrows leadership team is made up of industry leaders with decades of experience at fast-growing companies like TriNet and Google, said Jeffrey Katzenberg Theyve already built an efficient double bottom-line business leading the market in tech-enabled employee leave management.

Among other benefits, Sparrow helps employers reduce their risks of non-compliance, reduces program management costs, and provides a tangible benefit to bolster employee retention. Employees, meanwhile, get a stress-free and transparent process that ensures they maximize every aspect of their employee leave benefits.

Leave compliance is complicated. Using Sparrow is not. Integrating Sparrow took 30 minutes, it was simple and easy to use, and it saves us more than $100,000 each year, said Waseem Daher, CEO at Pilot. Working with Sparrow allows us to support our team members who take leave no matter where theyre located, saving us hundreds of hours each year.

About WndrCo.

WndrCo invests in, acquires, develops and operates a variety of technology businesses for the long term. Founded by media and technology veterans Ann Daly, Sujay Jaswa, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, WndrCo is co-headquartered in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Learn more at http://www.wndrco.com.

About Sparrow

Sparrow makes it easy for employers to care for their people with the only true end-to-end leave management solution where technology is coupled with a world-class leave specialist team. Sparrow enables employers to reduce compliance risks, enhance the employee experience, and increase operational efficiency. Learn more at trysparrow.com.
Retrospect, a StorCentric company, today announced the general availability (GA) of Retrospect Backup 18.5, featuring new anomaly detection, customizable filtering and thresholds, and enhanced ransomware protection to help businesses quickly detect and protect against malicious attacks. With deeper Microsoft Azure Blob integration for Immutable Backups and integrated cloud bucket creation, Retrospect Backup 18.5s anomaly detection and ransomware protect bolsters StorCentric's data-centric security approach to organizations critical infrastructure.

Ransomware is a huge global threat to businesses around the world. Beyond the high-profile attacks, including Colonial Pipeline, JBS, Garmin, and Acer, many people now personally know a colleague whose business was attacked. According to Coveware, most corporate targets are small and medium businesses. 72% of targeted businesses have fewer than 1,000 employees, and 37% have fewer than 100. Businesses are projected to have paid out $20B in 2021, a 100% Y-o-Y increase for the last four years, and it's only going to get worse with new business models like RaaS: ransomware-as-a-service. With Retrospect Backup 18, businesses can protect their infrastructure with immutable backups for ransomware protection.

Beyond protection, organizations need to detect ransomware as early as possible to stop the threat and remediate those resources. Retrospect Backup 18.5 includes anomaly detection to identify changes in an environment that warrants the attention of IT. Administrators can tailor anomaly detection to their business's specific systems using customizable filtering and thresholds for each of their backup policies, and those anomalies are aggregated on Retrospect Management Console across the entire business's Retrospect Backup instances or a partner's client base with a notification area for responding to those anomalies.

"As ransomware continues to grow in prevalence, businesses can leverage Retrospect's new anomaly detection to quickly identify when ransomware has infected their infrastructure and rely on their immutable backups to restore any lost data," said JG Heithcock, General Manager, Retrospect, a StorCentric Company. "Anomaly detection is integrated into Retrospect's policy-based workflow and with our hosted service, Retrospect Management Console, to ensure customers and partners are notified about anomalies as soon as they happen."

Included in Retrospect Backup 18.5



Anomaly Detection: Detect anomalies in systems based on customizable filters and thresholds tailored to individual environments.

Retrospect Management Console Integration: View anomalies across a business or partner's entire client base in a single pane of glass.

Improved Microsoft Azure Blob Integration: Set individual immutable retention policies for different backup sets within the same Azure Storage Container.

Streamlined Immutable Backup User Experience: Automatically create cloud buckets with immutable backups supported by default.

LTO-9 Support: Includes support for LTO-9, with capacities up to 18TB (45TB compressed).

Channel Partner Validation

Ransomware comes up so frequently now that companies need tools like anomaly detection and immutable backups to detect and defend their core data from threats, and enabling IT admins to adjust the filtering and alert thresholds helps companies tailor the detection algorithm to their needs, said Reuben Herfindahl, Owner of Digital Brigade.

Retrospect's new anomaly detection can help businesses proactively identify threats as soon as their backup runs. With Retrospect's immutable backups, they know they can restore their backups if ransomware has infiltrated their network, said Terry Noonan, License My Software LLC.

Pricing and Free 30-Day Trial

Retrospect Backup 18.5 is a free upgrade to Retrospect Backup 18, the award-winning ransomware protection solution. For Retrospect Backup pricing details, please visit: https://www.retrospect.com/store. To request a free 30-day trial, please visit: https://www.retrospect.com/store/trial.

Tweet this: @RetrospectInc, a @StorCentric Company, Premiers Retrospect #Backup v18 and Virtual 2021- Featuring New #Ransomware Protection and #Security Enhancements https://www.retrospect.com/wn/press #Faster #Easier #LessExpensive #Safer #Microsoft #Azure #AmazonS3 #GoogleCloud #Storage

About Retrospect

Protecting 100 Petabytes in over 500,000 homes and businesses in over 100 countries, Retrospect provides reliable backup and recovery tools for professionals and small- to- midsize businesses with Retrospect Backup and Retrospect Virtual, covering physical servers and endpoints, virtual environments, and business applications. With three decades of field- tested expertise, Retrospect meets the needs of organizations that require the highest level of recoverability. Retrospect is a proud member of the StorCentric family of brands. For further information, please visit: http://www.retrospect.com.

About StorCentric

StorCentric provides world-class and award-winning storage solutions. Between its Drobo, Nexsan, Retrospect and Vexata divisions, the company has shipped over 1M storage solutions and has won over 100 awards for technology innovation and service excellence. StorCentric innovation is centered around customers and their specific data requirements, and delivers quality solutions with unprecedented flexibility, data protection, performance and expandability. For further information, please visit: http://www.storcentric.com.

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Mark Shilling, CEO of SUSTO MEZCAL Mark is the right leader for SUSTO MEZCAL as we continue to vigorously grow our market share. His extensive management and operations experience and track record of growing small spirits brands will help SUSTO strengthen distribution partnerships and position our company for strategic growth.

SUSTO MEZCAL, a super-premium hand-crafted mezcal based jointly in Austin, Texas, and Oaxaca, Mexico has filled two key leadership positions with the appointment of Mark Shilling as Chief Executive Officer, and Fabiola Lozano as Texas Market Manager. The significant hires will help the company build on its successes of the last two years, spurred by the tremendous growth in 2021 of more than 40%. SUSTO Mezcal is poised to expand its brand presence throughout the U.S. Founding partners Liz Stewart, Titi Rodriguez, and Ingrid Taylor will continue their active roles both in Texas and Oaxaca. Mr. Shillings and Ms. Lozanos employment with SUSTO MEZCAL will commence immediately.

As CEO, Shilling will lead business strategy, financial management, and operations for SUSTO MEZCAL. He is responsible for expanding U.S. sales and overseeing production logistics in Oaxaca. Shilling brings extensive beverage alcohol industry experience to the company. In his role as a partner in Big Thirst Consulting, he provided integrated business services for established and start-up distilleries to improve operations from production and marketing to sales and distribution. Previously he founded Revolution Spirits, an Austin area distillery in 2013.

Shilling is well known in the industry for his work supporting craft spirits producers. In 2016, Shilling was elected to the board of the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA), serving as president from 2017-2018. He currently leads the organizations government affairs committee, focusing on the federal excise tax, tariffs, trade practices, and other industry concerns. He was recently recognized for his service to the industry with the ACSAs inaugural Gable Erenzo Spirit of Community award.

Mark is the right leader for SUSTO MEZCAL as we continue to vigorously grow our market share, said Ingrid Taylor, managing partner of U.S. operations. His extensive management and operations experience and track record of growing small spirits brands will help SUSTO strengthen distribution partnerships and position our company for strategic growth. We believe his strong leadership experience will help focus our efforts as we increase production in Oaxaca, expand our distribution to new markets, and optimize our e-commerce sales.

I am excited to join the SUSTO MEZCAL team, said Mark Shilling. SUSTO has achieved several important milestones over the past year. With such sustained demand over the last 18 months, we are poised for continued expansion. We have a great business model and an outstanding team that uniquely positions us to capitalize in the growing mezcal market. My focus is to bring spirits industry best-practices to improve efficiencies and make it easier for consumers to try and buy our award-winning mezcal.

To assist in managing this explosive growth, SUSTO has hired Fabiola Lozano as Texas Market Manager. She brings passion, energy, and spirits industry experience to her role in managing the brand throughout Texas. Prior to joining SUSTO MEZCAL, Lozano successfully managed over 60 accounts in the on-premise spirits market with Republic National Distributing Company where she was recognized numerous times as a Top Seller. A native of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Lozano is a graduate of the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley and will work out of San Antonio.

According to market research firm Technavio, the mezcal market in the United States has reached $100M in sales and is expected to grow to $315M by 2023. Recognized for its outstanding quality, SUSTO MEZCAL is outpacing other mezcal brands in this growing market to be one of the top brands in volume sales carried by Republic National Distributing Company in Texas.

Compadres Importing LLC, which owns the SUSTO Mezcal brand, manages the entire chain of production in Mexicofrom harvesting to distillation and bottling. The company also owns the coveted Norma Official Mexicana (NOM) certification for making mezcal, which distinguishes SUSTO MEZCAL from many other mezcal brands that simply buy and bottle spirit made by others. SUSTO MEZCAL is crafted in San Dionisio Ocotepec, Oaxaca by mezcalero, Crispin Perez.

ABOUT SUSTO MEZCAL

SUSTO MEZCAL, awarded the coveted Double Gold by the New York Wine and Spirits Competition, is produced, and imported by Compadres Importing, LLC, an Austin-Oaxaca-based, designated Women Enterprise Business. Launched in Austin, Texas, in 2018, SUSTO MEZCAL is a super-premium mezcal made with 100 percent Agave Espadin Joven and is hand-crafted, bottled, and labeled in Oaxaca, Mexico. Derived from Mexican folklore, "susto" means fear or fright after significant events such as loss, accidents, or natural disasters. It is believed such events can cause the separation of body and soul, which can be cured by curanderos, faith healers or shamans, and a good, solid sip of mezcal. Smoky and smooth, SUSTO MEZCAL invites those who enjoy it to fear nothing but the absence of taste. A portion of SUSTO MEZCAL's sales is donated to the Oaxacan Community Foundation to fund educational scholarships for Oaxacan middle school students. For more information about SUSTO MEZCAL, please visit sustomezcal.com or follow the brand on social media @sustomezcal.
Troy will be a valued asset for our agents and our clients as we all work towards the same goal of elevating the experience of buying and selling real estate with a personalized touch and first-class service, said President of The Agency, Rainy Hake Austin.

Global real estate brokerage The Agency is pleased to appoint leading industry executive Troy Charoensak as Director of Transaction Experience. Charoensak joins The Agency after holding positions at McGuire Real Estate, Washington Mutual, Fleet Mortgage Corp, and most recently, a senior leadership position at Compass. Charoensak brings over 25 years of real estate service experience to The Agency at a time of impressive growth.

We are so pleased to welcome Troy Charoensak to The Agency to provide next-level transaction services to our brokerage and to strengthen our robust offerings to agents, said Mauricio Umansky, CEO of The Agency. The advancement of our transaction experience division marks another key milestone for The Agency as we continue to grow our experienced leadership team.

As Director of Transaction Experience, Charoensak will establish new programs, identify resources, and develop cutting-edge opportunities to enhance the agent service and transaction experience. He will also strategize and develop advanced systems to offer the highest level of transaction services in the industry.

Troy will be a valued asset for our agents and our clients as we all work towards the same goal of elevating the experience of buying and selling real estate with a personalized touch and first-class service, said President of The Agency, Rainy Hake Austin. Combining his proven business instinct, invaluable expertise, and unprecedented work ethic, Troy will serve as an instrumental resource for The Agency as we enter the next decade of growth for the firm.

Charoensak has held senior-level roles within all areas of real estate over the past 25 years. Before joining The Agency, Charoensak held the position of Senior Manager of Transaction Operations at Compass. In this role, he managed the companys highest-grossing region measured by sales volume and drastically scaled the firms NorCal transaction department, systems, and processes.

Prior to this, Charoensak achieved over two decades of experience driving positive outcomes across digital workflows, IT systems, inventory management, customer service, revenue generation, transaction management, process optimization, strategic planning, and executive support in multiple roles with leading real estate groups. Troy holds a Bachelors Degree from San Francisco State University and an Associates Degree from the Academy of Art University.

I have long admired The Agency and their incredible team for their unique culture and spirit in which they conduct business, Charoensak said. I am looking forward to developing successful processes that drive productivity, reliability, and client satisfaction to ultimately elevate the transaction service offerings for The Agencys wonderful agents and staff across the globe.

Charoensak will be based in Northern California, where The Agency currently has locations servicing San Francisco, Sonoma County, the East Bay, Marin County, and the Monterey Peninsula.

About The Agency

The Agency is a full-service, luxury real estate brokerage and lifestyle company representing clients in a spectrum of classes, including residential, new development, resort real estate, residential leasing, and luxury vacation rentals. Since its inception in 2011, The Agency has modernized and advanced the real estate industry by fostering a culture of partnership in which all clients and listings are represented in a collaborative environment. Shunning the traditional brokerage model, agents share knowledge, spheres of influence, contacts, and expertise, ensuring clients better representation and a true competitive edge. The Agency has closed more than $41 billion in real estate transactions since its inception and has 850 agents in more than 49 offices in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.


We look forward to continuing our work with TBOM and other community financial institutions to make credit cards a growing and profitable business line while enhancing the customer experience.

The Bank of Missouri (TBOM) has partnered with Corserv, a company that empowers banks and fintechs with payment card issuing programs, to launch Visa consumer, business, and commercial credit cards in their markets. TBOM owns the card program, resulting in improved customer relationships while adding this high margin fee and interest line of business to their books.

Corservs fully automated platform enables TBOM to service their market with minimal internal resources. The sophisticated card program includes branded card products, mobile app, digital underwriting, and onboarding, purchasing cards, virtual cards, ghost cards, expense reporting, accountholder alerts and controls, and self-service admin portals.

TBOM has worked closely with Corserv in establishing this new credit card program for our bank and has built the capacity to offer this program with its full suite of products efficiently to other financial institutions, said Mark Barker, EVP and Chief Contract Services Officer. This program is a natural extension of our contract servicing business where we sponsor credit issuance for 4.5 million accounts today. The 80%+ of banks that do not enjoy the full bottom line and franchise building aspects of credit card issuing should evaluate this easy to roll out program branded for their bank and their markets through our partnership with Corserv.

The Bank of Missouri was looking for a complete credit card issuance program that they could brand and control, said David Luther, Chief Business Officer at Corserv. We look forward to continuing our work with TBOM and other community financial institutions to make credit cards a growing and profitable business line while enhancing the customer experience.

About The Bank of Missouri

The Bank of Missouri operates 30 branches across Missouri and has more than $2.4 billion in assets. With a 130-year reputation of community focused financial security, The Bank of Missouri stands strong as an independent community bank. Big enough to accommodate any financial need, yet small enough to give every customer the personal treatment they deserve, we help our customers Live Well, Bank Well.

About Corserv

Corserv provides payment card issuing programs for credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, P-cards, and virtual cards that enables Banks and Fintechs to deliver competitive, branded payment services to their customers. Corservs secure hosted programs combine our credit, compliance and marketing expertise with our modern online solution and open APIs  everything clients need to quickly build a successful card-issuing business. Our Bank and Fintech clients increase their earnings per share by benefitting from loan interest, interchange, fee income and economies of scale from Corservs client base. Most importantly, they deepen their customer relationships. For more information, please visit http://www.corservsolutions.com.
International PechaKucha Day 2022 International PechaKucha Day brings together an inclusive, global community in a virtual event that uplifts and inspires.

PechaKucha, Inc., the worlds largest storytelling community, today announced it will host its third annual International PechaKucha Day. Thousands worldwide are expected to join the 24-hour livestream starting this Friday evening in Chicago (Saturday at noon in Tokyo) to share and enjoy engaging, concise stories with the theme of LOVEand OPTIMISM using PechaKuchas unique storytelling platform.

The 24-hour free live event will begin at 9:00 p.m. CST on February 18 (12:00 p.m. JST on February 19) and will be accessible via Zoom and YouTube. It will be hosted by PechaKucha founders and architects Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein of Klein Dytham architecture.

Participants can enjoy more than 100 brief, visually-engaging stories from presenters who share what they love about their city, family, car, pet, home, recipe, job, hobbies and anything else that intrigues them.

Storytellers from more than 50 cities worldwide will participate in the live event. Confirmed presenters range from well-known storytellers and business leaders to artists and include:



Shantell Martin - visual artist (New York)

Michael Johnson - graphic designer (London)

Kenze Yamada - tatami artist (Tokyo)

Ira & Ayra Kip - founders of Free Heri Heri (Amsterdam)

Morag Myesrcough - graphic designer( London)

Sian Mooney - fashion designer (Cairo)

Kaito Streets - Olympic fencer (Tokyo)

Luke Pearson - product designer (London)

While the event will feature an official lineup of well-known presenters in their respective fields, anyone with a story to tell can use PK Create to develop and submit their visual time-based talk. A select number of contributed stories will be shared throughout the livestream.

Everyone has a great story to tell. PechaKuchas beloved show-and-tell platform for storytelling brings joy to all who participate, said Mark Dytham, PechaKucha co-founder. International PechaKucha Day brings together an inclusive, global community in a virtual event that uplifts and inspires.

Register, Participate and Contribute a Story

Participants are invited to register via Zoom (see here) and tune in anytime to the #ipk2022 livestream on the day of the event via PKs YouTube channel (see here). Contributors to International PechaKucha Day can pre-record a presentation by using PK Create, a free online presentation platform. Presenters can upload, voice and share their presentations in several formats ranging from 1 image x 20 seconds, 10 images x 10 seconds, or the classic 20 images x 20 seconds format and tag it with #ipk2022. All presentations will be published on http://www.PechaKucha.com, and a curated selection will be played as part of the 24-hour live stream.

More information about the event can be found at: https://www.pechakucha.com/internationalpk. To watch last years presentations, see our 2021 International PechaKucha Day collection here.

About PechaKucha

PechaKucha, based in Chicago and Tokyo, is the fast-growing storytelling platform used by millions of people across the globe. Content creators, schools, businesses, and government agencies worldwide license PechaKuchas 20 images x 20 seconds platform to share visual stories, information and concepts for inspired action. PechaKucha community organizers host live events in more than 1,250 cities in 140 countries, with thousands of individual creators using PechaKuchas social storytelling platform for digital talks, sessions and chats. To gain inspiration from 50,000+ PechaKucha stories or to share your own, visit https://www.pechakucha.com.
Trepp, a leading provider of information, analytics, and technology to the structured finance, commercial real estate, and banking markets announced today the new leadership team for the employee-led Multicultural Employee Resource Group (MERG).

The TreppMERG, which is divided into four pillars, announced the appointment of Eugene Danilova, Trepp Senior Software Engineer  CRE, as the MERG chair. In her new position, Eugene will be prioritizing both internal and external environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts, diversity and inclusion at Trepp, and enhancements of existing mentorship programs. Trepp also appointed new co-chairs for the professional development, communications and events, and recruitment pillars for 2022.

The new leadership team will enable Trepp to further create a culture of inclusion and support, bringing a fresh perspective to challenging conversations and allowing employees to grow both personally and professionally, said Vivek-Anand Dattani, Global Head of Structured Sales at Trepp and newly appointed TreppMERG Executive Sponsor. We are thrilled to have Eugene represent the TreppMERG and look forward to seeing continued diversity and inclusion initiatives at Trepp in 2022.

The new leadership team also includes:



Josh Brady, Junior Accountant

Taranjeet Chumber, Assistant VP, Team Leader

Hayley Collier, Marketing Coordinator

Robert Confrancisco, Senior Software Engineer

Will Frohling, Director of Partnerships

Hayley Keen, Marketing Manager

Nicky Li, Software Engineer

Andrea Tortora, VP, Head of European Modelling and Content

The TreppMERG acknowledges and thanks the previous leadership team for their accomplishments during the inaugural year of the MERG. Thank you to Scott Barrie, Mike Benz, Lucius Clay, Eugene Danilova, San Myint, Deniz Ozkaynak, Jyoti Yadav, and Xiao Zhang. During their time as pillar leads in the TreppMERG, they hosted several diversity and inclusion events, promoted community fundraising efforts, celebrated various cultural holidays, offered career guidance, and more.

Trepp looks forward to the continued growth and success of the TreppMERG through the 2022 leadership team.

Please join Trepp in congratulating Eugene Danilova and all members of the TreppMERG leadership team. Learn more about the TreppMERG and all of Trepps Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion initiatives: https://www.trepp.com/diversity-equity-and-inclusion

About Trepp

Trepp, founded in 1979, is a leading provider of data, insights, and technology solutions to the structured finance, commercial real estate, and banking markets. Trepp provides primary and secondary market participants with the solutions and analytics they need to increase operational efficiencies, information transparency, and investment performance. From its offices in New York, San Francisco, and London, Trepp serves its clients with products and services to support trading, research, risk management, surveillance, and portfolio management. Trepp wholly owns Commercial Real Estate Direct, the source for high-end news and information to professionals in the CRE industry. Trepp is wholly owned by Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). For more information, visit trepp.com. Follow Trepp on social media @TreppWire.
For many drivers, totaling the car is scary. However, the right insurance company and the right coverage can make this situation to be more bearable. said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog that presents what car insurance policies can help drivers who totaled their cars.

For more info and free car insurance quotes online, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/how-car-insurance-can-help-drivers-who-totaled-their-cars/

Even the best drivers can have their cars totaled. The term totaled is only used in insurance when the damage to the car falls under a particular set of circumstances set by insurance companies. A car can be deemed as totaled only by the driver's insurance adjuster and the insurance company. Insurance companies typically designate cars as a total loss when the cost to fix the damage is more than the cars value or if the car cant be repaired at all for some reason or another. The threshold for declaring vehicles a total loss is determined by each state. However, insurance providers may choose to use a lower standard. Most providers use various factors like market evaluation, year, make, model, mileage, and overall condition to determine the value of a car and designate a total loss.

Drivers who are dealing with a totaled car should know the following:



What insurance policies cover totaled cars? Comprehensive coverage is used to cover a total loss thats not a result of a collision. It covers stolen vehicles that are too damaged after they are retrieved, vehicles that are damaged beyond repair by flood, fire, animals, and fallen objects. Collision coverage covers total losses from colliding with another vehicle or object. Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is used to protect drivers who totaled their cars in accidents where the at-fault driver doesnt have insurance or has insufficient coverage.

How much is the insurance payout for a totaled car? When a car is deemed as totaled, the insurance company will pay the actual cash value (ACV) at the time of the loss. Wear and tear, mileage, previous accidents, and more are factored in when determining the actual cash value. In most cases, the settlement money will be less than what the policyholder paid for his vehicle at the time of purchase.

What drivers can do if they still owe money on their totaled vehicles? If a driver is financing his car and still owes money, the insurance provider will send the total loss payout to the lender. If the payout is more than what the driver owes to the lender, the provider will send the money to the lender to pay off the loan balance and then send the remaining money to the driver. However, in some cases, the insurance payment is not enough to pay the rest of the loan. In this situation, GAP coverage or Loan/Lease Payoff coverage can help. GAP insurance covers the difference between the cars depreciated value and what the driver owes on his loan. Loan/Lease Payoff coverage is used to offset the remaining amount due on the drivers loan or lease if the car has been totaled in an accident or its been stolen. Unlike GAP coverage, Loan/lease coverage does not cover deductibles and only pays a certain percentage of the cars ACV.

Can drivers keep their totaled cars? Depending on the regulations of each state, drivers may be entitled to keep their totaled vehicles. In most cases, drivers can buy back their totaled cars from their insurance providers. To put the totaled car back on public roads it must be fixed, pass inspection, and the owner will need a rebuilt or salvaged title. If the owner of a totaled car doesnt want to drive the vehicle, he can use the parts of the totaled car in another vehicle, or sell them for profit. He can also sell it to a junkyard or donate it to a charity.

What drivers can do if their cars are totaled? First, they should immediately contact their insurance providers and file a claim. After the claim is received an insurance adjuster will be dispatched to evaluate the damage. To get a fair settlement, drivers will need to determine the actual cash value of their vehicles just before the damage occurred using tools like Kelley Blue Book or by checking the prices of similar cars on the local market. If the car is financed, the financing firm will also have to be notified. If the policyholder believes the appraisal of his car's ACV is too low, they can negotiate the payout with their providers.

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 name insurance companies, etc.
WIN is excited to partner with Sheppard Mullin to offer inclusive family-building benefits, which support career paths that make it easier for all of their employees to simultaneously focus on their careers and build a family, says Roger Shedlin, MD, JD, and President and CEO of WINFertility

WINFertility (WIN), the leading global fertility benefits management company, has teamed up with Sheppard Mullin, an AmLaw 50 law firm, to provide inclusive family-building and fertility benefit programs to all Sheppard Mullin employees. The inclusive benefits, managed by WIN, include 24/7 clinical support through WIN Nurse Care Managers, navigation to the most appropriate provider, guided counseling on family-building, and support to maximize their benefit. In addition, WIN Nurse Care Managers will provide recommendations and referrals to experienced agencies for adoption and surrogacy. Through the WIN companion app, Sheppard Mullin employees can take advantage of their benefits virtually from anywhere.

WIN is excited to partner with Sheppard Mullin to offer inclusive family-building benefits, which support career paths that make it easier for all of their employees to simultaneously focus on their careers and build a family, says Roger Shedlin, MD, JD, and President and CEO of WINFertility. Our nurse care managers are available 24/7 to offer individualized support and advocacy to Sheppard Mullin employees throughout their family-building journey.

WINFertility is the gold standard in fertility, surrogacy and adoption benefits, said Bess Sully, Sheppard Mullins Chief Human Resources Officer. This partnership further strengthens Sheppard Mullins long-standing commitment to family-building by enhancing our adoption, surrogacy and fertility benefits. We are thrilled to offer all of our attorneys and staff access to this incredible resource to help shepherd families through the entire process.

The legal sector boasts some of the most progressive and inclusive family-building benefits of any industry. WIN has seen a 400% increase in firms of all sizes -- from 1000+ lawyer international firms to small boutique firms -- add managed fertility benefits.

For more information about WINFertility services, please visit http://www.winfertility.com

About WINFertility

WINFertility is the nations leading family-building and fertility benefit management company, providing comprehensive solutions for employers, health plans and consumers. From fertility management, including medical treatment, pharmacy and genetics to surrogacy and adoption, WINFertility has helped more than 150,000 families by providing access to the best doctors, technology, and support. WIN works with the nations leading reproductive endocrinologists and integrates with national and regional insurance carriers, as well as the nations largest pharmacy benefit managers, to deliver the most advanced and effective fertility treatments and family-building solutions. WIN Nurse Care Managers navigate patients through the often complex process, providing clinical oversight, emotional support, advocacy, and education throughout the journey. Patients and clients that utilize WINs program see higher pregnancy rates, fewer multiple gestations, more efficient Rx utilization, and lower costs. The company headquarters are based in Greenwich, CT.

About Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

Sheppard Mullin is a full-service AmLaw 50 firm with more than 1,000 attorneys in 15 offices located in the United States, Europe and Asia. Since 1927, industry-leading companies have turned to Sheppard Mullin to handle corporate and technology matters, high-stakes litigation and complex financial transactions. In the U.S., the firm's clients include almost half of the Fortune 100. For more information, please visit http://www.sheppardmullin.com.
Woolpert's Monique Wright and Richard Olivieri recently received Patriot Awards We love this program, and we love working with these great men and women who honor us all by serving our country.

Woolperts Monique Wright and Richard Olivieri have been honored with Patriot Awards by the U.S. Department of Defense Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve program. ESGR was established to promote cooperation and understanding between reserve component service members and their civilian employers.

Wright is a vice president and discipline leader for on-site geospatial solutions and services, and Olivieri is a GeoBase field team leader. GeoBase is the U.S. Air Forces Combat Support Geospatial Information and Services Program. It is led from Joint Base San Antonio, under the direction of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center. Woolpert has 87 staff members supporting GeoBase at installations and contingency locations worldwide.

Woolpert Geospatial Specialist Roman Bux, a member of the Air Force Reserve, nominated Wright and Olivieri for this national honor. In his nomination, Bux said Wright provided all the information and resources needed to perform his job and manage his reserve duty, and that Olivieri provided support through flexible scheduling and continuity in pay and service, despite the frequent last-minute changes inherent to his reserve duty.

Moniques extreme kindness and support has made my absence for duty out as a benefit to Woolpertnot a burdenand has helped me to flourish for both the company and the military, Bux said. This flexibility has been critical to me providing for my new family and to continue serving, without adding to the many stressors that come along with it. Richard's just-get-it-done attitude has allowed me to maintain a stable work-life balance and stay headstrong in accomplishing my goals for the company, the military and my family.

Wright said Woolpert reservists play a pivotal role in providing quality assurance and quality control, field data collection and other GIS support for GeoBase at installations around the world. Wright recently contributed to the rewriting of Woolperts Procedures for Military Leave to standardize the companys approach to benefit and protect all involved. Olivieri said this helps Woolpert, the reservists and clients now and well into the future.

We hire military and former military personnel because they are credentialed and have the skill sets, discipline and security clearances necessary for these key positions, Olivieri said. It behooves Woolpert to make it as easy as possible for them to do their jobs, so we implement a plan for their time away and make up the difference between their guard pay and our salary while they are gone. Many of these reservists move on to become on-site geographic information officers, so we also are building a constructive, potentially long-term relationship. We love this program, and we love working with these great men and women who honor us all by serving our country.

Wright and Olivieris Patriot Awards make Woolpert eligible for ESGRs Above and Beyond Award and ultimately for the Freedom Award, which is the highest recognition given by the U.S. government to employers for their support of employees in the Guard and Reserve. Wright and Olivieri said they were humbled to be recognized.

This honor is near and dear to my heart because my son is in the Army National Guard, Wright said. He is working his regular job while supporting the Army. I understand what these men and women must go through and want to ensure they are well supported, while making sure Woolpert has what it needs to optimally support the Air Force. This is a team effort, and it is one that we are truly honored to support.

About Woolpert

Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. We innovate within and across markets to effectively serve public, private and government clients worldwide. Woolpert is an ENR Top 150 Global Design Firm, recently earned its sixth-straight Great Place to Work certification and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been Americas fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has more than 1,600 employees and 60 offices on four continents. For more, visit woolpert.com.
Bringing together governments, businesses, civil society, the Global Disability Summit is a pivotal moment for the world to commit to change and do more to include people with disabilities. "The Global Disability Summit is an opportunity for all of us to make progress towards a world where everyone is included and can access their human rights, said Vladimir Cuk, Executive Director of the International Disability Alliance.

Bringing together governments, businesses, development professionals, and Organisations for People with Disabilities (OPDs), the Global Disability Summit is a pivotal moment for the world to commit to change and do more to include people with disabilities.

This is the second-ever global summit on strengthening the inclusion of people with disabilities and it will build on the progress made in the wake of the first Global Disability Summit in London in 2018. Throughout the summit more than 1,544 new commitments to disability rights will be announced by organisations and governments in more than 150 countries.

The number of people with disabilities is estimated to be around 15% of the worlds population, around one billion people, and 80% live in low- and middle-income countries. Despite this, millions of people with disabilities still face stigma, discrimination, and barriers to full-participation in society. People with disabilities have also disproportionately been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his welcome video to the summit, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Stre, said, I am pleased to be co-hosting the Global Disability Summit together with the President of Ghana and the International Disability Alliance. With less than eight years to go before the world is to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, we must ensure that people with disabilities are able to take part in social and economic development on an equal footing with society at large.

President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said, Governments have a solemn obligation to commit to building an inclusive society in which every citizen has the opportunity to develop his or her God-given talent to the fullest. The circumstances of ones birth cannot and must not be a barrier to any citizens participation in - and their benefit from - the process of national development.

Along with the Prime Ministers of Ghana and Norway, representatives from more than 15 governments will be speaking at the summit and making commitments. International organisations that will be represented include the World Health Organization, the United Nations, UNICEF, USAID, UNHCR, the Global Partnership for Education, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Save the Children, the Valuable 500, and the International Labour Organization.

Key facts:



Over 1,544 commitments to disability rights will be made for GDS 2022.

This exceeds the 968 commitments made in 2018.

More than 178 organisations from 151 countries will make commitments.

Over 300 commitments from governments will be made.

Commitments will come from all regions of the world: Global (36%), Africa (45%), Asia-Pacific (7%), Europe (6%), Latin America and the Caribbean (3%), Middle East (2%), North America (0.5%).

More than 2,200 people have registered for the youth Summit and over 4,400 people will virtually attend the main summit.

Alongside the main summit there are 4 thematic workshops, 4 regional summits, 2 thematic round tables and 91 side events.

Vladimir Cuk, Executive Director of the International Disability Alliance, said, The global COVID-19 pandemic has not only shown us that we are all connected, but has also highlighted the devastating inequalities faced by people with disabilities. We must do more to include the worlds 1.2 billion people with disabilities, who cannot and will not be ignored. The Global Disability Summit is an opportunity for all of us to make progress towards a world where everyone is included and can access their human rights.

The second Global Disability Summit will be held on 16-17 February 2022. This years summit will be entirely virtual and is being live-streamed from Norway.

Organisations of Persons with Disabilities have played an important role in the design, implementation, and follow-up of the summit.

More information along with the up-to-date agenda can be found online, and anyone can take part in the summit at: http://www.globaldisabilitysummit.org

For updates and live announcements follow us on Twitter at: @GDS_Disability, #CommitToChange and #GDS2022

-END-

About the Global Disability Summit

The Global Disability Summit Secretariat was established to monitor the implementation of the commitments made at the first Global Disability Summit and the commitments that will be made in the future. It works to provide substantive inputs and coordination of the organization of the Global Disability Summits.

In July 2018, the UK Department for International Development, alongside the Government of Kenya and the International Disability Alliance, organised the first ever Global Disability Summit in London. The summit in London succeeded in placing the issue of rights-based, disability-inclusive development on the international agenda.

The Oslo Summit in 2022 will seek new commitments and concrete action to accelerate inclusive development, through access, engagement and equality. The Summit will mobilise efforts to further the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in line with the principle of leaving no one behind, and to build back better and more inclusively in the post-Covid-19 recovery.

The Secretariat has established an accountability mechanism to follow the implementation of commitments, supporting stakeholders to achieve the promises they made.

The themes for the 2022 summit are:

1. Capacity-strengthening of organisations of persons with disabilities in the Global South

2. Inclusive Education

3. Inclusive Health

4. Inclusive Employment and Livelihoods

5. Inclusion in situations of crises and conflict, including a focus on climate change



Gender is a cross-cutting theme.

Consultations

In 2020-2021, IDA, its members, and partners were able to organize 27 national and 1 regional consultations with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in 26 countries, 23 different spoken and sign languages, for a total of 840 people attending. Of the participants, 56% were women, 23% were indigenous peoples and 38% were from underrepresented groups of persons with disabilities.
The Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators held its virtual 2022 Winter Conference last weekend, with more than 2,000 registrants tuning in for panels and keynotes. ASL interpreters accompanied every Zoom session, ensuring accessibility for members.

Newly elected executive director Sarah Baker welcomed attendees on Saturday, opening sessions with a land acknowledgment and a special thank you to Lin Oliver, the co-founder of SCBWI who retired on January 31. Lin is watching at home, rooting for you to do great work in childrens literature, Baker told the assembly.

Baker previewed upcoming changes at SCBWI, promising a live announcement of the organizations 2022 Golden Kite Awards. Aint Burned All the Bright author Jason Reynolds will be the featured speaker at the March 15 gala, which honors books for children published by PAL (Published and Listed) SCBWI publishers. On Monday, SCBWI published a short list of 35 finalists across seven categories including YA/middle grade fiction, YA fiction, nonfiction texts for younger readers, nonfiction texts for older readers, picture book text, picture book illustration, and illustration for older readers. Each winner will receive $2,500, plus $1,000 to donate to a nonprofit organization; honors winners each receive $500 plus an additional $250 for donation.

Baker also followed up on a letter to SCBWI membership, in which she prioritized empowering staff, improving customer service, streamlining processes, and leveraging strategic partnerships in her role as executive director. Effective immediately, SCBWI staffers Kim Turrisi, Tammy Brown, Sarah Diamond, Avery Silverberg, and Laurie Miller are promoted to expanded roles, and Chelsea Hall has been hired as administrative assistant to support the team.

At the Winter Conference, speakers included Brian Selznick, who gave a public lecture on Friday. Keynotes, by registration only, included Caraval series author Stephanie Garber, Front Desk series author Kelly Yang, 2021 Boston Globe-Horn Book nonfiction winner Paula Yoo (From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry), and Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Becoming Vanessa), who shared a life story of adversity and closed her talk with a cathartic rendition of Feeling Good that ignited appreciation among the audience.

In addition to the speakers, three SCBWI Recipe for Success panels featured professional advice from editors, art directors, and agents. Yoo reinforced the recipe theme in her keynote as well: a slide of her cats in homemade chefs hats reminded readers to consider the ingredients for serious historical research and diverse representation in childrens books.

Cynthia Leitich Smith (HarperCollins/Heartdrum) moderated the editors panel, posing questions about the qualities that take a manuscript from solid to stunning, the importance of social media, and the acquisitions process. Farrin Jacobs (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) likes a sad story told by funny people, and Atlanta-based Denene Millner (Simon & Schuster/Denene Millner Books), who publishes African American authors and illustrators, said, Boy, do I love the idea of stretching outside New York City and outside of the Northeast. Those stories kind of get lost. Emma Ledbetter at Abrams wants to see authors researching categories: Every age group, genre, format youre interested in, you should approach with the same passion. Dedicate yourself to understanding those readers and what is published in that category.

Michelle Frey (Knopf Books for Young Readers) said that although social media can suck you away from your actual writing, it can be an amazing tool. She points to the success of Erika L. Sanchez (I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter), who had thousands of Twitter followers even before her breakthrough books: Nobody knew who she was yet, but she was so funny. Millner saw huge preorders for Wings of Ebony after author J. Elle formed a social media Street Team called Rues Crew. Millner called the move genius! She got this whole cadre to drum up support for the book.

Five agents presented advice on strong queries and paths to publication. Samantha Fabien (Root Literary) echoed classroom exams by reminding everyone to keep your eyes on your own paper! Glancing at someone elses six-figure advance will always make you feel less-than, but there is no one way to success. Jemiscoe Chambers-Black (Andrea Brown Literary Agency) assigned authors to come up with 20 new ideas a monthI know it seems like a lot, but just log lines. Once you have 80 to 100, there will be five to 10 ideas that are good. Write blurbs for the short list, she said, and narrow down to the best one. Chad Beckerman (the CAT Agency) told illustrators to hone a consistent visual style and try an exercise from John Hendrixs Drawing Is Magic: Make a list of 100 things that you love to draw.

Above all, the agents and editors counseled, writers benefit from approaching the submissions process with a collaborative spirit. Leitich Smith reflected that when an editor asks for substantial revisions, this is not a place to go diva. If nothing else, you could end up with a better draft. Frey concurred: I will only give real feedback on a project if I am interested in seeing it again. Jacobs agreed that it is not fun to butt heads on a project, and Millnerthe lone editor on the panel accepting unsolicited manuscriptsreminded listeners that editors themselves have been through the wringer and share honest feedback to improve a manuscript.

James McGowan (BookEnds Literary Agency) recommended patience and persistence, adding that agents and editors are backed up right now, prioritizing their clients and newly fluid publication schedules over their queues of pending submissions.

Armed with insider tips, SCBWI attendees can go to work on their recipes for success. Maybe the main ingredient is not so secret. Publishing is pretty much a long con, admitted Thao Le (Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency). Honestly, the best way to succeed in publishing is just to keep writing.
Valerie Boyd, author of Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston (2003, Scribner) and the forthcoming Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker 1965-2000 (2022, S&S), which she edited, died on February 12, at the age of 58 after a long battle with cancer.

Boyd served as an associate professor and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia, where she taught classes on magazine writing, arts reviewing, and narrative nonfiction. She also taught creative writing in the graduate writing program at Antioch University in Los Angeles and was a consultant to The Zora Neale Hurston Trust.

An accomplished journalist and cultural critic, Boyd's essays, articles, and reviews were published in numerous magazines and newspapers, and her work also appeared in Step Into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature (2000, Wiley). At the time of her death, she was at work on an anthology titled Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic.

Wrapped in Rainbows, the first biography of Zora Neale Hurston published in 25 years, was hailed by the Washington Post as "definitive" and by the Boston Globe as "elegant and exhilarating." For her work on Wrapped in Rainbows, Boyd received the Georgia Author of the Year Award in nonfiction as well as an American Library Association Notable Book Award, and the Southern Book Critics Circle honored Wrapped in Rainbows with the 2003 Southern Book Award for best nonfiction of the year.

"Valerie Boyd was one of the best people ever to live, which she did as a free being," said Alice Walker. "Even though illness was stalking her the past several years, she accompanied me in gathering, transcribing, and editing my journals, and stood with me until the end, though she will be with us in spirit only for publication on April 12th, two months after her passing. This was a major feat, a huge act of love and solidarity, of sisterhood, of soul generosity and shared joy, for which she will be remembered."

Other such literary figures as Jelani Cobb, Lauren Michele Jackson, Kima Jones, Deesha Philyaw, Jason Reynolds, Craig Seymour, and Danyel Smith expressed their sympathies on social media.

On a personal note, this reporter was early in the process of profiling Boyd for PW during what would be the final weeks of her life. (Boyd always began every email with the same gracious refrain, "Thanks so much for your message.") I deeply admired Boyd's work and lament that there were still so many more questions to ask her and so much left to learn about her.

In the introduction to Gathering Blossoms Under Fire, Boyd writes that, in assembling the book's masterfully researched footnotes, she has tried to provide context and commentary like an "invisible friend" to the reader. Throughout Gathering Blossoms, Boyd's authorial voice accompanies Walker's journals as a gentle, guiding presence. Boyd will surely be remembered as such by her loved ones, students, and countless admirers.

A memorial service and tribute will be held in the coming weeks. Mourners are encouraged to donate to the Black Women's Health Imperative in Boyd's name.
North Liberty, Iowa-based Ice Cube Press finished 2021, its 30th anniversary, with a solid increase in sales over 2020, founder Steve Semken said. The graphic novel Moon of the Snow Blind by Gary Kelley led the sales gain. Like many of Ice Cubes titles, Moon of the Snow Blind focuses on an event in Iowa s history and is in keeping with Semkens vision of showcasing local Iowa stories as well publishing books that document changes in rural America.

Ice Cube has been Semkens sole endeavor since 2002 and he has published 100 authors in a variety of genres from fiction and nonfiction to poetry and graphic novels. Imprints of Ice Cube Press include Tall Corn Books and Maintenance Ends, as well as the general Ice Cube Press imprint. The press publishes between 6-9 titles per year.

Other titles that did well last year included Our Friend Sitting Bull by Mary R. Christopher, which follows Christophers ancestors relationship with Lakota Chief Sitting Bull in the 1880s. Ice Cubes titles are geared towards exploring curiosity, and Semken said he looks for books, where fiction and nonfiction meet. Its the real stories that people latch onto, Semken said. Novembers The History of Orthodontics Through Time & Space by Craig Campbell is a reimagining of the history of orthodontics through the eyes of two artists that blends fiction and nonfiction. Post-Modern Blues by David M. Perkins, released in October, is a collection of poems which cover politics, mortality, and lost love with a blend of humor and severity, Semken said.

As a small publisher, Semken delivers a personalized experience to authors and hes able to bend some industry norms. For instance, Semken involves authors in cover design: if the author doesnt like the cover, thats the worst thing for book sales, he said. The pandemic caused Ice Cube Press to cut its print run numbers in half and Semken is still dealing with supply chain issues. Even Snow Blind was caught in the supply chain morass with Semken noting after the first printing sold out he wasnt unable to get a reprint date until this year.

Supply chain problems have also held up a new initiative: Community-Supported Literature is a play on Community Supported Agriculture, where members gain access to extra content from Ice Cube authors. Through the program, people can support the press at different price levels and gain access to benefits or products such as receiving all the book releases in a year, an essay by an author, a Zoom call with an author or publisher, YouTube book trailers, peeks at alternative covers, and more. However, Semken said because his favorite printer had problems getting supplies and is already booked through the year he needed time to find a new printer and is now set up with two companies. The good news being, all the books will be done on time, he said.

Among the new titles are two spring books, The Land Remains and Bach and the Blues, and two fall titles, The Long Way Home and Slippery Steps.
As both a clinical psychologist and an ordained minister, Thema Bryant is urging readers to acknowledge traumatic parts of their past and move toward healing and wellness in her new book, Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole, Authentic Self (TarcherPerigree, March 15).

Bryant, who is the 2023 president-elect of the American Psychological Association, draws on personal experiences with sexual assault and racism as well as her work with others who have experienced trauma as she explores the multiple layers of grief. She then offers spiritual practices and other steps that can lead to a greater sense of empowerment, gratitude, and purpose. Homecoming begins with truth-telling to yourself, Bryant tells PW.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What does the books title mean?

Homecoming is the journey back to yourself. It's an important reminder for those who have experienced stress, trauma, and oppression: that authenticity and healing are the core of their identity. They learn to recognize: Those experiences affected me, but they don't define me. My wellness and authenticity are actually where I am at home. Some people grew up with childhood trauma and don't remember a self before all the toxicity began. So, whether it is a return to ourselves, or feeling like we never got to connect with and develop a self, homecoming is possible.

What is toxic positivity, and how does it block homecoming?

Toxic positivity is when only "positive" emotions and thoughts are acceptable. At its root, this can be well intentioned. We know that gratitude, for example, can be helpful in combating depression, so therapists will recommend creating a gratitude journal. But while what people call positive psychology can be helpful, it can also create censoring, stress, silencing, and lying. If someone is grieving the loss of a loved one and people say to them, "Well, just be grateful," that assumes that because I'm grieving, I'm not grateful for the time we had, which is a lie. In healing, I need to have access to the full spectrum of my emotions. To require that people only feel joy and gratitude is dehumanizing. It does not give space or room or permission to honor their humanity.

There is so much talk about self-care; why do you encourage it as a communal activity?

The over-emphasis on self-care sometimes means the lack of acknowledgement of the importance of people showing up for each other. If you have a single mother of three who is not being given a livable wage, even though she works very hard, and you say to her, "You just need to take better care of yourself," is problematic and missing the context of her life. Community care can look like spending time with other people, and advocating for other people. So many people are looking for community and connection. At the same time, I do advocate for self-care. To me, it's not an either/or. We need to be intentional about nourishing ourselves and also be intentional about the nourishing that takes place in relationship and in community.

How can we begin to use the concept of homecoming to process the grief and trauma of the past two years?

With the pandemic, we are dealing with a sense of powerlessness. This is in parallel with racism, whether it is anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, xenophobia, the treatment of immigrants, or attacks facing the LGBTQ community. It is volcanic and people are struggling. So this resource is timely and intentionally holistic. It's important if we're going to say homecoming, that in your homecoming, all of you every part of youis welcomed in this space. Not only the intellectual part of you, the spiritual part, the creative part, the emotional part, the political part of youevery aspect is welcome. When you're really at home, you don't have to leave parts of you at the door.
LOS ANGELES  Concord Law School at Purdue University Global will present a live discussion titled Health Law Today: A Congressmans Perspective for the next installment of its Distinguished Speaker Series at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on March 8.

The live webinar will be hosted by Concord Dean Martin Pritikin and feature guest speaker Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D.-Ill.), who serves the northwestern suburbs of Chicago.

Krishnamoorthi serves on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, and he is the founder and chairman of the bipartisan congressional caucus to end the youth vaping epidemic. Krishnamoorthi graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in mechanical engineering and a certificate from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and clerked for a federal judge before practicing law in Chicago.

Legislation and policy regarding public health and health care decisions obviously play a central role in everyones lives these days, Pritikin said. We are delighted at the opportunity to present a speaker who is a leader on health law issues at the highest levels of government.

There are two registration links: one for students and alumni and one for others interested in attending.

The webinar can be viewed here.

About Purdue University Global

Purdue University Global delivers personalized online education tailored to the unique needs of adults who have work or life experience beyond the classroom, enabling them to develop essential academic and professional skills with the support and flexibility they need to achieve their career goals. It offers personalized paths for students to earn an associate, bachelors, masters or doctoral degree, based on their work experience, desired pace, military service, previous college credits and other considerations  no matter where they are in their life journey. Purdue Global is a nonprofit, public university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It is affiliated with Purdue Universitys flagship institution, a highly ranked public research university located in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue University also operates regional campuses in Fort Wayne and Northwest Indiana, as well as serving science, engineering and technology students at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. For more information, visit purdueglobal.edu.

About Concord Law School

Concord Law School is part of Purdue University Global, a public, nonprofit school within the respected Purdue University system. Founded in 1998, Concord was the first U.S. law school to offer students a traditional law school program online, including interactive live classes, frequent testing with extensive feedback, and nationally respected faculty members. Offering rigorous, rewarding online degree programs, Concord provides students with a first-rate law school education that is affordable and reflects the needs of todays employers, delivered in a convenient, highly supportive environment. For more information, please visit concordlawschool.edu.

Media Contact: Tom Schott, tschott@purdue.edu

Source: Martin Pritikin
The Bronte Girls is a fictional account of the last summer Reverend Brontes three daughters spent together as teenagers. In 1835 in the village of Haworth, England, Reverend Brontes three daughters, Charlotte (19), Emily (17) and 15 year-old Anne spent their last summer together as teenagers. Not much is known about that time but its assumed, this being the Victorian era, that they were well-behaved sisters and did little of note. But was that true, was it all about decorum and propriety for these three females who, 13 years later, changed what strait-laced society thought was possible of women. The Bronte Girls imagines everything well never know about that summer for Charlotte, Emily and Anne whose novels were rebellious, passionate and controversial.The drama, with the initial series set to be a six-parter, is based on the play of the same name by playwright Caroline Kelly Franklin who has adapted the story for TV together with director Darcia Martin. The executive producers, Harvey Myman, Patty Lenahan Ishimoto and Patrick Irwin, first worked together on Miss Scarlet & The Duke. ZDF Enterprises will hold international distribution rights.Generations have been fascinated by the Brontes so when the producers presented us with this project about one of the literary worlds most famous families, it immediately grabbed my interest, said Yi Qiao, director ZDFE.drama, who brokered the deal for ZDF Enterprises. The Bronte Girls is an exciting production that has all the right ingredients to entertain international audiences.Set in the 1950s in a small southwestern German town with a large-scale US military presence, Between Two Worlds is a story of friendship between two young women during a time of upheaval. Two young women strive to create lives for themselves during a time of great change caused by the presence of the US Army, putting themselves and their friendship to the test. Both, in their own way, seize the opportunities of social and cultural change. But while Marie, who comes from a conservative farmers family, slowly develops into a modern, enlightened woman, the extroverted Erika seems unable to fully adapt to the changing times.The drama is available in 3  90 or 6  45 and was produced by FFP New Media GmbH in co-production with ARD, SWR, Degeto, NDR, WDR. Simone Holler and Michael Smeaton are executive producers. The series achieved a market share of 14.5% (4.4 million viewers) when it was broadcast on 1 December 2021 on German pubcaster Das Erste.Commenting on the distribution, Sebastian Krekeler, director ZDFE.drama, ZDF Enterprises , said: The clash of different cultures and the defense of a free society is more topical than ever. Racism and anti-Semitism, emancipation and civil rights, tradition versus new beginnings - many of the conflicts that were fought back then are far from over today. Between Two Worlds is entertaining and at the same time provokes thought about issues that still concern us today.
Comic actresses Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes have signed on to host next month's Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, according to multiple media outlets.

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The news was reported Monday by Deadline, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

The hosts are expected be formally introduced on Tuesday's edition of Good Morning America.

Each woman is expected to host an hour of the ABC telecast celebrating excellence in film.

The gala is to take place at the Dolby Theatre on March 27.

Netflix's The Power of the Dog was nominated for a leading 12 Academy Awards last week. The streaming service's Don't Look Up earned four nods, The Lost Daughter scored three and Tick Tick Boom garnered two.

Dune from Warner Bros. earned 10 nominations this year, while Belfast from Focus Features and West Side Story from Walt Disney each picked up seven nominations and King Richard from Warner Bros. grabbed six.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/14/2022



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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 Michelle Young and Nayte Olukoya are still not living together, and Nayte has explained why.Nayte, a 27-year-old sales executive who currently resides in Austin, TX, told Us Weekly that he has "not yet" moved to his fiancee's home state of Minneapolis, MN.Nayte, however, said he and the 28-year-old elementary school teacher from Woodbury, MN, are still doing well and have been researching where they should put down roots."We're trying to be as smart as possible," Nayte explained. "We're looking at different options. We're definitely feeling it all out."But Michelle apparently has complete faith in Nayte and that he will eventually relocate to be with her -- when they are both ready."We like to make sure that we're always making very calculated decisions. We're always looking at all of our options," Michelle said. "Yeah, it'll happen."Before the couple settles down, they'd like to travel the world together and make new memories."That's a big thing," Nayte shared with the magazine, noting how he and Michelle would like to explore France soon together.Just last month, Nayte brought Michelle home to the city where he was born and raised, Winnipeg, which is located in the Manitoba province in Canada.Nayte and Michelle got engaged on 's Season 18 finale that aired in December 2021.Nayte revealed on : After the Final Rose late last year that he planned to move to Minnesota in the next two or three months and the lovebirds had already begun house-hunting.In fact, The Bachelor family gifted Michelle and Nayte a down payment on their first house together. (Michelle was caught whispering to Nayte on After the Final Rose that the check was for $200,000).During a mid-December 2021 episode of the "Click Bait with Bachelor Nation" podcast, Nayte revealed he had left Canada about 10 years ago and moved to Washington before finally settling down in Austin with no job."When I packed up and bought a one-way ticket two days before graduation... and I just packed one suitcase. I didn't know anything -- no job, no nothing, no anything -- and just moved to Austin," Nayte said."I didn't know what was going to happen, but I just trusted myself," he added.Nayte is the only member of his family currently living in the United States.Not long after their engagement aired on ABC, Michelle and Nayte spent Christmas together in Minnesota.Michelle gushed to People in December about how she and Nayte "have fun together" and can have deep conversations about controversial issues and more."We vent to each other, we check each other and make sure that we're positive," Michelle said. "We dance, sing, goof around, all of it."Nayte echoed that sentiment and noted how their relationship just "flows" effortlessly."I've never met anybody even, like, remotely close to him because he just has so many layers," Michelle shared of her fiance. "And even now, like on a daily basis, I'm like, 'What did I do to deserve this? How did I get lucky?'""He tells me how he feels about me every day, multiple times," she added.Michelle also told People, "I fall more in love every day.""I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family with a healthy marriage and I thought, 'I'm not going to give up until I have that.' He's my person," she said. "And I didn't know I could love at this level ."And Nayte said he believes their relationship is going to last because they have the type of love everyone searches for."Every day, we'll just catch each other in just this, like, flow of emotion," Nayte said last year."It's just like, 'Holy crap, we are each other's. This is our life. This is actually forever.' We actually have a connection that is forever."The couple also shared at the time how they were planning to marry in "the near future," maybe Summer 2022.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Brock Lesnar wiped out Austin Theory and Seth Rollins battled Randy Orton in the main event of Raw.

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WWE Champion Bobby Lashley and his manager MVP kicked off the show on Monday and were subsequently interrupted by each of Lashley's upcoming Elimination Chamber match opponents including Rollins, Riddle, Theory and AJ Styles

Each grappler pleaded their case as to why they will emerge victorious from the Elimination Chamber as the new WWE Champion. Lashley responded angrily and even called out Lesnar, who is also in the match.

The Beast then arrived onto the scene wearing a cowboy hat and jeans. Lesnar walked down to the ring and got into Lashley's face before first placing his coat and hat onto Theory.

Theory, feeling disrespected by the move, attacked Lesnar from behind. Lesnar quickly sent the rookie to Suplex City, causing the other wrestlers to leave the ring. Lesnar finished Theory off with an F-5 and took Theory's phone in order to take a selfie with him in the middle of the ring.

The Elimination Chamber match takes place Saturday at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event in Saudi Arabia. The show begins at 12 p.m. EST on Peacock.

Rollins and Orton had a highly-competitive match that featured both ring veterans pulling out all the stops in order to score the victory.

Orton was able to land a Suplex from the top rope. Rollins later responded with two Rolling Elbow strikes as he got ready to deliver the Curb Stomp. The Viper dodged the move and escaped from Rollins trying to perform the Pedigree.

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Orton gained control by nailing Rollins with a Hanging DDT and then an RKO. Orton, before he could pin Rollins, was interrupted by his rivals, Raw Tag Team Champions Otis and Chad Gable of the Alpha Academy.

Orton's tag team partner Riddle came to the rescue and brawled with the Alpha Academy. Orton also joined in on the brawl and re-entered the ring where Rollins was waiting for him. Rollins knocked Orton out with the Curb Stomp and won the match as Raw went off the air.

Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch and Hall of Famer Lita had a contract signing for their title match Saturday at Elimination Chamber.

Lynch came down to the ring looking dejected. The Man, who was wearing sunglasses, asked Lita not to go ahead with the match and said she has lost slept thinking about having to face her teenage idol.

Lynch said Lita has nothing left to prove with the legend responding that she isn't back for just one match.

The champ warned Lita that she will do whatever it takes to remain champion and threatened to injure her before signing the contract. Lynch then left the ring looking dejected after she threw the contract at Lita.

Other moments from Raw included The Street Profits defeating Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode with help from Ziggler's rival Tommaso Ciampa of NXT fame; United States Champion Damian Priest successfully defending his title against Styles; Omos defeating Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin ; Bianca Belair winning a gauntlet match to enter the Women's Elimination Chamber match last against Rhea Ripley; Nikki A.S.H., Liv Morgan and Doudrop; The Alpha Academy defeating Rey and Dominik Mysterio; and Alexa Bliss entering the Women's Elimination Chamber match.
Like everyone else, county in line for surplus funds
Several Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School community members, including a fifth grade student, spoke at a Thursday Clarke County School District Board of Education meeting to express their concerns and frustrations over the school districts limited actions regarding an incident at the school where a students artwork supporting the LGBTQ+ community was taken down and allegedly likened to a swastika by a school administrator.
The news desk has compiled a list of events going on throughout the upcoming week that are open to the public. The list features Russian Cartoon Night, the 22nd Annual Mary Frances Early Lecture, the University of Georgia Diversity and Inclusion Career Conference, a Global Conversation on Muslim Women and Comics and 101 Things to do in Athens.
Putney Central School Principal Herve Pelletier dresses up as a rooster during an assembly for Ralph Flies the Coop, on Friday, March 17, 2017.
Alex Parker-Jennings listens to Rory ODonnell, a social studies teacher at Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School, in Townshend, Vt., during the first day of having in-person classes for the year on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021. The school was closed to students as work was done to update the air filters to be able to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Cloudy. High 64F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Overcast with rain showers at times. Low 47F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Beckley, WV (25801)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 82F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
MIDDLETOWN  A West Hartford man was charged Saturday after police said they found pills and bags of a green leafy substance in his vehicle that tested positive for fentanyl.

Middletown police said Christopher Little, 32, was charged with two counts each possession of narcotics with intent to sell and possession of a controlled substance.

The incident began around 2:15 am when a Middletown officer attempted to stop Little on Route 9. Police said Little failed to stop for a signal.

Police said Little initially failed to stop but was pulled over after a brief pursuit, a press release from the department said.

As the officer approached the vehicle, he observed (2) large plastic bags containing a green leafy substance consistent with marijuana, the release said. Based on the amount, Little was handcuffed and searched by police, which allegedly turned up five unmarked pills suspected to be counterfeit ecstasy, according to police.

Police said Littles license was suspended and he was also wanted on a re-arrest warrant out of Hartford.

Little remained uncooperative during booking but told officers the suspected marijuana and ecstasy were actually Cannabidiol, or CBD, the warrant stated.

Police tested both the pills and bagged suspected marijuana, both of which tested positive for fentanyl, the release said. The bagged green leafy substance tested negative for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, according to police.

It is common for individuals who sell narcotics to lace substances with fentanyl to falsely market his/her product and increase profit margin, the release said. The total weight of the leafy material was more than 2 pounds.

Littles arrest comes amid questions over reports about marijuana that was allegedly laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, surfacing in Connecticut.

Last November, the states Department of Public Health issued a warning after 39 recent cases of opioid overdoses were reported in which the victims denied any opioid use and claimed to have only smoked marijuana. At the time, the instances were thought to point to the first cases of marijuana laced with the substance in the nation.

But earlier this month, DPH said only one sample of marijuana submitted to the state lab tested positive for fentanyl, and that it was likely caused by accidental contamination in an isolated incident. Of the 39 patients who overdosed, 30 were later found to have a history of opiod use, the agency said.

Little was also charged with failure to obey a control signal, disobeying the signal of an officer, engaging police in a pursuit, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, and interfering with an officer.

He was released after posting $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Middletown Superior Court on Feb. 24.
BRISTOL  A local man faces at least 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges linked to child exploitation, according to prosecutors.

Robert Marlin Sellers, 61, of Bristol, pleaded guilty before Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and distribution of child pornography.

The enticement charges carries a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in prison and a maximum term of life. The distribution offense carries a minimum of five years and a max of 20.

The charges stemmed from an investigation that began in 2020 when law enforcement officers learned that Sellers was sharing videos of child sexual abuse on a website centered around incest, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said an undercover FBI agent began talking with Sellers through the social media application Kik in November 2020. During those chats, Sellers claimed he sexually abused children and trafficked a child, according to prosecutors. He also said he recently traveled out of state for an encounter with a 12-year-old girl, officials said.

The undercover investigator told Sellers he had a 12-year-old daughter, and prosecutors said Sellers suggested that the girl could be trafficked for sex and offered ways to carry it out. Prosecutors said Sellers arranged to assault the child in exchange for $200.

In January 2021, Sellers sent the undercover investigator a link to videos of child sexual abuse materials that Sellers kept on a file sharing site, prosecutors said.

Sellers was arrested on Feb. 4, 2021, at a Southington hotel after showing up with $200, expecting to meet the undercover investigators child. Sellers has been detained since his arrest.
CT State Police / Contributed

GLASTONBURY  A 28-year-old man was killed in a crash in Glastonbury on Monday where authorities say he lost control of his vehicle and went down an embankment.

Connecticut State Police on Tuesday said Scudder J. Evans, of Fairview Run in Marlborough, was killed in a crash in the westbound lanes of Route 2 near Exit 9 around 9:40 p.m.
TORRINGTON  Mason Gero, the little boy who captured the hearts of his community and celebrated his fifth birthday on Saturday, died on Valentines Day.

More than 400 vehicles from Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania joined a birthday parade in his honor over the weekend, honking their horns and wishing the boy well for his big day.

Masons mother, Danielle Kaczynski, said her son had a great weekend.

He had a great birthday; he had a great Super Bowl day on Sunday, she said. But he was very tired.

As Mason watched the birthday parade from his driveway with a crowd of family and friends, a stream of fire, police and utility trucks and other commercial vehicles  including garbage and dump trucks  accompanied by cars festooned with balloons and signs, drove past the family home.

Mason was home Monday with his father, Kyle Gero, on Monday while Kaczynski was out. Then her husband called her to say the child wasnt breathing, she said. He applied CPR until paramedics arrived and took the boy to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital.

I had literally just Facetimed with him, and he asked me to bring him pickles, Kaczynski said. I said Ive got a big jar for you, Ill see you in a few minutes and he said, I love you Mommy. And that was it.

After she got the call, I never got back home so fast, she said.

The paramedics were amazing  they did everything they could to try and revive him, she said. But that little heart muscle was just so tired, from being overworked.

Karen Thomas, a cousin of Masons grandfather, Stuart Gero, had helped plan the parade. She said she was almost speechless, afer the huge turnout for Masons birthday parade on Saturday, to learn that he was gone.

I have no words, she said. I mean, Saturday was so great, and now this. Its just so sad.

When Mason was born in 2017, he had what doctors called a complicated heart anatomy, his mother said, which revealed itself soon after his birth. The family brought him to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, which recommended taking the child to Hartford Hospital. There, doctors recommended surgery at Boston Childrens Hospital.

In Boston, doctors performed a double ventricle repair to Masons heart  a 12-hour procedure  but it was unsuccessful, family members said. Doctors did surgery a second time, and they hoped the operation on the boys heart valves had worked; but soon after, Mason was back in Boston with ventricular dysfunction, meaning his heart was not functioning properly.

This month, Mason was scheduled to return to Boston to undergo treatments to remove all antibodies from his blood, which is a necessary step for a transplant patient. Kaczynski said that after waiting three years for a new heart, she realized her son was weakening, and that it was time to do something about it. Mason was on the top of the waiting list at the hospital.

He was in such a bad place, I decided he had to go and do (the antibody treatment), she said. But this wasnt meant for him ...

He came into the world five years ago at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 12, with a congenital heart defect, she said. And he died on Valentines Day, which is National Donor Day, in February, which is American Heart Month, at 10:30 at night, when they finally decided he couldnt be revived, that hed been without oxygen for too long. Thats when they stopped trying.

Masons family donated his eyes after he died.

Someones going to have his eyes; and theyll see the world through his eyes, Kaczynski said.

Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced later this week.
Officers allege their salaries were cut for political donations in latest allegation against the commissioner.

A police commissioner in Cambodia has been accused of corruption by 28 of his subordinates, a signed letter by the accusers obtained by RFA revealed.

In the letter, the 28 officers, representing themselves and more than 100 more colleagues who remained anonymous, accused Koeng Khorn, the commissioner of police in the southeastern province of Svay Rieng, of cutting their monthly salaries and using the money to donate to candidates from Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CCP) in upcoming local elections.

The letter said that salaries were slashed between 200,000 riel (U.S. $50) to 4,000,000 riel ($1,000), depending on the rank of the officer.

The officers urged the minister of interior to investigate the commissioner and his associates, who they said were corrupt.

RFA attempted to contact Commissioner Koeng Khorn by telephone for comment, but he did not answer.

The letter also accused him of ordering his deputy and two lieutenants to forcibly collect the thumbprints of the subordinate officers on documents that showed they agreed to the monetary donations and waived their right to protest. It finally asked National Police Commissioner Net Savoeun and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng to fire Koeng Khorn and seek his replacement.

A Svay Rieng police officer told RFAs Khmer Service on condition of anonymity that the ongoing corruption, partisanship and harassment of lower-ranking officers will negatively affect the department and its ability to maintain order.

He said that during the commissioners more than 10-year tenure a host of irregularities have surfaced, including nepotism in hiring practices and bribery in exchange for promotions. The commissioner also pushed back the year in which the officers could retire with full benefits.

National Police spokesman Chhay Kimkhoeun could also not be reached for comment.

Sok Eysan, spokesman for the CPP, said that the ruling party has no policy for cutting the salaries of civil servants to increase political donations. If police were required to cut their salaries in this case, it is an effort to discredit the CPP, he said.

Donating money to a political party must be voluntary and coercion to donate is illegal, Soeng Karuna, spokesman for the local Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, told RFA.

He said the Ministry of Interior and the government should investigate the officers claims.

After a proper investigation is revealed, a clear action should be taken against individuals, who commit wrongdoing regardless of their roles. Legal action such as administrative penalties or a criminal punishment must be taken accordingly, he said.

Police in Svay Rieng previously wrote two letters complaining about Commissioner Koeng Khorn.

In 2019, 57 anonymous officers said he accumulated tens of millions of dollars by corrupt means. But Koeng Khorn was never charged on any of the crimes alleged in that letter.

National Police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun at that time said three officers investigated the case and found no wrongdoing. He said the allegations were baseless.

In 2020, now hundreds of Svay Rieng police wrote a second anonymous letter accusing the commissioner of sending relatives to the border to collect money from tens of thousands of Vietnamese, who were allowed to enter Cambodia for one hundred thousand dong or about $5 each.

Cambodian official Duong Ngiep, in a file photo. Photo: Facebook account of Duong Ngiep

Jailed whistleblower

Meanwhile, a court in the capital Phnom Penh Monday ordered into custody Duong Gniep, described in Cambodian media as the country's deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Interior, who recently publicly criticized the judges of the court for attempting to take a bribe from him.

Duong Gniep is charged with defrauding Taiwanese business partners of millions of dollars in a fake real estate sale.

On Feb. 7, he posted a video on Facebook in front of the Prey Sar Prison saying that he was ready to enter the prison after two judges of Phnom Penh tried to coerce him into giving them money to rule in his favor in his fraud case.

In the video, Duong Ngiep claims that the judge turned his case black  that is, they extorted money from him. Duong Ngiep did not reveal how much money he paid to the judges, but said that they kept asking him to appear before them and he had to pay them each time.

He said he appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials to help but was ignored.

Duong Ngiep also said that he regretted supporting the CPP in the past as they did not help him out in the end.

One day before his arrest, Gniep, who also holds honorable title Okhna (Duke in English), had written a letter of apology to the Phnom Penh court chief for questioning the honor of the court chief. He said the pressure of the court case contributed to his distress and confusion.

Speaking to RFA during a live interview Monday, the President of Cambodias Independent Commission Against Corruption, Morm Sitha, said that the government should investigate Duong Ngieps allegations.

If the courts are not independent, it means that everything is missing from human rights and democracy. Investors would not come to invest in Cambodia if the court is corrupt, she said.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
The PRCs coercion and aggression spans the globe, but it is most acute in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken takes part in a joint press availability with Fiji's acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum in Nadi, Fiji, Feb.12, 2022.

When the top U.S. diplomat visited the Indo-Pacific last week, the White House unveiled a new strategy that vowed to use all instruments of power to anchor the United States in the region and counter what it called Chinas pursuit of a sphere of influence.

Coming when the worlds eyes were on the standoff with Russia over its troop build-up on the border with Ukraine, the message was clear  that the United States views the Indo-Pacific as its foreign policy priority.

In Melbourne, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Friday with counterparts from Australia, India, and Japan  collectively known as the Quad. Then at the weekend, he travelled to Fiji, signalling U.S. intent to engage more with the Pacific islands. Moving on to Hawaii, he sat with allies South Korea and Japan.

As he did so, the Biden administration published a 19-page strategy document for the region that includes an action plan for the next 12-24 months. The strategy, released Friday, vows to bolster Indo-Pacific security, drawing on all instruments of power to deter aggression and to counter coercion, mostly from China.

The PRC (Peoples Republic of China) is combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological might as it pursues a sphere of influence in the Indo-Pacific and seeks to become the worlds most influential power, the paper said.

The PRCs coercion and aggression spans the globe, but it is most acute in the Indo-Pacific, it said.

Previous U.S. administrations, notably Barack Obamas, have also unveiled ambitious Asia-Pacific strategies promising increased diplomatic and security engagement, rooted in U.S. long-standing alliances and partnerships. But the Biden administrations game-plan for the region takes shape with U.S.-China tensions at a higher point than in the past.

One Chinese analyst questioned whether the U.S. had the resources to back up the newly-announced strategy.

Some define strategy as the intelligent allocation of resources to achieve desired objectives, said Andy Mok, senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing.

While the U.S.s recently released Indo-Pacific strategy lists some clearly defined goals, its not clear that the resources available are sufficient to achieve these goals, he said.

Beijing has yet to react officially to the new strategy. It has long criticized Washington for what China sees as the deeply-entrenched Cold War mentality and ideological bias of the US side.

A file photo showing the U.S. Navy destroyer USS John S. McCain conducting a patrol in the South China Sea, Jan. 22, 2017. Credit U.S. Navy via Reuters Focus on alliances and partnerships

The new strategy prioritizes Washingtons long-standing treaty alliances with Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. It also calls for stronger relationships with India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Pacific Islands.

The U.S. will pursue an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, and will build support for rules-based approaches to the maritime domain, including in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. It also plans to expand the U.S. Coast Guard presence and cooperation in Southeast and South Asia and the Pacific Islands, and provide maritime security assistance.

Another focus is Taiwan. The U.S. vows to work with partners inside and outside of the region to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, including by supporting Taiwans self-defense capabilities.

China will no doubt react strongly to this as Taiwans status and the islands relationship with the U.S. have always been one of the core disagreements between Beijing and Washington.

China considers Taiwan a breakaway province but most of the Taiwanese see themselves as citizens of an independent, self-governed country.

Expand diplomatic presence

The new strategy was reflected in the optics of Blinkens regional tour, which started with the meeting in Melbourne Friday with foreign ministers from the Quad, a quadrilateral strategic partnership linking the U.S., Australia, India and Japan.

The new Indo-Pacific strategy emphasizes strengthening the Quad and delivering on its commitments, as well as supporting Indias continued rise and regional leadership.

Additionally, the strategy says the Biden administration is committed to meaningfully expand U.S. diplomatic presence in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

That jibes with Blinkens announcement at talks with Pacific island leaders in Fiji that the U.S. plans to open an embassy in Solomon Islands. The U.S. Embassy there was closed in 1993. Blinkens was the first visit to Fiji by a U.S. secretary of state since 1985.

The purpose of the visit is to reconnect with the Pacific and to head off Chinas advances in the region, said Jonathan Pryke, director of Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think-tank.

But Pryke wrote in an article he co-authored on the think-tanks blog, The Interpreter, that while Pacific countries are democracies, Pacific leaders do not automatically see China as a strategic threat. They dont want be asked to choose between the United States or China, he said, adding that Blinkens visit should only be the start.

About Blinkens visit, a Chinese Foreign Ministrys spokesperson pointedly noted that, more than 20 Chinese leaders and senior officials above the foreign minister level have visited Fiji since 1985.

The development of relations between China and Pacific island countries is open, transparent, inclusive, and not targeted at any third party, Zhao Lijian said.
Doubts are growing around the official identification of a woman found chained in an outbuilding after being married to a resident of Jiangsu's Feng county and bearing him eight children, Chinese commentators said on .



An official investigation into the background of Yang Qingxia, who received a diagnosis of schizophrenia in the days after the video of her chained to a wall went viral on Chinese social media platforms, has identified her as "Xiao Meihua," the nickname of a young woman who went missing in the southwestern province of Yunnan in the 1990s.



But social media users have been engaging in a little research of their own, and have taken issue with the claim, saying Yang's photos more closely resemble a missing woman from Sichuan province, Li Ying.



An investigation team set up by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee and municipal government in nearby Xuzhou city claims that Yang originally hails from Yunnan's Fugong county.



But freelance researchers say officials have yet to travel to the village they say Yang is from.



Xiao Meihua's younger sister has said Yang is likely too old to be her older sister, who would be 43 this year, while Yang's marriage certificate shows her to be 52.



Current affairs commentator Cai Shenkun said he didn't believe that Yang's marriage certificate photo resembled Xiao Meihua at all, while other online researchers said it more closely matched a photo of Li Ying.



"I saw the marriage certificate photo, and these are two different people," Cai said. "Their ages don't match, either ... This is a very serious issue."



Online comments said they believe Xiao Meihua, whose parents are now dead, was chosen as a convenient identity to give to Yang.



"Everyone suspects that Xiao Meihua is no longer alive," Jiangsu commentator Zhang Jianping told RFA. "The photo of the marriage certificate ... shows that Yang Qingxia is very likely Li Ying, the missing woman from Sichuan."



A sample of online protests by Chinese people rejection official explanations and demanding an investigation into a woman found chained in an outbuilding after being married to a resident of Jiangsu's Feng county and bearing him eight children. More questions arise

But there is a problem with that story, too.



According to official statements, Yang, 52, allegedly gave birth to eight children in the space of 23 years following her marriage in 1998, with the eldest now 23 and the youngest 20 months old.



One of her children, the eldest son, was named Dong Xianggang to mark the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule, but online researchers have also cast doubt on this claim, saying his mother could have been someone else entirely.



If Yang is indeed Li Ying, she would have been born in Sichuan's Nanchong in 1984, before going missing in 1996 at the age of 12, making it unlikely that she gave birth to Dong Xianggang. Also, Yang's age is given as 52, while Li Ying would only be 38.



Beijing-based criminal defense lawyer Mo Shaoping said the government could use DNA testing and other forms of technology to get to the bottom of Yang's identity -- if it wanted to.



"There is enough technology around now to use facial recognition to compare [Yang and Li's] faces, and also to tell whether the photo on the marriage certificate is actually the woman who was chained up," Mo said.



"There should be no barrier to doing this whatsoever ... I hope a qualified agency will run a comparison to see if they really are the same person."



The authorities have begun clamping down on public reporting and comments on Yang's case.



Police detained two women who traveled to the village where Yang was found in Feng county, in a bid to help her, and are holding them on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the CCP.



Viral video launches story

Meanwhile, two social media users known as @I can carry 120 pounds and @Sister Xiaomeng Xiaoquanquan said they had tried to make inquiries at the local police station.



"I went to report the case at the local police station, but they did nothing, even after I had there for six hours," @I can carry 120 pounds wrote, while @Sister Xiameng Xiaoquanquan wrote that she had "gotten myself caught up in so many inexplicable things" after going there to try to offer support to Yang.



And residents of Yueyang in the central province of Henan posted photos of themselves holding placards calling for a full investigation into the entire case.



In the original viral video, a woman identified as Yang Qingxia is shown sitting in a dilapidated outhouse at a rural property near Jiangsu's Xuzhou city with a chain around her neck, as a citizen journalist asks her if she is getting enough to eat.



Local officials said Yang was diagnosed with schizophrenia following psychiatric consultations on Jan. 30, and is currently being treated with antipsychotic medication. But questions have also been raised about why local official supported the family for many years with financial and building subsidies.



Some pointed out that a number of local officials and Yang's psychiatrist all shared the same family name -- Qu -- which appears first in official name listings in China.



RFA confirmed via official websites on that Qu Ligui is currently deputy director of the Feng county finance bureau, a Qu Lixin serves as deputy director of the county civil affairs bureau, while Qu Shenpeng and Qu Liguo are CCP party secretary and deputy mayor of Huankou township, Feng county, respectively.



The chief psychiatrist responsible for Yang's diagnosis is Qu Liquan.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Kim Jong Un has pledged to build 10,000 new dwellings a year in Pyongyang over the next five years.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech at ground-breaking ceremony of construction of flats in Hwasong area, in this undated photo released February 13, 2022 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is celebrating plans to build another 10,000 new homes for residents of Pyongyang, even as work on the first 10,000 pledged under a capital building scheme has fallen behind schedule, sources in the country told RFA.

Pyongyang, the countrys capital and with a population of 3 million its largest city, suffers from a severe housing shortage. Kim pledged at the Korean Workers Party Congress in January 2021 his government would build 50,000 houses by the end of 2025, one-fifth of which were to have been finished by the end of last year.

But workers have only completed the exteriors of most of the buildings, a setback largely attributed to a two-year suspension of trade with China due to the coronavirus pandemic. Almost everything that goes into the interiors of North Korean homes, from sinks to toilets to kitchen fixtures, is imported from China.

Despite the delays, Kim held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the next phase of the construction project. Freight trade with China resumed last month, and Pyongyang has been fervently importing construction materials, even when food is its most pressing concern, to try to get the home construction program back on schedule.

Residents in the capital are upset that the government continues to kick people out of their homes to start on the next 10,000 homes before the first 10,000 have been finished, a resident of South Pyongan province, north of the capital, told RFAs Korean Service.

The source, who requested anonymity for security reasons, read reports in state media that detailed Kim Jong Uns speech at the groundbreaking.

[He] called it the establishment of a new area for the people, symbolizing another era of transformation, said the source. He claimed that the 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang were a move toward a great new era of socialist development.

But the residents considered the ceremony to be outrageous propaganda, according to the source.

The first 10,000 homes  were supposed to be completed by the end of last year, the source said. The displaced residents who received home use permits for the new homes have been living in great difficulty because they were not able to move into new homes.

Since all real estate is owned by the state, people technically do not own their homes in North Korea. Instead they receive home-use permits, which can be traded on the open market, effectively circumventing government controls on real estate trading and speculation.

For residents who were forced to give up their old homes because they were in the construction area, a home-use permit for the newly constructed homes was their only compensation. They are on their own for lodging in the interim, forced to stay with family or friends while they wait for construction to be completed.

They have barely completed the building frames of the last 10,000 homes due to the lack of construction materials. All the interior work remains unfinished, and they are already looking forward to the next goal of finishing 10,000 homes with a grandiose ceremony, the source said.

The big plan for 50,000 homes in Pyongyang in five years is going to be a huge talking point for the government, he said.

Residents in the northwestern province of North Pyongan were unmoved by the latest groundbreaking, a resident there told RFA.

They wonder, Will the new apartments go up on their own if we dont even have construction materials yet? Even if we blindly set a goal and add manpower to speed things up? the second source said.

The second source noted that funds were collected from residents all over the country and tens of thousands of soldiers were mobilized to meet the construction goals for the capital in the middle of the pandemic. And still, the government failed to complete its goal.

It may not even be completed until the Day of the Sun, said the second source, referring to April 15, a major national holiday to commemorate the birth anniversary of North Koreas late founder and Kim Jong Uns grandfather, Kim Il Sung.

The 10,000-home construction project is a major priority for the North Korean government. RFA reported in June that authorities routed electricity away from other regions of the country to keep Pyongyang fully powered so construction workers could work through the night.

Working on the project has been grueling and dangerous for the mobilized workers. Pyongyang residents complained in May that the underfed workers were mugging civilians to get money for food. Additionally, a fire in a workers dormitory killed 20 workers in April, RFA reported.

Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
The new rules guard against workers becoming ideologically lax.

North Korean workers at a construction site in Vladivostok, Russia, in an undated photo.

North Korean construction workers in Russia are being prohibited by their government back home from taking on small-scale side jobs, a policy change designed to prevent them from escaping, sources in Russia told RFA.

An estimated 20,000 North Koreans have been dispatched by their government to Russia to earn foreign cash for the regime. The government keeps the lions share of the wages they earn while abroad.

After several North Koreans disappeared while working apart from their handlers in mid-January, authorities gave the order that side jobs are no longer allowed. A Russian citizen of Korean descent from Vladivostok in the Russian Far East that authorities fear the workers will become ideologically lax.

Since January, North Korean workers here in Russia have not been able to take on any individual small-scale contract work, the source told RFAs Korean Service on Feb. 9.

From now on, all workers must work in groups of 10 to 20 people under mutual surveillance, said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

The workers also are prohibited from living outside of a designated dormitory, according to the source.

The human resources officials used to confiscate the workers passports and gave them paper identification. Now they have even confiscated the papers, he said.

One North Korean worker I knew at a job site said that authorities ordered that nobody go out alone or speak to the locals. There are security cameras in the dormitory, and they are fenced in with iron plates. Security is set up to prevent their escape, said the source.

Authorities also confiscated the workers cellphones, according to the source.

The workers are prohibited from working alone so that they wont have a chance to become ideologically lax, he said.

The workers working alone in nearby Nakhodka have all returned to their handling company there, another Russian citizen of Korean descent told RFA.

The North Korean authorities established new business rules to prevent ideological hazards and increase foreign currency earning potential, said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. Workers should be organized in groups of 10 or more, and each company requires them to offer about U.S. $700 per month each.

Supervisors who are unable to raise the $700 will be removed from their positions, the second source said.

Their worker groups will be disbanded, and the workers will be reassigned to other groups that perform better, the second source said.

North Korean labor exports were supposed to have stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019.

But Pyongyang sometimes dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions.

Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
A long line of trucks on Laos' Route 13, which leads north to the Chinese border, is seen in this file photo.

Chinese truck drivers at the Lao-Chinese border are bribing traffic police in Laos to skip extremely long lines of trucks that are waiting to get into China, Lao truck drivers told RFA.

COVID-19 protocols in China are causing major delays at the border. Only 150-200 trucks from either side are able to pass over in a day. RFA reported last month that the trucks must be sprayed three times within 20 minutes of crossing as part of an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, and the gate is only open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m..

At one point there were more than a thousand trucks on the Lao side at the Boten border gate, and fights were breaking out between drivers over their spots in line.

Lao authorities are now giving priority to drivers who give them a little extra cash, a Lao trucker, who had been waiting in line for more than a week, told RFAs Lao Service.

Some Chinese truckers are paying money to the authorities, who will then clear traffic for them. Then they drive past the others and go, said the trucker, who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

We can do nothing except wait. Since Ive been here almost 100 Chinese trucks have totally skipped the line, he said.

The trucker said that all drivers get a queue number ticket from authorities and are told to wait their turn. But the Chinese truckers are able to just drive through.

Up until now, weve never seen any Chinese being fined for that. Wed like to urge the authorities to look into this problem and solve it. Everyone should comply with the rules, he said.

Another waiting Lao trucker said that the Chinese truckers dont seem to care about Lao rules and laws.

They can just pay the authorities. Ive been waiting in line for six or seven days now. Im still far away from the border gate. The line is still long, and the wait is endless.

One trucker recently took to Facebook to express his anger.

Everyone else wants to go too. All our trucks have been stuck for days. Some people say the owners of the trucks carrying watermelons can pay kickbacks to the traffic police and they are allowed to go through. I am therefore calling on the upper-level authorities to come up here and see whats happening, he wrote.

A Lao official at the Boten border gate told RFA that trucks move according to their placement in line. Line skippers are detained and fined, the official said.

We dont have a policy that favors Chinese drivers over Lao drivers. We have rules to follow, the official said. Before, there might have been some cases of line skipping, but now weve improved the situation and the trucks are moving through faster, but according to their queue numbers.

Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith visited Luang Namtha province last week and told provincial authorities that he would discuss the congestion with Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh.

The president said he wanted to see the problem solved because it was hindering exports to China.

Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Officials with the groups say the military regime oversees little outside of town centers.

One year after Myanmars coup, anti-junta Peoples Administrations are consolidating power in the countrys Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin and Kayah states amid increased resistance to military rule, sources said Monday.

Myanmars military overthrew the countrys democratically elected government on Feb. 1, 2021 claiming voter fraud had led to a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the countrys November 2020 election.

The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to civilian rule, killing 1,549 people and arresting 9,132 over the last nine months, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

On Feb. 22, 2021, three weeks after the coup, the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) and Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Committee of Representatives (CRPH) called for the formation of a Peoples Administration in every village and township to counter the control of the junta.

Former lawmakers, members of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), fighters with the pro-democracy Peoples Defense Force (PDF) militia, and residents responded to the call by creating local shadow administrations, which they said enjoy increasing power in rural areas since November, when the military regime stepped up an offensive against ethnic armed organizations and anti-junta forces in the countrys remote border regions.

A shadow official for Magwes Saw township, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, told RFAs Myanmar Service that his administration worked directly with the NUG to raise funds in support of workers who had left their jobs to join the CDM and refugees who had fled clashes in the area between the military and PDF.

He said the shadow administration had also restarted the local education system with 20 schools and set up mobile clinics to provide badly needed health services to residents five times per month.

We cannot govern the cities and the towns, but we are able to implement our administrative mechanisms in areas about four or five miles outside of them, he said.

There are even cases of people filing criminal complaints to our administration team and we are settling them on the ground.

The official said his administration, which has a presence in about 80 of Saw townships 110 villages, currently coordinates area boycotts of junta products and activities for the CDM.

He said they have established their administration in 80 out of 110 villages in Saw Township, while opening 20 schools and provide medical treatments by mobile teams five times a month to the local people.

An information and communication official for nearby Gangaw townships Peoples Administration, who also declined to be named, told RFA that their team is in constant competition with junta officials for control of the area.

We first formed our team when the CRPH called for the formation of Peoples Administration groups, but we restructured it on Nov. 3, and  have since worked more effectively, he said.

In Gangaw township, there is no area where the military has totally given up the control  We have to flee when military troops arrive. Sometimes, we are engaged in fighting. We retake the area after they leave. The military has been able to control the towns and the areas around their regional bases. For the rest of area, we are competing for control.

Peoples Administrations are typically structured to include a central administrator and officials in charge of village security, health, education, and social welfare for refugees.

The official said residents trust and rely on his administration because it supports CDM members, refugees, and other vulnerable groups.

Near-total control

A shadow official in Chin states Mindat township told RFA that his Peoples Administration had established control of 95 percent of the area, excluding the township seat.

In Mindat town, the military council has their administration, but we are handling many administrative duties, the official said.

We have a medical treatment center and are trying to establish public health procedures for other areas. It is the same for education. We are trying to open schools throughout the entire township.

A resident of Mindat town told RFA it is safer to deal with Peoples Administration than the junta.

The Mindat administration team is working on a manual of governance that oversees areas including the systems of justice, health and agriculture, he said.

We are glad that we have this administration as we dont want to live under the military regime.

A spokesperson for a PDF group active in Sagaings Yinmabin township told RFA that the junta has lost all control of the area.

Many of the administrators have resigned because they dont like the juntas activities, he said.

In Yinmabin, the Peoples administration team is very powerful. The juntas administration is gone. They are only limited to the towns.

Meanwhile, the information officer of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) told RFA that of seven townships in Kayah state, the military controls only a few wards in the state capital Loikaw and in Bawlakhe township, while the rest is under the Peoples Administration.

It is around 90 percent [outside of junta control] because the people have established their own administration, he said.

The people build their own clinics and education facilities. The local people oversee the regions peace and security.

Repeated attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the governance situation in Sagaing, Magwe, Chin and Kayah went unanswered Monday.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Sources say a lack of resources has hampered authorities ability to control the latest outbreak.

People wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Yangon, in a file photo.

Nearly 1,800 people were confirmed positive with COVID-19 in a 24-hour period over the weekend in Myanmar, capping off a record week of infections that some observers say is another reflection of the countrys disarray since the military seized power a year ago.

The juntas Ministry of Health said that a total of 1,787 patients tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus from Feb. 11-12, more than 900 of whom are in the commercial capital Yangon alone. The number represented a six-fold increase from the number of infections in the period from Feb. 1-2.

More than 8,000 people were confirmed positive with COVID-19 from Feb. 6-12, a new record for the nation, as military rulers struggle to provide citizens with adequate healthcare to battle the spread of the pandemic since taking over from the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

A doctor in Yangon, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said that the variant spreading through the country has yet to be confirmed due to a lack of testing resources in the aftermath of the military takeover. In the year since the coup, Myanmars economy has suffered from mismanagement, while many of the countrys healthcare workers have left their jobs to join a nationwide anti-junta civil disobedience movement.

There are no more fever clinics in any townships, while the fever sections in hospitals are no longer operational, so people rely on general practitioner clinics and private hospitals when they get sick, he said.

The testing mechanism is not fully functional, so its hard to confirm whether the outbreak is Omicron or Delta. They can only test whether it is COVID or not. We are seeing a surging new wave in February.

A woman from Yangon who recently tested positive said several clinics in the city have closed due to the high infection rate.

All of the homes on our street and in our neighborhood have sick people now. ... The clinics are too crowded to receive new patients. They close by 2 p.m. The few clinics open in evening are filled with 20-30 patients, she said.

Some are using traditional remedies or take the medicine they have at home. They also resort to the free medical advice of doctors on the internet and take the medicines they recommend.  There is nothing else they can do.

The woman, who declined to be named, said she became infected despite receiving two vaccinations.

Other sources told RFA that while the numbers of infections are concerning, the latest outbreak appears less severe than those earlier in the pandemic.

Min Dinh, a volunteer from Myita Thinga Ha Free Funeral Service Group, said he hadnt received any requests for funeral services for patients who died of COVID, unlike last year.

In 2021, we had to send everyone who was in contact with positive patients for quarantine, but now, nurses are taking mouth swabs from patients at private clinics. If they test positive, they asked to remain separate from the rest of their family members and take medicine, he said.

I think only the people who are getting tested are those traveling internationally and those healthcare workers who have had contact with confirmed cases. Nobody who tests positive voluntarily goes to [inform the] authorities and humanitarian groups anymore.

Humanitarian groups in Yangon told RFA they are prepared to help contain the outbreak if requested.

Emergency response measures

Than Naing Soe, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, told RFA that authorities are working on prevention and emergency response measures.

We are releasing data on immunizations. We have prepared since December. We have disseminated the information through the media, he said.

We have formed emergency response teams to handle any surge in cases. We have released information about our preparations.

While the Health Ministry has launched a campaign to educate the public in Yangon about COVID-19 and how to avoid infection, residents of the city told RFA that not enough is being done to control the outbreak.

According to the ministry, more than 19 million people in Myanmar  or more than one-third of the population of roughly 54 million  had received two COVID-19 vaccinations as of Feb. 12.

Junta officials say a total of 548,357 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 19,311 people have died of the disease since the beginning of the pandemic.

Volunteer care providers say the actual numbers are likely much higher.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Since 2017, the Chinese government has detained about 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in hundreds of re-education camps in Xinjiang in an effort to prevent possible religious extremism and terrorism among the mostly Muslim groups.

As anthropologist Darren Byler sees it, the mass detentions are part of Chinas settler colonialism and resource extraction in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where about 12 million Uyghurs. His latest book Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City examines how Chinas settler colonization of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiangs capital Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) has led to terror capitalism  a system that justifies oppression by branding Uyghurs a security threat to generate state investment in policing and surveillance technologies to monitor and control them.

Bylers ethnographic fieldwork in Urumqi shows how the Chinese governments imposition of ethnic majority Han Chinese values along with efforts to increase the number of Han settlers in the area have perpetuated Uyghur dispossession and expulsion from the city. He focuses on young Uyghur men, the main target of state brutality, and their development of tight social bonds as a protective measure.

Bylers other book on Xinjiang, In the Camps: Chinas High-Tech Penal Colony, also published in 2021, examines Chinas pervasive surveillance network in Xinjiang and is based on thousands of government documents and interviews with camp detainees and workers. The assistant professor of international studies at Canadas Simon Fraser University discussed his books with reporter Nuriman Abdurashid from RFAs Uyghur Service. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

RFA: Youve written two books about the Uyghurs. Briefly summarize them.

Byler: One is called In the Camps. Its about what has happened since 2017, when over a million people were put into camps, and what that has done to Uyghur and Kazakh society. This is a book that's written for a general audience to help them understand what has happened. Ive also written a longer book called Terror Capitalism, which is about the economic and political systems that led to the camp system, so its mostly about the beginning of the Peoples War on Terror which started in 2014 and how that led to the camps.

RFA: Why were you interested in writing about the Uyghurs?

Byler: The second book [Terror Capitalism] is focused on the rise of an economic formation of a kind of security-industrial complex where the state has hired over 1,000 contractors  private companies  to build forms of surveillance that will begin to sort through Uyghur and Kazakh behavior and diagnose who is potentially a criminal. They are using Chinese counterterrorism laws, which are very broad and define things as terrorism that are not terrorism, that in any other context in the world would not be thought of as that. It is things like having WhatsApp on your phone, using a VPN, and having relatives who live abroad and sending them money  things that you know anyone would do in any other context and they wouldnt be considered a crime for Muslims like those things now are. The technology systems are being used to determine if people have done those things. Thats what I'm looking at. Im interested in how the companies benefit from those things. They benefit [not only] by receiving money, but also by receiving data which they can use to develop other products. Theres also the forced labor element that is built into the system as well, where the camps are used to control who is sent to work in factories.

RFA: What do you expect Terror Capitalism to accomplish?

Byler: The first three chapters focus on processes of enclosure devaluation and dispossession, which are all of the ways in which Uyghurs have been systematically targeted by this system. Two of the last three chapters focus on ways that Uyghurs survive [and] how they find where to live even as these things are being done to them. One of the things I found was that Uyghurs can really care for each other by sharing friendship [and] by telling their stories and remaining the author of their own history. By saying out loud whats happened to you, you reclaim that knowledge as yours. Thats really powerful. I learned so much from the Uyghurs I met when I was living in Urumqi. They taught me what is really important about being a human because many of them were [living] in very precarious conditions. Some of them were being called on a daily [or] weekly basis to come back to their villages because the police were visiting their families and saying they must come back. Then if they did go back, they would disappear. But they felt like in the end that God would protect them. They also understood that they and their families and their friends cared for them, so that it wasnt their burden alone. By sharing their pain, sharing their suffering with each other, they made each other stronger. I found that to be really beautiful. It was also very sad because I can write these stories, but in the end I cant protect my friends. All we can do is to appeal to the world to say that this should never happen.  We can help people to tell their own stories and translate them for the world to understand that this is whats happening to these people. A crime against humanity, which is what this is, is a crime against all of our humanity, so this should really hurt all of us, and we should grieve together and support each other as we respond to it.

RFA: What do you expect your readers to gain from your latest book?

Byler: What I want my readers to take away from the book is that whats happening to the Uyghurs is similar to and related to older forms of settler colonialism that occurred in other places like in North America where Native Americans were colonized or in contemporary forms of colonialism like in Kashmir [and] Palestine. Even the technologies and tactics are being shared. Its in many places. In the two places I mentioned, the Global War on Terror is being utilized as a tool to put those colonial systems in place. The same thing is happening in northwest China. Thats what I want readers to take away from this. The decimation of Uyghur society is the most egregious form of settler colonialism thats in the world right now. It also can be seen as a warning of the kind of things that could happen with the colonial systems in other places like Kashmir or Palestine.  I also want [readers] to understand that mass incarceration systems produce forms of dehumanization, that they have a logic and an economic logic that drives them. We see that happening in North America. We see it happening in China now. There are many places in the world where prisons are used to warehouse people that are unwanted. This is another example, an extreme example, of how those things happen and what effects they have.

Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Action at Cresyn Hanoi in Bac Ninh province follows a successful strike at a footwear maker in central Vietnam.

Workers at the Cresyn Hanoi Co ., Ltd. electronics factory in Bac Ninh province, east of Vietnam's capital Hanoi, strike for higher wages and other perks, Feb. 14, 2021.

More than 2,000 workers at a Korean electronics company factory in Vietnams Red River Delta went on strike on Monday, following a successful worker action at another foreign-owned plant in the country, local media reported.

Employees at Cresyn Hanoi Co., Ltd. in the Bac Ninh province are demanding wage increases, meal allowances and bonuses for working on Vietnams Reunification Day on April 30 and Labor Day on May 1, according to Vietnamese daily newspaper Tien Phong.

The factory employs a total of 3,500 workers, according to VietnamCredit, a business information provider in Vietnam. The companys website said the plant makes seven million Bluetooth headsets and data link cables a month.

Workers are also want the company to pay employees based on the number of years they have worked. Furloughed employees would earn 70 percent of their base salary, under the workers demands.

They also asked management to create a COVID-19 testing calendar, provide more worker uniforms, and expand the company parking lot.

Representatives from the provinces Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Public Security Department asked the company to make sure it is adhering to Vietnamese labor laws on annual raises, overtime pay and worker seniority.

Cresyn Hanoi immediately addressed some issues as it reviews costlier wage increases. The company agreed to test workers weekly for the COVID-19 virus, increase employees meal allowances, replace worker uniforms each year, and expand the parking area.

Cresyn Hanoi said it would respond to worker demands for higher base pay, allowances, and bonuses by Feb. 25.

The strike comes on the heels of a successful strike by workers at Viet Glory Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese-owned footwear manufacturer in central Vietnams Nghe An province. The company ceded to demands by its 5,000-strong workforce to increase salaries and provide extra pay for long-term workers, along with other benefits, according to state media.

A Viet Glory worker told RFA on Monday that he was resuming work after the strike and that he and his colleagues were pleased that their demands had been met.

We will probably get a new salary from next month on with a 6 percent increase in base salary, said the employee, who declined to give his name in order to speak freely. In general, we are excited about the pay raise, and everyone is happy because we have not gotten a pay raise in several years.

RFA reported on Feb. 8 that Viet Glorys more than 5,000 workers had gone on strike at noon the previous day to demand higher salaries and protest against a harsh work environment.

In response, the company said it would increase workers fuel allowance to 260,000 dong (U.S. $11) from 200,000 dong a month, and their meal allowance to 20,000 dong from 18,000 dong a month. The company also said it would pay male workers with children under 5 years old a child allowance of 50,000 dong a month.

Viet Glory initially refused to increase base salaries and seniority allowance, however.

But on Feb. 12, Viet Glory relented and agreed to a 6 percent salary increase as of Feb. 1. It also granted a seniority allowance to employees who have worked for the company for at least a year.

The monthly seniority allowance is 30,000 dong per year worked. Those who reach their seventh year with the company will receive a monthly seniority allowance of 210,000 dong.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Man says he feared getting placed with other infected patients would make him sicker.

Medical staff and police arrive at the home of Tran Xuan Quang to urge him to go to a centralized location for COVID treatment, Feb. 13, 2022.

A Vietnamese man who tested positive for COVID-19 is refusing a government order to be taken from his home for quarantine, saying thousands have died in centralized locations without adequate treatment.

Tran Xuan Quang, a resident of the Hung Phuc ward of north-central Vietnams Vinh city, was confronted on Sunday by police and medical workers who came to detain him after he reported his infection the week before, Quang said.

When the authorities came, I was very upset and angry, Quang, 62, told RFA on Monday.

They were accompanied by a group of 20 people and three cars, and when the cars stopped, someone made an announcement over a loudspeaker, saying that if I and my family didnt cooperate, we would be sent to a central place for quarantine.

We all know how dangerous centralized quarantine locations can be, so I strongly opposed their order, Quang said. Two militiamen in the group then wanted to detain him by force but were stopped by a ward official, he added.

Though refusing to leave his home, Quang agreed to close his shop and allow ward medical staff to enter his house to disinfect blankets, mattresses and mats. The items were left soaking wet with chemical spray, making it impossible for him and his family to sleep that night in the cold, he said.

Quang had reported his positive COVID test to a ward clinic just a few days before, he said.

Having heard about my health problem, they told me to fill out a form and leave it there. I thought that making this declaration was all I needed to do, and I went home, but that night, my grandchild developed a high fever, and I made a phone call to the head of the clinic.

The clinic head called back the next morning, telling Quang he would have to be taken to a center for centralized treatment according to government regulations, Quang said.

But I asked her what regulations were currently in force, and whether she remembered that thousands had already died under centralized treatment in Ho Chi Minh City.

Quang told the official he would refuse to leave, prompting Sundays arrival of the task force at his home, he said.

Authorities have meanwhile provided no medical help or other support to Quang and his family, he said.

Honestly, they have nothing available to help us. Even on the day that I was sick, I called them, but they didnt care, he said.

Calls seeking comment from Phan Anh Hung, chairman of the Hung Phuc Ward Peoples Committee, were not picked up on Monday. A reporter who phoned Nguyen Thi Bich Hoa, the deputy secretary of the wards Party Committee, was told to come to her office in person for information.

Vietnams government has acknowledged that coercive measures were used to house COVID-infected residents in field hospitals in southern provinces during the pandemics peak in 2021, despite a lack of adequate vaccines or other medicines to treat their condition.

Critics blame the policy for unnecessary infections and deaths.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Richard Finney.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced 300 million pounds ($376 million) worth of extra military aid for Ukraine in a video address to the parliament in Kyiv -- the first by a foreign leader since Moscow's invasion -- as evacuations from Mariupol stalled amid fresh Russian shelling a day after a group of evacuees left the besieged port city.

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.

Britain has already sent military equipment, including missiles and missile launchers, to Ukraine. The new aid will consist of electronic warfare equipment, a battery radar system, GPS jamming equipment, and thousands of night vision devices.



In his speech, Johnson referred to a 1940 address by World War II leader Winston Churchill as Britain faced Nazi Germany's aggression.

"The British people showed such unity and resolve that we remember our time of greatest peril as our finest hour," Johnson told the Verkhovna Rada. "This is Ukraine's finest hour, an epic chapter in your national story that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come."

"We will carry on supplying Ukraine...with weapons, funding, and humanitarian aid, until we have achieved our long-term goal, which must be so to fortify Ukraine that no one will ever dare to attack you again," Johnson said.

In Brussels, the European Commission is expected to finalize a proposed sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia, including a possible embargo on buying Russian oil, on May 3. In a major shift, Germany said it was prepared to back an immediate oil embargo.

But another EU member, Slovakia, said it was seeking an exemption from any EU ban on Russian gas and oil imports, with Economy Minister Richard Sulik saying that such an exception was "extremely important."

Sulik, who is also the deputy prime minister, said his country cannot make do without Russian oil.

The sanctions will also target the country's largest bank, Sberbank, which will be excluded from the global banking communications system SWIFT, unnamed diplomats said.

In the besieged southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, the Russian military said it had resumed strikes on the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, where Mayor Vadym Boychenko said that more than 200 civilians were still holed up with fighters.

"Using artillery and aircraft, units of the Russian Army and the Donetsk People's Republic are beginning to destroy" the "firing positions" of the Ukrainian troops, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

Boychenko said a total of about 100,000 civilians were still in the southern Ukrainian city, which used to have a population of some 400,000 before the Russian invasion.



A group of around 100 Ukrainian civilians left Mariupol on May 1 for the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhya, some 230 kilometers away, according to authorities.



Fighting also raged in the strategic port city of Odesa and across Ukraine's east. A 15-year-old boy was killed in a fresh Russian strike on Odesa, the city council said.

Ukraine's second-biggest city, Kharkiv, was under shelling, the military said on May 3, while the General Staff said Ukrainian forces were defending the approach to Kharkiv from Izyum, some 120 kilometers to the southeast.



Since Russia launched its unprovoked war on February 24, its troops have failed to completely take over any major Ukrainian city.

On the diplomatic front, Germany's conservative opposition leader traveled to Kyiv on May 3 for meetings with Ukrainian officials, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz made clear that he wouldn't be visiting Ukraine any time soon.

Friedrich Merz, who heads former Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Union bloc, visited the town of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, which has been heavily bombarded by Russian forces.

Scholz refused to go to Ukraine because of Kyiv's refusal to invite Germany's head of state, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whom Ukrainians accuse of cozying up to Russia during his time as foreign minister.

"It can't work that a country that provides so much military aid, so much financial aid...you then say that the president can't come," Scholz told public broadcaster ZDF late Monday.

The United States warned that Moscow was planning to formally take over regions in Ukraine's east.



Michael Carpenter, the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE, said Russia is planning to imminently annex the territories of Luhansk and Donetsk in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, using referendums after failing to overthrow the government in Kyiv.



Russia encountered surprisingly staunch resistance in the north around the regions of Kyiv and Chernihiv, which forced it to redeploy its troops in the south and east, where fighting has intensified in recent days.



Ukraine's east and south are seen as key strategic goals for Russia, allowing it a land link to Crimea.

WATCH: Ukrainian soldiers defending the village of New York, near Donetsk, say they repelled several attacks as Russian forces tried to outflank their positions. RFE/RL correspondent Maryan Kushnir spent time with them on April 29 as the sound of explosions and small-arms fire echoed across the landscape.



Moscow raised fears that those goals may stretch further, to Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniester, which is backed by Russia and borders Ukraine to the southwest along the Dniester river. Moldova also borders NATO member Romania.



On May 2, authorities said a Russian rocket strike hit a main bridge across the Dniester estuary just west of the port city of Odesa.



A British intelligence estimate said on May 2 that Russia's elite forces have suffered such large casualties that it will take years to replenish them. It said more than 25 percent of Russia's invading force has been disabled since the start of the conflict.

Separately, Russia's state news agency TASS quoted the Defense Ministry on May 3 as saying that more than 1 million people, including nearly 200,000 children, had been taken from Ukraine to Russia in the past two months.



Defense Ministry official Mikhail Mizintsev said those civilians "were evacuated to the territory of the Russian Federation from the dangerous regions" of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, and from other parts that came under Russian control.

No details were provided on the location or circumstances of the moves.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, BBC, and dpa
In March 2014, shortly after Russian troops seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss the first land grab in Europe since the end of World War II.

Merkel had conversed earlier in the day with Russian President Vladimir Putin and was now sharing the details of that call with Obama.

Putin was "in another world," she reportedly told the U.S. president, referring to what analysts describe as the Russian leader's alternate, some say paranoid, view of political events -- a mindset in which the United States lurks behind many of the country's misfortunes.

Eight years later, as Russia surrounds Ukraine on three sides with about 130,000 troops in what U.S. officials have warned could be a prelude to the biggest invasion in Europe in more than 75 years, Putin -- who turns 70 in October -- may be even more cut off from reality, analysts say.

Largely isolated at his residences in suburban Moscow and the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, protected by precautions amid the worst pandemic in a century, Putin is deciding his next moves -- possibly the most consequential in Europe in decades -- with input from just a handful of close advisers who share his conservative and conspiratorial view of the world, according to current and former Western officials and analysts.

WATCH: Russia is holding "unprecedented" naval exercises on the Black Sea, increasing fears that a maritime assault could be part of a possible invasion of Ukraine.

That inner circle -- which includes Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Viktor Bortnikov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Naryshkin, and Investigative Committee Chief Aleksandr Bastrykin, among others -- has narrowed since 2014 as Putin's disillusionment with the West grows, analysts say.

"The future of Ukraine may hinge on a man ensconced in a bubble that both feeds his aggression and shields him from its consequences," Adam E. Casey, a postdoctoral fellow at the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan, and Seva Gunitsky, a professor at the University of Toronto, wrote in an article published this month in Foreign Affairs.

Russian political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya wrote in a May 2020 report, just at the start of the pandemic, that an emerging elite grouping she called "the protectors" was becoming more influential with Putin. She described "the protectors" as an alliance between those who favored greater repression inside Russia and those who advocated a conservative ideology as a way to repel challenges that its members claim come largely from abroad.

"The protectors' ideology, unashamedly drawing on conspiracy theories, seeks to mobilize society against foreign threats and advocates stricter control over Russians' private and political life," Stanovaya said.

A specific example of a such a conspiracy claim emerged amid the tension over Ukraine: Shoigu, 66, asserted in December that U.S. mercenaries were moving an "unknown chemical compound" into the Donbas region, where Russian-backed forces are fighting the government in a war that has persisted since 2014. He gave no evidence to support the claim.

Shoigu, who has accompanied the president on several hiking and fishing trips to Siberia that are featured on state TV, is "one of Putin's few personal friends in the government," according to the book Mr. Putin by Fiona Hill, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, and Clifford Gaddy, an economist specializing on Russia.

When Putin came to power at the end of 1999, he initially surrounded himself with a wide range of advisers, from liberal economists to former colleagues from the secret services. However, he made a sharp turn to the right around 2012, the year he returned to the presidency after a stint as prime minister amid unprecedented protests against his rule.

He accused the United States of orchestrating the demonstrations that erupted in 2011 -- in part over his decision to come back to the Kremlin -- and launched a crackdown on dissent, civil society, and the opposition that would grow with each succeeding year.

"To consolidate power anew, Putin repositioned himself as a dyed-in-the-wool conservative stressing the importance of 'spiritual bonds' and traditional values that were lacking in the decadent West," Stanovaya said in the report.

In 2013, he signed legislation that ostensibly aimed at "protecting children from information advocating for the denial of traditional family values" -- the so-called "gay propaganda" law, a move that has increased social hostility toward LGBT people, according to human rights organizations.

When demonstrators in Ukraine took to the streets later that year to protest President Viktor Yanukovych's rejection of a trade agreement with the European Union in favor of closer economic ties with Russia, Putin again pointed a finger at Washington and the West. After Yanukovych fled to Russia, Putin sent in troops to seize Crimea and Moscow backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.

Putin's actions are widely seen to have pushed Ukraine further from Russia's orbit and strengthened its people's desire for integration with the West -- something Western officials say he and his close advisers have failed to grasp. He certainly has not accepted it publicly, instead accusing the West in a widely discussed article published in July of dividing Russians and Ukrainians, whom he has called "one people."

People who have dealt with Putin say that his conspiratorial view of the world has been deeply shaped by his years as an officer of the Soviet KGB. Several of his closest associates, who are around his age, come from a similar background and in many cases the same city, Leningrad -- now St. Petersburg.

"As he frequently asserts in both public and private, he believes there are plots and conspiracies by the United States and the West directed against him and against Russia," Hill, a Russia expert who was the senior director for Europe and Russia on Trump's National Security Council in 2017-19, wrote in a 2016 article.

"Such conspiracy thinking is consistent with his logic," Hill wrote. "The plots make sense in terms of his frame of reference -- as seen through his filters of the Cold War, his time as a KGB operative in East Germany in the late 1980s, and the prevailing political views of conservative Russia circles."

Patrushev, 70, one of Putin's closest associates throughout his years in power, is a hard-line conservative fellow former KGB officer. Born in Putin's hometown of Leningrad, he served as FSB chief from 1999 to 2008 before moving to the Security Council.

He was reportedly behind the new National Security Strategy that was released last year and took criticism of the West to a new level, claiming that Russia's "cultural sovereignty" is at risk and that its "traditional values" are "under active attack by the United States and its allies."

Sergei Naryshkin, 66, another Leningrad native who first met Putin after graduating from the Higher School of the KGB, has claimed without any evidence that Western intelligence agencies tried to assassinate Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. Navalny, who was poisoned with a Russian-made nerve agent in Siberia in 2020, blames Putin and the FSB.

Naryshkin has also recently equated the democratically elected government in Ukraine, headed by a Jewish president, with Nazis, even as the Kremlin cracks down on the slightest form of dissent.

Bastrykin, 68, who studied at the law faculty of Leningrad State University (LGU) in the 1970s with Putin, once threatened to kill the deputy editor of opposition newspaper Novaya gazeta.

Putin's tight-knit inner circle has been fluid over the years, with people joining and falling out as they fumble or irritate the president.

Among those who have departed include former long-serving Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin, who holds more liberal views. Analysts have also speculated that former Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, a close friend of Putin from school days, as well as former President Dmitry Medvedev, are no longer part of the president's inner circle.

Brian Taylor, a Syracuse University professor who has written books on Putin's Russia, says that Dmitry Kozak, a longtime aide to the president who currently oversees talks with Ukraine on the conflict in the Donbas, may be an important voice in the current crisis. Putin has relied on Kozak, who is 63 and a lawyer by training, to tackle tough problems in the past, including instability in the North Caucasus. He is not considered to be among the conservative hawks.

Taylor says there has always been a lot of guesswork in determining who might have influence over the president's decisions -- and it has only gotten harder since the pandemic due to Putin's limited personal interaction with officials.

Unlike the United States, Putin's Russia has no "regularized interagency process" in which foreign and security officials are present and making decisions. While Putin receives information and is presented with options from various individuals, it is difficult to tell "who actually influences the decision among those options," Taylor said.

"It's more the last person that Putin talked to, rather than some kind of collective consensus of the foreign and security policymaking elites," he said. "The whole bunker presidency just makes it even more complicated."

Mike Eckel contributed to this report
SOFIA -- On the evening of March 21, 2015, around 7:30 p.m., the skies over Iganovo burst into fiery shades of red and orange, and the windows of homes in the tiny Bulgarian village rattled and shook.



Panicked locals rushed to flee from the source of the chaos: explosions at the Vazov Machine-Building Plant, a state-owned facility where anti-tank munitions, antiaircraft missiles, and other weaponry is manufactured.



Only three weeks later, just before dawn on April 14, the village was again rattled by blasts at the same plant, partially destroying one part of the sprawling complex.



The two incidents fit a pattern: four other blasts had taken place over 2014 at various locations in Bulgaria where weaponry and similar munitions are manufactured. At one location, Gorni Lom, northwest of Sofia on the border with Serbia, 15 people were killed.



Bulgarian prosecutors investigated the cause of the blasts, but charges were filed in only one: the October 1, 2014, explosion in Gorni Lom; the four defendants were later acquitted. There is no public information about what happened to the other investigations.



In the wake of this week's revelations about an ammunition-depot explosion in 2014 in the Czech Republic that has been blamed on Russian military intelligence, as well as another suspicious blast at the same depot later that year, one former Bulgarian defense minister called for the Bulgarian investigations to be reopened.

And a new analysis by RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service adds further evidence suggesting a possible link between the Russian military intelligence agency -- known as the GRU -- and the Bulgarian explosions.



At around the time of the explosions at the Vazov plant in the spring of 2015, at least six Russians who have been identified as, or are believed to be, GRU agents were regularly coming and going to and from Bulgaria.



Moreover, flight data and GPS track info, first compiled by the open-source investigation organization Bellingcat, shows another alleged GRU agent traveling in and out of Bulgaria, close to the dates of the 2014 explosions.



The Czech prime minister has blamed the GRU; specifically its elite and notorious Unit 29155.



The unit has also been linked to a near-fatal poisoning of a Bulgarian arms dealer named Emilian Gebrev, whose weapons caches were reportedly the ones destroyed in the Czech Republic.



The first of the two poisonings that Gebrev suffered occurred on April 28, 2015 -- two weeks after the April 14 explosion in Iganovo.



String Of Unsolved Blasts



On February 28, 2014, an explosion at the Arsenal weapons complex in Kazanlak, east of Sofia, partly destroyed a workshop where gunpowder was produced, killing one person.



Six months later, on August 8, 10 people were injured in a series of explosions at the TEREM-Tsar Samuil military plant in Kostenets, in southwestern Bulgaria.



Less than two months later, on October 1, the deadliest disaster to hit a Bulgarian munitions facility struck at the Midzhur plant in Gorni Lom. Aside from the 15 dead, two other people were wounded.



In the third week of December, a private manufacturing company of ammunition and hunting ammunition in Maglizh, in southern Bulgaria, was hit with an unexplained explosion that killed one person.



The explosions all occurred during a period of high tensions in Eastern Europe sparked by Russia's invasion and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and the outbreak of a Russian-backed separatist war in eastern Ukraine.

At the time, Ukraine's armed forces were in a disastrous state, depleted by a lack of organization, proper training, and a severe shortage of proper weaponry and equipment.



Ukrainian officials struggled to quickly find weaponry and ammunition to hold off the onslaught of better-equipped and better-trained fighters, whose numbers included Russian military operatives.



Bulgaria maintains a sizable arms manufacturing and trade industry.



To this day, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Russia denies having any role to play in the Ukrainian war, calling it an "intra-Ukrainian conflict."



According to flight-tracking data published by Bellingcat, a Russian citizen named Vladimir Moiseyev who used the pseudonym "Vladimir Popov", traveled to Bulgaria on at least four occasions in 2014: in March , September, November, and December, and once in 2015. All those trips occurred in the days around the explosions at the various munitions.



Officials in Montenegro say they are also seeking Moiseyev in connection with an alleged coup plot in 2016. The GRU has been blamed for that failed effort.



Beginning in February and April 2015, meantime, at least six other Russians later alleged to be military intelligence were known to have traveled in and out of Bulgaria, according to flight data. Those identified included Denis Sergeyev, and Sergei Lyutenkov, who traveled to Sofia under the pseudonyms Sergei Fedotov and Sergei Pavlov, respectively.



Another alleged agent named Yegor Gordiyenko who used the pseudonym Georgy Gorshkov arrived in the Black Sea town of Burgas around the third week of April, according to the flight data, along with Sergeyev.



The presence of the two in Bulgaria coincided with two sudden and mysterious illnesses that nearly killed Gebrev, the arms dealer, between April 28 and May 4. Two other Bulgarians, including Gebrev's son, also suffered near-fatal illnesses.



Bulgarian investigators later announced that Gebrev was the victim of "intoxication with an unidentified organophosphorus substance," but did not pinpoint the actual substance or make much known progress in the case until three years later, when a former Russian military intelligence officer named Sergei Skripal and his daughter nearly died after being exposed to a powerful Soviet-designed nerve-agent called Novichok.



British law enforcement later identified two Russian men as the culprits in the poisoning, which also resulted in the accidental death of a British woman.

Those men were later identified by Bellingcat, and subsequently by U.S. and British officials, as being members of Unit 29155, the same unit that many of the alleged GRU agents traveling to Bulgaria are believed to belong to. Czech police have issued an arrest warrant for two Russians having the same names as the two wanted in Britain for the Skripal poisoning, and the photographs released by Czech police are the same used by the British.



In February 2019, Bulgarian investigators reopened their investigation into the Gebrev poisoning; then-Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov said a suspected Russian intelligence officer linked to the Skripal poisoning was in Bulgaria in April 2015.
Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny attended the start of a new trial on February 15 on fraud charges widely seen as politically motivated. The session took place inside Correctional Colony No. 2 in the town of Pokrov, some 100 kilometers east of Moscow. The anti-corruption campaigner stands accused of embezzling money from his now-defunct and banned Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). He has spent the last year behind bars after his conviction on a different fraud charge that he also says was trumped up by the Kremlin. A fresh conviction could extend his prison time by more than 10 years.
Russia has massed military forces on Ukraine's borders, with the United States estimating that around 130,000 troops have been deployed by Moscow. The latest satellite photos show major deployments in Russia, Belarus, and the Crimean Peninsula, which was seized from Ukraine in 2014.
I want to start todays press conference by wishing all of you a Happy Lantern Festival. Im sure you have noticed that here with us today are Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon, the mascots of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games. This pair of lovable mascots have been showered with love without borders or distinctions from athletes, media and the public all over the world ever since the opening of Beijing 2022.



Sport knows no borders and humanity shares deep bonds. Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon have exemplified the meaning of together in the Olympic motto by presenting enthusiasm, openness, optimism and confidence that runs in the Chinese culture and blood and building bridges of exchange over the world. Hope we can deepen understanding and strengthen friendship in the presence of smiling Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon, and move together for a shared future.

CCTV: We have noticed that the executive order signed by US President Biden regarding the $7 billion frozen assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan has been opposed by various sides. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman called the US decision absurd, adding it is actually exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and obstructing the work of the new authorities in Kabul to establish a normal life. The Afghan Taliban issued a statement comparing the US move to theft. The foreign ministries of Pakistan and Iran also opposed the US decision. Does China have any comment?



Wang Wenbin: Without the consent of the Afghan people, the US willfully disposes of assets that belong to the Afghan people, even keeping them as its own. This is no different from the conduct of bandits. This latest example has once again laid bare that the rules-based order the US claims to champion is not the kind of rules and order to defend the weak and uphold justice, but to maintain its own hegemony.



As the culprit of the Afghan crisis, the US should not exacerbate the suffering of the Afghan people. It should unfreeze their assets, lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan as soon as possible, and assume its due responsibility to ease the humanitarian crisis in the country.

Phoenix TV: We noted that in a joint statement on February 14, the G7 finance ministers said that they are prepared to impose economic and financial sanctions on Russia. What is Chinas response?

Wang Wenbin: China opposes wanton use or threat of unilateral sanctions in international relations. Under the current circumstances, unilateral sanctions will only intensify division and confrontation. China calls on all parties to remain rational, work for the comprehensive resolution of the Ukraine crisis and issues concerned through dialogue and negotiation, and refrain from making moves that may escalate the tensions and play up and sensationalize the crisis.

CRI: It is reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sent a team of experts to visit Japan from February 14 to 18. The experts will evaluate the safety of the release of nuclear contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean on February 15. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: I noted relevant reports. The Chinese side hopes that the IAEA technical working group can follow the objective, just and science-based principle to conduct independent assessment, monitoring and verification on the disposal of the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water throughout the whole process in order to ensure absolute safety. Japan should cooperate fully with the IAEA including by accepting monitoring and verification on the safety of the nuclear contaminated water, data accuracy and efficiency of the means of disposal. China will keep following the progress of the technical working group, and hopes it will keep the international community, especially stakeholders, informed in a timely manner.



I also want to stress that Japan does not agree to the IAEA technical working groups assessing disposal plans other than ocean discharge. Chinas support for the work of the technical working group does not mean we endorse Japans wrong policy to release the nuclear contaminated water into the sea. Japan should face up to the international communitys concerns, revoke the erroneous decision on ocean discharge, and stop advancing relevant preparatory work. Unless consensus is reached with stakeholders including neighboring countries and relevant international organizations through full consultation, the Japanese side mustnt wantonly start the ocean discharge.

AFP: A Pentagon spokesperson said yesterday that Chinas tacit support for Russia on the Ukrainian issue was deeply alarming. And he said that was destabilizing to the security situation in Europe. Does China have any response to this?

Wang Wenbin: Under the current circumstances, exaggerating and hyping up the possibility of warfare is not responsible behavior. Resorting readily to sanctions and pressure wont help with deescalating the situation. Clamoring for bloc confrontation will only lead to the old path of the Cold War. We call on all sides to adopt an equal and open attitude, and work for the earnest implementation of the Minsk-2 agreement through dialogue and negotiation so as to create conditions for a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

Associated Press of Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan, while talking to former ambassadors and representatives of think tanks and media, said his visit to China has strengthened bilateral relations and also opened windows of investment. I wonder if you have any comment on it?

Wang Wenbin: Prime Minister Imran Khans visit to China and attendance at the opening ceremony of Beijing 2022 carries on the fine tradition of mutual support between China and Pakistan. President Xi Jinping met with the Pakistani Prime Minister, and Premier Li Keqiang had talks with him. Leaders of the two countries reached important consensus on such areas as the development of CPEC, more cooperation in science and technology, agriculture and livelihood, building a corridor for green development, health and digital economy, encouraging Chinese companies to invest in Pakistan, leveraging the protocol to the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, and increasing the import of agricultural products from Pakistan.

China is ready to work with Pakistan in implementing the above important consensus, further deepen strategic mutual trust, expand bilateral practical cooperation and inject new impetus into the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.

Reuters: Just now on Ukraine, you said China calls on all parties to follow an equal and open attitude and encourages dialogue. Has China been having any dialogue with Vladimir Putin in recent days asking him not to invade Ukraine?

Wang Wenbin: Chinas position on Ukraine is consistent and clear, and stays unchanged. We believe all parties should earnestly follow the Minsk-2 agreement and work toward the comprehensive resolution of the Ukraine crisis and issues concerned through dialogue and negotiation.

Beijing Daily: Today, the Chinese naval formation delivering relief supplies to Tonga has arrived in Nukualofa, the capital of Tonga, according to reports. Can you share more information?

Wang Wenbin: This morning, the Chinese naval formation loaded with relief supplies from China has successfully arrived in Tonga. The shipment weighs more than 1,400 tonnes in total, which includes portable cabins, tractors, power generators, water pumps, water purifiers as well as emergency food and anti-pandemic supplies. This is the fourth batch of relief supplies China has delivered to Tonga in the wake of natural disasters of volcanic eruption and tsunami that hit the country. Besides, the 119 pieces of China-assisted heavy machinery reached Tonga yesterday. Tongas political figures including Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni and Foreign Minister Fekitamoeloa Katoa Utoikamanu welcomed the arrival of the vessels at the port, where they expressed sincere gratitude to China and praised Tonga-China friendship.

Cooperation between China and Tonga in disaster relief has demonstrated the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and deepened China-Tonga comprehensive strategic partnership. China will continue to provide assistance for Tonga to the best of its capability for post-disaster reconstruction in light of Tongas needs.
BUCHAREST -- NGOs and local leaders say Romania appears ill-prepared for a major influx of refugees if fighting dramatically escalates in neighboring Ukraine and civilians are forced to flee, despite government assurances to the contrary.

They say meager facilities are already stretched thin by the busiest year in decades for asylum applications, in addition to years as a gateway to Europe for migrants from Asia and elsewhere.

NGOs and local leaders have said the government has cited an expansion of only around 2,500 extra places for asylum seekers or refugees, while the direst forecasts suggest a major conflict could send millions of Ukrainians scrambling for the borders.

The warnings this month coincided with a tour of the region by U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet in which he discussed with Romanian officials the possibility of such a wave as Western fears mount of an "imminent" military escalation in Ukraine by Russia.

"Romania has an asylum and receiving system that is made to meet the needs so far, so theoretically we're ready to receive asylum seekers [on the scale] we usually receive [them]," Irene Teodor, from JRS Romania, an NGO that aids refugees, told RFE/RL's Romanian Service, "but it also depends on what numbers we're talking about."

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said last month that a "major war" could spark "the sudden appearance of between 3 [million] and 5 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion."

Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said on February 13 that his country was preparing to accept refugees from bordering Ukraine.

Romania shares a combined 650 kilometers of border with Ukraine, to its north and east, the most Ukraine has with any EU or NATO member state. Ukraine is home to an ethnic Romanian minority of around 400,000, many of them in the western region of Bukovina.

Limited Numbers

Romania's government last week insisted that the country's five-year national strategy on immigration "creates the necessary levers" for the kind of national cooperation among "relevant" institutions that a sudden surge at the borders would require.

The Interior Ministry's General Inspectorate for Immigration said it has "the necessary legislation, tools, and resources...to process asylum applications and integrate individuals seeking any form of international protection."

But the inspectorate also noted that "in the event of a possible influx of migrants from Ukraine," plans require cooperation among multiple institutions -- something that could prove challenging on Romania's notoriously fractious political scene.

"There is a constant need for preparation and adaptation for a possible increase in the number of asylum applications," the inspectorate acknowledged.

Romania operates six centers to house refugees and other migrants: in the capital, Bucharest; Timisoara in the west; Maramures in the northwest; Suceava in the north; Giurgiu in the south; and Galati in the southeast.

The centers are outfitted to accommodate 1,000 people in all, and were thought to be at around 70 percent occupancy in 2021, following a doubling of the number of migrants from the previous year and a quadrupling from the 2019 figure. Those facilities could theoretically be expanded to add another 1,500 people.

The government also said in a response to an RFE/RL query that the General Inspectorate for Immigration intends to expand the capacities in Suceava, Timisoara, and Galati by a combined 500 places. It has also acquired a building in Crevedia, about 15 kilometers outside Bucharest, that it will eventually adapt to house 500 more people. But that's still just 2,500 extra places.

Some of the centers have been struggling. After multiple complaints, the People's Advocate, the office of the national ombudsman, last year cited overcrowding and other problems in Timisoara, the busiest of the six current migrant centers.

A representative of the Save The Children organization in Romania, Florina Dragulin, who coordinates a refugee project, says authorities "somehow" managed to resolve some of the biggest problems with such centers. But still, she said, "many centers are unsuitable for families."

The situation in Timisoara now "is stable, but not necessarily satisfactory," Mayor Dominic Fritz told RFE/RL's Romanian Service last week.

"It's clear that the management of the migration phenomenon in the west of the country needs improvements, and Timisoara still suffers from this," Fritz said. "We'll have to see in the spring, when it's warm. If the number of migrants increases, then surely the response of the state and the government will have to increase."

But it's unclear if Romanian officials have the luxury of waiting.

Much-Needed Stocks

Romania's recently installed government is led by Nicolae Ciuca, a retired general who spent five years as chief of the Romanian General Staff and two years as defense minister. He already faces challenges over a plagiarism scandal.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said last week that his country "must be prepared for an attack scenario" in Ukraine, a country of around 44 million people.

Many Western officials have suggested Russia could be planning a major incursion into Ukraine -- where Kyiv has already been fighting Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country for seven years and Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

NGOs could provide more help if a conflict drives civilians across the border, but capacity remains a question. The Romanian Red Cross has said it has stocks for the temporary accommodation of refugees, including bedding, food, and other supplies.

"At the moment, the Romanian Red Cross is making efforts to identify a central warehouse that would allow us to expand the much-needed stocks to 10,000 people, as the existing warehouse is insufficient and is not owned by our organization," the aid group told RFE/RL last week.

Beyond Russian President Vladimir Putin's insistence that NATO guarantee it won't accept Ukraine as a member, Bucharest and Sofia reacted with alarm when the Kremlin demanded last month that NATO keep its troops and infrastructure out of Romania and Bulgaria, which have been members of the military alliance since 2004, and return to its 1997 deployments.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg traveled to Romania on February 11, where he met with Iohannis at a U.S. military base on Romania's Black Sea coast.

His trip came as additional German and U.S. troops and equipment arrived in Romania as part of a rapid reinforcement to try to provide security in the region.

Written by Andy Heil in Prague based on reporting by Anna Barabas and Ionut Benea.
Russia is holding "unprecedented" naval exercises on the Black Sea, increasing fears that a maritime assault could be part of a possible invasion of Ukraine. The drills that are scheduled to run until February 19 have disrupted vital shipping lanes crucial to Ukraine's exports like grain and steel. According to the United States, Russia has also amassed around 130,000 troops on Ukraine's eastern and northern borders and could attack at any moment, something Moscow denies. But even without an invasion, a blockade of Ukraine's maritime routes could suffocate the country economically from the sea.
Ukraine is on edge as it faces what analysts call the greatest buildup of military forces in Europe in decades.

Russia has nearly encircled Ukraine, deploying an estimated 130,000 troops and military hardware on three fronts: in Crimea to the south, on the Russian side of the two countries' border, and in Belarus to the north.

Rarely mentioned, however, is the small contingent of Russian troops on Ukraine's southwestern border.

For decades, Russia has had more than 1,000 troops in Transdniester, a breakaway region of Moldova -- one of Europe's oldest so-called frozen conflicts -- and Ukrainian officials are wary. While largely overlooked, some military experts say the region could be a key spot if Russia does opt for a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

And Washington appears worried as well. On February 14, the State Department issued a statement urging U.S. citizens not to travel to Moldova due to COVID-19 and the "unusual and concerning Russian military activity around Ukraine, and the unresolved conflict between the breakaway region of Transdniester and the central government."

"U.S. citizens in Transdniester should depart immediately via commercial or private means," the statement added.

Russian political leaders deny Western accusations that it is planning to invade Ukraine, but say it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless a range of demands are met, including barring Kyiv from ever joining the NATO alliance.

Where And What Is Transdniester?

Home to some 450,000 people, Transdniester is a sliver of land, sandwiched between Ukraine and Moldova proper, with its own currency -- the Transdniestrian ruble -- and much nostalgia for Soviet times, including lots of statues of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin amid dreary communist-era architecture.

Its mainly Russian-speaking populace declared independence in 1990, and two years later fought a five-month war against Moldovan forces. A cease-fire was signed in 1992, but a resolution to the conflict has proved elusive. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) spearheads efforts within a so-called 5+2 format to resolve the issue.

A few rogue republics, including the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, have recognized its independence, but not a bona fide state, including Russia.

Despite that, Moscow wields its influence. It provides energy to Transdniester, but sends the bill to Moldova. And like in other breakaway regions, Moscow has handed out Russian passports to the people of Transdniester; apparently some 200,000 since 2002.

How Many Russian Troops?

Shortly after the cease-fire was signed in 1992, Russian troops moved in. They were described as a peacekeeping force. Exactly how many are there now is unclear, but estimates range from some 1,200 to 1,500. Part of their stated mission is guarding what is considered Eastern Europe's largest munitions depot --22,000 tons -- at Cobasna, just 2 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Russia has dragged its feet to either liquidate or remove the munitions, as Moldova and the OSCE have called for.

Moscow recently rejected calls from NATO and the United States to remove its troops from Transdniester -- as well as Crimea, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia -- in exchange for dialogue on arms control. Russia said the troops were needed in Transdniester to protect Russian citizens and as a "safety factor" to ensure no resumption of hostilities.

Separatist Transdniester also has its own armed forces, which number between 4,000 and 7,500. According to a 2017 report, some of them were forced to join the ranks.

Transdniester: A Further Threat To Ukraine?

Amid the current tension and fears that Transdniester could be a source of further instability, Ukraine has banned vehicles with Transdniestrian license plates from entering the country. That rule took effect on September 1, 2021.

Tensions ratcheted up further in January, when Ukrainian intelligence accused the Russian special services in Cobasna of planning provocations on Russian armed forces that would be exploited as a pretext to launch an attack on Ukraine.

Just a month later, Ukrainian fears were heightened when Russian troops staged military drills in Transdniester.

Amid the current tensions and increased activity in Transdniester, the Moldovan government is concerned. "At the moment, we're not seeing any unusual activity in Transdniester, but we are worried that could change," Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu recently told Foreign Policy. "We are consistently calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldovan territory, and we stand for the fact that it's our sovereign right to make that decision."

According to a U.S. military and intelligence assessment, cited by NBC News on February 10, one of the probable routes into Ukraine in a full-scale Russian invasion could include plans "to create a land bridge to Moldova and control much of the Black Sea coast."

Other analysts have said it's possible Russian forces in the Black Sea would target the Ukrainian city of Odesa, with the possible aim of creating a "link up with Russian forces in Transdniester."

The Russian-founded Conflict Intelligence Team, which monitors open-source information to track the movements of the Russian military, has noted a huge buildup of Russian troops and hardware in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, as well as a large naval buildup in the Black Sea, including "11 large landing ships, 6 of which arrived from the Baltic and Northern fleets, as well as other landing craft transferred from the Caspian Flotilla."
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington does not yet see evidence of a Russian troop withdrawal from areas near the border with Ukraine and warned that an invasion by Moscow remained a possibility.

During a 10-minute speech to the nation on February 15, Biden held out hope that diplomacy would work but said the United States would be ready to hit Russia hard with sanctions if it invades Ukraine.

He also appeared to prepare Americans for consequences domestically, saying they could face higher energy prices should Russia escalate, triggering sanctions, but said that it was worth the price to defend democracy.

To be clear, if Russia decides to invade that will also have consequences here at home. The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost, he said.

Biden said he is working on mitigating any impact on oil prices, which already are near eight-year highs. Russia is among the three largest oil producers in the world and sanctions could disrupt exports.

The presidents speech comes a day before the date his administration reportedly said Russia could potentially launch its attack on Ukraine, according to U.S. media outlets.

Earlier in the day, Russias Defense Ministry said it had begun to withdraw some troops located near Ukraines border, raising hopes of a de-escalation of tensions.

That would be good, but we have not yet verified that, Biden said, adding Russian troops -- which he estimated at over 150,000 -- remain very much in a threatening position.

He said despite the possibility of an attack high-level diplomacy to resolve the crisis should be given every chance to succeed.

The U.S. president also spoke directly to the Russian people.

To the citizens of Russia: You are not our enemy, and I dont believe you want a bloody, destructive war against Ukraine," Biden said.

"We are ready to work further together. We are ready to go down the negotiations track," Putin told a joint press conference with Scholz as he confirmed an earlier Russian Defense Ministry statement of a partial pullback of troops.

Scholz said he saw some hints of progress in his talks with Putin and called Russian claims of a troop pullback a good sign toward de-escalating a crisis that has reverberated far beyond Europe.

"There were enough points of departure indicating a good development," he said. "It shows that it is worth sticking with it and trying to make progress despite broad points of disagreement."

Putin said Russia of course does not want to see the outbreak of war but added he was disappointed that there had not been a constructive response to Russia's security demands.

The West has threatened to impose severe sanctions on Russia should it invade Ukraine. However, the United States and its European allies have differences over which sanctions to impose and what military actions would trigger them, something some analysts say Putin is seeking to exploit.

Germany is heavily dependent on Russian energy to fuel its economy, Europe's largest.

Biden said last week at a White House meeting with Scholz that he would impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2, the new Russian natural-gas pipeline to Germany, if the Kremlin proceeded with an attack on Ukraine.

Scholz declined to say whether Berlin was ready to put the $11 billion pipeline on the sanctions table.

Nord Stream 2 would reroute gas destined for Germany under the Baltic Sea, circumventing an existing land route through Ukraine and depriving Kyiv of about $2 billion in transit fees.

During the press conference with Scholz, Putin reiterated that Russian-German energy cooperation remained a priority for Moscow and called Berlin a key partner.

Putin claimed Nord Stream 2 would guarantee European energy security, a claim Washington rejects.

Scholz's trip to the Russian capital follows similar trips for crisis talks last week by Macron and two British ministers.

Scholz, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on February 14 in Kyiv, had urged Russia to take immediate steps toward reducing the tensions triggered by the buildup of troops and military hardware near the border with Ukraine.

Russia has insisted it has no plan to invade but at the same time has said it wants guarantees on European security issues, including a commitment by NATO not to expand to countries like Ukraine, or another former Soviet republic, Georgia.



However, Russia's envoy to the European Union warned on February 15 that Moscow could invade Ukraine if "provoked" by an attack on Russian citizens inside the country.

"We will not invade Ukraine unless we are provoked to do that," Vladimir Chizhov was quoted as saying by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency.

Chizhov's comments follow repeated warnings by Washington that Russia is planning so-called "false flag" incidents as a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. warnings were echoed by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who said on February 15 that an imminent invasion of Ukraine remained very probable, and Russian troops could reach Kyiv "very, very quickly."

"It is still the case that an invasion could be imminent, and it is highly likely," she said.

Amid U.S. warnings of a possible imminent Russian invasion, Zelenskiy decreed February 16 a day of unity.

U.S. intelligence has reportedly indicated February 16 as a possible date for Russian military action.

"We are told that February 16 will be the day of the invasion, we will make it the day of unity," Zelenskiy said in a video on the evening of February 14.

Ukrainians are expected to raise flags across the country and sing the anthem at 10 a.m. local time. "Let's show the whole world our unity," Zelenskiy said.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, TASS, and AP
Richmond, KY (40475)

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Becoming windy with scattered thunderstorms developing. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 82F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

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$312 Million in Clean California Projects to Beautify and Revitalize Public Spaces Throughout the State
Sheriff Donny Youngblood: 'You cant help mental health and drug addiction by just talking to people'
Igor Kulichik: The diamond market is now in the initial phase of turbulence Igor Kulichik is a well-known expert in the diamond market. He has worked in the diamond industry for 20 years: he was CFO of ALROSA from 2002 to 2017, and a member of the Board of Directors of AGD Diamonds from 2018 to 2022. He is also a member of the...

There is a classic phrase: Art is an Ambassador of Peace. And this is true Chief Expert of the Gokhran (State Valuables Depository) of Russia Veronika Voldaeva, Art History Ph.D., Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, author and compiler of the decorative and applied section of the Gokhrans collection...

DiaMondaine Diamond Club: Fostering cross-industry networking, ethical sourcing and transparency The diamond industry had been promoting a culture of ethical sourcing and transparency as studies have time and again revealed that consumers, particularly the younger generation, are increasingly concerned about such matters. DiaMondaine Diamond Club...

The Indian diamond industry believes there wont be any major issues in the diamond supply chain Dinesh Navadiya is a Diamond Baron from Surat. He is serving the industry for more than a decade in various positions and capacities. He is a Regional Chairman of The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, an apex body of the Indian gem and jewellery...
Roanoke Rapids, NC (27870)

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Sanford, NC (27330)

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Twice in the last two months, Kendra Riley appeared before legislative committees to implore for the passage of a bill that she feels could ease the burden for parents who endure the heartbreaking ordeal that befell her family in March 2020.
Willliams

I first learned about the so-called key trick from a Boston police officer on my first day of college. With a Dunkin Coolatta in the other hand, she demonstrated how to wrap your hand around your keys like Freedy Kroogah to ward off potential attackers.

Borrowing from this logic bestowed upon me in the fall of 2009 is this CRKT Williams Defense Key; a self-defense multitool you can bring with you anywhere.
From Editor for Emerging Products and Audio Sarah Feldberg:



The Pictures of the Year International competition has named San Francisco Chronicle photographer Gabrielle Lurie the Local Photographer of the Year for the second consecutive year.

Awarded by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, the Pictures of the Year International contest honors the best in photojournalism and visual editing from across the globe, with submissions reviewed by a panel of expert judges. Local Photographer of the Year, which is one of the competitions premier categories, is open to photographers all over the world and given to a photojournalist who has excelled in documenting their own community.

Adam Mesnick

Winning the Photographer of the Year award is truly thrilling, but I must admit that the real joy is being able to tell peoples stories through my photographs, Lurie said. I get to experience the ups and downs of life and shine a light on issues that plague our society. To be able to pull back the curtain and show the public a story they would never otherwise see is extremely gratifying. I want people to be confronted with realities that are outside of their bubble and gain a deeper understanding and empathy for humanity.

Lurie also won Local Photographer of the Year in 2021, making her one of few people to receive the honor twice in the contests 79-year history and the only woman to do so in back-to-back years. The last photographer with consecutive wins was James L. Amos of National Geographic, who won in 1970 and 1971.

Gabrielle Lurie

Being named Photographer of the Year in two consecutive years affirms Luries consistent vision and high caliber work. More importantly, it recognizes Gabrielles tireless commitment to her own community, said Pictures of the Year International Director Lynden Steele. The spirit of this award is to honor photographers who are working in their own backyard. It is a cliche that photographers must travel the world to find worthy stories. Gabrielle shows us the opposite is true. Sharing stories of our city neighbors can have a tremendous impact in our own hometown.

Luries portfolio for the award included her coverage of prison firefighters, a mothers quest to save her daughter from fentanyl addiction, the aftermath of the Texas abortion ban and a 10-year-old girl caught in the reverberations of her familys eviction. See her full portfolio for the award here.

Gabrielle Lurie

Gabrielle is a journalist committed to documenting stories that need to be told. She has an uncanny ability to gain access and trust in difficult situations, said San Francisco Chronicle Director of Visuals Nicole Fruge. Her portfolio reflects some of the most complex issues and events of the past year  Californias housing crisis, the fentanyl scourge plaguing San Francisco, the toll of the pandemic and erosion of abortion rights. Her work, especially her photo essays, demonstrates an uncommon depth and emotional intimacy.

Lurie also received the Community Awareness Award this year for her coverage of eviction, and was a finalist in the Local News Picture Story category for her photographs of a mother and daughter caught in the fentanyl crisis.

Gabrielle Lurie

Lurie grew up in Washington, D.C., and first picked up a camera at age 17. She studied art history at New York University and worked as a freelance photographer before joining The San Francisco Chronicle in 2016.

We are so lucky to have Gabrielle documenting the Bay Areas most important stories during these extraordinary times, said Fruge. Im am thrilled that her work was recognized as the Local Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the year International for the second year in a row. The historic nature of this back-to-back honor is a testament to Gabrielles immense talent and heart.

I feel truly honored to receive this award, but must acknowledge that many people are involved in making these stories come to fruition. My fantastic editors, photographers, reporters, and designers at The Chronicle, as well as wonderful sources out in the field, Lurie said.

About The San Francisco Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfchronicle.com) is the largest newspaper in Northern California and the second largest on the West Coast. Acquired by the Hearst Corporation in 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 by Charles and Michael de Young and has been awarded six Pulitzer Prizes for journalistic excellence. Follow us on Twitter at @SFChronicle.
Bigger storm surges, more flooding at high-tide, eroding shorelines and other damaging events will increase along the coastal United States at a faster pace than in the past century, according to new data on sea level rise released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Sea levels will go up by as much as 8 inches in California and along the West Coast by 2050, and by as much as 1 foot on the East Coast, projections based on improved research, satellite data and a better understanding of melting ice in the Arctic and Antarctic show.

Areas along the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast will be hit hardest as those shorelines are sinking because of geological factors and because melting ice in Greenland is already changing currents in the Atlantic Ocean. The increase for the Gulf Coast is projected to be between 14 and 18 inches. Northern Alaska could see increases of 8 to 10 inches and Hawaii 6 to 8 inches.

Major flooding will occur five times as often in the next three decades as it does today, inundating roads, neighborhoods, ports and delicate ecosystems along the coasts.

This report is a wake-up call for the United States, Rick Spinrad, NOAA administrator, said during a news briefing on the research. But its a wake-up call with a silver lining  it provides us with information needed to act now to best position ourselves for the future.

The West Coast is expected to experience increased flooding during high tides and storms. Low-lying areas around the San Francisco Bay are particularly vulnerable, including ecologically sensitive habitat areas and critical infrastructure like highways and BART stations near the shoreline.

Jessica Fain, planning director at the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, said the new data gives urgency to projects like wetland restoration that take years before impact.

We know sea level rise and climate change is happening, and now we know a little bit better how much and by when, Fain said. Every time we get more certainty it helps us prepare.

Rising seas also threaten to bring buried toxic materials to the surface along industrial sections of the bay shore, putting communities at risk of contamination, said Kristina Hill, director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at UC Berkeley who studies studies how sea level rise impacts groundwater systems.

We need to get started on adding more wetlands and planning for rising groundwater that could mobilize pollution and toxic sites, Hill said.

The new data updates research released in 2017 designed to help local and regional governments protect communities and infrastructure from rising seas. This time, researchers offered more specific near-term projections based on improved satellite imagery and how much sea level rise has already been observed.

NOAA led the research team, which included scientists from NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, United States Geological Survey and other federal agencies.

Rising seas will create a profound shift in coastal flooding over the next three decades, causing more disruptions and damage with high tides and storms, according to the report.

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.

Moderate flooding is expected to increase by tenfold by 2050, said Nicole LeBoeuf, national Ocean Service director at NOAA. Many communities are already dealing with an uptick in nuisance flooding, and that is projected to increase in frequency and scale of damage, she said.

Make no mistake: Sea level rise is upon us, she said.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which trap heat and warm the planet, is critical for staving off even more disastrous outcomes by the end of the century, the researchers said. Cutting emissions could decrease sea level rise from as much as 7 feet to 2 feet by the end of the century, according to the study.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, said climate change is causing sea levels to rise and ocean temperatures to warm, sending more moisture into the atmosphere and generating more intense and destructive storms. NASA will add five observatories over the next decade to more closely track rising seas. The agency also plans for the first time to start tracking water elevation in lakes, rivers and streams, he said.

The science is clear, its past time to take action to address this climate crisis, Nelson said.

Julie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: julie.johnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @juliejohnson
Patricia Guerrero, a state appeals court justice in San Diego and an advocate for immigrants, was nominated by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday to the state Supreme Court, where she would be its first Latina justice.

Guerrero, 50, was appointed to the Fourth District Court of Appeal in 2017 by Gov. Jerry Brown, who had previously appointed her as a San Diego County Superior Court judge in 2013. She would succeed Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, who left the court at the end of October to become president of the nonprofit Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Newsoms first appointee to the court, in October 2020, was its first openly gay justice, Martin Jenkins, his former chief legal adviser. Cuellar, appointed by Brown in 2015, was the courts fourth Latino justice.

As we continue to make strides in building a judiciary more representative of our states diversity, Justice Guerrero will bring her rich background and experiences to important decisions that impact the daily lives of every Californian, Newsom said in a statement announcing the nomination.

If confirmed, I look forward to helping instill confidence in the equality and integrity of our judicial system while honoring the sacrifices of my immigrant parents and demonstrating to young people that anything is possible in our wonderful and diverse country, said Guerrero.

The daughter of immigrants from Mexico, Guerrero was born in Brawley (Imperial County) and started working at a grocery store at age 16, Newsoms office said. She kept working to pay expenses while attending UC Berkeley and Stanford Law School. After graduating in 1997, she joined the Latham & Watkins law firm and stayed there until her judicial appointment, except for a year as a federal prosecutor in San Diego in 2002 and 2003.

On the Superior Court, she handled criminal law cases and then became supervising judge of the Family Law Division and was named Judicial Officer of the Year by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers in 2017.

She also did unpaid work on immigration cases as an attorney, helping applicants for asylum, and on housing discrimination cases, and was on the advisory board of the American Bar Associations Immigration Justice Project, which provides legal services to immigrants. Guerrero has also worked in the Judicial Councils Judges in the Classroom program, which sends judges to schools around the state to discuss legal issues.

With her extensive experience handling complex litigation matters, intellectual rigor and commitment to fairness and equality, Justice Guerrero is well-equipped to navigate the most complex legal issues in our court system and will make an excellent addition to our states highest court, former state Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno said in a statement released by Newsoms office. Moreno was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001 and retired in 2011.

Latino groups had urged Newsom to nominate a Latina, noting that Latinos make up 40% of Californias population and more than 50% of its public school students, but have had no representation on the court since Cuellars departure. His seat has been temporarily filled by a succession of appeals court justices.

Although she has a generally liberal record, one of Guerreros rulings, in April 2020, allowed county judges to require defendants to post bail, despite a directive by the state Judicial Council that reduced bail to zero for nearly all misdemeanor charges and most nonviolent felonies in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Another ruling, in August 2020, allowed Amazon to be sued for defects in a product that was advertised on its website and stored and shipped by its warehouse, a computer laptop battery that exploded and seriously burned a woman. Although Amazon did not manufacture the battery, it was pivotal in bringing the product ... to the consumer, Guerrero wrote in a 3-0 decision. The state Supreme Court later denied review of Amazons appeal.

The court has four Democratic appointees among its current six justices, including Justice Leondra Kruger, reportedly under consideration by President Biden to succeed retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. But the state court reaches a consensus in most of its rulings, including death sentences, which it usually upholds. Three of the six justices are women.

Guerreros nomination requires confirmation by the state Commission on Judicial Appointments, consisting of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Rob Bonta and the states senior presiding appeals court justice, Manuel Ramirez of Riverside. If confirmed, she would join the court and then appear on the November ballot to win voter approval for the final four years of Cuellars term. The job pays $274,732 a year.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
UC Berkeley is asking the state Supreme Court to block a judges order that required the school to freeze its enrollment while courts review an off-campus construction project opposed by neighborhood groups.

In a suit by a group called Save Berkeleys Neighborhoods challenging the universitys $126 million plan to build classrooms and faculty housing alongside the campus, an Alameda County Superior Court judge suspended the project in August and also ordered UC Berkeley to limit its 2022-23 enrollment to 42,237 undergraduates and graduate students, the level approved the previous year.

Judge Brad Seligman said UC Berkeleys legally required study of the environmental impact of the construction project failed to mention the effects of increased enrollment on housing and homelessness in Berkeleys poorest neighborhoods, as well as traffic, noise and increasing local costs for police, fire protection and health services.

University officials said they believed they could satisfy the judges concerns about the construction project, which would replace a parking structure at 2698 Hearst Ave. with faculty housing and expanded classrooms for the Goldman School of Public Policy. But they contended Seligman had overreached by freezing enrollment, and asked higher courts late last month to lift his order while the case continued.

The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco left the freeze in place Thursday and said UC Berkeleys lengthy delay in seeking a stay contradicted its claim of urgency. On Monday, the university asked the states high court to intervene and remove the freeze on Berkeley enrollment.

The enrollment limit would have a catastrophic impact on UC Berkeleys ability to admit low-income, under-represented students, the schools lawyers told the court. They said Seligman had exceeded his authority by ordering an enrollment freeze in a suit over a construction project that had little connection to the number of students at UC Berkeley.

Because of the coronavirus, the university said in a statement, enrollment fell in 2020-21, and basing the freeze on that level would reduce undergraduate enrollment by 3,050  a tragic outcome for thousands of students who have worked incredibly hard to gain admission. Graduate student enrollment will be unaffected because most of the admissions notices have already been sent, the university said.

The loss in tuition revenue would be $57 million, reducing the schools budget for instruction, financial aid and other services, the university said.

The university also contended its planned construction project would cause no environmental harm to the neighborhood. Its appeal of Seligmans ruling will be heard by the appellate court later this year.

In response, Save Berkeleys Neighborhoods said the university has been increasing its enrollment for years  from 31,800 in 2005 to 43,125 last year  without providing adequate housing or considering the impact on the surrounding community.

UC Berkeley has repeatedly rebuffed SBNs offers to reach a reasonable settlement concerning UCs failure to house its additional students, Phil Bokovoy, the neighborhood groups president, said in a statement. In addition, UC Berkeley students themselves have repeatedly said that UC should stop increasing enrollment until it can provide housing for its students.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In its order last Thursday refusing to lift the freeze, the appeals court noted that Seligman had issued his ruling Aug. 23 and the university had filed its appeal Oct. 18, but did not seek a stay until Jan. 28.

Other than to claim that either they or their counsel did not understand the nature of the judgment from which the appeal is taken, they offer no explanation for this lengthy delay, said Presiding Justice James Humes and Rochelle East, a San Francisco Superior Court judge temporarily assigned to the appellate court.

UC Berkeley said Monday its initial lawyers in the case, who have since been replaced, wrongly assumed that Seligmans order had been automatically stayed when it was appealed.

The case is Save Berkeleys Neighborhoods vs. UC Regents, S273160.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
When Berkeley officials voted last year to endorse the idea of opening up exclusive neighborhoods to denser housing, advocates saw the move as a step in the evolution of the citys attitudes about development.

Once dominated by fervently anti-housing politicians and residents, Berkeleys City Council is now talking about how to build more homes quickly and even considering allowing apartments in single-family neighborhoods.

But while officials are trying to address the regions housing and homelessness crisis by pushing density and all kinds of housing, the city has struggled to get homes built. Its challenges underscore what cities throughout the region face in generating housing even when they have the political will.

And those struggles are exacerbated by some residents. The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that UC Berkeley must cut enrollment by nearly 3,000 students next fall and pause a project to build housing for professors and classrooms after residents sued, arguing the universitys enrollment harms their neighborhoods and the projects impacts werent properly studied.

Before Thursdays ruling, the Berkeley mayor and City Council filed an amicus brief in support of the university, which says it will appeal the ruling.

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, who is an example of the shift among city leaders, said in a statement he was disappointed by the decision and that the city believes students are a valuable part of our community.

Arreguin told The Chronicle his perspective has evolved over the years. Once skeptical of market-rate development, he is now embracing housing for all income levels because I recognize that we have a shortage of housing for everyone.

David Garcia, a policy director at UC Berkeleys Terner Center for Housing Innovation, said the city has gone through a dramatic shift in a relatively short time from having a skeptical viewpoint of pro-housing policies to embracing more progressive zoning and land use changes.

That shift in attitude is necessary before you would see a significant change in production, Garcia said.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Council Member Lori Droste, who wrote the resolution to eventually end single-family zoning, said that since her election in 2014, more council members are pushing for pro-housing policies.

Still, its difficult to tell how much progress has been made. There are two main measures of the citys progress: how many units have been approved and how many have been built.

From 2015 to 2020, Berkeley issued permits for 2,943 units, city staff said. Data from 2021 was not yet available, said Jordan Klein, the director of the citys planning department. Klein said when permits from last year, this year and next year are factored in, Berkeley will far exceed the state mandated goal for total units permitted for 2015-2023.

But while Berkeley might be permitting more units, those units dont do any good if they dont get built. Experts say skyrocketing construction costs and slow approvals are big reasons housing doesnt get built. Arreguin said he wants to find solutions for those problems.

Officials said data on how many homes have been built citywide since 2015 was not readily available. There was data on two areas where the city allowed more density over the last decade  downtown and San Pablo Avenue. From 2018 to 2020, 242 housing units on San Pablo Avenue and 316 units in the downtown area were completed, Klein said. While thats almost as much as was built from 1970 to 2000 in the entire city, the city needs to produce an average of a thousand of units a year to meet state goals.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Berkeley needs to plan for nearly 9,000 more units over the next decade, which Garcia said would be tough to pull off. City staff is exploring allowing multi-unit buildings in certain areas, building middle-income housing and prioritizing transit corridors for new homes.

To that end, Berkeley officials are now working on two potentially large projects at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations that could generate 1,200 new units at each station  with the councils backing. Thats a shift. In 2018, the council voted to oppose a state law, AB2923, to make it easier to build housing at BART stations.

The council is also considering a $500 million bond to put on the November ballot to fund affordable housing and infrastructure.

In addition, a Georgia-based developer has proposed a 25-story project downtown with 326 units and 33 affordable units that would be the tallest building in Berkeley. Jason Overman, a spokesman for the project who has previously worked on housing in Berkeley, said the city has impressed a lot of people with its shift in attitude to be more welcoming to housing.

The problem is that the deficit of housing is decades in the making and it will take many years to undo. In 1973, Berkeley voters passed the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance, which stalled major housing development for years, said Council Member Ben Bartlett. From about 1970 to 2000, only about 600 new housing units were built in the city, Bartlett said.

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The citys housing crisis has also been exacerbated by the university as enrollment numbers have increased and the universitys housing production hasnt kept up. UC Berkeley houses just 23% of its students, the lowest of all UC campuses. In September, UC Berkeley approved a controversial $312 million plan to build housing on the historic Peoples Park.

But rent-burdened residents are still struggling. More than half of renters are paying more than 30% of their income on rent. In the city of 124,000 people, more than 57% of residents are renters, city staff said.

Darrell Owens, an activist with East Bay for Everyone, a pro-housing nonprofit organization, said while Berkeleys attitudes have changed pretty drastically in the last five years, its not clear if the shift will result in more housing.

And despite its advances, neighborhood opposition can still sway policy. For example, the City Council voted on Jan. 26 to limit construction of the accessory dwelling unit in the Berkeley hills, citing fire danger. ADUs are small dwellings located on the same lot as an existing home.

Council Member Rashi Kesarwani, who was elected in 2018, said she is focusing this year on plans to build at the North Berkeley BART Station. Kesarwani said some residents support the project, but others worry it will be too dense.

In the past, some council members would cave to neighborhood pressure, but Kesarwani said while shes willing to listen to neighbors concerns and discuss alternatives, shes not going to say that we are not going to have housing at this site or that its going to be so limited (that it) wastes the opportunity there.

The council is also focused on affordable housing. It voted in December to allocate $67.5 million from a 2018 voter-approved bond toward 406 new affordable and permanent supportive housing units, as well as the renovation of 66 affordable units.

Newly elected Council Member Terry Taplin said housing is a big reason he decided to run for the council. Taplin, elected in 2021, introduced legislation to speed up permits for affordable housing projects. And his staff is studying a social housing program.

Change is really hard, especially in Berkeley, where we have people who are very comfortable and very familiar with how to game the process to keep housing out of their neighborhoods, Taplin said. We have to be on the lookout for that.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
The first time I dined at Pucquio (pronounced POOK-yo), a Peruvian restaurant in Oaklands Rockridge neighborhood, I walked in on the staff enjoying sushi on a slow night. It was a chilly, sleepy Friday, with an occasional drowsy pedestrian walking their dog along College Avenue, and I could see that the rest of the small restaurant was empty. That didnt put a damper on my ceviche cravings, so I walked right in.

What followed was a torrent of small plates highlighted by remarkably punchy ceviches. Bathed in the warmth of the heaters attached to a propane tank inside the restaurants parklet, I stayed well past the 10 p.m. closing time. I was tempted to yell at every passerby to join me.

Ceviche is widely available across the Bay Area, including at a few Peruvian-focused spots like Mistura in Oakland or El Mono in El Cerrito. What sets Peruvian cebiche (as its spelled in Peru) apart is the textural interplay, with ingredients like sweet potato and hominy, which act as a sweet and starchy reprieve from all the acidity and heat. While cucumbers, onions and tomatoes are used for texture in Mexican ceviches and aguachiles, they often lack the same balance or complexity as the Peruvian versions, which are more expansive in scope and flavor. In other words, youre less likely to be disappointed with a Peruvian ceviche than a Mexican one.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

A cebiche is a delicate dance; if the limes arent juiced gently, they impart bitter flavor from the rind. If the fish is marinated too long, it loses its bounce. If the dish isnt served soon enough, the freshness that pulls all the ingredients together is lost.

Take, for instance, Pucquios cebiche de pescado, featuring a marinade with four fundamental ingredients: lime juice, salt, sliced red onion and the Peruvian chile pepper aji limo. Its designed to highlight the freshness of the meaty rockfish, caught daily in the Bay Area. In it, the fish is blanketed with sea lettuce and ogo (seaweed) around the edges to form a thorny perimeter.

The acid in the dish is striking, electrifying the white fish, while the corn and potato impart some sweetness. The addition of seaweed provides a jolt of umami.

Chef and owner Carlos Moreira has perfected that dance. At Pucquio, sweet potato and hominy find their way into almost all of his cebiches, including the cebiche de pescado.

To drink, pair it with Puccquios pisco sour, made with soju since the restaurant doesnt have a full liquor license. Shaken until foamy, its a sweet and intensely acidic drink.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

Other cebiches at Pucquio are made with variations on leche de tigre, which Moreira calls a mother sauce, a blended sauce, unlike the marinade for the fish cebiche. For the mosaico cebichero, the leche de tigre is made with aji limo chiles, ginger, garlic, celery and lime juice. In others, like the cebiche mixto, the sauce is an emulsion made with rocoto peppers, olive oil and smoked salt.

The mosaico is a seafood tower of sorts with slices of rockfish and trout making up the base. Surrounding the tower like a moat is a shallow pool of leche de tigre. Continuing the aquatic theme, Moreira tops the dish with patches of sea lettuce and seaweed. A variety of ingredients bring an added crunch and salinity to the dish: fish skin cracklings, fried corn, bloated hominy kernels, yam chips and thin ginger shavings. The acid is dazzling, tart but balanced, with sneaky heat that builds up slowly.

Its all enough to activate the senses but not overwhelm them. Double down on the heat and chase it with a michelada, a rotating drink special thats strengthened with leche de tigre.

While cebiches alone are reason enough to return to Pucquio, sampling the breadth of Moreiras cooking just might make you a regular.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

The confit chicharron features a slab of pork belly cooked in its own fat, its skin torched until crisp, placed over a purple corn puree topped with yam chips. Its a melody of melty pork fat and starchy corn, with the chips and pork skin a satisfyingly crisp counterpoint. The chupe de camarones, Moreiras version of a soothing Peruvian soup, is a thick shrimp bisque served with rice and his only dish that uses dried chiles called aji panca, a red pepper thats rehydrated and pureed. Its warm and soothing properties make it an ideal meal on a cold evening in Rockridge.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Dining indoors is an option. Pucquio has a warm, intimate dining room with a focus on wood: benches line the walls and beams stretch across the ceiling. Bar seating with a view of the kitchen adds to the coziness. In its parklet out front, Pucquio can accommodate parties both big and small; dividers between the tables allow for customizing the seating.

Pucquio has been quietly wowing diners since it opened in 2013. As with most other restaurants, though, the past two years have proved challenging. Pucquio relies heavily on fresh ingredients; everything is ordered in just the right quantities so nothing is wasted, particularly since the restaurant was denied government loans. Moreira used to have a lunch menu but now only serves dinner. He closes on Sundays and Mondays to allow time to prepare for the rest of the week. Last year, the team consisted of only Moreira and Kevin Romero, the sole front of house staffer.

What keeps him going? The respect for the elements and the love that you put in, he says. Its as simple as that.

If cebiche is a church to worship acid and fish then Pucquio is a monastery, welcoming everyone to express their devotion. Finally, a church I can get behind. Catch me in the front row, submitting myself to the higher power that is cebiche.

Cesar Hernandez is The Chronicles associate restaurant critic. Email: cesar.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cesarischafa
Modern Times Beer/

Modern Times, the popular San Diego Brewery that combines experimental brews with eclectic and art-filled interiors, will close its Oakland taproom at the end of this week. The brewery is also shuttering its Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Portland outposts, citing the financial downturn caused by the pandemic as the reason behind the closures.

According to a statement on its website, the company additionally attributed the closures to a rapid and costly expansion and global declines in the craft beer industry. Seventy-three employees will lose their jobs across the four locations (six from the Oakland taproom) leaving 175 people at the outposts that are remaining open. The company will shift gears back to Southern California and the Southwest, focusing on the locations in Point Loma, North Park, Encinitas and Anaheim. As a company, we ended four years of swift, costly growth just as the pandemic hit, said Dan Reed, the marketing director at Modern Times. Coupled with an industry-wide decline in sales and the global supply chain issues, it was just a hit that we couldnt sustain while remaining fully intact.
UPDATE: A federal judge abruptly ended the nations mask mandate on public transportation, but should you still mask up on planes and buses?

On Wednesday, the states indoor mask requirement  which requires everyone to wear face coverings indoors regardless of vaccination status  expires, with officials pointing to falling COVID-19 case counts and relatively low hospitalizations rates during the omicron surge as reasons for the change.

But not all Bay Area counties will follow suit, and masks are still required in certain settings.

 Read: On the day Californias mask mandate lifted, we counted masks at grocery stores  heres what we found

Heres what you need to know.

Im vaccinated. When do I need to wear a mask?

In San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Sonoma, Solano, Napa, Contra Costa and Marin counties, as well as the city of Berkeley, fully vaccinated individuals are no longer required to wear masks in public, indoor spaces, though officials say masks are still strongly recommended and that well-fitted surgical or N95-style masks remain a good way to limit the spread of the virus.

 Vote: Californias mask mandate ends this week. Where will you go maskless?

However, masks are still required for everyone on public transportation in health care settings, K-12 schools, long-term care facilities and jails and prisons. Individual businesses may also still require patrons to wear a mask. In San Francisco, masks are also still required inside City Hall and other city buildings.

The new rule applies to neighboring Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties as well.

If you live in Santa Clara County, masks are still required in all indoor public spaces  no matter your vaccination status  though that could change in the coming weeks depending on case and hospitalization rates.

Im unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated. When do I need to wear a mask?

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In all Bay Area counties, people who are not vaccinated must continue to wear a mask in all indoor public settings.

Do I still need to show proof of vaccination in certain businesses like gyms and restaurants?

In San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley, patrons in businesses like restaurants, bars and gyms must continue to show proof of vaccination. Contra Costa County dropped its proof of vaccination requirement, while others never had one.

When will more changes come?

The state of California will reassess its K-12 school mask mandate on Feb. 28, officials said Monday. However, even if the state lifts its mask requirement for schools, individual school districts and campuses can choose to still impose their own requirements for face covering.

Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev
After months of reading about the San Francisco school boards prioritization of personal political goals over the education of my younger neighbors, I couldnt wait to turn in my ballot to recall board President Gabriela Lopez, Commissioner Alison Collins and Commissioner Faauuga Moliga when it arrived in the mail. I, like so many other San Franciscans, wanted to send the board a message: Youve caught my attention, and Im going to hold you accountable.

But even as I turned in my ballot, I wondered how much of the fervent energy to kick these officials out would soon dissipate. Will The Chronicle and other media outlets cover the Board of Education this aggressively when it becomes boring again? How will the organizers of this recall keep the momentum for accountability going?

It seems inevitable that the current focus on monitoring the school board will fade. Many of the thousands of San Franciscans who made this recall election possible understandably will find themselves looking to put out the next fire that emerges in our citys frantic political scene. Who, then, will keep an eye on what the school board is doing to learn from its egregious mistakes?

The answer should be fairly obvious: students.

Students should have the opportunity to play the invaluable role of paying attention to their school board. Theyre the constituency thats personally and perpetually impacted by the boards decisions. So theyre in the best position to spend their excess time and energy keeping an eye on the boards agenda.

San Francisco should drop the age limitation on voting to 16 and allow them to do just that.

It took a pandemic and several highly controversial decisions by the board for the current, older electorate to monitor its behavior. If voters had spent more time thinking about the board and its priorities prior to COVID, its likely that some of these decisions could have been averted or at least delayed. With the benefit of hindsight, voters could probably identify a whole slew of events and decisions that should have garnered our attention sooner and spurred us all to action before the board dove into an agenda incongruous with the needs of students and priorities of parents and community members.

And yet despite the obvious benefits of empowering students to assist the rest of the electorate with keeping the board accountable, weve previously rejected this perfectly reasonable solution to inadequate democratic accountability before. In 2020, San Franciscos voters opposed Measure G, which would have allowed voters as young as 16 to vote in municipal elections. A slim majority  just 51% of voters  thwarted this effort to improve our citys democracy by enlisting a community that can play a key role in checking officials charged with governing our schools.

I suspect the parents who voted against Measure G are rethinking that decision.

The students at the center of this recall election have been forced outside of the electoral process. They could have been playing a central role in the important debate about what we should expect from our school board. Instead, theyre doing the best they can to inform the rest of us from the sidelines.

Democracy thrives when the people who are most impacted by government decisions have the means to hold their leaders accountable. Take, for example, the voters fighting to preserve Slow Streets around San Francisco. Theyre proximate to the problem because they live nearby  and are influential because no one doubts that they have a stake in the traffic flow on their streets and sufficient knowledge to describe the pros and cons of various proposals. Theyre democratically empowered because they have the time, means and access to various channels (online and offline) to make their voices heard.

Our students are similarly proximate to the problem because of their vested stake in the school board and knowledge of its action, but theyre not democratically empowered. The resulting lack of accountability is what led to this recall vote rather than proactive measures to prevent such poor decision making by the board from the outset.

Imagine if students had the power to vote back when the school renaming debate first surfaced. Young people may have wielded their power to help resolve the debacle before it spiraled out of control. Its likely that some students favored the actions taken by the board, and I wish we had heard more from students with that position. Perhaps we could have reached a sensible compromise.

Extending the right to vote to such students wont magically place them on a soap box for all to hear, but it increases the odds of them contributing to our public discourse. When in doubt, our democracy should gamble on more participation.

Absent hyper-vigilant democratic accountability, elected officials feel comfortable making decisions in their own best interest, rather than those that will make this city an even better place to call home. In the wake of the current recall fever, its likely that well see a bump in news coverage and voter attention paid to the San Francisco school board. At least for a time. But to sustain this accountability, we can and should grant the right to vote to the people best able to attend meetings, lodge complaints and inform the rest of us.

Measure G should have passed in 2020. When extending the right to vote to 16-year-olds inevitably makes a return on the ballot, we should remember this moment. We should learn from our mistake. With a broader voting population, well have more eyes to watch out for abuse, corruption and bias  not only with respect to the school board but also the rest of the citys elected officials and agencies.

Kevin Frazier resides in the Richmond District and attends the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Tuesdays verdict in favor of the New York Times in a libel lawsuit first brought against the media outlet by Sarah Palin in 2017 doesnt mean the former governor of Alaskas legal fight is over. The 2008 vice presidential candidates defamation suit may still offer anti-press forces the opening they have hungered for to destroy the half-century-old ruling that has shielded news media from legal reprisal over errors in their reporting.

It was always clear that no matter the verdict, the losing side would appeal. Two U.S. Supreme Court justices have already said they want to revisit the keystone 1964 libel ruling, Times vs. Sullivan, which created an all but insurmountable barrier to defamation suits from public figures: They must show not just that the reporting was false and harmful, but that the news organization either knew the information wasnt true or ignored indications it was false and published anyway. Such is the actual malice standard Sullivan demands, which U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff indicated Monday that Palins suit had failed to meet.

Palin alleges she was libeled by a Times editorial in 2017 that wrongly asserted the shooter who opened fire six years earlier at a rally near Tucson  killing six people and wounding 13, including Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords  had been incited by campaign literature from a pro-Palin group. Its handout put rifle-sight crosshairs on a map to graphically target contested districts; Giffords was one of them. In fact, there was no indication the killer had ever seen the brochure, and when editors pointed out the allegation was wrong, it was quickly withdrawn and corrected.

Still, within days Palin sued, and her case was found worthy of trial by a unanimous appeals panel. Thats a rarity. Trials in libel cases have steadily declined since the 1980s, according to the Media Law Resource Center, from an average of 27 per year to three in 2018. Sulllivan is one reason the Times has not lost a libel suit in at least 50 years, a Times attorney wrote recently, and between 2010 and 2017 it was sued for libel only 11 times. As legal scholar David A. Logan concluded: The threat that defendants today face from libel litigation is virtually nil.

Palins trial came amid an attack on Sullivan that has been building since January 2018, when President Donald Trump denounced our current libel laws as a sham and a disgrace. A year later Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas weighed in. In a case involving one of comedian and serial predator Bill Cosbys accusers, Thomas focused on rulings that widened Sullivans reach beyond public officials to public figures, meaning practically anybody in the public eye. Here, the woman had sued Cosbys attorney for branding her a liar. Because she was deemed a public figure, the high court found she would have to prove deliberate falsity, which doomed her case. Thomas wrote that he had no choice but to agree, but he saw no justice in dismissing her claim just because the affair had brought her attention and thereby made her a public person.

The next salvo came from a highly influential Republican stalwart  and mentor to Thomas U.S. Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman. Nodding to high court originalists who believe that the Constitution must be interpreted based on the original understanding at the time it was adopted, Silberman said the malice standard has no constitutional basis, and ignores a century and a half in which libel was handled under common law principles, strongly protective of the individuals right to a reputation unsullied by damaging falsehood. Silberman then segued into a fiery broadside against the ideological consolidation of the press, offering no connection to libel beyond his conviction that abandoning Sullivan might be a stick in the spokes of the liberal media juggernaut.

Justice Neil Gorsuch joined his brethren in a July 2021 dissent blaming Sullivan for the plague of online falsity  a serious concern, though largely the work of non-media players (such as the president who put him on the bench, whose online stolen election claims went unmentioned). Instead, Gorsuch suggested the actual malice standard prompts editors to stop reporters from trying to verify stories for fear they might unearth discordant facts that, if ignored, could get them sued for reckless disregard  a scenario for which he offered no examples.

But libel law controversies have never really been about reputational harm. Sullivan itself, in which the Times was sued by a Montgomery, Ala., official over a paid ad decrying police brutality, was born out of a concern that segregationists were using defamation law to shackle the press for covering the civil rights movement sympathetically. By 1964 some $300 million in libel suits had been filed by Southern officials against Northern media; defamation was plainly being used as a fig leaf for government repression. Private lawsuits from officials claiming they were personally harmed by flawed reporting can indeed be indistinguishable from state efforts to sidestep the First Amendments prohibition against muzzling the press.

For Palin, this may yet be an opportunity to reclaim a lost stature by settling a score with the press she tangled with when she was a celebrity politician. But the consequences of opening the media to a new reality  with routine damage claims over deadline-driven reporting where error is unavoidable  are potentially crippling. That would invite, at a time when the media are struggling amid a technological dawn, a new, self-imposed darkness.

Edward Wasserman is aprofessor of journalism and former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley.
SACRAMENTO  California lawmakers have already passed bills to reduce consumers reliance on plastic straws and shopping bags. Now, theyre taking aim at an even bigger source of plastic waste: online retailers.

State Assembly Member Laura Friedman, D-Glendale (Los Angeles County), unveiled a bill Monday that would require online retailers to stop shipping items in some common types of plastic packaging designed to be used once and tossed in the trash.

The amount of waste generated from online shopping  such as padded Amazon envelopes, bubble wrap and polystyrene peanuts  has soared during the coronavirus pandemic as more consumers become accustomed to ordering everyday purchases from home.

A report last year from Oceana, a wildlife advocacy group, concluded that the amount of plastic waste created by retail giant Amazon skyrocketed by 29% in 2020, though the retailer disputes that estimate. Wildlife scientists warn that the surge in plastic waste will likely wind up polluting the ocean and environment.

Friedman said she constantly hears from consumers who are upset that the items they order come wrapped in gobs of plastic that isnt necessary. She said the material usually isnt recyclable and is crowding landfills, driving up garbage fees for residents.

These plastics, used for a very short period of time, are ending up in our waterways, clogging our waste systems, and worst of all, theyll take centuries to degrade, she said. As we continue to shift more toward online retailers, we have to ensure theyre operating sustainably.

Friedmans measure, AB2026, would require large online retailers to phase out common types of plastic packaging by Jan. 1, 2024. Small retailers would have to do the same by Jan. 1, 2026.

Environmentalists have long pushed for retailers to reduce their waste footprint by switching to reusable containers or packaging that can be easily recycled, such as containers made out of paper or biodegradable materials.

Friedman unveiled the bill Monday as she rallied with a few dozen environmentalists outside the Capitol. The crowd passed out Valentines Day treats  in paper boxes  to lawmakers passing by, urging them to break up with plastics.

As lawmakers strolled by, the demonstrators waved heart-shaped signs covered with plastic trash and chanted slogans like Single-use is abuse! and Hey hey, ho ho, plastic pollution has got to go!

The Assembly killed a similar bill that Friedman introduced last year, AB1371. That measure died on a 36-28 vote, five votes short of the majority needed to pass, as about two dozen Democrats either opposed the bill or did not vote.

A coalition of business groups, including plastics companies and the California Chamber of Commerce, opposed Friedmans bill last year. They said eliminating such packaging could result in more damaged items or spoiled food.

Friedman said she thinks the bill stands a better chance this year because the new version exempts perishable foods, such as produce and raw meat, addressing a key criticism from business groups.

Jenn Engstrom, state director for CALPIRG, a consumer advocacy group, rallied with environmentalists in support of the bill on Monday. She said the problem will continue to balloon only if lawmakers dont take action this year.

We cant recycle our way out of this problem, she said. Online shopping isnt going anywhere.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
SACRAMENTO  California legislators introduced a pair of bills Tuesday designed to crack down on social media platforms and rogue doctors who spread false information about COVID-19 vaccines.

The measures are part of a broader package of bills that aim to fight vaccine hesitancy  unfounded fears about immunizations that public health officials say have prolonged the pandemic and increased hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus.

SB1018 by state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, would require social platforms to publicly disclose how their algorithms work and to share the data for research purposes. Supporters of the bill said its apparent that sites like Facebook use technology that amplifies salacious content like conspiracy theories about the virus.

We shouldnt have to wait for whistle-blowers ... for us to understand how online platforms and social media have been negatively influencing our lives, Pan said during a virtual news conference. It should not be left to a handful of potentially very rich tech executives to decide what happens to our society and how we respond to a pandemic.

The measure is modeled after proposed federal legislation, the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, which was recently introduced in the U.S. Senate and would require similar disclosures.

Pan, a pediatrician, said California cannot wait for Congress to take action to hold tech companies accountable when the coronavirus continues to kill and disable many thousands of people every week. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

Dylan Hoffman, California and Southwest executive director for TechNet, a Silicon Valley advocacy group, said in a statement that the type of broad algorithm disclosure that would be required under Pans bill could actually make it easier for bad actors to evade company content moderation practices and subject people to further misinformation and other objectionable and harmful content.

Another bill California legislators unveiled Tuesday, AB2098 by Assembly Member Evan Low, D-Campbell, is designed to police false information spread by a small minority of doctors.

Lows bill would make it easier for the Medical Board of California to discipline physicians who spread incorrect claims about COVID-19, including about the effectiveness of vaccines and untested treatments for people who get infected, by defining such activity as unprofessional conduct under state law.

The medical board is the state agency charged with licensing and disciplining physicians, and it can suspend a doctors license or mandate probation for misconduct.

Pan and Low unveiled their measures during a virtual news conference Tuesday with experts on health-related falsehoods. Dr. Nick Sawyer, director of No License for Disinformation, a physician advocacy group, said the bills are necessary because such deception is putting lives at risk.

Sawyer, an emergency room doctor in Sacramento, said he recently had a 70-year-old patient who came to the hospital with a serious COVID-19 infection, but insisted she had the flu and demanded non-FDA-approved medications.

I was very concerned about her, especially given the fact that she had some additional medical problems, Sawyer said. But she was adamant that everything was a scam, and she signed out against medical advice.

If passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the misinformation measures would likely take effect Jan. 1, 2023.

At least one of the bills, AB2098, is expected to stir fierce resistance from opponents of mandatory vaccines. Critics of vaccine laws say its premature to label skepticism about vaccines as misinformation and that the science around COVID-19 is quickly evolving.

Christina Hildebrand, an activist who founded the group A Voice for Choice Advocacy, said she worries the bill could drive doctors who promote alternative treatments from California when theres already a doctor shortage.

Its evolving. For COVID, we just dont have the metrics here, Hildebrand said of guidelines for COVID vaccines and treatments. What is contemporary scientific consensus?

The bills unveiled Tuesday are part of a series of high-profile vaccine proposals expected to be hotly debated at the state Capitol this year. Among the other measures:

 AB1993 by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, would mandate that all businesses require their employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and verify their immunization status.

 SB871 by Pan would expand Californias existing COVID-19 vaccine mandate for K-12 students by removing the personal belief exemption.

 SB866 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would allow young people ages 12 to 17 to receive vaccines, including for COVID-19, without parental consent or knowledge.

 AB1797 by Assembly Member Akilah Weber, D-La Mesa (San Diego County), would require health providers to submit all student vaccine records to the states confidential immunization registry; school administrators could also check the registry.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
The Feb. 15 special election in San Francisco is finally over, as voters who had not already cast their ballots by mail went to the polls today between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. The election included two races to fill seats, both the result of political shuffling at City Hall: one for state Assembly District 17 on the citys east side and the other for city assessor-recorder. But the contest that generated the most heat was an effort to remove three members of the S.F. Unified School District board  the first recall vote in the city since 1983.

Latest updates:

Haney and Campos will head to Assembly runoff in April: Supervisor Matt Haney and former Supervisor David Campos will face off in an April runoff to become San Franciscos next state Assembly member representing the eastern half of the city, as they topped a four-candidate race Tuesday night. Haney secured 37.4% of the votes after three batches of election results dropped. Campos secured 35.5%. Had either secured more than 50% of votes, they would have avoided a runoff. Entrepreneur and philanthropist Bilal Mahmood was in third place Tuesday with 21.2%. Read the full story here.

Mahmood not ready to concede: As the vote tally around 10 p.m. showed Bilal Mahmood still coming in third to David Campos and Matt Haney, he said he wasnt ready to concede the Assembly race. But he acknowledges to The Chronicle that his standing was unlikely to change and said hed make an official statement in the coming days. A few minutes earlier, Mahmood addressed an enthusiastic crowd of a few dozen supporters outside Reds Place. He told them the election results were not what we were hoping for and indicated that he plans to remain involved in San Francisco politics going forward. This is just the beginning, Mahmood said to the cheerful crowd on Jackson Street. Weve energized so many people in the city and thats gonna remain. Mahmood would not say whether he would run for the Assembly seat again in June, or if hed pursue election to the Board of Supervisors. But he didnt rule them out either. Im not going away, he told reporters, noting that sometimes it takes candidates multiple runs for office to ultimately win an election.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Campos cheered by latest update to voting figures: What we are seeing is how progressive campaigns essentially go from being down, and they just climb up and were seeing that in the numbers, said the former Supervisor and Assembly District 17 candidate, who currently trails in the vote count behind Supervisor Matt Haney. We just gained a few hundred votes. Were headed in the right direction, Campos said to cheers. Those of us who have been working on this campaign, we know that we have given voters a very clear choice: we are running the corporate free campaign. Thats a message that is resonating. Campos is likely to square off against Haney in an Apr. 19 runoff vote. I believe that when the votes are cast on April 19, the voters of the 17th Assembly District will say we want someone who is beholden to the voters and not the corporations. He also said the voters want a candidate who when they speaking about housing, are talking about housing that is truly affordable for all San Franciscans.

Matt Haney speaks after the first results come in: We have a huge coalition of folks who bike and walk and a big coalition of folks who are fighting for public transit. Every neighborhood representative here in our city was a part of this campaign. And I think thats what made it so powerful. The other thing that I think that we proved in this campaign is that we have a coalition of folks who believe strongly that we need to build more housing in our city the rent is too damn high. Haney said he won on a message that San Francisco needs to build more housing and is unapologetic about that.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen comments on the school board result: Im not surprised, she said. We faced the hardest time of our of our entire lives as parents and as students in public schools and this board of education focused on issues that werent about dealing with the immediate crisis of the day, and they didnt show the leadership that that was necessary and that parents needed to hear, and that kids needed to hear.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

Mahmood awaits more votes before deciding next steps: After the first round of results were posted showing him trailing candidates Matt Haney and David Campos, Bilal Mahmood said he would keep watching the vote count before making any decisions about next steps. About 40 or 50 of his supporters ate, drank and chatted inside the Reds Place bar and at its parklet as Aerosmiths Dream On played through speakers outside. Ive lived in San Francisco for a long time and its really obvious we need change, said Mahmood supporter Beverley Talbott, who said shes lived in the city since the 1980s. He of all the candidates represents common sense and practicality.

Chronicle projects recall of school board members will succeed: Three San Francisco school board members lost their seats in the first recall the city has seen in nearly 40 years, according to Chronicle projections based on the first results reported at 8:45. The overwhelming decision means board President Gabriela Lopez and members Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga will officially be removed from office and replaced by mayoral appointments 10 days after the election is officially accepted by the Board of Supervisors. The new board members are likely to take office in mid-March. More than 79% of voters supported the recall of Collins, with 75% voting to oust Lopez and 73% voted yes to remove Moliga from office, according to the first returns. Read the full story here.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Haney will head to Assembly runoff in April, likely facing Campos: Based on early returns, the Chronicle projects that Supervisor Matt Haney will head to the April runoff to become San Franciscos next state assembly member representing the eastern half of the city after the first batch of election results dropped Tuesday. He secured 38% of the votes, according to the first set of election results released by the city Tuesday night. Had he secured more than 50% of votes, he would have avoided a runoff. Former supervisor David Campos received the second most votes, securing 35%, making it very likely that he will face Haney in the runoff among the top two. It was still too close to determine the second vote-getter after the first count was released. Entrepreneur and philanthropist Bilal Mahmood secured the third most votes with 20.9%. City College Trustee Thea Selby came in fourth with 6%. Read the full story here.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

Mahmood gathers friends in Chinatown: Assembly candidate Bilal Mahmood gathered with a group of supporters in Chinatown at the Reds Place parklet, which had been decorated with blue, gold and white balloons, along with some of his campaign signs.Mahmood was feeling optimistic after a final day of engaging with voters around local neighborhoods. In-person turnout seemed lower than expected, which he said just shows that every vote matters in this election. His longtime friend Wendi Chiong couldnt vote for him, having moved from the city to the East Bay in 2020, but she volunteered for the campaign. Im really proud of the community Bilal has brought together, Chiong said. She said she was inspired to see him energize supporters who might otherwise feel jaded by the current political climate.

Campos stays optimistic as voting starts: Just as the first results came in, former Supervisor David Campos said he is cautiously optimistic about the night. As about 30 people gathered at the Eagle Bar in SoMa, the candidate said he was proud of the strong field campaign, that was free of corporate money. The challenge, he said, was that there was a lot of independent expenditure money that was being spent, including money specifically spent against us, but I actually think that San Francisco voters and voters from the 17th assembly district, are very sophisticated, and I dont think that the kinds of attacks that were being made against us resonated.

Polls are closed in the Feb. 15 San Francisco special election. The first vote totals are expected around 8:45 p.m. Click here for live results.

Elections chief reflects on turnout and vote-counting process: John Arntz, director of the S.F. Department of Elections, said at City Hall late Tuesday afternoon that the special election was unique, adding, We dont have another election of a similar kind to compare this against. The department did look at the 2021 recall of Governor Gavin Newsom, but Arntz said that by Tuesday morning, there was only 25% turnout for the citys special election  via mail-in ballots and drop boxes  compared with 50% response at the same point in the gubernatorial recall. Arntz couldnt give an estimate of how many more votes might come in Tuesday at the citys 413 polling places, drop-boxes or by mail. The first election results will be released at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, including all mail-in ballots received as of around noon Monday. The department can certify ballots postmarked by Tuesday, but they must be received by Feb. 22 in order to certify the election by Feb. 24. Arntz said he arrived at City Hall at 5 a.m. Tuesday and will head to a warehouse in the evening where workers will certify ballots. The city hired around 250 workers for the election, which was a large chunk of the cost, along with printed ballots and voter guides, he said.

Political newcomer Mahmood says voters are upset with the status quo: We were out this morning, mobilizing in Chinatown and so many people are already telling me they voted for us. I think its very clear that people are really looking for something different, and its been really energizing and fulfilling to see, Assembly District 17 candidate Bilal Mahmood told The Chronicle on Tuesday outside of his campaign headquarters in the Mission. Mahmood, who was wearing a white dress shirt and orange face mask, has never held public office but said he has a successful track record and policy ideas that voters are gravitating to. A Stanford graduate and neuroscientist, Mahmood sold his artificial intelligence startup ClearBrain in 2020 and also worked to provide microloans to small businesses. Aside from a six-month stint at the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Obama, he hasnt served in government. Im a political newcomer, but Im not a newcomer to getting the job done, he said.The challenges that we face today, from climate change to healthcare, to housing, to schools, these are science, technology and policy problems, he said. People are upset with the status quo ... We all want universal health care, we want housing, we want public schools, but were dissatisfied with the outcomes and thats why people want change.

S.F. supervisors put recall reform measure on June 7 ballot: San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 Tuesday to put a recall-reform ballot measure before voters as part of the June 7 election. Among other provisions, the ballot measure would prohibit recall elections within one year of the regular election for the office in question. That would have applied to the San Francisco school board recall vote taking place Tuesday. Read the full story here.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Haney campaign sees strength: Over 100 volunteers were canvassing San Franciscos east side for Assembly District 17 candidate Matt Haneys campaign on Tuesday, said Elizabeth Power, a campaign spokeswoman. They included labor union members in construction, health care, janitors and more, who have contributed the bulk of the campaigns fundraising. Were feeling pretty good. I dont think theres anything we would have done differently. We built a massive operation in just a few months and got a huge groundswell of support from all different communities around San Francisco, she said. Political experts expect no one to obtain over 50% of votes in the four-person field, triggering an April runoff. Were feeling pretty optimistic about making it to the runoff, Power said. Haney emphasized more housing, combating climate change and income inequality in his pitch to voters. But the District Six Supervisor had one disadvantage compared to his opponents: The Boards regular Tuesday board meeting meant that he had to be in City Hall and wasnt able to canvass the city for several hours. Haney, a former Board of Education president, is against recalls on principle but he will be voting yes on the recall of Alison Collins but not on the other two, Power said, due to her failed lawsuit against the city and other comments. I think things are looking pretty good for us, she said.

S.F. school board member facing potential recall enters the home stretch: San Francisco Unified School District Commissioner Faauuga Moliga took a short coffee break outside Duboce Park Cafe with campaign volunteer Damien Minor. The two were getting ready to distribute door hangers in Duboce Triangle, one of their last stops after a long morning of canvassing around Bernal Heights and the Mission District. Its home stretch, said Moliga, who had prepared for the day with lime green running shoes. This is the 1-minute mark. We do not plan on turning the ball over right now. Zigzagging through the neighborhoods alleyways, Moliga said he was feeling positive, but also at peace, about his chances in the election Tuesday. People have been saying, youve been sacrificed, is what Ive heard, he said. San Francisco is a politically tuned-in city and also a politically intelligent city, said Moliga, who added that he was looking forward to taking a nap and spending time with his family, including his mother who had driven in from Reno to help canvass. Recalls are just things that people in this city dont stand for, and I think thats going to show at the polls.

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.

One voter casts a mixed ballot in the school board recall: Kaj Peterson, who said he tries to vote in every election, dropped off his ballot just before 11 a.m. He said that after reading a questionnaire that all candidates for state assembly answered, he ultimately decided on Matt Haney in the state Assembly race. I liked (Bilal) Mahmoods ideas, he said, but ultimately Haney had the experience. Peterson also said he wasnt sure hed vote on the school board recall election, since he has no kids and generally isnt a fan of recalls. But after doing some research, he decided to vote no on recalling Lopez and Molina, but yes on recalling Alison Collins, saying that her lawsuit against her colleagues changed his mind.

A frustrated voter casts a ballot at City Hall: Jeremy Preston dropped off his ballot with a friend in front of City Hall Tuesday morning. He said that even though this was a limited, special election, it reminded him of how frustrated hes been with politics for the last few years. The little things add up, he said. We really need to do something. Preston voted for David Campos for state Assembly, he said, and voted no on the school board recalls, saying they seemed wasteful and undemocratic.

Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

S.F. school board recall election contributions top $2 million: On the eve of election day in San Francisco, the money continued to pour into the campaign to recall three school board members, with contributions for both sides combined topping $2 million. The vast majority, just over $1.9 million, went into the pro-recall coffers, with another $84,136 donated to fund the opposition, including $45,025 to prevent the ouster of board member Faauuga Moliga. The other two board members, President Gabriela Lopez and Alison Collins, had no formal campaign to fight the effort. Deep-pocket donors for the recall included $399,500 from Arthur Rock, a venture capitalist and supporter of Democratic candidates and causes, who supports non-profit charter schools. Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy contributed $478,800 as of Monday, a political action committee funded by business, tech and real estate interests in San Francisco, who have opposed progressive candidates and reform efforts in the past. Contributors supporting the recall also included 2,000 individual donations of $1,000 or less, mostly from San Francisco residents. The United Educators of San Francisco, which donated $5,000 to the opposition, and the S.F. Berniecrats led the opposition to the recall.

S.F. school board recall brings a voter to the polls early: At around 8:30 am, Malcom Gaines walked into Bethany United Methodist Church in Noe Valley to drop of his ballot. Poll workers checked to make sure his ballot was signed before placing it in the box surrounded by stained glass windows. Gaines said the school board recall election was what brought him to the polls today, but he didnt say definitively how he voted. Im invested in the health of (the school district), he said. The commissioners represent all of San Francisco, so I think its important that we all participate.

A dependable S.F. voter makes it to the front of the line: Bob Gordon, the first to cast an in-person ballot about 7:15 a.m. in the Mission District, passed by extra masks and hand sanitizer next to the entrance before picking up his ballot. Hes never missed an election, he said, but it was his first time being the first person to vote.

I just think its hugely important to vote, he said. Its a treasured moment. He was excited to see his ballot counted as number one in the machine as it dinged, notifying him that his ballot was accepted. Do you want your I voted sticker? polling place inspector Lom Friedman asked him. You earned it!

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

Early voters cast ballots in the Mission District: At 7 a.m. just off Dolores Street in the Mission, polling place inspector Lom Friedman walked out onto Dorland Street and shouted, This polling place is now open! David Zalatan and Meera Rao were the first voters of the day, dropping off their ballots just five minutes after the polling place opened. Its always important to vote, Rao said.

Polls open: More than 300 polling locations across San Francisco opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, marking the start of day-of voting in the citys special election. Polls close at 8 p.m.

For an overview, start with our Q&A primer on everything you need to know about the Feb. 15 special election. And heres an early look at mail-in voting patterns in the city, which suggest turnout may be low. The Board of Education recall has been years in the making; check out our timeline of the controversies that led to the unprecedented attempt to oust the boards longest-serving members. For more on the Assembly candidates, heres a rundown of their positions on the citys hottest issues, from housing to overdoses, and a deep dive into how much theyve raised for their campaigns. Lastly, here is some background on the city assessor-recorder and why San Franciscans are voting to fill that job.

Whats going on with the school board recall? Political observers are closely watching this contest, curious if parents  upset over pandemic education policies  will be a major factor in upcoming state and national elections. It dates back to the controversy over school closures, when many in the community grew frustrated by slow reopenings despite public health authorization to do so, even as the board was busy renaming 44 school sites, debating the fate of controversial murals at George Washington High School and eliminating competitive admissions to Lowell High School. Heres a concise introduction to the school board recall and a detailed Q&A with the three board members  Gabriela Lopez, Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga  facing the possibility of losing their jobs. In the weeks leading up to the vote, some of them even turned on each other. For insight on where support for the recall originated, check out our graphical data analysis. The Chronicles editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom, has recommended recalling the three board members.

We spoke at length to the candidates for the state Assembly: Four people are vying to fill the seat vacated when David Chiu was appointed by Mayor London Breed to become the city attorney. If no one candidate gets a majority of the votes, a runoff between the top two will take place on April 19. Whos running? Former District Nine Supervisor David Campos, an early favorite of the citys Democratic establishment, told The Chronicle he thinks his progressive message is right for the time. Current District Six supervisor and progressive rival Matt Haney said he wants to tackle climate change and inequality. City College trustee and transit activist Thea Selby, the only woman and only parent in the race, told us she would govern differently thanks to her life experience. And scientist and entrepreneur Bilal Mahmood, a political novice, is staking his claim on fresh ideas and innovation  and on his outsider status. The Chronicles editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom, has endorsed Mahmood, as has local pro-housing advocacy group YIMBY Action.
Amazons signature smiley blue logos are spreading across southeast San Franciscos industrial landscape. And not everyone is happy about it.

The second most valuable company in the world, Amazon has been gobbling up space throughout the southeast corner of the city, taking advantage of zoning meant to preserve blue-collar jobs in a market in which housing and office space have typically generated higher revenues.

At 888 Tennessee St., at the foot of a slow street and across from Esprit Park, Amazon has established an UltraFastFresh logistics center. A half-mile southeast at 435 23rd St., just to the south of the Potrero Power Station, a large sign outside a 75,000-square-foot warehouse says welcome Amazonians. And farther to the south, at 749 Toland St., Amazon has a 112,000-square-foot delivery hub.

But Amazons biggest and most controversial incursion into San Francisco is a proposed 725,000-square-foot delivery hub at 900 Seventh St., a 6-acre rectangular parcel in Showplace Square that Amazon bought for $200 million. For decades that site was home to garbage trucks, a fleet of 300 that each morning would rumble out onto the streets of Showplace Square at an hour the streets were still dark and most city residents still in bed.

Now the trash trucks are gone  the garbage company Recology relocated them to Brisbane  but a proposal from the new property owner is causing consternation from neighbors who say that a heavy industrial use no longer fits in a creative neighborhood that has evolved into a mix of housing, design and artist spaces, light advanced manufacturing and an expanding California College of the Arts campus.

Samantha Laurey/The Chronicle

David Meckel, senior adviser to the president at CCA, said three daily shifts of 400 workers would generate 2,800 car trips, in addition to the 70 Amazon trucks that will be coming and going from the facility. The traffic could create a pedestrian nightmare for CCAs 1,600 students as well as for residents at 888 Seventh St, a 224-unit that overlooks the future Amazon site.

To me its not about Amazon, its about the intensity of the use, said Meckel. Id have the same concerns if it were FedEx or UPS. For me its about urban design.

On Tuesday, the controversy prompted San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the neighborhood where the logistics center will be located, to introduce legislation that would seek to place an 18-month moratorium on all new parcel delivery services in the city, including Amazons proposed Seventh Street development. The legislation will go before the Land Use and Transportation Committee in the coming months, followed by a vote at the full Board of Supervisors.

The move, backed by the Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers union , is the latest battle in the war between organized labor and Amazon, which has planned or already opened more than two dozen distribution centers throughout the Bay Area, according to Jim Araby, strategic campaign director with United Food and Commercial Workers.

The city needs the tools necessary to evaluate the impact of this project, said Araby.

Will Roscoe, who lives at 888 Seventh St., said the pollution and traffic would worsen air quality in a neighborhood in which freeways and Caltrain already generate high levels of particulate matter. About a dozen years ago, Roscoe, who works for a nonprofit, was evicted from a building in the Western Addition. He said he feels like the Amazon project will once again force him to move.

Hundreds of people now have come in to make this their neighborhood and this just really turns the clock back to a massive usage that is antithetical to a livable neighborhood for people with children, seniors, he said. Its contrary to that.

But while a busy distribution center may feel out of sync with Showplace Squares current vibe, it is in fact just what city zoning calls for. And Recology decided to sell the site only after neighbors had rejected its 2018 plan to build about 1,000 units of housing there.

At a pre-application meeting at the site on June 27, 2019, a packed room of Dogpatch and Potrero Hill residents lambasted the idea of building housing on the site. One called it a land grab and giveaway to developers. Another resident said San Francisco suffered from a PDR crisis  PDR stands for production, distribution and repair  and that the property should remain zoned for industrial uses. One attendee called it a bad project, while another argued that housing is not needed in the neighborhood.

If the vocal opposition was intended to give Recology cold feet, it worked. Recology first cut the number of proposed units in half. Then, facing an uphill approval process that was likely to drag on three or four years, not including delays from environmental lawsuits common in San Francisco, the rubbish company gave up and sold the 6-acre site to Amazon in 2020.

We received an offer and determined it was in Recologys interest to accept it, Eric Potashner, then the vice president and senior director of strategic affairs at Recology, said at the time.

While the housing plan would have required a series of zoning changes and conditional use authorizations, Amazons proposed 57-foot-high warehouse is consistent with the Eastern Neighborhoods land use plan adopted in December of 2008 after a decade of debate. The site is part of a block of parcels roughly bounded by Seventh Street, Division Street, Potrero Avenue and 16th Street that were zoned for industrial uses.

Ken Rich, who was project manager at the Planning Department for the Eastern Neighborhoods rezoning, said the city tried to strike a balance between protecting industrial jobs and creating room for new housing. The plan has generated thousands of new housing units in Dogpatch and Potrero Hill. It also has prompted property owners at sites such as 1 DeHaro, 100 Hooper and 150 Hooper to build PDR spaces for advanced manufacturing.

The Eastern Neighborhoods plans goal of protecting light industrial jobs on a swath of land that would have otherwise been gobbled up by tech offices and housing developers has done what it was intended to do, according to Anne Taupier, director of development at the Mayors Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

A clear set of rules to play by were established and it really hasnt changed since then, said Taupier. We think it has worked and is continuing to work.

The opposition to Amazons Seventh Street plan is motivated not just by land-use issues but by the companys track record of crushing unionization efforts and its reputation for grueling work conditions, according to J.R. Eppler, a board member with the Potrero Boosters neighborhood association.

Eppler said that neighbors around 888 Tennessee St. have had success over the past year working with Amazon on issues like traffic, parking and security.

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Friends of Jackson Park is in talks with Amazon about the company possibly contributing funding to badly needed improvements. But the labor issues are harder to negotiate, he said.

In a recent San Francisco Standard article, two supervisors, Aaron Peskin and Walton, suggested that the city had been overly receptive to Amazons project and less than up-front with residents and other stakeholders.

Taupier said Amazon is at the very beginning of its approval process and there would be ample time for residents and elected officials to shape the project.

We are going to have conversations with Amazon about supporting our local small businesses, including our brick-and-mortar retail businesses, said Taupier. We will make sure they understand that San Francisco has expectations that if you are going to do business here, you are going to be part of the community.

In the meantime the empty rectangular lot feels like an island in a neighborhood that has moved on. To the north is the condo building at 888 Seventh St., which houses many senior Chinese immigrants. To the south on Hooper Street are headquarters for Adobe and a new SFMade building that houses a roster of manufacturing businesses including robotics groups, a distillery and fabricators of items including drapes, bags and hydrogen tanks for the automobile and industrial markets.

Scott Mason, a San Francisco commercial real estate broker who specializes in industrial properties, said Amazon is among a select group of well-funded users who qualify for PDR sites but have far deeper pockets than the typical family-run auto body or plumbing supply company. He said mom and pop PDR companies needed to make a city like San Francisco function cannot compete in a market dominated by Amazon.

Your everyday smaller company in San Francisco is having a tough time, he said. The venture-backed tech-driven company can pay more per square foot because they are not working off a regular balance sheet.

Stephen Maduli-Williams, Amazons manager of economic development policy, said construction at the old Recology site would not start for 18 to 24 months. He said there would be retail at the site and Amazon would work with local residents and businesses to determine what sort of goods might be sold. He said the company is looking into how Amazon could support Jackson Park.

We intend to use this time to listen to and engage all of our neighbors and stakeholders, with the goal of reaching a shared vision not only for the project, but to also create long-lasting partnerships he said.

For Dogpatch and Potrero residents, there is an increasing sense that Amazon has the neighborhoods surrounded, said Eppler. Roscoe said he is concerned that some neighborhood groups will successfully squeeze Amazon to fund various needs, leaving residents to live with the trucks with the blue smiles coming and going.

Nobody speaks for our building, said Roscoe. We dont want it. Nobody Ive talked to is like, Oh yes, good idea. The others in the coalition are going for community benefits  but what community benefits could they give us? Free gas masks? Lifetime cancer screenings? The benefit we need is to not be subjected to traffic and pollution.

Doug Bloch, political director at Teamsters Joint Council 7, said Supervisor Waltons push to delay planning on the project represents an escalation in the trench warfare the unions have been engaged in against Amazon over the past few years as the company has sought to build warehouses in and close to urban areas like Contra Costa County, Morgan Hill, Santa Rosa, Hayward, Gilroy and San Jose.

The battle has come to San Francisco  this is the big one, he said. This is San Francisco saying we need to pause and evaluate this project and what it means for our communities and our workers.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
A San Francisco Supervisor has introduced legislation that would seek to place an 18-month moratorium on all new parcel delivery services in the city, including Amazons proposed 725,000 square foot last-mile logistics center at 900 7th St. in Showplace Square.

Shamann Walton, who represents the neighborhood where the logistics center will be located, introduced the legislation Tuesday.

Walton said big companies need to have conversations with local residents about large projects planned for their communities.

As a community, we must be allowed to decide if we want these types of facilities and businesses, and not just to be told that they are moving into our neighborhood, he said at Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting.

The move, backed by the Teamsters and the United Commercial Food Workers, is the latest battle in the war between organized labor and Amazon, which has planned or already opened more than two-dozen distribution centers throughout the Bay Area.

Jim Araby, strategic campaign director with the United Food & Commercial Workers, said Amazon has been aggressively buying and leasing last mile warehouses throughout the Bay Area, spending more than $1 billion acquiring properties that are zoned for industrial uses or distribution.

They need to build as quickly as possible with as few roadblocks as possible, he said.

He said the 18-month pause would allow the city to come up with regulations that would help ensure that parcel delivery services dont adversely impact local residents with traffic, pollution and noise, and that the workers hired would be treated fairly.

The city needs the tools necessary to evaluate the impact of this project, said Araby.

Doug Bloch, political director at Teamsters Joint Council 7, said the legislation represents an escalation in the trench warfare the unions have been engaged in against Amazon over the past few years as the company has sought to build warehouses in and close to urban areas Contra Costa County, Morgan Hill, Santa Rosa, Hayward, Gilroy, and San Jose.

The battle has come to San Francisco - this is the big one, he said. This is San Francisco saying we need to pause and evaluate this project and what it means for our communities and our workers.

Bloch said fight in San Francisco could have national implications as Amazon pushes to locate its logistic facilities in the urban core of big cities.

The site where Amazon is hoping to build a 57-foot warehouse has, for decades, been home to Recology, the trash hauling company. Recology sold it to Amazon for $200 million after unsuccessfully trying to rezone the land for about 1,000 housing units. The property, which abuts California College of the Arts and is at the edge of the citys design district known as Showplace Square, is zoned for Production Distribution and Repair, which means that Amazon does not need any zoning variances in order to built there.

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The previous effort to build housing there was strongly opposed by nearby residents in the Dogpatch and Potrero Hill neighborhoods.

Bloch said the fleet of trash trucks that previously occupied the 7th Street parcel were operated by Teamsters earning $40 an hour with solid health care plans, pensions, as well as paid vacation and sick days. That is a little more than twice what is earned by drivers for deliver for Amazon vans, who make about $21.50, he said.

Not only is that property not being used for housing its creating bad jobs where good jobs used to exist, he said.

This story will be updated.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
UPDATE: Woman linked to S.F. crime through rape-exam DNA speaks out: If I cant even trust the police, who can I trust?

The San Francisco police crime lab has been entering sexual assault victims DNA profiles in a database used to identify suspects in crimes, District Attorney Chesa Boudin said Monday, an allegation that raises legal and ethical questions regarding the privacy rights of victims.

Boudin said his office was made aware of the purported practice last week, after a womans DNA collected years ago as part of a rape exam was used to link her to a recent property crime.

If DNA from a rape kit were used without consent for purposes other than investigating the underlying rape case, it may be a violation of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures as well as Californias Victims Bill of Rights, Boudin said.

Such a practice could also create another deterrent to sexual assault victims coming forward with allegations that are already underreported to law enforcement.

The primary concern that I and my office have ... is with detecting and preventing future crime, Boudin said. We want San Francisco to be as safe as possible, (and) we want survivors of sexual assault to feel comfortable and safe reporting and cooperating with law enforcement.

Boudin said his office is not aware of how many times a sexual assault victims DNA may have been used to secure their arrest in a later case. Citing privacy concerns, Boudin offered few specifics about the case that he said alerted his office to the crime labs policy, but said it concerned a woman who received a rape exam in a domestic violence and sexual abuse case years ago.

The woman, Boudin said, was recently arrested on suspicion of a felony property crime, with police identifying her based on the rape-kit evidence she gave as a victim, Boudin said.

Boudin said his office was investigating the scope of the practice, as well as studying what it would do with any cases that used this type of evidence. The database potentially includes thousands of victims DNA profiles, with entries over many, many years, Boudin said.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said I think the questions raised by our district attorney today are sufficiently concerning that I have asked my assistant chief for operations to work with our Investigations Bureau to thoroughly review the matter, and report back to me and to our D.A.s office partners.

Scott said it was possible the suspect in the property crime case may have been identified through a DNA match in a non-victim DNA database.

Still, Scott said, We must never create disincentives for crime victims to cooperate with police, and if its true that DNA collected from a rape or sexual assault victim has been used by SFPD to identify and apprehend that person as a suspect in another crime, Im committed to ending the practice.

The departments existing DNA collection policies, Scott said, have been legally vetted and conform with state and national forensic standards.

The San Francisco Police Departments crime lab maintains several DNA databases populated largely by DNA profiles gathered from suspects or people convicted of a crime. The DNA entered in the databases is routinely compared with evidence found at crime scenes.

There are local, state and national databases, which may carry different criteria for when DNA gets entered. The most well-known of these databases is the Combined DNA Index System, which can connect DNA profiles across the country.

The database where DNA is entered from rape kits is used solely to solve San Francisco crimes, Boudin said.

D.A. officials said they dont believe the practice of linking suspects to crimes using DNA collected from rape kits is disclosed in a waiver victims sign before an exam. Boudin said, Even if it were mentioned somewhere in the fine print, is that an appropriate waiver to seek from a victim whos just come in and reported a sex assault? Absolutely not.

San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen said she was alerted to the alleged practice this weekend, and that she has submitted an inquiry to the City Attorneys Office to draft legislation to prevent DNA evidence  or any sort of evidence collected from a victims rape kit  to be used for anything other than investigating that rape itself.

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Now that I know that it is an issue I want to stop it immediately in San Francisco, she said. But I think that this should not be done at any level of government, anywhere.

Joanne Archambault, chief executive officer for the advocacy group End Violence Against Women International, said she doesnt believe a victims DNA should be entered into a database at any level.

In this situation, I think its inappropriate unless a victim is advised of that possibility at the time of the forensic medical examination, she said. And I doubt very much that that is happening.

Camille Cooper, vice president of public policy at the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said she had never before heard of law enforcement using a victims DNA to connect them to other crimes.

Its very concerning, she said.

State Senator Scott Wiener called the alleged practice extremely troubling and said his office was looking into whether state law allows rape-kit DNA to be used in future, unrelated cases.

If necessary, Ill seriously consider introducing state legislation to ban the practice, he said.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
Lake Tahoe conservationists seeking to block construction of a subdivision of upscale homes near Truckee have won an important court battle against the nations largest private landowner.

On Monday, Californias Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento ruled that a proposal to build a gated community of 760 homes in the mountains along Highway 267 between Truckee and Kings Beach didnt reasonably account for car traffic impacts that could sully Lake Tahoes famous water clarity and air quality.

With todays decision, we think were one step closer to getting that land protected so itll never be developed, said Tom Mooers, executive director of Sierra Watch, a conservation group in Nevada City fighting the project.

The ruling is the latest milestone in a 20-year battle between Tahoe conservationists and Sierra Pacific Industries, a timber company headquartered near Redding that owns upward of 2 million acres of land in California and Washington and counts itself as the largest landowner in the United States.

Weve resolved a lot of the issues, but this is the last big piece of the puzzle weve been working on, Mooers said.

In 2000, Sierra Pacific initially proposed building more than 6,000 homes on a large parcel of forest land near the Northstar ski resort in Martis Valley, just outside the Tahoe basin. Conservationists led by the nonprofits League to Save Lake Tahoe, Sierra Watch and Mountain Area Preservation mounted an opposition campaign to pare down the project in scope and preserve the land.

In 2016, Placer County approved the timber companys plan to build 760 homes and 7 acres worth of commercial real estate on 7,000 acres of the Martis Valley property while setting aside about 6,400 acres of it as open space. In response, Tahoe conservationist groups filed a lawsuit to void the countys environmental impact report.

Two years later, a Placer County judge found that the proposal didnt adequately address emergency evacuation procedures but otherwise satisfied the environmental concerns raised by opponents. But this week, the appeals court awarded conservationists a victory on the key precedent theyd been pursuing.

The crux of the oppositions argument is that the proposal doesnt accurately describe the toll on Tahoes air and water quality and that the development would run afoul of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). According to conservationists, the project would add nearly 4,000 daily car trips to the Tahoe regions narrow roadways, pump carbon emissions into the basin and create sediment that would ultimately find its way to the lake.

Fine sediment is the No. 1 cause of lack of clarity, said Darcie Goodman Collins, CEO of the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

Collins said she would like to see developers include measures to mitigate traffic that already plagues Tahoe with congestion. But the Martis Valley project is broadly problematic, she said.

Its an inappropriate place, she said. Theres no infrastructure there. Its pristine forest.

Sierra Watch had success using a similar CEQA argument in a separate case to stave off a massive proposed expansion of the Palisades Tahoe ski resort in Olympic Valley last fall. That project sought to add 850 lodging units, 300,000 square feet of commercial space, a parking lot and a water park to the resort.

Conservationists say halting these development plans is crucial to retaining Tahoes character and appeal.

If decision-makers are going to consider a proposal even outside the rim of the basin, they need to consider the impacts to Tahoe, mainly in the form of traffic, Mooers said. With these two decisions, really its a brand new day when it comes to protecting Tahoe from development outside the basin.

Its unclear what the next steps will be for Martis Valley. Sierra Pacific could revise its project proposal and resubmit it to Placer County for approvals or perhaps appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court.

Calls to Sierra Pacific Industries were not immediately returned.

Gregory Thomas is The Chronicles editor of lifestyle & outdoors. Email: gthomas@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @GregRThomas
That bandana makes you look like such a hipster, Mike Heartless said, busting my balls as he leaned against the bar drinking a Tecate.

I had just gotten back from my first and only Burning Man, so it mustve been September 2004. After wearing a bandana around my neck for a week in case I needed to breathe in a sandstorm, I thought I might work the accessory into my regular style. But apparently my friend Mike, in the skin-tight black jeans, black leather jacket, black Buddy Holly glasses and perfectly trimmed stubble, thought it was too hipster. Back when people cared about such things, hipsters reminded me of junkies, in the sense that they thought everyone else was one but themselves. Guess I was a hipster, too.

It's funny that all these years later, no one really talks about whos a hipster anymore, but bandanas are a popular accessory, not for surviving sandstorms but as a makeshift (and unfortunately ineffective) means of stopping the spread of a deadly disease. But I digress 

While Im not sure if it was the first time I ever went to the Phone Booth, that bandana story is my earliest distinct memory of that wonderfully quirky dive bar at the corner of 25th Street and South Van Ness. I spent a lot of time at the Phone Booth in that first decade of this incredibly strange century. It was during that short but monumental period when Myspace was all the rage. Suddenly this thing called social media made it so that we could amplify and project any version of ourselves we identified with at that very moment, so people I hung out with had names like Mike Heartless and Lisa Poisongirl. I think they still have these names in my phone even though theyre now in their 40s with kids.

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE Clockwise from top left: friendly games of pool are a staple of The Phone Booth in the Mission District; DJ Per Sia, Tim Rodriguez, and Francis Beavers catch up over cocktails; Phone Booth regulars Dan and Joshzilla; Sasha, originally from Mexico, is the beloved mascot of The Phone Booth. (Photos by Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE) Clockwise from top left: friendly games of pool are a staple of The Phone Booth in the Mission District; DJ Per Sia, Tim Rodriguez, and Francis Beavers catch up over cocktails; Phone Booth regulars Dan and Joshzilla; Sasha, originally from Mexico, is the beloved mascot of The Phone Booth. (Photos by Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE)

The Phone Booth was smoky back then; it was one of the last bars in SF that allowed lighting up. But the impressively cheap drinks, exquisitely curated jukebox, delightfully campy decor and weirdo clientele made smelling like an ashtray the next day almost worth it.

Whats remarkable is that, in a city thats seen so much change over the past 20 years, not much feels different since I started drinking there  other than the smoking, thankfully. Then again, to a bar like the Phone Booth, 20 years is nothing.

Sitting down at the end of the bar next to the aforementioned legendary jukebox, husbands and co-owners Steven Spingola and Jared Wendt explain that they believe their bar is at least 80 years old. While there arent any records earlier than the 60s or so, a friend gave them a matchbook from what appears to be the 1940s when it was called the Phone Booth Cocktail Lounge and the owners were Marge and Jim.

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

As for where the bar got its name: Theres a huge old Pac Bell building a block away called the 25th Street Telco Building that was built in 1949 and full of telephone operators and other phone company employees. But considering there was a previous phone company building next door to the Telco building as early as 1909, the Phone Booth could potentially have had this name for even longer than Steve and Jared suspect.

What is known for sure is that Jared started working at the Phone Booth around 1996. Then on April 1, 1999, Jared and Steve (a third generation San Franciscan) bought the joint from Linda Pancost, who Steve described with a loving smirk as a notorious owner of this bar and a notorious woman in her own right in San Francisco.

At the time, it was an off-the-beaten path old man gay bar that was beige inside with lots of mirrors and no beer on tap. A man named Eddie played piano on the weekends. The neighborhood was quite different, too. It was before the Mission really gentrified, so most residents were Latino, including a lot of immigrant families.

The Phone Booth that we know and love today, with the famous Barbie doll chandelier and signed photos of Tom Selleck and Barry Manilow, came into existence when Jared and Steve took over.

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

When we bought it in 1999  we put in all the tap beers and built all of this stuff and put in real liquor and we got a jukebox that I take care of, Steve told me over our second drink. He was in a band called Outer Circle, which was signed to Enigma Records in the 80s, and hes still a musician and a songwriter today. Jared is the creative force behind the decor  he built the chandelier himself.

Neither Selleck nor Manilow have ever stopped in for a drink, but the list of famous people who have is long and eclectic. I mean sure, we all expect John Waters to have drank at the Phone Booth (hes done so twice), but so have Chloe Sevigny, Michael Fassbender, Spike Jonze, Michael Stipe, Andy Samberg, Hope Sandoval and many more.

So, Mark Zuckerberg has been here, Steve tells me during my third drink, which was a fiasco. Because he walked up to the door with his entourage, and the doorman, Andy, who is a bartender here, too, said, I need to see your ID. And his friends are going, Don't you know who he is? And [Andy] goes, I don't care who he is. I need to see your ID.

To Jared, that exemplifies that kind of bar the Phone Booth is. There's not one person working here that would make a big deal about anyone [famous] walking through the door. Drew Barrymore can walk in here and play pool and sit here punching holes in warm cans of beer, and no one says anything or makes a deal or even wants a photo.

This of course makes me wonder why Drew Barrymore was punching holes in warm cans of beer (maybe she was shotgunning them?), but, to stay well within the vibe of the bar, I dont ask.

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

When I began hanging out at the Phone Booth nearly two decades ago, the clientele was a mix of local drunks, queers, hipsters, queer hipsters and local drunk queer hipsters. It was probably 70/30 gay/straight, and there was always a tangle of old-timers and younger folks. And they got along marvelously. Liz, the bartender that evening, has worked at the Phone Booth for 16 years and at the mention of the older crowd, she pipes in, They make friends with everyone.

Times change though, and theres only about five or six old-timer regulars left. But thats not all that changes. The fellas explain that, unlike back in the day, the clientele doesnt really see themselves as gay or straight. Theres more fluidity, Jared tells me.

Regardless, the crowd is still mostly musicians, artists and service industry people.

As I finish my fourth and final drink, I ask the most important question of all, how theyve survived through the pandemic. Jared and Steve both admit its been incredibly rough. Up until the pandemic, they had always been profitable, but the past two years have put them into debt for the first time. Steve and Jared are optimistic though, things are picking up, and theyre starting to crawl out of it.

We've gone through, over the years, just so many of those ups and downs and been able to maintain it through all of them, Jared tells me. I never thought I'd be a bar owner  and I also never thought that we would own the bar for as long as we have. I always thought we might have it for five, 10 years, but time flies.

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

As I say goodbye, the bar starts to fill up with that wonderful assortment of interesting humans thats always seemed to populate the place. Walking out the door, I think about how lucky we are to have the Phone Booth still alive and kicking in San Francisco. I think the next time I pop in, Ill wear a bandana for old times sake.

Stuart Schuffman is the editor-in-chief of BrokeAssStuart.com.
Feb. 15, 4:15 p.m. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin dropped felony property charges filed against a woman Tuesday after decrying San Francisco police's alleged practice of using DNA from rape victims during searches for criminal suspects.

"It is my commitment going forward to never use DNA obtained in this unlawful way," Boudin said during a briefing. "Our conversations with the leadership at SFPD Crime Lab suggest that this is a routine practice not only in San Francisco but at other crime labs across the state."

A spokesperson for Boudin's office declined to comment further on the particulars of the case to SFGATE in an effort to protect the woman's privacy.

But as the revelation continues to make national headlines, San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen and California state Sen. Scott Wiener are calling for state and city bans on the practice.

Feb. 14, 4:45 p.m. The San Francisco District Attorneys Office has come forward with allegations that the San Francisco Police Department used a womans DNA previously obtained from a rape kit to arrest her for a property crime.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced the bombshell during a Monday press conference, as first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle. (SFGATE and The Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently of each other.)

Boudin alleges that he was informed of this police practice last week, The Chronicle reports.

If true, Boudin said, the revelation would further discourage survivors of rape and sexual assault in San Francisco from coming forward. SFPD has faced scrutiny in the past related to its mishandling of sexual assault cases. A 2014 KGO investigation found hundreds of untested rape kits spanning nearly a decade, and in 2019, a woman petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case against the Police Department for its mishandling of her rape.

I am disturbed that victims who have the courage to undergo an invasive examination to help identify their perpetrators are being treated like criminals rather than supported as crime victims, Boudin said in a statement to SFGATE. We should encourage survivors to come forward  not collect evidence to use against them in the future. This practice treats victims like evidence, not human beings. This is legally and ethically wrong. My office is demanding that this practice end immediately, and is encouraging local and state legislators to introduce legislation to end this practice in California. We remain committed to doing everything in our power to support survivors of sexual violence.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott declined to confirm the allegations in a statement, saying that "our existing DNA collection policies have been legally vetted and conform with state and national forensic standards."

"We must never create disincentives for crime victims to cooperate with police, and if its true that DNA collected from a rape or sexual assault victim has been used by SFPD to identify and apprehend that person as a suspect in another crime, Im committed to ending the practice," he said in a statement.

The allegation is likely to intensify ongoing tensions between San Francisco police and the D.A.s Office. Earlier this month, Scott announced that the Police Department would no longer cooperate with Boudins office to independently investigate police misconduct after alleging that the office violated the memorandum by withholding information. A D.A.s Office spokesperson denied the claims.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced earlier Monday that they would intervene to ensure an agreement between the two offices.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.
As Americans assembled their ingredients for Super Bowl guacamole over the weekend, troubling news emerged from the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Avocado imports from Michoacan, Mexico, had been suspended.

The import suspension comes as avocado prices hit record highs, 100% more expensive than they were a year ago, according to David Magana, a senior analyst for RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness.

"In a few days, the current inventory will be sold out and there will be a lack of product in almost any supermarket," said Raul Lopez, Mexico manager of Agtools, which conducts market research of agricultural commodities. "The consumer will have very few products available, and prices will rise drastically."

The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is working with Customs and Border Protection to allow avocados that were inspected and certified for export on or before Feb. 11 to continue to be imported.

After that, there will be no more avocados until further notice.

Brokers are scrambling, retailers will have shortfalls, and consumers will feel further pain at the checkout line, according to Michael Swanson, Wells Fargo's chief agricultural economist. Eight out of ten avocados purchased in the U.S. are from Michoacan, a figure that goes up even more at this time of the year.

"Brokers are going to start price rationing and going to their highest-margin accounts with what they have left in the pipeline," Swanson said.

Any retailer not paying top dollar could see their allocation diverted to higher bidders.

"There really isn't an option to go elsewhere," he said.

When contacted by The Washington Post about how the ban is affecting them, Mission Produce and Calavo Growers, two of the largest importers, did not respond.

The USDA decided to stop imports when one of its plant-safety inspectors in Michoacan purportedly received a threatening message on his official cellphone.

The suspension will remain in place for as long as necessary to ensure actions are taken to keep APHIS personnel working safely in Mexico, according to Lucero Hernandez, an APHIS spokeswoman.

Commercial shipments of fresh Mexican Hass avocados have been imported from Michoacan since 1997. It is the only state currently approved to send avocados to the U.S.

According to Lopez of Agtools, the inspector in Michoacan found a shipment from the state of Puebla that was intended to be exported to the United States, which is not allowed.

"The people from the facility tried to intimidate and then [threaten] the inspector, so he reported it to the USDA, then they decided to pull out all the inspectors and close the border indefinitely," he said.

Martha Montoya, chief executive of Agtools, said experienced inspectors can identify an avocado's region of origin from their size, shape and skin texture. The American mania for avocados as a "good fat" has created a boom in Mexico, with many states growing them and attempting to find ways to sneak them into Michoacan so they can be sold in the United States, she said. The broadening U.S. racial and ethnic makeup has spurred greater avocado consumption, and younger generations have embraced the squishable fruit in droves.

In 2021, Michoacan sold 2.26 billion pounds of avocados into the United States, up from 1.9 billion just two years prior. This has happened, Swanson said, even as California has "steadily been transferring acreage away from avocados," leaving the United States more dependent upon Mexican imports.

The timing for the import ban, Montoya said, is dire.

After the Super Bowl, the next big avocado-centric holiday is coming right up.

"Cinco de Mayo is going to be impacted heavily," she said. "We have six weeks to be shipping product for the celebration."

The Mexican state of Jalisco was approved in December to start exporting to the United States, Montoya said, but that won't start until May or June, and the volume will be paltry compared with Michoacan's usual exports.

She said if the import ban goes on for months, it will be an opportunity for the Dominican Republic, Chile, Peru and other growing areas to sell into the United States at a higher price. But this import ban likely means the avocados will, according to Montoya, "be dumped into the domestic market" - which will lead to falling prices and dwindling profits for Mexican growers.
Feb. 17, 5:30 a.m. California's indoor mask mandate expired at the end of the day on Wednesday, and all counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, except Santa Clara, plan to drop indoor face-covering requirements for vaccinated people.

Read more below about what you need to know:

Feb. 16, 4 a.m. California's mask mandate officially expires Wednesday, and all counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, except Santa Clara, plan to drop indoor face-covering requirements for vaccinated people. Yes, that means if you go to the movies or eat out at a restaurant, you no longer need to sport a mask in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano or Sonoma counties. Just south of the Bay Area, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties are also aligning with the state.

State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said in a Monday press conference that while masks are no longer required, he recommends that people use caution and continue to have them on hand for circumstances such as large indoor events.

There are a few notable exceptions, however.

Masking will continue to be required in certain settings, regardless of vaccination status

All people, vaccinated or not, will still need to wear face coverings in certain settings, including the following:

-Public transit, including airplanes, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and hailed rides; and transit hubs such as airports and bus terminals

-Indoors at K-12 schools and in child care settings. Ghaly said Monday that masks will continue to be required in schools until at least Feb. 28, when the state plans to reassess the data.

-Emergency shelters and cooling and heating centers

-Homeless shelters

-Long-term care and adult and senior care facilities

-Healthcare settings

-Correctional facilities and detention centers

The state continues to require that people who haven't gotten their vaccinations wear masks in the above places as well as in all other indoor public settings. This means that if you're not vaccinated and you go to the grocery store, the state says you must wear a face covering.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Businesses can ask patrons for proof of vaccination to determine whether individuals should wear a mask. They can also continue to require all patrons regardless of vaccination status to put on a face covering. Don't be surprised if you go to a store and find a sign posted at the door asking you to mask even though the mandate was lifted.

When will Santa Clara lift the mask mandate?

Santa Clara County Public Health Director Dr. Sara Cody said last week that while the omicron surge is subsiding, she believes the community transmission rate remains too high to stop requiring masking.

"Currently we are emerging from the omicron surge and it's been about a month since the peak and our cases and our case rates are 40% of what they were," Cody said. "But we still have very high levels of community transmission, still higher than at any other point in the pandemic pre-omicron. And so the risk of being exposed to someone with COVID in our community is still high."

Santa Clara health officials are watching three metrics to determine when to lift the mask mandate. One of those metrics has already been met  that is 80% of all residents are fully vaccinated. The county is also requiring that COVID-19 hospitalizations are "low and stable," in the judgment of the health officer, and the seven-day average of new cases per day is at or below 550 for at least a week.

Public health officials said they anticipate that indoor masking requirements will be dropped in the county "in a matter of weeks."

California gives counties the option to adopt policies that are more strict than the state. Cody has a history of implementing rules that are more restrictive than other regions. She was the reported architect of the lockdowns two years ago at the start of the pandemic.
On Monday, February 7th 2022 Robin Bruce McAlister of South Mountain, Pennsylvania (formerly of California, Maryland) passed away peacefully from complications of pancreatic cancer with his wife and children by his side.



Robin was born in Columbus, Ohio on June 28th 1951. He was raised in Toms River, New Jersey by Robert and Marion along with his sisters Anne, Bonnie, Wynett, and Tracy. Yet he was more inclined to reminisce about the summers spent at his beloved grandfather's cabin in Pennsylvania where he developed a love for the outdoors that followed him throughout life. He especially enjoyed bird and wildlife identification, as well as hiking, camping, and backpacking. All of this translated perfectly to his "third career" as Scoutmaster of Troop 427 in Solomons, Maryland for over twenty years. In this role he mentored hundreds of young men, of which over fifty achieved the pinnacle rank of Eagle Scout. He was thoroughly invested in the program as a phenomenal (and highly decorated) trainer at the district and council level, sought after for his expertise to staff and develop courses that shaped the overall leadership of the scouting program.



He enlisted in the Navy in 1969 as an aviation electronics technician. His twenty year career toured him around the world to Japan, Italy, and England on top of several domestic duty stations. He never missed an opportunity to adventure at any location, whether it be the desert of China Lake, the waters of Florida, or backpacking Europe and having high tea with the mayor of Glasgow. He met his wife Shari while they were both stationed in Sicily; they liked to tease that they "had to travel a very long way" to find each other. Their 39th wedding anniversary will be on the 26th of February.



Robin retired in 1989 as a Senior Chief Petty Officer out of Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Southern Maryland. After retiring he took a job there that would span the better part of three decades, although he always had a "five year plan" to move north. The first plan to move was when his oldest son Christian graduated high school in 1990. Then the plan shifted to when his daughter Colleen would graduate in 1994. Then when their youngest son Joshua graduated high school in 2001...and again when he graduated college in 2004. The plan finally started to fade from conversation when he decided to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in 2005 with Joshua. He continued to work as a government contractor supporting naval flight and mission planning as an integral part of the network administration team until he retired in 2016.



His love for his community, his scouting family, and his coworkers anchored him there and motivated him to continually give more of himself. He was an active member of his parish for many years, which led to his involvement with the local soup kitchen and food pantry along with Christmas in April. He was an active member of the local Moose Lodge and American Legion. He was known and loved throughout the community for his witty jokes, willingness to help, and amazing hugs. He and Shari finally decided to depart Southern Maryland in 2019 to retire to their freshly renovated "shack" in the state forest of south-central Pennsylvania to be closer to family and once more enjoy the woods that brought him so much peace.



In lieu of flowers or condolences Robin would want you to take time for yourself to go out into nature and enjoy it, especially with a loved one. Contributions may be made in his name to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Grand Teton National Park, Shenandoah National Park, or the outdoor organization that means the most to you.



There will be a celebration of life at the Hollywood fire hall on February 19th from 2-5pm. All are welcome; please honor his request for "casual attire" and wear your best Hawaiian shirt. BYOB: this is to be a happy occasion for reminiscing, sharing stories, and getting all of the big "Robin" hugs you need. For those that want to continue on into the evening and those that cannot make it to the fire hall, Patuxent Moose Lodge 2393 will be open to all that knew and loved Robin from 5pm until...
LATEST Feb. 16, 9:30 a.m. The majority of San Franciscans who voted in Tuesday's special election were in support of recalling three San Francisco school board members, with 79% voting to oust Alison Collins, 75% saying yes to recalling Gabriela Lopez and 72% opting to remove Faauuga Moliga, according to tallies by the San Francisco Department of Elections.

Mayor London Breed will now appoint board replacements to serve until another election in November. Read more about the school board recall and what happens next on SFGATE.

The election was the first recall in San Francisco since 1983, a failed attempt to remove then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein. The school board has seven members, all Democrats, but only the three were eligible to be recalled.

Parents in the politically liberal city launched the recall effort in January 2021 out of frustration over the slow reopening of district schools while the board pursued the renaming of 44 school sites and the elimination of competitive admissions at the elite Lowell High School.

The city of San Francisco has risen up and said this is not acceptable to put our kids last, said Siva Raj, a father of two who helped launch the recall effort. Talk is not going to educate our children, its action. Its not about symbolic action, its not about changing the name on a school, it is about helping kids inside the school building read and learn math.

The mayor, one of the most prominent endorsers of the recall, praised the parents, saying they were fighting for what matters most - their children. Opponents called the recall a waste of time and money as the district faces challenges that include a $125 million budget deficit and the need to replace retiring Superintendent Vincent Matthews.

Collins, Lopez and Moliga had defended their records, saying they prioritized racial equity because that was what they were elected to do.

One of the first issues to grab national attention was the boards January 2021 decision to rename 44 schools they said honored public figures linked to racism, sexism and other injustices. On the list were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Feinstein. The effort drew swift criticism for historical mistakes. Critics said it made a mockery of the countrys racial reckoning. Angry parents asked why the board would waste time renaming schools when the priority needed to be reopening classrooms.

After an uproar, the school board scrapped the plan.

Collins came under fire again for tweets she wrote in 2016 that were widely criticized as racist. In them Collins, who is Black, said Asian Americans used white supremacist thinking to get ahead and were racist toward Black students. Collins said the tweets were taken out of context and posted before she held her school board position. She refused to take them down or apologize for the wording and ignored calls to resign from parents, Breed and other public officials.

Collins turned around and sued the district and her colleagues for $87 million, fueling yet another pandemic sideshow. The lawsuit was later dismissed.

Many Asian parents were already angered by the boards efforts to end merit-based admissions at the elite Lowell High School, where Asian students are the majority. As a result, many Asian American residents were motivated to vote for the first time in a municipal election. The grassroots Chinese/API Voter Outreach Task Force group, which formed in mid-December, said it registered 560 new Asian American voters.

Also in the Tuesday election, Supervisor Matt Haney and former Supervisor David Campos led the four-candidate race for the state Assembly District 17 seat representing the east side of the city. Haney and Campos face a runoff in April because none of the candidates secured more than 50% of the vote.

Haney led with 37% of the vote, Campos 35%, former Obama administration official Bilal Mahmood 21% and San Francisco City College trustee Thea Selby 6%, the department of elections reported.

LATEST Feb. 15, 9:30 p.m. Early results from Tuesday's special election were largely in favor of recalling three San Francisco school board members. In the initial returns, 79% voted to oust Alison Collins, 75% said yes to recalling Gabriela Lopez and 73% opted to remove Faauuga Moliga.

Early in the night, it was clear that all three school board members will be recalled.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who endorsed the recall, released a message in response to the election results: "The voters of this City have delivered a clear message that the School Board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else. San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well. I want to recognize all the parents who tirelessly organized and advocated in the last year. Elections can be difficult, but these parents were fighting for what matters most  their children. The days ahead for our public schools will not be easy.

"Our kids have suffered tremendously during this pandemic, dealing with serious learning loss and significant mental health challenges. Its time we refocus our efforts on the basics of providing quality education for all students, while more broadly improving how this City delivers support for children and families."

State Senator Scott Wiener, who was also in favor of the recall, wrote in a statement: Today San Franciscans made a clear statement: We need a Board of Education focused like a laser on stabilizing our schools, keeping them open, and supporting students and families in the most effective possible way.

The board members will be replaced by mayoral appointments.

After two rounds of results were counted in the state Assembly District 17 race, SF District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney had 38% of the vote, former SF Supervisor David Campos 35%, former Obama administration official Bilal Mahmood 21%, and San Francisco City College trustee Thea Selby 6%.

If Haney, Campos, Mahmood or Selby don't win a simple majority of votes, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff in April. The winner would face re-election in November.

Feb. 15, 8:10 a.m. It's the last day to vote in San Francisco's special election, and officials will begin tallying ballots today.

You can get live results on the SF Elections website.

If you live in the city, you were mailed a ballot and may have already turned it in. As of Tuesday morning, 23% of voters in the city have returned their ballots. You can view vote-by-mail turnout data for each district in city on the SF Elections website.

If you haven't already returned your ballot, there's still time to put it in the mail (postage is paid), stop by your polling place or drop it off at one of 34 drop boxes around the city. You can also vote in person at City Hall through 8 p.m. tonight. There's a complete rundown of all the ways to vote on the SF Elections website.

There are three contests on the ballot. The highest profile race is the recall effort in which voters can decide whether to remove three members of the San Francisco Board of Education: President Gabriela Lopez and board members Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins.

Voters in Assembly District 17, which covers three-fifths of the city, are picking a new Assemblymember and choosing between four candidates: District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, former Supervisor David Campos, San Francisco City College trustee Thea Selby and former Obama administration official Bilal Mahmood.

A vote for the city's assessor-recorder is also on the ballot for all residents. Mayor Breed appointed Joaquin Torres as the assessor-recorder in January 2021, replacing Carmen Chu who became the city administrator. Because the assessor-recorder is an elected position, Torres must run in a citywide election to continue in the position. He is running unopposed.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
A woman of mixed race appears to be the third person ever to be cured of HIV, using a new transplant method involving umbilical cord blood that opens up the possibility of curing more people of diverse racial backgrounds than was previously possible, scientists announced on Tuesday.

Cord blood is more widely available than the adult stem cells typically used in bone marrow transplants, and does not need to be matched as closely to the recipient. Most donors in registries are of Caucasian origin, so allowing for only a partial match has the potential to cure dozens of Americans who have both HIV and cancer each year, scientists said.

The woman, who also had leukemia, received cord blood to treat her cancer. It came from a partially matched donor, instead of the typical practice of finding a bone marrow donor of similar race and ethnicity to the patients. She also received blood from a close relative to give her body temporary immune defenses while the transplant took.

Researchers presented some of the details of the new case on Tuesday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver.

The sex and racial background of the new case mark a significant step forward in developing a cure for HIV, the researchers said.

The fact that shes mixed race, and that shes a woman, that is really important scientifically and really important in terms of the community impact, said Dr. Steven Deeks, an AIDS expert at the University of California, San Francisco who was not involved in the work.

Infection with HIV is thought to progress differently in women than in men, but while women account for more than half of HIV cases in the world, they make up only 11% of participants in cure trials.

But Deeks said he did not see the new approach becoming commonplace. These are stories of providing inspiration to the field and perhaps the road map, he said.

Powerful antiretroviral drugs can control HIV, but a cure is key to ending the decades-old pandemic. Worldwide, nearly 38 million people are living with HIV, and about 73% of them are receiving treatment.

A bone marrow transplant is not a realistic option for most patients. Such transplants are highly invasive and risky, so they are generally offered only to people with cancer who have exhausted all other options.

There have only been two known cases of an HIV cure so far. Referred to as The Berlin Patient, Timothy Ray Brown stayed virus-free for 12 years, until he died in 2020 of cancer. In 2019, another patient, later identified as Adam Castillejo, was reported to be cured of HIV, confirming that Browns case was not a fluke.

Both men received bone marrow transplants from donors who carried a mutation that blocks HIV infection. The mutation has been identified in only about 20,000 donors, most of whom are of Northern European descent.

In the previous cases, as the bone marrow transplants replaced all of their immune systems, both men suffered punishing side effects, including graft versus host disease, a condition in which the donors cells attack the recipients body. Brown nearly died after his transplant. Castillejos treatment was less intense, but in the year after his transplant, he lost nearly 70 pounds, developed a hearing loss and survived multiple infections, according to his doctors.

By contrast, the woman in the latest case left the hospital by day 17 after her transplant and did not develop graft versus host disease, said Dr. JingMei Hsu, the patients physician at Weill Cornell Medicine. The combination of cord blood and her relatives cells might have spared her much of the brutal side effects of a typical bone marrow transplant, Hsu said.

It was previously thought that graft versus host disease might be an important reason for an HIV cure in the prior cases, said Dr. Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, who was not involved in the work. The new results dispel that idea, Lewin said.

The woman, who is now past middle age (she did not want to disclose her exact age because of privacy concerns), was diagnosed with HIV in June 2013. Antiretroviral drugs kept her virus levels low. In March 2017, she was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia.

In August of that year, she received cord blood from a donor with the mutation that blocks HIVs entry into cells. But it can take about six weeks for cord blood cells to engraft, so she was also given partially matched blood stem cells from a first-degree relative.

The half-matched haplo cells from her relative propped up her immune system until the cord blood cells became dominant, making the transplant much less dangerous, said Dr. Marshall Glesby, an infectious diseases expert at Weill Cornell Medicine of New York and part of the research team.

The transplant from the relative is like a bridge that got her through to the point of the cord blood being able to take over, he said.

The patient opted to discontinue antiretroviral therapy 37 months after the transplant. More than 14 months later, she now shows no signs of HIV in blood tests, and she does not seem to have detectable antibodies to the virus.

Its unclear exactly why stem cells from cord blood seem to work so well, experts said. One possibility is that they are more capable of adapting to a new environment, said Dr. Koen Van Besien, director of the transplant service at Weill Cornell. These are newborns, they are more adaptable, he said.

Cord blood may also contain elements beyond the stem cells that aid in the transplant.

Umbilical stem cells are attractive, Deeks said. Theres something magical about these cells and something magical perhaps about the cord blood in general that provides an extra benefit.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
A Utah student group was called "Black and Proud." The principal had it renamed. A New Hampshire history teacher used to discuss current events in a unit about race and economics. No more. And Florida school officials canceled a lecture for teachers on the history of the civil rights movement while they considered whether it would violate state rules.

In 13 states, new laws or directives govern how race can be taught in schools, in some cases creating reporting systems for complaints. The result, teachers and principals say, is a climate of fear around how to comply with rules they often do not understand.

The new measures typically bar teachers from suggesting the United States is a racist country, from elevating one race or gender over another or implying that one race is superior. So far, they have not triggered wholesale rewrites of the curriculum, and few educators have faced prosecution or punishment. Some teachers say they see no changes at all.

But many teachers nonetheless describe a chilling effect. They say they now err on the side of caution for fear that a student or parent might complain, resulting in a public battle - or even, in extreme cases, that they might lose their jobs. In New Hampshire and Oklahoma, which allow anyone unhappy with a teacher to complain to the state, there is an extra layer of fear. Teachers found to be out of compliance can lose their teaching licenses.

"The law is really, really vague," said Jen Given, a 10th grade history teacher at Hollis Brookline High School in Hollis, N.H. The New Hampshire law bars teaching that people of one age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, marital status, familial status, mental or physical disability, religion, or national origin are inherently superior or inferior to people of another. But Given said she's not clear on the definition of "inherently," "superior" or "inferior."

"We asked for clarification from the state, from the union, from school lawyers. The universal response is no one's really sure," she said. "It led us to be exceptionally cautious because we don't want to risk our livelihoods when we're not sure what the rules are."'

Supporters say the laws are needed to pare back offensive lessons about race in America, including the notion that White people today - even children - bear responsibility for sins of the past, and those that emphasize American racism over more unifying and uplifting elements of U.S. history.

Some officials have made it clear they are on the lookout for transgressions. In a speech last year, Richard Corcoran, the Florida education commissioner, said it was important to "police" teachers to make sure they are not indoctrinating students with a liberal agenda.

"I've censored or fired or terminated numerous teachers," he said. "There was an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter and we made sure she was terminated."

Opponents say teachers need the freedom to teach all of American history - the good and the bad - and that conversations about the unequal effects of slavery, systemic racism and White privilege are an important tool for helping students to analyze current events and controversies.

In recent years, many school districts have worked to examine structural racism in their systems - conducting "equity audits" and looking at discipline and achievement data through the lens of race. Many have added curriculums, books and lessons about racism and White privilege. In many places, these efforts accelerated following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.

The backlash followed. A study published by UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access surveyed 275 teachers who belong to organizations that address equity and tolerance and found the majority reported efforts to block teaching on issues of race. Some teachers also said their districts were pulling away from previously announced equity efforts.

Laws limiting the teaching of race, gender and related questions now exist in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Executive actions, such as rules approved by a state board of education, are in place in Alabama, Florida, Utah and Virginia. In Georgia, the state board of education approved a resolution along these lines, but it was never codified into rules. In Montana, the attorney general issued an opinion on the issue. In Arizona, a law that imposed limits on teaching race was invalidated by the state supreme court.

Outside pressure is likely to persist. At least 27 states are considering legislation this year that would limit how race and, in some cases gender, can be taught in schools. Republicans see this issue as a winning one and are campaigning across the country against a basket of race-related policies they label as critical race theory.

- - -

Interviews with teachers and principals across the country reveal that educators are changing the way they teach about race in response to the new laws, sometimes in subtle ways.

In New Hampshire, Given said she used to teach students about racial disparities in economics partly by tying relative lack of Black wealth to Jim Crow laws and discriminatory mortgage policies known as redlining. Not anymore.

"We started avoiding modern parallels in order to avoid any question coming up that we were, by including this information, we were somehow suggesting one group is better than the other," she said.

An hour north, in Hopkinton, N.H., high school English teacher Kate LaClair said she used to talk about the idea of privilege, including White privilege, during a unit on race. This year she plans to avoid any mention of that. She also is not going to have her students take the implicit bias test from Harvard or read articles critiquing it, as she has in the past.

"I'm just being more aware of buzz and trigger words," she said.

In August, about a month after Oklahoma's new law passed, administrators in Edmond, Okla., sent a slide presentation to staff saying that teachers should avoid using the terms "diversity" and "White privilege" during classroom discussions, according to a screenshot obtained by The Washington Post. Regan Killackey, who teaches English at Edmond Memorial High School, was so disturbed that he contacted the ACLU in Oklahoma and is now a plaintiff in a suit challenging the law.

"I was watching what was happening around me and ethically I couldn't remain silent," said Killackey, who is White and has taught for 18 years. This year, he said, "I have taught differently. I've had to edit myself in a way that I've never had to think about in my entire career."

Edmond Public Schools spokeswoman Susan Parks-Schlepp said in an emailed statement that the slide presentation was "preliminary in nature." The district later added "new slides [that] clarified for teachers that diversity could be discussed in the classroom," she said.

And at Utah's West Jordan Middle School, outside Salt Lake City, Principal D. Rae Garrison decided not to offer a popular course called American Institutions this year partly because one unit discusses current events, including the Black Lives Matter movement. She said the teacher did not feel comfortable teaching the class until they are certain that the material does not violate the new law.

They've made some changes and plan to offer the course again in the fall, she said, but she leaves open the possibility that she'll again pull the course or modify it further.

"If we're going to have people having an issue it would be with this class," she said. While the teacher awaits guidance from the state, no decision has been made yet about whether to keep the Black Lives Matter material.

The Pulitzer Center, which distributes a curriculum based on the "1619 Project," said one of the 42 participating school districts dropped out of a training program due to state legislation. Donnalie Jamnah, manager of K12 Partnerships, said "quite a few" teams "had to respond to some pushback to the work, (but) most were able to address those parent or community concerns." She said a better test may come with the second cohort of teachers later this year.

- - -

In other challenges, parents have sought to remove books from reading lists, or teachers have done it preemptively.

A complaint under the new Tennessee law has been filed against the "Civil Rights Heroes" module of a second-grade reading curriculum - specifically four books detailing the life stories of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ruby Bridges and Sylvia Mendez. It charged that the books betray a "narrow and slanted obsession on historical mistakes . . . that makes children hate their country, each other, and/or themselves."

The complaint came from the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national advocacy group that pushes for greater parental control over education.

The chair of the group, Robin Steenman, said in an email that her Moms for Liberty chapter is "genuinely concerned about the graphic, violent and racially divisive contents in the curriculum," saying this content is not appropriate for second grade. She said she and other chapter members first grew concerned when a mother charged that her biracial child was "negatively impacted by the teaching."

A spokeswoman for the Williamson County school district said this week that the district is reviewing challenges to 30 texts, including these titles.

In Oklahoma, the Edmond district eliminated a rule that teachers of an American literature course include at least one text authored by a woman or a person of color that meaningfully interrogates issues of race and identity, Killackey said. In a statement, Edmond schools spokeswoman Parks-Schlepp said the district reviews and updates its book lists annually to make sure they comply with state academic standards.

Last year, in Hopkinton, a teacher had students read an excerpt of the book "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You," causing a stir. The controversy triggered a review, which is still ongoing, so the book is not currently being taught, said LaClair, who heads the English department at Hopkinton Middle/High School.

In Florida, rules approved by the state board of education that are otherwise open to interpretation include one clear directive: Schools may not teach the "1619 Project," a set of essays and a book developed by the New York Times that argues slavery was central to America's founding.

Pinellas County history teacher Brandt Robinson, who had spoken at a school board meeting about these issues, was accused by a parent of violating the law because his syllabus included a book about Black Americans that referenced the year 1619. The parent lost her appeal.

"Here is a woman who didn't know what she didn't know," Robinson said.

- - -

Administrators have felt the need to make a raft of other adjustments to accommodate the new rules.

In Osceola County, Fla., the school district had scheduled a January professional development session for teachers with Michael Butler, a history professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine, on the history of civil rights. Officials canceled it in part because they worried it would run afoul of the state's rules.

"The district needed time to review the training materials in light of the current conversations across our state and in our community about critical race theory," said district spokeswoman Dana Schafer. The teachers involved were instead moved into a training session with a different presenter.

This was also a concern in Edmond. Killackey said at the start of the school year, he learned administrators had nixed a module on anti-racist teaching from mandatory professional development training. The program had included holding "courageous conversations" about thorny social topics, including racial issues.

Parks-Schlepp said the district "has not changed its professional development training because of the law." She noted that the module, though now voluntary, "still exists on our educator dashboard and is available for any teacher who wants to view it."

Other modifications have been mostly symbolic, though some find the symbolism can be meaningful. In Davenport, Iowa, in 2020, school librarian Linda Smithson decorated windows with decal sayings including "Black Lives Matter," "Science is Real," "Love is Love" and "Women's Rights are Human Rights."

Smithson recalled just one complaint, from a student who asked, "Don't all lives matter?," prompting a conversation. Last summer, she said her principal asked her to take the decals down, citing the new law. "He didn't want to offend anybody, and he didn't want to wind up on the news," she said. She complained, and in a meeting with a district official, she was again told to take them down because they were "political," she said.

"Which ones are political?" she replied. She stuck to her position and was allowed to keep the decals but, in a concession, replaced a large Black Lives Matter flag in her library with a smaller one. A district spokesman had no immediate comment.

At her Utah middle school, Garrison instructed a student group to change its name from "Black and Proud" to "Black Student Alliance." Two years ago, she said, a father got "right up in my face" and demanded, "How dare you have a 'Black and Proud' group at our school. Can my son start a group called 'White and Proud?'"

Garrison ignored the complaint - until the law passed last year, and she decided she should change the name just in case. She added that she likes the new name and finds it to be a positive change.

Nonetheless, she said: "I'm looking at things from a fear-based lens. . . . There's a general distrust that's been going on between parents and schools."

In the fall, a parent at Kearsarge Regional Middle School in Sutton, N.H., complained that an educator was displaying a rainbow flag symbolizing LBGTQ+, said Steve Patterson, the school principal.

"A parent challenged me and said, 'That's against the law,'" Patterson said. "He made the case that the flag was at the front of the room more prominently than the U.S. flag, which it wasn't."

Patterson consulted with a district attorney who told him the flag was fine. "A pride flag is actually a message of inclusion," Patterson said. "It doesn't say any group is inherently inferior or superior."

- - -

Overall, Patterson sees teachers showing more caution. He worries, for instance, about an upcoming unit teaching the Holocaust. Might someone conclude that teaching this history sends a message that people of German descent are guilty by association? He doesn't anticipate teachers losing their teaching licenses, but he doesn't think that is the point.

"Are they changing the nature of the conversations in school? Yeah," he said.

Liz Close, who teaches ethnic studies at Anderson High School in Austin has detected a low hum of anxiety all year. Close, 35, teaches about institutionalized racism in America and how some of the worst parts of our nation's history inform the present. "I know that if I get a parent who does not agree with these concepts, I'll be in trouble," she said.

So far this year, though, no parents have submitted complaints. Close, who is White, has not changed much, but she did remove a link to the 1619 Project. "I still tell them about it. I say it's a resource, you can read it - but I'm not putting it on my curriculum page," she said.

Elsewhere in Texas - in Brownsville, on the Mexico border - Scott Frank began the year by offering his fellow teachers a primer on what the new law meant for them. The law bars them from "race or sex stereotyping" and forbids schools from requiring teachers to teach about current, controversial issues. He closed by encouraging them to read the language of the law themselves.

A couple teachers approached Frank afterward to ask if they could teach specific concepts or issues. Feeling out of his depth, Frank replied, "If it's not stated specifically that you can't teach it, then yeah, if it's relevant to your course, you can teach it."

"There is a nervousness in the air," Frank said. "It's just a feeling like, don't rock the boat. Are you willing to lose your job over this kind of thing?"

At the start of the year, administrators at Valanna White's high school in Cleveland, Tenn., convened a special meeting to discuss how the law might affect teaching, said White, 39. Their advice boiled down to: "Don't teach your opinions, and if you think you can get in trouble for it, don't do it," she said.

White, who said she is the only African American teachers in the majority-White Walker Valley High School, said she never taught opinions but is now careful to delineate the source of everything.

"It is, 'This is information that I gained from C-SPAN. This is information that you can look at at this website,'" White said.

She hesitates to answer questions about slavery and the Jim Crow era in America: "Miss White, what do you think about why people would treat each other that way?" "How would you handle it if you were enslaved?" "How would you handle it if you lived under Jim Crow?"

If she is asked about critical race theory, she now replies, "I don't have a thought on that."

Before the law passed, White said, she would try to draw her students out, pressing them to consider the causes of racism and urging them to inspect and understand their own feelings about the darkest parts of American history. She would have made clear all student opinions are valid and emphasized the need to think critically and empathetically about history.

"Now, I shy away," she said. "I say: 'We can't talk about that.' Or: 'We shouldn't.'"
Two American Airlines flights were forced to divert Sunday after separate incidents involving unruly passengers, including one in which officials say a man tried to open an aircraft door.

Flight 1775 left Los Angeles at 9:17 a.m. Pacific time and was en route to Reagan National Airport near Washington when a passenger tried to open the door, according to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. The union, which represents the airlines' flight attendants, said crew members and passengers were able to subdue the man.

The flight landed about 2:28 p.m. local time in Kansas City, Mo., where it was met by law enforcement officials, the airline said.

A map of the jet's flight path shows it moving sharply toward Kansas City halfway through its cross-country flight, according to data from the tracking site FlightAware.

The FBI's Kansas City office said in a statement that one person was taken into custody, but it offered no additional details.

"We're grateful to our crew members, who are consistently dedicated to the safety and care of our customers and who handled the circumstances with the utmost skill and professionalism," the airline said.

A few hours later, a second American Airlines flight that left Phoenix bound for Honolulu was forced to turn back after what the airline called a "passenger disruption."

The flight landed in Phoenix about 6:53 p.m. local time and was met by law enforcement, the airline said.

"We thank and commend our team for all they do each and every day to keep our customers safe as they travel with us," the airline said in a statement.

Sunday's two incidents are the latest in a series of disruptions that led Delta Air Lines chief executive Ed Bastian to call for the establishment of a "no-fly" list for travelers who misbehave.

The number of passengers who refuse to follow crew member instructions has risen dramatically during the pandemic. Many cases involve passengers who refused to follow requirements that they wear masks during flights. While the numbers have fallen in recent months, they remain a concern for unions representing flight attendants, pilots, gate agents and other airline employees.

According to the most recent statistics provided by the Federal Aviation Administration, there have been nearly 400 reports of unruly passenger behavior this year, 255 of which were related to the federal mask mandate. For the week ending Jan. 30, the FAA reported 6.2 incidents of unruly behavior per 10,000 flights.

In 2021, nearly 6,000 incidents of unruly passenger behavior were reported. While the agency has proposed more than $1 million in fines, it can take months or years for cases to be resolved.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.  A doctors group has filed a complaint against UC Davis with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging that an Elon Musk-funded primate research program was a violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine alleges in its complaint that the UC Davis California National Primate Research Center  which received more than $1.4 million from Musks company Neuralink to conduct experiments  failed to provide dying monkeys with sufficient veterinary care, used an unapproved substance called Bioglue that destroyed portions of monkeys brains, and failed to provide for the psychological well-being of the monkeys in the experiment, according to a statement released by the group.

The group is suing in Yolo County Superior Court to force the university to release videos and photographs of the monkeys used in the experiments.

UC Davis may have handed over its publicly-funded facilities to a billionaire, but that doesnt mean it can evade transparency requirements and violate federal animal welfare laws, said committee advocacy coordinator Jeremy Beckham in a statement. The documents reveal that monkeys had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die. Its no mystery why Elon Musk and the university want to keep photos and videos of this horrific abuse hidden from the public.

In response to the lawsuit, UC Davis released a statement acknowledging that there was a collaboration with Neuralink which ended in 2020.

A UC Davis spokesman said in a statement that research protocols were thoroughly reviewed and approved by the campus Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and that UC Davis staff provided veterinary care, including round-the clock monitoring of the animals.

We strive to provide the best possible care to animals in our charge. Animal research is strictly regulated and UC Davis follows all applicable laws and regulations including those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which makes regular inspections, and the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare. The UC Davis animal care program, including the California National Primate Research Center, is accredited by AAALAC International, a nonprofit organization, said UC Davis spokesman Andy Fell in a statement.

Fell said that UC Davis has fully complied with with the California Public Records Act in responding to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicines records request.

Indeed, additional materials have been supplied to (the committee) since the conclusion of the research agreement with Neuralink, Fell said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee.

In response to media coverage of the USDA complaint, Neuralink released a statement as well, saying that, It is important to note that these accusations come from people who oppose any use of animals in research. Currently, all novel medical devices and treatments must be tested in animals before they can be ethically trialed in humans. Neuralink is not unique in this regard. At Neuralink, we are absolutely committed to working with animals in the most humane and ethical way possible.

-------
By Joe Dworetzky

Bay City News Foundation

A federal appeals court in San Francisco Thursday threw out part of a 2017 conviction of a Sacramento man for "inducing or encouraging" an alien to reside in the United States.

The court, however, affirmed the conviction on multiple counts of wire fraud and mail fraud.

The case stemmed from the activities of a nonprofit organization named Americans Helping America Chamber of Commerce. Helaman Hansen was the group's founder and CEO.

Between 2012 and 2016, the group and various affiliates persuaded more than 500 undocumented aliens living in the U.S. -- most in California -- that they could become U.S. citizens by way of an "adult adoption" program referred to as the "Migration Program."

The group's core proposition was that under the immigration laws, adults could be exempt from immigration quotas if they were validly adopted by an American citizens and completed certain other steps.

In fact, there was no basis for that proposition; adult adoptees do not get preferred immigration status and not one person who joined the Migration Program became a U.S. citizen as a result.

As the government summarized in its sentencing memorandum, "At the heart of [Hansen's] elaborate fraud scheme was a lie as simple as it is cruel. He promised his victims their hearts' desire: U.S. citizenship, for a price that reached $10,000 each."

Hansen was indicted in February 2016. In May 2017, after an 11-day trial, he was convicted on 17 federal counts. He was sentenced in December to 240 months in jail.

Most of the counts for which Hansen was convicted were violations of federal mail fraud and wire fraud statutes.

However, he was also convicted of violating a federal statute that prohibits a person, for financial gain, from encouraging or inducing "an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States," knowing that it would be in violation of law.

Hansen challenged his conviction on multiple grounds, most of which were rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in a brief memorandum order. However, he found traction with a challenge to his conviction for encouraging or inducing aliens to reside in the United States.

Hansen's counsel, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union as amicus curie or "friend of the court," said that under traditional First Amendment principles, protected speech about an illegal activity generally cannot be criminalized, even if conduct to achieve that end could be.

They argued that the statutory language of "encouraging or inducing" applied to activities that were protected by the First Amendment, and accordingly the relevant statute was unconstitutionally "overbroad."

In a unanimous opinion authored by Ronald M. Gould, the three-judge panel accepted the overbreadth argument. Gould was appointed to the court in 1997 and 1999 by President Bill Clinton and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1999.

An overly broad statute may be stricken where it sweeps up a substantial amount of constitutionally protected speech, even if the statute could be applied lawfully to some other activities.

Moreover, because of the potential for "chilling" protected speech, such a statute may be challenged even if the activity of the challenger is within the area that could be constitutionally punished.

The government argued that the statute applied in many situations that did not involve speech and its asserted that its impact on protected speech was relatively minor.

The panel disagreed and found that the non-speech activities covered by the statute were small in comparison with the speech-related areas.

The ACLU's brief offered a number of examples of situations where application of the statute would be clearly violative of the First Amendment, including one example drawn from a 2017 tweet by then Senator Kamala Harris who urged people to take shelter from wildfires "regardless of your immigration status."

The panel gave its own example, pointing out that the statute would cover "knowingly telling an undocumented immigrant 'I encourage you to reside in the United States.'"

Despite the recognition that overbreadth is "strong medicine" not to be "casually employed," the panel nevertheless struck the conviction on those counts.

Carolyn Wiggin, assistant federal defender for the Eastern District of California and counsel for Hansen, said that she and Hansen were "thrilled that the Ninth Circuit saw the importance of the constitutional issues in his case and recognized that a statute criminalizing a great deal of protected speech regarding immigration advice and advocacy violates the First Amendment."

Wiggins expressed disappointment with the court's rejection of Hansen's arguments concerning the other counts, but said, "We look forward to continuing to litigate this case."

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

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By Eli Wolfe

San Jose Spotlight

Roughly one out of every 450 children in the U.S. have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19. An elected official in Santa Clara County wants to make sure those children aren't forgotten.

Supervisor Susan Ellenberg will ask the county at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting to establish a program to identify and support youth whose parents or guardians have died from the virus. Ellenberg said she wasn't sure how many children have been impacted in Santa Clara County, but she is alarmed by the national numbers.

"The statistics to me were really disturbing," Ellenberg told San Jose Spotlight. "So I wanted to make sure that first we are providing particular supports to that group."

As of Monday, 2,082 people have died of COVID-19 in the county since the pandemic began, according to government data. In California, an estimated 26,891 children have lost a parent to COVID-19.

Ellenberg is also asking the county to expand wellness centers on school campuses. The Santa Clara County Office of Education operates 12 centers across 10 school districts, and in 2020 received a state grant to add more centers.

"Having access to wellness centers on campus increases, by 21 times, the likelihood that students will receive access to mental health services," Dr. Chaunise Powell, director of youth health and wellness at the Santa Clara County Office of Education, told San Jose Spotlight. "It also significantly reduces the stigma associated with seeking mental health services and increases attendance, the likelihood of graduation and decreases the likelihood of dropout."

Desperate for services

Advocates who support Ellenberg's proposal say it's been difficult to keep up with the demand for mental health services right now, and those needs are more acute for families that have lost parents or caregivers.

"If you've got a youth struggling with depression or anxiety, and you layer that on top of losing their primary support, the person they love, that's just devastating," Don Taylor, Bay Area executive director of Uplift Family Services, told San Jose Spotlight. "It takes a long time to heal from that."

Uplift Family Services is the largest behavioral health provider for minors in Santa Clara County. Taylor said his agency helps families who have lost providers connect with vital resources, such as financial assistance to cover the cost of funerals. He said accessing services can be difficult for families in the wake of a death.

"The expansion of wellness centers may be able to widen the access points for those families or kids who don't have resources--or don't know they're out there," Taylor said.

Kathleen King, chief executive officer of the Healthier Kids Foundation, told San Jose Spotlight her organization screens hundreds of fifth graders for various health care issues -- including mental health -- in high-need school districts such as Alum Rock Union School District and Franklin-McKinley School District.

She said recent data shows about 2-3 percent of children are dealing with severe mental health issues such as suicidal ideation. About 46 percent of children screened have borderline needs, which she said are still serious.

"It's pretty drastic out there for kids," King said, noting that on top of mental health needs, her organization has tracked an alarming increase in the number of children in need of dental work, such as filling cavities.

Ellenberg also wants to increase the county's supply of early childhood education and childcare workers. In 2020, the county approved $2.5 million to fund childcare programs in the county using federal relief dollars.

Despite this aid, the childcare industry was devastated by the pandemic -- according to county data from December of last year, 12.5 percent of providers in the county closed over the last 18 months. This reduced the total number of licensed early learning and childcare workers by 10 percent and left roughly 7,000 kids without childcare.

"We're finding now that it's a particularly hard challenge that falls on women mostly, for moms to get back to work if they don't have adequate, affordable childcare options," Ellenberg said.

The Board of Supervisors meets on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.

Editor's Note: Kathleen King is a member of San Jose Spotlight's board of directors.

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

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BERKELEY (BCN)

Officials at the University of California, Berkeley announced Monday that the school has appealed to Supreme Court of California a lower court ruling that freezes enrollment at the same level as the 2020-21 school year.

University officials said Thursday's ruling by the state's 1st District Court of Appeal harms prospective students and prevents the school from meeting state enrollment targets. Officials said the university had planned on an enrollment increase of 3,050 students beyond the 42,347 enrolled in the 2020-21 academic year.

According to the university statement about the ruling, "If left intact, the court's unprecedented decision would have a devastating impact on prospective students, university admissions, campus operations, and UC Berkeley's ability to serve California students by meeting the enrollment targets set by the State of California."

Any reductions in the number of new students admitted would need to come from undergraduates, university officials said, as admissions notices to graduate students have already gone out for the 2022-23 school year.

Thursday's decision upheld a ruling in August in Alameda County Superior Court, where Judge Brad Seligman found that rising enrollment has affected neighboring housing, causing displacement and creating unacceptable noise, the group Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods said in August.

Seligman also found the university failed at reviewing a reduction in enrollment to improve the surrounding neighborhoods.

"The judge has vindicated our efforts to hold UC Berkeley accountable for the severe impacts on our community from its massive enrollment increases which they made without public notice or comments," said Phil Bokovoy, president of Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods, in August.

Between 2010 and 2020, UC Berkeley enrollment has increased by about 18 percent or about 6,500 to 42,327 students.

"We firmly believe that UC should not increase enrollment until it creates housing for its new students," Bokovoy added.

At the time of Seligman's ruling, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said, "We are confident that the court will ultimately permit us to proceed with the (project)."

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

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On Monday, CNN waded into San Francisco's school board recall vote. The 4-minute segment by reporter Nick Watt was summed up on the Twitter account for "The Lead CNN" as, "Progressives mount a recall election to upend leadership of San Franciscos school board," a detached-from-reality characterization of the situation  and San Francisco politics in general  that's all too common in national media circles.

"Three school board members in one of the most progressive cities in the United States are facing a recall election tomorrow for essentially leaning too far left," is how CNN host Jake Tapper opens the segment. He kicks it to Watt, who notes that San Francisco voted 85% for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election; that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi lives here; that Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom used to live here; and so did ... the Grateful Dead?

"But there's trouble in this aspirant progressive paradise," Watt says. "Tomorrow, these three liberal local school board members face a recall vote organized by these two liberal locals," referring to the two organizers you've probably seen on TV, Siva Raj and Autumn Looijen.

Let's re-examine that dizzying array of labels. How is a city that voted 85% for Joe Biden  arguably the last Democratic Party presidential choice of anyone who begrudgingly votes for Democrats  evidence of a "progressive paradise"? Pelosi is worth nine figures, according to estimates of her net worth, which on its own eliminates her from any progressive labels; she also is quite literally not in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is already filled with PINOs (progressives in name only). Ask any left-of-Democratic-Party-politics person if they think Kamala Harris is on their team and they will openly scoff at you. Same applies to Newsom. The Grateful Dead "joke" is, I guess, designating people in the Bay Area in 2022 as freakin' free-lovin' hippies who do all the drugs.

Then there's blanketing the school board members as "liberals," which to CNN seems to mean "progressives," but to progressives traditionally means "Democrats who will very occasionally buck the party line." And here are the two local "liberal" organizers CNN referenced on none other than Glenn Beck's show, not exactly a bastion of progressive sentiment.

Later in the segment, Watt calls the San Francisco Chronicle the city's "left-leaning newspaper" and says it endorsed the recall of the three school board members. Actually, the editorial board endorsed the recall, not paper's day-to-day editors and reporters. The same editorial board endorsed Amy Klobuchar for president in 2020, a woman who staked her candidacy on centrism. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are owned by the same parent company, Hearst, but operate independently of one another.)

Missing from the entire segment was how we got here: that ultra-rich Silicon Valley tycoons and billionaires  some of whom wouldn't even identify as Democrats, let alone progressives or leftists  have helped bankroll almost $2 million in pro-recall fundraising. That's compared to $86,000 in fundraising for the anti-recall folks.

Raj and Looijen and other pro-recall advocates say there's no funny business going on, that all these rich people are just passionate about recalling three school board members. I don't believe them, but it's almost besides the point. Whatever the motivations of the ultra-wealthy backers, their very involvement is antithetical to anything remotely left-of-center.

This is how it goes when centrists in the national media  who fancy themselves as apolitical  try to assess a local vote in a "blue" city. Democrats, liberals, progressives and leftists are lumped together as one and the same (and people who don't even care about politics are lumped in with them). It's always framed as wacky intra-fighting among totally flattened groups whose interests are almost identical. Meanwhile, there are plenty of Democrats, especially national politicians, who openly reject the term "liberal." Progressives and leftists don't align on all that much with the liberals, who sometimes call themselves "progressive" without even a bare-minimum voting history to support the claim. Progressives and leftists themselves have an uneasy alliance that gets far more contentious when conversations about capitalism arise.

The left-of-center grid is complex, and within it, people who identify with one of the aforementioned labels will have their own peculiarities and outlier views. But self-identified progressives and leftists  folks who are primarily concerned with the unwieldy influence of capital and radically improving the lives of working-class families  are not a major swath of this recall effort. They also are not a strong enough voter bloc in the city to single-handedly force a recall to begin with.

San Francisco, represented in Congress by Pelosi, is clearly more "liberal," which is to say generally supportive of the Democratic Party platform of moderate, incremental social reforms, than anything else. The Board of Supervisors are mostly liberal, with a few progressives and one leftist mixed in. The mayor, London Breed, is a Democratic Party centrist who endorsed Michael Bloomberg in 2020 for the Democratic nomination for president and, by the way, gets to appoint the replacements to the school board if they're recalled.

None of that context made the cut in the CNN segment. Just classic lefties duking it out. There's an entire squad of progressives and leftists in Congress now. A democratic socialist came in second place for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2020. If CNN's anchors and reporters still haven't learned anything about these emerging political factions and how they're voting and operating in cities like San Francisco, then I've got no hope they ever will.
Sharon, PA (16146)

Today

Showers this morning becoming a steady rain during the afternoon hours. High 68F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, overcast overnight with occasional rain. Low 57F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
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The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) on Feb. 9 brought a lawsuit against Tesla Inc. for alleged race discrimination and harassment. We've gathered articles on the news from SHRM Online and other outlets.

'Hundreds of Complaints'



"After receiving hundreds of complaints from workers and a nearly three-year investigation, DFEH found evidence that Tesla operates a racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion," said DFEH Director Kevin Kish. "DFEH will continue to take steps to keep workplaces free of harassment and racism."

(DFEH)

Lawsuit's Allegations in Detail

The DFEH said it found evidence that Tesla:

Kept Black workers in the lowest level roles in the company and paid them less than colleagues.

Denied Black workers training and promotions and disciplined them more severely than others.

Assigned Black workers more physically demanding work.

Retaliated against Black workers who formally complained to HR after supervisors and other colleagues used racist epithets.

Practically ignored complaints from Black workers who protested "the commonplace use of racial slurs on the assembly line."

Moved unreasonably slowly to "clean up racist graffiti with swastikas and other hate symbols scrawled in common areas."

(CNBC)

Tesla Denies Any Violation

Tesla criticized the lawsuit, arguing that the state agency had investigated dozens of previous claims in recent years and found no misconduct. "It therefore strains credibility for the agency to now allege, after a three-year investigation, that systematic racial discrimination and harassment somehow existed at Tesla," the company said. "A narrative spun by the DFEH and a handful of plaintiff firms to generate publicity is not factual proof." The company described the lawsuit as counterproductive "at a time when manufacturing jobs are leaving California." Tesla moved its headquarters from California to Texas last year and built a new factory near Austin, Texas.

(The New York Times)

Large Award Against Tesla Involving Different Calif. Plant

A federal district judge ordered Tesla last October to pay a Black former elevator operator $137 million in damages on his claim that the electric carmaker ignored racial epithets and graffiti that created a hostile work environment at a Tesla plant in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tesla has said it doesn't believe the verdict is justified and has asked for a new trial or a reduction in damages.

(SHRM Online) and (The Wall Street Journal)

Findings from Tesla's DE&I Report

Black employees make up 10 percent of Tesla's U.S. workforce but only 4 percent of its leadership, according to Tesla's 2020 diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) report.

(CNN)


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The head of Australias largest office landlord says he expects the much-anticipated return of workers to city centres to pick up pace next month, and he is no longer concerned about the future of the office as companies embrace flexible work.

ASX-listed property behemoth Dexus owns or manages a sizable $25 billion portfolio of premium towers in major Australian centres, including Sydneys Martin Place and Melbournes Collins Street. The company also controls an $11 billion industrial portfolio and runs a $27 billion funds management business.

Dexus reported hefty rent collections of 98 per cent across its property portfolio for the six months to December. Credit:Michel O'Sullivan

When we spoke two years ago, I was worried about the future of the office. Now, whats become very evident is the office remains a very key part of peoples workplace strategies, Dexus chief executive Darren Steinberg said.

Thats been evidenced by many of our customers. Theyll be back with flexibility, thats here to stay, but most companies are taking around the same amount of space. Whats really pleasing this time around is its actually the staff that are pushing to come back, he said.
Some will be disappointed that billionaire James Packer is set to make a fortune from the sale of scandal-ridden Crown Resorts.

The heir to the Sydney media and gambling dynasty will net $3.26 billion for his 37 per cent stake in the company, which operates casinos in Perth, Melbourne and soon in Sydney, as part of a takeover bid by New York-based private equity investor Blackstone.

The windfall is a lot more than Mr Packer expected only a few months ago and some will say more than he deserves given the failures of corporate governance at Crown which were first exposed by the Herald and then confirmed by two separate inquiries over the past two years.

An inquiry by the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), headed by Patricia Bergin, and a royal commission in Victoria, headed by Ray Finkelstein, showed evidence of criminal infiltration, money laundering, deliberate underpayment of tax and an irresponsible approach to minimisation of gambling harm. Rather than own up, Crown fought the inquiries all the way.

While Mr Packer was not a director for most of the period when these breaches occurred, his large stake gave him enormous power over the companys management.
Two days on from Valentines Day and weve still got that loving feeling thanks to political sweethearts Sarah Hanson-Young and Australia Institute executive director Ben Oquist. The political pair, who have been dating for more than two years, have just revealed they are engaged.

Ben Oquist and Sarah Hanson-Young are engaged. Credit:Illustration: John Shakespeare

Hanson-Young was back in Canberra this week where CBD caught sight of the sparkler on her ring finger during Senate Estimates on Monday. Both Oquist and the parliamentarian were all too happy to confirm news of their betrothal on Tuesday.

Previously, the couple had a policy of keeping the romance under the radar. But some news is just too good to keep schtum.

Its nice to be able to talk about something lovely and uplifting  were just so happy and content. Being in love is pretty special, an evidently smitten Hanson-Young told your single CBD columnist. Sigh.
Two men who were convicted of attempting to influence a police officer over an investigation into a $50,000 gold bar have had their guilty verdicts overturned, after the Court of Criminal Appeal raised doubts about the evidence of a key witness.

Ian Lazar and Achilles Constantinidis were found guilty in 2020 of doing an act with the intent to pervert the course of justice after they were said to have procured a standover man, Witness B, to improperly influence a detective in Leichhardt.

Ian Lazar (right) leaves the Downing Centre with lawyer Bryan Wrench in 2020. Credit:Georgina Mitchell

The detective began investigating the provenance of a one-kilogram gold bar, which belonged to Mr Lazar, in August 2012 after it was discovered during a vehicle stop in Sydneys inner west when a black BMW swerved to avoid a speed bump.

As time went on, Mr Lazar became increasingly stressed about the situation, with the detective contacting him multiple times to ask him to make a statement.
A woman has been found dead, covered in blood and with wounds on her arms on Valentines Day afternoon at a Queensland resort, as her partner fronted court over her death.

Police declared a crime scene at a resort on Mahogany Drive in Pelican Waters on the Sunshine Coast after 46-year-old Vanessa Godfrey, from Burpengary, north of Brisbane, was found dead.

About 3.35pm, a staff member of the resort attended the room and found her body, police allege.

Ms Godfrey has been remembered online as a beautiful person.
Wayne Joseph Parkinson, 69, of Waldorf, MD passed away on February 9, 2022 at his home after a courageous and valiant battle with cancer.



He was born on March 28, 1952 in Washington, D.C. to the late Wayne Sewell Parkinson and Martha Beatrice Ramos Parkinson.



On February 3, 1971 Wayne enlisted in the United States Air Force and proudly served his country as an aircraft mechanic until his honorable discharge in April 16, 1974. During his service he earned the National Defense Service Medal After discharging from the Air Force he began his training and life career with Local 5 as a skilled Iron worker. Even after retiring he continued to do iron work. His hobbies included relaxing at his condo in Ocean City, target shooting and watching old Western's. However, his greatest love was spending time with his sons and grandsons. He was looking forward to doing many things with them.



Wayne is survived by his twin sons, Christopher Joseph Parkinson (Bethany) and Steven Wayne Parkinson, Sr. (Amanda), both of Hollywood, MD; his grandchildren: Emery Parkinson, Oakley Parkinson, Steven Parkinson, Jr. and one more grandson arriving soon; and his union brothers who were his extended family.



All service will be private.
A cheese-making business that suspects an act of sabotage caused putrid whey and wastewater to run from its factory into a Melbourne creek has been convicted and fined $8060 over the environmental hazard.

People walking along Yuroke Creek in Broadmeadows noticed a stench potent like sewage or rotting milk and nauseating over the first weekend of October 2018. Inspectors from the EPA and Melbourne Water followed the stream of white, fatty liquid back to the nearby Fresh Cheese Company factory.

The Fresh Cheese Company in Broadmeadows. Credit:Simon Schluter

Samples taken from the creek showed the wastewater had high levels of ammonia, nitrogen and phosphorus, the County Court heard, and experts believed the pollution would have damaged vegetation in the creek and killed fish and aquatic animals.

A Melbourne Water officer at the creek described the odour as putrid, sour and rancid and wrote it made him gag, Judge David Brookes said.
The company building a 190-kilometre renewable electricity transmission project in Victorias west will consider putting parts of it underground to avoid sections where overhead wires would most dominate the landscape.

But regional communities in its path have vowed to continue fighting the prospect of long stretches of above-ground cables and towers rising to 85 metres in height.

Power distribution company AusNet Services is finalising plans for the Western Victoria Transmission Network Project, which will connect renewable energy generators with the electricity grid.

AusNet Services has encountered fierce resistance from councils and residents living in the projects proposed path, who say towers rising to 85 metres and wires will mar the natural landscape and potentially obstruct firefighting efforts from the air.
In balanced literacy, students are taught to memorise words using a combination of whole language practices and phonics. Whole languages teach children to read by recognising full words and phrases by encountering them in text. Ms Burrows said she struggled at times to purge the school of its established way of teaching children to read. It was expensive to retrain teachers, and there were few local experts to call on for advice on how to do it. It was lonely at times because there was such an embedded approach to literacy around whole language, and thats the way our teachers had been taught at university, she said. So it was hard, but our results came really quickly. Churchill Primary is one of relatively few schools in Victoria that have switched to systematic synthetic phonics to the exclusion of other more widely established literacy techniques.

In so doing, these schools have foreshadowed a shift in the science of teaching children to read that all schools are being urged to adopt in a new Australian curriculum that is up for review. Loading The draft curriculum, which is due to be considered by education ministers for a third time in April, has elevated the role of phonics in early primary years education, at the expense of so-called whole language approaches that comprise much of the balanced literacy approach. If it is endorsed in its current form, it could put pressure on Victoria to lift the primacy of phonics in schools. Other states have already raised phonics place in their curricula, including NSW, which will mandate its use in the first three years of primary school from next year.

South Australia, meanwhile, has mandated a year one phonics screening check for all students to test literacy levels. Victoria has taken a less prescriptive approach, giving schools and teachers significant autonomy to select their literacy programs. Glenn Fahey, research fellow in education policy at the Centre for Independent Studies, said: You would hope that the direction that everyone is going nationally would be a wake-up call for Victorian policymakers, because they have dragged the chain on the national reform agenda in the area of reading and the instruction around it. Emina McLean, a literacy expert, lecturer and senior researcher, said the Victorian governments hands-off approach created a lot of variability between schools. Its absolutely necessary and positive and overdue that phonics is being elevated, but what that looks like in practice is a totally different thing, Ms McLean said of the proposed curriculum overhaul.

Phonics might be taught in one school with a degree of explicitness and in another school its only taught within the context of storybook reading. Loading The outcome, argues Ms McLean, who also leads English and literacy in a Victorian government primary school, is that some schools are having much more success than others in teaching children to read. Western Sydney University lecturer Dr Katina Zammit, president of the Australian Literacy Educators Association, argues balanced literacy has its own evidence base to suggest it should not be discarded as a literacy technique. Phonics has its limitations, particularly for advanced students who need to be stretched in their early years of school, she says.

Its very important that you are providing the most appropriate reading material for the development of the child. Decodable phonics-based texts, with their focus on sounds at the expense of storyline, also risk undermining a childs delight in reading, Dr Zammit argues. You may have children coming to school with a well-developed sense of phonemic awareness  asking them to read decodable texts is going to turn them off wanting to read. An Andrews government spokesperson said Victoria already had phonics assessment in place for primary school students that provides a picture of each students early literacy skills. Well continue to enhance the way we teach and assess phonics across the Victorian curriculum to make sure every student gets the best early literacy skills to set them up for success throughout their schooling, the spokesperson said.
Lawyers for a 20-year-old Melbourne man charged over the death of a Springvale woman have asked he be seen by a custody nurse, telling the court hes vulnerable in custody.

Tia Minhinnick, 20, was arrested in Melbournes CBD on Monday and charged with one count of murder, four days after the body of Angela Huata was found at her Springvale home.

Emergency services were called to the property on Glendale Road about 12.10pm on February 10.

Court documents show police allege the man murdered 41-year-old Ms Huata at Springvale sometime between February 9 and 10.
Customers are in for an ordeal when they dine at a new Melbourne restaurant, with staff being trained to insult, ridicule and ignore them.

Great Food, Terrible Service is the motto of Karens Diner, a 1950s-US-style burger joint that will open in the famous Lygon Street restaurant strip next month.

Rude food: Supervisor Josh Arkey serves customers at the Sydney branch of Karens Diner. Credit:Renee Nowytarger

In a flip on hospitality norms, this is a place where staff are rude and the customer is most certainly not always right.

A sign in the window of the restaurants Sydney branch says, Karens Diner: Sit down and shut up.
Justice Michael Lee has finished hearing arguments from both Mark McGowans and Clive Palmers legal teams about the meanings implied in the statements at the centre of this defamation case.

Justice Lee will rule on the meanings and the rest of the trial will hinge on those.

Mr Palmers senior counsel Peter Gray has also just revealed his colleague Barry Dean has tested positive to COVID-19.

The court has been adjourned for a short break.
Unions and Rio Tinto disagree about how well miners put in seven-day isolation for COVID-19 are being cared for and a plastic box of goodies is at the centre of the argument.

Workers at Rio Tintos West Angelas iron ore mine in WAs Pilbara who must isolate for seven days will receive a care pack that includes, among other things, a kettle, tea bags, packet noodles and a sheet of exercises.

While the unions regarded the pack as inadequate Rio Tinto said it was just a small part of the care it provided workers in isolation.

Miners who test positive to COVID-19 and their close contacts must isolate on site for seven days. Credit:WMMA

AWU WA Branch Secretary Brad Gandy said the packages were a joke.
Western Australia has recorded 62 new cases of COVID-19 overnight, as pressure mounts on the state government to set an opening date with news that Qantas direct London flight would leave from Darwin until at least June due to uncertainty over the WA border.

Of the new cases, 48 were locally acquired and 14 were linked to travel, while three of the community cases were mystery infections.

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Credit:Peter de Kruijff

Premier Mark McGowan announced the new numbers on Tuesday morning and said three aged care facilities and 30 schools now had confirmed cases.

Brightwater The Cove, an aged care home in Mandurah, recorded 10 new cases on Monday in eight residents and two staff members.
Mr Thomsons office forwarded the email to the SSO, which was establishing the inquiry. Six days later the SSO arranged for Mr Owen to meet state solicitor Nicholas Egan the next day. He was announced as head of the royal commission on March 5. Greens MLC Brad Pettitt said the saga was getting stranger and stranger.

Given its emerged that he put his hat in the ring of his own accord, its baffling that the government couldnt just be upfront and say that, rather than pretend they had approached him, Mr Pettitt said. Mr Goiran said the McGowan government needed to come clean on the appointment process. He questioned the obfuscation from the Premier and his senior ministers late last year. They have a duty to set the record straight and there is no good reason why they cannot do that immediately, he said. In July, Mr Owen declared his friendship with Mr Stokes and that he was director of one of his companies but said they would not affect his obligations to the royal commission.

The declaration revealed he sat on the board of the Stokes family company Clabon, which had majority shareholdings in Seven West Media through its wholly owned Stokes investment vehicle Australian Capital Equity. Mr Owen is also a director of two other Stokes family companies, but he is yet to publicly acknowledge these positions. Maryna Fewster, currently the chief executive of Seven West Media in WA, joined the Crown Perth board in 2019. As Crowns newest board member, her evidence was critical of the company for not informing the board well enough of the happenings within the Perth operations, and of the board itself for not providing good enough oversight. John Alexander, currently a Seven West Media director and formerly Crowns chief executive and chairman, was found to have led Crown to disastrous consequences with his stewardship in the NSW Bergin Crown inquiry.

Mr Owen oversaw questioning of Mr Alexander and Ms Fewster regarding their time as Crown directors. His final report will assess their effectiveness as such and will ultimately recommend to the WA government whether Crown is fit to operate a casino. The NSW and Victorian inquiries both found the company was not fit to do so after significant regulatory and compliance failures that let money laundering go unchecked for years. Integrity inquiry springs mystery leak Mr Owens emails revealed his name was leaked to The West Australian before he had even met with state solicitor Mr Egan.

Just three hours after Mr Egans office emailed Mr Owen on February 23 to arrange the meeting for the next afternoon, The West Australian reported he was in the running. It is now very difficult to avoid the conclusion that this information was leaked by a person within either the State Solicitors Office or the office of a senior government minister, Mr Goiran said. It is overtly ironic that one of those offices could have leaked information about an integrity inquiry. The leak was the second to occur after The West Australian also published on February 17, 2021 that retired WA Supreme Court judge Lindy Jenkins was a frontrunner to lead the inquiry. Ms Jenkins was ultimately chosen as a supporting Commissioner. Mr McGowan, the State Solicitors Office, Attorney-General John Quigley, and Mr Owen through a royal commission spokeswoman, all declined to answer specific questions about the source of the leak and the appointment process.

Mr Stokes did not respond to a request for comment. The State Solicitors Office said it was unable to answer any questions because its work and advice is subject to legal professional privilege. Loading The royal commission spokeswoman said it had concluded its hearings and the commissioners were now working to meet the March 4 deadline to deliver findings. Commissioner Owen has no comment to make on your enquiry, she said.

Mr McGowan described the questions as an attempt to tarnish and undermine Mr Owens appointment, which was extremely disappointing. Neville Owen AO is not only an eminent jurist, he is one of Australias most decorated legal minds, having served on the Supreme Court for nearly two decades, he said. Justice Owen was chosen as lead commissioner because of his experience handling complex legal and financial cases. A spokeswoman for Mr Quigley said he fully supported the appointment and had nothing further to add. However, in August last year it was revealed Mr Quigley would not have supported Mr Owens appointment back then had he known about his connections to Mr Stokes.

The State Solicitors Office received a declaration of Mr Owens potential conflicts of interest, which included business and personal connections to Mr Stokes, but Mr Quigleys office said he was not provided that document. It shouldnt have come to this A renowned Australian barrister and a former senior counsel for the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption said in August last year Mr Owen should be stood down because of problems of perception. Geoffrey Watson, SC, said Mr Owen would do a straight-down-the-line job but an individuals attributes had to be put aside. Im stunned that its come to this point, he said.

It shouldnt have come to this point. This should have been recognised immediately ... its a pretty obvious connection. And quite frankly, it was just a silly decision to let the matter get this far. Mr Owen, as Clabon director, has a formal duty to act in the best interests of his company. Loading He has consistently stated he does not see an issue. I am satisfied that neither [my business connection] nor any other aspect of my personal association with [Mr Stokes] conflicts with my obligations to or in this royal commission, Mr Owen said on July 30, 2021.
To win this election we will require the most discipline, focus and professionalism from each of us in all of our roles that we can summon, Mr Morrison said, according to a Coalition spokesman. Do that and we win - its that simple. Health Minister Greg Hunt also urged the government MPs to back their leader, saying critics had written off the Coalition before the elections in 2001, 2004 and 2019. Mr Hunt said Mr Morrison would rank just above former prime minister John Howard if he won the coming election. Naming the immigration laws as a key policy, Mr Morrison said the issue was a way to bring a sharp contrast with Labor ahead of the election.

Mr Morrison said he needed MPs to prosecute every single inch of our agenda in their electorates through channels such as Rotary clubs, church groups and advocacy groups. You do your job and Ill do mine, he said, in remarks relayed by the Coalition spokesman. This election is not a referendum, its a choice, and we need to bring the starkness of that choice in front of the Australian people in order for us to be successful. I know how to do that and I know thats how you win elections. I know what the path is and Ill be following it. And once again Im asking you to follow me in going down that path and staying focused on that and only that.

Later, Mr Morrison addressed the meeting again and told MPs they would need to be focused and professional and to support candidates already in the field but not yet in Parliament. Mr Albanese rejected the governments claims for its criminal deportation law, saying the immigration minister already had a clear power to cancel visas, but he devoted a large share of his speech to the outcome last week on religious freedom. The Labor leader repeated his pledge to enact a religious discrimination law in government if Labor won the election and said a key part of this would be the provision to ban the vilification of people on the grounds of their faith, something Labor moved as an amendment last week. Last week was our party at its best, he said. If we had done what the Greens wanted we would have failed to protect people.

Mr Albanese referred to the Greens position on climate change in 2009, when it voted against the Labor governments emissions trading scheme, to tell the caucus that Labor had been right to try to amend Mr Morrisons draft law rather than trying to reject it in total. With the government accusing Labor of being weak on China, Mr Albanese urged colleagues to hold firm and argued that every government scare campaign had blown up in its face and the same had happened with the latest warning from security chiefs about the recruitment of political candidates. ASIO director-general Mike Burgess warned last week of a foreign interference plot to bankroll political candidates but did not name the country, the party or the candidates. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age later reported the attempt focused on potential candidates in NSW Labor, with Victorian Labor senator Kimberley Kitching naming the alleged puppeteer behind the scheme Mr Albanese, who spoke to Mr Burgess on Friday, told his caucus the ASIO chief had no concerns about any Labor candidates for the coming election and that Mr Burgess had endorsed a public remark by Mr Albanese to this effect.
Victorian independent Helen Haines has challenged all sides of Parliament to reveal every donor who contributes more than $1000 to their campaigns, amid a furore over payments from the family of a coal millionaire to fellow crossbencher Zali Steggall.

Dr Haines called for an overhaul of the donations regime to ensure voters knew the source of funding for every MP, saying she would report payments within five business days when the amounts exceeded the official $14,500 threshold for disclosure.

Member for Indi Dr Helen Haines. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The commitment heightened the argument over the transparency of political donations after Ms Steggall admitted a mistake with the $100,000 cheque from the family of John Kinghorn, founder of RAMS Home Loans and an investor in Cascade Coal and Felix Resources.

With the Liberals accusing Ms Steggall of hypocrisy while her supporters defended her exemplary record on integrity, Dr Haines set out a stricter approach that would reveal a series of small donations when their cumulative value exceeded $1000.
The NSW opposition is calling for the privacy commissioner to conduct a fresh inquiry into a breach of COVID-19 QR code data by the state government.

Nine News revealed on Monday more than 500,000 addresses including those of domestic violence shelters and defence sites were inadvertently published on a state government website.

Location data from NSW check-in QR codes was inadvertently published online. Credit:Getty

The data, collected by the NSW Department of Customer Service when organisations registered as COVID Safe, was discovered online in September by a technology specialist.

The NSW government has said it informed the privacy commissioner a day after it was notified that sensitive information was in the public domain, and it was taken down.
New York: Prince Andrew, accused in a US lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to her charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character.

The deal avoids a trial that would have brought further embarrassment to the British monarchy. Besides the undisclosed donation to Virginia Giuffres charity, the court filing revealed on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT)says Andrew acknowledges she has suffered as an abuse victim. It did not specify whether Giuffre would personally receive money as part of the settlement.

The settlement should save Prince Andrew and the royal family a potentially embarrassing court case. Credit:PA

In a joint court filing, lawyers for Giuffre and Andrew said the settlement included an undisclosed sum and that Andrew intended to make a substantial donation to Giuffres charity in support of victims rights.

Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms Giuffres character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks, the filing said.
The family of a woman killed during filming of the Western Rust filed a wrongful death suit against actor Alec Baldwin and others on Wednesday AEDT, claiming they disregarded several industry-wide practices meant to keep movie sets safe.

The suit was filed in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, on behalf of Matthew Hutchins, husband of late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, and the couples 9-year-old son.

Actor Alec Baldwin was using the gun that killed Halyna Hutchins. Credit:AP/Getty

The lawsuit names Alec Baldwin and others who are responsible for the safety on the set and whose reckless behavior and cost-cutting led to the senseless and tragic death of Halyna Hutchins, attorney Brian Panish told a news conference in Los Angeles.

Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded when a gun Baldwin was using during a rehearsal fired off a live bullet. The movie was being filmed at Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico.
PHILIPSBURG:--- President of the Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU) Stuart Johnson returned over the past weekend from attending the Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) 40th biennial conference held in St. Kitts at the Marriott Resort.

Formed on August 1, 1935, the Caribbean Union of Teachers (C.U.T.) is a federation of Teacher Trade Unions in the Caribbean that aims to impart knowledge and experience while promoting and supporting the work of teachers and educators across the region. The CUT acts as a collective voice for all its affiliate unions advocating on their behalf on all matters relating to education. The Caribbean Union of Teachers recognizes teachers as professionals who must work relentlessly to improve professional standards and show a commitment to students, community, and education, eliminating all forms of illiteracy while striving for a system that is just, respectful and equitable.

The theme of the conference was, "Educators: The key to development and recovery amidst current regional and global challenges.

"Attending this conference was more than just being present for the union, it was about leaving a mark for our Union and our country and that was achieved," Johnson stated.

He also represented the WITU at the "Status of Women's Committee" under the theme, CUT Women: Strategically poised, Embracing our Purpose, Overcoming our Challenges.

Johnson made history by being elected to the office of the Third Vice-President of the CUT on February 11th, 2022. This top executive role is the first time in WITU's history attending the conference that we were granted a position that will open endless opportunities for its members.

"I am humbled by this new role and will serve to the best of my abilities going forward with the unwavering support from fellow unions throughout the Caribbean," Johnson added.

Johnson as The Third Vice-President will coordinate all sporting events of the CUT within its membership as one of the top decision-makers in the executive body. Additionally, the Third Vice President assumes responsibilities for all Social, Cultural, Welfare, and Benefits Services throughout the Caribbean region.

"Opening this new door of opportunity as the Third Vice-President of the CUT is about creating opportunities for others to take unionism to another level for St.Maarten," Johnson said.

President Johnson will also serve on the steering committee of the CUT's newly formed health and wellness committee. This committee is tasked with looking out for the phycological and social wellbeing of educators throughout the region.

Another major highlight of the conference was the approval of a Gender Policy that has the full support of the WITU.

The CUT Gender policy can prove useful in providing guidance to officers, employees, and committee leaders of the CUT and its affiliate Teacher Unions who are required to ensure compliance with provisions of legislation and regulations governing the education sector in the Caribbean region and in the participating countries. It also takes into consideration the requirements of national, regional, and international agreements, as well as the implications of the CUTs planned policy actions on all teachers, be they men, women, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) persons who are active members of the CUT and its affiliate Teacher Unions.

While at the conference Johnson submitted and presented a three-year report of the WITU highlighting all of the various activities for the timeframe 2019 to 2021.

"I'm going to keep on fighting for the wellbeing of all our members, our rights as workers, and our beloved country, St. Maarten," Johnson concluded.
Kralendijk, Bonaire:---The Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) released the first edition of Bionews Kids. Bionews Kids is a free printed and online nature magazine for children of ages 9-11 on the six Dutch Caribbean islands. It was designed based on increasing reading, sparking curiosity, and educating kids about the extraordinary nature and its threats on the six Dutch Caribbean islands. This is in support of the nature education programs of the Protected Area Management Organizations on Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten. The first Bionews Kids edition includes a drawing competition and DCNA encourages all kids to participate.

Supporting Nature Education and public awareness

DCNAs mission is to support the Protected Area Management Organizations on the six islands of the Dutch Caribbean. One of DCNAs goals is the promotion of educational outreach and public awareness. Hence, the creation of the first issue of Bionews Kids, which is a branch of Bionews (for adults). Bionews is a free monthly digital newsletter that gives updates on the latest nature news with a focus on research and monitoring, events, and overall activities concerning the members of DCNA.

Multilingual nature magazine for kids

Bionews Kids is a magazine comprising various elements that are made freely available to youth between 9 and 11 years old on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten in the languages of English, Dutch, Papiamento, and Papiamentu. The magazine will be made available through the nature education programs at the Protected Area Management Organizations. The aim of the magazine is to promote reading on the islands with a magazine that is applicable to the experiences of the children on these islands with the nature they can find in their own backyards. DCNA introduces their new marine mascot of the magazine, Tara the Turtle, who will make a reappearance in future issues.

Theme: sea

For this first issue of Bionews Kids, the main theme is the marine environment. Kids can read amongst others about coral reefs, tide pools, and mangroves that are particularly specific to some of the islands and about many creatures that they may or may not encounter. The magazine also includes activities such as coloring pages, beach journals, and puzzles. Besides these activities, readers can begin grasping environmental words and use the photo ID of sea animals continuously.

Drawing Competition

To create stewards of the sea surrounding the readers island, kids can participate in a drawing competition that is found in Bionews Kids. It is centered on the theme Why I love the ocean and why I want to protect it. Readers can become creative in their drawings and the chosen drawing will be featured in the next Bionews Kids magazine. This magazine hopes to encourage reading and learning of nature on the islands to empower our children and continue the investment of nature education.

To participate in the drawing competition, the reader needs to include their name, age, island, and phone number and upload it on the Bionews Kids page on the DCNA website at BioNews Kids Online: https://dcnanature.org/bionews-kids/. You can also hand it to the local park organization education officer on their respective island (https://dcnanature.org/nature-education/). The deadline for the drawing to submit is March 18th, 2022. The announcement of the winner will be found on the DCNA website and social media by April 1st, 2022.
PHILIPSBURG:--- On February 14, 2022, the St. Maarten delegation returned from Panama after attending the XXXVI General Assembly for the Parliament of Latin America and the Caribbean (PARLATINO); the first in-person meeting since the start of the COVID 19 pandemic. Member of Parliament Solange Ludmila Duncan attended all sessions and upon return, has submitted a full report to Parliament on the matters discussed, model laws approved and possible action points moving forward.

When I became a Member of Parliament I joined a variety of Parlatino committees because I do believe that there is value in membership. During my masters program, for instance, much of my research surrounded development policies in Latin America and the Caribbean so I always knew that there were untapped resources or connections that could be of use for the country. We just have not taken as much advantage of those resources as we should, stated the MP.

During the week of February 7th, Duncan took part in sessions at Parlatino Headquarters for the Committee of Political, Municipal, and Integration Affairs. A comprehensive presentation was given by The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)on the issues concerning Covid 19 and methods for integrating tourism, migration, health, and economic policy solutions. During this session, I gave a short speech, in Spanish, on St. Maartens continued vulnerability owing to both COVID 19 and hurricanes. I also mentioned the need for increased cooperation and knowledge sharing via this body. For those of us like myself who studied Spanish in both high school and college, the language is not as great a barrier as some might believe. At the General Assembly, there were diplomats from all around the world who gave speeches in their own languages about what.? Cooperation. We need to see beyond our small differences and focus on what makes us similar and go from there, noted the MP.



In addition to partaking in committee meetings, the parliamentarians present, in the General Assembly, were allowed to vote on the approval of three model laws. These are draft laws that each country can adapt as its own. MP Duncan has returned with the enthusiasm that two of the model laws, in particular, complement the work she is doing in Parliament.

I was happy to approve and obtain a model law on Special Needs and Inclusive Education. I have been a proponent for reforms and advancement in special needs education on St. Maarten since being elected. This model law will now add substance to the amendments to our education laws that I am working on as it concerns the rights of students who require additional support for special and extraordinary needs.

The MP plans to adapt a second model law presented at the General Assembly on the prevention and reduction of marine contamination. Biodiversity and environmental protection in the region were important themes during the General Assembly. Although St. Maarten is making progress as it concerns green policies, as a Parliament, I believe that we have an important job in legislating to protect and preserve our natural heritage.; a heritage that has been overlooked for far too long. This model law focuses on protecting our oceans and lays out the various responsibilities of all stakeholders, in addition to a number of key components. added the MP.

In addition to legislative amendments, MP Duncan will also be sending letters to various Ministers concerning matters that have arisen from discussions at Parlatino. These matters include poverty alleviation, environmental matters, public management, and education. The MP has come to the conclusion that although spending should be limited as it concerns travel for such meetings, membership to PARLATINO is worthwhile and valuable; once utilized effectively.

I am a regionalist. This is why I asked the Government about securing OECS membership last year and this is why I joined the PARLATINO committees when I joined Parliament. St. Maarten is a beacon of hope for diversity and multi-cultural politics. We should not only be a part of but tap into the resources offered by, all political or economic organizations within our region. This is also why I believe that French and Spanish should be taught in elementary schools. If we only knew how much we could gain from, but also offer to, organizations like Parlatino within our region, we would be able to more effectively solve many of our national policy dilemmas. concluded Duncan.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Two students from different fights seen in widely circulated videos on social networks were arrested by police on Monday. The review of the fight tapes is ongoing. A number of other fighters who were recognized from these circulating videos will be arrested in the coming days for their involvement.

P.A.I.R was arrested and transported to the Philipsburg Police Station on Monday. At the time of his arrest, the minor had in his possession a brass knuckle. That and several other items were confiscated from the suspect. He was fined for these actions and was handed over to his parents.

One second suspect responded to the request of the police to turn himself and answer questions from detectives. This suspect had been implicated in a different fight that had taken place sometime earlier. Several students were assaulted and suffered injuries in these fights.

On Sunday, February 13, 2022, police issued a press release regarding fights outside school premises in the previous week. The release reiterated the polices zero-tolerance policy for school- and gang fights. Parents and guardians are urged to take an active role in their childrens lives. This is paramount in tackling disruptive and violent behavior now and in the future.

The plight of the children and the triggers for violence requires a concerted and targeted approach by all in the community. These are no longer isolated issues, but ones of profound impact on society and require everyone to take on their (assigned) roles.

The root of the aggression of our children and the violence triggers must be tackled post-haste to disrupt the path that leads to criminality and children becoming the subjects cases handled by the Prosecutors Office.

To all of Sint Maarten's students, think before you act aggressively, keep tempers in check, and avoid criminal activities. Bear in mind that, getting in contact with the law can harm your future prospects - everything from gaining entrance into institutions of higher education to job opportunities.

It is also very important for you as students to speak up if you notice illegal activities in and around your schools. To say something when you see something does not equal snitching or ratting out a fellow student because it is the responsibility of everyone to do their part to ensure there is a safe environment to learn and thrive in. Remember, it is for your safety too.

KPSM Press Release.
Somerset, KY (42501)

Today

Some sunshine with a thunderstorm or two possible this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 83F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 56F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
SOPA Images | Getty Images

On Monday, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Meta, formerly Facebook, for capturing and using the biometric data of Texans without properly obtaining their informed consent. Meta's alleged actions are against Texas CUBI restrictions, which require Meta to get informed consent before obtaining data like facial geometry.

"By this illegal activity, Facebook exploited the personal information of users and non-users alike to grow its empire and reap historic windfall profits. The company repeatedly captured biometric identifiers without consent billions of times, in knowing violation of Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act," Paxton wrote in a press release.
CORNWALL  The Hostage Dilemma - Joel Simon in conversation with Anne Garrels, will be held on Zoom at 5 p.m. Feb. 19 with the Cornwall Library.

Joel Simon, author of We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom and the former Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, will discuss American hostages around the world and efforts to bring them home.

He will be in conversation with Anne Garrels, also an author and the former Senior Foreign Correspondent for National Public Radio. Both journalists have first-hand experience reporting on the ground from conflict zones and share the drive to relay information honestly and clearly, something that is arguably less common these days. Simons inspiration for the book they will discuss was the tragic case of journalist James Foley, who was kidnapped and publicly murdered in 2014 by ISIS in Syria.

Simon is an author, journalist, and press freedom advocate. He is currently a Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute, also at Columbia. He is the author of four books, including The Infodemic: How Censorship and Lies Made the World Sicker and Less Free, coming on April 26 from Columbia Global Reports. From 2006 until 2021, he served as Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. I

He has traveled the world, from Argentina to Zimbabwe. His writing on issues of press freedom has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, and he is a regular columnist for Columbia Journalism Review. Under his leadership, CPJ was honored with the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights, a News & Documentary Emmy, and the 2018 Chatham House Prize. His book, The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom, was published in November 2014, and We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages, and Ransom was published in 2018.

Simon began his career reporting on the Guatemalan Civil War, the Mexican environmental crisis, the Zapatista uprising, the peso devaluation, and the assassination of the Mexican Presidential Candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. In 1998, he published Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge, which was named one of the 100 best books of the year by the LA Times. He resides in Cornwall.

Garrels was the Senior Foreign Correspondent for NPR for almost 25 years, a post which allowed listeners to hear her voice from all over the world. In addition to living in Baghdad from late 2002 until 2009 to cover the Iraq war, she reported from Mongolia, the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia, China, Russia, former Soviet republics, and numerous other locations. She is the author of Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia (2016) and Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War and the Aftermath (2004). Before joining NPR in 1986 she was Chief Correspondent in Moscow and Central America for ABC, and the State Department Correspondent for NBC. She has been honored with numerous journalism awards, including the Peabody, the Polk and the Courage in Journalism Award. She has been a Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and served on the board of Oxfam and the Committee to Protect Journalists. She lives in Norfolk.

Registration required; go to cornwalllibrary.org/events/ to sign up.
Labor union leaders were prepared to warn Gov. Ned Lamont about school contracts overseen by Konstantinos Diamantis more than a year before the former state lawmaker became the subject of a federal criminal investigation  but both sides now say the subject never came up when they met in the summer of 2020.

The governor met with the heads of the Connecticut Building Trades Council in July 2020 to discuss a number of topics related to construction work, including a planned power plant in Killingly, various highway projects, an issue with state university contracts and the way school construction was being handled by Diamantis.

An agenda for the meeting was posted online Tuesday by blogger and former state Sen. Kevin Rennie. The memo outlined the union leaders concerns that Diamantis, then the head of the Office of School Construction and Grants Review, had been pressuring municipalities to reject low-bid contracts with unionized contractors and to avoid entering into labor agreements.

Lamont said Monday, and again Tuesday, that he did not recall the Diamantis issue coming up at the meeting. His account was corroborated by Building Trades Council President Keith Brothers.

We never made it to that item on the agenda, Brothers told Hearst Connecticut Media Tuesday. We didnt spend much time with the governor that afternoon.

Brothers said the council did provide the governors office with a copy of the agenda listing its concerns about Diamantis prior to the meeting. However, he said he was not aware of anyone from the unions following up with Lamonts office to make sure they were aware of the issue.

While Brothers said he could not quickly locate a copy of that July, 2020 agenda, he was able to confirm the authenticity of the copy that was published online Tuesday.

The administration should have been aware. Why they werent aware, I dont know, Brothers said.

Lamonts spokesman Anthony Anthony said on Tuesday that the unions concerns about Diamantis were not raised before or after the meeting.

As far as we are aware, the governor was never provided this document, Anthony said in a written statement. That being said, some of the complaints about Mr. Diamantis were raised directly with him and subsequently addressed by officials in the administration in consultation with the Attorney Generals Office.

Lamont has enjoyed a close relationship with labor leaders within the AFL-CIO, including the Building Trades Council, despite not seeing eye-to-eye on some issues. Both groups were strong supporters of the governors failed effort to introduce highway tolls.

At a subsequent meeting with the council in 2021, the governor earned a standing ovation from its members, as well as the plaudits from Brothers, who said youll always have our support.

Asked Tuesday when he was first made aware of ethics complaints regarding Diamantis, Lamont said it was when he began reading Rennies columns in the Hartford Courant last fall, which questioned why Diamantis daughter was hired as an executive assistant in the Office of the Chief States Attorney.

As soon as we got a whiff of something going wrong, we were right there on top of it, Lamont told reporters Monday. We got the independent report out there right now, we moved construction to a whole new department, were taking this very seriously.

In the meeting agenda, the unions accused Diamantis of attempting to circumvent competitive bidding practices by pushing leaders to adopt his own unorthodox model for bidding contracts.

Kosta Diamantis has openly disparaged and tried to dissuade owners and municipalities from utilizing PLAs, the agenda said, referring to project labor agreements, which assure union participation. This isnt an accusation. We know this for a fact.  He will continue to do it unchecked and is, therefore, undermining your administration, which has publicly endorsed PLAs.

When asked about the agenda items on Tuesday, Diamantis denied disparaging project labor agreements. He said he had conversations with union leaders over the years in his work overseeing school construction finance.

We discussed all those issues, we resolved those issues and we moved along to work cooperatively moving forward, Diamantis said.

Diamantis has also faced accusations from local leaders who say he pressured them to accept bids from his preferred contractors and consultants on projects, including a company that had hired his daughter, Anastasia, in a part-time role.

That company, Construction Advocacy Professionals LLC, was hired as a consultant to close up multiple school construction projects in New Britain in 2019 after Diamantis warned officials that the district could lose out on state reimbursement funds without a consultant, New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart told Hearst this week.

More than a year after the meeting with union leaders took place, the U.S. Attorneys office in New Haven and the FBI began looking into school construction contracts administered by Diamantis, according to subpoena records that were released this month by Lamonts office.

Lamont fired Diamantis in October as deputy secretary of the Office of Policy and Management and placed him on paid leave from his classified job in the school construction office. Instead of accepting the suspension, Diamantis chose to retire from state government.

The impetus for Diamantis suspension, Lamont said recently, was his concern about Diamantis role in the chief states attorney hiring his daughter in a $99,000 job as an executive assistant.

It was around this time, Lamont said Tuesday, that his office became aware of possible issues with Diamantis oversight of school construction contracts. He referred questions about that to Nora Dannehy, the chief lawyer in his office and a former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut.

Diamantis has denied any wrongdoing related to either his handling of school construction contracts or his daughters hiring at the Chief States Attorneys Office.

As a result of the states investigation into the hiring, however, Chief States Attorney Richard Colangelo Jr. announced his early retirement last week. Earlier this month, the agency also placed Diamantis daughter, Anastasia, on paid leave pending a full review of the allegations into her hiring.

Dan Haar of Hearst Connecticut Media Group contributed to this report.
STAMFORD  A minor fire Tuesday afternoon forced the University of Connecticut-Stamford to evacuate its Washington Boulevard dorm building.

Stamford Fire Chief Trevor Roach reported that the flames were contained to a trashcan in a private bathroom at the 900 Washington Blvd. dormitory, which houses 369 UConn-Stamford students. All evacuated the building because of the fire, but were allowed back into the building after fire officials ventilated smoke from the structure, Deputy Captain Eric Lorenz said.

The two students who live in the third-floor apartment where the fire started have been relocated out of the room, according to UConn Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz.

While a cause for the fire remains unknown, Lorenz said the smoke itself did not trigger the fire alarm. Instead, the fire department is assuming that a resident activated the pull station while vacating the building.

It wasnt until we got upstairs and located where the pull station was that our firefighters started smelling smoke, he added.

Because of the fires limited scope, the dorm building sustained little damage, Lorenz said.

Because the University of Connecticut operates the Washington Boulevard building, which opened in 2017, state fire marshals have been alerted of the incident.

veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
NORWALK  A parent of a city elementary school student is facing a pair of misdemeanor charges after police say he threatened students on a school bus who he claimed bullied his child, records show.

The 55-year-old man, whose name Hearst Connecticut Media Group is withholding to protect his childs identity, was charged in November with second-degree threatening and disorderly conduct in connection with an incident that occurred at the intersection of Scribner Avenue and Freedom Drive, according to police records.

The bus driver, who police said allowed the man to board the bus and did not file a report about the incident, has been fired, the company said.

The man boarded a bus carrying Norwalk elementary school students after his child informed him that they were being bullied by other passengers, according to a police incident report obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media.

Once upon the bus, (the man) begins to verbally admonish all students on the bus for having taken his childs poppet, Officer Cornell Abruzzini wrote in the report. During the course of (the mans) time on the bus, he speaks in an elevated tone, causing the entire bus populace to remain silent.

According to the report, the man stated, if anybody touches (his child) again, Ill come in the building.

The man has not yet entered a plea in the case, according to online court records. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 11. M. Elizabeth Reid, a public defender representing him, declined to discuss the charges.

Abruzzini noted the man spoke to no one in particular and used an expletive while addressing the students. The encounter, which lasted a little more than three minutes, was recorded by two surveillance cameras located inside the bus, the police report stated.

At least one of the students reported the incident to his father, telling him that he was scared by the man, the report stated. The father later notified school officials who then contacted police about the incident, Abruzzini wrote.

The man, the report states, agreed to meet with officers at the police department for an interview the day after the incident. During the interview, he voluntarily admitted that he was in the wrong for entering the bus, the report stated.

In the police report, Arbuzzini wrote that the bus driver allowed the man to enter the bus without questioning his motive and did not intervene during the encounter. The driver, who police did not identify, also did not report the incident while it was occurring or after it concluded, the report stated.

At the time of the incident, the bus driver was employed by Durham School Services, an Illinois-based bus company contracted by Norwalk schools to transport students. The driver has since been fired, according to the company.

We can confirm that our drivers complete a rigorous training program, and it does include how to handle unauthorized individuals from boarding our vehicles, Edward P. Flavin, a spokesperson for Durhams parent company, said in an email.

Durham has provided bus services for Norwalk Public Schools since the fall of 2020.

A spokesperson for the school district did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Milton, PA (17847)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High around 70F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low 52F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Hazleton, PA (18201)

Today

Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 67F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 47F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
This is archive content that is no longer updated. Go to the up-to-date statistics page.

A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Building cost index 2022, February

Published: 15 February 2022

Building costs rose by 6,9 per cent in January year-on-year

Corrected 11 March 2022. The figure of the release has been corrected.

According to Statistics Finland, building costs rose by 6.9 per cent in January 2022 from one year back. The costs of materials went up by 10.8 per cent and labour costs by 3.6 per cent year-on-year. The prices of services fell by 0.4 per cent.

Long term development of the Building Cost Index (The figure was corrected on 11 March 2022.)

From December to January, the total index of building costs fell by 0.1 per cent. The prices of labour inputs fell by 0.3 per cent. The prices of services grew by 0.1 per cent from the previous month. The prices of materials remained on level with December.

Building Cost Index was renewed

The Building Cost Index has been renewed and the new base year is 2021. The weight structure of the index was updated to describe up-to-date building construction. The data collection has been renewed by updating the enterprise and commodity sample and by introducing the web scraped price list of hardware stores and scanner data as new data sources.

Timber and Interior structures were removed from the input nomenclature of the index, new headings are Timber structures and Frame structures. In the classification of house type a service building corresponds to an office and commercial building in the previous base year.

Employers' social insurance contributions were updated at the turn of the year in order to calculate labour costs.

Building cost index 2021=100, January 2022

Professional construction of new buildings Weights Index Monthly change, % Annual change, % Total index 1000 103.5 -0.1 6.9 By type of cost Labour inputs 390 101.9 -0.3 3.6 Materials 520 105.3 0.0 10.8 Services 90 99.9 0.1 -0.4 By purpose of use Residential building 450 103.2 -0.1 6.5 Other building construction 550 103.7 -0.1 7.2

Source: Building cost index, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Liina Arhosalo 029 551 3612, Merja Jarvinen 029 551 2458, info@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (258.5 kB)

Updated 15.02.2022

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Building cost index [e-publication].

ISSN=1799-5841. January 2022. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 3.5.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/rki/2022/01/rki_2022_01_2022-02-15_tie_001_en.html
This is archive content that is no longer updated. Go to the up-to-date statistics page.

A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Index of turnover in industry 2022, February

Published: 15 February 2022

Turnover in industry grew by 34.0 per cent in December

According to Statistics Finland, working day adjusted turnover in industry (TOL BCD) increased in December by 34.0 per cent year-on-year. Turnover grew in all main industries. Among the main industries, turnover grew strongest in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, by 96.8 per cent from one year back. The growth in the industry was in part affected by risen prices of electricity. Seasonally adjusted turnover in industry (TOL BCD) grew in December by 5.4 per cent compared with November.

Annual change in working day adjusted turnover in manufacturing (BCD), % (TOL 2008)

Working day adjusted turnover in the chemical industry increased by 38.4 per cent and turnover in the forest industry by 35.7 per cent in December compared with the year before. Turnover in the metal industry was 26.2 per cent higher and in the textile, clothing and leather industry 20.2 per cent higher than one year before. In the electronic and electrical industry, the growth amounted to 13.2 per cent. In mining and quarrying, turnover grew by 12.6 per cent and in the food industry by 4.9 per cent from the previous year.

Annual change in working day adjusted turnover in manufacturing by industry, December 2021, % (TOL 2008)

Export turnover and domestic turnover growing in December in all main industries

In December, growth in export turnover was strongest in the chemical industry, 43.6 per cent, and in the forest industry, 34.8 per cent, year-on-year. The textile, clothing and leather industry went up by 33.0 per cent. Export turnover in mining and quarrying was 28.8 per cent higher and export turnover in the metal industry 24.9 per cent higher than one year earlier. Export turnover grew by 16.3 per cent in the food industry and by 11.1 per cent in the electronic and electrical industry.

Annual change in working day adjusted export turnover and domestic turnover in manufacturing by industry, December 2021, % (TOL 2008)

In December, domestic turnover increased most in the forest industry, by 35.9 per cent from one year earlier. Domestic turnover in the electronic and electrical industry grew by 30.1 per cent and in the metal industry by 29.1 per cent. The chemical industry went up by 28.4 per cent. The domestic turnover of the textile, clothing and leather industry increased by 14.2 per cent and that of mining and quarrying by 6.7 per cent compared to one year before. The food industry went up by 3.5 per cent.

Trend series of turnover, export turnover and domestic turnover in manufacturing (BC), 1/2007 to 12/2021, % (TOL 2008)

The index of turnover in industry describes enterprises whose main industry is manufacturing. The calculation of the indices is based on the Tax Administrations self-assessed tax data which are supplemented with data obtained with Statistics Finlands sales inquiry. The monthly turnovers of manufacturing enterprises can vary considerably, especially in the metal industries. The variation is mainly due to invoicing practices. The final invoice for major machinery deliveries and projects may be recorded in the sales of one month, even if the delivery had required the work of several months or years.

The factors caused by the variation in the number of weekdays are taken into account in adjustment for working days. This means taking into consideration the lengths of months, different weekdays and holidays. In addition, seasonal variation is eliminated from seasonally adjusted series, on account of which it makes sense to compare observations of two successive months as well.

The data for the latest month are preliminary and are released at a delay of around six weeks. The data may become significantly revised particularly on more detailed industry levels in coming months. Revisions to the data may be particularly significant on the more accurate industry levels of export turnover and domestic turnover.

Industries of enterprises have been revised in the data released in February

Starting from statistical release published in February 2022 the latest industries defined by the Business Register have been taken into use in the turnover and wage and salary indices. The industry corrections are visible as revised data in some of the published industries for the years 2020-2021. The effects of the changes are taken into consideration in statistics production so that no breaks occur in the time series of the published index series. The interpretation of the statistics also remains unchanged in the renewal. Revisions to annual changes in industries are presented under Revisions in these statistics .

Source: Index of turnover in industry 2021, December, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Jussi Haavisto 029 551 3341, Heli Suonio 029 551 2481, myynti.teollisuus@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja

Publication in pdf-format (337.3 kB)

Updated 15.2.2022

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Index of turnover in industry [e-publication].

ISSN=1798-596X. December 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 3.5.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tlv/2021/12/tlv_2021_12_2022-02-15_tie_001_en.html
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The producer of bars from steel and special steel in Europe, AFV Beltrame Group, will start this year, in southern Targoviste, the construction of a new eco-smart factory for the production of steel in concrete or reinforced concrete and laminated wire, estimated at approximately EUR 300 million, and will invest approximately EUR 100 million in the next years in the modernization of the equipment in the Special Steel Plant (COS) in Targoviste.

According to a press release issued by the company on Tuesday to AGERPRES, the group received the authorization of the Competition Council to take over the functional production assets of COS Targoviste, the value of the transaction amounting to EUR 38.3 million plus VAT, but in order to complete the transaction, it is necessary to fulfill additional conditions that are related to the insolvency procedure and to obtain the necessary authorizations from the competent authorities, Agerpres.ro informs.

Present on the Romanian steel market since 2007, where it owns the rolling mill in southeastern Calarasi through the Donalam subsidiary, AFV Beltrame Group wants to expand its activity in Romania by acquiring and reopening the steel production unit owned by COS Targoviste SA, a company currently in judicial reorganization, pending the resolution of the appeal to the decision of the Court of bankruptcy declaration.

Beltrame Group aims to transform Targoviste plant into a special steel production unit competitive at European level.

Thus, in the next 4 years, approximately EUR 100 million will be invested in the modernization of the equipment, respectively the steelworks and the rolling mills, as well as about EUR 40-50 million in ensuring the working capital. For the beginning, about 450-500 jobs will be created, and then about 1,000 new jobs will be reached. Currently, about 90 employees work within COS Targoviste, mainly for the maintenance of the utility networks and the preservation of the equipment.

The Special Steel Plant in Targoviste was founded in 1970, initially producing allied and highly allied steels for the civil and defense industries. Starting with 1975 it started to produce special steels, used in the construction of Cernavoda nuclear power plant. Since 1998 the company has been listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange - stock exchange symbol COS. In 2002 the majority stake was acquired by Conares Trading A.G. Switzerland, which later became Mechel International Holding GmbH, and since 2013 the company is in insolvency proceedings. In recent years, COS was the only full-cycle producer of steel in concrete in Romania (from raw material scrap metal, to steel-concrete, finished product) and one of the main producers of rubber and steel products.

The Beltrame Group owns in Romania the Donalam steel plant in Calarasi, specialized in the production of specially hot-rolled steel bars, with uses in various industries, from oil and gas, automotive, large mechanical and hydraulic equipment, to cars and agricultural equipment. With over 340 employees in Calarasi, Donalam estimates a business figure of over RON 630 million in 2021 and a sales volume of approximately 160,000 tons of steel bars.
The National Bank of Romania (BNR) publicly reaffirms its commitment to the July 2021 updated version of the Global FX Code, together with the related guidance materials, according to a BNR press statement.

"The FX Global Code sets the standard for good market practice and first published in 2017. In order to keep its principles in line with the ongoing evolutions in the global foreign exchange market, in July 2021 there was published an updated version of the FX Global Code together with related guidance material, version that continues to promote the robust, fair, open and appropriately transparent foreign exchange market underpinned by high ethical standards. In this context, the National Bank of Romania publicly reaffirms commitment to updated version of the FX Global Code published in July 2021 together with related guidance materials, as well as, supports the importance of the FX Global Code on the Romanian foreign exchange market to continuous ensuring of its integrity and efficient functioning," reads the BNR statement.

The National Bank of Romania also encourages foreign exchange market participants to adhere to the FX Global Code principles when acting as foreign exchange market participants by renewing their statements of commitment to the updated FX Global Code, and to review their internal procedures in order to align it with the updated principles of the FX Global Code, corresponding to the size and complexity of the activity of each participant carried out on the foreign exchange market.

"Considering the importance for central banks on well-functioning of the foreign exchange financial market, because ensures smooth transmission of the monetary policy to the real economy, which ultimately benefits both market participants and the public at large, today, the National Bank of Romania issues simultaneously with all members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), including the European Central Bank (ECB), the renewed statements of commitment to the Global FX Code., Agerpres informs.
The Competition Council sanctioned five pharmaceutical companies supplying immunoglobulins and other human plasma-derived drugs, as well as the representative association of the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA) (Belgium) with fines worth a total of 353.4 million lei (approximately 71 million euros).

According to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday, the sanctioned companies are: Baxalta Gmbh, Switzerland - 109 million lei; CSL Behring Gmbh, Germany - 76.8 million lei; Biotest AG, Germany - 25.5 million lei; Kedrion Spa, Italy -16.1 million lei; Octapharma AG, Switzerland - 125.1 million lei; PPTA, Belgium: 375,521 lei.

Following the investigations, launched in 2018, the competition authority found that, in the period 2015-2018, the five companies adopted a coordinated strategy, which aimed at limiting and even interrupting the supply to the Romanian market with immunoglobulins, in order to exert pressure on the authorities to suspend the clawback tax for medicines derived from human blood or human plasma. This way, the companies aimed to create a commercial advantage, namely the improvement of profit margins.

The PPTA facilitated these anti-competitive practices and contributed through its own actions to the achievement of the common goal, thereby going beyond the scope of specific activities at the level of an association in order to influence the legislative process.

Lack of access to immunoglobulins, as essential medicines for the treatment of multiple serious illnesses, has endangered the lives of patients and led authorities to take crisis measures to provide patients with the necessary medicines, by accessing the European Civil Protection Mechanism, which indicates, by default, the magnitude of the gravity of the situation generated on the national market.

The decision of the Competition Authority, which will be published in a non-confidential manner on the institution's Website, can be appealed to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Agerpres informs.
The Culture Minister, Lucian Romascanu, was present, on Tuesday, on the National Day of Reading, at the inauguration of a library for children in Targoviste.

"It's very important to do all that depends on us to bring children, and not only them, to reading, because it tends to be an outdated habit. We are invaded by all sorts of distractions, to call them that, in the sense of distracting our attention, phones, tablets, television and so forth. Among them we shouldn't renounce reading, because it is our only path to ourselves, to our soul, to other dream dimensions, and one of the main purposes of teachers, of librarians, is to clear the way for children and people to read," said Lucian Romascanu.

He urged the children present to read, and told librarians that they must have more activities to promote reading.

***

In other localities in the country, the National Day of Reading was celebrated among children, with public personalities as guests, taking up the challenge of being models to promote reading, Agerpres.ro informs.

Thus, in one such project ran in Harghita County, the Environment Minister Tanczos Barna recommended pupils read the novel "Baltagul" (The Hatchet) by Mihail Sadoveanu, while the President of the County Council, Borboly Csaba, encouraging pupils to discover "Romanul adolescentului miop" (Diary of a short-sighted adolescent) by Mircea Eliade.

The event titled "Challenge to read - Romanian language and literature class... in another way" addressed secondary school and high-school pupils, took place online, and was attended by approximately 5,000 pupils across Harghita County.
The Minister of Defence Vasile Dincu will take part on Wednesday and Thursday in the reunion of Ministers of Defence from NATO member states, which will take place at the Alliances' General Headquarters in Brussels, MApN (Ministry of National Defence) informed.

According to MApN, the reunion represents an important benchmark in the plan for preparing decisions that will be adopted by the leaders of allied states at the Madrid Summit which will take place on June 29 and 30.

"The agenda of the event is especially substantial, in the context of the security evolutions in relations with the spectrum of Russia's offensive action towards Ukraine. The debates will be focused, as central topics, security situation generated by Russia's aggressive behavior in NATO's eastern flank and the implications for the Euro-Atlantic security, as well as as subsumed aspects of continuing the process of adapting the deterring and defence posture of the Alliance to the new security conditions plan," the press release reads, Agerpres.ro informs.

On the sidelines of the reunion Minister Dincu will take part in the ceremony of signing Romania's accession letter to the NATO Air Battle Decisive Munitions (ABDM) project, developed by the NATO Defence Investment Division.
Infections associated to medical assistance are still under-reported in Romania, said, on Tuesday, at a specialty conference, Health Minister Alexandru Rafila.

"Still, infections associated to medical assistance are under-reported in Romania. We are approaching 1% of the number of discharged patients, but we are still far from the average of the European Union, not because we wanted to have more infections, but we want to know what the reality is and try at least the invasive infections, the invasive diseases with multi-resistant bacteria appear as rarely as possible in Romanian hospitals and this would have a very good influence on mortality as well," said Rafila.

According to the minister, another objective is the reduction of the consumption of antibiotics, as well as changing the structure used for their administering.

"One of the targets is that regarding the consumption of antibiotics and changing the structure of antibiotic consumption, because we use antibiotics many times when they shouldn't be used, first intent antibiotics. Furthermore, being able to make a good quality microbiological diagnosis may be favored by the fact that, finally, after thirty years, there is in Romania the specialty of medical microbiology as it has existed before in all the countries of the European Union," Alexandru Rafila explained.

He showed that resistance to antimicrobials is a phenomenon that generated a multi-sectorial approach.

"We've managed, until now, to elaborate a few documents that were necessary to the health system in Romania and were necessary for the integration of activities. Resistance to antimicrobials is a phenomenon that generated a multi-sectorial approach, 'one health' which includes, besides human medicine or human health, that in the veterinary sector and environmental factors. (...) Until the current time, two instruments were developed which need approval within a structure that theoretically exists for many years, but which is not functional - an inter-sectorial committee represented by people in decision-making in several ministries. It regards the national strategy, the national strategic framework, and the national action plan," said the Health Mninister.

Alexandru Rafila attended a conference organized by the Prof. Dr. Matei Bals National Institute for Infectious Disease, in collaboration with the Elias Emergency University Hospital and the Dr. Carola Davila Central Military Emergency University Hospital, as part of the project titled "Strengthening the institutional capacity for the control of hospital infections and management of antibiotic consumption in Romania., Agerpres informs.
The General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI) issued, last year, 1,424 return decisions, by which it established the obligation to return and the deadline for voluntary departure from Romania's territory, for foreigners in illegal situations or who did not fulfill the conditions provided by law for the granting or extension of the right to stay.

According to a report on the activity of IGI, throughout the year, over 1,200 foreign citizens were removed under escort, 1,143 of them until the border crossing points for the terrestrial or air border, approximately 56% of the total missions to remove being done on the basis of the readmission agreement with Serbia, 63 foreigners were removed as part of 20 external operative missions, of which six through the participation of Romania in joint return operations organized by a member state under the coordination of the Frontex Agency.

For 1,327 persons that could not be removed, within 24 hours, immigration police officers drew up documents to take them into custody until their removal from Romania.

As an alternative to forced departure, 58 migrants opted for the program of assisted voluntary humanitarian repatriation and left the country at a date set in joint agreement with the International Organization for Migration.

Furthermore, for 270 persons the right to stay on Romanian territory was extended until the cessation of the reasons that led to the extension being granted, Agerpres.ro informs.

Given the pandemic situation at the international level, in the reference period immigration policemen ensured the management of stays in Romania for over 148,000 persons, of which over 96,000 are from third-party states, most from Moldova, Turkey, China, Syria, Nepal, while over 52,000 were citizens of the European Union/EEA/Switzerland, the most coming from Italy, Germany and France.

The main purposes for which foreigners established their residence on Romanian territory are employment/detachment for work, reasons connecting to the right to family unity (reuniting the family, family members of Romanian, EU or EEA citizens), studies, beneficiaries of some form or international protection, and establishing domicile in Romania.

The labor market attracted, mainly, foreigners coming from Asian states, most requests had as beneficiaries citizens from Nepal (10,448), Bangladesh (8,662), Turkey (7,163), Sri Lanka (6,799) and Pakistan (5,731).

Following several activities and controls conducted at over 4,900 companies, which targeted undeclared work, 189 foreigners that were working without legal forms were discovered.
Romanias Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca visited the headquarters of the Metropolis of Bessarabia in Chisinau on Friday, February 11, 2022.

The Romanian PM was received by the local hierarchs, including Metropolitan Petru of Bessarabia, Bishop Antonie of Balti and Bishop Veniamin of Southern Bessarabia, with whom he held talks in a warm atmosphere, according to basilica.ro.

The meeting agenda included the following topics:

The situation and dynamics of the institutions and communities of the Metropolis of Bessarabia.

The need to improve the legislative framework of the Republic of Moldova in the field of religious denominations in order to align European standards.

The approach by the Romanian state authorities in the dialogue with the Moldovan authorities on the issue of restitution of church property abusively confiscated by the occupying Soviet state.

Supplementing government funds to support the clergy of the Metropolis of Bessarabia.

The need to build new Romanian cathedrals in the municipalities of Chisinau, Balti and Cahul, as centres of Romanian Orthodox spirituality.

Creating a stable and permanent framework of cooperation between the Metropolis of Bessarabia and the Government of Romania for the benefit of the Romanian Orthodox believers in the Republic of Moldova, including capitalizing and promoting the Romanian cultural heritage.

The openness of the Metropolis of Bessarabia, as a social actor of prime importance, for cooperation with the central and local authorities of the Republic of Moldova.

Bringing the issue of the Metropolis of Bessarabia to the agenda of European bodies and institutions.

During the talks, His Eminence Metropolitan Petru emphasized that the Metropolis of Bessarabia is the only national institution from the interwar period reactivated east of the Prut River and, as a keeper and promoter of the Romanian spiritual identity, is an integrating factor of the cultural space and common spiritual of Romania and the Republic of Moldova, ensuring the trans-political unity of the Romanian world.

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca expressed concern about the situation of the local structure of the Romanian Patriarchate and stressed that the Romanian Government would continue to actively support the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which currently holds over one million Bessarabian Romanians who have regained their Romanian citizenship.

As a token of appreciation and gratitude for the Romanian Governments support for the Metropolis of Bessarabia, Metropolitan Petru awarded the Romanian Prime Minister the Church Order of the Right-believing Ruler Prince Saint Stephen the Great, 1st degree.

His Eminence also presented the Romanian PM with an icon of the Holy Hierarch Dionysius Erhan of Cetatea Alba and Ismail.

In turn, PM Nicolae Ciuca presented the Metropolitan of Bessarabia with a medallion with the effigy of Saint Stephen the Great.

His Excellency Daniel Ionita, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to Chisinau, also attended the meeting.

The parties agreed to remain in permanent dialogue to resolve, in a constructive European spirit, the issues addressed at the meeting, the Press Office of the Metropolis of Bessarabia reports.

Honest dialogue between the Republic of Moldova and the Metropolis of Bessarabia

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca was in Chisinau on Friday for a joint sitting of the two countries governments. During this meeting, the Prime Minister referred to the Metropolis of Bessarabia:

We count on your support, of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, for specific issues of interest to us, on which we would like to see progress. I would call, for example, our request, also addressed during the previous governances, to identify solutions to some of the problems the Metropolis of Bessarabia is facing.

I think it is appropriate to analyze the situation of the Metropolis of Bessarabia and open a real dialogue between the authorities of the Republic of Moldova and the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which  I am convinced  will have a positive reverberation in our societies, Nicolae Ciuca said, AGERPRES reports.
The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) reported on Tuesday that the draft law adopted by the Government on the abolition of the Crime Investigation Section in Judiciary (SIIJ) does not represent "unfortunately" a progress in ensuring the effectiveness of the fight against corruption at a high level, but aims to replace a single structure with 16 different within the Public Prosecution Service (MP).

"The National Anticorruption Directorate has firmly and constantly expressed itself for the abolition of the SIIJ and the return to its competence of the acts of corruption and assimilated to the corruption committed by the magistrates. This firm position has been brought to the attention of the public opinion and of the institutions with attributions in the field, repeatedly, it is based on solid arguments. We emphasize once again Romania's need to have a structure to combat corruption, with caution at the highest levels, which is efficient, functional, specialized, endowed with a high degree of operational independence and with human and technical resources to the extent. The structure we are considering has already been created since 2002 and has been operating for 20 years, this being the National Anticorruption Directorate," DNA said, in the context of the public debates on the dissolution of the SIIJ.

According to the source, for the coherence of the criminal prosecution in cases of high-level corruption, in order to efficiently capitalize on the resources already allocated, the solution is not to weaken the mechanism already created and functional, but to strengthen it, this meaning, among other things, the assurance that the specialized directorate has competence over all relevant sectors of society and with regard to all relevant public functions.

"In a state such as Romania, where the level of perception of the population regarding corruption remains high, the fight against corruption cannot lose sight of essential sectors for the functioning of a state, such as the judicial sector. To break the competence of DNA, a vital sector for the Romanian society, is likely to fragment the fight against corruption at a high and medium level and to reduce its efficiency," the DNA adds.

"The directorate says that this could be observed during the period in which the SIIJ operated, during which no corruption case in the judicial system was sent to court.

On the other hand, say the anticorruption prosecutors, the need for specialization of prosecutors and for the creation of institutions specialized in combating corruption through criminal means, such as DNA, is very clearly provided for in the international conventions to which Romania is a party and has been stressed on many occasions by the European Commission and international organizations.

"The draft law adopted by the Government, although it aims to abolish the SIIJ, does not represent, unfortunately, a progress in ensuring the efficiency of the fight against corruption at a high level, a level which, undoubtedly, should also include the representatives of the judicial sector. On the contrary, the solution adopted by this draft law aims to replace a single structure, SIIJ, with 16 different structures within the Public Prosecution Service, keeping the competence according to the quality of the person, and not by subject matter, of the new prosecutors to be appointed. This basically represents a dissipation of the resources and competence of criminal prosecution and a perpetuation of the non-specialization of the prosecutors who will investigate corruption cases concerning magistrates," says DNA.

Moreover, DNA states, in relation to the provisions of the draft law, the competence of the new prosecutors appointed to carry out the criminal prosecution in cases concerning judges and prosecutors could extend to other persons, which could further eliminate the competence of DNA and could affect the activity of this Directorate.

At the same time, the method of selecting the appointed prosecutors is, in turn, likely to compromise the prospect of professional and effective investigations into corruption in the judicial sector. Thus, on the one hand, these prosecutors are appointed through an uncompetitive procedure, unlike the DNA prosecutors who are appointed following a rigorous contest.

Moreover, according to the mentioned source, another element of appreciation of the irreproachable conduct is represented by the "dismissal resolutions that concern the activity of the prosecutor" issued by the Judicial Inspection.

At the same time, DNA finds that the discussions held at public level in relation to the justification for the existence of a SIIJ or an alternative form of it are accompanied by a series of attacks on DNA and statements regarding alleged abuses committed in the past by certain prosecutors of this direction against magistrates, statements that tend to justify the establishment of such structures.

The DNA leadership again firmly rejects this kind of denigrating approaches, which, despite the official denials made by both the institution and the DNA chief prosecutor, continue to proliferate in the public space.

The government adopted on Monday the draft law on the abolition of the Section for investigating crimes in the judiciary, the SIIJ, Agerpres informs.
ST. LOUIS  The owner of the Post-Dispatch got a little help in its fight against a hostile takeover Tuesday.

A Delaware court ruled in favor of Iowa-based Lee Enterprises move in December to reject New York hedge fund Alden Global Capitals board nominees on procedural grounds.

Alden attempted to nominate new board members last year at the same time it was trying to get the board to accept its offer to buy the company at $24 per share. After Lee rejected the offer as too cheap and the nominations as improper, Alden sued, alleging its board nominees were illegally ignored.

Alden brushed off Tuesdays decision, putting out a statement urging shareholders to block the reelection of the two key board members it had hoped to replace. If the board members dont win approval of a majority of shareholders, they have to resign, Alden said.

Our Vote No campaign will act as a referendum on this entrenched duos many failures, the statement read, and will act as a platform for stockholders to send a clear message that the corporate governance at Lee must be rectified.

In its own statement, Lee dismissed the campaign as another stunt in service of a cut-rate takeover plan. We have confidence that Lees shareholders will see through these disingenuous arguments, the company said.

Lee shares rose $1.44 or about 4% to close at $36.94 on the day.

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Kevin Hart will bring his Reality Check tour to Enterprise Center with a show at 7 p.m. Sept. 24. This is the comedian-actor's first tour in five years.

A support act will be announced.

Tickets are $49.50-$158.50 and go on sale at 11 a.m. Feb. 18 at livenation.com.

"I am hype as (expletive) to go back out on tour," Hart said in statement. "There is nothing better than making people laugh, I can feel the energy in the venues like caffeine pumping through my veins. Ive been cooking up something special and have thoughts I need to get off my chest. Go get your tickets and come ready to have a good night!

The show is a phone-free event; Yondr bags will be used to store phones.

Enterprise Center requires proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test.

Hart is currently headlining Real Husbands of Hollywood on BET+, which he also produced. Hart starred in and produced the limited series "True Story" on Netflix last year as well as the movie "Fatherhood," also on Netflix.

2022 will see him in Borderlands with Cate Blanchett, Me Time with Mark Wahlberg and The Man From Toronto with Woody Harrelson and Kaley Cuoco.

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ST. LOUIS  A lawsuit filed in circuit court here accuses a De Soto priest of abusing someone at a boys home two decades ago.

Christian Hornbecks lawsuit says Father Alexander Anderson fondled him in the late 1990s or early 2000s at St. Josephs Home for Boys in south St. Louis.

The suit says the St. Louis Archdiocese and other Catholic institutions allowed Anderson access to numerous vulnerable individuals and knowingly covered up and concealed the sexual abuse of their minor parishioners by Anderson.

Anderson, who is now at St. Rose of Lima parish in De Soto, referred a reporters questions to the Archdiocese.

In a statement, the Archdiocese said previous allegations involving Anderson were either retracted or shown to be false. One such claimant has maintained his allegations from prison where he is incarcerated for financial fraud.

This most recent claim is demonstrably false, as Fr. Anderson was not assigned to St. Joseph Home during the time the claimant was a resident, the statement says.

Hornbeck was placed at St. Josephs after being removed from his mothers care. He was an outsider, the suit says, and became a target for bullying and sexual abuse by older boys. His complaints were ignored by staff, the suit says.

Anderson, under the guise of providing spiritual guidance and counseling, groomed Hornbeck and then fondled him, the suit says.

Hornbeck, who now is married and works and lives in Georgia, repressed the memories until 2018, when he saw a Facebook post about the school, the suit says. The Post-Dispatch does not normally identify alleged victims of sexual abuse, but Hornbecks suit uses his name and his lawyer said he did not object to its use.

A John Doe sued Anderson and the church in federal court last year, also alleging sexual abuse. That suit is pending, and Anderson and the church have denied the accusations in legal filings.

In the statement, the Archdiocese pointed out that Doe is currently in prison for financial fraud.

Hornbecks lawsuit says Anderson worked at St. Pius V from 1975-79, St. Blaise from 1979-80, Immaculate Heart of Mary from 1980-81, St. Simons in Concord Village from 1981-83, St. Josephs Home for Boys from 1983-88, St. Andrews in Lemay from 1988-1992, Assumption Parish in Mattese from 1992-93, Sacred Heart Parish from 1992 to 2008, when he went to St. Rose of Lima.

Anderson was a counselor and spiritual guide at St. Josephs until at least 2002, the suit says.

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TUESDAY, Feb. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Many women with epilepsy have breakthrough seizures when they get pregnant, and researchers say they've figured out why.

Their new study shows that pregnancy can trigger steep drops in blood levels of certain antiepileptic drugs soon after conception.

"When it comes to epilepsy, maintaining a fine-tuned medication regimen is critical. Some people mistakenly believe that changes in the drugs' blood concentration won't occur until after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but our study shows how important it is to start monitoring and adjusting patients' medication dosages early on," said lead study author Dr. Page Pennell, chair of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, so it is important to ensure that doctors have a clear picture of each patient's baseline drug level even if they are not trying to conceive," Pennell said in a university news release.

For the study, Pennell and her colleagues analyzed blood concentrations of 10 commonly used antiseizure drugs in women with epilepsy at different stages of pregnancy and after childbirth.

There were dramatic declines in the levels of seven drugs, ranging from about 30% for lacosamide (Vimpat) to over 56% for lamotrigine (Lamictal), the investigators found.

The researchers also found that the declines in blood levels of the drugs occurred just days after conception.

"Identifying which antiseizure medications may have changes in concentrations and at what point in pregnancy those changes occur is important for determining which patients may need to be monitored more closely during pregnancy and after delivery," said study co-author Angela Birnbaum, a professor of experimental and clinical pharmacology at the University of Minnesota.

The findings highlight the need to increase doses of certain antiseizure drugs and closely monitor their levels in epilepsy patients when they're pregnant, the study authors concluded.

The findings were published online Feb. 14 in JAMA Neurology.

More information

There's more on epilepsy and pregnancy at the American Academy of Family Physicians.

SOURCE: University of Pittsburgh, news release, Feb. 14, 2022

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
JEFFERSON CITY  The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a law banning the use of public funds for campaigning.

Several Missouri cities, including Olivette, Maryland Heights and Rock Hill, sued to try to overturn the law in 2019, arguing the law unconstitutionally limited public officials free speech.

A lower court judge sided with cities, but Supreme Court judges ruled unanimously that while the law limits the use of public funding, it does not limit free speech.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court for further legal proceedings.

Judges in their ruling wrote that the law does not limit or prohibit officials speech; it merely prohibits them from using public funds to facilitate or augment that speech.

The Republican-led Legislature last year amended the law to ensure that it applies to schools. For example, it prohibits a school spokesperson in their official capacity from writing a press release in favor of a tax hike to raise money for schools.
JEFFERSON CITY  A St. Louis woman was unfairly denied jobless benefits after she was let go from her job for working remotely from another state, a panel of judges ruled Tuesday.

The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District said Fedra Ekres should have been able to tap into unemployment benefits after she left her position working for Franklin Energy Services in the midst of the pandemic.

According to the decision, Ekres was working at a call center in St. Louis when COVID-19 mitigation measures in March 2020 triggered a decision to have employees work from home.

Ekres soon after moved to New York but continued to work for Franklin, which is a contractor for Ameren.

Her decision to move was not unlike those made by millions of other workers who went from a daily commute to their offices to a remote scenario that allowed them to complete their tasks from nearly anywhere.

But a week after starting her work from New York, two company officials called Ekres and said her employment with Franklin had ended.

Ekres testified that she did not quit, but instead that Franklin terminated her during the March 31, 2020, call with two of her supervisors. Ekres said that her supervisors told her she was being let go because she had moved out of state, the decision notes.

The Missouri Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, which acts on appeals of unemployment benefit denials, ruled that Ekres was not eligible for benefits.

The appeals court judges disagreed.

The Commissions findings and conclusions that Ekres voluntarily quit her employment are not supported by sufficient competent evidence. Ekres was involuntarily discharged and is entitled to an award of benefits, said the opinion, written by Judge Cynthia Martin.

The judges, in the unanimous decision, said a company official testified that Ekress work had been satisfactory, and that Ekres was not violating any rule by working remotely from New York state during the pandemic.

The decision is a departure from typical court rulings in similar cases over the past 15 years, according to Arlene Kanter, a professor at Syracuse University College of Law.

Kanter told The Associated Press in September that judges often sided with employers without requiring much evidence that telecommuting was unreasonable.

What I think well see now is courts will not just defer to the employers judgment, she said. Employees should have the right to explain how they can perform their job remotely and how they just did it if they were working remotely during COVID. Thats why I think were at a turning point.

Originally posted at 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15.

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UPDATED at 11:10 a.m. Tuesday with statement from Lyft

ST. LOUIS  A Lyft driver was attacked by a passenger who bit off part of his ear Sunday in a carjacking in the Midtown neighborhood, police said.

The 32-year-old victim told officers that a woman passenger attacked him about 5:50 p.m. Sunday near eastbound Highway 40 (Interstate 64) and Market Street.

As he was driving, a woman in the back seat ordered him to pull over and said she had a gun, according to a summary provided by police.

She grabbed the Lyft driver's phone and threw it out the window, police said. She tried to take his car keys and, in a struggle, bit the driver's ear, police said.

The driver tried to pull away, but the woman pushed him out of the car, climbed into the driver's seat and drove away. The Lyft driver, now missing part of an ear, was treated at a hospital for his injuries.

Shortly after the carjacking, the Lyft driver's vehicle was involved in a crash downtown, at Interstate 44 and Walnut Street. The person who was driving the Lyft vehicle ran off after the crash.

The woman who bit his ear hasn't been captured. St. Louis police spokeswoman Evita Caldwell said the woman is believed to be 39 years old, based on information the Lyft driver gave police about his passenger.

A Lyft spokesperson provided this statement to the Post-Dispatch:

"Safety is fundamental to Lyft, and the incident described is deeply concerning. We've been in touch with the driver to offer our support and have permanently removed the rider account from the Lyft community," Lyft said.

The statement went on to say that the ridesharing company is working with police to keep drivers safe "while also exploring ways to expand the use of certain safety features and alerts to help prevent these kinds of incidents moving forward."

Also on Sunday, another Lyft driver was robbed of his car at gunpoint in the 3500 block of Missouri Avenue, in the city's Marine Villa neighborhood. That driver, a 34-year-old man, was uninjured, police said.

The driver had been trying to pick up a rider on Missouri about 8:30 p.m. Sunday when three young men forced him out of his 2016 Chrysler 200 at gunpoint.

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ST. LOUIS  A lawyer from St. Louis faked legal documents in court cases in St. Louis and St. Louis and St. Charles counties for more than a year, a federal indictment and disciplinary documents say.

Among the documents falsified by Andrew Gavin Wynne were forged signatures of judges, the documents said.

Wynnes law license was suspended in October. He was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on five counts of identity theft for incidents between Feb. 7, 2020, and June 7, 2021.

The indictment says Wynne created fictitious documents including court orders, judgments, and emails purportedly authored by the judges.

Wynne declined to comment when reached by phone Saturday. Wynne said he was looking for a lawyer.

Court documents filed in October by Missouris Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates lawyer misconduct, provide additional details about the allegations, including at least two additional cases beyond those listed in the indictment.

The 98-page filing, including exhibits that contain copies of the faked documents, lays out a series of divorce and other family court cases in which Wynne is accused of faking court orders and emails from judges and providing them to clients.

One faked filing dated Feb. 25, 2020, is a final order of divorce in a St. Charles County case in which the husband was ordered to pay $900 in child support, according to a copy in the disciplinary filing.

Unbeknownst to the wife, who was represented by Wynne, the case continued working its way through the court system.

But when neither spouse showed up for a July 12, 2021, hearing, the judge dismissed the case. That dismissal was set aside after lawyers with Wynnes former firm intervened, court records show.

In a case in St. Louis Circuit Court, Wynne faked an order granting a motion for contempt that said the husband would have to pay $20,000 within 15 days, then half his income plus $2,500 every month, the filing says. He followed that up with two faked emails from the judge explaining delays, one saying her staff had COVID and the other saying her father died, the filing says.

A court spokesman on Monday said the judges father did not die.

Its not clear how Wynne thought the scheme alleged would succeed, as the documents would potentially conflict with other, real court orders and would be subjected to scrutiny from his clients, their former spouse and the spouses lawyer.

The orders did not appear in the public case file.

At the time, Wynne was an associate with the Kirkwood firm Menees, Menees & Wynne, now known as Menees & Menees.

Hardy Menees called Wynnes behavior inexplicable and his motives perplexing in a telephone interview Saturday. He said Wynne primarily faked rulings on motions in the middle of the cases he was handling. There were only two final dispositions of cases, Menees said.

Its been an incredible ordeal to try and unravel it, but we have unraveled it, he said.

Menees praised the investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors and said lawyers and judges have reached out incredibly to my small law firm about this.

Menees on Monday said cases in four judicial circuits had been affected but declined to say how many total cases were involved.

Wynnes web of deceptions began to unravel July 1, when a client in a divorce case approached Menees with concerns about a consent order that had been filed in her case that she never signed, according to an affidavit filed by Menees in the disciplinary case.

Menees told Wynne that they would need to talk about the case the next day, prompting Wynne to spend three hours sending emails and attachments to a secret email address and then deleting them from his office computer, the affidavit says.

At a July 12 meeting, Menees and the firms private investigator found client files on a thumb drive in Wynnes possession, including multiple faked documents, the affidavit says.

They also found a half-pint of vodka in his backpack, along with an unmarked pill bottle containing miscellaneous pills, the affidavit says. Wynne agreed to go to a drug and alcohol treatment facility.

Menees and his investigator found additional faked documents, and reported Wynne to the disciplinary counsel on July 15, the affidavit says.

It was the first of four reports on Wynnes conduct, including one sent from the Missouri Attorney Generals consumer protection division after a Wynne client complained to them.

The OCDC filed its documents Oct. 13, 2021.

Wynne was suspended 14 days layer by the Missouri Supreme Court in an order that says he poses a substantial threat of irreparable harm to the public as there is probable cause to believe (he) has engaged in acts of misconduct.

Two of the judges listed in the indictment responded to emails about the case, declining to comment and referring a reporter to a court spokesman, who referred specific questions to federal prosecutors.

We have full confidence in the security measures put in place by the Office of the State Courts Administrator to protect the integrity of documents for the Circuit Court in St. Louis County, court spokesman John OSullivan said in an email Monday.

Wynne was licensed to practice law in Missouri in 2013 and was hired by Menees firm in 2016. His LinkedIn profile says he graduated from St. Louis University in 2010 and law school at Western Michigan University in 2013.

Wynne worked in corporate legal affairs department of a health care company and a Jefferson City law firm after graduation, the profile says.

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UPDATED at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday with additional detail on victims, motive

ST. LOUIS  Three people were shot and critically injured Monday in the Peabody Darst Webbe neighborhood in St. Louis, police said.

The victims, all men, were shot just before 4 p.m. in the 1400 block of Chouteau Avenue, which is just southwest of Downtown. Police descended on a parking lot at the Clinton Peabody housing complex.

Police have made no arrests.

The three men were shot in a dispute with a fourth man over family issues, police said.

The victim who suffered the worst injuries was in critical condition and unstable at a hospital, police said in an update Tuesday morning. He is a man in his 20s.

The other two victims are a 34-year-old man and a 28-year-old man. Both were in critical condition at a hospital but were considered stable, police said.

It was the second triple shooting in St. Louis in less than 24 hours. Three people were shot, one of them fatally, just before 10 p.m. Sunday in the 6200 block of North Broadway. One man was charged on Monday in connection with that shooting in the North Riverfront neighborhood.

Staff writer Kim Bell contributed to this report.

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JEFFERSON CITY  Some of Washington Universitys largest donors, including several top St. Louis-area business leaders, have contributed to a political action committee formed in the wake of dysfunction in the Missouri Senate.

The recently created RightPath PAC received 15 donations totaling more than $2 million on Monday, Missouri Ethics Commission records show.

Nearly all of the donors have a connection to Washington University or have served on its board of trustees.

Jorgen Schlemeier, consultant for the PAC and a registered lobbyist, said some of the goofy stuff introduced or said on the Senate floor is driving the donors up a wall.

Members of the hard-line GOP faction have repeatedly stalled traffic in the Senate due to disagreements with regular Republicans.

Certainly that kind of behavior is whats gotten everybodys attention, Schlemeier said.

If you get more people wanting to talk policy and less people wanting to talk politics on the floor, then youre going to have a more productive session, he said.

With candidate filing for this years elections yet to begin, members of the PAC havent decided which candidates it will eventually support, Schlemeier said.

Checks to the RightPath PAC came from figures such as Andy Taylor, executive chairman of Enterprise Holdings, and David Kemper, executive chairman of Commerce Bancshares, both of whom were involved in efforts to form Greater St. Louis Inc., a new regional business and civic advocacy group.

Schlemeier said an effort last year to tax Washington Universitys endowment over abortion concerns, as well as the Senates near-failure to extend a critical medical provider tax, caught donors attention.

Indeed, not all of the donors live in St. Louis or even Missouri. Rather, nearly every one of the donors to the PAC appear to be some of Washington Universitys most generous financial supporters over the years. Many sit on the universitys board of trustees or have in the past.

George Bauer, of Connecticut, gave $200,000 to the PAC. He is an emeritus trustee of Washington University and has funded a leadership initiative at the university that bears his name.

Another Connecticut resident, Andrew Bursky, runs financial firm Atlas Holdings and is Washington Universitys current vice chair. George Couch III lives in Pebble Beach, California, where his alcohol distribution company was located. But he is a longtime donor to Washington University and an emeritus board member. He gave $200,000 to the Missouri PAC.

Other notable donors include $200,000 from Blackford (Beau) Brauer of Bridgeton-based Hunter Engineering, as well as another $200,000 from the company itself. Brauers father, Stephen Brauer, was the former CEO of the company and is an emeritus trustee of Washington University. Stephen Brauer was also appointed as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium by former President George W. Bush.

Schlemeier said the effort wasnt as simple as regular Republicans lining up to oppose hard-line Republicans.

He said a couple Conservative Caucus members have a very good way of navigating good legislation and bringing sides together.

I think theyre looking for somebody that just has a good nature about them that wants to literally work with others, Schlemeier said.

Updated at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15.

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JEFFERSON CITY  Amid liberal protest of bills censoring curriculum this session, one Republican-sponsored bill discussed Monday aimed to flip the script, claiming to prohibit school censorship.

The House Higher Education Committee heard testimony Monday afternoon on the Censorship Prohibition Act, sponsored by Rep. Adam Schnelting, R-St. Charles.

The bill speaks to broad GOP concerns about so-called cancel culture but has a fairly narrow scope, addressing only political speech by invited speakers at public colleges or universities.

The bill specifies that speakers cannot be barred based on party affiliation or expressed viewpoints or ideology that can be found in any major American political party platform. This language, Schnelting said, was intended to address concerns about providing a platform for extreme fringe groups, like the Nazi party.

But Rep. Rudy Veit, R-Wardsville, said excluding fringe groups from the protection went against the intention of protecting free speech.

Its the minority party or those platforms that arent popular that probably need an open place to air their opinions, said Veit.

Once we start this objective about whats good or bad then we get in to censorship, Veit continued. I dont agree with Nazism. I dont agree with a lot of things. But certainly if its that out of step, thered be no one there to listen to it anyway.

Other representatives questioned whether the additional protection was needed, noting that First Amendment protections apply in these situations.

In response, Schnelting listed a couple of universities in other states where speaking events had been canceled. Schnelting also briefly referenced an incident last December in which conservative writer Matt Walsh drew protests after he was invited to speak at St. Louis University.

Walsh originally was supposed to speak on the SLU campus but declined to wear a mask in compliance with the universitys COVID-19 protocols. A subsequent invitation by St. Francis Xavier Church, the independent church located on the SLU campus, was rescinded by the pastor, who said Walshs statements were contrary to the values of our Catholic faith. Walsh eventually spoke at an off-campus location.

SLU is a private university; the bill only applies to public institutions and decisions by university officials.

Representatives also questioned the technical aspects of the bill, pointing to confusing or vague language in the measure and asking why institutions in violation of the act would be sued for defamation.

Schnelting said that lawmakers too often got too into the weeds of legislation, saying that amendments could be made.

Schnelting has also sponsored a Parents Bill of Rights. Several similar bills and attempts to ban race-related or divisive curriculum have drawn unprecedented outcry, in large part opposing the possibility of lawmakers or parents censoring childrens education.

The legislation is House Bill 2105.

Grace Zokovitch gzokovitch@post-dispatch.com
JEFFERSON CITY  A Republican plan to reverse a voter-approved expansion of Medicaid won preliminary approval in the Missouri House on Tuesday.

On a voice vote, the House positioned a proposed constitutional amendment for a final vote later this week that would ask voters in November to reverse their 2020 decision to permanently expand the government-funded health insurance program.

The action marks the latest roadblock erected by the GOP to the signature achievement of former President Barack Obama.

Democrats expressed disapproval.

Rep. Betsy Fogle, D-Springfield, said Republicans need to drop their opposition to expansion after 53% of the voters said they wanted it to happen in 2020.

Quite frankly, I cant believe were back here having the same conversation, Fogle said.

Weve been debating this for over 10 years, said Rep. Martha Stevens, D-Columbia.

Through January, more than 60,600 adults have signed up for coverage under the expanded program, which could someday grow to as many as 275,000. The total number of people who receive health insurance coverage under the states MO HealthNet program is 908,000, as of Jan. 31.

The ballot question, if it wins approval in both the Senate and House, would ask voters to allow the program to be subject to annual appropriations by the General Assembly.

It also would require the Missouri Department of Social Services to apply for a waiver from the federal government seeking to require adults who receive the health care benefit to have a job.

And the proposal would end a practice of paying health care costs of people from out of state who are treated in Missouri hospitals.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Cody Smith, R-Carthage, argued the proposed constitutional change wouldnt necessarily cut all expansion costs. Rather, he said, it would allow lawmakers more flexibility to manage Medicaid spending.

Its encroaching on our other budget priorities, Smith said.

Prior attempts to institute work requirements have failed and efforts by Republicans in other states to impose the rules have largely fizzled.

In Arkansas, for example, a work program was halted after nearly a year in 2019.

The work requirement also would have to win approval from President Joe Bidens administration, which announced in February 2021 that it would remove all work waivers the government granted during President Donald Trumps administration.

Rep. Sarah Unsicker, D-Shrewsbury, said the General Assembly should allow the Missouri Department of Social Services to decide for itself how it operates.

We cannot micromanage every aspect of the government from the Legislature, Unsicker said.

The proposed constitutional amendment is House Joint Resolution 117.

Originally posted at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15.

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JEFFERSON CITY  The Republican-led Missouri House on Monday advanced two bills dictating the limits of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The bills, sponsored by Rep. Bill Hardwick, R-Waynesville, and Rep. David Evans, R-West Plains, slightly shift the lines around mandates, generally loosening who can impose a mandate and who can claim an exemption.

Federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates on large private employers and federal employees have been halted by the courts. A federal mandate on health care employers has been upheld, with a first-dose requirement effective Monday in Missouri.

Evans bill, he said, was adapted to follow and clarify existing federal laws regarding COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The bills specifies that religious exemptions can be claimed on based theistic or non-theistic beliefs, and the beliefs are presumed legitimate and must be proven false to be rejected.

The measure establishes that an employee who experiences negative side effects from a mandated vaccination may claim workers compensation benefits. Employees fired because of a mandate would also be able to claim unemployment benefits.

Hardwicks bill outlines even broader provisions for religious, conscientious or medical exemptions and prohibits public institutions, such as school districts or government departments, from imposing mandates.

House members gave the bills initial approval in voice votes. Several representatives framed the bills as compromises.

In a real kind of way, this is just reassuring our constituents of the current state of the law with regard to the way religious exemptions work, said Rep. Mark Ellebracht, D-Liberty. So its not as though a vote for this bill is a vote against vaccines.

Others pointed out that these measures still serve to regulate what businesses can and cannot do, garnering opposition from a broad coalition uniting both business and labor representatives.

Much of the debate on both bills centered around an amendment prohibiting doctors from considering the COVID-19 vaccination status as a condition for the eligibility of a organ transplant donor or recipient.

The amendment, taken from another bill sponsored by Rep. J. Eggleston, R-Maysville, was withdrawn from Hardwicks bill but made it through to Evans.

The topic was personal for Eggleston, who donated a kidney to his wife. His wife, he noted, is currently not vaccinated.

I just like to see us save as many lives as possible, Eggleston said. And whether or not youve had that shot should not bear witness on that.

Rep. Jonathan Patterson, R-Lees Summit, whos a practicing physician, noted health care workers make transplant determinations based on the viability of the transplant and health risks. Vaccination status is a risk factor like smoking history or obesity, he said, and dictating medical decisions isnt the role of lawmakers.

They told me I had to lose weight and do a whole bunch of other things so that the organ transplant could be viable, Rep. Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, said of her own kidney transplant. Organs are very rare, and it is terrifying. Not only to think that you might not get the organ, but its terrifying for the donors family to give that organ, and its the last living functional piece of their loved ones body and life.

Grace Zokovitch gzokovitch@post-dispatch.com
A Missouri lawmaker who is charged in a fraud scheme involving medical treatments in her job as a physician assistant reached a settlement with the state health department that puts her narcotics license on probation for three years.

The agreement with state Rep. Tricia Derges, first reported Monday by the Missouri Independent, was reached Jan. 28 but not announced. Her attorney, Al Watkins, provided The Associated Press with a copy of the deal with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Derges is a first-term Republican from Nixa. She also operates Life Up, a nonprofit medical and dental clinic in Springfield that serves poor, homeless and uninsured people.

The settlement does not address many of the charges cited in a 23-count criminal case against Derges. She has pleaded not guilty in the federal case.

Instead, it states that an investigation revealed violations of state and federal controlled substance laws, such as illegally prescribing amphetamines and opioids. The agreement says Derges committed the crimes because those laws were not taught at the Caribbean Medical University in the Netherland Antilles, where she was trained.

Once she learned of the violations, she took prompt corrective measures, the agreement says.

Were not talking about a criminal here, Watkins said. This is a woman who set up her own clinics to take care of people who couldnt take care otherwise. She wasnt getting state money or federal money, wasnt charging these people. Its just sad.

She still faces allegations in the federal indictment filed last year that accused her of filing claims for nearly $900,000 in federal funding for COVID-19 treatments that were not performed or had already been performed. It also alleged that she promoted amniotic fluid as a treatment for COVID-19 and other diseases by falsely claiming it contained stem cells.

Derges refused to resign despite calls from House Republican leaders, who removed her from the GOP caucus and from committee posts.
ST. LOUIS  A new effort is underway to get the agency that runs MetroLink and the regions bus system to also operate the dormant Loop Trolley.

The board of the Bi-State Development Agency, which two years ago refused to take over the long-troubled 2.2-mile line, on Friday is scheduled to discuss a reworked proposal to run the trolley on a contract basis.

Nick Dunne, a spokesman for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, said the plan is a result of ongoing conversations between Bi-State and the mayor, who has chaired the trolleys transportation development district since December, and others with the district.

The trolley district also is asking the East-West Gateway Council of Governments board to reconsider its rejection in October of the districts request for a $1.26 million federal grant to help restart the trolley. The district last week submitted a new request for the money.

The grant would be used to operate the line in tandem with sales tax money that has accrued since the trolley shut down at the end of 2019 after a little more than a year of operation.

St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern, who previously had opposed both ideas, said Monday he now supports Bi-State operating the trolley and would be OK with the grant.

Whats changed, he said, was a regional Federal Transit Administration officials warning in late December that local leaders must submit a plan to restart service in June or face the prospect of repaying tens of millions of dollars in federal grants used to build the line.

Kern also worries that failing to get the trolley running again could jeopardize future funding for other projects such as the proposed north-south extension of MetroLink.

Jones, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page and Bi-State CEO Taulby Roach had previously expressed such concerns.

It seems an acceptable solution that Bi-State would only take on operation of the trolley, Kern said. It wouldnt have any liabilities. It simply would be a contractor.

Kern said he realized that the move will be highly unpopular given the trolleys track record but that he believes it is necessary.

Kern serves with other regional elected leaders on the Gateway board and appoints four of the five Illinois members on the 10-person Bi-State board.

Derrick Cox, a board member from Madison County, said Monday hes adamantly opposed to the new plan.

Cox called the trolley the biggest waste of taxpayers money Ive ever seen and that Bi-State needs to focus on a shortage of bus drivers and mechanics that has spurred cutbacks in its bus service.

With this workforce challenge Bi-State now wants to take on fixing the Loop Trolley? he asked. I hope each commissioner will ask themselves is this how the public thinks we should be using our resources?

Roach, the Bi-State CEO, said in a statement that Jones has stepped forward and is trying to lead a difficult project through some possible solutions to avoid defaulting on the earlier trolley funding.

Mayor Jones has asked for our help and our expertise, and we are trying to respond accordingly, Roach said.

The grant request calls for the money to be used for two years beginning next January, with free service from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays.

The trolley, which connects the western end of the Delmar Loop area in University City to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, charged fares during much of its previous run.

Dunne, Jones spokesman, said he believed that local leaders were still anticipating restarting the trolley in June per the federal agencys request. If that happened, the trolley presumably would operate for six months using its sales tax money.

Updated at 8:14 p.m.

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Gov. Mike Parson raises an interesting, but not terribly well-informed, point about how Missouris criminal justice system works. Last week in a radio interview, he questioned why the state should be the one to compensate wrongfully convicted prisoners when county prosecutors are the ones responsible for sending innocent people to prison.

Its a fair question. County prosecutors are the ones who receive criminal cases and weigh whether theres adequate evidence to win a conviction. County prosecutors act as agents of the state in criminal cases, and its because theyre acting on the states behalf that they have the power to send a person to a state prison.

In an interview last week with Kansas City public radio, Parson was asked about compensation for wrongfully convicted people like Kevin Strickland, who spent 42 years in prison for a triple murder he didnt commit. He was freed in November but didnt receive a dime in state compensation.

Who is responsible for that, if there is a responsibility party? Parson asked. I just think, to say: OK, all the taxpayers in the state of Missouri are responsible for that.  If he was wrongfully convicted in a county or in a city, what responsibilities do they have to that?

County prosecutors have authority to decide which cases to pursue, and they are responsible for abiding by all state laws concerning prosecutorial ethics. If they hide exculpatory evidence or ignore credible information pointing to another persons guilt, state law should ensure they are held accountable. At the same time, newspapers across the state have been telling Parson for years that strong witness testimony pointed to Stricklands innocence, yet Parson was uninterested and repeatedly refused to pardon him. In the end, it was Parson who made the decision to keep a wrongfully convicted man in prison. To quote Parson, Who is responsible for that?

The Legislature should be asking whether counties deserve to foot at least part of the compensation bill, but lawmakers first must establish that wrongful conviction  regardless of how it is affirmed  is governments responsibility to correct with generous compensation. Missouri currently allows a pittance in compensation, and then only when DNA testing proves innocence.

Texas, where Republicans hold a supermajority, ranks among the most generous in the country when it comes to compensating the wrongfully convicted. Why? Because Texas conservatives believe in personal responsibility, and they extend the concept to the state when its the state that has committed a wrong. When any person is wrongfully deprived of liberty, Texas conservatives embrace the concept of compensation with gusto. Texas pays $80,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment  DNA or not.

Before quibbling about who covers the cost, Parson should start by acknowledging that the wrongfully convicted deserve to be pardoned, and that they deserve full and fair compensation for having been robbed of their freedom. Thats the conservative thing to do.
Im in Kastamonu, five hours northeast of the Turkish capital of Ankara. Its a town that has yet to figure out the business of tourism. The business hotel where Im staying is cheap and comfortable, but not slick. I hand a postcard to the boy at the desk, hoping he can mail it for me. He looks it over a couple of times on both sides, compliments me, and politely hands it back. As I leave, he raises his right hand and says, Hello.

While changing money, Im spotted by the bank manager, who invites me into his office for tea. I am his first American customer, so he wants to celebrate.

Outside, a gaggle of men wearing grays, blacks, and browns is shuffling quietly down the street in a funeral procession. A casket floats over them as each man jostles to the front to pay his respects by giving it a shoulder. Turkey is a land of ceremonies. Everyday life here is punctuated with colorful, meaningful events. Im always on the lookout, traveling with sharp eyes, hoping to add to my knowledge of the folk culture. Who knows, as the dust from the funeral procession clears, I may see a proud eight-year-old boy dressed like a prince or a sultan on a horse  riding to his ritual circumcision.

My plan is to continue driving inland, exploring further into Anatolia. While Istanbul and the western coast get the lions share of Turkeys tourism, Im looking for maximum cultural thrills, so I know I should head east.

Under 10,000-foot peaks, my guide and I drive up onto the burnt, barren, 5,000-foot-high Anatolian plateau to Erzurum, the main city of eastern Turkey. Life is hard here. Blood feuds, a holdover from justice under the Ottomans, are still a leading cause of imprisonment. Winters are below-zero killers. Villages spread out onto the plateau like brown weeds, each with the same economy: ducks, dung, and hay. But Allah has given this land some pleasant surprises. Its a harsh land, but gentle at the same time. The parched plain hides lush valleys where rooftops sport colorful patches of sun-dried apricots. You can crack open the sweet, thin-shelled hazelnuts with your teeth. Teenage boys prefer girls who dress modestly, and shepherd children still play the eagle-bone flute.

Entering a village, we pass under a banner announcing, No love is better than the love for your land and your nation. The town takes us warmly into its callused hands. A man with a donkey cart wheels us on an impromptu tour. Each house wears a tall hat of hay  food for the cattle and insulation for the winter. Mountains of cow pies are neatly stacked, promising warmth and cooking fuel for the six months of snowed-in winter on the way. Veiled mothers strain to look through my cameras viewfinder to see their childrens mugging faces. The towns annually elected policeman brags that he keeps the place safe from terrorists. Children scamper around women who are busy beating raw wool with sticks  a rainbow of browns that will one day be woven into a carpet to soften a stone sofa, warm up a mud-brick wall, or serve as a daughters dowry.

Driving east from Erzurum, we set our sights on the northeast corner of Turkey, marked by the 17,000-foot summit of Mount Ararat. Villages growing between ancient rivers of lava expertly milk the land for subsistence living. After a quick reread of the flood story in Genesis, I think that this stark, sun-drenched, and windswept land has changed little since Noah docked.

On a ridge high above our car, I can make out the figure of a lone man silhouetted against a bright blue sky waving at us. The sight reminds me that this is a part of West Asia where mighty nations come together, denying the Kurds who live here a land of their own. The lone sentry is one of 10 million Kurdish Turks; many of them would like their own country. The turmoil in Iraq  and the prospect that those Kurds could form an autonomous nation  has reignited this prickly issue. One thing is for sure: Turkey does not want to share a border with an independent Kurdistan.

When I get up early the next morning to see the sun rise over Mount Ararat, I also see a long convoy of Turkish army vehicles. It reminds me that our world is a complicated place in which the daily news is just a shadow play of reality. Whats so often missing is humanity. And to get that, you need to travel.

(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.)
LONDON MARKET MIDDAY: Stocks lower as half-point US rate hike looms

Tuesday, May 3, 2022 - 12:22

Shares were trading slightly lower in London at midday Tuesday, as investors prepare for interest rate hikes in both the US and UK later this week.

All eyes are on the conclusion on Wednesday of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, where it is expected to lift borrowing costs by half a percentage point. It would be the first time since 2000 that the US central bank has raised rates by 50 basis points at one meeting.

Earlier Tuesday, Australia joined the tightened cycle started by central banks elsewhere. The Sydney-based central bank raised the main lending rate by 25 basis points to 0.35%, the first increase since November 2010.

The FTSE 100 index was down 32.64 points, or 0.4%, at 7,511.91. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 12.02 points, or 0.1%, at 20,696.69. The AIM All-Share index was down 2.31 points, or 0.1%, at 1,019.95.

The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.7% at 745.25. The Cboe 250 was down 0.5% at 18,172.69. The Cboe Small Companies climbed 0.1% to 15,174.74.

In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.2% and the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.4%.

Markets are particularly worried about lockdown in China and how fast US interest rates might go up. We'll get clarity on the latter tomorrow when the Federal Reserve gives its latest policy decision, with markets expecting half a percentage point increase in the Fed Funds rate. Central banks typically raise rates by a quarter percentage point, but the Fed is under pressure to be more aggressive to combat rising inflation, said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.

The Bank of England will announce its own rate decision on Thursday.

Can the BoE surprise with a 50bps hike at some point this year? The short answer: it's a long shot, commented Sanjay Raja, senior economist at Deutsche Bank. While a bigger move may be on the table in the coming meetings, we see...reasons why a 50bps move remains unlikely in the UK, despite other central banks upping the ante for bigger moves.

Raja noted that the UK central bank moved early, so it doesn't need to catch-up with global peers. As well, more so than other advanced economies, the UK is at risk of falling into recession.

In the FTSE 100, M&G was up 3.0% at midday on Tuesday, after HSBC raised the investment manager to 'buy' from 'hold'.

In addition, St James's Place was up 1.9% after HSBC also upgraded the wealth manager to 'buy' from 'hold'.

BP was up 2.0%. The oil major swung to a first-quarter loss due to its decision to exit from its shareholding in Rosneft in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine; however on an underlying basis, the oil major reported a big jump in profit.

For the three months that ended March 31, BP swung to an attributable loss of $20.38 billion from a $4.67 billion profit in the first quarter last year. BP said the reported result included pretax adjusted items of $30.8 billion.

By its preferred metric, BP swung to a replacement cost loss of $23.04 billion from a replacement cost profit of $3.33 billion the year before.

The London-based firm attributed the loss to its decision to exit its near-20% shareholding in state-owned Russian oil firm Rosneft. BP said that, in the first quarter, the total post-tax charge for this was $25.5 billion.

On an underlying replacement cost basis, BP reported a profit of $6.25 billion, up 54% from $4.07 billion in the fourth quarter of last year and more than doubled from $2.63 billion a year ago.

BP raised its first-quarter dividend by 4.0% to 5.46 cents from 5.25 cents the year before. Further, during the first quarter BP generated surplus cash flow of $4.1 billion and said it intends to execute a $2.5 billion share buyback prior to announcing its second quarter results.

Rival oil producer Shell, which posts its own first-quarter numbers on Thursday, was down 1.0%.

BP's results come as calls from the opposition Labour Party for a windfall tax on UK oil majors grow louder, as the country grapples with a cost-of-living crisis.

Last week, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak appeared to distance himself from such a tax but did not entirely rule it out.

The chancellor called on companies making generating large profit to invest the cash back into the UK instead.

It sounds appealing. 'Great, we're taxing bad energy companies more, that will solve all our problems', he said in an interview with Mumsnet. The reason we haven't gone down that road is, really simply we need to invest more. That's why we haven't gone for some extra tax. Because what I don't want to do is discourage investment in our own energy supplies.

The view was echoed by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who said on Tuesday that a windfall tax on big energy firms would deter investment and make it harder to meet the country's net-zero environmental goals.

At the other end of the large-caps, Segro was the worst performer, down 7.4%. Kepler Cheuvreux downgraded the warehouse property investor to 'hold' from 'reduce'.

In the FTSE 250, Auction Technology Group was the best performer, up 7.0%, after JPMorgan raised the online auction operator to 'overweight' from 'neutral'.

Energean was up 4.5%. Subsidiary Energean Israel signed a gas sales agreement with the East Hagit Power Plant Ltd Partnership.

Under the agreement, Energean will supply gas to East Hagit for a term of 15 years, with a total contract quantity of up to 12 billion cubic feet. Energean said the agreement has the potential to generate revenue of up to $2 billion over the offtake period.

On AIM, Hutchmed (China) was down 15%, after the drugmaker said the US Food & Drug Administration has rejected its surufatinib for treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours.

In a complete response letter, the FDA said the current data package, based on two positive phase three trials in China and one bridging study in the US, does not support an approval in the US at this time.

The FDA said a multi-regional clinical trial of surufatinib required for US approval. Surufatinib was approved in China for the treatment of pNETs and extra-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours in June 2021 and December 2020, respectively.

The dollar was higher across the board as the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting gets underway. The pound was quoted at $1.2512 at midday on Tuesday, down from $1.2568 at the London equities close Friday.

The euro was priced at $1.0517, down from $1.0547. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was trading at JP130.11, up from JP129.68.

On the economic front, UK manufacturing sector activity edged higher last month on increased intakes of new business against a backdrop of rising price inflationary pressures, S&P Global said.

The UK S&P Global-CIPS manufacturing purchasing managers' index was 55.8 points in April, up slightly from the preliminary estimate of 55.3 and the score of 55.2 registered in March.

S&P said the start of the second quarter saw a mild growth acceleration in the UK manufacturing sector. The rate of expansion in output improved from March's five-month low, leading to a further solid increase in staffing levels.

Brent oil was quoted at $106.51 a barrel on Tuesday at midday, down sharply from $110.30 at the London equities close on Friday. Gold stood at $1,858.33 an ounce, down from $1,906.75.

New York was pointed to a slightly lower open ahead of earnings reports from semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices, drugmaker Pfizer, and coffee-house chain Starbucks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was called down 0.2%, the S&P 500 down 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.3%, based on futures trading. The stock indices had closed up 0.3%, 0.6% and 1.6% respectively on Monday.

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Vietnam shares experience in poverty reduction, crisis management at UN session

Vietnam shared its experience in poverty reduction and overcoming crises, at the 60th session of the UN Commission for Social Development (CSocD) taking place from February 7-16 in New York.













Ambassador ang inh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN.  VNA/VNS Photo



Addressing a session on COVID recovery and eradicating poverty, Ambassador ang inh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, stressed that post-pandemic recovery was unequal across the world.



The process of implementing sustainable development goals (SDG) in 2030 had been interrupted, especially in poverty reduction, he noted.



The ambassador underlined that sustainable poverty reduction could only be reached if threats in food security were settled alongside legal frameworks and policies focused on easing reduction and inequality as well as ensuring livelihoods.



Quy held that to ensure food security, an important foundation for poverty reduction, countries should strengthen investment in science, technology and renovation of the agricultural sector.



"Vietnam is willing to engage in UN cooperation frameworks and hopes to become a food innovation centre of the region," he said, highlighting the measures and achievements of Viet Nam in poverty reduction and food security protection.



"Viet Nam is committed to fully realising SDGs for a sustainable future for all people," he added.



Measures proposed by Vietnam at the session focused on dealing with the root cause of poverty and inequality, including strengthening education and training and job creation and improving connectivity among social welfare policies and agriculture.



The international community should increase multilateral cooperation and optimise resources for comprehensive recovery and to settle the debt crisis, he said.



At the session, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that post-pandemic recovery was a chance for countries to build and develop long-term policy frameworks to achieve SDGs.



Abdulla Shahid, president of the UN General Assembly, stressed the need to draw lessons for the post-pandemic period, calling for the integration of SDGs into the plans of reconstruction for better, and proposed several measures.



Collen Vixen Kelapile, president of the UN Economic and Social Council, said that developing countries, especially in Africa, were being left behind with slow economic growth and poor access to vaccines and financial resources.



Participants shared their experiences and initiatives on social policies to minimise the impacts of the pandemic, especially poverty reduction and the settlement of food security challenges.



Vietnam willing to promote cooperation with UN on peacekeeping



Vietnam is ready to enhance cooperation with the United Nations on peacekeeping missions, Deputy Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations Nguyen Phuong Tra has said.



Speaking at an annual meeting of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, known as C-34, held on Monday, Tra said Vietnam paid great attention to the participation in peacekeeping missions, especially ensuring the safety and security of peacekeepers as well as securing resources and enhancing the role of regional organisations such as ASEAN.



The diplomat also said the country was one of the four training centres for peacekeepers in Southeast Asia and stood ready to enhance collaboration.



At the meeting, attended by President of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions of the Department for Peace Operations Alexandre Zouev, and representatives of nearly 60 countries, participants discussed the safety and security of peacekeepers, greater participation of women in peace processes, and securing finance for peacekeeping operations.



They also highlighted the role of the committee, with some suggesting that the application of technology should be enhanced in peacekeeping operations along with cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations in resolving the root causes of conflicts.



The two officials said the C-34 would push the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) Plus plan in 2021-2023 in seven priority areas.



C-34 is a specialised committee of the UN General Assembly, which holds meetings in February and March every year to consult and compile reports on issues related to peacekeeping to submit to the UN General Assembly.
It is with a measure of sadness, but great appreciation for a wonderful life that the Talbot family announces the passing of James Rex Talbot after a short battle with cancer on the 12th of February. He died peacefully at home in St. Leonard, MD, surrounded by loving family. Born the 15th of July, 1938 in Paragonah, Utah to Orson and Annie Talbot, he was the husband of Sandra Goodrich Talbot for 60 years, father of five sons, and beloved grandpa to seventeen grandchildren and three great grandchildren.



He is survived by his cherished wife Sandra, children Craig (Cynthia) of Leesburg, VA; Chad (Talli) of Peoria, AZ; Cary (Angela) of Vicksburg, MS; Christopher (Rebecca) of Nacogdoches, TX; Colin (Deborah) of Lovettsville, VA; and siblings Anna (Arnold) Mellor of Lake Shore, UT; Ardel (Julie) of Snowflake, AZ; Neil (Barbara) of Reno, NV; Judy (Carl) Henrie of Panguitch, UT. He is preceded in death by his parents Orson Talbot and Annie Gale, and siblings Beth Fairbanks, Brent, Gordon, and Bobby.



Jim was a loving, devoted husband and father, dedicated to serving his family and his savior. A faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served the Church his whole life through various leadership callings, most recently as a patriarch and as a sealer in the Washington, D.C. Temple.



A civil engineer specializing in earth dam design, Jim worked for the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 35 years and then continued in consulting services through 2021. Jim's contributions to earth dam design are world renowned. He is credited with the development of several design features that have improved dam safety. He was awarded the prestigious Norman Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1985, the highest honor granted by ASCE for a technical paper that makes a definitive contribution to engineering science.



Jim was an avid sailor and loved spending time on the Chesapeake Bay with family and friends on his boat Legacy.



Jim will be dearly missed by all his family, friends, and many other recipients of his love and service over the many years of his remarkable life. He lived great and died great in the eyes of his family, his church, and his community, above reproach and worthy of emulation.



The family will hold a memorial service on Saturday February 19, 2022 at 12 noon EST all are invited to attend through the zoom meeting link provided. https://zoom.us/j/92981651329


Syria is lurching into the 11th year of a seemingly unending civil war that initially only wanted to replace the Assad dictatorship with something better. The Assads have survived while the fractious rebels continue fighting each other. No one seems willing, or able, to end the conflict. Several other nations are trying to help, but so far that has not ended the violence.

Russian airpower has been a major factor in preventing ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) forces in eastern Syria from growing or gaining control of any territory. So far this month there have been fifteen to twenty airstrikes against ISIL targets in eastern Syria. Russian air power is regularly unleashed on ISIL targets there because sustained aerial reconnaissance and tips from locals have provided a steady stream of confirmed targets. In the last three years ISIL has lost about 1,600 men in eastern Syria, while killing about the same number or soldiers, militiamen and civilians. ISIL victims are mostly Syrians, either soldiers, pro-Assad militia or, more rarely, Kurds or SDF. About ten percent of the ISIL victims are foreigners, either Iranian or Irani-backed foreign militias men. A few Russians and other foreigners were also victims.

Since ISIL is at war with everyone, Russia and the Assads have developed a large network of informants who want ISIL gone and provide generally reliable information. These airstrikes are expensive and Russia justifies it because Russian pilots gain valuable combat experience in a combat zone where aircraft losses from enemy air defense forces are negligible.

In southern Syria (Daraa province) there have been nearly twenty assassinations and related acts of violence so far this month. This level of violence has remained fairly constant for three years. This is part of the undeclared war between Iranian and Syrian forces going on there since 2018. Anonymous assassins use pistols and hidden bombs to kill those who work, or worked for government forces or Russia and Syria backed local militias. Russian and Assad forces openly force Iran-backed groups and individuals out of the area. There is no open violence because Iran, Syria and Russia are still officially allies. Near the Israel border Russian and Syrian pressure has prevented Iranian attacks on Israel. Russia and Syria have also been checking locals to see if they are Lebanese Shia wearing authorized Syrian army or police uniforms rather than Lebanese Shia using stolen uniforms. This border security operation is a big deal for Syria and Israel and a major embarrassment for Iran, which is why Iran has not cranked up its usual media outrage to complain. Israel will sometimes fire on Iranian forces operating in Daraa, especially near the Israeli border. Israel also shares intel with Russia and Syria about Syrian officers who are secretly working for Iran. The Iranians pay well, and in dollars. Israel will sometimes release evidence of this to the media, so that Iranians back home have another reason to oppose Iranian foreign wars. Negotiations have been underway between Iran and Russia/Syria for over a year but are not making much progress. The covert Iranian violence is just another incentive for Syria to get the Iranian agents out of the area.

In the northwest (Idlib province) Assad forces continue their campaign to liberate and take control of the rebel-held portions of the province. This is being done with a lot of material assistance from Russia in the form of airstrikes and resupply of artillery shells and rockets fired by the Syrians into Idlib. Taking Idlib has to be done with the cooperation of the Turks, who do not want the 30,000 or 40,000 armed rebels trapped in Idlib and parts of adjacent Aleppo province, along with over a million pro-rebel civilians, forcing their way into Turkey. Why risk death from Turkish border guards and defenses? Because if the Assads get control of Idlib and its current population, the justifiably feared Assad secret police will arrive and interrogate (torture) those with a record of rebel activity. In other pro-rebel areas where the Assads took control, the secret police did their work and a lot of local civilians disappeared. This is not an issue with the Arab League, Turkey, Russia or Iran because all use similar techniques. The Assads simply do it more often.

February 14, 2022: In the south (Daraa and Suwayda provinces plus Damascus) over a thousand Iranian mercenaries arrived to help deal with locals protesting the Assad government and Iranian presence. The mercenaries were nearly all foreigners from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. These reinforcements traveled from eastern Syria (Raqqa and (Deir Ezzor provinces) and used multiple routes to avoid Israeli airstrikes.

February 13, 2022: In central Syria (Homs province) a bus carrying Syrian soldiers was damaged by a bomb, which killed on soldier and wounded several others. February 12, 2022: In the east (Raqqa Province) the Kurdish led SDF militia has been trying to halt a bloody tribal feud for over a week. It began when someone from another tribe assassinated the head of the Bokhamis tribe. This stirred up some older grievances and soon angry young men from the Afadla and Tawadfa, two of the largest tribes in eastern Syria, were fighting each other. The Sunni tribes are either part of the SDF or support what it does. Because the SDF is largely Kurd the SDF tries to act as a neutral party and contain the violence. This makes it possible to get the tribes talking to each other. ISIL gunmen often attack tribal leaders who are too effective in opposing them, but in this case the culprit was another tribe.

February 9, 2022: In the south (the capital Damascus) Israel carried out attacks against air defense systems around the city. This was in retaliation for another Syrian SAM (surface to air missile) failing to self-destruct when it missed its target and instead continuing on into Israel. In this case the SAM detonated before it hit the ground in northern Israel. This has happened before but this incident appeared suspicious so Israel launched airstrikes against Syrian air defenses. This SAM was one of many Syria fired to try and stop Israeli surface-to-surface missiles fired from northern Israel against Iranian targets near Damascus earlier in the day, which set off more attacks.

In the west (Latakia province) Russian forces turned on their wide area electronic jamming equipment briefly, and caused problems for commercial aircraft in Israel and Turkey. This has happened several times recently. Israel protested this and Russia said it was necessary because their military bases were threatened. Latakia province is an Assad stronghold but it borders Idlib province, where some Islamic terror groups continue trying to launch attacks on the Russian bases. In response Russia has brought in a wide array of electronic countermeasures, some of them it uses rarely because it disrupts Israeli GPS systems. Since late 2015 Russian electronic jamming equipment has been arriving in Syria, initially to jam ISIL and NATO communications. Some NATO radars and satellite signals were also jammed. NATO is already familiar with some of these jammers, particularly the truck mounted Krasukha-4, which was encountered in eastern Ukraine (Donbas). Russia has also brought in a lot more electronic data collection and analysis equipment to listen on ISIL and NATO communications when not jamming them. This involves jamming low orbit space satellites as well. In response NATO and Israel have deployed more EW gear and personnel and this has led to a generally unseen (and unreported) electronic war over Syria. Israel demonstrated that they could handle Russian jamming, with the side effect of disrupting Russian air defense systems. As a result of this Russia and Israel added electronic jammers to the list of things they wont use on each other in Syria. Exceptions are made when the Russian Latakia faces an unexpected threat. Russia supplies details to Israel. This information is rarely made public.

February 6, 2022: In the northwest (Idlib province) HTS (Hayat Tahrir al Sham), the umbrella organization for most of the armed rebels in Idlib, has arrested over 300 foreign Islamic terrorists during the last the last month as part of an effort to force most foreigners out of Syria. The foreign Islamic terrorists have always been a problem with Syrian rebels and Islamic terrorists and are blamed for the creation of ISIL and its role in the splintering of rebel forces, which enabled the Assad government to survive and remain in control of most of the country. HTS had earlier forced most ISIL members to leave Idlib and carry on its war elsewhere in Syria.

February 3, 2022: In the northwest (Idlib province) another Iraqi head of ISIL was located and killed by the American Special Forces. This took place when American commandos raided the house a few kilometers from the Turkish border where Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Qurayshi, the current leader of ISIL lived. Qurayshi was selected for the job a week after the 2019 raid on the Idlib province hideout of ISIL founder al-Baghdadi. Both men were Iraqi Islamic terrorists who became active after Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003 and ended up in Syria after their Iraq terror campaign was defeated in 2008. Both ISIL leaders were from families that supplied military and police commanders for Saddams forces. Iraqi Islamic terrorists went to Syria after 2012 to join the fight against the secular Assad dictatorship. In 2014 Baghdadi, and senior associates like Qurayshi created ISIL as the ultimate Islamic terrorist organization that was going to restore the reputation of Iraqi Islamic terrorists who failed in Iraq. ISIL was successful for about three years, but then the counterattack by all the enemies they had made, including fellow Islamic terrorists, destroyed the caliphate and forced survivors like Baghdadi and Qurayshi to flee with their families to Idlib province, where the Syrian government allowed surrounded Islamic terrorists to go to as long as they surrendered the territory (neighborhoods or towns) they currently occupied rather than fight to the death and see their surroundings blasted to bits and pro-Assad civilians killed. This tactic worked by concentrating nearly all the surviving Islamic terrorists in within one Syria province on the Turkish border. The Turks fortified their Idlib border and warned Idlib refugees that any attempt to find refuge in Turkey would be resisted with force. Syria, with the help of Russian air power and equipment, have slowly been retaking Idlib province. The Assads cannot go for a quick victory because they would lose more troops than they can afford to lose. Syrian soldiers have been at war for a decade and it is understood that they will stay in uniform as long as the Assads dont get a lot of them killed.

Meanwhile the U.S. offered a $10 million reward for information on Qurayshi and this was not mentioned in reports of todays pre-dawn raid. The rewards program works because if an informant supplies accurate information, he and his immediate family are moved to a safe foreign country. This is something similar to the successful American domestic Witness Protection program.

February 2, 2022: Turkey announced a major air campaign against Kurdish separatists in northeast Syria and northern Iraq. These attacks are primarily against the PKK (Turkish separatist Kurds). YPG (Syrian separatist Kurds) and several smaller groups. Turkey has been carrying out attacks like this in Syria and Iraq for over a decade and this new operation claims to be better organized, more intense and concentrating on camps and bases. This will cause problems in Syria, where the SDF sees the attacks on the YPG (a component of the SDF) as an effort to break Kurdish control of Hasaka province.

January 31, 2022: In the south (Damascus) Israel carried out several air strikes against Iranian weapons warehouses operated and guarded by Lebanese Hezbollah gunmen. This was the first Israeli airstrike since Russian announced, on the 24th, that Russian and Syrian warplanes, including early warning aircraft, would conduct joint patrols along Syrians southern borders to detect and prevent airstrikes from Israel. This was all largely symbolic because Israeli warplanes rarely enter Syrian air space to carry out attacks on targets in Syria. Instead, Israel uses air-to-surface missiles launched from Israeli fighters in Israeli, Lebanese or Jordanian air space.

January 20, 2022: In the northeast (Hasaka province) ISIL used over a hundred gunmen they had quietly moved into the area over months, to attack the SDF run Sina prison. Sina contained 4,000 inmates, most of them ISIL members. Such an attack has been threatened for a long time and ISIL became obsessed with actually carrying it out. The attack turned into a ten-day battle that saw ISIL taking heavy losses and most of the prisoners recaptured. The attacks began with two ISIL suicide bombs exploding, one near prison entrance. After a few hours it appeared the ISIL operation was a success but the SDF rushed in reinforcements to join the surviving SDF prison security forces. The prisoners got out of the prison but could not get much farther. SDF ultimately brought 9,000 troops into the area, including a few dozen American and British special operation forces. These assisted in calling in some airstrikes and coordinating continuous aerial surveillance. This gave SDF commanders the ability to stop most ISIL efforts to get people out of the area. When it was all over about ten percent of the 4,000 prisoners were unaccounted for and nearly 400 ISIL fighters, most of them armed prisoners, dead. SDF forces suffered about 170 casualties, a third of them killed. There were also about six civilian deaths and another 40 dead who have not yet been identified. Over 40,000 civilians fled the area to avoid the violence. Two senior ISIL prisoners apparently got away, plus a hundred or more lower ranking ones. ISIL declared the operation a success, but it cost them more than they gained and was followed by the February 3rd American commando raid in Idlib province that left the ISIL leader dead. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 active ISIL members in Syria and Iraq.

January 15, 2022: In the northwest (Idlib province) Russia carried out numerous airstrikes on Islamic terrorist targets over the last two days. This was in support of Turkey, which is trying to deal with Islamic terror groups in Idlib that have been firing rockets are Turkish bases.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2022 / Marvel Discovery Corp. (TSXV:MARV)(Frankfurt:O4T1)(OTCQB: MARVF); (the "Company") is pleased to report it has received the heliborne magnetic and TDEM survey results over the Duhamel Ni-Cu-Co and Ti-V-Cr property (the Property') located 350 kilometers (km) north of Quebec City, QC (Figure 1). Due to the high-quality response of both TDEM and magnetic signatures, Marvel has expanded its land holding in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Anorthosite Suite from 42 claims to 102 claims for a total of 5,300 hectares for staking costs.

Figure 1. Regional location of the Duhamel Property

The combined heliborne survey was completed in May 2021 by Prospectair Geosurveys of Gatineau, QC over the original 2,300 hectare land position consisting of 342-line km at 100 meter (m) spacings. Several early-off-time TDEM linear responses were detected in the survey (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Early-off time TDEM response anomalies on the Duhamel Ni-Cu-Co Property.

These early-off time TDEM responses coincide well with the edges of magnetic highs (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Early-off time TDEM response anomalies over tilt angle derivative magnetics and along magnetic highs.

The best target to find massive sulphides on the Duhamel Property are strong EM conductors at the margin of a high magnetic field (J.P. Barrette, P.Geo, Magnor Exploration Inc., 2018).

Mr. Karim Rayani, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "We are very pleased with the results of the heliborne survey. So much so Marvel more than doubled its land position. The Duhamel Property is a fertile host for Ni-Cu-Co massive sulphides and iron Ti-V-Cr mineralization demonstrated by historical exploration. The results of the heliborne survey largely supports this by outlining targets of merit yet to be explored. Upon completing interpretation, we will follow-up with boots on the ground and select our best targets for diamond drilling."

The Duhamel project is located between Chutes-des-Passes and Pipmuacan Reservoir deformation zones (or areas) included in central part of Proterozoic Grenville Geological Province (Figure 2). The Duhamel Property is characterized by the presence of large mafic to ultramafic intrusive rock bodies located in northern margin of the SaguenayLacSaintJean (SAGLSJ) Anorthosite Suite, one of the largestanorthosite intrusive bodies in the world. The Chute-des-Passes-Pipmuacan reservoir areas contains numerous massive sulfide and iron oxide mineralization occurrences recognized and documented by the Quebec government (Sigeom, Figure 4).

Figure 4. NiCuCo and FeTiPV mineral occurrences on the Chute-des-Passes and Pipmuacan Areas (modified from Hbert et Cadieux, 2002)

The Duhamel Property currently contains seven (7) occurrences of Ni-Cu-Co sulphides and one (1) Fe-Ti-V iron oxide occurrence discovered between 1997 to 2001 by previous operators who defined a 13 km long mineralized rock corridor (Figure 4). Drill intercept highlights include 1.27% Ni, 0.33% Cu, and 0.12% Co over 3.0 meters by Virginia Gold Mines in 2000 that contained massive sulfides. Compilation of historic assessment reports to date reveals more than thirty (30) Ni-Cu (Co) and four (4) Fe-Ti (V, Cr) mineral occurrences which confirms this corridor to be highly prospective for new Ni-Cu-Co discoveries, as well as Fe-Ti (Cr, V) discoveries.

Further to the compilation of previously filed assessment reports Marvel recovered from historical data a grab sample (from massive Iron-Titanium Oxides), the result assaying 0.28% V 2 O 5 associated with 20.8% T i O 2 and 0.13% Cr 2 0 3 .

Marvel will initiate a full interpretation of the data integrating geology, structure, and mineralization. Targets of high merit will be ground-truthed through prospecting, mapping, and sampling. The result of these endeavors will vector diamond drilling to those targets of high potential to host significant mineralization. The additional claims acquired are presented in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Newly acquired claims at the Duhamel Ni-Cu-Co property.

The Company has set 300,000 options at a price of 12 cents for a period of 2 years to geological consultants in accordance with TSX Venture policy.

Qualified Person

Mr. Mike Kilbourne, P. Geo, an independent qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed, and approved the technical contents of this news release on behalf of the Company.

About Marvel Discovery Corp.

Marvel, listed on the TSX Venture Exchange for over 25 years, is a Canadian based emerging resource company. The Company is systematically exploring its extensive property positions in:

Newfoundland (Slip, Gander North, Gander South, Victoria Lake, Baie Verte, and Hope Brook - Au Prospects )

) Atikokan, Ontario (BlackFly - Au Prospect )

) Elliot Lake, Ontario (East Bull - Ni-Cu-PGE Prospect )

) Quebec (Duhamel - Ni-Cu-Co prospect & Titanium, Vanadium, and Chromium Prospect )

) Prince George, British Columbia (Wicheeda North - Rare Earth Elements Prospect)

The Company's website is: https://marveldiscovery.ca/

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Marvel Discovery Corp.

"Karim Rayani"

Karim Rayani

President/Chief Executive Officer, Director

Tel: 604 716 0551 email: [email protected]

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information:

Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements which reflect the expectations of management. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this press release relate to, among other things: completion of the proposed Arrangement. Actual future results may differ materially. 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. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions, and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these times. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law

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: Marvel Discovery Corp.

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FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, in Moscow, Russia, February 7, 2022. Thibault Camus/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia does not want a war in Europe, but described the situation in east Ukraine's breakaway regions as "genocide" and called for the conflict there to be resolved through the Minsk peace progress.

At a joint news conference after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said Russia had decided to partially withdraw troops from near Ukraine and saw some room for further discussion with the West on Moscow's security demands.

He said, however, that there had not been a constructive response to Russia's demands.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, Darya Korsunskaya, Mark Trevelyan; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
VILNIUS, Lithuania, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neurotechnology, a provider of deep learning-based solutions and high-precision biometric identification technologies, today announced that the company's latest face recognition algorithm showed significant improvements among the top NIST FRVT testing results released on January 13, 2022.

New face algorithm from Neurotechnology showed significant advancement in both NIST FRVT 1:1 and FRVT 1:N testing.

The Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the most reliable series of large-scale, independent evaluations for face recognition algorithms in verification (1:1) and identification (1:N) scenarios. Immense datasets containing photos of faces are used during the evaluation to measure the performance of face recognition algorithms developed worldwide.

The new face recognition algorithm from Neurotechnology has demonstrated significant advancement in both FRVT 1:1 and FRVT 1:N NIST testing, showing comprehensive performance across identification and verification testing scenarios.

"Consistency and dedication are crucial to our sustained R&D accomplishments," said Evaldas Borcovas, biometric research lead at Neurotechnology. "Previously our team achieved the best algorithm accuracy in fingerprint recognition evaluations, and now we are seeking to do the same in face recognition evaluations. Based on our experience, and these latest algorithm results, I am confident that we are moving in the right direction."

In the FRVT 1:1 Verification evaluations, Neurotechnology's face recognition algorithm showed significant performance improvements, including:

In the top 3% of most accurate results for border control supervised (Visa Border, Border) and unsupervised (Kiosk) scenarios among 702 submissions by 255 providers.

Among the top 3% of algorithms for accuracy with masks from a total of 319 entries.

The face recognition algorithm also showed significant performance improvements in the FRVT 1:N Identification evaluations, including:

In the top 4% of the leading results matching frontal and profile mugshots scenarios among 341 submissions by 93 different providers.

Top results among border control supervised (Visa vs Border, Border vs Border T  10 YRS) and unsupervised (Visa vs Kiosk) scenarios.

Leading score by template size. Considering the template size, the algorithm showed the best results among all other submissions with the same template size.

These results in the NIST FRVT demonstrate that the latest face recognition algorithm from Neurotechnology continues the company's strong track record of providing face recognition products that are among the top performing solutions for some of the most common situations in civilian and law enforcement scenarios, as well as offering industry-leading efficiency by template size, extraction, and matching speed performance.

About Neurotechnology

Neurotechnology is a developer of high-precision algorithms and software based on deep neural networks and other AI-related technologies. Currently, more than half of the company employees are actively involved in research and development, continuously improving proprietary algorithms. Extensive industry knowledge and expertise gathered throughout 30 years of existence enable the company to maintain top positions in NIST testing results. Neurotechnology solutions are used around the globe on national-scale projects, including the world's largest biometric database, India's Aadhaar ID program, ensuring electoral integrity during the elections in Ghana and DR Congo, and more.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neurotechnology-strengthens-positions-among-the-top-nist-frvt-results-301482191.html

SOURCE Neurotechnology
WASHINGTON  Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., are among the 3,000 additional U.S. troops deploying to Poland to help NATO allies fortify their defenses as a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine looms, Army officials said Tuesday.

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity Friday, omitted the 101st Airborne soldiers from the deployment announcement that stated all 3,000 troops were from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

The soldiers of the 101st and 82nd airborne divisions are joining about 1,700 soldiers that Pentagon officials said they would deploy to Poland from Fort Bragg on Feb. 2. Those soldiers are also part of the 82nd Airborne.

The 101st Airborne troops have been preparing for this deployment for several weeks, said Lt. Col. Kari McEwen, a division spokeswoman. They were among the 8,500 troops that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin put on heightened alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe on Jan. 24.

Fort Campbell units are always prepared to deploy worldwide on short notice to conduct contingency operations in support of our national security objectives, McEwen said.

The deployment comes as tensions simmer in Eastern Europe over more than 100,000 Russian troops being positioned in recent weeks along the border of Ukraine. Russian officials have denied they plan to launch an attack on Ukraine, but NATO members including the U.S. have expressed concern Russia could invade the country as it did in 2014 when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

President Joe Biden is scheduled Tuesday to make a public address about Ukraine.

He is expected to reiterate that the United States remains open to high-level diplomacy in close coordination with our allies, building on the multiple diplomatic off-ramps we and our allies and partners have offered Russia in recent months, the White House said. The United States continues to believe diplomacy and de-escalation are the best path forward but is prepared for every scenario.

The 101st Airborne is known for its expeditionary air-assault capability to conduct forcible entry and other worldwide unified land operations in support of combatant commanders, according to the Army. The 82nd Airborne also specializes in joint forcible entry operations and is capable of rapidly deploying within 18 hours of notification.

All told, these [nearly] 5,000 additional personnel comprise a highly mobile and flexible force, capable of multiple missions, the U.S. official said Friday. They are being deployed to reassure our NATO allies, deter any potential aggression against NATOs eastern flank, train with host-nation forces, and contribute to a wide range of contingencies.

They join about 4,000 U.S. service members already in Poland on a regular rotational basis. Some of those troops are part of the U.S.-led NATO battle group in Poland, which is a multinational force of roughly 1,000 troops.

Poland is a NATO ally, which the U.S. as part of the alliance pledges to help if attacked. While there have not been any threats of a Russian invasion of Poland, it is one of four NATO allies that border Ukraine, along with Slovakia, Romania and Hungary.

In addition to the troops' defensive capabilities, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said last week that troops in Poland could also be called upon to assist people leaving Ukraine by ground at its border with Poland.

On Friday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Americans in Ukraine should leave the country immediately as the risk of a Russian invasion had risen.

The threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands, he said during a White House briefing. If you stay [in Ukraine], you are assuming risk with no guarantee that there will be any other opportunity to leave and there is no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion.

The U.S. has begun temporarily relocating its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to the city of Lviv, which is farther west, due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russia forces, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.

Kyiv is approximately 100 miles from Ukraines northern border with Belarus, where Russia also stationed troops last month. Lviv is about 50 miles east of its border with Poland.

However, the Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday said it began sending some troops back to their bases after completing military exercises. Details about the number of troops returning were not provided.

As the combat training measures are completed, the troops, as always, will make marches in a combined way to the points of permanent deployment, the ministry said in a statement. The units of the Southern and Western military districts, having completed their tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today.

But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed skepticism in a post on Twitter following the Russian announcement.

On Russian statements regarding withdrawal of some forces from the Ukrainian border, we in Ukraine have a rule: We dont believe what we hear, we believe what we see, Kuleba said. If a real withdrawal follows these statements, we will believe in the beginning of a real de-escalation.
(Tribune News Service)  The U.S. Coast Guard rescued four people who were on a life raft Monday after their fishing boat sank about 70 miles west of St. Petersburg.

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter air crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater hoisted the four onto the aircraft after the fishing vessel Right Stuff sank.

The Coast Guard identified the four as Matt Whites, 42, Heather Whites, 40, Nicole Mendez, 22, and Mickey Maguire, 26.

The Coast Guard was alerted to the sinking by an Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon  or EPIRB  distress signal from the sinking boat prior to the occupants jumping onto the life raft.

An alert was sent to other boats in the area and a Good Samaritan stayed on scene during the rescue, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard officials said the occupants had the right equipment on board to survive such an ordeal.

This event highlights the importance of having proper survival gear and the thorough preparation by the crew of the vessel, said, Lt. Cmdr. Jason Maddux, Jayhawk helicopter pilot at Air Station Clearwater. Having lifejackets, and a liferaft was critical for the survival of these four individuals.

2022 Tampa Bay Times.

Visit tampabay.com .
(Tribune News Service)  When the USS Harry S. Truman operated in a rare three-carrier exercise with French and Italian counterparts last week, its flight deck teams had a chance to test with planes they dont usually see.

The Norfolk-based Truman, the new French carrier Charles de Gaulle and the Italian carrier Cavour, which operated in the Chesapeake last year learning the ropes on handling F-35s, each had a chance to launch and recover one anothers air wings when they teamed up after a major NATO exercise in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Rear Adm. Curt Renshaw said.

Since the de Gaulles air wing flies Rafale M fighters, the Cavour the new F-35s and the Truman the Navys workhouse FA-18 Hornets, all three crews had a chance to try something new.

To have the opportunity to launch, fly, and recover aircraft from one anothers carriers provides a unique, and valuable, capability, Renshaw said. The bridge and combat teams were in constant communication in order to execute the mission as planned.

A key part of the exercise was to develop procedures for maneuver and communications based on standing NATO procedures, Renshaw said.

Effectively working with our partners and allies in the region is the cornerstone of our operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, he said.

It started well before the carriers and their strike groups joined up, since the planning stage gave the strike group staff and the sailors on the Truman and its group a chance to learn from their Italian and French allies, he said.

A focus on NATO operations, as well as working with other friendly nations, has been a major theme of the Truman groups operations since it left Norfolk in December.

Trumans air wing has worked with air and naval air forces from more than 20 countries, he said.

A recent visit from Albanias Prime Minister was a chance for some diplomatic work, too.

The more we train and operate shoulder-to-shoulder the stronger we are together, he said.

The Truman and most of the strike group have been staying the Mediterranean for a longer time than usual at Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins direction as tensions between Russian and Ukraine continue to rise.

Trumans presence in the Mediterranean Sea is an element in NATOs response to Russian threats to Ukraine, especially because it operated earlier this month under Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO control, as part of the alliances Neptune Strike 2022 exercise, the alliances secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said.

The Cavour also participated in that exercise before it and the Truman joined the Charles de Gaulle for their three-group exercise.

Besides the Truman, the nine squadrons of Naval Air Station Oceana-based Carrier Air Wing1 and Norfolk-based destroyers USS Gonzalez, USS Bainbridge, USS Gravely and the Royal Norwegian Navy frigate HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen operated with the French and Italian groups. At the same time, the Truman groups Norfolk-based cruiser USS San Jacinto, Norfolk-based destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67) and Mayport, Florida-based USS Jason Dunham are currently operating in the Middle East.

dress@dailypress.com

2021 Daily Press (Newport News, Va.).

Visit dailypress.com.
Sailors who are designated secondary caregivers now qualify for up to three weeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child, the Navy said this week.

Previously, secondary caregivers received two weeks of leave. The new policy, which took effect Feb. 11, brings the Navy and the Marine Corps into alignment with the Army and Air Force.

The extension is an interim solution until a more significant upgrade to 12 weeks of paid parental leave takes effect at the end of the year, Vice Adm. John B. Nowell Jr., chief of naval personnel, said in a service memo Monday.

That change, which will apply to both primary and secondary caregivers, was approved in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

In the meantime, the Navy will work with the Defense Department to update regulations and modify its e-leave system to reflect the change, Nowell said.

Sailors who had not yet taken their authorized parental leave as of Feb. 11 qualify for the extra week. Those who already have are ineligible for the extra time, the Navy said.

For now, a sailor who gives birth qualifies for six weeks of maternity leave. If she is the designated primary caregiver, she gets an additional six weeks of parental leave, according to Navy policy.

Parental leave cannot be charged against a service members accrued annual leave and may be used only by service members who are designated as a primary or secondary caregiver, officials said.

The leave must be taken within a year of the birth or adoption of a child, according to the policy.
Russia is prepared to fire on foreign ships and submarines that illegally enter its territorial waters, according to a senior official quoted by an independent Russian news agency.

Any decision to attack would be taken only at the highest level, said Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov, deputy head of the main operational department of the General Staff, according to a Monday report by Reuters that cited the Interfax news agency.

The threat follows Russian claims that its forces detected a U.S. Navy Virginia-class submarine operating over the weekend near the Kuril Islands, north of Japan, where the Russian navy was conducting a military exercise.

Moscow said the U.S. submarine departed at high speed after Russian forces ordered it to surface. The U.S. denied the incident happened in Russian waters in a Saturday statement that stopped short of outright denying any encounter occurred.

The saber-rattling comes at a time of high tension between the two countries. NATO, including the United States, is warning that Russia, which has staged more than 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine, could attack its neighbor within days.

More chest thumping, is how Ralph Cossa, president emeritus of the Pacific Forum think tank in Hawaii, described the threat to fire on trespassing vessels.

U.S. forces are looking every day at Russia, but they dont need to trespass to do it, he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Cossa said satellites and long-range surveillance tools mean an incident such as the 1960 downing of a U-2 spy plane operated by the CIA over the Soviet Union, wouldnt happen today.

The Russians have shown they will fire on inadvertent trespassers, Cossa said. He cited the Sept. 1, 1983, downing by a Sukhoi Su-15 fighter jet of a Korean Airlines passenger plane that strayed into Soviet airspace. All 269 people on board were killed.

Intelligence collectors normally stay 30-50 miles off the coast of countries they are surveilling, Cossa said.

I dont think theres a need to penetrate into peoples territorial waters to see whats going on, he said.

The tension with Russia is related to the rise of China, which U.S. officials now talk about as the primary threat, Cossa said.

Thats got to rub Putin the wrong way, he said of the Russian president. China threatens U.S. primacy, but it is not an existential threat to the U.S. Russia is. They want respect.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Tribune News Service)  Gov. Ron DeSantis now supports a plan to withhold $200 million in funding from 12 school districts that mandated masks because of the pandemic, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

DeSantis is on board following discussions with state Rep. Randy Fine, who is proposing the budget measure, press secretary Christina Pushaw wrote in an email.

The governor has been clear that he doesnt want to take away any funding from students or teachers, she wrote. He is on board with the FEFP [Florida Education Finance Program] adjustment following discussions with Rep. Fine. The fines in this proposal would only impact administrators making $100k+, who were actually making the political decisions to force-mask children.

On Friday, DeSantis said he would not support the idea, which has drawn complaints from the school districts and Democrats.

My view would be lets not do that, DeSantis said during an appearance in Jackson County, when asked about Fines proposal. But what you could do is say any parent whose kid was illegally force-masked this year in Florida in any of those districts, they should have the right to sue if their kids have any negative effects. ... They flouted the law and they should be liable for the consequences of their actions.

DeSantis also remains committed to the idea of a private right of action for parents to sue if they think school mask mandates harmed their children, Pushaw said.

Fine, a Brevard County Republican, said on the House floor the governor is now supporting his proposal.

Orange County Public Schools could lose $16.5 million if Fines measure were adopted. Two-thirds of the money would come from South Florida. Miami-Dade could lose $72 million, Broward $32 million and Palm Beach County $28 million.

DeSantis issued a statement on Twitter on Tuesday about Fines proposal.

Thanks to Speaker [Chris] Sprowls, Representative Fine, and the House of Representatives for heeding my call to protect students and teachers from accountability measures affecting union-controlled politicians and bureaucrats who defied Florida law by force masking kids, DeSantis said in the tweet. Most students dont want to wear masks in the first place! Lets also give parents recourse for harms imposed on their kids due to this defiance. They should get compensated by academic, social, and emotional problems caused by these policies.

2022 Orlando Sentinel.

Visit at orlandosentinel.com .

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TOKYO  The bodies of two Japanese F-15 Eagle crew members whose fighter went missing two weeks ago have been recovered from waters off western Japan, according to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.

The body of one crew member was found on Friday and the other was found on Sunday near where the jet went missing, the Air Self-Defense Force said in a news release this week.

Missing were Col. Koji Tanaka, 52, the pilot, and Capt. Ryusei Ueta, 33, according to the release. Both were with the Air Tactics Development Wing, Tactical Fighter Training Group at Komatsu Air Base.

An Air Self-Defense Force spokesman did not identify who was found on which date since the accident is under investigation. An accident investigation committee is looking for the cause of the aircrafts loss.

The F-15 disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff around 5:30 p.m. Jan. 31, just 3 miles from Komatsu, its home station on the coast of west-central Japan.

A rescue team found part of what appeared to be the jets outer panel and life-saving equipment later that night. The spokesman didnt say whether the wreck has been discovered.

However, Ishikawa TV reported Tuesday that parts of the jet, including a piece of the tail, were found near where the jet went missing. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force contracted with a salvage ship to recover the aircraft, the local broadcaster reported.

The fighter and its two crew members were heading for a regular combat drill over the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, according to an Air Self-Defense Force spokesman.

The Tactical Fighter Training Group, which acts as aggressors during such exercises, is charged with training related units and contributing to anti-fighter combat strategies, according to the Komatsu website.
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CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  Local government health officials in South Korea counted at least 85,114 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, a one-day pandemic high surpassing the previous record by nearly 28,000 cases, according to a major media outlet.

Tuesdays figure, released by local health officials at 9 p.m. according to the Yonhap News Agency, is the third in a string of record-setting pandemic days.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency confirmed 57,177 cases on Monday and 56,428 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday advised against travel to South Korea after the country posted record-high infections the previous day.

The CDC changed its travel advisory to South Korea from level 3 to level 4, its highest category, due to the very high number of cases in the country. The agency advises those who must travel to the country to be vaccinated and wear well-fitting face masks. All overseas visitors, regardless of their country of origin or vaccination status, are required to quarantine for seven days upon entry.

However, 90% of COVID-19 patients in South Korea show few or no symptoms, an official with the Central Disaster Management Headquarters said Tuesday. She urged residents to get vaccinated.

With all its might, the government will do its best for the settlement of new preventive measures against COVID-19 and its medical treatment system and to try to ensure the people go forward to their normal life again, Park Hyang, head of the General Epidemic Prevention Office, said in a public briefing.

South Koreas medical care system is in a stable condition, Park added.

Over 87% of the countrys 51 million people received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 58% received a booster shot as of Tuesday, according to the KDCA.

U.S. Forces Korea, the military command responsible for roughly 28,500 troops, reported 162 new infections over a seven-day period ending Monday. That figure is just nine more cases than recorded between Feb. 1 and Feb. 7 but far fewer than the commands record high of 1,599 cases between Jan. 4 and 10.

USFK, after four consecutive weeks of declining infections, loosened its social distancing policies on Friday to allow American troops and their families to dine indoors at local restaurants. The command still limits travel to Seoul to official duties or visits to the Dragon Hill Lodge, a hotel at Yongsan Garrison, and still bans trips to bars, clubs, bathhouses and karaoke clubs.

Over the last four weeks, USFK has seen a downward trend to our confirmed cases, and we applaud everyone for their continued efforts, USFK spokesman Army Col. Lee Peters told Armed Forces Network Pacific on Friday.

More than 90% of the commands population is fully vaccinated and 40% of the community received a booster shot, Dr. Douglas Lougee, an Army colonel and USFKs command surgeon, told AFN Pacific.

Dont let the talk about omicron being milder fool you, he said, referring to the dominant variant of the coronavirus. This is still a serious disease.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its strike group returned Monday to San Diego, its homeport, putting an end to an eight-month deployment filled with success and something short of it.

The ship put the fifth-generation F-35C Lightning II stealth fighter to work aboard a carrier for the first time. It also logged five aircraft mishaps while patrolling the Indo-Pacific region, one involving an F-35 that collided with the flight deck and skidded into the sea.

None of the incidents were fatal, although the $103 million aircrafts loss injured seven sailors, according to Navy statements.

The Carl Vinson carried more than 70 advanced aircraft, including the F-35s, but also EA-18G Growlers, CMV-22B Ospreys and E-20 Advanced Hawkeyes, a collection the Navy dubbed the air wing of the future.

All the strike group aircraft, Carrier Air Wing 2, flew more than 15,000 flight hours across 7,791 sorties, according to a Tuesday news release from 3rd Fleet. Those included 7,702 launches and 7,761 aircraft arrests on the flight deck.

The Carl Vinsons skipper, Capt. P. Scott Miller, commended the strike groups more than 7,000 sailors for their efforts during the lengthy deployment, which concluded on Valentines Day.

The tireless dedication and professionalism of our sailors, through a global pandemic, challenging operational tempo, and sacrificed time away from family, is truly humbling, Miller said in the release. Their efforts have demonstrated flexibility and resiliency and ensured mission success in every task.

A spokesperson for the 3rd Fleet did not immediately return an email request for comment Tuesday on the deployment.

On Jan. 24 in the South China Sea, an F-35C struck the flight deck on approach, caught fire, skidded across the carrier and plunged into the water, according to a video of the incident posted on social media.

The Navy announced plans to salvage the aircraft and its trove of advanced technology. Three injured sailors were treated in Manila, the Philippines, and released in stable condition; four others were treated aboard the Carl Vinson.

Before the F-35s fall, four other mishaps occurred between Nov. 22 and Dec. 31 involving two F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, a CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and a MH-60R Seahawk helicopter.

No sailors were injured in the mishaps. In the case of the Seahawk, the helicopter was lost, Carrier Strike Group 1 spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christina Gibson told Stars and Stripes in a Feb. 15 email.

Mishaps aside, the strike group marked a series of accomplishments, according to a Navy news release marking its return to port.

After leaving San Diego on Aug. 2, the strike group steamed more than 80,000 nautical miles over 262 days. It took part in massive drills, including the global Large Scale Exercise 2022, Operation Malabar and ANNUALEX 2021. It sailed alongside allied navies from Australia, Germany, India, New Zealand and Japan.

In June, the Carl Vinson and its escorts drilled 400 miles west of Hawaii with Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard units while nearby the Russian navy practiced missile attacks on a mock carrier strike group.

Alongside our partners and allies, we have aggressively pursued every opportunity to elevate our combat readiness in a drive to continue upholding regional stability, Rear Adm. Dan Martin, commander of Carrier Strike Group 1, said in the news release. Weve been doing this for 75 years and Im proud to say that our team has relentlessly paid tribute to this legacy with many long hours of sweat and determination that started well before we left San Diego.
DAKAR, Senegal  France is weighing a total military withdrawal from Mali, blaming soured relations with the West African nations military rulers and the arrival of Russian mercenaries, according to the European powers top diplomat and two Western officials with knowledge of the plan.

If the conditions are no longer in place so that we can act in Mali  which is clearly the case  then we will continue to fight terrorism next door, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France 5 late Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron plans to announce the departure from Mali this week during a European Union-African Union summit in Brussels, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

A spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to questions about whether a withdrawal from Mali was imminent. Paris  Malis biggest defense ally  has about 4,000 troops in West Africa, which is grappling with the worlds fastest-growing Islamist insurgencies. That number is set to shrink to 2,500 this year, and the remaining troops are expected to be redeployed elsewhere in the region, the officials said, including Niger and Ivory Coast. Leaders have been trading blows for months.

Malis junta - led by a special forces officer who seized control of the country in August 2020  is illegitimate and out of control, Le Drian said in late January as reports multiplied about Russian mercenaries operating on Malian soil.

Days later, Mali gave the French ambassador 72 hours to leave the country. Le Drian said Monday that 1,000 mercenaries from Russia are now in Mali, which he described as a nation run by five colonels who have taken power.

France sent troops to Mali in 2013 to stop al-Qaida-linked militants from storming the capital, Bamako, after the fighters had seized cities in the north, including storied Timbuktu. After that successful mission, French flags were draped over balconies as people cheered on the foreign soldiers.

But since then, the extremists have regrouped and drilled farther into Malis countryside while spilling into neighboring countries. Malians wondered why the French forces in West Africa - which stood at 5,100 last year  couldnt stop the menace. Some accused the former colonial power of making it worse.

Thousands of West Africans have died, and millions have lost their homes as fighters who claim adherence to the extremist al-Qaeda and Islamic State groups grabbed more territory. Analysts describe it as one of the fastest-growing insurgencies in the world.

By October 2021, a survey from Malian statistician Sadiki Guindo found that only 26.1 percent of Bamako residents had a favorable opinion of France. Earlier this month, video showed protesters in the capital burning cardboard cutouts of the French president.

We dont want the French here, said Yacoube Sangare, a 66-year-old village council member in a region south of Bamako. He was 4 when Mali asserted its independence from France. His parents recalled being treated as subjects.

Simmering resentments have burst into rage, he said. People cant travel far north of Bamako without risking their lives  extremists plant bombs in the roads  and with swaths of farmland cut off, it is hard to put food on the table.

We blame France for this, and our past leaders for working with them, Sangare said. Were ready for them to leave today.

The French military footprint in Mali isnt beloved in Paris, either: One columnist for the center-left Le Monde newspaper called the situation a diplomatic and military humiliation.

Nine years after its start, the mission in Mali has failed to achieve any of its objectives  to ensure Malis integrity and restore the state there, defeat the jihadists and prevent their proliferation in West Africa, columnist Philippe Bernard wrote.

Last spring, Mali counted its second coup detat in nine months and a Special Forces officer, Col. Assimi Goita, put himself in charge of the nation of 21 million. Macron condemned the takeover. Three weeks later, Paris announced the gradual withdrawal of troops from West Africa.

A European counterterrorism force called Takuba was supposed to pick up the slack. Now that effort is also at risk: Nearly half of the 800 soldiers deployed are French, and Mali kicked out 100 Danish soldiers who had arrived last month at Frances invitation, citing a lack of paperwork. (Sweden also said it would withdraw troops from Takuba.)

European allies have blasted the late December arrival of hundreds of Russian mercenaries. The deployment of such private contractors to Mali can only further deteriorate the security situation in West Africa, France and 14 other Western powers said in a joint statement. Russian mercenaries, who have been hired in several African nations, have a track record of human rights abuses, according to a panel of U.N. experts, including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and sexual assault.

Malis government has denied working with mercenaries, saying that only Russian trainers  state-to-state allies  are active in the country. Previously, officials said they courted Moscows help because France was leaving.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has contradicted that claim, saying at a news conference with Macron this month that the Kremlin had nothing to do with private security contractors in Mali.

  

Noack reported from Paris.
NATOs top official cast doubt Tuesday on a Russian claim that it had begun pulling some forces away from Ukraines borders, saying Moscow still has enough firepower assembled to launch a cross-border invasion on short notice.

So far, we have not seen any de-escalation on the ground, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said ahead of two days of high-level talks at alliance headquarters in Brussels. We have not seen any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the border of Ukraine.

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith shared Stoltenbergs skepticism.

All we have seen unfortunately is escalation, Smith told reporters in Brussels.

On Tuesday, Russian military officials announced some troops from its southern and western military districts near the Ukrainian border were returning to their garrisons.

Stoltenberg, however, said moving troops around is routine and doesnt affect Russias ability to attack.

Russia often moves troops back and forth, Stoltenberg said. What we need to see is a significant and enduring withdrawal of forces, troops and not least the heavy equipment.

However, Stoltenberg did say recent statements from Russian officials about continuing diplomatic talks focused on Ukraine were grounds for cautious optimism going forward.

On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other alliance leaders will arrive in Brussels, where they are expected to review plans for adding troops in southeastern Europe. Among the steps likely to gain the backing of allies is a plan to set up a French-led multinational battlegroup in Romania.

Romania and other nations in the Black Sea region have called for more alliance attention along NATOs southern flank in connection with concerns about Russias nearby military presence. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, which is part of Ukraines southern Black Sea border.

Russia has boosted its naval presence in the Mediterranean and Black seas in recent weeks, while massing more than 130,000 troops around Ukraine along with tanks, artillery and rocket systems, according to U.S. officials and satellite imagery.

NATO allies have been very clear that any further Russian aggression against Ukraine would come at a high price, Stoltenberg said.

President Joe Biden has ruled out any direct role for the U.S. military inside Ukraine in response to any possible Russian attack. Still, the Pentagon has deployed additional troops to Europe in a move designed to reassure allies worried about potential Russian aggression beyond Ukraine.

The first of some 5,000 U.S.-based troops are now taking up positions in Poland. Meanwhile, 1,000 Germany-based U.S. soldiers have shifted to Romania to reinforce allied defenses.
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remains despite claims from Russian officials that they prefer a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing tensions in Eastern Europe.

Biden said he would welcome continued diplomatic talks, though military analysts indicate that [Russian forces] remain very much in a threatening position.

Yesterday, the Russian government publicly proposed to continue the diplomacy, the president said during a public address from the White House. I agree. We should give the diplomacy every chance to succeed, and I believe there are real ways to address our respective security concerns.

Bidens comments came after the Russian Foreign Ministry announced it began moving troops away from the Ukraine border and sending some of them back to their bases after completing military exercises. It was the first time that Russia has mentioned withdrawing any troops since the start of amassing them around Ukraine. Details about the number of Russia troops repositioning were not provided.

As the combat training measures are completed, the troops, as always, will make marches in a combined way to the points of permanent deployment, the ministry said in a statement. The units of the Southern and Western military districts, having completed their tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today.

However, the U.S. has not been able independently verify the removal of any Russian troops from the border, Biden said.

The Russian defense minister reported today that some military units are leaving their positions near Ukraine. That would be good, but we have not yet verified that, he said. The fact remains right now Russia has more than 150,000 troops circling Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed skepticism in a post on Twitter following the Russian announcement.

On Russian statements regarding withdrawal of some forces from the Ukrainian border, we in Ukraine have a rule: We dont believe what we hear, we believe what we see, Kuleba wrote. If a real withdrawal follows these statements, we will believe in the beginning of a real de-escalation.

Bidens address from the White House follows weeks of officials from the U.S. and other NATO countries engaging in diplomatic talks with Russia. At the same time, Russia continued to amass more than 100,000 troops along Ukraines northern and eastern borders with Belarus and Russia, respectively.

The U.S. proposes new arms control, transparency and strategic stability measures in talks with Russia but refuses to bend to Russias main concern that Ukraine be banned from future membership in NATO, Biden said.

Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity and the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate, he said. But that still leaves plenty of room for diplomacy and for de-escalation.

Ukraine has a right to make its own security agreements and decisions, NATO has said.

Biden said the U.S. and NATO are not a threat to Russia and reiterated he would not send troops into Ukraine to fight the Russians.

Ukraine is not threatening Russia. Neither the U.S. nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not have plans to put them there, he said. To the citizens of Russia, you are not our enemy. And I do not believe you want a bloody, destructive war against Ukraine.

Still, Biden said the U.S. and its NATO allies will respond decisively should Russia invade Ukraine.

If Russia attacks Ukraine, it'll be met with overwhelming international condemnation, he said. The world will not forget [it if] Russia [chooses] needless death and destruction. Invading Ukraine will prove to be a self-inflicted wound.

The president also warned Russia will face consequences should it target U.S. citizens physically or through cyberspace, noting the U.S. and its NATO allies have been sharpening their defense against cyber threats.

I've been clear that if Russia targets Americans in Ukraine, we will respond forcefully, Biden said. If Russia attacks the United States or our allies through asymmetric means, like disruptive cyberattacks against our companies or critical infrastructure, were prepared to respond.

Top U.S. officials have been engaging with Russian leaders increasingly during the past week as the possibility of a Russian invasion increased. European media has reported Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to cross the border into Ukraine on Wednesday, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday to declare the date as a national Day of Unity.

On Saturday, Biden spoke with Putin and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed Russias military buildup with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to the State Department.

Secretary Blinken reiterated our ongoing concerns that Russia has the capacity to launch an invasion of Ukraine at any moment and emphasized the need to see verifiable, credible, meaningful de-escalation, the State Department said in a statement.

The U.S. on Monday closed its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as threats of a possible Russian invasion loomed.

These prudent precautions in no way undermine our support for or our commitment to Ukraine, Blinken said in a statement Monday. Our commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering.

On Friday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Americans in Ukraine should leave the country immediately as the risk of a Russian invasion had risen.

The threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands, he said during a White House briefing. If you stay [in Ukraine], you are assuming risk with no guarantee that there will be any other opportunity to leave and there is no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion.

Biden again warned Tuesday that all Americans in Ukraine leave now before its too late to leave safely.

In addition to diplomatic talks, Biden has sent 5,000 troops from the 18th Airborne Corps in the U.S. to Europe as the situation unfolds. About 4,700 of them are either in or going to Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, while another 300 have set up a joint task force headquarters in Germany.

The 4,700 troops are joining the approximately 4,000 U.S. service members who were already in Poland on a regular rotational basis.

Additionally, the U.S. in the past two weeks has moved 1,000 troops from the Armys 2nd Cavalry in Germany to Romania to augment the 900 troops who were already deployed there on a rotational basis.

Poland and Romania are among four NATO countries  along with Slovakia and Hungary -- that border Ukraine.
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.
Korehaha Whakahau is hosting a wananga (meeting or seminar) to amplify the voice, role, and leadership of Mana Whenua towards a predator free future.

The first iwi led Predator Free 2050 Limited (PF2050 Ltd) project, Korehaha Whakahau seeks to eradicate possums from 4700ha within the Ngati Awa rohe over a five-year period.

Manager Taiao Michal Akurangi says while eradication of possums is the end goal, Korehaha Whakahau is doing things differently to other predator free projects and seeing the results.

Korehaha Whakahau is one of many projects being led by Te Runanga o Ngati Awa and a key goal is to contribute to the capacity and capability of the iwi to be kaitiaki and provide employment that elevates the wellbeing of te taiao in the tribes rohe. We want to build a biodiversity workforce.

The foundations of our project are based in the vision of our iwi, which is articulated in the statement of: Ko Ngati Awa te Toki. And, we have applied many of the principles of te ao Maori within our project, so we are always guided by our tipuna and our iwi.

Michal says Korehaha Whakahau is an example of what can happen if mana whenua, those with authority of the land, can lead the activity.

Michal Akurangi.

Thats why when PF2050 Ltd asked Korehaha Whakahau to host a wananga, Michal says it was clear that it would be a good place to share the projects story and encourage conversation about what does genuine partnership actually look like.

Korehaha Whakahau, and in turn Ngati Awa, is not offering to teach specific tools or applications that can generally solve environmental problems. Rather, we are wanting to provide a safe place for pest eradication projects and their Tiriti partners to have conversations about opportunities for te taiao that working in partnership can provide and to share our experiences, so we all have a greater understanding.

Tangata Whenua are always being asked how we want to be engaged with, but what we are saying, and showing through Korehaha Whakahau, is that there are so many benefits to stepping back and allowing mana whenua to lead.

We have invited all of the PF2050 Ltd landscape projects, but we have requested they come with their Tiriti partners.

PF2050 Ltd CEO Brett Butland says as a company, they are delighted that Ngati Awa is partnering with us to host a wananga to support the unique leadership role mana whenua can have to help our landscape projects achieve a predator-free outcome.

It will be an opportunity for not only the projects but for each of us to learn and better understand the value Tiriti partners can bring, and for mana whenua to build their involvement and capacity in the projects.

The Taurikura Anamata wananga will be held at Te Manuka Tutahi Marae in Whakatane on March 3 and 4. Speakers will include Tame Malcom, who is investigating what pest management would look like if it were designed and implemented from a te ao Maori perspective for his PhD, and Mahuru Wilcox, who has studying biocultural approaches in New Zealands conservation future.

It will also involve workshops where participants can learn about working alongside iwi and hapu or funding and project management. On the second day, participants can choose to hear about the gathering and use of pigments and soils in traditional dying, or native trees and rongoa on field trips.
A nationwide police operation to cut down on high-risk driving and road deaths has missed its target, an OIA reveals.

Most police districts missed most of their targets most of the time, reports released under the OIA about Operation Deterrence that ran for six months till December 2021 show.

Some key measures were worse than before the operation began.

"The results for Op Deterrence were not what we had hoped for," the director of the National Road Policing Centre, Superintendent Steve Greally, told RNZ.

Covid-19 measures swallowed up lots of road police time - about 25,000 hours a month.

But "we do not want to offer an excuse. We just simply have to do better", Greally says.

Just a few months ago, he launched Operation Deterrence telling all staff in June 2021: "We are not achieving our agreed operational outputs so need to make a targeted and decisive effort to stem and reverse the upward road trauma trend through general deterrence."

The road toll is stuck above 300 despite the pandemic restrictions on travel.

Operation Deterrence was all about doing more - more stops, more speed camera hours, more ticketing: "The intensity of enforcement plays the key role in behaviour modification," Greally said in June.

But it did not work:

Only 14,000 seatbelt offences were ticketed against a target of 25,000 (short by 43 per cent)

Cellphone offences - 15,000 against 20,000 (short 25 per cent)

Mobile speed camera hours 26,000, against 33,000 (short 22 per cent)

"Most districts ... are still performing below the required ... activity levels," the reports, that cover from July to November, repeatedly say.

The number of drivers caught for seatbelt and cellphone offences were actually "considerably" lower than in the three months before the crackdown began.

Mobile speed camera hours were patchy though, crucially, improved in Auckland.

The targets for drink-driving - though less clearcut - were missed.

Police are funded for about double the breath tests and 40 percent more mobile speed camera hours than they actually did last year.

Auckland Transport has called the shortfall a "tragic failure" that costs the city 10 needless road deaths a year.

"We accept that we need to focus more on breath testing and on enforcing speed," Greally said in the OIA response to RNZ.

Operation Deterrence was prompted by a stubbornly high road toll and a spike of deaths and serious injuries in Auckland last year; it was planned for three months but ran for six.

Road deaths have declined from the grim highs above 700 in the 1970s and 80s, but at nowhere near the rate of comparative OECD countries. From 2010 to 2020, the road toll fell 36 percent in Europe and 20 percent in Australia, but only 14 percent in this country.

Operation Deterrence aimed to put greater priority on road policing - but officers kept getting pulled away to do other things anyway, though this was not always made clear.

"We faithfully report the numbers of staff recorded as being in dedicated Road Policing positions but staff are telling [us] that they are constantly being" put on other duties, Greally's report in June said.

"This obviously prevents them undertaking road safety activities, but does not show up on the official figures that are being reported to the executive and minister."

The Operation Deterrence reports were "seen as an opportunity to obtain some 'ground truth'."

They show that pandemic checkpoint duties contributed about two-thirds to the 25,000-hour a month drain on road police.

"Whilst the Covid-19 lockdown environment has been a significant challenge over the past two years, this is not something police can blame entirely," Greally says in a statement.

He has been national director for seven years, and recently began offering his services as an international consultant to help developing countries boost safety outcomes, according to his LinkedIn page.

Among the dozen police districts, only Waikato got close to meeting the operation's targets.

Nationally, 15 per cent of speeding tickets were meant to be issued to motorists going less than 11km/h over the limit; but police only managed about 10 per cent.

And a hefty 70 per cent of tickets were meant to be issued by officers (as opposed to cameras) on rural roads, but only half were. Rural roads are the most dangerous.

"Most districts are demonstrating a noticeable decrease in performance," the August report said.

"Either half or just over half of the districts demonstrated a decrease in performance for restraints, distraction, and speeding offence detection on rural roads compared to the three months prior to the operation," the September report said.

An increase in enforcement activities is one of three keys to the government's Road to Zero strategy that aims to cut the road death toll by 40 percent by 2030.

This is a turnaround from 2018-19 when police, and the Police Minister Stuart Nash, both said that doing fewer breath tests was a tactic to target resources at the highest-risk drivers.

"We're not after numbers, we want impact," Greally said back then.

Nash told the Coroner: "I expect the targeted approach to be more effective in preventing harm on our roads."

The reports suggest that 1070 road police officers were "reinstated" in mid-2018 - but police told RNZ this was about a review of all road policing vacancies as part of its goal of cutting road deaths by 5 per cent year-on-year. They achieved that from 2018-2020 when deaths fell 7.5 and 8.5 per cent.

Police kept Operation Deterrence in play twice as long as planned, hoping for an impact on the last Christmas holidays.

However, the holiday road toll ended up at 17, easily the highest since 2016-17 (19 deaths) and four times the four deaths in 2019-20. Seven died at the last Labour Weekend during Operation Deterrence, versus an average of five since 2016.

This country's road death rate of 7.6 per 100,000 population is about three times the safest countries, and almost twice Australia's, though globally the average is 18.

Greally says police are "working hard to improve its performance. Police has recognised it needs to do better".

They are testing new road policing deployment methods in Auckland, and have just launched a new road safety control strategy in response to a Transport Ministry review of investment in road policing and infrastructure.

Among the hurdles ahead is that because Waka Kotahi is taking over mobile speed cameras, it has agreed with police they can cut back the annual target from 100,000 hours nationally, to 80,000 hours.

Mobile cameras are widely seen as one of the most effective tools to make roads safer, because of their unpredictability.

-RNZ/Phil Pennington.
Thousands of customers in the Bay of Plenty remain without power following widespread outages caused by the impact of Cyclone Dovi over the weekend.

One Tauranga resident says she has now been without power for over 48 hours.

Beverley, of Mansels Road in Greerton, says she has spent over six hours of the last two days on the phone to companies trying to discover when she will be reconnected.

It is absolutely shocking customer service and experience, she says.

Beverley says her power dropped at around midday on Sunday. She was initially told it would be about 10 hours before a fix was found.

There has been no communication and now I have a freezer full of food that has gone off and have had minimal ways of communicating.

Powerco released an update at 1pm, when a large swathe of their outages were predicted to be fixed earlier today.

They say that the Bay of Plenty is the most impacted area, with 2261 customers still waiting to be reconnected.

Some people have been without power for over 48 hours. Image. Powerco.

There are outages across the region, including Tauranga, Te Puke, Whakamarama, Katikati, Tahawai, Mount Maunganui, Papamoa, Omanawa and Aongatete.

Outages are also reported in Taranaki, Coromandel, Waikato, Whanganui, Wairarapa and Manawatu with 5058 customers impacted in total.

Reconnecting customers continues to be our number one priority, particularly those who have been without power for some time now, says Powerco Network Operations manager Scott Horniblow.

We have every available crew working on the remaining faults which range from broken power poles, downed lines, trees in lines and broken hardware. The aftermath of the storm means there are still slips blocking roads, which slows down work and makes it difficult for them to access sites. For this reason, helicopters and drones are being used to assess and plan restoration activities.

Scott says the complexity of repairs is making the process more long-winded than usual and an accurate estimation is therefore not able to be provided.

We know that this is extremely frustrating for people and wed like to thank our customers for their continued patience and assure them that we are doing everything we can to reconnect them as quickly and safely as possible.

Powerco encourages customers who are without power to report the outage through its website at powerco.co.nz.

A full list of outages can be viewed here.
BioTechNZ executive director and MedCan Summit 2022 organiser Dr Zahra Champion says MedCan 2022 successfully brought together New Zealands newest sector which she says is excited to now be making a real difference for Kiwi patients and the economy.

Zahra's comments came following New Zealands largest medicinal cannabis summit, including a one-day Healthcare Professionals Forum, which took place virtually on February 10 and 11. The content was livestreamed from a studio at AUT.

More than 400 delegates registered, with over 30 international and national expert speakers presenting and roundtable discussions gave attendees the opportunity to interact with each other.

MedCan Summit 2022: Women in the medicinal cannabis industry panel included moderator Carmen Doran (Chief Executive Officer, Helius Therapeutics), Zoe Reece (Founder and CEO, Ora Pharm), and Eva Neshat (Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Elysian Pharmaceuticals & CannaPlus+). Dr Dottie Clower (Chief Scientific Officer, Puro) joined the panel virtually.

Dr Champion says one of the many highlights was hearing Health Minister Andrew Littles address which acknowledged the sectors progress.

I want to thank the medicinal cannabis industry for your pioneering work producing safe products that consumers want and building a world class export industry, says Little.

He said despite the medicinal cannabis scheme operational for only two years, significant progress has been made.

The domestic industry is becoming well established with 39 active licences covering cultivation, possession for manufacture and supply activities. Locally manufactured CBD products are available that cost less than imported products. Three companies have been granted licences to manufacture medicinal cannabis products and more licence applications are in the pipeline, says Little.

He noted in the past week alone, two more products have been verified against the quality standards, with a total of ten products now in the domestic market.

On quality standards, the Health Minister acknowledged that there is a cost to regulatory compliance. However, New Zealands standards are focused on ensuring world class safety and quality.

They are set to protect patients and to give prescribers confidence that the products they are prescribing will not contain harmful contaminants and contain stable and consistent levels of active ingredients as stated. The standards we have are an essential foundation for Aotearoa New Zealands reputation as a world leading, trusted supplier into the future, says Little.

Dr Champion says the Minister reinforcing that domestically there are now local CBD products that cost less than imported ones is helpful for patient awareness and for local medicinal cannabis manufacturers who are unable to promote or even talk about their products due to statutory restrictions.

MedCans Foundation sponsor, Helius Therapeutics, raised similar concerns during the summit, saying too many Kiwis remain unaware of the sectors successful delivery in recent months and that was frustrating.

Several products have been verified as meeting the quality standards. However, local manufacturers must remain silent until they achieve approved medicines status. High GMP standards now give prescribers confidence, but until Kiwi manufacturers go through exhaustive clinical trials they cant say much. MedCan 2022 was key to shining much-needed light on what the sectors now achieving for local patients, says Helius Therapeutics chief executive Carmen Doran.

MedCan Summit 2022: CEO panel. Photo: Supplied.

MedCan Summit 2022: CEO panel included MC Andrew Patterson, Carmen Doran (Chief Executive Officer, Helius Therapeutics), Mitch Cuevas (Pharmaceutical Director, Eqalis) and Mark Lucas, (Chief Executive Office, Cannasouth). Tim Aldridge (Managing Director, Puro) and Manu Caddie (Co-Founder, Kaihautu  Innovation and Regulation, Rua Bioscience) joined the panel virtually.

MedCan Summit 2022 was organised by NZTech and BioTechNZ - a not for profit, membership-funded organisation with the goal of maximising New Zealands bioscience and technology capability to create a strong New Zealand bioeconomy. BioTechNZ is part of the New Zealand Tech Alliance.

Foundation sponsor was Helius Therapeutics. Gold sponsor was Eqalis, with Silver sponsors Elysian and CannaPlus+. Puro, Callaghan Innovation and Shimadzu are Bronze sponsors, with 11 companies also supporting MedCan 2022 as exhibitors.

Dr Zahra Champion says work will soon begin on MedCan Summit 2023, with the sectors many stakeholders looking forward to getting together in person again.

www.medcansummit.co.nz.
Agencies have been working to clean-up an oil spill after a 10-metre boat sank in the Taupo marina on Monday night.

The vessel had a 200-litre load of diesel on board, of which 150 litres spewed out.

The vessel is believed to have sunk as a result of rainwater filling up the hull, but not being pumped out as a result of the batteries being disconnected while work was carried out on the boat, says a statement from Waikato Regional Council.

The council says agencies were focused on retrieving the sunken vessel.

A crane was used to uplift, drain and refloat the vessel earlier on Tuesday morning and booms had also been placed around the boat to stop oil from escaping.

A sucker truck was expected to arrive in the afternoon to remove leftover fuel and water from the boat before it was brought onto land.

The Department of Internal Affairs Taupo Harbour master alongside the Waikato Regional Council, Mercury Energy and Taupo District Council are carrying out the retrieval process.

Council doesn't think the oil spill will be too serious as the leakage will have likely evaporated or dispersed.

It says the spill is unlikely to have immediate or lasting impacts on downstream recreational water users and water consent holders.

The operation to salvage the vessel was expected to be complete on Tuesday afternoon.

-Stuff/ .
Bay of Plenty

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A tow truck operator says the reason towies won't move the vehicles illegally blocking streets outside Parliament is not due to safety concerns - it's because they sympathise with the protesters.

There's growing frustration over an apparent lack of action to remove the vehicles, and an offer of free parking at Sky Stadium has largely been ignored.

In recent days, police have referred to concerns held by tow truck companies who have been threatened by protesters.

Yesterday, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster tried to allay their fears, and appealed for towies to come and help.

"Clearly we will have police staff working alongside tow trucks to ensure the safety of all concerned," he says.

"It is a major operation for us to remove the large number of vehicles around those streets and we have from the outset of this had very great reluctance from tow operators to support us in clearing this situation.

"So part of what we would like to do today is to appeal to those who are tow operators to come forward and help us sort this out."

But Greg Cox, who owns Wellington's Cox Heavy Salvage, says safety concerns are not what's stopping tow companies getting involved.

"There's all different reasons being put forward, but the reason that the majority of my colleagues don't want to put their tow trucks out there is because they are sympathetic to what's going on in Parliament," he says.

Not wanting to sour their relationship with police, Cox says some operators have made up excuses for not lending a hand in the towing operation.

"One of the Wellington operators said how he can't do it now - 'We have to isolate'."

He says police have not been misleading in their public statements about "safety concerns" - that was just what the towies had been telling them.

"They're saying what they're hearing," he says.

Cox has been been contacted twice by police asking for help with the towing operation.

He has been in touch with 10 or so other operators, and believes the majority of the industry has similar views.

"From the people who've rung me, text me, the feeling's pretty much mutual right through the country. There's not a business that hasn't been impacted by mandate, and everybody understands that."

Also, if he turned up at Parliament with a fleet of tow trucks it would be a very bad look for his business: "That'd be the worst advertising I'd get," he says.

"Contractors and transport operators have been feeling us out to say, 'Guys, what are your feelings, you know, we don't really want to see your tow trucks in here. We want you to stay on side'."

The question should not be what police and the council are going to do to move the vehicles, he says, but rather what the politicians are going to do about it.

"They should come out and talk to the people that they represent. You can't deny these people a hearing and if that had happened straight away I very much doubt they'd still be there," he says.

"You don't turn the sprinklers on and put loud music over the top - that's arrogant. That really is not the way to actually entice people to come to the table and talk."

He believes there's a simple way forward - "dialogue".

"It's deep-seated [and] I actually think they underestimated how deep-seated it was.

"I think the fact that all the salvage industry has supported them, they are now starting to realise it is very deep-seated."

The Defence Force is also in discussion with police after receiving a request to help with the towing operation.

In a statement it says: "There are a number of factors to be considered not least the suitability of military recovery vehicles for this task and the availability of trained personnel, which we have discussed with NZ Police. Discussions are ongoing."

-RNZ/Matthew Theunissen.
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Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Oklahoma... Illinois River near Tahlequah affecting Cherokee County. ...FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING TO EARLY THURSDAY MORNING... * WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Illinois River near Tahlequah. * WHEN...From Wednesday morning to early Thursday morning. * IMPACTS...At 11.0 feet, minor flooding occurs from near Hanging Rock downstream towards Tahlequah. Floating the river is too hazardous due to strong turbulence. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 4:30 AM CDT Tuesday the stage was 7.2 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise above flood stage tomorrow morning to a crest of 11.1 feet early tomorrow afternoon. It will then fall below flood stage late tomorrow evening. - Flood stage is 11.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
Seminole, FL (33772)

Today

Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 82F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable.
What just happened? Heather Morgan, who also uses the moniker Razzlekhan for her rapping career, has been released on bail following her arrest for allegedly laundering billions of dollars stolen in the Bitfinex hack of 2016. Her husband, apprehended at the same time as Morgan, remains in custody.

Last week brought news that Ilya "Dutch" Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, had been accused of laundering Bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex exchange six years ago. The 119,756 Bitcoin stolen in 2016 was worth about $61 million at the time but would be closer to $4.5 billion today. Last week, the DoJ seized about 94,000 of the stolen BTC valued at roughly $3.6 billion.

Federal agents were able to access the wallet containing the stolen Bitcoin in January after decrypting a file saved to Lichtenstein's cloud storage account that contained 2,000 wallet addresses and their private keys. Blockchain analysis confirmed that nearly all of the addresses were directly linked to the hack.

Despite Chief US District Judge Beryl A. Howell describing evidence against the pair as "so weighty as to be overwhelming," Morgan was allowed to post a bail of $3 million and told she could await trial at home once posted.

Lichtenstein's bail offer of $5 million was rejected, and he must remain in a Washington D.C. jail---he was denied because the government alleges he was in control of most of the stolen funds. Both Morgan's and Lichtenstein's parents posted their houses as collateral for their bail.

The government argued that both individuals were a flight risk and could use the unaccounted Bitcoin---or the 70 gold coins they allegedly bought that can't be found---to flee to a country where they are unlikely to be extradited, such as Russia (Lichtenstein was born in the country) or Ukraine.

In addition to Morgan being mocked for her toe-curlingly cringing rap videos, prosecutors noted that the lyrics from one of the tracks suggested she was no stranger to hacking: "Spear phish your password/all your funds transferred." The number of burner phones, hollowed-out books, and hardware crypto wallets found in their apartment were probably quite incriminating, too.
TL;DR: Remember the story about the SpaceX rocket launched almost seven years ago that's supposed to crash into the moon at the start of March? It turns out that astronomers got part of the prediction wrong: a rocket will hit the lunar landscape in a few weeks, but it's not from SpaceX; it was likely built by China.

We heard in January that the Falcon 9's second stage rocket, part of SpaceX's first interplanetary mission launched from Florida in 2015, was going to hit the moon on March 4. The rocket did not have enough fuel to return to Earth's atmosphere and burn up after that initial launch, and it "lacked the energy to escape the gravity of the Earth-Moon system," meteorologist Eric Berger wrote, leaving it in a "chaotic orbit."

But astronomer Bill Gray, who identified what he believed was the SpaceX object headed for the moon, has admitted he was partly mistaken. The rocket is now thought to be 2014-065B, the booster for the Chang'e 5-T1 lunar mission launched in 2014 by the Chinese space agency.

So the rocket about to hit the Moon, it turns out, is not the one we thought it was. This (an honest mistake) just emphasizes the problem with lack of proper tracking of these deep space objects. https://t.co/JXKpUmEC2X --- Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) February 13, 2022

The object in question was initially discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on March 14, 2015, and classed as a possible near-earth asteroid. Gray soon identified it as the second-stage rocket in NASA and NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite, and recently announced that it would hit the moon.

But NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Jon Giorgini emailed Gray on February 12, prompting him to look again at the data. He noted that the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft's trajectory didn't go close to the moon, so it was strange that the rocket carrying it was set to hit the surface.

Gray then looked at earlier space missions that might account for the object. The leading candidate was the Chang'e 5-T1 mission that traveled closer to the moon. He still calls this "circumstantial evidence," but "I would regard it as fairly convincing evidence."

No matter who it belongs to, satellites currently orbiting the moon, including NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and India's Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, are expected to gather valuable data from the impact crater and revealed material.

Somewhat coincidentally, China complained to the UN in December over claims that SpaceX Starlink satellites almost crashed into its space station twice over the previous year.
Receiving spam calls from contacts you don't know could trigger security concerns, especially if you cannot put an end to these unsolicited calls throughout the day. Many people have been finding ways to solve this problem, but they are not always guaranteed to work.

However, there's a simple trick to blocking these calls, as revealed by one content creator on TikTok. Here's how it works for select mobile carriers.

TikToker Shows How to Block Spam Calls

The Sun recently spotted that user @kenny_cowtail has a helpful post for people who struggle to deal with obnoxious spam calls on their phones. According to the TikTok clip, users will only need to type #662# on their devices.

In doing so, the "Scam Block" feature will be instantly turned on, so you don't have to worry anymore about receiving mysterious spam calls from strangers and hackers.

However, the twist here is it won't work in all carriers. One TikTok user commented that this secret trick would only work for MetroPCs and T-Mobile users.

Meanwhile, a Verizon user confirmed that this "Scam Block" hack worked for him. However, another person wrote that it did not work for her even though she's also a Verizon subscriber.

Related Article: FCC's Anti-Spam Call Effort To Prevent Callers Sending Direct Voicemails-Allowing TCPA To Cover Ringless Calls

T-Mobile Revamps Scam Block Technologies

Per the official website of T-mobile, there's an actual Scam Block feature that people need to try in case they want to prevent receiving spam calls from their phones.

The mobile carrier wrote on its site that every year, billions of users fall into the trap of robocalls and scams in the United States alone.

To stop these annoying incidents from happening for the second time, T-Mobile said that it now brought Scam Block and Scam ID. Before someone gets a call, these technologies will safeguard the user against spam. To add, they can also pack "specific" callers who regularly call a particular person.

Dialing #662# is not the only solution to stop the issue. According to T-Mobile, people can also rely on the free Scam Shield app, which also allows the Scam Block feature.

Regardless of whether you are an app or website user, you can log in to your T-Mobile account to switch on the Scam Block.

Amazon Scam Call

Recently, AL.com wrote on its report that a Sheriff warned users over Amazon scam calls. At that time, Alabama County Sheriff Chuck Philips said that these calls could compromise Amazon accounts during the product purchase.

The authority further suggested that users should not give any of their sensitive personal details to unknown callers.

Last year, T-Mobile's anti-scam initiative succeeded in its operation to block billions of spam calls. Despite the increasing number of cases in 2021, the mobile carrier managed to effectively combat these instances.

In Canada, CRTC proposed a new technology to prevent caller ID spoofing for users.

Read Also: Tired of Spam Calls? This App Hits Back at Spammers with Hilarious Answer Bots



This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images) An illustration picture taken in London on December 30, 2021, shows gold plated souvenir cryptocurrency coins arranged by a screen displaying a Crypto.com NFT (Non-Fungible Token) marketplace. - Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are cryptographic assets stored on a blockchain with unique identification metadata that distinguish them from each other.



Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the United Kingdom's main tax department, took into possession three non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the first time ever in an investigation corralling nearly 250 fake companies amidst a value-added tax (VAT) scheme.

The UK NFT seizure has already allowed officials to capture three suspects involved in the tax fraud, which was estimated at around 1.4 million, or nearly $1.9 million in defrauded funds. Those involved in the NFT tax scheme were allegedly attempting to drive up the VAT more than what they were realistically owed.

A value-added tax is essentially a sales tax for specific purchases. The suspects were utilizing various false invoices, unregistered phones, and stolen identities in order to remain anonymous in their VAT fraud.

HMRC's own deputy director of economic crime, Nick Sharp, relayed in a statement that the HMRC NFT seizure "serves as a warning to anyone who thinks they can use crypto assets to hide money from HMRC."

Related Article: Paris Hilton-Backed $300 Million NFT Company to Start Enhancing Service After Raising $20 Million From Bill Ackman

NFTs and cryptocurrency have both steadily been on the rise in various forms and industries. NFTs themselves, which first debuted back in 2014, have become home to myriad fraudulent scams, specifically money laundering and wash trading, as the crypto tokens are essentially intangible codes available anonymously on a blockchain network. The NFT market was worth nearly $340 million in 2020 and is on track to reach up to $3 billion by 2030.

The three seized NFT digital art assets in the HMRC investigation have yet to be determined price-wise, yet other assorted cryptocurrency assets were managed to be acquired, all of which amounted to around 5,000. HMRC was granted a court order to acquire said assets amidst its investigation.

Sharp went on to state, "We constantly adapt to new technology to ensure we keep pace with how criminals and evaders look to conceal their assets."

Jake Moore, among advisers at the cybersecurity firm ESET, relayed that the HMRC NFT seizure is a major turning point in how cybercrime itself can be viewed on the outside looking in. More investigations and swift arrests will not only slow but diminish the potential of said crimes taking place.

Moore tells The Guardian: "A key element of cryptocurrencies' design is to keep them secure and protected against interception by anyone, whether that be a threat actor or law enforcement. But with a fast-moving digital world where mistakes can be made, police forces are beginning to buck the trend in how they investigate digital crime, locate evidence and finally seize digital assets."

In other words, HMRC is with its very first NFT seizure proving that cybercrime can and will still be prosecuted at its fullest degree. With the world now turning toward decentralized exchanges and crypto assets, worldwide officials and organizations will have to likewise grow smarter and saavier in their attempts to thwart cybercrimes.

Read Also: Burger king Launches New NFT Campaign with Sweet

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Hub Security )

The autonomous car manufacturer has 25 vehicles hacked by a 19-year old security researcher through a third-party software provider.

His name is David Columbo, and he is a German teen that has exploited 25 Tesla autonomous vehicles in 13 countries around the world. The 19-year-old security researcher and coding professional recently declared that he exposed significant vulnerabilities in Tesla's connected keyless entry and driving systems. He stated that he could remotely unlock doors and windows, control the cars' stereos, flash car headlights, and even start their engines to begin navigation.

According to a Bloomberg report, the teen hacked a third-party software that Tesla uses, a method that hackers have had a lot of success within many of the most notable breaches worldwide. The real issue with the third-party software is the information that the car owners share with the provider. Columbo was unwilling to provide additional information as he is a whitehat hacker and tests security flaws to bolster security.

Are Tesla's More Prone to Cyber Breaches?

Almost all modern cars are basically computers on wheels, making them prone to hacks at a software and a hardware level. Hardware attacks are often more challenging to detect than software attacks. Unlike software attacks, which come with anomalous behavior, a hardware attack means that the malicious chip(s) or device will have to be physically found. This can make the lifecycle of a hardware attack significantly longer. In the case of hardware attacks against a Tesla, it could be devastating, as the hardware opens up a backdoor for further software attacks - and the vicious cycle continues.

Data can be in three states depending on its movements: data at rest, data in use, and data in motion. All data kept on devices that are not transmitted from device to device or network to network is referred to as data at rest. It includes data saved directly on hard disks and data stored in databases, file systems, and storage infrastructure. Data in use is data that is being updated, processed, erased, accessed, or read by a system right now and is kept in IT infrastructures like RAM, databases, or CPUs. This form of data is not stored passively but rather in a very active manner. Data in motion, also known as data in transit, is information going from one location to another.

As a result, data in transit is regarded as less secure. It is vulnerable to Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) cyberattacks that target data as it travels, not only because it is exposed to transfer across potentially unsecured routes but also because it leaves the security of enterprise networks going to potentially less secure locations.

Data at rest is deemed less dangerous than data in motion since it is not exchanged over the internet and remains inside the constraints of enterprise networks and security frameworks.

On the other hand, data at rest is more appealing to cybercriminals because it ensures a larger payout than tiny data packets in transit. Malicious insiders attempting to harm a company's reputation or steal data before moving on to a new job frequently target data at rest.

Even while data at rest isn't sent via the internet, it nevertheless travels. Data at rest is put in a particularly vulnerable position during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more and more work computers are taken out of the security of office settings and into the limited security capabilities of home environments.

Enterprises and even small and medium-size organizations spend billions of dollars annually at attempts to protect their "crown jewels." However, no matter how hard they try, we still read about record-breaking data breaches, hacks of millions of IoT devices (connected devices), and more.

How to Safeguard Data in Transit vs. Data at Rest

Both data at rest and data in motion have their own set of concerns in terms of security. While data in motion is inescapable, many businesses have attempted to limit the local storage of sensitive company data by establishing Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDIs) and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) platforms. These solutions, however, come with their own set of data security problems.

To protect data at rest from external threats, basic cybersecurity measures such as firewalls and antivirus software are necessary. Until now, many car manufacturers have been using similar security solutions, which is not a good thing as threat actors can reverse engineer and implement techniques faster than many of these solutions can patch vulnerabilities.

Solutions like Upstream Security and its Cybersecurity & Data Management Platform for Connected Vehicles are backed by BMW, Volvo, Hyundai, Renault, Nissan, Mitshubishi, etc. Still, many of these companies have reported hacks over the last few years.

Another popular defense solution is IBM's Cloud Pak for Data Systems, which uses SSD disks as the primary storage medium. Together with a range of other costly solutions, it may have effectively protected the Teslas from hacks such as Columbo's.

Still, both of these solutions require regular maintenance and, in many cases, an entire team of cybersecurity professionals to operate them correctly.

There is, however, another option.

Hub Security has developed the ultimate holistic security solution to encrypt data-at-rest and data-in-motion. Its proprietary Hardware encryption solutions and Data-in-use encryption are military-grade products implemented across major enterprises. Advanced attacks against Lo4j utility are useless with the Hub Security solution. Hub Security would have made Columbo's attempts at breaching Tesla ineffective.

A dual application will end the need for the myriad of cybersecurity solutions that, until today, have not lived up to their promises. As threat actors implement innovative ways to hack and reverse engineer products and software, so too must be the solutions chosen to protect the crown jewels, which is why Hub Security has approached things completely different from existing cybersecurity companies.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Tesla's Supercharger network used to be exclusive for Tesla EVs, but that time is now coming to an end. The company just recently announced that all Supercharger stations located in the Netherlands will now allow non-Tesla owners to charge their electric vehicles.

Tesla Netherlands Supercharger Network to Allow Non-Tesla EVs to Charge

According to the story by TechCrunch, the recent announcement actually makes a pilot program expansion which initially kicked off in November 2021 with just ten stations. Interest regarding opening up Tesla's Supercharger networks to allow other EVs in the summer of the same year was also expressed by CEO Elon Musk.

Tesla, unlike other automakers, operates quite an "expansive proprietary network" that in the past has not allowed electric vehicles coming from other automakers to charge. As of the moment, there are now 30,000 Supercharging stations around the world which originally started being built in 2012.

Tesla Pilot Program to Allow Other EVs to Charge Through Tesla App

With the new pilot program, Tesla will now allow EVs from other automakers in the Netherlands and a number of other stations in different European countries, which include Belgium, France, and Norway to charge their cars through the Tesla app.

As of the moment, there has not yet been integration of Tesla's systems "with other EV station collators like Plugshare." In addition, Tesla reportedly uses a proprietary plug that is only capable of fitting Tesla vehicles meaning the pilot can only be used by EVs that have a "combined charging system-enabled CSS vehicle."

Non-Tesla EVs Could Get Charged More for Using Supercharger Network

Tesla, however, notes that if the connector won't fit other cars, drivers can still report the problem to the company's customer support center. TechCrunch, however, notes that EVs that aren't coming from Tesla "might get charged more" in order for them to use Tesla's Supercharger sites.

According to Tesla, this is due to the additional costs that happen in order for them to support charging a wide range of different vehicles and also the costs of adjustments to their sites in order for them to accommodate the vehicles.

Read Also: Tesla FSD AI: Neural Network Features 'Many Layers' Says Elon Musk-Different with Statistical Learning?

Tesla has 33 Supercharger Stations in the Netherlands with 18 More to Come Soon

The per kWh price in order to charge, however, could be lowered should drivers opt to buy a "charging membership." A select number of sites were initially chosen for Tesla to start with in order for the company to monitor congestion, review the experience, and also "assess feedback before expanding."

Other sites will reportedly only be opened in the future to non-Tesla EVs should there be available capacity. As per the DailySabah, the Netherlands, with 75,000 stations, currently has the most number of "EV charging stations in Europe."

This reportedly gives Tesla a "competitive playground" in order for them to be able to further test the pilot program. As of the moment, there are 33 Tesla stations in the Netherlands and an additional 18 are expected to come soon as per the official Tesla website.

Related Article: Tesla Cybertruck Transforms Into a Boat? Young Businessman Explains How To Make It Into an Advanced Catamaran

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian B.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Meta, Facebook's parent company, faces a lawsuit in Texas after it was accused of illegally saving the data of millions of residents via facial recognition for more than a decade.

Meta Gets Sued in Texas

On Monday, Feb. 14, Texas' Harrison County District Court filed the lawsuit and stated that Facebook's photo-tagging feature did not disclose the terms and conditions of the technology and failed to get the consent of Texans before saving their facial recognition data.

The facial recognition technology analyzes users' faces in the pictures uploaded on the platform and recommends tagging those with whom they are in the picture.

In 2021, Facebook announced it would discontinue the feature just months after it settled a lawsuit in Illinois because of the same issue. Facebook settled the lawsuit for a total of $650 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The tech giant also announced that it would delete data collected from more than 600 million users who had used the feature.

Also Read: $550 Million Settlement: Is It Enough for Facebook to Stop Facial Recognition?

However, Facebook had already collected biometric data in violation of Texas' consumer protection and biometric data privacy laws, as per the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The biometric data law, the Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, was passed in 2009.

In response to the lawsuit, a Meta spokesperson said that the claims are without merit and that the company will vigorously defend its operation.

The lawsuit alleges that from 2010 through 2011, the tech giant secretly forced millions of Texas into a facial-recognition scheme without their consent.

As a result, for the next decade, millions of Texans who posted their pictures on social media site unsuspectingly had records of their facial geometry captured by Facebook.

Since several people included in the data that Facebook saved are non-users, the company violated the privacy of those people under state laws, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit marks the culmination of an investigation done by Texas officials for years into Meta's facial recognition software and how it violated Texas law.

The lawsuit also highlights how technology is coming under scrutiny as lawmakers and the public grow more skeptical of platforms such as Facebook.

Even though Facebook suspended the technology, Meta has not applied the same thing to its other platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Reality Labs, and its virtual-reality metaverse that is set to launch in the coming years.

The lawsuit calls for the court to impose a $25,000 civil penalty on Meta per violation of Texas' biometric law and $10,000 per violation of Texas consumer protection law. According to CNN, Paxton is seeking billions of dollars in damages.

Facebook's Facial Recognition Templates

According to NBC News, privacy advocates have questioned the tech giant's practice of scanning pictures for any recognizable faces. They have accused the company of abusing the technology to gather data for its use.

Meta's vice president for artificial intelligence, Jerome Pesenti, released a statement last year to talk about the allegations. He said that Facebook would still use facial recognition for narrow use cases.

The cases would include helping users gain access to a locked account, verifying their identity in products, or effectively unlocking a personal device.

Related Article: Facial Recognition: Threat Vs. Student Privacy? NY Schools May Be Sued

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
On May 3, 2021, Black Hammer leader Augustus Romain Jr., aka Gazi Kodzo, posted this photo on Facebook declaring they had liberated 200 acres of land somewhere in Colorado. The soil, they wrote, was rich. (Facebook)
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Australian graphite producer Syrah Resources announced Tuesday it will spend $176 million to expand its Vidalia plant, a move that will allow it to process graphite that will be used in electric vehicle batteries for manufacturers such as Tesla. The expansion is expected to create 36 jobs.
Operators of Louisiana child care centers said Friday they are bracing for sweeping changes in criminal background checks for about 16,000 employees, including doubled costs for State Police, sex registry and other reviews.

The requirements stem from a federal law aimed at ensuring the protection of children at the centers.

No one disputes the intent, but those who run the centers say the additional expenses will be significant.

Others questioned how the state will process 16,000 applications for background checks between March 1 and Sept. 30 to meet the federal deadline.

Louisiana is using its fourth waiver to comply with the law, and officials of the state Department of Education said failure to do so by next year could endanger $88 million in federal dollars for child care.

Louisiana seeks more time to implement new criminal background checks for child care workers State officials said Wednesday they expect to get an one-year extension in their overhaul of

Under the current rules, operators of child care centers pay $41 for a criminal background check for their employees, which includes a review by State Police and a fingerprinting fee.

The new rules will make the review a five-point check and cost $88-$93 per worker.

That includes a fingerprint-based search of the Louisiana criminal history record; fingerprint-based search of the federal criminal history; a search by the state Department of Child and Family Services of the State Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect; a search of the Louisiana Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry and a search of the National Sex Offender Registry.

The background checks are good for five years.

Cindy Bishop, executive director of the Childcare Association of Louisiana, said the higher costs are by far the key issue for operators of the centers. "Huge increase," she said.

"One of our centers in Ascension Parish, their costs would be $10,000," Bishop said.

Changes in criminal background checks will be topic of eight meetings The state Department of Education will hold eight information sessions statewide on new crim

"Think about this," she said. "You are not only having to get all of your prospective employees background checked. You are having to get your current employees background checked."

Bishop made her comments after a 90-minute session for operators held by officials of the state Department of Education, the eighth and final in a series of "road shows" on the issue.

In the past, owners and operators of child care centers applied for background checks themselves through a local sheriff's office or State Police.

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Under the new law, the state Department of Education will process the checks, which means operators will submit applications to the state agency.

The higher fees for background checks will cost $50,000 for about 500 employees of the Regina Coeli Child Development Center in the Florida parishes, said Sandra Flad, human resources director.

Flad, who attended the meeting, said the center has 15 sites and around 100 new workers per year.

"Our turnover in this industry is horrendous," she said. "It is just part of the industry we live in."

State officials, who repeatedly noted that the changes stem from a federal law, said they know the higher costs are a sensitive subject.

"This is a big change for all of you," said Valerie Black, program manager for criminal background checks in the state education department.

"This is a big change for Louisiana," she said. "We really need this to work."

Officials said the fees will be reviewed yearly in hopes they can be trimmed.

The charges are higher if centers hire workers who have lived in another state in the past five years.

In that case fees will range from $103 to $108 per worker.

Costs of the new background checks were a recurring topic during a question and answer session with officials of the centers.

Can operators of child care centers be reimbursed if potential hires are declared ineligible?

That is a question for an attorney or the state Department of Labor, state officials said.

Can operators of early learning centers stipulate that new hires have to pay back costs of the review if they leave within three months?

Another question for an attorney, they said.

Starting March 1, requests for criminal background checks under the new system will be staggered to avoid a sudden crush of requests.
State officials said Wednesday they expect to get an one-year extension in their overhaul of criminal background checks for at least 16,000 employees of licensed childcare centers.

The new rules stem from a 2014 federal law.

They are supposed to be in place by Sept. 30.

But Jenna Conway, assistant state superintendent for early childhood education, said the state has sought, and expects to get from the federal government, a one-year extension to implement the requirements.

Under current rules, individual directors of childcare centers and Head Start leaders are responsible for their employees undergoing criminal background checks. The federal law will put the state Department of Education in charge of overseeing the checks, and makes those reviews more comprehensive.

The reviews will include fingerprint searches with the FBI as well as checks with the National Sex Offender Registry, Louisiana Sex Offender Registry and the Louisiana Child Abuse and Neglect Registry.

In addition, job applicants will face background checks in previous states where they worked.

Once employees are cleared for work, approval would be good for five years. Those certifications are open ended now.

State lands $10 million federal grant for preschool classes Louisiana is getting $10 million from the federal government to improve preschool programs f

The rules apply to licensed childcare centers regardless of whether they get federal dollars and anyone who takes public funds for child care assistance.

They cover staff, volunteers and contractors who work at the centers and individuals who work or live at registered home-based providers.

Others include employees of public schools that operate early learning centers, teacher preparation programs and students and Louisiana Department of Health workers who provide services to children.

"This is a pretty significant change in how this works," Conway told the Early Childhood Care and Education Advisory Council.

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The council advises the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which is set to tackle the issue during its Aug. 15-16 meeting.

The state department won authority to oversee criminal background checks through a 2017 state law sponsored by state Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport.

The federal law is aimed at ensuring that adults working with children have not committed violent crimes, child abuse or sexual offenses.

"The intent obviously to keep all the kids safe," Conway said. "This is not optional. And there are sanctions involved if states do not follow this rule very carefully."

The state gets about $80 million per year in federal early childcare grants.

Tax credits have led to better child care, federal funds for Louisiana, advocates say While state tax credits are under scrutiny amid budget problems, child care advocates said 

Council members praised the aim of the law but complained about some of the details, including costs.

Each application for a criminal background check will cost $88-$93, including a $15 administrative fee for the state Department of Education, $26 to do a Louisiana criminal history check, $12 for the FBI to do a federal criminal history review and $15 per state to review activities in previous residencies.

Melanie Bronfin, a member of the council, said Congress needs to know the impact the law is having on Louisiana child care operators.

"I think the law is an excellent thing," Bronfin said. "It is just the way it is being implemented. It is an unfunded mandate."

Bronfin is executive director of the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children in New Orleans.

Applications for criminal background checks will begin March 1, 2018.

State officials also plan webinars, information sessions around the state and a conference hosted by the Child Care Association of Louisiana to get the word out between August and November.
Lousiana Governor John Bel Edwards pauses while delievering prepared remarks at a press conference at the State Capitol, discussing what he knew about the death of Black motorist Ronald Greene, and when, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. After meeting with Black legislators, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday he hasn't done anything to prevent justice from being served, and was informed of an incident involving State Police almost immediately after it happened on May 10, as is the usual protocol. He didn't see the video of State Police troopers beating Ronald Greene until months later, he said.
The Republican-controlled state House and Senate took a major step Monday toward approving new legislative maps that would solidify the huge GOP advantage in each chamber for the next decade.

On a 27-12 vote, the Senate passed a plan that would establish the 39 state Senate district boundaries for next years legislative elections, while the House approved a new map for the 105 House districts on an 82-21 vote.

Lawmakers approved the Senate map on near-partisan line votes, while the House vote attracted 12 Democrats, including five Black legislators.

Each plan still needs to be passed by the other chamber before the three-week redistricting session ends no later than Sunday. But final passage seems assured for both measures since the House and Senate traditionally make nothing more than minor changes to maps for the other chamber.

The biggest uncertainty in the coming days is whether Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, will veto either measure. He has 20 days after receiving the bills to make that decision.

John Bel Edwards' chances of vetoing redistricting bills are iffy. Here's why Gov. John Bel Edwards won a legislative showdown last year when he persuaded just enough House members to side with him over the Republican sp

The new Senate boundaries are embodied in Senate Bill 1, while the House lines are contained in House Bill 14.

After next years legislative elections, Republicans are expected to maintain their two-thirds advantage in the Senate and might reach that goal in the House. That threshold is important because certain votes  especially on tax bills  require a two-thirds majority.

The chief map makers  Rep. John Stefanski, R-Crowley, and Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette  have carried out reapportionment with several factors in mind.

One major goal was to protect incumbents. Stefanski and Cortez have repeatedly said they met with all of their colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, and tried to draw new boundaries for them.

I have to rely on you to tell me whats best for your district, Stefanski told the House on Monday.

Only two lawmakers who can run for re-election have condemned the proposed new shape of their districts that would take effect for next years elections. They are Sen. Gary Carter, D-New Orleans, and Rep. Roy Daryl Adams, a political independent from Jackson.

How do you eliminate potential political opponents? One state rep tried to move them out of her new district State Rep. Polly Thomas has clout in the Legislature as the only Jefferson Parish Republican on the House committee that is redrawing election

Cortez and Stefanski have also tried to lock in the Republican numerical advantage, which they have shown by turning aside efforts by Democrats to elect more of their members.

The Senate map appears likely to give Republicans a 28-11 advantage, compared to 27-12 under the current lineup. Analysts expect the seat of Sen. Gary Smith, D-Norco, who is term-limited, to flip to the Republican Party. Rep. Greg Miller, R-Norco, has expressed an interest in running for the seat.

Republicans currently hold 68 seats in the House compared to 34 for Democrats and three without party affiliation. Republicans hope the new districts will give them at least 70 votes, the two-thirds threshold.

The Republican plan would move one House district from north Louisiana to New Orleans to offset population losses in the north and gains in the south. It is designed to remain in Democratic hands.

Rep. Kenny Cox, D-Natchitoches, represents that district today, and on Monday he decried the plan.

This has been a very difficult time for me, said Cox, who became a sacrificial lamb because he is term-limited, in a further reflection of the effort to shelter incumbents.

Cox spent several minutes questioning the decision to shift his district, noting that he grew up poor in Coushatta and served this country for more than two decades in the U.S. Army.

But Cox finished up by withdrawing his amendment without a vote.

The population and the census dictated the move of his district, Stefanski said.

Republican plan to remap the state House advances. It would shift a district to New Orleans The Republican-controlled Louisiana House on Wednesday took its first legislative step in adopting redistricting maps that will lock in the pa

Democrats sought to shift a district held by Rep. Alan Seabaugh, a term-limited Republican from Shreveport. But that plan would create a new Democrat seat, so Republicans rejected it last week.

The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Republicans defeated attempts on Monday by Rep. Cedric Glover, D-Shreveport, to redraw the lines in northwest Louisiana to dilute the Black and White majorities in each district.

Reducing those majorities would force more lawmakers to seek common ground, Glover told his colleagues.

Glover won no more than 32 votes for his amendments after a parade of Republicans spoke against them.

In redrawing the legislative boundaries, Cortez and Stefanski also have had to pay close attention to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits Louisiana from reducing the number of Black representatives.

The Senate plan would maintain 11 Black-majority districts, while the House plan would keep 29.

Rep. Denise Marcelle and Sen. Ed Price, both of whom are Black, said those numbers should increase since Louisiana has more Black residents compared to 10 years ago and fewer White people. Marcelle and Price said both plans underrepresent the 33% Black population in Louisiana.

Cortez countered that drawing more Black-majority districts would require extensive gerrymandering  oddly-shaped boundaries drawn solely for political purposes.

Mark Ballard: How race plays role in legal redistricting process House Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee repeated variations of We looked at all options and this is the approach we took during Thursdays debate

Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, said HB14 represents no progress because the state House had 29 Black lawmakers in 1876, when post-Civil War Reconstruction laws permitted the election of Black candidates for a brief period.

I think it is fair and legal and represents Louisiana, Stefanski said of HB14.

The Legislatures breakdown helps explain the focus on race during the redistricting session.

The House has 27 Black members, and all of them are Democrats and were elected in Black-majority districts. Two White members  Rep. Robby Carter, D-Greensburg, and Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans  also represent Black-majority districts.

Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, is the only White person who represents one of the 11 Black-majority Senate seats.

No Black lawmaker represents a White-majority seat.

In Mondays 27-12 Senate vote, two senators didnt vote with their party.

The lone party crossovers on SB1 were Sens. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, who voted for the bill, and Barrow Peacock, R-Shreveport, who voted no.

After the vote Barrow said she wanted to vote "no" on the bill, which would make the tally 26-13.

She said her "yes" vote was a mistake.

Peacocks vote was not a surprise because the Senate bill moves his district to the Northshore because of the population shifts. Peacocks district was targeted because he cannot seek another term in the Senate.

Voting for a new map for the 105 House districts (82): Speaker Schexnayder, Reps Amedee, Bacala, Bagley, Beaullieu, Bishop, Bourriaque, Brass, Brown, Bryant, Butler, Carrier, R. Carter, Cormier, Coussan, Crews, Davis, Deshotel, DeVillier, DuBuisson, Echols, Edmonds, Edmonston, Emerson, Farnum, Firment, Fisher, Fontenot, Freeman, Freiberg, Frieman, Gadberry, Garofalo, Geymann, Goudeau, Harris, Hilferty, Hodges, Hollis, Horton, Hughes, Huval, Illg, Ivey, M. Johnson, T. Johnson, Kerner, LaCombe, Landry, Mack, Magee, Marino, McCormick, McFarland, McKnight, McMahen, Miguez, G. Miller, Mincey, Muscarello, Nelson, Orgeron, C. Owen, R. Owen, Pressly, Riser, Romero, Schamerhorn, Schlegel, Seabaugh, St. Blanc, Stagni, Stefanski, Tarver, Thomas, Thompson, Turner, Villio, Wheat, White, Wright and Zeringue.

Voting against HB14 (21): Reps Adams, Boyd, Carpenter, W. Carter, Cox, Duplessis, Gaines, Glover, Green, Jefferson, Jenkins, Jordan, Larvadain, Lyons, Marcelle, D. Miller, Newell, Phelps, Pierre, Selders and Willard.

Not Voting (1): Rep. Moore

Voting for drawing a new map for 39 Senate districts (27): President Cortez, Sens. Abraham, Allain, Barrow, Bernard, Cathey, Cloud, Connick, Fesi, Foil, Henry, Hensgens, Hewitt, Lambert, McMath, Milligan, Mills, F., Mills, R., Mizell, Morris, Pope, Reese, Stine, Talbot, Ward, White and Womack.

Voting against SB1 (12): Sens Boudreaux, Bouie, Carter, Fields, Harris, Jackson, Luneau, Peacock, Peterson, Price, Smith and Tarver.
The Louisiana Senate on Monday gave final approval to new boundaries for its own members, including the current 11 majority-minority districts.

The measure, Senate Bill 1, now heads to the House but tradition dictates that each chamber generally defers to the lines drawn by the other.

That means the issue is likely settled ahead of mandatory adjournment on Feb. 20.

The vote was 27-12 and broke mostly along party lines, with majority Republicans behind the measure and most Democrats opposed.

"It took us a while to get it where we are now," said Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette and sponsor of the measure.

Cortez said the plan only moved through the Senate after individual meetings with senators, amendments in committee, amendments on the floor, debate and delays on a final vote and still more private discussions.

Earlier there were efforts by Sen. Ed Price, D-Gonzales, and others to boost the number of majority-minority districts to 13 in the 39-member Senate.

Backers said the additions made sense, especially Black residents make up 33% of Louisiana's population.

Cortez countered that doing so would have required extensive gerrymandering -- boundaries drawn solely for political purposes.

Redistricting is required every 10 years to account for population changes.

A majority-minority district is one where Black residents, who represent a minority of the population, comprise a majority of the district.

The lone party crossovers on the vote were Sens. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, who voted for the bill and Barrow Peacock, R-Shreveport, who voted no.

Regina Barrow could not be reached for comment.

The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Barrow, whose senatorial districting is being moved to the New Orleans area because of population losses in north Louisiana, cannot seek another term in the Senate.

Work on the bill was delayed after lengthy arguments on the Senate floor last week that pitted two New Orleans Democrats against each other -- Sens. Gary Carter and Karen Carter Peterson.

Senators Gary Carter and Karen Carter Peterson engaged in a testy debate over redistricting. Here's who won A behind-the-scenes dispute between two Black state senators from New Orleans burst into the open Tuesday when the two Democrats engaged in a 

Carter tried unsuccessfully to add an amendment then that would have extended his district across the Mississippi River to include parts of the east bank of New Orleans and to have Peterson's include more of the west bank of Jefferson Parish than the original version of Cortez's bill.

The proposal was seen as a bid to enhance Carter's re-election chances.

It failed 11-26.

Carter made another bid Monday to amend the measure after he said he met with both elected and unelected officials on the west bank "to solve the problem that we discussed last week."

He said it would "enhance" Jefferson Parish on the west bank and retain African-American majorities in his district and Peterson's.

"These are not lines on a page," he said. "These are people we represent, who we love. . . Who invite us into into their homes."

Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, objected to the amendment and said Carter's change would not combine communities of interest.

The amendment failed 10-28.

The Senate approved without objection a series of amendments that made slight changes to senatorial districts in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas.

Cortez said all the affected senators agreed to the changes.

Check back with The Advocate for more details.
The Entergy New Orleans Power Station off of Old Gentilly Road in New Orleans, La. Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
BHP, the largest Australian mining company, has called on the West Australian government to lift its hard border restrictions, saying it was time for the state to bring its approach to COVID in line with the rest of Australia.

The miners chief executive Mike Henry on Tuesday declared it was time for the border restrictions to be relaxed, saying: At some point things have to return to normal.

BHP chief executive Mike Henry. Credit:Thomas Graham

Mr Henry also called on political leaders to prioritise funding skills and training programs as part of upcoming federal election promises, and pointed to the need for increased investment in foreign affairs and trade to support the $350 billion-a-year resources sector amid heightened geopolitical risks.

With a federal election expected to be called for the end of May, Mr Henry said the mining giant was looking for bipartisan support to advance policies he says will be essential to maintaining the sectors strong contribution to the economy, including the output of Australias top export  iron ore.
Elon Musk, it seems, is finally becoming a philanthropist on the scale of his billionaire peers.

The electric car and space mogul gifted $US5.7 billion ($8 billion) worth of Tesla stock to charity in the span of 10 days in November  many times more than hes given away through his eponymous foundation in the two decades since it was founded. Where that donation is going is a mystery, but its just one more signal that the worlds richest person is taking philanthropy more seriously.

Elon Musks November donation spree came around the time he was sparring with politicians on Twitter about his taxes. Credit:AP

The decision by Musk, 50, to donate more than 5 million shares in the electric-car maker was disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday night, and comes on the heels of some of his biggest-ever philanthropic commitments  though nothing has come close to the scale of billions of dollars. It would also help reduce what he called the biggest tax bill in US history.

The Musk Foundation in the past couple of years has made eight-figure grants to the city and local school system near his South Texas spaceport, a $US100 million ready-made competition to fight climate change and millions of dollars to a pair of COVID-19 researchers.
Geelong residents are calling on the Victorian government to reject a plan to build a large gas-import facility in Corio Bay, but energy experts say the state is headed for a gas shortfall without quick intervention.

Fuel supplier Viva Energy, which runs Australias Shell and Liberty petrol stations, last year announced its Geelong oil refinery site would become an energy hub that would include a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to import gas from elsewhere in Australia and overseas.

Geelong residents are concerned about a proposal to locate a gas import terminal at Viva Energys refinery. Credit:Eddie Jim

Locals have formed a campaign, Geelong Renewables Not Gas, to lobby against the proposal, saying they are opposed to any fossil fuel-related projects in an era of climate change and are concerned about the local safety implications for the sites neighbours.

The climate impacts of a gas import terminal are huge. We dont want to see any more Victorian fossil fuel projects going ahead, spokesperson Sally Fisher said.
Families with multiple children are struggling to keep their screen time within the recommended limits, new research has found, with calls for more resources to help families navigate the issue.

Current Australian guidelines recommend no screen time at all for children under two years of age, one hour per day for those aged two to four, and two hours daily for children aged five to 12.

New research has found families with multiple children are struggling to meet screen-time guidelines. Credit:Shutterstock

But research from the University of Queensland suggests parents of children across multiple age ranges are failing to meet those guidelines.

UQ maternal and child health expert Leigh Tooth led a study looking at almost 2000 mothers and 4543 children aged under 12 to see how they handled screen time.
A woman has died after she was washed off the rocks near Kiama on the NSW South Coast.

Paramedics and police were called just before 3pm on Tuesday after being told two people were struggling in the water off Boneyard Beach, between Kiama Downs and Bombo.

NSW Ambulance dispatched five road crews and the rescue helicopter, which had a specialist medical team on board.

The helicopter winched a 21-year-old woman from the water in a critical condition.
The revelation last week that the nations counter-espionage agency, ASIO, had disrupted a plan by an unnamed Chinese spy known as the puppeteer to bankroll NSW Labor candidates in the upcoming federal election was always going to cause a political splash.

As Beijing and Moscow signed an agreement strengthening ties with each other, and fears grow of military action against Taiwan and Ukraine, Foreign Minister Marise Payne had already decided to call out disinformation emanating from China and Russia aimed at destabilising our democracy.

Both Senator Payne and ASIO director-general Mike Burgess have drawn attention to the danger of extremism that such disinformation can create during a pandemic  a world into which this masthead was recently given a deeply personal insight through escaped freedom movement activist Ash Jackson.

The idea that Beijing was attempting to pursue its agendas within our nations corridors of power by installing so-called Manchurian candidates is a sobering one. But we must not allow an election season to lead us into febrile alarmism. As Mr Burgess also pointed out, our elections remain secure. He also drew attention to the danger that community divisions caused by fear of foreign interference could have the same corrosive impact on our democracy as foreign interference itself. That was a message underlined by NSW Labors state election candidate Jason Yat-sen Li, who has said he and his volunteers were subject to racist comments from opponents at polling booths whispered into the ears of voters.
Three years after the federal government promised almost 50 commuter car parks to take tens of thousands of cars off suburban streets, just six have been built and there is growing evidence of cost blowouts for those that may not be delivered until the middle of the decade.

Across two separate Senate estimates hearings on Tuesday that at times became heated, Infrastructure Department officials confirmed of the 47 railway station car parks pledged by the government ahead of the last federal election, six are now taking commuters while another six are under construction.

Ringwood railway station car park in suburban Melbourne is one of the projects promised funding in 2019. Credit:Paul Jeffers

The car parks formed part of a $500 million fund announced in the 2019 pre-election budget by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who promised public transport hubs that would take tens of thousands of cars off our roads.

By the end of the election campaign, the promised car parks had swelled to $660 million worth, including four in Mr Frydenbergs Melbourne seat of Kooyong.
ANNAPOLIS (Feb. 14, 2022)More than 100 Maryland organizations have called on the state Senate to continue live video testimony at committee hearings after the chamber's leadership announced it would end the option Monday when the Senate transitions back to in-person meetings.



The organizations, which include leading labor unions and social justice, voting rights and government accountability groups, released a statement Thursday saying ending the virtual testimony option would limit vital input from everyday Marylanders.



Primarily, the organizations said, people of color, immunocompromised individuals and workers whose schedules do not allow them time to attend meetings in Annapolis would have fewer opportunities to contribute.



The Senate and the House of Delegates have allowed remote testimony the last two sessions during the daily hearings due to concerns about COVID-19.



The House has maintained it will continue with remote meetings and hearings throughout the legislative session.



In a memorandum to the chamber, Senate President Bill Ferguson, D-Baltimore, said his decision to move to in-person hearings was based on improved pandemic metrics. The decision to exclude live video testimony was in part because of technical difficulties.



"Due to the logistical challenge of appropriately streaming in-person and Zoom testimony simultaneously, we will not be allowing hybrid testimony for bill hearings," Ferguson's memorandum said.



Ferguson said in "extraordinary circumstances," committee chairs could choose to allow witnesses to send pre-recorded video testimony if they cannot testify in person.



But some, like Executive Director of Common Cause Maryland Joanne Antoine, said the Senate has not provided the means or guidance for witnesses to provide alternative video testimony.



"There is no guidance on the length of video testimony, nowhere to submit video on the website, and no guidelines for what circumstances would allow video testimony to be accepted," Antoine told Capital News Service. "If you're not providing guidance on how to use these tools, then it's just a line just to be there."



Ferguson's director of communications, David Schuhlein, said new guidelines for witness testimony would be posted online by committees starting Friday.



As of 3 p.m. Friday, four of the seven standing Senate committees had released updated guidelines that specified testimony at hearings would be in person. None of the documents mentioned protocols for pre-recorded video testimony. The other three committees had not released updated guidelines.



Part of Ferguson's decision is linked to a belief about the General Assembly that is separate from health or technology, according to a statement released by Schuhlein.



"From the beginning of the 2022 Legislative Session, the Senate President has believed that a core part of the democratic process is having the public in person when safe to do so," he said. "Key health metrics are returning to pre-omicron levels, and as such, the Senate president is moving forward with the plan."



Ferguson said publicly in January that if health conditions permitted, the Senate would transition back to in-person hearings.



But some organizations argue a return to the status quo excludes many constituents.



CASA de Maryland, an immigration advocacy organization, has had members and representatives provide virtual witness testimony at hearings this session.



"Pandemic or not, failure to extend a virtual option only excludes the voices that legislators need to hear the most," said Cathryn Paul, government relations and public policy manager at CASA de Maryland. "Black and brown Marylanders are those who will be impacted the most. The Senate should be maximizing access, not limiting it."



Nikki Tyree, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Maryland, said her conversation with Ferguson's office earlier this week made clear that the chamber is "dug in" on its position to eliminate live virtual testimony.



"This move was deliberate," Tyree said in an interview. "It shouldn't be seen as anything other than closing the door on Marylanders."
A decision on stood-aside cabinet minister Alan Tudge has been delayed until federal officials review an investigation into his affair with a former press secretary, amid new rumours he will be dumped from the ministry before the election.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will wait for advice from one of his top public servants before taking any action on the senior Victorian Liberal, who stood aside from his position of education minister last December when new claims triggered the investigation.

Alan Tudges future as a minister wont be decided for weeks. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

A senior government source with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the decision on Mr Tudge was not expected within days because Mr Morrison wanted advice on the matter from Stephanie Foster, the deputy secretary in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

There is another chapter to go on this well before the PM makes up his mind, the source said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has fuelled the criticism surrounding a $100,000 donation to Zali Steggall, saying the declaration error was hard for her to explain, while repeating the governments mantra that a vote for the Voices for movement was a vote for Anthony Albanese.

During a wide-ranging interview on 2GB this morning, the Prime Minister also defended his 60 Minutes interview in which he played the ukulele, saying that those who sneered at him were sneering at millions of Australians who just get on with their lives.

Mr Morrison used the opportunity to ramp up the governments attacks on Labor on multiple fronts, including by trying to wedge the opposition on the deportation of foreign criminals, while also painting the opposition as Chinas favoured bet for the election.

We are the certainty when it comes to these issues in a very uncertain world. And theyve demonstrated weakness, Mr Morrison said of Labor.
Since then, barely a word has been written about Mr Chau. Until this week. Senator Kitchings accusation in a Senate estimates hearing relates to foreign interference whereby the puppeteer hired an employee to begin identifying and bankrolling candidates likely to run for Labor in the federal election. Loading The head of Australias counter-espionage agency ASIO, Mike Burgess, told the same hearing that ASIO stepped in to foil the plot and that no current Labor candidates were of any concern to his agency. He said it was critical that Australia did not let the fear of foreign interference undermine stakeholder engagement or stoke community division, as that would have the same corrosive impact on our democracy as foreign interference itself. Mr Chau has long been a well-connected businessman with ties to both major parties. He has donated more than $4 million to Australias major political parties since 2004  although it is believed they have stopped taking money from him. He has also donated more than $45 million to Australian universities, making him one of the biggest donors in Australian history.

Politicians who have previously met Mr Chau include former prime ministers John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, as well as former foreign affairs ministers Julie Bishop and Bob Carr. But there is a now wide gap between what Australian politicians are prepared to say about Mr Chau within the Federal Parliament and outside its walls. Speaking at the opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum on November 16, 2020, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the institution at the University of Sydney had risen thanks to the generosity of the man whose name that it bears, as well as three other philanthropists. Labor leader Anthony Albanese spoke at the Chau Chak Wing Museum dinner in November, 2020. Credit:Youtube Four great philanthropists. We should not take that for granted  their generosity, Mr Albanese said at the event, which Mr Carr and former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson also attended, but not Mr Chau.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has seen an invitation to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to attend the same event, which was declined by his office. Defence Minister Peter Dutton appeared to be pointing this out in Parliament on Tuesday, when he said we dont hang out in a museum with Bob Carr ... and other murky figures. Asked why he attended the event, a spokesperson for Mr Albanese said: As an alumnus, Mr Albanese regularly attends events at Sydney University. According to last years defamation court judgment, Mr Chau was born in Guangdong province in China in 1949 and became an Australian citizen in about 1999. He came from a poor family and had no tertiary education. As he was growing up, he saw the value of a good education at a tertiary institution through the success in life of a person who had lived in his village and later obtained such an education, the court judgment reads.

Mr Chaus childhood ambition, which he has pursued with the benefit of his own business success, was to support education and educational institutions. Loading Liberal MP Andrew Hastie told Parliament in 2018 that he learnt from US authorities that Mr Chau was the unindicted co-conspirator identified in a New York court indictment as CC-3. CC-3 was alleged in the indictment to have funded a $US200,000 ($263,000) bribe which was funnelled to the former president of the UN General Assembly, John Ashe, in 2013. Chinese-Australian businesswoman Sheri Yan was jailed in the US in 2016 after pleading guilty to bribing Mr Ashe, but CC-3 was never charged.

Its time we applied sunlight to our political system and a person who has featured prominently in Australian politics, Mr Hastie said in his 2018 speech to Parliament. For reasons that are best undisclosed, the United States government did not seek to charge CC-3 for his involvement in the bribery of John Ashe. We know that CC-3 was willing to participate in the bribery of the 68th United Nations President of the General Assembly in 2013. We also know that ... CC-3 was in close contact with the United Front, the influence arm of the Chinese Communist Party in 2007. Mr Hastie said that CC-3 had also been a very significant donor to both of our major political parties. He has given more than $4 million since 2004. He has also donated $45 million to universities in Australia. It is now my duty to inform the House  and the Australian people  that CC-3 is Mr Chau Chak Wing.

When Nine and the ABC had tried to report these same allegations years earlier - without the benefit of parliamentary privilege - they were met with defamation claims from Mr Chau, the rebuke of multiple judges, and severe financial losses. The spectre of Chinese government interference has been an issue that has plagued both major parties in recent years. In November 2020, Liberal Party member Sunny Duong became the first person charged under Australias landmark foreign interference laws for an alleged plot to target then-acting immigration minister Alan Tudge. Leading into this years election, the Coalition is likely to increase its attacks on Labor over its stance on China, despite the opposition not differing from the federal government when it comes to substantive policies. Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton have both accused Labor of appeasement in recent days when it comes to China. Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd on Tuesday called a press conference to hit back, saying that the Liberal Partys record over more than a decade showed that it was guilty of rancid hypocrisy, and a rancid lie. With China to remain the biggest foreign policy challenge of the coming generation, divisions like these are exactly what Beijing wants.
Former NSW Police commissioner and racing enthusiast Mick Fuller is a frontrunner to join the board of Racing NSW in his first role since ending more than three decades in uniform.

The Herald can reveal Mr Fullers proposed appointment is expected to be presented to NSW cabinet, among other names. A spokesman for Racing Minister Kevin Anderson said he could not confirm the proposal.

Former NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller during a COVID-19 briefing in August last year. Credit:James Brickwood

When contacted about the position on Tuesday, Mr Fuller said he had his hat in the ring for the board of Racing NSW among other jobs, after announcing his decision to step down from 34 years in policing last year.

I believe I could assist the board with the many challenges post-COVID-19, he told the Herald. Obviously thats a matter for the NSW cabinet following a merit-based process.
Guys Geelong speech also described the Andrews government as the worst government since the war. Im not sure what war hes referring to. World War II? Being of Ukrainian heritage, perhaps the idea of war, full stop, is preying on Guys mind.

My point is: there is no throwaway MAGA phrase that can be legitimately construed as a throwaway; there is no casual salute to Trump, no Freudian slip defence. Nothing Trump can be dismissed as a cutesy meme any more. And matters of integrity aside, why associate the Coalition with someone ultimately booted out of the presidency?

There was a time mainstream politicians could reference MAGA to denote they, too, were crimson-faced populists, and not aloof technocrats. There was a time even leftists reckoned Trump had a bit going for him; he might kick the global elite, he might tone down US hegemony  they were right about the latter, as an emboldened Vladimir Putin suggests. But all that was before Trump refused the peaceful handover of power thats the linchpin of liberal democracy.

Regardless, is he suggesting the Andrews government is worse than the third-term Cain-Kirner government, which financially crippled the state and branded Labor the guilty party, a legacy that haunts them still?

Truth is, the Andrews governments apparent stubborn popularity has made a revolving door of the opposition leadership. From Guy and, after a devastating 2018 election defeat that nearly toppled the Tory citadel of Brighton, to Michael OBrien and then to Guy again. At last count in January, the government retained a strong electoral lead even as Omicron wreaked havoc on the states hospitals.

Polls are harder to trust in this era of political disruption, though. After the past crushing two years, theres an undeniable residue of anger towards the Andrews government. Its not inconceivable to me that some Victorians might feel ashamed of their anger because Labor so firmly captured the moral high ground with its public health focus. In 2016, many frustrated people did not tell pollsters they were backing a wildcard Trump.

So maybe the three Liberal MPs who cheerfully engaged with the anti-lockdown and anti-mandate protesters camped out at Spring Street last November  even as some paraded life-sized gallows and an effigy of Daniel Andrews  perceived that flirting with cranks and the odd Hitler fetishist might help them cut through to less boisterous, but equally resentful, mainstream voters. Perhaps the same logic was at work in June when Coalition frontbencher Louise Staley channelled conspiracy theories about Andrews back injury.

Or at the weekend, when Scott Morrison said he understands the concerns of anti-vaccination mandate protesters. To which I say, fine, but if were running with individualism, lets go the distance. Given the unvaccinated occupy a disproportionate number of intensive care beds, its only fair we jack up their Medicare levy to compensate for the strain on the public purse. A true neoliberal would embrace such a user-pays philosophy, no?
For Rod Mackenzie, the principle is clear: a politicians duty to their electorate trumps loyalty to the party. The former Labor MP learnt that many elected representatives didnt share his view of the Westminster system when he crossed the floor of the Victorian Parliament to vote against his comrades in 1987.

Such is the severity of the punishment  expulsion from the party  and the cultural antipathy for disunity, it wasnt until 35 years later that another Labor MP, Kaushaliya Vaghela, chose to cross the floor last week.

Former Labor MP Rod Mackenzie crossed the floor in 1987. Credit:Simon Schluter

Sometimes theres an issue detrimental to your electorate  you cant vote against the people who elected you, Mr Mackenzie told The Age. Your electorate comes before the party, the Parliament comes before the party, and your conscience comes before the party.

Ms Vaghela sided with her factional ally, the dumped former Labor minister Adem Somyurek, to refer the red shirts rort  in which Labor MPs misused $400,000 in public funds in 2014  back to the Victorian Ombudsman. The Age on Monday revealed the ALP had now moved to expel her for displaying disloyalty to the party. Ms Vaghela had already been dropped from her position on the partys Western Metropolitan ticket as part of Labor bloodletting last year.
There are no ratios of nursing staff to residents, or minimum standards in private and not-for-profit aged care. The recommendations of last years Royal Commission to Aged Care Quality and Safety to increase pay and have at least 200 minutes of care per resident per day  with 40 minutes by a registered nurse  are yet to be enacted. Public sector homes are generally attached to a larger health service of some form, and most are staffed almost entirely with qualified nurses. A typical private or not-for-profit aged care home is 70 to 80 per cent staffed with personal care assistants, who have far less health training than nurses. Employers in the aged care industry want a substantial staff wage increase, paid for by the federal government, and many are struggling to get out from under heavy deficits. Aged Services Minister Richard Colbeck will appear before a Senate hearing on aged care on Wednesday morning. His spokesman said the government recognised staffing levels were a critical issue in aged care, as was worker pay.

Loading Last week, a coalition of employers and unions wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison requesting his government lift wages and subsidies to operators immediately. Among the groups was Aged and Community Services Australia. Chief executive Paul Sadler agrees Victorian public-sector homes have performed well, but said comparing them to other centres was apples to oranges, because of the millions of dollars the Victorian government poured into those homes on top of federal subsidies. Mr Sadler said state-run homes in Victoria were usually attached to health services able to provide residents with doctors and specialist support. Most aged care homes dont have that, he said. He pointed out that the public sector also got things badly wrong. The home that ended up [starting] the royal commission [into aged care] was Oakden in South Australia, he said, run by that states government. Running things in the public sector does not automatically mean quality care.

Federal opposition aged care spokeswoman Clare ONeil. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Kirralee Jensen is director of nursing at the Ian Brand aged care home in Bundoora, a public-sector centre run by Northern Health. During the pandemic the home has largely kept out COVID-19. Weve had two outbreaks, Ms Jensen said, the first striking one resident, the second five residents. The first outbreak led to a nine-day lockdown and the second a 14-day freeze. The 30-year-old centre has an outbreak management plan, as do all aged care homes. The difference between the Ian Brand centre and more than 1000 homes that have had fresh outbreaks since Omicron arrived, is that  due to its resourcing as part of a major health service  the Bundoora home followed its plan to the letter. This included getting infected residents out of the home as soon as possible. We did actually transfer our residents out to a COVID-dedicated ward at the Northern Hospital when they tested positive, Ms Jensen said.

The home has 36 staff, 11 of them registered nurses and 20 enrolled nurses. So we have a higher skilled workforce with all nursing staff, she said. The centre does not have personal care assistants. An enrolled nurse currently earns at least $32.85 an hour. According to the Health Services Union, the entry salary for a personal care assistant in aged care is $22 an hour. A national wage case brought before the Fair Work Commission by the Health Services Union and Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation would see that raised to $29 an hour. Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The aged care workforce is clearly underpaid for the skilled, complex and emotionally taxing work they do, Labors aged care spokeswoman, Clare ONeil, said. You will earn more at Bunnings, you will earn more on the checkout at Woolworths, than you will doing some of the most complex and important work that is to be done in this country.

Ms ONeils statements around wages, though, are yet to be matched by any concrete promises from Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Asked in January about what Labor would do if it wins government in May, Mr Albanese made no commitment beyond it being up to the Fair Work Commission. In January, Mr Morrison promised more than 200,000 workers in the aged care sector two $400 cash bonuses before May to address community anger about soaring virus infections in homes. Since the royal commission, the government has promised $18.3 billion more for aged care including wage bumps. A spokesman for Mr Colbeck said: Labor has offered nothing but rhetoric. Mr Sadler said part of the reason peak bodies like his were unable to support the huge wages push brought before the Fair Work Commission by health unions was that, if it succeeded, it wasnt clear whether a federal Coalition or Labor government would pick up the extra costs. If we committed to a figure, the [Fair Work] commission said yes and the government didnt fund it, wed accelerate from 60 per cent of homes in deficit to 100 per cent.
Singapore: Tears welled up in Paul Elliotts eyes on Tuesday at Kranji War Cemetery, where nearly 4500 Allied servicemen are buried.

His wife, Di, had always wanted to make it here to honour her father, Fred Howe, on the 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore.

Paul Elliott, of Canberra, at Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore on Tuesday. Credit:Chris Barrett

She died 15 months ago, so Elliott, from Canberra, decided to fly over himself.

Im here for her as well as her father, he said.
59E59 Theaters has announced the full cast and creative team for Heartland, a new play written by Gabriel Jason Dean in collaboration with Geva Theatre Center. Directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh, Heartland is set to run March 15-April 10 with an official opening on March 26.

Press materials describe the play as follows: "Heartland is a deeply personal play following Dr. Harold Banks, who is a retired professor of Comparative Literature and Afghan Studies, waiting for his adopted daughter to return from teaching in Afghanistan, her native country. When Nazrullah, an Afghan refugee, suddenly arrives on his Nebraska doorstep armed only with his daughter's copies of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Old Man and the Sea  the two men become unlikely roommates. Set in both Maidan Shar, Afghanistan and Omaha, Nebraska, Heartland is the story of a father, his determined daughter, and a journey towards mercy."

The cast of Heartland will include Owais Ahmed (Guards at the Taj), Mark Cuddy (Waiting for Godot), and Mari Vial-Golden (LOVE).

The creative team features scenic design by Meredith Reis, costume design by Dina El-Aziz, lighting design by Seth Reiser, and sound design by Kate Marvin. Jenni Werner serves as dramaturg, with Humaira Ghilzai as cultural consultant, Rocio Mendez as intimacy director, Veronica Aglow as production stage manager, and Gulshan Mia as associate director.
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.
Majority of Republican voters would vote for DeSantis over Abbott in next presidential election
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.
President Joe Biden talks about the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11 from the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021.
In this Aug. 15, 2016, file photo, wind turbines from the Deepwater Wind project stand in the sea off Block Island, R.I.
A sign warns patrons to wear a mask Nov. 24, 2020, in the Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey.
Staff Reporter

RaeLynn Ricarte is the author of two books and an award-winning editor and reporter with more than 25 years in the newsroom. She now covers government in Eastern Washington for The Center Square.
Looking up the railing and stairs to the entrance to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the capital building in Madison.
Through its vision to promote engaged communities, improve quality of life, and enhance the states economy, Wyoming Humanities is proud to announce the latest round of grants awards provided across the state.

These funds were made possible through an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan or SHARP.

Grants were awarded in three categories:

 General Operating - for operational and salary support

 Programming - to support their humanities-based programs or projects

 Recovery - for specific efforts related to recovery from the coronavirus pandemic

In this cycle, Wyoming Humanities awarded $408,940. Since the organization started granting these funds last fall, more than half a million dollars has been provided to Wyoming organizations ($373,940 in general operating, $68,343 in programming, $64,228 in recovery).

The following list highlights organizations that have received these grants through Wyoming Humanities since October 2021, sorted by county. Note that many of these grants have reach beyond the borders of their own county, some impacting the entire state.

Those indicated with a * received grants in more than one category.

Albany County

 Albany County Public Library Foundation*: $17,500

 Albany County Public Library: $10,000

 Friends of the Albany County Public Library: $7,500

 Relative Theatrics: $5,000

 University of Wyoming Honors College: $5,000

Campbell County

 Rockpile Museum*: $11,500

 Wright Centennial Museum: $5,000

Carbon County

 Carbon County Library System  Elk Mountain: $5,000

 Carbon County Library System  Encampment/Riverside: $4,940

 Carbon County Library System  Hanna: $5,000

 Carbon County Library System  Medicine Bow: $5,000

 Carbon County Library System  Rawlins : $10,000

 Carbon County Library System  Saratoga: $5,000

 Carbon County Library System  Little Snake River Valley: $5,000

 Carbon County Library System  Sinclair: $5,000

Converse County

 Converse County Library: $10,000

Crook County

 Hulett Museum and Art Gallery: $5,000

Fremont County

 Dubois Museum: Wind River Historical Center: $7,500

 e2e Treks, DBA KULU Treks: $5,000

 Fremont County Library System: $10,000

 Fremont County Pioneer Museum: $7,500

 Lander Childrens Museum: $7,500

 Wind River Heritage Center: $5,000

Goshen County

 Goshen County Library: $10,000

Hot Springs County

 Hot Springs County Museum and Cultural Center: $7,500

Johnson County

 Johnson County Library: $10,000

Laramie County

 Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum*: $15,000

 Childrens Museum of Cheyenne: $5,000

 Laramie County Library System: $10,000

Lincoln County

 Lincoln County Library System: $10,000

Natrona County

 Casper Artists Guild/Art 321: $5,000

 Natrona County Public Library*: $15,000

 Nicolaysen Art Museum: $10,000

Park County

 Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation*: $15,000

 Meeteetse Museum District*: $12,500

Sheridan County

 Ernest Hemingway Society and Ernest Hemingway Foundation: $7,500

Sublette County

 Pinedale Fine Arts Council, Inc.*: $10,000

 Sublette County Library Foundation: $5,000

 Sublette County Library System: $10,000

Sweetwater County

 Sweetwater County Library System*: $15,000

Teton County

 Jackson Hole Childrens Museum: $10,000

 Off Square Theatre Company: $5,000

Uinta County

 Uinta County Library Foundation: $10,000

Washakie County

 Washakie County Library System: $10,000

Wyoming Humanities also provided the following grants to statewide organizations:

 Access the World with World Languages & Culture*: $15,000

 Circular Wyo: $5,000

 Wyoming State Historical Society: $7,500

 Wyoming State Museum: $10,000

To learn more about Wyoming Humanities and these grants, visit thinkwy.org.
It's "a wonderful opportunity for people to explore, learn to become creative and have a creative outlet, but also to build skills," said Suzanne Bonamici, and the Oregon U.S. Congresswoman got to see it for herself. Read more
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St. Helens Police Department investigators are again seeking information relating to the disappearance of Terry Shinaver, 33. The St. Helens man was first reported missing in May 2021.

Detectives have re-release three photos showing Shinaver and his missing vehicle in hopes of locating him.

Investigators are concerned about the nature of Mr. Shinavers disappearance and are not prepared to rule anything out at this time, St. Helens Police Department and city Communications Officer Crystal King said. Shinvaer has not been seen or heard from since April 2021, nor has his vehicle been located. Interviews are still being conducted, and this is an active investigation.

King said that St. Helens detectives have consulted with Washington State investigators and sought assistance from the Oregon Department of Justice during the course of the investigation.

Due to the nature of this case, King said additional details are not being released at this time, but that the St. Helens Police Department is committed to actively pursuing the investigation and is seeking the publics assistance.

Shinaver is described as a white male, six feet tall, 155 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a yellow, long-sleeve work shirt, blue jeans, and Carhartt boots.

The last confirmed sighting of Shinaver was at the Ilani Casino in Ridgefield, Washington, on April 30, 2021. Shinaver was reportedly driving a black 1993 Ford Ranger with Oregon license plate 356LDG.

Neither Shinaver nor his vehicle have been located.

Anyone with information about the possible whereabouts of Terry Shinaver or his vehicle or anyone who may have had contact with Shinaver on April 30, 2021 or thinks that they may have seen his vehicle should contact St. Helens Detective Matt Smith at 503-397-1521.
Clarion, PA (16214)

Today

Partly cloudy early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain this afternoon. High 68F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 59F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
Towanda, PA (18848)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 72F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain showers. Low 53F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
BAINBRIDGE - Zilphia "Zippy" Tobey Furman, 86, passed into heaven following a brief illness with her family by her side. She was born on Jan. 4, 1936. Zippy graduated from Bainbridge High School and lived in Bainbridge for most of her life. She retired from Amphenol Corporation. Zippy enjoye
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Forest City, NC (28043)

Today

Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 85F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
After several stops in production and a few covid-19 cases, Bridgertons latest season two teaser is finally here!!!

This season's romance is looking steamy as Lord Anthony Bridgeton (Jonathan Bailey), the oldest sibling, is setting out to find a suitable wife. However, his search for a new wife isnt going well until Kate (Simone Ashley) and her younger sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran) arrives from India. Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) is still keeping her deepest secret from the people closest to her.

The trailer is pretty vague at this point but were excited to see the romance between Lord Anthony and Kate! We got chills hearing Lady Whistledown and Penelope speaking in unison at the end of the trailer. In a Netflix press release, Netflix described the series,

Bridgerton is a romantic, scandalous, and clever series that celebrates the timelessness of enduring friendships, families finding their way, and the search for a love that conquers all.

Bridgerton season two will be coming out on Netflix the 25th of March! Only one month and ten days to go! Not that we're counting...
1,828 Days of Torture in a Chinese Womens Prison: Survivors Account

Under a miscarriage of justice, a Falun Gong adherent was sent to the Heilongjiang Womens Prison in Chinas northernmost province for five years1,828 dayswhere she experienced abhorrent torture.

[Those] 1,828 days and nights, every minute, every second, every scene is deeply etched in my mind and will never be erased, Chen Jing said after she was released from prison in the winter of 2021.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient, traditional Chinese mind-body practice guided by the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The Chinese communist regime has been persecuting the practice and its followers for the popularity of the practice since 1999.

As a survivor of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) persecution, I must record the persecution of Falun Gong and expose it to the world,  Chen told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times.

Born into an affluent family in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, Chen Jing, who is now 42, was beautiful, smart, had an excellent academic performance, and was exceptional in all aspects.

However, Chen was targeted by the CCP while in university because she practiced Falun Gong. The local police put her under house arrest, forcibly suspended her from classes, and threatened to expel her from school and send her to prison.

After graduating from university, she worked as a doctor at Jiamusi Central Hospital in Heilongjiang Province for a year until one day, her job was taken away and she was expelled from the hospital because of her beliefs.

On the afternoon of Jan. 21, 2016, a dozen police officers from Heilongjiang Provincial Police Department and Jiamusi Public Security Bureau arrested Chen at her residence and sent her to the Jiamusi City Detention Center the next day.

That was the beginning of five years of suffering.

Tortured in Detention Center and Prison

While incarcerated, Chen was hung up in the air with both hands tied behind her back and her body was repeatedly slammed against a wall. Prison guards pulled out all of her fingernails, stripped off her clothes and pinched her nipples, used toothpicks to hold her eyelids open at midnight to deprive her of sleep, poured cold water on her, and forced her to sit on a small stool wrapped in tape from head to toe.

She was tortured so severely she became paralyzed and lay in a bed for three months, unable to take care of herself.

On January 23, 2016, Chen was taken from the detention center to the Jiamusi Public Security Bureau Suburb Branch for interrogation.

An officer told the officers who would beat her: It doesnt matter if you beat her to death. The order is from the upper level.

They tied her hands with a bedsheet and threw the other end over a heating pipe that was 9.8 feet off the floor, suspending her in the air. Her arms soon went numb and her head and chest felt unbearably heavy. She was soaked in sweat from the excruciating pain.

Then, one officer pressed her head down as another lifted her legs up so her body was suspended parallel to the ground. They tugged her legs hard and threw her body against the wall, saying, This is called Flying the Airplane.

Chen Jing was tortured by police in her native Jiamusi, northeastern China. (Courtesy of Minghui)

Her body was covered in bruises from multiple impacts to the wall, and her spine was severely injured. One officer broke all her fingers. She was tortured for several days in a row and couldnt sleep at night because of the pain racking her body. She is 5 feet 4 inches tall but her weight dropped to less than 99 pounds.

The above is a fragment of the torture Chen was subjected to when she was interrogated.

She suffered more horrendous torture in the Heilongjiang Womens Prison, including being constantly pinched, pushed, kicked, and slapped in the face, eyes poked and eyelids held open with toothpicks, being doused with water, pinched nipples, and deprived of sleep.

The CCP tortured Chen for the sole purpose of forcing her to renounce her beliefs.

Once I renounce my belief, I will be released. If I dont, I will be sentenced. Doesnt this mean that I am innocent? Chen asked the police at the detention center.

Making a verdict that violates the facts and the law without any legal basis is a crime, she told them.

Chen was imprisoned for five years because she refused to give up her beliefs.

In China, judicial independence is basically non-existent, a Chinese human rights lawyer, who chose to be anonymous for safety, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times.

The CCPs [method of] transformation is forcibly controlling a humans brain and changing thoughts and beliefs. It goes far beyond what the law allows, and is an illegal and criminal act, political persecution, and anti-humanity, said the lawyer.

According to World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), as early as April 6, 2000, Liu Jing, the former head of the CCPs Central 610 Office, claimed at the 56th session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission that the Chinese regime employs a policy of protective and persuasive education towards most Falun Gong adherents.

The 610 Office, established by former CCP leader Jiang Zemin on June 10, 1999, is an extralegal police task force responsible for annihilating Falun Gong.

Since the oppression of Falun Gong began in 1999, detention centers, labor camps, and prisons have tortured Falun Gong adherents in countless ways to force them to renounce their beliefs. The persecution continues to this day.

Li Jiesi contributed to the report.
Nurses and members of the health sector rally outside Parliament House in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 15, 2022. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

5,000 NSW Nurses March to Parliament Despite Orders Against Strike

Around 5,000 nurses in the state of New South Wales (NSW) rallied at the state parliament despite last minute orders from the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to immediately cease industrial action.

About 150 public hospitals were affected after the nurses union assured members they would not be met with fines for disregarding IRC orders. Skeleton staff remained behind to ensure care for the critically ill.

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) General Secretary Brett Holmes said nurses stood in solidarity and declared to the premier that their goodwill was over.

This staffing crisis in our health system should never have happened and could have been avoided if those sitting in that building had listened to us, Holmes said in a media statement sent to The Epoch Times.

The union demanded a nurse-to-patient ratio of one nurse to four patients for every shift across the public health system, a commitment to a pay rise above 2.5 percent, and for the introduction of a COVID-19 allowance.

Additionally, the union wants the state government to withdraw the amendment to the Workers Compensation Act that forces health workers to prove they contracted COVID-19 to receive compensation.

Unless you want to see us here again, premier, listen to all of us and meet our demands, NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Shaye Candish said.

A midwife from Wollongong Hospital said midwives were unable to provide minimum care due to the lack of staff, with numerous shifts going unfilled.

We cannot meet the reasonable expectations of the community with these excessive workloads, she said.

Nurses and members of the health sector rally outside Parliament House in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 15, 2022. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard had met with the NSWNMA on Monday but was unable to reach an agreement.

Hazzard said it was disappointing that nurses went ahead with industrial action despite the IRCs decision.

So I think theres got to be the rule of law that applies in the nation and the state, and Im disappointed because Ive spent a lot of time talking to the associates to try and find some middle ground, Hazzard told 2GB radio.

In his meeting with union representatives, Hazzard said discussions had focused on the nurse-to patient ratios rather than pay issues.

The ratio that applies in their health system [was] applied with the consent of the union and actually introduced by the Labor government 11 years ago, he said.

It would also cost about $1 billion dollars to implement the union demands and the demanded ratios would lead in nurses overlooking empty beds in some wards. Hazzard added that the state was already spending around 30 percent of the state budget on health.

We have to work out how to carefully use taxpayer dollars and respectfully make sure that we have all of the good work of the nurses being supported by appropriate staffing and appropriate, he said. And I will continue to work with the union on those issues.

The NSWNMA confirmed it will continue talks with the government and again called on the premier to take urgent action.
Actor Alec Baldwin attends the 2019 PEN America Literary Gala in New York, on May 21, 2019. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Alec Baldwin Sued by Family of Cinematographer Killed on Rust Set

The husband of the cinematographer who was killed during the filming of the movie Rust filed a wrongful death lawsuit against actor Alec Baldwin and several others, according to a family attorney.

Brian Panish, a lawyer for Matthew Hutchins and their son Andros, said Baldwin and Rust producers committed major breaches of industry protocols that led to the senseless and tragic death of Halyna Hutchins last October.

There are many people culpable, but Mr. Baldwin was the person holding the weapon  that but for him shooting, she would not have died, Panish said at a press conference in Los Angeles Tuesday.

The 63-year-old actor has significant portion liability, but there are others, and thats what this case is going to be aboutassessing fair apportionment to whoevers responsible for the senseless tragedy, Panish continued, in reference to the lawsuit that was filed in New Mexico.

Baldwin is accused of firing a gun that struck Hutchins, killing her on the set of the Western film. Director Joel Souza was also hit and injured during the incident.

Panish did not elaborate on the damages being sought but said he believe[s] it is going to be substantial, based on the loss of that relationship.

This son has lost his mother. It is a young boy who will never have a mother. And a man who lost his wife, his soulmate, said Panish. That goes on forever and ever.

Documents released by the Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office last year said Baldwin was sitting inside a church pew and was rehearsing a scene that involved drawing a revolver and pointing it at the camera. No criminal charges have been filed in the case.

Several other lawsuits have been filed in connection to the shooting. In response to a lawsuit filed by script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, lawyers for Baldwin and other producers have argued that the case should be tossed because it involves a workplace accident that should be handled via a state workers compensation agency.

In an interview with ABC News in December, Baldwin said he felt incredible sadness over the shooting, but not guilt.

Someone is responsible for what happened, and I cant say who that is, but its not me, Baldwin said.

He said Hutchins had asked him to point the gun just off-camera and toward her armpit before it went off.

I didnt pull the trigger, Baldwin said. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.

He called Hutchins somebody who was loved by everybody and admired by everybody who worked with her.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Healthcare workers protest for the rights of staff and patients at West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Anaheim Nurses Protest for Better Working Conditions as Hospital Becomes Overrun

ANAHEIM, Calif.As staff shortages continue to be a problem at hospitals, registered nurses experiencing moral distress picketed outside West Anaheim Medical Center on Feb. 14 demanding better work conditions.

About a dozen or so health care workers were standing at the corner of South Beach Boulevard and West Orange Avenue with signs reading, Patients First in the Hospital, Safe Staffing Now, and Hands Off Our Ratios. Save Lives. The organizer said about 50 to 100 more were expected to show up throughout the protest during their breaks or days off.

A lot of nurses are being forced to take on too many patients, emergency nurse Sofia Rivera told The Epoch Times. It makes it unsafe to provide safe care.

For emergency rooms, the nurse-to-patient ratio should be one to four, but nursing capacity has become tighter because of the staffing crisis, while the COVID-19 surge has been flooding the hospital with patients, Rivera said.

Health care workers protest for the rights of staff and patients at West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The medical center has brought in contracted travel nurses to assist with the influx of patients, but concerns linger as many have only two months of experience in the medical field, according to Rivera.

To keep up with the demand, Rivera said, nurses at the hospital have been forced to skip their lunches and breaks to be present four to five days a week for 12 hours at a time, and most of them pick up extra shifts.

Our patient care is in jeopardy, Rivera said. Im going to treat your father like they are mine, but Im unable to if there is no help.

As many nurses are struggling to meet the demand, protesters are urging the hospitals management to take action for the sake of providing quality care to patients.

We are out here to show management that we are ready to fight and care for our patients, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse John Olarte told The Epoch Times. We are experiencing moral distress because we cant give the care we want.

Having worked at the medical center for 10 years, Olarte hasnt seen staff members working in such compromising situations until recently as the hospital became overrun.

Health care workers protest for the rights of staff and patients at West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

According to Olarte, the staff shortage is a result of poor working conditions that force nurses to leave to avoid the possibility of losing their licenses for mistreating a patient due to lack of time and energy.

The normal ICU nurse-to-patient ratio is two to one, Olarte said. However, as patients have been flooding hospital rooms, the ratio has been one to three.

We are risking our lives and license to provide the care we can, Olarte said as he discussed the difficulty to identify all the medical needs of patients when resources are tight.

Protesters are demanding that management focus on recruitment and retention of nurses for them to stay employed with the medical center.

Olarte said if a better contract that can uphold [their] standards and protect [their] patients is offered, the staffing crisis will be alleviated.

The Epoch Times reached out to West Anaheim Medical Center, but they were not immediately available for comment.

Health care workers protest for the rights of staff and patients at West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
People with firearms at the Washington state capitol during the 'March for Our Rights' pro-gun rally in Olympia, Washington, on April 21, 2018. (JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images)

ATF Ridiculed for Valentines Day Message Encouraging Americans to Snitch on Ex-Partners

The Biden administration has chosen to use this years Valentines Day to encourage people to get revenge on former lovers by reporting their illegal gun purchases or sales to the federal government.

Valentines Day can still be fun even if you broke up, reads a message posted on the official Twitter page of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Do you have information about a former (or current) partner involved in illegal gun activity? Let us know, and we will make sure its a Valentines Day to remember!

The post also includes an image showing a broken heart and the contact information for the ATF. Got an ex who buys or sells guns illegally? We would love to meet and treat them to a Valentines Day surprise! the image text reads.

The Justice Department, which is seeking to crack down on what it calls ghost guns and firearms made from DIY kits, shared the post.

The ATFs Valentines Day message was not well received on social media, with many expressing concerns over swatting, a harassment tactic of reporting an non-exist emergency situation in order to get an armed law enforcement responsesuch as a SWAT teamagainst a target victim.

Pissed by at your ex? Why not get them swatted? one user wrote.

Youre literally encouraging people to turn in those they likely have a grudge against, which will likely result in false reports and potential deaths, another comment reads.

Some also pointed to the large amount of military equipment left behind when U.S. military forces were hastily withdrawn last year from Afghanistan at the order of President Joe Biden. Images circulated online showed Taliban fighters posing with M4 carbines and M16 rifles and opening crates of new firearms, drones, and night-vision gogglesa small part of the American war chest seized as trophies by the Taliban, the terrorist group that once again controls the war-torn country.

The Biden administration just left an immeasurable amount of weapons and firepower in Afghanistan. Id look into that, one person wrote.

For others, the post evokes their memory of the ATFs now-disgraced Operation Fast and Furious. As part of the sting operation, the ATF under the Obama administration intentionally released weapons to suspected middlemen in the hope that this would lead the agency to high-level gun and drug traffickers in Mexico.

The ATF agents, however, lost track of hundreds of those weapons, many of which ended up in hands of criminals, including the Mexican bandit who used an AK-47 to shoot and kill Border Patrol officer Brian Terry in 2010 during a gunfight in Arizona.
Bails of hay sit in a paddock containing a failed wheat crop on farmer Trevor Knapman's property in Gunnedah, NSW, Australia, on Oct. 4, 2019. (David Gray/Getty Images)

Australian Farmers Hold High Degree of Optimism: Survey

A global survey of over 600 farmers has shown that Australian growers were more optimistic about the future of the agriculture industry than their counterparts in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Australian agricultural tech group AgriWebb has recently released a report (pdf), which surveyed 636 farmers globally and questioned them on various agricultural issues. The survey results outlined the concerns and priorities of the producers in the three countries.

John Fargher, the co-founder of AgriWebb, said the survey found that Australian farmers were the most optimistic among those interviewed.

Its  based critically on the future of agricultural production, the future of livestock prices and the opportunity to value add with a high-quality product, he told AAP.

He said Australian producers surpass their overseas colleagues in confidence about the future.

Fargher also said uncertainty had overshadowed the prospect of the agriculture industry in the UK due to farm subsidies, and in the United States, farmers were worried about major meat processors controlling the commodity market.

The report indicated that while 15 percent of Australian farmers participating in the survey were very concerned about government and regulatory pressures, twice as many British farmers share the same problem.

Additionally, over 60 percent of American farmers were very concerned about maintaining and improving margins; however, that figure for Australian farmers was 20 percent.

Australian farmer Kevin Tongue herds sheep at his property near the rural city of Tamworth, in NSW, Australia, on May 4, 2020. (Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images)

The survey also questioned farmers from three countries about their views on carbon sequestration and carbon markets, with two-thirds of the 636 farmers saying they did not consider carbon farming as a priority.

Specifically, one in three Australian respondents listed carbon farming as their priority, and about 10 percent considered it a top priority.

On the other hand, over 50 percent of the surveyed farmers said carbon farming was either their priority or top priority in the UK.

In Australia, the balance of the feeling out there is there are many other priorities in our business as well moving forward, so lets not get caught up in the hype, Fargher said.

Moreover, the survey discovered that two-thirds of Aussie farmers evaluated agricultural technology solutions and increased access to data as the key to success.

A spokesperson from the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment told The Epoch Times the department was unable to comment on the results of the survey.

The Department is unable to speculate on rates of optimism in farmers across Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, or about how they perceive priority of carbon farming, the spokesperson said.

However, the spokesperson stated that Australian farmers could benefit from a number of agriculture schemes established by the government.

The Government has a number of programs that reward farmers for good management of their land and the environment, including carbon farming, the spokesperson said.

The Governments Emissions Reduction Fund has contracted over 170 million tonnes of abatement linked to land and agriculture sector projects, with an estimated value of over $2 billion (US$ 1.43 billion).
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Jan. 6, 2022. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)

Australian PM Calls out Beijing for Lack of Action on Real Risk of Russian Invasion

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned of very real risks of conflict involving Russian forces along the Ukrainian border, at the same time, he called out Beijing for not denouncing Moscow for inciting tensions in the region.

Morrison revealed that on the evening of Feb. 14, he met with the National Security Committee of Cabinet to discuss the Ukraine situation in significant detail and to work on a potential response with like-minded nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

We are very well aware of the assessments, and the risks of that occurring at any moment is there, and its real, he told 2SM radio on Feb. 15.

I got to say one thing too, its that like-minded countries, Australia, France, and everyone have been very clear in their denunciation of what Russia is doing, he said. Theres one country which is not doing it  and that is the Chinese government.

When you have a large country in our own region that suggests they want peace and harmony but yet are not prepared to call out the actions of an autocratic state that wants to violate the territorial sovereignty of their neighbour, then that is very concerning, chilling, he added.

Im calling it out.

Chinese Foreign Ministry responded, saying Australia needed to abandon the Cold War mentality.

Morrisons comments come after U.S. Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby said Beijing was giving its tacit support to Russias potential invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. officials have advised all its citizens in Ukraine to leave the country, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Feb. 14 that U.S. personnel were being relocated from the embassy in Kyiv to the western city of Lviv, citing a dramatic acceleration in the build-up of Russian forces.

Prime Minister Morrison has also called on Australian citizens in Ukraine to leave urgently. He claimed the threat of a Russian invasion was making the situation dangerous.

Meanwhile, Russia has denied it has any intention to invade the Eastern European nation, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov advising the Russian president in a televised exchange to look towards further diplomacy.

It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted, said Lavrov in a televised exchange with Putin. At this stage, I would suggest continuing and building them up.

Additionally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged calm, calling for proof of an actual invasion.

There has been too much information about a full-scale war with Russiaeven specific dates have been announced, Zelensky told reporters on Feb. 12.

We understand there are risks. If you have any additional information regarding the 100 percent guaranteed invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 16 February, please give it to us, he said.
Protesters rally near the Pacific Highway border crossing while police keep watch, in Surrey, B.C., on Feb. 13, 2022. (Chris Ivany)

BC-Washington Border Rally Ends After Police Move In to Clear Protesters

SURREY, B.C.A massive police surge late in the evening on Feb. 14 ended a protest in Surrey, B.C., which began after local RCMP blocked access to the Pacific Highway border crossing two days earlier.

The Canada Border Services Agency says traffic is now moving at the border crossing.

Several dozen police officers joined dozens of other officers already on the scene, and together they moved in to clear the protesters who remained in the area.

Police stand at the site of the protest near the Pacific Highway border crossing in Surrey, B.C., on Feb. 14, 2022. (Jeff Sandes/The Epoch Times)

Protesters rally near the Pacific Highway border crossing while police keep watch, in Surrey, B.C., on Feb. 13, 2022. (Chris Ivany)

A large group of demonstrators opposed to vaccine mandates protested at the border crossing on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13, which police said was mostly peaceful apart from some people crossing police barricades and driving in the opposite direction on 176 Street.

Police have made several arrests at the protest site, but havent confirmed the number of arrests.

A man who arranged security for the protesters and businesses in the area, who did not provide his name, said he saw approximately two dozen people arrested after police moved in on the evening of Feb. 14.

Police then advanced to the camp headquarters two blocks north and told protesters and their supporters to clean up the camp and leave or face arrest and confiscation of their property and supplies, he said.

Some protesters said there was a tense stand-off between police and demonstrators.

Stacey Midgley, one of the protesters who led the daily slow rolls through the area the previous week, tried to negotiate an agreement to prevent the stand-off from escalating.

Midgely told The Epoch Times that he first had the police acknowledge they were responsible for blocking the border, not the protesters, and he would have his side back up if the police did the same.

I told them, they knew we were only going to block two lanes and do a slow roll on Saturday, Midgley said. I said well back up to 2nd Avenue if you back up yourselves, because weve got to start somewhere to rebuild that trust.

Surrey RCMP said in a press release on Feb. 13 that four people have been taken into custody for Mischief at the protests taking place near the Pacific Highway Border Crossing.

Surrey RCMP media relations officer Cpl. Vanessa Munn acknowledged the incident and the arrests early in the day on Feb. 14, and said police were forced to place concrete barriers on both sides of the protest sites to keep more vehicles from entering the area, and for safety reasons.

However, she said that despite the addition of the barriers and the heavy police presence, police and protesters were having productive conversations on how to end the protest.

We are continuing to engage with them because we want to bring that to a resolution as quickly and as safely as possible, so there can be open communication between police and the protesters, Munn told The Epoch Times.

Protesters rally near the Pacific Highway border crossing while police keep watch, in Surrey, B.C., on Feb. 13, 2022. (Chris Ivany)

Protesters pack up to leave the site of a demonstration against COVID-19 mandates by the Pacific Highway in Surrey, B.C., on Feb. 14, 2022. (Jeff Sandes/The Epoch Times)

We will take enforcement action as necessary. Obviously, were strategic about the way that we do enforcement, and we are aligned to the fact that at the end of the day we want to make sure everyone is safe.

Ryan Kulbaba had spent most of the weekend onsite at the protest as one of the coordinators of the rally. He said that both sides were being respectful and communicating well until the police took action.

I saw no confrontations whatsoever between anybody. Cops, RCMP, us. Internally between us and them I saw nothing, just a lot of dialogue personally, he said.

For the most part, it was good dialogue. Still, the stand-off was a result of the arrests that happened on the front line. If you want to start arresting people, then you will see us in a united front.

Pressure to end the border protest may have been influenced by the gridlock at the two other local crossings for commercial vehicles. Average wait time to cross the border was five hours on Feb. 14.

A group of supporters with their recreational vehicles who had set up a camp north of the 8th Avenue police closure on the highway, was the last holdout before police forced them to move, ending the protest entirely.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Biden Admins COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Goes Into Effect for Most Healthcare Workers

Monday marked the deadline for the vast majority of unvaccinated health care workers across the country to comply with a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate and receive their first dose.

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in a recent update (pdf) earlier this month, said it is full speed ahead with enforcing the mandate, which applies to health care staff who work at facilities or entities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding.

Workers in 24 states have to receive one mRNA vaccine dose or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine by Monday, Feb. 14, amid court challenges, whereas workers in about half of all states had to comply and receive their first dose by Jan. 27, according to a document (pdf) provided by CMS.

Health care staff who got their first shot on Jan. 27 will have to receive their second shotif applicable by Feb. 28. And workers who had to get their first shot on Feb. 14 have until March 15 to get the second one under CMS the mandate.

Workers in Texas have to receive their first dose, if applicable, by next week on Feb. 21 and their second dose by March 21, according to the document.

Last month, the United States Supreme Court stayed two preliminary injunctions that had prohibited the implementation and enforcement of the [CMS] healthcare staff vaccination rule in 24 states, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted a motion for voluntary dismissal of a related case in Texas, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure wrote in its letter this month.

It is one of several executive orders that were pursued by the Biden administration late last year, including a controversial vaccine-or-test rule that impacted businesses with 100 or more workers and mandatory vaccines for federal contractor workers. In January, U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay against the mandate for private businesses, and the Biden administration two weeks later withdrew the rule, known as an emergency temporary standard.

In January, the Supreme Court allowed the health care worker mandate to go forward, impacting around 10.4 million workers across the United States.

But such mandates were handed down by the federal government before the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, which studies have shown generally produces milder symptoms as well as fewer hospitalizations and deaths.

In recent weeks, Democrat-led municipalities and states have started to drop COVID-19-related mandates.

On Monday, Washington, D.C. moved to drop its COVID-19 vaccine mandate to enter certain businesses, becoming one of the first areas in the United States with a vaccine passport system to do so. New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago are still implementing a vaccine passport system.

COVID is not as deadly as it was, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday, noting a sharp decline in infections and hospitalizations. The city also dropped its indoor mask mandates, but it will keep the policy intact for school childrena move that has drawn ire across the country.

COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

The Epoch Times has contacted CMS for additional comment.
President Joe Biden speaks about Russia and Ukraine in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 15, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden: Russian Troop Withdrawal Not Verified, 150,000 Still Threatening Ukraine

President Joe Biden continues to caution against a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine despite reports of Russia withdrawing some of its troops from the Ukrainian border.

Not long after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he is open to security talks with the West and that some Russian forces are leaving their position near Ukraine, Biden gave a speech saying that a Russian invasion is still very much a possibility.

Biden added that while a Russian troop withdrawal would be good, the United States has not yet verified that any troops are pulling back.

Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position, Biden said before totaling the total Russian troop count along the Ukrainian border and in Belarus at more than 150,000an increase from previous claims.

This is after the Russian Defense Ministry described images it released Tuesday of tanks and armored vehicles on the move as troops relocating to places of permanent deployment.

Russia has denied its planning an invasion but has demanded that the West put a halt to Ukraines bid to join NATO.

Biden reiterated Tuesday the U.S. stance that diplomacy with Moscow is the best way forward, saying that NATO is not a threat to Russia.

Were willing to make practical result-oriented steps that can advance our common security, Biden said. We will not sacrifice basic principles though.

Western leaders have maintained that nations should have a right to territorial integrity and the freedom to choose with whom they associate.

Biden also repeated that the United States and its allies will impose severe sanctions if Russia moves to invade Ukraine, saying that the long-term consequences [sic] will undermine Russias ability to compete economically and strategically.

Biden again urged U.S. citizens to leave Ukraine now. The United States announced Monday that diplomatic personnel were being relocated from the embassy in Kyiv to the western city of Lviv.

Biden also said again Tuesday that while the United States will not send troops to fight in Ukraine, it will defend NATO territory.

The Pentagon announced on Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is traveling to visit eastern NATO allies in Europe this week to meet with foreign leaders and oversee troops stationed in the region.

The Biden administration announced plans on Feb. 2 to up its troop presence in Eastern Europe. That deployment includes about 2,000 troops going to Germany and Poland, and a 1,000-member mounted cavalry unit moving to Romania from Germany.
Bird Flu Detected in Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana as Outbreak Spreads: Officials

Authorities with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said bird influenza has now been detected in flocks of birds in Kentucky and Virginia, just days after the officials said that thousands of birds were sickened with the flu in Indiana.

According to the agency, bird flu was found in Fauquier County, Virginia; and in Fulton County, Kentucky, on Feb. 12, in non-poultry birds and commercial broiler chickens, respectively. On Feb. 8, bird influenza was detected in commercial turkeys in Dubois County, Indiana.

In a statement, the USDAs Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service did not say whether the outbreak involved H5N1, the same highly pathogenic virus found extensively in wild birds and on the Indiana turkey farm.

Citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the USDA said that these avian influenza detections do not present an immediate public health concern.

No human cases of these avian influenza viruses have been detected in the United States. As a reminder, the proper handling and cooking of poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 [degrees] F kills bacteria and viruses, the agency added.

The broiler chickens in Fulton County, located near the border with Tennessee, were infected with the same H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian flu as the turkeys in Indiana, Kentucky officials told Reuters. They said it is Kentuckys first outbreak of the highly lethal bird flu, which killed more than 50 million U.S. chickens and turkeys in 2015.

Tyson Foods Inc. confirmed that a flock of about 240,000 chickens tested positive.

The disease is hitting the market as poultry supplies are down due to strong demand and labor shortages at meat plants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Government data showed U.S. frozen chicken supplies were down 14 percent from a year ago at the end of December while turkey inventories were down 23 percent.

The United States is the worlds largest producer and second-largest exporter of poultry meat, according to the U.S. government. Kentucky said it is the seventh biggest chicken meat-producing state. Almost 18 percent of U.S. poultry production is exported, and the industry is a major user of feed grains.

Human infections do occur after close contact with an infected animal, but theyre considered rare, CDC officials have previously said. No Americans are recorded to have contracted highly pathogenic avian flu viruses.

Around, 864 people have contracted it since 2003, causing 456 deaths, according to the World Health Organization and the CDC.

The first bird flu viruses are believed to have emerged in southern China before leading to large outbreaks in the late 1990s, according to the CDC, before the virus variants spread throughout the world.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Bomb Blasts Military Bus in Syrian Capital, Killing 1

DAMASCUS, SyriaA bomb attached to a bus carrying Syrian troops in Damascus exploded Tuesday morning, killing one soldier and wounding 11, state TV reported.

The blast occurred during rush hour at a customs roundabout near the capitals landmark Omayyad Square, according to the report. It gave no further details. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Such attacks have occurred in Damascus in recent months amid an otherwise calm period in the capital. Government forces captured rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of the city in 2018.

Government forces now control much of Syria with the help of President Bashar Assads allies Russia and Iran, while rebels are mostly cornered in the countrys northwestern province of Idlib. U.S. and Turkish troops, meanwhile, are deployed in parts of the countrys north and east.

In October, two bombs attached to a bus carrying Syrian troops exploded in Damascus, killing 14. It was one of the deadliest bombings in the capital in years. A little-known group calling itself the Qasioun Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack at the time.

In recent years, attacks in Damascus have been rare. One of the last major explosions to take place was in 2017when suicide bombers hit a judicial office building and a restaurant, killing nearly 60 people. The attacks were claimed by ISIS terrorist group.

The extremist organization has not held territory in Syria since 2019, but it continues to represent a threat with sleeper cells, mostly hiding in Syrias expansive desert.

IS fighters have attacked Syrian troops in central and eastern Syria. The extremist group has also carried out attacks on U.S.backed Kurdish-led fighters in the northeast, including a raid on a prison in late January that led to 10 days of fighting in the city of Hassakeh. The clash left nearly 500 people dead.

Syrias conflict began in March 2011 and has killed nearly half a million people, displaced half the countrys pre-war population of 23 million, and left large parts of the country destroyed.
Weldon Epp, director general for Global Affairs Canada's North Asia and Oceania Bureau, testified on the situation of the Taiwan Strait before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Feb. 14, 2022. (ParlVU/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Canada Should Work Creatively with Taiwan Amid Chinas Destabilizing Incursions: Global Affairs Official

Canada remains very concerned with Chinas destabilizing military incursions toward Taiwan, and should be creative in working with the self-ruled island in international organizations and other platforms, a senior Foreign Affairs official said.

Weldon Epp, director general for Global Affairs Canadas North Asia and Oceania Bureau, made the remarks on Feb. 14, when testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on the current situation in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Searegions where communist China is proactively seeking to dominate.

In the past four months, weve observed a significant increase in military activity, including over 600 incursions into Taiwans self-declared Air Defense Identification Zone by the PLA [Peoples Liberation Army] Air Force. And whatever the motivations, Canada believes these moves threaten regional security and only serve to push back at the possibility of dialogue and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait, Epp said.

Canada has communicated directly to the Chinese authorities its concerns about destabilizing military actions across the [Taiwan Strait], while reiterating Canadas strong support for constructive efforts that contribute to peace and stability in the region.

Beijing has long considered Taiwan to be a breakaway province, despite the fact that Taiwan is a de facto independent country, and has ramped up military coercion toward the island since March 2019, sending military aircraft into Taiwans Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Epp told the committee that there are increasing concerns about China explicitly setting a timeline to achieve what it calls a national rejuvenation by 2049, which Epp said would definitely include reunification with Taiwan.

On Oct. 21, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden committed to defending Taiwan if the self-ruled island was attacked by China. When asked if Canada would also be ready to intervene militarily under such a scenario, Epp said the government is watching closely, drawing a comparison with Russias potential incursion into Ukraine.

There is a risk that developments in Ukraine present a sort of unwelcome natural experiment, if you would, that will allow various parties to watch closely and see what the effectiveness of different diplomatic tools are to respond to in a very alarming situation, Epp said.

While refusing to comment on the hypothetical future scenarios of what response Canada would take under a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Epp noted the Canadian government is alive to the various operations that Beijing is taking against the island.

Because China, in its own words, has never ruled out, never precluded using force to reunify with Taiwan, Canada is deeply concerned by recent activities, he said. Those increasing activities by the PLA Air Forcenot just overt activity by the militarybut also what we would call below threshold activities, that include things like cyberattacks, interference, united front tactics.

Were alive to all of those, and we will continue to monitor those together with partners, and to continue to encourage both sides to step back from provocative actions, particularly the Chinese side.

Jordan Reeves, executive director for the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, who also testified before the Foreign Affairs committee, said the Chinese Communist Partys clampdown on Hong Kongs democracy movements in recent years also has profound impact on how the Taiwanese view a Chinese takeover.

The Hong Kong reality of what happened with the national security law basically told most Taiwanese that one country, two systems was clearly out, it was no longer an option for the majority of Taiwanese, Reeves said, referring to the principle that stipulates Beijing give Hong Kong relative autonomy after the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule.

Responding to Liberal MP Hedy Frys questions about Canadas long-term strategy regarding what she described as China and Russias global movement to get rid of democracy, Epp referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus mandate letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, instructing her to develop an Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at deepening the diplomatic, economic, and defence partnerships and international assistance in the region.

Epp told the House committee that the strategy is still under development, and didnt say when it will be released.

He also said the strategy will be made public once it is ready, only to clarify later that it will be up to the government to decide whether to publicize the contents.

Epp said that while Canada has supported Taiwans inclusion in international organizations such as the World Health Assembly and the International Civil Aviation Organization, it is important to incorporate Taiwan through other platforms such as the Global Cooperation Training Framework (GCTF) programa platform that Taiwan uses to promote good governance throughout the Indo-Pacific region.

Rather than only working to include Taiwan more meaningfully where it should be and where our interests require it in international organizations, we also need to be creative in working with Taiwan and other partners through platforms like the GCTF to amplify its experiences, he said.
People carry Canadian flags as they walk toward Parliament Hill during the Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, in Ottawa on Feb. 6, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Canadian Democracy Weakened Amid Pandemic: Report

Economist Intelligence Unit survey highlights how the pandemic has emboldened China's challenge to Western democracies

The state of democracy in Canada has declined compared to the past, pushing it out of the top 10 most stable democracies in the world, according to a new report that places the blame in large part on the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on personal freedoms and related public sentiment.

On Feb. 10, London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released its annual Democracy Index report that rated 167 countries in 2021 based on measures including electoral processes and civil liberties.

While less than half of the worlds population live under some form of democracy, Canada also fell out of the worlds top 10 most stable democracies for the first time since The Economist began publishing the report in 2006, dropping to the 12th spot.

Canadas citizens feel that they have little control over their lives, a sentiment that has been compounded by pandemic-related restrictions on individual freedoms, the report reads.

The EIU used data from the World Values Survey (WVS), which is gathered by a global network of social scientists under the non-profit group World Values Survey Association. The data show Canadas scores dropping steeply in the functioning of government and political culture categories.

The report notes that Canadas declining democracy score is reflected in citizens frustration with government leaders who have continued to reinstate pandemic-related restrictions since they were first rolled back in the summer of 2020. Other citizens reported difficulties accessing the federal governments COVID-19 relief benefits.

According to the WVS data, just 10.4 percent of Canadians felt that they had a great deal of freedom of choice and control, while only 23.5 percent had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in political parties.

The EIUs report comes as thousands of Canadians have joined the Freedom Convoy movement to protest COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates that has been ongoing in Ottawa since Jan. 29. The protest in Canadas capital also sparked parallel demonstrations at border crossings in Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario.

On Feb. 14, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadas history, which gives the federal government sweeping temporary powers to handle border blockades and protests against pandemic restrictions.

The EIU report suggests that, like the United States, Canada is experiencing extremely low levels of public trust in political parties and government institutions. This was also reflected in Canadians support for non-democratic alternative forms of government: Around 13.5 percent of Canadians expressed a preference for military rule, and another 55 percent felt that rule by experts or a technocratic government was a very good or fairly good idea.

China Challenge

The report is titled Democracy Index 2021: the China Challenge as it focused on the question of how much of a challenge Chinas political model poses to Western democracies and the world.

China is classified as an authoritarian regime in the Democracy Index. The country scored 2.21 out of a scale of 10, down from 2.97 in 2006.

China scored 0.88 for the civil liberties categoryone of the lowest rankings of the 167 countries surveyed.

There is no free print, broadcast or social media, no freedom of expression and there are restrictions on the internet, the report said. There are no free trade unions, no independent judiciary and no real equality before the law. The state does not practice religious tolerance and routinely uses torture.

The report noted how CCP leaders often praise their authoritarian political model compared to the Western electoral democracy model, which they say produces inferior leaders, time-wasting deliberations and a lot of gridlock.

Their main claim that the Chinese system is superior to their Western counterparts is that it facilitates fast and efficient decision-making as well as long-term planning to maximize economic returns, stability, and security. This efficiency, they said, depends on the elimination of any mechanism of democratic accountability.

The report highlights that Chinas authoritarian political system has led to high levels of corruption.

Stunning examples of egregious corruption among Chinese officials in recent years included the case of Xu Caihou, a former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. Caihou was arrested in 2014 after authorities discovered cash weighing more than a metric tonne stacked up in the 20 square metre basement of his house.

Insulated from the public, Chinas elites are often self-serving, and abuse of power is not uncommon, the report reads.

Given the inherently unattractive features of the Chinese political system, the EIU says how far the country succeeds in undermining Western democracies in the coming decades will depend a great deal on the ability of the West to revitalize its own democratic model.
Capitol Report (Feb. 14): Durham Probe Heating Up

Senators on Capitol Hill are taking action to ban tax dollars from being used to pay for drug paraphernalia. In an effort to force the Biden administrations hand, Senator Blackburn is using leverage to hold up a government funding bill.

The headlines are reading that Russia is poised to invade Ukraine at any moment, but Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is painting a different picture. Well bring you perspective on both possibilities.

Beginning from tomorrow, D.C. residents no longer have to show proof of vaccination to enter most businesses. The D.C. mayor also made another announcement about masks. Well have the details coming up.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has been getting away with murder, literally and figuratively, for decades. Now there are members of the United States Congress who have introduced a bill to hold CCP members individually accountable. And the CCP is fighting back. Well bring you the details.

This year, second graders from an elementary school in Washington D.C. designed the White Houses Valentines Day decorations. The kids also had a chance to tour the White House to see their work.

And according to a new court filing by U.S. special prosecutor John Durhams office, the Hilary Clinton campaign allegedly paid an internet company to infiltrate servers at Trump Tower and the White House.

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Pentagon press secretary John Kirby holds a news briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Feb. 14, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Chinas Tacit Support for Russia in Ukraine Crisis Deeply Alarming: Pentagon

Beijing gave Moscow tacit support in the Ukraine standoff, the Pentagon said on Feb. 14, calling the Chinese action deeply alarming.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby sounded the alarm during a press briefing on Monday, as Russia has positioned about 130,000 troops, as well as tanks and artillery, near Ukraines border.

Their tacit support, if you will, for Russia is deeply alarming, Kirby said about China. And frankly, [its] even more destabilizing to the security situation in Europe.

Kirby pointed to a Sino-Russia joint statement released by the two countries on Feb. 4, following a meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Chinas capital Beijing.

Their February 4 joint statement certainly provided further evidence that China has decided that theyre going to stand alongside Russia with respect to whats going on in Europe.

The statement itself leads in our view as tacit support, he added.

China and Russia accuse unnamed actors of interfering in the internal affairs of other states, while opposing further enlargement of NATO. The statement also claims that the two nations enjoy a strong relationship since friendship between the two States has no limits and there are no forbidden areas of cooperation.

The statement goes on to assert that the current Sino-Russia relations are superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era.

Two days after Xi and Putin met, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned that Beijing would end up owning some of the costs if China is seen as supporting a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

We believe that Beijing will end up owning some of the costs of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and that they should calculate that as they consider their engagements with the Russian government over the next couple of weeks, Sullivan told NBCs Meet the Press on Feb. 6.

Sullivan added that sanctions against Russia would impact China because they will go at the financial system of Russia, which, of course, engages the Chinese economy as well.

Also at the briefing, Kirby announced that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is going to visit Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania.

In Belgium, Austin is scheduled to meet with allied defense ministers and NATO leadership to discuss Russias military buildup in and around Ukraine, as well as in Belarus and Russia-annexed Crimea.

Also on Monday, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a daily briefing that they are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time.

We will not comment on any details of our intelligence information except thatexcept to say that it could begin this week, despite a lot of speculation that it would happen after the Olympics, she said.

It remains unclear which path Russia will choose to take, she added. The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage, again, constructively.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Monday that there has not been any tangible, any real sign of de-escalation at the Ukraine-Russia border.
Coalition Backs Keep Nine Amendment to Cap Supreme Court Membership

A bipartisan group is pushing for the proposed Keep Nine amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would, once and for all, block efforts to pack the Supreme Court by fixing the number of members of the high court at its current nine.

When then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, tried in the 1930s to pack the court to clear the way for his controversial New Deal, the idea was met with backlash, and he withdrew the proposal after lawmakers from his own party turned against it.

The current push to flood the Supreme Court with extra justices came after then-President Donald Trumps conservative constitutionalist nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, was confirmed before Election Day 2020, replacing the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Filling the seat quickly in an election year enraged many Democrats, given what happened with Merrick Garland. Following the election-year death in 2016 of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, the then-Republican-majority Senate refused to take up then-President Barack Obamas nomination of Garland to the Supreme Court. Garland was subsequently appointed attorney general by President Joe Biden.

Biden flirted with the idea of court-packing during the 2020 campaign but didnt endorse it, saying he would create a national commission to look at a court system he described as out of whack. Bidens commission wrapped up in December 2021, refusing to endorse adding extra seats to the court. Its report stated that there is profound disagreement among commissioners on these issues.

Former Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers told The Epoch Times that membership in the group the Coalition to Preserve the Independence of the U.S. Supreme Court includes 15 former attorneys general. The group, which he chairs, was formed about 2 1/2 years ago. Its website is KeepNine.org.

A packed Supreme Court could rig election rules, ban private spending on campaigns, or possibly rule laws that heretofore have been unconstitutional and find them constitutional, Summers said.

The groups executive director, Roman Buhler, said the proposal currently has the support of 179 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including 80 percent of Republican members of that chamber, 24 U.S. senators, and more than 800 state legislators from both parties across the country.

Our very simple political goal is to make the Keep Nine Amendment a household word in American politics, and an issue in the 2022 elections, Buhler said.

Summers said it would be the shortest amendment on record, consisting of just 13 words: The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine justices.

The number of Supreme Court justices is currently fixed by statute. Supporters of the amendment say that inserting the numerical limit into the Constitution would make it very difficult in the future for the number to be changed and that would have a salutary effect on the nations government.

Amending the Constitution is hard to accomplish. The amendment bill must pass by a two-thirds supermajority in both houses of Congress and then be ratified by three-quarters of the states, or 38 of the 50 states, to become part of the Constitution.

Summers said that when the Constitution was ratified in 1789, there were six justices. Membership rose to 10 in 1869 but fell after the Civil War to nine, where it has remained, he said.

The question is: Are we going to preserve checks and balances? Are we going to weaken those checks and balances, which protect our democratic system of government? Buhler said.

When I look at what the modern Washington, big-government left wants now, its pretty simple. They want absolute power. They want the power to do anything that they want. They dont want checks and balances on their use of power, Buhler said.

I dont think theres a more important issue in the long-term future than whether or not America retains what has  been the crown jewel of our limited government republic, which is an independent Supreme Court, he said.

The left wants absolute power; the way they get it is they control all three branches of government at once, Buhler said. They are trying to get rid of the filibuster, probably add new states and then pack the court, and that would be a disaster for limited government in this country.

It would unleash a whole flood of far-left Democratic priorities, which right now are inconceivable because most people would consider them unconstitutional, and unleash regulatory powers so that regulators can rule and intimidate without checks and balances and most probably a wealth tax.

And probably the one thing that a lot of your readers havent thought about is that over the last 100 years, weve never gone more than 15 years without a Democratic majority in Congress, Buhler said.

And four times, Democrats have won supermajorities where they had enough to override the Senate filibuster and do anything they want. And I think it is very, very likely that sometime in the foreseeable future, the Democrats will win another such supermajority, or at least a decisive majority, and we will end up with a packed court, unless theres a constitutional amendment. If we dont enact this constitutional amendment, I think our constitutional republic is in great danger.
A COVID-19 treatment pill, called molnupiravir, developed by Merck & Co Inc. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, is seen in this undated handout photo released by Merck & Co Inc., on Oct. 26, 2021. (Merck & Co Inc./Reuters)

Combining Antiviral Pills With Experimental Drug Brequinar Effective in Treating COVID: Study

Researchers have found that combining the antivirals remdesivir or molnupiravir with the experimental drug brequinar could be effective in treating the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, which causes COVID-19.

The new drug combination was discovered by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Researchers found that combining the experimental drug brequinar with either of the two drugs, which have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, inhibited the growth of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human lung cells and in mice.

Brequinar is currently being tested in clinical trials as a COVID-19 treatment and as part of a potential combination therapy for cancer.

We demonstrated that brequinar and molnupiravir work better together than either drug alone in our mouse model of COVID-19, said co-principal investigator Matthew Frieman and member of the Center for Pathogen Research at UMSOM.

As the virus continues to spread and mutate, we want drugs that are accessible, easy to administer, and effective against the current and future variants.

The study, which was funded through grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Penn Center for Precision Medicine, Mercatus, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was published in Nature on Feb. 7, 2022.

Researchers screened 18,000 drugs for antiviral activity using live virus infection in human respiratory cells and identified 122 drugs that showed antiviral activity and selectivity against the coronavirus.

Among the 122 drugs, were 16 nucleoside analogsthe largest category of antivirals that are used clinically.

Out of those 16 antivirals was remdesivir, an antiviral from Gilead Sciences which is given to patients intravenously and has been approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19, and Mercks molnupiravir, an oral pill that was authorized for use in December and is taken twice a day for five days, within five days of the onset of symptoms.

Remdesivir works by incorporating into the RNA when the virus replicates, essentially stopping it from making copies of itself.

However, it has been criticized by some experts due to its high cost and serious side effects, which include gastrointestinal symptoms and kidney failure. The World Health Organization currently recommends against its use in hospitalized patients, regardless of disease severity.

Molnupiravir gets incorporated into the replicating virus and causes its genetic sequence to change, essentially causing the virus to mutate so that it cannot grow.

Clinical-trial data showed that Mercks molnupiravir cut hospitalizations and deaths by 30 percent, compared with a placebo pill.

However, the drug is in short supply and has come under fire due to its potential to contribute to the development of cancer or cause birth defects in unborn babies.

RNA viruses rely on a high supply of nucleoside triphosphates from the host to efficiently replicate, and we identified a panel of host nucleoside biosynthesis inhibitors as antiviral, researchers said.

Another category of drug candidates identified by researchers stops the virus from making the RNA building blocks it needs to replicate, among them was brequinar.

Moreover, we found that combining pyrimidine biosynthesis inhibitors with antiviral nucleoside analogues synergistically inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro and in vivo against emerging strains of SARS-CoV-2 suggesting a clinical path forward, researchers said.

Researchers have not yet tested the combinations in clinical trials as they tested the drugs in lung cells and in mice.

Yet they are hopeful that they have the potential to substantially reduce hospitalizations and deaths relating to COVID-19 and said the combinations were highly effective against multiple variants of the coronavirus.

The team is now in the process of testing the drugs against omicron.

Additionally, the researchers found that Paxlovidan oral antiviral that has been authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  could be combined with remdesivir or molnupiravir for an additive effect against SARS-CoV-2.

The next step would be for these drug combinations to be tested in clinical trials.
Defense Secretary Austin to Head to Europe to Discuss Russian Troop Buildup

The Pentagon announced on Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is travelling to visit eastern NATO allies in Europe this week amid uncertainty over whether Russia will decide to invade Ukraine.

Austin is set to leave on Feb. 15 and will visit Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania to meet with government and military leaders, according to a DOD press release.

In Belgium, Austin will meet with allied defense ministers and NATO leadership to discuss the Russian troop buildup along its border with Ukraine, as well as in Belarus and Russia-annexed Crimea. He will also reaffirm U.S. commitment to the Article 5 defense agreement, according to the release.

Austin will then head to Poland to meet with rotational U.S. troops at Powidz Air Base and will also meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Minister of National Defense of Poland Mariusz Baszczak.

In Lithuania, Austin will meet with Lithuanian leadership to discuss efforts to strengthen Lithuanias armed forces and visit U.S. troops stationed in the country. He will also meet with defense leadership from Estonia and Latvia.

This comes after the Biden administration announced plans on Feb. 2 to up its troop presence in Eastern Europe. That deployment includes about 2,000 troops going to Germany and Poland, and a 1,000-member mounted cavalry unit moving to Romania from Germany,

U.S. officials are continuing their message of urgency as it relates to a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated to reporters on Monday that Russia could invade any day, repeating national security advisor Jake Sullivans comments from Friday that Russia may choose to invade before the completion of the Beijing Olympics on Feb. 20.

In the past ten days or so when you look at what is happening at the border of Ukraine, we are seeing more than 100,000 troops there, and its just been an everyday more and more troops, she said.

U.S. officials have also advised all U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave the country, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday that U.S. personnel were being relocated from the embassy in Kyiv to the western city of Lviv, citing a dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces.

Russia has denied that its intentions are an invasion. And on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow for more time for diplomacy.

It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted, said Lavrov in a televised exchange with Putin. At this stage, I would suggest continuing and building them up.

Russia has demanded that NATO not allow Ukraine to become a member of the defense alliance. NATO countries have said that any decision on whether Ukraine joins should be left to NATO and Ukraine.

At a press conference in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his countrys aspiration of joining NATO, but called into question how long Ukraine would head down this path, saying that the prospect of NATO membership could be like a dream.

The United States has warned Russia of severe sanctions if it moves to invade Ukraine and has said that sending U.S. troops into Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion is off the table.
Democrat Group Sues to Strike Down GOP Redistricting Plan in Kansas

Just four days after the Republican-controlled Kansas legislature approved the states 2022 congressional reapportionment map, Democrats are asking a county court to strike it down.

The complaint was filed on Feb. 14 in Wyandotte County District Court by attorneys from the Grissom Miller Law Firm of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Elias Law Group of Washington D.C. on behalf of several Kansas residents and activist group Loud Light.

The Elias Law Group is headed by Democrat election lawyer and strategist Marc Elias, who served as attorney for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Elias is widely credited for engineering election law changes in key swing states that helped Democrats in the 2020 election, and he has challenged redistricting plans in Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and other states in the 2022 election cycle.

The GOP-sponsored redistricting plan divides the state of Kansas into four congressional districts, each with 734,470 people.

The constitutionally mandated reapportionment process occurs every 10 years and is based on data provided by the latest decennial census.

Taking into account population growth or decline, the process readjusts congressional district lines to ensure that all citizens receive equal representation, and that each persons vote counts equally.

Earlier this month, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed the Republican plan, but her veto was overridden last week by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the state legislature.

Democrats believe the Republican plan was drafted to lessen the reelection chances of Democrat Congresswoman Sharice Davids.

Davids is an openly gay native-American and the only Democrat on Kansas four-member congressional delegation.

The Elias lawsuit alleges that the Republican plan is political gerrymandering designed to maximize their own partys advantage.

Why Was the Case Filed in a County Court?

In 2019 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering complaints will not be taken up by federal courts.

The plaintiffs contend that the rights guaranteed them by the Kansas state constitution are violated by the newly adopted state plan.

The complaint reads in part, The enacted plan elevates partisan gains over Kansans constitutional rights at the expense of Democrats, racial minorities, and the states young people.

The rights allegedly violated are the right to vote, equal protection under the law, free speech, and the right to assembly.

The complaint states, Racial vote dilution is equally offensive to our democracy and violative of the equal protection guarantee of the Kansas Bill of Rights.

Republicans contend the population growth in Davidss district necessitated its division in order to maintain the principles of population equality and one-man-one-vote. Minority voters removed from her district increase the diversity of the district to which they were moved, they say.

The defendants in the case are Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Michael Abbott, a Schwab appointee.

Schwab spokesperson Whitney Tempel told The Epoch Times on the afternoon of Feb. 14 that the secretary had not yet been served with the suit, and, therefore, could not comment.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, has promised a vigorous defense of the enacted plan.

Schmidt spokesman John Milburn told the Associated Press, The plaintiffs are hoping state courts, which in the past have not reviewed federal congressional districts, will write new rules to their advantage.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar suit in Wyandotte County District Court on the same day.
A patrol car with the Department of Homeland Security logo, in Washington, on July 27, 2017. (Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images)

DHS Official Defends Monitoring Trucker Protests, Linking Terrorism to Misinfo

Recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decisions to monitor trucker protests and link domestic terrorism to misinformation have prompted backlash from some conservatives and civil libertarians, but DHS Counterterrorism Coordinator John Cohen defended his departments actions at a Feb. 15 online event.

The DHSs Feb. 7 bulletin warned of a heightened terrorism threat because of false and misleading narratives, misinformation, and conspiracy theories.

The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors, the bulletin said.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) reportedly accused the DHS of policing speech in a Feb. 15 letter, while Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) is probing the department over its methodology for crafting the bulletin, according to the Washington Times.

Cohen defended the bulletin at the Feb. 15 online event, hosted by George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism. He said the DHS now has hard analysis linking violence to narratives about governments response to COVID-19, the 2020 election, immigration, and race.

We have tied those narratives specifically to the overwhelming majority of domestic violent extremism incidents, he said. These narratives have, in fact, inspired violence.

According to Cohen, the threats of information are coming from all directions.

We also see efforts from foreign and domestic threat actors to exacerbate fractures in society by promoting content online and through different parts of the media ecosystem for the purposes of sowing discord, undermining the credibility of the government, and undermining our relationship with allies, he said.

And these socio-political narratives theyre promoting online have actually encouraged acts of violence.

But while the DHS is concerned that conspiracy theories cause terrorism, Cohen insisted that his department is not attempting to chill public dissent.

Our jobs not to police thought. Our job is to prevent acts of violence. We dont monitor individuals engaging in constitutionally protected speech, he said.

Weve put in place a series of protections to make sure that as were evaluating online content, its only relating to threats, and were only handling that information in a privacy, civil liberties-protective way.

Cohen further accused public critics of DHS policy of being disingenuous.

For public figures, particularly those who know better, to suggest that the DHS is trying to investigate people for their political beliefsquite frankly, its irresponsible, and it may contribute to the volatility of the threat environment, he said.

Cohen also spoke about the DHSs warning about trucker protests ahead of the Super Bowl. He said U.S. law enforcement officials have been monitoring trucker protests with their Canadian counterparts, who are treating the demonstrations as matters of national security.

While there were some people simply there to express their displeasure with vaccine mandates, there were also significant levels of online and physical participation by ideologically motivated violent extremists, Cohen said of the Canadian protests.

We began to see calls for similar types of activities in the United States to either expand or replicate whats going on in Canada.

Cohen said he saw a similar situation in the United States: Legitimate protest mixed with calls for violence.

When you start seeing woven into the threads of the planning of these events actual calls for specific violencereferring to the Super Bowl as the Satanic Bowl, using calls that coincided with threats against the pharmaceutical industry and government institutionsthen its something that we have to evaluate and track, he said.

There were no terrorism events at the Feb. 13 Super Bowla fact Cohen attributed to the DHSs memo.

Our paying attention to the problem served as deterrence, he said.
President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn after returning on Marine One to the White House in Washington on Feb. 10, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Dissatisfaction With US Immigration Levels Rises Under Biden

The percentage of Americans dissatisfied with the levels of immigration into the United States has risen since President Joe Biden took office, according to a new survey.

Some 58 percent of respondents to the Gallup survey said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with the levels, an increase of 8 percent from early 2021.

The primary reason cited by most for the dissatisfaction was believing the current levels are too high, and wanting fewer immigrants admitted into the country.

Thirty-five percent of all respondents said they want less immigration, a jump from 19 percent in early 2021 and the highest percentage since 2017. Approximately 14 percent were dissatisfied but want the levels to remain the same and 9 percent were dissatisfied because they want higher levels of immigration.

The rise in dissatisfaction came from Republicans and independents. Democrats, on the other hand, were more likely to be satisfied with the immigration levels when compared to early 2021. Nearly nine in 10 Republican respondents, 55 percent of independent respondents, and 40 percent of Democrats were dissatisfied. While Republicans and independents were more likely to say they wanted the levels reduced, Democrats were more likely to say they wanted levels increased. Some dissatisfied voters said they had no preference when asked about the levels increasing or decreasing.

Biden, a Democrat, has since taking office reversed or altered key Trump-era immigration policies, including halting construction of the border wall, trying to end the Remain in Mexico program, and narrowing when illegal immigrants can be arrested inside the United States. Some experts say the relaxation of enforcement at the border and in the interior led to the record-high illegal immigrant arrests at the southern border in 2021.

Torunn Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, linked the rise in dissatisfaction with Biden and fellow Democrats.

Democrats caused a massive crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and wont fix it. The American people are sick and tired of the Biden administrations incompetence, Sinclair told The Epoch Times in an email.

Americans know Joe Bidens border crisis is out of control and reject Bidens failed open border policies. Under Bidens watch, nearly two million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the border, and cartels and smugglers are thriving, leaving communities less safe, Nicole Morales, the Republican National Committees deputy press secretary, added.

The White House didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Border Patrol agents apprehend a group of Cubans and Venezuelans that just waded across the Rio Grande from Mexico into Eagle Pass, Texas, on Jan. 25, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Stephen Miller, an architect of many immigration policies during the Trump administration, wrote on Twitter that candidates running for Congress should take note of the results.

Gallup asked the questions about immigration and other topics between Jan. 3 and Jan. 16. Results were based on a random sample of 811 adults 19 and older living in all 50 U.S. states and Washington. The margin of sampling error was plus-minus 4 percentage points.

Another recent poll, conducted by Rasmussen Reports and featuring 1,000 likely voters with a plus/minus sampling error of 3 percentage points, found over three-quarters of respondents saying the issue of illegal immigration would be somewhat or very important in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections.

A majority of respondents said Bidens immigration policies are worse than the Trump administrations and a majority favored taking strong measures for border enforcement, while about a third said figuring out why people in other countries are coming to the United States.

Biden told governors in Washington in January that his administration is working with neighboring countries to tackle illegal immigration and that a key part of the work is figur[ing] out why theyre leaving in the first place.

Its not like people sit around and say, in Guadalajara, I got a great idea. Lets sell everything we have, give it to a coyote to take us across the border and leave us in the desert in a country that doesnt want us where we dont speak the language. Wont that be fun? You know, there are gangs were working on. There is a whole lot of illegal movement. But theres also a way to begin to deal with the reason theyre leaving in the first place. And Id love to talk with you personally about that a little bit, if I may, he said, before the meeting turned private.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican who attended the meeting, said afterward that Biden ignored questions from GOP governors on the border crisis.

They keep talking about the Northern Triangle, Honduras, Guatemala, Ducey said. Theyre not addressing the real public safety issues that are happening at the border, what the cartels are doing, whats happening around national security and the fentanyl thats pouring over.
Elephant tusks are stacked in one of around a dozen pyres of ivory, in Nairobi National Park, Kenya on April 28, 2016. (Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

DNA Analysis of Elephant Ivory Reveals Trafficking Networks

WASHINGTONAs few as three major criminal groups are responsible for smuggling the vast majority of elephant ivory tusks out of Africa, according to a new study.

Researchers used analysis of DNA from seized elephant tusks and evidence such as phone records, license plates, financial records, and shipping documents to map trafficking operations across the continent and better understand who was behind the crimes. The study was published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

When you have the genetic analysis and other data, you can finally begin to understand the illicit supply chainthats absolutely key to countering these networks, said Louise Shelley, who researches illegal trade at George Mason University and was not involved in the research.

A Zimbabwe National Parks official looks over the countrys ivory stockpile at the Zimbabwe National Parks Headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe on June, 2, 2016. (Tsvangirayi Mukwazh/AP Photo)

Conservation biologist Samuel Wasser, a study co-author, hopes the findings will help law enforcement officials target the leaders of these networks instead of low-level poachers who are easily replaced by criminal organizations.

If you can stop the trade where the ivory is being consolidated and exported out of the country, those are really the key players, said Wasser, who co-directs the Center for Environmental Forensic Science at the University of Washington.

Africas elephant population is fast dwindling. From around 5 million elephants a century ago to 1.3 million in 1979, the total number of elephants in Africa is now estimated to be around 415,000.

A 1989 ban on international commercial ivory trade hasnt stopped the decline. Each year, an estimated 1.1 million pounds (500 metric tons) of poached elephant tusks are shipped from Africa, mostly to Asia.

A herd of adult and baby elephants walks in the dawn light as the highest mountain in Africa, Tanzanias Mount Kilimanjaro, is seen in the background, in Amboseli National Park, southern Kenya on Dec.17, 2012. (Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

For the past two decades, Wasser has fixated on a few key questions: Where is most of the ivory being poached, who is moving it, and how many people are they?

He works with wildlife authorities in Kenya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and elsewhere, who contact him after they intercept ivory shipments. He flies to the countries to take small samples of tusks to analyze the DNA. He has now amassed samples from the tusks of more than 4,300 elephants trafficked out of Africa between 1995 and today.

Thats an amazing, remarkable data set, said Princeton University biologist Robert Pringle, who was not involved in the study. With such data, it becomes possible to spot connections and make strong inferences, he said.

In 2004, Wasser demonstrated that DNA from elephant tusks and dung could be used to pinpoint their home location to within a few hundred miles. In 2018, he recognized that finding identical DNA in tusks from two different ivory seizures meant they were harvested from the same animaland likely trafficked by the same poaching network.

The new research expands that approach to identify DNA belonging to elephant parents and offspring, as well as siblingsand led to the discovery that only a very few criminal groups are behind most of the ivory trafficking in Africa.

Because female elephants remain in the same family group their whole life, and most males dont travel too far from their family herd, the researchers hypothesize that tusks from close family members are likely to have been poached at the same time, or by the same operators.

Such genetic links can provide a blueprint for wildlife authorities seeking other evidencecell phone records, license plates, shipping documents, and financial statementsto link different ivory shipments.

Previously when an ivory shipment was intercepted, the one seizure wouldnt allow authorities to identify the organization behind the crime, said Special Agent John Brown III of the Office of Homeland Security Investigations, who has worked on environmental crimes for 25 years.

But the scientists work identifying DNA links can alert us to the connections between individual seizures, said Brown, who is also a co-author. This collaborative effort has definitely been the backbone of multiple multinational investigations that are still ongoing, he said.

They identified several poaching hotspots, including regions of Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, Gabon, and Republic of Congo. Tusks are often moved to warehouses in another location to be combined with other contraband in shipping containers, then moved to ports. Current trafficking hubs exist in Kampala, Uganda; Mombasa, Kenya; and Lome, Togo.

Two suspects were recently arrested as a result of one such investigation, said Wasser.

Traffickers that smuggle ivory also often move other contraband, the researchers found. A quarter of large seizures of pangolin scalesa heavily-poached anteater-like animalare co-mingled with ivory, for instance.

Confronting these networks is a great example of how genetics can be used for conservation purposes, said Brian Arnold, a Princeton University evolutionary biologist who was not involved in the research.

By Christina Larson
President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office of the White House, on Jan. 28, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Durham Filing Detailing Spying on Trump White House Raises National Security Implications

News Analysis

A new filing from special counsel John Durham has raised major national security concerns over access to White House internet traffic.

The filing, which was submitted late on Feb. 11 in connection with the indictment of Michael Sussmann, a former attorney to Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign, reveals that Rodney Joffe, a tech executive who was working with Sussmann, had exploited access to domain name system (DNS) internet traffic pertaining to the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) as well as Trump Tower and Donald Trumps Central Park West apartment building.

The filing also discloses that Joffe, a private individual who has been implicated in mail order scams in the past, had access to the White Houses DNS internet traffic since at least 2014.

Joffe gained this access when his firm, Neustar, was hired by the government to access and maintain dedicated servers for the EOP as part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services to the Executive Office of the President.

Durham doesnt state whether Joffes access to the Presidents Office was abused between 2014 and 2016 when Barack Obama was president. However, Durham alleges that when Trump became president, Joffe and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOPs DNS traffic in order to gather derogatory information about Donald Trump.

DNS functions as a phone book of the internet. By monitoring DNS internet traffic, Joffe would have had access to information about which websites were being accessed from the White House. But according to Durham, the DNS data was among the Internet data mined and exploited by Joffe, suggesting that Joffe had access to additional data about Trumps internet activities.

Durhams filing states that Joffe tasked a small group of university researchers to mine internet data to establish an inference and narrative tying Trump to Russia. Durham said that in doing so, Joffe was seeking to please certain VIPs. According to Durham, Joffe identified these VIPs as individuals at Sussmanns law firm, Perkins Coie, and the Clinton campaign.

While Durhams latest filing doesnt state whether Joffe was directly paid for spying on Trumps internet activities, an earlier Durham filing stated that in addition to Joffes intent to please certain VIPs, Joffe claimed to have been offered a high-ranking position in a Clinton administration. An earlier Durham filing had noted that Joffe was also monitoring the internet traffic of an unknown employee at the office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice.

In response to Durhams filing, a spokesperson for Joffe told media outlets that: Contrary to the allegations in this recent filing, Mr. Joffe is an apolitical Internet security expert with decades of service to the U.S. Government who has never worked for a political party, and who legally provided access to DNS data obtained from a private client that separately was providing DNS services to the Executive Office of the President (EOP).

It is noteworthy thatdespite the new information disclosed regarding JoffeDurhams latest filing nominally pertains to a potential conflict of interest for Sussmanns current counsel, Latham and Watkins. Latham previously represented other parties who are included in Durhams investigation whose interests may conflict with Sussmanns. In addition, Latham also represented Perkins Coie in connection with events that likely will be relevant at trial, and was cited by Durham as having maintained professional and/or personal relationships with individuals who could be witnesses.

Durham is requesting an on-the-record waiver by Sussmann, which would preclude him from challenging a conviction on the grounds of having had conflicted counsel. While requesting a waiver isnt out of the ordinary (Durham similarly requested a waiver from Igor Danchenko, Christopher Steeles source who was indicted by Durham in November 2021), Durham effectively updated the public on the progress of his investigation.

Role of Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan

Durham has implied that the efforts of Sussmann and Joffes team likely began sometime in April 2016. The initial indictment of Sussmann specifically notes that data had already been aggregated from on or about May 4, 2016, through on or about July 29, 2016.

But there may have also been some earlier coordination that possibly involved members of the Clinton campaign in the leadup to the data collection efforts. On Feb. 26, 2016, Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the Clinton campaign, was asked in an email by former Bill Clinton adviser Joel Johnson, Who was in charge of the Trump swift boat project?a reference to smear campaigns initiated against political opponents.

That early exchange is all the more notable given that Palmieris name appears in Durhams Sussmann indictment. The reference is made in connection with an email exchange regarding the allegations of a secret communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russias Alfa Bank. That email exchange involved former Perkins Coie attorney Marc Elias and three Clinton campaign officials: communications director Palmieri, Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook, and Jake Sullivan, who at the time was the senior foreign policy adviser to the Clinton campaign. Sullivan now serves as President Joe Bidens national security adviser.

The email exchange about the now-disproven Alfa Bank allegations took place on Sep. 15, 2016, only four days before Sussmann took the Alfa information to the FBI. Sussmann is charged with having misrepresented who his client was when he took the false Alfa allegations to the FBI.

When questioned by the House Intelligence Committee on Dec. 21, 2017, Sullivan implied he had no direct knowledge of these matters, telling House investigators that Elias would occasionally give us updates on the opposition research they were conducting. Sullivan testified that he didnt know what the nature of that effort was or who was funding it. He also downplayed any specific insights from Elias, telling House investigators that the information provided by Elias tended to be pieces of information that Id heard from reporters as well.

Despite these claims, Sullivan played a material role in disseminating information regarding the Alfa Bank allegations, a fact that undoubtedly hasnt escaped Durhams attention.

Alfa Bank would gain national attention on Oct. 31, 2016, when three separate articles were published. The most cited of these was an article in Slate by Franklin Foer that detailed many of Sussmanns allegations to former FBI general counsel James Baker. Foer was one of the journalists with whom Sussmann had been in contact during the same period that he was speaking with the FBI.

Immediately following the publication of Foers article, Hillary Clinton sent a tweet stating that computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. Clintons tweet included a statement from Jake Sullivan that claimed, This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow.

Both Sullivan and Palmieri took the lead in briefing the media on the TrumpRussia collusion allegations in 2016. Palmieri wrote about their efforts in March 2017, noting that she and Sullivan were on a mission to get the press to focus on  the prospect that Russia had not only hacked and stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, but that it had done so to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.

CIA Relayed Early Warnings on Clinton Plot to Vilify Trump

Sullivans role as a major promoter of the false Alfa Bank allegations is all the more notable in light of a declassified CIA memo that was sent to former FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok in September 2016.

That memo detailed the intercept of information that Hillary Clinton had purportedly approved a plan concerning U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.

The contents of the memo were buttressed by the release of handwritten notes taken by then-CIA Director John Brennan at a July 28, 2016, meeting with then-President Barack Obama. The notes show that Brennan shared intelligence with Obama that Clinton had approved a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service. Comey appears to have been present at the briefing.

The CIA memo and Brennans briefing to Obama regarding claims about Clintons plan to invoke potential Russian interference are all the more significant as Brennan would just over a month later start to create the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) which alleged that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Published in January 2017, Brennans assessment would become a cornerstone of the false allegation that Trump colluded with Russia.

Durhams indictment of Sussmann, along with his subsequent court filings, now confirm that the intelligence Brennan shared with Obama was correctthere was a plan to vilify Trump and that plan was being carried out by Clinton associates such as Sussmann and Joffe. And the CIAs description of Clintons foreign policy advisor would appear to match Sullivans working title at the time.

The timing of Brennans briefing is significant because it came only three days before the FBI officially opened its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. This also raises questions as to why the Clinton campaign wasnt investigated by the FBI.

Durhams indictment also notes that Sussmann took the Alfa Bank allegations, along with additional allegations which stemmed from Joffes surveillance of Trumps internet activities at the White House, to the CIA on Feb. 9, 2017. That meeting, which appears to have involved several agency employees, is all the more notable given the CIAs memo to the FBI regarding allegations that Clinton had approved the plan to vilify Trump.

It doesnt appear that the CIA opened its own investigation or prompted the FBI to do so in the aftermath of the meeting with Sussmann. Curiously, by this time, the Alfa Bank allegations were public and had been investigated by the FBI, which had quickly refuted them. The additional allegations comprised DNS lookups that allegedly demonstrated that Trump and/or his associates were using supposedly rare, Russian-made wireless phones in the vicinity of the White House and other locations.

In fact, as Durham explains, Sussmann and Joffe failed to disclose that there were millions of such lookups from U.S. internet addresses and the fact that some of them occurred in the vicinity of the White House was meaningless.

Given the FBIs earlier dismissal of Sussmanns Alfa Bank data and the easily debunked Russian phone allegations, it seems surprising that the CIA didnt contact the FBI or instigate an investigation into who was behind the false allegationsparticularly when Sussmann was known within the intelligence community circles to be tied to the Clinton campaign.

The fact that the Feb. 9 allegations included information gleaned from Trumps White House DNS traffic should have alerted the intelligence community that the allegations originated with Joffe. This matter is particularly unsettling. If the FBI or CIA became aware that the data had originated with Joffe, it would seem equally likely that they would have been aware of the manner by which Joffe came by the data.

Joffes Access to Highly Sensitive Data Disregarded by FBI, CIA

In the 1980s, Joffe, who is originally from South Africa, was involved in a mail scam in which people across the United States received notices by mail that they had won a grandfather clock. They were then asked to pay $70 to cover shipping and handling. Iowas then-Attorney General Tom Miller reached a settlement with Joffe, noting that at least 10,000 residents had been scammed. Miller said that the victims of the scam were merely buying a cheap, battery-powered, pressed wood and plastic clock at an inflated price.

Historical news clippings show that the scam extended to other states, including Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.

Despite his forays into mail scams, Joffe went on to found UltraDNS, an internet directory services company that was eventually taken over by another IT company, Neustar, in 2006. It was while he was senior vice president and head of security at Neustar that Joffe is alleged to have exploited his access to private internet data, including data from the EOP.

While it isnt known how Joffe was able to gain the security clearance sufficient to access highly sensitive data that included information on the presidents internet activities, the fact that he was able to do so raises serious national security concerns. According to Durham, the data went beyond DNS lookups, and could potentially encompass any number of sensitive files, including personal medical or tax information.

Although Durham is alleging that Joffe abused his access to this sensitive data to find derogatory information on Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign, there is no way of knowing what else he might have done with the information. In addition to those affiliated with the Clinton campaign, any number of foreign adversaries or members of the media would have been very keen to access the data themselves. The fact that the FBI and CIA apparently werent disturbed by Joffes access and his efforts to exploit that access for political purposes is equally alarming.

During the tenure of former FBI Director James Comey, Joffe received the FBIs Directors Award for Cybersecurity for 2013.

Jeff Carlson Follow Jeff Carlson is a co-host of Truth Over News on Epoch TV. Twitter: @themarketswork.
John Durham (L) is sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut by Chief U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven, Conn., on Feb. 22, 2018. (Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut)

Durham Reveals Democrats Behaving Like KGB; Is More Coming?

Commentary

John Durham, the man chosen by former Attorney General William Barr as special counsel to unearth possible malfeasance before and during the TrumpRussia investigation, is a sly fox, in the best sense.

Just when people, including Donald J. Trump, have written him off, complaining that he wasnt doing anything, that his investigation was a sham, he quietly dumps information that creates a political earthquake.

That those known TrumpRussia liarsThe New York Times and The Washington Posthave, as of this writing, and its been a few days, not even dared to report Durhams latest court filing is a sure sign that its indeed a serious quake, with potential aftershocks to come.

But before I go further, I would like to call attention to the principle of jurisprudence Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus (False in one thing, false in all). Although written in Latin, its English common law from the early 17th century, stating that a witness who testifies falsely about one matter is not credible to testify about any matter.

While this may not always be true, it frequently is and most people apply it in their daily lives. When someone lies to us, we cease to trust them. Its common sense from common law.

So back to Durhams latest filing. Jack Phillips reported right here in The Epoch Times.

Special counsel John Durhams team alleged on Feb. 12 that a tech executive aligned with the Democratic Party spied on former President Donald Trumps residences and the White House when Trump was president, Phillips said.

Durham said in a court filing that the spying took place in order to establish an inference and narrative to tie Trump to the Russian government.

Electronic spying on the White House at the behest of the Democratic Party? Its what you would expect from Chinese or Russian intelligence. And we thought the Mueller investigation was bad.

And talk about strange cases of projection. The Democrats were accusing Trump of colluding with Russia while they were behaving like the KGB.

Trump himself responded that this is worse than Watergate, and hes surely correct. Watergate, it will be recalled, was about a small-time break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters during an election that Republicans won by a historic landslide. Although not to be excused in the slightest, politically, it couldnt have been more irrelevant.

All of this recent eavesdropping occurred during the tightest of elections (2016) and afterward during an actual presidency. It was clearly aimed at destroying that presidency, sabotaging from withina genuine insurrection, instead of the phony one we know about. Nothing remotely like that has happened in our history.

And it was all instigated by people close to Hillary Clinton or quite possibly by Clinton herself. We dont know yet. One of the people involved that we do know about was Jake Sullivan, currently our national security adviser, charged with overseeing the conflict on the UkraineRussia border. Think about that. What a disgrace to our country that is. If you and I know about it, every nation in the world knows about it.

This evolving scandalatrocity might be a better wordhas most probably eliminated Clinton from the Democratic presidential sweepstakes. It may even sweep up President Joe Biden.

But wait, as they say, theres more. Or could be.

Lets go back to English common lawfalsus in uno and all that.

The Washington Examiners Byron York writes in his influential Daily Memo:

One of the most contentious claims Donald Trump ever made was his insistence that he had been the target of spying. He made the charge in several different ways. For example, in March 2017, Trump, just two months in office, tweeted, Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism! [Actually, its something worse than that.]

Each time, all the usual anti-Trump voices rushed to accuse the president of lying. But over the years, a series of facts emerged that, while they did not support some of Trumps most specific chargesObama did not wiretap Trump in Trump Towerdid support the larger idea that Trump was indeed the target of spying.

Wait a minute, Byron. How do we know that Barack Obama had nothing to do with this? The investigation is far from complete and, well, Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. (We could also include Hillarys missing emails on that omnibus. And a lot of other things.)

Did you ask Trump if he had evidence of this, Byron? He well might. His track record isnt bad.

I dont mean to pick on York, someone I know and whos a fine journalist, but hes also sure that the 2020 election was fair and that Biden won.

Falsus in uno again?

I would like to ask him a question: Are people capable of breaking into the computer servers of the president of the United Statesa national security issue of tremendous implicationscapable, morally and practically, of fixing an election?

Regrettably, they are. That doesnt mean that it happened, but it does mean that its worthy of investigationan investigation that has been blocked at every turn.

Whether Durhams work will tell us more about that, I dont know. But he appears to be opening the door on a lot of things. Well see if he walks in. It certainly wont be easy.

But maybe, just maybe, after more than 2,000 years, Diogenes has finally found his honest man in John Durham.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Dutch photographer Wout de Jong has been documenting indigenous Asian cultures whose traditional ways are dwindling and on the verge of extinction.

Traveling to Mongolia, de Jong captured some of the unique atmosphere, skills, and traditions of the once-nomadic Kazakh eagle hunters and recently released his documentary photos. The Dutchman admits that the throngs of photographers, publicity, and tourist industry attracted by the Kazakhs yearly Golden Eagle Festival has impacted the peoples traditions, yet there are stories behind the scenes worth telling.

The Kazakhs in Mongolia have evolved from their ancestral selves. These former plains drifters have now turned to farming and tourism mostly, though their unique skills of hunting with eagles while on horseback remains a source of pride in their culture. The Kazakhs festival, captured on camera by de Jong, shown here, has become an attraction for touristsyet he has found positive and beautiful stories in their unique way of life.

During the festival, De Jong, 65, stayed with one of the participants and his five- or six-generation family of eagle hunters. With them, he experienced a unique sense of caring that he hadnt found in the West, and was struck by the relationship between man and eagle that permeated the home. That was really, for me, the highlight of it, seeing the eagle in its normal environment  and with the hunter at home, he told The Epoch Times. You see the eagleits really interestingits part of the family.  Its in their home and they feed it  [and provide] a lot of attention for the eagle.

He explained the manner in which they introduce eagles into the clan and reintroduce them back into the wild. They always use young female eagles, and they get them from the nest, and then they train them, de Jong said. And they stay with them about 8 or 10 years, and then they release it again, and then the eagle gets back in nature.

As for the tradition behind the competition, he said, its about skill.

The Kazakhs today are caught between two worlds, de Jong added. On one hand, they proudly uphold their old ways; on the other, theyre assailed by modern influences and worldly politics. The annual Golden Eagle Festival, nevertheless, remains a source of immense inspiration for these indigenous descendants.

Its the biggest festival, I believe, in the area. I think 60 or 70 hunters were participating, said de Jong. Now, they use fox skulls and fur drawn by an animal; the eagle has to land on it just like in a real hunt. In 2015, they abandoned hunting on live foxes, so they only use skulls.  People thought that live animals were used for that, but thats not anymore, the Dutchman said. Its not good for tourism, but it is the tradition.

Appearance and spirit is also important in the competition, he saidhow they interact, the hunter with the eagle, the dress they use, the horses they ride on.

The festival, it has its ups and downs, De Jong said. I liked it, but I didnt like it all. But what attracted me was the bond between the eagles and the hunters.  There may be a hundred participants, and the eagle always finds his boss. As the festival attracts many tourists, it is also good for the Kazakh minority, he added.

The photographer, enamored with Asian culture, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, hoped to return to Mongolia to continue where the story left offuntil the pandemic put a halt to travel. Its a continuing story. And when I leave, the movie ends, its not the end of the story, he said. And thats what I hope we can do, as photographers, as journalists, to keep the story alive.

The story has not ended, its never over.

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
The U.S.S. Virginia returns to the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Conn., after its first sea trials on July 30, 2004. (AP Photo/Jack Sauer, File)

Ex-Navy Nuclear Engineer Pleads Guilty in Submarine Espionage Case

A former U.S. Navy engineer pleaded guilty on Monday to attempting to sell secrets about nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign country.

As part of a deal with prosecutors, Jonathan Toebbe, 43, admitted to a federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to conspiring with his wife to pass on restricted data, a violation of the Atomic Energy Act that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Toebbes wife, Diana, 45, who was charged with helping her husband, is still facing criminal charges. She has pleaded not guilty.

At the time of his arrest on Oct. 9, 2021, Toebbe was assigned to the Navys Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, also known as Naval Reactors, which gave him access to restricted data, including information related to the design of its nuclear-powered warships, according to court documents.

The Justice Department said that for several months, Toebbe was in contact with an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign official who paid him thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.

He is also accused of concealing a digital memory card containing classified information in a peanut butter sandwich at a dead drop location in West Virginia on June 26, 2021, while his wife kept watch.

After retrieving the SD card, the undercover agent sent Toebbe a $20,000 cryptocurrency payment. In return, Toebbe emailed the undercover agent a decryption key for the SD Card.

The SD card contained military sensitive design elements relating to submarine nuclear reactors, the Justice Department said.

On Aug. 28, Toebbe made another dead drop of an SD card in eastern Virginia, this time hidden in a chewing gum package. The undercover FBI agent subsequently made a payment of $70,000 in cryptocurrency.

The Justice Department said that memory card also contained restricted data related to submarine nuclear reactors.

Toebbe and his wife were arrested by the FBI in October after placing a third SD card at a pre-arranged dead drop at a second location in West Virginia.

Under the terms of his plea deal, Toebbe faces a likely sentence of between 12 years to 17 years in prison. He has also agreed to assist authorities in recovering all restricted or sensitive government data, and the money given to him by the undercover FBI agent.

An FBI agent testified during a court hearing in October that Toebbe asked for $5 million worth of cryptocurrency in exchange for the secret submarine information. A payment made by the FBI to Toebbe worth about $100,000 has not been located, the agent testified.

Reuters contributed to this report.
John Durham, the special counsel currently investigating the alleged spying that was done against former President Donald Trump, submitted a new court filing that was, quite frankly, a bombshell in the case.

Thats because, within the filing, John Durham alleged that a tech executive who is aligned with the Democratic Party spied on Trumps personal residence as well as on the White House during the time when he was in office.

Resources:

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FDA Delayed Decision on Pfizers Vaccine for Children Due to Low Number of COVID-19 Cases in Trial: Gottlieb

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pushed back a decision on whether to clear Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 because both arms of Pfizers clinical trial have a low number of COVID-19 cases, a Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner says.

Since theres a low number of cases overall in the clinical trialmost kids are not getting symptomatic COVIDone case in one direction or another can tip the perception of the vaccines overall effectiveness, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner who now sits on Pfizers board, said on CNBCs Squawk Box.

FDA officials analyzed data from when the trial gave children 6 months of age to 4 years old a two-dose primary regimen and determined the data was not enough for emergency use authorization.

The trial includes approximately 8,300 children 12 or younger.

The data that we saw made us realize that we needed to see data from a third dose, as in the ongoing trial, in order to make it the term determination that we could proceed with doing an authorization, Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told reporters on a call.

Officials cited a preliminary assessment done by FDA experts on the trial data, but have not made that assessment or the data public. Asked for the assessment, an FDA spokeswoman declined to provide it, citing federal law. The Epoch Times has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the document.

Before the Feb. 11 announcement of a delay, a meeting of the agencys vaccine advisory panel was scheduled for Feb. 15. If the data were strong enough, authorization could have come within hours of the meeting.

Instead, regulators are waiting for data from the expanded trial, which is testing a three-dose primary series. That data is not expected until April, according to Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech.

A person is injected with Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine in Dallas, Texas, in a file image. (LM Otero/AP Photo)

It will be easier to make a decision when the trial isnt ongoing, Gottlieb said.

The FDA wanted to take the time for this data set to effectively settle down. That points probably going to be after theyve administered the third dose and have the data from that third dose, that theyre going to have a complete dataset that isnt continuing to evolve, that the Omicron wave will have passed, that children will have received that dose, and gotten maximal efficacy. At that point youll be able to get more of a fixed perception of the vaccines overall effectiveness, he said.

Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine is available to all Americans 5 or older, and is the only one available to youth 17 and younger.

Because of waning effectiveness against the Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, U.S. officials recommend all Americans 12 and older get a booster shot, or a third dose, of Pfizers vaccine. Some children 5 to 11 with weakened immune systems can also get an additional dose.

Children who contract COVID-19 are much more likely than other populations to show no symptoms, and are at little risk of contracting severe COVID-19. A small number have been hospitalized, with a subset dying. The rate of hospitalizations attributed to COVID-19 among children has risen since Omicron emerged in late 2021. Just 11 children died after being admitted to hospitals with the disease between July 1 and Dec. 18, 2021, and none died between Dec. 19 and Dec. 31, 2021, researchers found in an analysis of hospitals in 14 states published Tuesday.
An American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner lands at the Miami International Airport in Miami on Dec. 10, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Flight Diverted to Kansas City Due to Unruly Passenger

KANSAS CITY, Mo.A plane flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., was diverted to Kansas City after an unruly passenger reportedly tried to open a door on the aircraft.

American Airlines said flight 1775 landed safely Sunday afternoon at Kansas City International Airport and law enforcement met the plane upon arrival. The FBI said in a statement that the passenger was interfering with the flight crew and was taken into custody.

Details about the person werent immediately released.

In audio captured by LiveATC.net, the Kansas City Star reported that the pilot told air traffic controllers that four passengers helped to contain the unruly passenger.

Mouaz Moustafa, who indicated in a tweet that he had been a passenger on the flight, said a flight attendant used a coffee pot to subdue the man.

The flight, which had originated at Los Angeles International Airport, later continued on to Reagan National Airport.

Were grateful to our crew members, who are consistently dedicated to the safety and care of our customers and who handled the circumstances with the utmost skill and professionalism, American Airlines said in a statement.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants said on Twitter that the passenger attempted to open a forward passenger door and it marked another dangerous, life-threatening incident on a plane. It said passengers subdued the person before the plane landed.

This violent behavior must stop, the union said.

The incident comes comes amid a surge in unruly airline passengers over the past year or soincluding some who become violent. Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines told the U.S. Department of Justice that any person convicted of a disruption on board a flight should be added to the national no fly list.
A Ford logo on signage at Country Ford in Graham, N.C., on July 27, 2021. (Gerry Broome/AP Photo)

Ford Doubles Annual Bonuses for Some Salaried Workers

CEO taking reduced amount after backlash over payout formula

Ford has doubled the annual bonuses for some of its salaried workers while the companys CEO will be taking a reduced amount following backlash over its current payout formula, the company confirmed to The Detroit Press.

The automaker originally announced on Feb. 7 that its annual bonus formula would be based on a 54 percent payout for lower-level salaried workers and their supervisors, based on results in North America.

Meanwhile, the company said that senior managers, regional directors, global directors, executive directors, and vice presidents would receive a 135 percent payout, based on global results.

But the announcement faced backlash from some employees who were reportedly unhappy that Ford had chosen to give high-level salaried workers a higher bonus than lower-level ones, as well as the fact that the automakers scheme focused on global performance.

Multiple workers expressed their disappointment and concerns about the decision regarding the bonus scheme directly to CEO Jim Farley, according to The Detroit Press.

In response, Ford agreed to make adjustments to the bonus scheme for workers after listening and reflecting on the issue.

Specifically, the Dearborn, Michigan-headquartered company will double the awards for those workers who were slated to get a 54 percent payout of their targets, while senior executives would also take a reduced amount.

Now general salaried workers and their supervisors will get a 108 percent performance bonus formula, as will Ford executive Kumar Galhotra, Executive Chair Bill Ford Jr. and CEO Jim Farley, among other top-tier workers.

Employees who are classed as midlevel executives will continue to keep the 135 percent payout.

Our bonuses are going to go down to help pay for this, Farley told the Detroit Free Press.

Thats just kind of the ethos of our company. The leadership of the company and the working level will get the same bonuses. The working levels will go up approximately double and leadership team will go down to the same level. As far as the leadership team, theres no daylight between any of us.

Were here to serve the employees. You know thats my philosophy. Thats why were making this change. This change is all about serving our employeeshaving our top management and our team in North America be on the same page, Farley said.

However, the CEO noted that the change to the bonus scheme may be reviewed in the future.

There may be years we dont make adjustments and there may be years when we do, he said. We felt in this case it was the right thing to do.

Ford reported (pdf) full-year net income of $17.9 billion in its fourth-quarter results this month, on revenue of $136.3 billion last year, far more than rival General Motors which reported net income of $10 billion on revenue of $127 billion for 2021.

Off the back of strong financial results in 2021, General Motors announced that it would pay approximately 42,500 hourly workers up to $10,250 in profit-sharing payments in their Feb. 25 paychecks.

The company also told salaried workers they would receive a 200 percent bonus payout.

A GM spokesperson confirmed the bonus scheme to the Detroit Free Press, stating, We had strong performance in 2021, and with our global variable pay incentive program for GM salaried employees and hourly profit sharing, when GM wins, all of our team members win.
Orange County officials mourn the death of Robert Ming, former mayor of Laguna Niguel, Calif., in a plane crash in Kansas on Feb. 13, 2022. (Courtesy of the City of Laguna Niguel)

Former Laguna Niguel Mayor Killed in Plane Crash

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.Orange County officials were mourning on Feb. 14 the death of former Laguna Niguel Mayor Robert Ming in a plane crash in Kansas.

Ming, a managing partner and founder of the Quadrant Law Group, crashed a single-engine plane he was piloting on Feb. 13 at Johnson County Executive Airport.

The 51-year-old attorney was first elected to the Laguna Niguel City Council in 2006 and re-elected four years later. He served as mayor in 2009 and 2013.

Laguna Niguel Mayor Elaine Gennawey said city officials were simply heartbroken at Robert Mings passing. She added that words are inadequate to convey the depth of Roberts character and the force for good that he was in the community.

Gennawey praised Ming as a man of impeccable ethics whose actions were guided by faith and the belief that when we work together much good can be accomplished. He had vision and the commitment to follow through on his vision to put into place vehicles and processes for positive action to create good.

Ming was the founding president of the Laguna Niguel Military Support Foundation and the Association of California CitiesOrange County, Gennawey said.

Roberts legacy is one of a man of solid faith and values whose strong love for his family and community put his faith into action, Gennawey said. His positive impact on Laguna Niguel and our region will be lasting and is immeasurable.

Aliso Viejo Councilman Dave Harrington said Ming was a great guy, good family man, very devoted.

Harrington said Ming was super smart  and very devoted to his family. I think we lost a good one.

Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, who Ming ran against for supervisor in 2014, was a really smart guy. He was a nice person. Were just heartbroken for his family.

A single engine private airplane fly in for landing at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Supporters of the Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions in front of Parliament of Canada, in Ottawa, Canada, on Jan. 28, 2022. A convoy of truckers started off from Vancouver on Jan. 23, 2022, on its way to protest against the mandate in the capital city of Ottawa. (Dave Chan/AFP via Getty Images)

Firearms May Be Planted in Ottawa to Discredit Protest, Convoy Organizers Warn

Organizers of the Freedom Convoy in the Canadian capital say they have notified police after being told that nefarious elements are planning to plant weapons at the Ottawa COVID-19 mandate demonstrations as a pretext to forcibly remove peaceful protestors.

In a video posted on social media on Feb. 14, Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who is helping the protest organizers with security, said they have received information from sources they consider to be reliable that the weapons may be planted.

The information, Bulford said, correlates with the more than 2,000 firearms that were stolen in Peterborough, Ont., on the morning of Feb. 13.

Peterborough Police Service officers had said they are investigating the incident regarding the stolen firearms, which were taken from a trucking yard in the city in the early hours of the morning.

The truck and trailer were carrying more than 2,000 firearms with magazines. Officials said no ammunition was taken.

Today on Feb. 14, we received information from multiple believed, reliable sources that firearms may be planted in Ottawa specifically around the Freedom Convey to discredit the protest and to use as a pretext to forcibly remove peaceful protestors, said Bulford, who says he was a sniper supervisor with the RCMP regularly tasked with protecting the prime minister. He left the force since he didnt want to have COVID-19 vaccination.

(L-R) JCCF Lawyer Keith Wilson who represents the trucker convoy organizer protesters, former RCMP officer Daniel Bulford who is helping the organizers with security, and protest organizers Tamara Lich and Benjamin Dichter hold a press conference in Ottawa on Feb. 6, 2022. (Limin Zhou/The Epoch Times)

Due to the nature of this information, we felt it prudent to notify the public in the interest of their safety. This private intelligence correlates with the approximately 2,000 firearms stolen in Peterborough Ontario on Sunday morning, Feb. 13.

Our sources have notified us that these weapons may be planted by nefarious elements and at this point, we have no further knowledge about who is behind this act of sabotage.

As soon as we received this information, we notified the appropriate authorities with whom we are collaborating, including the Ottawa Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Parliamentary Protective Service.

The Ottawa Police Service told The Epoch Times: The Ottawa Police Service (OPS), the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have been fully engaged via the Integrated Command Centre (ICC) to ensure an efficient response to the ongoing demonstrations.

The RCMP would not, either itself as a policing agency nor as a partner of the ICC, disclose information related to any operational matters, including operational discussions or the sharing of information among our policing partners.

The RCMP remains fully committed to providing assistance to this Ottawa Police Service-led operation, and we continue to work collaboratively with all ICC partners.

Bulford urged demonstrators to inform the police immediately if they witness any suspicious activities.

He also asked the police not to act discriminately toward demonstrators.

We expressly affirm the principle that change can only occur within the democratic process. We have never, nor do we ever, intend to step outside of this democratic process. Public and police safety remains our paramount concern, he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a media availability about the ongoing protests in Ottawa and blockades at various Canada-U.S. borders, in West Block on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on Feb. 11, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

In a media release on Feb. 14, Peterborough Police Service said that a truck carrying more than 2,000 firearms was stolen from a trucking yard in Peterborough. The firearms were of small calibre with the clips attached.

Officials said they believed it to be an isolated crime of opportunity rather than a targeted incident.

Its believed the suspects entered several other commercial yards in the city before this one, and that they had attempted to take different trucks and trailers before leaving with the trailer being sought in this incident, officials said.

The truck is a white 2019 Freightliner New Cascadia 126 with the company name in red on the doors and a red #97 in red on the side of the hood.

The trailer was a white 2014 Hyundai 53 foot Dry Freight Van trailer with a silver metallic line that runs horizontally the whole length of the trailer, police said.

Officers are currently working to locate the trailer and its contents and upload the stolen firearms onto the national database.

The public safety announcement from Organizers of the Freedom Convoy comes after the RCMP said they arrested 11 people at the Coutts border crossing protest in southern Alberta, and seized 13 long guns as well as handguns and a large quantity of ammunition.

In a news release on Feb. 14, the Mounties said they received information in the early morning that a small organized group within the larger Coutts protest had access to a cache of firearms and ammunition.

The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade, officials said.

Officers searched three trailers believed to be linked with the small group and detained 11 people. They also seized 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armour, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition, and high-capacity magazines.

The protest at Coutts border crossing started on Jan. 29. It is one of several demonstrations that has begun since the Freedom Convoy encamped in Ottawa to demonstrate against the Canadian governments COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truck drivers.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that the government is invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time to address the impact of the ongoing protests against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions by truckers and their supporters.
Food and necessities donated to truckers are left beside trucks parked in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 6, 2022. (Noe Chartier/The Epoch Times)

GiveSendGo Says No Credit Card Info Leaked or Money Stolen in Freedom Convoy Crowdfunding Hack

GiveSendGo says no credit card information was leaked and no money was stolen after its website, which contains a fundraiser for the Freedom Convoy, was recently hacked and names of donors were made public.

GiveSendGo has a dedicated team aggressively focused on identifying these malicious actors and pursuing actions against their cybercrime, said the company in a Feb. 15 statement.

GiveSendGo shut down its website when the hack was discovered on Feb. 13 and says it performed security audits before going back online.

The Christian crowdfunding website says staff morale remains high after the breach.

We are in a battle. We didnt expect it to be easy. This has not caused us to be afraid. Instead, its made it even more evident that we can not back down.

Meanwhile, the website Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) which hosts the hacked material, posted another batch of illegally obtained information on Feb. 15.

DDoSecrets has posted leaked material on the Freedom Convoy campaign since Feb. 13 amid repeated hacks of the platform. The latest batch of donor information, titled GiveSendGo 4.0 was posted on Feb. 15 and consisted of 5 GB of files including donor information from the Adopt A Trucker campaign.

In June 2020, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security document labelled DDoSecret a criminal hacker group after its hacking operation targeted federal, state, and local law enforcement databases in what officials surmised was in support of nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd.

Over US$8 million has been raised on GiveSendGo for the truckers ongoing protest against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions in Ottawa. The convoy, which began as a protest against mandatory vaccination for cross-border truck drivers, has grown into a larger movement drawing support from those who want to see an end to restrictive COVID-19 measures.

The issue of funding for the Freedom Convoy organizers has been a source of tension after authorities successfully lobbied previous platform GoFundMe to cancel their fundraiser for the convoy.

The organizers then pivoted to GiveSendGo. An Ontario court later ruled for the funds meant for the protesters to be frozen. GiveSendGo said its not under the Ontario courts jurisdiction.

Before cancelling the fundraiser on its site, GoFundMe had allowed Freedom Convoy organizers to withdraw $1 million for expenses such as food and fuel for protesters.

TD Bank on Feb. 12 said it had frozen two bank accounts collectively holding over $1.4 million in deposits to support the trucker-led protests. One of the bank accounts received a lump sum of $1 million in Canadian currency via the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, while the restabout $300,000 Canadian dollarswas sent to a second account through several bank electronic transfers, a TD spokesperson told Reuters.

Meanwhile, while invoking the Emergencies Act over the ongoing protests, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on Feb. 14 the federal government was including crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers they use under its anti-money laundering and terrorism financing regime.

These changes cover all forms of transactions, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. The illegal blockades have highlighted the fact that crowdfunding platforms, and some of the payment service providers they use, are not fully captured under the proceeds of crime and terrorist financing act, said Freeland.

Isaac Teo contributed to this report.
Parents Amy and Nathan Duncan from North Carolina, who always knew their adoption journey would be a little different, became adoptive parents to a premature baby boy with severe birth defects before he was even born. Doctors thought he wouldnt survive, yet, after 104 days of fighting and fervent prayers, the baby headed home and is now completely healthy.

The Wilkesboro couple started dating when Amy was 16 and Nathan was 18. Their shared Christian faith was a huge, huge driving factor in getting married, said Amy. From having the chance to adopt a child with life-threatening birth defects and bringing him back home with no long-term ailments, the couple say it is all Gods glory.

What we learned is that God is with us in sorrow and in joy, Amy said. The Lord will either deliver us from trial, or He will walk with us through it. And either way, we have His presence, and His sustaining strength to endure whatever trial it isand thats exactly what happened.

Amy with her adopted son, Marshall. (Courtesy of Amy Duncan)

The Gift of Adoption

Amy and Nathan both knew early on that they wanted to adopt. The question was, When?' Amy, 30, told The Epoch Times. We had three of our own children kind of quick.

She said that, with so many children in need, they started doing some research on private-lawyer adoption, agency adoption, and foster care. I really felt like the Lord was whispering to my heart that our adoption was not going to happen through any of these avenues, she said. It was going to be someone in need just approaching us and asking us to adopt their baby. We felt like Gods calling us to open our home to children in need and to be a safe place for them.

Sure enough, on July 2, 2021, Amy received a text message from a woman she had befriended 18 months prior.

Describing the expecting woman as someone in need, Amy said: She reached out to us and said, Im pregnant, and I can have it no other way than you and Nathan being the parents of this baby. What a surprising gift that was! We grieved for her but also rejoiced that she saw us and wanted us to be Marshalls parents. The birth mom gave us such a wonderful gift in choosing us to be the parents.

I really felt like the Lord was saying that this is not about just getting a baby, this is about loving this person in need, hurting, and looking for help. You need to offer them all of your love, as long as theyre willing to take it.

Nathan with baby Marshall. (Courtesy of Amy Duncan)

Baby Marshall was born on Aug. 30, at around 33 weeks gestation, at Brenner Childrens Hospital in Winston Salem, an hour from the Duncans home.

Amy, a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her kids, and Nathan, who runs his own battery-selling company, Nathans Batteries, knew Marshalls fight would begin immediately. Amy said Marshall underwent an emergency surgery immediately after birth as his stomach was blown up huge and his lungs werent able to function. He was diagnosed with intestinal perforation, meaning the meconium that usually constitutes a babys first excretion had leaked into his abdomen. He had small lungs and was intubated, as he couldnt breathe alone.

They found when they opened his stomach, an incision across probably 75 percent of his abdomen, that his intestines had holes throughout them, said Amy. We were told on the phone that he was gravely ill and would likely not survive.

My husband and I still desperately wanted to be with him at the time. We had our three children, and a foster daughter that had been with us six months, but we both felt an urgency that this baby in the NICU was our son.

(Courtesy of Amy Duncan)

As only the parents were allowed inside the ward due to COVID-19 restrictions, four days after Marshall was born, the birth mother brought the birth certificate to the hospital, met with a social worker, and told them that Amy and Nathanwho chose Marshall Nate as their sons given namewere the adoptive parents and have full rights to visit him.

To the couples great surprise, the birth mother also added their family name to the birth certificate. It was a real gift to not have to wait, you know, for everything to be finished for him to have our name, Amy said.

Despite the joy of the adoption, Marshalls prognosis was poor.

Amy and Nathan with baby Marshall. (Courtesy of Amy Duncan)

The Prayer and Gods Will

Amy said that, once they got to the hospital, Marshalls surgeon, doctors, and nurses were all coming in one after the other to tell them how severe his situation was. The doctors told them that the baby boy would need multiple surgeries to cut out sections of his intestines and attach them together, with multiple possible outcomes; he may have a Crohns-like deficiency for life, or he may have to receive his daily nutrients through an IV, she added.

Yet neither Amy nor Nathan once considered quitting; instead, they were overwhelmed by a fearless peace. Amy said when Nathan asked of the likelihood that Marshalls intestines would heal spontaneously, the doctors told them that thats not going to happen. The couple then turned to prayer while submitting to the fact that there would be many surgeries and things and if that was not Gods will.

Nathan prayed on our first day meeting Marshall, Amy recalled. He read scripture to Marshall, saying he wanted that to be the first thing he spoke to him. He then laid his hands on his stomach and just so sweetly called out to God to please spare our son from all of the suffering foretold to us by the doctors and to heal his intestines. If that was not His will, then we trust Him still and ask for His strength to handle it.

Three days later, Marshall started passing food by himself and the drain attached to his stomach stayed clear, she said.

(Courtesy of Amy Duncan)

The doctors and nurses couldnt believe it, Amy recalled. After that, the drain always stayed clear. And dye tests showed there were no holes or leaks or kinks in his intestines whatsoever. Finally, the doctor said, You know, I cant explain it. I dont understand how, but somehow [Marshalls intestines] are just as if they were made perfectly, without the holes that were in there before.'

Amy said, as a family, they walk in submission to God, and that His will for that situation was to say yes.

It was truly the Lord who healed them perfectly. We have just been in continual amazement that the Lord gave us this gift and our Marshall eats normally and wont have lifetime stomach problems. What a gift!

Thereafter, it took 104 days in the NICU for Marshall to breathe fully on his own. During this time, the Duncans drove back and forth from their home to Ronald McDonald House every evening to be with their baby.

Nathan and Amy with their children and baby Marshall. (Courtesy of Amy Duncan)

(Courtesy of Amy Duncan)

Amy juggled visits with her foster daughters birth mom, social workers, and homeschooling. Friends and family brought meals and helped babysit. Our needs were met, and even exceeded, said Amy.

On Dec. 12, 2021, Marshall was discharged from the hospital, just in time for Christmas.

Amy and Nathan, who had built strong relationships with Marshalls care team, learned how to monitor his oxygen, use his NG (nasogastric) feeding tube and work the feeding pump, and felt prepared. At first, the mass of cords and equipment felt intimidating, Amy said. But the joy of Marshalls homecoming, and the sheer thrill of the Duncans kids meeting their long-awaited sibling, overshadowed it all.

Whats really neat is that Marshall has fair skin and red hair, just like my husband and my son! Amy marveled.

The Duncans updated The Epoch Times on Feb. 17 that Marshall is now completely tube free and completely healthy. He is now like a normal baby with no NG tube and no oxygen. Praise the Lord! she said.

(Courtesy of Amy Duncan)

Amy hopes others will be inspired by their very unique adoption story.

If anyone is questioning whether they want to foster or adopt, our encouragement from our family would be to do it, she shared. You have the opportunity to change the trajectory of a childs life forever, being able to show what its like to have a healthy, stable, loving family.

Dont look at it from what you can handle, or what you can do, but look at their perspective.

Arshdeep Sarao contributed to this report.

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
GOP Senators Pen Letter Urging Colleagues to Help Defund Bidens Vaccine Mandates

A group of Republican senators led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Monday penned a letter to their colleagues asking for their support to oppose the passing a measure until it explicitly ends funding for President Joe Bidens vaccine mandates.

The group urged their colleagues to join them in opposing the passage of the Continuing Resolution until there is a roll call vote on an amendment that would defund the enforcement of the mandates.

We have consistently opposed President Bidens federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which would force millions of Americans to choose between an unwanted medical procedure and being able to provide for their families, Sens. Lee, Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote in the letter, reported Fox News.

The senators said that for now, they will not consent to a time agreement that eases passage of the Continuing Resolution and called on their colleagues to do the same.

For legal, constitutional, and policy reasons, we remain not only strongly opposed to the mandates, but also firmly convinced that the risk of inaction on our part is unacceptably high, they wrote.

Millions of Americans are now free from this unwarranted federal invasion into health care decisions, but for how long? the senators said.

The Republicans were referring to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which said on Jan. 25 that it will formally withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees.

The agency issued an announcement in the Federal Register that it will withdraw its rule, known as an emergency temporary standard (ETS), which required companies to make employees either get a COVID-19 vaccine or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing while wearing masks in the workplace.

It comes after the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 issued a 63 opinion blocking the rule, saying that challengers to the order, including large trucking companies, were likely to prevail in court.

In addition to the lingering, harmful uncertainty faced by those subject to the four remaining COVID-19 mandatesspecifically, those imposing vaccine requirements on medical workers, military personnel, federal employees, and federal contractorsthe American people as a whole still face uncertainty as to whether President Biden has abandoned his desire to impose similar requirements on them, the senators added.

History will bear record of whether we chose to endure tyranny, or oppose it, in this pivotal moment. We invite you to stand with us and oppose the [Continuing Resolution] until it explicitly defunds the implementation and enforcement of these mandates, they wrote.

The group urged their colleagues at a minimum to take a vote on this before funding their enforcement.

The livelihoods and personal freedoms of millions of Americans are at stake, they concluded.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
How the Power of the Federal Health Agencies Could Have Been Countered

Commentary

Blame Congress for letting the federal health agencies impact the lives of millions of Americans in this pandemic. Sure, people despair at the incredible amount of influence over Congress held by corporate, narrow, and biased interests. But the bigger problem has been the uncontrolled power of the federal health agencies.

Congress had lost its power to offer needed alternatives to actions by executive agencies, namely the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Theres an important opportunity: Refund the congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), which has been closed since 1995.

It may be the only way to curb the powers of the federal health agencies that have potentially harmed millions of Americans. This is serious government reform.

A number of examples will be given later on of how OTA might have prevented some of the pain, deaths, and costs of the pandemic.

A Brief Account of How OTA Functioned

Many people in Congress and elsewhere probably know little about OTA. But during its nearly 20-year life it was constantly cited in news media because its reports and activities were routinely being used by congressional committees and members. This was despite a small budget of about $20 million annually and only about 140 full-time staffers.

For that small level of funding the nation received enormous benefits through wiser legislation, oversight, and appropriations. Many observers estimated that the economic benefits were surely 10 to 100 times greater than the cost of operating OTA. In this pandemic era, OTA could have also done analyses to curb ineffective actions such as lockdowns and to allow the use of cheap, safe generic medicines rather than depend on vaccines for the whole population.

As just one past example, one study helped Congress assess the Social Security Administrations computer procurement plan and probably saved the government $368 million. That was just from one of about 50 reports issued by OTA in that year.

As a senior official at OTA from 1978 to 1990, I testified over 50 times at Senate and House hearings because of the various studies and reports I had done. Like other OTA professionals, I was seen as a nonpartisan, objective expert. In contrast, that kind of impartial input into important congressional activities and policy formulation is not as prevalent today.

Now Congress hears mostly formally and informally from vested interests, especially about all kinds of technical subjects and issues. And it lacks the ability to forcefully evaluate actions by executive agencies.

Other larger congressional support agencies such as the General Accountability Office, Congressional Research Service, and Congressional Budget Office have never filled the gap left by the defunding of OTA. Nor has the National Academy of Sciences.

Understand this: The defunding of OTA was a political act by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich. And it tilted power towards the executive agencies that have not served the public well in the pandemic.

It had nothing to do with cutting significant money from congressional spending on itself, about $3 billion at the time. What seemed to rankle many Republicans was that OTA was fiercely independent; committees and members couldnt dictate or control what OTA produced.

Not all Republicans in Congress favored closing OTA.

Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.) in 1995 said, OTA acts as an impartial honest broker. Members of Congress are deluged with advice from many quarters, but it is often tinged with the underlying bias and political agenda of the bearer. We are cutting off one of the most important arms of Congress when we cut off unbiased knowledge about science and technology.

The public should imagine how the pandemic would have had a very different impact on Americans if OTA had remained.

But even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, they too didnt see the wisdom of refunding OTA that still exists in law. In 2014, an attempt to get just $2.5 million to start the renewal process for OTA failed. And in April 2019, several Democrat representatives tried to include funding for OTA in a 2020 spending bill but failed to get enough support for only $6 million out of a total of nearly $4 billion for Congress.

Now is an ideal time to correct past short-sighted thinking. Public anger and dissatisfaction with how the government has handled the pandemic, including counterproductive mandates, should serve to bolster support for refunding OTA.

Importantly, OTA did a lot more than produce large reports based on a few years of study. It also produced hundreds of short papers of immediate interest to committees and members (contrary to some criticisms), routinely testified at both hearings in the Capitol and in countless field locations, and when asked provided input into the crafting of legislation and the design of hearings.

The range of topics covered by OTA staff was vast. Every subject with any science, engineering, or technology facet was covered. So, one can imagine how deeply OTA would have delved into all aspects of the pandemic and how best to serve the public rather than favor actions curbing citizen freedoms or making billions of dollars for drug companies.

The structure of how OTA was governed is still applicable. Half of the congressional board was from the Senate and the other from the House, and there was regular rotation between Republicans and Democrats. In every sense, OTAs supervision was truly bipartisan and bicameral.

Most senior staff came from the academic world, research institutions, and the private sector; over half had a Ph.D. Every major study had a large review committee assembled from a broad section of American society. While most members shared their expertise on the study topic, others were citizen stakeholders with potential impacts from the study results.

The Bipartisan Policy Center concluded (pdf) in 2019 that it is time that [Congress] revives OTA and allows evidence-based scientific and technical assessments to guide its policymaking.

Although it will take political courage, reviving the OTA would be easy. Doing nothing, on the other hand, only ensures that Congress technological aptitude will erode even further, stated a report (pdf) from the conservative and libertarian group R Street Institute in 2018.

Undoubtedly, the smart political strategy is to appropriate new funding for OTA. Following the original design of the agency in Public Law 92-484 and keeping it small and agile is practical. After a quarter century more funding is needed, say $60 million, which is a tiny fractionabout 1.5 percentof the multi-billion dollars Congress appropriates for itself.

To be successful, supporters can and should develop broad public support by clarifying that OTA will reduce the powerful influence on Congress of many special interests on the right and left, including big tech companies. Make it clear that a refunded OTA is crucial for a better-functioning American democracy through policy and spending serving the public rather than narrow interests. Bottom line: Question the motives of those who oppose restarting OTA.

How OTA Could Have Improved Pandemic Actions

Here are some examples of what OTA could have done early in the pandemic.

Analyze what the proper use of PCR testing should be; for example, ensuring that the number of cycles was low enough to avoid false positive results.

Evaluate the early data on how several cheap, safe, and FDA-approved generic medicines, namely ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, could have been promoted for early home COVID-19 treatment and save lives.

Evaluate whether the clinical testing for COVID-19 vaccines adequately examined the full range of short- and long-term safety issues for all demographic groups. And whether emergency use authorization by the FDA was justified.

Assess whether the most effective vaccine strategy was to use a focused approach to offer vaccines to the most vulnerable groups rather than the total population.

Assess whether lockdowns could potentially cause more harm than benefits with respect to illness and death.

Assess the data for the efficacy of masks.

Performing such studies and aiming to get results out quickly to relevant congressional committees and the public would have served as a counterbalance to a host of actions and policies by the CDC, FDA, and NIH.

Possible Makeup of Review Committee

Imagining how the OTA could have helped Congress in the pandemic means thinking about what kind of experts would have been recruited to oversee a broadly defined pandemic assessment.

All that is necessary is to think about the many experts who have been truth tellers about pandemic issues. For brevity, here are the names of a number of a few highly qualified medical experts: Dr. Harvey Risch of Yale would have been a great choice as chair; Dr. Peter McCollough, Dr. Paul Alexander, Dr. George Fareed, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, Dr. Steven Hatfill, Dr. Martin Kuldorff, Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, and Dr. Robert Malone.

The point is that there are many respected medical professionals who would have ensured exactly the kind of OTA analyses that made it famous and useful during its lifetime. Together with OTA staff, they could have successfully stopped the use of poorly conceived and delivered government pandemic actions. Just think of how these credible experts would have had an official route to influence government pandemic actions rather than their current ways of expressing their views, such as through TV and podcast appearances and publishing opinion articles.

The OTA was an experiment that succeeded. I believe it was defunded because it worked as a purveyor of detailed, trustworthy, and objective analysis. It was profoundly anti-corruption; it made Congress more respected and truly responsive to public needs.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Orange County Supervisor Katina Foley partakes in Valentine's Day courthouse wedding services at the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Hundreds of Couples on Valentines Day in Orange County: I Do

SANTA ANA, Calif.Love is in the air as hundreds of love birds flocked to the courthouse to tie the knot on Valentines Day.

Weve been wanting to get married, and Valentines Day is the perfect day, Ricardo Orellana told The Epoch Times.

Ricardo and his now-wife, Yasmine, stood side by side outside the Old Orange County Courthouse gazing into each others eyes in glee while recalling their love story from the beginning.

The two met disruptively three years ago at a local crossfit gym when Ricardo became Yasmines personal trainer.

Little did they know the first day they laid eyes on each other would eventually spark into a lifelong adventure.

Couples arrange for Valentines Day courthouse wedding services at the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The start of their journey wasnt a romantic saga right off the bat, as Ricardo recalls befriending Yasmine and helping her prepare for a date with another manweeks before they began dating in March 2019.

It wasnt long before Yasmine realized that Ricardo could be the perfect match for her, she recalled as Ricardo gazed at her in awe of the life they have since built together.

I love you, he said abruptly with a gleam in his eye and a smile to his ears.

Within a year of dating, the pair welcomed a baby boy.

We are technically out of order on the traditional steps here, Ricardo said. We decided to make it official.

The newlyweds and their now 2-year-old son said they would be celebrating their wedding night by watching the sunset on the beach while eating pizza.

Ricardo and Yasmine Orellana arrange for Valentines Day courthouse wedding services at the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Outside the courthouse under multiple wedding arches, many couples waited with an officiant to say I do.

Erwin Simbal and his now-wife Frenil have been together for three years and decided to elope while surrounded by close family members months prior to their big wedding in June.

The pair stood inside the courtyard anxiously waiting to tie the knot as an illuminated sign with the word LOVE lit up behind them.

The two met at a mutual friends birthday party and have been inseparable ever since.

Other couples waited for their turn to officially join their lives together while waiting inside the romantically decorated courthouse with red roses kissing hallway arches and staircase handles.

Orange County Supervisors Katrina Foley and Doug Chaffee joined in on the romance as officiants.

Foley was delighted for her first year as a Valentines Day officiant while Chaffee merrily entered his third year of performing marriage ceremonies.

Its so beautiful to join in on this, Chaffee told The Epoch Times.

Couples arrange for Valentines Day courthouse wedding services at the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Orange County Clerk-Recorder Department performed over 200 marriage ceremonies for couples who arrived hand in hand at the countys courthouse before 2 p.m., with more anticipated by the end of the day, County Clerk Hugh Nguyen told The Epoch Times.

Special reserved candlelit ceremonies will set to be held inside the courtroom from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. About 15 couples would be able to join their loved ones in celebrating their marriage in the courtroom seen in the films Catch Me If You Can and Legally Blonde.

We wanted to do something special for the couples, Nguyen told The Epoch Times.

While hundreds fled to the courthouse to seal their relationships on Valentines Day, Nguyen anticipates Feb. 22, 2022, to be even busier, as the date denotes, 2-22-22.
Gustavo Caruso (L) director and safety coordination of the IAEA taskforce, speaks during a meeting with the government officials, at the ministry in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 14, 2022. (METI via AP)

IAEA Reviews Water Release From Damaged Japan Nuclear Plant

TOKYOA team from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday began its review of Japans plan to begin releasing more than a million tons of treated radioactive water into the sea from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear planta review that Japan hopes will instill confidence in the plan.

The 15-member team is to visit the Fukushima plant on Tuesday and meet with government and utility officials during its five-day mission.

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings announced plans last year to begin gradually releasing the still-contaminated water in spring 2023 after its further treatment and dilution.

The water is being stored in about 1,000 tanks at the damaged plant which officials say need to be removed so the reactors can be decommissioned. The tanks are expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tons later this year.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the Fukushima plants cooling systems, triggering the meltdown of three reactors and the release of large amounts of radiation. Water used since the accident to cool the highly radioactive damaged reactor cores has since leaked extensively.

The release of the water into the sea has been fiercely opposed by fishermen, local residents, and Japans neighbors, including China and South Korea. Fukushima residents worry the reputation of their agricultural and fishing products will be further damaged.

Japan sought IAEAs assistance to ensure the release meets international safety standards and to gain the understanding of other countries.

The members of International Atomic Energy Agency taskforce team attend a meeting with Japanese government officials, at the ministry in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 14, 2022. (METI via AP)

Gustavo Caruso, director of the IAEAs Office of Safety and Security Coordination, said on Monday that the mission in an objective, credible and science-based manner will help send messages of transparency and confidence for the people in Japan and beyond.

The team will review details of the water, safety of the discharge, sampling methods, and the environmental impact, he said. The team includes experts from several countries, including South Korea and China.

Officials say all isotopes selected for treatment in the contaminated water can be reduced to low levels except for tritium, which is inseparable from the water but is harmless in small amounts. They say a gradual release of the water, diluted with seawater, into the ocean over decades is safe.

Keiichi Yumoto, who heads the Fukushima accident response at the industry ministry, noted concerns about the safety of the project and said it is very important to have reviews by the IAEA to foster public understanding.

Junichi Matsumoto, TEPCOs chief officer in charge of the treated water management, said the utility is prioritizing safety and the impact on the regions reputation.

Ensuring transparency and objectivity is crucial to the project, said Matsumoto, who attended a meeting Monday with IAEA, and government officials. We hope to further improve the objectivity and transparency of the process based on the review.

Japan and the IAEA have agreed to compile an interim report on the review later this year.

By Mari Yamaguchi
Illegal Aliens Ran Sex-Trafficking Ring in New York City, Using Minors From Mexico

Five members of a family-run sex trafficking operation smuggled young Mexican women and girls to New York City and forced them into prostitution. Several girls were 14 years old.

Last week, all five received prison sentences of 20 to 39 years for sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking of minors, interstate prostitution, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

A sixth co-defendant is awaiting sentencing.

The original complaint, filed on July 11, 2017, by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer, said the investigation into the Melendez-Rojas family was opened in 2014.

Jane Doe 1 met Francisco Melendez-Perez in Tecamachalco, Mexico, and moved in with him two weeks later, at age 14. In July 2010, Melendez-Perez told her they were moving to the United States for work and he hired smugglers to take them, as well as his aunt.

Arizona Border Patrol agents apprehended them twice, days apart, for illegally entering the country and returned them to Mexico. At the end of October 2010, they successfully avoided Border Patrol and were smuggled to New York City.

Melendez-Perez told his aunt to use a different name and date of birth for Jane Doe 1 to make it appear as if she wasnt a minor.

Once they arrived at Melendez-Perezs aunt and uncles house in the Queens borough of New York, Jane Doe 1 was told she had to work as a prostitute.

Jane Doe 1 initially refused to work as a prostitute, but Francisco repeatedly told her that she did not speak English or have any papers that allowed her to work. Francisco also threatened Jane Doe 1 that if she ran away she would be arrested and deported. Feeling that she had no other choice, Jane Doe thereafter began to work as a prostitute, the complaint states.

Francisco also threatened to kill her family if she stopped working as a prostitute.

The girl was never allowed to leave the Queens residence by herself or be alone there, according to the court documents. However, she managed to run away in April 2014 and rented a room in a house in Queens.

Upon hearing her story, Jane Does landlady advised her to go to the police, where she identified other perpetrators and victims, and an investigation was opened.

Through false promises of a better life, the defendants ensnared young, vulnerable victims in a sordid world of sex-trafficking and used violence and cruel threats to force them into prostitution, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York, said in a Feb. 10 statement.

The family member defendants used violence and threats to force their victims to work in prostitution in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware, according to the DOJ.

They then took the proceeds and laundered them to conceal their source.

Six victims testified at the trial.

One victim identified as Diana testified that she was smuggled into the United States as a minor and forced to work as a prostitute. When she tried to escape, Jose Miguel Melendez-Rojas beat and raped her in front of other members of the household, including Rosalio Melendez-Rojas and Abel Romero-Melendez, according to the DOJ.

Another victim identified as Delia testified that she was forced into prostitution by Francisco Melendez-Perez and his uncle Rosalio Melendez-Rojas when she was 14 years old. When she refused to work, she was beaten.

Victims Fabiola and Maria Rosalba also testified that they were forced to work as prostitutes through threats, physical abuse, and forced abortions by Rosalio Melendez-Rojas and Jose Osvaldo Melendez-Rojas.

Victim Daisy testified that she was forced into prostitution by Fabian Reyes-Rojas. Victim Veronica testified at trial that Jose Miguel Melendez-Rojas threatened her and her family, telling her that he would chop [her] mother up into little pieces if she did not work in prostitution for his benefit.

The border-crossing records of two of the convicted sex traffickers reveal a common pattern of continually crossing the border illegally until they make it past law enforceemnt.

Abel Romero-Melendez, who received a 20-year sentence, was apprehended by Border Patrol and returned to Mexico eight times after crossing illegally. The crossing dates included March 22, 2002, near Casa Grande, Arizona; July 14, 2006, near Nogales, Arizona; July 21, 2006, near Sasabe, Arizona; July 25, 2006, near Nogales, Arizona; July 30, 2006, in the Tucson sector of Arizona; June 4, 2012, in the Tucson sector; June 15, 2012, near Willcox, Arizona; and Oct. 29, 2012, in Falfurrias, Texas.

Fabian Reyes-Rojas, who is awaiting sentencing, was apprehended by Border Patrol and returned to Mexico seven times after crossing illegally, and jailed once for illegal re-entry.

Border records show Border Patrol apprehended Reyes-Rojas on March 11, 16, and 18 in 2003; Sept. 7 and 13 in 2007; and Sept. 8, 2011.

After being caught near Douglas, Arizona, on May 16, 2012, Reyes-Rojas was charged with illegal re-entry and spent 30 days in jail before being returned to Mexico.

No further entry records exist, but Reyes-Rojas resided in New York City from at least 2014, according to the complaint.
Trucks sit parked on Wellington Street near the Parliament Buildings as truckers and their supporters take part in a convoy to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers in Ottawa on Jan. 29, 2022. (Patrick Doyle/Reuters)

In Canada, Weve Succumbed to Make-Believe

Commentary

Supporters of the COVID convoys are given to overheated claims that Canada has become despotic, even fascist. But the actual course of the protest suggests a very different danger, namely anarchy. Despite their excessive ambitions and meddlings, governments in Canada are not strong. They can barely lift anything.

What is striking about the so-called siege of Ottawa isnt a Nazi riot overpowering authority. Its that the police were incapable of acting or even realizing it. And once politicians decided to crack down, all we got for days was thunderous rhetorical volleys. One journalist I rarely agree with tweeted Feb. 14: Just as hope is not a strategy, a meeting isnt a plan. I am desperate to hear something from all governments today that is more than another (I took the swear word out) meeting.

Now Trudeau has invoked the Emergencies Act. But it too falls into the category of empty gesture because there is no emergency anywhere in the country, or indeed a situation of any sort that could not have been dealt with easily using the powers and resources already available to various governments.

Theres a strange legacy media taboo about mentioning colleagues work even favourably, let alone critically. But since this column was prompted by fellow National Post writer Matt Gurneys ideas, I might as well pinch his words too: The protests/blockades are doing to our police, domestic security agencies and our politicians generally what COVID did to our hospitals and LTCs: revealed them as the sitting duck paper tigers a lot of people knew they were but ignored because fixes were hard and costly.

Yes, Canadian governments get away with imposing endless foolish and irritating rules on us, from deck railings to COVID. But not because they are jack-booted. Because the way to get 23 Canadians out of a swimming pool is to say Hey, you Canadians, out of the swimming pool.

It calls to mind, or would if people hadnt attended government schools, Tocquevilles warning about a state that covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated, minute, and uniform rules, which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot break through to go beyond the crowd;  it does not tyrannize, it hinders, it represses, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupefies 

The Battle of the Ambassador Bridge was no battle at all, despite upper-crust former Ontario Premier Bob Rae hallucinating a well armed assault. But how did it take so long to impose order? We barely seem to have real governments at all. Or media. Most journalists have gone from questioning authority to cheerleading for it, from climate to gender to COVID, and when a handful of agitated protesters denounced Canada as fascist, they blared as one that the protesters wanted fascism, not because there were any grounds for thinking so but because it made them feel and sound virtuous.

So how did we get into a situation where both sides call each other Nazis but neither can throw a punch?

For decades now history, geography, and circumstance have allowed the West generally and Canada in particular to live in a fantasy world. Its not just politicians banging on about imaginary days of this or that while refusing to say Christmas. Its critical race theory storming castles of savage oppression in the most open, tolerant societies the world has ever seen.

G.K. Chesterton warned 101 years ago: We must see these things objectively, as we do a tree; and understand that they exist whether we like them or not. We must not try and turn them into something different by the mere exercise of our own minds, as if we were witches. Instead, we say budgets balance themselves, and when they dont we print money and call it wealth. Commentators on Twitter defend decency without making any effort to be civil or informed. The prime minister spews about the antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, homophobia, and transphobia that weve seen on display in Ottawa over the past number of days then immediately adds, Together, lets keep working to make Canada more inclusive.

Its not surprising after decades of deconstructionist academics scoffing What is truth? that we no longer believe in it. We conjure 63 new genders into existence by going xi, and dissolve the two original ones. We hose back aggressors with diplomatic pressure but move troops away from threatened Ukraine, not toward it, to ensure the safety of Canadian personnel, as if armies existed to protect themselves, not civilians.

Let me be clear that the idea of Canada as repressive wasnt invented by some guy in a truck. Uberpundit Jeffrey Simpson wrote The Friendly Dictatorship about Jean Chretien back in 2001. And fascist symbols at protests are old news. What do you think the Occupy movement said about the authorities? Or all those folks going on about a settler state? But it used to be a fringe view that hallucinations were real. Now its mainstream. And its not good, especially when Kiplings Gods of the Copybook Headings return.

As Chesterton also warned, anarchy in the intellect brings anarchy in the Commonwealth. And were perilously close.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A Mobileye driverless vehicle is seen at the Nasdaq Market site in New York, on July 20, 2021. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

Intels Mobileye to Launch Self-Driving Shuttles in US in 2024

San FranciscoIntel Corps Mobileye unit plans to build and deploy self-driving electric shuttles with its partners in the United States in 2024, in a bid to scale up its automated driving system beyond taxis and delivery vehicles, executives told Reuters.

Mobileye, Benteler EV Systems and Beep will launch the on-demand driverless shuttles, which will feature 1214 seats and no steering wheel or pedal.

The vehicles will be operated in contained geo-fenced areas where speed limits are 35 miles an hour or less, Hinrich Woebcken, advisory board member for Beep, a mobility service provider, said.

Mobileye plans to deploy robotaxis in Israel and Germany by the end of this year pending regulatory approval. It is also working with Silicon Valley startup Udelv to put automated electric delivery vehicles into service in the United States by 2023.

Mobileye will prove to U.S. federal and state regulators that its self-driving system would be safer than a human driver, said Johann Jungwirth, vice president of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) at Mobileye.

On a technology perspective, we feel very, very bullish and very strongly that the technology is actually close to being ready, he said.

The executives said shuttles will help save on driver costs, address driver shortages, as well as addressing urban problems such as emissions and congestion.

We see the interesting opportunities and growth of this autonomous mover, autonomous shuttle market. So we see it as a blue ocean, Marco Kollmeier, managing director of Benteler EV Systems GmbH, said.

Benteler EV Systems, part of German automotive parts group Benteler International AG, will build the shuttles that meet automotive industry and safety standards for the public road.

By Hyunjoo Jin
Jury Decides in Favor of New York Times in Sarah Palins Defamation Lawsuit

NEW YORKAfter roughly 15 hours of deliberation over three days, the jury in the Sarah Palin v. The New York Times trial delivered a verdict of not liable on Feb. 15, giving the newspaper a victory.

Since the verdict in the defamation trial was not in Palins favor, there was no monetary figure attached for damages.

Judge Jed Rakoff thanked the jury for paying careful attention and for being prompt. He told them that members of the press would likely want to speak to them. In his last instructions to the jury, Rakoff said, Its up to you whether or not you want to speak to folks from the media, but added, My recommendation to you is not to talk to them.

Rakoff also told them that lawyers from both sides of the case may want to speak to them as well, but cannot without his permission. If one does, he should be notified.

The judge told the jury that both he and they have concluded the defendants are not liable, but for different reasons.

Rakoff was referring to his ruling from Monday where he felt Palin and her pair of lawyers did not sufficiently prove actual malice, one of the four elements they needed to satisfy.

The ruling would have overruled a verdict in Palins favor.

Before the final adjournment, defense lawyer David Axelrod requested from Rakoff that The New York Times be permitted to speak to members of the jury.

The Times philosophy is more information for the world is a better thing, Axelrod said.

Rakoff denied the request, saying, to my mind, its an imposition to the jurors and the jury system, but added he may grant a specific question.

Katie Sullivan, a Brooklyn-based attorney, told The Epoch Times that Palin could appeal the case with the arguments that the standard for actual malice is too high and the evidentiary standard of clear and convincing evidence is also too high.

She may use others, but thats the heart of it, Sullivan said.

If Palin is successful in her appeal, the case could then go to the Supreme Court, where a ruling could change the law on what the media is allowed to say regarding public figures.

Upon entering a courthouse elevator for the final time, Palin and Sullivan spoke of the possible appeal. I dont know what I think of lawyers right now, Palin said as the doors closed.
Aerial view of the water dumps of the Ana Cua arm of the Parana River, which water level reached a historic low, at the Yacyreta Dam in Yacyreta, Itapua, Paraguay, on Aug. 18, 2021. (JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images)

Latin Americas Renewable Energy Gambit Aggravates Drought, Pollution

SANTA CRUZ, BoliviaOnly a year after the Paris Climate Agreement was adopted in 2015, Latin American countries quickly gained recognition for boosting existing green energy initiatives and paving the way for new ones to follow.

Yet over the past six years, negative environmental consequences from projects such as hydroelectric dams and mining operations to supply the manufacturing side of sustainable power have cast a shadow across the landscape of green energy use in the region.

When it comes to conservation, regional governments have largely overlooked the threats created by rapid growth in the energy sector and poor production infrastructure.

Troubling Evidence Against Dam Projects

Hydroelectricity is one of the oldest forms of renewable energy and for years has been a go-to method for addressing water shortages in the Americas. However, the environmental blowback from these initiatives can actually create water shortages, according to some scientists.

One study on the relationship between drought and hydro projects, conducted by Ted Veldkamp at Amsterdams Vrije University, shows that $2 trillion spent on global dam initiatives over the course of four decades actually left 23 percent of the population with less water.

Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay already rely heavily on hydroelectric power and are also suffering from years of aggravated drought conditionsparticularly in the regions with active hydro plants.

In January, Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez announced that the country now generates all of its electricity via hydroelectric facilities, which increased production starting in 2016. Today, severe drought conditions afflict the Parana River, where the nations largest damItaipu Damis located. Interestingly, the drought conditions began only a year after the facility started increasing its output in the region.

No one is looking at the actual impact of these projects, former Amazon Program Director for International Rivers Brent Millikan told The Epoch Times.

Millikan pointed to the Belo Monte Dam in northern Brazils Para state as an example of a hydro project disaster. Since its construction in 2013, the facility has caused significant harm to the Xingu River, wildlife, and indigenous communities that rely on the waterway. The facility has also fallen short of the energy output originally promised by the builders.

Presently, Brazil generates 66 percent of its power from similar projects.

View of the construction site to place three turbines at Ana Cua arm of the binational Yacyreta Dam in Yacyreta, Paraguay, on Aug. 18, 2021. (Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images)

Hydroelectricity is also a priority in Chile, which aims to create 70 percent of its power from renewables by 2050. The nations hydro plants are located in areas suffering from significant drought conditions, which has hit agribusiness industries hard.

This is another elephant in the room: the effects of dam-induced drought on agriculture and food production.

In a 2018 study conducted by drought scientists at Swedens Uppsala University, one of the findings shows an increased demand for water and usage as an unexpected byproduct of hydroelectricity. Some believe that this is complicating existing scarcity issues.

Science aside, drought-stricken Argentina is operating an astonishing 33 hydro plants, with plans for another 35, including a controversial dam in Patagonia thatafter much protest and controversyChina will help complete.

When it comes to Chinese investment, analyst Fernando Menendez told The Epoch Times that its no surprise that the Asian nation supports renewable energy initiatives in Latin America.

Theyre in the business of selling the manufactured end, so theyll happily sell you the hydroelectric plant, he said.

Menendez noted that Chinas investment in these projects helps their global image.

They can say, Look, were part of the green agenda,' he said.

Chile attempted a similar Patagonia dam initiative in 2011 called the HidroAysen project, which proposed building two large hydroelectric facilities in the remote Aysen region. The government overturned this measure in 2014, after weeks of massive opposition protests hampered any progress.

Millikan noted another flaw in the hydro equation. Viability studies, which are normally done during the planning phase, arent being conducted by objective parties looking at consequences outside of initial profit margins, he said.

Still, some experts say that hydroelectricity may be a necessary evil.

If you look at some of the most dramatic proposals for a pathway to zero carbon  they all need to incorporate a significant build-out of hydropower, said John Parsons, an energy economist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

However, Parsons also admitted that people are right to think of hydro as a low-carbon resource, but the variability is very high, and there are some reservoirs that have lifecycle emissions of greenhouse gases that are higher per unit of electricity produced than a fossil plant.

Creating a Legacy of Pollution, Protests, and Debt

Mining projects and opposition protests go hand in hand in Latin America, especially in countries such as Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil. Demonstrations targeting extraction operations continue to make regional headlines because of heavy contamination, particularly of waterways used by indigenous communities in the Amazon. Initiatives required to unearth elements for manufacturing renewable generators such as solar panels and wind turbines are leaving a significant footprint that, according to one analysis, is going to get worse.

Peruvian police block the way for people carrying the coffins of three demonstrators who died during the protests against the Conga mining project in Celendin, Cajamarca, Peru, on July 6, 2012. The death toll from clashes between security forces and demonstrators fighting a planned $4.8 billion gold mine by U.S.-based Newmont in northern Peru climbed to five. (Ernesto Benavides/AFP/GettyImages)

The production of minerals such as graphite, lithium, and cobalt could increase by 500 percent by 2050 to meet the burgeoning demand for clean energy, according to a World Bank Group report. The report also estimates that more than 3 billion tons of minerals and metals are needed to run wind, solar, and geothermal power, in addition to energy storage requirements, to hit the target reduction of two degrees Celsius in global temperature.

Complicating matters is mismanagement of the administrative end of the mining industry, despite considerable regulations. A comparative study of mining controls in Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador published in 2021 shows that the existence of mining regulations in the region had no effect on the number of environmental accidents occurring.

Further, some renewable projects are accruing considerable debt.

Wind farms in Chile account for 19 percent of the countrys energy matrix, but theyre buried under a mountain of outstanding bills. The Santiago-based Latin America Power company issued $403 million in senior secured notes in June 2021 to refinance the crippling debt tied to the nations wind farms.
WASHINGTON (Feb. 14, 2022)Michael Carvajal seemed optimistic as he highlighted the steps the Federal Bureau of Prisons has taken to protect inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic.



"The bureau was one of the first agencies to offer COVID testing and vaccinations.Approximately 80% of our staff and 70% of our inmates have been fully vaccinated and we continue to increase those rates," Carvajal, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, told a Feb. 3 House Judiciary Committee hearing.



"The bureau has transferred more than 37,000 inmates to community custody, after review of medically vulnerable inmates based on assessments," he added.



But lawmakers and other critics insist that federal prison inmates were less protected from COVID-19 than the general public, more died than has been made public, and incarcerated people remain exposed to greater health risks than the prisons bureau will acknowledge.



"There've been at least 300 people who have died while in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons," Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the ACLU National Prison Project, told Capital News Service. "Incarcerated people, generally, are three times more likely to die of COVID-19 than people in the general population."



According to the prison bureau's COVID website, 4,672 federal inmates and 1,990 BOP staff have confirmed positive test results for the virus nationwide. The website said 285 inmates and seven staff members have died from COVID so far.



Of the 285 inmate deaths, 11 occurred while on home confinement, according to the bureau. The inmate totals listed do not include inmates participating in the Federal Location Monitoring program, inmates supervised under the United States Probation Office, or those being held in privately-managed prisons or state facilities or jails.



Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, asked Carvajal during the congressional hearing what to do about preventing deaths in federal prisons.



"We have been in lockstep with the CDC from day one," Carvajal said. "That is why we appreciate the ability under the CARES Act to transfer people out. We were able to lower our population. We are following CDC guidance. We do everything in collaboration with them."



While data on the medical isolation rate, facility vaccination rate, and community transmission rate are all available on the prison bureau's website, advocates, including Kendrick and Joshua Manson, a researcher with the UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars data project, argue that most of the information on how many people have been infected with, or died of, the virus is inaccurate.



"They're not being fully transparent," Manson told Capital News Service. "They're sort of just asking the public to trust them when they've really given the public no reason to trust them. There have been enormous numbers of people who've been infected in the Bureau of Prisons' custodybut we know that the actual number is considerably higher than that."



When asked about criticisms of its data and policies, a prison bureau spokesperson referred CNS to the agency's website.



Carvajal, a Trump administration appointee, announced his resignation in January. He is staying on until he is replaced.



Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, has been a vocal critic of Carvajal's tenure.



"For years, the Bureau of Prisons has been plagued by corruption, chronic understaffing, and mismanagement," the senator said in January. "In the nearly two years since Director Carvajal was handpicked by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, he has failed to address the mounting crises in our nation's federal prison system, including failing to fully implement the landmark First Step Act. His resignation is an opportunity for new, reform-minded leadership at the Bureau of Prisons."



In April 2021, Durbin noted that "at times, the infection rate for the federal prison population has been nearly six times higher than in the community at large. At that time, he said, 230 inmates had died of COVID"nearly all of whom had preexisting conditions that made them particularly and obviously vulnerable."



"Several were within months of being released," Durbin said. "And 55 died after their request for compassionate release was denied or while their request was pending."



Durbin and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced legislation aimed at ensuring that the most vulnerable inmates, particularly older prisoners, can be eligible for compassionate release or moved to home confinement to complete their sentences.



"In the middle of a pandemic the federal government ought to be doing everything it can to protect the inmates in its care," Grassley said.



Both Manson and Kendrick spotlighted what they said were inconsistencies in cumulative COVID-19 case numbers in the prison bureau's records.



"One of the things that they do is the cumulative counts of COVID-19 infections sometimes goes downBOP officials finally admitted that what they were doing was as people were getting discharged from BOP custody, they would then remove that person from the total count of infected people," Kendrick said.



Additionally, Manson urged caution on trusting the prison bureau's numbers on vaccinated individuals inside correctional facilities.



Manson said the bureau's website has a category for "fully vaccinated" inmates, but that website does note that the numbers reported don't include the number of people who have been given a booster."



"Now, I don't really think that you can call someone fully inoculated right now if they haven't received the booster," he said.



The prisons bureau also is not doing enough to ensure that its own employees are properly masked and vaccinated, according to critics and inmates' family members.



Prison bureau employees who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated are required to comply with CDC and agency guidance, including, according to the agency, "wearing masks regardless of the transmission rate in a given area, physical distancing, regular testing and adhering to applicable travel restrictions."



UCLA's Behind Bars Prison Project also noted a dramatic uptick in the presence of COVID infections in December and January with the Omicron surge. For the first time, more than 10,000 active COVID cases were reported in January among the 150,000 inmates in the prison bureau's 120 facilities, the project said.



The UCLA project also gives the Federal Bureau of Prisons an "F" for its data collection methods.



Neela, who asked that her last name not be used in order to protect the identity of her husband, who is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution El Reno in Oklahoma, told CNS prison guards were one of the reasons the virus spread and returned in that facility.



"I don't think they're doing their part as far as the guards are concerned, because we don't have contact visits right now, it's all through like a plexiglass," she said. "The only way these people are getting COVID is through guards."



"And I've gotten in there and I've seen a guard could care less about COVID," Neela said. "I don't know how many guards are coming into work and have COVID. But I know every time I go, they're not wearing their masks. Is that the reason? I don't know. But, I don't think that's helping the situation."



Kendrick said advocates have also been pushing for less overcrowding and better hygiene practices. She said cleanliness is not often given priority inside federal facilities.



"You're having them sit in cells for two to four days at a time and then allowing them 20 minutes to call their loved ones, take a shower, and get on the email, do whatever, and of course the priority for these guys is talking to their loved ones because they're concerned," Neela said.



"So now you're cutting their time to clean themselves, and then you're not giving them the necessary tools to do that," she said. "I mean, how do you expect people not to get sick if you're not giving them soap or hand sanitizer?"



Vaccine education has also been put on the back burner inside prisons, according to Neela. She revealed that people jailed at El Reno were encouraged to take vaccinations by offering an optimistic picture of what the facility would look like after the majority of the population was vaccinated.



"They were kind of bribing the inmates, they weren't really educating them on why. They just told them, 'if we can get a facility to 98%, then we can go back to everything being open, not having constant lockdown' and things of that nature," she said. "I do have friends that have loved ones at other facilities, and I've heard the opposite. So I do think it depends on the facility, who's running the facility."



The Prison Policy Initiative has been one of the organizations pushing for more vaccine education inside federal prisons, such as bringing in family members and community leaders.



"If you consider that incarcerated people have a long history of insufficient medical treatment, and even medical neglect and abuse at the hands of the very same people who are not trying to vaccinate them, you can understand why it's important to bring in peopleto help convince them to take the vaccine," said Wanda Bertram, a communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative.



Bertram also suggested that compassionate release and home confinement during the pandemic will help slow the spread of COVID-19.



"A woman wrote in to our website yesterday and told us that her husband was supposed to be released to home confinement, and checked off the boxes that the (prison bureau) had laid out for people to be released to home confinement," Bertram said. "But, he was not actually released under that program, and he got sent to a halfway house and the halfway house is full of COVID."



The Justice Department in December gave the Federal Bureau of Prisons the discretion to allow formerly incarcerated individuals to remain in home confinement even as the pandemic eases. The action reverses a Trump administration policy that directed the bureau to return those who were allowed to remain in home confinement to correctional facilities if they still had time to serve.
Conservative Interim leader Candice Bergen rises during question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Feb. 14, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Liberals and NDP Defeat Conservative Motion to End COVID Mandates

In a vote mostly along party lines, the Liberals and the NDP defeated a motion on Feb. 14 brought forward by the Conservatives to table a plan to lift all COVID-19 mandates within its purview by the end of the month.

The motion was defeated 185 to 151, with Liberal MP Joel Lightbound the only one breaking from his party and siding with the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois.

Yves Robillard, the other Liberal MP who said last week he agreed with Lightbound regarding ending mandates, voted against the motion.

Before the vote in the House of Commons, Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen asked the government to support the motion.

This should be a time of optimism and joy for Canadians, not division and fear. Can Canadians count on the prime minister to do the right thing and today stand up with us, support our motion and give Canadians the hope that they deserve so much? Bergen said.

Trudeau was not in attendance, and ministers speaking for the government avoided addressing the motion and instead accused the Conservatives of being responsible for the ongoing protests against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

It does not really matter whether certain members of the opposition had been merely irresponsible or recklessly complicit. What this country is facing is a largely foreign-funded, targeted, and coordinated attack on critical infrastructure and our democratic institutions, said Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair.

The motion, tabled by Bergen on Feb. 10, asked that the federal government announce a plan to lift all federal mandates and restrictions by the end of February.

Countries like Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Israel, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Denmark are all removing restrictions and mandates, despite having lower vaccination rates than Canada, Bergen said in a statement.

Just this week, weve seen two Liberal MPs saying what Conservatives have been saying for a year: the Prime Minister needs to depoliticize the pandemic and follow the science. They also stated that Justin Trudeau decided to use the pandemic to wedge, divide, and stigmatize Canadians, she said, referring to Lightbound and Robillard dissenting from the governments position.

Bergen said pandemic policy shouldnt be politicized and that those with genuine concerns shouldnt be demonized.

The Freedom Convoy protest has been in Ottawa since Jan. 29, with protesters saying they will not leave until all restrictive COVID-19 measures are lifted. The protest has spread to other areas of the country, including at border crossings.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser rises during Question Period in the House of Commons, in Ottawa on Nov. 26, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Patrick Doyle)

Liberals to Bring in 1.3 Million Newcomers Over Next 3 Years

The Liberal government aims to bring in more than 1.3 million new immigrants to Canada over the next three years despite having a backlog of 1.8 million applications waiting to be processed due to pandemic-induced delays.

On Feb. 14, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser tabled his three-year immigration levels plan in Parliament, calling for a yearly intake that will reach 431,645 permanent residents in 2022, 447,055 in 2023, and 451,000 in 2024.

Fraser said it is to fill critical labour market gaps the country is experiencing and to support a post-pandemic economic recovery.

We are focused on economic recovery, and immigration is the key to getting there, he said in a statement released on Feb. 14.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said immigration accounts for almost 100 percent of labour force growth in Canada, with 5 million Canadians set to retire by the end of this decade.

The worker to retiree ratio will drop down to only 3:1. This is a clear sign that we have a strong economic need for increased immigration, said IRCC in a press release on Feb. 14.

But critics have called on Ottawa to press pause on attracting more newcomers, and instead, prioritize the 1.8 million visa applications that have already piled up in the system due to slowed processing capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association (CILA) said the Liberals ambitious targets with the massive backlog may be ill-timed.

CILA believes it would be in the immigration systems medium- and longer-term interests for IRCC [Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada] to use this year as an opportunity to reduce its backlogs and to continue to make the necessary technological investments and changes that will improve processing times and client experience moving forward, the association said in a statement on Feb. 8.

In an article published on CILAs website on Feb. 8, immigration lawyer Arlind Selimi said the backlog has far-reaching implications.

The impact has spread from foreign nationals abroad awaiting for their opportunity to contribute to Canadian society, to future Canadian citizens unable to vote, and to permanent residents awaiting to renew their cards or re-unite with their loved ones. The plans of many temporary residents hoping to extend their stay or make their stay in Canada permanent have also been derailed.

The IRCC announced on Jan. 13 that it will hire 500 more processing staff and modernize the processing through new digital platforms.

Frasers new plan includes resettling at least 40,000 Afghan nationals affected by the Taliban siege last August over the next two years. To date, more than 7,550 Afghan refugees have been resettled in Canada.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
At my elbow as I write these words is Modern English Readings, Fifth Edition, a college textbook published in 1946 by Rinehart & Company, Inc.

On the first blank page, written in an impeccable hand with a fountain pen, is this claim of ownership: Mr. & Mrs. James E. Minick, 46.

My mom and dad were students at Westminster College in Pennsylvania when they purchased this textbook. Dad had returned the year before after serving as an infantryman in the fighting in Italys Po River Valley. After the defeat of the Third Reich, he and thousands like him were slated to join the invasion forces against the Japanese. Then came the atomic bomb, and Dad headed home to marry and go to college.

One of the authors parents signed the textbook. (Courtesy of Jeff Minick)

Like so many of us, I suspect, I wish Id asked my parents more questions about their past. One minor regret has to do with this textbook. Did they both use it? Did they read the entire book, which runs to 1,062 pages of small print? Why did my father keep the book for 40-plus years?

When I recently stumbled across this book on the shelves in my basement, I carried it upstairs and for the first time really looked at it. The editors were Roger Loomis and Donald Clark, both of Columbia University. I discovered online that Roger Loomis was a medievalist and an expert in Arthurian legends. Donald Clark taught rhetoric and specialized in Renaissance literature.

And what they assembled in Modern English Readings is remarkable. As I browsed through this collection, stopping here and there to read an essay or a poem, I felt like an archaeologist who had chanced upon some ancient tomb. Here was a textbook published at the end of World War II, a repository of our culture in that momentous time. It respected the intelligence of students, offered help and questions to allow them to dig more deeply into a story or a sonnet, and in several ways paid homage to the veterans attending college.

The Way It Used to Be

Clark and Loomis kick off their Preface with these words:

The editors have been guided in their selection by three aims: (1) The teaching of vital and correct expression through the study of models. (2) The quickening of the students interest in literature by giving some of the best fiction, drama, essays, biography, and poetry of the last hundred years to read attentively and to enjoy. (3) An introduction to those problems which, today more than ever, if left unsolved or wrongly solved, mean individual misery and a world in utter chaos.

A few pages later in their Introductory, the editors offer a short exhortation of encouragement to students as well as this reminder: Here is a small part of your rich heritage of emotional experience and intellectual insight.

These were scholars and gentlemen who understood the importance of writing and rhetoric, who revered literature, and who realized that solutions to the trials of the postwar era must come in part from gaining a more profound understanding of culture.

Modern English Readings. (Courtesy of Jeff Minick)

Writing

In that pre-digital age, Clark and Loomis recognized that the ability to craft competent sentences and to make an argument using the printed work can spell the difference between success and failure in every endeavor from business correspondence to composing a love letter. Write, they tell students, always with honesty, saying what you have really felt or what you believe to be true. Work always toward greater and greater clarity of thought and expression.

Now, some 70 years later, when we are living in the great age of communication, our writing skills have taken a major tumble. Most colleges and universities feature writing centers to help students who failed to learn, or were never taught, basic composition in elementary and secondary school. American businesses lose billions annually because of poor communications, and friends and lovers often manage to insult one another by hastily written texts and emails.

We may neglect composition in our schools, but Clark and Loomis made it paramount in the advice they gave to educators and students. At the end of Modern English Readings, they include almost 50 pages of Student Helps and Theme Suggestions as aids to students needing assistance in writing. Some modern textbooksIm thinking of the ones I used to teach to homeschoolers, particularly for the Advance Placement literature studentsoffer similar guidelines.

But as Clark and Loomis state, the way to learn to write is by modeling your prose on talented writers and  well, by writing.

Modern English Readings.

Reading

Modern English Readings focuses on the literature of the last century as of 1946. Here we find part of a biography of Florence Nightingale standing alongside a sketch of Confederate cavalry leader Jeb Stuart, personal essays ranging from Robert Louis Stevensons Crabbed Age and Youth to Betty Martins Spring Comes to the Farm, essays of criticism and exposition, short stories by writers like Stephen Vincent Benet and Willa Cather, six plays, and almost 200 pages of poetry.

The textbook includes an essay by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Though nearly all the writers gathered in this big tent of print were classically liberal in their thinkingbelieving in freedom, equality, and justice for allthis omnibus would never find a home in todays world. Modern English Readings includes too few female authors and hardly any writers of color. Moreover, some of the selections, particularly the essays, with their casual references to writers like Lucretius and Milton, would likely prove daunting to todays students.

Liberty

We living today might turn up our noses at this lack of inclusion, but Clark and Loomis nonetheless produced a textbook in which American values dance and sparkle. They recognized that they were putting together a literary map and compass for a generation of men and women, whether they were veterans or not, works of literature that would give their readers strength, hope, and direction as they walked into the future.

At the end of their book, for instance, where Clark and Loomis included a selection of poems about liberty, they raised questions like these in regard to the poems and the themes their students might write. These queries are as pertinent, and perhaps more so, to our own day as they were then:

What  restraints on liberty of thought and discussion are established by pressure groups which protest against all publications not favorable to their own color, race, or sect?

How do foreign governments restrict liberty of speech in the United States?

Would you, if you had the power, grant freedom of speech to organizations whose aims you consider evil or would you deny freedom of speech to such organizations?

In their suggested writing exercises, they recommended: Write an editorial or letter to the editor protesting some act of censorship of the press, by college authorities, pressure groups, or governmental agencies.

By these questions and suggestions, they reminded their students of what it meant to be an American.

Education

In Education for Freedom, an essay in this textbook, Robert Maynard Hutchins, then president of the University of Chicago and outspoken advocate of the liberal arts and a Great Books curriculum, made many points pertinent to education today. He argues, for instance, that when university students are treated like adults, they behave like adults, or rather in the way adults ought to behave. He makes the vital point that the cultural heritage of America is the civilization of Western Europe. The means of understanding it is the liberal arts, the arts of reading, writing, speaking, and calculating. This sort of education, he contends, is an education for freedom.

Their selections for Modern English Readings tell us that Clark and Loomis clearly agreed with Hutchins.

If we consider my father and the millions of American women and men like him, we see a generation hard hit by the Great Depression and then called upon to fight in the deadliest war the world had ever seen. But we also see a generation that emerged from these ordeals, built America into the most powerful nation in the world, worked hard, married, and raised families.

Education was key to their success. Though Hutchins complains in his essay that many students of his day were unprepared for university work, Modern English Readings rebuts that assessment. Those same studentsthe great majority of them graduates of the public school systemwent on to become professionals like my dad, talented workers in the trades, and for the most part, patriots who knew the history of their country and took pride in its accomplishments.

What the world needs, what this country must have, Hutchins wrote, is free minds.  It means minds committed to the good by good moral and intellectual habits. It means minds informed by principles derived from human experience through the ages, minds that will operate well no matter what waves of change beat upon them.

True then.

And just as true now.
Markets React With Relief Rally to Russian Declaration of Troop Pullback

European and Russian stocks rallied while oil prices retreated on Tuesday morning after Russian officials said some of the countrys troops were being returned to bases after drills near the Ukraine border, with markets welcoming the declaration as a sign that a military conflict may be averted.

The units of the southern and western military districts, having completed their tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today, Russias Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

The announcement came after weeks of heightened tensions as Western leaders warned that Russian forces were poised for an imminent invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Following the statement on the troop pullback, the STOXX index of 600 European companies rose 5.19 points, or 1.1 percent, to 466.14 points, by 4:49 a.m. New York time.

The German DAX index rallied 211.68 points, or 1.4 percent, Londons FTSE 100 was up 49.5 points, or 0.66 percent, and the French CAC 40 advanced 77.09 points, or 1.13 percent.

The Brent Crude global oil benchmark fell $1.82 per barrel, or 1.9 percent, to $93.88.

The Russian rouble jumped 1.14 percent against the U.S. dollar, while the RTSI index of 50 Russian companies listed on the Moscow Exchange rallied 75.36 points, or 5.28 percent, to 1501.45.

While it is unclear how many troops Russia is withdrawing, Konashenkov suggested that other Russian units stationed near Ukraines border would follow suit.

As the combat training measures are completed, the troops, as always, will make marches in a combined way to the points of permanent deployment, he said.

The Russian armys Iskander missile launchers take positions during drills in Russia, on Jan. 25, 2022. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Material signs of hope for de-escalation came on Monday when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that Moscow was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that have fed into the crisis.

Russia, which has amassed some 130,000 troops near its border with Ukraine, has repeatedly denied any plans of attacking the country and has asked the United States and its allies for a binding commitment that they wont accept Ukraine into NATO. Moscow also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

The talks cant go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage, Lavrov said at a made-for-TV meeting with Putin that seemed designed to convey to the world the Russian leaders position. In his comments, Lavrov noted that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills, and other confidence-building measures.

A Russian soldier attends a military exercise at the Golovenki training ground in the Moscow region, Russia, on Jan. 25, 2022. (Alexei Ivanov/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Despite the hopeful signs, however, the United States and European countries have kept up their warnings.

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Tuesday that an invasion risk remains, telling Sky News that it could be imminent. She added that there is still time for Vladimir Putin to step away from the brink.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, told MSNBC on Monday that, if Russian forces invade Ukraine, the West would respond with very dramatic economic sanctions on people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and, possibly, Putin himself.

Taylor added that sanctions would also target Russias three biggest banks, and this will have an incredible effect on the Russian economy, adding, sad to say, it will affect Russian citizens, Russian people, not just Putin.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Ends Mask Mandate in State Buildings

Marylands governor on Feb. 14 dropped his mask mandate for state buildings, citing a reduction in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

Given the dramatic declines in our health metrics, we are now able to take another step toward normalcy in state operations, Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said in a statement.

The 7-day average of COVID-19 test positivity dropped below 4 percent in recent days, while hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 have dropped 78 percent since peaking in January.

Cases and hospitalizations across the country soared in late 2021 and early this year but have since plummeted in virtually all states, including Maryland.

The mask mandate will no longer be in effect starting Feb. 22, although individuals remain free to continue wearing them if they choose.

At the same time, officials are encouraging masks for workers and visitors who have not gotten a COVID-19 vaccine.

Hogan recently launched a lottery system in an attempt to incentivize Marylanders to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster.

We continue to offer paid leave for state employees to get their booster shots, which provide critical protection against the virus and its variants. I want to thank all of our dedicated state employees for their tireless efforts that have helped make Marylands COVID-19 response a national model, Hogan said.

Additional shots are being encouraged because the vaccines protection against both infection and hospitalization are waning following the emergence of the Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.

But Hogan, like many officials, continues to recommend vaccination as the best protection against the virus.

Maryland policies do not take into account natural immunity gained from recovery from COVID-19.

Hogan, who has ruled out a 2022 U.S. Senate run but is eying a 2024 presidential bid, is also pushing the Maryland State Board of Education to end its school mask mandate, noting the drop in cases and hospitalizations.

A growing number of medical professionals, parents, and bipartisan state officials throughout the nation are calling for an end to school mask requirements, Hogan wrote in a letter to the board earlier in February. In light of dramatic improvements to our health metrics and the widespread availability of vaccines, I am calling on you to take action to rescind this policy.

The board is refusing to rescind the mandate, at least for now, but said it will consider doing so at its next monthly meeting.

The school mask mandate has been in place since Sept. 14, 2021.

The next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 22.
Neighbors report that the FBI spent hours combing inside and out of this Mini Cooper, parked at the home of Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, who were arrested on Oct. 9, 2021, on espionage-related charges. (Amy Davis/The Baltimore Sun/TNS)

Maryland Man Charged With Espionage to Appear in Court for Plea Hearing Monday

By Taylor DeVille

From The Baltimore Sun

BALTIMOREA former U.S. Naval nuclear engineer accused of trying to sell secrets to a foreign government is due to appear in court Monday for a plea hearing.

Jonathan Toebbe of Annapolis and his wife, Dana Toebbe, previously pleaded not guilty to charges of espionage in October. A plea hearing indicates that Jonathan Toebbe will change that plea.

Toebbe, a 42-year-old who worked on classified nuclear projects for the Navy, and his wife, a former humanities teacher at the Key School in Annapolis, face espionage charges for selling secrets about nuclear submarines to an undisclosed foreign power. They were arrested in October in Jefferson County, West Virginia, after selling confidential information concerning the design of nuclear-powered warships over the course of a year to an undercover FBI agent who posed as a representative of a military intelligence agency, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

A West Virginia magistrate judge in a Friday order said that Jonathan Toebbe of Annapolis will enter a plea at 3 p.m. local time Monday.

Nicholas Compton, an assistant federal public defender for the Northern District of West Virginia and Toebbes defense attorney, did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.

Federal authorities allege that in the spring of 2020, Jonathan Toebbe, 42, began communicating with undercover agents, offering to sell nuclear secrets.

Jonathan Toebbe communicated with agents through encrypted channels, received covert signals and left memory cards containing sensitive information hidden in a peanut butter sandwich and a pack of chewing gum during dead-drop exchanges at specified locations in exchange for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.

His wife was seen assisting with the drops, sometimes apparently acting as a lookout, according to the complaint.

A magistrate denied Diana Toebbes request to reconsider her bail denial. Her attorneys have appealed, asking the court to hold a second detention hearing and consider new evidencethat Jonathan Toebbe has insisted, while in pretrial detention, that his wife is innocent, and that Diana Toebbes DNA was not found on several crucial items of evidence produced by prosecutors.

2022 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
MN Bill Would Allow Child Care Centers to Deny Children With Non-Medical Exemptions

A Minnesota bill seeks to give child care centers and family child care providers the authority to deny children with a non-medical exemption to vaccines from enrolling or remaining enrolled in their care.

The bill, HF 3179, would allow child care facilities to ignore a non-medical exemption if they choose to adopt a rule that prohibits children over the age of two months who are not completely immunized as required by the state from enrolling or remaining enrolled in the child care center or the family child care program.

Minnesota immunization law only requires a parent or guardian to show documentation of their childs immunizations or a medical or non-medical exemption to enroll in child care programs. A notarized non-medical exemption is allowed when the childs parents conscientiously choose to exempt them from one or all vaccines due to personal, moral, or other beliefs.

Minnesota is one of 15 states that allows for a philosophical exemption for an emancipated minor, or a child whose parent or guardian wishes to not follow a one-size-fits-all vaccine schedule, or completely be exempt from vaccines.

The bills author, Democratic state Rep. Mike Freiberg, did not respond to The Epoch Times multiple requests for comment.

Melissa Schultz, a spokesperson for Minnesotans for Health & Parental Rightsa volunteer organization that supports the right of people to make individualized decisions for their familiessays that some child care facilities have been denying children with a non-medical exemption for several years.

We actually have a pretty interesting daycare issue happening  for years and years, counties have been advising daycare providers that they dont have to uphold the state law, Schultz told The Epoch Times on Feb. 10.

She added, So for years, they have been excluding children. Its very hard to be unvaccinated and find a daycare in the state.

New Horizon Academy, one of the larger child care centers with 68 locations in Minnesota, states that they do not accept children with a non-medical exemption.

All children enrolled at New Horizon Academy must be following the states recommended schedule of immunizations. We do not enroll children who are not vaccinated because of conscientious objection, the child care center stated on its webpage.

The Epoch Times has reached out to New Horizon Academy for comment.

Schultz claims that child care facilities denying children with a non-medical exemption may be doing so illegally now that a bill is trying to address this issue.

Now just this week, a legislator has actually written a bill in order to exclude children from daycare. By writing that, it admits that what theyre doing right now or [has] happened for the past six years is illegal because if it was legal, they would not have to write the law, Schultz said.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) Licensing Division told The Epoch Times they do not comment on whether child care centers can choose to implement their own policy to only accept immunized children since its a kind of a complex legal matter. The child care facilities are advised to consult with their lawyers.

The DHS Licensing Division monitors and supports health and safety in more than 10,000 child care programs in the state.

Tom Copeland, an attorney and advocate for family child care businesses, told The Epoch Times that currently yes it would be illegal for child care centers to deny enrollment to unvaccinated children claiming an exemption since it sounds like this law is trying to change that.

However, Copeland says that he doesnt support non-medical exemptions.

I can understand [exemption for] medical reasons, thats a whole different ballgame. Religious reasons or personal philosophy reasons, I personally have a big problem with that because health should come before that, public health is more important than that, in my opinion, Copeland said.

High Immunization Rate

The percentage of children aged 24 months and older who are fully vaccinated in accordance with the immunization schedule is between 91 to 97 percent in 20202021, according to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

Whereas, children with a non-medical exemption comprised only 1.8 to 2.14 percent depending on the vaccine type. The MDH did not have data for children who were completely exempted from all of the vaccines.

Screenshot of the percentages of non-medical exemptions in Minnesota for children enrolled in child care centers in 20202021. (MDH/screenshot by The Epoch Times)

The seven immunizations required for Minnesotan children to enroll in a child care center are hepatitis B; polio; measles, mumps, and rubella; diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis; varicella; hepatitis A; and haemophilus influenza type b.

The percentage of school-aged children with a non-medical exemption from some or all vaccines was also low. Less than two percent of parents had their child completely exempt from all the five required vaccines for kindergarten in the 20182019 school year, while 2.8 to 3.5 percent of children opted out of certain vaccines.

Screenshot of the percentage of children conscientiously exempted from all vaccines (purple line) in Minnesota. (MDH/screenshot by The Epoch Times)

In the same school year, there was around 91.8 to 95 percent of kindergarteners fully vaccinated with the required vaccines.

Push to Make Vaccines Mandatory and Lower Age of Consent

There has been a push to eliminate the non-medical exemptions across the country and lower the age of consent to vaccination, including in Minnesota.

Freiberg is also the author of three other vaccine-related bills in the state.

Bill HF 2625, introduced on May 13, 2021, seeks to lower the age of vaccine consent to as young as 12 years old. Consent by a parent or guardian would no longer be required if the health care provider proposing to administer the vaccine to the minor determines that the child is capable of consenting to the proposed vaccine. While the other bills are related to the required vaccines to enroll in daycare or school, HF 2625 will allow the child to consent to any vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine.

The day after introducing the bill to lower the age to consent to vaccines, Freiberg introduced bill HF 2634 that seeks to make childhood vaccinations mandatory by removing the non-medical exemption. This would apply to every child who is homeschooled, in daycare, and in public and private schools.

In January 2022, Freiberg introduced HF 2832, a bill that requires all public and nonpublic school staff, including contractors, to receive two doses of the messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Moral Decay Has Gripped America Through Education System

Commentary

The United States currently appears to be suffering from a sort of moral decay that threatens to quite literally rip the country apart.

This decay must be addressed if the United States is to be saved. But before addressing it, we must first get our definitions in order.

Moral decay is a slippery term, extremely difficult to define. But for the sake of simplicity, lets agree that it involves the abandonment of previously held beliefs and values. Decay, decline, degenerationcall it what you willthis type of moral rot involves the devolution of society, in which we drift from a higher to a lower level of morality.

Closely tied to decadence, moral decay favors solipsism and nihilistic notions.

To be clear, the United States, at its very core, is still a fantastic country. Nevertheless, to deny a widespread decay is to deny reality. Cities such as Los Angeles and New York have become shadows of themselves. The Big Apple is fast becoming a rotten one, with shootings and murders on the rise. LA now resembles the Wild West, with thieves running riot. Looting is now a recreational activity.

But instead of focusing on crime, which is a symptom of decay, perhaps its best to focus on education, the place where the seeds of our future selves are very much sown.

As the Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.

The importance of education cant be emphasized enough. If one wishes to graduate with a college degree, then he or she (or whatever one of the 78 gender pronouns you prefer to use) must be prepared to dedicate 25 percent of their time on Earth to the education system.

In other words, one must be willing to invest considerable time and money in the education system, not to mention trust. For a society to function, trust is key. Do you really trust the educators of today to train the minds of tomorrow? For every excellent educatorand there manythere appears to be at least one of questionable merit.

By the age of 7, psychologists believe that the vast majority of our patterns of behavior, as well as our beliefs and our habits, are formed. Not all, of course. But the foundation for our future selves appears to be very much set at an early age. This is what makes the education system so dangerous right now.

Who are the people laying the foundation?

American society finds itself plagued by a host of bad ideas, and many of these bad ideas can be traced back to classrooms across the country from preschools to university lecture halls. Of all the 50 states, California appears to be the mother lode of bad ideas.

Chinese parents in California rally against Assembly Bill 101, which would make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement, in Los Angeles, on April 26, 2020. (Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times)

Last year, Californias Instructional Quality Commission put forward a rather controversial proposal to change the way math is taught in state-run schools. According to the authors, the notion of giftedness has led to considerable inequities in mathematics education. The new framework attempts to address inequities by decelerating the math curriculum, essentially penalizing students who excel at math. Other educators appear to harbor similar sentiments toward math, accusing it of being a tool favored by racists.

Last year also saw Oregons Gov. Kate Brown sign a bill into effect that ensured high school students would no longer be required to demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics to graduate. The bill, were assured, was (and one assumes, still is) intended to benefit Oregons Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.

In reality, no one benefits from the dumbing down of education.

Portland State University in Oregon now offers a culturally responsive curriculum that strives to recognize racial and cultural diversity in learning and to teach to and through the strengths of each student. Actual learning, it seems, has been replaced by heavy servings of jargon.

According to the philosopher Peter Boghossian, a former employee at Portland State, Theres a particularly powerful mind virus  theres a suite of beliefs within an ideology, and those beliefs literally exist to rip down Western civilization. This might sound hyperbolic to some, but Boghossian has a point.

According to the former professor, educational institutions across the country are being attacked from the inside on multiple levels by people who have been indoctrinated within the academies and indoctrinated to beliefs that are completely untethered to reality.

The rot within the U.S. education system must be stopped. The only way to defeat bad ideas is with better ones. An increasing number of parents have woken up to the indoctrination that is occurring in classrooms across the country. In places like Virginia and NYC, we see parents fighting back against the pernicious beliefs being foisted on their children.

This matters on so many levels. Education is now a top priority among voters. Its especially important for parents. Addressing the United States moral decay requires fundamental changes in the education system. That is, after all, where foundations are set and where the minds of tomorrows leaders are molded.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ukrainian Military Forces servicemen attend a military drill with Next generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) Swedish-British anti-aircraft missile launchers at the firing ground of the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Jan. 28, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)

NATO Cautiously Optimistic Amid Reports of Russian Troop Withdrawal

After Russia announced Tuesday that it will pull out some troops from near the Ukrainian border, top NATO officials expressed that they are cautiously optimistic for a de-escalation of tensions.

There are signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue. This gives grounds for cautious optimism. But so far we have not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Tuesday morning following Russias announcement.

Russia did not say how many units were being withdrawn, and how far, after a build-up of some 130,000 Russian troops to the north, east, and south of Ukraine. Video footage posted online by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday allegedly showed Russian tanks moving back to their permanent bases and away from the border.

NATO said that it has yet to see evidence of a de-escalation in the crisis.

Russia has amassed a fighting force in and around Ukraine unprecedented since the cold war. Everything is now in place for a new attack, Stoltenberg said. But Russia still has time to step back from the brink, stop preparing for war and start working for a peaceful solution.

But Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraines defense minister, wrote that his office has a rule, which is: Dont believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation.

The Kremlin said Tuesdays developments were proof that Western talk of war had been both false and hysterical.

February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Ukrainian Military Forces servicemen of the 92nd mechanized brigade use tanks, self-propelled guns and other armored vehicles to conduct live-fire exercises near the town of Chuguev, in the Kharkiv region, on Feb. 10, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukrainian soldiers train during military drills close to Kharkiv, Ukraine, Feb. 10, 2022. (Andrew Marienko/AP)

On Monday, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko told Russian media the United States and the West are trying to spark a conflict with recent statements about a possible invasion.

Look, if we planned any war against Ukraine, the media would have behaved completely differently. Because the media is the modern wars bombardments, he said.

France said it had yet to confirm the return of some Russian troops to bases, though this would be a positive sign. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the latest Western diplomatic mission to defuse the crisis, met Putin in the Kremlin.

Over the past weekend and on Monday, White House officials called on Americans to leave Ukraine and asserted that an invasion could occur in the near future. No evidence was provided for the second claim.

The U.S. Department of State also shut down its embassy in Kyiv and moved it to Lviv, located in the western part of Ukraine.

We are in the process of temporarily relocating our Embassy operations in Ukraine from our Embassy in Kyiv to Lviv due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

These prudent precautions in no way undermine our support for or our commitment to Ukraine. Our commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering, Blinken added, noting that the path for diplomacy is available.

Around the same time, confusion was sparked when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a statement on Facebook that said Russia would invade on Feb. 16. However, his office later said that he made the remarks sarcastically in an apparent attempt to make light of various Western intelligence reports suggesting an imminent invasion.

Reuters contributed to this report.
In this screenshot from the RNCs livestream of the 2020 Republican National Convention, North Carolina congressional nominee Madison Cawthorn addresses the virtual convention on Aug. 26, 2020. (Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images)

NC Board Cant Disqualify Rep. Cawthorn From 2022 Election on 14th Amendment: Attorney

North Carolina officials have no authority to block the reelection bid of U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) on 14th Amendment grounds over his actions in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol building, his attorney told The Epoch Times.

Cawthorns mere advocacy of a pro-Trump position during the aftermath of the hotly contested 2020 presidential election doesnt constitute participating in an insurrection, something that can trigger a constitutional bar that prevents the insurrectionist from seeking elective office, Cawthorn attorney James Bopp Jr. told The Epoch Times on Feb. 14.

Cawthorn, who had been sworn in as a federal lawmaker only days before, was already present in the U.S. House of Representatives fulfilling his constitutional duties before the disturbance broke out on Jan. 6, 2021, and his activities there didnt contribute to the hours-long delay of the congressional certification of the election.

Cawthorn, 26, was elected in November 2020 and describes himself as a Christian and constitutional conservative. Hes considered to be a rising star in the conservative movement.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections isnt currently preventing the incumbent first-term congressman from running again, but stated in a Feb. 7 filing in federal court that it has the power to do so under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The relevant part of that constitutional provision states, No person shall be a  Representative in Congress  who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress  to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.

The boards claim appears in a filing in Cawthorn v. Circosta, court file 5:22-cv-50. The legal complaint was filed on Jan. 31 (pdf) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The lead defendant, Damon Circosta, chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, is being sued in his official capacity. Cawthorn is suing in response to several challenges that have been filed against his candidacy.

In the court document, the State Board Defendants Response to Plaintiffs Motion for Preliminary Injunction, the board stated that it polices candidate qualifications prior to the elections and that states have long enforced age and residency requirements, without question and with very few if any legal challenges.

The state also has the same authority to police which candidates should, or should not, be disqualified per Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Bopp disputed this claim and noted that those state residents who are challenging Cawthorns reelection bid have no credible evidence that he engaged in an insurrection.

Their claim that his urging of Trump supporters to fight during a rally on the National Mall on Jan. 6, 2021, before the Capitol building was breached is somehow related to an attempt to overthrow the government is ridiculous, according to Bopp, who noted that the word fight is part of the repertory of standard political rhetoric thats protected by the First Amendment.

There was absolutely nothingnone of his speech encouraged anyone to perform any illegal acts or to even go into the Capitol at all in any way, he said.

Using speech such as we need to fight for our political rights, cannot possibly be used  to punish somebody.

Bopp said the court case has been delayed because the state electoral map hasnt yet been finalized.

In North Carolina, the next statewide primary election is scheduled for May 17. The deadline for candidates to file to run is March 4.

Attorney Marc Elias, who has a long history of successfully challenging election integrity laws in court, started laying out a blueprint for using the 14th Amendment to boot Republicans off the ballot in a provocative Twitter post on Dec. 20, 2021.

Elias is also a major figure in the Russiagate conspiracy. He represented the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons campaign in the 2016 presidential election cycle, hiring Fusion GPS in April 2016 to conduct opposition research against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. That research effort culminated in the salacious, now-discredited 35-page dossier written by former British spy Christopher Steele that purported to tie Trump to the Russian government.

My prediction for 2022: Before the midterm election, we will have a serious discussion about whether individual Republican House Members are disqualified by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment from serving in Congress, Elias wrote on Twitter. We may even see litigation.

He expanded on this idea three weeks later on his Democracy Docket website.

It seems quite likely that one or more Republican members of Congress will be subject to this disqualification, and it is important that we start to identify them now, Elias wrote.
Uros Fink fears not long treks in the freezing cold winter in meter high snownot even in the dead of midnight; the 31-year-old astrophotographer from Slovenia is driven by a desire to take breathtaking images of our Milky Way.

The young engineer with a passion for shooting the night sky set out last December on one such excursion at Big Pasture Plateau, which yielded Uros an award-winning image in the astro-landscape photography milieu.

He booked a cozy little hut on that particular plateau in the countrys northern region and, after much notetaking, planning, and scouting out the perfect composition during the day, he set out as darkness fell.

The timing that month would also be perfect to catch a cameo appearance by Comet Leonard, the brightest comet of the year, with its signature tail and fuzzy green glow as it sailed past planet Earth.

My legs were tired even before I went out, but in the first place was motivation and a great desire to create beautiful images, he told The Epoch Times of his foray. I spent the whole night alone, far around me there was no living soul, just me, nature, and stars. Its difficult to describe the feeling in words, but it was indescribably beautiful, a feeling of freedom, smallness, happiness. A feeling that wont go out of my head for a while.

Using his Nikon D600 Astromod, he shot the sky using a SkyWatcher tracking device in order to still the stars during a long exposure, and capture all the wonder and color the human eye cannot see, and the foreground separately to get the desired sharpness and detail. The two would later be blended together in digital postprocessing.

Out of this World, taken at. (Courtesy of Uros Fink)

Slowly, night began to fade and Uros realized he had to make the over-hour-long hike back to the hut. Hed already been awake for 24 hours; he could no longer feel his fingers in the minus-10-degree-Celsius (14-degree-Fahrenheit) cold; and it was a daunting trek back carrying his 35-kilo pack. But I made it! he said. I dont regret anything, actually I am more than happy that I did this amazing excursion.

That excursion yielded these several stunning images shown here, as well as placement in the Milky Way Photographer of the Year 2021 award, presented by Capture the Atlaschoosing the very best in astro-landscape images from all over the world.

That is Uross biggest achievement, he says. Besides that, hes also placed third in drone in Drone&Astrophotographys internationals salon in both 2020 and 2021. His images have also been featured by NASA and photography sites such as Nightscaper and Milky Way Chasers.

Here are more astro-landscape photos captured by Uros Fink:

Tree, Hunter and Arrow. (Courtesy of Uros Fink)

The Swan Heaven. (Courtesy of Uros Fink)

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
A man wears a mask as he arrives at Penn Station in New York on Aug. 2, 2021. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

Never Again! Reforms to Prevent Future Pandemic Overreach

Commentary

When a public emergency strikes, officials respond in panic. They often dont remember what they learned from previous emergencies.

When a public emergency ends, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Eager to move ahead with their lives, decision-makers neglect to change the law to embody what they have just learned.

During World War II, federal authorities herded 70,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese descent into concentration campswithout charges and without trial. After it was over, we vowed it would never happen again. But when COVID-19 arrived, officials issued stay at home orders that unconstitutionally detained millions of citizens.

Both actions violated constitutional rights and accomplished little. In World War II, we didnt need to detain tens of thousands; we could have used loyalty hearings to screen citizens, as the British did. Similarly, we didnt need COVID-19 lockdowns. They didnt stem the pandemic and imposed incalculable psychological and economic damage.

Right nowwhile pandemic mistakes are fresh in our mindsis the time to adopt legal reforms to ensure those mistakes dont happen again. Here are four reforms for state legislatures to consider:

First Reform: Get Federal Government Out of Public Health

Public health refers to health issues affecting the community at large. Examples include disease and pest control, safety in public accommodations, and sewers and water supply.

Until COVID-19 hit, the federal government had been involved only peripherally in public health. But the pandemic gave federal politicians and bureaucrats an excuse to expand their power and influence. Former President Donald Trump held regular press conferences on the subject. President Joe Biden issued sweeping mandates. Bureaucrats such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Rochelle Walensky of the highly politicized National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), respectively, pushed onto center stage.

The more dramatic power grab was Walenskys: Her CDC effectively rewrote every residential lease in the country through its ill-considered eviction moratorium. Fortunately, the Supreme Court, although belatedly, struck it down (pdf).

The Constitutions Tenth Amendment reserves public health issues within state boundaries to state governance. This was affirmed by no less than Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for a unanimous court in one of his most famous opinions.

Early in the pandemic, Trump did a few useful things within his constitutional powers. These included closing the border and lifting regulatory obstructions to vaccine development. But much federal involvement has duplicated state efforts or done actual harm. Bidens mandates have been overreaching, and most didnt survive the courts. The CDC has been the source of contradictory and erroneous recommendations. NIH funding likely helped create the CCP virus itself.

We need to get the feds out of public health. Let state and local governments do their jobs.

Of course, Congress will never agree. So we should bypass Congress with a constitutional amendment. That means using the Constitutions method by which the states can amend the document without Congresss approval.

How State Legislatures Can Get Feds Out of Public Health

State legislatures shouldnt try to write a constitutional amendment. They should pass the uniform Convention of States resolution (pdf) calling a Convention for proposing Amendments. Then, the convention (which is under state legislative control) can write a proposed amendment. Seventeen state legislatureshalf of the two-thirds necessary for calling a conventionalready have passed the uniform resolution.

It restrains the convention to a limited scope, but the scope is wide enough for it to propose an amendment removing the federal government from public health. The proposed amendment would become law if ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 of 50).

At the end of the present essay is a draft showing what the amendment might look like. Readers curious about the make-up of a convention or how it works should consult my essay in the Feb. 25 Epoch Times.

Second Reform: Curbing Power of Unelected Officials

Unlike the federal government, states and many localities have broad police powers over public health. This is appropriate, but state legislatures should enact reforms to ensure that state and local abuses dont recur.

Public health bureaucrats, like professionals generally, tend to have an exaggerated sense of the importance of their own field and to undervalue other concerns. This encourages them to impose psychological, sociological, or economic loss for marginal or unproven public health benefits. Moreover, unelected bureaucrats arent directly responsible to the public. The public can hold an elected official accountable for mistakes, but bureaucracy is forever.

State reforms, therefore, should ensure that unelected officials dont exercise vast authority over their fellow citizens. When unelected personnel issue an order directed toward the general public, the law should limit it to 30 days or less. It should be renewable only by the elected executive officials serving at the same level of government.

For example, suppose that, in the face of an epidemic, a state health department limits the size of public assemblies. The order should terminate 30 days later unless extended by the governor. A decree from a city health department would last 30 days and be renewable only by the mayor. A county decree would last the same length of time and be extended only by the elected executive authority of the county. (In many counties, the elected executive and legislative authorities are the same.)

Third Reform: No More Executive Dictatorship

Requiring approval by an elected executive is a step in the right direction. It isnt sufficient. State law should provide for prompt review by the legislative branch.

Suppose a state agency issues a lockdown order and the governor extends it beyond 30 days. The governors extension should expire after a further 60 days, unless approved by a general or special session of the state legislature. A mayors order would be reviewable by the city council, and a county executives order by the county commissioners or other county legislative body.

Fourth Reform: Require Consideration of Risks, Costs

Before government officials make a decision affecting the environment, they receive an environmental impact statement. Before lawmakers pass a fiscal bill, they receive a fiscal impact statement. In like manner, when lawmakers consider a broad public health order, they should have information beyond what public health officials tell them.

Before the legislative branch makes a final public health decision, it should have a public health order impact statement. In keeping with bureaucratic fashion, Ill abbreviate it to PHOIS. (It sounds as its spelled.)

A PHOIS would be a cost-benefit analysis, not merely of public health risks and benefits, but also of social, psychological, and economic risks and benefits. The PHOIS for a proposed vaccine mandate would survey the mandates projected benefits, as well as known and possible risks and the costs of intruding into personal health decisions. The PHOIS for a proposed requirement that children wear masks in school would itemize possible gains together with risks to childhood development. The PHOIS for a proposed lockdown should assess advantages and costs to public health, to the economy, and to social infrastructure.

Because public health dangers often arise quickly, my proposed reforms would allow action for up to 90 days (30 + 60) without a PHOIS. Even with 90 days preparation, the analysis probably would be incomplete. But an incomplete survey of relevant issues usually is better than none at all.

Epilogue: What Constitutional Amendment Might Look Like?

The following is merely a discussion draft. Some readers may find the language difficult because its written in constitutional style:

Amendment XXVIII Section 1. Neither this Constitution nor any provision thereof shall be construed to grant the United States government, nor any department or officer thereof, any general authority over the public health. Except as provided in Section 2 of this article, research into public health and the regulation, funding, and promotion thereof are reserved to the states and the people pursuant to the tenth article of amendment to this Constitution. Section 2. Congress may regulate public health only within the armed forces of the United States and within the militia when called into the actual Service of the United States; or within territory belonging to the United States described in the second clause of the third section of the fourth Article of this Constitution, or within enclaves created pursuant to the seventeenth clause of the eighth section of the first article, or as a wholly incidental effect of the regulation of trade with foreign nations, among the several states, or with the Indian tribes.

This amendment wouldnt affect programs serving individuals, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare. But with four exceptions, it would clarify that public health is a state, not a federal concern.

The first three exceptions are public health within (1) the military, (2) federal territories, and (3) federal enclaves (such as Washington, D.C.). The fourth exception addresses incidental effects of regulating trade. The amendment would allow Congress to, for example, ban drugs not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from interstate commerce. But state legislatures would be free to adopt or modify FDA standards for products produced and sold within their own borders. Moreover, Congress couldnt control in-state public health activities under the commonly used pretext that those activities substantially affect interstate commerce.

This amendment wouldnt change the Constitution as originally understood. Rather, it would perform the same function as the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Amendments: Within its scope, it would respond to misinterpretations by confirming and restoring the documents original meaning.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
New Jersey Gun Trafficker Sentenced for Using Amtrak Trains to Move Guns up the Iron Pipeline

A Trenton, New Jersey man has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison for trafficking 40 semi-automatic firearms from North Carolina into Philadelphia and New Jersey, using Amtraks Philadelphia 30th Street Station, U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in a statement.

Junious Flemming, 29, pleaded guilty in September to criminal conspiracy and transporting firearms on a common carrier.

Between October 2020 and March 2021, Flemming paid co-conspirators to buy guns in North Carolina and transport them on trains to Philadelphia. This happened at least three times.

Once in Philadelphia, Flemming trafficked many of the guns into New Jersey, the statement said.

The scheme was revealed when federal agents executed a search warrant at 30th Street Station on March 9, 2021. They found 10 semi-guns in luggage that was being moved by Flemmings partner.

From there, agents arrested Flemming when he picked up his partner from the Amtrak station.

In addition to prison, U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quinones-Alejandro sentenced Flemming to three years of supervised release.

Williams said that in April 2021, she announced the All Hands On Deck initiative in an effort to stop the violence in the city and support the Philadelphia Police Department by collaborating with other agencies. Last year, a record 562 people were murdered in Philadelphia. As of Feb. 15, just 46 days into the year, 64 people have been murdered.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced strategies to stem the flow of firearms used to commit violence and support local law enforcement partners, including cracking down on firearms trafficking and the iron pipelinethe illegal flow of guns sold in mostly southern states, transported up the East Coast, and found at crime scenes in cities like ours, Williams said in the statement.

The so-called iron pipeline is a route on and near Interstate 95 considered to be popular routes for gun trafficking, although guns often travel from states with more relaxed laws to states with stricter gun laws.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Philadelphia Field Division and Assistant U. S. Attorney Michael R. Miller investigated this case.

The case was also part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federally funded program that aims to reduce violent crime by bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve.
NY Times Wins Motion to Potentially Override Any Jury Verdict in Palin Defamation Suit

NEW YORKJudge Jed Rakoff struck a blow to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palins defamation lawsuit against The New York Times on Feb. 14 when he ruled in favor of a motion by the defense that essentially nullifies a jurys verdict in her favor should it come back with one.

Officially known as Federal Rule of Civil Procedure No. 50, or the Rule 50 Motion, the motion states that the plaintiff has to have sufficient evidence for every element it needs to prove.

In this case, the element in question is actual malice. Proving this one is the most difficult of the four being considered by the court.

Read More Closing Arguments in Palin v. NYT Trial

The trial teetered on a razors edge all morning, as Rakoff and lawyers representing both sides debated the motion. As it was during witness testimony, the definition of the word incitement was scrutinized again, this time reading from two dictionaries.

The jury was not made aware of the motion or its ruling, and continued to deliberate for the entire day. Rakoff is intentionally having them reach a verdict so an appeals court will benefit from both decisions. He said the case will inevitably wind up before one.

Judge Not Happy

Rakoff announced his ruling in the afternoon. Im not altogether happy to be making this decision, he said. My job is to apply the law. The law here sets a very high standard for actual malice. The court finds that standard has not been met.

This ruling doesnt throw the case out and should the jury come back with a verdict in favor of the defendants, it has no impact.

Soon after Rakoff made the announcement, the defense lawyers, plus a representative from The New York Times, shook hands and patted each other on the back.

What he just did there was very strange, taking the verdict from the jury, Palin told The Epoch Times.

Katie Sullivan, a Brooklyn-based lawyer, told The Epoch Times: I think [Rakoff] applied the law correctly, but the laws are out of step with common sense and common decency.

Todays decision almost gives The Times a license to lie about a public figure.

Should the case go through a successful appeals process, it may then go to the Supreme Court, which, in theory, could change the way the media operates.

Somethings got to change, Palin said regarding that.

During the course of the day, the jury asked for transcripts of testimony from witnesses Ross G. Douthat, a New York Times columnist, and James Bennet, the editor and co-writer of the editorial at the heart of the lawsuit.

Palin wore a black motorcycle jacket made of distressed leather with a silver beaded eagle on the back, along with black pants with zippered pockets and her recognizable updo.

The jury hadnt reached a verdict by the end of the day and will continue to deliberate on Feb. 15.
Small business owners and their supporters participate in a Save Small Business protest in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2020. (Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images)

Orange County Offers Nearly $4 Million in Microbusiness Grants

SANTA ANA, Calif.Orange County microbusinesses, like street vendors and mom-and-pop shops, who began operating before 2020 and were significantly impacted by the COVD-19 pandemic can now apply for a one-time $2,500 grant until mid-March.

These are the people that were left behind in those other funding opportunities, and were really trying to make an effort to ensure that they are first to get served under this grant, Carma Lacy, director of Workforce and Economic Development for Orange County, told The Epoch Times.

The Microbusiness COVID-19 Relief Grant Program was created last year by Californias Office of the Small Business Advocate within the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development.

It aims to prioritize those micro-businesses in the states 58 counties who didnt qualify for other pandemic era grants, such as the 1.2 million California businesses that received loans through the Paycheck Protection Program or additional funding through the CARES Act.

According to the California Grants Portal, the micro-business grant programs total available funding is estimated at $50 million.

The state awarded Orange County with approximately $3.9 million.

In addition to the businesss start date and its hardships during the pandemic, applicants who made less than $50,000 in gross revenues pre-covid and had fewer than five full-time employees could qualify for the grant.

Moreover, the first-of-its-kind program will prioritize microbusiness owners who have faced historical barriers in accessing capital such as women, minorities, veterans, illegal immigrants, and low-income individuals, according to the website.

Once theyve identified the priority population, Lacy said, the grant opportunities will be available to other microbusiness owners.

We really want to get it in the hands of disadvantaged communities and underserved business owners, she said.

While the microbusiness grant allows owners to purchase equipment, they could invest in capital, pay for licensing permits, or relieve any debt accrued during the pandemic, which Lacy deemed a more flexible grant program.

The grant recipients have until June 1, 2022, to use the funding and provide receipts for proof of purchases.

However, if the funds were not used for their intended purpose, recipients will not be penalized, according to Lacy.

County officials say they expect more than 10,000 businesses to apply during the four-week grant application period, but at least 1,400 will qualify as one of the targeted groups prioritized.

From Feb. 14 through March 15, business owners can apply at oconestop.com/grant-relief-programs for support.

Over time, weve put out grant opportunities, received feedback, and improved every time, Lacy said. This is our opportunity to improve for those people that were not part of some of the earlier grants because they didnt have enough staff, or they were a gig worker, or they are a home-based business, or a beautician or barber renting space that didnt have the overhead cost, but they were still impacted.
Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly speaks at a news conference on updated enforcement measures as a protest against COVID-19 restrictions continues into its second week, in Ottawa, on Feb. 4, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly Resigns Amid Freedom Convoy Protests

Ottawa Police Chief Resigns Amid Freedom Convoy Protests

Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly abruptly resigned on Feb. 15 amid large-scale protests in the city against federal COVID-19 mandates.

Sloly issued a statement on social media confirming his resignation.

It is with a heavy heart I am announcing I have stepped down as Chief of the Ottawa Police Service, he said.

Please see my statement below. pic.twitter.com/2tfUDPiKTI  Chief Peter Sloly (@OPSChiefSloly) February 15, 2022

Since the onset of this demonstration, I have done everything possible to keep this city safe and put an end to this unprecedented and unforeseeable crisis. We have acquired new resources and enforcement tools, and stood up the new Integrated Command Centre. I am confident the Ottawa Police Service is now better positioned to end this occupation.

City councillor Diane Deans said during an Ottawa Police Services Board meeting that the board and Sloly had reached a mutually agreed-upon separation.

Deans thanked Sloly for his service, and said there would be no more comment because this is a labour relations matter.

Ottawa Police Services Deputy Chief Steve Bell will be the interim police chief until the board has appointed a permanent replacement.

Dean noted the boards priority is to put in place a plan to bring about a peaceful end to the ongoing protest in the nations capital.

The protests were initiated by truck drivers opposed to COVID-19 vaccination mandates for cross-border travel. As convoys of truckers made their way to Ottawa many supporters joined the movement, which turned into a large-scale protest against all COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

With the protests now entering the third week, many of the demonstrators say they intend to stay until COVID-19 mandates are lifted.

The city of Ottawa, province of Ontario, and the federal government have declared states of emergency over the protests.

On Feb. 15, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said an integrated command centre has been set up for the RCMP and OPP to work with local police in relation to the ongoing protests.

Mendicino said the federal governments focus is ensuring the Ottawa police, as well as the RCMP and OPP, have all the tools necessary to restore public order in the city.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 to address the demonstrations, which grants additional powers to authorities to remove the trucks that have been encamped in the citys downtown core since the end of January.

The act also grants powers to the government to strip citizens of the right to assemble if there is a reasonable expectation it may lead to a breach of the peace.

Citizens can also be prohibited from travelling to or within designated areas, or from using specified property. The government can also assume control of public utilities and services and direct people to render essential services.

The provincial premiers of Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Quebec have voiced opposition to Trudeaus decision to invoke the Emergencies Act.

An Ottawa city council meeting that was slated for today has been bumped to Feb. 16 to allow local politicians time to receive updates on the issue.

In addition, the city says, the federal move to invoke the Emergencies Act requires more work and analysis to provide the council and the public with a better understanding of the tools now available.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 10, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Canada to Remove PCR Testing Entry Requirement for Fully Vaccinated Travellers

Canada will drop its pre-arrival COVID-19 PCR test requirement for fully vaccinated travellers starting Feb. 28, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced today.

Duclos said at a press conference on Feb. 15 that fully vaccinated travellers will still be required to take a pre-arrival test, but it can now be a rapid antigen test, as long as its lab-administered. Travellers may also still be randomly selected for a PCR test upon arrival.

Fully vaccinated travellers who are selected under the mandatory randomized testing regime will no longer be required to quarantine while awaiting test results, he said.

Duclos said the antigen test must be approved by the country they are coming from, and travellers must take the test no more than 24 hours before their scheduled flight or arrival at the border. For those opting to take a molecular PCR test, it must be conducted no less than 72 hours prior to arrival.

The health minister added that the restrictions imposed on children under 12 who are not fully vaccinated but are travelling with fully vaccinated adults, will also be lifted.

This means they will no longer need to wait and self isolate before attending schools, daycare or day camps, he said. They will also no longer be subject to testing and other specific requirements.

Duclos said the decision comes as the Omicron variant has passed peak transmission levels, the country has high vaccination rates, and there are multiple tools at our disposal to manage the pandemic.

For unvaccinated travellers, the minister said they will continue to be tested upon arrival and must quarantine for 14 days. They will also need to conduct a test on day eight of their quarantine.

Canada will also adjust its travel health notice from level 3 to level 2, which means the federal government will no longer recommend Canadians avoid all travel for non-essential purposes.

Likewise, international flights arriving in Canada will be permitted to land at all remaining Canadian airports by the end of the month, said the Public Health Agency of Canada in a press release on Feb. 15.

Duclos stressed that the new measures are only transitory and may change anytime.

The border measures I have just outlined are transitory measures, not permanent ones, he said, noting all measures are subject to constant revaluation.
Pentagon Says Extreme Consolidation in Arms Industry Threatens National Security

The Pentagon has released a report saying that extreme levels of mergers and consolidation among defense contractors have reduced competition and elevated risks to U.S. national security, while recommending a series of actions to spur increased competition in Americas Defense Industrial Base (DIB).

The State of Competition in the Defense Industrial Base report (pdf), released Feb. 15, notes that, since the 1990s, there has been a substantial level of defense sector consolidation, with the number of aerospace and defense prime contractors dwindling from 51 to just five. It also indicates that just three sources account for 90 percent of U.S. missiles.

As a result, DoD is increasingly reliant on a small number of contractors for critical defense capabilities, the report says. Consolidations that reduce required capability and capacity and the depth of competition would have serious consequences for national security.

The report outlines the current state of competition in the DIB while recommending a series of actions to promote competition in the DoDs small business vendor base and to shore up supply chain resilience in five priority industrial base sectors: microelectronics, missiles and munitions, high-capacity batteries, castings and forgings, and critical minerals and materials.

The Pentagon logo is seen behind the podium in the briefing room at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 8, 2020. (Al Drago/Reuters)

The document lays out steps to block mergers that run contrary to Pentagon interests and reduce barriers to entry for new contractors. It also seeks to ensure that a companys intellectual property protections are not anti-competitive.

The report calls for strengthening merger oversight, with the Pentagon to support the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) in carrying out anti-trust probes and implementing recommendations with regard to the DIB.

It also recommends the implementation of sector-specific supply chain resiliency plans for the five priority sectors.

Flight crew with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112 (VMFA-112) conducts pre-flight checks and prepares an F/A-18 Hornet for launch, on Sept. 23, 2021. (Sgt. Booker T. Thomas/U.S. Marine Corps)

The Department of Defense (DoD) said in a Feb. 15 statement that the report recommendations will help the Pentagon better meet current and future security needs.

As DoD works to innovate, bring new technologies into our supplier base, and develop the workforce of the future, American small businesses and our U.S. industrial base must expand not only to improve resiliency, but to ensure we are able to meet the needs of our warfighters for tomorrows high-tech challenges, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in a statement.

The report is part of a broader government effort under President Joe Biden to promote competition in the U.S. economy, with an executive order Biden signed in July 2021 saying that too much market concentration threatens basic economic liberties, democratic accountability, and the welfare of workers, farmers, small businesses, startups, and consumers.

The White House said in a Feb. 15 statement that the reports recommendations will help the Pentagon rebuild its competitive bench, lower costs for taxpayers, and safeguard our national security.

In a possible sign of the Biden administrations get-tough approach on DIB mergers and consolidations, Lockheed Martin dropped its $4.4 billion bid to buy the rocket engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne over the weekend after the FTC sued to block the deal.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 25, 2021. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

PM Calls for More Powers to Boot Criminals out of Australia

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for the need for objective tests to be able to deport foreign-born criminals convicted of serious offences.

The government is planning to reintroduce laws to parliament on Wednesday that would close a loophole to migration character test laws.

Under the proposal, visas for non-citizens will be refused or cancelled if theyve been convicted of a serious crime thats punishable for more than two years in prison, served less than 12 months in prison or are deemed a risk to the community.

The prime minister said judges in deportation cases had often handed down lesser sentences to get around existing character test laws to avoid people getting deported.

Judges are handing down sentences which enable people to get around this, and we need an objective test, Morrison told Sydney radio station 2GB.

We want to make sure we can punt them.

The proposal will be reintroduced on Wednesday after the previous attempt at the bill was defeated in the Senate late last year.

Labor and Greens senators had expressed concern the laws could mean visa holders could be kicked out of the country for minor offences.

Serious crimes listed in the bill include violent and sexual crimes, breaching apprehended violence orders, using or possessing a weapon or assisting in any of the crimes.

The prime minister said 4000 visa holders had been expelled from the country since the last election.

We are being frustrated by soft decisions in the courts, he said.

We have a law in this country which is if you commit a serious offence, then you go, do no pass go, youre gone youre out.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said more power was needed to expel people from the country should they commit a crime.

There are several laws that are inadequate to capture serious sexual and violent offending, he told the Seven Network.

We just want to get this passed, there are no politics in  this will protect women and children and the safety of people in Australia.

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it wasnt clear what additional powers the immigration minister needed.

Im in favour of the immigration minister being able to kick people out of the country if they do the wrong thing, he told reporters in Canberra.

As I understand it, he has that power already, we saw that with the Novak Djokovic debacle.

Labor has accused the government of trying to reintroduce the legislation for a political wedge ahead of the election, due to be held by May 21.
Prince Andrew Settles Lawsuit With Accuser Virginia Giuffre

Prince Andrew settled a lawsuit with accuser Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein arranged for the prince to sexually abuse her when she was 17, according to court documents that were filed Tuesday.

The details of the settlement were not disclosed, although Prince Andrew had previously lost a challenge to have Giuffres suit dismissed. The royal had categorically denied Giuffres claims in her lawsuit.

Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffres charity in support of victims rights, the court filing said. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffres character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks, it continued.

The court filing further noted that Epstein, a disgraced financier who was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019, trafficked countless young girls over many years and that Prince Andrew expresses regret for his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.

Representatives for the Duke of York said he would not be expanding beyond the statement filed in court. When asked for comment by the PA news agency, Virginia Giuffres lawyer David Boies said: I believe this event speaks for itself.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has accused Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse, speaks in New York on Aug. 27, 2019. (Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo)

In her lawsuit, Giuffre, now 38, alleged that the embattled royal sexually assaulted her more than 20 years ago in the U.S. Virgin Islands, New York, and London. She also accused Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty in December 2021 on sex trafficking charges, of abusing her, although Giuffre did not testify during Maxwells New York trial.

I did not come to this decision lightly, Giuffre said in a statement last August in announcing the suit. As a mother and a wife, my family comes firstand I know that this action will subject me to further attacks by Prince Andrew and his surrogatesbut I knew if I did not pursue this action, I would be letting them and victims everywhere down.

During a 2019 interview with the BBC, Andrew said he had no recollection of meeting Giuffre, although photos showed the two together.

I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened, Andrew said at the time. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.

Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 on sex trafficking charges, was found dead in a New York federal jail on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on fresh sex trafficking charges. While his death was ruled a suicide by hanging, some have speculated that his death was a homicide.

The PA news agency contributed to this report.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, former first lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state, speaks at 2019 New York Times DealBook conference, in New York, on Nov. 6, 2019. (Mike Cohen/Getty Images)

Projection for Beginners

Commentary

Psychologists define projection as the attribution to others of attitudes or behaviors that belong to oneself.

A bully blames his victims for being overbearing and peremptory.

A swindler accuses an innocent mark or rival of engaging in the same dishonest behavior he himself is practicing.

Heres a real-life example: Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.

Thats a tweet from Hillary Clinton, dated Oct. 31, 2016.

Talk about Halloween fare.

In the lexicon of psychopathology, I suppose that projection is generally held to be un- or only semi-conscious. In the realm of criminality, of which our politics, alas, has become a subset, the behavior seems to be deliberate, if also angrily defiant.

Item: What do you mean by wipe a computer server? Like with a cloth or something?

Ha, ha, ha.

But of course, Clinton wasnt laughing when she said that.

She was petulant and defensive.

I doubt shes laughing now, either.

On Feb. 11, John Durham, the worlds most phlegmatic and ant-like prosecutor, filed a motion charging that the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to tap into (infiltrate) servers at Trump Tower; and then, after Donald Trump became president, at the White House in order to gather derogatory information about Donald Trump and promote the (utterly false) narrative that Trump was in cahoots with the Russians.

I include italics for the phrase at the White House to underscore the gravity of the charge. They spied on the president by monitoring internet traffic at his New York apartment and the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Think about that.

Remember when Trump complained that his communications at Trump Tower were being tapped?

How the left scoffed at that.

It turns out Trump didnt know the half of it.

What Durham has chargedand, does anyone doubt that his charges will pan out?is a splendid illustration of the old saw that things are always worse than they seem.

Remember Michael Sussmann? He was the Clinton lawyer who is currently under indictment for lying to a federal agent.

If he were a Republican, he would probably have been bankrupted by legal fees and be facing 20 years in the slammer.

As it is, you can see the cocoon of Democratic maneuvering and special pleading being spun around him, just as it was spun around Kevin Clinesmith who altered an email, i.e., forged evidence in order to obtain a FISA warrant against Carter Page.

Clinesmith was sentenced toprobation. And was recently quietly rehired by the FBI.

Imagine if anyone in Trumps circle had done what he had done.

According to Durham, Sussmann had assembled and conveyed the allegations [of Trumps supposed connection to the Russians] to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive (Tech Executive 1) at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.

Moreover, Durhams motion charged that billing records show that Sussmann repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the Russian Bank-1 allegations, i.e., the spurious reports that Sussmann put together to suggest a connection between Trump and Alfa Bank, the largest private bank in Russia.

Trump himself responded with condign anger to the revelations.

Durhams motion, he said in a statement released on Feb. 12, provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign, in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia.

Yes, it does.

This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate, Trump said, and those who were involved inand knew aboutthis spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution.

But back to the subject of projection: The allegations lodged by Durham show the Democrats doing exactly what they accused Trump of doing.

Will they be subject to criminal prosecution, as Trump said they should be?

The bookies are giving 85 odds against that.

Why? For the same reason that Clinton could go before Congress, lie about the Islamic terror attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 and get away with it by asking angrily, What difference at this point does it make?

The likely result is that the political establishment will close ranks to protect itself.

They will be aided by a compliant media, which will bend over backward to find excuses, or half excuses, to show why what the Dems did really wasnt so bad.

We will be told that Durhams evidence doesnt show what Trump says it does; that the case is really about subsidiary issues; that Durham isnt really going after anyone at the center of the scandal.

The overriding goal, as always, will be to hobble Trump and prevent him, or anyone like him, from running in 2024.

I dont think that will work. But even if it does, its worth noting that Donald Trump isnt the only one who is furious about this latest development.

The proverbial cat is out of the bag.

Hold on: Its going to be a bumpy ride.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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)

Reckless Australian Prime Minister Imperils Fair Sexual Assault Trial

Commentary

Theres been endless kerfuffle about the implications of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrisons apology to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins with eminent lawyers claiming his comments were reckless, and warning they may derail any chance of both parties in the criminal case being given a fair trial.

One thing is for sure: the cases outcomes are all equally dismal. If the defendant is found guilty in a trial whose fairness is open to question, it will send a shudder through the multitude of normal families already nervous about protecting their sons. But if he is acquitted, the cries for further changes to our legal system would be deafening.

At least on both accounts, wed have the pleasure of demanding the prime minister and his colleagues apologise in parliament. What fun that would be.

Its important to clarify a few issues as we go into the discussion of why the Prime Minister may have been in the wrong. In legal terms, Brittany Higgins is not yet legally classified as a victim of this alleged crime. She only achieves that legal status after her allegations of sexual assault are proven in court.

Right now, in Higgins legal case, she is the primary witness in a rape case to be heard before a jury in June. A case where the lawyers for the defence have announced their client is not guilty.

Under Australian laws, anyone accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty.

We are party to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, which clearly states that public authorities should refrain from prejudging the outcome of a trial by making public statements affirming the guilt of the accused, and that the media should avoid news coverage undermining the presumption of innocence.

That means public authorities like our prime minister, who in parliament apologised to Higgins for the terrible things that took place here, stating that the Parliament House, which should have been a place for safety and contribution, turned out to be a nightmare.

Morrisons language shows strong support for Higgins claim that, after becoming intoxicated and returning to work late at night at Parliament House with a colleague, she later awoke to find herself naked on the ministers couch, not after a consensual hook-up, but a sexual assault.

Brittany Higgins (R) and Grace Tame at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 9, 2022. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

What happened on the Minister for Defence Industrys couch should be the subject of a proper criminal trial, where a jury would make a determination on the facts.

But now, our prime minister has potentially blown any chance of a fair outcome for either party.

His irresponsible action has set the scene for defence lawyers to apply for a permanent stay, where the case would not proceed because the defendant is deemed unable to receive a fair hearing.

Its very rare that a court agrees to such a move, and it would do nothing for the young man involved in the case who has already been publicly named and shamed by the Australian media.

The more likely option is that the jury will be given directions to disregard the prejudicial words of our prime minister.

Think about that. A jury of ordinary men and women will be told to ignore anything they have heard in the media or elsewhere.

How could a jury in the Australian Capital Territorys (ACT) Supreme Court possibly forget what was said across the lake in the national parliament by the top official in the country? It is simply inconceivable that the accused will be given a fair trial in this case.

In the ACT, theres, at present, no possibility of applying for a judge-only trial.

Chris Merritt pointed out in The Australian earlier this year that there have been cases where the court has determined that the adverse publicity so prejudices the case against the accused that it justifies a judge-alone trial.

This was what happened in 2019 when former politicians Eddie Obeid and Ian MacDonald were to face trial after years of being referred to publicly as corrupt and disgraced.

As Merritt explained (pdf), in that case, the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Courts Justice Elizabeth Fullerton ordered a judge-only trial, reprimanding both the prime minister and former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian for public comments about the case.

Fullerton also singled out in what she called the journalist frenzy tweets about Obeid from Kate McClymont, the Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist, one month before the trial.

Meanwhile, with the Higgins case now looming, the outrageous journalist frenzy is in full flight.

The National Press Club was on questionable ground, inviting Higgins to join Grace Tame to speak as advocates for survivors of sexual assault because it could have harmed her case.

Even more worrying was the sight of hundreds of our supposedly leading journalists, mainly female, wildly applauding Higgins, this key witness in a critical rape case, even before she spoke.

Heres how she started: I was raped on a couch in what I thought was the safest and most secure building in Australia. In a workplace that has a police and security presence 24/7. The parliament of Australia is safeit is secureexcept if youre a woman.

Former Australian of the year, Grace Tame (L) and Brittany Higgins, advocates for survivors of sexual assault, address the media at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 9, 2022. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Delighting in it all was Anthony Albanese, Australias Opposition leader, fresh from his own fulsome apology to parliament, which he too should have known could have impacted Higgins case.

He has taken every opportunity for meetings and photo opportunities with Higgins, praising her extraordinary courage and making it clear he was on her side.

But the cynical would say that Labor thinks they are on a winner, exploiting this young woman to expose what they cast as the governments women problem.

The government is delusion in thinking they could ever appease this noisy, small activist group that dominate our media.

Perhaps the Press Club debacle will do something to convince conservative politicians that they are simply alienating their base by so blatantly pandering to feminist politics.

For the rest of us observing all this from the sidelines, it simply adds to our growing conviction that justice for men is under threat in this country.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Parents leave a staging area after being reunited with their children following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. (Jessica Hill/AP Photo)

Remington Reaches $73 Million Settlement With Sandy Hook Parents

Family members of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut years ago on Feb. 15 announced a $73 million settlement with Remington Arms Company.

An agreement has been executed between the parties, lawyers for the families, who sued Remington in 2015, told the court in a filing.

The agreement wasnt detailed in court papers, but families and their lawyers said it was for $73 million.

David and Francine Wheeler joined eight other families in the suit against Remington, which marketed and sold the Bushmaster AR-15 style rifle, which authorities say Adam Lanza used to gun down 26 children and adults in the Newtown high school in 2012.

Remington employees knew that selling the rifle and others like it meant individuals unfit to operate these weapons gain access to them and that the Bushmasters firepower enables an individual in possession of the weapon to inflict unparalleled civilian carnage, according to the suit.

One of the reasons Bens not here is because some people made a decision, driven by an increased desire of profits and a fear of a shrinking market share, to focus their advertising on young men, to sell them their productthe most intentionally lethal consumer product our species has ever devised, David Wheeler told a press conference on Tuesday.

A Bushmaster rifle lies on the floor inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., following a Dec. 14, 2012, shooting. (Connecticut State Police via Getty Images)

Remington had argued it was immune from claims because of the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, but ultimately decided to settle to prevent the case from going to trial.

Remington offered a $33 million settlement offer in mid-2021. It wasnt immediately clear why the final amount was over two times as much. Remington and lawyers representing the company and other defendants did not respond to requests for comment.

As recently as November 2021, Remington entered filings in their defense.

Josh Koskoff, one of the plaintiffs lawyers, told news outlets in a statement that the large settlement accomplishes the goal of helping prevent the next Sandy Hook.

This victory should serve as a wake up call not only to the gun industry, but also the insurance and banking companies that prop it up. For the gun industry, its time to stop recklessly marketing all guns to all people for all uses and instead ask how marketing can lower risk rather than court it. For the insurance and banking industries, its time to recognize the financial cost of underwriting companies that elevate profit by escalating risk. Our hope is that this victory will be the first boulder in the avalanche that forces that change, he said.
A woman walks through the Chinatown district arch on March 04, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Rise in Foreign Interference, Election Disinformation Among Top Concerns for Australian Police Chief

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is warning foreign interference and espionage is on the rise in the countrys ethnic communities and expressed concern that disinformation could impact Australias upcoming election.

Reece Kershaw, AFP commissioner, outlined activities the law enforcement agency had undertaken over the past year in a hearing before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.

Most Australians wont see foreign interference or be targeted by foreign interference, Kershaw said in his opening statement on Feb. 14. But it has the potential to affect every Australian because it erodes democracy and our institutions.

The AFP is aware of increased espionage and foreign interference threats, he added. In the past 18 months, the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce has achieved a number of successful disruptions, most significantly in relation to democratic institutions.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw speaks to the media in Sydney, Australia, on June 08, 2021. (Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Kershaw cited the arrest and laying of charges against Melbourne man, Duong Di Sanh, who is now in court for preparing for a foreign interference offence.

A priority continues to be the development of national arrangements to identify and respond to interference against diaspora communities in Australia, he said.

The police chief said segments of these communitiesdeemed to be dissidents by authoritarian statesface monitoring and harassment to silence them from speaking out and criticising overseas governments or regimes.

Foreign interference is an insidious and resource-intensive crime, and one that I expect will continue to grow and converge with other crime types in Australia, Kershaw warned. He was confident, however, that the AFP and other security apparatus had the expertise to tackle potential offenders.

On Feb. 9, Mike Burgess, director-general of Australias domestic spy agency revealed details of a plot by an unnamed foreign government conspiring to bankroll electorate candidates at the next electionthe candidates themselves were not aware of the plot.

It was later alleged that the state-actor in question was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the political party being targeted was the Australian Labor Partys (ALP) candidates in New South Wales.

Meanwhile, Kershaw expressed concern over the prevalence of disinformation surrounding the build-up to this years federal election, which is due before May 2022.

Where disinformation reaches a criminal thresholdparticularly where it urges or advocates violencethe AFP will be exercising the full force of its powers.

The police chief cited the arrest and charge of a Sydney man responsible for sending over 23 million messages during two by-electionsthe 2019 Wentworth by-election and 2020 Eden-Monaro.
A Russian national flag is seen at the roof of the Russian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, on Sept. 18, 2016. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Russia Could Take Measures Involving Military Technology If NATO Rejects Demand Over Ukraine: Russian Envoy

Denies claims that Russia intends to start a war

Russias envoy to Japan has warned of a possibility of measures involving military technology if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) refuses Russias demand for Ukraine to be prohibited from joining the military alliance.

In an interview with Japanese media NHK on Monday, Russian ambassador Mikhail Galuzin said that Ukraine joining NATO would intensify the alliances military threat to Russian security, and said that Western countries sending huge quantities of weapons to Ukraine could encourage provocative action by Ukrainian forces.

Galuzin denied claims that Russia intends to start a war and reaffirmed the countrys willingness to engage in diplomacy, adding that the more than 100,000 troops Russia has situated along its border with Ukraine were large-scale military exercises that should not be seen as a precursor to military invasion.

We must have the necessary troops to protect the lives and livelihoods of the people, and we must also provide training, he said.

But he added, If NATO rejects our proposal, Russia may take measures involving military technology to ensure its security, according to a translation by NHK.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky maintained on Monday that it remains Ukraines sovereign wish to join NATO. Zelensky told reporters that there is no signal from us that NATO membership is not our goal.

His remarks came after Ukrainian Ambassador to Britain Vadym Prystaiko told the BBC that the former Soviet republic could drop its NATO bid to avoid war with Russia.

Prystaiko subsequently clarified his comment, saying that dropping the bid for NATO membership is not an option.

We are not a member of NATO right now and to avoid war, we are ready for many concessions and that is what we are doing in conversations with the Russians, Prystaiko said during a separate interview with the BBC. It has nothing to do with NATO, which is enshrined in the Constitution.

It is not a delay to our ambitions to be in NATO; what we are talking about is that we are not in the family now so we have to look for something else like bilateral agreements with the UK, with the United States, he said. So on top of NATO, we are looking for some other arrangements which would allow us to survive at this particular ordeal right now.

Zelensky also declared on Monday that Feb. 16 will be a Day of Unity for those in Ukraine, pushing back on reports citing the date as the day of the attack amid the predictions of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine is being intimidated by the great war with the date of the military invasion being publicly announced, the president said, adding that this is not the first time.

The relevant decree has already been signed. On this day, we will hoist national flags, put on blue and yellow ribbons and show the world our unity, he said in a statement.

He said the nations forces are constantly monitoring the situation and preparing decent responses to all possible scenarios and aggressive actions.

Ukrainian officials said that Zelensky is not predicting an attack on that day, and was responding in sarcasm to the many foreign media reports citing Feb. 16 as the potential date of the invasion.

It is quite understandable why Ukrainians today are skeptical about various specific dates of the so-called start of the invasion announced in the media, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskys chief of staff, said.

Allen Zhong and Reuters contributed to this report.
A Russian tank rolls during military drills at Molkino training ground in the Krasnodar region, Russia, on Dec. 14, 2021. (AP)

Russia Says Its Pulling Back Some Forces from Ukraine Border

Russian officials said on Feb. 15 that some units taking part in military exercises near the Ukrainian border would start returning to their bases, sparking hope that the Kremlin might not invade Ukraine after all amid a massive troop buildup that put Western leaders on high alert for an imminent attack.

The units of the southern and western military districts, having completed their tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today, Russias Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

While it is unclear how many troops Russia is withdrawing, Konashenkov suggested that other Russian units stationed near Ukraines border would follow suit.

As the combat training measures are completed, the troops, as always, will make marches in a combined way to the points of permanent deployment, he added.

A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea on Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo)

Konashenkovs announcement came after weeks of heightened tensions as Western leaders warned that Russian forces were poised for an imminent invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS Face the Nation program on Feb. 13 that there has been a dramatic acceleration in the Russian troop buildup over the prior 10 days, with military action possible essentially at any time.

We also are watching very carefully for the possibility that there is a pretext or a false flag operation to kick off the Russian action in which Russian intelligence services conduct some kind of attack on Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine or on Russian citizens, and then blame it on the Ukrainians, Sullivan added.

While Russia has amassed about 130,000 troops, plus artillery and other heavy equipment, close to Ukraines border, the Kremlin has denied planning an attack, saying the military movements are about maintaining security against NATO aggression.

The Russian armys Iskander missile launchers take positions during drills in Russia, on Jan. 25, 2022. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Moscow has asked the United States and its allies for a binding commitment that they wont accept Ukraine into NATO. Russia also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

Washington and NATO have rejected those demands.

From our perspective. I cant be more clearNATOs door is open, remains open, and that is our commitment, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in late January, though he renewed an offer of reciprocal measures to address mutual security concerns between Russia and NATO, including missile reductions in Europe.

A Russian tank T-72B3 fires as troops take part in drills at the Kadamovskiy firing range in the Rostov region in southern Russia, on Jan. 12, 2022. (AP Photo)

On Monday, signs of hope for de-escalation came when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that Moscow was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that have fed into the crisis.

The talks cant go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage, Lavrov said at a made-for-TV meeting with Putin that seemed designed to convey to the world the Russian leaders position. In his comments, Lavrov noted that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills, and other confidence-building measures.

Despite the hopeful signs, however, the United States and European countries have kept up their warnings.

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Tuesday that an invasion risk remains, telling Sky News that it could be imminent. She added that there is still time for Vladimir Putin to step away from the brink.

European and Russian stocks rallied while oil prices retreated on Tuesday morning after Konashenkovs remarks about the troop pullback, as markets welcome his declaration as a sign that a military conflict may be averted.
Russian Invasion Threat to Ukraine Imminent, Says Joly, Amid Diplomacy, Cyberattacks

OTTAWACanadas foreign affairs minister says the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remains high as cyberattacks undermined earlier optimism Tuesday that the Kremlin might be drawing down its military forces.

The latest information I have is that the threat is real and imminent, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly told The Canadian Press Tuesday. Everybodys taking this by the hour. Things have been moving; the situation is extremely volatile.

Joly said Canada and its NATO allies want to see actual proof that Russia has reduced its 130,000-strong troop deployment along Ukraines borders beyond video imagery of Russian heavy artillery being loaded onto transports with no specific details about where that might be happening.

Weeven think that this could be a campaign of disinformation launched by Russia, she said.

On Tuesday, after a meeting in Moscow with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesnt want war and is looking to hold peaceful discussions with the West to ease what has become its worst crisis with Russia since the Cold War.

Putin said he was willing to talk further about limiting the deployment of intermediate range missiles in Europe, and other transparency and confidence-building measures.

Well use every single way to launch diplomatic conversations. But meanwhile, Russia needs to show their intent by de-escalating. Thats really, really important, Joly said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels that there were no signs of Russian troop levels dropping on the Ukrainian borders, but there was still reason to be cautiously optimistic about the diplomatic efforts.

Joly spoke shortly after the prospect of a Russian invasion seemed to ease with Putins latest public remarks.

But then a series of cyberattacks hit Ukrainian government departments and banks, knocking them off-line.

Joly said she was extremely concerned by the cyberattacks and had spoken to her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, for more details.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would give Ukraine a $500-million loan and $7.8 million worth of lethal equipment and ammunition. Until then, Canada had been reluctant to provide weapons to Ukraine, but Joly said the decision was taken to join other countries in supplying the weapons because of the risk of invasion was so high.

Canada also closed its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, and Joly has urged any Canadians remaining in the country to leave immediately. Canada moved its diplomats to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Joly said she has spoken to her counterparts in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania to help secure safe passage for all Canadian diplomats and their families should the security situation further decline.

Russia wants guarantees that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO, and that the 30-country transatlantic alliance will stop seeking to recruit new member countries from eastern Europe in what the Kremlin views as the former Soviet Unions old sphere of influence.

But the Russian demand to halt further expansion is a non-starter for the U.S., NATO and its allies, including Canada.

Canada, along with several allies including the U.S., Britain, Australia and Germany have finished work on a new package of sanctions that would be levied against Russia if it invades Ukraine again, following its 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, said Joly.

The sanctions are also structured so they would be rolled out in stages, with an initial round and then a then several follow ups from day one and then continuing, she said.

Joly also said the Nord Stream 2, a lucrative Russian gas pipeline project that connects to Germany, is on the table as one of the retaliatory economic measures that could be taken against Moscow. About 40 percent of Europe is dependent on natural gas from Russia, but the Kremlin has cut supplies in the past as a weapon.

Nord Stream 2 is fully constructed but it is not yet operational.

We know that Europe can be hijacked by Russia, in terms of its own energy supply. But meanwhile, we also know that Nord Stream 2 is not functioning as we speak, said Joly.

In that sense, Europe has a very important tool to deter Russia to further invade Ukraine as of now because of the fact that the pipeline is not flowing.

On Monday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and her G7 counterparts also warned Russia that any military action against Ukraine would result in sanctions that would have massive and immediate consequences on the Russian economy.

That followed Sundays withdrawal of Canadian troops taking part in the NATO training mission of Ukrainian forces. Canada had about 200 military personnel taking part in the mission and had previously announced plans to expand and extend the training effort.

The Defence Department would not say where exactly in Europe the Canadian contingent was being redeployed, citing security reasons, but the move was widely seen as further evidence that a Russian invasion was imminent.

By Mike Blanchfield
US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert (L) shakes hands with Park Ro-Byug (R), South Korea's ambassador for nuclear energy cooperation, during a signing ceremony for their nuclear agreement in Seoul on April 22, 2015. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images)

Samsung to Hire Former US Ambassador as PR Chief for North America

Strategic move will bolster company's handle on emerging US policies, experts say

Former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, is expected to join Samsung Electronics next month as head of corporate and government affairs in North America.

Industry experts told The Korea Herald they believe the recruitment will allow Samsung to bolster its responsiveness to changing U.S. policies, especially those regarding chips, which have emerged as a key strategic item amid global supply chain risks.

Lippert is expected to start work for the tech giant in March as the executive vice president of Samsung Electronics America and oversee its external relations in the region. He is reportedly in the final stages of signing the contract.

South Korean public opinion believes that Lippert will play a role in assisting Samsung and the Biden administration create a U.S.-centric semiconductor supply chain and strengthen the U.S.-South Korea technology alliance, according to Korea Economic Daily.

In November last year, Samsung announced it would invest $17 billion to build new foundry chip production lines in Taylor, Texas, marking its largest investment to date in the United States.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Kinam Kim, vice chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics Device Solutions Division, announce that the chip-making company will build a $17 billion plant in Central Texas. (Courtesy of Samsung)

The chipmaker said it is targeting the second half of 2024 to have the advanced semiconductor fab operational.

According to the Korea Economic Daily, major South Korean companies base their moves on Washington policy. Companies global investment, sales, and merger and acquisition (M&A) strategies may change according to the policy trends coming out of the White House and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In 2020, the Trump administration blocked the Dutch semiconductor manufacturing equipment provider ASML from selling its EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography systemsdevices essential to making advanced microchipsto China. The efforts were carried over by the Biden administration, continuing the stance of the Trump White House, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Employees are seen working on the final assembly of ASMLs TWINSCAN NXE:3400B semiconductor lithography tool with its panels removed, in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on April 4, 2019. (Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie/ASML/Handout via Reuters)

In addition, Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBanks blockbuster sale of ARM Holdings, a British semiconductor and software design company, to American chip giant Nvidia was shelved recently, citing U.S. regulatory hurdles.

According to a Reuters report, SoftBanks cash-and-stock deal with Nvidia was announced in 2020, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued to block it in December, arguing that competition in the nascent markets for chips in self-driving cars and a new category of networking chips could be hurt.

The collapse of this sale marks a major setback for the Japanese conglomerates efforts to generate funds at a time when valuations across its portfolio are under pressure.

Having a handle on the U.S. governments policy stance has become more important than ever, particularly in the Biden administration, said an industry official, according to the Korea Economic Daily.

According to the Daily, major South Korean companies with offices in Washington have expressed difficulty in understanding the policy orientation of the Biden administration, saying that every step is like walking on thin ice, hence the need for Korean companies to look at hiring former diplomats.

The Biden administration has lured in major foreign investment through government subsidies and tax incentives, but on the other hand, has become increasingly explicit in demanding business information, even industrial secrets, from foreign firms operating in the country, the report added.

In efforts to exclude China from the semiconductor supply chain and build a secure domestic supply chain, the U.S. government last year required global semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and S.K. Hynix to submit their sensitive semiconductor business information, according to Hankyoreh, a South Korean newspaper.

The Korean industry believes the increasingly hostile U.S.-China tensions complicate Samsungs external industrial environment. Especially when the United States calls for a domestic-centered reorganization of the supply chain while South Korea still relies heavily on China for trade.

Amid the deteriorated U.S.-China relations and global supply chain reorganization, many South Korean companies are looking to hire former U.S. diplomats to reduce foreign policy risks.

Lippert served as the U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 2014 to 2017 under former U.S. President Barack Obama. He built a reputation of integrating with Korean culture during his ambassadorship.

Following his tour, he worked as the vice president of Boeing International and as a senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. think tank. More recently, he assumed the role of YouTubes Asia Pacific public policy chief in June 2020.
GOP House Committee members have called on seven scientistswho were participants in Dr. Anthony Faucis secret teleconference that took place on Feb. 1, 2020to provide answers for their actions under oath.

All of these scientists initially believed COVID-19 likely leaked from the Wuhan lab but suddenly reversed course after privately speaking with then-NIH director Francis Collins and Fauci.

Several of these scientists were involved in the same-day drafting and subsequent publication of the infamous Proximal Origin article that dismissed the lab leak theory. These same scientists were also part of a group that promoted a natural origin narrative to the National Academy of Sciences just two days after the teleconference.

As the House Committee Members note, it is unclear what science, if any, changed in the space of 48 hours.

What does seem clear is that the many lies surrounding the formation of the natural origin narrative are finally breaking.

Welcome to Truth over News with Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke.

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Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during First Minister's Questions (FMQs) at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Feb. 10, 2022. (J Mitchell /Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Scotlands Transgender Reform Plan Sparks Opposition From Army of Women

The Scottish governments plan to allow people to self-declare their own gender without a doctors approval has met with strong grassroots opposition from an army of women from diverse social and political backgrounds, a new study has revealed.

Scottish ministers are planning to reform the Gender Recognition Act to make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender, and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly dismissed fears that the plan poses a risk to womens rights and safety.

But according to Sarah Pedersen, professor in communication and media at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, a new womens cooperative constellation has been established in opposition to the transgender reform plan.

In an academic article published in the Scottish Affairs journal, Pedersen said that women politicians, researchers, journalists, writers, and activists from across the political spectrum have formed a support network to collaborate across party lines.

Activists interviewed by Pedersen used words such as danger and alarm to describe their feelings about how the proposed changes might impact womens sex-based rights.

Activists have set up new grassroots organisations such as For Women Scotland and Women and Girls in Scotland, because they found little support for their objections from either political parties or established womens rights organisations, the article said.

Pedersens interviewees criticised these established womens organisations in Scotland and the UK, which they said have sided with the Scottish government and have even actively silenced women who they are supposed to represent.

Some suggested that these organisations support for the governments plans was driven by fears of funding being cut.

Many of the interviewees said they first noticed the debate on gender identity on social media rather than in the mainstream media.

Several of them, including journalists, noted the lack of mainstream media coverage of the initial Scottish government consultation held in 2018.

One said: Like a lot of people, I hadnt really been aware of all the implications of it because I got my news from the Guardian and the BBC.

Many said their attention was caught by the abuse of well-known feminists, including members of the Scottish Parliament, who had spoken out on this subject.

One interviewee said prominent activists might not have been able to speak out if not for knowing that theyve got an absolute army of women behind them.

The Scottish transgender reform plan has also attracted criticisms from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the UKs human rights watchdog.

EHRC said last month that Scotlands plans to change the law on gender recognition requires further consideration.

In a letter to Scottish Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison, EHRC chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner said that the established legal concept of sex should be part of the correct balanced legal framework that protects everyone.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf speaks at a news conference in Washington on May 5, 2016. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

Senate Confirms Bidens Nominee for FDA Commissioner in Narrow Vote

The Senate on Feb. 15 narrowly confirmed President Joe Bidens nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a regulatory agency that oversees vaccines and drugs.

Dr. Robert Califf, 70, who was FDA commissioner during the Obama administration, was confirmed in a 50-46 vote.

Six Republicans crossed the aisle to support Califf, who was opposed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and four other Democrats or independents who caucus with Democrats.

Califf received overwhelming support in 2016, when 89 senators approved his nomination, but many Republicans who previously backed him said they switched their stance because he said he trusted FDA experts who eased restrictions on abortion pills.

Dr. Califf wants to make dangerous, chemical abortion easier to access, not save lives of moms and babies. Hes not who we need in charge of medication and health safety, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the senators who changed from yes six years ago, said in a statement.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Manchin were among those who took issue with how the FDA handled the opioid epidemic while Califf was in charge.

The FDA is supposed to be our nations pharmaceutical gatekeeper, but over many years it repeatedly rubber-stamped new prescription painkillers that increased the risk of misuse and dependence. As evidence of the deadly harm those opioids caused, the FDA did almost nothing, Markey said on the Senate floor before the vote.

Even well into the crisis, the FDA continued to approve powerful new opioids, he added.

But Califfs backers said he was the right man to fill the post, including Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

I urge all of my colleagues to give families across the country the peace of mind and the hardworking staff at the FDA the Senate-confirmed leadership it needs, she said.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the top Republican on the panel, said Califf is a supremely qualified nominee with bipartisan support who has the robust agency and private sector experience needed to help build on the success of the FDA.

Since leaving the government in 2017, Califf has worked or advised for a number of companies, including Google, Verily, Cytokinetics, Merck, Eli Lilly, and AstraZeneca. Some make vaccines or other drugs that the FDA has cleared or may be asked to clear in the future. He agreed to, if he were confirmed, resign from all his positions for companies regulated by the FDA.

Califf will replace acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, who is transitioning to the post of principal deputy. Califf will be sworn in this week and will assume his post immediately after, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDAs parent agency, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Califf has promised to carry out certain actions after assuming his new post, including reviewing opioids. He must fill a number of vacancies at the agency, including several that arose when top scientists departed in reported protest against the Biden administrations trend of announcing COVID-19 vaccine developments before the FDA processes had been completed.

Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) joined Democrats in voting for Califf.

Besides Manchin and Markey, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) joined Republicans in voting against the nominee. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) did not vote. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) abstained. He said he would have voted no, but wanted to recognize how Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), who is recovering from a stroke, would have voted yes if present.

Zachary Stieber Reporter Follow Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news. He is based in Maryland.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) participates in a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on oversight of the airline industry, in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Dec. 15, 2021 in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senators Introduce Bill to Require Disclosure of CCP Involvement in Publicly Listed Firms

In the latest move by U.S. lawmakers to thwart Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence on corporations and economic activity, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R.-Tenn.) and Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.) have introduced the No Chinese Communist SURPRISE Parties Act (S.3598).

If it becomes law, this new bill would obligate the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require that publicly traded companies in the United States disclose the presence of any CCP-affiliated organizations in their activities or corporate structure. Publicly-listed firms would also have to disclose any fiduciary duties and decisions taken at the level of corporate governance in which the CCP or other foreign entities may play a role.

Chinese law requires the establishment of Party cells in private companies that have three or more CCP members. As of 2016, around 75,000 foreign businessesaccounting for over 70 percent of the roughly 106,000 foreign firms in Chinahave established Party units, according to state-run media.

The bills sponsors have expressed concern over the fact that companies in China are increasingly influenced by and under the sway of the CCP and that, given the growing ubiquity of cross-border business and financial activity, it is all too easy for such companies to gain or expand a foothold in businesses listed on U.S. exchanges.

U.S.-listed companies should not act as tools of the Chinese Communist Party, and American investors are entitled to know if that is the case. My bill provides a common-sense solution to yet another attempt by Beijing to subvert the United States by deepening its influence over the American financial marketplace, Rubio said in a Feb. 14 statement.

The bill would require three disclosures that all firms listed on exchanges in the United States, including both domestic and foreign issuers, must make in their annual reports. Firms would have to disclose whether their board owes a fiduciary duty to shareholders or might otherwise be examined in connection with conflicted controller transactions; to disclose whether they have formed or maintained a CCP organization in the year that the report covers; and to reveal the presence of any such organization in their operations, and, if so, what is the exact nature of that Party organizations activities.

Blackburn also decried the influence of the CCP on seemingly legitimate business transactions in the United States.

Communist China continues to exert control over American companies by forcing them to develop communist party organizations within their ranks. American investors have the right to know whether or not their hard-earned money is propping up companies that the CCP controls, she said in the same statement.

The introduction of the bill comes amid heightened concern about the role of the CCP in stateside financial activity.

Just last week, Reps. Scott Fitzgerald (R.-Wis.) and Greg Stanton (D.-Ariz.) participated in a Hudson Institute virtual event in which they described the nature and purpose of their own new legislation, the Foreign Merger Subsidy Disclosure Act of 2021. This bill, introduced last October and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, would require any company attempting to merge with U.S. firms to reveal to U.S. antitrust regulators whether it has received financial support from a foreign regime.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with members of the media during a visit to Warszawska Brygada Pancerna military base in Warsaw, Poland, on Feb. 10, 2022. (Daniel Leal/Pool/Getty Images)

Signs of Diplomatic Opening in Ukraine but Intelligence Not Encouraging: Boris Johnson

There are signs that the Kremlin is open to diplomatic solutions with regard to Ukraine but the intelligence is still not encouraging, the UKs Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.

It came shortly after NATOs Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said signals from Moscow gave some reason for cautious optimism that diplomatic efforts will prevail.

Moscow said on Monday that it was prepared to continue talking, albeit the talks cant go on indefinitely. It also announced on Tuesday that some Russian military units were returning to their bases as planned after exercises near Ukraine while mocking repeated Western warnings about a looming invasion.

The signals triggered a positive market reaction but is met with guarded responses from Western governments and experts.

After an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the British prime minister said although therere welcome signs, the intelligence he received was still not encouraging.

Last night going into today clearly there are signs of a diplomatic opening, there always has been an opportunity to talk, there are grounds for a conversation about Ukraine, with Ukraine, and thats good. We are seeing Russian openness to conversations. On the other hand, the intelligence that were seeing today is still not encouraging, Johnson told reporters.

He said the Kremlin has been sending mixed signals as intelligence suggested more battalion tactical groups were being brought closer to the border.

Asked what de-escalation would look like, Johnson said Russia needs to be withdrawing the battalion tactical groups away from a potential theatre of conflict, not constructing field hospitals  between Belarus and Ukraine, a sense that things are being scaled back, scaled down, that the fret is is over, and that a conversation and negotiation is beginning.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a press conference ahead of a two-day meeting of the alliances Defence Ministers at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Feb. 15, 2022. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images)

Less than an hour before Johnsons remarks, Stoltenberg told a press conference in Brussels that Moscows gesture of willingness to continue to engage in diplomatic efforts gave some reason for cautious optimism, but NATO has yet to see any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine.

Konrad Muzyka, director of the Poland-based Rochan consultancy, told Reuters it would take several days to verify the latest moves via satellite imagery.

Commercial satellite images taken on Sunday and Monday showed a flurry of Russian military activity at several locations near Ukraine, according to the private U.S. company that released the pictures.

U.S.-based Maxar Technologies pointed to the arrival of several large deployments of troops and attack helicopters as well as new deployments of ground attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets to forward locations.

While Russia has amassed about 130,000 troops, plus artillery and other heavy equipment, close to Ukraines border, the Kremlin has denied planning an attack, saying the military movements are about maintaining security against NATO aggression.

Moscow has asked the United States and its allies for a binding commitment that they wont accept Ukraine into NATO. Russia also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

But Washington and NATO have rejected those demands.

Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that NATOs door remains open to Ukraine and that the alliance strongly believe[s] that all nations have the right to choose their own path.

Johnson said the UK will sanction particular Russian banks and Russian companies in the event of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, unpeel the facade of Russian ownership of companies, and also take steps to stop Russian companies from raising capital on London financial markets.

Tom Ozimek and Reuters contributed to this report.
Veterans clear snow and ice off the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as protests against COVID-19 restrictions happen on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, February 12, 2022. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

Soldiers Investigated for Showing Support for Freedom Convoy

The Canadian military says it has launched a handful of investigations into personnel who have expressed support for or participated in activities related to the Freedom Convoy.

The latest investigation was announced on Feb. 13 by Major-General Steve Boivin, commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM).

I have recently been advised of allegations that at least three CANSOFCOM members have been, in some form or another, supporting the ongoing protests in Ottawa, Boivin said in a statement.

He said CANSOFCOM does not condone its members supporting and/or actively taking part in causes that jeopardize the apolitical imperative associated with their functions.

The statement says that two members under investigation were in the process of being released from the military, while another was not part of CANSOFCOM.

A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence (DND) told The Epoch Times that the third member works in the procurement group (ADM (Material)).

The Ottawa Citizen reported on Feb. 13 that the first two individuals are assaulters within the elite Joint Task Force-2 (JTF-2) unit. These men are used as the tip of the spear in missions such as hostage rescues, counterterrorism, and special reconnaissance.

The third individual had also previously served with JTF-2, the Citizen reported.

Boivin said investigations have been launched into the two first cases, whereas DND media relations said the ADM (Material) leadership is currently looking into the matter further to determine the best course of action, and disciplinary action could be taken as required.

While CAF [Canadian Armed Forces] members, like all Canadians, have a right to their own personal opinions, they are also subject to regulations relating to public comment on defence and government policies, said the email statement from DND.

Other Members Show Support

A small number of military members have been vocal about supporting the Freedom Convoy by recording videos while in uniform and posting them online.

Major Stephen Chledowski, an artillery officer based in New Brunswick, posted a video last week in which he criticized the governments handling of the pandemic.

Chledowski said that despite 20-plus years serving his country, notably in Afghanistan, he is no longer treated as a citizen because he chooses to remain unvaccinated.

Like many thousands of Canadians who choose body autonomy and pro-choice, I am unable to share in the same privileges nowlike eating at a restaurant, going out in public to an event, or even travelling across provinces to see my child, he said.

Chledowski called on fellow military and police officers to now stand up and protect your loved ones against this government-forced medical tyranny.

Chledowski did not return a request for comment. The Canadian Press reported he is now under DND investigation.

James Topp, a reserves warrant officer who says he has served for over 25 years, has also posted a number of videos online in which he criticizes the governments vaccine mandates.

In one video he appears in ceremonial dress, which he says hes wearing without the approval of his leadership and is ready to suffer the consequences.

I do not believe that the state should have the power over my body and what goes into it. End of story, says Topp, who previously served in one of Canadas regular force infantry regiments, Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry.

To oppose the vaccine mandate imposed on the federal public service, Topp said he will embark on a walk from Vancouver to Ottawa. He plans to depart on Feb. 20 and document the process on his website, canadamarches.ca.

Topp was employed as a civilian for the RMCP but was put on leave without pay because of his vaccination status.

He told The Epoch Times he was also in the process of being released from the Reserves because of his vaccinations status, but he now believes DND could halt the process in order to subject him to court-martial. Topp hasnt been informed hes under investigation, but a DND spokesperson told the Ottawa Citizen that he is.

I do not hate you. I thank you for what I have been put through at your hands, Topp says in a video posted on Feb. 13, addressing those whove pushed him on the vaccine issue.

It has helped me find a sense of purpose that I never knew before. That I, as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, will give up everything, up to and including my health and my life, for my brothers and sisters in arms, for the working people of this country, because they have made me what I am today, and who have given me everything that I have.

Along with a small number of soldiers allegedly supporting the protest movement and the few taking a public stance, military veterans have been a fixture on the site of the Ottawa protest.

Over the weekend, veterans removed the fence that had been placed around the War Monument which was installed by authorities after a protester danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the first days of the demonstration.

You do not put a fence around our monument, said one veteran before the fence was removed and veterans removed snow and ice on the monument, according to a video posted online.
Taiwan soldiers stand next to the domestically produced corvette class vessel Tuo Chiang (R) during a drill at the northern city of Keelung on Jan. 7, 2022. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

Taiwan Says Chinese Plane Flew Close to Remote Island, Possibly to Test Taipeis Military Response

TAIPEI, TaiwanBeijing may be deploying a new strategy to test Taipeis reactions after a small Chinese civilian plane flew very close to one of Taiwans outlying islands, Taiwans defense ministry said on Feb. 15.

The ministry confirmed a Chinese civilian Y-12, a twin-engine turboprop utility aircraft, flew near Dongyin Island on Feb. 5, part of Taiwans Matsu archipelago that is located off southeastern Chinas Fujian Province.

The aircraft did not enter Matsus air space, the ministry said, adding the plane entered what it called Taiwans defense reaction zone.

On the Dongyin incident, of course, we have made a preliminary judgment and we cannot rule out that they are using civilian aircraft to test the responses of our military, Shih Shun-wen, spokesperson for Taiwans defense ministry, told reporters on Tuesday.

The military will definitely take corresponding actions, but it will take various contingency actions without there being a minor incident which sets off a war, Shih added.

He did not elaborate on what measures Taiwans military took in response to the incident, citing military confidentiality.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees Taiwan as part of its territory that must be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. As a result, China has resorted to a number of different gray zone operations, such as flying military jets into Taiwans air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in order to wear down the islands air and maritime forces while testing the islands defense capabilities.

However, internationally, Taiwan is widely recognized as a de facto independent body, where Taiwanese people elect their own leaders through democratic elections.

For the past two years, China has flown military jets into Taiwans ADIZ off its southwestern and southern coasts on a regular basis. According to Taiwans defense ministry, there were about 380 sorties in 2020, which more than doubled to 961 sorties in 2021.

Such military harassment has continued in 2022. Chinese military planes have entered the islands ADIZ on eight different days this month, according to the ministry. The most recent incursion happened on Feb. 14, when a Chinese anti-submarine warfare plane and J-16 fighter jet entered the islands southeast ADIZ.

Chinas hawkish state-run media Global Times, in an editorial published on Jan. 25, warned that the number of incursions in 2022 will only be more than last years. It also threatened that Chinese warplanes will sooner or later fly over Taiwan.

Last week, the Biden administration released its long-awaited Indo-Pacific Strategy, which seeks to maintain peace and security across the Taiwan Strait in a bid to counter the Chinese regimes aggression in the region.

We will also work with partners inside and outside of the region to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, including by supporting Taiwans self-defense capabilities, to ensure an environment in which Taiwans future is determined peacefully in accordance with the wishes and best interests of Taiwans people, the strategy reads.

Currently, the United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, ever since Washington changed its diplomatic recognition in favor of Beijing in 1979.

However, the two sides have enjoyed a robust relationship based on the Taiwan Relations Act, a law that authorizes the United States to provide the island with military equipment and weapons for self-defense.

Reuters contributed to the article.
Technology Executive, Clinton Campaign Lawyer Respond to Durhams Latest Filing

A technology executive accused of wrongdoing and a lawyer who worked for Hillary Clintons campaign hit back Feb. 15 after Special Counsel John Durham laid out new detailed allegations against them.

Durham, who is probing the origins of the counterintelligence investigation against Donald Trumps campaign, said in a recent court filing that a tech executive spied on the White House for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump. Its believed the spying took place while Trump was president.

Though Durham did not name the executive, he has been identified by media outlets including The Epoch Times as Rodney Joffe, who until recently headed a U.S.-based company called Neustar. Joffe once said he was offered a top position in a Clinton administration, provided Clintonwhom Trump beat in the 2016 electionbecame president.

A spokesperson for Joffe, who has not been charged with a crime, challenged Durhams filing in a statement to news outlets.

Contrary to the allegations in this recent filing, Mr. Joffe is an apolitical Internet security expert with decades of service to the U.S. Government who has never worked for a political party, and who legally provided access to DNS data obtained from a private client that separately was providing DNS services to the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the spokesperson said.

DNS refers to domain name system; Durham says Joffe exploited access to DNS internet traffic for not only the executive office but Trump Tower and Trumps nearby apartment, and that Joffe had a group of university researchers explore internet data with the goal of establishing an inference and narrative tying Trump to Russia. Joffe, Durham said, was trying to please certain VIPs.'

Under the terms of the contract, the data could be accessed to identify and analyze any security breaches or threats, Joffes spokesperson said. As a result of the hacks of EOP and DNC servers in 2015 and 2016, respectively, there were serious and legitimate national security concerns about Russian attempts to infiltrate the 2016 election. Upon identifying DNS queries from Russian-made Yota phones in proximity to the Trump campaign and the EOP, respected cybersecurity researchers were deeply concerned about the anomalies they found in the data and prepared a report of their findings, which was subsequently shared with the CIA.

Durham said his team has identified no support for the allegations that the data reflected suspicious DNS lookups by internet addresses affiliated with a Russian mobile phone provider, or Yota.

Lawyers for Michael Sussmann, the Clinton campaign lawyer who has been charged with lying to the FBI, also responded Monday to the Durham filing.

They argued that Durhams motion, which was ostensibly about potential conflicts of interest, included prejudicialand falseallegations that are irrelevant to his motion and to the charged offense, and are plainly intended to politicize this case, inflame media coverage, and taint the jury pool.

The allegations pertaining to the DNS traffic, for instance, were not included in Sussmanns indictment and were not necessary to identify any of the potential conflicts of interest with which the motion is putatively concerned, they added. Why then include them? The question answers itself.

Sussmann wants the court to strike the portion of the motion that outlines the allegations against Joffe and to allow him to retain his counsel, Latham & Watkins, a law firm that has represented other parties that are being or have been investigated by Durham.
Police leave the scene at David and Mary Thomson Collegiate in Scarborough, where an 18-year-old male high school student was killed just after 3pm, in Toronto, on Feb. 14, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Arlyn Mcadorey)

Teen Charged After Deadly Shooting in Toronto High School

A 14-year-old boy is facing first-degree murder charges after shooting and killing a student in a Toronto high school, city police said on Feb. 15.

The Toronto Police Service said in a statement they responded to calls of a shooting at David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute in eastern Toronto shortly after 3 p.m. on Feb. 14.

The police said a 14-year-old boy approached and shot 18-year-old Jahiem Robinson from behind on Feb. 14. The victim died at the scene.

The boy fled the area while chasing and pointing a gun at another 18-year-old student although he did not fire the gun.

The police arrested the teen at 6:54 p.m. the same day and he now faces charges of one count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. He was scheduled to appear virtually in a Toronto court on the morning of Feb. 15.

Toronto Police Service spokesperson Inspector Richard Harris said the devastating shooting was targeted.

The Toronto Police Service is holding a press conference to provide an update on the issue at 3 p.m. on Feb. 15. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) said in a statement on Feb. 14 that they will continue to assist the police investigation into the shooting, and will also launch their own probe into the tragic incident.

An incident like this raises questions about how something like this can happen inside a school. As we continue to assist Toronto Police with their investigation in any way we can, we will also undertake our own investigation, said Colleen Russell-Rawlins, the director of education at TDSB.

As it is considered to be a crime scene, the high school is closed. In a statement, the school said support is available for students from TDSB social workers, psychology staff, and Caring and Safe Schools staff at McGregor Community Centre as of the morning of Feb. 15. Counselling is also available virtually.

When we return to in-person learning, this support and counselling will also be available at our school and will remain for as long as needed, the school said.

The school said it will also provide a space where students can have time to reflect and remember their peer and receive support.

Torontos mayor, John Tory, condemned the shooting on social media, saying that any act of violence taking place in a school is tragic and unacceptable. Any act of violence which takes place in a school is both tragic and unacceptable. My thoughts are with the family and friends of the victim and the students and staff at David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute. pic.twitter.com/AtW67GmMUE  John Tory (@JohnTory) February 14, 2022 In reaction to the news of the shooting, Chris Glover, MPP for Spadina Fort-York, called on governments to address the root causes of gun violence.

Supporting those who lost a loved one and catching those responsible are the first priorities, Glover said on Twitter on Feb. 15. Then we need governments to provide the opportunities so there isnt another generation of youth picking up guns.

The Canadian Press contributed to this article
The Republican Opportunity

Commentary

The Virginia election of Republican Glenn Youngkin and Winsome Sears as governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, provides a great opportunity for the GOP if they will seize the moment and expand on it.

Youngkin and Sears exploited the legitimate fear many parents have in Virginia and nationally over what their children are taughtand not taughtin public schools subsidized by their taxes. The opportunity given to Republicans is for the party to focus not only on the bad and hope to eradicate it, but on the good that is taught in charter and private schools, allowing tax dollars to follow their children to the school of their choice. Teachers unions, politicians, and bureaucrats should not dictate to parents. It should be the other way around.

The benefit of school choice was again underscored for me when I received a Valentines Day thank you card from a woman whose daughters are recipients of Childrens Scholarship Fund (CSF) tuition in New York City. I am a contributor to the fund, which allows children from low-income families to escape their underperforming public schools. The fund is available in 19 states.

Nissa wrote: Both my daughters and myself have promised to work hard and support one another towards reaching their goals so that they can continue to be the best students they can be. This has brought great joy and gratitude, as well as inspiration to continue to be bright lights during what some may consider a dark time. Its truly a blessing and we cannot thank you enough.

There was also this note from Alexander Guzman, a fourth grader at Incarnation School in Washington Heights, N.Y.: I love math. That is my specialty. Thank you for giving me a scholarship. I am so happy for the opportunity to continue being in my school.

CSF President Darla Romfo says the on-time graduation rate for kids who receive scholarships is 98.8 percent. While public high school graduation rates in New York City ticked up 1.5 percent to 78.8 percent in 2020, Christine Veija writes on the website Chalkbeat New York, Though more students are earning diplomas, its not clear whether that means they are learning more while in high school. Given the introduction of so many non-academic subjects designed to track with political correctness, Im betting theyre not.

According to CSF, 71.7 percent of graduates who received tuition aid enrolled in a two-, or four-year college for the 20202021 semesters. Evidence that the public-school model has been failing students and the country can be found in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which every three years measures the reading ability, math, science literacy and other critical skills among 15-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries. The most recent results, from 2015, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Guess which country ranks first in math, science, and reading? According to PISA its China.

In addition to improving education through national school choice, there are other opportunities for Republicans to regain the political initiative that can lead to renewal. These would include rebuilding the military so dictators conclude they no longer have carte blanche to invade other countries and a buy American campaign to encourageand shame if necessarycorporations into bringing back production of items they have farmed out to China and other countries whose practices are in opposition to our values and national interests. Make this a patriotic duty.

Then, instead of just bashing Democrats for their failed policies, Republicans should put on a happy face and borrow from John F. Kennedy, who said about Republicans, we can do better. A positive agenda and outlook overcomes a negative one as light dispels darkness.

We can do better. Will Republicans say so and show the way?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Trump-Haters Are Desperate

Commentary

The increasing desperation of the Trump-haters is nowhere clearer than in Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonans remarks at the Reagan librarys annual discussion last week on the future of the Republican Party.

Her comments are substantially reproduced in her column in The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 10. The piece opened with unexceptionable advice to maintain the present Trump policies of embracing the working class, cultivating economic growth, defending free markets, and maintaining at least a streamlined version of the welfare state.

It moved on with great eloquence to the mighty funerals of the two slain policemen in New York last week, where Cardinal Timothy Dolan had a large group of clerical officiants and a full choir. The fallen policemen were movingly eulogized, especially by the widow of one, who laid the blame squarely at the feet of New Yorks Sorosite District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The cardinal and the whole congregation rose in applause, and when the great doors of the cathedral opened, it was to massed ranks of New York policemen saluting their fallen comrades. They were, indeed, moving occasions, and Susan Sarandons comparison of them with fascist ceremonies was an obscenity perfectly illustrative of the abominable taste, cavernous stupidity, and moral bankruptcy of contemporary Hollywood.

At this point, unfortunately, the column started to go horribly wrong. First popped out the Trump-hater, followed soon enough by the terrified Trump-hater. It was inexorable: The Republicans cannot consider the events of Jan. 6 legitimate political discourse. The same Peggy Noonan who told us 18 months ago that President Donald Trump was a malignancy metastasizing in the Oval, threw down the mask of calm counselor to the Republican Party and emerged the full metal jacket Trump-hater.

She expects great things of the Jan. 6 committee, a shabby Pelosian lynch mob with 14 seasoned prosecutors, although the Congress has no power to prosecute anyone, and where the Republican leaders nominations to the panel were rejected. This is a kangaroo court, where the kangaroos have been replaced by jackals.

In phrasing her charges of insurrection as she did, Noonan denied the legitimacy of the crowd of hundreds of thousands of peaceful supporters whom Trump addressed, and focused entirely on the hooligans whom she clings to with the fervor of rigor mortis as faithful representatives of Trump the insurrectionist, in the nasty and forlorn hope that it will extirpate Trump after all the silver stakes and misapplied crucifixes of relentless years of Trump-hate have failed.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, incident that he had found no connection between the vandals and Trump or his campaign. A moron with 10 percent of Noonans intelligence could see that the last thing in the world Trump wanted was violence inside the U.S. Capitol; it doesnt require Sherlock Holmes to see the desperation of the attempt of Trumps enemies to attach sedition to the bill of attainder they had been trying to write up to dispose of him for five years.

There were more than 40 million potentially harvested ballots in the 2020 election, where about 45,000 flipped votes in Pennsylvania and two of Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin (where there was completely inadequate verifiability) would have won it for Trump. The GOP Trump-haters have drawn their wagons into a circle, and Noonan has endorsed Sen. Mitch McConnells assertion that Jan. 6 was a violent insurrection meant to stop the constitutionally mandated process.

Trump warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser that reinforcements would be needed for the Capitol Police, unusual for someone plotting an insurrection. They ignored him. He saw that there could be a fringe of hooligans in the large and peaceful crowd of his supporters that he addressed on the Ellipse that day, and he urged them to demonstrate peacefully and patriotically.

The preceding election was of doubtful constitutionality, and the judicial co-equal third branch of government that was called upon to judge the issues raised by the extraordinary amendments to the voting and vote-counting procedures in a number of swing states in the election simply abdicated. The courts refused to hear any of the 19 lawsuits that directly challenged the constitutionality of the changes that brought about the unusual factors in determining the outcome of the election.

None of these issues was judged on its merits, and the overwhelmingly biased national political media attempted to sell the country the fraud that the issue of the legality of the election had been entirely determined by the failure of Rudy Giulianis helter-skelter, trick-or-treat canvas of courts on behalf of individual aggrieved voters.

McConnell and Noonan know perfectly well that they have joined entirely with the Democrats in trying to use the unhappy events of Jan. 6, 2021, as a method of politically disposing of Trump. No one who voted for or publicly favored the conviction of Trump in the second of his spurious impeachment trials should be judged acceptable to retain any position in the Republican Party.

Donald Trump has many faults, and that hes an unattractive public personality to a huge number of people is legitimate and unsurprising. And 2020 was one of four U.S. presidential elections where it will never be known who really won, such as 1876, 1960, and 2000.

Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden reached an agreement in 1876. Richard Nixon, though urged to challenge the results by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960, declined to do so because he thought it would be bad for the country at the height of the Cold War. That was his choice, and he has received virtually no credit for it. The 2000 election was determined by the Supreme Court; there is room to question its judgment, but at least Al Gore got a hearing.

The dirty little secret is everyone knows that 2020 was a very dodgy election and the judicial system abdicated rather than adjudicated it. And the national political media unanimously joined the pretense that there was no doubt of the result. That was the context of Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump did all he could to keep it peaceful.

Noonan and McConnell were throwing their hats in the air following the election, and McConnells oleaginous commendation of his distinguished former colleagues Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Inauguration Day was a nauseating triumph of the hypocrisy of the swamp. McConnell wanted to drop [Trump] like a hot rock in 2016, and thought he could in 2020, while Noonan thought that she had helped to excise the tumor in the Oval Office.

They must now realize that they helped enable the elevation of the most dangerously and uniformly incompetent administration in American history.

They must also know that Trump is leading the polls now, and that hes 43 points ahead of his nearest competitor for the Republican nomination. They and their kindred spirits who fled into the lifeboat of Trumpism-without-Trump have found it has no oars and isnt seaworthy. They sanction the likely unconstitutional sabotage of Trump, and theyre complicit in the likely illegal elevation of a horrifyingly inadequate regime. Its little wonder that they see the approach of the next elections with trepidation.

Noonan interestingly invoked the Roman Catholic Church as a catchment for public support and adherence. A hint of confession and repentance would be a good deal more persuasive than this desperate and heretical casuistry.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
This Is How the Progressives Will Write the History of COVID-19

Commentary

It seems obvious that wherever vaccine mandates, mask mandates, and lockdowns have been imposed in response to COVID-19, progressive political and media elites have been the driving forces behind them. This is clear to those of us alive today, but it is worth considering whether future history books will attempt to erase progressives culpability for the disasters their COVID policies have caused. The argument that follows is speculative, but bad ideologies should be held to the fires of their own making, and it seems to be in the nature of progressivism to attempt to escape the historical reckoning it is due.

Not long ago, it seemed more likely that the progressive elites would eventually just declare COVID-19 to be over and herald themselves as humanitys saviors. But as the pandemic has worn on, the cracks in the COVID disinformation regime have widened for all to see. The failures and destructiveness (pdf) of their policies are now beyond deniability to reasonable people, and so long as it is well known that progressivism was the driving force behind those policies, this episode will tarnish its reputation and its core dogma that technocratic social planners holding correct moral beliefs will save mankind from itself.

Therefore, it now seems likely the progressive elites who engineered and proselytized these disastrous public health policies will begin to distance themselves from those actions and eventually attempt to paint a new history absolving their ideology from todays failures. Philosophy professor Alex Rosenberg argues in How History Gets Things Wrong that narrative histories almost always get the why of history wrong because the narratives we spin about history, especially popular histories, are usually motivated by our own moral causes. If true, perhaps even the what of history can be distorted for the same reasons.

As Murray Rothbard demonstrated in The Progressive Era, American progressivism was born of just this type of motivated moral cause: Progressivism was, to a great extent, the culmination of the pietist Protestant political impulse, the urge to regulate every aspect of American life, economic and moraleven the most intimate and crucial aspects of family life. But it was also a curious alliance of a technocratic drive for government regulation, the supposed expression of value-free science, and the pietist religious impulse to save Americaand the worldby state coercion. 

Their values, the very nurture and education of their children, were to be determined by their betters. The spiritual, biological, political, intellectual, and moral elite would govern, through state power, the character and quality of American family life.

If todays progressives are the inheritors of this combined sense of moral and intellectual superiority, then it stands to reason that going forward they will bitterly resist association of their ideology with the present moral and intellectual failures that their covid policies represent. They will be morally motivated to recast their ideology as having been on the right side of history and to rewrite the history that will eventually be taught to those too young to have lived through the events themselves.

Those who would oppose this rewriting of history should therefore be on the lookout for ways it might be carried out over the next few generations.

First, corporate media outlets and the communications departments of public health agencies may increasingly distance themselves from their own bad policies. This has already begun. They may attempt to cover their retreat by saying the science has changed or that the latest viral variant warrants a lighter government response.

Regardless of what they have said over the past two years, and how vehemently and censoriously they have said it, eventually all major media and public health agencies will be on record as having opposed further lockdowns and vaccine or mask mandates. If nothing else, they will still be in charge when COVID hysteria finally does end for good, and ending those policies will be their official final word. If they are able to choose their legacy, it will not be that of the preceding two years, in which they championed those policies, but that of their final act of ending them.

Second, for several years after COVID, while people still vividly remember who pushed these policies, we can imagine progressive commentators referring to those policies not as things they supported, but as things that were done by America or by society. This will be a time for healing, not a time for blame. Such statements may not even be intentionally deceptive. It is simply easier on a persons conscience to refer to a consequential mistake as something we all did rather than as something I advocated. Intentionally or not, if the weight of public discourse proceeds this way, the public memory of who supported those policies will have already begun to warp.

Third, the first textbooks to discuss the COVID-19 era from the perspective of history, a history which will have to concede the disastrous consequences of the policies that were implemented, will be read by children who were not yet alive or were too young to remember it. This will be the first generation to form an understanding of the COVID-19 era who did not live through it themselves.

While a historical narrative that doesnt mention the role progressives played in pushing lockdown, mask, and vaccine mandates would seem obviously wrong to those of us who lived through them, it wouldnt stand out to those who did not. And if minds are sufficiently softened during the immediate post-COVID-19 era, in which the public discourse will diffuse blame, those who did live through the COVID-19 era may not notice this omission from their childrens history books or may not care enough to correct it.

Those history books will likely include two broad facts, both of which will be as true as they will be misleading. First, they will say lockdowns, mask mandates, and the development of the mandated vaccine all began during the Republican Trump presidency. Second, they will likely be able to say those policies were all ended during the Democratic Biden presidency. These facts will associate in the minds of a generation the onset of such policies with a politician linked to conservatism (which libertarianism will be lumped into) and the discontinuation of those policies with a politician linked to progressivism.

Only time will tell whether anything like this will actually occur, but history seems to suggest it likely will. How many people today are aware that Americas past experiments in Prohibition, ethnic discrimination, and eugenics were all once fervent policies of progressivism (pdf)? And in many ways it already seems to have begun: only days after a Johns Hopkins University study found that lockdowns caused far more harm than good, the Biden administration claimed it has not been pro-lockdown; that has not been his agendamost of the lockdowns actually happened under the previous President.

Resisting this ideological tendency to rewrite the history of todays public health policy errorsnot as a petty exercise in gloating over others failures, but as a means to help future generations avoid the next set of destructive progressive ideasrequires us to be aware today of how that rewriting of history might begin and to be prepared to educate the public on what has been omitted once it does.

By Robert Zumwalt

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Optimistic people may contribute to the health of their partners, research finds.

The study, with 4,500 heterosexual couples, indicates that having an optimistic partner may stave off the risk factors leading to Alzheimers disease, dementia, and cognitive decline as you grow old together.

We spend a lot of time with our partners, says William Chopik, assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University and coauthor of the study. They might encourage us to exercise, eat healthier, or remind us to take our medicine. When your partner is optimistic and healthy, it can translate to similar outcomes in your own life. You actually do experience a rosier future by living longer and staving off cognitive illnesses.

An optimistic partner may encourage eating a salad or work out together to develop healthier lifestyles. For example, if you quit smoking or start exercising, your partner is close to following suit within a few weeks and months.

We found that when you look at the risk factors for what predicts things like Alzheimers disease or dementia, a lot of them are things like living a healthy lifestyle, Chopik says. Maintaining a healthy weight and physical activity are large predictors. There are some physiological markers as well. It looks like people who are married to optimists tend to score better on all of those metrics.

The study, which appears in International Journal of Behavioral Development, followed couples from the Health and Retirement Study for up to eight years. The researchers found a potential link between being married to an optimistic person and preventing the onset of cognitive decline, thanks to a healthier environment at home.

Theres a sense where optimists lead by example, and their partners follow their lead, Chopik says. While theres some research on people being jealous of their partners good qualities or on having bad reactions to someone trying to control you, it is balanced with other research that shows being optimistic is associated with perceiving your relationship in a positive light.

The research also indicates that when couples recall shared experiences together, richer details from the memories emerge. A recent example, Chopik explains, was Googles tearjerker Super Bowl ad, Loretta, in which an elderly man uses his Google Assistant to help him remember details about his late wife.

The things he was recollecting were positive things about his partner, Chopik says. There is science behind the Google ad. Part of the types of memories being recalled were positive aspects of their relationship and personalities.

With all of its benefits, is optimism something that can be prescribed? While there is a heritable component to optimism, Chopik says there is some evidence to suggest that its a trainable quality.

There are studies that show people have the power to change their personalities, as long as they engage in things that make them change, Chopik says. Part of it is wanting to change. There are also intervention programs that suggest you can build up optimism.

Across the board, everyone benefits from a healthy dose of optimism from their partner. For the glass-is-half-empty people, a partner can still quench their thirst. For the glass-is-half-full people? Their cup runneth over.

Michigan State graduate student Jeewon Oh and Eric Kim, a research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health are coauthors of the study.

This article was originally published by Michigan State University. Republished via Futurity.org under Creative Commons License 4.0.
Trucks Moving From Ottawa Residential Streets to Reduce Footprint

Truckers began clearing their big rigs from many city streets on Feb. 14 and moving them closer to the main protest area along Wellington St., as a way to reduce their presence in Ottawa for the convenience of residents.

Protest trucks have been parked in central Ottawa streets for more than two weeks by Feb. 14, 2022. (Richard Moore/The Epoch Times)

According to a man who was directing drivers near the corner of Albert and OConnor streets, the breakthrough came after contact between city officials and protest leaders.

The development came after Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson made a request to protest organizer Tamara Lich.

My overarching concern is for the safety and security of our residents, business owners and workers in the downtown core, who are innocent collateral damage of this unprecedented national and international demonstration, Watson wrote in a letter.

A truck sits in the main protest area on Wellington St, Ottawa, on Feb. 14, 2022. (Richard Moore/The Epoch Times)

I hope we can make progress to alleviate the extreme and undue burden this protest and the occupation of our residential districts in the core and elsewhere have had on the residents and businesses of downtown Ottawa, he said.

In her written response, Lich thanked the mayor for his letter and said the truckers had always been about peaceful protest.

She added it had never been the intent to disturb residents of Ottawa, although this had occurred.

The Freedom Convoy Board agree with your request to reduce pressure on the residents and businesses in the City of Ottawa, she said.

We have made a plan to consolidate our protest efforts around Parliament Hill. We will be working hard over the next 24 hours to get buy-in from the truckers. We hope to start repositioning our trucks on Monday.

Lich said on social media that claims that the protesters have made any deal is not true, and that they still intend to stay in Ottawa until mandates are lifted. But she said on Feb. 13 that Plans to relocate trucks out of residential areas as agreed to will go ahead.

Nice try @ColtonPraill but @JimWatsonOttawa is not in charge of FEDERAL mandates as my comment clearly indicates. Plans to relocate trucks out of residential areas as agreed to will go ahead. https://t.co/UN8QEFATBO  Tamara (@Tamara_MVC) February 14, 2022

Nice try @ColtonPraill but @JimWatsonOttawa is not in charge of FEDERAL mandates as my comment clearly indicates. Plans to relocate trucks out of residential areas as agreed to will go ahead. https://t.co/UN8QEFATBO  Tamara (@Tamara_MVC) February 14, 2022

The repositioningdescribed by a protester as reducing their footprintwas noted by an Epoch Times journalist about noon on Feb. 14.

With a police officer controlling the intersection near the Sheraton Hotel, two truck drivers reversedone at a timealong Albert St and into OConnor St, where they followed a police vehicle with lights flashing up the rise toward Parliament Hill.

There was a little wait for the next pair of trucks as the police unit returned to pick them up.

It was a quick and efficient operation and, during the 20 or so minutes The Epoch Times was there, six pairs of trucks had left Albert St, where they had been parked for more than two weeks.

It was reported the trucks were to be parked on Wellington St, or the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway that links with Wellington St.

A police officer watching the scene said he was relieved, as the outcome had been achieved with no one being hurt
Trudeau Fanning Protest Flames by Invoking the Emergency Act

The prime minister should have opened dialogue with protesters

Commentary

Canada has been wracked with growing anti-mandate protests since the truckers Freedom Convoy descended on Ottawa over three weeks ago.

The government and legacy media initially tried to ignore the growing convoy.

As the convoy gained steam and interest across the nation while it moved through city after city towards Ottawa, the government tried to pretend that it was simply a handful of discontented truckers and dismissed them.

When the City of Ottawa found itself absolutely paralyzed with thousands of protesters supported by hundreds of tractor-trailers, the government moved on to a campaign of division and villainization. They tried to paint the protesters as extremists, racists, and misogynists.

Trudeau went into hiding for over a week only to surface now and then, toss some more fuel upon the fire through insults directed at the protesters, and then drop back into hiding.

With every passing week, the number of protesters continued to grow along with the locations for protests. Border crossings in a number of provinces have been hindered and blocked by protesters and it appears that the demonstrations may spread further. We have even seen convoys springing up in foreign nations inspired by the Canadian protests.

It is pretty evident that the governments strategy for dealing with the Freedom Convoy has been an abject failure.

Now, having totally lost control of the situation, a panicked and desperate Justin Trudeau has invoked the Emergencies Act.

The Emergencies Act is a new incarnation of the War Measures Act and the invocation of such a measure hasnt been done since 1970 when the militant Quebec separatist group FLQ was literally bombing, robbing, and kidnapping Canadians. The truckers protests to date have been incredibly peaceful considering how many thousands of people have taken part.

One thing Justin Trudeau never tried for a second was respectful discourse with the protesters. He doesnt have to go out groveling and kneeling among them as he did with the Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, but he could have at least been receptive to listening to them. He never even made the slightest effort.

Some could claim that such an effort to deescalate things would be a waste of time, at least they could before Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson made a deal with protesters to move them out of residential zones in the city. The convoy protesters moved out of the residential areas without complaint or issue.

What magic did Watson do to get these intransigent extremists to bend to his will? How did he manage to defang this angry beast?

Mayor Jim Watson offered the protesters something Justin Trudeau has refused to give them: respect.

Watson wrote a letter to the protest organizers politely asking them to move their protest closer to Parliament Hill in order to take pressure off residents. He explained how it was exhausting and causing stress for people living in the area. The protesters nodded and complied. No threats. No police lined. Just a polite letter.

This isnt to say that the protesters would decamp from Ottawa if they received a nicely written letter from Justin Trudeau asking them to go. It does show that the protesters are receptive to reason and compromise when it is offered to them though.

The very first step in resolving any conflict is to initiate a dialogue. A responsible leader will explore and try every avenue to deescalate a situation before resorting to force. It doesnt mean the leader is capitulating or letting themselves be pushed around. It just means the leader is not acting in dangerous haste when there is a possibility for a peaceful resolution.

Invoking the Emergencies Act against the protesters should have been a step of absolute last resort. The act suspends a number of civil rights and can potentially pave the way for military action against Canadian citizens. In using this hammer against protesters who have been peaceful, Trudeau may turn these protests ugly. Images of police or possibly even military action being taken against peaceful protesters could tear the social fabric of Canada irreparably.

As with every other action from the federal government with the Freedom Convoy, I expect their latest move will only inflame and entrench the protesters further. Tensions are going to escalate as the number of protesters grows and physical conflict may end up being inevitable.

This all could perhaps have been avoided if the Trudeau government had begun with an attitude of respect for citizens and tried to open dialogue with the protesters.

We will never know now because the government didnt even try.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
UK: Dangerous On-the-Run Sex Offender Had Been Refused Parole Five Times

A dangerous, on-the-run, sex offender who absconded after being moved to an open prison had been refused parole five times.

Paul Robson, described as a particular danger to women and young children, is serving a life sentence for attempted rape and indecent assault and was reported missing from HMP North Sea Camp near Boston at about 7am on Sunday, Lincolnshire Police said.

Labour said Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, has serious questions to answer following the Governments decision to deem Robson fit for the open prison following a Parole Board recommendation in February last year.

Police have urged people not to approach the 56-year-old Robson as he can cause real harm to anyone he comes across.

Paul Robson absconded from HMP North Sea Camp on Sunday (Lincolnshire Police/PA)

During his fifth parole review, Robson was refused release but recommended for a move to the Category D open prison.

The Newcastle-born sex offender was jailed at Oxford Crown Court in 2000 after he entered a womans home through a cat flap before tying her up, putting a pillow case over her head, and brutally assaulting her while holding a knife to her throat.

He was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of nine years but has spent an additional 11 years in prison.

Robson had only been released from prison three weeks before the attack and was on licence  with the sentencing judge describing him as a menace to females.

The prisoner, who walked out of HMP North Sea Camp, is described as a white male with a bald head, a long goatee beard and is of a slim build.

Commenting on Robsons case, a spokesman for the Parole Board said: The Parole Board refused the release of Paul Robson but recommended a move to an open conditions prison following an oral hearing in February 2021.

This was a recommendation only and the Secretary of State for Justice considers the advice before making the final decision on whether a prisoner is suitable for open conditions.

We will only make a recommendation for open conditions if a Parole Board panel is satisfied that the risk to the public has reduced sufficiently to be manageable in an open prison.

A move to open conditions involves testing the prisoners readiness for any potential return into the community in future. Prisoners moved to open conditions can be returned to closed conditions if there is concern about their behaviour.

HMP North Sea Camp is a category D mens open prison which holds a large proportion of sex offenders and those serving indeterminate sentences, according to an inspectors report following a scrutiny visit in April last year.

The report, published in June, said 70% of prisoners were assessed as presenting a high risk of harm to others and more than half were convicted of sex offences.

Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox said: We are still working tirelessly to locate Paul Robson and are still working through numerous lines of inquiry.

He could be anywhere in the country, and we are really keen to hear from the public with potential sightings so we can take this man off our streets.

Robson is a dangerous sex offender and while he presents a particular danger to women and young children, I believe he can cause real harm to anyone he comes across.

If you see Robson, please do not approach him, and do not try to apprehend him yourself. Call 999 immediately.

After writing to Raab about Robson, the Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed said: Dominic Raab has serious questions to answer about why such a dangerous criminal was deemed fit to be in an open prison where he could abscond.

The public will be deeply concerned that, yet again, this high-on-tax, soft-on-crime Conservative Government have put the public at risk.

Police have urged anyone with information or confirmed sightings of Robson to call 999.
TikTok's logo is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in Arlington, Va., on April 13, 2020. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

US Lags Behind India on Blocking Chinese Apps, Including TikTok

New Delhi just banned another 54 over national security concerns

News Analysis

India sent a special Valentines Day gift to China on Feb. 14.

Citing national security reasons, New Delhi banned 54 apps linked to China. These included one from Singapore called Free Fire, whose company, the gaming giant Sea, investors punished by wiping out $16 billion of its value.

Since 2020, after the Chinese militarys border incursions in the Himalayas, India has banned a total of 321 China-linked apps, including TikTok, WeChat, and Weibo.

Other countries should do the same. The social media app TikTok, for example, is experiencing explosive growth globally due to its uncanny ability to predict user interests and short-form video format. However, it perhaps not coincidentally has major security and privacy problems, and is owned by ByteDance, which is based in Beijing.

According to a report by Sravasti Dasgupta in The Independent, the apps India most recently banned include the likes of Beauty Camera: Sweet Selfie HD, Viva Video Editor, Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade, Barcode Scanner-QR Code Scan, MoonChat, and Lica Cam. Many are cloned versions of older Chinese apps under a new name to evade previous bans.

Indias ministry for electronics and information technology, which did not name China specifically, stated that the apps are now blocked for misuse and transmission of real-time data to a hostile country enabling them to compile huge personal data to mine, collate, analyse and profile by the elements who are hostile to the sovereignty and integrity of India and for activities detrimental to national security.

An Indian federal home ministry report stated that the apps could facilitate surveillance and espionage through the camera/mic, accessing fine location (GPS) and  malicious network activity similar to previously blocked apps.

Democracies and their allies around the world should follow Indias lead, particularly against TikTok.

Members of the City Youth Organization hold posters with the logos of Chinese apps in support of the Indian government for banning the wildly popular video-sharing TikTok app, in Hyderabad, India, on June 30, 2020. India banned another 54 Chinese apps in February 2022. (Noah Seelam/AFP via Getty Images)

According to multiple cybersecurity experts in India and a new report from TheWrap, TikTok has an all-access pass to user data that bypasses security protocols on the Google Play and Apple App stores. The stores normal code audits are avoided by the apps, which is highly unusual, according to the report. One expert claimed that TikTok can query material on the device itself, giving the app carte blanche access.

TikTok means big money and influence for Beijing. While the app is banned in China, advertising revenue in the rest of the world amounted to $3 billion in January 2022. TikTok users spend an average of 19.6 hours per month on the app, which is comparable with Facebook, the worlds first social media app by user time spent. Over the past four years TikTok user engagement has increased by 4.7 times on average, while Facebooks average engagement was flat.

Google, Facebook, and Instagram are under pressure from TikToks short-form video format, with Facebook and Instagrams owner, Meta Platforms Inc., having an increasingly uncertain revenue outlook, in large part due to TikToks growth.

TikTok now has more than 1 billion active users, while last month Meta revealed its active users had fallen to 2.9 billion. Facebook revenues in the current quarter are down over $1 billion from those predicted by analysts. Meta lost approximately 40 percent of its capitalization over the past six months, including a drop of $220 billion in a single day.

While to some readers this may seem just desserts after big techs censoring, shadow bans, and demonetizing of conservative thought, new legislation should certainly act to better protect the free speech of usersChinas big tech is far worse.

Yet unfortunately, the United States is far behind India in securing Americans from what is not only a threat to their freedom of speech, but a threat to their privacy and national security.

While the Trump administration first considered banning TikTok in 2020, it did not succeed. Neither has the Biden administration leaned in on the matter.

American tech companies are being forced to lobby Congress to get an even playing field with China tech. The U.S. Commerce Department is proposing a rule change to increase restrictions on foreign-owned apps, including TikTok and WeChat, but this is too little too late.

The floodgates were left open and now Chinese apps are so widespread in the United States that banning them will be unpopular with young voters. This puts politicians in a bind.

Americas leadership must now screw up its courage, join others across the aisle, and pass bipartisan legislation against China-linked apps. The longer our politicians wait, the harder it will be. Congress should recognize the threat to democracy and user privacy from Beijing, as has India, and ban Chinas apps in a more general manner. Start with TikTok.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) shares a word with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the occasion of their meeting at the Bankova in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 19, 2022. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo/Pool)

US Offering Ukraine $1 Billion Sovereign Loan Guarantee to Bolster Economic Stability

President Joe Bidens administration is offering Ukraine a sovereign loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to help the countrys economy as it faces the continued threat of a Russian invasion.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the loan offer on Feb. 14. saying that it served to help the former Soviet nation with its economy by supporting it to implement a bold economic reform agenda underpinned by ambitious cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Blinken said the offer, combined with the strong partnership between Ukraine, the IMF, other international financial institutions, as well as the G7, would bolster Ukraines ability to ensure economic stability, growth, and prosperity for its people in the face of Russias destabilizing behavior.

This action builds on the support the United States, our allies, and partners, including the G7 and international financial institutions, have provided Ukraine to help protect its economy amid Russian pressure in recent years, Blinken said.

Ukraine has previously received three separate $1 billion sovereign loan guarantees from the United States between 2014 and 2016, as well as over $2 billion in development assistance since 2014.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States intends to make available up to $3 billion to facilitate procurement of U.S. goods and services for projects in Ukraine, while the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation has a current investment portfolio in Ukraine of approximately $800 million across more than a dozen projects, Blinken announced.

The Biden administration is looking at other ways it can also support Ukraine, Blinken said, adding that officials will continue to work with Congress to advance such efforts.

Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe in terms of GDP, which stood at $3,726 per capita in 2019, according to World Bank data. A combination of political, security, and economic challenges over the past decade as well as large public debt repayments obligations have hindered economic growth.

The situation has worsened still owing to heightened tensions over the possibility of an invasion by Russia.

Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops situated near Ukraines borders while simultaneously asking the United States and its allies to deny Ukraine and other former Soviet nations membership into NATO.

However, the countrys President Vladimir Putin denies that he has plans to invade Ukraine.

The loan announcement comes after White House officials warned that Russia could invade Ukraine imminently by next week.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Russia could invade Ukraine any day now, noting that it might do so before the completion of the Beijing Olympics, which are scheduled to end on Feb. 20.

Sullivan doubled down on those comments in an interview with CNN on Feb. 13.

However, Sullivan has stressed that the Biden administration is not saying that a  final decision has been taken by President Putin and credited the increasing concern to data from intelligence analysts on the ground.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded proof from the United States regarding the alleged imminent invasion and cautioned against such warnings of a potential attack, which he said is creating panic in his country.

Zelensky has reiterated on multiple occasions that Ukraine wants to deescalate tensions with Russia but has said that his country will rely on its own forces in responding to any surprises  from any side, from any borders.

Following Mondays official announcement regarding the loan, Blinken also wrote on Twitter that the United States is working closely with allies to mobilize robust international support for Ukraine, including a U.S.-backed sovereign loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to support key reforms.

This support will bolster Ukraines ability to deliver prosperity for its people, Blinken said.
US Trending Toward Chinas Social Credit System, Enabled by Big Tech: Kara Frederick

Big tech companies are doing the bidding of the U.S. government in actions that mirror Chinas social credit system, and Americans must recognize whats happening and take action, according to Kara Frederick, a former Facebook intel analyst and a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Frederick recently authored a Heritage Foundation report titled, Combating Big Techs Totalitarianism: A Road Map, which details how Big Tech has wielded its power to censor Americans. The report proposes a range of actions Americans can take to counter the situation.

Its that integration of the government and big tech companies to police speech that I think is troubling and very evocative of the coming totalitarianism, Frederick said on EpochTVs American Thought Leaders program. She calls it a symbiosis between the government and tech companies.

She cited a few examples, including in earlier February, when White House press secretary Jen Psaki, at a press conference, urged Spotify and other major tech platforms to take further action to stamp out what the Biden administration deemed as COVID-19 misinformation.

Its not the first time Psaki told big tech companies what to do, Frederick noted. In July 2021, Psaki and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy at a press conference urged social media companies to combat what the Biden administration called health misinformation. At the time, Psaki singled out 12 people whom she said were producing 65 percent of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms.

All of [the 12 people] remain active on Facebook, despite some even being banned on other platforms, including Facebookones that Facebook owns, Psaki said at the time. A day later, Psaki said, You shouldnt be banned from one platform and not others  for providing misinformation out there.

Frederick noted that within a month, all of the users and accounts were booted off the Facebook platform.

In January, President Joe Biden said he was making a special appeal to social media companies and media to deal with misinformation and disinformation, and in early February, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas had issued a terrorism advisory not just against so-called misinformation about COVID-19, but also in the context of election integrity and election security, Frederick also noted.

This is becoming pervasive and big tech companies are the willing agents for the government to have really a heavy hand on the American people, Frederick said.

So absolutely, this is a coming totalitarianism, these practices are, frankly, mirroring that of what China does in the social credit system, she continued. You have to remember that [it] started with private companies as well and specific provinces in the financial sector.

So I think its extremely important for Americans to get their guards up and recognize whats happening as its happening today.

Quashing Dissenting Views

In the interview, Frederick explores how tech companies have repurposed certain tools that were originally meant to be used to combat national security threats, to now quash dissenting viewpoints, or anything the U.S. government calls misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information.

I believe that there are genuine problems on these platforms, right? Human trafficking, advertisements for drug cartels  child sexual abuse, material, child exploitation and pornography, and real foreign Islamic terrorist content. Those are real issues, not to mention state-linked influence operations, where you have bots that are farmed out to patriotic citizens by the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, to spew bile all over the internet or cheerlead for the CCP.  So its very important that we do have people within these companies working on that.

Frederick previously helped create and lead Facebooks Global Security Counterterrorism Analysis Program. In the beginning of her career, she had spent six years as a counterterrorism analyst at the Department of Defense.

She observed that on the social media platforms, there appears to be a very troubling trend whereby more resources are being allocated toward regulating right-leaning content and dissenting content.

We have failed to agree on a definition of misinformation and disinformation, and what actual, organic sort of influence operations are, versus state-linked influence operations from nefarious actors, she said. Right now, disinformationit seems to be a catch-all for views that the left doesnt like that the Biden regime doesnt like.

No more demonstrative examples exist other than the Hunter Biden laptop story [and] the lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virologythese two things were considered misinformation at the time and you would be censored, suspended or banned from Facebook and Twitter and other social media.

Whats furthermore troubling is an apparent effort to link disinformation with terrorism, such as with the recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory or the Justice Departments establishment of a new unit to combat domestic terrorism, Frederick said.

These institutions have definitions for a reason, she said. They call things terrorism for a reason. Because you can, once you label something terrorism, you can then mobilize the robustness of the entire U.S. national security apparatus developed in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

And you can mobilize them against anyone that youre accusing of terrorism. And when you link disinformation, mal-information, [and] misinformation with terrorism, that gives them license to do a variety of things under a variety of specialized authorities and visit them against the purveyor of this disinformation or misinformation.

Frederick advises Americans to explore platforms created by new entrants. I wont name them specifically. But I think were starting to see these competitors come up as they recognize the challenge as they try to take on [the] monopolistic practices of these big tech companies, she said.

Make sure that your privacy is first and foremost as wellso using companies that are actually devoted to privacy, she added.

The wanton censorship is not limited to social media companies, Frederick said.

its important for people to understand that its not just social media companies or your right to be on Twitter, your right to be on Facebook, she said. Its everything: email delivery services, online fundraising platforms, your ability to get a creative project going, the regular persons ability to have a business on Instagram, your ability to sell merchandise that you create on Shopify, your ability to bank online.

We know that 17 digital platforms mobilized within two weeks in early January to suspend or ban President Trump from their platforms. It can happen to the everyday user as well, she said. So I think its critical that we realize its not just social media companies, but its every aspect of your digital life, which is life into perpetuity.

Deny CCP Links, Recover Sense of Duty to America

Americans, including members of Congress, need to understand that big tech companies are infringing on Americans constitutional rights, such as freedom of speech, especially when [Big Tech is] working with the government.

Instead of saying theyre private companies, they can do whatever they want, recognize that thats a problem, she said.

Also, big tech platforms need to truly embrace American values again and recover a sense of duty to the country, and U.S. lawmakers can kickstart the process by being brave, calling out [Big Tech], recognizing that this is a problem and taking measures to rectify it, she said.

Frederick said she was struck by how big tech platforms such as Facebook showed a lack of both gratitude and cognition of how they thrived and flourished under an American system.

Because of America, [these big tech platforms] were able to amass all of this largess, and innovate and build all these really interesting things for the people of the world, she noted. I recognize that theyre global companies, but when it comes to the reason why theyve been so successful, its because of America and our unique system. I think companies need to recover a sense of being American again.  Recovering that sense of a duty to America, and a gratitude for what its been able to do and create for these executives and the people who work under them.

She said that Big Techs ties to the CCP pose a major hurdle to this effort, and believes Congress needs to pull the companies in line.

You hear an argument these days that big tech companies are, the bulwark against Chinese aggression, theyre gonna help us win the race against China,not if [Amazon founder] Jeff Bezos is working with a CCP propaganda arm, not if [Apple CEO] Tim Cook is paying China with $275 billion to contribute to their development; not if Zoom is acquiescing to the directives from the CCP to get a human rights activist off of one of their calls. The list goes on and on and on.

Frederick said Congress needs to be brave and say absolutely not to stop companies from working against American interests.

Companies need to recover what it means to be American companies again, Frederick continued. Congress can help them do it. Civil society can help them do it. State legislators and attorney generals can help them do it.  We all have responsibilities here, but it really starts in here with all of us.

Mimi Nguyen Ly Follow Mimi Nguyen Ly is a journalist based in Australia.
A Mesa Airlines CRJ-900 aircraft takes off from Long Beach International Airport (LGB) as people receive COVID-19 PCR tests at a Long Beach Health Department testing site in the parking lot of a former Boeing aircraft factory in Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 10, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

US Urges No Travel to 6 New Locations Over Very High COVID-19 Risk

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday urged Americans not to travel to half a dozen new destinations due to very high levels of COVID-19.

The new additions added to the CDCs Level 4: Very High risk category include South Korea, Belarus, Comoros, Azerbaijan, French Polynesia, and Saint Pierre and Miquelona French archipelago south of Canadas Newfoundland.

Last week, all six destinations were listed by the federal health agency in the category: Level 3: High risk for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

In total, CDC lists about 140 countries and territories at the highest warning levelincluding all of Europe and almost all of Latin Americadue to reported cases from the Omicron variant of the CCP virus still remaining high in many countries, though cases in many places have dropped recently.

A country placed on the CDCs Level 4 travel health list means that it is reporting more than 500 new CCP virus infections per 28 days per 100,000 people. Those who do travel to countries in the Level 4 category should be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the agency advises.

The CDC lists 50 countries or territories as Level 3: High, discouraging non-essential travel by Americans who are not vaccinated. Just 11 destinationsincluding New Zealand, Pakistan, Taiwan, and Hong Kongare listed at Level 1: Low or Level 2: Moderate. The health agency lists about another 40 destinations as unknown.

The Level 3 category applies to destinations that have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days, according to the CDC.

The agency lowers the travel risk designation when the case count in a given country falls below a specified threshold and remains at that level for 28 consecutive days, though the CDC notes it may lower the level before that time if vaccination coverage rates and vaccine performance warrant such a move.

Some industry officials have said they believe the CDC travel recommendations are a factor in the depressed international air travel demand. Earlier this month, major airlines, business, and travel groups urged the White House to end COVID-19 pre-departure testing requirements for international passengers who are fully vaccinated and are traveling to the United States.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Glenn Youngkin is sworn in as the 74th Governor of Virginia on the steps of the State Capitol in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 15, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Virginia Governor Expected to Sign Bill Ensuring Parents Right to Opt Out of School Mask Mandates

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to sign into law a bill that would make sure parents have the ability to choose if their child wears a mask at school.

The proposed legislation, known as Senate Bill 739, would amend Virginias education law to protect the right of parents to opt their children out of mask requirements on school grounds. The changes would apply to all public elementary and secondary schools, as well as all school-based childhood care and education programs.

A parent making such an election shall not be required to provide a reason or any certification of the childs health or education status. No student shall suffer any adverse disciplinary or academic consequences as a result of this parental election, the bills language states.

The bill passed the Virginia Senate on Feb. 9 by a largely party-line vote of 21 to 17, with three Democrats joining the Republicans in support of the measure. It then passed the House on Feb. 14 by a vote of 52 to 48 without any Democrat support.

Senate Bill 739 now awaits the signature of Youngkin, who is expected to add an emergency clause so that the proposed changes could come into effect as early as March 1.

I am pleased that there is widespread and bipartisan support in Virginia for a parental opt-out of mask mandates in schools, the Republican governor said Monday. Today, the General Assembly took a significant step for parents and children. After passing both chambers of the General Assembly, SB 739 will give parents a choice regarding their childs health, education, upbringing, and care.

Democrat state lawmakers, who not too long ago supported the Ralph Northam administrations K-12 school mask mandate, now argued that it should be left for individual school districts to decide their own mask policy. Meanwhile, the Republicans said that the changes will not prevent parents who wish to keep their children masked at school from doing so.

You still have an option to send your child to school with a mask. No one is stopping that, said Republican Delegate Emily Brewer. But I will tell you who will remember this: In a decade, these children will wonder who stood up for their freedom. They will wonder who stood up for parents and who stood up for an option.

The passage of the bill comes after a judge blocked Youngkins initial attempt to give parents the final say on masking for their children via an executive action. In an opinion letter issued Feb. 4, Judge Louise DiMatteo of Circuit Court of Arlington County ruled Youngkins executive order goes against a state law saying school districts should follow federal health guidelines as much as possible.

While the General Assembly has granted to the Governor significant and sweeping general powers to address an emergency, when confronted with a specific statute addressing the manner in which in-person learning can resume and directs local school boards to follow the guidance of the CDC, to the maximum extent practicable, it does not follow that the Governor, even in an emergency, can direct the School Boards to ignore the General Assemblys deference to CDC guidance and to abandon their considered determination about what is practicable regarding those mitigation strategies, DiMatteo wrote.
We Will Hold the Line: Freedom Convoy Organizers Say Theyre Not Deterred by Emergencies Act

OTTAWAFreedom Convoy organizers say they will continue to protest on Parliament Hill despite the federal governments declaration of a state of emergency.

We are not afraid. In fact, every time the government decides to further suspend our civil liberties, our resolve strengthens and the importance of our mission becomes clearer, organizer Tamara Lich said on Feb. 14 in anticipation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act over the protests demanding an end to COVID-19 mandates.

We will remain peaceful, but planted on Parliament Hill until the mandates are decisively ended. We recognize that there is a democratic process within which change occurs. We have never stepped outside of that process, nor do we intend to.

Trudeau is the first prime minister to use the Emergencies Act. The act replaces the War Measures Act, which was last used by Trudeaus father, then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, in 1970 during the October Crisis when Quebec separatists kidnapped and killed Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte.

The act gives the state additional powers to deal with the protests and blockades, such as providing legal tools to cut funding to protesters, as well as freezing the corporate accounts of companies whose trucks are used in any blockades and removing their insurance.

The province of Ontario and the city of Ottawa have also declared states of emergency over the protest.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters about the ongoing protest in Ottawa and blockades at various Canada-U.S. borders, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 11, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

The protest was initiated by truck drivers opposed to COVID-19 vaccination mandates for cross-border travel. As convoys of truckers made their to Ottawa, many supporters joined the movement, which turned into a large-scale protest against all COVID-19 mandates and restrictions. Many protesters who converged into Ottawa on Jan. 29 say they intend to stay in the capital until COVID-19 mandates are lifted.

Separately, protest convoys set up blockades at border crossings in Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, and British Columbia. The blockade at the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit, which accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars in trade between Canada and the United States, was cleared over the past weekend. The protest at the Coutts border crossing in Alberta ended on Feb. 14, as did the protest at the Pacific Highway Border Crossing in Surrey, B.C.

The Emergencies Act will be used to strengthen and support law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country. This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting peoples jobs, and restoring confidence in our institutions, Trudeau said.

The police will be given more tools to restore order in places where public assemblies can constitute illegal and dangerous activities such as blockades and occupations as seen in Ottawa, Ambassador Bridge, and elsewhere.

Lich said Canadians should be surprised that such an extreme measure is being used against peaceful protesters.

We have countless vulnerable people in our crowd, including children, the elderly, and the disabled, who cannot be met with force by a genuine liberal democracy. The right to peaceful protest is sacrosanct to our nation. If that principle is abandoned, the government will reveal itself as a true tyranny and it will lose all of its credibility, she said.

Children participate in the Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions in Ottawa on Feb. 9, 2022. (Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times)

Lich said she realizes some people are opposed to the protests, but noted that a democratic society will always have non-trivial disagreements and righteous dissidents.

There are many reasons for us opposing the mandates, she said. Some of us have been mistreated by our government, including many of our indigenous communities, who have personally experienced medical malpractice. Some of us simply want bodily autonomy and oppose the mandates on principled grounds. No matter our reasons and opinions, it is how the government responds to its citizens that determines the fate of the country.

Addressing the prime minister, Lich said, No matter what you do, we will hold the line.

There are no threats that will frighten us.

Brian Peckford, former premier of Newfoundland who is acting as a spokesperson for the Freedom Convoy, said this is a very, very strange moment in our history.

This is again government overreach. We dont do these kinds of things in Canada. We engage in dialogue, Peckford said. Peckford is the last surviving architect of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Its my understanding that the government of Canada has not reached out once to the truckers since they have arrived in this capital city. I find that very hard to understand, because how can you justify going to a measure like an emergency, measures where a lot of powers can be imposed upon the citizens, when you have not even yourself taken any action to engage.

Limin Zhou Follow Limin Zhou is a reporter based in Ottawa.
Woke Capitalism Is a Monopoly Game

Commentary

In 2018, Ross Douthat of The New York Times introduced the phrase woke capital.

Essentially, Douthat suggested that woke capitalism works by substituting symbolic value for economic value. Under woke capitalism, corporations offer workers rhetorical placebos in lieu of costlier economic concessions, such as higher wages and better benefits. The same gestures of wokeness also appease the liberal political elite, promoting their agendas of identity politics, gender pluralism, transgender rights, lax immigration standards, climate change mitigation, and so on. In return, woke corporations hope to be spared higher taxes, increased regulations, and antitrust legislation aimed at monopolies.

Although woke capitalism alienates cultural conservatives, the Republican Party remains pro-corporate, making woke capitalism a win-win strategy for corporations.

Business Insider columnist Josh Barro suggested that woke capitalism provides a form of parapolitical representation for workers and corporate consumers. Given their perceived political disenfranchisement, woke capitalism offers them representation in the public sphere, as they see their values reflected in corporate pronouncements.

Others have suggested that corporations have gone woke only to be spared from cancellation by Twitter mobs and other activists, that wokeness is a good branding tool, or that progressive shareholders also demand corporate activism.

But woke capitalism cant be sufficiently explained in terms of placating coastal leftists, ingratiating left-liberal legislators, or avoiding the wrath of activists. Rather, as wokeness has escalated and taken hold of corporations and states, it has become a demarcation device, a shibboleth for cartel members to identify and distinguish themselves from their non-woke competitors, who are to be starved of capital investments. Woke capitalism has become a monopoly game.

Just as non-woke individuals are canceled from civic life, so too are non-woke companies canceled from the economy, leaving the spoils to the woke. Corporate cancellations arent merely the result of political fallout. Theyre being institutionalized and carried out through the stock market. The Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Index is a Chinese-style social credit score for rating corporations. Woke planners wield the ESG Index to reward the in-group and to squeeze non-woke players out of the market. Woke investment drives ownership and control of production away from the noncompliant. The ESG Index serves as an admission ticket for entry into the woke cartels.

Research suggests that ESG investing favors large companies over small ones. Woke capitalism vests as much control over production and distribution in these large, favored corporations as possible while eliminating industries and producers that are deemed either unnecessary or inimical.

The investment approach of BlackRock Inc., the worlds largest asset manager; Vanguard, the second-largest; and others lend credence to this interpretation. BlackRock and Vanguard are solidly behind stakeholder capitalismthe corporate ethos of benefiting stakeholders in addition to or in lieu of shareholders.

In his 2021 Letter to CEOs, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made his position on investment decisions clear, declaring that climate risk is investment risk and the creation of sustainable index investments has enabled a massive acceleration of capital towards companies better prepared to address climate risk. Fink promised a tectonic shift in investment behavior, an increasing acceleration of investments going to sustainability-focused companies.

Fink warned CEOs: And because this will have such a dramatic impact on how capital is allocated, every management team and board will need to consider how this will impact their companys stock.

In thus throwing down the stakeholder gauntlet, Fink echoed the menacing words of World Economic Forum founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab, who wrote in June 2020: Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a Great Reset of capitalism.

But unlike Schwabs rhetorical gesturing, Finks dictum of go woke or go broke shouldnt be dismissed as the conspiratorial rantings of Dr. Evil. It has the direct force of capital behind it. Fink carries out what Schwab can only promote with propaganda.

Finks 2022 Letter to CEOs: The Power of Capitalism continues the promotion of stakeholder capitalism, suggesting that stakeholder capitalism has always been the modus operandi of successful capitalist corporations.

Over the past three decades, Ive had the opportunity to talk with countless CEOs and to learn what distinguishes truly great companies, the letter reads. Time and again, what they all share is that they have a clear sense of purpose; consistent values; and, crucially, they recognize the importance of engaging with and delivering for their key stakeholders. This is the foundation of stakeholder capitalism.

According to Fink, stakeholder capitalism isnt an aberration. He goes on to declare, rather defensively: It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not woke. It is capitalism.

Klaus Schwab erects the straw man of neoliberalismwhich he equates with the free marketas the source of economic and social woes for the masses. But corporatism, corporate and state favoritism differentially benefitting chosen industries and players within industriesand not fair and free competitionhas been the real source of what Fink, Schwab, and their ilk decry.

Corporatism, otherwise known as economic fascism, involves the coordinated production and the running of society by a consortium of dominant interest groups. If anything, stakeholder capitalism is a form of corporatism. Despite Finks assertion to the contrary, the corporatism that he promotes exercises corporate power and relies on state sanctions to achieve a particular ideological and political agenda. That agenda is wokeness. Woke capitalism is thus more accurately called woke corporatism.

Unsurprisingly, stakeholder capitalism has been seen by some conservatives, and even by a few socialists, as a new approach for advancing socialism. Yet woke stakeholder capitalism doesnt advance state socialism as such. Rather, it tends toward corporate socialism. In extreme versions, it amounts to capitalism with Chinese characteristicsan authoritarian state ultimately directing the for-profit production of state-sanctioned corporate entities.

Corporate socialism has a long history, dating back to the end of the 19th century. Ive written about this history in connection with the monopolistic and socialist ideals of one King Camp Gillette, the founder of the Gillette Razor Company. Gillette authored and funded the writing of several books to promote corporation-based socialism. He argued that socialism is best established by the corporation. Incorporation, mergers, and acquisitions would continue until all production is finally subsumed under one world corporation, with all citizens holding equal shares.

While this isnt exactly the vision of contemporary corporate socialists such as Fink and Schwab, theyre no less presumptuous or contemptuous of the free market, and they use the rhetoric of diversity, equity, inclusion as a cover for their economic fascism.

Likewise, contrary to correct opinion, it isnt reactionary to oppose woke capitalism. Economic fascism, in whatever form, is authoritarian and totalitarian. And, as Chinese leader Xi Jinping said in a recent address to the World Economic Forum, it isnt egalitarian. It vests economic and political power in the hands of corporate and state elites, and it uses coercion and state power to concentrate the control of wealth in their handsno matter how much they promise to redistribute it through social justice.

In addition to building parallel cultural, economic, and social structures in the short term, woke corporatism can be challenged by divestment from ESG-abiding corporations and by opposition to the politicians who promote these corporations through legislative favoritism.

From Mises.org

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Wonder What Build Back Better Looks Like? See California

Commentary

President Biden has not given up on his Build Back Better bill, despite Senator Joe Manchin repeatedly stating it is dead. Thats because the multi-trillion-dollar bill contains the dreams of the globalist left elite and progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Build Back Better was not coined by Biden or his campaign. It comes primarily from the United Nations and its 2015 Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

The U.N. laid out risk reduction measures to address climate change which included restoration of physical infrastructure and societal systems and revitalization of livelihoods, economies and the environment. All of this is a fancy way of saying government taking control of the economy in the name of fighting climate change.

California embarked on such a plan years ago. In California there is no Joe Manchin to put the brakes on it. Democrats hold super majorities in both state houses, the Governors office, and every other statewide seat. So, lets look at what California has implemented in the name of fighting climate change. Here are just some of Californias climate laws and programs:

Cap and Trade Program

Yes, the program that Al Gore has been touting for decades but was too radical for the United States to adopt has been up and running for years in California. It requires refineries and large facilities to buy credits at auctions based upon the amount of their emissions, which is just a fancy way of taxing emissions. It generated about $4 billion last year. Who really pays? California residents, of course. Who receives? California bureaucrats.

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund

This is where the many billions of dollars from the cap-and-trade program are sent. The fund allocates the revenue to green projects, such as Californias bullet train. The train was originally planned to go from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but due to exorbitant costs has now been scaled back to go from Modesto to Bakersfield, earning it the nickname the train to nowhere.

Climate Change Scoping Plan

This is the states plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level 40 percent below the emission levels of over 30 years ago by mandating the use of expensive renewable energy.

Low Carbon Fuel Standard

This requires transportation fuel producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, from extraction to mining to end use. It is no surprise, therefore, that California has the highest gas prices in the country (higher even than Hawaii).

Renewables Portfolio Standard

This requires utilities to get 60 percent of their energy from renewables (wind, solar, hydro, bio). As a result, California has the fifth highest electricity costs in the country. Nuclear power, despite emitting no greenhouse gas, does not count as renewable energy, and California has shut down such plants.

Green Building Standards

New buildings must be built in a way that reduces energy use and many old buildings must be retrofitted. As a result, California has the second highest construction costs, behind only Hawaii.

Advanced Clean Cars Program

This seeks to achieve mass adoption of electronic vehicles by 2025 and promote electronic charging stations.

Transformative Climate Communities Program

This is the equity piece of Californias green new deal. (Whats a progressive proposal without equity at the center?) It provides grants to under resourced communities to fund green initiatives. (For those who contend the Paris Climate Accords are a disguised global redistribution of wealth scheme, this program provides fodder.)

GHG Emission Inventory

This is a program to track and monitor all greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

To implement all of this, you need a lot of regulation. Here is a list of some of the many regulators involved:

California Air Resources Board

California Public Utilities Commission

California Energy Commission

California Environmental Protection Agency

California Natural Resources Agency

Governors Office of Planning and Research

The Strategic Growth Council

California Independent System Operator

CalRecycle

California Department of Food and Agriculture

The cost of these policies is felt mostly be Californias poor and middle class. A wealthy person does not care if it costs an extra dollar for a gallon of gas, or an extra $100 a month for utilities.

One must wonder then, what is the goal of these complex and expensive policies? They will do nothing to impact climate change without a reciprocal deal with China. China emits about 30 percent of the worlds greenhouse gasses, more than all the developed countries combined! It is estimated that 25 percent of Californias pollution comes from China! Yet California has decided to burden its own economy with these burdensome measures without seeking anything in return from China.

Bidens Build Back Better also seeks no such concessions. So, what is this really all about? For that, we go back to the United Nations conference.

As the U.N. put it, you use a disaster (say, an alleged impending global catastrophe, or perhaps a global pandemic) to reshape and transform an economy, and an entire civil society. For those in California, the transformation is well underway. For the rest of America: Thank God for Joe Manchin (for now).

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Erin Stewart is easily the most important Republican in Connecticut who wont appear on a ballot in 2022. Or will she?

The New Britain mayor held her fifth-term inaugural ball Saturday night at the Aqua Turf in Southington  it was too cold for the outdoor stadiums, the only places in her hometown big enough to fit her supporters. Of course, Bob Stefanowski was there, and not just for a drop-by.

Its not correct to say speculation about a Stefanowski-Stewart ticket for governor and lieutenant governor was the quiet subtext of the evening among 450 guests. The talk was overt, along with Stewarts efforts to support former state Sen. George Logan for the U.S. House against Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes in the 5th District  which will continue to include New Britain after redistricting.

The emcee of the ball, Robert Smedley, the New Britain deputy mayor, put it right out there. He quipped about Stefanowskis ad in which the likely 2022 GOP nominee for governor says hell audit every state agency.

Bob, I hope youre auditing the room well tonight because theres one clear choice for you and shes sitting at Table 1, said Smedley, who, with Stewart, led a Republican rout in November. The Hardware City GOP holds a 12-3 GOP common council majority despite an overwhelming Democratic registration advantage.

Stewart isnt shy about her interest in at least discussing a run for LG on the Republican ticket and more broadly, about her long-term aspirations in politics.

If Bob is willing to have the conversation, Id be honored, the 34-year-old mayor of Connecticuts seventh-largest city told me Monday, variously calling him Bob and Mr. Stefanowski.

Honored, that is, both to be considered and to consider a run, which would be no sure bet. Stewart now has an 18-month-old toddler, so it cant happen like it did in 2018.

Four years ago, Stewart initially ran for governor, entering the race late, then pivoted to LG a the last minute and faced a tough primary as a challenger. I felt really strongly about my type of messaging and my type of candidate on the statewide ticket, she said Monday.

Stewart came in second to the endorsed, then-Sen. Joe Markley, arguably the most conservative member of the state Senate, as the two women heading municipalities  Stewart and then-First Selectman Jayne Stevenson of Darien  split the vote among moderates. It was a classic case of a party choosing a less electable, more ideological candidate in a primary. It hurt Stefanowskis 2018 bid.

This time around, Stefanowski is expected to pick a running mate rather than leaving that to the convention  something the GOP standard-bearer hasnt done since former Gov. M. Jodi Rell won reelection with Michael Fedele as her running mate. State Chairman Ben Proto reminded me that Big Bob couldnt pick a ballot-mate in 2018, when he won a five-way primary, because he skipped the convention.

Stewart is not the only name on the list and the Stefanowski camp hasnt commented on the LG choice. Stewart told me she didnt talk with Stefanowski about it Saturday night, though she did try  unsuccessfully  to get him to join her in a 360-degree video.

It was just all pleasantries, there was no conversation at all, she said. The only thing that was said was that well get together about it.

It would be hard to find more contrast than a Stefanowski-Stewart match.

Here is a male baby boomer, a tough-talking, conservative outsider from the shoreline, new to elections four years ago as both a candidate and a voter, who made a midsize fortune in corporate finance and ran a closed, grouchy campaign promising to cut taxes and spending.

Stewart, a gregarious, millennial woman born into central Connecticut politics, daughter of a former mayor, is moderate even by Connecticut GOP standards and always seems to exude good cheer  not easy in one of the poorest cities in the state. Certainly Stefanowski is showing a more open, friendly style in this cycle and he did grow up middle-class, but the contrast is still stark.

Maybe theyd have more chemistry than the last three Republican governor-lieutenant governor tickets. Thats a low bar to beat. But of course, the match could be fraught in two ways: First, some Republicans may object to the ticket including a party member whos close to a lo of Democrats, who famously had a photo of herself with former President Barack Obama in her office.

And Stewart, whose city has relied on some serious largess from Gov. Ned Lamont and other state Dems, might not want to risk that flow by joining a ticket thats saying some nasty stuff about the incumbent.

All in all, the GOP needs more cooperation with the Democrats more than it needs more spit and vinegar.

Stewarts social media is lighting up since the inaugural. Proto said hes not going to push anyone on Stefanowski. Theres a number of people who would be a very good choice for him. I think Erin is one of them, he told me over the weekend. If he seeks my advice, Ill give him my advice and counsel.

Stewarts view: Going in as a team instead of divided is what the Republican Party needs to do.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com




"I am pleased to write to request that you, in accordance with Article 130 of the Political Constitution of Peru and Article 82 of the Regulations of the Congress of the Republic, set the date and time for my presentation, accompanied by my Ministerial Cabinet," reads the letter sent this afternoon to the Congress of the Republic.





In the document, the Cabinet chief anticipates that in addition to presenting the government's general policy and requesting a vote of confidence, he will present a proposal to strengthen democracy, "which I am sure will contribute to the maintenance of social peace."





According to Article 130 of the Constitution, the presentation of the Ministerial Cabinet must take place within 30 days after having been sworn in to office.





Torres Vasquez chairs the fourth Ministerial Cabinet of President Pedro Castillo.





The first Prime Minister, Guido Bellido, was sworn in on July 29, and took part in a Congress plenary session on August 26, almost 30 days later, in which he got the vote of confidence.





Mirtha Vasquez, Castillo's second Prime Minister, was sworn in on October 6, and took part in a Congress plenary session on October 26, three weeks later, although she received the vote of confidence on November 4 due to the death of Congressman Fernando Herrera, which led to the suspension of parliamentary sessions.





The third head of the Ministerial Cabinet, Hector Valer, did not take part in the Congress plenary session, because he resigned days after he was sworn in.





(END) DOP/GSR/JCR/RMB
WILTON  The community and members of the Wilton Police Department have rallied around a beloved officer battling breast cancer.

To have everybody come together now to just help and support me, it just warms my heart, said School Resource Officer Elise Ackerman Monday evening, just days after her department and members of the community rallied to organize a benefit and fundraiser for her.

Ackerman, a member of the Wilton Police Department since 2014, was diagnosed with cancer in August 2021. Near the start of her treatment, a number of her fellow police officers, as well as town firefighters, shaved their heads to show support for the beloved first responder. The department also set up a GoFundMe page, which as of Tuesday has raised more than $48,500 of its $50,000 goal.

The benefit at Trumbulls Tashua Knolls on Friday drew more than 150 attendees and featured auctions and raffles with donations from local businesses.

Wilton Police Lt. David Hartman, one of the organizers of the event, said that the total raised from the event has not yet been fully tallied, but expects a sum near $21,000 to be added to the money raised online. He said that the response is indicative of what Ackerman means to not only her colleagues but the greater community.

She is amazing, Hartman said Monday.

Hartman also serves as the Police Benevolent Association president for the Wilton Police and is often tasked with planning events and carrying out initiatives. Ackerman has been one person he has constantly relied on to give him a helping hand.

Elise is one of the people I know I can go to without fail and, if she is available, she will donate her time to get involved, Hartman said. She is always willing to give herself to make the department or community better.

He said that he felt incredibly grateful to plan something for Ackerman specifically and provide support to someone he felt has given so much time and attention to others. He added he wished it was under different circumstances though.

Ackerman, a Norwalk resident, said she was drawn to Wilton because of the closeness of the community.

(Wilton) is not just a place that I work, it is a big part of my life, Ackerman said, noting that she used to bring her children to Wilton events before she even began working as a police officer in town. It is a very special place for me.

Hartman recalled his speech from the benefit. One thing I talked about is that, as first responders, we are usually on the other end of the phone of people who say they need help, Hartman said. Now, one of our own is on the other side, asking for help. He said that could be a difficult position for a first responder to be in, as they are not usually sitting on that side.

The one thing was certain to Hartman and the rest of the department, though, was that they would pick up that call and Ackerman was candid that she is forever grateful.

They are my family. Most I knew before I was even a police officer. They are my brothers and sisters, Ackerman said. This really means more than they know.

Those who wish to donate may do so on the official GoFundMe page at https://bit.ly/33lTCxJ.
In 1888, John Peair filed a suit against the school board to get his two children enrolled in the white school in Alton.

Since the Illinois General Assembly passed a legislation in 1874 that required public schools to admit African American students, the communities responded by creating separate public schools.

Edwardsville opened Lincoln School in 1877 for African American students, with one teacher, William E. Kelley.

With African Americans in the community holding protests for better school conditions or integration with the white schools, Peair took to the courts.

The Illinois Supreme Court sided with Peair, but only applied the integration to his two children and local officials refused to integrate the schools any further.

Black and white students in Alton had always attended public high school together but were segregated for elementary school.

During the summer break of 1897, Alton constructed both Lovejoy School and Douglass School as designated African American schools. So, when siblings Minnie and Ambrose Bibb were set to return to Washington School, they were relocated to Lovejoy School to their surprise.

Scott Bibb, along with other parents with kids that were forced to move schools, came to the teachers at Washington School and demanded to let their kids return to the former school. The teachers refused and the African American parents and community boycotted the designated schools that were built for segregation.

Eventually, in 1899, Bibb sued Mayor Henry Brueggemann of Alton.

The court case lasted 11 years before the Illinois Supreme Court decided in Bibbs favor. Similar to the case with Peair, the Alton authorities saw the decision as only applying to Bibbs children, who were years removed from high school already.

Integration wouldnt come to most Madison County schools until the 1940s.

Edwardsville High School saw its first African American students in 1950, while other schools in the area remained segregated until the 1970s.

Edwardsville and Collinsville used a different approach than Alton. As Alton built separate schools for whites and African Americans, Edwardsville and Collinsville school boards paid for black students to attend Lincoln High School in East St. Louis, Lincoln University High School in Jefferson City, or Summer High School in St. Louis. In order to continue their education, African American students had to live away from their families.

Alton High School saw its first African American graduate in 1873.

For more information on school segregation or other Madison County historical information, visit the Madison County Historical Society website, where you can also learn how to become a member and donate to the society.
EDWARDSVILLE  From the Edwardsville Police Department blotter for January:



Bernard J. Echt III, 34, of Alton was charged with aggravated driving under the influence; a revoked or suspended driving license; and unlawful possession of a controlled substance on Aug. 15, 2021, at New Poag Road and St. Louis Street. A resident called in a complaint about his driving after a white, Kia Amanti swerved as it traveled eastbound on St. Louis. Subject acted erratic. He had an interlocking device that permits one to drive with a suspended license (work/school). Police observed him drooling, glassy-eyed and his face was covered with a brownand-black substance while he checked out Google Maps, which led to the erratic driving. He also chewed on weed. He told officers he had done some marijuana earlier in the day. He failed field sobriety testing and was arrested for driving under the influence; alleged drug paraphernalia was found in the vehicle. He consented to providing blood and urine samples. His license was revoked. He turned himself in on Jan. 3.



Kevin R. Green, 69, Edwardsville was charged with failure to register as a violent offender against youths in Illinois in the 900 block of University Drive on Jan. 3. Subject was upset with his girlfriend and accused her of stealing his clothes. Previously, he was convicted as a sex offender in another jurisdiction. He last registered in 2020; he failed to do so in Illinois for 2021. Warrant was issued for failure to register as a sex offender.



Gabrielle K. Boyce, 24, of Highland was charged with the unlawful possession of cocaine that was part of a DUI on June 18, 2021. That day, officers observed a silver Honda speeding on St. Louis Street, 40 mph in a 25-mph zone. Officers detected the smell of alcohol upon approach. She submitted to an eye test but not to any further testing. Arrested for DUI. She had a clear plastic bag in one of the front pockets of her clothes. That contained cannabis gummies. Inside her purse was a small container containing cocaine. Warrant issued Dec. 30 for the controlled substance. Bond was set at $20,000. She turned herself in on Jan. 5.



Lydia A. Daech, 31, St. Charles was charged with unlawful use of a credit card dating back to Oct. 24, 2021, at Stillwater Senior Living in relation to a credit card theft from another employee at the senior living center two days earlier. There were several charges on the co-workers cards from stores in Edwardsville, Glen Carbon and Collinsville that she claims she never made because she did not have the cards; Daech had them on Oct. 22 and/or Oct. 23. Store video surveillance footage helped cement the case against Daech. On Dec. 1, a warrant was issued and she turned herself in on Jan. 6.



Meredith Woodell, 29, Collinsville was charged with criminal damage to property, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct in the 2200 block of Troy Road on Jan. 10. Officers responded to the Freddys restaurant in relation to a disturbance. Upon arrival, a female subject, Woodell, was in store, acting strange and harassing employees. Woodell advised police she was an employee. She was acting very manic, police said. A store manager said Woodell had been terminated due to attendance issues. Management requested her to leave. A few hours later, police again responded to the same location again as Woodell had returned. Police said she stood behind a 1999 Toyota Corolla, one of her former managers cars, in the parking lot and she was struck the car, causing a lot of body damage. Her bond was set at $4,200.



Curtis A. Berg, 38, of Edwardsville, was charged with driving on a suspended license and leaving the scene of an accident in the 300 block of Oak Street on Jan. 15. The resident reported landscaping damage from a vehicle and it was traced to Bergs Mercury SUV. He received a notice to appear in court.



Demetrius M. Hopkins, 34, of Collinsville was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon at the MotoMart on Route 157 and Club Center Ct. on Jan. 18. He arrived to buy tobacco and fuel. He pre-paid $30 for fuel. The subject became angry over price of tobacco and dropped gas hose on the pavement in protest after he filled his gas tank. The subject then pointed a handgun at the clerk, threatened the clerk then drove off. The clerk got the subjects license plate number and reported him to police. Officers stopped him nearby and were able to take him into custody that night.



John Shelton, 55, of Hartford was charged with driving on a revoked license on North Main Street at Hillsboro Avenue on Jan. 24. He received a notice to appear in court.



Skylar Dunnavant, 18, of St. Louis was charged in the 200 block of North Main Street on Jan. 25 with an in-state warrant for criminal damage to property around 1:20 a.m. Sept. 11, 2021, at The Reserve off-campus student housing complex. Police said two friends fell out over an earlier incident and when they encountered each other on Sept. 11, events came to a head quickly, resulting in smartphone damage. The incident was not reported to police until hours later. His bond was set at $15,000.
EDWARDSVILLE  A single bidder has submitted a minimum bid for 14.8 acres of property owned by Madison County near Governors' Parkway in Edwardsville.

The $3,868,000 bid was offered by The Staenberg Group, a multi-state development company with offices in St. Louis and Denver. The bid matched the propertys appraised value and the minimum bid that county officials had said would be acceptable.

The county has been attempting to sell and develop the land for about five years. The original plan was for the city of Edwardsville to develop the property as mixed residential/commercial, but that effort was halted some time ago. The city has considerable input on the site because of zoning and other issues.

Supporters of efforts to preserve the land as greenspace have presented petitions with 1,100 signatures asking the county and Edwardsville to cooperate to ensure responsible development on the property.

The bid was opened at 2:15 p.m. with county officials, two representatives of the Plum Street Greenspace group and a reporter present.

The bid now goes to the county board's Facilities Management Committee and then the Finance and Government Operations Committee for consideration and approval before heading to the full Madison County Board.

I think well plan on following it and let it be known both the county and the developer and the city, that the community wants to collaborate on all this, said Jay Myers, of Edwardsville, a representative of the Plum Creek Greenspace group who attended the opening with her husband, Charlie Myers.

RELATED: Plum Creek Greenspace group calling for voices to be heard

Its a unique piece of property that could really be something special, as well as maintain as much of the green space as we can, she said.

The Staenberg Group has two properties in Illinois: Prairie Trails in Quincy, a 95,539-square-foot retail development begun in 2006, and the Orchard Town Center, under development to the southeast of the Plum Street property in Glen Carbon.
EDWARDSVILLE  Responding to safety concerns raised by the Dec. 10 tornado that killed six people when part of an Amazon warehouse collapsed, state Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) and others are seeking ways to avoid a repeat of the tragedy.

On Monday, Stuart and Chairman and Rep. Marcus Evans (D-Chicago), met with various experts during a virtual hearing to discuss warehouse safety standards.

The death of six workers in the Amazon warehouse collapse calls into question the safety standards of warehouses and the need for tornado shelters or safe rooms in such buildings, Stuart said. Many other buildings in our area are built with the same method as the Amazon warehouse and we should be proactive to prevent further tragedies.

Stuart read a statement by Edwardsville Fire Chief James Whiteford, who noted that the collapse of the warehouse brought to light concerns about safety and warehouse construction.

As fire service representatives, we hold the responsibility to enforce minimum standards and advocate for best practices in terms of fire and life safety, Whiteford said.

Best practices come from general knowledge, specific training and practical experience, along with combined decades of fire and emergency services. The reality is that most fire codes are based upon tragedies or near-misses. There is a constant balance that needs to be struck between risk versus cost.

Whiteford noted that the International Code Council (ICC) produces a set of internationally recognized minimum-code standards for construction and that Illinois and most other states follow those standards.

This tornado highlights the need to review and likely change building requirements for large warehouses, Whiteford said. Short of making those changes, the best thing that fire service can do is to improve preparedness.

Yet equipment is aging, trained personnel are becoming difficult to find and financial resources are spread thin. Response equipment relied on by the state of Illinois, like the mutual box alarm service and the terrorism task force portable shelters, which have been employed across the state for the COVID response, are wearing out. Hazardous materials response vehicles are two decades old and becoming unreliable and costly to maintain.

Whiteford added that Madison County has more than 30 million square feet of warehouses that are important to the local economy, as well as to national commerce. But providing emergency services to those buildings and other facilities is becoming more of a challenge.

Six fire departments in western Madison County have self-contained breathing apparatus set to expire next year, Whiteford said. Radio communication systems in Madison County are not standardized. In some cases, police and fire in the same town cannot communicate with each other over the radio. This problem expands to communication between counties and becomes even more complicated as it crosses state lines.

Whiteford also noted that staffing challenges exist within both the career and volunteer side of fire service, and training is another concern. As many firefighters retire and leave the fire service, new hires need expensive technical training.

Emergency services cannot be seen as operating in the same way that businesses do, Whiteford said. Businesses operate on an efficiency model, to do the most you can with the least possible cost. If a business fails, there is an economic cost to the community; if emergency services fail, there are costs in terms of lives, injuries and social and community impacts, as well as the economic impacts.

Emergency services cannot fail. They are simply too important to the welfare of the community. Emergency services must operate on a resiliency model, and they need built-in redundancy in order to ensure that the response capabilities are there when they are needed.

Speakers at the hearing included Jim Bell, Director of Operations for the National Storm Shelter Association.

We suggest that building owners get an architect or engineer who is knowledgeable with tornado codes to do surveys of buildings to see where you would put (storm shelters) within the building, as well as well as the occupancy (standards) for the shelter, as well as the ability of the shelter to hold up, Bell said.

Impact debris is what damages a lot of shelters, but with the warehouse in Edwardsville, it looked a lot more like wind damage was working on the roof system and the walls caved in. Weve learned over the years how tornadoes work, and we try to apply that knowledge and technology to the improvements that we make.

Marc Levitan, meanwhile, is a research wind engineer for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Levitan noted that most tornado fatalities occur inside buildings, and that the tornado that hit the Amazon warehouse was an EF3 tornado, with 150-mile-per-hour winds.

The design speeds that we use in the new (building code) standards are 130 miles per hour and that ranges from approximately EF0 to EF2 tornado intensity, and 97 percent of tornadoes are in the EF0 to EF2 range, Levitan said.

The design tornado criteria for a particular building depends on its risk category, its geographic location and the building plan, size and shape. The latter is important because the larger the size of the facility, the larger its footprint will be when a tornado strikes. The tornado criteria are not designed to protect against the most intense tornados; theyre designed to protect against the most common tornadoes.

Other speakers were Randy Harris, director of the Midwest Region for Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET); Tim Drea, president of the Illinois AFLCIO; Gavin Stoddard from the International Warehouse Logistics Association and Alex Laird from the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Salida, CO (81201)

Today

Sunshine early followed by partly cloudy skies and gusty winds this afternoon. High 72F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 38F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
In this regard, he said the fines to be imposed for not repairing this environmental disaster could reach up to S/304 million (about US$80.2 million)

"They have not complied with the clean-up requirements, with the recovery (of the affected areas), and with the deadlines that have been set," Montoya told the press.

He reported that the company is making progress only on the clean-up of beaches and not on the clean-up of the polluted sea.

"We visited the islands where guano birds are found, and the firm has done nothing so far," the minister stated.

Moreover, Montoya indicated that, apparently, the company "is looking for an excuse not to comply with (such requirements), but this will not be possible, because international laws protect us."

On the other hand, he remarked that another report must be submitted to assess whether fuel loading and unloading operations will be restored at Repsol's terminals.

"The company has to prepare a report so that they (the loading and unloading operations) can be definitively restored. I hope they have presented it," the high-ranking official expressed.

?? Via @canalN_ | "He informado que la empresa #Repsol no ha cumplido con lo que tiene que hacer, de acuerdo a lo planificado. Ahora se inicia un proceso sancionador de multas que podria llegar a S/ 304 millones", senalo @modestomontoya.#EmergenciaAmbiental pic.twitter.com/SPF1Ua2gbb
Sevierville, TN (37876)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early with scattered thunderstorms developing late. Low 63F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Elizabethtown, KY (42701)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning followed by thunderstorms during the afternoon. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 77F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy after midnight. Low 51F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
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"We have been elected to meet the needs of the population and, from here, from this area, I ask Interior Minister to coordinate with Defense Minister because the responsibility should not fall all on the Police," the Head of State remarked.

"We will mobilize Armed Forces members to the streets to combat minor and major offenders once and for all," he added.

In this regard, the country's top official emphasized that crime in the streets cannot be eradicated if joint efforts by different sectors are not made against this scourge.

On the matter, he argued that the National Police has the capacity to step up this fight. Therefore, the police institution will be restored.

To that end, actions will be coordinated with the Ministry of Economy and Finance to provide it with the necessary support to fight crime.

Mr. Castillo's remarks were delivered on Monday evening during a ceremony to announce the results of police operations conducted in the last 72 hours.

Presidente @PedroCastilloTe: "A traves del @MininterPeru luchamos contra la delincuencia en el pais. Desde el Gobierno vamos a reivindicar a la @PoliciaPeru, a quienes felicito por su trabajo. El sistema de justicia tiene que lograr que los criminales cumplan con sus condenas". pic.twitter.com/aD1vTUPFfI
Soludo Promoters USA, one of the Diasporan Support Groups who campaigned and worked vigorously in support of Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo's emergence as Governor-elect of Anambra State has asserted that it made the right choice in supporting Soludo's candidacy

On Sunday, February 13, 2022, the highly influential group held a zoom meeting anchored by the National President Chief Patrick Okpala, (Obisaambala), to review the progress made so far by the group as well as discuss issues relating to the newly inaugurated Anambra Government Transition Committee, the in-coming government and the Diaspora relationship to the in-coming Soludo government

Chief Okpala formally welcomed all the members to the zoom meeting and gave a summary of his visit to Nigeria (Anambra state) during the gubernatorial election last year after the opening prayers was rendered by Engr Chike.

Lady Rita Evans, the Secretary of the group also gave a brilliant update on the last meeting held by the association which covered some of the activities rendered by the group during the electioneering campaign. These include radio jingles, newspaper adverts and other sundry activities to support Soludo's candidacy during the campaign

Chief Okpala thereafter expressed appreciation to Mrs Uche Ezechukwu for her immense contributions; Chief Tony Opene, the PRO, for his advice and financial support and many other cerebral members who contributed in one way or the other to the groups success and its activities

Chief Okpala in his formal report, reeled out some sterling achievements initiated by the group as part of its contributions during the just concluded governorship election. Some of these contributions include the sponsoring of voters registration enlightenment and sensitization campaign, provision of logistics assistance for the people during election day and several other engagements and support-related activities rendered by the group to the people back home

Chief Okpala asserted that the group never sat on the fence nor on the sideline but work conscientiously and assiduously with an abiding commitment to ensure that the best candidate emerged as the Governor-elect of Anambra State

Chief Okpala also singled out Hon Chinedu Nwoye (Glamour), Chairman of All Soludo Support Groups, (ASSG), and Prince Neville Uchendu (Mayor of Atlanta) for their exceptional support for the group in Nigeria.

He commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting an excellent election devoid of ghost or multiple voting. He reiterated that the performance and functionalities of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) deployed by INEC was impressive and deserving of commendation despite the initial system glitches

Chief Okpala reiterated further that after the election, there was palpable joy and general calmness in Anambra State and across the nation as the people were happy with the outcome of the election. He emphasised this was so because the election was credible, free and fair with the emergence of a good candidate in the person of Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo

He further reported that the group placed congratulatory messages in both the Erudite Magazine and Anambra Broadcasting Service, (ABS), Awka, to felicitate with the Governor-elect and the people of Anambra State.

He asserted that the group activities were highly visible and far-reaching!

Dr Pat Ibe, a staunch member of the group, implore participants during the zoom meeting to ask questions in regards to what has been reported or discussed so far. Dr Scholastica Iloghalu gave some profound advice and suggestions as contributions with other participants which will be compiled in a presentation form for the in-coming Governor, who will formally assume office on Thursday, March 17, 2022
Bangladesh is one of the Indias largest trade partner in the region. Trade Volume is increasing day by day. Even, the bilateral trade between the two countries grew at an unprecedented rate of 14 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Media reports said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, bilateral trade was at an unprecedented rate of 14 per cent from 9.46 billion US dollars in 2019 to 10.78 billion dollars in 2021.

Bangladesh mainly exports products including readymade garments, jute and jute-processed products, leather-processed products, plastic products, fish, soft drinks, copper and edible oil while goods including rice, raw cotton, onion, motor vehicles, boilers, machinery, milk, dairy products, electronic products and iron were imported from India. There is huge potential to increase the trade Volume between Bangladesh and Indian. There is a huge demand of Indian products in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the demand of Bangladeshi products is increasing day be day. Now Indian consumers want to consume Bangladeshi products. Border markets are the best example to understand it.

According to media reports, India exports to Bangladesh was US$7.91 Billion during 2020 (United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade). In the last one year, Bangladesh-India trade has increased by 94%. At the end of the current financial year, Bangladesh's exports to India are expected to reach 2 billion for the first time. India is keen to take this trade relationship to a new height.

Bangladeshs stable economic development is creating new opportunities for Indias northeastern states and work on a CEPA trade agreement is ongoing. The two countries are celebrating 50 years of India-Bangladesh friendship and Indias President Ram Nath Kovind completed a successful visit to Bangladesh last year.

2021 marks the golden jubilee of the liberation of Bangladesh and fifty years of India-Bangladesh diplomatic ties. Indias President Ram Nath Kovind is currently on a three-day state visit to Bangladesh from December 15 to 17, 2021; this is his first state visit since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic.

Speaking on the state of bilateral ties in November, Indias Defense Minister Rajnath Singh affirmed that India Bangladesh relations are going through a golden phase. As Bangladesh attains developing nation status (upgrading from less developed country status), India has reiterated its commitment to deepen trade and economic ties with Bangladesh as partners rather than competitors. That Bangladesh is Indias biggest trade partner in South Asia, with a volume of over US$10 billion, is testimony to this commitment. In the same pursuit, both countries are working to finalize a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Bangladeshs holistic development is also viewed positively by New Delhi with new opportunities arising along Indias northeast region. Bangladesh and India share a 4096-kilometer-long (2545 miles) international border, the fifth-longest land border in the world, including 262 km (163 mi) in the state of Assam, 856 km (532 mi) in Tripura, 318 km (198 mi) in Mizoram, 443 km (275 mi) in Meghalaya, and 2217 km (1378 mi) in West Bengal.

Economic and commercial partnership between India and Bangladesh

According to various Indian and Bangladeshi media reports, Bangladesh may become Indias fourth largest export destination in FY22, jumping five places in two years. This comes as the economic boom of the eastern neighbour continues to fuel Indias exports growth.

Indian media outlet Business Standard' wrote last year that the first seven months of FY22, exports to Bangladesh grew 81 per cent over the same period in the preceding year to $7.7 billion. This makes it Indias fourth largest export market behind the US, UAE and China.

Bangladesh is Indias biggest trade partner in South Asia and India is the second biggest trade partner of Bangladesh. Bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh has grown steadily over the last decade and the exports of Bangladesh have tripled over the last decade to cross US$1 billion in 2018-19. In FY 2019-20, Indias exports to Bangladesh were US$8.2 billion and imports were US$1.26 billion.

The two countries now should concentrate on people-to-people contact, trade, business and connectivity as the issues became increasingly important for the two sides. India could be a major supplier of yarn and cotton to the garment industry in the near future.

A deeper economic and trade engagement becomes all the more relevant, given the success of phenomenal and uninterrupted supply chains during the pandemic. An augmented connectivity infrastructure is imperative to actualize the bilateral trade and investment potential between the two countries. Indias Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has recognized five focus areas to bolster bilateral economic ties  technology, connectivity, entrepreneurship, health, and tourism. Bangladesh is also important for aiding Indias connectivity in the Southeast Asian region through Chittagong and Mongla ports.

Indian and Bangladeshi companies signed agreements worth nearly $10 billion for Indian investment, mainly in the power and energy sectors, during a visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in April 2017.

And with Indian economic zones coming up at Mongla and Mirsarai, the amount of FDIs from the neighbouring nation is bound to increase manifold.

Both India and Bangladesh are also working towards holding the first meeting of the India Bangladesh CEOs Forum to provide policy level inputs in various areas of trade and investment and also to facilitate exchanges among the business communities of both the countries. Additionally, a bilateral textile industry forum has also been constituted to facilitate cooperation in the textile sector.

According to the data of media outlets, With Bangladesh being the central pillar of India's Neighbourhood First policy, Dhaka is New Delhi's largest trade partner in South Asia and bilateral trade between the two countries grew at an unprecedented rate of 14 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic. the COVID-19 pandemic, bilateral trade was at an unprecedented rate of 14 per cent from 9.46 billion US dollars in 2019 to 10.78 billion dollars in 2021. Joint energy space is steadily emerging, India and Bangladesh's electricity grids are interconnected from east and west with more than 1160 megawatts of powers way across from India and Bangladesh.The 346 crore Pipeline Project, signed in 2018, will connect Siliguri in West Bengal in India and Parbatipur in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh. The work on the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline, a project that will enable the two countries to integrate their energy needs, is progressing well and could be inaugurated next year. ( The NDTV, the Hindu, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla )

Despite COVID-19 restrictions, the trade between India and Bangladesh crossed $10 billion. . India had sent over one crore COVID-19 vaccines to the country and has extended concessional credit lines of about $8 billion, the highest for any single country. India is also developing two Indian economic zones at Mirsarai and Mongla. Prime Minister Narendra Modis invitation to 50 young entrepreneurs from Bangladesh will further augment our ties. Over 350 Indian companies are now registered in Bangladesh. The India-Bangladesh CEO Forum will meet soon for the first time, even as the two countries work towards finalising a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to deepen trade and economic ties as partners rather than competitors.

India stands shoulder to shoulder with the countrys leadership and people in their development journey.

Noting that India-Bangladesh supply chains worked uninterrupted through the pandemic, Improving connectivity is imperative for expanding and realising the potential for bilateral trade and investments. The two countries leaders have brought Delhi and Dhaka closer and can together bring economic prosperity to South Asia. ( The Hindu, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal)

India and Bangladesh have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of a high-speed diesel pipeline from Nonmilitary in Assam to Parbatipur in Bangladesh, a joint venture between Numaligarh Refinery Limited and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. As an indication of goodwill, an initial consignment of 2200 ton of diesel has already been transported from Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in 50 wagons by the Indian Railways

Furthermore, India-Bangladesh cooperation in the power sector too has become an important aspect in this bilateral relationship. Bangladesh is currently importing 1160 MW of power from India. The Joint Working Group (JWG)/Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on power provides an institutional framework to promote bilateral cooperation in cross border trade of electricity.

How is India aiding Bangladesh as a development partner ?

Presently, Bangladesh remains Indias biggest development partner. Over the past eight years, India has extended three Lines of Credits (LOC) to Bangladesh, amounting to US$8 billion for development of infrastructure in various sectors, including roads, railways, shipping, and ports. Additionally, India has also been providing grant assistance to Bangladesh for various infrastructure projects, including construction of Akhaura-Agartala rail link, dredging of inland waterways in Bangladesh, and construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline.

Further, High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) also form an important part of Indias developmental assistance to Bangladesh, with India having funded 68 HICDPs, including construction of, academic buildings, cultural centers, skill development and training institutes, student hostels, and orphanages etc. in Bangladesh. 16 additional HICDPs are being implemented.

Although there is a huge trade deficit between Bangladesh and India. As a big partner, India has been enjoying the major trade volume but India should consider this with its highest sincere consideration. Bangladesh is a well trusted ally of India. India should give more duty free access of Bangladeshi products.

This growing trade and economic ties are very important for the two fraternal ties. India and Bangladesh are really eternal friends. Their bondage is based on strong neighbourly spirit. However, this growing trade and economic ties will definitely benefit the people of the two countries. India and Bangladesh can benefit from growing trade and economic ties. We hope that thus bilateral growing trade and economic ties reflects better bilateral understanding.
Interpol issues Red Notices for Canadians over gangsters murder in Phuket

BANGKOK: Interpol has issued two Red Notices calling for the arrest for a pair of Canadians over the murder of an Indian gangster outside a luxury villa on Phuket island.

murderhomicidepolice

By AFP

Tuesday 15 February 2022, 05:14PM

Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre (left) and Gene Karl Lahrkamp are wanted for the murder of Jimi Singh Sandhu in Phuket province early this month. Photos: Supplied

Jimi Slice Sandhu  whose nickname comes from a distinctive scar on his face  was gunned down on Feb 5 after having flown in on a private jet from Malaysia last month, according to police and local media reports.

Following a police investigation, Interpol issued non-binding red notices for Canadian citizens Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre and Gene Karl Lahrkamp, both 36, in connection with Sandhus murder.

I think this case is unique, said Pol Maj Gen Khemmarin Hassiri, commander of the foreign affairs division of the Royal Thai Police, confirming the Interpol notices issued late Monday.

This is not just a hit and run, they have masterminded it, they would have someone who supported them in Canada and Thailand, he told AFP, adding the investigation into the death of the 32-year-old was ongoing.

He said police were gathering biological and ballistic evidence, in addition to investigating how the gunmen obtained weapons.

The two suspects  described by Interpol as armed and dangerous  left Thailand on Feb 6, according to the international agencys notice.

Police obtained CCTV footage showing two unidentified men jumping from bushes near the beachside villa to open fire on Sandhu before fleeing into the night.

Interpol also said the suspects taped a GPS device to the victims car ahead of the shooting.

Pol Maj Gen Hassiri said Thai officers were working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

We learned from the Royal Canadian Police that Jimi Slice Sandhu was involved in criminal activity, Pol Maj Gen Hassiri said, without giving further details.

Canadian media has reported Sandhu was deported from the country in 2016 over a string of criminal offences.

He resurfaced when he was detained by officials over a ketamine factory in the southern Indian state of Goa in 2018, local outlets said.

Canada and Thailand have an agreement to provide mutual assistance, including extradition, in criminal cases.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police did not respond to requests for comment from AFP.
Jilted boyfriend shoots car, threatens ex

PHUKET: Police have yet to question a man who fired a gun twice into his ex-girlfriends car after she refused to resume their relationship.

crimeviolenceSafetypolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Tuesday 15 February 2022, 06:30PM

The girlfriend, Ponsiri Limpawutthipong, 37, called police to her house on Sri Suthat Rd, on the east side of Phuket Town, at 5:30am today (Feb 15).

Responding to the call were Phuket City Police Chief Col Sarawut Chuprasit along with Deputy Chief Lt Col Chatchai Chunu and other high-level Phuket City Police officers.

The officers at the scene arrived to find Ms Ponsiris silver Toyota sedan in front of the house with a bullet hole in the top-right of the windscreen, close to where the driver sits, and another through the back-left window,

Police also found an 11mm bullet casing and one 11 mm bullet head, which forensic police collected as evidence.

Ms Ponsiri named the person who shot her car as her ex-boyfriend Chanin Tum Jeerasatchakul, 41.

After he had shot my car, he threatened me and then fled, she said.

Officers are now searching for Mr Chanin in order to press charges for the incident, police reported.
Low birth rate worries experts

BANGKOK: Thailands falling birth rate is poised to wreak havoc on the economy and society, with experts saying the trend will see the countrys workforce shrink and more senior citizens adding to the burden of their relatives.

health

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 15 February 2022, 09:28AM

A nurse is teaching parents at a special clinic in Khon Kaen province in 2019. Photo: Thana Boonlert

Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha said the declining rate is threatening to unleash a host of problems, especially considering the nations average life expectancy is set to increase, from between 70-80 at present to 90-100 in the future.

The problems, he said, range from labour shortages to social and economic malaise, reports the Bangkok Post.

Mr Sathit said the solution may be to encourage people to have more children by promoting childbirth as a way to contribute to society.

Its a long-term effort that we need to commit to, regardless of whos in charge of the government, he said.

The director-general of the Department of Health, Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoen, said the drop in population numbers can be traced back to a family planning policy which was first launched in 1970.

In 2019, Thailands population grew by less than 600,000 people for the first time. Last year, the population increased by 544,570, bringing the countrys total fertility rate (TFR) down to 1.3 - way below the global average of 2.5.

The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council said if the trend continues unabated, by 2040, children will only account for 12.8% of the total population, with the elderly accounting for 31%.

Dr Suwannachai said the increasing number of senior citizens will have an impact on working-age individuals, the numbers of which are gradually shrinking.

The shrinking working-age population will also means less tax revenue for the government, which may lead to a shortfall of funds for caring for the elderly.

Witthaya Thithapan, president of the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said while many infertile couples are interested in treatments that they hope will allow them to conceive, such treatments are very costly in Thailand. Combined with the low success rate of about 30%, many simply cannot afford to go through with the treatment, he said.

At the same time, more and more people are starting their families late. Many are now choosing to wait until after they have graduated from university and feel they are financially secure to have babies, according to Somsak Lolekha, president of the Royal College of Paediatricians of Thailand.

If the current trend continues, the countrys population may plunge from the current 66 million to 40mn in the near future, he warned.

Tongjai Suthas Na Ayutthaya, assistant permanent secretary for labour, said the state is offering help that would help parents raise children and hopefully push them to have more babies, such as breastfeeding corners and day care centres at factories.

Ladda Sae Lee, deputy secretary-general of the Social Security Office, said the office has increased a childbirth subsidy to B15,000 per birth. Mothers are also guaranteed 90-day paid maternity leave, in addition to monthly allowances for child rearing.
Patong currency exchange robbed of B200k at gunpoint

PHUKET: Region 8 Police Commander Lt Gen Amphol Buarabporn led a meeting of high-level police officers, including Patong Police Chief Col Sujin Nilabodi, to call for police to ramp up their efforts in hunting down a man who robbed a currency exchange booth behind Jungceylon shopping mall at gunpoint on Sunday (Feb 13), making off with more than B200,000.

patongcrimepolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Tuesday 15 February 2022, 05:48PM

Why police broke news of the robbery, across Phra Metta Rd from the Big C Extra outlet at Jungceylon, only today (Feb 15) was not explained.

Police were informed of the robbery at 10:40pm on Sunday.

Lt Gen Amphol this morning inspected the currency exchange booth, operated by Yes Exchange 6 Co Ltd, and the surrounding area.

Joining him, also for the meeting, was Phuket Provincial Police Commander Col Bundit Khaosuthum.

Police today revealed that the man they are looking for is of slim build and about 170-175cm tall.

The robber wore a black long sleeve hoodie, black pants, black gloves, police reported.

He used the butt of the gun to smash the glass door at the back of the exchange booth, then reached in to unlock the door and open it.

The man stormed into the currency exchange booth and aimed his gun at the employee, 45-year-old Saowaluk Dangdueng.

He threatened Ms Saowalak to hand over all cash in foreign currency banknotes, equivalent to a total of B226,918. He also made off with more than B3,400 baht in Thai banknotes, police reported.
Phuket police warn over alcohol ban

PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong has warned venue operators that police will be on patrol to ensure the ban on the sale of alcohol from midnight tonight will be upheld.

religioncrimepolicealcohol

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 15 February 2022, 01:05PM

The ban on the sale of alcohol will start at midnight tonight (00:01 Feb 16) and conclude at midnight tomorrow night (23:59, Feb 16). Image: The Phuket News / file

The warning came as the Phuket Provincial Police this morning issued a reminder that the sale of alcohol is banned during the 24 hours of Feb 16 as required by law for the Buddhist religious holiday Makha Bucha tomorrow (Feb 16).

As such, the sale of alcohol is banned from midnight tonight (00:01, Feb 16) through midnight tomorrow night (23:59, Feb 16).

Phuket police will be on patrol, Maj Gen Sermphan confirmed.

In fact, we are checking every day as under current provincial requirements alcohol may not be sold after midnight, he told The Phuket News.

The notice this morning was issued by Pol Col Witchayakorn Nichanworn, Deputy Spokesman of the Royal Thai Police.

Col Witchayakorn pointed out that the sale of alcohol on Makha Bucha day was prohibited by law.

This is considered an important Buddhist day, and according to the announcement of the Office of the Prime Minister (No. 3) B.E. 2558, it is prohibited for anyone to sell alcoholic beverages [during this day], except for specific sales, namely duty free shops inside international airport buildings, he said.

Failure to do so is an offense under Section 39 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act B.E. 2551, which prescribes [penalties] of a term of imprisonment of not more than six months. or a fine of not more than B10,000, or both, he added.

In this regard, Pol Gen Suwat Jangyodsuk, the national police chief, has issued a written order to all police stations to alert all types of merchants, including shops in the community, convenience stores, mall restaurants  to refrain from selling all kinds of alcoholic beverages. both wholesale and retail, Col Witchayakorn said.

The ban is throughout the kingdom, 24 hours a day, i.e. after 24.00 on the night of 15 Feb 2022 until 24.00 on the night of 16 Feb 2022, he added.

Police chiefs were ordered to organise patrols to inspect the places where there may be a violation of the law, including restaurants for breakfast, karaoke venues, and restaurants beside the road, at bus stations, train stations and petrol stations, he added.

Police were to to strictly enforce the ban, Col Witchayakorn noted.

At present, there is still an epidemic situation of the COVID-19 infectious disease. Police officers in all areas are to continue to adhere to the guidelines of the Ministry of Public Health, he added.

As for the merit making on Makha Bucha Day in the New Normal era, people can use online social channels, and exercise caution by choosing ways that are reliable, safe and inspected, together with helping watch over society and the community to be safe, Col Witchayakorn said.

If an illegal act is found people can call to report clues at hotlines 191 and 1599, 24 hours a day. The Royal Thai Police would like to thank you for spreading the news, he concluded.
Snake on a plane: AirAsia jet forced to divert

KUALA LUMPUR: An AirAsia passenger plane was forced to divert and make an unscheduled landing after a snake was spotted slithering through the overhead lights, the Malaysian budget carrier confirmed yesterday (Feb 14).

animalshumourtransportwildlife

By AFP

Tuesday 15 February 2022, 10:12AM

Photo: Screenshot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlZx_FoSTD4

In a viral video social media users were quick to link with Samuel L. Jackson cult classic Snakes on a Plane, the creatures silhouette could be seen wriggling in the cabins light fittings.

The incident, which the airline described as very rare, took place last week aboard a flight from the capital Kuala Lumpur to Tawau, on the eastern coast of Borneo island.

After the captain found out about the snake, he took appropriate action and landed in the city of Kuching - 900 kilometres (560 miles) west of Tawau - so the plane could be fumigated, AirAsia said.

The passengers then boarded another flight to continue their journey.

At no time was the safety of guests or crew at any risk, AirAsia chief safety officer Liong Tien Ling said in a statement.

Social media users joked the incident was all-too-reminiscent of the 2006 action film that featured Jackson as an FBI agent trapped on a jet filled with venomous serpents.

Snakes on a plane is real!! one user posted.

Another commented on Facebook: One of my worst nightmares. Too scary for me.

There was no comment provided on what happened to the snake.
Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. High 89F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Clearfield, PA (16830)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers this afternoon. High 69F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Rain. Low 57F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
He's gone and done it again!

Olympic Gold Medalist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott won a silver medal in the Women's Snowboard Big Air Final at the Winter Olympics yesterday, making her the youngest Kiwi to earn a complete set of medals.

She's now got a gold and silver from Beijing, and already had a bronze from four years ago. What an epic achievement!

The Project had the champion snowboarder on last night, as well as her Dad Sean, who went viral last week for dropping two F-bombs on a live-cross and talking about a blocked toilet.

In the recent interview, when Sean was asked if there was anything he'd like to say to his daughter, he started his response pretty tame:

Hey Zo. You've made us all proud. Magnificent achievement...

But of course, that didn't last long, and Sean came in clutch with another live-TV-F-bomb:

Two f**ken gold medals, ah, two medals.

The Project hosts shared a laugh, knowing very well that they should've expected nothing less from Sean.

National treasures, the both of them. Check out the interview up top.

Related: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott's Dad Sean explains his toilet chat from viral live cross.
Salem, MO (65560)

Today

Overcast. High 61F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy. Low near 45F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
Today

Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High 58F. S winds shifting to NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Tonight

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low 43F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.

Tomorrow

Showers in the morning, then cloudy in the afternoon. High 59F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
THE SHORTHORN is accepting applications

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WASHINGTON (Feb. 14, 2022)America needs more blood.



Blood supplies, which typically run at about a five-day stock on hospital shelves, have been reduced to less than a one-day supply of certain blood types, according to Ashley Henyan, communications director for the American Red Cross. That is also the case in the national capital region.



Blood already has a limited 42-day shelf life, and blood platelets last only five days. Regular donors would have to roll up their sleeves once every 56 days to give the Red Cross the reserve it is more accustomed to.



The shortages come as the Red Cross, in a study funded by the Food and Drug Administration, examines the viability of changing existing donation rules to permit gay and bisexual men to donate blood without a long waiting period after their last sexual contacts with other men.



The blood shortage and looming expiration dates of the blood available on the shelves also poses additional difficulties to a medical system already experiencing severe challenges during the COVID pandemic.



Blood donations usually see a decrease in the summer months, throughout the holiday season and during the winter months. Outside of these time periods, donations typically increase.



"We're just not seeing it bounce back." Henyan told Capital News Service. "So because it stayed at this low point for so many months in a row now, that's what's making it a crisis."



Henyan also pointed out that blood "cannot be manufactured, it cannot be produced, and it cannot be stockpiled," factors which make a steady supply of donors absolutely critical to resolving the shortage. She also cited that there is currently "less than a one-day" supply for Maryland and the District of Columbia.



"It's kind of leading to this perfect storm where we're unable to collect as much, but you need more," said Kate Fry, CEO of America's Blood Centers, an organization that works alongside the Red Cross and helps distribute donated blood to regions where it needs to be.



Fry also works to counteract misinformation about blood donation during the pandemic. "If you're vaccinated or unvaccinated, you can still donate blood," she said.



Despite the blood shortages, the FDA still has policies in place barring men from donating blood until three months after their most recent sexual encounter with other men.



This three-month period replaced a 12-month period in the spring of 2020, an attempt by the FDA to allow more flexibility in blood donations during a shortage. However, the changed guidance isn't sufficient to solve the shortage problem, or include sexually-active gay and bisexual men in more frequent blood donations, according to Henyan.



"I think it's unfortunate how many gay and bisexual men feel excluded, not just are excluded, but actually feel excluded from donating blood," said Christian Morris, a recruitment specialist with the Whitman-Walker Institute, a Washington-based LGBTQ research, policy and advocacy organization founded in 1973 as an HIV clinic.



Morris has recruited almost 300 participants with the Whitman-Walker Institute for what is being called "the Assessing Donor Variability and New Concepts in Eligibility," or ADVANCE, study.



The study "hopes to provide evidence to repeal the current policy that discriminates against the participation of gay and bisexual men in donating blood," according to Morris. Instead, donation policy could be changed to rely on a case-by-case risk assessment for each potential donor.



Josh Sorbe, a 24-year-old participant from Washington, found out about the ADVANCE study through Twitter and decided to donate blood at the Washington location because it was a way to give back during Pride Month in October.



Sorbe told CNS the whole process took three weeks and included a health history questionnaire and donating four vials of blood. He said he hopes that the study will modernize FDA guidance on donating blood.



"A lot of data is rooted potentially in homophobia from the 20th century and this groundbreaking study really allows us to bring the discussion about blood eligibility donation requirements into 2022," Sorbe said.



While the ADVANCE study is still ongoing, Morris said he is "confident" that the FDA policy on gay and bisexual men donating blood will be updated within the next couple of years.



For Sorbe, updated guidance would be deeply satisfying.



"The queer communityis willing to step up when people need help, and the fact that some of the most likely givers are still ruled out from archaic eligibility requirements is absurd to me," he said. "So, I'm really hoping this allows us to have the conversation (of) who can donate blood. It's super easy, it's not hard to do and it's one of the best things you can do that can change someone's life."
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Acting President Alen Simonyan received the United States Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy on February 15.

Simonyan and Tracy congratulated each other on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and the United States.

Simonyans visit to Washington D.C. in January as Speaker of Parliament was discussed at the meeting, the presidency said in a press release. Attaching importance to the visit, Simonyan touched upon his meeting with Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. He presented details to the Ambassador from his visit, stressing the productivity of a number of meetings with US colleagues and readiness to develop continuous programs.

Views were exchanged over organizing joint projects within the framework of the 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and the United States.
In the Press Corps of the Indiana Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis, in an office lovingly called "the Shack," the journalism majors of Franklin College's Pulliam School of Journalism work alongside the best reporters in the state, digging into the behind-the-scenes stories of Indiana politics. We're a student newsroom, but our work doesn't sit on a professor's desk. We create content five days a week for this website and 35 professional media partners around the state.
Heber Springs, AR (72543)

Today

Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 73F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 53F. Winds light and variable.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. The Russian troops of the Southern and Western Military Districts are returning to their permanent deployment locations after holding military exercises, RIA Novosti reported citing a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense representative Igor Konashenkov.

He said the troops will start moving to their military garrisons today.
EDWARDSVILLE  Responding to safety concerns raised by the Dec. 10 tornado that killed six people when part of an Amazon warehouse collapsed, state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, and others are seeking ways to avoid a repeat of the tragedy.

On Monday, Stuart and state Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, chair of the Illinois House Labor and Commerce Committee, met with various experts during a virtual hearing to discuss warehouse safety standards.

The death of six workers in the Amazon warehouse collapse calls into question the safety standards of warehouses and the need for tornado shelters or safe rooms in such buildings, Stuart said. Many other buildings in our area are built with the same method as the Amazon warehouse and we should be proactive to prevent further tragedies.

Stuart read a statement by Edwardsville Fire Chief James Whiteford stating the collapse of the warehouse brought to light concerns about safety and warehouse construction. He said the International Code Council produces internationally recognized minimum-code standards for construction that Illinois and most other states follow.

This tornado highlights the need to review and likely change building requirements for large warehouses, Whiteford said. Short of making those changes, the best thing that fire service can do is to improve preparedness.

Yet equipment is aging, trained personnel are becoming difficult to find and financial resources are spread thin," he said. "Response equipment relied on by the state of Illinois, like the mutual box alarm service and the terrorism task force portable shelters, which have been employed across the state for the COVID response, are wearing out. Hazardous materials response vehicles are two decades old and becoming unreliable and costly to maintain.

Madison County has more than 30 million square feet of warehouses, he said, and providing emergency services to those buildings and other facilities is becoming more of a challenge.

Six fire departments in western Madison County have self-contained breathing apparatus set to expire next year, Whiteford said. Radio communication systems in Madison County are not standardized. In some cases, police and fire in the same town cannot communicate with each other over the radio. This problem expands to communication between counties and becomes even more complicated as it crosses state lines.

Whiteford noted staffing challenges exist within both the career and volunteer side of fire service, and training is another concern. As many firefighters retire and leave the fire service, new hires need expensive technical training.

Emergency services cannot be seen as operating in the same way that businesses do, Whiteford said. Businesses operate on an efficiency model, to do the most you can with the least possible cost. If a business fails, there is an economic cost to the community; if emergency services fail, there are costs in terms of lives, injuries and social and community impacts, as well as the economic impacts.

Emergency services cannot fail. They are simply too important to the welfare of the community. Emergency services must operate on a resiliency model, and they need built-in redundancy in order to ensure that the response capabilities are there when they are needed.

Speakers at Monday's hearing included Jim Bell, Director of Operations for the National Storm Shelter Association.

We suggest that building owners get an architect or engineer who is knowledgeable with tornado codes to do surveys of buildings to see where you would put (storm shelters) within the building, as well as well as the occupancy (standards) for the shelter, as well as the ability of the shelter to hold up, Bell said.

Impact debris is what damages a lot of shelters, but with the warehouse in Edwardsville, it looked a lot more like wind damage was working on the roof system and the walls caved in," he said. "Weve learned over the years how tornadoes work, and we try to apply that knowledge and technology to the improvements that we make.

Marc Levitan, a research wind engineer for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said most tornado fatalities occur inside buildings. The tornado that hit the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville was an EF3 tornado, with 150-mile-per-hour winds.

The design speeds that we use in the new (building code) standards are 130 miles per hour and that ranges from approximately EF0 to EF2 tornado intensity, and 97 percent of tornadoes are in the EF0 to EF2 range, Levitan said.

The design tornado criteria for a particular building depends on its risk category, its geographic location and the building plan, size and shape. The latter is important because the larger the size of the facility, the larger its footprint will be when a tornado strikes. The tornado criteria are not designed to protect against the most intense tornados; theyre designed to protect against the most common tornadoes.

Other speakers included Randy Harris, director of the Midwest Region for Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust; Tim Drea, president of the Illinois AFLCIO; Gavin Stoddard from the International Warehouse Logistics Association; and Alex Laird from the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

Our priority in calling this hearing is workers safety," Stuart said. "Employees should not have to worry about losing their lives while on the job. The Amazon warehouse was built to the highest state safety standards. but our highest standards may not be enough, as evident by the death of six workers in the warehouse collapse.



Many other buildings in our area are built with the same method as the Amazon warehouse and we should be proactive to prevent further tragedies by examining the building codes and how they are being enforced," she said. "We may need to implement tornado shelters or safe rooms in such buildings when they have a larger workforce.



Building construction is only one part of the problem," Stuart said. "Workers need to be trained on disaster safety and should be confident on where to go when a tornado or another natural disaster strikes. We will be looking into the frequency and quality of disaster safety training in these warehouses. Additionally, we need to establish that our emergency services have the training and resources they need to address disasters like this tornado.



Stuart said legislators will continue to research what actions the General Assembly can take to protect Illinois workers, noting they are awaiting the OSHA recommendations following the warehouse collapse.
CARROLLTON  Greene County Health Department is leading up to Earth Day by asking volunteers to join a countywide litter pick-up day  the department's first.

"We're excited about a different idea," said Molly Peters, administrator for the health department. "We've gotten quite a good response."

Although Earth Day isn't until April 22, Peters wants to be ahead of the curve to ensure all areas of the county are taken care of.

So far, the effort has nine volunteer coordinators, with each coordinator working with additional volunteers and cleaning up areas from White Hall to Roodhouse, Greenfield to Carrollton, Peters said.

"Several business on the (Carrollton) square will be assisting," she said.

Boyd Healthcare Services, St. Johns Catholic School, the North Greene school district, First Baptist Church in Carrollton, The Carrollton Square, the Illinois Extension office and the Illinois Master Naturalist Program, the village of Kane, Carrollton High School and the Greenfield Revitalization Project all have agreed to take part in the clean-up efforts.

They are looking for someone to make T-shirts so volunteers have a keepsake, Peters said.

Trash bags will be provided throughout the all-day cleanup.

"It's definitely growing," she said of the response.

Part of Greene County Health Department's duties is to keep watch over the environment, including doing water well testing for private residences and conducting septic and sewer inspections.

With water run-off soaking into the ground, picking up trash will only help the local environment, Peters said.

"There are times, over time, where places can get pretty littered," particularly in rural areas, she said.

Peters is excited that she has received great feedback so far and is hoping it will be a successful first of many.

"We're thankful for the community being involved."
Scranton, PA (18503)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Low 52F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
London, KY (40741)

Today

Clouds and some sun this morning with more clouds for this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 84F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low 57F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. UNESCO continues working to send an Independent Technical Mission to Nagorno Karabakh, the UNESCO Press Office said in response to the query of ARMENPRESS, commenting on the alarms about the cases of distortion and destruction of the Armenian historical-cultural heritage in the territories of the Republic of Artsakh which have come under the Azerbaijani control after the 2020 war.

UNESCO hopes that this mission will be possible soon.

About Nagorno Karabakh, we continue working to send a UNESCO Independent Technical Mission within the framework of the 1954 Convention. We hope that it will be possible soon, but for the moment the necessary conditions are not in place. So discussions are still ongoing, mentioned in UNESCO's response to ARMENPRESS.

UNESCO Press Officer Thomas Mallard's comments presenting UNESCO's official response to ARMENPRESS query

Considering the fact that on 7th of December, 2021, the International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts, as a provisional measure in the context of Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan), how does the organization assess the mentioned actions by Azerbaijans government regarding the Armenian cultural heritage of Nagorno Karabakh, UNESCO said heritage and history shouldnt be the subject of any political instrumentalization.

We urge all our Member States, all over the world, to respect this principle, it said.

Shortly after the original version of this article was published, several Azerbaijani media outlets began spreading disinformation claiming that the UNESCO response was manipulated by ARMENPRESS.

To debunk the Azerbaijani faslifications, ARMENPRESS updated this article with the full text and screenshot of the UNESCO response.

Below is the full comment of UNESCO to ARMENPRESS query:

"Heritage and history shouldnt be the subject of any political instrumentalization. We urge all our Member States, all over the world, to respect this principle. About Nagorno Karabakh, we continue working to send a UNESCO Independent Technical Mission within the framework of the 1954 Convention. We hope that it will be possible soon, but for the moment the necessary conditions are not in place. So, discussions are still ongoing".

Last updated  February 17, 15:13
Job Title: Cabin Crew (30 No Experience Job Opportunities)

Organisation: Uganda National Airlines Company Limited

Duty Station: Entebbe, Uganda

Reports to: Manager Cabin Services

About US:

Uganda Airlines is the flag carrier of Uganda. The company is a revival of the older Uganda Airlines which operated from 1977 until 2001. It began flying in August 2019.

Job Summary: The Cabin Crew will be responsible for delivering excellent service whilst ensuring onboard safety for all passengers.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Check cabin before takeoff to ensure compliance with safety regulations.

Ensure a pleasant onboard service

Monitor the cabin frequently for the entire duration of the flight.

Market the inflight duty-free where applicable.

Prepare accurate reports concerning any significant issues or happening on flights.

Understanding the duties of your assigned position during flights.

Adhere to established regulations and procedures.

Ensure the safety and comfort of all passengers.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicant for the Uganda Airlines Cabin Crew job must hold a bachelors degree in a relevant discipline from a recognized university/institution.

Minimum height 160cm (5.2 ft.).

Minimum arm reach of 212cm (on tip-toes).

Able to swim at least 25 meters unaided.

Fluent in written and spoken English (Ability to speak another language is an added advantage).

Out-going personality with good interpersonal and communication skills.

Excellent Health and fitness, with a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI).

No tattoos or body piercings (Exception for one earring in the lower lobe of each ear for females only.)

Willing to comply with Uganda Airlines medical and health screening requirements.

The Applicant should have no criminal record.

The Applicant should be flexible, adaptable and a good team player.

Age: Between 21-30 years.

How to Apply:

All candidates who wish to join Uganda Airlines in this capacity should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 3rd March 2022

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Generally cloudy. High 58F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low 47F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Richard Branson's Virgin is offering financial help with IVF treatment to 300 staff.

It is part of a package of measures with discounts of up to 20 per cent to help it keep workers.

Staff can access cut-price services that include insemination and sperm freezing, the price of which can often run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Virgin is to provide financial help to staff wanting to undergo IVF treatment staff. Pictured: Virgin boss Richard Branson

The average cost of a cycle of IVF amounts to 3,500 and the chance of success is one in three.

The group is offering the service in its Virgin Red arm, its rewards club for shoppers, and to Virgin Management employees.

It said: 'With thousands of people likely to face fertility issues, it was a natural step for us.'

It is the latest UK firm to do so.

Over a third of people who try IVF think of leaving their job, according to a survey by charity Fertility Network.

Legal firm giant Freshfields has said that it will contribute up to 44,000 for the treatment.

Natwest bank has offered fertility services to its 59,000 staff, and British Gas-owner Centrica has launched the service for its 18,500 employees.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Vartan Oskanian has been questioned by law enforcement agencies in connection with the former President Robert Kocharyans case of alleged bribery.

Oskanian has a status of witness in this case, prosecutor Gevorg Baghdasaryan said.

Former President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan is accused of accepting a 3,000,000 dollar bribe from a businesswoman for not obstructing a deal in early 2008, his final months as president. Then-Secretary of the Security Council Armen Gevorgyan is also facing bribery charges under the same criminal case.

They both vehemently deny the accusations.

The indictment of Kocharyan and Gevorgyan was presented by the prosecutors at a court hearing on February 15.

Kocharyans lawyers argued in court that the indictment is unclear and demanded clarifications from the prosecution. The lawyers then boycotted the hearing as a sign of protest.
The boss of Link Fund Solutions has stepped down amid scrutiny of its role in the Neil Woodford scandal.

Chris Addenbrooke, at the company for more than 34 years, was removed as a director of Link this month, according to filings on Companies House.

Link was the responsible for supervising Woodfords management of his Equity Income fund, which collapsed in 2019 causing losses for millions of savers.

Chris Addenbrooke (pictured), who has been at Link Fund Solutions for more than 34 years, was removed as a director earlier this month

It is being investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its role in the affair, and is the target of a lawsuit from Woodford investors.

Link said Addenbrookes resignation was nothing to do with the debacle. A spokesman said: Chris Addenbrooke has taken the decision to retire and is stepping down from his role as chief executive.

Savers are waiting for the FCA to deliver its report into the collapse. The FCA is undertaking legal analysis to decide if action should be taken against any of the parties involved.

Lawyers say Link failed to do its job in protecting investors. But Links lawyers, Clifford Chance, said they would vigorously defend the firm.
Fraud trial: Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng

The trial of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, 49, who denies conspiring to launder billions from a Malaysian state investment fund, has started in New York.

It was delayed due to Covid and comes after Goldman was fined 2.2billion by regulators in 2020, accused of turning the 1MDB fund 'into a piggy bank for corrupt public officials and cronies'.

US officials allege 3billion was looted from the fund, set up by the Malaysian state, and used to buy property, art and to finance Martin Scorsese's film Wolf of Wall Street.

Goldman earned almost 500million from its work  which it has returned.

Ng lawyer Marc Agnifilo said: 'Roger Ng waived extradition to voluntarily come to this country because he is innocent. He looks forward to his trial and returning home.'
Mining giant BHP has announced a record dividend payout on Tuesday after reporting better-than-expected profits thanks to rising commodity prices.

The world's biggest miner, which last month abandoned the FTSE 100 after scrapping its dual corporate structure, said it will pay shareholders $7.6billion in dividends in the first half.

The dividend of $1.50 per share, which will be handed out to shareholders late next month, brings total shareholder returns to more than $22billion over the past 18 months, boss Mike Henry said.

Bumper profits: BHP has benefited by higher commodity prices

'Our record interim dividend was supported by our reliable operating performance and continued strong markets for a number of our products,' he added.

The bumper payout comes after the group reported underlying profits of $9.7billion in 2021, up 57 per cent on 2020, helped by higher commodity prices.

The jump in profit is lower than a rise of 185 per cent in the June-half, when iron ore prices hit a record high.

Iron ore prices have now halved from last year's record levels after a slowdown in demand from China, a top metals consumer, which has cut back on construction.

Commodity price volatility will continue for some time, Henry said, including for iron ore.

But he added BHP remained positive about the long-term outlook for global economic growth and commodity demand.

'Population growth, the infrastructure of decarbonisation and rising living standards are all expected to drive demand for energy, metals and fertilisers for decades to come,' he said.

BHP has benefited from rising iron ore price, but they have now halved from last year's record levels after a slowdown in demand from China (Pictured: The halted under-construction Evergrande Cultural Tourism City in China)

'In the near term, volatility in the operating environment is expected to continue. Momentum towards recovery remains intact across most key regions, although China slowed over the second half of the 2021 calendar year, and vigilance around COVID-19 risks is still a constant for all.

'We anticipate that the headwinds that buffeted China will diminish as the 2022 calendar proceeds.'

The results come after a transformational six months for BHP, which sold its $13billion petroleum business to rival Woodside and scrapped its dual listing, moving its main stock market listing to Sidney.

BHP has not been immune from rising labour costs due to shortages triggered by Covid, with a lack of skilled workers at its Australian mines still ongoing.

The group has also seen work being disrupted by bottlenecks in its supply chain, which are expected to continue this year.

Last month, it warned of an impact from a delay in Western Australia state reopening its borders and cut its output forecast.
Tifton, GA (31794)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable.
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Tillamook, OR (97141)

Today

A shower or two possible this morning with partly cloudy skies for the afternoon. High near 55F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy. Low around 40F. Winds light and variable.
Carrollton, GA (30117)

Today

Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High near 85F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early. Isolated thunderstorms may develop late. Low 62F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Cumberland, MD (21502)

Today

Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High around 75F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low 59F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
YEREVAN, 15 FEBUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 15 February, USD exchange rate up by 0.42 drams to 479.29 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 2.20 drams to 543.80 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.15 drams to 6.34 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.49 drams to 649.68 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 564.06 drams to 28756.49 drams. Silver price up by 12.56 drams to 365.05 drams. Platinum price up by 260.36 drams to 16010.5 drams.
Kingsport, TN (37660)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 86F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms. Low 63F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. A special sitting of the National Assembly will be convened on February 23 at 12:00 in connection with the ratification of the "Shushi Declaration" by the parliaments of Azerbaijan and Turkey, ARMENPRESS was informed from the website of the National Assembly.

Hayastan faction has initiated the special sitting. The opposition faction proposes to the National Assembly to make a statement condemning the ratification of the "Shushi Declaration" with the following content:

"The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia expresses deep concern over the the ratification of the Declaration signed by the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan on June 15, 2021 by the parliaments of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

By that declaration a Turkish-Azerbaijani military-political alliance was signed within the framework of the "One Nation, Two States" concept.

Although the document states that it is not created against a third party, its entire content is directed against the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh, the Armenian people. It records the strategic goals of the two states that carried out the 44-day aggression against the Artsakh Republic, against the self-determination of the people of Artsakh, the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia, territorial integrity and the rights of the Armenian people around the world who survived the genocide.

The wording on the Zangezur Corridor in the declaration indicates that Turkey and Azerbaijan are reaching public agreements on implementing joint expansionist policies.

The agreement of the two states to struggle against the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide by distorting the content of the issue and taking it to the field of historical study is condemnable.

The Shushi Declaration is based not on the UN Charter or the principle of security adopted by the OSCE, but on the Tribal security approach. It contradicts the basic norms of international law. According to the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, all the international agreements which contradict the imperative norms of general international law, are null and void and can have no international legitimacy.

The National Assembly declares that the Shushi Declaration, by its provocative and un-constructive nature, is unacceptable for the Republic of Armenia. It is a serious challenge to regional and global security, does not contribute to the peaceful development of our region, contradicts the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations on the principle of 'without preconditions' and raises serious doubts about the real behavior and intentions of official Ankara."
Russia said on Tuesday some of its troops were returning to base after exercises near Ukraine and mocked Western warnings about a looming invasion, but NATO and the United States said they had yet to see any evidence of a de-escalation that could avert war.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia was ready to keep talking to the West about security issues but would not be satisfied with vague talk that Ukraine would not be ready to join NATO any time soon.

The military announcement marked the first sign from Moscow that it may be ready to reverse a build-up of some 130,000 troops near its border with Ukraine, which has triggered one of the deepest crises in East-West relations since the Cold War.

Tensions remained high, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after meeting Putin in the Kremlin that the withdrawal of some Russian forces was a good sign.

Moscow did not say how many units were being withdrawn, and how far. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Washington had not seen evidence of any pullback yet.

Ukraine said the reported pullback needed to be seen to be believed. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the intelligence that were seeing today is still not encouraging.

The Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security said the countrys defence ministry and banks Privatbank and Oshadbank had come under cyber attack.

It is not ruled out that the aggressor used tactics of little dirty tricks because its aggressive plans are not working out on a large scale, said the centre, without specifying who the aggressor was.

DIPLOMATIC SIGNALS

NATOs chief welcomed signals from Russia in the past two days that it may be looking for a diplomatic solution but urged Moscow to demonstrate its will to act.

There are signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue. This gives grounds for cautious optimism. But so far we have not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

He said Russia often left military equipment behind after exercises, creating the potential for forces to regroup.

At a joint news conference with Scholz, Putin referred only briefly to the troop moves and did not go into details.

Russia has always denied planning to invade Ukraine, saying it can exercise troops on its own territory as it sees fit. It has been pressing for a set of security guarantees from the West, including a guarantee that Ukraine will never join NATO.

Putin told reporters Russia would not be satisfied with talk that the former Soviet republic was not ready to join any time soon and was demanding that the issue be resolved now.

As for war in Europeabout whether we want it or not? Of course not. That is why we put forward proposals for a negotiation process, the result of which should be an agreement on ensuring equal security for everyone, including our country, he said.

Scholz said the diplomatic possibilities were far from exhausted.

For us Germans but also Europeans, sustainable security can only be reached .. with Russia. Therefore it should be possible to find a solution. No matter how difficult and serious the situation seems to be, I refuse to say it is hopeless, he said.

In a separate development, Russias lower house of parliament voted to ask Putin to recognise two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.

Recognition of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics could kill off the Minsk peace process in east Ukraine, where a conflict between government forces and Moscow-backed separatists has killed 15,000 people.

Asked about the move, Putin said the regions problems should be solved on the basis of the Minsk agreements, which were signed in 2014 and 2015 but have never been implemented. Scholz said all sides should stick to those accords.

COULD BE IMMINENT

Russias show of force near Ukraines borders has prompted months of frantic Western diplomacy and drawn threats of severe sanctions if it invades, culminating in a crescendo of U.S. and British warnings in recent days that this could happen at any time.

The Kremlin sought to portray its moves as proof that Western talk of war had been both false and hysterical.

February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Russias defence ministry published footage showing tanks and other armoured vehicles being loaded onto railway flatcars. But Western military analysts said they needed more information to judge the significance of the latest troop movements.

Konrad Muzyka, director of the Poland-based Rochan consultancy, told Reuters it would take several days to verify the latest moves via satellite imagery.

It should also be noted that new trains with equipment from Central Russia keep on arriving near the border and that Russian forces continue to move towards staging areas, he said.

Commercial satellite images taken on Sunday and Monday showed a flurry of Russian military activity at several locations near Ukraine, including large deployments of troops and attack helicopters, and warplanes moving to forward locations.

Russian shares, government bonds and the rouble, which have been hit by fears of impending conflict, rose sharply as the situation seemed to ease slightly, and Ukrainian government bonds rallied. Oil dropped more than 3% from a seven-year high reached on Monday.

SOURCE: REUTERS
At least two protesters were shot dead as security forces confronted crowds marching in Sudan on Monday demanding the release of prisoners and an end to military rule, medics and a Reuters reporter said.

Thousands returned to the streets in the capital Khartoum and across Sudan in some of the biggest demonstrations against Octobers coup in nearly a month.

Across the River Nile from Khartoum, officers fired teargas to try to disperse people who approached the disused parliament buildings in Omdurman and got close to a key bridge.

Columns of smoke rose into the sky as demonstrators blocked one of the main streets in Omdurman with stones. Some held giant pictures of protesters killed during previous rallies.

We wont let the martyrs killers seize our country. We wont let the military and the (former regime) return again. We are a free and democratic generation, said Sara Ahmed, a 19-year-old student.

At least 80 people have been killed by security forces since the coup, according to medics.

The military and police say they allow peaceful protests, that members of the security forces have had to defend themselves and that casualties are being investigated.

In Khartoum, separate groups of protesters demonstrated about 2 km from the presidential palace amid heavy security, witnesses said.

One protester was killed by scattered gunshots in Khartoum, said the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, a group aligned with the protest movement. It said the second protester was shot dead in Omdurman. There was no immediate comment from the military leadership.

The Sudanese police meanwhile said one protestor was killed, while 102 policemen were severely injured, according to the polices media office on Facebook.

The police did not explain how the protestor died, but said the demonstrations went awry with protesters encroaching on important strategic buildings and institutions, smashing glass windows and buildings fronts. Nevertheless, the police acted with reasonable legal force, they added.

Pictures of rallies in other towns and cities across Sudan were posted on social media.

In recent days security forces have arrested three high-profile civilian figures connected to a task force that was working to dismantle the rule of former President Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled in an uprising in 2019.

Freedom for the detainees, read a banner unfurled in Omdurman.

An activist lawyers group said last week that more than 100 political detainees were being held without charge.

Separately, the countrys military leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Transitional Sovereign Council, appointed Lieutenant-General Yassin Ibrahim Yassin as acting defence minister, a statement by the council said on Monday.

Yassin previously held the position in former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdoks now-defunct government.

The council has repeatedly affirmed the need for national dialogue, a technocrat cabinet and adjustments to a transitional government document negotiated after the ousting of Bashir.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday called on the countrys people to fly flags and sing the national anthem in unison on Feb. 16, a date that some Western media say Russian could invade.

Ukrainian government officials stressed that Zelenskiy was not predicting an attack on Wednesday, but responding skeptically to the foreign media reports.

They tell us Feb. 16 will be the day of the attack. We will make it a day of unity, Zelenskiy said in a video address to the nation.

They are trying to frighten us by yet again naming a date for the start of military action, Zelenskiy said. On that day, we will hang our national flags, wear yellow and blue banners, and show the whole world our unity.

Zelenskiy has long said that, while he believes Russia is threatening to attack his country, the likelihood of an imminent invasion has been overstated by Western allies, responding to Moscows efforts to intimidate Ukraine and sow panic.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiys chief of staff, told Reuters the president was responding in part with irony to media reports of the potential date of the invasion.

It is quite understandable why Ukrainians today are skeptical about various specific dates of the so-called start of the invasion announced in the media, he said. When the start of the invasion becomes some sort of rolling tour date, such media announcements can only be taken with irony.

Zelenskiys office released a decree calling for all villages and towns in Ukraine to fly the countrys flags on Wednesday, and for the entire nation to sing the national anthem at 10 a.m. It also called for an increase in salaries of soldiers and border guards.

U.S. officials said they were not predicting an assault ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on a specific day, but repeated warnings that it could come at any time.

I wont get into a specific date, I dont think that would be smart. I would just tell you that it is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. Earlier, Kirby said Moscow was still adding to its military capabilities on the Ukrainian frontier.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington, which has already sent most of its diplomats home, was moving its remaining diplomatic mission in Ukraine from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv, much further from the Russian border. He cited a dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces.

Blinken said Washington was offering Ukraine up to $1 billion in sovereign loan guarantees to calm markets.

The State Department issued a travel advisory recommending that U.S. citizens leave Belarus, which borders both Russia and Ukraine.

Russia has more than 100,000 troops massed near the border of Ukraine. Russian political leaders deny Western accusations that it is planning to invade, but say it could take unspecified military-technical action unless a range of demands are met, including barring Kyiv from ever joining the NATO alliance.

Russia suggested on Monday that it would keep talking to the West to try to defuse the security crisis.

In a televised exchange, Putin was shown asking his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, whether there was a chance of an agreement to address Russias security concerns, or whether it was just being dragged into tortuous negotiations.

Lavrov replied: We have already warned more than once that we will not allow endless negotiations on questions that demand a solution today.

But he added: It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted  At this stage, I would suggest continuing and building them up.

Western countries have threatened unprecedented sanctions if Russia invades. The Group of Seven large economies (G7) warned on Monday of economic and financial sanctions which will have massive and immediate consequences on the Russian economy.

After speaking with the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he still believed from his own analysis, his own hopes that there would not be a conflict, a U.N. spokesperson said.

Moscow says Ukraines quest to join NATO poses a threat. While NATO has no immediate plans to admit Ukraine, Western countries say they cannot negotiate over a sovereign countrys right to form alliances.

ECONOMIC DAMAGE

Ukraine has already suffered economic damage from the standoff. A surge in the price of 5-year credit default swaps on Ukrainian sovereign bonds suggested that markets gave Kyiv a 42% probability of defaulting.

Ukraine International Airlines, the nations biggest airline, said its insurers had terminated coverage for some of its aircraft.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held talks with Zelenskiy in Kyiv. Scholz is due to fly to Moscow on Tuesday, following visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and two British ministers went last week.

Scholz said he saw no reasonable justification for Russias military activity on Ukraines border, and that we are ready for a serious dialogue with Russia on European security issues. He announced a credit of 150 million euros ($170 million) for Ukraine.

SOURCE: REUTERS
LATHAM  Plug Power is suing one of its parts providers alleging hydrogen cylinder tanks the company provided were defective, which led to an explosion killing one worker and injuring several others in 2018.

The fuel cell maker filed its complaint with state Supreme Court in Albany County Friday against Worthington Industries Inc. and its cylinder-producing subsidiary.

Worthington Industries is a metal manufacturer based in Ohio that supplies Plug Power with hydrogen storage cylinders the company uses to create fuel cells that power forklifts and other machinery in warehouses.

In May 2018, one of the cylinders used in a Plug Power fuel cell exploded and caught fire on a forklift, killing its driver and hurting other workers at a Procter and Gamble facility in Louisiana.

Not long after the incident, Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh defended the companys technology and announced its cooperation in Procter and Gambles investigation.

But in the recent filing, Plug Power said it found the cylinders were not only defective but had never been properly certified as meeting the applicable manufacturing standards, despite Plug Power alleging Worthington represented otherwise after a series of tests conducted by it and Worthington Industries following the incident.

The complaint referenced independent tests run in August 2018  about three months after the explosion  that confirmed 3,690 defective cylinders posed an immediate safety risk, resulting in Plug Power pulling them from service.

Plug Power was sued by the victims family as well as Procter and Gamble following the explosion.

Plug Power said its supplier concealed certain testing information from it and made a grossly negligent or intentional error in design calculations that led to its improper qualification that deemed it exempt from some testing and miscategorized the tank.

During discovery in the Louisiana litigation, Plug Power learned that defendants falsified documents to show that proper procedures were used to manufacture the subject cylinder. Plug Power also learned that other critical records relating to the cylinder's manufacture were missing, the complaint read.

Worthington Industries agreed to pay Plug Power for the cylinders replacements and ancillary costs to remove them from service.

According to the complaint, Worthington has paid out $5.5 million in replacement costs thus far, but refused to make any more payments in June 2020 until it was released from further liability for the fatal explosion. Plug Power refused to let Worthington abdicate responsibility due to open litigation over the incident and defective parts.

Worthington Industries did not return the Times Unions request for comment before its Monday deadline.

Excerpts from Plug Powers 2013 purchasing agreement with Worthington Industries were cited in the complaint outlining the suppliers promise to provide all equipment with zero defects and responsibility to cover all costs stemming from defective parts. Worthington Industries did not object to or add clauses to the terms, according to the complaint.

Plug Power began replacing the cylinder tanks in 2019 and is nearly done with the effort, although it said the company continues to incur millions of dollars in costs related to the ongoing litigation and cylinder replacements.

Plug Power is seeking further compensation from Worthington for remaining out-of-pocket costs to replace the cylinders, its subsequent investigation into the incident and legal fees to defend against the other lawsuits in addition to any others that arise from the defective cylinders.
ALBANY  The technocratic term for them is "accessory dwelling units." But I prefer the folksy, friendlier name: granny flats.

All they are, really, is a small apartment on the property of a single-family home, often carved out of the garage. And because we live under the quiet tyranny of silly rules and regulations, they are illegal in many neighborhoods across the state.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is attempting to change that. The Democrat wants to remove the hurdles that keep homeowners from building accessor ... err, granny flats ... and renting them out to whomever they please. The hope is that adding such units to the housing supply will benefit renters and homeowners alike.

Last week, though, several Republican lawmakers denounced the proposal at a Capitol news conference. They described the idea as a "radical" attempt to impose more state control over our lives and claimed it could be dangerous for first responders and ruinous to schools.

Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick, who represents a chunk of Long Island suburbia, even said the proposal would lead to the ... begin scary music ... "death of the suburbs."

Radical? Dangerous? Death of the suburbs? Are you scared yet?

The rhetoric is obviously over the top. It is also a bit discordant coming from members of the political party that most purports to value property rights and free-market solutions to everyday problems. In reality, granny flats represent much of what a sane political platform should embrace.

We can start with family values. It used to be common, of course, for several generations of a family to live on the same property  grandma and grandpa upstairs, perhaps, with the next generations down below. But single-family zoning and the rise of suburbia spaced everybody out, often making it impossible for different generations to live separately but in proximity.

Granny flats are a family-friendly throwback. If grandma and grandpa want to downsize or need loving care, they can move into a unit adjacent to the home of a son or daughter. Adult children can likewise stay close to their parents, perhaps while they're saving for a home of their own.

We all know New York is too expensive. Housing prices and rents are berserk downstate and property taxes are a heavy burden nearly everywhere. Taxes and the cost of housing are among the reasons for the state's population decline.

Granny flats aren't a panacea, but they can be part of the solution. You might not want to hit grandma up for rent, but having a small rental unit somewhere on the property can help offset the mortgage or tax bill. Adding to the housing supply, meanwhile, is a great, free-market way to ease demand and bring down rents for everybody.

Overly rigorous zoning, meanwhile, is an example of how government rules have driven up costs by restricting supply. It's a system that sets the status quo in stone, advantaging the wealthy  who, of course, have an outsized role in making the rules  at the expense of everybody else.

You don't have to strain to hear a whiff of elitism in the claims that accessory dwelling units will destroy the suburbs. Good heavens! A renter in our leafy midst!! We can't have it!!

Opponents of the proposal, including Tom Suozzi, the Democratic congressman from Long Island who is running for governor, also describe it as an attack on home rule and local control. I'm not unsympathetic to the argument. Ideally, zoning rules that impact neighborhoods in, say, Williamsville wouldn't be made 300 miles away.

But to read through New York's Multiple Dwelling Law or its Property Maintenance Code, which prohibits "noxious weeds" and sets the allowed height of lawn grass, is to realize that the state already has enormous sway in determining how our neighborhoods look and feel.

So why should allowing an accessory dwelling unit on an owner-occupied property be singled out as the step too far? How are granny flats radical?

The proposal is the rare example of the state giving homeowners more leeway, not less. It is state government recognizing that it is best for other layers of government to simply get out of the way  that government has itself been part of the problem.

Meanwhile, fears that granny flats will kill or even unduly impact single-family neighborhoods are wildly overblown. The experiences in places that have enacted similar measures show that while allowing the units does boost housing supply, most homeowners, unsurprisingly, choose not to build them.

But at least they had the choice.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
HUDSON - Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka is declining to further pursue the top charges in an alleged beating involving two law enforcement officers after a judge dismissed the charges late last year.

Kinderhook mechanic Harold Handy said he was assaulted during a late-night Independence Day party in 2020 at the home of Columbia County Sheriff's Deputy Kelly Rosenstrach. Rosenstrach, her husband, Alex; IRS agent Bryan Haag, and Cory Gaylord, a contractor, were indicted on gang assault, unlawful imprisonment and other charges in October 2020.

Columbia County Judge Richard Koweek dropped the top charges, including gang assault -- which carried up to 15 years in prison -- for all four defendants December 10.

Koweek's decision came after Czajka and the defense attorneys agreed to review the grand jury proceedings that resulted in the four being indicted. The defense successfully argued Czajka had failed to prove the alleged assault resulted in a "serious physical injury" to Handy, a component of the gang assault charge in state Penal Law.

Handy testified to the grand jury he underwent surgery to have a plate inserted in his face to help repair two fractured bones, but the DA's office did not present medical records or details about the alleged operation, according to Koweek's decision.

Czajka had the option of re-presenting the evidence to a grand jury or appealing the ruling, and in December said he was "considering my options." However, he told the Times Union Monday he was not pursuing either route.

This leaves unlawful imprisonment as the only felony the defendants are facing, which carries a maximum of four years in prison.

During the Independence Day party, Handy was allegedly assaulted multiple times, with party attendees keeping him from leaving, according to the indictment. His wife, who was at the party, was also told not to leave or call 911, according to Koweek's decision.

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When an ambulance finally arrived, a paramedic gave Handy a sedative after he "became combative and seemed confused," according to Koweek's decision. The sedative was powerful enough that Handy had to be intubated, where a tube was inserted down a patient's throat to allow them to breathe.

The case was initially handled by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, but the four suspects were not charged for more than three months, during which time the State Police took over the investigation. As well as one of the defendants being a sheriff's deputy, another, Alex Rosenstrach, was the largest contributor to then-Sheriff David Bartlett's campaign. The donations came before the alleged assault. but Bartlett did not return the money after the four were indicted.

Bartlett was unseated in last fall's election by one of his deputies, Don Krapf.

Handy's attorney, Paul Freeman, did not return calls for comment Monday.
About a dozen white supremacists, dressed in all black and with their faces covered by skeleton masks and sunglasses, gathered on Woodstocks village green on Friday, where they held White Lives Matter and Stop White Guilt signs.

The demonstration has since motivated community leaders, especially faith leaders, to lead anti-racist discussions. Rev. Cari Pattison, pastor of the Woodstock Reformed Church, which owns the village green and requires an application process for use of the space, was distraught following Fridays events.

Pattison first heard megaphones outside in the early afternoon, assuming it was police activity or something similar. When she peeked outside, she quickly realized it was a protest, but it wasnt until she took her dog for a walk that she was able to read the demonstrators signs.

I was thinking: this is really odd, Pattison said. What prompted this? What are their grievances? My first reaction was  is this what I think it is?

Woodstock isnt the first Hudson Valley town to see flashes of white supremacy signage or demonstrations. On Friday, Jan. 14, a group displayed a White Lives Matter banner at the village gazebo in Chatham. A couple of weeks before that, a video showing White Live Matter supporters posting racist propaganda along trails in North Greenbush was posted on the WLM (White Lives Matter) New York channel on Telegram, the encrypted messaging app and social media platform.

Michael Richardson, founder of Hate-Watch Report that focuses primarily on Columbia and Greene counties, said he received a couple of reports of the Woodstock protest. He suspects it could be the same group from the Chatham demonstration, specifically pointing out the similar attire and megaphone, and the same apparent leader, who wore a press identification badge with the logo for Rebel News, an extreme right-wing media outlet based in Canada that communicates via the Telegram app.

Theyre easily identified now, said Richardson. You can see that Rebel News press ID, with his picture and code number.

When Pattison approached the demonstration in Woodstock on Friday, there was only one counter protester who was holding a makeshift Black Lives Matter sign.

Rev. Cari Pattison

I thanked her for being there, said Pattison, who went to quickly make her own sign before returning. There is no way shes going to stand out here by herself.

Pattison described the demonstrators as young in age, both men and women, and dressed like soldiers, including brass knuckle gloves. They would not show their faces or say who they were for fear of being doxxed, or publicly identified online.

They were extremely [well] trained and had specific rhetoric and arguments and tactics and literature they were passing out and a website, said Pattison. Its very clear to me this wasnt some kind of a one-off.

Another Woodstock resident was passing by when they saw the Friday demonstration.

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It was terrible, said the Woodstock resident. On one hand, I know this stuff is everywhere. I know not everyone here is peace, love and diversity. But, seeing these folks, it wasnt like they were just saying white lives matter they were saying obviously racist things, anti-Semitic things, someone heard homophobic things.

They said some drivers honked as they drove by, while others gave the middle finger. According to the local, one counter protester asked if any of them were from Woodstock, and one of them raised their hand.

The demonstrators were asked by police officials to move to the sidewalk since they were not allowed on the village green without permission. Between this, and additional counter protestors arriving to match the turnout, the demonstration fizzled out.

Since then, Pattison said the church and the town plan to have a closer look at who is and isnt allowed to use the property. She has also held a prayer meeting and is planning the hanging of a banner that says Hate Has No Home Here in the coming days. Additionally, she is looking into holding anti-racist trainings and leveraging other local resources like Anti-Racist Catskills, while working with a local rabbi and his congregation to fortify support in the faith community.

For me as a leader, it had the opposite effect of what they intended, said Pattison. It did not scare us  it propelled us to new action. While it makes us heavy hearted for our country and what were dealing with, Im super encouraged by how many people from our church have already stepped up.
On Monday, tenants rights activists protested at 59 Henry Street in Kingston on behalf of a woman whose landlord is trying to evict her in advance of the sale of the home, kickstarting a sequence of events that ended in the eviction of another tenant and legal consequences for the landlord.

The tenant, a single woman in her 50s, contacted Rashida Tyler, founder of the Real Kingston Tenants Union and co-founder of Ulster County Coalition for Housing Justice, last spring after the tenant says she asked her landlord, Charlie Schikowitz, to exterminate her apartment. Thirty days later he asked her to leave, said Tyler.

Thus began a series of actions by Schikowitz to get the tenant to move out, Tyler said, including shutting off the tenants internet and access to the laundry room, and blocking the tenants rent payments on an online banking app, according to Tyler. The activist stepped in to mediate and arranged for a lawyer, who Tyler said wrote a letter to Schikowitz demanding that he stop harassing the tenant.

Tyler and fellow activists then protested outside 59 Henry in June 2021 to draw attention to the landlords behavior. Tyler believes this public campaign against Schikowitz encouraged him to list the property and the building next door, which he also owns, for sale.

A call and email sent to Schikowitz seeking comment were not returned.

Though 59 Henry is technically a two-unit dwelling, the landlord has built three additional units in the home without proper permits or approvals, as confirmed by Kingston building inspectors, who visited the property on Monday.

Anticipating the Kingston building inspector visit to 59 Henry on Monday, roughly seven protestors gathered at the home and streamed the encounter on Facebook Live, where it was learned that it was the realtor managing the sale of the property who called the building department to inspect the home.

Properties listed for sale

Schikowitz listed his multi-family homes at 59 and 57 Henry for sale in the fall with realtor Jeanne Rakowski, who declined to comment on this story when reached by phone. The three-story house at 59 Henry is priced at $550,000 and is described in the listing as ideal for communal sustainable living or for appealing Airbnb, where musicians and artisans of all loves can jam. The 57 Henry property is priced at $369,000 and is described in similar language that depicts the home as an urban compound.

These property listings entered the market as Kingstons Good Cause Eviction Law gained momentum in the fall. This law, which passed in January following the expiration of New York States eviction moratorium, prevents landlords of buildings with four or more units from evicting tenants without an order from a judge, and requires a good cause. Failure to pay rent is a valid reason to take a tenant to court, but the sale of a building is not.

This particular building, whose illegal units place it over the Good Cause threshold, is definitely a gray area said Kingstons Director of Housing Initiatives Bartek Starodaj. Though unaware of the history at 59 Henry, he wasn't surprised by reports of the landlords tactics. Landlords do all sorts of things to evict tenants, he said.

Tyler says she and realtor Rakowski had discussed a potential buyout for the tenant early last week, and by Friday Tyler learned that the tenant had received a handwritten notice from Schikowitz that the building inspector would be visiting at 2 p.m. on Monday.

At that time, City of Kingston Director of Building Safety and Zoning Enforcement Stephan Knox and Building Inspector Jeanne Edwards arrived at the property, inspected the tenants studio and found it was up to code, but deemed the attic apartment unlawful, which resulted in it being posted, forcing that tenant out.

The building department cannot evict anyone, the citys communications director Summer Smith said in an email. They can post a building if it is unsafe or unlawful. The situation at 59 Henry Street is both unsafe and unlawful.

Back-door evictions?

Rashida Tyler

It was the real estate agent, Smith said, who called the department, although more than 130 days after the property was listed. When the real estate agent saw the attic apartment, he/she knew it was not legal, would affect the sale, and contacted the Building Safety department. When the building inspector came to the property to do the inspection, multiple violations were discovered.

The property is listed with the city as being a 2-unit building, she added, but there are now 5 units, with no permits having been issued for any of the tremendous amount of work that was done to the building.

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The building department staff is working with the evicted attic unit resident to make sure they have housing. As we understand it, the tenant who was in the attic apartment at 59 Henry will move to the first-floor apartment, which was vacant. None of this was at the behest of the landlord, who is  because of this illegal/dangerous situation  now facing serious legal consequences, Smith said.

Tyler says that often its the landlord or someone close to the landlord who will call the building department to report a violation in their own home when seeking to pressure a tenant to leave without a court-ordered eviction.

Kingstons buildings department is habitually used to do back-door evictions, said Tyler, citing the Kingston group home, Chizs Heart, as an example of a situation in which owners were seeking to sell the building but could not legally force tenants out. A fire that authorities say was intentionally set broke out at that building last year, prompting the fire department to post it as unlawful to inhabit, forcing tenants to leave.

While the practice of posting a dwelling is done by city agencies to protect those living in apartments and buildings that violate fire and other safety codes, the result is an immediate eviction. If theyre caught living there after its posted, they can risk arrest, she said.

Given Kingstons tight housing market  it has a less than 3 percent vacancy rate for non-subsidized apartments, according to a 2020 Ulster County housing survey  that tenant becomes almost automatically homeless, says Tyler.

Tyler still contends that the practice of landlords or their realtors calling the building department to report their own units is more widespread than the city admits and that these calls should be more closely monitored and landlords held accountable.

There should be documentation if a landlord or someone close to the landlord, like a realtor, is calling on [their own] property.  If youre able to look and see some landlord calling on themselves over and over again, what ramifications are there for that? Theres almost no accountability for the landlord.

But Knox counters that cases like 59 Henry are outliers. There are loopholes in most codes and laws, and unfortunately some landlords and tenants alike will use them to their advantage, but I would say these are the exception and not the rule, he said in an email. And while the realtor took months to call inspectors, he added that its quite common for realtors to call Building Safety when listing a property to see if any outstanding violations exist in an effort to remedy any violations that might prevent closing on a property.
UNESCO continues working to send an Independent Technical Mission to Nagorno Karabakh, the UNESCO Press Office said in response to the query of ARMENPRESS, commenting on the alarms about the cases of distortion and destruction of the Armenian historical-cultural heritage in the territories of the Republic of Artsakh which have come under the Azerbaijani control after the 2020 war.

February 15, 2022, 16:08 As Armenian monuments in Artsakh face Azeri encroachments, UNESCO rejects political instrumentalization of history

STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: UNESCO hopes that this mission will be possible soon.

We continue working to send a UNESCO Independent Technical Mission within the framework of the 1954 Convention. We hope that it will be possible soon, but for the moment the necessary conditions are not in place. So discussions are still ongoing, Thomas Mallard, Press Officer at UNESCO, said.

Considering the fact that on 7th of December, 2021, the International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts, as a provisional measure in the context of Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan), how does the organization assess the mentioned actions by Azerbaijans government regarding the Armenian cultural heritage of Nagorno Karabakh, UNESCO said heritage and history shouldnt be the subject of any political instrumentalization.

We urge all our Member States, all over the world, to respect this principle, it said.
ALBANY Two movies nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture last week had bits of post-production dialogue recorded at Overit Media's audio and video production studio.

For "Nightmare Alley," David Strathairn, who played Edward R. Murrow in "Good Night, and Good Luck," worked from Overit while director Guillermo del Toro directed remotely, recording the lines in a process called ADR, or automated dialogue replacement. In ADR, also known as looping, dialogue that isn't usable from when the film was shot is re-recorded as the actor watches the scene play.

Strathairn, who co-stars in "Nightmare Alley" as the alcoholic husband of a clairvoyant at a 1930s traveling carnival, did the ADR work at Overit during several days at the studio in late fall, said Adam Clairmont, Overit's studio manager. Strathairn has been to Overit for perhaps a dozen projects over the years, including film, television and podcasts and other long-form audio, Clairmont said.

"He's as cool as his voice, a real pro and a joy to work with," Clairmont said.

Clarimont also recorded Mark Pettogasso, an actor and stuntman who plays a bar bully in "CODA," a movie set in contemporary Gloucester, Mass., that tells the story of a child of deaf adults. Pettogasso, an upstate New York native who still lives in the region, brought his preteen son Trey to the studio to show him the ADR process, Clairmont said, and director Sian Heder invited the boy to record a few lines as well. They ended up in the final cut of the film, in a scene of children riding bikes, Clairmont said.

Other recent TV work done by Overit includes ADR for HBO's "The Gilded Age," shot in Troy last summer and airing now. The studio previously did recording for the Amazon series "Transparent" and for Mercedes-Benz commercials for which actor John Hamm visited Overit to provide his voice, Clairmont said.

"Nightmare Alley" is currently screening at Landmark Spectrum 8 Theatres in Albany and Regal Cinemas locations at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland and Colonie Center in Colonie. It also streams on HBO Max. "CODA" opened in theater in June. It is available on Apple TV+.
Cindy Schultz

GREEN ISLAND  The Heatly School is holding a community forum at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday for parents and community members to discuss with Green Island Union Free School District staff the recent incidents of violence among high schoolers there.

The forum, which was moved to Tuesday from the original Monday date, will be held in the Heatly school gym. The district is encouraging people to attend for a "solution-focused discussion that will focus on fostering a positive and safe learning environment," and is working to provide child care for people who have younger children.
SCHENECTADY  Two months after his wife and 5-year-old son were stabbed to death at their Duanesburg home, Nelson Patino pleaded not guilty in the case Tuesday.

Patino, 47, flanked by his lawyer and a Spanish interpreter, was arraigned by Schenectady County Court Judge Matthew Sypniewski on a six-count indictment that includes an attempted murder charge for allegedly wounding his 2-year-old son. The boy survived the Dec. 3 attack and is now staying with his maternal aunt in Florida.

The top count charges Patino, once a cook at the family diner near his home, with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his wife, Alexandria Bustamante Gomez.

Patino is also charged with two counts of second-degree murder for her death and the death of their son, Jacob Patino, plus two counts of second-degree assault.

Authorities have previously said Patino, a native of Colombia, used a folding knife and a kitchen knife during attacks that took at least 10 minutes. Defense attorney Stephen Rockmacher pleaded not guilty on behalf of his client Tuesday.

With no objections from Rockmacher, the judge granted a request by Assistant District Attorney Christina Tremante-Pelham to have Patino's cheeks swabbed for DNA and for the sealing of records related to the lab results of certain evidence from the crime scene that was tested.

The latter, Sypniewski said was to maintain the integrity of the case at this early stage and avoid any risk of prejudicing Mr. Patinos right to fair trial. Patino was sent back to the county jail pending a May court date.

As he left the courtroom at the end of the proceeding, a handcuffed Patino in orange jail garb waved to family members and squeezed the hand of another near the door he left through.

Asked about a potential motive, Tremante-Pelham said outside court that we have no insight into what may have caused this.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Rockmacher acknowledged that his client in the 911 call to police dispatch said something along the lines that he had just stabbed his family and he didnt know why. He just blurted it out, but we are looking into the meaning of those words, added Rockmacher.

Outside court, a man who identified himself as Patinos older brother but wouldnt give his name, said the whole thing was very confusing.

Asked about a possible motive, the man said we still dont know and that they hadnt spoken with Patino about the incident.
ALBANY  Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday introduced Kimberly T. Hill as the state's first chief disability officer and pledged to have state agencies designate up to 1,200 jobs to be filled by qualified individuals with disabilities.

Hochul noted that New York lags the nation in employing disabled individuals, with just 35 percent of people with disabilities who are between the ages of 18 and 64 having jobs.

"That's not the category of statistic that I'm real proud of," the governor said during an event in Troy. "So I know we can do better there. We also have to talk about the fact that 30 percent of (disabled) individuals live in poverty. Another area that needs an intense focus. That should not be a statistic that exists, after several more years of focus on this."

Hill recently served as the principal analyst for the state Assembly's Standing Committee on People with Disabilities and was previously director of the Assembly's Task Force on People with Disabilities.

The governor said the chief disability officer will work under the executive chamber and be tasked with establishing New York as "a model for inclusivity, integration, and accessibility by ensuring all state policies, programs, and activities truly meet the needs of all people with disabilities."

In 1983, the state Office of the Advocate for the Disabled was established through an executive order to advocate for individuals with disabilities and implement laws that prevent discrimination against that community. That mission eventually fell to the Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, which was established in 2011 but later disbanded with the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special needs was set up.

State Sen. James Skoufis, D-Woodbury, attended Monday's press conference with Hochul and credited her with doing more for the disabled in less than six months as governor then her predecessor, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, had done in his 11 years in office.

"I cant say enough about Kim Hill. ... She is the perfect candidate for this job," Skoufis said. "This is many years in the making. This new law, this new position, will positively impact not thousands, but millions of New Yorkers."

Hochul said Hill's new office will be "well resourced."

"Let's give people a real shot, a meaningful chance," Hochul said. "And that will include up to 500 positions for people who are qualified wartime veterans with disabilities."
ALBANY  More than 30 years after Congress passed a law requiring museums to return all things removed from Native American graves to descendants of those buried, the New York State Museum has returned only 29 percent of its collection of Native American ancestors and funerary objects to their original nations, calling the rest culturally unidentifiable.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act outlines requirements and processes for museums and federal agencies to return objects and artifacts removed from Native American graves, including soil, pottery and ancestral remains, to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Native American nations or Native Hawaiian organizations.

The institutions must also provide information about the items to parties with standing and, when presented with a valid claim, ensure the items undergo disposition or repatriation. When Congress passed the law in 1990, the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would take 10 years to complete the effort.

The 891 ancestors and the 2,682 funerary objects associated with Native American nations in the New York State Museums possession are listed as "culturally unidentifiable, meaning the museum determined that available information does not reasonably demonstrate a relationship of shared group identity to a present-day Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization, according to a definition by the National Park Service.

If an object is deemed culturally unidentifiable, it is not subject to the federal regulations, and the museum does not have to ensure its repatriation.

New York has the third most ancestors and associated funerary objects  or AFOs  in need of repatriation of any state after California and Illinois. The New York State Museum in Albany holds a high volume of unrepatriated items.

Under current law, the New York State Museum must complete an inventory of all of those objects and ancestors in its possession, but the museum is not required to do anything to repatriate those items and ancestors beyond responding to requests for consultation from Native American Nations.

Jenna Macaulay, an attorney and member of the Turtle Clan from the Tuscarora Nation, said the Haudenosaunee Confederacy  more commonly known as Iroquois  has made too many requests to count to the Albany museum.

"We are reaching out to tribes regarding culturally unidentifiable human remains, particularly groups from regions with the largest holdings," said Emily DeSantis, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. "The process is time-consuming but the goal is to repatriate all culturally unidentifiable remains and funerary objects.

To determine if it has a nations item or ancestor, Haudenosaunee representatives examine them in-person with museum officials. Museum officials then determine whether they have enough information to affiliate the item or ancestor to that nation.

Of the New York State Museums "culturally unidentifiable" collections, 84 percent were originally from sites in New York. Macaulay said it is highly likely items and ancestors recovered within New York have Haudenosaunee ancestry.

The law does not apply to funerary objects associated with ancestors that the museum labels culturally unidentifiable. Joe Heath, general counsel for the Onondaga Nation, a Haudenosaunee Nation, said he thinks the museum uses its lack of proper recordkeeping to its advantage.

There needs to be more oversight, Heath said. There is no excuse for this.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of the Interior expanded the federal regulations to provide museums and federal agencies with a voluntary path forward for repatriation of "culturally unidentifiable" ancestors. Twelve years later, about 80 percent of museums, including the New York State Museum, have not completed the effort.

DeSantis, the spokeswoman for the state Education Department, said the museums goal is to repatriate all culturally unidentifiable remains and funerary objects.

Macaulay said the museum has been cooperative in regularly consulting with Haudenosaunee nations, but is not doing enough to fill gaps in its recordkeeping.

There's just an information gap that we can't seem to get by, Macaulay said. That label of culturally unidentifiable leaves us in a gray area where we can't pursue repatriation, because we dont know where the ancestors came from.

Macaulay said the culturally identifiable designation is overused.

I don't want to say it's a scapegoat, but I mean, if a museum determines that and then stops taking steps towards identifying them, there's nothing else we can do, and that's what has led to frustration over the years, she said.

The Department of the Interior is considering an update to 1990 federal regulations that would require the New York State Museum to consult on culturally unidentifiable ancestors and objects and artifacts, and decide whether they are culturally affiliated or geographically affiliated within 2.5 years once a final rule is published.

The National Park Service estimates that between 90 to 95 percent of ancestors that have not been recorded under the federal act would be geographically affiliated under the proposed revision, allowing Native American nations to request and repatriate previously culturally unidentifiable items based on geographical information alone.

Its been clear that 'culturally unidentifiable' is a barrier to repatriation, Melanie O'Brien, a national program manager at the National Park Service, said during a consultation session in August.

OBrien said the revision likely will not be in effect for another year.

Under the revised regulations, if the New York State Museum fails to complete the regulatory process or refuses to repatriate ancestors, artifacts or objects from known geographical locations, it could face a civil penalty.

Bones just don't show up on a museum's doorstep, Macaulay said. They come into acquisition some way, somehow. They need accurate recordkeeping to show where they come from.

If they have a record of items and they're telling us that they're culturally unaffiliated because they can't identify a time period or location where they came from, then they need to do their due diligence and find out where those items came from, she added.

Macaulay said she is confident that alteration to the laws around the federal regulations will prompt the museum to meet its obligations.

Museums and institutions need to understand what they're holding, Macaulay said. These arent exhibits. These are our people. These are our own cultural patrimony that are still in use today and have utmost significance amongst the Haudenosaunee.

Ariel Gans is a reporter for Medill News Service.
Farmington, WV (26555)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 82F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Showers and thunderstorms likely. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
One of Ireland's most popular attractions will be known by a new name from 2023 onwards.

Tayto Park's title sponsorship is due to come to an end on December 31 this year, leaving space for a new name and identity for the award-winning theme park.

In a joint statement from Tayto Park and Tayto Snacks, park founder Richard Coyle praised the partnership between Tayto Park and Tayto Snacks.

He said, "I am delighted to have aligned with one of the most iconic Irish brands, so successfully, for over a decade. Our partnership with Tayto Snacks has helped to create one of Irelands most popular tourist attractions in little over 12 years.

"We now look forward to a new and exciting chapter for the park, with many new developments planned.

According to Mr Coyle, 30million will be invested in the attraction over the next two years.

He said it was an "opportune time" to rename the attraction to help expand and meet ambitious targets.

He continued: "On behalf of myself and my team I would like to thank the management of Tayto Snacks for its belief in our vision. It has been a very special partnership and we look forward to the year ahead and indeed continuing our journey and close relationship with Tayto Snacks."

Managing Director of Tayto Snacks, John O'Connor, also commented and said the company are "immensely proud" of their title sponsorship over the last decade.

He said, "Our sponsorship of the park during that time has helped us to further enhance the emotional connection Tayto has with Irish consumers by reinforcing the brands values around family and community in addition to continuing to foster the great affection they hold for Irelands most popular crisps and snacks brand since its creation over 65 years ago."

In the statement, Mr O'Connor said Tayto looks forward to "further collaboration" as the crisp giant pursues new initiatives to support growth of the brand.
Nearly two months after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a mask-or-vaccine requirement for indoor public venues, the mandate has been lifted.

With declining COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in New York, Hochul decided to end the mandate on Thursday, Feb. 10. Businesses and other indoor facilities were covered by the directive, which required venues to either require customers and employees to wear masks or provide proof of vaccination.

Cayuga County Legislature Chairman David Gould thanked Hochul for lifting the mandate. He consulted with Kathleen Cuddy, the county's public health director, and they confirmed that the county would "follow the governor's lead which includes the lifting of the mask mandate in Cayuga County."

Enforcement of the mask-or-vaccine mandate became an issue for the Cayuga County Legislature in January. Gould's predecessor, Aileen McNabb-Coleman, had said the county would enforce the mandate when it was first imposed in December. Cuddy said the health department would take an educational approach before issuing any fines.

After Republicans took over control of the county Legislature last month, Cayuga County Legislator Andrew Dennison, an independent who aligns with the GOP, made a motion at the reorganizational meeting calling on the health department not to enforce the statewide mandate. The motion was approved, but it wasn't a formal resolution stating the Legislature's position.

When legislators met again later in the month, Dennison offered a resolution opposing the mask mandate. It also requested that the health department not enforce the order. But Chris Palermo, the county attorney, previously said that the county Legislature could not direct the health department to defy the state mandate and not enforce the requirement.

County legislators voted to table the resolution. Dennison was the only vote against the motion to table the measure.

While the statewide mask mandate for businesses is no longer in effect, Gould reminded residents that masks are required in other settings, such as correctional facilities, health care facilities and schools.

He also repeated what Hochul had said  that businesses and local governments have the option to either require masks or proof of vaccination. But it would no longer be a state mandate for indoor public venues.

The choice of wearing a mask, he continued, "is up to each individual to determine what the best is for them and their families."

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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Pennsylvania Route 6s Vanessa Billings-Seiler, facade program coordinator (left), and Executive Director Candace Hilyard (right) present information about their new facade program to area business and property owners.
As always, we're dedicated to chronicling the decline of Western Civilization in our cowtown and tonight we share deets of a hot mess over the not-so-friendly skies of Kansas City.

To wit . . .

COURT DOX EXPOSE THE DEETS OF A VIOLENT ALTERCATION THAT RECENTLY FORCED THE LANDING OF A PLANE AT KCI!!!



Today the suspect was charged and the public is finally getting a few of the allegations and some terrifying notes on the incident . . .



Here's one side of the story . . .



Court documents say Juan Remberto Rivas, 50, walked up to the cockpit area, grabbed a napkin with serving utensils from a counter, then used the plastic knife from the napkin and directed it toward a flight attendant.



He then proceeded to grab a small champagne bottle by the neck and attempted to break the bottle on a counter, prosecutors say.



Court documents also say he began kicking and shoving the service cart into one of the flight attendants.



Rivas allegedly grabbed the handles used to manipulate the forward starboard aircraft exit door and positioned one foot on the aircraft door. That's when Rivas began pulling on the handle, trying to open the door.



A flight attendant grabbed a coffee pot and hit Rivas twice in his head. A passenger punched Rivas in the jaw, and another passenger grabbed his neck, bringing neck and pulling him to the floor.



Passengers and flight attendants subdued Rivas, and then an off-duty pilot secured his hands and feet with zip ties and duct tape.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .

Man charged after disturbances force emergency landing at KCI Airport KANSAS CITY, Mo - Attorneys have charged a California man for multiple disturbances while onboard an American Airlines flight that was forced to make an emergency landing at Kansas City International Airport. Juan Remberto Rivas, 50, has been charged with one count of assaulting and intimidating a flight attendant and thereby interfering in the performance of the flight attendant's duties.

California man charged after disturbance on American Airlines flight diverted to Kansas City KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A California man has been charged for causing a disturbance on an American Airlines flight that was diverted to Kansas City International Airport Sunday afternoon. Juan Remberto Rivas, 50, who is currently in federal custody, has been charged with one count of assaulting and intimidating a flight attendant.

California man charged after disturbance forced plane to divert to Kansas City A California man who was subdued by passengers and flight attendants Sunday when he tried to open an exit door on an American Airlines flight has been charged in a federal complaint.Juan Remberto Rivas, 50, was charged with one count of assaulting and intimidating a flight attendant and thereby interfering in the performance of the flight attendant's duties, according to the U.S.

Developing . . .


Early morning gunfire involving police inspires this quick update with the basics regarding more violence in Kansas City proper.



As always, we watch these reports closely for a lot of reasons but mostly because they tend to garner more investigation as time goes on . . .



Here's the story for now . . .



"Kansas City Police say they are on the scene of an officer-involved shooting near 36th and Wabash. Police say they called in the Missouri State Highway Patrol to investigate."

More deets . . .

"As officers arrived, they saw a man firing rounds with a handgun into the air from the middle of the street, Lowe said. The police officers attempted to subdue the man by firing nonlethal bean bag rounds at him, which struck him but proved unsuccessful, Sgt. Bill Lowe, a spokesman with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said.



The man then continued to threaten officers with a handgun, Lowe said, and they shot him. He was taken to an area hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening."



News link update . .

Investigators: Police shoot man firing gun in middle of the street The Missouri Highway Patrol is investigating a shooting involving a Kansas City, Missouri police officer Tuesday morning.Troopers said the officer responded to a call of gunfire at 12:30 a.m.

Kansas City police shoot man they say was firing shots in the middle of the street KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- A man was shot by Kansas City police and hospitalized early Tuesday morning after authorities said he was firing shots in the middle of the street and threatening officers. Officers responded to the scene at 36th Street and Wabash Avenue around 12:30 a.m.

Developing . . .
Kansas City Valentine's 2022 News Turnaround:



Tonight hottie Demi inspires our love for the news discourse as we check pop culture, community news and top headlines.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Heartfelt Local Story

Missouri family spends Valentine's Day waiting for heart transplant KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A small heart is putting up a big fight at a Kansas City, Missouri, hospital this Valentine's Day. At only three-and-a-half months old, Lettie Jude Rau has spent pretty much every minute of her life in a hospital. Shortly after her birth in Springfield, doctors realized her heart wasn't working properly.

Plane Crash Postscript

Former Laguna Niguel Mayor Robert Ming killed in plane crash Sunday at Johnson County Executive Airport OLATHE, Kan. - The victim of the deadly plane crash on Sunday in Olathe, Kansas, has been identified as Robert Douglas Ming, 51, of California. Ming was the founding partner at Quadrant Law Group and former mayor and city council member for the City of Laguna Niguel.

Traffic Tragedy Today

One person dies after falling off, getting hit by vehicle in KC; suspect flees KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City police are investigating a deadly hit-and-run crash after one person fell off and got hit by a vehicle. The incident happened around 3:45 p.m. Sunday near 14th Street and Ewing Avenue in Kansas City. The victim, who has not been identified yet, died around 10:30 p.m.

Demi Shares The Love

Demi Rose stuns as she strips down to sheer underwear in racy Valentine's Day photoshoot Demi Rose stuns as she strips down to underwear in racy Valentine's Day photoshoot Demi Rose, 26, set pulses racing as she stripped down to her underwear for a racy Valentine's Day photoshoot. The model took to her Instagram Story today to give fans a sneak peek of her upcoming photos featuring a very romantic atmosphere.

Round World After All

Analysis: Why a Russian invasion of Ukraine would hurt Americans too President Joe Biden spent the weekend leading what is looking like an increasingly desperate final effort to forestall a Russian invasion of Ukraine -- an incursion that could have grave consequences for his own political standing.

MAGA Numbers Don't Add Up

Trump used a Secret Service agent's phone to reach Melania - follow live Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

Freedom Convoy Crackdown Cont'd

Canada's Trudeau invokes emergency powers to quell trucker COVID protests OTTAWA, Ontario - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers Monday to quell the protests by truck drivers and others who have paralyzed Ottawa and blocked border crossings in anger over the country's COVID-19 restrictions. In invoking Canada's Emergencies Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order, Trudeau ruled out using the military.

Drugmaker Takes COVID Hit

Moderna, Pfizer stocks fall as Covid omicron wave subsides in U.S. Shares of the major Covid vaccine makers fell on Monday, as the unprecedented wave of omicron infections eased, with new cases rapidly dropping across the country. Moderna plunged more than 11%, the biggest decline in the S&P 500 Monday.

Right-Wing Learns Legal Lesson Freedom Of The Press

Judge throws out Palin libel case against New York Times The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff came as a Manhattan jury was deliberating on Palin's suit, which claimed the Times defamed her by unfairly linking her to a 2011 shooting spree in Arizona that killed six people and gravely wounded then-Rep. Gabby Giffords.

Unsexy Tech Impact

What has growing up watching porn done to my brain - and my sex life? was young the first time I watched porn. I didn't have hips or enjoy eating olives. My parents still paid my phone bill and I'd never kissed anyone, despite the story I used to tell about some guy I met on my family holiday to Spain.

Savor Local Flavor

Annedore's Chocolates shows off what's so sweet about Valentine's Day Hide Transcript Show Transcript GIFT YOUR SWEETHEART A SWEET TREAT. CHOCOLE ATHAS PORWE FROMTS I FLORAV TO ITS SEDUCTIVE WILES. WHO CAN WE RESIST IT? I JUMP OUOFT BED TO GET HERE SHERRY WEEANDM SURE. CAN'T THE OWNER OF ANODORE'S IN WESTWOOD HILLS IS PASSIONATE ABOUT CHOCOLATE AND FOR ITS PLACE IN THIS MOST PASSIONATE OF HOLIDAYS.

Well-Read In The Dotte

KCK Gets First Independently Owned Bookstore - In Kansas City If you've ventured through Strawberry Hill recently, you might have noticed a new storefront stocked to the brim with books handpicked for the Kansas City, Kansas, community. Flagship Books is the culmination of the vision of two brothers, Joel and Ty Melgren. With more time on their hands due to the pandemic, the pair decided...

Predicting Weather This Week

Tuesday will be windy, warm Hide Transcript Show Transcript CHILLICOTHE EVENING FORECAST 44 6 O'CLOCK 38 DEGREES BY 8 PM. THIS IS WE'R' GONNA NEED THAT JAETCK 34 DEGREES BY 10 AND BY MIDNIGHT OUR TEMPERATURE BE 33 DEGREES.

And this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
Conduent Transportation has been awarded three, eight-year contract renewals from the tolling authorities of New York to provide upgraded E-ZPass account management systems, as well as license plate identification solutions for the states Tolls by Mail program.

The contracts support the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Bridges and Tunnels, the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA), and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which, when combined, oversee the largest tolling operation in the United States.

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As an industry leader, Conduent has been New Yorks tolling solutions and services provider for nearly 30 years. The contract renewals, scheduled to begin in early 2024, include an 8-year base term plus two 2-year options. The total estimated value is approximately US$488 million.

Were honored that the New York Authorities have again placed their trust in our Conduent team to maintain their critical solution needs for reliable, accurate financial and account management systems. We are thrilled to extend our three-decades-long partnership with the state, says Mark Brewer, president, Transportation Solutions at Conduent. This award represents confidence in our global strategy to deliver modern transportation solutions as we provide smart technologies to benefit the environment and create improved driving experiences for millions of travelers.

Conduent will provide modernized transaction processing, account management and financial management systems, as well as integrated invoice mailing, payment processing, and license plate identification solutions and services for customers. Pending federal approval, it will also support the countrys first congestion pricing program when launched in New York City.

In addition, Conduent will continue to improve the customer experience with updates and enhancements to the authorities E-ZPass and Tolls By Mail websites and the Tolls NY mobile app. The app, which allows customers to easily make payments and manage their E-ZPass accounts from their smartphone, was recognized in October with the prestigious 2021 Toll Excellence Presidents Award for Innovation from the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA).

Conduent Transportation currently operates six of the 10 largest toll systems in the US, including systems in California, Florida, New Jersey and New York. The company is also modernizing and maintaining the Ohio Turnpikes toll collection system , and it was recently selected by the Virginia Department of Transportation to design, implement and operate express tolling lanes along Interstate 64 in the Hampton Roads region of the state. Last year, Conduent announced an expansion in the United Kingdom and Europe with a road usage charging contract from Highways England , now called National Highways.
Brevard, NC (28712)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 82F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
The state Division of Veterans' Services could get a rank advancement.

A group of state legislators is proposing a bill that would elevate the division to a cabinet-level department. The agency would have its own commissioner nominated by the governor and would be similar in structure to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which is a federal cabinet-level department within the executive branch.

The state Division of Veterans' Service was created in 1945 to assist World War II veterans. It operates under the state Office of General Services.

State Sen. John Brooks, a Long Island Democrat and one of the sponsors of the legislation, highlighted the bipartisan support for the bill. The cosponsors include Republican Assemblymen John Lemondes and Brian Manktelow, both of whom represent Cayuga County districts.

"Together we recognize that it is time to elevate this division to a cabinet-level department so that we reach the needs of every veteran across the state and create a more centralized and powerful voice for advocacy," said Brooks, who chairs the state Senate Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs. "By passing this bill we can finally give veterans a seat at the table in the governor's cabinet."

The bill would also establish a new veterans' services law to consolidate programs under one section and encourage coordination between other agencies to help veterans access benefits, such as education, housing assistance and mental health care. According to lawmakers, an estimated 17% of New York veterans are accessing their benefits.

Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, who is sponsoring the legislation in her chamber, thinks New York can do better.

"It is time for New York state to elevate the existing Division of Veterans' Services  founded 75 years ago to service World War II veterans  to a one-stop veterans department with a commissioner and an expanded budget commensurate with the expanded programming and responsibilities."

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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Johnstown, PA (15901)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low around 60F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
BLANFORD [mdash] Eric Todd Vandevender, 60, of Blanford and formerly of Cayuga, passed away at 7:55 a.m. EDT Saturday, April 16, 2022 at Clinton Gardens in Clinton, Indiana. Eric was born on May 6, 1961 in Danville, Illinois, the son of the late Floyd A. and Irma Jean (Weir) Vandevender. Sur
ANNAPOLIS (Feb. 14, 2022)Maryland's Democrat lawmakers in the General Assembly are taking another run at major environmental legislation during this year's session, with plans to set the state on course for net zero carbon emissions by 2045, according to top legislators and aides in both chambers.



If passed, Democrats' goal to slice the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% would be one of the most aggressive measures in the country, according to data from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a global climate policy think tank.



Democrat lawmakers said they still need to remedy some of their differences over reduction targets, timetables and the details of how they plan to achieve the reductions, but they said there is broad agreement on certain aspects of their plans.



 Their legislation would require state-owned buildings over 25,000 square feet to cut emissions to net zero by 2035 and privately-owned buildings of the same size to achieve net zero by 2040.



 The bills would mandate that all new buildings be ready for the installation of solar energy and electric vehicle charging stations by 2024.



 The legislation would set a cap on emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas, from landfills. The 51,500 tons of methane emitted from Maryland landfills in 2017 was equivalent to the emissions of over 254,000 passenger vehicles driven for one year, according to data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The bills would also create additional mechanisms to more closely monitor and curb methane. In 2017, the state underestimated methane emissions from landfills by over 39,000 tons, according to state data.



 The bills would transition the state's light-duty vehicle fleet, currently about 5,500 cars and small trucks, to zero emission electric or hybrid vehicles. The Senate version would require that 100% of passenger and light-duty vehicles being purchased by the state be zero emission or hybrids by 2033. In 2021, the fleet included a mere 49 zero emission electric vehicles.



 Senate and House leaders said the bill will address environmental justice by promoting job opportunities and investing in clean energy projects in neighborhoods that have historically been plagued by high pollution, such as certain areas in Baltimore.



Maryland voters appear receptive to climate change legislation.



A January poll commissioned by Chesapeake Climate Action Network Maryland, one of the state's leading environmental groups, found that 63% of Maryland voters think the state should prioritize cutting pollution by 60% by 2030.



The renewed push comes after the climate legislation from last year, the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2021, failed when Democrats in the two chambers could not agree on an amended bill.



Now, Democrat lawmakers said they are coordinating closely to avoid the breakdown in talks that tanked their efforts last session.



Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George's, and Del. Kumar Barve, D-Montgomery, are chairs of committees that will oversee most of the legislation.



The Senate will introduce one large bill, while Barve and House legislators will deliver several smaller bills, each designed to address a segment of climate change challenges, lawmakers said in interviews.



The result is a complicated legislative process, and Democrat lawmakers are still not in agreement over the particulars in both chambers.



The Senate bill, the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, was introduced quietly late last month and the first bill in the House, Comprehensive Climate Solutions, was proposed a few days later.



Pinsky and Barve are long-time leaders on environmental issues in the General Assembly . Pinsky has been a member of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee since 1994 and has introduced a version of the Climate Solutions Now Act for three years in a row. Barve has chaired the Environment and Transportation Committee since 2015 and was a member of the state's Commission on Climate Change from 2007 to 2014.



Pinsky and Barve told Capital News Service they have been working closely together and held meetings before the start of the legislative session to iron out differences that could threaten the new legislation.



When the 2021 bill failed last session, one of the major sticking points was the rate at which the state would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year, they will start out more closely aligned.



Last year, Democrats juggled cutting emissions by 50% or 60% and there was a 10 year difference in their timeline for when the reduction would be completed. This year, they are aligned on a 60% cut and the chambers are only two years apart on the implementation.



Pinsky said in an interview he hopes that an omnibus bill will prevent lawmakers from picking and choosing which environmental legislation to vote for, which he said can help make clear to voters where their representatives stand on climate issues in an election year.



Senate Minority Leader Bryan Simonaire, R-Anne Arundel, said Republican members were willing to work with Democrats on climate issues.



"The Republican Senate Caucus stands ready to work in a bipartisan manner to craft balanced legislation that supports a healthy environment and deals with the impacts of a changing climate," Simonaire said in a statement. "When legislation is advanced without collaboration, it tends to be more extreme and not in the best interest of Maryland."



Last year's legislation faced opposition from labor organizations and the commercial real estate industry, including the Mid-Atlantic Pipes Trade Association, multiple branches of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, Maryland Realtors and the Maryland Multi-Housing Association.



Representatives for energy industry labor leaders, such as Tom Clark of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26, said in testimony last year that they are in favor of a transition to cleaner energy sources, but paused at a swift move away from traditional forms of energy like natural gas and coal.



Clark has said union leaders and their members are concerned the transition would mean a loss in jobs for blue-collar workers as their old jobs are phased out without a sufficient increase in jobs in the climate-friendly sector.



For example, renewable energy only accounted for 11% of Maryland's electricity production in 2020, compared to 79% for natural gas and nuclear energy, according to state data.



"The IBEW and its members are ready and trained for the green economy," Clark wrote in testimony to the House and Senate last year. "However, until you can store solar energy, Maryland is not ready. I suggest you wait until science and invention catch up to your green goals."



The 2022 Senate bill instructs the state to make sure the plans to reduce greenhouse gasses "Directly cause no loss of existing jobs in the manufacturing sector" and produce "a net increase in jobs in the State."



It also would establish a working group to study the number of jobs that would be created by the state's climate change efforts in the energy, building and transportation sectors.



Additionally, Democrats said, the legislation would offer programs for young people to be trained for careers in the climate-friendly industries.



Barve said in an interview he is confident the transition to clean energy will create jobs, saying the solar and wind energy sector should produce thousands of opportunities.



Expanding solar energy projects could produce as many as 22,000 jobs in the state by 2028, according to a 2018 report commissioned by the Maryland Public Service Commission.



Aaron Greenfield is the director of government affairs for the Maryland Multi-Housing Association, a trade association of managers and owners of rental property.



Greenfield and other representatives for real estate leaders said they are concerned that requirements for construction and renovations needed to comply with new environmental standards could significantly increase costs for developers and renters.



Greenfield said his organization has had productive conversations with the Senate President's office about the issues.



William Castelli is the senior vice president for government affairs at Maryland Realtors, a non-profit organization that represents real estate agents and brokers. Castelli said he hopes any new legislation will provide homeowners with flexibility on retrofitting homes to meet increased energy standards.



The Senate bill says the building regulations should "provide maximum flexibility to the owners of covered buildings to comply with building emissions standards."



Victoria Venable, director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network Maryland, said she has seen the General Assembly prioritize other important issues instead of climate in recent years, but the time to act on environmental legislation is now.



"We know from the speaker (of the House of Delegates) and the Senate president that this is a priority for both of them," said Venable in an interview with Capital News Service.



"We can negotiate with each other but we can't negotiate with the physics."
After state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said last year that the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation needed to "clean up its operations," a Buffalo-area state senator has proposed reforms to address the findings of two audits and restructure the organization's board of directors.

The state Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering voted Monday to advance three bills introduced by state Sen. Tim Kennedy. Kennedy's reform plan includes a bill to set a $15 cap on the value of gifts an OTB board member, employee or officer can receive.

The limit on gifts is in response to one audit conducted by the state comptroller's office that found the Western Regional OTB, which covers Cayuga and 14 other counties, spent more than $121,000 on various perks, including alcohol and tickets to sporting events, for board members and employees.

Kennedy also introduced a bill that would prohibit OTB vehicles from being used at take-home vehicles. A separate audit performed by the state comptroller's office found Henry Wojtaszek, president and CEO of Western Regional OTB, did not keep records detailing his use of an official vehicle.

The third measure has received some pushback from OTB and state and local elected officials. Kennedy wants to restructure the Western Regional OTB's board of directors. Instead of each county having one representative, the makeup of the board would be based on population.

Under the proposal, Erie County would have four representatives and Monroe, Orleans and Wyoming counties would have three. The cities of Buffalo and Rochester would each have one board member. Niagara County would have one representative. One member would represent Cayuga, Chautauqua, Genesee, Livingston, Schuyler and Seneca counties, while another would represent Cattaraugus, Oswego and Wayne counties. The governor, Assembly speaker and state Senate majority leader would each appoint one member.

"The comptroller's report very clearly outlined mismanagement and dysfunction at the Western Regional OTB, and demonstrated a clear need for reforms at the corporation, which has been plagued with problems for years," Kennedy said. "Through this legislation, we're holding members accountable, revising outdated policy, and creating fairer representation on the OTB board moving forward."

State Sen. Pam Helming, who represents parts of Cayuga and other counties in the Western Regional OTB, voted against the bill when it was considered by the Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee on Monday.

Helming, R-Canandaigua, believes Kennedy's proposal "dilutes the representation, and the voice, of our rural counties on the board." She also thinks it would be government overreach by allowing the governor and state legislative leaders to appoint members.

"To my knowledge, that's never been done before," she said. "Western OTB contributes significant revenue to our rural counties and supports many charitable causes in our local communities. There is no reason to change the board's membership and I oppose this bill."

Among those supporting Kennedy's plan is DiNapoli, whose audits outlined the lack of oversight at Western Regional OTB.

"The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. gave generous perks to board members, employees and others, ignoring state rules. My auditors found a troubling disregard for appropriate safeguards to hold people accountable and protect public resources," he said. "Senator Kennedy is proposing legislation that addresses this mismanagement and our major audit findings. I look forward to working with Senator Kennedy on these critical reforms and holding government accountable."

Now that the OTB reform bills have cleared the committee phase, they have been added to the Senate calendar for floor consideration. It's unknown when the Senate will vote on the bills. The state Assembly must pass the bills, too, before they are sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk for review.

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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My clients are mainly from our local region, and they come to me to help them solve insurance matters related to personal injuries. A lot of times they are seriously injured, and I am able to help them with complicated legal issues that come into play. So, I am not using US law on a day-to-day basis, but I think I am a better lawyer because I have an open mind to comparative approaches. I also believe that my LLM experience helped me to become more confident and independent. When I face new legal issues or the law changes, I feel more confident that I can find the solution and make the best arguments. I am also more confident in my use of English, which is important in many situations.

If I were ever to decide to look for a new position, I know that having the LLM degree would help because law firms in Switzerland value study in the US.
The Government of Canada authorized the provision of additional military assistance to the Government of Ukraine to further help the Ukrainian security forces defend against Russias aggression.

Canada is deeply concerned by Russias military build-up in and around Ukraine, which presents a significant threat to the rules-based international order. Following conversations with our Ukrainian partners, including during my recent trip to Ukraine, Canada has authorized the provision of defensive weapons to assist Ukraine in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity, Minister of National Defence of Canada Anita Anand said at a press conference in Ottawa on February 14.

The minister noted that Canada and its allies would continue to support Ukraine in opposing Russias unwarranted aggression.

In particular, Canada will donate over $7 million of lethal weapons and assorted support items to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including machine guns, pistols, carbines, 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, sniper rifles, and various related equipment.

In late January, Canada announced a three-year extension and a significant expansion of its UNIFIER military training mission in Ukraine. Ottawa also promised to increase funding for development programs in Ukraine, strengthen intelligence cooperation, and send non-lethal equipment. However, the Trudeau government has so far refrained from transferring arms to Ukraine.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a phone call on February 14 discussed recent diplomatic engagements with Russia and the need for Russia to de-escalate, according to a statement issued by Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby.

In particular, Austin and Stoltenberg exchanged views on the importance of maintaining strong deterrence and defense, the statement said. They emphasized that Russia's actions will ultimately achieve the opposite of their intended effect  a stronger and more unified NATO Alliance, postured to deter and defend against aggression along NATO's Eastern flank, Kirby said.

According to Kirby, Austin and Stoltenberg focused on preparing for this week's NATO Defense ministerial and continuing the Alliance's military adaptation and progress on responsibility sharing as Allies look forward to the 2022 Summit in Madrid.

Kirby said on February 14 that over the last couple of days, Russian President Vladimir Putin has added additional military capability along his border with Ukraine, as well as in the Belarus area that borders Ukraine.

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Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov discussed the current security situation in the region with German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht.

"The Minister of Defense of Ukraine informed his German counterpart in detail about the threats to both Ukraine and Europe, as well as about the measures taken by the state leadership to reduce military tensions. The parties agreed that the settlement of the current situation and prevention of its escalation is possible only with the use of diplomatic instruments," the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine informs.

As noted, defense ministers also discussed further deepening of bilateral cooperation. In particular, Reznikov thanked for Germany's assistance in strengthening the capacities of the medical service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to re-equip military hospitals and treating severely wounded service members in German military medical facilities. The Minister of Defense of Ukraine invited his German counterpart to pay a visit to Ukraine in the near future.

Lambrecht reaffirmed her full support for the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine and expressed the readiness of the German side to continue mutually beneficial cooperation on all issues of mutual interest.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States is offering Ukraine a sovereign loan guarantee of $1 billion loan to help Ukraine's economy.

That's according to Reuters, Ukrinform reports.

"This offer [ ...] will bolster Ukraine's ability to ensure economic stability, growth, and prosperity for its people in the face of Russia's destabilizing behavior," Blinken said.

He added that a strong partnership between Ukraine, the IMF, other international financial bodies, the G7 grouping of wealthy nations and other bilateral donors would also help in the effort.

The Pentagon stated earlier that Russia had increased its military presence near Ukraine over the past few days.

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In 2021 compared to 2020, Ukraines imports of goods grew by 34.0% to $72.82 billion, exports - by 38.4% to $68.09 billion; Ukraines imports of services increased by 32.9% to $7.59 billion, exports - by 14.2% to $13.16 billion, according to the State Statistics Service.

In 2021, exports of goods from Ukraine amounted to $68,089.3 million, which is 38.4% more than in 2020, imports of goods to Ukraine amounted to $72,816.8 million, an increase of 34.0%. Accordingly, foreign trade balance was negative and totaled $4,727.5 million (in 2020, foreign trade balance was also negative and totaled $5,144.3 million). In 2021, Ukraine conducted foreign trade operations with partners from 235 countries.

The largest export deliveries of Ukrainian goods over the reporting period were made to China ($8.0 billion, up 12.7% from 2020), Poland ($5.23 billion; up 59.7%) and Turkey ($4.14 billion; up 70.0%).

In 2021, Ukraines major exports were ferrous metals ($10.31 billion; up 79.7%), grain crops ($7.76 billion; up 14.8%), fats and oils of animal or vegetable origin ($4.74 billion; up 18.7%).

The largest import deliveries of goods over the reporting period were made to China ($10.97 billion; up 31.9%), Germany ($6.28 billion; up 17.7%) and the Russian Federation ($6.08 billion; up 33.9%).

In 2021, Ukraines major imports were mineral fuels, oil and products of their distillation ($14.33 billion; up 79.5%), machinery and equipment ($14.20 billion; up 22.9%), products of chemical and related industries ($9.74 billion; up 32.8%).

Exports of services from Ukraine amounted to $13,156.5, which is 14.2% more than in 2020. Imports of services to Ukraine last year amounted to $7,593.4 million, up 32.9% from 2020. Accordingly, the balance of foreign trade in services in 2021 was positive and amounted to $5,563.1 million (in 2020, the balance was also positive and amounted to $5,808.7 million). In 2021, Ukraine conducted foreign trade operations with partners from 220 countries.

In 2021, Ukraine exported services mostly to the Russian Federation ($1.94 billion; down 26.6% from 2020), the United States ($1.90 billion; up 34.0%) and Switzerland ($1.16 billion; up 49.1%).

In foreign markets in 2021, Ukraine mostly sold transport services ($5.31 billion; up 6.5% from 2020), telecommunications services, computer and information services ($3.86 billion; up 26.4%), material resources processing services ($1.53 billion; up 13.0%).

As to the imports in 2021, Ukraine imported services mostly from Turkey ($935.7 million; up 112.0% from 2020), the United States ($781.2 million; up 13.5%) and the UK ($594.5 million; up 14.4%).

Ukraines major imports of services in 2021 included transport services ($1.73 billion; up 63.4% from 2020), travel services ($1.58 billion; up 124.5%), business services ($1.12 billion; up 12.3%).

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had confirmed Germany's intention to financially support green energy initiatives in Ukraine.

Zelensky said at a joint press conference with Scholz in Kyiv on February 14, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"Mr. Chancellor confirmed Germany's intention to provide financial support to the initiatives of green transformation, decarbonization, and development of renewable energy sources in Ukraine. Our country is ready to offer great prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation in the area of green energy,"

As reported, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a visit to Ukraine on Monday, February 14. Today, the Chancellor will visit Moscow.

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A sea corridor with a confirmed depth of 15-22.5 m has been identified for the safe entry of merchant vessels into Ukrainian ports, which allows bypassing the area of illegal military exercises being conducted by Russia, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine has said.

"Special vessels of the state-owned [hydrographic] enterprise Derzhhidrohrafiya carried out 450 kilometers of linear survey of the bottom structure in the Dniester shoal area in record time. Studies have confirmed safety for navigation of the sea corridor between the western border of the area of illegal exercises of the Russian Federation and the Dniester shoal," the statement said.

According to Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov, thanks to joint efforts and quick response, the Black Sea ports have not been blocked.

"The corridor identified during the research guarantees the ships safe passage through the Gulf of Odesa. Over the past 24 hours, we have recorded uninterrupted traffic of merchant ships. Most of the ships followed the recommendations and used the sea corridor bypassing the area of illegal military exercises of the Russian Federation," Kubrakov said.

At the time of the research, the Ministry of Infrastructure recommended this route for merchant ships, therefore Ukrainian ports were operating as normal. The bulk carrier MV Melia became the first, but not the only Panamax vessel to successfully use the new route from the port of Pivdenny.

Earlier reports said that Russia had declared large areas of the Azov and Black Seas unsafe for navigation in the period between February 13 and 19 in connection with exercises involving missile and artillery fire.

The Command of the Ukrainian Navy said that Russia's decision to close parts of the Azov and Black Seas poses a threat to Ukraine's sovereign rights in the exclusive maritime economic zone and is a violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry protested against Russia's decision to block parts of the Black and Azov Seas.

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The Government of Canada will provide a C$D500 million (approximately $420 million) loan to Ukraine to support the nations economy in the face of the threat of Russian aggression.

Thats according to Canadas Finance Ministry, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Canadas loan of up to $500 million is aimed to support economic stability of Ukraine, the country that is bracing for a possible Russian invasion, officials emphasized.

Read also: Canada sends plane with military aid to Ukraine

It is noted that this loan will be allocated in addition to the sovereign loan worth $120 million, which was announced in January.

Canada also remains committed to reducing tensions, the ministry said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in January, Canada decided to expand and extend the UNIFIER military training mission, strengthen intelligence cooperation, and send to Ukraine non-lethal defense equipment.

Photo: Andrei Tselichtchev | Dreamstime.com

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The Seneca Nation, dealing with internal strife over paying hundreds of millions of dollars in casino revenues to New York State, will await the results of a federal inquiry into whether the revenue-sharing arrangement is legal before forwarding the funds.

More than $470 million in casino funds are being held in escrow, a month after Seneca President Matthew Pagels and Gov. Kathy Hochul publicly confirmed that they had a deal for that money to be turned over to the state and for negotiations to begin on a new casino compact.

It is unclear how long the federal review might further delay payments to Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca that the Senecas stopped more than four years ago.

A spokesman for Hochul said that the agreement for resumption of the payments is "in the best interest of both parties and benefits all Western New York communities."

"Governor Hochul looks forward to this matter being resolved soon and beginning discussions on a new compact," the spokesman said.

Some Senecas accused Pagels of acting prematurely and without properly consulting Nation members before making the deal, although a Seneca court refused last week to stop Pagels.

The Nations 16-member Council voted Saturday to authorize release of the payments, but only subject to a final determination on their legality by the National Indian Gaming Commission, which started an inquiry in September.

The Department of Interior and National Indian Gaming Commission have raised concerns about the legality of the continued revenue share payments under the Seneca Nations gaming Compact and commenced a review of the matter several months ago. To date, neither agency has issued an official report, nor taken any legal action. After receiving community feedback, the Nations Council approved a resolution to continue holding Compact revenue share payments until the federal review is complete, Pagels said in a prepared statement. We hope such a report is finalized expeditiously so our Nation can move forward in charting the future of our gaming operations.

The National Indian Gaming Commission in September expressed reservations about whether the amount the Senecas were expected to pay the state was fair and legal per the requirements of the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

The commission was reviewing financial information to determine whether the revenue share arrangement violated that act's requirement that tribes maintain sole proprietary interest in their gaming operations, according to a letter to Pagels from Thomas Cunningham, the commissions chief compliance officer.

The Senecas ran out of options in federal court to continue withholding the payments, following a third ruling in December that sided with the state and upheld a 2019 arbitration panels determination that the Seneca Nation should pay up.

The Senecas didnt appeal the latest ruling.

In a Jan. 12 announcement, Pagels said the Senecas "vigorously raised many legal issues during a four-year court battle against the state. Rather than continue the legal fight, the Senecas will pursue their interests by negotiating a new casino compact with the state, Pagels said.

As part of a 2002 compact with the state, the Senecas received exclusive rights to operate casinos in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca, with the understanding that 25% of slot proceeds would be shared with the state, which passed along a portion of that money to the casino host cities. The annual casino revenue sharing payments amounted to more than $100 million, and local municipalities counted on the funds to help balance their budgets.

The compact, which runs through 2023, included an automatic renewal at the end of 2016 that took effect for the remainder of the compact term when neither side objected to it.

When the Senecas stopped paying in 2017, they maintained that the renewal of the original agreement didnt specifically call for further payments to the state.

In his letter, Cunningham said that that the 14-year period within which the Seneca Nation was to compensate the state for benefits that included gaming exclusivity, the use of the states eminent domain powers to acquire property and the transfer of the Niagara Falls Convention Center to the Senecas at the cost of $1 appeared to be long since complete, yet the percentage of revenues the Nation is required to pay the State remain unchanged.

Moreover, Cunningham added, the economics have changed in the nearly two decades since the compact was entered into.

The Nations anticipated average yearly contribution to the state in 2002 was $71.4 million, but since 2017, those contributions were averaging $117.5 million per year.

The State appears to be receiving a revenue share that equates to a significant percentage of the Nations net revenues, Cunningham wrote.

Cunningham referred a voicemail left by The News to Mary Parker, a spokeswoman for the National Indian Gaming Commission. Parker declined to comment.

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There are currently no grounds for imposing martial law in Ukraine and limiting the media space.

This was announced by Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov at ICTVs Freedom of Speech panel show, who answered the question of whether a decision on martial law and restrictions on the information space should be expected, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"I am convinced there are no grounds for imposing a special legal regime. This cant be done only to regulate the media atmosphere and space. We live in a democracy, so we are learning to pass such tests, too. I am absolutely convinced that we will also survive this crisis, which is primarily of an informational nature, and we will emerge from it even stronger. At the same time, martial law is imposed if theres direct aggression and invasion. I hope that such an invasion wont happen," Reznikov said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, experts in the West are looking into several options for Russian aggression against Ukraine. In particular, the documents published by the American intelligence suggest the Russian Federation could move into Ukraine with hundreds of battalion tactical groups. Russian troops may also advance from Belarus.

As of February 8, 119,000 Russian servicemen had massed along the Ukrainian borders with Russia and Belarus, as well as in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Together with the aerial and maritime components, their number amounts to 140,000.

Photo: Ukrainian Presidents Office

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Ukraines Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov during an hour-long phone call with his Belarusian counterpart Viktor Khrenin on Sunday agreed on cooperation at the level of military attaches  on February 15 and February 19, the Ukrainian representative will observe a military exercise held in the neighboring country.

Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov shared the news on the air of the Freedom of Speech panel show on ICTV, Ukrinform reports.

"We have lifted many reservations during this call. He explained to me what was happening there, we agreed that now our military attaches would be cooperating. Tomorrow our attache will be present at the invitation of the Belarus defense ministry at the training ground where live-fire exercise will be taking place, which  he assured me  will not be directed toward Ukraine, so our attache will be observing that. Accordingly, the Belarus attache o will attend our exercises. And again, our attache will attend the drill set to take place in Belarus on the 19th," the minister said.

Reznikov recalled that such visits are possible thanks to the 2001 intergovernmental agreement on cooperation, dialogue, and transparency in conducting certain military exercises.

"General Khrenin assured me that they dont want and wont take any aggressive action as these are defense exercises. He assured me that the Russian Armed Forces had been deployed temporarily, pending drills... that this is a temporary thing, for the exercises scheduled beforehand," Reznikov said.

According to the Ukrainian defense chief, he also noted that the Snowstorm 2022 exercise is purely defensive in nature and that Ukraine has no aggressive plans against Belarus. In addition, he assured his Belarusian counterpart that Ukraine would resolve all issues related to the situation in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions exclusively through political and diplomatic channels.

The two ministers agreed to continue the dialogue and, in case of any contingencies, to communicate immediately at the level of attaches, ministries of defense and foreign affairs.

This inspires an assumption that Ukraine and Belarus maintain friendly relations, Reznikov stressed.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Russian-Belarusian military exercises Allied Resolve 2022 kicked off in Belarus on February 10.

They involve government agencies, units and military units of the Armed Forces of Belarus and Russias Eastern Military District, deployed within a short period from their bases located as far as 10,000 km away from the site of the exercise.

The units will perform exercise tasks at the Domanivsky, Gozky, Obuz-Lesnivsky, Brestsky, and Osipovitsky ranges, as well as in certain areas across Belarus, tasked with strengthening border protection "to stop infiltration of armed militant groups, locate, block, and destroy the illegal armed formations, and the enemys sabotage and reconnaissance groups."

Also as part of the exercise, the long-range S-400 Triumph air defense system has been put on duty in Brest region bordering Ukraine.

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The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has appealed to the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly, governments and parliaments of foreign countries due to the escalation of the security situation around Ukraine.

Some 326 MPs voted for a respective resolution, No. 7045, at a parliament meeting on Tuesday, February 15, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk said the document proposes condemning the actions of the Russian Federation aimed at the unjustified expansion of its military aggression against Ukraine. In addition, the adoption of the resolution signals the call of leading international organizations and Ukrainian partners to continue to take measures to deter Russia's military plans on Ukraine.

"The measures proposed by the document will help consolidate peaceful international legal efforts to prevent the escalation of the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine," he said.

On February 14, representatives of the Ukrainian parliament's presidium registered in the Verkhovna Rada a draft resolution, No. 7045, "On the Appeal of the Verkhovna Rada to the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly, governments and parliament of foreign states in connection with the escalation of the security situation around Ukraine by the Russian Federation."

Experts in the West are considering several scenarios of further Russian aggression against Ukraine. In particular, U.S. intelligence data show that Russia may launch a new invasion of Ukraine with the participation of hundreds of battalion tactical groups. Russian troops may also advance from Belarus.

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Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed ways to de-escalate tensions created by Russia.

Important call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on ways to de-escalate the security crisis created by Russia. Diplomacy is the only responsible way. Confident that UN can and should take active part in diplomatic efforts by Ukraine and partners to reduce tensions, Kuleba posted on Twitter on February 14.

As the MFA informs, the UN Secretary-General reaffirmed that any military intervention by the Russian Federation is unacceptable and will be regarded as a violation of the UN Charter and international law.

Guterres also stressed that the United Nations sees diplomacy as the only way to resolve the situation. He is convinced that it is important to avoid not only the invasion but also the escalation of the situation in Ukraine and around it.

In turn, Kuleba noted that the Ukrainian side highly appreciates the activities of the UN missions in Ukraine, including humanitarian efforts and the work of UNDP. He asked Guterres to use the UN Secretary-General's good offices mechanism to de-escalate the situation.

The minister also drew the attention of the UN Secretary-General to Russia's attempts to manipulate the content of the Minsk agreements and promote a distorted vision of their essence. He stressed that these agreements cannot be implemented on Russian terms, which include the so-called "direct dialogue" between Ukraine and certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

According to Kuleba, Russia is a party to the conflict, so Ukraine is ready to negotiate a political and diplomatic settlement with the participation of the Russian side in the Normandy format. In addition, Ukraine is ready to work in other formats and makes efforts to intensify all negotiating platforms.

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While resisting Russia's blackmail and pressure, Ukraine has managed to create a global coalition of partners that share and defend crucial principles.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said this at an online briefing on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Kuleba noted that Ukraine's foreign policy team keeps constant contact with partners. In this context, he noted that he had recently held telephone talks with the foreign ministers of Turkey, Austria, Moldova, Brazil, New Zealand, the U.S. Secretary of State, the UN Secretary-General.

Ukraines top diplomat also drew attention to the fact that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which unites key Caribbean economies, supported Ukraine, made a separate statement on security crisis created by Russia, and called for a reduction in tensions.

"This global geography of contacts shows that Ukraine has really managed to create a global coalition of partners while countering Russian blackmail and pressure. What is happening in Ukraine is not just a Ukrainian or a European problem, it is even greater than a Euro-Atlantic problem  its about global security. That is why our partners from Latin America and Oceania respond to this problem and make efforts to solve it with the means at their disposal," Kuleba said.

The key thing is that Ukraine will never be abandoned in the struggle against the aggressor country, he added.

"We have created this coalition, it is alive and will act in defense of the principles upheld by Ukraine," he said.

On February 15, the Verkhovna Rada addressed the UN, the European Parliament, the PACE, the OSCE PA, the NATO PA, the BSEC PA, foreign governments and parliaments in connection with Russia's escalating security situation around Ukraine.

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Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand Nanaia Mahuta assured Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba of the readiness to implement a comprehensive package to deter Russia.

As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine informs, Kuleba had a telephone conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand in the context of consolidating international support for Ukraine.

Ukraines top diplomat informed his counterpart about the current situation in the zone of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict, near the state border of Ukraine, in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. He stressed that Russia's aggressive actions pose a global threat and also drew the minister's attention to the non-military component of Russian aggression, including Russia's efforts to destabilize the internal situation, economic and financial stability of our country.

Mahuta reaffirmed New Zealand's unwavering support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the readiness to work with other partners to implement a comprehensive package to reduce tensions and work towards a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict.

The ministers pointed out the high level of cooperation between Ukraine and New Zealand within the UN and other international organizations.

Kuleba thanked New Zealand for supporting the Crimea Platform. He invited the representatives of New Zealand to take part in the Crimea Platform Parliamentary Summit in August.

The parties also agreed to hold cybersecurity consultations between the competent authorities of Ukraine and New Zealand in the near future. Moreover, the ministers discussed the development of cooperation in trade, tourism, and IT.

The officials exchanged congratulations ahead of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and New Zealand, which will be marked on March 3, 2022. Finally, Kuleba invited Mahuta to pay a visit to Ukraine at a time convenient for her.

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida in a phone conversation discussed the current situation in the region.

The Ukrainian president wrote on his Twitter account, Ukrinform reports.

Had my first phone conversation with Japans Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Discussed the current situation in the region, security challenges, consolidation of international efforts, peaceful settlement through diplomatic channels, infrastructure projects, he wrote.

Zelensky also thanked Japan for supporting Ukraine.

As Ukrinform reported, on February 14, the Japanese government said that the country would evacuate most of its embassy staff in Ukraine. The number of embassy staff to stay Ukraine will be reduced to less than 10, including Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine Kuninori Matsuda.

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The probable recognition by Russia of the independence of the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic" in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine will mean a further violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, a gross violation of the Minsk agreements and will make it harder to find a political solution to this conflict.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday, February 15, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers, answering questions from Ukrinform.

"On the question of Russian recognition of the so-called 'republics,' 'People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.' If that happens, that will be a plain violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty once again. Because there is no doubt that Donetsk and Luhansk is part of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. So such recognition will be a violation of international law, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. Not only that. It will also be a violation of the Minsk agreements. So it will make it even harder to find a political solution based on the Minsk agreements," Stoltenberg said.

He noted that NATO and he personally support efforts by France and Germany within the Normandy format to find a political solution to the conflict in Donbas. According to him, the recognition of the two said territories as some kind of "independent" entities will totally undermine these efforts and violate the Minsk agreements.

Russia's State Duma on Tuesday adopted an appeal to President Vladimir Putin proposing that he "immediately" recognize the independence of the so-called "LPR" and "DPR" in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Photo: President's Office
Russia will bear full responsibility for the destruction of the Minsk agreements and the process of peaceful settlement of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine if it recognizes the illegal formations in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"Ukraine's stance remains unchanged: Russia's recognition of the so-called LPR/ DPR will mean its conscious withdrawal from the Minsk agreements," Oleh Nikolenko, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, told Ukrinform in connection with the resolution passed by the Russian State Duma to address the president of the Russian Federation with a request to recognize the so-called "LPR/ DPR".

Nikolenko added that such a step would deal a serious blow to the political and diplomatic settlement, actively promoted by Ukraine and its partners.

The Foreign Ministry Spokesperson also stressed that the recognition of the so-called LPR/DPR would entail no legal consequences.

Russia will not succeed in presenting the Russian occupation administration in the temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions as independent entities, nor will it hide its involvement in the armed conflict in Donbas as a party. Instead, the Russian president's support for the Russian State Duma's resolution will have far-reaching devastating consequences for international law and order and the global security architecture. That is why Russia has a choice: either to follow the path of de-escalation and diplomatic dialogue, or to experience the decisive consolidated response of the international community, Nikolenko warned.

The Foreign Ministry also called on Moscow to take a constructive approach in order to make progress within the existing negotiation formats.

"Otherwise, Russia will bear full responsibility for the destruction of the Minsk agreements and the process of peaceful settlement of the armed conflict," the spokesperson said.

On February 15, the State Duma of the Russian Federation voted for the resolution to request Russian president Vladimir Putin to recognize the so-called LPR/ DPR.

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NATO is closely monitoring the situation around Ukraine related to a build-up of Russian troops along its borders, and it has not seen any de-escalation so far, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

He said this at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday, February 15, ahead of a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"So far, we have not seen any de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side. Over the last weeks and days we have seen the opposite. A continued military build-up with more troops, more battlegroups, more high-end capabilities, artillery, air defense missiles and a lot of support elements that makes it possible for Russia to move into Ukraine for full-fledged invasion or a more limited military incursion with hardly any warning time at all. That picture has not changed so far," Stoltenberg said.

He said that since last spring, Russia has been moving forces around but that doesn't represent a real de-escalation. "And we've also seen that sometimes they move into a position with combat-ready troops and a lot of heavy equipment. And then they take out some of, or perhaps even most of, the troops but they leave the equipment behind. And then they can very quickly reinforce and move all the people back, all the troops back again if needed," he said.

"The movement of forces, the movement of Russian capabilities doesn't represent real de-escalation, but we will monitor, we will follow what they are doing. And of course, we call on them to de-escalate, to withdraw troops because the Russian military build-up in and around Ukraine is unprecedented, not only with a high number of combat-ready troops, but all the support, all the combat enablers, they need to actually conduct a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine and with all these forces, all these capabilities in place, Russia can conduct an invasion of Ukraine with very little or hardly any warning time at all," Stoltenberg said.

op
Okinawa currently has an annual production capacity of 1,80,000 units but the second plant will further bolster this figure.

Okinawa Autotech, a formidable player in the Indian electric scooter space, announced on Tuesday that its second manufacturing facility is now fully operational and will help the company meet with the rising demand for electric scooters. Located in Rajasthan's Bhiwadi, the manufacturing facility is touted as a modern establishment which aims to further help Okinawa expand its aim of local production.

Okinawa has informed that the plant at Bhiwadi will employ over 250 people across various functional areas and help the company up its production capacity which currently stands at 1,80,000 units each year from the first facility located in Alwar. There is also an increased focus on expanding customer touchpoints in metro cities as well as Tier 2 and Tier 3 locations. The market is evolving at a fast pace, and the ramped-up capacity will undoubtedly aid us in bolstering the mass transition to e-mobility with a diverse and innovative product portfolio," says Jeetender Sharma, MD and Founder of Okinawa Autotech. "It (the second manufacturing facility) will tremendously help in achieving our ambitious plans to remain market leaders in the Indian EV industry while also assisting in the much-needed transition to clean energy."

Okinawa is counted among the formidable players in the electric two-wheeler space, along with the likes of Hero Electric, Ather Energy and Ola Electric. But the electric mobility space is also a level playing field with a large number of newer players as well as start-ups expanding options available to prospective buyers.

India's move towards electric mobility is being primarily powered by electric two and three wheelers. While OEMs are also looking at more affordable electric cars, the thrust in the near future is still likely to come via two and three-wheelers.

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Beijing (Gasgoo)- Great Wall Motors January total sales performance did not match the same period from a year ago. However, sales of its ORA and TANK brands brought home a win. In January, Great Wall Motor sold a total of 111,778 vehicles, decreasing 19.59% year on year.

To be specific, the HAVAL brand sold 70,228 vehicles, down 25.66% from a year ago. With 5,098 vehicles sold in January, the WEY brand also saw a 15.03% year-on-year decline in sales. Meanwhile, GWM Pickup, the pickup arm owning the brand Poer, sold 12,860 vehicles, plummeting 42.23% compared to a year ago.

Good Cat; photo credit: ORA

On the other hand, two young brands of Great Wall Motor, ORA and TANK, managed positive growth in sales in the first month of 2022.

The ORA brand sold 13,229 vehicles in the month, representing a 28.9% jump from the earlier year. 9,029 of the months sales were from the Ora Good Cat EV model. The sales volume of the Good Cat soared 333.4% year on year.

In the meantime, TANK delivered 10,363 units of its only model, the TANK 300, in January, surging 72.2% compared to the previous year.

Notably, in the first month of 2022, Great Wall Motor sold 12,750 vehicles overseas, indicating a 16.2% growth from a year ago.

The automaker is shifting its focus to the global market, with its new Brazilian production bases in reconstruction. The factory is projected to start production in the second half of 2023, with a designed capacity of 100,000 vehicles annually. The production plant will provide a solid support for the automakers Latin America market expansion.

Additionally, Great Wall Motor plans to invest over BRL10 billion ($1.92 billion) in forming a Brazilian automotive, industrial chain in the next decade.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Beijing BeyonCa Information Technology Co., Ltd., the automobile startup founded by former Volkswagen Chinas iconic figure, Soh Weiming, is reportedly receiving RMB10 billion ($1.58 billion) strategic investment from Wuhan Changjiang Capital, a local media outlet reported on February 15th.

Soh Weiming; photo credit: Volkswagen China



A person close to the matter said that BeyonCa and Changjiang Capital had established an industrial fund for new energy vehicles with the investment. Meanwhile, it is possible for BeyonCa and relevant companies within the industrial chain to set up a passenger vehicle industrial base in Wuhan, forming a comprehensive supply chain ecosystem.

In fact, Soh Weimings personal auto business endeavor was exposed to the public last year, as Gasgoo previously reported, in December 2021.

Notably, Beijing BeyonCa Information Technology Co., Ltd. was registered on June 11th, 2021, with a $200 million capital, not long after Renaults official announcement of Soh being their new CEO in China in March. Moreover, Soh Weiming is still listed as CEO of Renault China on the automaker's website.

Upon further digging, the parent company of Beijing BeyonCa Information Technology, BeyonCa HK Limited, has listed the vice president of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, You Zheng, and the chairman of Wuhan Dongfeng Insurance Brokers, Liao Xianzhi as its shareholders.

As one of the six auto manufacturing fortresses in the country, Wuhan is also home to Dongfeng Motor Corporations headquarters.
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
The Main Point is an opinion written collectively by The University Star's Editorial Board. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of our entire publication.
The fantastic new Calderwood Primary in East Calder has been completed. The superb 14.3 million state-of-the art school has now been handed over to West Lothian Council, allowing pupils to attend from Wednesday 22 September. Nursery pupils will start from Monday 18 October following Care Inspectorate registration.

The project was delivered on behalf of the council by its development partner Hub South East, with Morrison Construction as the primary contractor, the same team behind the successful delivery of the nearby award-winning West Calder High School. Construction work was unable to start as planned due to Covid-19, which meant the building was not expected to be ready until 2022.However, a fantastic effort by all those involved in the construction and oversight will see pupils attending earlier than anticipated.

The new Calderwood Primary will provide non-denominational primary education for up to 462 primary and 128 nursery pupils. It is required to cope with increasing demand in the growing Calderwood Core Development Area, which is expected to see up to 2,400 new homes built, as well as associated infrastructure improvements when complete.

The innovative design of Calderwood Primary by jmarchitects has sustainability and suitability as core objectives.
French utility group Engie returned to profit last year, buoyed by soaring energy prices, company results showed on Tuesday

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2022 ) :French utility group Engie returned to profit last year, buoyed by soaring energy prices, company results showed on Tuesday.

The firm posted a net profit of 3.7 billion Euros ($4.2 billion) after a loss of 1.5 billion euros in 2020, when the emergence of the Covid pandemic roiled the global economy and energy prices.

The results were "driven by energy prices" and a good performance of its assets, said Engie chief executive Catherine MacGregor.

The company expects to deliver growth in the 2023-2024 period. This will be "mainly driven" by its investment in renewable energies as well as higher results from its Energy Solutions unit, which provides support to cities and industries transitioning to carbon neutrality.

These performances should offset lower results from the phase-out of Belgian nuclear capacity by 2025, Engie said.

The forecast is based on "more conservative" estimates of future energy prices due to the volatility of the markets, MacGregor said.

The world's biggest energy firms have posted huge profits for 2021, when oil and gas prices surged due to geopolitical tensions and growing demand after countries emerged from Covid lockdowns.
Nantes, France, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2022 ) :Every day at 9:00 am sharp, 72-year-old Gisele shows up at her local hypermarket in western France to "cheat loneliness".

She always picks the same checkout counter, the one where patrons are encouraged to linger and shoot the breeze as they settle up.

Here at the "Hyper U" store in Nantes, western France, they have an official name for the designated checkout: "Bla Bla Caisse" ("Chitchat checkout").

A blue sign saying "here we take our time" encourages those with time on their hands to linger and talk, and nudging those who don't to pay at a different counter.

"I talk about everything and nothing, for example about my grandkids coming over for the holidays," said Gisele, dressed in an elegant blue jacket with a fur collar and clutching a red bag, a baguette tucked under her arm.

Except for school breaks when she has company, Gisele's daily Hyper U trips are the only chance to see people, she said, so "dressing up" for the occasion makes sense.

"I used to play bridge at a club, but because of Covid I don't really feel like going anymore," she said.

Behind the checkout counter Rozenn Charpentier, 52, scans groceries while listening to a customer in her 60s complaining that she was given a ticket although she "wasn't parked that illegally".

A client in his 60s is in a better mood, having just won 150 Euros ($170) in a scratch card game.

Two teenagers, meanwhile, buy pellet toy guns. "Be careful with those," Charpentier warns them.

"At the 'bla bla' counter I feel free to start a conversation, people are usually happy to talk," she said.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The French senate is set to approve on Tuesday the return of 15 artworks looted from Jews during World War II, as part of efforts by the government to accelerate restitutions

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2022 ) :The French senate is set to approve on Tuesday the return of 15 artworks looted from Jews during World War II, as part of efforts by the government to accelerate restitutions.

The vote authorises public museums holding the works, including the world-famous Musee d'Orsay in Paris, to hand over the property to the heirs of the original owners.

French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot called the move "historic", adding that it was the first time in 70 years that the French government had made serious steps to return artworks "that were acquired in troubling circumstances during the occupation because of anti-Semitic persecution." She called the legislation a "first stage" in returning objects that "are still being conserved in public collections -- objects that ought not, and should never have been there." The bill cleared the lower house of parliament in late January and now requires approval by the Senate and the signature of President Emmanuel Macron to enter into force.

Thousands of paintings by some of the world's most famous artists were looted or forcibly acquired during the Nazi occupation of France and have been kept in custody by public museums such as the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay in Paris since the end of the conflict.

In 2018, the government set up a special unit to try to track down the heirs of the owners, rather than waiting for them to come forward in a bid to speed up the process.

One of the paintings set to be returned is titled "Rose bushes under trees" by Gustav Klimt, which is currently held by the Musee d'Orsay and is the only painting by the Austrian master owned by the French state.

It was acquired in 1980 but subsequent research has shown it was forcibly sold by Austrian collector Eleonore Stiasny in Vienna in 1938 before she was deported and killed.

In December, another four works of looted art were returned to their Jewish owner's legal heirs.

The watercolours and drawings by French 19th-century artists were seized in 1940 from businessman Moise Levi de Benzion.

Until these four works were returned, only 169 artworks had been restored to their owners since 1951 out of an estimated 2,200 held by the French state.

The French culture ministry estimates that a total of 100,000 artworks were seized in France during the war, when the country was administered by the Nazis and an anti-Semitic French collaborationist regime.

In November, France handed back 26 treasures that were looted from the West African nation of Benin during the colonial era, part of a separate pledge by Macron to restore some artworks to the continent.

reb/adp/tgb/yad
(@iemziishan)

French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour said on Tuesday that former US President Donald Trump advised him to remain sincere ahead of the upcoming presidential election

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th February, 2022) French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour said on Tuesday that former US President Donald Trump advised him to remain sincere ahead of the upcoming presidential election.

Zemmour spoke with Trump on Monday by phone. The conversation lasted for half an hour, according to the French presidential hopeful.

"He (Trump) told me to stay true to myself, said that although the media called me rude, I have to remain sincere, it is important to maintain this sincerity. And I think he is right," Zemmour told the BFMTV broadcaster.

The politicians exchanged views and experiences on running election campaigns, including opinions on electoral practices in France and the US, Zemmour elaborated.

The presidential election in France will be held in April. To date, over 30 candidates have announced their intentions to compete in the race.
What's up Vol Nation?! Check out @Sami_whamiii on this weeks episode of the Weekly Wrap-Up for news involving @tpusautk and their guest speaker @tomilahren, the largest increase to the HOPE Scholarship since its founding, @josiah.j.james declaring for the draft. As always, a wrap up of our 
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Caritas Mozambique says it remains committed to doing everything possible to aid persons displaced by the war in Cabo Delgado.

Herminio Jose - Maputo, Mozambique and English Africa Service of Vatican Radio.

The campaign Together for Cabo Delgado, launched in 2020 by Caritas of the Diocese of Pemba, is gaining momentum as the race to help thousands of desperate, displaced families becomes ever more urgent.

According to Santos Gotine, Secretary-General of Caritas Mozambique, those affected by the insurgents attacks in Cabo Delgado need everyones support. Gotine urged the faithful and society, in general, to support the campaign by Caritas Pemba.

Mozambican Bishops appeal for more empathy

A spokesperson of the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique, Bishop of the Diocese of Chimoio, Joao Carlos Hatoa Nunes, appealed for a more empathetic response from those who can help to do so with a sense of urgency. He said alleviating the suffering of the people of Cabo Delgado calls for sacrifice. Families fleeing from the conflict areas were said to be in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

Caritas Mozambique is responsible for coordinating all donations made to support the people of Cabo Delgado. The national body, Caritas Mozambique, is working together with the local diocesan Caritas to alleviate suffering in the Diocese of Pemba.

New terrorist attacks and the destruction

Last week, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the international, independent medical humanitarian organisation, reported that a recent surge in violence in Cabo Delgado displaced thousands of people already affected by five years of conflict.

On top of that, many people in Cabo Delgado are now also vulnerable due to a lack of access to medical care. In the first week of February, MSF said, local authorities had confirmed more than 20 attacks on four villages, with 2 800 homes damaged or destroyed by fire.

The current crisis is concentrated in the centre of Cabo Delgado, particularly in Meluco and southern Macomia districts. Since late January 2022, more than 14 000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to the escalating conflict. They are now in search of safety and basic means of survival. This is the most significant wave of displacement witnessed in recent months.

Then came Tropical Storm Ana and Batsirai

At the same time, Mozambique is currently at significant risk of more extreme weather events, with an annual tropical storm cycle that has already caused deaths and massive destruction of homes and infrastructure. The people have had little time to recover between storms.

On 24 January, tropical storm Ana made landfall in Angoche district, Nampula Province, significantly affecting the provinces of Zambezia, Nampula, Tete, Niassa, Sofala, and Cabo Delgado.

According to Mozambiques National Institute for Disaster Risk Management (INGD) data, 38 persons were killed and more than 207 others injured. Tropical Storm Ana affected 180 869 Mozambicans. About 12 000 houses, 26 health centres, 25 water supply systems, 138 power poles, and some 2 275 km of roads were damaged.

In addition to the impact of Tropical Storm Ana, concerns persist about the intense tropical cyclone Batsirai, which entered the Mozambique channel on 6 February.
Seven soldiers captured by the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) separatist group in Senegal have been released, following appeals from the Community of SantEgidio.

By Vatican News staff writer

Separatist rebels from Senegals Casamance region freed seven captured Senegalese soldiers on Monday, following numerous appeals for their release, including from the Community of SantEgidio.

The liberated soldiers, who are members of the West African peacekeeping mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG) had been captured by the forces of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), led by Salif Sadio, following a clash three weeks ago.

The seven soldiers were handed over to a delegation from the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in the presence of Fr. Angelo Romano of SantEgidio, representatives of the Gambian armed forces, and representatives of the International Red Cross who acted as neutral intermediaries.

SantEgidio at the service of peace

On 24 January, fighters from the MFDC clashed with ECOMIG troops, comprised of mainly Senegalese soldiers. The Senegalese military said the fighting occurred during an operation to combat illegal logging on the border with The Gambia. According to reports, about 2 soldiers were killed, while seven were captured alive.

After the incident, a delegation from the Community of SantEgidio immediately left for Banjul, The Gambia, to facilitate dialogue between the sides in the conflict, at the request of the concerned parties.

As a first gesture toward peace, on 30 January, MFDC head Salif Sadio welcomed the appeal made by SantEgidio and returned the bodies of two soldiers who had been killed in the clash.

Following the soldiers release on Monday, SantEgidio expressed gratitude and acknowledged the positive synergy created between the bodies who jointly worked to contain the crisis, particularly ECOWAS, as well as the authorities of The Gambia and Senegal.

MFDC

The MFDC is behind a separatist conflict in Senegals southern region of Casamance which dates back to 1982 and has claimed several lives.

The group has been largely dormant since a cease-fire in 2014 but has been accused of illegal timber trafficking between Senegal and The Gambia.

Casamance was owned by the Portuguese for several hundred years until it was ceded to France in 1888. It later became a part of Senegal after the country gained independence in 1960.
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The RCEP advantage is slow to take off in Vietnam but opportunities remain

By Asia Investment Research

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is the worlds largest free trade area and includes all ten ASEAN nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) together with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The agreement came into effect on January 1st this year, just over six weeks ago. RCEP collectively possesses a market with 30% of global GDP, and 30% of the global consumer population.

Vietnam, which suffered during Covid in 2021, saw a slight decrease in FDI into the country, realizing some US$19.74 billion over the year. That has been further compounded by closed borders and an inability for investors to travel. Outbound investment was also slow, with just one deal of note conducted by Vietnamese investors in Q4 2021, being a small stake in an ASEAN-based gaming/blockchain company.

However, from a relatively moribund 2021, there are signs that things are starting to come back to life as concerns investment into Vietnam.

Cloud Kitchens

There are over 25 of these operating in Southeast Asia already including in Indonesia and Malaysia. In October, CloudEats (Philippines) raised US$5 million in an oversubscribed Series A to help fund expansion into 2 new Southeast Asian markets including Vietnam over the next 12 months.

REITs

Mapletree Logistics Trust (Singapore) agreed to spend S$1.4 billion (US$1 billion) to acquire 17 warehouse assets spanning 1.2 million m in China, Vietnam, and Japan. Mapletree is now present in nine Asian markets.

Vietnam Dakdrinh Hydropower

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is funding a US$47.5 million loan (US$95 million total) involving the refinancing of the existing debt of the 125MW Dakdrinh Hydropower Plant majority-owned by PV Power. The hydropower plant has been operational since 2014. The total project cost in 2011 was VND 5,921 billion (US$280 million); partially funded by a US$178 million loan with cover from an export credit agency and a guarantee by the Government of Vietnam. The refinancing of this involves removal of the sovereign guarantee from the Government and insurance cover in support of the existing debt financing by mobilizing private capital.

This article has been extracted from the February issue of Asia Investment Research, to be released on Thursday, February 17. The issue contains unique data concerning Q4 Asian inbound investment flows and includes data concerning Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, & Vietnam. To reserve your early bird a discounted copy for just US$100, please click here. Offer valid until closing of business, Wednesday, February 16. This article has been extracted from the February issue of Asia Investment Research, to be released on Thursday, February 17. The issue contains unique data concerning Q4 Asian inbound investment flows and includes data concerning Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, & Vietnam. To reserve your early bird a discounted copy for just US$100, please click. Offer valid until closing of business, Wednesday, February 16.

At present, the investor market has been relatively slow to reach Vietnam, mainly due to Covid. However, we expect things to improve over the course of 2022, meaning there is still time to take advantage of Vietnams manufacturing capabilities and lower overall production costs to access the RCEP markets.

Our next Quarterly Review of Investment Flows into Vietnam will be in June. A subscription to Asia Investment Research can be obtained here.

For assistance with investment into Vietnam please contact Dezan Shira & Associates at vietnam@dezshira.com

Related Reading
Cambodia is tamping down expectations around its one-year turn as ASEAN chair ahead of a foreign ministers meeting that will test Phnom Penhs ability to balance its allegiance to the regional alliance with its ever-tighter friendship with China.



Prime Minister Hun Sen quickly backed off his efforts to engage the Myanmar junta, with Cambodias foreign ministry rescinding its invitation for the military regimes foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, to join this weeks meeting in Phnom Penh.

Myanmars junta announced Monday that it would not send a non-political representative to the summit.



With low expectations about ASEANs ability to right the ship in Myanmar, the central challenge for Hun Sen and his diplomats is to maintain regional unity without alienating Beijing  a feat Phnom Penh failed to achieve during its last chairmanship a decade ago.

Astrid Noren-Nilsson, senior lecturer at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University in Sweden and scholar of Cambodian politics, said Cambodias recent actions signal the governments recognition that key member states, such as Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, will simply not accept Cambodia playing the maverick.



In fact, Hun Sens earlier strategy of direct engagement with the Myanmar junta was probably in large part motivated by him seeking to build a positive international image and legacy during his last chairmanship of ASEAN, she said in an email to VOA Khmer. It appears he will not want to see that legacy tarnished by the strong resistance his approach met from those key member states.

In its statement declining to send any representative to the Foreign Ministers Retreat, Myanmars Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked Cambodia for working to promote cooperation in ASEAN, blaming some members for refusing to agree to the juntas inclusion.

February 1 marked one year since the military, led by General Min Aung Hlaing, toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Observers say more than 1,500 people have since been killed in clashes and suppression of protests.



Cambodia said that with Myanmar showing little progress in the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus agreed in an April meeting  which called for ceasing hostilities and opening dialogue toward peace  it was difficult to create a consensus around inviting Myanmars foreign minister to join the meeting.



Following the setback, Hun Sen, who visited Naypyitaw on Jan. 7, hit back at critics of his ASEAN chairmanship, and suggested he was backing off his gambit to take a leading role in Myanmars reconciliation.



I am waiting to see between the soft and hard approach. I have only about 11 months left How can I solve the issue of Myanmar in one year as an ASEAN chair? Hun Sen said last week in a public speech. So the next one can solve it.

Indonesia is set to become chair next year. Those remarks from Hun Sen marked a sharp turn from his earlier expressed desire to restore the 10-member bloc. But Noren-Nilsson said nobody expected Cambodia to solve the Myanmar crisis.

Succeeding the chairmanship, from the perspective of other ASEAN member states, has become a matter of Cambodia demonstrating loyalty to ASEAN as a bloc, she said.

China will likely put substantial pressure on Cambodia to further its agenda throughout the 2022 Chairmanship, both on the South China Sea and the Myanmar crisis, she said. Cambodias top priority will remain not to antagonize Beijing, which may again force it to gravitate away from ASEAN unity.

This year is the third time, Hun Sen, in power for 37 years, has taken the revolving ASEAN chair since joining the regional grouping in 1999. In 2012, Cambodia as chair was accused of blocking a joint statement related to the South China Sea, as member states Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei faced China over parts of the resource-rich waters.



Phay Siphan, Cambodias government spokesman, said the country will not be pressured, and ASEAN will adhere to the consensus principle. No one is biased to anyone, since the decision is based on consensus, he said.



The Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh has not responded to VOA Khmer's request for comment.



Cambodia could attempt this year to reinvigorate efforts for the bloc to agree on a code of conduct for its engagement with China over the South China Sea. However, Bradley Jensen Murg, a fellow and senior advisor at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said that was unlikely.



Im not seeing any variable change that would make me think it's going to happen. I think that its going to trundle along, he said during a virtual launch-discussion event for a new Asia Foundation book on Cambodias chairmanship.



Cambodia need not cede its chairmanship to COVID-19, Murg said, but rather, through effective leadership and a clear policy agenda, can work to lead ASEAN out of the pandemic while effectuating reforms and safeguards necessary for Southeast Asias long-term, sustainable development.



Ear Sophal, a scholar of Cambodias politics and development at Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management, told VOA Khmer that as the chair of ASEAN, Cambodia should listen, not dictate.



In 2012, Cambodia used its chairmanship to spoil ASEAN by blocking consensus, Ear Sophal said in an email. This year, Cambodia acted like an autocrat, which again caused chaos. Cambodia should not practice cowboy diplomacy.



I believe the other members of ASEAN have already succeeded in reigning in Cambodia, because the authorities just announced that the general who is the Foreign Minister of Myanmar will not be invited, he said.

The U.S. appears to give Cambodia the benefit of the doubt, with President Joe Biden writing in a Jan. 14 letter to Hun Sen that his administration looks forward to working with Cambodia.

"Under Cambodia's chairmanship, the United States hopes to both grow our relationship with ASEAN and continue to pursue our common goals in the region, reads the letter. The U.S. remains steadfast in its support for an ASEAN-centered regional architecture at the heart of the Indo-Pacific.



Biden said he would also invite ASEAN leaders to join him in Washington for a special summit in the coming months.

In a statement ahead of this weeks foreign ministers meeting, Cambodias Foreign Affairs Ministry said attendees would exchange views on how to further strengthen external relations with dialogue partners, while maintaining and promoting ASEAN centrality, solidarity and unite, and discuss ways and means to collectively endeavor to build a more resilient, dynamic, peaceful and prosperous ASEAN Community.



Kin Phea, the director-general of the Royal Academy of Cambodia's International Relations Institute, said some member states still have a negative idea about Cambodia, and remain wary about its loyalty to China.



Cambodia must show a neutral stance on all issues, Kin Phea said.



Pich Charadine, deputy director of Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said navigating a neutral course over the next year would require a cautious approach.



"As the chair, if you are not careful enough, there are many holes that we have to jump, she said. If not, well fall into that.



(Additional reporting in Washington DC by Men Kimseng)
Russia said some of its troops would begin pulling back from the Ukrainian border, but Kyiv is skeptical. The announcement comes as the OSCE chair and German Chancellor meet Russias Foreign Minister and President. Plus, what are the long and short-term implications for the regions geopolitics?
Despite establishing near-total control over Afghanistan since regaining power six months ago, the Taliban have been struggling to secure international legitimacy for their government amid a growing humanitarian and economic crisis.



The Islamist group seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15 as the Western-backed government collapsed and the United States along with allied troops withdrew from the country.



But concerns over human rights, particularly those of women, the Taliban's ties to terrorism and a lack of inclusivity in the new administration in Kabul, have discouraged the global community from recognizing the Taliban as legitimate rulers.



The Taliban have cracked down on dissent, and blocked most women from the workplace and most girls from attending secondary school since returning to power. The group, which subscribes to a strict interpretation of Islam, revived many of the restrictions it had imposed during its previous rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.



Female activists have been detained and released in recent weeks for protesting a rollback of their rights while journalists routinely complain of curtailed press freedoms and violence by Taliban authorities.

Taliban forces have also allegedly carried out reprisals against former officials of the now-defunct Western-backed government despite announcing blanket amnesty for all Afghans after seizing power on August 15.



Government officials in Kabul reject allegations of reprisals and repression, insisting they respect the rights of all Afghans, including women's rights to education within the boundaries of "Islamic laws" and Afghan culture. At the same time, Taliban authorities have defended arresting those "who violate the law."

Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban permanent representative-designate to the United Nations, told VOA his government has met all conditions required for it to be given international recognition.



"We rule all of Afghanistan and we are in control of its frontiers. We enjoy support of the [Afghan] public and, based on these conditions, our government must be formally recognized," Shaheen said.



The United States and even Islamic countries, including Afghanistan's immediate neighbors such as Pakistan, contend, however, that the Taliban need to do more before seeking legitimacy for their rule.

"I find so far an encouraging degree of [international] unity when it comes to holding on recognition for more meaningful steps toward respect for the rights of all Afghans, for a move toward a more representative government, toward responsible stewardship of the economy," said Tom West, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, while speaking at a seminar Tuesday in Washington.



West noted that in his dialogue with Taliban representatives he found them "very sincere in their intent to contain" Islamic State terrorists in the country. But he sounded skeptical about the Taliban's efforts to contain al-Qaida, saying the U.S. would "want to have greater confidence in the steps" being taken against that terror network.



The U.S. envoy said he has also raised concerns about reprisal killings and the disappearance of critics of the Taliban, saying such incidents "are under-reported" and those responsible have yet to be held accountable.



Independent observers also are skeptical about the Taliban's claims to have met all requirements for them to be declared the legitimate rulers of the country.

Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan government official and analyst, said the fundamentalist group's insistence that "we go by our customs regarding the women" is not acceptable to other countries and that no foreign government would risk its reputation by launching formal diplomatic ties with Kabul for now.



"For many countries, recognizing [the] Taliban while they offer little clarity on universally accepted rights of women to work and education has been the real turnoff," Farhadi said.

"The Taliban have to understand they have to change and the world is not interested in lowering universal standards for them," he said. "We hope they do change," he added, because the consequence of Afghanistan not having a recognized government "punishes the entire population of the country."



China, Russia and Islamic countries, including Pakistan, all maintained close contacts with the Taliban even before they seized power, and intensified direct engagement with Kabul in recent weeks to help them deal with the nation's humanitarian and economic crises. However, they have also ignored the Taliban's calls for formal recognition, citing concerns over human rights and terrorism.



"No country wants to be the first to recognize the Taliban, which has long been viewed as a pariah," said Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center.



"Many countries think it's wrong to recognize a regime with ties to international terrorist groups and retrograde views about women, and that seized power without a power-sharing deal," he said.



Kugelman said the lack of recognition complicates global efforts to ease Afghanistan's catastrophic humanitarian crisis because international assistance cannot be sent to Afghanistan through the Taliban under current circumstances.



"There's a very compelling case to be made for not recognizing the Taliban regime, but this throws up some major barriers to providing the international economic relief that Afghanistan badly needs. And it's the Afghan people, not the Taliban regime, that suffer the most," Kugelman lamented.



West said the U.S. is working with other international partners and stakeholders to help address worsening humanitarian and economic conditions. He said such efforts are likely to continue even if the Taliban fail to make good on pledges regarding the treatment of women and other rights issues.



Taliban officials have allowed women to resume their work in the health sector, opened private and public universities to female education while secondary school girls are also back in about a dozen of the 34 Afghan provinces. They have pledged to allow all girls to return to school next month, blaming delays on financial constraints and the time it takes to ensure that girls resume classes in accordance with Islamic Sharia law.



Regional diplomatic sources say that although the Taliban have brought a degree of stability to Afghanistan, it is too early to know whether it will last, noting that armed opposition groups led by minority Tajik leaders have vowed to resist the Islamist rulers. Taliban rule could be put to the test in coming months when the traditional summer fighting season begins in the country.
The European Union and African Union are holding their once every-three-year summit this week, after a two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leaders from the two continents will meet in Brussels to discuss, among other things, the reaction to the pandemic and helping Africa adapt to climate change.

African countries are not happy with the EU travel bans, vaccine distribution, and unwillingness to lift intellectual property rights on vaccines that can help the continent produce COVID vaccines.



Tobias Wellner is a senior analyst with Dragonfly Intelligence, a group that studies global security and political risks. He said the summit will focus on mending relations strained by the pandemic.

African leaders were very upset about travel restrictions imposed by European states and we can expect that they will also speak out against the unequal distribution of COVID vaccines," Wellner said. "Overall, the summit is probably going to be much more about reconnecting after troubled pandemic times, rather than a large diplomatic leap forward.

French President Emmanuel Macron told journalists his country and the EU will prioritize the relationship with Africa and establish a peace system that can build investments in African economies.



The EU is facing competition in Africa from China, which has backed huge infrastructure projects across the continent, and also from Russia which is challenging France's influence in central and western African countries.



Wellner said the European Union cannot abandon its vision of seeing good governance and respect for peoples rights in Africa.

The EU will likely continue conditioning economic and security support for African countries on its principles, democracy, human rights and the rule of law," Wellner said. "In this regard, the EU is probably going to continue acting more cautiously and differently from  for example  from China. There is unlikely to be a large change of politics at the summit. EU policy change takes a lot of time to change, because there are a lot of different positions within Europe that all need to be brought together. So the change, especially on the institutional levels, tends to be quite long.

The two-day conference will also focus on concerns over how to mitigate the impact of climate change in Africa.

Wanjira Mathai, the vice-president and regional director at the World Resources Institute, says rich countries need to pay for adaptation programs.

The biggest polluters, 80% of all global emissions, sit within the G20 and so those economies have to do the most to reduce their emissions," Mathai said. "The climate finance agenda there has been for many years. Africa is one of the climate-vulnerable regions but we also have others but the majority of countries that require finance to take care of the adaptation capacity that finance have not been forthcoming. We know there were $100 billion goals that were not met, so there is a very clear agenda to meet the shortfall of that $100 billion.

Speaking at a webinar organized by the Europe Africa Foundation last month, Senegalese President Macky Sall said there was a need to develop a climate-friendly strategy and consider the level of development of African countries.




Britain announced Tuesday it would co-host an international conference with the United Nations next month to help address the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where aid workers fear acute hunger could kill more people than the preceding 20 years of war.



The conference is being organized to raise $4.4 billion the U.N. is seeking to deliver food, shelter and health services to about 23 million Afghans  more than half of the countrys population - that need aid to survive.



The scale of need is unparalleled, and consequences of inaction will be devastating, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.



The conference is a critical moment for the international community to step up support in an effort to stop the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Truss stressed.



Tuesdays announcement comes nearly a week after a high-level British delegation traveled to the Afghan capital, Kabul, for talks with Taliban leaders on how to respond to Afghanistans deepening humanitarian crisis.

Aid agencies say humanitarian needs have skyrocketed in the war-torn country since the Taliban took power last year and U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country.



When the Islamist group took control of Afghanistan on August 15, wide-ranging terrorism-related international sanctions dating back to the Talibans first time in power from 1996 to 2001 followed.



The United States and other Western nations have also suspended non-humanitarian funding, amounting to 40% of the countrys gross domestic product. The funding had propped up 75% of public spending, including basic services.



Washington has frozen about $9.5 billion in Afghan foreign assets, mostly held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to keep the Taliban from accessing it.



The punitive financial measures have pushed the aid-dependent Afghan economy to the brink of collapse and exacerbated the simmering humanitarian crisis, which stems from more than four decades of conflict and natural calamities.



No country has recognized the Taliban government but international engagements with the group have gradually increased to help prevent one of the worlds worst humanitarian emergencies.



The International Rescue Committee said Tuesday that 97% of the Afghan population is expected to be living well below the poverty line by the second half of this year.



Unaddressed, the current humanitarian crisis could lead to more deaths than 20 years of war, the IRC warned.



Vicki Aken, IRC Afghanistan director, said the current economic crisis is contributing to a catastrophic humanitarian emergency, urging the U.S. and Europe to review their policy to help address the Afghan economic crisis.



Aken blamed the international policies for driving Afghanistans slide towards catastrophe, rather than conflict or natural disaster.



Right now, every day Afghans are being punished by international policies that are leaving millions on the brink of starvation, she said.



The next six months necessitate an improvement, and the power to ensure it happens lies in the hands of the international community, she said. The cost of failure is too high, Aken warned.



U.S. President Joe Bidens administration has taken steps to allow for humanitarian operations to continue, making changes to U.S. laws and following it up with a resolution at the U.N. Security Council.



The U.S. strongly encourages both direct provision of humanitarian assistance as well as financial transactions that support those agencies that are providing humanitarian assistance, a USAID official told VOA. We have made it legal.



Some relatives of victims of the September 2001 terror attacks on the United States have sought to gain access to the Afghan frozen funds since the Taliban takeover, to pay out compensation claims.



On Friday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will keep half of that money frozen for potential lawsuits and facilitate access to the other $3.5 billion to assist the Afghan people. The action has stoked anger among Afghans and critics warned it would worsen the economic crisis in the country.

Margaret Besheer at the UN contributed to this report.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Wang Kai, the CTO of Li Auto, is said to leave the uprising Chinese auto startup soon, while its co-founder and head engineer Ma Donghui is taking over the formers projects, a local media outlet reported on February 15th.

Photo credit: Li Auto



Multiple sources close to the matter confirmed that during Li Autos January business framework adjustments, Wang Kais territories of work, including autonomous driving, computing platform, and the LiOS, were all transferred to Ma Donghui. If the information is accurate, this will mark the highest rank of resignation in the auto startups history.

After the said adjustments, Ma Donghui will act as the CTO, responsible for Li Autos R&D works, including automobile, electric power, cockpit, intelligent driving, computing platform, electronic and electrical architecture, and the LiOS operating system.

Li Auto responded no comment to the report.

Actually, Wang Kais time in Li Auto is not that long, as the technology expert joined the company in September 2020. Before Li Auto, Wang Kai worked in the German Tier1 supplier Visteon for eight years and served as its chief global architect and head of the autonomous driving department.

Notably, after Wang joined the company, several production-ready projects such as cockpit software and electronic and electrical architecture were not appointed to him but to Ma Donghui. Wang was reportedly unhappy with the assignment at the time.
Officials in the U.S. state of California have issued a series of recommendations for homeowners to better protect themselves and their communities from devastating wildfires.

The guidelines released Monday include the use of fire-resistant roofing and vents, having a clear area 1.5 meters around the house, using noncombustible materials for the first 15 centimeters of exterior walls and making sure outbuildings are located at least nine meters from the house.

Officials said communities also need to have defined evacuation routes that are clear of hazards as well as shelter in place plans.

California routinely deals with wildfires, and state officials said since 2017, the fires have destroyed nearly 50,000 homes.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said Monday that reducing wildfire risk will help bring down insurance premiums and prompt insurance companies to offer incentives to homeowners to retrofit older buildings to make them safer.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
As Canadian authorities work to end trucker protests that have snarled traffic and commerce, it remains unclear whether copycat demonstrations decrying COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and mandates will materialize in the United States.

Since the "trucker" protests began in Canada several weeks ago, attempts to emulate them have sprung up in other countries, though none have caused anything close to the disruption in Canada and in some U.S. cities along the two countries' vast common border.

Over the weekend, officials of the Canadian province of Ontario cleared away protesters who had been blocking the Ambassador Bridge for a week. The bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit, Michigan, is the largest conduit of trade between the U.S. and Canada, which are each other's largest trading partners.

Canadian officials, however, have been slower to act against the demonstrators, who have brought the nation's capital, Ottawa, to a standstill for several weeks.

Protest roots expanded

The demonstrations in Canada began as a protest against the requirement that truck drivers who drive their rigs across the U.S.-Canada border be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

In the weeks since they began, however, the protests have grown to include many people who are not truck drivers. And their cause has expanded to include a host of pandemic-related requirements that the demonstrators want removed, such as masking rules and restricted access to public spaces for the unvaccinated.

The protests have also attracted individuals espousing racist views, QAnon believers, and people supporting conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19 and the supposed dangers of 5G wireless networks.

Republicans show support

In the United States, several conservative politicians, including some high-profile Republican members of Congress, have expressed support for the Canadian trucker protests, with some suggesting that they would welcome similar protests aimed at shutting down U.S. cities.

"God bless these Canadian truck drivers," Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted. "They're defending Canada, America, and they're standing up for freedom! The government doesn't have the right to force you to comply to their arbitrary mandates."

Lance Gooden, a representative from Texas, told Fox News, "I would absolutely welcome a similar pronouncement of protest in our nation's capital by truckers and anyone who wants their freedoms back. People are fed up with these overbearing, overburdening regulations that are not based in science."

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was asked by the conservative outlet The Daily Signal about the possibility of protests in the U.S. generally, and one focused on Sunday's Super Bowl in Los Angeles, in particular.

"I'm all for it," Paul said. "Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights to you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates."

U.S. protests a no-show

Despite some efforts to organize a U.S.-based trucker protest, nothing has emerged so far. An effort to block traffic during the Super Bowl, which was held in Los Angeles on Sunday, failed to materialize.

On Facebook, multiple groups have claimed to be organizing U.S. protests. Some appear to have been created by individuals outside the U.S. who are using them to generate internet traffic to unrelated sites or to sell merchandise to would-be protesters.

One group, called Freedom Convoy U.S., posted a detailed itinerary for a convoy traveling from Tennessee to Buffalo, N.Y., a city on the Canadian border. Over the weekend, an angry commenter complained that he had been among a group of supporters who had stood out in the cold waiting for the convoy to make a scheduled stop in Pennsylvania but that no trucks had arrived.

Some groups do appear, however, to be coalescing around the idea of a convoy that would leave from different parts of the United States in the first week of March and eventually converge on Washington. Whether they will be successful remains to be seen.

Fundraising controversy

In the early days of the demonstrations, Canadian protesters began soliciting financial support on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe. But earlier this month, the website announced it that was suspending the fundraising effort and would be refunding all donations in support of the convoys.

"The previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity," the company said.

In the U.S., Republican attorneys general in Texas and Missouri announced that they would open investigations into the company's decision to block donations to the convoy.

Meanwhile, the Canadian convoy's organizers turned to GiveSendGo, which bills itself as a "Free Christian Crowdfunding Site." On Monday, a hacker affiliated with the group Anonymous announced that he had broken into the GiveSendGo website and released more than 90,000 names of people who, he claimed, had donated more than $9 million to the cause.

On Monday afternoon, the GiveSendGo website was offline.


Professional reporters in Myanmar say their job is nearly impossible under the fierce restrictions imposed by military rule. Now, citizen journalists have stepped into the breach, often working undercover to avoid arrests or worse.

After a coup ousted elected civilian leaders about a year ago, press freedom in the country rapidly declined. The junta banned several news outlets; hundreds of reporters have been detained and several killed.

The country's crisis, however, has only inspired converts like 27-year-old Shane, an engineer who lost his job in the post-coup economic turmoil.

Shane joined anti-junta protests with the civil disobedience movement, or CDM, which initially organized street demonstrations featuring Myanmar's professional class  doctors, lawyers, teachers  and then launched successive strikes.

The experience transformed him.

"My passion is more relevant to the journalist job. That's why I joined the CDM, (and) it can be said that I (then) became a citizen journalist," Shane told VOA. (To help ensure safety, VOA is not using the full name of any citizen journalist in this story.)

After the strikes, Myanmar's military rulers forced those who had been living in government housing to leave, including Shane.

"I returned to my native town, Mindat, Chin state, and a few months later, the battles started," he said.

In May, Shane reported on some of the military's most violent episodes, including conflict with the Chin Defense Forces, formed after the coup to guard townships and civilians from military attacks in Chin state.

"The worst thing I have had to report is around 10 young men were killed in one day in the battle of Mindat," he said.

Shane said he watched the military burn two men to death. He reported that junta forces arrested several civilians, ordered them to wear military uniforms and used them as human shields, causing a Chin forces retreat.

At the time, Shane was assisting reporters from local, national and international media outlets.

"We don't get income by doing citizen journalism, but with passion and enthusiasm, with the mindset that we will contribute our best for our people and our region, and we are still working on it," he said.

Dozens detained

There is no telling how many citizen journalists are taking up the pen in Myanmar. The void they are filling, however, is big and getting bigger.

According to Reporting ASEAN, a monitoring group in Southeast Asia, 121 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar as of Feb. 9, 2022. Of those, 47 remain in custody, 16 were convicted of various charges and one died.

According to the United Nations spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, the number of journalists arrested in the past 12 months is higher: 146, including 12 women.

And a Facebook group, Detained Journalists Information Myanmar, counts 23 citizen journalists, freelancers or former journalists detained and one killed.

"The (junta) targets not only working journalists, but they want everyone who has contact with media organizations," said Thiri, a former journalist and administrator for the Facebook page.

Myanmar's military spokesperson has said that only those inciting unrest have been arrested.

The coup took place on Feb. 1, 2021, when General Min Aung Hlaing overthrew the elected government of Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

She is now in prison on what rights groups say are fabricated corruption charges.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 1,546 people have been killed by the military since the coup.

'Gun to my chest'

May, a 26-year-old also from Chin state, has found herself in precarious situations while reporting. She became a citizen journalist before the coup, in 2018, and told VOA that her curious personality had drawn her to the profession.

"I wanted to know something first, so I always go and investigate what happened and share with others," she said. "The life is really different from other ordinary life. It keeps me awake, conscious, alert and active every day."

In April, she witnessed junta forces open fire on civilians in Kanpetlet, a town in Chin state. Despite the dangers, May tried to get closer to the events to gather more information. Soldiers said no.

"The junta forces pointed a gun to my chest and said, 'If you take a step, you will be shot.'"

"I was so weak in my mind, I wanted to cry. I was so angry at him (the soldier). I just stared at him," May said. Fortunately for May, one of the soldier's superiors prevented her from being shot.

It wasn't her first intimidating encounter with the military.

"My phone is often checked by junta forces," she said. "They found some wounded people's photos, and victims' photos and asked me why these photos are on my phone. They questioned me again and again for long hours."

May has no plans to stop. "While there is still growing military pressure, I will continue to do citizen journalism," she said. "It is still going on."

'Whole country' news

Veteran journalist Aye Chan Naing, editor of Democratic Voice of Burma, an independent broadcast media group in Myanmar, has said there is "zero tolerance" for independent media in Myanmar. What's happened in reaction, though, is that "the whole country has become a journalist," Aye Chan Naing said.

"If you really want to work in the media environment in Burma, you really have to be undercover. They (the military) consider everyone an enemy," he told VOA. Burma is the former name for Myanmar.

A reporter who writes under the name Aung Htun at Burma VJ, a media network of journalists, said colleagues were taking more precautions.

Reporters are using Signal, a secure text messaging app. But with regular internet shutdowns by the junta, it's tough sometimes to get the news out.

With no internet to broadcast on, Shane said he shares his reporting by making phone calls.

"I believe it is my responsibility to write news and broadcast through radio," Shane said. "It is very important for my people, because there is no internet connection since September 2021."


The United Nations is urging the international community to maintain its support of the South Pacific island nation, Tonga, a month after a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.

On January 15, a massive undersea volcano unleashed tsunami waves that slammed into the Tongan archipelago. Foreign diplomats said that while the loss of life and the number of serious injuries were small, the damage to property was catastrophic.

Much of the South Pacific nation has been blanketed with volcanic ash.



The United Nations has described the international response to the disaster as fantastic. Aid has been delivered by air and sea by Australia, New Zealand, China, Britain and the European Union.



But it has been a relief operation like no other. Authorities in Tonga demanded that aid shipments be contactless to avoid the spread of the coronavirus in a country that had previously recorded just a single infection last year with no deaths recorded so far.



However, case numbers have now risen, and the recovery effort is being hampered by a worrying outbreak of COVID-19.



About 141 cases are now confirmed across several villages. The WHO says as of January 4 this year, more than 130,000 vaccine doses have been administered.



The U.N. resident coordinator responsible for Tonga, Sanaka Samarasinha, told Radio New Zealand the international aid effort must continue.



We need to strengthen national capacities to respond. We need to pre-position supplies as much as possible, ideally in the Pacific, and we need to make sure that we build stronger networks, more resilient networks of communication so that we are able to provide some of the technical support that may not be available in each of these small countries virtually at times of such crises.



The World Bank has estimated the damage to buildings, communications and infrastructure was the equivalent of 18% of Tongas gross domestic product or annual income. However, broader economic losses on farming and tourism are not reflected in the banks report.



Tonga has a population of just over 100,000. It closed its borders in early 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe.



Entry to foreign nationals continues to be subject to strict biosecurity conditions.


The United Nations Childrens Fund said Tuesday that nearly half of Somalias population under five years old, more than 1.4 million children, are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition because of the ongoing drought.

UNICEF cited a report released last week by the Somalia Food Security and Nutrition Assessment unit, which also said nearly 330,000 of the 1.4 million children would suffer from severe malnutrition this year.

Somalia and other countries in the Horn of Africa are facing the regions worst drought in a decade, which has been worsened by armed conflict.

We know that humanitarian emergencies of this magnitude disproportionately affect children, UNICEF Representative Angela Kearney said in a statement. The numbers we are seeing this year are quite high and, unless urgent measures are taken, thousands of children are at risk of dying.

Last week the United Nations World Food Program warned that 13 million people in the region, including parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, face severe hunger in the first quarter of this year. The WFP said immediate aid is needed to prevent a major humanitarian crisis.

The regional crisis has prompted UNICEF to issue an urgent appeal for $7 million before the end of March to purchase 104,000 cartons of ready-to-use" therapeutic foods for the treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition to avoid a shortage of the food supplies this summer.

Somalias government declared a state of humanitarian emergency in November in response to the drought.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
Ethiopian lawmakers have voted (Tuesday) for an early end to the state of emergency declared in November as Tigray forces moved toward the capital.

The Ethiopian parliament, also called the House of Peoples Representatives, has voted to end the countrys state of emergency.



Initially, Ethiopia declared the state of emergency for six months. But the parliament voted Tuesday to end it after three months, with lawmakers saying the security situation in the country has improved, and that the state of emergency rule had diminished the image of the country internationally.



Some members of parliament opposed the decision. They argued that forces of the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front, or TPLF, are still fighting Ethiopian army forces in the Afar region, and are allegedly preparing to launch another attack against the Amhara region.



But a government representative in parliament said it is now possible to control any threat through a regular law enforcement process.



Ethiopia declared the six-month state of emergency at the beginning of November as TPLF forces moved within 200 kilometers of the capital. The TPLF says its forces eventually retreated to pave the way for peace negotiations. The Ethiopian government says they were pushed back by force.



In any case, rights groups accuse the government of using the state of emergency to round up large numbers of civilians in Addis Ababa, most of them ethnic Tigrayans.



In November, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said it was alarmed at the way Ethiopian police were targeting alleged suspects and set up a panel to investigate.

According to state run media outlets, the investigators have been ordered to finish their work within a month and submit their findings to the commission.

The ministry of justice has also been told to deal with the remaining state of emergency-related cases through the regular judicial process.
The U.N. Childrens fund warns that famine is stalking Somalia, as years of climate-related disasters have destroyed crops, dried up water sources and created an environment in which deadly diseases are flourishing.

Somalia is facing a food, malnutrition, and water crisis after three years of consecutive drought, compounded by heavy flooding, and an infestation of desert locusts. The U.N. Childrens Fund, UNICEF, reports that more than four million people, a quarter of the population, need humanitarian food assistance.

It says 1.4 million children are acutely malnourished, including 330,000 at risk of dying if they do not receive special treatment for severe acute malnutrition.

Additionally, UNICEFs chief of communication in Somalia, Victor Chinyama, said millions of people need emergency water supplies. Speaking from the capital, Mogadishu, he said lack of water is leading to serious outbreaks of diseases, such as measles, and diarrheal diseases including cholera.

Chinyama said families are taking desperate measures to survive. Since November, he notes half a million people have fled their homes in search of food, water, and grazing land for their cattle, exposing them to many risks. He says children on the move are particularly at risk of multiple abuses.

Such as sexual violence, exploitation, gender-based violence. And in the context of Somalia, we cannot talk about displacement risks without addressing the specter of children being abducted and recruited by armed groups, for example, such as al-Shabab, he said.

UNICEF reports last year, 1,200 children, including girls, were recruited by armed groups and 1,000 children were abducted. Chinyama said many of these children have been victims of multiple violations.

He urged the international community to act now to support Somalia and avoid a repeat of the 2011 famine, which killed an estimated quarter-million people.

When the international community waits until a famine is declared as we learned from 2011, that is probably a bit too late. A lot of the mortality happens before the famine is declared. When we start to show pictures of emaciated children, distended pot bellies, I am afraid that is too late, said Chinyama.

UNICEF is appealing for $48 million to carry out its humanitarian operation. It says $7 million is urgently needed by March to purchase high energy vitamin fortified food. It says the lives of 100,000 severely acutely malnourished children depend upon receiving this treatment.
Three Turkish journalists were released on Tuesday, hours after being jailed over their coverage of the deaths of Turkish intelligence officers in Libya in 2020, a lawyer and opposition member said.



In September 2020, five journalists were convicted of revealing information and documents connected to intelligence activities. They were variously held in detention for up to six months during their trial.



The charges related to articles and social media posts published shortly after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in February 2020 that Turkey had "several martyrs" in Libya.



Turkey has provided military support and training to Libya's internationally recognized Government of National Accord and helped it fight off an assault lasting several months on the capital of Tripoli by eastern Libyan forces led by Khalifa Haftar.



Two journalists were sentenced in September 2020 to three years and nine months in jail, while three were given four years and eight months.



The defendants denied the accusations, saying they had been doing their jobs as journalists. Their sentences were finalized after an appeals court rejected their application on January 28.



A lawyer for the journalists said on Tuesday that Murat Agirel, a reporter for Yeni Cag newspaper, and Baris Pehlivan, journalist for opposition daily Cumhuriyet, were released.



Alpay Antmen, a lawmaker for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said journalist Hulya Kilinc was released, but it was unclear if the other two journalists were still detained.



Turkish courts do not generally confirm rulings to the media and there was no word on Tuesday's case from the government.



According to the indictment, Agirel was the first to reveal the identities of the intelligence officers, sharing names and photos on Twitter and referring to Erdogan's comments.



Celal Ulgen, another lawyer in the case, said the sentences were "an intimidation directed towards all of society."



Turkey is one of the world's biggest jailers of journalists.



Critics say Erdogan has eroded the independence of courts and the media since a crackdown following an attempted coup in 2016. Officials say the courts are autonomous and arrests have been necessary because of security risks.
The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Tuesday that aid to millions of Yemenis is in jeopardy as donor funding is rapidly running out.

"In December, the World Food Program reduced food rations for 8 million people," Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council. "Starting next month, those 8 million may get no food at all, or just a reduced ration."

He said that in March, the humanitarian flights that ferry food, supplies and aid workers into the country may have to be suspended.

Nearly 21 million Yemenis, more than two-thirds of the population, need humanitarian assistance.

The U.N. has appealed for $3.85 billion for 2022, but the donors are not stepping up.

"The scale of the current gaps are unprecedented in Yemen," Griffiths said. "We have never before considered giving hungry people no food at all."

Last week, he released $20 million from the U.N.'s emergency humanitarian fund to Yemen. It was the second time he has done so this year.

"If these gaps are not addressed, it will simply be a death sentence for people whose coping mechanisms, in some cases, are completely exhausted and rely on assistance for their survival," Griffiths warned.

Sweden and Switzerland are co-hosting a high-level pledging conference for Yemen with the United Nations on March 16.

The country is in the seventh year of a brutal war that has pushed it deeper into poverty.

In September, fighting escalated between Saudi-backed government forces and Iranian-supported Houthi militants and intensified in January.

Griffiths said more than 650 civilians were killed or wounded in January, the highest toll in at least three years.

The environment is also dangerous for those trying to help the population.

On Friday, armed men abducted five U.N. staff members on an official mission in the southern Abyan governate. Griffiths said the United Nations is working to secure their release.

"These incidents are utterly unacceptable," he said.


U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Washington believes a Russian invasion of Ukraine is still very much a possibility, and he appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to continue talks  or risk severe consequences.

World War II was a war of necessity, Biden said. But if Russia attacks Ukraine, it would be a war of choice, or a war without cause or reason. I say these things not to provoke but to speak the truth, because the truth matters. Accountability matters. If Russia does invade in the days and weeks ahead, the human cost for Ukraine will be immense, and the strategic costs for Russia will also be immense. If Russia attacks Ukraine, it will be met with overwhelming international condemnation. The world will not forget that Russia chose needless death and destruction. Invading Ukraine will prove to be a self-inflicted wound. The United States and our allies and partners will respond decisively.

On Tuesday, Putin said he is ready for negotiations with the U.S. and its NATO allies over missile deployments and military exercises in Europe, after Moscow announced it is withdrawing some troops from along the Ukraine border.

That would be good, Biden said, echoing skepticism voiced by Ukrainian and NATO officials, but we have not yet verified that. We have not yet verified the Russian military units are returning to their own bases. Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position. And the fact remains right now Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine and Belarus and along Ukraine's border.

And if Russia takes action, he said  even through a virtual invasion  Biden warned of steep consequences.

We're not seeking direct confrontation with Russia, Biden said. I have been clear that if Russia targets Americans in Ukraine, we will respond forcefully. If Russia attacks the United States or our allies through asymmetric means, like disruptive cyberattacks against our companies, or critical infrastructure, we are prepared to respond.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Washington and NATO are hoping to see a meaningful reduction of troop presence.

How we define success is, I think, how a lot of our European partners and NATO allies would define it, which would be ... a proven de-escalation at the border of Ukraine, where the Russians are pulling back their troops, where they are making it clear to all, to the global community, to the media, to the public that they are not invading Ukraine and backing that up with actions.

Putin, speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Kremlin, said he is willing to engage with the West even though it has continued to reject Moscows key demands to rule out possible NATO membership for Ukraine and other former Soviet states and pull back Western troops in Eastern Europe closest to Russia.

The Russian leader said Moscow would attempt to develop confidence-building measures with NATO, while still emphasizing that the West must pay attention to its main demands.

In Washington, Biden addressed the fast-moving developments in a mid-afternoon speech.

Putins agreement for more diplomacy with the West and the withdrawal of an undisclosed number of Russian troops after they completed training near Ukraine buoyed hopes that a feared imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine would be averted.

Scholz said he agrees with Moscow that diplomatic options are "far from exhausted." The announcement of troops being pulled back is a "good signal," he said, adding that he hopes that "more will follow."

But NATO and Ukrainian officials said they had yet to see evidence of a withdrawal on the ground.

Russia did not say how many of the estimated 130,000 troops it has amassed to the north, east and south of Ukraine are being moved out after a buildup that has led the U.S. and its allies to warn of a Russian invasion of the one-time Soviet republic that could occur at any moment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, "We've always said the troops will return to their bases after the exercises are over. This is the case this time as well."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that the Wests main military alliance welcomes signs Moscow may be willing to continue diplomatic talks over European security and the Ukraine stalemate and move troops away from Ukraines border.

This gives grounds for cautious optimism, Stoltenberg said. But so far we have not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side."

He said Russia has often left military equipment behind after exercises, leaving the opportunity for forces to regroup.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba voiced skepticism about the Russian troop movement as well.

We in Ukraine have a rule: we dont believe what we hear, we believe what we see, Kuleba said. If a real withdrawal follows these statements, we will believe in the beginning of a real de-escalation.

On Monday, U.S. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said that even in the last two days, Putin has added military capability along that border with Ukraine and in Belarus. He is exercising some of those units on the ground there in the south as well as his naval units in the Black Sea.

So, he continues to add to his readiness. He continues to give himself more options, should he pursue a military path here, Kirby said. He continues to do the things that you would expect one to do if one was planning on a major military action.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said large-scale drills near Ukraine will continue, but that some units of the southern and western military districts had completed their exercises and started returning to base. The troop movements could not immediately be confirmed.

As the training comes to an end, the troops, as usual, will march back to their home stations, the spokesman said. Units from the southern and the western military districts that completed their tasks already have started loading on trains and motor vehicles. They will start moving to their home bases. Individual units will march on their own in military columns.

The Russian announcement about the troop movement came amid continued efforts by the U.S. and its Western allies to reduce the threat of warfare.

Scholz met with Putin a day after discussing the crisis with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv.

Scholz called for a peaceful resolution of the standoff. In Moscow on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Putin that diplomatic talks with the West were far from exhausted and urged that they be continued.

We have already warned more than once that we will not allow endless negotiations on questions that demand a solution today, Lavrov said, adding, "I must say there are always chances."

Russia has denied it plans to invade Ukraine.

The Pentagon said Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and NATOs Stoltenberg discussed by phone the importance of maintaining strong deterrence and defense and emphasized that Russias actions will ultimately achieve the opposite of their intended effect  a stronger and more unified NATO alliance, postured to deter and defend against aggression along NATOs eastern flank.

Austin is set to attend a meeting of NATO defense ministers this week in Brussels, and to visit Ukrainian neighbors Poland and Lithuania.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Two hundred years ago, freed slaves from America made their way back to their ancestral homeland of West Africa, an event that led to the establishment of a new country - Liberia. The bicentennial of their arrival was celebrated this week across Liberia.

Decked out in the colors of their flag, Liberians flocked Monday to Samuel Doe Stadium in Monrovia. They were joined by delegates from throughout the region, as well as from the U.S., to witness the beginning of celebrations to mark the return of the first freed slaves to West Africa.

Beginning in 1820, the first ships of free slaves sailed across the Atlantic to the shores of Providence Island. Some were freed on the condition they return to Liberia because their masters feared a growing population of freed slaves. Others chose to return to experience the freedoms that werent available to them in America or to Christianize the African continent.

In 1847, the Republic of Liberia was officially formed.

Othniel Forte is a Liberian historian and author. He says the return was significant not just for Liberia, but for other African countries fighting against colonial rule.

So, this year celebrates that return home. And that return home led into the liberation movement of Africa," said Forte. "So, as Africa began to get freedom, different countries began to get freedom, and Liberia remained that symbolic land that they could all aspire to.

Things have not always gone smoothly. In the late 1980s, ethnic divisions and rampant corruption escalated into a brutal 14-year civil war that killed a quarter-million people.

Liberia suffered more setbacks between 2014 and 2016 when the Ebola epidemic killed nearly 5,000 citizens.

But since the fighting ended in 2003, Liberia has enjoyed general political stability.

Ibrahim Nyei is a Liberian political analyst.

We are celebrating so many things," he said. "We are celebrating the resilience of our society and the resilience of our sovereign nation. And the collective will of our people to continue to fight for freedom and justice.

Though ethnic tensions have largely subsided, Liberia now faces other problems, Nyei said.

Weve been able to create a united society. Weve been able to establish co-values around which we all fight, whether American-Liberian, indigenous," said Nyei. "So, now its the collective fight against incompetent, corrupt political leadership that continues to impose harsh conditions of poverty and injustice on the population.

The bicentennial launch will continue through Wednesday and will include events such as lectures and concerts.
Efforts by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to bring Myanmar back into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have cemented a split within the trade group between mainland authoritarian governments and democratic maritime powers, analysts said.

They said those differences could overshadow the Foreign Ministers Retreat in Phnom Penh this week, when the 10 ASEAN members are expected to thrash out their differences and set an agenda for the year ahead. Cambodia holds the rotating chair position in ASEAN.

Issues ranging from the disputed South China Sea to the Quad  a Western alliance intended to restrain Chinese expansionism  top the agenda, alongside post-pandemic economic recovery, admitting East Timor into the group and ending the post-coup violence in Myanmar.

But analysts said existing divisions that erupted with the ethnic cleansing and alleged genocide by Myanmars military against the Muslim Rohingya in 2017 had widened since the February 1, 2021, coup and had become obvious since Hun Sens trip to Naypyidaw.

The differences around Myanmar is very real and you can see the countries with military leaderships like Thailand, Cambodia, Laos working with Myanmar directly or indirectly, said Charles Santiago from the group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

Other countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, as well as Philippines, are in a different group all together. The second group seems to be exerting pressure on the first, he said.

Troika

Mainland Southeast Asia is predominantly Buddhist and controlled or heavily influenced by the military, while the Malay peninsula and the thousands of islands stretching across Indonesia and the Philippines are largely democratic and Islamic or Christian.

Analysts said a troika had emerged made up of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, which share religious sympathies with the Muslim Rohingya and have opposed bringing the Myanmar junta into ASEAN after it was banned from attending its summits in response to the coup.

There is a divide, I think its a troika, if you will, but its clear from all the meetings since the coup, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at Australia's University of New South Wales.

He said Cambodia and Thailand would prefer to ignore the Rohingya and the coup which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and bring Myanmar back. It was banned when Brunei was chair.

The Rohingyas? Thats somebody elses problem, Thayer said of those nations.

But for the other countries there is that dimension about the Rohingyas but also about ASEANs response to it, and the damage that Myanmar is causing to its reputation.

ASEAN was formed in 1967 initially as a bulwark against communism amid the Vietnam War but has since evolved into a trading bloc. Over the decades, its policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of neighbors had enabled it to put forth a public show of solidarity.

The first chinks in that armor occurred in 2012 under the chairmanship of Cambodia, an emerging ally of China. That year it failed to issue its traditional end-of-year leaders statement critical of Beijings maritime claims in the South China Sea.

Differences remain, with ASEAN unable to conclude a long-sought Code of Conduct for settling disputes on the high seas. Analysts say the effort has been stifled by Beijing, fostering divisions that have now widened on religious and cultural grounds over Myanmar.

Hun Sens critics argued his visit to Myanmar last month served to legitimize a regime responsible for the deaths of about 1,500 people over the past year. But his supporters justified his visit as a means of pushing forward the Five-Point Consensus on finding a solution to the crisis as agreed to by ASEAN.

He left Myanmar with an extension to a cease-fire and promises to allow humanitarian aid and open negotiations with all political parties. He then extended an invitation to junta leader Gen. Aung Min Hlaing to attend the ASEAN leaders summit in October.

But since then, the cease-fire is in tatters amid the reported massacre of 10 ethnic Chin villagers, prompting more than 1,000 people to flee into India, with further reports that about 40,000 people in Karenni state were displaced by airstrikes.

ASEAN is in the middle. They are going to be condemned for what they do and dont do. These divisions in ASEAN will make it more difficult for Cambodia but then Cambodia is making it difficult for the rest of ASEAN, Thayer said.

He said Hun Sens meeting with Gen. Hlaing was not good branding for ASEAN, when leaders were focused on securing an economic recovery once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

It undermined the ASEAN position I think because he got nothing in return and Myanmar has undertaken further acts of repression and piling it on (Myanmars former leader) Aung San Suu Kyi, with more prison terms, he said. Thats intractable. Who can read the Tatmadaw (military leadership)?"

Those sentiments were echoed by Santiago who added, Two significant developments took place in the last one month.

One is the cowboy diplomacy by Prime Minister Hun Sen, which backfired and then subsequently there was an acknowledgment  even from Hun Sen himself  that his diplomacy has not resulted in any positive outcome.

Hun Sen had also announced that he had partially secured the release of an economic advisor to Suu Kyi  the Australian professor Sean Turnell  but apologized when that did not happen. He has also since said a resolution to the crisis in Myanmar was unlikely this year.

As a result, Cambodia followed Bruneis lead, announcing Myanmar would not be allowed to send a political representative to the Foreign Ministers Retreat but a non-political figure would be allowed.

Youve essentially got three military regimes in a row across northern Southeast Asia, stretching from the Indian border to China, said Gavin Greenwood, director of Hong Kong-based A2 Global Risk.

The division doesnt surprise me between, if you like, Malay, Islamic, Muslim support and against Buddhists in the north  in Burma, Thailand and Cambodia. All Buddhist countries, he added.

But he said other factors had contributed to the split in a region already divided by faith, ethnicity, and wealth, issues which are not unlike those experienced by members of the North American Free Trade Agreement or the European Union.

The Muslim aspect, which again has been growing since about 2017, is natural, Greenwood said. With elections coming up in Indonesia and Malaysia, he added, politicians in those countries are mindful that generally speaking, Muslim solidarity, it plays well to obviously the home crowd.

Editor's note: An earlier version of the story incorrectly identified the location of the Foreign Ministers Retreat. It was in Phnom Penh.
BANGKOK (AP)  Myanmar will not participate in this weeks meetings in Cambodia of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, spurning an invitation to send a non-political representative instead of its chief diplomat, its government said Monday.

Cambodia, the current ASEAN chair, said earlier this month that members of the regional group had failed to reach a consensus on inviting Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin to its meetings on Wednesday and Thursday in Cambodias capital, Phnom Penh.

Wunna Maung Lwin was appointed foreign minister after the military seized power in Myanmar last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The decision to restrict Myanmars participation reflected a disagreement over Myanmars lack of cooperation in implementing measures agreed upon by the 10-member group last year to help ease that countrys violent political crisis following the armys takeover.

The head of Myanmars military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was not invited to last Octobers virtual meeting of ASEAN leaders because of the disagreement. That rebuke was issued shortly after Myanmar declined to let an ASEAN special envoy meet with Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since the military took power.

Despite the efforts made by the ASEAN chair and Myanmar to promote cooperation in ASEAN, it is regrettable to see the return of the decision made last year which Myanmar in principle is unable to accept, Myanmars Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement Monday night. In this regard, Myanmars inability to participate or even designate a non-political representative ... is inevitable since it contradicts the principles and practice of equal representation in ASEAN.

ASEAN was chaired by Brunei when it snubbed Min Aung Hlaing, but under its annual rotation system, Cambodia now heads the group. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he believes it is important that Myanmar attend the next summit.

Hun Sen traveled to Myanmar in January, becoming the first foreign leader to visit since the military takeover. He has repeatedly declared his interest in resolving the impasse between ASEAN and Myanmar.

Japans foreign minister met in Tokyo on Monday with Hun Sens son and agreed to cooperate in dealing with the situation in Myanmar. Hun Manet, who heads Cambodias army and is Hun Sens favored successor, accompanied his father during his visit to Myanmar.

Japan has taken a softer line on Myanmars military than Western nations that have sanctioned the generals. But in a sign that attitudes in Japan are mixed, Japanese brewery Kirin Holdings announced on Monday that it has decided to withdraw from its business in Myanmar and terminate its joint venture with a military-linked partner.

Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chum Sounry said the failure to reach a consensus about inviting Myanmar to this weeks foreign ministers meeting was due to little progress in carrying out the ASEANs 5-Point Consensus, agreed to by all the groups members, including Myanmar.

ASEAN leaders at a special meeting last April issued a statement expressing a consensus calling for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties.

Myanmar has not rejected the consensus but has done little to implement it.

Myanmars military council has also continued its harsh military actions against areas of the country where it faces a low-level insurgency, as well as its relentless effort to prosecute Suu Kyi to remove her from political life.

Suu Kyi went on trial on Monday on election fraud charges, the latest in a series of criminal prosecutions by the military-run government in which she has already been sentenced to six years in prison.

The army said it seized power because of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 general election, an allegation not corroborated by independent election observers. Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party won the election by a landslide, while the military-backed party did poorly.

The militarys takeover prompted widespread peaceful protests and civil disobedience that security forces suppressed with lethal force. About 1,500 civilians have been killed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Some opponents of the military have turned to armed resistance in response.

Suu Kyi, 76, has faced a raft of charges since she was taken into custody. Her supporters and human rights groups say the cases against her are baseless.
A Navy nuclear engineer pleaded guilty Monday to trying to pass information about American nuclear-powered warships to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, pleaded guilty in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to a single count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data. The sentencing range agreed to by lawyers calls for a potential punishment between roughly 12 years and 17 years in prison.

Toebbe and his wife, Diana, were arrested in October after prosecutors said he abused his access to top-secret government information and repeatedly sold details about the design elements and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarines.

Toebbe acknowledged during the plea hearing to conspiring to pass classified information to a foreign government in exchange for money with the intent to "injure the United States."

"Yes, your honor," Toebbe said when asked if he considered himself guilty.

The FBI has said the scheme began in April 2020, when Jonathan Toebbe sent a package of Navy documents to a foreign government and wrote that he was interested in selling to that country operations manuals, performance reports and other sensitive information. That package was obtained by the FBI in December 2020 through its legal attache office in the unspecified foreign country. That set off a monthslong undercover operation in which an agent posing as a representative of a foreign country made contact with Toebbe and agreed to pay thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency for the information Toebbe was offering.

Diana Toebbe was accused of serving as a lookout at several prearranged "dead-drop" locations at which her husband deposited memory cards containing government secrets, concealing them in objects such as a chewing gum wrapper and a peanut butter sandwich. She has pleaded not guilty and the case against her remains pending.

The country to which Jonathan Toebbe was looking to sell the information has not been identified in court documents and was not disclosed in court during the plea hearing Monday.

Toebbe, who as part of his job had a top-secret security clearance, agreed as part of the plea deal to help federal officials with locating all classified information in his possession, as well as the roughly $100,000 in cryptocurrency that was paid to him by the FBI.

FBI agents who searched the couple's Annapolis, Maryland, home found a trash bag of shredded documents, thousands of dollars in cash, valid children's passports and a "go-bag" containing a USB flash drive and latex gloves.
A Nigerian rights group has filed a lawsuit to force authorities to publish an agreement reached with Twitter in January to lift a block on the social media company. The rights group says the failure by Nigerian authorities to publish all the details of the agreement raises concerns about citizens rights and censorship.

A Nigerian rights group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), said this week that authorities ignored its request last month to publish the agreement.

The lawsuit seeks a court order compelling authorities to publish details of the agreement reached with Twitter before the company restored access to the site in Nigeria.

Nigeria suspended Twitter last June for deleting a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened regional separatists and referred to the 1960s war in the Biafra region.

Nigerian authorities lifted the ban in January, boasting that its new engagement with the company will create jobs and generate revenue for the country.

But rights groups are concerned the terms of agreement may include clauses that violate the rights of citizens, says Kolawole Oluwadare, a deputy director at SERAP.

"If this agreement has the tendency to impact on the rights of Nigerians to freedom of expression, it's important that Nigerians have access to the agreement, scrutinize the terms and critique it if necessary, because of the effect it will have on our ability to use Twitter freely," said Oluwadare. "How are we sure that those terms do not necessarily affect even the rights to privacy? I'm talking about the access of Nigerian government to the data of Nigerians.



Nigerian authorities are often accused of trying to stifle free speech.

In 2019, lawmakers considered a bill that sought to punish statements on social media deemed to diminish public confidence in the president or government officials. The bill never passed.

This week, Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed criticized Twitter and the Canadian government as having double standards citing the truckers protest against COVID-19 mandates in Canada.

"Twitter actively supported the EndSARS protesters and even raised funds," said Mohammed. "These are the same entities that are now rushing to distance themselves from the protest in Canada and even denying them the use of their platforms.

But Amnesty International spokesperson Seun Bakare has this to say: International human rights laws are clear on standards that even platforms like Twitter and Facebook must uphold," said Bakare. "They must uphold the fundamental tenets of freedom of expression, and access to information and they must not bend their rules just to please any government at all."

Under its agreement with Twitter, Nigeria said the company agreed to be legally registered in the country, run a local office, appoint country representatives to interface with authorities, pay taxes and enroll officials in its partner support portals.

It remains unclear if Nigerian officials have the ability to monitor and block prohibited content.

An ECOWAS court of justice is scheduled to rule on SERAP's lawsuit this week.
Britains Prince Andrew has settled a lawsuit from Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

News of the settlement came in a letter filed with a Manhattan court Tuesday by Giuffres lawyer David Boies.

Details of the settlement have not been disclosed, but the letter said Andrew "intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights."

"Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks," the letter reads. "It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others."

Giuffre, now 38, says she was trafficked by Epstein and his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell, who was recently convicted of sex trafficking.

Giuffre says the two forced her to perform sexual acts with Andrew. Andrew has denied the charges and did not admit to any of the accusations against him in Tuesdays statement.

In 2019, Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan jail while he awaited another trial for sex trafficking. His death was ruled a suicide.

Last month, Andrews mother, Queen Elizabeth II, stripped him of all his military and royal duties.
Russia says it is withdrawing some of its forces from areas close to the Ukrainian border after completing military drills, mocking Western intelligence agencies for naming February 16 as the date a Russian invasion of its neighbor would start.

And the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his senior aides say diplomacy is winning. We and our allies have managed to prevent Russia from any further escalation. Diplomacy is continuing to work, tweeted Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraines foreign minister, as news broke of the claimed partial withdrawal of Russian forces.

Although Kuleba cautioned: On Russian statements regarding withdrawal of some forces from the Ukrainian border. We in Ukraine have a rule: we dont believe what we hear, we believe what we see. If a real withdrawal follows these statements, we will believe in the beginning of a real de-escalation.

So, has war been averted? Or is this a feint?

Russia has denied it has been planning another attack on Ukraine and has accused Western leaders of whipping up hysteria. Kremlin-directed media have been telling their domestic Russian audiences that NATO has been fomenting alarmism. February 15, 2022, will go down in history as the day when Western war propaganda failed, Maria Zakharova, the combative spokesperson of the Russian foreign ministry said on social media.

They were humiliated and defeated without a single shot, she added.

But there are other possible interpretations to the announcement of a partial troop withdrawal, say Western leaders and officials. While welcoming talk of de-escalation, they fear this is just a continuation of the Kremlins strategy of hybrid warfare, part of an effort to keep opponents wrong-footed and guessing at Russian intentions while at the same time wearing them down.

Cautious optimism

Despite Russias defense ministry posting video of tanks, infantry combat vehicles and self-propelled artillery systems being loaded onto trains, NATOs secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that evidence of a withdrawal could not yet be seen on the ground, though he expressed qualified optimism.

Britains Boris Johnson was also cautious Tuesday about taking the Russian withdrawal statement at face value.

There are signs of a diplomatic opening to resolve the Ukraine crisis, but there are also mixed signals, he said. Johnson added that the intelligence that we are seeing today is still not encouraging, citing the building of Russian field hospitals near to the border with Ukraine in Belarus, a Russian ally.

That could only be construed as preparation for an invasion, Britains leader told broadcasters following a meeting with his top defense and intelligence officials. I think what everybody needs to see is a program of de-escalation."

He added: We think there is an avenue for diplomacy, we've seen some positive signs from conversations between Mr. Ushakov (Putins foreign policy adviser) and his American counterpart, between Sergey Lavrov (Russias foreign minister) and others. If that's correct, then let's build on that.

Independent military observers are also holding off judging the importance of the claimed Russian military withdrawal. The Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), a group of independent Russian researchers, says it has only observed military movements toward and not away from Ukraine.

Additionally, Ukrainian authorities reported a denial-of-service attack Tuesday on both PrivatBank, Ukraines largest, and state-owned bank Oschad. Defense Ministry websites were affected, as well.

Diplomacy

Tuesdays drama played out against the backdrop of further diplomatic talks in Moscow, where German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with President Putin after spending Monday in talks in Kyiv with Zelenskiy.

In Kyiv, Scholz said the issue of NATO membership for Ukraine is practically not on the agenda. A key Russian demand is that NATO never admit Ukraine as a member, something NATO has been reluctant to do as it would breach the Western alliances traditional open-door policy. Zelenskiy also suggested that while Ukraine still would like to join, NATO membership may be nothing more than a dream.

Were those remarks enough to prompt the partial withdrawal announcement? As the talks between the German chancellor and Ukraines leader unfolded in Kyiv, the Kremlin filmed Putin holding discussions with his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who urged him to continue with diplomacy, suggesting to him theres a chance of success and that some Russian demands might be met.

Ukrainian officials have long suspected that Putins strategy is more about trying to wear the West down rather than gamble by launching an invasion of Ukraine that would likely mire Russia in a long counter-insurgency war. Zelenskiy and his aides have been much more cautious about predicting an invasion, and Monday the Ukrainian leader appeared to mock Western warnings about a firm date for an assault.

Marek Menkiszak of the Center for Eastern Studies, a state think tank based in Warsaw, agrees with Kyivs view. There will be no invasion on 2/16 or later, he tweeted Tuesday. He reckons Putin will continue to try to scare the West and seek to obtain security concessions but offer nothing in exchange. Invasion means huge costs and dubious profits, he added.
The families of nine victims of a massacre at an elementary school nearly ten years ago in the northeastern U.S. state of Connecticut reached a $73 million settlement Tuesday in a lawsuit against Remington Arms, the maker of the rifle used in the mass killing.



The settlement is a rare instance of a U.S. gunmaker paying damages for bloodshed arising from the criminal use of a firearm.

Twenty first grade students and six educators were killed on December 12, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut by Adam Lanza, who repeatedly fired a Remington semi-automatic rifle as he made his way through the school.

The families and a survivor of the massacre sued Remington in 2015, maintaining the company should have never sold such a dangerous military-style weapon to the public. They also said they are focused on preventing other mass shootings.

Today is not about honoring our son Benjamin. Today is about how and why Ben died," said Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son was killed in the massacre. Our legal system has given us some justice today, but David and I will never have true justice. True justice would be our fifteen-year-old healthy and here with us.

The civil lawsuit in Waterbury Superior Court focused on how the Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle was marketed, maintaining Remington singled out younger, at-risk males in marketing and in product placements in violent video games.

Remington did not immediately comment on the settlement but the gunmaker had argued there was no evidence that its marketing of the rifle was linked to the killings.

The gun manufacturer also had said the lawsuit should have been dismissed because of a federal law that grants broad immunity to the gun sector. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled, however, that Remington could be sued under state law over how it marketed the rifle.

Remington appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

The gunmaker offered to pay the plaintiffs nearly $33 million in July. In 2018, Remington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and emerged from it later that year under the control of its creditors. The company filed for bankruptcy again in July 2020 after more retailers restricted gun sales after other school shootings in the U.S.

The plaintiffs said four insurers for Remington agreed to pay the full amount of coverage available, totaling $73 million.

This victory should serve as a wake-up call not only to the gun industry, but also the insurance and banking companies that prop it up, said Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. For the gun industry, its time to stop recklessly marketing all guns to all people for all uses and instead ask how marketing can lower risk rather than court it."

The rifle used by Lanza, who was 20 years old at the time of the shootings, was legally owned by his mother. He used to the rifle to kill his mother at their Newtown home before committing the mass shooting at the school. Lanza killed himself with a handgun as police arrived.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
North Korea appears to have resumed uranium enrichment plant (UEP) operations at its Yongbyon facility used to make nuclear weapons, according to a former nuclear inspector after analyzing satellite imagery that revealed new activities.

Ollie Heinonen, former deputy director-general for safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told VOAs Korean Service that satellite images of North Koreas Yongbyon nuclear facility show that buildings comprising the UEP are in operation.

Heinonens assessment comes as North Korea has been reminding the world of its nuclear capability.

In January, Pyongyang tested 11 missiles, including an intermediate-range ballistic missile launched on January 30 capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam. A series of satellite images ending on January 16 suggested North Korea has not abandoned its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Facility, sealed by an explosion witnessed by members of the foreign press in May 2018. Also in January, the regime announced it would consider repealing a self-imposed moratorium, raising a possibility for a nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test.

Heinonen said snow melts on the roofs of several buildings making up the UEP indicate heat is being generated because the plant is in operation.

VOAs Korean Service emailed the North Korean mission at the United Nations for a comment on Heinonen findings but received no response.

The most important signs are the snow melts in the section which contains the control room and stations for feeding and withdrawing uranium hexafluoride from the enrichment halls, Heinonen said on Sunday.

These sections should only be heated when the facility operates, said Heinonen, who is now a distinguished fellow with the 38 North program at the Stimson Center.

Uranium hexafluoride is a chemical form of uranium used during the process of enriching uranium, a key ingredient for making nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons can be made either at a uranium enrichment plant or a facility that produces highly enriched uranium.

Heinonen said snow melts on the plutonium plant also indicate North Korea is continuing its operation there.

In wintertime, melting of snow first on the roofs of certain sections of the reactor generating heat are the main indicators, of a plutonium plant in operation, Heinonen said.

Renewed activity

According to the latest IAEA report released in August 2021, North Korea has not started its UEP although its 5-megawatt plutonium producing reactor was in operation.

Since early July 2021, there have been indications consistent with the operation of the 5MW(e) reactor, the report said.

While regular vehicle movements were observed, there were indications, for a period of time, that the Yongbyon reported centrifuge enrichment facility was not in operation, the report continued.

The centrifuge enrichment facility is a part of UEP plant where rotating cylinders called centrifuges are located and used to enrich uranium.

Miniaturized warhead

David Albright, a former United Nations nuclear inspector and current president of the Institute of Science and International Security (ISIS), said, If the [uranium] plant was going to be operational, [the North Koreans] have to keep the temperature of a centrifuge plant at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, so you need heat in the winter, cooling in the summer.

Albright said, however, it is uncertain whether North Korea is working to produce highly enriched uranium.

Instead, he said, North Korea could have begun the operation of the UEP to produce low enriched uranium that can be used in the light water reactor at Yongbyon capable of producing plutonium. Albright said the construction of the light water reactor at Yongbyon appears largely finished but not yet in operation.

North Korea has a lot of highly enriched uranium for weapons, and does it actually need any more? Albright said.

He suggested North Korea could be focusing on producing plutonium that could be used to make miniaturized nuclear weapons.

Plutonium is easier to compress than weapons-grade uranium, Albright said. So plutonium is preferred [over uranium] to miniaturize as weapons.

In response to Heinonens findings of the uranium and plutonium plants operating at North Koreas Yongbyon nuclear complex, the South Korean Unification Ministry said on Monday the government is monitoring activities at Yongbyon closely.

Unification Ministry spokesperson Lee Jong-joo said, With regard to North Koreas nuclear and missile activities, including Yongbyon, [we] have been closely tracking and monitoring [them] on the basis of close South Korea-U.S. coordination.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson responded to Heinonens findings by stating on Monday that the DPRK constitutes a threat to international peace and security and the global nonproliferation regime. The DPRK stands for North Koreas official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

The spokesperson continued, The United States has a vital interest in deterring the DPRK, defending against its provocations or uses of force, limiting the reach of its most dangerous weapons programs, and above all keeping the American people, our deployed forces, and our allies safe.

Journalist Jiha Ham contributed to this report, which first appeared on VOAs Korean Service.
The acting defense minister of Afghanistan's Taliban government has announced plans to build a 110,000-strong army for Afghanistan.

In his first television interview, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob told Radio Television Afghanistan that the Taliban leadership has approved the plan for the building of the new army.

"The name registration for the new army has reached almost 80,000," Yaqoob said, adding that 10,000 army soldiers have already graduated from military training.

Since the Taliban seized power last August, the number of fighters in the group's ranks has not been independently confirmed.

Yaqoob, the eldest son of Taliban founder and former leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who died several years ago, said "professional" Afghans who served in the former government and Afghans whom the previous government sent for military training abroad can also join the new army.

Human rights organizations, however, have accused the Taliban of persecuting and targeting former Afghan military and police personnel  charges that Yaqoob rejected.

The U.S. and its NATO allies spent more than $80 billion training and equipping Afghan national security forces over the past two decades, but the army and police disintegrated when U.S. forces left Afghanistan last year.

John Sopko, U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, is expected to report to Congress next month on what happened to that equipment. Last week, he told VOA's Afghan service he was looking into reports that Taliban officials were selling the arms on the international market.

Taking stock

The Taliban's announced goal of creating a 110,000-person military comes as the group marks six months since they seized control of Afghanistan following the rapid collapse of the previous government as the final U.S. troops withdrew last August.

In the months since, the Taliban have changed Afghanistan in many ways, including its official name. So far, most of the changes have been seen as a return to the practices it embraced in the 1990s when the group was founded.

Widely reported as a repressive regime at odds with its own people and the rest of the world, the Taliban, some independent analysts say, have had one major achievement in the war-torn country.

"The biggest achievement of the interim (Taliban) government has been establishing security across most of Afghanistan," Graeme Smith, a consultant with the International Crisis Group, told VOA.

"There are serious information gaps, and we might not have all the necessary data about incidents, but it looks like the last six months have been less violent than any similar period in several decades," he added.

Before seizing power, Taliban fighters took part in thousands of attacks and clashes each year. At least 699 civilians were killed and 1,345 injured in Taliban attacks just in the first half of last year, the United Nations reported.

The United Nations now says security incidents have dropped by more than 90% since the Taliban took power.

The number of security incidents fell significantly after 15 August, from 600 to fewer than 100 incidents per week. Available data indicate that armed clashes decreased by 98 per cent, from 7,430 to 148 incidents; air strikes by 99 per cent, from 501 to 3; detonations of improvised explosive devices by 91 per cent, from 1,118 to 101; and assassinations by 51 per cent, from 424 to 207, the latest U.N. report on the situation in Afghanistan states.

Another metric, which measures how violence affects charities and nonprofit groups in Afghanistan, has also recorded a drop. In January 2021, the International NGO Safety Organization (INSO) reported 25 security incidents, with two nongovernment workers killed, eight wounded and three abducted. In January 2022, INSO reported 13 incidents and no deaths, injuries or abductions.

Afghanistan is still far from being a peaceful country. More than 500 Afghans, many of them from the religious Shiite minority, have died in attacks by Islamic State since August of last year, according to multiple reports.

From republic to emirate

Without calling for a referendum or elections after taking power, the Taliban immediately imposed an Islamic emirate to replace Afghanistan's constitutional republic system, which had been adopted in 2002 and was recognized worldwide.

Afghanistan's electoral bodies have been eliminated, women have been denied all civil and political rights, and the country's three-colored national flag has been replaced by the Taliban's white banner with the inscription "There is no God but Allah, and (the Prophet) Muhammad is the messenger."

Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada is the ultimate authority on everything, including appointing government officials and judges, and deciding what rights should be given to women and minorities. Since taking power, Akhundzada has neither spoken to the nation nor appeared in public.

There is no clarity in the regime's accountability, said Mohammad Omar Zakhilwal, a former Afghan minister who met with Taliban leaders after the group seized Kabul.

"The current government in Afghanistan is not based on any particular constitution," Zakhilwal told VOA, adding that a constitution was needed as an element of legitimacy.

The group has also struggled to establish itself internationally. After six months in power, the Taliban still have not had their Islamic emirate formally recognized by any government.

"The Taliban's biggest mistake has been failing to find a way of cooperating with foreign countries," said Smith from the ICG.

Forming an inclusive government and respecting women's rights, particularly their rights to education and work, are some of the main conditions demanded by many before they recognize their government.

'Dark year'

The Taliban's return to power has been followed by a rapid economic collapse, a humanitarian crisis and an alarming worsening of human rights violations across Afghanistan.

An overwhelming majority of Afghans say their living conditions have worsened to the point where they say they are "suffering."

"2022 is going to be a very dark year for Afghan women," said Asila Wardak, a former Afghan diplomat who now lives in the U.S. because she was banned from work by the Taliban.

Extreme poverty and unemployment have forced many Afghan women into begging and even selling their body organs, according to several reports.

"Women are begging on the streets all over Afghanistan. Why can't they work in the offices?" Wardak said.

Taliban officials say by mid-March, schools and universities will be opened for girls and women, but the group has made no commitment on women's political rights and their return to work in the government.

Recognized or not, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is the de facto government in Afghanistan. And while the country is facing intensifying economic, humanitarian and political crises, observers say there is little optimism for major changes in the foreseeable future.

"In the months ahead, I expect the Taliban to continue to defend their government as is, as inclusive enough, and show only minor flexibility in this regard," Zakhilwal said.
The tow truck driver who struck multiple people during the 2021 Flagstaff Bike Party crash and is also accused of possessing thousands of images of child pornography may get a plea deal.

Normand Cloutier appeared virtually in Coconino County Superior Court on Monday alongside his Phoenix-based attorney, James Simpson. The hearing was technically dedicated to the 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor Cloutier is facing, but it quickly diverged, alluding to a possible resolution in both the alleged child pornography case and the Bike Party crash.

Parker Stanley, prosecutor for the Coconino County Attorney's Office, indicated an indictment has been filed in another case against Cloutier. It's not clear whether the indictment stems from the Bike Party or is something different altogether. A copy of the indictment wasn't immediately available Monday. The Arizona Daily Sun requested a copy of the document and additional details Monday, but the indictment had been sealed.

He is set to appear in court again on Feb. 22 for an arraignment in the second case. Stanley said the state is reaching out to the victims in the case to meet. He also noted they're considering a plea deal outside of a formal trial.

Cloutier was indicted on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in September 2021 after detectives allegedly found more than 7,000 sexually explicit images on his phone while investigating the collision. Officials allege Cloutier ran a red light while turning right onto Butler Avenue on May 28, 2021, while driving a heavy-duty tow truck hauling a box truck. The vehicle collided with a large gathering of cyclists riding to bring attention to bike safety. Joanna "Jo" Wheaton was killed and multiple others were injured.

He has been out of custody since the incident. He was previously living in Flagstaff but relocated to California with the permission of the court after he was evicted "due to the nature of the charges pending against him," according to court documents.

Reporter Bree Burkitt can be reached at 928-556-2250 or bburkitt@azdailysun.com.

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Afghanistans hardline Islamic rulers say they plan to reconsider their policy towards the United States if the administration of President Joe Biden refuses to return the full $7 billion in assets that have been frozen in the United States.

President Biden issued an executive order last Friday calling on banks to set aside $3.5 billion of the frozen assets in a trust fund slated for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. The remaining $3.5 billion would stay in the United States to finance payments from lawsuits by U.S. victims of terrorism, specifically the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington, D.C. and New York City, that are still working their way through the courts.

A spokesman for the Taliban issued a statement Monday saying the September 11 attacks had nothing to do with Afghanistan. The spokesman said if the United States does not deviate from its position and continues its provocative actions, the Islamic Emirate will also be forced to reconsider its policy towards the country, referring to Afghanistans official name.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan at the time of September 11 attacks, and harbored Osama bin Laden, the head of the al Qaida terrorist network and mastermind of the U.S. attacks. A U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan weeks after the attacks overthrew the Taliban after they refused Washingtons demands to surrender bin Laden.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last August ended the nearly 20-year war, but the United Nations and other international relief groups say Afghanistan faces one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises, which stems from more than four decades of conflict and natural calamities.

More than half of the countrys poverty-stricken population, or an estimated 24 million Afghans, face an acute food shortage and some one million children under five years of age could die from hunger by the end of this year, according to U.N. estimates following the U.S. withdrawal from the country.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
A senior African Union official said Tuesday that while al-Shabab continues to be the main security threat in Somalia, the AU is also monitoring a possible resurgence of Islamic State.

Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, special representative of the African Union Commission for Somalia and head of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), said there has been an upsurge in terrorism-related violence in Somalia, where the electoral process has been dragging out.

"The violence has mainly been perpetrated by al-Shabab, through the use of IEDs, mortar attacks, ambushes, and targeted assassinations of senior government officials, Somali security forces and civilians," Madeira told the U.N. Security Council. "We have also been monitoring with concern what could be a resurgent Islamic State, as credible reports indicate that the group carried out two improvised explosive device attacks and detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device in November 2021 and January 2022, respectively."

Madeira said as they monitor the activities of both terror groups, a clear picture is emerging.

"Al-Shabab appears emboldened by its determination to disrupt the ongoing electoral process," he said.

He pointed to an attack last Thursday in Mogadishu in which a convoy of Somaliland election delegates was targeted, as an example of this trend.

"With regards to a possible resurgence of the Islamic State, this must be judged within the context of Daesh's emerging regional presence in East Africa," he said, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym. "One that is characterized by a proliferation of funds, equipment, and transfer of terrorist tactics."

The latest report of the U.N. secretary-general on Somalia, which came out last week, also details attacks by pro-Islamic State groups, including attacks on the Somali military and at a market. Several al-Shabab attacks are also detailed.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres' special representative in Somalia, James Swan, also addressed council members.

He said al-Shabab continues to pose the major security threat in the country, through the widespread use of improvised explosive devices.

"Political divisions and prolonged delays in the elections have allowed insurgent forces to make some recent gains," he said. "The group's modus operandi remains unchanged, with Banadir region and South West State the center of its attacks."

He said in recent months, operations have also intensified in Hirshabelle and Galmudug states as the group has tried to exploit local political and security tensions.

Swan said Somalia's national elections are now more than one year behind the constitutionally stipulated schedule. Upper House elections have concluded but just 130 of 275 seats in the House of the People have been filled.

Swan, as well as most Security Council members, called on the electoral bodies and political leaders to speed up and complete the elections.
A senior aide to Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha says he is pressing ahead with a petition to expel international human rights group Amnesty International from the country over its support for protesters demanding curbs on the kingdoms powerful monarchy.

Seksakol Atthawong, a vice minister in the prime ministers office, told VOA over the weekend that he has the 1 million signatures he set out last year to collect and would be submitting the petition to the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Council on Thursday.

The organization [Amnesty] is involved in cooperating with the mob, and the mob is against the Constitution of Thailand under the monarchy, he said.

The mob is common shorthand for a youth-led protest movement that started out in late 2019 calling on Prayut to resign but later added to its demands a 10-point list of reforms aimed at reining in the monarchys political influence.

Seksakol launched his petition drive in November, after Amnesty International criticized a recent ruling by the Constitutional Court that the 10-point list aimed not at reforming the monarchy but at its wholesale overthrow, in breach of a constitution that holds the monarchy beyond reproach.

Amnesty International called the ruling a dangerous warning to Thais exercising their rights to share their opinions and said it could pave the way for serious charges against those who do.

Section 112 of the Criminal Code prescribes up to 15 years in prison for anyone convicted of defaming, insulting or threatening the king, queen, heir-apparent or regent. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a local legal aid group, says more than 150 people have been charged with the offense since late 2020.

Seksakol told VOA that Amnesty International had overstepped the law itself.

The organization is effectively involved with the mob, which is against the law, 112,  and that violates Thai law, he said.

Amnesty International may be under investigation already. According to multiple news reports, Prayut ordered the national police and Interior Ministry to probe the group for any possible breaches of Thai law in November, soon after Seksakol launched his petition.

A spokeswoman for the government, however, told VOA an investigation had not been ordered and that authorities were considering only whether to renew Amnestys two-year license to operate in Thailand. Neither the Interior Ministry nor a spokesman for the police replied to VOAs questions about the reported investigation.

Amnesty International, responding to VOAs request for comment by email, said its work in Thailand, as everywhere else, was impartial and independent.

While we recognize that the Royal Thai Government has a duty to protect public order and national security, the rights group said, we continue to highlight that authorities must do so in a manner that is in accordance with international human rights law, and that is proportionate, necessary and fulfills the governments obligations to ensure and facilitate respect for human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

The group also questioned Seksakols claim of having gathered 1 million signatures.

The signature collection method of the anti-Amnesty campaign is still unclear whereas credible petitions make transparent to the public how signatures were gathered, Amnesty said.

Seksakol did not reply to VOAs request for an explanation of how he had gathered the endorsements. At a news conference last month, though, he said they would have to be vetted before being submitted to the authorities.

The pressure mounting on Amnesty International comes amid the governments plans to pass a new law regulating the work of all non-profit organizations, NPOs, in Thailand.

A first draft released early last year would have required NPOs to register with the government and declare the source of all funding and how they spend it. It would have allowed the Interior Ministry to enter their offices at any time and seize their electronic communications without a court order, and let NPOs spend any foreign funding only on work permitted by the Ministry without elaborating.

The government said it needed the law to check the threat of shadowy groups that would use foreign funds to destabilize the country. Critics warned that it posed an existential threat to the work of human rights groups like Amnesty International in Thailand and urged the government to scrap the bill.

A new version of the bill, approved by Prayuts cabinet last month, transfers oversight of NPOs to the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, no

longer makes registration mandatory, and drops the blanket restrictions on foreign funding.

In its analysis of the new draft, though, the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law said it also introduces new far-reaching restrictions that threaten to undercut most of the positive changes and which run counter to international norms regarding the freedom of association.

The latest draft would, for example, prohibit NPOs from any work that would affect public order or peoples good morals, affect public interest, or affect the happy, normal existence of other persons.

The law center said the restrictions were so broad that, collectively, most legitimate NPO activities could be defined in such a way as to fall under one or more of the prohibited areas.

More than 40 local and international NPOs have signed an open letter urging the government to scrap the new draft as well.

The government has opened the draft to another round of public feedback before it heads back to the cabinet. If the cabinet approves the draft again, it will move on to parliament for a possible vote.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked rarely used emergency powers Monday to confront protests led by truckers that have clogged streets in the capital, Ottawa, as well as several key border crossings with the United States.

Trudeau said the Emergencies Act would give authorities more power to arrest protesters and seize their trucks.

He said at a news conference, We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government would also use anti-money-laundering regulations to target crowd-funding sites that have helped finance the blockades.

Protesters in trucks and other vehicles have gathered in Ottawa for two weeks, expressing objection to vaccine mandates for truckers and other coronavirus measures.

One U.S.-Canadian border crossing was cleared Sunday after nearly a week, with police arresting dozens of people.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has arrived in Brussels for talks with NATO leadership and allied defense ministers, as tens of thousands of Russian troops have surrounded Ukraine from the north, south and east.

During the gathering on Wednesday and Thursday, Austin and his counterparts will discuss how to deter Russia from invading Ukraine while shoring up defenses on the alliances eastern flank.

This really is a decisive moment for NATO, the likes of which we have not really seen potentially since NATO was established in 1949, said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. This is where American leadership in NATO matters, he told VOA.

The underlying message from NATO and the United States will be to protect the international rules-based order by calling out egregious attempts to undermine the rule of law and upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, according to a senior defense official.

We cannot allow an adversary to try to redraw borders by force without facing significant consequences, the official added.

Austin will then travel to NATO members Poland and Lithuania, Russian neighbors that have watched the developments surrounding Ukraine with increasing concern.

While in Poland on Friday, Austin will meet with President Andrzej Duda before visiting U.S. troops. The United States will soon have about 9,000 troops in Poland after President Joe Biden earlier this month ordered nearly 5,000 additional troops to deploy there, citing security concerns due to Russias recent moves.

In Lithuania, Austin will meet with President Gitanas Nauseda and host a meeting with that countrys defense minister along with those from Estonia and Latvia.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday Russia has 150,000 troops surrounding Ukraine, including in Belarus to the north, the illegally annexed Crimea region to the south, and along the Russian border with Ukraine to the east. Russian ships are also exercising nearby in the Black Sea, which prompted a formal protest from Ukraines foreign ministry.

I think of a boa constrictor that is squeezing Ukraine to force the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky to blink, to make some giant concession, retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who once commanded U.S. Army forces in Europe, told VOA.

Russias defense ministry announced Tuesday that some military units would pull back to their bases, a claim that Biden said the U.S. had not yet verified.

Meanwhile, Russian legislators passed proposals Tuesday calling on President Vladimir Putin to formally recognize the separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states, in a move that could justify an incursion in an area it no longer recognizes as Ukraines territory.

The United States has pushed for a diplomatic solution to the tensions and has said it will not fight Russian forces in Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO.

The U.S. has shipped planeloads of lethal military aid to Ukraine in recent weeks, including Javelin anti-tank weapons and ammunition. A small number of U.S. troops had also trained Ukrainian soldiers through a program that started following Russias illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, but those troops were ordered by Austin to leave Ukraine a few days ago, citing concerns that a potential Russian invasion could come at any moment.

NATO allies have made multiple attempts to get Putin to pull his troops away from Ukraines border and have threatened severe economic sanctions should Russian troops invade.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Putin. Biden called Putin on Saturday. French President Emanuel Macron spoke face to face with Putin last week.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the other hand, expressed his support for Putin during the heightened tensions over Moscows forces surrounding Ukraine.

Current and former U.S. officials have warned that an invasion of Ukraine could embolden other adversaries.

If the United States with all of our allies, all of our partners and the combined diplomatic and economic power, cannot deter the Kremlin from  another attack on Ukraine, then I think the Chinese Communist Party leadership is not going to be terribly impressed by anything that we say about Taiwan or the South China Sea, Hodges said.
Discussion of Taiwan at weekend talks involving Japan, South Korea and the United States, analysts say, could be seen as a signal U.S. President Joe Biden aims to broaden the network of Asia-Pacific countries that could resist Chinas expansion.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa Hayashi and Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong emphasized in a joint statement the importance of peace and stability in the strait that divides Taiwan from China.

The joint statement from the weekend meeting in Hawaii also condemned North Koreas recent ballistic missile launches and expressed shared concern about activities that undermine the rules-based international order.

The U.S. side brought up Taiwan to rally more forces behind its defense for the self-ruled island that China claims as its own and insists eventually on ruling, said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

Such multilateral efforts aim to reassure Taipei and deter further coercion by Beijing, Easley said. In order to prevent conflict escalation in Asia, U.S. allies actually need to prepare for contingencies of Chinese aggression.

China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalists lost to Mao Zedongs Communists and rebased their government in Taipei. China has never renounced the use of military force, if needed, to unite with Taiwan. Since mid-2020 it has routinely flown military planes into Taiwans air defense identification zone.

Washington sells arms to Taiwan, maintains aircraft carriers nearby 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. Analysts have told VOA that Washington would see any cession of Taiwan to China as a rupture in its chain of Cold War-era Asia Pacific allies.

Wider Asia Pacific alliance

The three-way statement follows Bidens recently updated Indo-Pacific strategy that pledges to work with partners for Taiwans self-defense and ensure that Taiwanese people determine their own future through a peaceful process. Some partners have already been notified.

U.S. officials had approached Tokyo last year about the potential defense of Taiwan, which lies just southwest of the outermost Japanese islands.

The defense head in U.S. ally Australia said in a November interview with The Australian it was inconceivable that his country would not aid Taiwan in conjunction with the United States.

Bidens Indo Pacific policy update calls for strengthening relations with leading regional partners including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Some partners have scuffled with China over its maritime or territorial expansion and see the U.S. government as a deterrent against Beijing.

Perhaps Americas greatest strategic asset, aside from its own military hardware and personnel, is our vast alliance network of democracies that can act as force multipliers in any crisis, said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York. In this case, wed want South Korea and Japan on board with the idea that we might activate some of our troops in each country during any Taiwan contingency.

Rep. Elaine Luria, vice chair of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, urged in an interview with VOAs Press Conference USA radio program that Washington rethink the policy of strategic ambiguity that weve held for decades toward Taiwan and make it very clear that the United States will react in order to maintain the status quo.

Japan, a U.S. treaty ally, has indicated it would help in any Taiwanese defense against China if called on by the United Sates or if the conflict affected outlying islands under Japanese control. Japan would react quickly since it has been primed to help the United States, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

South Korea, however, is more focused on North Korea as an immediate neighbor and doesnt always share the U.S.-Japan position toward Taiwan, said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, in Hawaii.

In the hypothetical conflict over Taiwan, youll have China on one side and U.S.A. and Japan on the other side to come to [the] rescue of Taiwan, Vuving said.

South Koreas trade with China would be disrupted if it backed Taiwan in a conflict, Thayer said. In 2016, China sanctioned South Korea after its deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system, sparking a $15.7 billion loss to tourism alone.

Without a push from Washington, Seoul might largely stay out of any Taiwan scuffle while Japan could be a logistics hub for U.S. forces in Taiwan, King said.

Blinkens meetings with counterparts in Japan and South Korea, among other Asian countries last week implies that the focal point of U.S strategy targeting China remain unchanged, the state-controlled Global Times news website in China said on February 6. The report cites the view of a deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University.

VOA English to Africas Carol Castiel contributed to the report.
After nearly 20 years of war, the U.S. and its allies left Afghanistan last August, helping to evacuate more than 130,000 Afghans in the chaotic last weeks in Kabul. Many of those Afghans hoped for a life in the U.S.

The U.S. offers few primary avenues for Afghans seeking entry. One is a decade-old special immigrant visa program for military interpreters and others who worked on government-funded contracts. Another is a refugee admission program run by the State Department in conjunction with other agencies. A third path is humanitarian parole.

Humanitarian parole is special permission given to those hoping to enter the United States under emergency circumstances. Though it does not automatically lead to permanent residency, "parolees" can apply for legal statuseither through the asylum process or other forms of sponsorship, if availableonce they're in the U.S.

The Biden administration received more than 40,000 requests for humanitarian parole for Afghan nationals outside the U.S. So far 160 cases have been conditionally approved, per data sent to VOA by U.S. immigration officials.

An additional 930 cases have been denied, leaving thousands of Afghans who are seeking temporary entry into the U.S. stuck in Afghanistan and other countries.

Stringent criteria

Immigration attorney Mahsa Khanbabai, an elected director of the board of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and co-chair of AILA's Afghan task force, said part of the problem is how the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) decides to whom they are going to give humanitarian parole.

"They have extremely stringent criteria, which is immensely problematic and upsetting for a lot of people because we expected the government to use ... its broad discretion to grant parole," Khanbabai told VOA. "... There's an emergency situation here. There's some humanitarian considerations. Let's help these people out."

For many at-risk Afghan civilians with no direct ties to the U.S. military or government, humanitarian parole is the only option to reach safety in the United States and reunite with family members.

"A great example is women judges and prosecutors," Khanbabai said. "They were actually trained by U.S. lawyers  but they never worked for the U.S. government. They worked for the Afghan government. They don't qualify for [a special immigrant visa]. ... So humanitarian parole is really their next best option, and that's one reason why we advocate so hard for [it]."

A spokesperson for USCIS told VOA that in a typical year, the agency receives fewer than 2,000 requests for humanitarian parole from all nationalities. Of those requests, about 500 to 700 are approved. There are numerous reasons for rejection, but most often it's because the applicant could not prove they were in an emergency situation.

Additionally, the spokesperson said, the U.S. government has increased the number of officers working on parole cases to assist with the surge in requests and improve processing times.

But the official said humanitarian parole is not intended to replace the refugee processing channels, such as the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), which is the typical pathway for individuals outside of the United States who have fled their country of origin and are seeking protection.

"USCIS reviews the specific facts of each case to determine if there is a distinct, well-documented reason to approve humanitarian parole for an individual," the spokesperson said.

They do, however, recognize the U.S. refugee program is not always an option.

"In some limited circumstances, protection needs are so urgent that obtaining protection via the USRAP is not a realistic option. This, along with other, multiple factors are taken into consideration when USCIS assesses whether urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit parole warrants a favorable exercise of discretion," USCIS spokesperson said.

Among the criteria to be considered for parole, an applicant is usually an immediate family member of a U.S. citizen or a U.S. lawful permanent resident. Or was a formally employed staff member in the U.S. Embassy in Kabul or an immediate family member of a locally employed staff member.

It also requires an application fee of $575.

VOA spoke with Noori, a former diversity visa winner living in a camp in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, who said he is now trying to get a visa to go to Germany or Canada with his family. For now, he has no hope they will live in the U.S. because they cannot afford the fee.

"We have no money for humanitarian parole," he wrote in a text message. Noori, like many Afghans, uses only one name.

'Imminent severe harm'

In November, USCIS added to the list of criteria for Afghan applicants and hosted a webinar to explain to attorneys that humanitarian parole is normally given only if the applicant shows evidence of "imminent severe harm."

But, as Khanbabai said, it is difficult for the applicants to meet the "imminent severe harm" bar.

"They're saying that, 'You haven't proven to us that there's individualized threat or harm.' So, [the U.S. government] essentially made the standard almost more difficult than an asylum case.  Basically 'Where's your letter from the Taliban saying that they want you to report to their offices because of the XYZ activities you engaged in,'" she said.

In January, 15 senators wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas expressing concern over the reported high denial rates for Afghans seeking humanitarian parole into the United States.

"While we have always maintained that proper vetting is an essential part of the humanitarian parole process, we are greatly concerned that the Administration is holding Afghan nationals seeking humanitarian parole to an unreasonably high standard, creating barriers to safe haven in the United States," the senators, all Democrats, wrote.


The United States said Monday a suspension of avocado imports from Mexico will remain in place until the security of U.S. agricultural inspectors can be guaranteed.

The U.S. Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services halted operations in Mexicos Michoacan state on Saturday after an inspector received a threatening message.

The suspension will remain in place for as long as necessary to ensure the appropriate actions are taken, to secure the safety of APHIS personnel working in Mexico, said a USDA statement Monday.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his government is examining the situation, and suggested Monday there was a political motivation behind the suspension.

In all of this there are also a lot of political interests and political interests, there is competition; they dont want Mexican avocados to get into the United States, right, because it would rule in the United States because of its quality, he said.

Michoacan is Mexicos top avocado producer and has dealt with gangs that target avocado and lime growers.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Vietnamese refugees in Thailand are facing delays in renewing identity cards issued by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Bangkok, and the pandemic-related suspension of processing has exposed many to the possibility of arrest by Thai authorities.

Tran Van Long, 64, originally from Dong Nai province, told VOA Vietnam, My card has been expired for more than a week, but I called all offices and no one answered. Most cards of refugees here have expired like mine.

Vietnamese authorities released Long after he served 20 years of a life sentence for joining a group the government considered reactionary. Due to police harassment, he said, he left Vietnam and the UNHCR granted him granted temporary refugee status in January 2021 after a years-long application process.

Long said he had been unable to contact anyone at the UNHCR office in Bangkok. It is very difficult. They've been closed recently, so I couldnt ask, and I couldnt call them at all.

According to BPSOS, a U.S. nonprofit organization that supports Vietnamese refugees in Southeast Asia, about 800 Vietnamese have been granted refugee status in Thailand, and an estimated 700 to 800 Vietnamese who do not have refugee status or have been denied refugee status are there as well.

Thailands 1979 Immigration Act considers asylum-seekers and refugees to be illegal immigrants, and this status subjects them to arrest, detention and deportation.

According to a UNHCR fact sheet from June 2021, some 578,000 people are populations of concern in Thailand, with the largest group of refugees residing in nine camps on the Thai-Myanmar border.

The Vietnamese refugees are just one group among hundreds of refugees in Thailand who live outside the camps in urban areas, according to the UNHCR, and there is currently no national legal framework in place for the specific protection of urban refugees and asylum-seekers in Thailand, according to the UNHCR fact sheet.

The UNHCR Regional Office in Thailand told VOA Vietnam via email that during the pandemic, the organization has curtailed its activities in line with World Health Organization advisories to curb the spread of the coronavirus. In line with this approach, no in-person card extension activities will take place for this period and our UNESCAP Reception is closed, it said.

The office said that for any individuals with UNHCR cards expiring during this period, UNHCR will automatically extend the cards until Feb. 28, 2022.

Duong Van Thai, 40, a former journalist based in Hanoi, belonged to the outlawed Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam. He fled the country after police threatened him for reporting on corruption.

He told VOA Vietnam that he and others need a temporary residence registration with the local government here and they often check our valid UNHCR cards. Currently a lot of cards here are expired posing a hardship for those who need physical cards to show to the police for identity verification.

An electronic renewal within that UNHCR system that remains inaccessible to the cardholders doesnt solve the problem of a lack of current physical cards, Duong said, adding that he has sent requests to the UNHCR office via email but never received a response.

Vu Thi Truc Phuong, 40, fled persecution by the Ho Chi Minh City authorities after participating in anti-government protests in 2018. She received refugee status by UNHCR in early 2021 and told VOA that she wasn't too much concerned about her expired card.

Only when it is absolutely necessary or urgent do I contact the office, she said.
Russia's geopolitical ambitions in Africa have in recent years been backed by private military contractors, often described as belonging to the "Wagner group"  an entity with no known legal status.

Most recently, Western nations have condemned the alleged arrival of Russian mercenaries in Mali's capital Bamako, a claim denied by the junta that seized power in 2020.

As relations with France worsen, the military rulers may be looking for ways to make up for shrinking numbers of European troops fighting Mali's years-old jihadist insurgency.

"Mercs [mercenaries] working in Africa is an established norm" thanks in part to decades of operations by contractors from South Africa, said Jason Blazakis of the New York-based Soufan Group think tank.

"The Wagner folks are walking through a door that has long been open to their ilk," he added.

No information is publicly available about the group's size or finances.

But around Africa, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington has found evidence since 2016 of Russian soldiers of fortune in Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR), Madagascar and Mozambique.

Botswana, Burundi, Chad, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are also on the CSIS's list.

In Africa "there is a convergence of many states' interests, including China's," Alexey Mukhin of the Moscow-based Centre for Political Information told AFP.

"Every state has the right to defend its business assets," he added.

'Hysteria'

Wagner does not officially exist, with no company registration, tax returns or organizational chart to be found.

When the EU wanted to sanction the group in 2020, it targeted Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin who is suspected of running Wagner.

It imposed further sanctions in December last year when mercenaries' arrival in Mali appeared certain  drawing accusations of "hysteria" from Moscow.

Western experts say military contractors are embedded in Russia's official forces like intelligence agencies and the army, providing plausible deniability for Moscow.

Their deployment to African countries aims to "enable Russia to... regain this sphere of influence" that fell away with the collapse of the Soviet Union, said CSIS researcher Catrina Doxsee.

The mercenaries' presence has been growing even faster since a 2019 Russia-Africa summit.

Moscow has been active "especially in what has traditionally been France's zone of influence" in former colonies like CAR and Mali, said Djallil Lounnas, a researcher at Morocco's Al Akhawayn university.

While military contractors sometimes shepherd Russian arms sales, the revenue "really pales compared with the profit they are able to generate from mining concessions and access to natural resources," Doxsee said.

That makes unstable countries with mineral or hydrocarbon wealth prime customers  such as in Syria where the mercenaries first became known to the wider public.

No questions asked

Lounnas said that another advantage for clients is a lack of friction over human rights and democracy that might come with Western partners.

"Russia has its interests. It doesn't ask questions," he added.

Reports of violence and abuse on the ground suggest that same latitude may extend to the mercenaries themselves.

In the CAR, the United Nations is probing an alleged massacre during a joint operation by government forces and Wagner fighters.

One military source told AFP that more than 50 people died, some in "summary executions."

On Thursday, the European Union said it would not resume military training in the CAR  suspended since mid-December  unless the country's soldiers stop working for Wagner.

Meanwhile the mercenaries' results do not always measure up to the hopes of the governments that hire them.

In Libya, Russian mercenaries suffered heavy losses in Marshal Khalifa Haftar's year-long attempt to conquer the capital Tripoli, which was ultimately unsuccessful.

And in Mozambique, the Russians retreated in the face of Islamic State group jihadists, ultimately losing out to South African competitors.

Although lacking language skills and experience with the terrain, Wagner "were picked because they were the cheapest", Doxsee said.

"They didn't have what it took to succeed," she added, noting that "they've had a fair few failures" across Africa.

Succeeding completely might actually harm the mercenaries' business model, which thrives on unrest, conflict and crisis.

"If a country such as the CAR hires them to train forces, to help them in their military efforts, its in their interest to accomplish that just well enough to continue to be employed," Doxsee said.

"If they actually were to do it well enough to resolve the conflict, they would no longer be needed."
The Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer 3, or MinXSS-3, successfully launched on the InspireSat-1 small satellite at 7:29 p.m. EST on Feb. 13, 2022.

Also known as the Dual Aperture X-ray Solar Spectrometer, or DAXSS, it is the third of three NASA-funded MinXSS CubeSats. It will spend up to a year in low-Earth orbit studying X-rays coming from flares on the Sun.

The Sun sometimes releases flares, which are energetic bursts of light and particles triggered by the release of magnetic energy on the Sun that travel across the solar system. X-rays emitted by the Sun during intense flares can interfere with GPS, radio, and other communications signals when they reach Earth. MinXSS will study the energetics of these flares in wavelengths known as soft X-rays, that are particularly impactful on Earth's ionosphere - an electrified upper layer of the atmosphere where communications signals travel.

Prior to the MinXSS CubeSats, spectral measurements of the soft X-rays from the Sun had rarely been studied. MinXSS-3's observations, which can record even very weak solar flares, will help scientists better understand the physics behind solar flares as well as how such events heat up material in the Sun's hot outer atmosphere called the corona - a longstanding question for solar scientists.

The MinXSS development program was funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate CubeSat Initiative Program and implemented by the University of Colorado Boulder under the leadership of Principal Investigator Tom Woods. MinXSS-3 was launched on the Indian Space Research Organization's Polar Space Launch Vehicle C.

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White House

Fact Sheet

We envision an Indo-Pacific that is open, connected, prosperous, resilient, and secureand we are ready to work together with each of you to achieve it.

President Joe Biden (East Asia Summit, October 27, 2021)

The Biden-Harris Administration has made historic strides to restore American leadership in the Indo-Pacific and adapt its role for the 21st century. In the last year, the United States has modernized its longstanding alliances, strengthened emerging partnerships, and forged innovative links among them to meet urgent challenges, from competition with China to climate change to the pandemic. It has done so at a time when allies and partners around the world are increasingly enhancing their own engagement in the Indo-Pacific; and when there is broad, bipartisan agreement in the U.S. Congress that the United States must, too. This convergence in commitment to the region, across oceans and across political-party lines, reflects an undeniable reality: the Indo-Pacific is the most dynamic region in the world, and its future affects people everywhere.

That reality is the basis of the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States. This strategy outlines President Bidens vision to more firmly anchor the United States in the Indo-Pacific and strengthen the region in the process. Its central focus is sustained and creative collaboration with allies, partners, and institutions, within the region and beyond it.

The United States will pursue an Indo-Pacific region that is:

FREE AND OPEN

Our vital interests and those of our closest partners require a free and open Indo-Pacific, and a free and open Indo-Pacific requires that governments can make their own choices and that shared domains are governed lawfully. Our strategy begins with strengthening resilience, both within individual countries, as we have done in the United States, and among them. We will advance a free and open region, including by:

 Investing in democratic institutions, a free press, and a vibrant civil society

 Improving fiscal transparency in the Indo-Pacific to expose corruption and drive reform

 Ensuring the regions seas and skies are governed and used according to international law

 Advancing common approaches to critical and emerging technologies, the internet, and cyber space

2. CONNECTED

A free and open Indo-Pacific can only be achieved if we build collective capacity for a new age. The alliances, organizations, and rules that the United States and its partners have helped to build must be adapted. We will build collective capacity within and beyond the region, including by:

 Deepening our five regional treaty alliances with Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), the Philippines, and Thailand

 Strengthening relationships with leading regional partners, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Pacific Islands

 Contributing to an empowered and unified ASEAN

 Strengthening the Quad and delivering on its commitments

 Supporting Indias continued rise and regional leadership

 Partnering to build resilience in the Pacific Islands

 Forging connections between the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic

 Expanding U.S. diplomatic presence in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands

3. PROSPEROUS

The prosperity of everyday Americans is linked to the Indo-Pacific. That fact requires investments to encourage innovation, strengthen economic competitiveness, produce good-paying jobs, rebuild supply chains, and expand economic opportunities for middle-class families: 1.5 billion people in the Indo-Pacific will join the global middle class this decade. We will drive Indo-Pacific prosperity, including by:

 Proposing an Indo-Pacific economic framework, through which we will:

 Develop new approaches to trade that meet high labor and environmental standards

 Govern our digital economies and cross-border data flows according to open principles, including through a new digital economy framework

 Advance resilient and secure supply chains that are diverse, open, and predictable

 Make shared investments in decarbonization and clean energy

 Promoting free, fair, and open trade and investment through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), including in our 2023 host year

 Closing the regions infrastructure gap through Build Back Better World with G7 partners

4. SECURE

For 75 years, the United States has maintained a strong and consistent defense presence necessary to support regional peace, security, stability, and prosperity. We are extending and modernizing that role and enhancing our capabilities to defend our interests and to deter aggression against U.S. territory and against our allies and partners. We will bolster Indo-Pacific security, drawing on all instruments of power to deter aggression and to counter coercion, including by:

 Advancing integrated deterrence

 Deepening cooperation and enhancing interoperability with allies and partners

 Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait

 Innovating to operate in rapidly evolving threat environments, including space, cyberspace, and critical- and emerging-technology areas

 Strengthening extended deterrence and coordination with our ROK and Japanese allies and pursuing the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula

 Continuing to deliver on AUKUS

 Expanding U.S. Coast Guard presence and cooperation against other transnational threats

 Working with Congress to fund the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and the Maritime Security Initiative

5. RESILIENT

The Indo-Pacific faces major transnational challenges. Climate change is growing ever-more severe as South Asias glaciers melt and the Pacific Islands battle existential rises in sea levels. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to inflict a painful human and economic toll across the region. And Indo-Pacific governments grapple with natural disasters, resource scarcity, internal conflict, and governance challenges. Left unchecked, these forces threaten to destabilize the region. We will build regional resilience to 21st-century transnational threats, including by:

 Working with allies and partners to develop 2030 and 2050 targets, strategies, plans, and policies consistent with limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius

 Reducing regional vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation

 Ending the COVID-19 pandemic and bolstering global health security
In 2017, Professor J. Alex Halderman demonstrated to the Senate Intelligence Committee that it was very easy to rig Dominion voting machines. The corporation had then overhauled its machines in order to guarantee the integrity of the ballots.

During the 2020 US presidential election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (Republican) encouraged residents of his state to vote by mail and provided Dominion machines for those who were determined to vote in person.

President Donald Trump had contacted Secretary Brad Raffensperger by phone. Their conversation was recorded and cherry-picked excerpts were used against him; Mr. Raffensperger insisted that President Trump had pressured him to modify the Georgia results.

This gave rise to considerable controversy over the transparency of the election results in that state.

In-mail votes are counted by Georgia government employees, often without public oversight. Machine votes are tabulated by the machines themselves.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) had assured that the Dominion machines were absolutely reliable and that the result of their count brought victory for candidate Joe Biden.

In view of the controversy, the State of Georgia then commissioned Professor J. Alex Halderman to draft a report. However, CISA filed a lawsuit against Georgia to prevent the declassification of the report, on the pretext that it would allow ill-intentioned people to hack into these voting machines.

For his part, Secretary Raffensperger has joined many voters in calling for the declassification. Now it is likely that the declassification will finally be authorized by a judge ... but only after the "sensitive" parts of the document have been redacted. 

CISA has not responded to questions about its change in attitude in relation to the position it held in 2020.

It is worth remembering that in democratic countries the counting of votes cast during an election is a public act. 
The main embassies of NATO member states in Kiev have started to repatriate their nationals, with the exception of

France.

On the other hand, the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in Kiev contacted its nationals via WeChat to explain that while NATO is ramping up the tension, it does not seek a war with Russia. The Embassy coincides with Thierry Meyssans analysis that this hysteria is meant to pile on US pressure not against Russia, but on its own partners.
According to the SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service -   ), the CIA is in the process of renewing ties with the jihadists in northern Syria for the purpose of recruiting them to carry out sporadic attacks against the Syrian Arab Army.

At the Geneva summit with President Vladimir Putin in June 2021, the US President admitted his countrys defeat in Syria and vowed not to intervene there again, recognizing that this country was now under Russian protection. In addition, he accepted the start-up of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with a gas price slightly higher than that usually practiced by Russia as a means of compensating for the war damages in Syria.

However, faced with the Russian proposal for a Treaty crafted to maintain peace and stability, Washington plans to turn off the gas pipeline and relaunch jihadist operations.

The attack on a prison held by Kurdish mercenaries, in January, in an area northeast of Syria illegally occupied by the United States and inhabited by jihadists, was likely to have been the first step in the US recruitment plan.

The elimination of the second caliph of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, by a US commando, on 3 February, made it possible to replace him with a more compliant leader.

Only two days later, on 5 February, a meeting was held in Qatar, chaired by the former president of the Syrian Council of Ministers Riad Hijab and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which saw a distribution of roles between different jihadist groups and various US think tanks.
When recreational divers first noticed geometric structures on the ocean floor in 1995, they didnt know whether they were made by an animal or the result of natural physical processes. In 2011, the construction of these mystery circles was observed, and the architect identified. They are made by the males of a previously unknown species of pufferfish and function to attract females.

With a diameter of about 2 meters, these structures are enormous relative to the 12-centimeter fish who make them. Construction takes more than a week, with the fish laboriously swimming and using their fins to move the sand at the sea bottom. The central section is flat, with peaks and valleys radiating outward like the spokes of a wheel. Males decorate the peaks with shells and pieces of coral.

The flow of water across the pattern channels fine sediment, which collects within the circle. When females approach the construction, the males stir up the fine sediment thats in the center. Perhaps the females care more about the fine sediment than about the overall pattern of the structure when deciding whether to lay eggs there. That would explain why males dont reuse the structure in future reproductive cycles. The stores of fine sediment in the area are depleted, and males must go to a new place to build a new structure thats appealing to females.

Males stay for nearly a week guarding the eggs until they hatch, and during that time, they do no maintenance work on the structure. It gradually decays, with the topography flattening out and the fine sand particles replaced with larger ones.

These pufferfish are not the only animals whose actions aimed at courting make a physical impact on the ground. The efforts of some species of dinosaurs to attract mates also left marks on the earth. Scientists found over 60 fossilized scratch marks along with dinosaur footprints in four sites in Colorado. Based on the footprints, researchers determined that the marks were made by theropod dinosaurs, a group characterized by hollow bones and three-toed limbs. Birds are descended from theropods, and are technically considered dinosaurs.

At first, scientists were not sure what the scratch marks in the fossil record meant, but they ruled out digging for water (the area was too wet at that time), digging for food (meat-eating dinosaurs didnt root around that way) and nest building (the marks werent regular enough in their spacing or worn down enough). They soon realized the nest scrape displays so common in modern ground-nesting birds leave the same pattern of marks. Such behavior is seen in a variety of avian species, most commonly in shorebirds, and leaves signs of scratching on the ground, too.

Modern birds usually perform these courtship displays in the area where they eventually build their nests. That suggested to the scientists who discovered them that dinosaurs also nested in the area of the fossilized courtship scratch marks.

I guess love doesnt change that much through the ages  courtship rituals still leave a mark!

Karen B. London, Ph.D. is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Certified Professional Dog Trainer, and an author of six books on canine training and behavior, including her most recent, Treat Everyone Like a Dog: How a Dog Trainers World View Can Improve Your Life.

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The recent 2.1 million-pound ($2.8 million) award to a female banker in compensation for sex discrimination is notable for more than its size. The judgment handed down to her employer, BNP Paribas SA, was excoriating  and should serve as a warning to the entire finance industry. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight A London employment tribunal found in 2019 that the French lender discriminated against Stacey Macken by underpaying her as much as 40,000 pounds in annual salary relative to a male peer at a comparable level since 2013. BNP also discriminated when setting her bonuses. The case is best known for revealing that Macken once arrived at the office to find a witchs hat on her desk, likely to have been put there by male colleagues who had been out drinking the night before.

Last month brought details of the necessary financial recompense (the long lag due to the disruption of the pandemic and the sheer volume of evidence.) The award primarily comprised compensation to make good on Mackens past earnings shortfall and harm to her career. But the total was even higher than it might have been due to the severity of the discrimination and, above all, BNPs failure to respond to Mackens concerns properly.

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There was a roughly 320,000-pound surcharge for the banks failure to follow the U.K.s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service code of practice on handling employee complaints. When Macken raised concerns about her pay, BNP set out to defend itself rather than conduct a proper investigation, the original tribunal found. This amounted to victimization. The levy for such dereliction can be up to 25% of the overall award. In this case, it was 20%.

The failings were so significant that in some respects there may as well not have been a grievance process followed at all, according to the compensation ruling.

U.K. discrimination awards typically include a payment for injury to feelings. Here, that award was 35,000 pounds  in the top band determined by precedent cases. The judge added aggravated damages due to the spiteful and vindictive nature of the discriminatory conduct. Thats less common.

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For a global bank capitalized at $86 billion to be stung with these elevated charges is a notable reprimand. The impression that BNP didnt take these matters seriously is reinforced by the fact that Mackens line manager faced no disciplinary action, nor suffered reduced bonus payments in 2019 after BNP lost the case that summer.

The firm has been taking steps to learn lessons and has been reviewing the fairness of its pay in London. But this is happening largely because of the legal action. And BNPs endeavors werent good enough to avoid being ordered to conduct a more extensive equal-pay audit of its London operation. That is a U.K. investment-banking first  and an ignominious achievement.

In response, BNP said it fell short in its duty to Macken and aimed to ensure that all of our people are treated with the respect they deserve at all times.

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What should the financial and corporate world take from all this? Its significant that Macken was treated badly when she first raised concerns with her immediate managers in 2014, and her later attempts to resolve matters through the banks grievance process made things worse not better. A well-run corporation should be able to investigate claims of discrimination internally and resolve them before finding itself in a tribunal  let alone being punished for basic deficiencies of procedure.

Another question is why staff werent more fearful of violating anti-discrimination policies. There was a blindspot here, and thats a matter of business culture  or, in this case, cultures. The discrimination took place in the London-based prime-brokerage desk of a Paris-headquartered multinational. That raises questions about the culture of prime brokerage (the business of serving hedge funds.) Then again, the lapses went beyond one department and reflect poorly on BNP and, in turn, European finance generally.

Finally, bear in mind that this saga has concluded just as bank bosses are calling staff back to the office. They say a shared location is vital to the apprenticeship of finance and to preserving the company culture. All true. But you can see why some women might be not be celebrating a return to any environment that fosters overt and tacit discrimination and where colleagues are habitually obnoxious. Some aspects of financial culture are best left to go extinct.

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More From This Writer and Others at Bloomberg Opinion:

 German Tabloid Scandal Is an ESG Stress Test for Private Equity: Chris Hughes

 Its Awkward Being a Woman in the Metaverse: Parmy Olson

 China Forgets Some Women Who Hold Up the Sky: Shuli Ren

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Chris Hughes is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals. He previously worked for Reuters Breakingviews, as well as the Financial Times and the Independent newspaper.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Container-shipping companies have found lots of ways to spend their enormous pandemic profits. Theyre lifting staff pay, making acquisitions and returning heaps of cash to shareholders. One person who wont benefit much is you, the taxpayer. Based on their recent financial filings, I calculate big European container lines AP Moller-Maersk A/S, CMA CGM SA and Hapag-Lloyd AG owe just 1% or 2% of their bumper shipping profits in taxes.

This jarring outcome is due to the shipping industrys highly unusual taxation arrangements: The companies pay a fixed amount based on the tonnage of their vessels, rather than a percentage of their earnings. More than 20 European countries have a tonnage tax system, as does Japan; Singapore and Hong Kong also provide generous tax incentives to shipping.

Already on the defensive over the worlds broken supply chains, shipping companies have so far faced remarkably little scrutiny of their taxes.

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Last week a former U.K. business minister called for a windfall tax on container-shipping profits, echoing similar demands for a special levy on oil companies such as BP Plc.

Of course, theres a risk that one-off taxes are passed onto customers via even higher freight rates. Id be happy if shipping companies were just taxed at a normal rate.

Instead, the industry successfully lobbied the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to be excluded from last years global deal to set a 15% minimum tax rate for multinational businesses. (2)

According to its latest accounts, Maersk owed just $138 million of tonnage and freight taxes on $17.6 billion of international shipping profits in 2021, or an effective tax rate of less than 1%. (Maersks group tax rate last year was 3.7%, but this mostly reflects higher taxes on land-based activities).

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I calculate German rival Hapag-Lloyd and Frances CMA CGM had effective tax rates of 1% and 2% respectively, in the first nine months of the year on combined pretax profits of around $17 billion.

As the container lines buy their way into shipping-adjacent sectors, their barely taxed trans-ocean profits risk distorting competition; logistics incumbents pay far higher taxes and so dont have as much spare cash.

Though the opportunity for comprehensive tax reform may have passed, tonnage taxes should be redesigned so they offer greater benefits to the public. Carbon taxes are another way to force the industry to pay its fair share. In the meantime, these companies need to show theyre spending financial windfalls responsibly.

Rather ironically, the industry won an exemption from the 15% minimum rate, in part, by emphasizing its historically low profit margins. Yet some shipping lines made more money in 2021 than in the past couple of decades combined.

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The worlds container-shipping lines likely earned $190 billion in operating profit in 2021, according maritime research firm Drewry. With port congestion continuing, this years profits could be even larger.

Politicians arent done doing the industry favors. Land-locked Switzerland, home of Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A, the worlds largest container-shipping line, is expected to introduce a tonnage tax. (MSC is private and doesnt publish information about its profits or taxes). Meanwhile, Britain recently made its tax system even more favorable to the shipping companies to underscore the supposed benefits of Brexit.

In fairness, taxing shipping is complicated because vessels operate in international waters and call at multiple ports. A tonnage levy offers simplicity and predictability. Without such favorable treatment, more vessels would likely be registered in low-tax offshore jurisdictions under so-called flags of convenience. One should remember too that some shipping companies pay higher taxes but are subsidized in other ways.

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Tonnage taxes are due even when the liners make losses, which happened frequently in the past decade; hence carriers paid more in those years than they otherwise would.(3) Shipping is capital-intensive but tonnage taxes provide no relief for those investments. And in some cases, tax benefits are tied to domestic economic activity and job creation.

But if tonnage taxes werent so hugely advantageous, shipping companies wouldnt still be lobbying for them. Israel-based Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., the worlds tenth-largest container line by capacity, has asked local authorities to switch to a tonnage system.(1) Currently, it faces the same 23% tax rate as other Israeli businesses. Its bold to demand tax cuts after earning massive windfall profits. But can you really blame the U.S.-listed group for asking, considering how rivals are treated?

Even after the current acute port congestion eases, freight costs could remain elevated compared to historic levels: Desperate customers now place more value on reliable service and are agreeing to longer contracts. Mergers and alliances may mean the industry is more adept at curtailing overcapacity. If the industry is more profitable than it was in the past, thats all the more reason to tax it fairly.

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An easy first step is to redesign tonnage taxes so they better promote decarbonization as, for example, Portugal does. Shipping should also be included in carbon markets, as the EU is proposing, so it pays for polluting.

In the meantime, shipping companies can avoid any threat of windfall taxes by demonstrating theyre responsible stewards of lightly taxed wealth: Besides hiking dividends and share buybacks, Maersk has ordered a dozen ships that run on cleaner methanol, called for a global tax on shipping fuel and aims to becoming carbon-neutral by 2040, for example.

Is that enough? Its a taxing question.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Supply Chain Snarls May Be Here to Stay, Too: Fickling & Trivedi

 Bonuses Work Best When Surprisingly Big: Sarah Green Carmichael

 The Shipping Industry Is Raking It In  for Now: Chris Bryant

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(1) That deal at least ensures thatsome ancillary logistics services can no longer be included in tonnage tax

(2) This study found container shippings effective tax rate was 19% between 2005 and 2019. However, this high figure likely reflects the inclusion of non-tax exempt logistics services, as well as the losses I mentioned. The effective tax rate for the entire shipping sector was around 7%.

(3) See also this interview with Zims CFO.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.

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A pill that will help Covid-19 patients avert life-threatening illness has been something of a holy grail for doctors and drugmakers. The earliest therapeutics shown to help have typically been administered to patients via a transfusion or once they have become sick enough to require hospitalization. Two years after the first Covid cases were reported in China, two pill-based treatments have emerged that even skeptical scientists are hailing as potentially huge advances. Intended for newly infected patients at risk of developing severe disease, the medicines promise to reduce hospitalizations and death as well as make users less likely to spread the coronavirus. Research is ongoing to determine how well these and other treatments perform against the omicron variant of the virus identified in late November.

1. What are the new drugs?

The oral treatment, Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer Inc., is a combination of two antiviral pills. One is designed to block the action of a key enzyme that the coronavirus uses to make copies of itself; the other, the HIV medication ritonavir, helps slow the breakdown of the first, enabling it to remain active in the body for longer and at higher concentrations. The other treatment, molnupiravir, from Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, was originally developed to treat influenza. The pill inhibits replication of the coronavirus by a mechanism known as lethal mutagenesis. In simple terms, it causes the machinery that reproduces the viruss genetic material to make mistakes, thereby rendering the copies defective, a mechanism thats raised concerns about sparking drug-resistant Covid variants. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Paxlovid Dec. 22 for emergency use and the next day authorized molnupiravir in cases where other treatments arent accessible or appropriate for patients. China granted emergency approval for Paxlovid on Feb. 11 -- the first foreign pharmaceutical product specifically targeting Covid it has endorsed.

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2. How effective are they?

Paxlovid was shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% in high-risk Covid patients, according to an interim analysis of a trial reported by Pfizer on Nov. 5. The results were the same whether people started treatment within three or five days of developing symptoms. Molnupiravir was found to reduce the likelihood of hospitalization or death by 30% in a study of adults with an increased risk of severe Covid, Merck and Ridgeback reported on Nov. 26.

3. How are they meant to be used?

The FDA said both drugs, available in the U.S. only by prescription, should be started as soon as possible after a Covid diagnosis and within five days of the start of symptoms. The agency authorized Paxlovid for adults and children 12 and older who weigh at least 88 pounds (40 kilograms). It limited molnupiravir to those 18 and older because of concerns the drug may affect bone and cartilage growth and said the treatment isnt recommended for use during pregnancy, as it may also have an impact on dividing cells. Under guidelines from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, molnupiravir should be used only when other options cant be. Paxlovid is administered as three tablets taken together orally twice daily for five days, for a total of 30 tablets. Molnupiravir is given as four capsules taken orally every 12 hours for five days, for a total of 40 capsules.

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4. How do these drugs differ from other treatments?

 Affordable and easy-to-administer antivirals are ideal treatments, assuming they are safe and well-tolerated, because they directly counter the virus, limiting the duration of illness and its damage to the body. Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co. said Jan. 31 that an antiviral pill its developing was effective in an early clinical study.

 There are other proven therapeutics that specifically target the coronavirus: Gilead Sciences Inc.s antiviral remdesivir as well as laboratory-made antibodies that mimic the bodys immune defenses against the virus. But these are all administered via infusion, adding complexity and cost that may put them beyond the reach of poor countries. Infusing patients in hospitals can also raise the risk of transmission to medical staff and other patients.

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 Other medications reduce hospitalized Covid patients symptoms, but dont directly fight the virus. These include the cheap steroid dexamethasone and interleukin-6 receptor blockers, which can suppress a harmful overreaction of the immune system. Blood thinners can also prevent Covid-linked clots that destroy patients organs.

5. How well will treatments work against the omicron variant?

 The World Health Organization said Dec. 23 that steroids and interleukin-6 receptor blockers are expected to remain effective for managing patients with omicron infections, since the drugs target inflammation rather than the virus itself.

 Treatments that directly combat the virus are being assessed to see how they perform against omicron. Pfizer and Merck have said they expect their antiviral pills to stand up to the new variant; lab experiments on both suggest they are active against omicron. Gilead said it expects its infusion remdesivir to retain efficacy against the variant. The antibody therapies are of greater concern because they target the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to enter cells, and omicron is characterized by 30 or more changes to that region. U.S. health authorities restricted use of an antibody therapy from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and another (bamlanivimab plus etesevimab) from Eli Lilly & Co. after data showed the treatments were highly unlikely to be effective against the variant. The authorities said it appeared that GlaxoSmithKline Plcs antibody treatment, sotrovimab, which it makes in partnership with Vir Biotechnology Inc., would hold up. In February, the FDA authorized use of a new Eli Lilly antibody, bebtelovimab; the company said lab tests demonstrated it neutralizes omicron.

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6. What other types of treatments are being investigated?

Studies published in September 2020 focused on the role of an immune substance called interferon that helps orchestrate the bodys defenses. The research found that people with low levels of the substance do poorly in fighting off the coronavirus, suggesting that interferon treatments could help in the early stages of the infection and perhaps prevent life-threatening illness. However, interferon therapy didnt help hospitalized patients in a study reported in October 2021. A number of Covid treatments have lost favor. The WHO in December advised against treating Covid patients with an infusion of plasma from people whove recovered from the virus. It said the treatment, while costly, doesnt improve survival or reduce the need for mechanical ventilation. U.S. regulators in March 2020 authorized the use of the malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid, and the next June reversed themselves after determining the drugs were unlikely to work against the coronavirus and could have dangerous side effects.

7. How do scientists prove a treatment is effective?

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Even if a treatment shows promise in laboratory, animal or early human experiments, rigorous testing is needed to prove its both safe and effective. That requires carefully structured and monitored tests known as clinical trials. Typically, these studies are designed to show that patients randomly assigned to get the drug do better than those in a control group who dont, and that the results arent a product of chance. The trials try to subtract all the other influences and factors that might disguise the true effectiveness of the drug. For one thing, patients often recover from viral illness on their own, or improve because of supportive care such as rest and hydration. And some really sick patients might not respond to treatment no matter how effective it is.

8. How long does it take to prove efficacy?

It depends. Drugs that are already approved against one infection and shown to be safe can be tested for effectiveness against another in a matter of months. Experimental drugs may take longer to test, as they have to go through initial studies to evaluate whether they are safe. Other factors that can slow the process include the supply of drug candidates and the availability of patients to test them in. The trials also have to be approved by ethics watchdogs and drug regulators. According to a 2017 review, the median time for regulators to approve a new drug in 2015 was 333 days in the U.S., 422 days in Europe, and 639 days in China. China has since expedited its process. But when drugs are deemed to fill an immediate need, such as in a pandemic, regulators can speed them through the approval process using a number of paths, including emergency authorizations.

(Updates with China approval of Paxlovid in section 1, FDA authorization of new Eli Lilly antibody therapy in section 5)

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This weeks announcement that Indias Vedanta Group has tied up with Taiwans Foxconn Technology Group to make chips is being lauded as proof that New Delhi is gaining traction with its plans to build a semiconductor industry. Thats hardly the case. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Those hopeful that India can establish a foothold in the sector should temper their expectations, and instead keep an eye on the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for evidence that he will truly follow through on his big, expensive plan to build a local chip industry.

What Vedanta and Foxconn released on Feb. 14 was little more than a piece of paper. Memoranda of understanding dont commit either party to anything. The $118.7 million that Foxconn  the worlds largest contract electronics maker  is putting up for a 40% stake in the joint venture is just a number. And Vedanta is an unexpected choice of partner because its background is in mining and commodities, with limited experience in technology manufacturing.

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What the two parties have in common is that they both smell opportunity.

Indias government is offering almost $7 billion of enticements to boost the electronics manufacturing sector, which includes a production-linked incentives scheme, and a strong desire to move up the value chain from simple assembly to more technologically advanced semiconductor production.

And nothing attracts business executives like free money. Vedanta may be looking for a boost, too. Chairman Anil Agarwal is reported to have considered merging Vedanta Resources Ltd., the indebted holding company of his commodities empire, with its cash-rich listed unit, Vedanta Ltd. Last year, Indias Supreme Court upheld a 2018 decision ordering Vedanta Ltd. to halt iron ore mining in the coastal state of Goa due to a violation of environmental and regulatory norms. The same court is scheduled to hear petitions on the case this week.

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In the end, such a restructuring may not be on the cards. Last week, Vedanta Ltd. said itll stick with its current corporate composition but is looking to venture into new areas. Among them, an investment of up to $500 million over two to three years to make liquid-crystal display glass substrates used in screens for electronics. Thats a curious choice, because such operations need to be set up close to the factories where panels are made, and India is not even on the radar in this sector.

Foxconn, on the other hand, does know flat panels. Its Innolux Corp. is one of the worlds biggest names, while founder Terry Gou engineered the 2016 takeover of Sharp Corp., turning around the embattled Japanese companys fortunes in just a few years.

Computer and smartphone screens are not semiconductors, however. One shouldnt be fooled into thinking that an investment in one portends a move into the other.

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Among the tell-tale signs that this chip venture may not be what it seems is the paltry amount of money going in. Foxconns announced $118.7 million is barely enough to set up a design team, let alone a production facility. Vedanta is likely to offer up to 10 times that amount, but even $1 billion wont be sufficient to kick-start semiconductor manufacturing from scratch.

Then theres the actual chips this new company would produce. It has two real choices  manufacture-to-order for external clients, or make products that its designed itself. The former is a tough gig. The rise of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., now one of the worlds largest companies, might make people believe this is a hot and lucrative business. But the fact that the worlds third-largest(1), GlobalFoundries Inc., can barely string together a few quarters of profit highlights the pitfalls even for those with years of experience.

If, on the other hand, this future business is to make its own chips, then itll need to create two divisions  those that know how to design globally competitive components, and the team that can manufacture them efficiently and at scale. For that, Foxconn is a good choice and helps explain why the Taiwanese partner is getting a 40% stake, possibly disproportionate to the funds its putting in.

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But the lack of detail is a clue to the real strength of this announced business. What were really seeing is two companies agreeing to jointly petition the government for corporate welfare, funds that New Delhi says its willing to put up to achieve bold policy goals. When they do put in an application, the ball will be in Modis court to pony up the money.For sure, Vedantas local connections combined with Foxconns technical chops make for an enticing enterprise. But for now, that venture is merely on paper and little more.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Indias Chip Dreams Arent Crazy, Just Misguided: Tim Culpan

 Go Gently With IPO of Indias Most Valuable Firm: Andy Mukherjee

 Elon Musk Has It All Wrong on State Subsidies: Anjani Trivedi

(1) Were talking about pure-play foundries, such as TSMC and UMC. Samsung is a key supplier, but also makes to its own designs.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News.

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Stability remains a rare commodity in the Middle East. Thats all the more reason to welcome modest signs of rapprochement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders  and for both sides to build on them. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Admittedly, conditions hardly look propitious for peace. Israels fragile ruling coalition is split between hardliners firmly opposed to an independent Palestinian state, leftists, centrists and even an Islamist party. The Palestinians are even more divided, with Hamas dominating the Gaza Strip and making inroads into the West Bank, where the deeply unpopular Palestinian Authority holds sway. Meanwhile, the U.S. has its hands full trying to fend off crises from Ukraine to Iran, and has little bandwidth to broker a new Middle East peace process.

That doesnt mean incremental progress cant be made. In recent months, Israel has taken some promising steps. It has tentatively agreed to allow Palestinian companies to set up 4G mobile networks, which the World Bank has described as critical to developing a Palestinian digital economy. In late December, Israeli officials promised to legalize the status of several thousand Palestinians and to provide more travel passes for Palestinian officials and businesspeople. Most important, Israel has offered more than $180 million in loans so the PA can pay salaries and forestall a fiscal crisis.

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While Israels government has taken flak for giving too much and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for accepting too little, these measures are good for both sides. They shore up the PA  a critical security partner for Israel  against Hamas. They should also help ease mounting frustrations in the West Bank by removing some needless daily indignities. Israel could further bolster the PAs fiscal position by following through on proposals to lower handling fees for fuel shipments and allow more expansive cross-border commerce with Jordan.

Palestinian leaders could unlock more aid by taking a few sensible steps of their own. First and foremost, they need to abandon their longstanding policy of paying stipends to the families of Palestinians, including convicted terrorists, whove been imprisoned or killed by Israeli security forces. The payments have prompted Israel to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the customs revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinians, and they prevent the U.S. from directly funding the PA. Privately, some Palestinian officials have acknowledged the program needs to be overhauled and families offered welfare only according to financial need. Abbas should have the courage to act.

For their part, Israeli leaders should remember that piecemeal efforts are welcome but not sufficient. If young Palestinians are to resist the appeals of radical groups such as Hamas, they need to see some hope for political as well as economic progress. While it may be premature to envision new peace talks, Israel should at least not foreclose them with unilateral moves, such as building settlements in areas critical to a future Palestinian state.

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The fact remains that there is no one-state solution that can guarantee Israel remains Jewish, democratic and secure. Its supporters should both applaud steps to stabilize relations with the Palestinians and press for more.

More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 Calling Israel an Apartheid State Is a Mistake: Hussein Ibish

 Israel and Jordan Choose Pragmatism Over Ideology: Zev Chafets

Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

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The world is awash in dirty money -- and criminals who are constantly finding new ways to hide their loot in real estate, art, securities, cryptocurrencies and old fashioned bank accounts. Policing the latest tricks in digital transfers and offshore shell companies falls to financial regulators in each country, but theres also an obscure international group thats exerting more influence: For more than three decades, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force has been confronting the challenge of illicit finance. Though the body is sometimes criticized for focusing too much on formal regulation, the mere risk of ending up on the FATFs watchlist has been enough to spur some governments into action.

1. What is the FATF?

Its an inter-governmental organization that sets standards to try to curb money laundering. Created by the Group of Seven nations at a summit in 1989, the goal was to protect their financial systems from criminal activity such as drug trafficking. The FATF is perhaps best known for pioneering the know-your-customer rules that require institutions to ascertain the true identities of account holders. Those requirements are now commonplace in banks, investment houses and payment processing firms. The FATF has also set guidelines for national laws and how to manage account data. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the FATF developed standards for combating terrorist financing. Its made up of 39 members, including the G7, China and Russia and emerging economies in South America and Africa.

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2. Why does it matter?

The FATFs recommendations are taken seriously because no nation wants to be flagged for deficiencies that might cast doubt on the integrity of its banking system, or worse, be branded an underperformer. The FATF lists North Korea and Iran in its worst category, and designates nations including Panama, Malta and the Philippines as monitored jurisdictions working with the organization to improve their controls. Moreover, many countries fear the scrutiny of prosecutors and regulators in the U.S., an influential force in the FATF, which has slapped foreign institutions with billions of dollars in penalties and the threat of criminal prosecution for failing to prevent malfeasance. Government officials facing an imminent FATF audit often scramble to get up to snuff. Since an FATF report on the United Arab Emirates in April 2020, authorities have set up courts focused on financial crimes, adopted new disclosure requirements around company ownership and imposed new rules on hawalas, the charities often alleged to enable terrorism-related money flows. The UAE is now awaiting a decision on whether it will be included on the FATFs so-called gray list.

3. What does being on the gray list mean?

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That a country requires closer monitoring as its not been doing enough to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The designation can make foreign investors more wary of doing business there. A report by the International Monetary Fund in 2021 found that being gray-listed results in an average decline in capital flows coming into a country equal to 7.6% of gross domestic product. Should the FATF apply the designation to the UAE, it would be among the most significant such steps in the groups history given the UAEs position as the main financial hub of the Middle East.

4. Is the FATF making a dent in money laundering?

While experts welcome the groups efforts, many contend that its findings, which tend to focus on technical compliance, can be out of sync with the reality on the ground. The U.K. won high marks in its 2018 assessment but anti-corruption groups such as Global Witness point out that corrupt despots and oligarchs remain prolific users of Britains financial system. In 2019, Transparency International U.K. traced $418 billion in suspicious wealth through scores of banks, law firms, properties and prestigious private schools such as Harrow School. Even as British prosecutors freeze the assets of some suspected money launderers, they have a poor record when it comes to convictions in high-profile cases, according to anti-corruption experts. While its challenging to calculate, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the amount of money laundered globally in one year is 2% to 5% of global gross domestic product, or somewhere between $800 billion and $2 trillion. David Lewis, who left as head of the FATF in January, called efforts to combat money laundering inadequate.

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5. Does the FATF have real teeth?

Yes, to a degree. A bad report card from the FATF can be a call to action. The Netherlands, for instance, was criticized by the FATF in 2015 for not doing enough to require banks to verify the identity of their accountholders. The Dutch government and the central bank have since made a flurry of changes, including the approval of penalties for lenders that can amount to a fifth of their annual revenue, double the level mandated by the EUs anti-money laundering law. However, the job of adopting and enforcing anti money-laundering measures still falls to a patchwork of national regulators and local law enforcement authorities that apply laws and standards differently. After a wave of scandals struck Nordic banks over their handling of dirty money in the Baltic nations, the European Commission has proposed creating a centralized body with the power to clamp down on illicit finance in the blocs member nations.

 QuickTake explainers on how money launderers operate and the UAEs new corporate tax.

 The Financial Action Task Forces portal for reports on money laundering practices in member countries.

 The organizations standards and recommendations countries should follow to curb dirty money.

 Transparency International UKs statistical analysis on the breadth of money laundering in the British property market.

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Diplomatic efforts to forestall Russias threatened attack on Ukraine still arent over  and it appears that discussing Ukraines future relationship with NATO isnt quite as unthinkable as the U.S. and its allies have maintained. Thats good. Making a success of any such approach wont be easy but, if the alternative is war, its worth a try.

Shuttling between Moscow and Kyiv last week, French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly told journalists that Finlandization was on the table. He later denied having said it, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he hadnt heard Macron use the term (an interestingly narrow denial). In any event Macron has said that some Russian security concerns should be addressed. Evidently, the prospect of Ukraines joining NATO is one.

On Sunday Ukraines ambassador to the U.K. told the BBC that his country might agree not to join NATO if thats what it would take to avoid war. He too subsequently clarified his remarks, pointing out that Ukraine has a constitutional commitment to join the alliance (without noting that constitutions can be changed or that constitutional commitments to do something sometime can be indefinitely set aside).

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Certainly it would be wrong for Macron or the leader of any other NATO country to discuss Ukraines future with Putin unless Ukraines government was a consenting and fully informed participant in the process. The question, however, is what Ukraine would or should want if it had been frankly apprised of where it stands with respect to the alliance.

As I argued recently, if it isnt in fact going to be admitted in the foreseeable future, it shouldnt be encouraged to gamble on the possibility that this might change. If, by suspending its NATO ambitions, Ukraine loses nothing of actual value and gives Putin an off-ramp from this crisis, thats a course it might rationally choose.

To clarify, this shouldnt be a matter of NATO affirming that Ukraine would never join. The deal might be that Ukraine would agree not to seek membership for the time being and only for as long as certain other conditions  including guarantees of its territorial integrity and, say, agreements between NATO and Russia on force deployments near borders  were satisfied. There are many ways of codifying an understanding that Ukraine isnt joining NATO anytime soon.

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Moreover, being asked to make such a choice does not infringe Ukraines sovereignty. Sovereignty does not include an entitlement to join alliances that choose not to have you as a member. And sovereignty isnt power (as opponents of Brexit never tired of pointing out). Ukraine is weak because of its location and history, and because Russia is in a position to make demands. If NATO was willing to make Ukraine a member and spend the blood and treasure required to defend it, Ukraine would be much less weak. But NATO isnt willing to do that.

Why then is it wrong to say Finlandization? Peter Spiegel of the Financial Times says, Dont mention that word to a Finn. The term refers to the decades of the Cold War, when Finland was heavily influenced but not controlled by the Soviet Union. Finns object to the term and the idea, Spiegel writes, because it fails to recognize their long-term orientation toward the West or acknowledge that Helsinki had agency during the Soviet period. Now the same goes, he says, for Ukraine (except presumably that Ukraines Western orientation isnt, as yet, very long-term). The main thing is that Ukraine wants to be seen as an independent sovereign nation, not a Russian appendage.

Quite right, but might Finlandization not serve that purpose?

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A New York Times report with the headline Finns Dont Wish Finlandization on Ukraine (or Anyone) ends this way:

The word may be front of mind now for those looking for a solution to the Ukraine crisis, but in Finland not everyone knows it well.

I heard the term Finlandization on the 10 oclock news last night, said Marleene Rytioja, 35, as she chased her two-year-old son in the childrens section of the library, next to dozens of neatly parked strollers. I had heard the term in school but I dont know what it means.

She said it seemed to have a negative connotation but that the idea of Russia determining anything in her life seemed completely foreign to her reality.

I feel Western of course, she said. We are not Russian.

I might be missing something, but doesnt this suggest that Finlandization worked pretty well?

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Related at Bloomberg Opinion:

 If Russia Takes Ukraine, Insurgency Could Be Putins Nightmare: James Stavridis

 Bombast, Distance and Distrust: Your Guide to Ukraine Talks: Andreas Kluth

 If Russia Invades Ukraine, the U.S. Is Certain to Be a Loser: Hal Brands

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Clive Crook is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and member of the editorial board covering economics, finance and politics. A former chief Washington commentator for the Financial Times, he has been an editor for the Economist and the Atlantic.

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Covid-19 cases among children have surged across the world amid omicron-fueled outbreaks, spurring more hospitalizations and raising fresh concern about the risk of severe illness -- although such cases remain proportionately rare. Its also renewed questions about the safety of schools and the potential for prolonged health effects. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight 1. How common is Covid in children?

Reported Covid-19 cases among children spiked dramatically in 2022 during the wave driven by the hyper-infectious omicron variant, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Almost 4.5 million pediatric cases were reported in the U.S. in the first six weeks of the year. Pediatric cases peaked at 1.15 million in the week ending Jan. 20 and were still at extremely high levels in early February -- well above what was observed during the peak of the delta surge in 2021, it said. The 298,931 cases of Covid-19 in children in the week ending Feb. 10 represented 21.9% of the weekly reported infections across the U.S. That jump in sheer numbers infected has also translated into more Covid-related hospitalizations.

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2. What are the symptoms of omicron?

Omicrons symptoms are similar to those of other SARS-CoV-2 variants. Sore throat, fatigue, aches including headache, dry cough, congestion and fever are frequent signs, though taste and smell distortions are reported to be less common, according to the Childrens Hospital of Chicago. Overall, the strain causes less severe symptoms and appears to be milder. Pediatricians report that omicron is bolstering cases of croup, a common childhood illness typically caused by seasonal viral infections that leads to inflammation or swelling in a childs upper airways, which are smaller than in adults and which omicron appears to target. An analysis of emergency department data at Seattle Childrens Hospital found that the incidence of croup almost doubled during the omicron surge compared with the rate in prior months.

3. Why are children being infected more?

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Omicron has a significant growth advantage over delta, the variant that prevailed during 2021, and is better than earlier strains at evading immunity acquired from vaccines and natural infection. Thats enabled it to spread rapidly in communities, especially among susceptible individuals across all age groups. Theres no evidence that omicron is targeting children more than other age groups, but vaccination rates are higher in older people since adolescents generally got access to the shots much later. In the U.S. and many parts of the world, children younger than 5 arent eligible for Covid vaccination, and kids ages 5 through 11 arent eligible to receive boosters.

4. How serious is an omicron infection for children?

Covid-19 remains a mild disease in the vast majority of children, and theres no evidence that omicron is changing that. Early data suggest that, as with all other variants, severity increases with age and in the presence of underlying medical conditions, as well as among people who arent vaccinated.

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 A U.S. study using a nationwide database of electronic health records found that the risk for hospitalization in unvaccinated children younger than 5 that occurred after the emergence of omicron was a third of that during the delta variant wave. The risk for an emergency department visit was less than a fifth, it found. The same trends were observed for children 5-11 years and 12-17 years old. The results, released in January ahead of peer-review and publication, suggest that although pediatric infections and hospitalizations have risen during the omicron surge, cases are milder compared with the period in which delta predominated.

 Often children are hospitalized for other reasons and coincidentally test positive for SARS-CoV-2. The presence of an underlying condition among children ages 5-11 years is associated with about 12 times higher risk of hospitalization and 19 times higher probability of admission to intensive care. Among U.S. states reporting Covid case data:

 children accounted for 1.5%-4.6% of their total cumulative hospitalizations

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 0.1%-1.5% of all their pediatric Covid-19 cases resulted in hospitalization

 0.00%-0.01% of all pediatric Covid-19 cases resulted in death

 Some children who have had Covid may later develop a rare but serious condition known as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, which has been reported in almost 7,000 kids and adolescents in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, killing at least 59 as of Feb. 14. The incidence of MIS-C hasnt increased in the U.S., despite a large increase in omicron cases there.

5. Why are children less likely to get severely ill?

Children have a more robust innate immune response -- the bodys crude but swift reaction to pathogens -- than older adults. That typically enables kids to successfully counter the infection before its had a chance to spread to the lungs to cause pneumonia and the inflammatory cascade that can be life-threatening in seniors. Its also possible that the routine pediatric immunizations that younger children receive boost their innate immune response.

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6. Are children more likely to transmit omicron?

Omicron is inherently more transmissible and, therefore, will be more contagious between people of any age. Studies and modeling of transmission patterns indicate that younger children and adolescents play a lesser role in spreading the coronavirus at a population level, and that prioritizing vaccination in older age groups yields more population-level protection against Covid.

7. What about at school?

As students return to classes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends prevention measures in early child care and schools, such as masking for students and staff members and maintaining adequate ventilation to reduce transmission of the virus. One study using computer modeling, released ahead of peer-review in August, indicated universal masking could reduce infections among susceptible students by 26% to 78%, and biweekly testing along with masking by another 50%.

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8. Can children get long Covid?

Its possible. There are no data so far on the incidence of prolonged symptoms due to omicron or whether it differs from previous variants. An analysis of published studies by researchers in Switzerland and Australia found that long Covid might be less of a concern in children and adolescents than in adults, with symptoms typically persisting for less than 12 weeks. Still, the authors found that studies of the likelihood of persistent symptoms in children are limited and difficult to interpret. In some cases, children who had an infection werent compared with uninfected controls to identify whether chronic fatigue, anxiety and other ailments could be indirect consequences of the pandemic, such as lockdowns and school closures. In one large, self-selected, online study of young people, only 13.5% of eligible participants responded, leading to a potential response bias, for example, toward those experiencing lingering symptoms being more motivated to participate, resulting in an over-representation of symptom prevalence.

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A stop road sign is seen next to skyscrapers at the Moscow International business center. (Reuters)

Experts anticipated a Moscow-led cyber assault; instead unprecedented attacks by hacktivists and criminals have wreaked havoc in Russia.
Two men were arrested by Gage County authorities after one failed to meet registration requirements as a sex offender.

Just after 1 p.m. Monday investigators and deputies from the Gage County Sheriffs Office arrested 25-year-old Austin M. Douglas, of Mound City, Kan. for failing to register as a sex offender in Nebraska.

Douglas had been living in Beatrice since mid-January and was advised on several occasions he needed to contact the Nebraska State Patrol Sex Offender Registration Unit in Lincoln to begin the sex offender registration process, but he had failed to do so.

A press release from the sheriffs office stated investigators became aware Douglas was living in Nebraska in late January.

He was advised by the Nebraska State Patrol and the Gage County Sheriffs Office on at least three different occasions to contact the Nebraska State Patrol Sex Offender Registration Unit and schedule an appointment.

The Linn County, Kan., Sheriffs Office provided biographical and criminal history on Douglas, who was convicted of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child in Topeka, Kan.

Investigators contacted Douglas on Monday while he was sitting in a van parked in a yard in the 600 block of Bell Street and after being interviewed, he was placed under arrest and taken to the Gage County Detention Center.

A second male, Casey Williams, was found in possession of drugs and it was discovered he had a felony warrant for robbery from Douglas County, Kan. He was also taken to the Gage County Detention Center and booked on the warrant.

The Beatrice Police Department was advised of the investigation and arrest due to the proximity of the Bell Street address to Stoddard Elementary School.

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In 2008, retail veteran Gerry Harvey fatefully declared the then-emerging online retail space to be a complete con and, for the most part, a total waste of time. Online people do not make any money, he proudly stated.

Today, online retail makes Harvey, and many others, quite a lot of money. Its a $50 billion industry in Australia alone, and - in part thanks to COVID - growing at a rapid clip.

But Harvey can be forgiven for his transgressions, as the early 2000s fostered significant scepticism about the advent of online retailing and its potential to disrupt millennia of bricks and mortar trading. And its that same scepticism that is now, rightfully, being applied to the rapidly growing world of Web3 and its lofty promises of a decentralised, digital utopia.

Web3 and its promises of revolution leave a lot to be desired. Credit:AFP

For those unfamiliar, Web3 is pitched as the next generation of the internet and digital connectivity, expanding beyond centralised services, such as Facebook and Google, instead leveraging blockchain protocols such as Ethereum and Solana, which are open and transparent, governed by no one single entity.
A rush of better than expected half year earnings pushed the local stock market higher on Wednesday, despite weak futures from Wall Street and softening oil and iron ore prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 improved by 1.1 per cent to close 78 points higher at 7284.9 points.

Healthcare giant CSL alone added 33 points after rising 8.5 per cent in a single session. It reported a $2.46 billion half-year profit and closed at a four-week high of $263.69.

CSL provided almost half of the ASX 200s gains on Wednesday. Credit:Tamara Voninski

Vicinity Centres jumped 11 per cent after swinging from a huge loss to a $650.2 million half-year profit. Similarly, Treasury Wine Estates gained 11.7 per cent to a one-month high of $11.77.

Senior client advisor at Shaw & Partners, Adam Dawes, said results were showing companies still had good fundamentals despite disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Its good to see some of those stocks getting double-digit rises, its been a long while since we have seen those kinds of rebounds, he said.

Mr Dawes has been buying a lot of James Hardie shares for the US exposure, despite expectations the US target cash rate could start rising as soon as next month.

Its not the first couple of interest rate rises, its the last couple of interest rate rises that you need to be careful of, he said.

James Hardie last week upgraded its full year guidance, but shares have since declined, closing 0.2 per cent lower on Wednesday.

Mining giant BHP dragged on ASX gains with a decline of 1.8 per cent and Fortescue Metals fell 2 per cent after dividends fell to a two-year low as half-year profits declined 32 per cent.

Oil prices have softened since Monday as geopolitical tensions with Russia eased, sending Woodside down 0.4, while Santos dropped 2.8 per cent as full-year guidance fell below expectations. But Worley and Beach Energy closed higher.

Debit card and payments firm EML fell 4 per cent after missing expectations, despite processing record high volumes. And Netwealth fell 9.8 per cent after revealing rising costs were eating into profits.
The construction watchdog says the CFMMEU was behind the majority of the breaches that had been successfully prosecuted in recent years.

Stephen McBurney, head of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) this evening told Senate estimates that the watchdog had 97 cases resolved in its favour since 2016. Seventy-nine of those were against the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union, he said.

Australian Building and Construction Commissioner Stephen McBurney is pictured in 2018. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Of 2498 claims pursued, he said the union was found to have committed 1659 of the breaches mostly in the Federal and Federal Circuit Court.

Our litigation profile covers a broad range of matters. Having said that, there is one respondent who is significantly over-represented in our litigation outcomes, that is the CFMMEU, and they account well over half of our investigations, over half of outcomes before the court  and a lions share [of] our penalties imposed by the court, Mr McBurney told a parliamentary hearing this evening.

The watchdog has been criticised by Labor for the ferocity with which it pursues the union.
One of the countrys most high-profile and high-stakes defamation hearings has heard damaging allegations about former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, whose estranged wife accused him of pressuring her to lie about his affair with another woman.

Emma Roberts resumed her evidence on Tuesday in defamation proceedings launched by Mr Roberts-Smith against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times, denying she was seeking to dump on him by giving evidence against him in court.

The ongoing case pits the media organisations against the highly decorated former soldier, who was awarded a Victoria Cross in 2011.

A series of articles published in 2018 alleged Mr Roberts-Smith committed or was involved in six murders of Afghans under the control of Australian troops, when they cannot be killed under the rules of engagement, and of punching his former girlfriend in the face.
If youre arrested and booked into jail in Wyoming, your mugshot becomes public record.

That means that before you get a chance to plead or have your case heard in court, your picture  often in an orange jumpsuit  can be printed in the newspaper, posted online and requested by any member of the public.

A proposed bill would change that.

House Bill 51, to be introduced during the legislative session beginning today, would ban the release of mugshots until a conviction, with some public safety exceptions. A law with similar guidelines went into effect in Oregon at the beginning of the year.

Bill sponsor Rep. Chad Banks, D-Rock Springs, said that in the digital age mugshots posted online will likely be there forever, and tend to come up as one of the first results when you search someones name. And, he said, the photos are often taken on arguably one of the worst days of someones life.

Those images can hurt someones chances at getting a job or tarnish their reputation, Banks said, and their release is especially unnecessary for those arrested for a crime they didnt commit.

It really comes down to fairness, Banks said, treating folks fair and not convicting folks in the media and on social media before truly (trying their case).

Banks said that many digital-first media outlets, including some in his own Sweetwater County, post arrest logs and mugshots online first thing in the morning. Scrolling through their Facebook pages, those posts tend to get a lot of likes, shares and comments.

Josh Black, who was arrested in Jackson in 2014 on charges of assault, said that attorneys had trouble finding jurors for his 2015 trial who hadnt seen his face in the local news.

They asked, has anyone ever checked the jail website? Black said. And the majority of the crowd raised their hand ... they started running out of jurors, so they just had to say they would be unbiased.

The longer he was in jail awaiting trial, Black said, the higher up on the jail log his picture got.

Even the composition of a mugshot can influence the publics opinion, said Jon Guy, who was arrested in Laramie in 2004. Most mugshots are taken after the subject is made to change out of street clothes, Guy said, further perpetuating the criminal image.

Nobody thinks that people who are arrested arent guilty, Guy said. Even if you are guilty ... how does that serve the public to have a picture of me?

The bill provides a few exceptions that would allow a mugshot to be released if a judge or law enforcement agency deems them a fugitive or an imminent threat or if its release would help find the person if not in custody.

The (bill) is an excellent starting place, Black said. Isnt it innocent until proven guilty?

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At the moment, we have not seen any withdrawal of Russian forces, he said, before chairing a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels. If they really start to withdraw forces, thats something we will welcome but that remains to be seen. Biden acknowledged the likelihood that US and allied sanctions on Russia in retaliation for an invasion of Ukraine would have significant blowback on the American economy, including possible price hikes and disruption to the nations energy supply. The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost, he said. I will not pretend this will be painless. Russia has denied having any invasion plans. It wants the West to keep Ukraine and other former Soviet nations out of NATO, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back forces from Eastern Europe.

The US and its allies have roundly rejected those demands, but they offered to engage in talks with Russia on ways to bolster security in Europe. Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures  issues that Moscow put on the table years ago. He said Russia was open to discuss some of those elements but added that it would do so only in combination with the main issues that are of primary importance for us. While Scholz reiterated that NATOs eastward expansion is not on the agenda  everyone knows that very well, Putin retorted that Moscow would not be assuaged by such assurances. Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow. Credit:Kremlin/AP

They are telling us it wont happen tomorrow, Putin said. Well, when will it happen? The day after tomorrow? What does it change for us in the historic perspective? Nothing. Scholz also said diplomatic options were far from exhausted and he praised the announcement of a troop withdrawal as a good signal adding: We hope that more will follow. The Russian Defence Ministry released images of tanks and howitzers rolling onto railway platforms and more tanks rolling across snowy fields. It did not disclose where or when the images were taken, or where the vehicles were headed, other than to places of permanent deployment. Ukraine expressed scepticism. We wont believe when we hear, well believe when we see, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

And NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that there have been no signs, so far, of a reduced military presence on Ukraines borders. Meanwhile, a series of cyber attacks knocked out the websites of the Ukrainian army, the Defence Ministry and major banks. There was no indication that the relatively low-level denial-of-service attacks might be a smoke screen for more serious cyber mischief. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US has not yet determined who was behind the attacks. Despite the worst East-West tensions in decades, few Russians expect a war. In a village in Russias Belgorod region, about 30 kilometres from Ukraines border, residents carried on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets. We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody on the Ukrainian side, villager Lyudmila Nechvolod said. No one wants war.

Loading Russian MPs urged Putin to recognise rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russias lower house, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect. The European Union told Moscow not to follow through. Putin said the request reflected the Russian publics sympathy for the suffering of people trapped in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 14,000 since 2014. He noted, however, that Russia continues to believe a 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany should serve as the main vehicle for a settlement of the separatist conflict. Loading The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost. US President Joe Biden

He said Russians were sympathetic to the residents of the Donbass region, but he wanted the regions problems to be resolved through the Minsk accords. Using stark language that Germanys Scholz dismissed as wrong, Putin said Russia considered the treatment of ethnic Russians in the Donbass region as genocide. Moscow casts the conflict in east Ukraine as a civil war, but Ukraine and the West say Russia helps the separatists with its own ground forces, something Moscow denies. The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation. Credit:AP Russia has issued more than 700,000 passports to residents of eastern Ukraine since separatists seized territory there in 2014 shortly after Russia annexed Crimea, souring relations with Kyiv and the West.
Salisbury, MD (21801)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 69F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. Low 54F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
COVID cases throughout Montana have dropped significantly in the last two weeks. There were 4,587 active cases on Monday, down from 10,256 the previous week. Over the last two weeks, statewide cases have decreased 61%.

Though the decrease in cases is encouraging, its likely that many COVID cases are going unreported as home tests become more available and those who are vaccinated may present mild symptoms.

Were not out of the woods yet, said Dr. Neil Ku, infectious disease expert with Billings Clinic.

Montana, like many other states, is transitioning to an era of learning to live with the virus with Monday marking the first mask-less day in School District Two since in-person learning resumed. Superintendent Greg Upham sited decreasing cases statewide as the reason to lift the mandate.

Theres no defined threshold where mitigation measures can be left behind, but no on-and-off switch to the pandemic either, said Yellowstone County Health Officer John Felton.

People will have to keep making safety decisions for themselves, Felton said, adding that all will have to take stock of their environment and the people they need to protect.

This is particularly true for vulnerable populations and those whose family members are at risk for severe illness. Felton recommends keeping at-home test kits on hand.

Ku says it is akin to the education and decisions a cancer patient and their family go through upon starting chemotherapy or when someone is diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

But bear in mind that health care systems are still struggling to provide all the care needed, Ku said. Even with the downward slope in cases, there is always a risk of a new variant emerging.

On Monday, Billings hospitalizations reported 53 COVID inpatients of which 28 were unvaccinated and 25 who were fully vaccinated. Of those, 11 were in the ICU and seven were on ventilators.

There are 266 COVID hospitalizations throughout the state, down from 310 last Monday.

Of the 220 staffed ICU beds in the state, 118 are filled by non-COVID patients and 40 are filled by COVID patients. Over the last week, Montana has averaged about 45 COVID inpatients per day.

Though there are fewer cases, there is still a significant amount of disease circulating throughout the state, so for health experts the focus has shifted towards preparing for future surges. This is another reason why vaccination has been pushed, besides being the most effective way to prevent severe illness.

But vaccination among the eligible population has not changed since the end of January with 54% fully vaccinated. In the last week, 5,942 more doses were administered.

First doses and boosters continue to lag, according to the most recent state data. From the week ending Jan. 28 to Feb. 4, at least 3,032 first doses and 7,823 boosters were administered.

The CMS rule requiring all health care workers to receive a first dose of the COVID vaccine or provide a religious or medical exemption went into effect Monday, Feb. 14.

Over the last week, 35 more people have died due to COVID-related illness, bringing the total to 3,072 since the pandemic began.

The death of another Yellowstone County resident was announced Monday. A woman in her 40s died of COVID-related illness over the weekend. She was unvaccinated and had underlying medical conditions that put her at higher risk of severe illness, according to the RiverStone Health press release.

There have been 519 people pass away from COVID-related illness in the county.

The governor talks a lot about personal responsibility. But personal responsibility isnt just saying no, Felton said. Its thinking about others around you too...We need to show more concern for others.

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Customs agents in Louisville seize more than $10.5 million in fake jewelry in past week
A retired salesman is running for a state House seat in Bismarck-area District 47.

Dean Summers, of Bismarck, has filed to be on the June primary ballot. He is one of four Republicans running for two seats.

He touts his 30 years in sales, largely in pharmaceutics and telecommunications, and his many awards for sales.

"I think that makes me exceedingly qualified to represent the citizens of District 47, be they Democrat or Republican," Summers said Monday.

The Dickinson native said he's "never been a politician."

"I'm a fresh face," he said.

District 47 Republican incumbents Sen. Mike Dwyer and Rep. Larry Klemin, both Bismarck attorneys, are seeking reelection.

Rep. Robb Eckert, R-Bismarck, is serving out the remaining months of the term of late Rep. George Keiser, R-Bismarck, who died Dec. 22 at 75 after battling Lou Gehrig's disease. Eckert is not running for election; party officials appointed him to the seat last month.

North Dakota Gaming Alliance Executive Director Mike Motschenbacher and banker Kevin Strege also are seeking a District 47 House seat as Republicans.

District 47 Republicans' endorsing convention is Feb. 23.

Ninety-eight seats in the Legislature are on the ballot this year, more than is usual, due to redistricting, which is done every 10 years with new census data.

Republicans control the House of Representatives 80-14 and the Senate 40-7.

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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Teen suspect to be tried as an adult in fatal bus stop shooting of Eastern HS student
North Dakota's Health Department is making more than 1.5 million at-home COVID-19 test kits available statewide for free, and public health agencies in Bismarck-Mandan have announced distribution events.

Meanwhile, active cases of COVID-19 in the state on Monday dropped below 2,500 for the first time in six weeks, as the omicron variant wave continues to weaken.

The state used Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to buy the at-home test kits. FEMA recently announced $2 million in additional aid to the state to help cover the cost of testing and vaccination efforts.

The at-home COVID-19 tests will further empower North Dakotans to make informed decisions about their health for work, social events and travel," State Health Officer Dr. Nizar Wehbi said. "This will also allow a shift from relying on local public health as the primary resource for testing.

Nearly 3.5 million COVID-19 tests have been processed in North Dakota since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Testing picked up in recent weeks after the onset of the highly contagious omicron, which caused a spike in cases culminating with a record 11,991 active cases reported Jan. 22. Reported tests had set a record three days earlier, at 17,237.

Two types of free home tests will be available beginning Tuesday -- Celltrion, which is authorized for people ages 14 and older, and iHealth, for people ages 2 and older. Flowflex tests, also for people ages 2 and older, are part of the state order but might not be immediately available in all areas, according to Health Department spokesman Paul Teeple.

To find pick-up sites, people can go to http://health.nd.gov/covidtesting and click on test locations. The table will be updated twice a week as more locations receive shipments. Test results do not need to be reported to the state.

Area distributions

Public health agencies in Burleigh, Morton, Emmons and Kidder counties all have announced distribution sites or events for the at-home test kits.

Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health has scheduled a mass distribution event on Tuesday, in the northwest parking lot of the state Capitol. It will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., or while supplies last. Celltrion and iHealth will be available. Both have two tests per box. People may pick up enough test kits for everyone in their household. No identification, personal information or payment will be collected.

People are asked to enter the Capitol grounds off North Fourth Street, using the west entrance just to the south of Teton Avenue, on the northwest side of the grounds. Traffic flow will travel east and north into the Capitol grounds, loop through the northwest parking lot and leave via North Fourth Street from the exit just to the north of Teton Avenue.

Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health also will make kits available starting Wednesday at its 500 E. Front Ave. location in Bismarck, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The office will be closed next Monday due to the Presidents Day holiday.

Custer Health in Morton County will be conducting a walk-thru distribution event on Wednesday from noon to 5 p.m. or until supplies last at 1100 32nd Ave. SE in Mandan, off The Strip. Celltrian, iHealth and Flowflex tests are listed, though Flowflex might not be immediately available. Flowflex has one test per box.

Custer Health also will begin providing at-home tests beginning Tuesday through its offices in Mandan, Carson and Beulah. People may pick up tests for their household; no ID is required.

The offices are at 403 Burlington St. SE in Mandan, 106 2nd Ave. NE in Carson, and 1101 3rd Ave. NW in Beulah. Custer Health offices will be closed next Monday for Presidents Day. The Mandan office typically is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. People who want to pick up tests from the Beulah (701-873-4433) or Carson (701-622-3591) offices should call to set up a pick-up time.

The availability of at-home tests is going to be critical for the communities we serve," Custer Health Administrator Erin Ourada said. "If you are a close contact, or if you are not feeling well, you can get test results very quickly to help make informed decisions on your next steps.

For Kidder County District Health Unit details, go to https://www.facebook.com/KCDHU. For Emmons County Public Health, go to https://www.facebook.com/ECPH.gov. Both of those counties have Celltrian, iHealth and Flowflex tests.

Daily data

Active COVID-19 cases on Monday dropped to 2,318 statewide, with 467 in Burleigh-Morton counties, according to the state's coronavirus dashboard. Testing typically drops off over the weekend, but Monday's case total was a 35% drop from a week ago.

Three more virus-related deaths were reported over the weekend, raising the state's pandemic total to 2,154. The state no longer publicly reports the county, sex and age range of newly confirmed deaths. The dashboard death totals for Burleigh and Morton counties did not change, at 292 and 140, respectively. The total for state-leading Cass County, home to Fargo, rose by two, to 321.

The state's reported 14-day rolling test positivity rate fell for an 18th straight day, to 12.22%. The state target is less than 5%.

There were 120 COVID-19 patients in North Dakota hospitals. The most recent state data showed about 11% of staffed inpatient hospital beds available statewide and about 8.5% of intensive care unit beds open. In Bismarck, CHI St. Alexius Health had 18 open general care beds and two available ICU beds. Sanford Health had eight available inpatient beds and one staffed ICU bed. All of those percentages and totals are the highest in weeks.

There have been 234,998 confirmed COVID-19 cases in North Dakota during the pandemic, with 230,526 recoveries and 7,698 hospitalizations.

More information

North Dakota has one of the worst COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Agency data shows 65% of adults in the state being fully vaccinated. The rate for all vaccine-eligible people in the state -- age 5 and older -- is 58.4%.

The CDC also recommends COVID-19 booster shots for people ages 12 and older; 47.6% of North Dakota adults and 19.7% of adolescents have received one, according to state data.

The coronavirus transmission risk is considered high in all of North Dakota's 53 counties except Divide, Sheridan and Griggs, 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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Weatherford, TX (76086)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. High 69F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms developing late. Low around 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
North Dakota health officials on Tuesday reported 11 more COVID-19 deaths but also the lowest number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations this year.

There were 110 virus patients in North Dakota hospitals, down 40% from the recent high of 184 reported Jan. 31, amid the height of the omicron variant wave that is now waning. The most recent state data showed about 11.5% of staffed inpatient hospital beds available statewide and about 8.5% of intensive care unit beds open. As a comparison, the percentages at the end of January were around 7.5% and 5.5%, respectively.

The decline of the omicron surge is likely a reason for the increase in the percentages but not necessarily the only one, since available hospital beds also are influenced by such factors as other illnesses and staffing shortages, according to state Health Resources and Response Section Chief Tim Wiedrich.

Still, "The numbers are definitely trending favorably," he said, noting that the 286 available hospital beds Monday were an increase from 242 the previous Monday and from 198 two Mondays ago.

In Bismarck, CHI St. Alexius Health had 10 open general care beds and four available ICU beds listed. Sanford Health had two beds listed in each category. Totals for both hospitals have increased in recent days.

The 11 new deaths on the state Health Department's coronavirus dashboard Tuesday were the first reported in three days. They brought February's total to 39 halfway through the month, compared with 98 virus-related deaths in January.

Modeling by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that a recent sharp upward trend in deaths in the state is ending, and that the omicron-related surge in COVID-19 cases already is on the decline.

State data appears to back that up. New daily cases have not surpassed 1,000 for 11 straight days. The last time the state saw such a stretch was around New Year's, shortly after omicron was first confirmed in North Dakota and right before the highly contagious variant took hold in the state.

There were 455 new COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday, and 2,147 active cases. As a comparison, North Dakota saw pandemic highs of 3,131 daily cases reported Jan. 19 and 11,991 active cases reported Jan. 22, at the apparent peak of the omicron wave.

The state's reported 14-day rolling test positivity rate fell by nearly a full percent, to 11.26%. The pandemic peak was 19.69%, on Jan. 26.

There have been 235,447 confirmed COVID-19 cases in North Dakota during the pandemic, with 231,135 recoveries, 7,716 hospitalizations and 2,165 deaths.

The state no longer publicly reports the county, sex and age range of newly confirmed deaths. The dashboard death total for Burleigh County rose by one Tuesday, to 293; Morton County's total was unchanged, at 140. The total for state-leading Cass County, home to Fargo, rose by three, to 324.

Pandemic records are based off the Health Department's daily reports. The agency often revises data on its dashboard later based on updated information.

More information

North Dakota has one of the worst COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country, according to the CDC. Agency data shows 65% of adults in the state being fully vaccinated. The rate for all vaccine-eligible people in the state -- age 5 and older -- is 58.4%.

The CDC also recommends COVID-19 booster shots for people ages 12 and older; 47.6% of North Dakota adults and 19.8% of adolescents have received one, according to state data.

The coronavirus transmission risk is considered high in all of North Dakota's 53 counties except Divide, Billings, Sheridan and Griggs, 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. That site also lists where free at-home test kits are being offered. 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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Happy Presidents Day! Or is it Presidents Day? Or Presidents Day?

No one knows. Its the most grammatically frustrating holiday of the year. Do we celebrate all presidents individually or collectively?

Actually, we dont celebrate them at all. We celebrate instead our capitalist economy. We throw their name (with or without an apostrophe) on sales of all kinds. Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Lyndon Johnson - theyre the reason to hurry on down for huge, presidential savings on mattresses, used cars, and anything else anyone can slap a price sticker on.

Admit it: Whether youre in Westport (doubtful) or Cabo, Copper Canyon or some other resort either much warmer or colder than here next Monday, the last thing youll think of is Zachary Taylor or John Tyler. Or even Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

But presidents have a long history in Westport. From George Washington through today, theyve visited our town. Those visits usually involve money or votes. Or both. They dont come for the Playhouse, or a day at the beach. But thats the life of a politician. Besides, most of them should not be seen in bathing suits (heres looking at you, William Howard Taft).

Westports connection with presidents begins with the Father of our Country. According to Woody Kleins history of Westport, Washington came here in 1775, as commander-in-chief of the colonial forces. He stopped at Disbrow Tavern (the site today of Christ & Holy Trinity Church), then traveled with Reverend Hezekiah Ripley to Greens Farms Church. He called it comely.

Five years later, Washington talked military strategy (and spent the night) at Disbrow Tavern with General Marquis de Lafayette and General Count de Rochambeau.

He returned as president in October 1789, six months after his inauguration, on an inspection tour of the Northeast. He spent the night at Marvin Tavern on what is now Post Road West, opposite Kings Highway South. Though the Marvins cooked up quite a feast - loaves of brown bread and pies, the finest vegetables, huge roasts - the president asked for only bread and milk.

He wrote in his diary that it was not a good house, though the people of it were disposed to do all they could to accommodate me. The slight did not bother Westporters in the slightest. For years thereafter, the tavern was known as The Washington Inn.

Abraham Lincoln supposedly stayed at Hockanum. Morris Ketchums 69 Cross Highway estate near Roosevelt Road. (Kleins history says only that Salmon P. Chase, Lincolns secretary of the treasury, was a frequent guest.)

Hockanum still stands. There is a Lincoln bedroom upstairs, and the deed states that no changes can be made to that room.

If we dont know whether President Lincoln actually stayed at Hockanum (there seems to be no record of his visit in any biography), we certainly dont know whether his wife accompanied him. We do know that Mary Todd Lincoln was a noted shopaholic though, so its a pity she may have missed Main Street.

There seems to be a long hiatus in presidential visits after Lincolns (or Washingtons). In fact, the closest we get to a president is Bridgeport, where for some lost-to-history reason a high school is named for Warren Harding. Hes the guy who led every historians Worst President Ever list, at least until Richard Nixon and The Former Guy came along.

But in 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt motored into town. It was his first re-election campaign; he spoke on the steps of the YMCA (now Anthropologie). FDR and his wife Eleanor also visited Westport as guests of social reformer Lillian Wald, at her famous South Compo Home on the Pond (opposite Longshore).

Walds guestbook includes the names of Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, who according to historian Klein spent his boyhood summers in Westport. Thats all I know - sorry!

John F. Kennedy passed through Westport many times, Im sure, while growing up in Massachusetts and as a U.S. senator. On the Sunday before Election Day in 1960, he held a now-famous rally in Bridgeport (though not as famous as the one many hours later in Waterbury, when thousands of people waited till 3 a.m. for him to appear).

JFK has of course been linked romantically with Marilyn Monroe, who spent summers here. But I wont go there.

President Clinton came to Westport for a few fundraisers. The one I remember best was at National Hall, when sharpshooters stood on the roof and frogmen patrolled the Saugatuck River.

President Obama attended a couple of fundraisers too. One was at the home of now-disgraced movie executive Harvey Weinstein on Beachside Avenue. But thats embarrassing, so I wont mention it.

There you have it: a presidential romp through Westports history. At least we know where that apostrophe goes.

Dan Woog is a Westport writer, and his Woog's World appears each Friday. He can be reached at dwoog@optonline.net. His personal blog is danwoog06880.com.
Mickey Mouse has turned Leftist Lousedue to circumstances beyond his control, and the long love affair that Disney has enjoyed with almost every American family appears headed for the rocks. The company has chosen to go woke, and that decision could conceivably leave the entertainment gia
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By Trend

The construction of a 330 kilovolt power plant to supply Azerbaijans Nakhchivan with electricity through the Zangazur corridor is planned, Teymur Abdullayev, spokesperson for Azerenergy OJSC, told Trend.

According to Abdullayev, the plant fed from Aghjabadi and Imishli will be built in the Jabrayil district.

"Its planned to lay a 330 kilovolt power transmission line from Agjabadi to Nakhchivan through the Zangazur corridor and export electricity through it to Turkey, and from there to the European market," he said.

A trip of the Azerbaijani media representatives to Aghdam has been organized. The reporters will get acquainted with the Aghdam-1 and Aghdam-2 substations, as well as the Karabakh digital control center, opened by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on February 13.

Besides, the reporters will make a trip to Sugovushan settlement (Tartar district) to view the local substation.




A third Republican candidate has joined the race for two North Dakota House seats in a redrawn district encompassing Emmons County and much of Burleigh County.

Brandon Prichard, of Bismarck, announced his District 8 House candidacy on Tuesday.

The Bismarck native is an undergraduate student of the University of Minnesota's Law School and School of Public Policy on a part-time and virtual basis.

He has studied history, philosophy, political science and religion, and works as a legal assistant for Eckland & Blando LLP in Minneapolis and as a technical specialist for BisManOnline in Bismarck.

My experience in public policy has given me a unique perspective on the challenges we face, Prichard said in a statement. My overall fiscal philosophy is to manage our budget to work for all of the people of North Dakota by adequately investing in core services and local infrastructure, while lowering the tax burden for homeowners. We must prioritize reducing regulatory burdens on innovation and entrepreneurship, instead of funding pet-projects and cronyism with state funds.

He called himself "very reform-minded," citing campaign finance and election integrity as two areas of focus.

Republicans Mike Berg and Scott McCarthy announced District 8 House bids last month.

Reps. Jeff Magrum, R-Hazelton, and Dave Nehring, R-Bismarck, are seeking the GOP nod for District 8 Senate.

District 8 Republicans' endorsing convention has not yet been scheduled.

Ninety-eight seats in the Legislature are on the ballot this year, more than is usual due to redistricting.

Republicans control the House of Representatives 80-14 and the Senate 40-7.

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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In the plays of Florian Zeller, nothing is quite as it seems. Beneath the surface of respectable middle-class family life, emotions and delusions bubble and boil. What seems like a perfect picture of reality, fractures into many shards.

The works for which the French dramatist is best known  The Father, The Mother and The Son  featured a man with dementia, a woman with depression, and a teenager on the edge of a breakdown. In each case, scenes were repeated with slightly different emphasis, a psychological state recreated through subtle shifts and twists in the narrative action.

Zeller is up to similar games in The Forest  the first of his works to be premiered in English, translated by his long-time collaborator Christopher Hampton. Here, the very nature of truth itself appears to be under the microscope. The question "Do you tell the truth?" runs through the opening scenes like a repeated refrain.

The set-up couldn't be more naturalistic. Pierre comes home to his wife Laurence (Gina McKee) and their immaculate Parisian home to discover that their daughter has left her boyfriend, because she cannot forgive the fact that he is having an affair. Pierre's reaction is strangely muted, and we quickly discover why. But the cast list indicates a more schematic state of affairs: there is Man 1 and Man 2; both are Pierre and they are played by two different actors, Toby Stephens and Paul McGann, who are both having an affair with Girlfriend, played by Angel Coulby.

There's also a sinister Man in Black (Finbar Lynch) who may or may not represent Death, and the place we appear to be living is inside the Man's anxious mind as the pressure of his lying shatters him to the point where he is lost in a forest of desire, murder and madness, while his wife looks on with semi-comprehending sympathy.

Or it may all be real, and Lynch (sinister and excellent) may in fact be a policeman or a psychiatrist. All this confusion and slipperiness is reflected in Anna Fleischle's sleek set, which creates three rooms for different encounters across the Hampstead stage. Even the interior design is subject to change: the main room (Pierre's flat) gradually fills with flowers as a painting turns into a sensual recreation of the mistress.

As scenes repeat, with different emphasis, and characters slide from one setting to another with different intent, there is a strong whiff of the psychological thriller, not to mention Fatal Attraction since in one version of events the girlfriend becomes a distinct bunny boiler, making anonymous phone calls and threatening to expose the man to his wife. She also takes on the persona of Banquo's Ghost, appearing as a blood smeared presence in his living room.

It's all clever and quite intriguing, but it's not that deep. The idea that an affair is the ultimate betrayal both of others and self is hardly revelatory, even if the way the notion is worked out here is unusual. The parts of the women are also, oddly for Zeller who has created memorably rich female characters, incredibly underwritten so both fall into stereotype with sensual Coulby gratuitously (briefly) topless, and McKee stuck in frozen understanding.

Still, at 80-minutes [[The Forest[[ doesn't linger long enough for you to lose interest. Jonathan Kent directs with a cool elegance, coaxing the anxiety that lies beneath to the surface of Stephens' performance while letting McGann remain more impassive and unreadable. It's gripping enough, but not vintage Zeller.
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Web and Social Media Communications Assistant, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme

Country: Tanzania

City: Dar es Salaam

Office: UNDP Dar es Salaam

Closing date: Friday, 25 February 2022

Job Identification : 2338

Locations : Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of

Posting Date : 02/09/2022, 07:53 AM

Apply Before : 02/25/2022, 04:59 AM

Degree Level : Secondary School Leaving Certificate

Job Schedule : Full time

Agency : UNCDF

Grade : NB2

Vacancy Type : National Personnel Service Agreement

Practice Area : Innovation

Bureau : Regional Bureau for Africa

Contract Duration : 1 Year

Education & Work Experience : Bachelors Degree - 2 year(s) experience OR High School certificate- 5 year(s) experience

Required Languages : English & Swahili

Vacancy Timeline

2 Weeks

Job Description

Background

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the worlds 46 least developed countries (LDCs). UNCDF offers "last mile" finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. The Local Finance Initiative (LFI) programme is designed to unlock the flow of capital to invest small and medium-sized infrastructure projects that are required to accelerate local economic development and private sector development. It is a UNCDF front office capacity that help to deliver local economic development in collaboration with national institutions, local authorities, and SMEs in developing countries. UNCDF wishes to recruit a Web and Social Media Communications Assistant to support the Tanzania country programmes to meets its visibility and reporting requirements.

The Web and Social Media Communications Assistant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the UNCDF Monitoring and Programme Specialist.

Duties and Responsibilities

Communication, Web and Social Media

Administration

Supporting implementation of joint UN events and campaigns

Maintaining close contact with the media representatives in the country, providing support to building partnership with the media

Support in the review assigned programme/office, processes and procedures in order to determine whether improvements can be made in areas such as workflow and reporting procedures. Any other office administration work that may be assigned.

The following are key duties of the Web and Social Media Communications Assistant: 1. Communication, Web and Social Media

Support visibility of UNCDF LFI and local development finance events (project launches, press conferences, roundtable discussions, receptions etc.;

Photography, mobilizing local media and online (Facebook, twitter, website) reporting as needed;

Support in updating and uploading general content and documents on the UNCDF LFI and other Local Transformative Finance practice in Tanzania and its website and social media (Facebook, Twitter) and country office intranet;

Support in providing content for web-stories and other social media outlets;

Support supervisor and the public relations consultant in monitoring and implementing the country office communication plan;

Monitoring media and informing designate staff on issues of relevance to UNCDF and UN in general in Tanzania;

Undertake various other communication-related tasks as required, including administration of communication activities these include providing support to the preparation and implementation of UNCDF s events;

Support the development of project case studies, news bulletin, brochures and periodic reports.

2. Administration

Support the planning and preparation of various Tanzania country programme meetings/conferences and other related issues.

3. Supporting implementation of joint UN events and campaigns

4. Maintaining close contact with the media representatives in the country, providing support to building partnership with the media.

5. Support in the review assigned programme/office, processes and procedures in order to determine whether improvements can be made in areas such as workflow and reporting procedures. Any other office administration work that may be assigned.

Competencies

Management of websites, and social media; c7O6rKp Dh7qKS

Multilateral or international development organization knowledge;

Content management systems and social networks;

Administration would be considered as an asset;

Outstanding drafting skills;

Creative story writer;

Working independently and under tight deadlines;

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Completion of secondary education or a Bachelors degree or equivalent Advanced Diploma in communications, journalism, or public relations.

Experience:

A minimum of 5 years (Completion of Secondary Education) or 2 years (Bachelor) of relevant experience in Web Management and social media;

Relevant work experience in a similar full-time job at national or international level;

Knowledge of development agencies;

Understands the main processes and methods of work regarding to the position;

Organizational policies procedures;

In-depth knowledge of development issues;

Knowledge of communications issues;

Production of various communications products;

Job knowledge of self-directed study and other means of learning;

Information technology.

Language:

Fluency in English and Swahili is essential.

Disclaimer

Important information for US Permanent Residents (Green Card holders)

Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment.

UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Scam warning

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

Link to the organizations job posting: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1644679291121
Child Protection Officer, Tijuana, Mexico

Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Childrens Fund

Country: Mexico

City: Mexico City

Office: UNICEF Mexico

Grade: NO-A

Closing date: Thursday, 24 February 2022

Job no: 548131

Position type: Fixed Term Appointment

Location: Mexico Division/Equivalent: Latin America and Caribbean Regional Off

School/Unit: Mexico

Department/Office: Tijuana, Mexico

Categories: Child Protection

UNICEF works in some of the worlds toughest places, to reach the worlds most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, hope

The position is related with the migratory context held in the southern and northern border of Mexico, where the protection risks against children on the move happen frequently and where UNICEF response is being enforced to address the needs of these children and their families.

Children, alone or with their families have migrated from Central America and Mexico to reach the north for years, looking for better life conditions. Lately, there has been a significant increase due to increasing poverty, inequality and violence in the region. From January to June 2021, the number of children on the move identified by Mexican authorities has increased more than 50%. In the first half of 2021, the National Migration Institute identified 75,508 irregular migrants in Mexico, (an increase of 117 % compared to the same period last year). Of these, 11,440 were children and adolescents, and 454 were unaccompanied. The majority have the Honduran nationality, with 5,447; followed by Guatemalan, (4,162); Salvadoran, (1,177), and many others which have traveled north from the Darien Gap, nationals of more than 50 African, Asian, Caribbean and Middle Eastern countries.

Other challenge is related to the access to international protection of children on the move. The Mexican government has reported the highest number of asylum applications since they began to keep records. In 2021, 51,654 people applied for refugee status from January to June. The main nationality is Honduras (22,826) followed by Haiti (9,327 people). This a high increase compared to 2020. For instance, only in June 2021 (10,466) the increase in applications compared to June 2020 (1,246) was 739%. Only in one day of July 2021 in Tapachula (southern border), the refugee authorities received 2,000 asylum applications, the majority from Haiti.

For information of the work of our organization in Mexico, please visit our website: UNICEF Mexico

How can you make a difference?

The Child Protection Officer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process for the child protection programmes/projects through the application of theoretical and technical skills in researching, collecting, analyzing, and presenting technical programme information while learning organizational rules, regulations and procedures to support the development and formulation of the Child Protection Programme within the Country Programme.

1.Support to programme development and planning

Research and analyze regional and national political, protection, social and economic development trends. Collect, analyze, verify, and synthesize information to facilitate programme development, design and preparation.

Prepare technical reports and inputs for programme preparation and documentation, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and relevancy of information.

Facilitate the development and establishment of sectoral programme goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based planning through research, collection, analysis and reporting of child protection programmes and other related information for development planning and priority and goal setting.

Provide technical and administrative support throughout all stages of programmeming processes by executing and administering a variety of technical programme transactions, preparing materials and documentations, and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support programme planning, results based planning (RBM) and monitoring and evaluation of results.

Prepare required documentations and materials to facilitate the programme review and approval process.

2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results.

Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to collect, analyze and share information on implementation issues, suggest solutions on routine programme implementation and to submit reports to alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decisions. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.

Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with the government and other counterparts, and prepare minutes/reports on results for follow up action by higher management and other stakeholders.

Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocation, goals, organizational rules, regulations, procedures, donor commitments, and standards of accountability and integrity.

Report on issues identified to ensure timely resolution by management and stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution.

Prepare inputs for programme and donor reporting.

3. Technical and operational support to programme implementation

Undertake field visits and surveys, and collect and share reports with partners and stakeholders

Assess progress and provide technical support and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution.

Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results.

Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes and best practices in child protection, to support programme implementation.

4. Networking and partnership building

Build and sustain close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve and sustain results on child protection.

Participate in inter-agency meetings/events on programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of child protection programmes/projects, and to integrate and harmonize UNICEFs position and strategies with UNDAF development and planning processes.

Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes. c68yZLN Dh7qKS

Draft communication and information materials for CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support fund raising for child protection programmes.

Share key information on protection issues with Country office in Mexico city, coordinating and facilitating the response of UNICEF at the national, state and local level.

5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.

Apply innovative approaches and promote good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.

Research, benchmark and report on best and cutting edge practices for development planning of knowledge products and systems.

Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have...

Education:

A university degree in one of the following fields is required: international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.

Experience:

A minimum of one year of professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection related areas is required.

Experience working in a developing country is considered as an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in Spanish and Proficiency in English is required. Candidates fluent in English will have an advantage.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEFs values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

Core Competencies

Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)

Works Collaboratively with others (1)

Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)

Innovates and Embraces Change (1)

Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)

Drive to achieve impactful results (1)

Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

To view our values and competency framework please visit the following links: Our Values and Our Competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Candidates must be citizen of Mexico to be considered eligible for this post.

Advertised: Feb 08 2022 Central Standard Time (Mexico) Application close: Feb 23 2022 Central Standard Time (Mexico)

Link to the organizations job posting: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1644440893963
Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. Low around 65F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Willmar, MN (56201)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High near 55F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy. Low 36F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
Supporters of term limits for North Dakota's governor and state lawmakers have submitted their petitions for putting a measure to voters this fall.

Secretary of State Al Jaeger on Tuesday said he received 1,441 petitions with what the group claimed were about 46,000 signatures for the constitutional initiative.

The group needs at least 31,164 valid signatures of qualified voters to place the measure on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. Jaeger has until March 22 to determine the signatures' sufficiency.

The measure would add a new article to the state constitution, effective Jan. 1, 2023, imposing term limits of eight cumulative years each in the House and Senate. The governor, who serves four-year terms, could not be elected more than twice.

Its about the principle of term limits, said Minot-area District 38 GOP Chair Jared Hendrix, chair of the North Dakota Term Limits group. Its a long-term structural change."

Supporters of term limits say they bring in fresh ideas and reduce corruption. Opponents say term limits force out expertise and take power away from voters.

Term limits under the proposed measure would not be retroactive -- meaning the service of current officeholders would not count against them.

The measure's language also would bar the Legislature from proposing amendments to alter or repeal the term limits; only citizens would be able to do so.

The measure's 42-member sponsoring committee includes several state lawmakers linked to the ultraconservative Bastiat Caucus, as well as multiple GOP district chairmen who came on last year.

North Dakota's dominant Republican Party has seen infighting between ultraconservative and establishment members, notably in the party censures of several state lawmakers and a walkout from a party meeting last year.

The party also is charging first-time fees for state and congressional candidates seeking endorsements to run, to help with costs and ensure candidates can raise money and support. Some party members view the move as elitist and prohibitive of newcomers.

North Dakota has no term limits for state elected officials or lawmakers. The governor and lawmakers each serve four-year terms. More than 60 sitting lawmakers have served eight or more years in their respective chamber.

Fifteen state legislatures, including Montana and South Dakota, have term limits.

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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WESTPORT  Another Westporter has entered the race for the state 26th Senate Districts open seat.

Former Board of Education Chairman Michael Gordon recently announced he will be running to fill the state Senate seat set to be vacated by incumbent Will Haskell. Ken Bernhard, the other candidate to announce so far, is also a Democrat.

Haskell, a Democrat who was first elected in 2018 at the age of 22, announced he was not seeking a third term, electing instead to go to law school. Long-time Republican incumbent Toni Boucher had previously represented the 26th Senate District, which now includes Westport, Wilton, Weston, Redding, and parts of Ridgefield, Darien, New Canaan, and Stamford.

Gordon is 56 and owns a communications firm in New York called Group Gordon. Half of his practice is dedicated to working with nonprofits.

He said the past two years have taken an enormous toll on children, seniors, small business owners and working parents and he is running to make a positive change.

Despite the cloud of COVID, and the division in our discourse, I believe that we take more steps toward progress than regress, Gordon said. I believe that in our corner of the world, in our slice of Connecticut, we can set a standard that shines bright.

Gordon, a longtime Democrat and self-proclaimed optimist, said there are four areas he wants to focus on after speaking with the Democratic Party. This includes children, gender equality, seniors and COVID.

He said the past two years have been catastrophic on childrens mental health and no one currently knows the consequences of it. He said the state needs to inspire more mental health care providers to work in Connecticut and further protect working parents and support their childcare.

Gordon said that as a small business owner, there needs to more of a focus at teaching coding at earlier ages, especially girls and young women.

I want to stimulate more small business development centers for minority and women-owned business enterprises, Gordon said. We also should employ strategic micro loans to these businesses early in their development.

Gordon also expressed his desire to provide more relief to seniors on their pensions and annuities as well as addressing the states infrastructure and transportation needs.

There is an urgency to our work together, Gordon said. Our children only have one chance at a world-class education. Our seniors only have one chance at a peaceful golden age. And we are running out of chances to bring more compassion to our discourse.

Gordon has served on several boards including the Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition, ADL Connecticut and the local Jewish Federation. He and his wife, Linda, were honored with ADLs Distinguished Community Leadership Award.

The couple has three teenagers who will all be in high school next year.

serenity.bishop@hearstmediact.com
Winchester, VA (22601)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 72F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Rain showers early with scattered thunderstorms arriving overnight. Low 57F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Winchester, VA (22601)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun early followed by cloudy skies this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 72F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Rain showers early with scattered thunderstorms arriving overnight. Low 57F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
The Bakkens boom days appear to be over.

Oil companies have adopted a new term to describe the western North Dakota oil patch: mature.

Thats the word State Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms heard many times on a recent trip to a conference in Texas where he met with leaders from 10 companies with wells in the Bakken.

The Bakken has been rebranded, whether we wanted it to be or not, he told reporters Monday. We are looking at very low rates of growth, some companies just holding their production flat.

U.S. oil producers are more focused on growing their operations in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, he said.

Even soaring oil prices have not been enough to interest companies in significantly boosting their activity in North Dakota. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil-pricing benchmark, was trading for $95 per barrel on Monday, up from the mid-$60s in December. Oil prices have climbed significantly in recent weeks in large part due to tension between Ukraine and Russia, a major energy supplier to Europe.

One would have expected activity to really pick up with those kinds of oil prices, Helms said. In the rebranding of us as mature, thats not the plan.

Another sign of change for the Bakken's outlook came in late 2021 when a new federal estimate projected that western North Dakota contains another 4.3 billion barrels of untapped recoverable oil, a 40% drop from the last estimate in 2013. The decline in part is due to the 11,000 wells drilled over the past eight years. State officials say much of the core area of the oil patch surrounding Watford City -- where companies can get the most bang for their buck -- has already been drilled.

While North Dakota could still see small annual production increases, drilling is expected to taper off in about a decade, Helms said.

To retain the states oil output, new technologies need to be developed to squeeze more oil out of the rock where wells have already been drilled, a process known as enhanced oil recovery, he said. So far, thats feasible only in older vertical wells where carbon dioxide is injected to boost oil production.

Helms said companies have attempted seven pilot projects in the state on newer horizontal wells without any success yet. He added that there seems to be a significant amount of interest, but concerns about feasibility linger.

Meanwhile, many oil companies under pressure to operate more environmentally responsibly indicated to him plans to increase the amount of natural gas that they capture from wells to combat flaring. Flaring involves burning off excess gas. The process releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

Data released Monday shows that 93% of gas was captured statewide in December, and the oil industry as a whole is meeting North Dakotas 91% target.

Were still going to have our work cut out for us from a state and from an industry-standpoint to hit those aggressive targets operators are putting forward, North Dakota Pipeline Authority Director Justin Kringstad said.

More gas gathering, processing and transmission infrastructure will be needed, particularly if companies are eyeing gas capture rates at 97% or higher, he said.

Although the state has met its flaring target for a number of months, some problematic areas remain. Only 46% of gas produced on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation fee lands was captured in December. Fee land refers to private land within a reservation.

Helms said a gas processing plant near the reservation experienced downtime amid problems due to cold weather, right as a number of new wells began operating. He expects the situation will improve, as Outrigger Energy is expanding a pipeline that will pick up gas from the area and carry it to its Bill Sanderson Gas Processing Plant in Williams County.

North Dakotas daily gas production fell 3% to 2.99 billion cubic feet in December. The states daily oil output dropped 2% to 1.14 million barrels. The data lags two months as the state collects data from the oil and gas industry. Helms attributed the drops to bitterly cold weather that hit the state in late December. The oil patch tends to slow down amid winter weather.

Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com.

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NEW YORK (AP)  Britains Prince Andrew, accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to his accusers charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character, a court filing revealed Tuesday.

FILE - Virginia Roberts Giuffre holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court following the jailhouse death of Jeffrey Epstein, Aug. 27, 2019, in New York. A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexually abusing a 17-year-old American, according to a court filing Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

NEW YORK (AP)  Britains Prince Andrew, accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to his accusers charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character, a court filing revealed Tuesday.

The deal avoids a trial that would have brought further embarrassment to the monarchy. Besides the undisclosed donation to Virginia Giuffre's charity, it says Andrew acknowledges she has suffered as an abuse victim. It did not specify whether Giuffre would personally receive money as part of the settlement.

Attorney David Boies, representing Giuffre, told the New York federal judge overseeing the case in a letter that a settlement in principle had been reached and lawyers on both sides would request a dismissal of the lawsuit within a month.

Andrew's lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said he would suspend the case until March 17, when he might set a trial date if the lawyers dont ask for a dismissal by then.

Giuffre, 38, sued Andrew in August. The American accused the British royal of sexually abusing her while she traveled with Epstein.

Andrew strenuously denied Giuffres allegations and attempted to get the lawsuit tossed earlier this year.

Attached to the letter from Boies was a statement that read: Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms. Giuffres receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).

Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffres charity in support of victims rights. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffres character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.

Britain's Prince Andrew is seen in this April 5, 2015 photo in London. A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 years old, according to a court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (Neil Hall/PA via AP)

According to the statement, Prince Andrew acknowledged that Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years and said the prince regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.

He also pledged to support the victims of sex trafficking as part of demonstrating his regret.

The tentative settlement comes weeks after Kaplan last month rejected the prince's attempt to win an early dismissal of the lawsuit, meaning depositions and other evidence gathering could commence.

After Kaplan ruled, Andrew  who had already stepped back from royal duties  was stripped of his honorary military titles and roles and leadership of various charities, known as royal patronages. He also can no longer use the title his royal highness in official settings.

The decision was an effort to insulate the House of Windsor from the fallout from potentially years of sordid headlines if the lawsuit moved forward.

It came after more than 150 veterans and serving members of the armed forces asked the queen to strip her second son of his military titles, saying he had failed to live up to the very highest standards of probity, honesty and honorable conduct that are expected of British officers.

Mark Stephens, an international lawyer, said pressure from the royal family would have pushed Andrew to settle, particularly as Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Platinum Jubilee  or 70 years on the throne. The carefully worded settlement  in which Andrew admits only an unfortunate association with Epstein  allows him to save face, Stephens said.

Essentially, what hes done is throw himself on this judicial grenade to prevent wider damage to the royal family, Stephens told The Associated Press. And I think he had no alternative but to settle because otherwise this case would have really overshadowed the Queens Jubilee, and we would have been hearing details of what he was alleged to have done with Virginia Giuffre. And all of that would have really caused problems for the royal family more broadly.

Stephens estimated that Andrew paid around $10 million to settle, having gotten the cash after selling a ski chalet at a fire sale price. He speculated that the cash would be split into three unequal portions  with Guiffre, her lawyers and charities taking a piece.

Besides the settlement, Giuffre gets to champion her support of abuse victims, and avoid having to relive this whole experience in the public circus of a courtroom, he said.

Shes been vindicated in the sense that Prince Andrew acknowledges that shes a victim of sexual abuse, Stephens said.

Giuffre asserted that she met Andrew while she traveled frequently with Epstein between 2000 and 2002, when her lawyers maintain she was on call for Epstein for sexual purposes and was lent out to other powerful men, including Andrew.

Her lawsuit said she still suffers significant emotional and psychological distress and harm. She has alleged she had sex with Andrew three times: in London during a 2001 trip, at Epsteins New York mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18.

Andrew repeatedly denied Giuffres allegations and has said he cant recall ever meeting her, although a photograph of Giuffre and Andrew together in a London townhouse, his arm around her bare midriff, was included in Giuffre's lawsuit against him.

Inconsistencies in her statements over the years that would have been highlighted by Andrew's attorneys at trial may have motivated her, in part, to settle, though she has explained them as innocent mistakes that occur when recalling traumatic events years later.

The settlement may be a relief to others beyond the prince and Giuffre because of the names that might have arisen at trial.

Besides Andrew, Giuffre has said she was sexually trafficked to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz, French modeling scout Jean Luc Brunel and billionaire Glenn Dubin, among others. All have said her accounts are fabricated.

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Andrew served in the Royal Navy for two decades, including as a helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War. The honorary military roles he lost included several overseas ones, such as his title as colonel-in-chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment.

He has spent years combatting concerns about his links with Epstein, the U.S. financier who took his life at age 66 in 2019 in a Manhattan federal lockup while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. Epsteins longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges last month.

A settlement of the Andrew lawsuit would follow deals reached by Giuffre years ago to resolve separate lawsuits against Maxwell and Epstein. It was recently revealed that Epstein settled for $500,000.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Giuffre has.

___

Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka reported from London.
KEESEEKOOSE FIRST NATION - A First Nation in eastern Saskatchewan says it has found 54 potential graves believed to hold the remains of children who attended two former residential schools.

A photograph of St. Philip's Residential School in Saskatchewan from the archives of the Societe historique de Saint-Boniface is shown in a handout. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Societe historique de Saint-Boniface **MANDATORY CREDIT**

KEESEEKOOSE FIRST NATION - A First Nation in eastern Saskatchewan says it has found 54 potential graves believed to hold the remains of children who attended two former residential schools.

Members of the Keeseekoose First Nation held each other and wept Tuesday as photos were revealed one by one of the locations from a ground-penetrating radar search.

The photos resembled the stories elders in the community have passed on for generations, but project leader Ted Quewezance said now the world will believe it, too.

"It was not that they could not hear, but they did not believe our survivors," Quewezance said.

The graves were discovered on the grounds of the St. Philip's and Fort Pelly residential schools on the First Nation's land near Kamsack, near the Manitoba boundary about 265 kilometres northeast of Regina. Both were run by the Catholic Church.

There were 42 ground-penetrating radar hits at the Fort Pelley site and another 12 at St. Philip's school.

"We never expected anything up at St. Phillip's hill. That stunned the community," Quewezance said.

"We have a residential school monument there. We have gatherings there. In our culture and traditions it's very bad for us to be stepping over graves, and most of us probably ended up stepping on where those bodies were."

Pauline Pelly, right, holds her daughter Ella during a public event at the Keeseekoose School Gymnasium at Keeseekoose First Nation on Tuesday Feb. 15, 2022. The event revealed that 54 potential graves have been found through ground-penetrating radar at the site of the former St. Philip's and Fort Pelly residential schools. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell

The Fort Pelley site was less of a surprise. Quewezance, who is a former chief and has spoken about the abuse he experienced at the schools, said there were many stories related to the area.

He said he believes there are children buried there because of headstones that once stood there, many for unnamed children. The community wants to know what happened to the headstones and why there were removed.

It took searchers two months to survey just under three hectares of land. They used oral stories from elders to guide them, but had to stop due to snow. There are another four hectares to go.

Quewezance said more graves are likely to be discovered.

Chief Lee Kitchemonia said it will be tough for residents knowing there are unmarked graves where people walk every day.

"These could potentially be murdered children, hidden," Kitchemonia said.

Keeseekoose First Nation is working with the RCMP, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina to obtain historical records of those who went to the schools.

Fort Pelly school ran from 1905 to 1913. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says the principal was fired in 1911 after it was reported he was drunk and threatening everyone at the school.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found St. Philip's school, open from about 1927 to 1969, had a widespread problem with sexual and physical abuse, which led to the dismissal of a school supervisor during the school's final decade.

The commission, which documented stories from survivors and issued a final report in 2015, has a record of two student deaths at St. Philip's and two at Fort Pelly.

In a room full of community members who stood near photographs of former schoolchildren, Kitchemonia called on Pope Francis to visit residential schools in Canada.

"I would like to send an invitation out to the Pope to come to the scene of the crime. Because that's what it is. It's a crime ... and he needs to come to Canada."

An estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children attended residential schools. The commission documented at least 4,100 deaths.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller, who appeared Tuesday by video, said it was important he witness "Canada's ongoing shame in the face of these findings."

"To survivors and your families  I believe you and Canada believes you," Miller said.

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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe posted on social media that the province was mourning with the Keeseekoose people.

Mary Culbertson, Saskatchewan's treaty commissioner who is from Keeseekoose, said residential schools are a reflection of broken treaties that promised a schoolhouses and teachers on reserves.

"We inherited a legacy that we didn't want."

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. 15, 2022.

 With files from Kelly Malone in Winnipeg
WASHINGTON - When it comes to trade dispute victories in the post-NAFTA era, Canada just tied it up, 1-1.

International Trade Minister Minister Mary Ng rises during Question Period, Monday, November 29, 2021 in Ottawa. A dispute resolution panel has agreed that tariffs on Canadian-made solar products imposed in 2018 by the former Trump administration violated the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

WASHINGTON - When it comes to trade dispute victories in the post-NAFTA era, Canada just tied it up, 1-1.

A dispute resolution panel has agreed that tariffs on Canadian-made solar products imposed in 2018 by former president Donald Trump violated the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The panel's final report, released Tuesday, found that by keeping Canadian exports subject to its so-called "safeguard measures," the U.S. was in violation of its obligations under the deal.

The agreement includes language that allows partners to escape such unilateral measures, provided that the levels of their imports are neither a significant share of total imports or contributing to the "serious injury" the measures are meant to prevent.

Canada was hit with tariffs even though the U.S. International Trade Commission had already concluded solar exports stateside averaged less than two per cent over the course of its investigation  not enough to qualify as either a substantial share of total imports or enough to hurt domestic producers.

"The president's proclamation contained no explanation of why that less than two per cent figure  demonstrates that Canada had achieved a 'substantial share' of total imports," the decision reads.

Canada argued that the U.S. violated the agreement "by failing to exclude imports from Canada from its safeguard measure," which "had the effect of reducing imports of Canadian (solar) products and not allowing for reasonable growth."

The U.S. countered by saying that because the USMCA had not taken effect when the tariffs were originally imposed, they could not be challenged under the new agreement  even though Canada's efforts to dispute the tariffs under NAFTA's rules were essentially rebuffed.

It also argued that Canada was consistently in the top 10 sources of imports prior to the USITC's investigation and that imports from Canada were growing substantially between 2012 and 2015.

The U.S. also noted that Canadian Solar, a Guelph-based producer, ranks as one of world's largest manufacturers of solar components, "with substantial production of (solar) cells and modules in China."

International Trade Minister Mary Ng said the panel's ruling "unequivocally confirmed" that the tariffs are "unjustified and in violation" of the new agreement, which Canada refers to as CUSMA.

"Canada will work toward the complete removal of these unjustified tariffs," Ng said in a statement. Exports of solar products to the U.S. have declined by as much as 82 per cent since the tariffs were imposed, her office noted.

"Canada will also ensure that our solar industry, as well as all Canadian industries and workers, can fully benefit from CUSMA."

Ng also acknowledged U.S. President Joe Biden's declaration earlier this month that both extended the measures and also authorized U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to sit down with Canada and Mexico to negotiate a resolution.

Such a resolution would require confirmation that neither country's imports to the U.S. would "undermine the effectiveness of the action," the declaration reads.

"If the USTR subsequently determines  that such an agreement is not effective, the USTR is authorized  to terminate any previous suspension of the action with respect to imports of Canada or Mexico."

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Tai's office acknowledged the decision late Tuesday, saying it "reaffirmed the president's authority to make exclusion determinations in safeguard proceedings."

"We will continue to review the report and work with Canada to resolve the dispute."

The decision is the second final report to be issued in a major USMCA dispute between Canada and the U.S. since the agreement took effect in July 2020.

Last month, arbitrators sided with the U.S. in its complaint that Canada was denying American dairy producers fair access to the supply-managed market north of the border.

Canada has also joined Mexico in a request for a dispute resolution panel over how the U.S. is choosing to interpret the all-important auto rules of origin that define what constitutes U.S., Mexican and Canadian content.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.
MADRID (AP)  A Spanish fishing boat sank early Tuesday in rough seas off Newfoundland in eastern Canada, killing at least seven people, an official in Spain said. Three crew members were saved from a lifeboat, and a maritime search was launched for the 14 other crew members still missing in heavy seas.

This undated photo provided by the Spanish government ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Food shows the Spanish 'Villa de Pitanxo' fishing boat. The Spanish fishing boat has sunk off Newfoundland, in eastern Canada on Tuesday Feb. 15, 2022, killing at least four people. Three crew members were rescued and search operations were ongoing to locate other members of the 24-strong crew of the sunken vessel. (Agriculture, Fishery and Food Ministry via AP)

MADRID (AP)  A Spanish fishing boat sank early Tuesday in rough seas off Newfoundland in eastern Canada, killing at least seven people, an official in Spain said. Three crew members were saved from a lifeboat, and a maritime search was launched for the 14 other crew members still missing in heavy seas.

The 50-meter (164-feet) long fishing boat named Villa de Pitanxo, which operates out of northwest Spains Galicia region, sank in the dark (around 0600 GMT, 1 a.m. EST), Spain's regional representative, Maica Larriba, told Spanish public radio.

The 24-member crew of the sunken vessel included 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three workers from Ghana, Spain's maritime rescue service said.

The head of Galicias regional government, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, said the Spanish ambassador to Canada told him that seven bodies had been found.

"The sea was very bad," he told reporters.

The survivors included the vessels 53-year-old skipper and his 42-year-old nephew, according to La Voz de Galicia newspaper. The two men contacted their families by phone, the paper reported.

The signal from the vessels on-board data recorder, used to track vessels, stopped transmitting around 0600 GMT, a government official in Galicia, Maica Larriba, told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.

A rescue center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, operated by Canada's air force and coast guard, dispatched helicopters, airplanes and a rescue vessel to the area, which is 450 kilometers (280 miles) off the island of Newfoundland.

Lt. Cmdr. Brian Owens, a spokesman for the rescue center, said high winds, heavy seas and fog were hampering the search, centered on the debris field from the sunken vessel.

Owens said three Cormorant helicopters were rotating in and out of the search area, while a provincial airlines aircraft and a C-130 Hercules were flying overhead doing sensor sweeps. The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Cygnus was still on route to the debris site, where ``a number of Spanish fishing ships were also assisting, he said.

A Spanish fishing boat working not far from the site of the sinking was the first to arrive and found three survivors and four bodies in one of the fishing boat's four lifeboats, officials said. Two of the emergency boats were empty and the fourth was reportedly unaccounted for.

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Spain's maritime rescue center in the Spanish capital of Madrid received the first alert from the beacon on the Villa de Pitanxo and coordinated the early response with the Halifax rescue center, a spokeswoman with the service said.

The boats owner, Grupo Nores, didn't immediately reply to calls or written questions. According to its website, the group operates fishing fleets in waters off Argentina, Canada, Morocco, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal as well as in the North Sea.

The news was a tragic blow to the port town of Marin in northwestern Galicia, where many make their livings from the sea. Marin Mayor Maria Ramallo said the sinking of the boat was the biggest tragedy on record for the community.

"We can't remember anything worse than this," Ramallo told Spain's state news agency, EFE.

__

Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs are on high alert and taking steps to increase biosecurity, fearing a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion.

FILE - A flock of young turkeys stand in a barn at the Moline family turkey farm after the Mason, Iowa farm was restocked on Aug. 10, 2015. Farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs are on high alert, fearing a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion. The new fear is driven by the discovery announced Feb. 9, 2022, of the virus infecting a commercial turkey flock in Indiana. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs are on high alert and taking steps to increase biosecurity, fearing a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion.

The new fear is driven by the discovery announced Feb. 9 of the virus infecting a commercial turkey flock in Indiana. The 29,000 turkeys in the flock were killed to prevent the spread of the virus.

Indiana officials said Tuesday a second flock of 26,473 turkeys near the first infected farm is suspected to have the same virus. Testing is underway to confirm. The second location already is within a quarantine zone established for the first farm.

The USDA also has confirmed the presence of bird flu in a flock of commercial broiler chickens in Fulton County, Kentucky, and are awaiting results of a potential second case about 124 miles northeast in Webster County, Ketucky. A backyard flock of mixed species birds in northern Virginia also is positive for the virus. State officials quarantined areas and the birds at the new positively identified sites will be killed and removed.

The poultry industry and government officials say they have plans to more quickly stop the spread that were learned from 2015, but they're urging caution since the virus strain is potentially deadly to commercial poultry. Egg, turkey and chicken prices could rise and availability could drop if birds at enough farms were to be infected.

Its definitely considered a period of high risk now that we have a confirmed case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the commercial poultry industry, said Dr. Denise Heard, a poultry veterinarian and vice president of research for the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association. I feel positive that we can tackle this situation better and I have my fingers crossed that this will be an isolated case, however, I would hope for the best and be prepared for the worst."

Health officials say no human cases of avian influenza viruses have been detected in the U.S. and the disease doesn't present an immediate public health concern. The virus can spread from infected birds to people but such infections are rare and haven't led to sustained outbreaks among humans.

The 2015 outbreak led producers to kill 33 million egg-laying hens in Iowa, the nations leading egg producer, and 9 million birds in Minnesota, the nations leading turkey producer, with smaller outbreaks in Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The disease caused egg and turkey prices across the country to soar for months, with the cost of eggs up 61% at one point and prices for boneless, skinless turkey breasts rising 75% between May and July 2015.

The outbreaks were deemed the most expensive animal health disaster in U.S. history, costing the government nearly $1 billion for removal and disposal of infected birds and government indemnity payments to producers for the lost birds.

The strain now circulating is H5N1 and is related to the 2015 virus. It has been circulating for months in Europe and Asia and was found in wild birds in Canada a few weeks ago and in a commercial flock in Canada a week before the U.S. case was identified.

Migratory wild birds often carry strains of avian influenza and theyre often low pathogenic, which means they dont kill the birds. Sometimes those strains can get into domestic flocks and mutate into more deadly viruses. The H5N1 now spreading from wild birds is already highly pathogenic, which means it is deadly from the start, said Dr. Yuko Sato, a veterinarian and assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine at Iowa State University.

U.S. surveillance efforts have identified the virus in wild birds in recent weeks in New Hampshire, Delaware, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and South Carolina, making it apparent that it is in the environment broadly.

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The virus spreads easily from wild bird droppings and can be carried into commercial flocks on the feet of workers or on equipment, which is why high-level biosecurity protocol has been activated across the country in commercial operations. They've enacted new safeguards to prevent deadly bird flu infections, often referred to as HPAI, and isolate them when they occur.

With the increased preparatory efforts USDA and its partners have put into place since the 2015 HPAI outbreak, we are fully prepared to handle this detection," said Lyndsay Cole, a spokeswoman for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at USDA, which deals with outbreaks on U.S.

Federal and state officials are working with the poultry industry and have initiated steps such as an immediate quarantine that restricts movement of poultry and equipment used to move birds in and out of specified perimeters around an infected barn  usually around 6 miles (10 kilometers) initially  and eradication of the virus by killing and removing birds at the infection site. Testing occurs in the quarantine area of both wild and domestic birds. Disinfection is done to kill the virus at the affected farm and testing is used to confirm it's free of the virus.

Producers who want to ensure eligibility for government indemnity payments in case of disaster must have a biosecurity protocol on hand that is updated regularly. To help with that, the USDA has developed a 14-point biosecurity plan for producers, which is audited yearly and reviewed every two years by state agriculture agencies, Sato said.

In Iowa, a state with 49 million chickens, egg farmers are working with state and federal authorities to keep the disease out of their flocks, said Kevin Stiles, executive director of the Iowa Poultry Association and the Iowa Egg Council.

IPA is maintaining open communications specifically related to biosecurity best practices and is offering surveillance testing. We are confident in our producers preparedness and ability to manage their flocks, he said.
FREDERICTON - New Brunswick's commissioner on systemic racism is calling the so-called "Freedom Convoy" protest that began Friday in Fredericton a cover for a movement that is anti-government, anti-pluralist and right-wing.

Truckers and supporters assemble to protest COVID-19 restrictions, in Fredericton, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Sousa

FREDERICTON - New Brunswick's commissioner on systemic racism is calling the so-called "Freedom Convoy" protest that began Friday in Fredericton a cover for a movement that is anti-government, anti-pluralist and right-wing.

Manju Varma issued a statement Tuesday stating that she reviewed materials from social media for the event held outside the provincial legislature and found racist symbolism referencing white supremacy, antisemitism and far-right extremism.

"Let me be absolutely and unequivocally clear: these are acts of violence," she wrote.

At its peak on Saturday, more than 700 people and about 300 vehicles took part in the protest that called for an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and that was inspired by the blockades in Ottawa. The crowd had thinned by Monday and there was no sign of protesters outside the legislature on Tuesday afternoon.

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While there were a number of charges and fines, police and the city's mayor have described the protest as peaceful.

"Peaceful should not mean there were no arrests; peaceful should mean that every citizen felt safe and protected from needless trauma," Varma said. "Seeing signs such as 'Dont Tread on Me' and references to the Holocaust causes needless trauma."

She said research has shown a growth in hate groups in New Brunswick in recent years.

Varma said she is disappointed the New Brunswick and Canadian flags were flown alongside the flags of right-wing and extremist groups, and she called for greater government action.

"Governments must at all times be anti-racist; to claim neutrality is to be racist," she said. "Taking a neutral stance validates the so-called convoys beliefs and legitimizes their hateful ideology as one condoned and supported by the state and forces of order."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.
COUTTS, Alta. - A blockade that paralyzed a United States border crossing for more than two weeks ended Tuesday as trucks and other vehicles with horns blaring rolled away from a southern Alberta community.

The last truck blocking the southbound lane moves after a breakthrough to resolve the impasse at a protest blockade at the United States border in Coutts, Alta., Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

COUTTS, Alta. - A blockade that paralyzed a United States border crossing for more than two weeks ended Tuesday as trucks and other vehicles with horns blaring rolled away from a southern Alberta community.

Protesters had been restricting access to the busy crossing near Coutts since Jan. 29 to rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truckers and broader pandemic health restrictions.

Canada Border Services Agency said operations had resumed at the crossing and RCMP confirmed later Tuesday that traffic was moving smoothly.

The exodus of vehicles came one day after RCMP arrested 13 people and seized a cache of firearms and ammunition.

Charges laid include possession of weapons and mischief to property.

Four people also face a charge of conspiracy to murder RCMP members, said Chief Supt. Trevor Daroux. He said police worked closely with the Crown to ensure they had the necessary evidence to lay those charges.

Some of the accused were granted release in a Lethbridge, Alta., courtroom on Tuesday. A judge also ordered that they can't contact one another or be within a 200-metre radius of any protest.

Mounties said an early-morning raid Monday uncovered 13 long guns, handguns, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition and body armour. Two additional weapons were seized later in the day.

RCMP also said a semi-truck and farm tractor had attempted to ram a police cruiser on Sunday.

"The dangerous criminal activity occurring away from the TV cameras and social media posts was real and organized," said Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki on Tuesday evening.

Anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators leave in a truck convoy after blocking the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

"It could have been deadly for citizens, protesters and officers."

Daroux said the RCMP became aware of the heavily armed group a few days after the protest began. He said investigations are ongoing into this group and other events that took place during the blockade.

"Alberta RCMP will remain in the area until we are confident that the situation is safe and stabilized for all who travel through here," he said.

Protesters are dissociating themselves from the group of people facing serious charges. Organizer Marco Van Huigenbos said that is why the convoy decided to leave peacefully.

He said he has no regrets about participating in the blockade.

"I think we've started a movement where people are going to get more involved ... at the municipal level, provincial possibly, but also more involvement in politics in general."

Two tactical vests seized by the RCMP had badges on them, which the Canadian Anti-Hate Network said have links to troubling movements.

One vest had a "Diagolon" patch on it, a white diagonal line across a black rectangle, that is linked to an often conspiratorial and antisemitic group, said Peter Smith from the network. He said the group often talks about a soon-approaching civil war.

"(Their) rhetoric is very violent," said Smith. "One of the, kind of, common phrases used within the community is 'A gun or rope?'"

The other patch said "Infidel" in both English and Arabic in yellow. Smith said the patch doesn't indicate membership to a specific network but is known among Islamophobic militias and biker-style hate groups.

He said the biggest worry is having niche extremist networks that could work to inflame supporters linked to what was supposed to be a peaceful protest.

There was celebrating when the protest started winding down late Monday. A video posted to social media showed RCMP members shaking hands with and hugging protesters. People holding hats or hands to their chests or with arms draped across each other's shoulders sang O Canada.

Cpl. Gina Slaney confirmed the scene was from Monday night in Coutts.Zablocki said RCMP is aware of the video.

"I will say, we do encourage our members to engage with the public and develop respectful, professional relationships with all Albertans," said Zablocki. "We will be looking further into this matter."

Jim Willett, mayor of the village of 250 people, said it had been a while since he had seen anything but semi-trailers on Highway 4.

"I can see all the way to Regina," he said with a laugh.

Willett said he doesn't blame the blockade leaders for the cache of weapons.

"They were a well-behaved bunch of people," he said. "I think the organizers were taken aback as much as we were by what the RCMP discovered."

The number of protesters at a police checkpoint, north of Coutts, had also dwindled and work was underway to start clearing away a first-aid trailer, a sauna and electric generators.

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"Last night, emotions were high ... I think a lot of people felt that we were giving up, but we're not giving up," said John Vanreeuwyk, a feedlot operator from Coaldale, Alta., also a protest organizer.

"Is it a victory? No. A victory means we're done," he said.

The blockade was one of several demonstrations in Canadian cities and border points that stalled trade, stranded travellers and disrupted lives of area residents, particularly in Ottawa.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has said $48 million in trade was lost each day that the Coutts border was closed.

 With files from Alanna Smith in Calgary

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.
OTTAWA - Vaccinated travellers will no longer need a molecular COVID-19 test to enter Canada starting Feb. 28, and can instead opt for a potentially cheaper and easier to access rapid test.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos responds to a question during a news conference, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Vaccinated travellers will no longer need a molecular COVID-19 test to enter Canada starting Feb. 28, and can instead opt for a potentially cheaper and easier to access rapid test.

The change comes as sunny news to some travellers looking forward to a March break getaway, but tourism and airline associations feel the government needs to go further to clear the way for vaccinated people to travel freely.

The rapid tests would have to be managed by a laboratory, health care or telehealth provider, federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced Tuesday.

The new rules are more closely aligned with those of the United States which allows people to perform a rapid antigen test on themselves, as long as the test is affiliated with a telehealth service that will verify the user's identity, supervise the test and provide written documentation.

Some fully vaccinated travellers might still be randomly selected for a molecular test at the airport, but they will not need to quarantine while they wait for the result.

To make travel easier for families, unvaccinated children under the age of 12, travelling with vaccinated adults, will no longer have to isolate from school, daycare or other public places for 14 days after they arrive in Canada either.

"Having the PCR test requirement removed just makes it that much easier and less expensive for travellers right now," said Flight Centre spokeswoman Allison Wallace.

Depending on the destination, many places offer to verify and document rapid test results in pharmacies, making them just as easy to access as a molecular or PCR test at a far reduced cost and with much faster turnaround, she said.

A molecular test can run between $100 to $250 per test, which adds up quickly for families, Wallace said. "The PCR testing  seems to be the No. 1 deterrent by far, of anything right now, keeping people from travelling."

The government also plans to lift its advisory urging Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel outside the country due to the risk of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, but warns international travel is still not without risk.

Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Perrin Beatty said the changes gradually move Canada toward what is happening in other major jurisdictions.

But in his role as co-chair of the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable, Beatty also called on the federal government to offer a clear timeline for removing travel restrictions for fully vaccinated travellers and their children  including test and isolation requirements and blanket travel advisories.

"Blanket warnings about travel at this point are unjustified," he said in an interview.

Thirty-one other organizations also signed on to that call, including the National Airlines Council of Canada.

"Other countries have moved to eliminate pre-departure testing requirements entirely, and the latest scientific evidence suggests now is the time for Canada to consider doing the same," said interim president Suzanne Acton-Gervais in a statement Tuesday.

The government will consider easing restrictions further in coming weeks if the epidemiological situation continues to improve, hospitalizations continue to diminish, and Canadians continue to get their booster shots, Duclos said.

Duclos said the government has adjusted COVID-19 border measures because Canada has more tools to transition away from stiff restrictions.

"These tools include the strong surveillance system, a highly vaccinated population, continued access to vaccines, access to therapeutics both in and outside our hospital system and increasing access to rapid tests," Duclos said.

There were 5,801 new confirmed cases in and 110 deaths in Canada Monday, the latest data from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows.

Though case counts provide a limited picture of the spread of the virus because many jurisdictions have restricted the use of molecular tests, the latest figures still show a dramatic drop from the peak of the Omicron wave when new cases reached upwards of 54,000.

Foreign nationals are still barred from entering Canada without an approved slate of COVID-19 vaccines.

Unvaccinated Canadians can take a rapid test before they board the plane, but will need to take a molecular test on arrival and again eight days after arrival, and isolate for 14 days.

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Anyone aged 12 years and four months old, or older, must also be vaccinated to board a plane, passenger train or cruise in Canada as well.

More airports will also be able to receive international flights after Feb. 28, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced. For now, only 18 Canadian airports are allowed to accept international flights.

In addition to international airports, airports in other communities like Windsor and London in Ontario, Fort McMurray, Alta., and Moncton, N.B., will also start to receive flights from abroad, Alghabra said.

He promised more information about how COVID-19 testing will work for cruise ship travellers arriving at Canadian ports would be forthcoming, in time for cruise ship season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

 With files from Chris Reynolds in Montreal
Ontario ramped up plans to drop a raft of COVID-19 restrictions, including the province's vaccine certificate system, while Alberta schools opened Monday without mask mandates for children.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a news conference at the Ontario Legislature, in Toronto, on Monday, February 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Ontario ramped up plans to drop a raft of COVID-19 restrictions, including the province's vaccine certificate system, while Alberta schools opened Monday without mask mandates for children.

Saskatchewan residents also started the day with relaxed measures as the province lifted its proof of vaccine or a negative test requirement to enter most businesses. Meanwhile, Quebec said it would discuss ending its vaccine mandate.

As provinces tailored policies to their own COVID-19 trends, the Public Health Agency of Canada said there will be "variability" in when and how jurisdictions lift measures.

"With the decline of the Omicron wave, and as we transition away from the crisis phase, it is now time to rebalance our collective efforts towards a more sustainable approach to long term management of COVID-19," PHAC said in a statement.

"As populations and health care capacities differ across jurisdictions, there will be variability in how each province, territory and community assesses risk and responds to the needs of their respective jurisdictions."

In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford said vaccine passports will end March 1, but masking requirements will remain for now.

Ford also said restrictions meant to lift next Monday, including capacity limits in restaurants, will instead lift this Thursday. Social gathering limits will also increase.

He insisted the change was not due to pressure from anti-vaccine mandate protesters who have occupied Ottawa and Windsor over the last several days.

Chief medical health officer Dr. Kieran Moore said the province's vaccine certificate system had "served its purpose" and was no longer needed.

"We are now down the slope from the peak of Omicron activity," Moore said.

Ford said Ontario is able to soon lift restrictions because public health indicators have been improving, with the positivity rate of COVID-19 tests dropping to 13 per cent from a peak of nearly 40 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,369 COVID-19 hospitalizations, down from the more than 4,000 on Jan. 18. The province also reported eight more deaths linked to the virus.

In Quebec, gyms and spas, which were closed in December, reopened at half capacity.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault said he will meet with public health officials to discuss whether the province's vaccine passport system should remain. He said he still needs approval from public health officials before loosening the requirement.

"We want to remove most of the measures, but we have to be careful because of the hospital situation."

Quebec reported Monday 17 more deaths linked to the virus and a rise of 14 COVID-19 hospitalizations, bringing the total in the province to 2,095.

In Alberta, children are no longer required to wear masks in schools. Children 12 and younger also don't have to wear masks in any setting.

The move has sparked criticism from some who say COVID-19 community transmission and the threat of the Omicron variant have not yet subsided significantly.

The Alberta Federation of Labour, on behalf of five parents with immunocompromised children, asked court for an injunction on the change. But a judge ruled Monday there was "no evidence of irreparable harm," and dismissed the application.

Premier Jason Kenney on Twitter called the application "ridiculous" and said kids shouldn't be forced to wear masks.

Some students also walked out of classes early and protested at the legislature in support of teachers and health-care workers.

"I have many friends who are immunocompromised and they are terrified," said 17-year-old organizer Samuel Clark in Edmonton.

There were 1,528 patients in Alberta hospitals with COVID-19, a decrease from last week of 38, including 124 in intensive care.

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In Saskatchewan, which now reports its COVID-19 data once a week, the province ended its passport system. Requirements for people to wear masks in indoor public places and to self-isolate when they test positive for COVID-19 are expected to lift at the end of the month.

The province's chief medical officer has said the Omicron wave there has peaked but that hospitalizations will likely rise for the next week before tapering off.

Tamara Hinz of Saskatoon said she and her partner planned to enjoy Valentine's Day by ordering in from a restaurant. She said they will monitor COVID-19 trends in the coming weeks before mingling in crowds that now include the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Nik Selanos, co-owner of Memories Fine Dining and Bar in Regina, said he had a full house booked for the evening. He said customers have not expressed much hesitation over dining out without the health order in place.

"For the most part  they are fine with it," Selanos said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.
The Supreme Courts decision in The New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) checks all the definitional boxes of a landmark ruling. It revolutionized the law of libel in the United States. It saved freedom of the press and the First Amendment. It empowered journalists to challenge representations of governmental officials. It lit the way for penetrating reporting necessary to properly inform the citizenry on the great issues of our time.

Without the Sullivan ruling, the media would not have been able to produce the searching coverage that illuminated the Civil Rights movement and exposed the secrets and deceit that surrounded the Vietnam War and Watergate. Without the decision, Americans would live in darkness, a condition that would jeopardize the future of our democracy.

The vitality of the Sullivan decision is of enduring importance. As readers know, the standards set forth by the court are in play in Sarah Palin v. The New York Times, a libel action currently making headlines in newspapers across the country.

The Sullivan case emerged from the Civil Rights movement and the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King in Montgomery, Alabama, to draw attention to the cruelty of racism and segregation in southern states. On March 29, 1960, supporters of Dr. King created an advertisement that ran in The New York Times. Among other things, the advertisement declared that southern officials  Southern violators of the Constitution  had employed illegal measures and tactics against Dr. King and his colleagues in the movement, and had arrested King seven times on trumped up charges. The ad mentioned no names, but J.B. Sullivan, a commissioner in Montgomery in charge of the city police, sued the Times for libel. He claimed that his position and responsibilities for supervision of the police department would lead readers to identify him as one of the violators.

The Sullivan case began in an Alabama state court, where Sullivan prevailed at trial. The judge held that the advertisement was libelous and awarded Sullivan $500,000 in damages, the largest libel award in Alabamas history.

At the time, Alabama libel law, like that in other states, included three elements. First, any publication that was challenged as libelous was presumed to be false. The publisher bore the burden of proving it to be true. Second, damage was assumed, if the publication somehow harmed the plaintiffs (Sullivans) reputation. Third, the law declared that the publishers fault was presumed. That is, it didnt matter if the publisher did his best to obtain the truth. He would pay.

The Times could not satisfy the requirement that the advertisement was true in all respects. It conceded that it contained errors. Dr. King had been arrested, for example, four, not seven times. These misstatements, the trial judge concluded, meant that the Times had libeled Sullivan and would have to pay the awarded damages.

The ruling threatened to crush the newspaper, which, at the time, was barely profitable. Sullivans lawsuit, like other libel actions brought by white southerners against northern media, reflected a strategy of threatening newspapers with financial ruin, if they continued their coverage of the Civil Rights movement. When Sullivan came before the court, there were libel claims of $300 million against northern media. The threat of bankruptcy for a few misstatements might well constitute a deterrent to coverage of the Civil Rights movement or, indeed, any other probing reports of the acts of government officials. Newspapers clearly needed protection. Freedom of the Press needed protection. The First Amendment needed protection. In Sullivan, the Supreme Court provided it.

At the time of Sullivan, no libel judgment had ever been held to violate freedom of the press. In fact, since the founding of the republic, libel had been considered beyond the protection of the First Amendment. The Times, through the arguments of its attorney, the eminent constitutional law scholar, Herbert Wechlser of the Columbia Law School, sought to reverse the tides of history.

Wechlser invoked the infamous Sedition Act of 1798, which punished Americans for harshly criticizing governmental officials. This law  the law of seditious libel  was never tested in the Supreme Court, but certainly condemned by the court of history and the court of public opinion as dangerous to freedom of the press and the enterprise of republicanism. Wechsler told the court in Sullivan that contemporary libel law punished criticism of public officials, just as the Sedition Act had done.

Wechsler argued to the court that there should be no test of truth for criticism of governmental officials. If libel actions could prevail against newspapers for any missteps, for the slightest errors and misstatements, the effect on individuals and newspapers would be so chilling as to discourage criticism of public officials for fear of facing damages for libel. A chilling effect on freedom of speech and press would represent a critical threat to democracy itself. Wechsler told the court: There never is a time when it would serve the values enshrined in the Constitution to force the press to curtail its attention to the tensest issues that confront the country.

Justice William Brennan, nominated to the Supreme Court by President Dwight Eisenhower, wrote the opinion for the court, one considered by scholars to be among his very best. We turn to his landmark opinion next week.

David Adler is president of The Alturas Institute. This "We the People" series is provided by the North Dakota Newspaper Association and Humanities North Dakota.

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LIMA, Peru (AP)  Dozens of beaches near Lima were deserted and thousands of fishermen remained without work Tuesday, one month after an oil spill at a refinery created what the United Nations called the worst ecological disaster in Perus recent history.

Workers continue in an oil clean-up campaign on Pocitos Beach in Ancon, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. One month later, workers continue the clean-up on beaches after contamination by a Repsol oil spill. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

LIMA, Peru (AP)  Dozens of beaches near Lima were deserted and thousands of fishermen remained without work Tuesday, one month after an oil spill at a refinery created what the United Nations called the worst ecological disaster in Perus recent history.

Clean up of the oil is going slowly, with Peruvian authorities saying that less than a quarter of the 11,900 barrels spilled into Pacific Ocean on Jan. 15 has been collected. Spanish oil company Repsol says only 10,300 barrels spilled that day at its La Pampilla refinery in front of Peru's capital.

Environment Minister Modesto Montoya on Monday said that 2,000 barrels have been recovered. Repsol did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the number of barrels collected.

Chocolate-colored foam bobs on the waters in front of Lima, its appearance a product of the physical-chemical reaction between the spilled oil and moving seawater, said Montoya, citing experts from a U.N. multidisciplinary team that has analyzed the spill.

Thousands of fishermen sit idly by, unable to harvest the fish and shellfish they normally extract from the roughly 113 square kilometers (44 square miles) affected by the spill, according to authorities. It is an area larger than the city of Paris.

A worker holds a type of skimmer that collects oil waste during a clean-up campaign on Pocitos Beach in Ancon, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. One month later, workers continue the clean-up on beaches after contamination by a Repsol oil spill. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

We dont get an answer from anyone, they just give us crumbs of information, said fisherman Ricardo Estrada, 38, standing on the pier in Ancon, one of 24 polluted beaches on Perus coast.

Ancon's beach, which has a boardwalk that is normally bursting with tourists this time of year, is now empty.

It looks like an empty cathedral, said Estrada, who has an 8-year-old son and cares for his elderly parents. He looks at a dead seabird that lies on the pier where fish are normally sold.

Workers continue in a clean-up campaign after an oil spill, on Pocitos Beach in Ancon, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. One month later, workers continue the clean-up beaches after contamination by a Repsol oil spill. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

The animals keep dying, he said.

Officials say at least 1,200 oil-covered birds have been found, including cormorants, Peruvian boobies, Humboldt penguins, pelicans and seagulls. Peru's National Service for Protected Natural Areas says another 260 birds were found dead.

Peru's government still does not have a full estimate of the economic damage caused by the spill. President Pedro Castillo has changed environment ministers three times amid the environmental disaster, with one minister lasting just three days.

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Workers continue in a clean-up campaign after an oil spill, on Pocitos Beach in Ancon, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. One month later, workers continue the clean-up beaches after contamination by a Repsol oil spill. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

At the end of January, a judge prohibited the local director of Repsol, Jaime Fernandez-Cuesta, three company managers and a state official from leaving Peru for 18 months. They are being investigated for alleged environmental crimes.

The unemployed fishermen attended a Mass in Limas cathedral last weekend. They brought with them their empty nets and asked the government not to forget them.

The spill took place while crude oil was being unloaded at the refinery from the Italian ship Mare Doricum.

Repsol blames the ship for the spill, but Fratelli dAmico Armatori SpA, the company that owns the ship, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it is important that we do not provide information that is incorrect or misleading.

We can confirm that our evaluation of the tests to date shows that all onboard protocols and procedures were followed by the vessel at the time of unloading and from the moment oil was observed in the water, the Italian company said. The ship has been seized by Peruvian authorities.

Repsols La Pampilla refinery is the most important one in Peru and supplies fuel to 40% of the country.
Sweeping powers invoked by the federal government risk dropping the hammer on drivers and companies that have no direct role in blockades, the head of a trucking association says.

A man walks past trucks parked in front of the Parliament buildings, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Sweeping powers invoked by the federal government risk dropping the hammer on drivers and companies that have no direct role in blockades, the head of a trucking association says.

The Emergencies Act triggered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday authorizes financial institutions to freeze protesters bank accounts and cancel vehicle insurance coverage without a court order.

Mike Millian, president of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, said he condemns the demonstrations but worries rogue drivers who defy head-office directives to avoid the blockades could jeopardize the operations of entire companies.

Because insurance policies encompass whole fleets rather than individual drivers, thousands of truckers employed by a single carrier could be punished for the choices of a few, he said.

"Insurance being cancelled could be an issue because you don't just insure one truck," Millian said. "Now we've got a whole fleet put down. And if you seize the corporate bank accounts, we now have nobody getting paid."

Authorities must also make sure they don't penalize truckers who happen to be near a blockade but are not participants, he said.

"If people are willingly breaking the law, we've got no issues  put the boots to them with every enforcement power you got," he said. "But it's our concern about affecting those that may not have anything to do with this."

The government has assured the association, which represents companies with in-house fleets such as Loblaws and Walmart Canada, that officers will be instructed to give drivers an opportunity to leave the protest area before "severe measures" come down, Millian added.

Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to bring to an end what he deems illegal blockades that sprang up in Ottawa and border crossings.

The measures grant police and financial instructions extraordinary powers to stop public assemblies that "breach the peace" in established no-go zones, force towing companies to remove vehicles involved in road blockades, and require banks to suspend or freeze accounts suspected of supporting them.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government is "serving notice" to trucking companies with vehicles at the blockades that they will have their corporate accounts frozen and lose their insurance.

However, a corporate account may not be suspended unless it appears to be the source of large contributions to blockaders, said Wesley Wark, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Donations from truckers' personal accounts can also be frozen, with no impact on their colleagues.

"The financial sanctions will be used surgically, not least to avoid legal challenges. But they are also meant to act as a threat and deterrent in the hope that companies would also put their own pressure on 'rogue drivers'  a two-pronged attack," Wark said.

Surveillance, licence plate information, open-source intelligence  social media monitoring, for example  and now-mandatory registration by all crowdfunding and payment services with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, known as Fintrac, will all play a roll in identifying and penalizing protesters, he said.

Truckers who have camped out below Parliament Hill for more than two weeks said they were undeterred by the emergency measures.

"I'm afraid of nothing," Quebec big-rigger Martin Thibault said from his cab downtown. He said he has been at the protest for 17 days and plans to stay until all vaccine mandates end.

Cristian Munteau, whose bright yellow rig has been parked near Parliament Hill since the first day of the protest, said the steps taken by Trudeau reminded him of authoritarian powers adopted by regimes in his native Romania.

"This reminds me of the Communists. They try everything to hurt people through laws ... They have the power  the power to make me homeless," he said. "But this is about freedom of speech. It doesn't scare me."

Breaching any order or regulation made through the emergencies law could also result in a penalty of up to five years in jail and a fine of $5,000.

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The truck council says the government must offer protection against threats to tow-truck drivers who can be compelled by the law to remove vehicles and big-rigs.

"I may be protected when I'm on scene removing the truck, but how are you protecting my business's safety after that?" Millian asked.

Stakeholders say they believe the majority of truckers involved in the demonstrations are independent drivers who own their semi trucks and work on contract. For owner-operators a suspended or frozen account, insurance certificate or licence  or an impounded tractor  would severely dent their income.

"They cant survive. Its going to impact them hugely on their bottom line," said Lisa Garofalo, vice-president of the trucking division at Baird MacGregor Insurance Brokers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

 With files from Marie Woolf in Ottawa
NEW YORK (AP)  As telecom companies rev up the newest generation of mobile service, called 5G, they're shutting down old networks  a costly, years-in-the-works process that's now prompting calls for a delay because many products out there still rely on the old standard, 3G.

The iPhone 5S, left, and iPhone 5c are displayed, Sept. 17, 2013, in New York. As telecom companies rev up the newest generation of mobile service, called 5G, theyre shutting down old networks  a costly, years-in-the-works process thats now prompting calls for a delay because a lot of products out there still rely on the old standard, 3G. AT&T in mid-February is the first to shut down the 3G network, which first launched in the U.S. just after the turn of the millennium. AT&T says a delay in retiring the network will hurt its service quality. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

NEW YORK (AP)  As telecom companies rev up the newest generation of mobile service, called 5G, they're shutting down old networks  a costly, years-in-the-works process that's now prompting calls for a delay because many products out there still rely on the old standard, 3G.

AT&T is scheduled to be the first carrier to shut down its 3G network on Feb. 22. T-Mobile will shut down its 3G network by summer and Verizon in December.

The home-alarm industry has asked the Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. regulator, to delay AT&T's network sunset until December. The FCC is monitoring the 3G phase-out and working to implement safeguards" for older phones and other devices, spokesperson Paloma Perez said late Monday.

Verizon has already pushed back its shutdown  twice  from an original target date in 2019, saying customers needed more time to update their devices. T-Mobile has also delayed the shutdown of the Sprint 3G network it acquired in 2020, to the end of March; it'll shut down the T-Mobile 3G network by July 1.

WHY IS 3G SHUTTING DOWN?

First, some history. AT&T's 3G network launched in the U.S. in 2004; later that decade it was the exclusive carrier for early iPhones, helping usher in the first phase of the smartphone era. The networks we currently rely on for video streaming, social apps, Uber and other must-haves of the modern era mostly use the subsequent 4G standard.

For the carriers, shutting down 3G is an efficiency move. As they upgrade to the latest technology, they shut off outdated networks and use the freed-up bandwidth for newer  and what they hope will be more profitable  services.

In this Monday, July 29, 2019 photo an AT&T logo sits above an entrance to a building, in Boston. As telecom companies rev up the newest generation of mobile service, called 5G, theyre shutting down old networks  a costly, years-in-the-works process thats now prompting calls for a delay because a lot of products out there still rely on the old standard, 3G. AT&T in mid-February is the first to shut down the 3G network, which first launched in the U.S. just after the turn of the millennium. AT&T says a delay in retiring the network will hurt its service quality. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

WHAT IF I HAVE AN OLDER PHONE?

People with older phones that aren't compatible with 4G will have to upgrade; once 3G shuts down, those phones won't work for calls or texting. AT&T says it has reached out to offer its customers free replacements via letters, emails and texts. Spokesperson Jim Greer said fewer than 1% of AT&T's consumer devices, including phones, tablets and watches, will lose cellular service, but declined to say how many devices that is. The company reported about 196 million phones and connected devices using its network in the most recent quarter.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER DEVICES?

Industry groups have also raised concerns about other products that will need to be replaced or updated  everything from home fire alarms to ankle bracelets used by law enforcement. It's not certain how many outdated products are out there, or how big a deal it would be if updates take place after Feb. 22.

The alarm industry and other companies say they have had issues replacing devices even though they've known about the coming shutdown for years. Recent setbacks include both pandemic-triggered supply-chain issues and customers hesitant to let technicians into their homes during the pandemic.

HOW MANY OUTDATED PRODUCTS ARE OUT THERE?

It's not really clear. An alarm-industry lobbying group estimates that 1.5 million customers still need to upgrade their fire or burglar alarms, while about half a million have medical alert devices that run on 3G; it said most rely on AT&T service. While an unnetworked fire alarm will still sound an alarm if there's smoke, it won't be able to contact the fire department. Likewise, burglar alarms won't route to emergency responders if triggered. Not all providers say there's an issue. ADT said in November that it was on track to update its AT&T customers by February; a spokesperson declined to offer an update on Sunday.

AARP, the advocacy group for adults over 50, is also concerned that users of medical alert systems  those necklaces and bracelets, like Life Alert  that connect users to emergency call centers won't know their gadgets don't work anymore or won't be able to replace them in time.

HOW SHOULD I PREPARE?

Check your phone to make sure it will still work. Heres an AT&T list of devices that the carrier says will work normally after Feb. 22. Call the companies that make or service your burglar and fire alarms and personal medical alert systems to see if any need an update. If so, schedule a service visit immediately or get a new device shipped.

OK, DONE. ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD WORRY ABOUT?

A few. One manufacturer of ankle bracelets for people on probation, parole or pre-trial release said it hasn't been able to update many 3G-reliant devices. A premature shutdown could potentially allow tens of thousands of offenders like child abusers, sex offenders and drunk drivers to go unmonitored while out of prison, Alcohol Monitoring Systems wrote in an August FCC filing. The company did not respond to questions.

Zonar, which provides GPS and other services for buses and trucks, says tens of thousands of vehicles will be affected. Trucks that aren't upgraded may have to be idled if drivers can't electronically log their hours as federal rules require. Zonar has a workaround for the trucking industry, but not all customers have placed orders for it, said Susan Corscadden, a company marketing executive.

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Affected school districts could also lose their ability to track the location of school buses, while their drivers may not be able to use GPS systems for directions. The National Association for Pupil Transportation seconded these concerns in a September filing, although Noelle Ellerson Ng, the group's legislative liaison, said in an interview that she hasn't heard school superintendents raise the issue.

SO DOES THE SHUTDOWN POSE A SERIOUS PUBLIC-SAFETY THREAT?

It's unclear. Theres a lot of uncertainty about the impact and about how many people are affected, said Tom Kamber, the executive director of Older Adults Technology Services, a nonprofit affiliated with AARP. The AARP has asked the FCC to delay the AT&T shutdown until December.

Public Knowledge, a public-interest group, also urged the FCC to block the February shutdown unless AT&T can show that it has made sure that essential services won't be disrupted or that it can restore service immediately if problems arise.

SO WHY NOT DELAY?

AT&T says that delaying the shutdown would hurt its 5G rollout, degrading its customers' ability to use their service and causing more dropped calls. The company argues that the alarm companies have had years to upgrade their customers' devices. The company also says the FCC doesn't have the authority to stop its shutdown.
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Ottawa and the Newfoundland and Labrador government have signed terms for two key pieces of a $5.2-billion financing agreement aimed at staving off a spike in provincewide electricity rates due to the beleaguered Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.

The construction site of the hydroelectric facility at Muskrat Falls, N.L., is seen on Tuesday, July 14, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Ottawa and the Newfoundland and Labrador government have signed terms for two key pieces of a $5.2-billion financing agreement aimed at staving off a spike in provincewide electricity rates due to the beleaguered Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.

Premier Andrew Furey was joined by Liberal members of Parliament in St. John's on Monday for the signing of terms regarding a $1-billion federal investment and a $1-billion federal loan guarantee  the third loan guarantee Canada has backed for the project. Government officials said the signatures complete the negotiation process for the $5.2-billion deal.

"Muskrat Falls and the looming worry of doubling power bills has been a top concern of almost every single citizen in our province," Furey told reporters at the provincial legislature. "I've heard it echoed in every town, bay and community all over our beautiful province."

But Labrador's Innu Nation says the two governments moved ahead with the financing deal without addressing their concerns. In a news release shortly before Furey's announcement, the First Nation said it was "frustrated that no agreement to mitigate financial impact to Innu Nation  has been reached."

The $5.2-billion deal between Ottawa and the Newfoundland and Labrador government was first announced in principle in July, just weeks before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the federal election. Aside from the $2 billion in investments and loan guarantees, Ottawa has also agreed to send annual transfers to the province equivalent to Canada's yearly net revenue from the Hibernia offshore oil project off St. John's. The transfers will continue until the end of Hibernia's life and are expected to total $3.2 billion.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Fury and Seamus O'Regan, minister of labour and MP for St. John's South--Mount Pearl, shake hands after signing an agreement for the Lower Churchill Project in St. John's on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. Ottawa and the Newfoundland and Labrador government have signed terms for two key pieces of a $5.2-billion financing agreement aimed at staving off a spike in provincewide electricity rates due to the beleaguered Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly

The financial aid is aimed at preventing residential electricity rates from nearly doubling in order to pay for the project, though it's still unclear exactly what the electricity rates will be when the Labrador-based generating facility is producing at full power.

Officials said Monday the target rate for residents is 14.7 cents per kilowatt hour, with an expected annual increase of about 2.25 per cent. The current residential rate is 12.52 cents per kilowatt hour, according to Newfoundland Power's website.

As of September 2020, Muskrat Falls' price tag had ballooned to about $13.1 billion, up from about $7.4 billion when it was sanctioned in 2012, though the project has since seen further delays. After missing the Nov. 26 goal to start generating power at full capacity, the province's energy corporation recently pushed the final commissioning date to the end of May.

Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has said the project is racking up $1 million a day in interest and financing charges.

As he addressed a small crowd in the provincial legislature Monday, Furey said the signing of the loan guarantee terms allows the governments to move forward and seek financing with the backing of Canada's credit rating. He called the latest development, "the next step for all of us  to emerge from under the dark shadow of Muskrat Falls."

When asked about the Innu Nation, Furey said he had several "reasonable conversations" with the First Nation.

"We've extended our process agreement that was signed and we're in facilitation, but we've agreed not to talk (publicly) any further about the discussion points between the government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Innu Nation," he said.

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The Muskrat Falls site sits on the Churchill River in Labrador and its construction flooded Indigenous lands and hunting grounds. The Innu Nation has said the project required its approval to go ahead. Following last July's announcement of the financing deal, the Innu Nation said it had been left out of negotiations and was concerned the deal would impact the money it was entitled to from the project.

The First Nation took the matter to court in August but withdrew its application in September, saying it had reached an agreement with the federal and provincial governments to be included in discussions.

"Those discussions have not resolved outstanding differences," the First Nation said in Monday's news release. "Innu Nation and the province have since agreed to enter into facilitated discussions. Innu Nation retains their right to return to court."

As for the deal itself, federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan, who represents the district of St. John's SouthMount Pearl, said characterizing the financing agreement as Ottawa bailing out the province is "simply wrong."

"One of the elegant bits of this deal is that  the $3.2 billion comes from Newfoundland's own resources," he said in an interview following the announcement. "It really is important to remind people that we are part of a country. This is not transactional  these are people. We are all Canadians, we look out for one another, and we look out for one another where we live."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.
GENEVA (AP)  Swiss-based minerals and mining giant Glencore on Tuesday reported $5 billion in net profits in 2021, bouncing back from an annual loss a year earlier and citing an extraordinary year where demand shot up for metals and energy products.

GENEVA (AP)  Swiss-based minerals and mining giant Glencore on Tuesday reported $5 billion in net profits in 2021, bouncing back from an annual loss a year earlier and citing an extraordinary year where demand shot up for metals and energy products.

The company also said it has set aside $1.5 billion to deal with bribery and corruption investigations in Brazil, Britain and the United States.

The diversified company, based in Baar, Switzerland, hailed a strong backdrop for commodities and suggested it was poised to help the transition toward an economy with net zero carbon emissions even as it benefited from a strong surge in the prices of products like coal, a key contributor to global warming.

Looking forward, we remain focused on our strategy to enable and deliver decarbonization and meet the increasing demand for everyday metals, while responsibly meeting the energy needs of today, CEO Gary Nagle said in a statement.

We look to the future confident that we have the right pathway to succeed in a net zero economy and create sustainable long-term value for all stakeholders, while operating in a responsible manner across all aspects of our business, he added.

Glencore cited several emissions-cutting targets, including a 15% reduction by 2026 and ambitions for net zero emissions by 2050, pointing to its plans for a responsible decline of our coal portfolio.

The company said net earnings attributable to equity holders came in at $5 billion last year, compared with a net loss of $1.9 billion in 2020. Annual revenue jumped 43%, to $203.8 billion.

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Glencore cited strong performance across all its commodity departments last year and noted double-digit percentage increases in the annual prices for key products like cobalt, copper, nickel, zinc and one type of coal, which alone saw average prices jump 125%.

The company's products have a vast array of uses in industries like cars, battery production, construction, electronics, energy and steel.

Glencore noted two outstanding corruption investigations in the United States as well as bribery probes in Brazil and Britain, in addition to an investigation by the Swiss attorney general's office into whether the company lacked proper organizational measures to prevent alleged corruption.

The company presently expects to resolve the U.S., UK and Brazilian investigations in 2022, Glencore said.

It added that it has raised a provision as of year-end 2021 of $1.5 billion, representing its current best estimate of the costs to resolve these investigations.

Glencore said its improved financial position  which once teetered on bankruptcy  had shrunk net debt to $6 billion. It announced a total of $4 billion in shareholder returns, mostly through a base distribution but also a $550 million buyback.
Cierra McNeill has a date with Mickey Mouse.

And Goofy, and Pluto, and any other character she happens to meet during her April trip to Walt Disney World. Its been two years since the 23-year-old has hopped on a plane.

"I havent travelled for so long," she said. "I just want to go places."

Shes not concerned about contracting COVID-19, nor has she worried much about government travel regulations  after all, theyll likely change by the time shes ready to board, she said.

Her friends are heading south too, to Mexico and other warm destinations.

"People want to go on and live their lives," McNeill said.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Rick Gaudet, owner of Fareconnect Travel & Cruise Centre, says hes noticed a big increase in trips planned this winter compared to last.

Rick Gaudet, who owns Fareconnect Travel, returned from Cancun a few weeks ago and is now handling an influx of Winnipeg clients looking to leave.

Business is up 75 per cent from this time last year, Gaudet estimated. Most customers are heading to Mexico, where fully vaccinated travellers dont need a COVID-19 test to enter.

"I think originally there were a lot of people worried about getting COVID," Gaudet said. "Ive seen a shift a little bit in that the last couple of months."

Polymerase chain reaction testing and Canadas quarantine requirements top the list of concerns for the average Manitoban traveller, Gaudet said.

"If the PCR test gets removed I think there will be a big jump in business, for sure," Gaudet said. "Its a lot to do with those costs."

Currently, travellers need a negative molecular test to re-enter Canada (and sometimes to leave). Costs vary but could amount to $200 per test.

Canadas minister of health is expected to announce travel restriction changes later this week.

TRIBUNE MEDIA TNS Many Manitobans are heading to Mexico, where fully vaccinated travellers dont need a COVID-19 test to enter. (Brad Calkins / Dreamstime files)

Fareconnect Travels traffic hasnt come anywhere near pre-pandemic levels, despite the big surge, Gaudet said.

"Its all relative," he said. "You compare (our sales) to what we had on the books for 2019, (and) were still only at about 20 per cent."

Lesli Malegus, the owner of Selkirk Travel, said shes noticed a spike in business over the past couple weeks.

She believes the anticipation of the PCR test requirement being scrapped has more people eager to vacation.

"The cost was an issue," she said, adding a lot of people have recovered from COVID-19, making them ready to travel.

"Dont get me wrong: were still in a pandemic situation, but the more people that are vaccinated, (and) the less testing and rules that we have to follow to travel, the more confident people will be in travel," Malegus said.

Clients are more worried about quarantining abroad than being sick with the virus, she said.

CP Travellers need a negative molecular test to re-enter Canada. Costs vary but could amount to $200 per test. (Victor Ruiz / The Associated Press files)

Receiving a false positive test, resulting in a need to quarantine, is also a commonly cited concern, Malegus said.

Thats the worry for Darren Swire. The 43-year-old is visiting Orlando in April for his daughters cheerleading tournament. Both contracted COVID-19 last month and have since recovered.

"You can test positive for six months, Im told, after having it," said the triple-vaccinated dad. "So my concern is going down and not actually catching it again, but a test coming back saying positive."

Swire said he went to a government test site in January but was turned away due to backlogs, meaning he has no official record of his previous illness.

Being forced to quarantine in a hotel room is expensive, Swire said. It also prolongs his return to work and his daughters to school.

"(Im) definitely nervous and concerned about how this will play out," he said, adding hes excited to watch his teen cheerlead abroad for the first time in over two years.

The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable  made up of industry leaders such as the heads of the Canada Airports Council and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce  released an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. The lobby group called on Ottawa to unveil a clear timeline on removing travel restrictions for fully-vaccinated travellers and their kids.

CP After two years of dealing with the pandemic, people are starting to travel again. (Jonathan Hayward / The Canadian Press files)

"(This includes) removing unnecessary pre-departure and on-arrival testing and isolation requirements and blanket travel advisories," the letter reads.

The Winnipeg Airports Authority stands with the call, said Tyler MacAfee, the organizations vice-president of communications and government relations.

"Weve reached the point in this where were starting to live with the virus," MacAfee said. "Travels part of that."

The WAA counted 1.2 million passengers last year, down from a pre-pandemic high of 4.5 million. Things will come back, but restrictions need to lift, MacAfee said.

"Travellers are a healthy population, and the people who are working in the industry have all been required to be vaccinated," he said.

CAA Manitoba is already booking destination weddings for 2023, according to regional manager Susan Postma. And, the company is experiencing an uptick in travel to hot spots like Mexico and Hawaii this winter.

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"Planning and preparedness is probably more essential now than it ever has been when travelling," Postma said.

Buying travel insurance is important, she added.

Countries including Denmark, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have scrapped travel restrictions for those who are vaccinated.

Bookings to sunny destinations via Tripcentral.ca have topped 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, according to president Richard Vanderlubbe.

- With files from The Canadian Press

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com
DENVER (AP)  An environmental conservation group and two dozen outdoor recreation companies, including Patagonia, REI and The North Face, announced Monday they would boycott the Outdoor Retailer trade show if it's moved from Denver back to Salt Lake City, accusing Utah's leaders of trying to chip away at protections for national monuments and public lands.

DENVER (AP)  An environmental conservation group and two dozen outdoor recreation companies, including Patagonia, REI and The North Face, announced Monday they would boycott the Outdoor Retailer trade show if it's moved from Denver back to Salt Lake City, accusing Utah's leaders of trying to chip away at protections for national monuments and public lands.

The Conservation Alliance, comprised of more than 270 companies, said in a news release that Emerald X, the publicly traded company that owns Outdoor Retailer, is considering moving the show despite widespread industry objections.

Our position on the location of the Outdoor Retailer trade show remains clear and unchanged: The show belongs in a state whose top officials value and seek to protect public lands," Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Coxs office and Emerald X did not respond to emails seeking comment Monday.

But Cox asked the show last year to return to Salt Lake City, saying the location offered economic benefits for both Utah and outdoor retailers.

Weve missed you for the past several years, and weve made some improvements while youve been away, he said in a video released in October in which he referenced airport renovations and an increase in hotel room capacity.

The outdoors industry took a stand after Utah lawmakers asked President Donald Trump in February 2017 to repeal the newly designated Bears Ears National Monument. Thirty outdoor companies objected, and the Outdoor Retailer show announced it would move from its longtime home in Salt Lake City to Denver.

The following December, Trump reduced the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. Patagonia sued and declared on its website, The President Stole Your Land.

Those protections have since been restored by President Joe Biden, but The Conservation Alliance says Utahs leaders are still trying to undermine the monuments.

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The biannual Outdoor Retailer show, which generates tens of millions of dollars in local economic impact, has dwindled in size in large part because of the pandemic, and Denvers five-year contract with Emerald X expires after this summers show.

Emerald X sent a survey last year to the shows attendees asking about a possible move to several cities, including Salt Lake City, Anaheim, California, Houston, Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, along with Colorado's U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, said Monday the state is a natural home for the show because it is a leader in outdoor recreation and is home to many of the industry's biggest brands.

We take pride in caring for our public lands and supporting our tribes while taking bold climate action and remaining business friendly, the three said in a joint statement. Todays announcement from the outdoor recreation industry and its top leaders underscores that the Outdoor Retailer Show belongs in Colorado.

___

Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting announced Tuesday they have agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012.

FILE  A parent walks away from the Sandy Hook Elementary School with her children following a shooting at the school in Newtown, Conn., Dec. 14, 2012. The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have agreed to a settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012, according to a court filing, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News via AP)

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting announced Tuesday they have agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012.

The case was watched closely by gun control advocates, gun rights supporters and manufacturers, because of its potential to provide a roadmap for victims of other shootings to sue firearm makers.

The families and a survivor of the shooting sued Remington in 2015, saying the company should have never sold such a dangerous weapon to the public. They said their focus was on preventing future mass shootings by forcing gun companies to be more responsible with their products and how they market them.

FILe  Parents leave a staging area after being reunited with their children following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have agreed to a settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012, according to a court filing, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

At a news conference, some of the parents behind the lawsuit described a bittersweet victory.

"Nothing will bring Dylan back," said Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son was killed in the shooting. "My hope for this lawsuit," she said, "is that by facing and finally being penalized for the impact of their work, gun companies along with the insurance and banking industries that enable them will be forced to make their practices safer than theyve ever been, which will save lives and stop more shootings."

Gun rights groups said the settlement will have little effect on rifle sales and gun makers, who continue to be shielded from liability in most cases under federal law. But some experts said it may prompt insurers to pressure gun makers into making some changes.

"We might expect to see increased pressure from insurance companies for gun manufacturers to avoid the kind of either design choices or marketing practices that gave rise to this litigation," said Timothy D. Lytton, a law professor at Georgia State University.

FILE - Firearms training unit Detective Barbara J. Mattson, of the Connecticut State Police, holds up a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, the same make and model of gun used by Adam Lanza in the December 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting, during a hearing of a legislative subcommittee in Hartford, Conn., Jan. 28, 2013. The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School have agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

The settlement is not the first between victims and a gun manufacturer. Families of eight victims of the Washington, D.C.-area snipers won a $2.5 million settlement in 2004, with $550,000 coming from Bushmaster Firearms Inc. and the rest from the gun dealer. But Lytton said the impact of the Sandy Hook settlement could be greater because it is so much higher.

The civil court case in Connecticut focused on how the firearm used by the Newtown shooter  a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle  was marketed, alleging it targeted younger, at-risk males in advertising and product placement in violent video games. In one of Remingtons ads, it features the rifle against a plain backdrop and the phrase: "Consider Your Man Card Reissued."

As part of the settlement, Remington also agreed to allow the families to release numerous documents they obtained during the lawsuit including ones showing how it marketed the weapon, the families said. Its not clear when those documents will be released.

Remington had argued there was no evidence to establish that its marketing had anything to do with the shooting.

An image of the weapon used during the Newtown shooting is displayed while attorney Josh Koskoff speaks during a news conference in Trumbull, Conn., Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012, their attorney said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The company also had said the lawsuit should have been dismissed because of the federal law that gives broad immunity to the gun industry. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Remington could be sued under state law over how it marketed the rifle, under an exception to the federal law. The gun maker appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

Whether similar lawsuits can proceed against gun makers remains unsettled because the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet weighed in on the exception to the 2005 immunity law used by the Sandy Hook families, Lytton said.

Remington, one of the nations oldest gun makers founded in 1816, filed for bankruptcy for a second time in 2020 and its assets were later sold off to several companies. The manufacturer was weighed down by lawsuits and retail sales restrictions following the school shooting.

Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old gunman in the Sandy Hook shooting, used the rifle made by Remington and legally owned by his mother to kill the children and educators on Dec. 14, 2012, after having killed his mother at their Newtown home. He then used a handgun to kill himself as police arrived.

Veronique De La Rosa, mother of Noah Pozner, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, wipes away tears during a news conference in Trumbull, Conn., Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012, their attorney said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Lanzas severe and deteriorating mental health problems, his preoccupation with violence and access to his mothers weapons "proved a recipe for mass murder," according to Connecticuts child advocate.

Messages seeking comment were left for Remington and its lawyers Tuesday.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a Newtown-based group that represents gunmakers, said courts should not have allowed the case to proceed and it believes the plaintiffs would have lost at trial. It also said the settlement should have no effect on the The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, the 2005 federal law that shielded gun makers from liability.

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"The plaintiffs never produced any evidence that Bushmaster advertising had any bearing or influence over Nancy Lanzas decision to legally purchase a Bushmaster rifle, nor on the decision of murderer Adam Lanza to steal that rifle, kill his mother in her sleep, and go on to commit the rest of his horrendous crimes," the group said in a statement.

Damages from the settlement will be paid only to the families who signed onto the lawsuit, and not other victims families. The families have not decided yet what they will be doing with the money from the settlement, said their spokesperson, Andrew Friedman.

Four insurers for the now-bankrupt company agreed to pay the full amount of coverage available, totaling $73 million, the plaintiffs said.

"Today is about what is right and what is wrong," said Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son, Ben, was killed in the shooting. "Our legal system has given us some justice today. But ... David and I will never have true justice. True justice would be our 15-year-old healthy and standing next to us right now. But Benny will never be 15. He will be 6 forever because he is gone forever."

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Associated Press writer Susan Haigh contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate narrowly confirmed President Joe Bidens pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday pushing past a thicket of political controversies that threatened to derail what was initially expected to be an easy confirmation.

FILE - Dr. Robert Califf gathers his documents as the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension adjourn a hearing on the nomination of Califf to be Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Dec. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate narrowly confirmed President Joe Bidens pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday pushing past a thicket of political controversies that threatened to derail what was initially expected to be an easy confirmation.

The 50-46 vote means Dr. Robert Califf, a cardiologist and prominent medical researcher, will again lead the powerful regulatory agency, which he briefly headed during the end of President Barack Obama's administration.

The FDA hasnt had a permanent leader in more than a year despite playing a central role in the COVID-19 response effort, reviewing the vaccines, drugs and tests used to fight the pandemic.

The razor-thin vote underscores the increasing political polarization around the health care issues FDA oversees and contrasts with Califfs overwhelming support just six years ago. The Senate previously confirmed him to the job by a vote of 89-4.

Califf now inherits a raft of decisions pending at the agency, which regulates products that make up an estimated one fifth of all U.S. consumer spending, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, medical devices, tobacco products and most foods.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration is thrilled that the Senate confirmed Califf on a bipartisan basis.

He brings to this critical post a lifetime of knowledge and the institutional experience that will ensure he hits the ground running, she said.

Califfs to-do list includes specific commitments hes made to Senate lawmakers to clinch the job. In particular, he has vowed to quickly launch a comprehensive review of opioid painkillers like OxyContin, which helped trigger the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history after their FDA approval in the 1990s.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., urged senators to oppose Califf, saying he bears a great deal of responsibility for many of the drug overdose deaths that have occurred in the years since his first stint as FDA commissioner. During his 11-month tenure, Califf added new warning labels to opioids and commissioned outside recommendations on how to tighten regulation of the drugs. But he was replaced by President Donald Trump before implementing any major changes.

Nothing that Dr. Califf has said or done has led me to believe he will operate the FDA any differently than he did during his previous tenure, said Manchin, whose home state has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic for nearly 30 years. Four other lawmakers from hard-hit blue states also voted against Califf.

The White House long assumed enough Republicans would support Califf to easily overcome any Democratic defections, given his strong support from pharmaceutical companies and patient groups.

But anti-abortion advocates recently launched a campaign to sink his Senate vote, outraged by a recent FDA decision that eased access to abortion pills. Groups including the Susan B. Anthony List and Students for Life of America threatened to pull support from any Republican senators supporting Califf.

In the end, six Republicans joined with all but five Democrats in voting to confirm Califf. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., advocated for Califf on the Senate floor, saying that he had not seen someone with such a short previous stint at the FDA who accomplished anything, much less the many negatives that have been raised."

He has the robust agency and private sector experience needed to help build on the success of the FDA in helping Americans get back to normal life with the approval of tests, vaccines and therapeutics that are bringing the pandemic to an end," Burr added. He's the leader we need today, but also for the future."

Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDAs longtime drug center director, had been serving as acting commissioner since last January. She announced Tuesday via Twitter that she would continue working at the agency as a principal deputy commissioner.

More than a year after authorizing the first COVID-19 vaccines, the FDA still faces several key decisions, including whether to expand their use to children younger than 5. Last week the FDA unexpectedly delayed its timeline for reviewing Pfizers vaccine for that age group.

FDA commissioners arent typically involved in day-to-day scientific reviews, but they serve as the go-between for the agencys scientists and the White House. That relationship has strained over the past year as Bidens COVID-19 task force has repeatedly gotten out ahead of the FDAs methodical, scientific reviews.

Califf will also need to replace the head of the FDAs tobacco center, which is weighing whether to ban e-cigarettes from Juul, Reynolds American and other vaping companies due to their use by teens. FDA tobaccos longtime director, Mitch Zeller, is set to retire this spring.

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The FDA is also crafting new regulations to ban menthol cigarettes, a long-sought goal for many Democratic lawmakers and public health advocates.

Califf has publicly championed the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives by embracing FDAs authority to ban certain tobacco products and ingredients. Though the FDA has had those powers for more than a decade, its efforts to regulate both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes have been stymied by industry lawsuits.

Califf first came to the FDA after more than 35 years at Duke University, where he founded a contract research organization that conducts studies for many of the worlds largest drugmakers.

Since leaving government he has worked as a health policy adviser for Google and served as a board director or adviser to more than a half-dozen drug and biotech companies. In keeping with federal procedure, Califf agreed to resign from all of those positions and sell off investments in FDA-regulated companies, according to his ethics disclosures form.

___

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TORONTO - Tim Hortons says its popular Iced Capp beverage will be available again later this week after a supply problem briefly pulled the frozen coffee drink from some restaurants.

People walk past a newly-renovated Tim Hortons in Toronto, Thursday, July 25, 2019. Tim Hortons says its popular Iced Capp beverage will be available later this week after a supply disruption briefly pulled the frozen coffee drink from some restaurants. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO - Tim Hortons says its popular Iced Capp beverage will be available again later this week after a supply problem briefly pulled the frozen coffee drink from some restaurants.

Duncan Fulton, chief corporate officer of the chain's parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc., says a batch of the company's Iced Capp mix had a "different flavour profile than our standards."

Multiple people on social media said the cold cappuccino had a peanut butter-like flavour, but Fulton said the batch in question contained no traces of peanuts and there is no recall in place.

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He says Tim Hortons has asked its supplier to rush replacement mix to the coffee and doughnut shop.

Fulton says the restaurant expects to have the new mix in hand to resolve the supply disruption this week.

Tim Hortons describes the Iced Capp as the "ultimate Canadian drink of summer" but many customers took to social media to complain of the mid-winter shortage of the coffee drink.

"We had a minor supply disruption with Iced Capps," Fulton said in an interview. "We should be back up and fully running by mid to end of this week."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:QSR, TSX:QSP)
Look at the walls in the small spare-bedroom-turned-office in our house and youll see something of a shrine to Grandpa Cal Andrist.

How fortunate for me that there was good photography back in the 1920s and beyond.

One favorite photo shows Grandpa Cal setting type in the print shop at the Noonan Miner circa 1915. Next to it, a photo from the early 1920s shows Grandpa watching over his partner at the Divide County Journal in Crosby, Nansen Henderson, who is running a mechanical typsetting machine called an Intertype, a cousin of the more famous Linotype.

In another photo, someone with really good eyes and a magnifying glass can see 1927 on a calendar hanging on a wall behind the Intertype machine, now being operated by an employee under the watchful eyes of Grandpa and Jim Henderson. Jim spent more than 40 years at the Journal, first working for Grandpa and then for John, my dad.

As a kid, my Saturday morning chore was to sweep Jims King Edward cigar butts, along with various other residue from a weeks worth of typesetting and printing, from the concrete floor of the print shop. Some of the same equipment still stands on the same concrete in the back of todays Journal office.

Beneath the photo of grandpa and Jim is a framed copy of letterhead from the Noonan Miner promoting A Live Weekly Newspaper Published In a Live Town and offers a mailing address of, simply, Noonan, N.D.

Among my favorites are a snapshot of me, at about age 6, standing next to Grandpa looking out over the waters of Boundary Dam near Estevan, Saskatchewan, and a portrait of Cal taken around 1973 while he was a guest presenter at the University of North Dakota.

Theres also a panoramic view of Co. C. 2nd No. Dak. Infantry, featuring grandpa and about 100 other Divide County men, in dress uniform, just before shipping out for service in World War I, and the portrait that hung in the Crosby American Legion club starting in 1931, when he was commander of the post.

These photos are daily reminders of why, some 14 months into retirement and 47 years after Grandpa wrote his last obit, I am still drawn to working on behalf of newspapers.

Its no secret that newspapers are in a second wave of decline.

The first wave came during Grandpas time, when every town had its own newspaper, providing a glue that held communities together by keeping residents apprised of comings and goings, local issues and activities, and critical information about commerce.

In those years there were at least six newspapers in Divide County, one of the states most rural and least populated. There were several others in neighboring counties. Cal was just 16 when he got his first newspaper job, a winter tide-me-over engagement at the Kermit News. Eventually, his boss there sent him to Larson to open the Larson Leader, but called him and the printing equipment back to Kermit just a year later after a fire destroyed the News office and its contents.

He then spent a number of years at the Noonan Miner and Ambrose Newsman before partnering with Nansen Henderson to purchase the Divide County Journal in Crosby. For years the Journal and the Divide County Farmers Press, the Nonpartisan League paper in Crosby, were fierce competitors. Cal won the battle, purchasing the remnants of the Farmers Press after it closed in 1946.

Beginning in the 1950s, my dad presided over the family business during the golden age of North Dakota newspapers, and I got in on the tail end of it before the newfangled digital age ushered in the second wave of newspaper decline, which continues today.

Similar to Mark Twain, though, the reports of the industrys death have been greatly exaggerated.

Certainly its more difficult these days to make a living running newspapers. Digital platforms from Google to Facebook to Amazon have siphoned off huge portions of the revenue that once supported newspapers, but they have not replaced what newspapers do -- journalism.

To the contrary, digital platforms have made journalism all the more important to communities and societies, because so much information you find online does not conform to journalistic principles. In fact, much of it involves misinformation, and worse, disinformation.

As a result, too many of us are tempted to rely on special interest platforms that reinforce what we already believe.

Agree or disagree with the commentary found on newspaper opinion pages, but also understand that their bread and butter remains the news, where we find out about a neighbor recovering from a transplant, who won the big game and whats happening with our local taxes.

A group of citizens from media, banking, business and higher education has recently formed the nonprofit North Dakota News Cooperative aimed at ensuring that the journalism long found in newspapers competes with online echo chambers, just as The Divide County Journal competed with the Divide County Farmers Press.

Im confident Grandpa Cal would approve.

Steve Andrist, Bismarck, is co-chair of the North Dakota News Cooperative and former executive director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association.

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WASHINGTON - Joe Biden's administration had two different and seemingly disparate international crises on its hands Friday when Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, strode to the podium in the White House briefing room.

Protesters block traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, linking Windsor, Ontario and Detroit on Wednesday, February 9, 2022. The demonstration in solidarity with protests in Ottawa against COVID-19 restrictions blocked traffic into Canada on the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor and Detroit. It is the single busiest commercial crossing in North America. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne

WASHINGTON - Joe Biden's administration had two different and seemingly disparate international crises on its hands Friday when Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, strode to the podium in the White House briefing room.

Sullivan's message was chilling: If Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to invade Ukraine, he said, it could happen before the end of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, which are scheduled to wrap up this coming Sunday.

At the same time, the White House had grown worried enough about the COVID-19 protests blocking vital commercial trade corridors at the Canada-U.S. border that it urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take a harder line.

Experts in both countries are wondering if the two situations have more in common than an initial glance might suggest.

Bessma Momani, a political-science professor at the University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said she sees earmarks of Russia's foreign interference techniques in the social-media maelstrom surrounding the protests in Canada.

"The Russian strategy has always been about divide, right? Sow dissent from within," Momani said in an interview Monday.

The goal, she said, is to feed and foster the narrative  already well on its way in the U.S., but less so in Canada  that western-style democracies are prone to instability, insecurity and social upheaval.

"They picked up on this idea of culture wars and identity politics being yet another demonstration that democracy doesn't work. And so it really is part of their strategy."

Online news startup Grid reported last week that a single, stolen account was responsible for administering four of the most prominent Facebook groups at the centre of organizing and promoting the protests, which have entered their third week.

And NBC News has reported that the protests, originally branded as a "trucker convoy" comprising drivers angry at being forced to get vaccinated against COVID-19, were being promoted by fake accounts connected to so-called "content mills" in Bangladesh, Romania, Vietnam and elsewhere.

The protests have also raised staggering sums of money  nearly US$20 million at last count, much of it from the U.S., in two separate crowdfunding campaigns online. The website GoFundMe shut down the original campaign near the US$7.8 million mark, while an Ontario judge has frozen roughly US$10 million in donations raised in a subsequent campaign on the Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo.

On Monday, the federal government in Ottawa invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in its history, giving banks the power to suspend or freeze accounts without a court order, and force crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies to follow anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said companies with trucks involved in the illegal blockades face having their corporate bank accounts frozen, and their insurance suspended.

Momani said she suspects Canada's global reputation as a stable liberal democracy in proximity to the U.S. has made it a tempting target for Russian hackers. She added the ensuing pandemonium has also provided Putin with a welcome distraction as he continues to amass troops, equipment and weapons near the Ukrainian border.

"If they were not patient zero behind this, they certainly helped add oxygen because the timing was appropriate for them," she said.

"It's going to be hard to pinpoint it, to completely say it's all Russian intervention, but I have absolutely no doubt that they have their hand in this in some way."

Neither Sullivan nor Pentagon spokesman John Kirby have disclosed any details of the intelligence that prompted the U.S. to suddenly warn of an accelerated timeline. Before Friday, conventional wisdom held that Putin would wait until after the Olympics to avoid upstaging China, an important ally.

Kirby told a Pentagon briefing Monday that Russia's military might along the border with Ukraine has only grown over the weekend, fuelling fears that an invasion could come any day.

And he said the U.S. is keeping a close eye out for any Russian cyberactivity that could be aimed at creating a phoney excuse to invade.

"It's one of the reasons why we've tried to be open over the last week and a half, two weeks about the potential for these kinds of  non-kinetic tactics and procedures used by the Russians," Kirby said.

Such tactics could "sow the seeds for potential armed conflict, (including) creating some sort of pretext that the Ukrainians would react to that then (Russia) could claim was a threat to their national security."

John Weaver, a professor of intelligence analysis at the York College of Pennsylvania, said it's difficult to determine with any precision if Russia has been involved in sparking the social unrest on display in Canada.

But the fact that Canada is a prominent U.S. ally and trading partner, a G7 nation, a NATO member and part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network would make it a perfectly viable target, Weaver said.

"I believe it's highly probable that they have some skin in this fight, but the degree to which that they do, I just don't know," he said.

"I wouldn't put it beyond the realm of the possible that there's an intention to try to incite things to draw people's attention away from things going on in eastern Europe."

Not everyone is as convinced.

The protests are less the product of foreign interference than of a potent combination of social media's raw power and the spread of right-wing populism around the world, said Ethan Porter, a public affairs professor who leads the Misinformation/Disinformation Lab at George Washington University's Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics.

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"Just as a matter of precedent, it would be extraordinary for the Russians to have played a meaningful role in actually pulling this off," said Porter. Their amateurish interference in the 2016 U.S. election ultimately had limited impact, he added.

"Itd be really surprising and stunning if there was sort of a meaningful role for the Russians or other outside actors in this."

That said, they could nonetheless still provide a useful distraction for a "chaos agent" like Putin, he added.

"He can't win militarily or economically, so he can win by sort of playing the Joker in the global world order, doing whatever he can to destabilize his opponents, or those he considers his adversaries," Porter said.

"The way in which those interventions cause all of us to distrust and sometimes dismiss our fellow citizens  I think that's actually been the most successful part of this campaign, from Putin's perspective. It doesn't have to work itself, but it can cause everyone to sort of wonder, 'Hmm, what's going on here.'"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.
OTTAWA - Canada will provide a $500-million loan and $7.8 million worth of lethal equipment and ammunition to Ukraine as the threat of a Russian invasion grows, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.

The National Guard soldiers take part in tactical exercises, which are conducted by the Ukrainian National Guard, Armed Forces, special operations units and simulate a crisis situation in an urban settlement, in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will provide a $500-million loan and $7.8 million worth of lethal equipment and ammunition to Ukraine as the threat of a Russian invasion grows.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Mykola Tymchenko

OTTAWA - Canada will provide a $500-million loan and $7.8 million worth of lethal equipment and ammunition to Ukraine as the threat of a Russian invasion grows, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.

He said the pledge is on top of a previously announced $120-million loan and non-lethal weapons that Canada has already provided to Ukraine.

The prime minister said he spoke on Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reaffirm Canada's support as Russian troops stalk Ukraine's eastern border.

Trudeau also spoke with other European leaders over the weekend as worries of war in the region grow.

The prime minister said the lethal weapons and ammunition are in response to a specific request from Ukraine, which has already received arms from the United States, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Poland.

Trudeau said the goal of the support is to deter further Russian aggression.

"The situation is intensifying rapidly and we are showing our resolve," Trudeau told a news conference on Parliament Hill.

"It's important for Canadians and the world to know that Canada will continue supporting Ukraine and its independence, integrity (and) sovereignty, including its right to defend itself."

Alexandra Chyczij, national president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, praised the announcement, saying the decision to send arms marks a "major policy shift" that places Canada in line with coalition of democracies helping Ukraine. Chyczij added that the loan would help counter Russian efforts to destabilize the Ukrainian economy.

"In this extraordinarily difficult time for Ukraine, Canada has shown again that it is a true friend Ukraine and the Ukrainian people," Chyczij said.

On Sunday, the Defence Department announced the military is moving troops out of Ukraine in one of the strongest signals yet that a Russian invasion was imminent.

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The department said soldiers who have been in Ukraine as part of a training mission are being temporarily relocated to elsewhere in Europe.

The department wouldn't say where the soldiers have gone, or how many of them have been moved, for security reasons.

The federal government has also closed its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has urged any Canadians remaining in the country to leave now.

Earlier Monday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland joined her G7 counterparts in warning Russia that any military action against Ukraine would result in sanctions that would "have massive and immediate consequences on the Russian economy."

The federal government has imposed sanctions on 440 Russian individuals since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.
Ottawa's police chief abruptly resigned Tuesday, while the Mounties and Ontario Provincial Police worked closely with the local force on a plan to end a chaotic antigovernment protest paralyzing the downtown core.

Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly speaks at a news conference on updated enforcement measures as a protest against COVID-19 restrictions continues into its second week, in Ottawa, on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Ottawa's police chief abruptly resigned Tuesday, while the Mounties and Ontario Provincial Police worked closely with the local force on a plan to end a chaotic antigovernment protest paralyzing the downtown core.

Ottawa Coun. Diane Deans, chair of the police services board, said in a written statement Tuesday that the "priority is to ensure a plan is put in place to bring about a peaceful end put to the occupation of our city, as expeditiously as possible."

She said the board and police Chief Peter Sloly had "reached a mutually agreed upon separation," thanked him for his service and said there would be no further comment because "this is a labour relations matter."

Steve Bell, the deputy police chief, becomes interim chief of the force, which is under intense pressure to do more to evict the protesters and their large trucks.

Earlier Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino pointed to an integrated command centre set up over the weekend that so that the RCMP and provincial officers could work with the Ottawa police to respond to more demonstrators flowing into Canada's capital city.

Mendicino said the federal government is focused on ensuring the Ottawa police, as well as the RCMP and OPP, have all the tools necessary to restore order in the city.

"I know that they're working day and night to be sure that there is an operation that will be put into effect to restore public order," Mendicino said.

"It isn't easy. The illegal blockade has now become entrenched in the downtown core over the last three weeks."

Authorities are figuring out how best to use new powers  granted through the Emergencies Act, invoked Monday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  to help remove scores of protest trucks clogging the city's downtown.

The Ottawa police have been criticized for their response to the protest that has sparked a highly critical backlash from residents fed up with what many call an occupation.

Some protesters have harassed residents for wearing masks, flown Nazi and Confederate flags and honked their truck horns incessantly, though an injunction has helped quell the noise to some extent.

Many Ottawa residents and city councillors have expressed dismay at the local police force's seeming reluctance to enforce laws and maintain order downtown.

Officers have been frustrated by the lack of direction as well, said Ottawa Police Association president Matt Skof.

He said there were long-standing personality conflicts between the chief and his membership, but he believes that has little to do with the police response to the demonstration.

He said the middle of the conflict is not the time to point the finger about who is responsible for how the demonstration has played out but, when that time comes, the police board should also take responsibility.

"There is a vacuum of leadership," Skof said in response to Sloly's departure. "When there's an instability presented to them, members will have feelings of anxiousness."

Deans said during a police services board meeting Tuesday that last week the Ottawa force sent a clear message to the occupiers to expect a strong police response to illegal activity.

On the weekend, however, there were more street parties and a stage with a big screen as well as a sound system, hot tub and outdoor gym, Deans said.

"Today we have more trucks lined up on Parliament Hill than we had yesterday. Like other residents in Ottawa, I have watched in disbelief as this carnival of chaos has been allowed to continue," she added.

"While I appreciate that resource constraints have been a big limitation. It's both puzzling and frustrating that the (Ottawa police have) been unable to do more with the current resources."

Bell acknowledged the "tremendous stress" on the community, telling the meeting a plan was being refined to conclude the lengthy protest, though he declined to provide details in a public forum.

"I believe we now have the resources and partners to bring a safe end to this occupation," he said.

"Everybody wants the same thing: these people need to leave."

Coun. Carol Anne Meehan expressed frustration at instances of friendly officers "yukking it up" with protesters on city streets.

Bell tried to assure her there is no place in the police service for officers who support illegal demonstrators.

Sloly became chief of the Ottawa Police Service in 2019 after previously serving on the Toronto force for decades, including as deputy chief.

In a statement, Sloly said he was stepping down with a heavy heart, adding he had done everything possible to keep Ottawa safe and "put an end to this unprecedented and unforeseeable crisis."

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said he supported the police board's decision to accept Sloly's resignation.

It had become clear that many members of the board, city council and the general public "were not satisfied with the response of the police in bringing the occupation to an end," Watson said.

A city council meeting slated for Tuesday was bumped to Wednesday to allow local politicians to receive a more comprehensive update.

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In addition, the city said, the federal move to invoke the Emergencies Act requires more work and analysis to provide council and the public with a better understanding of the tools now available.

On Monday, upon announcing use of the emergencies law, Trudeau said that despite the best efforts of police, it's clear there are "serious challenges" to officers' ability to enforce the law.

Declaring a public order emergency allows authorities to zero in on the crowdfunding of protests, ensure services such as towing are available and have the RCMP enforce municipal bylaws.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

 With files from Laura Osman

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police had taken control of enforcement in Ottawa.
OTTAWA - Bringing children to the antigovernment blockades that have immobilized downtown Ottawa and shuttered border crossings is among the activities that could net protesters a fine of up to $5,000 or five years in prison while Canada is under the national Emergencies Act.

A protester yells freedom towards a person who attempted to stick a paper sign on a truck criticizing the so called Freedom Convoy, a protest against COVID-19 measures that has grown into a broader anti-government protest, on its 18th day, in Ottawa, on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA - Bringing children to the antigovernment blockades that have immobilized downtown Ottawa and shuttered border crossings is among the activities that could net protesters a fine of up to $5,000 or five years in prison while Canada is under the national Emergencies Act.

The same punishment would apply to anyone violating any of the new rules, such as participating in the protests directly, or bringing aid such as food or fuel to those involved, according to regulations published Tuesday night that spell out the temporary but extraordinary powers that flow through the act.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the act on Monday for the first time in Canadian history.

Attorney General David Lametti said Tuesday the decision to use the act was not taken lightly.

"Nobody wants to be the attorney general that has to invoke the Emergencies Act," Lametti said in an interview Tuesday morning.

"But I have a responsibility to Canadians to do this. I have a responsibility to the rule of law and to good government. We can't allow our democratic system to be hijacked by shows of force. That's what happens in some other places in the world that we're highly critical about."

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said at a news conference Tuesday in Ottawa that the blockades are "driven by an ideology to overthrow the government" and there are elements within them that pose a serious threat to safety.

He pointed to the seizure Monday of multiple weapons and the arrest of 13 individuals at the blockade near the border in Coutts, Alta. Mendicino said that should be a wake-up call to Canadians about "what it is that we are precisely dealing with here."

Details of the regulations contained in two cabinet orders were published Tuesday night, hours after officials from the Justice and Finance Departments, as well as the RCMP, provided a technical briefing to the media on the condition they not be named.

Ottawa police have said repeatedly the presence of children was making it difficult for officers to enforce the law, fearing any clashes with protesters could put the kids at risk. Last week, police said they believed about 100 children were living in trucks and RVs around Parliament Hill. The new rules prohibit anyone from even causing a minor to travel within 500 metres of where an assembly deemed to be unlawful is taking place. There are exemptions for those who live or work in the area or are there for other reasons besides taking part in a protest.

The regulations also list the places blockades are not allowed, including Parliament Hill and the streets around it known as the parliamentary precinct where many federal buildings are found. Hundreds of vehicles have blocked roads there for more than two weeks.

Official residences, such as Rideau Hall, and government and defence buildings are on the list. So are war monuments, such as the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa that was desecrated the first weekend convoy protesters started occupying the streets.

They also apply to airports, harbours, border crossings, piers, lighthouses, canals, interprovincial and international bridges, hospitals and COVID-19 vaccine clinics, trade corridors and infrastructure needed for the supply of utilities including power generation and transmission.

An order on emergency economic measures gives special powers to police, banks and insurance companies to freeze accounts and cancel vehicle insurance belonging to people participating in what the orders deem to be "illegal assemblies."

Towing companies are being designated as essential and must either help police remove vehicles from the blockades when asked, or police could seize their tow trucks to remove the vehicles themselves. The order says anyone asked to provide essential goods and services through the Emergencies Act will be compensated at market prices.

Police in Ottawa and Windsor, Ont., say towing operators refused their requests, fearing reprisals from trucking companies that provide a lot of their business. Windsor police turned to American towing companies to remove vehicles from the Ambassador Bridge border crossing on the weekend.

The cabinet order invoking the Emergencies Act was published Tuesday morning. It says the government needs temporary but extraordinary powers to end blockades because they are threatening Canada's supply chains, economic security and trading relationships in a bid to achieve political or ideological goals.

That order, and the ones that identify and describe the new but temporary powers, are now in effect but must all be confirmed by motions to be put to both the House of Commons and the Senate for a vote.

The government could take until next week to table the motion invoking the act itself, but has only until Thursday to do so for the motions on the specific powers being enacted.

They will remain in place for 30 days unless the government revokes them sooner.

Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen warned the government Tuesday not to wait too long, because next week the House is on a break. That could mean Parliament would not debate the use of the Emergencies Act for more than two weeks after it was invoked.

"Twenty-four hours in and there are more questions than answers," Bergen said in the House of Commons. "Questions about whether this is justified, questions around if the criteria is met, and questions around what this means to Canadians' rights and freedoms."

The NDP are indicating likely support for the motion, but Edmonton MP Blake Desjarlais said his party would hold the government to account over the use of unprecedented powers. He warned against "overreach that could harm Canadians," saying "Canadians should rightfully be questioning the limits of authority."

On Tuesday, it appeared only the blockade in Ottawa was digging in, nearly three weeks after the first big rigs rolled into town. Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill was still crammed with commercial trucks, RVs and other vehicles. Many were flying Canada flags or banners with the word "freedom" in giant letters along their front grilles.

Jack Van Rootselaar, a trucker from Dunnville, Ont., sat in his white big rig in front of Parliament Hill Tuesday and dismissed the use of the Emergencies Act as a scare tactic. He said the truckers planned to stay until all vaccine mandates are lifted.

"We are not scared," he said.

While access to funds raised online was already proving difficult, people were spotted handing out cash  including $50 bills  and hot food to truckers through their cab windows.

Joseph Michel, a former federal contractor from the National Capital Region who was collecting money to help pay for food and fuel for truckers, said it was concerning that the government would go to such lengths.

"People have families," he said. "We are prisoners in our own country right now."

Three of the four major blockades at border crossings are now over. Police cleared the standoff at the Ambassador Bridge on Sunday, arresting 42 people and seizing 32 vehicles. Most of those arrested were charged with mischief and some with disobeying a court order, related to the injunction granted Friday by an Ontario judge.

The remaining convoy participants at the border near Coutts, Alta., pulled out Tuesday morning, a day after the RCMP raid and weapons seizure. And RCMP in Surrey, B.C., reported that border crossing reopened after demonstrators were ordered to leave Monday. The police said arrests had been made but did not say how many.

A blockade continues at the border in Emerson, Man., but RCMP in Manitoba said Tuesday they expected it would be over Wednesday. Chief Supt. Rob Hill said in a statement that officers are confident that a resolution has been reached and demonstrators will soon be leaving the area.

While many people involved in the various blockades say they are there to demand an end to all COVID-19 restrictions, some, including many of the most vocal organizers, want the Liberal government overthrown.

Lametti said a protest is no longer a protest when it is an ideologically motivated occupation endangering the lives of Canadians and the economy.

"You do have a right to protest, and you have a right to throw the government out the next time there's an election," he said. "That's the way our democratic system works. What a certain core group of people want on this is to get rid of a government through violence and harassment and by occupation. That's not our democratic system."

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The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said Monday it did not believe the government had met the "high and clear" threshold needed to invoke the Emergencies Act.

Executive director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv warns that normalizing emergency legislation "threatens our democracy and our civil liberties."

Perrin Beatty, the CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, was the minister of defence who introduced the Emergencies Act in 1988 to replace the War Measures Act. He said that the government's use of the act is an indication of how serious a threat the blockades are to public safety and the economy.

"When I brought in the Emergencies Act 35 years ago, I wished that it would never need to be used, but I knew that there would inevitably be future crises and that it was essential to protect the basic rights of Canadians even in an emergency," Beatty said in a tweet.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

 With files from Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg, Colette Derworiz in Edmonton and Beth Leighton in Vancouver.
OTTAWA - A transparency group says it has received information on donors to antigovernment protests after a major fundraising platform was reportedly hacked, and an analysis of the data suggests Canadians contributed the largest amount of money to the cause.

Truck drivers and others protest COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in Ottawa on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. Donor information from an alleged hack on a major 'Freedom Convoy' fundraising platform suggests significant Canadian involvement despite much publicized involvement from the United States. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP -Ted Shaffrey

OTTAWA - A transparency group says it has received information on donors to antigovernment protests after a major fundraising platform was reportedly hacked, and an analysis of the data suggests Canadians contributed the largest amount of money to the cause.

Distributed Denial of Secrets, which has a history of obtaining leaked information from right-wing organizations and providing it to media, says it has received over 30 megabytes of donor information from Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo.

The group provided a data set to The Canadian Press and it suggests significant Canadian involvement on top of much-publicized money flowing from the United States.

More than 36,000 donations, or 39 per cent, came from Canada, while 56 per cent came from the United States. Two per cent came from the United Kingdom and the remaining three per cent came from more than 100 other countries.

There were more than 92,000 listed donations in total.

The data shows that Canadians donated the largest amount of money at US$4.31 million. American donors sent US$3.62 million and British donors gave US$77,000.

The Canadian Press also analyzed donations by the first three digits of Canadian postal codes, known as forward sortation areas (FSAs), which showed that Kelowna, B.C., Carleton Place, Ont., northwestern Alberta, Calgary, and Kitchener, Ont. had the highest donation counts.

The data set shows names, email addresses, zip codes and internet protocol addresses.

On Sunday night, a Daily Dot reporter said on Twitter that GiveSendGo was redirecting to another site. On that site, a video from the Disney film "Frozen" played with a manifesto that condemned the fundraising site for its role in financing the convoy.

On Monday, visitors to GiveSendGo's website were shown a message that said the site was off-line for maintenance and server upgrades, and asked users to check back later.

GiveSendGo did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday that were sent by email, Twitter and LinkedIn. The Canadian Press has not independently verified the hack or the leak.

One donor listed on the data set confirmed that he donated to the campaign.

Brad Howland was listed as the third-highest donor, giving US$75,000. He said in a written statement Monday that he supports the convoy. Howland is president of Easy-Kleen Pressure Systems in Sussex Corner, N.B.

"We are thankful to be blessed enough to support their efforts to do what they have to do in a peaceful way until the government removes the mandates to restore all our freedom as pre-COVID," he said of the protesters.

Another listed major donor was Holden Rhodes, a businessman and lawyer living in London, Ont. He confirmed that he did donate US$20,000.

"I am not prepared to accept a country without freedom for my family, my children, my friends, my neighbours and every other Canadian. That is why I am doing what I am doing," Rhodes said in an email Monday.

The convoy has been described as a protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, but key organizers had been pushing for an end to all pandemic-related restrictions before the federal government announced those rules.

The demonstrations are now shown to be part of a catch-all movement opposed to all public health restrictions and some participants, including organizers, have called for the overthrow of democratically elected governments.

On Monday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the federal government is broadening the scope of anti-money laundering rules to cover crowdfunding sites.

They will now need to report to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac), which she said will allow more information to be made available to police and other enforcement agencies.

Last week, the Ontario government successfully petitioned a court to freeze access to millions of dollars donated through GiveSendGo to the convoy protesting COVID-19 restrictions in Ottawa and at several border crossings.

The province obtained an order from the province's Superior Court of Justice that prohibits anyone from distributing donations made through the website's "Freedom Convoy 2022" and "Adopt-a-Trucker" campaign pages.

GiveSendGo said on Twitter on Saturday that "the funds from the Freedom Convoy are not frozen" and that the site is working with different campaign organizers to find the most effective legal ways to continue moving funds.

Earlier Monday, members of Parliament on the foreign affairs committee voted down a proposal from the NDP to invite U.S. Ambassador David Cohen to testify about American donations flowing to the protesters in the convoy.

New Democrat Heather McPherson argued the committee was the place to probe concerns about foreign interference in the protest movement, which she labelled a national emergency that has dragged on due to a lack of leadership.

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Liberal Rob Oliphant, who serves as parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, said it made little sense to summon Cohen since the question of funding wasnt a state-to-state issue.

Conservatives on the committee agreed and joined the Liberals in a 9-2 vote against calling Cohen.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.

 With files from Jordan Press

---

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
HALIFAX - Search and rescue teams were expected to continue operating overnight after 10 members of a Spanish fishing boat died and 11 were missing in the icy waters of the North Atlantic east of Newfoundland.

A Royal Canadian Air Force Cormorant helicopter from 103 Search and Rescue Squadron based at 9 Wing Gander takes off from the airport in Deer Lake, N.L. on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. A Canadian rescue ship and aircraft are involved in the search for a Spanish fishing vessel that sank off Newfoundland with the loss of at least four crew members. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - Search and rescue teams were expected to continue operating overnight after 10 members of a Spanish fishing boat died and 11 were missing in the icy waters of the North Atlantic east of Newfoundland.

The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax updated the number of dead Tuesday night after three more bodies were recovered from the sunken vessel.

"Our thoughts go out to all the families of this crew," the centre said on Twitter.

The search was to continue in the area 460 kilometres east of St. John's, Lt.-Cmdr. Brian Owens, a spokesman for the centre in Halifax, said in an interview.

"One of the advantages overnight is you can potentially spot flares or strobe lights," Owens said.

Three survivors were located in a life raft by another Spanish fishing boat in the area since the first distress signal was received just after midnight Tuesday.

Owens said it wasn't known whether the survivors would be taken to St. John's or back to Spain. He had no word on their condition.

Earlier in the day, he said a debris field had been located in the North Atlantic.

"It has allowed us to focus our efforts  and centralize our search," Owens said, adding that some life-jackets, fishing equipment, gear and an empty life-raft were found at the site.

Owens said the search teams were battling difficult sea conditions, adding that the region was experiencing 74-kilometre-per-hour winds and sea swells of 5.5 metres. "The visibility has decreased with fog so it is making it a little bit challenging on the water."

Conditions in that area of the North Atlantic, however, can be much worse, he said.

"Personally, I've seen 10- to 15-metre swells," he said. "Five- to five-and-a-half (metres) is still a bit of a rough ride, depending on the type of vessel you are in. The Spanish fishing vessels that are assisting in this search are designed for this weather."

Owens said three Cormorant helicopters were rotating in and out of the area and flying from St. John's to the Hibernia offshore oilfield and then out to the search site. He said a provincial airlines aircraft and a C130 Hercules out of Greenwood, N.S., were flying overhead doing sensor sweeps.

The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Cygnus was on route to the debris site, he said, where "a number" of Spanish fishing ships have been assisting.

Owens was unable to confirm the name of the missing ship, but authorities in Spain have said the 50-metre vessel Villa de Pitanxo sank at about 1 a.m. Eastern Time in rough seas. Spanish authorities said the ship operates out of Spain's northwestern Galicia region.

The news was a tragic blow to the port town of Marin in northwestern Galicia, where many make their living from the sea. Marin Mayor Maria Ramallo said the sinking of the boat was the biggest tragedy on record for the community.

"We can't remember anything worse than this,'' Ramallo told Spain's state news agency, EFE.

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Those rescued were in one of the vessel's four lifeboats, while two other lifeboats were found empty and the fourth was unaccounted for.

Spanish officials said the sunken vessel's crew included 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three workers from Ghana. The owner of the fishing boat, Grupo Nores, wasn't immediately available for comment.

In a statement, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said that he spoke with Spain's ambassador to Canada, Alfredo Martinez, to convey condolences on behalf of the people of his province.

"Like the people of Spain, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have a historic attachment to the sea," he said. "An attachment that is fruitful, but which all too often results in tragedy."

The premier expressed hope that more of the crew would be found alive. "Our thoughts are with the families of the crew members and we share their grief."

The sinking comes on the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the Ocean Ranger oil rig on Newfoundland's Grand Banks, about 315 kilometres east of St. John's, on Feb. 15, 1982. The rig was demolished by high winds and massive waves, which led to the deaths of 84 men.
The latest developments on ongoing protests against COVID-19 restrictions and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, in Ottawa and various locations across Canada, on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. All times eastern:

The latest developments on ongoing protests against COVID-19 restrictions and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, in Ottawa and various locations across Canada, on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. All times eastern:

8 p.m.

Bringing children to the blockades that have immobilized downtown Ottawa and shuttered border crossings could net protesters a $5,000 fine or five years in prison while Canada is under the national Emergencies Act.

So could participating in the blockades or bringing aid, such as food or fuel, to people involved.

Federal government and RCMP officials provided reporters with the details at a briefing provided on the condition they not be named.

Officials say the details will be published in two cabinet orders that will enact temporary but extraordinary powers under the Emergencies Act.

They say the orders will list the places blockades are not allowed, including Parliament Hill and the streets around it known as the parliamentary precinct, where many federal buildings are found.

The orders will also apply to airports, harbours, border crossings, piers, lighthouses, canals, interprovincial and international bridges, hospitals, trade corridors and infrastructure needed for the supply of utilities including power generation and transmission.

Officials say one order will give special powers to police, banks and insurance companies to freeze accounts and cancel vehicle insurance belonging to people participating in "illegal assemblies."



6:30 p.m.

Ottawa Police Association president Matt Skof says officers have been frustrated with a lack of direction on protests that have seized the downtown core.

Skof made the remarks after police Chief Peter Sloly abruptly resigned today.

Skof says there were long-standing personality conflicts between the chief and his membership, but he believes that has little to do with the police response to the demonstration.

He says the middle of the conflict is not the time to point the finger about who is responsible for how the demonstration has played out but, when that time comes, the police board should also take responsibility.

He says there is a "vacuum of leadership" and members are likely feeling anxious about the instability.



5 p.m.

NDP MP Heather McPherson says there needs to be "a very serious conversation about policing in our country" following the policing of anti-vaccine mandate protests.

Speaking at a virtual news conference, the MP says she's concerned that environmental and Indigenous protests have been policed more heavily than these demonstrations.

Fellow NDP MP Blake Desjarlais adds although the New Democrats support invoking the Emergencies Act, there are "reasonable limits" and the party would hold the government to account over use of these unprecedented powers.

He warned against "overreach that could harm Canadians," saying "Canadians should rightfully be questioning the limits of authority."



3:45 p.m.

Manitoba RCMP say they expect protesters blockading access to the Canada-U.S. border in that province will be gone as of tomorrow.

Chief Supt. Rob Hill says in a statement officers are confident that a resolution has been reached and demonstrators will soon be leaving the area.

Dozens of protesters have been blocking access to the Emerson port of entry since early Thursday morning.

The only traffic able to get through was emergency vehicles or some trucks transporting livestock.

Police have been on the scene since the blockade started. There have been no arrests or tickets issued.



3:10 p.m.

Protesters in Ottawa reacted with a mixture of dismay and defiance that the Emergencies Act gives the federal government the power to freeze bank accounts.

Joseph Michel, a former federal contractor from the Ottawa-Gatineau region who is collecting money to help pay for food and fuel for truckers, says it is concerning that the government would go to such lengths.

He says protesters have families and are being treated as "prisoners" in their own country.

But he says he will stay until vaccine mandates end and people who have lost their jobs over their vaccination status get them back.

Supporters are handing out cash, including $50 bills, and hot food to truckers through their cab windows.



3 p.m.

Crowds of protesters outside Parliament cheered in appreciation of Joel Lightbound, a Liberal MP who Monday broke party ranks to vote for a Tory motion calling for a plan to lift COVID-19 restrictions.

A few truckers honked their horns in appreciation of Lightbound, the Tories and the Bloc Quebecois, who also backed the motion.

A speaker on a stage, who identified themselves as a Conservative from Alberta, proclaimed, "Let's hear it for Lightbound."

The truckers also cheered at the news that vaccine mandates were to be lifted in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Quebec.



2:20 p.m.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says strong enforcement at the United States border crossing in southern Alberta sent a clear message to protesters who ended a weeks-long blockade this morning.

Trucks and other vehicles with horns blaring rolled out of the small border village of Coutts, Alta., after paralyzing the border since the end of January to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and broader public health restrictions.

Kenney says it's great news for the hundreds of truckers who cross the border every day.

The exodus of commercial and personal vehicles came one day after RCMP arrested 13 people and seized a cache of firearms and ammunition.



2 p.m.

Trucks and other vehicles with horns blaring have rolled out of a southern Alberta town, ending a blockade that paralyzed a United States border crossing for more than two weeks.

Protesters had been restricting access to the main Alberta border crossing in Coutts since Jan. 29 to rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and broader health restrictions.

The convoy left one day after RCMP arrested 13 people and seized a cache of firearms and ammunition.



1:45 p.m.

The RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police are working with Ottawa police amid sustained criticism of the local force's handling of a chaotic antigovernment protest.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says an integrated command centre has been set up so the RCMP and OPP can share and assume command over the enforcement necessary to bring about public order in Ottawa.

The Ottawa police say they remain in control of the centre as they work with the other two forces.

Mendicino spoke hours after the news that Peter Sloly had abruptly resigned as Ottawa police chief, while the protest that has paralyzed the downtown core stretches into its third week.



1 p.m.

Truckers protesting outside Parliament estimate that around 20 rigs have moved into the core demonstration zone outside the House of Commons since Monday.

The move follows an agreement with Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson to relocate trucks away from residential neighbourhoods.

Jack Van Rootselaar, a trucker from Dunnville, Ont., is one of those to have moved and is now sitting in a white big rig facing Parliament Hill in a row of other trucks tightly packed to fill the space.

Van Rootselaar dismissed the emergency powers invoked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday as a "scare tactic."

He says truckers plan to stay until all vaccine mandates are lifted.

Harold Jonker, from Niagara Region, who says he has 10 trucks involved, is calling the demonstration a "legal protest" and the Emergencies Act was unjustified.



12:55 p.m.

New Brunswick's commissioner on systemic racism is calling the so-called "Freedom Convoy" protest in Fredericton last weekend a cover for "a maturing antigovernment, anti-pluralist, right-wing movement."

Dr. Manju Varma says she reviewed materials from social media for the event and found racist symbolism and imagery referencing white supremacy, antisemitism, anti-refugee hate, and far-right extremism.

The protest started on Friday and was inspired by the antigovernment blockades in Ottawa.

By Monday, only a handful of protesters remained in front of New Brunswicks legislature.

Varma says she is disappointed the New Brunswick and Canada flags were flown alongside the flags of right-wing and extremist groups.



12:25 p.m.

The cabinet order invoking the Emergencies Act says the government needs temporary but extraordinary powers to end blockades because they are threatening Canada's supply chains, economic security and trading relationships in a bid to achieve political or ideological goals.

The order is now public on the government website but it took effect Monday when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the plan at a news conference from Parliament Hill.

A motion declaring the same is expected to be introduced in the House of Commons today but the emergency order is already in place and will remain so for the next 30 days unless MPs vote down the motion or the government rescinds the order early.

Attorney General David Lametti says the order is not going to curb free speech or the right to protest peacefully but he says what is happening in Ottawa and at border crossings is not peaceful protest but an ideologically motivated occupation that is endangering the lives of Canadians and the economy.



12 p.m.

An Ottawa city councillor says police Chief Peter Sloly has resigned.

Riley Brockington tweeted the news today as anti-vaccine mandate protesters continue to clog the downtown core of Canada's capital city.

The Ottawa police have faced criticism for their handling of the protest outside Parliament Hill, which has stretched into its third week.

Some protesters have harassed residents for wearing masks, flown Nazi and Confederate flags and honked their horns incessantly, though an injunction brought down the volume on the noise for at least some of the time.

Sloly became chief of the Ottawa Police Service in 2019 after previously serving on the Toronto force for decades, including as deputy chief.



11 a.m.

Government House leader Mark Holland says the federal government will introduce a motion to enact the Emergencies Act "imminently."

Holland says today on the way into a cabinet meeting that as the act has never been used before, the government wants to make sure it "proceeds prudently."

He says the government is in discussion with opposition parties on not just introducing the motion but the formulation of a joint House and Senate parliamentary committee,

Holland says in French that the committee is meant to oversee the act's implementation, ensure the government uses the expanded powers in a responsible manner and produce a report after a certain period of time.



10:50 a.m.

RCMP in Surrey, B.C., confirm a protest that blocked the Pacific Highway border crossing over the weekend has now been cleared.

Const. Sarbjit Sangha says officers ordered demonstrators out of the area last night and made several arrests, although she could not confirm how many.

She says police are now checking traffic heading south to the main commercial truck crossing into Washington state, to ensure drivers intend to cross the border.

Opponents of public health mandates converged on the crossing last week in support of truck convoy protests that have blocked border crossings elsewhere in Canada this month.



9 a.m.

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The Canada Border Services Agency confirms traffic is moving again at the Pacific Highway border crossing just south of Vancouver.

Protesters opposed to public health mandates blocked routes leading to that crossing on the weekend.

The port of entry was never closed but the protests, and police barricades to contain them, stopped all but pedestrian traffic from reaching it.

The Pacific Highway crossing is the main entry for commercial traffic to and from British Columbia and Washington state.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police had taken control of enforcement in Ottawa.
HALIFAX - Relatives of victims killed in a mass shooting in Nova Scotia say they are feeling "deep discouragement" with the public inquiry investigating the horrific 2020 crime that claimed 22 lives, their law firm says.

Visitors to a roadside memorial pays their respects in Portapique, N.S. on Friday, April 24, 2020. The public inquiry into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 lives is facing intense criticism from victims' relatives one week before the proceedings are to begin.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - Relatives of victims killed in a mass shooting in Nova Scotia say they are feeling "deep discouragement" with the public inquiry investigating the horrific 2020 crime that claimed 22 lives, their law firm says.

With one week left before the proceedings are to begin in Halifax, Patterson Law issued a statement late Monday saying its clients are worried their role in the inquiry will be "unduly reduced, if not actively restricted."

The Nova Scotia law firm, which represents 23 families and individuals, said the delayed federal-provincial inquiry has offered little information about the role witnesses will play in the proceedings.

As well, Patterson Law says it is worried the fact-finding portion of the inquiry will be truncated as a result of the delays, which means evidence before the inquiry may not be fully explored.

"We share our clients deep discouragement at the limited information about these public proceedings," the statement says.

The inquiry's mandate requires it to file a final report by Nov. 1.

At this point, it remains unclear who will be called as witnesses, how they will be asked to give evidence and whether lawyers representing the families will be allowed to question them or make any kind of submissions at the proceedings, the statement says.

Senior commission counsel Emily Hill did not directly address those questions in an emailed statement, and commission officials declined a request for an interview.

Hill said the commission will continue to consult participants about gaps in the factual record and witnesses they would like to hear from.

"A public inquiry is not a trial, nor is it about assigning blame," she added. "Public inquiries are about change. The commissions work is to determine what happened and why and how it happened in order to make recommendations that will help make sure it does not happen again."

Three months after the killings in central Nova Scotia, the federal and provincial government's pledged to conduct some sort of "review" into the case, but the victims' families and legal experts came forward to demand a more rigorous joint inquiry. A series of protests prompted the two levels of government to change course.

"I feel severely let down," Nova Scotia resident Nick Beaton said in the law firm's statement. Beaton's pregnant wife, Kristen Beaton, was fatally shot by the gunman in Debert, N.S., on April 19, 2020. At the time, the killer was disguised as a Mountie and was driving a car that looked exactly like an RCMP cruiser.

"I fought so hard for this public inquiry so that another husband and father would not have to go through this," Beaton said. "The commission is supposed to ask the hard questions and identify where things went wrong and how things need to change, but right now I just dont see that happening.

Ed Ratushny, a professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa's law school, said the information requested by the lawyers is justified.

"I can't understand why the commission has not already provided it, not only to the lawyers but also to the entire public," Ratushny said in an email.

"Public inquiries are created because the public does not trust other institutions to fulfil their function. But the Patterson document appears to conclude that the public may be on the verge of not trusting this commission either."

Ratushny, author of the 2009 book, "The Conduct of Public Inquiries," said the law firm's letter represents "a serious condemnation of the commission's failure to disclose completely what it has done to date, how it will proceed from here and why they have waited so long to reveal all of this."

The inquiry has been asked to determine what happened during the gunman's rampage, which began on April 18, 2020, in Portapique, N.S., where 13 people were gunned down and properties were set on fire. Another nine people were killed the following day as the gunman eluded police during a chase that spanned more than 100 kilometres. The commission was initially supposed to begin hearings last October.

Nova Scotia lawyer Adam Rodgers, who has a blog about the proceedings, has also been raising questions about the inquiry's approach.

It would appear the inquiry will by relying on surveys, panel discussions and previously compiled "foundational documents" to provide evidence at the hearings, rather than the traditional method of calling witnesses to face direct questioning and cross-examination, Rodgers said.

"It's meant to save time on testimony," Rodgers said in an interview Monday. "If it looks like the commission will be presenting documents and presenting their version of events, that would undermine the credibility of the commission."

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In a statement released Jan. 31, the commission  known formally as the Mass Casualty Commission  stressed that its work is guided by restorative principles to help minimize further harm.

"This does not mean the commission is avoiding disagreement or difficult questions and answers," the statement said. "What it does mean is we are attentive in how we go about our work and to the experiences of those who have been most affected by the mass casualty."

Rodgers said witness testimony is key to any inquiry, referring to his experience with the provincial fatality inquiry in Nova Scotia investigating why former Afghanistan war veteran Lionel Desmond killed three family members and himself in January 2017. That inquiry is set to resume next month.

"It was difficult for family members to get on the stand and talk about their lost loved ones," Rodgers said.

"But it was also an opportunity for them to process their own emotions .... If we're going to miss out on that because of some misguided sense of people's trauma, then I think that's going to be a lost opportunity."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.
PEMBINA, N.D.  The anti-mandate blockade of trucks and farm equipment on the Canadian side of the Pembina-Emerson border crossing has left the U.S. side in near silence.

PEMBINA, N.D.  The anti-mandate blockade of trucks and farm equipment on the Canadian side of the Pembina-Emerson border crossing has left the U.S. side in near silence.

On Monday afternoon, the Pembina Port of Entry was nearly empty, with no vehicles driving towards Canada, and a single truck coming into North Dakota.

A U.S. border patrol officer confirmed, since Feb. 10, all commercial and passenger traffic has been blocked from entering Canada, and only a few agricultural trucks have made it through to the U.S.

Waldemar Jutisch was one of those few truckers Monday afternoon.

The blockade let him through because he was hauling piglets, he said. The only thing is the way back.

After dropping the piglets off, Jutisch has to return to Manitoba with an empty trailer. Without livestock, the blockade in Emerson will likely not let him through; instead, he will head to another port of entry.

Jutisch said he supports the protests but disagrees with protesters not allowing commercial traffic to cross the border.

Im all for protests, but there is a limit, said Jutisch. There is no truck allowed in or out, and we trade with the U.S. a lot.

A media representative from the RCMP told the Herald there were no updates on the blockade since its last on the weekend.

On Sunday at 2:30 p.m., the RCMP reported approximately 75 vehicles were participating in the blockade across all four lanes of Highway 75 at Provincial Road 200. As of Sunday, no tickets had been issued and no arrests had been made, according to RCMP.

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The blockade has hurt local businesses, said Mikes Parcel owner Mason Peters.

Mikes Parcel is a storage warehouse housing items Canadian citizens purchased from the U.S. Before the pandemic, Canadian citizens could cross the border and pick up items they had delivered to his business to avoid international shipping fees.

Peters also works with commercial carriers, but none of his customers have been able to make it through the Pembina-Emerson crossing.

The government policies for two years have destroyed more than half of our business, because we depended on free flow of traffic, said Peters.

These blockades are kind of destroying the other half, because half of our business still went through commercially  so were at a point now where we have zero customers.

 Grand Forks Herald
Two large barriers now block the centre of a walkway that leads to Winnipeg city hall  a temporary safety measure meant to keep vehicles from driving on the pedestrian path.

Two large barriers now block the centre of a walkway that leads to Winnipeg city hall  a temporary safety measure meant to keep vehicles from driving on the pedestrian path.

City officials confirmed the thick, grey wedges were installed Feb. 4, the day supporters of the so-called "freedom convoy" to oppose vaccine mandates first set up a lengthy demonstration in front of the Manitoba legislature.

"Barriers were installed earlier this month, as a temporary measure to prevent vehicles from potentially driving into the city hall courtyard, in the event demonstrations and rallies expanded beyond the area surrounding the legislative building," David Driedger, a city spokesperson, said in an emailed statement Monday.

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JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The barriers were installed near the Christmas tree, after at least one vehicle apparently drove onto the sidewalk, which is adjacent to Main Street, and parked there during a demonstration, the city later confirmed.

The barriers were installed near the city hall Christmas tree, after at least one vehicle apparently drove onto the sidewalk, which is adjacent to Main Street, and parked there during a demonstration, the city later confirmed. That crowd had gathered outside city hall to cheer on the convoy as it passed through Winnipeg in late January.

In a Facebook video shared Jan. 29, a man is shown standing in the back of what appears to be a pickup truck parked quite close to the Christmas tree, while protesters sing O Canada.

The convoy protest, which has spread to multiple Canadian communities, aims to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, among other demands to end public health restrictions. Its triggered traffic and noise complaints, though local organizers promised to limit honking late last week.

At this point, the City of Winnipeg says there is no set date for the walkway barriers to come down.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
"Canada should be preparing for the end of American democracy," writes Robert Danisch in The Conversation. Danisch, a professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo says Canada must be on the lookout for U.S. propaganda ministers like Tucker Carlson, who will set their sights on the country after the U.S. becomes an authoritarian nation.

What are the likeliest problems? Most obviously, violent rhetoric tends to fuel violent actions. We will see violent rhetoric normalized by cultural figures like Tucker Carlson but also U.S. politicians.

Imagine Fox News no longer playing the role of a media outlet that's welcoming to the fringe voices of the far right, but instead is the formally sanctioned voice of the state. The more violent, extremist rhetoric becomes the norm, the more danger and violence we're likely to see.

What will happen when Carlson turns his attention to Canada as a target and radicalizes our own citizens with the authoritarian rhetoric he regularly employs?
Ten years after she admitted beating a frail customer to death, a former Winnipeg sex-trade worker has lost a legal fight to withdraw her guilty plea to second-degree murder.

Ten years after she admitted beating a frail customer to death, a former Winnipeg sex-trade worker has lost a legal fight to withdraw her guilty plea to second-degree murder.

Mary Ellen Thomas, 41, was sentenced in December 2011 to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 10 years, in the July 2010 killing of 62-year-old Michael Allen.

In a decision last week, Manitobas highest court rejected Thomass claim her guilty plea was compromised by severe mental illness and thus not voluntary.

"Although the accused has undoubtedly had severe mental health problems for years, and sought the prospect of a change from her custodial situation and the availability of long-term psychiatric care when she decided to plead guilty she has not established that her guilty plea was not voluntary and resulted in a miscarriage of justice," Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Karen Simonsen wrote in a decision delivered Feb. 11.

At the time of his death, Allen had a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit to drive, suffered from tuberculosis, and weighed just 112 pounds. Allen suffered dozens of injuries in the fatal attack, including brain trauma, 14 broken ribs, a broken neck and deep cuts to his throat and face.

City police arrested Thomas after they were called to Allens Nassau Street home for a well-being check and found him lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement stairwell.

Court heard at her sentencing Thomas told police she "lost it and went crazy," after Allen accused her of stealing his wallet after hiring her for sex. Thomas was high on crack and drunk at the time of the attack, court was told.

After attacking Allen, Thomas visited a nearby convenience store where she stabbed a female customer before returning to Allens house and falling asleep on a couch.

Court heard at sentencing Thomas  who had multiple prior convictions for violence  had been "tentatively" diagnosed prior to the killing with bipolar mood disorder and possible schizophrenia.

Doctors who examined Thomas after her arrest, however, found her "clear" in her thinking and not someone who could be considered not criminally responsible for her actions.

On appeal, Thomas argued she was "overwhelmed" by her poor mental health at the time she pleaded guilty to murder and was driven by a desire to move from provincial remand custody to a federal prison, where she believed conditions would be better for her.

In an affidavit provided to court, Thomas claimed she was not taking the proper medication at the time she entered her guilty plea, was haunted by thoughts of a miscarriage and was suicidal.

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At sentencing, Thomas told court she wanted to "take responsibility for (her) actions," and enter a plea to second-degree murder, not manslaughter.

Asked about the comment at her appeal hearing, Thomas claimed she only pleaded guilty to second-degree murder because she was afraid if she "kept on fighting" for manslaughter she would be charged with first-degree murder.

"I found this explanation to be unconvincing as there is no indication the accused has ever been or would be charged with first-degree murder," Simonsen said.

Thomas, who was granted an extension to file her appeal in 2017, had several lawyers withdraw from her case over the years and most recently represented herself before the appeal court.

Thomas remains in custody.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
It was my first up-close-and-personal view of the urban-rural divide in Canada.

It was my first up-close-and-personal view of the urban-rural divide in Canada.

It was 1986, and I was a summer intern at the Calgary Herald. The Alberta government had announced seat belts would become compulsory the following year, and my editor wanted to know how that was playing in rural communities. So, he put me in a car and pointed me south.

Having lived in cities almost exclusively, I really had no idea how difficult this assignment was going to be. Seat belts did not appear to be a contentious issue; some provinces had introduced mandatory laws almost a decade earlier. Surely, nobody could deny the obvious benefits of vehicle restraints?

About an hour outside Calgary, I stopped at a gas station and wandered inside to find two locals chatting casually with the attendant. I identified myself and explained I was looking for comments about the seat belt law.

The man behind the counter was alarmingly expressionless. "I dont think you want to be asking about stuff like that, here," he said in a low but still somehow menacing tone.

The man behind the counter was alarmingly expressionless. I dont think you want to be asking about stuff (seat belt law) like that, here, he said in a low but still somehow menacing tone.

I nodded, smiled and left.

That exchange was my crash course in good, old-fashioned rural libertarianism. Seat belts were not the issue; it was government was trying to force someone to do something. In many less populated regions of Canada, that isnt going to fly.

Ive come to understand in politics, while there are many divides in this country  English and French, Indigenous and non-Indigenous  the gulf between urban and rural may be among the most powerful. The so-called "freedom convoy" is a good case in point.

DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES In reality, this (freedom convoy) is a group of mostly (but not exclusively) rural protesters bringing their anger over a whole range of issues to bear on urban dwellers.

Organizers have portrayed it as a protest against COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in general, and vaccine mandates in particular. In reality, this is a group of mostly (but not exclusively) rural protesters bringing their anger over a whole range of issues to bear on urban dwellers.

There are quite a few obvious and unambiguous links between low vaccination rates, anti-vaccination activism and rural communities. There are city dwellers who dont like mandates, but in some rural communities in southern Manitoba, not getting vaccinated is not just a decision, its a cause.

Now that theyve brought the fight to Canadas biggest cities and most important border crossings, the results have been nothing short of absurd.

From the far-right extremists who helped organize the convoy, to abuse the protesters have hurled at bystanders and  more recently  the discovery of guns, ammunition and body armour at border blockades, this is a protest that has assumed a presence that far outweighs the sheer numbers of protesters.

From the farright extremists who helped organize the convoy, to abuse the protesters have hurled at bystanders and  more recently  the discovery of guns, ammunition and body armour at border blockades, this is a protest that has assumed a presence that far outweighs the sheer numbers of protesters.

Think of the convoy protest as a sequel to the popular animated movie A Bugs Life. Shortly after the first trucks occupied downtown Ottawa, the convoy protesters suddenly rediscovered their inner grasshopper, an insect able in small numbers to torment a much more numerous species by sheer force of will.

Canada, welcome to "Revenge of the Grasshoppers."

Utilizing semi-tractors and selecting diabolically clever targets (city centres, border crossings) has allowed this group to hit way above its political weight in the pandemic restriction debate.

Anyone concerned about how much disruption has been produced by such a small number of protesters should take note: this is just the beginning.

Anyone concerned about how much disruption has been produced by such a small number of protesters should take note: this is just the beginning.

Emboldened by the "success" of the freedom convoy, and abetted by the chronic political apathy that reigns supreme in urban communities, the vocal rural minority is looking for other ways to disrupt politics and government.

Remember: despite clear advantages in organization and caucus support, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson nearly lost the Progressive Conservative party leadership nomination last fall in a one-member, one-vote format to challenger Shelly Glover.

A former Conservative MP, Glover managed to sound enough dog whistles to draw support from a largely rural, far-right cabal of instant party members that was coalescing around potential candidate Ken Lee.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Former Conservative MP Shelly Glover.

It is, however, a lot more difficult for a vocal minority to skew the results of a federal election even though, according to research from the University of Western Ontario and University of Calgary, the urban-rural split is more pronounced than ever.

In the 2021 election, the Liberals captured 86 of 116 ridings in the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver; the Conservatives won just eight seats in those cities. Conversely, of the 150 least urban ridings in the country, the Tories took 81 and the Liberals only 34.

What it means is even if the next Conservative leader is closely aligned with far-right rural sensibilities, the Tories will have very little chance of breaking through and dethroning the Liberals.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Utilizing semi-tractors and selecting diabolically clever targets (city centres, border crossings) has allowed this group to hit way above its political weight in the pandemic restriction debate.

If public opinion polls are any indication, the convoy protesters havent swayed a single person to their cause. Instead, the disruption from the protests has made the gross majority of people in this country more unsympathetic to the cause of unvaccinated Canadians.

For the protesters, none of that matters. What matters is the thrill they get from watching all the city-dwelling ants scurrying around in a panic.

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.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
The provincial government has struck an expert council to review its immigration system and find ways to attract more newcomers to Manitoba as new arrivals rebound following a COVID-19 pandemic slump.

The provincial government has struck an expert council to review its immigration system and find ways to attract more newcomers to Manitoba as new arrivals rebound following a COVID-19 pandemic slump.

Former federal foreign affairs minister and current chairman of the World Refugee and Migration Council Lloyd Axworthy will lead the provincial advisory committee with Advanced Education, Skills and Immigration Minister Jon Reyes.

Over the next 10 months, the council will consult with industry, labour, settlement agencies and other groups to provide suggestions to government to streamline the Manitoba provincial nominee program, improve foreign qualification recognition, and enhance settlement programs.

We need immigration to help grow our labour market and diversify our economy, Reyes said Monday, during a media conference with Axworthy and Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson.

There are different areas of the labour market who need people with very specific skills to enable them to grow further.

Reyes said the council will also include representation from recent immigrants who have gone through the nomination process, immigration agencies, ethno-cultural communities, businesses, academia and urban and rural leadership.

The council is expected to deliver a final report by Dec. 31.

Stefanson said there is a need for both skilled and unskilled workers across the province, and an analysis of labour needs will help inform future changes to the provincial nominee program.

She noted Mondays announcement supports a commitment in the throne speech to boost immigration.

The Manitoba government estimates it will require about 15,500 new workers per year until at least 2025 to meet labour and economic demands.

Between January and November 2021, 14,550 people were admitted as permanent residents in Manitoba, representing a 68 per cent increase from 2020, according to the province. However, immigration was still down 23 per cent from pre-pandemic levels.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Heather Stefanson noted Mondays announcement supports a commitment in the throne speech to boost immigration.

Last year, 6,275 people arrived in Manitoba through the nominee program, the highest since it was established in 1998.

Reyes said he wants to see the federal government approve an increase to the provinces allotment, and his office is currently in talks with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Ottawa has yet to confirm how many nominees Manitoba will be able to accept this year.

Obviously, wed like to see it be higher than 6,200, Reyes said.

Much higher, the premier added.

Axworthy said there are also emerging opportunities for labour recruitment and migration Manitoba can take advantage of in collaboration with the federal government, which has increased the provincial nominee program budget and introduced pilot programs.

We, as partners with them, can lead in doing some real innovation on how to make this work that can be a model to other parts of the country, Axworthy said. This is something that has a wider orbit than just our own province.

Reyes said newcomer and immigrant settlement agencies will be engaged by the advisory council and further announcements are expected to support those groups.

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Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said the creation of an advisory council was a positive step, but described policies brought in by the Tories  including the introduction of a $500 fee for the provincial nominee program and withdrawing universal health insurance for international students  as anti-immigration.

There are also things that weve been calling for that could be done next week if they needed to be, including removing the head tax and including restoring health care for international students, Lamont said.

Those international students are future Manitobans, and were basically telling people to go elsewhere because youre not welcome.

Opposition critic Malaya Marcelino said the provincial government needs to get skilled workers already in Manitoba, including nurses trained outside the country, on the job.

We know there are internationally trained nurses who are eager to work in Manitoba, but the PCs clearly have no plan to eliminate the barriers that prevent them from providing bedside care, the NDP MLA said in a statement. We cant afford to wait a year for a report  we need the premier to take action today.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
While a study looking at reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples has found progress made in recent years, there is still a gap between the two groups in their understanding of residential schools.

While a study looking at reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples has found progress made in recent years, there is still a gap between the two groups in their understanding of residential schools.

About 90 per cent of Indigenous people say they know about residential schools, but only 65 per cent of non-Indigenous have the same response.

And, for Katherine Starzyk, thats a clear indication more education is required.

"The walk toward reconciliation will be a long one and lead us down many paths," the Canadian Reconciliation Barometers principal investigator and associate professor in psychology at the University of Manitoba said Tuesday.

"Our report suggests we have begun our walk  there are some bright spots in our findings  and that we have a lot of work ahead of us."

But Starzyk said there has been a significant increase in awareness because of the tragic discoveries in the past year of unmarked graves on and near the sites of former residential schools across the country. Thousands of Indigenous children forced to attend government-mandated Catholic Church-run schools never returned to their home communities and their families.

"We did the poll just before the first announcement on graves," she said. "I expect what happened (last) year will change the answer next year.

"We are planning for the long term. The idea is the project will go on as long as necessary our goal is to track progress to keep peoples attention on what is going on and to influence policy and action."

The survey of 1,119 Indigenous and 2,106 non-Indigenous people asked opinions on different aspects of reconciliation in five regions across the country.

When asked whether Canadian governments have "harmed Indigenous peoples intentionally, systematically, and for a long time," 75 per cent of Indigenous respondents agreed, compared to 57 per cent in the non-Indigenous group.

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And 79 per cent of Indigenous participants asked whether past harmful actions continue to negatively affect Indigenous people agreed, compared to 63 per cent of non-Indigenous respondents.

The survey also found Indigenous people dont believe the federal government and First Nations have a true nation-to-nation relationship, they dont think Indigenous cultures are thriving and they dont believe groups who have harmed Indigenous peoples "have showed remorse, provided sincere apologies, or accepted responsibility."

But Starzyk said there is also good news in the report, including Indigenous people indicating they are proud of their heritage and they are engaged in their communities.

Brenda Gunn, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliations academic and research director, said in a statement "people in Canada are learning about this horrific history and the inequalities that exist.

"However, there is still so much more work needed in education and policies. Having a measure of the Canadian publics perceptions on progress toward reconciliation is a key tool to guide policy makers in their decisions to support reconciliation."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
The Manitoba civil service appears to have walked back an apparent move to order at least one departments workers back into the office.

The Manitoba civil service appears to have walked back an apparent move to order at least one departments workers back into the office.

Many civil servants have been working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with a wider ask for those able to work remotely to do so when the Omicron variant arrived in the province in December.

Over the weekend, all advanced education, skills and immigration employees were ordered back to the office, effective Feb. 22.

However, in a Monday morning memo, the Civil Service Commission said working remotely would still be an option across departments.

Each work area continues to have different operational and organizational needs, the email said. Employees are able to return to the workplace and each area must assess what that return will look like for their circumstances, while still following the guidance of public health and determining how flexible work can be supported.

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A provincial spokesperson said there is no order to return, but public servants have been notified they may consider a return to the office. Departments will continue to assess operational requirements and working remotely remains an option.

Manitoba Government and General Employees Union president Kyle Ross said people want a return to normal  when and where its safe.

Ross added many union members are concerned the sudden plan to relax public health restrictions is aggressive, and health-care workers are particularly worried the move could overwhelm the hospital system.

Each job and each workplace needs to be assessed for its own risks, and by the time public service workers are required to return to the office, we expect the province to ensure there are appropriate protections in place for all of them, Ross said in a statement.

As the risk changes moving forward, both for the better and for the worse, the province will need to make adjustments to protect staff and the public.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
Immigrants are driving Canadas growth, as they have done for many years. The 2021 census showed that Canada increased its population faster than any other leading industrial country during the five-year period beginning in 2016  and immigration accounted for four-fifths of the increase.

Immigrants are driving Canadas growth, as they have done for many years. The 2021 census showed that Canada increased its population faster than any other leading industrial country during the five-year period beginning in 2016  and immigration accounted for four-fifths of the increase.

Statistics Canada last week started publishing results of the census conducted last May. The results included a few surprises: tiny Prince Edward Island had the fastest population growth rate of any province, and the whole Maritime region for the first time grew faster than the three Prairie provinces.

The importance of immigration to Canadas prosperity was not a surprise, but rather a scientific confirmation of what any observer can see with the naked eye. With every passing year, the people starting up small businesses and the people serving the public in shops, in restaurants and in health and social services are increasingly those born outside Canada. The Canadian-born still play a role, but the census data suggest that role will keep shrinking.

The birth rate of Canadian-born people is barely enough to maintain a stable population. The rate of natural increase (births minus deaths) fell to 0.1 per cent in 2021, the statisticians found. That was the lowest level on record.

Canadas total population grew by 5.2 per cent during the five years ending in 2021 to reach just under 37 million people. Four-fifths of the increase consisted of newly arrived Canadians.

Other advanced industrial countries are also seeing low birth rates. Japan, Italy and Russia have declining populations because their natural increase has been negative and more migrants leave those countries than arrive. The population of the whole European Union grew by just 0.5 per cent over the last five years. The United States grew by 2.5 per cent.

In the coming decades, European governments will have increasing difficulty finding workers for industry and for public services. They may also have more difficulty finding enough taxpayers to finance the accustomed level of government spending.

As long as Canada can keep bringing in immigrants to take jobs, start businesses and pay the taxes, this country can hope to continue taking good care of the Canadian-born, who will increasingly be enjoying their retirement years. The COVID-19 pandemic sharply cut Canadas intake of migrants in 2021, but the flow should quickly resume as travel restrictions are lifted.

Photo by Paul Baglole / Tourism PEI Prince Edward Island is a destination of choice for Canadians.

The pandemic also altered migratory flows within Canada. As employers told their workers to stop coming to the office and to work from home instead, many families found new freedom to live where they wanted. This may be the main reason why, from 2016 to 2021, Prince Edward Island enjoyed the fastest rate of population increase of any province at eight per cent, and British Columbia enjoyed the second-fastest at 7.6 per cent.

When technology and job requirements leave Canadians free to vote with their feet, many seem inclined to head for the coasts. The Prairie provinces may continue to have a tough time matching the attractions of locations such as P.E.I and B.C.

Canada has to keep recruiting migrants to sustain gradual economic expansion. Japan is already in economic decline for want of immigration. The EU and Russia may soon start down a similar slope. Canada should keep its doors open, keep the migrants coming and keep the economic future bright.
OTTAWA  The convoy protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates have had financial backing from more than 1,000 Manitobans, according to a leaked database reviewed by the Free Press.

OTTAWA  The convoy protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates have had financial backing from more than 1,000 Manitobans, according to a leaked database reviewed by the Free Press.

The so-called Freedom Convoy that has occupied downtown Ottawa since Jan. 28 originally got financial support through the crowdfunding site GoFundMe, which announced Feb. 4 it would refund most of the $10.1 million donated out of concern it would be supporting violence and harassment.

Since then, the Christian site GiveSendGo has stepped in, raising US$8 million until the Ontario government convinced a court to freeze donations to the site last Thursday.

On Sunday evening, hackers took that site offline, and released a list of 92,000 donations, with the name, email and postal code that each donor submitted.

"Its the first time I can say Im proud to be Canadian, in a very long time," said Gerry Papp, who runs a fencing company just outside Winnipeg.

Its the first time I can say Im proud to be Canadian, in a very long time.  Gerry Papp

He was the most generous of the 1,207 donors who listed a Canadian postal code starting with R, meaning they have a Manitoba address.

Donations linked to Manitoba addresses amount to US$146,492, plus donations to the GiveSendGo platform that amount to another $9,242.90.

Papp donated US$2,000 to the convoy, saying he finds mandates to be state coercion reminiscent of the Hungarian communist regime his parents fled.

"When guys drive across (Canada) and fight for things like freedom, that means a lot to a guy like me," he said.

Papp worries about COVID-19 vaccine ingredients. It's a risk Papp takes seriously enough that hes given up on travelling to the United States, where he often went to pick up cheaper supplies for his business.

Papp said the Trudeau government has focused too much on paying people to stay home instead of improving hospital capacity. He argues the Liberals have gone with a divisive approach instead of managing the risk as other countries have.

"I was always told if youre a leader, you should lead but there is none of that coming from Ottawa; its embarrassing," he said.

Its all about freedom of choice; its unfortunate truckers had to be our representative, but theyre the ones stepping up to the plate. It should be our media and politicians stepping up.  Ted Hofer

Ted Hofer, who works with a drywall company in Springfield, said he felt "extorted" into getting vaccinated, as he couldnt visit worksites otherwise.

He said the truckers were the first visible group echoing his views, and so he gave them US$475.

"Its all about freedom of choice; its unfortunate truckers had to be our representative, but theyre the ones stepping up to the plate. It should be our media and politicians stepping up," said Hofer.

He said COVID-19 vaccines are safe, but he argues mandates undermine the principle of body autonomy that many progressives hold dear.

"If a woman wants to get an abortion thats none of my damn business," he said, as an analogy.

Hofer also argued that radicals and conspiracy theorists seen in the convoy distract from those who want to peacefully protest, using the analogy of people who paint all reporters as biased.

TED SHAFFREY / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ted Hofer argued that radicals and conspiracy theorists seen in the convoy distract from those who want to peacefully protest, using the analogy of people who paint all reporters as biased.

The three main organizers of the Ottawa convoy all have ties to far-right movements. In the encampment around Parliament Hill there remain signs offensive to minority groups, yet many in the crowd say they reject those views.

Participants in blockades at Emerson, in Windsor, Ont., and elsewhere have said the same, after police seized weapons at the Coutts, Alta., border-crossing protest.

Meanwhile, virologists and immunologists argue that the benefits of getting vaccinated far outweigh the tiny risk of side effects for the vast majority of individuals. They say the shots are key to reducing transmission of the virus and easing the strain on the health-care system that COVID-19 has created.

Some donors did not want to discuss the fundraiser. The hacked database includes email addresses for professors teaching at the universities of Manitoba, Winnipeg and Brandon University, one of whom reacted with anger when contacted.

"Youre contacting me with illegally obtained financial information. And youre wondering how I feel about the fusion of state, corporate and financial power to subvert legal, grassroots movements," she replied in an email to the Free Press.

"Honestly, what is wrong with you?"

Whats missing is the personal, human side of this in a lot of the reporting.  Jim Pallister

Jim Pallister, who operates a farm west of Portage la Prairie, is vaccinated but feels the mandates are punishing for people who opt out of getting immunized , leaving them unable to travel or pursue normal post-secondary education.

"Its a huge injustice to young people," said Pallister, brother of the former Manitoba premier Brian Pallister.

He said a young friends daughter recovered from COVID but has been blocked from having a normal life.

"People like her ought to have rights," he said. "Whats missing is the personal, human side of this in a lot of the reporting."

Manitobans had also given to the GoFundMe campaign before it was halted; one donor had offered $5,000 but it was refunded.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWAWith the surprise resignation of Ottawas police chief in the middle of the citys largest policing emergency, federal and local political leaders are promising that Ottawas trucker blockade will be broken up soon now that the RCMP and OPP are there to share and assume command and control of a crackdown on the so-called Freedom Convoy.

OTTAWAWith the surprise resignation of Ottawas police chief in the middle of the citys largest policing emergency, federal and local political leaders are promising that Ottawas trucker blockade will be broken up soon now that the RCMP and OPP are there to share and assume command and control of a crackdown on the so-called Freedom Convoy.

Peter Sloly, the embattled police chief who came under fire for allowing big rigs to jam up the downtown core, gave no immediate explanation for why he quit. In a statement posted to Twitter, Sloly said only he was stepping down with a heavy heart and that he had done everything possible to keep this city safe and put an end to this unprecedented and unforeseeable crisis.

He also took credit for what may come in the days ahead. We have acquired new resources and enforcement tools, and stood up the new Integrated Command Centre, he wrote, referring to the recently created body to help Ottawa police, RCMP and OPP co-ordinate their responses to the convoy protest. I am confident the Ottawa Police Service is now better positioned to end this occupation.

Two policing sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified to discuss confidential matters, told the Star that Sloly had a temper, had angry outbursts and yelled at colleagues, and that he had swapped out three incident commanders during the protest crisis. One source said Sloly had intended to remain in command of the massive policing operation right up until Tuesday.

Sloly did not respond to requests for comment from the Star on Tuesday.

However at a special meeting of the Ottawa Police Services Board Tuesday afternoon, chair Diane Deans said that Sloly and the board had landed on a mutually agreeable separation.

As such, Chief Peter Sloly is no longer employed with the Ottawa Police Service, Deans said, offering no public explanation for Slolys abrupt departure, even as she said the carnival of chaos should end. As this is a labour relations matter, no further comment will be made.

Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Slolys decision was a personal one that was not influenced by the federal government.

Mendicino emphasized that with the federal government assuming emergency powers and the formation of an integrated command centre between the Ottawa police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the lawlessness of the past three weekends in the nations capital should swiftly be brought under control.

Our focus is to ensure that the Ottawa Police Service, as well as the OPP and the RCMP, have all of the tools that are necessary to restore public order in Ottawa, he said.

The federal public safety minister did not formally thank Sloly for his service, but did acknowledge his career milestones. This is an individual who has served many years on the front lines of the public service, has crashed through many barriers in rising to the position of being a chief of police, and I think that there is an important reflection there, he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared a federal state of emergency Monday in response to the chaos in the nations capital and at border crossings, where demonstrators have gathered to protest COVID-19 vaccination requirements and public health restrictions. Despite their best efforts, it is now clear there are serious challenges to law enforcements ability to effectively enforce the law, Trudeau said.

Ottawa police Deputy Chief Steve Bell has been named interim chief as the citys police services board works to develop a new command structure and appoint Slolys replacement very soon, Deans said.

Bell provided no details on the numbers of officers now available, nor a timeline for enforcement action.

However, he told the civilian oversight board there is now absolutely a plan that has been developed through our partners with the OPP and RCMP to have an integrated approach and response to ultimately end the occupation in our streets, so that plan continues to be refined and developed and exists.

But the federal emergency powers wont immediately bring to an end the Ottawa demonstrations because they are not yet fully understood, Deputy Chief Trish Ferguson said.

We continue to await for official details before operationalizing it. We have been working with our legal team and those of our provincial and federal partners to understand the implications of the various orders and actions and consider the impacts on our ultimate mission, she told the board.

Much like Sloly, the senior Ottawa police officers were grilled in Tuesdays meeting for asserting the police response to the protests had been adequate and effective.

Bell said the force needed to collect better, more timely intelligence information, while Ferguson admitted Ottawa police have not always been able crack down on wrongdoing due to security and safety concerns.

Alok Mukherjee, a former chair of the Toronto police board, was a Sloly backer when both men were in Toronto. Mukherjee said he believes Sloly was being scapegoated  made the fall guy in a complicated situation that involved multiple levels of government and a well-funded protest movement with dangerous elements.

As the Star first reported, federal officials appealed to Ottawa police and the city authorities not to allow trucks to enter and park in the downtown core at the outset of the demonstrations.

It was Sloly who provided assurances that protesters would only have access to three lanes, and that the demonstrations organizers would leave within three days.

That never happened.

The Star reported that a week after Sloly asked for 1,800 reinforcements, he still had no detailed plan for how to use those extra officers or how to end the blockade.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said Tuesday that Sloly was a fundamentally decent man faced with a very difficult job.

Frankly, Im very saddened by this turn of events, and at the same time, I think theres an important job yet to be done to restore order and provide effective policing services to the people of Ottawa, Blair said.

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Sloly had been widely perceived as a top candidate to replace Blair as Torontos police chief in 2015. He was seen as a progressive, change-minded leader who had acknowledged the social ills of the controversial practice of carding by Toronto police and its disproportionate impact on racialized citizens.

But he was also a starkly divisive figure within the Toronto force, with critics who said he didnt work well with others and could be controlling. Ultimately, Sloly was passed over in favour of Mark Saunders, who was considered a more traditional choice with greater support from the rank and file.

Wesley Wark, a national security expert and senior fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said Sloly seemed determined to take a very lenient approach to the protests from the outset, essentially welcoming the protest convoy into downtown Ottawa.

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc

Raisa Patel is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @R_SPatel

Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing for the Star. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis
NEW YORK (AP)  Britains Prince Andrew, accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to his accusers charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character, a court filing revealed Tuesday.

FILE - Virginia Roberts Giuffre holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court following the jailhouse death of Jeffrey Epstein, Aug. 27, 2019, in New York. A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexually abusing a 17-year-old American, according to a court filing Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

NEW YORK (AP)  Britains Prince Andrew, accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to his accusers charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character, a court filing revealed Tuesday.

The deal avoids a trial that would have brought further embarrassment to the monarchy. Besides the undisclosed donation to Virginia Giuffre's charity, it says Andrew acknowledges she has suffered as an abuse victim. It did not specify whether Giuffre would personally receive money as part of the settlement.

Attorney David Boies, representing Giuffre, told the New York federal judge overseeing the case in a letter that a settlement in principle had been reached and lawyers on both sides would request a dismissal of the lawsuit within a month.

Andrew's lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said he would suspend the case until March 17, when he might set a trial date if the lawyers dont ask for a dismissal by then.

Giuffre, 38, sued Andrew in August. The American accused the British royal of sexually abusing her while she traveled with Epstein.

Andrew strenuously denied Giuffres allegations and attempted to get the lawsuit tossed earlier this year.

Attached to the letter from Boies was a statement that read: Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms. Giuffres receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).

Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffres charity in support of victims rights. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffres character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.

Britain's Prince Andrew is seen in this April 5, 2015 photo in London. A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 years old, according to a court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (Neil Hall/PA via AP)

According to the statement, Prince Andrew acknowledged that Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years and said the prince regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.

He also pledged to support the victims of sex trafficking as part of demonstrating his regret.

The tentative settlement comes weeks after Kaplan last month rejected the prince's attempt to win an early dismissal of the lawsuit, meaning depositions and other evidence gathering could commence.

After Kaplan ruled, Andrew  who had already stepped back from royal duties  was stripped of his honorary military titles and roles and leadership of various charities, known as royal patronages. He also can no longer use the title his royal highness in official settings.

The decision was an effort to insulate the House of Windsor from the fallout from potentially years of sordid headlines if the lawsuit moved forward.

It came after more than 150 veterans and serving members of the armed forces asked the queen to strip her second son of his military titles, saying he had failed to live up to the very highest standards of probity, honesty and honorable conduct that are expected of British officers.

Mark Stephens, an international lawyer, said pressure from the royal family would have pushed Andrew to settle, particularly as Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Platinum Jubilee  or 70 years on the throne. The carefully worded settlement  in which Andrew admits only an unfortunate association with Epstein  allows him to save face, Stephens said.

Essentially, what hes done is throw himself on this judicial grenade to prevent wider damage to the royal family, Stephens told The Associated Press. And I think he had no alternative but to settle because otherwise this case would have really overshadowed the Queens Jubilee, and we would have been hearing details of what he was alleged to have done with Virginia Giuffre. And all of that would have really caused problems for the royal family more broadly.

Stephens estimated that Andrew paid around $10 million to settle, having gotten the cash after selling a ski chalet at a fire sale price. He speculated that the cash would be split into three unequal portions  with Guiffre, her lawyers and charities taking a piece.

Besides the settlement, Giuffre gets to champion her support of abuse victims, and avoid having to relive this whole experience in the public circus of a courtroom, he said.

Shes been vindicated in the sense that Prince Andrew acknowledges that shes a victim of sexual abuse, Stephens said.

Giuffre asserted that she met Andrew while she traveled frequently with Epstein between 2000 and 2002, when her lawyers maintain she was on call for Epstein for sexual purposes and was lent out to other powerful men, including Andrew.

Her lawsuit said she still suffers significant emotional and psychological distress and harm. She has alleged she had sex with Andrew three times: in London during a 2001 trip, at Epsteins New York mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18.

Andrew repeatedly denied Giuffres allegations and has said he cant recall ever meeting her, although a photograph of Giuffre and Andrew together in a London townhouse, his arm around her bare midriff, was included in Giuffre's lawsuit against him.

Inconsistencies in her statements over the years that would have been highlighted by Andrew's attorneys at trial may have motivated her, in part, to settle, though she has explained them as innocent mistakes that occur when recalling traumatic events years later.

The settlement may be a relief to others beyond the prince and Giuffre because of the names that might have arisen at trial.

Besides Andrew, Giuffre has said she was sexually trafficked to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz, French modeling scout Jean Luc Brunel and billionaire Glenn Dubin, among others. All have said her accounts are fabricated.

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Andrew served in the Royal Navy for two decades, including as a helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War. The honorary military roles he lost included several overseas ones, such as his title as colonel-in-chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment.

He has spent years combatting concerns about his links with Epstein, the U.S. financier who took his life at age 66 in 2019 in a Manhattan federal lockup while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. Epsteins longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges last month.

A settlement of the Andrew lawsuit would follow deals reached by Giuffre years ago to resolve separate lawsuits against Maxwell and Epstein. It was recently revealed that Epstein settled for $500,000.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Giuffre has.

___

Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka reported from London.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he welcomed a security dialogue with the West, and his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine. But U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. had not verified Russias claim and that an invasion was still a distinct possibility.

A woman prepares a bunch of flowers for a customer in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. More NATO troops headed to Eastern Europe and some nations worked to move their citizens and diplomats out of Ukraine on Monday, as Germany's chancellor made a last-ditch attempt to head off a feared Russian invasion that some warn could be just days away. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he welcomed a security dialogue with the West, and his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine. But U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. had not verified Russias claim and that an invasion was still a distinct possibility.

Putin said he does not want war and would rely on negotiations in his efforts to eliminate any chance that Ukraine could one day join NATO. At the same time, he did not commit to a full pullback of troops, saying Russias next moves in the standoff will depend on how the situation evolves.

In remarks at the White House, Biden promised that the U.S. would continue to give diplomacy "every chance to prevent a Russian invasion, but he struck a skeptical tone about Moscow's intentions. Biden also insisted that the U.S. and its allies would not sacrifice basic principles respecting Ukraine sovereignty.

Two paths are still open," Biden said. "But let there be no doubt: If Russia commits this breach by invading Ukraine, responsible nations around the world will not hesitate to respond. If we do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today, well surely pay a steeper price tomorrow.

Putin's overtures soothed global markets that have been on edge amid the worst East-West tensions in decades. Washington and its European allies remained cautious, saying they want to see evidence of a Russian pullback. Biden said 150,000 Russian forces are now massed near Ukraine and in Belarus, an increase from an earlier U.S. estimate of 130,000 troops.

Pedestrians walk along a street in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. More NATO troops headed to Eastern Europe and some nations worked to move their citizens and diplomats out of Ukraine on Monday, as Germany's chancellor made a last-ditch attempt to head off a feared Russian invasion that some warn could be just days away. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Russias claim that it pulled back troops "would be good, but we have not yet verified that, Biden said. Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position.

The U.S. and NATO, which continue to warn that Russia could invade at any time, have sent troops and military supplies to shore up alliance members in Eastern Europe. Russia has denied having such plans. It wants the West to keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of the alliance, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back forces from Eastern Europe.

The U.S. and its allies have roundly rejected those demands, but offered to engage in talks with Russia on ways to bolster security in Europe.

A vendor walks holding red heart-shaped balloons in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. More NATO troops headed to Eastern Europe and some nations worked to move their citizens and diplomats out of Ukraine on Monday, as Germany's chancellor made a last-ditch attempt to head off a feared Russian invasion that some warn could be just days away. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures  issues that Moscow put on the table years ago.

He said Russia is open to discuss some of those elements," but added that it would do so only in combination "with the main issues that are of primary importance for us.

Asked if there could be a war in Europe, Putin said Russia doesnt want it but that Ukraines bid to join NATO posed a major security threat to his country.

People attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. Russia says that some units participating in military exercises will begin returning to their bases. That adds to glimmers of hope that the Kremlin may not be planning to invade Ukraine imminently. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

While Scholz reiterated that NATO's eastward expansion is not on the agenda  everyone knows that very well, Putin retorted that Moscow will not be assuaged by such assurances.

They are telling us it won't happen tomorrow, Putin said. Well, when will it happen? The day after tomorrow? What does it change for us in the historic perspective? Nothing.

Scholz also said diplomatic options are far from exhausted, and he praised the announcement of a troop withdrawal as a good signal, adding: "We hope that more will follow.

Ukrainian servicemen wait in formation before an exercise in the Joint Forces Operation, in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. While the U.S. warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Moscow, where pundits and ordinary people alike don't expect President Vladimir Putin to launch an attack on its ex-Soviet neighbor. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

The Russian Defense Ministry released images of tanks and howitzers rolling onto railway platforms and more tanks rolling across snowy fields. It did not disclose where or when the images were taken, or where the vehicles were headed, other than to places of permanent deployment.

Biden acknowledged the likelihood that sanctions imposed on Russia in retaliation for an invasion would have significant blowback on the American economy, including possible price hikes and disruption to the nations energy supply.

The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost, Biden said. I will not pretend this will be painless.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during their talks in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

He said the administration was trying to preempt supply issues by working with energy producers and shippers on contingency plans. The president said he would work with Congress on unspecified additional measures to protect consumers and address the impact of prices at the pump.

Russian forces continue to threaten Ukraine along the eastern border and from the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula that Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014, the year when it also backed a separatist insurgency in the country's east. More Russian troops loom over Ukraine in Belarus, where they were deployed for sweeping joint drills.

Ukraine expressed skepticism about Russia's statements of a pullback.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, Russian army tanks move back to their permanent base after drills in Russia. In what could be another sign that the Kremlin would like to lower the temperature, Russia's Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

We wont believe when we hear, well believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, well believe in de-escalation," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that so far, we have not seen ... any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine, adding that the alliance wants to see a significant and enduring withdrawal of forces, troops and heavy equipment.

Meanwhile, a series of cyberattacks on Tuesday knocked out the websites of the Ukrainian army, the defense ministry and major banks. There was no indication that the relatively low-level denial-of-service attacks might be a smokescreen for more serious cyber mischief. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. has not yet determined who was behind the attacks.

U.S. Army troops of the 82nd Airborne Division just after arrival at the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport in southeastern Poland, on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. Additional U.S. troops are arriving in Poland after President Joe Biden ordered the deployment of 1,700 and then another 3,000 soldiers here amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some 4,000 U.S. troops have been stationed in Poland since 2017. (AP Photo)

Few Russians expect a war, following the Kremlin's dismissal of Western warnings as hysteria and absurdity.

In a village in Russias Belgorod region, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ukraines border, residents carried on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets.

We are friends with Ukraine," villager Lyudmila Nechvolod said. "We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody there (on the Ukrainian side). No one wants war.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, A Russian tank is loaded onto railway platforms after the end of military drills in South Russia. In what could be another sign that the Kremlin would like to lower the temperature, Russia's Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Diplomatic efforts continued Tuesday.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday about the evolving crisis.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers urged Putin to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russias lower house, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect.

Putin said the request reflects the Russian public's sympathy for the suffering of people trapped in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed over 14,000 since 2014. He noted, however, that Russia continues to believe a 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany should serve as the main vehicle for a settlement of the separatist conflict.

Putin's statement signaled that he wasn't inclined to back the parliament proposal that would effectively invalidate the 2015 agreement, which marked a major diplomatic coup for Moscow and asked Kyiv to offer broad self-rule to the separatist territories. It has been resented by many in Ukraine, and its implementation has stalled.

___

Karmanau reported from Kyiv, Ukraine and Madhani from Washington. Dasha Litvinova in Moscow, Angela Charlton in Paris, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Robert Burns, Matthew Lee and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed.
Archaeologists in Japan have uncovered what may be early Japanese ninja weapons including rocks that may have led to the metal throwing stars beloved by Hollywood and pre-teens. Uncovered during excavations at Iwatsuki Castle and Hachioji Castle, the flat "throwing stones" and clay caltrops may date back to the Siege of Odawara in 1590. From Live Science:

The siege took place during the Sengoku period (1467-1615), a time when Japan was divided between several warlords who battled for power. Historical texts mention ninjas as spies and saboteurs during this time and they likely took part in the siege.

The artifacts include flat throwing stones that may have been the predecessor of the shuriken throwing star and clay caltrops that may be an early form of the makibishi caltrop  a spiky weapon that could injure the feet of soldiers and horses. These artifacts were likely the weapons of a "battle group which can move into action as ninjas," Iwata Akihiro, an archaeologist and curator at the Saitama Prefectual Museum of History and Folklore, told Live Science in an email.
Cotter students Adam Martin (left) and Alison French (right) will perform as part of the Minnesota All State Band and Orchestra.
Winona, MN (55987)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain...mainly in the morning. High 56F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 36F. Winds light and variable.
Beaver Dam Unified School District Superintendent Mark DiStefano said the number of COVID-19 cases in the district are declining.

DiStefano told the board of education Monday night there were 63 confirmed cases over a seven-day period as of Monday in the district and surrounding area. On Jan. 7, there were 262 cases.

The Wisconsin Department of Health website also reports that the hospitalizations for the virus are shrinking.

I think that is the first time both the actual hospitalization and patients in ICU is designated as shrinking, DiStefano said.

As of Monday, the district had seven students who tested positive for COVID and no staff members who tested positive for the virus.

It is the lowest percentage positive we have had since monitoring this, DiStefano said.

DiStefano said all the Dodge County School Districts are reporting less than 1 percent of positive cases in their district.

In response, the administration has scaled back COVID-related alerts and ended the close contact notifications for those who may have been exposed to the virus.

People should be monitoring for symptoms daily and generalized close contact notifications dilute our communication process, DiStefano said.

The district will continue to send updates if there is believed to be an outbreak in a classroom, DiStefano said.

The district will launch a webpage soon as a resource for families who are navigating isolation timelines and have questions related to the virus.

Current recommendations by state and federal health officials still include wearing facemasks, social distancing and getting vaccinated to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But communities that have had mandates in place regarding mask wearing have been reconsidering them and in some cases lifting them in recent days. In Dane County, for example, a mask mandate is expected to expire on March 1.

Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760.

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A Former Portage High School teacher was sentenced after being charged with two counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff in May.

Abby M. Dibbs of Cross Plains, 35, pleaded no contest to one count of sexual assault of student by school staff, a class H felony, on Feb. 7 in Columbia County Court. The second count was dismissed but read in.

Columbia County Judge W. Andrew Voigt accepted the no contest plea and found Dibbs guilty.

Dibbs was an English teacher for the Portage School District. The district released a statement in May stating Dibbs was no longer employed by the district and would not be returning to the classroom.

Portage School District worked with law enforcement after learning of the relationship between Dibbs and a 17-year-old student.

According to the criminal complaint, a Portage Police detective spoke with Dibbs on May 26 about her relationship with a 17-year-old male student at the high school. The complaint says Dibbs admitted that the student came to her residence on Friday and Saturday the weekend before.

She also said they discussed how they felt about each other and how there were lines they couldnt cross, and then they crossed the lines.

The detective also spoke to the student, who said he had sexual intercourse with Dibbs twice over the weekend. The student said he was in love with Dibbs. The victim became upset about the person who snitched, and the victims mother said the person did the right thing because the relationship was not appropriate.

Dibbs must comply with sex offender treatment with the Department of Corrections, comply with the sex offender registry and is allowed contact with minors if supervised by another adult at all times.

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People working out at the YMCA of Dodge County now have a healthy and Wisconsin friendly workout recovery drink thanks to a keen eye of a local dairy farmer.

I noticed the coffee bar and a soda machine next to it, and I thought there is something missing, Lisa Condon, from Condon Dairy Farm said.

Condon is a member of the YMCA and felt milk would be a more nutritious choice for members than the soft drinks.

Condon worked with the Dairy Farms of America and Wisconsin Women for Agriculture to purchase the cooler and keep it stocked.

Katie Holewinski, membership and marketing director, said that when Condon approached her about offering milk that she said it could definitely be done, because they knew the benefits of the drink.

Milk keeps bones and teeth healthy, reduces the risk of osteoporosis, is a great source of calcium, vitamin D, and protein and excellent recovery drink, Holewinski said.

The milk costs 50 cents for a 16-ounce container of chocolate or white. Condon will fill the cooler several times a week. Members can purchase the milk at the front desk.

People are loving it, Holewinski said. I believe milk should be in every Y. If you look at the Olympic athletes, they promote milk over other sugary recovery drinks.

Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760.

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Lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a constitutional amendment that would direct courts to consider past criminal records when setting cash bail, as well as bills that would allow guns in vehicles on school grounds and prohibit some offenders from having dogs.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would likely oppose the measures, which align with Republicans election-year strategy of being tough on crime while expanding Second Amendment rights, though the constitutional amendment would not need Evers approval before going to voters.

The proposed constitutional amendment coming before the Assembly would change the state Constitution by requiring courts to consider alleged violent offenders charges, criminal record and risk to public safety, as well as the need to prevent the intimidation of witnesses, in determining bail amounts.

Judges currently cant 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 proposal is a narrower version of an earlier proposal, which pertained to all alleged offenders, not just violent ones. The original also would have authorized the Legislature to create a law allowing courts to deny release to alleged felony offenders upon finding they pose a threat to the community.

Amendment backer Rep. Cindi Duchow, R-Delafield, said the new proposal comes after Republican lawmakers encouraged her to narrow the scope of the effort.

None of us want innocent people sitting in jail, but we walk a fine line to make sure we dont have violent felons out on the street where they can harm other people, she said. So this way, by tying it back to just violent crime and past violent offenses, were assuring that were not going to just have someone whos a shoplifter sitting in jail.

She said her conversations with the state public defenders office did not play a significant role in her choice to amend the measure.

The public defenders office issued a statement last month 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 proposed constitutional amendment dates to before a man out on bail drove through a Waukesha Christmas parade in November, killing six and injuring more than 60. It was first proposed in 2017 by Duchow and Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, who said the Wisconsin bail system had long needed changes. Wanggaards companion Senate measure was reintroduced in December, and Duchows in January.

To take effect, the amendment would have to pass two consecutive legislative sessions and be approved in a statewide referendum.

I think there will be some debate, but I dont know who doesnt agree that violent offenders with a past violent history should not be out on the street, Duchow said.

Guns at school

With Republican lawmakers saying current law needlessly exposes law-abiding citizens to potential prosecution, the Senate will vote Tuesday on a bill that would allow concealed carry license holders to bring guns in their vehicles on school property.

The bill passed the Assembly last month. It would likely be headed for a veto if the Senate approves it Tuesday.

Bill opponents, including the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, say increased gun access near schools would jeopardize student and faculty safety.

The bills supporters argue that people who forget their weapons in their cars and then drive onto school grounds to drop off or pick up their children should not be at risk for arrest.

Dog ownership

Another bill coming before the Senate Tuesday would prohibit some people with felonies from owning dogs deemed vicious by a humane or law enforcement officer.

For a dog to be deemed vicious, it would need to have seriously injured or killed someone, or twice bitten a person or behaved in a manner that a reasonable person would believe posed a significant, imminent threat of serious physical injury or death to a person.

Under the bill, people with convictions for homicide, felony battery, sexual assault and felony drug possession would face a fine of up to $10,000 and up to six years in prison if their vicious dogs cause significant harm or death.

COVID-19

A bill coming before the Senate would require employers to allow proof of prior COVID-19 infection as an alternative to requiring vaccination and regular testing. The bill passed the Assembly on a party-line vote in January.

Another COVID-19-related bill would prohibit businesses and government from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination before providing services. The bill passed the Assembly on a 60-37 vote last year, with Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, joining Republican lawmakers in voting for it.

Evers, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, would almost certainly veto the bills if they reached his desk.
Fair Finance South Africa launch and briefing

On Monday, 21 February 2022, a new civil society coalition called Fair Finance South Africa hosts a launch and briefing ahead of the Budget Speech

Join us for the launch of Fair Finance South Africa, a civil society coalition that seeks to strengthen the commitment of development finance institutions to human rights standards. The launch takes place on Monday 21 February 2022 from 10:00 and will see coalition members discussing the role of institutions like the Development Bank of Southern Africa, providing comments on fair financing ahead of the Budget Speech and presenting research into the importance of fair financing in promoting human rights and addressing the climate crisis. To attend, please register here.
A New Hampshire man on a cruise ship with his girlfriend had the end of his vacation cut short when police boarded the ship, accused him of stealing a Hertz car, and arrested him. The man, Charles Doucette, who is now in jail for up to 10 days, is one of 230 customers who says Hertz falsely accused him of car theft.

The problem occurs when a customer extends their rental, allowing Hertz to place a hold on their credit card. If the credit card doesn't go through for any reason, Hertz files a police report, according to Inc.

Hertz has tried to keep a lid on the high number (thousands) of police reports they file against customers every year  some of which are legitimate  but on Thursday a judge prevented the company from keeping the information secret.

From Inc.:

Hertz files about 3,365 police reports every year charging customers with car theft after they rented its cars. That number emerged on Thursday, after the car rental company lost a motion in court in its effort to keep the information sealed and out of public view. The number is part of the evidence in an ongoing lawsuit in which more than 100 customers are suing Hertz for $529.7 million in bankruptcy court after they were stopped by police, arrested, and sometimes spent months in jail for "stealing" cars they had simply rented. Most of these theft reports occur when a customer renting a vehicle wants to extend the rental, the lawsuit alleges. The customer calls Hertz to request an extension, and the company places a temporary hold for payment on the credit or debit card the customer used to rent the car. If that hold fails to go through, for instance because a customer is close to their credit-card limit and hasn't yet paid their bill, Hertz reports the car as stolen "by conversion" to local law enforcement, the lawsuit says. After the customer pays up  and even after they return the car  the company does not withdraw the theft report, a Hertz spokesperson told The Philadelphia Inquirer. As a result, at least one former Hertz customer says she learned during a background check that there was an arrest warrant in her name, even though her car rental had been completed and paid for several years earlier, and she had never been notified that there was a problem.

Here is a CBS video report on Doucette's arrest, "the most horrific experience of my life":
Metals from coal ash could be used in components for renewable-energy batteries, cell phones and electric vehicles, among other technologies.
After helping her ex-husband found Amazon while writing an award-winning novel, in 2019 MacKenzie Scott signed on to The Giving Pledge, and started gifting her fortune to charities. In the first two weeks of February she has already donated $171.5 million to 4 hard-working groups. The largest recipient is Communities in Schools.

Forbes:

In February alone, four organizations announced gifts from Scott totaling $171.5 million. The largest donation, $133.5 million, went to Communities in Schools, a non-profit that helps keep at-risk children in schools. The National Council on Aging got $8 million, while mental health non-profit the Jed Foundation and reproductive rights group the Guttmacher Institute received $15 million each.

Notably, Scott didn't publicly announce these donations herself, as she has done in the past. In a December Medium post, Scott said she would not reveal the latest recipients of her donations, arguing that the media focuses too much on her and not on the groups she gives money to. Forbes takes the position that people with billions of dollars at their disposal warrant more scrutiny than average Americans because of the power that money wields. After calls for more transparency, in December Scott wrote that she hopes to launch a website with a searchable grants database this year.
Residents take part in a riddle guessing activity to celebrate the upcoming Lantern Festival in Xingtai, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 14, 2022. [Photo by Zhang Chi/Xinhua]

BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua)  Tuesday marks the traditional Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar and an important occasion for family reunions.

The festival is believed to have originated more than 2,000 years ago, a demonstration of how important the family and family ties are to the Chinese people throughout the centuries.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has on many occasions talked about the significance of the family, stressing integrating the love for the family with the love for the country and incorporating the pursuit of personal goals into the realization of the Chinese Dream.

The following are some highlights of his remarks in this regard:

 The family is the basic unit of society and the first school that we attend in life.

 Regardless of how the times change, or how our lives are transformed, we must remain committed to making our families better, laying emphasis on life, learning and conduct in the home.

 The Chinese nation always places a high value on family, just as the maxim goes, "The root of the world is in the state; the root of the state is in the family." A family in harmony prospers.

 Filial piety at home and loyalty to the country are among the fine traditions of the Chinese nation.

 The prosperity and strength of the country and the rejuvenation of the nation must be ultimately reflected in the happiness of myriads of families and the continuous improvement of the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

(Source: Xinhua)
A driver looks to avoid potholes on Manville Road in Woonsocket last week. The recent snow, ice and extreme swings in temperature have resulted in even more potholes than usual for a Rhode Island winter.
Weather Alert

...LAKE WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM THIS MORNING TO 5 PM CDT THIS AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Southwest winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph expected. * WHERE...Southwest Indiana, southeast Missouri, western Kentucky and southern Illinois. * WHEN...From 9 AM this morning to 5 PM CDT this afternoon. * IMPACTS...Strong winds and rough waves on area lakes will create hazardous conditions for small craft. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Boaters on area lakes should use extra caution since strong winds and rough waves can overturn small craft. &&
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Paul Nadar is one of the famous and talented photographers of his time.

His photographs taken in Azerbaijan are of great importance as documentary evidence of Baku at the end of the 19th century.

The National Art Museum has hosted the conference "Paul Nadar, from Istanbul to Tashkent through the Caucasus".

The conference was timed to the exhibition "Paul Nadar: the Extraordinary Journey to Baku" which runs from December 18, 2021 to February 15, 2022.

The exhibited photographs have been presented in Azerbaijan for the first time.

The project is co-organized by the French Embassy in Azerbaijan and the Institut Francais d'Azerbaidjan in cooperation with the Culture Ministry and the National Art Museum. The exposition is curated by Konul Rafiyeva.

Speaking at the conference, the director of the Institut Francais d'Azerbaidjan Jerome Kelle noted that the event was organized within the framework of cultural ties between Azerbaijan and France.

He pointed out that Paul Nadar is one of the famous and talented photographers of his time.

During his visit to Baku, Paul Nadar captured the city's unique architecture including Gosha-Gala Gate, the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, as well as representatives of the local population.

The exhibition "Paul Nadar: the Extraordinary Journey to Baku" showcases around 70 photographs.

Deputy director for the museum's scientific work, Ph.D. in Art History Khadija Asadova named the exposition one of the museum's brightest projects.

"Until now, many photographers have taken photo works dedicated to the Azerbaijani history and culture, including Paul Nadar. His photographs make it possible to travel through the history of Baku city at the end of the 19th century. It is no coincidence that the exhibition has attracted great public interest since its opening," she added.

In her speech, the project curator Konul Rafiyeva stressed the importance of the project. She underlined that these photographs were printed from original negatives kept in the archives of the French Culture Ministry. Paul Nadar's photo report serves as a documentary about Baku.

"Through his photography, Paul Nadar shows Baku's unique architecture, its local residents, shops and lively markets and much more. Some of the locations in the photographs taken in 1890 are recognizable today while others have completely changed their appearance," said Konul Rafiyeva.

The director of the French Culture Ministry's Architecture and Heritage Media Library, an expert on Nadar collections Mathilde Falguiere took part in the conference virtually.

She contributed to the exhibition catalog "The Nadar Family, Legend of Photography" in 2018 and co-authored the book "Paul Nadar - Pairam, A Dialogue of Photography on the Silk Road".

During the conference, Mathilde Falguiere provided insight into the work and trips of the French photographer.

The conference was followed by various discussions.

Photo credits: Kamran Baghirov

Media partners of the event are Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az and Milli.az.
BY JON HARRIS

Feb. 14, 2022

Biden has big plans for cancer research. Roswell hopes to benefit.

Call it Cancer Moonshot 2.0  at least that's how U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins referred to it.

And it doesn't sound half bad to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

This month, President Biden announced plans to reignite the Cancer Moonshot, with a goal to reduce the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years. Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat and co-chair of the House of Representatives Cancer Caucus, said Biden has asked Congress to approve $6 billion in net new money "to advance promising new treatments."

"I plan on advocating very aggressively for a good chunk of that $6 billion coming to Buffalo and Roswell," Higgins said.

Details still unclear

A $6 billion initiative  should that amount remain unchanged  would dwarf the current Cancer Moonshot program.

Biden has not yet put forward a concrete legislative proposal for Cancer Moonshot 2.0, so it is unclear what its prospects for passage would be. Biden aides have said he will reveal more details in his State of the Union on March 1.

How Roswell fits in

Roswell Park has picked up some of the previous Moonshot funding over the years. A team at Roswell in 2018 landed more than $6 million to establish a critical data center supporting other Moonshot projects, and, a year later, researchers received a five-year, $4.1 million allocation to explore ways to treat ovarian cancer.

Higgins and Roswell Park President and CEO Candace S. Johnson believe the 124-year-old Buffalo institution is well positioned to receive more support.

For example, as part of Biden's announcement on the Cancer Moonshot, the administration also issued a call to action on cancer screening, after more than 9.5 million screenings were missed nationwide as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Statewide, Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposed budget would provide a one-time investment of $4 million to Roswell Park for the procurement of lung cancer screening mobile vans and medical technology that would be dispatched into racially diverse neighborhoods.

Getting screening levels back up is crucial, Johnson said, and the Moonshot funds can help do that, as well as push more innovation in cancer research.

"The beauty of money given for cancer research or any research is what it does, is that the money leads to more money," Johnson said.

 Jon Harris

Catch up on other Roswell news:

Welcome to Day 2 of Buffalo Next. This new newsletter from The Buffalo News will bring you the latest coverage on the changing Buffalo Niagara economy  from real estate to health care to startups. Read more at BuffaloNext.com.

THE LATEST

What: The last few capacity-strained hospitals in Western New York  Erie County Medical Center, Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, Bertrand Chaffee Hospital and UPMC Chautauqua  have been removed from a state list that restricted them from doing elective procedures during the winter Covid-19 surge.

Tell me more: Western New York's other hospitals had already come off the state list in previous weeks.

Why it matters: It's a big deal for patients and hospitals. For patients, especially those who may have had procedures delayed, they can get back on the surgical schedule. For hospitals, the return of moneymaking elective procedures could provide a financial boost.

FOLLOW UP

In late December, we brought you the story of Albert and Sally Hulin, a local couple who have been married more than 70 years but, for over a year, had been in separate nursing homes because their family couldn't find one facility to take both of them due to industrywide staffing challenges.

Some good news to report: Their grandson, Connor Kolb, said Sally Hulin was moved into the same nursing home as her husband on Feb. 3.

"The family is very thankful and relieved that they are finally in the same place," Kolb said.

ICYMI

Three reads from Buffalo Next:

1. How a Buffalo startup hopes to take on DoorDash and GrubHub: A Buffalo-based food delivery service hopes its new app can take on national food delivery services such as DoorDash and GrubHub by undercutting the fees charged by the big companies.

2. Why a group of WNY primary care practices formed a joint venture with private-equity backing: The joint venture is part of a larger shift in the industry toward value-based care, geared toward improving quality and patient outcomes.

3. From the editor: Introducing Buffalo Next: expanded coverage of Buffalo's resurgence: More reporters, deeper reporting, broader thinking and new kinds of storytelling from The Buffalo News' business team.

The Buffalo Next team gives you the big picture on the regions economic revitalization. Email Business of Health Care reporter Jon Harris at jharris@buffnews.com.

Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com.

Buffalo Next Must-read local business coverage that exposes the trends, connects the dots and contextualizes the impact to Buffalo's economy. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
A view from Clwyd Souths Member of the Senedd

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 15th, 2022

Wrexham.com has invited Wrexham & Clwyd South constituency Members of Parliament and Members of the Senedd to write a monthly article with updates on their work in Parliament and the Senedd, and closer to home. (You can view an archive here).

Clwyd South MS Ken Skates writes

It was a pleasure to attend Wrexhams UK City of Culture 2025 submission event to represent Wrexhams MS Lesley Griffiths.

It has been fantastic to see so many people and so many different organisations get behind the bid, as the only Welsh entrant on the final shortlist.

I raised the Wrecsam 2025 bid in the Senedd just before Christmas, and was very pleased to hear Economy Minister Vaughan Gething voice his support and say he believed it could be a catalyst for investment into the county borough. The Minister also said his officials would explore opportunities to collaborate on showcase events for 2025 should Wrexham be successful.

Im proud that the First Minister is also backing the campaign.

In the Senedd earlier this month, I repeated my calls for rail to be fully devolved to Wales.

While transport is devolved, responsibility for track, station infrastructure and signalling remains with the UK Government at Westminster. Over the past 20 years, Wales has had less than 2% of the 102bn that the UK Government has spent on improvements  and thats despite us having 5% of the population and 11% of the track miles.

Wales share of the 100bn being spent on HS2 rail infrastructure should be around 5bn, but we are not seeing a penny because the UK Government says the line from London to Birmingham is going to benefit Wales. Our bid for investment on the Wrexham-Bidston line has also been ignored.

HS2 should be reclassified as an England-only scheme  which would generate huge consequential funds for Wales, and the most straightforward way to address the historic underfunding of our railways would be to devolve all responsibilities and appropriate funding to the Welsh Government.

The issue of buses, which is an important one in Clwyd South, has also been raised again recently.

De-regulation of the industry by the UK Government hasnt worked. The subsequent deterioration in bus provision throughout Wales has damaged local economies and left communities isolated.

Wales now has the powers to put this right and develop a stronger regulatory system for bus services, and I am pleased that the Welsh Government has signalled its intent to a deliver a new, fairer deal for passengers which puts them  and not company shareholders  at the heart of policy.

I look forward to hearing more about the Welsh Governments plans to right this wrong.

As chair of the Senedds Cross Party Group on Mental Health, it was brilliant to welcome Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Lynne Neagle, to our meeting earlier this month.

Ahead of Time to Talk Day on February 3, it was a very welcome opportunity to hear the Minister reflect on her first eight months in the role, which was newly created by the First Minister last year, and discuss her priorities and plans for improving the nations mental health.

I was also delighted to welcome Richard Parks and ITV Wales to Clwyd South to film for their upcoming documentary Climbing Out of Covid, which airs in March.

Richard is an inspiration, and his work around mental health is crucial. The past couple of years have been extremely difficult for a lot of people, but together we can emerge stronger.

I held my latest virtual surgery on Friday, January 28, and another is planned for Friday, March 4.

Appointments can be held over the phone or via Zoom, and can be booked by contacting my office. The easiest way is to email ken.skates@senedd.wales, or you can call 0300 200 7114 or send a message through my Facebook page. If all the slots get filled early and you are unable to get an appointment, my team and I will still be able to take up your case as normal.

I have also held recent street surgeries in Chirk and Plas Madoc with local councillors Frank Hemmings and Paul Blackwell. These door-to-door engagement sessions are a really useful addition to regular surgeries and provide another valuable opportunity to speak directly with constituents who might not normally reach out about all manner of local and national issues.

You can find regular updates on my Facebook page and sign up to my weekly newsletters here.

Wrexham.com has invited Wrexham & Clwyd South constituency Members of Parliament and Members of the Senedd to write a monthly article with updates on their work in Parliament and the Senedd, and closer to home. (You can view an archive here).
Technical scientific advice and data behind latest pandemic regulation review published

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 15th, 2022

The latest technical advice given to Welsh Government has been published, giving an insight to the pandemic which has become rarer due to the lack of PCR testing after a move to Lateral Flow Testing.

The latest advice document from the Technical Advisory Cell (TAC) has been published, although public now the document is dated the 10th, a comparatively quick publication compared to some during the pandemic and ties in with the timeframes of the most recent regulation review.

The Technical Advisory Cell (TAC) is a conduit and interpretation group, interpreting UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) outputs into a Welsh context, relay relevant information and questions from Welsh Government to SAGE as well as feed the information to groups such as Local Resilience Fora.

Data and points made in the document match up with what was said at the Welsh Government briefing, specifically in terms of the current covid rates in Wales, and the decrease as measured and reported by the ONS survey, the increase in cases noted by the Covid Zoe studies, and the wastewater monitoring taking place reporting stable figures.

Other notes in the document summary include:

As at 8th February the total number of COVID patients occupying a hospital bed (confirmed, suspected and recovering) have increased slightly, with the total at 1101.

The number of confirmed COVID patients in hospital has decreased to 545. COVID related patients occupying a critical care bed have continued to reduce to 18, 8 lower than last week and the lowest number since the 17th July 2021.

The total occupied core and surge beds in a critical care environment was 168, this is 16 higher than the pre-COVID baseline of 152 for critical care beds and 3 higher than the same day last week.

As at 4 February the number of weekly COVID-19 deaths reported by PHW has remained stable in the most recent weeks at 47 deaths, while lagged ONS reporting up to 28 January shows reduction in COVID deaths to 60 and the total number of deaths was 12.4% below the five-year average (103 fewer deaths). Compared with the 2015 to 2019 (pre-pandemic) five-year average, deaths in Wales were 9.1% below average (73 fewer deaths).

On vaccines 23,642 doses were given in the week reporting. 3,389 were first doses, 4,600 were second doses, 15,307 were booster doses and 346 were third dose primary courses for immunosuppressed individuals.

Gaps in vaccination coverage continue to reduce but at a slower rate than recent months, with the lowest coverage in the unknown, African, Black Caribbean and Mixed ethnic groups. Vaccination coverage at the time of delivery in pregnant women delivering in the latest month has improved considerably but remains lower than in the general population.

No other variants of concern were confirmed by genomic sequencing in Wales.

The R figure, indicating the reproductive rate of the virus and an indicator of growth/contraction is estimated to be between 0.8 and 1.o based off UKHSA data, however Public Health Wales figure appears more confident at 0.85 with a halving time of 31 days.

The report also gives the outcomes of the most recent Public Health Wales engagement survey, explaining that 47% of people said they had been following the restrictions completely and a further 38% reported mostly complying. 49% of people said they had taken a lateral flow test in the past 7 days. 67% of people thought the restrictions in place to manage coronavirus were about right.

However, 34% thought they were too much, an increase from 12% in December 2021. The remaining 8% thought the restrictions were too little. 85% of people said they supported the continued requirement for face coverings in shops and other indoor public places in Wales. However 13% said they did not, an increase from 5% in December 2021.

Detail on the effectiveness of the vaccine is discussed and studies cited to back up the views provided, UKHSAs updated vaccine surveillance report shows the almost total waning of protection against symptomatic disease with 2 doses at 25 weeks is reversed by booster vaccination, which is 60-75% 2-4 weeks after vaccination but drops to 25- 40% from 15 weeks after the booster. Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation following a boost remains high at 90% at 4 weeks, falling to around 80% for Pfizer at 10-14 weeks and 90% for Moderna at 5-9 weeks.

Early data from Israel, which in January began administering a fourth dose to people aged 60+ and at-risk populations, suggests compared to three doses given at least four months previously a fourth dose reduces the rate of confirmed infection by a factor of two and the rate of severe disease by a factor of four, with wide confidence intervals for the latter.

A look ahead is given, with it made clear it is scenarios and specifically not predictions, to illustrate possible courses of pandemic based off this two page report. One example of four given for a central optimistic scenario details a scenario-not-a-prediction of, The UK sees a seasonal wave of infections in Autumn/Winter with comparable size and realised severity to the current Omicron wave. The general pattern is of annual seasonal infection with good and bad years, the latter with high transmissibility and intrinsic severity similar to Delta. Voluntary protective behaviours are high during waves. Some countries impose NPIs (e.g., face coverings) in bad years. Anti-viral resistance begins to appear and limits use until combination therapies become available.

The next review point is set to be announced on the 25th of February with similar data likely to emerge a week or two afterwards.
Wrexham man on heart transplant list urges families to discuss organ donation

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 15th, 2022

Families across Wales are being urged to have heart-to-heart about organ donation.

There are more than 300 people, including over 40 children, currently on the waiting list for a heart transplant.

While heart transplants have continued throughout the pandemic, with only seven per cent less in 2020/21 compared to the year before, the waiting list for a heart transplant has risen 85 per cent in the last decade, from 169 patients in March 2012 to 313 in March 2021.

30-year-old Ryan Gabb from Wrexham has been waiting on the heart transplant waiting list since May 2018.

His was turned upside down in September 2017 when he suddenly became very unwell.

I had been feeling unwell for a few weeks, just general tiredness and flu type symptoms that I couldnt shake off, explained Ryan.

It was gradually getting worse and I was starting to become breathless too.

Knowing something wasnt right, I borrowed a friends Fitbit to check my heart rate and it was over 100, I knew I needed to get checked out, so I left work early and went to the doctors.

The GP sent me straight to the local hospital where I was told I had Dilated Cardiomyopathy and I would likely need a heart transplant.

I couldnt believe what I was hearing and was in complete shock, I knew I hadnt been well but was not expecting anything so serious.

Ryan was monitored over the next few days however, five days later, he was airlifted in a helicopter to Manchester after going into cardiogenic shock.

He was added to the urgent heart waiting list but then had an LVAD  emergency heart pump fitted  before being relisted for transplant again in May 2018.

Ryan explains: I am doing pretty well at the moment with the LVAD but waiting for a transplant can be hard, there is a constant need to have my phone with me and I need a regular electricity supply so my LVAD batteries can be charged.

The worry of power cuts is always in the back of my mind.

I have been told I could have a long wait for a heart which is hard to hear in your mid-twenties. I had to finish my job as it was quite physical.

I hope the year ahead can bring some normality and I also hope more people will discuss organ donation with their families and register their decision.

You never know when or who might need that help.

I used to be a regular blood donor and I also joined the NHS Organ Donor Register when I was 18. I thought both were important, but I never expected that my life would change so much.

Even though the law around organ donation has now moved to an opt out system across England, Wales, and Scotland, many people are still not aware that families will still always be consulted before organ donation goes ahead.

While families are more likely, and find it easier, to support donation when they know it is what their loved one wanted, only 43 per cent of the UK population have registered their decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register and just 38% say that they have shared their organ donation decision with their family.

Now families across Wales are being urged to have a conversation with each other on organ donation.

Anthony Clarkson, Director of Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: Thousands of people across the UK are waiting for the call that a donor has been found to save or transform their life, and hundreds of them need a heart transplant.

We encourage everyone to have that heart-to-heart now.

Talk to your family and tell them your organ donation decision, leave them certain of it. And make sure you know what they would want too, so you can support their decision.

For more information, or to register your organ donation decision, please visit: www.organdonation.nhs.uk or call 0300 123 23 23. NHS app users can also use the service to record, check or update their organ donation decision.
With Douglas Jemal moving forward with plans to redevelop the Mohawk Ramp and former Simon Electric properties in downtown Buffalo, Iskalo Development Corp. is looking to start work on properties that border the Washington, D.C., developer's holdings.

Iskalo owns properties on East Huron and Oak streets, anchored by the former Old Editions Book Shop at 68 Huron and the former Farthing Press building at 260-262 Oak.

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Those properties  which Williamsville-based Iskalo acquired in recent years  are vacant but had already been targeted for reuse even before Jemal bought the Simon Electric properties on Ellicott Street and won the development rights last week to Mohawk. Iskalo also owns the nearby Electric Tower, Big Ditch Brewing and a parking lot and ramp, giving it significant real estate interests in the area.

Iskalo hasn't taken action on its newest buildings yet. However, Jemal's initial purchase of the Simon properties last year prompted Iskalo officials to meet with him and his architects from Antunovich Associates, "to talk about how our assemblage could relate to his, how you could do a project that feeds off each other," said Iskalo Executive Vice President David Chiazza.

Chiazza said the preliminary discussions involved "high-level concepts," rather than anything concrete, and that his firm had been waiting on the Mohawk decision before proceeding. He said they've been "playing around with different ideas," which could include development "that is cohesive and relates to each other and creates something that is bigger than either one."

He said he expects that "we'll convene again to talk about how we'll advance our respective plans."

"Were pleased that they got the decision, because that will help facilitate our conversations perhaps sooner rather than later," Chiazza said. "We expect to have fruitful and robust conversations with them."

Jemal plans to spend more than $100 million to redevelop the parking ramp and Simon properties together into 600 apartments and 800 parking spaces, plus retail and restaurant space, and a mobility hub. The redevelopment is expected to occur in phases over five to 10 years.

Iskalo owns 68-72 E. Huron and 254-262 Oak, including buildings wrapping around the corner of the two streets and heading north on Oak. The four-story blond- and red-brick Old Editions complex is the largest and the one Iskalo is most eager to get started on by "refreshing" the first two floors where the bookstore was located and then considering what to do with the upper levels.

"That building doesn't need to wait for anything else to get it ready to go, so that's our first priority," Chiazza said.

Meanwhile, the properties Jemal acquired from Bert Simon consist of seven buildings on Ellicott, Huron and Oak, totaling 1.8 acres and 80,500 square feet.

"He clearly has the bigger assemblage," Chiazza said of Jemal's holdings. "We tried for many years to get that, but he got the number that Mr. Simon would accept."

Part of those properties back up to Iskalo's holdings and are across from Big Ditch. The 629-space Mohawk Ramp at 477 Washington sits just to the south.

"We have a shared property line, between our assemblage and theirs," Chiazza said. "The question is what do we do at the shared property line."

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If you are a railroad worker at BNSF or another company, contact the WSWS with your comments.

A BNSF worker was killed in a rail yard accident in Denver, Colorado, on Wednesday, February 9. The worker, whose name has not been released, died after being struck by a train at the companys Globeville yard, which is north of Coors Field. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the accident.

This tragedy took place one day after US District Judge Mark T. Pittman extended a restraining order that forbids BNSF workers to strike over the companys new Hi-Viz attendance policy. The policy, which the company imposed unilaterally on February 1, allots each worker 30 points and deducts points for every time that a worker takes off from work, regardless of the reason. To earn points back, workers must be on call 24 hours per day for at least two weeks straight. The policy is being used to discipline or fire workers who lose their points and to ensure that workers are available for duty at almost all times.

BNSF Corwith rail yard with downtown Chicago in background (Photo by Richard Hurd, distributed under a CC-BY 2.0 license)

Even before the new policy was enacted, many BNSF workers did not have predictable schedules or assigned days off. The new policy will exacerbate workers difficulties in scheduling doctors appointments, spending time with their families or even getting needed sleep. An inevitable consequence of the policy will be an increase in workers fatigue, which will in turn increase the risk of serious accidents and deaths.

Three BNSF workers have died in the past year alone. In April 2021, conductor Buddy Strieker died in a switching accident while working at a customer facility in Louisiana, Missouri. Strieker was 56 years old and had worked for the company for more than 24 years.

In March, 2021, a worker was killed while working at the La Mirada rail yard near Los Angeles, California. Emergency personnel determined that two trains had converged and crushed the worker. Both deaths became the subject of NTSB investigations.

In 2021, four BNSF workers died on duty. This was half of the total worker fatalities for the entire railroad industry last year.

Many factors contribute to these accidents and fatalities. One factor is the relentless cost-cutting that the railroads, like every other industry, carry out to increase profits for their owners and shareholders. Another contributing factor is the increased deregulation of the industry. One turning point in this process was the 1996 dissolution of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which had been established in 1887 to regulate the railroads.

This deregulation has abetted an increase in mergers within the industry. BNSF itself is the product of a merger of the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. This merger was completed in 1996the year that the ICC was dissolved. BNSF is majority owned by billionaire Warren Buffett.

By requiring workers to be at the companys beck and call, BNSFs new Hi-Viz attendance policy will dramatically increase their stress, overwork, and fatigue. These conditions will only make fatal accidents more likely. Data compiled by a BNSF worker indicated that resignations had increased to an average of 31 per week shortly after the policy was introduced, with 57 workers resigning last week. Workers are seeking other jobs, and some are openly expressing thoughts about suicide.

Most BNSF workers are members of the Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) union or the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET). Opposed to any serious mobilization of workers to the Hi-Viz policy, the unions are enforcing the restraining order that BNSF obtained. Not only are the unions forbidding workers to strike, they also have instructed them not to make any comments at all to the press, essentially stripping workers of their right to free speech.

In addition to acting as policemen for the company, SMART-TD and BLET are diverting workers attention to the courts. The unions are filing legal appeals that they know will be fruitless, since the company is overseen by the Railway Labor Act of 1926. This act has made strikes illegal, for all practical purposes, for nearly a century. Indeed, in its latest legal filings, BNSF gloated that the courts routinely decide in favor of the railroads and that its victory in this dispute is a foregone conclusion.

To further distract workers attention from their treachery, SMART-TD and BLET have appealed to the Biden administration for help. The unions have argued that the companys new policy compromises worker safety, knowing full well that Biden has subordinated workers safety, and even lives, to the interests of profit. His administration is ending the few remaining public health measures put in place to control the pandemic and has even ended its requirement that hospitals report daily COVID-19 deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The conduct of SMART-TD and BLET during this struggle clearly illustrates that these organizations are engaged in a pantomime to cover up their activity as agents of BNSF. Even if workers opposition pushed the unions into declaring a strike, the unions leadership would quickly isolate and suffocate the strike to protect the companys profits. For workers to conduct a genuine struggle, they must form independent rank-and-file committees, controlled democratically by workers themselves, to mobilize BNSF and all railroad workers in a common fight to end these conditions of exploitation.

If you are a railroad worker at BNSF or another company, contact the WSWS with your comments.
Ofsted, the UK schools inspectorate, has complained of a COVID-19 induced bubble mentality that is making school pupils reluctant to return to school.

The bubble cited was the practice of dividing classes and year groups into smaller groups to mitigate school transmissions of COVID-19. This was ended last July and government guidance now insists that pupils should only miss school if they have tested positive themselves or have symptoms and are awaiting the results of a PCR test.

Ofsteds report, Securing Good Attendance and Tackling Persistent Absence, complains that the bubble mentality persists with the result that attendance in state-funded schools fell to 87.4 percent on January 20, with 415,000 pupils off for Covid-related reasons. Pre-pandemic, the overall absence rate in 2018-19 was 4.7 percent.

Ofsted acknowledges that the overwhelming reason for absence was children infected with COVID but complains that parents and pupils anxieties are also having an impact, with children unnecessarily being kept home after being in contact with an infected person.

Lisa Diaz with her children (Credit: Lisa Diaz)

It says that parents and pupils are not keeping to government guidelines because they are finding it hard to move on from the bubble-isolation mentality. It blames some parents (an unspecified number) for using the pandemic as an excuse to keep children at home by claiming they have possible Covid.

The report was published amid a vast increase in rates of infectivity among children especially. In the last week of January, one in eight primary pupils had COVIDthe highest prevalence for any age group at any stage during the pandemic. Among secondary pupils, the infection rate was 7.6 percent for those in years 7 to 11one in 15. This compares to an overall rate of one in 20 people in England.

This is a direct result of abandoning all mitigations. The government officially ended guidance for mask wearing in schools on January 20, leading to the explosion in cases. Now Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who demanded let the bodies pile high, no more fucking lockdowns, is enforcing his pledge through plans to abolish all COVID mitigations, including the legal requirement to isolate after testing positive, from February 24 in England.

In blaming a bubble mentality for school absences, Ofsted turns reality on its head. As far as the inspectorate is concerned, the problem is not the spread of COVIDthe consequence of the criminal policy of herd immunity that has patently failed to produce immunitybut parent/pupils anxiety.

The report is especially grotesque given that Ofsted had largely suspended inspections for an extended period because it considered schools so unsafe due to COVID. Nonetheless, it has consistently argued that staff and pupils can be exposed to the danger.

That the body responsible for maintaining standards in educational facilities expresses no concern whatsoever with the health and wellbeing of those whose welfare it is supposedly supporting is criminal.

January saw a record number of child COVID deaths, with 16 children dying in Englands hospitals. It was the highest number since the pandemic began and followed a previous record in December when 14 children died. Among the child fatalities in January, four were aged 0-4 years. On February 5, another child, a little girl aged 0-4 died bringing the total number of child deaths to 148 in UK.

According to Long Covid Kids, 48 percent of all child COVID deaths have occurred since the cynically named COVID Freedom Day on July 21, 2021. One in 13 of all COVID hospital admissions is a child aged 0-19 years. One in 23 deaths of 519-year-olds involved Covid-19.

Tens of thousands suffer long term health problems with 117,000 children and young people now living with Long COVID. One in 470 of all UK 211-year-olds are symptomatic for three months, and one in 380 1216-year-olds for one year.

The Ofsted report is based on a lie: that the pandemic is all but over and peoples concerns are irrational. A further 41,270 positive COVID cases in the UK were reported Sunday, together with 52 deaths within 28 days of a positive test. The decline in positive daily reported cases is largely due to the abandonment of testing requirements, making it harder to obtain PCR tests. Office for National Statistics data based on swabs collected from randomly selected households, suggests infection levels remain high.

There is no scientific basis for ending all COVID restrictions. Scientists have responded with horror to the governments plans, with demands that the governments chief scientific advisers, Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance, present the evidence on which this is based.

The UK Health Security Agency has said it is officially tracking a super-mutant Deltacron variant, thought to have evolved in a patient who caught Delta and Omicron at the same time. The agency said it did not know how infectious or severe the new variant is, and whether it can escape vaccines but said it was not concerned because case numbers are low. It did not reveal these numbers.

The attack on a COVID bubble mentality is politically motivated. The Ofsted report follows demands by Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi for a close examination into low attendance rates in schools in England, as part of his insistence that we must do everything we can to keep schools open.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has backed the ending of all restrictions by the end of this month because we cannot eradicate this virus and its future variants. Instead, we must learn to live with COVID in the same way we have to live with flu.

This murderous policy faces significant resistance. A YouGov poll found three-quarters of the 4,500 Britons surveyed believe the self-isolation requirement after a COVID-19 positive test should remain in place. It is this instinctive and healthy opposition that is the target of the Ofsted report.

Parents such as Lisa Diaz and Sarah Paxman have been threatened with fines, prosecution and even imprisonment for their justified efforts to protect their children from unsafe schools.

Sarah Paxman with son Stanley (Credit: Sarah Paxman)

The real reason for keeping schools open and ending all mitigations is ensuring parents can be forced into unsafe workplaces to guarantee the profits of the corporations and super-rich. In the right-wing Telegraph, Matthew Lynn cited the Ofsted report as proof of a widespread reluctance to leave the Covid cocoon [that] is toxic when combined with our me, me, me culture.

Until we can break free of the shadow of lockdown the country will never get back to normal, nor get anywhere close to its full potential, he wrote. And the problem is not confined to schools with the bubble mentality blending into an already egocentric me culture that insists that life should revolve around the individual employee and their personal needs, rather than the needs of the customer, the company or the public.

The condemnation of prioritising lives, health and wellbeing as egocentric and toxic speaks to the fascistic mindset in ruling circles. But it goes unchallenged by the Labour Party and trade unions who agree that the bottom line is preventing disruption to the economy.

A joint statement by the main education unions complains that the government has withdrawn mitigations prematurely leaving schools and colleges exposed to high case rates and severe educational disruption. Its proposed measures to slow the spread of COVID in schools, consists of advice on masks, social distancing, risk assessments and other mitigations already abandoned by government.

The removal of all measures against the pandemic exposes the class issues involved in the fight against COVID. As the WSWS explained, In the third year of the pandemic, the fight for the global elimination of COVID must be connected to a mass social, political and revolutionary movement of the working class, which has as its aim the complete restructuring of social and economic life. At its most fundamental level, the pandemic has exposed the bankruptcy of capitalism and, therefore, the necessity for socialism.
Rapidly rising infection levels are having an increasingly serious impact on the situation in health and care facilities.

On Friday alone, more than 206,000 people in Germany became infected and 196 died. At the same time, the German government is preparing to lift the remaining, already completely inadequate, protective measures. Like governments across Europe, the federal coalition under Chancellor Olaf Scholz (Social Democratic Party, SPD) is deliberately accepting mass illness and death.

Protest for better care in front of the Berlin Senate Administration on 29 May 2020 (Photo: Leonhard Lenz/CC0 1.0)

Massive outbreaks are already commonplace. In a nursing home in Heidelberg, 34 residents and two employees recently tested positive for coronavirus. In a care facility in Lichtenfels, Bavaria, 75 people have been infected. In addition, 42 residents and 33 employees have tested positive, according to the operator.

In Schleswig-Holstein, a coronavirus outbreak was reported in a retirement home in the municipality of Tarp, with 65 residents and 19 employees becoming infected. In a facility in Wahlstedt, 54 of the 89 residents and 30 of 39 employees were infected. Here, the outbreak was caused by the significantly more contagious Omicron subvariant BA.2. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), 20 percent of infections in Germany are now due to this variant.

In a care facility in Horb (Baden-Wurttemberg), 15 residents and 10 staff members have been infected in a new outbreak. A few weeks ago, nine residents died following an outbreak. The list could go on and on.

The numerous infections lead to an enormous loss of staff, which further aggravates the staff shortage that has been rampant in the nursing professions for years.

In Thuringia, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs, this is no longer achieved in 40 percent of facilities. In 129 of 328 homes, the staff quota is below 50 percent, as reported by the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Among them are 49 facilities that employ only between 30 and 45 percent specialised staff. Many facilities are not accepting new residents due to a lack of staff. According to broadcaster rbb, several facilities in Cottbus, Brandenburg and the surrounding area have already done so.

The situation is similar in hospitals. At the Bonhoeffer Hospital in Neubrandenburg, for example, one in 10 employees is absent because of a coronavirus infection or is in quarantine. Only urgent emergencies are currently admitted there. At the Sudstadtklinikum in Rostock, so many doctors and nurses are absent due to COVID-19 that one ward has already been closed. According to the medical director, there are plans to close another ward.

The situation in Berlin is equally dire. Here, the hospitalisation incidence rate is over 25 per 100,000 inhabitants, which means it has risen by 5 points within one week. This is also associated with a strong increase in bed occupancy in normal wards. The state-owned Vivantes hospitals are currently treating 331 COVID-19 patients, 53 more than a week ago (as of Friday). At the same time, the sickness rate among staff is twice as high as usual.

The picture is similar at the Charite, which cares for most coronavirus patients in the capital. According to the German Red Cross (DRK), its hospitals also do not expect the situation to ease in the short term.

Nevertheless, the SPD-Left Party-Green Berlin Senate (state executive) is pushing ahead with its reopening course. The SPD, the Greens and the Left Party have decided on generous relaxations of protective measures for large events, which came into force on February 12. Others are to follow from February 19.

Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) said that the Senate was currently consulting with virologist Christian Drosten on an exit strategy from the coronavirus measures. Drosten had recently claimed there was no alternative to the unscrupulous herd immunity policies of the federal and state governments.

While the governing parties continue to push the policy of deliberate mass infection, even the existing vaccination options are being cut back on cost grounds. Plans are currently being discussed to close five state-run vaccination centres. This would reduce capacity in vaccination centres from 17,000 vaccinations to only 3,600. Of 23 mobile vaccination teams, only 12 are to be retained.

The emerging discussion about compulsory vaccination for medical and nursing professions must also be seen against this background. More and more politicians and media outlets are running up a storm against the introduction of compulsory vaccination, according to which, from March 15, employees in hospitals and nursing homes must be fully vaccinated and otherwise are no longer allowed to work in those settings.

It is not possible to stop the pandemic through vaccination alone. Nevertheless, mass vaccination is imperative, especially in the health sector. As outbreaks have shown time and again, if an infected person works with elderly or sick people in a home or hospital, the consequences can be disastrous. Therefore, the requirement that they be vaccinated is legitimate and necessary. Anyone who refuses to be inoculated despite having access to a vaccine will inevitably not be allowed to work in these areas.

Numerous media outlets and politicians are now arguing that compulsory vaccination would lead to mass layoffs in nursing homes and further aggravate the staffing situation. Bavarias head of government Markus Soder (Christian Social Union, CSU) had announced that there would be generous transitional arrangements, which is tantamount to refusing to implement the law.

Saxonys state premier Michael Kretschmer (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) has also pleaded for a postponement of compulsory vaccination. The trade unions are also largely in favour of this course. Frank Werneke, head of the Verdi union, warned last year against stigmatising unvaccinated people in this context.

This argumentation is mendacious and reactionary. In fact, more than 85 percent of medical and nursing staff are already fully vaccinated, which is well above the general vaccination rate. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the rate is over 92 percent. In some cities it is over 95 percent.

That there is a significant proportion of vaccination sceptics among nurses and doctors is simply not true. The fact that employees are still not vaccinated is usually because there is no systematic vaccination campaign. Many auxiliary workers in the care sector live under precarious conditions, have a migration background, and lack German language skills.

Moreover, it is not because of compulsory vaccination that dismissals occur, but exactly the opposite. The complete inaction of those responsible has led to thousands of dismissals and career changes by nurses in the last two years. For decades, public health care has been privatised and cut to the bone. The pandemic has added the constant threat of infection and its possible consequences to the mix of poor pay and miserable working conditions.

Health workers must reject the right-wing campaign against compulsory vaccination. Moreover, to prevent a collapse of the health system and the permanent overburdening of health workers, it is necessary to oppose the herd immunity policies of the establishment parties.
John Christopher Saraceno [Credit: Family obituary/legacy.com]

John Saraceno passed away at the age of 62 on January 31 while working at Dana Incorporateds Fort Wayne plant. Dana is a major auto parts supplier and Fortune 500 company.

According to his obituary, he is survived by his wife, Patricia Saraceno of Fort Wayne; daughters, Angela (Zach) Gibson and Jacquelin Saraceno both of Fort Wayne; granddaughter, Alora; and siblings, Patty Gavirilis, Linda Bowers, and Michael Saraceno. He worked as a mechanic for over seven years at the plant.

His death struck his fellow workers deeply. While the cause of death was not made public by the family, neither the United Steelworkers (USW) nor Dana have provided any substantive details to workers. Beside a brief listing on the USW Local 903 website, workers only heard about the incident by word of mouth. Those working at the plant that day reported it to the World Socialist Web Site.

According to a fellow worker, John Saraceno was sitting at a break table with another worker when she noticed he was not looking well. But he said he was okay and went back to work.

Another worker had only kind words to say about him. Yes I was there, not sure what happened to John. Spoke to him just about every day  good guy. Many workers were shocked that his death was not widely discussed by management.

A second-tier production worker told the World Socialist Web Site, He was on second shift in the garage, and it took first responders more than six minutes to get to him because the speakers are hard to hear. [It is] messed up in places throughout the plant.

A seniority worker described the ongoing issues with safety. The door for the ambulance hasnt worked from the day it was installed. It was reported to [Dana] management two times; nothing came of that. The safety director here is a joke; workers dont even get basic safety training.

Dana said they were bringing outside contractors for the PA systems, but things have not changed, he continued. Supervisors drive around in these carts taking pictures of people to get them fired rather than checking on the health of workers.

The mask to the O2 bottle wasnt in the bag, the worker reported. The wrench to turn on the O2 was not easy to find. Since this happened the AED [automated defibrillator] hasnt been put back in case of another incident.

Sarcastically, he remarked, Very nice that no card has been passed around [by Dana]. Shows how little they care about us.

The circumstances of Saracenos death remain unclear, but in light of the longstanding safety issues at the plant, the apparent eagerness to sweep it under the rug, and the unfolding social catastrophe of the pandemic in the background, workers have every right to want to know more about what precisely happened to their friend and fellow worker.

Saracenos death occurred during a period when significant numbers of workers are dying from COVID as well as other industrial accidents. Meanwhile, according to a US Labor Department Office of the Inspector General report issued in 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration [ OSHA ] conducted 50 percent fewer on-site inspections and issued fewer than 300 COVID violations in 2020, even though complaints increased by 15 percent and state workplace safety agencies issued five times as many citations and fines as OSHA.

Early September 2021, a production worker at Danas Fort Wayne plant handling parts inside a robot cage stepped on a loose controller cord, fell and slammed her head twice on the concrete floor. After management sent her back to work despite her injuries, the following week she collapsed from a seizure and was sent to the emergency room but was sent back to work once again. In the same month, workers say they were sprayed with a chemical disinfectant, Aspen One Step, supposedly to prevent the spread of COVID, despite the chemical having serious warnings regarding inhalation or bodily exposure. Workers were held on the line while they began to suffer from headaches and nausea.

Dana Fort Wayne [Credit: WSWS media]

Workers are subject to dangers when climbing into confined areas to handle parts when machines break down. The USW has largely acquiesced to these conditions.

Last month, the USW announced they would ratify the contract that was overwhelmingly rejected by workers at Fort Wayne. For months the USW claimed they were waiting on national leadership for instruction. To crush the opposition, the union is now using legalistic loopholes to enforce the contract, stating that the bylaws were not drawn up by lawyers.

The seniority worker told the World Socialist Web Site that workers are facing a struggle on two fronts, against both the union bureaucracy and management. Dana has no regards or respect for employees, he said.

Now with the contract being ratified, the union is going back and changing things with the company and contract, he continued. Workers dont have benefits and wages are cut. With last weeks storm, workers should have been allowed to leave much earlier than 7 p.m. It jeopardizes safety. COVID seems like it slowed down in the plant, but its still going around since all of the counties are in red.

According to the Indiana COVID-19 dashboard, almost all counties outside of four are designated red, meaning 200 or higher weekly cases per 100,000 residents. In Allen County, where the Fort Wayne plant is located, weekly cases are at 390 per 100,000 residents. With the possibility of further surges of the coronavirus and new variants, the states official death toll of 21,335itself an underestimate, based on models of unreported deathshas the potential to increase substantially.
The lease on a state-funded $200 million drug manufacturing plant in Dunkirk is now in the hands of a California immunotherapy company controlled by a billionaire biotech entrepreneur.

That's after ImmunityBio Inc. on Tuesday completed its $40 million acquisition of the leasehold interest in the Dunkirk plant from Buffalo-based biopharmaceutical firm Athenex. The state built the 409,000-square-foot facility for Athenex, before the company ran into a series of regulatory setbacks that have dented company finances.

It's a big deal on a couple of fronts.

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For one, ImmunityBio assumes Athenex's major hiring and investment obligations in Dunkirk with the state. That at least gives taxpayers a chance to get a return on investment from a previous and controversial era of New York economic development policy that opted to use public money to build state-owned plants that would then be leased out to prospective companies.

Second, the deal's proceeds will allow Athenex to pay down some debt, providing a jolt to a company that has seen its stock drop below $1 a share but remains a significant employer in Western New York.

Here's what to know about the deal announced last month:

What is ImmunityBio?

Publicly traded ImmunityBio is focused on developing therapies for beating cancers and infectious diseases.

Its pipeline consists of 21 clinical trials, 13 of which are in Phase II or III development. The company also is developing a Covid-19 vaccine.

'Our star plant': California biotech billionaire has big plans for state-funded Dunkirk drug facility Buffalo biopharmaceutical company Athenex announced a transaction that has big implications for a state-funded $200 million drug manufacturing facility in Dunkirk.

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the Los Angeles Times as well as a piece of the Los Angeles Lakers, is executive chairman of ImmunityBio and owns the majority of its shares.

What's next in Dunkirk?

ImmunityBio in recent months has purchased the manufacturing equipment necessary to produce vaccines, storing it in Los Angeles warehouses.

That equipment will be moved to Dunkirk, company spokesperson Sarah Singleton confirmed Tuesday. The goal is to produce ImmunityBio's Covid-19 vaccine drug substance  a crucial substance that is then formulated with additional materials to produce a finished dosage  in the plant by the end of 2022.

The company has said the Dunkirk plant, which is its single-largest manufacturing plant, could manufacture 1 billion doses of its vaccine.

Acquiring the lease from Athenex also allowed ImmunityBio to gain a never-used manufacturing plant for a significantly lower cost than building a facility from the ground up, ImmunityBio President and CEO Richard Adcock said in a statement.

Athenex, at capacity at its compounding facility in Clarence, also gets some contract manufacturing space in the Dunkirk plant under an agreement with ImmunityBio.

What about the state obligations?

ImmunityBio takes over Athenex's hiring and investment obligations in Dunkirk.

That means ImmunityBio is responsible for spending $1.52 billion on operational expenses during the initial 10-year lease term, which started Oct. 1. If it elects to renew the lease  at the same rate of just $2 per year  it would have to spend another $1.5 billion during the second 10-year term.

ImmunityBio must hire 450 employees at the Dunkirk facility within the first five years of operations, including 300 workers within the first 2 years.

They have a decent jump already: Singleton said more than 50 Athenex employees have joined ImmunityBio.

What about Athenex?

While Athenex won't fill the Dunkirk plant, the company still has a significant presence in Western New York.

And while it shed its obligations in Dunkirk, Athenex still is subject to an agreement with the state for its Buffalo headquarters. The state spent $25 million to expand and improve the sixth floor of the Conventus Building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, where Athenex occupies 51,000 square feet under a long-term lease for its North American headquarters.

Athenex's Dunkirk plant 'essentially complete,' but manufacturing won't start this year It's been one delay after another for Athenex's $200 million drug manufacturing facility in Dunkirk, a state-funded project first announced by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo nearly six years ago.

In exchange, Athenex is obligated to spend $100 million in the Buffalo area during the first 10-year term and another $100 million during the second 10-year term if the company elects to extend the lease. The first 10-year term expires in July 2025, according to Athenex's annual report.

Athenex must also hire 250 permanent employees in the Buffalo area.

"Athenex is still committed to the Conventus Project and we have hired approximately 200 people and still hiring," Caileigh Dougherty, the company's investor relations director, said in an email.

Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByJonHarris.

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Canadas Justin Trudeau-led Liberal government is invoking the never-before-used Emergencies Act to put an end to the far-right siege of Parliament Hill and downtown Ottawa, as well as multiple blockades of Canada-US border crossings organized by the so-called Freedom Convoy.

Police sit in cars by a convoy of trucks and other protesters in Ottawa, Ontario, on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

Adopted in 1988 as the successor to the War Measures Act, the Emergencies Act gives the federal government the power to take measures that may not be appropriate in normal times to deal with a public order emergency that seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians.

At a Monday afternoon press conference, Trudeau, flanked by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and several other ministers, listed a series of measures that the government is taking under its new emergency powers. These include designating no-go zones in downtown Ottawa, around critical infrastructure and at border crossings in which protests and gatherings will be banned and violators subject to immediate arrest. The government has also arrogated the power to commandeer resources necessary to end the occupation of Ottawa, such as tow trucks, and it has ordered banks to freeze financial assets used to support the Convoy. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is being given authority to enforce local by-laws and provincial laws.

A general ban on participating in public assemblies deemed to go beyond lawful protest will also be enforced. Those who violate the emergency orders are liable to fines of up to $5,000 and five-year jail terms.

Calling the invocation of the Emergencies Act a last resort, Trudeau claimed its application will be geographical and time limited.

He also reiterated that his government does not plan to deploy the military against the far-right forces whose illegal and menacing anti-government mobilization has been supported and incited by powerful sections of the ruling class as a battering ram to overcome popular opposition to all remaining COVID-19 public health measures and push politics far to the right. Yet Trudeau and other senior minister have repeatedly said that all options to end the two-and-a-half week-long Ottawa occupation and border blockades are under discussion.

Trudeaus invocation of the Emergencies Act52 years after his father, Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, invoked the War Measures Act on the claim two Front de Liberation du Quebec kidnappings constituted an apprehended insurrectionis a measure of the extreme crisis and vulnerability of his minority Liberal government.

The numbers of people participating in the various far-right Freedom Convoy protests are small to miniscule, be it the Ottawa siege, the Canada-US blockades or the intermittent support demonstrations in provincial capitals and other major cities.

In downtown Ottawa, where streets are clogged by 400 trucks, many of them large rigs, a core group of perhaps 500 far-right activists, some of them reportedly heavily armed, is encamped. The blockades at the Canada-US border crossings in Emerson, Manitoba, and Coutts, Alberta, involve far fewer people.

Shortly before Trudeau announced his government was invoking the Emergencies Act, RCMP officers arrested 13 far-right activists involved in the Coutts blockade and seized a cache of long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armour, a machete, a large amount of ammunition and high-capacity firearm magazines.

If the far-right Convoy has assumed an outsized political significance radically at odds with its genuine popular support, it is because it has been encouraged and promoted by the Conservative official opposition and much of the corporate media. The Convoy has also benefited from significant political, financial and logistical support from the ex-US President and failed coup leader Donald Trump, his supporters in the Republican Party leadership like Ted Cruz, and the network of fascist groups that provided the shock troops for the January 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol.

The first target of these reactionary political forces was the dismantling of all remaining COVID-19 public health measures. But they also want a government that will more aggressively implement austerity against the working class at home and pursue the predatory interests of Canadian imperialism on the world stage.

Trudeau has duly obliged. Even as Omicron infections and deaths continue to surge, driving Canadas official COVID-19 death toll over 35,000, his Liberal government has greenlighted the provincial governments unseemly rush to scrap almost all remaining anti-COVID public health measures. Ontario, following last weeks announcements by Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec and Manitoba, announced yesterday that it is accelerating its reopening plan and will end the use of vaccination passports on March 1. At yesterdays press conference, Trudeau responded to a journalists question by saying that the federal government will soon make its own announcement on how it intends to proceed with the phasing out COVID-19 restrictions.

He tacked onto his emergency powers declaration an announcement of a further series of measures to militarily strengthen Ukraine, which is serving as the Western imperialist powers stalking horse in their reckless war drive against Russia. These include the sending of more than $7 million worth of lethal weaponry to Ukraine and a further loan of $500 million to the Kiev regime. For months, the Conservatives have fronted a media-backed campaign denouncing the Trudeau Liberals for their reluctance to send lethal armaments to the Ukrainian military, which is dominated by ultra-nationalist and outright fascist forces.

Yesterdays emergency powers announcement was preceded by days of growing acrimony within ruling class circles over the Convoy.

The border blockades, particularly the six-day shutdown of the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, MichiganNorth Americas busiest commercial border crossinghave badly disrupted trade and just-in-time supply chains. Alarmed corporate representatives have warned they have even placed a question mark over the close economic partnership with the US upon which Canadian capitalism depends.

With auto plants and other manufacturing facilities in Ontario and Michigan having to slash production and even temporarily shut down, there was a growing clamour from big business and Washington for urgent action to reopen the Ambassador Bridge. Trudeau spoke directly to Biden about the bridge blockade last Friday morning, as well as the role Trump and the US far right have played in promoting and sustaining the Convoy. Over the weekend, as a major police operation was mounted to end the blockade, there was a flurry of calls between Canadian ministers and US secretaries for transportation, emergency preparedness and homeland security.

Freeland addressed these concerns at yesterdays press conference, declaring that the blockades and occupations were damaging Canadas reputation as a reliable trading partner and place for investment. She cited the Trudeau governments successful renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Trump, so as to make it a more explicitly US-led anti-China protectionist trade bloc, and vowed that the Liberal government would not allow this achievement to be tarnished.

Another factor causing sections of the ruling elite to endorse the invocation of the Emergencies Act is mounting public anger over the polices kid-glove treatment of the far-right Ottawa occupiers. Widespread outrage over the refusal by police to intervene against illegal behaviour, acts of violence towards workers and local residents, and violations of court injunctions by the occupiers has been expressed on social media and at counterprotests.

This social anger reached a new stage Sunday, when a handful of Ottawa residents blocked a major intersection to prevent several hundred vehicles from joining the main Convoy downtown. Within the space of a few hours, the group increased from 25 to several hundred, and a second blockade preventing Convoy supporters from taking another route sprang up. Comments were widely shared on social media to the effect that 25 unarmed residents had accomplished more in a few hours against the far-right thugs than the police had managed in over two weeks.

Speaking to the CBC, Michael Kempa, a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa, summed up the concern gripping sections of the ruling elite, remarking, This underlines why the state must get control of the streets of Ottawa. Citizens are, in effect, giving up, and the state must demonstrate that the institutions of democracy are able to control the situation.

The most loyal defenders of the state apparatus and the Trudeau government throughout this entire crisis have been the New Democratic Party (NDP) and its allies in the trade union bureaucracy. Even before Trudeau had officially confirmed he was invoking the Emergencies Act, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters that Canadas social democrats would support the governments action. This all but ensures that the Liberals will secure the legally mandated parliamentary approval of their public emergency declaration within the requisite 7 days and that their minority government survives in office. Singh has also said his party would be ready to support the deployment of the military should that prove necessary.

The NDPs pledge of support provides a political opening for the Conservatives to cynically posture as defenders of civil liberties. This after inciting a far-right movement, led and populated by would-be putschists, racists and supporters of QAnon and other fascist groups, which in the name of freedom is agitating for the freedom for COVID-19 to run rampant and for employers to maximize their profits by forcing workers to work in unsafe workplaces amid the pandemic.

Following Trudeaus emergency powers announcement, interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen accused Trudeau of choosing to divide and stigmatize Canadians and said he was taking a ham-fisted approach. Pierre Poilievre, the most likely candidate to take over the party leadership permanently and a full-throated supporter of the Convoy, said Trudeau had deliberately created the emergency and urged him to end the (vaccine) mandates and restrictions so protesters can get back to their lives and their jobs.

From the outset, the World Socialist Web Site has warned that, absent the independent political intervention of the working class, this crisishowever it endswill result in a further lurch to the right that will imperil workers social and democratic rights.

The invocation of the never-before-used Emergencies Act sets a dangerous precedent. While today it is employed against the far-right enemies of the working class, on the morrow, as the class struggle intensifies, it and similarly authoritarian measures, will inevitably be turned against the working class.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Fiji on Saturday to meet with acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, in the absence of Prime Minister Bainimarama who is recovering from heart surgery, with 18 Pacific Island leaders participating online. The eight-hour visit was a significant event, designed to advance the strategic interests of US imperialism across the Pacific amid escalating war tensions.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, speaks in a joint press availability with Fiji acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum during his visit to Nadi, Fiji, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

Blinken is the most senior US official to visit Fiji in almost four decades. The last visit was in 1985 by then Secretary of State George Shultz, ostensibly to show Washingtons appreciation after Fiji reopened its ports to US naval ships. At the time, many Pacific nations, including New Zealand, banned the entry of American nuclear vessels.

While the Pacific island countries have tiny populations and economies, their position in the South West Pacific has a strategic significance that far outweighs their size. US imperialism is returning to an area of the globe where it fought fierce naval battles during World War II with its rival Japan in the struggle for dominance in Asia.

Blinken was returning from Melbourne, where he met with members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad, a quasi-military bloc of Australia, the US, Japan and India. While there, he told the Australian that the US aimed to bring together a coalition of states to take on China, which he accused of seeking to dominate the world and establish an illiberal order. In reality, it is the US that is determined to maintain its global domination through all means including military.

New Zealand was only left off the itinerary because of COVID-19 border restrictions. NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta received a phone call from Blinken. According to the US State Department the pair discussed the collective challenges of the Indo-Pacific and their shared commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity. The US is promoting the lie that Russia is preparing to invade the Ukraine to justify its own military build-up and provocations against Moscow.

As soon as Blinken touched down in Fiji, he launched a broadside at Moscow, telling reporters the US was prepared for either diplomacy or aggression over Ukraine. He warned of economic sanctions in coordination with allies and partners around the globe if Russian President Putin decided on military action. Blinken also declared the US would reinforce our allies on the eastern flank of NATO.

Blinkens meeting with Pacific leaders was centred on countering Chinas influence in the region. He declared that Chinas coercion and aggression spans the globe, but it is most acute in the Indo-Pacific, then reiterated what has now become Washingtons list of falsifications and half-truths aimed against Beijing: economic coercion of Australia; conflict with India, growing pressure on Taiwan; and bullying of neighbours in the East and South China Seas. In each and every case, the US has had a hand in pushing allies and partners to take a more aggressive stance against China, thus heightening tensions.

At Saturdays meeting, Blinken announced that the US will establish a new embassy in the Solomon Islands. Last November, the US provided crucial funding and support to a failed regime change operation by supporters of Daniel Suidani, premier of Malaita province. Suidani opposes Beijings recognition by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and maintains his own foreign policy, oriented to Taiwan.

The choice of Fiji for Blinkens meeting underscored its strategically important position in the region. Under pressure from Washington, Australia and New Zealand have worked assiduously to restore diplomatic and military ties with Bainimarama. Following the 2006 military coup, which he led, the two regional powers imposed sanctions. These backfired when the Fiji regime turned to Beijing and Russia for financial assistance and military connections. Russia sent gifts of military weapons to Fiji in 2016.

Bainimarama has since become an important ally of Beijing, and sought to persuade other Pacific leaders to adopt a more independent path outside the influence of Canberra and Wellington. Governments across the region see China not as a threat, but as a crucial partner in development and aid. Ten Pacific countries, including Fiji, have signed on to Chinas $US1 trillion Belt and Road development initiative.

Blinkens visit took place as the Biden administration unveiled its Indo-Pacific Strategy aimed at consolidating military alliances and partnerships against Russia and China in Asia and internationally. Significantly, Biden last year became the first sitting US president to address the Pacific Islands Forum, declaring that the US was a proud Pacific power.

In a blunt warning about war preparations encompassing both Europe and the Indo-Pacific, Blinken said the Pacific could expect power derived from US alliances in other parts of the world to come to the islands. The United States is increasingly speaking with one voice with our NATO allies and our G7 partners, when it comes to Indo-Pacific matters, he declared.

Blinken announced deeper economic integration between the US and Pacific island countries including measures to open market access for their agricultural commodities. An emphasis was given to new approaches to trade, to create more secure supply chains which are diverse, open, and predictable.

Addressing the existential issue confronting Pacific countriesclimate change driving rising sea levelsBlinken unveiled a plan to divert portions of the $US150 billion announced at COP26 last year to the Pacific. Without giving any specific undertakings, he made a vague promise to pursue policies consistent with limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Glasgow summit, however, was only the latest in a long trail of UN climate meetings that failed to come close to delivering the necessary action to slash carbon emissions at the scale and speed required to prevent an escalation of global warming, let alone to resolve the environmental crisis.

Blinken made no commitments to assist vulnerable Pacific nations with the threat of COVID-19, which has now gained a foothold across the region. In Fiji, one of the worst affected, the virus has killed more than 800 people. Any funding promises from Washington, like those from Australia and New Zealand, are not based on addressing the pressing needs of the local population, but to buttress their position versus China.

Blinken has previously campaigned against Beijings concessionary loans to the region, accusing China of debt trap diplomacy. At a Pacific leaders conference in Hawaii last June, Blinken angrily declared that China was breaching international standards and using economic coercion in its provision of aid and concessionary loans.

Coinciding with Blinkens visit, the leaders of five pro-US nations have agreed to pause their plans to break away from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). The Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau announced last year that they would withdraw from the forum, after losing the vote to elect a new secretary-general.

The sub-regional split was bound up with deepening tensions within the PIF and the increasing orientation of the so-called Micronesian group towards Taiwan. The move, together with Blinkens visit, indicates that the US is preparing a far more aggressive intervention into the PIF in order to marginalise China.
Ford announced that it was extending temporary layoffs for workers at several of its US plants last Friday. Production was cut and many workers placed on temporary layoff (TLO) in the last week due to shortages of semiconductor chips and other parts, according to company labor relations memos.

At Ford Chicago Assembly Plant, all Temporary Full-Time (TFT) and many B crew seniority workers across departments will be on TLO through February 20. A robocall script posted on the UAW Local 551 Communications Facebook page stated to workers, If you are on TLO the entire week of pay end February 20, 2022 you will need to file a claim for unemployment.

Ford Chicago Assembly (WSWS)

TLOs were announced and posted at the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri on Friday. Most workers who produce the Transit van, as well as Truck A crew and all truck side TFTs, are laid off through at least February 20.

Workers themselves must file for their own unemployment benefits and cannot do so until after their claim has been activated by Ford. The lengthy process of securing unemployment benefits through antiquated and backlogged state systems leaves most laid-off workers in a financial lurch and unable to pay necessary bills on time. Workers find themselves waiting up to six weeks to receive any money.

Workers receive no real support in navigating unemployment from the United Auto Workers, which has helped the companies offset lengthy shutdowns through brutal levels of overtime, particularly at the most profitable plants. For this reason some workers have chosen to find supplemental jobs, further exhausting them, or have left for other employment altogether, exacerbating the problems of the production cycle.

Were going back to work next week for A crew and C crew only, an A crew worker at Ford Chicago Assembly Plant told the World Socialist Web Site on Friday. The week after that I heard A and C crew will be laid off again and that B crew will work that week. We will work a week and then be off for a week. And we dont know how long they will be doing that, so it doesnt look good for us right now.

Unemployment is all messed up. The state of Illinois put in a new system called Okta and its a real problem. So now we have to sign into Okta, then sign into the state of Illinois just to file a claim. It will be about five weeks before we get any money for this week. And if we get laid off again, that will add to the wait. The unemployment office called us back three or four times per day, but hung up on us every time. It was very crazy just to get to file a claim.

Of course the union people get to work and dont have to go through all the BS to get paid. Ford and UAW people dont care about the members getting paid, and then they get mad at you when you call them for help. But hey, Ford made 18 billion dollars last year and the CEO will get his 30 million dollars. Ford and UAW really dont care about the people who really do all the work. There is really no appreciation for the workers.

Ford made this announcement as several other US automakers announced that they would be shutting production lines at plants around the country. The automakers cited blockades by far-right activists at key border checkpoints between the US and Canada as the immediate reason for the disruption of parts supply chains.

This has disrupted the flow of critical parts from Canadian to US auto plants, such as engines built at Fords Windsor engine plants which are used in SuperDuty pickup trucks assembled in Louisville, Kentucky and Avon Lake, Ohio. Avon Lake sent workers home and announced production shutdowns for this week. Workers were sent home from Avon Lake Friday due to the far right blockade, but the company attributes the production shutdown this week to the global semiconductor chip shortage, according to FOX8 News.

Other automakers curtailed production in the past week, with many citing the blockades at the US-Canada border as the immediate cause. Toyota announced its production had been disrupted at its Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant. General Motors cited parts shortages as the cause of a production shutdown at its Lansing, Michigan, plant, and has begun to fly parts over the border on airplanes to avoid the blockades, according to NBC News.

However, other factors are also in play in the ongoing supply chain crisis, which has gone on for a year. Chief among these is the massive spread of COVID-19 inside the auto plants, which has led to hundreds of workers quarantining at any given time at individual plants. At Stellantis Warren Truck plant, management has attempted to offset the impact of these absences by working Supplementals for 72 hours a week.

For the past two years, the corporations and their business partners in the unions have refused to shut down production to prevent mass infection and death due to COVID. That production has only ever shut down due to shortages demonstrates that, as far as they are concerned, workers lives are more replaceable than microchips or axles.

A Ford worker from Kansas City explained the conditions at the plant that have led to worker turnover and production problems. People are not coming to work. Some are sick and some are fed up with these conditions. This is hard physical labor. You stand in one spot and your hands and arms swell up, and then on top of it youre treated like dirt.

The younger people wont take it. They see how theyre treated, they get sick, and they quit. Some take their break and they dont come back. They hired hundreds of TPTs around the end of last year but they still cant cover shifts because so many quit that they cant rehire them fast enough.

You could have a whole line or department short on people because theyre out for COVID and so they have to move people from one department to work in another department just to keep the line running.

Theyre keeping things more and more secretive, he said about the UAW and company hiding information from workers on who was sick or who had died in the plant. Its amazing how they feel about human lifeits horrible.
In the past week France has recorded over 650 daily deaths on two occasions. On February 8, 691 deaths were recorded. On February 10, 655 further deaths were reported. The 7-day average of 324 daily deaths is the highest figure since April 1, when just 4.4 percent of the French population was fully vaccinated against the virus, compared to over 77 percent today.

Despite a level of death that has not been seen for almost a year and one of the highest of the entire pandemic, there has been no mention of the figure in any of the major French newspapers or by the government.

Teachers gather during a protest in Lille, northern France, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. French teachers have walked out in a nationwide strike Thursday to express anger at the way the government is handling the virus situation in schools, denouncing confusing rules and calling for remote learning. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

The rise in deaths in the country has occurred after five consecutive weeks where daily infections have averaged over 100,000. Although average cases are now falling from the peak of 365,000 on January 26, the 7-day average is still above 100,000. Since Omicron became dominant in France on December 31, 2021, 11.5 million people have been infected in the country. This means that in a little over a month there have been more infections than the rest of the pandemic combined.

Citing the fall in cases, the Macron government is moving to remove all restrictions against COVID-19, as has already been done in Denmark and the UK. From February 28, masks will no longer be required in most indoor settings. On February 12, the requirement to present a recent negative test result upon arrival into France was also removed for vaccinated travelers.

According to Junior Minister of Transportation Jean Baptiste Djebbari, the end of the requirement to wear masks on public transport will be discussed at this weeks Defense Council meeting.

The explosion of infections since mid-December shows that the health measures taken by the French government were never sufficient to protect the population. However, the end of even the most minimal public health measures will allow the virus to spread further throughout the population and allow for surges of other variants and Omicron sub-lineages known to be widely circulating in France, across Europe and internationally.

Beyond the current level of death, such high levels of infection are a catastrophe for millions condemned to live with the long-term consequences of COVID-19. The experience from sufferers of Long COVID from the first wave of the pandemic shows that millions will suffer from at least shortness of breath, brain fog and fatigue.

Unfortunately, thousands who survived the initial symptoms of COVID-19 will likely meet an early end in the coming year. Fatal diseases are more common among individuals who have survived COVID-19 infection in the previous 12 months. One recent study found that individuals with a confirmed COVID-19 infection were 63 percent more likely to suffer from 20 cardiovascular diseases, including strokes and heart attacks, in the 12 months after infection.

While such high levels of infection have created a limited amount of natural protection against the virus, this is far outweighed by the cost of the mass infection policy. Over the past 2 months alone, there have been 15,000 preventable deaths, in addition to the millions who will suffer from the long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection.

Furthermore, the protection gained will not shield the population against further waves driven by newer variants. Such massive rates of infection in France and worldwide entail high rates of mutation in the virus. Newer variants that evade both natural and vaccine-induced immunity more effectively than Omicron will inevitably spread throughout the population, undermining whatever protection has been gained.

Unvaccinated school children are at particular risk from long-term complications of the virus. They are the least vaccinated group in society and have borne the brunt of the most recent wave. In the most recent data from French public health agency, in the week beginning January 31, among 10- to 19-year-olds the incidence rate was 3,954 per 100,000 (the highest of any age group), and among 0 to 9-year-olds it was 2,707. More than 90 percent of French children under 12 remain unprotected, even though child vaccinations started in early December 2021.

Nevertheless, the Macron government is determined to extend its purge of any last COVID-19 measures to schools. A new COVID-19 protocol will come into effect beginning February 21.

Now children and staff will only be required to show a negative self-test on Day 2 of isolation to return to classrooms. Parents will also no longer be required to pledge that their child has taken a test at all. Relying on single self-tests, which are notoriously unreliable and unfit for tracking and tracing cases, and effectively eliminating the testing rules mean French classrooms will be flooded with even larger numbers of children testing positive for COVID-19.

Macron has only been able to enforce such a murderous policy in schools due to the criminal role played by the so-called teachers unions. Acting as a police force throughout the pandemic, they isolated and extinguished all eruptions of struggle by rank-and-file teachers while enforcing each intensification of the governments herd immunity policy in the schools and universities. The most recent protocol was only announced by Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer after it was signed off by the teachers unions in a closed-door meeting on February 8.

In the last two months alone, hundreds of thousands of French children have been infected with COVID-19. A whole generation has been condemned to struggle with the long-term effects of a virus which damages vital organs. Preliminary evidence indicates COVID-19 infection increases the risk of diabetes in children. The true extent of these long-term effects will only become clear over a period of years and decades.

The mass infection policy pursued by the Macron government and its counterparts throughout Europe will go down in history as a great social crime.

For most of the pandemic, governments across Europe pursued a mitigation strategy, which the WSWS has described as an amorphous collection of measures that tries to negotiate between the realities of the virus and the financial interests of the ruling elites. Seizing on the false pretext that Omicron variant is milder, this has shifted to an open policy of herd immunity in the past two months.

France is one of the most extreme examples of the consequences of this shift, as not a finger was raised by the government in response to eye-watering daily case figures that reached 500,000. Infections have been so high that even among a highly vaccinated population, serious illness and death have reached levels seen before mass inoculation was possible.

As far as the French and European ruling class is concerned, even limited health measures must be avoided at all costs. From here on in, in the face of new surges and more dangerous variants they intend to tolerate no barrier to the extraction of profit from the working class.

The French ruling class has been united in its response to the fascist-organized and -led Freedom Convoy that tried to occupy Paris on Saturday. Although this small movement was easily quashed by Paris police, its demands for the end of measures against COVID-19 were sympathetically welcomed by all sections of the ruling class and its representatives, from fascistic presidential candidate Eric Zemmour to pseudoleft candidate Jean Luc Melenchon. Macron himself described their calls for a policy of mass infection as legitimate.

The working class in France and across Europe must not accept wave after wave and year after year of mass death. The collapse of the mitigation strategy pursued by the European ruling class underscores the urgent need to build rank-and-file workers committees across France and internationally, fighting to implement a scientific policy to eradicate the virus and save millions of lives. This entails a frontal assault on the privileges of the capitalist class and a break from its political servants in the unions and pseudoleft parties.
The British progressive rock band Jethro Tull released The Zealot Gene on January 28, the first recording of all new music by the group in more than twenty years. With words and music written by founder-leader Ian Anderson, the new record is a legitimate addition to the discography of the band, which started in Blackpool (a seaside resort on Englands northwest coast) playing the blues in 1967 and went on to become an internationally successful progressive rock group in the 1970s.

The new album contains a mixture of acoustic songs and heavier rock tracks featuring the eclectic blend of musical styles and influences that are central to Jethro Tulls sound. Also, the lyrics demonstrate Andersons affinity for story-telling and commentary on current and historical social phenomena from unique, not to say eccentric, points of view.

The Zealot Gene

In keeping with progressive rocks concept album format, The Zealot Gene is comprised of twelve songs that reference Biblical text as inspiration for an exploration of human emotions such as compassion, tolerance, loyalty, love, jealousy, greed and hate.

As Anderson explains in the liner notes, he is not a man of faith when it comes to conventional, organized religions, but the Bible verses fueled my songwriting and were the starting point for elaborating examples of extreme feelings from different vantage points. While he typically finds images like photos or paintings to prompt his observational lyrics, the trigger this time was, immortal words from 1611 [King James Bible] which, for me, immediately conjure visual images that can be used to interpret and vocalize the subject matter.

If listeners have occasionally been baffled in the past by Andersons sometimes abstruse metaphors and colloquial adages, they will welcome the supporting material in the CD packaging. The words for each song appear along with the associated Bible verse and track notes explain what the songs are about. Listeners can also watch a series of video interviews with Ian Anderson on the bands YouTube channel where he reviews the creative process, the album concept and the production process, which were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ian Anderson in the studio during the recording of The Zealot Gene

Studio work on the album began in 2017 and, due to touring and other project obligations, seven backing tracks were recorded, and four tracks were completed before the pandemic hit in early 2020. The balance of the album was produced long distance with members of the bandDavid Goodier on bass, John OHara on keyboards, Florian Opahle and Joe Parrish-James on guitar and Scott Hammond on drumsrecording their parts separately from their home studios and sending them in to Anderson for the final mixing and mastering. Longtime Jethro Tull lead guitarist Martin Barre does not appear on the new album, having departed the band for a solo career in 2011.

The title track of The Zealot Gene unmistakably references would-be American dictator Donald Trump, with the lines, The populist with dark appeal / The pandering to hate / Which xenophobic scaremongers / Deliver on the plate.

Anderson writes in the track notes, As a song lyric; it sums up, for me, the divisive nature of societal relationships and the extreme views which fuel the fires of hate and prejudice  Perhaps you think you know who I might have been thinking about here but, in reality, there are probably now at least five prominent dictatorial international figures who could fit the bill.

We have, needless to say, significant problems with the idea that humans are genetically preconditioned for extremism, whether in the form of contemporary right-wing populism or in the referenced biblical verse from Ezekiel about the slaughter of idolators with battle axes in Jerusalem. For one, it incorrectly attributes the source of ideological and political conflict to biology instead of socio-economic interests.

Present members of Jethro Tull: Scott Hammond, David Goodier, Ian Anderson, John O'Hara and Florian Opahle

However, Anderson seems to be using the zealot gene as a device to advocate for middle-of-the-road political moderation and to warn of unintended consequences when social media is used uncritically or made a barrier to political discourse. He writes in the liner notes, It is almost as if we have some genetic component driving us toward that sub-intellectual graffiti for which the outlet, these days, is let loose by the aerosol spray of social media.

While opposing, prejudice, xenophobia and hard right conservatism, he also takes a swipe at wokeness, calling it a trendy and overworked viewpoint that can all-too-easily stifle the process of the direct exchange of views.

The other tracks on the album are less problematic. The opening song, Mrs. Tibbets, was inspired by the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:24-28. The song examines the barbaric bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US Air Force on the morning of August 6, 1945. Brigadier General Paul Tibbets flew the heavy bomber, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress called the Enola Gay, which he personally named after his mother the previous day.

The lyrics portray the rationalizations given to Mrs. Tibbets to justify the mass murder: Dont feel bad, they said, about the numbers / Dont feel bad about the melting heat / The burning flesh, the soft white cell demise. / And the shattered ground beneath the trembling feet.

The line in the chorus, Mrs. Tibbets little boy, makes a double reference to her pilot son and the codename for the five-ton bomb. Little Boy was the first nuclear weapon used in warfare and the first of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan as ordered by US President Harry S. Truman. Estimates of the number killed by US imperialism in the two blasts range from 130,000 to 215,000 people.

Of course, a big part of Jethro Tulls sound is Andersons use of the flute as a rock music instrument. While he is not the only artist to do it, he is the most well-known and he has an immediately recognizable style. In crafting songs about intense emotion, Anderson shows that the concert flute can be made to express a variety of feelings and this range is extended by his signature multiphonic vocalizations. The impact of the technique comes through in the portrayal of an angry Old Testament God in the track, Mine is the Mountain.

Another method Anderson has used is to play the flute in unison or harmony with the electric guitar. This is done effectively on the opening riff to The Betrayal of Joshua Kynde, an allegorical tale about deception among cold war spies. Other instruments such as harmonica, mandolin, Irish whistle, acoustic guitar and accordion make their appearance on the lighter tracks such as Jacobs Tales, Sad City Sisters and Three Loves, Three.

Using Bible verse to either express agnosticism or question Christian doctrine is not new for the band. Jethro Tulls most popular album Aqualung, released in 1971, has sold more than three million copies and contains a preamble in the liner notes which is a rewriting of Genesis 1:1, In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.

At that time, Aqualung was banned from radio play in Spain by the fascist regime of Francisco Franco and there were publicized burnings of the record in the US by some Bible Belt evangelicals. However, the ideas critical of the Christian church in tracks like My God, Hymn 43 and Wind Up also intermingled with the rebellious moods among the youth and contributed to the rising global popularity of Jethro Tull.

Anderson, 74, became the sole leader and creative force of Jethro Tull in 1969 after the departure of founding guitarist Mick Abrahams. Following the release of their first album This Was, the two clashed over the artistic direction of the group. Abrahams wanted Jethro Tull to remain a blues-based band and Anderson, influenced by the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, wanted to move in a more experimental direction.

Jethro Tull in Chicago in 1973 [Photo Credit: WikiCommons]

Following the success of Aqualung, Jethro Tull rode a wave of mass progressive rock popularity with bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes, and released a studio album every year through 1980. The albums were followed by world tours, with live performances before sold-out crowds at arenas on five continents. During these years, Ian Andersons stage antics and costumes played directly into criticisms of progressive rock as pretentious and bombastic.

Among the more remarkable accomplishments of Jethro Tull during those years was that two concept albums with 45 minutes of continuous complex music and dense lyricsThick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973)both rose to number one on the US charts. While the rock music press generally panned these records, listening audiences embraced them.

Later in the decade, the band pursued a folk-rock direction and with Songs from the Wood (1977), Heavy Horses (1978) and Stormwatch (1979) that melded ethnic acoustic instruments and Scottish musical themes with heavy electric guitar riffs and rhythms. The lyrics on these records articulated Andersons concerns about industrial society, population growth and dwindling natural resources.

Ian Anderson in Toronto in 1977 [Photo Credit: WikiCommons]

While the popularity of progressive rock faded in the 1980s and beyond, many of the most popular groups were able to continue by making new music and/or performing live concerts for their fans. The onset of the pandemic disrupted these cycles and, with most of the musicians now in their mid-to-late 70s, they have had to find new ways of interacting with audiences and to figure out what they will do in their later years.

With The Zealot Gene, Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull have released an engaging album. Whether listeners choose to enjoy the music or become involved with the conceptual elements, the album provides both new and old audiences with an opportunity to learn about one of the more thoughtful and significant artists of the era.
Tens of thousands of nurses across New South Wales (NSW), Australias most populous state, walked off the job today in their first statewide strike since 2013. The nurses are demanding staffing increases to address decades-long shortages, an end to a punitive pay cap that condemns them to effective wage cuts, and urgent improvements to their dire working conditions, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Striking nurses in Sydney on February 15, 2022 [Credit: WSWS media]

Significantly, the nurses proceeded with their action despite it being banned yesterday afternoon by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC), upholding an application by the state Liberal-National Coalition government. The nurses defiance indicates a growing mood of resistance, not just among nurses and health staff, but throughout the working class.

The government has overwhelmed the hospitals by allowing COVID to spread. At the same time, it has rejected calls for any boost to the chronically-underfunded public health system. In fact, the state has fewer staffed intensive care unit (ICU) beds than at the beginning of the pandemic. Yet the government, and the pro-business IRC, asserted that nurses could not strike because it would pose a risk to public health and safety by disrupting medical services.

Several thousand nurses rallied in Sydney outside NSW parliament, while thousands more joined protests in 30 rural and regional centres.

Health workers at the Sydney rally told Socialist Equality Party (SEP) campaigners that COVID had reduced already poor staffing to skeletal levels. One registered nurse said her friend had worked seven 12-hour shifts in a row, and most nurses didnt get to have a break until they got COVID.

Others said, We did our absolute best, but they had not been given the necessary support to care for COVID patients who needed ventilators. Patients were sent instead to regular non-ICU wards, converted to COVID wards. Those wards were always full. One worker said: One patient would be discharged and two would be admitted. It was constant, and it was like that for months and months.

Sydney nurses on strike - February 15, 2022

The clear sentiment was that the situation has reached a breaking point, and a serious fight needs to be taken up.

By contrast, the aim of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) was to limit the action as much as possible, suppress political discussion among nurses and direct them behind plaintive appeals to the NSW Coalition government.

The union only held the strike ballot, having canceled limited industrial campaigns over the previous two years, for fear of an explosion of anger if it did not. Union officials cloistered with government and health department representatives, as late as Monday afternoon in backroom discussions aimed at minimising the action or calling it off entirely.

As it was, the union ensured that nurses walked off at different times at various hospitals. This served to divide them up, in a patchwork of localised actions aimed at preventing any unified mobilisation.

Before the stoppage began, the NSWNMA sent a text message to its members, which stated: Strike Action will proceed! Pls be aware, other protest groups may attend rallies today. Do not engage, let us focus on ratios. Alert NSWNMA staff if you have any concerns. Only follow NSWNMA social media for events.

This was clearly a reference to the SEP, which has exposed the unions collaboration with the government throughout the pandemic and its manoeuvres to neuter even the one-day strike it was compelled to hold.

The SEP held a successful online public meeting on Saturday, addressed by a health worker in the US and a Sydney nurse. It called for nurses to establish rank-and-file committees, aimed at unifying all health workers, along with teachers and other sections of the working class, in a common struggle against the let it rip pandemic policies and for basic social rights, including a massive expansion of the public healthcare system.

The NSWNMA text starkly revealed the unions role, effectively asserting its right to police discussions among nurses, decide what they may discuss and with whom, and try to ban them from being exposed to any alternative perspectives.

The text foreshadowed the line of the Sydney rally and the other protests, all of which were limited to little over an hour. The issue of staffing ratios was presented outside any broader political or historical context. The issue, which has persisted for years, was depicted solely as a result of the proclivities of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, despite him having been installed only six months ago.

Speaking in Sydney, NSWNMA general secretary Brett Holmes made several vague allusions to the pandemic. In his only specific reference to the policies that have resulted in its massive spread, he said Perrottet had proceeded with a Freedom Day on December 15, despite the highly-infectious Omicron variant already circulating in the community.

Holmes did not mention that this was part of a national policy, involving all state, territory and federal governments, including those led by the Labor Party. Nor did he give any accounting of the role of the union. At no point has it opposed the live with the virus program. In January, the union backed changes to close-contact rules, forcing potentially-infected nurses to remain on the job due to staff shortages.

Holmes and fellow union speakers said nothing about the conditions of other health workers, who face the same plight as nurses. Nor did they mention the fact that the hospital systems are in a near-identical meltdown in every state and territory. To the extent that other states were referenced, it was to falsely claim that conditions for nurses there were better, given the existence of staffing ratios, even though these are not adhered to.

Everything was confined to the issue of Perrottet. Holmes alternated between denouncing the NSW premier and pathetically pleading for him to come to the table. If the premier wished to assist nurses, by mandating and funding ratios, but came up against opposition from the treasury, Holmes advised him to say that such measures would save money.

The rallies concluded without any indication of further action, aside from meaningless declarations that the fight will go on, and this is the beginning, not the end. In reality, the NSWNMA will do everything it can to prevent even further limited strikes.

Above all, the union is seeking to block the only perspective that can advance the interests of nurses and other health staff. That is for the development of a unified political movement of health workers, independent of the unions, and directed against all the official parties, including Labor, which fully supports the reopening drive and has directly implemented health cuts while in office.

Nurses need their own rank-and-file committees, to link up with other health workers, across NSW, the country and internationally, as well as other sections of the working class, such as teachers and warehouse workers, who are also on the pandemic frontlines. The fight for decent wages and working conditions in such sectors is inseparable from a struggle against the official pandemic policies, which are based on the subordination of social need, including health and life, to private profit.

Instead of plaintive appeals to big business governments, what nurses and other workers must take up is the struggle for workers governments. These would adopt the scientifically-grounded policies required for the elimination of the virus, while implementing socialist policies, including placing the banks and corporations under public ownership and democratic workers control, and directing trillions of dollars to the healthcare system.
Tens of thousands of university workers at 44 institutions began five days of strike action yesterday against further cuts to their pensions. Under the employers proposal, the average staff member would lose 35 percent of their retirement income.

Next Monday, another 24 universities will join the strike for two days, protesting a 20 percent real terms pay cut in the last 12 years, insecure employment, unmanageable workloads and pay inequality. The Monday after that, 63 institutions will strike for three days over pay and conditions. The final day of action coincides with a single-day student strike.

Despite the efforts of the University and College Union (UCU) and the National Union of Students (NUS) to stagger and divide the action across different universities and disputes, students and higher education workers were clear that they face the same fight against employers determined to slash spending on staff and education in service to the governments market-driven system. The universities have used the pandemic as a pretext to accelerate this agenda.

World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke with strikers and distributed the statement, UK university workers begin strikes against attacks on pensions, pay and conditionsUnite education workers and students! Build rank and file committees!

SOAS, University of London

Neil Robbie, an English teacher at University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), told the WSWS, We are striking today for our pensions, because USS [Universities Superannuation Scheme], the pension provider, is trying to limit our defined benefit contribution. They want to cap the defined benefit at 40 percent after a certain time.

UCU have provided alternative proposals and we feel that those are acceptable. The USS have based their cuts to our pensions on their 2020 finances, which were affected strongly by COVID. But it doesnt represent the true reality of their pension funds, which have grown significantly during the pandemic. They are doing very well financially, and they can easily afford the UCU demands.

Neil Robbie (WSWS Media)

The defined benefit gives you a steady and stable pension for the rest of your life which will give you security and stability until you die. The other type of pension which they are trying to replace it with is the lump sum that you draw down on, and it may not last that long. It is a very different type of pension. To be honest, our pension isnt that great anyway. If I retired tomorrow, or in the next 10 years, I am probably going to get around 15,000 a yearwhich isnt great. It is just about enough to live on.

If I got the defined contribution, defined benefit pension, I would get a lump sumsay a couple of hundred thousand pounds or something like that. If I lived to be 90, that is going to be of very little use to me. If I live for five years after retirement, I will be fine but if I live beyond that, it is not going to be a decent pension at all.

Basically, the defined benefit pension is only available to a few people these days. The police, the [London] Underground, university workers and school teachers still have them. The private sector has rubbish pensions because they are squeezing their employees as they will. They get a draw down pension. They have to accumulate and save in a way that we dont have to in the public sector.

The reason you join and become a professor or teacher is partly because of the pension. Youre not joining for the pay cheque month to month because its not that great. People who work in the university could join the private sector and earn millions as theyre very intelligent people. But they dont. They chose to go into public service.

At SOAS and other universities, the pandemic has been an opportunity for restructuring. In the summer of 2020, there were major cuts to employment. They were threatening to close SOAS. They said that financially we were not sustainable unless we made serious cuts. These cuts went ahead without much consultation and now we have come out of that, we are facing more cuts in effect with the pensions under attack.

There is a strong argument to say that various institutions are using COVID as a cover for bringing in some drastic measures. They are trying to make these cuts because there is no one around to say no or to protest. It is almost a state of anarchy in terms of civil society. What can civil society do in order to organise a protest in a time when basic mechanisms are not even functioning properly? It is a very strange time.

Maria Lafalche (WSWS Media)

Maria Lafalche has worked at the SOAS foundation college for 20 years, preparing students for higher education. She said, Things have deteriorated. When I started the job, I was a looking forward to a more promising pension than I will receive now. Younger people joining as teachers and lecturers will have that opportunity removed. We are contributing more to our pensions, but our employers are refusing to contribute more even though the money is there.

Every two years we have been on strike, and we are made promises that are taken away, and so we are back on strike again. Each time, we are losing more in terms of our pension rights. My colleagues that have retired just a few years ago are better off, whereas those of us who will be retiring, including myself, in three years time will be worse off. Can we afford to retire? Probably not, well have to continue working a little longer.

Our benefits are being removed all the time, and universities are getting richer and richer. Chancellors and vice-chancellors are getting bigger and bigger pay packets, so its grossly unfair.

Our teaching has had to adapt during COVID. We had to invest a lot more of our time, learning new skills, how to use technology in a different way. Many of my colleagues have mental health issues because of all the extra work. All these things are not noticed by our management who refuse to commit themselves even though the money is there.

Already we are going out of our way to help our students, answering emails late into the night from students who themselves have mental health problems. We are working extremely hard, but we are not being compensated for what we do. In the long-term, students will suffer if their lecturers are not well themselves.

The cost of living is one of the other reasons we are on strike, because so many of the new lecturers are given temporary contractsalmost zero-hour contractswhich means they dont know whether they are working from one term to the next, or one week to the next, so they cant make any long term commitments. This is becoming the norm.

Pickets on strike at the University of Liverpool (Credit: Dr Rachel Pope @preshitorian)

University of Liverpool

At the University of Liverpool, staff picketed outside the Medical Schools Sherrington Building, part of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Faculty members struck for two weeks last August after the university announced it would cut 47 jobs. The UCU had claimed a victory after management agreed to make only voluntary redundancies. A Freedom of Information request by the World Socialist Web Site showed that even before the strike had ended, 22 job cuts were eliminated through voluntary redundancy and early retirement.

Alice, a university lecturer, told WSWS she was on strike, To save my bloody pension! Ive lost half my pension in the last eight years, and Im about to lose another third. She was hopeful the cuts could be defeated, The unions been saying for ages that the pension funds healthy and that theres more than enough in it to keep our existing pensions. The USS said yes, the [UCUs] proposals are viable. I think we definitely stand a chance.

Although the UCU has separated the pensions strikes from strikes on pay and conditions, Alice explained these issues are connected, around one third of the department are casuals, essentially theyre on zero-hour contracts and theyre not paid for the work they do. Theyre getting about 5 an hour. They dont know if they have teaching again, theyre scared to strike and their conditions are awful! Finding a place to rent when you dont even know if youre going to have work in three months On our side of the campus, its one year [contracts], in the sciences it can be two.

Closing the gender and equality gaps is important for me. Women are earning less than menits 15 percent now, it used to be 22 percent at this institution All aspects of equality are important: disability, race, ethnicity its on a sliding scale, isnt it?

Alice said working conditions had deteriorated during the pandemic, The workload goes up and the expectations go up. It was awful because we werent allowed to furlough, and so were home-schooling, working 10 to 12-hour days. Were not recovered from that yet.

We have colleagues who are vulnerable, but we have students who are as well. I ask all my students is there anybody whos vulnerable, or who is shielding someone? I do it anonymously, and that class has to continue wearing masks. Ive not had a single student once disrespect that. But the onus is on us to do that. The universitys not doing that, the governments not doing that. Its not taking the students into account, is it? I just feel terrible for them.

Another worker on the picket line, Beth, told us, I think if we dont fight to make academia better, were doing a disservice to the next generation. And there has been a lot of disservice to the next generation for many years on many different levels, and it feels a bit like now or never, because its not fair to push this onto another group of people, who will get even worse conditions and more precarious contracts.

Beth recognised that previous struggles had not prevented the erosion of pay and working conditions, recalling, Theres been many lines in the sand. But weve got to keep fighting.

Dave said he was striking because I just think its the right thing to do. Obviously, theyre trying to shaft people, thats what managers do. Im just trying to stand up to them. Its a bit like in the summer. I dont know if you heard about that [the strike over job cuts in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences]. That was a bit more personal, because it was affecting people you knew. I realise that everything needs to be sustainable, including pensions. But its the wider economic model thats the problem, its not us.

There is plenty of money out there. Theyre obviously just shuffling it about to make it even more to their advantage. Theyre not doing it to make it work for everyone, theyre doing it to make it work for themselves. Theres more to ittheres the casualisation, its been a long-term thing at universities in the last decade or two, theyve just made things much less stable and reliable for people. If youre young and youre starting out, youve got to have a fixed-term contract, you might get hourly-paid lecturing, thats taking away a proper sustainable job that you could base your life around. Theres all kinds of unfair things going on like pay inequalities.

Dave didnt agree with the artificial division of the strikes over pensions and the what the UCU terms the Four Fights: I dont understand the ins and outs of the unions tactics. To me it feels a bit like divide-and-conquer.
Large anti-government swings in by-elections in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) last Saturday provide some indication of the widespread hostility toward all the governments responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic disaster.

The Liberal-National Coalition state government of Premier Dominic Perrottet suffered double-digit losses of votes in two of the four electorates contested, and lost Bega, a regional NSW south coast seat, for the first time since the electorate was created in 1988.

The loss of Bega reduces Perrottets government, which has been a spearhead of the deadly national live with the virus campaign, to minority status. It now holds just 45 seats in the 93-member lower house of the NSW parliament.

Final results in the four electorates may not be known for weeks because record numbers of voters lodged postal or pre-poll votes, showing the level of concern about being infected by COVID while standing in line at polling stations.

Nevertheless, the early figures were clear enough to confirm sharp swings against the Coalition. That mirrors the collapse of support shown by media polls for the federal Coalition government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The by-elections were the first electoral test of the decisions made by the Morrison and Perrottet governments, aided and abetted by the opposition Labor Party and the state and territory Labor governments, to scrap most pandemic safety restrictions and let loose the highly-transmissible Omicron mutation.

Infections have soared as a direct result, followed by hospitalisations and deaths, and this is being compounded by thousands of cases among students and staff because the state and territory governments reopened schools this month.

The by-elections were held on the eve of todays statewide nurses strike, the first in a decade. It is part of a growing opposition throughout the working class to the toll of infections and deaths, and the intensified government-employer attack on workers real wages, workloads and conditions.

While damaging for the Coalition, the results confirm a lack of active support for Labor. It has maintained constructive bipartisan backing for the profit-motivated reopening policies of big business and the NSW and federal governments throughout the pandemic, and for the Morrison governments war-mongering escalation of accusations against China and Russia.

In the three seats Labor contested, it had an average two-party swing (after the allocation of other candidates second preferences) of just 5.5 percent. That is well below the double-digit swings the Coalition has usually suffered at NSW by-elections since it took office in 2011 through a landslide defeat of the previous long-term Labor state government.

Labors only big swing came in Bega, an area severely affected by government failures since 2019, starting with the devastating bush fires of the 201920 summer, followed by the pandemic. Both disasters have exposed the decay of the chronically underfunded and under-staffed public hospitals, healthcare, aged care and social services systems.

Compared to the previous NSW state election in March 2019, Labors vote in Bega rose 13.5 percent to 43.7 percent, while the Liberal vote fell 11.2 percent to 36.5 percent. Both the Greens and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party lost about a quarter of their votes, down to 8.0 percent and 5.6 percent respectively.

Thus Labor is set to narrowly gain the seat with the help of second preferences from the Greens. To capitalise on the dissatisfaction, Labor chose a local doctor, Michael Holland, as its candidate. Of added concern for the Liberal Party is that its candidate was heavily promoted by the outgoing Liberal MP, Andrew Constance, who is contesting the overlapping federal seat of Gilmore in the looming national election.

The Liberals also suffered a heavy loss in the Sydney north shore seat of Willoughby, which had been vacated by former Premier Gladys Berejiklian. She resigned last year, ostensibly because she is subject to a corruption inquiry. In the affluent blue ribbon electorate, the Liberal vote dropped 13.5 percent to 43.5 percent. An independent picked up 32.2 percent and the Greens 11.9 percent. Labor did not contest the seat.

In the largely rural electorate of Monaro, near Canberra, the National Party is likely to hold on, despite a 5 percent negative swing in the seat vacated by John Barilaro, the former party state leader and deputy premier.

Perhaps most revealing of the underlying political crisis are the results in Strathfield, an inner-west Sydney electorate vacated by Labors ex-state leader Jodi Mackay. The seat is likely to be retained by Labor, but its vote fell by 3.0 percent to 41.1 percent. The Liberal vote dropped too, by 0.8 percent to 38.2 percent. An independent capitalised on the alienation from both the main parties by obtaining 9.5 percent of the vote.

Perrottet described the overall results as disappointing across the board but he and Morrison sought to downplay the consequences and vowed to continue the reopening drive.

The fragility of the political situation is underscored by the fact that both their governments are effectively in minority, unable to pass legislation unless they have the support of Labor or various crossbench parties and independents.

Perrottets government depends on the votes of two ex-Liberals who are under separate corruption or criminal investigations, plus an informal agreement with three independents. Morrison has numbers of MPs who have refused to vote for government bills, and had five MPs vote last week against the governments centrepiece religious discrimination legislative package.

More evidence of political disaffection appeared in recent days. The latest instalment of an Australian National University survey of wellbeing during the pandemic found that in January satisfaction in the countrys direction and the federal government both dropped.

Only about one in three people said they had confidence in the Morrison government, its lowest approval since the 201920 bushfires. The longitudinal survey of 3,472 people was conducted in the final two weeks of January, as the Omicron wave and the dismantling of safety measures resulted in some days with more than 100,000 new COVID cases, and record numbers of deaths.

Media polls continue to show a disintegration of support for the Morrison government, which is increasingly wracked by infighting. An Australian Newspoll published yesterday showed the Coalitions primary vote at 34 percent, its lowest rating since winning the 2019 federal election, with Labor on 41 percent.

Indicating the underlying disillusionment with the entire capitalist political establishment, both Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese had negative approval ratings. Albanese was just ahead on minus six, compared to minus 16 for the prime minister.

With the Greens polling plunging by 3 points to 8 percent, support for other parties rose to a record high of 17 percent. Without providing any details, the Australian said this indicated support for right-wing or libertarian groups, as well as hard core leftist parties.

That last disparaging reference may be to the Socialist Equality Party (SEP). It is the only party fighting for the independent mobilisation of the working class, against the existing capitalist economic and political order, including Labor, the Greens and the trade unions. The SEP is doing so on the basis of a genuine socialist program to totally reorganise society to meet human need, and protect lives and health, rather than satisfy private profit and wealth accumulation.
The Action Committee for the Defence of Freedom of Art and Expression (ACDAE) in Sri Lanka will hold an online public meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday February 24 Sri Lankan (Indian Standard) time, as part of the global campaign to release WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is in danger of being extradited the US on bogus charges.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange greets supporters from a balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London. [Credit: AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File]

Assanges alleged crime was to publish documents exposing the war crimes, mass surveillance and diplomatic intrigues of the US and its allies. The Australian citizen has been the victim of a vicious decade-long witch hunt by the US, UK, Swedish and Australian governments.

Although Assange in January won the right to a UK Supreme Court appeal against his extradition case, the experiences of the past three years of the award-winning journalists detention by the British state, demonstrate that no faith can be placed in the judiciary.

The World Socialist Web Site condemned the UK December 10 court ruling against Assange as a pseudo-legal travesty to justify his ongoing persecution. If Assange is extradited to the US, he will face espionage charges that carry an effective life sentence and possibly the death penalty.

Amid rising US-led provocations against Russia over Ukraine and the rising danger of a nuclear world war, the fight to free Assange, who exposed the brutal nature of the US imperialism and its warmongering allies, is a crucial issue for the international working class.

The ACDAE has organised this meeting in full support of the principled struggle waged by the WSWS and the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). Assanges freedom and an end to his persecution depend on the building of an independent political movement of the working class.

The ACDAE aims to mobilise workers and the oppressed in Sri Lanka, as well as in India, on socialist policies to defend Assange. The Rajapakse government in Sri Lanka, like the Modi government in India, has pursued harsh dictatorial policies, suppressing working class struggles and attacking democratic rights. Two days ago, President Rajapakse, in a direct attack on basic democratic rights, imposed essential service orders banning struggles by health and power sector workers.

The fight to defend Assange is inseparable from the struggle against these attacks by capitalist governments. We urge workers, young people, students, and intellectuals to actively participate in this meeting and join the fight to free Julian Assange and defend all democratic rights. Register for the meeting here.
Apparel workers in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (KFTZ), near Sri Lankas international airport, are facing a dire situation as COVID-19 continues to infect employees in the zone.

High unemployment and worsening economic problems push hundreds of young men and women from remote rural districts every year into low-paid jobs in factories such as Smart Shirts, Star Garments, Next Manufacturing, MAS Holdings and Brandix that supply apparel to giant global retailers.

Next Garment workers demand their bonuses, December 2020 [Photo: WSWS Media]

KFTZ workers have faced severe hardship since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Following a brief lockdown March 2020, the government reopened the economy in response to the demands of apparel factory owners who then imposed higher production targets even as the deadly disease spread through the island.

In late October 2020, 567 of Brandixs 1,394 employees at its Minuwangoda garment plant near Katunayake tested positive for the virus. It was later revealed that factory management had compelled these employees to keep working even when they had COVID symptoms.

Hundreds of workers were subsequently found to be infected with the deadly virus at apparel factories across the country. While some plants were temporarily closed many workers were not paid wages or only received half of their usual pay.

President Gotabhaya Rajapakses cash-strapped government is highly dependent on exports, particularly garments, to earn foreign exchange. The apparel industry employs nearly 15 percent of the national labor force, directly or indirectly, according to the Joint Apparel Association Forum. These workers contribute about 7 percent of the countrys gross domestic product. One recent report estimates that the KFTZ is now employing about 350,000 workers.

FTZ Manufacturers Association Secretary Dhammika Fernando told last weekends Sunday Times that absenteeism in the zone was normally 5 percent but that this had increased under the impact of rising COVID-19 infections.

The Rajapakse government has declared that Sri Lankans must live with the virus as the new normal. In line with big business profit demands, if several workers are found to be infected, a factory does not close. Management just shuts down the section of the plant where there were infections.

A garment worker from a leading KFTZ plant recently told WSWS reporters that COVID-19 virus infections were being discovered in almost every factory in the zone.

Esquel garment workers protest to demand payment of outstanding allowances, 20 Decermber 2021 [Photo: WSWS Media]

I returned to work recently after having to quarantine because I was infected. Even though large numbers of workers at our factory are already infected, management continuously pushes us to reach targets, she said. Management, however, is hiding the real numbers regarding the spread of the virus.

The company she works for has three factories in the zone, with infected workers in every plant. I was infected when one infected worker was removed and I replaced her. There are 23 on our line and all but three were infected. I had 10 days off but now the infected workers are only allowed seven days off work, due to recently announced government regulations. You have to work even if youre not fit. The government and the administration think only of profits, she said.

Those infected arent even provided with a suitable place to quarantine. As soon as I felt discomfort in my body, I took an antigen test and discovered that I was infected but had to go home using public transport.

I went to my lodgings and told them that I was going home to my village. I later learned that the woman who owned the house, and four members of her family, had contracted the disease because of that moment of exposure. My thinking is that factories should be closed for some time, she said, because a large number of lives are at risk.

Manpower [daily hire] workers flock to [the KFTZ] every morning searching for work but usually dont get work every day. Theyre paid 1,000 ($US5) or 1,200 rupees per day. There were very young women who came all the way from Jaffna [370 kilometres away]. Its sad to see, she continued.

Ive only been in the service for three years. I did not join a trade union. One day during the pandemic, a union representative came to the factory. She never came back and there was no one to look into our problems.

When the country was closed due to the pandemic [in early 2020], we only received half of our wages, i.e., 9,000 rupees, but still had to pay the same lodging fees. During this time, the militant workers were also fired, subject to compensation. Removing these workers who had long years of service was a loss to us, she said.

The government says vaccination alone will not work, she continued. I got two shots but the third vaccine has not yet been given to us. Those who received the third vaccine, however, also became infected.

Explaining the harsh working conditions, she said, Our basic salary is 21,400 rupees. We earn extra money by doing tiresome work. I work from 9.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. Staff shortages mean that our workloads are high. Having worked on the three holidays in January, the exhaustion contributed to me getting infected.

Our salaries are not enough to live on. I support my mother and unmarried sister. I also have an unmarried daughter and have to look after her. We live in small rooms and pay around 4,500 rupees to rent a room, another 500 rupees for electricity. We cook our meals. There are only two toilets for 20 people. These conditions are well suited for spread of the pandemic.

WSWS reporters explained that governments around the world were opening up economies, focusing on profit rather than workers safety, and the purpose of the Global Workers Inquest launched by the WSWS. The KFTZ worker responded by praising the WSWS initiative and voiced her willingness to submit information to the inquest. Im proud to take such a step, she said and added, After I return I will arrange more workers to meet with you.

A young female worker from the Star Garments factory in the KFTZ also spoke to the WSWS. Originally from Galgamuwa, [100 kilometres from Colombo] she has worked in the companys sewing division for five years. The factory employs about 800 employees and her line has 60 workers.

Even with the booster vaccine, we cant escape the coronavirus, she said. At our factory, even those who received the second vaccine dose were infected with this disease. Although the [sewing] machines are placed at a distance, the social distancing cannot be maintained during working hours because it is necessary to meet up with the fellow workers from time to time.

This disease, which has spread globally, is not likely to be controlled in Sri Lanka and people are also coming in from abroad, she said, noting that governments around the world, including Sri Lanka, had not taken any steps to control the disease. After a discussion on the purpose of the Global Workers Inquest, she added, I appreciate such an initiative.
On the evening of February 10, Britains Stop the War Coalition (STWC) held an online rally, No war in Ukraine: Stop NATO expansion. This became the occasion for a vicious attack by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on the organisation and its central figure, Jeremy Corbyn.

In an interview with the Times, Keir Starmer the Nato hawk goes on the offensive, the Labour leader said that it was very difficult to find a dividing point between the Conservative government and Labour over the US-led war drive against Russia centred on Ukraine. He condemned his predecessor Corbyn as being wrong on Nato.

The Times praised Starmer, but said he was wrong to claim that Labour has always been the party of NATO because it was previously led by Corbyn. Sir Keir says the party has abandoned his predecessors approach. That commitment must stick.

Jeremy Corbyn (left) and Sir Keir Starmer at an event during the 2019 General Election when Corbyn was party leader (Credit: AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

Starmer responded in an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper proclaiming Labours unshakable commitment to NATO, while denouncing the likes of the Stop the War coalition as being at best naive; at worst they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies.

Referring to the post-war 1945 Labour government, Starmer wrote that the generation of [Labour leader Clement] Attlee and his foreign secretary, the formidable trade union leader Ernest Bevin, were the midwives of Nato. they knew that the best way to preserve peace is to show that you are prepared to stand up to aggression.

He blustered that to condemn Nato is to condemn the guarantee of democracy and security it brings, and which our allies in eastern and central Europe are relying on, as the sabre-rattling from Moscow grows ever louder There is no equivalence between a defensive alliance [by which Starmer meant NATO] that has never provoked conflict and those who would inflict the appalling cost of war on to others.

Moscow would see any anti-war demonstration in the UK as an example of naivety and weakness by virtue signallers in the west providing a smokescreen so it can go on beating up and jailing those brave individuals who dare to stand up to its despotism on the streets of Russia.

The World Socialist Web Site denounced Starmer, who was using the STWC as a stalking horse to attack all those opposed to war as the enemy within. This signalled Labours willingness to play the leading role in a ruthless suppression of any opposition in the working class to NATOs war plans. It made clear that Labour will back the Conservative governments warmongering against Russia to the hilt, whether as a loyal opposition, a partner in a government of national unity, or by forming its own government.

STWC offers workers no alternative

It would be a grave political mistake, however, for workers and young people to allow disgust towards Starmer and opposition to US-led military aggression to blunt a serious examination of the policies pursued by the STWC, and by Corbyn.

As the Socialist Equality Party stressed in its initial comment, Starmers actions are a devastating indictment of Corbyn and Labours left rump. What is to show for their five years in charge of the party? His refusal to fight the Blairites has left behind a party even further to the right than it was under Tony Blair, unconditionally united with the Tories on all its major policies, including fomenting a war with nuclear-armed Russia and describing anti-war protestors as agents of foreign despots.

The STWC does not offer workers a genuine means for opposing the enormous and escalating danger of war against Russiaa development that threatens all of humanity with disaster. As was confirmed by their response to Starmers attack last Thursday, the STWC has no difficulty denouncing his anti-communist diatribe, nor in exposing the fiction of NATO acting as a defensive alliance given the active pursuit of war by NATO powers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, and its deliberately provoking the current conflict with Russia through the expansion of NATO to its borders and constant military manoeuvres.

But their answer is an appeal for British imperialism, including the Conservative government and Starmers Labour Party, to project a foreign policy that breaks free of Washington and aligns the UK within a European political and military block with a supposedly more pragmatic attitude to Russiawhen the truth is that the European powers differences with America are secondary to their ongoing participation in the war drive against Russia.

The STWCs January 21 statement on Ukraine argues, Britain should be advancing serious diplomatic proposals to defuse the tension and seek a solution to the crisis rather than ratcheting it up We believe there needs to be a new all-inclusive security architecture in Europe, not under the hegemony of any one state. We demand that the British government and the Labour Party distance themselves from the policies and priorities of the USA and develop an independent foreign policy.

In response to Starmers attack, the STWC stressed that their policy was entirely in line with the orientation of France and Germany during the Ukraine crisis, which the main speakers on the platform, Corbyn and Andrew Murray, painted in glowing colours.

Andrew Murray speaking at the Stop the War Coalition online rally (video screenshot-StoptheWarCoalition/YouTube)

Opening the STWC rally, Murray, a lifelong Stalinist, stated that Starmer was falsifying our position on the conflict surrounding Ukraine, pretending we are supporting aggression We believe there has to be a settlement, a diplomatic settlement of this which respects the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination and at the same time recognises the legitimate security concerns that Russia and the Russian government might have.

It was for this reason that our campaign is directed against the policy of the British government of trying to talk up a conflict around Ukraine to the greatest extent possible when other European governments, the French and the Germans, are following a much more sensible policy of looking for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

The expansion of NATO was described as an attempt to maintain and extend US hegemony across Europe, which must be countered through support for the diplomatic initiatives of the European powers. This should begin with an attempt to return to the [2014] Minsk agreements between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany to halt the conflict in Donbas. Going forward, We need to have an architecture of security in Europe that meets everyones needs. Which isnt the implementation of anyones hegemony.

Corbyn prostrates himself before imperialism

Closing the meeting, Corbyn, as always, was less confrontational towards Starmer, failing to even mention him by name when speaking of some unfair remarks made today about the Stop the War Coalition. His message nevertheless echoed Murrays.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the Stop the War Coalition online rally (video screenshot- StoptheWarCoalition/YouTube)

Describing the situation in Ukraine as increasingly dangerous, he said, its the US with Britains support that is leading the way on this and it is the European countries, particularly France and Germany, who are urging some cautionand indeed the ones that are trying to promote a diplomatic approach to this and some serious talks between Ukraine and Russia.

Underscoring his political prostration before imperialism, Corbyn described the war danger as arising from the risk of a mistake with all this massive military hardware on both sides of the border, rather than the calculated and deliberate action of the imperialist powers. He stressed his view that the central issue in the US-led war drive, Ukraines membership of NATO, was a decision that will be made at some point in the future.

All that was at issue was the idea that there is only a military solution to this issue, when There has to be a peaceful solution.

Murray closed the proceedings by returning to Starmers attack, with the most telling statement of the evening, saying that it has been quite open to him to say the British government should be more like [French President Emmanuel] Macron, more like the German government

Opposition to the US is not, of itself, an anti-imperialist strategy. The STWC suggests instead a foreign policy proposal to be adopted by British imperialism, based on an alliance with German and French imperialism.

It should be noted that the sole expression of dissent came from Christine Buchholz, a leading member of the pseudo-left Marx 21, whose anti-war pretensions are refuted by her role within Die Linke (the Left Party) sitting on the parliamentary defence committee for 12 years and regularly visiting German troops overseas.

Christine Buchholz speaking at the Stop the War Coalition online rally (video screenshot- StoptheWarCoalition/YouTube)

As a German left politician, Buchholz was obliged to note, The German government is seen as less warmongering than Johnson and Biden. But Chancellor Olaf Scholzs visit to Joe Biden also made it clear: Germany sees itself as part of the same threat set as the US, as NATO and also Boris Johnson. Later she added, The EU is not an alternative either. The EU is not a peace power. All the larger EU states are NATO members. EU states have military bases outside Europe, are waging wars outside Europe, are currently arming Ukraine, and much more. And we know about the geopolitical rivalry in which the USA, the West, the EU, but also China and Russia have their interests in mind and not the good of humanity.

To this Murray simply placed the caveat on his support for the French and German stance, even with all the weaknesses identified by Christine!

Stop the War Coalition proposes a change in UK foreign policy

What determines the STWCs stance is the political imperative of the petty-bourgeois stratum orbiting around the Labour and trade union bureaucracy to defend the interests of British imperialism. They do so by opposing the UKs too close alliance with Washington and NATO in favour of its taking part in the formation of a European counterweight, claiming a progressive bourgeois policy is possible, providing the ruling class can be convinced to pursue it.

This has been the STWCs position since its foundation more than two decades ago. Reviewing that history, the WSWS noted how in 2003 during the run-up to the Iraq war, the leaders of the STWC focused hostility exclusively on Blair as an individual, while even the Liberal Democrats were held up as anti-war allies, together with the French and German governments and the United Nationscollectively advanced as an alternative to the alliance of Blair with the US administration of George Bush Jr.

Protesters pack London's Whitehall during a march to Hyde Park, to demonstrate against a possible war against Iraq. February 15, 2003 (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

The STWCs 2003 betrayal, having come to the head of a mass anti-war movement, set it on course for continuous organisational and political decline.

In 2007, it used the departure of Tony Blair as Labour leader to appeal to his successor Gordon Brown to Pursue a foreign policy independent of the administration of the United States of America. Again in 2013, at a rally opposing air strikes on Syria, STWC co-convenor Lindsey German said, Weve said for some years that one of our aims as a movement should be to break Britain from following the US in every step of its foreign policy.

Albeit a minority view, this position has its advocates in the highest echelons of the ruling class, reflecting the tension that erupted over the UK quitting the European Union.

Writing in the Observer February 13, Simon Tisdall denounced that Brexit Britains isolated leaders resort to posturing and fist-waving over Ukraine while Frances Macron pursues diplomatic solutions in Moscow The UK used to act as a transatlantic bridge and interlocutor. Now its become a barrier to understanding, doomed to irrelevance.

Tisdall denounced attacks on Germanys chancellor Olaf Scholz as deliberately intended for American consumption at a time when a panicking Biden administration is drowning in its own hype.

He concluded: Trouble is, the US, egged on by Johnsons tatty Churchill tribute act, rejects outright changes to Europes security architecture. Is this because Washington and London know whats best for Europe? No. Its because the US, projecting its national interests through Nato, and the feckless, lying windbag in Downing Street, cannot bear the thought of an empowered, strategically autonomous Europe successfully managing its own security.

A less incensed editorial in the newspaper insisted, A united diplomatic front is the best weapon to persuade Vladimir Putin against invading Ukraine, to be arrived at through Coordinated western diplomatic efforts, which Emmanuel Macron, Frances president, is best placed to lead.

This is not a path to peace, but the road to hell. Whatever their qualms regarding the threat of war with Russia and the undermining of their own interests, Paris and Berlin are fully complicit in the US-led war drive. As Scholz himself tweeted February 13, Everyone can be absolutely sure that Germany stands side by side with its allies and especially the United States when it comes to Russia and the Ukraine. We are prepared to take all necessary steps together. There is no disagreement in this situation.

The struggle against war must be based on the working class

The International Committee of the Fourth International yesterday issued the statement, Oppose the US-NATO drive to war with Russia in Ukraine! This explains:

The European bourgeoisie, having barely survived the catastrophe of the two world wars, are inclined to greater caution. However, they go along with Washingtons war drive, despite the fact that war over Ukraine could be catastrophic to their own interests, reliant as they are on Russia for natural gas and other resources. They face massive internal crises that propel them along the same disastrous path. Moreover, they know that a direct challenge to the American agenda would bring about devastating retribution. In 2003, Germany and France expressed official reluctance to support the US invasion of Iraq. Washington openly attacked its long-time allies and threatened to reorient its relations in Europe to the Eastern European states, recently admitted to NATO, in opposition to the central countries of Old Europe. The European bourgeoisie also fear that resisting the United States will result in exclusion from the spoils to be secured in the potential reorganization of Russia. Duly disciplined, they join in the drive to war.

The struggle against war must be based on the working class, uniting behind it all progressive elements in the population. It must be international in scope, based on a socialist opposition to capitalism, which is the source of all wars, and independent of the parties and organisations of the capitalist class, and therefore must reject the politically bankrupt policies advocated by the largely defunct STWC.

The ICFI statement provides the basis for a new anti-war movement to be built on firm political foundations and the great revolutionary force in society capable of halting the imperialist warmongers and ensuring world peace.
Amid an ongoing war frenzy in the American media, the US cleared out its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and relocated its diplomatic staff 340 miles west to Lviv, near the border with Poland. Since Thursday, the Biden administration and the corporate press have peddled unsubstantiated allegations that a Russian invasion is imminent, naming Wednesday as a potential date for the military offensive.

A view of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022 [Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Kravchenko]

According to the Wall Street Journal, the State Department has ordered the destruction of networking equipment and computer workstations and the dismantling of the embassy telephone system. Classified material, along with 56 of the embassys workers, were moved to Washington on Sunday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken commented, These prudent precautions in no way undermine our support for or our commitment to Ukraine.

The move of the US embassy came as dozens of countries have called upon their citizens to immediately leave Ukraine and numerous other states have announced the closure or downsizing of their embassies. The OSCE Special Mission to Ukraine has received orders from the US and UK to withdraw its forces from the Donbass and has begun to do so on Sunday. Several airlines have suspended service to Ukraine while others are struggling to receive insurance coverage for their flights over Ukrainian airspace.

Over the weekend, some 20 charter flights and private jets carried Ukraines oligarchs out of the country, including the two richest Ukrainians, Rinat Akhmetov ($11.54 billion) and Viktor Pinchuk ($2.6 billion), as well as many other members of Ukraines richest 100 list.

In yet another sign of growing frictions between Kiev and Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had earlier rejected the latest US allegations of an impending invasion by Moscow, denounced the moving of the US embassy as a big mistake, adding, I think they have to return, otherwise we as a state have to draw certain conclusions. Believe me, we will draw these conclusions.

A source in Zelenskys Servant of the People party told the Ukrainian outlet strana.ua that the president had told the parliamentary caucus on Monday that three friendly countries are making up a story about war. He tried to explain to us in the caucus that we are being played with, but that we are resisting.

The secretary of Ukraines Council of National Security and Defense, Alexei Danilov, backed Zelenskys line on Monday, stating that Ukrainian intelligence has found no evidence substantiating the Western warnings of an invasion by Russia in Ukraine in the near future.

In an address to the nation on Monday, Zelensky said that, We are being told that February 16 will be the day of the attack, we are turning it into the day of national unity. Zelensky stressed that the Ukrainian government was preparing for all possible scenarios and that the Ukrainian army was ready to defend the state. He also emphasized that East Ukraine and Crimea would return to Ukraine but exclusively through diplomatic means. This statement directly contradicts the military strategy to retake Crimea and East Ukraine that his government adopted in early 2021.

As the CIA and State Department have made one unsubstantiated allegation about a Russian false-flag operation after another, the Kremlin and pro-Russian separatists have warned that the Ukrainian army is planning a provocation in East Ukraine. According to Russian news reports, the Ukrainian military has amassed about half of its 250,000 troops near the front line in East Ukraine. This would amount to roughly the same size as Russias reported troop deployment near Ukraines border.

While Zelensky has been denying both war plans by Kiev and the threat of an imminent invasion by Russia, it is far from clear that his government is in control of the Ukrainian military, let alone the substantial fascist paramilitary forces in the country. Last summer, Zelensky, formally the commander-in-chief, was banned by the military leadership from visiting the front line in East Ukraine for several days, a highly unusual move that was never fully explained.

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry claimed to have thwarted a plot to stage violent demonstrations against the government, which would have demanded a military offensive in the Donbass and Crimea. It is to be assumed that these plans involved forces either actively or formerly employed by the Ukrainian security forces as well as the far right.

US-armed and funded far-right paramilitary forces like the Azov Battalion have staged multiple demonstrations against Zelensky over the years with similar demands, several of which were addressed by former president and oligarch Petro Poroshenko (net worth $1.5 billion).

Poroshenko returned to Ukraine in January and only avoided arrest in a treason case thanks to the direct intervention of the US and Canada. He has since been engaged in a press campaign, attacking Zelensky for his supposedly soft line on Russia. Zelenskys former interior minister, Arsen Avakov, who has close ties to both Washington and Ukraines far right, recently called for early elections, threatening Zelensky that, otherwise, he might be ousted in another Maidanthe name of the right-wing protests in the leadup to the February 2014 coup.

In a clear indication that Washington is eyeing Zelenskys removal, the New York Times claimed Zelenskys attempts to caution against panic and overreaction made him appear nearly delusional about the grave risks his country faces.

In another remarkable shift, Zelensky indicated on Monday that his government may give up on its goal to join NATO in the near future, stating: Maybe the question of open doors [to NATO] is for us like a dream. In his address to the nation, Zelensky only mentioned Ukraines efforts to join the EU, but not NATO. Germanys Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visiting Kiev, said at a joint press conference with Zelensky, The question of [Ukraines] membership in alliances is basically not on the table, thats why its very strange to see that the Russian government has made something that is basically not on the agenda the subject of a major political problem.

In reality, Ukraines joining of NATO was a central goal of the US-orchestrated February 2014 coup in Kiev. Over the past three years, the Zelensky government has pushed for an acceleration of the process of including Ukraine in the alliance. The Kremlin has long denounced such a move, with Putin recently declaring that Ukraine in NATO would mean war between Russia and NATO. A guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO was one of the principal demands that the Kremlin submitted to NATO in December that the US has flat-out rejected.

While avoiding any clear statement on the controversial Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which both the US and Ukraine want to see stopped, Scholz said on Monday that Berlin was working, together with the US and EU, very intensely on a package of sanctions that would have substantial influence on the potential for Russias further economic development. He also announced that Germany would give Ukraine another $150 million in financial aid.

Scholz has come under significant pressure from both the US and within his own coalition with the Greens and Liberal Democrats to tell Putin, during his visit to Moscow Tuesday, that a war between Russia and Ukraine would mean the end of Nord Stream 2. Germany is one of the biggest importers of Russian gas; overall, 40 percent of Europes gas supplies come from Russia, with some countries like Hungary depending almost entirely on these deliveries for their gas consumption.

On Monday, gas prices in Europe rose to over $1,000 for 1,000 cubic meters, while oil prices passed the $95 per barrel mark. Since January, Europe has also significantly increased its imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). In a recent piece, the German news magazine Der Spiegel pointed out that Americas LNG industry, which became the worlds largest exporter of LNG in December, was making hefty profits off the Ukraine war crisis.

Meanwhile, the US and NATO continue to ratchet up military tensions in a clear attempt to provoke all-out war. In a phone conversation with UKs Prime Minister Boris Johnsonwho has been co-leading the NATO provocations against Russia with the USUS President Joe Biden discussed further reinforcements to NATOs eastern flank. Johnson and Biden also stressed again that the EU must decrease its dependence on Russian gas.

On Monday, Russias foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin had a public discussion stressing the need for further diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis. A day prior, Russia launched military drills in the Black Sea involving over 30 warships, on top of ongoing joint military drills with Belarus. Pointing to the provocative moves and military exercises by NATO in the Black Sea last year, Dmitry Zhukov, a retired army captain of the first rank, told the Russian Gazeta.Ru, The US lays claim to the Black Sea. Moscow has to either accept this or respond. A hypothetical situation in which NATO ships patrol the Black Sea while our military is sitting on the shore and just looking at it is unacceptable for Moscow.
Top image: Tourists walk down Place Jacques-Cartier in Old Montreal in Quebec on July 28, 2020. (Eric Thomas/AFP via Getty Images)
Billy M. Benton Jr. was regarded as a friend of Brian Harris II and his mother, Sonia L. Hamilton.

Now, Benton will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for brutally murdering them May 7, 2020, in their home on Ninth Street in Niagara Falls' Unity Park neighborhood.

"You betrayed my family bad," Selena Porter, Hamilton's daughter and Harris' sister, told Benton in a Lockport courtroom Tuesday.

"You took my whole family away from me. You crushed my life," Porter said, adding that she would not forgive Benton for the crime.

"Actually, I really want you to suffer like my family did," Porter said. "I know that won't happen, but a life sentence will do."

"I find that you are a grave danger to the community and are not capable of living a law-abiding life," Niagara County Judge John J. Ottaviano told Benton as he imposed the sentence.

"In my 20 years doing this job, this is the most brutal, horrific, senseless case that I've ever handled," Assistant District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said.

Benton, who had sent in a motion asking unsuccessfully for the jury's verdict to be canceled, did not speak.

"Our client asserts innocence," lead defense attorney Michael Witmer said.

The judge threw in 40 years, to be served consecutively to the life sentence, for Benton's unrelated shooting of a man in Niagara Falls four months before the murders.

During her opening statement at Benton's November trial, Assistant District Attorney Maria H. Stoelting told the jury that a medical examiner counted 11 stab wounds and four gunshot wounds in Hamilton's body.

Harris, 31, was shot four times and stabbed twice during the 6:30 a.m. attack, the prosecutor said.

Harris was found dead in an upstairs laundry room in the two-story home, with bloody footprints on the floor on either side of his head, Stoelting told the jury.

Meanwhile, Hamilton, 60, managed to struggle to a neighbor's home.

"BJ did it," Hamilton, 60, told the shocked neighbor before collapsing. BJ was Benton's nickname, but Witmer contended Tuesday that her statement meant she was implicating someone else.

"We feel another trial is necessary," Witmer told Ottaviano. "Hopefully, at a new date, we'll see who's actually responsible."

After six days of testimony, the jury deliberated only 2 hours before convicting Benton, 33, on all charges.

They included one count of first-degree murder for the double killing; two counts of second-degree murder for Harris and Hamilton individually; criminal possession of a weapon; and first-degree assault.

The latter charge pertained to the Jan. 17, 2020, shooting of Michael Kirker in a parking lot on Ontario Avenue in the Falls.

Kirker was shot three times after what prosecutors said was a dispute with Benton over Kirker's attempt to buy $40 worth of marijuana from Benton, who allegedly didn't deliver the pot.

Although no gun was recovered, Stoelting told the jury that shell casings found in the Ontario Avenue parking lot matched ones found four months later at the murder scene, indicating the same gun was used in both crimes.

Benton's cellphone also was found at the Ontario Avenue shooting site, the prosecutor said.

Charges are still pending against Benton's girlfriend, Jazzi S. Clay, 32, of Niagara Falls. She was indicted on a charge of hindering prosecution for allegedly driving Benton to and from the murder scene.

During a court appearance before Benton's sentencing, defense attorney Robert R. Fogg said no plea offer has been made to Clay, whose case was adjourned until March 14.

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The man who was shot to death by a state trooper Saturday morning in Buffalo may have been on the way to a protest rally, according to a woman who knew him.

State Police on Monday identified the man as James Huber, 38, of North East, Pa. He died after being shot by Trooper Anthony Nigro IV, a 14-year veteran of the State Police. Nigro was assigned to the Buffalo station of Troop T, which patrols the Thruway.

AG's Office investigating Thruway chase that ended in trooper fatally shooting man State Police Major Carla A. DiRienzo said the trooper fired his gun after reaching into the man's car as the man put the car into reverse.

Cary Arnold, a Pennsylvania woman who had a daughter with Huber 18 years ago, told The Buffalo News on Monday that she believes Huber might have been heading for the Peace Bridge rally in support of Canadian truckers protesting that country's Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

Last I knew, he was interested in something with the truckers up there, some kind of rally or protest or something. I dont know exactly, Arnold said. He talked to my daughter on Thursday ... just a few days before the tragedy happened. He said something to her about wanting to protest. Im assuming that thats where he was heading. If he was heading toward Buffalo, thats the only thing that makes sense to me.

But she said she hadnt talked to Huber herself about it.

Arnold said she believes Huber attended Cheektowaga schools as a boy before moving to Pennsylvania. She said he bounced from job to job but specialized in working on motor vehicles. Arnold said she has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Hubers funeral expenses.

She said that so far as she knew, Huber did not own a gun.

 Ive never seen Jimmy with a gun, and Ive known him for 20 years. He never even brought up guns to me. He never went hunting. Guns werent his thing, Arnold said.

The state Attorney General's Office formally announced Monday that it has opened an investigation into the shooting. Such a probe is required by state law in all cases of officer-involved fatalities.

"The New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association is providing union and legal representation to Trooper Anthony Nigro IV, which is the normal course of business for any job-related internal or external investigation involving our members," union president President Thomas H. Mungeer said. "Due to the ongoing investigation, at this time there will be no further comment."

State police said Saturday that a trooper saw a speeding driver about 10:38 a.m. on the Thruway in Brant. The tan-colored sedan was moving at more than 100 mph, troopers said.

It exited the Thruway at Exit 53, reportedly striking a state police vehicle there, and headed north on Interstate 190 toward downtown.

Several pursuing patrol cars broke off the chase as the vehicle exited to downtown streets.

However, a trooper came upon the same vehicle a short time later near the corner of Washington and Eagle streets, where the driver was in his car talking to some people.

The trooper, now identified as Nigro, approached the car and ended up reaching into it after the driver refused to exit the vehicle, state police said.

The driver, now identified as Huber, put the car into reverse, possibly dragging Nigro a short distance.

Nigro pulled his state-issued gun and shot Huber, whose car struck several fence posts before landing on its side on the ramp in an underground parking garage beneath the M&T building on Washington, near Eagle. The windshield was blown out.

Nigro was treated at a local hospital for what was described as minor injuries.

Nigro remains on active duty and has not been placed on leave, according to Trooper Tara McCormick, public information officer for Troop T.

McCormick said the investigation remains active. Body camera video from the scene will be released at some point, she said, and investigators also are reviewing video from security cameras in the vicinity of the incident scene.

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The United States is closing the US Embassy in Kyiv and moving remaining diplomats to western Ukraine amid fears of Russian invasion.
President Joe Biden is going to provide a status update on the ongoing situation in Ukraine at 3:30 p.m. ET on February 15, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Another 17-year-old has been arrested on charges stemming from the violence outside McKinley High School last week, this one accused of firing a handgun into a crowd and wounding a security guard in the leg. His arrest Monday came as Mayor Byron Brown said additional school resource officers will be in place when juniors and seniors return to in-person classes Thursday.

The 17-year-old arrested Monday, the second teenager charged in a four-day span, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Police say 17-year-old in custody in connection with stabbing at McKinley High School Buffalo Police said late Thursday that they had a 17-year-old male in custody in connection with an incident that occurred a day prior at McKinley High School in which a 14-year-old boy was stabbed and a security guard was shot.

The other 17-year-old, who was arrested Thursday, was charged with second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. That teen was involved in the part of the fight outside the school where a 14-year-old was beaten and stabbed. District Attorney John Flynn declined to say what specific actions that teenager is accused of taking to inflict injuries to the victim.

The 17-year-old arrested Monday stands accused of firing a handgun multiple times Wednesday into a crowd during a fight outside the high school on Elmwood Avenue. He was taken into custody Monday morning by Buffalo police at a home on Baxter Street in the city's Riverside neighborhood, law enforcement officials announced at a news conference. Buffalo police, including the department's SWAT team, went to the teen's home with a warrant and took him into custody without incident. He came out of the house on his own, police said.

Police to have more visible presence at McKinley in weeks ahead Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash said the district is taking steps to address concerning incidents, such as fights, that have happened at a slightly higher rate at McKinley and a handful of other schools than on average across the district.

Both teens, whose names have been withheld due to their ages, were in custody at the youth detention center on East Ferry Street. Erie County Family Court Judge Kelly Brinkworth ordered them held without bail at separate court appearances Monday.

The 17-year-old arrested Monday wore a medical face mask, white T-shirt, light blue sweatpants and sneakers as he appeared in court with his hands handcuffed behind his back. His mother attended the court proceeding. She declined comment afterward.

Police and prosecutors have said the school security guard was shot as he sought to intervene in the fight in a parking lot outside the school in which the 14-year-old was beaten and stabbed. Between 15 and 25 people were in the lot at the time of the fight.

The 14-year-old was stabbed 10 times, with nine knife wounds to the chest and abdomen. He remains hospitalized. On Thursday, a 13-year-old reported being grazed in the left flank by a bullet in the incident.

The 17-year-old charged in the shooting was not specifically charged with injuring the 13-year-old. Flynn said he wants to "make sure that the grazing came from a bullet" before filing a charge.

McKinley student who was stabbed in stable condition, guard released In response to the shooting, McKinley has switched to remote learning for the rest of the week.

Police said Monday they have not recovered either weapon.

The 17-year-old arrested Monday is allegedly part of the same group as the teen charged last week, the district attorney said.

When asked about the 14-year-old's condition, Brown said he was asked by the family not to directly comment on it.

"He was able to sit up in a chair," the mayor said of seeing the teen during a visit on Saturday.

During a court appearance Monday, Daniel Schaus, the defense attorney for the teen accused of firing shots, told the judge his client is a sophomore at the school. Flynn said that while a registered student at McKinley, the teen has "not had great attendance."

Schaus asked the judge to set "reasonable" amount of bail for his client.

Police on Friday announced a $5,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of the suspected gunman. The reward announcement led to "pretty quick tips," Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.

Investigators are still looking for additional suspects involved in last week's violence, Flynn said.

Students at McKinley, who had been scheduled to return to in-person classes on Monday, won't return for in-person instruction until Thursday, Buffalo Public Schools announced.

Juniors and seniors will attend in person on Thursday, while freshmen and sophomores will attend in person on Friday.

All students will return for in-person classes on Feb. 28, following a week of winter break.

All after-school activities at McKinley resumed Monday.

The additional school resource officers will be in place at McKinley until sometime in April, the mayor said.

Reach Aaron at abesecker[at]buffnews.com or 716-849-4602.

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Zachary J. Horwitz, an actor who goes by the stage name Zach Avery, has been formally sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for a massive Ponzi scheme prosecutors say raised at least $650 million from more than 200 investors in sham film licensing deals.

According to the Associated Press, Avery, 35, was ordered to pay back more than $230.3 million.

Avery was arrested back in April in Los Angeles, and he later pleaded guilty to a federal charge of securities fraud in October.

Zach Avery

Lionsgate/Shutterstock Actor Zach Avery in 2020 film 'Last Moment of Clarity.'

Prosecutors had alleged that, from 2014-2019, Avery collected hundreds of millions in loans for his film company, 1inMM Capital LLC. He told his investors, which included three of Avery's closest friends and family members, the money would be used to purchase film distribution rights to movies that would be licensed to the likes of Netflix and HBO. In actuality, prosecutors argued that Avery used some of the money to repay investors who donated funds earlier, while supporting his lifestyle that included buying a $6 million home.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission announced in April through a press release that they obtained "an asset freeze and other emergency relief" against Avery and his company in connection to the Ponzi scheme. The complaint alleged the actor "showed investors fabricated agreements and emails regarding the purported deals with HBO and Netflix."

The SEC complaint stated neither Avery nor his company had ever done business with HBO and Netflix.

"We allege that Horwitz promised extremely high returns and made them seem plausible by invoking the names of two well-known entertainment companies and fabricating documents," Michele Wein Layne, Director of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office, said in a statement at the time. "We obtained an asset freeze on an emergency basis to secure for the benefit of investors what remains of the money raised by Horwitz."

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Avery has appeared in a number of a small, low-budget films, including Last Moment of Clarity, The White Crow, Trespassers, and The Devil Below. He's also credited with a small part in the Brad Pitt-fronted Fury.

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You go, Canada. Welcome to the pointless, stupid, dystopian world. I quite honestly didnt think you had it in you.

Even Canada was utterly unprepared for this Canadian uprising. Theyre all standing around going, what? Who? Us? Any normal nation could sweep a bridge clear of truckers in about three seconds, but Canada has no experience handling protesters, because it has no experience protesting.

Conflict historically has not been their bag, at least not compared to the U.S. Even after the death of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who was caught on video smoking a crack pipe, they proposed naming a park after him. No hard feelings, eh? They dont get up in arms over anything that doesnt involve hockey or maple syrup.

Tim Rowland

So who could have predicted a convoy of Canadian truckers would cause such mayhem. Whos their union boss, C.W. McCall?

Sure, they botched the whole thing and wound up hurting their blue collar brethren in America more than Ottawa bureaucrats, but who cares? This is like someone coming out of a 20-year coma with a fusillade of swear words. Might have been better if they hadnt, but youre so grateful for any sign of animation that tears run down your face.

I vividly remember a conversation with a young woman who owned a bed and breakfast in Nova Scotia, where I was staying about 30 years ago. America at the time was in one of its semi-monthly taxation hissy fits, and she was mentioning that Canadian taxes were higher than Americas, and the provincial government was at that moment raising them again.

I had seen no backlash against this tax hike in the news. Dont people care?, I asked her. She said they cared, but causing a stink isnt what we do.

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So in the meantime, the internet has happened. Now Canadians get to enjoy the same anger, hatred and malice that Americans savor.

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Now, if you want civility, you have to go all the way to New Zealand, where they dispersed a gathering of protesters on the statehouse lawn by turning on the water sprinklers and blasting Barry Manilow. Somebody get that country a shipment of tear gas, stat.

One thing Ive never heard explained about the Canadian protest is this: What does a truck driver care about mask and vaccine mandates anyway? Youre in a cab all day, you couldnt be a super spreader if you tried.

Maybe they just felt left out. Like, everyone else gets to be outraged, what about us? And again, I chalk this up to inexperience, but bless their hearts, someone needed to tell them that the way to win the hearts and minds of the public is not by causing a traffic jam.

Way to go guys, youve set the anti-vax movement back about 18 months because everyone hates you now.

Sheesh, this is Protesting 101, guys. Dont stop traffic. Even the Jan. 6 protesters knew that. You can storm the U.S. Capitol, attack law enforcement and threaten to execute the vice president of the United States of America, but as long as you dont block peoples route to the 7th Avenue Starbucks, everythings going to be pretty much okie dokie.

Well put up with a lot of nonsense, but commerce is the one thing you cant jack with. Because protesting is different now than it was in the days of the French Revolution, when people saw it as their only way to survive. Today, we have most everything we could ever need, so protesting has become a sport.

We have so much time and disposable income on our hands that we have the luxury of going to the barricades over how an obscure clause in the 15th Amendment is taught in public schools. If Patrick Henry were alive today hed be saying, Change the wording on page 42, paragraph six from 'shall' to 'may' or give me death!

That should get him a like on Facebook.

Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Canadian protests leave everyone, including Canadians, surprised
Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kanye West a year ago next week, but the rapper still sent her a romantic gift for Valentine's Day: a truck, with the words "My vision is krystal klear"  note the k's  on its side, loaded up with roses in the back.

West shared photos of the flowers on Instagram, and he tagged Kardashian in the post.

(Photo: Instagram)

(Photo: Instagram)

Meanwhile, Kardashian, who shares four children with West  North, 8; Saint, 6; Chicago, 4; and 2-year-old Psalm  was seen over the weekend in New York City. She and her boyfriend, Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, had dinner at Lilia, an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn.

West's gesture followed a string of his comments on Kardashian's relationship, including one that he has faith he and Kardashian will be back together and another calling Davidson a "d***head." His rant sent West trending on Sunday, even ahead of the Super Bowl.

Kanye West sent estranged wife Kim Kardashian roses for Valentine's Day. (Photo: Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Ralph Lauren)

He advised married people to "HOLD YOUR SPOUSE CLOSE" and "MAKE SURE THEY KNOW HOW MUCH YOU LOVE AND APPRECIATE THEM" because someone is "LURKING" to "HELP DESTROY YOUR FAMILY." He added that Kardashian should "ALWAYS REMEMBER WEST WAS YOUR BIGGEST W."

Kardashian and Davidson connected in October when the Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum and legal advocate hosted SNL. A little more than a month later, the two were celebrating Davidson's birthday together. Kardashian also asked the court to declare her legally single back in December.

Still, West has repeatedly said publicly that he wants Kardashian back.

This despite the fact that he coupled up with Uncut Gems actress Julia Fox around the beginning of the year. Fox complimented Ye's energy and wrote in an essay for Interview magazine last month that she had an "instant connection" with him. "He had me and my friends laughing, dancing and smiling all night," she wrote.

But a rep for Fox confirmed Monday that the two had gone their separate ways: "Julia and Kanye remain good friends and collaborators, but they are no longer together."

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Fox also wrote that she and West are "on good terms" in an Instagram post that has since been deleted.

"I have love for him but I wasn't in love w the man," Fox wrote.
Oakland Circuit Judge Michael Warren speaks about challenges to law enforcement on Feb. 14, 2022 at Waterford Township Hall. Behind Warren, from left are State Sen. Jim Runestad, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel. (Photo: Bill Laitner)

Crime rates have risen sharply during the pandemic, police are being ambushed, recruiters cant find young people to become cops and too many lawmakers dont understand the problems facing the nation's police.

Those were the messages from a bevy of police chiefs, county sheriffs and state lawmakers who gathered Monday in Waterford for a news conference labeled In Support of Law Enforcement.

The event came after nine officers were injured Friday, including five shot by a barricaded gunman, in what Phoenix police are calling an ambush. Over a 24-hour period on Friday, 13 police officers from Arizona, Maryland, New Mexico and Pennsylvania were wounded in shootings involving domestic disputes, traffic stops, serving warrants and going about their duties to protect citizens, in what some are calling a war on cops.

Were in a profession thats under attack, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told the gathering.

Certainly, some in our profession have done terrible things and all of us have denounced that. But when legislators talk about removing qualified immunity  officers are willing to give their life for a stranger, but now theyre being asked to give up their familys future, even when they do their job correctly, Bouchard said.

He added: In Oakland County, we had a barricaded gunman, and the guy shot at us like 30 times; we shot once and were being sued. In the U.S. Congress, the pending George Floyd Act, named after the Minneapolis man whose death at police hands sparked nationwide protests, would end qualified immunity from civil lawsuits  a legal protection that police have possessed nationwide since the late 1800s, according to online summaries of the bill.

Defunding all police is no way to address the small number of abusive officers, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said. Hackel was Macomb County sheriff from 2001 to 2010. If anything, more funding and more police are needed, along with better training, Hackel said.

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One example of the recent trend to reform the nations criminal justice system has been to slash the number of defendants jailed for violating terms of their probation, Oakland Circuit Judge Michael Warren told the gathering at Waterford Township Hall. That effort has backfired badly, said Warren, who wore his trademark bow tie that replicates the American flag.

The word on the street has gotten around. Probationers know they dont have to comply (with some probation terms) because there wont be any punishment" for what are termed "technical violations; "so, a number of judges have thrown up their hands and said, Were not going to bother with probation, and were losing the opportunity to change behavior at a crucial point in the criminal justice process, Warren said.

The implementation of reduced or no penalties for "technical violations" of probation occurred in 2021 and "that was a legislative change" that tied the hands of judges, said Oakland County Chief Assistance Prosecutor David Williams, reached by phone after Monday's event.

State Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, last week introduced a bill in Lansing that he hopes will combat the spiraling rate of auto theft in Michigan. The bill would make it a felony to use a computerized device to disable a vehicles key-fob-actuated locks, a tactic used by an increasing number of car thieves, according to the Oakland County Sheriffs Office. The Sheriffs Office has reported that vehicle thefts in Oakland County increased 67% from 2020 to 2021.

At Mondays event, organized by Runestad, he said Michigan could use part of its big budget surplus to bolster local and county policing in Michigan. Runestad said he planned to survey police and community leaders statewide to ask them how we can help. One way would be to fund centers to upgrade training, Bouchard said.

Here we are in the most affluent county in Michigan and my officers are training in an old school, Bouchard said.

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard visits the Sheriff's Office Training Center, a former middle school in Ortonville, Thursday Oct. 8, 2020.

One major shortfall in police budgets is the money to make salaries and benefits competitive with private-sector careers, said several chiefs as well as an executive with a major police union.

Because the states budget surplus is temporary, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state lawmakers have been reluctant to commit to permanent outlays such as the operating expenses of police agencies. Citizens who are concerned should ask their communities about passing millage measures that would increase police pay, the chiefs said.

Nationwide, in response to the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd and other traffic stops that led to tragedies, many police departments are backpedaling on traffic enforcement, according to an editorial in the January issue of Police magazine. The editorial cites Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Portland and Seattle among the cities that have adjusted the ways their police enforce traffic violations, resulting in far fewer stops. In contrast, the editorial points to Detroit police as being appropriately aggressive in stopping miscreant drivers.

During two recent traffic stops, Detroit officers rescued children from a kidnapping and rescued young women from sex trafficking, the editorial said. Traffic stops play a key role in making Detroit a safer city, said Willie Bell, a retired Detroit police lieutenant, serving his fourth term as a member of the citys Board of Police Commissioners.

In my own neighborhood, weve had far too many drivers going 40, 50 miles an hour. So, Detroit is installing speed humps. But we do need more officers, more presence of officers on patrol, Bell said. He said Detroit loses numerous dozens of young officers each year when they leave the city for higher pay in suburban departments.

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Bottom line, youve got to give these officers a starting salary of $50,000 a year. The job requires so much of a person these days, he said. Bell did not attend Monday's gathering in Waterford. The Detroit Police Department sent Assistant Chief David LeValley, who said freeway shootings were up markedly during the pandemic, suggesting that roadside cameras could be dedicated to pinpointing the shooters , catching some while deterring others.

Monday's event was held in Waterford because the township hall was made available, "not because there is any big crime problem here," State Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, said, as she thanked people for attending.

Contact: blaitner@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Police chiefs say cops face pandemic crime spurt including "ambushes"
FARMINGTON  New Mexico reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, adding 10,815 new cases. That's down 43.6% from the previous week's tally of 19,188 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

New Mexico ranked 13th 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 41.5% from the week before, with 1,217,001 cases reported. With 0.63% of the country's population, New Mexico had 0.89% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, no states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

San Juan County reported 808 cases and 10 deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 1,871 cases and eight deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 39,156 cases and 707 deaths.

Across New Mexico, cases fell in 32 counties, with the best declines in Bernalillo County, with 3,093 cases from 4,664 a week earlier; in San Juan County, with 808 cases from 1,871; and in Dona Ana County, with 1,677 cases from 2,723.

MORE >> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

New Mexico ranked 10th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 85.3% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 75.9%, 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, New Mexico reported administering another 48,805 vaccine doses, including 13,823 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 9,854 vaccine doses, including 3,422 first doses. In all, New Mexico reported it has administered 3,711,003 total doses.

Within New Mexico, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in De Baca County with 915 cases per 100,000 per week; Roosevelt County with 843; and Dona Ana County with 769. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

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Adding the most new cases overall were Bernalillo County, with 3,093 cases; Dona Ana County, with 1,677 cases; and Sandoval County, with 847.

In New Mexico, 123 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 118 people were reported dead.

A total of 500,516 people in New Mexico have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 6,658 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 77,739,880 people have tested positive and 919,696 people have died.

MORE >> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

New Mexico's COVID-19 hospital admissions falling

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, Feb. 13.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Last week: 748

The week before that: 885

Four weeks ago: 825

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Last week: 110,378

The week before that: 131,189

Four weeks ago: 197,960

No hospitals in any state reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in three states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. No reported 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 Farmington Daily Times: San Juan County reported 808 additional COVID-19 cases this week
Md Ashif Ikbal sees connections between the pandemic and the climate crisis. And he has been working on solutions to both.

Ikbal, who is pursuing his Ph.D. at Arizona State University, works as a graduate research associate in assistant professor Chao Wangs lab in the school of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. Wang and his team recently released a study detailing their design for a new type of pathogen-detecting technology that they say is more efficient and accurate than existing techniques.

Its a new way to test for viruses, at a time when viral testing has been put front and center for communities and individuals alike.

Wang and his team also say their test could be tailored more readily than existing tests to detect any novel virus that emerges around the world. And the threat of new viruses is becoming more urgent as human activities encroach on wild spaces and drive deforestation and biodiversity loss.

Ikbal, Wang and the rest of their team arent the only ones in Arizona working to prevent the next pandemic from spiraling out of control. On a local level, scientists are sequencing genomes, surveilling animal populations and researching ecology and environmental policy to better understand and limit the threat of novel infectious diseases.

For Ikbal, who is from the southern tip of Bangladesh, the research hits close to home. He says the future humans are creating feels immediate to him.

If the sea rises another couple of inches, most of my neighbors will be underwater, he said. So those kinds of things always play on your mind. What's going to happen in 10 years time, 20 years time?

If current warming trends continue, rising sea levels will displace as many as 20 million people in Bangladesh alone by 2050, according to a report from the National Resources Defense Council. Meanwhile, a team of scientists estimated last summer that the probability of observing pandemics similar to COVID-19 may double or even triple in the coming decades, a direct result of environmental change.

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Thats partly because many novel diseases originate in animals, and though there is no conclusive consensus on the origins of this pandemic, many scientists think SARS-CoV-2 spilled from animals into humans, too. In addition, environmental change exacerbates conditions that make pandemics worse, especially for vulnerable populations, including famine, drought, air pollution and more.

Ikbal himself just recovered from a 10-day bout with COVID-19, and credits the vaccine with his ability to overcome the virus. But well before that, he had an interest in biotechnology and health in addition to sustainability. He says that the untimely deaths of two close relatives spurred his interest in helping to save other human lives.

You have family members, you want them to have a natural, fit and long life. But when (a family tragedy) happens, you tend to be more like  is there any way that we could have probably prevented this thing to happen?

Our new podcast: The Lab at azcentral, exploring the stories behind bioscience

The future of testing

When Wang first started working on a new type of testing technology over three years ago, he was focused on a different disease: Ebola. Though Ebola never had the same catastrophic impact in the United States as it did in West Africa, an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019 killed more than 2,000 of the over 3,300 people it infected, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

So Wang and his collaborators set to work, combining techniques from electrical engineering and bioscience. The idea was to attach special molecules, called nanobodies, to tiny particles of gold. The nanobody-spiked gold flecks, which are only one-thousandth the width of a strand of hair, act like magnets for a virus.

Researchers can collect a biological sample (say, a blood test) in a test tube and pour in a solution containing the gold nanoparticles. If the disease of interest is also in the test tube, the nanobodies will pull it in, forming microscopic clumps. Because the nanobodies are tailored to attract only a certain kind of pathogen, the gold will only get weighed down if the pathogen is present.

Those clumps, which become large enough for gravity to send them sinking through the solution in the test tube, fall to the bottom. The more pathogen is present, the more gold will end up at the bottom, and the less will remain suspended in the fluid in the tube.

Thats where the electricity part comes in: When an LED light shines through the tube, the intensity of the color reveals how many particles are still bouncing around. That color corresponds to how much, if any, of the virus was in the sample.

Wang says that was exciting because they could accomplish the whole process in one test tube, and the amount of gold needed is so minuscule that the cost stays low. The results took three to four hours to develop, but they were accurate and were less subject to human error than other lab tests.

In 2019, at the time they first invented the technique, Wang had hoped that developing cheaper, simpler and more effective diagnostics would make a difference in the field, where disease responses to threats like Ebola can sometimes be slowed by a lack of funding or socioeconomic factors. It's not the (tests) that are more complex, but the ones that are simpler that make an impact, Wang said.

Then a new virus appeared, and the challenges were magnified. A three- to four-hour response time wasnt good enough.

The (coronavirus) pandemic happened, and I grabbed two of my students in my office and told them  You know, I think this is time to make an impact. Its a once in a lifetime opportunity,' Wang said.

So they accelerated the project. They needed some way to make those little gold magnets act faster. They tried several techniques, but finally they settled on centrifugation  basically, using existing mechanical devices to spin the tubes really fast, speeding up the separation of the nanoparticles from the rest of the solution.

It worked. Now the test only takes 15-20 minutes  about the same amount of time as your average rapid antigen test, but with the potential for the precision of a PCR. In addition, the nanobodies that make the test work can be generated for any novel pathogen in just one to two weeks, according to Liangcai Gu, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington who collaborated on the project.

Wang and his team say more development will be needed in order for the tests to be distributed commercially, but for now, Ikbal says their labs main contribution was to help demonstrate that their test could be applied to diseases beyond Ebola.

If it takes three to four months to develop the detection system, then (a new) infection might as well be out of hand, he said. The process that we have developed is applicable for COVID and not only for COVID, but for any other new infectious disease that might arrive.  Thats the main advantage of this method.

Its an advantage that other scientists say is needed to help stop the next pandemic before it spirals out of control. We're always battling that ability to have those rapid and accurate point of care screening tools, said Hayley Yaglom, a genomic epidemiologist at TGens pathogen and microbiome division who has formerly worked in disease surveillance with the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Its just one part of a wider landscape of pandemic prevention and response that Yaglom says utilizes all these other technologies  for example, genomic sequencing to understand the full genetic code and origins of infectious diseases, or identifying targets for new vaccines.

But the process Yaglom has spent her life on involves animals, and its a project she continues in Arizona today.

Animal surveillance

Skunks with rabies, prairie dogs that carry the plague and housepets with COVID-19 are all in a days work for Yaglom. She hopes that by seeking out and keeping track of diseases in fauna, scientists can prevent the worst effects from hitting humans.

Human, animal and environmental health (are) all interconnected, she said. How do we use that to drive forward our methods of thinking and understanding about what exists and what's coming down the line?

Most recently, shes been trying to answer that question by investigating the four-legged companions that most often come into contact with humans  domestic dogs and cats. Yaglom says that of the 110 pets theyve tested so far in Arizona, about 35 % have tested positive for COVID-19.

Hayley Yaglom, a genomic epidemiologist with the pathogen and microbiome division at TGen, collects a nasal swab from a cat enrolled in TGen and ADHS's COVID-19 Pets Program on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021.

As far as they can tell, none of those animals gave the virus to their owners. But theyre interested in the data because if human-to-animal or animal-to-animal transmission continues, it could create opportunities for the virus to mutate and potentially spill back to humans. Keeping tabs on a variety of species could also help scientists understand how the virus passes from one animal to another.

Its a pressing mystery for epidemiologists and zoologists. In other parts of the country, large populations of deer are testing positive for the coronavirus (according to a study from Penn State, that number totals as many as 60% of deer sampled in December 2020 in Iowa). And in Hong Kong, pet hamsters likely transmitted the coronavirus to at least two humans, resulting in further human-to-human spread, according to a recent preprint in the Lancet.

Yaglom says SARS-CoV-2 is so new that scientists are still trying to understand just how far it can spread in animal populations, and what the implications might be for humans. That, she says, is why its important to seek out more information from the animal world.

In infectious diseases  If we don't look for it, we're not going to find it. And when we look for it, we will find it, she said.

She added that in 2022, she and her colleagues beyond TGen, including researchers at local zoos, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Arizona Game and Fish Department, plan to continue expanding maintenance and monitoring programs to examine the effects of the pandemic on animals in captivity, as well as wild animals. She says they will collect samples to test for the presence of the coronavirus or antibodies against it, as well as other viruses or microscopic life of interest.

That work ties into existing programs that monitor populations of skunks, bats, prairie dogs, gray foxes, birds and other animals for all kinds of disease-causing pathogens including rabies, West Nile virus, hantavirus and even the plague. In the fall and winter of 2021, Yaglom says Flagstaff wildlife partners discovered that a variant of rabies typically found in brown bats was driving a significant rabies outbreak in skunks, suggesting that a spillover event had occurred from the former species to the latter. Tracking that outbreak gave scientists the opportunity to make an animal vaccination plan, protecting local pets and other species, including us.

Rabies still rarely affects humans, and most of the diseases currently being monitored in Arizona dont pose a significant risk of instigating the next pandemic. But Yaglom says that doing surveillance work before someone ends up in the hospital, regardless of how rare a disease may be, is essential.

Even from a local level, (we use) these same kinds of technologies and approaches to understand  what is circulating in those communities and then what prevention can be done, she said.

And around the world, scientists believe those are the tactics that will be necessary on a broader scale to keep future pandemics from happening. In a new review in the journal Science Advances, an international team of researchers calculated that more widely instituting what they call primary pandemic prevention measures, including tactics like expanding viral surveillance, monitoring hunting of wildlife and limiting deforestation, costs less than 1/20th of the value of lives lost to emerging viral diseases.

Policymakers and the public may neglect threats from low-probability, future catastrophic pandemics, the team wrote. This oversight leads us to underestimate expected annual lives lost (and the associated costs) by almost an order of magnitude.

Global issues, local connections

Many of the root causes of pandemics are also the root causes of the climate crisis, said Aaron Bernstein, one of the coauthors of the review and the interim director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard. He added that stopping those intertwining problems at the source would not only reduce harm to humans from future pandemics, but also have other benefits to human health.

One of the points of our paper is to drive home that we cannot make our decision on how to respond, how to address pandemic risk, in absence of understanding what's going on with life on Earth and the climate, Bernstein said.

He described documented examples of that overlap: For example, exposure to air pollution leads to worse outcomes for people infected with respiratory infections. In addition, drought or lack of adequate water supplies can make pandemic-related hygiene measures more difficult or impossible  an issue that directly affected many in the Navajo Nation as COVID-19 spread across the state.

The pandemic has highlighted a variance in the degree to which different nations, states, governance structures and institutions can or cannot absorb this kind of shock, said James P. Collins, the Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment at Arizona State University.

Collins, who has spent decades studying emerging diseases in amphibians, said that when he puts together a group of investigators, he aims for a diversity of expertise ranging from the cellular and molecular level all the way to systems of global change. As he has used research to study pathogens in other species, he says that the international, interdisciplinary teams like his and Bernsteins reflect the urgency and challenges of stopping future pandemics before they start.

Bernstein says primary efforts to prevent pandemics are more equitable. Stopping a disease before it starts means everyone, rich or poor, remains protected. Tests and drugs will benefit rich people first and sometimes only, and that's morally objectionable, he said.

But primary prevention, like reactive measures, requires technology  say, satellite imagery to monitor destruction of forests  thats expensive. Bernstein and his team say theyve shown that the investment pays off in the long run. Still, Bernstein also acknowledges its impossible to stop every spillover event.

Thats a main motivation for efforts like the one Ikbal has joined.

If you look at the greater picture (of) sustainability and the pandemic as a whole, it is taking a toll on not only the poorer nations, but the poorer people of this country as well, Ikbal said.

He added that while Arizona may seem removed from emerging disease hotspots or the effects of a changing climate, the issues are salient for local researchers and residents alike.

We are not shielded from natural disaster, especially the way Arizona is set up, the way Phoenix is set up, Ikbal said. I see a lot of similarities between Arizona and Bangladesh. Because in Bangladesh, we have an excess of water  here, we don't have enough. So it's just the opposite side of the coin. But the effects are (the) same.

Independent coverage of bioscience in Arizona is supported by a grant from the Flinn Foundation.

Melina Walling is a bioscience reporter who covers COVID-19, health, technology, agriculture and the environment. You can contact her via email at mwalling@gannett.com, or on Twitter @MelinaWalling.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Nanobodies, climate study: ASU scientists aim to stop next pandemic
Kanye West has repeatedly declared that he wants his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, back. (Photo: Getty Images)

Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kanye West nearly one year ago, but the rapper has recently been involved in a very public campaign to win his ex back.

West, who legally changed his name to Ye in October, has been sharing and deleting screenshots of texts with his estranged wife on social media  including ones where Kardashian pleads with him to keep their interactions private. He also shared a photo on Instagram, which he later deleted, of a truckload of roses that he sent to Kardashian's home. West has also publicly maligned Kardashian's new boyfriend, Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, prompting Kardashian to say in texts he later shared that she's concerned for Davidson's safety.

West has also repeatedly declared that he wants his wife back. "God please bring our family back together," West captioned a series of photos of his children and Kardashian from her Vogue photo shoot that have also been removed from his Instagram account.

Related video: Kanye West asks for his 'family back' after public spat with Kim Kardashian

Kardashian has made it clear that she wants to keep her divorce as amicable as possible for the sake of the couple's four children. In her March Vogue interview, Kardashian had this to say: "You could be so hurt or angry at your ex, but I think in front of the kids, it always has to be 'Your dad's the best.' 

This isn't the first time West has made private details about the couple's marriage public. The rapper, who previously disclosed that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, shared during a 2020 presidential campaign rally that he and Kardashian talked about having an abortion when they discovered that Kardashian was pregnant with their daughter, North.

While Kardashian and West are public figures, experts say it's not uncommon for one person in a divorce to share more than the other would prefer, or to even post information about what's happening on social media. "Usually details revealed are hurtful in nature because whoever is revealing them feels hurt or angry," Dr. Gail Saltz, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital and host of the How Can I Help? podcast from iHeartRadio, tells Yahoo Life. "They want others to side with them or they want others to think poorly of their ex. This attempt at retribution adds fuel to the fire, increasing pain and anger rather than resolving anything."

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This can have a big impact on a person's mental health, psychologist Thea Gallagher, an assistant professor at NYU Langone Health and co-host of the Mind in View podcast, tells Yahoo Life.

"If you set boundaries and someone is violating them, it can also make you worried about what other boundaries they are going to violate," Gallagher says. "If you've made it clear that you want a divorce, it's really important that someone respect that. It can cause a lot of fear and worry  it can be a slippery slope."

Psychologist Karin Anderson, creator and host of the Love & Life podcast, tells Yahoo Life that divorce is such a "personal and painful experience," adding that "it can be pretty shocking and even horrifying to watch the unraveling of your relationship being displayed for anyone to see."

"It's very distressing to someone who is already in pain," Anderson says.

Having the details of divorce be aired so publicly can also have an impact on family and friends. "It's more information than they should be privy to," Anderson says. "It's none of their business." Having an ex detail your divorce to family and friends "brings other people  and their opinions  into this very private situation," Gallagher says.

Children can also be impacted by this. "Children are vulnerable and impressionable," Gallagher says."This can really impact them emotionally and it opens them up to opinions that you can't protect them against and control. This can be very damaging for a child to witness."

Licensed clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasula, author of Dont You Know Who I Am?, tells Yahoo Life that "impacts are most problematic" when children are involved. "Children sometimes feel a sense of shame, fear, anxiety and a whole host of other negative emotions about parents' divorce," she says. "So it becoming public may raise uncomfortable questions they aren't ready to answer, and may even raise a boundary issue  where their hope and right to keep something private wasn't given to them."

Many people on social media have called West's behavior "dangerous," but Gallagher says that being so public about details of a divorce "is dangerous from the outset."

"The second all of this is made so public, they're not respecting your boundaries," she says. "That's dangerous, full stop." An ex publicly begging for you to take them back is also harmful, Anderson says. "It puts undue pressure on you," she explains. "It opens up a Pandora's box with everyone getting emotionally charged in a situation that should be about two people. None of this should be happening."

Psychologist Juanita Guerra agrees. "An individual that violates boundaries is a potential menace," she tells Yahoo Life. "These types of behaviors can speak to character pathology or the surfacing of harassment or maybe even stalking-like behavior. If a mentally unstable individual feels rejected, then there exists the potential for more egregious acting-out behaviors that can present a menace to all involved."

If you find yourself in a situation where an ex is making details of your split public, Anderson recommends reminding yourself that "less is more" when it comes to talking to others, and that you don't owe anyone any information. "Take control of what you can," she says. Anderson suggested saying this to family members who ask about the situation: "I'm really sad that the breakdown of our marriage is now on display. It's hurtful for me, so I'd prefer not to discuss this."

That, she says, "draws a firm boundary without being combative."

As for dealing directly with your ex, therapist Lesli Doares tells Yahoo Life that it's best to avoid reacting to their public antics if you can. "It's very common to want to defend yourself, but they're trying to get some kind of reaction from you," she says. "Usually, it's best not to feed it."

Kardashian has not publicly replied to West's latest comments about their divorce. West took to Instagram on Tuesday to make amends for his most recent posts.

"I've learned that using all caps makes people feel like I'm screaming at them. I'm working on my communication," he wrote. "I can benefit from a team of creative professionals, organizers, mobilizers and community leaders. Thank everybody for supporting me. I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability. I'm still learning in real time. I don't have all the answers. To be [a] good leader is to be a good listener."

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Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre. Chris Jackson/Miami Herald/Getty Images

Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre reached a settlement in her sexual-abuse lawsuit against him.

She alleged he sexually assaulted her numerous times in Jeffrey Epstein's homes.

The settlement appeared to come before Andrew and Giuffre could be deposed in the lawsuit.

Prince Andrew on Tuesday reached a settlement with Virginia Giuffre in her sexual-assault lawsuit against him, court documents showed.

A joint statement attached to the notice of settlement said Andrew would donate an undisclosed sum to Giuffre's nonprofit advocating for victims of trafficking. Andrew did not admit to sexually abusing Giuffre and did not disclose the amount of money he would pay.

The statement read: "Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years."

The settlement appeared to come before Giuffre's attorney, the famed litigator David Boies, had a chance to depose the royal.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who's overseeing the case, issued a ruling in January denying Andrew's request to dismiss the lawsuit, allowing it to move forward to the discovery process.

Since then, Kaplan has issued letters to judicial authorities in Australia and the United Kingdom asking them to aid in depositions for Giuffre and Andrew. He had set a July 14 deadline to complete the depositions in advance of a trial in fall.

Andrew was one of Epstein's highest-profile friends

Giuffre filed a lawsuit in a Manhattan federal court in August accusing the Duke of York of sexually assaulting her numerous times in the early 2000s.

She said in the lawsuit the abuse started when she was 17 and took place at Epstein's homes in New York and the US Virgin Islands, as well as Ghislaine Maxwell's house in London.

The joint statement on Tuesday said Andrew "regrets" his association with Epstein and "commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others."

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"He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims," the statement added.

Andrew had been among the sex offender's most high-profile friends. Accusers in Maxwell's trial in December alleged that she and Epstein often mentioned him, which they said intimidated them and prevented them from contacting authorities about their sexually abusive experiences.

The relationship has been enormously damaging to the duke's reputation. In court documents for earlier lawsuits, Giuffre circulated a photo of her and Andrew in an embrace in Maxwell's London home, with Maxwell in the background.

Andrew and Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, along with Ghislaine Maxwell. Florida Southern District Court

Last month, after Kaplan allowed the lawsuit to proceed, the British royal family announced that Andrew would be stripped of military titles and defend himself "as a private citizen."

Giuffre had also filed lawsuits against Epstein and Maxwell accusing them of sexual misconduct, both of which were settled. She also accused Alan Dershowitz, another friend of Epstein's, of sexually assaulting her. That case is pending.

The duke said he ultimately cut ties with Epstein and had gone to great lengths to deny Giuffre's allegations. He said he had no memory of them meeting and that the photo of them together with Maxwell may have been photoshopped.

In a 2019 BBC News interview, he rejected the claim that he and Giuffre danced in London's Tramp nightclub, where Giuffre said Andrew was "sweating all over me." The prince said that he remembered bringing his daughter Princess Beatrice to a pizza party at the time and that a medical condition stemming from a traumatic experience during the Falklands War made him physically incapable of sweating  despite many photos showing Andrew sweating in nightclubs.

The extensive denials allowed for what could have been a wide discovery process. In court documents, Giuffre's lawyers had asked for Andrew's medical records regarding his ability to sweat. Boies, Giuffre's attorney, also said he wanted to depose Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, as well as the duke's ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.

Andrew had previously requested a jury trial, indicating last month that he wasn't going to settle. Boies said it was important to Giuffre "that this matter be resolved in a way that vindicates her and vindicates other victims."

Read the original article on Insider
Paulette Heather and her son-in-law Kurt Schultz tried to get inside the burning house early Monday in Buffalos Kaisertown neighborhood to rescue her daughter and granddaughter, but it was to no avail.

There was way too much smoke, Heather said. It was just so thick and so dark.

Stephanie Schultz, 31, and her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Stella, died and three firefighters were injured battling the blaze, according to a spokesman for the Buffalo Fire Department.

The two-alarm fire was reported at 1:40 a.m. at 157 Weiss St., just south of Clinton Street.

As Heather sat in an armchair in her house next door to the charred 2 1/2-story single-family home where her daughter and granddaughter had died about 13 hours earlier, she recalled the horror of the situation to which she awoke at about 1:30 a.m. Monday.

The girls were sleeping upstairs; her husband was sleeping downstairs, Heather recalled. He woke up because he smelled smoke. He tried to run towards the back, because thats where the stairs are to get upstairs, and it was all engulfed in flames.

Heather said her son-in-law fled to her house and asked her to call 911 before they both ran to the burning house next door. They tried to enter through the front door, only to be thwarted by the flames, smoke and intense heat.

So he ran to try and go in the back way, and he couldnt, Heather said of her son-in-laws efforts. And we could hear her screaming, but we just couldnt get to them.

Firefighters entered the home to battle the blaze, but were evacuated after several minutes because the interior staircase to the second floor was completely burned out, Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said during a morning news conference.

It was impossible to advance any further, Renaldo said.

Firefighters attacked the fire from the exterior of the home, focusing on a second-floor bedroom window. The bodies of the mother and child were found just inside that window, Renaldo said. They had died of smoke inhalation, he noted.

The injured firefighters were taken to Erie County Medical Center for treatment. One suffered smoke inhalation, another a knee injury and the third a back injury. All were treated and released.

Renaldo reported that the fire began in the rear of the home on the first floor. No working smoke detectors were found in the home, he said.

Damage to the home was estimated at $225,000, with an estimated $50,000 in additional damage to other properties.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but it does not appear to be suspicious, Renaldo said.

Heather said hers is a very tight-knit family. In addition to her own home, Heather owns the house next door, and Stephanie had lived there for more than 10 years. Before Mondays fire, Heather said there had been no outstanding issues with the house at 157 Weiss St.

No, there were no issues. And then when she and her husband got married, they lived there with the baby, Heather said.

She said her daughter, a graduate of Hutchinson Central Technical High School, worked for Geico Insurance. She and her husband Kurt married almost four years ago.

We had just seen them the night before. They were here for the Super Bowl, Heather said.

She was an old soul in a young persons body, Heather said of her daughter. She was so outgoing, and she made everybody smile. And Stella was funny, and she was so beautiful.

Heather said her daughter grew up in Kaisertown, played volleyball for Hutch-Tech and continued to play the sport recreationally.

And Stephanie was a good friend, a good daughter and a good sister, Heather said as she attempted to hold back tears.

She was a good person, working hard for her family, Heather added. And she just got a promotion, and things were good.

Meanwhile, Heather said the outpouring of support she and her family have received on social media has been overwhelming. She was pleased to know that her daughter and granddaughter had touched so many peoples lives.

Were going to miss them both very, very much, Heather said.

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WASHINGTON  It's all hype and hysteria, an effort by the U.S. and its allies to stoke Russia-Ukraine tensions and a pretext for the West to send more military aid to Kyiv.

That's how top Kremlin officials and Russia's tightly controlled state media are casting the Biden administration's increasingly stark warnings that Russia could invade Ukraine "any day now."

"It's already past midnight, and there are still no Russians," one Russian nationalist news outlet proclaimed in a headline in recent days, mocking Washington's dire warnings.

But experts say the White House's unusual strategy  disclosing U.S. intelligence assessments of a foreign adversary's apparent military plans  may be unsettling Russian President Vladimir Putin, known as a master of propaganda and manipulation.

"The very public discussion of the Russian threat is designed to keep Moscow off balance," said John Herbst, a longtime U.S. diplomat who was ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006.

If Putin decides not to invade, Herbst said, "I would credit that specific tactic as contributing to a successful outcome  if in fact that's what we have."

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is ready for talks with the U.S. and NATO on limits for missile deployments and military transparency, as his defense ministry said it had started pulling back some troops from Ukraine's border, where they were engaged in military exercises.

At the White House, President Joe Biden welcomed Russia's moves but said an invasion remains "very much a possibility."

The president expressed skepticism that any Russian troops have been pulled back from Ukraine's border, saying that U.S officials have yet to verify those details.

"Our analysts indicate that they remain very much in at threatening position," he said. "And the fact remains right now Russia has more than 150,000 troops in circling Ukraine and Belarus and along Ukraine's border and invasion remains distinctly possible."

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, photographed at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after talks in Moscow on Feb. 7, is known as a master of manipulation.

A 'false flag' and other disclosures

The drumbeat of disclosures began weeks ago and seemed to reach a crescendo on Friday when Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security adviser, began a White House briefing with this nugget: "We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time."

Perhaps the most startling piece of information, however, came early this month when U.S. intelligence officials said they had evidence of Russian plans for a "false flag" operation in which the Kremlin would release a fake video depicting an attack on its troops. Moscow could then use that "attack," made to look as if it were carried out by Ukrainian or allied forces, as a pretext to invade Ukraine, the U.S. officials warned.

What is a false flag? U.S. says Russia may use the tactic to justify Ukraine invasion

Stephen Slick, who spent 28 years in the CIA's clandestine service and served on the National Security Council, said the U.S. revelations have at the very least complicated Russia's planning.

The administration has been "unusually proactive" in its efforts to exploit U.S. intelligence information about Russias possible invasion of Ukraine, Slick said. Usually that intelligence is used to inform U.S. policy behind the scenes. But in this situation, he said, "it is also being deployed to shape the information environment in a manner that the administration hopes will constrain Russias future actions."

Disclosing the possible false flag plan could make it harder for Russia to get away with such an operation or even discourage Moscow from trying in the first place, said Daniel Chirot, an emeritus professor of international politics at the University of Washington.

Exposing such plans actually can contribute to preventing it," Chirot said. "If you're caught ahead of time planning the lie, or some sort of deception ... it means that far fewer people would be fooled."

Ukrainian National Guard troops travel through Kyiv, the capital, on Monday as NATO troops headed to Eastern Europe and some Western governments urged their citizens and diplomats to leave Ukraine.

The audience beyond Moscow

But he said the audience for the U.S. disclosures isn't just Putin and his Kremlin allies. It's also Americans who may not support an aggressive U.S. response if Russia invades its neighbor. Biden has threatened crippling sanctions on Russia if Putin attacks Ukraine. And the Pentagon has sent several thousand U.S. troops to Poland and other eastern European countries to shore up NATO's defenses.

"There are some both on the far left and on the far right in this country who want to just stay away and say it's none of our business," Chirot said. "So it's a good idea to be as public as possible about what's happening."

Why is Vladimir Putin threatening Ukraine? Respect, fear, power at play in Russian leader's motivations

Jason Blazakis, director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said the U.S. strategy carries some risks, including exposing U.S. intelligence sources.

"They've been very careful about not illuminating the sources, but just the fact that the United States has said something with some level of specificity could illustrate to the Russians that the United States has either human intelligence on this or communications-related intelligence," he said. "It could burn the sources of information."

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said protecting intelligence sources and methods has been "our North Star."

The official agreed that the release of information has been unprecedented but said it has been done in "extremely close coordination with the intelligence community."

Blazakis said he understands the Biden administration's strategy, but it may not work, particularly given Putin's iron grip on Russian media.

"I think the United States needs to be careful in understanding that a false flag still has a lot of great potential benefits for Putin at home in terms of consolidating public support within the Russian public," he said.

"The false flag provides him a really creative narrative to use at home. That's what really worries me about this."

Better trained, better equipped: What you should know about Russia and Ukraine's militaries

Signs from Putin and the Kremlin

Indeed, Russian officials and state-controlled media outlets have cast the U.S. and Ukraine as instigators.

"The US is stoking hysteria over our so-called planned Russian 'invasion,' giving even the dates of this 'invasion,' all the while working jointly with its allies to build up Ukraines 'military muscle,'" Yury Ushakov, an aide to Putin, told Russian reporters in a briefing after Biden and Putin spoke by phone Friday.

The West is spending "significant funds" to modernize Ukraine's armed forces, "and more military instructors are being sent there," he said. "So, the 'invasion' chorus is a backdrop to create opportunities for possible provocations by the Ukrainian military."

Boris Vishnevsky, one of the leaders of a Russian opposition party called Yabloko, said Washington is right to publicly outline Putins intentions.

Biden is right: The threat of the war is real. Both President Putin and the Kremlin have given us all sorts of signs during the past few months," he said in an interview Monday.

But Vishnevsky is not convinced the U.S. tactics will protect Ukraine from a Russian assault. Only two things could stop the war and save Ukraine: if the U.S. sent more serious weapons to Ukraine or if the U.S. seized all Putins assets or the assets of Putins closest circle."

Ukrainian soldiers conduct live-fire exercises near the town of Chuguev in the Kharkiv region on Feb. 10.

But, he noted, neither is happening.

Herbst said no matter what disclosures the U.S. makes about Russian intentions, Putin can win the propaganda war at home, even if he doesn't invade Ukraine.

"He could turn on a dime and have the spinmeisters (in) the Russian media saying he's achieved some great accomplishment by focusing the rest of attention on Russia for all these months," Herbst said.

He said Putin already can claim one PR victory, thanks to all of Washington's warnings of war in Ukraine.

"Just this buildup has created real damage to the Ukrainian economy," he said. There has been a run on Ukraine's national currency, and foreign investors, already wary, have become jittery, he said.

Contributing: Maureen Groppe

Sanctions: Biden threatens devastating sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. Here's what that might look like.

'Wakeup call for Americans': Russia, Ukraine in behind-the-scenes lobbying war over Nord Stream 2

A Ukrainian serviceman washes clothes at a front-line position outside Popasna in eastern Ukraine on Monday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia and Ukraine: Why Biden advisers disclosed intel on Putin plans
Trucks line up on the on-ramp to Blue Water Bridge on I-94 to Canada in Port Huron on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022.

The number of eastbound vehicles crossing the Blue Water Bridge from Port Huron during last week's protests nearly doubled as traffic was rerouted from the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.

From Feb. 7 to Sunday, the bridge processed 31,404 vehicles eastbound into Canada, compared to 16,898 over the same time period in 2021, about an 86% increase, according to Michigan Department of Transportation Spokesperson Jocelyn Garza.

The bridge processed the most vehicles on Wednesday, when 5,521 vehicles were processed, compared to 3,089 on the same day last year, according to the MDOT data.

From Feb. 8 to last Sunday, the bridge collected $436,258 in tolls from vehicles eastbound into Canada, compared to $271,877 in the same time period last year, according to numbers provided by Garza.

The birdge collected the highest amount in tolls on Wednesday, when $88,953 in tolls were collected, compared to $49,544 on the same day last year.

Garza said while additional staff were not brought to the bridge, toll operators worked additional hours to ensure they remained fully staffed for the duration of the backups.

"Many employees worked close to a 12 hour shift instead of their typical eight," Garza said in an email. "Were fortunate the situation resolved itself before our staff had worked too many hours."

Traffic is flowing as normal, other than the usual intermittent backups that happen when traffic is processed, Garza said Monday.

Wait times eastbound into Canada at the Blue Water Bridge were less than 15 minutes for cars and commercial vehicles as of 3 p.m. Monday. Wait times westbound into the U.S. were less than 15 minutes and more than 90 minutes for commercial vehicles, according to MDOT.

To check border wait times, click here.

Trucks line up on the on-ramp to Blue Water Bridge on I-94 to Canada in Port Huron on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022.

The Ambassador Bridge opened on both sides Sunday night after protests over COVID-19 vaccine mandates and quarantine procedures ended. Police said Sunday the protest among Canadian truck drivers ended after negotiations and multiple arrests, the Detroit Free Press reported.

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The truck drivers blocked the border on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge on Feb. 7, causing traffic on both sides of the border to be rerouted to the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron and Sarnia or the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

The weeklong protest caused hours-long traffic delays on eastbound I-94 and I-69 in and around Port Huron.

Contact Laura Fitzgerald at (810) 941-7072 or lfitzgeral@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Number of eastbound vehicles processed at Blue Water Bridge nearly doubled during protests
On the closing day of the murder trial against Jason Dane Brown, there was no debate among prosecutors and defense attorneys about whether Brown fatally shot Southport Police Department Lt. Aaron Allan.

On July 27, 2017 Allan had climbed into Brown's overturned vehicle to try and keep him calm moments before the lieutenant was fatally shot.

There was debate, however, around why such a horrific act took place when there was no apparent reason for it.

Was Brown having an adverse reaction to the drug "spice," a synthetic cannabinoid, at the time?

Or did Brown have a seizure that rendered him senseless at some point during the dramatic car crash in Homecroft?

Those are the two theories Marion Superior Judge Mark D. Stoner will spend the next week mulling over after prosecutors and Browns attorneys gave their final arguments Tuesday. Stoner is expected to announce a verdict next Tuesday morning.

More: Man accused of fatally shooting Southport Police Officer Aaron Allan sobs at trial opening

The final arguments came after more than a week of testimony from witnesses who were at the scene of the crash the moment Allan was fatally shot, and medical professionals who reviewed Browns CT scans, a toxicology report and Allans body camera footage, among other evidence.

Did drug use play a role?

The prosecution's theory: Brown was high on spice when he allegedly fired a handgun 18 times at Allan. A toxicology report presented in court last week revealed synthetic cannabinoids were detected in Browns urine shortly after the crash, although a state toxicology expert said during trial there was no way to determine from that sample if Brown had ingested the substance shortly before the crash.

Aaron Allan Southport Police Lt. Aaron Allan

Prosecutors argued that Brown had a history of becoming aggressive while high on spice. Browns mother, Teresa Brown, testified Monday that a few years before 2017 her son had called her after he allegedly ingested spice and hit his girlfriend. She also told prosecutors during a deposition that he "had an incident" with a stripper after a bad reaction to spice.

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The day before the July 27, 2017 car crash and fatal shooting of Allan, Brown decided to quit cocaine cold turkey. It was a drug he had been using nine to ten times a day, prosecutor Ross Anderson said. Cocaine was also found in his urine sample from after the crash.

He quit because he was trying to impress his new girlfriend who was visiting him from Ohio. That left him with a deep, unshakeable urge and craving for a drug, according to Anderson.

More: Judge throws out life imprisonment option for Southport officer's accused shooter

After he drove his black BMW to pick up his friend, Hasan London, he tried to satisfy that urge by consuming spice  the same drug that had allegedly preceded Browns attacks in the past. "Mr. Brown needed drugs, and he was willing and able to take whatever was present, Anderson said.

It's the only plausible explanation for why what should have been a relatively straightforward car crash investigation for Allan turned into "the ultimate nightmare scenario for a law enforcement officer," Anderson said.

"You can't train for that, you can't prepare for that  and he lost his life."

Or, was it a seizure?

Denise Turner, one of Browns attorneys, suggested another theory in her closing arguments: Brown had a history of traumatic incidents in life that made him more susceptible to seizures, and a seizure is the only thing that can explain Browns bizarre actions before and after the crash, she argued.

Browns mother said Tuesday she had used methamphetamine while pregnant with Brown. He weighed less than 5 pounds when he was born. He also tested positive for methamphetamine at birth, according to his mother.

Months later he was dropped on his head, causing his head to swell to almost three times its size, his mom said. Teresa Brown said they brought him to a local hospital where doctors allegedly said he could have brain damage from two skull fractures. Turner said medical records from that event were not available because the hospital disposes of records that are more than 20-years old.

Teresa Brown also testified that when Brown was 14 her boyfriend attacked her son. They got into an altercation and (the boyfriend) was slamming his head against the wall, Teresa Brown said. Browns attorneys presented records to the judge attesting to this incident.

"We have a boy with repeated head trauma, who's got undiagnosed seizures, Turner said. Seizures also appear in his family history: One of Browns sisters sees a neurologist because she experiences them, according to Turner.

Browns defense relied heavily on testimony from Dr. Pamela Blake, a neurologist who runs a headache center in Houston, Texas. Blake said Monday that after reviewing evidence and speaking with Brown it was 99 percent likely that Brown had a seizure right before crashing his vehicle.

Prosecutors said Blakes claim was inconsistent with a deposition in which she said the crash triggered a seizure. An earlier witness called by prosecutors, neurosurgeon Dr. Troy D. Payner, said that according to Brown's CT scan it was unlikely Brown experienced significant head trauma because of the crash.

"I think there's tremendous evidence that he did not have a seizure," Payner said.

But the totality of Browns history of trauma and the fact that experts cannot tell when he consumed the drugs that appeared in his urine sample make the seizure theory the only plausible one, Turner argued.

Allans mother hopes for justice

Allans mother, Laurie Lowry, is hoping the judges decision brings Brown punishment for taking her sons life  even if that punishment is less than what they had hoped.

Prosecutors dropped a death penalty request after Brown agreed to forfeit his right to a jury trial, placing his future squarely in the hands of Judge Stoner.

More: Death penalty dropped in case against man accused of fatally shooting Southport officer

On Friday, Browns attorneys successfully requested the judge throw out the possibility of life imprisonment without parole after they argued prosecutors failed to convince the court that Brown was aware Allan was a police officer when Allan was shot.

After the judges decision, Lowry told reporters she was in disbelief.

Thats a stab at my heart, she said. I dont get to see my son ever again. I dont get to tell him I love him.

I hope his moms happy because at least she gets to visit her son. I dont.

Call IndyStar courts reporter Johnny Magdaleno at 317-273-3188 or email him at jmagdaleno@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @IndyStarJohnny

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Southport officer's homicide: Attorneys present 2 opposing theories


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If you ever lived in a college dorm room, chances are you've found yourself slung in a certain type of foldable sling chair ubiquitous in these spaces: the Butterfly Chair. But, although it's now practically a staple of the dorm essentials section of Target, Walmart, and the like (not to mention iterated on with outdoor fabric for outdoor sporting events), this clever seat actually has quite the illustrious design history. What we know today as the Butterfly Chair traces its roots back to Argentina in 1938, when a trio of designers began experimenting with modern forms in a Buenos Aires studio.

Who actually invented the Butterfly Chair?

The first iteration of the now-iconic chair was the result of a collaboration between designers Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy. After meeting while working together in the Paris studio of the renowned modernist architect and designer Le Corbusier, Bonet, Kurchan, and Ferrari Hardoy relocated to Buenos Aires (hometown of the latter two designers), where they founded the new design group Grupo Austral with the aim of bringing Le Corbusier's urbanist ideas to Argentina. One of their first projects together was a redesign of a classic folding wood-and-canvas military chair known as the "Tripolina" (first introduced in 1877 for the British Army).

Photo credit: GraphicaArtis - Getty Images

The group reimagined the Tripolona with modern-day materials, constructing a folding frame of tubular steel, which was just becoming trendy in furniture use among modernist designers (Marcel Breuer's iconic Cesca chair was introduced in 1928). In a nod to the human-centric, ergonomically-minded attitudes of modernist design, they created a seat that is at once supportive and comfortable, contorting perfectly to the human frame. The seat is also both collapsible and stackable, making it a flexible and practical accessory.



How did the chair become so popular?

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The chair has a connection to none other than Frank Lloyd Wright to thank for its early popularity: Architect Edgar Kaufmann Jr., whose father had commissioned Wright's seminal Fallingwater (as well as a Richard Neutra home made famous by a certain Slim Aarons photograph), took a liking to the chair and ordered one to go in the famous house. He also ordered a model for the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art, where Kaufmann, Jr. was a consultant. Soon, Grupo Austral negotiated a deal with Artek to produce the seat; a few years later, renowned American furniture maker Knoll acquired the rights to manufacture it.





Photo credit: Fairfax Media Archives - Getty Images

What about the BKF or the Hardoy Chair?

If you're searching for Butterfly Chairs and see them affiliated with several other names, there's good reason: the seat has had many monikers over its storied past. The original design trip was named in the BKF (short for their three last initials), while it also became commonly known as the Hardoy, after one of the creators. When Knoll began its production, it named the seat Model no. 198. "The number of names by which it is knownBFK, the Argentina, the African, the Hardoy Chair or, more commonly, the Butterfly, are second only to the countless attempts to imitate it," writes Domitilla Dardi for Knoll.





Where can I buy a Butterfly Chair now?

Though Knoll saw success with the Butterfly, it ceased production after just four years, meaning the only "original" BKFs available today are on the secondhand market, where they can fetch in the thousands. Luckily, if it's the style you're after and not necessarily the history, there are many modern makers who have taken up the shape at a variety of price points. In keeping with its roots, The Citizenry works with a leather workshop in Buenos Aires to create a handcrafted version in cowhide on an iron frame. If you're looking for a cheaper option, they abound, everywhere from Walmart to Amazon. Alas, the seat so lacked copyright protections that, according to AD, its inventors once lamented that despite its worldwide popularity, they only ever saw $11 in profits from its sale.

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Main Street is reflected in the windows of the Dayton town hall, Monday, Sept. 21, 2020 in Dayton.

DAYTON, Ind.  Dayton Town Council meets at 6 p.m. Thursday, but it might not be to replace the clerk-treasurer office that was left vacant by the Feb. 7 resignation of Michelle Frewerd.

Jen Manago, president of the Dayton Town Council, said the council might not select Frewerd's replacement at Thursday's meeting. Instead, she said, they might discuss whether Indiana law allows the town to contract with a financial experts.

Indiana open records laws prevent the discussion of the issue by council members unless it is during a public meeting, Manago said.

Dayton, a small town of fewer than 1,600 people east of Lafayette, has also been a hotbed of political strife through the last 10 years.

Frewerd ran in 2019 as an independent, so when she resigned, the town council, not a political party's precinct leaders, appoints a replacement for the office.

Manago said the council approved a one-time contract earlier this month in order to get the township employees paid. That led to review of Indiana law, and Mango said the law might allow the council to hire a financial or accounting firm to shepherd the town's finances until the next municipal elections in 2023.

The town council twice voted in 2020 to censure Frewerd for her treatment of the council members and her alleged interference with the council.

Frewerd filed a lawsuit in June 2020 because the town council would not appropriate money for her office to hire its independent legal counsel.

She lost her lawsuit and was denied her requested injunction, but in the lawsuit's filings, she claimed the censures were political. The lawsuit was dismissed by agreement in July 2021.

Frewerd said the lawsuit was dismissed after the town agreed to pay her $6,000 attorney fees.

The Journal & Courier reached out to Frewerd for comment. She said she was not taking questions or interview.

She wrote, "Those censures were just an attempt of political retaliation to scare me to quit.

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"My attorney advised me when each of those were done to ignore them because they hold not legal ground and were pure nonsense and most of the points didnt even pertain to my position as Clerk," Frewerd wrote.

The Town Council meets at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Dayton Town Hall.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Dayton Town Council to discuss contracting finances to private sector
By Mayela Armas

CARACAS (Reuters) - The Venezuelan central bank's gold reserves dropped seven tonnes last year to a new 50-year low, according to financial statements published by the bank on Tuesday.

The quantity of gold bars at the bank's vaults in Caracas fell to an equivalent of 79 tonnes, down from 86 tonnes equivalent at the end of 2020.

Authorities have not provided details on the destination of the gold, which has been used in the past to shore up national finances amid a prolonged economic and social crisis.

The value of the reserves through December last year was $4.56 billion, $493 million less than at the close of 2020, amid a fall in prices for gold.

The average price for gold, according to estimates by the bank, was $1,799.48 dollars per troy ounce in 2021, compared to $1,833.76 per troy ounce in 2020.

The bank for decades held more than 300 tonnes equivalent of gold, but between 2015 and 2017 the government began using the precious metal as a collateral for loans with international banks.

A fall in oil production and United States sanctions, which have stymied crude exports, have led the government of President Nicolas Maduro to use the gold as a funding source.

The opposition alleged in March last year that the government sent gold to Mali on Russian-owned planes and that it was resold primarily in the United Arab Emirates in exchange for euros and U.S. dollars.

(Reporting by Mayela Armas; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb)
sports

SWIMMING

Lancaster swimmers have solid showing at sectional: The Lancaster boys and girls competed in the Division I sectional meet at the Delaware County YMCA and had a solid showing.

The top 30 individuals and top 20 relay teams from the various sectional meets advanced to the district meet at Ohio State University on Saturday. The Gales showed their depth on the boys side with three relay teams advancing to districts. It was also an outstanding day for the Hensley family, as Mia, Jack and Max advanced in individual races.

The boys 200-yard medley relay of Jack Hensley, Max Hensley, Will McMasters, and David Geier finished third in 1:43.52 and are the 15th seed at districts. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of McMasters, Colin Kelly, Josh Murdock and Jimmy Geier finished second in 1:37.57 and are the 20th seed in the district meet. David Geier, Max Hensley, Jack Hensley, and Colin Kelly was in the 400 freestyle relay that finished fourth in 3:29.20 and advanced as the 18th seed to districts.

In individual races, Mia Hensley finished third in the 200 IM in 2:10.41 and will be the ninth seed at districts. She also advanced in the 100-yard backstroke in 59.47 seconds to finish second and will be the seeded 11th in the district. Jack Hensley finished third in the 200 IM in 2:00.48 and will be the 11th seed at districts. In the 200-yard freestyle, Max Hensley finished fifth in 1:54.20 and advanced to districts as the 27th seed.

David Geier qualified for districts in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.18 seconds to finish second and will be the 30th seed in the district. The 100-yard breaststroke saw both Hensleys advance. Jack Hensley swam a 1:01.39 to finish second and Max Hensley swam a 1:03.02 to finish third. Jack will be the 14th seed and Max the 26th seed at the district meet.

Many of the Gales swimmers scored points for the team at the Sectional Meet. Colin Kelly finished eighth in the 200-yard Freestyle and 10th in the 500-yard Freestyle. Will McMasters finished 10th in 200-yard IM and fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke. The 50-yard freestyle saw Jimmy Geier finish ninth and Cam Morris finished 12th. Josh Murdock finished eighth in the 100-yard butterfly and seventh in the 100-yard backstroke. Jonathan Pennington finished 11th in the 500-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke. The 100-yard freestyle saw David Geier finish second. Josh Murdock swam to an eighth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly and Zach Kette finished eighth in the 100-yard backstroke.

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The Lady Gales 200-yard medley relay of Amelia Robertson, Marley Byers, Mia Hensley and Kendall Cox swam to a fourth-place finish. The 200-yard freestyle relay of Kyra Walling, Gracie Stuart, Marley Byers and Caroline Conklin finished fifth. The 400-yard freestyle relay of Kendal Cox, Amelia Robertson, Mia Hensley and Gracie Stuart finished fourth. Amelia Roberston placed 11th in the 200 IM and ninth in the 100-yard backstroke.

Marley Byers swam to a ninth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly and placed 12th in the 100-yard breaststroke. Kendall Cox placed 10th in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle. The 100-yard breaststroke saw Gracie Stuart finish 11th and Drea Echard finished 12th in the 100-yard Backstroke.

Fairfield Christian Academy swimmers qualify for district: The Knights had a solid showing at the Division II sectional meet, with several swimmers qualifying for Thursdays district meet at Ohio State University.

The Lady Knights qualified for district competition in the 200-medley relay, 200 free relay, and 400 free relay, and currently heading into districts as the ninth seed in the 200 medley and 400 free relays.

Individual qualifiers for the Knights were: Freshman Addyson Barnhart in the 200 free and 100 backstroke; Junior Joanna Hildenbrand in the 200 IM and 100 free; Senior Emma Smeltzer in the 100 fly and 100 backstroke; Senior Madi Burris in the 50 free and 100 free, senior Grace Barnhart in the 200 free and 500 free as sectional champion in both races. She will be the top seed in both events.

Relay qualifiers include the above-mentioned individual qualifiers as well as Sophomores Jessika McGee, Claire McGowan, and Junior Madison Rowles. Freshman Josiah Hildenbrand qualified in the 100 breaststroke.

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: H.S. Roundup: Lancaster, FCA swimmers have solid showings at sectional
Italys Sofia Goggia won a remarkable silver medal in the womens downhill at the Winter Olympics in Beijing just three weeks after partially tearing a knee ligament in a crash in Cortina.

The reigning Olympic champion revealed she battled through the pain barrier to take second place, 0.16 seconds behind gold medallist Corinne Suter of Switzerland, with Goggias compatriot Nadia Delgado taking bronze.

The path to come here after the crash in Cortina was tough, but I had no room for doubts, said Goggia. I really did believe that I could make it, and this is why I did it.

Sofia Goggia completed a remarkable comeback from injury to win downhill silver (Luca Bruno/AP)

Goggia established an early lead and was only eclipsed by Suter, despite revealing she was far from fully fit after damaging her anterior cruciate ligament last month. American Mikaela Shiffrins difficult Beijing Olympics continued as she finished 18th.

This has been really tough on me mentally, said Goggia. I took painkillers before the race. It was really painful at the top of the course, but it was for less than a second.

I would have loved to have had 80 per cent of my strength. Of course it is getting better every day, but I cannot bend the knee and I can barely do a squad. But skiing in the last days was pretty much OK.
More Sephora at Kohls locations are opening in 2022.

Is your local Kohls getting a Sephora in 2022?

On Tuesday, the retailer announced the next 400 stores getting Sephora at Kohls beauty departments this year, adding to the first 200 locations that opened in 2021. (For a look at the full list of the stores, subscribe to USA TODAY.)

From Alaska to Wisconsin, the 400 stores will span across 36 states. California is getting the most new Sephora at Kohls locations with 46, followed by Ohio at 30, and Texas and Illinois each will get 26 new beauty shops at Kohls stores.

By 2023, the companies plan to bring the Sephora at Kohl's experience to more than 850 of the more than 1,150 Kohl's stores.

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FULL LIST: Kohl's unveils 400 stores will get a Sephora beauty shop in 2022. Is your store on the list?

Sephora at Kohls shops are replacing Kohl's current in-store beauty assortment.

The beauty destinations inside Kohl's stores will occupy about 2,500 square feet near the store entrance. They will sell makeup, skincare, hair and fragrance products.

While Kohl's and Sephora have teamed up, Ulta also started opening small shops in Target stores in another beauty partnership.

Sephora at Kohls similar to JCPenney Sephora shops

Within all Sephora at Kohls locations, customers can explore the signature Sephora experience with a carefully curated assortment of prestige makeup, skincare, hair, and fragrance brands, as well as innovations in clean beauty and self-care, the companies said in a statement.

The shops have Sephora-trained Beauty Advisors offering personalized beauty consultations and assistance, the company said.

The new space at Kohl's is similar to "Sephora inside JCPenney," a partnership that began in 2006 but is expected to end in late 2022 as the department store chain moves to a new concept. Last year, JCPenney Beauty opened in some stores and online, with a nationwide store rollout set to launch in fall 2022.

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CELEBRITY BEAUTY BRANDS: 16 celebrity-owned beauty brands to try in 2022: Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner and more

LOYALTY PROGRAMS: Beauty rewards 101: Sephora at Kohl's and Ulta at Target bring extra perks for buying makeup

Earn rewards at Kohl's and Sephora

When you shop at Kohl's for your Sephora products, you can earn Kohls Rewards and Sephora Beauty Insider points.

The first step to getting extra savings is to link your Sephora Beauty Insider account with your Kohl's Rewards account. (And if you're not members of either program, you can sign up for Sephora here and Kohl's program here.)

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kohl's Sephora locations: Expansion to another 400 stores announced
close up of cut open mangosteens fruit

Parinda Yatha / EyeEm / Getty Images

The mangosteen is an elusive tropical fruit. It's round, purple, and smooth, about the size of a clementine, and its firm skin looks impenetrablemuch like a jewel box, that skin protects a treasure nestled inside: tender segments of soft white flesh that is sweet with traces of floral tartness. The high price of this hard-to-find fruit may make you wonder how best to prepare and eat mangosteens, so as not to waste a morsel. Ultimately, the best way to enjoy a mangosteen is as simply as possible. The delicate flavor and litchi-like consistency of a mangosteen are most eloquent when the fruit is served with restraint: raw, and on the half-shell.

At the stem end of the mangosteen are leaf-like calyxes. If the mangosteen is exceptionally fresh they may still be a rosy-green. On the bottom of the fruit is a tiny wooden stamp. It is the collection of stigma lobes and you should count them: Their number varies, but it corresponds exactly to number of pure white fruit segments inside the shell. One segment is more plump than the others and contains a seed.

In most brick-and-mortar stores in the United States, mangosteens are unusual to find. (Asian fresh produce markets are an exception, and even then the fruit appears briefly because mangosteen season can be short.) Most of the mangosteens sold in the U.S. are grown in Southeast Asia, and especially in Thailand, where they may first have been domesticated, and which grows and exports more of the fruit than any other country. The reason they remain relatively unfamiliar in the U.S. is because the import of fresh mangosteens (and other tropical fruits) from Asia was banned until 2007 because of concerns that they would introduce an agricultural pesta fruit flyto the country. The ban was lifted subject to the fruit being irradiated, and imported Asian mangosteens are now permitted. (Irradiation is an ultra-violet process used on many not-organically certified fruits and vegetables, as well as meat; it sterilizes pests and destroys pathogens and can extend shelf life.)

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Related: What Is Jackfruit? All About the World's Largest Fruit, Including How to Prep and Eat It

Why Are Mangosteens So Expensive?

Two words: high maintenance. The trees won't grow just anywhere. Garcinia mangostana is an ultra-tropical evergreen tree that flourishes only within 20 degrees of the Equator (not even Florida is sticky enough). The trees have very specific growth requirements and uneven yields, needing high but consistent temperatures, high humidity, and highbut not too highrainfall to produce and ripen fruit. Saplings must be shaded and hate being transplanted. The trees also mature slowly, flowering only after six to eight years after being grown from seed (compare with papaya, which can produce fruit within a year). The mature trees are alternate-bearing, producing a bountiful crop one year, and a very light crop the next (and possibly the next after that, too) while the tree builds up energy again. The fruit must be ripe at harvest as it does not continue to ripen after being picked; it's also very perishable. What's more, irradiation itself is expensive, adding cost to treated fruit.

Beyond Southeast Asia, mangosteens are grown to a small extent in southwestern India and northeastern Australia. Closer to home, Mexico and Guatemala now also export mangosteens to the U.S. In the mid-2000s, mangosteen cultivation took off (slowly) in Puerto Rico; by 2016, the Panoramic Fruit Company was producing several tons of non-irradiated mangosteens for the U.S. market. But in 2017 Hurricane Maria damaged the burgeoning farm severely, and owner Ian Crown is still raising funds to rebuild. Interestingly, the mature mangosteen trees themselves withstood those hurricane-force winds, "bending like rubber," while other tropical fruit trees did not, he said in a phone call. Due to pandemic-complications, his bountiful 2021 mangosteen crop was sold locally in Puerto Rico.

When and Where to Buy Mangosteen

Here's the mouthwatering question: When and where can you buy mangosteens? That depends on where they came from. Mangosteens ripen in the tropical rainy season. Above the equator, June to August is the primary harvest season and usually there is only one. Closer to the equator, there is a chance of a second harvest. One of the most reliable places to find fresh mangosteens is at an Asian fresh produce market in a big city during the summer. They are packaged in little net bags at prices ranging from $8 to $12 per pound. Occasionally, high-end gourmet stores may sell them priced individually, but these are generally far more expensive. When choosing fruit, look for mangosteens with deep, evenly purple color and an undamaged shell.

Increasingly, mangosteens are available online, usually in summer. From Florida-based MiamiFruit you can pre-order a three-to-five pound box of non-irradiated Mexican mangosteens for $137. Tropical fruit hub TropicalFruitBox sells three pounds for $119. And Melissa's sells non-irradiated mangosteen from May through September.

About Irradiation

Even fruit importers cite conflicting information about whether their fruit that is not from Asia must be irradiated. Lucero Hernandez (she/her), public affairs specialist for the USDA cleared up the confusion specifying "Mangosteens imported into the U.S. from Mexico require a permit, but not irradiation treatment."

The big question is whether irradiation affects flavor and texture. We've likely only enjoyed irradiated mangosteens, and they were sweet, lemony, tender, and delicious. If non-irradiated mangsoteens taste better, we look forward to trying them.

How to Prep and Eat Mangosteens

Eat your mangosteens soon after buying the fruitthey don't improve with time. Very fresh mangosteens are still pliable and can be cracked open by being squeezed between your palms of your hand. But for most mangosteens, days or weeks from their mother tree, a sharp, serrated knife is required. Place your fruit on a cutting board and cut a shallow, careful hemisphere around it, trying not to slice into the delicate segments within. Twist, and lift off half the shell. The lovely white flesh is revealed, encircled in purple. Arrange the fruit on a platter, and serve with dessert forks to lift out each piece. It will be a memorable event.
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

The National Carpet Museum has been represented at the international virtual museum conference.

The conference brought together experts from Nepal, Croatia, Italy, Malaysia and other countries.

The museum's director Shirin Malikova delivered a presentation "Invisible Art: Expanding the Boundaries of What is Possible".

She spoke in detail about the ANCM's project "A Museum Without Borders" designed for individuals with visual disabilities and the inclusive exhibition co-organized in partnership with the Russian Hermitage Museum.

"This inclusive project is the result of many years of research on creating replicas of artworks for individuals with visual disabilities. The tactile fragments of the Pazyryk carpet were newly woven by the ANCM's Traditional Technologies Department and now presented at the Hermitage. It is worth noting that the Pazyryk carpet is the world's oldest carpet preserved in the Russian Hermitage Museum," she said.

Founded in 1967, the National Carpet Museum never ceases to amaze everyone with its beautiful architecture.

Initiated by eminent carpet artist Latif Karimov, it is beautiful inside and out. The museum's new building is designed in the form of a rolled carpet.

The Carpet Museum stores over 14,000 exhibits of the finest Azerbaijani carpets.

The museum hosts multiple events, including international symposiums, conferences and various exhibitions.

In 2019, the museum received national status for its significant contribution to the popularization and promotion of the Azerbaijani Carpet Weaving Art.

In 2020, the Carpet Museum enriched its collection with beautiful pile carpets purchased by the Culture Ministry at the Sartirana Textile Show in Italy.

The 19th century Guba carpet Ugakh was donated to the Carpet Museum, while Karabakh carpet Chalabi enriched the collection of the museum's Shusha branch.

The Carpet Museum also focuses on cooperation with world-leading museum organizations.

Moreover, the Carpet Museum won Travelers' Choice Awards for the fourth time in a row last year.
Aug. 24, 1932  Feb. 11, 2022

Sybyl Quan on Monday was discussing the life of her father, Victor N. Farley, and recalled that school was never easy for the New York City kid who would later become Erie County Republican chairman.

"But the more difficult the challenge, the harder he worked at it," she said of the man also destined for an accomplished legal career. "It was always like figuring out a puzzle."

Indeed, Mr. Farley seemed to manage just about any challenge during a long career as not only the powerful head of upstate New York's largest Republican organization, but also as a leading behind-the-scenes figure in the State Senate on some of day's most pressing issues.

"He was, without question, the leading county chairman in upstate New York and a guy who did so many things in the Legislature," recalled former State Sen. Dale M. Volker, R-Depew, who served 38 years in Albany. "Sometimes when it looked like things for Buffalo were about to collapse, he was the one who picked up the cause."

Mr. Farley, 89, died Friday in Buffalo General Medical Center after suffering a stroke earlier in the week.

Contemporaries recall him as a "presence" who always retained his New York City accent and dominated a room upon arrival. He oozed the authority of an old-time urban power broker, and from his Hotel Statler offices put his stamp on the GOP throughout the county and state.

"He was a pragmatic guy who knew the things he could do and what was a waste of his time, and there was no doubt he knew his business," observed retired Appellate Division Justice Salvatore R. Martoche. "He was a strategist who knew every twist and turn of every district."

Over the past few days, many compared him to his Democratic counterpart  Joseph F. Crangle  who died in 2021.

"He and Crangle were never joined at the hip philosophically," Martoche added. "But they enjoyed each other because they spoke the same language."

Born in Manhattan, he graduated from Power Memorial High School, earned a bachelor's degree in social science from Fordham University, a law degree from St. John's University Law School, and a master's in law from New York University Law School. He became an expert in tax law while working for various firms in New York, and eventually was closely associated with efforts of Gov. Hugh L. Carey and the Legislature to resolve the city's financial crisis in the 1970s.

In 1965, he joined the Moot and Sprague firm in Buffalo and became immersed in Buffalo politics at a time when his GOP was losing its dominance of the local scene. He was elected chairman in 1978 and dominated the party for the next 11 years in a tenure surpassed only by Edwin F. Jaeckle from 1935-1948.

"He knew if he wasn't strategic about it, the Republican Party would soon be extinct in Western New York," Martoche recalled. "He got cross-endorsements for judges and others and was able to keep things afloat for a long time."

Mr. Farley engineered the appointment and two elections of Edward J. Rutkowski as county executive beginning in 1979, and endorsed the late Buffalo Mayor James D. Griffin (a Democrat often friendly with the Republican Party) for several offices. His Republicans enjoyed a majority in the County Legislature, elected one of their own as district attorney and surrogate judge and continued to emerge as an authority in the State Capitol on major legislation  especially regarding Western New York.

Mr. Farley engineered a major coup in 1979 when the County Legislature was deadlocked 10-10, and Democrat Stanley A. Zagora organized with the GOP to form a majority. In return, Zagora was elected Legislature chairman and later became personnel commissioner in the Rutkowski administration.

But he also found himself constantly battling with more independent members of the party hierarchy, including County Comptroller Alfreda W. Slominski, Assemblywoman Carol A. Siwek and Elections Commissioner Philp D. Smolinski. With Rutkowski's defeat by Democrat Dennis T. Gorski in 1987, his time at the Republican helm began to wind down and he resigned in 1990.

Still, Mr. Farley remained a major presence in New York politics, surviving various GOP leadership changes in the Senate and continuing as an influential member of the majority's legal staff. He held various posts, including as commissioner on the Erie County Water Authority, eventually became an Albany lobbyist and received several awards from community organizations.

His name again entered the headlines in an uninvited way when the deck of his Eden home suddenly collapsed while hosting a party in 1986, resulting in injuries and lawsuits.

George Borrelli, retired political reporter for The Buffalo News, may have summed up Mr. Farley's career best upon his 1990 retirement as chairman by noting he rejected many stereotypes.

"He's not a gregarious, back-slapping politician who enjoys spending a lot of time drinking beer at the corner tavern or making the rounds of ward and town committee meetings," Borrelli wrote. "He's intelligent, pragmatic, a skilled tactician, a lawyer who specializes in tax law, a history buff and an avid reader.

" 'We won more than we lost,' observed Farley. He did  and in a Democratic stronghold."

Besides his daughter, Mr. Farley is survived by his wife, the former Linda Beck; a son, Gareth; two step-daughters, Kerry Donnelly and Erin Pritchard; a step-son, Raleigh Smith; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Visitation will begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Amigone Funeral Home, 1132 Delaware Ave., followed by funeral services at 8 p.m.

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Residents showed up Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, to be there for a Staunton School Board meeting that was possibly going to involve a discussion of mask policies.

STAUNTON  A crowd showed up on Valentine's Day to be there in case the Staunton School Board discussed COVID safety policies. Currently, Staunton requires masks for students and staff.

A call to anti-maskers on social media to attend the meeting appeared to also motivate people who support the existing mask and safety policies.

About 70 people were in attendance, with a majority of those who spoke thanking the school board for keeping the mandate. No vote was taken by the board Monday night.

However, the decision may soon be out of the school board's hands following legislation that passed Monday.

Legislation ending mandatory masks in Virginias K-12 public schools passed Virginia's Republican-controlled House of Delegates by four votes. Senate Bill 739 now just needs to be signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, which it appears will happen.

Jelisa Wolfe, Staunton's executive director of student services, said Monday night that school officials anticipate that Youngkin will add an emergency clause that will make the bill take effect immediately. Wolfe said Staunton City Schools will comply with any changes to the law.

I am pleased that there is widespread and bipartisan support in Virginia for a parental opt-out of mask mandates in schools, Youngkin tweeted Monday afternoon. Today, the General Assembly took a significant step for parents and children.

Dr. Kristin Siegel thanked the school board for making schools a safe and inclusive environment. She also said her children have missed no days of school because of COVID and thinks universal masking has helped.

More: House of Delegates moves Augusta Courthouse referendum bill along path to final approval

More: Masks no longer required for anyone, even teachers, in Augusta County starting Monday

Charlie Nesmith is the band teacher at Shelburne Middle School. He told the board that his students have probably been as impacted as any group by masks, having to remove them sometimes to play certain instruments or wear special masks with slits to be able to play.

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"I will say my observations as a teacher, I don't think any of my students felt oppressed by masks," he said. "If anything, they're just annoying ... but I think our students have an understanding that wearing masks saves lives. And that is what the science clearly shows."

Stacy Sheehy told the school board that their job is difficult in the best of times and she appreciated their decision to continue universal masking.

"I am here to thank you for your continued actions that without a doubt puts community first," Sheehy said. "Thank you for doing the right thing. Let's keep our schools healthy. There is a light at the end of this tunnel, but let's not make it harder to get there."

John Wilson, who posted the video asking citizens to show up and oppose the mask mandates, spoke first in the public comment section.

"I'm here to talk about the continued muzzling of our children that this board's mask mandates have done," Wilson said. "Unlike the board, I believe that parents and their family doctors are best positioned to make medical decisions for their children."

Beth Rowe told the school board that the Valentine's cards they received from the students were not sent out of the goodness of the students' hearts, but was a class assignment.

"These children have no idea the power struggle that's going on," she said. "And how the board members keep them masked ... the school should be ashamed of themselves for asking these children to thank their oppressors."

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: Anti-mask parents attend Staunton meeting to talk about school policy
Gabriel, 9, gets a free COVID-19 vaccine from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center nurses on Dec. 29, 2021, at the Cincinnati Museum Center in Cincinnati's Queensgate neighborhood.

More than 40 doctors, nurses, clinicians and others  many of whom speak Spanish  will set up a vaccine clinic at an East Price Hill elementary this week, welcoming neighborhood families.

The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center vaccine clinic, planned with Cincinnati Public Schools, is a welcomed event, says Luz Elena Schemmel.

She should know. Schemmel has been tirelessly advocating for COVID-19 vaccines in the three Price Hill neighborhoods since they became available last year. Often speaking in Spanish, her first language, to families for whom English is a second language, and meeting people face to face for a multitude of health issues, Schemmel has 12 years of experience in outreach as director of wellness and immigration for Santa Maria Community Services.

"We've been in the trenches," says Schemmel. And now, she says, she's thrilled to spread the word that Cincinnati Children's and CPS are teaming up for the outreach clinic at Rees Price Academy.

Luz Elena Schemmel, director of wellness and immigrant services for Santa Maria Community Services, takes a selfie with neighbors at a health fair the nonprofit held on Oct. 9, 2021, in East Price Hill. Schemmel's first language is Spanish and often does outreach with Spanish-speaking residents. She's glad to hear of the upcoming vaccine clinic to be held by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center with Cincinnati Public Schools, at Rees Price Academy.

The COVID-19 and flu vaccine clinic, set for Feb. 17 at the community school at 1228 Considine Ave., is the second elementary-school based clinic that Cincinnati Children's has arranged with the school district to reach people in the city who may have trouble getting to the hospital's campuses, where vaccines are routinely provided, Cincinnati Children's officials said. The first was at Rockdale Elementary in Avondale.

"You can come with your entire family  from the 5-year-old to the grandparent to the elderly neighbor," said Susan Wade-Murphy, a registered nurse and Cincinnati Children's assistant vice president in the division of patient services. "We're reaching out to the entire neighborhood."

Schemmel said it's important to meet the neighbors in their comfort zone. "They are insulated; not only the Hispanic communities but I think others, too," she said. "I think being creative and bringing the resources to the community, there's a need."

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And, she said, "Schools are a trusted place."

Interim Cincinnati Schools Superintendent Tianay Amat said the district is happy to pair with the medical center for its families. "Cincinnati Children's hospital is committed to the health and well-being of the whole child, and we are incredibly lucky to have them as a CPS partner," she said.

The Rees Price Academy-based clinic will be a large undertaking, Wade-Murphy said, involving providers and staff from several departments. Although the hospital has gone to community locations and schools for clinics several times, most COVID-19 vaccines have been given at the main campus in Avondale, or the Liberty Township or Green Township campuses.

Skyler, 8, waits to get a COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 29, 2021, from a Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center nurse at the Cincinnati Museum Center in Cincinnati's Queensgate neighborhood.

Wade-Murphy said Cincinnati Children's has reached out to several Price Hill-area community groups, including Santa Maria Services, Su Casa and La Mega 97.7 FM radio.

Rees Price Academy enrolls about 600 students from preschool through sixth grade, including more than 20% Hispanic children and more than 17% are English learners, Ohio School Report Card data show.

The clinic details:

Hours are 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

No appointment is needed, this is a walk-in clinic.

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, flu shots for those 5 years and older.

Pfizer boosters for those 12 and older, at least five (5) months after the initial vaccine series.

Box dinners.

Cincinnati Children's Gamble Vaccine Research Center Director Dr. Robert Frenck speaks in Spanish to a little girl as her mother gets a COVID-19 vaccine at Findlay Market in May 2021.

Liliana Wooten, a Cincinnati Children's nurse who's helped with several clinics designed to reach Latino populations, said the clinics are important for Spanish-speaking residents. She was born in Venezuela and often interpreted English-speaking medical providers for her mother as a child.

"Coming from immigrant parents and having migrated to the U.S. myself at an early age, I understand how patients can feel more comfortable with the healthcare system if they have people who look and talk like them providing the care," Wooten said. She said kids smile and look relieved when she first speaks Spanish to them during vaccination clinics.

Soroya gets a COVID-19 booster from a Cincinnati Children's nurse on Dec. 29, 2021, at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Her two young children each got vaccinated, too.

Schemmel said language barriers can be the reason some are hesitant to get vaccinated and the presence of healthcare workers who greet them speaking their first language will put people at ease.

Cincinnati Childrens has provided more than 45,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since January 2021, with about 20,000 given to children as they became eligible for vaccines and boosters at all locations (including primary care offices). That works out to more than 17,200 individuals receiving a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine from a Cincinnati Childrens provider, Wade-Murphy said.

Children ages 5 to 11 (or most elementary-age kids) have been eligible to get the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine since November. Data on first vaccines through Jan. 28 provided through state Ohio Department of Healths COIVD-19 Dashboard shows that 30% of Hamilton County's children in that age group had received at least one vaccine as of Friday; 24% in Butler County in that age group and 22% in Clermont County and 35% in Warren County. The statewide rate is 24.4%.

The Cincinnati Children's team will return to Rees Price Academy three weeks after the first clinic, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. March 10, for second doses of the vaccine or first COVID-19 vaccines, boosters or flu vaccines, Wade-Murphy said.

"Some populations are beginning to be ready to vaccinate," Wade-Murphy said. "We want to be there for people who are ready."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Public Schools, hospital outreach for COVID-19, flu vaccine
President Joe Biden delivered his first comments about the situation in Ukraine directly to the American people on Tuesday.

Biden spoke from the East Room of the White House during a day of continued negotiations and developments over the pending crisis.

We are ready with diplomacy, Biden said. And we are ready to respond decisively to a Russian attack on Ukraine, which is still very much a possibility.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is ready for talks with the U.S. and NATO on limits for missile deployments and military transparency, a second signal Tuesday of a potential tension release in the conflict between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

Just hours earlier, Russia said it would send home some troops from military exercises, which have raised fears of an invasion of Ukraine.

President Joe Biden addressed the developing situation from the White House on Tuesday afternoon, starting at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Speaking after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said that while the U.S. and NATO rejected Moscows demand to keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of NATO, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back alliance forces from Eastern Europe, they have agreed to discuss some security measures already suggested by Russia.

Putin said Russia is ready to engage in talks on limiting the deployment of intermediate range missiles in Europe, transparency of drills and other confidence-building measures but emphasized the need for the West to heed Russias main demands.

Russia-Ukraine explained: Inside the crisis as US, allies await next move

US President Joe Biden arrives to deliver remarks on Russia and Ukraine in the East Room of the White House on February 15, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Biden: Ways to address security concerns

Expressing some optimism that a diplomatic solution could be found, Biden said there are real ways to address our respective security concerns.

We're proposing new arms control measures, new transparency measures, new strategic stability measures, he said. The measures, he added, would apply to both Russia and to NATO allies in order to advance our common security.

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But, Biden emphasized, the U.S. is not willing to sacrifice basic principles, including that nations have a right to sovereignty and can choose with whom they will associate.

But that still leaves plenty of room for diplomacy and for de-escalation, he said.

Moscow, however, has pushed for guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join the military alliance. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

-- Maureen Groppe

More: Why is the White House releasing US intelligence on Putin's moves in Ukraine? Behind the unusual strategy

Biden: Russian attack would be a 'self-inflicted wound'

Biden said while he agrees there's more room for diplomacy, he warned that if Russia chose to invade Ukraine it would be a "self-inflicted wound." He emphasized the U.S., NATO allies and Ukraine are not a threat to Russia and neither the U.S. or NATO have missiles in Ukraine and no plans to put any there.

"If Russia attacks Ukraine, it will be a war of choice or a war without cause or reason," he said. "The world will not forget that Russia chose needless death and destruction."

Biden expressed skepticism about reports that some Russian troops have been pulled back from Ukraine's border, underscoring U.S officials have yet to verify those details.

"Our analysts indicate that they remain very much in at threatening position," he said. "And the fact remains right now Russia has more than 150,000 troops in circling Ukraine and Belarus and along Ukraine's border and invasion remains distinctly possible."

-- Courtney Subramanian

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 15: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on Russia and Ukraine in the East Room of the White House on February 15, 2022 in Washington, DC. President Biden said the United States remains open to high-level diplomacy in close coordination with allies, building on the multiple diplomatic off-ramps the U.S., its allies and partners have offered Russia in recent months.

Defense of NATO allies

Biden said the United States will defend its NATO allies if they come under attack.

Make no mistake: the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power, he said. An attack against one NATO country is an attack against all of us.

The president noted that the United States sent forces to bolster NATO's eastern flank. But he added the U.S. will not send American service members to fight in Ukraine but that the U.S. has provided the country with training, advice and intelligence.

-- Rebecca Morin

Maps and more: Where is Ukraine? Where are NATO members? A guide to post-Soviet eastern Europe

Biden: Potential consequences for Americans, as well

Biden warned there are potential consequences for Americans if Russia invades.

Defending democracy and liberty is not without cost, he said.

I will not pretend this will be painless, he said.

If energy costs rise, Biden said the administration will use what tools it has to protect consumers at the gas pump.

The U.S. is also prepared to respond to any cyber attacks on American businesses or on critical infrastructure, he said.

We will respond forcefully, he said.

-- Maureen Groppe

SENKIVKA- UKRAINE: Members of the Ukrainian Border Guard patrol along the Ukrainian border fence at the Three Sisters border crossing between, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus on February 14, 2022 in Senkivka, Ukraine.

Biden: Invasion still 'distinctly possible'

Biden said the United States cannot trust the Russian defense minister's claims Tuesday that troops that had been taking part in military exercises near Ukraines border are being pulled back.

That would be good, Biden said. But we have not yet verified that.

Biden said the U.S. analysis indicates that the troops remain in a threatening position.

Invasion remains distinctly possible, he said.

-- Maureen Groppe

Vindman: Too many forces for a sigh of relief

We're not nearly over the hump of this situation, said Lt. Col. (retd) Alexander Vindman, the former director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia on the White Houses National Security Council during the Trump administration, told USA TODAY. There are too many forces for anybody to kind of breathe a sigh of relief based on what might amount to, on one hand, either hollow rhetoric or on another hand a kind of denial and deception operation.

At the same time, I'm right there at the head of the line looking for lifelines  and certainly noting a couple of tepid lifelines  with regards to some of the rhetoric coming out of Moscow, said Vindman, who previously served as the Political-Military Affairs Officer for Russia for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an attache at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Vindman said there are some welcome indications based on Putin's interaction with his Foreign Minister and Minister of Defense, as well as the pledge to withdraw some forces. But, he added, There's a little bit of smoke and mirrors there, to tell you the truth.

Vindman said he was especially apprehensive about remarks made by the military general leading Russias National Defense Control Center, the operations center for its Ministry of Defense, who said that some of the southern and western military district forces would be returning back to their garrisons.

The problem with that is that those are the ones that are right there anyway, so they don't have far to travel. Some of these units already just mere kilometers away, Vindman said.

And this doesn't account for the central and eastern military districts, the dozens of battle groups that came out of those districts, Vindman said. When those start to go back, that's when we could start to breathe a sigh of relief.

-- Josh Meyer

Blinken to Lavrov: U.S. needs to see 'verifiable, credible, meaningful de-escalation'

The United States needs to see verifiable, credible, meaningful de-escalation of Russian action toward Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a call Tuesday.

Blinken also said he is still waiting for Russias written response to last months proposal from the U.S. and NATO about concrete areas for discussion, according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.

Blinken noted that Lavrov said a response would be transmitted within the coming days, according to Price.

Price also said Blinken emphasized that the U.S. is still looking for a diplomatic solution to the crisis Moscow has precipitated but remains concerned that Russia has the capacity to launch an invasion of Ukraine at any moment.

Blinken told Lavrov that further Russian aggression against Ukraine will be met with a swift, severe, and united transatlantic response, according to Price.

 Maureen Groppe

More: Biden threatens devastating sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. Here's what that might look like.

Ukraine defense website, banks experience cyberattack

Ukraine's information security center said Tuesday that the countrys ministry of defense and at least two banks had come under cyberattack, shutting down websites and access to information and accounts.

The Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security did not attribute the attacks in an online posting, but suggested that Russia was responsible.

"It is not ruled out that the aggressor used tactics of little dirty tricks because its aggressive plans are not working out on a large scale," said the center, which is part of Ukraines culture ministry and works with U.S., British and NATO officials in Kyiv.

During the last few hours, Privatbank has been under a massive DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack. Privat24 users report problems with payments and the application in general. Some users do not manage to log in to Privat24 at all, others do not have displayed the balance and recent transactions, according to the Ukrainian Centers website.

People walk past the entrance of a cable car station on Feb. 15, 2022, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

It said Oschadbank also has failures, and internet banking is down, and that the websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also attacked.

In a statement, Privatbank said it had managed to eliminate the consequences of the DDOS attack and restore the stable operation of systems."

U.S. cybersecurity experts warned that a Russia cyberattack against Ukraine could take many forms, from full-scale takedowns to low-grade distributed denial-of-service attacks like those targeting the banks. DDoS attacks disrupt the normal flow of Internet traffic by overwhelming a target or its broader network.

Russia has used such DDoS attacks prior to some form of military action for more than a decade, including against Georgia in 2008 and, later, against Ukraine. Often, they are done prior to more aggressive cyberattacks, or as a way to disrupt communications prior to an invasion.

In Georgia in 2008, cybersecurity experts say, the attacks on its Internet infrastructure began days or even weeks before Russias military incursion, with coordinated barrages of millions of DDoS requests that overloaded and essentially shut down Georgian servers. The website of then-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, for instance, was knocked out of service for more than a day by multiple DDoS attacks.

 Josh Meyer and Karina Zaiets

President Joe Biden arrives at the White House after speaking at the National Association of Counties 2022 Legislative Conference, on Feb. 15, 2022, in Washington. He was scheduled to make remarks on Russia and Ukraine following his return.

Biden to address nation on Ukraine

President Joe Biden will briefly address the situation in Ukraine in afternoon remarks, the White House announced.

Biden will not announce new policy, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Instead, he will provide an update to the standoff.

He will speak about the situation on the ground, the steps we have taken, the actions we are prepared to take, whats at stake for the US and the world and how this may impact us at home, Psaki tweeted.

Biden will reiterate that the United States is still looking for a diplomatic resolution, pointing to multiple diplomatic off-ramps already offered Russia by the U.S. and its allies.

The United States continues to believe diplomacy and de-escalation are the best path forward, but is prepared for every scenario, the White House said in a statement.

Biden is scheduled to speak from the East Room at 3:30 p.m.

 Maureen Groppe

More: Where is Ukraine? Where are NATO members? A guide to post-Soviet eastern Europe

Blinken speaks with Lavrov as Biden talks to Macron

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Tuesday morning, as efforts to de-escalate the military situation around Ukraine picked up.

The call with Russias foreign minister came hours after Moscow said it started pulling back some troop units taking part in military exercises near Ukraines border.

A senior State Department official provided little information on the call, other than that Blinken and Lavrov agreed to stay in touch when they last spoke.

Around the same time of Lavrov call, President Joe Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron from 10:11-11 a.m., according to the White House.

 Maureen Groppe

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz following their talks in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2022.

Russia announces troops will return to bases

Russia's defense ministry claimed Tuesday that it started pulling back some troop units taking part in military exercises near Ukraine's border, but it gave no specific details on where the troops were pulling back from, or how many.

Ukrainian officials said it was too early to tell whether the announcement reflected a genuine change of tone from Moscow following weeks of tensions over fears of a Russian invasion.

"As with all things Russia, actions speak louder than words," Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh told CNBC on Tuesday morning. "We're going to monitor everything that we see on the ground very carefully. And of course, our goal is peace and to uphold the principle that you can't redraw borders by force."

"If there's a troop or a tank that crosses the border, we're ready to impose the most severe sanctions ever levied on Russia in lockstep with our allies and partners," he said.

The apparent development came a day after Russia's foreign minister indicated the country was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that led to the Ukraine crisis  Europe's worst East-West standoff in decades  and western officials warned the attack could come at any time, signaling Wednesday as a possible invasion day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly accused the West of causing undue panic over Russia's invasion threat, saying Ukraine's intelligence did not indicate an imminent threat. The fears of an invasion grew from the fact that Russia has massed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine. Russia denies it has any invasions plans.

Biden threatens devastating sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. Here's what that might look like.

Ukraine's leaders expressed skepticism about Russia's reported pullback.

"Russia constantly makes various statements," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. "That's why we have the rule: We won't believe when we hear, we'll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we'll believe in de-escalation."

Moscow wants guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join the military alliance. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

The Kremlin has cast the U.S. warnings of an imminent attack as "hysteria" and "absurdity," and many Russians believe that Washington is deliberately stoking panic and fomenting tensions to trigger a conflict for domestic reasons.

Zelenskyy declared Wednesday would be a "day of national unity," calling on the country to display the blue-and-yellow flag and sing the national anthem.

What is a false flag? US says Russia may use the tactic to justify Ukraine invasion

Contributing: Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY; Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine: Joe Biden says Russian invasion still possible
To the editor -- 2021-22 is a foreign affairs disappointment. Are we surprised? Former SECDEF Robert Gates (under Bush and Obama) reported that Joe Biden was on the wrong side of every foreign policy decision in the last 40 years.

I remember the Trump-Pompeo foreign policy teams accomplishments:

First president in approximately 30 years to avoid new invasions or wars.

No missile or nuclear attacks from North Korea.

Obtained NATO funding increases from our European allies, and continued cooperation with NATO forces in Afghanistan.

No NATO countries were invaded or denied security protection.

Middle East peace improved with four more Arab countries, joining Jordan and Egypt, as friends of Israel. Promise kept to move the embassy to Jerusalem.

No fiascos occurred like O/B in Libya, Benghazi, Crimea or Somalia.

Reduced involvement in ill-chosen conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.

The military was permitted to devastate ISIS, which had expanded under O/B.

Withdrew from the Kerry/Obama IRAN agreement which was not deterring nuclear development.

Eliminated terrorist leaders from ISIS and Iran

Provided arms support to Ukraine which O/B had only given some financial support.

JAY GRANDY

Yakima
To the editor -- On the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, I can sense his spirit swirling around the Republican National Committee, watching the dissolution of virtue in the "Party of Lincoln."

Contrary to Jim Jordan, many people suffered and died on Jan. 6, 2021; 100 police injured. Calling it "legitimate political discourse" is an abomination.

Fox talk shows have no room for serious journalism, but parrot false conspiracy theories. Tucker Carlson is a disgusting example of free speech and is a cancer on America. His poisonous voice spews out "love" for Putin and Viktor Orba'n of Hungary. Together they make up a Bolshevik factory admiring authoritarianism and shunning democracy.

Republican school boards making a "no-no" list of books to ban and burn is wrong and a leap toward fascism. I was shocked to see a wonderful book I'm reading on their heinous list, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian" by Sherman Alexie. Sure there is some profanity and lewdness, but so is the real world unless one is in a priggish bubble. As you read those "offensive" words it's not like you are expressing them, it's an insight into the world views of oppressed people.

God save America from itself!

SUE JANUSCHEITIS

Yakima
By ZACHARY MARANO

[email protected]

Ironwood  The Ironwood Public Safety Department presented its annual report to the Ironwood City Commission at their regular meeting on Monday.

Department director Andrew DiGiorgio identified three partnerships between the public safety department and other organizations in the last year that stood out to him, with the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department, Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action and the Gogebic County office of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The public safety department partnered with the WUPHD to offer free COVID-19 testing at the Memorial Building on Wednesdays. DiGiorgio said that the health department needed certified Emergency Medical Technicians to observe people for any signs of anaphylaxis or other allergic reactions after getting vaccinated and several public safety officers were certified through their EMT program.

DiGiorgio said that the public safety department also partnered with Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action to provide housing for people who need a roof over their heads. After 4 p.m., anyone can come to the public safety department and they will provide them a motel room for the evening. He said this program is funded by the American Red Cross.

Another partnership that DiGiorgio said he was particularly proud of was with the Gogebic County MDHHS. The two departments have been providing free drug and alcohol testing for people required to get tested as part of their sentencing at the public safety department office.

Our thought process was that we didnt want to (charge) people as theyre going through this difficult time with $25 for drug testing or $5 for a PBTs, or preliminary breath tests, so we waived the costs. It helps us work with the courts and get people back on their feet, DiGiorgio said.

DiGiorgio said that the number of police reports shot up by 74% from last year, which he said he initially found alarming. However, he said there were unusually low case numbers in 2020 because of the stay home, stay safe order and these numbers were more in line with previous years.

Other statistics from the annual report included the officers delivering eight doses of Narcan and responded to two calls for hazmat services. DiGiorgio said that all public safety officers carry Narcan to treat drug overdoses in emergency situations and the department provides hazmat suits to Michigans Region 8, which encompasses the entire Upper Peninsula.

Public Safety Sgt. Matthew Sterbenz will provide the city commission with a full annual report on the Gogebic-Iron Area Narcotics Team at its next monthly meeting. DiGiorgio said that he will also have more details about their cooperation with the Ironwood Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee at the next meeting.

DiGiorgio said the departments frontline firetruck, Engine 99, is now 23 years old and that after 25 years, a truck is no longer National Fire Protection Association compliant. He said that this year, he wants to start the process of obtaining a new truck for 2025. He also said that he hopes the department will complete the process for accreditation and become an accredited agency by 2023.

Public Safety Officer Michael Rimkus retired in June 2021, DiGiorgio said. He said they found a part-time officer to replace Rimkus, but staffing is going to be a challenge for the department going forward. He said that public safety officers have other responsibilities besides policing and many people only enroll in the police academy because they want to police. He said that they are going to reach out to community members to find new ways to attract officers.

After hearing DiGiorgios presentation, the board authorized a professional services agreement with McKenna for the preparation of a downtown development plan and the re-establishment of a tax increment financing district for downtown Ironwood.

Director of Community Development Tom Bergman asked the board to consider authorizing this agreement because this project is a priority for the Downtown Ironwood Development Authority, the Ironwood Economic Development Corporation and the planning commission. He said that the downtown development plan would identify projects that TIFT dollars can be used for.

As part of another project, which is the development of a tax increment financing district for the downtown, you also have to have a downtown development plan, which was historically our blueprint plan. But that now needs to be updated and were looking to start the TIFT district, which is an opportunity for the city to capture tax revenue and then reinvest that in our downtown, Bergman said.

Bergman said that McKenna will help with public outreach to identify the priorities for downtown Ironwood and how this will impact the community and tax revenues in the community. He said they expect the process to take six or seven months.

The city commission also:

Approved a special assessment for 420 E. McLeod Ave. for condemnation and demolition of a hazardous stairwell. City Manager Scott Erickson that the property owner was contacted on numerous occasions to address the problem but did not take any action, so he public works department removed the stairwell. Erickson said that the cost was $1,595, including labor, equipment and disposal costs. He said the property owner will have the chance to pay the money up front before it is added to their taxes.

Approved the six-year capital improvement plan for 2022-2028, as recommended by the Ironwood Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Committee. Mayor Kim Corcoran said that the plan is available for review in the city clerks office or on the city of Ironwoods website.

Approved a quit claim deed to Eric Lytwyniuk for previously purchased property at Luxmore and Ayer streets.

Authorized bids for a new tractor/mower for the department of public works and declared the current mower surplus, as well as a tractor/mower for the Western Gateway Trail Authority.

Authorized bids for the replacement of a damaged metal siding on the northeast end of the department of public works facility.

Awarded a bid to Jakes Excavating for the Drinking Water Asset Management grant project in the amount of $401,350.

Set a public hearing for 5:25 p.m. on March 28 to consider approving a special assessment for 110 East Birch St. for condemnation and demolition of a residential structure at this location.
Douglas Jemals redevelopment plan for the downtown Mohawk Ramp addresses infrastructure, education, career opportunities and alternative modes of transportation, while offering housing and parking. And it does so with the developer providing private funding  notably on the infrastructure piece  without depending upon tax breaks that are available to him. The plan is, in a word, terrific.

Jemal continues to use his resources and expertise to tackle some of Buffalos biggest development projects while preserving the citys historic architecture and providing housing, retail and office space for a rebounding urban core. He does so by doubling down on the good bet that Buffalo represents.

Jemal has the financial resources to do what many developers would like to accomplish. It is, perhaps, the reason he can pursue the redevelopment of a centrally located parcel at 477 Washington St. without tax credits, tax breaks or other public incentives for affordable housing. He may pursue historic tax credits on the adjacent Simon Electric Properties that he also owns. Who would fault him?

The Washington-based developer has quickly adopted Buffalo as his home, investing in such significant properties as Seneca One tower, Hyatt Regency Buffalo on Main Street, the Statler, Police Apartments and the former Mahoney State Office Building. Hes not done. I didnt come to Buffalo just to buy Seneca One. Once I got involved in the fabric of the city, I got involved heart and soul, and its the legacy that I want to leave.

That work is continuing with the Mohawk Ramp project. Jemal and the city plan to create a new infrastructure fund of some $50 million to $60 million to bolster downtown Buffalo and the near East Side. The funds will derive from the portion of his property taxes that he would have saved on both the Mohawk Ramp and the Simon properties had he applied for tax breaks.

That money will pay to improve or change several parts of the citys infrastructure: downtown streets, sidewalks, utilities and other features. The fund also will support the construction or rehabilitation of affordable housing, including single-family homes. It also will include home repairs that will help longtime residents remain in their homes.

The new fund will work in other ways, as a result of forgoing state tax credits and grants, by allowing the city to use its resources and annual state allocations in other areas.

The developer is also opening opportunities by partnering with Medaille College to create an academic and training curriculum for minority and women contractors and developers. They will receive real-world experience by working with the Douglas Development Corp. team on projects.

Thats an especially welcome prospect, given last months revelations in The News of fraud with the state program meant to benefit business owned by women or minorities. Many of those businesses, The News found, were fronts controlled by white-owned companies.

Jemal also plans to fund and use a bus he already has to create a free shuttle system to move passengers around a 1-mile loop in downtown Buffalo, with predetermined stops beyond his properties. He plans to convert the first floor of the redeveloped Mohawk Ramp into a mobility hub that includes electric-vehicle charging stations, or Electric Alley, and options for people to use the shuttle, electric scooters or bicycles.

And, of course, there is the housing piece in which his development company will convert the 629-space ramp into 200 apartments and 800 parking spaces, with ground-floor retail and restaurant space.

With one of six competing proposals for the project, Jemal won unanimously support by offering the promise of much-needed transformation in the heart of downtown and by leveraging his resources and experience to chart the path forward.

The plan, remarkable and far-reaching, will bolster Jemals investments while propelling the city. Call it enlightened self-interest of the best kind.

  

Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing.
The leaders of 16 chambers of commerce and associations, on behalf of 40,000 Chinese nationals living in Hungary, have sent a letter to Krisztina Baranyi, independent mayor of Budapests Ferencvaros district, over the districts decision last year to rename streets near the government-sponsored Fudan University development project to ones intentionally designed to irritate the Chinese government.

In the letter, the signatories asked the mayor to reconsider the advantages and disadvantages of the street name situation that has developed, and if possible, make changes to those that are offensive to China.



Since we are familiar with how our motherland reacts we have a growing fear that economic relations between Hungary and China will develop in the wrong direction. - the letter reads.



Mayor Baranyi posted the joint letter on social media, and explained in a long reply why street names that were changed last year will remain as they are.



I want to assure you that I carefully considered the consequences of renaming the streets even before it was announced, and I came to the conclusion and that the benefits would be significant, while the drawbacks, if any, would be minimal. - Baranyis response began.



Four streets around the planned Fudan development project were renamed by the district. The new street names honor figures such as exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and Catholic bishop Xie Shiguang, notes the Ferencvaros mayor.



As she sees it: The renaming of these public spaces expresses solidarity with those persecuted, while at the same time makes a stand for universal human rights.



As she further explained: When we rename public spaces in Ferencvaros, we are not interfering in Chinas internal affairs, as you claim in your letter, but are defending our own interests. First of all, against the corrupt leaders of the Hungarian state, and secondly, because Chinese interests are interfering in our internal affairs. - Krisztina Baranyi stated in her response to the letter.
Central Europes largest and most modern digitalisation centre for public collections opened at the National Szechenyi Library on Friday.

Gergely Gulyas, the prime ministers chief of staff, told the opening event that the new centre will enable the digitalisation of 10 million pages annually, including all types of documents in the library.



The nearly 10 billion forints (EUR 28m) spent on the project will enable the library to present to the public all the national treasures it holds, he added.



The library signed a cooperation agreement with the Haydneum  Hungarian Centre for Early Music at the event.



Gyorgy Vashegyi, president of the National Cultural Council and the Hungarian Academy of Arts, said the cooperation aims at the digitalisation of highly valuable music and musicology documents found in Hungary from the years between 1600 and 1850.
State lawmakers and environmental advocates renewed their call to convene a special committee charged with investigating the AltEn ethanol plant, now a stockpile of tens of thousands of tons of pesticide-laden waste near Mead.

At the same time, work to cover the massive pile of wet distillers grains and sludge produced at the plant began almost a year to the day after the companies that formerly sent seed coated in pesticides arrived at the facility to participate in the cleanup.

Both the examination of what led to the environmental crisis, as well as a look at what's ahead, were the subject of a Stop the AltEn Cover-up rally in the Rotunda at the state Capitol on Monday.

Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, who introduced several bills this year addressing AltEn, told roughly 40 attendees that Nebraskans deserved answers about how the biofuel plant was allowed to manufacture pesticide-coated seed into ethanol, as well as why the state took so long to act.

A resolution (LR159) to create the committee, introduced by Blood late in last years legislative session, was introduced too late to get a hearing before the Executive Board, Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango said last year.

The resolution has not been scheduled for a hearing this year, either.

We want to protect our precious soil, our life-giving water, and the air we breathe, said Blood, who is also running for governor as a Democrat. Its time for public discourse so we can amplify our voices here today.

AltEn was ordered to shut down Feb. 4, 2021, after regulators told the company that it could no longer pump wastewater into a damaged lagoon system on the site.

Since then, six seed industry giants  Bayer, Syngenta, Corteva, AgReliant, Becks Superior Hybrids and WinField Solutions  that formerly sent their unused seed to AltEn have taken responsibility for the cleanup.

The seed companies' AltEn Facility Response Group and a pair of environmental contractors has submitted a plan to land-apply treated wastewater on surrounding fields, and to cover nearly 100,000 tons of wet cake and sludge consolidated into a single pile.

A coordinator on the project said work that began Monday to cover the pile with Posi-Shell, a combination of cement, clay and polyester fibers used in various environmental remediation projects, was expected to continue through the week.

The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, through documents made publicly available, has expressed concern about the plan, but is ultimately allowing work to proceed.

In a Jan. 11 letter, Thomas Buell, the administrator of the Monitoring and Remediation Division, wrote that the department does not see covering the wet cake as a long-term remedial action.

The plan submitted by the AltEn Facility Response Group does not specify what maintenance will be done to ensure the wet cake pile remains covered, leaving the department concerned that a shifting or shrinking pile could cause the shell to fail.

A compromised cover could lead to increased odors or generate potentially contaminated stormwater, the department wrote to the response group.

And nothing in the groups plan outlines the final actions that will be taken to dispose of the wet cake, which is classified as a solid waste by the Department of Environment and Energy, requiring disposal in a landfill.

The ethanol plant had previously disposed of tens of thousands of tons of wet distillers grains to Waste Connections-operated landfills near David City, Milford and Malvern, Iowa, before being cut off in 2020.

Last year, the facility response group explored options for transporting wet cake via train to incinerators around the country, but abandoned the effort to instead focus on covering the pile as a temporary solution.

The Department of Environment and Energy said it also has concerns about the undefined timeline for how long the covered pile may sit on top of the uncovered ground at AltEn, where it will still be able to leach to the water table below.

It instructed the response group to establish a baseline of potential pesticide-contaminant concentrations in the groundwater near the location.

There are a handful of groundwater monitoring wells located at AltEn, with measurable levels of neonicotinoid pesticides being discovered in one well downstream from the damaged lagoon system on the site.

Janece Mollhoff, a retired U.S. Army colonel from Ashland who is part of a watchdog group monitoring the cleanup, said the plan in motion allows the seed companies to cover up the issue.

They have not yet released a plan for ongoing maintenance of the shell or how they test groundwater under it for the next five to 10 years, Mollhoff said. The cover-up will fail all of us.

Questions about access

Speakers at Mondays rally at the Capitol said among the biggest concerns they have about AltEn is the unknowns about its future.

Former Sen. Al Davis said the decaying organic matter underneath the Posi-Shell could create explosive gases as it decays and suggested the pesticide compounds could degrade into potentially more dangerous chemicals under a hot summer sun.

Nobody knows the answer to that, but its the scariest question of all, said Davis, who is a lobbyist for the Nebraska Sierra Club.

To answer those questions, the watchdog group urged the Legislature to pass LB1048, which Blood introduced, to appropriate $10 million to the University of Nebraska for a long-term study on the ethanol plants impacts on the surrounding communities and the environment.

Blood also said efforts to gain access to AltEns facility to study the waste products and spread of the contamination have been stymied.

When the research team asks AltEn, the company defers to the Department of Environment and Energy, she said, but when the request is put to the state, the state refers the decision back to the ethanol plant.

Last fall, responding to a request from Blood, Jim Macy, the director of the state environmental department, said the agencys authority stemmed from its charge to enforce regulations, and it was unable to give permission to non-regulatory entities.

The AltEn facility is private property and access would be at the discretion and permission of the property owner for a third party to enter or gather material, Macy wrote to Blood on Oct. 1.

Dr. Ali Khan, dean of UNMCs College of Public Health, reached out to AltEn general manager Scott Tingelhoff directly March 29, 2021, offering to partner with the ethanol plant on the study, according to an email shared with the Journal Star.

I am glad to share our scientific approach if you would also like to collaborate in some aspects of this effort, Khan wrote.

Tingelhoff responded less than 15 minutes later, asking Khan to share what he had in mind and suggest a time to discuss the research project.

Khan said his executive assistant reached out to continue the conversation, but it never went any further.

In December, responding to a question at a panel on the AltEn study hosted by the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, Khan said the request was met with radio silence.

Lincoln attorney Stephen Mossman, who represents AltEn, said no formal request had been made for researchers to come onto the property until Monday afternoon, when he received a letter from Khan.

Mossman said he will coordinate with the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office and the Bruning Law Group, which represents the AltEn Facility Response Group, to coordinate access for the research team.

Those groups currently control the site, he explained. AltEn no longer has any employees working at the plant.

At his weekly news conference Monday, Gov. Pete Ricketts said AltEn was not required to let researchers onto the property, nor would the state force it to do so.

We cant go just tell any private property owner they have to allow some third party on their property, Ricketts said.

The governor said the state is working with the Environmental Protection Agency, which conducted air sampling last fall, and is keeping the federal agency informed of the work being done.

Ricketts said the state is also on site at AltEn three days a week doing inspections and coordinating the cleanup.

I understand peoples frustrations  its not a good situation  but were working through it as quickly as we can, he said.

Pledge to keep pressure on

Blood told the rally she believes the state doesnt want Nebraskans to know the full extent of the pesticide contamination stemming from AltEn.

She said conversations with her colleagues in the Legislature lead her to believe many are being misled about the cleanups progress.

We have a lot of senators who believe things are going well and theres no more contamination, she said. What we know is not what theyre being told.

Blood and others who spoke at the rally urged Nebraskans to reach out to their state senators and push to have the AltEn-related legislation  including the resolution to create a special committee  pushed to the floor for full debate.

Joslyn Stamp, 14, of Plattsmouth, said it was important for the state to act swiftly in order to keep Nebraska a safe, healthy place for future generations.

I think its perfect that we all gathered here on Valentines Day, because most of the places and people I love are right here in Nebraska, the eighth grader at Brownell Talbot College Preparatory School said. Thank you all for being here to protect that.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS
NEW DELHI: In view of a drop in the Covid-19 positivity rate and the number of daily cases, the Andhra Pradesh government has lifted the night curfew. The decision in this regard was taken after Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting on the prevailing situation of Covid-19 late on Monday.

During the review meeting, the Chief Minister said that Covid-19 precautions must be taken at all times, especially in the public and commercial spaces by wearing masks. "Wearing of mask by all individuals in public places is mandatory and non-compliance shall attract a penalty of Rs 100. Orders will remain in effect till 28th February 2022, the order from the CMO said.

#COVID19 | Government of Andhra Pradesh lifts the night curfew. Wearing of mask by all individuals in public places is mandatory and non-compliance shall attract a penalty of Rs 100. Orders will remain in effect till 28th February 2022. pic.twitter.com/8xI9lZNcCd  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

He directed the authorities to continue the fever survey and asked them to conduct tests for those with symptoms. Also, he stressed on achieving 100 per cent vaccination against COVID-19 in the state.

On the Covid-19 situation, the officials stated that the pandemic is gradually decreasing, where 794 patients are getting treated in hospitals while the number of positive cases in the state has come down to 18,929, registering only 0.82 per cent of Covid-19 active cases.

The positivity rate has also fallen to 3.29 per cent from 17.07 per cent and there were zero cases in almost 9581 village/wards secretariats. On the vaccination front, the officials said that 3,90,83,148 people have been administered two doses of vaccination, and 39,04,927 were given a single dose.

While the target for the precautionary dose is 15,02,841 and so far, 11,84,608 people have been vaccinated. The officials informed that 96.7 per cent of vaccination was completed in the above 45-year age group and similarly 90.07 per cent vaccination was done in people between 18-44 age group.

For teens between 15-18 years, 24.41 lakh have been administered with a single dose of vaccine, while 12.48 lakh have received their second dose of vaccine. In regard to staff recruitments, the Chief Minister directed the authorities to complete the entire recruitments in the Medical and Health Department at the earliest, ensuring that all the hospitals are enabled with a proper workforce with zero vacancies.

He instructed the officials to separate both administrative and medical responsibilities in hospitals and hand over the administrative work to those having expertise in that field.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister announced to provide special incentives to specialist doctors and doctors working in tribal areas. In this context, the officials stated that 50 per cent of the basic salary can be given as an incentive to specialist doctors and similarly for doctors, 30 per cent of the basic pay can be given as a special incentive.

Deputy Chief Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani), Chief Secretary Dr Sameer Sharma, Principal Secretary of Health Department Anil Kumar Singhal, Principal Secretary of Health Department (Covid Management and Vaccination) Muddada Ravichandra, Covid Task Force Committee Chairman MT Krishnababu and others were present.

Live TV
The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has urged Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan not to let foreign airlines use domestic routes, fearing that foreign companies would capture the local market and circumvent the country's aviation policy.

PIA`s chief executive officer (CEO) Arshad Malik drew attention to recent reports that Pakistan had extended domestic rights to a foreign carrier as part of an initiative to attract foreign direct investment. In a letter to Imran Khan, Malik said that such a decision would be harmful to the ailing domestic aviation industry and have repercussions for the country in the long term.

Arshad Malik said, a national airline had thrashed out a deal with a foreign carrier, Air Arabia, under which the latter would be able to operate flights in Pakistan. According to the CEO, the foreign company would thereby capture the local market and circumvent the country's aviation policy under which Air Arabia was denied further rights to operate in Pakistan.

Read also: West Bengal government withdraws ban on international flights from Feb 15

He further said Serene Air and Air Sial had appealed to PIA to take up the matter at the highest level so that the government machinery was alerted to the real impact of the reported move on national airlines. The PIA CEO said the chief executives of all domestic carriers were keen to discuss the issue with him at a joint briefing.

Senator Saleem Mandviwala of the Pakistan Peoples Party has criticized the Civil Aviation Authoritys (CAA) `apathy to the plight of local airlines and called for giving them the same facilities and services as enjoyed by foreign carriers.

We must protect our sovereignty and airspace. We need to protect our airlines instead of enriching an international carrier, Senator Mandviwala said. He further said the CAA should not allow foreign airlines to misuse the local company's licenses.

With inputs from ANI

Live TV

#mute
With continuous decrease in Covid-19 cases, the West Bengal government on February 15 withdrew the ban on incoming international flights. However, international passengers either have to be fully vaccinated or go through an RT-PCR test within 72 hours from flight departure, said the official statement.

"The restrictions on incoming flights to West Bengal have been reviewed and in view of the improved Covid-19 situation, it has been decided that there shall be no restrictions on incoming domestic flights from any location in the country but subject to the condition that the passengers are either fully vaccinated or RT-PCR Test conducted within 72 hours from the time of flight departure," reads West Bengal government`s letter to Union Civil Aviation Ministry.

"Further, in respect of all incoming international flights to West Bengal, these shall be subject to the condition that the passengers are either fully vaccinated or RT-PCR Test conducted within 72 hours from the time of flight departure and any other updated extant guidelines. These shall come into effect from February 15, 2022," the letter adds.

Read also: Union Minister pleas to turn Odisha's Word War-II airstrip into a commercial airport

According to the State health department, West Bengal reported 512 new Covid-19 cases on February 13, of which 83 cases were recorded in North 24 Parganas while Kolkata logged 62 cases.

With inputs from ANI

Live TV

#mute
PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday said that his family remains hopeful that his father and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav will eventually be acquitted in the fodder scam cases shortly after the latter was convicted in the fifth such case.

Everyone should accept the Court's order. This is not the last judgment. The sentence was pronounced 6 times earlier, we approached the High Court for all cases. So, this is not the last judgment. Lalu Ji will definitely be acquitted. There is Supreme Court after High Court, Tejashwi Yadav said while talking to reporters.

Everyone should accept the Court's order. This is not the last judgment. Sentence was pronounced 6 times, we approached the High Court for all cases. So, this is not the last judgment. Lalu ji will definitely be acquitted. There is Supreme Court after High Court: Tejashwi Yadav https://t.co/xRmY8oySJQ pic.twitter.com/gD3R6E12k1  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

Reaction from Tejashwi came shortly after a special CBI court in Ranchi convicted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad in the Rs 139.35 crore Doranda treasury scam - the fifth fodder scam case - after which he has been taken into judicial custody.

The former Bihar chief minister has filed a plea in the CBI court seeking bail. He said in the plea that if not granted bail, he should be sent to judicial custody in Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) as he is unwell.

The quantum of punishment will be announced on February 21. Besides Lalu Prasad, the court also convicted 74 others including former MP Jagadish Sharma, Public Accounts Committee president Dhruv Bhagat in the case while 24 have been acquitted for want of evidence.

Thirty-six convicted persons have been sentenced up to three years in jail. Earlier, the former Bihar chief minister was found guilty in four cases related to the Rs 950 crore fodder scam and is serving a sentence of 27.5 years of imprisonment.

In the fifth case related to the scam, an FIR was lodged in the Doranda police station in 1996 and later the CBI took over the case for investigation. Initially, in case number RC 47 A/96, a total of 170 were accused of corruption, of which 55 have died, seven became witnesses, two confessed to the crime while six are still absconding.

During the hearing of the case in the CBI special court, 575 people testified on behalf of the prosecution, while 35 from the defendants. The probe agency produced 15 documents in the case.

Crores of rupees were illegally withdrawn in the name of transporting animals and arranging fodder for them in Bihar`s animal husbandry department. The animals included bull, buffalo, cow, goat and sheep. The documents submitted by the department regarding the transportation were found to be fake. The vehicle numbers shown in the documents were of scooters, mopeds and motorcycles.

The cases occurred during the period of 1990-1996. The Bihar CAG had sent the information about the graft to the government time and again, but the government did not pay heed to it.

The CBI produced the documents in the court, which showed that then Chief Minister Lalu Prasad, despite knowing everything, did not take any action. Lalu also held the portfolio of the Finance Ministry. Earlier, the former Chief Minister has been to prison six times but was granted bail by the High Court each time.
NEW DELHI: Popular Punjabi actor and activist Deep Sidhu, who was also accused in the Republic Day violence case last year, died in a road mishap while he was heading towards Haryana on Tuesday night.

According to Haryana Police, the accident took place on Western Peripheral Expressway near Pipli Toll plaza. The Haryana Police said that the actor rammed his car into a standing truck near Pipli toll on Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway.

He (Deep Sidhu) rammed his car into a standing truck near Pipli toll at Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway: Haryana Police on the death of Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu who died in a road accident  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

Sidhu was going from Delhi to Bhatinda in Punjab when the car in which he was travelling rammed a trailer truck at 9:30 pm today, the police said. The actor was declared brought dead by the hospital authorities.

Visuals of the car from the accident site. Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu died in a road accident after he rammed his car into a standing truck near Pipli toll at Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, as per Haryana Police pic.twitter.com/WL2MzT1hYd  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi and many others extended their condolences over the "unfortunate demise of renowned Punjabi actor-activist Deep Sidhu."

Deeply saddened to learn about the unfortunate demise of renowned actor and social activist, #DeepSidhu. My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved family and fans.  Charanjit S Channi (@CHARANJITCHANNI) February 15, 2022

How was the popular Punjabi actor related to Republic Day violence?

Deep Sidhu was named as an accused in the Red Fort violence case during farmers' protest on Republic Day last year. Sidhu was arrested by the Delhi Police in February last year in connection with a tractor rally by farmers on Republic Day that spiralled into violence after protesters came to the Red Fort and attacked policemen.

The farmers were protesting against three new farm laws, which were withdrawn by the Centre in November 2021. Deep Sidhu was posting videos on social media then. Delhi Police had said that Deep Sidhu was instigating a group of farmers to storm the Red Fort on Republic Day over the contentious farm laws. He was also named in an FIR by the Delhi Police.

Deep Sidhu was granted bail on April 17 but was arrested on the same day in another case by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) alleging damage to public property during the farmers' tractor rally violence at Red Fort. He was then granted bail in this case on April 26.

Later, a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh was announced by the Delhi Police for information leading to Sidhu's arrest last year. The Delhi Police had filed a 3,224-page chargesheet against Deep Sidhu in May last year in connection with the tractor rally violence.

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DUBLIN, February 15, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Hospitality Market in Morocco 2022-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The publisher has been monitoring the hospitality market in Morocco and it is poised to grow by $1.87 bn during 2022-2026, progressing at a CAGR of 6.40% during the forecast period.

The report on the hospitality market in Morocco provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.

The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current Morocco market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by shifting preference for local and authentic experiences and increasing number of travelers opting for new types of tourism.

The hospitality market in Morocco analysis includes type of tourists and type of service segments. This study identifies the implementation of sustainable tourism practices by hospitality companies as one of the prime reasons driving the hospitality market growth in Morocco during the next few years.

Companies Mentioned

Accor SA

Four Seasons Hotels Ltd.

Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Kenzi Hotel Group

Louvre Hotels Group

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Ltd.

Marriott International Inc.

Rotana Hotel Management Corp.

Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. Ltd.

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts Inc.

The report on the hospitality market in Morocco covers the following areas:

Hospitality market sizing

Hospitality market forecast

Hospitality market industry analysis

The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to an analysis of the key vendors.

The publisher presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters such as profit, pricing, competition, and promotions. It presents various market facets by identifying the key industry influencers. The data presented is comprehensive, reliable, and a result of extensive research - both primary and secondary. The market research reports provide a complete competitive landscape and an in-depth vendor selection methodology and analysis using qualitative and quantitative research to forecast the accurate market growth.

Story continues

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

Market Overview

2. Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Parent Market

Value chain analysis

Inputs

Inbound logistics

Operations

Services

Marketing and sales

Support activities

Innovation

3. Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2021

Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

4. Five Forces Analysis

Five Forces Summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

5. Market Segmentation by Type of tourists

Market segments

Comparison by Type of tourists

International - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Domestic - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by Type of tourists

6. Market Segmentation by Type of service

Market segments

Comparison by Type of service

Food service - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Accommodation - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by Type of service

7. Customer landscape

Overview

8. Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

Market drivers

Shifting preference for local and authentic experiences

Increasing number of travelers opting for new types of tourism

Implementation of sustainable tourism practices by hospitality companies

Market challenges

Difficulties in implementing tourism policies

Increased threat of terrorism

Inadequate infrastructure for travelers

Market trends

Increase in Internet access and online testimonials

Increase in eco-friendly travelers

Increasing investments in the hospitality industry

9. Vendor Landscape

Overview

Vendor Disruption

Competitive Scenario

10. Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

11. Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/w4uvto

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220215005653/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

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New Delhi: India can add USD 20 billion to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if the country can reduce by 50 per cent the dependence on imports from China by leveraging the production linked incentive schemes, an SBI research report said on Tuesday.

In terms of imports, India continued to reduce its trade deficit with China in FY21. However, share of China in India's total merchandise imports has been steadily increasing to 16.5 per cent currently, as per the report Ecowrap.

In FY21, out of the USD 65 billion of imports from China, around USD 39.5 billion were commodities and goods where PLI scheme has been announced (textile, agri, electronics goods, pharmaceuticals & chemicals).

"If, because of the PLI scheme, we can reduce our dependence on China even to the extent of 20 per cent, then we can add around USD 8 billion to our GDP. Over time, if our dependence is further reduced by 50 per cent, we can add USD 20 billion to GDP," the report said.

In FY22 April-December period, there were 6,367 products with a total value of USD 68 billion (or 15.3 per cent of the total imports) imported by India from China.

The report said it estimated the import dependence of each product on China by checking the share of Chinese imports in India's overall imports of these categories.

"The maximum aggregate value (USD 9.7 billion) is of the products in which our import dependence on China is between 50-60 per cent, although the number of products is lower.

"Although number wise the imports were highest in the category where our dependence was lowest (0-10 per cent), the value is not that high at around USD 1,894 million," the report said.

Further, it said most important imports for FY22 so far are personal computers and parts of telephonic and telegraphic equipment, electronic integrated circuits, solar cells, urea and micro-assemblies' lithium-ion and diammonium phosphate. There are other goods also under the electrical and electronics imports.

The items in the low value category are a mix of finished goods and intermediate inputs and India has a revealed comparative advantage in most of these imports, it said.

"If India wants to wean itself off its dependence on China, capabilities have to be developed in these areas, especially chemicals, textiles, footwear, so that both inputs and final consumer goods in these low value imports can be manufactured domestically," the report said.

India should integrate more and more into the Global Value Chains (GVCs), it added.
New Delhi: Oil tumbled over 4% from a seven-year high on Tuesday after Russia said some of its military units were returning to their bases after exercises near Ukraine, a move that appeared to de-escalate tension between Moscow and the West.

It was not clear how many units were being withdrawn, and by what distance, after a build-up of an estimated 130,000 Russian troops. An earlier Interfax report on the troop movements had prompted oil to extend losses.

"We went from fearing that our worst fears would be realized to maybe there`s a diplomatic offramp here after all. That brings a lot of relief in terms of keeping supplies on the market," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York. "We can`t afford to lose a single barrel these days."

Brent crude fell $3.99, or 4.1%, to $92.49 a barrel by 11:11 a.m. EST (1611 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $4.28, or 4.5%, to $91.18 a barrel.

Both oil benchmarks hit their highest since September 2014 on Monday, with Brent touching $96.78 and WTI reaching $95.82. The price of Brent jumped 50% in 2021, while WTI soared around 60%, as a global recovery in demand from the COVID-19 pandemic strained supply.

The latest Russia-Ukraine development drew a cautious response from Ukraine and Britain, after days of U.S. and British warnings that Moscow might invade its neighbour at any time.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Joe Biden had agreed in a call on Monday there was a crucial window for diplomacy.

Investors are also watching talks between the United States and Iran on reviving Tehran`s nuclear deal with world powers, which could potentially allow for higher Iranian oil exports.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday, and they noted a "tangible move forward" in reviving the Iran nuclear deal, Russia`s foreign ministry said.

Underlining the tight supply and demand balance, the latest weekly reports on U.S. inventories were expected to show another drop in crude stocks, which are at over three-year lows.

The first of this week`s two reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is due at 4:30 p.m.
Beijing: China and India should "follow through" the agreements already signed to jointly uphold peace and stability in the border area, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said on Monday, after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar blamed Beijing for the current situation at the LAC due to the violation of its written commitments.

Addressing a joint press conference along with his Australian counterpart Marise Payne in Melbourne on Saturday, Jaishankar said the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has arisen due to the disregard by China in 2020 of written agreements with India not to mass forces at the border.

Responding to a question from a Western journalist on Jaishankar's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said, "On the China-India boundary issue, it is China's consistent view that both sides jointly safeguard peace and stability in the border area following the agreements already signed."

"We hope the two sides will keep up communication through military and diplomatic channels to properly resolve remaining boundary issues," Wang said.

ALSO READ | India faces very significant challenges from China: White House

To another question on the clash between India and China on the border was discussed during the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Quad comprising the US, India, Australia and Japan in Melbourne and Jaishankar blaming China for the ongoing border conflict, Wang reiterated Beijing's oft-repeated stand on the eastern Ladakh standoff and said that the responsibility does not rest with China.

"At present, China and India are in communication on further improving border management and control and confidence-building measures," he said.

"We hope that the Indian side will strictly abide by a series of agreements signed by the two sides, refrain from making irresponsible remarks and take concrete actions and work with China to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility of the border area," Wang was quoted as saying in updated comments posted on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

When asked whether the India-China border standoff issue came up for discussion during the Quad Foreign ministers' meeting in Melbourne on Friday, Jaishankar replied, "Yes".

"Yes, we (Quad) had a discussion on India-China relations because it was part of how we briefed each other about what was happening in our neighbourhood. And it's an issue in which a lot of countries legitimately take interest, particularly if they are from the Indo-Pacific region," he said.

"So, when a large country disregards written commitments, I think it's an issue of legitimate concern for the entire international community," Jaishankar added.

Ahead of the meeting of Quad Foreign Ministers, Beijing attacked the four-nation Quad grouping, saying that it is a "tool" to contain China's rise.

"China believes that the so-called Quad group cobbled together by the US, Japan, India and Australia is essentially a tool for containing and besieging China to maintain US hegemony," another Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian told the media on Friday.

The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

The tension escalated following a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020.

After a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in February and in the Gogra area in August last year.

India and China held the 14th round of Corps Commander-level meeting on January 12 during which the two sides agreed to maintain dialogue through military and diplomatic channels to work out a "mutually acceptable resolution" of the remaining issues of the standoff at eastern Ladakh.

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New Delhi: Amid Russia invasion fears, India on Tuesday (February 15, 2022) issued an advisory and asked its nationals to 'avoid all non-essential travel' to and within Ukraine.

It also asked its nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, to 'consider leaving temporarily'.

"In view of the uncertainties of the current situation in Ukraine, Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, may consider leaving temporarily," the advisory read.

"Indian nationals are also advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine," it added.

ALSO READ | Ukraine president calls for 'day of unity' for February 16, day some believe Russia could invade

Meanwhile, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden on Monday agreed that there was a crucial window for diplomacy and a chance for Russia to step back and avert disaster in Ukraine.

The two leaders, during a phone call, emphasised that any further incursion into Ukraine would result in a 'protracted crisis' for Moscow, with far-reaching damage for both Russia and the world.

"They agreed there remained a crucial window for diplomacy and for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine," a 10 Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement after the call.

President Biden and I agreed this evening there is a crucial window for diplomacy & for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine. We are united in the face of such threats. Further incursion into Ukraine will result in far reaching damage for Russia and the world.  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 14, 2022

Western allies must remain united

Johnson and Biden agreed that western allies must remain united in the face of Russian threats, including imposing a significant package of sanctions should Russian aggression escalate.

The two leaders also reiterated the need for European countries to reduce their dependence on Russian gas, a move which, more than any other, would strike at the heart of Moscow's strategic interests.

The Prime Minister spoke to @POTUS Joe Biden this evening about the situation in Ukraine. They agreed there remained a crucial window for diplomacy and for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine. Full readout: https://t.co/O27Kos84oG pic.twitter.com/0wJN5XQwrF  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) February 14, 2022

"They also reviewed ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russias continued military build-up on Ukraines borders and reaffirmed their support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House informed.

Johnson and Biden also agreed to remain in close contact as the situation evolves.

Russian invasion could begin at any time

White House Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday told reporters that the United States is "clear-eyed" about the situation on the ground with tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along the Ukraine border.

A Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin at any time, including this week, the White House said.

ALSO READ | Why is Russia so obsessed with Ukraine and can crisis trigger a possible World War III?

"We will not comment on any details of our intelligence information except that  except to say that it could begin this week, despite a lot of speculation that it would happen after the Olympics," Jean-Pierre added.

Tune in for a briefing with Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. https://t.co/JJASoPdeYD  The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 14, 2022

It is noteworthy that Russian President Vladimir Putin's massive troop buildup along Ukraine's border has left the World struggling to pinpoint if or when he might actually launch a military campaign.

Russia, as per reports, has more than 100,000 troops massed near the border of Ukraine. Moscow, however, denies Western accusations that it is planning an invasion but says it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless a range of demands are met, including barring Kyiv from ever joining the NATO alliance.

(With agency inputs)
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi led the battery of Punjab politicians who expressed their shock and condolences on the death of actor Deep Sidhu. "Deeply saddened to learn about the unfortunate demise of renowned actor and social activist, Deep Sidhu," Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi tweeted. "My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved family and fans," the Chief Minister added.

Bhagwant Mann's reaction on Deep Sidhu's death

AAP chief ministerial candidate for Punjab Bhagwant Mann expressed grief on Deep Sidhu's tragic through a tweet:

              RIP  Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) February 15, 2022

Tehseen Poonawallah's reaction on Deep Sidhu's death

Congress member Tehseen Poonawallah tweeted his disbelief on the incident. "Is it true that Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu has died in a road accident? Did the accident happen on the KMP highway today?" He was arrested by Delhi Police in Feb in the Red Fort violence case and his pics were viral with the Hon'ble PM & Hon'ble HM!"

Charanjit Singh Channi's comment on Deep Sidhu's accident

Check Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's tweet:

Deeply saddened to learn about the unfortunate demise of renowned actor and social activist, #DeepSidhu. My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved family and fans.  Charanjit S Channi (@CHARANJITCHANNI) February 15, 2022

Key details of Deep Sidhu accident

Deep Sidhu accident - where did the collision take place

As per police, the accident took place on Kundli-Manesar-Palwal highway near Kharkhoda in Haryana's Sonipat.

Deep Sidhu accident - details on the collision

As per Kharkhoda police station Inspector Jaspal Singh, Deep Sidhu's SUV rammed into a truck. "He died in the accident," the official said, adding a woman accompanying Sidhu was admitted to a hospital where her condition was stated out of danger.

Deep Sidhu's alleged involvement in Republic Day violence

Sidhu was arrested on February 9, 2021, in connection with the Red Fort violence on Republic Day during the farmers' tractor parade against the Centre's three agriculture laws. He was in jail for over two months before being released on bail.
There will be a public holiday in Delhi on the ocassion of Ravindas Jayanti tomorrow (February 16), Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today. "Delhi government has announced a public holiday on the ocassion of Ravidas Jayanti (Februrary 16)," Arvind Kejriwal posted on his official twitter handle.

Who was saint Ravidas?

February 16 is celebrated as the birth anniversary of Saint Ravidas, a 15th to 16th century CE Guru who worked for the eradication of caste system and rights of the untouchable. He is the founder of Ravidassia sect among Sikhs. Saint Ravidas has a sizeable population of followers in the poll bound state of Punjab.

                16                   Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 15, 2022

Ravidas Jayanti and Punjab Polls

The Punjab polls, earlier scheduled for February 14, were re-scheduled for February 20, keeping in mind the celebrations of Ravidas Jayanti. All the top parties - Congress, AAP, SAD and BSP - had written to Election Commission requesting postponing of election over Ravidas Jayanti.

Ravidas Jayanti - president extends wishes to people

President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday greeted fellow citizens on the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas.

"I extend warm greetings and best wishes to all the fellow citizens on the auspicious occasion of the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidasji.

"Guru Ravidas was a great saint, poet and social reformer. Through his devotional songs, he tried to eradicate the social evils and bring about harmony in the society. He is considered a leading poet saint of the Bhakti Movement," he said, as per a communique from the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
In a deliberate attempt to humiliate India, Afghanistan's Taliban led government has named one of its new military unit as Panipat - named after Mughals' victory on Marathas in the year 1761. The Taliban's desperate yet cowardly attempt to humiliate India shows the Islamist hardliners' frustration at New Delhi. The Taliban, while making such a move, forgets that it can't stand before India's mighty Army even for 2 hours.

In today's DNA, Zee News Editor-In-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary discusses the glorious past of Hindu Empire was spread till Afghanistan and how this empire shrunk with the rise of Islam.

In general, any military unit in Afghanistan is given an Islamic name, however, it is the first time that Taliban has named a military unit after a place that it considers as a 'symbol of valour' by Islamist hardliners.

The manner in which the Taliban has made this move shows that it's a clear attempt to provoke and humiliate India.

In present-day India, Panipat is a district that is spread in an area of 56 square kilometres in Haryana state. The land has seen three historical battles in the year 1526, 1556 and 1761.

The Talibani unit has been named after the battle of 1761 - that was fought between Afgan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali and Marathas, where the latters were defeated. Afghanistan believes that this was Islam's biggest victory over the Hindu religion. Most of the books written on the matter are found singing the notes of valour for Afghan forces. However, that's half-truth. In today's DNA, we'll explain in detail the developments that actually took place in the iconic battle of 1,761.
Ranchi: A CBI Special Court on Tuesday (February 15) convicted RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav of fraudulent withdrawal from Doranda treasury in the fodder scam.

The RJD chief has already been convicted in four other cases related to the infamous Rs 950 crore fodder scam cases, wherein the government funds meant for cattle fodder were swindled.

Defence lawyer Sanjay Kumar told ANI, "36 people have been given a jail term of 3 years each by a CBI Special Court in Ranchi. Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted. The quantum of punishment to him is yet to be pronounced."

36 people have been given a jail term of 3 years each by a CBI Special Court in Ranchi. Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted. The quantum of punishment to him is yet to be pronounced: Sanjay Kumar, defence lawyer in Doranda treasury case pic.twitter.com/mu6q22MZc4  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

The court will announce the quantum of the sentence on February 21. Lalu Yadav, who has already challenged all the four previous convictions, is likely to challenge this sentence also.

So far, the RJD chief has been sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison but is out on bail for the four convicted cases.

The case involves withdrawal of funds from Bihar's Animal Husbandry Department between 1991 and 1996 when Lalu Yadav was Chief Minister.

As part of his sentencing, Lalu Yadav has also spent over 3.5 years in judicial custody as part of his sentencing.

Live TV
New Delhi: Former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on Tuesday resigned from Congress after a long association of 46 years with the party.

In a letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Kumar said, "Having given my thoughtful consideration to the matter, I have concluded that in the present circumstances and consistent with my dignity, I can best subserve larger national causes outside the party-fold."

He further said that he hopes to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters."I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years and hope to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters," he said."While paying my respectful regards, I thank you for the consideration extended to me in the past and wish you good health in the years ahead," he added.

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Panaji: The single-phase Assembly elections in Goa, held on Monday (February 14), saw a high voter turnout of 78.94 per cent in polling for the 40 assembly seats. The Congress party in the state said that this has made them confident that they will form the government with a full majority.

According to official data of the Chief Electoral Officer, the highest voter turnout was recorded in Sanquelim constituency with 89.61 per cent, while the lowest was in Benaulim with 70.2 per cent. Goa, which is the smallest state in the country, only has two districts --- North Goa and South Goa. North Goa registered a maximum turnout of 79 per cent, while South Goa stood at 78 per cent.

With these numbers, the Congress party assessed the political situation and the results of the Assembly elections in the state, which are to be declared on March 10. All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Goa, Dinesh Gundu Rao told ANI, "People have come up in large numbers to give a decisive vote and their expression will be seen in the results."

Analysing that there is an "anti-incumbency" wave in the BJP-ruled state, the Congress leader said, "People want BJP out... There is a huge anti-incumbency wave and that's the reason this high number of voting is taking place. I think it's going to be a very good result for Congress and we will get an absolute majority. This is what our people at the ground are also telling us," he added.

He further reasoned that the highest voter turnout in Sanquelim, where BJP had fielded Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, is because the people`s anger against him. "It shows that there is huge anger against the Chief Minister. In his constituency, we saw the Chief Minister becoming desperate and going door-to-door because he knew he was losing the elections. The high voter turnout in his constituency is a very good thing for us. Our Congress candidate will pull through in the contest," Rao said.

Congress had fielded Dharmesh Saglani against Sawant. Notably, Sawant has won from the Sanquelim seat twice. While he lost the 2008 bypoll from Pale, Sawant went on to win from the Sanquelim or Sankhali seat in 2012 and 2017. Congress is fighting the Goa polls in alliance with the Goa Forward Party (GFP).

Rao said that the alliance will turn out to be fruitful, resulting in an absolute majority. "People of Goa want a stable government and they want to give a clear mandate. This was building up a silent storm. They want to end the 'Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram' politics in the state. I am looking at 20 plus seats for us and BJP will find it very difficult to even cross a single-digit mark," Rao said.

(With ANI inputs)

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Naomi Judd died Saturday at age 76. Here are some of the entertainers, leaders, athletes and other notable people we've lost so far this year.
Shiv Sena today said that rumours around fall of its MVA alliance government in Maharashtra are totally baseless. Speaking to media, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that centre is using its agencies to pressurise MVA government leaders in Maharashtra.

"Pressure is being created on our leaders using these agencies. Some BJP leaders are saying that the MVA govt will fall on March 10. All these rumors started after I wrote to Venkaiah Naidu," Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said. "Maharashtra government will firmly stay," Raut added.

Raut also said that Maharashtra BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and his son should be arrested in connection with the PMC bank fraud case. "To whom does Nikon Infra Construction company belong? PMC case accused Rakesh Wadhwan and Somaiya's son are partners in this company," Sanjay Raut said.

The Shiv Sena leader further said that he called Home Minister Amit Shah and asked him not to trouble his family and friends.

"I rang Amit Shah and asked him if there was some enmity against me. I told him if there is a problem with me, arrest me but don't trouble my friends and family members," Sanjay Raut said.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing on the petitions filed in connection with the hijab row in schools and colleges till Tuesday (February 15). Last week, the high court had restrained students from wearing hijab or any other religious attire until further orders.

Hijab row: CM says everyone should abide by HC order

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, "Schools up to the 10th standard have reopened today. A few incidents have been reported from various districts. A meeting would be convened to discuss the lacunae and standard operating procedures. School management, principals and the parents have the responsibility of obeying the High Court order. It will create a conducive atmosphere for the High Court to deliver its final judgment. We should maintain restraint till then."

Pre-university, degree colleges in Karnataka to reopen from Feb 16

The Karnataka government on Monday decided to reopen pre-university (Class 11 and 12) and degree colleges across the state, that were shut due to hijab row, from February 16. "At the meeting, the current situation in the state was analysed. It was decided to reopen PU and Degree colleges from Wednesday," Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh said.

Congress distances itself from its Karnataka MLA's 'regressive' remarks on hijab

The Congress on Monday rejected the remarks made by its MLA in Karnataka that Hijab is an old practice among Muslims to not show the beauty of young girls to others. "When girls grow up, they are kept in 'purdah' to hide their beauty. Rape rate is the highest in India and it is because women are not in 'purdah'," Congress MLA from Chamrajpet Zameer Ahmed said in Karnataka."This is not compulsory but for those who don't want to show their beauty to others. Hijab is not new...," he added. But Party general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said there is no place in modern India for such "regressive views". Surjewala said, "There is no place in modern India and our society for parochial and regressive views on women as expressed by a Congress leader of Karnataka."

This is humiliating a community: Asaduddin Owaisi

A user on Twitter in his tweet alleged that students of Rotary Educational Society School in Mandya were allegedly forced to remove hijab while entering a school. Taking note of the incidentt, President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Asaduddin Owaisi slammed the BJP-led government in Karnataka and tweeted, "This is humiliating a community, this is what happens when fundamental rights are suspended, where is my Dignity. Is this not an attempt to make us Z Category citizens? Power is not eternal. BJP must remember. Tum zameen pe zulm likh do. Aasmaan pe inquilab likha jayega."

Not an issue of discussion, everyone has the right to wear what they want: Nitish Kumar

Commenting on the ongoing Hijab controversy, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that every person has a right to wear clothing of their choice. "If anyone wears a scarf on the head or sandalwood mark on the forehead, I believe it is not a controversial subject. Every person has a right to wear whatever they want. We have no interference. You never witness any single incident of such controversy in Bihar. It cannot be an issue of discussion," he said.

How the Hijab protests began and spread

The Hijab protests in Karnataka began in January this year when some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing hijab. Following this incident, students of different colleges arrived at Shanteshwar Education Trust in Vijayapura wearing saffron stoles. The situation was the same in several colleges in the Udupi district.The pre-University education board had released a circular stating that students can wear only the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious practices will be allowed in colleges.

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New Delhi: At the US-led COVID-19 Global Action Meeting on Monday, India has called for "Strengthening and securing" the global supply chain and implementation of vaccine patent waiver. India was represented at the virtual meet by foreign secretary Harsh Shringla. Sources said that New Delhi emphasized that it will "rally with like-minded partners and the WHO to improve sub-optimal approval and regulatory processes which are an impediment for stable and predictable supplies" even as it called for "implementation of the TRIPS waiver".

The TRIPS Covid vaccine waiver was co-sponsored by India and South Africa at the WTO and aims to diversify local manufacturing so that covid vaccines are available to a large segment of the global population.

US Secretary of state Blinken chaired the meeting that lasted for 2 hours. The meet saw India highlighting its development assistance to the international community by conducting 17 training modules for more than 60 countries on COVID management.

Sources pointed out that at the meet India said that it will take its "experience in testing, treating and vaccinating a large population spread out in different geographies" to create "customized and tailor-made capacity building and technical training programmes" for healthcare workers in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

India has supplied over 162 million vaccine doses to 97 countries and 2 UN organizations. As part of the Quad summit outcomes of last year, a billion doses of India made vaccines will be delivered in the Indo Pacific in 2022.

The Indian Foreign Secretary has also proposed the extension of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network of laboratories for genomic sequencing and surveillance in the neighborhood.

During the meet, FS Shringla underlined the measures India has been taking domestically to deal with the covid crisis, which includes fully vaccinating 70% of the adult population, use of digital certification platform CoWin for vaccination purposes. New Delhi is in talks with WHO for an MoU for sharing of CoWIN platform globally through WHO's C-TAP initiative.

Sources said while mentioning how "India has worked effectively to contain the pandemic, protecting both lives and livelihoods", FS underscored the role of the Indian Pharma Industry that "helped stabilize global supply chains for vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics during the acute phase of the pandemic".

Currently, four WHO-approved vaccines --COVAXIN, COVISHIELD, COVOVAX and JANSSEN-- and three others are due for approvals --CORBEVAX, ZyCov-D and Gennova--are being produced in India. It is estimated that the country has the capacity to produce 5 billion doses in 2022.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday concluded hearings on the petitions filed in connection with the ongoing row over wearing hijab in schools and colleges across the southern state and adjourned the matter till Wednesday.

The full bench of the Karnataka High Court, comprising chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, justice Krishna S Dixit and justice JM Khazi, will continue hearing arguments on the Karnataka hijab ban row at 2.30 PM on Wednesday.

Continuing his arguments on behalf of two students from Kundapura college in the high court on Tuesday, senior advocate Devadatta Kamat stated that India's Constitution follows positive secularism, not like Turkish secularism, which is negative secularism. He added, ''our secularism ensures that everyone's religious rights are preserved.''

During the hearing on Monday, Kamat, appearing for the petitioner, had submitted before Karnataka HC that the Government Order (ban on hijab) is a non-application of mind. He said this ''GO (government order) is in the teeth of Article 25 and it is not legally sustainable.''

Kamat also said that Muslim women are allowed to wear headscarves in Kendriya Vidyalaya. He added that ''this is a case where students have been wearing a headscarf for years together.''

Driving his point home, Kamat said as far as core religious practices are concerned, they come from Article 25(1) & that it is not absolute. Advocate Kamat added "if core religious practices harm or offend public order then it can be regulated.'' Kamat maintained, "The question is where is that law on the basis of which the headscarf is prohibited."

To which, the Karnataka High Court asked Kamat whether what all has been stated in Quran is essential religious practice? Replying to it, Kamat said, "I am not saying that."

The petitioners argue that according to Quran, it is a 'farz' (duty) to wear hijab. Students are seeking to wear hijabs of the same colour as their uniforms. The petitioners have urged the court to allow girls to attend classes in hijab and continue their education while the government argued that it would be necessary to find whether the hijab is essential in Islam.

Last week, the high court had restrained students from wearing hijab or any other religious attire until further orders. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said that everyone should abide by the Karnataka High Court order on hijab row. He said this after attending the business advisory committee meeting of the state Assembly.

High schools in Karnataka reopened on Monday after being shut from last Wednesday following untoward incidents in parts of the State over the hijab row. Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code has been imposed in sensitive areas in the districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, and Bengaluru.

Chief Minister Bommai had on Sunday expressed confidence that peace and normalcy will prevail. He had also said that a decision regarding the reopening of Pre-University and Degree colleges will be taken after assessing the situation.

The government on Friday said that the holiday announced to universities belonging to the Department of Higher Education and colleges under the Department of Collegiate and Technical Education (DCTE), in the wake of the raging Hijab row, has been extended till February 16.

In the Udupi district, high schools reopened on Monday with Education Department sources saying that attendance was normal in all the institutions. Muslim girl students who reached the school campuses wearing hijabs removed them before entering classes.

Examinations scheduled for the day are also going on in the institutions. Police personnel have been posted in Udupi town and near the schools to maintain law and order and to avoid any untoward incident.

The Udupi district administration imposed Section 144 of CrPC around the 200-metre radius of all high schools in the district from Monday till February 19 to maintain peace. Udupi Tahsildar Pradeep Kurudekar, who visited a few schools, said Muslim students are abiding by the High Court's interim order by removing hijabs before entering classes.

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Hubballi: Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Mining Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday said that the Karnataka government has exercised much restraint on the hijab issue and this should not be mistaken as weakness.

"Court's decision should be followed at any cost. You don`t follow the interim order of the court. What is this arrogance? The government headed by Basavaraj Bommai is handling the issue with restraint. The government is considering it as a sensitive matter and exercising restraint. It should not be mistaken as weakness," Union Minister Joshi said.

"Are you trying to be extra-constitutional? Which time we are living in? You want to cover the face of girls? This has to be considered seriously. Progressive Muslims should think. This is unnecessary, you are being made a scapegoat," he stated.

He further said, "I appeal to the parents of Muslim children that you have all the freedom, no one is opposing your religious practices. But still communal feelings are provoked. BJP will not approve such appeasement."

"If anyone creates trouble in schools regarding hijab, police will take strict action and put them behind bars. Initiate legal action, we can`t be helpless," he said.

"Muslim women for generations have been kept in darkness. We (BJP) have broken their shackles. I want to ask the Congress leaders to make their stand clear on the hijab issue. If you want to give out a call for Muslim students to wear hijab, go ahead and do it. Otherwise, all parties should tell students to attend classes as per the interim court order. Karnataka is known for communal harmony, good culture. This is not required," he added.

Though a majority of students are attending classes, a good number of Muslim students have refused to shun hijab and are not taking preparatory exams for class 10.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Karnataka High Court concluded hearings on the petitions filed in connection with the ongoing row over wearing hijab in schools and colleges across the southern state and adjourned the matter till Wednesday.

The full bench of the Karnataka High Court, comprising chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, justice Krishna S Dixit and justice JM Khazi, will continue hearing arguments on the Karnataka hijab ban row at 2.30 PM on Wednesday.

Continuing his arguments on behalf of two students from Kundapura college in the high court on Tuesday, senior advocate Devadatta Kamat stated that India's Constitution follows positive secularism, not like Turkish secularism, which is negative secularism. He added, ''our secularism ensures that everyone's religious rights are preserved.''

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Some miscreants have vandalised a statue of Mahatma Gandhi that was installed near the spot from where he had launched the Champaran Satyagraha, the administration said on Tuesday.

Police said that some miscreants who were allegedly drug addicts vandalised the statue. "Some eyewitnesses have given statements to police. A police team has been formed to nab the accused. A home guard has been deployed here," senior police official Kumar Ashish was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

East Champaran District Magistrate Shirshat Kapil Ashok said that the statue was installed by Power Grid Corporation under CSR activity. "Since this place was not handed over to the administration formally, we will ask them why they didn't make proper security arrangements here," Kapil Ashok told news agency ANI.

"The police are carrying out their investigations and those found involved in the act of vandalism will face action in accordance with law," the DM said.

Social media was abuzz with reports alleging that religious slogans were heard in the area on Sunday night, which suggested the involvement of fringe right-wing groups.

The DM, however, did not comment on the same but added, "I take this opportunity to remind all that great people live on in the form of the ideals they espoused. Bapu, who stood for non-violence and truth cannot be undermined by such acts."

He also said that the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited was carrying out maintenance work of the park as part of its corporate social responsibility. "We will advise them to put in place adequate security arrangements. Installation of CCTV cameras will also be ensured. Re-installation of the statue will be done by the district administration," he added.

Champaran Satyagraha was the first satyagraha movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in British India in 1917 against forced indigo plantation.
Kathmandu: Two Indian nationals were among eight people arrested here on Tuesday for possessing uranium-like substances, which were brought from India to be sold illegally in Nepal, police said.

Based on a tip-off, a team of police officers arrested the eight people after they recovered these substances from a car parked in the parking lot of a five-star hotel in Boudha, on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

The two Indian nationals were identified as Upendra Kumar Mishra and Raju Thakur, both natives of Bihar, while the six others were all Nepal nationals, police said.

The arrests were made as they were preparing to sell the valuable item for Rs 350 million per kg.

The police arrested Bhupendra and Nawaraj from the parked car, where the substance was hidden and six others were arrested on the basis of information furnished by them.

The eight people have been arrested on charges of illegally trading in Uranium, according to Nepal Police headquarters sources. Authorities have also seized nine mobile phones from them.

"We have recovered some substances, which look like uranium. It will be sent to the laboratory to ascertain whether they are uranium," Dinesh Mainali, Superintendent of Police from the Metropolitan Police Range said. The police have initiated further investigation into the matter after taking the eight people under detention.

In March, 2021, four Nepalese nationals were arrested here for possessing 2.5 kilogrammes of unprocessed uranium. One of the arrested claimed that her father-in-law brought it from India where he worked in a uranium mine some 20 years ago, police said.

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New Delhi: Amid ongoing Assembly Elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday (February 14, 2022) hit out at her Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath and contended the chief minister of the state was not a 'yogi' (monk) but a 'bhogi' (worldly person).

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, who had visited Uttar Pradesh last week to campaign for Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP), also said that her camp decided against contesting polls in UP in the 'larger interest' of the nation.

"Women are burnt alive and peasants get murdered in that state. The CM there is not a 'yogi' but a 'bhogi'. If India has to be saved, UP will have to be saved first," Banerjee said.

ALSO READ | Vote for BJP or see UP turning into Bengal: Adityanath urges voters

"The TMC did not field any candidate in UP as I did not want Akhilesh Yadav to get weak in any seat. In the first phase, I am hoping Akhilesh's party will win 37 of 57 seats," she told a news channel.

The West Bengal CM also said that she would be visiting Uttar Pradesh again on March 3 to hold a rally in Varanasi.

Congress can go its way

The TMC boss also lashed out at the Congress and stated that no regional outfit shared cordial relations with the grand old party.

"It's the duty of those who claim themselves to be secular to bring everyone on one platform. I had asked Congress and the CPI(M) to join hands... If they do not listen, there is nothing that I can do.

"The Congress can go its way, we will go ours," she said.

Trying to protect India's federal structure

Mamata Banerjee also stressed that it was time to free the country from "seeds of hatred and atrocities" and said that India was "veering towards a presidential form of government, with its Constitution getting demolished".

"I have spoken with Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin and her Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao, and we are trying to protect the country's federal structure," she said.

The TMC chief insisted that her party would also do well in the Goa elections.

"Every household in Goa is now aware of the TMC. We will perform well there. This is just the beginning," she said.

Referring to TMC's triumph in Bengal's four municipal corporations, where elections were held on February 12, Banerjee thanked people for casting their votes in favour of her party.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: On February 14, voters turned out in large numbers in Goa and in moderate numbers for Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh second phase polling. Polling was conducted peacefully in 36,823 polling stations spread across 165 Assembly Constituencies (AC) in the three states. The elections were conducted for single-phase elections in 40 ACs in Goa, 70 ACs in Uttarakhand and for 55 ACs in Uttar Pradesh's second phase of polls.

As per the Election Commission of India, Uttarakhand recorded 61.58 per cent voters' turnout in the Assembly elections, Goa achieved 78.94 per cent voters' turnout while Uttar Pradesh recorded 62.99 per cent voters' turnout, reported ANI.

The Election Commission expressed gratitude to all stakeholders especially to the voters for their enthusiastic and fearless participation in the election process. The Commission particularly thanks PwD electors, senior citizens, and service voters for taking part in elections honouring COVID protocol norms.

The Commission had laid great emphasis on ensuring proper arrangements at the polling stations. Voters set an example of Covid-appropriate behaviour following due protocols of sanitization and social distancing.

Also read: High voter turnout because people want BJP out, says Congress in Goa

Nearly 2.95 crore general electors including over 5 lakh first-time electors, spread across 36,823 polling stations were registered to exercise their franchise across 165 ACs in the three states. The number of Polling Stations has increased in view of the fact that the number of voters per polling station has been reduced from 1500 to 1250 keeping in view of the social distancing norms. As part of the Commission`s initiative to provide a comfortable experience to women voters, 334 All Women-Managed polling stations were set up across the 165 ACs. As a major push in conducting free and fair elections, live monitoring and webcasting mechanism for more than 50 per cent of polling stations including critical and vulnerable polling booths was put in place to ensure a safe and secure atmosphere in polling areas. Commission, CEOs, DEOs, Observers could watch live streaming and keep a close watch on these polling booths. Webcasting arrangements were put in place for all 1722 polling stations in Goa, 5828 Polling Stations in Uttarakhand and 11,448 polling stations for the second phase in Uttar Pradesh.

There were a total of 1,519 candidates contesting in this phase across Goa, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh which included 158 women candidates. In this phase, over 2.19 lakh PwD electors and 4.67 lakh 80+ electors were registered to vote across 165 ACs.

(With ANI inputs)

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Maur: BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday (February 15) urged people to bring the BJP-led alliance to power in Punjab to ensure that the border state remains strong and free of the mafia and drugs.

Addressing a poll rally in Bathinda's Maur assembly constituency, Nadda urged people to vote for the BJP-led alliance for putting Punjab on the fast-track of development.

"Punjab needs new energy and new power," he said, adding that only his party and alliance partners could take the state forward.

He targeted the Congress over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi and told people to ask the Congressmen with which face they were seeking for votes .

"On one side there was 'Maut Ka Tandav' (dance of death), humanity was shamed, our Sikh brothers were killed. On the other side, Congress was saying when a big tree falls, earth shakes," said Nadda. He said nobody from the Congress cared about the families of victims.

It was only the BJP-led government at the Centre which put those who were involved in the riots behind bars, said Nadda.

He further took on the Congress over the issue of 'mafia raj' and drug problem in Punjab.

"Have they not brought mafia raj in Punjab. Has there not been a sand mafia here. Tell us whether the sand mafia is operating in the constituency of the current chief minister or not. Tell us whether there is a drug mafia or not here," he asked.

The BJP president said it was only the BJP-led alliance that could end the 'mafia raj' and make Punjab a drug-free state.

Stating that Punjab has a 600 km long border with Pakistan, Nadda said the way the Modi government was taking the country forward, it was neither liked by Pakistan nor by the anti-national forces in the country.

He asked the people not to strengthen the hands of those who are creating impediments in the efforts made by PM Modi for strengthening the nation.

"If you want that the border state remains strong, the youth remain drug free and they get employment, the only way for this is by strengthening the hands of Modi Ji," he said.

Nadda also listed various steps taken by the Modi-led government for the welfare of various sections of the society.

He spoke about the Central government's decision to allow the Golden Temple in Amritsar to receive foreign funds and said it was the NDA government which waived goods and services tax on 'langar'.

He also spoke about opening of the Kartarpur corridor and the decision to set up a first-of-its-kind institute of Inter-Faith Studies in Punjab to promote brotherhood and diversity.

Anandpur Sahib, Fatehgarh Sahib, Chamkaur Sahib, Ferozepur-Amritsar, Khatkar Kalan and Patiala heritage circuit have been included under Swadesh Darshan scheme, he said.

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Lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a constitutional amendment that would direct courts to consider past criminal records when setting cash bail, as well as bills that would allow guns in vehicles on school grounds and prohibit some offenders from having dogs.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would likely oppose the measures, which align with Republicans election-year strategy of being tough on crime while expanding Second Amendment rights, though the constitutional amendment would not need Evers approval before going to voters.

The proposed constitutional amendment coming before the Assembly would change the state Constitution by requiring courts to consider alleged violent offenders charges, criminal record and risk to public safety, as well as the need to prevent the intimidation of witnesses, in determining bail amounts.

Judges currently cant 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 proposal is a narrower version of an earlier proposal, which pertained to all alleged offenders, not just violent ones. The original also would have authorized the Legislature to create a law allowing courts to deny release to alleged felony offenders upon finding they pose a threat to the community.

Amendment backer Rep. Cindi Duchow, R-Delafield, said the new proposal comes after Republican lawmakers encouraged her to narrow the scope of the effort.

None of us want innocent people sitting in jail, but we walk a fine line to make sure we dont have violent felons out on the street where they can harm other people, she said. So this way, by tying it back to just violent crime and past violent offenses, were assuring that were not going to just have someone whos a shoplifter sitting in jail.

She said her conversations with the state public defenders office did not play a significant role in her choice to amend the measure.

The public defenders office issued a statement last month 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 proposed constitutional amendment dates to before a man out on bail drove through a Waukesha Christmas parade in November, killing six and injuring more than 60. It was first proposed in 2017 by Duchow and Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, who said the Wisconsin bail system had long needed changes. Wanggaards companion Senate measure was reintroduced in December, and Duchows in January.

To take effect, the amendment would have to pass two consecutive legislative sessions and be approved in a statewide referendum.

I think there will be some debate, but I dont know who doesnt agree that violent offenders with a past violent history should not be out on the street, Duchow said.

Guns at school

With Republican lawmakers saying current law needlessly exposes law-abiding citizens to potential prosecution, the Senate will vote Tuesday on a bill that would allow concealed carry license holders to bring guns in their vehicles on school property.

The bill passed the Assembly last month. It would likely be headed for a veto if the Senate approves it Tuesday.

Bill opponents, including the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, say increased gun access near schools would jeopardize student and faculty safety.

The bills supporters argue that people who forget their weapons in their cars and then drive onto school grounds to drop off or pick up their children should not be at risk for arrest.

Dog ownership

Another bill coming before the Senate Tuesday would prohibit some people with felonies from owning dogs deemed vicious by a humane or law enforcement officer.

For a dog to be deemed vicious, it would need to have seriously injured or killed someone, or twice bitten a person or behaved in a manner that a reasonable person would believe posed a significant, imminent threat of serious physical injury or death to a person.

Under the bill, people with convictions for homicide, felony battery, sexual assault and felony drug possession would face a fine of up to $10,000 and up to six years in prison if their vicious dogs cause significant harm or death.

COVID-19

A bill coming before the Senate would require employers to allow proof of prior COVID-19 infection as an alternative to requiring vaccination and regular testing. The bill passed the Assembly on a party-line vote in January.

Another COVID-19-related bill would prohibit businesses and government from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination before providing services. The bill passed the Assembly on a 60-37 vote last year, with Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, joining Republican lawmakers in voting for it.

Evers, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, would almost certainly veto the bills if they reached his desk.

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A day after his helicopter was denied airspace, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said that the move was a deliberate attempt to stop him from attending Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's rally in Hoshiarpur district.

"I am a terrorist. Why are they afraid of me?" Channi said in a conversation with Zee Media. The Punjab chief minister added that the BJP is scared of his popularity and though they have "stopped my helicopter, they won't be able to stop me".

Speaking on state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu's act of not speaking at an event in Dhuri, Channi said that the former wanted to speak at a programme later and chose not to speak.

He slammed AAP's Chief Ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann over his alleged drinking addiction. "Bhagwant Mann becomes an alcoholic after 6 pm," Channi said, adding, "he didn't leave his addiction even after the swearing of his mother.

The Chief Minister further termed Kejriwal "a black Britisher" who "wants to loot Punjab".

On Monday, Channi was denied the permission to fly to Hoshiarpur due to imposition of a no-fly zone ahead of PM Narendra Modi's visit. Chief Minister's helicopter was not permitted to take off from Chandigarh owing to the security compulsion.

Channi was supposed to fly to Hoshiarpur to attend Rahul Gandhi`s rally. However, Gandhi`s chopper was allowed to land in Hoshiarpur, some 120 km from the state capital.
CTET December 2021: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is likely to declare the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) December 2021 results on Tuesday (February 15, 2022).

The 15th edition of CTET was held in a CBT (Computer Based Test) mode between December 16, 2021, and January 21, 2022.

According to the CTET December 2021 schedule available on the official website of CTET at https://ctet.nic.in, the tentative date for the declaration of the result is February 15.

It is noteworthy that the test was conducted in 20 languages across India and there were two papers. Paper I was for a person who intended to be a teacher for classes I to V, while Paper II was for people intending to be a teacher for classes VI toVIII.

CTET December 2021: How to check results

Once CTET December 2021 results are announced, visit the official website of CTET at https://ctet.nic.in.

On the home, click on the "CTET December 2021 Result" link.

You will be redirected to a new page where you need to enter your "Roll Number".

Your CTET December 2021 Result will be displayed on your screen.

Candidates are advised to regularly check the official website of CTET (https://ctet.nic.in) for the latest updates.

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Bengaluru: Challenging the government order restricting the use of any cloth that can disturb peace, harmony and, law and order, the girls who petitioned in favour of hijab requested the Karnataka High Court on Monday to allow them to wear Islamic headscarves of the colour of the school uniform.

The girls made the plea to the full bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice J M Khazi and Justice Krishna M Dixit.

"I am not only challenging the GO but also asking for a positive mandate for allowing me to wear a headscarf of the same colour of the uniform," advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing on behalf of the girls of the government pre-university college in Udupi, told the bench.

Kamat also claimed that the central schools permit Muslim girls to wear headscarves of the school uniform colour and the same could be done here.

According to him, headscarves are an essential religious practice, and restricting its use was violating Article 25 of the Indian Constitution.

Article 25 reads: "Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion."

The article also says that nothing in it should affect the operation of any existing law or prevent the state from making any law regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice and regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice.

Kamat argued where was the law as mandated under Article 25 regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity.

The advocate for the Muslim girls also said the College Development Committee (CDC) comprising an MLA has been authorised by the government to decide the uniform.

"A CDC comprising an MLA is an extra constitutional authority and a third party to decide what to wear. The government has assigned its responsibility to this third party," Kamat argued.

He also informed the bench that the girls studying in the second pre-university class have been wearing hijab for the past two years ever since they took admission. Due to the other students who suddenly sported a cloth displaying their religious identity, the fundamental rights of his clients were curtailed, the lawyer argued.

"State says that wearing of head scarf can be a problem as other students want to display their religious identity," Kamat pointed out.

The court adjourned further hearing of the case to Tuesday.

On January 1, six girl students of a college in Udupi attended a press conference held by Campus Front of India (CFI) in the coastal town protesting against the college authorities denying them entry into the classroom by wearing hijab.

This was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear hijabs in classes which was not allowed. Till then, students used to wear hijab to the campus and entered the classroom after removing the scarves, the college principal Rudre Gowda had said.

"The institution did not have any rule on hijab-wearing as such and since no one used to wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the demand had the backing of outside forces," Gowda had said.

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Mumbai: The BSE gauge Sensex zoomed past the 58,000-mark by rebounding over 1,700 points and the Nifty recaptured the 17,000-level on Tuesday after a massive plunge in the previous session.

The 30-share Sensex surged 1,736.21 points or 3.08 per cent to end at 58,142.05 recouping the losses suffered on Monday. Likewise, the NSE Nifty soared 509.65 points or 3.03 per cent to settle at 17,352.45.

On the Sensex chart, all 30 shares closed with gains -- with Bajaj Finance, SBI, Bajaj FinServ, L&T and Titan rising as much as 5.13 per cent.

"As the street went into trade today after yesterday's biggest single-day fall in the last ten months, investors were left thinking whether the template has indeed changed. A confluence of headwinds is now weighing on the minds of investors even as we had a massive pull back rally today led by autos, banks, IT and FMCG," said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

The narrative for the day, however, was the fact that investors used the correction to their advantage, thereby triggering short covering amid encouraging export data for the month of January, he added.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses closed with losses on fears of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. The US administration has warned Russia of severe consequences in case its forces attack Ukraine.

Global crude oil benchmark Brent Futures fell 2.44 per cent to USD 94.13 per barrel on Tuesday.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market on Monday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 4,253.70 crore, according to stock exchange data.

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Mumbai: Actor Alia Bhatt has headed to Berlin to attend the world premiere of her upcoming film Gangubai Kathiawadi at the Berlinale Special Galas. Paparazzi clicked Alia and her sister Shaheen Bhatt at the Mumbai airport late at night on Monday (February 14).

Alia gave major airport look goals as she opted for an all-white attire. She wore a white turtle neck crop top with loose-fitting matching trousers. Her sister Shaheer opted for an all-black look and paired a black sweatshirt with black leather pants. The two walked thehand-in-hand at the airport and even posed for the shutterbugs.

Later, Alia also dropped a sneak peek of her work trip on her Instagram Story. Sharing a picture of her sister Shaheen, Alia captioned it as,"Berlinale 2022."

For the unversed, Gangubai Kathiawadi, which is helmed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, revolves around a maiden sold by a suitor into prostitution and how she becomes a prominent, celebrated figure in the underworld and Kamathipua red-light district. The story is based on a chapter in Hussain Zaidis book Mafia Queens of Mumbai.

The film, which also stars Ajay Devgn, is scheduled to release in theatres on February 25.
Los Angeles: Hollywood star Emma Thompson says her naked scene in 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande' was "the hardest thing" she's ever done.

The Academy Award-winner has admitted she found it challenging getting naked for the camera and highlighted how women have been "brainwashed all our lives to hate our bodies", reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Speaking at a press conference for Berlin's Berlinale Special Gala, she said: "If I stand in front of a mirror, I'm always sort of pulling something, or I'll turn to the side, I'll do something. I can't just stand there. Why would I do that, it's horrifying.

"But that's the problem, isn't it, that women have been brainwashed all our lives to hate our bodies. That's just the fact. And everything that surrounds us reminds us how imperfect we are, and everything is wrong with us."

She said: "It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. So I really did something I've never done as an actor."

Thompson encouraged the audience to "just accept" and "not judge" themselves the next time they see themselves in the nude.

Her latest comments on the subject come after the veteran actress recently discussed the "dreadful demands" placed upon women to maintain perfect figures.

She said: "Nothing has changed in the dreadful demands made upon women in the real-world world but also in acting. This thing of having to be thin is still the same as it ever was, and actually in some ways I think it's worse now."

Thompson also described plastic surgery as "a form of collective psychosis".

The 'Cruella' actress shrugged off the idea of going under the knife and said it's a "very strange thing to do" when aging is "completely natural".

Asked if she's ever considered cosmetic surgery, she said: "Why would you do that to yourself? I simply don't understand.

"I do honestly think the cutting of yourself off to put it in another place in order to avoid appearing to do what you're actually doing, which is aging, which is completely natural, is a form of collective psychosis. I really do think it's a very strange thing to do."

Thompson explained she has "always" been against plastic surgery, noting she is against women being told what "to do" with their own bodies.

She added: "I've always thought that, though. But I've always been a kind of card-carrying, militant feminist when it comes to women's bodies and what's been done to them, what we're told to expect of ourselves, what we're told to do to ourselves."
New Delhi: Two weeks ago, late veteran actress Madhubalas 96-year-old sister Kaniz, was made to board a flight from Auckland to Mumbai by her daughter-in-law in New Zealand, without providing her with any money and food. The unpleasant news surfaced on ETimes and was later confirmed to the news portal by Kaniz daughter Perveez Somjee. The traumatic experience faced by Madhubalas sister has left many shocked and angry.

Kaniz did not even have money to get an RT-PCR test done at the Mumbai airport. When Perveez came to the airport her mother was immensely hungry due to starvation as she had no food with her during the entire journey. Now, Perveez has written a letter to the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Arden elaborating about the inhumane treatment that was meted out to her mother in her country.

Confirming the news, Madhubalas niece told ETimes, It is true that I have written a letter to the New Zealand Prime Minister in this regard but I don't want to elaborate."

In an earlier interview with ETimes, Perveez revealed that her mother was ill-treated after her brother passed away on on January 8, 2022. "Imagine, it's not even a month since my brother left us." She also revealed that all her mother's money and jewellery is confisicated by her sister-in-law. "Sameena has kept everything that my mother had, including her jewellery," she revealed.

Madhubala was one of the most successful actresses of her time. She is known for starring in superhit magnum opus Mughal-e-Azam opposite Dilip Kumar. Her other hit films included Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Mahal, Howrah Bridge and Mr and Mrs 55. Her real life romance with superstar Dilip Kumar is also famous. The two later broke up as her father Amnatullah Khan raised objections to their union. She later married Kishore Kumar.

She was earlier diagnosed with a hole in the heart (Ventricular Septal Defect in medical parlance) in 1957 and married Kishore Kumar in 1960. Soon after marriage, the two developed differences and started living separately. The superhit actress died at the age of 36 after suffering a heart attack in 1969, leaving behind her stellar work as legacy.
New Delhi: Is it possible to be friends with your ex? Well actor Raqesh Bapat ex-wife and actress Ridhi Dogra makes us believe it indeed is. Ridhi who had always supported Raqesh when he was locked inside Bigg Boss OTT house has now reacted to his romantic post with girlfriend Shamita Shetty. Raqesh met Shamita inside the Bigg Boss house and fell in love with her. The Mohabbatein actress reciprocated his feelings and the two have been going strong ever since then.

Raqesh and Shamita celebrated their first Valentines Day together in Alibaug with the latters family. Sharing a romantic reel with Shamita fom his V-Day celebration, Raqesh wrote on Instagram, Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale." @shamitashetty_official happy valentine's day #love #ShaRa.

In the video, we can see the new couple enjoying a serene yacht ride while they are glued-eyed to each other and are about to share a kiss. In the background Gehraiyaan song Tu Marz Hai Dawa Bhi is being played.

Reacting to Raqeshs lovey-dovey post Ridhi wrote, Be blessed you both with multiple evil eye emojis.

Earlier in the day, Shamita had also wished her Valentine Raqesh with a mushy boomerang video of them twirling on Instagram. Sharing it, she wrote, "Well. in time my Valentine @raqeshbapat .. you are my favourite feeling. Happy Valentines Day to my Insta family..#love #valentineday #happy #shara #cute."

This is not the first time the actress has openly come out in support of her ex-husband. After Bigg Boss OTT, Raqesh had entered Salman Khan hosted Bigg Boss 15 as a wild card, where Shamita was already a contestant. When fellow contestant Vishal Kotian had made fun of Raqesh and Shamita relationship, Ridhi had taken to Twitter to hit back at him.

There are those that play by mocking people behind their backs and then give a nonstop explanation for their sneakiness by calling it funny and those playing with truth and a games spirit. Audience, would you like being mocked? If not, take these people out. Simple. Period, she had tweeted.
NEW DELHI: Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu, who was arrested in connection with the violence at Red Fort during farmers` tractor rally on Republic Day 2021, died in a road crash near the spot near the Delhi border where the farmers held a year-long protest against the three controversial farm laws.

Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu dies in a road accident near Sonipat in Haryana, confirms Sonipat Police. Details awaited. He was also earlier named as an accused in the 2021 Red Fort violence case. pic.twitter.com/CoLh8ObkJJ  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

He was travelling in a private vehicle along with his friend from the US, when the accident occurred.

His body sent for a post-mortem examination to Haryana`s Sonipat.
NEW DELHI: Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu died in a road crash near the spot near the Delhi border where the farmers held a year-long protest against the three controversial farm laws.

He was travelling in a private vehicle along with his friend from the US, when the accident occurred.

His body sent for a post-mortem examination to Haryana`s Sonipat.

DEEP SIDHU MOVIE CAREER:

Born in Muktsar Punjab, Deep Sidhu made his movie debut in 2015 release 'Ramta Jogi', playing the lead role in it. He was also a winner of Kingfisher Model Hunt after which he took part in Grasim Mr. India and became Grasim Mr. Personality and Grasim Mr. Talented.

He shot to fame with movie Jora 10 Numbaria which was released in 2017 and after that there was no looking back for the actor. He gave several hits including - Rang Punjab De, Saade Ale, among others.

Sidhu also walked the ramp for ace fashion designers such as Hemant Trivedi, Rohit Gandhi and others.

POLITICAL SPAN:

Deep Sidhu was an aide of actor Sunny Deol when the latter contested from Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deol, now a BJP MP, had distanced himself from Sidhu in December last year after he joined the farmers' agitation.

CONTROVERSY:

Deep Sidhu has hogged the limelight for all wrong reasons. He was accused of being the key conspirator of the violence at Red Fort in 2021. Later, he was arrested by the Delhi Police in February last year in connection with a tractor rally by farmers on Republic Day that spiralled into violence after protesters came to the Red Fort and attacked policemen. The farmers were protesting against three new farm laws, which were withdrawn by the Centre in November 2021.
In the final State of the State address of his first term, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called on lawmakers to take up his plan to spend a portion of Wisconsins projected surplus on schools, caregivers and $150 checks for every resident in the state  a proposal Republicans plan to reject.

Evers, who is seeking a second term this November, also touted the billions of dollars of federal stimulus funds he has allocated over the course of the pandemic to businesses and farmers. Adding to that, he announced on Tuesday plans to spend $25 million of those funds to freeze tuition at University of Wisconsin System for two years and another $5 million to expand counseling and provide mental health programs for members of the Wisconsin National Guard.

Evers plans to sign an executive order Wednesday calling for a special session, which Republicans who control the Legislature have previously disregarded. Lawmakers are required to gavel in to a special session called by the governor, but they do not have to hold debate and can immediately adjourn.

Indifference in this building is getting expensive, folks. And let me be frank: The people who will bear the burden of inaction are almost certainly not the people sitting in this chamber tonight, Evers said in a packed Assembly chamber with Democrats masked and Republicans unmasked. So dont sit here in a white, marble building with state coffers that are full and tell Wisconsinites who are working hard every day that we cant afford to do more. Thats baloney.

In addition to sending $150 checks to every Wisconsinite, Evers proposal would also allocate more than $130 million in child care and caregiver tax credits and $750 million to schools.

Republicans have criticized Evers proposal as a reelection gimmick and have said they plan to use the states $3.8 billion projected surplus on tax cuts in the next budget process. Evers opposed election-year tax rebates when proposed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker during his unsuccessful 2018 reelection bid.

It seems that what the governor is doing is trying to condition people to get checks from the government and what were looking at doing is making sure people get to keep their own money, not give it to the government and then the government sends it back, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, said after Evers speech.

In and out

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said the Senate will gavel in and immediately adjourn Evers special session, as Republicans have done in the past.

Other proposals announced by Evers dont require GOP approval, like plans to allocate $30 million for emergency medical service providers in the state and $15 million for mental health services in schools using federal funds.

This pandemic didnt just expose the need for us to expand access to rural health care, Evers said. It also highlighted that our kids need more mental health support in our schools, and this pandemic only made those needs more urgent.

He also unveiled plans to create a Blue Ribbon Commission on Veteran Opportunity to create additional supports for education and employment for the more than 300,000 veterans in the state.

Tonights address highlighted the fact that Governor Evers listens to the people of Wisconsin, Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said in a statement. His investments in military personnel and veterans services, student mental health, and rural healthcare services show he is truly listening to the people of our state.

Steineke agreed that some of the priorities touched on by Evers are important, but added the real difference between us is how much we can afford to spend?

Evers speech comes as he seeks a second term this November with a campaign focused on the kitchen table issues that helped him unseat Walker in 2018. Republicans, who hold majorities in the Assembly and Senate and have clashed with Evers since before he took office, view the Nov. 8 general election as an opportunity to unseat the governor and reclaim full control of state government.

The Democratic governor has touted the accomplishments of his first three years, including increased spending on roads, broadband expansion and education. He also signed the states 2021-23 biennial budget last summer, which included more than $2 billion in GOP-authored income tax cuts. The budget also funds two-thirds of the cost of public schools, though it achieves that by largely cutting property taxes.

Vos fires back

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, declared Evers speech as another example of revisionist history.

Over the course of the past three years, Gov. Evers has never truly led on a single topic, Vos said. What we saw again tonight was the exact same empty rhetoric and campaign promises that are nothing more than focused on his 2022 reelection and not on what the real needs of Wisconsin are.  We need to figure out how to deal with inflation in the long term, not $150 one-time checks.

Republicans also criticized Evers for not mentioning crime in the state, a topic that GOP lawmakers have focused in on leading up to the 2022 election.

The soft-on-crime bail policies plaguing our state have put car thefts and murders in Milwaukee on pace to break records, LeMahieu said. Gov. Evers refuses to act while people around the state suffer. That is not the strong leadership Wisconsin needs.

A growing list of Republicans have lined up to challenge Evers this November, including former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and anti-establishment candidates Rep. Timothy Ramthun and Marine veteran Kevin Nicholson. Small-business owner and entrepreneur Jonathan Wichmann is also seeking the party nomination in the Aug. 9 primary.

Last year, Evers became the first governor in 74 years to not be physically present in the Capitol to deliver his address, which he delivered in a video message. Legislative Republicans viewed Evers address at the Capitol that year, with Vos delivering the GOP response from the Assembly dais where the governor usually speaks, another break from tradition.

Evers dedicated last years speech to the 5,000 Wisconsin residents who had died from the COVID-19 pandemic, a number that has since more than doubled. In his speech Evers lamented how things dont always go the way we planned.

If wed had our way, 11,637 Wisconsinites would still be here with us today  theyd be at our dinner tables, theyd be in our classrooms, our hospitals, our churches, our farms, and our factories, and theyd still be here celebrating more birthdays, more holidays and more milestones with us, Evers said.

Focus on workforce

Republicans have keyed in on the states ongoing workforce challenges this year, with Vos and Senate President Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, describing the labor shortage as one of the biggest struggles across our state in a State of the State invitation letter sent to Evers late last year.

A survey of 265 employers late last month by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the states largest business organization, found that 88% of respondents reported difficulty hiring enough employees, with the large majority of those business owners looking to wage increases to attract talent.

More than eight in 10 employers said they plan to raise wages by 3% or more this year. Just over one-third of respondents also said they planned to raise wages by more than 4% this year, an increase from the roughly 25% of respondents who made the same claim last summer.

Asked why they are having trouble hiring employees, 44% of respondents said it was because of a lack of qualified applicants, 36% blamed the labor shortage and 9% said it was due to overly generous unemployment benefits.

Meanwhile, Republicans who control the Legislature plan to vote in the Assembly this Thursday on a package of workforce-related bills that would, among other measures, tie the number of weekly unemployment benefits an individual could receive to the states overall unemployment rate. At the current rate, unemployed individuals would only be eligible for 14 weeks of benefits, which top out at $370 per week.

Other bills in the package would prohibit individuals who turn down job offers from receiving Medicaid coverage and require the state Department of Health Services to enforce a federal work requirement for able-bodied adults without dependents in order to take part in the states FoodShare program, which helps people with limited money buy food.

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New Delhi: Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) last week filed draft papers with capital market regulator Sebi for the sale of 5 per cent stake by the government for an estimated Rs 63,000 crore.

LIC had previously issued a public notice to all the policyholders of LIC of India regarding subscription of the companys upcoming IPO stating that its upcoming IPO can be subscribed by the policyholders only if their PAN Card is updated in the company's records. (Also read: Can lapsed policy holders apply for the IPO? Know here)

LIC in the draft red herring prospectus has set a deadline for policyholders to link their PAN CARD with LIC. Policyholders can do so before February 28, 2022.

A policyholder of our Corporation shall ensure that his / her PAN details are updated in the policy records of our Corporation at the earliest. A policyholder who has not updated his / her PAN details with our Corporation before expiry of two weeks from the date of the filing of this Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI (i.e., by

Here is the process for updating your PAN details with the LIC online

1. Visit the Corporation website www.licindia.in OR https://licindia.in/Home/Online-PAN-Registration

2. Keep ready your policy number, PAN, date of birth and e-mail ID, which needs to be filled in while updating your PAN.

3. You may update the records for all of your LIC policies using the above link.

4. You can also check whether your PAN Is registered in your policy or not by visiting the Corporation's website www.licindia.in OR https://linkpan.licindia.in/UIDSeedingWebApp/getPolicyPANStatus?

Alternatively, you may also contact your LIC Agent for assistance.

Touted to be the country's biggest ever public offering, the IPO of over 31.6 crore shares or 5 per cent government stake is likely to hit the D-street in March and employees and policy holders of the insurance behemoth would get a discount over the floor price. The LIC IPO would be the biggest IPO in the history of Indian stock market and once listed LIC's market valuation would be comparable to top companies like RIL and TCS.

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Dhuri: Delhi Chief Minister and national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that he was extremely confident that his party will win by record margins in the Punjab assembly elections 2022.

The AAP chief said that almost all recent surveys have shown AAP as a major winner in these polls. All surveys are showing AAP winning in Punjab elections. After being voted to power, steps will be taken to end corruption, Kejriwal said. He, however, said that he will not scrap the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act (APMC) system even if his party wins the polls.

Punjab | Aam Aadmi Party National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal at party's 'Townhall ' program in Dhuri All surveys are showing AAP winning in Punjab elections...After being voted to power, steps will be taken to end corruption. We will not end the APMC system, Kejriwal says. pic.twitter.com/nAXAuYQ9tp  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

The Aam Aadmi Party chief made these remarks while addressing the party's 'Townhall ' program in Dhuri. Kejriwal also said that an AAP government would ensure the safety of every person in Punjab, irrespective of their religion or caste.

He said there is an atmosphere of fear among the people in Punjab due to the sacrilege and bomb blast incidents in the past. People are worried about their safety, the Delhi Chief Minister said.

Kejriwal said there is fear among the people in the poll-bound state due to the pathetic condition of law and order, frequent incidents of sacrilege and dirty politics of the Congress and the BJP over the Prime Minister`s security breach last month.

"In view of all these incidents, today I want to assure all the individuals and businessmen of Punjab, whether they are Hindu, Sikh, Muslim or Christian, that the AAP government will take responsibility for the security of three crore Punjabis. The AAP government will be responsible for the security of every individual, every trader in Punjab," Kejriwal said.

On how the relationship with the Central government will be if AAP manages to form the government in Punjab, Kejriwal said, "Our government in Delhi has many differences with the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. Despite this, we always supported the Central government on the issue of security of the country and the welfare of its people.

"Even during Covid-19, we tried to work in coordination with the Centre and saved the lives of lakhs of people in Delhi. When the Aam Aadmi Party forms the government in Punjab, we will fix the relationship with the Centre and work in coordination for the betterment of the state."

On the issue of smuggling of drugs from across the border, Kejriwal said, "We will stop infiltration, drugs smuggling and drones coming from across the border by guarding Punjab`s (international) border."

The AAP leader said that only an honest government is needed to make Punjab safe and drug-free. "If an honest government is formed, Punjab Police will work with full sincerity and dedication and will ensure the safety of Punjab and its people," he said.

Kejriwal said the previous Congress and Akali governments were marred by corruption and mafia raj, adding that money and bribe was involved in the transfer posting of police officers.

"Therefore, it was their (police personnel) compulsion to give exemption to drugs mafia, sand mafia and other mafias. AAP government will work with complete honesty, and the same Punjab Police will take action against all such criminals."

The AAP government will give strict punishment to all the culprits and masterminds by conducting a fair and independent investigation into all the incidents of previous sacrilege so that no one can dare to commit such a crime in the future, he added.

The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 20, while the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10. In the 2017 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 77 seats, while the SAD-BJP alliance could win only 18 seats. The AAP emerged as the second-largest party with 20 seats.

(With Agency Inputs )

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New Delhi: Flipkart, which is owned by Walmart, has launched a new Sell Back service that allows consumers to sell their old handsets on the site. The new programme will initially allow users to sell only smartphones, but the company claims that it will be expanded to other categories in the future. The new service is available across more than 1,500 PIN codes in key Indian cities, following Flipkart's acquisition of electronics re-commerce startup Yaantra.

Flipkart issued a press statement announcing the new Sell Back service. The new Sell Back programme can be found on the Flipkart app, according to the company. On the bottom bar, there is a Sell Back option. Users will be able to sell their smartphones for the time being, but the company believes it will expand to other categories in the near future. The Sell Back programme will apply to all smartphones, regardless of whether they were purchased on Flipkart or elsewhere. It is operational in over 1,700 PIN codes in major cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Patna, and others.

Buyers will receive an e-voucher from the e-commerce platform as part of the Sell Back programme, which the company maintains for the correct purchase back amount. Customers will be notified the value of their smartphone based on their responses to basic questions, similar to how an e-commerce site's exchange programme works. Flipkart will pick up the smartphone within 48 hours after the consumer has completed all the forms. Flipkart claims that the merchandise will be verified. After the company has authenticated the smartphone, it will offer the consumer an e-voucher in exchange for the smartphone.

The Sell Back option is currently unavailable on the Flipkart app for Android and iOS.

Flipkart's Sell Back Program follows the acquisition of Yaantra, an electronics re-commerce company, by Walmart's E-commerce platform. Flipkart's acquisition is part of a larger drive to become a full-service buying and selling platform, as well as to improve after-sale services for smartphone buyers.

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New Delhi: Apple is expected to release a slew of new products soon, including the much-anticipated iPhone SE 3. If recent rumours from reliable sources are to be believed, the next iPhone SE could make its debut during Apple's spring event, which is scheduled to take place in March, rather than April as is customary.

The iPhone SE 3 is expected to have the same design language as the iPhone SE 2020, but things could change internally. According to rumours, the next iPhone SE will be powered by the same A15 Bionic technology that powers the iPhone 13. There's also a chance that this smartphone will enable 5G.

Apple recently brought three new iPhone SE models to India for testing. As a result, it's probable that the iPhone SE 3 will be released in India after its global launch. While that was a quick overview of the iPhone SE 3, we have a lot more information to provide, so let's get started.

Apple is expected to release the iPhone SE 3 in the first quarter of 2022. Then, according to Apple expert Mark Gurman, the smartphone might be released on March 8. He also mentions that the iPhone SE 3 would be released alongside the iPad Air 5. The iPhone SE 3 will outperform the iPhone SE 2020, which was released two years ago.

To recall, the iPhone SE 2020 debuted with a design that was identical to the iPhone 8, and the following model is expected to follow suit. It would have been lovely to see a larger display on the iPhone SE 3, but according to sources, this will happen in 2023. Although most leaks point to a design similar to the iPhone SE 3, a few point to a notch design akin to the current-generation iPhone. As a result, the design of the iPhone SE 3 is currently unknown.

It's possible that Apple will not change the design of the upcoming iPhone SE, but a new chipset will almost certainly be included. The A15 Bionic chipset is expected to power the iPhone SE 3. The iPhone 13 series is powered by this chipset, thus we should expect better performance, camera functionality, and networking on the upcoming iPhone SE.

According to a rumour, the iPhone SE 3 could cost $300. (roughly Rs 23,000). However, it is unlikely that the smartphone will be released in India at such a low price. The iPhone SE 2020 was announced in India at a price of Rs 39,900. In India, we should expect the iPhone SE 3 to cost less than Rs 45,000, based on its competition.

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Lucknow: Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, who has been accused of mowing down four farmers in Lakhimpur on October 3 last year after a protest by farmers, was released from Lakhimpur jail on Tuesday evening. He was released after the Allahabad High Court corrected its order.

Ashish Mishra had moved the Lucknow bench of the High Court seeking insertion of sections 302 (murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC that were inadvertently not mentioned in the high court order as the jail authorities would not release him due to the omission.

"It is a mere typographical error, while the court already considered the bail under these sections too and, as such, the same may be allowed making the addition of these sections in the order," said the application.

#WATCH Ashish Mishra, son of MoS Home Ajay Mishra Teni, accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case released on bail pic.twitter.com/11f2CmyFCc  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2022

Ashish Mishra was arrested on October 9 last year by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing the incident. "Ashish Mishra has been arrested as he was not cooperating during the interrogation and did not answer a few questions," DIG Upendra Agarwal had told reporters at the time of his arrest.

An FIR was registered against him and a few others over the incident, but the UP police did not move against him until the Supreme Court decided to take up the matter.

His arrest came a day after the apex court expressed its dissatisfaction with the UP government over the action taken in the case. Ashish turned up for questioning the second time he was summoned, and after 12 hours the nine-member SIT headed by DIG Agarwal, arrested him.

It may be recalled that eight people were killed on October 3, 2021, after violence erupted during a farmers` protest, claiming the lives of farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Four of the dead were farmers who were mowed down by a speeding SUV, belonging to Ashish Mishra. One journalist covering the incident was also killed in the incident. Three BJP workers were killed in retaliatory violence.

The Special Investigation Team probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence incident has said that there was a planned conspiracy to murder protesting farmers.

Meanwhile, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesman, Rakesh Tikait, has said the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) will approach the Supreme Court over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence episode in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

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Mainpuri/Auraiya: Making a blistering attack on the Samajwadi Party in its founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's home turf Mainpuri, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that gundaraj will be back if Akhilesh Yadavs party comes to power in Uttar Pradesh.

Shah said that criminal-politicians like Azam Khan and Mukhtar Ansari will be out of jail again if SP is voted back to power in Uttar Pradesh. At another poll rally in Auraiya, Shah accused the previous governments led by SP's Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati of crumbling the economy of Uttar Pradesh and credited Chief Minister Adityanath with bringing a turnaround in five years.

                               , ,                   pic.twitter.com/exlgQDwslm  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) February 15, 2022

Shah said the 2022 assembly polls are for strengthening the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and making Yogi Adityanath chief minister again. He said earlier police used to flee on seeing members of the mafia.

Now the mafias run after seeing the police. Where are Azam Khan, Atiq Ahmad and Mukhtar Ansari. They all are in jail. If Akhilesh Yadav comes to power, they will get bail and if there is Yogi's government they will remain in jail," he said.

Shah was in Mainpuri to muster support for BJP candidates Jaiveer Singh (Mainpuri Sadar), Ram Naresh Agnihotri (Bhongaon) Union Law Minister S P Singh Baghel (Karhal) and Priyaranjan Diwakar (Kishni).

Akhilesh Yadav is contesting his maiden assembly election from the Karhal seat here. Polling is in the third phase on February 20. Shah targeted the former chief minister over his apparent reluctance to accept the Covid-19 vaccine.

When Modi ji brought the Covid vaccine, Akhilesh termed it as Modi vaccine and asked people not to take it. But after speaking against it for some time he himself took it out of fear. Had Modi not given vaccines to 130 crore people, would we have been as safe during the third wave?"

Shah alleged that corruption was deeply rooted during the SP term in UP. The desired development of the state was limited only to the family members of the Saifai parivar," Shah added, referring to Akhilesh Yadav's home town.

Earlier, in Auraiya he accused the previous UP governments of babua (Yadav) and bua (Mayawati) of bringing the state's economy to the seventh spot in the country. He claimed it was brought up to the second spot by Adityanath in five years. Give another chance of five years and it will be taken to the first spot," he said.

Claiming success on the law-and-order front under the Adityanath government, he asked, "Can any mafia trouble you anywhere, can anyone encroach your land and play with the honour of mothers and sisters? Yogi Ji has ensured the migration of the mafia from Uttar Pradesh."

He claimed that the Adityanath government had brought cases of dacoity in the state down by 72 per cent during the five-year term, robbery by 62 per cent, murder by 31 per cent and rape by 50 per cent. Praising PM Modi, Shah said he has ensured the country's security.

"When the SP-BSP supported the Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh government, there was an intrusion from Pakistan and our soldiers were beheaded but there was no reaction from our 'Mauni Baba'. But Modi avenged such misadventures after coming to power, sending a strong message to the world, he said.

He also recalled the abrogation of Article 370 that ensured special status to Jammu and Kashmir, saying Akhilesh Yadav had said this would lead to a bloodbath. He claimed that the SP and the BSP have been wiped out in the first two phases of polling in the state so far and the BJP is fast approaching the 300-seat mark in Uttar Pradesh.

"The BJP is all set to form its government with a massive majority," he said. Shah referred to the Ujjwala scheme which provides free cooking gas connections to the poor.

Bua-bhatija ran their governments for 15 years but did any home get gas cylinders. Whereas 1.66 lakh mothers have got cylinders and stoves and we have decided to provide one free cylinder on Holi and Diwali," he said. "It's Holi on March 20 and the counting is on March 10. Allow BJP to form the government and one gas cylinder will reach you (on Holi)," he added.

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Rae Bareli: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday promised a kilo of 'ghee' to the poor along with free ration for five years if his party comes to power in Uttar Pradesh while claiming that the BJP government was set to discontinue its own free-ration scheme.

"The poor, who are availing their rations, will get it till the elections. It will not be available after the elections. Earlier it was to be given till November but when the UP elections were announced, they said they would get it till March," Yadav said.

Addressing an election rally here, he said the funds for ration has not been earmarked in "Delhi's budget as they know that the election will end in March."

"Ration was given by the Samajwadis earlier as well. As long as there is an SP government, we will give ration to our poor. Along with it, we will give mustard oil as well as two cylinders in a year. To see that the health of our poor gets better, one kilogram of ghee will also be given," the Samajwadi Party chief said.

The quality of ration being distributed by the BJP government was bad and there were also reports of glass particles found in the salt, Yadav said and asked whether the salt was not coming from Gujarat.

There are 11 lakh government vacancies in UP and the SP government will provide jobs to the youth by filling up those posts, he said.

Yadav said, "BJP leaders were seeking votes moving from house to house. Their senior leaders were distributing pamphlets... But now that campaign has stopped because when they visited some villages, people showed them empty gas cylinders. From the day empty cylinders were shown, their door-to-door campaigning stopped."

Attacking the state government, the SP chief said the law and order situation under the BJP government has collapsed. "The highest number of custodial deaths have taken place under the BJP government. Corruption has also doubled in this double engine government," he alleged.

The SP president also made an appeal to the electorate to vote in favour of the Samajwadi Party candidates of Rae Bareli.

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Lakhimpur Kheri: Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday said the Samyukta Kisan Morcha will approach the Supreme Court after Lakhimpur Kheri violence case accused Ashish Mishra was released from jail, days after getting bail from the Allahabad High Court on February 10.

Eight people, including four farmers, were killed and Union Minister Ajay Mishras son Ashish is among the key accused. Tikait said that the SKM would appeal to the apex court to consider re-hearing in the case as the prosecution could not put forth its submission during the online hearing due to a power outage.

Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, is a key accused in the case and the Allahabad High Court granted him bail on February 10. After the October 3, 2021 violence, the SC had formed a special investigation team (SIT) which had probed the case and filed a charge sheet in the matter, holding Ashish as an accused along with 13 others.

The whole country and whole world watched the most infamous Lakhimpur Kheri episode of Ajay and Ashish Mishra, who despite having committed a heinous crime gets bail within three months. Everybody is seeing that and he will walk out of jail today, Tikait told reporters, adding the SKM would approach the Supreme Court.

"So is such dictatorial government needed, or this type of system needed in which someone who mows down people under a vehicle walks out of jail within three months. How will they behave with the public in times to come? These are our issues that people need to understand? the BKU spokesperson said.

He claimed there was a power outage during the online court hearing in the case when the prosecution was making its point but the whole point could not be kept before the court. He also added that a person charged with criminal conspiracy under IPC section 120B is more dangerous than someone who is accused under IPC section 302 (murder).

BKU spokesperson Saurabh Upadhyay said, The SKM would appeal to the apex court to consider re-hearing in the case as the prosecution could not put forth its submission during the online hearing due to a power outage.

Tikait, a prominent face of the farmers' stir and the national spokesperson of the BKU, which is part of the SKM, also hit out at the BJP-led Centre and the UP government over issues related to the farming community and the youth.

He slammed the saffron party for fighting the elections on communal agendas instead of working for development. Lakhimpur Kheri, known for its sugarcane farming, has eight assembly constituencies of Gola Gokrannath, Dhaurahra, Sri Nagar, Lakhimpur, Mohammdi, Kasta, Palia and Nighasan.

All eight assembly seats, which were won by BJP candidates in 2017, will go to the polls on February 23 in the fourth phase of assembly elections in UP. Election results would be announced on March 10.

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Ottawa (Canada): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday he will activate rarely used emergency powers, including cutting off financing, to end protests that have shut some border crossings and paralyzed parts of the capital. The government, saying the protests were damaging the economy and Canada's reputation as a reliable trading partner, introduced sweeping measures to support police forces and bring crowdfunding platforms under terror financing oversight.

The "Freedom Convoy" protests, started by Canadian truckers opposing a Covid-19 vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, have drawn people opposed to Trudeau's policies on everything from pandemic restrictions to a carbon tax. "The blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety," Trudeau told a news conference. "We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue."

Protesters blockaded the Ambassador Bridge, a vital trade route to Detroit, for six days before police cleared the protest on Sunday while others have shut down smaller border crossings in Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia. Frustration has grown with what critics see as a permissive approach by police to the demonstrations in the border city of Windsor, Ontario, and in Ottawa, the nation's capital, where protests entered a third week. "Despite their best efforts, it is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement`s ability to effectively enforce the law," Trudeau said.

The 1988 Emergencies Act allows the federal government to override the provinces and authorize special temporary measures to ensure security during national emergencies. The law has only been used once before in peacetime, in 1970, by Trudeau's father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Earlier on Monday, four provincial premiers -- in Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan -- said they opposed plans to invoke the act, saying it was unnecessary. Trudeau said the measures would be "geographically specific and targeted only to where they are needed". They will also be "time limited", he said. The Canadian Parliament would have to approve the use of the emergency measures within seven days, and it also has the power to revoke them.

In addition to providing police resources, Canada will broaden the scope of its anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules to cover crowdfunding platforms. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said all crowdfunding programs and payment providers they use must register with Canada's anti-money laundering agency, FINTRAC, and report suspicious activities effective immediately. "We are making these changes because we know that these platforms are being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy," Freeland said.

Also Read: All you need to know about truckers' protest against Covid-19 curbs in Canada

The government will also allow banks to temporarily freeze the accounts of those suspected of supporting the blockades without obtaining a court order. In addition, the insurance of trucks involved in the blockades will be suspended. Canadian authorities have said about half of the funding for the protests has come from US supporters.

A US-based website, GiveSendGo, became a prime conduit for money to the protesters after mainstream crowdfunding platform GoFundMe blocked donations to the group. A website devoted to disseminating leaked data says it was given reams of information about donors on Monday.

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New Delhi: United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden on Monday (February 14, 2022) agreed there was a crucial window for diplomacy and a chance for Russia to step back and avert disaster in Ukraine.

The two leaders, during a phone call, emphasised that any further incursion into Ukraine would result in a 'protracted crisis' for Moscow, with far-reaching damage for both Russia and the world.

"They agreed there remained a crucial window for diplomacy and for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine," a 10 Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement after the call.

President Biden and I agreed this evening there is a crucial window for diplomacy & for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine. We are united in the face of such threats. Further incursion into Ukraine will result in far reaching damage for Russia and the world.  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 14, 2022

Western allies must remain united

Johnson and Biden agreed that western allies must remain united in the face of Russian threats, including imposing a significant package of sanctions should Russian aggression escalate.

The two leaders also reiterated the need for European countries to reduce their dependence on Russian gas, a move which, more than any other, would strike at the heart of Moscow's strategic interests.

The Prime Minister spoke to @POTUS Joe Biden this evening about the situation in Ukraine. They agreed there remained a crucial window for diplomacy and for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine. Full readout: https://t.co/O27Kos84oG pic.twitter.com/0wJN5XQwrF  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) February 14, 2022

"They also reviewed ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russias continued military build-up on Ukraines borders and reaffirmed their support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House informed.

Johnson and Biden also agreed to remain in close contact as the situation evolves.

Russian invasion could begin at any time

White House Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday told reporters that the United States is "clear-eyed" about the situation on the ground with tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along the Ukraine border.

A Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin at any time, including this week, the White House said.

ALSO READ | Why is Russia so obsessed with Ukraine and can crisis trigger a possible World War III?

"We will not comment on any details of our intelligence information except that  except to say that it could begin this week, despite a lot of speculation that it would happen after the Olympics," Jean-Pierre added.

Tune in for a briefing with Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. https://t.co/JJASoPdeYD  The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 14, 2022

It is noteworthy that Russian President Vladimir Putin's massive troop buildup along Ukraine's border has left the World struggling to pinpoint if or when he might actually launch a military campaign.

Russia, as per reports, has more than 100,000 troops massed near the border of Ukraine. Moscow, however, denies Western accusations that it is planning an invasion but says it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless a range of demands are met, including barring Kyiv from ever joining the NATO alliance.

(With agency inputs)

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court could soon rule in a lawsuit brought more than a year ago challenging the states ability to release information on businesses linked to COVID-19 cases.

The state Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments in the case, filed in October 2020 by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the states largest business organization, after the state Department of Health Services announced plans that summer to release information pertaining to positive COVID-19 cases at businesses in order to comply with public records requests from media outlets.

My client requested these records almost two years ago now, the government custodian agrees that the records should be released, and yet the plaintiffs have been able, without ever proving yet that the release of these records would be unlawful, to delay that release for over a year and a half, said attorney Thomas Kamenick, president and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, which is representing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the case.

WMC, along with the Muskego Area Chamber of Commerce and New Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, filed the lawsuit in Waukesha County Circuit Court to block release of the records after DHS announced plans to release the names of more than 1,000 businesses with more than 25 employees where at least two workers had tested positive for COVID-19.

Wisconsin businesses said releasing the information to the Journal Sentinel and other media outlets that requested the information, including the Wisconsin State Journal, would have severe impacts on companies already struggling through the pandemic.

The associations member businesses are at great risk of reputational and financial harm if these records are released, WMC attorney Scott Rosenow said.

A Waukesha County judge issued multiple restraining orders in 2020 preventing the state health department from releasing the information. The Fourth District Court of Appeals eventually reversed the lower courts decision last April, prompting WMCs appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The business groups also allege the information they want blocked is derived from diagnostic test results and the records of contact tracers, and that such information constitutes patient health care records that must be kept confidential.

The only thing I hear you talking about is medical records and I dont see where WMC has any right in medical records, conservative Justice Patience Roggensack said to Rosenow. I feel your pain for your members in not wanting to release the documents, but I dont see where WMC has a right to have a declaration made about medical records.

Clayton Kawski, an attorney for Gov. Tony Evers, said the requested information was gathered through statewide reporting during the early months of the pandemic and only entails the names of businesses and total number of cases at each establishment.

These are not personal health care records, Kawski said.

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MOSCOW: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday called on the country`s people to fly flags and sing the national anthem in unison on Feb. 16, a date that some Western media say Russian could invade.

Ukrainian government officials stressed that Zelenskiy was not predicting an attack on Wednesday, but responding skeptically to the foreign media reports.

"They tell us Feb. 16 will be the day of the attack. We will make it a day of unity," Zelenskiy said in a video address to the nation.

"They are trying to frighten us by yet again naming a date for the start of military action," Zelenskiy said. "On that day, we will hang our national flags, wear yellow and blue banners, and show the whole world our unity."

Zelenskiy has long said that, while he believes Russia is threatening to attack his country, the likelihood of an imminent invasion has been overstated by Western allies, responding to Moscow`s efforts to intimidate Ukraine and sow panic.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy`s chief of staff, told Reuters the president was responding in part "with irony" to media reports of the potential date of the invasion.

"It is quite understandable why Ukrainians today are skeptical about various `specific dates` of the so-called `start of the invasion` announced in the media," he said. "When the `start of the invasion` becomes some sort of rolling tour date, such media announcements can only be taken with irony."

Zelenskiy`s office released a decree calling for all villages and towns in Ukraine to fly the country`s flags on Wednesday, and for the entire nation to sing the national anthem at 10 a.m. It also called for an increase in salaries of soldiers and border guards.

U.S. officials said they were not predicting an assault ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on a specific day, but repeated warnings that it could come at any time.

"I won`t get into a specific date, I don`t think that would be smart. I would just tell you that it is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. Earlier, Kirby said Moscow was still adding to its military capabilities on the Ukrainian frontier.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington, which has already sent most of its diplomats home, was moving its remaining diplomatic mission in Ukraine from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv, much further from the Russian border. He cited a "dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces".

Blinken said Washington was offering Ukraine up to $1 billion in sovereign loan guarantees to calm markets.

The State Department issued a travel advisory recommending that U.S. citizens leave Belarus, which borders both Russia and Ukraine.

Russia has more than 100,000 troops massed near the border of Ukraine. Russian political leaders deny Western accusations that it is planning to invade, but say it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless a range of demands are met, including barring Kyiv from ever joining the NATO alliance.

Russia suggested on Monday that it would keep talking to the West to try to defuse the security crisis.

In a televised exchange, Putin was shown asking his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, whether there was a chance of an agreement to address

Russia`s security concerns, or whether it was just being dragged into tortuous negotiations.

Lavrov replied: "We have already warned more than once that we will not allow endless negotiations on questions that demand a solution today."

But he added: "It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted ... At this stage, I would suggest continuing and building them up."

Western countries have threatened unprecedented sanctions if Russia invades. The Group of Seven large economies (G7) warned on Monday of "economic and financial sanctions which will have massive and immediate consequences on the Russian economy".

After speaking with the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he still believed "from his own analysis, his own hopes" that there would not be a conflict, a U.N. spokesperson said.

Moscow says Ukraine`s quest to join NATO poses a threat. While NATO has no immediate plans to admit Ukraine, Western countries say they cannot negotiate over a sovereign country`s right to form alliances.

ECONOMIC DAMAGE

Ukraine has already suffered economic damage from the standoff. A surge in the price of 5-year credit default swaps on Ukrainian sovereign bonds suggested that markets gave Kyiv a 42% probability of defaulting.

Ukraine International Airlines, the nation`s biggest airline, said its insurers had terminated coverage for some of its aircraft.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held talks with Zelenskiy in Kyiv. Scholz is due to fly to Moscow on Tuesday, following visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and two British ministers went last week.

Scholz said he saw "no reasonable justification" for Russia`s military activity on Ukraine`s border, and that "we are ready for a serious dialogue with Russia on European security issues". He announced a credit of 150 million euros ($170 million) for Ukraine.

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Washington: The Biden administration has once again warned Russia of "severe consequences" in case its forces invade Ukraine and said that the path for diplomacy remains available if the Kremlin chooses to engage constructively.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday (February 14) that the US is actively working to reach a diplomatic solution to de-escalate the crisis.

"Over the weekend, as you all know, the President (Joe Biden) spoke with President (Vladimir) Putin, and we remain engaged with the Russian government in full coordination with our allies and partners," she said.

Russia has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine. The move has brought increasingly strong warnings from the West that Moscow intends to invade. However, Russia has repeatedly denied that it plans to invade Ukraine.

The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively, Jean-Pierre said. "However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground," she said, as President Biden reached out to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss the situation.

The White House said in a readout that Biden and Johnson discussed their recent diplomatic engagements with Ukraine and Russia.

They also reviewed the ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russia's continued military build-up on Ukraine's borders and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, it said.

"They discussed efforts to reinforce the defensive posture on NATO's eastern flank and underlined the continued close coordination among allies and partners, including on readiness to impose severe consequences on Russia should it choose further military escalation," the White House said.

During the White House news conference, Jean-Pierre said that they are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time.

"We will not comment on any details of our intelligence information except that it could begin this week, despite a lot of speculation that it would happen after the Olympics. It remains unclear which path Russia will choose to take," she said.

The US is ready for any situation, Jean-Pierre asserted. "President Biden has made it very clear on his call with Putin this weekend that if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States, together with our allies and partners, will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia," she noted.

Biden reiterated that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia's standing, she said.

At a separate news conference, Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby announced that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is going to travel to Belgium, Poland and Lithuania.

He will meet with allied defence ministers and NATO leadership to discuss Russia's military build-up in and around Ukraine.

Russia has demanded guarantees that NATO will never admit Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations as members and that the military alliance will roll back troop deployments in former Soviet bloc nations. Some of these, like the membership pledge, are nonstarters for the US and its allies, creating a seemingly intractable stalemate that many fear can only end in a war.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied it has plans to attack Ukraine, but the US and NATO are worried about Russia amassing its troops near Ukraine and conducting a series of sweeping military manoeuvres.

As part of the drills, motorised infantry and artillery units in southwestern Russia recently practised firing live ammunition, warplanes in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea performed bombing runs, dozens of warships sailed for training exercises in the Black Sea and the Arctic, and Russian fighter jets and paratroopers arrived in Belarus for joint war games.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  The 14-billion South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) elevated extension project is now fully operational, cutting travel time between Muntinlupa and Balintawak to just 30 minutes, the top official of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said Tuesday.

"Today, we formally present to you the completed SLEX Elevated Extension project," SMC President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon Ang said during the inauguration ceremony, which was attended by top government officials led by President Rodrigo Duterte.

"With the completion of this project, seamless connectivity between SLEX, the Skyway system, and NLEX is now a reality," he added.

The four-kilometer, two-laned southbound alignment of the project had a soft launch in December, connecting the Skyway in Sucat to SLEX in Susanna Heights, Muntinlupa - bypassing the Alabang viaduct.

The business tycoon said the completion of the project could "play a significant part" in the country's economic rebound.

"With this, we can look forward to faster, more efficient travel, transport of goods, and improved trade throughout our cities and provinces," he said.

"This segment alone can accommodate about 200,000 cars a day, northbound and southbound," Ang added.

Ang also expressed gratitude to Duterte for his support for the private sector.

"We thank President Duterte and his Build Build Build team, especially the Department of Public Works and Highways, headed by Sec. Mark Villar who was with us at the start of the project and through most of its construction, as well as Department of Transportation Sec. Art Tugade. They both recognized the importance of this project and gave us all the support we needed from start to end," Ang said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Filipino-Vietnamese hairstylist Frederic Aspiras was recently nominated for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Category at the 94th Academy Awards for Lady Gaga's looks in House of Gucci.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' New Day on Tuesday, Aspiras shared how he came up with his works that earned a sole Oscar nomination from Ridley Scott's biographical crime drama film.

"It feels wonderful. I am still smiling from all the excitement and just the thought of only being the second Asian to ever be nominated," he said.

Even Gaga paid tribute to Aspiras, whom she calls a "brother" and a "living genius."

Aspiras, who has been working with Gaga for 15 years, said it took him six months to do research and finish all the wigs that the celebrity used in the film to portray Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci played by Adam Driver in the movie.

"All the prep work really made me confident because we were really ready when we got to the set and were readying for the screen test. I created a 400-page directory of hairstyles...There are about 52 looks that made it on the screen," he shared.

Aspiras also recounted his humble beginnings, proving that one cannot simply be a celebrity hairstylist overnight.

"When I first started, I didn't set out to be a celebrity hairstylist. I just wanted to do great work and be part of an artistic community that understood my type of art," Aspiras shared, attributing his skills to his mother who was a hairdresser.

After moving to Los Angeles, Aspiras only took a chance after receiving a call from an agent seeking a hairstylist for Gaga, who was still an emerging artist at the time.

"I didn't expect the type of success or what would come out of it. I just wanted to work with such an interesting artist," he said. "When we started working together, slowly we realized we share the same kind of mindset when it came to creating art."

To aspiring hairdressers and stylists, Aspiras said that taking chances and hard work are the key ingredients are to being successful.

"Sometimes you just have to take chances on yourself in life and really put yourself out there. I think one of the chances I took really paid off," he said. "I'm very proud of the work we've done in 15 years. It's quite a journey to be with one artist for such a long time but when I look back at it, I'm seriously proud of this journey so far."
By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

Some 77 mines and munitions were found and defused on Azerbaijani territories liberated from Armenia's occupation in 2020, the Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) has reported.

Twenty-three antipersonnel and 11 anti-tank mines, as well as 43 unexploded ordnances were found in Tartar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Shusha, Gubadli, Jabrayil, and Zangilan regions as part of the demining operations from February 7 to 12, the report added.

A 102.7-hectare-area was cleared of mines and unexploded ordnances during the reported period.

It should be noted that ANAMA, along with the partner countries, carries out demining activities on Azerbaijan's liberated territories.

Armenia deliberately and constantly planted mines on Azerbaijani territories, in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, thereby being a major threat to regional peace, security, and cooperation.

On December 9, the Prosecutor-General's Office reported that 29 civilians and seven military servicemen were killed, as well as 109 servicemen and 44 civilians received injuries of varying severity as a result of mine explosions in the countrys lands since November 10, 2020.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Russia-brokered peace agreement on November 10, 2020, to end 44 days of fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Veteran broadcast journalist and former press secretary Ricardo Dong Puno Jr. died on Tuesday, his family confirmed. He was 76.

He died at 12:15 p.m. due to a lingering illness, his son Donnie said in a text message to CNN Philippines.

With a career in the media industry spanning three decades, Puno hosted a number of news and public affairs shows, including Dong Puno Live, Insider, Business Today, and Viewpoint.

He also served as senior vice president for ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs.

In 2000, Puno became press secretary for the administration of then President Joseph Estrada. In the years after, he ran for senator but lost, and later unsuccessfully vied for a congressional seat of Muntinlupa.

In a statement, Malacanang extended its condolences to the family and friends of the former Palace official.

Our thoughts are with the loved ones of Sec. Puno as we join them in praying for his eternal repose, it said.

Known for his intelligent, insightful interviews, Sec. Puno received numerous distinctions for his work in public affairs programs that helped provide the public with a better understanding of the issues of the day, Malacanang added.

Puno was also a lawyer with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Ateneo de Manila University and a Master of Laws degree from the Harvard Law School.

He was the son of former Minister of Justice Ricardo Puno Sr., with whom he co-founded the PunoLaw firm.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  A cybercrime expert warns the public against so-called "love scams," where victims lose money to someone they believe is in love with them.

The National Bureau of Investigation's Cybercrime Division chief Vic Lorenzo said scammers profile their victims before making contact, and this often happens on social media sites and even dating apps.

"Unang-una, huwag tayong maexcite kung may nagcommunicate sa atin ng ganyan [First, don't get too excited when people communicate with you that way], and try to leverage on the power of the internet," Lorenzo told CNN Philippines on Tuesday.

"Idownload yung profile picture nila and iGoogle image search niyo. Kasi definitely...dinownload lang yon. Kapag nanghingi ng pera, hindi na totoo. Hindi na pagmamahal yun, scam na agad yun," he added.

[Translation: Download their profile picture and go through Google image search. Because definitely these images are downloaded. If they ask for money, that isn't real. That's not love, that's a scam.]

Lorenzo said cases of love scams began rising during the pandemic because nearly everyone was online. They also observed that most of the culprits are Filipinos.

"Nakikita namin, ang love scam na formulate ng mga Nigerian scammer. Tapos natutunan na rin siguro ng mga Filipino scammer, ayun na...may Filipino na rin na nagcoconduct ng mga love scam," he told Newsroom Ngayon.

[Translation: We found that Nigerians were behind the love scams. It appears Filipino scammers eventually learned the scheme and conducted their own love scams.]

"Magpo-profess muna ng love tapos magdadrama na yan. On their way to the Philippines, na-trouble sila na nawalan sila ng pera, manghihingi na ng pera yon," he added.

[Translation: They will first profess love and then the drama begins. They'll say on their way to the Philippines they ran into trouble and lost money, and then they'll ask for funds.]

He added scammers could even say family members got sick, and these stories would always involve a sense of urgency - all of which are intended to get money from the victim. Lorenzo said one incident resulted in a victim losing 17 million.

Lorenzo urged the public to let authorities know if they've been victimized so they would know what steps to take, and to also prevent love scams from evolving.

The first hurdle authorities would then have to overcome is convincing victims they have fallen for a love scam.

"Secondary yung recovery ng money, kung naka sakaling marecover at third yung identification then prosecution ng love scammer," he said.

[Translation: Second will be recovering the money, in case it can still be recovered, and third is identification and prosecution of the scammer.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15) The Philippines may need to add more "requirements" for those seeking to run in future elections due to the changing landscape in the country, a senatorial candidate said Tuesday.

Former Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista said Congress may push for a measure to "supplement" what's written in the Constitution to see who are really qualified for the top posts.

"Minimum requirements 'yung nasa Constitution, pero meron ding batas na nagsasabi na ito naman 'yung mga iba pang mga requirements for president, vice president, for senators," Bautista told CNN Philippines' Politics As Usual.

"Kinopya lang natin 'yun [requirements] sa earlier [Constitution.] Iba na 'yung kondisyon ngayon sa Pilipinas eh. 21st century na ito. Marami nang nakapagtapos actually Mga qualified na rin talaga."

[Translation: The Constitution shows the minimum requirements, but there are laws for other requirements for president, vice president, senators. The minimum requirements, we just copied from the earlier Constitution. It's a different condition now in the Philippines, it's the 21st century. A lot of people have gotten degrees, they are qualified.]

Under the Constitution, a person can run for president if he or she is a natural born Filipino and a registered voter, can read and write, is 40 years of age at the day of the election, and has lived in the Philippines 10 years before the election is held.

Bautista, however, did not provide further details with regards to his proposal.

Meanwhile, the formal local official also made an appeal to the public ahead of the May polls.

"Tapos na 'yung aking chapter sa local governance. I'd like to offer myself as an alternative, bagong mukha sa bagong Senado," he said.

[Translation: My chapter in local governance is over. I'd like to offer myself as an alternative, a new face at the Senate.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15) The Supreme Court (SC) has released its full decision on the anti-terrorism law  more than two months after it upheld majority of the highly contested measure's provisions.

In December, justices voted to strike down only two parts of Republic Act No. 11479  which faced a total of 37 petitions before the tribunal.

The first was a portion of Section 4, which refers to the qualifier that could tag protest or dissent as terrorism if it is intended to cause harm or create a serious risk to public safety. The high court ruled this was "overbroad" and violates freedom of expression.

The magistrates also voided the second method of designating terrorists. This refers to the requests of other countries to designate terrorists, which may be adopted by the Anti-Terrorism Council.

Below is a copy of the SC's 250-page decision:
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Foreign investment pledges rose 71.5% in 2021 after a strong performance in the last three months of the year, latest Philippine Statistics Authority figures showed.

The PSA reported 133.47 billion in foreign investments (FIs) were approved from October to December, more than triple the 36.49 billion logged in the last quarter of 2020. The latest figure pushed 2021s overall tally to 192.34 billionup from 112.12 billion the year prior.

Singapore topped the list of investing countries in 2021, accounting for 80.17 billion or 41.7% of total investment commitments, followed by the Netherlands and Japan.

The bulk of approved FIs aim to fund projects in information and communication, representing 144.32 billion or 75% of the total. Manufacturing along with administrative and support service activities come after, added the PSA.

Nationwide projects comprised 144.36 billion or 75.1% of overall commitments in 2021. In terms of region, projects in Calabarzon are set to receive the most funding at 20.01 billion or 10.4%.

However, the agency noted that projected employment from approved FIs fell 33.6% to 66,251. Projects approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA)which registered a 40% drop in investment pledgesare forecast to generate majority of total jobs at 49.8%.

Foreign nationals pledged 25.4% percent of overall investment commitments in 2021, which amounted to 756.63 billion, down 33.6% from the previous year.

The government has been aggressively pursuing measures to further attract foreign investments amid the pandemic to create more jobs, with President Rodrigo Duterte signing the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act in March last year.

Duterte also inked Republic Act No. 11595, which amends the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, last December.

Meanwhile, the measure amending the decades-old Public Service Act to ease foreign equity restrictions on certain industries awaits his signature.
(CNN)  Jared Isaacman  the billionaire CEO of payments processing company Shift 4  is buying three more flights with SpaceX, the first of which is scheduled for this year and could put Isaacman and SpaceX on track to travel deeper into space than any human has traveled in a half century.

The first flight in the series of missions, which are being called "Polaris" after the North Star, is planned for late this year and will last up to five days and include a crew of Isaacman and three other people. It's expected to travel out to the Van Allen radiation belt, which has an inner band that stretches from about 400 to 6,000 miles above Earth, in part to help the crew research how radiation in space affects the human body. Radiation remains a serious concern for spaceflights to the moon and Mars, as SpaceX says it aims to do, because they would require prolonged exposure to radiation, which can lead to an "increased risk of cancer and degenerative diseases" and other long-term impacts, according to NASA.

When asked on a press call Monday, Isaacman said the Gemini missions of the 20th century, which set altitude records at the time, are a guidepost for how high the first Polaris mission will travel. Gemini missions reached as high as about 850 miles  or about three times higher than where the International Space Station orbits. Isaacman declined to share a specific altitude for the flight.

During that mission, the crew will conduct a space walk, a first for anyone traveling aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Isaacman made the announcement on NBC's Today Show on Monday morning and in an interview with the Washington Post.

Isaacman, who gained international attention when he purchased the first SpaceX all-tourism flight dubbed "Inspiration 4," said that the first Dragon mission will be followed by a second Dragon mission shortly thereafter. Those two missions will pave the way for the first-ever crewed mission on SpaceX's forthcoming Starship rocket, the one Elon Musk hopes will one day ferry people to Mars.

"We're gonna go farther into space than humans have gone since we last walked on the moon," he told the Today show.

It's not clear if all this will go according to plan, nor has SpaceX said whether it will need to complete additional testing before Isaacman can make his trek to deep space. SpaceX also has not addressed what if any updates Crew Dragon will need to complete the mission safely. So far, the spacecraft has carried astronauts only on trips to low-Earth orbit, or the area of space directly surrounding Earth. The Inspiration 4 mission marked the highest Crew Dragon has flown thus far, at at a roughly 360-mile altitude, and Monday's announcement indicated the first Polaris mission will travel at least twice that far.

It's not clear how much these missions will cost Isaacman, and he declined to comment on the matter Monday morning. He also did not reveal how much he paid for the Inspiration 4 mission last year, though he said he paid less than $200 million.

"We know space is expensive," Isaacman said when asked about the costs of the Polaris program during a media call, adding that it's already "fully funded."

"Costs will come down just as they have for any other groundbreaking technology," he said. "This is a contribution from both SpaceX and myself towards the important goals we want to achieve with the Polaris program."

The Inspiration 4 mission was billed as a St. Jude Children's Hospital fundraiser, and it fetched a total of $243 million for the organization. Isaacman donated about $100 million, Musk put in another $50 million and the remainder was raised through public donations. The Polaris missions are also expected to support the same cause.

On the first Polaris mission, Isaacman will be joined by veteran Air Force fighter pilot Scott Poteet and two SpaceX operations engineers  Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon, who will serve as the onboard medical officer. Isaacman will be the only crewmember with prior spaceflight experience.

Apart from his spaceflight ambitions, Isaacman also flies jets recreationally. Most recently, he was seen piloting an Alpha Jet, often used for training pilots, over SpaceX's Starship facilities in South Texas.

Poteet is a former vice president at Shift 4 who previously spent 20 years in the Air Force. Poteet also served as a flight director on the ground supporting Inspiration 4. He and Isaacman are also frequent flying partners.

Gillis and Menon could be the first SpaceX employees to travel to space.

Details about the space walk that the Polaris crew is planning to conduct on the first flight are light, but a press release states they will use "SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, upgraded from the current intravehicular (IVA) suit." The IVA suit refers to the pressurized black-and-white spacesuits that NASA astronauts and the Inspiration 4 crew have worn aboard Dragon during launch and reentry.

But exiting the spacecraft while it's in orbit will require a much heavier duty system of protection. NASA has described its EVA suit as "a miniature spaceship shaped like a human body that protects the astronaut from the dangers of being outside a vehicle while in space or on the Moon," offering protection from "radiation, dust, debris, and extreme temperatures."

According to to its website, the space walk will be conducted when the Crew Dragon is flying about 300 miles above Earth, or roughly the same altitude as the ISS.

Much of the technical details remain unknown. Crew Dragon does not have an airlock, for example, which would allow a single person to exit the spacecraft in an EVA suit while the remaining crew members stay safely locked inside their airtight, pressurized cabin. Without an airlock, the entire cabin will become depressurized  as it did during spacewalks conducted by NASA astronauts during the Gemini missions.

"For this mission, the suit that we're going to be designing will be a single suit that we would launch [in] and then similarly use for the EVA," Gillis said.

"We'll certainly be doing so safely," Menon added.

Also on the first Polaris mission, the crew will test out the use of Starlink  SpaceX's satellite-based internet business  for in-space communications. Thus far, Starlink has only been used to beam internet connectivity to customers on the ground, but the Polaris press release suggests the system could be used to support communications during orbital flights.

During the mission, the crew will also conduct some research related to health, including a study on decompression sickness and another focused on how astronauts might mitigate Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome, or SANS, a condition that can alter the structure of the eyes and brain that is brought on by weightlessness and has been reported by up to 70% of astronauts. Symptoms can include loss of near vision, blind spots, headaches and loss of depth perception.

Starship

The schedule for Isaacman's Starship flight isn't exactly clear. During a presentation about Starship in Texas last week, Musk said that while he's hopeful the vehicle  which has so far conducted only brief, suborbital "hop tests"  will make its first orbital flight test this year, without a crew. That, however, could depend on whether federal regulators give SpaceX approval to launch Starship out of South Texas, where the company has already set up an orbital launch pad and the vast majority of Starship resources are located.

That could mean that Isaacman is leap-frogging the first billionaire who purchased a Starship mission  Japanese fashion mogul Yusaku Maezawa. Maezawa paid SpaceX an undisclosed amount of money to secure a seat for himself and a group of artists on a Starship trip around the moon, hoping it could take off as soon as 2023. Maezawa is still in the process of deciding who he'll take with him.

Musk also said during the presentation that he hopes Starship will cost less than $10 million per flight within a few years, which, if obtainable, would be far cheaper than any other rocket on the market.

Starship is expected to be far more powerful than any rocket humanity has ever built. Musk has said it would boast twice the thrust of the Saturn V rockets that powered the moon landings last century.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "A billionaire CEO is on track to go further into space than any human in 50 years."
(Reuters)  British tax authorities said on Monday they had made their first seizure of non-fungible tokens in a crackdown on suspected criminal activity to hide money.

Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs seized three NFTs after investigating an attempt to defraud the public coffers of 1.4 million pounds ($1.9 million).

Around 5,000 pounds worth of other crypto assets were also seized.

The probe also led to the arrest of three people for alleged value added tax repayment fraud involving 250 fake companies.

Nick Sharp, deputy director economic crime at HMRC, said the seizures of the NFTs, which had not yet been valued, served as a warning to anyone who thought they could use crypto assets to hide money.

"We constantly adapt to new technology to ensure we keep pace with how criminals and evaders look to conceal their assets," he said in a statement.

NFTs are a from of crypto asset that uses blockchain to record the ownership status of digital files such as images, videos and even items within online games.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos is once again the frontrunner in a recent survey of most preferred bets ahead of the elections, but pollster Pulse Asia clarified Tuesday that his significant lead is not an unusual occurrence.

"We have seen increases in previous surveys in voter preference," Pulse Asia executive director Anna Tabunda told CNN Philippines' The Source.

"For example, in 2016, in March, [President Rodrigo] Duterte was still not leading but in the April 2016 survey, he was the top runner. A percentage increase of 7 percentage points is not necessarily unusual," she said.

Tabunda was referring to Marcos' higher rating of 60% in the Jan. 19-24 survey, up from 53% in the Pulse Asia December 2021 poll. Adult respondents were asked: Of the people on this list, whom would you vote for as President of the Philippines if the May 2022 elections were held today and they were the candidates?

Pulse Asia surveys during the 2016 presidential race showed then candidate Rodrigo Duterte overtaking Sen. Grace Poe by 5 percentage points in the March 29 to April 3 poll, just after Poe led by 4 percentage points earlier that month.

Tabunda noted that Marcos' voter preference gain in the latest survey was seen "generally across areas," but they could not determine if this was caused by a shift in the support of voters initially for another candidate, or by Marcos' win in a petition challenging his candidacy.

"We cannot be sure that it was these issues that led to his voter preference but we can say it's not affecting him negatively," she said.

Tabunda also acknowledged that Marcos' absence in the Jessica Soho Presidential Interviews dated January 22 did not negatively affect his standing.

Marcos latest score still has a wide gap over that of Vice President Leni Robredo, who is in far second with 16%. Robredo's rating dropped from 20% in the December 2021 survey.

Tabunda said the next Pulse Asia survey will come out next month. She said the public can expect to see a significant movement in the candidates' ratings brought by their performances in different debates and political rallies after the campaign period started last February 8.

After skipping the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster ng Pilipinas Presidential Forum, the son of the country's late dictator also declined to participate in the upcoming debates hosted by CNN Philippines supposedly due to a conflict in schedule.

Robredo, Moreno, Lacson, Pacquiao, and the other presidential bets are attending the CNN Philippines' Feb. 27 debate.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15) The government is closely coordinating with its foreign service posts for the possible repatriation and relocation of Filipinos in Ukraine.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said officials are working on arrangements to evacuate Ukraine-based Filipinos who may wish to go home amid the threat of a Russian invasion.

The agency also said it has been in talks with the Filipino community regarding nationals who would seek to relocate to more secure areas.

The situation at Ukraines border remains fluid, and security conditions could change at any moment, the DFA said. The DFA is also working with the European Union in ensuring safe passage of Filipinos across EU borders.

In a separate tweet, DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. said the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw will send "most of its staff" to Ukraine to urge Filipinos to seek safety.

"I am reaching out to all countries West and East with common borders with Ukraine to take in Filipinos fleeing the likelihood if not event of armed clash," he added.

The DFA likewise urged Filipinos to keep communication lines open and wait for further bulletins from embassies.

At least eight Filipinos have expressed intention to go back home to the Philippines, but many said they would rather stay for fear of losing their jobs.

The United States had warned that an attack on the former Soviet state could begin soon, adding that Russia could possibly act militarily.

The Russian Defense Ministry said some of its troops would return to their bases following recent drills around Ukraine, but noted that other major exercises will push through.

CNN Philippines correspondent Tristan Nodalo contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Millions of senior citizens in the country remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, according to a presidential adviser on the pandemic Monday, adding that vaccine hesitancy among the group remains high.

"Meron pang [There are] almost three million unvaccinated senior citizens. These are the most vulnerable among our population," Presidential Adviser for COVID-19 Response Vince Dizon said during the Talk to the Nation briefing.

Dizon noted the difficulty in identifying the seniors who still need to be inoculated.

"It takes longer and it takes more effort to find them and to convince them to get vaccinated. Pero kritikal po ito, kaya ito ang ginagawa nating pagsusuyod kasama ang ating Department of Health at lahat ng agencies of the national government para maprotektahan ang ating seniors," he added.

[Translation: It takes longer and it takes more effort to find them and to convince them to get vaccinated. But as this is critical, what we're doing with the Department of Health as well as other agencies is to find and protect our seniors.]

At the briefing, Dizon said the goal was to vaccinate 90 million Filipinos by the end of Duterte's term, noting that 61.5 million have already been inoculated.

Dizon also said administering booster shots was also a priority.

"I think it's very important for our citizens to know that if it has already been three months since their second shots, they are qualified to get their booster shot," he said.

Duque said there are people who might not be aware that can already get their boosters, while others believe they do not need one.

"Based on the science and experience of other countries, this provides additional protection," he said.
UN chief calls for diplomacy to defuse Russia-Ukraine tensions

Xinhua) 08:05, February 15, 2022

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie E)

-- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply worried about the current tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict.

-- "There is no place for incendiary rhetoric. Public statements should aim to reduce tensions, not inflame them."

-- "Abandoning diplomacy for confrontation is not a step over a line, it is a dive over a cliff."

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

In a press encounter, Guterres said he was deeply worried about the current tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict.

"The price in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate. We simply cannot accept even the possibility of such a disastrous confrontation," he said.

"There is no alternative to diplomacy. All issues, including the most intractable, can and must be addressed and resolved through diplomatic frameworks. It is my firm belief that this principle will prevail," said Guterres.

Earlier on Monday, the secretary-general held a virtual meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He also spoke separately with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Guterres said he will remain fully engaged in the hours and days to come.

He said, as secretary-general, it is his duty to appeal for the full respect of the UN Charter, a fundamental pillar of international law.

He quoted part of Article 2 of the UN Charter: "All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."

The time is now to defuse tensions and de-escalate actions on the ground. There is no place for incendiary rhetoric. Public statements should aim to reduce tensions, not inflame them, he said.

Guterres welcomed the recent flurry of diplomatic contacts and engagements, including between heads of state, but said more needs to be done.

"I have made my good offices available and we will leave no stone unturned in the search for a peaceful solution. Abandoning diplomacy for confrontation is not a step over a line, it is a dive over a cliff," he said. "In short, my appeal is this: do not fail the cause of peace."

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

The Azerbaijani parliament has approved a document on cooperation in the field of food security with Turkey, Trend reported on February 15.

Parliament discussed the bill On approval of an agreement between the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey on food security cooperation at its plenary meeting, the report added.

Following the debate, the bill was put to a vote and passed.

The agreement, it was noted, will help to strengthen relations between the two fraternal countries.

The document calls for Azerbaijan and Turkey to work together to improve food security by ensuring the safety of imported and exported food products and expanding the existing potential of food-related trade relations.

Azerbaijan and Turkey cooperate in various fields of economy and have jointly completed giant energy and infrastructure projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, and TANAP.

On June 15, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed the Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations, which focuses on defence cooperation, promoting regional stability and prosperity, and establishing new transportation routes.

In the first ten months of 2021, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey amounted to $3.4 billion. The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $4.1 billion in 2020.

The two countries set up a goal to bring the mutual trade turnover to $15 billion in 2023. It should be noted that so far, Turkey is Azerbaijans second-largest investor followed by the UK.

Additionally, Turkey was one of the first countries that expressed its interest and readiness to participate in the restoration of Azerbaijans liberated territories.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday praised Health Secretary Francisco Duque III for leading the countrys response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You have done good sa trabaho mo (in your job) and the Filipinos will never forget that, Duterte said. Its a sacrifice really for you to continue doing it and I had to ask you several times to stay on the job because we need you.

Duque has faced repeated calls to resign for allegedly mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic response, and for allegedly getting into anomalous deals using the governments funds for the health crisis.

In its partial report, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee recommended the filing of criminal and administrative charges against Duque and other personalities involved in the alleged anomaly in the governments deal with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. for the purchase of medical supplies for pandemic response.

The President has defended Duque, saying he will never fire the health chief because the he did nothing wrong.

READ: Duterte: I will stand by Duque even if it will bring me down
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  The pandemic response plan of President Rodrigo Duterte's administration will be turned over to his successor as he ends his term this year, Malacanang said Tuesday.

The fifth phase of the National Action Plan against COVID-19 is already in the works, according to acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles.

"Kaya binubuo na natin yung National Action Plan [against COVID-19] Phase 5. Kasi nakapaloob po sa dokumentong 'yan ang next phase natin sa laban against COVID-19, which is protecting our community, protecting our people while accelerating yung economic growth ng ating bansa," Nograles said during a public briefing.

[Translation: We are already working on the National Action Plan Phase 5. Included in the document is our next phase in our fight against COVID-19, which is protecting our community, protecting our people while accelerating the economic growth of our country. ]

The administration's pandemic response achievements will also be turned over, he added.

"'Yang document na 'yan plus all the accomplishments in terms of vaccination rate, in terms of compliance with the safety seal, in terms of compliance with minimum health standards sa mga establisyemento, lahat po 'yan ay aming itu-turn over sa next administration," Nograles said.

[Translation: That document plus all the accomplishments in terms of vaccination rate, in terms of compliance with the safety seal, in terms of compliance with minimum health standards in establishments, we will turn these over to the next administration.]

When asked if the new normal status could be achieved before Duterte steps down, Nograles said it depends on the vaccination coverage and compliance with minimum public health standards.

Malacanang said more than 132 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far. Around 61 million have received their first dose, 61.62 million are already fully vaccinated, and 9.16 million have received booster shots.

The Department of Health earlier said the country is now deemed "low risk" for COVID-19 infections.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  The tandem of Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson and Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III set the record straight: Senator Richard Gordon and former vice president Jejomar Binay remain in their senatorial line-up.

"It is not true that we are dropping much less have removed ex-VP Jojo Binay and Sen Dick Gordon from our senatorial slate. As far as SP Sotto and I are concerned, they continue to honor our gentlemen's agreement unlike the two that we have dropped earlier," Lacson said in a tweet Tuesday.

Senator Win Gatchalian and former Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista were earlier dropped by the tandem.

In a separate statement, Sotto stressed that both senatorial candidates have not been removed from their line up, but also have not yet been endorsed.

"Sen. Ping Lacson and I are endorsing 11 senatorial candidates as of the moment at hindi pa kasama dito sina VP Binay at Sen. Gordon. Mag-uusap pa kami to complete our magic 12," Sotto said. "So, to say that they are already removed from our line-up is totally wrong."

[Translation: Sen. Ping Lacson and I are endorsing 11 senatorial candidates as of the moment and this does not yet include VP Binay and Sen. Gordon. We will still need to discuss things to complete our magic 12.]

Meanwhile, Binay also released a statement addressing talk that he has been dropped by the Lacson-Sotto tandem.

"I never applied to be a guest candidate but I welcomed my inclusion in their ticket. We had a gentleman's agreement. Walang ieendorso ang guest candidates. I honored that agreement. I did not declare my support for anyone and I did not attend any event. Kasi lalaki akong kausap," he said.

[Translation: I never applied to be a guest candidate but I welcomed my inclusion in their ticket. We had a gentleman's agreement. Guest candidates will not endorse anyone. I honored that agreement. I did not declare my support for anyone and I did not attend any event. Because I am true to my word.]

Binay said both Lacson and Sotto knew how to reach him, and that he wished them both well.

Senator Gordon, meanwhile, has not issued a statement on the matter.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15) The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) on Tuesday called on government agencies to investigate the recent cyberattacks on news websites.

In a statement, the NUJP urged the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Cybercrime Division to identify the culprits, stressing that cyber censorship "has no place in a democracy."

"We call on the DICT and the NBI to look into these incidents, stop the cyberattacks, identify and hold the perpetrators accountable," the group said.

A number of media outfits have reported distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks for the past few weeks, making their respective websites inaccessible for a period of time.

The NUJP questioned the timing of the incidents.

"While the recent cases of DDoS against a number of corporate media outfits have not been investigated yet, the timing and frequency raise our suspicion that the cyberattacks are orchestrated, systematic, and politically motivated," it noted.

Last year, alternative media outlets Bulatlat and Altermidya also confirmed cyberattacks on their pages, which they said were linked to the Philippine Army. The Armed Forces denied the allegations.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  All three groups behind the junked disqualification cases against presidential hopeful Bongbong Marcos have filed their respective appeals for the Comelec en banc to reverse the first division's ruling.

After Abubakar Mangelen, lawyers of the Akbayan party-list and the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA) filed their own motions for reconsideration on Tuesday to convince the four-member body to disqualify Marcos from the presidential race.

Comelecs Former First Division dismissed three consolidated disqualification cases on Thursday for lack of merit, insisting there was no reason to kick Marcos out of the running. This came a month following the last proceedings on the cases, and eight days since Commissioner Rowena Guanzon retired after exposing undue delay in deciding on the case.

In the motions filed this week, all three petitioners insisted that Marcos being found guilty of not filing his income tax returns (ITRs) from 1982 to 1985 is a crime involving moral turpitude or against good behavior.

"Four consecutive years cannot be regarded as a simple omission. It shows an utter disregard of the laws which as chief executive of the province of Ilocos Norte, respondent convicted candidate Marcos, Jr. took an oath to uphold, read the petition filed by CARMMAs lawyer Howard Calleja.

This attempt to cheat the government of its lifeblood, even as he holds an office whose mandate includes the implementation of the law, can be argued to be one of the highest, if not the highest form of dishonesty, the group added.

The group composed of Martial Law abuse survivors added that the evidence of the Marcos campincluding the supposed proof of the payment of fines imposed by the Quezon City Regional Trial Courtshould not have been accepted by the poll body for being filed four days beyond deadline.

Akbayan also insisted that the penalty of a perpetual ban from public office is automatically imposed upon Marcos when he violated the Tax Code, even if it was not written in the 1997 Court of Appeals decision which made the conviction final.

Akbayan also demanded that decision writer Commissioner Aimee Ferolino inhibit from the en banc's review of their cases. The group also questioned the validity of the resolution dismissing the consolidated cases with only two commissioners writing the decision: Ferolino and Commissioner Marlon Casquejo.

Comelecs Rules of Procedure states that two commissioners are enough for a quorum and to get business done, which includes case decisions.

Si Marcos, Jr., alam niya1982 paulit-ulit ito 1983, 1984, 1985bilang governor, alam niya ang taxes ang siyang nagpapatakbo ng isang gobyerno... Ang ITR, importante para malaman kung magkano talaga yung dapat na taxes na bayaran, said Etta Rosales, Akbayan chairman emeritus and former chairman of the Commission on Human RIghts.

[Translation: Marcos Jr. knows  and it's been repeated from 1982 to 1983, 1984, 1985  as governor, he knows that taxes run the government.The ITR is important so that we know how much are the actual taxes which he must pay],

According to Akbayans plea, the Tax Code explicitly states the ban from public office is an additional accessory penalty that requires no other proof or evidence.

It is imposed on a public officer who is convicted of a crime punishable by the provisions of the Tax Code applicable at that time, the group added.

Akbayan likewise asked Ferolino to inhibit from the en bancs review, which would break the four-member quorum given three vacancies.

The participation of Commissioner Ferolino will further stain the process. It will create and cast more doubt on this process, Akbayan nominee Perci Cendana also told reporters.

In an earlier appeal, the camp of lawyer Theodore Te also asked Second Division members Commissioners Socorro Inting and Rey Bulay to sit out of their appeal of the dismissed petition to cancel Marcos certificate of candidacy.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  The Philippine National Police on Tuesday said an official of Palestinian militant group Hamas has attempted to recruit locals to carry out terror attacks targeting Westerners and Middle Eastern nationals in the country.

The PNP, citing a report made by Intelligence Group Director PBGen Neil Alinsangan, said that a certain Fares Al Shikli was attempting to establish a foothold in the country by pledging financial support to local threat groups and militant extremists with links to international terrorist organizations.

Through coordination and information sharing with PNP's foreign counterparts, Fares Al Shikli was identified as the alleged head of the Foreign Liaison Section of Hamas. He also has an Interpol Red Notice and is charged with an Offense of Terrorism Logistic Support, the PNP added.

The intelligence group said a Filipino  who later became PNP's source  was groomed by Fares Al Shikli since 2016.

According to the intelligence group's report, the source said he made several trips to Malaysia from 2016 to 2018, where he met with Fares Al Shikli "to discuss the possibility of mounting attack against Israeli nationals in the country in exchange for financial assistance by Hamas."

The unnamed source was quoted by the report as saying the Hamas official told him he wanted to recruit Filipinos linked to local terrorist groups who can be "utilized to kill Jews present in the country, conduct rallies at selected embassies and spread a video propaganda in exchange of financial support."

The PNP did not provide details if the supposed Hamas leader was able to recruit and plan an attack, nor updates on Fares Al Shikli's activities after 2018.

Hamas is a designated terrorist group by Israel, United States, European Union, and United Kingdom.

Alinsangan warned terrorist groups that the PNP and Armed Forces of the Philippines are working together to foil any attacks in the country.
(CNN)  The former President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, opted on Tuesday to surrender to US authorities a day after they issued an extradition warrant for him.

Hernandez, who left office last month after eight years as president, posted a voice recording on his Twitter page early on Tuesday morning, confirming his readiness to surrender to authorities.

"I am ready to collaborate and voluntarily arrive with their accompaniment at the moment that the natural judge appointed by the honorable Supreme Court of Justice decides it, Hernandez said. "To be able to face this situation and defend myself."

In his message, Hernandez thanked his supporters and said he had contacted the national police and was waiting to be tried.

The United States has asked Honduran authorities for Hernandez's extradition, according to information from a Honduran government source, obtained exclusively by CNN en Espanol (CNNE) anchor Fernando del Rincon.

The Honduras Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation sent a "formal request for provisional arrest for the purpose of extradition to the United States of Juan Orlando Hernandez," to the country's Supreme Court on Monday, the Honduran government

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Ex-Honduras president agrees to extradition to the US."
(CNN)  President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia was sending some troops back to base after completing drills and that while he is open to further negotiations on the Ukraine crisis, Moscow's security demands were an "unconditional priority."

Russia's claims about troop movements were met with skepticism from Western officials, who said they had seen no evidence that any partial withdrawal had begun.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said he continued to view Western deterrence measures as a "direct and immediate threat to national security."

"The responses we received from the United States and NATO members to security guarantees proposals, in our opinion, do not meet the three basic Russian requirements," Putin said.

"We are ready to continue this joint work further. We are also ready to follow the negotiation track but all issues must be considered as a whole, without being separated from the main Russian proposals, the implementation of which is an unconditional priority for us."

Russia has amassed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine's border in recent weeks, according to US estimates, raising fears from Western and Ukrainian intelligence officials that an invasion could be imminent.

Among the Kremlin's demands are a guarantee that Ukraine will never be permitted to join NATO and that the alliance roll back its expansion in Eastern Europe. The US and its NATO allies have repeatedly said such proposals are non-starters.

Putin also invoked the word "genocide" Tuesday to describe the situation in territories in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatist militants, calling out the West for what he insinuated was a double standard for justifying military intervention. Claims of discrimination against Russian-speaking populations in Ukraine were one of the justifications Russia used when it annexed Crimea in 2014.

Putin's comments came hours after the Russian defense ministry said some troops from its Southern and Western military districts had begun to return to their home stations.

The announcement did not specify where those troops were permanently based, where they had been exercising, or how many of them were withdrawing, and it was viewed with skepticism by officials from Ukraine, the US and NATO, who called on Russia to provide proof it was willing to deescalate the crisis on the border.

"Various statements are constantly being made from the Russian Federation, so we already have a rule: 'Do not hear and then believe. But do see and then believe,'" Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told a news conference in Kyiv. "When we see the withdrawal, then we will believe in de-escalation."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance had not yet seen "any sign of deescalation on the ground," but added that "signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue" were grounds for cautious optimism.

Personnel from Russia's Southern military district began returning to base from Crimea -- the territory annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014 -- following the conclusion of exercises, state news agency RIA-Novosti reported Tuesday, citing Southern military district spokesperson Col. Vadim Astafyev.

"The personnel of the battalion tactical groups made marches to the areas of railway stations, where the loading of military equipment on the echelons is organized. Heavy tracked armored vehicles -- tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery -- are fixed on the platforms of the wagons, Astafyev said.

Earlier Tuesday, Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian defense ministry, announced the troop movements but also added that large-scale drills would continue.

"In the armed forces of the Russian Federation, a complex of large-scale operational training measures by the forces continues, with almost all military districts, fleets and airborne troops taking part in them," he said. "As part of the test of the reaction forces of the Union State, a joint Russian-Belarusian exercise 'Allied Resolve-2022' is being held on the territory of the Republic of Belarus."

Konashenkov also said a series of naval drills -- involving surface ships, submarines and naval aviation -- was underway both in "operationally important areas of the world's oceans" and in the waters adjacent to the territory of Russia. "Exercises are continuing with formations and military units at other training grounds on the territory of the Russian Federation," he added.

'Still time to step back from the brink'

The Kremlin's troop announcement came a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there was still room for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

In a carefully choreographed meeting that was shown on Russian television on Monday, President Vladimir Putin asked Lavrov: is there a "chance to reach an agreement with our partners on key issues that are of concern to us, or is it just an attempt to drag us into an endless negotiation process that has no logical resolution?"

Seated at the opposite end of a very long table, Lavrov responded: "If we are ready to listen to some counter-proposals, it seems to me that our possibilities are far from being exhausted."

NATO's Stoltenberg on Tuesday expressed hope that a war could be avoided, but said the alliance would not compromise on its core principles.

"Everything is now in place for a new attack, but Russia still has time to step back from the brink, stop preparing for war and start working for a peaceful solution," Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels on Tuesday.

The flurry of high-profile diplomacy continued Tuesday with Scholz becoming the latest leader to travel to Moscow for talks.

Scholz, who was meeting Putin for the first time as the German Chancellor, said it was the leaders' "damned duty to prevent a war in Europe."

"For us Germans, but also for all Europeans, it is important that sustainable security cannot be achieved against Russia, but only with Russia," Scholz said.

However, while Scholz was urging de-escalation, he didn't shy away from criticizing Russia, specifically mentioning the jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is currently facing another trial. "As far as Mr. Navalny is concerned, my position is very clear, this is not compatible with the principles of the rule of law."

Meanwhile, US ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said Tuesday the US was "monitoring the situation" after the Kremlin's troop announcement, but added that the US "will have to verify" any claims of a potential move towards deescalation by Russia.

"We have noticed today that Russia is claiming that they are moving towards some sort of de-escalation. We are monitoring the situation," Smith said. "We will have to verify whether or not that is in fact the case.

Speaking during a press briefing in Brussels, the US ambassador further noted that Russia "made a similar claim" regarding a potential de-escalation of tensions in December, but this later proved false.

But while the Kremlin was talking about troops returning home, satellite images released by Maxar Technologies revealed fresh signs of a Russian buildup.

An analysis of the images showed that at least 60 helicopters had landed within the past few days at a previously vacant airbase in Russian-occupied Crimea.

The helicopters are a mixture of transport and attack aircraft. Archival satellite imagery reviewed by CNN indicates the base at Donuzlav Lake on the northwest coast of Crimea has been vacant since at least 2003.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Tuesday that he was not encouraged by the latest intelligence on Russia's buildup around Ukraine and said western leaders were receiving "mixed signals" from Moscow.

"We've got Russian field hospitals being constructed near the border with Ukraine, in Belarus for [what] only can be construed as a preparation for an invasion," Johnson said. "You've got more battalion tactical groups actually being brought closer to the border with Ukraine, according to the intelligence that we're seeing."

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov gave a noncommittal response Tuesday when asked about a move by Russian lawmakers to appeal to President Putin to recognize two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent. Donetsk and Luhank have been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

Asked in a conference call with reporters about the legislative action, Peskov said: "No one remains indifferent to the fate of Donbas. But still, Russia has repeatedly declared that it remains committed to the Minsk package of measures, and that Russia is in favor of the implementation of the entire Minsk plan as soon as possible, in the sequence that exists."

Donbas refers to the territories in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatist militants.

Asked about the issue during the news conference with Scholz, Putin said there were "mass and systematic violations of human rights in Ukraine and outright discrimination of Russian speaking citizens on legislative level."

Putin responded abruptly when Scholz expressed hope for a peaceful resolution in Ukraine, after recalling NATO's military intervention in response to the danger of genocide in the former Yugoslavia. "According to our estimates, what is happening in the Donbas today is genocide," Putin responded.

Putin has spoken repeatedly about what he describes as the violation of the rights of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in Ukraine and elsewhere, and has stated that it is within Russia's rights to intervene militarily to protect them.

It was not the first time he's used the word "genocide" to describe what he calls Russophobia or discrimination against Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine. It's a term -- much like the word "fascist" -- that can be thrown around loosely in Russian political speech and does not necessarily imply direct comparison to internationally defined and recognized cases of genocide.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Putin says some Russian troops are withdrawing after drills, but skepticism in Ukraine and US remains."
(CNN)  US fighter jets and other coalition aircraft escorted three Russian aircraft in eastern Syria on Tuesday when the Russians flew into coalition-restricted airspace, according to two US officials with direct knowledge of the incident.

A Russian cargo aircraft, accompanied by two Tu-22 Backfire bombers flew across Iraq into the so-called Eastern Syria Security Area without giving sufficient advance notification to the US-run coalition that they were moving through the area. When the US warned the Russians it needed more advance notice, the Russians said they were proceeding, the officials said. That led to US F-16s and coalition aircraft flying alongside the Russians briefly until they left the area. The deconfliction process is a normal procedure but generally done with more notice.

The incident comes amid rising tensions with Russia over Ukraine, but for now the US does not think the two matters are related, the sources said.

The Russian aircraft are believed to have landed at Latakia on Syria's Mediterranean coast.

While the incident was not considered threatening, the Russians repeated the action about six hours later when another of their cargo aircraft and a Russian military jet few through the same area. The Russians had not flown bombers through the area since May 2021, one of the officials said.

The security zone, which requires aircraft to notify the US of their movements, spans from Deir ez Zor in the south and east to the Iraqi border. The US maintains about 900 troops in eastern Syria assisting with the fight against ISIS.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "US fighter jets escort Russian aircraft in eastern Syria."
The Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce has shown interest in a number of bills during the current legislative session, ranging in topic from sales tax to education.

On Monday afternoon, Chamber members gathered on Zoom for a status update on several bills of interest to the Columbus area community.

Chamber President Dawson Brunswick kicked off the conversation with a rundown on how the Nebraska legislature is dealing with the state's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

"The state chamber has put together a proposal that would use roughly $400,000 of (the state's ARPA allocation) on workforce -- working with community colleges, working to increase workforce housing," Brunswick said. "We haven't been on record either way with that yet, but I would say we're generally supportive of those areas, as they're key areas the Chamber is always working on with housing and workforce development."

Brunswick indicated that local interests have been focused on promoting an approach to ARPA allocation that would ensure the Columbus Community Hospital's $15 million ARPA funding request for its field house project would receive at least $5 to $6 million.

Brunswick said the Chamber also submitted written testimony opposing LB873, based on a request to do so from Central Community College.

"It would impact (the college's) ability to receive funding through property taxes," Brunswick said. "...With Central Community College's work in workforce and our current workforce needs, we felt this was not a good time to inhibit them and the great work they do."

Discussion then turned to LB984, proposed by District 22 Sen. Mike Moser. The bill would effectively reduce the state's share of sales tax collection, ensuring more money stays with businesses.

"During a breakfast with Sen. Moser he stated this was essentially a way to help retailers pay for the credit card processing fees that they incur to collect sales tax," Brunswick said.

LB876 -- a bill that would introduces changes to the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission -- also got some air time during the Monday afternoon Chamber Zoom call.

Brunswick said the bill would prohibit new race tracks from being built within a certain distance of existing tracks. He said the bill would effectively eliminate a race track proposal near Norfolk.

"It was proposed originally at a 50-mile radius," Brunswick said. "...But there's been discussions going on to make it 75 miles."

Molly Hunter is a reporter for The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at molly.hunter@lee.net.

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed the decree changing the presidential decree #564 dated September 3, 2001 "On the establishment of the presidential scholarship for students of higher educational institutions of the Republic of Azerbaijan".

According to the decree, the decision mentioned below was made to implement the presidential order #2965 dated October 16, 2021 "On additional measures in the field of protecting the social welfare of the population":

- The words "210 (two hundred and ten)" must be replaced by the words "250 (two hundred and fifty)" in part 1 of the presidential decree #564 dated September 3, 2001 "On the establishment of the presidential scholarship for students of higher educational institutions of the Republic of Azerbaijan".

This decree has entered into force since January 1, 2022.
Editor's note: This article previously contained an error, stating that Molly Parsons earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Kansas. The article has been updated to reflect the correct information, which is that Parsons earned her degrees at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The Telegram regrets the error.

Schuyler Preschool Teacher Molly Parsons is excited to contribute to the future of early childhood in her community and across the state.

Parsons is the only person from the Columbus area to have been selected for the first Nebraska Early Childhood Workforce Leadership Cadre. The cadre was formed by the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska. The Buffett Institute focuses on improving early childhood education and development in Nebraska, with the goal of making the state the "best place in the nation to be a baby."

"The Buffett Institute formed the group to put these professionals' perspectives front and center in conversations about the future of Nebraskas early childhood workforce. Over the next three years, cadre members will build their collective capacity as thought leaders and early childhood workforce leaders," a Feb. 4 press release from the Buffett Institute said. "The cadre will nurture and refine members' ideas for elevating Nebraskas early childhood workforce and implement small pilot projects in the communities where they live."

The cadre members will regularly meet online and in person, will receive a $1,000 annual stipend for their participation and will be compensated for other professional learning costs.

"My principal let us know this was something that was happening and he thought it would be a good opportunity," Parsons said.

One of 26 selected for the cadre out of roughly 270 applicants, Parsons said she is excited for the opportunity to bring more attention to the early childhood field.

"Early childhood is such an important part of a child's development," Parsons said. "...People will say, 'You just play all day.' Well, come to my classroom and see -- we do play, but there's so much that we're learning through those interactions and how to regular how you feel."

Parsons said it's also a great chance for people in the early childhood field to network, share experiences and strategies and build their professional toolboxes.

Parsons now lives in David City but she grew up in Schuyler and graduated from Schuyler Community Schools in 2008 before obtaining her bachelor's degree in elementary and early childhood education and her master's degree in early childhood curriculum and instruction at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

"I've always just loved kids. My aunt was a teacher for many years -- she taught second grade -- so that was always kind of inspiring to me," Parsons said.

After student teaching, Parsons said she was pretty sure she wanted to focus on teaching younger kids.

"I student taught in fourth grade and that wasn't my jam, but then I also student taught in preschool and I just loved it," Parsons said. "The kids are so funny, they're so innocent. They love school -- they're not to that point where school is boring."

Molly Hunter is a reporter for The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at molly.hunter@lee.net.

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Women: know your place. It was something of a surprise to everyone that Amy had a breakdown in school and chucked a cup of tea over the bac...
Republican state Rep. Barb Gleim on Monday announced she is seeking re-election to her seat in the 199th Legislative district.

The 199th House seat covers the Carlisle area. Under the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commissions legislative district map, the 199th district will no longer have Silver Spring and Dickinson townships, but it will gain Hopewell and North Newton townships, as well as precincts 3, 4 and 5 from South Middleton Township.

It has been an honor to represent the residents of the 199th District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Gleim said in a news release. I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish in the last three years, but I believe there is much more work that needs to be done, which is why I am running for re-election.

Gleim was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 2018, and in her announcement, she touted her record of opposing Gov. Tom Wolfs efforts and mandates.

Gleim is a small business owner and co-owner and operator of Hayman Farms with her husband, Tracy Gleim.

As a small business owner, I understand the challenges faced by job creators, especially those in Carlisle and the surrounding communities, she said in the news release. We cannot continue to impose mandates, shutdowns and additional burdens on our small businesses.

Gleim is a member of the Economic Growth Caucus, Pro-Life Caucus and the Rare Disease Caucus, and she serves on the Education Committee, Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee, Labor and Industry Committee and Youth Committee. She lives in Middlesex Township with her husband and has three grown children.

Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason

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The large brick home on the property was formerly a toll stop and tavern located on Route 11, a main route for travelers, according to the website.
William Thompson wore many hats, but his most significant role was as the first colonel of the fledgling U.S. Army.

An Irish immigrant with ties to Carlisle, he was a soldier during the French and Indian War, a surveyor of Pennsylvanias western frontier and an early lawmaker from newly created Bedford County.

The brother-in-law of George Ross, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thompson supplied meat to garrisons manning the line of outposts from Carlisle to Pittsburgh. His regular shipments of cattle and hogs helped to establish frontier trade. He invested in the iron industry and became a judge in Westmoreland County.

Within 18 months of him taking the bench in January 1774, fortunes changed for Thompson and the original 13 colonies. A divide with England erupted into violence in Massachusetts prompting the start of the Revolutionary War.

In mid-June 1775, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of ground forces and agreed to raise 10 companies of riflemen to dispatch to Boston. Thompson organized and commanded a battalion from Pennsylvania that provided six of these original units to the Army of the United Colonies, a predecessor to the Continental Army.

On June 25, 1775, Congress issued a commission naming Thompson the first colonel of what would become the U.S. Army. Forces under his command helped in the defense of Boston following the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Later, Thompson led a group of Pennsylvania sharpshooters who drove back the first group of British soldiers landing in New York City. This earned Thompson the rank of brigadier general.

In March 1776, he led 2,000 men during the ill-fated invasion of Canada. Following the Battle of Three Rivers, Thompson surrendered his command on June 9 and the British imprisoned him until Nov. 7, 1780.

At that point, Thompson was exchanged for a German general captured at the Battle of Saratoga. Thompson returned to the Soldiers Retreat, his country estate in North Middleton Township. He died less than a year later on Sept. 3, 1781, at age 45. Thompson was buried in the Old Graveyard between East South Street and Cemetery Avenue in Carlisle.

For years, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians have placed a wreath at Thompsons grave. The organization is based on the principles of friendship, unity and Christian charity. Local members raised the money for a new headstone carved from Irish marble.

Email Joseph Cress at jcress@cumberlink.com.

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A St. Francois County jury awarded $870,000 in damages to a former Farmington Correctional Center guard who sued the state over a sustained volley of sexual harassment by two male coworkers.

The six-figure award is just the latest in a string of payouts in recent years totaling tens of millions of dollars to resolve similar employee lawsuits against the Missouri Department of Corrections and other state agencies.

The jury deliberated for just under three hours before, with an 11-1 vote, awarding Samantha Kelley, 42, of Bonne Terre, $120,000 in compensatory damages. They further deliberated for less than 20 minutes before awarding an additional $750,000 in punitive damages, said Gregory Rich, who represented the state worker

This is an ongoing problem in the department, Rich said. And the Department of Corrections, for whatever reason, insists on taking these cases to trial.

A spokeswoman for the department did not respond to a request for comment.

The 2017 suit alleged that Kelley, at the time 13-year employee at the Farmington prison, was subjected to repeated sexual comments and lewd gestures by two colleagues, including simulated masturbation  some of which were witnessed by the female officers direct supervisor.

The two male officers, one of whom continues to work at the Farmington prison, had received prior complaints against them for inappropriate sexual conduct, Rich said, before supervisors determined that one of the officers instead engaged in flirtatious behavior with female staff members  a conduct policy violation for which he received a written warning, or letter of caution in DOC parlance.

Both were initially named as defendants but later dropped from the suit.

At trial, a previous supervisor in the housing unit where Kelley worked testified that he had heard the two male officers make sexual comments and gestures  including inside the supervisors own office  but never reported it to higher authorities. Rich called that testimony pivotal toward the jurys decision to award punitive damages.

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An Irondale man has been sentenced to federal prison for production of child pornography.

United States District Court Judge Stephen R. Clark sentenced Andrew Hotchkiss, who is a former police officer, to 27.5 years in federal prison to be followed by a lifetime on supervised release for the production of child pornography.

Hotchkiss previously pleaded guilty to the charge in November.

Between the dates of March 1 and May 13, 2019, in St. Francois County, Hotchkiss sexually abused the victim, who was 6 years of age at the time. Hotchkiss used his cellular telephone to video record and produce images of his sexual abuse of the victim.

Hotchkiss distributed the images and videos of his sexual abuse of the minor via the internet to others including a resident of the State of Oregon. On May 13, 2019, law enforcement officers with the Oregon State Police located the above-reference images and videos on a cellular telephone belonging to the Oregon resident who was in police custody after attempting to meet an 11-year-old for sexual contact.

According to an initial probable cause statement, the images contained metadata, which could be used to determine where the photographs were taken using global positioning coordinates. The coordinates revealed that the photos had been taken at a Quiet Lane address north of Bonne Terre.

A deputy in the sheriffs department, who was familiar with Hotchkiss because Hotchkiss had previously been a Leadwood police officer, viewed the photographs of a male and was able to identify the man depicted in the photographs as Hotchkiss.

On May 17, 2019, a warrant was issued for the Quiet Lane residence. Investigators were reportedly able to determine that the 12 separate photographs showing child pornography were taken in a bedroom of the home.

The report states the photographs contained images of Hotchkiss performing sexual acts on a child less than 12 years of age.

It was the Oregon State Police investigation and their recovery of the images and videos produced by Hotchkiss that initiated the investigation that gave rise to the charges against Hotchkiss in this case, the U.S. Attorneys Office stated.

This case was a joint effort between the St. Francois County Prosecuting Attorneys Office, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the St. Francois County Sheriffs Office, and the Oregon State Police.

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As the wave of COVID cases breaks, area hospital officials are loosening restrictions on the number of visitors allowed at patients bedsides.

As of Tuesday morning, the ban on most visitors at the University of Virginia Medical Center will cease, although some restrictions on how many visitors are allowed will be implemented.

The changes come a week after similar restrictions were eased at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, according to the corporations website.

With COVID-19 case counts declining, additional visitation will be permitted at University of Virginia Medical Center inpatient units, emergency department, outpatient clinics and outpatient procedural areas effective Tuesday, said Eric Swensen, UVa Health spokesman in a prepared statement. The changes will also apply to the UVA Transitional Care Hospital.

UVa will now allow one designated adult visitor between 8 a.m.-9 p.m. at its inpatient units and transitional care facility. Overnight stays are not permitted.

The medical centers emergency room and department, outpatient clinics and procedural areas will now allow one designated adult visitor.

All public spaces, including the hospital lobby, cafeteria and waiting areas, remain closed to members of the public.

Other changes include allowing two adult visitors for pediatric patients, 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout an inpatient admission, emergency department visit or an outpatient visit or procedure.

Patients with disabilities may have one adult designated visitor with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout an inpatient admission, emergency department visit, outpatient visit or procedure and patients in labor may have one adult designated visitor at all times while in active labor.

Patients at the end of life may have two adult visitors with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

According to its corporate website, on Feb. 9, Sentara Healthcare, the not-for-profit corporation that owns Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, announced changes to its restrictive visitor polices to allow emergency room patients with special needs, minors and critically ill or injured patients to have one visitor.

Hospital specific policies at Martha Jefferson Hospital allow two visitors per patient in the facility at a time; one visitor for the duration of a stay for patients in the maternity ward; two designated visitors  one at a time  for COVID patients; and no visitors in the cancer center.

Visitation allowances at the areas medical facilities have varied throughout the pandemic, ranging from no visitors except in end-of-life situations and maternity cases in March 2020 when the pandemic first hit Virginia and again last January when a post-holiday surge struck the region.

The restrictions have eased after COVID case surges have fallen off. They are designed to help protect medical staff at the hospital as well as patients and other visitors.

When the pandemic appeared to be retreating in June and July, the hospital allowed two visitors at bedsides, and others could wait in lounges, lobbies and other public spaces.

An August surge created by the delta variant convinced UVa Health officials to limit patients to two designated patients, with only one at a time allowed at their bedside.

Anyone with questions about the UVa policy should call the hospital at (434) 924-0000 or go to online at uvahealth.com/services/covid19-visiting-restrictions.

Information on Sentara Martha Jefferson restrictions and requirements can be found at www.sentara.com.
On the same day the House of Delegates voted to strip local school boards of their authority to require masks, a group of Charlottesville community members urged people to publicly commit to wearing masks indoors and in schools.

The House decision, combined with earlier state Senate approval, sends the bill to Gov. Glenn Younkin. If he signs the bill, which he has supported, it will become law.

While a law allowing parent choice and undermining the mask mandate in Virginias schools comes closer to approval in Richmond, masking for safety will be our choice, organizers said in a news release. We hope that soon, universal masking will not be necessary, but we are willing to wait until it is safe for everyone.

So far, more than 150 people have signed the open letter, which began circulating over the weekend. Signatories include local doctors, parents, teachers, students and other community members.

Irene Mathieu, a pediatrician and parent, said she signed the letter to promote COVID mitigation measures and protect the community. She said the letter was important because people are feeling pandemic fatigue with all the measures that have been in place more or less for the last two years.

The reality is that the pandemic is still with us, she said. Hopefully it seems like were emerging from this Omicron surge, but theres no indication that thats going to be the last surge. Theres no sign that this virus will stop mutating. Wed have no scientific evidence to suggest that this is going to be the end of COVID, or that suddenly it will all become very mild, and no one will have to worry about it.

Even though the surge has slowed down, Mathieu said people are still dying from COVID each day. The United States is currently averaging 2,196 new deaths over a seven-day period, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I think its really important that we, as medical professionals, and also community members, reiterate our commitment to continuing to keep our community safe as long as necessary, she said.

The open letter highlighted the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on communities of color.

Everyone is not at equal risk for the severe effects of Covid-19, the open letter reads. Black and Latinx children make up 65% of the Covid-19 deaths of children and over 60% of those who experienced MIS-C, a severe Covid-19 related inflammatory response.

The letter writers also point out that children younger than 5 years old are not yet eligible for the vaccine and about 48% of those 5 to 11 years old are not fully vaccinated.

Many parents do not have the ability to stay home with ill or exposed children without consequences to their income and livelihood, the letter states. Others live with vulnerable individuals. The science is clear that masks work, especially as part of a layered mitigation strategy. Evidence is also clear that masking does not harm childrens physical health, mental health, or learning. Masks are key to keeping schools open.

Charlottesville City Schools has continued to require masks for students and staff members when indoors. However, the House of Delegates voted Monday along party lines in favor of a senate bill that says parents of any child enrolled in a public school or school-based early childhood program can decide whether their child wears a mask. The parents authority would supersede any School Board policy, according to the legislation.

Youngkin, who has sought to give parents that authority via executive orders, has pledged to attach an emergency clause to the bill, which would make it go into effect immediately. The clause will be subject to a majority vote in the House and Senate.

We look forward to the day when transmission rates have dropped and vaccination rates are high enough that we can safely gather indoors without masks, the open letter concludes. We commit to doing everything we can to ensure that when that day comes, we will see all of us there, and that no more faces will be missing, and that no more families will have lost loved ones to this terrible disease.

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For Hashim Davis, when it comes to injustice, see something, say something is more than a slogan.

Davis, a history teacher at Albemarle High School, makes a point each school year to teach his students about the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews during World War II when about 66% of Europes Jewish population was systematically murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

He hopes learning of the genocide will encourage students to not be silent if they see an injustice occurring.

Because there are choices, Davis said. We know that, based on the history, the numbers of those who spoke up were far smaller than those who didnt, so were urging them to speak up.

On Monday afternoon, students in Davis history classes heard first-hand why thats important. Jack Alder, a Holocaust survivor, zoomed into the class to share his story with Daviss students, including those in the African American studies course.

Students said before the talk that they wanted to hear more about Alders experience and his perspective for a deeper understanding of the Holocaust.

Chloe Carpenter, a senior at Albemarle who is in Davis African American studies class, said she was looking forward to hearing directly from a survivor.

We usually read from textbooks and other excerpts about the Holocaust, she said. But having someone screen to screen sharing their experiences is very, very cool. And I just feel like this is a once in a lifetime experience and Im happy to be in a class where I can share that experience with other people.

She said that she wanted to learn more about the steps Alder took to ensure this horrendous experience doesnt happen again.

Mr. Davis has emphasized this from day one. Black people and Jewish people have many similarities when it comes to genocidal experiences, with slavery for us and the Holocaust for them, Carpenter said. We both had to battle hate groups in order to gain our freedom.

Being able to hear from a survivor reminded Carpenter that the Holocaust happened recently.

People are oblivious to the fact that we still have other Nazis today, she said. Were supposed to learn from our past and from history. Its a continuous cycle. We cannot go through the same thing that we went through many, many years ago.

Alder, a 93-year-old who now lives in Colorado, was about 10 when the Nazis invaded his hometown of Pabianice, Poland. He and his family were first forced into a ghetto. Then they were sent to several concentration camps and his entire family died. Alder was shipped to the United States as a war orphan and eventually settled in Skokie, Illinois.

He documented his experiences a 2012 memoir, Y: A Holocaust Narrative as well as the 2015 documentary Surviving Skokie.

Davis was connected with Alder through his work as an Alfred Lerner fellow. The fellowship, through the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, is designed to help teachers teach the Holocaust to students.

For more than a decade, Davis has placed particular emphasis on the Holocaust in his history classes, which he said is a passion of his. He also has been a teaching fellow with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Survivors are not going to be around much longer, Davis said, adding that he hopes if his students get an opportunity to talk with a survivor in the future, they will take it.

Davis is teaching African-American studies at Albemarle. This is the first time in several years the course has been offered.

He said he wanted Alder to speak to the African Americans studies class because theres an intersection in terms of the experiences that many those who were persecuted as a racial caste in Nazi Germany as related to those who are more persecuted as a racial caste within the United States.

In the African American studies class, Davis said they focus on the idea that policy is not accidental but intentional.

The policies that enable a racial caste to be created are systemically tied in with what was happening in Nazi Germany, he said. In fact, the Nazis looked to Jim Crow South to design a framework to create the Nuremberg race laws. As I shared with my students, they even looked at Jim Crow South and went, you guys are a little too extreme. So the students get that kind of parallel and as we dive in deeper into exploring the Holocaust, theyll see some similarities as well as some differences.

Students in the class said they appreciate the way Davis teaches.

He doesnt shy away from anything, said Caree McDonald, a senior at Albemarle. He doesnt sugarcoat anything. He just gives it to us straight up and comes to us with facts and just says this is how it was and this is what you need to learn to understand whats going on now and how we can drive away from it in the future.

Elizabeth Brubaker, a senior at Albemarle, said she wanted to get Alders thoughts on people who are denying that the Holocaust happened or minimizing how bad it was.

Weve also connected it to the Rwandan genocide, Brubaker said of the class. Its always this pattern of separation, segregation, discrimination, and then termination. It repeats and thats why were studying the Holocaust. It is just a pattern that repeats itself and being able to recognize the signs.

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By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

Baku has pledged to arrest the leader of the self-proclaimed regime in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, Arayik Harutyunyan, soon

The head of the investigation department at the Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General's Office, Nemat Avazov, made the remarks.

Arayik Harutyunyan

Arayik Harutyunyan, the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh" group's leader, will be arrested soon, and an investigation will be launched in Azerbaijan. Harutyunyan is charged with committing four terrorist attacks against civilians in Azerbaijans Ganja city in October 2020, Avazov noted.

The terrorist attacks were committed from Armenias territory. As a result, 26 Azerbaijani civilians were killed and 175 were injured. Harutyunyan claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on his social network account on October 4, he said.

Avazov underlined that criminal cases had been initiated based on various articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code and Harutyunyan had been put on the wanted fugitives list.

The fact that Harutyunyan has not been brought to trial is temporary, he added.

I think that in accordance with the international convention, Harutyunyan will be detained by the investigative team and handed over for launching an investigation in a short period of time, he added.

Sumgayit

In a separate statement, the head of the investigation department noted that work is underway to continue the search for persons accused of rioting in Azerbaijan's Sumgayit city in 1988.

According to the document presented to the General Assembly by Azerbaijan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Yashar Aliyev, the official investigation confirmed that the February 1988 events were planned and carried out by Armenian extremist organizations to undermine Azerbaijan's authority and conceal Armenia's illegal occupation intentions.

"In 1988, Eduard Grigoryan, the organizer of the events in Sumgayit, and others were put on the wanted list. Currently, operational and search measures are being carried out in this case. Work is underway to bring these people to the investigation," Avazov added.

A reminder that in March 2020, the Azerbaijani government submitted a document to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly in connection with the events in Azerbaijans Sumgayit city as of February 1988.

As a result of riots in Sumgayit city, 32 people were killed on the night of February 28, 1988, 26 of them are Armenians, six - Azerbaijanis.

On the night of February 28, 1988, 32 people were killed as a result of riots in Sumgayit, 26 of whom were Armenians and six Azerbaijanis.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva previously described the 1988 killing of 32 people in Sumgayit as a well-planned provocation against Azerbaijan.

As a result of the military aggression by Armenia, 100 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, including 12 children and 27 women. As many as 454 people were injured, including 35 children. Some 181 children lost one parent, five children lost both parents, one family died. In total, 12,292 residential and non-residential buildings and 288 vehicles were damaged.

A criminal case has been initiated into the death of every civilian in Azerbaijan caused by the Armenian terror, and appeals have been sent to international courts and organizations.

A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10, 2020, brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.

The peace agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions and urged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s. Before the signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani army had liberated around 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historic Shusha city.
A former University of Virginia lacrosse player who fatally beat his girlfriend in 2010 has been ordered by a jury to pay $15 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. George Huguely V is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence in the killing of Yeardley Love after being convicted of second-degree murder in 2012. Huguely and Love both played lacrosse at UVA and had an on-again, off-again relationship before Huguely drunkenly killed her. The lawsuit sought $29.5 million in compensatory damages, plus $1 million in punitive damages. The jury ruled that $7.5 million in compensatory damages should be given to both Love's sister and her mother. Punitive damages weren't awarded.
A bill blocking school boards from mandating masks in schools is headed to Gov. Glenn Youngkins desk, a major win for a governor who campaigned on promises to dial back COVID-19 mandates even as the pandemic continues.

Senate Bill 739 cleared the GOP-controlled House along party lines Monday in a 52-48 vote, days after clearing the Democrat-controlled Senate with support from three Democrats.

The bill would ban localities from requiring students to wear masks, and from punishing students whose parents opt to send their child to school without a mask.

The new law could take effect in less than a week. The Youngkin administration said the governor intends to tack an emergency clause onto the bill once it reaches his desk; such a clause would need just a simple majority vote in each chamber to take effect, according to the clerks for the House and the Senate.

The legislation is the latest development in a heated debate nationwide over masking requirements in schools as the COVID pandemic continues  a debate that has split Virginia localities.

While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend masks in schools, some public health experts have thrown into question how effective face coverings are at preventing the spread of COVID in schools. (Studies show medical-grade masks remain effective in large-group settings among the general population.)

Conservatives argue that absent data showing overwhelming benefits in schools, it should be up to parents to decide if their child should wear one, asserting that masking is emotionally taxing on some children. Republicans say their legislation reflects the broader will of the public as the nation enters the third year of the pandemic.

School shutdowns and masking seem prudent responses to an unknown threat. But much has changed since then, said Del. Amanda Batten, R-James City. Most Virginians and Americans, and certainly all of us in this body, have resumed many of our normal activities. Based on our comfort level, we choose whether or not to wear masks.

Yet our children here in Virginia remain masked in schools. Their words are muffled and theyre unable to see the faces of their classmates and their teachers.

Democrats unsuccessfully proposed several amendments to the masking legislation, including one that would nullify the law in the summer of 2023.

On the floor, they argued that the law would prevent localities from adapting their rules to a changing pandemic. The omicron variant, which is responsible for the ongoing surge in cases in the U.S., was unknown just a few months ago.

Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax City, who proposed the amendment in the Senate to ban local mask mandates, said Youngkin could use his emergency powers as necessary if circumstances change.

We should be thinking about, what are we doing to ensure as many kids are in school learning to the best of their ability? said Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico. I would hope we would add some flexibility in here so that if the worst case scenario happens, and I hope it doesnt, we are able to keep kids in school.

Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, said: We are saying that no matter what is happening, we are taking away this local authority. Regardless of how you feel about masks, or how you feel about COVID, or this current political situation, you are permanently putting this into the code that we are taking this authority away from the localities.
Kerrville, TX (78028)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 84F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.
Ben Janes has been appointed as the new Corvallis Fire Department fire chief, according to a news release from city of Corvallis.

City Manager Mark Shepard made the announcement following a three-month transition period during which Janes served as interim fire chief. He was appointed as interim fire chief after former Corvallis Fire Chief Ken McCarthy resigned in October 2021. McCarthy left the department for personal reasons, according to Shepard.

Janes is a 20-year veteran of CFD. He was born and raised in Corvallis and graduated from Linn-Benton Community College and Oregon State University. He started as a volunteer firefighter with Corvallis Fire in 2001 and worked his ways up through the ranks.

Chief Janes brings a wealth of knowledge and a thorough understanding of the Fire Departments operations and strategic vision, Shepard said in the news release. In addition, he is a respected leader who will work hard to develop the next generation of firefighters and professional staff at the Department.

During the last two decades, Janes has served as a fire prevention assistant, firefighter, lieutenant and battalion chief. In 2020, he was named deputy fire chief.

It is both humbling and exciting to be leading the Corvallis Fire Department into the future, Janes said in the news release. CFD continues to be committed to serving the community and carrying out the departments mission of protecting life, property, and the environment of the communities we serve with professionalism, integrity, and compassion.
Election_2020

featured

Republicans vie for Jane Nelson's seat in state Senate District 12 as early voting begins

Two Denton County residents are on the ballot in the Republican primary race to fill Sen. Jane Nelsons seat in state Senate District 12.

Chris Russell, a Carrollton business owner, and Tan Parker, a Flower Mound resident who currently represents District 63 in the Texas House, are vying for the seat. Nelson announced last July that she would retire after 28 years representing the district. She is the highest-ranking Republican in the Senate and has served as its top budget writer for the past four legislative sessions.

Last years redistricting brought changes to District 12, although it will continue to cover southern Denton County. The district now extends south to Carrollton and west to encompass Bridgeport and Decatur, but now excludes most of Corinth, parts of Little Elm and The Colony. The racial makeup of the district will become slightly less diverse, with 69% of voters white, 13% Hispanic and 8% Black, according to The Texas Tribune.

Also in District 12, two Democrats  Francine Ly and Ferdi Mongo  are seeking their partys nomination.

Early voting began Monday, and primary elections are scheduled for March 1. A candidate must earn more than 50% of the votes in their race to earn the nomination. The winners of each primary will appear on the general election ballot Nov. 1.

The Denton Record-Chronicle reviewed public records to build candidate profiles for the two Republicans, including campaign finance reports, voter history and employment history.

Parker had $623,189 in political contributions as of Jan. 31 and had spent $490,190 by that date. Searches for campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission and the Denton County elections website returned no results for Chris Russell.

The candidates took time last week to answer questions ahead of early voting. Here are their responses in alphabetical order, edited for clarity and brevity.

Tan Parker

Tan Parker

Age: 50

Born in: Pittsburgh

City of residence: Flower Mound

Professional experience: Interned for C. Boyden Gray, worked for former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Tex Lazar, worked in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, worked for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and later worked as an executive with Computer Sciences Corp. Was executive vice president of a software company before becoming an entrepreneur and launching Applied Business Services in 2009.

Education: Bachelor of Arts in political philosophy from the University of Dallas in 1993, Master of Science in economics from the London School of Economics in 1994.

Online: tanparker.com and Tan Parker on Facebook

What is the biggest issue your district is facing, and what is your plan to address it?

The biggest issue today is overreach of the federal government and in particular the Biden administration  as well as the horrific policies that are impacting Texas. The increased cost in groceries, gas and fuel and every aspect of our lives is going up because of the reckless spending of this administration. We know best how to govern ourselves in Texas, and we dont need all of the red tape and regulatory strings attached that come from these Biden administration policies across a wide spectrum of issues.

Its not just dealing with mandates with regard to vaccinations, but their policies with regard to the oil and gas sector, with regard to all of the various areas where theyre trying to infringe on the liberties of our citizens in an environment where the federal administration wants to look at every transaction in our checking account above $600. Its pretty clear that the federal government overreach into the lives of Texas citizens as the most important issue along with these horrific policies that are impacting Texas.

One issue that has been on a lot of Texans minds since last winter is the power grid. What do you believe the state Legislatures role is in ensuring stable infrastructure?

There is nothing more important than the protection of human life, keeping the lights on and our power grid strong. This last session of 2021, I carried and passed the Texas Lonestar Infrastructure Protection Act, which was all about making certain we address vulnerabilities critical to infrastructure, including the electric grid and critical water systems.

In 2015, I was trying to get my colleagues more focused on the power grid and introduced legislation that was focused on protecting the grid and studying our vulnerabilities. It did not pass, but in 2017 I filed it again as House Bill 787, which passed unanimously out of the Texas House but did not make it through the rest of the process. Had those passed, I would argue wed be in a much better position to understand those vulnerabilities going into next year. We need to add additional generation capacity with fossil fuel sources and nuclear power to make certain this never happens again. Those are the things we should be focused on to make certain the lights always stay on in Texas.

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated learning gaps among K-12 students and placed greater strain on educators. How do you think the Legislature should support public education as the recovery continues, and what would your role be in that effort?

My children are graduates of our public school system, so Im a strong believer in public education. We added over $11 billion in funding in 2019 by passing the most historic reform bill of many generations. In the last session of 21, we also increased funding for K-12 education to keep up with population growth in the state. We need to look for creative ways to reinforce educational opportunities to improve outcomes.

One of the bills I authored in the House was something called the Texas Reskilling and Upskilling Initiative, and we worked very closely with our community colleges in Texas to identify the jobs that are needed to be able to get people a certificate in six months or less  not four years or more for these folks that have been displaced or need to have their skills augmented when they graduate, given that COVID slowed down the pace of learning. Weve got to work hand in hand in public education, with our community colleges, with vocational training, and obviously with our traditional four-year schools to make certain that all of our students in Texas have the education to be successful in a 21st-century economy.

Tan Parker Campaign Finance Report

Tan Parker Voter History

Chris Russell

Chris Russell

Age: 56

Born in: Dallas

City of residence: Carrollton

Professional experience: Licensed private investigator, security contractor and firewall contractor. Owner of NOVA Internet Services.

Education: Attended Bryan Adams High School in Dallas and took courses at Brookhaven College and Dallas College Richland. Holds Texas peace officer certification.

Online: chrisrussell.org and Chris Russell for Senate on Facebook

What is the biggest issue your district is facing, and what is your plan to address it?

We have a lot of big issues, but I think the root of it is that we have too many long-term politicians in office. A bill on term limits has been presented and almost passed in 2013, and since then it has been killed in committee in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. I think we need more legislators in there that are willing to step up to the plate and get term limits passed for state legislators.

One issue that has been on a lot of Texans minds since last winter is the power grid. What do you believe the state Legislatures role is in ensuring stable infrastructure?

Since Texas has its own independent system, I believe the Legislature is responsible for making sure that the power grid stays up and Texans stay safe. I think the winter storm caught us all by surprise, and in the last session, state legislators did pass some bills to strengthen the grid, or at least harden it against freezes. I think theres still some work to be done in the price gouging, and I dont believe that anything was addressed as far as it relates to cybersecurity and physical security. Just because its not broke doesnt mean that it doesnt need to be looked at ahead of time.

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated learning gaps among K-12 students and placed greater strain on educators. How do you think the Legislature should support public education as the recovery continues, and what would your role be in that effort?

I think that the state Legislature plays a critical role, and so do the various teachers association groups, and I believe that those groups all need to be seriously looked at and that there needs to be a restructuring of the independent school districts. Texas ranks below average with the other states as far as performance of the independent school districts. They ranked last behind home schools, charter schools and private schools, and yet they are the only group that receives a large chunk of money every year through the independent school districts, so theres obviously something broken there.

Teachers arent being paid enough. Teachers need to be funded correctly, and the performance level needs to come up. I believe thats a big issue in Texas is property tax, and ISD is a big part of that.
Indias dream of becoming a semiconductor major saw a big boost with the news that Apple partner and chip manufacturer Foxconn is going to work with steel major company Vedanta in the South Asian country.

Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, has expanded into areas including electric vehicles (EVs) and semiconductors in recent years. Both giants are teaming up to build a manufacturing plant for semiconductors in the country.

In a joint press release, Foxconn said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with oil-to-metals group Vedanta to make semiconductors, calling it "a significant boost to domestic manufacturing of electronics in India."

According to the MoU signed between the two companies, Vedanta will hold the majority of the equity in the joint venture, while Foxconn will be the minority shareholder. Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal will be the Chairman of the joint venture company, Foxconn said in the statement.

Discussions are currently ongoing with a few state governments to finalise the location of the plant.

The collaboration between Vedanta and Foxconn follows the India Governments recent policy announcement for electronics manufacturing and production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for incentivising organisations to contribute towards the development of this sector. This will be the first joint venture in the electronics manufacturing space after the announcement of the policy.

According to sources, Foxconn would invest $118.7 million (roughly INR9 billion) to set up a joint venture company with Vedanta, which would be the majority shareholder of the new venture. Foxconn would hold 40% of the venture's shares, it added.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on certain matters in connection with preventing children's deprivation of parental care and strengthening the protection of their rights.




Hungarys telecommunications regulator the National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) launched a mobile device replacement programme to encourage consumers to trade in 2G and 3G phones for 4G devices, before planned network shutdowns.

The NMHH partnered with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology to set aside HUF5 billion ($15.9m) for the programme, with the target to replace a quarter of a million old devices.

The regulator noted in a statement, 4G devices have become more widespread and with the uptake operators are expected to shut down 3G networks next year (2023), 2G networks will still be available but the regulator expects a future shutdown.

Under the scheme consumers will be able to trade in 3G devices for a 4G or 5G that costs up to HUF120,000 from now until July 17, with trade-ins for 2G phones beginning May 9, both will be subject to availability. Almost 700 retail stores will be accepting trade-ins.

NMHH director-general Peter Vari urged customers to search for shops participating in the government scheme through its website.
MD-GAPS: Connected Communities

Main_Content

Purpose

The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) through the Office of Statewide Broadband (OSB) is administering funding for the Connected Communities Grant Program (MD-GAPS).

The MD-GAPS grant program is designed to assist local jurisdictions, local community based organizations, non-profits, and anchor institutions in creating Gap Networks and Community Networks. These networks are designed to address the affordability challenge many low to moderate income households face in subscribing to the internet. Given their purpose, the grant opportunity will help communities close existing gaps and lay the groundwork for improved broadband access, adoption, and utilization. This NOFA pertains only to the funding allocation for MD-GAPS and provides a preview of the application which will be available online.

A separate NOFA for the Digital Inclusion Grant is available from DHCD at: https://dhcd.maryland.gov/Broadband

Applicant Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply, an applicant must meet one of the following criteria:

be a local government (Counties & Municipalities);

be a foundation, corporation, institution, association, or coalition that is - (i) a not-for-profit IRS approved 501(c) entity and (ii) providing services within the State of Maryland; or

a community based anchor institution; or

other community based organizations; and

must be registered and, if applicable, in good standing with the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation.

Eligible Uses of Funds

The use of these funds are to make available equipment, instrumentation, networking capability, hardware and software, or digital network technology for broadband services to covered populations at low or no cost. This includes but not limited to:

The building and deployment of new gap networks/community networks at the required speed for covered populations.

To upgrade or expand existing gap networks/community networks at the required speed for covered populations.

To operate and maintain new or existing gap networks/community networks at the required speed for covered populations.

Electronics necessary to deliver service to an end user including, but not limited to Optical Line Terminals (OLTs), Optical Network Terminals (ONTs), routers, switches, firewalls, wireless radio equipment, antennas, access points and modems and any necessary equipment shelters.

*Eligible projects must be designed to reliably provide a minimum internet connectivity of 100 Mbps down and 100 Mbps up with exceptions as identified in the application guide.

Covered Populations

This grant program and its funding are purposed for the following covered populations who are most at need:

individuals who live in a household with income less than or equal to 150 percent of federal poverty level;

aging individuals;

individuals with disabilities;

individuals with a language barrier, including individuals who -

are English learners; and



have low levels of literacy;

individuals who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.

Funding Criteria

The Office will facilitate the award of financial assistance for up to 100% for the construction, deployment, expansion or continuation of community based gap networks. The maximum grant request amount is $250,000 and the minimum amount is $25,000.

Only applications that are fully complete at submission will be considered for funding.

MD-GAPS program is a competitive funding opportunity and individual grant amounts may be reduced relative to requests and/or based on the impact of the applicants intended population and ability to deploy funds responsibly and as soon as possible.

Application Process

NOFA release: Friday, February 11, 2022

Application submission to OSB via email opens: Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Application submission closes: Thursday, March 31, 2022

Funding announcements to be made on or before April 15, 2022.

All applications and supporting documents must be submitted via email to: OSB.MD@Maryland.gov.

Application Requirements

In addition to basic organizational information and completion of the application form, the following information and attachments will be required in order for an application to be considered complete.

Project Summary: The project summary should explain how the project will further the OSBs goal of closing the digital divide and ensuring covered populations have access to no-cost or low-cost internet access. The summary will require the following information:

Executive Summary

Statement of Experience

Network Design

Community Profile

Subscriber cost

Potential barriers;

Partners and local engagement;

Intended outcomes and metrics;

Schedule

Funding Scope & Budget



Application Attachments

All of the following attachments will be required in the application submission in order for the application to be considered complete:
The Florida Highway Patrol reports the Feb. 12 discovery along Interstate 10 in Jackson County of an abandoned vehicle, still cranked when it was found, with blood inside and a bullet hole in one of its doors.

FHP has taken the vehicle as evidence and will be working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to search for evidence on or inside the vehicle to unravel what happened.

The white 2007 Nissan Altima was found in an eastbound orientation near the 130 mile marker at Cottondale.

The trooper responding to the scene shortly after 2 a.m. on that date reported having seen blood stains on the seat of the vehicle and a bullet hole in the right front door. The trooper also reported that the left rear door was partially latched. The trooper opened and closed it fully, and saw a glock-style pistol on the right front floor with paper around the grip that appeared to have blood on it, the an agency press release stated.

The agency had been alerted to the presence of a disabled vehicle at that location via the Florida Department of Transportations SunGuide transporation management system, and dispatched personnel.

On being notified that Jackson County had its hands full with a murder investigation at the time the car was discovered, FHP took charge of the scene.
The Baptist College of Florida (BCF) recently highlighted the ongoing successes of 2017 summa cum laude graduate Roselyn Zaiter Hudson with a BCF degree in business leadership, Hudson went on to graduate from the Thomas Goode School of Law at Faulkner University.

During her time at Faulkner, Hudson interned and worked at multiple legal offices including the Alabama Governors Legal Office, Beasley-Allen Law Firm, Houston Country Probate Office, and Faulkner Elder Law Clinic. Hudson passed the Alabama Bar in July 2020 on her first attempt and started to work in the legal field.

Hudson met her husband, BCF honors grad Colt Hudson, while a student at BCF. He serves as the senior pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church in Gadsden, Alabama. After graduating from BCF, he earned his Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is completing his Doctor of Philosophy at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Hudsons welcomed their first child in June of 2021.

The Baptist College of Florida holds a very dear place in my heart and the education that I received contributed greatly in shaping who I am as an attorney, personally and professionally, Ms. Hudson stated.
The Florida Peanut Producers Association will hold its 46th annual membership meeting on Thursday, Feb. 24. Registration is at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the Jackson County Agricultural Complex and Conference Center at 2741 Penn Avenue in Marianna.

If you plan to attend, R.S.V.P. to 850-526-2590.

This years program will include a variety of updates on association activities such as research, promotion and education.

It also may touch on the fact that newly-released data suggests that water efficiency in the industry has improved significantly since the last check of that usage rate. The water footprint of peanuts has been relatively small for decades, according to Association Executive Director Ken Barton, but updated data shows the industry has improved efficiency by nearly a third in using the resource.

Newly released data reports that 3.2 gallons of water is used to produce one ounce of shelled peanuts, Barton said, adding that water usage for major tree nuts has also improved but remains higher than peanuts. Almonds use 28.7 gallons; pistachios use 23.6 gallons; and walnuts use 26.7 gallons of water to grow a one ounce serving.

Barton had more good news for growers: For the second year in a row, he says, peanut consumption rates are breaking records. Based on USDA and U.S. census data, the per capita peanut consumption per year rose to an all-time high of 7.9 pounds in 2021. The previous all-time record of 7.6 pounds was recorded in 2020. The new total suggests an increase of three percent.

The reasons for that increase might lie in these peanut facts:

Recent research from Harvard shows that non-peanut-allergic people who eat peanuts every day decrease their risk of death from all causes by 20 percent, and reduce their risk of death from heart disease by 29.1 percent.

Peanuts and peanut butter can help with weight maintenance because, according to research from Purdue University, peanuts increase the hormone peptide YY, which promotes satiety and the sensation of fullness.

A one-ounce serving of peanuts contains roughly eight grams of cholesterol-free plant protein.

Harvard research suggests that swapping one serving of red meat for an alternative protein like nuts can decrease the risk of stroke by 17 percent.
A measure intended to help resolve a fight over Houston County Health Care Authority appointments was tabled during Mondays county commission meeting.

District 3 Houston County Commissioner Ricky Herring, who wanted the item placed on Mondays agenda, asked for the resolution to be tabled. Herring later said he hopes to make his district appointment at the next commission meeting.

Commissioners were supposed to vote on a request to ask the health care authority to withdraw the three names previously submitted for the District 3 appointment and then resubmit three names to include the name of Steve Hicks, a former Enterprise city clerk who Herring wants to appoint to the authority.

According to Herring, however, there is another effort afoot to resolve the conflict.

We have been in talks, and it looks like we might have something worked out, Herring said. Im just waiting to see if they do their part.

The Houston County Health Care Authority, which oversees Southeast Health, is made up of 13 members who each serve six-year terms. Twelve are appointed by the four district Houston County Commission members. The final member is the president of the hospitals medical staff.

Herring took issue with the process for appointments in October, claiming the process does not allow commissioners to appoint who they really want to appoint.

While Herring wanted to appoint Hicks to the authority, Hicks name was not among the nominees for him to consider. Instead, the authority asked for the incumbent authority board member to be reappointed.

Herring still has not made his appointment.

The authority appointment process includes a nominating committee that is supposed to work with commissioners to develop a list of names to fill vacancies on the board. The health care authority submits three names to the county commission, which is then to vote on an appointment chosen from the three names submitted.

The next regular commission meeting is Feb. 28, and that is when Herring said he hopes be able to vote on his appointment. Herring said he was told the process of withdrawing and resubmitting names may be unnecessary.

Theyre working with me and trying to get things resolved; so, I think we have a resolution in place, Herring said.

In other business, Monday:

- Commissioners approved a resolution expanding the Industrial Development Authority of Houston, Henry and Geneva Counties to now include Dale County.

- The county commission also adopted a resolution opposing Senate Bill 157. Along with establishing tax credits for contributions to logging support organizations and creating a system for grants to be issued by such organizations, the bill exempts logging trucks from the states weight and axle requirements and adds an extra 3,400 pounds allowed per axle. County commissioners said the extra weight will cause even more wear on county roads and bridges and make regulating weight-restricted bridges more challenging.

- At the request of Personnel Director Sheri Garner, the commission recognized county employees Stephanie Chandler and Jason Smoak as part of the countys Spending Efficiency Program. The two employees have saved the county $1.5 million since 2018 by negotiating rates for inmate health care and making sure billing is accurate, for necessary procedures, and actually for county inmates.

- Commissioners agreed to enter into two supplemental construction agreements with the Alabama Department of Transportation for resurfacing Hodgesville Road from Ross Clark Circle to East Saunders Road and resurfacing South County Road 33 from U.S. Highway 84 to Old U.S. Highway 84. Both projects are being done through the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Peggy Ussery is a Dothan Eagle staff writer and can be reached at aussery@dothaneagle.com or 334-712-7963. Support her work and that of other Eagle journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at dothaneagle.com.

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Dothan businessman Jeff Coleman is diving headfirst into a likely contentious campaign to represent Alabamas 2nd Congressional District despite a legal question surrounding his filing date.

Without previous announcement, two TV ads characterizing Coleman as an outsider conservative and trucker aired for the first time Sunday during the Super Bowl.

Washington needs more truckers and less namby-pamby politicians, Coleman said as videos and pictures of President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Barry Moore, his challenger, appeared in the background.

Coleman and Jamie Aiken of Vestavia Hills, who is running in the 6th District, both turned in their fees and paperwork to the Republican Partys headquarters on Thursday, a day before the end of the extended qualifying period set by a federal court last month.

Both acted on the belief that the Feb. 11 deadline was still valid with a preliminary injunction that barred the state from using the new congressional district map approved by the Legislature last year. The judges ruled in favor of Black voters who alleged the map violated the Voting Rights Act.

Attorney General Steve Marshall and Secretary of State John Merrill opposed the ruling and turned to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for an emergency stay to put on hold the order to draw new districts.

On Feb. 7, the Supreme Court granted the stay, meaning that Alabama can proceed with the challenged district map for this years elections.

On Tuesday, one day after the Supreme Court issued the stay, Merrill issued a statement saying that it would be up to the parties to decide whether to recognize the Feb. 11 qualifying deadline.

Alabama Republican Party Chair John Wahl told Al.com on Sunday that he would have no comment on the situation pending legal clarification.

Despite the legal question, a spokesperson with Colemans campaign said it is moving full speed ahead with advertisements and fundraising and sent out a release formally announcing his run on Monday morning.

Two years ago, Coleman lost to Barry Moore of Enterprise in a runoff for the Republican nomination. Moore won the general election and is seeking another term. Moore will be unopposed in the primary if Coleman is excluded.

Coleman is chairman of Coleman World Group, a trucking business that deals primarily with Department of Defense contracts all over the world. Its headquarters are in Midland City.

Not long after his 2020 defeat, Coleman was named chair of the Troy University Foundation Board of Directors.

Sable Riley is a Dothan Eagle staff writer and can be reached at sriley@dothaneagle.com or 334.712.7915. Support her work and that of other Eagle journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at dothaneagle.com .
By Trend

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, the sovereign wealth fund of the Russian Federation), AstraZeneca, and R-Pharm announce interim results of Phase II clinical trials on the security assessment of the combined use of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the first component of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine (Sputnik Light, recombinant human adenovirus 26 serotype), Trend reports citing the RDIF.

In the course of studies involving 100 volunteers in Russia and 100 volunteers in Azerbaijan, the combination of drugs demonstrated optimal safety, which correlates with the results of previous clinical studies on the safety of AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, and Sputnik Light vaccines.

"Monitoring of volunteers was conducted for 57 days after the first vaccination and showed high safety rates for the combined use of drugs. During the follow-up, no serious adverse events related to vaccination were identified," the RDIF stated.
As an Alabama poultry farmer, I closely follow the developments in our industry and I took notice last year when Wayne Farms, a company I partner with, and Sanderson Farms, announced plans to combine. Ive heard some criticisms of the deal coming from places like Washington D.C. or New York City, criticizing our industry and arguing the deal shouldnt be allowed because it would be bad for growers.

This type of criticism hits home, because I know from firsthand experience that raising chickens is one of the most rewarding forms of agriculture in our nation, and I take immense pride in what I do. The deal is being reviewed by regulators, and will be given a fair look, but to me it is important to share why I think it is good for farmers and for our community at large.

I chose to become a chicken farmer as a second career after retiring from service in the U.S. Army. Over the years, I have seen how the partnership model between poultry processors and farmers serves as an engine of development in Alabama.

This model is all about sharing risks and investing in the future. Here is how it works.

Like everything else, chicken is more expensive today in stores than it was a year ago, but most of the time it is fairly cheap (which is why it is so popular). On any given day, swings in the cost of feed inputs for livestock, things like soybeans and corn, could financially challenge a farmer. Changes in the end prices of chicken could too. As a chicken farmer, I dont worry about that. Processors take these market risks for me  providing the feed and a baseline price for chicken  letting me focus on raising the flocks in the best way possible.

This model is an engine of innovation and investment at the local level. In my case, I get bonuses and financial support for house environmental upgrades like improved lighting, temperature monitoring and air quality technologies that make my birds more comfortable. As a poultry farmer, I also have access to low or no-interest loans, and cash payment incentives for investments in new technology or for building new houses on my farm.

Can you think of another industry that supports farmers like this, and helps them share in the cost of improving their business? I cant. These are the types of investments that will help sustain family farms for the next generation.

The way I see it, if my partner Wayne Farms combines with Sanderson, creating a more competitive player in the industry, I can grow with it, and our community can too. If this deal can continue to create opportunities like the ones Ive had, to bring innovation, investment, and economic development to our region  all while making sure Americans continue to have tasty chicken on their tables  then that is a net positive for all of us.

Gary Anderson, a retired US Army helicopter pilot, is a poultry farmer in Brundidge.
Workers prepare bananas for exports at a factory of Hoang Anh Gia Lai in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai. Photo by VnExpress/Thi Ha

Vietnams macadamia and banana exports rose by 100 percent and 50 percent last year despite the impacts of Covid-19 on agriculture and logistics.

Overall fruit and nut exports were up 7.9 percent at $2.36 billion, according to Vietnam Customs.

Fruits that saw double-digit growth included banana, mango, jackfruit, durian, and passion fruit.

The pandemic did not have an impact on agriculture exports since consumers in the U.S., the E.U. and South Korea are becoming fond of Vietnamese fruits, the Vietnam Vegetable Association (Vinafruit) said in a note.

Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of agriculture firm Hoang Anh Gia Lai, said demand for bananas is rising every year in China, South Korea and Japan, but the volume of Vietnamese bananas that meet export standards is low.

The area under bananas is small and farmers are unfamiliar with export quality requirements, he added.

Agriculture scientist Vo Tong Xuan said to increase exports the government needs to zone areas for certain fruits to ensure quality.
American experts are recommending that countries in the Lower Mekong reach an agreement to pay China for water releases during times of crisis.

"Countries in the lower basin Mekong River could make financial contributions to create a fund that offsets financial loss to China and ask Beijing to release water," Alan Basist, Mekong Dam Monitor Co-Lead, said in at a virtual event titled "Where's the Water: Mekong Dry Season 2022" hosted by the Stimson Center Tuesday.

"This kind of arrangement has been done in different parts of the world successfully," Basist said, citing three examples: the U.S.'s agreement with Mexico to release water to maintain the integrity of flow and quality of water in Mexico; agreements on water sharing around the Limpopo in South Africa; and water treaty agreements between India and Pakistan.

He explained that downstream countries could use an insurance representative to assess the economic cost that China has when it releases water from dams.

"Payment is in line with impacts that would happen, so China basically gets compensated for the lack of hydroelectric production while countries downstream get the benefit of maintaining the integrity of flow. So it's a benefit to all parties," he told VnExpress International.

"Before an insurance policy can be reached there has to be a treaty... Let's take time to develop but there is potential for cooperation. The insurance program would be the further expansion of the treaty agreement, to guarantee critical flow during times of drought."

Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia Program Director and Mekong Dam Monitor Co-Lead, Stimson Center, said he had discussed with Basist the "compensation" issue, given the fact that half of the Mekong water storage is in China and the easiest solution for obtaining downstream relief is cooperation with China.

The Mekong has suffered three years of extremely low flow and drought during the wet season. When wet season flow is low, the Mekong's fisheries and agricultural productivity suffers the most. Low flow and drought are mostly caused by a lack of rainfall but upstream dams also contribute to wet season droughts by storing significant amounts of water, Eyler said after the conference.

"During times of crisis and drought in the wet season, a mechanism should be put in place to have dams release some or all of their storage in order to restore the river's natural flow."

Data show that during times of low wet season flow, upstream releases could increase flow to Cambodia by 10 percent and this would provide relief to fishers and farmers in Cambodia and Vietnam, he said.

A drought hit rice field in Ben Tre Province, Vietnam's Mekong Delta, March 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa

Sudden shocks

Eyler noted that Jinghong, China's closest dam to downstream countries, recently released and restricted water suddenly in areas along the Thailand and Laos borders. It caused not just a gradual rise of the river, but "sudden shocks" to the river level.

In 2021, there were 22 times when upstream dams in China administered such sudden shocks, increasing river water levels by more than 50 centimeters, or decreased the level by as much.

One of the major concerns, Eyler said, was the adverse ecological impacts that this would have, including existential threats to critically endangered species. The destruction has already been seen in the form of bird nests alongside the river destroyed, giant fish flushed out and trees dying in large numbers.

Comparing data between 2018 and 2020, Eyler said China's dams operated the same way regardless of the conditions downstream, taking a larger amount of water out of the river.

"This is very concerning."

He said China has completed 129 dams on the river, 11 of them the largest mainstream dams. Most of the Mekong water, as much as 56 percent, is held in China.

Cooperation is key

Nguyen Huu Thien, an independent consultant based in Can Tho, a city in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, said climate change has complicated the Mekong system, but hydropower dams will make it even more so. In the context of climate change, countries will see more extreme events like El Nino and La Nina where rainfall is low and then hydropower dams do not have sufficient water to run their turbines.

Basist stressed that countries along the Mekong River not only sees lower water flow because of dams but also a huge impact from the lack of rainfall and snowmelt that would occur during the wet season. Climate change has shown significant negative impacts over the last several years. In addition, land use is another factor affecting water flow.

Therefore, he said, related countries are dependent upon cooperating with each other to solve relevant problems. They need to start looking at it as an integrated system, not just who can hold water back for purposes that benefit their own country. Countries need to promote communication and understanding to figure out how to effectively work together and maintain the integrity of the river.

Cooperation is the key for such management, he added.
Travelers wait at the check-in counters ahead of their flights at the Boryspil airport some 30 kilometers outside Kyiv on February 13, 2022. Photo by AFP/Sergei Supinsky

The Vietnam Embassy in Ukraine has been functioning as normal and there's no need to evacuate or repatriate its citizens yet, says the Vietnamese ambassador.

Tensions in Ukraine have been alleviated by diplomatic efforts that have helped reduce the risk of armed conflict, Ambassador Nguyen Hong Thach told VnExpress.

He mentioned Monday's message from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which highlighted that the country was facing a complex information war.

"We are being intimidated by the great war and the date of the military invasion is being set again. This is not the first time," said the president. "The war against us is being systematically waged on all fronts [...] On the information one, they seek to spread panic among citizens and investors through the media."

This message, said ambassador Thanh, "shows that Ukraine leaders do not look at the military conflict as their biggest threat for now."

With such an assessment, the Vietnamese Embassy in Ukraine has continued to function as normal, he said. The embassy is running an exhibition displaying paintings on Vietnam drawn by Ukraine artists from Feb. 10 to 27.

"Without confidence in the assessment of the situation and the possibility of peace, we would not have been able to hold such an event," he said.

The embassy has still prepared for different scenarios to evacuate Vietnamese citizens out of conflict zones should war break out; or repatriate them when otherwise needed. However, the scenario of a sudden increase in the demand for repatriation among Vietnamese people in Ukraine is very unlikely, he said.

"The situation in Ukraine is entering a new phase, diplomats have met and held discussions to find solutions."

"We can clearly see compromises taking shape and the risk of war becoming less and less," he said.

Thach said "tension has eased significantly" compared to two weeks ago, when Western countries over the weekend had withdrawn their diplomats or advised their citizens to leave Ukraine.

Some troops in Russia's military districts adjacent to Ukraine have returned to their bases after completing drills on Tuesday, Russia's defense ministry said.

Although Moscow has denied ever planning to attack Ukraine, it has demanded legally binding guarantees from the U.S. and NATO that Kyiv will not be allowed to join the military bloc. Washington and Brussels have so far refused to make such pledges, Reuters reported.

Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders, prompting fears of an invasion, especially as Moscow's Feb. 10-20 joint drills with Belarus mean that Ukraine is almost encircled by the Russian military.

Russian markets, under pressure due to fears of fresh Western sanctions in the event of a war, gained 1.5 percent shortly after the defense ministry announcement, the Reuters report said.
A group of foreign tourists drink beer on Bui Vien pedestrian street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Several ministries have voiced support for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's proposal to fully reopen international tourism and lift all travel restrictions from March 15.

The defense, public security, tourism, health, foreign affairs and transport ministries agreed at a government meeting Tuesday that as Vietnam fully reopens its air, land and sea borders from March 15, all travel restrictions imposed since the pandemic broke out in Vietnam in 2020 would be removed.

Foreign tourists arriving in Vietnam do not need book tour packages with designated travel agencies as per the ongoing vaccine passport trial program launched in November last year.

All tourists aged from 12 and above are required to furnish a certificate stating they have been fully vaccinated or recovered from Covid and show a negative rapid antigen test result obtained within 24 hours at their accommodation facilities after arrival.

Ministries also proposed the government resumes the unilateral visa exemption policy for 13 countries and bilateral for 88 countries and territories as prior to the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, Vietnam unilaterally exempted visa for 13 countries Russia, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Belarus for a maxium of 15 days.

International visitors arriving in the country by air would self isolate in their hotel or accommodation facility for one day until they furnish a negative Covid test result and would continue monitoring their health for 14 days as per health ministry protocol.

Those showing Covid symptoms would have to undergo rapid Covid testing when they land at the airport.

International visitors to Vietnam need to have medical insurance cover for Covid treatment.

The government started allowing foreign tourists under a vaccine passport program last November. So far, nearly 9,000 foreign arrivals have been welcomed under the program with several pre-set conditions and constraints, half of them Vietnamese overseas coming to see their relatives.

Under the program, Khanh Hoa, Kien Giang, Quang Nam, Quang Ninh, and Binh Dinh provinces, along with Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang City are the only localities foreign tourists can visit.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is seeking opinions from relevant agencies on a draft proposal to fully reopen inbound and outbound tourism from March 15 with eased restrictions.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has several times directed a full reopening of the borders to foreign tourists no later than the end of April and ideally at the end of March.

The ministry is collecting feedback from relevant ministries to complete its draft proposal before submitting it to the government.

Under the proposal, as it fully reopens its air, land and sea borders, Vietnam would only require foreign tourists to furnish a certificate that they have been fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid.

Instead of having to submit a negative PCR test result done 72 hours before departure, tourists will be allowed to show a negative rapid antigen test result done in 24 hours at their accommodation facilities after arrival.

They also only need to furnish medical or travel insurance including coverage for Covid-19 treatment worth at least $20,000, instead of $50,000 as previously required.

Fully vaccinated tourists can book three-day tour packages with designated travel agencies, while unvaccinated tourists have to book a seven-day tour package at the minimum. They can freely move around after that.

Vietnam is set to remove restrictions on international flights starting February 15, allowing frequency to return to pre-pandemic levels.

The government started allowing foreign tourists under a vaccine passport program last November. So far, nearly 9,000 foreign arrivals have been welcomed under the program with several pre-set conditions and constraints, half of them Vietnamese overseas coming to see their relatives.

Under the program, Khanh Hoa, Kien Giang, Quang Nam, Quang Ninh, and Binh Dinh provinces, along with Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang City are the only localities foreign tourists can visit.
In preparation for fully reopening inbound and outbound tourism by late March, Vietnam's aviation industry officially resumed regular flights to all markets from Tuesday without restrictions on frequency.

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) started ending restrictions on the frequency of international flights to and from all markets, marking the first time after more than two years Vietnam has fully restarted international flights.

However, CAAV said the resumption of regular flights still needs the approval of markets that had direct flights to Vietnam before the pandemic since each country has different pandemic prevention requirements.

After receiving a response from these markets, Vietnamese aviation officials will grant flight permits for domestic and foreign airlines to bring passengers in and out of Vietnam based on airline demand.

On Jan. 1, the government allowed the resumption of regular commercial flights to and from Bangkok, Beijing or Guangzhou, Phnom Penh, San Francisco, Singapore, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, and Vientiane.

So far, only China has not yet agreed to resume flights to Vietnam as the country of more than 1.4 billion people pursues its zero-Covid policy.

Late last month, Vietnamese airlines began resuming flights to Australia and Europe, bringing dozens of thousands of overseas Vietnamese home during Lunar New Year, or Tet.

Following the removal of restrictions on international flights, Vietnamese carriers have begun announcing plans to resume its international network.

A Bamboo Airways spokesperson said the carrier has operated flights from Hanoi to Narita, Taipei and Incheon and plans to resume flights to Thailand and Singapore next month.

It also mulls reopening more flights to Laos and Cambodia during the peak travel summer season.

Bamboo Airways has started selling tickets for flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Australia, Germany and the U.K.

Vietnam Airlines has restored regular flights to 15 countries and territories with the frequency of one to two weekly flights to Europe and four-five flights a week to Asian destinations.

It also plans to resume flights to Malaysia next month.

Budget airline Vietjet Air began flying to Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan from Jan. 1 with one weekly flight on each of these routes and plans to increase the frequency to four-five flights a week.

Vietjet Air is also working with relevant agencies to prepare for the resumption of flights to India and Russia.

Under current entry regulations, fully vaccinated people and those who have recovered from Covid-19 arriving in Vietnam only need to self-isolate for three days.

Everyone, except children below two, must have tested negative for the novel coronavirus using the PCR method within 72 hours before departure.

According to CAAV, foreign passengers could produce Covid vaccine passports or other documents that prove they have been fully vaccinated.

Vietnam closed its borders and grounded international flights in March 2020, allowing in only citizens, foreign experts, investors, and highly-skilled workers entering on special flights.
The Department of State announced action to impose visa restrictions on multiple Belarusian nationals for their involvement in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activity. The United States condemns all such activity, including the attempt to forcibly repatriate Belarusian Olympian Krystsina Tsimanouskaya during the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games last year.

The United States applauds the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundations efforts to support and protect the human rights of athletes amid the Aleksandr Lukashenka regimes violent crackdown and ongoing repression of Belarusians inside and outside the country. We stand in solidarity with Ms. Tsimanouskaya and all others who have experienced the regimes attempts to silence criticism, declared Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

This action falls under the Khashoggi Ban, a global visa restriction policy pursuant to Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. These visa restrictions are part of a comprehensive effort to prevent and respond to acts of extraterritorial repression by any government targeting journalists, activists, and dissidents. It brings together diplomatic, law enforcement, and intelligence tools in an effort to deter repressive governments and to protect targeted individuals and groups, including within the United States.

The United States reaffirms its support for the people of Belarus and once again calls on the Lukashenka regime to end its crackdown on members of civil society, independent media, the political opposition, athletes, students, legal professionals, and other Belarusians. Further, the regime must immediately release all political prisoners, engage in a facilitated, genuine dialogue with the democratic opposition and civil society, respect human rights, and stop its retaliation against governments and groups that assist them, as well as its exploitation of vulnerable migrants. And finally, the Lukashenka regime must hold free and fair elections under international observation.

We will continue working with the international community, said Secretary Blinken, to hold accountable those responsible for repression and human rights violations and abuses in Belarus.
This much is certain: Americas political parties are in transition. What is uncertain is what they are evolving into, and whether the changes now underway are provisional or permanent.

Here is an oversimplification: The Republicans are becoming a Donald Trump party, and the Democrats are becoming a Bernie Sanders party. There are plenty of reasons to dispute that, and I might agree with most if not all of them. But it is a generalization, and it surely is what each of the parties says about the other party.

At the same time, there are curious subterranean streams in each party. A rump of the Republican Party remains skeptical if not contemptuous of Trump. The former president calls them RINOs, an acronym for Republicans in Name Only, which is not quite (or even remotely) accurate, because they represent what the party was only a few years ago.

There remains a rump of the Democratic Party that is skeptical of the leftward lurch of the most prominent members of the party, especially Sen. Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Democratic leaders treat those skeptics as recalcitrants, but they are making a serious error by believing that that group consists only of the senators from Arizona and West Virginia.

The movement toward the extremes is an aberration in American politics that doesnt even have an antecedent in the runup to the Civil War, a reference that today is thrown around the American commentariat with promiscuous abandonment. In that long-ago, fraught era, the Republicans treated the gathering crisis as one of the endurance of the Union rather than what it was: a cultural conflict over the endurance of slavery. The Democrats treated it as a matter best attended to with the doctrine of its leading figure, Stephen A. Douglas, though his popular sovereignty in the end produced only chaos and bloodshed.

Where the current dysfunction and dystopia go is beyond the ken of any analyst, though Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginian who has caused so much agita among his fellow Democrats, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who has caused so much aggravation in Trumps camp, did an interesting thing the other day. They said they would endorse each other.

Lets lay that out for what it is: an unusual but perhaps revealing development. A Democratic senator endorsed his Republican colleague, and a Republican senator said she would back a Democrat. This does not happen every day, though Manchin did endorse Sen. Susan Collins of Maine  the Republican lawmaker whom Democrats nationwide rallied, unsuccessfully, to defeat  in her 2020 reelection battle.

Party regulars hate this sort of thing, and in a way congressional tradition militates against it (though according to a new book by Irwin Gellman, John F. Kennedy once quietly gave Richard Nixon a $1,000 contribution for his 1950 Senate race). American parties have few elements of discipline, but one of them is to stick with their elected incumbents. The Senate itself has even fewer elements of discipline, but one of them is that members do not get involved in colleagues races. That is why Senate Majority Leader Bill Frists 2004 campaign visit to South Dakota to defeat his majority-leader predecessor, Democrat Tom Daschle, created an uproar.

But here we have one dynasty aiding another. Manchins father and grandfather were both mayor of his hometown of Farmington, West Virginia, and his uncle was a member of the states House of Delegates and its secretary of state. Murkowskis father was a senator, governor and state economic-development commissioner. Disrupters  thats what Trump is, and what Democratic progressives seek to be  have no taste for dynasties, though the progeny of Trump may test that.

This mutual cross-endorsement  a double toe loop of politics  is a political oddity. But mainstream politicians have had a grudging openness to embracing their rivals as a way of healing the political body politic.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, hoped to lure Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona onto his ticket. McCain, the GOP nominee four years later, gave serious thought to inviting Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrats 2000 vice-presidential nominee, to take the same role on the Republican ticket; he had earlier endorsed Lieberman for the Democratic nomination in 2008, which might have made him his general-election opponent. Biden said in his 2020 presidential campaign that he was open to considering a Republican running mate.

None of that happened. The American political scene might be different if it did.

Now Biden is president during a period of unusual uncertainty and peril, democracy itself in the balance  a notion shared by both Republicans and Democrats, though for vastly different reasons and with vastly different views of how to address the crisis. Biden said last month that Kamala Harris would be his running mate again should he seek a second term. Yet there are some voices who believe that he, or another Democratic nominee if the president doesnt run for reelection, should consider a Republican running mate, someone along the lines of Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who was the GOP presidential nominee in 2012. (The notion raised a chorus of dissent among Democrats, including the argument that one precedent, Abraham Lincolns selection of the Democrat Andrew Johnson in 1864, was a disaster.)

Nor is the United States likely to reach for the 1931 British example, when, amid the Great Depression, political leaders assembled what was known as the National Government, drawing together Conservatives, some Liberals and a handful of Labour members. Its advantage:

It provided political stability at a time of great social and economic instability and kept political extremism at bay. Its disadvantage: It opened wounds that festered for years  and in the end failed because it was too orthodox in economic matters, it didnt address social collapse in the shipbuilding, coal and steel sectors of industrial Britain, and it was all but blind to the Nazi threat in Europe.

Loads of Republicans and Democrats at the extremes would feel they were filtered out for a centrist coalition in that eventuality. But small gestures of inter-party outreach might be refreshing. What Democrat isnt quietly rooting for Murkowski? What Republican isnt covertly rooting for Manchin?

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By Trend

Medicines imported from Turkey will appear in Georgias pharmacies within few weeks, the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili said at the government meeting, Trend reports via the press service of Georgian Government Administration.

Georgian Government has already signed a relevant decree related to the country's initiative, allowing Turkey to significantly expand its presence on the country's pharmaceutical market.

Pharmaceutical importing companies already actively work to import high-quality, cheap medicines from Turkey to Georgia, the PM said.

According the PM, the electronic prescription system will be introduced in the country from March 2022, which will allow the regulatory authority to obtain accurate information about which medicine was prescribed and by whom. Regulation of this system will give Georgias citizens the opportunity to choose and respond to unfair marketing facts that significantly increase expenses.

Garibashvili also noted that the time for obtaining a license to import medicines has been reduced from 45 to 7 days.

Georgian government intends to allow as much importers, so the competition on the market appears, which, in turn, should have a positive impact on prices regulation, Garibashvili said.
Join us at 1 p.m. Feb. 17 for the third of four planned town halls to meet the final candidates being considered as the next dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. This event is open only to UMB faculty, staff, and students.

Who: Phyllis A. Dennery, MD

Sylvia Kay Hassenfeld Professor of Pediatrics

Chair, Department of Pediatrics

Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry

Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Pediatrician-in-Chief

Medical Director

Department of Pediatrics

Hasbro Childrens Hospital

Date: Feb. 17, 2022

Time: 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Location: MSTF Leadership Hall

Dr. Dennery is a physician-scientist who is the Sylvia Kay Hassenfeld Professor of Pediatrics and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, and professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She also serves as the pediatrician-in-chief and medical director in the Department of Pediatrics at Hasbro Childrens Hospital in Rhode Island.

Previously, Dr. Dennery served as director of neonatology research and associate division chief at Stanford University and as division chief in neonatology at the University of Pennsylvania and Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Dennerys laboratory research is focused on understanding mechanisms of neonatal lung injury and repair.

Dr. Dennery is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Association of American Physicians, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the American Clinical and Climatologic Association. She has served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretarys Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. In 2013, she was name Mentor of the Year by the Eastern Society for Pediatric Research.

She earned her bachelors degree from McGill University and her medical degree from Howard University. She completed her pediatrics residency at Childrens Hospital National Medical Center and her postdoctoral fellowship in neonatology at Case Western Reserve University.
On Tuesday Russias defence ministry announced that it intends to withdraw some of its troops from the Ukrainian border, which has been seen as an effort to de-escalate the tension in the region.

Defence spokesperson Igor Konashenkov reiterated the claim that military personnel in the area were simply there for military exercises, but said that it planned to remove some troops from practically all military districts, fleets, and the airborne forces.

However there will remain a considerable Russian military presence in the area and White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan has warned that any day now, Russia could take military action against Ukraine.

In recent weeks reports of Russian military activity near Ukraine had heightened as President Vladimir Putin assembled a 100,000-strong force along the border. If Russia were to invade Ukraine, what would be the consequences for the United States?

Biden confirms that US will not become involved in fighting

Earlier this month the US deployed 3,000 additional troops in Eastern Europe, stationed in NATO allies Poland, Germany and Romania. However in announcing the move, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said: "These forces are not going to fight in Ukraine."

Ukraine is not a member of NATO and the US has no desire to become embroiled in a military conflict with Russia. President Biden has opted to send additional troops to the surrounding region but there appears no chance of American troops facing Russian forces in Ukraine.

Economic sanctions could be on the way for Russia

While the US is extremely reluctant to become involved any fighting, the White House has reiterated that any Russian incursion into Ukraine will be met with the harshest possible economic sanctions. Biden said recently that Russia will face swift and severe costs if it goes ahead with an invasion, but what could that entail?

Western nations could act together to remove Russia from the SWIFT financial system, the global mechanism which allows money to move from bank to bank between different countries. This would make it much more difficult for Russians to send money overseas or to receive money.

Another potential sanction would be to restrict Russias access to US dollars. The US currency is the global reserve and is frequently used in international transactions, relied upon by everyone from individuals to nation states.

Economic sanctions could also make it more difficult for Russia to procure technologies, either by imposing hefty levies or by outlawing their sale to Russia entirely. Some things could be sourced from Russias allies but the move could undoubtedly cause major disruption to all facets of the Russian economy, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

Potential blowback for Biden

President Bidens first few months in office were broadly successful as he achieved some early legislative wins but that positivity was swiftly checked by his first major foreign policy issue; the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The speed at which the US lost control, happening even before all American forces had left the country, was an embarrassment for Biden and allowed his detractors to paint him as 'weak' on a global stage. That will be a major consideration for the President as he looks to deal with Russian advances, painfully aware of his slumping approval ratings with the mid-terms on the horizon.

In an interview with Fox News on Saturday former President Trump suggested that the botched withdraw from Afghanistan may have prompted Putin to advance on Ukraine, saying: "When they watched all of that I think they got emboldened.

If Biden is unable to comprehensively pacify the situation in Eastern Europe he and his party will likely suffer at the polls later this year.
On Tuesday Russia announced that it will remove some of its troops from the border with Ukraine, claiming that combat training exercises, including drills, have been conducted as planned.

This should help to ease tensions in the region but it is not yet clear how much of the 100,000-strong force gathered at the Ukrainian border will be withdrawn. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dymytro Kuleba remained sceptical about the extent of the retreat but was thankful that "we have managed together with our partners to deter Russia from any further escalation".

However the threat of invasion undoubtedly remains and there is concern about what effect an extended period of uncertainty could have on financial markets, particularly at a time when the global economy is recovering from covid-19.

Stock hit hard in recent days after White House statement

On Sunday President Joe Bidens national security advisor Jake Sullivan warned that a Russian invasion into Ukraine could come any day now, heightening fears of military action in Eastern Europe. A number of nations have advised citizens to leave Ukraine immediately and the US embassy in Kyiv has been closed.

This resulted in a considerable drop in the pan-European Stoxx 600 index on Monday morning, with Germanys DAX also falling 3.4% across the day.

In response to these falls, Goldman Sachs chief global equity strategist Peter Oppenheimer compared the trends to those observed in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014: If we look at some of the recent episodes  if we look at the annexation of Crimea, for example  we think it pushed the risk premium up by about 20 basis points, which had roughly a 5% impact on the equity market, and this would probably be bigger.

Russia is a powerful nation with vast natural resources and the US, along with its allies, has threatened President Putin with stringent economic sanctions if it launches an offensive in Ukraine. Placing a strangle-hold on Russian economic activity could have serious consequences for global markets.

Oil prices rise as conflict continues

Russia has enormous natural reserves of crude oil and the threat of disruption to the global supply has seen oil prices soar in recent days. Current prices for crude are approaching $100 per barrel, their highest in seven years, and could potentially go higher.

The price of Russian oil has major repercussions for energy prices in the West and there is concern that a prolonged stand-off could exacerbate the price increases that have already hit consumers.

In a report published on Monday Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst with AvaTrade, wrote: "The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is likely to push crude oil prices above $100 a barrel sooner than earlier projected."

He continued: "The potential jump in oil prices depends on what sort of sanctions the United States of America and its allies are likely to impose on Russia if it actually invades its neighbor."

More so than with other markets, the price of vital finite resources such as crude oil can be greatly impacted by geo-political pressures. The demand for oil will remain high because there is a real-world need for the product, meaning that there is little to stop a prolonged price rise if a solution cannot be found on the Ukrainian border.

Fiona Cincotta, senior financial markets analyst at City Index, made clear: "Given that Russia is a major oil and grain supplier and is a key producer of palladium, used in catalytic converters, fears of price rises are very real.
The Russian mainland and mainland Alaska are separated by span of water measuring about 55 miles. However, there is one spot out in the middle of that stretch of water where in the winter you can walk across the border separating Russia and the US.

When the US purchased Alaska from Tsarist Russia, the two nations drew a line between two small islands in the Bering Sea to designate the boundary. The distance between Big Diomede, which is on the Russian side and Little Diomede on the US side, is roughly 2.4 miles. The border also serves as the International Date Line.

Two islands, two nations: the Diomede Islands become US-Russian border

The Danish navigator Vitus Jonassen Bering is credited with being the first European visitor to the islands in 1728. His expedition discovered the islands on 16 August which is St Diomedes Day in the Russian Orthodox Church thus the islands names. However, in Russian they are called the Gvozdeva Islands after Mikhail Gvozdev who determined longitude and latitude for the two islands four years later.

The US acquired Little Diomede, also known as Krusenstern Island, as part of the Alaska Purchase in 1867 from Tsarist Russia. Seeing that its possessions along the Pacific coast of North America would be difficult to defend and in financial straits after the Crimean War, Russia offered to sell Alaska to the US.

Although it received wide approval at the time, skeptics of the deal called it Sewards Folly. The Secretary of State at that time William Seward negotiated with the Russian minister in the US Edouard de Stoeckl to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million, around $137 million in today's money. Vindication of the purchase came in 1896 when a major gold deposit was discovered in the Yukon sparking the Klondike Gold Rush.

The Ice Curtain

Big Diomede and Little Diomede were sparsely populated until the Cold War. Up to 1948, families lived on both islands and could visit each other freely, crossing the roughly two and a half miles of water by boat and when the span freezes over in winter by foot. That year the Soviet military set up a base on Big Diomede, also known as Ratmanov Island, and the islanders were forcibly resettled on the Siberian mainland.

In 1988, the official spokesman for Mikhail Gorbachev referred to the boundary between Alaska and Russia as the Ice Curtain in a spin on the political and ideological barrier in Europe termed the "Iron Curtain" that separated the Soviet Union and the countries in its sphere of influence from the West during the Cold War.

Islanders had hoped to be able to reunite with their cousins on the other side of the border when the Cold War ended. However, tensions have risen between the US and Russia over Ukraine since the Russian invasion of the Crimean Peninsula and subsequent annexation. Which was followed by a second invasion in the east of Ukraine and continued military support for separatists in the region.

The prospect of a thawing of the Ice Curtain looks to be even more distant now with tension ratcheting up even more, with warnings that Russia could once again invade Ukraine any day now.
A scence in a Japanese film (Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn)

The event is being held by the Japan Foundation Center to introduce a taste of the Japanese film industry as well as the country's history, culture and lifestyle to Vietnamese audiences.

Highlighted films include The Floating Castle, Under The Open Sky, Time of Eve, The Movie, Bread of Happiness, Ozland and Rashomon.

The historical film The Floating Castle, produced in 2012, features directors Shinji Higuchi and Isshin Inudo.

It tells the stories of Japanese soldiers and people in the Japanese Civil War from 1868 to 1869.

The film highlights Japanese history and culture through the two forces of the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate and warriors seeking to return political power to the Imperial Court.

Director Miwa Nishikawas Under the Open Sky, produced in 2021, is a drama featuring the life of a member of the Yakuza, a Mafia-like criminal organisation in Japan, who decides to leave his group for a new life./.
At the event, Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien said that Vietnam highly values position, role and active participation of Singapore in promoting the bilateral relations, especially within the ASEAN framework, thereby raising intra-bloc solidarity and enhancing the role and position of the bloc in the region and the world.



Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien (R) presents a souvenir to Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam (Photo: www.qdnd.vn)



He voiced a hope that Singapore will uphold its role and bolster the implementation of the targets of the ASEAN Community together with Vietnam and other ASEAN nations.



The official thanked the Singaporean government for providing Vietnam with COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Facility and hoped for continued support in the coming time.



The Vietnamese Government and the National Defence Ministry always treasure the countries strategic partnership, viewing it as a foundation to beef up the bilateral defence cooperation for practical results, he remarked.



He said he hopes that the Singaporean ambassador will continue to pay attention to and promote the implementation of cooperation fields that the sides agreed upon at the recent 12th Vietnam-Singapore defence policy dialogue, contributing to strengthening the bilateral strategic cooperation in the future.



For his part, Ratnam underlined that the Singapore-Vietnam relations have thrived in the past nearly five decades on the foundation of mutual respect and trust, especially after the countries lifted the bilateral ties to a strategic partnership in 2013.



Defence is among the most important fields of cooperation of the bilateral relations, he affirmed.



The diplomat pledged to spare no efforts in enhancing the bilateral relations across all spheres, including national defence./.
Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Quang Minh and Charge d'Affaires of the DPRK Embassy discuss the relationship between the two countries. (Photo: baoquocte.vn)

During the visit, Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Quang Minh said that 2022 marks the 72nd anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and DPRK, the 65th year since President Ho Chi Minhs visit to the DPRK, the 20th year since the talks between President Tran Duc Luong and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of DPRK Kim Jong Il, and 15 years since talks between Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and Party General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

The Deputy Minister emphasized that the traditional and friendly relationship between the two countries is a valuable asset built and nurtured by President Ho Chi Minh and President Kim Nhat Thanh.

Through the development stages of each country's history, that relationship has been preserved, promoted and strengthened by the people of the two countries.

Charge d'affaires of the DPRK Embassy Ri Ho Jun said that the friendship between the two countries has been maintained and developed in the common struggle for the socialist cause over the past 70 years, and expressed his belief that the traditional friendly cooperation between the two countries and the two Parties will continue to develop further./.
He made the statement during his reception for Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam.

At the reception (Photo: PANO)

During the reception, Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien stressed that Vietnam highly appreciates Singapore's position, role and active participation in promoting multilateral cooperation, especially within the ASEAN framework, contributing to strengthening intra-regional solidarity, enhancing the role of ASEAN in the region and in the international arena; expressing his hope that Singapore will continue promoting its role, and together with Vietnam and other ASEAN countries promote the implementation of the goals of the ASEAN Community.

He thanked the Singapore Government for supporting COVID-19 vaccine for Vietnam through the COVAX Facility and looked forward to continuing to receive the support of the Singapore Government for Vietnam through this mechanism.

He also assessed that the defence relationship between Vietnam and Singapore over the past time has continued to be promoted, achieving many positive results, especially in the fields of exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level; training cooperation; effective dialogue mechanisms, and exchange of young officers.

Expressing his hope that the Singaporean Ambassador will promote the cooperation contents that the two sides agreed on at the 12th Vietnam  Singapore defence policy dialogue, he said that the agreed contents contribute to reinforcing bilateral defence cooperation, and promoting the Vietnam  Singapore strategic partnership in the upcoming time.

For his part, Ambassador Jaya Ratnam emphasized that Singapore-Vietnam relations have developed strongly over the past 50 years on the basis of mutual respect and trust, especially since the two countries upgraded to a partnership strategy in 2013. He assessed that defence relations are one of the important cooperation areas of Singapore-Vietnam relations.

He affirmed that in his working position, he will make efforts to promote relations between the two countries in various fields, including the field of defence./.
Speaking at an annual meeting of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, known as C-34, held on February 14, Tra said Vietnam pays great attention to the participation in peacekeeping missions, especially ensuring the safety and security of peacekeepers as well as securing resources and enhancing the role of regional organisations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and that by women.



Vietnamese officers of Level-2 Field Hospital No 1 join United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. (Photo: VNA)



The diplomat also said the country is one of the four training centres for peacekeepers in Southeast Asia and stands ready to enhance collaboration in this field.



At the meeting, attended by President of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions of the Department for Peace Operations Alexandre Zouev, and representatives of nearly 60 countries, participants discussed the safety and security of peacekeepers, the promotion of the participation of women in peace processes, and securing finance for peacekeeping operations.



They also highlighted the role of the committee in this activity, with some suggesting that the application of technology should be enhanced in peacekeeping operations, and so should cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations in resolving the root causes of the conflicts.



The two aforesaid officials said the C-34 will push up the realisation of Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) Plus plan in 2021-2023 on seven priority areas.



C-34 is a specialised committee of the UN General Assembly, which holds meetings in February and March every year to consult and compile reports on issues related to peacekeeping and then submit them to the UN General Assembly./.
Vietnam fully deserves the title of "new Asian tiger". (Photo: VNA)

According to expert Alexandr Rogozhin of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the above forecast is not overly optimistic. "Vietnam fully deserves the title of "new Asian tiger". Vietnam is showing amazing social and economic results. In the difficult situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dealt a heavy blow to the global economy, Vietnam has achieved excellent results.

With resolute efforts in implementing vaccine diplomacy, Vietnam has a high COVID-19 vaccine coverage rate, thereby creating conditions for the economy to quickly recover," Rogozhin said. This expert emphasized that the dynamic and stable development of Vietnam's economy is thanks to the effective policies of Vietnam's leaders.

Political stability; and a skilled, young and inexpensive labor force have become important factors in attracting a large number of foreign enterprises to Vietnam, according to the Russian expert./.
By Trend

Georgias petroleum and petroleum oils imports from Turkmenistan in 2021 amounted to $191.8 million, which is an increase of 186.2 percent, compared to $67 million over 2020, Trend reports via the National Statistics Office (Geostat).

The volume of the imported petroleum and petroleum oils also increased by 103.1 percent  from 149,711 tons to 304,193 tons.

Turkmenistans exports of petroleum and petroleum oils to Georgia in December 2021 alone increased by 153.9 percent, compared to the same month of 2020 ($6.3 million), and totaled $16 million.

However, the same figure decreased by 29.8 percent, compared to $22.8 million worth of petroleum and petroleum oils exports to Georgia in November 2021.

Thus, Turkmenistan became the main exporter of petroleum and petroleum oils to Georgia over 2021, followed by Russia ($134.6 million) and Romania ($133.7 million).

Meanwhile, Georgias total imports of petroleum and petroleum oils in 2021 amounted to $822.5 million  an increase of 64.9 percent, compared to $498.6 million in 2020.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 14, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

In a press encounter, Guterres said he was deeply worried about the current tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict.

"The price in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate. We simply cannot accept even the possibility of such a disastrous confrontation," he said.

"There is no alternative to diplomacy. All issues, including the most intractable, can and must be addressed and resolved through diplomatic frameworks. It is my firm belief that this principle will prevail," said Guterres.

Earlier on Monday, the secretary-general held a virtual meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He also spoke separately with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Guterres said he will remain fully engaged in the hours and days to come.

He said, as secretary-general, it is his duty to appeal for the full respect of the UN Charter, a fundamental pillar of international law.

He quoted part of Article 2 of the UN Charter: "All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."

The time is now to defuse tensions and de-escalate actions on the ground. There is no place for incendiary rhetoric. Public statements should aim to reduce tensions, not inflame them, he said.

Guterres welcomed the recent flurry of diplomatic contacts and engagements, including between heads of state, but said more needs to be done.

"I have made my good offices available and we will leave no stone unturned in the search for a peaceful solution. Abandoning diplomacy for confrontation is not a step over a line, it is a dive over a cliff," he said. "In short, my appeal is this: do not fail the cause of peace."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 14, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 14, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for diplomacy to defuse the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. (Xinhua/Xie E)

Editor: GSY
The European Parliament endorsed a vote on the issue of providing macro-financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 1.2 billion under the accelerated procedure.

The result of the vote was announced on Tuesday at the beginning of a meeting.

Macro-financial assistance to Ukraine has been approved, the parliament announced. However, the number of votes was not named.

The actual voting took place on Monday.

The decision itself is expected to be voted on Wednesday.

In case of a positive vote, further macro-financial assistance must be approved by the EU Council with subsequent publication in the Official Journal.

As previously reported, on February 1, the European Commission decided on a new package of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 1.2 billion. The first tranche in the amount of EUR 600 million is unconditional and will be provided immediately after the entry into force of the agreements. The provision of the second tranche in the same amount will be subject to the progress demonstrated by Ukraine in the implementation of short-term measures agreed by the parties to implement structural reforms.

On February 11, this decision was approved by the EU Council at the ambassadorial level.
Studies of the bottom structure carried out by special vessels of the State Hydrographic Service of Ukraine have confirmed the safety of navigation in a sea corridor between the western border of the region of illegal exercises of the Russian Federation and the Dniester Shoal, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reports on its Facebook page on Tuesday.

At the same time, it is clarified that 450 km were explored by linear survey of the bottom structure in the area of the Dniester Shoal, the depth was confirmed at the level of 15-22.5 m.

"Thanks to joint efforts and quick response, we prevented the blocking of the Black Sea ports of Ukraine. The corridor identified in the course of the study guarantees ships safe passage through the Gulf of Odesa. Over the past day, we have recorded uninterrupted traffic of merchant ships. Most of the ships followed the recommendations and used the sea corridor bypassing the zone of illegal military exercises of the Russian Federation," Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

Recent information on the results of hydrographic work of the State Hydrographic Service has already been announced in the coastal warnings of Ukraine and will be published in the Notices to Mariners, the ministry said.

In addition, it is noted that in order to help captains more reliably plot the route of the vessel, taking into account draft and maneuvering characteristics, a large inset on navigation charts with detailed information on the state of the depths in the sea corridor will be made in the near future. The coordinates of virtual aids to navigation equipment have also been determined to clearly define the boundaries of the sea corridor.

The State Hydrographic Service, in order to fulfill the instructions of the Ministry of Infrastructure, carried out unscheduled survey work in the area of the Dniester Shoal to search for the safe passage of ships in connection with the blocking of the recommended sea routes to the commercial ports of the Gulf of Odesa by the Russian Federation.
The process of unbundling the assets of PJSC Ukrnafta between NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and minority shareholders has been put on hold for now, although it was planned to be completed at the end of 2021, businessman Ihor Kolomoisky has said.

"Yes, on a pause Naftogaz faced the problem of public opinion, government, the like, they need to get permission for some significant transactions, and so on," he said in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda.

According to the businessman, Naftogaz was the initiator of the unbundling process, and he supported it.

"Since life together does not work out, it is necessary to separate intelligently and culturally," he said.

Earlier, at the end of November, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the unbundling of Ukrnafta did not take place, since the state did not yet have the necessary funds to buy the assets.

As reported, in November-December 2021, due to the lack of a quorum, two meetings were not held at which it was planned to consider the issue of unbundling Ukrnafta's assets between NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and minority shareholders  Ihor Kolomoisky and his partners. Another meeting of shareholders with a similar agenda is scheduled for February 17, 2022.

Ukrnafta is the largest oil company in the country. NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy owns 50% plus 1 share in Ukrnafta, a group of companies associated with the former shareholders of PrivatBank  about 42% of shares.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the temporary relocating of the U.S. embassy from Kyiv to Lviv, the Department of State has said.

"We are in the process of temporarily relocating our Embassy operations in Ukraine from our Embassy in Kyiv to Lviv due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup Russian forces," the Department of State said in a press service, citing Blinken.

It is reported that the embassy will remain engaged with the Ukrainian government and will coordinate diplomatic engagement in Ukraine, as well as continue intensive diplomatic efforts to deescalate the crisis.

The Department of State also said these prudent precautions in no way undermine its support for Ukraine, stressing that the United States' "commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering."

In addition, the United States continues its efforts to reach a diplomatic solution and remains engaged with the Russian government.

It also notes that "the path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage in good faith."

Blinken also urged any remaining U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave the country immediately for their safety. "U.S. citizens seeking emergency assistance in Ukraine should complete this online form, and the State Department will follow-up, as appropriate," the U.S. Secretary of State said.
Canada has made a decision to supply Kyiv with $6.1 million worth of lethal weapons and provide $500 million in financial assistance, taking into account the aggravation of the situation around Ukraine, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said.

"In light of the seriousness of the situation, and following conversations with our Ukrainian partners, I have approved the provision of $7.8 million [Canadian, $6.1 million] worth of lethal equipment and ammunition," the prime minister told reporters at a press conference.

Trudeau said it is "important for Canadians and the world to know that Canada will continue supporting Ukraine and its independence, integrity, sovereignty, including its right to defend itself."
The Indian embassy in Kyiv continues to function as usual, but calls on Indian citizens in Ukraine to consider temporarily leaving the country.

"In view of the uncertainties of the current situation in Ukraine, Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, may consider leaving temporarily. Indian nationals are also advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine," the embassy said in a statement published on its website.

The embassy also asked Indian citizens to inform it of the status of their presence in Ukraine to enable the embassy to reach them where required.

"The embassy continues to function normally to provide all services to Indian nationals in Ukraine," it said.
Canada will provide Ukraine with an additional loan of almost CAD 500 million ($393 million) to support economic resilience, in addition to the CAD 120 million ($94.4 million) loan announced in January, according to a statement on the website of the Canadian government.

"Ukraine is on the front lines in the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. The stakes in this conflict are stark and directly relevant to the Canadian national interest. Canada stands united with our G7 and NATO allies in our resolve to protect the economic and democratic stability of Ukraine. And Canada is prepared to respond swiftly to any further Russian military aggression and threatening of Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity by imposing forceful economic and financial sanctions," the government press service said, citing Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland.

Canada will continue to support the stability of the Ukrainian economy, while remaining committed to de-escalation, the Canadian government said.

Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced the supply of lethal weapons to Kyiv worth CAD 7.8 million, or $6.1 million.
The State Duma adopted a resolution on Tuesday to ensure the immediate submission of a call for the recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (the DPR and the LPR) to the Russian president.

The resolution passed by a rating vote.

A document authored by United Russia deputies Viktor Vodolatsky and Artyom Turov, which envisaged consultations with the Foreign Ministry before directing the call to the president, was discussed alongside a draft from the Communist Party's faction, which said that the call for recognizing the DPR and the LPR should be instantly sent to the Russian president.

The draft from the Communist Party gained 351 votes, while the parliamentary majority's initiative gained 310.
OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid sent a letter to the participating countries of the organization, in which she drew attention to the growing tension on the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid used the early conflict prevention toolkit. This is only the third time in history that this OSCE toolkit has been used in practice. The previous two dealt with the events in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area in 2012, as well as the illegal detention of Ukrainian sailors by Russia in 2018," Kuleba said at an online briefing on Tuesday.

According to the minister, this means that the OSCE Secretary General has addressed a special letter to all heads of delegations of the participating states, which draws the attention of the OSCE Permanent Council to the growing tension and the risk of an escalation of the situation.

"This is a step to diplomatically prevent further escalation. This is an initiative of the Secretary General, for which we are grateful to her. Helga Schmid pointed out cases of application of section 3 of the Vienna Document as a result of these developments. Without mentioning the countries for which this mechanism is activated, she called for an immediate, as well as the full and effective use of the confidence-building and security-building mechanism to de-escalate the situation, as well as to refrain from actions that could worsen the situation," Kuleba said.
By Trend

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed his support for President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to hold snap presidential elections, while holding phone talk, Trend reports citing the press service of Kazakh president.

The heads of state discussed prospects for further strengthening of mutual relations, including the implementation of the agreements following Kazakh leader's state visit to the Turkmen Ashgabat in October 2021.

Tokayev expressed sincere respect for Turkmenistan's President and spoke in favor of Berdimuhamedov's decision to hold early presidential elections. According to President Tokayev, the extensive political and life experience of the Turkmen leader will undoubtedly promote the prosperity of the state.
Official recognition of 'L/DPR' to constitute additional territorial claims on Ukraine from Russia  Maasikas

If Russia officially recognizes the so-called "L/DPR, " the Russian side will have additional territorial claims on Ukraine, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas has said.

"If formalized, would contribute additional territorial claims on Ukraine," Maasikas said on Twitter on Tuesday.

As reported, the Russian State Duma at a meeting on February 15 adopted a resolution on the immediate sending to the Russian president of the Duma's appeal on the need to recognize the so-called "LPR" and "DPR."
The Russian State Duma's call to Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" is an "escalatory action" that will complicate the situation in Europe, Advisor to the Ukrainian President's Office head Mykhailo Podoliak said.

"Definitely, Russia's withdrawal from the Minsk agreements and any political and legal steps in the interests of the occupation structures should receive an immediate assessment and reaction from the democratic community. The disrespect for the German side as a participant in the Normandy format, shown by the Russian State Duma, is also indicative. This decision was voted when Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz was in Moscow. One can only regret that Moscow took this escalatory action, which only complicates the situation in Europe," he told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

In his opinion, "even the very raising of the question in Russia about the recognition of the occupation structures in ORDLO is a step towards the destruction of the Minsk documents."

"If Russia has decided de jure and de facto to withdraw from the Minsk agreements, then this only finally proves that it is the Russian side that is responsible for the lack of significant progress in the negotiation process to end the war in Donbas," he said.
Three former presidents of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko, are calling on the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum to prove that the document "was not a mere fraud."

This is stated in the appeal of the three presidents of Ukraine to the signatories of the Memorandum on Security Assurances due to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (the Budapest Memorandum), which was at the disposal of Interfax-Ukraine.

"Almost three decades ago, an event took place, the echo of which is shaking the world now. Five nuclear states pledged to Ukraine to respect its independence and territorial integrity. The provision of security assurance (namely, these words were in the title of the Budapest Memorandum, which was signed by the superpowers) became a condition Ukraine's voluntary renunciation of its nuclear missile potential. However, it was the third largest in the world, surpassing the potentials of France, Great Britain and China. Now Ukraine can remember the solemn promises of the Big Four (we were grateful that China joined the memorandum) only as derision.

The presidents said that back in 2014 Russia destroyed the territorial integrity of Ukraine by occupying Crimea and part of Donbas, while today the threat of further military invasion is directed at Ukraine from three sides.

"We are faced with the prospect of an economic blockade, namely energy blockade from the north, sea blockade from the south. Meanwhile, the inadmissibility of economic pressure on Ukraine was also recorded as one of the clauses of the Budapest Memorandum. What do we hear in response to such actions from the parties to the agreement, in whose defense and on whose determination should we count? Only calls for their citizens and diplomats to flee dangerous Ukraine as soon as possible," the former president said in the statement.

The presidents also said Ukraine only hears "severe warnings" to the aggressor, and that it will pay a "cost" but it will not include Nord Stream 2 and SWIFT.

"When the powerful nations entered into an agreement with Ukraine in 1994, they actually said: we do not want you to become equal with us. We want to maintain our monopoly. But we offer you our genuine support in exchange for genuine protection. Here is our word to you, the word of honor of the strong. We then believed, although in the same 1994 one of the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum sadly warned in a private conversation: you are being deceived. Today is the decisive moment when it can be proved that the Budapest Memorandum was not a simple deception. That a strong man can be honest and courageous... So prove your true strength," the presidents said in the document.

In their appeal, they also called for taking those steps that can stop the aggressor, and "not to reinforce his faith in impunity."

"If we lose today, there will be no more Budapest memorandums. Looking at our experience, not a single country that can obtain nuclear weapons will, under any circumstances, give it up. Therefore, not only the fate of Ukraine and your world authority are at stake now. At stake is the future of the security of the whole world. You should understand this. And have the strength to be responsible," the former presidents of Ukraine said.
Russia's recognition of the self-proclaimed Donbas republics would signify its intentional withdrawal from the Minsk Agreements and would deal a strong blow to the political and diplomatic settlement process, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko said.

"As the Russian State Duma has adopted a resolution, urging the Russian president to recognize the so-called 'LPR' and 'DPR,' we reaffirm the unwavering stance of Ukraine: the recognition of the 'LPR' and the 'DPR' by Russia would signify its intentional withdrawal from the Minsk Agreements," Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

A step of the kind would deal a strong blow to the political and diplomatic settlement of the armed conflict in Donbas, he said.

"The recognition of the 'LPR' and the 'DPR' would have no legal consequences whatsoever... But the Russian president's support for the State Duma resolution would have much broader consequences harmful for the world order and the global security architecture," Nikolenko said.

Russia has two options, "either to take the path of de-escalation and diplomatic dialogue or brace for a joint resolute response from the international community," he said.

"We are urging Moscow to take a constructive stance to make progress within the existing negotiating formats. Or else Russia will bear full responsibility for ruining the Minsk Agreements and the process of a peaceful settlement of the armed conflict," Nikolenko said.
NATO not to reconsider decision of Bucharest summit on prospect of Ukraine's membership in organization  Stoltenberg

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says that the Alliance's decision regarding the prospect of Ukraine's membership remains in force, despite the threat of a possible Russian attack on Ukraine.

He said in Brussels on Tuesday, answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine about the possibility of the Alliance to reconsider this decision that the Bucharest decision remains in force, and NATO is confident that all states have the right to choose their own path, and the doors of NATO remain open.

Stoltenberg stated that the expansion of NATO was a great success, as it is about the expansion of democracy and freedom, peace and stability throughout Europe for decades.

The Secretary General of the Alliance assured that this decision remains in force.
Russia, in case of recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR/LPR), will violate international law and complicate the settlement within the framework of the Minsk agreements, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday during a press conference in Brussels.

If this happens, he said, it will be another gross violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine as there is no doubt that Donetsk and Luhansk are part of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, therefore, such recognition would be a violation of international law.

And not only that, he said, saying that this is also a violation of the Minsk agreements.

According to him, Russia's recognition of the "DPR/LPR" complicate the search for solutions within the framework of the Minsk agreements.
Websites of Ministry of Defense, Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as PrivatBank, Oschadbank subject to DDOS attack  Information Security Center

The websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine were subject to a DDOS attack on Tuesday evening, in addition to them, the state-owned PrivatBank and Oschadbank were also attacked, the press service of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security has reported.

"Over the past few hours, PrivatBank has been under a massive DDOS attack. Privat24 users report problems with payments and with the operation of the application. Some users cannot log into Privat24 at all, others do not display their balance and recent transactions. Oschadbank also experiences failures, Internet banking does not work. The websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also attacked," the center said in a message posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

"It is possible that the aggressor resorted to the tactics of petty dirty tricks, because its aggressive plans do not work."

A DDoS attack is a targeted traffic flow to a particular online resource aiming to disable it.
If President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signs a decree on official recognition of the so-called "LPR" and "DPR", the world community will have every reason to impose the toughest sanctions against Russia, deputy head of the Batkivschyna faction Serhiy Sobolev said.

"The position of the Batkivschyna faction is unchanged: what the State Duma allowed itself today, and we understand that this is actually Putin, namely, to try to play with the key principle that kept that shaky balance both in Europe and in the world, that is, the non-recognition of the so-called 'LPR' and 'DPR', is violated, which means several important points. First and foremost: if Putin signs the corresponding decree, this will mean the withdrawal of the Russian Federation from any even hints of the so-called 'Minsk agreements'. I think that after that, both the European and the world community have all the absolute trump cards in their hands to impose the toughest sanctions against the Russian Federation," he said in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday.

Secondly, according to Sobolev, the very fact of the State Duma voting on the recognition of the so-called "LPR" and "DPR", especially in the original edition of the Communist Party, confirms that "Putin himself remains the same old communist, who did not understand anything, how much the world changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, and this should also be a good sign for other countries with whom they deal."

In addition, the deputy head of the Batkivschyna faction recalled that today the German chancellor is visiting Moscow, who "most supported the so-called political agreements, and not the security package, which should be a priority."

"It seems to me that this is such an open wiping of the feet... In conditions when the German Chancellor is speaking, and the State Duma is challenging the whole world and Germany against this background, it seems to me that it was hard to imagine a bigger slap in the face. And therefore, the reaction of official Germany is very important now, and not only the Chancellor, but all the key parties in the German parliament, except for the pro-Russian one," he said.

Sobolev is also convinced that the military tension that Putin provokes is an attempt to provoke an inadequate reaction from Ukraine, which will give rise to further resort to direct military action on the part of the Russian Federation.

"The Ukrainian parliament has already adopted its statement on the State Duma's vote. Now we are waiting for the president's statement, in which there should be clear positions, but it is important in no case to be provoked even to the smallest actions that will be interpreted by the Russian side as an attempt take away these territories in a military way. I think Putin also counted on this, and perhaps this was also the key thing that he wanted to use to justify aggression," Sobolev said.

As reported, on February 15, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution on the immediate sending to the President of the Russian Federation of the Duma's appeal on the need to recognize the so-called "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR)".
The Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Donbas will discuss draft legislation regarding a special status for the region, a constitutional reform in Ukraine, and the Steinmeier formula, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

"It is so important that everyone make their contribution. One is to submit legislation necessary for discussing how to resolve the three big problems I have mentioned, relating to the special status, the elections, the Steinmeier formula, and of course constitutional issues. All this will be presented in the trilateral format, between Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE, and discussed with other parties involved. That's what we agreed," Scholz told a press conference after talks with the president of Russia in Moscow on Tuesday.

Everyone should support and not delay this process, he said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, on the eve of the visit to Moscow of Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy Luigi Di Maio, expects the Italian side to inform the leadership of the Russian Federation of the inadmissibility of further aggression against Ukraine

"After Kyiv, Luigi will visit Moscow, so we exchanged assessments of the security situation, coordinated our positions We hope that the level of bilateral relations that exists between Italy and Russia will allow the Italian side to convincingly convey to the Russian leadership the inadmissibility of further armed aggression against Ukraine," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said at a joint briefing with Di Maio in Kyiv following talks between the foreign ministers on Tuesday.

According to him, Italy is ready to help Ukraine with practical steps in deterring the Russian Federation, including by maintaining the package of sanctions developed in the EU.

Kuleba also said that Di Maio supports the idea that the Russian Federation does not have the right to vote on Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic prospects. "It was important for me to hear today that Luigi also understands that the Russian aggravation around Ukraine is not only a problem of Ukraine - it is a problem of Euro-Atlantic and global security. We also agreed that no one except Ukraine and NATO members has the right to vote in the discussion on Ukraine's membership in the Alliance," he said.

The heads of the foreign ministries also discussed the development of bilateral relations and economic cooperation between Ukraine and Italy, Kuleba said.
By Trend

At the initiative of the Kyrgyz side, Kyrgyz Ambassador to the United States Bakyt Amanbaev met with representatives of U.S. businesses with more than 20 major companies to build an open dialogue and deepen trade and economic cooperation, Trend reports with reference to Kabar.

The press service of the Kyrgyz Embassy in U.S. reported that during the virtual meeting, the ambassador informed in detail about the ongoing reforms and their historical significance for the Kyrgyz Republic under the leadership of President Sadyr Zhaparov, identified priorities and needs of the country in revitalizing and developing basic sectors of the Kyrgyz economy, attracting foreign investment and increasing tourism by implementing economically viable projects with American organizations.

In addition, the event provided an opportunity to share experiences and views, as well as to discuss all the problematic and pressing issues. Bakyt Amanbaev answered all relevant questions of every representative of American business. The U.S. side expressed its strong willingness to support the proposals of the Kyrgyz side and participate in joint mutually beneficial projects.

As a result of the talks, a number of decisions were reached on further development of trade and economic cooperation, including holding a Kyrgyz-American business forum this year with the participation of a wide range of American companies and financial institutions of the United States.
Biden to make statement on security situation in Ukraine  CNN

United States President Joe Biden will make a statement on the current security situation in Ukraine at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, CNN reported, citing its own sources.

"President Biden will provide a status update on the ongoing situation in Ukraine at 3:30 p.m. ET today [at 22:30 Kyiv time], a source, familiar with the situation reported," the message reads.
Germany is concerned about the buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine's borders for no apparent reason, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told journalists on Tuesday, following negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I voiced my view of the security situation and the way we and our European partners see this situation and feel the concentration of military forces as a threat. In this context, it should be stressed that we are really worried that 100,000 [Russian] troops are amassed on the Ukrainian border, for which there is no apparent reason," Scholz said.

The German chancellor called for de-escalating the tensions. "And it's very important in this tense situation to make sure that no war breaks out," he said.
The EU does not accept the decision of the State Duma of the Russian Federation to send an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the recognition of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbas as independent states, head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell has said.

"The EU strongly condemns the Russian State Duma's decision to submit a call to President Putin to recognise the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine as independent entities. This recognition would be a clear violation of the Minsk agreements," Borrell said on Twitter Tuesday.

At the same time, Borrell recalled the continued support of the EU for the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. He called on the Russian Federation to fulfill its obligations and work to resolve the crisis around Ukraine in the Normandy format and in the Trilateral Contact Group.
Kyiv Mayor, UDAR leader Vitali Klitschko has met with Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib and Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who arrived in Kyiv to express their support and solidarity with Ukraine, as well as discuss Kyiv's accession to the Pact of Free Cities with Klitschko, press service of the Kyiv City State Administration has reported.

During the meeting, Klitschko noted that the visit of the mayors of European cities is very important for Ukrainians and for him personally.

"Today is a very dramatic moment for my country. Ukraine, for all the time of independence, has never faced such a threat. A threat to its statehood, territorial integrity, its citizens. We are a peaceful state and a peaceful people. And we do not threaten anyone. But we will protect our freedom and independence, our land from any aggressor. And today the support of every partner, every friend of Ukraine and Kyiv is important to us. And the wider and more powerful such support is, the more deterrence there will be for Russia to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the likelihood of which is very high today," Klitschko said.

He thanked his colleagues and noted that the very fact of their visit to Kyiv at such a dramatic moment is evidence of support and assistance. He called it symbolic that the signing of the Pact of Free Cities is being discussed right now.

"It is symbolic that today we are discussing the possibility of Kyiv signing the Free Cities Pact, which was established by the mayors of Budapest, Bratislava, Warsaw and Prague in Budapest on December 16, 2019. The pact aims to protect and promote the values of freedom, dignity, democracy, the rule of law and social justice. In defense of rights and strengthening of local self-government. And I am convinced that Kyiv, sharing the values of the Pact of Free Cities, should join it!" stressed Klitschko.

Mayor of Prague Hrib noted that he, along with his Polish counterpart, arrived in Kyiv to testify to their support and solidarity with Kyiv and the people of Kyiv.

"We are convinced that Kyiv and Ukraine must have the right to choose their own path. Kyiv must remain a free city. Ukraine - a free state. Russian aggression against Ukraine is unacceptable!" he stressed.

Mayor of Warsaw Trzaskowski also stressed solidarity with Ukraine.

"Kyiv and Warsaw are sister cities. We came to ask: how can we help? We are with you. Both as a nation and as a city. Ukrainians are the largest foreign community in Warsaw. They help develop our city. We appreciate it. And we are very concerned about the events that are unfolding in Ukraine. Poland is the first country that recognized the independence of Ukraine. We have always been friends and are always ready to help," he said.
By Trend

Around 12% of electricity generated in Tajikistan was exported to the neighboring countries last year, power holding Barki Tochik said, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.

More than 20.4 billion kWh of electricity were generated last year. More than 2.4 billion kWh of electricity were exported to the neighboring countries, which is for 911.6 million kWh more than in 2020.

Tajikistan exported 1.275 billion kWh of electricity to Afghanistan for $56.2 million.

Electricity export to Uzbekistan reached 1.147 billion kWh and totaled $22.9 million.
Chinese mainland opposes Taiwan-related content in "U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy"

Xinhua) 08:07, February 15, 2022

BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson Monday voiced firm opposition against the Taiwan-related content in a so-called "U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy" report recently released by the U.S. administration.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said relevant content has gravely interfered in China's internal affairs, violated the one-China principle and basic norms governing international relations, and undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Noting that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, Ma said Taiwan's future can only and must be jointly decided by all Chinese people, adding that Taiwan's future and interests lie in national reunification.

The spokesperson urged the U.S. side to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques and stop playing with fire on Taiwan-related issues.

The Democratic Progressive Party authority's attempt to seek "Taiwan independence" by colluding with external forces and acting as a pawn in the United States' anti-China scheme will only fail, Ma said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
By Trend

The World Bank said on Monday it is temporarily relocating some of its staff from Ukraine and has suspended missions to the country due to the tensions on the border with Russia, but its Ukraine financing operations would continue, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The World Bank said in an internal memo seen by Reuters that it is closely monitoring the situation at the border, where Russia has massed a large military force within striking distance of Ukraine.

"The World Bank Group's foremost priority is to keep our staff and their families safe. In line with our evacuation policy, temporary relocation of staff is under way and enhanced security measures are in place," the memo said.
The region needs to create 25 to 30 million job opportunities over the coming five to 10 years to counteract the increased unemployment caused by COVID-19

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is expected to see higher rates of unemployment over the coming years because of the COVID-19 crisis, said Jihad Azour, director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Azour made his comments during a panel held virtually on Thursday, attended by Ahram Online, which was organised by the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Centre.

Azour said that 75 percent of the MENA population is under 30; so, the region needs to create 25 to 30 million job opportunities over the coming five to 10 years, which is one of the severe impacts of the pandemic on the region.

He also said that securing vaccines for all the regions countries in a must for rapid recovery from the pandemic and for protecting the recovery itself, stressing that Arab countries need to cooperate intensively to secure vaccines and to adopt short and long-term policies that guarantee the rapid exit from the pandemic.

Azour also said that the IMF has allocated $100 billion in rapid finance for all the regions countries, $17 billion of which were allocated to MENA region, with an increase rate of 65 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Azour also noted that financial inclusion in the region is still very weak, as it records between 4 to 5 percent, stressing that financial inclusion is a critical step that the regions countries have to take to enable small and medium-sized enterprises to gain access to finances.

It is also imperative for the region to ease the procedures for founding companies, expand in green investments and in adopting technology, especially 5G, Azour said.

On Egypt as an emerging economy, Azour said that the pandemic has hit tourism severely, as well as exports and informal sectors, adding that the $8.2 billion that Egypt has obtained from the IMF amid the crisis under the rapid finance instrument and the stand-by agreement is helping the country re-enter the global financial markets.

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'If we don't act quickly, in particular by focusing our support on the long-term unemployed, then we are risking another lost generation,' Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, said

Britain's unemployment rate unexpectedly fell for a second month in a row to 4.9% in the December-to-February period, most of which the country spent under a tight COVID-19 lockdown, official figures showed on Tuesday.

Economists polled by Reuters had largely forecast that the jobless rate - which has been held down by the government's huge jobs subsidies programme - would edge up to 5.1% from 5.0% in the three months to January.

The ONS linked the fall to a large volume of men leaving the jobs market altogether. The so-called inactivity rate rose by 0.2 percentage points in the three months to February, echoing a rise during the first lockdown of last year.

There was another reminder of the precarious state of the labour market in figures from Britain's tax office which showed the number of employees on company payrolls fell by 56,000 between February and March, the first decline in four months.

That pushed up the total number of jobs lost since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic to 813,000 - more than half of which were held by people aged under 25, with hospitality-heavy London the hardest-hit region, the ONS said.

"If we don't act quickly, in particular by focusing our support on the long-term unemployed, then we are risking another lost generation," Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, said.

Some 363,000 people are classed as long-term unemployed after having been out of work for a year or more but with a similar number in the six-to-12-month bracket, that figure could soon rise sharply.

Britain's economy shrank by almost 10% in 2020, a bigger slump than almost all its European peers, after it locked down later and for longer than many of them.

But helped by the fast rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations, it is in the process of lifting its third lockdown while other countries in Europe have recently tightened their restrictions.

The ONS said there was a marked rise in job vacancies in March, especially in sectors such as hospitality which reopened for outdoor business last week.

FURLOUGH TAPER

Finance minister Rishi Sunak in March extended his furlough scheme - which pays the wages of around one in five employees - until the end of September although employers will have to start contributing towards some of its costs from July.

Without the scheme, the jobless rate would be far higher - a year ago, Britain's budget forecasters said it could hit 10%.

The Bank of England will be watching how many jobs are lost when it expires as it considers how long it needs to keep its huge economic stimulus programme in place.

Suren Thiru, head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce, said long-term unemployment, particularly among young people, might mean progress towards pre-pandemic levels in the labour market lags behind the wider economic recovery.

"Further action will be needed to support the labour market when the furlough scheme ends, including supporting businesses to recruit and retain staff through a temporary cut in employer national insurance contributions," he said.

Britain's headline measure of pay growth again rose strongly in the three months to February, up 4.5% in annual terms.

But the ONS said the reading was skewed higher by a drop in the number of lower-paid and part-time jobs. After accounting for this, pay growth was much weaker at 2.5%, it estimated.

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Warberg said that the US supports Egypt's rights in the Nile in his remarks on DMC TV channel, affirming that 'the US will not leave 100 million Egyptians without water'

The United States urges the three parties involved in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) dispute to reach a negotiated settlement, Samuel Warberg, a regional spokesperson for the US State Department, said on Thursday.

The US supports Egypt's rights in the Nile, Warberg said in his remarks to Masaa DMC on the DMC TV channel, affirming that the US will not leave 100 million Egyptians without water. This is impossible.

Rounds of African Union-sponsored talks to reach a consensus among Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on the GERD issue have been deadlocked, with Egypt and Sudan blaming the failure on Ethiopias intransigence.

Over the past months, Egypt and Ethiopia have exchanged tough remarks over their stances on GERD.

This comes especially as Ethiopia plans to complete the massive dam filling next month, despite Egypt and Sudan warning of potential risks in case the dam is filled before a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam is reached.

Warberg said the US encourages Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to return to the negotiating table with the African Union.

The US supports the Egyptian right in terms of the water and the importance of the Nile water. There is no question about the US stance on the importance of the Nile water to the Egyptian people, Warberg said.

The regional spokesperson said the US can play a significant and vital role in the GERD issue, noting that this requires the three countries to return to the negotiations table.

He said the US will conduct discussions and consultations with the three countries in this regard.

I do not want to make assumptions or predict any decision from the White House or the Department of State on any other procedures [on GERD]. I can, however, affirm that the US will continue to focus on this very important topic, Warberg added.

The regional spokesperson voiced appreciation of the Egyptian efforts to reach a ceasefire between the Israeli and Palestinian sides last month after more than 10 days of violence in the Gaza Strip.

He affirmed that Egypt has played a crucial and decisive role on this issue.

Warberg highlighted the US stance, which considers the two-state solution the only way to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

He affirmed the need to maintain a ceasefire between the two sides in this regard, noting that the US will work on resuming negotiations with Palestinians.

Now, the next step, the US will resume the dialogue with the Palestinians, which has been stopped by the previous [US] administration, Warberg said.

This administration believes that it is not possible for the US to play an actual and positive role without dialogue with the two sides.

Warberg said the US will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and re-open the US consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinians.

In April, the Biden administration decided to restore economic, developmental, and humanitarian assistance for Palestinians, including funding for the UNRWA that supports Palestinian refugees.

The Biden administration's decision reverses a 2018 move by then-president Donald Trump to halt funding to the UNRWA for rejecting his so-called "Deal of the Century"

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More than a third of the people in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region "is suffering an extreme lack of food,'' the United Nations World Food Program said in a new assessment of a region under a months-long government blockade.

"Families are exhausting all means to feed themselves, with three-quarters of the population using extreme coping strategies to survive,'' the WFP said in its report released Friday, noting increases in begging and relying on just one meal a day. It called for all parties in Ethiopia's war to agree to a humanitarian cease-fire and "formally agreed transport corridors'' for aid after 15 months of war.

The U.N. said no aid convoy has entered the Tigray region of some 6 million people since mid-December. Separately, the U.N. humanitarian agency said less than 10% of the needed supplies, including medicines and fuel, have entered Tigray since mid-July. All international NGOs operating in Tigray have depleted their fuel, "with their staff delivering the little remaining humanitarian supplies and services on foot, where possible,'' the agency said in its Friday update.

Ethiopia's government has been wary of allowing aid to fall into the hands of the Tigray forces who once dominated the national government and have been battling the current government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since November 2020. The government in part has blamed problems with aid delivery on insecurity it says is caused by Tigray forces, including new fighting in the neighbouring Afar region near the only approved road corridor for aid.

Aid workers, however, also blame bureaucratic obstacles including intrusive personal searches and confiscation of items including personal medications before visits to Tigray. The new WFP report, based on face-to-face interviews with more than 980 households across accessible parts of Tigray, cited "extraordinary operation challenges.''

Meanwhile, hunger is growing. When asked whether there is famine in Tigray, WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri told reporters in Geneva that it had not been declared. But "we have people who are facing famine-like conditions. ... Famine and famine-like conditions? Different animals, but the same beast.''

The war has shifted in recent weeks, with the Tigray forces retreating into their region after attempting to advance on the capital, Addis Ababa, and Ethiopia's military said it would not pursue them further. That opened the way for fresh mediation efforts by the United States and the African Union, with humanitarian access a key goal.

Aid has begun reaching people in the Amhara and Afar regions after Tigray forces' incursions there displaced hundreds of thousands. But the new WFP report said that some 9 million people, the most yet in the war, need food assistance across the three affected regions.

Ethiopia's foreign ministry this week said it was working with aid partners to facilitate daily cargo flights to Tigray "to transport much-needed medicines and supplies.'' It is not clear when the daily flights will begin, though the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday announced that it had made its first delivery of medical supplies to Tigray since September, calling it "a huge relief.'' A second flight followed on Thursday.

The U.N. has said time is running out. "Aid organizations have warned that operations could cease completely by the end of February in Tigray,'' U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Thursday.

Tigray's health bureau this week reported that nearly 1,500 people died of malnutrition in just part of the region over a four-month period last year, including more than 350 young children. It cited more than 5,000 blockade-related deaths in all from hunger and disease in the largest official death toll yet associated with the country's war.

Ethiopia's government has sought to restrict reporting on the war and detained some journalists under the state of emergency, including a video freelancer accredited to the AP, Amir Aman Kiyaro. The country's Council of Ministers this week proposed ending the state of emergency now, citing the changing security situation. That needs lawmakers' approval.

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EU leaders could hold an emergency summit on the Ukraine crisis this week, on the sidelines of a meeting with their African counterparts, a senior EU official said Monday.

Fears have soared that Russia could be planning an imminent invasion of its neighbor after dire Western warnings over a massive troop buildup at the border.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was the latest EU leader to embark on diplomatic efforts as he held talks Tuesday in Kyiv before heading to Moscow for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The official said Brussels was waiting for the results of Scholz's visit to the Kremlin and an emergency summit was "possible" if needed when EU leaders gather in Brussels Thursday for the Africa meeting.

The EU -- alongside other Western allies -- has vowed to impose massive sanctions on Moscow if it stages a further incursion into Ukraine.

Officials in Brussels have come up with a raft of options for the sanctions but the leaders of the 27 member states would need to sign off on them.

The EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the West could not say if Putin has yet taken a decision to invade, but warned that an attack could take place at any moment.

Moscow, which denies it is planning an incursion on Monday signaled a possible easing of the crisis by keeping the door open for dialogue with the West and saying it was ending some military drills.

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By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

The COVID-19 vaccine certificate, which expires six months after receiving the second dose of the vaccine, will no longer be valid as of February 15.

Azerbaijan's Health Ministry, State Agency on Mandatory Health Insurance and the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units made the remarks in a joint statement.

"Persons over the age of 18, having been vaccinated with a second vaccine dose for more than six months and working in facilities that require a COVID-19 vaccine certificate, and those using the services of a number of occupations, are recommended to get injected with a third (booster) vaccine dose," the statement said.

Individuals over the age of 18 will be able to use indoor services at catering facilities, hotels, large shopping malls, gyms and recreational facilities, ceremonial events, and higher and secondary educational institutions beginning February 15, if they have a valid COVID-19 vaccine or immune certificate or a COVID-19 vaccine contraindication certificate.

Furthermore, all medical and pharmaceutical facilities, as well as all scientific and educational institutions, will be required to have a valid COVID-19 vaccine or immune certificate, or a COVID-19 vaccine contraindication certificate.

At the same time, the Digital Development and Transport Ministry announced that only drivers with a valid COVID-19 vaccine or immune certificate, or a COVID-19 vaccine contraindication certificate, will be permitted to conduct inter-region transportation. It should be noted that the vaccination station is located at the Baku International Bus Station Complex, where every driver and passenger can be vaccinated.

On February 28, 2020, the country confirmed its first COVID-19 case. On March 25, the country implemented a special quarantine regime and implemented a number of measures to combat COVID-19 in the country. The COVID-19 Omicron variant was first detected on January 10 in Azerbaijan.

Vaccination has been carried out in Azerbaijan since January 18, 2022, and it is still being carried out successfully. The epidemiological situation in Azerbaijan remains stable due to the active participation of the population in vaccination.

The nationwide vaccination is free and voluntary, and it is in accordance with the "Vaccination Strategy Against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan for 2021-2022."

The country began vaccinating citizens with China's Sinovac on January 18, AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria vaccine on May 3, Russia's Sputnik V on May 18, and Pfizer from the United States on June 7. From May 10, the country began offering COVID-19 vaccination to citizens over the age of 18.

Simultaneously, on August 9, Azerbaijan began issuing vaccination exemption certificates to citizens who have contraindications to coronavirus vaccines approved for use in the country.
Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is heading on Tuesday to Brussels, Belgium to partake in the sixth European Union (EU) - African Union (AU) Summit that is scheduled for 17 and 18 February.

The summit, in which leaders of the EU and AU as well as their respective member states meet, aims to ensure renewed and deeper partnership between both blocs based on trust and clear understanding of shared interests, said the European Council.

During his participation, El-Sisi will focus on various topics of concern to African nations, especially international efforts to facilitate these countries integration into the global economy, Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady said in a statement on Tuesday.

El-Sisi will also highlight the necessity to provide effective support to African countries in achieving the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs), transfer technology to developing countries, empower them to rely on renewable energy sources, and boost investments in them.

Furthermore, the president will discuss Egypts scheduled hosting of the 27th UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP27) in November and the countrys efforts to achieve balanced and implementable outcomes during the event.

El-Sisi is also expected to focus on the need to formulate a common vision to support and finance Africa during the coronavirus pandemic while facilitating access to and distributing equitably various technologies related to the pandemic, especially with regard to vaccine production, said Rady.

During his visit, El-Sisi will hold summit discussions with King Phillippe Leopold of Belgium and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo to discuss means of boosting bilateral relations and coordinate and consult on a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern, according to the spokesperson.

Additionally, the Egyptian president will hold discussions with EU leaders and a number of heads of state and government on the side-lines of the EU-AU Summit on boosting bilateral cooperation and consultation on various regional and international issues.

Moreover, he will hold a meeting with a group of Belgian businessmen to discuss ways of advancing cooperation in the economic, commercial, and investment spheres between the two sides.

Late in January, El-Sisi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held discussions over the phone, where they agreed on the necessity of continued consultations and exchanging viewpoints to reach political settlements to various crises in the region.

Von Der Leyen expressed the EUs wish to advance cooperation with Egypt on various levels due to it being a centre of gravity in the region, praising Egypts efforts in combating terrorism and its success in combating irregular migration.

The phone call also addressed developments in the region, the statement said, adding that Von der Leyen affirmed the EUs interest in coordinating with El-Sisi over critical regional and international issues, including Egypts hosting of the COP27.

The EU-AU Summit is expected to tackle many topics, including climate change, energy transition, vaccine production, health systems, growth financing, sustainable development, agriculture, education, culture, migration, economic integration, peace, and security, according to the European Council.

Participants are expected to adopt a joint declaration on a joint vision for 2030 during the summit, said the European Council.

The EU-AU Summit was established in April 2000, when it was held for the first time in Cairo under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity (Now the AU) and the EU, resulting in a plan of action being adopted.

The summit aims to set political priorities between the two sides and address current and renewed challenges.

The European side is one of the most prominent international partners with which the AU is keen to strengthen ties, especially with regard to development files and the protection of international peace and security, the Egyptian presidential spokesperson said.

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Canada is sending lethal military weaponry to Ukraine and loaning Kyiv Can$500 million to help defend itself in the face of Russian aggression, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday.

"In light of the seriousness of the situation and following conversations with our Ukrainian partners, I've approved the provision of Can$7.8 million worth of lethal equipment and ammunition," Trudeau told a news conference.

"This responds to Ukraine's specific request, and is in addition to the non-lethal equipment we've already provided," he said, adding that "the intent of this support from Canada and other partners is to deter further Russian aggression."

In addition, the prime minister said Ottawa would provide more loans to Ukraine, bringing the total announced since the beginning of the year to Can$620 million (US$490 million).

Western allies have prepared what they warn would be a crippling package of economic sanctions in response to any attack, although Moscow has repeatedly said it has no such plans.

Recent Russian military exercises, including with Belarus, where the US said Moscow had dispatched 30,000 troops for more than a week of drills, have caused rising concern.

Canada, which is home to a large Ukrainian diaspora, has ordered its military trainers out of Ukraine and closed its embassy in Kyiv temporarily.

Some 200 Canadian soldiers have been deployed in Ukraine since 2015 as part of the UNIFIER mission, aimed at contributing to the training of Ukrainian forces.

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Egypts Ministry of Education and Goethe Institute  the cultural centre of the Federal Republic of Germany  signed on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish cooperation in the fields of German Language teaching.

Minister of Education Tarek Shawky signed the MoU in the presence of Frank Hartmann, the ambassador of Germany in Cairo.

The MoU aims to raise the level of German Language teaching in schools by pre-qualification and continuing professional development of German language teachers and school leaders.

Additionally, the MoU also provides grants to outstanding students, exchange opportunities to students and teachers, as well as dispatching educational experts to German institutes.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Susanna Hoon, the regional director of the Goethe Institute in the Middle East and North Africa; Sebastian Wouter, the director of The Language Department at the Goethe-Institute Cairo; and several officials from the ministry and Goethe Institute.

Shawky emphasised the importance of Egyptian-German relations, especially in the educational field, adding that the MoU intends to enhance teachers efficiency to raise German language competence, train educational leaders, and develop a German language curriculum.

For her part, Hoon expressed her appreciation for the MoU, saying that the institute has been working in Cairo and Alexandria for more than sixty years in order to deepen cooperation between the two countries in the fields of culture and education.

Hartmann considered the MoU a huge step in strengthening cooperation between the Goethe Institute and the Ministry of Education within the framework of the education development plan.

He added that the German side is supporting the ministrys efforts in creating a modern educational system based on participation and meeting societys needs.

Educational minister meets with German ambassador

On the same day, Shawky and Hartmann held a meeting to discuss various collaboration opportunities.

In the meeting, Hartmann expressed his pleasure for the cooperation between the institute and the ministry, pointing out that Egypt is an important partner for Germany, stressing that his country aspires to contribute to the formulation of bilateral relations, especially in the field of education, according to a statement released by the ministry.

The German ambassador also praised German schools in Egypt and the quality of education they provide as well as the quality of educators and students there.

Furthermore, Shawky hailed Egypts cooperation with Germany and the educational benefits garnered from such a partnership.

The two officials also discussed other aspects of cooperation between the two countries, such as the German Development Banks (KFW) projects, which support the quality of education in several governorates.

Moreover, they discussed supporting the establishment of the Quality Assurance and Accreditation National Authority (ETQAAN) and the establishment of the Academy for Technical and Vocational Education Teachers (TVETA).

Furthermore, an agreement to organise the seven German schools in Egypt was signed.

The meeting also addressed the discussion to transform the German schools in Egypt into sui generis international schools.

This came in addition to discussing the development of technical education students by teaching them the German language and culture at an early age along with technical skills to provide various job opportunities for them in the German labour market.

Additionally, they discussed cooperating with the Goethe Institute in Cairo to translate science and mathematics tests into German to ensure their accuracy and to define the standards required for the tests.

In 1959, The EgyptianGerman cultural agreement was signed as a major framework that organises Egyptian and German cultural relations.

Since then, the Goethe institute successfully played a vital role in promoting German cultural activities in Egypt, supporting German language learning as well as international cultural cooperation.

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Egypts current efforts to reconstruct the Gaza Strip include building three towns that are set to house around 300,000 residents, undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Public Works and Housing Naji Sarhan told AP.

In May last year, Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi pledged $500 million to rebuild Gaza after an Egypt-brokered ceasefire stopped an 11-day Israeli assault on the strip that killed 250 Palestinians and caused financial losses estimated at $450 million.

Qatar also pledged $500 million for Gazas reconstruction and the United States announced it was allocating $110 million in new economic assistance to the Palestinian people, including $5.5 million for immediate relief to the strip.

The Israeli bombing of the strip completely demolished around 1,650 housing units and caused damage to about 60,000 housing units, Sarhan said in December.

The reconstruction of Gaza requires far more than $500 million, El-Sisi said during a panel discussion at the World Youth Forum (WYF) in Sharm El-Sheikh last month.

We were hoping to contribute even more than the payment pledged, he said.

El-Sisi was the first Egyptian president to call on the international community to fund the agency in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Sahar Al-Jabury, chief representative in Cairo for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said in the same panel discussion.

Al-Jabury said that the UNRWA depends on Egypts role to call on international partners to continue supporting the agency to help the Gaza Strip recover from the crisis in which it finds itself.

In the report published by the AP on Monday, Sarhan said work is also underway to develop the strips main coastal road, expecting projects in Gaza to be completed in a year-and-a-half.

The Egyptian projects in the strip, which are implemented in cooperation with nine Palestinian companies, will secure around 16,000 job opportunities, the AP quoted Alaa Al-Arraj, head of the Palestinian contractors' union, as saying.

Egypt has delivered tones of aid and materials, including bulldozers, trucks, and utility poles, as well as dozens of Egyptian workers, to finish the reconstruction process in Gaza, a home to more than 2 million Palestinians.

Since the ceasefire, Egypt has called for creating a suitable climate for the resumption of the Egyptian Palestinian peace process and has sent head of the General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel twice last year to the Israeli and Palestinian territories to consolidate the ceasefire.

Egyptian delegations are also visiting Gaza to inspect the reconstruction work, and an office at a Gaza City hotel for permanent technical representatives has been opened, the AP reported.

Gaza is a reminder to everybody, effectively, that you can't really do anything without Egypt, Hafsa Halawa, an expert on Egypt at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank, told AP.

In solidarity with the Palestinians, Egypt has opened since May the Rafah border crossing, which is the only crossing point between Egypt and Palestine's coastal enclave, to let stranded people from both sides cross the border and to bring aid and reconstruction materials into Gaza.

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Hundreds of Egyptian truck drivers with their empty trucks began to return to Egypt from Sudan on Friday after being stuck in a Sudanese northern highway between the two countries for more than two weeks.

This came due to Sudanese farmers protest against a recent decision by the Sudanese government to raise the electricity prices.

According to Egyptian drivers and news agencies, at least 1,500 Egyptian truck drivers and their trucks were stopped and could not move forward or backward in Sheryan El-Shamal highway or the northern highway in Sudans Northern State since late January.

In total, the protesting farmers in the Northern State set up about more than 10 Trus or makeshift blocks throughout the main trade route between the two countries to object to the rise of the electricity price in their region late January. According to the Sudanese farmers, the decision threats their living, as they cannot handle more expenses in hard economic times.

It is unclear how many Egyptian truck drivers have returned and how many are still stuck in the neighbouring country as, according to Sudanese media and Sudanese activists, the blockade ended in certain areas while remained in other areas thought.

So far, only empty Egyptian trucks are allowed to return.

The protesters already allowed buses and cars carrying passengers to pass freely between the two countries.

Egyptian truck drivers in limbo

Egyptian truck driver and representative of the General Union of Transport Workers and Services (GUTWS) Zein El-Hawary said on Friday that he returned safely to Egypt after being stuck there.

El-Hawary had been documenting in video clips on his Facebook page the saga of the Egyptian truck drivers and their trucks in the neighboring country for more than two weeks.

The videos showed the drivers complaining how blockade affected their work and their health, and their demand to return safely to Egypt as their trucks full of goods are standing in rows all over the highways.

Aside of the trucks parked on the highway, El-Haway and the drivers filmed and showed the different makeshift blockades, or Trus in Arabic, made by the angry protesters through Sheryan El-Shammal.

A very important notice to our brothers from truck drivers heading with goods to Sudan, remember your colleagues who are still stuck in Sudan and going there can endanger your safety and life, said the short statement or rather warning issued last week by the GUTWS.

The warning was echoed in Egyptian truck drivers Facebook pages and groups every day.

El-Hawary warned the drivers in a video on his 20th day in Sudan showing an Egyptian truck damaged after angry Sudanese protesters hurled rocks at.

Warning! Your truck can meet the same fate, you will risk your life and your truck if you come to Sudan, El-Hawary said in a video clip telling other truck drivers not to be greedy now for their safety.

There were fears on Thursday that things would escalate after an Egyptian truck driver ran over a Sudanese protester killing him, but things calmed down.

The northern highway is considered the main exports trade route in Sudan with the Egyptian truck drivers nearly dominating the highway between the two countries.

According to early statements issued in January by the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum the size of the trade exchange between Egypt and Sudan reached $718 million in the first half of 2021.

The main exports from Egypt to Sudan are food commodities, industrial products, chemicals and machinery. Meanwhile, the main exports from Sudan to Egypt are livestock, Sesame, peanuts and cotton.

According to Egyptian officials from the Ministry of Supply in January 2021, Egypt imports are estimated at more than 20,000 livestock annually.

There have not been any official statements from Egypts Foreign Ministry on the blockade but according to online testimonies of the Egyptian drivers, the Egyptian consulate in the border city of Halfa between Egypt and Sudan has been helping the drivers whether with food or medicine.

According to reports, there are ongoing talks between the Egyptian and Sudanese authorities in addition to the protesters.

Meanwhile, Sudanese media has reported that there is divergence in demands by some protesters on the ground and others affiliated to the Northern Farmers Association, which is one of Sudans biggest farmers unions. The association warned protesters not to press for political demands and stick to their initial economic demands.

On the other hand, the blockade received the support of the Sudanese social media and activists as a pressure tool on the current Sudanese regime as the protest movement continues in the country.

The blockade also comes at the time that there is an increasing anti-Egyptian sentiment in the Sudanese social and mainstream media claiming that Egypt intervenes in Sudanese affairs and exploits its wealth.

In late January, Egyptian Ambassador Hossam Eissa complained of rumors spread in the Sudanese media targeting Egypt and the relations between the two close neighbouring countries.

Sudan entered a state of political instability when General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan declared a state of emergency, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership before their release.

The military takeover upended a two-year transition to civilian rule, drew international condemnation and punitive measures, and provoked large protests.

Egypt has repeatedly urged all Sudanese parties to exercise restraint and to prioritize national interest and consensus.

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A Cairo criminal court issued a media gag order on Tuesday in the trial dubbed in media as Zamalek apartments antiquities case where a judge and his wife face charges of trading in antiquities and illegally possessing artefacts.

Egypts Public Prosecution referred in early February the judge and his wife to trial after 1,503 ancient artefacts were discovered in their apartment in the upscale Cairo neighbourhood of Zamalek.

Related Egyptian judge faces trial for illegal possession of hundreds of artefacts

The artefacts date back to the ancient Egyptian and Islamic eras as well as the Mohamed Ali Dynasty, the prosecution said in its referral-to-court statement on Wednesday, adding that the defendants were in possession of 119 artefacts from Egypts khedival period.

The seized pieces were not registered with the Supreme Council of Antiquities, which is in charge of protecting Egyptian heritage, the prosecution said.

The case dates to May when police found a large quantity of ancient artefacts and rare jewelry in a Zamalek apartment owned by judge Ahmed Abdel-Fattah while executing an unrelated warrant against his son, Karim.

The accused judge, who works in Kuwait, is the son of Abdel-Fattah Hassan, a former interior minister under King Farouk, the ruler of Egypt between 1936 and 1952 and the last ruler from Mohamed Ali's family.

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The government is tightening the noose around violators of agricultural land.

In a move meant to toughen up the penalties for those illegally taking over agricultural land, the government has decided to ban violators from receiving state subsidies, including on bread and fertilisers from agricultural cooperatives.

Buildings constructed illegally on agricultural land will be confiscated and hefty fines imposed on contractors.

While these penalties do not require legislative amendments, the government has decided to make legal changes to make such violations into violations of trust, said MP Amr Darwish, which are punishable by suspension from public-sector employment.

The prime minister has instructed the minister of justice to draft a bill to enforce the new penalties.

In a parliamentary session on 23 January, Darwish noted that 400 violations of agricultural land had been observed in just two months, including 200 cases in which the violators had dug foundations and erected building columns.

Worse, there were no official records of these encroachments, he added.

This could indicate that local administrations are complicit in such crimes, Darwish said, stressing that there needed to be immediate investigations into all land encroachments.

The government has decided to toughen up the penalties for agricultural land violations, even though they have declined in recent years, said Cabinet Spokesman Nader Saad.

Over the past 40 years, Egypt has lost half a million feddans to encroachments and needs LE150 billion to reclaim them.

According to the minister of agriculture, field inspections will be intensified across the country by the Central Administration for the Protection of Land to monitor land violations.

The ministry has agreed with local governors to form committees that will investigate violations, he added, saying that the fact there was no specific entity in charge of stopping violations had encouraged some people to commit such crimes.

A central committee will be formed of members from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Local Development whose main task will be to review monthly reports issued by the governorates.

The prime minister said that based on President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisis directives he will be following up on these reports until land violations are completely eliminated to help to preserve Egypts agricultural land.

Senate member and advisor on strategic planning to the chairman of the Wafd Party Hazem Al-Guindi said that encroachments on agricultural land and building violations represented a risk to Egypts food security.

In January 2018, parliament approved amendments to Article 156 of the agriculture law to punish violators of Article 152 of the law with a prison sentence of no less than two years and no more than five years and a penalty of no less than LE100,000 and no more than LE5 million.

The amendment stipulates that violations be removed at the violators expense.

Head of the Farmers Syndicate Hussein Abu Saddam said that land encroachments were a crime against future generations, adding that the last time the penalties were toughened up to five years in jail had contributed to decreasing the problem.

But the new penalties were not enough to stop the violations, he said, due to the increasing population and the fact that many villages are not surrounded by desert land where the population can expand without encroaching on agricultural land.

He said the current laws should be enough to stop encroachments, adding that violations take different forms, including converting agricultural to arable land and using it to cultivate unsuitable crops.

Instead of threatening suspension from a public-sector job, Abu Saddam suggested toughening up the penalties and increasing public awareness about the importance of Egypts agricultural land through media campaigns. People should be given alternatives to build and store building materials, he said.

He added that cancelling subsidies for violators could be wrongly understood as a threat that the government plans to abolish such subsidies altogether.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The constitutional limbo in Iraq is exacerbating the countrys already serious political troubles.

When Iraqis voted for a new constitution following the US-led invasion of their country in 2003, US president George W Bush, who ordered the conquest, hailed the referendum as a momentous time in the history of the Middle East.

Bush described the successful passing of the document, written by an Iraqi panel chosen by an assembly elected in 2005 under pressure of anti-occupation resistance, as a landmark day in the history of liberty.

In its preamble, the drafters of the new constitution pledged to build a nation of law and to ensure the document would preserve for Iraq its free union of people, of land, and of sovereignty.

Nevertheless, this constitution, which promised enormous opportunities for a peaceful, free, and democratic Iraq following the collapse of the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein, has topped the list of problems in restoring stability to the beleaguered country.

For more than 15 years, the abysmal record of malpractice and non-compliance with the norms of democratic governance as they are stated in this document has been the main reason behind the states failures and lingering conflicts in Iraq.

Iraqs current government crisis is a vivid example of the deep-rooted and still-unresolved constitutional weaknesses of the post-Saddam political order.

More than four months after Iraq held national elections last October, the countrys political groups have not been able to agree on a new president, a necessary step under the constitution before the appointment of a prime minister and the formation of a new government.

The poll had been due later this year, but it was brought forward in response to mass protests over corruption, unemployment, and poor public services that erupted in 2019.

The vote was also marred by one of the lowest turnouts in the countrys history, reflecting widespread apathy and disillusionment over government dysfunction and a lack of accountability.

It was also mired by protests over the outcome of the elections and disagreements about which parliamentary bloc had the right to form a government and who should be the next prime minister that led to the four-month political gridlock.

The controversy has sent tensions high between differing parties, especially among Shia groups that contested the election outcome and the two main Kurdish parties that are fighting for the post of president.

In the southern province of Masyan, gunmen believed to belong to Iraqi Shia cleric and politician Muqtada Al-Sadrs Saraya Al-Salam militia and the rival Asaib Ahl Al-Haq have reportedly been involved in tit-for-tat assassinations, triggering unbridled tribal violence.

The disputes went to the High Federal Court (HFC), effectively the countrys constitutional tribunal, where the plaintiffs sought rulings on many constitutional questions raised by these ugly episodes in Iraqs politics even though they themselves had been pioneers in misusing the countrys constitution.

The trouble began with a lawsuit filed by a group of Shia parties that had disputed the election results, asking the court to annul the election of the speaker of the parliament on the grounds of irregularities during its first session.

The HFC turned down the case and ruled that the parliamentary session during which Sunni speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi had been elected was in line with the constitution.

Many experts, however, said the court may have stretched its interpretation of the constitution, which is vague on the role of the speaker of the assembly.

Then there was the controversial case of registering the largest bloc in the 329-member parliament that is constitutionally mandated to nominate Iraqs next prime minister.

While the constitution states that the president should ask the largest parliamentary bloc to nominate the next head of the government, it does not say how this bloc should be formed, making it a constant battle in post-election periods.

After a simmering dispute in 2010, Iraqs highest court identified the largest bloc as being any single political party or coalition of parties that has the largest number of seats formed at the first session of the parliament.

Since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddams minority Sunni regime, Iraqi governments have been dominated by parties from the countrys Shia majority in coalitions that have also included Kurdish parties and Sunni representatives.

A new elections law following demonstrations calling for fundamental political change was based on dividing Iraq into smaller electoral districts instead of the old one which designated each of Iraqs 18 governorates as a single district.

It also banned newly elected MPs from moving from their registered lists to others, a practice used by the political blocs to increase their members in lieu of other kinds of incentives. This move has made identifying the largest bloc in parliament more of an issue

Al-Sadr, whose Saroon list won 73 seats in parliament, was the first to announce that he had the largest parliamentary bloc to emerge from the voting and was therefore entitled to nominate the next prime minister.

But the Coordination Framework (CF) Shia Alliance, which disputed the poll results, said it had handed over a list with the names of 88 MPs, thereby jostling for primacy in determining which group should be recognised as the largest.

The HFC became involved in the dispute when it decided that the largest bloc could be formed any time after the first session of the parliament, clearing the way for Al-Sadr to form the new government based on his alliance with the Sunnis and Kurds and eliminating his Shia rivals in the CF.

More constitutional confusion was created when the court decided on Sunday to bar Kurdish politician Hoshyar Zebari from running for Iraqs presidency against the incumbent Barham Saleh, citing a lawsuit filed against him on charges of corruption.

As a result, Iraqs parliament has indefinitely postponed a scheduled vote for the republics president and reopened nominations for the post, throwing the process into further disarray.

The move, aimed at giving a chance for a replacement for Zebari, clearly violates an article in the constitution that stipulates that the president should be chosen by the parliament within 30 days of its first session.

Supreme courts around the world have unique authority in democratic nations, and their jurisprudence is valued for seasoned and non-political constitutional interpretation.

Iraqs constitution should have established a democratic parliamentary system in which the executive branch of the government is accountable to the legislature.

In principle, a government in a parliamentary system should be formed by a party or a coalition of parties having the greatest representation in the parliament with its leader becoming prime minister.

Iraqs governance system was also meant to be based on a political consensus that would bring all Iraqs communities into a national project to rebuild the country on the basis of compromise and mutual benefit.

In practice, however, constitutional flaws and the misuse of the consensus system coupled with mismanagement and corruption have pitted the system into perpetual dysfunction and triggered an endless spiral of conflicts.

Iraqs political system in the post-Saddam era, which was orchestrated by the US Occupying Authority after 2003 in collaboration with the Iraqi cronies it had brought to power, has never been parliamentary or even democratic.

In the four elections that have taken place since 2006, all Iraqs parliaments have just been rubber stamps with no real or very little authority while power has remained vested in the hands of the ruling oligarchs.

The last two prime ministers were not even elected members of parliament and neither were most of the cabinet ministers. Almost all senior government and security forces officials who are required by law to be named by parliament have not been sanctioned.

No one in the small political circle that is currently involved in deal-making about Iraqs next government has been elected, even though these are the ones who are selecting the government leaders and setting the rules of engagement for the next four years.

There are huge political and partisan interests in Iraqs highest court itself, whose judges were named by the ruling oligarchs and endorsed by the previous parliament according to the same power-sharing system that is in place elsewhere.

Some 19 years after the ouster of Saddam, the interpretation and application of Iraqs constitution remain entirely dependent on the whims and dictates of its ruling elites who continue to undermine the countrys long-term democratic future.

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On 10 February, the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) launched a new interim political process under the banner of Libyan-Libyan dialogue, charging Fathi Bashagha with forming a new government. Bashagha, who had served as interior minister until 2020 under the Government of National Accord (GNA), has been given until 25 February to produce a slate of ministers to present to the HoR for a vote of confidence.

The interim phase also requires a referendum on an existing draft constitution or, if that fails, a new constitutional declaration. Abdel- Hamid Al-Dabeiba, who heads the Government of National Unity (GNU) formed in March 2021, refuses to step down, raising the spectre of a return to institutional bifurcation and a resurgence of military tension, especially now that militia activity has returned to the capital, Tripoli.

A procession of militias greeted Bashaghas arrival in Tripoli, which has been interpreted as muscle flexing. Significantly, he hails from the same town as Dabeiba: Misrata, the power-making hub of western Libya. However, the fact that Bashagha made a point of addressing diverse political forces when he arrived at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli sent the message that he hoped for a peaceful transfer of power and was open to suggestions.

A close associate of Bashaghas said the media has exaggerated fears over a backslide into violence. But at the same time, he added, it was important not to underestimate such concerns. Dabeiba has the Nawasi militias behind him and they have certain interests and not just those shared with Dabeiba. They dont want Bashagha in Tripoli because hes backed by parliament and the General Command, he said, referring to the HoR based in Tobruk and the Libyan National Army (LNA) headquartered in Benghazi which, under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, launched a military campaign to take control of Tripoli in 2019-2020.

The western camp in Libya appears to be disintegrating. Although skirmishes have erupted between the Western militias from time to time, including in the period following the ceasefire between eastern and western forces in October 2020, they still shared a general rejection of any allegiance to the east.

The HoRs choice of a western-based strongman such as Dabeiba has driven a wedge into a militia map that spans Misrata, Zawiya and Zintan. If most of the militias in this area have been aligned with Dabeiba, they do not necessarily feel the same degree of loyalty. Nevertheless, according to sources close to him, except for Zawiya and parts of Zintan, the balance would still favour Dabeiba. As for Misrata, the citys authorities would be keen to avert strife so they will try to work out an accommodation between the pro-Dabeiba and pro-Bashagha factions.

On the other hand, some Tripoli-based militias that had taken part in the Volcano of Rage operation against the LNA siege of the capital have declared their support for Bashagha. One of their commanders, Colonel Faraj Khalil, believes that a meeting will arrange between Bashagha and Dabeiba in Misrata to persuade the latter to step down in order to avert violence and also to save face. Another source close to Dabeiba ruled out that possibility, reiterating Dabeibas stance that he will only hand over power to a popularly elected authority.

The HoRs interim plan faces other challenges from other quarters apart from Dabeiba. One is the High Council of State (HCS), which insists that Bashaghas appointment as prime minister designate or any new constitutional declaration should require its approval.

That said, HCS Spokesman Khaled Al-Mishri has hinted that the HCS would support Bashagha. He also mentioned that this essentially consultative body had some observations regarding the proposed creation of a 24 member commission drawn from Libyas three provinces (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan) to amend various provisions of the draft constitution adopted by the constituent assembly over three years ago. According to the current system, after the amendments, the constitutional bill would be put to a referendum.

If it failed to secure the required majority, the bill would be referred back to the constituent assembly for revision. If the amended bill failed to pass a second referendum, a constitutional declaration would govern until general elections were held, a new legislature established, and another round of drafting a constitution set in motion.

Another challenge would emerge if Dabeiba not only continued to refuse to step aside but also launched a parallel roadmap, perhaps to be unveiled on 17 February, the anniversary of the Libyan Revolution. On 14 February, he formed a ministerial committee, headed by the minister of justice, to create a committee to draft a proposal for the legal measures needed to hold elections. Dabeibas position is inherently contradictory. He refuses to recognise the recently adopted parliamentary decision to replace him, calling parliament fraudulent, but he acknowledges that the output of the committee he forms would have to be approved by parliament and the HCS.

Egypt, for its part, supports the steps the HoR has taken on the grounds that, as the countrys elected legislative body, it has the legitimate authority to take such measures. Cairo also supports Bashagha. However, as Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri has stressed, Cairo works with all stakeholders.

While Russia too supports Bashagha, Washington is uncomfortable with the parliaments actions and has not come out in support of Bashagha. Nor does it support Dabeiba, however, whom it regards as one of the chief culprits behind derailing the electoral plans. It is noteworthy that the recent developments have excluded Seif Al-Islam Al-Qaddafi, another figure Washington blames for the cancellation of the elections in December.

The overall political and military power balance ultimately favours Bashagha. However, there are no guarantees that parliaments new roadmap will as publicly stated. Meanwhile, although some Western militias may find their wings clipped, this does not stay fears regarding the continued presence of foreign forces, mercenaries and militias. Bashagha helped engineer the Turkish military presence in Libya during the time he served with the GNU. Some believe that his close contacts with both Ankara and Moscow will enable him to solve the problem of the continued presence of forces affiliated with Turkey and Russia as soon as he takes office.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The United States welcomed Ethiopia's lifting of its wartime state of emergency Tuesday but urged the government to promptly release people detained during the recent conflict with the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

The state of emergency was declared on November 2 after TPLF fighters seized two crucial towns about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Addis Ababa.

It triggered mass detentions of ethnic Tigrayans in Addis Ababa and elsewhere, sparking condemnation from rights groups including Amnesty International.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said lifting the emergency was "another important step by the Government of Ethiopia to pave the way for a peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict."

"We urge that this move be immediately followed by the release of all individuals arrested or detained without charge under the state of emergency," Price said.

"The end of these detentions will facilitate an inclusive and productive national dialogue," he said.

In December, Amnesty International said Tigrayan civilians had been attacked and killed in the conflict, and that "cores" were detained where they faced "life-threatening conditions including torture, starvation, and denial of medical care."

It alleged that Ethiopian government-aligned forces had subjected Tigrayan women and girls "to rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation and other forms of torture."

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By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's State Employment Agency under the Labour and Social Security Ministry has involved 766 people in the self-employment program since early 2022.

The majority of these people are martyrs' family members and war veterans. The citizens were provided with assets in the forms of goods and supplies in accordance with the chosen business areas within the self-employment program.

The employment of citizens is part of the employment support project jointly implemented by the World Bank and the Labour and Social Security Ministry.

The ministry takes consistent measures to provide social support to vulnerable groups of the population, including martyrs families, war veterans and civilians affected by the war.

Social support measures taken by Azerbaijans Labor and Social Security Ministry covered more than 30,000 citizens, including members of martyrs families, war veterans and civilians affected by the Armenian aggression since the end of the 44-day war with Armenia in November 2020.

Additionally, in the post-war period, the program of providing martyrs families and disabled war veterans with housing was expanded. Under the presidential decree of January 25, 2021, 11,000 apartments and private houses will be provided to this category of citizens in stages over five years.
Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed on Tuesday in Brussels, Belgium, ways to boost cooperation with the European Union especially in green transition in Egypt with the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

According to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Shoukry and Varhelyi also discussed ways to cooperate in combating climate change.

From his side, the European commissioner said on his official Twitter account on Tuesday that he held good discussions with Shoukry ahead of the European Union-African Union meeting that will be held on 17 and 18 February in Brussels as well as ahead of a meeting between President Abdel-Fattah and President of the EU Commission Ursula Von der Leyen

Egypt is a key strategic partner for the EU for shared prosperity and stability, he said on Twitter.

El-Sisi arrived in Brussels earlier in the day to partake in the sixth EU- AU summit.

The summit, in which leaders of the EU and AU as well as their respective member states meet, aims to ensure renewed and deeper partnership between both blocs based on trust and clear understanding of shared interests, said the European Council.

During his participation, El-Sisi will focus on various topics of concern to African nations, especially international efforts to facilitate these countries integration into the global economy, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement on Tuesday.

El-Sisi will also highlight the necessity to provide effective support to African countries in achieving the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs), transfer technology to developing countries, empower them to rely on renewable energy sources, and boost investments in them.

Furthermore, the president will discuss Egypts scheduled hosting of the 27th UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP27) in November and the countrys efforts to achieve balanced and implementable outcomes during the event.

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Each coronavirus wave has its distinctive symptoms that say it is not flu and the current waves major symptom is body aches, head of the parliaments health committee and former health minister Ashraf Hatem said on Monday.

In light of the Omicrons flu-like symptoms the only two factors upon which one can know he is coronavirus infected are body aches, and if he came into contact with coronavirus patient, Hatem said in a video released by the health ministrys official Facebook page.

According to the ministry, the symptoms of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are flu-like symptoms, which include a runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing, and a sore throat.

The ministry updated in mid-January its health advice by urging those who suffer from common cold symptoms to consider that they may have contracted COVID-19 and should therefore self-isolate and avoid sharing personal items with family members so that they can avoid developing symptoms and passing the infection to others.

Egypt is now in the fifth wave of coronavirus, according to Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, the official spokesman for the health ministry.

Abdel-Ghaffar appealed to citizens who have chronic diseases, or immune deficiencies to send an SMS to 1440, which provides home support for home-isolated cases.

If someone ever experiences symptoms such as rise in temperature, shortness of breath, oxygen ratio less than 92, he must go to hospital, Abdel-Ghaffar stressed.

We have exceeded 43 percent of the targeted groups for vaccination, which compromises those who are above 12 years old, Abdel-Ghaffar said, adding that Egypt targets to inoculate 70 percent of the targeted group during the second half of 2022.

The country has so far 29.1 million fully vaccinated citizens, the health ministry said in its daily report issued on Tuesday, and 38.6 million citizens have received their initial shot.

As many as 779,947 booster shots have been administered until Tuesday, the ministry added.

Egypt is currently battling a spike in COVID-19 infections detecting above 2,000 cases daily since late January and breaking its single-day record of cases more than once during the first week of February.

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog is preparing to visit Turkey, his office said Tuesday, in a rare trip following years of frayed ties between the two countries.

A presidency statement said that a senior Turkish delegation, including a top aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was due in Israel this week "as part of preparations for the planned visit".

In a television interview last month, Erdogan said he expected Herzog to visit in February, hailing the trip as an opportunity to "open a new chapter in relations between Turkey and Israel."

Herzog's office had declined to comment on the prospective visit until Tuesday's statement, which gave no indication of a possible date.

Turkey's state-run TRT television, reported the trip would take place on March 9 and 10.

Relations between majority-Muslim Turkey and Israel froze over after the death of 10 civilians in an Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla carrying aid for the Gaza Strip in 2010.

In recent months, however, the two countries have been working on a rapprochement, with Erdogan, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, holding telephone talks with Herzog and other Israeli leaders.

Some analysts have linked the warming ties to former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ouster from office in June. Relations between Netanyahu and Erdogan had grown bitter during their long tenures.

Erdogan had already said in January he was prepared to work with Israel on reviving an old project to ship eastern Mediterranean gas to European customers via Turkey.

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Israel's new alliances reflect the fact that major Arab Gulf powers, the Jewish state and their common ally the United States share an animosity toward Iran and concerns about its nuclear programme.

"In these tumultuous times it's important that from this region we send a message of goodwill, of cooperation, of standing together against common challenges," Bennett said before his departure Monday.

On Tuesday he met King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, who is also prime minister of the island nation that is close to top regional power Saudi Arabia and which hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.

Bennett, the first Israeli head of government to visit Bahrain, discussed "deepening cooperation" in meetings with the defence and other ministers, his office said.

"We want to fill this relationship with substance in energy, in drive, in economy, in tourism and in the regional architecture," Bennett said. "We spoke about opportunities where we can strengthen the bridge."

Bennett also met US Fifth Fleet commander Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, said the premier's office, stressing its role in maintaining regional stability in the face of threats.

'Seeing my family'

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became only the third and fourth Arab states -- following Egypt and Jordan -- to establish ties with Israel in the pacts negotiated under then US president Donald Trump.

Bennett visited the UAE in December.

Bahrain's king welcomed Bennett's visit and emphasised the importance of strengthening the bilateral partnership in light of the Abraham Accords, said the official Bahrain News Agency.

Bennett also met the small Jewish community of Bahrain, about 50 people, who had practised their faith behind closed doors since the 1947 start of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

After the Abraham Accords, a small synagogue in the heart of Manama was renovated and reopened.

Bennett told Jewish community members there that "I'm very delighted to be here in Bahrain, and I could think of no better way to kick off this visit than seeing my family here".

Bennett's Bahrain trip follows a visit by Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz earlier this month that saw the two countries sign a defence agreement.

That deal covered intelligence, procurement and joint training. As part of the agreements, Israel is set to post a naval official in Bahrain.

'Absolutely' about Iran

Dore Gold, head of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, said Israel and Bahrain have been pushed towards closer ties as both are "under threat by Iranian actions".

Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, also said the focus of Bennett's trip is "absolutely" on Iran.

Iran is now engaged in talks in Vienna with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly and with the United States indirectly to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

The agreement offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme. The US unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 under Trump.

Bennett's government strongly opposes a return to the deal and has warned repeatedly that lifting sanctions would give Iran more money to buy weapons for use against Israelis.

Guzansky said that Bennett's trip, "in light of the talks in Vienna, it is a show of force, symbolism that the countries are working together".

He pointed to unrest in Bahrain blamed on Iran-backed opposition groups and the range of threats that Israel says Iran poses, notably its arming of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Guzansky said that in several respects Bahrain has been perceived as moving slower than the UAE in terms of consolidating ties with Israel.

Allowing an Israeli military officer to be based in Bahrain was "significant", however, he said as Bahrain "does not want to be seen as an Israeli base in the Gulf".
The Russian military on Tuesday deployed long-range nuclear-capable bombers and fighter jets carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to its airbase in Syria for massive naval drills in the region amid soaring tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Syria to oversee the drills that mark the biggest Russian naval deployment to the Mediterranean Sea since the Cold War times.

Shoigu met with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday to inform him about the drills and discuss plans for further military-technical cooperation.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. AP

The Defense Ministry said the exercise in the eastern Mediterranean that involves 15 warships and about 30 aircraft is part of a series of sweeping naval drills that started last month amid a standoff over Ukraine.

It said the maneuvers were intended to train for action to ``protect national interests'' and ``fend off military threats against the Russian Federation.''

Long-range, nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 bombers and MiG-31 fighter jets carrying the latest Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles landed at the Russian airbase of Hemeimeem in Syria's coastal province of Latakia as part of the drills.



In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, A Tu-22M3 bomber of the Russian air forces is seen parked at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria. The Russian military deployed additional warplanes to its airbase in Syria as part of massive naval drills in the Mediterranean. AP

The military says the Kinzhal has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (about 1,250 miles) and flies at 10 times the speed of sound, making it hard to intercept.

The deployment of Kinzhal missiles to Syria appears to be intended to showcase the Russian military's capability to threaten the US carrier strike group in the Mediterranean.



In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, An MiG-31 fighter of the Russian air force carrying a Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missile is parked at the Hemeimeem airbase in Syria. The Russian military deployed additional warplanes to its airbase in Syria as part of massive naval drills in the Mediterranean. AP

The Defense Ministry said the Russian navy chief reported to Shoigu that the drills envisaged practice in targeting enemy warships.

The Hemeimeem air base has served as Russia's main outpost in Syria, where it has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, allowing Assad's government to reclaim control over most of the country after a devastating civil war.

Russia also has expanded and modified a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus, the only such facility that Russia has outside the former Soviet Union.

The massive Russian naval drills and the deployment of additional warplanes to Syria demonstrated an increased Russian military foothold in the region amid the worst Russia-West security crisis since the Cold War.

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Diplomatic efforts to head off what U.S. officials have warned could be an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine entered a new round on Monday. Russia's top diplomat advised President Vladimir Putin to continue talks and Germany's chancellor met the Ukrainian president.

Nonetheless the US announced it is closing its embassy in Ukraine and moving all remaining staffers there to a city near the Polish border.

Earlier, Britain's prime minister said Europe is ``on the edge of a precipice,'' citing an American warning that Russia could invade Ukraine in the next 48 hours.

Here's a look at what is happening where and why:

WHAT'S THE MESSAGE FROM RUSSIA?

The Kremlin signaled Monday that it is ready to keep talking with the West about security grievances that led to the current crisis, offering hope that Russia might not invade Ukraine within days as Western officials increasingly fear.

In an appearance orchestrated for TV cameras, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that possibilities for talks haven't been exhausted. That seemed designed to send a message that Putin himself believes hopes for a diplomatic solution haven't yet faded.

Lavrov said the talks ``can't go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage.`` He noted that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Asked by Putin if it made sense to continue diplomatic efforts, Lavrov responded that possibilities for talks ``are far from being exhausted'' and he proposed to continue the negotiations. He said his ministry wouldn't allow the U.S. and its allies to stonewall Russia's main requests.

US officials responded they're looking for actions, not merely talk. ``If Foreign Minister Lavrov's comments are followed up with concrete, tangible signs of de-escalation, we would certainly welcome that,'' State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. ``We have not seen that yet.''

WHAT'S THE LATEST US ACTION?

The United States said Monday it will close its embassy in Ukraine and move all remaining staffers there to a city near the Polish border as invasion fears intensify. It also repeated warnings to private American citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately.

The State Department announcement follows a decision it took over the weekend to order the departure of all non-essential diplomats from Kyiv. The embassy will now suspend operations and the property will be looked after by local Ukrainian security guards.

A small number of embassy staff from Kyiv will relocate to Lviv, where they will provide limited consular services to Americans and keep communications open with the Ukrainian government, the department said.

The State Department also told Americans in Belarus to leave the country immediately due to ``unusual and concerning Russian military buildup along Belarus' border with Ukraine.''

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said the US would offer a loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to Ukraine to help bolster its economic stability ``in the face of Russia's destabilizing behavior.''

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will go to the NATO defense ministerial in Brussels this week, and will also visit Poland and Lithuania, neighbors to Ukraine. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Austin will meet with the presidents, defense ministers and other key leaders in Poland and Lithuania, as well as U.S. forces in those countries. Kirby said Austin also is planning to have a trilateral meeting with the defense chiefs of the three Baltic nations, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan briefed Senate leadership Monday afternoon. Senators are considering a resolution in support of Ukraine's independence while stopping short of legislation to impose sanctions on Russia.

WHAT'S GOING ON IN UKRAINE?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz brought a message of solidarity to Kyiv, telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are not negotiable.

Scholz, whose visit came ahead of a meeting with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, demanded ``clear steps to de-escalate the current tensions'' from Russia. He thanked the Ukrainian government for its ``sober and restrained reaction to a very serious and threatening situation.``

Scholz noted that NATO and the US have made proposals to Moscow that Germany supports, ``and we now expect a reaction, an answer to them from Russia.'' He urged Russia to accept offers of dialogue.

The German chancellor said in case of military escalation, ``we are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in consultation with our allies`` and that ``we know what to do`` if Russia were to violate Ukraine's territorial integrity again.

Zelenskyy called the tensions around his country's future ``an unprecedented challenge for Europe and the world.''

``It is in Ukraine that the future of the European security architecture of which our state is a part, is being decided today.''

Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held talks Monday with the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine and again underlined that ``there is no alternative to diplomacy'' to resolve the dispute over Ukraine.

WHEN COULD RUSSIA MAKE ITS MOVE?

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Europe is ``on the edge of a precipice,'' citing an American warning that Russia could invade Ukraine in the next 48 hours.

``But there is still time for President Putin to step back,'' Johnson said.

US officials said the Russian military has continued its buildup and apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders.

A US defense official said that for several days small numbers of Russian ground combat units have been moving out of larger assembly areas to positions closer to the Ukrainian border, what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not publicly released. CBS News was first to report on the movement of units closer to the border.

Separately, the head of Sweden's military forces said Russia has ``all the needed capacity along the Ukrainian border for a military operation.''

``We do not exclude anything,'' Gen. Micael Byden, whose country is not a NATO member. ``Whether it happens today, on Wednesday or a week, we do not know.''

AND WHAT IF TALKS DON'T SUCCEED?

Poland is making preparations to accept Ukrainian refugees in the event of another Russian attack on its neighbor. But the Polish government hopes that worst-case scenario can be averted.

Similar preparations are being made across the region, particularly in nations that border Ukraine.

Poland, which has welcomed large numbers of Ukrainian economic migrants in recent years, particularly after Russia's incursions into Ukraine in 2014, has been making plans for weeks to accept refugees if it comes to that, said Marcin Przydacz, a deputy foreign minister.

HOW IS UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT FARING?

Zelenskyy won a landslide victory in 2019. As a political novice making an unlikely bid for the job, he had vowed to reach out to Russia-backed rebels in the east who were fighting Ukrainian forces and make strides toward resolving the conflict.

But Zelenskyy is watching his once-enormous support dissolve as Ukraine faces fears of a Russian invasion that could not only take the rebel regions but possibly the rest of the country.

To make matters worse, the incumbent whom Zelenskyy defeated in 2019 has boldly returned to the country to face charges of treason and stir up opposition to him. Analysts suggest that Moscow is seeking to bolster support among pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine and that the buildup of Russian forces near Ukraine's border is aimed partly at destabilizing the country's politics.

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The United States is offering up to $1 billion in credit guarantees to help Ukraine weather the threat of war against Russia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.

Blinken said the offer would bolster "Ukraine's ability to ensure economic stability, growth, and prosperity for its people in the face of Russia's destabilizing behavior."

The guarantees would make it far easier and likely cheaper for Ukraine's government to borrow money.

Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe and its corruption-plagued economy has suffered from heightened tensions over the possibility of an invasion by Russia, which has sent over 100,000 troops.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan briefed congressional leaders Monday on the plan, according to a source familiar with the matter.

On Sunday, Sullivan repeated the Biden administration's view that Russia could attack Ukraine "any day now."

In addition to economic and humanitarian aid, the United States has provided Ukraine with $650 million in military assistance over the past year.

On Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on a visit to Kyiv that he was "determined" to maintain aid to the country.

G7 countries have also warned Moscow they are ready to impose sanctions that would have a huge and immediate impact on Russia's economy, should it pursue any further military aggression against Ukraine.

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Russia said Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases, adding to glimmers of hope that the Kremlin may not be planning to invade Ukraine imminently, though it gave no details on the pullback.

The announcement came a day after Russia's foreign minister indicated the country was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that led to the Ukraine crisis, changing the tenor after weeks of rising tensions. Still, Western officials continued to warn that an invasion could come at any moment and said some forces and military hardware were moving toward the border, muddying the picture.

It wasn't immediately clear where exactly the troops that the Russian Defense Ministry said were pulling back were deployed or how many were leaving, making it hard to understand the significance. The announcement pushed world markets and the ruble up, but Ukraine's leaders expressed skepticism.

``Russia constantly makes various statements,`` Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. ``That's why we have the rule: We won't believe when we hear, we'll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we'll believe in de-escalation.''

Russia has massed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine, sparking the fears of an invasion. Russia denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine, despite placing troops on Ukraine's borders to the north, south and east and launching massive military drills nearby.

The new glimmers of hope accompanied a flurry of diplomacy. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz planned to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a day after he sat down with Ukraine's leader in Kyiv. Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau of Poland, one of Russia's most strident European critics, was also in Moscow on Tuesday to meet Lavrov, while Ukraine's foreign minister hosted his Italian counterpart.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's comments came at a made-for-TV meeting with Putin and seemed designed to send a message to the world about the Russian leader's position. The foreign minister argued that Moscow should hold more talks, despite the West's refusal to consider Russia's main demands.

The talks ``can't go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,'' Lavrov said, noting that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Moscow wants guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

Lavrov said possibilities for talks ``are far from being exhausted.``

Putin noted that the West could try to draw Russia into ``endless talks'' and questioned whether there is still a chance to reach agreement. Lavrov replied that his ministry would not allow the US and its allies to stonewall Russia's main requests.

The US reacted coolly.

``The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,'' White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. ``However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.''

One possible off-ramp emerged this week: Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, pointed at a possibility of Ukraine shelving its NATO bid, an objective that is written into its constitution if it would avert war with Russia.

Prystaiko later appeared to back away from the idea, but the fact that it was raised at all suggests it is being discussed behind closed doors.

Even amid the hopeful signs, the US and European countries kept up their warnings.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated Tuesday that the danger of an invasion still exists, telling Sky News that it ``could be imminent.'' But she added that ``there is still time for Vladimir Putin to step away from the brink.''

Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt issued a similar warning.

US officials have said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine's borders. A US defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not publicly released. CBS News was first to report on the movement of the units.

Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup, reported increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations. The photos taken over a 48-hour period also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation.

Still, Ukrainian security and defense council chief Oleksiy Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of ``internal destabilization'' by unspecified forces.

``Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th,'' he told reporters. ``We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.''

As if to show defiance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday would be a ``day of national unity,`` calling on the country to display the blue-and-yellow flag and sing the national anthem in the face of ``hybrid threats.''

``It is not the first threat the strong Ukrainian people have faced,'' Zelenskyy said Monday evening in a video address to the nation. ``We're calm. We're strong. We're together.''

The country is preparing nonetheless. Kyiv residents received letters from the mayor urging them ``to defend your city,'' and signs appeared in apartment buildings indicating the nearest bomb shelter. The capital has about 4,500 such sites, including underground parking garages, subway stations and basements, the mayor said.

Dr. Tamara Ugrich said she stocked up on grains and canned food and prepared an emergency suitcase.

``I don't believe in war, but on TV the tension is growing every day, and it's getting harder and harder to keep calm,`` she said. ``The more we are told not to panic, the more nervous people become.''

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The European Union-African Union (AU) two-day summit, which is scheduled to kick off in Brussels on Thursday, will present a unique opportunity to lay the foundations for a renewed and deeper EU-AU partnership with the highest political involvement and based on trust and a clear understanding of mutual interests, the head of the EU Delegation to Egypt Ambassador Christian Berger stated on Tuesday.

With a view to greater prosperity, the aim is to launch an ambitious Africa-Europe Investment Package, taking into account global challenges such as climate change and the current health crisis, Berger explained.

Berger added that the leaders on both sides will also be talking about tools and solutions to promote stability and security.

Egypt plays an important role in African affairs, and the active participation of President El-Sisi himself in this key Summit is a further demonstration. Egypt will also have a key global role later on as host of COP 27, said the ambassador.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi headed to Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday to participate in the sixth edition of the EU-AU summit.

According to a statement by the presidential spokesperson, El-Sisi will focus on various topics of concern to African nations, especially international efforts to facilitate these countries integration into the global economy, presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady said in a statement on Tuesday.

El-Sisi will also highlight the necessity of providing effective support to African countries in achieving the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals, transferring technology to developing countries, empowering them to rely on renewable energy sources, and boosting investments in these countries, according to the spokesperson.

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The fourth Arab Sustainable Development Week cast light on ways to alleviate the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, reports Doaa El-Bey

The Arab Sustainable Development Week (ASDW) was held in Cairo from 13 to 15 February.

The three-day meeting gathered under the banner Together for Sustainable Recovery. It is only through collective action and cooperation that we will recover sustainably, and with resilience to withstand the next shock or health crisis, Irena Panova, UN resident coordinator in Egypt, said during her address to the opening session of ASDW.

Panova pointed out the factors that are central to the collective sustainable recovery the world seeks  the urgent need to protect the planet, and ensuring sustainable financing.

ASDW saw the launch of the first Financing Sustainable Development report, which attempts to identify sustainable mechanisms for future development financing. While the first report focused on Egypt, future reports will address the situation in other Arab states.

Minister of Planning Hala Al-Said, whose ministry spearheaded the preparation of the report, said the Arab League had chosen Egypt to be the first country to prepare such a report because of its developmental weight in the region.

The report, Al-Said said in her address to the ASDW, presents an in-depth analysis of development finance vis-a-vis achieving the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, and an analysis of the economic and development challenges facing development in Egypt.

The report will help decision-makers understand the situation of the sustainable development at the national level and introduce approaches and recommendations that are suitable for the region, noted Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Abul-Gheit.

During the inauguration of ASDW, he affirmed that, despite the impact of the pandemic, we still have the opportunity to push forward the 2030 sustainable development agenda, adding that a quick, coordinated, and comprehensive response is needed to support more fragile economies.

Abul-Gheit told the opening session that the unified economic report of 2021 had estimated that Arab states had lost $220 billion worth of production in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and that the losses constituted a major regional challenge and had contributed to the deterioration of the situation in countries such as Tunisia, Lebanon and Sudan which were already suffering from conflicts.

The secretary-general expressed the hope that COP27, which Egypt is hosting in November, will foreground the interests of Arab states.

The ASDW was organised by the Arab League, in cooperation with Egypts Ministry of Planning, the EU, the World Bank, and the UN.

The session Inspiring Arab Youth Initiatives in Sustainable Development provided a platform for successful sustainable development projects. As part of the session, Basma Tawakol, founder of Dayra, a sustainable retail platform that sells preowned high-quality clothing at affordable prices, explained that the project meets six of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The pandemic encouraged more people to benefit from our project as it offered affordable prices via online shopping, she explained, before calling on the government to be more open to youth initiatives, projects, and social enterprises.

Planning Minister Al-Said, who attended the session, said all the showcased stories were inspiring, and called on the Arab League, in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning, to establish a website on which young people can discuss their experiences, stories, and the challenges they face.

The Arab Sustainability Initiative, which was reviewed in a separate session, represents a new approach by the Arab League to helping Arab countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals while recovering from the pandemic.

The evidence-based initiative uses data to develop strategies that contribute to sustainable development and promote community projects, entrepreneurship, and localisation.

Ehab Shalabi, chairman of DCarbon Egypt, a consulting firm specialising in managing sustainable transition, stressed the importance of the Sendai Framework, the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, in protecting development gains.

The Sendai Framework, together with the SDGs, provided a global framework for all of us, he explained. Now we need additional national and regional frameworks to implement its provisions. As part of this process, he called for an Arab council for sustainability standards to be established.

Moez Al-Shohdi, head of the Regional Food Banks Network, underlined the importance of inculcating awareness about sustainability at an early age. Including food banks in the sixth primary year school curriculum would help teach children to serve society through donations or voluntary work, he said.

On the second day of the forum, a roundtable on the mid-term review of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Sendai Framework, was held.

Mami Mizutori, from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), said the three agreements aim to build humans and ecosystem resilience and promote more risk-informed investment. The UN General Assembly will hold a midterm review of the agreements next year and is expected to renew commitment to the agreements and recommend accelerated implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Mizoturi said that while the Covid-19 pandemic had slowed down the implementation of the agreements, the UNDRR is looking forward to the day when we stop managing disasters after they happen and begin managing them before they do, by prevention.

Emad Adli, National Coordinator of the Arab Network for Environment and Development, outlined recommendations for containing the fallout of disasters across the region. They included a greater role for civil society organisations in spreading awareness, including through school curricula, documenting wrong doing, promoting dialogue, and accessing resources.

ASDW, launched in 2017 under the Arab League, provides an opportunity for Arab ministers, senior officials, key decision-makers and representatives of the private sector to meet and discuss the best practices in implementing and accelerating the 2030 sustainability goals.

Rola Dashti, executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), and Ayat Suleiman, regional director for the World Bank Groups Sustainable Development Department for the Middle East and North Africa, attended the ASDW opening.



*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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By Trend

Seven people have been involved in the trial process on charges of illegal migration in Azerbaijan, Nemat Avazov, head of the Investigation Department of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office, said, Trend reports.

According to Avazov, there are criminal cases opened on the organization of illegal migration and the issuance of visas on forged documents.

"For these cases, a criminal case was opened against seven people, and 10 people were put on the wanted list. During the searches, 97 fake seals were found. The prosecutor's office also interrogated people who returned from abroad," he added.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock discussed many issues during her visit to Egypt last Saturday but it was her remarks linking German arms exports to Egypt with human rights that attracted attention.

Egypt does not build its international relations on conditionality, but on non-intervention in the internal affairs of others within the framework of the UN and international conventions, said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri. Egypt turned to Germany for arms acquisitions in order to protect its national security and borders. Egypt has never acted aggressively.

Shoukri was addressing a press conference alongside the German foreign minister who ended her three-day trip to the Middle East with a visit to Cairo. She met with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and her Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukri.

Shoukri pointed out that a militarily strong Egypt contributes to security and stability in the region and in Europe. The actions our naval forces have undertaken since 2016 to obstruct any type of illegal migration to Europe is something that I believe matters to our partners in Europe. Egypts confrontation against terrorist organisations has prevented them from infiltrating Europe. These are the aspects of the relationship between Egyptian weapons acquisitions and protecting European interests, he said.

Baerbocks remarks did not come as a surprise to Egypt. The German government, under Angela Merkel, used similar terms after the 30 June Revolution that overthrew Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt. Since then, Egyptian-German military diplomacy has gone beyond weapons deals, including the sale of the German made Type-209 submarine, to the joint manufacture of the MEKO class frigate. This is the second major joint naval defence manufacturing project with a European power, the first being with France and the French-designed Gowind class corvette.

While Egypt is keen to continue to develop cooperation with its European partners in order to strengthen its defence capacities, defence and armaments experts in Egypt say that Egypt is also able to further diversify its sources of weapons. Egypt now has many alternatives, and no longer has to knock on the door of any particular power.

Egypt has faced linkage between arms and human rights from other powers. It was a French position, at first, only for Egypt and France to conclude defence deals that included the Mistral helicopter carrier and other naval vessels, Rafale fighter jets, a defence satellite, and the above-mentioned joint manufacturing project. Washington has also introduced restrictions to arms sales and military aid to Egypt in connection with human rights, deducting $130 million in military assistance to Egypt last year, but agreements still went ahead. The current administration has approved the sale of C-130 Super Hercules aircraft and three SPS-48 radars to Egypt.

It is important to bear in mind the distinction between overriding mutual interests, such as the role Egypts military plays in countering and reducing major threats to the region and to Europe, and the attitudes of political parties. For example, the German foreign ministers remarks reflect the position of the Green Party to which she belongs and which is now part of the ruling coalition in Berlin. Partisan outlooks also play a part in the formulation of congressional policy in the US. Governments, however, have acquired a more nuanced understanding through practice and experience. They realise that Egypts sensitivity to the linkage stems from its principled opposition to outside intervention in domestic affairs, and from the terrorist threat it faced directly. They also acknowledge that Egypt has successfully reduced the threat of terrorism in Sinai and elsewhere with the utmost professionalism, and that major development projects in Sinai have been instrumental in ending the peninsulas role as a recruitment ground for extremism.

In many cases that have political dimensions, such as those involving activists, Egyptian authorities have shown flexibility, releasing some activists following judicial proceedings, and reviewing other cases. Moreover, some observers in Egypt have urged accelerating the judicial process. Nevertheless, there are limits on how far it is possible to influence the independent judiciary, which draws a distinction, based on law, between ordinary activists and those suspected of involvement in terrorist activity or membership of designated terrorist organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Other Arab countries have encountered experiences similar to Egypts. Saudi Arabia and the UAE faced a problem with Washington in connection with the war in Yemen after President Joe Biden took office. Before the year was out, the Biden administration realised that these two countries faced a greater danger than it initially perceived and, accordingly, the US administration is now helping to strengthen their defence capacities in order to confront the threat emanating from Yemen and the Houthi militia there.

There is no reason why Egypt is obliged to adopt Western outlooks with regard to court cases, or towards human rights in general, and it appears that crucial mutual interests, combined with the very real national security concerns of the countries in question, have opened the eyes of Western governments to the pressures its allies face and to the fact that human rights allegations are often made by parties that are hostile to Western powers and their interests.

The German foreign minister discussed many issues while in Cairo. Egypt is a major partner of Germany, reflected in the fact that Berlin has exported more arms to Egypt than to any other country. Economics is not the sole factor here. Berlin appreciates the role Egypt has played in a number of major issues, not least the Libyan question, one of the main items on Baerbocks agenda during her visit. Germany hosted the international conferences that gave rise to the agreements known as the Berlin process, the internationally backed roadmap which aims to restore stability to Libya.

Egypts rejection of interference in its domestic affairs does not mean it is indifferent to Western criticisms of its human rights record. In fact, Egypt has already demonstrated a determination to improve in this area, as evidenced by the National Strategy for Human Rights that President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi introduced in September, and by the actions taken by the National Council for Human Rights. These policies show that developing human rights is important to Egypt and Egyptian interests, per se, and not a response to outside pressure.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Mitigating the impacts of climate change was high on the agenda of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisis and President Emmanuel Macrons summit last week.

President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi paid a two-day visit to France last week to attend the One Ocean Summit in the port city of Brest, and hold a meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

Al-Sisi told Macron that Egypt attaches particular importance to cooperation with France, especially in transferring French technology and expertise to Egypt, and that Egypt is keen to consult with France on issues of security and stability in the East Mediterranean and Africa, according to presidential spokesperson Bassam Radi.

France in general, and President Macron, in particular, see Egypt under President Al-Sisi as having a huge influence in the Arab world, Africa, the Middle East and East Mediterranean, and that reinforcing relations helps serve French national interests, Alaa Youssef, Egypts ambassador to France, told the Middle East News Agency (MENA). He added that Al-Sisis regular visits to France, and his close personal relationship with President Macron, had led to a qualitative leap in relations between Cairo and Paris.

After receiving Al-Sisi on 11 February, Macron said France was seeking greater momentum in its bilateral relations with Egypt.

We are committed to helping Egypt fight terrorism and extremist agendas, and achieve comprehensive development, said Macron.

The meeting tackled a host of regional issues. President Macron expressed appreciation for Egypts efforts to preserve Libyas national institutions and pave the way to a peaceful settlement among rival Libyan factions, said Radi. It was agreed that joint efforts between the two sides would be exerted to help Libya restore security and stability, especially through the exit of mercenary and foreign forces from Libyan land.

Radi indicated that the summit also covered cooperation and coordination between Egypt and France ahead of Egypts hosting of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November in Sharm El-Sheikh.

President Al-Sisi said his decision to accept President Macrons invitation to participate in the One Ocean Summit reflected Egypts keenness to cooperate with France and the importance Egypt gives to protecting the marine environment, preserving biological diversity and fighting marine pollution.

Addressing the One Ocean Summit on 11 February, Al-Sisi said that climate change is the most difficult challenge facing the world and that international efforts to protect the oceans from its impact needed to be stepped up.

Egypt, said Al-Sisi, has made significant steps towards becoming a hub for renewable energy and reducing marine transport sector emissions.

As chair of the conference of the UN Parties Agreement on Biological Diversity, Egypt has called for new environmental targets, including protection of the marine environment.

The worlds seas and oceans have absorbed 90 per cent of the heat generated by global warming since the 1970s, increasing acidity and reducing oxygen levels which has had a devastating impact on marine life.

Al-Sisi said Egypt, as chair of COP27, will engage in constructive dialogue on protecting the seas and oceans, and that Cairo was committed to the goals of both the Global Ocean Alliance and the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People.

President Al-Sisi held talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, and Tunisian Prime Minister Najla Bouden on the sidelines of the One Ocean Summit.

Political analysts in Egypt say the regularity of meetings between Al-Sisi and Macron reflect the depth of the alliance between Cairo and Paris.

There is now significant foreign policy and economic coordination between the two, says Tarek Abdel-Hadi, a member of the Senates Foreign Relations Committee. The most significant development in relations between Egypt and France has been in the areas of security, intelligence, and military cooperation.

A study released by the US Carnegie for International Peace Institute last month said the alliance between Egypt and France is based on a complex set of financial interests, parallel foreign policy objectives, and ideological affinities.

Shared financial interests, according to the study, include massive arms deals between Cairo and Paris. Between 2016 and 2020 French arms sales to Egypt increased by 44 per cent, compared to 2011-2015. Egypt is the second largest customer of French arms after India, with military purchases focused on Rafale jets and advanced electronic surveillance systems.

The report also revealed that France is investing 4.6 billion euros in Egyptian infrastructure projects, including 800 million euros in government loans, one billion euros from the French Development Agency, and two billion euros in bank loans guaranteed by the French state.

Trade between Egypt and France reached $3 billion in 2020, a 20 per cent increase since 2019. There are 160 French companies operating in Egypt, employing 40,000 workers and investing around 5 billion euros.

The Carnegie report also argued that the political crisis in Libya helped cement the alliance between Cairo and Paris, with both countries calling for the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Libya.

The report also referred to Al-Sisis and Macrons shared opposition to political Islam.

When Turkey called for boycotting French products, Egypt took the side of France, rebutting Turkeys call as having nothing to do with Islam, said the report. As a result, Macron decided in October 2020 to decorate Al-Sisi with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour during a state visit to Paris in appreciation of his role in supporting French-Egyptian relations.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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EFG-Hermes, the crown jewel of Egypts financial sector and a leading regional investment bank with a commercial bank under its management, might soon have an Emirati owner if an offer by the First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the largest bank in the UAE, to buy 51 per cent of EFG-Hermes succeeds.

The offer is at LE19 per share, putting the overall value of EFG-Hermes at LE18.5 billion ($1.1 billion).

According to Egyptian Stock Market regulations, if a potential investor wants to buy more than one-third of a listed company, they have to make a mandatory offer to purchase 100 per cent of the shares at the same price. It will then be up to the other shareholders to sell or keep their holdings.

According to its website, 52 per cent of EFG is floated on the stock market, and the rest is owned by private entities including the Bank of New York Mellon and the French investment bank Natixis.

A disclosure by EFGs board of directors on Thursday noted that it had held a meeting to discuss the offer and that it was in the process of appointing an international financial adviser and an Egyptian law firm to advise it on the potential transaction.

Finalisation would be conditional on the completion of satisfactory due diligence and the required regulatory approvals, the statement said. Radwa Al-Sweify, head of research at Al-Ahly Pharos, an investment bank, said the due diligence would take about 60 days and could extend for an additional 60.

Founded in 1984, EFG is Egypts largest investment bank that has activities in 13 countries, among them the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, and Pakistan. Its scope of business includes brokerage, asset management, investment banking, private equity, leasing, and micro-finance.

It has also tapped the commercial banking segment through its acquisition of a 40 per cent stake in Beirut-based Credit Libanais in 2010, but it sold this in 2016 as the political crisis in Syria negatively affected the Lebanese economy.

In November last year, it successfully completed the purchase of 51 per cent of the Arab International Bank from the Egyptian authorities.

The proposed purchase of EFG is not FABs debut in the Egyptian market, as it bought Bank Audis Egypt unit last year. FAB, formed in 2017 from the merger of two leading Emirati banks, is half owned by sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment and members of the Emirates ruling family.

FABs total assets exceeded one trillion dirhams ($272 billion) at the end of last year.

According to Bloomberg, the bank is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, a brother of the countrys national security adviser.

FABs offer is another show of Emirati interest in Egyptian blue chips. As 2021 was nearing its end, a consortium of Aldar Properties and sovereign wealth fund ADQ acquired 90 per cent of the Egyptian real-estate developer Sixth of October for Investment in a LE6.1 billion deal.

If the EFG purchase goes through, the acquisition would give FAB a larger stake in the Egyptian market, in addition to a foothold in several emerging markets that EFG works in, including Kenya, Nigeria, and Bangladesh.

EFG has an impressive track record in the Gulf region as it has advised on major deals such as the initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi oil giant Aramco. According to Reuters, EFGs stock brokerage business ranked second among 28 firms this year on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. FAB Securities came in ninth position.

On the Dubai bourse, EFG was ranked first, with an almost 16 per cent market share, among 25 brokerage firms. FAB Securities ranked seventh.

The potential transaction is in line with FABs long-term strategic ambitions and beneficial for both parties, providing enhanced scale, specialisation and significant revenue synergies in investment banking, a FAB statement noted.

Some analysts believe the acquisition would increase FABs total assets and revenues by 1.7 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively.

Prime Holdings, a local investment bank, said that EFG has been a target for acquisition twice before, the first not materialising because the investor did not provide proof of funding. The second was a merger deal with Qatars QInvest and would have led to the regions largest investment bank.

However, despite EFGs approval of the offer, the deal failed to secure approval from the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) a year after it was made public.

A key question now is whether the regulatory bodies, mainly in Egypt, will give the green light for the present deal to go through, since Hermes also owns a local commercial bank, the Arab Investment Bank (AIB), according to Prime.

The fact that FAB acquired Banque Audis Egypt-based unit also complicates the situation as the question is whether an indirect stake in another bank would be an issue for competition in the Egyptian banking sector, a note said.

As for the value offered for EFG, while a FAB statement noted that it represents an attractive liquidity event and a compelling value proposition for EFG shareholders, local analysts disagree.

Prime compared the present offer to Qinvests 10 years ago, which valued EFGs core businesses, after excluding some major assets, at $417 million or 40 per cent of EFGs market cap in mid-2012. If all assets had been included, EFGs market value would have been around $1.3 billion.

FABs offer translates to a $1.1 billion initial valuation, 29 per cent below the US dollar-based value 10 years ago.

Meanwhile, Al-Ahly Pharos put the fair value of EFG at LE20.2 to LE23.79 per share, or 15 per cent less than what it considers to be a fair value for the company.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Development and security are key issues for this weeks AU-EU summit, and the conflict over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is central to both.

The two-day African Union (AU)-European Union (EU) summit opens in Brussels on 17 February with an agenda that includes green transition, sustainable growth, improving health, education and job creation, managing undocumented migration, and combating militant groups.

The summit will aim to produce a clear plan for the disbursement of over 130 billion euros earmarked by the EU for projects in African states. There is, too, the possibility of additional allocations being agreed on a bilateral level.

Agreement on the general outline of initiatives will be much easier than agreeing details of specific country projects given the latter will require mechanisms to oversee the monitoring of disbursement and spending, a process that has an inevitable political component.

While EU sources insist there will be no political conditionality involved, they add that there will be certain requirements, including financial transparency, good governance, and compatibility with joint EU-AU interests.

For example, we understand the expansion of Chinese interests across the continent and do not expect our African partners to compromise their relations with Beijing. But we will expect them to strike a balance between Chinas political agenda and the EUs political and economic cooperation scheme, said one Cairo-based European diplomat.

A second Cairo-based European diplomat expressed concern over the Russian presence, especially via private security companies, in parts of Africa, particularly in the Sahel and Sahara.

EU member states might have conflicting agendas in Africa, but at the end of the day they have concerns, which are shared by the US, over the growing economic, political, and security presence of Russia and China in many parts of the world, not least Africa, says Ayman Abdel-Wahab, a senior political analyst at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

Following a meeting between the presidents of Russia and China on 4 February, the two leaders issued a statement reflecting their joint strategic vision on expanding Moscows and Beijings influence. Both China and Russia, they said, will continue to work to strengthen their economic and security presence around the globe.

They are already doing this in Africa, and it is a source of worry for EU member states, especially those, like France, with a longstanding presence on the continent, says Abdel-Wahab.

France, as this years president of the EU, has worked closely with Senegal, the current chair of the AU, and other leading African nations, to prepare for the summit. Sources involved in the preparations say the summits priority will be to promote stability and development across Africa, a goal that EU states see as incompatible with Russian and Chinese attempts to impose their hegemony on Africa.

The same sources add that the programmes and pledges that will be announced during the summit have already been the subject of intensive consultations, and will exclude any mention of managing foreign interventions in the affairs of African states, or the political conflicts through which some African states are passing.

The summit convenes against a backdrop of increased political tensions in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and the Sahara, and between Algeria and Morocco, and Sudan and Ethiopia, and at a time when Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Mozambique are experiencing internal political and military conflicts.

European and African diplomatic sources say these issues will be addressed in sideline talks, not in summit meetings. According to African diplomatic sources, the situations in Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Somalia are all likely to be addressed on the fringes of the summit.

These, and other matters of relevance to the security and stability of Africa, were raised earlier this month during the regular summit of the AU in the Addis Ababa headquarters of the pan-African organisation, though no plan of action was agreed.

Meanwhile, Egyptian government sources say Egypt will use the summit as an opportunity to highlight the interconnectivity of stability and development. For example, when we talk about the need to find a fair and final resolution for the conflict that Egypt and Sudan have with Ethiopia over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam what we are really talking about is stability and development, said one.

The three Nile states have failed for more than a decade to reach a legally binding agreement on the filling and management of the mega dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, source of the vast majority of Egypts already inadequate supply of water.

The intransigence of Ethiopia and the failure of the international community to bring it back to the negotiating table with the intention of reaching an agreement sooner rather than later threatens to undermine development, and also stability in Egypt and Sudan, the same source said.

According to Abdel-Wahab, the connection of water, development, and stability has to be addressed, not just in relation to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) but also with a view to managing water resources across Africa.

When it comes to GERD in particular, the AU and other organisations that are supposed to mediate international relations have been ineffective, says Abdel-Wahab. Ethiopia, he adds, has been able to promote the narrative that without GERD it will be deprived of development, while Egypt and Sudan still need to convince the world that without a fair deal between the three riparian countries all three will see their development, stability, and security compromised.

Egyptian government officials also argue that optimising the use of water resources is central to tacking the impacts of climate change and global warming.

Later this year, Egypt will chair the International Conference on Climate Change, COP27. According to Alain Holleville, Frances special envoy for the preparation of the AU-EU summit who was in Cairo this week for talks with Egyptian officials, climate change will be a key focus of the Brussels summit, and as chair of COP27 Egypt will play a major role in directing this focus. Holleville added that given its weight in the continent, Egypts contribution to the AU-EU summit will be consequential on many files.

Egypt needs to be very proactive across all African security and development issues, says Abdel-Wahab. He argues that, at a time when Africa is the subject of growing attention on the part of international powers, without a significant and active Egyptian role Cairos views on the future of the continent are in danger of being overlooked.



Meanwhile, during the past two weeks President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has held talks with Senegalese President Macky Sall, who was in Cairo on an official visit, and with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the One Ocean Summit.

Putting Egypts views on Africas future on the table during international discussions was one of the main reasons behind Cairos enthusiasm for the launch of the AU-EU cooperation mechanism when it hosted the first ever summit of the two organisations in Cairo in the summer of 2000, say Egyptian diplomats.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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A possible Russian invasion of Ukraine will have important impacts on the Middle East and North Africa region.

Though the rising tension between Russia and Ukraine may seem to be a long way away from the Middle East, the impact of a war between them would be strongly felt in the region. While the Ukraine crisis may look like a conflict between Russia and the West led by the US, its ramifications affect the world as a whole.

Even before any military escalation begins, international and regional positions are shifting. China used the Winter Olympics in Beijing to host Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example, along with the leaders of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar.

With the Ukraine crisis in the background and amid the rising rift between the West and some of its traditional partners, Chinese President Xi Jinping tried to garner the cooperation of some of those most at odds with the US or concerned at seeing it disengaging from their region.

During the Sino-Russian summit meeting in Beijing, a number of energy deals were signed to increase Russian oil and gas supplies to China, helping Russian companies like Roseneft and Gazprom to shift their exports away from Europe and the West in general. The deals should also help China to ensure it has the energy it needs to power its economy and lessen its reliance on imports from troubled sources like Iran.

The presence of three Arab leaders in Beijing earlier this month was also significant. Some commentators drew the conclusion that key states in the Middle East are trying to widen their options, rather than taking sides in the struggle over Ukraine.

A joint commentary by researchers at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) last week also concluded that the Ukraine crisis is having more of an impact on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region than anticipated.

They said that Russia might use the conflict to affect the current negotiations in Vienna to restore the Iran nuclear agreement between world powers and Tehran.

Russia has played a constructive role in the talks and has been working closely with Western actors to draw Iran back into compliance. But the crisis in Ukraine could push Moscow towards the more disruptive approach of easing pressure on Tehran, the researchers said.

Iran may also feel that rising US-Russia tensions and higher oil prices give it breathing room and increase its leverage in the negotiations.

Middle Eastern states are likely to be hedging their bets in the Ukraine crisis, the ECFR paper suggested, adding that the UAE will be wary of alienating Russia by aligning with the West. This consideration may also limit Riyadhs willingness to use the crisis to try to seize some of Russias current share of the oil market.

However, the MENA regions relations with the US and the West are unlikely to suffer major strain as a result of the crisis over Ukraine. One former British diplomat who has worked in the region told Al-Ahram Weekly that there was likely to be a pragmatic stand by the Arab countries.

It is more a case of keeping all the doors open and diversifying foreign relations to serve national and regional interests rather than taking strong positions siding with this party or the other, he said.

The Arab countries might also be in a better position to follow this course than other Middle Eastern countries like Turkey, Iran, or Israel.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finds himself in a difficult position, since as a member of NATO, Turkey would be a de facto party to the conflict on the side of the West. However, Ankara cannot afford to fall out with Russia due to its economic reliance on cooperation with Moscow.

In 2015, a spat between Ankara and Moscow led to Russian tourists staying away from Turkish resorts, incurring heavy losses for Turkeys economy.

One major side-effect of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine will be to exacerbate the energy crisis in Europe. The European countries rely heavily on natural gas imports from Russia that account for almost 40 per cent of their consumption.

The US has attempted to supplement European gas supplies with new energy sources, mainly US liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, this will not make up for the Russian gas supplies to European countries, and they are turning to other gas producers like Algeria and Qatar, hoping that they will be ready to increase supplies to Europe if the Russian taps are turned off.

Problems here include the fact that Qatar already has around 90 per cent of its production assigned to other customers via long-term supply contracts. Although it has spare capacity to produce gas for spot sale, this will not be sufficient to meet European demand.

Algeria would be keen to increase production and export more gas to Europe, but underinvestment in the sector will make it difficult to pump and transport much more. Algerian gas supplies to Spain were recently negatively affected by the closure of the Maghreb-Europe pipeline due to political tensions between Morocco and Algeria.

A war in Ukraine would also impact humanitarian crises in the MENA region, indirectly affecting areas of ongoing conflict.

A list of areas likely to be affected listed by the ECFR includes damaging ongoing regional stabilisation efforts in countries like Libya and Syria and prompting an increase in global energy and wheat prices that would hurt fragile states in the Levant and North Africa.

A possible Russian invasion of Ukraine and military conflict involving the US and Europe would lead to turmoil in the global markets. Oil and gas prices would shoot up, as would the prices of wheat, other grains, and other commodities.

According to Washington-based Middle East Institute fellow Cristian-Dan Tataru, an estimated 12 per cent of the total global grain trade passes through the Bosphorus every year, with many of these shipments heading to MENA countries.

Ukraine exports 95 per cent of its grain through the Black Sea, and more than 50 per cent of its wheat exports went to the MENA region in 2020.

Half of Lebanons and 43 per cent of Libyas wheat imports came from Ukraine. Egypt also relies heavily on imports from the Black Sea region, Tataru wrote.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Some point to the development mega projects, such as the highway, bridge and overpass networks and the urban renewal and expansion projects that are visibly transforming the face of the country as never before. But that is merely the infrastructure for the new republic which, in fact, should be based on investment in people and the establishment of a new way of life for them.

President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi stressed this point when he launched the concept during his opening address to the Ministerial Conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Women in July 2021. That occasion, he said, confirmed the birth of the new republic which is open to all, without distinction or discrimination, and based on the principles of democracy, justice, equality and citizenship.

We should bear in mind that, in choosing this name, the president averted a futile debate over whether the new republic was the second or the third. In one numbering system, Abdel-Nasser established the first and Sadat ushered in the second with his political and economic reorientation and the 1971 Constitution.

According to others, Nassers and Sadats regimes were two eras in the same republic. All agree that the Mubarak regime was an extension of Sadats and its outlooks. As for the rule of Mohamed Morsi, that was but a brief transitional that the people did not want to take root. But there is no doubt that, on July 2013, a new republic was born by dint of the historical break marked by the dual grassroots uprising that overthrew Mubarak in 2011 and Muslim Brotherhood rule in 2013. Then the constitutional referendum in 2014 established the new legitimacy.

The new republic immediately set out to build vitally needed infrastructure, as well as to modernise healthcare services, address the needs of youth, women and the handicapped, eliminate slums and develop rural areas in the Delta and Upper Egypt. That spirit is epitomised by the Decent Life initiative. But what I am looking forward to is a document embodying the philosophy of our new republic and serving as a compass to orient the state and society in the upcoming period. I wonder what such a document would look like.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Exactly 60 years ago in 1962, the US under Democratic Party president John F Kennedy and the former Soviet Union headed by secretary-general of the Soviet Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev were on the brink of a world war, which unlike World War I and II of the 20th century would have been a nuclear war.

Despite the fact that the two leaders had been under tremendous strategic, military, and political pressures to settle the Cuban Missile Crisis  the cause of this threat  in the best interests of their respective countries, they had also shown the utmost restraint and the political will not to unleash their nuclear arsenals in a war that would know no winners.

The two superpowers of the time were also involved in what has become known as track two diplomacy, in other words a parallel diplomatic channel to the traditional one. This second diplomatic track proved to be very effective in bringing about a satisfactory agreement between the two superpowers that was based on compromises that served their strategic interests and helped defuse the most dangerous military confrontation between the US and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Despite the frenetic diplomatic contacts and efforts by all the parties concerned, mainly the US and Russia, the present crisis over Ukraine is still unresolved, and Russian forces are still deployed along the Russian-Ukrainian border and on the border of Belarus with Ukraine. To make matters more complicated, Moscow has also launched large-scale military exercises with Minsk from 10 to 20 February, putting the might of the Russian army on display.

Footage of the forces taking part in these exercises has been published with the intention of sending a message to NATO and Ukraine that barring a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis and one that would meet at least some of the Russian demands, Russia has the political will and the military might to have its way in Ukraine.

Hectic diplomacy called Allied Resolve 2022 preceded the Russian exercises. A few days before they started, French President Emmanuel Macron met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow for five hours on 7 February, and the following day he travelled to Kiev to confer with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The French government has been trying to contain any future escalation between the West and Russia over Ukraine and assist in elaborating a diplomatic solution to the crisis. The French president said that he had made some proposals to Putin in his meeting without elaborating what they were. The Russian president promised to keep the dialogue going, while indicating that Moscow was still waiting to see whether NATO would provide Russia with the security guarantees that it had demanded the previous week in writing.

In a joint press conference with Putin, Macron did not leave any doubt that he wants to solve the Ukraine crisis in a European framework. He stressed that Russia is a European power and that whoever believes in Europe must know how to work with Russia and find the ways and means to construct the European future among Europeans.

He made clear that he aimed to secure military stability and prevent the outbreak of hostilities in the short term. As for a long-term solution, Macron only talked, realistically enough, of finding medium-term solutions. What was interesting in his analysis was his emphasis, rightly so, that there can be no security for Europeans if there is no security for Russia.

In order to allow Europe to contribute to a diplomatic solution, Berlin then hosted a trilateral summit on 8 February between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Macron, and President of Poland Andrzej Duda. The three European leaders emphasised that their overriding objective was the preservation of peace in Europe. They warned Russia of dire consequences politically, economically, and surely strategically if it invades Ukraine.

While the Europeans were trying hard to contain the situation, Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby informed the press on 9 February that we have continued to see even over the last 24 hours additional capabilities flow from elsewhere in Russia to the border with Ukraine and Belarus. He went on to say that we also see indications that additional battalion tactical groups are on their way. And so, every day he [Putin] adds to his options.

No wonder the US administration, starting from 11 February, has been raising the alarm that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent and could take place before the end of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on 20 February. It is worth noting in this respect that senior US officials have also previously talked about a Russian invasion taking place after 20 February and not before then.

In this context of heightened tension, US President Joe Biden talked with Putin on the telephone for the third time on 12 February. Their conversation lasted for an hour, but a senior US official said that the discussions had not yielded a fundamental change in the dynamic. Biden warned of swift and severe costs for Russia if it moves against Ukraine. The two leaders agreed to remain engaged, however, regardless of whether Moscow decides to invade or not.

Commenting on the summit call, a Kremlin official quoted in the Wall Street Journal on 13 February said that Moscow would soon announce what actions it would take in response to proposals by the US administration and NATO. He added that the US had again ignored Russias central demands of rolling back NATOs eastward expansion and barring US weapons systems from reaching Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also had a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on 12 February, during which he said that Russia had to de-escalate, meaning drawing down forces already deployed on the Ukrainian border without indicating what steps Washington and NATO would take to provide the Kremlin with a justifiable and credible cause for such a move on Russias part.

Maybe track two diplomacy is an avenue that should be seriously explored by Washington and Moscow, especially since the two superpowers have a precedent for it that dates back 60 years. Back then, they used it to save face while preserving their security and strategic interests by negotiating a political compromise of historic proportions against the odds.

* The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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On 6 October, The Hill featured an article by Reid Wilson entitled, On The Trail: The new American malaise. He stated the problem as follows:

The United States economy added more than 7 million jobs over the last 12 months for the first time in history. Wages are rising, the national gross domestic product is booming, and the end of the pandemic appears just around the corner after the vast majority of Americans opted to take the safe and effective vaccines created by American scientists. But Americans arent feeling it. In fact, they are in a historically bad mood, about the country, about their leaders and about their own lives.

Evidence for this can be found in the fact that, for nearly two decades, more Americans have said the country is on the wrong track than heading in the right direction. More than half the country has said the country is moving in the wrong track in every Gallup poll since December 2003.

This condition may apply to many countries that have achieved historically unprecedented levels of economic growth and technological advancement in the three decades, since the end of the Cold War. Maybe the cause is a globally widespread scepticism about the integrity and efficacy of political leadership. In the US, the sharp swings in policy outlooks from George Bush Sr through Bill Clinton, George Bush Jr, Barrack Obama and Donald Trump to Joe Biden today have deepened polarisation in their society. This, in turn, testifies to an inability to rally a consensus around higher strategic goals and, indeed, around the key institutions of government.

According to the above-mentioned Gallup polls, in the entire period since the re-election of Bush Jr in 2004, the American publics disapproval of the presidents job performance has considerably outstripped approval. This speaks of a general state of anxiety. It means that voters who go to the polls to elect a president soon succumb to a sense of disappointment and dismay that makes them unwilling to approve of a presidents performance, regardless even of the facts. Such a condition is indicative of deep structural rifts in the political system. These are evidenced not only in the behaviour of the two main parties in Congress but also in the decline in the position and prestige of the US in the international order.

On 25 January, Russia and China issued a joint declaration unlike anything preceding it regarding international disputes and tensions over Ukraine, the South China Sea, the Middle East or the Iranian nuclear question. It was a gauntlet thrown down in the context of the US-led world order since the end of the Cold War. There have been several drives to revise the international order in world history in the past two centuries (since 1815). This one aims not only to change the undesirable aspects of Western hegemony but also to lay the foundations for competitive cooperation and joint management of global challenges, and simultaneously to redraw the lines between rivals in the light of changes in the international power balance in recent years.

The declaration starts with a discussion of democracy and human rights, the field that Biden championed upon taking office and dividing the world into two: democratic countries and authoritarian ones. China and Russia challenged this division, questioning the very premises behind the criteria the US used to determine who falls on which side of the divide. They also urged a return to the founding principles of international relations since the Treaty of Westphalia which established the sovereign right of nation states to manage their domestic affairs and the principle that any problems that arose in this regard would be discussed in the relevant international forums and institutions. Accordingly, the joint declaration proceeded from the premise that the US had no inherent right to appoint itself judge and jury over the rest of the international community in which differences abound between the character and circumstances of its members. The authors of the declaration had no problem with cooperating with others in many important areas, such as the fight against terrorism, but they rejected outside meddling in their internal affairs and, above all, the various colour revolutions that spread from Eastern Europe to Hong Kong (as well as to the Middle East).

It is natural that China should be concerned about US military interventions in the South China Sea and Pacific and that Russia should feel directly threatened by NATO expansion in Eastern Europe. However, their joint resolve as two superpowers in a tri-polar world is essentially aimed at the third pole, the US. The way power is calculated has changed considerably since the end of the Cold War when some US think tanks proclaimed the end of history. The fact is that developments in the US since then are not just about the tremors rattling its system of government or about its waning desire (until Biden) to lead the world morally and politically. They were about something deeper. The balance of power in the world had changed. Military and economic might were still important, but other factors had acquired increasing weight. An example is efficacy and achievement  the ability to get things done  in which area the US had scored poorly under Trump and Biden in terms of responding to Covid-19. American democracy has lost much of its ability to achieve consensus between and within the Democratic and Republican parties and this has contributed to paralysing the federal governments ability to marshal the resources to build American capacities.

Such fatigue and decline is evident in Europe as well. The starting point for this may have been when the EU agreed to the British suggestion, not to deepen integration but to expand the EU to incorporate former members of the Warsaw Pact in Eastern Europe, The expansion process, which would extend to NATO, created huge burdens for the EU. The irony is that Britain, which had been the main motivator behind this, refused to join the Schengen system that created a common security zone or the Eurozone that created a single economic and fiscal system. Then it performed Brexit, setting into motion the disintegration of the EU. The political and economic decline has been accompanied by seismic shifts towards the far right in Eastern European governments which had worked closely with the ultra right that brought Trump to power in the US.

The disintegrative trend in the EU is a multifaceted question. Suffice it to say here that the phenomenon, along with the US malaise, is leading to a moment of revisionism and its accompanying convulsions until a new order can be established.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisis decision last week to appoint the first Coptic Christian president of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) is indeed a historic development that deserves to be marked and celebrated. Judge Boulos Fahmi Eskandar took over from Said Marei Mohamed Gad, having been selected from among the five oldest of 15 sitting judges on the bench.

Since he took office in June 2014, Al-Sisi has been determined to put into practice a long-standing Egyptian slogan raised by nationalist leaders who were demanding Egypts independence and an end to British colonialism in the early 20th century: Egypt belongs to all Egyptians.

This was no easy choice or task, considering the ugly year Egypt experienced when Muslim Brotherhood leaders were in power in 2012, debating whether the president of a Muslim-majority country should even attend Christian religious ceremonies. The Brotherhoods answer was: No. Churches were burned down and attacked both during the Brotherhoods rule, and immediately after the ouster of the late president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July, 2013.

That was only the tip of the iceberg, and an accumulation of decades in which the Brotherhood and other extremist religious groups promoted a sectarian agenda aimed at dividing Egyptians and undermining national unity. Without such unity, the president has repeatedly stated, Egypt will never enjoy true stability or benefit from the energy and creativity of all its citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs or belonging.

As soon as the president took office, he sought to mend ties with Egyptian Christians, compensating them for the years of fear and isolation they suffered when the Brotherhood controlled the political scene between early 2011 and the summer of 2013. No other Egyptian president has been as determined to regularly attend celebration marking Coptic Christmas on 7 January each year, together with Pope Towadros II, patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Laws were passed to facilitate the building of new churches and to give legal status to hundreds of worship spaces that Christian communities built informally to overcome the severe restrictions imposed over the past decades, and prominent Christians were appointed ministers and governors, including the governor of Damietta who was also the first woman to occupy such top post.

However, the appointment of Chief Judge Eskandar as head of SCC is the most daring step President Al-Sisi has taken over almost eight years since he came to power, confirming his commitment and belief that all Egyptians must enjoy equal rights, as enshrined in the countrys constitution and laws. Among the extremist ideas political Islamic groups had sought to propagate was the idea that non-Muslims should be allowed to assume top state posts. In their sectarian and extremist ideology Egypt is defined as an Islamic state and not one where all citizens enjoy equal rights.

According to Egypts 2014 Constitution, the head of the SCC is the second in line to take over the presidency in case of any emergency or the sudden inability of the president to carry out his duties. In such a case, the parliament speaker would temporarily take over the presidency until a new president is elected in 90 days. If parliament is not in session, the interim president would be the head of the SCC.

In June 2019, Al-Sisi ratified amended laws passed by parliament, which regulate the appointment of heads of top judicial bodies, including the SCC. Under the amended laws, the president has the authority to choose the head of the SCC from among the five longest-serving deputy chairs for a one-time term of four years, which ends if the age of retirement is reached. Al-Sisi intentionally chose Judge Eskandar.

No Egyptian Christian had been appointed to this high position. The Constitutional Court is the highest judicial body, and is an autonomous and independent judicial authority in charge of ensuring that domestic laws and regulations should be in line with the constitution.

However, Judge Eskandar was not only appointed because of his religious belonging. He has developed a reputation over many years as a diligent and knowledgeable judge who definitely deserves this top post. Chief Judge Eskandar, 65, is the 19th chief justice. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Cairo University in 1977, and worked in the Public Prosecution Office beginning in 1978. He earned a diploma in Judicial Administration in the United States in 1994, and supervised the General Secretariat of the Supreme Constitutional Court starting in October 2014. Eskandar served as the vice president of the SCC in 2010 and then as president of the Cairo Appeal Court until he was reappointed as the vice president of the SCC in 2014.

President Al-Sisis decision is an unprecedented progressive step in the past 50 years, bringing to an end the era of seeking to appease extremist religious groups as one way to maintain artificial stability. No country can progress without the effort and participation of all its citizens, regardless of religion, ethnicity or social background. This was the spirit of the popular revolution of June 30, 2013, which the president supported in order to confront extremist and terrorist organisations seeking to undermine Egypt as a democratic and modern state that serves the interests of all its citizens.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The last film outing of British crime writer Agatha Christies novel Death on the Nile was in 1978, when British actor Peter Ustinov, memorable as the Roman emperor Nero in the 1950s film Quo Vadis, led the cast with a fine performance as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

UK director John Guillermin turned in a well-made film version, with a notable performance from romantic lead Simon MacCorkindale as Simon Doyle and cameos from some of the best-known English or American actors and actresses of the time, many of them coaxing a few final sparks from long careers. Undemanding roles in material that very much relies upon ensemble acting allowed Bette Davis to appear as American millionaire Marie Van Schuyler and David Niven to play British military man Colonel Race.

There were also roles for then up-and-coming talents, such as US actress Mia Farrow as wronged fiancee Jacqueline de Bellefort and a youngish Maggie Smith, still going strong today in older roles, as put-upon ladies companion Miss Bowers.

Add to this Nino Rotas inspired score and location shooting in Upper Egypt, and all the ingredients were in place for what for many became a favourite film. Together with director Sidney Lumets inspired film version of Christies Murder on the Orient Express only four years earlier, this time with UK actor Albert Finney as Poirot and an equally remarkable cast, and it must have seemed to many that Christies own well-attested doubts as to how well her material transferred to film were misplaced.

However, such doubts may well return with the opening this month of British actor and director Kenneth Branaghs new film version of Death on the Nile in the US and countries around the world including Egypt. Branagh tried his hand at a new film version of Murder on the Orient Express in 2017, and though it was panned by critics, it seems that the experience has nevertheless encouraged him to have another go with Death on the Nile.

All the problems with the earlier film return in spades, including the painfully sharp visual quality that comes with the use of digital technology and lashings of often clumsily applied CGI. Christies novels, backward-looking even at the time when they were written owing to their unlikely casts of rentier characters, come out best in a kind of heritage soft focus as generations of directors have generally understood.

While Branagh seems also to understand this aspect of Christies appeal judging by his films painstaking 1930s styling, the period character of the material jars against the high-definition digital technology he employs. The overall impression is not so much of a film set in Egypt as one presenting a digital simulacrum of it owing to the wholesale use of special effects.

The sense of space and depth associated with real locations  so memorably captured in the 1978 film  are largely lost in favour of visual effects that would not look out of place in high-end computer games. The whole thing feels oddly studio-bound, with scenes done on shore, such as visits to ancient Egyptian monuments, giving the impression that they have been filmed against polystyrene and plaster mock-ups, contrasting oddly with the different visual quality of the digital effects.

For reasons best known to the films production team  perhaps expense, perhaps Covid-19 restrictions, or perhaps a kind of trigger-happy preference for CGI  the decision was made not to make the film in Egypt, meaning that the Pyramids, the Abu Simbel Temples, and the Nile itself are all rendered either technologically or through studio mock-ups. All this is bewildering since the demographic for which the film is presumably intended is not likely to be impressed with the kind of computer-generated visual effects mostly associated with science-fiction and action films.

Perhaps Branagh is aiming at attracting younger audiences more attuned to digital sharpness and visual bling, but one wonders how far they will be seduced by Christies plot, even, as in this case, when it has been digitally inflated but otherwise slimmed down. The film makes various unaccountable departures from the original novel, with the omission of important characters and the introduction of others along with additional material that adds nothing to the psychology of the characters or the development of the plot.

Branagh may have cooked up something that is neither fish nor fowl in his new film version, underlined by a tin-eared script that lurches between fidelity to the upper-class English speech of the time, one of Christies specialities, and things that characters in a Christie novel could never say. Overall, he has served up a film that is likely to disappoint Christie fans and fans in particular of Death on the Nile.

AGATHA IN EGYPT

The fact that Branagh chose not to make his film in Egypt is a particular disappointment since Christie herself was an occasional and always appreciative visitor to the country.

Her first visit took place before World War I when as the daughter of a wealthy upper-middle class family she spent three months attending balls and polo matches from a base at Cairos Gezirah Palace Hotel, now the Cairo Marriott. However, it was her second visit, in 1933, that left its mark on posterity. Christie, accompanied by her second husband the archaeologist Max Mallowan, took a river cruise up the Nile, and it was recollections of this that informed her 1936 novel Death on the Nile.

The novel is vintage Christie in its exploration of the murderous passions that can arise in a claustrophobic set of circumstances, in this case among the passengers on a river boat as it cruises up river. Fortunately, Poirot, also a passenger, is on hand to unpick a tangle of deliberately engineered false clues in order finally to unmask the murderers.

You were too clever for us, Mr Poirot, one of them says. Money and marriage, as so often in Christies plots, turn out to have been at the bottom of things, with these giving rise to a convoluted series of events deliberately designed to mystify. As one of the murderers confesses to Poirot, it seemed to me that the basis of the idea ought to be a kind of two-handed alibi. You know  if [we] could somehow or other give evidence against each other  but actually if that evidence would clear us of everything.

Christie only wrote one novel set in modern Egypt, and though the focus is on her European and American characters, she records how the country might have looked to well-heeled tourists at the time. From their base in Aswan, for example, her characters are able to plan a trip up the Nile to the Abu Simbel Temples, impossible today because of the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s and the moving of the temples to higher ground.

(Guillermin got around this difficulty by setting his film in Luxor and re-imagining the moment when a boulder falls perilously close to Simon and Linnet Doyle as they are inspecting details of the temples  was it an accident or was it pushed?  as taking place in the Karnak Temple instead. Branagh, who has recreated the Abu Simbel Temple in the studio, restores the scene to its original location.)

Christies other novel set in Egypt, Death Comes as the End, is unusually set in the ancient period, but it was by no means her only foray into the wider region. Following an unsuccessful first marriage to Archie Christie, whose name she kept after divorce and subsequent remarriage, she became interested in the ancient civilisations of the Middle East through her second husband, for periods helping out on archaeological digs in Syria and Iraq.

Some of that experience fed into other books with Middle Eastern settings, among them Murder on the Orient Express, also first published in the 1930s. The setting of this novel is on a train rather than a cruise ship, with Poirot beginning his journey in Aleppo in northern Syria, travelling on to Istanbul, and then from Istanbul to Europe. A murder takes place on the train while it is stranded in a snowstorm in the Balkans, with the murderers once again engineering a convoluted series of false clues designed to mislead the detective.

Then there is Murder in Mesopotamia, also from the 1930s, in which the wife of an archaeologist working on an archaeological dig in Iraq is murdered, and Appointment with Death, set in Palestine and Jordan and from the end of the same decade, in which a woman is mysteriously found dead at the Petra archaeological site. There is They Came to Baghdad, unusually for Christie a spy novel rather than a detective story, in which a young woman discovers a dying British secret agent in her hotel room as a summit meeting is to be held in Baghdad.

Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine no longer much resembled the countries Christie had first visited or lived in the 1930s after World War II, with rapid social change and political revolution sweeping across the region during a tumultuous post-War decade. She thus returned to the Middle East mostly in her memoirs, where she described the experiences she had earlier shared with Mallowan in his work in the region.

Come Tell Me How You Live, written while Christie was in London during World War II, looks back on her life in Syria in the 1930s when Mallowan was working on archaeological digs at Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak. A later full-length Autobiography published posthumously in 1977 gives further details of Christies life in the region.

Following his appointment as a professor of archaeology in London, he and Christie set out for Iraq where he was excavating the ancient Assyrian site of Nimrud in northern Iraq, first excavated by the British archaeologist Henry Layard in the mid-19th century. According to British writer Janet Morgan, Christies authorised biographer in the decade that followed, there was the creation of at least one annual detective story, sometimes accompanied by a novel, a play, a collection of short stories, and a yearly expedition to Iraq.

Successful novels such as A Murder is Announced, They Do It with Mirrors, and A Pocket Full of Rye were written this way, as was Death on the Nile. As Morgan says in her biography, Christie wrote her books in spare moments among her other activities in the Middle East. Writing was not the most important aspect of her life; she drafted her books, as she had always done, in interludes between other activities, she says.

Given Christies long involvement with Egypt and the wider region, it seems a pity that this has not yet been more satisfactorily reflected in film adaptations of her Middle Eastern novels. While Branagh has chosen not to follow Christie to Egypt for his version of Death on the Nile, this should not constrain future directors wanting to supply more authentic images of Egypts magnificent landscapes.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Saudi Arabia's port infrastructure market has shown promising growth in historical years until 2019 and is expected to continue its growth over the next five years, mainly due to the rapidly increasing demands from the energy sector, said a report.

The kingdom's port infrastructure market owes its growth to the factors like rapidly increasing demands for the better and efficient port infrastructure to maintain the shipment commercial, industrial or recreational, according to TechSci Research.

The market is expected to register an esteemed growth on the account of expanding business through sea shipment and sales.

The kingdom is one of the largest exporters of oil and petroleum and the expanding oil and petroleum industry is one of the major factors supporting the growth of the Saudi Arabia port infrastructure market in the next five years of forecast until 2026 it stated.

According to industry experts, seaport is anticipated to hold the largest revenue shares of the market and assert its dominance over the market segments on the account of rapidly increasing demand for the seaports for the commercial and industrial supply chains.

The country owes its economic growth to the seaports that are actively involved with the exports of oil and petroleum through the sea routes to other countries. Also, container terminals are expected to register significant growth in the upcoming five years on the account of growing demand for the port infrastructure management.

Moreover, rapidly increasing demand from the energy sector is further substantiating the growth of the Saudi Arabia port infrastructure market in the next five years, it stated.

Port terminals are anticipated to generate the maximum revenue shares of the market and dominate the segment on the account of regular shipments that dock.

Moreover, the supply of oil and petroleum to the global countries is also carried out through these terminals, that are actively driving the growth of the Saudi Arabia port infrastructure market in the upcoming five years.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia has ten major ports for the industrial and commercial utilization, namely, Jeddah Islamic Port, King Abdulaziz Port Dammam, King Fahad Industrial Port Yanbu, King Fahad Industrial Port Jubail, Jubail Commercial Port, Yanbu Commercial Port, Jizan Port, Ras al Khair Port, Ras Tanurah Saudi Aramco Port, and Dhiba Port.

The transportation from these ports solely accounts for the 70% of the countrys economy, stated the report from TechSci Research.

The major players in the Saudi port infrastructure market include Zamil Operations and Maintenance Company, Gulf Stevedoring and Contracting, Arab Agricultural Services Company, Red Sea Marine Services Company, National Port Services, Gulf Construction Company for Cargo and Offloading Ltd., Global Marine Services Company, National Port Services Company, Saudi Maintenance Organization and National Ports Services Company (NPS).

These market players hold larger shares of the market than the new market players. With the evolving technology, it is appropriate to say that the effective research and development of the technologically advanced instruments and methods to satisfy consumer demands would support the market growth and benefit the market players as well as the consumers.

New market players may focus on the research and development to provide such products and services that satisfies the consumer demand as well as benefits the market players in building their brand value. Other competitive strategies include mergers & acquisitions and new product developments.

"Saudi Arabia benefits largely from the sea trades and major consumer goods and retails are often supplied through the seaports. Infrastructure evolution is one of the major reasons that port infrastructure market in the country is growing," said Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research, a research based global management consulting firm.

"To further aid the well-organized trade activities, the consistent development is required. New market players may research and work on the advanced technology for the efficient working and effective monitoring of the ports in the country," stated Chechi.-TradeArabia News Service
Egypt has long played an important role in delivering humanitarian aid to African countries, underlined by the vital role it has played during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic revealed selfish attitudes in international relations, most notably when developed countries hoarded vaccines and did not share them with developing countries, especially in Africa. However, there have been signs of humanitarian solidarity among the countries of the South within the boundaries of their limited resources dedicated to humanitarian relief.

Egypt carried out robust health diplomacy in Africa by sending medical and technical aid to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, and Egypts political leadership adopted diplomatic initiatives at regional and international conferences to promote Africas right to the fair distribution of vaccines to offset the pandemic.

Egyptian humanitarian action in Africa indicated two things. First, there was the importance of its approach in linking humanitarian and development diplomacy in Africa by combining emergency relief with technical and training assistance, including in the health and disease-control sectors.

Second, there was Egypts robust comeback to the African fold after its membership of the African Union (AU) was suspended in 2013. Egypt was reinstated one year later and participated in the Malabo Summit in Equatorial Guinea in 2014, represented the African continent at the UN Security Council in 2016, and chaired the AU in 2019.

There are still challenges facing Egypts humanitarian role in Africa in the face of epidemics and disasters, however, especially since this role recently became part of a push to support Egypts national interests on the continent.

The first challenge regards Egypts humanitarian role and national interests. Theoretically, countries send aid to others in need based on the principles of neutrality, independence, and prioritising humanitarian motives.

However, in reality it may be difficult to separate this philanthropy from a countrys interests, whether in a long-term strategy, such as building a safer global climate, since the assumption is that solidarity is linked to global security, or in a short-term one intended to serve commercial and security interests, as well as establish influence and soft power by influencing the policies of the recipient country in favour of the donor.

Accordingly, humanitarian aid can become politicised, which manifests itself in international relations due to the flow of global humanitarian funding and reflects the structural geopolitical disparity of strength and weakness in the global system.

The 2021 Global Humanitarian Assistance Report put together by the international group Development Initiatives showed that the countries that donated the most in humanitarian aid in 2020 were the US, Turkey, Germany, the EU, the UK, and others, while the countries that received the most were Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The recipients are usually the subject of conflicting interests by the major donors.

The tool of humanitarian aid has also accompanied international conflicts since the Cold War, and it followed Western military interventions in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan and is now part of todays ongoing US-Chinese competition in the world arena.

Over the past two decades, there has been a tendency in global humanitarian trends to reduce the politicisation of humanitarian aid by linking it to peace-building and development and adhering to efficient direction and sensitivity in sending aid to afflicted regions.

However, this has not always prevented political interests from remaining a motivator behind the flow of humanitarian aid. Since Africa is in dire need of this aid due to state failure, conflicts, refugees, terrorism, poverty, disease, epidemics, and other issues, countries there are a good target for using humanitarian aid to serve the interests of competing foreign powers.

EGYPTS ROLE

Based on the link between what is humanitarian and what is political, we can understand Egypts interest in playing a humanitarian role in Africa.

Essentially, this is due to geographical connections, a joint historical heritage, the spirit of African solidarity and unity which Egypt has supported since the continents independence from colonialism, as well as the vital interests which Egypt shares with other African countries. These include security, stability, bolstering economic relations, influence, regional stature and soft power.

Egypts interests have come under serious pressure in Africa over the last decade, with its water security being threatened by Ethiopias Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), instability in Sudan, the spread of terrorism in Libya, and the heightened interest of foreign powers in Africa that has diminished Egypts regional role on the continent.

Although Egypt is not a major donor of humanitarian aid to Africa compared to the US and Europe, it has created a humanitarian role for itself either through limited resources or giving expertise to aid affected communities, or joint funding with regional institutions and donor countries.

One quarter of Egypts diplomatic representation is concentrated in Africa, which allows it to attend to the needs of countries facing crises or disasters. Egyptian institutions and experts have extensive experience in infrastructure that meets the needs of Africa and makes it possible to export Egyptian expertise to African countries.

Even though Egypts regional role on the continent has waned as other regional powers have gained traction, Cairo has maintained its image as a peace-building state that has not bloodied its hands in African conflicts. In fact, Egypt now participates in eight of the nine peacekeeping missions in Africa, which means there is a general acceptance of its humanitarian role in African countries, confirmed by Cairo being the headquarters of the AUs Centre for Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD).

Africa has also once again become the centre of attention for the Egyptian leadership, which plays an influential role in reviving foreign policy. After focusing on the home front after the 25 January and 30 June revolutions, since he came to power in 2014 President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has jumpstarted action on the Africa front by participating in most African summits.

Al-Sisis visits to Sub-Saharan African countries have also come in third place in his overseas travels, with 30 visits during his seven-year rule, including to 12 Sub-Saharan African countries (Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Gabon, Chad, Guinea, Senegal, Cote dIvoire, and South Sudan). He has also visited several Arab African countries, including Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, and Djibouti.

These advantages for Egypt, coupled with mounting pressure on its southern and western borders, have fuelled the revival of its humanitarian role. The Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa (EFTCA) was established in 1980, and one of its tasks was to provide grants and humanitarian aid to the African continent. The EFTCA was replaced by the Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development (EAPD) in 2014. Meanwhile, the contributions of various ministries and institutions, such as the ministries of defence and health and population, the Red Crescent, Al-Azhar, various universities and others, have grown in providing humanitarian and technical aid to Africa.

Health diplomacy

Health diplomacy is a facet of the humanitarian role of governments, and it overlaps with humanitarian and political issues.

It involves the geopolitical use of medical aid to mitigate epidemics and diseases in order to achieve specific interests, either globally and strategic or direct and short-term. These two types of interests have been motivators for health diplomacy in Africa. When the Ebola epidemic spread in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, for example, cooperative global diplomacy emerged, especially between Europe and the US, to provide medical aid to these countries to combat the epidemic.

Egypt participated in this global effort by contributing $1 million to the African action plan against this epidemic in 2014.

In contrast, global cooperation has been lacking during the Covid-19 pandemic, even though this is a more global, not regional, outbreak which has fuelled the US-China dispute. The administration of former US president Donald Trump blamed Beijing for spreading the pandemic, and Washington went as far as to suspend its funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The pandemic also put economic pressure on donors around the world that were unable to pay their dues for humanitarian aid. For example, according to UN reports, demands for funds for humanitarian relief around the world came to $37 billion in 2021, but the response was only 46 per cent at $17.2 billion. This shortage in funds decreased the work of UN and NGO humanitarian agencies and NGOs in conflict areas.

The Covid-19 pandemic also highlighted the unjust distribution of vaccines. While the US and European countries succeeded in vaccinating 70 per cent of their populations against Covid-19, the African countries had reached less than two per cent of their populations by December 2021.

This means the pandemic will have a worse impact on Africa, especially in terms of a political, economic, and health backlash, particularly with the emergence of the Omicron variant in Africa and the rise in infections by other mainly endemic diseases, such as malaria and others, resulting from the disruption of health services and the focus on combating Covid-19.

With negligible global cooperation, some governments, such as Egypts, have chosen health diplomacy either bilaterally or regionally to advance their interests. Egypt sent medical humanitarian aid to China, the US and Italy in 2020, and the pandemic was an opportunity for Cairo to expand its humanitarian role in the field of health in Africa, which needed more health and medical clinics, medicines, and so on.

Egypt appeared to have a relative advantage in health diplomacy in Africa for two reasons. First, it has qualified medical workers, a pharmaceuticals industry, technical expertise and experience in combating disease, and more of all of these things relative to its African peers.

In the case of Hepatitis C, Egypt was able to slash the cost of supplying the medicine Sovaldi from the US to less than one per cent of its regular price, for example. As a result, the disease has lessened in incidence thanks to the 100 Million Health campaign in recent years.

Second, Cairo focused its medical action in Africa before Covid-19 on transferring its expertise, training, and building hospitals in African countries through the EAPD, the Ministry of Health and Population, and other Egyptian medical centres. For example, an Egyptian wing was created at the Ethiopian Cardiac Centre in 2016, as well as other clinics in Ethiopian hospitals such as St Pauls Hospital and the Black Lion Hospital.

The pandemic thus cemented the link between Egypts humanitarian and development roles in Africa, building regional capital for Egypt in African societies. More than half of the continents population of 1.3 billion people are unable to access health services, and African countries rely on importing medicines since less than two per cent of consumed pharmaceuticals on the continent are manufactured there.

Humanitarian role

There are several aspects of Egypts humanitarian actions in Africa, although it is difficult to determine their size and percentage of GDP since they are dispersed among several Egyptian agencies and institutions.

Egyptian humanitarian and medical aid to Africa is focused on the Nile Basin region, the Horn of Africa, and the Sahel, which have the most impact on Egyptian interests in Africa.

In terms of emergency aid, Cairo provided urgent medical supplies and medicines to help the African health sectors mitigate the impacts of Covid-19. President Al-Sisi gave directives in September 2020 to send medical aid worth $4 million to 33 African countries during the crisis.

Medical aid in 2020 and 2021 went to Libya and Tunisia (North Africa) and Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Eritrea, and Djibouti (East Africa). Egypt also responded to flood victims in 2020 and 2021, especially in Sudan and South Sudan, by sending urgent food and medical supplies through the ministries of defence and health and population.

In terms of medical convoys, these usually focus on treating patients, dispensing medicines for free, and combating specific diseases in Africa. Egypt participated in medical convoy diplomacy before and after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Ministry of Health statistics published in February 2016, six medical convoys went to Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Burundi, and Uganda in 2012. Four went to Chad, Somalia, Sudan, and Tanzania in 2013; two to Sudan and South Sudan in 2014; and three to Eritrea, Ghana, and Sudan between the end of 2015 and February 2016.

Egypts medical convoys also included Equatorial Guinea, where they established a quarantine regimen for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. In 2019, Al-Azhar sent medical convoys to Sudan, Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso, as well as South Sudan for an eye clinic in February 2020. Another eye clinic went to Tanzania in August 2021 and Djibouti in November 2021.

In terms of technical aid, the Foreign Ministrys EAPD focuses on training Africans in aspects of state building, in which Egypt has a relative advantage compared to others in Africa, including health, judiciary, food security, peace and other things. It also provides medical and humanitarian aid, sends experts, and raises money for development projects through cooperating with local and international partners such as the African Development Bank (AFD), the Islamic Development Bank, the Arab Fund for Technical Assistance to African Countries (AFTAAC), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which assists in training programmes.

According to the EAPDs official Website, more than 7,000 participants from 42 countries have benefited from these training programmes. The EAPD has also created several health centres, such as two clinics for eye and dental care in Eritrea and one clinic in South Sudan.

This role of the EAPD is a continuation of the activities of the EFTCA, which sent 8,000 experts to African countries between 1980 and 2013, as well as delivering financial grants and humanitarian and medical aid during times of disaster and disease outbreaks.

Regarding health initiatives, Cairo worked to export its experience in the 100 Million Health initiative to Africa in cooperation with the WHO. During its presidency of the AU in 2019, the political leadership launched an initiative to treat 100 million Africans with Hepatitis C in 14 countries, after Egypts success in dealing with this disease at home.

The initiative was implemented in South Sudan, Sudan, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Mali, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda, and Tanzania. According to the Ministry of Health, by November 2020 more than 37,000 Africans had been identified during this campaign.

Regarding conference diplomacy, the Egyptian political leadership has been remarkably effective, especially regarding the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa. For example, President Al-Sisi participated in a mini-summit in July 2020 with several African leaders to confront the impact of Covid-19 and mobilise the resources of the AU.

At a summit on financing the African economies in Paris in May 2021, he called on the world community to provide the necessary support for African countries as an act of justice and solidarity in the face of the pandemic.

It is notable that Egypt reinforced its humanitarian discourse in confronting Covid-19 with a developmental one to further embed its role on the continent. It agreed with China and Russia to manufacture the Sinopharm and Sputnik-G vaccines, respectively, making Cairo the hub for manufacturing and distributing the vaccines to Africa.

Effectiveness

Egypt faces fierce competition from regional and international powers in the field of humanitarian work, especially Turkey, the Gulf states, South Africa, and others.

These are actors that link humanitarian aid with building geopolitical and geoeconomic influence in regions that are vital to Egypts interests, especially in east and west Africa.

Due to this competition and Egypts limited resources for humanitarian aid, there is a need to raise the efficiency of humanitarian spending in Africa. However, this faces problems, such as the absence of an Egyptian national strategy that defines the nature of goals and priorities in the field of humanitarian aid, as well as the lack of a general institutional framework that brings together various governmental and non-governmental institutions under one umbrella to work on Egypts humanitarian diplomacy in Africa.

This institutional framework should help in dealing with red tape when local institutions are sending aid overseas, sending or resending aid without adequate coordination or research about humanitarian needs in afflicted countries, or having to send limited aid to more countries. One of the problems the EFTCA faced was having to send development and humanitarian aid to 44 countries. The problem persisted when the EFTCA was replaced by the EAPD, which delivered aid to 42 countries.

This weakens the political benefit of aid because Egypt is not a major donor that can cover aid in large swaths of Africa.

It is notable that despite the revival in Egypts humanitarian role in Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still a serious deficit in defining this role and its dimensions. For example, the websites of the EAPD and Egyptian Red Crescent do not include regular reports on annual activities that show the volume and value of humanitarian aid. This means Egypt should issue an annual humanitarian report to give a clearer picture to public opinion overseas of the humanitarian aid it provides.

There is also the problem of Egypt relying on humanitarian tools that are closely linked to official state institutions and only cooperating with African governments in humanitarian relief due to Egypts weak civil society and inability to create unofficial paths that can influence African societies. This reduces the ability of Egypts humanitarian role to serve its interests.

Despite criticisms of Egypt dabbling in popular diplomacy in Africa after the 25 January Revolution, because it was not institutionalised, sustainable, or experienced enough to deal with the African countries, unofficial humanitarian and development efforts still remain undeveloped.

There is a growing trend, however, to integrate Egypts private sector in combining humanitarian and development diplomacy in Africa. For example, there was the opening of an Egyptian medical centre in Uganda in October 2021 through cooperation between the Egyptian government and Egyptian pharmaceutical companies to increase their exports to the African countries.

By expanding the role of the private sector in African humanitarian aid, Egypt would be able to circumvent the funding gap for humanitarian aid and not submit to the agendas of global partners when funding humanitarian relief or the training that Egypt delivers in Africa.

In conclusion, Egypt needs to create a national index to improve the efficacy of spending on humanitarian relief by institutions that send aid to Africa. This would provide a proper assessment of the performance of institutions such as embassies and commercial offices, which play a role in assessing humanitarian needs and priorities in afflicted states.

It is also important to benefit from Egyptian academic institutions interested in Africa, since these can give early warning of the need for humanitarian aid at times of crisis and disaster, helping to trigger an Egyptian humanitarian response in Africa.

* The writer is a researcher at Al-Ahram.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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South Koreans' impressions of Japanese are steadily improving, but their growing affection is not reciprocated. The two countries also differ in their outlook for the North Korean nuclear crisis, with most Japanese pessimistic about the future.

The East Asia Institute, Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies and the Japanese non-profit think tank Genron announced the results of a survey of mutual attitudes on Monday. The poll has been conducted annually since 2013 and the latest one covered 2,014 adults in both countries.

The proportion of South Koreans with favorable views of the Japanese rose from 21.3 percent in 2016 to 28.3 percent this year, but in Japan the proportion with positive views of South Koreans fell from 29.1 percent in 2016 to 22.9 percent this year.

Some 73.5 percent of South Koreans cited kindness and punctuality as the reason they have favorable views on Japanese people, while 50.7 percent of Japanese said they find Korea interesting due to the popularity of Korean pop culture.

Sohn Yul at the East Asia Institute said, "This is the result of improving perceptions of Japan after a large number of Koreans in their 20s and 30s visited Japan and got to know them better."

Yasushi Kudo, head of Genron NPO, said, "Japanese people do not dislike Koreans, but their interest in Korea has waned because they feel bilateral relations are perpetually troubled due to historical disputes."

But while some 54.8 percent of South Koreans think bilateral relations are bad, but that view is only shared by 40.6 percent of Japanese, down 10.8 percentage points and 17.1 percentage points from last year.

When it comes to issues that need to be resolved, 82.1 percent of South Koreans and 38.7 percent of Japanese cited the Dokdo islets, to which Japan maintains a flimsy colonial-era claim, while 78.1 percent of South Koreans and 54.7 percent of Japanese cited disagreements on other aspects of shared history, and 73.5 percent of South Koreans and 42.2 percent of Japanese cited the question of compensating women mobilized as sex slaves by imperial Japan.


The global atomic watchdog has detected signs that North Korea could be resuming uranium enrichment after removing the cooling units from its centrifuge facility in Yongbyon.

The development was mentioned by Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, at a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna on Monday.

Grossi's remark came on the heels of the IAEA's recent report last month saying the North restarted a nuclear reactor that has produced plutonium for nuclear weapons. "Since early July 2021, there have been indications including the discharge of cooling water, consistent with the operation of the [5-megawatt] reactor," which was shut down in December 2018, the report said.

The additional resumption of uranium enrichment would mean the regime is running the Yongbyon nuclear complex again in full swing.

Grossi called the North's activities a "cause for serious concern." "The continuation of the nuclear program is a clear violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and is deeply regrettable," he added.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday began its review of Japan's plan to begin releasing more than a million tons of treated radioactive water into the sea from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant -- a review that Japan hopes will instill confidence in the plan.

The 15-member team is to visit the Fukushima plant on Tuesday and meet with government and utility officials during its five-day mission.

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings announced plans last year to begin gradually releasing the still-contaminated water in spring 2023 after its further treatment and dilution.

The water is being stored in about 1,000 tanks at the damaged plant which officials say need to be removed so the reactors can be decommissioned. The tanks are expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tons later this year.

The release of the water into the sea has been fiercely opposed by fishermen, local residents and Japan's neighbors, including China and Korea. Fukushima residents worry the reputation of their agricultural and fishing products will be further damaged.

Japan sought IAEA's assistance to ensure the release meets international safety standards.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 15, 2022 - 09:43 | All, World, Coronavirus

The United States on Monday called on countries to intensify efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic during 2022, saying that current actions are not enough to achieve a goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the global population by September.

While noting that the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus is receding in many places, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a virtual COVID-19 ministerial meeting, "We all know the reality that the pandemic is far from over."

"The World Health Organization set the goal of vaccinating 70 percent of people in every country across every income level by this September. At the rate we're going, we are well below our target," he added.

He also announced the launch of a COVID-19 global action plan to address the "biggest barriers" left in the fight to end the pandemic, including more efforts to get vaccine shots into people's arms quickly, strengthening supply chains for vaccines and other key supplies and tackling disinformation on the safety of the vaccines.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, who attended the virtual meeting, emphasized his country's contributions to ensure that vaccines are delivered to local vaccination sites, such as by providing refrigerated trucks and other cold chain equipment.

Blinken said Japan has shown leadership in the area with its "Last One Mile Support" program to help about 60 countries and highlighted the need to keep building on the progress.

The discussions are expected to help lay the groundwork for the next COVID-19 leaders' meeting, which U.S. President Joe Biden hopes to convene in the spring.

Last month, the WHO warned that nearly 90 countries are not on track to reach the 70 percent goal, according to Blinken.

"That means billions of people remain vulnerable to COVID, and the world remains vulnerable to new variants, which may be even more lethal and transmissible than the ones we've experienced so far," the top U.S. diplomat said.

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By Sean Miyaguchi, KYODO NEWS - Feb 15, 2022 - 21:35 | Sports, Olympics, All

Japan's Olympic title defense in the women's speed skating team pursuit ended in tragedy Tuesday at the Beijing Games after Nana Takagi fell on the last bend of the final, handing the gold medal to Canada.

The three-woman team of Ayano Sato, Miho Takagi and her older sister Nana came into the final at the National Speed Skating Oval looking to repeat as Olympic champions after winning four years ago in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Having advanced to the gold medal race with a big semifinal win over the Russian Olympic Committee earlier in the day, Japan led Canada at every split and looked on course for a new Olympic record.

But disaster struck with the finish line in sight, when the elder Takagi lost her footing coming around the last bend and careened into the wall.

The Canadian team of Ivanie Blondin, Valerie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann finished in an Olympic record time of 2 minutes, 53.44 seconds, with the final Japanese skater eventually crossing the line 11.03 seconds later.

Canada's time overwrote the previous Olympic record of 2:53.61 set by Japan three days earlier in the quarterfinals.

The Netherlands rounded out the podium, clocking 2:56.86 to beat the Russian Olympic Committee by 1.80 seconds in the bronze medal race.

The defending champions got off to a fast start in the final at the "Ice Ribbon" and led Canada by nearly a second after the first lap.

The Canadian trio worked to narrow the gap as the race progressed, closing to within 0.32 second at the final split, but Japan still appeared set for victory until the mishap.

A devastated Nana could not hold back tears as she tried to come to terms with the race.

"It was the very end," she said. "If I hadn't fallen, it looked like we had a winning time. I'm so disappointed."

As the jubilant Canadian team skated a victory lap, Japanese Olympic team captain Miho comforted her sister by the trackside.

"I couldn't find the words to tell her at that moment, I just wanted to be close to her and give her a hug," said Miho, who collected her third silver medal of the games, after finishing second in the women's 1,500 meters and the 500.

The newly crowned gold medalists paid tribute to the vanquished Japanese after the race, with Weidemann saying they had "taken the team pursuit to a whole different level."

"We have constantly been chasing them," said Weidemann, who also expressed sympathy for the silver medalists.

"It's always sad to see another team fall. They fought so well all season, and they fought well here at the Olympics."

Nana said she had been in an "excellent mood" and full of confidence ahead of the final, making the fall even harder to accept.

"I thought I'm going to complete my best skate in the past one and a half weeks, together with my sister," the 29-year-old said.

"My mind hasn't recovered from the fall. It's hard for me to think or talk about it right now."

Despite the disappointment, she said the team could still be proud of its efforts since its triumph in Pyeongchang.

"We have been training together for a long time and the three of us were able to align ourselves with a very tight formation. So in the past four years, we have been able to really excel," she said.

Sato said she had "mixed feelings of regret and joy" but would continue to value the time spent practicing and competing alongside her teammates.

"This time itself is priceless to me," she said.

Miho will have one last shot at gold in Beijing on Thursday in the 1,000.

"This will be my final event, the final part of my challenge for these Olympic games, so I will have to give it my all," she said.

The reigning Olympic champion in the women's mass start, Nana will seek to defend that title on Saturday.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 15, 2022 - 23:41 | All, Japan

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said Tuesday that it will increase its capital spending for a plant to be built in Japan's southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto by 20 percent to $8.6 billion to boost its production capacity.

The world's largest contract chipmaker also said major Japanese auto parts maker Denso Corp. will invest $350 million in Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc., its subsidiary founded with Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp., for the chip-making venture.

Denso's stake in the TSMC subsidiary will exceed 10 percent.

TSMC has previously said its initial capital expenditure for the plant would be around $7 billion with "strong support from the Japanese government."

TSMC also plans to increase monthly chip production capacity by 20 percent from originally planned while expanding the number of high-tech professional jobs created directly through the plant from about 1,500 to about 1,700.

The Taiwanese company also said the planned foundry, where production is targeted to begin by the end of 2024, will produce chips using 12-nanometer and 16-nanometer process technology, in addition to those utilizing 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer processes.

"TSMC is very glad to welcome Denso's participation in JASM," CEO C.C. Wei said in a statement. The TSMC subsidiary "enables us to leverage Japan's top-notch semiconductor talent and contribute to the growth of the global semiconductor ecosystem," he added.

For its part, Denso hopes owning a stake in the joint venture will lead to a more stable supply of chips for use in automobiles.

A Denso official said the parts maker has decided on the move because it expects to require more semiconductors down the road as more automobiles go electric.
By Dahee Kim, KYODO NEWS - Feb 15, 2022 - 16:59 | World

Official campaigning for South Korea's presidential election began Tuesday, with the ruling candidate stressing the need to revive the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, while two opposition parties were exploring the possibility of agreeing on a single candidate before the vote on March 9.

Lee Jae Myung, the candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, emphasized his readiness to embrace all political opinions that could benefit the people.

"Uniting (different political parties) is difficult for sure, but it is also the road that we must walk toward," Lee said as he kicked off his campaign in the southeastern port of Busan, the nation's second-largest city following Seoul.

"Rather than deciding who belongs to this party and who belongs to that party, a government that can make capable people work for the public is the one that we all want, isn't it?" he added, calling it "pragmatic politics."

Lee also stressed that he will solve the nation's economic problems by revitalizing the depressed economy and making continuous growth possible.

Yoon Suk Yeol, the candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, delivered his first speech in Seoul, where he urged voters to work together to achieve political change.

"Let's judge this incapable and corrupt liberal government by changing political power," Yoon said, stressing the current government was not able to solve problems such as surging home prices, fewer jobs and the pandemic.

On diplomatic issues, both Lee and Yoon have said they would prioritize improving South Korea's relationship with Japan if elected as the successor to incumbent President Moon Jae In.

In a recent interview, Lee's foreign affairs adviser expressed eagerness to strengthen security cooperation with Japan through Seoul's military-intelligence sharing agreement with Tokyo.

The remark signaled a departure from the policy of Moon's administration, which has made it clear that South Korea could scrap the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA, anytime, depending on how already strained South Korea-Japan ties fare.

The bilateral relations have sunk to the lowest level in decades due to protracted disputes over wartime history and territory.

In another interview, Yoon's aide said he aims to resume shuttle diplomacy between the two countries, where each nation's leader makes reciprocal visits to the other nation.

Regarding the North Korea issue, both Lee and Yoon have emphasized trilateral cooperation among the United States, South Korea and Japan amid growing tensions after several rounds of missile launches from North Korea last month.

A total of 14 candidates have registered for the 22 days of campaigning, according to the National Election Commission.

Ahn Cheol Soo from the centrist People's Party launched his campaign in the conservative stronghold of Daegu, pledging to build a country in which fairness is prioritized.

"Are the candidates from the two main parties and their families, are they moral and clean?" Ahn said in his speech.

Lee and Yoon have been accused in several scandals, while Yoon's wife allegedly falsified qualifications on her resume, and Lee's spouse reportedly had a public official run her personal errands while her husband was governor.

Ahn, however, has recently opened the door for an alliance with Yoon, who narrowly leads Lee in opinion polls.

According to a survey by polling firm Realmeter released Monday, Yoon's approval rating stood at 41.6 percent, while Lee's was at 39.1 percent and Ahn's at 7.7 percent.

Moon said Tuesday, "The government should put all its efforts into managing the election fairly and safely as the official presidential campaign period starts from today," according to his spokeswoman Park Kyung Mee.

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KYODO NEWS - Feb 14, 2022 - 19:27 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan has agreed with Pfizer Inc. to purchase an additional 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by March, the health ministry said Monday, as the county trails other developed economies in its rollout of booster shots.

The additional shots will add to the 120 million doses Japan already agreed to procure from the U.S. pharmaceutical giant for this year.

"The government will continue to negotiate with vaccine makers to ensure steady progress on speeding up administering booster shots," Shigeyuki Goto, minister of health, labor and welfare, told reporters.

The deal came as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to administer a million booster shots per day to mitigate the delay in the rollout.

The government has opened mass vaccination centers in Tokyo and Osaka, operated by the Self-Defense Forces, to speed up its efforts.

The percentage of people in Japan who have had their third jab stood at 7.9 percent as of Thursday, according to government data, far behind Britain, France, and Germany, where over 50 percent of the population has had a booster shot.

Besides Pfizer's vaccine, Japan has agreed to buy 93 million shots and 150 million shots this year from U.S.-based drug companies Moderna Inc. and Novavax Inc., respectively.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 15, 2022 - 22:51 | Sports, Olympics, All

Japanese wunderkind Kokomo Murase won the bronze medal in the women's snowboard big air event on Tuesday at the Beijing Olympics, with veteran Anna Gasser of Austria defending her gold with an incredible final jump.

Murase was the only one of three Japanese in the final at the Big Air Shougang venue to reach the podium, with two excellent jumps giving her 171.50 points. The 17-year-old became the youngest Japanese female to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.

"It's like a dream and I can't believe it. Thanks to everyone, I am able to be here," said a beaming Murase. "I didn't earn this medal alone. I am grateful to everyone involved."

Fresh off winning the slopestyle gold, Kiwi Zoi Sadowski Synnott looked to be untouchable with 177.00 until Gasser snatched gold with a clean double cork 1260 in her third hit.

Gasser scored 185.50 while the New Zealander did not improve with her final jump and finished with silver.

Murase started relatively slowly with a 1080 that only brought 80.00 points from the judges but she quickly turned up the volume, putting down a massive frontside 1080 in her second that brought 91.50 from the scorers, the best score of the second round.

In her final jump, she could not stick the landing and failed to improve her score.

Reira Iwabuchi was solid but unable to pull the big scores out on her first two jumps and finished fourth.

With nothing to lose, she went huge on her final hit and almost landed the first in-competition triple cork in women's big air history. She landed just on the tail of her board and fell but was still swamped by her competitors who congratulated her as she waited for her score.

"I finished fourth again and that makes me sad, but I'm glad I was able to take on the challenge," said Iwabuchi, lamenting her repeat of the fourth-place she achieved in the same event at the 2018 Olympics.

"I was really happy to have so many people support me here."

Iwabuchi later said on her Instagram page that she was competing with several injuries and posted an X-ray image showing a broken bone in her left hand and another image of her right arm with heavy bruising.

She said in a post-competition interview she broke her hand a day before the final and that she struggled to grab her board on her jumps due to the pain.

Miyabi Onitsuka had a heavy slam on her first jump and had to be assisted off the landing area, walking under her own power but clearly shaken up.

She bravely faced up to her second jump and threw a 1260 but over-rotated on the landing and was punished by the judges, giving her no shot at a medal in a competition in which the riders' best two scores count.

Another heavy crash on her third jump just compounded her pain. She finished in 11th place out of 12 finalists.

In the men's event held in the afternoon, Japan's Hiroaki Kunitake finished fourth after putting together two solid jumps that brought scores of 82.25 and 84.00 for a 166.25 total.

He was in bronze medal position until the competition's penultimate jump when Norwegian Mons Roisland moved into the silver position to bump him off the podium.

"Not everything went well but I had fun," said Kunitake. "I worked really hard these past four years and I think my efforts paid off. But my best efforts landed me in fourth, so I have some more work to do before (the 2026 Olympics in) Italy."

"There's a huge difference between a podium finish and a fourth place finish so it's disappointing, but I think I did all right," he said.

China's Su Yiming won his second medal of his home games, adding this big air gold to a silver he won in the slopestyle. It is an incredible return for the 17-year-old who was a relative unknown before this season.

Su is the first Chinese to win snowboard gold at an Olympics and the youngest male to win the event.

Canada's Max Parrot took bronze.

Japan's other entrant, Takeru Otsuka, had a sniff of a medal after landing an outrageous cab triple cork 1800 in his second jump of the competition, but after a fall in his first attempt and poor landing on his final jump -- a frontside 1800 -- he slid down to ninth.

He has bragging rights, though, as his second hit earned the highest single-jump score of the competition, a 95.00.

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Global electricity demand increased by six per cent in 2021, the largest ever growth recorded in absolute terms and the highest since 2010, said a report.

According to a report issued by autonomous intergovernmental organisation, International Energy Agency, projections for electricity demand have come down to three to four per cent, which is similar to the expected annual growth rate dating back to a decade before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amidst this, the energy demand will be attributed to three key reasons -- continued economic recovery, rebound effects concerning health protection measures and the apparent easing of the global energy crisis, it stated.

Looking to learn more further about optimisation of energy resources for the GCC region, the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) will be hosting the 'GCC Electricity Market Forum' at the Gulf Cooperation Council Pavilion in Expo 2020 Dubai.

The event serves as a strategic platform to discuss key developments in both the national and local electricity markets across the region and the planned roadmap to development for the GCC's thriving electricity market.

GCCIA Chief Executive Ahmed Al Ebrahim said: "The Electricity Market Forum will gather some of the region's top experts in the electricity industry - all coming together to tackle the challenges posed by the market's move to become a more organized exchange-based market."

"Aside from this, panelists will also discuss other market concerns like current projects, developments and new market and exchange rules," he stated.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 15, 2022 - 20:48 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japanese prefectural governors called on the central government Tuesday to fully implement coronavirus infection control measures and facilitate the smooth rollout of booster shots amid worries over the medical crisis caused by the rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

An urgent proposal to the state compiled by the National Governors' Association said that many areas are "falling into a critical situation" with a heavy strain on the medical system.

"People say the waves of infection are subsiding, but there is still no end in sight," Tottori Gov. Shinji Hirai, who heads the association, said in an online meeting. "The Omicron variant is formidable."

The proposal came as the accumulated total number of COVID-19 cases in Japan surpassed 4 million on Tuesday, only 12 days after exceeding the 3 million mark. The daily death toll hit a record high of 236 the same day, topping 200 for the first time.

The daily case count in Tokyo stood at 15,525 on Tuesday, 1,588 fewer than a week ago.

In the proposal, the governors pointed out the need to get more people to recognize the critical health care situation even though it is widely believed the Omicron variant does not lead to severe illness.

They also urged the central government to promote basic antivirus measures such as wearing face masks, disinfecting hands, and ensuring air ventilation.

Japan's rollout of booster shots has been slow compared with other developed economies, with 10.3 percent of the nation's population receiving them as of Tuesday.

Some people are reluctant to take the shot made by U.S. biotechnology firm Moderna Inc. for its apparent stronger adverse reaction. The governors requested the central government to relieve such concern to speed up the vaccination process.

The heads of prefectural governments also called for consultation services for parents of children aged 5 to 11 who will become eligible to receive the vaccine.

Governors from 45 out of the 47 prefectures participated in the online meeting. Representatives from Tokyo and Wakayama were absent.
The Olympic delegation of Pakistan parade into the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said that his recent visit to China was of great significance, further strengthening bilateral relations and opening new windows for investments.

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said here that his recent visit to China was of great significance, further strengthening bilateral relations and opening new windows for investments.

"The visit was of utmost importance," he said. "Both sides had discussed several core issues related to bilateral relations and investments."

Khan made the remarks when meeting with Pakistan's former diplomats, representatives of think tanks and media people in Islamabad to brief them on the results of his visit to China on Feb. 3-6.

During the visit, the prime minister attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and held meetings with the Chinese leadership.

Photo taken on Feb. 4, 2021 shows the Lahore converter station of the 660kV Matiari-Lahore high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan's eastern Punjab Province. (SGCC/Handout via Xinhua)

Regarding the prospect for bilateral cooperation on investment, the prime minister said his government has been working to promote connections between the private sectors of the two countries in order to increase investments in Pakistan and generate employment opportunities.

Praising China's governance system, the Pakistani prime minister said that China has practiced democracy in its real sense and ensured the rule of law and equality, greatly benefiting its people.

On the occasion, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the visit has given a fresh impetus to the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said that China has helped Pakistan build infrastructure, which is supporting the country's economy. He pledged efforts to facilitate Chinese investors doing their business in Pakistan. 
Ethiopia on Sunday inaugurated a 209.15-meter-tall landmark building located at the heart of its capital city, which houses the country's largest public-owned commercial bank.

The new headquarters of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) was built by the Chinese construction giant China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).

The inauguration event coincided with the CBE's 80th anniversary and was attended by senior Ethiopian government officials, Chinese diplomats in Ethiopia, and representatives of the CBE and the CSCEC.

Calling the inauguration a milestone, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said at the event, "I am very happy as we gather here today to inaugurate this beautiful building while also marking the 80th anniversary of this historic bank."

Ahmed said the CBE reflects Ethiopia's years-long dedication to and aspiration for establishing and sustaining modern institutions, stressing the need to modernize the banking sector in the East African country.

The building project, which involves the construction of two five-story podiums and the main tower, has won wide acclaim among Ethiopian experts. It is regarded as the tallest building in East Africa.

CBE President Abie Sano said the project has served as a means for Ethiopian engineering students and construction companies to learn state-of-the-art technologies.

He said the building, which has applied very modern and latest technologies with supervision from the Addis Ababa University Institute of Technology, "witnessed crucial technology and experience-sharing endeavor over the course of its construction."

"This very modern skyscraper will serve our generation and beyond in a view to address emerging advancements in the banking sector as well as future expectations," Sano said.

"I was very lucky to have this invaluable learning experience since the project's early construction stage," said Belay Bitew, a young Ethiopian civil engineer involved in overseeing the project construction.

Noting that the construction materials and technologies used in the construction process meet international standards, he added, "The learning endeavor during our stay with our Chinese colleagues has been another milestone."





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
File photo shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a press conference devoted to his two years in office in Kiev, Ukraine, May 20, 2021. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua)

"There is no alternative to diplomacy. All issues, including the most intractable, can and must be addressed and resolved through diplomatic frameworks. It is my firm belief that this principle will prevail," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- As tensions on the Ukrainian situation keep mounting, multiple countries have been engaged in shuttle diplomacy, trying to de-escalate the crisis.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Kiev on Monday for a working visit. After their talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that the two parties discussed the peace process in and around Ukraine and the legal guarantees that would help to protect Ukraine.

In particular, Zelensky said that Ukraine needs energy security guarantees due to the risks associated with the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.

"We expect that in the near future we will be able to hold further talks and agree on a summit of the leaders of the Normandy Four," Zelensky said.

Ukraine and Germany are members of the Normandy format that also includes Russia and France.

Scholz said that Germany is trying to find a diplomatic solution to the situation around Ukraine.

"Together with France, we have intensified our efforts in the Normandy format. It's a difficult process, but I'm sure it's worth the effort," Scholz said.

Zelensky and Scholz also discussed Ukraine's aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during their talks.

Photo taken in Arlington of Virginia, the United States, shows a screen displaying U.S. President Joe Biden (R) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attending a press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. Feb. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Scholz said that Ukraine's possible accession to NATO is currently "out of the agenda," the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

After his stay in Kiev, the German chancellor is scheduled for a visit to Moscow on Tuesday.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Moscow and held an hours-long discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine crisis.

After their talks, Macron said that his Russian counterpart assured "his desire to maintain the stability and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

Following his visit to Russia, the French president visited Ukraine. After his talks with Zelensky in Kiev, Macron told a joint press conference that France would continue working with Germany to mediate the crisis.

Wrapping up the visits, Macron met with Scholz in Berlin. At a joint press conference, the French president reaffirmed that pursuing dialogue with Russia is "the only path that will make peace possible in Ukraine."

Scholz emphasized "the maintenance of peace must intervene through diplomacy."

In recent days, the United States has hyped up tensions between Russia and Ukraine and stoked fears of a Russian "invasion."

Moscow denied the accusation, saying that Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory as NATO's activities constitute a threat to Russia's border security.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie E)

Also on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a virtual meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He also spoke separately with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

In a press encounter, Guterres said he was deeply worried about the current tensions and increased speculation about a potential military conflict.

"The price in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate. We simply cannot accept even the possibility of such a disastrous confrontation," he said.

"There is no alternative to diplomacy. All issues, including the most intractable, can and must be addressed and resolved through diplomatic frameworks. It is my firm belief that this principle will prevail," said Guterres.

On Saturday, Putin discussed the Ukraine crisis with U.S. President Joe Biden and Macron respectively over the phone.

During these conversations, Putin reiterated the absence of a substantive response from the United States and NATO to Russian initiatives in addressing its security concerns, while agreeing to continue dialogue and contacts with the other two leaders. 
TEHRAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iranian deputy permanent representative to the United Nations has condemned the continued U.S. sanctions on Iran as "crime against humanity," official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday.

Zahra Ershadi said the U.S. unilateral sanctions against the Iranian people, particularly on medicines and humanitarian items, "should not go unpunished."

"The illegal sanctions have hampered access of vulnerable segments of the society in affected countries, including my country," to basic medical items and necessities, Ershadi said on Monday in his address to the UN Commission for Social Development.

Restrictions on access to Iran's foreign exchange resources have hampered its medical and health supplies, which directly impacted the lives of Iran's most vulnerable citizens, including women, children and patients, she noted.

"In fact, the pandemic has made the negative humanitarian effects of unilateral sanctions far more obvious and more disastrous," the Iranian representative stressed.

The United States re-imposed sweeping sanctions against Iran in 2018 after abandoning the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
A man visits a lantern fair to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Jiaozhou City, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Wang Zhaomai/Xinhua)

People make lanterns to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Huzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Wang Zheng/Xinhua)

Performers throw molten iron to create fireworks to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Han Chaoyang)

Performers throw molten iron to create fireworks to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Hao Yuan)

Aerial photo taken on Feb. 15, 2022 shows artists performing local opera to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Changde, central China's Hunan Province. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Chen Sihan)

Kindergarten children play dragon dance to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Qingzhou City, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Wang Jilin/Xinhua)

A child poses for photos with dragon dance performers, in Huzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Weng Xinyang)

People perform dragon dance for tourists to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Hao Yuan)

Performers dance to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Yanchi County, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

Aerial photo taken on Feb. 14, 2022 shows a performance celebrating the Lantern Festival, in Yanchi County, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

People perform lion dance to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

A villager throws molten iron to create fireworks to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Zoucheng, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Han Jun/Xinhua)

Overseas students make glutinous rice balls with community volunteers to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

A child eats glutinous rice balls in Huzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Weng Xinyang)

Children visit a lantern fair to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Linyi City, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Fang Dehua/Xinhua)

People visit a lantern fair to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Danzhai County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Huang Xiaohai/Xinhua)

People make glutinous rice balls and dumplings to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Qinzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

People visit a lantern fair to celebrate the Lantern Festival in east China's Shanghai, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

Children make lanterns to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Yangzhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Meng Delong/Xinhua)

People make lanterns in Qinzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

People perform lion dance to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Overseas students taste glutinous rice balls to celebrate the Lantern Festival, in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

People perform dragon dance to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Tunxi old town of Huangshan, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Shi Yalei/Xinhua)

People perform lion dance to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Weiyuan County of Dingxi, northwest China's Gansu Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Ma Xiping)

Pedestrians take part in a riddle guessing activity to celebrate the Lantern Festival at the Central Street in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Feb. 15, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

Artists perform traditional opera to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Saihan District of Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Wang Zheng/Xinhua)

A local villager holding a fish-shaped lantern parades to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Wangmantian Village, Shexian County of Huangshan City, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 14, 2022. The Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 15 this year. (Photo by Shui Congze/Xinhua)
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Argentina international right-back Fabricio Bustos has joined Brazil's Internacional after parting ways with Argentine side Independiente, the Porto Alegre club said on Monday.

The 25-year-old, who had been contracted to Independiente until June 30, agreed to a deal that runs until December 2024.

"Fabricio Bustos is [our] new signing. He will arrive in Porto Alegre in the coming days," Internacional said in a brief statement posted on social media.

Bustos made 174 first-team appearances and scored four goals for Independiente after being promoted from the club's youth ranks in 2016.

He has been capped four times for Argentina and also represented the Abiceleste at under-17 and under-20 levels. 
ABUJA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Scores of bandits were neutralized and 20 hostages were freed by security operatives following a recent operation in Nigeria's north-central state of Niger, local police said on Monday.

The raid, also involving the military and local vigilante groups, was carried out based on credible intelligence on the activities of bandits in Nasko village in the Magama local government area of Niger on Saturday, said Niger police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun in a statement.

The government forces engaged the bandits in a gunfight for about two hours, Abiodun said, noting that some of the bandits escaped with gunshot wounds.

Armed attacks have been a primary security threat in Nigeria's northern and central regions, leading to deaths and kidnappings in recent months. 
LUANDA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Angola and Namibia started reviewing economic cooperation between the two countries on Monday, senior officials have said.

A Namibian business delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, started a seven-day trip to Angola on Monday, said Carlos Cruz Sardinha, the director of international cooperation at the Angolan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to the schedule, bilateral meetings are expected at the ministerial and sectoral levels to deepen the exchange of experience for the good of both peoples, officials said.

The Namibian businessmen will also travel to Angola's Bengo and Kwanza-Sul provinces to visit economic enterprises, banana plantations and industrial factories.

In the capital city of Luanda, the Namibian business mission will visit the Special Economic Zone, particularly a plastic factory, glass production and a tractor assembly line.

The two sides are expected to sign three legal instruments during the trip, according to official sources. 
KHARTOUM, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of Sudan's ruling Transitional Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan on Monday announced the appointment of Gen. Yassin Ibrahim Yassin as the country's acting defense minister, the council said in a statement.

Yassin had previously served as minister of defense in the government of former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, which was dissolved on Oct. 25, 2021.

On Jan. 20, Al-Burhan appointed a caretaker government of 15 ministers.

Sudan has been suffering a political crisis after Al-Burhan, who is also the general commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, declared a state of emergency on Oct. 25, 2021 and dissolved the Sovereign Council and the government.

Since then, opposition groups have been staging regular mass protests in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and other cities to demand civilian rule. 
Spanish infrastructure major Acciona recently organised a round table session in Dubai to present the Homeward Bound project, a global initiative that aims to promote the leadership of women in climate science.

The event took place at the Spanish Pavilion of the Expo 2020 to mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

A global pioneer in sustainable solutions for energy and infrastructure, Acciona is a strategic partner of Homeward Bound, as the two organizations have found common cause in a commitment to womens contribution in our world today.

Founded in 2015, Homeward Bound promotes the leadership of women in STEM ((Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This project aims to build, in a decade, a network of 10,000 women working together across the Planet for a shared future.

Homeward Bound is a 12-month program with online content and collaborative learning, centered on four pillars: leadership, strategy, communication and science. This year marks the seventh edition of the program.

Before the pandemic, the program culminated in a three-week trip expedition to Antarctica, where the participating women observed firsthand the impact of human activity on the frozen continent.

By bringing female scientists together, Homeward Bound aims to create a network of women with the skills and will to create a more sustainable future. The goal of the program is to forge personal and professional bonds between the participants, enrich teamwork, and generate new initiatives to advance real solutions to some of most pressing global concerns.

The roundtable session in Dubai brought together Fabian Dattner, Homeward Bound Project Founder; Lourdes Vega, Director of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH Center) in Khalifa University and Marta Fernandez Fernandez, Chief Experience Officer of JUMIA, an e-commerce group.

The event was attended by high school students from Sunmarke School of Dubai and from Khalifa University.

To date, Homeward Bound has brought together women from more than 56 nationalities and 46 scientists in a mentorship program that aims to hone their leadership, skills, visibility and global networking.

Getting more women involved in STEM careers is a key priority for Acciona, the Homeward Bound project, and many national governments.

According to Unesco, only 28% of the worlds researchers are women. In the Middle East, the participation of women in STEM subjects is higher than the global average, and in countries such as UAE and Saudi Arabia, 60% of science graduates are women.

However, social and cultural norms mean that few female science graduates go on to have careers in their subjects.

Acciona is a global leader in the provision of regenerative solutions for a decarbonized economy. Its business offer includes renewable energy, water treatment and management, eco-efficient transportation and mobility systems and resilient infrastructures. The company has been carbon neutral since 2016.-TradeArabia News Service
ATHENS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Greece's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday advised Greek citizens currently in Ukraine to "leave the country immediately."

Amidst escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the Greek ministry also "strongly discourages all travel in any part of Ukraine's territory," according to a press release.

Greek citizens who have not already left the country are advised to immediately register their contact details with the Greek Embassy in Kiev, said the ministry.

The staff levels at the Greek Embassy in Kiev have been reduced to "essential personnel only," it added.

Greece, like many countries, is closely monitoring the situation. On Monday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired a meeting of ministers and other officials on the developments in Ukraine, focusing on possible scenarios to ensure the security of Greece's natural gas supplies, according to an e-mailed press statement. 
MINSK, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The defense ministers of Belarus and Ukraine, Viktor Khrenin and Olexiy Reznikov, discussed the current state of military cooperation and steps to strengthen confidence and security in the region in a telephone conversation on Monday.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus, the talks were held on the initiative of the Ukrainian side.

During the conversation, Khrenin noted that Belarus is not the initiator of tensions in relations with Ukraine. Reznikov offered the resumption of cooperation between the two countries on security issues.

The ministers discussed military exercises and expressed the confidence that they do not pose security threats.

One day earlier, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Belarus is not involved in the aggravation of bilateral relations with Ukraine. The Belarusian leader stressed that no one plans to fight Ukraine, and it is the fact that the West constantly spreads rumours of Russia's allegedly preparing attack on a neighboring country.

On Feb. 6, Lukashenko said that Ukraine could become part of the Union State in 15 years, since Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians are a "Slavic brotherhood."

Western politicians and the media have been speculating about possible Russian aggression against Ukraine. The Russian side has repeatedly denied such statements. 
New Delhi:

In a first disclosure, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Thursday said de-radicalisation camps are operating in the country as it was necessary to isolate people who are completely radicalised. In an address at the Raisina Dialogue, General Rawat, delving into the situation in Kashmir, said girls and boys as young as 10 and 12 years are being radicalised in the Valley which he described as a matter of concern.

These people can still be isolated from radicalisation in a gradual way. But there are people who have been completely radicalised. These people need to be taken out separately, possibly taken to some de-radicalisation camps, he said.

We have got de-radicalisation camps going on in our country, the Chief of Defence Staff said.

He said that Pakistan too has de-radicalisation camps.

Let me tell you even Pakistan is doing the same. Pakistan also has de-radicalisation camps as they have understood that the terrorism that they have been sponsoring is actually hitting back at them, Gen Rawat said.

It is for the first time a top-ranking official publicly has talked about existence of de-radicalisation camps in India.

Gen Rawat said containing radicalisation is key to effectively combat terrorism, adding radicalised young people were involved in pelting security forces with stones in Kashmir.

Identifying radicalisation is a major challenge, he said, adding it can be countered with effective programme.

You got to start looking at where the radicalisation is taking place. Who are the people involved in radicalising the people. It is happening in schools, universities, from religious places and sites, and then there are group of people who are spreading this, he said.

The former Army chief said it was important to isolate people who have been radicalised.

You have to start isolating these people gradually and then start a counter radicalisation programme by identifying people who have been radicalised and to what degree.

You have to segregate them... Then look at those who have been completely radicalised. First target them and then also start looking at the future, like what we have seen in Kashmir, he said.

On pelting of stones on security forces in Kashmir, Gen Rawat said the stones used were as lethal as pellet guns. We have had casualties including death being caused because of stone pelting.

The former Army chief also claimed people in Kashmir suffered pellet wounds on their faces and eyes when they tried to pick up stones from the ground.

The security forces were not aiming for the face. They aimed for the leg. But the face gets hurt when people tried to pick up stones from the ground," he said.

Gen Rawat said an impression is being created that Indian Army has been heavy-handed in Kashmir.

Indian Army had to be heavy handed in the initial phases of the proxy war when it was launched in early 1990s. Thereafter we are not using such an approach, he said.

Gen Rawat pitched for a hardline approach to deal with terrorism in the region, saying the model adopted by the US to take on terror networks after the 9/11 strike needs to be replicated.

In a clear reference to Pakistan, he also sought strong global action including diplomatic isolation against states sponsoring terrorism, asserting that there is a need to take the bull by its horns and strike at the root cause of terrorism.

"We have to bring an end to terrorism and that can only happen the way the Americans started after the 9/11. Let's go on a spree on global war on terror and let the nations join and fight terrorism together," Gen Rawat said.

"In trying to do that, you have to isolate the terrorists. Anybody sponsoring terrorism has to be taken to task," he said.

After the September 11, 2001 terror attack, the US had declared a global war on terror which included legislative measures as well as military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Tunisia, Somalia, Mali and Nigeria.

"You cannot have partners who are partnering with you in the global war on terrorism and yet sponsoring proxies and terror. You have to have an international messaging that has to go to them. Hard action should be taken," Gen Rawat said.

He said action like blacklisting countries by global anti-terror watchdog FATF could be a good option.

"You have to bring about acceptability in the nations that there are sponsors of terrorism. Denial of terrorism cannot be allowed to continue," Gen Rawat said.

He said there was a need to strike at the root of terrorism.

"As long as there are states which sponsor terrorism, we will have to live with the menace. We need to take the bull by its horns and strike at the root cause," he said.

He also compared cyber warfare by terrorists to "soup" in a banquet, "starters" with missiles and drone attacks and "main course" with combat in air and sea.

"The banquet can well be attacked by a swarm of bees in the form of terrorists," he said, adding the future of terrorism is going to be as dirty as conventional combat.

"The war on terror is not ending. The war on terror is something which is going to continue. We will have to live with it until we understand and get to the roots of terrorism," he added.

The former Army chief said terrorism is going to stay as long as certain states are going continue sponsoring it and use terrorists as their proxies besides providing weapons and funds to terror groups.

Asked whether he supports ongoing peace negotiations with the Taliban, he said talks should be initiated with everybody provided they give up the "weapon of terrorism".

"You have to come to a peace deal with everybody. You have to go for a negotiated deal but in that the Taliban or whoever it may be must give up the weapon of terror," he said.

Asked whether Pakistan will continue its support to Taliban, Gen Rawat replied: "the answer is yes."

"You have to change the ideology behind Taliban for lasting peace (in Afghanistan). It cannot be a temporary measure," he added.

Asked about his new post, he said the CDS is the first among equals but he has got clear and well defined responsibilities.

"While he is the first among equals, he has some authority over the three service chiefs except on operational issues," he said.

(With PTI inputs)

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Washington/Beijing:

The US on Wednesday signed the first phase of a trade deal with China, which President Donald Trump described as historic, concluding more than a year of tough negotiations including several months of suspension of talks between the two largest economies of the world. The first phase of the trade deal includes Intellection Property (IP) Protection and Enforcement, ending forced technology transfer, dramatic expansion of American agriculture, removing barriers to American financial services, ending currency manipulation, rebalancing the US-China trade relationship and effective dispute resolution.

The agreement was signed by President Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Politburo Member and Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China. In his remarks, Trump called the trade agreement signing "a momentous step... to a future of fair and reciprocal trade." The two countries are "writing the wrongs of the past," the US President said, adding that he would soon visit China and thanked his Chinese counterpart for this deal.

"I'll be going over to China in the not-too-distant future to reciprocate," he said. This is a transformative deal that will bring great benefits for the two countries, Trump said, hoping that this will even lead to a peaceful world. Trump said that China has made substantial and enforceable commitment to protecting American ideas. At the same time, he said, punitive tariffs on China would remain in place till the time the second phase of the trade deal is agreed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his letter to Trump which was read out at the signing ceremony in the White House, said the phase one deal was good for China and the US and it needed to be earnestly implemented by both sides. In an apparent reference to Trump's crackdown on China's telecom giant Huawei, Xi hoped that Chinese companies will be treated fairly by the US.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu said China and the US, the world's two largest economies and two major players in international affairs with great responsibilities, reached the phase one deal "with the big picture in mind" and by "acknowledging and properly managing" their differences. China will work with the United States on the principle of equality and mutual respect to ensure good implementation of their phase-one economic and trade agreement, he said.

He added that the deal is not in conflict with the legitimate rights and interests of any third party, and is also in accordance with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Calling economic and trade cooperation "the propeller of the overall bilateral relationship", Liu noted the two countries have encountered some difficulties in economic and trade areas over the past two years. "There have been several setbacks in negotiations, but we were not overwhelmed by difficulties," Liu said.

After continuous efforts by both teams, China and the US reached the phase one deal based on the principle of equality and mutual respect, which illustrated a Chinese saying "There are always more solution than problems". The world's two largest economies have spent 18 months embroiled in a bitter trade dispute that imposed tit-for-tat levies on each other's commodities, mechanical parts and finished goods.

Trump had launched the trade war with China in 2018 demanding Beijing to reduce massive trade deficit. His demands included an intrusive verification mechanism to supervise Beijing's promise to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) technology transfer and more access to American goods to Chinese markets. Both sides so far have imposed additional tariffs on nearly USD half trillion worth of goods.

So far, the US has imposed tariffs on more than USD 360 billion of Chinese goods, and China has retaliated with tariffs on more than USD 110 billion of US products. State-run Global Times reported that among the key takeaways from the agreement was China's pledge to increase purchases of US products over the next two years and the US commitment to roll back tariffs in phases on Chinese goods. Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that under the deal China has committed to buy 200 billion worth of goods from the US in the next two years.

The agreement also covered areas of disputes between Chinese and the US officials including the protection of intellectual property rights, technology transfer and an implementation review mechanism. The signing of the deal presented a stark contrast to the tremendous hostility and brinkmanship between the two countries of the past 660 or so days and the theatrical back-and-forth in negotiations, including 13 high-level rounds, the Global Times report said.

Commenting on the deal, Einar Tangen Beijing based current affairs commentator told PTI that Wednesday's deal is more of a trade truce and much of the promises made by China to purchase US goods cannot be enforced. "The overall signal from the phase one agreement is much larger than the content of the deal itself," Wei Jianguo, a former Chinese vice commerce minister, told the Global Times. "It is a boon for the world that the world's largest and second-largest economies have hit the pause key in the trade war".

Also Read: China Says Trade Deal With US Must Be 'Mutually Beneficial'

"The phase one deal means that China and the US have entered a new relatively predictable cycle," Li Yong, a deputy chairman of the expert committee of the China Association of International Trade, told the Daily. "It will be able to help revitalise the global value chain disrupted by the trade war and remedy at least some of loss".

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New Delhi:

Indian Coast Guard Navik Result 2020 has been declared. The list of Final Medical Examination at INS Chilka Navik  GD 01/2020 Batch is released. Candidates who appeared in the Indian Coast Guard Navik Exam will be able to check result on the official website of Indian Coast Guard, i.e. joinindiancoastguard.gov.in. It is to note that the reporting time of Medical Exam of shortlisted candidates will be from February 6 to February 8, 2020.

To check the Zone wise Reporting date, candidates need to click on the below mentioned direct link. Importantly, all selected candidates must make sure to carry their respective call letters for the Final medical Exam in person after January 25, 2020. Also, the call letter will be sent by post. At the time of recruitment, candidates need to appear with the respective Admit Card and Photo Identity Card.

Indian Coast Guard Navik Result 2020

In order to download the Indian Coast Guard Navik Result 2020, candidates need to follow the below mentioned steps:

First, candidates need to visit the official website of Indian Coast Guard

Then, click on the List of Selected Candidates for Final Medical Examination

A new page will open in the PDF format

Check the roll number of selected candidates

Then, make sure to check the list of documents that candidates must carry at the time of medical exam at INS Chilka. Earlier, the Online application for Indian Coast Guard Navik started on October 30, 2019. The last date to apply for the Navik post was November 8, 2019. Candidates can click on the below mentioned direct link to check the Indian Coast Guard Navik 2020 Result.

Indian Coast Guard Navik 2020 Result Direct Link
New Delhi:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on Jammu and Kashmir Deputy SP Davinder Singh, who was arrested for harbouring terrorists, and asked who was providing the officer protection and why.

He also sought to know Singh's role in the Pulwama attack and how many terrorists he helped, demanding that the officer be tried by a fast-track court and given the harshest punishment for treason against India.

"DySP Davindar Singh sheltered 3 terrorists with Indian blood on their hands at his home and was caught ferrying them to Delhi, the Congress leader tweeted.

"He must be tried by a fast track court within 6 months and if guilty, given the harshest possible sentence for treason against India," Gandhi said on Twitter.

Gandhi attached a picture along with his tweet that dubbed Davinder Singh a terrorist and raised several questions.

"Government silent on terrorist DSP Davinder Singh. Why are PM, HM and NSA silent on Davinder Singh. What was Davinder Singh's role in Pulwama attack. How many other terrorists has he helped. Who was protecting him and why," Gandhi asked in the photo attached to his tweet.

He also used the hashtag "TerroristDavindarCoverUp" along with it.

The Congress has already said that there is a larger conspiracy behind the arrest of Davinder Singh and sought to know his links with the Pulwama attack and has demanded an independent probe.

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The incident happened on platform number 1 around 10 am. (Photo Credit: Representational Image)

New Delhi:

A 50-year-old man died after he allegedly jumped in front of a moving train at Dwarka Mor metro station on Thursday, police said. The incident happened on platform number 1 around 10 am when the train was going towards Noida from Dwarka. He was rushed to DDU Hospital but could not be saved.

His identity is yet to be established and an investigation is underway.

Delay in services between Dwarka Sector 21 and Rajiv Chowk due to a passenger on track at Dwarka Mor. Normal service on all other line, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation tweeted.

Blue Line Update



Delay in services between Dwarka Sector 21 and Rajiv Chowk due to a passenger on track at Dwarka Mor.



Normal service on all other lines.  Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (@OfficialDMRC) January 16, 2020

The services resumed later.
New Delhi:

Jharkhand Board Class 12 Admit Card 2020 is going to be released on January 18, 2020. According to the official notification released by JAC, Jharkhand Academic Council, the JAC Class 12 2020 Admit Card will be released on January 18, 2020. Students and parents can check the official notification regarding Class 12 admit card 2020 on the official website of JAC, i.e. jac.jharkhand.gov.in.

Jharkhand Board Class 12 Admit Card 2020

It is to note that the JAC Class Eight and Class Nine Exam admit cards are already available on the official website of Jharkhand Academic Council. In order to download the JAC Board Exam Class 12 Admit Card 2020, candidates need to follow the below mentioned steps:

First, candidates need to visit the official website of Jharkhand Academic Council, i.e. jac.jharkhand.gov.in

Once the Admit Card is released, a link will be activated

Click on the respective link and a new page will open

Enter the required details such as registration number and school code

Download and take a printout of the JAC Class 12 Admit Card 2020 for future reference

Candidates must ensure to carry the admit card at the time of examination as no candidate will be allowed to appear for the exam without the JAC Class 12 2020 admit card. Other than this, students should note that the JAC Class 12 practical exam will begin from January 27, 2020.

The Class 12 Theory Exam 2020 will begin from February 11, 2020. The JAC Class 12 admit card 2020 will include major details such as exam center address and candidates roll numbers.

For more details, candidates need to visit the official website of Jharkhand Academic Council.
New Delhi:

Indian Army JAG 2020 recruitment notification is released for Unmarried Male and Female Law Graduates for SSC (Short Service Commission) in the Advocate General Branch. All interested and eligible candidates need to apply through the prescribed format on online mode. Candidates applying for the JAG Entry Scheme for October 25 2020 Course need to go through the eligibility criteria and official notification carefully. It is to note that candidates can download the JAG Recruitment official notification by visiting official website, i.e. joinindianarmy.nic.in or by clicking on the bellow mentioned direct link.

Indian Army JAG Recruitment 2020 Details

It is to note that all selected candidates will join the Short Service Commission in Army for 14 years, which 10 plus 4 years of extension period. The online application of Indian Army JAG has already started and the last date to submit application for JAG SSC Course is February 13, 2020.

A total of 8 vacant positions out of which 6 posts are for men and 2 for women are going to be filled through this recruitment drive.

In order to apply for the Indian Army JAG SC Course, candidates need to have LLB degree with valid registration as Bar Council of India/State Advocate. Other than this, candidates need to be in the age group of 21 to 27 years to apply for the Short Service Commission Course.

Candidates will be selected on the basis of two stage test that include Stage I Test and Stage 2 Test. Candidates have to qualify the Stage I Test to get a call for the Stage 2 Test. In addition, the SSB Interview duration is for 5 days. All candidates must ensure to apply for the Indian Army JAG latest by February 13, 2020. Candidates can click on the below mentioned direct link to check the Indian Army JAG Recruitment Official Notification.

Indian Army JAG Recruitment Official Notification Direct Link
Aster DM Healthcare has announced the international line-up of industry-leading judges as part of the Grand Jury panel for its first Global Nursing Awards.

Due to take place in Dubai on International Nurses Day (May 12, 2022), the Aster Guardians Global Nursing Awards is set to see outstanding performers in the field of nursing recognised for their major contributions and relentless efforts to the healthcare sector in what has been some of the most challenging years for the healthcare industry in recent memory.

The project is led by Dr Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and MD Aster DM Healthcare.

The awards ceremony will convene a global gathering of the healthcare community in Dubai, and it will see one outstanding performer in the field of nursing claim the grand prize of $250,000, while nine other finalists will share the stage to receive a substantial cash award for their efforts.

The applications from 184 countries have seen over 23,282 nurses vie for the much-coveted prize, which has been put forward by Aster DM Healthcare to celebrate the achievements of frontline workers in the wake of the global pandemic. Over 379 applications have been received so far in the UAE, out of 1,341 applications from the Middle East.

To select the winner Aster DM Healthcare has brought on board a prestigious line-up of leaders in healthcare as Grand jury namely: Howard Catton - Chief Executive Officer, International Council of Nurses, Switzerland; Prof Sheila Tlou - Co-Chairperson, Global HIV Prevention Coalition and Ex - Minister of Health & Member of Parliament  Govt of Botswana; Prof James Buchan - Adjunct Professor, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing; Muralee Thummarukudy, Acting Head, Resilience to Disasters and Conflicts Global Support Branch, United Nations Environment Programme, Switzerland; and Dr Carolyn Gomes, Executive Director, Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC), Jamaica.

Ernst & Young (EY) is 'Process Advisors' to ensure due-diligence of applications based on the defined eligibility criteria, evaluation of the entries by an independent panel of experts, and presentation by the finalists to the independent Grand jury to determine the final winner. The finalists will undergo personal interviews with the jury members who will make the final decisions. - TradeArabia News Service
Remarks against Amazon assume significance as domestic traders body CAIT has time and again alleged that e-commerce players including the US firm were violating FDI rules. (Photo Credit: Jeff Bezos/Twitter)

New Delhi:

A day after the world's richest person Jeff Bezos announced fresh $1 billion investment in India, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said his firm Amazon was not doing a favour to the country by the investments and questioned how the online retailing major could incur such "big" losses but for its predatory pricing. Goyal, who has not yet given Bezos an audience, said e-commerce companies have to follow Indian rules in letter and spirit and not find loopholes to make a back-door entry into multi-brand retail segment.

India does not allow foreign investment beyond 49 per cent in multi-brand retailing and has not yet approved any application of overseas retailers.

"They (Amazon) may have put in a billion dollars but if they make a loss of a billion dollars every year, then jolly well will have to finance that billion dollar. So, it is not as if they are doing a favour to India when they invest a billion dollars," he said at the Raisina Dialogue here. The USD 1 billion investment by Amazon.com to help bring small and medium businesses online is on the top of USD 5.5 billion funding it had previously announced.

The minister wondered why an e-commerce market place model, where a firm provides an IT platform for buyers and sellers, incurring huge losses adding that it needs to be looked upon.

"They are investing money over the last few years also in warehousing and certain other activities, which is welcome and good. But if they are bringing in money largely to finance losses and those losses in an e-commerce market place model," Goyal said.

He added that in a fair market place model in a turnover of USD 10 billion dollars, if a company is incurring loss of billion dollars, it "certainly raises questions, where the loss came from".

Goyal said that how can a marketplace make such a big loss unless they are indulging in "predatory pricing or some unfair trade practices".

"These are real questions which need answers and I am sure the authorities who are looking at it seek those answers and I am sure the e-commerce companies will have their say on that," he said.

Fair trade regulator CCI (Competition Commission of India) has recently ordered a probe against e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon for alleged malpractices, including deep discounting and tie-ups with preferred sellers on their platforms.

"CCI based on its preliminary findings has already initiated an enquiry into the (audio unclear) practices of Amazon and Flipkart. And that is certainly an area of concern for every Indian," he said.

The minister added that India allows foreign investments in e-commerce market place model, which is an agnostic platform where buyers and sellers are free to trade, but the market place player cannot own the inventory, cannot have control over the inventory; cannot determine process; cannot have algorithms to determine which product will get a preeminent position or which product will get preference when offered to buyers.

There are several established rules for an e-commerce market place business in India and "I think as long as everybody follows these rules, we very much welcome e-commerce into India," he added.

Further, he said that India has strict rules for FDI in multi-brand retail trading and anybody who tries to use the e-commerce market place model to get into the multi-brand retail space surreptitiously will have to be questioned and investigated.

"Whether they are doing that or not is a matter of the investigators to decide...whatever (would be their) findings, that should be respected by everybody," Goyal said.

He reiterated that investors have to follow the laws in letter and spirit and do not try to find loopholes within the defined letter of the law.

Remarks against Amazon assume significance as domestic traders body CAIT has time and again alleged that e-commerce players including the US firm were violating FDI rules and following predatory pricing in India. The Confederation of All India Traders (BJP) hailed the "bold and pragmatic statement" given by the commerce minister.

"With this stand, the minister has once again reiterated that the government is sensitive to the interests of seven crore traders who are severely affected by the malpractices of e-commerce giants," it said in a statement.

Traders are an important vote base for the BJP and Delhi is going for assembly polls on February 8.

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York:

A South Carolina woman pleaded guilty to fatally poisoning her husband by putting eye drops into his water for days. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Lana Sue Clayton, 53, pleaded guilty Thursday to voluntary manslaughter and tampering with a food or drug, news outlets reported. York County detectives said Lana Clayton admitted to giving her husband Steven Clayton drinks laced with Visine. She poisoned him with Visine for three days in July 2018 before the poison eventually caused his death, prosecutors said. Lana Clayton said her husband was abusive and she didn't mean to kill him.

"I did impulsively put the Visine in Steven's drink, but I just did it to make him uncomfortable..." Lana Clayton said in court. "I never thought it would kill him." She was originally charged with murder but accepted a plea deal. Her lawyers in court said Lana Clayton was a good person having worked as a Veterans Affairs nurse in Charlotte.

They said Lana Clayton was abused as a child, raped on a military base and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. She attempted to kill herself during the investigation in August 2018 Court records show the couple lived on property worth more than USD 1 million and Steven Clayton, 64, has over a USD 1 million in other assets. He was a retired businessman from Florida. Lana Clayton knew the Visine would kill her husband and continued to poison him, prosecutors said. They accused her of destroying his will so she could inherit his money.

"How can you maintain you did this to teach him a lesson, when it is obvious from the facts that you let him suffer for three days," Judge Paul Burch told Clayton in court. "You ignored him."

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New Delhi:

Was arrested Jammu and Kashmir Police officer Davinder Singh involved in 2001 Parliament attack? This is the question that the security agencies would be probing, a latest report on Thursday said. According to an NDTV report, Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbagh Singh said that nobody is above the law and everything can be probed. The remark gains significance amid the ongoing probe by the National Investigation Agency. Now-suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police, Davinder Singh was arrested on Saturday in a car along with three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists. The links between Davinder Singh and the 2001 Parliament attack are not new. Earlier, Afzal Guru, the prime accused in the case had alleged that it was Singh who had sent him to Delhi and made other key arrangements just before the attack.

The letter

In a letter to his lawyer, which is being widely quoted by media reports, Afzal Guru had claimed that Davinder Singh tortured him and was forced to help one of the terrorists that carried out the attack on Parliament under pressure from Singh. The letter is detailed in Arundhati Roys book The Hanging of Afzal Guru and the strange case of the attack on Indian Parliament.

In the letter, Guru had said that he started facing trouble after his failed separatist bid and returned to Kashmir. He had written in his letter how the STF started torturing him. He had claimed that it was the STF that provided him with the phone that was found on the body of one of the terrorists killed in the attack.

Torture at STF camp

They took me to Humhama STF camp where D.S.P. Dravinder [Davinder] Singh also tortured me," Guru wrote, adding, "One of his torture inspector as they called him Shanty Singh electrified me naked for 3 hours and made me drink water while giving electric shocks through telephone instrument."

"Ultimately I accepted to pay them 10,00,000 Rs. for which my family sold the gold of my wife. Even after this they could manage only 80000 Rs. Then they took the scooter too which was just 2-3 months old which I bought for 24000 Rs. Thus after getting 1 lakh rupees they let me free. But now I was a broken person [sic]," Guru wrote in the letter to his lawyer.

Davinders role

The specific input that the security agencies will now be probing is the claim made by Afzal Guru in his letter about Singhs role. "D.S. (Davinder Singh) told me that I had to do a small job for him that has to took one man to Delhi as I was well aware about Delhi and has to manage a rented house for him (sic)," Guru writes in his letter.

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Kozhikode:

A fifth-generation dynast Rahul Gandhi has no chance in Indian politics against a hard-working and self-made Narendra Modi, and Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing the Congress leader to Parliament, historian Ramachandra Guha said in Kozhikode on Friday. Guha said the reduction of the Congress from a "great party" during the freedom movement to a "pathetic family firm" now is one of the reasons for the ascendency of Hindutva and jingoism in India.

I have nothing against Rahul Gandhi personally. He is a decent fellow, very well-mannered. But young India does not want a fifth-generation dynast. If you Malyalis make the mistake of re-electing Rahul Gandhi in 2024 too, you are merely handing over an advantage to Narendra Modi, said Guha on the second day of the ongoing Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) during his talk, Patriotism Vs Jingoism.

Addressing the crowd, full of Keralites, he said, Kerala, you have done many wonderful things for India, but one of the disastrous thing you did was to elect Rahul Gandhi to the parliament.

Gandhi, who in 2019 general elections lost from his family bastion of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, had won from the Wayanad seat in Kerala.

Narendra Modi's great advantage is that he is not Rahul Gandhi. He is self-made. He has run a state for 15 years, he has an administrative experience, he is incredibly hard working and he never takes holidays in Europe. Believe me I am saying all this in all seriousness, he said.

But, even if Rahul Gandhi was "much more intelligent, more hard-working, never took a holiday in Europe, as a fifth generation dynast he still will be at a disadvantage against a self-made person", the 61-year-old author said.

He took on Congress president Sonia Gandhi too who, he said, reminded him of the late Mughal dynasty and how aloof they were of the state of their kingdom.

India is becoming more democratic and less feudal, and the Gandhis just don't realise this. You (Sonia) are in Delhi, your kingdom is shrinking more and more but still your chamchas (sycophants) are telling you that you are still the badshah, he said.

Further, he quoted his teacher and noted Indian sociologist Andre Beteille to describe the story of Nehru-Gandhi family as a classic "reversal of the famous Biblical injunction": the sins of the father will be visited upon seven successive generations.

In the Nehru's case, it is the sins of the seven successive generations have been re-visited upon Nehru... look at the national debate today. Why is Nehru evoked every time? Why does Modi always say Nehru ne kashmir mein yeh kiya, China mein yeh kiya, Triple Talaq mein yeh kiye ... because Rahul Gandhi is there.

Now if Rahul Gandhi disappears, Modi has to talk about his own policies and why they failed, he said.

According to Guha, Hypocrisy of the Indian Left -- the fact that they loved other nations more than India, rise of aggressive nationalism worldwide and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in neighbouring countries are some other reasons behind the evident leap of Hindutva in India in the recent times.

Historian William Dalrymple, novelists like Benyamin, Namita Gokhale, Chetan Bhagat and journalists Karan Thapar and Rajdeep Sardesai are among the many other writers who will be attending the four-day festival.

The focus theme of KLF 2020 is environment and climate change.

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New Delhi :

The Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP) hosted an interaction with Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, at its premises, on 07 January 2019. Born in the Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh in India, Kailash Satyarthi worked as a teacher in his hometown, post the completion of a degree in electrical engineering. In 1980, he left teaching and founded the organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which has freed thousands of children from slave-like conditions. He has also been active in a wide range of other organizations working against child labor, and for the rights of children.

Following the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, Satyarthi has waged a peaceful struggle to stop children from being exploited as labor, and instead attending school. He has also contributed to the development of international conventions on the rights of children. In 2014, Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work against the suppression of children and young people, and for the right of all children to education.

During his interaction with public policy scholars, Satyarthi touched upon his journey, the challenges and milestones achieved, emphasizing on how youth serve as an important solution for various challenges faced by the country; he also stressed on the need for active participation of the youth of today, alongside proper purpose, guidance and direction. Speaking on the subject of generating awareness via important media such as social media, he added: In todays times, social media plays an important role in drawing attention to injustice of any kind, spreading awareness, and encouraging voicing important concerns. Silence is violence, as far as injustice is concerned.

Priyanka Mehta, a public policy scholar, who attended the sessions, recounts her experience: The iteration of Satyarthis journey reminded us that the power of the citizen collective, coupled with that of democracy, creates an essential space for empowerment. As policy makers, he made us consider the immense power of advocacy. Consequently, we witnessed the necessitation and power of updating and amending our legislation to suit the humanitarian cause of our nation.

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Mumbai:

The Maharashtra ATS and the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police have launched a massive manhunt to trace Jalees Ansari, a 68-year-old convict of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. Ansari, also known as Dr Bomb, is accused of plotting and executing many blasts cases across the country since the early 90s. He went missing on Thursday morning and the matter came to light after his family members reached the police station with a complaint about Ansaris missing. Ansari is convicted in the Malegaon blast case, Ajmer blasts, and Jaipur serial blasts. He was on parole for 21 days from the Ajmer Central Prison, Rajasthan, and was expected to surrender before prison authorities on Friday.

According to a police official, he was ordered to visit the Agripada Police Station every day between 10.30 am and 12 pm to mark his attendance during his 21-day long parole. But he did not appear at the police station on Thursday during the designated time. In the afternoon, Jaid Ansari  son of Jalees Ansari - approached the police station with a complaint about his missing father.

Ansari underwent training in Pakistan

According to the complaint, Jalees Ansari went to offer namaz in the morning but did not return home. The Agripada Police has registered a missing case on the basis of the complaint. Ansari is one of the accused who underwent training in Pakistan in the early nineties.

A doctor by profession, he was indoctrinated by another terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda, reported India Today. Ansari created the terror module which was responsible for carrying several blasts in across the country to avenge the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the report said.

Ansari, a resident of Mominpada in Mumbai, is an expert in TNT and timer bombs and was allegedly connected with terror outfits like SIMI and Indian Mujahidin and taught terror groups how to make bombs. He was also questioned by the NIA in 2011 in connection with the 2008 bomb blast in Mumbai, he said.
New Delhi :

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday told the group of union ministers visiting Jammu and Kashmir to spread the message of development among the people not only in the urban areas but also in the villages of the Valley, sources said.

As part of a massive outreach programme, 36 central ministers will visit Jammu and Kashmir starting from Saturday. At a meeting of the Council of Ministers here, the prime minister asked the ministers to spread the message of development during their interaction with the locals, the sources said.

They were also asked to spread the message about the various central schemes which will benefit at the grass-roots level.

He said the ministers should not restrict themselves to the urban areas but meet people in villages also to inform about the developmental work carried out by the central government in Jammu and Kashmir.

The 36 Union ministers will visit different districts in both the divisions of the Union Territory starting from January 18 to January 24 and the home ministry is coordinating it.

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Ghaziabad:

Police have arrested a man who had allegedly staged a robbery with an intention to kill his wife as he was having an extra-marital affair with his sister-in-law, officials said on Wednesday. The incident had taken place at a house near Mewati Chowk of Behta Hazipur under the Loni police station on the night intervening January 11 and 12. SSP Kalanidhi Naithani said Asif planned the robbery to kill his wife due to relations with his sister-in-law.

During investigation, police monitored around 100 CCTV footage, the officer said. He said Asif had hired three people to eliminate his wife Samreen (35).

"I had an extra-marital affair with the younger sister of my wife due to which I planned to kill my pregnant wife," Asif reportedly told police. According to police, Asif told them that he wanted to keep his sister-in-law with him on the pretext of looking after his one-year-old son Taimoor, daughter Nameera (7) and elder son Aatif (12).

"I had contacted two quacks--Ravinder and Sandeep--and paid them Rs 30,000 to poison my wife but they failed," Asif reportedly told police.

Later, both introduce Asif to Sunil, who was a hardcore criminal and was imprisoned several times for committing heinous crimes, police said. According to police, Asif confessed that Samreen was strangled to death.

"I was held hostage as per planning at gunpoint due to which my brother-in-law Zunaid (14) and son Aatif took it as real," Asif told police. Police have arrested Asif under Sections 120-B and 302 of the IPC.

The quacks have been arrested under Section 120-B of the IPC while Sunil and his two accomplices are still at large.

They would also be nabbed soon, the SSP added.

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New Delhi :

Fissures deepened between DMK-Congress alliance with DMK saying that they are not bothered at all about whether Congress exits the partnership in the state or not. The development comes a day after the DMK said that only time will tell whether ties with the grand old party would go back to normal. If they want to quit, let them do so. How are we concerned, what is the loss for us? Party veteran Durai Murugan said when asked to comment on Congresss charge that DMK violated coalition dharma.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Pongal event, the DMK treasurer said the party was not worried about the grand old party leaving the alliance and in particular he was not concerned.

Asked whether the votes in favour of DMK would be hit without Congress, Durai Murugan said his party will not be affected at all. "No, not at all. Only if they (Congress) have a vote share ours (votes) will get reduced, Durai Murugan, flanked by his son Kathir Anand, said.

In his sarcastic style, he said the Congress does not have a vote bank to make a dent on his partys prospects. Do they have votes to make an impact? he quipped.

On his party colleague and former Union Minister TR Baalu saying that only time will tell on ties, he said:

Baalu said only time will tell. But I have answered the question. Reacting to it, Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram, son of senior leader P Chidambaram, asked in his twitter handle: Why didnt this wisdom dawn before the Vellore parliamentary bye election? @DuraimuruganDmk @dmkathiranand. The Vellore Lok Sabha election was held in August last and Duraimurugans son Kathir emerged victorious by a margin of 8,141 votes.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief KS Alagiri again sought to downplay the widening rift, which appeared to heading for a break-up.

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New Delhi:

Fuel Rates Today: After remaining unchanged for a day, petrol and diesel prices witnessed a downward trend on Thursday, January 16. The rates came down by up to 20 paise across major cities of the country. According to the Indian Oil website, the petrol rates are Rs 75.55 per litre in Delhi, Rs 81.14 per litre in Mumbai, Rs 78.14 per litre in Kolkata, and Rs 78.49 per litre in Chennai, respectively. On the other hand, the diesel prices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai remained at Rs 68.92, Rs 72.27, Rs 71.39, and Rs 72.83 per litre, respectively.

In Noida, petrol is retailing at Rs 76.68 a litre, while diesel price is Rs 69.19 a litre. The price of petrol in Gurugram is Rs 74.88 a litre while diesel was selling at Rs 67.77 a litre.

India is 84 per cent dependant on imports to meet its oil needs and any spike in global prices has a direct bearing on its economy. Not just imports but even domestic crude oilwhich forms the raw material for making petrol, diesel and other petroleum productsis priced according to international benchmarks. Middle East accounts for more than two-thirds of the countrys oil imports, with Iraq and Saudi Arabia being the top suppliers.

Why Petrol, Diesel Prices Change Every Day?

The fuel prices are in India are revised daily. Petrol and diesel prices are revised every day at 06:00 am to sync it with the variation in global oil prices. Oil marketing companies (OMC) review the global fuel prices and decide petrol and diesel daily. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum release the new rates at 6 am every morning. Generally, when international crude oil prices gain, prices in India move higher. Other factors also impact the price of fuel like rupee to US dollar exchange rate, cost of crude oil, global cues, demand for fuel, and so on.

Why Fuel Prices Differ In Every City?

The price of fuel includes excise duty, value-added tax (VAT), and dealer commission. As VAT varies from state to state, the price of fuel is different in every city.

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The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) has signed an investment agreement with Saffania Navigation Company to operate and maintain a bunker station at King Fahad Industrial Port in Yanbu.



The agreement was signed by Omar Talal Hariri, President of Mawani, and Captain Saud Elenzi, Chairman at Saffania Navigation, reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA).



As per the terms of the contract, Saffania Navigation will be bunkering fuel around the clock to incoming vessels through the terminal that spans 20,000 sq m in addition to managing its operation and maintenance needs for a period of ten years.



The bunker station will feature storage tanks for bunker fuels like heavy fuel oil and marine diesel oil, pumping stations, pipeline networks, bunker measurement and metering stations, heating and cathodic protection for bunker tanks and pipeline networks, control room, and safety and fire protection systems to ensure smooth and seamless functioning of the terminal in compliance with global best practices.



Mawanis President stated that the deal plays an important role in transforming the Saudi ports sector into a global leader in shipping services in line with the objectives of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy (NTLS).



He added that this initiative reflects the Authoritys intent to leverage the enormous capacity of local ports and existing public-private partnership opportunities to establish development projects that enable and support various sectors of the economy, including the Kingdoms manufacturing industry.



The King Fahad Industrial Port in Yanbu, with its 34 berths and 10 terminals, is a purpose-built facility that serves the citys industrial zones and caters to its unique needs, as well as an export hub for crude oil, gas, refined petroleum products, and petrochemicals. With the capacity to handle 210 million tons annually, the 6.8 km2 port helps industries based in the Royal Commissions Yanbu Industrial City import raw materials and equipment from global markets.



Mawanis recently-launched organizational strategy aims to propel the Saudi shipping and logistics industry to new highs, thus creating a sustainable and thriving maritime sector and consolidating the Kingdoms stature as a global logistics hub in accordance with the objectives of the NTLS and Saudi Vision 2030.
New Delhi:

Bengal BJP Chief Dilip Ghosh has done it again. Days after triggering massive controversy over shot down like dogs remark, Ghosh remained unapologetic and said that he would stand by what he said during a rally in Bengals Nadia district on Sunday. Ghosh said that he was not bothered by all the criticism. Addressing media in Kolkata on Wednesday, when asked about his remarks on anti-CAA protesters, Ghosh said that, If we come to power, the anti-nationals and those who destroy government property, they will be beaten with lathis, shot dead and jailed." While his comments have stoked controversy, his position within party remains intact. In fact, party sources say that Ghosh is all set to be re-elected as Bengal BJP chief for second term. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has flown down to Kolkata for the process.

Ghosh has kicked up a row with his remark at a public meeting in Nadia district on Sunday that "anti-CAA protesters were shot like dogs in BJP-ruled states", provoking criticism from political rivals as well as his own partymen. Union Minister Babul Supriyo had publicly criticised Ghosh for his brazen remark. In what can be called as a damage control exercise, Supriyo took to Twitter to put forward BJPs stand. Quoting a media report, Supriyo said that the BJP has nothing to do with Ghoshs remark.

Babul Supriyos defence

Distancing the BJP from Ghoshs statement, Supriyo also said that none of the BJP governments have ever resorted to shooting down the protesters. On Sunday, addressing a public meeting in Bengal's Nadia, Dilip Ghosh had criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee "for not opening fire and ordering a lathi-charge" on those destroying railway property and public transport.

BJP, as a party has nothing to do with what a DIlipGhosh may hv saidIt is a figment of his imagination&BJP Govts in UP, Assam hv NEVER EVER resorted to shooting people for whatever reason whatsoeverVery irresponsible of DilipDa to hv said what he said (sic), Supriyo said on Twitter.

What Dilip Ghosh said in Nadia

The BJP MP from Kharagpur, Dilip Ghosh is known for making controversial statements. During pro-CAA rally, Ghosh had said that, Mamata didi was not taking any step against the person who had destroyed public property as they were her voters. He further said that the state governments such as Uttar Pradesh had not only booked such persons but also charged baton and shot them too. He had further said that, "The property that were being destroyed, does it belongs to anyone's father's? In Assam, UP, our governments have shot these people like dogs.

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India on Wednesday asserted that Pakistan needs to focus on the hard tasks it has to address in order to ensure normal relations. (Photo Credit: PTI)

New Delhi:

India on Wednesday asserted that Pakistan needs to focus on the hard tasks it has to address in order to ensure normal relations. This came after Pakistan tried to raise the Kashmir issue in the UN Security Council where it failed yet again to find any support. However, Pakistans strong ally, China stood alone in the Pakistani corner to get the Security Council to focus on the Kashmir issue.

Apart from China, all the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council - France, Russia, the US and the UK felt Kashmir is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.

What India's UN representative Syed Akbaruddin said on UNSC meet

Reacting to this, Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said: We once again saw an effort made by one-member state of the UN, fail in plain view of all others.

We are happy that neither alarmist scenario painted by the representatives of Pakistan nor any of the baseless allegations made repeatedly by representatives of Pakistan in the UN fora were found to be credible today, Akbaruddin told news agency PTI.

We are glad that the effort was viewed as a distraction and it was pointed by many friends that bilateral mechanisms are available to raise and address issues that Pakistan may have in its ties with India, he said.

Akbaruddin further said that Pakistans practice of using false pretenses to distract from addressing the malaise that afflicts it has run its course. We hope that Pakistan pays heed to the clear signals sent out here today and focusses on the hard tasks it has to address in order to ensure normal relations with India.

Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun's on UNSC meet

Coming out of the meeting, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said: We had a meeting on Jammu and Kashmir. And Im sure you all know that Foreign Minister of Pakistan wrote letters to the Security Council asking the Security Council to pay attention to the current situation in Jammu and kashmir.

The issue of India and Pakistan has always been on the agenda of the Security Council and today we have also seen some tensions, so the Security Council had a briefing and heard at the briefing from the Secretariat concerning the current situation on the ground. Members exchanged views on that.

Zhang later said China has stated our position very clearly. We remain concern about the situation on the ground (in Kashmir).

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Philippines director Eric Matti has expressed his displeasure with actress and TV host Toni Gonzaga. Gonzaga is also beginning to be critiqued. The actress became a victim of condemnation when she was recently hosting the rally of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte. Rodante introduced Marcoleta, who also began opposing the renewal of the ABS-CBN network franchise.

Eric Mattie wrote an open letter for Toni Gonzaga: Eric Matty criticized Toni Gonzaga when the TV host-actress shared a fan's post on her Instagram with which she also wrote 'unbothered' in the caption and posted pictures of her smiling. Matty has written an open letter by reposting this post on his Instagram. Eric wrote: "Everyone has the right to their political choice. But when Hitler has no regrets even after killing millions of Jews and you still support her, at least you must remember the blood he had shed with honesty. Show your crazy loyalty by staying in peace alone'.

Fans came out in support of Eric Matty: According to media reports, fans are busy praising Matty's post and saluting him in the comment section. Most of the fans are writing 'Very rightly said'. One wrote, 'I can't believe she actually performed at one of Marcoleta's shows. That man was responsible for shutting down the company that made his career.

Eric Matty expresses displeasure: Eric has spoken about this that Gonzaga has called critics arrogant and disgusting. Do whatever you want with your celebrity power because it's a free world. But shamelessness, arrogance and slyness, all these lowly, disgusting combinations have also made you rude.

This scene from James Bond's movie is recorded in Guinness Book of World Records

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According to the Foreign Ministry in Kabul, a Taliban delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with envoys of Gulf governments in Doha, where the two sides discussed a range of matters, including political and commercial connections as well as humanitarian help. The two parties "concentrate on discussions concerning the political and economic situation, as well as urgent humanitarian needs of the Afghan people," according to a statement released after the meeting on Monday.

"The delegates urged the international community to provide development support in addition to humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in order to improve the country's economic status." The delegation members and envoys "condemned assaults in Afghanistan that target people and civilian infrastructure, and urged against allowing Afghanistan's land to be utilised by any parties or individuals to threaten the security of neighbouring countries," according to the Ministry.

In addition to meeting with Gulf envoys, the delegation will meet with representatives from the European Union, the Union of Religious Scholars, and diplomatic missions operating on behalf of Kabul from Qatar, according to The media reports.

Following the Oslo negotiations last month, the Muttaqi-led team will meet European leaders for the second time. The delegation travelled to Norway and Iran earlier this month. The Foreign Minister also visited Pakistan and Turkey late last year. Despite the visits, the Taliban authority in Afghanistan has yet to be recognised by the international world.

Coins marking the birth anniversary of North Korea's late leader will be issued

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PM Modi to inaugurate TERI's World Sustainable Dev Summit tomorrow
Following a dispute between Muslim and Christian community members over the construction of a wall in a neighbourhood of Lahore's Factory Area, a 25-year-old Christian man was killed and several others were injured.

Pervaiz Maseech died on Monday from injuries acquired during the struggle after being struck in the head with an iron rod.

Several of the injured people are still in serious condition.

According to Dawn, the altercation was not caused by religious sentiments, but rather by a local quarrel. It wasn't the first time the neighbourhood had become violent. A similar fight occurred on Sunday, but Lahore police were unable to respond due to their participation in the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL).

Nearly 200 people gathered on the street on Monday and began chanting slogans and flinging insults at one another. Pervaiz, who lived on the same block, confronted the gang outdoors. Several members of the group, armed with guns, began firing from the air.

According to the media reports, Pervaiz was surrounded by the throng and hit on the back of his head with an iron rod. The news of the young man's death immediately circulated across the Christian community, and police remained on the scene to quell the murmurings. A suspect has been apprehended, and a murder FIR has been filed against those involved.

If there is a Russo-Ukraine war, India will also suffer loss, know what the experts say?

Hong Kong's Online fraud cases rise 24% in 2021: Reports

President, Prime Minister have rare same-day meetings with Pakistan's army chief
Philippines: As External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar concluded his first visit to the key Southeast Asian country on Tuesday, the two democracies reaffirmed their strong commitment to a multifaceted partnership that would facilitate the development aspirations and shared priorities of the two democracies in the Indo-Pacific region.

Jaishankar's three-day visit to the Philippines comes less than two weeks after the Philippines and India agreed to buy three BrahMos cruise missile batteries for USD 375 million.

During his visit, the minister met with his counterpart, Teodoro L Locsin Jr, and the two ministers discussed advances in bilateral ties since the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation meeting in November 2020, which they co-chaired in a virtual format.

In a press release, the External Affairs Ministry said, "Both ministers agreed to coordinate closely at multilateral fora and reaffirmed their strong commitment to a multifaceted partnership that would facilitate the two democracies' developmental aspirations and shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific region."

They talked about the future of the two countries' broad engagement and also an in-depth exchange of ideas on regional and international topics of mutual importance.

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Taiwan-based iPhone maker Foxconn has also announced a partnership with Vedanta in India amid a global chip shortage. Under this partnership, both the companies are going to produce the chip in India itself. Let us tell you that Foxconn is the world's largest electronic contractor company, which has also been a major supplier of Apple. In the last few years, the company has expanded its scope even more in areas like Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Semiconductor.

Foxconn said in a statement that it has also signed an agreement with Vedanta Group, so that the chip can be made in India. The company has also talked about taking an important step for domestic manufacturing of electronics in India. Foxconn can also invest $ 118.7 million, or about Rs 900 crore, to set up this joint venture. Foxconn is going to have a 40 percent stake under this partnership. The company says that this is the first of its kind joint venture between the two companies that will fulfill PM Modi Narendra Modi's dream of creating an ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in India. Prior to which Foxconn has also partnered with Yageo to make chips globally.

For your information, let us tell you that the production of iPhone 12 in India is being done by Foxconn only. Foxconn's plant is in Tamil Nadu. The information about the production of iPhone 12 in India has been received for hearing a few days ago. A few days back, it was also said in a report that Apple has also started trial production of the iPhone 13 series in India, which is also being done at Foxconn's plant. The iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 are already being produced at Foxconn's plant in India.

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JERUSALEM  Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has arrived in Bahrain for a historic visit, the first by an Israeli prime minister to the Gulf kingdom.

The Prime Minister told reporters before leaving for Bahrain on Monday that he will meet with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa and undertake a series of talks with them, with the objective of "providing content and energy for the peace between the two nations."

Bennett and the Crown Prince will also discuss "additional ways to strengthen bilateral ties," according to the Prime Minister's Office, and will exchange views on "the importance of peace, advancement, and prosperity in the region, particularly the advancement of diplomatic and economic issues, with an emphasis on technology and innovation."

During his visit, Bennett will meet with other Bahraini ministers as well as members of the local Jewish community. The Bahraini Crown Prince invited the Israeli Prime Minister for a first official visit during their meeting on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow last November.

Under US-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) agreed to normalise their relations with Israel in September 2020. Bennett made his first trip to the UAE in December 2021.

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NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will open the latest edition of The Energy and Resources Institute's (TERI) World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) on Wednesday, which will focus on planetary resilience in the aftermath of a slew of extreme weather disasters around the world in recent years.

The Summit, themed 'Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future,' will bring together experts to discuss a wide variety of urgent challenges, including climate change, sustainable production, and energy transitions, as well as global commons and resource security.

Apart from Modi's inauguration talk, President of the Republic of Guyana, Dr. Irfaan Ali, and Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed, will offer keynote addresses. The opening address will be given by India's Environment Minister, Bhupender Yadav.

Ministers of the environment from approximately a dozen nations, UN representatives, presidents of intergovernmental organisations, and delegates from 126 countries are expected to attend the summit, according to a release from TERI.

"It is our purposeful endeavour to create a platform where stakeholders from all over the world can come together to discuss ideas based on sustainability and green growth. TERI is a leader in these fields, and WSDS 2022 will be critical in highlighting our role in providing technological, policy, and knowledge solutions as India works to fulfil its COP26 pledges "Dr. Vibha Dhawan, TERI's Director General, stated.

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In a rare move, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Bajwa met with President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan on the same day. Despite the fact that the army chief met with the Prime Minister on the sidelines of the top committee on Afghanistan's meeting, it is unusual for a COAS to see both the state and the government on the same day, according to the article.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) published a brief statement on the Khan-Bajwa meeting, which piqued political observers' interest in what could have been discussed between them. The PMO's only comment on the meeting was that it was "interesting." "General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the Chief of Army Staff, met with Prime Minister Imran Khan today. During the conference, professional matters concerning the Pakistan Army were discussed "..

Since their public disagreement over the choice of Inter-Services Intelligence Director General, press comments on Khan and Gen Bajwa's meetings have become routine. Since Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum was announced as the new Director-General on October 26, 2021, there have been just two publicly known meetings between the two, however, they have been together at forums attended by other functionaries as well.

Meanwhile, the statement from the White House revealed a bit more about Alvi's meeting with the COAS, implying that they focused on the recent terrorism incidents in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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Proofpoint, a leading cybersecurity and compliance firm, has tracked the TA2541 threat, a persistent cybercriminal that distributes various remote access trojans (RATs) targeting mainly the aviation, transportation and defence industries.

Proofpoint has tracked this threat actor since 2017, and it has used consistent tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) in that time. Entities in the targeted sectors should be aware of the actor's TTPs and use the information provided for hunting and detection.

Unlike many cybercrime threat actors distributing commodity malware, TA2541 does not typically use current events, trending topics, or news items in its social engineering lures. In nearly all observed campaigns, TA2541 uses lure themes that include transportation related terms such as flight, aircraft, fuel, yacht or charter.

Sherrod DeGrippo, Vice President of Threat Research and Detection at Proofpoint, said: Whats noteworthy about TA2541 is how little theyve changed their approach to cybercrime over the past five years, repeatedly using the same themes, often related to aviation, aerospace, and transportation, to distribute remote access trojans. This group is a persistent threat to targets throughout the transportation, logistics, and travel industries.

When Proofpoint first started tracking this actor, the group sent macro-laden Microsoft Word attachments that downloaded the RAT payload. The group pivoted, and now they more frequently send messages with links to cloud services such as Google Drive hosting the payload.

Proofpoint assesses TA2541 is a cybercriminal threat actor due to its use of specific commodity malware, broad targeting with high volume messages, and command and control infrastructure.

Although TA2541 has been targeting thousands of organisations, multiple entities across aviation, aerospace, transportation, manufacturing, and defense industries appear regularly as targets of its campaigns.

There appears to be a wide distribution across recipients, indicating TA2541 does not target people with specific roles and functions.

Typically, TA2541s malware campaigns include hundreds to thousands of messages, although it is rare to see TA2541 send more than 10,000 messages at one time. Campaigns impact hundreds of organisations globally, with recurring targets in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Messages are nearly always in English.

In the spring of 2020, TA2541 briefly pivoted to adopting Covid-related lure themes consistent with their overall theme of cargo and flight details. For example, they distributed lures associated with cargo shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE) or Covid-19 testing kits.

In recent campaigns, Proofpoint observed this group using Google Drive URLs in emails that lead to an obfuscated Visual Basic Script (VBS) file.

Proofpoint has observed TA2541 using over a dozen different malware payloads since 2017. The threat actor uses commodity malware available for purchase on criminal forums or available in open-source repositories. Currently, TA2541 prefers AsyncRAT, but other popular RATs include NetWire, WSH RAT and Parallax.

TA2541 remains a consistent, active cybercrime threat, especially to entities in its most frequently targeted sectors. Proofpoint assesses with high confidence this threat actor will continue using the same TTPs observed in historic activity with minimal change to its lure themes, delivery, and installation. It is likely TA2541 will continue using AsyncRAT and vjw0rm in future campaigns and will likely use other commodity malware to support its objectives.-- TradeArabia News Service
Within next two years, Volocopter plans to launch electric air taxis in Singapore, and it is presently in talks to offer flights to nearby places such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to a Bloomberg storey, Christian Bauer, the company's chief commercial officer, plans to operate a fleet of 10 to 20 air taxis around the major tourist sites of Marina Bay and Sentosa. Volocopter plans to establish repair operations in Singapore as part of its Asian growth strategy. In addition, it is conducting a feasibility study to see if the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft can be manufactured in Asia, including the city-state.

Although the company is currently seeking certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in order to operate air taxis in Europe and Singapore, it has already begun selling tickets for 15-minute pleasure trips. Volocopter is one of Singapore's first eVTOL partners, according to Bauer. "On manufacturing, we're evaluating it and giving ourselves a year to determine if we should go through with it or if there are other options," he said.

To expedite its expansion in Asia, the corporation intends to raise its staff in Singapore from 10 to 500 by 2030. It also plans to begin offering parcel delivery services using its drones in Chengdu, China, early next year, in conjunction with Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. According to Bauer, the company is also collaborating with government agencies and professionals in South Korea and Japan to provide flying taxi services.

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Maryam Nawaz, the Vice President of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan over the detention of a journalist, asking whether he was a "sacred cow" whose "looting and failures cannot be criticised."

"The kidnapping of Sabir Mehmood Hashmi in broad daylight speaks to the government's disillusionment," Maryam Nawaz wrote in a tweet on Monday. Is Imran Khan a holy cow who cannot be chastised for his thievery and failures?" According to media reports, Hashmi was detained by the country's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday, suspected of creating immoral trends against Khan on social media.

Hashmi's phone and other things have also been confiscated by the agency. Maryam Nawaz went on to state in her tweet that the PML-N is standing with the journalist and that the FIA should not be a government puppet.

Khan voiced his displeasure with the indecent trend of personal assaults while chairing a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Monday. The Prime Minister criticised the crime, calling it "cheap and unacceptable," and stating that "such elements must be left unchecked, and their activities must be condemned."

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Home  Just In  Samsung Galaxy S22 series coming to Nepal: What does it offer anyway?

Samsung Galaxy S22 series has been officially released on February 9 and is soon expected to be in Nepal.

The much-awaited flagship series from Samsung was officially unveiled at Samsungs recent Galaxy Unpacked event. The launch of the series is a month late than last years S21 series.

The lineup of the new Samsung Galaxy S22 series includes Samsung Galaxy S22 5G, Samsung Galaxy S22+ 5G and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G. With the products being officially released, the rumours circulating about the specifications of the phones have finally come to an end and now people can know what the phone actually offers.

In this article, we will provide you with the details of the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+. Lets get into the specifications of the phones.

Specs S22 5G S22+ 5G Dimension Height: 146mm

Width: 70.6mm

Thickness: 7.6mm

Weight: 167 grams Height: 157.4mm

Width: 75.8mm

Thickness: 7.6mm

Weight: 195 grams Display 6.1 inches, Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1300 nits (peak) 6.6 inches, Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1750 nits (peak) Resolution 1,080*2,340 pixels 1,080*2,340 pixels Sim Dual Dual Front camera 10MP, f/2.2, 26mm, dual Pixel PDAF Video: [email protected] 60fps 10MP, f/2.2, 26mm, dual Pixel PDAF Video: [email protected] 60fps Main Camera 50MP, f/1.8,24mm, dual Pixel PDAF, OIS

10MP, f/2.4, 70mm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom (telephoto)

12MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120 degrees, super steady videos (ultrawide) 50MP, f/1.8,24mm, dual Pixel PDAF, OIS

10MP, f/2.4, 70mm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom (telephoto)

12MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120 degrees, super steady videos (ultrawide) OS Android 12, One UI 4.1 Android 12, One UI 4.1 Chipset Exynos 2200 (4nm) or Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm) Exynos 2200 (4nm) or Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm) GPU Xclipse 920 or Adreno 730 Xclipse 920 or Adreno 730 Storage 128/256GB 128/256GB SD card slot No No RAM 8GB 8GB Sound Stereo speakers No 3.5mm headphone jack Stereo speakers No 3.5mm headphone jack Connectivity Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 NFC USB Type-C 3.2 GPS Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 NFC USB Type-C 3.2 GPS Battery Li-ion 3700mAh, non-removable

25W fast charging

15W fast Qi wireless charging

4.5W reverse wireless charging Li-ion 4500mAh, non-removable

45W fast charging

15W Fast Qi wireless charging

4.5W reverse wireless charging Sensors Under-display, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor Accelerometer

Gyro

Proximity

Compass

Barometer Under-display, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor Accelerometer

Gyro

Proximity

Compass

Barometer Colours Phantom black, white, pink, gold, green, graphite, sky blue, violet, cream Phantom black, white, pink, gold, green, graphite, sky blue, violet, cream Starting price (Expected) Rs 105,000 Rs 125,000

The starting price of S22 in Nepal is expected to be around Rs 105,000 and Rs 125,000 for Galaxy S22+.

Design and display

Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22+ are based on iconic S series design. Both phones have a similar build and shares similar specifications and features as well. Both Galaxy S22 and S22+ have a glass back and front with an aluminium frame. Both glasses on the back and front are protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+, the toughest Gorilla glass yet. Samsung Galaxy S22 is 7.6mm thick and weighs around 167 grams whereas S22+ is 7.6mm thick and is slightly heavier at 195 grams. The phones also have IP68 dust/water resistant certification (up to 1.5m for 30 minutes).

Photo: Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S22 features a 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X HDR 10+ display whereas the S22+ features a bigger 6.6-inch display sharing a similar display specification. S22+ can reach a peak brightness of up to 1750 nits while S22 can reach up to 1300 nits. This can be pretty helpful for daylight use. The HDR10+ display of the phones has an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The display can dynamically change the refresh rate from 120Hz to as low as 1Hz.

Cameras

Photo: Samsung

Cameras are always one of the major focuses on a flagship phone. Everyone expects a crisp and sharp image with natural colours and Samsung claims that the new Samsung Galaxy S22 series have set camera experience to the whole next level. Both S22 and S22+ shares similar camera specifications.

Both phones feature a triple camera setup on the back and a single selfie shooter on the front. The 50MP camera on the back is housed together with a 10MP telephoto lens with PDAF, OIS and 3x zoom and a 12MP, 120 degrees ultrawide sensor. On the front, there is a 10MP selfie camera.

Photo: Samsung

The main cameras on Samsung Galaxy S22 series can record videos in 8K resolution whereas the front camera can record videos in 4K resolution up to 60fps. There are lots of camera features on the phone so that the user can take brilliant photos without any hassle. There is a dual video call mode. The Super HDR technology allows the phone to take photos with a higher dynamic range, less noise and clearer details.

Similarly, Night photography has also been improved a lot thanks to a 23% larger sensor than the previous generation of the Galaxy S series. This helps the users take good photos even during the low lights. The portraits should also look better and more natural due to the integration of the AI stereo depth map.

Similarly, the videos from Samsung Galaxy S22 series are steadier than any other Samsung phone. The optical image stabilisation (OIS) and video digital image stabilisation (VDIS) technology on the camera allow it to capture steady videos even when the user is moving. The cameras also record stereo sounds while recording videos and has a zoom-in mic as well that focus on the direction of interest, using a combination of three built-in mics while video recording.

Performance and battery Life

Photo: Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S22 series runs on the latest Android 12 with One UI 4.1 on top. The new S series is powered by either Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm) or Exynos 2200 (4nm) chipset. These are the two best chipsets available for an Android phone in the market at the moment. The graphics on the phone are handled by Xclipse 920 in Exynos and Adreno 730 in the Snapdragon version.

However, Nepal is more likely to get the Snapdragon variant. The new Samsung flagship phones are set to receive four years of Android updates and an additional year of security patches.

Photo: Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S22 features a 3700mAh non-removable Li-ion battery whereas S22+ features a 4500mAh battery power. The Galaxy S22 features a 25W fast charging and the S22+ features a 45W fast charging. Both phones support wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.

Storage, connectivity and price

Photo: Samsung

Both Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22+ comes with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of internal storage. There is no option for expansion of the storage. For connectivity, these phones support 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 6E (Galaxy S22+) / Wi-Fi 6(Galaxy S22), Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth 5.2.

For Audio, the phones have surround sound with Dolby Atmos technology. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack on the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 series is yet to arrive here in Nepal. As per the Galaxy Unpacked event, the starting price of the Samsung Galaxy S22 is $799 and $999 for the base 8/128GB variant of S22+.

The starting prices of S22 and S22+ in Nepal are expected to be around Rs 105,000 and Rs 125,000 respectively.

Also, check the price of Samsung phones in Nepal.
This blog post was originally published at the Java Advent Calendar 2021, so pardon all the festive references. San Biagio was just a few days ago, but if that really bothers you, you can mentally replace all references to Panettone with Tortelli alla crema e chiacchiere di Carnevale.

The festive season is that period of the year when they tempt you to indulge in those dear sweet, sugary treats.

Personally, as an Italian, I do love me some panettone. And as much as I enjoy the bitter taste of Java coffee, I have been enjoying the sugar that has been introduced in the most recent versions. Indeed, I believe that Java 17 really hits the sweet spot, when it comes to treats. So what better time of the year to indulge in Javas sweet, sweet sugar than this December?

Last year I published a blog series with my take on Viktor Klangs original tiny Java and Scala actor system, updated for Java 17.

Untyped actors in the style of Akka Classic used to be clunky to write in Java, because Java used to lack some key goodies:

a concise way to express messages; but now we have records a tidy syntax to match against the types of the incoming messages; but now we have switch expressions and pattern matching

Another key addition is sealed type hiearchies. If you are able to express the upper bound of your type hierarchy, and such a type hierarchy is sealed, then the compiler will tell you if you are missing a case in a switch expression (exhaustiveness check).

For instance:

sealed interface A { record X () implements A {} record Y () implements A {} static void f ( A a ) { switch ( a ) { case X x -> {} } } }

If you put this in A.java and run it with java --enable-preview --source 17 A.java youll read:

A.java:6: error: the switch statement does not cover all possible input values switch (a) { ^

In my previous blog posts I have detailed how to develop an actor runtime for untyped actors; that is, actors that can accept any kind of message. In this part we are rewriting that actor runtime from scratch and implement a typed actor runtime, and we will see how sealed type hierarchies can improve the code we write!

This is the full listing of our typed actor runtime. You can also find it at this repository:

package io.github.evacchi ; import java.util.concurrent.* ; import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger ; import java.util.function.Function ; import static java . lang . System . out ; public interface TypedActor { interface Effect < T > extends Function < Behavior < T >, Behavior < T >> {} interface Behavior < T > extends Function < T , Effect < T >> {} interface Address < T > { void tell ( T msg ); } static < T > Effect < T > Become ( Behavior < T > next ) { return current -> next ; } static < T > Effect < T > Stay () { return current -> current ; } static < T > Effect < T > Die () { return Become ( msg -> { out . println ( "Dropping msg [" + msg + "] due to severe case of death." ); return Stay (); }); } record System ( Executor executor ) { public < T > Address < T > actorOf ( Function < Address < T >, Behavior < T >> initial ) { abstract class AtomicRunnableAddress < T > implements Address < T >, Runnable { AtomicInteger on = new AtomicInteger ( 0 ); } return new AtomicRunnableAddress < T >() { // Our awesome little mailbox, free of blocking and evil final ConcurrentLinkedQueue < T > mbox = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue <>(); Behavior < T > behavior = initial . apply ( this ); public void tell ( T msg ) { mbox . offer ( msg ); async (); } // Enqueue the message onto the mailbox and try to schedule for execution // Switch ourselves off, and then see if we should be rescheduled for execution public void run () { try { if ( on . get () == 1 ) { T m = ( T ) mbox . poll (); if ( m != null ) behavior = behavior . apply ( m ). apply ( behavior ); } } finally { on . set ( 0 ); async (); } } // If there's something to process, and we're not already scheduled void async () { if (! mbox . isEmpty () && on . compareAndSet ( 0 , 1 )) { // Schedule to run on the Executor and back out on failure try { executor . execute ( this ); } catch ( Throwable t ) { on . set ( 0 ); throw t ; } } } }; } } }

The Actor Model

In the first part we learned what the actor model is. Here is a refresher: the Actor Model is a concurrency model where the unit of execution is called an actor. An actor receives messages. In response to a message, an actor may (e.g. cf. Wikipedia):

send a message to another actor

create new actors

transition to a new state, with a different behavior, to handle the next message

In the following section, we will revisit basic concepts about actors. If you have already read the previous posts in this series you will find yourself at home.

However, in this typed version I have revisited them, with new, genericified type signatures.

Behaviors and Effects

The behavior of an actor is just a function that, applied to a message, returns another behavior.

Actors usually encapsulate state; thus, as a side-effect, the behavior function usually updates the state of the actor; it may send other messages to other actors, and creates new actors to handle new state.

For instance, you will have noticed how most web platforms allow you to export the content you have created; but most of them will start a background process and will notify you later when the archive is ready; for instance, by sending a link to your e-mail address.

When the service receives your export request, an actor may be responsible for acknowledging your request immediately; but it may spawn another actor to process the request in the background.

At its core, an actor is just a routine paired with a message queue. But instead of evaluating the routine as soon as a message is sent, the system submits a message to the queue of the receiver. Then, at some point, the system wakes up that actor: it takes one message from the queue, and it applies the routine to that message.

The routine returns a description of the next state of the actor; i.e. the routine that should be executed when a new message is evaluated.

Such a routine is called a behavior, and in code, the Behavior can be defined as a function that takes a message of some type, and it returns a transition between states that we call an Effect :

Behavior : T  Effect

where T is some known type.

An Effect describes a transition between two states of the actor. It can be represented as a function that takes the current Behavior and returns the next Behavior :

Effect : Behavior  Behavior

In code, we may write them as:

interface Behavior < T > extends Function < T , Effect < T >> {} interface Effect < T > extends Function < Behavior < T >, Behavior < T >> {}

The most basic Effect s (state transitions) are Stay and Die :

Stay means no behavioral change

means no behavioral change Die will effectively turn off the actor, making it inactive.

For instance, this is a valid behavior for an actor that starts, then waits for one message, then it dies: i.e., it will drop and ignore all subsequent messages and/or the system may decide to collect it and throw it away.

Effect < String > receiveThenDie ( String msg ) { out . println ( "Got msg: '" + msg + "'; length: " + msg . length ()); return TypedActor . Die (); }

or written differently:

Behavior < String > receiveThenDie = msg -> { out . println ( "Got msg '" + msg + "'; length: " + msg . length ()); return TypedActor . Die (); };

Example 1: A Hello World

You can run the following example with: j! https://github.com/evacchi/min-java-actors/blob/main/src/main/java/io/github/evacchi/typed/examples/HelloWorld.java

In this example we will create an actor system, then spawn an actor that will process one message and then Die . You will recognize the behavior receiveThenDie that we defined above.

// create an actor runtime (an actor "system") var actorSystem = new Actor . System ( Executors . newCachedThreadPool ()); // create an actor Address < String > actor = actorSystem . actorOf ( self -> msg -> { out . println ( "self: " + self + "; got msg: '" + msg + "'; length: " + msg . length ()); return Actor . Die (); });

The actorOf method returns an Address<T> which is defined as follows:

interface Address < T > { Address < T > tell ( T msg ); }

allowing us to write:

actor . tell ( "foo" ); actor . tell ( "bar" );

or just:

actor . tell ( "foo" ). tell ( "bar" );

which, when executed, prints the following:

self: io.github.evacchi.TypedActor$System$1@24a95c2e; got msg 'foo'; length, 3 Dropping msg [foo] due to severe case of death.

because the "bar" message was sent to a dead actor.

If we change the lambda to return stay instead:

Address < String > actor = actorSystem . actorOf ( self -> msg -> { out . println ( "self: " + self + "; got msg: '" + msg + "'; length: " + msg . length ()); return Stay (); });

then the output would read:

self: io.github.evacchi.TypedActor$System$1@7519a17c; got msg: 'foo'; length: 3 self: io.github.evacchi.TypedActor$System$1@7519a17c; got msg: 'bar'; length: 3

You may define Stay as:

static < T > Effect < T > Stay () { return current -> current ; }

that is, a transition from the current behavior to the current behavior (i.e. it stays in the same state.)

Die is defined as:

static < T > Effect < T > Die () { return Become ( msg -> { out . println ( "Dropping msg [" + msg + "] due to severe case of death." ); return Stay (); }); }

where Become is:

static Effect < T > Become ( Behavior < T > next ) { return current -> next ; }

i.e. Become is a method, that, given a Behavior returns an effect. And that effect is taking the current behavior and returning the next one.

Thus, Die is just an effect that takes the prev behavior and returns the behavior to drop all messages, and then Stay s in that state.

With the exception of Become , which takes a parameter ( next ), you may be wondering why Stay and Die are not constant fields:

static Effect < T > Stay = return current -> current ;

You may be wondering what self is. self is a self-reference to the actor. It serves the same purpose as this in a class. Because the behavior is written as a function, we need to seed a reference to this into the function. But there is no this until the actor is actually created by the runtime, so we provide it in the closure, so that it may be filled lazily.

If this is not too clear, dont worry for now; well get to that later.

Use of Types

If you are familiar with the untyped version, youll remember thats how we did it at that time. However, the key here is that little <T> up there. We have to use a method to let the compiler infer the T .

Notice how that little T in the definition of Behavior makes a huge difference: an untyped actor system would be defined as:

interface Behavior extends Function < Object , Effect > {} interface Effect extends Function < Behavior , Behavior > {} interface Address { Address tell ( Object message ); }

So the actor itself would be written:

Address actor = actorSystem . actorOf ( self -> msg -> { out . println ( "self: " + self + "; got msg: '" + msg + "'; length: " + msg . length ()); return Actor . Die (); };

This would not compile, because msg has now type Object and length() is no longer a known method:

error: cannot find symbol out.println("self: " + self +"; got msg '" + msg + "'; length: " + msg.length()); ^ symbol: method length() location: variable msg of type Object

unless you check its type:

Behavior receiveThenDie = msg -> { if ( msg instanceof String ) { var s = ( String ) msg ; out . println ( "self: " + self + "; got msg: '" + s + "'; length: " + s . length ()); } else { // handle the non-String message } return Actor . Die (); };

or, more concisely:

if ( msg instanceof String s ) { out . println ( "self: " + self + "; got msg: '" + s + "'; length: " + s . length ()); ...

The concise version uses Pattern Matching for instanceof , delivered in JDK 14 (JEP-305). It allows you to check against a type, and get a typed variable out of it if the check passes, all in one line.

Example 2: Ping Pong

You can run the following example with: j! https://github.com/evacchi/min-java-actors/blob/main/src/main/java/io/github/evacchi/typed/examples/PingPong.java

An actor routine usually accepts more than one type of messages. It is therefore useful to match against all the accepted subtypes.

This is where switch expressions, records and sealed types are useful.

In a classic actor example, one actor sends a ping to another; the second replies with a pong, and they go on back and forth.

In order to make this more interesting (and also not to loop indefinitely):

one of the actors (the ponger ) will receive Ping and reply with Pong ;

) will receive and reply with ; it will also count 10 Ping s, then Die ;

s, then ; upon reaching 10 and before it Die s, the pinger will also send a message ( DeadlyPong ) to the ponger

s, the will also send a message ( ) to the the pinger receives Ping and replies with Pong

receives and replies with when it receives a DeadlyPong it Die s.

In the untyped version of this program, the messages do not need to be defined in a hierarchy. But in the typed version, a tiny hierarchy of sealed records will make the code shorter.

There is only one type of Ping :

record Ping ( Address < Pong > sender ) {}

the sender of such messages is able to receive Pong s. Now, we said that there are two types of Pong s:

record SimplePong ( Address < Ping > sender ) record DeadlyPong ( Address < Ping > sender )

And they are in the same hierarchy, so let us define the interface Pong :

interface Pong {} record SimplePong ( Address < Ping > sender ) implements Pong {} record DeadlyPong ( Address < Ping > sender ) implements Pong {}

Both messages are sent by the actor that is able to receive Ping s.

void static void main ( String ... args ) { var actorSystem = new TypedActor . System ( Executors . newCachedThreadPool ()); Address < Ping > ponger = actorSystem . actorOf ( self -> msg -> pongerBehavior ( self , msg , 0 )); Address < Pong > pinger = actorSystem . actorOf ( self -> msg -> pingerBehavior ( self , msg )); ponger . tell ( new Ping ( pinger )); } static Effect < Ping > pongerBehavior ( Address < Ping > self , Ping msg , int counter ) { if ( counter < 10 ) { out . println ( "ping! " ); msg . sender (). tell ( new SimplePong ( self )); return Become ( m -> pongerBehavior ( self , m , counter + 1 )); } else { out . println ( "ping! " ); msg . sender (). tell ( new DeadlyPong ( self )); return Die (); } } static Effect < Pong > pingerBehavior ( Address < Pong > self , Pong msg ) { return switch ( msg ) { case SimplePong p -> { out . println ( "pong! " ); p . sender (). tell ( new Ping ( self )); yield Stay (); } case DeadlyPong p -> { out . println ( "pong! " ); p . sender (). tell ( new Ping ( self )); yield Die (); } }; }

This prints the following:

ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  ping!  pong!  Dropping msg [Ping[sender=io.github.evacchi.TypedActor$System$1@21198648]] due to severe case of death.

Use of Types

If you are familiar with the untyped version, youll remember that the pingerBehavior needed a default clause: thats because, as we learned previously, the signature for Behavior was Function<Object,Effect> : we had to handle and ignore messages that were not Pong s!

Because the signature is now effectively Function<Pong, Effect<Pong>> the compiler knows that only messages from the Pong hierarchy may be received; thus, we dont need to add a default clause!

Likewise pongerBehavior defined a switch expression too. In the typed version, however, the switch is made entirely redundant:

static Effect < Ping > pongerBehavior ( Address < Ping > self , Ping msg , int counter ) { return switch ( msg ) { case Ping p && counter < 10 -> { out . println ( "ping! " ); p . sender (). tell ( new SimplePong ( self )); yield Become ( m -> pongerBehavior ( self , m , counter + 1 )); } case Ping p -> { out . println ( "ping! " ); p . sender (). tell ( new DeadlyPong ( self )); yield Die (); } }; }

because the signature is Function<Ping, Effect<Ping>> and we dont need a default clause, both case clauses are matching against a Ping ; thus, the entire switch is effectively equivalent to a simple if / else !

Closures vs Classes

Notice how the traditional way to increase a counter is to create a closure with the value:

void static void main ( String ... args ) { ... var ponger = actorSystem . actorOf ( self -> msg -> pongerBehavior ( self , msg , 0 )); ... } static Effect pongerBehavior ( Address self , Ping msg , int counter ) { return switch ( msg ) { case Ping p && counter < 10 -> { ... yield Become ( m -> pongerBehavior ( self , m , counter + 1 )); } ... } }

However, a similar effect could be achieved with mutable state; this is perfectly acceptable, because the state of an actor is guaranteed to execute in a thread-safe environment. In this case we could have written:

void run () { ... var ponger = actorSystem . actorOf ( StatefulPonger: : new ); ... } class StatefulPonger implements Behavior < Ping > { Address < Ping > self ; int counter = 0 ; StatefulPonger ( Address < Ping > self ) { this . self = self ; } public Effect < Ping > apply ( Ping msg ) { if ( counter < 10 ) { out . println ( "ping! " ); msg . sender (). tell ( new SimplePong ( self )); this . counter ++; return Stay (); } else { out . println ( "ping! " ); msg . sender (). tell ( new DeadlyPong ( self )); return Die (); } } }

Example 3: A Vending Machine

You can run the following example with: j! https://github.com/evacchi/min-java-actors/blob/main/src/main/java/io/github/evacchi/typed/examples/VendingMachine.java

In the previous example, we saw how we to use actors and Become to maintain mutable state (the counter). In this example we will show how to use Become to change the behavior of an actor, realizing a *state machines.

A classic example of a state machine is the vending machine.

For instance, we may write a vending machine that requires you to insert an amount of 100 before you can choose an item.

We will define two actors, vendingMachine and itemPicker , to simulate that, once the amount of 100 has been reached, and the customer has made their choice, some subroutine will take care of the mechanical arm that selects the item and dispenses it to them.

The messages:

interface VendMessage {} record Coin ( int amount ) implements VendMessage { public Coin { if ( amount < 1 && amount > 100 ) throw new AssertionError ( "1 <= amount < 100" ); } } record Choice ( String product ) implements VendMessage {}

we use the record constructor to ensure that the invariant that 1 <= amount < 100 is respected.

There is also the message Vended that it is only for private communication between the itemPicker and the vendingMachine :

record Vended ( String product ) implements VendMessage {}

it is meant for the itemPicker to notify when it is done releasing the item, and the vendingMachine may return to its initial state.

TypedActor . System sys = new TypedActor . System ( Executors . newCachedThreadPool ()); Address < VendMessage > vendingMachine = sys . actorOf ( self -> initial ( self )); Address < Choice > itemPicker = sys . actorOf ( self -> msg -> itemPicker ( msg ));

The behaviors may be defined as follows:

Behavior < VendMessage > initial ( Address < VendMessage > self ) { return message -> { if ( message instanceof Coin c ) { out . printf ( "Received first coin: %d

" , c . amount ()); return Become ( waitCoin ( self , c . amount ())); } else return Stay (); // ignore message, stay in this state }; } Behavior < VendMessage > waitCoin ( Address < VendMessage > self , int accumulator ) { out . printf ( "Budget updated: %d

" , accumulator ); return m -> switch ( m ) { case Coin c && accumulator + c . amount () < 100 -> Become ( waitCoin ( self , accumulator + c . amount ())); case Coin c -> Become ( vend ( self , accumulator + c . amount ())); default -> Stay (); }; } Behavior < VendMessage > vend ( Address < VendMessage > self , int total ) { out . printf ( "Pick an Item! (Budget: %d)

" , total ); return message -> switch ( message ) { case Choice c -> { itemPicker . tell ( c ); releaseChange ( total - 100 ); yield Stay (); } case Vended v -> Become ( initial ( self )); default -> Stay (); // ignore message, stay in this state }; }

and the itemPicker :

Effect < Choice > itemPicker ( Choice message ) { vendProduct ( message . product ()); vendingMachine . tell ( new Vended ( message . product ())); return Stay (); }

vendProduct and releaseChange are just printing a message, but we may imagine that they do something costly and complicated:

void vendProduct ( String product ) { out . printf ( "VENDING: %s

" , product ); } void releaseChange ( int change ) { out . printf ( "CHANGE: %s

" , % d ); }

now, if we send a series of coins, and then our choice:

vendingMachine . tell ( new Coin ( 50 )) . tell ( new Coin ( 40 )) . tell ( new Coin ( 30 )) . tell ( new Choice ( "Chocolate" ));

We will read the following output:

Received first coin: 50 Budget updated: 50 Budget updated: 90 Pick an Item! (Budget: 120) VENDING: Chocolate CHANGE: 20

Use of Types

Notice how we had to add a default clause in the waitCoin and vend states (the initial state had an else clause), because, every behavior is of type Behavior<VendMessage> , which means we need to handle any message in the VendMessage hierarchy, even when that does not make sense in that state. For instance, a Coin message does not make sense in the vend state.

However, the itemPicker has type Address<Choice> because thats the only type of message it will ever be able to receive. This allows use to avoid if s or switch es!

Implementing The Actor System

We are now ready to implement the actor system and execution environment. We define the actorOf() method on a TypedActor.System class.

public interface TypedActor { class System { Executor executor ; public System ( Executor executor ) { this . executor = executor ; } public Address actorOf ( Function < Address , Behavior > initial ) { // ... references the executor ... } } }

However, in order to keep the number of lines down, we can abuse the record construct so that we dont have to write an explicit constructor:

record System ( Executor executor ) { public < T > Address < T > actorOf ( Function < Address < T >, Behavior < T >> initial ) { // ... references the executor ... } }

We now need to define an anonymous class implementing both the Address<T> and the Runnable interface:

record System ( Executor executor ) { public < T > Address < T > actorOf ( Function < Address < T >, Behavior < T >> initial ) { return new Address < T >, Runnable { ... } }

however that is not valid Java syntax!. What we can do instead, is leveraging another under-used feature of Java: local classes; i.e. a class that is local to the body of a method:

record System ( Executor executor ) { public < T > Address < T > actorOf ( Function < Address < T >, Behavior < T >> initial ) { abstract class AtomicRunnableAddress < T > implements Address < T >, Runnable { AtomicInteger on = new AtomicInteger ( 0 ); } return new AtomicRunnableAddress <>() { ...

which makes AtomicRunnableAddress private to that method (which is all we need). We will use the AtomicInteger to turn on and off the actor; we now create our object:

return new AtomicRunnableAddress () { // the mailbox is just a concurrent queue final ConcurrentLinkedQueue < T > mbox = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue <>(); // current behavior is a mutable field. // the initial behavior applies the `initial` function to `this`, seeding `self` reference to the initial behavior Behavior behavior = initial . apply ( this ); ... };

Here is the reason why our actors are created with this strange curried function:

var actor = system . actorOf ( self -> msg -> ...);

the signature for the initial behavior is really: Function<Address<T>, Behavior<T>> which expands to

Function < Address < T >, Function < T , Effect < T >>>

or, to write it in a possibly more readable format:

Address<T> -> T -> Effect<T> // self -> msg -> ...

The reason why we write it this way is so that the Function<T, Effect<T> (i.e. the Behavior<T> ) can reference self . As we saw in Example 2: Ping Pong this is often equivalent to writing a class that takes an Address<T> in its constructor. And that is because a closure is a poor mans object; an object is a poor mans closure.

When the actor starts we initialize the Behavior<T> to a reference to this

Behavior behavior = initial . apply ( this );

Let us now take a look at the tell() method; at its core we may write it as:

public Address < T > tell ( Object msg ) { // put message in the mailbox mb . offer ( msg ); async (); return this ; }

The async method verifies that the mbox contains an element and schedules the actor for execution on the Executor .

void async () { // if the mbox is non-empty and the actor is active if (! mb . isEmpty () && on . getAndSet ( 1 ) == 0 )) { // schedule to run on the Executor try { executor . execute ( this ); } // in case of error deactivate the actor and rethrow the exception catch ( Throwable t ) { on . set ( 0 ); throw t ; } } }

In order to be schedulable, the actor must be a Runnable , so here is the run() method:

public void run () { try { // if it is active if ( on . get () == 1 ) behavior = behavior . apply ( mbox . poll ()) // apply the behavior to the top of the mailbox . apply ( behavior ); // as a result an Effect is returned: // apply it to the current behavior // it returns the next behavior (which overwrites the old in the assignment) } finally { on . set ( 0 ); async (); } // deactivate and resume if necessary }

Use of Types

In the original version we initialized the self address by tell ing the actor its own Address . This is doable in this version too, and its preferrable, because it allows the initial behavior to be run asynchronously.

In this version, for simplicity, we are initializing the Behavior<T> immediately:

Behavior behavior = initial . apply ( this );

However, that also means that, if initial performs a costly operation, it will be executed at creation time; while, in the original version]first-part, it would be evaluated when the first message (the Address ) would be initially received, making it asynchronous.

However, in its simplest implementation, this requires an untyped mailbox (i.e. ConcurrentLinkedQueue<Object> ), which would then require nasty casts. Try developing your own version, limiting the amount of hacks!

Wrapping It Up

I hope you liked this long blog post! Together we implemented a tiny typed actor system, and we saw how to realize a few smaller use cases.

If you have read this far, congratulations! You deserve some panettone too!

If you would like to challenge yourself, try implementing a tiny chat system by following along the untyped version!
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www.affinorgrowers.com

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This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company 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 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 may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the 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 applicable securities laws, 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.




Basilea Pharmaceutica AG

65% year-on-year growth in non-deferred revenue from Cresemba and Zevtera

Operating profit of CHF 1.2 million

Future strategic focus on anti-infectives

Exploring strategic options to maximize the value of oncology assets

Sustainable profitability from FY 2023 expected



Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

Basel, Switzerland, February 15, 2022

Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today its results for the financial year ended December 31, 2021, and strategic decisions to optimize the long-term value of its two business pillars, anti-infectives and oncology.

David Veitch, Chief Executive Officer, stated: Following a strategic review, we have decided to separate our activities in anti-infectives from oncology. Our two businesses are at different stages of development, requiring different approaches. For our oncology assets, we aim to optimize the value through either portfolio or individual asset transactions, with partners specialized in oncology. We will focus in the future on the research, development and commercialization of innovative treatments for severe bacterial and fungal infections. Basilea is uniquely positioned to benefit from the improving business environment for anti-infectives and to become a leading company in this space, based on its proven expertise in advancing anti-infectives through research and development to the market.

Adesh Kaul, Chief Financial Officer, said: We have delivered very strong financial results in 2021. The performance and progress of our anti-infectives business is reflected by the 29% increase in royalty income year-on-year and the more than five-fold increase of regulatory and commercial milestone payments to CHF 49 million in 2021. Also maintaining a focus on our cost structure enabled us to further improve our operating cash flow. Our strategic decision to focus on anti-infectives, will accelerate our path to sustained profitability from 2023 and provides us with the financial flexibility to both invest in our internal pipeline and access external assets.

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In 2022, Basilea will continue its activities in oncology in order to ensure project continuity and progression. For derazantinib, the company will focus on continuing the FIDES-01 study in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) and the FIDES-03 study in gastric cancer, but de-prioritize the FIDES-02 program in advanced urothelial cancer. This entails stopping enrolment of patients in the substudies in first-line treatment of cisplatin-ineligible patients and in the treatment of patients refractory to other FGFR inhibitors. Patient enrolment has been challenging in these substudies, due to the evolving competitive environment in urothelial cancer treatment. For the remaining substudy, in the second-line treatment of patients with advanced urothelial cancer, patient enrolment into the first stage has been completed and patients will be followed-up through to data maturity.

Financial summary

Total revenue in the financial year (FY) 2021 increased 16% to CHF 148.1 million (FY 2020: CHF 127.6 million), reflecting the regulatory and commercial progress made in particular with Cresemba. Non-deferred revenue contributions from Cresemba and Zevtera increased by 64.7% to CHF 128.8 million (FY 2020: CHF 78.2 million). This included royalty income from Cresemba, which increased by 29.1% to CHF 53.2 million (FY 2020: CHF 41.2 million), and upfront and milestone payments of CHF 49.4 million (FY 2020: CHF 9.0 million). Other revenue amounted to CHF 16.6 million (FY 2020: CHF 15.2 million). This included CHF 14.0 million BARDA reimbursements (FY 2020: CHF 13.2 million), which are offsetting a substantial portion of the ceftobiprole phase 3 development expenses.1

In 2021, research and development expenses remained stable at CHF 93.2 million (FY 2020: CHF 97.4 million). The expenses mainly included the costs for the phase 3 program for ceftobiprole, the costs related to the ongoing preclinical and clinical programs for derazantinib and lisavanbulin, the ongoing pediatric programs for ceftobiprole and isavuconazole, as well as the completion of the preclinical program for BAL0891.

Selling, general and administrative expenses amounted to CHF 29.7 million (FY 2020: CHF 29.4 million). Cost of products sold remained stable at CHF 24.1 million (FY 2020: CHF 24.1 million).

In 2021, an operating profit of CHF 1.2 million was recorded (FY 2020: operating loss of CHF 8.2 million). The net loss was reduced to CHF 6.8 million (FY 2020: CHF 14.7 million), resulting in a basic and diluted loss per share of CHF 0.58 (FY 2020: CHF 1.43).

Net cash used in operating activities in 2021 was reduced by 40.9% to CHF 32.0 million (FY 2020: CHF 54.1 million). This improvement is a result, on the one hand of the significant increase in cash inflow, based on the growth of Cresemba and Zevtera non-deferred revenue contributions and on the other hand, of Basileas continued focus on managing operating expenses, by optimizing investments into the R&D portfolio and improving the cost base through strategic transactions. Cash, restricted cash and investments amounted to CHF 150.0 million as of December 31, 2021, compared to CHF 167.3 million as of December 31, 2020. The convertible bond maturing in December 2022 (ISIN CH0305398148) was reduced by CHF 22.7 million in 2021.

Key financial figures

(in CHF million, except per share data) FY 2021 FY 2020 Product revenue 26.2 48.7 Contract revenue 105.2 63.3 Revenue from R&D services 0.2 0.4 Other revenue 16.6 15.2 Total revenue 148.1 127.6 Cost of products sold (24.1) (24.1) Research & development expenses, net (93.2) (97.4) Selling, general & administrative expenses (29.7) (29.4) Total cost and operating expenses (147.0) (150.9) Profit from sale of assets - 15.0 Operating profit/loss 1.2 (8.2) Net loss (6.8) (14.7) Net cash used in operating activities (32.0) (54.1) Basic loss per share, in CHF (0.58) (1.43) Diluted loss per share, in CHF (0.58) (1.43) (in CHF million) Dec 31, 2021 Dec. 31, 2020 Cash, restricted cash and investments 150.0 167.3 Note: Consolidated figures in conformity with U.S. GAAP; rounding was applied consistently.



The consolidated financial statements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. for the financial year 2021 can be found on the Companys website at https://www.basilea.com/financial-reports.

Financial guidance

Based on further increasing revenue from Cresemba and Zevtera and an expected reduction of around 30% in operating expenses in 2023 versus 2022, Basilea expects to reach sustainable profitability and generate positive cash flow from operating activities in 2023.

For 2022, Basilea expects continued strong in-market sales growth of its key brand Cresemba, even accounting for an expected decrease in one-off sales related to COVID-19. The company provides the following financial guidance, which does not take into consideration the potential effect of any strategic transactions related to its oncology business:

In line with the expected continued strong growth of Cresemba in-market sales, royalty income is expected to increase double-digit to approximately CHF 59 million, reflecting the underlying health of the commercial business.

Cresemba & Zevtera related revenue is expected to amount to CHF 98  104 million. The decrease versus 2021 is only due to lower expected milestone payments from partners. 2022 milestone payments are expected to be more in line with previous years.

Net cash used in operating activities is expected to improve further to CHF 10  15 million.





(in CHF million) FY 2022e FY 2021a Cresemba & Zevtera related revenue 98 to 104 131.4 Royalty income ~59 53.2 Total revenue 106 to 112 148.1 Cost of products sold 21 - 24 24.1 Operating expenses ~110 122.9 Operating loss/profit -20 to -25 1.2 Net cash used in operating activities 10 to 15 32.0

Refinancing of convertible bond and Board nominations

Adesh Kaul, Chief Financial Officer, said: At the end of 2022, our convertible bond with the nominal amount of approximately CHF 125 million outstanding, will mature. Our aim is to manage the convertible bond in a way that further reduces our debt level and minimizes dilution, reflecting the confidence that we have in our financial strength in 2023 and beyond. We will be able to make an informed decision on how precisely to manage the upcoming bond maturity once we have more visibility on the strategic transactions on our oncology assets and the outcome of the ceftobiprole ERADICATE phase 3 study. If ERADICATE is positive, this would pave the way to accessing the U.S. market, which would have a significant positive impact on our cash flow starting from 2023. In order to account for different scenarios, we intend to request conditional capital at the upcoming annual shareholder meeting, with the sole purpose of refinancing the outstanding bond, in case it is required.

The Board of Directors has nominated Domenico Scala (Chairman), Dr. Martin Nicklasson, Dr. Nicole Onetto, Steven D. Skolsky and Dr. Thomas Werner for re-election as Board members. The Board has nominated Leonard Kruimer for election as a new Board member. The Board of Directors will continue to be composed of 6 members.

Portfolio progress 2021

Cresemba (isavuconazole): global in-market sales continue to show double-digit growth approvals in China and NDA filed in Japan

Cresemba has reached more than USD 300 million global in-market sales for the 12 months to the end of September 2021.2 This is an increase of 26.5% year-on-year. The excellent commercial performance triggered several milestone payments from our partners with a total of approximately CHF 35 million in 2021.

In China, our partner Pfizer received Drug Approval Licenses from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), for the oral formulation of isavuconazole for the treatment of adult patients with invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis. The first approval in December 2021 triggered a USD 10 million milestone payment to Basilea. Separate marketing authorization applications for the intravenous formulation for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis are under regulatory review by the Center for Drug Evaluation at the NMPA.

At the end of September 2021, our partner, Asahi Kasei Pharma, filed a New Drug Application (NDA) for the marketing authorization of isavuconazole in Japan for the treatment of the fungal infections: aspergillosis, mucormycosis and cryptococcosis. The filing triggered a CHF 5 million milestone payment to Basilea. A regulatory decision on the NDA is expected in the second half of 2022.

Zevtera (ceftobiprole): ERADICATE phase 3 study on track for topline results mid-2022

In early January 2022, the last patient was enrolled into the phase 3 ERADICATE study, which is investigating ceftobiprole in the treatment of patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB).3 Topline results are expected to become available around mid-year 2022. If the study is positive, we intend to submit a New Drug Application to the U.S. FDA.

Innovative anti-infectives: received CARB-X grant for development of novel antibiotic

In May 2021, Basilea was awarded a research grant of up to USD 2.7 million from CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator), a global non-profit partnership dedicated to supporting the early development of antibacterial products.4 The funding supports the development of DXR inhibitors, a novel class of antibiotics targeting drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, Acinetobacter baumannii and multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

FGFR inhibitor derazantinib 5 : Clinical proof-of-concept provided for FGFR2 fusion-positive bile duct cancer (iCCA)

Topline results have been reported for cohort 1 (FGFR2 fusion-positive iCCA) of the FIDES-01 phase 2 study, which provided the clinical proof-of-concept for derazantinib monotherapy in this patient population. The results show an objective response rate (ORR) of 21%, a disease control rate (DCR) of 76% and a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 8.0 months.6 In January 2022, the updated interim results for FIDES-01 cohort 2 (iCCA patients with FGFR2 mutations or amplifications) were reported and show similar clinical benefit as in cohort 1.7 At the cut-off date of August 31, 2021, the DCR was 74% and the median PFS 7.3 months, which is encouraging, as there has been only limited evidence so far for the successful treatment of this patient group with other FGFR inhibitors. FIDES-01 continues to enroll and topline results for cohort 2 are expected mid-2022.

Ongoing biomarker-driven phase 2 study with lisavanbulin:

Basilea is currently investigating its tumor checkpoint controller lisavanbulin in patients with glioblastoma. A phase 2 study, enrolling patients with recurrent glioblastoma, which have tested positive for the potential response-predictive biomarker, EB1 (end-binding protein 1), is expected to report interim results in the first half of 2022.8 In July 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted lisavanbulin Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of malignant glioma, which includes glioblastoma.

BAL0891 added to oncology clinical pipeline

In December 2021, the U.S. FDA approved the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for BAL0891, a dual inhibitor of TTK (threonine tyrosine kinase) and PLK1 (polo-like kinase 1) and first-in-class mitotic checkpoint inhibitor (MCI). Preparations are ongoing to enable the start of a phase 1 study in patients with advanced solid tumors mid-2022.

Conference call and webcast

Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. will host a conference call and webcast today, Tuesday, February 15, 2022, at 4 p.m. (CET), to discuss the Companys financial and operating results and to provide an outlook.

Via audio webcast with presentation

The live audio webcast of the results presentation can be followed here. Please note that there is no function to ask questions via webcast. For questions, please additionally dial-in via phone (see below).

Via phone

To listen by phone and ask questions, please use the dial-in details below. To ensure prompt access, please call approximately five minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call.

+41 (0) 58 310 5000 (Europe and RoW) +1 (1) 866 291 4166 (USA) +44 (0) 207 107 0613 (U.K.)

Replay

The webcast, along with the presentation will be available online shortly after the event and accessible for three months.

About Basilea

Basilea is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Switzerland. We are committed to discovering, developing and commercializing innovative drugs to meet the needs of patients with bacterial and fungal infections and cancer. We have successfully launched two hospital brands, Cresemba for the treatment of invasive fungal infections and Zevtera for the treatment of severe bacterial infections. We are conducting clinical studies with two targeted drug candidates for the treatment of a range of cancers and have several preclinical assets in both anti-infectives and cancer in our portfolio. Basilea is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: BSLN). Please visit basilea.com.

Disclaimer

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements, such as "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical studies for product candidates. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, please contact:

Peer Nils Schroder, PhD



Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Phone +41 61 606 1102 E-mail media_relations@basilea.com

investor_relations@basilea.com

This ad hoc announcement can be downloaded from www.basilea.com.

References

The phase 3 program is funded in part (up to USD 134.2 million, which is approximately 70% of the total potential program costs) with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under contract number HHSO100201600002C. IQVIA, September 2021. In-market sales reported as moving annual total (MAT) in U.S. dollar. ERADICATE: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03138733

K. Hamed, M. Engelhardt, M. E. Jones et al. Ceftobiprole versus daptomycin in Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia: a novel protocol for a double-blind, Phase III trial. Future Microbiology. 2020 (1), 35-48 CARB-Xs funding for this project is sponsored by Cooperative Agreement Number IDSEP160030 from ASPR/BARDA and by awards from Wellcome Trust and Germanys Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of CARB-X or any of its funders. Basilea has in-licensed derazantinib from ArQule Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A. FIDES-01: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03230318

M. Droz dit Busset, W. L. Shaib, K. Mody et al. Derazantinib for patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring FGFR2 fusions / re-arrangements: Primary results from the Phase 2 study FIDES-01. Annals of Oncology 2021 (32), supplement 5, S376-S381; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2021.08.326 and Basilea data on file M. M. Javle, G. K. Abou-Alfa, T. Macarulla et al. Efficacy of derazantinib in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients with FGFR2 mutations or amplifications: Interim results from the phase 2 study FIDES-01; Journal of Clinical Oncology 40, no. 4_suppl (February 01, 2022) 427-427 ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02490800

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MarketWatch

When we were reading through real estate data this month, three stats caught our eye. The first: That the number of active foreclosures (this is when the foreclosure process has begun on a seriously delinquent loan, but it has yet to be completed and liquidated) edged up by more than 7,000 in March  the first year-over-year increase in almost 10 years, according to mortgage technology, data and analytics provider Black Knight. Secondly, more than 78,000 U.S. properties had a foreclosure filing during the first quarter of 2022, which is up 39% from the previous quarter and up 132% from a year ago, according to real estate analytics company ATTOM.
'World-class' universities list expanded

08:14, February 15, 2022 By ZOU SHUO ( China Daily

Graduates attend the 2019 commencement ceremony of Tsinghua University in Beijing on July 7, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua]

Seven institutions added after review of their ability to nurture top talent

China has added seven universities to a list of those it aims to elevate to world-class status, taking the total to 147.

Based on a review by experts and approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, the second list of universities and disciplines included in the "double world-class project "was released by the ministries of education and finance and the National Development and Reform Commission on Monday.

The new additions to the list included Shanxi University, Xiangtan University in Hunan province and Nanjing Medical University in Jiangsu province. All of the 140 universities in the project's first list, released in 2017, including Peking University, Tsinghua University and Renmin University of China, remained on the latest list.

The universities and disciplines were chosen based on their ability to nurture top talent and innovative teams in major and core scientific and technological fields in accordance with national development strategies, said Hong Dayong, director of the Ministry of Education's department of degree management and postgraduate education, adding that no consideration was given to the rankings of universities or research papers published.

The first list placed universities in one of three levels, but the new list does not. Hong said the change was made because building world-class universities should be based on building world-class disciplines and the universities should pursue distinctive and differentiated development.

Some universities had treated inclusion in the "double world-class project", launched in 2016, as a status symbol and, as a result, had pursued blind expansion and competition, he said.

The new list will encourage the universities to pursue world-class development based on their own advantages, he said.

Peking University and Tsinghua University have been given the autonomy to conduct self-evaluation and release their own lists of world-class disciplines.

The two universities can each decide how many disciplines they aim to elevate to world-class status, Hong said.

Sixteen disciplines at 15 universities have been given warnings because they lagged behind in their overall progress and failed to live up to expectations. They have not yet been removed from the project, but will face further evaluation next year.

Initiated in 2016, the first round of the project was completed by the end of 2020, the ministry said.

Hong said, however, that progress in building world-class universities has yet to match the country's comprehensive strength and international status and also lags behind in meeting the needs of social and economic development and creating a diversified talent pool.

Before the launch of the project, the Chinese government evaluated its universities via the"211" and"985" projects launched in the 1990s. The 211 project aimed to raise education standards in about 100 colleges and universities during the 21st century, and the 985 project, named after its launch date in May 1998, endeavored to select the cream of the crop from those institutions.

Qu Zhenyuan, former chairman of the China Association of Higher Education, said the "double world-class project" is a continuation of the "211" and "985" projects in the new era. It is also a key project in the strategy of building a powerful China through education and lays the foundation for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, he said.

Inclusion in the list is recognition of a university's overall strength, Qu said, but also means it has an important duty to fulfill.

Shi Jinghuan, an education professor at Tsinghua University, said China has the largest higher education system in the world, but there is still a great deficiency in terms of high-quality higher education.

The universities included in the project represent only a small proportion of those in the country and can lead the way for other universities and lead reform of the country's higher education system, she said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
More than 300 senior government officials, Chief Information Officers, IT experts, ICT companies, public policy-makers and suppliers have converged in Dubai to unlock a $3 trillion open-data opportunity.

This happens at a time the UAE is leading the Arab World in digital transformation, having ranked first in the Arab world and 8th globally in the United Nations Online Service Index (OSI) 2020, according to the UN EDGI Report covering 193 countries.

The E-Government Development Index (EGDI) presents the state of E-Government Development of the United Nations Member States.

While the country moves towards a data-driven and paperless government, the delegates gathered to take stock on the progress made by the governments of the Middle East in their digital transformation movement at the 2nd Data-Driven Government Conference, taking place from February 15 to 16, 2022, at Movenpick Grand Al Bustan Hotel in Dubai, UAE.

The global market for Big Data is estimated at $70.5 billion in 2020. It is projected to exceed $243.4 billion by 2027, Abdul Mobeen Khan, Chairman of the 2nd Data-Driven Government Conference who is also a Strategy Execution, Programme Management, ITSM, Cybersecurity and Governance Practitioner and Trainer, UAE.

He said governments should now focus on the untapped potential of the data economy.

The opening of the Geographic Information System (GIS), has fuelled the growth of the Global Positioning System (GPS) industry that is now represents a market worth over $128 billion. We are no longer working in silos. If we do not use data analytics property, things can fall between the cracks, he said.

Government and businesses should ensure strategic alignment based on data. Your strategy should be agile and flexible based on data.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is cruising ahead towards a digital government. In 2019, the kingdom launched its ICT Sector Strategy 2023 followed by National Cybersecurity Strategy 2020 and National Strategy for Data and Artificial Intelligence in 2020. In 2021, Saudi Arabia launched E-Government Regulatory Framework and the development of the Digital Government Authority (DGA).

Nabil Aloufi, Vice-Governor of Risks and Business Continuity, Digital Government Authority at Saudi Arabias Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), said: Saudi Arabia currently offers 6,000 e-Government services, records 3 billion transactions per year, and this is increasing. We have a proper roadmap for the digital government.

Saudi Arabia ranked 43 in UN EDGI Report in 2021. We aim to improve our ranking to 38 this year and become one of the top ten countries in the world by 2030. Our roadmap includes three key communication channels  Government to Citizens, Government to Business and Government to Government agencies  to ensure the data-driven government offers the best experiences for all, Aloufi said.

Data-Driven Government makes public administration more effective, transparent, strengthens safety and security, saves public money and weeds out corruption. It helps governments in undertaking the right decision, based on data analytics.

The two-day conference takes place when governments of more than 200 countries are shifting their focus on data-driven governance which will determine which government excels in leading their country in future.

Data-Driven Government changes the way the government functions. Decisions are backed up by the real-time data analytics that help assess the situation more appropriately. Governments can play a key role as data providers  both in the form of raw data and official statistics  helping to unlock a $3 trillion open-data opportunity for the private sector and civil society, says McKinsey & Company.

A latest report by Gartne, says, worldwide public sector spending on IT and soft infrastructure is set to increase 6.5% from $523.2 billion in 2021 to $557 billion next year, as governments worldwide are allocating massive resources to strengthen data-driven government that will help the public sector to ensure smooth service delivery and help smart decision making based on data analytics.

Before implementing Data-Driven Government, worldwide governments need make smart phone accessible to all in order to bring the public services at the fingertips of each citizen.

The number of smartphone users in the world today has exceeded 6.37 billion, which translates to 80.69% of the world's population owning a smartphone.

Data is the new gold and governance becomes better, more transparent and more effective with data-driven government. The whole world is currently in various stages of digital transformation processes. While some are at the beginning of the process, others are at an advanced stage of data-driven digital government, Abdul Mobeen Khan, Strategy Execution, Programme Management, ITSM, Cybersecurity & Governance Practitioner and Trainer, UAE and Chairman of the 2nd Data-Driven Government Conference, says.

The UAE is one of the most advanced countries to have digitised its public services, while Dubai Government is the first to have become 100% paperless government in the world, which is a huge achievement.

The Data-Driven Government will also expand the big data and bring all the citizens individual data in one server.

Race for excellence in effective governance gains momentum and is the focal point of discussions at the 2nd Data-Driven Government Conference. Globally governments are working on the digitisation of the public sector, especially key government departments, authorities and regulators, to offer a seamless service delivery across all the channels. While some are at the beginning phase of data-driven government set up, others are migrating to the next-generation solutions.

In his opening address at the 2nd Data-Driven Government Conference, Aloufi says: Almost all the countries in the Middle East are currently racing against each other to achieve 100% Data-Driven paperless government. However, most countries are lagging behind and needs to catch up fast. These countries need to expand their bandwidth and encourage people to start searching for public services online.

The current rapid development of ICT has brought about high performance and increased integration of the computing environment, mobile computing, and hyper-connection. This led to a stratification in data quality and a sharp increase in quantity, according to a report, titled Data-Driven Smart Government by the United Nations.

While in the past, there was mainly passive data that data holders or owners created while passively responding to the request of the data collecting actors, there is now a rise in active data, which data holders volunteer to produce, it said.

At the 2nd Data-Driven Government Conference, a distinguished expert panel of speakers will include government decision makers and international industry experts who will discuss the regions vision of data-driven government and to efficiently implement them to drive the quality of life and support their national socio-economic development.

Data-driven government is key to achieve sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, while most countries have enhanced E-participation and data-centric approaches and increased the focus in building digital capacities, according to a recent United Nations report on E-Government.

The conference, is supported by  The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Jordan Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), Dubai Health Authority (DHA), Emirates Health Services, Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park, Saudi Digital Government Authority, Ajman Free Zone, International Association of Artificial Intelligence, Oman National Energy Centre (NEC) and Oman Information Technology Society.-- TradeArabia News Service
Republicans and right-leaning groups fighting climate-conscious policies that target fossil fuel companies are increasingly taking their battle to state capitals.

Texas, West Virginia and Oklahoma are among states moving to bar officials from dealing with businesses that are moving to ditch fossil fuels or considering climate change in their own investments. Those steps come as major financial firms and other corporations adopt policies aligned with efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Some of the state efforts for so-called boycott bills are backed by groups tied to conservative climate skeptics like the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Heartland Institute. While they are just the latest manifestation of the deep polarization around global warming, they are creating a minefield for investors and pension fund managers looking to limit risk, according to Greg Hershman, head of U.S. policy at Principles for Responsible Investment.

The fear is that politics does get in the way of investment management where these folks are trying to help retirement savers, said Hershman, who cited inquiries from members of his U.N.-backed investor coalition about how new laws might affect them. Politics just getting in the way of that seems unfair to folks who dont necessarily want their money involved in political fights.

Companies and asset managers have increasingly called the risks from climate change a threat to business. The physical risks from higher sea levels, deeper droughts and more frequent flooding have hit commodity prices and real estate. Policies designed to help curb greenhouse gas emissions have locked energy firms out of nearly $40 trillion in assets, according to the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitments Database.

Conservative opponents deride the emphasis on climate risk factors as social engineering designed to score points with coastal liberals and Democrats. They have called the concern overblown and immaterial to investment performance, arguing that devoting attention to climate risk violates investment managers duty to seek the best returns for clients.

Story continues

Its for the pop culture, said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who has warned of federal regulators and financial institutions discriminating against fossil fuel companies. From a fiduciary standpoint, it has nothing to do with markets or market viability.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott kicked off the state-level pushback last year when he signed a law requiring pension funds and other entities to divest from companies that pull away from the fossil fuel industry. The states lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, upped the ante last month when he asked that BlackRock Inc. be added to the list of companies to be shunned after the Wall Street giant pledged to eliminate net greenhouse gases from its portfolio by 2050.

Meanwhile, a bill moving through West Virginias legislature would let the state treasurer stop doing business with financial firms that boycott petroleum, and Oklahoma lawmakers last week took up a measure to have agencies dump investments in companies that eschew fossil fuels.

The point is to chill this stuff, said Ivan Frishberg, chief sustainability officer with Amalgamated Bank, an employee-owned lender that doesn't do business with fossil fuel companies.

Anti-climate bills in Louisiana, West Virginia and Oklahoma include similar language to a draft model policy filed last year at ALEC, a Republican-aligned group thats funded in part by fossil fuel member organizations. Discussions on the draft are likely to continue this year, said Joe Trotter, ALECs task force director for energy, environment and agriculture.

The Heartland Institute, which rejects climate science and has received funding from the fossil fuel industry and GOP mega-donors Robert and Rebekah Mercer, is also behind bills that would bar states from considering environmental, social and governance factors when making decisions about public pensions and other investment accounts.

Bette Grande, state government relations manager at Heartland, recently testified before a panel of New Hampshire lawmakers on a bill that would bar banks from using social credit scores. Grande has also testified on legislation addressing ESG factors in Kansas, Wyoming and West Virginia, and is tracking bills in several other states, according to David Hoyt, Heartlands executive director of development.

The often-cited negative impacts from CO2 are not supported by facts, Grande told POLITICO in an email that provided several links to Heartland misinformation about mainstream climate science.

States that have threatened to flout funds over net-zero commitments  West Virginia last month pulled an $8 billion fund out of BlackRock Inc. for that reason  represent a relative drop in the bucket for big investment firms. In fact, areas that voted for President Joe Biden account for 63 percent of the $7.6 trillion of cash and securities held by state and local governments, according to an analysis by consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners. The 15 state treasurers that wrote a November 2021 letter opposing restrictions on fossil fuel financing represent 19 percent of that total.

But the pushback could leave financial firms facing a complicated patchwork of requirements, experts said. At the federal level, the Securities and Exchange Commission is devising guidance for firms to disclose climate risks for investors. The Federal Reserve is developing a framework for financial institutions to assess how portfolios perform under certain climate scenarios. Those efforts have helped spur the state-level bills, and there is little indication that the antagonism will abate.

West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore, a Republican, has communicated with other lawmakers and officials in other states about legislation to bar companies that boycott energy firms from receiving state contracts, his spokesperson Jared Hunt said. But he said the state's bill was crafted without any outside guidance. West Virginias version of that bill passed 31-2 in the Senate and now awaits House action.

Groups favoring divestment are getting involved on the state level as well. Maine, for example, is being required to get its state pension fund out of all fossil fuels investments by 2026. Lawmakers in New York, Virginia and Vermont also have weighed divestment legislation, ClearView said. Theres movement toward divestment in Oregon as well.

A clutch of Democratic state treasurers and auditors are working on a letter showing how climate risk affects returns for retirees and other investments, said Dave Wallack, executive director with nonprofit group For The Long Term, which works with treasurers, comptrollers and auditors. He said many of those treasurers see protecting pensioners investments from climate-related risks as core to their jobs.

Were not seeing this as 'were going to put out a letter and virtue signal' and thats the end of it, Wallack said. My folks really see this as not an issue of do-gooderism but as fiduciaries with a 100-year view.

Such responses reflect the tribal nature of positions on investing and climate change, said Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research and managing director at brokerage BTIG.

Its not going to be red states and blue states  its going to be red banks and blue banks, or red asset managers and blue asset managers, he said.
Cornish Metals Inc

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cornish Metals Inc. (TSX-V/AIM: CUSN) (Cornish Metals or the Company), a mineral exploration and development company focused on its tin/copper projects in Cornwall, United Kingdom, is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Sir Ferrers Vyvyan of Trelowarren in Cornwall to lease certain mineral rights owned by the Vyvyan family.



The mineral lease covers an area of 222 hectares and is valid for 25 years. The lease will enable Cornish Metals to explore and mine within all the mineral right areas owned by the Vyvyan family inside the South Crofty Underground Permission Area, and explore certain other mineral right areas adjacent to the South Crofty property. The terms of the lease require Cornish Metals to pay an annual rent, plus a tin price-based sliding scale net smelter return royalty on production of any minerals recovered from the leased area.

The Vyvyan family has a long association with Cornish Mining, South Crofty and Camborne in particular; indeed, the main street in Camborne is named after the familys estate, Trelowarren, and the historic Vyvyan Arms Hotel is a well-known Camborne landmark.

Richard Williams, CEO of Cornish Metals, stated, This mineral lease agreement with the Vyvyan family is another important step for the Company, consolidating further ground within the South Crofty Underground Permission Area.

The agreement enables Cornish Metals to further explore and develop the mineral resources that are contained within the South Crofty Underground Permission Area.

We very much look forward to working with the Vyvyan family and writing another chapter in the long history of Cornish Mining.

Sir Ferrers Vyvyan, owner of Trelowarren, stated, We are delighted to have reached agreement with Cornish Metals over our interests at South Crofty. Vyvyans, both with Y and Is, have been involved with mining in the Camborne area since the 16th century and we hope this project creates many new jobs in the County.

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This linked map shows all the mineral rights now owned, part owned or under lease to Cornish Metals within the South Crofty Underground Permission Area. The current published JORC (2012) compliant Mineral Resource estimate for the South Crofty Project is wholly contained within these areas.

ABOUT CORNISH METALS

Cornish Metals completed the acquisition of the South Crofty tin and United Downs copper / tin projects, plus additional mineral rights located in Cornwall, UK, in July 2016 (see Company news release dated July 12, 2016). The additional mineral rights cover an area of approximately 15,000 hectares and are distributed throughout Cornwall. Some of these mineral rights cover old mines that were historically worked for copper, tin, zinc, and tungsten.

The South Crofty project covers the former producing South Crofty tin mine located beneath the towns of Pool and Camborne, Cornwall. South Crofty mine closed in 1998 following over 400 years of continuous production. Since acquiring the project in 2016, Cornish Metals has completed and published maiden NI 43-101 Mineral Resources for South Crofty using the vast archive of historical production data and more recent drilling completed between 2007 and 2013. In 2017, Cornish Metals completed a Preliminary Economic Assessment that demonstrated the economic viability of re-opening the mine. Additionally, Cornish Metals has undertaken extensive pilot-scale water treatment trials and successfully applied for and received the necessary environmental permits to abstract, treat and discharge mine water in order to dewater the mine. Planning permissions for the operation of the mine and re-development of the surface facilities have been secured and construction of the water treatment plant foundations commenced. The dewatering pumps, variable speed drives and new high-voltage power supply have been delivered to site.

An updated Mineral Resource was completed in June 2021 as summarised below:

South Crofty Summary (JORC 2012) Mineral Resource Estimate Area Classification Mass

(000 tonnes) Grade Contained Tin /

Tin Equivalent

(000 tonnes) Increase in contained

Tin / Tin equivalent

from 2016 MRE Lower

Mine



Indicated 2,084 1.59% Sn 33 10.2% Inferred 1,937 1.67% Sn 32 129.8% Upper

Mine



Indicated 277 1.01% SnEq 3 9.5% Inferred 493 0.93% SnEq 5 8.0%





SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP

(Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker) Tel: +44 203 470 0470



Richard Morrison Charlie Bouverat Grant Barker Hannam & Partners

(Joint Broker) Tel: +44 207 907 8500



Matthew Hasson Andrew Chubb Ernest Bell Blytheweigh

(Financial PR/IR-London) Tel: +44 207 138 3204



Tim Blythe Megan Ray

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard D. Williams

Richard D. Williams, P.Geo

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.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information pursuant to Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended.

Caution regarding forward looking statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements, while based on management's best estimates and assumptions at the time such statements are made, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: risks related to receipt of regulatory approvals, risks related to general economic and market conditions; risks related to the COVID-19 global pandemic and any variants of COVID-19 which may arise; risks related to the availability of financing; the timing and content of upcoming work programs; actual results of proposed exploration activities; possible variations in Mineral Resources or grade; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes, title disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry; changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, tax rules and regulations.



Although Cornish Metals has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Cornish Metals undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

CONTACT: For additional information please contact: In North America: Irene Dorsman at (604) 200 6664 or by e-mail at irene@cornishmetals.com tim.blythe@blytheweigh.com megan.ray@blytheweigh.com




Eden Empire Inc

VANCOUVER, British Columbia and BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eden Empire Inc. (CSE: EDEN) (the "Company" or "Eden Empire") is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter of Intent (the LOI) with Highland Grows (the Supplier) to provide cannabis products for the Companys franchise and corporate locations in the State of Michigan.



Key Notes:

Gives the Company access to premium quality products grown locally in the State.

The Supplier boasts 10+ strains grown at its state of the art facility including: Super Lemon Haze, White Widow, Starkiller and Pineapple Express #2.

The Highlands Grow relationship will represent the beginning of growth for EDEN in its search for the highest quality products in the State. CEO Gerry Trapasso stated, When we look for partners in the supply space, we are looking for key groups that can represent the EDEN brand in its growing style, and its product line. Highlands Grow represents this perfectly with their high-THC strains grown in their state of the art facility.

To learn more about Highlands Grow, please visit www.highlandsgrow.com.

This news release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and such securities may not be offered or sold within the United States absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. registration requirements.

For further information or should you have any questions, please feel free to email us at investors@edenempire.com .

Gerry Trapasso, CEO

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange 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 news release.

About Eden Empire

Eden Empire is in the business of investments and operations in the cannabis sector and engaging in retail cannabis sales. Eden Empire intends to expand its retail operations in Canada and to expand its business to cannabis cultivation, extraction and processing and become a fully integrated cannabis product company in the United States.

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Eden Empire has an award winning and established nationwide brand, including a substantial intellectual property portfolio, and a dedicated management team with extensive cannabis industry experience. Upon completion of Eden Empire's currently intended acquisitions, and approval to operate its retail locations, the Company is expected to have a significant retail cannabis footprint in Canada and Michigan. Retail cannabis operations are an emerging sector with significant cash flow potential.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain "forward looking statements" and certain "forward-looking information" as defined under applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "intend", "estimate", upon "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "plans" or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the gross proceeds anticipated to be received under the Third Tranche Private Placement; the future exercise of any Warrants issued under the Third Tranche Private Placement; the future price of the Companys common shares on the CSE; the future exercise by the Company of its right to accelerate the Warrant Expiry Date; the approval of the CSE of the Third Tranche Private Placement; the Companys future operations of retail cannabis stores in the United States and Canada; the Company expanding its business to cannabis cultivation, extraction and processing and becoming a fully integrated cannabis company in the United States; the completion of the Companys currently intended acquisitions; the receipt of all necessary licenses and approvals to operate the Companys retail locations; and the proposed future transactions Eden may undertake and their expected timing.

Forward-looking statements and information are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions that, while believed by management to be reasonable, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of Eden Empire to control or predict, that may cause Eden Empire's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out herein, including but not limited to: Eden Empire may not obtain the requisite regulatory approvals and may not begin operating cannabis retail or cultivation and processing operations; that the actual use of proceeds may differ from those currently stated; the inherent risks involved in the general securities markets; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; currency fluctuations; regulatory restrictions and the possibility for changes in laws, rules, and regulations in the industry; liability, competition, loss of key employees and other related risks and uncertainties. Eden Empire does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents management's best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.




ENA Foundation more than halfway to 2022 challenge goal after first event of year

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The ENA Foundation announced Tuesday that it raised $166,709 during the Emergency Nurses Association's Leadership Orientation 2022  an amount that accounted for more than half of the Foundation's goal of raising $300,000 during the annual ENStrong Challenge.

(PRNewsfoto/Emergency Nurses Association)

Emergency nurses from around the world gathered in Charleston, South Carolina, last month for an educational event to help them learn new skills to lead their local members. The attendees both pledged and made cash-in-hand donations during the event.

"I'm excited that the ENStrong Challenge is off to a solid start and will ultimately benefit so many emergency nurses," said ENA Foundation Chairperson Jeff Solheim, MSN, RN, CEN, TCRN, CRN, FAEN, FAAN. "ENA members always go above and beyond when it comes to supporting the Foundation and the many nurses who will benefit, but our hope is that we can get the public to further support nurses as well. By giving to the ENA Foundation, you directly support the people who are there for you and provide you the best possible care during your hardest times in the emergency department."

In the wake of a record-setting fundraising year in 2021, the ENA Foundation is looking forward to continuing its support of emergency nurses through academic scholarships, domestic and international conference scholarships for Emergency Nursing 2022, research grants, and the newly developed Emergency Nursing Diverse Voices Research Fellowship.

Emergency nurses have served on the front line of the pandemic since early 2020, they care for patients on their worst days and continue to provide the best possible care they can.

For those reasons, Solheim encouraged the public to support this important population of health care providers by donating to the ENA Foundation here or by texting ENStrong to 24-3725. The ENStrong Challenge will run through May 31, but the Foundation will accept donations at any time.

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About the ENA Foundation

The ENA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, is the philanthropic arm of the Emergency Nurses Association. The Foundation fuels the future of emergency nursing with a mission focused on providing academic scholarships and research grants to emergency nurses. Since 1991, the ENA Foundation has awarded approximately $5.3 million to more than 2,300 emergency nurses to help them earn degrees, expand their skills through continuing education and conduct research projects directly related to emergency nursing and led by nurse researchers.

About the Emergency Nurses Association

The Emergency Nurses Association is the premier professional nursing association dedicated to defining the future of emergency nursing through advocacy, education, research, innovation, and leadership. Founded in 1970, ENA has proven to be an indispensable resource to the global emergency nursing community. With more than 50,000 members worldwide, ENA advocates for patient safety, develops industry-leading practice standards and guidelines, and guides emergency healthcare public policy. ENA members have expertise in triage, patient care, disaster preparedness, and all aspects of emergency care. Additional information is available at www.ena.org.

ENA Media Contact:

Dan Campana

Director of Communications

847-460-4017

dan.campana@ena.org

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/enstrong-challenge-kickoff-raises-166-000-for-ena-foundation-301481179.html

SOURCE Emergency Nurses Association
The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has called for a bloc-wide ban on the controversial Pegasus spyware tool, warning its use could lead to an unprecedented level of intrusiveness.

Israelis NSO Group, the developer of the notorious spyware, claims to only sell Pegasus to governments for the purpose of fighting crime and terrorism. However, multiple reports have revealed that the spyware was used to target journalists, activists and politicians in several European Union member states, including France, Spain and Hungary.

Just last month, researchers at Citizen Lab found that Pegasus was used to spy on three critics of the Polish government, raising questions over the legitimacy of the countrys 2019 parliamentary elections.

In light of the cases, the EDPS  tasked with issuing guidance and recommendations to the European Commission  called for a ban on the development and deployment of spyware with the capability of Pegasus in the EU." The watchdog cited the spywares "powerful" features, such as its ability to be silently installed on devices silently via zero-click attacks and to gain near-complete access to a targets device, including their personal data, photos, messages and precise location.

The Brussels-based watchdog says a ban on Pegasus-like spyware is necessary to protect "fundamental freedoms but also to democracy and the rule of law."

The EDPS said in its report that a number of member states had admitted to buying the spyware. However, it added the true list of customers may prove bigger as it appears that a number of member states have at least initiated negotiations with NSO Group for the licensing of the product.

The EDPS added it could not rule out a need for the spyware to be deployed in exceptional circumstances, for instance, to prevent a very serious imminent threat such as terrorism. The Brussels-based watchdog also said that if governments do use Pegasus, they should apply eight steps, including ensuring any forms of monitoring are meaningful and effective" and strictly applying EU privacy rules.

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In a statement, an unnamed NSO spokesperson rebuked the academics and researchers who have found and published evidence of known Pegasus infections, including against journalists and human rights defenders.

The EDPS report comes just months after the U.S. Commerce Department added NSO to its Entity List, banning American companies from doing business with the surveillance software maker unless they receive explicit permission.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2022) - FibSwap joins forces with Clover Finance, exposing FibSwap's decentralized exchange to more than 100,000 wallets. FibSwap DEx is now integrated into the Clover Wallet, and the Clover Wallet is now integrated with the FibSwap DEx as well.





FibSwap gets listed on Clover



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8203/113264_56e8ede964d41878_001full.jpg

This is all a part of FibSwap's goal of disrupting the crypto trading world by enabling users to swap tokens across multiple chains, using a special technology called the Interoperable Multichain Bridge System.

Clover Wallet is a non-custodial, multi-chain, multi-platform application that helps users manage crypto assets and interact with all types of decentralized applications. It is available on both mobile (Android/iOS), desktop (Chrome Extension), and universally on the web.

FibSwap's state-of-the-art technology, combined with the Clover Wallet's universal accessibility, will create a powerful experience for crypto users and anyone looking to seamlessly swap tokens.

About FibSwap

FibSwap is a multi-chain decentralized exchange that allows individuals to buy and sell tokens from a number of different blockchains. Ethereum, BSC, Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, are some of the chains connected to the DEX. They also are the first ones to come out with a fully dedicated phone app as a decentralized exchange on android and IOS.

They have a token, $FIBO, which provides holders with a range of benefits and perks including and not limited to; discounts on transactions, passive income in the form of redistribution of transaction fee volume to holders, and more.

Website | Telegram |Twitter | Instagram

About Clover Finance

Clover Finance (CLV), is an infrastructure layer that started in May 2020, and its mainnet was launched in July 2021. It provides a one-stop, easy-to-use blockchain infrastructure and an Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) compatible framework for Substrate-based applications. Clover Finance focuses on driving improvement in the landscape of cross-chain compatibility and multi-chain wallets experiences.

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The Clover Extension Wallet and Mobile Wallet are now live with compatibility to DOT, SOL, FTM, ETH, BSC, MATIC, AVAX, DAI, and more. The high level of compatibility along with its iconic Active-dApp network allows users to connect to any dApp from different networks simultaneously.

This paradigm shift is going to open up a whole new multi-chain wallet experience for everyone in the ecosystem.

For more information and alerts on the latest news please follow Clover on social media, Website | Telegram | Twitter | Github

Media Contact:

info@lunapr.io

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113264
Vantage Market Research, The North Star for the Working World

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Smart Packaging Market size is expected to reach over USD 33.00 Billion by 2028, exhibiting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12% during the forecast period from the year 2021 till 2028. The said market stood at a revenue of USD 13.88 Billion in the year 2021.



Market Synopsis

Increasing smart packaging use to expand the shelf life as well as traceability of food items is likely to see a positive impact on industry growth overall in the coming years. Smart packaging is an amalgamation of science, technology, and specialized materials that improves the packaging functionality by engineering intelligent and active packaging in traditional packaging. It also helps to prevent spoilage of food, improve food product nature such as taste, flavor, and aroma and it helps in premium pricing, brand protection, and waste reduction further, states Vantage Market Research, in a report, titled Smart Packaging Market by Technology (Physical Tests, Spectroscopy & Photometric-Based, Chromatography-Based), by End-user Vertical (Food, Beverage, Healthcare, Personal Care), by Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa), by Type (Physical, Chemical, Microbiological), by Material (Glass, Plastic, Paper, Metals) - Global Industry Assessment (2016 - 2021) & Forecast (2022 - 2028).

Click Here To Access The Free Sample Report @ https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/smart-packaging-market-1300/request-sample

(The Free Sample Of This Report Is Readily Available On Request).

Our Free Sample Reports Includes:

In-depth Industry Analysis, Introduction, Overview, and COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak.

Impact Analysis 160+ Pages Research Report (Including latest research)

Provide chapter-wise guidance on request 2021 Updated Regional Analysis with Graphical Representation of Trends, Size, & Share, Includes Updated List of figures and tables.

Updated Report Includes Major Market Players with their Sales Volume, Business Strategy and Revenue Analysis by using Vantage Market Research methodology.

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(Please note that the sample of this report has been updated to include the COVID-19 impact study prior to delivery.)

List of Prominent Players in the Smart Packaging Market:

Bureau Veritas SA (France)

SGS S.A. (Switzerland)

Eurofins Scientific SE (Luxembourg)

Intertek Group Plc. (U.K.)

Merieux NutriSciences Corporation (U.S.)

TUV SUD AG (Germany)

ALS Limited (Australia)

National Technical Systems, Inc. (U.S.)

Microbac Laboratories Inc. (U.S.)

EMSL Analytical Inc. (U.S.)

Campden BRI (U.K.)



Market Dynamics:

Driver: Increasing Need for Eco-Friendly Products

Increasing need for eco-friendly sustainable goods on account of rising demand from pharmaceutical and food & beverage industries is likely to drive the market over the next decade. Also, increasing Research and Development (R&D) investment to minimize the carbon footprint is expected to drive growth in the coming years. Furthermore, increasing demand for ready to serve and eat food products due to changing the lifestyle of the urban population is expected to have a good impact over the forecast period.

Moreover, a recent shift like growing use of wireless technologies coupled with smart packaging in the food & beverage sector to provide users with real-time conditions of the perishable items is expected to fuel the industry demand. Additionally, increasing use of smart packaging in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry on account of its improved flexibility, lightweight, and durability properties is expected to drive market growth.

Purchase This Premium Report Now @ https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/buy-now/smart-packaging-market-1300/1

Benefits of Purchasing Smart Packaging Market Reports:

Customer Satisfaction : Our team of experts assists you with all your research needs and optimizes your reports.

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Restraint: High Prices of Raw Material for Manufacturing Flexible Plastics

However, high cost of intelligent and active packaging is likely to hinder the market growth for smart packaging globally. Huge raw material costs for manufacturing flexible plastics are expected to hinder the market growth in the coming years. Increasing investment in emerging intelligent packaging with sensing equipment such as RFID (radio-frequency identification), NFC (near-field communication), and smart labels is likely to create fresh opportunities for sector development in near future.

Moreover, huge cost of capital for security issues, instalment, new techniques for fabricating like, indicators and sensors which are compatible with recent packaging standards and knowledge among people are key challenges and restraints for the market growth.

Regional Trends

Asia Pacific is expected to account for the largest share of the Smart Packaging market across the globe. The U.S. occupies the biggest share of the market value in the region, followed by Canada. The rising demand for improved and interactive packaging solutions, rising working population account for the anticipated growth in the Smart Packaging market in the region.

The food and beverage demand has increased markedly, owing to the rising population (both, from within and due to immigration). To meet the extensive demands of the food sector, there has been a substantial rise in the volume of the imported food from several regions globally, thus, fuelling the demand for the market in the region.

Recent Developments

April, 2019: Tetra Pak launched a connected packaging platform, which will transform milk and juice cartons into interactive information channels, full-scale data carriers, and digital tools. For retailers, it will offer greater supply chain visibility enabling distributors to track stock movements and real-time insights.

Feb, 2019: Sealed Air acquired MGMs (MGM is a prominent packaging company that provides flexible food packaging materials for consumer-packaged goods markets in Southeast Asia) the flexible packaging division. The acquisition is majorly aimed at enhancing its presence in Asia-Pacific and improving its printing and lamination capabilities.

Read Full Research Report @ https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/smart-packaging-market-1300

COVID-19 Impact Analysis:

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected various industries worldwide. Governments across the world implemented strict lockdown measures and social distancing norms in order to restrict the swift spread of the pandemic. Manufacturing facilities around the world were shut down during the initial stages of the pandemic. Moreover, the economic crisis after the pandemic might lead to a significant delay in the commercial roll-out of the Smart Packaging Market. Hence, market players faced numerous challenges as disruptions in the supply chain were observed. However, things will improve in the second half of 2022 as more supplies will come online. The impact of COVID-19 on the market demand is considered while estimating the current and forecast market size and growth trends of the market for all the regions and countries based on the following data points:

Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa Quarterly Market Revenue Forecast by Asia Pacific 2020 & 2021 Key Strategies Undertaken by Companies to Tackle COVID-19 Long Term Dynamics Short Term Dynamics

The report on Smart Packaging Market highlights:

Assessment of the market

Premium Insights

Competitive Landscape

COVID Impact Analysis

Historic Data, Estimates and Forecast

Company Profiles

Global and Regional Dynamics



Key questions answered in the report:

Which regional market will show the highest and rapid growth?

Which are the top five players of the Smart Packaging Market?

How will the Smart Packaging Market change in the upcoming six years?

Which application and product will take a lions share of the Smart Packaging Market?

What is the Smart Packaging market drivers and restrictions?

What will be the CAGR and size of the Smart Packaging Market throughout the forecast period?

Speak To Analyst: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/smart-packaging-market-1300/contact-analyst

This market titled Smart Packaging Market will cover exclusive information in terms of Geographic Segmentation, Regional Analysis, Forecast, and Quantitative Date  Units, Key Market Trends, and various others as mentioned below:

Report Attribute Details Market Size in 2021 USD 13.88 Billion Projected Market Size in 2028 USD 33.00 Billion CAGR Growth Rate CAGR of around 12% From 2022 - 2028 Base Year 2021 Historic Years 2016  2020 Forecast Years 2022  2028 Segments Covered Technology



 Physical Tests



 Spectroscopy & Photometric-Based



 Chromatography-Based



End-user Vertical



 Food



 Beverage



 Healthcare



 Personal Care



 Other End-user Verticals Quantitative Data - Units Revenue in USD Million/Billion and CAGR from 2022 to 2028 Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and Rest of World Countries Covered U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, GCC Countries, and South Africa, among others Number of Companies Covered 10 companies with scope for including additional 15 companies upon request Report Coverage Market growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, Porters five forces analysis, PEST analysis, value chain analysis, regulatory landscape, market attractiveness analysis by segments and region, company market share analysis, and COVID-19 impact analysis.

Customization of the Report:

The report can be customized as per client needs or requirements. For any queries, you can contact us on sales@vantagemarketresearch.com or +1 (202) 380-9727. Our sales executives will be happy to understand your needs and provide you with the most suitable reports.

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More international stars are set to attend the upcoming Middle East Film & Comic Con (MEFCC), with Barry Keoghan, Ming-Na Wen, Kevin Conroy and James C Mulligan adding their names to the already stellar list of celebrities coming to the UAE capital.

The new additions to MEFCC, which takes place from March 4 to 6 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), mean its 10th edition promises to be the regions most exhilarating event for fans of comic books, sci-fi and pop culture. Fans will have an opportunity for celebrity meet and greets and interact with the stars.

Keoghan is the Irish actor best-known for playing Druig in the Marvel superhero film Eternals. He also starred in the Second World War epic Dunkirk and psychological horror The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Wen is an American actress and model who is celebrated for role as Fennec Shand in The Book Of Boba Fett, as well as for playing Melinda May in the ABC superhero series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Conroy is the voice behind Batman and Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series, as well as numerous spinoff projects, such as the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game.

Also in attendance will be Disney artist James C Mulligan, whose works have been collected by celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Dick Van Dyke, Neil Patrick Harris and Richard Sherman. Mulligan has had a working relationship with the Walt Disney Company for more than two decades, while he has completed design and fine art works for the likes of Coca-Cola, Magic Castle in Hollywood, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers, the Chuck Jones Family, Marvel and the Elvis Presley Estate.

Previously, organisers had confirmed attendance from the likes of The Walking Dead stars Michael Rooker and Jon Bernthal; Game of Thrones actor Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, better known as Gustavo Gus Fring from Breaking Bad and Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian and prominent voice actor Charles Martinet, the voice of several major characters including Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi in the Nintendo game Super Mario.

The 10th edition of MEFCC will offer a great experience for visitors of all ages, with a host of comic book and sci-fi-related fun, food trucks, exciting costume play parades, live performances from anime bands and much more.

Fans in the region can buy a one-day family pass that includes four tickets with a 10% discount for the total bundle, which costs AED410 rather than AED460. Superfan families can go for the three-day ticket that includes four passes with a discount of 25% at AED840 instead of AED1,120, said organisers.

General tickets start from AED115 for a one-day pass, AED280 for a regular three-day pass, AED500 for a three-day VIP pass and AED2,500 for a Super VIP pass. VIP ticket holders will get access to fast-track entry, and special queues at meet-the-stars sections, with each VIP ticket granting one exclusive celebrity meet-and-greet with a photograph or autograph voucher along with one hour of exclusive event access on March 4 before the doors open to the public.

Organised in collaboration with the Department of Culture and Tourism  Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and hosted at Adnec at Halls 8 & 9, MEFCC will also feature a theatre where fans can catch exclusive trailers, and celebrity and industry panels that include screenings and Q&As. In addition, a Gaming Zone, powered by GamesCon, will give enthusiasts the chance to play in tournaments and test out the latest software and innovations. Guests will also be able to get their hands on personalised commissions from regional and international artists. Each day will be packed with exciting activities including cosplay tutorials, and sessions in art, creativity, and animation from leading industry experts.  TradeArabia News Service
Maryland Nonprofits launches 'This is the moment to care' campaign to celebrate 30-year anniversary

PR Newswire

BALTIMORE, Feb. 15, 2022

Initiative aims to radically transform workplace practices and culture in the nonprofit sector

BALTIMORE, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Maryland Nonprofits, a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to strengthening nonprofit organizations and networks for greater quality of life and equity, celebrates 30 years of being a trusted resource, advocate, and partner for the more than 30,000 nonprofits in Maryland.

'This is the moment to care' campaign logo

To commemorate this milestone, Maryland Nonprofits is launching its anniversary campaign, 'This is the moment to care.' The initiative will address the urgent need for a shift towards an internal culture of care within the nonprofit sector.

It will provide innovative tools and strategies to help organizations care for their teams with the same passion that they support those impacted by their missions.

"Nonprofit organizations depend first and foremost on our people  our staff, volunteers, and boards. We cannot care for others without first caring for ourselves," says Heather Iliff, Maryland Nonprofits' President & CEO, who is celebrating her 15th year with the organization this April.

"Discussing workplace culture in this moment is critical, particularly as many nonprofit staff are women and people of color, and we know COVID-19 has added stressors and exacerbated pre-existing class, gender, and racial inequities. After two draining years, our organizations continue to operate in crisis-response mode. Especially in the context of the 'Great Resignation,' we must recognize and address the unprecedented prevalence of exhaustion and overwork."

An economic and social force, nonprofits employ 12.9% of the private sector workforce in Maryland and process more than $300 million in payroll weekly. By embarking on this campaign, Maryland Nonprofits aims to leverage the sector's collective power to advocate within economic, political, cultural, and social systems to foster a caring culture in the workplace.

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For 30 years, Maryland Nonprofits has been the source of capacity-building services for its members, including consulting, training, an annual conference, and the national Standards for Excellence program. Founded in 1992 with 139 charter members, the organization currently has more than 1,350 members across the state.

Maryland Nonprofits has served as a clearinghouse for information during the COVID-19 crisis, advocating for and helping organizations to access relief funding, and working to address the disproportionately negative health and economic impacts the pandemic has had on Black and Latino communities.

March 25, 2022, marks Maryland Nonprofits' official birthday and the convening of the first event of the campaign, 'Beginning the conversation around building full-hearted, caring workplaces.' All are invited to attend. Register here: https://sforce.co/3HV1t4s

For more information about the campaign, follow the hashtag #ThisIsTheMomentToCare on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and visit the Maryland Nonprofits website at www.marylandnonprofits.org.

About Maryland Nonprofits

With more than 1,350 members, Maryland Nonprofits is one of the nation's largest nonprofit associations, with a mission to strengthen organizations and networks for greater quality of life and equity. The association has 30 years of experience and expertise and provides a range of programs and services that help organizations build their capacity, operate more efficiently, engage in cross-sector dialogue fostering collaboration, and advocate for key policy issues.

Maryland Nonprofits offers the Standards for Excellence, a nationally replicated accreditation program that enhances governance, management, and the public's trust in the nonprofit sector. It is also home to the Maryland Association of Resources for Families and Youth and Maryland Latinos Unidos.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/maryland-nonprofits-launches-this-is-the-moment-to-care-campaign-to-celebrate-30-year-anniversary-301482617.html

SOURCE Maryland Nonprofits
Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A., a Tier 1 law firm with a national reputation, has joined the ranks of elite firms in Colorado.

Denver Personal Injury Lawyers

Denver Personal Injury Lawyers

DENVER, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This week, the firm announced that it would be opening Denver Personal Injury Lawyers in Denver, Colorado. The expansion will enhance the firm's long-standing client relationships across the country and make it possible for the firm to address the needs of clients in the growing Denver area.

The personal injury division in Denver will practice litigation in the areas of car accidents, pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents, electric scooter accidents, motorcycle accidents, personal injury, ski and snowboard accidents, traumatic brain injuries, truck accidents, wrongful death, and Uber and Lyft accidents.

Jonathon Douglas, Managing Partner

Jonathon Douglas is the managing partner at Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A.'s Denver location. Jonathon believes strongly in fighting for his clients. Mr. Douglas is a Florida native who graduated from Northeast High School in St. Petersburg before attending the University of Florida. Mr. Douglas earned a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees, both with honors. From there, Mr. Douglas attended Stetson University College of Law where he learned and practiced the art of trial advocacy, eventually earning his Juris Doctor. Jonathon puts the recovery and well-being of his clients at the forefront of all of his personal injury claims. His approach, paired with his extensive knowledge of car accident and personal injury litigation, is a recipe for success.

The Expansion of a Legacy

Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. is one of the oldest firms in Florida. The firm was established in 1958 when it was established by founding partner, Anthony S. Battaglia.

Anthony Battaglia was known for his bold style and exceptional case preparation. Today, those qualities distinguish the esteemed car accident lawyers in the Denver personal injury division. Battaglia's legacy is continued for being a respected, client-centered, punctual, and professional legal team. They have been providing top-notch legal services to injured people across Florida for over 60 years. Now they are expanding their legal expertise to Denver, Colorado.

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"Every Client Is Our Most Important Client"

Through dedication to each client, Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. is pleased to announce the expansion of their outstanding reputation to Denver. Denver Personal Injury Lawyers is the latest addition. The Denver car accident lawyers at Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. have extensive trial practice, and their record of success is one to be applauded.

At Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A., they believe that every client is their most important. Their loyal clientele remains so and will now extend to Denver, CO because of their ability to produce results and put their clients' interests first. For more information about Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A., you can visit their website www.denverlaw.com or contact the firm at 720-500-HURT.

Denver Personal Injury Lawyers

1001 Bannock St #8

Denver, CO 80204

(720) 500-HURT

(720) 500-4878

https://www.denverlaw.com

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Image 1: Denver Personal Injury Lawyers





Nationally Ranked Law Firm Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. Opens Personal Injury Division in Denver, Colorado









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Attachment




Newcore Gold Ltd.

Drill Results From the Southern Extension at Sewum and the Eradi Target at Enchi; Drilling Continues to Intersect High-Grade Gold Mineralization in Both Shallow Oxide and Deeper Sulphide Mineralization Across the District Scale Property

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Newcore Gold Ltd. ("Newcore" or the "Company") (TSX-V: NCAU, OTCQX: NCAUF) is pleased to announce additional drill results from the 90,000 metre drill program underway at the Companys 100% owned Enchi Gold Project ("Enchi" or the "Project") in Ghana. Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling on the southern end of the Sewum Gold Deposit ("Sewum") at Enchi has intersected shallow high-grade oxide gold mineralization grading 1.98 grams per tonne gold ("g/t Au") over 25.0 metres ("m") from 3 m, as well as high-grade results in deeper sulphide mineralization including 2.14 g/t Au over 18.0 m from 123 m. Newcores ongoing drill program also includes testing previously drilled targets on the property. Diamond ("DD") drilling at the Eradi Gold Target ("Eradi") at Enchi has intersected wide gold mineralization grading 0.89 g/t Au over 47.8 m from 41.2 m, including 6.44 g/t Au over 2.5 m from 41.2 m and 2.14 g/t Au over 5.8 m from 54.2 m.

Highlights from Drilling at Sewum and Eradi

RC drilling at the southern end of the Sewum Gold Deposit (also referred to as Sewum Extension) intersected near surface oxidized gold mineralization: Hole SWRC164 encountered a gold mineralized structure near surface grading 1.98 g/t Au over 25.0 m from 3 m, and a second zone of 0.58 g/t Au over 22.0 m from 48 m. Hole SWRC152, drilled on a sub-parallel structure, intersected mineralization near surface of 5.84 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 2 m, including 26.82 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 2 m.

Additional RC drilling at Sewum Extension extended the gold mineralization to depth, into the upper portion of the sulphide zone, with results including: Hole SWRC160 intersected 2.14 g/t Au over 18.0 m from 123 m, including 3.01 g/t Au over 4.0 m from 124 m and 2.87 g/t Au over 7.0 m from 129 m. Hole SWRC165 intersected 1.31 g/t Au over 18 m from 73 m, including 8.28 g/t Au over 2.0 m from 83 m. Hole SWRC144 intersected 1.72 g/t Au over 13 m from 81 m.

Diamond drilling at Eradi intersected multiple gold mineralized zones, including a wide zone with high-grade core structures: Hole ERDD020 intersected 0.89 g/t Au over 47.8 m from 41.2 m, including 6.44 g/t Au over 2.5 m from 41.2 m and 2.14 g/t Au over 5.8 m from 54.2 m. Eradi is a previously drilled target at Enchi with no defined Mineral Resource Estimate. The zone has been tested at wide spacings over a strike length of 1.6 kilometres and remains open along strike and to depth.



Luke Alexander, President and CEO of Newcore stated, "These results include drilling completed on the southern end of the Sewum Gold Deposit which has extended the gold mineralization up and down dip, encountering high-grade gold in both near-surface oxides as well as in the deeper sulphides. We also completed first pass drilling on a parallel structure at Sewum, situated outside of the current pit constrained mineral resource, which encountered high-grade mineralization near-surface. In addition to testing the potential for resource growth at our existing deposit areas, the ongoing 90,000 metre drill program at Enchi is also focused on testing previously drilled areas on the property. Drilling at the Eradi target, which is situated on the northern end of the property, intersected widespread gold mineralization over more than 1.1 kilometres of strike length. We continue to encounter high-grade gold results across our Project in Ghana, highlighting the resource growth potential at Enchi which is situated on a prolific gold belt that hosts numerous multi-million-ounce gold mines."

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This news release reports results for 42 holes totalling 4,890.5 m, including 28 RC holes totalling 2,701 m (SWRC143 to SWRC170) targeting the Sewum Gold Deposit (Sewum Extension and a parallel related structure) and 14 DD holes totalling 2,189.5 m (ERDD011 to ERDD023) targeting the Eradi Gold Target. 39 of the 42 holes intersected gold mineralization.

Select assay results from the 42 holes of the drill program reported in this release are below:

Table 1 - Enchi Gold Project Drill Highlights

Hole ID Zone/Deposit From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au (g/t) SWRC164 Sewum Ext. 3.0 28.0 25.0 1.98 and 48.0 70.0 22.0 0.58 SWRC160 Sewum Ext. 123.0 141.0 18.0 2.14 including 124.0 128.0 4.0 3.01 and incl. 129.0 136.0 7.0 2.87 SWRC152 Sewum Ext. 2 2.0 8.0 6.0 5.84 including 2.0 3.0 1.0 26.82 SWRC165 Sewum Ext. 73.0 91.0 18.0 1.31 including 83.0 85.0 2.0 8.28 SWRC144 Sewum Ext. 81.0 94.0 13.0 1.72 SWRC143 Sewum Ext. 5.0 19.0 14.0 1.49 SWRC151 Sewum Ext. 2 29.0 39.0 10.0 1.10 and 72.0 92.0 20.0 0.67 including 79.0 84.0 5.0 1.23 ERDD020 Eradi 41.2 89.0 47.8 0.89 including 41.2 43.7 2.5 6.44 and incl. 54.2 60.0 5.8 2.14 ERDD015 Eradi 9.7 14.3 4.6 0.87 and 65.8 72.9 7.1 0.61 and 105.6 107.8 2.2 0.93





Notes:

1. See detailed table for complete results 2. Intervals reported are hole lengths with true width estimated to be 75 - 85% 3. Length-weighted averages from uncut assays

Plan maps showing the drill hole locations can be viewed at:

https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5754/2022_02-ncau-nr-enchi-plan-maps-l.pdf

Cross sections showing drill results and highlights for holes SWRC164-165-166, SWRC150-151-152 and ERDD020 can be viewed at:

https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5754/2022_02-ncau-crosssections-l.pdf

A complete list of the 2020 - 2021 drill results released to date, including hole details, can be viewed at:

https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5754/2022_02-ncau-enchi-2020-2021-drill-results-l.pdf

For the total planned 90,000 metre drill program, assay results have now been received and released for 438 holes representing 73,207 metres.

Drilling at Sewum Extension

Sewum Extension refers to the southern portion of the Sewum Gold Deposit. Recent drilling targeted up-dip and down dip extensions to the resource area along with a number of holes directed at initial testing of a sub-parallel structure located approximately 200 metres east of the main structure.

Additional RC drilling on the principal structure, which hosts a portion of the existing pit-constrained resource, tested 500 metres of strike length (18 holes drilled - SWRC143 to SWRC148, SWRC156 to SWRC166, and SWRC169). Hole SWRC164 intersected a shallow gold mineralized structure within the oxidized portion of the deposit grading 1.98 g/t Au over 25.0 m from 3 m, and a second zone of 0.58 g/t Au over 22.0 m from 48 m in the sulphides (hole ended in mineralization). Hole SWRC165, drilled on the same section as SWRC164, intersected mineralization down dip returning 1.31 g/t Au over 18 m from 73 m, including 8.28 g/t Au over 2 m from 83 m.

Hole SWRC160, collared 250 metres north of SWRC164, tested the down dip extension of the Sewum structure and intersected 2.14 g/t Au over 18.0 m from 123 m, including 3.01 g/t Au over 4.0 m from 124 m and 2.87 g/t Au over 7.0 m from 129 m (sulphide zone). Additional drilling included hole SWRC144 which intersected 1.72 g/t Au over 13 m from 81 m (sulphide zone) and SWRC143 which intersected 1.49 g/t Au over 14 m from 5 m (oxide zone).

Strong results were also encountered in first pass drilling that was completed on an undrilled target at Sewum, sub-parallel structures defined by gold-in-soil and trench anomalies located approximately 200 metres east of the main Sewum structure (10 holes drilled - SWRC149 to SWRC155, SWRC167, SWRC168, and SWRC170). Hole SWRC152 intersected 5.84 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 2 m, including 26.82 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 2 m (oxide zone). Hole SWRC151, drilled on the same section as SWRC152, tested the down dip extension and intersected two gold mineralized structures grading 1.10 g/t Au over 10.0 m from 29 m in the oxides and 0.67 g/t Au over 20.0 m from 72 m including 1.23 g/t Au over 5.0 m from 79 m in the sulphides. Hole SWRC168, drilled on the adjacent section south of SWRC151/152 located 200 metres south, intersected a series of gold mineralized zones including 0.48 g/t Au over 4.0 m from 4 m in the oxides, 0.85 g/t Au over 12.0 m from 35 m in the oxide-sulphide transition, and two zones in the sulphides grading 0.70 g/t Au over 13.0 m from 72 m and 0.49 g/t Au over 9.0 m from 91 m. Hole SWRC155, drilled on the adjacent section north of SWRC151/152 located 200 metres north, intersected a series of gold mineralized zones with 0.51 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 49 m, 0.41 g/t Au over 9.0 m from 111 m, and 0.43 g/t Au over 2.0 m from 124 m (sulphide zone). These new sub-parallel structures have now been tested for over 400 metres of strike length and are open to both the north and south, representing a new area for potential resource growth at Sewum.

Drilling at Eradi

Diamond drilling was completed on the Eradi Gold Target following up on positive drilling and trenching completed prior to 2020. Eradi is an earlier stage target at Enchi with no defined mineral resource. 14 DD holes totalling 2,189.5 m (ERDD011 to ERDD023) tested approximately 1.2 kilometres of strike length, with all holes intersecting gold mineralization. Hole ERDD020, completed on the northern portion of the zone, intersected multiple gold mineralized zones within the oxides including a wide zone with high-grade core structures which returned 0.89 g/t Au over 47.8 m from 41.2 m, including 6.44 g/t Au over 2.5 m from 41.2 m and 2.14 g/t Au over 5.8 m from 54.2 m. Hole ERDD020 also encountered additional near surface structures including 0.31 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 10 m and 0.43 g/t Au over 4.5 m from 15.2 m.

Hole ERDD015, collared one kilometre south of ERDD020 on the southern portion of the zone, intersected a series of gold mineralized structures including 0.87 g/t Au over 4.6 m from 9.7 m and 0.61 g/t Au over 7.1 m from 65.8 m, and 0.93 g/t Au over 2.2 m from 105.6 m in the oxides.

Work completed at Eradi prior to 2020 included trenching and drilling, with prior trenching returning 1.67 g/t Au over 36.9 m and 10 wide spaced shallow drill holes intersecting gold mineralized intervals of 0.60 g/t Au over 27.0 m from 25 m including 1.30 g/t Au over 10.0 m from 42 m, 1.15 g/t Au over 10.0 m from 58 m, 0.60 g/t Au over 17.0 m from 5 m, and 1.02 g/t Au over 10.0 m from 22 m.

Enchi Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate

The Enchi Gold Project hosts a pit constrained Inferred Mineral Resource of 70.4 million tonnes grading 0.62 g/t Au containing 1.41 million ounces gold (see Newcore news release dated June 8, 2021). Mineral resource estimation practices are in accordance with CIM Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practice Guidelines (November 29, 2019) and follow CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 10, 2014), that are incorporated by reference into National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"). The Mineral Resource Estimate was prepared by independent qualified person Todd McCracken, P. Geo. of BBA E&C Inc. The technical report, titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Enchi Gold Project, Enchi, Ghana" has an effective date of June 8, 2021, and is available under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

2020 - 2021 Enchi Drilling Program

A 90,000 metre discovery and resource expansion drilling program is underway at Enchi (anticipated completion in Q2 2022). The program includes both RC and diamond drilling and includes the first deeper drilling on the Project. This drill program includes testing extensions of the existing resource areas while also testing a number of high priority exploration targets outside of the Inferred Mineral Resource. Drilling is focused on step out extensions and exploration drilling at the Sewum, Boin, Nyam and Kwakyekrom Deposits. Additional drilling is also focused on previously drilled zones that are outside of the resource area (Kojina Hill and Eradi), along with first pass drilling to test a series of kilometre-scale gold-in-soil anomalous zones with no prior drilling (Nkwanta, Sewum South and other anomalies). All zones represent high priority targets based on geological, geochemical and geophysical surface work and previous trenching and drilling.

Sewum Gold Zone

The Sewum Gold Deposit is the largest of the four deposits which comprise the pit constrained Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate at Enchi, with Sewum hosting approximately 51% of the currently defined resource (41.0 million tonnes grading 0.55 g/t Au containing 725,200 ounces). Sewum is located 15 kilometres south of the town of Enchi, with nearby roads and power and further access provided by a series of drill roads. Sewum is outlined on surface by a six-kilometre-long and one-to-two-kilometre-wide gold in soil anomaly. An airborne geophysical anomaly coincident with the Sewum Deposit defines a series of sub parallel and intersecting structures. Approximately 50% of the gold-in-soil anomaly is untested by drilling. As part of the current drill program results have been received and released for a total of 85 holes representing 15,420 metres at Sewum.

Eradi Gold Target

The Eradi Gold Zone is the northernmost drill tested target at Enchi, with no currently defined Mineral Resource Estimate. Eradi is located 25 kilometres northeast of the town of Enchi, with nearby roads and power and further access provided by a series of drill roads. Eradi is outlined on surface by a four-kilometre-long and one-kilometre-wide gold in soil anomaly. An airborne geophysical anomaly coincident with the Eradi Gold Target defines a series of sub parallel and intersecting structures. Approximately 60% of the gold-in-soil anomaly is untested by drilling. As part of the current drill program a total of 14 holes totalling 2,189.5 metres have been completed at Eradi.

Drill Hole Locations

Table 2 - Enchi Gold Project Drill Hole Location Details

Hole ID UTM East UTM North Elevation Azimuth  Dip  Length (m) SWRC143 520505 626275 122 120 -55 50 SWRC144 520501 626343 118 120 -60 120 SWRC145 520569 626355 113 120 -55 70 SWRC146 520550 626367 120 120 -55 100 SWRC147 520615 626387 108 120 -55 40 SWRC148 520576 626411 105 120 -65 110 SWRC149 520996 626322 98 120 -50 100 SWRC150 520893 626162 97 120 -50 102 SWRC151 520775 626215 130 120 -50 102 SWRC152 520831 626189 189 120 -50 100 SWRC153 520845 626392 110 120 -50 108 SWRC154 520779 626420 117 120 -50 114 SWRC155 520915 626351 94 120 -50 130 SWRC156 520654 626422 98 120 -55 50 SWRC157 520589 626463 89 120 -55 120 SWRC158 520623 626437 87 120 -55 100 SWRC159 520522 626383 113 120 -55 140 SWRC160 520491 626397 117 120 -55 160 SWRC161 520491 626397 117 120 -60 40 SWRC162 520393 626096 96 120 -60 50 SWRC163 520381 626103 97 120 -60 70 SWRC164 520402 626147 92 120 -60 70 SWRC165 520374 626160 92 120 -60 100 SWRC166 520355 626174 93 120 -55 140 SWRC167 520717 626011 95 120 -50 100 SWRC168 520655 626046 101 120 -50 100 SWRC169 520441 626176 107 120 -55 85 SWRC170 520633 626060 101 120 -55 130 ERDD011 539579 650489 165 130 -60 179.2 ERDD012 539818 650767 211 130 -60 79.7 ERDD012A 539823 650758 212 130 -60 260.2 ERDD013 539765 650539 161 130 -60 81.1 ERDD014 539860 650741 216 130 -60 182.2 ERDD015 539729 650573 163 130 -60 158.2 ERDD016 539878 650616 197 130 -60 102.2 ERDD017 539848 650644 203 130 -60 102.0 ERDD018 540021 650784 193 130 -60 152.2 ERDD019 540284 651078 127 130 -60 173.1 ERDD020 540466 651192 178 130 -60 158.2 ERDD021 540551 651237 186 130 -60 224.0 ERDD022 540356 651175 159 130 -60 185.2 ERDD023 540304 651188 113 130 -60 152.0



COVID-19 Protocols

Newcores first priority is the health and safety of all employees, contractors, and local communities. The Company is following all Ghana guidelines and requirements related to COVID-19. The Company has implemented COVID-19 protocols for its ongoing drill program consisting of the mandatory use of personal protective equipment (including facemasks for all employees), maintaining social distancing, frequent hand washing, and daily temperature checks at the start of each shift.

Newcore Gold Best Practice

Newcore is committed to best practice standards for all exploration, sampling and drilling activities. Drilling was completed by an independent drilling firm using industry standard RC and Diamond Drill equipment. Analytical quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates into the sample strings. Samples are placed in sealed bags and shipped directly to Intertek Labs located in Tarkwa, Ghana for 50 gram gold fire assay.

Qualified Person

Mr. Gregory Smith, P. Geo, Vice President of Exploration of Newcore, is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical data and information contained in this news release. Mr. Smith has verified the technical and scientific data disclosed herein and has conducted appropriate verification on the underlying data including confirmation of the drillhole data files against the original drillhole logs and assay certificates.

About Newcore Gold Ltd.

Newcore Gold is advancing its Enchi Gold Project located in Ghana, Africas largest gold producer (1). The Project currently hosts an Inferred Mineral Resource of 1.41 million ounces of gold at 0.62 g/t (2). Newcore Gold offers investors a unique combination of top-tier leadership, who are aligned with shareholders through their 27% equity ownership, and prime district scale exploration opportunities. Enchis 216 km2 land package covers 40 kilometres of Ghanas prolific Bibiani Shear Zone, a gold belt which hosts several 5 million-ounce gold deposits, including Kinross Chirano mine 50 kilometers to the north. Newcores vision is to build a responsive, creative and powerful gold enterprise that maximizes returns for shareholders.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Newcore Gold Ltd.

Luke Alexander

President, CEO & Director

For further information, please contact:

Mal Karwowska | Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations

+1 604 484 4399

info@newcoregold.com

www.newcoregold.com

(1) Source: Production volumes for 2020 as sourced from the World Gold Council

(2) Notes for Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate: 1. CIM definition standards were followed for the resource estimate. 2. The 2021 resource models used ordinary kriging (OK) grade estimation within a three-dimensional block model with mineralized zones defined by wireframed solids and constrained by pits shell for Sewum, Boin and Nyam. Kwakyekrom used Inverse Distance squared (ID2). 3. A base cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au was used with a capping of gold grades varied by deposit and zone. 4. A US$1,650/ounce gold price, open pit with heap leach operation was used to determine the cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au. Mining costs of US$1.40 for oxides, US$2.10 for transition, and US$2.60 for fresh rock per mined tonne and G&A and milling costs of US$6.83/milled tonne. The Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate is pit constrained. 5. Metallurgical recoveries have been applied to four individual deposits and in each case three material types (oxide, transition, and fresh rock) with average recoveries of 77% for Sewum, 79% for Boin, 60% for Nyam and 72% for Kwakyekrom. 6. A density of 2.20 g/cm3 for oxide, 2.45 g/cm3 for transition, and 2.70 g/cm3 for fresh rock was applied. 7. Optimization pit slope angles varied based on the rock types. 8. Mineral Resources that are not mineral reserves do not have economic viability. Numbers may not add due to rounding. 9. These numbers are from the technical report titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Enchi Gold Project, Enchi, Ghana", with an effective date of June 8, 2021, prepared for Newcore Gold by BBA E&C Inc. in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and is available under Newcores SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.





Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes statements that contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation ("forward-looking statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussion with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often, but not always using phrases such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative 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) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: statements about the estimation of mineral resources; results of our ongoing drill campaign, magnitude or quality of mineral deposits; anticipated advancement of mineral properties or programs; and future exploration prospects.

These forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business. The assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Newcore. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of Newcore believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, Newcore cannot assure its shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking information also involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: risks related to the speculative nature of the Companys business; the Companys formative stage of development; the Companys financial position; possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery rates; actual results of current exploration activities; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold and other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, unusual or unexpected geological formations); the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.




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Story continues

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Charles River Laboratory

ICON Plc

Covance

Eurofins Scientific

Taconic Biosciences

Crown Bioscience

Toxikon, Inc.

WuXi AppTec

EVOTEC

The Jackson Laboratory

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Ressources Minieres Radisson Inc.

Figure 1

OBrien Gold Project: Trend #0 / #1  Longitudinal section

Figure 2

Au Grade Distribution: OB-21-198, OB-21-200, OB-21-220, OB-21-231, OB-21-235, OB-21-247, OB-21-249, OB-21-281

Figure 3

O'Brien Gold Project: Resource Block Model @ 5.0 g/t cut-off; Longitudinal section looking North

Figure 4

OBrien Gold Project: Resource Block Model @ 5.0 g/t cut-off; Labeled Longitudinal section

Figure 5

Visible Gold in OB-21-231, OB-21-234, OB-21-247 and OB-21-281

ROUYN-NORANDA, Quebec, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Radisson Mining Resources Inc. (TSX-V: RDS, OTC: RMRDF): (Radisson or the Company) is pleased to announce significant high-grade gold intercepts from the ongoing 130,000 m exploration drill program at its 100% owned OBrien gold project located along the Larder-Lake-Cadillac Break (see location map 1 and location map 2), halfway between Rouyn-Noranda and Val-dOr in Quebec, Canada.



Key highlights

Significant intercepts from exploration drilling along trend #0 (approximately 300 m gap between the old OBrien Mine and currently modeled resources along trend #1) 59.79 g/t over 3.00 m including 173.50 g/t over 1.00 m (OB-21-235) 9.43 g/t over 3.00 m including 16.30 g/t over 1.00 m (OB-21-231) 13.55 g/t over 2.00 m (vertical depth of 620 m) including 53.00 g/t over 0.50 m (OB-21-247), representing the deepest high-grade intercept in this sector from the ongoing drill program. 8.71 g/t over 2.05 m including 17.00 g/t over 1.05 m (OB-21-249)

Modeled resources in the area are mostly limited to within 240 m of surface. New and previously released results (including 92.89 g/t over 2.60 m, 47.10 g/t over 2.60 m, 10.87 g/t Au over 3.15 m and 14.90 g/t over 8.20 m) demonstrate continuity of high-grade mineralization in the area down to a vertical depth of 620 m and up to 140 m west of currently modeled resources along trend #1.

Results are pending for approximately 9 additional holes drilled in this sector, with visible gold showings in 5 of those holes. Of particular interest are the results from a deep directional drilling program, comprising one pilot hole and 7 branches, to test the depth extent of mineralization in this sector down to more than 800 m from surface (up to 200 m below the extent of previous drilling). All of these holes intersected targeted structures including visible gold occurrences in four holes.

130,000 m drill program underway at OBrien. 119,800 m (231 holes) completed as of February 13, 2022 with results pending for 25,500 m in 55 holes of which 24 holes intersected visible gold. Cash balance of approx. $9.0M as of February 15, 2022.





Results from the ongoing program highlight the significant high-grade potential along trend #0, which represents the approximately 300 m gap between current resources in trend #1 and historically mined zones at the old OBrien Mine. This area was never meaningfully drilled prior to the current program, as a result of which its resource contribution is limited and mostly within 240 m from surface. This area became a key focus of our drill program last year, with drill results to date demonstrating the continuity of high-grade mineralization down to more than 600 m depth. Drill results to date from this sector have been very impressive, with 26 holes published, including 14 intercepts returning grades of over 5 g/t and 6 intercepts returning grades of over 10 g/t. We look forward to obtaining results for an additional 9 holes, of which 5 intersected visible gold. This includes results from our first directional drill program comprising one pilot hole and seven branches, drilled to test the depth extent of mineralization down to 800 m or up to 200 m below the limits of previous drilling.

Story continues

Overall, results from our ongoing 130,000 m drill program continue to impress with 176 holes published so far including 130 intercepts grading over 5 g/t and 55 intercepts grading over 10 g/t. In addition, results are pending from 55 holes to the east of the OBrien Mine of which 24 holes have visible gold occurrences. We are also currently drilling some of our most promising deep targets below previously encountered mineralization in trend #1 and #2. We look forward to building momentum with significant news flow in the weeks and months ahead as these results become available, commented Rahul Paul, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Figure 1. OBrien Gold Project: Trend #0 / #1  Longitudinal section

Notable drill results

Hole Zone From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (g/t)  Uncut Comments OB-21-198 Trend #0 245.50 247.80 2.30 4.90 Including 246.60 247.80 1.20 9.29 OB-21-200 Trend #0 242.00 244.45 2.45 4.80 Including 242.00 243.10 1.10 10.60 OB-21-220 Trend #0 603.00 606.00 3.00 3.54 VG Including 604.40 604.90 0.50 20.30 OB-21-231 Trend #0 337.20 340.20 3.00 9.43 VG Including 337.20 338.20 1.00 11.90 And 339.20 340.20 1.00 16.30 OB-21-235 Trend #0 280.00 283.00 3.00 59.79 VG Including 281.00 283.00 2.00 89.15 Which Includes 282.00 283.00 1.00 173.50 OB-21-247 Trend #0 691.00 693.00 2.00 13.55 VG Including 691.50 692.00 0.50 53.00 OB-21-249 Trend #0 653.95 656.00 2.05 8.71 VG Including 654.95 656.00 1.05 17.00 OB-21-281 Trend #0 64.00 66.00 2.00 6.74 VG Including 65.00 66.00 1.00 13.45









































































VG denotes the presence of visible gold. True widths estimated at 70% to 80% of core length. Assay grades shown uncapped. A capping factor of 60 g/t Au was used in the 2019 resource estimate. For a full listing of drill results from current drilling program click here.

Drilling at OBrien continues to validate the litho-structural model while highlighting resource growth potential laterally and at depth

Drilling to date has continued to define and expand almost five high-grade mineralized trends, located within a 1,200 m strike respectively to the east of the old OBrien Mine. Mineralized trends identified bear similarities with structures previously mined at OBrien down to a depth of 1,100 m (historical production of 587 koz grading 15.25 g/t).

Drilling so far has demonstrated continuity of mineralization well below the boundary of defined resources in all defined trends, which remain open for expansion laterally and at depth. In trend #0, drilling has traced mineralization to a depth of 620 m, while current resources are mostly within the first 240 m. In trend #1, drilling has highlighted continuity of mineralization down to a vertical depth of 950 m, while current resources are mostly limited to a vertical depth of approximately 600 m. In trend #2, drilling has highlighted continuity of mineralization down to a vertical depth of over 800 m, while current resources are mostly within 400 m from surface. In trend #3, drilling has traced mineralization down to 500 m vertical depth from surface. Current resources are mostly confined to within a vertical depth of 240 m. In trend #4, drilling has traced mineralization down to a vertical depth of approximately 330 m.

In addition, the Company has completed an initial 5,700 m exploration program at OBrien West. In addition to validating geological information from historical drill holes, initial results showcase potential for additional high-grade discoveries in this area. OBrien West remains open in all direction, with results indicating strong depth continuity in lithological units identical to those observed along strike to the west, reaffirming the upside potential from approximately 2.5 km of largely untested prospective ground west of the OBrien Mine along the prolific Larder-Lake-Cadillac break.

Almost all drilling conducted as part of the ongoing campaign has been within a strike length representing only a small portion of more than 5.2 km of prospective strike that Radisson controls along the Cadillac Break. Given current geological understanding, the ongoing validation of the litho-structural model, the company estimates there is strong potential for additional high-grade gold trends to be discovered along the whole 5.2 km prospective land package on the prolific Larder-Lake Cadillac Break.

119,800 m of drilling completed to date with assays pending for approx. 25,500 m

This release represents approximately 8,130 m of drilling in 16 drill holes. Released results to date (since the commencement of drilling in August 2019) represent approximately 72% of the approximately 130,000 m planned thus far.1 As of February 15, 2022, the company remains well funded with approximately $9.0 m in cash.

______________________

1Estimated as of February 13th, 2022

Breakdown of drilling planned, completed and pending results



Sector / Trend





Planned

drilling (m)





To be

drilled (m)



Drilled - Results published Drilled - Results pending metres # holes # holes

(with VG) metres # holes # holes

(with VG) O'Brien West 5,700 0 5,700 12 1 0 0 0 Trend #0 18,200 0 14,500 26 16 3,700 9 5 Trend #1 42,900 5,400 28,100 46 27 9,400 20 6 Trend #2 34,500 5,000 25,100 43 20 4,400 8 5 Trend #3 16,200 0 10,200 25 11 6,000 14 6 Trend #4 8,400 0 6,400 15 6 2,000 4 2 Kewagama East / Other 4,300 0 4,300 9 3 0 0 0 Total 130,200 10,400 94,300 176 84 25,500 55 24



Summary of results published to date from current program



Sector / Trend



# holes published Number of published intercepts

grading, # holes

published # holes

with VG % holes

with VG >5 g/t Au >10 g/t Au >15 g/t Au >20 g/t Au O'Brien West 12 1 8 % 3 1 1 1 Trend #0 26 16 62 % 14 6 3 3 Trend #1 46 27 59 % 50 21 12 9 Trend #2 43 20 47 % 37 14 8 4 Trend #3 25 11 44 % 16 9 5 3 Trend #4 15 6 40 % 6 2 1 1 Kewagama East & Other 9 3 33 % 4 2 1 1 Total 176 84 48 % 130 55 31 22

Figure 2. Au Grade Distribution: OB-21-198, OB-21-200, OB-21-220, OB-21-231, OB-21-235, OB-21-247, OB-21-249, OB-21-281

Figure 3. O'Brien Gold Project: Resource Block Model @ 5.0 g/t cut-off; Longitudinal section looking North

Figure 4. OBrien Gold Project: Resource Block Model @ 5.0 g/t cut-off; Labeled Longitudinal section

Figure 5. Visible Gold in OB-21-231, OB-21-234, OB-21-247 and OB-21-281

QA/QC

All drill cores in this campaign are NQ in size. Assays were completed on sawn half-cores, with the second half kept for future reference. The samples were analyzed using standard fire assay procedures with Atomic Absorption (AA) finish at ALS Laboratory Ltd, in Val-dOr, Quebec. Samples yielding a grade higher than 5 g/t Au were analyzed a second time by fire assay with gravimetric finish at the same laboratory. Mineralized zones containing visible gold were analyzed with metallic sieve procedure. Standard reference materials, blank samples and duplicates were inserted prior to shipment for quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program.

Qualified Person

Kenneth Williamson, M.Sc., P.Geo., from 3DGeo Solution inc, is acting as an independent Senior Advisor, Geology for Radisson and is the qualified person pursuant to the requirements of NI 43-101. Kenneth Williamson has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure in this press release.

Radisson mining resources Inc.

Radisson is a gold exploration company focused on its 100% owned OBrien project, located in the Bousquet-Cadillac mining camp along the world-renowned Larder-Lake-Cadillac Break in Abitibi, Quebec. The Bousquet-Cadillac mining camp has produced over 21,000,000 ounces of gold over the last 100 years. The project hosts the former OBrien Mine, considered to have been the Quebecs highest-grade gold producer during its production (1,197,147 metric tons at 15.25 g/t Au for 587,121 ounces of gold from 1926 to 1957; Kenneth Williamson 3DGeo-Solution, July 2019). For more information on Radisson, visit our website at www.radissonmining.com or contact:

On behalf of the board of directors

Rahul Paul

President and Chief Executive Officer

For more information on Radisson, visit our website at www.radissonmining.com or contact:



Hubert Parent-Bouchard

Chief Financial Officer

819-763-9969

hpbouchard@radissonmining.com



Forward-Looking Statements

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release including, but not limited to, those relating to the intended use of proceeds of the Offering, the development of the OBrien project and generally, the above About Radisson Mining Resources Inc. paragraph which essentially describes the Corporations outlook, constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as of the time of this press release. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Corporation as of the time of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. These estimates and assumptions may prove to be incorrect. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can directly or indirectly affect, and could cause, actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements and future events, could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward looking information can be found in Radissons disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com .

By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions do not reflect future experience. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about managements endeavours to develop the OBrien project and, more generally, its expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important risk factors and future events could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, anticipations, estimates, assumptions and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those made in our other filings with the securities regulators of Canada. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law.

Figures accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/135a70d9-f838-46c5-bb61-b5504832e8c1

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/61f79f0a-c88d-4922-992b-753467ce9ad8

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e1d27ec9-bddf-4a03-ad2b-e6a0c15ca387

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dbb819d8-8791-42f8-9eab-3c04131cc8a0

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ddc747a9-9837-4118-8584-f87bc071f3e3




Snap hired ad-industry veteran Resh Sidhu to lead Arcadia, the Snapchat parents global creative studio for branded augmented reality.

Sidhu joins Arcadia as global director, based in New York, heading up the AR business and managing the team globally. Most recently, she served as chief creative officer for Barbarian, working with clients including American Express, Samsung, Fenty and Joe Bidens presidential campaign.

Previously, Sidhu served as group creative director for digital agency AKQA, where she executed AR experiences for Volvo and Coca-Cola. Before AKQA, she was creative director at Oscar-winning VFX studio Framestore, where she developed the VR experience for Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowlings Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

In addition to Sidhus hiring, Snap announced two other leadership appointments for the group: Jeff Miller will serve as Arcadias executive director while continuing his role as global head of creative strategy for Snap; and Lidiya Bogdanovych will serve as executive producer and also continue as Snaps director of lens design.

Snap are pioneers in augmented reality, and I am so proud to join the Arcadia team during this time of immense opportunity, Sidhu said in a statement provided to Variety. The stage is set for never-before-seen creativity and innovation as we chart a new path into worlds we have yet to imagine.

Snap announced the launch of Arcadia in October 2021. Among its recent campaigns was a series of Verizon 5G connected Snapchat Lenses for Super Bowl LVI for fans at SoFi Stadium in L.A. (letting them team up and battle with other groups to take control of a giant virtual airship hovering above the field).

Arcadia also created an AR lens for Verizon 5G and Cirque du Soleil for the latters O show in Las Vegas, and it worked with the NFLs Washington Commanders on the introduction of the teams new name with an AR experience that allowed Snapchatters to virtually try on the new uniforms and step inside its redecorated locker room.

Story continues

Other Arcadia clients have included Australias Great Barrier Reef Foundation; artist Alex Israel at Art Basel 2021; and Qatars Ooredoo Group with Jeff Koons and the Qatar Museum, in a project to extend Koons Lost in America exhibition using AR.

Best of Variety
Goliath Resources Limited

TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Goliath Resources Limited (TSX-V: GOT) (OTCQB: GOTRF) (Frankfurt: B4IF) (the Company or Goliath) is pleased to announce that Crescat Capital LLC (Crescat) a strategic investor has agreed to acquire up to 19.9% post funding of the $11,000,000 non-brokered private placement announced by Goliath earlier this week. Crescat will have an option to participate in future financings of the Company to maintain its interest as long as it holds greater than 3 percent of the issued and outstanding common shares.



On February 11, 2022, Goliath announced a non-brokered flow through financing of units priced at $1.19 each (FT Units) and with the involvement of strategic investors. Each FT Unit will consist of one flow-through common share plus one warrant to purchase one non-flow through common share at $1.30 for a 24 month period. It is anticipated the closing will take place in March 2022.

Proceeds will be used to fund the planned 2022 Surebet drill campaign. This will include drill testing the outer extremities of the Surebet Zone to determine the potential size of the system.

About Crescat Capital LLC

Crescat is a global macro asset management firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Crescats mission is to grow and protect wealth over the long term by deploying tactical investment themes based on proprietary value-driven equity and macro models. Crescats goal is industry leading absolute and risk-adjusted returns over complete business cycles with low correlation to common benchmarks. Crescats investment process involves a mix of asset classes and strategies to assist with each clients unique needs and objectives and includes Global Macro, Long/Short and Precious Metals funds.

Crescat is advised by Dr. Quinton Hennigh, its geologic and technical director on investments in gold and silver resource companies. Dr. Hennigh became an economic geologist after obtaining his PhD in Geology/Geochemistry from the Colorado School of Mines. He has more than 30 years of exploration experience with major gold mining firms that include Homestake Mining, Newcrest Mining and Newmont Mining. Recently, Dr. Hennigh founded Novo Resources Corp., and is currently serving as Co-Chairman. Among his notable project involvements are First Mining Golds Springpole gold deposit in Ontario, Kirkland Lake Golds acquisition of the Fosterville gold mine in Australia, the Rattlesnake Hills gold deposit in Wyoming, and Lion Ones Tuvatu gold project on Fiji, among many others.

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About Goliath Resources Limited

Goliath Resources Limited is an explorer of precious metals projects in the prolific Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia and the Abitibi Greenstone Belt of Quebec. All of its projects are in world class geological settings and geopolitical safe jurisdictions amenable to mining in Canada.

For more information please contact:

Goliath Resources Limited

Mr. Roger Rosmus

Founder and CEO

Tel: +1.416.488.2887

roger@goliathresources.com

https://goliathresourcesltd.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange), nor the OTCQB Venture Market accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "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 Goliaths current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information relating to, among other things, the ability of Company to complete the financings and its ability to build value for its shareholders as it develops its mining properties. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Goliath. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the proposed transactions will occur, or that if the proposed transactions do occur, will be completed on the terms described above.

The forward-looking information contained in this news release is made as of the date hereof and Goliath is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

This announcement does not constitute an offer, invitation, or recommendation to subscribe for or purchase any securities and neither this announcement nor anything contained in it shall form the basis of any contract or commitment. In particular, this announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such an offer would be illegal.

The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account or benefit of a U.S. person (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN.








The Cultural Development Fund has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) with the aim of advancing culture, promoting local art and content, bolstering innovation and fostering national talent. These goals fall under the kingdoms commitment to enable the growth of cultural entities and projects.

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Bin Dayel, Chief Executive Officer of the Cultural Development Fund and Mohammad Al Rumaih, Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Exchange signed the MoU.

The partnership focuses on raising awareness on the importance of sustainability and reinvigorates the commitment of companies listed on the Saudi Exchange regarding social responsibilities and related policies and practices. The MoU also highlights the Fund's active role in delivering creditable ESG expertise through various financing mechanisms that can amplify cultural and economic footprint and realise the National Culture Strategy objectives.

Bin Dayel, Chief Executive Officer of the Fund, said the agreement reflects the continuous efforts by the Fund in establishing and fostering strategic partnerships in the financial sector to advance leading initiatives and programmes.

Mohammed Al Rumaih, CEO of Saudi Exchange, commented: Recently, we released our ESG Disclosure Guidelines and are delighted to, now, sign this MoU with the Cultural Development Fund as another step in our commitment to advancing the Saudi capital market and Vision 2030. Our partnership will further raise awareness of the importance of adopting ESG practices and enable companies listed on the Saudi Exchange to recognise value beyond the balance sheet.

The Cultural Development Fund endeavours to foster the growing cultural sector, pushing forward the cultural scene and contributing to achieving the National Culture Strategy's goals as part of Vision 2030.

The Fund also works to develop suitable financing channels in cooperation with several specialised entities as well as improve the quality of established services and digital banking to enhance products and services and increase efficiency. These efforts will culminate in attracting local and foreign investors and amplifying local content within the cultural ecosystem in the kingdom.-- TradeArabia News Service
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A young Spotsylvania County man who filmed his molestation of a 4-year-old boy last year was ordered Monday to serve a year and a half in prison.

Devin T. Wenninger, 20, was sentenced in Spotsylvania Circuit Court to a total of 40 years, with all but a year and a half suspended. As part of an agreement with the prosecution, Wennington pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual battery and three counts of possessing child pornography.

According to court records, Virginia State Police searched Wenningers home on Sharon Road in April after receiving information that he was sharing child pornography on the internet. Wenninger admitted that he was involved in the sexual exploitation of children online and gave police the passcode to his cellphone.

Police searched the phone and found child porn images, as well as graphic videos.

Wenninger also admitted to fondling a 4-year-old boy while taking him to the bathroom. That incident was recorded on his phone.

Attorney Andy Cornick represented Wenninger, who had no prior criminal record.

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Stafford Countys lead prosecutor is part of a public push for Congress to revive a federal law that helps protect victims of domestic violence.

Stafford Commonwealths Attorney Eric Olsen was on Capitol Hill last week fighting to call for approval of the 2022 Violence Against Women Act. First enacted in 1994, the act expired in 2018 after lawmakers failed to renew it.

Olsen said domestic violence cases boil down to one individual exercising their power over another. He said victims need to know they have powerful allies in law enforcement and community organizations.

[Abusers are] able to exercise that power because the victim feels worthless, or made to feel she doesnt count, or theres nobody out there to help her, Olsen said. The biggest message that can be gotten through is: There are resources out there.

The 2022 Violence Against Women Act takes important steps to ensure that power is not placed back in the hands of the abuser, but instead empowers victims to take back control of their lives, he said.

President Joe Biden released a statement supporting passage of the act last Wednesday, urging Congress to approve the bill and send it to him for a signature without delay. He said its passage will expand prevention efforts and protections for survivors, provide increased resources and training for law enforcement and the judicial system, strengthen rape prevention and education efforts, support rape crisis centers, improve the training of sexual assault forensic examiners and broaden access to legal services for all survivors.

Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said they were ready to move the legislation forward.

We need to get this over the finish line and we will, said Ernst.

Durbin told his colleagues it will take time, but Democrats are also committed to getting the bill approved.

It wont be next week, Durbin said. We want to get this right  I know Senator [Charles] Schumer is tuned-in, he wants to call this as quickly as we can.

Olsen said over the lifetime of the act, it has been instrumental in not only funding law enforcement and prosecutors in domestic violence cases, but it has also helps fund regional organizations such as Empowerhouse. Created as the Rappahannock Council on Domestic Violence in 1977, Empowerhouse has spent the past 45 years providing confidential help for victims of domestic violence in Fredericksburg and the counties of Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George and Caroline.

Empowerhouse President Kathy Anderson said the federal legislation creates more sensitive, better and improved responses for survivors of domestic violence.

Its imperative that these resources not only continue, but they are enhanced, because everyone who comes through the court system needs everybody on their side, Anderson said.

Anderson said in addition to court advocacy, other resources include Empowerhouses existing shelter, which can accommodate up to 30 adults and children at one time. Federal and local dollars also help her clients find employment and eventually a safe place to live.

Now we can help with security deposits, rent  there are many opportunities to help them sustain until they can take care of the finances themselves, Anderson said.

Olsen said Empowerhouse laid the foundation regionally for the way local jurisdictions respond to domestic violence.

They had some very forward-thinking practices [at Empowerhouse] even before the [original] enactment of the Violence Against Women Act, Olsen said.

Olsen said although the criminal justice system receives a slice of the benefits in the massive bill, those funds are particularly critical for law enforcement agencies that play a critical role in combating domestic violence.

The King George County Sheriffs Office was the first law enforcement agency in the region to have a domestic violence advocate assigned to their office by Empowerhouse in 2017. The organization now has a victim advocate situated at the Stafford County Sheriffs Office.

The partnership was started with a Violence Against Women Act grant with Stafford and Mary Washington Healthcare and it also paid for a forensics nurse examiner at the hospital. Anderson said Spotsylvania County also secured a VAWA grant and recently hired a detective who specializes in domestic violence and an Empowerhouse victim advocate will soon join that team.

Its a problem everywhere and I think we address it very, very well in this area, Olsen said. Everybody in the whole area is on the same page on how we deal with the problem of domestic violence.

Fredericksburg Commonwealths Attorney Elizabeth Humphries said the funding in the bill is critical for the community agencies that receive it.

If resources were depleted because of this funding situation, that would affect my offices ability to advocate for domestic violence victims, Humphries said.

Anderson said each year Empowerhouse helps well over 3,500 people, including over 2,000 calls to the organizations hotline.

We know that people still dont know about that resource, Anderson said. Whether you are a friend, family member of someone or have questions about what is happening, all of those are reasons to call the hotline.

James Scott Baron: 540/374-5438 jbaron@freelancestar.com

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Roger Jack Williams relocated to Fredericksburg from Spotsylvania County as a high school senior in 1949 following the death of his grandmother, who was raising him.

When Williams moved in with his uncle in the Mayfield neighborhood, he had no idea hed become a part of Fredericksburg history by the end of the school year.

Williams is one of four surviving members of the WalkerGrant High School Class of 1950.

At the time, the 27-person class was the largest in the history of WalkerGrant, which was the citys Black high school during segregation.

The graduates were expecting a large turnout for their ceremony. So class President James Walker, with help from three civic leaders in the city, filed an application to use the Fredericksburg Community Center (now named the Dorothy Hart Community Center).

The permit was denied because the facility was for whites only.

It made you feel like a second-class citizen, Williams said, like you didnt belong with the whites.

After an appeal, city officials allowed use of the community center, but no Black graduate or guest was allowed to enter the ceremony through the front door.

The ruling set off one of the first known civil rights protests in Fredericksburg as graduates marched in their caps and gowns to the community center with a sign stating This Entrance Closed to Us.

Nearly 72 years after that demonstration on June 6, 1950, Fredericksburg officials recognized the protest with a historical marker placed in front of the Dorothy Hart Community Center.

Approximately 150 attended a ceremony Thursday afternoon as they watched Williams and classmate William Winky Noel unveil the marker.

Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw said city officials are proud to recognize the graduates who had the strength of conscience to stand up and take action long before many others were doing so.

I never thought this would happen, Williams said of the recognition. You thought it was over with and nobody would ever know the real story.

City history buff Willie Sonny Holmes made sure the story was told.

Holmes said he first learned about the protest during a conversation with Grace Garnett Sprow, one of the members of the class who died in 2020.

City Council has made it an official priority to tell a more inclusive history that highlights the experiences of Blacks in Fredericksburg.

They became aware of the story of the Class of 1950 in 2020 after protests in the city sparked by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Holmes had a brief conversation with city tourism sales manager Victoria Matthews in September after the unveiling of a historical marker dedicated to the Freedom Riders, who were protesting injustices in the public transportation system in the South in 1961. Fredericksburg was their first stop.

I said, Ms. Victoria, thats a nice marker. But those 27 students didnt spend five minutes in Fredericksburg. These 27 students lived in Fredericksburg and went to school in Fredericksburg. So I couldnt see how we cant recognize them, Holmes recalled. That was four months ago, and here we are today.

Holmes persistence earned him recognition at the unveiling ceremony.

Lateefah Muhammad is the daughter of Sprow and her husband Thomas Sprow, who was also a member of the graduating class. Muhammad was the emcee for the event and awarded Holmes a plaque from her family.

Trudy Smith, president of the Mayfield Civic Association, presented Holmes a $2,500 check as seed money to establish the Willie Sonny Holmes Local History fund for storytelling, lectures, research and historical preservation.

Im grateful to Grace Sprow for telling that story, Holmes said. I couldnt believe what I was hearing. I said, Ive lived in Fredericksburg my whole life and Ive never heard that story. But today is a new beginning.

The graduates went on to have their ceremony at Shiloh Baptist Church (Old Site), whose leaders encouraged the protest.

Noel said he recalls walking from WalkerGrant through the middle of the street the day of the protest with several of his classmates. He said it was a new experience back then, but added that it set the stage for future demonstrations in the city.

You didnt realize the significance back then, Noel said. It took years to realize what really happened and what really went on.

The protest rankled city leaders.

Former City Attorney C. OConor Goolrick wrote a letter to The Free LanceStar calling the protest a childish demonstration and suggested that if the city is to be subjected to any more of these trumped-up racial protests, then, in my opinion, the best thing to do is to dispose of [the community center] by sale or lease to private owners.

According to the history of Shiloh Baptist, the next month, Fredericksburgs NAACP branch requested use of the community center for a mass meeting to discuss inequality in education, voting rights and an end to discrimination in transportation and other public institutions.

The request was denied because the building had been secured by a white Youth Canteen. However, a Black resident who lived nearby noticed the building was never in use at the specified time.

Segregation and discrimination continued in the city, but the graduating class protest strengthened the commitment of leaders at Shiloh (Old Site) to pursue change on a local, state and national level, according to the churchs history.

Muhammad praised current city leaders for being committed to telling an inclusive story, saying, We have to know the truth and this is a truth thats long overdue.

With all the controversies that are coming up today, Critical Race Theory and are we hurting feelings, you have demonstrated the process by which Critical Race Theory works, and comes to the right conclusion where people research, study, communicate, plan, develop and then present and educate a city, Muhammad said. So I pray that Virginia watches you for what you are doing today.

Taft Coghill Jr: 540/374-5526 tcoghill@freelancestar.com

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Phil Hornung said the natural treasures that lie within Stafford Countys Widewater State Park are abundant, unique and worth sharing for generations to come.

Theres no place like Widewater State Park anywhere in the commonwealth, said Hornung, who serves as vice president of the group Friends of Widewater State Park.

Educators agree, and view the park as an outdoor laboratory filled with natural resources and wildlife to help students experience science, physics and environmental studies in nature.

We look at Widewater as truly a gemstone in our neighborhood that is just an incredible place to bring those different grade levels, Mike Pratte said.

Pratte, who serves as Stafford schools science facilitator, said the park can contribute to many areas of study, including oceanography, geology and physics.

Theres so much possibility, Pratte said. As [the park] grows, its amazing the possibilities for opportunities for all students.

Hornung, educators and even elected officials envision an environmental educational center someday being built at the 1,100-acre park. Hornung said the course to build such a center was officially charted by a 2021 House budget bill that tasked the Department of Conservation and Recreation to collaborate with Staffords school system, the Friends of Widewater State Park and others on the endeavor. Its now up to the General Assembly to make the final call.

Nearly three months ago, Sen. Scott Surovell, a Democrat from Mount Vernon whose district includes part of Stafford County, submitted a $34.6 million budget request to the General Assembly to fund the final two developmental stages of the park that not only includes the environmental center, but adds more trails to the parks existing two-mile network, and additional parking, cabins, picnic areas, boat ramps, utilities and more.

This is like the third or fourth time Ive tried to get this done, Surovell said. If we cant do it now, I dont know when were going to get it done.

Surovell said officials denied his previous funding requests, telling him state parks have a $200 million maintenance backlog to address before considering any new infrastructure projects. Surovell said last year, Michigan used $300 million in federal COVID relief funds to help fix its aging campgrounds, and he applied the same strategy to get Virginia state parks back on an even keel.

I put in a second amendment to basically fund all of the states maintenance backlog using money from the [American Rescue Plan Act of 2021], Surovell said. I feel like this is sort of a one-time opportunity to get it done.

Republican Sen. Richard Stuart, whose district includes Stafford, is one of the co-patrons of Surovells proposal, along with Democratic Sens. Jeremy McPike of Prince William County and J. Chapman Petersen of Fairfax County.

Stuart said hes supportive of the effort and optimistic that we can get the funding for the education center.

Del. Tara Durant, RStafford, said the new center will help get students motivated about science and the environment.

I can see from a high school standpoint this would be a very popular opportunity for them, Durant said.

Pratte said a Widewater State Park education center would offer students more structured opportunities to achieve the qualifications necessary to earn a Virginia Department of Education Seal for Excellence in science or the environment. He said that seal can open doors for future internships or undergraduate studies, or future employment in the science field.

To earn the seal, students must complete certain laboratory science courses, laboratory or field research and at least 50 hours of community service related to environmental monitoring, protection, management or restoration. Pratte said all of this is possible at Widewater State Park.

This outdoor research center would be ideal to take students to actually do hands-on, real- world experiences, said Thomas Nichols, Staffords chief academic officer for high schools. This is another pathway that students may want to choose for their course of study where they can focus on an environmental track utilizing the Widewater State Park as their lab.

Since it was first opened in November 2018, notable progress has been made to grow the park, including the construction of a visitors center, restroom facilities, picnic shelters and trails.

This is a great place for people to view wildlife, park Manager Paul Anderson said. Its a great birding park and its a nice park to bring the family any day to hike, have a picnic, go fishing.

The park also rents kayaks and stand-up paddleboards. Anderson, who works for the Department of Conservation and Recreation and has managed the park since it opened nearly four years ago, said additional picnic shelters and other features will be added later this year, including a motorboat ramp for access to the Potomac River.

But Pratte said another great feature of Widewater State Park is the data students collect in the field will be recorded and passed to the Department of Conservation and Recreation for future students and future generations to use in their own research projects.

It gives us a record of how soil, water, wildlife, whatever might be studied appropriately, Pratte said. Its that partnership, and the students feel invested in that. Were so excited to have this literally right in our backyard.

James Scott Baron: 540/374-5438 jbaron@freelancestar.com

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On Jan. 17, Mattel honored Black American journalist Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) as an important role model for todays girls by adding a doll in her likeness to the Barbie Inspiring Women series. Nearly forgotten at the time of her death in 1931, the importance of Wellss groundbreaking journalism and civil rights campaigns have received increasing public recognition over the past few years.

For example, when the New York Times launched a campaign to publish obituaries for overlooked women in 2018, Wells was one of the first honorees. She was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in May 2020 for her outstanding and courageous reporting on mob violence against African Americans. And in June 2021, a monument to Wells was unveiled in Chicago, her adopted home.

Born in Holly Springs, Miss., to enslaved parents during the tumult of the Civil War, Wells joined a generation of young Black men and women who aspired to professional careers and successful lives as full citizens in the decades after Reconstruction.

Following her parents tragic deaths during the 1878 yellow fever epidemic, Wells assumed responsibility for her orphaned siblings and began work as a school teacher at the age of 16. She soon moved to Memphis, Tenn., where she worked her way up to a position in the city school system.

As a young, single, professional woman, Wells fought for the right to be treated with respect as a lady. She resisted the introduction of racial segregation and sued the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad in 1883 for denying her access to the first-class ladies car.

Wells published an article about her lawsuit, which launched her on a new career path writing under the pen name Iola. Wells found her true calling in journalism and left teaching to become co-

editor of the Memphis Free Speech in 1889.

While there were dozens of Black female journalists in the 19th century, most confined their work to appropriately feminine concerns like social events, household management, and moral uplift. Wells defied gendered expectations by fearlessly addressing political topics in her writing and quickly won recognition from her male peers for her work.

In 1892, Wellss friend Thomas Moss and his business partners in the Black-owned Peoples Grocery Co. were lynched by local White residents. Outraged by the complicity of Memphis police officials in the murders, Wells launched an outspoken campaign against mob violence in her editorials for the Free Speech. Her criticisms of the excuses made to defend lynching incensed local White residents, who destroyed her press, ran her business partner out of town, and threatened to kill Wells if she ever returned.

Exiled from the South, Wells employed her skills as a public speaker and investigative journalist to become a full-time activist. Despite the many obstacles she faced, she navigated the world with dignity and an unflinching commitment to justice.

Wells became an outspoken opponent of segregation, the convict lease system, and lynching. She recognized that these powerful systems of oppression threatened Black American social, economic, and political progress. Indeed, the legacy of these systems is evident in todays racial inequality.

When a series of shocking lynchings generated unprecedented international scrutiny of mob violence in the United States, Wells traveled to England and Scotland in 1893 and again in 1894 to cultivate British support for African American civil rights. Despite numerous challenges and setbacks, in less than 18 months, Wells mobilized a vibrant network of British reformers who pressured American social and political leaders to denounce mob violence.

After the end of her international campaign, Wells relocated to Chicago, where she married Ferdinand L. Barnett in 1895. Always pushing the boundaries of societal expectations, she hyphenated her surname (WellsBarnett) and refused to permit marriage and motherhood to slow her down.

Wells co-founded the National Association of Colored Women and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She organized Black Chicago residents to form the Alpha Suffrage Club, which succeeded in electing the citys first Black alderman in 1914. She fought against racial discrimination within the womens suffrage movement and even ran for a seat in the Illinois State Senate in 1930.

Wells truly was an inspiring woman. She forged career paths for todays women of color as social leaders, journalists, and politicians. And her fearless battles against injustice and oppression deserve to be remembered and celebrated by future generations.

Sarah L. Silkey, Ph.D., is professor of history at Lycoming College and the author of Black Woman Reformer: Ida B. Wells, Lynching, and Transatlantic Activism. She will discuss Wells 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 at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 17. The event is open to the people with proof of vaccine or recent negative COVID test, and live-streamed at umw.edu/greatlives.
Methodist Fremont Health will be having a blood drive from 8 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Feb. 16. The Nebraska Community Blood Bank Bloodmobile will be parked in the hospital parking lot.

All blood types are needed. The Nebraska Community Blood Bank is the sole supplier of blood for Methodist Fremont Health.

Appointments are recommended by visiting NCBB.org/searchdrives. Use sponsor code MFH or call 402-486-9414.

Blood donors are asked to bring their ID and eat before donating. Donors should not have cold or flu symptoms for 72 hours before donating.

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Governor. Pete Ricketts encourages organizations in Nebraska to apply for the 2022 Governors Wellness Award.

The Governors Wellness Award encourages employers to initiate or improve workplace wellness programs. These programs include assessment of employees health risks and interests, a written wellness plan with measurable goals and objectives, supportive policies, and ability to show measurable benefits from wellness efforts.

Organizations can apply at the Sower, Grower, or Harvester award level.

The Sower level recognizes employers that have taken initial steps to encourage workplace wellness. The Grower level honors organizations that have enhanced their wellness programs and are positively changing employee health behaviors. The Harvester level is available to employers that are reaping the benefits of an advanced wellness program and can demonstrate high-quality outcomes.

To apply, go to the Panhandle Worksite Wellness Council (PWWC) website (pphd.org/pwwc.html) and select Governors Award from the menu.

The Governors Wellness Award is sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and administered by the Panhandle Worksite Wellness Council, part of Panhandle Public Health District. For more information, interested organizations should contact Nicole Berosek, Organizational Wellness Coordinator, at 308-279-3496 or nberosek@pphd.org.

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Tuesday

Terri Dingwell  Shelter Insurance Chamber Coffee, 9-10 a.m., 218 E. Fourth St., Suite 1, Fremont.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.

Letters to the Churches of Revelation, 10 a.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont.

Ready for Kindergarten, 10 a.m., Keene Memorial Library, 1030 N. Broad St., Fremont. This program is designed for children ages 2-5 and their caregivers. Stories, art, manipulatives and sensory stations will help build the skills needed for kindergarten.

Supportive Singles, 11:30 a.m., L.A. Fire-Proof Door Co., 325 N. Main St., downtown Fremont. For more information, call 402-660-8474.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Business Improvement District No. 1 Committee meeting, noon, Nebraska Quilting Company, second floor meeting room, 330 N. Main St., Fremont. The meeting will be held in person and electronically to allow remote meeting access via computer or telephone. The link and instruction are provided on the agenda that is posted in the agenda section of the citys website at fremontne.gov.

Narcotics Anonymous Steps of Freedom meeting, 1 p.m., LifeHouse, 723 N. Broad St., Fremont. The hotline number is 402-459-9511.

Fremont Eagles Club open, 3 p.m. to midnight, 649 N. Main St., Fremont. The club may stay open later or close early depending on business.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Mens and Womens Bible Study, 6 p.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont.

Novel Idea Book Club, 6-7 p.m., Milady Coffeehouse, 105 E. Sixth St., downtown Fremont. Februarys book is Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

Narcotics Anonymous Freedom Works Group, 7 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont.

Wednesday

Methodist Fremont Health Blood Drive, 8 a.m. to noon, Methodist Fremont Health parking lot, Fremont. Appointments are recommended. Visit NCBB.org/searchdrives to make an appointment. Use sponsor code MFH or call 402-486-9414.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, noon, Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.

Mens Bible Study, 1 p.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont.

Fremont Eagles Club open, 3 p.m. to midnight, 649 N. Main St., Fremont. The club may stay open later or close early depending on business.

Maple Creek Watershed Plan  Environmental Assessment public open house, 4-6 p.m., Howells Ballroom, Howells. The open house, which will be facilitated by the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District, will be focused on flood reduction projects like linear corridors (detention cells) and wetland development or enhancements.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Narcotics Anonymous Library Group, 7 p.m., Keene Memorial Librarys east building, 1030 N. Broad St., Fremont. The hotline number is 402-459-9511.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Thursday

Mens Bible Study, 8 a.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont.

Alcoholics Anonymous big book study, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Fremont Kiwanis Club meeting, noon, Midland University Private Dining Rooms, Ninth and Pebble streets, Fremont. A Zoom option also is available. Email kiwanisfremont@gmail.com for the Zoom code or with any questions. The owners of Don Peterson and Associates will be sharing the part they play in the development of Fremonts housing growth.

Lego Club, 4 p.m., Keene Memorial Library, 1030 N. Broad St., Fremont. Lego bricks will be supplied.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

The Banquet, 5:30-6:30 p.m., First Lutheran Church, 3200 E. Military Ave., Fremont. Drive-thru meals served. The dinner is free.

Three Rivers Public Health Department Board of Health meeting, 6 p.m., Fremont Public Schools Board of Education Room, 130 E. Ninth St., Fremont. The meeting is open to the public. A copy of the meeting agenda may be obtained by calling 402-704-2254.

WinItBack, TEA Party Patriots of Dodge County, 6:30-8:15 p.m., Keene Memorial Library, Fremont. A speaker will be giving a presentation about the issue of critical race theory being taught in schools. The public is invited. For more information, call Doug Wittmann at 402-317-1270.

Civil Air Patrol, 7 p.m., 1201 W. 23rd St., in yellow hangar at Fremont Airport.

Narcotics Anonymous Freedom Works Group, 7 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1440 E. Military Ave.

Tally Ho Toastmasters, 7-8 p.m., Midland Universitys Anderson Building, Ninth and Clarkson streets, Fremont. Everyone is welcome to learn skills in communication, self-confidence and leadership. For more information, call 402-936-3479.

Narcotics Anonymous Back to Basics meeting, 7:30 p.m., First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 201 N. Davis St., Oakland.

Alcoholics Anonymous big book study, 8 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

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Tourisms central role in advancing the Blue Economy was highlighted as UNWTO chaired a special session and joined a Heads of State panel at the One Ocean Summit, hosted by the French Presidency this week.



In a session on Tourism in the Blue Economy co-hosted with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and France, high level representatives stressed how implementing a blue economy can combat the threats of climate change, plastic pollution and over exploitation of resources. At the same time, the panel, representing Colombia, Kenya, Seychelles and Palau, made clear how a stronger focus on sustainability can help deliver more competitive and inclusive tourism activities.



Addressing the Summit, UNWTO Executive Director Zoritsa Urosevic, said: Tourism is one of the pillars of the Blue Economy and plays a key role in the preservation of oceans by providing financial incentives and mechanisms to protect ecosystems. But we can, and must, do more. As part of the recovery, tourism shall play a key role in the regeneration of coastal and marine ecosystems for resilience, putting people at the center of our efforts.



Opportunity out of crisis



At present, tourism represents 40% of the blue economy  as the largest share in export value according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Global tourisms restart and recovery from the impacts of the pandemic represents an opportunity for the sector to support the transformation of coastal and marine destinations towards more sustainable and resilient models that are anchored on ocean protection and responsible use.



Sylvestre Ragedonde, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism of the Seychelles said: The destinies of tourism and the blue economy must be intertwined to make responsible use of the limited resources. Our mother ocean should take a commanding role in tourism strategies. For the Seychelles, the blue economy represents a holistic approach for the tourism sector and local economy.



Private sector transition



Corporate leaders from Accor, ClubMed, Costa Cruises, Iberostar Group, Ponant, TUI Group and the Blue Climate Initiative joined policy makers in the call to prioritize ocean protection and made bold commitments to address plastic pollution through practical solutions in line with the framework proposed by the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative which supports transitioning to a circular economy of plastics.



Herve Gastinel, CEO Ponant said: We are happy to announce our commitment to the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative with the goal of eliminating single use plastics in our operations by 2022. Following the example of the polar exploration ship Le Commandant Charcot, Ponant is rolling out its "Single use Plastic" objective on all its ships.



The workshop was moderated by Jorge Laguna-Celis, Head of the One Planet Network and closed with a call to action from Brune Poirson, Director of Sustainable Development of Accor, for tourism stakeholders to join the collective movement around the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative and the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism.



Laguna-Celis said: The One Planet Network is pleased to partner with the One Ocean Summit to raise ambitious commitments from tourism businesses and governments. The Tourism sector can be a vector of education and prevention of plastics pollution and a source of sustainable recovery from the pandemic and generation of decent revenues for millions of people.  TradeArabia News Service
Nebraska Homestead Exemption application packets have been mailed to all previous applicants and new applicants having requested one.

The Dodge County Assessor asks area residents to carefully read all information provided, as some instructions have changed.

Blank applications are available in the Dodge County Assessors Office or online at: revenue.nebraska.gov/PAD/homestead-exemption.

Nebraska Homestead Exemption provides property tax relief by exempting all or a portion of the taxable value of a residence (some categories are subject to household income/assessed value limitations). A homestead exemption is available to those qualifying in one of the following categories:

 Persons 65 or over as of Jan. 1, 2022; or

 Qualified disabled individuals (this does not mean SS disability) as of Jan. 1, 2022, as verified by a licensed medical provider; or

 Qualified 100% service-connected disabled veterans or their widow(er)s as of Jan. 1, 2022, as verified by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs; or

 Paraplegic Veteran or Multiple Amputee (whose home has been substantially contributed to by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs); or

 Individuals with a developmental disability as of Jan. 1, 2022, as certified by the Dept. of HHS

All questions should be directed to Rose at 402-727-3915 or rose.greitens@dodgecounty.ne.gov.

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Following a lightning military advance on Kabul, Taliban militants seized power on August 15. The hard-line Islamists celebrated their victory as the end of more than four decades of war in Afghanistan, and promised a new era of peace and prosperity.

But six months later, few in the country are content with their new rulers. More than a million Afghans have fled reprisals, persecution, and a worsening humanitarian and economic crisis. Some 23 million people, the majority of the country's population of 39 million, face starvation. More than 1 million children are in danger of dying by malnutrition. And despite an end to the fighting, 3.5 million Afghans remain internally displaced.

The situation has cast a pall on the idea that the freedoms and rights enshrined in Afghanistan's partially defunct constitution will ever be honored under the Taliban, whose government remains unrecognized worldwide. And with international aid and trade dwindling to a trickle, the aspirations of many Afghans have turned from hope of a better life to mere survival.

RFE/RL's Radio Azadi spoke to people around the country about their day-to-day lives with the Taliban in power.

Humanitarian Catastrophe

Mohammad Mansuri has been stranded in his village of Lolash for weeks because of heavy snowfall in the remote Kohistan district in the northern province of Faryab. The farmer says his family of six is starving, and he has no money to seek treatment for his two sick children.

He says that residents of Lolash and hundreds of other villages in Kohistan were already on the brink of starvation even before the Taliban takeover due to a drought that has lasted for three years.

"Without swift action to help us, we are very close to a humanitarian catastrophe," he told RFE/RL by telephone.

Abdul Ahad, a 30-year-old farmer in Lolash, says that many in his village will not make it through the winter without immediate emergency aid.

"It is like we are in prison with no way out," he told RFE/RL by phone. "The prices have simply skyrocketed."

Ahad says that a 10-liter container of cooking oil he used to buy for $5 now costs more than $20. Similarly, the prices of flour and sugar have soared.

Before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan was already one of the world's most impoverished and aid-dependent countries. Ahead of the withdrawal of foreign forces, many foreign companies and aid agencies also pulled out, and foreign funding to the government ceased entirely after the Taliban restored its hard-line Islamic emirate.

International donors have since pledged billions in humanitarian aid designated to restore health care, education, and to provide food aid, but there are significant hurdles when it comes to delivering on those promises.

"The deserving people are not getting anything," says Abdullah Khan, a resident of Baraki Barak, a district in the southeastern province of Logar, which abuts the capital, Kabul.

He says that some $200 in cash aid distributed to some of the most vulnerable families across Afghanistan is being misappropriated. "People who do not merit receiving this money are getting it," he said.

These cash grants are part of international efforts to provide financial aid to the most vulnerable Afghans while bypassing the Taliban. Aid agencies are also paying the salaries of teachers and health-care workers to provide essential services. The World Food Program is providing food aid to vulnerable Afghans.

Nevertheless, the United Nations warns that more than 97 percent of Afghans will fall into poverty before summer, and the Afghan economy appears to be in free fall.

The country's trade has dramatically shrunk as international markets for Afghan produce have dried up. This week, hope for an injection of cash to keep the Afghan economy afloat suffered a major blow after U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order to split $7 billion of frozen Afghan national bank reserves into humanitarian aid and payments for the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

Repression

The Taliban announced a general amnesty soon after seizing Kabul. "I would like to assure the international community, including the United States, that nobody will be harmed," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told journalists on August 17. "We don't want any internal or external enemies."

But a half-year later, the United Nations and human rights watchdogs continue to report grave abuses. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan "continued to receive credible allegations of killings, enforced disappearances, and other violations," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the Security Council late last month.

The experiences of Afghans echo the UN assessment.

"My brother has been missing for three months," an Afghan man said of his sibling, a senior former Afghan army officer. "We don't know whether he is alive or dead," he added, while requesting anonymity to avoid reprisals by the Taliban.

The man claimed this week that the Taliban detained his brother three months ago. "Where is the general amnesty they promised?"

Afghan women have endured the brunt of Taliban restrictions and discrimination. Most teenage Afghan girls are still waiting to return to school, while women have lost jobs, businesses, and the expanded societal roles they had gained over the past two decades.

"Women have been completely marginalized politically," Zahra Rahnavard, a resident of Kabul, told RFE/RL. "[The Taliban] had promised to preserve women's rights, but we see nothing.... Everyone is in a state of despair and hopelessness."

Women campaigners have endured excessive Taliban crackdowns, and many have been detained, questioned, or even forcefully disappeared. Earlier this week, the Taliban released four women activists. They disappeared last month soon after participating in an anti-Taliban rally.

Disappearing Freedoms

Afghanistan's once-vibrant media is rapidly declining since the Taliban takeover. Reporters Without Borders, a global media watchdog, estimates that more than 8,000 Afghan media workers have lost their jobs in the past six months. Hundreds of journalists have fled the country, and those who remained have faced intimidation, threats, and beatings.

Mina Habib, a freelance journalist in Kabul, says she was harassed and beaten while covering a women's anti-Taliban protest in September. "Several Taliban fighters hit me and threw me on the ground," she recalled. "They grabbed my camera and threw it on the ground to break it into pieces. They told me to go home and even questioned why a woman was reporting."

Khaleda Tahsin, 51, another Afghan journalist, is giving up on journalism after 22 years spent chasing her country's evolving story nonstop. She braved suicide attacks, threats, and intimidation from both the government and the insurgents.

But the sole breadwinner for the family is calling an end to her career. She resigned from her job as the editor in chief at Radio Killid, a private station, this month because the conditions for women's work had so rapidly deteriorated under the Taliban.

"Conditions for work, particularly for women, have become tough," she told RFE/RL. "I don't have any peace of mind because of all the security threats."

Tahsin says that while women journalists can still work in theory, they have no protections. "Our major challenge is that we do not have access to information while the authorities remain unaccountable," she said.

Survival is clearly on the minds of most Afghans.

Qasim, a taxi driver in Kabul, says he used to earn $10 a day. But some days now, he has no income.

"[The Taliban militants] promised that they will improve the lives of the people," he said. "But they have not fulfilled any of their promises."
If you go

What: Diago: The Pasts of this Afro-Cuban Present

When: Runs through July 2.

Where: Colorado Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs

Price: General admission costs $10. $5 senior/military; free for members, students with ID and teachers

Something else: "Diago: In Conversation" set for 6 p.m. April 15. A roundtable conversation with Juan Roberto Diago, Alejandro de la Fuente, director of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University, and Andrea Herrera, professor of Literature and Women's and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Robert (Bob) LeDonne will be remembered for his ceramics, metal sculptures and inventive spirit.

The internationally known Colorado Springs artist died Jan. 21. He was 76. He's survived by his partner, Alice Mayfield.

A celebration of life will be held from 4-8 p.m. March 4 at the Bridge Gallery, 218 W. Colorado Ave. A retrospective of his work will be on display from March 4-31.

"He was a thoughtful friend and generous with his information," said artist and Bridge Gallery co-owner Deena Bennett. "He was really creative. He used glazes and combined throwing and hand-built work into one piece. I've never seen anybody do the type of work he did, and it was totally intuitive on his part."

LeDonne's work has been collected globally, as well as shown and sold in many Colorado Springs galleries, including the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. His work also resides in the permanent collections at Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art and Colorado History Museum in Denver.

The Colorado native, who was born in Oak Creek, graduated from Grand Junction High School and attended Mesa Junior College, now Colorado Mesa University, in Grand Junction and Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He spent many years living in California, working as a photographer and TV cameraman, before relocating to the Springs 25 years ago. He also taught ceramics and other clay workshops around the country, including for the Colorado Potters Guild and the Business of Art Center, now Manitou Art Center, in Manitou Springs.

He developed a potters wheel and other equipment for people in wheelchairs, and had been granted two patents for a tactile sound system that draws a user into an audio and vibrational experience and helps them feel the audio signals.

"He was very gregarious," said Mayfield, his partner of more than two decades. "He always had a sense of humor with people he worked with. He did invent a few things he was never able to see come to fruition."
Students in masks line up Aug. 23 at Garden Place Elementary School in north Denver for the first day of in-class learning since the start of the pandemic. New school quarantine guidance issued Friday, Feb. 11, 2022 by Colorado health officials helped spur Denver to announce this week it will end its school and child-care setting mask requirements.
Colorado Politics senior political reporter

Joey Bunch is the senior correspondent and deputy managing editor of Colorado Politics. His 32-year career includes the last 16 in Colorado. He was part of the Denver Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 and he is a two-time finalist.


The Anganwadi workers have been protesting since January 31 in New Delhi. They said they will not stop until their demands are met.

Suchitra | TwoCircles.net

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NEW DELHI  Hundreds of Anganwadi workers have been protesting for over two weeks outside the residence of New Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal.

The Delhi union demanded an increase in their honorarium as well as official recognition as government workers. The workers claim that they are not being paid minimum wages.

Protesters in Civil Lines in Delhi said that they wanted to make the Kejriwal government accountable for the promises the AAP made to them. The workers are demanding that their prior arrears be paid immediately, as well as a raise of Rs 25,000 in pay.

The Delhi State Anganwadi Workers & Helpers Union (DSAWHU) organised a press conference on February 9 to expose the betrayal of the Kejriwal government.

Shivani Kaul, president of DSAWHU, said at the event, While Kejriwal and AAP promise to increase the honorarium of scheme employees in Goa and Punjab, they refuse to even engage with Anganwadi caregivers who sit 500 metres away from the CMs house.

Anganwadi employees and assistants are employed by the governments Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to oversee the education and health of children aged zero to six , primarily in rural regions. They keep track of their health markers and provide pregnant women and lactating mothers with nutritional rations.

In addition, they aid election personnel during the voting process. They were designated as frontline workers for their activities during the Covid-19 epidemic, which not only included providing food but also ensuring vaccination.

However, most Anganwadi workers claim that this was a gimmick with no real benefits.

Anganwadi workers and assistants had also held rallies in approximately 22 districts of Haryana in December and January, seeking greater compensation and recognition as government employees.

According to the Haryana union representatives, the Haryana government provides Rs 11, 811 to Anganwadi employees and Rs 6,045 to assistants as a monthly stipend in addition to the Centres portion. The protesters argue that this honorarium is meager and insufficient, even lower than the wage of contractual unskilled employees (Rs 14,330-17,520), as recently declared by the state administration. The strike has been called to demand the actual implementation of Prime Minister Narendra Modis September 2018 promise to enhance the monthly honorarium for Anganwadi staff by Rs 1,500 and Anganwadi assistants by Rs 700. Protesters are also demanding for DA (dearness allowance) to be paid regularly to anganwadis, which they said are regularly paid to government employees.

Shakuntala, general secretary of the Haryana Anganwadi Employees and Helpers Union, told TwoCircles.net, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Telangana pay greater honoraria to Anganwadi workers than Haryana. Puducherry has even proclaimed Anganwadi staff to be government workers.

Anganwadi employees in Delhi currently earn roughly Rs 9,600 per month, while assistants get around Rs 4,800. They are requesting raises of Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000, respectively. In 2017, a similar 58-day strike was held.

Shivani Kaul stated during the press conference that the primary demand is to obtain employee status.

Many of us have worked for over 10 years, she explained. However, we are still classified as volunteers, depriving us of so many important employee benefits like insurance, ESIC, and others.

Lali, a protester at the site, said that she has not been promoted in the last ten years of her work. Our pay is too low for us to purchase nice clothes, she explained. She also emphasized the job that Anganwadi workers did throughout the epidemic, even though there was no healthcare infrastructure to safeguard them.

We were not even given basic protective gear in the middle of a raging pandemic, no masks, no PPEs, no sanitisers, or other essential amenities throughout this pandemic, she claimed. How can we expect this government to give us adequate healthcare services now?

According to them, the Delhi administration is also working to stifle the movement.

Vimla, an Anganwadi caregiver, said that the Kejriwal government was employing tactics to suppress the protests. At the start of the strike, the department even sent us threats via text messages and audio snippets in an attempt to persuade us not to strike. Now, even DTC buses are not being halted for female employees to irritate Anganwadi staff who are going to and from the protest venue.

According to Kamlesh, another member of the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union, the workers have been protesting since January 31 and will not stop until their demands are met. Thousands of protestors were present on the first day of the rally. They said that the agitation will continue until the government accepts their demands.

Suchitra is an independent journalist working on social justice, focusing primarily on gender justice. She tweets at @Suchitrawrites
FILE - This Aug. 19, 2015, file photo, shows a monarch butterfly in Vista, Calif. The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted to a new record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A recent count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the millions of monarchs that in 1980s clustered in trees from Marin County to San Diego County. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
Chief James Maxon is no longer with the Fountain Fire Department after his employment was terminated Friday, city officials announced Monday.

The City said Maxon's termination is pending an appeal, but did not provide further details.

Although we do not share details about personnel issues, we can confirm that James Maxon is no longer employed by the city of Fountain as of Friday, Feb. 11, 2022," the city said. "We are grateful for the accomplishments of Chief Maxon during his tenure here and wish him the best in his future endeavors."

Maxon was placed on administrative leave in mid-December and Battalion Chief Ryan Torres was made interim chief at that time, the city said.

Court records show that Maxon filed a civil lawsuit against Torres as well as Tyler Lowe, a firefighter at the department, and Nathan Mascarenas, a captain with the department who Maxon fired after an independent investigation determined Mascarenas harassed women and made racist comments, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit accuses Torres, Lowe and Mascarenas of defamation, defamation per se, civil conspiracy and tortious interference with contractual relations, alleging that the three men tried to convince women in the department to make "unfounded allegations of sexual harassment," according to the legal complaint.

The suit also claims Mascarenas posted comments on Facebook aimed at Maxon, quoting song lyrics and linking to news articles about sexual harassment, that elicited likes and comments from other members of the department, the complaint alleged. It also alleged that Torres provided Gazette news partner KKTV with false information about Maxon.

Maxon and his lawyer declined to comment.

"The allegations against Mr. Mascarenas included many false statements," said Jack Donley, an attorney representing Nathan Mascarenas. "For instance, he was not fired from the city of Fountain, he did not make the statements that are alleged or otherwise defame Maxon, and we will be defending this claim in full because it has no validity in full.

The Gazette was not able to reach Lowe, Torres or their attorneys immediately for comment.

Maxon came to Fountain with 26 years of fire service and emergency medical experience and previously served as chief of the Sandoval County Fire Department in New Mexico. He joined the Fountain Fire Department in March 2019.
Colorado's Democratic governor Jared Polis is announcing his re-election campaign this week, making several stops across the state. Colorado Politics looks at his first four addresses to the state legislature to see how the governor has delivered his message through four years of hope and tu
Jacob Meece, a trucker from Massachusetts, gives his thoughts Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, on the Canadian truckers protesting vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions in Canada while stopping at the Pilot Truck Center in Monument.
Newman Catholic choir students gathered in groups Monday to bring Valentine's cheer to people throughout Mason City in the form of Singing Valentines.

The groups of five and seven learned their traditional songs, "Let Me Call You My Sweetheart and "You are my Sunshine" for the event. But this year Choral Music Director Jason Behrens did an arrangement for a new song, "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran.

Each group was able to skip a few periods of class on Monday to put on their red cummerbunds and head into town.

"It's an all-day event. I split the groups up so they aren't all missing a full day of school" Behrens said.

It was Avery's first year taking part in Singing Valentines, and she was about to leave for her first visit. "I'm nervous, but excited" she said with a smile. The other girls in her group, a sophomore and junior, echoed the sentiment.

"We're excited, and nervous, a little bit of both" another girl agreed. They went on to sing "You Are My Sunshine" to an individual in the preschool.

Before leaving, the students warmed up and Behrens encouraged them, telling them to bring song with a smile and enjoy the experience.

Then, Singing Valentines were lovingly delivered with a rose and chocolates for individuals throughout the community, filling local businesses and homes with song.

Gretchen Burnette is a Weeklies Editor and Daily Reporter at the Globe Gazette. You can reach her by phone at 641.421.0523 or at Gretchen.Burnette@GlobeGazette.com

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Re: Since its inception, the many counter-intuitive aspects and results of [ #permalink

Para1 - Quantum Mechanics, its complexities and scientific views.

Para2 - The Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics - Its acceptance - How it view quantum mechanics

Para3 - Albert Einstein's disbelief on TCI - His beliefs



1. The author uses the quotations at the end of the first paragraph in order to:



The bold parts are the beliefs (of two scientists), that QM is complex and no satisfactory interpretation of it exists as of today.



A. show how strong the philosophical debates over quantum mechanics have been...... There are debates over QM, but their strengths are not discussed. Eliminate.

B. highlight the complexity of quantum mechanics and its various interpretations..... Highlight complexity, yes, but not the various interpretations. Eliminate.

C. emphasize how difficult it was for scientists to understand the rules of Max Born....... It is a close choice but the bold parts are concerned with QM as whole, not max born in particular. Eliminate.

D. introduce the Copenhagen interpretation and its complexities....... CI is used as an example of an interpretation (which is then challenged in third para) to show that different viewpoints on QM exists. Eliminate

E. support one particular viewpoint regarding the interpretation of quantum mechanics........ Yes the viewpoint is that QM is complex and no satisfactory interpretation of it exists as of today. Keep It.





2. The primary purpose of this passage is to:



A. make the case that the Copenhagen interpretation is the most plausible formalism of quantum mechanics...... Only Second Para. Eliminate.

B. show that Albert Einstein was incorrect in his critique of the Copenhagen interpretation..... Only third para, also it was not proved that Albert Einstein was wrong. Eliminate.

C. highlight the complexities of quantum mechanics by examining the history of one interpretation..... Yes, as per our para summaries it is best suited. Keep It.

D. examine Max Born's basic rules concerning probability amplitudes and probability distributions........ Mentioned only in first Para. Eliminate.

E. summarize the debate that occurred between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein over quantum mechanics.... the debate between AE & NB, is used as part of explanation/conclusion that QM is complex. Eliminate.



3. Which of the following can be inferred about the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics?





It is a detail ques, so we can refer back to the second paragraph.



A. It views the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics as temporary..... Completely opposite. It is mentioned that "the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is not a temporary feature". Eliminate.

B. It involves some loss of determinism in measurement...... Though not clearly mentioned in the second para. Wen we look at the opening lines of third para "Albert Einstein, himself one of the founders of quantum theory, disliked this loss of determinism in measurement." Keep It.

C. It was widely accepted when it was enunciated 75 years ago...... It was widely accepted after 75 years of its enunciation. It itself was not enunciated 75 years ago. Eliminate.

D. It views the experimental arrangement as unimportant..... Completely opposite. It is mentioned that "It is also believed therein that any well-defined application of the quantum mechanical formalism must always make reference to the experimental arrangement,.....". Eliminate.

E. It rejected many of Albert Einsteins views and theories...... AE disliked it, but it cannot be inferred that CI rejected AE's views. Eliminate.





IMO E, C, B
RALEIGH  A legal strategy promoted by a QAnon supporter is being used by some parents across North Carolina and the United States to try to force school districts to end face mask mandates and to remove books the parents say are obscene.

The Bonds For the Win website tells parents they can threaten to file surety bond claims against school board members and superintendents accusing them of violating multiple laws unless they make changes such as drop mask requirements. This approach has been used in multiple states, including in North Carolina in Catawba, Iredell, Johnston and Wake counties.

We have people all over the world obtaining these bonds, all over the world, Miki Klann, who helped create Bonds For the Win, said in a January YouTube video highlighting efforts in North Carolina. These school districts need to be put on notice, and I really do want them to be listening to us right now.

Kelly Shaw, a political science professor at Iowa State University, called this a largely unproven approach to try to change public policy.

Some parents have used the approach in Iowa.

This kind of smacks to me of a desperate attempt to get ones way through intimidation, and this typically doesnt work in our political system, Shaw said in an interview.

Bonds For the Win tells people to warn school boards that they may file claims against the surety bonds that board members may have that hold them accountable for their actions. In states such as North Carolina, where school board members dont have surety bonds, the group advises parents to threaten to file claims against their districts liability insurance coverage.

Bonds For the Win provides sample intent letters for parents that charge that requiring masks violates multiple state, federal and international laws. For instance, the group contends that requiring face masks violates The Nuremberg Code that came out of the prosecution of Nazis after World War II.

Notice served in Wake County

Katie Long, the mother of two Wake students, received advice from Bonds For The Win before she served papers at the Jan. 18 Wake County school board meeting. She crossed under a security barrier to deliver the papers after the law enforcement officer at the meeting declined to serve them.

If you cause wrong or harm, we the people have a recourse and can hold you accountable, Long told the board. You have violated your oath of office.

Theres no statewide mask mandate in North Carolina, but most school districts, such as Wake County, still require them. N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore announced Friday that legislation will be filed to let parents opt of school mask requirements, The News & Observer reported.

Long gave Wake 72 hours to make changes such as ending the face mask mandate, stopping COVID-19 testing at schools, ending vaccine clinics on school grounds and removing allegedly obscene materials from school premises.

Long later appeared in a video talking with Klann about her efforts. Long did not return a voice mail message and two email messages from The News & Observer.

After the school board didnt meet the groups demands, at least seven people filed claims with Liberty Mutual, Wakes insurance carrier. Each claim seeks $1 million against the districts liability insurance policy.

Liberty Mutual told the claimants that they had improperly submitted a bond demand notice against the districts commercial general liability package, according to Jonathan Blumberg, the school boards attorney.

Wake also sent a letter to the claimants denying that it violated any laws with its mask requirement or that its distributing obscenity to students. The district told the claimants it stands ready to vigorously defend against their allegations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented our community with significant and unprecedented challenges, and throughout this time, the Board has acted in good faith and in accordance with state and local guidelines in making difficult policy decisions to protect the health and safety of students and employees, according to the letter written by Tim Simmons, Wakes chief communications officer.

Papers served in Johnston, Iredell counties

Last week, parents served papers on the Johnston County and Iredell-Statesville school boards.

Even though the Johnston County school board voted to make face masks optional beginning Feb. 21, that wasnt enough for the parents who filed notice with the district. They complained that the district says masks may be required at some schools if too many students and teachers test positive for the virus or are quarantined.

Parents served the Iredell-Statesville school board at the end of their meeting.

Dozens of people refused to leave the board room, with one protester racing up to the podium to take over the microphone in a coordinated effort, The Iredell Free News reported. The newspaper also reported that police turned off the lights to try to get people to leave and that the demonstration ended with some people yelling Youve been served.

The attempt to threaten school boards with legal action is part of a larger effort by conservative groups to attack school boards for their positions on teaching racial issues and COVID mitigation strategies, like mask mandates, said David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College in Raleigh.

McLennan said the legal threats are part of efforts to make school boards the battleground in the contemporary culture wars in politics.

QAnon ties to effort

Bonds For the Win links its videos to a YouTube channel for Our Great Awakening, a website that Klann helps run. Both the YouTube channel and the website include QAnon slogans such as Where we go one we go all.

QAnon is an online, often pro-Donald Trump, conspiracy theory based on the fringe belief that the government is run by a group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles including top Democratic lawmakers and a number of celebrities.

The website has articles promoting QAnon theories that John F. Kennedy Jr. is still alive and about mass arrests and indictments of child traffickers.

Bonds For The Win is being promoted by several QAnon influencers and leaders, according to an article in VICE News.

The efforts to serve the legal notices on school boards has been highlighted on conservative social media apps such as GETTR, which was launched by Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump.

In the video about North Carolinas efforts, Klann claims that the plus in LGBTQ+ stands for pedophilia. Klann also says in the video that children are being forced into slavery right now wearing these masks.

Shaw, the Iowa State professor, says whats being done nationally with the bond legal complaints is just one more tactic to grab attention.

This has been a strategy used by some QAnon folks, said Shaw, who describes himself politically as conservative. Its sad that its come to that.
CHARLOTTE  Ethan Rivera moved to North Carolina from New York two years ago, hoping to give his daughter and son a better life, his family said. The 41-year-old managed to do that until a shooting last Friday night that took him away from those closest to him.

Rivera, a bus driver for the Charlotte Area Transit System, was shot just after 9:30 p.m. in an uptown road-rage incident in the 500 block of West Trade Street, police said. The bus veered off the road after the shots were fired.

Rivera died at a hospital on Saturday. Four passengers were on his bus, but none were injured.

We are all devastated and very angry, said Rebecca Rivera, his aunt in New York.

Riveras death was among three homicides in Charlotte over the weekend, bringing the total to eight for the year.

With video from the bus, police hope to soon release details about the other vehicle that was involved.

We are all heartbroken and demand justice, Riveras aunt said.

Rivera drove for the Charlotte transit system for just over a year and was in a good place before his death, according to his aunt.

He was happy because he was going to be able to retire and provide his children a better life, she said.

Rivera said she will miss her nephews great sense of humor and free spirit.

He enjoyed life and loved to laugh and have a good time with friends and family, she said.

The Rivera family had a vacation to Mexico booked for July, the aunt said.

During a Charlotte City Council Transportation Committee meeting on Monday, transit CEO John Lewis called Riveras death a tragic loss that will be felt throughout the department for a long time to come.

Joseph Paglia, general chairman of Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation Local 1715, said in a statement that it was hard to find anyone who didnt like Rivera.

He was a fun-loving man who always had a smile on his face, Paglia said.
This editorial has been updated to correct a reference to opioid death statistics among Black and white men.

As much we keep hoping it will go away, the coronavirus just keeps on bedeviling us in mind, body and spirit.

One Triad hospital has been so overwhelmed with COVID that the National Guard has been called in.

Twenty-five guard soldiers and airmen were deployed Thursday at Alamance Regional Medical Center, where they will work alongside an undermanned medical staff until March 4. Alamance Regionals parent organization, Greensboros Cone Health, asked for the assistance.

So, even as COVID appears to have peaked in North Carolina, it is still wreaking havoc.

Meanwhile, a crisis that long preceded COVID rages on as well. North Carolina Health News recently reported that increasing numbers of people are being rushed to hospital emergency departments across the state after overdosing on opioids, specifically fentanyl.

Drug overdose emergency department visits rose from 2019 to 2020, with preliminary data suggesting another increase in 2021.

As for COVID, the pandemic and opioids have been entwined from the start. The mental health challenges of the virus are widely seen as one of the drivers of increased drug use. And both mostly unvaccinated COVID patients and opioid overdose patients have strained the capacity of hospitals to cope.

Fentanyl is a synthetic painkiller that is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It is now commonly used as an additive to other illegal drugs, such as heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. And over time, the Pew Research Center says in a new report, it has broadened the footprint of opioid addiction, which initially involved mostly white Americans.

While overdose death rates have increased in every major demographic group in recent years, no group has seen a bigger increase than Black men, the report says. As a result, Black men have overtaken American Indian or Alaska Native men and white men as the demographic group most likely to die from overdoses.

In 2020, Black men saw 54.1 opioid overdose deaths per 100,000, up from 17.3 in 2015. During that same time span, the deaths among White men jumped from 26.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2015 to 44.2 in 2020.

The opioid crisis has kind of fallen from the headlines because of the COVID pandemic, state Attorney General Josh Stein told WECT-TV. You know, justifiably, thats the biggest health story. But because of COVID, opioids have become deadlier than ever. More people have died this year than any year in history and its the deadliest drug epidemic in American history.

A new, bipartisan congressional report says as much.

Calling opioid addiction one of our most pressing national security, law enforcement and public challenges, the report rightly suggests a balanced approach to the problem:

Ramping up law enforcement efforts to curb the flow and supply of these illegal drugs.

Using best practices approaches to treatment, a welcome departure from treating addiction as a crime rather than a disease.

Cutting the supply of the chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl through diplomatic efforts with other countries.

Making the White House Office of National Drug Policy a command center for federal initiatives and restoring its director to Cabinet-level status.

In North Carolina, there are other issues, including deep and hurtful cuts to mental health services and tighter restrictions on doctors ability to prescribe legal painkillers.

The doctors dilemma has been a particularly difficult question as some people with chronic pain are unable to get medication. Proposed new federal guidelines would encourage a more compassionate approach that has a much more caring voice than a policing one, Dr. Samer Narouze, president of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, told The New York Times.

More good news: North Carolina is expected to receive at least $750 million from a national settlement with drug manufacturers to help fund treatment.

Also encouraging is that efforts to combat the scourge of opioid abuse have involved Democrats and Republicans. So far, at least.

In an era in which common ground increasingly has become no mans land (we cant even unite against the pandemic) heres hoping thats not the case this time.

Heres whats at stake:

If you were to sprinkle just a pinch of fentanyl  2 milligrams  on the face of a penny, it barely would be enough to cover the year on that coin.

But it would be more than enough to kill most people.
Hundreds of Kurdish people in Damascus participated in the demo in Zorava neighborhood and raised banners reading "Apo's freedom, freedom of all peoples," chanting slogans condemning the conspiracy and demanding the physical freedom of leader Ocalan.

A member of Kongra Star in Damascus, Mizgin Ahmed, read a statement denouncing the international conspiracy and said:

In the name of Kongra Star in Damascus, we condemn and denounce that international conspiracy in which many countries conspiring against the peoples demanding freedom participated, with the personality of Leader Ocalan. February 15 is a black day for the peoples of the Middle East in general and the Kurdish people in particular, but we tell them that your conspiracy has failed. It was not completed by eliminating the leaders thought and philosophy. Yes, you were able to physically imprison him, but there are thousands who have graduated from his thought and philosophy to complete it.

The proof of their failure is the resistance of our forces in the face of ISIS, the establishing of the military forces and the organization of women, which are now working in all military, administrative and political fields, and in the diplomatic arena, building their institutions and managing them. Therefore, the Turkish government resorts to many means of ill-treatment and isolation of the leader Ocalan and prevents his lawyer from meeting with him and visiting his family with him In prison, and despite all this, the Turkish government was not satisfied, as it began attacking with chemical weapons on the mountains of Kurdistan, attacking Syrian regions and cities, and bombing and killing civilians, such as the occupation of Afrin, Serekaniye and Tal Abyad.

We know that all this is an extension of that conspiracy and even the attack and its support for ISIS elements on the al-Sinaa prison is a continuation of this conspiracy, and we, as mothers, sons and daughters of the martyrs, pledge to leader Abdullah Ocalan that we will struggle for his freedom.

The demo ended with chanting slogans demanding the freedom of the leader Ocalan.

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The 15th of this month, February, marks the 23rd anniversary of the international conspiracy that targeted the leader Ocalan and that led to his arrest. However, the thought and philosophy of the leader Abdullah Ocalan resulted in a model of coexistence between the components of northern and eastern Syria.

This was confirmed by the notables and sheikhs of Arab clans in north and east Syria, where he said about his ideas, one of the elders of the Bakr al-Jabal clan, Abdul Rahman al-Abed: "We admire the thought and philosophy of Leader Ocalan, which calls for the freedom of peoples and stands with their struggle, and that his ideas call for freedom and democracy, Peace", condemning the plot against him.

The sheikh of the Bakara al-Jabal clan sees the leader Ocalan as a symbol of peace and freedom, calling on the international community to move to release him, hoping that his ideology will spread and be applied around the world.

While one of the notables of the Al-Sada clan, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Bakr, believes that the leaders ideas serve humanity, saying: We do not see in the leader Ocalans thought anything but humanity and the call for peace and brotherhood of peoples, as is the case between the people of north and east Syria who have become a model of coexistence and unity of components. ".

Al-Bakr pointed out, "With the ideas of Leader Ocalan, north and east Syria today differ from the rest of the other Syrian regions, as they were in line with his ideas calling for the brotherhood of peoples, and the increase of ties between the components of the region."

Sheikh Muhammad al-Bakr affirmed, "The clans of northern and eastern Syria do not see in the character of Abdullah Ocalan as anything but a democratic leader calling for peace, and we respect his ideas, just as this leader must be among his people, and we clan elders ransom such a leader with our souls and our children."

In the context, the honorable Al-Obaidat clan, behind Ibrahim Al-Nahr, agreed with his predecessors in the different vision of the Arab clans in northern and eastern Syria for the leader Ocalan, and what the Turkish occupation state and the countries conspiring against him are promoting. Today without distinction.

Behind the river, he noted that "thanks to the leader Ocalan, the peoples of northern and eastern Syria have united and consolidated, so it requires us to stand together, to demand the international community to release him, and he said: "They should know well, although the leader is behind bars, his ideas are still spreading.

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ANHA
For All U of U Health Patients & Visitors
An official within the Montana University System recently outlined efforts being made to provide more health care workers as the need for more help in such occupations increases.

Brock Tessman, deputy commissioner of academic, research and student affairs, told members of Hometown Helena, a grassroots group of residents, business people and civic leaders in the Queen City, that his agency continues to work through a tough puzzle of health workforce education.

This includes developing new forms of collaboration and joining other institutions to produce credentialed nurses in other parts of the state among 16 campuses. The Montana University System oversees public colleges and universities in the state.

Health care is quickly becoming the largest area of study and workforce development effort, he said last week, adding that 500 nurses graduate every year in the Montana University System.

Tessman said 80% of those nurses are still practicing in Montana one year after graduation.

We really like to emphasize the connection between local education and local work, that is what we do, he said.

Tessman said there are well over 1,000 Montana graduates every year in broader health fields.

It could not be more needed right now, he said, adding that many experienced health care professionals are retiring.

He said some are retiring early and leaving the workforce because of stress. He noted that while the wage structure by Montana standards is reasonable, it is often seen as not satisfactory to address the work-level stress and skills needed.

Tessman said there is a declining supply in the existing workforce, and there is more demand not just for nurses, but in allied health professions, such as mental health.

Its a top priority for the Montana University System, he said.

He said there are two new medical schools coming to Montana. Touro in Great Falls plans to graduate 125 osteopathic physicians a year. The other is Rocky Vista University in Billings, which plans to have 100 graduates a year.

He said this is good news for both cities in terms of economic impact. But he said there is some concern for Montanas capacity to provide the right kind of clinical and practical opportunities for students as they learn. He said the Montana University System is looking to increase local partnerships in the area of behavioral health. It is also looking at which students from all areas of the state can receive core instruction and then do hands-on learning in their community.

Tessman noted two large financial contributions made in Montana to help with nursing programs.

One was a $7 million donation by former Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar and his wife, Sherry, to the nursing program at Montana Tech, and the other was $101 million by Mark and Robyn Jones to Montana State University for the construction of new, larger, state-of-the-art educational facilities on the campuses of its college of nursing in Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell and Missoula.

Both donations were made in 2021.

Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021.

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An East Helena man received a lifetime ban from hunting and trapping in Montana as part of his sentence for illegally killing a trophy moose east of Townsend in 2019, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials said Tuesday.

Shiloh Berry, 41, was sentenced Friday in Broadwater County District Court after pleading guilty last fall to felony unlawful possession of a game animal and misdemeanor counts of hunting without a valid license and waste of a game animal, FWP officials said.

His sentence includes a three-year suspension of fishing privileges, $12,100 in fines and restitution, and a suspended five-year imprisonment term.

Berrys fines totaled $6,100 for the three charges. The mooses antlers were 56 inches wide. Because the mooses antler spread was greater than 30 inches, it qualified as a trophy for $6,000 in restitution under Montana law. The mooses antler score of 145 inches also would qualify it for entry into the Boone and Crockett record book and among the 300 largest bull moose taken from Montana.

Efforts to contact Berry or his attorney on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

FWP game wardens received a tip in November 2019 through the departments 1-800-TIP-MONT hotline about a dead moose with its head cut off and the meat abandoned.

Wardens found the carcass on Blacktail Road, about 17 miles east of Townsend, FWP officials said. They also found distinctive tire tracks and boot prints at the scene.

In April 2020, wardens received another tip that Berry possessed moose antlers he claimed to have found in the same area where the moose carcass was discovered. They used a search warrant and found the antlers, as well as boots and tires that matched the tracks at the kill site, FWP said.

Berry, during an interview with wardens, confessed to killing the moose, FWP said.

FWPs 24-hour hotline for reporting these crimes is 1-800-TIP-MONT. Callers could be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

Staff writer Tom Kuglin contributed to this story. Staff writer Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021 or philip.drake@helenair.com.

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GLENDIVE  A weekend fire destroyed a building in downtown Glendive in eastern Montana, the Glendive Fire Department said Monday.

Crews responded to the Ponderosa building at about 7:45 p.m. Sunday, the department said in a social media post.

The building has apartments on the top floor and commercial space on the main floor. The residents were safely evacuated, firefighters said.

The department tells KULR-TV that the roof collapsed and the building is a total loss. Neighboring buildings had smoke and water damage.

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, the department said.

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DECATUR  Richland Community College's nursing program will receive a $3.2 million grant from Decatur Memorial Foundation that will potentially triple the number of students in the program.

The grant is the largest ever awarded by the Foundation.

The partnership between the hospital and the community college will not only help expand the nursing program at Richland, which benefits both Richland and the hospital, but we are also creating unique educational grant opportunities to remove barriers that many community members face when trying to pursue higher education, said Julie Bilbrey, executive director of the Decatur Memorial Foundation. Students in the program will have opportunity to work and learn on the DMH campus with the hope that they will become DMH colleagues upon program completion.

The expansion of the program will unfold over the next four years and the hope is that the added capacity will help alleviate the critical shortage of nurses and other healthcare professionals.

The $3.2 million grant will allow Richland to integrate and expand on the use of technology in the classroom, implementing increased simulation learning in classroom, lab and clinical settings. In addition, the community college will create at least three faculty positions and four new administrative positions to accommodate the programs expansion.

The grant will also allow substantial scholarships to be made available to prospective nursing and clinical students.

This collaborative work will not only increase health care education opportunities, but it will also meet workforce needs in the Decatur area, said Cristobal Cris Valdez, president of Richland. This partnership will positively impact the communities we serve for generations to come.

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

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A 71-year-old man convicted of killing an Illinois State Trooper near Effingham in 1976 was granted early release by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board last week.

Aaron Hyche, who spent more than 45 years behind bars for the murder of Trooper Layton Davis, was released from Dixon Correctional Center on Friday, according to records from the Illinois Department of Corrections.

He had been serving a sentence of 150- to 300-years in prison for killing Davis. According to the Herald & Review archives, Davis was shot twice in the chest and once in the back by Hyche after pulling him over for speeding on Interstate 57 about four miles north of Effingham.

James E. Taylor, who was in the car with with Hyche, was also convicted in the murder. The Prison Review Board voted last August to grant Taylor parole while denying Hyche.

However, Hyche appears to be the first beneficiary of a new state law that took effect Jan. 1 allowing additional authority for the Prison Review Board to consider early release for prisoners who are terminally ill or medically incapacitated people.

Kahalah Clay, chief legal counsel for the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, confirmed to the Effingham Daily News on Friday that the law, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last August, as the reason for Hyches release.

Clay did not return requests for comment from Lee Enterprises on Monday.

According to an online petition advocating for Hyches release, he has numerous critical illnesses, including end-stage Parkinsons Disease, prostate cancer and brain bleeds.

As a result of his health challenges, his memory, speech, and mobility have diminished such that he requires a wheelchair to move, wears a diaper, cannot swallow without great difficulty and frequently chokes, falls so regularly he has requested a helmet the petition states.

Still, Hyches release was met with criticism from the states largest police union.

Aaron Hyche got out of prison early because of serious health concerns, but due to Hyches cold-blooded actions, Trooper Davis didnt live long enough to have his own health concerns, said Illinois State Fraternal Order of Police Lodge President Chris Southwood in a statement. Letting a convicted cop-killer out of prison early is one thing, but to do so before the Troopers family and colleagues could have a say in the matter, whether the law allows it or not, is unconscionable.

Southwood received a letter from Prison Review Board chair Edith Crigler on Jan. 6 informing him of Hyches application. It said that he (along with Landons family) would have an opportunity to comment on the application, which was to be considered on the board's March docket. However, the board made their decision to release Hyche last week.

Still, the board technically met all requirements under the law as the victim of a crime or their family must be given 30 days notice of a potential release. The Prison Review Board must hold a hearing within 90 days of a prisoner's potential release.

State Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, called the process unacceptable.

The families of both victims now have to relive the tragedy because this administration would rather cater to criminals, rather than hold them accountable, Bailey, a Republican candidate governor, said.

The decision comes amid an election year in which Republicans have criticized Democrats for being soft-on-crime and accused the majority party of catering to criminals.

Democrats, who shepherded through a series of criminal justice reform laws last year, have dismissed such claims as election-year scare tactics.

Jennifer Soble, executive director of the Illinois Prison Project, and Sarah Staudt, senior policy analyst and staff attorney at the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts said in a statement that the law "affords a modicum of mercy to people who terminally ill or those who are medically incapacitated."

Rather than engage in substantive policy discussions that promote safety and reckon with the immense harms wrought by mass incarceration, opponents have retreated to disingenuous attacks for political gain," Soble and Staudt said.

The law, which is also known as the the Joe Coleman Medical Release Act, is named after a Vietnam war veteran and father of six who was sentenced to life in prison in 1981 for stealing $640 from a downstate gas station.

Terminally ill with cancer, even prosecutors agreed he should die at home, but there was no mechanism to release him and he died in a jail cell in 2019.

This article has been updated to reflect the changing of the term "parole" to "early release" and with comments from the Illinois Prison Project. It also includes clarification about provisions in the law.

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BELLEVILLE  Belleville Township High School 201 is mask optional beginning Tuesday.

In his recommendation to the school board written prior to its meeting Monday, Superintendent Brian Mentzer followed the reasoning cited by other Illinois school districts to end their mask requirements.

First, Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of about 700 students named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit over two COVID-19 school mitigations: masking requirements and the quarantine of students who were flagged as close contacts, but don't have symptoms or a positive test. Belleville 201 is not involved in the lawsuit.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an executive order over the summer that required mask mandates in schools. He has asked for an appeal of Grischow's order, but the Fourth District Appellate Court has not yet issued an opinion. Mentzer said that there wasn't a clear timeline for how the appellate court would handle the case.

Second, Mentzer noted Pritzker's "untimely" announcement on Wednesday. The governor announced that the indoor mask mandate for most public locations, but not schools, would end Feb. 28. He then said that the mask mandate in schools might be revisited in a few weeks, but did not give a more specific timeline.

Third, Mentzer said that while the number of COVID cases were not at a low point within the district, they were continuing to trend downward.

The board unanimously approved Mentzer's recommendation to end the mask mandate without any public discussion.

Before public comment, both Mentzer and board President Marvin Lampkin told the 30 people attending the meeting that the board would be voting on a mask policy. Of the 13 people who spoke, nearly all were opposed to the mandate.

Conrad Dahm, a senior at Belleville East High School, was the only student to speak at public comment.

"This district should not open the Pandora's box of removing masks," he said. Should the district need to return to requiring masks, either because of rising cases or the appellate court's ruling, Dahm said it would be extremely difficult.

Following the vote, Dahm said he thought the school board should reconsider the policy at the next board meeting. He said he and some of his friends would be working on a new mask policy to present to the school board at its next meeting.

More metro-east school districts are beginning to lift their mask mandates. Collinsville School District, which has plaintiffs in the court case, also voted Monday night to switch to a mask optional policy.

O'Fallon High School and Freeburg High School have also voted to go mask-optional.

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Under the shadow of growing tensions with Beijing, the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that would help the United States remain economically competitive with China. It will now need to be reconciled with similar legislation that passed the Senate last year.

Congress must not allow partisan squabbles to scuttle this vital proposal.

Republicans, who supported the U.S. Senate's United States Innovation and Competition Act, have so far turned their back on the House version, known as the America COMPETES Act, saying the bill includes unacceptable provisions related to labor, foreign policy and climate change.

While differences exist  and their merits are worth debating  both bills promise to fund the critical need to address supply-chain vulnerabilities and increase computer chip production in the U.S. They also include a major investment in ensuring America's place as the leader in scientific research and innovation.

These similarities should be the focus, said U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who heads the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Both bills call for a $52 billion investment in the semiconductor industry, about $160 billion for research and development agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, as well as funding to reduce STEM workforce gaps.

"This would be the largest five-year commitment to public R&D in our nation's history," Cantwell said. "We need it for the job growth. We need it to stay competitive."

The legislation would also create some manufacturing jobs in the U.S., but the benefit to American workers may be strongest in improved protection from global market volatility, said Jeffrey Kucik, an associate professor at the University of Arizona.

"It's about insulating the domestic market from unpredictable global forces," he said. "Whether that's the pandemic, or the Great Recession, or shocks associated with the escalation of the U.S.-China trade war."

For their part, Chinese officials have repeatedly labeled these legislative efforts as the product of a "Cold War mentality."

It was ironic, then, to see President Xi Jinping of China and Russian President Vladimir Putin warmly meet on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Even more so was their joint statement, which sent a message of cooperation between the two countries not seen since Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong.

Their statement, which includes support for each other's foreign policies, underlines the precarious situation surrounding existential threats to Ukraine and Taiwan. It also underlines the need for Congress to act.

These bills are not about viewing the U.S. relationship with China as a Cold War zero-sum game. They are smart efforts to ensure America remains competitive. However, in working together, Republicans and Democrats can send their own message of unity in the face of global challenges.

The Seattle Times

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New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. High 89F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 71F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 89F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 71F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.
Leaders of the Virginia Coalition of Small and Rural Schools continued to advocate for more funding to repair and replace dilapidated schools statewide Monday.

Speaking during an education funding press conference in Richmond, speakers from different state advocacy organizations urged the General Assembly to expand funding for school buildings, behavioral health for students, greater teacher pay, revised Standards of Quality and literacy intervention.

For the coalition, which includes all of the public school divisions in Southwest Virginia among its 80 members, the theme of buildings is a familiar topic.

Among the key issues and challenges our work seeks to influence is the urgency of finally addressing the ever-increasing number of crumbling and dilapidated school facilities, Peter Gretz, superintendent of Fluvanna County Public Schools and vice president of the coalition, said. We believe the ZIP code in which Virginias children are born should not be the deciding factor in whether or not they get to learn in high-quality, modern facilities designed to meet the instructional needs of the 21st century  a century we are almost a quarter of the way through.

Last fall, the coalition invited state lawmakers to tour a number of older, run-down school buildings and learn firsthand about the needs of divisions across the state.

Last year, the Virginia Department of Education issued a report that found more than half of the states 2,005 public school buildings were more than 50 years old, that many of the oldest, most run-down were operated by the states poorest school divisions and that Southwest Virginia had an overabundance of older schools in need of repair or replacement.

Among the coalitions goals is to advocate for distributing a $500 million allocation toward school repair and construction in the states proposed budget.

There has been a tremendous amount of progress. Specifically we are so grateful for the work to establish $500 million in state support for school construction that is currently in the state budget, Kretz said. That is the first investment the state has made in addressing school facilities since 2009. To be sure, it falls very short of addressing the $25 billion recognized as needed, but it goes a long, long way in developing the first and powerful step towards fixing this. We are here today to advocate for the protection of those funds and maybe even the addition of more to address this desperately needed result.

Kristy Somerville-Midgette, superintendent of Brunswick County Schools and secretary of the Coalition of Small and Rural Schools, outlined her districts struggle to fund construction of a new school.

Brunswick is a system of 1,500 students in Southside Virginia with more than 90% of its students living at or below the federal poverty level, she said.

In order for students of Brunswick County to be competitive globally, they need to be able to access adequate resources. So our School Board and county Board of Supervisors worked together and made a tough decision for us to get a new facility, she said. Tough because in an economically depressed community, this is a major burden on the taxpayers. Although appreciative of the countys contribution and sacrifice, we really need a greater level of state aid to fund construction and renovation.

Brunswick didnt even rank among the 10 school systems with the oldest median age for facilities in the state. Bland, Patrick, Floyd and Grayson counties all had a median age of buildings greater than 75 years old.

The city of Bristol ranked fifth in the state, with a median building age of 70, while Lee, Russell and Wythe all ranked among the top 10 oldest median age for their school buildings.

Among bills the coalition and other education entities are supporting is one offered by Del. Israel OQuinn, R-Bristol, Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, and Del. Will Wampler, R-Abingdon.

House Bill 563 would establish the School Construction Matching Grant Fund and program for the purpose of awarding matching grants, on a competitive basis, to local school boards that demonstrate poor school building conditions, commitment and need. The bill permits the state Board of Education to transfer sums from the Literary Fund to the School Construction Matching Grant Fund and for the Department of Education to use such sums to provide matching grants.

A proposed House substitute would rely on the gaming revenues generated by the states casinos rather than tapping into the Literary Fund.

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BRISTOL, Tenn.  The Bristol Tennessee City Council began the process Monday to fill a vacancy on the board following the recent resignation of Chad Keen.

Keen announced his resignation to run for a state house seat Wednesday, Feb. 9.

The council decided they each wanted to hear individually from all interested candidates for the open position.

If someone was truly interested, they would call all of us, Vice Mayor Vince Turner said in response to Councilwoman Margaret Feierabend, who advocated for a more public selection process.

Bristol, Tennessees city charter says candidates must be 21 years old; have been a resident of Bristol, Tennessee for at least a year; and cannot presently hold any kind of local, state, judicial or legislative political office.

The charter does not specify the process to choose the candidate beyond being appointed by a majority of council to fill out the remainder of the term. The successful applicant will occupy the council seat until an election for the seat is held in November.

Turner mentioned Mark Hutton and Logan McCabe as individuals who had reached out to him to express an interest in temporarily filling the East District seat on the council.

Hutton currently serves as a county commissioner for Sullivan County, Tennessee. His position as commissioner is up for reelection. The Sullivan County Election Commission website shows Hutton has filed to run for reelection. Hutton said he is not bothered by the temporary nature of the open Bristol, Tennessee seat.

Every elected seat is temporary, he said. Theres no guarantee that I could be reelected for the County Commission, but I have every intention to run. If Im appointed to City Council, I have every intention of running for that seat [in November].

Hutton went on to express his love for Bristol, Tennessee and identified the landfill issue as one he would be interested in working on.

I want us to bring resolution to the conflict between Bristol, Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia with the landfill issue, he said. Thats a big thing and also just to help navigate the budget and bring a greater working relationship between the city and the county.

If chosen, Logan McCabe, who currently serves on the Bristol Tennessee Industrial Board, said he would want to use his experience to facilitate collaboration between City Council and the private and public sectors.

I believe in collaboration among council and with the public and with business, that whole public-private sector cooperation with each other, he said.

If he is not chosen for the vacant seat, McCabe said he will continue to be involved with the city through his work as part of the Community Engagement and Outreach team for the Bristol Motor Speedway.

Im going to be involved in tourism and the city and economic development, whether Im in this position or not, he said.

Once a candidate is chosen, in order to take on the position, they would be required to resign from all government positions, boards and commissions by March 8, according to Danielle Smith, the Bristol, Tennessee city attorney.

The City Council agreed to hold discussions on individual candidates and vote to fill the East District City Council seat at the end of its work session Tuesday, Feb. 22.

The candidate selected will be sworn in on March 8, at a ceremony during which the City Council will also honor Chad Keen for a near decade of service on the council.

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A Sullivan County grand jury has determined an inmate accused of shooting a sheriffs deputy killed himself in his cell and also that Sullivan County sheriffs deputies were justified in returning fire and used no excessive force in his capture.

Alan Coulter was found unresponsive in his jail cell Monday, Jan. 24, three days after being taken into custody for eluding and repeatedly firing at sheriffs deputies who attempted a traffic stop. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but died three days later.

The 54-year-old Coulter led deputies to a property off Riley Hollow Road, where he hid in one of several outbuildings on the property. According to reports from the Sullivan County Sheriffs Office and District Attorney General Barry Staubus, Coulter fired at the two deputies, striking Evan Wade. The shot broke Wades femur and continued through his leg, causing additional damage.

The release from Staubus office detailed how Coulter allegedly died by suicide in his cell. The release said Coulter hid his actions from security cameras by pulling covers over his body and head at 6:27 p.m. on Jan. 24.

The inmate was mostly covered but can be seen tying a thin piece of fabric ripped from the inside of jail laundry baskets around a handicap rail, the release says. Although not visible by camera, it can be concluded he then placed the fabric around his neck in order to hang himself.

The release states that, after several minutes, Coulters body can be seen jerking, and his face appeared blue and purple. At 6:43 p.m. his cellmates awakened, according to the release, and alerted guards to the situation.

Coulter was taken to a local hospital, where he was placed on life support. The release states family members had him removed from life support after it was determined he was brain dead.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Officer Emily Doran and a pathologist, who was not identified in the release, testified to the grand jury about the incident.

The grand jury concluded that the inmate committed suicide and the jail guards could not have prevented nor acted any faster to get help for the inmate, the release states.

The grand jury also agreed that Sullivan County sheriffs deputies did not use excessive force during the standoff Friday, Jan. 21, when Coulter was initially taken into custody.

Deputies initially saw Coulters car with a taillight out and speeding at 12:45 a.m. Jan. 21, according to a press release from Staubus office. The release says Coulter evaded the pursuit and ended up on private property with several outbuildings.

Officers exchanged fire with Coulter after Wade was injured in the initial gunfire. The injured deputy was pulled away from the structure by his partner, according to the release. After a standoff of several hours, officers gassed the building, causing Coulter to exit around 9 a.m. He was found in possession of a semi-automatic handgun, according to the release.

During a taped interview, the suspect admitted to shooting first and stated that officers had every right to fire at him, the release from Staubus says. He corroborated all the details the officers gave in their reports and was relieved to hear that he hadnt killed the officer.

The release states TBIs Doran investigated the circumstances surrounding the standoff. The results of that investigation were presented to the grand jury.

The grand jury determined no excessive force was used by the Sullivan County deputies and no further action is required.
Right before last Novembers elections in Virginia, we warned Democrats were potentially facing a political backlash that could cost them the governors mansion.

Shortly thereafter, voters reversed the blue wave election of 2019, when Democrats took control of both chambers of the General Assembly in addition to holding all three statewide offices after a generation of Republican rule in Richmond.

That was a heady time for the Democrats legislative leaders, who came to power clearly intending to turn the commonwealth into a reliably blue state. A Washington Post headline summed up their mood at the time: In Virginia, newly empowered Democrats test the blue depths.

But just two years later, stunned Democrats found themselves out of power, having lost the House of Delegates and all three statewide offices they had held since 2009. The progressive blue wave turned out to be not quite as deep as they and their activist base thought it was.

Thats a lesson for Republican leaders in the House who are facing similar political dynamics as their colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

Of course, the winning party gets to set most of the legislative agenda, and theres nothing wrong with that. Elections have consequences, after all, and promises made during hard-fought campaigns can and should be kept if possible.

The GOP will certainly not retain every policy the Democrats enacted when they were in power, even if former Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, insists on defending her partys record in defeat. Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, no doubt has other plans.

But Virginia still has a closely divided and highly polarized electorate, so it will be challenging for the House to pass legislation that makes it through the Democratic-controlled state Senate, as we saw recently when it voted down key elements of Gov. Youngkins education plan.

This could be a recipe for gridlock, but Virginians deserve better than a zero-sum game. Although there are significant areas of disagreement between the two parties on hot-button issues like abortion, gun control, voting standards, criminal justice reform and right-to-work, there are also areas where true bipartisan agreement can be forged.

At the end of the day, Virginians of all political persuasions want good schools, safe neighborhoods, an efficient transportation network, cheap and reliable energy, economic freedom and opportunities for all.

If the GOP leadership in the General Assembly focuses on achieving those goals instead of who wins the next election, theyll be much more likely to avoid the kind of backlash that caught their Democratic colleagues by surprise.
Inmates at the county jail are tested for COVID-19 and quarantined, even if they are vaccinated and the test result is negative.

Capt. Nathan Fisher said he believes the protocol has helped keep the number of cases at the jail low.

Weve handled COVID much better than any other jails in the state, Fisher said. In the beginning, we partnered with (Catawba County) Public Health and Emergency Services.

In July 2020, the jail saw an outbreak and eight inmates tested positive in one of the jails housing units, Fisher said.

I called Public Health and I said: I got eight positive. What do I do? They said, Lock them all down and we are on the way, he said.

Health officials responded immediately and began a series of meetings to discuss how to contain the coronavirus.

That has led to our current protocols, he said.

About 70 inmates at the Catawba County Detention Facility have tested positive for the virus in the past two years. The first case of COVID-19 in Catawba County was confirmed on March 20, 2020.

All new inmates are placed in quarantine.

Because they could have been exposed, Fisher said. There is a five- to seven-day incubation period. They could have the virus in them and they not turn up positive for a few more days.

Fisher said inmates are retested at the end of their quarantine. If the inmates test negative, they are moved to general housing.

If somebody comes up positive  we shut the door, Fisher said. We dont move people, because when we move somebody, we feel we are increasing the potential to spread COVID.

Fisher said inmates who have the virus still receive recreation time, but at a different time than those who are not sick.

We dont let them out for recreation until everybody else gets locked down in the evening, and then we will allow those inmates, or that inmate, to come out, take a shower, make phone calls to family, do all the stuff they need to do, he said.

Fisher said the staff will clean everything the inmate touched during their recreation time after the inmate returns to their cell.

Inmates are not required to get vaccinated for COVID-19 but are offered the vaccine.

We do vaccinations every Thursday, Fisher said. We are now doing Pfizer.

Inmates have access to around-the-clock medical care, a service Fisher said not every jail in North Carolina can provide.

There are not that many jails in the state that have 24/7 medical care, he said.

All your basic general practitioner level of care is available, he said. Scrapes, bumps, colds, infections, things like that, when they are discovered here, those can be handled here.

Weve got an actual medical office, and it looks like a doctors office. We got exam rooms, and we also have cells in there.

In an emergency, the inmate can be transported to a hospital, Fisher said.

Fisher said the jail works with medical care provider MEDIKO.

They provide medical services to jails, he said. All of the staff are contracted through them. Weve got seven full-time staff of theirs on-site, and a doctor is here one day a week, and a PA or nurse practitioner is here two days a week.

Fisher said the nurses are assigned to the jail and live in the area, so they are able to get to know the inmates better.

On Feb. 8 inmate, William Gene Anderson, 65, of Hickory died after suffering respiratory distress, a release from the sheriffs office says.

Medical staff at the jail attended to Anderson, Fisher said, but were unable to revive him. Officers also assisted along with Catawba County EMS.

The detention facility has a medical block where inmates are housed if they need to be closely monitored. Inmates housed in the medical block have a button in their cells they can press if they are having a medical emergency.

They can get access to medical care within minutes, Fisher said.

Officers also check in with them every 15 minutes around the clock.

It gets to be annoying for the inmates, especially at 2 oclock in the morning, Fisher said. Its to check in on them, make sure they are breathing and not under any distress.

Any medical care an inmate receives is paid for by the county.

The only difference would be if they were on Medicare or Medicaid and they were admitted to the hospital, Fisher said. Other than that, the county has to incur all the medical costs, even if they had to have heart surgery.

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" " The lord of the underworld rules over all, eventually, good, bad and in between. duncan1890/E+/Getty Images, HowStuffWorks

Your average citizen of ancient Greece did not, in his or her everyday life, spend much time worrying about the King of the Underworld. Greeks were polytheists. They had a bunch of gods to consider. Asking for blessings from the goddess of love (Aphrodite) or the god of war (Ares) was way more important than dealing with the god of the dead.

After all, everyone was going to come face-to-face with Hades at some point. No use in hurrying things.

Still, Hades was a god and therefore commanded some respect from the Greeks. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, earned that status by knocking off the old-guard gods, the Titans, in a 10-year war known as the Titanomachy. Afterward, these new gods  the Olympians  split up the cosmos: Zeus, god of sky and the heavens (among other cool gigs), became king of the gods. Poseidon assumed control of the seas.

And Hades ended up with a mixed bag, ruling over both the dead and everything under the earth, including seeds, grains, gold and silver. It really wasn't as bad as it sounds. In fact, people ended up naming the underworld after him.

"He has this other name  Pluto  which means 'the rich one,'" explains Richard P. Martin, a professor of classics at Stanford University and the author of "Classic Mythology: The Basics" and several other books and articles on Greek, Latin and Irish literature. "The fact that he's connected also with [his pilfered wife] Persephone, who's connected with fertility and crops, gives you the impression that he's got a pretty good deal. He's the one who can kind of control what comes out of the earth. So it's not like he's got this kind of ... 'short straw' and he's in some dungeon.

"He was presented in this poem, "The Hymn to Demeter," as being a good catch, because he's rich and he's related to Zeus. So there's no sense in the ancient stuff, that I know, that he's somehow lost out and he's angry or something."

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Hades vs. the Devil

In ancient Greek literature, Hades is portrayed as a serious, stern god, his three-headed dog Cerberus often by his side. Hades dwells forever in the underworld. He hardly ever leaves.

He doesn't have to draw people or trick people into the underworld, like the devil does in some later religious version of the underworld and its denizens. Hades is a god, not a fallen angel like Satan. Hades rules over all who come his way, all the dead, good and bad, and keeps them from escaping.

" " Hades' loyal canine companion, Cerberus (aka the hound of Hades) duncan1890/E+/Getty Images, HowStuffWorks

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Hades and Persephone

The most famous story about Hades centers around a brief foray outside of his kingdom. It is the tale of the capture of his wife, the goddess Persephone, daughter of Demeter (and also Hades' sister) and Zeus. Hades, smitten with the childlike Persephone and perhaps a little lonely in the underworld, tempted her with a beautiful flower, seized her when she bent down to pick it, then drew her into the depths to rule by his side. From "The Hymn to Demeter":

She [Persephone] was filled with a sense of wonder, and she reached out with both hands to take hold of the pretty plaything. And the earth, full of roads leading every which way, opened up under her ...

There it was that the Lord who receives many guests made his lunge.

He was riding on a chariot drawn by immortal horses. The son of Kronos. The one known by many names.

He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot, and drove away as she wept.

The kidnapping did not go over well with Demeter, the goddess of grain and agriculture, who so mourned the loss of her daughter that she neglected her duties, bringing a great famine to the land. The famine threatened humankind and so, after some god-to-god bargaining  after all, the gods couldn't let humans die off; who would praise them?  the brothers Zeus and Hades agreed that Persephone could leave the underworld every year to be with her mother.

The only stipulation was that Persephone had to be reunited with Hades for a certain amount of time each year, a bargain that was sealed when Hades tricked Persephone into chowing down on a pomegranate (the magic of the pomegranate mandated her return to the underworld).

It is said that whenever Persephone returns to the underworld  every winter  crops suffer as Demeter weeps.

" " Greek god and goddess Hades and Persephone hold court with Hermes and others. Persephone didn't spend all her time in the underworld. ZU_09/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images

Hades mainly did his ruling without bother from humans, though he was occasionally called on, Martin says, for curses. In a recent find in Greece, a "curse tablet" asked Hades and others  Hecate, for example, the goddess of magic and witchcraft  to bind the tongues of opponents in court. But, again, Hades was not nearly as popular among Greeks as, say, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, war and pottery (among her many duties).

"Everybody knows  and in Greek culture, it's much more prominent  that they're going to die. They know that it's not great, they know that they're just kind of stuck in this other world. So it's not worth your money to kind of propitiate Hades. You're going to get there anyway," Martin says. "But it might be worth it if you are someone who paints fine pottery to dedicate something to Athena in thanks so that she will continue to benefit you as a craftsperson. It's very transactional."

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Hades vs. Hell

It's unclear exactly when the Greek underworld became known as Hades. But that ancient Greek realm is, clearly, a world apart from the more modern version of the underworld, what many know as hell.

"As you see it depicted in, say, Homeric poetry, which is maybe from 700 BC, the realm of Hades is just a kind of dank underworld where you don't see the light of the sun," Martin says. "But it doesn't  except for a couple of specific sinner-types  it doesn't have the very carefully [determined] neighborhoods for different people who did things on Earth. That's a much more late-antiquity thing, and Roman. When you come to Virgil and the Aeneid [an early epic Latin poem], which is from the first century BC rather than the eighth century BC, then it's much more Roman bureaucratic stuff; this part, Elysian Fields [a kind of heaven that some considered to be in the Underworld], and you have this other part. It's much more laid out like a cityscape."

Except for a few who angered Zeus  notably Sisyphus (commanded to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity), Tantalus (now several centuries into going thirsty and hungry despite standing in a pool of water within reach of a fruit tree), and Ixion (who, after trying to seduce Zeus' wife, was strapped to an ever-turning, fiery wheel forever)  the Hades of Homeric times was not fire and brimstone, eternal damnation stuff. It was not the nine circles of hell in Dante's "Inferno."

But at the time, as hell is now, neither was it a place where you wanted to hang out.

"For the Homeric imagination, everyone just suffers the same thing. And the suffering is not punishment," Martin says. "It's just the fact that you're not alive."

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Hades was seen as a grim god, and the kidnapping of Persephone didn't help his reputation. But it should be noted that he didn't steal his brother's daughter on his own: Zeus brokered the deal, offering up his daughter when Hades asked for a wife. The story has many versions, including at least one in which Persephone, charmed by Hades' attention and tempted by his offer to share in the ruling of the rich underworld, eventually falls in love with her abductor.
Risk management is a broad term that can have many, often complicated, definitions when considering a dairys choices on its financial security. A more concise approach was offered by the Center for Dairy Excellences Zach Myers during the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit.

Tools that help you cover your cost of production was the risk education managers definition, and he stressed that this is smart to keep in mind even when milk prices are projected to be higher like they are in 2022. There was a similar optimism at the beginning of 2020, he reminded, and although that situation is probably not going to repeat itself, its worth keeping caution in mind. He encouraged all producers to take advantage of Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC), particularly with the supplemental coverage now available to farmers who have expanded production.

Katie Burgess framed risk management in the time of higher milk prices as, How do you make sure these good prices stick around? As a commodity risk analyst with Blimling and Associates, she helps run forward contracting for about 10 co-ops and sees firsthand how the predictions of the futures market dont always pan out.

In addition to DMC, Burgess noted that Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP) should be considered to set a price floor and protect 95% of it. To compare that to your car insurance, for example, that 5% is your deductible, she described. Just like that car insurance, you dont want it to have to pay out, but you know youre protected if something happens.

She also shared milk price data showing that over recent years, using DRP wouldve resulted in similar average prices but ones that werent quite as low. Its a way of muting the rollercoaster of prices. You enjoy the peaks and avoid the valleys, Burgess stated.

Pennsylvania dairy farmer Jared Kurtz described later in the conference that DMC for their 320-cow farm was a no-brainer. He also keeps an eye on historic price data to determine when he wants to engage in the market and utilize DRP. In the last eight years since returning to the farm after college, he said he has learned to be willing to play ball with risk management, but dont swing for the fences.

Sign-ups for 2022 DMC were just extended until March 25, so you can still take advantage of this proactive option to control your price risk. Myers emphasized that risk management is not a reactive tool. If you wait for milk price to go down, youve lost your chance, he said.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2022

February 10, 2022
The author is the managing editor of Hoards Dairyman.

Dairy demand is up. The last two years have been the strongest on record. Per capita consumption is up 3 pounds, said Michael Dykes in his opening comments to those attending the International Dairy Foods Associations (IDFA) Dairy Forum. In making that statement, Dykes was citing USDA data indicating per capita consumption has climbed to 655 pounds per person.

Now, were consuming dairy in different ways. Were eating more of our dairy than we are drinking it. Butter has been crazy. Cheese is driving the bus. Fluid milk is declining, but dairy demand is increasing, continued IDFAs CEO and president at the late January gathering of North Americas dairy farming and processing leadership.

Going back to the decline in fluid milk production, Dykes pointed out that the U.S. dairy industry is exporting more milk in the form of dairy products than domestic consumers are drinking in the form of beverage milk. This is relatively new in our dairy world, because 20 years ago or so, we werent exporting that much dairy, continued Dykes, who began his career as a dairy veterinarian. Export markets are extremely important to our dairy industry.



Billions in investment

If you havent been on a dairy farm in the last five years, you would be amazed with the things that they are doing, Dykes shared with the processor-heavy crowd. Were seeing innovation not just on the dairy farm, but also in a lot of different places. Were seeing new investments in our industry and growth in our industry. Growth is so important to the processing industry as well as to the farming industry. Our producers want to grow, Dykes continued in a discussion that was in sync with the conferences theme of New, Now, and Next.

We have seen about $2 billion invested over the last couple of years, he explained, pointing to the screen displaying a list of dairy processing plant projects. Theres approximately another $2 billion slated for the next three years. If we add up just the jobs on the chart, which again is not all of them, were nearly at 2,000 jobs. So, people are important, and people are going to be important to our dairy industry, said the longtime marketing strategist.

As for the now, all those dairy products must find a home, and the supply chain remains snarled. To that end, IDFA created a supply chain task force that has two working groups  a port group and a land transportation group.



Weve been in discussions with the ports. Weve met with Gene Seroka, who is the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, Dykes shared. Weve met with three shipping carriers, and we have five more carriers were scheduling meetings with the week after Dairy Forum.

Dykes went on to say that CMACGM Group, a French-owned carrier, had shown the most interest in working with the group to develop creative solutions to get product to international destinations. The dairy industry also has been meeting with the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Oakland. Extended discussions have been held with the commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, and even the White House.

Equally important to resolving the snarled supply chain is trucking.

Were in a situation where I tell people that today a CDL is probably more valuable than a Ph.D., Dykes said of those in the workforce holding a commercial drivers license. Truck drivers, truck drivers, truck drivers, he added, tripling down on the most important matter of moving dairy products for both within U.S. destinations and to ports for eventual international shipment.



The damage done to the trucking industry during the pandemic will take some time to heal, said Kai Bockmann, president and COO of Saputo, later in the meeting. We have to be able to move products from inland locations to coastal ports.

Reform, not remove

Our industry will align our pricing model, predicted Dykes. I firmly believe that. I think our industry is coming together. We need a system that works for both farmers and processors, otherwise we dont have a supply chain, he continued, sharing that Marin Bozic and Phil Plourd would present their findings from a Federal Milk Marketing Order reform study commissioned by IDFA. The final report was 100 pages.

Some will enjoy it. Some will not, predicted Dykes. We will take whatever we can get consensus on at the IDFA Economic Policy Committee, and we will take that forward.

I think in this area, weve been afforded an opportunity that weve never had in dairy. This is a quote from USDA Secretary Vilsack, said Dykes, pointing to the screen quoting a December Hoards Dairyman Intel article. Hes saying, Industry, get your heads together, think through the process, and come to me collectively with what you think is in the best interest of the dairy industry, and Ill move it forward. If you guys cant decide whats good for your industry, dont expect me to decide whats good for your industry.



So, I think we have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us. If we can align on this, I think the U.S. can become, will become, the worlds dominant dairy supplier, predicted Dykes.

One area that has changed a great deal as it pertains to federal orders is the Class I fluid milk category. Weve gone from 40% to 20% of the U.S. milk supply going toward fluid milk during the recent decades, said Phil Plourd, president of Blimling and Associates, in discussing the paper on federal order reform. The status is no longer stable in some federal orders. Some orders are at risk of going away, added co-author Marin Bozic from the University of Minnesota. That risk of going away involves the small portion of milk destined for Class I and the lackluster incentive for other processors to pool milk in order to gain benefits from the Class I pool.

The milk marketing experts also made the case that the current structure limits innovation in the category. It costs at least $150 million to launch a brand, said Plourd. In the fluid space, everyone knows someones cost to the fourth decimal space. Overcoming those slender margins is important.



In addition to solving milk pricing issues around fluid milk, exports also garnered a great deal of attention. In the next 10 years, we can find a home in domestic markets for all the new milk solids. However, in the next 10 years, we will need to find a home for 60% of the new skim milk solids production. That will involve exports, projected Bozic in front of a standing room only audience. New Zealand may be at peak milk. That means the worlds largest dairy product exporter may not be in place to significantly expand its milk production, he said, alluding to the fact that the U.S. is in a better position to fill future market export orders.

The paper provides options to modernize milk pricing but stopped short of making final recommendations to the industry.

We provided all the ingredients to modernize milk pricing in the paper. Like a good chef, its up to the industry to take those ingredients and create the right recipe, concluded Bozic.


The information below has been supplied by dairy marketers and other industry organizations. It has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hoards Dairyman.

David Reid, Hazel Green, Wis., won the National Mastitis Councils (NMC) Award of Excellence for Contribution to Mastitis Prevention and Control. The 2013 NMC president, he owns Rocky Ridge Dairy Consulting, LLC, which offers milk quality consulting services for individual dairies and dairy industry companies. Reid emphasizes the development of training programs for dairy employees, veterinarians and field representatives of dairy industry companies. Reid has consulted with dairy producers and veterinary practitioners in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Hungary, Spain, Australia, China, Russia, Slovakia, United Arab Emirates and England.

This award recognizes an NMC member who has provided sustained contributions to mastitis prevention and control through research, extension and/or education, clinical practice or service to dairy producers. Boehringer Ingelheim sponsors the award and presented Reid with a $2,500 honorarium.

Reid earned his bachelors and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees from Kansas State University. He spent 14 years at Veterinary Associates, with offices in Hazel Green, Wis., and Galena, Ill. Reid focused on herd health programs, problem mastitis herds and consultation on mastitis and milking machine problems. In December 1987, he established Rocky Ridge Veterinary Service. As the only veterinarian on staff, he provided quality milk production management and consultation to dairy producers. Starting in 2003, Reid joined BouMatic as the director of milk harvest, science and technology. He was involved in product development of new milking equipment and training of BouMatic field personnel and dealer technicians, and implemented a program of back-to-the-barn milking system analysis  designed to improve milkability and dairy profitability.



Paul Rapnicki, Grande Cheese Company herd health and wellness veterinarian, described Reid as a worldwide ambassador for the production of quality milk. Rapnicki added, Davids ability to share practical knowledge and real-world experience is a gift he has and one he continues to share with the dairy industry. His famous What do you see? milking parlor pictures effectively teach students about opportunities for milking system and milk quality improvement.

Roger Thomson, MQ-IQ Consulting, LLC and NMC board member, explained that Reid is one of the pioneers who helped establish and standardize the rules for modern milking system evaluation. His passion for quality milk harvesting and for what the dairy animal is experiencing is part of his veterinarian DNA. Dr. Reid is a gifted and passionate teacher, and has mentored hundreds of individuals around the world about all things milk quality. He is selfless with his time and knowledge.



Carolina Pinzon, an independent consultant for her company  FORTE Dairy Consulting  met Reid when working for a dairy equipment company. Reid taught Pinzon about milking equipment, parlor efficiencies and milkability, and generously shared his training materials with her. In the same way he shared this knowledge with me, I saw firsthand his willingness to teach others what was best for the cows and milk quality, said Pinzon. His approachability and genuine interest for others to learn  from dealership technicians to dairy producers to co-workers  is one of his most prominent traits.

Paul Virkler of Quality Milk Production Services, based in New York, noted Reids role in helping develop NMCs Procedures for Evaluating Vacuum Levels and Air Flow in Milking Systems manual. It has had a huge impact on the dairy industry, allowing a standard approach to testing milking equipment, Virkler stated. Dr. Reid was an integral part of this work and convincing equipment manufacturers, dealers, veterinarians and other dairy support personnel that there was value in testing all equipment in the same way.



Brandon Treichler, Treichler Consulting Services and NMC board member, termed Reid as a long-standing contributor to NMC and global milk quality. As a colleague and friend, he has greatly helped foster a passion in milk quality within me, as well as many other NMC members, said Treichler. Dr. Reid has consistently been a champion for practical on-farm milk quality, as evidenced by his slogan coined by another colleague, No Data! At NMC meetings, he can always be found in a spirited conversation on some aspect of milk quality. I am confident that much has been learned by current, future and past NMC members from Dr. Reid.

National Mastitis Council is a professional organization devoted to reducing mastitis and enhancing milk quality. NMC promotes research and provides information to the dairy industry on udder health, milking management, milk quality and milk safety. Founded in 1961, NMC has about 1,000 members in more than 40 countries throughout the world.
The information below has been supplied by dairy marketers and other industry organizations. It has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hoards Dairyman.

National Mastitis Council (NMC) members from 31 U.S. states, five Canadian provinces and 26 countries gathered Feb. 1-3, for the groups 2022 annual meeting  in person and via the world wide web. More than 350 attendees, representing milk quality, mastitis and udder health researchers, dairy producers and dairy industry partners, gathered for the groups 61st annual meeting, which addressed topics that ranged from consumer engagement to small ruminant milkability to gut microbial health to genetics to mitigating mastitis when using recycled manure solids.

Resiliency prevailed as NMC members gathered to network and gain insights regarding milk quality technologies, research and advancements, said Linda Tikofsky, newly installed NMC president and annual meeting program chair, and senior associate director, Cattle Professional Services, Dairy at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health  U.S. Meeting via a hybrid format allowed NMC members to meet  despite the lingering COVID-19 pandemic. We explored future frontiers, which allowed us to gain a better understanding of opportunities to enhance udder health, foster superior milk quality and improve animal welfare.

NMC recognized David Reid, owner of Rocky Ridge Dairy Consulting, LLC, Hazel Green, Wis., during its annual meeting. He received the NMC Award of Excellence for Contribution to Mastitis Prevention and Control, which is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim. The 2013 NMC president, Reid offers milk quality consulting services for individual dairies and dairy industry companies, and repeatedly serves as an NMC Short Course instructor  primarily focusing on evaluating milking systems and optimizing quality milk harvesting.



In the National Dairy Quality Awards program, NMC honored six dairy operations as Platinum winners. These top-quality milk producers included Blue Star Dairy Middleton LLC (Art and Lori Meinholz), Middleton, Wis.; Country Aire Farms (Tom, Mike, Nick, Matt, Craig and Jon Gerrits), Kaukauna, Wis.; Crandall Dairy Farms LLC (Brad, Mark and Larry Crandall), Battle Creek, Mich.; Dolph Dairy LLC (Don and Pat Dolph), Lake Mills, Wis.; Tollgate Holsteins (Jim and Karen Davenport), Ancramdale, N.Y.; and University of Wisconsin Marshfield Agricultural Research Station, Stratford, Wis. Judges selected outstanding dairies to receive this honor based on quality milk production indicators, such as somatic cell count and bacteria count, along with milking routine, systems of monitoring udder health, treatment protocols and strategies for overall herd health and welfare. These herds ranged in size from 73 to 750 cows. Annual milk production (per cow) averaged from 23,835 pounds (10,811 kilograms) to 33,405 pounds (15,152 kilograms). For average somatic cell count (June 1, 2020-May 31, 2021), these dairies varied from 37,000 to 87,000 cells/ml.

NMC awarded scholarships to four outstanding graduate students to attend the NMC Annual Meeting. This years NMC Scholars were Annie Frechette, University of Montreal, Jenna Williamson, University of Georgia, Riitta Niemi, University of Helsinki, and Renata de Freitas Leite, University of Sao Paulo. The NMC Scholars program fosters the development of mastitis research and milk quality professionals from around the world.



During the NMC annual business meeting, members elected Simon Dufour, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and Jennifer Walker, Danone North America, Dallas, Texas, USA; to the NMC board of directors. Executive committee members are Linda Tikofsky, Boehringer Ingelheim, Trumansburg, N.Y., president; Christina Petersson-Wolfe, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Va., first vice president; Keith Engel, GEA, Hampshire, Ill., second vice president; Roger Thomson, MQ-IQ Consulting LLC, Battle Creek, Mich., USA, secretary-treasurer; and Patrick Christian, Christian Hill Dairy, Lomira, Wis., past president. Other board members include Marcos Munoz, University of Concepcion, Chile; Rick Watters, Quality Milk Production Services, Warsaw, N.Y.; Christy Dinsmoore, Novi, Mich., USA; Lowell Jim Davenport, Tollgate Holsteins, Ancramdale, N.Y.; Alfonso Lago, DairyExperts, Inc., Tulare, Calif.; Justine Britten, Udder Health Systems, Meridian, Idaho; Juan Rodrigo Pedraza, Zoetis, Willow Park, Texas; and Brandon Treichler, Treichler Consulting Services, Canyon, Texas. Sarne De Vliegher, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium; and Elizabeth Berry, Animax, Hereford, United Kingdom; retired from the board.

NMC thanks its annual meeting sponsors who contributed to the programs success. Diamond sponsors were Boehringer Ingelheim and GEA. Platinum sponsors were Acumen Detection, DeLaval, Ecolab, Inc., Land OLakes, Merck Animal Health, PortaCheck, Inc. and Zoetis. Gold sponsors included Alltech, Dairy Farmers of America, Kersia, Phibro Animal Health and Udder Health Systems. Silver sponsors were ABS Global, Inc., Ambic Equipment Limited, BouMatic, Labby Inc., Lely, Michigan Milk Producers Association and Udder Tech. Dairy Partner sponsors included Christian Hill Dairy, Luck-E Holsteins, Tollgate Holsteins, Ancramdale, Gardner & Gardner Communications, and Corner Window Communications.



The 62nd NMC Annual Meeting is set for Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2023, in Atlanta. For additional information, go to: www.nmconline.org.

National Mastitis Council is a professional organization devoted to reducing mastitis and enhancing milk quality. NMC promotes research and provides information to the dairy industry on udder health, milking management, milk quality and milk safety. Founded in 1961, NMC has about 1,000 members in more than 40 countries throughout the world.
In the lush upcountry of Kauai, above the foothills of Kapaa, Lydgate Farms is proudly carrying on the legacy of Hawaiian small-scale sustainable farming. Rich in botanicals, fruits, honey and cacao, the property is a bountiful oasis  and the source of some of the best chocolate in the world.

Owned by siblings Will and Emily Lydgate, fifth-generation Hawaiian farmers, the namesake farm offers unique opportunities to experience cacao, chocolates primary ingredient, firsthand. Visitors can learn about the cacao-growing process and sample raw cacao, scooped from freshly cracked pods, as part of the reservation-only branch-to-bar farm tour and multi-course chocolate-tasting. For those who are happy to get their hands dirty, Lydgate offers volunteers an opportunity help harvest cacao pods.

Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. that supports a commercial cacao agriculture industry, and farms like Lydgate are paving the way for a new generation of environmentally focused and socioeconomically conscientious chocolate makers. Eschewing the questionable labor and farming operations on which the cacao industry was built, Lydgate Farms champions equitable and ethical cacao production.

Land and family: an intertwined history

Will and Emilys great-great-grandfather, William Ludgate (the spelling was later changed to Lydgate), arrived in the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1865 and settled on the Big Island. An innovative farmer, Ludgate used cover crops to enrich the soil and flumes (narrow channels of water) to transport the cane on his farm. His son, J.M. Lydgate, who was a child when the family emigrated, learned to speak fluent Hawaiian and became a trained botanist and an ardent protector of the islands. In the 1890s, J.M. settled on Kauai. One of the most popular spots in Kauai, Lydgate Beach Park, memorializes his conservation work.

Will Lydgate recalls his introduction to cacao in the late 1990s when he and his father decided to try planting cacao trees. Neither of us knew how to grow and process the chocolate, he chuckles. But the family bought some rough land in 1998 and developed it into Steelgrass Farm. Soon after, they planted their first cacao trees and celebrated an inaugural harvest in 2008. Lydgate changed the farms name to match his familys in 2017.

From learning-by-doing to twice receiving best-in-world recognition at the Cocoa of Excellence Awards in Paris, France, the farm exemplifies successful American cacao production. While Lydgate admits to feeling like a bit of an underdog among the award winners, he hardly sees that as a disadvantage.

Were like the Jamaican bobsled team of chocolate, he remarks. Everyone else takes it so seriously, and were very fun. We like to host volunteer harvest parties. People come and scoop out the cacao pods and stay for chocolate and cacao nectar popsicles after. Sometimes we light up the barbecue, too, and bust out the guitars and upright bass and sing songs.

Today Lydgate Farms spans about 47 acres and is a draw for pollinators, especially honey bees. The propertys extensive assortment of flora includes vanilla vines, more than 2,600 cacao trees and over 100 different kinds of fruit and flowering trees, palm and bamboo. The farms plants are part of an historic and complex Hawaiian ecosystem, one the Lydgate family is committed to protecting.

Practicing Malama Aina through regenerative agriculture

Lydgates mission is to change the way people think about chocolate. We want to be that chocolate grower. The one thats your absolute favorite  who also shows you that chocolate does grow on trees. And that chocolate doesnt have to come with some of the downsides of the post-colonial, industrial agricultural supply chain, he says.

Harkening back to his ancestors commitment to the local environment, preservation of the islands land and resources remains a driving force on the farm. The Hawaiian phrase Malama Aina captures this ideology. Translating roughly to caring for the land, so it can sustain future generations, Lydgate is doing just that by embracing regenerative agriculture.

Sugarcane and pineapple were Hawaiis primary commodity crops throughout most of the 20th century. However, rising labor costs and the growth of mechanization elsewhere in the world ended their reign, but not before taking a toll on the soil.

Now we use organic fertilizers and regenerative practices to grow sustainable cacao trees. We mulch, compost and utilize cover crops, Lydgate explains. Employing an agroforestry system that incorporates interplanting (which makes the most of the land by planting fast-growing crops between slower-growing ones) and helps Lydgate naturally put more organic matter into the farms soil.

The evolving chocolate industry: Leading change from within

By emphasizing sustainable cacao production, socioeconomic cognizance and product education, Lydgate Farms is carving out a place in an evolving global chocolate industry. We may be one of the smallest producers of chocolate in the world, but because we're here in the United States, we also have the ear of the American public  and a whole visitor industry that we can help teach, Lydgate points out.

As co-owner of the biggest cacao farm on Kauai, Lydgate aims to spread his mission of building a renewed, eco-friendly and viable agricultural industry for Hawaii. By teaching American and global consumers how chocolate is made, we can help cacao farmers in poorer parts of the world, he notes. We're all people and we need to try and care for one another. I really believe that if we help build that ripple effect and put our good word where it does the most, it will spread across the globe.
The owner of a sweepstakes business in Lexington who was warned by law enforcement that he could be facing criminal charges for operating an illegal electronic gaming facility was arrested on Wednesday after a raid on the business on Winston Road.

Corey Denard Albright of Winston-Salem, the owner of 52 Office Express located at 1744 N.C. Highway 8, is facing over 50 different charges related to operating an illegal gambling operation, including felony continuing to operate a criminal enterprise.

The Davidson County Sheriff's Department conducted a raid on the sweepstakes business in Lexington on Wednesday and found several illegal electronic machines. According to the state statute, law enforcement is allowed to confiscate any machines found in violation.

Albright has been charged, among other things, with felony continuing criminal enterprise, which is described as a continuing series of violations which are "in concert with five or more other persons with respect to whom the person occupies a position of organizer, supervisor or any other position of management, and from which the person obtains substantial income or resources to operating an illegal video game enterprise", according the arrest report provided by the Davidson County Magistrates office.

According to a representative from the Sheriff's Office, these charges were specific to Albright, as the owner of the business, who had 5 or more employees who were conducting illegal gaming activities and profiting from those activities. There are currently no charges against the employees.

Albright has also been charged with nine counts of felony illegal bingo, three counts of felony operating 5 or more electronic game promotion; 14 misdemeanor charges for operating/possession of a slot machine; 14 misdemeanor charges for operating illegal video gaming machines (fish tables); 13 counts of misdemeanor manufacturing/selling slot machines and one count of misdemeanor gambling.

He was given a $75,000 secured bond and an initial court date of March 22.

The business has been cited for these offenses in connection with investigative reports on Oct. 6, Jan. 19, Jan. 24 and Jan. 26.

In December, the Davidson County Sheriff's Office served notice to 34 sweepstakes gaming businesses, including the one owned by Albright, that they would be criminally charged if they continue to pay out cash prizes.

A letter signed by Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons and Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank noted that the sheriff's office would begin charging for violations of the ban on electronic sweepstakes machines, video gaming machines, and slot machines under North Carolina General Statue 14-306.

After receiving these notices, all but nine of these electronic gaming parlors have closed. Five sweepstakes businesses in Lexington, three in Thomasville and one in Wallburg filed an injunction with the Davidson County court to remain open but it was dismissed by the courts in December.

According to North Carolina General Statue14-306, any machine (including fish games and other like devices) that awards points or credits that are redeemable for cash in any amount are prohibited.

"Any person who owns or is involved in the operation of prohibited machines may be subject to criminal penalties, including managers or employees," noted the letter. These penalties range from misdemeanor charges to felony charges for repeated infractions.

According to Simmons the year-long investigation into these sweepstakes business determined that several of these businesses were giving out cash for wins and allegedly rigged games to decrease chances of winning.

In 2019, the City of Lexington issued a moratorium on new permits for businesses operating table-mounted video games that pay out rewards, usually cash, for accumulating points by "catching" electronic fish. As a result, the city updated its land ordinance to reflect state laws concerning prohibiting electronic gaming businesses that illegally have cash disbursements.

General news reporter Sharon Myers can be reached at sharon.myers@the-dispatch.com. Follow her on Twitter @LexDispatchSM.
HUDSON, Ohio (AP)  The mayor who suggested that allowing ice fishing shanties on a lake could lead to prostitution resigned Monday after days of being mocked and drawing national attention to the city.

Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert said in his resignation letter that his comments at a City Council meeting had been misinterpreted.

"My attempt to inject a bit of dry humor to make a point about this, in the midst of a cold, snowy February, was grossly misunderstood," Shubert said.

During the discussion about whether to permit people to fish on the frozen city lake last week, Shubert said he wanted to raise some "data points."

"Does someone come back next year and say, 'I want an ice shanty on Hudson Springs Park for x amount of time?'" Shubert said. "And if you then allow ice fishing with shanties, then that leads to another problem  prostitution. Now you've got the police chief and the police department involved."

Shubert later said his comment about ice shanties and prostitution stemmed from his experience as a television news reporter covering law enforcement agencies that have arrested people for prostitution in shanties. He said he was concerned about the potential for unintended consequences.

In his resignation letter, Shubert said he felt he had completed his work as mayor and that he was nearing retirement.

"Some in our community saw this as an opportunity to engage in the politics of personal destruction by means of character assassination, blaming me for the negative international press they helped to promote," he said.

It was the second time he had brought national attention to the city southeast of Cleveland.

Last year, he called for Hudson school board members to resign over the use of a book of writing prompts for a college-level class at the high school that he called child pornography.
SPRINGFIELD  Republican lawmakers are calling for the passage of legislation that would allow Department of Children and Family Services workers to carry pepper spray for self-defense when investigating allegations of child abuse.

This comes weeks after the death of DCFS investigator Deidre Silas, who died while checking the welfare of six children at a home in Thayer in rural Sangamon County. Benjamin Reed, 32, was charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death.

It is legal for people to carry pepper spray for their own protection, as many do all over this state. Yet, DCFS workers who have to walk into abusive homes are not allowed that same protection, Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, the sponsor of Senate Bill 4165, said at a news conference. This is a commonsense step to help them stay safe while performing what is an incredibly important job.

Rep. Sandy Hamilton, R-Springfield, filed House Bill 5688 that would allow the DCFS employees to carry mace or pepper spray on the job, also requiring them to complete a training program from the Illinois State Police on the proper use of pepper spray.

This bill provides a safety tool not currently available to DCFS frontline staff, should they encounter dangerous and possibly life-threatening situations while doing their job, said retired DCFS worker Gayle Hopper, who attended a Tuesday news conference unveiling the legislation.

McClure said he believes the bill will receive bipartisan support.

McClure is also a cosponsor on a bill to increase criminal penalties for attacking a DCFS worker. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has endorsed that effort. Similar efforts failed in 2019 after the death of DCFS worker Pam Knight, who was fatally assaulted during a child protection call in Milledgeville in northwest Illinois.

Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, also introduced House Bill 3646 that will allow DCFS caseworkers to carry a concealed handgun during the performance of their official duties.

Since 2017, there have been more than 2.5 million visits to homes and 20 documented incidents where a worker was threatened or assaulted, and all of those incidents were reported to local law enforcement, according to information provided by DCFS last month.

DCFS investigators must complete a six-week training that includes worker safety and within the first 90 days of employment must complete workplace and field safety training. In addition, after Knights death, Illinois State Police conducted training for DCFS, covering topics such as de-escalation, active shooter response and situational awareness.

Under current rules, an employee should call for law enforcement or take another DCFS worker with them on a call that involves:

A documented history of violence, including assault convictions or weapons violations.

A document or alleged history of criminal activity.

Taking a child into protective custody.

A report that alleges that the person being investigated is dangerous or known for potential violence.

During the news conference, McClure said mace or pepper spray might just give a DCFS investigator the few seconds they need to get away from a violent attack.

When asked if adding pepper spray into a situation with children alleged to be abused or neglected could escalate the situation, McClure responded that the pepper spray was to be used for self-defense and training provided by the Illinois State Police would be key.

Its sad that we have to make a law for our state workers to be able to protect themselves, Hamilton said. It is the right thing to do, so that those who are working to protect abused children can also have at least one tool to protect themselves in these situations.

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China, France further market cooperation

By OUYANG SHIJIA (China Daily) 08:19, February 15, 2022

Nations seek enhanced ties through new round of demonstration projects

China and France have recently signed a document on the list of the fourth-round demonstration projects of developing third-party market cooperation, marking the latest step in Beijing's bid to strengthen international cooperation.

The list includes seven projects worth over $1.7 billion, covering infrastructure, environmental protection, new energy and others. Many Chinese and French enterprises and financial institutions will participate in the projects in areas including Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on Monday.

The country's top economic regulator said the forms of cooperation will include joint investment, as well as Chinese engineering procurement and general construction contracting and French investment and development, which will have a positive effect on economic and social development in third-party markets.

The commission said companies from both sides are highly complementary, showing great potential and broad prospects.

"French enterprises have unique advantages in fields including advanced manufacturing, environmental protection and engineering construction while Chinese companies have rich experience in fields such as infrastructure construction, energy, equipment manufacturing and the internet," the NDRC said in the statement.

In the next step, the NDRC said it will work closely with the Treasury of France to actively build platforms and create favorable conditions for third-party market cooperation between enterprises from both sides.

France is the first country to establish a third-party market cooperation mechanism with China. During Premier Li Keqiang's visit to France in June 2015, the two countries issued a Sino-French joint statement on third-party market cooperation.

Experts said third-party market cooperation effectively integrates China's competitive production capacity and developed countries' advanced technologies with the rising development demand of developing countries, which has become a key part of the Belt and Road Initiative and will further strengthen international cooperation.

As of January, China had signed more than 200 cooperation documents with 147 countries and 32 international organizations to jointly enhance Belt and Road cooperation, and it has been actively promoting the third-party cooperation model, the NDRC said.

So far, China has signed documents on third-party market cooperation with several countries including France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Under the innovative third-party market cooperation model, Chinese enterprises and their peers in related countries could jointly develop projects in a third country involved in the BRI, said Liu Huaqin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Liu said in an article published in China Forex that the model can connect China's advantage in manufacturing and developed countries' technological and financial advantages with the third-party's vast development demand.

To better promote the third-party market cooperation model, Liu said more efforts are needed to promote both project cooperation and investment mechanisms, which will help offer a favorable institutional environment for enterprises participating in the cooperation arrangement.

Liu suggests while Chinese enterprises should have a better understanding of local rules, the government should establish an effective investment dispute-resolution mechanism and build a multilevel outbound investment information service platform.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Now that Chicago Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson has been convicted of federal tax charges, it falls to Mayor Lori Lightfoot to name someone to succeed him in the Daley familys historical 11th Ward seat of power on the Chicago City Council.

Under state statute, the conviction means Thompson immediately resigns the post as alderman representing Bridgeport and parts of Back of the Yards, Canaryville, Chinatown and Pilsen.

The process of replacing him for the rest of the term that ends in 2023 is less clear. Within 60 days of the vacancy occurring, the mayor is supposed to present to the City Council a nominee who has lived in the ward for more than a year. She has lots of latitude on how to arrive at that finalist.

Lightfoot released a statement Monday evening saying that now that Thompson has been judged by a jury of his peers and found guilty, her office this week will outline an open and transparent process to fill the vacancy with a qualified public servant that represents the values of the residents of the 11th Ward and the City of Chicago.

The mayor wants to set a clear precedent now for how she will go about picking a new alderman, since she could face other vacancies. Two council members  Far South Side Ald. Carrie Austin and Southwest Side Ald. Ed Burke  are currently under federal indictment, though no trial dates have been set in their cases.

Other potential vacancies could occur if council members are elected to other offices. Ald. George Cardenas of the Southwest Side 12th Ward is running for the Cook County Board of Review.

And South Side Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, and Northwest Side Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, are running for U.S. Congress. Plus, two aldermen are on the ballot for judgeships.

And other aldermen who dont want to run for another term could step down this year, leaving the mayor to replace them.

Lightfoot might set up a process similar to the one former Mayor Rahm Emanuel used to fill several empty council seats, creating a panel of local leaders and perhaps veteran aldermen to accept applications and conduct interviews of hopefuls. That group would then forward a finalist or finalists to Lightfoot, who would submit a name to the City Council for approval.

Following Thompsons conviction Monday, council colleagues said hes diligent at his aldermanic duties, and wondered if his position and name made him a target.

He was always there, doing the work, always engaged, said Cardenas, whose ward borders the 11th Ward and who sits near Thompson in the City Council chambers. I dont think this reflects badly on the council as a whole, because this doesnt have anything to do with his official duties. This was a personal matter that didnt get handled in the right way.

Unfortunately, were in the eye of the storm. Were trophies, Cardenas added. Its par for the course for anyone who serves the public. Anything can become an issue.

Northwest Side Ald. Nick Sposato, 38th, said it wasnt just what Thompson did for a living that made him a federal target, but the fact hes a Daley. I just think he got the royal screw job because of what his name is, Sposato said. If his name had been John Smith, they would have said, Pay us what you owe us and well call it even.

Sposato said he thinks Thompson took on too much while trying to make a better life for his family, and got sloppy with his books.

The Thompson situation is unique in that his uncle, Cook County Commissioner John Daley, is the 11th Ward Democratic committeeman. It remains to be seen whether the ward political organization will try to play an active role in naming Thompsons successor, and whether Lightfoot would be amenable to that.

The mayor faces an additional complication, and opportunity, in the soon-to-change boundaries and racial makeup of the ward.

In the ongoing fight over the decennial remapping of Chicagos 50 wards, both the City Councils Latino Caucus and Black Caucus have pledged to consolidate more of Chinatown within the 11th, creating the citys first Asian-majority ward.

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Thompson has opposed that change on the grounds cutting part of the Back of the Yards neighborhood out of the ward to enable the demographic shift would hurt his constituents, but his conviction clears the way for the mayor to consider naming an Asian American person to the seat.

Doing so could earn her plaudits from the citys fast-growing Asian population and supporters who believe more political representation for the group is past due. But Asian American community leaders in Chinatown and elsewhere are far from united in backing a single candidate for the council, so such a selection by the mayor could also ruffle feathers.

And Lightfoot could end decades of the 11th Ward alderman having Daley family connections. Prior to Thompson winning the seat in 2015, it was held for 18 years by James Balcer, a Marine Corps veteran chosen as alderman in 1997 by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Balcer succeeded Ald. Patrick Huels, Mayor Richard M. Daleys City Council floor leader and trusted adviser, who resigned in disgrace amid reports he borrowed $1.2 million from a company owned by a boyhood friend of Daleys who held millions of dollars in city contracts

Huels was elected alderman in 1977 when then-11th Ward Ald. Michael Bilandic became mayor after Richard J. Daley died. Bilandic was part of Daleys 11th Ward Democratic organization when he won the aldermanic seat in 1969.

Before Bilandic there was Matthew Danaher, another member of the Daley ward organization who went on to be Cook County clerk of the circuit court after serving as alderman. Danaher died in 1974 while under federal indictment for an alleged kickback scheme.

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Two of Raytheon Technical Corp.s four main subsidiaries  including Collins Aerospace  are being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for potential violations of federal antitrust law related to hiring practices.

Raytheon updated the criminal investigations Friday in its annual regulatory filing. The company initially disclosed it had received a grand-jury subpoena from Justice in late 2019.

The company said the Justice criminal investigation is probing purported agreements not to solicit or hire employees in violation of the federal antitrust laws.

While the investigation has focused on alleged hiring restrictions between and among Pratt & Whitney (another Raytheon subsidiary) and certain of its suppliers of outsourced engineering services, the subpoena also included requests regarding Collins Aerospace.

The filing disclosed that a criminal indictment was filed Dec. 15 in federal court in Connecticut against a former Pratt & Whitney employee and five other employees of certain outsourced engineering suppliers.

According to the Hartford Courant, those individuals were accused of participating in a long-running conspiracy to restrict the hiring and recruiting of employees among their respective companies.

Those individuals were charged with one count of violating the federal antitrust laws. None was identified in the filing.

Raytheon said no current or former Collins employees were named in the indictment.

Collins, which has an operational hub in Winston-Salem, had about 1,500 local employees when the brunt of the pandemic began to be experienced in mid-March 2020. The company has declined since to provide a local workforce update.

It is likely there have been significant local job cuts over the past 13 months considering there have been at least 16,500 Collins jobs eliminated companywide in that time.

Raytheon said it is cooperating with the investigation, and that no criminal charge has been filed against the company or affiliates.

The filing said that numerous civil class-action antitrust lawsuits have been filed against Pratt & Whitney and other corporate and individual defendants in federal court in Connecticut.

The civil lawsuits follow a parallel legal track as the criminal indictment.

Plaintiffs in each of the civil lawsuits seek to represent different purported classes of engineers and skilled laborers employed by Pratt & Whitney and other supplier-defendants since 2011, according to the filing.

Collins Aerospace was named as a defendant in some of the lawsuits.

Raytheon said it expects the civil lawsuits will be consolidated into a joint complaint.

We believe that each of these lawsuits lacks merit, Raytheon said. Based on the information available to date, we do not believe that this matter will have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.

Second investigation

Raytheon already has been facing another Justice criminal investigation into the company that began in October 2020.

In that investigation, Justice officials filed a criminal subpoena seeking information and documents in connection with an investigation relating to financial accounting, internal controls over financial reporting, and cost reporting regarding Raytheon Companys Missiles & Defense business since 2009.

The investigation involves multi-year contracts subject to governmental regulation, including potential civil defective pricing claims for three contracts entered into between 2011 and 2013.

In March 2021, Raytheon received a second criminal subpoena seeking documents relating to a different contract entered into in 2017.

Raytheon said it is cooperating in those investigations as well.

We have made substantial progress in our internal review of the issues raised by the DOJ investigation, the company said.

Although we continue to believe we have defenses to the potential claims, the company has determined that there is a probable risk of liability for damages, interest and potential penalties.

As a result, Raytheon said it has accrued $290 million toward those potential penalties.

We are currently unable to estimate an incremental loss, if any, which may result following the completion of our internal review and resolution of the DOJ investigation, the company said.

Raytheon does not believe the results of the investigation, or of any potential civil litigation, will have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.

As was the case in the latest Justice investigation, there have been four shareholder lawsuits filed against Raytheon in response to the Missiles & Defense inquiry.

A putative securities class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Arizona against the company and certain executives alleging that the defendants violated federal securities laws by making material misstatements in regulatory filings regarding internal controls over financial reporting in Missiles & Defense business.

A putative class-action lawsuit is defined as a lawsuit brought by one or more named plaintiffs on behalf of a potential group of similarly situated individuals

Another three shareholder derivative lawsuits were filed in federal court in Delaware against the former Raytheon Co. board of directors, the company and certain executives.

Those lawsuits allege defendants violated federal securities laws and breached their fiduciary duties by engaging in improper accounting practices, failing to implement sufficient internal financial and compliance controls, and making a series of false and misleading statements in regulatory filings.

Raytheon said in the filing that we believe that each of these lawsuits lacks merit.

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As part of our observance of Black History Month, we look at local people and organizations that were significant in local Black history.

This article was originally published March 10, 1998.

Lillian Lewis once called education "the most precious gift" she had ever received.

Lewis was born in 1904 on a small farm in eastern Mississippi, the ninth of 13 children. Her father owned the land he worked, but little else. He didn't have enough money to educate his children past the public schools.

An older sister stepped in and sent Lillian to Tougaloo College, and from there she won scholarships to Howard University, supplementing these awards with summer jobs. She taught at South Carolina State College and earned a master's degree from the University of Chicago, then taught at other mostly Black colleges in the South. In 1945, she became the first Black woman to receive a doctorate degree from the University of Chicago.

Lewis came to Winston-Salem in 1947 to teach biology at what was then Winston-Salem Teachers College. Her husband, John F. Lewis, was a Winston-Salem native and also took a job with the faculty there.

In 1960, Lewis ran for the county board of education. Although the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled six years earlier that segregated schools were unconstitutional, true integration was years away.

In essence, there were four school systems when Lewis arrived in Winston-Salem - white and Black city schools, and white and Black county schools.

Most Black people lived in the city, but the county school board was still elected countywide.

Racial tensions were far less than they would be when court-ordered busing came to the county in 1971.

Still, it was a gamble. C.B. Hauser, who was Lewis' campaign manager, put it this way: "I had noticed that Blacks who ran for office would emphasize controversial issues. They always lost. Dr. Lewis and I did not concentrate on controversial issues. I told her that `If you will keep your . . . mouth shut, we can get you elected.' She followed those instructions."

On Nov. 8, 1960, she was elected to the county school board, coming in fifth among the five Democrats, but still 3,500 votes ahead of the closest Republican.

She once said, "I know those people felt uncomfortable with me sitting here, but I knew more about education than any of them, and I was there to work with them, not to make them feel uncomfortable."

As a board member, Lewis pushed for full and fair desegregation of the schools. She was also a champion of poor children of all races, whom she thought were often short-changed by teachers and administrators.

Lewis was easily re-elected in 1962. The next year, voters in the city and county approved consolidating the two school systems. Lewis served as a member of the consolidated board, whose members were appointed by the county commissioners.

That system changed in 1967, when voters approved making the seats elective offices.

Republicans captured a board majority in 1968, and Lewis decided not to run in 1970.

Lewis died in 1987.

Email: AskSAM@wsjournal.com Write: Ask SAM, 418 N. Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101

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Hotel bills? Food? Lost wages?

The Winston-Salem City Council is expected to decide on Monday on a plan to spend up to $1 million from city cash reserves to help residents who were affected by the big plant fire at the Winston Weaver Co. on Jan. 31, but the details could create some heat.

The councils Finance Committee on Monday approved sending a $1 million spending request to the full council, with a warning from Council Member Robert Clark that he will use a parliamentary maneuver to postpone the vote if the plan doesnt have a complete set of guidelines on who can get the money and what qualifies for help.

My concern with this is that everyone is treated fairly, said Clark, who chairs the Finance Committee. This could be a tremendous precedent-setting item. For example, most of the people who did not work for three or four days do not live in this area. There are probably a thousand people who work in those businesses ... that were closed.

The plant fire caused the city to put in place a voluntary evacuation zone that had businesses closing and people leaving their homes, although city officials still dont know how many people were affected.

Council Member D.D. Adams has requested $1 million to help people who live within the one-mile evacuation zone cover expenses such as meals and hotel rooms they had to occupy while they were out of their houses.

But Adams suggested there are other costs people will need help covering, including checking for hazardous substances in houses and even mental health counseling.

There are people who have told me they dont feel safe inside their houses right now because theyre scared that the surfaces inside their homes may have received contamination, Adams said.

It is incumbent on government to help its citizens in a time of crisis, Adams said, adding that many of those affected are people who live paycheck to paycheck who are mostly black and brown.

Between now and Monday, Assistant City Manager Patrice Toney will be leading a city effort to develop the guidelines on spending the $1 in relief money.

Toney told council members during committee that the biggest needs citizens are bringing to the city so far are requests for help paying hotel bills and making up for lost wages.

Clark said after the meeting that he would take the unusual step of making a no consideration motion if the guidelines are not specific about how the money will be distributed. Such a motion can only postpone action at best, but it showed Clarks worry that the city needs to be careful on what kind of precedent it sets.

I think we will have a plan on Monday, Clark predicted, while sticking with his threat. We need to be sure what we say we will cover, because what we do today, we will do tomorrow.

Three members of the Finance Committee, Adams and council members Jeff MacIntosh and James Taylor, voted in favor of the $1 million motion, but Clark abstained, saying he wants to wait for the details on Monday.

Council Member Annette Scippio, sitting in on the committee, said the city needs to look at helping businesses that took a hit from closure, and Mayor Allen Joines, also present, said small businesses in particular often dont have insurance that would cover such unexpected business closures.

But Angela Carmon, the city attorney, said that helping businesses impacted by the evacuation is something likely not allowed by general statutes. And even aid given to people who were temporarily put out of work would have to be tailored to help only those who make moderate or low wages, she said.

They will still have to be a city resident, Carmon said.

It was not clear how much support exists on the council for paying lost wages, as opposed to hotel bills.

MacIntosh said the city needs to work with the N.C. General Assembly to try to get some of this money back, and needs to take steps to figure out how to prevent similar fires in the future.

The Weaver plant had no sprinkler system, which was not required under the building code in effect when the plant was built.

I have a feeling that this is not the only place where dangerous chemicals are stored, and we cant do anything about it, MacIntosh said. But MacIntosh also said the $1 million from the city needs to be carefully controlled because this will be a precedent.

We need to be fairly narrow about what circumstances ... we will be the financial aid for, if no other relief can be sought from the state or federal governments. I want us to be very careful about that.

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A key committee is scheduled to begin discussing expanding the states Medicaid program on Friday.

The Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Access to Healthcare and Medicaid Expansion is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Friday.

However, there is a possibility the meeting could be postponed to allow legislators to focus on the next attempt at redistricting maps.

According to a preliminary agenda, four main topics will be addressed: the state of N.C. healthcare: how the state compares to the rest of the country; rural hospital closures and an overview of the rural emergency hospital; a review of NC Nursecast: a data visualization tool examining the states nursing shortage; and impact of federal surprise billing law on states.

Medicaid currently covers 2.71 million North Carolinians. Another 450,000 to 650,000 low-to moderate-income North Carolinians could become eligible if the state opts to expand the program.

Those who might be eligible under the expanded program are those who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid coverage, but not enough to get help in the private insurance marketplace.

Forsyth County legislators Sen. Joyce Krawiec and Rep. Donny Lambeth were named Jan. 5 as co-chairs of the committee formed to study whether and how North Carolina could expand its Medicaid program.

It is the first of at least three committee meetings set through March 15.

The formation of the committee represents an agreement between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

That agreement played a role in reaching a compromise on the 2021-22 state budget  the first signed into law by Cooper since the GOP lost its super-majority in January 2019.

The purpose of the committee, as identified in the 2021-22 state budget, is to consider various ways in which access to health care and health insurance can be improved for North Carolinians, according to a statement from House speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland.

North Carolina is one of just 12 states that have not expanded its Medicaid program using funding available from the federal Affordable Care Act.

Many states with Republican leadership have accepted Medicaid expansion, including Indiana when former vice president Mike Pence was governor.

The nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, based in New York, released a study in May that found North Carolina could gain at least 80,000 health-care jobs by expanding Medicaid coverage.

Lambeth has been doing the heavy lifting behind state House attempts to advance a form of Medicaid expansion.

Lambeths House Bill 655 required a Medicaid-expansion work-requirement that gained begrudging Democratic support. After clearing the House committee process, HB655 failed to get a floor vote during the 2019 session.

Our committee will explore and seek solutions to critical health-care issues with the goals of broadening access to quality health care for working people, lowering health insurance premiums for everyone, addressing the cost of uncompensated care especially for rural hospitals, and providing more affordable health-care options to help small businesses retain employees, Lambeth said in a Jan. 5 statement.

Lambeth added separately that this is an important topic for N.C. and has been debated for several years.

Access can cover a number of key points. Currently, the easiest and best access point across N.C. is our emergency rooms.

But, that has its challenges and is also one of the most costly sites and frustrating to people who seek care.

Meanwhile, Krawiec has emerged over the past three years as a key GOP health-care reform proponent focused more of amending the state's certificate-of-need laws addressing healthcare infrastructure and equipment projects.

I am hopeful that we will explore all avenues, Krawiec said on Jan. 5. Our plan will be to provide better access to health care and to improve the Health of our residents in North Carolina.

Moore pledged that committee members will thoroughly investigate the health-care needs in our state and explore all options to improve upon the state of health care in North Carolina.

I have every confidence that the result of this committees work will benefit all North Carolinians.

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MARTINSBURG, W.Va.  A former Navy nuclear engineer from Annapolis admitted in a West Virginia federal court Monday that he conspired to sell classified military information about nuclear submarines to a foreign government.

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, entered the guilty plea in the W. Craig Broadwater Federal Building and United States Courthouse, which is not far from where he and his wife, Diana, were arrested in October.

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Toebbe divulged thousands of pages of documents with schematic designs, operating parameters and performance characteristics about nuclear-powered cruise missile fast-attack submarines, known in the U.S. Navy as the Virginia-class of submarines, according to his plea.

The crime of conspiring to communicate restricted data to a person with the intent to injure the U.S. or provide an advantage to a foreign nation carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. However, Toebbes attorney and the government agreed as part of his plea to argue for a sentence between 12 1/2 and 17 1/2 years in prison. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled yet.

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Toebbe told U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Trumble that he was entering the plea willfully and that he was not doing it to protect anyone else. At the end of the plea hearing, Trumble remanded Toebbe to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

I conspired with Diana Toebbe to transmit restricted data to a foreign country, Toebbe told the judge.

These booking photos of Jonathan Toebbe and Diana Toebbe were released Oct. 9, 2021, by the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. (West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority via AP, File) (AP)

Its unclear what, if any, implications Jonathan Toebbes plea has on his wifes case.

The husband and wife have insisted Diana Toebbe is innocent. Her attorneys pushed for her release pending trial, arguing she wasnt privy to her husbands scheme to divulge classified information. A magistrate judge denied that request and she appealed.

The last sentence of Jonathan Toebbes plea agreement says in bold type the government has no agreements, understandings or promise with Toebbe other than those outlined in his plea, which explicitly names Diana Toebbe as his co-conspirator.

Her attorney, Barry Peck, did not respond to a request for comment Monday evening.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarod Douglas deferred questions to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of West Virginia, who declined to comment about the open case.

The office distributed a news release with statements from a range of Department of Justice officials touting the guilty plea was a result of a diligent investigation.

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The U.S. District Courthouse in Martinsburg, West Virginia, where Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer, pleaded guilty Monday to espionage for trying to pass information about the design of American nuclear-powered submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. (Alex Mann)

Among the secrets the U.S. government most zealously protects are those related to the design of its nuclear-powered warships, said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen for National Security. The defendant was entrusted with some of those secrets and instead of guarding them, he betrayed the trust placed in him and conspired to sell them to another country for personal profit.

Alan Kohler Jr., the assistant director of FBIs Counterintelligence Division, said in a statement that the plea should serve as a deterrent to similar offenses.

Theres a message here for anyone who would sell out Americas secrets. The FBI and its partners will use all our investigative techniques to bring you to justice, Kohler said.

In court, Toebbe wore an orange jumpsuit from the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His shaggy beard protruded from beneath a face mask and his hands were handcuffed and connected to a belly chain. He answered Trumbles questions clearly and asked no questions.

Douglas summarized the facts agreed to by Toebbe and the government as part of the plea agreement.

Having worked since 2012 on projects related to naval nuclear propulsion, Toebbe held a top-secret security clearance, according to federal investigators. They said its possible hed been collecting information related to the Navys nuclear endeavors throughout his tenure with the program and, at some point in 2020, sought out a foreign country to share it with.

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In April 2020, Toebbe sent a sample of restricted data to a country not identified in court records, asking the recipient to share it with their military intelligence agency and promising his information would be of great value to your nation, according to court records. Toebbes letter was shared with an FBI attache, prompting federal agents to launch an undercover operation.

Over more than a year, undercover agents communicated with Toebbe over an encrypted email service and facilitated the displaying of a discrete signal in Washington, D.C., as well as a series of four dead drops in 2021 in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The agents transferred cryptocurrency to Toebbe after picking up the SD cards he left in predetermined locations and Toebbe followed up with a key to decrypt the information.

Toebbe concealed the digital memory devices in a peanut butter sandwich, a Band-Aid wrapper and a chewing gum package.

In sum, the government paid Toebbe the equivalent of $100,000 in cryptocurrency. Federal authorities have not located the money it paid Toebbe, nor thousands of pages of additional documents Toebbe claimed to have had.

As part of his plea, Toebbe agreed to help federal agents find the money and classified records. If he fails to cooperate, the government can back out of its obligations under the plea, but Toebbe would not be able to withdraw his guilty plea.

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Toebbes attorney, federal public defender Nicholas Compton, declined to comment, citing his clients pending case.

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Federal court records offer few clues of the couples motivations but show how federal agents built a covert relationship with Jonathan Toebbe over time. With each exchange of information, agents gleaned more about the people they were dealing with: Jonathan, the nuclear engineer, and Diana, 46, a humanities teacher at the Key School in Annapolis.

The FBI followed the couple to the drop sites and watched them deposit the information, accusing Diana Toebbe of acting as a lookout on three occasions. Jonathan Toebbe wrote in an encrypted email only one other person I know is aware of our special relationship, which was his wife, according to the plea agreement.

A federal grand jury indicted the couple Oct. 19.

As part of his plea agreement, Toebbe also agreed to forfeit all documents, electronic devices and digital media seized from his home in Annapolis, vehicles and his Navy office. His plea says he is not allowed to communicate with foreign governments upon his release but for legal international travel.

Toebbe signed every encrypted email as Alice, describing the format of the information he provided and often expressing concerns about the possibility that he may be communicating with law enforcement, which he regularly referred to as adversaries.

Thank you for your partnership as well, my friend, Jonathan Toebbe wrote in an encrypted email to a federal agent. One day, when it is safe, perhaps two old friends will have a chance to stumble into each other at a cafe, share a bottle of wine and laugh over stories of their shared exploits.
The Virginia election of Republican Glenn Youngkin and Winsome Sears as governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, provides a great opportunity for the GOP if it will seize the moment and expand on it.

Youngkin and Sears exploited the legitimate fear many parents have in Virginia and nationally over what their children are taught  and not taught  in public schools subsidized by their taxes. The opportunity given to Republicans is for the party to focus not only on the bad and hope to eradicate it, but on the good that is taught in charter and private schools, allowing tax dollars to follow their children to the school of their choice. Teachers unions, politicians and bureaucrats should not dictate to parents. It should be the other way around.

The benefit of school choice was again underscored for me when I received a Valentines Day thank you card from a woman whose daughters are recipients of Childrens Scholarship Fund (CSF) tuition in New York City. I am a contributor to the fund, which allows children from low-income families to escape their underperforming public schools. The fund is available in 19 states.

Nissa wrote: Both my daughters and myself have promised to work hard and support one another towards reaching their goals so that they can continue to be the best students they can be. This has brought great joy and gratitude, as well as inspiration to continue to be bright lights during what some may consider a dark time. Its truly a blessing and we cannot thank you enough.

There was also this note from Alexander Guzman, a fourth grader at Incarnation School in Washington Heights, N.Y.: I love math. That is my specialty. Thank you for giving me a scholarship. I am so happy for the opportunity to continue being in my school.

CSF President Darla Romfo says the on-time graduation rate for kids who receive scholarships is 98.8%. While public high school graduation rates in New York City ticked up 1.5 percent to 78.8% in 2020, Christine Veija writes on the website Chalkbeat New York, Though more students are earning diplomas, its not clear whether that means they are learning more while in high school. Given the introduction of so many non-academic subjects designed to track with political correctness, Im betting theyre not.

According to CSF, 71.7% of graduates who received tuition aid enrolled in a two-, or four-year college for the 2020-2021 semesters. Evidence that the public-school model has been failing students and the country can be found in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which every three years measures the reading ability, math, science literacy and other critical skills among 15-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries. The most recent results, from 2015, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Guess which country ranks first in math, science and reading? According to PISA its China.

In addition to improving education through national school choice, there are other opportunities for Republicans to regain the political initiative that can lead to renewal. These would include rebuilding the military so dictators conclude they no longer have carte blanche to invade other countries and a buy American campaign to encourage  and shame if necessary  corporations into bringing back production of items they have farmed out to China and other countries whose practices are in opposition to our values and national interests. Make this a patriotic duty.

Then, instead of just bashing Democrats for their failed policies, Republicans should put on a happy face and borrow from John F. Kennedy, who said about Republicans, we can do better. A positive agenda and outlook overcomes a negative one as light dispels darkness.

We can do better. Will Republicans say so and show the way?

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.
This editorial has been updated to correct a reference to opioid death statistics among Black and white men.

As much we keep hoping it will go away, the coronavirus just keeps on bedeviling us in mind, body and spirit.

One Triad hospital has been so overwhelmed with COVID that the National Guard has been called in.

Twenty-five guard soldiers and airmen were deployed Thursday at Alamance Regional Medical Center, where they will work alongside a depleted and overwhelmed medical staff until March 4. Alamance Regionals parent organization, Greensboros Cone Health, asked for the assistance.

So, even as COVID appears to have peaked in North Carolina, it is still wreaking havoc.

Meanwhile, a crisis that long preceded COVID rages on as well. North Carolina Health News recently reported that increasing numbers of people are being rushed to hospital emergency departments across the state after overdosing on opioids, specifically fentanyl.

Drug overdose emergency department visits rose from 2019 to 2020, with preliminary data suggesting another rise in 2021.

As for COVID, the pandemic and opioids have been entwined from the start. The mental health challenges of the virus are widely seen as one of the drivers of increased drug use. And both mostly unvaccinated COVID patients and opioid overdose patients have strained the capacity of hospitals to cope.

Fentanyl is a synthetic painkiller that is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It is now commonly used as an additive to other illegal drugs, such as heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. And over time, the Pew Research Center says in a new report, it has expanded the footprint of opioid addiction, which initially involved mostly white Americans.

While overdose death rates have increased in every major demographic group in recent years, no group has seen a bigger increase than Black men, the report says. As a result, Black men have overtaken American Indian or Alaska Native men and white men as the demographic group most likely to die from overdoses.

In 2020, Black men saw 54.1 opioid overdose deaths per 100,000, up from 17.3 in 2015. During that same time span, the deaths among White men jumped from 26.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2015 to 44.2 in 2020

The opioid crisis has kind of fallen from the headlines because of the COVID pandemic, state Attorney General Josh Stein told WECT-TV. You know, justifiably, thats the biggest health story. But because of COVID, opioids have become deadlier than ever. More people have died this year than any year in history and its the deadliest drug epidemic in American history.

A new, bipartisan congressional report says as much.

Calling opioid addiction one of our most pressing national security, law enforcement and public challenges, the report rightly suggests a balanced approach to the problem:

Ramping up law enforcement efforts to curb the flow and supply of these illegal drugs.

Using best practices approaches to treatment, a welcome departure from treating addiction as a crime rather than a disease.

Cutting the supply of the chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl through diplomatic efforts with other countries.

Making the White House Office of National Drug Policy a command center for federal initiatives and restoring its director to Cabinet-level status.

In North Carolina, there are other issues, including deep and hurtful cuts to mental health services and tighter restrictions on doctors ability to prescribe legal painkillers.

The doctors dilemma has been a particularly difficult question as some people with chronic pain are unable to get medication. Proposed new federal guidelines would encourage a more compassionate approach that has a much more caring voice than a policing one, Dr. Samer Narouze, president of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, told The New York Times.

Narouze said the previous guidelines pressured doctors to just cut down on opioids  period.

Also encouraging is that efforts to combat the scourge of opioid abuse have involved Democrats and Republicans. So far, at least.

In an era in which common ground increasingly has become no mans land (we cant even unite against the pandemic) heres hoping thats not the case this time.

Heres whats at stake:

If you were to sprinkle just a pinch of fentanyl  2 milligrams  on the face of a penny, it barely would be enough to cover the year on that coin.

But it would be more than enough to kill most people.
Two years ago, Don Brockhaus visited his primary care physician for a routine checkup, and during the exam, his doctor discovered a heart murmur.

Brockhaus was referred to Dr. Todd Tessendorf, a cardiologist at Bryan Heart who sees patients in Columbus. Tessendorf ordered an echocardiogram, which is essentially an ultrasound of the heart. It showed a very large aneurysm, or bulge in the wall of an artery, and it put Brockhaus at risk of a torn aorta, a condition that can often prove fatal.

Tessendorf immediately reached out to Dr. Robert Oakes, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Bryan Heart, to discuss the echocardiogram and follow-up tests. Oakes confirmed the diagnosis and recommended immediate surgery in Lincoln.

Don and his wife, Mary, quickly left Columbus and arrived at Bryan later that evening. He was admitted and scheduled for surgery early the next morning.

Oakes performed an aortic valve replacement, aortic root construction and ascending aorta replacement  a complex operation that lasted more than three hours. The procedure went well with no complications, and after a few days of recovery at Bryan, Brockhaus was discharged.

Today, the 89-year-old is feeling well and has no lingering heart issues. Bryan shared his story Tuesday to celebrate American Heart Month and to highlight the importance of regular cardiac screenings.

Before his checkup, Brockhaus had no symptoms and no idea anything was wrong. Even after he was told he needed to go to Lincoln right away for surgery, "I really didn't realize anything was serious," he said.

That's common with aortic aneurysms, Tessendorf said.

"They're almost always asymptomatic until they tear," he said.

Catching them early is important, because the aortic dissection they can cause kills about 20% of people before they ever reach the hospital, while others still die even after receiving treatment.

While the risk of an aortic aneurysm increases as you age, there are factors that can increase the risk. Men, Blacks and people with high blood pressure are all at higher risk. There also are certain genetic diseases that make people more likely to develop an aortic aneurysm at even younger ages.

Heart disease and its complications kill more than 650,000 people each year in the U.S., more than any other medical condition, which is why Bryan is emphasizing the need for people to have regular checkups.

That can make the difference in finding a serious complication in time and turning it into something relatively routine.

"He's had a wonderful outcome," Tessendorf said of Brockhaus. "At 89, I think he's doing pretty well."

Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.

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A former assistant warden at a state correctional facility in Lincoln, who was arrested in January, is accused of sexually abusing a man convicted of first-degree murder, according to new court filings.

Sarah Nelson Torsiello, 45, most recently worked at Nebraska's Reception and Treatment Center, formerly the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center and the Lincoln Correctional Center, where she's accused of kissing and groping the 37-year-old who is serving a life sentence, according to the affidavit for her arrest.

Torsiello was arrested and later charged with first- and second-degree sexual abuse of an inmate and unlawful acts by any person. The affidavit for her arrest became public when she was charged Friday.

At the time of her arrest, Torsiello had worked for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services for more than 18 years, starting in August 2003. She resigned after her arrest.

Torsiello purchased a burner phone for the inmate, according to the affidavit. Her alleged relationship with the incarcerated man went on for six days in early December  about a month before the Nebraska State Patrol arrested her.

The former assistant warden was released from jail on a personal recognizance bond when she was arrested. As part of her bond conditions, Torsiello is barred from contacting the inmate she's alleged to have abused, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Bruce Prenda said.

It is extremely disappointing that someone in this position now faces felony charges," Scott Frakes, the director of the Department of Correctional Services, said in a news release announcing Torsiello's arrest.

"These are serious offenses. Inappropriate behavior involving a member of the inmate population will not be tolerated in NDCS.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley

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A 34-year-old man is dead after Cass County Sheriff's deputies responding to a report of an assault shot and killed him in his father's home near Alvo, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

Andrew Stratton was believed to be in the basement of the house at 23418 Alvo Road, northwest of Alvo, when deputies responded late Sunday night, after Stratton's father reported his son had struck him in the head during an altercation, according to a State Patrol news release.

Authorities believed Stratton was "possibly armed."

Before troopers responded shortly after 11 p.m., sheriff's deputies had already entered the residence and begun negotiations with Stratton.

The release said a trooper arrived to the sound of gunshots coming from inside the home. The trooper went into the home and joined deputies in attempting life-saving measures on Stratton. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators found a bow and arrow and long knife in the house. A patrol spokesman said the weapons were found nearby, but said the agency hasn't yet determined whether Stratton was armed when he was shot.

The patrol's Special Investigations Team is investigating the incident. Its findings will eventually be reviewed by a grand jury, as required by Nebraska law.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley

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A 57-year-old Lincoln man was charged with felony child abuse after he called police Sunday and demanded they take his son away, telling call-takers he would beat the child if they didn't, according to court records.

The phone call came minutes after David Bond allegedly chased his son around their apartment, striking him with a broomstick, Lincoln Police Officer Katherine Schwenke wrote in the affidavit for the man's arrest.

Police arrived at the apartment near 52nd and Fremont streets at about 10:15 p.m., where the boy was standing barefoot in an interior hallway, with Bond refusing to let him back inside the apartment.

The boy told officers Bond had become irate with him after he accidentally disconnected a phone call Bond was on. He said he knocked over a can of beer his father had been drinking before Bond retrieved the broom from a closet and struck him with the handle.

Bond was arrested and taken to the Lancaster County Jail. His son was taken into protective state custody.

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The City Council on Monday approved adding nearly 6 acres to an ambitious project in southeast Lincoln, the centerpiece of which will be a $45 million comprehensive cancer treatment center.

The cancer center is part of a larger development called Grandale South, which developers initially said would include up to 180 residential units and a small amount of commercial space.

A limited-liability company called Sundance, a subsidiary of Sampson Construction, donated a 29-acre plot to Bryan Medical Center for the cancer center near 40th Street and Rokeby Road, and it annexed about 24 adjacent acres for residential and commercial development.

The councils action Monday involved a request by Sundance to annex and rezone close to 6 additional acres to the east so it can increase the number of residential units from 180 to 300, and also build a 120-room hotel, which would be advantageous to have near the cancer center, Kent Seacrest, who represents the Sampson family, told the council.

The changes would decrease the commercial space available from 15,000 square feet to 6,000, he said.

The changes wont affect the parcel donated to Bryan, where the cancer center is being built. Officials have said it will be open in mid- to late-2023. It's been named the April Sampson Cancer Center after John Sampsons late wife.

The 140,000-square-foot center will offer infusion, imaging and other cancer-related services. It also will have a dedicated breast cancer treatment program and will offer clinical trials. Other features will include gyms for rehabilitation and therapy, a clinical pharmacy and genetic counseling services.

Bryan is partnering with Cancer Partners of Nebraska, the largest practice in Lincoln specializing in cancer care, with seven medical oncologists, two radiation oncologists and one gynecologic oncology surgeon on staff.

Other medical offices will be built later and the site will be known as Bryan South campus.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSreist

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The Nebraska Family Alliance on Tuesday filed a petition seeking to let voters decide whether the citys municipal code should expand protections against discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

On Monday, the Lincoln City Council passed the revised ordinance on a 5-0 vote  a broader revision of the municipal code than the so-called fairness ordinance the council passed 10 years ago. Council members Tom Beckius and Richard Meginnis were absent.

The Nebraska Family Alliance, which helped lead a successful petition drive following the council vote a decade ago, said in a prepared statement that the ordinance the City Council passed Monday defies both common sense and the will of the people.

The statement says that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, but the people should be able to decide what's written in city code.

Rather than continuing to ignore the citizens of Lincoln and attempting to force all businesses to allow men who profess a female identity to have unfettered access to womens bathrooms and locker rooms, the City Council must let voters decide this issue, the statement said.

The Lancaster County Republican Party issued a statement in support of the referendum initiative, saying the council denied the will of the people by passing a new ordinance, rather than putting the original ordinance up for a vote after a successful petition drive collected enough signatures requiring it to do so.

The city charter requires that within 15 days after launching the latest drive, petition organizers must collect signatures totaling 4% of participating Lincoln voters in the last gubernatorial election. That means they must collect 4,137 signatures to get the question on the ballot, according to Lancaster County Election Commissioner Dave Shively.

In 2012, more than 10,000 citizens signed a petition that required the City Council to rescind the fairness ordinance or place it on the ballot for a vote of the people. The council did neither, and it was in limbo until Monday.

In addition to extending protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity, the ordinance approved Monday adds active military and veterans as a protected class. It also updates definitions of marriage, race and natural origin, strengthens definitions and updates disability protections and those regarding service animals and reorganizes the section to clarify the process of the Human Rights Commission.

Our message is simple," the alliance's statement said. "Let Us Vote. The Lincoln City Council should not be allowed to circumvent the will of the citizens of Lincoln."

Reach the writer at 402-473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSreist

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Russias top diplomat advised President Vladimir Putin on Monday to keep talking with the West on Moscows security demands, a signal from the Kremlin that it intends to continue diplomatic efforts amid U.S. warnings of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow wants guarantees from the West that NATO wont allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members, and that the alliance will halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe, the demands flatly rejected by the West.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. Russia's top diplomat has advised President Vladimir Putin to continue talks with the West on Russian security demands amid tensions over Ukraine. Speaking at the start of a meeting with Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested Russia should continue a dialogue with the U.S. and its allies even though they have rejected Moscow's main security demands. (Alexei Nikolsky/AP)

Speaking at a meeting with Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that Moscow should hold more talks with the U.S. and its allies despite their refusal to consider the main Russian demands.

The talks cant go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage, Lavrov said, noting that Washington has offered to conduct dialogue on limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

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Asked by Putin if it made sense to continue diplomatic efforts, Lavrov responded that possibilities for talks are far from being exhausted, and he proposed to continue the negotiations.

Putin noted the West could try to draw Russia into endless talks without conclusive results and questioned whether there is still a chance to reach agreement on Moscows key demands.

Theres always a chance, Lavrov replied, adding that his ministry wouldnt allow the U.S. and its allies to stonewall Russias main requests.

Moscow denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine but has massed well over 130,000 troops near its borders and, in the U.S. view, has built up enough firepower to launch an attack on short notice.

The meeting came as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine and plans to continue on to Moscow for talks with Putin in a last-ditch diplomatic effort.

We are experiencing a very, very serious threat to peace in Europe, Scholz tweeted from Kyiv, adding that Germany wanted to see signals of de-escalation from Moscow.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Europe is on the edge of a precipice, adding that there is still time for President Putin to step back.

With concerns rising that war could be imminent, Germans military said the first of some 350 extra troops it is sending to bolster NATO forces in Lithuania were dispatched Monday. Lithuania moved diplomats families and some nonessential diplomatic workers out of Ukraine after the U.S. and others pulled most of their staff from embassies in Kyiv.

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Residents of the Ukrainian capital received letters from the mayor calling on them to defend your city, and signs appeared in the elevators of apartment buildings indicating the nearest bomb shelter. The mayor says Kyiv has about 4,500 such sites, including underground parking garages, subway stations and basements.

Dr. Tamara Ugrich said she stocked up on grains and canned food, and has prepared an emergency suitcase.

I dont believe in war, but on TV the tension is growing every day and its getting harder and harder to keep calm. The more we are told not to panic, the more nervous people become, she said.

But others heeded advice of Ukraines leaders not to panic. Street music flooded central Maidan Square on Sunday night and crowds stopped to dance. I feel calm. You should always be ready for everything, and then you will have nothing to be afraid of, said Alona Buznitskaya, a model.

Some airlines canceled flights to Kyiv and troops unloaded new shipments of weapons from NATO members.

The U.S. and its NATO allies have repeatedly warned that Russia will pay a high price for any invasion  but they have sometimes struggled to present a united front. Scholzs government, in particular, has been criticized for refusing to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine or to spell out which sanctions it would support against Russia, raising questions about Berlins resolve to stand up to Moscow.

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So far, NATOs warnings appear to have had little effect: Russia has only bolstered troops and weapons in the region and launched massive drills in its ally Belarus, which also neighbors Ukraine. The West fears that the drills, which will run through Sunday, could be used by Moscow as a cover for an invasion from the north.

Russia has repeatedly brushed off Ukrainian and Western concerns about the military buildup, saying it has the right to deploy forces wherever needed on its territory.

With hopes for a diplomatic exit path fading and no big expectations from Scholz trip, Ukraines ambassador to the U.K., Vadym Prystaiko, pointed at a possibility of Ukraine shelving its NATO bid an objective that is written into its constitution  if it would avert war with Russia.

We might  especially being threatened like that, blackmailed by that, and pushed to it, Prystaiko told BBC Radio 5.

On Monday, however, Prystaiko appeared to back away from that, saying that to avoid war we are ready for many concessions ... but it has nothing to do with NATO, which is enshrined in the constitution.

Asked about Prystaikos comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would welcome such a move but noted the quick repudation of it by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

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Ukrainian parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk also emphasized that there was no talk about revising the constitutional provision that refers to NATO membership, and some lawmakers called for Prystaikos dismissal.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Sunday that Kyiv requested a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the next 48 hours to discuss the Russian deployments near the countrys borders.

Poland, which currently chairs the OSCE, said the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday  but it is unlikely to defuse tensions.

Some members of the OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine that observers a shaky cease-fire in the region have pulled out amid war fears, and Russia-backed separatists have alleged that their departure could facilitate provocations.

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With the region on edge, the Russian Defense Ministry summoned the U.S. Embassys military attache Saturday to protest what it said was a U.S. submarine in Russian waters near the Kuril Islands in the Pacific. Russia said the submarine initially ignored orders to leave, but left after the navy used unspecified appropriate means. The U.S. has denied its ship ever entered Russian waters.

Asked by lawmakers Monday if the military could strike foreign warships that enter Russian waters, deputy chief of the Russian militarys General Staff Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov said it stands ready for it, but added such decisions are only made at the highest level.

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In Sundays call, U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to keep pushing both deterrence and diplomacy. Zelenskyys office also quoted him suggesting that a quick Biden visit would help deescalate the situation  a possibility that was not mentioned in the White House summary of the call.

Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraines Kremlin-friendly leader was driven from office by a popular uprising. Moscow responded by annexing the Crimean Peninsula and then backing a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed over 14,000 people.

A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped halt large-scale battles, but regular skirmishes have continued, and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled.

___

Karmanau reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed.
DUNCAN  A Central City woman died Friday after a hay bale fell off a semitrailer, hitting her car southwest of Columbus.

The incident was reported at 11:11 a.m. along U.S. 30, about 4 miles west of Duncan.

According to the Platte County Sheriff's Office, a 1959 Peterbilt semi carrying round cornstalk bales had been traveling west on U.S. 30, while Lerae Ahlers was driving a 1998 Lincoln Continental east.

As the two vehicles met, a bale fell off the trailer pulled by the Peterbilt and landed on the Lincoln. The car left the roadway, traveling into a field. Ahlers, 58, died at the scene.

The driver of the Peterbilt, 25-year-old Layne Laska of St. Edward, was not injured, and neither the Peterbilt nor the trailer was damaged in the incident.

The Nebraska State Patrol is assisting in the investigation.

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A bill sparked by a religious discrimination lawsuit against the University of Nebraska drew divided reactions at a legislative committee hearing Monday after opponents expressed concerns about the bills potential wide-ranging impacts.

Introduced by Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, LB1050 would prohibit the states public postsecondary institutions from denying any political, religious or ideological student organizations benefits that are available to other student organizations. The bill applies to the NU campuses, state college campuses and community colleges.

The bill comes after Ratio Christi, a Christian student organization with a chapter at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, filed a lawsuit in late October alleging that the university, via the University Program Council, discriminated against Ratio Christi by denying its request for money to bring a Christian philosopher to campus. The money would have come from student fees.

Flood, a Republican who is running to replace Rep. Jeff Fortenberry in Nebraskas 1st Congressional District, told the Legislatures Education Committee the bill would help avoid costly lawsuits that have occurred in other states. Flood said 16 states have passed similar laws.

Several people, including Logan Spena, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedoms Center for Academic Freedom, spoke in support of Floods bill. ADF is representing Ratio Christi in the lawsuit.

A bill like this will prevent any administrative discretion giving rise to unnecessary liability, Spena said.

However, committee members Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, who is running as a Democrat to replace Fortenberry, and Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha expressed concern that the bill would require public institutions to consider funding groups with extremist or discriminatory views.

Most Nebraskans would be shocked to think that public dollars could go to groups that support satanism," Pansing Brooks said as an example. The bill could also require public institutions to consider funding requests from white supremacists or groups hostile to the LGBTQ community, she said.

While Spena said the bill would prohibit the states postsecondary institutions from denying funding specifically because of ideology, he said the schools could still punish any bad actions taken by such groups.

It doesnt prohibit the university from enforcing any of its own conduct rules against individuals who engage in, say, racial harassment, Spena said. In the event that there was an extremist group that was requiring leaders to engage in extremist activity, that activity could still be punished.

McKinney, who is Black, voiced concern about peoples view of Nebraska if the bill passes.

We have to draw the line on what is and is not acceptable in our communities, he said. This would make our state less attractive, especially to people who look like me.

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State lawmakers and environmental advocates renewed their call to convene a special committee charged with investigating the AltEn ethanol plant, now a stockpile of tens of thousands of tons of pesticide-laden waste near Mead.

At the same time, work to cover the massive pile of wet distillers grains and sludge produced at the plant began almost a year to the day after the companies that formerly sent seed coated in pesticides arrived at the facility to participate in the cleanup.

Both the examination of what led to the environmental crisis, as well as a look at what's ahead, were the subject of a Stop the AltEn Cover-up rally in the Rotunda at the state Capitol on Monday.

Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, who introduced several bills this year addressing AltEn, told roughly 40 attendees that Nebraskans deserved answers about how the biofuel plant was allowed to manufacture pesticide-coated seed into ethanol, as well as why the state took so long to act.

A resolution (LR159) to create the committee, introduced by Blood late in last years legislative session, was introduced too late to get a hearing before the Executive Board, Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango said last year.

The resolution has not been scheduled for a hearing this year, either.

We want to protect our precious soil, our life-giving water, and the air we breathe, said Blood, who is also running for governor as a Democrat. Its time for public discourse so we can amplify our voices here today.

AltEn was ordered to shut down Feb. 4, 2021, after regulators told the company that it could no longer pump wastewater into a damaged lagoon system on the site.

Since then, six seed industry giants  Bayer, Syngenta, Corteva, AgReliant, Becks Superior Hybrids and WinField Solutions  that formerly sent their unused seed to AltEn have taken responsibility for the cleanup.

The seed companies' AltEn Facility Response Group and a pair of environmental contractors has submitted a plan to land-apply treated wastewater on surrounding fields, and to cover nearly 100,000 tons of wet cake and sludge consolidated into a single pile.

A coordinator on the project said work that began Monday to cover the pile with Posi-Shell, a combination of cement, clay and polyester fibers used in various environmental remediation projects, was expected to continue through the week.

The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, through documents made publicly available, has expressed concern about the plan, but is ultimately allowing work to proceed.

In a Jan. 11 letter, Thomas Buell, the administrator of the Monitoring and Remediation Division, wrote that the department does not see covering the wet cake as a long-term remedial action.

The plan submitted by the AltEn Facility Response Group does not specify what maintenance will be done to ensure the wet cake pile remains covered, leaving the department concerned that a shifting or shrinking pile could cause the shell to fail.

A compromised cover could lead to increased odors or generate potentially contaminated stormwater, the department wrote to the response group.

And nothing in the groups plan outlines the final actions that will be taken to dispose of the wet cake, which is classified as a solid waste by the Department of Environment and Energy, requiring disposal in a landfill.

The ethanol plant had previously disposed of tens of thousands of tons of wet distillers grains to Waste Connections-operated landfills near David City, Milford and Malvern, Iowa, before being cut off in 2020.

Last year, the facility response group explored options for transporting wet cake via train to incinerators around the country, but abandoned the effort to instead focus on covering the pile as a temporary solution.

The Department of Environment and Energy said it also has concerns about the undefined timeline for how long the covered pile may sit on top of the uncovered ground at AltEn, where it will still be able to leach to the water table below.

It instructed the response group to establish a baseline of potential pesticide-contaminant concentrations in the groundwater near the location.

There are a handful of groundwater monitoring wells located at AltEn, with measurable levels of neonicotinoid pesticides being discovered in one well downstream from the damaged lagoon system on the site.

Janece Mollhoff, a retired U.S. Army colonel from Ashland who is part of a watchdog group monitoring the cleanup, said the plan in motion allows the seed companies to cover up the issue.

They have not yet released a plan for ongoing maintenance of the shell or how they test groundwater under it for the next five to 10 years, Mollhoff said. The cover-up will fail all of us.

Questions about access

Speakers at Mondays rally at the Capitol said among the biggest concerns they have about AltEn is the unknowns about its future.

Former Sen. Al Davis said the decaying organic matter underneath the Posi-Shell could create explosive gases as it decays and suggested the pesticide compounds could degrade into potentially more dangerous chemicals under a hot summer sun.

Nobody knows the answer to that, but its the scariest question of all, said Davis, who is a lobbyist for the Nebraska Sierra Club.

To answer those questions, the watchdog group urged the Legislature to pass LB1048, which Blood introduced, to appropriate $10 million to the University of Nebraska for a long-term study on the ethanol plants impacts on the surrounding communities and the environment.

Blood also said efforts to gain access to AltEns facility to study the waste products and spread of the contamination have been stymied.

When the research team asks AltEn, the company defers to the Department of Environment and Energy, she said, but when the request is put to the state, the state refers the decision back to the ethanol plant.

Last fall, responding to a request from Blood, Jim Macy, the director of the state environmental department, said the agencys authority stemmed from its charge to enforce regulations, and it was unable to give permission to non-regulatory entities.

The AltEn facility is private property and access would be at the discretion and permission of the property owner for a third party to enter or gather material, Macy wrote to Blood on Oct. 1.

Dr. Ali Khan, dean of UNMCs College of Public Health, reached out to AltEn general manager Scott Tingelhoff directly March 29, 2021, offering to partner with the ethanol plant on the study, according to an email shared with the Journal Star.

I am glad to share our scientific approach if you would also like to collaborate in some aspects of this effort, Khan wrote.

Tingelhoff responded less than 15 minutes later, asking Khan to share what he had in mind and suggest a time to discuss the research project.

Khan said his executive assistant reached out to continue the conversation, but it never went any further.

In December, responding to a question at a panel on the AltEn study hosted by the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, Khan said the request was met with radio silence.

Lincoln attorney Stephen Mossman, who represents AltEn, said no formal request had been made for researchers to come onto the property until Monday afternoon, when he received a letter from Khan.

Mossman said he will coordinate with the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office and the Bruning Law Group, which represents the AltEn Facility Response Group, to coordinate access for the research team.

Those groups currently control the site, he explained. AltEn no longer has any employees working at the plant.

At his weekly news conference Monday, Gov. Pete Ricketts said AltEn was not required to let researchers onto the property, nor would the state force it to do so.

We cant go just tell any private property owner they have to allow some third party on their property, Ricketts said.

The governor said the state is working with the Environmental Protection Agency, which conducted air sampling last fall, and is keeping the federal agency informed of the work being done.

Ricketts said the state is also on site at AltEn three days a week doing inspections and coordinating the cleanup.

I understand peoples frustrations  its not a good situation  but were working through it as quickly as we can, he said.

Pledge to keep pressure on

Blood told the rally she believes the state doesnt want Nebraskans to know the full extent of the pesticide contamination stemming from AltEn.

She said conversations with her colleagues in the Legislature lead her to believe many are being misled about the cleanups progress.

We have a lot of senators who believe things are going well and theres no more contamination, she said. What we know is not what theyre being told.

Blood and others who spoke at the rally urged Nebraskans to reach out to their state senators and push to have the AltEn-related legislation  including the resolution to create a special committee  pushed to the floor for full debate.

Joslyn Stamp, 14, of Plattsmouth, said it was important for the state to act swiftly in order to keep Nebraska a safe, healthy place for future generations.

I think its perfect that we all gathered here on Valentines Day, because most of the places and people I love are right here in Nebraska, the eighth grader at Brownell Talbot College Preparatory School said. Thank you all for being here to protect that.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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Nebraska state government collected $45 million more than expected last month, according to new numbers released Monday.

The Nebraska Department of Revenue reported net tax collections of $495 million in January, which is 10% more than the state forecast of $450 million.

Nebraska reported higher-than-expected net revenues from individual income taxes and miscellaneous taxes, but lower-than-expected net receipts from sales-and-use taxes and corporate income taxes.

The state has received $3.354 billion in the current fiscal year, which began July 1. That's 3.7% higher than the state projection of $3.235 billion at this point in the year.

The comparisons from the report are based on estimates approved by the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board in October. The board's forecasts are used to estimate how much state revenue lawmakers and governors will have at their disposal.

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Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha argued Tuesday that the Legislature needs to create a new Department of Housing and Urban Development in state government to focus on housing needs that are regarded as one of Nebraska's greatest challenges and an ongoing impediment to the state's growth and economic development.

"If this is a No. 1 issue, we have nobody at the state level directing and coordinating this effort now," Wayne told the Legislature's Urban Affairs Committee.

Without a single state agency directing a program to meet housing needs, Wayne said, "the state lacks a coordinated response to the challenge."

Wayne has introduced a bill (LB1073) that would create the new department in state government, with a director to be appointed by the governor and a mission of meeting both housing and homeless needs.

One-time startup costs are estimated at $38,600, Wayne said, with ongoing new costs estimated at $350,000.

Wayne Mortensen, CEO of NeighborWorks Lincoln, said the new department could focus attention on "the scarcity and exclusion of low-income housing" while addressing the economic consequences of a housing deficit that spreads across the state.

Carol Bodeen, director of policy and outreach for the Nebraska Housing Developers Association, suggested that the committee could consider the possibility of creating a separate new division in the Nebraska Department of Economic Development to address the housing challenge rather than creating a new department.

Shannon Harner, executive director of the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, said coordinating housing policy is "a laudable effort," but it might be accomplished without adding a new agency.

"It's not working now," Wayne told the committee in closing remarks, not in terms of accountability or coordination.

"It's not making a dent now," he said.

Creation of a new state department would require the votes of at least 30 senators in the 49-member Legislature.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon

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Sen. Justin Wayne had an aha moment last year during a vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

While at the Crazy Horse Memorial, he visited the affiliated museum. There he discovered several items related to Standing Bear, the Ponca chief and civil rights leader who won a federal court case establishing that Native Americans were persons under the law.

Wayne got to thinking: Why should people go to South Dakota to learn about Standing Bear? Why not create a Standing Bear museum in Nebraska, the place where he was born and lived most of his life and where the landmark trial took place?

That led to the introduction of LB1228, which would direct $75 million in pandemic relief money to building a Standing Bear museum in Nebraska. Wayne said the museum likely would be located near Niobrara, Standing Bears home area.

If done right, I think we can draw hundreds of thousands of people to the museum, he told members of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee on Friday.

The measure was among five proposals heard by the committee for using American Rescue Plan Act dollars to bolster tourism and tourist activities in the state. The bills sought a share of the $1.04 billion that Nebraska is slated to get through the federal law.

Richard Wright Jr., director of cultural affairs for the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, endorsed the idea of a museum. He said it would allow the tribe to better preserve Standing Bears history, including his personal artifacts, and would educate Nebraskans and Americans.

Stacy Laravie, the tribes historic preservation officer and a descendant of Standing Bear, also backed the proposal. She said the story of Standing Bear and of the Ponca Tribe is a true Nebraska story.

Movie producer Warren Anzalone asked for an additional $5 million to fund a movie about Standing Bear called I Am A Man. He said plans are for the movie to be shot this year in Nebraska, with consulting help from the Ponca Tribe. He said it would provide publicity for the museum.

Other bills included LB1202, introduced by Sen. Jen Day of Omaha, which seeks $5 million to help out the Omaha Storm Chasers minor-league baseball team and Union Omaha, a professional soccer team.

Day said both suffered losses during the pandemic. The Storm Chasers were shut down for 609 days, meaning that the team generated no revenue but continued to have expenses. That cost the team about $2.5 million.

Union Omaha played its inaugural season in 2020, but stadium capacity was limited and revenue fell short of projections, she said. Last year was also a struggle.

Sen. Mike McDonnell introduced LB1195, which would allocate $1.5 million to support the FEI World Cups return to Omaha in 2023. The equestrian event was held in Omaha for the first time in 2017 and had a $19 million economic impact. It also produced millions in marketing value.

Julie Boilesen, CEO of the Omaha Equestrian Foundation, said the event has been hosted all over the world in the past. But she said participants wanted to come back to Omaha because of the success of the 2017 event.

No one testified in opposition to any of the bills.

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NEW YORK  Parishioners worshipping at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Harlem are greeted by a framed portrait of Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister named after a rebellious 16th century German priest excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

The Rev. Bryan Massingale, who was born in 1957 in Milwaukee and still sometimes preaches at St. Charles, pursues his ministry in ways that echo both Martin Luthers.

Like King, Massingale decries the scourge of racial inequality in the United States. As a professor at Fordham University, he teaches African American religious approaches to ethics.

Like the German Martin Luther, Massingale is often at odds with official Catholic teaching  he supports the ordination of women and making celibacy optional for Catholic clergy. As a gay man, he vocally disagrees with the churchs doctrine on same-sex relations, instead advocating for full inclusion of LGBTQ Catholics within the church.

The Vatican holds that gays and lesbians should be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is intrinsically disordered and sinful.

In his homily on a recent Sunday, Massingale  who became public about being gay in 2019 envisioned a world where the dignity of every person is respected and protected, where everyone is loved.

But the message of equality and tolerance is one that is resisted even within our own faith household, he added. Preach! a worshipper shouted in response.

Local impact

Massingale has had a presence, and unintentionally stirred up controversy, locally too. Before he came out as gay publicly, he led a retreat in 2018 for priests, brothers and deacons who are gay at the Siena Retreat Center in Caledonia. That retreat  which, like others like it, typically aim to fly under the radar  made headlines only after it was condemned by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Im a little astonished that a retreat for priests would be subject of such controversy, Massingale told The Journal Times at the time. I would think that leading any group in prayer is the essence of what we do as priests.

I sense a greater desire among priests to have more candid conversations about sexuality, but I dont sense that there is a great deal of support yet in the institution of the church for those conversations, he continued. I believe that most Catholics want church leaders who are spiritually healthy, psychologically mature and are sexually honest.

Finding home

Growing up in Milwaukee, Massingales mother was a school secretary and his father a factory worker whose family migrated from Mississippi to escape racial segregation.

But even in Wisconsin, racism was common. Massingale said his father couldnt work as a carpenter because of a color bar preventing African Americans from joining the carpenters union.

The Massingales also experienced racism when they moved to Milwaukees outskirts and ventured to a predominately white parish.

This would not be a very comfortable parish for you to be a part of, he recalled the parish priest saying. Thereafter, the family commuted to a predominantly black Catholic church.

Massingale recalled another incident, as a newly ordained priest, after celebrating his first Mass at a predominantly white church.

The first parishioner to greet me at the door said to me: Father, you being here is the worst mistake the archbishop could have made. People will never accept you.

Massingale says he considered leaving the Catholic Church, but decided he was needed.

Im not going to let the churchs racism rob me of my relationship with God, he said. I see it as my mission to make the church what it says it is: more universal and the institution that I believe Jesus wants it to be.

The church and race

For Massingale, racism within the U.S. Catholic Church is a reason for the exodus of some black Catholics; he says the church is not doing enough to tackle racism within its ranks and in broader society.

Nearly half of black U.S. adults who were raised Catholic no longer identify as such, with many becoming Protestants, according to a 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center. About 6% of black U.S. adults identify as Catholic and close to 80% believe opposing racism is essential to their faith, the survey found.

The U.S. Catholic Church has had a checkered history with race. Some of its institutions, such as Georgetown University, were involved in the slave trade, and it has struggled to recruit African American priests.

Conversely, Catholic schools were among the first to desegregate and some government officials who opposed racial integration were excommunicated.

In 2018, U.S. bishops issued a pastoral letter decrying the persistence of the evil of racism, but Massingale was disappointed.

The phrase white nationalism is not stated in that document; it doesnt talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, he said. The problem with the churchs teachings on racism is that they are written in a way that is calculated not to disturb white people.

At Fordham, a Jesuit university, Massingale teaches a class on homosexuality and Christian ethics, using biblical texts to challenge church teaching on same-sex relations. He said he came to terms with his own sexuality at 22, upon reflecting on the book of Isaiah.

I realized that no matter what the church said, God loved me and accepted me as a black gay man, he said.

His ordination in 1983 came in the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that disproportionately affected gay men and black Americans. Among his first funerals as a priest was that of a gay man whose family wanted no mention of his sexuality or the disease.

They should have been able to turn to their church in their time of grief, Massingale said. Yet they couldnt because that stigma existed in great measure because of how many ministers were speaking about homosexuality and AIDS as being a punishment for sin.

Pope Francis has called for compassionate pastoral care for LGBTQ Catholics. However, he has described homosexuality among the clergy as worrisome, and Vatican law remains clear: same-sex unions cannot be blessed within the church. Some dioceses have fired openly LGBTQ employees.

Massingale has a different vision of the church: one where Catholics enjoy the same privileges regardless of sexual orientation.

I think that one can express ones sexuality in a way that is responsible, committed, life giving and an experience of joy, he said.

Massingale has received recognition for his advocacy from like-minded organizations such as FutureChurch, which says priests should be allowed to marry and women should have more leadership roles within the church.

He is one of the most prophetic, compelling, inspiring, transforming leaders in the Catholic Church, said Deborah Rose-Milavec, the organizations co-director. When he speaks, you know very deep truth is being spoken.

Along with his many admirers, Massingale has some vehement critics, such as the conservative Catholic news outlet Church Militant, which depicts his LGBTQ advocacy as sinful.

At Fordham, Massingale is well-respected by colleagues, and was honored by the university with a prestigious endowed chair. To the extent he has any critics among the Fordham faculty, they tend to keep their misgivings out of the public sphere.

He says he receives many messages of hope and support, but becoming public about his sexuality has come at a cost.

I have lost some priest friends who find it difficult to be too closely associated with me because if theyre friends with me, what will people say about them? he said.

Massingale remains optimistic about gradual change in the Catholic Church because of Pope Francis and recent signals from bishops in Europe who expressed a desire for changes, including blessing same-sex unions.

My dream wedding would be either two men or two women standing before the church; marrying each other as an act of faith and I can be there as the official witness to say: Yes, this is of God, he said after a recent class at Fordham. If they were black, that would be wonderful.

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RACINE  The man who was fatally shot in his own home last fall may have been involved in a shootout with the suspects prior to his death.

Jonathan M. Martinez, 25, and his brother Christopher A. Martinez, 23, both of Illinois, were arrested last week and formally charged Monday for the Oct. 4, death of James Hamilton, who was 31 when he was fatally shot in his home on Monroe Avenue. He died the following day, according to his obituary.

Christopher and Jonathan Martinez have been charged with first-degree intentional homicide with use of a dangerous weapon and attempted armed robbery with use of force, with both charges including as a party to a crime modifier.

Bail for each of the brothers is set at $1 million.

Moises Gonzalez, 28, also was arrested in connection to the crime but there was no criminal complaint filed against him as of Monday afternoon. He is in custody at the Racine County Jail, but as of Monday was not listed as a co-defendant in the homicide case.

No motive for the shooting was released, although drugs may have been a factor. According to the criminal complaint, text messages exchanged between Christopher Martinez and Hamilton were consistent with drug dealing.

Inside Hamiltons home, $125,041 in cash and several pounds of drugs worth thousands of dollars were found, police said.

Case history

The Racine Police Department was dispatched to 1000 block of Monroe Avenue at 10:04 p.m. on Oct. 4 on the report of suspicious circumstances and a possible home invasion.

Inside the residence, officers found Hamilton deceased from multiple gunshot wounds.

According to the criminal complaint, there were multiple weapons inside the residence, including a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver with three rounds fired and blood on the handgrip.

Additionally, there was an AR-15-style rifle, 9mm casings near the victim, a .22 caliber casing in the living room, and bullet holes in the doors and furniture.

In addition, officers located $125,041 in cash, with approximately $107,530 of the cash found in a Louis Vuitton bag.

More than $6,400 in blood-soaked bills was found on the floor.

More than 7.5 pounds of drugs  marijuana, mushrooms, heroin and LSD  were also found.

Surveillance

Investigators were able to view surveillance video from the neighborhood.

According to the criminal complaint, surveillance video showed a red truck parked in the neighborhood for about one hour prior to the killing. At about 9:45 p.m. two people exited the truck and made their way toward Hamiltons house.

Two minutes later, the men could be seen running from the house.

Investigators were able to trace the truck to the Martinez brothers. Further, data from Christopher Martinezs cellphone puts him in the immediate area the night of the homicide; pings off of cellphone towers showed the phones traveled from Illinois to Wisconsin and back again.

Information obtained from the Illinois Tollway indicated Jonathan Martinez was the primary driver of the red truck.

Possibility of life in prison

Online court records indicate that both of Martinez brothers are being held in Lake County Jail in Illinois. They face life in prison if convicted of the homicide charges.

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RACINE  Alaya Brooks was the featured artist Saturday as The Main Project and Cafe, 1014 State St., hosted a Youth Artists Corner.

Brooks paints with acrylics and on occasion watercolors and colored pencils, she said.

She is primarily self-taught, other than art classes in school. She said she began her journey in middle school when she began drawing cartoons and taking guidance from YouTube videos.

Since then, she has developed her own style.

Michelle Brooks, Alayas mom, remembers that even as a young girl she would paint boxes to look like houses.

She was always doing something creative, Michelle said.

Michelle helped get Alayas name out to the public by publishing her paintings on social media and later by helping her organize the pop-up shop at The Main Project and Cafe.

Michelle said she appreciated Deontrae Mayfield giving space to Alaya to showcase her work.

All funds raised through the sales of her art are to go toward Alayas college expenses.

Alaya is a senior at Brown Deer High School, north of Milwaukee. She has been accepted to a number of universities, and has been offered a scholarship to one, Michelle said.

Her goal is to attend a Historically Black Colleges and Universities school. She has already been accepted to attend Grambling State University in Louisiana and Jackson State University in Mississippi.

Alaya is still waiting to hear from Clark Atlanta University, which has yet to release its acceptance letters.

She intends to major in marketing and keep art as her hobby.

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A big snow storm could hit southern Wisconsin on Thursday, dealing a heavy blow to southeastern Wisconsin, or it could almost entirely miss the state, according to forecasters.

National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Gehring said rain on Wednesday will transition to a light wintry mix of sleet, freezing rain, and snow Wednesday night, with very light ice accumulations possible Wednesday night for southeastern Wisconsin.

Light snow is possible Wednesday night with limited accumulations, with a low confidence forecast setting up for Thursday.

Gehring said there are two possible scenarios: a more northerly track that could deliver snow for much of southern Wisconsin, with moderate to heavy snow for southeastern Wisconsin, or more southerly track that delivers only light snow over far southeastern Wisconsin.

We aren't jumping on any solution at this point due to the very high uncertainty, Gehring said.

The Weather Service said the wide-ranging possible snow totals range from zero to 2 inches for Platteville, Madison and Sheboygan; zero to 5 inches for Janesville; 1 to 7 inches for Milwaukee; and 2 to 9 inches for Kenosha.

AccuWeather said up to a foot of snow is expected to fall in a swath from northeastern Kansas to the thumb of Michigan that includes Chicago.

"This looks to be a rather dynamic storm with the potential for major impacts of several kinds, including heavy snow, significant ice accretion, flooding, severe weather and even a rather broad zone of strong winds," said AccuWeather meteorologist La Troy Thornton, adding that nearly the entire eastern half of the nation will likely be in play for at least one of these threats.

On the northwestern edge of the storm, localized whiteout or blizzard conditions will be possible as strong winds blow.

On the southern side of the storm, up to 3 inches of rain could fall from northeastern Oklahoma to western New York, and the clash of cold and warm air could lead to severe weather that may include tornadoes, said AccuWeather meteorologist Courtney Travis.

The snowstorm missing southern Wisconsin would fit with the 2021-22 season, which has seen both Madison and Milwaukee receiving less than half their normal snow, meteorologist Jonathan Erdman reported.

For the snow season (since July 1), Madison has received 17.1 inches, 18.9 inches below normal, while Milwaukee has recorded 15.4 inches, 18.8 inches below normal.

In Madison on Tuesday, look for mostly cloudy skies, a high near 36 and southeast winds at 5 to 15 miles per hour, gusting as high as 25 mph, the Weather Service said.

Overnight, temperatures will be rising to around 42 by 5 a.m. and then to 45 during the day as south winds blow at 10 to 20 mph and gust to 30 mph, turning out of the northwest in the afternoon. Theres a 90% chance for rain, mainly after 7 a.m., with a tenth to a quarter of an inch possible.

Theres an 80% chance for precipitation overnight Wednesday into Thursday in the form of rain before 7 p.m., rain, snow and sleet between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., and snow after 8 p.m., with snow and sleet accumulation of less than a half-inch possible as the low falls to around 19.

The Weather Service said theres a 20% chance for snow Thursday, Thursday night and Friday night.

Skies over Madison should be mostly cloudy Thursday, mostly sunny Friday, sunny Saturday and Sunday, and partly sunny Monday, with highs near 21, 29, 28, 45 and 41, and lows Thursday night through Sunday night around 1, 11, 25 and 31.

27 Storm Track meteorologist Katherine Noel said there is still some uncertainty with the track of the storm, which is likely to hit hardest in northern and central Illinois.

Noel forecasts a rain/snow mix developing Wednesday and continuing overnight; light snow possible, mainly south of Madison, on Thursday; flurries possible overnight Friday; then quiet weather to follow into early next week.

Noel said highs for Madison Tuesday through Monday should be near 36, 43, 20, 28, 30, 45 and 41, and overnight lows around 35, 17, zero, 13, 19 and 30.

Mondays high in Madison was 24 at 4:18 p.m., 7 degrees below the normal high and 31 degrees below the record high of 55 for Feb. 14, set in 1934 and 1954.

Mondays low in Madison was 10 at 6:03 a.m., 4 degrees below the normal low and 23 degrees above the record low of 13 below for Feb. 14, set in 1951.

Officially, a trace of precipitation was recorded at the Dane County Regional Airport on Monday, keeping Madisons February total at 0.08 inches, 0.62 inches below normal. The meteorological winter (December through February) precipitation total (rain plus snow converted to liquid) stayed at 2.25 inches, 1.55 inches below normal. The 2022 precipitation total stayed at 0.56 inches, 1.61 inches below normal.

Madisons record precipitation for Feb. 14 is 1.3 inches in 1869.

With no snow on Monday, Madisons February total stayed at 0.9 inches, 5.8 inches below normal. For meteorological winter, Madison has received 16.5 inches, 15.9 inches below normal.

Madisons record snowfall for Feb. 14 is 6.6 inches in 1909.

Madisons official snow depth is 4 inches.

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An 87-year-old Carroll County woman is the apparent victim of a check thief who got $175,000 from her account last year. (Warchi / iStock via Getty Images)

I cant imagine being employed as a bank teller and accepting check No. 6602, for $175,000, drawn on the PNC Bank account of a Maryland woman named Myrle Bratcher and made out to a Chinese technology company.

I cant imagine that any teller presented with this check in a JPMorgan Chase branch in New York City on or about March 2, 2021, would process it without first asking a manager if the check looked legit.

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And I cant imagine any sensible manager finding that it did.

Ive seen the check. Its as sketchy as they come. The handwriting is strange  the crooked block lettering used to fill out the name of the payee and the amount of the check are distinct from the signature. The memo line says, home renovation, also in block letters.

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So think about that: A check for $175,000 made out to a foreign-sounding technology company for a home renovation for a woman in Finksburg, Maryland. And the teller in New York  or the bank manager, or somebody else  apparently accepted it.

And PNC Bank went along with it, too. The money was deposited to an account at Chase on March 2 and the funds posted 11 days later. The money then was moved to some other account, according to a report by a detective with the Westminster Police Department, the agency that first investigated this matter. It is now in the hands of federal authorities for a criminal investigation.

This appears to be a case of check theft and forgery, a form of the widespread elder fraud that now accounts for at least $1 billion in annual losses nationally, according to the FBI.

I understand that scammers are working 24/7 to steal from seniors. But Im scratching my head about the banks in this case. After an obviously suspicious check showed up for deposit, did no one at either Chase or PNC throw red flags?

Mrs. Bratcher is 87 years old  not 89, as I reported incorrectly last week in my first column on this subject  and she had lived in a retirement community in Carroll County before $175,000 disappeared from her account.

That money, representing the proceeds from the 2020 sale of her house and most of her savings, might never be recovered. Mrs. Bratcher can no longer afford to live in the retirement community; she now resides with a niece in Reisterstown, according to her son, Eric Bratcher.

Mrs. Bratcher sometimes signed blank checks for people she trusted and who did things for her. That raised concerns of some friends and employees of the retirement community. Her son believes that someone used one of the signed checks to make the theft. That someone, Eric Bratcher speculated, might have known the balance of his mothers account and filled out the check for an amount that would not cause an overdraft.

Nicholas Bonadio, of the law firm Keilty Bonadio, and attorney Charles G. Bernstein have been pursuing relief through civil channels. But wait until you hear this part. I call this the insult to injury part.

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What do you suppose is the Bratcher familys recourse? Can Mrs. Bratcher and her son hold PNC responsible for not taking whats known as ordinary care to protect her account? Could PNC be responsible for the loss she suffered?

In a word: Doubtful.

Will the Bratchers be able to sue? Not likely.

According to the fine print in the agreements that most of us have with most banks, we are required to go to arbitration, and not the courts, to seek relief. Consumer groups have tried to change the federal rules regarding this, arguing that all of us deserve our day in court, but banks and other corporations have prevailed in limiting disputes to arbitration.

And the rules of arbitration are stacked in favor of the banks, says Bonadio. Hes already been made aware of PNCs position on the Bratcher case, and its not exactly sympathetic.

The bank is saying that, because Mrs. Bratchers signature is on the check, because she signed a blank check, that, once she did that, the bank doesnt have to do anything, says Bonadio. Regardless of who fills it out and how they fill it out, unless the bank is on notice that the alterations have been made without authorization of the account holder, and the bank is acting in good faith  essentially, as long as the bank doesnt know the client is being defrauded  the bank has no duty to exercise due diligence. They have the right to honor the check, pay the check, and thats that.

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But Bonadio argues the bank did not take ordinary care. Bank staff could have looked at Mrs. Bratchers account history  the average amount of her checks over the previous 12 months was about $200, he says  and they could have considered the obvious: Most people dont write single checks for 85% of their accounts total value.

(An official of PNC said the bank cannot comment on customer related matters. The Chinese corporation listed on the check did not respond to my inquiries.)

When you factor in the measures the bank would have to take to prevent this kind of fraud, its a pretty low bar, Bonadio says. It could have been accomplished with a phone call.  The damage is so substantial and tragic, its unconscionable to me that the bank is going to say, Tough ...  when they could have prevented it so easily.
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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The League of Women Voters Maryland holds a redistricting rally on Lawyers Mall in front of the Maryland State House in Annapolis. December 8, 2021. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun). (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun )

Three years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the case of Rucho v. Common Cause, which included Maryland plaintiffs, that partisan redistricting could not be challenged in federal courts, leaving it up to state courts to provide a judicial remedy to partisan gerrymandering. As one of the plaintiffs in the successful, bipartisan lawsuit that overturned Gov. Parris N. Glendenings unconstitutional redistricting plan in the Maryland Court of Appeals 20 years ago, I know that the Court of Appeals has ample precedent to throw out the 2022 gerrymandered redistricting plan and draw a new map. The court can craft what the legislature failed to provide: a plan with fair and compact districts that respect community boundaries and reject gerrymandered districts that divide communities to advantage politicians, not voters.

The Court of Appeals stated that the Glendening redistricting plan ignored past court opinions warning against creating too many multi-jurisdictional districts that cross county lines. The same argument is relevant today.

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That partisan gerrymandering recurs every 10 years underscores the need for the enactment of pending federal legislation to supplant state-by-state, partisan redistricting with a mandated, nonpartisan system. The current system imperils democracy by discouraging pragmatic moderates in both parties from serving in public office. Until reform occurs at the federal level, and in the absence of an unlikely, state legislative commitment to achieve reform, the only avenue for meaningful change rests with state courts (Maryland Republican delegates ask states highest court to throw out new General Assembly district map, Feb. 10).

A redrawn map with as many single-member legislative districts as practicable can significantly reduce the costs of campaigning and provide direct voter-to-representative accountability. Additional benefits of single-member districts are their capacity to forestall the dilution of the voting strength of minorities and the elimination of intradistrict rivalry and competition that is sometimes an impediment to constructive legislative action.

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Forty years ago, the American Bar Association endorsed single-member districting as the best and most effective form of representation for state legislatures. That position is still valid today.

John R. Leopold, Pasadena

The writer, a Republican, served as Anne Arundel County Executive from 2006 to 2013.

Add your voice: Respond to this piece or other Sun content by submitting your own letter.
KEARNEY  The Kearney Public Schools Board of Education unanimously approved Jason Mundorf as the districts next superintendent.

The board approved the employment contract for Mundorf as the new superintendent at their regular board meeting Monday night. In December, Dr. Kent Edwards announced earlier that he will retire at the end of the school year. Edwards has been superintendent at KPS for six years.

Mundorf has been with Kearney Public Schools since 2017, and he most recently served as the schools associate superintendent.

The Nebraska Association of School Boards conducted the search for KPS superintendent candidates. Board member Kathy Gifford explained that there originally were seven potential candidates for the position, and it was soon narrowed down to four who were interviewed extensively by the board. Each candidate went through six interviews.

It wasnt an easy process that we put them through in order to get to the position that they were in, Gifford said.

Gifford estimated it took the board about eight hours of deliberation before making a decision.

During Mondays meeting, the board also approved the revised draft of K-12 health education standards for Kearney Public Schools. Board secretary Alex Straatmann emphasized that the health standards are not an implementation of the states proposed health standards, and it is KPS own set of standards.

The first mention of human growth and development is an optional version for females in fourth grade, and the curriculum for all students starts in fifth grade, Straatmann explained.

We havent moved anything into growth and development into lower grades. I think that is an important distinction. I think all of these are age appropriate. This is our own process. These are own standards, he added.

The health standards are available on the KPS website, and Straatmann encouraged for anyone to discuss the standards with board members or administration.

In other business at the meeting, the board:

Approved an average increase in total compensation for classified/exempt employees of 5% and an average increase in total compensation for administrative employees of 2% for the 2022-23 school year.

Approved the bid by Rutts Heating and Air and Trane for the Central Elementary School/Merryman Performing Arts Center HVAC project. The bid was approved for $365,340 for labor by Rutts and $232,000 in equipment from Trane.

Approved the Kearney High School storage building project. The $80,000-$90,000 project is being donated by Brandt Construction.

Accepted the resignation of Lillian Lutter, family and consumer science teacher at Kearney High School; Mackenzie Willicott, special education teacher at Kearney High School; and Travis Fries, seventh-grade science teacher at Sunrise Middle School; and Jason Mundorf, associate superintendent of the Kearney Public Schools; as well as retirement resignations from Kent Sughroue, counselor at Horizon Middle School; Dan Fong, seventh-grade English teacher at Horizon Middle School; Linda McFadden, art teacher at Kearney High School; and Kathleen Cox, music teacher at Bryant and Central Elementary Schools.

Moved to employ the following teaching staff members in the Kearney Public Schools for the 2022-23 school year: Amber Berger, special education resource teacher at Kearney High School; Emma Allen, sixth-grade English/language arts teacher at Horizon Middle School; Miriam Ramirez, eighth-grade English/language arts teacher at Horizon Middle School; Kathryn Peterson, special education teacher at Horizon Middle School; Ryan Ambrose, eighth-grade math teacher at Sunrise Middle School; Holly Johnson, first-grade teacher at Windy Hills Elementary School; and Makaleigh Yantzie, sixth- to eighth-grade therapeutic classroom teacher at the Hanny Arram Center for Success.
According to the Vernon County Sheriffs Office, at 8:53 a.m. the dispatch center received the report of the crash. Bryan J. Green, 34, from Coon Valley, was traveling south on County Hwy. O when he slid out of control on a corner. Green slid across the centerline, went down into the ditch and rolled over.
Tuesday is a spring primary for many voters in La Crosse County. Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-8 p.m.

Candidates in three different races will face off in primaries. Eight candidates are vying for the La Crosse School Board, while three candidates are in it for District 7 on the La Crosse County Board. Some voters will also see a primary for the Westby School Board race.

Winners of the primaries will move on to the April 5 election.

Not a countywide election

Tuesdays primary is not countywide, and before heading to the polls voters should double check if they have an election to vote in.

Here is a list of municipalities that have a primary, from the La Crosse County clerks office:

City of La Crosse: All residents vote in La Crosse School Board race, voters in District 7 vote in County Supervisory District 7 race

Town of Campbell: All residents vote in La Crosse School Board race

Town of Greenfield: Residents that reside in school district will vote in either La Crosse or Westby School Board race

Town of Medary: Residents that reside in district will vote in La Crosse School Board race

Town of Shelby: Residents that reside in district will vote in La Crosse School Board race

Town of Washington: Residents that reside in school district will vote in either La Crosse or Westby School Board race

The April 5 election will be countywide.

Check your polling place  it may have changed

Voters should also double check their polling place before voting on Tuesday, as the location may have changed during the redistricting process.

You can check your polling place location, if you have an election, whats on your ballot and more at MyVote.wi.gov.

If you voted absentee, you can also track your ballot at the MyVote website, and you can check if youre registered, too. You can register in-person at the polls with a proof of resident document, and an ID is required to vote. You can find out more about what IDs are accepted at BringIt.wi.gov.

La Crosse city clerk Nikki Elsen said in a statement that postcards were mailed to every registered voter in the city earlier this month that listed their polling place.

Elsen issued specific instructions for a couple of La Crosse polling places due to construction.

Voters in District 6 will still vote at the La Crosse Public Library on Main Street. While its technically closed to the general public during renovation work, it will be open to voters on election day and voters should use the main entrance off Main Street. Signs will direct voters to the voting area.

There is also a temporary closure of the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Ward Avenue for District 11 residents who vote at Living Word Christian Church. The street is open when traveling from the east, such as from Losey Boulevard, but if traveling from the west there is a posted detour to follow.

La Crosse candidates to know

There are eight people running for three seats on the La Crosse Board of Education, and six will move on to April after Tuesdays primary.

Vying for the spots includes incumbents Dawn Comeau, who has served two terms on the board and otherwise works as an IAM administrator, and current board president Juan Jimenez, who has served on the board since 2019 and is an associate dean of General Studies at Western Technical College.

Other candidates include retired assisted living administrator Mary LaMothe; Katie Berkedal, who currently works as the program director at the La Crosse Community Foundation; UW-La Crosse assistant professor of English Merideth Garcia; UW-La Crosse student Jake Williams; Former physician assistant and mom of two Kimberly Krejchik; and Kent Stein, who works in medical communications.

Three are running for District 7 on the La Crosse County Board.

This includes incumbent and former La Crosse Common Council member and city employee Gary Padesky. Sharon Hampson, who formerly held the seat and previously worked at the YWCA, Couleecap and in public schools is also running. Newcomer and realtor Ellie McLoone joins them on the ballot.

Two will move on to the April election.

To read more about the candidates and their platforms and see election results, visit LaCrosseTribune.com.

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Two Holmen School Board candidates are demanding a criminal investigation after discovering an online depiction of their campaigns making racist appeals.

Josh Neumann and Chad Updike condemned a picture of a flyer that was posted over the weekend on a Reddit forum. The flyer contained photos of the two candidates with messages that read Keep Holmen schools white and Christian and Dont push Negro curriculum on our white children.

Updike called it a racial hit piece in a Feb. 12 Facebook post.

Today we were victims of a disgusting and vile fake political ad which was posted on social media platforms, our campaign pages and circulated throughout the community, Updike wrote. This is a blatant attack to discredit both of us to gain political advantage.

Village of Holmen police chief Shane Collins said Monday hes aware of the flyer and that the incident is in the investigation stage. He said the person who produced the flyer could be liable under a Wisconsin election statute that reads: No person may knowingly make or publish, or cause to be made or published, a false representation pertaining to a candidate or referendum which is intended or tends to affect voting at an election.

Collins said he isnt aware of the flyer being distributed in printed form.

La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke said late Monday his office has yet to start an investigation and nobody has reached out to his office about the incident.

When asked about a potential First Amendment issue, Gruenke said, This is close to the line of political speech. People say a lot of things under the guise of satire or sarcasm, and we wouldnt charge it.

Neumann and Updike are among four candidates running for the two seats up for election April 5. They are running as critics of the school districts COVID-19 restrictions and against teaching divisive curriculum.

The other candidates are incumbent Rebecca Wieber and Barbara Wuench (incumbent Anita Jagodzinski isnt seeking re-election). Both have endorsed an investigation.

La Crosse Tribune reporter Steve Rundio can be reached at steve.rundio@lee.net.

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Taryn Reichow graduated from Winona State University last spring with a major in legal studies and a minor in Spanish. So how did she end up in the automotive technology program at Minnesota State College Southeast this year?

Auto mechanics has been on my mind since high school. Everyone is surprised because its something that I never shared with anyone, said Taryn.

Taryn grew up in Glencoe, a small town west of the Twin Cities. While in high school, she took enough college-level classes to cover most of the general education requirements. That meant when she started at WSU, she was already a year ahead, so she was able to graduate in only three years.

She had always been fascinated by automobiles, especially the restoration of classic cars. My grandpa had a vintage Dodge truck that he completely restored when he was first married, she said. My grandmother used to tell me how he would have the entire engine in pieces laid out on the living room floor!

In high school, Taryn didnt know how to find resources to learn about fixing cars since her school didnt have any automotive shop classes. After finishing her senior capstone as an intern in a law office and graduating from the university, she was curious about options and searched online for automotive tech programs.

When she learned that there was a great program close by in Winona, she made up her mind to take a fourth year of college to pursue her long-held interest.

The Automotive and Light Duty Diesel Technology diploma at Minnesota State College Southeast is an intensive undertaking. Students attend for two semesters and one summer session to complete 24 theory and lab courses. Taryn will graduate in August with a 54-credit diploma.

She was excited about the opportunity to study in a program led by Amanda Evenson. As a female student in a predominantly male field, she has found a welcoming environment at MSC Southeast.

For me it really made a difference having a female teacher, Taryn said. I have never felt different in Amandas classes. I fit right in with my classmates. Nobody ever feels less than. Were all just students. Some of us have had experience working on cars, some have not.

Taryn said that she loves working on cars because she likes solving puzzles. Last semester we started with the basics  brakes, suspension, steering. This semester were digging into the big systems and parts, pulling out engines, working on drive trains. I feel like a car is just a big puzzle  I love a challenge.

Taryn isnt sure whether shell pursue a career in automotive and light duty diesel mechanics after she graduates. In fact, right now shes looking into law school applications. But wherever her future may take her, shes confident that shell be comfortable working with cars and maintaining her own.

Her grandpas Dodge truck is still in storage in a barn out on the family farm. Maybe I can get it restored and running again, she said  another puzzle to solve.

For more information about Automotive and Light Duty Diesel Technology at MSC Southeast, contact Chris Cook, Admissions Representative, at 507-453-2410 or Christpher.Cook@southeastmn.edu.

Every week, Campus Connection shares updates on programs, activities, faculty and alumni, and campus life from the Coulee Regions six. collegescolleges.

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According to the Sheriffs Office, Gideon Hamann, 26, Viola, was northbound around 4 p.m. when his vehicle crossed into the southbound lane and struck a southbound log truck owned by Endres Trucking. The truck continued southbound and struck a guardrail at the intersection of Hwy. 131 and Michigan Road before coming to a stop. Hamanns vehicle came to rest in the northbound ditch, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Why I Vote is a partnership between the Tribune and the League of Women Voters in La Crosse. Each week hear from local residents on why they vote send in your own reason and photo to letters@lacrossetribune.com to be considered for this series. Here is the primary election day installment from a resident who has been voting for many, many years.
Maryland lawmakers on Monday began delving into the details of how to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, should voters support it on the ballot this fall.

Democratic leaders in the House of Delegates are advancing a plan to put the issue to voters in a referendum, which would trigger a series of changes in criminal law and automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions. And then lawmakers would work out details of who would get licenses for growing and selling the drug, how much it would be taxed and how the money would be used. Theyd also study the health effects of broad use of marijuana.

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Marylanders deserve to have their voice heard on the question of cannabis legalization, said Del. Luke Clippinger, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and lead sponsor of marijuana legalization legislation.

Clippinger and other top Democrats worked at the behest of House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones to develop a legalization plan centered around a voter referendum this fall. Clippinger, a Baltimore Democrat, said theyre charting the best, most equitable path forward.

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Theres long been a growing interest in legalizing recreational use of marijuana in Maryland, which already has a medical cannabis program. Polls have shown ample support for legalization, including 60% in a Goucher College Poll last fall, up from 50% support in 2014.

The Democratic proposal has two parts: One bill that would put the broad question of legalization on the ballot and a second bill spelling out the details of what would happen if the referendum passes.

Under current law, possession of up to 10 grams of marijuana  less than half an ounce  is a civil violation that carries a possible fine of up to $100 for a first offense. Possession of more than 10 grams is a criminal offense.

Under the proposal, passage of the referendum would trigger changes in criminal law. Starting Jan. 1, 2023, possessing up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana would be a civil violation punishable by up to a $100 fine. On July 1, 2023, that would transition to only being a civil violation for those younger than 21.

Having between 1.5 and 2.5 ounces of marijuana would be a civil violation punishable by up to a $250 fine, starting Jan. 1, 2023.

And possession of more than 2.5 ounces would be a misdemeanor criminal offense with penalties of up to six months in jail and a fine up to $1,000, also starting Jan. 1, 2023.

Lawmakers still need to work out what amount of oils, edibles and other marijuana products would trigger a civil or criminal violation.

Anyone with prior convictions for marijuana possession would have their records expunged from the Maryland Judiciary Case Search website and the states criminal records database. Those currently in jail or prison could apply to the court to have their sentence reduced to the time already served.

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Del. David Moon, a Montgomery County Democrat who has long worked on marijuana issues, said even as Maryland has gradually decriminalized marijuana possession, thousands of people still are arrested and convicted over the years, and that is disproportionately Black Marylanders and other people of color, even though we know use rates between white and Black Marylanders are the same.

In 2020, there were 1,072 arrests in Maryland for marijuana possession, including 59% people who are Black, 39% white and 2% Asian, according to a nonpartisan analysis. Black Marylanders are twice as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession compared to their share of the states population.

The legislation would require the state to conduct a review called a disparity study, which would evaluate whether there are any barriers that certain groups face in the burgeoning marijuana industry. The findings of the disparity study would guide lawmakers in 2023 as they set rules for licensing marijuana businesses, and would be the basis of any potential provisions aimed at boosting participation from small-, women- and minority-owned businesses.

Lawmakers will aim to avoid problems they encountered setting up the states medical cannabis program, in which the first round of licenses for growing companies and dispensaries all went to white-owned companies. The state passed a law to create more licenses to give minority-owned and women-owned companies a chance to participate.

Maryland Policy & Politics Weekdays Keep up to date with Maryland politics, elections and important decisions made by federal, state and local government officials. >

Lawmakers also will figure out how to tax marijuana products to raise money for the state, but not so high that it deters people from buying legally-regulated weed.

It is important that we get the structure of this industry right, said Del. Eric Luedtke, a Montgomery County Democrat focused on the tax issues. It is more important that we get it done right than we get it done quickly.

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The legislation still has a long way to go before landing on voters ballots.

The House Judiciary Committee spent more than four hours Monday discussing the bill and hearing public testimony. Some lawmakers pointed out details the bills dont cover, including whether paraphernalia used with marijuana should be further decriminalized and whether to allow people to grow their own marijuana plants.

And while theres growing support for legalizing marijuana, its not universal.

Del. Brenda Thiam, who is Black, said she has severe heartburn and feels like Black Marylanders are being used as a pawn to push drug legalization. She questioned whether Black Marylanders would really be able to make money from the expanded marijuana industry.

It just concerns me, in a way, that were being used as a scapegoat to drive these very controversial conversations that surround cannabis, said Thiam, a Republican from Washington County.
A Republican-authored bill being circulated for co-sponsors would use Wisconsins projected record surplus to begin the process of reducing  and eventually eliminating  the states income tax.

The bill, authored by Sen. Roger Roth, R-Appleton, coincides with a growing call among some conservatives to do away with Wisconsins income tax, the oldest in the nation, in order to bolster the economy and make Wisconsin more attractive to out-of-state talent. Others have criticized the idea of eliminating a progressive income tax as one that largely benefits the states wealthiest individuals. Reducing or eliminating the tax also would reduce the states overall tax revenue.

Wisconsin is projected to close out the current biennium with more than $3.8 billion in the states general fund  $2.8 billion more than previously estimated, the states nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported last month. The bulk of the states increased revenue stems from an estimated $2.5 billion increase in tax collections by the end of the states two-year budget cycle in the summer of 2023, as well as a massive influx of federal dollars pumped into the state during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Roth said the bill would operate similarly to how the state automatically distributes a portion of excess revenue into the states budget stabilization, or rainy day, fund. Essentially, income tax cuts would only be triggered when tax collections exceed expenditures, he said.

When the economy was doing well, when money was coming into the state, we would take that and have more or less automatic tax cuts going back to the people until that income tax is eliminated, Roth said Monday.

While several Republicans have agreed to put the states surplus toward tax cuts, legislative leaders signaled last month that would not take place until the next budget process, which begins in 2023. Republicans, who control the Legislature, have also rejected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposal for those dollars, which included nearly $1.7 billion for tax cuts for caregivers, increased education spending and a $150 check for every resident in the state.

Roth said hes hopeful his proposal can be passed by both chambers and sent to Evers desk before the Legislature adjourns as early as the end of this month.

Weve got a plan now on the table that puts in motion the elimination of the state income tax in the near future, Roth said. Every Republican, every proponent of shrinking the size of government and expanding opportunity and wealth for all Wisconsinites, I think thats something we can all get behind.

Reduced rates

Roths bill would reduce the states individual income tax rates for the 2022 tax year based on excess revenue in state coffers.

Currently, the income tax is 3.54% on the first roughly $13,000 of taxable income for individuals or about $17,000 for married filers. For income between about $13,000 and $25,000, and married filers making between about $17,000 and $34,000, the income tax rate is 4.65%. The state budget signed last summer brought down the income tax rate from 6.27% to 5.3% for income between about $25,000 and about $281,000 a year, or between $34,000 and about $375,000 for married filers. The states top income tax bracket, for all income above $281,000 for individuals and $375,000 for married filers, has a rate of 7.65%.

Under Roths proposal, the 3.54% bracket would drop to 2.15%, the 4.65% bracket to 2.85%, the 5.3% bracket to 3.2% and the top bracket to 4.5%.

If the amount of tax collections exceeds estimated revenues in future fiscal years, individual income tax rates in each bracket would be reduced for the next year based on the excess amount, according to a memo seeking co-sponsors for the bill.

Idea broached

A December report from the conservative Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy, which was praised by Republicans including former Gov. Scott Walker and several business groups, broached the idea of increasing the states general sales tax from 5% to 8% to cover the reduction in tax revenue caused by striking the income tax.

Democrats and groups such as the Wisconsin Budget Project criticized the proposal to eliminate a progressive income tax while increasing a regressive sales tax as one that would shift the tax burden away from the rich and onto the backs of those with low and moderate incomes. Others have raised concerns that a dramatic cut to income taxes could result in major reductions to state tax revenue.

Roths bill does not include an increase in the state sales tax.

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Fasnacht Day is quickly approaching. March 1 is the one day this year where Lancaster County will collectively celebrate a doughnut-related holiday.

While they're often described as "little puffs of pillowy goodness," a few questions remain. The first of which being: What exactly is a fasnacht?

Often misspelled as "fastnacht" and "fassnacht," the word fasnacht itself is German, coming from the words "fasten" (to fast), and "nacht" (night). Fasnacht Day is always celebrated on Shrove Tuesday -- the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

Traditionally, in Christian denominations that observe Lent, Shrove Tuesday was meant as a means of celebrating with indulgent foods, using up one's remaining sugar and lard, before fasting season. Shrove Tuesday is also known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras.

Fasnachts -- or sugar and lard-laden doughnuts -- do just the trick.

While some people enjoy fasnachts in all their glory, without toppings, most people who celebrate Fasnacht Day often enjoy their indulgent doughnuts with toppings like powdered sugar and glaze, or filled with custards or creams.

In the past, we've written about other ways you can flavor your favorite doughnut tradition.

Let us know your favorite fasnacht traditions in the comments.

For more on fasnachts:
Early Edition is a guide to help you jumpstart your morning, get the news you need to know and catch up on what you missed.

Its published Monday through Friday, between 6 and 7 a.m.

Heres the Early Edition for Tuesday, February 15, 2022.

Cold, sunny day expected in Lancaster County

Another cold day is expected in Lancaster County today, before temperatures nearly double over the next two days, according to the National Weather Service in State College.

[INSERT TWEET]

Today will be a high near 35 with a light wind around 5 to 9 mph.

Temperatures are expected to reach a high near 49 tomorrow and peak at 61 on Thursday, though rain is expected to begin Thursday afternoon and continue through Thursday night.

Click here for the seven day forecast.

Lititz father-and-son duo's footage appears in Super Bowl commercial

If you thought you might have seen a familiar sight during the opening seconds of the Mercedes-EQ commercial on Sunday evening, you weren't wrong.

The commercial featured a shot of the Veterans Memorial Bridge, which connects Columbia and Wrightsville. The shot was filmed by father-and-son drone duo Eric and Nathan Wenger, of Lititz.

Wenger remembered getting a notification from a stock website about one of his clips being purchased, but it wasn't until he received a Facebook message from someone that he realized his clip was the opening shot of the commercial.

Click here to read the full story.

Big Book Sale returns this may

Friends of Lancaster Public Library Big Book Sale Opening day of the library benefit Big Book Sale, sponsored by Friends of Lancaster Public Library, in the old Bon-Ton department store at Par

The Big Book Sale is returning this may, overtaking the former Bon-Ton building.

Friends of Lancaster Public Library volunteer group announced the return of the book sale on Monday, with May 23 slated to be the opening day of the two-day event.

The sale raised a record of $143,327 for the programs of the Lancaster Public Library, book operations chair for the friends group Pat Ditzler said.

Click here to read the full story and get all the details.

ICYMI: Survey says PA deer hunters prefer Saturday opener

Most deer hunters in the state favor the new Saturday-after-Thanksgiving start to to firearms deer season, according to a survey.

First day of rifle season C.J. Grove, 20, of Lititz, makes his way out of the woods at State Game Lands 156 on the first day of firearms deer season, Saturday, November

Only 27% of hunters in the survey, which was done by Responsive Management on behalf of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said they oppose a Saturday opener  most of which hunt from mountain camps.

This past hunting season was the third year which featured the Saturday opener.

Click here to read the full story.

Geese going wild

Snow geese are continuing their migration to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.

As of Saturday, nearly 85,000 snow geese were at the wildlife area.

That was before snow blanketed the county, dropping numbers down to around 67,000 on Monday morning, according to the nature center's website.

At peak migration, visitors can spot more than 150,000 birds.

Click here to read the full story.

'We always connect with food'

Watch this video about Soul Food Thursdays at Crispus Attucks Community Center.

Today's obituaries

Click here to read today's obituaries.

Here's what other people are reading this morning on LancasterOnline:

- Lancaster County man finds love again and gets married  at 91

- Columbia man pulled knife on EMT after claiming he hurt his foot: police

- Lancaster city man charged with raping, abusing 13-year-old girl: police
The 10 to 15 minutes Edward McAlanis spent illegally inside the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, already cost him his job and his volunteer position on his township's recreation board.

On Tuesday, he learned he will spend the next two years on probation after a federal judge sentenced him for his guilty plea to one count of unlawfully parading in the Capitol.

It was just an awful day in many respects, McAlanis, 42, of East Cocalico Township, told federal Judge Dabney Friedrich during his sentencing Tuesday morning via video conference. Going back, I wish I could take it back. But I cant.

McAlanis apologized to the court, his family and community and said hes had a lot of time to think about life, family and the country since his arrest July 14.

McAlanis documented his entry into the building with photographs that he posted to social media, which led to charges after friends provided the images to police.

After his arrest, the married father of three was fired from his job as a financial adviser, but later found work delivering pizza. McAlanis also stepped down from the township recreation board to avoid being a distraction.

Im looking forward to getting back to normalcy, McAlanis said, adding he wants to return to the rec board and get back to work.

McAlanis was not accused of engaging in the violence at the Capitol and said he did not condone violence. He said he went to Washington, D.C., to exercise his constitutional rights.

He also told Friedrich that he helped police remove rope stanchions inside the Capitol so they could not be used as weapons and he told someone climbing a statue of Abraham Lincoln to get down from it.

McAlanis pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to the parading charge, a misdemeanor. As part of that plea agreement, three more serious offenses  entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building and violent entry  were dropped.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anita Eve asked for two months of home detention, arguing that McAlanis was on the Capitol grounds for several hours before and after entering.

Its not just standing outside. The defendant was outside the barriers for a period of time. As it got closer to 2 oclock, he got closer to the building as other people were fighting with Capitol police and forcing their way inside, Eve said. Its like he stands around and lets somebody else do the ugly business and then goes inside.

Friedrich wasnt swayed. She noted several other defendants who only went inside the Capitol were sentenced to probation, and not additional house arrest.

Friedrich said McAlanis had accepted responsibility, seemed remorseful and cooperated.

His role was minimal in my view, she said.

Friedrich also ordered McAlanis to do 60 hours of community service and pay $500 restitution.
A Lancaster city man will spend up to a decade in prison after he was sentenced earlier this month for sexually assaulting a woman in 2018, according to the Lancaster County District Attorneys Office.

Jesus Rosario, 55, was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison Feb. 2, the DAs office said in a news release Tuesday.

Rosario will also have to register as a sex offender with state police for the rest of his life, a DA's office spokesperson said. The DA's office is also recommending that additional sex offender conditions be imposed, but that decision will be made by a parole board when Rosario is released.

Attempts to reach Rosarios attorney, John McMahon, were not immediately successful Tuesday.

Rosario, of the 100 block of East Ross Street, was convicted in September on charges of sexual assault and indecent assault following a three-day trial. The jury also found Rosario not guilty of felony rape and a second charge of misdemeanor indecent assault following their seven-hour deliberation, court records show.

Judge Thomas Sponaugle told Rosario he put himself in this situation and now had to go to prison to pay for what the jury convicted him of, according to the news release. He faced as many as 12 years in prison before his sentencing.

Rosario assaulted the woman in her Upper Leacock Township apartment around 3 a.m. in July 2018, the DAs office said. Rosario, a taxi driver at the time, had picked up the woman and taken her home, then entered her residence and sexually assaulted her after offering to help her carry her belongings.
When: Donegal school board meeting, Feb. 10.

What happened: The board voted 8-0 to accept the resignation of William Furnia, a recently elected board member, effective Feb. 5. The board then unanimously appointed Bill Kling, a former school board member who served for years, to fill the vacant seat.

Background: Board President Oliver Overlander said Furnias resignation was due to health and personal reasons. Overlander noted that while Furnias seat was for a four-year term, Kling will hold this position for two years. After that time, the school board seat will be back on the ballot.

Cultural appreciation: Superintendent J. Michael Lausch introduced members of the high schools Cultural Awareness Club to the board and community audience. He said 18 languages are spoken within the district. Several club members, including co-founders and the current president and vice president, discussed the purpose and initiatives undertaken by the group. The clubs president said the organization was built in the love for the culture and love for each other and from a need for selfless love. The co-founder related how the club exemplifies Donegals ideal of the One Tribe concept. The club is averaging about 20 members at each meeting.

A personal story shared: One Cultural Awareness Club member discussed the need that drove the students to create the club in the first place. She shared how her religion, Islam, has made her the target of many cruel pranks and jokes. Noting discrimination lives and breathes everywhere, she stressed the need for education to breed empathy. The young woman then detailed a situation in which another student had a pepperoni and sausage pizza delivered to her home to mock the fact that the womans Muslim beliefs forbade her from consuming pork.

More: Other members spoke about the clubs aim of hosting engaging and inclusive education experiences and activities. Throughout the month of February, Black History Month, members created posters celebrating the contributions of various Black Americans to our nation. They have held trivia events during lunch in which students can win prizes. Moreover, last April the club organized a cultural conference in which students were able to highlight components of their heritage, such as food, dance and dress, in an open convention-style environment for their peers.

Board reaction: Overlander said the club was a great idea and long overdue, and he urged all members to communicate with the junior high population about the possibilities that await them with the association.

Health and safety update: Lausch notified the board that case numbers dropped dramatically this week. The current plan is still in place with no changes.

Whats next: The board will meet again March 10.
LNP|LancasterOnline publishes submitted obituaries in each of its daily editions and in a searchable format online at lancasteronline.com/obit
The op-ed by state House Speaker Bryan Cutler and other state Republican leaders in the Feb. 4 LNP (Helping Pa. means putting taxpayers first), in which they made several generalized attacks, reminds me why I left the Republican Party.

Several specific facts deserve mentioning:

 Pennsylvania ranks second in the nation for the number of bridges in poor condition.

 Pennsylvania ranks near the bottom of the country for the percentage share of funding for K-12 public schools. It does not provide adequate funding for school districts that serve African American and minority students and poorer communities.

 The Pennsylvania Legislature stashed a budgetary surplus into a rainy day fund last summer rather than invest more of it in human and capital infrastructure.

 Schools have been pressured to ban materials deemed offensive by some groups.

Similar events to those that have unfolded in Pennsylvania have occurred in Iowa, my native state, where Republicans control the Legislature and the governors mansion:

 Iowa holds the distinction for the greatest number of bridges in poor condition.

 Iowa is also the recent recipient of the largest federal grant of funds for repair of bridges. However, there is still not enough funding and bridge repair projects continue to be pushed back.

 Meanwhile, Iowa boasts a $1.2 billion state budget surplus. Iowa Republicans are using that surplus as justification for the proposed elimination of the state income tax.

 Iowas Senate president asserted earlier this year that teachers and the media have a sinister agenda and seek to normalize sexually deviant behavior against our children.

Government exists to protect the rights and welfare of all of its citizens, even when it requires taxpayers to make some sacrifice. Rejection of that duty is a rejection of responsibility toward others.

Gregory Hand

Manheim Township
Every 75 seconds, a child in Yemen dies of malnutrition. Bombing raids regularly hit Yemeni targets. The Yemeni people are being starved for food, fuel and medical supplies. After seven years of war, more than 377,000 Yemenis have died. And the United States, in a partnership with Saudi Arabia, is complicit in this slaughter.

When the conflict began, Saudi Arabia immediately put a stranglehold on Yemens largest shipping port and airport, and bombed critical infrastructure and food production facilities, cutting off life-saving food and fuel supplies. The U.S. provided logistical support, intelligence, spare parts and maintenance. Yemenis call it the U.S.-Saudi War.

There has been a major escalation in recent weeks. A water facility was targeted in January, cutting off supplies to 120,000 people, and a migrant detention facility was bombed in January, killing at least 70 people. Because of the blockade, hospitals lack food and supplies and must turn some people away.

We can help to end this crisis. Bipartisan congressional action in 2019 resulted in the Yemen War Powers Resolution, calling for our withdrawal from hostilities there. President Donald Trump vetoed the agreement and sold Saudi Arabia billions worth of weapons to continue the war.

President Joe Biden announced in 2021 that U.S. support for the offensive operation in Yemen would end, but maintenance and intelligence sharing for airstrikes continues. Yemen desperately needs another congressional war powers resolution. Urge your members of Congress to approve this resolution to help stop this slaughter.

Jane Cadwallader

Red Lion

York County
A man in New York state is facing a legal case that centers around his pet pig. Wyverne Flatt sees Ellie the potbellied pig not as a farm animal, but as family. Ellie is an emotional support animal. She helped ease Flatts suffering during the end of his marriage and the death of his mother.

But the village in Canajoharie, New York, where Flatt lives, sees Ellie differently. Officials say she is a farm animal and, as such, is barred from living within village borders.

Flatts case is the latest in a series of debates about pets in American life. The major questions are: What kinds of animals may people own? What purposes may these animals serve? Where can they be kept and how may they be used?

Emotional support animals

Emotional support animals have become common in the U.S. in recent years.

The American Humane Society defines them as companion animals who help their owners deal with difficulties linked to mental health conditions. The pets provide comfort by their presence, the Society says.

But unlike service and therapy dogs, emotional support animals are not expected or trained to perform duties related to their owners condition.

For years, airlines were required to permit emotional support animals to fly with their owners in the passenger areas of planes. But, in 2020, U.S. transportation officials said airlines could bar emotional support animals from flights.

Flatts case

Flatt was living in South Carolina when he got Ellie in 2018. She was about as big as a shoe, he said. Ellie is now about 50 kilograms.

She moved north with Flatt in 2019 when he bought a home in Canajoharie. In October that year, a village official visited Flatts property. The official told Flatt that Ellie was legally barred from living there. Six months later, Ellie was still there. The village began legal action. Flatt was officially notified that he was in violation of a law banning farm animals in the village.

I could never dream of giving away somebody whos part of my family, Flatt said recently as he patted the pig in his kitchen. Shes very smart. Shes more intelligent than my dogs.

The villages legal filing calls the pig a possible public health risk. It also argues that openly ignoring housing rules leads to a lawless community.

The village also argues that it is willing to make reasonable accommodations, but that Flatt never met the legal requirements.

A trial was set to start on March 22, but it has been delayed. If found guilty, Flatt could face jail time or have the pig taken from him, his lawyer says.

Past debates

Flatt is not the first person to have issues with housing laws.

In 2019, a family in Buffalo, New York, lost a case concerning their potbellied pig named Pork Chop. The family said Pork Chop was an emotional support animal for their daughter-in-law. But, a court ruled that Pork Chop had to live elsewhere. In Indiana, a year earlier, a woman was ordered to move her pig for similar reasons.

Still, many areas around the country permit pigs as pets. Some local laws set weight limits for pet pigs. Other laws permit only pot-bellied pigs.

Last month, Canajoharie approved a new, more detailed law concerning animal-keeping. Farm animals are still banned from living in the village. But, the new law provides clearer information on how residents can request a reasonable accommodation for emotional support animals.

Flatt said he has received offers from people to house Ellie outside the village, but he plans to fight to keep her.

Im John Russell.

Michael Hill reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted this story for VOA Learning English.

____________________________________________________

Words in This Story

village  n. a small town in the country

accommodate  v. to provide what is needed or wanted for (someone or something); to have room for (someone or something)

reasonable accommodation  n. legal a change to the way things are usually done that allows an individual with a disability to apply for a job, perform job functions, or enjoy equal access to benefits (often in the workplace).
Countries in Eastern Europe are preparing for possibly hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Ukraine if the crisis with Russia worsens. Some Polish towns are already listing places available. And Romania is considering refugee camps.

People are concerned that any unrest could affect their countries economies. There is also concern about a wave of migration not seen since the 1990s during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Russia has more than 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine. The United States has warned that an attack could begin in the coming days. Russia denies any such plans and has accused the West of "hysteria."

Still, governments and towns near the Ukrainian border are getting ready to take in refugees, if needed.

The mayor of the eastern Polish town of Ciechanow said it was ready to receive around 80 refugees in a hotel within 48 hours.

Earlier this week, the northern town of Elblag said it had 420 places available. The central Polish city of Torun said it had 96 places for refugees. In the south, the city of Czestochowa said it has 1,100 places.

Romania finalized an action plan on Sunday, the countrys interior minister told private television station B1.

"... We are currently analyzing how many refugee camps we can install in a relatively short time - 10, 12, 24 hours," he said.

Slovakia's defense minister has said that there may be tens of thousands of refugees even under a limited conflict. He said the government was preparing for different situations with its armed forces and was in close contact with officials in Ukraine.

Hungary is also making preparations.

"We also have a playbook and an action plan in the event of war," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last week.

He warned of the possibility of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving in the case of war.

"Think back to the 1990s, when tens of thousands of people arrived from the former Yugoslav territories. That was not easy either  but many more would come from Ukraine, probably with no hope of return," he said.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have also said they were preparing to accept refugees. Lithuania's interior minister said last week that the government asked its cities and towns to list available housing. The minister added they expected refugees to come mainly from Poland and by airplane.

The Baltic News Service reported earlier this week that Latvias interior ministry is considering building refugee centers to house undocumented Ukrainian refugees. That plan would need government approval.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Alicja Ptak and Krisztina Than reported on this story for the Reuters news service. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English.

Words in This Story

hysteria  n. a situation in which many people behave or react in an extreme or uncontrolled way because of fear, anger, etc.

install  v. to make a machine, a service, etc. ready to be used in a certain place

analyze  v. to study something closely and carefully; to learn the nature and relationship of the parts of something by a close and careful examination

playbook  n. a stock of usual tactics or methods
Conservative American states are introducing more bills controlling how history and race is taught in public schools. They are also giving parents more supervision over local schools and school boards.

A school board is a group of elected officials who supervise a school districts budget and educational decisions.

A bill passed in Indiana that limits how race, history and politics can be taught in the classroom. It also permits parents to bring complaints and legal action against schools.

Americans are divided on how racism and discrimination in the present day should be taught, a recent study by the APM Research Lab, a policy research center, found. In a survey of 1,200 adults, 49 percent said schools should teach the ongoing effects of slavery and racism in the United States. But 41 percent say schools should teach the history of racism, but not about race relations today.

Answers were also very divided by race. While 79 percent of Black people surveyed said the ongoing effects of racism should be taught, just 41 percent of whites felt the same.

Teaching how historical racism and slavery affects life today is a central idea in Critical Race Theory, or CRT. Critical race theory is about how racism and white supremacy have shaped American society, laws and policies. It has also come under attack from Republican lawmakers.

In January, newly-elected Virginia governor Republican Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order banning Critical Race Theory. Republican states including Tennessee and Texas passed similar laws last year. But it is unclear how many schools actually teach CRT. Critics of such laws also say that any attempt to teach racism is labeled as Critical Race Theory.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker magazine, Democratic U.S. representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the attempts to limit how history is taught is like returning to the infamous Jim Crow Era in the Southern U.S. Jim Crow laws in place for several decades until the 1960s discriminated against Black Americans in effectively all areas of life. During that time, racism and slavery was almost only taught from the white perspective, if it was taught at all.

Parent Bill of Rights

Republican lawmakers like Youngkin argue that parents and families should have more of a say in what is taught in schools, also called the curriculum. And many states have introduced bills that give parents more control over schools. APMs study found that 41 percent of Americans think parents should have the most influence in how race is taught to children.

NBC news reports that 12 states have introduced bills that require schools to put their teaching materials online. It is part of a larger national push by Republicans for a parents bill of rights ahead of the midterm, congressional elections.

Teachers say parents can already see what their children learn. They worry that the laws would create unnecessary work and could threaten their professional independence.

Educators say they are not against keeping parents informed. But they see a risk that the new laws will bring censorship and more teachers leaving the profession.

States considering some version of the idea include Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and West Virginia. Similar laws have been stopped by Democratic governors in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Katie Peters is a high school teacher in Toledo, Ohio. She told The Associated Press the bill suggests theres some hiding happening. She added that the parents who have cared to look have always had access.

Conservative lawmakers have called for a parents' bill of rights which gives parents access to classroom materials and academic, medical and safety records. It would also permit entry to school buildings and more.

Scott DiMauro is president of Ohios largest teachers union. He is concerned that such bills will add to the increase in resignations and retirements that have occurred from teaching during COVID-19.

Teachers, he said, have felt caught up in a culture war that they didnt create.

I'm Dan Novak.

Dan Novak wrote this story for VOA Learning English with additional reporting from The Associated Press.

Quiz- States Pass Limits on Teaching Race, Teachers Caught up in a Culture War Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

_______________________________________

Words in This Story

survey  n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

curriculum  n. the courses that are taught by a school, college, etc.

censorship n. the system or practice of censoring books, movies, letters, etc.

access  n. a way of being able to use or get something
LEXINGTON  After being in the red severe category for the past four weeks, the Two Rivers Public Health Departments COVID-19 risk dial dropped down into the orange elevated level this past week.

The 313 cases of COVID-19 recorded in Two Rivers Feb. 2-8 represent a 58 percent drop in new cases compared to the previous week.

Those figures are more than two-thirds lower than those of late January, when new weekly cases climbed to 1,038 (Jan, 20) and 1,172 (Jan. 27.) This weeks number is less than half the 736 cases recorded for the week of Jan. 28-Feb. 1, according to the Kearney Hub.

According to the Nebraska COVID-19 dashboard, over the past two weeks there were around 74 cases in Dawson County and eight in Gosper County.

The new weekly case numbers are now comparable to the average new cases per week back in September-December 2021.

According to the New York Times COVID-19 map, reports of new infections are down more than 70 percent in Nebraska.

The lowered risk dial reflects the continued drop in new cases, lower test positivity rates and consistent ICU bed availability in area hospitals.

Test positivity rate is more than 25 percent among residents below age 40, but it has been steadily falling over the last two weeks. Positivity rates have fallen across all age groups in the last month.

This week, Two Rivers announced an additional 17 deaths due to COVID between November and January, taking the total toll for the district to 197 since record-keeping for the pandemic began on March 20, 2020.

Vaccination rates remain just over 51 percent for the 97,000 population of Two Rivers. This reflects people who have received the minimum prescribed dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is two Moderna or Pfizer shots, or one Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The risk of hospitalization or serious illness following infection is significantly higher for unvaccinated persons, according to Two Rivers.

As of Tuesday morning, there were seven ICU beds available in Two Rivers. COVID patients occupied more than 40 percent of ICU beds in regions hospitals.

Two Rivers continues COVID testing 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds at 3807 Ave. N in Kearney. Pre-registration is required at trphd.org.

Statewide, active COVID-19 hospitalizations are beginning to drop, as of Thursday, Feb. 10, there were 525 hospitalizations. This number reached a peak in late January when 767 people were hospitalized.

The highest number still remains in mid-November 2020, when 987 people hospitalized at once.

According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, 66.8 percent of Nebraskas population over the age of five has been fully vaccinated, 6.6 have been partially vaccinated.

To date there have been 450,661 cases and 3,145 deaths.

A look nationally, New coronavirus cases have declined about 75 percent from their peak in mid-January. Still, daily case reports remain higher than in some previous surges, according to the New York Times, About 100,000 people with the virus are hospitalized nationwide, a decrease of more than 30 percent in the last two weeks. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units is also falling.

After several weeks of rapid growth, death reports have leveled off at around 2,500 a day, more than at any point of the pandemic except last winter, the New York Times stated.
LEXINGTON  The former Pizza Hut location is getting a new lease on life as the future location of the Dawson County Childrens Museum.

Pat and James Longly, along with family help, are working to repair and remodel the former Pizza Hut location. James said extensive water damage in the building occurred after it closed its doors and that has necessitated gutting the interior of the structure.

James also said they plan to have the iconic Pizza Hut roof removed and replace it with a new one.

Once the demolition is complete, the work to make the space the new Dawson County Childrens Museum will begin.

Walls will be built to create stations for the various centers the museum has at its current location on Washington St. The bathrooms are also being remodeled to ensure that they are handicap accessible. A sink and counter space will be added for anyone hosting events, such as, birthday parties to use.

The museum currently features, over 15 themed centers designed to inspire imaginative play and hands-on exploration for adults and children to experience together. Search for hidden wildlife in a natural setting, canoe, camp, create art, explore science, build something while learning about construction, shop/or clerk at a grocery store, launch into space or try out other forms of transportation, playschool, read stories, climb a treehouse and slide down a slide, put together puzzles, create with Legos, dress up, do a puppet play, playhouse, mend bones and doctor the sick, and experience life on the farm, according to the Dawson County Childrens Musuem.

When asked why they were moving to a new location, Pat said mainly for the heightened visibility the building provides, being situated along Plum Creek Parkway, one of the busiest streets in Lexington.

A Nebraska Department of Transportation average annual daily traffic count showed 11,860 vehicles traveled up and down the parkway in 2019.

In another bid to help increase the visibility of the museum, the pole that once sported the Pizza Hut sign will be shortened and will include a marquee sign that can advertise different information such as hours, events and times, thank you to sponsors, etc.

June 1 is the target date for opening the new museum location; this coincides with the lease expiring at their current Washington St. location.

The Longlys said they have already received community support and local businesses have begun making different kinds of donations toward the project.

The Dawson County Childrens Museum is also using funds donated during Give BIG Lexington for the project. Pat said if anyone is interested in making their own donation, they can mail them to 108 E. River Road, Lexington, NE 68850.

They can also donate through the Give BIG Lexington 2021 page, which is still open and features a tab to continue donating.

Pat Longly started the Childrens Museum organization in 2011 after she retired from teaching. The organization originally operated out of the Lexington Public Library, hosting events on Saturdays.

In 2019, the museum found its first space to call its own on N. Washington St. and has operated there since; they did have to close their doors for a brief period in response to the COVID-19 pandemic but reopened with safety measures in place.

As an all-volunteer organization, the museum welcomes the help of interested community members in staffing shifts. If interested in this opportunity, contact museum director Pat Longly.

The mission of the Dawson County Childrens Museum, according to their website," is to offer children and adults the opportunity to explore areas of science, math, social studies and fine arts through free play, exploration and demonstration."

The Lexington Pizza Hut location closed its doors in early 2021. Joseph Unger, a spokesman for Pizza Hut, said the lease was set to expire at the time.

Information from the Dawson County Assessor indicates the recognizable Pizza Hut building was constructed in 1974.
A federal judge has denied a defense motion seeking to move U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's case from California to Nebraska.

His trial now is set to start March 15.

Attorneys for the longtime congressman are expected to argue at trial that the investigation was a "political witch hunt."

A grand jury in Los Angeles indicted him in October on allegations he lied to federal agents investigating an illegal campaign contribution at a 2016 fundraiser in California.

Fortenberry has pleaded not guilty to two counts of making false statements to federal agents and one count of seeking to conceal the source of $30,000 in conduit political contributions.

His trial initially had been set to start Tuesday, but last month, jury trials were suspended in the Los Angeles area, where the case is being tried, because of COVID-19. They resume next week.

At a hearing Friday, defense attorney John Littrell made it clear Fortenberry's attorneys wanted a trial as soon as possible, but also argued that the case should be moved to federal court in Nebraska.

At the hearing, Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. seemed unconvinced that it ultimately would result in a quicker trial, given that a new judge would have to get up to speed on all the motions he's already heard.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Har called it "forum shopping."

Blumenfeld already has rejected a number of other defense challenges to the charges, including an effort to get the indictment dismissed because it wasn't filed in Nebraska or Washington, D.C., where the statements were made, and to disqualify one of the prosecuting attorneys.

But he has yet to rule on a flurry that followed.

The case stems from an investigation that started in 2015 and focused on a Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury, who financially supported prominent members of both political parties.

Chagoury is said to have directed the donations to Fortenberry because of a shared interest in protecting Christians from persecution in the Middle East.

But it is illegal for foreigners to donate to U.S. political campaigns.

Attorneys are set to meet with the judge again later this week.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to sign a bill ending school mask mandates, after the legislation cleared the state Senate and House of Delegates in recent days.

The legislation allows parents to opt their children out of wearing a mask in school without having to provide a reason, and would make the Republican governor the latest state leader to lift Covid-19 mitigation measures as case numbers decline around the US.

"I am pleased that there is widespread and bipartisan support in Virginia for a parental opt-out of mask mandates in schools. Today, the General Assembly took a significant step for parents and children," Youngkin said in a statement Monday.

The House of Delegates sent the legislation to the governor's desk Monday after it passed the chamber along party lines, with no Democrats in support of the measure. Three Democrats had joined all Republicans in the Virginia Senate in approving the legislation last week.

Inaugurated on January 15, Youngkin campaigned heavily on the rights of schoolchildren's parents and signed an executive order on his first day in office that allowed parents and guardians to "elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child's school or educational program."

That order, however, faced a flurry of legal challenges from Virginia school districts and parents, and a judge had ruled earlier this month that mask mandates in seven Virginia school districts could remain in place.

While a number of states have pushed forward with plans to lift mask mandates in schools, the move goes against guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommends universal masking in schools.

Some public health experts, however, have questioned whether it's time for the CDC to update its school guidance, especially as the nation mulls what life after the pandemic might look like.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, the executive associate dean of the Emory University School of Medicine, previously told CNN it's the right thing to do for school districts in highly vaccinated communities.

"In a highly vaccinated community, as the cases are decreasing right now with Omicron, in a couple of weeks, maybe removing masks is actually the right thing to do. It allows us the opportunity to actually peel off one of those restrictions that has been so controversial," del Rio told CNN.

He added that there are other mitigation measures that schools can adopt, such as improving air ventilation in classrooms.

Such guidance has had buy-in from both political parties, with the Democratic governors of three East Coast states -- Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey -- announcing this that they will lift mask requirements in schools in the coming weeks.

"If hospitalizations are clearly coming down and positivity rates are coming down in the community, it is the right thing to do," del Rio said.

The-CNN-Wire

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CNN's Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.
Interviews with former interns featured on the Texas Politics Website

Interviews with interns and staff provide a ground level view of how legislative offices perform their functions.

QuickTime Video UT Austin interns discuss working in the Attorney General's office.

QuickTime Video Legislative intern John Grube recounts how a legislative office interacts with the bureaucracy.

QuickTime Video As an intern in the Division of Criminal Justice in the Governor's office, UT student Charles Murnane discovered that the bureaucracy can work efficiently.

QuickTime Video Intern Meredith Pickering talks about working on a judicial campaign for Distict Judge Patrick Keel.

QuickTime Video Intern Katie Garrett talks about working on a judicial campaign for Appeals Court Judge Bob Pemberton in 2004.

QuickTime Video Legislative intern and staffer Anna Loftin discusses responding to constituents.

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Campus News

Theatre and Dance announces spring season

CAS STAFF

The Department of Theatre and Dances spring season of dance and drama brings recognized directors and choreographers together with esteemed faculty and emerging student talent to produce innovative original productions that both entertain and explore the human condition.

Live, in-person performances return this season in the Center for the Arts and in the Katharine Cornell Theatre in the Ellicott Complex.

The lineup:

Dance

Zodiaque Dance Company

March 11-12: 7:30 p.m.

March 12-13: 2 p.m.

Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts



The 47th spring program of the Zodiaque Dance Company, UBs pre-professional dance company, features jazz, tap, modern, afro-fusion and contemporary dance works. The show is co-directed Kerry Ring, clinical associate professor, and Michael Deeb Weaver, clinical assistant professor.

Choreographers include Ring, Deeb Weaver and dance faculty members Anne Burnidge, Jenna Del Monte Zavrel and Thomas Ralabate. Guest choreographers include Buffalo artist Megan Rakeepile; alumni Richard Ashworth and Julie LaMancuso; and professional guest choreographer Takehiro Take Ueyama from the Take Dance Company.

Choreolab

April 1-2: 7:30 p.m.

April 3: 2 p.m.

Drama Theatre

Now in its third season, ChoreoLab is a performance and choreographic research laboratory for faculty, graduate and undergraduate dance students, and guess artists. Dedicated to fostering a diverse, creative environment in which to explore movement, ChoreoLab embraces contemporary trends whils supporting dancers, and investigates the role fo dance within society and culture.

Under the leadership of Jenna Del Monte Zavrel, artistic director and clinical assistant professor, ChoreoLab's spring program includes 33 student performers, both undergraduate and graduate.



Ariel Nereson, director of graduate dance, is creating a work to be performed by the entire MFA Dance cohort, along with three undergraduate dancers and additional collaborators from other disciplines, including MA theatre candidate Kaylie Horowitz and English PhD student Dana Venerable.

Guest artists Paul Ocampo and Chien-Ying Wang of the OcampoWang Dance Company are creating a new contemporary piece for ChoreoLab during their spring 2022 residency. Hailing from Taiwan and the Philippines, respectively, the pair has been making dances together since 2001. Their works have been presented in their home countries, as well as in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, China, Indonesia and the United States. Ocampo and Wong are noted for their world-embracing approach to culture.

Student choreographers include Ruby Abraham, Anna Caison Boyd, Lyssie Hartzog, Melanie Kaisen and Theo. Alongside Zodiaque Dance Company, ChoreoLab provides versatile choreographic and performance opportunities for UB students that reflect the current dance landscape.

MFA Dance Thesis Concert

April 8-9: 7:30 p.m.

Drama Theatre

The annual MFA Dance Thesis Concert will feature the premier of new works by MFA dance candidates Jacqueline Cherry and Meg Kirchhoff, with performance by MFA dancers Anna Caison Boyd, Abby Cass, Natasha McCandless and Samantha Schmeer, and undergraduate dancers Gabi Marshall, Kelly Quinn, Celia Ramos and Hayley Timberlake. Ariel Nereson, assistant professor and director of graduate dance, serves as faculty adviser.

The production showcases the culmination of Cherry and Kirchhoffs creative research from their thesis project. The concert features collaborations with media artists and the student performers.

Cherrys work is a collection of thought-provoking pieces that reflect her points of view on various concepts and experiences culminating from studies in Black feminist thought, sociology, embodiment and somatic practices.

Kirchhoffs piece, which explores the physicality of responsiveness, attention and intra-activity, is supported by a public humanities grant and features live music performed and composed by UB PhD candidate Thomas Little.

Theater

Twelfth Night

April 21-23: 7:30 p.m.

April 23-24: 2 p.m.

Black Box Theatre, Center for the Arts

Twelfth Night is Shakespeares story of a woman who finds herself in a world where she doesnt belong, and features characters freshly grieving the loss of cherished loved ones. Despite the themes of loss and grief, Twelfth Night doesnt linger in sorrow, but rather presents a world full of hope and merriment  a zany comic romp through mistaken identity, the thrill of falling in love and the discovery of lost things found once more. The show is directed by Danielle Rosvally, clinical assistant professor.

Studio Theatre Ensemble: Vinegar Tom

April 29-30: 7:30 p.m.

Katharine Cornell Theatre

Vinegar Tom was written in 1976 by British playwright Caryl Churchill, who collaborated with the feminist theater company Monstrous Regiment after meeting some of its members at a pro-choice protest in the 1970s. Their hope was to create a play about the difficulties of womens lives in 17th-century England and how women who didnt live by the mores of the time or were perceived as difficult would often be branded as witches. It was also intended as an allegory for womens lives in the 20th century.

The music was composed by Helen Glavin, co-founder of Monstrous Regiment, and the show was created collaboratively over several months before its debut on Oct. 12, 1976, at the Humberside Theatre, Hull, England.

The protagonist is Alice, a woman in her 20s living in a small village with her mother, Joan. The pair is accused of witchcraft after an argument with neighbors Jack and Margery. The neighbors have struggled economically and there are issues surrounding their sex life. Fearing that God is against them, Jack and Margery choose to believe their misfortunes are the result of Joans witchcraft, and act with malice.

It is later implied that Joans cat, Vinegar Tom, may have been responsible. Accusing others of witchcraft in order to shift blame toward nonconforming women, including the single, old, poor, shrewd or accomplished, was not uncommon in 17th century England, and so became a narrative theme of the time. It was another means to disempower women.

Violet

May 5-7: 7:30 p.m.

May 7-8: 2 p.m.

Drama Theatre

Violet is a musical about a young woman on a quest to right the wrongs of her past. Based on The Ugliest Pilgrim by Doris Betts, the award-winning production travels from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1964. The music is by Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori, known for many successful shows, including Shrek the Musical and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Book and lyrics are by Brian Crawley. Violet features a vibrant range of American roots and gospel music that depict the journeys of the soul, including the show-stopping inspirational song Let It Sing.

Violet is directed and choreographed by award-winning guest artist Terry Berliner, who served as assistant director of the original production of Violet 25 years ago at Off Broadways Playwrights Horizons. The cast and designers are students from the Department of Theatre and Dance. Musical direction is by Alison dAmato, clinical assistant professor and director of music theatre. The guest dramaturg for the production is Buffalo-based author and artist-filmmaker Annette Daniels Taylor.

Tickets for performances in the Center for the Arts are $20 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors. Tickets are $5 for performances in the Katharine Cornell Theatre.

Purchase tickets online.
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
Brian C. Kalt (Michigan State University College of Law) has posted Criminal Immunity and Schrodinger's President: A Response to Prosecuting and Punishing Our Presidents (Texas Law Review Online, vol. 100, p. 79, 2021) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In his article "Prosecuting and Punishing Our Presidents," Saikrishna Prakash argues that sitting presidents have no constitutional protection from being arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated while in office. He depicts the constitutional case for immunitywhich he concedes is orthodoxy and [t]he received wisdomas an empty vessel, conjured by people with skewed, wishful readings of the Constitution. As one of the alleged conjurers, I appreciate this opportunity to respond.

Prakash and I agree that there are reasonable arguments on both sides of the immunity question. Orthodoxy or no orthodoxy, there is currently no way to say with certainty that sitting presidents are or are not immune. Presidents have broken the law without being prosecuted, but presidents are constrained from engaging in more extensive criminality by the possibility that courts might reject immunity. Until the constitutional question is resolvednot by professors debating it but by prosecutors and presidents litigating itsitting presidents are like Schrodingers cat, simultaneously immune and not immune.

Part I of this response critiques Prakashs anti-immunity argument, identifying flaws and gaps in it. Part II turns to Prakashs treatment of pro-immunity arguments, critiquing it too but also acknowledging its strengths in places and clarifying my own pro-immunity position in response. Part III considers Prakashs proposals for legislative reform, explains why Congress likely will not act, and contemplates where this ambiguous situation leaves us.

Recommended.
A Republican-authored bill being circulated for co-sponsors would use Wisconsins projected record surplus to begin the process of reducing  and eventually eliminating  the states income tax.

The bill, authored by Sen. Roger Roth, R-Appleton, coincides with a growing call among some conservatives to do away with Wisconsins income tax, the oldest in the nation, in order to bolster the economy and make Wisconsin more attractive to out-of-state talent. Others have criticized the idea of eliminating a progressive income tax as one that largely benefits the states wealthiest individuals. Reducing or eliminating the tax also would reduce the states overall tax revenue.

Wisconsin is projected to close out the current biennium with more than $3.8 billion in the states general fund  $2.8 billion more than previously estimated, the states nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported last month. The bulk of the states increased revenue stems from an estimated $2.5 billion increase in tax collections by the end of the states two-year budget cycle in the summer of 2023, as well as a massive influx of federal dollars pumped into the state during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Roth said the bill would operate similarly to how the state automatically distributes a portion of excess revenue into the states budget stabilization, or rainy day, fund. Essentially, income tax cuts would only be triggered when tax collections exceed expenditures, he said.

When the economy was doing well, when money was coming into the state, we would take that and have more or less automatic tax cuts going back to the people until that income tax is eliminated, Roth said Monday.

While several Republicans have agreed to put the states surplus toward tax cuts, legislative leaders signaled last month that would not take place until the next budget process, which begins in 2023. Republicans, who control the Legislature, have also rejected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposal for those dollars, which included nearly $1.7 billion for tax cuts for caregivers, increased education spending and a $150 check for every resident in the state.

Roth said hes hopeful his proposal can be passed by both chambers and sent to Evers desk before the Legislature adjourns as early as the end of this month.

Weve got a plan now on the table that puts in motion the elimination of the state income tax in the near future, Roth said. Every Republican, every proponent of shrinking the size of government and expanding opportunity and wealth for all Wisconsinites, I think thats something we can all get behind.

Reduced rates

Roths bill would reduce the states individual income tax rates for the 2022 tax year based on excess revenue in state coffers.

Currently, the income tax is 3.54% on the first roughly $13,000 of taxable income for individuals or about $17,000 for married filers. For income between about $13,000 and $25,000, and married filers making between about $17,000 and $34,000, the income tax rate is 4.65%. The state budget signed last summer brought down the income tax rate from 6.27% to 5.3% for income between about $25,000 and about $281,000 a year, or between $34,000 and about $375,000 for married filers. The states top income tax bracket, for all income above $281,000 for individuals and $375,000 for married filers, has a rate of 7.65%.

Under Roths proposal, the 3.54% bracket would drop to 2.15%, the 4.65% bracket to 2.85%, the 5.3% bracket to 3.2% and the top bracket to 4.5%.

If the amount of tax collections exceeds estimated revenues in future fiscal years, individual income tax rates in each bracket would be reduced for the next year based on the excess amount, according to a memo seeking co-sponsors for the bill.

Idea broached

A December report from the conservative Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy, which was praised by Republicans including former Gov. Scott Walker and several business groups, broached the idea of increasing the states general sales tax from 5% to 8% to cover the reduction in tax revenue caused by striking the income tax.

Democrats and groups such as the Wisconsin Budget Project criticized the proposal to eliminate a progressive income tax while increasing a regressive sales tax as one that would shift the tax burden away from the rich and onto the backs of those with low and moderate incomes. Others have raised concerns that a dramatic cut to income taxes could result in major reductions to state tax revenue.

Roths bill does not include an increase in the state sales tax.

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Normally, Madison residents would be heading to the polls to cast ballots for the School Board and the Wisconsin Court of Appeal. But not today.

Unfortunately, not enough candidates are seeking these positions to warrant runoffs and the need for a competitive spring primary.

People have grown emboldened to express their feelings and to attack and bully -- those who dont share their same thoughts and beliefs.

Mary Jo Walters dropped out of the Madison School Board race because of the backlash about her views on the transgender community. Back in 2020 for a state Assembly race, Democratic challenger Robert Prailes withdrew his candidacy against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, because of some really ugly and personal attacks.

No matter how you feel about potential candidates, we can all agree that they need to be educated, brave and committed to run for public office. I just wish more candidates were qualified and courageous.

Wally Meyer, Madison
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The new street is nice but shops have disappeared

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JEROME  After 18 years heading the city police department, Chief Dan Hall is set to retire Friday. In the final weeks of his long career, Hall took a look back over his time with law enforcement in the Magic Valley.

Ive had a great career  I really have, Hall said. I wont sit here and tell you that I loved every day of it or every minute of it  But I can honestly say there were more good days than bad days.

Prior to becoming chief of police in Jerome, Hall worked for the Twin Falls County Sheriffs Office for 20 years. He was hired to the top spot for Jerome police in 2004. In that time, Jerome has seen some changes, but the town is the same in many ways as when he started.

Despite the changes, and I mean in the big scheme of things, Jerome is still a small town, Hall said. For the people here, the changes over the last two decades have been tremendous. But overall, I think Jerome maintains most of its small-town character.

People in law enforcement today are better than when he came in 38 years ago, he said.

In my mind, theres absolutely no doubt, Hall said. Our standards are higher. Our expectations are higher. The people we have working for us today are  better educated and I think theyre more service-oriented and overall our training is better.

Hall said the reasons for people wanting to serve in law enforcement havent changed, and though the profession may have gotten some criticism in recent years, he said the people who serve do so because they want to contribute to their communities, just like when he started.

The vast majority of the men and women in this line of work are here because they want to do good and they want to serve their communities and make it a better place to live, and I dont think thats changed at all.

Hall credits a good support system for keeping him balanced over his long career, from his wife of 37 years to his colleagues, peers and mentors along the way. He said its important to be around people who can remind you of the good in the world.

You dont do it by yourself, Hall said. You do become aware of a lot of the bad things that happen every day. If youre not careful it can give you a rather cynical mindset and youve got to guard against that.

Hall said he hopes hes leaving the Jerome Police Department in pretty good shape, though hell leave that for others to decide.

Hes happy to see his replacement selected from within the department. Hall will hand off his command to Duane Rubink, who has served the department for 20 years.

Rubink and his leadership team will have some ideas for making things even better moving forward, Hall said.

From Buhl to Germany

Dan Hall was born in Twin Falls and raised in Buhl. After graduating in 1980 from Buhl High School, Hall went straight into the U.S. Army. He was stationed in Bamberg, Germany, in the early 1980s when the Cold War was at its height. As infantry, Hall said he and his fellow soldiers took their jobs very seriously, although they were able to sample some different cultures while there.

In addition to visiting places such as Paris, Austria and Luxembourg, Hall said he was exposed to more culture in Germany than a kid from rural Idaho normally would have been, including rock music.

The radio stations around (the Magic Valley) back then, they were pretty low key, and their version of rock and roll was pretty mild, Hall said. The first night I got to my unit in Germany everybody was going to Nuremberg for the AC/DC concert, and I said, Whos AC/DC? Id never heard of them.

In the Army, Hall started out as an infantryman by choice  as a young man, he wanted to be right in the thick of the action. While people may look at that type of position and think it doesnt advance a person for career skills outside of the military, he said, he found it to provide a lot of leadership skills.

I think that started preparing me for the job I have now, even back then, Hall said.

Hall would continue with the reserve system for 19 years in Army National Guard and with the Idaho Air National Guard.

Early Career

Two weeks after leaving the Army in the summer of 1983, Hall was back in Idaho and attending classes at the College of Southern Idahos law enforcement program. He had by that point decided he wanted to pursue a career in law enforcement.

His future wife, Diana, was also in that class. The way Hall tells it, he made quite an impression on his classmates.

She said everybody was ready to kill me, he said. Having just come out of the Army, I was rather  Ill say, confident.

She said I was overbearing.

Just before he was ready to finish up the course, he got his first job in law enforcement when he was hired by Twin Falls County Sheriff Jim Munn to work at the jail. Hall would work for Munn for close to 10 years.

I really appreciate Jim giving me my start, Hall said. The older Ive gotten and the more experienced Ive gotten, the more I really appreciate Jim Munns leadership style and how he did things.

Hall got his first taste of command in the early 1990s when Wayne Tousley became sheriff and Hall was promoted to lieutenant and made patrol commander.

Its easy to sit back and say how you think things should be done or criticize people who are in charge, but when youre the one having to make the decisions its not quite as easy as you thought it was, Hall said. Ive found that throughout my career, no matter what level youre serving at, it always looks easier from afar than it does when youre actually sitting in the seat.

His career continued to advance and, in the late 1990s, Hall was promoted to captain of the Law Enforcement Services, where he supervised patrol deputies and detectives.

In September 2001, Halls reserve unit was activated after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. He saw a 90-day deployment overseas, and most of his time was before the ground war in Iraq started. Men from his unit deployed to United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.

After almost 20 years with the Twin Falls County Sheriffs Office, Hall started thinking that hed like to try his hand at being a chief or a sheriff, but he considered Tousley a friend and he didnt want to run against his boss for the job for numerous reasons.

Sheriff Tousley really gave me a lot of opportunities to further my education and to prepare, and Im very appreciative to him for that, Hall said.

In 2004 while Hall was driving to Boise once a week to pursue a bachelors degree, the police chief position in Jerome opened up. He applied just for the experience of going through the interview, to see what the process was like, and to find out what kind of questions they would ask.

And Ill be darned if they didnt hire me, he said.

New pursuits on the horizon

Heading into retirement, Hall sees opportunities to try things that he couldnt try while committed to his work. He said he is looking forward to being involved in some different enterprises, not to mention having time to spend with grandkids.

Following a lifelong interest in military history, Hall said he plans to volunteer with the North Side Military Museum in Jerome, citing the importance of their work preserving local military history and the stories of veterans.

Hall doesnt plan on taking any more positions of authority for a while, he said.

I definitely dont think Im going to go seek another chief of police job somewhere else or run for sheriff.

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Say one thing about Idaho Falls attorney Bryan Smith, he does not lack for confidence or swagger. And he will need all of that if hes going to take out longtime Second District Congressman Mike Simpson in Mays primary election.

Mike Simpson will not go down without a fight, but go down he will, Smith told me.

And it starts with Simpsons controversial view on breaching of the four lower Snake River dams. Its a battle that seemingly has gone on longer than the 100-year war. Proponents say that breaching the dams is the only practical way to save salmon. Most Republicans, however, are adamantly opposed to the idea.

Smith adds a few more to the list of breaching opponents.

The farmers arent buying it. Ranchers arent buying it. The ratepayers who get their electricity arent buying it and the grain growers arent buying it, Smith says. This is a localized issue. Its not as if Mike Simpson and I are debating on immigration policy or the $29 trillion hole he has helped put us into. We are talking about an issue that applies to Idaho and, using the pun, thats his Waterloo.

The breaching issue also has served as a springboard for Smiths campaign  something that didnt exist during his unsuccessful challenge to Simpson in 2014. Smith recently issued a news release saying he has raised $370,000, almost $100,000 more than Simpson. Suffice it to say that both candidates are just getting warmed up with fund-raising. The House Appropriations Committee, on which Simpson serves, traditionally is a magnet for campaign donations.

If Smith lands donations from a longtime conservative kingmaker, Club for Growth, then both candidates will be flooded with cash. The fact that Simpson and Smith do not particularly like one another (to put it mildly) puts added spice in the Second District race.

Its certainly not the race that Smith ran in 2014, and hes seeing the difference in Lincoln Day events and the mix of new voters in the Second District. In 2014, I received obligatory applause. Today, people are more engaged and they know who I am.

Republicans seem well aware of Smiths past involvement with the party and his position as vice chairman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation  which is something that plays well with a more conservative audience. But he views himself as within the Republican mainstream in Idaho, with his support of former President Trump.

If hes elected to Congress, he says, I think its fair to say that if you like Russ Fulcher (the First District congressman), then you probably would like me. We have been friends a long time and are aligned ideologically.

Another change from 2014 is the surge of voters. Smith sees a generous number of newcomers to Idaho  people who moved here because they are fed up with liberal politics from states such as California, Oregon and Washington. To that crowd, they know little about Simpsons 22 years in Congress.

I met a man the other day who didnt know me, but he did know that Mike Simpson declared Donald Trump unfit for the office in 2016, Smith said. What I hear over and over in the district is that hes just been there too long. People may be opposed to dam breaching, amnesty for illegals, bigger spending, bigger government. They may be opposed that he was one of 20 Republicans who voted with Democrats giving transgender people special civil right protections. Whatever the issue is, hes just been there too long.

Those associated with the Idaho National Laboratory, the lifeblood of Eastern Idaho, will disagree. Even working in the minority, Simpson has plenty of seniority and clout on the Appropriations Committee.

Smith views Simpson as a congressman who has lost touch.

People feel they do not have a voice in Washington, and certainly not in the Second District, Smith says. People feel tuned out and they want someone who says what theyre thinking. I can do that from Day 1.

In Idaho, its unheard of for anyone to mount any kind of a challenge to a sitting congressman who has been in office for 22 years. In this case, Smith is raising money and has a winnable message for a primary campaign.

Lets not be too quick with an upset alert, but the Second District race is shaping up to be the toughest of Simpsons political career by far.

Chuck Malloy is a longtime Idaho journalist and columnist. He may be reached at ctmalloy@outlook.com.

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Recently I bumped into Bulletin Editor Holly Kozelsky, at the public library as she cycled through old newspaper films for the Today in History section. That visit plus some reading of my own inspired me to write my own This Month in History.

I recently finished reading Dr. Leroy Garretts With All the Mind. In one chapter reference is made to an event in February of 1969 when an office building of The Bank of America in Isla Vista, California, was burned down by protestors of the Vietnam War.

As I read the story from 1969 my mind went to the Canadian truckers occupying Ottawa. Do I consider them terrorists? Not in the least. I believe them to be patriots attempting to peacefully regain certain freedoms from an overreaching government.

Not only the Canadian truckers, but now high school students in Oakdale, California, and students from two high schools in Chicago, Illinois, have participated in walkouts as they grow tired of mask mandates. Can they vote? No, but that does not mean they have no voice. Being unable to vote does not mean a person is without human rights.

In 1969 the burning of the Bank of America building did not go unnoticed: President Nixon announced to withdraw a number of soldiers from Vietnam by the end the of 1970. Perhaps that was a coincidence. Some might say thats the only way to get the attention of politicians. However, these Canadian truckers have every bit of their governments attention and have gotten it by peaceful means. I do wonder how much more the people can take from the state?

In reality Februarys Black History Month is filled with accounts of what might be called principled violence. One example being abolitionist John Brown, and his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.

In his book God and the American Writer, Alfred Kazin says that Brown had so alarmed the south with the threat of slave uprisings that war was inevitable. Was Brown a terrorist or hero? How would Bill Ayers answer?

We could wish that more citizens had read Thoreaus Civil Disobedience, but probably even fewer will know that Thoreau defended John Brown in the Concord Town Hall with whats called A Plea for Captain John Brown.

In 1880 Frederick Douglass said, I could speak for the slave. John Brown could fight for the slave. I could live for the slave, John Brown could die for the slave. Ralph Waldo Emerson went so far as to say that Brown had made the gallows glorious like the cross.

I hope not to be taken the wrong way. As I go about town and visit with people, witnessing a level of depression, I have to ask if we are watching history repeat itself?

In Romans 12:18 the Apostle Paul said, If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. However, history has shown that its not always possible. Hopefully Christians are practicing 1 Timothy 2:1-3.

The writer lives in Martinsville.

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In a 7-2 vote on Monday, the McDowell County Board of Education passed a motion to allow optional masks for students, staff and visitors effective Feb. 21.

It was the recommendation of Superintendent Mark Garrett to go to optional masks to coincide with the latest update from the Strong Schools NC Public HealthToolkit. Mask mandates are still in place for Early Head Start, Head Start and school buses as per the federal mandates. To read the latest update on the toolkit, visit covid19.ncdhhs.gov/strong-schools-nc-public-health-toolkit.

Under old business, Garrett shared the latest COVID-19 numbers in the county and within McDowell County Schools. Last Friday, there were 15 positive staff and 60 positive students. As of Feb.11, there are 17 quarantined staff and 185 students. There is a 23% 14-day positivity rate in McDowell County as of Monday.

Garretts recommendation to the board this month was for optional masks effective Monday, Feb. 21 when the new Strong Schools NC Public Health Toolkit rolls out. The toolkit was updated on Feb. 10.

What this means is are you positive or are you symptomatic? They list the symptoms in this toolkit. Previously you have not had the authority to set the contract tracing, and that changes close of business on Friday. From a practical standpoint, it would be helpful to our nurses, said Garrett. They still recommend that masks be worn in school in counties that are considered high transmission, and that includes every county in North Carolina. If you are positive, you are home; if you are symptomatic, you are home. Return to learning is still five days after your first symptom or a positive test. I have shared this with Emergency Management and the Health Department.

Garrett said the majority of students and staff that have been positive, quarantined or isolated, are community transmitted, and less school related.

We have to make people aware in the community when there is a positive. They dont clarify how it is to be done, but it has to be done. Someone who is positive and asymptomatic will have to wear a mask for the remainder of the five days when they return, he said.

The new toolkit states individual contact tracing and exclusion from school of asymptomatic people after an identified exposure is no longer recommended statewide in K-12 schools.

On Monday, Feb. 21 the rules will change to:

Person has tested positive but does not have symptoms: They can return to school after five days as long as they do not develop symptoms. The person must continue to mask for an additional five days to minimize risk of infecting others, unless an exemption to mask use applies. The person is not required to have documentation of a negative test in order to return to school.

Person has symptoms of COVID-19 and has tested positive: Person can return to school when it has been at least five days after the first day of symptoms; It has been at least 24 hours since the person had a fever (without using fever reducing medicine); Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving. The person is not required to have documentation of a negative test in order to return to school. The person must continue to wear a mask for 10 days after the first day of symptoms to minimize the risk of infecting others, unless an exemption to mask use applies.

Person has symptoms of COVID-19 but has not been tested for COVID-19 nor has visited a health care provider: Therefore, the person who has symptoms is presumed positive for COVID-19 due to the presence of a clinically compatible illness in the absence of testing. Person can return to school when it has been at least 5 days after the first day of symptoms; It has been at least 24 hours since the person had a fever (without using fever reducing medicine); Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving. The person is not required to have documentation of a negative test in order to return to school. The person must continue to wear a mask for 10 days after the first day of symptoms to minimize the risk of infecting others, unless an exemption to mask use applies.

Person has symptoms of COVID-19 but has received a negative test for COVID-19* or has visited a health care provider and received an alternate diagnosis that would explain the symptoms of COVID-19: It has been at least 24 hours since the person had a fever (without using fever reducing medicine); They have felt well for at least 24 hours. Note: The health care provider is not required to detail the specifics of the alternate diagnosis.

To me this is about our ability to stay in school and the change in the toolkit gives us greater ability to do that. We have the ability to move to mask optional without the excessive quarantining and contact tracing. When we look at our internal data, it shows us that the isolation to conversion is not very high with students. My recommendation is based on McDowell County numbers for McDowell County Schools, said Garrett.

Board member Brian Piercy made a motion to accept the superintendents recommendation to make the mask optional on Feb. 21 to coincide with the NCDHHS toolkit. The motion passed 7-2 for students in K-12 public schools. Board member Amy Moomaw and Vice Chair Terry English voted against the motion.
Firefighters were busy Saturday and Sunday responding to two separate blazes that destroyed two structures in Marion.

At 2:26 p.m. Saturday, the Marion Police Department got a call about a fire on Virginia Road. The firefighters found a fully involved structure fire inside an outbuilding. Assistant Fire Chief Corey Presnell said he and the other firefighters were told that some people were living inside that outbuilding. However, no one was inside it at the time of the fire.

The outbuilding burned down completely along with a pickup truck and two lawnmowers. The fire also burned a small area of the woods and caused significant damage to the exterior of nearby doublewide mobile home.

No injuries were reported. The Marion Fire Department was assisted by Hankins-North Fork Volunteer Fire Department, the Nebo Volunteer Fire Department and the Sugar Hill-Montford Cove Fire Department, according to Presnell.

On Sunday morning, the Marion firefighters responded to a similar incident.

At 8:34 a.m. Sunday, Marion fire units were dispatched to a structure fire at 168 Hedge Drive in Marion, off of Deacon Drive. There, they found heavy fire coming from a singlewide mobile home with extension to an outbuilding. Crews made a quick knock down on the fire. The singlewide was determined to be vacant and no injuries were reported. Marion firefighters were assisted by departments from Glenwood, Nebo, Dysartsville and Woodlawn-Sevier. Like the outbuilding fire on Saturday, the singlewide mobile home was a total loss, according to Presnell.

The McDowell EMS and McDowell County Rescue squad were at both incidents.

The causes of both these fires are undetermined, said Presnell on Monday.
Ryan Rice loves bald eagles. He has loved the nations official bird since he was a child.

As an adult, hes channeled that enthusiasm into helping collect valuable data on nesting eagles in the region. Along the way, hes also managed to capture some impressive photos of bald eagles. Ryan and his photos have even recently been featured in Blue Ridge Country Magazine for his work on bald eagles.

The fact that eagles are nesting again in northeast Tennessee and the surrounding areas is a dream come true for Rice.

All told, he has located about 10 nests in the Tennessee counties of Carter, Washington, Sullivan, Johnson and Hawkins. He has also found nests in Scott County, Virginia, and in Watauga County, North Carolina.

He has also learned of a nest along the Nolichucky River in Erwin.

The adult eagles have been seen around the area of the nest pretty regularly, he said. I have not personally seen that pair  just the nest.

From drawing eagles when he was a kid to picking up a camera and getting actual photos of his dream bird, Rice said he has always been interested in bald eagles.

They were talked about a lot in the 80s, Rice said. About how they were endangered and almost extinct in the lower 48 states. I used to dream of seeing them here in northeast Tennessee but didnt think it would ever actually happen.

He explained that by the early 1960s, the bald eagle was nearly extinct in the continental U.S. The bald eagle had also been almost wiped out in northeast Tennessee. Rice noted that prior to the 1980s, bald eagles had not been seen in the region for decades. Now he is happy to report that the areas eagle population is flourishing and sightings are becoming commonplace. In northeast Tennessee, Rice noted, reports of bald eagle sightings on ebird.org date back to 2005. By 2010, the bald eagle population truly rebounded in the region.

Rice said he has conducted a lot of research in an attempt to locate nesting eagles.

I talked to a lot of people to learn more about their nesting habits, he said. I research a lot of eagle sightings people post to ebirds. I use that info to search for nests.

Rice said that getting good photos of eagles isnt easy. Patience and hard work are key. Even tracking down a nesting site is not a guarantee. He has often gone to a lot of effort to get close enough to photograph the birds, only for the eagles to decide to stay away from the nest during his visit.

However, eagles are creatures of habit, according to Rice.

One simple trick he has learned is to always locate their favorite trees for perching. Armed with that knowledge, his photography ventures have become much more successful.

Rice admitted that some nests are simply difficult to reach. Some are accessible only by water, so he said he gets out his kayak and loads up his camera equipment. Other nests are located in trees on steep terrain. On occasion, he must seek permission from landowners in order to observe and photograph a nest on private property.

To get his photos of eagles, he use a Canon 90d camera. That is a cropped-frame DSLR, he said. He noted that he uses a telephoto lens (Sigma 150-600 mm lens) to get his shots. On my cropped-frame camera that is the equivalent of 960mm on a full-frame camera, Rice said.

Rice and a friend have also formed Above Ground Media, which uses drones for photography for real estate, advertising and special events. He does not use the drones to photograph eagles or their nests. For more information, Rice invites the public to visit www.facebook.com/AboveGroundDrones.His photography remains a hobby for the moment, but he likes to devote all the time he possibly can to it.

I have gotten into watching and searching out other birds, too, Rice said. At the start of COVID, I started working from home and I put up bird feeders and started photographing all the different birds that would come to my feeders, he said. Then I started going out to bird hot spots to get photos.

He also recently built an owl house out of a section of a fallen hollow tree.

I hung it in a tree in my yard, he said. I live in a neighborhood, so I wasnt real optimistic I would get any owls. About a month after hanging it, an Eastern screech-owl has appeared to move in.

Rice said most people built owl houses out of plywood.

I choose to use an actual section of a tree so that I could get more natural-looking photos, he explained. The owl has been around for four or five days now. It often spends ... hours sitting in the opening of the house.

He posted some of the photos of the owl house and the screech-owl on social media. They have gotten a huge response on Facebook, Rice said.

He recently did a presentation on local bald eagles for the Bristol Bird Club.

I got a lot of great information from that group on bald eagle nests in the area that I didnt know about, Rice said. That is where I got the information for the Erwin nest. The members of that group have been a huge help. They really appreciated what I was doing in trying to document as many of the local bald eagles as I could.

Rice said his work is important to help eagles continue to thrive.

As an example, he pointed to a nest he located in the Hunter community of Carter County along the Watauga River.

The land owners didnt even know the nest was there, he explained. The day I found the nest I found out the land owners were planning to log the area the nest was in.

Rice reached out to local wildlife officials so that a happy accommodation could be reached with the landowners to protect the eagles and their nest.

He noted that logging is not an option at a site of an active nest because of federal protections.

After all, it seems only fitting that the federal government take steps to protect the nations official bird and ensure that bald eagles continue to soar for many years to come.
Newer strains of far-right movements fueled by conspiracy theories, misogyny and anti-vaccine proponents contributed to a modest rise in killings by domestic extremists in the United States last year, according to a report released Tuesday by a Jewish civil rights group.

Killings by domestic extremists increased from 23 in 2020 to at least 29 last year, with right-wing extremists killing 26 of those people in 2021, the Anti-Defamation League said in a report first provided to The Associated Press.

The ADL's report says white supremacists, antigovernment sovereign citizens and other adherents of long-standing movements were responsible for most of the 19 deadly attacks it counted in 2021. The New York City-based organization's list also included killings linked to newer right-wing movements that spread online during the coronavirus pandemic and former President Donald Trump's presidency.

The ADL concluded that roughly half of the 2021 killings didn't have a clear ideological motive, fitting a pattern that stretches back at least a decade.

The group's tally included a shooting rampage in Denver by Lyndon James McLeod, who killed five people in December before a police officer fatally shot him. McLeod was involved in the "manosphere," a toxic masculinity subculture, and harbored revenge fantasies against most of his victims, the ADL report notes.

Right-wing conspiracy theorists killed five people last year in two incidents, both involving "troubled perpetrators," the ADL report says.

In August, California surfing school owner Matthew Taylor Coleman was charged with killing his two young children with a spear gun in Mexico. Coleman told an FBI agent that he was "enlightened" by conspiracy theories, including QAnon, and believed his wife had passed "serpent DNA" on to his children, according to a court affidavit.

A Maryland man, Jeffrey Allen Burnham, was charged with killing his brother, his sister-in-law and a family friend in September. Charging documents said Burnham confronted his brother, a pharmacist, because he believed he was poisoning people with COVID-19 vaccines.

"Prior to the coronavirus, the anti-vaccine movement in the United States did not have a particular ideological leaning and contained both left-leaning and right-leaning activists," the ADL report says. "However, the politicization of the coronavirus and other factors have created many new anti-vaccine conspiracy adherents and given the anti-vaccine movement a distinctly right-wing tone it did not previously have."

The QAnon conspiracy theory has been linked to other acts of real-world violence, including last year's riot at the U.S. Capitol. In June, a federal intelligence report warned that QAnon adherents could target Democrats and other political opponents for more violence.

A core idea QAnon promotes is that Trump was secretly fighting a Satan-worshipping, child sex trafficking cabal of "deep state" enemies, prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites. QAnon hasn't faded away with Trump leaving office.

Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the ADL's Center on Extremism and author of Tuesday's report, said the QAnon movement is still evolving and increasingly overlapping with other extremist movements, including vaccine opponents.

"Could it sort of dissipate into those or could it find some sort of new focus or new life? Or could it just hang around if Donald Trump is elected again in 2024 and take a new form then?" Pitcavage said during an interview. "It's difficult to predict the future of those movements, so it's difficult to predict whether they will continue to have this sort of similar effect on people."

A dearth of mass killings in 2021 meant that last year's tally was far lower than the totals in any year between 2015 and 2019, when killings by domestic extremists ranged from 45 to 78.

In other respects, the ADL data for 2021 mirrors long-term trends.

Right-wing extremists have killed at least 333 people in the U.S. over the past decade, accounting for three-quarters of all extremist-related killings, the report says.

The ADL distinguishes between killings that it considers to be driven by ideology and those that it found to be non-ideological or lacking a clear motive. Its report says the numbers for each category have been close to even over the past 10 years. The ADL concluded that 14 of the 29 extremist killings in 2021 were apparently motivated at least in part by ideology.

The ADL attributed 13 killings last year to white supremacists, three to anti-government extremists, two to Black nationalists and one to an Islamist extremist.

The group didn't count the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, as an extremist killing. Sicknick collapsed and died hours after he was attacked by rioters who stormed the Capitol and interfered with Congress' certification of President Joe Biden's electoral victory. In April, the Washington, D.C., medical examiner's office ruled that Sicknick suffered a stroke and died from natural causes.

"Although it is clear that the Capitol attack could have contributed to, or even precipitated, the strokes that felled Sicknick, it cannot be definitely proven that he was murdered by a Capitol stormer," the ADL report says.

***
UAE and Turkey Monday agreed 13 deals on the sideline of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans official visit to bolster ties between the two countries which are now putting behind themselves several years of distrust.

The deals according to UAEs press service, WAM, aim at strengthening cooperation and expanding partnerships between the two countries in several fields, including investment, health, agriculture, transportation, industries, advanced technologies, climate action, culture, youth, and others.

They are as follow:

1  A Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of the UAE and the Republic of Turkey in the fields of health and medical sciences was exchanged by Abdul Rahman bin Mohammad bin Nasser Al Owais, and Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs.

2  A Memorandum of Understanding in the field of advanced industries and technologies was exchanged by Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Mustafa Varank, Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology.

3  A Memorandum of Understanding on climate action was exchanged by Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, and Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs.

4  A Memorandum of Understanding in the cultural field between the governments of the UAE and the Republic of Turkey was exchanged by Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth, and Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.

5- A Joint Statement of Intent on initiating a comprehensive economic partnership agreement between the UAE and the Republic of Turkey was exchanged by Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, and Mehmet Mu?, Turkish Minister of Commerce.

6- A Memorandum of Understanding in the agricultural fields was exchanged by Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and the Environment, and Bekir Pakdemirli, Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.

7- A Memorandum of Understanding in the fields of land and sea transport between the governments of the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Turkey was exchanged by Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and Adil Karaismailoglu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure.

8  A Memorandum of Understanding in the field of youth between the governments of the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Turkey was exchanged by Shamma bint Suhail Al Mazrouei, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, and Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism.

9  A Memorandum of Understanding on crisis and disaster management was exchanged by Ali Saeed Al Neyadi, Chairman of the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority, and Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.

10  A Memorandum of Understanding in the field of meteorology was exchanged by Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Meteorological Center, Faris Muhammad Al Mazrouei, and Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs.

11  A media cooperation protocol was exchanged by Saeed Al Eter, Head of the UAE Government Media Office, and Farhan Altan, Head of Communications  Turkish Presidents Office.

12  A Letter of Intent on defense cooperation was exchanged by Tareq Abdul Raheem Al Hosani, Chief Executive Officer of Tawazun Economic Council, and President of Turkish Defense Industries ?smail Demir.

13  A Protocol of Cooperation between the UAEs National Library and Archives and the General Directorate of State Archives, affiliated to the Turkish Presidency was exchanged by Abdullah Majid Al Ali, Acting Director-General of the National Library and Archives, and Dr. Ucur Unal, Director of State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey.

Erdogans visit follows that of Abu Dhabis Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Turkey last year in November aiming at resetting ties between the two countries. The UAE official last visited Turkey in 2012.

Ties between Abu Dhabi and Ankara had deteriorated on several issues on the international front including Libya where both sides supported rival parties.
Marwan Boodai, Chairman of Jazeera Airways, Monday revealed that the private carrier headquartered in Kuwait is aiming at increasing its fleet to 60 by 2025.

The airline currently has 17 jets in operation according to the latest available data on website Airfleets.net, Zawya reports. Speaking to CNBC Arabia, Boodai also indicated that the company has liquidity of 50 million dinars ($165 million) to be used in investments and dividends.

Late last month, the airline placed an order for 28 passenger jets with Airbus for a value put at $3.4 billion.

The jets include 20 A320neos and eight A321neos. The company also agreed to purchase two aircraft engines, CFM LEAP1-A26 spare engines, with an accumulated worth of $32.3 billion, aimed at aiding operations.

Both agreements, the airline further notes, will bring a positive impact on the corporation in the medium and long term.